Posted in Living and Learning

Well, we are trying to get more schooling in each day.....but boy, it sure takes alot of effort....

Alli did work on her letter Bb pages.....(let me tell you, that girl sure does like using lotsa glue, lol)....

Rosie and I got quite a bit accomplished....We worked on her multiplication tables, her memory/copy work (still working on The Ten Commandments).....She read the next story in New Friends.....she did a page in her manners workbook....practiced her cursive and re-did an English assignment that she had really messed up on....

And I even found time  to work w/ Jacob on his English assignment...I think we completed 3 pages....

After naptime, the 3 little ones and I sat down and read some autumn/pumpkin story books:

We All Fall for Apples

Rabbit and Hare Divide an Apple

The Pumpkin Patch

It's Pumpkin Time

Fall Leaves Fall

and

The Pumpkin Patch Parable

and that's our day....

Posted in Living and Learning

Alli is five.  And she is a pretty smart 5 year old.  She has known her ABC's for a long while now.....and she knows how to write her ABC's.....but we have been working with her for awhile now to learn the sounds that each ABC letter makes.......So this week, we began spending a bit more time on it, so that we can finally get it done and move on.....This week is, of course, the letter A.....

Here are some of the things we have done:

Aa tracing pages

Aa template  (we used this to glue dry macaroni onto. The older girls thought we should have used something that begins w/ A.  However I am pretty unsure I will be able to find something that begins each letter of the alphabet to fill in each of the 26 templates.  So we will be working with whatever I have around the house at the time.)

Letter A paper craft

Letter A mini-book  (requires using scissors and glue)

Angel coloring sheet

Out of the bookcase we are reading: 

Chicka Chicka Boom boom

Berenstain's A Book

Ten Apples Up On Top

Dr. Seuss's ABC  

And off the video shelf we are watching:

Leap Frog Letter Factory

Leap Frog Talking Words Factory

Richard's Scarry's Best ABC Video

Toys we will be using to help us:

Leap Frog Fridge Phonics

Next week:   On to the letter Bb

Posted in Living and Learning

That's what Miss Rosie had to say about me the other day.......And let me tell ya, it made my day........Now for the details:

We'd been having some minor behavior issues with our dear daughter......giving her older sisters a hard time, not wanting to do her chores, not keeping her room clean, giving me a hard time doing schoolwork, etc......just generally having a bad attitude......so I sat down w/ her and we had a nice chat......I explained to her that while I understood it was sometimes difficult to be 8 (almost 9),  we were not going to let her keep it up, and that we expected an immediate change of heart.......that she needed to do what is expected of her, without complaint and no pouting....I used her older sisters and brothers as fine examples of working hard and enjoying blessing your family by helping out.....I mentioned that they work hard, get their chores done, above and beyond what is expected of them.....now, I wasn't expecting such huge strides in such a short time, but let me tell ya, Rosie did a complete about face....She began doing homework each day w/out complaint and in a timely manner, she did what was asked of her w/out whining, including helping Allison clean up the bedroom they share and play in each night.......She worked really hard trying to be "a big kid" around here...and let me tell ya, we all noticed....You can see the difference in here, she feels really good about herself and is proud that we are very pleased with the changes she has made......So her Daddy and I talked about it one evening and I explained that I wanted to reward her, but not in the traditional sense......around here, we don't do allowances, we don't give gifts for expected behavior, but we do like to sort of celebrate them......and for the younger children one of the things they like is to be moved "up the ranks" so to speak.......So for Rosie I knew this would work....She is always wanting the chance to do the things that big sisters get to do.....So w/ her Daddy's okay, on Wednesday Morning, I sat down again w/ Miss Rosie and told her how proud we were of her new attitude.....and that we were going to let her plan Friday's dinner menu (including dessert), make her own shopping list and do her own shopping for the items.....then I dropped the bombshell:  We were going to let her prepare the meal all by HERSELF!!!!  She was so excited.....I actually got all teared up at her reaction...you would have thought we handed her the moon.....it was great, but the best part was when she went running out of my room, all excited and told Natalie and Nikki, "I'm so happy I'm living with a Mom like her!"  That was the bestest!!!!!

