• A daily schedule for those who like to have a plan or would like their children to complete the book on their own
• Templates for written narrations, the notebooking activities and experiments
• Review Questions
• Scripture Copywork, with both print and cursive practice 
• Reading lists and additional activities, projects, experiments for each lesson
• An appendix with beautiful, full-color, lapbook-style Miniature Books
• Field Trip Sheets to keep a record field trips
• A Final Review with fifty questions the students can answer either orally or in writing to show off all they remember and know at the end of the course.

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Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update.

This is a $259 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!)
This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

To win this most excellent Latin program copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR link to the contest from your facebook page and/OR email the information to your homeschool support group – Then go to the original page http://Jeneralities.com and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post. And good luck!

****

I am begging you to read the following post, research the links, and act now!

http://learningathisfeet.blogspot.com/2009/01/urgent-please-read-and-act.html

Have you heard of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act? This act was signed into law last August and will be in effect on February 10, 2009.

"This law requires that ANY item that comes in contact with a child who is 12 years old and under, to be tested at a government approved testing facility and have a 'certification' placed on the item. Sounds simple enough, but the fallout is much more intense."

http://learningathisfeet.blogspot.com/2009/01/urgent-please-read-and-act.html

"Do not then train boys to learning by force and harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each." - Plato

Home schooling is going well. CP (7) tickles me though. He thinks that because he is not forced to sit in a seat all day to do multiple worksheets that he is not having school. I think that everything they/we do is a learning experience. Example: They can all add, subtract, multiply, divide, and do fractions not only because of our text but from helping to cook and grocery shop. History is a never ending subject. They all play a couple of different historical computer and board games so they are not only having fun but they are learning too. They will encounter a new city, country, or battle and then we research it. School is not all games though; we do use a curriculum:

BIBLE - Foundations http://www.homeschoolingbible.com/

MATH - Rays Arithmetic’s and workbooks, as well as verbal exercises.

 http://www.mottmedia.com/pages/publications.asp?Pub=rays

SPELLING - McGuffey Progressive Speller and Dolch sight words

http://www.mottmedia.com/pages/publications.asp?Pub=mcguffey

READING - McGuffey Readers plus they all have to read a chapter a day in a challenging chapter book and answer questions about the characters, the main idea, etc...

http://www.mottmedia.com/pages/publications.asp?Pub=mcguffey

LITERATURE - Combines with reading of the chapter books. These are not puff chapter books either. They've read Pearl S. Buck, Hemingway, Bunyan and others. Just last night CP (7) read from ‘The Old Man and the Sea’

In addition to their assigned chapter book and I read a chapter or so every day from classic books like C. S. Lewis, Shakespeare (Lamb - adapted for children), John Bunyan, R. L. Stevenson, Kipling, etc...

WRITING - Zaner-Bloser handwriting workbooks and self-led creative writing which will be compiled and published.

http://www.zaner-bloser.com/educator/products/handwriting/index.aspx?id=106

GRAMMAR - We're reading ‘Grammar Land’ which is a fabulous introduction to grammar in storybook format. They also have to answer questions about what we are reading and have read to test their knowledge.

http://books.google.com/books?id=iXgSAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=grammar+land&ei=sthkSZ6BBJeOMqSJneMI

SCIENCE - We're reading living learning books which are entertaining as well as educational. Currently we're reading ‘Seed Babies’, next we'll read Christian Liberty Press ‘Nature Reader 5’ which is on the Human Body. We also do activities related to what we read.

http://books.google.com/books?id=gjgZAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=seed+babies&ei=1dhkSbGJF5T4NcCY8dQO

http://ebiz.netopia.com/clpress/pages/store/skudetail.nhtml?profile=reading&uid=10225&returnURL=http%3A//ebiz.netopia.com/clpress/reading

HISTORY - More living learning books. We have just started reading ‘The Story of The Chosen People’ It is the first in a series of books that combines biblical history with textbook history. Previously we studied the history of Halloween (good and bad, and what it means for us as Christian family); a thanksgiving theme covering its origins, pilgrims, mayflower, colonization, Indians, they built a pilgrim house...; Christmas using Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’

http://books.google.com/books?id=YDQXAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22H%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne+Adeline+Guerber%22&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=9tlkSb3kEZW6NtWluIEJ

ART – In addition to various planned and spontaneous crafts we are studying art in a sequential historical order while using ‘A Child’s History of Art’

They all learn differently which makes it interesting and one of the reasons I home school. GQ (10) is easy. Tell him what his assignments are and leave him to it. If he has a question or needs help he asks for it, otherwise he prefers to be left alone. NBC (9) has a form of dyslexia which inhibits him being able to put words and math problems on paper. He can spell and do higher math verbally all day long but struggles with putting it on paper. This requires the use of various manipulatives to help overcome the struggle. He is getting better thanks to the incorporation of the suggested tools at http://www.dyslexia.com/  CP (7) is somewhere between GQ (10) and NBC (9). He has a short attention span so he works for 15 minutes and takes a break, works 15 minutes and takes a break until all is done.

