Home Grown Hearts

Math Mammoth

We were graciously given grade 2 light blue series, green series geometry, and 7th grade golden series to review.

I feel the same with the other series that we used. I like that there are no busy graphics, and that the instructions are easy to follow. The difference with these series and the Blue and Light Blue series is that the Green and Golden series are just worksheets. These are for reinforcement, practice or review...these aren't complete curriculums. But the neat thing about these series are that each workbook is broken into topics, with each page focusing on one topic. There are review pages, but for the most part each page concentrates on one concept. Making easy to assign work to the student. The cost for these series are very reasonable too: Geometry Green Series $7ea; Golden Series 7A $8 (includes cost of answer key) 7B $8.50 (includes cost of answer key).

KinderBach

Critical Thinking Co.

Deeper Roots

Looking for an indepth Bible study for your child? Check out Deeper Roots website http://www.deeperroots.com/ they have several different studies for grades 7th through 12th. The cost of these studies are reasonably priced, the teacher edition costs $28.95 and the student workbook goes for $19.95. They also offer other homeschool resources; such as videos, workbooks, regular reading books and more.

The curriculum we reviewed was "Discovering Our Amazing God" by Jan L. Harris and Howard & Bonnie Lisech. This Bible study is geared towards 7th through 9th grades. This curriculum is an indepth study of the Bible using exercises in scripture memory, journaling, questions and more.

This is a teacher taught curriculum, which is really the best way to have a child learn about the Bible because the parent should be the one to disciple your child and help them grow spiritually. A self-taught Bible study may not give the same results as a parent led one. The great thing about this curriculum is that it is well-laid out, with minimal teacher prep and to me, a mom homeschooling 6 kids, this is a REALLY great thing!

Discovering Our Amazing God also focuses on some of the less familiar Bible stories and events to give the student an new appreciation of our loving God. They use artwork, line drawings, different ways of answering questions, and suggested activities intermingled with inductive Bible study to keep the student refreshed, interested and motivated.

My daughter and I both enjoyed this study. There is a lot of writing assignments in this study so if you have a child with special needs or a child that is still transitioning from elementary grade work to jr/sr high you may want to adjust the curriculum to fit their needs (which isn't hard to do).

If you are looking for a more academic based study rather than a devotional type Bible study then check out Deeper Roots website. They also offer free samples for you to check out.

Spears Art Studio

Knowledge Quest's Homeschooling ABC's

Nativity Set by One2Believe

One 2 Believe nativity set

http://www.one2believe.com/

Ok, I’m embarrassed to admit it but when I first opened the shipping box for the nativity set I was confused. I mean I knew that I was going to be reviewing home school curriculum, but it never dawned on me that I would be receiving toys to review as well. So when I first opened the box, I wasn’t sure who it was from…I emailed, texted, and called whomever I thought may have sent us this wonderful toy. After discussing it with my husband, we both agreed that we would find out where it came from before opening up the toy….because with our luck it would have been a mistake and we would have had to send it back.

So for about two days my kids were begging me to open the box so they could play with it. I kept explaining to them that we had to wait for Daddy to give us the ‘ok’. They kept staring at the box and asking to play with it every time they came into the kitchen. And I had to keep it in the kitchen so I could keep my eye on it….no matter how secure they package toys these days you know my kids would have it opened in 2 seconds!  Well, I’ll tell you those were the hardest two days of begging that I have ever had to endure.

Finally, it hit me; ‘check out the TOS Crew message board’….maybe it is something you are supposed to review!! Boy, how dumb I felt when I saw the message about the Nativity set being sent to us. Guess that serves me right for not checking the message board every day.

So, as you can tell from my story above, the Nativity set by One 2 Believe was a HUGE hit in my household. My kids haven’t stopped playing with it since I took it out of the package. And durability…well, if you knew my kids you would know there are very few toys that can stand up to my kids…but so far this toy has, and just saying that is a lot. It’s not surprising to have a toy only last a day in this household….my kids are hard on toys, really hard on toys.

And as for price? Well, I checked out the website for One 2 Believe, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the prices are reasonable for their toys. So, you can be sure that I will be purchasing more toys from One 2 Believe in the future.

Homeschool Library Builder.....cool online store to check out.....

HOMESCHOOL LIBRARY BUILDER

http://www.hslibrarybuilder.com

HSLB is a unique online store. Unique, in that, not only do they carry new and used books, but some of those titles are out of print books...and the prices are very reasonable.There are many other wonderful features about this store. Not only do they sell books but they also have a: fundraising program, membership program, helping hand program...and much, much more.

