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Thanks to the ice storms all of the local public schools have been cancelled this entire week, and on the news last night they said they "Don't know when school will begin again"...oh my!!

Along with the public schools we also took this week off, sort of.  We did throw in a few  quick lessons on snow and ice and sleet and atmosphere, but really, wouldn't any parent do that?  I might go more indepth and get  at least two days in this week.  That would make me feel better anyway.

 

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Sometimes as a homeschooling parent so many things get put on the wayside.  Even simple things like taking time to play board games become somehow less important in light of the Algebra that must be taught or the phonics that are screaming out to us.  Unfortunately, that's now what homeschooling is supposed to be about, and equally unfortunately I think we are all guilty of it from time to time.

 

I have to admit, earlier this year when our Homeschooling family lost precious Missey Grey and so many of us were taking the time to flock to her homepage and remember her, I took that moment and said "MY KIDS COME FIRST".  I read how she spent her final Christmas season making wonderful memories with her children and I wanted that.  But, life took over and although I tried, I know I sadly failed.  Now that winter is on us again I found my self thinking of Missey's legacy to her children and how I would spend December focused on my children and on God, only how could I do that?

 

That's where Christy stepped in.  Check out her lovely post and see if you don't agree with her 100%. 

 

Last Christmas was the final Christmas for both Missey and dear Lorrie to spend with their families.  Their last time to make special memories.  And neither of them knew it at the time.  Because no one knows what the last they say might be.  I just pray that the final memory my children have of me is full of warmth and love and sincerity...and with God's help, this Christmas season will be one that books are written about.  At least those most precious books, the ones in the hearts of my children.

 

1 Thessalonians 2:7 but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children.

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After a few years of homeschooling you have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't work.  Unfortunately, if you are like me, you also know that the marketers are very persuasive and being that you want to give your children the best possible education you question yourself some (okay, a lot) and you sometimes (ahem) you try out new curricula.

 

Currently, I am in the middle of using "What works", those time tested items that flow well in our household and I thought I'd mention them here, just in case you don't want to scroll back and see what we like to use or my numerous trials (sigh).

 

Five in a Row: Lovingly referred to as FIAR, is one of the greatest curricula there is.  It's a Unit Study approach and is written around great literature.  For the younger set you read the same book Five days in a row (thus the name), covering different subjects each day.  It's amazing how much your children (and you) will glean from what is such a seemingly simple format.  The older children use Beyond or Above and Beyond Five in a Row, which goes more in depth, but follows the same basic pattern as most unit studies.

 

My own: As much as I love FIAR there are times I want to do a Unit on a book I love (say Charlotte's Web).  I could buy a Unit Study, but thanks to years of reading through FIAR I have become adept at writing my own Studies,which comes in handy when "Goodnight Dinosaur" is the only book your 6 year old will look at.

 

Paragraph A Week: This is an online program.  It's free.  It was set up by a teacher and I Love it.  All I can say is check it out.  My children's writing has improved by leaps and bounds.

 

Math Drills: I also have a love for math drills.  They just seem to really cement in the basic math facts.  And hey, we can all use a little extra cement.  This is the site I like to use for drills.

 

Sequential Spelling: It's a little cumbersome.  A little slow, but that's my fault.  Because I am using it for such a huge age range.  But I love the base that this program gives to children.  My initial interest came with the fact that my daughter has "an alarming number of reversals", and from there I just thought it was a great program.

 

SSRW: Finally, Sing, Spell, Read and Write, is an expensive, yet very thorough phonics/early reading program, that I have used sucessfully for two children thus far (My oldest attended Kindergarten where he learned to read proficiently).

 

Love: Remember, when you go through all of the curriculum that is out there, that nothing is going to teach your child more than YOUR attitude.  It's tough somedays, truly, I think homeschooling parents have a completely different road to travel.  There are no breaks, the days are long and sometimes exhausting, but they can also be fun and rewarding.  Playing games is a great way to learn, talking is better...laughing is the best yet.  Take your time and have fun, don't be in a hurry to get through the day, the only thing you should be rushing to is to be with your children.

 

 

 

 

1 Thessalonians 2:7 but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children.

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You really should hop on over the Homeschool Estore and check out the Amanda Bennett Unit Study on Thanksgiving. If you are looking for a little breather from planning (Yeah, Sheri is feeling tired and burned out!  Hey, I am blaming my mom's ill health, it has a way of stressing a child out!), or if you just love the fun of Unit Studies, this one is calling to you! 

 

I love it because it's set up in interactive format.  Which means there are links galore in it! I can set my children up securely on line and they can study to their hearts (or days assignments) content.  And we are all happy. 

