I ordered this book as a help to my Princess (9).  It came from Keepers of the Faith.  I thought I'd give it a little review for any of you wondering, as I was, what it's really like.

It is paperback.  The pages are black ink on white pages.  It is basically pages of words with different phonic sounds.  Startin off with short a, e, i, o & u.  A whole page with approx 100 or so words on each.  Then after a few pages there is a "review," which is some sentences & phrases.  There are teacher helps in the back.  I paid  $15.95.

When I first opened it up I was a little disappointed because it was just a bunch of words.  After reading the introduction & helps I thought I'd give it a try.  It said you can start anywhere you think you need to.  I decided to start at Lesson 1!  I had her read some of the words. (it suggests to time them, but the first day I did not)  She read the words fine & then I had her write 1-10 on a paper.  I called out 10 random words from the lesson.  This actually made her feel "big" because she got spelling words like her big brother.

Now, I am not doing a spelling "test."  Just 10 words a day that I'm having her write.

I don't know if I would start this book with a child trying to learn phonics for the first time, but for remedial phonics/reading it's working great so far.

Anyone else used this book?  What were your thoughts?

Monday we had a wonderful homeschool day.  The we did our "cheerfulness" character study, math, reading, LLATL & began our U.S.A. notebook.  When Daddy got home they even talked about what they learned.  They were most impressed with how many times the American flag has changed over the years.

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Today was pretty much the same.  We except we did a quick overview of Alabama & then read a book about the Tundra to go with Alaska.  We will read Dennison's Ice Road tomorrow.  --This will probably take us through Friday for what Mom reads to them.  I do have a couple of other books I mentioned in my post yesterday & the children will read those on their own.  Probably a little at bedtime & then more tomorrow.

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I thought I would share a couple of pictures of our notebooks so far.  I ran out of memory space on my camera so I'll just show a few. 

Cover page 

U.S. Bird

Some other pages we did were:

~The star spangled banner

~Colored the American Flag & wrote some facts about it

~The seal

~A map of the U.S.

We've had a bumpy past few months & decided that we really "needed" a serious break.  So we took off about 2 months.  We've enjoyed watching movies, reading, swimming, playing & got some good rest & relaxation in too!  We've also done alot of preserving with our garden.  We have decided to NOT do a fall garden this year.  I may end up regretting that, but we had a really great abundance of things this summer & we don't need anymore right now, or the hassle.

Now, to our curriculum choices this year.

14 year old, Hunter:

LLATL, Practical Arithmetic, Apologia Biology, Pathway reader, Assorted history/geography books

9 year old, Princess:

Succeeding at Reading, Explode the Code, Rod & Staff math, CLP nature readers, Pathway readers

 (One really special book I am hoping will be a keepsake is Home Economics for Homeschoolers.  Now, we do home ec all the time, but this books looks like it will be alot of fun.  We are going to take pictures & create a scrapbook along with this so she can hopefully do this with her daughters one day!  It is on back order at RR so hopefully we'll get it soon)

Together we'll be doing:

Write Upon My Heart --This is a character study I found through Keepers of the Faith.  I have "Cheerfulness" & "Obedience"  --We will start our day with this along with Bible reading.

We will also be doing a few unit studies mixed in there.  The first is about the United States.  Our second will be Greek Gods, Heros & Men.  I printed that book from www.oldfashionededucation.com .  --Before anyone writes me on the greek gods book, rest assured I've done alot of studying about this & have my reasons for wanting to study this a bit. --I will explain it more when we get around to it.

Our state unit study- For this I am making it up.  I have worked on it over the summer.  We will be doing a notebook/binder as we learn about this.  I've also checked out different books to read over the course of a week.  Some of the states we've already studied in the past so we are just going expand on that.  That is why some states may seem "skipped." 

At the beginning of our notebooks we will have information about the flag, seal, etc.  To begin each state they will color a page I printed from here:  http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/learn/states/

I will try to upload pictures as we go in case anyone may want to use some of our ideas. 

Alabama will be short & sweet.  My mom lives there & we know quite a bit about that state & have been there so there is not much need to get too in depth here this time.

Here are the books we plan on reading this week about Alaska:

Arctic Tundra:  Land With No Trees

River of Life

Dwellers of the Tundra: Eskimo Village

Denison's Ice Road (this one I will be reading aloud to the children)

Kavik the Wold Dog

There is also a show on t.v. called "Tougher in Alaska"  I have taped a couple of episodes so this will go along well.

One main thing we will be working on is keeping our home maintained in an organized & timely mannor.  Over the summer we have cleaned out & cleared out many unneeded things.  It has made our home so much calmer & peaceful. 

We are also working on healthier eating.  More whole foods.  ex. brown rice, homemade breads, whole grains, cutting back on sugar, more balanced meals, etc. 

There you have it.  A run down of our plans.  Hope you all will enjoy reading my blog.  If you have time, please leave me a comment & I'll visit yours.

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday with your family.

Saturday is flag day so today along with math, phonics & reading we colored a couple of pictures of the american flag.    They are proudly decorating the front of my fridge.  I came across this link of many things to do about flag day.  I'm going to print a few of these off to use on Thurs. & Fri.

http://homeschooling.about.com/library/bljun14a.htm 

I have been searching for some good read aloud books for the children & saw one at the library called The Face on the Milk Carton.  I sure hope this book gets better in chapter 3 because so far none of us are enjoying it.  I thought I remember seeing a movie on this one a few years ago & that's what caught my attention.  We'll give it a couple more chapters either tonight or in the morning & if it's not getting any better, back to the library it shall go!

