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Much as I like the idea of homeschoolblogger, I found that it's just an unwieldy interface. I already have several blogs on blogger, so I just added a homeschool blog there. Cornerstone Home Learning Come visit me! (Anyone from the management of homeschoolblogger who is interested in the problems I encountered and the contrast in functionality to other blogging services, please feel free to contact me.) |
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I don't think I'll be posting much here anymore. Even though I like the idea of a homeschool blog site, I much prefer the functionality of Blogger. I am also finding it hard to remember to post here, although I post there almost daily. If you'd like to stay in touch, please email me and I'll let you know my blog address, if you don't already know it. lisaquing@gmail.com |
Cool Contest!Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE! This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian. This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.
To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it. And good luck! The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff! |
 The Detroit Institute of Arts was our field trip yesterday! David, Emily, James and I spent several hours exploring the newly redesigned and far more child-friendly museum. Accompanying us was my good friend Debbie and 3 of her children - some of my children's favorite companions. (We both left our youngest children home as we were not so brave as to take five year olds along this time.) It takes about 75 minutes to drive to the DIA and then about 30 minutes to find a place to park since the parking lot was full. Evidently the museum is free to Detroit residents on Fridays, a fact we were unaware of when making our plans. (This Sunday is also free, if you are so inclined!) It was the first time for James to visit the art museum. He liked the Egyptian mummy the most as well as the mummy cases. He also liked the suits of armor - big surprise! lol He wanted to explore the Native American section more but we ran out of time and attention span. Emily had been to this museum before. She also liked the mummy a lot. The giant painting of The Last Supper made a big impression on her because Jesus had light shining from him. She thought Judas looked suspicious because of the way his body was positioned. She bought a mood ring in the gift shop. David also had visited the DIA previously a couple of times. A large crocodile headdress from the African collection made a big impression on him. The armor was also a favorite. David thought this triptych was "cool" because he "likes to carve". I always love the Egyptian collection and wish I could spend a lot of time just staring at each object. Sadly, children's attention spans are not that long. I would have liked to examine more closely this page from The Book of the Dead. I have little patience for African "art" or Native American items, although the latter is far preferable in my view. Some of the things I liked were the triptych David admired, a stone effigy of a knight, the intricately designed ceilings, some very beautifully and skillfully done portraits by Rembrandt Peale including one of George Washington, and some lovely Greek and Roman jewelry. One pair of earrings reminded me of a pair I made at a workshop given by my friend Penny, except that the museum earrings were gold, pearl and amethyst and mine are just glass beads. lol A painting with symbols of immortality was also quite intriguing. We were all pretty impressed by a section of mosaic flooring from ancient Rome (pictured above). The kids all liked going up and down the spiral staircase. Also one of their favorite things to do was to attempt to lean over the railings and look down into the 'courtyard' inside the building. We had to go up to the 3rd floor merely to attempt this, although the adults did not realize this goal until after the 3rd floor had been reached. They also loved riding in the elevator. Simple pleasures! The "Eye Spy" puzzles placed in many rooms were a big hit with the kids as well. There was a lot we did not get to - Asian art, the 3rd floor (British, Dutch, Fashionable Living, etc..), Modern, Rivera Court, and much much more. Plans for going again were discussed vaguely and I am sure we'll make another visit. I'd also like to go with just ADULTS so I don't have to repeat ad nauseum things like, "Don't point so close to the painting" , "Don't get so close to the statue" , "Remember, no touching" , "Quit leaning over the railing" , "Didn't we just go to the bathroom" and more. lol Then I could just look and read and browse to my heart's content. Someday..... Anyone up for a Mom's Night Out? Or Mom's Sunday Afternoon? |