 

Seriously, it's a great study, that we are enjoying immensely! But hurry! You would need to start it no later than next Monday in order to finish in time to celebrate Thanksgiving, as it is a four week long study (Just think...four weeks free of planning and research...you could pracitcally set up your lawn chair and enjoy a glass of iced tea, Amanda has done that much of the work for you!!) 

 

 

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The people with their hands out for things.

 

You know, like most homeschooling families we are single income, that means we don't have much extra (truth be told, we have no extra.  Someone told me once if they could live on $300 a week for groceries and extras then anyone could..and all I could think was THREE HUNDRED A WEEK!!!  $300/month would feel positively luxurious!!)

 

Anyway...it's fall, so it's time for everything.

*If I sign up for the Homeschooling Fellowship around here it's around $25

*If I put the kids in Homeschooling PE it's around $20/quarter.

*We skipped Fall Ball for our oldest, because we couldn't afford it.

*We eeked through on AWANA (which by the way is a horribly expensive program and I have some pretty hefty thoughts on the thought of that being an OUTREACH...who exactly are they reaching out to?)

*Basketball and Cheerleading signups showed up last week.  Mamaw came to the rescue and offered to pay for Cheerleading for our daughter.  The boys opted out as they prefer and already play other sports...although they dearly love Basketball also.

*At the same time the fee schedule for Boy Scouts came home.  As this is his first year we need a good chunk for the uniform, the handbook and the fees.

*Oh and lest I forget, the Boy Scout Popcorn sale is going on.

 

All of this was being handled pretty well.  But then it literally hit the fan.  It hit a point where I couldn't handle anymore.

 

Why?

 

Because I put the kids in choir.  They were in it in the past and there were no fees.  AND when I signed them up this year there was no mention of fees.  But lo and behold, I received order forms for the REQUIRED teeshirts.  Sure, they are only $8 each...but times three...that's $24...add that to the AWANA fees (of around $75)...and to the Cheerleading fees of  $55...then Boy Scouts Fees of $68...and I don't mind telling you that you have hit (and depending on the month) SURPASSED our grocery/extra money budget, thankfully things came up and scholarships were applied for and duly received, my daughter was gifted and early birthday present and such...so I am not responsible for all of the fees this year.  But next year I will be. 

 

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We've been taking it pretty easy the last few days.  I think the whole "waiting" for my daughters labwork to come back has made me incapable of a single thought or rather, of following through ona single thought.  Funny, because I don't feel stressed at all. 

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It IS a very cool contest!

 

Being held over at Life in a Shoe, and being Sponsored by Vision Forum, you will find a contest for a chance to win $700 worth of products from VF!! How can you turn that down!?! 

 

So head on over and check out the contest, you have until October 13 to enter!

 

I want to add: If you have not checked out the Vision Forum Catalog, you are seriously missing out.  We literally spend hours pouring over the catalog while our children beg for a turn.  You will definately want to put in a catalog request!

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This week we are reading Homer Price Chapter 2: The case of the Cosmic Comic AND The Story of Ping (because I wanted to cover Discernment with both sets of children)

 

We were so excited to find a video of Homer Price at the library!!  In fact it's being watched right now. I love how excited my very "modern" kids can get over a movie obviously set in the 40's or 50's and made nearly as long ago.   They are sitting watching it and comparing it to the book (which we are happy to note seems right on the money!!)

 

 

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This post is my entry to win a camera in the "Share Your Favorite Lesson Plan" Contest sponsored by Sprittibee and Academic Superstore.

 

So, because every lesson in our home is usually something that we just take and run with, picking ONE as my favorite was not only a daunting task, but a completely impossible one.  Therefore, I just hopped on to one of the most recent lessons we had.  As you know we use FIAR as our primary curricula.  Five in a row, is in my very humble opinion, the greatest curriculum out there!  We are currently using Beyond Five in a Row Volume 1 with the older children.  And that means that we are reading and rowing "Homer Price".

 

One of the lessons in Homer Price is building a simple machine.    Since Homer had created a pulley system to pull Aroma into his room at night the original plan of course involved a building a pulley system, but when the kids saw the catapult in the book we checked out from the library it won out!  (A pulley will be coming later this week). 

 

You can see D and M working hard on sawing the wood.  They measured everything and sawed and drilled before it was ready to be put together.  Once it was all together they both looked at the way the arm wobbled, so they pulled it apart and added washers.  Then they noticed that the launched object wasn't flying as far as they hoped (In homeschool terms that would be:: The range of the object was not what they hoped).  So they pulled it apart again and moved the arm forward (or would that be backward?) and relaunched until they got the trajectory right.