In my next post I will tell you all about the shpping trip, the menu and the awesome dinner she made.....But right now, my hand needs a rest~

Posted in Living and Learning

For family updates click here

And now for what's new in our learning world (not that we aren't always learning):

I have always wanted to order one of those butterfly kits for the kids, the ones where you wait for the cocoon to turn into a butterfly, but have just never fit it into our school budget......Well last Sunday, Allison found a very fat caterpillar on the ground in our background.......We put it in  her little bug catcher along w/ some leaves and sticks, just so that we could watch it for awhile.....We decided to keep him overnight and when we woke up, he had wrapped himself in one of the leaves and made a cocoon and has been there ever since.......we have done some research on the internet and we think we will have a luna moth when he comes out......Here is the site we found.....I also went to Enchanted Learning and printed out this sheet to help us learn more..We know he will probably remain in his cocoon for 9-14 days and will be approx. 3 to 4 1/2 in when he comes out.......But I have a question for any of you who may know........Do we need to do anything special when he emerges from his cocoon?  Natalie and Nikki have said that when they helped in kindergarten and the little ones there did butterflies, they needed to give them sugar water and couldn't let them go fo the first few days.......Our bug ctacher isn't very big, and he won't have much room at all when he comes out...any ideas????

Posted in Living and Learning

Natalie (almost 18) just bought her first sewing machine today.....she has been saving her last 3 paychecks so she could buy one...It's just a very basic one, but that is all she wanted to learn on...She bought it at Walmart..The first two things she plans on making are dresses for two of her little sisters....she let them pick out some pretty yellow fabric today......The lady there was so helpful....made sure she had enough fabric, even measuring the girls right there in the store, so she knew what size patterns to buy...she also helped Natalie match the thread and pick the zipper for one of the dresses..I just wish I wasn't so clueless how to do it all  ....Now she is just waiting for my mom to come over and help her get it all set up as I don't have a clue what to do......I am so happy for her.....she and I have both wanted one for such a long time....I can't wait til I have one too and we can both be busy sewing, sewing, sewing......

Posted in Living and Learning

Today Jake is collecting bugs for a bug collection......Alli and Rosie have been helping him.......will try to post more later, as he has had some interesting finds......

Posted in Living and Learning

Science for today: Allison went outside to catch a bug today and w/ Jacob's help caught a millipede.....so they drew a picture of one and then read about millipedes at this site.....Here.....then they took a manilla folder and decorated it by drawing bugs on the front so they can keep all their pages in......

And now Alli is waiting patiently for a turn on the computer so she can visit here for awhile....Not sure what else we are going to get to today, as we are in the process of cleaning our dining room from top to bottom......Check back later......

Posted in Living and Learning

You never know what is going to help create a homeschooling lesson....Alli and Abby were watching a Kipper video this evening.....Rosie walks into the room sees that Kipper and his friend are having a race, watching to see who's paper boat is going to go the fastest.....and if they will even float.....So what do I notice next???  Rosie is sitting at the dining room table, with a big bowl of water, a stack of notebook paper....making various different styles of paper boats....seeing which ones will float or which ones will sink.....She even gets Aaron involved and he spends some time w/ her, helping her out...She even goes so far as to find weight to place on some of the boats, seeing how much they can handle before they sink...and she really has no idea that she was doing any sort of learning at all......I just thought this was neat and wanted to share.......

Posted in Living and Learning

It's official.....I have too much going online and can't keep up with it all...(obviously, since it's been awhile since I last posted here)..Actually, I can keep up with it, but lately I have been trying to cut my online time way down, trying to make sure I don't spend soooo much time on the computer......Well, it's working...but I am so behind on the stuff I usually keep up with online....Now  I know I was spending too much time on the computer....because of this, I am not able to keep up on this site, my xanga site, and the few message boards I am on.....I know, I know....something has to go.....just haven't decided what it will be.....

Anyway, here's a quick update on what some of us are doing learning-wise:

Rosie: still working on her Horizons Math book...working on Rod and Staff English book, currently reading The Boxcar Children -bk 1, learning cursive handwriting, w/ help from here, going through The Everything Kids Cookbook w/ Mom.....Today Rosie, Alli, and Abby helped me bake a loaf of Carrot Bread.....Rosie read aloud the recipe, did some measuring, peeled and shredded some carrot.....Alli helped w/ the carrots, did some measuring, and helped stir.....Abby did some stirring too.....

After baking, I sent Rosie outside to catch a bug in the little bug catcher.....She brought in a roly-poly bug.....After studying it for a few minutes, I had both Rosie and Alli draw a picture of the bug..then it was off to find a kid-friendly website to learn more about roly-polys......I found this and Rosie read the info aloud so that Allison could learn too.....

