Posted in Notebooking

Free for this month from History Scribe is Notebooking pages on Rocks and Minerals. There are both a elementary and middle school version so you can use these pages with multiple ages.

I wish I saw these last month. Our first Nature Study group of the year was at the Saugus Iron Works and we learned about the different types of rocks while there. I know Matt wantsto go back, so I will have to bring these pages with us to do.

Posted in School Year Stuff

Like the previous post said, I was going to post about my meeting with our local Superintendent in a seperate post.

Meetings are not required here in MA, but because he is new to our district and has no clue to who I am, I decided to meet with him.

Now, in the past, all we had to do is show the Super the books/texts (is any) we will be using and that is that. I went to the first meeting my first year of homeschooling (after much fighting with the Super at the time) and never went back.

Well, for this meeting, things were very different. First off, they made me wait 45 minutes in the hall. I was 5 minutes early and I hate to be late as well as made to wait for a long time. I was getting ready to see what the hold up was (as my time is valuable to me and my son was at home not learning anything with me sitting on my butt twiddling my fingers), when the Super came over to me. I offered him my hand as a greeting, and he looked at it, then me before even shaking my hand. He did not havea good grip and had a weak shake. My father always told me that if a person has a good grip and a good handshake, then the person is excited and happy to see/meet you. My assumption fromthis guys shake was that I am a waiste of his valuable time and he just wants this over with (just as much as me by this time)

I head into his office and sat down at the conference table. He handed me this paper (more like a checklist) of the things he requires of homeschoolers in our town. He askes for my sons name and grade. He also asked for my reasons to homeschool. This is not required. I tried to tell him politely that the school system sucks, but he already is aware of this (see this article here. There is even a picture of the Super for you to see is normal facial expression). He also asked for my lesson plans, which have never been required before and are not listed as a requirement in the two case studies we follow for our homeschooling guidelines here in MA (see Charles and Brunelle).

So, I started to tell him about what we had planned to learn about in science (I have done this in the past with the former Super with no problems), when he rudely interupts me and was shaking his head. He went on to say that what I was tellign him was not what he wanted. Hello, I am not a mind reader. I told him that this is what I have done inthe past with no problems before. He sighed and asked to see what texts we will be using.

I showed him the Singapore math books. He looked at me and goes "You know that they teach differently in these books than in our school system". I felt like saying "Ya that is why a magority of Americains can't do basic math and why Asians and Europeans out rank us in math"; but I was a good girl and just said "I know". he is familiar with these books, so he said he had no problems with them.

The Pathway Readers were next. He was giving them faces as he flipped through them. He said that he did not like them and thatthey were out dated and told me I needed to pick something else. I told him I would think about it, knowing full well, I was not goingto do any such thing.

Here he is complaining to me that the copywrite date of one of the readers was 1976 (but there w as also another in 2005). Umm, Hello?!? Has he seen the history books in the high school recently? They most recent president in those books are CARTER! He was president when I was born 32 YEARS ago!

He also had nothing niceto say about the Climbing to Good English book, but I hoenstly don't care what he thinks.

History was up next and the reaction was the same as the readers and English. We are using Story of the World Volume 1 with the accompaning activity guide. I also have a ton of extra books to suppliment as I already used this book with Chantelle. The Super told me that this book was above Matt's level (and how does he know what Matt's level is? He has never met my son). He also said that I have to follow what the schools are learning so that Matt will not suffer should he go back into school. Matt lvoes this subject and is doing well, so we are not changing anything. Not only that, but we do not have to follow what the schools are doing.

The meeting lasted 1 hour and it ended without any approval until I submit my detailed (with goals and scope & sequence, which are not required) lesson plans.

When I got home, I ventedto my husband and then I called a local homeschooling mom to see what he asked of her. She was kind enough to send me a copy of the "lesson plans" she submitted for her son last year (he is one year ahead of mine). I recreated my "plans" using her format and some of her wording (I hope you don't mind B). I have it all typed and printed out and ready to be certified with return reciept. I hope likes this as I am not doing anything else.

Posted in School Year Stuff

This past week has been crazy. Between homeschooling and work, I really have no time for much. There was even a day I saw my husband just long enough to grab a kiss before I headed to work. Ilike I said busy, busy.