At one point the kids became human targets, standing in front of the paint soaked sponges that were being launched by the catapult.   Of course by that time they had the trajectory and range just right...so they hit their target every single time.

Next up: Removing stains from laundry.

Posted in homeschool

D and M are beginning "Homer Price" for our FIAR studies.  This week we are reading Chapter 1, and listed are just some of the activities we have planned:

 

* Intro to the "REAL" Homer, reading The Odyssey and the Iliad and studying The Trojan War

* Study of highways and roadways of America, possible trip down Historic Route 66

* Early Roots of Radio and Television

* Simple Machines: Create a Pulley system as well as a catapult

* Begin working on a short story of their own.

* Create and design advertising slogan

 

G was enthralled with "The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton, seeing that we had a study on Mike Mulligan planned this week I went ahead and checked out "The Little House" and we will do our own study of it, in the FIAR manner of course.

 

*Science: Moon Phases, Seasons

*History: In the beginning of the book there are horse drawn carriages, one day the little house is SURPRISED to see a horseless carriage!  Discuss modern machinery.  Create simple machine of our own (Steam powered?)

 Later in the book the Great great granddaughter sees the house and wants to move it, she is told the house is strong and able to be moved.  Discuss building a firm foundation and how it relates to life (God), and why it is important.

*Language: Repetition and Personification, dictate short story of his own using both elements

*Art: Note how things in the distance are drawn smaller to make them appear further away.  Size and Distance help this.  Also note the repetition of the trees and buildings.  Repetition in art is pleasing to the eye.

*Math: There are so many windows in the apartment and tenement buildings.  Can you count them all?  How many windows are in our house?  How many can you see in the little house?  The new buildings on page 28 had cellars dug as well as many stories above the ground.  How many floors did they each have?

*Vocabulary:

Apartment, tenement, Cellar, Repetition, Carriage, Elevated Train

 

Of course we also work together on everything, so D and M will receive review on the Moon Phases and the Four seasons, while G. will help to build some simple machines.

 

Books checked out this week are:

G: The Little House, Three up a Tree, Too Many Puppies, Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street

D: Website of the Warped Wizard, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Voyage of the Dawn Treader

M: Flowers for the Wicked Witch, Surviving Aunt Marsha

 

ALL: Guglielmo Marconi and Radio

Make it work machines: Hands on science

 

Videos: Tapes 3&4 of the Baseball documentary

The Black Stallion

 

(As always Math, language arts, grammar, spelling, and PE are seperate and not listed)

 

 

Posted in homeschool

Art: Apple trees made with fingerprints (From DTLK-kids.com)

Art: Apple prints  (Cut an apple in half, paint it, and stamp it onto the paper)

Language: Story of the little red house with no windows (Cut the apple across the middle and there is a star in the middle)

Math Counting apples

Social Studies (locate countries on map, color correct countries on blank map, discuss favorite country and what it would be like to live there)

Language (They speak other languages in other countries, learn to count to ten in Italian)

Science: Evaporation

Art: Paint Parisian Street scenes, using same style

Language: Vocabulary.  What do all of thse words mean?!?!

Math: Applied math, count apples.  BAKE A PIE!

Science: BAKE A PIE!

Social Studies: Tell the story of Johnny Appleseed

 

and much, much more!

 

 

Posted in homeschool

Yep, I am home.  I can breathe again. 

 

Okay...I'm not home, I'm still in Oklahoma..and I can't breathe, I still have that weird lung inflammation/anxiety attack thing going on.

 

But it's LIKE coming home.

 

See...I was wooed away from my beloved Five in A Row this year.  I thought I was doing the right thing.  I thought "THIS WAS THE RIGHT CURRICULUM!", the reason I thought that was that I love Unit Studies, so ya know, Konos made sense.  But what I didn't realize was that I love Unit Studies so I can run off on a rabbit trail, and with Konos I felt so...so...locked in.  (Don't get me wrong, you read through their text and it's an AWESOME curriculum, it's just not ME, Know what i mean?)

 

Anyway, today I pulled out my FIAR manual, and a book.  I sat with G.  I read him the book.  D and M got excited and started quoting things they had learned in the past with FIAR.  G got excited and started tracing on a map.  E ran in to hear the great story.  And I sat wondering why I ever stopped using FIAR.

 

If I ever mention it again feel free to pipslap me.

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We use the Paragraph A Week program to practice and improve writing around here.  It's a program I really like, that explains how to write a paragraph (or a paper) and gives very explicit instructions.

 

The topic this week is "Favorite Relative".