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I asked David and Emily to write just a short reaction to the Pride and Prejudice movie we watched last week. (If you watch, get the LONG version from A&E!) Anyway, I thought the reviews showed so very clearly the reactions of men and women to this story. See if you can guess whose is whose. LOL Btw, I left the spelling intact, in the interest of being "real". Review 1 This is the story of 5 girles and there famaly. It is a romance book and movie. I guess it's a classic novel. This movie is about 6 hours long. Not much happened in the story. I guess it didn't captivate my intrists. The way everyone talked was odd. It's like they wanted to complicate everything. Review 2 I liked the whole movie especially when they loved each other at the end and he smiled. I cannot believe it. Lydia married Mr. Wickcamm and visited them (the family) and at the end two girls got married. Did you guess whose was whose? lol |
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The description of my blog says "struggles and successes." Time to post a struggle. I think prayer time is important for a family. My husband agrees. So we have implemented a family prayer time that is held fairly regularly - several times a week, anyway - since fall at least. That ought to be enough time for the kids to get used to it, right? Prayer time starts with taking requests. My husband often does this but lately the kids have wanted a turn at writing them out. We keep them in a notebook. So there are spelling questions and suchlike. This part takes FAR too long, in my opinion. Then we usually sit in a circle on the living room floor for the prayers. We sometimes hold hands, but that usually causes more troubles than it's worth. "I don't want to hold HIS hand," or kids scooting around the circle once they realize who they're sitting by to avoid hand holding. One of the kids begins and prays and we pass the notebook around to help us to remember the requests. Bob always ends up, so that none of the requests are missed. Sounds straightforward, right? Well, it's almost always a struggle. Bad attitudes, wiggly kids, opened eyes, distractions, etc. etc. etc. Today I got so frustrated that I got up and left in the middle of it. Yep, I thought I'd be honest and share our struggles. No preaching, please! |
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I have declared today Jane Austen Day - which is really just an occasion for me to watch Pride and Prejudice. Ah wait, did I just say that? I MEANT it was an opportunity to introduce my children to the writing of Jane Austen and the British culture of the early 1800's. We have watched about half of the 6 hours, so it looks like tomorrow will be Jane Austen Day Continued. |
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Emily (age 10) read the A Beka Book version of Pilgrim's Progress recently. (Yes, I know it's a 3rd grade reader, but I don't care. I don't think she would have enjoyed as much in 3rd grade. Besides I forgot to have her read it then! lol) David had read it a few years ago, as well. (Yeah, probably in 3rd grade. Back then I was a little more anal about stuff like that.) ANYWAY. When I taught school, I taught in a Christian school that used A Beka. (And yeah, I had third graders.) So we did Pilgrim's Progress. And then we watched the video afterwards. It was an animated video and I don't have access to it now. I think I saw it in the CBD catalog the other day, however! But on Netflix, I found an older live action movie version. It even starred Liam Neeson, in what I found out was his first movie role! So, I got it for the kids and we watched it today. It was pretty good, even considering the special effects circa 1979 and the obvious low budget. My kids all enjoyed it, even 5yo Suzy, and I think they got the concept of the story and could follow the plot. Before the movie started, there was a short overview of the life of John Bunyan, the author. George Beverly Shea, the famous hymn singer, was the narrator. And yes, they all recognized Liam Neeson. After all, he plays Qui-Gon Jinn in the Star Wars movies AND he does the voice of Aslan in the Narnia movies. David asked me if Liam Neeson was a Christian. I had to say I don't think so, based on his movie roles, although I don't know for sure. He sure would have to know the truth as his main role in this film was Evangelist, and he also played several other characters including Jesus. |
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Today I began teaching Suzy to READ! Whee! Well, she's been learning letter sounds all year, but today we began the section of Alphabet Island Phonics that teaches the student to decode short vowel words. YAY! It struck me that soon I will have FOUR reading children and I will have taught all of them to read! How cool is that! |
I thought it would be cool to post a list of books I have received free from paperbackswap.com. Over two hundred books have come my way through PBS since I joined, but I'm just going to list the ones specifically for homeschooling over the last few months.
Wanna try it out? Link in my sidebar! |
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Homeschool co-op starts on Friday. I am on the leadership team, but I have been less involved this semester than ever before. I did handle the class enrollment and some of the scheduling. Next year, I will be even less involved if I am still working full time.
So these are my children's classes. We meet every other week through the end of April, for a total of 8 sessions. It's the highlight of the kids' lives, I think!