Monday night was Mabon (Autumn Equinox). Normally we have a harvest theme meal and take a nature walk to observe any seasonal changes in the leaves and such, but that never happened. It's not a huge holiday for us to celebrate anyway. Samhain (Hallloween) on the other hand is huge for us. I'll post more on this as the time gets closer.

Tuesday was my meeting with the new Superintendent of our school system. I'll post a seperate post all about this one as it is long.

In Science this week, we begain a unit of hearing. We read a ton of books related to hearing, made a model of the ear and learned about the parts of the inner ear. We also did an experiment to show how we use our sense of hearing.

We never got around to doing history this week. We did no school work on Monday because my hubby had the day off, so we cut our day short, only doing math and english.

For English, Matt has been working on rhyming words, capitalization and punctuation. He also read a few stories in his readers and did a few pages in his workbooks about them. I fill in with lots of oral narrations. I plan on adding some spelling lessons next week. He has been reading a half a book + a day on his own. Well, I tell him he has to read for 30 minutes everyday, the book is his choice. Recently he has been reading the A to Z Mystery series.

Math was a struggle this week. We started a lesson on "greater than" and "less than" which totally confused him at first. It took 3 days before he started to understand it. I wish the Singapore books offered more practice before moving on to another topic. I know I can buy another book, but I don't wantto have to buy another book. I see myself either supplimenting a ton from various websites, or just switching to Saxon, which he did well in in the past. (He did the 1st grade book while in kindergarten).

Posted in Ponderings

The other day I posted about a odd bug I had seen in my yard and have gotten lots of replies and help identiflying it. I am very greatful because of that.

However, today I recieved an anonymous comment saying "How can you teach your children if you don't know that?".  

Just because I educate my children does not mean I know everything there is out there. Hell, even public and private school teachers don't know everything. I honestly had never seen this bug before so that is why I posted about it here to get some help from someone who might.

I know I shouldn't let a stupid little comment left to me rile me up so much, but I have had it. I get comments left to me alot here and over at Cafemom about my choice in education and faith. I am tired of letting this stuff roll off my back and say oh well. It bothers me and I am sick of it. I usually just delete the comment, but this one is staying.

To that person who left that comment to me, why are you anonymous? Afraid that a homeschool educator might be a better teacher than you? Scared that I actually might know something more than you? Or is it that your jealous of the fact that I am able to stay home and give my child a better education than his peers?

Sorry about the vent/rant post, but I really just needed to get it off my chest.

Posted in Nature Study

This past Thursday was the first Nature Study group meeting of the new school year. We all went to the Saugus Irn Works to learn about the different rocks and how iron was formed. The tour was very long (I had to leave after 2 hours), but enjoyable. There were some parts where the kids started to get a little restless, but overall, it was a fun time.

Here are some pictures I took of the buildings (which are all replicas) and the working mills.

Matt wants  to go back again to check the place out without a tour. Granted he can't touch anything. Everything works including the water wheels, bellows, furnace, and smith shop. We weren't able to catch the last building (where they stretch the iron out (the tour guide said it was like a huge pasta machine) because I had to get home and get ready for work. Best of all was it is all free.

Posted in Ponderings

Today was our homeschool group's first games day of the school year. Once a month the kids (mostly ages 8-14) get together and play games usually based on a theme. Sometimes it will be math games or geography games, today it was your favorite games. Of course all of our games are packed up and in storage, so we had nothing to bring to share.

Matt had not been to one in a year, so it took him awhile to warm up to the kids again. Towards the end of the time there,  he was acting like his normal self, running around chasing this one boy there that he has known for 3 years now. So hopefully next time Matt will be a bit less antisocial and actually play a game with someone instead of watching others play.

It was nice to see the other moms and to chat with them. There are two mom's there that live in my town and we were talking about how they got their phone calls to go in and see our new superintendent. I was saying that I did not get any notification and waswondering if I even would because I never got anything last year.

Well, I get home and I check the caller ID to see if there were any calls. I swear since I switched to Comcast, I get no phone calls from anyone except people looking for donations. So anyway, there is a number from my town there and so I call my voice mail box to get the message and it is the Superintendents assistant calling to set up a time for me to go in and talk about Matt's homeschooling plan.