 

I handed D and M the papers I printed out with the guidelines and we sat  discussing how to write the paper for a bit.  Then I was called out of the room.  Fast forward 3 or 4 hours.  Yes, it was THAT long before I made my way back to the dining/school room, and then it was to pick up some papers and clean up any left over messes from the day.

 

Immediately I picked up a paper entitled "My mom".  It was attached to the "favorite relative" paper I had handed out earlier. G;ancing across the table I saw another sheet in D's writing this time titled "My favorite relative is my mom."

 

Quite simply the first read something like: "My favorite relative is my mom.  She is pretty and she is funny.  She always makes me laugh.  She is very smart and loves us.  She always tucks me in at night."  D's was a bit longer (I only allow a certain number of sentences or they get carried away and aren't paying attention to their sentence structure) but it ended with:"My mom is my favorite relative because she is loving, smart, caring and funny. She is always there for me."

 

That's what I strive for, but I know I sadly fail.  I am glad they don't see it that way.

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I am joining in with the showcase of learning rooms as shown here!

 

I don't know about you, but I LOVE seeing where others school.  We have never been lucky enough to have a room strictly for schooling (Can you imagine!!) but we are lucky enough to have a dining room that we can use, and we can eat lunch in the breakfast nook (so we don't have to move books and papers when the learning gets messy!)

 

These photos are skewed and they are driving me carazy!!  Anyway, here's E. sitting at the dining table.  (You might be able to see the clear vinyl cloth over it to save it from the markers and glues)  Behind him is the entry to the hall and to the living room.  You can see our makeshift timeline at the top of this photo.

G standing by the inner wall.  To the left is the entry to the kitchen (which you do not see).  Directly behind him is a daily schedule (which we follow very loosely) and a poster on Courage that M. won at VBS this year.  To the right is a china hutch that we inherited from Mike's grandfather.  The bins hold a lot of printables from a teacher friend of mine as well as a phonics program (that we don't use).  The cabinets are full of art supplies.

This is the wall where most everything is kept (Although the top of our linen closet is full of extras!).  The rolling bin on the left is full of pens/pencils/markers, paper, manipulatives, etc.  The bookbag on top is full of library books.  The bookshelves are chock full of books and textbooks, all the way to the right is a rolling bin full of stamping supplies that I am thinking about selling and topped with playdoh and tempura paint, and the abacus.

To be a true homeschool there has to be a jar of pondscum, which there is! See the glass jar with the red lid? Yep...pond scum.  Lovely, eh?!

The final wall in the dining room.  Beyond those windows lies the front porch and the outdoors, where we tend to spend most of our time.

 

Be sure to check out our other lovely bloggers rooms!!  But you really should head to Christy's and tell her you are playing too!

 

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It's Pass The Torch Tuesday (Okay, so it's a day early, that's me...ALWAYS early, that's why it's so appalling the 3/4 of my children were born late).

The guidelines are simple, catch a kid being good and write about it. Link to the original blog here.

Simple and easy. Right? The problem is we get so used to seeing our kids doing things that are GREAT each day that we begin to expect them (And we should!) and stop pointing them out (which we need to be doing). They surely hear plenty of "NO!" and "WHY?!" from us, so how about some "WOW!" and "YOU ARE INCREDIBLE" thrown in for good measure.

**I "caught" M, sitting in the recliner, reading a book called "Dinosaur Bones" to her baby brothers.

**When we were on the way to the library E was mightily singing "E-I-N-G-O and Bingo was his name-o", Mike and I grinned at each other, M, on the other hand smiled, patted E. on the head and said "I love you so much! You are just too darn cute!" (Yes...that says "E"INGO...that's what he sang)

**D. made my day today though. I am used to hearing "I love you mom" from him at least a zillion times a day, and receiving impromptu one armed hugs from the boy teetering on the brink of teenagerhood. But when I showed him how to use the computer system at the library, and then showed him how to read the call numbers to find the book he wanted he was most impressed. As we walked to the section on tornados and I pointed to the call number in the Adult Non Fiction he asked how I knew so much. And when we both sat on the floor in the middle of the aisle pulling out book after book about tornados he smiled at me and quietly said "Thanks mom!" AND THAT MADE MY HEART BURST.

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We walked down to the pond yesterday so we could get some pond water.  Imagine our surprise to see the water full of little baby tadpoles (Which we were sadly unable to catch).  Anyway, the pond water was so we could look at single celled organisms, but there weren't any.  I pulled out a science kit I used to have and gleefully found an old vial full of who knows 'WHAT', but that was labelled "Protozoa soup" with directions to add it to water.  Either today or tomorrow we ought to be able to view some protozoa!