David 1 – Open Gym
3 – Lego Robotics 4 Students will build a racing robotic devise and then program it to race on a variety of racing courses. 4 – PE 10+ This gym class will continue with a 15-20 minute warm-up, followed by a team sport. 5 – More Flight and Space Each week 1 or 2 "milestones" in Aerospace will be discussed (and reviewed at the end of the 8 weeks)
Emily 1 – Cricket in Times Square This literature class is from Beyond Five in a Row unit-study! It's for ages 8-12. Each week your student will get a rock solid hour of rich information and hand's on lessons that will enhance his/her homeschool journey....from science to reading a classic book, to history, art and music to Newspaper and Dictionary Treasure Hunts and even eating Chinese food or at least cooking it! 2 – Grooming for Girls I hope to make the girls aware of the need to care for their hair skin nails and feet. Their bodies are changing now and some families have a hard time with young girls paying attention to hygiene. I plan to have fun with this class as grooming can be fun (Skin care, french braids, hair wraps) 3 – Choir If you love to sing and enjoy learning new music, then this is the place to be. Learn songs, basic music theory and proper breathing techniques in a class that definitely hits a high note! 4 – Drama We will practice reading with expression, reciting scripture & poetry, practicing presentation (enunciating, facial expression, voice) the class will choose their own readings and contribute short dramas for the class to learn. A performance is possible but not mandatory. 5 – PE for Girls This is a physical education class for girls only in which we do weekly warm-ups, running, and a variety of games and sports.
James 1 – Karate Style of karate: Tang Soo Do. Students will learn: basic actions (kicks, punches, blocks), one-steps (practice against an opponent), self-defense, 1st basic form, and also respect for others and obedience of parents/teachers. 2 – Build It Better Bring your uncompleted Lego sets to class and have a Lego master help you build. After you've completed the model, David will show you ways to modify and improve your models to make new and better models. We may order pieces online to add to your set to create exciting ships, vehicles, sculptures, and other cool stuff. You bring your own Legos and pay for any extra pieces (.07-.35 per piece). 3 – PE ages 6-9 Kids have lots of energy. This class attempts to burn off some of that energy in a fun way. Calisthenics, old favorites as well as new games will be introduced. Sportsmanship and cooperation emphasized. 4 – Making Wooden Toys Students will assemble and paint wooden toys, such as boats, planes, cars, etc... 5 – Creatures Creatures Using Leo Lionni books, this class of 6-8 year olds will explore the life of fish, snails, worms, and frogs. We will learn using art, science, and literature. Creatures will share our time together at co-op and become your pet by going home with you.
Suzy 1 – Open Gym 2 – Puppet Theatre Through familiar fairy tales, students will learn sequencing and story retelling, using stick puppets. 3 – PE for ages 4-5
In general, we are starting off with warm ups, doing an organized games (duck, duck, goose, or hot potato, ect) and then letting the kids have some free play. If Ann can find the music tapes, we will work with music and movement. No Fee. 4 – Kiddie Krafts Each week, we’ll do a craft related to a holiday theme. We’ll also be reading a book or two related to that theme as well! 5 – Phonemic Fun Children who are not aware of phonemes are at serious risk of struggling to learn to read. Some kids pick this up automatically, but roughly 25% of first graders need direct instruction and many reading programs do not include enough. The great news is that phonemic awareness can be built using games, poems, songs, and fun books!! We'll have a lot of fun being silly and learning at the same time! |
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Judges 13 2 A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. 3 The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, "You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, 5 because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines." ME, to the kids: What foods did the angel of the Lord instruct Manoah's wife not to eat? James (age 8), waving hand: Ooh, ooh, I know! Wine, and ummmm..... DIRTY BREAD! The rest of us, looking confused: ????.... OH! (realization dawns) Unclean food! |
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I think I'm going to be moving this blog soon. Watch for updates. |
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The re-start of lessons is planned for Monday. I have a little more planning to do and then we're ready. |