She had called at 3:15. Normally I would have been home because games day ends at 3 and I live less than 5 minutes away from where it is being held. But I had to run to the grocery store to pick up some pasta sauce (eventually I will get around to canning my own this year) and missed the call. So, I mix up the meatballs and get them cooking in the oven and by this time it is 3:45. So, I call the Super's assistant and I get nothing. it was dead air. So I called again and again I got dead air, but when I said something to Matt, I all of a sudden get the woman's voice mail.

So, I leave a message saying that I am returning her phone call about homeschooling me son and for her to return my call. But, I told her she can only call me in the mornings because once noon hits, I am busy and I also work. Of course I made it sound like I work from noon on, but I don't work until 5:30pm.

So, tomorrow, I will probably be blogging about the phone call a little and then once after I see the super, I will blog about that. From what this one mom was saying, he is nice and like to chit chat alot. I also guess tehre are a total of 16 families homeschooling in my town. I only know of 4 other families and never herd of the others.

Posted in Nature Study

While I was out hanging my laundry, my neighbor came out to pick up her yard a little. We were chatting when she noticed this huge bug sitting on her fence post.

Anyone have any clue what bug this is?

Posted in School Year Stuff

This past week was a busy time for us. Between Matt getting use to a homeschool schedule and me startnig my seasonal work back up at CBD both last Monday.

Matt is loving the Pathway Readers and workbooks (although he hates to read with a passion) and the Climbing to Good English workbook. Both are short and sweet, but give him a good understanding of english.

In science, we are still learning about the eye in depth. We should finish it up in a couple of more lessons. I have science planned twice a week alternating between history.

In history, Matt learned about Archeology and we went on a archeology dig in our sandbox. I buried some objects that you can find today that might give clues to who we were if someone from our future was to find them. They were some pens and pencils, a pad of paper, a toy crab (to represent a real crab) and a toy car to show what our cars use to look like. Granted the car I used was a Bug from the 60's, but it worked. LOL

We also learned about the first nomads and how we learned about them. Matt made a cave painting out of a brown paper bag. I crinkled it up to represent the uneven surface of the rock walls used by the nomads.

This shows a man with a bow and arrows getting ready to shoot a deer.

Because I am still waiting for the fist workbook for our math curriculum (I could probably begin the books without the workbook, but I don't want to incase I ever have to show Matt's work to someone like a Superintendent), Matt and I are continuing with learning how to tell time with a non digital clock. He is doing quite well. I am loving the ebook that I got free sometime ago. You can find it here: Mammoth Math Clocks.

Well this pretty much sums up what we did for this past week. I'll be adding weekly update posts because I really don't have much time to do daily like I did last year.

Posted in School Year Stuff

Yesterday was our first day of school. I amnot new to homeschooling (I homeschooled my eldest for 3 years) but it is new for Matt. We are starting uot slow. Mostly because I don't have my order from Rainbow Resource yet, but I also don't want to give Matt too much to do all at once and make him hate homeschooling.

So, we started out the day with a little journal work. He did this in school and loved it. I have two books from the Draw Write Now series that we are using for the journal work. It takes care of the penmenship and art. It is more of a copywork lesson, but Matt loves it so far. He gave it two thumbs up.

 Here is the page after he was done with the picture.

I was actually surprised about how excited he was about doing the journal work. I figured it was the one thing he would complain about. But I was wrong. When I was going over what work we would be doing each day (I will do this again once we get the math and language arts books) he was going on and saying he wanted to do his journal now.

So yesterday we just did the journal, history and science. I told him that history will only be 3 days a week and science will be 2 days a week (the none history days).

Today we did another journal page and then hit the mall for lunch with a girlfriend of mine. When we got back, we did a Mammoth Math lesson on telling time. He has no clue how to tell time on a non digital clock, so while we wait for his Singapore Math to get here, we will learn about telling time.

After that, I dug out some Patternable pages and shapes and let him do them. He loves puzzles. These start out super easy and tell you what shape goes where, but then later on moves to one huge shape and you have to fit all of the different shapes into this one big shape. Kind of like tanagrams only with different shaped pieces.

LIke my chick backpack in the background? LOL

I warned Matt that next week starts the full day school. Well not full day, but a full schedule with math journal and language arts every day and alternating history and science.

