Sep. 7, 2006 - Happy Thursday!
Well, after several attempts at getting a new password, I am finally able to post!
Let's see, what's going on...
We are awaiting a final box of curriculum materials from
pennywise.com. I split my order between them and
homeschoolingbooks.com to get the best deals. All in all I think
I made out pretty good for my budget!
We are
still in the midst of math review which is going far better than I
expected. Dominic is thoroughly enjoying going back over
fractions. Last year we found a wonderful math website that has
awesome math tutorials, very colorful and engaging, Coolmath.. It has been the bes fractions resource ever.
Zach has been much more compliant with his math
review than I could have hoped. Actually, I attribute this change
in math acceptance to Math Wrap-Ups. You can find them at Learningwrapups.com,
and not just for math, but every subject. I got the complete math
set, plust the 50 states/capitals tool. The kids like them so
much I was able to skip much of the review I had planned, and Zach got
himself an intro to fractions courtesy of his older brother who was so
enthusiastic about the wrap-ups, too! It is just so awsome to see
Zach excited about math, which historically is his weakest subject and
ellicits the most complaining from him.
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All is encouraging on the organization front!
I finally have my long-awaited shelves in the
computer/schoolroom! That room has been full of stacks of books
and papers and all manner of junk for so long. My house is very
storage deficient, but this room had been the bane of my
exisience. I have dreamed of rows of neat shelving, filing
cabinets, color-coding, and stacks of supplies neatly tucked away in
appointe drawers. To see my house most days, you'd think I was a
sloppy housekeeper! Not So! I just have nowhere to PUT
anything!
But my 4 nice shelves is definitely a good start, and hubby will put up
4 more when he is home this week. Then, he's driving up to
Rangely to help his dad fix a fence and pick up some curtains.
His folks bought a place north of our town recently and are
redecorating. We got their lovely flowered sofa and loveseat and
beautiful coffetable, and now we get their nice green curtains.
They're a soft green color with tab tops and there's enough for the
computer room and the boys' bedroom...yay!
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Dominic just got his own e-mail address, and he feels sooooooo grown up!
I have been using paperbackswap.com
for several months now, and have used some of my credits to get board
books for Charlie, who just adores books and can name titles by sight
now. Dominic asked if there were kids books and I said yes, and
he asked if he could open his own account. We tried doing it
using my email addy but like most things, you cannot have 2 accounts on
one addy, so I decided it was time for the little man to have his own e
mail address. Technically, you have to be 18 or older to do the
bookswap, but he is only allowed to swap and receive books I approve,
and only under my supervision, so I really saw no harm in signing him
up. I agreed to pay half of his shipping costs. In case you
haven't heard of paperback swap, do check it out. There are books
of all kinds to be had, even homeschooling resources, workbooks,
cookbooks, you name it! There is also a cd swap now, too, and I
am just waiting for them to come out with a movieswap. I can
revamp my entire entertainment collection!
Zach, well, he has come a long way since last
year. He hated math, and while his reading skills were up to par,
he just did not enjoy it. That is, until he discovered series
chapter books! He is now blazing his way through the A to Z Mysteries
books. I ordered one for him through a book order form his
brother brought home a couple of years ago from school. He got to
pick a book, and picked The Panda Puzzle, I
think because it came with a toy, really. He didn't even read it
til this summer, and when he discovered there was a book for every
letter in the alphabet, he was stoked. His step-mom bought him a
few more, and it occured to me to look on ebay for more, which I found
in abundance. I could have got him the whole set new and wrapped,
but he already had half a dozen, so I got a package of 11 books he
didn't have yet, plus 2 more individually. Then, on a shopping
spree with his grandma Peggy and Grandpa Wayne last weekend, he got 2
more he needed, and now he's only lacking, let's see, 5 more, I
think. When he's done with those, he wants to start on the Magic
Treehouse series.
There will be other reading required of him this
year, of course. We are reading a select list of classics
together (we're working on Farmer Boy
by Laura Ingalls Wilder at the present) and there will be selections to
read for the purposes of working on reading comprehension, but other
than that he can devour all the books he wants! I have no doubts
that he is absorbing what he is reading. I was skeptical at first
about the technique called narration desribed by Charlotte Mason, but
it really is an effective tool to gauge whether or not your child is
learning what he is reading! Zach can tell a whole book back to
me. You won't find that going on in public school!
Stop the presses!!! While I was loooking at
the Ron Roy website just now (to link youto A to Z Mysteries) I
doscovered he has a new series out called Capital Mysteries, which
looks very exciting. The whole series is set in Washington DC and
promises to double as a great and fun historical education supplement!
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Sep. 7, 2006 - Tiny houses |
| Posted by Stephanie10 |
| I *so understand* about having messes and feeling like a housekeeping failure and, yes, we do have too much stuff (something we're constantly working to decrease), but honestly! If other people only had 140 sq.ft./person (soon to be 127 s.f./person!), they would feel a bit cramped, too! Anyway, shelves help, so I'm glad you got some. :-) |
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About Me
Hi there! I am Shannon, wife and helpmeet to Charles, and proud Mama to Dominic, 10..Zachary, 7..and little Charlie, who is a precious 1 year old! Share in our days and homeschooling adventures as we live, laugh, and grow together, embraced in the tender arms of our Lord Jesus. You may find other stuff here, too!
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