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OK, I have like 5 minutes, but I wanted to post the stuff I got planned for Art. Sorry, there weren't any links in last night's post and there won't be here either. David is doing art by himself. He asked if he could be excused from doing cutesy craft projects and I agreed. If we do a project he is interested in, he joins in. He is working on the book Draw Real People by Lee Hammond. He also takes art classes once a month from Don West - christianartforkids.com. Emily takes those lessons too. The other kids will be doing art twice a week, if I can handle that frequency. Once will be a drawing lesson from Creative Thinking Through Art: Drawing (Evan-Moor). The other art lesson will be more involved - either a seasonal art project (NEED some ideas, got any?), a project from Creative Thinking Through Art: Mixed Media (also Evan-Moor) or The Usborne Book of Art Ideas. I'll probably add in some other art too. Sometimes they just like to paint. I have yet to do James and Suzy's language arts plans. They're fairly easy though, since they are both doing Alphabet Island Phonics and the book is all laid out for me. Will post more on that later, I hope. Also planning to post my kids' new job chart. David and I collaborated on it and I am pretty pleased with it. He's photographing it right now. |
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Another subject completed - one of my favorites - History! We are doing some American history this year. We've already read The Light and the Glory for Children (and I read the adult version). We are now just a few chapters into From Sea to Shining Sea for Children. (Again I am reading the adult version.) We'll finish the school year with Sounding the Trumpet for Children, which will take us to the year 1860. (All of those books are by Peter Marshall and David Manuel.) I've got all 3 activity books and I will be photocopying some pages from those to go along with our reading. I've also got a book called American Adventures: True Stories from America's Past 1770-1870 and I will be integrating selections from that book as well. Mostly our history work is me reading the chapter aloud while the children color a coloring sheet that goes along with the information. There are discussion questions for each chapter, so we'll cover those. Sometimes I'll integrate a picture book or a movie that goes along with the topic - like Star-Spangled Banner by Peter Spier or the Liberty's Kids DVD's that we have. The books include several games and some map work so that will be included and we also work on an ongoing timeline that we started with Mystery of History Volume 1. If we haven't come to the end of May yet when that's complete, I'll pull out some Civil War stuff I have and we'll work on that. Next year, we'll go back to Mystery of History and begin Volume 2. (I am looking to buy it used, if anyone has one to sell!) So, there's history! I'm not going to do a separate entry for Math for two reasons. One - Bob teaches it, not me. Two - it doesn't require any planning other than to make sure they have their books. Here's what they're doing: David - Math-U-See Pre-Algebra - he's on Lesson 14. Emily - Math-U-See Gamma - she's on Lesson 9. James - Math-U-See Beta - he's on Lesson 24 (need to get Gamma for him!) Suzy - working on beginning addition concepts and counting by 2's, 5's, 10's. We don't have a curriculum for her - just random worksheets and practicing with Daddy. |
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I worked on literature plans for David and Emily this afternoon, as well as their Grammar lessons. For Grammar, we are using Sonlight's new grammar curriculum, The Grammar Ace. I listed out the lessons and the activities we will do. It takes us two days to do one lesson. I was doing grammar two days a week, but I think we'll increase to three days a week so we can finish on time. I make up my own reading and literature "curriculum", following the philosophy that it's better to just READ. Now that David's in junior high, I have instituted a little more structure. Emily is a good reader, so I've started having her do a little more as well. Here are the books that they will read for the rest of the year. David - 7th grade, second semester Adam of the Road - Elizabeth Janet Gray (finishing from before Xmas) The Book of Three - Lloyd Alexander Captains Courageous - Rudyard Kipling C.S. Lewis (Heroes of the Faith) - Sam Wellman The Bulletproof George Washington - David Barton The Life and Times of Washington - Enzo Orlandi (reading these two together) Once a week or so, he will do an exercise from Adventures in Greatness: Speed and Comprehension Reader (A Beka). Emily - 5th grade, second semester Pilgrim's Progress (A Beka edition) - John Bunyan (finishing from before Xmas) The Secret Language - Ursula Nordstrom Meet My Friends - Joni Eareckson Tada Amy Carmichael (Women of Faith) - Kathleen White Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell Plain Girl - Virginia Sorensen The Midwife's Apprentice - Karen Cushman Once a week or so, she will do an exercise from Read and Think Skill Sheet 5 (A Beka). I need to find some online reading guides for some of these books, but I didn't have time to do that yet. For their literature study, they write every day in their literature journals to respond to what they've read. They can write a summary (which they usually do) or they can respond in some other written way to the selection. (James does this too on a smaller scale.) If there are comprehension questions, they answer them in the lit journals as well. Any book reports are also written in the literature journals. They will do a book report for each book, I believe. They will do one entry a week from English from the Roots Up and play Rummy Roots once a week or so as well. They will do Spelling Power four times a week. David will do handwriting once or twice a week. Emily will do handwriting three or four times a week. They are both working on their cursive. I think that's it. I am going to find some online reading guides (free!) and then work on James and Suzy's plans, which are much easier. Then I just have History and Math to do, I think. Oh yeah, Art and Music. |