You can search for books by several ways: by curricula companies (Beautiful feet, Five in a Row, Sonlight, tapestry of Grace and many more), by subject (science, history..etc), by region, byage, and alphabetically.

Also if you join to be a member (which is free) you can earn book points for purchases made, for referring a friend, and linking them to your site….15 book points is equal to $1 in your account to be used towards future purchases. I thought that was a pretty cool idea.

And what is even more exciting is that this month they are having a BIG BLOW OUT SALE!!!!!! They have bins marked at $1, $2, $3, and $5. You can find hundreds of books marked down from the regular prices. And you should check back often because they keep adding to the bins.

So hurry and go check out Homeschool Library Builder.....

Old Schoolhouse Magazine is having a Fall special....

First I just want to say that I really enjoy The Old Schoolhouse magazine. I have received other homeschool magazines but none really compare to TOS. I love the beautiful photos, the articles, and I even like the ads b/c I often find a new product to check out. I have found that TOS articles so much more informative than what other homeschool magazines offer. They often touch upon issues or topics that I have come across in my homeschooling. It's nice to read about other homeschoolers that have gone through similar experiences that you go through.

Ok enough from me, you really just want to hear about the special right? Right! Well, here it is:

I wanted to tell you all about The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's Fall Special. You can get two years of the magazine, 6 fabulous physical gifts (no downloads!) worth over $120, plus the current issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine that is full of ideas for the new school year, so you start receiving your magazine in a flash!

It really is one of their best deals ever and you don't want to miss out. In fact, they've got a really cute Homeschooling with Heart tote bag (valued at $13.95) for the first 1000 to subscribe. About half of them are gone, but you should still be able to get one if you hurry! (They will remove the info from the subscription page when the bags are all gone.) The total value is over $212, but you receive it all for only $39 - 50% off of cover price! Plus subscribers get their online monthly Teacher's Toolbox which focuses on a different topic each month, giving you words of encouragement, hands-on teaching ideas, book recommendations, field trip ideas, and a bonus download
item.

Well, there it is...pretty good deal don't you think? If you haven't signed up for a subscription before because of the cost, then this is the time to sign up. Plus, if you hurry and subscribe now you can even get the awesome heart tote bag for free!

Well, the weeks are going so-so.....

I was hoping to have initiated my complete schedule for school by now, but alas I have not been able to complete that task. There always seems to be something that comes up that throws a monkey wrench into our lives....family crisis, cyber school meetings, or plain old fun outings that I just can't pass up on.

So we have slacked off on some things (ok, I'll be honest on most things we have slacked off on) .

But hey, we did do some science the other week....completely unplanned. I was looking into putting together our science, and came across this site:  http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/index.html and the 'Naked eggs' experiment just intrigued me (come on, admit it, that intrigues you too ). So we did it. It was a two day experiment, so to keep the kids interested we also did the 'Bubble Bomb' experiment.....and boy, did the kids like that one! Especially my 11yo son, Jacob....it's an easy experiment, so he learned how to make it and now he does it all by himself. My husband was a little peeved because we now have white stuff all over our driveway, but no matter, it will come off with the next rain....hubby said it looks like a dinosaur sneezed on our driveway.   Ah, but that's what homeschooling is all about, isn't it? The freedom to do what we want when we want.

These past few weeks we have been traveling to some field trips (ok, so they weren't completely educational field trips, more like park days)...but on these trips my kids each have questioned me on several different topics......1) things about our car and driving 2) about the upcoming election 3) about the weather..etc So I guess I can feel good that these past few weeks weren't a complete waste. We have been having educational discussions along the way.

That's been our past few weeks in a nutshell....I promise I will get my full schedule up and running before the year is up.

The Schoolhouse planner by TOS....

Well, I have been trying out the planner that TOS (The Old School House) came out with and it's pretty amazing. There are TONS of forms to choose from; homeschool forms, household forms, chores, they even have recipes! There are also some nice articles written by well known homeschoolers like Janice Campbell, Kim Kautzer from WriteShop® Inc, and Amy Pak just to name a few. It's always nice to hear words of wisdom from seasoned homeschoolers! There are also some informational tidbits too...things on history, science, even math conversions (actually a kitchen cheat sheet...but as homeschoolers we count that as math right?!)

I especially like the feature that lets you type in information in the forms...that way you can just print it right out, instead of printing it and then handwriting it in...you can also save the information that you type into the form. One thing I would like to have been able to do is to change the headings of some of the lists. I liked the empty blocks on the forms, but I would have liked to been able to change the headings to fit my needs.

All-in-all, it's a really great program and has everything a homeschooling family needs to run their household.

Yay! Another week under our belts....