 

 

I also found THIS on my camera when I uploaded the pond photos.  I wonder when she took it.

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Okay, MS Nucelus IS the awesome program I remembered (Actually the Awesome program is available at MS Nucleus).  I am so excited by this science program

 

Today I printed out the Life Cycle  Organism chapters for grades 1, 4 and 6.  As well as the workbooks for the 8 week Life Cycle Study (Organisms, Natural Environment, Human Biology, Plants).

 

I can't wait to get started.

 

Now to find someone with a microscope I can borrow!

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Yes! Apparently I have taken some time off, at least from this blog.  (Remember, you can nearly always find me at http://mikeandsheri4.blogspot.com).

Anyway, I thought I'd post my lesson plans for the week on here, just because I like looking at others plans as well. 

Remember, these are not "complete" they are general, and we work through them, add to them, cross them out as the moment sees fit.

This would be from week 3 of Attentiveness using the Konos Character Curriculum Volume 1.  We also tend to throw in some FIAR (Five in a Row), and a lot of homemade unit studies. 

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Okay, seriously, WHAT. WAS. I. THINKING?!?!?!

 

We decided to school year round, there IS a rhyme to my reason.  Truly.  There is.  Grandparents like to drop in on us, so I thought things would go more smoothly if we worked around the year.

 

So, for the first week...here we go, some of my quickly jotted notes. 

 

Konos, Volume 1, Attentiveness.

 

Key verse: Proverbs 4:20

Bible: Read the stories of Samuel (1 Samuel 3), Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42), Discuss how Christ was attentive to his heavenly father (find specific examples)

Art & Drama: Dramatize the Story of Samuel, create a set and costumes, write the drama.  Dramatize the Story of Mary and Martha (This was not planned, but they enjoyed the story of Samuel so much they BEGGED to dramatize the story of Mary and Martha)  Create signs for a future obstacle course.

Science and Health: Research and explain RAS (Reticular Activating System?).  Research deafness and the causes of it, D: write a report and report orally to us.  Research how the ear works, Mwrite a report on it.  G: Explain how the ear works tell mom the five senses.

Vocabulary/Spelling: Look up these terms, explain them.  attention, distraction, notice, observe, ignore, watchful, alert, observant, courteous, aware, unaware, examine, scrutinze.  Look up Concentrate.  Compare and contrast Concentrating on a task to Concerntrating food (taste concentrate: Lemonade/boullion)

Language: (See Science and Health)  Adjetive labels.  Label items around house.  Daily random dictation. They never know when I will ask them to tell me about something, so they must listen all day! 

Practical living/Reasoning: D explain how RAS applies to daily living  Observation: (also character) Observe body language at the baseball game.  What does it mean.  Give examples of how you can read someones body language.  Dramatize.  Observation: (also Science) Sit outide in the dark with your eyes closed.  What do you hear? Compare sounds (Loud/soft, short/long, high/low)

Math/Memory: Play telephone to demonstrate the importance of listening carefully, Play Memory, learn to spell names in sign language.

Physcial Skills/Education: Create obstacle course.  Demonstrate various ways to make sound in course.  (signs are created for course by D & M).  Demonstrate the importance of following directions. Games this week include: The Hokey Pokey, Duck Duck Goose, Catch, Baseball, Simon Says, Mother May I

History: Create accurate costumes for dramas.  Biblical History, Helen Keller

Timeline Figures: Helen Keller, Mary and Martha, Samuel, Jesus

 

Music: Listening to classical music

Videos: The Mircale Worker

Books: (That deal with the study, free reading books not listed)

 The Story of my Life (Keller  )

 The Silent Witness (Freidman)

The Magic School Bus explores the Senses

Toward the Light (Groff)

Hearing (Steck-Vaughn)

Eyes and Ears ( Simon)

A picture book of Helen Keller

 

Websites: Too many to list.  Although Enchanted Learning did have some great diagrams of the ears.

 

Additional: Math and Phonics, Everyday Spelling by Scott Foresman (Free download)

 

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Man the internet is slow. I planned to pop on and off rather quickly but things are taking a long time to load, and then there's the fact that my SIL IM'd me saying "I have DSL neener neener" (okay so I added the neener neener part), that just stunned me and make me feel all back woodsy for a while there.

 

Then I had to ask  myself, what's wrong with backwoodsy? 

 

Why nothing of course.  That doesn't mean uneducated, it means educated in different things.  And that of course led me to thinking about my children.  They aren't uneducated.  I tend to go through spurts of extreme worry about how they measure up to children their own age, but then I realize, they aren't undereducated...they are educated in different things.  And I don't see anything wrong with that.