Any good book suggestions out there?  Something that would be for the whole family.  My children's favorite book is Island of the Blue Dolphins.  I think that's partly because we did some fun activities to go along with it. 

I sometimes wonder if I'll ever catch up. 

We have had many stumbling blocks since Christmas.  I've posted about some here. 

Princess & I have been reading & I see she is so far behind.  I am going to have to use some 2nd grade things for her to be able to read on her own.   She understands grammar concepts, punctuation, capitalization, etc.  It is just that things on her grade level would have to be almost completely read by me.

She can read, just not near the 4th grade level she is suppose to be going into this coming year.

That is one reason I want to keep this blog anonymous.  I want to be able to share my real struggles & triumphs without feeling like everyone is judging me or my children.

I'm printing out some reading charts so each time she finishes a book she gets a sticker.  After so many stickers she gets to choose a prize. (like- Go get an ice cream with Daddy, Go shopping with Mommy, etc)  Hopefully this will motivate her because she could care less about reading.

Has anyone else had a child that has had trouble with reading?  I know each child is different, but my son who is not 14 read as much as she does at about age 6.  It just came naturally to him.   I know I'm always asking for advice on here, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I guess I really know in my heart everything will be ok, but I just feel really behind sometimes.

Lord, You have always given me everything I need.  Please help me to trust in you & that everything has a time & place.  ~Amen

Princess has had the hobby lately of taking the camera and snapping away.  The other day she went by one of the back gates & came back with some pictures of the "mama's & babies"  I was very curious...

Here is the picture of the gate

The mama's

and their babies

Well, I'm done with my babysitting job!  I'll miss them, but I'm quite releived it's over for now.  I must say that I've learned several lessons since I started in January.

~My children & I need structure.

~I've got to get more gusto & organization in both housework & schoolwork.

~Even though I have not always acted like it, I truly love my little family. 

Yesterday evening I got my closet & dresser cleaned out.  I got all the clothes I don't wear & gave them to a friend to look through & then put in her rummage sale.  I also got all of the winter things put away & organized my summer things.  Now everytime I walk into my closet or get something from a drawer I'll have a good feeling! (I know little things amaze me)

I've been looking through the new homeschool catalogs that have been coming in.  I am pretty sure I know what I will need & after the used book sale & what I already have, that's not too much.

I think I'm going back to LLATL for both kiddos.  Hunter has used it in 6th grade & he was not crazy about it, but honestly he's not crazy about any schoolwork.   Princess has never used it & she is just getting good at reading so I'm starting her off in the yellow one (says 3rd grade)  

When Hunter used it before it was much easier for me.  You basically just open it up and do the assigned lesson & he was done for the day.  All the work stays in the student book.  The only thing I did extra was had him write the spelling words out & do an extra thing with those.

Day 1:  Write all words & define any you don't know

Day 2:  Write words in a sentence

Day 3:  Write words 3x each

Day 4:  Test

We usually have a 4 day week because Daddy is off on Friday's.

I think Princess will do well with this too.  I've looked at some sample pages in the yellow one & the books used in it will appeal to her.  We'll probably read them together.

For science we'll use Apologia.  Zoology for her & Biology for him.

History/Geography--I'm looking into Mystery of History but may just go with the workbooks & some added reading for that. 

For arithmetic I'll keep her in Rod & Staff until she finishes the book she's in now.  Then I'll either get their next book or try her in the Practical Arithmetic books I have.  Hunter will use practical arithmetic.

 The old fashioned education has great links to history & science books for free.  We'll use some of those too. 

I plan on getting more housework done today & putting our new chore charts to use this coming week.  Then I'm hoping to get everything back on track! 

I hope everyone has a great week!!!

I did go to the used homeschool book sale I mentioned in my last post.  Here is what I ended up with...

LLATL teachers edition-orange...$1 (I needed the student yellow & gray but orange would be for Princess the following year & for only $1 I can get an idea of what will be needed)

Exploring Creation with Biology by Wile...$10

A thick workbook on the presidents & the states...$1

A thick workbook about beginning geography for grades 3-6...$1

A book of easy botany experiments done w/household items...$1

Studying God's Word book G...$1 (a few pages written in, but we do these as a family morning Bible study together anyway)

At the Feet of Ordinary Women, finding yourself in Titus 2:4-5 (For me obviously)...$2

Got some movies too.

Set of 3 Indiana Jones vhs...$3

Same River Twice (focus on the family films) vhs...$1

Then on our way to lunch we passed a church rummage sale & had to stop.  They had a whole table of books marked down 10 for $1.  So, of course, I had to find 10.  I won't list all of them, but I've got several good books to keep me busy for a while.

Other news:

Tomorrow starts my last week of babysitting.  I had a long discussion with my sister & so far everything seems ok.  I was just afraid that she would be mad & keep the kids from visiting, but I'm happy to say, I think I was wrong.  

I made out a new schedule & daily duty (chores) list for my children along with the rest of the school work they must complete.  I am trying to be optimistic now & think everything will work out fine.

Well, that's it for me today!

~Mama M.