We have another week of hsing under our belts (we did take off for Labor day though).  Last week we did mostly the core subjects, this week I am adding in a couple of other subjects (Bible, manners, and History). I also made up these tri-fold boards for listing combined subjects. I made two boards, one for the older kids and one for the younger kids. It seemed to work out nicely for the younger kids (not sure about the older kids yet)....we did their core subjects and then went over all the things listed on the board. It was nice to have everything right there, instead of pulling out a bunch of books and such. I'll try to get pictures of them to let you see what I am talking about. Here are what we are using this year:

Kiera: Daily Sparks vocabulary words, Beautiful feet Early American and World History, copywork by Queens, BJUP geometry (not such a huge hit so we may be changing), money matters for teens, manners, Bible verses, and literature studies.

Kodi: Language Lessons by Queens, copywork by Queens, BJUP math 7, BF Early American and World History, money matters for teens, manners, Bible verses, and lit. studies.

Jacob: BJUP math 5, Language lessons by Queens, copywork by Queens, BF Early American History (primary), Bible verses.

Riley: Calvert curriculum, Speech therapy.

Piper: Language lessons by Queens, Early American History (primary), Bible verses, coin of the week, calendar work, BJUP math, and DoodleLoops.

I haven't picked out a science curriculum yet, but I have tons of stuff here at home from which to choose.

Next week we add in after school activities....swimming, dance, and gymnastics. So cross your fingers that I don't get burnt out too much. I do have to admit, that I am very blessed to have a wonderful Mother-in-law who helps out tremendously with these activities. So I can't complain too much about having too much to do.

The Old Schoolhouse DIGITAL Magazine .....

  I love The Old School House Magazine. The articles are always so informative, and the photos are beautiful. So when I heard that they were going digital I was very excited. 

 Not only does the digital magazine give you all the informative articles and gorgeous photos they always have had, they also offer many more new and fun features.

One feature that I really like is being able to click the links right there while you are reading. I don't know about you, but normally when I read a magazine I have to keep a piece of notepaper on hand to jot down all the interesting links that I come across. The problem I have is to remember to go back and look all those links up....and with 6 kids I often don't get around to checking out all those wonderful new sites.

Another feature I like about the digital magazine, is that you can enlarge the page that you are reading. For me, that is a big deal as I'm a newbie to using reading glasses. Oh, the pains of getting older. Not only are my eyes going but my memory as well, because I never remember to bring my glasses with me when I sit down to read. So being able to just click and enlarge the page is a very helpful feature for those, like me, who won't admit that they are getting older.

A feature that I think is especially nice is that TOS digital magazine is 'green'. No wasting trees to make it. At a time where we really need to take care of our environment, offering TOS in digital is a smart idea.

I could go on and on about all the neat features in TOS digital magazine, but I don't want to spoil the fun for you....you'll have to go see it for yourself!   TOS Digital

Here I go again.....

After a long hiatus, I am getting back in the saddle again with blogging. I have decided to cut back on our activities outside of the house, mostly due to the cost of gas but also because last year's homeschooling did not go as well as I hoped. I tried to do too much and so our schoolwork lacked because of it. So maybe the rising cost of gas and our financial struggles are actually a good thing?

Another incentive for me to blog is that I signed up to be part of a focus group for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  So my job will be to give reviews of products that I try and post them on my blog. I'm pretty excited to do this, so I hope you come back often to see what I have to say.

The Puppies are here!

Trying to get back into the groove....

Well, it has been a long past few months. We had a death in the family, an illness, and our beloved pet passed away. And then throw in the holidays fast approaching and you can guess that our homeschooling was intermittent at best. So of course my New year's resolution will be to get back on track......which will be a welcome resolution. We are very happy to get 2006 over and done with and are looking forward to a brand new year.

I think we will take a week or two off from formal studies so that I can re-organize my plans for the rest of the year.

One thing that will definitely throw a wrench into the works is that I decided that I miss having a dog around and we will be adding to our family one furry four-footed friend. So tomorrow we are heading to a rescue home that has 16 puppies that are looking for forever homes. No we aren't taking all 16 (although when I was a little girl I had always dreamed of taking in all the worlds' strays). We are contemplating getting two puppies....but I think starting with one and then later on down the road getting another, is a better plan.

I can tell you that getting a puppy (even a rescued one) is no easy task anymore. Finding a puppy is easy, finding a facility that will adopt to you is hard. Before you even fall in love with a puppy you have to make sure that the facility will adopt a puppy to you; some won't adopt to you if you have children under the age of 5yo, or if you live out of state, or if you don't have a fenced in yard...etc. Sure the SPCA is still pretty easy to get a pet from but even they ask you to fill out an application to adopt. And the cost for some facilities is almost as much as a purebred dog. I know that much of that cost helps to defray the cost of taking care of the animals.... but $250 bucks for a mixed breed dog that was given away? Wow.