They spent two months at sea to reach a strange new world, and

barely survived once they got there.

Learn how the Pilgrims reached America and

lived to celebrate the first Thanksgiving.

click here

Voyage on the Mayflower - Daily Life - The Thanksgiving Feast

Research Plymouth Colony

Mayflower Interviews

Plimoth Plantation Thanksgiving Chat

Pilgrim Interviews

Meet a Wampanoag

Receive Letters from History

click

Have you ever wanted to talk with someone from the Plymouth Colonies or a Native American about the Mayflower, Thanksgiving, or Colonial Life?

Or maybe you have wanted to explore Plimoth Plantation and the Mayflower II with your family.

Well, here is an opportunity to so from the comfort of your home.  click here

Join one of three live chats on Thursday, November 13. At 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4 p.m. ET, we will chat live with a present-day Native American and a Pilgrim interpreter representing a young Pilgrim boy. Submit your in-advance questions and then come back the day of the chat to ask more questions in real time. click here

    The new school year is here and I am excited! My excitement stems from finally being able to remove my sons, well at least one, from the public school system. While public school may serve the needs of some it definitely does not serve my eight year old son, Ryan.

     Ryan is a very bright and energetic young man. He excels in math, science, and art but is having difficulty with reading, writing, and spelling. He can recite his spelling and vocabulary words and spell them perfectly aloud but when he is required to put pencil to paper he fails. His generally sweet and loving disposition transforms into frustration and anger.

     I have counseled with his teachers so often that I can now recite what they will say to me about my "uncooperative lazy boy." I have met with his school counselor who has recommended a child psychologist. In despair I made the initial appointment and we went and met Dr. Doug. Ryan likes him and enjoys talking with him about school, life, and games. After a couple of appointments Dr. Doug suggests testing Ryan's competency level to which I agreed.

     Low and behold he is just a few points short of a perfect score! How can this be when he struggles with reading, writing, and spelling? Dr. Doug and Ryan agree that to resolve this problem anger management should be addressed and practiced. Guess what? It didn't work.

     So we were back to square one with the school year half over. I tried many methods while helping him at home with his school work but to no avail. So I have rearranged our lives and gathered resources, friends, and family in an effort to allow me time to homeschool Ryan. However, it was too late in the school year to pull him from public school because of deadlines for testing requirements. In the mean time Ryan was continually chastised and berated by his teacher. He has very low self esteem and would cry over having to endure another day at school. Still I was left wondering why he is having this difficulty.

     Time passed and I found myself reading a parent magazine sent home from the public school. The article that has caught my interest is on dyslexia. You know, reversing similar letters or numbers when reading and writing. Wrong! Dyslexia entails so much more and my son has all but two of the 16 traits listed in the article. Wow! I immediately went to the referred website and read every word under every tab. Within this site is an online evaluation for initial determination of dyslexia so I filled it out. This evaluation has 37 different characteristics listed for dyslexia but states that most dyslexics will exhibit about 10. Ryan exhibits 29 of the 37 characteristics on this initial evaluation. WOW!!

     Could this be it? Could this be why my son is having such difficulty? So far all that I have read says "yes" In light of this I arranged for him to be professionally tested because when I suggested it to his teacher when she called to complain about him one morning she outright refused the idea because he is nothing like her son or husband who are dyslexic. Puh-leeze!!! Just because she has family members with dyslexia that doesn't make her an expert in the area. I mean who does she think she is giving a flip diagnosis? Perhaps I can start diagnosing cardiac problems since myself and other family members have them. Seems the same to me.

     I know you are thinking that I should have called the principal or the board but believe me it would do no good at all. This I know because last year while in the afterschool program at school ran by the county my sons' life was threatened by another child who revealed a weapon.  I reported it to the police, the afterschool director, the principal, and the board only to be told that this older bigger boy didn't really mean it because he is a good kid just like Ryan. Hello!!!

     Promptly I made extraordinary alternative arrangements so my sons would not have to go to afterschool but was not able to arrange it so they could stay home and be schooled. It has taken a year of careful planning and a career change but it is now possible for me to homeschool my boys. My suspicion that Ryan may be dyslexic was warranted. He does have a form that prevents him from writing correctly. So just let me say one more time that I am excited that this school year is here. Yippie!!!