Posted in School Year Planning Ideas

Here is what I have narrowed down for matt for this coming school year:

Math - Singapore Math 2A & 2B text and workbooks

History - Story of the World Volume 1 and the activity guide that goes along with it

Science - Child led with topics such as the Human Body, the Five Senses, Astronomy, and Animal Habitats. We are also part of our homeschool groups nature group.

Language Arts - Pathway Readers: Busy Times reader and workbook, More Busy Times reader and workbook, Climbing Higher reader and workbook, Climbing To Good English workbook. We will also be doing daily journaling.

It's not a big as the lists for Chantelle in her years at home, but Matt is only entering in the 2nd grade and not in middle school like she was. I want to keep it simple and enjoyable for him.

Posted in School Year Planning Ideas

With the first day of school for our towns public school coming up next Wednesday, hubby told me today that I can homeschool. I just have to go back to work part time for the winter at CBD. No biggie. We need the money to pay for oil anyway and if we happen to mvoe before then, then I don't have to go back to work.

Hubby also told methat if his older brother (who had a BIG problem homeschooling Chantelle the past 3 years) says anything, then to show him Chantelle's test scores from the past year. She scored in the above average range. Apparently this test also helped me with getting my hubby to agree with homeschooling Matt. He saw that not only did Chantelle learn something, she excelled and I did a good job.

So, tonight, I put together the final works to the curriculum for Matt this year. I have been doing the planning all summer long, just in case, so it wasn't to hard to finalize. I just need to place a small order with Rainbow Resource for Matt's math and Language Arts stuff, then we are allr eady to begin. I have history and science already here (I love science), so we can begin with those and then add in the math and language arts when we get them. I do have a cheep math workbook that Matt had been using over the summer for review, so we can finish that in the meantime.

I am so happy that he is going to be home!

Posted in Ponderings

My hubby drives a concrete truck for a living and he happened to be in the neighborhood one day a few weeks ago. Matt got to hang out in the cab for a little bit, asking questions about how everything works and if he could talk on the cb radio.

Posted in Ponderings

It has been one busy month. Between painting the inside of the house (outside is tomorrow) and with drama from Chantelle's grandmother, we have been busy.

Chantelle had been living with her gram and was planning on giving her custody of herself until last week. It seems that her gram has been blowing off enrolling Chantelle in the local high school (school starts next week for crying out loud) and she has also been denying Chantelle her much needed asthma medication. Gram claimes that it is because she can't afford the 50.00 in co-pays a month to pay for it (um hello I gave her 300.00 a month and she has Chantelle on her food stamps. Plus I bought Chantelle 300.00+ worth of school clothes and supplies). Gram also calls me once a month (always when Chantelle has PMS mind you) saying she can't handle her and that she is talking back to her. Chantelle is 14 after all and I know my mind doesn't work right during that time of the month either. This last time Chantelle had enough of all the crap her gram was saying to me about her and such.

So, now she is happily at my sisters and my sister has already gotten the ball rolling on enrolling her in school and heading to court for guardianship (she has to have it in order to enroll Chantelle in school in NH).

Now I have to figure out how to get transcripts for the 3 years I was homeschooling Chantelle. NH homeschool law is slightly different from ours here in MA. In NH, you have to have either a standarized test or a teacher evaluate a portfolio as an assesment. Here in MA it seems that each school district has a different means of evaluation. Some want nothing more than a report others want to see everything and I mean everything. I never got a letter from our super (who we report to) after our evaluation meetings and this year we have a new super (hope he is nice). So I'll have to make an appointment with him and show him everything and ask him to write a letter so I can bring it to the Manchester school department along with her standardized test score (she scored a 69 where 40 is passing!).

So, because I am having a little trouble getting Chantelle into school (I think it is mostly because it is a different school system in a different state), my hubby is a bit leary about me homeschooling Matt. He is on board and knows I can do it, it is just the part when we go to enrool him (the plan is to send him to middle and high school when we move to NH. Where he is only enterign the 2nd grade atm, we are way off right now). The middle and high school in the town we are looking to move to are excellent. I guess the school system gets a ton of money from the power plant in town.

Well, I am going to go for now. We went to the local farmers market and got a ton of blueberries (I ate almost half a pint on the way home LOL), early Mac apples, and cider donuts (Yummy!). I think I will go curl up and eat a donut now. LOL

Posted in Ponderings

I don't have any before pictures, but once like 5 years ago ther ewas nasty pink striped and flowered wallpaper. Then after I stripped it, it remained a blank wall covered in dings and cracks (and the art work of one little boy in my house).