Anyway,  hopefully we will find a puppy that will be a good fit for us......I really do miss our sweet Jasmin and I miss the companionship of a dog (I love my family, but having someone to talk to who won't talk back or tell your secrets is really a wonderful and therapeutic experience).

Plus I can count this towards our homeschooling too!!!  Always got homeschooling on my mind!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Our Travels to Niagara Falls.....

  This week we have been traveling around the Niagara Falls area. It is myself, my three oldest children (Kiera, Kodi, & Jacob), my father, and my two older sisters (Peg & Pat).

  We left on Sunday, stopped overnight in Sayre PA, and ended our travels at Amherst NY (which is about 20mins outside of Niagara Falls).

  On Monday; we stopped off at the Buffalo Bills stadium, and then at the QRS factory (we also tried to look for the American Kazoo factory but couldn't find it so we gave up). The QRS factory is where they make player piano music rolls. To this day they still use some of the old machines that they used almost one hundred years ago. They have updated some, by using computers to help make the scolls....but even the computers are antiquated (the computers are from the 80's).

  **I have to note here that my father planned many of our activities, making sure that we toured or saw something that each of my children would enjoy (hence visiting the Buffalo Bill's stadium....my son is a HUGE football fan).  What a sweet, thoughtful man my father is!!

  It was also my son's birthday, so every restaurant we have eaten at this week have given Jacob a special dessert and have sung happy birthday to him. 

  Tuesday: we went to the falls today. We took the 'Cave of Winds' tour...which is no longer toured through a cave (since it collapsed several years ago). That was a wonderful and VERY wet tour. This tour takes you right below Bridal Veil falls, along a wooden path.  Where you can stand right in the spray of the falls (called the hurricane deck).The falls are absolutely amazing! What a majestic wonder they are.   We also went to the tower. This is probably a 200ft high tower, with what looks to be an unfinished bridge over the river. At the bottom of the tower you can take another path to the other side of American falls. When looking up at American falls from this angle, it looms over you like a huge tidal wave. You almost feel as though it will come crashing down on you. On the other side of the tower is where you can take the 'Maid of the Mist' boat up to the falls. We toured the rest of the park area, which is absolutely beautiful. On our way back to the hotel we stopped at the Niagara Power facility. What a neat place. It has lots of displays that teach about electricity. They gave us a short demonstration on static electricity....I even got up on stage with Jacob and let them make my hair stand on end!

   **Note: Niagara Falls is made up of three falls...American, Bridal Veil, and Horseshoe. American and Bridal Veil are next to each other on the American side, with Bridal Veil being the smaller of the two (the pictuer above is of American and Bridal Veil). Horseshoe Falls is on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. 

  Wednesday: this was the day we went to the Canadian side of the falls. They also have a tour of the falls...theirs is called "Behind the Falls'. I have been battling a cold this week, so I decided not to get wet...so I sat out on this one. Kodi also decided not to take that tour and so we both wandered around the park area while everyone else was on the tour. On the Canadian side you can really get up close to the water rushing over the falls, and you can get a much better view of Horse Shoe Falls. It was such a beautiful site....the American side is awesome, because you really get an idea of how powerful the falls are (at the bottom) and on the Canadian side you get to see the beauty of all three; Horse Shoe Falls, American and Bridal Veil Falls. I highly recommend seeing both sides of Niagara Falls, but if you can't see both, either one will take your breath away.

  We also went to the Imax theater, which was showing a film on the history of the Falls.....I love Imax theater, it makes you feel as though you are right there experiencing all the excitement.

  Then we traveled back to the American side. We had planned on taking the Maid of the Mist on the Canadian side, but they were always packed with tourists and the American side wasn't....so we went to the American Maid of the Mist instead. Jacob was scared of the thought of riding a boat towards the falls, so I stayed behind with him. We waited at the tower.....braving the 30+ mph winds whipping across the tower observation deck. Everyone came back safe and sound.....loving every minute of the ride.