Okay.....that's it for now......hoping to update more on the rest of the crew later tonight.....gotta get everyone settled down for the night....Abby is wound right up tonight....and is being a monkey and climbing all over me as I try to type this...be back as soon as I get them to sleep....

Posted in Living and Learning

Well, Rosie has decided to working in her schoolbooks isn't fun anymore.....it's too much like work and she doesn't like it....Now I know that she has to learn that not everything is about having fun, but for the most part, I would like her to enjoy learning....she is too young to lose interest in the joy of learning....so this week, we are easing off of the books a little bit and trying to make learning fun.....Today we started by only doing a couple worksheets in a 2nd grade book that I had bought a long while ago from Walmart.....(for some reason, doing this book once in awhile is fun, but using her regular schoolbooks isn't) So after working on some pages, we moved on to math.  For math today, I got out some play money.....first we reviewed what each coin was worth...then how many of each coin equal one dollar.....After that we moved on....I gave Rosie all the play money and then told her how much money I wanted her to give me......She had to use the largest bills, and largest coins first....For example, if I told her give me $6.32, she had to give me a five dollar bill and a one dollar bill.  She couldn't give me 6 one dollar bills.....and for the coins, she had to give me a quarter, a nickel, and 2 pennies....We did this for a long while...then I gave her paper bills and coins in various amounts and had her count them and tell me how much money I had given her.....After math, we moved on to geography.....I took her in the toy room, where he have a large map of the United States hanging.....I would name a state and then she had to find and point each one of them out to me......I was very impressed w/ how many she knows without having to look at all...and alot of the other ones, she knew which general direction they were in, just had to search a little....it was fun...She also knew which direction north, south, east and west were.....and we went talked about Canada being our northern border, and Mexico bordering us on the south.....

This afternoon, we did our regular reading...I read aloud to her and Allison, then Rosie read some aloud to me.....She also had to spend some time reading quietly to herself.......

Now off to see what I can come up w/ for tomorrow......

Posted in Living and Learning

Yesterday and today we have managed to get a good amount of schooling done around here...Rosie and I are making good progress in her math book.....She worked on a bit of English yesterday too....(She doesn't enjoy it very much,because it requires so much writing, so we don't do it every day.)....We have done lots of reading too....We have read the first 4 chapters in our Schoolhouse in the Woods book (I am really enjoying these books) and we are learning all about crabs from reading our Christian Liberty Nature Reader...I have also got all the kids back into quiet reading by themselves for an hour a day (Aaron isn't too thrilled, as he doesn't enjoy reading much at all--give him a Nascar magazine though and he will read it cover to cover).......Rosie is working on B is for Betsy by Carolyn Haywood.....I have been thinking that we really should be starting on teaching Rosie to write in cursive.....she has tried a few times, but nothing that we have really concentrated on.....I do know that in the private school the kids used to go to, they were expected to be able to write in cursive by 3rd grade, so maybe we should be getting started on that.....

I also made time to work on some preschool sheets w/ Alli....we really don't do anything very structured w/her....just some sheets whenever she feels like it.....She also listens, along w/ Rosie when I am reading aloud....

The older kids all pretty much work on their own...They share most of their schoolbooks among each other.....Lately they have been working on a new project....I had them begin by  listing the 7 natural wonders of the world, the 7 ancient wonders of the world, and the 7 modern wonders of the world...Now they are using the computer and finding info and taking notes on each of them......not sure what I am gonna have them do next.....I am trying to think of some sort of  fun project they could do, but haven't come up w/anything yet....

I also wanted to mention that even though Rosie and I haven't started our Story of the World Vol. 1 book, Natalie and Nikki both have.....I just left it laying around in the living room, and they just picked it up and started reading it......Nikki even asked me to order the 2nd one so it will be here by the time she gets finished w/ the first one..I just thought that was neat.......

Just wanted to add that I will be mostly using this blog to talk about our homeschooling...Our daily updates can be found  on Our Xanga Blog.....

Posted in Living and Learning

Some books that I ordered online arrived in the mail yesterday....Among them was Volume 1 of Story of the World....I have had this book on my "to buy" list forever...and am so excited to get started on it....I was thumbing through it last night and am really, really impressed......hoping I can get all the kids to read it....