These pictures show the during, which is after mudding and priming the walls and trim and the after with the base coat and color.

This took me months to strip and I found these wonderful details under 30 (yes 30) coats of paint.

Posted in Ponderings

Those who know me, know that Matt would not be caught dead reading anything other than a gaming manual. I went to Barnes & Nobles today to grab a book on harvest preserving and he picked out 4 books. Well we got home and he curled up on the sofa and read 6 chapters!!

Devil eyes! I forgot to turn on my red eye reducer on my camera hehe.

Posted in Nature Study

I found him as I was hopping in the shower last week. He got a nice hot shower. Last night, I found another in the tub when I was cleaning it out. They freak me out, yet it is a pretty cool looking bug.

Posted in Website of the Week

~~This will remain a sticky for a few weeks. Scroll down to see my new posts.~~

You are invited to 2 weeks of summer fun and savings at CurrClick's Back to the Beach Sale! From June 16th through June 30th, you'll find a huge selection of discounted summertime titles to choose from. Discounts up to 75% OFF! From beaches to The Beatles to biomes, from novel studies to dream diaries, you'll get unbeatable discounts on books and audio, sure to entertain and educate all through the summer - whether you're at the beach or in your own back yard!

Posted in Summer Fun School

Yesterday started out like the day before. Matt worked on his math and reading workbooks. We got a late start due to me not wanting to wake up, but once I got up we got down to things.

First up was creating a Pirate Color Book.

Matt was pretty sick of coloring once he got to the parrot.

While I was reading Chapter 2 on the New World Pirates inthe research guide, Matt was creating a book on "P" words.

Later on in the evening, after a bath, Matt went to work on his parrot. I put it together, but he did the rest.

~ Day 3 Plans ~

First up is to create a pirate ship out of two half gallon milk cartons. Me personally am using lemonade containers because they were cheeper than milk and I love lemonade.

Next is to create a pirate hat. Every pirate needs a hat. This is the first of the gear to make you look like a pirate.

While I read Chapter 3 on the Golden Age of Pirates in the pirate guide, Matt will color a pirate picture with monkeys as the pirates. Matt loves monkeys.

The final activity of the day is a pirate command game. This game is part of the Ahoy Matey! lapbook, but I plan on changing it a bit. We will play it as "Pirate Says", otherwise known as "Simon Says".

Stay tuned tomorrow for our day in review and our day 4 plans.

Check out my pirate theme store where you will find tons of books, movies, and toys all geared for the pirate lover in you!

All our lesson plans and links used can also be found here on our website.

Posted in Summer Fun School

We took an impromptu trip up to my sisters in NH, so no learning about pirates happened today. We will be doing day 2 tomorrow and will post about it after.

Posted in Summer Fun School

Our first day started out well. After breakfast, chores, and a little bit of playing on the Wii, we started out. Matt started with a little math and then phonics review. This will be done every day to insure he doesn't forget his skills over the summer.

First up was a reading of the poem "Pirate Story" by Robert Louis Stevenson. Then we made the mini book that went along with it. Matt's drawings were pretty cute.

After this Matt colored some bookmarks while I read about the first pirates. He loved hearing about the Greek pirates and the vikings.

And finally we made a couple of pirates. The patterns I used came with the Ahoy Matey! lapbook, but here is an alternative pattern for you to use.

~Day 2 Plans~

The first activity is to make a color book, pirate themed. It is a little young for Matt, but it is cute and easy for him to make.

While I continue reading the Magic Treehouse Guide Chapter 2 on the New World Pirates, Matt will create a "P" book. Again, this is a little young for Matt. (Matt also noticed that for lunch on day 1 he had pizza and pineapple and they both start with "P" like pirate does).

Final activity of the day is to create a parrot craft. The goal is for Matt to be decked out in full pirate gear by the end of all the lessons and he needs a Polly to go along with it.

Stay tuned tomorrow for our day in review and day 3 plans.

Check out my pirate theme store where you will find tons of books, movies, and toys all geared for the pirate lover in you!

All our lesson plans and links used can also be found here on our website.