  Thursday: It rained all day...but luckily all the places we planned on going to were inside. We went back to the Canadian side again, but this was to see their butterfly conservancy. What a wonderful place! As soon as we walked in the room there were butterflies everywhere. Kiera had one land on her back, and later on one landed on Kodi's head! The flora was beautiful, and so were the thousands of butterflies fluttering around us. There were ones that were tiger striped, some that were spotted, and even some that had both spots and stripes. We then traveled to the American side after stopping at the duty free shop. There are so many stores to see on the Canadian side, but the prices are just a little over our heads. We went to the aquarium at Niagara, which is small but has a wonderful variety of aquatic animals to see. They also have seals, sea lions, and penguins. There are several displays to examine as well......shark jaws, sea lion skeleton, dissected displays of lobsters, questions and facts located on almost every wall. I really enjoyed the dissected sea creatures that they had on display.....they had dyed the organs and veins so you could really see them.  They had a lobster, crab, sea urchin, and a sea star. It really was a neat aquarium. With all the rain, and all the traveling we had already seen we were all pretty tired....so we had lunch and headed back to the hotel. On Friday we headed home, thankfully the rain had stopped.....and it was a lovely day for a long drive home.

We really loved our trip to Niagara Falls....and we hope to go back again some day. Next time we will bring the whole family. Because it really is a breath-taking sight to see, and I would love to share it with my husband and younger kids. And of course I want to take the Maid of the Mist ride!

In remembrance of the tragedy of September 11, 2001.....

This is in remembrance to those who lost their lives on September 11th 2001. I remember that day and still cry thinking about it.  

   My thoughts and prayers go out to the thousands of lives that were lost on that horrible day, and to their families.

   My thoughts and prayers also go out to the many men & women who fight for our freedoms each an every day, and to their families.

Thank you and God Bless you all.

photo courtesy of http://www.ace-clipart.com" class="textbody">Free
Clipart or Photos: www.ace-clipart.com>

I can't wait for Monday....did I really say that???

 It seems that our weekends are so crammed with stuff these days that I am happy when Monday comes around. I thought that as soon as we started back to our schooling that things would slow down.....boy was I wrong!

  Last weekend was the last of the picnics (I hope), but now we are heading into field trips, dance competitions, baby showers, daddy & mommy weekend getaways, and eventually football parties.

  This weekend we went to a Polish festival near my Dad's house....the kids had a blast! They went on tons of rides (my son is no longer allowed to go on spinning rides b/c he almost passed out from one), ate lots of wonderful foods (you ever hear of fried oreos??? We didn't either..... but now we are hooked!), and played lots of carnival games.

  Then on Sunday, my oldest daughter competed in a Feis (Irish Step dancing competition). She competed in four different steps and placed in three of them. She had thought that she didn't do so well in one of them. But we were all pleasantly surprised to find that she had taken home a first in it! She ended up taking home one 3rd place, and two first places. And again, we had tons of fun! Watching the other kids competing, listening to wonderful music, and eating lots of yummy food.

  Next weekend we have a shower to go to....then the following weekend my husband and I are going to go away with some friends. Then as soon as we get back from that trip I am heading out the door to Niagra Falls!! Three of my kids, along with my father, sisters, and myself are taking a field trip to Niagra falls for the week. We will be seeing both sides of the falls....I hope Canada is ready for us! LOL.

  In between all these trips we will still be involved with our homeschoolgroup activities, sport activities, boy & girl scouts, and the many other field trips that are planned during the week. 

I love homeschooling, and I am so thankful that we live in a country where we have the freedom to homeschool.

Another week done.....Woo-Hoo!!!

Ok, so this week wasn't as productive as the other three...but we still got done the basics. In our first week we did all our subjects, the other weeks we just did the basics (and some writing assignments). We even did a dissection of a worm! The worm dissection was ok...not as exciting as I hoped. But we did find a neat website that had some fun information about worms on it. I was hoping to find something like that for our grasshopper study but no such luck.

So sometime this week I have to get to the library to find books on grasshoppers....so we can get that study done. I also need to find some living books on Ancient civilizations. A few I need to find for our homeschool co-op, and some I just would like to have the kids read.

What my plans are for the upcoming weeks is to get more of our subjects done....we are ahead in math, LA, and writing; but a little behind in science & history. So I need to focus on those. And then I will add in the extra curricular things like sewing and cooking...but those shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Other than that, the first few weeks are going pretty well. I have Piper and Riley doing K work, about 2-3 times a week. That is strictly workbooks, they of course get lots of time on their computer games.....but shhhhh! don't tell them that those are educational games too!

Kiera is doing 8th grade work, Kodi is doing 5th, and Jacob is doing 3rd grade. We go to the store every Tues. to do our 'Grocery Cart Math'....which is a nice break from the everyday work. Another break we get is on Fridays, with a program we use called 'Cozy Grammar'. It is part dvd and part worksheet. It only takes about 20 mins to do....it is pretty basic, but the kids enjoy it and seem to understand it really well.

So, next week grasshopper study/dissection and ancient civilizations!