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I also got the Science lesson planning done tonight. I wrote out all the science I hope to get done before the end of the year. It's a little more for David than for the others, but that's as it should be since he is doing seventh grade work. David is working out of Backyard Ballistics. He has completed only a couple projects from this book so far. I need him to complete all of the book before I will consider this subject complete. I am calling his science work: Applied Science: Ballistic Engineering. Doesn't that sound fancy? He's pretty much learning the physics that goes into creating weaponry. If you're wondering what kinds of projects David will be working on, here is a project list that the author - William Gurstelle - put on his website. I do plan to have David work on a website for these projects. He has a webpage done for one of the earlier projects, but we never published it anywhere. There are a LOT of materials needed for this book, everything from Sterno to lots of PVC to things I've never heard of. So, it'll be costly, but I bet he'll remember THIS science way more than he would reading a dry textbook. And he may actually be able to apply the physics principles later on too. OK, now the three younger kids are all working together on some simple science concepts. Last year we did Considering God's Creation and that stretched both Bob and me nearly to the limit. So I wanted something simple this year. Suzy is Kdg, James is 2nd/3rd, and Emily is in 5th. I found a book called Science Mini-Journals from Scholastic, aimed at grades 2-4, which seemed close enough to me. There isn't a whole lot of content and the story-writing prompts are kinda lame, but I think the little booklet format is fun. There's enough information that I feel good about using it as a jumping-off point anyway. We will do several activities for each topic, some writing, and read some related picture books. That's not much science for a 5th grader, I know, but she got a LOT last year and she's in no way ready for what David is doing. We'll do something more involved next year again. Anyway, those are all planned out and photocopied (did that in the fall), although I have to find the picture books before each topic. We've been doing Science and History in alternating weeks. Not sure what we'll do now. |
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I completed the lesson plans for our Bible class for the next five months! Bible is probably the easiest of the subjects to plan, actually, except for Math. Math is just - do the next lesson. lol We will learn several new hymns and praise choruses - one of each for each month. Here are the choices: January - Holy Holy Holy, Jesus Lover of My Soul February - Stand Up Stand Up for Jesus, As the deer panteth for the water March - He Lives, Thank you Lord for saving my soul April - All Creatures of Our God and King, Have Thine Own Way Lord May - Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, There's just something about that name We will finish up two curriculums that we began in 2006, I think: Bible Study Guide for All Ages: Volume 3 by Charles and Mary Baker and Character Building for Families: Volume 1 by Lee Ann Rubsam. We will do lessons 280-312 of the Bible Study Guide for All Ages. This covers the remainder of the book of Judges, and the complete books of Ruth and 1 Samuel. We will continue with Volume 4 beginning in the fall, I think. We will finish a study on Service in the Character Building curriculum and complete a short study on Hospitality. That will bring us to the end of that book. I will buy the next volume to work on next year. Finishing those books will take us to about mid-March, so I poked around to find something else we could do to finish the last two and a half months of school. I had purchased The Model Family: God the Father and Jesus the Son by Ray and Charlene Notgrass three or four years ago. This looked like it would fit ok into our plans, so I decided to use it. We will finish 7 of the 13 lessons by the end of May. Hopefully we can then work on the remaining 6 lessons over the summer, finishing in time to begin the new volumes of Bible Study Guide and Character Building in the fall. Need to print out the hymn and praise chorus lyrics for the kids and make some copies to be completely ready. |
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Since I have a few days off work, my goal is to get my lesson plans all done through May. Hopefully then we can stay on track. I have yet to actually accomplish any of it though, and I go back to work on the 2nd. We will start our lessons on the 7th, I think, although we may begin math before that. Stay tuned here for lesson planning progress. |