Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE! 

This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.

This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program.  Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking.  Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included!  For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports. 

So I'm thinking I should lower my goals to 52 pics posted this year.  lol  Oh well, here's my next set of pics. 

My creative quirky little Abs enjoying a ride to "God's house"

And Beans...

While we're on the subject of Beans and Abs, the two middles.....

I like to call this one "enemies, friends at last"

So here we are after two weeks off of school I must say it's been a slow go back into the groove.  We've taken this week to ease ourselves back into things.  A little reading, a little math.  Of course it doesn't help any that my school desk is covered in gifts and games from the holidays.  I just can't seem to find the motivation to clean it off.  Especially with a project on my needles.  It's hard to pull myself away from an unfinished project.    Here's one more pic, incase you're interested.

I'm sure you've seen the market bags that expand so you don't have to use plastic bags at the grocery store?? yeah, those ones.  Well this is a cotton version that I'm making up for Abs.  I'm thinking she can use it to carry her shoes and stuff for dance class. 

Anyhoo, if you happen to be a knitter or a crocheter, please say hi!  And if you haven't yet, head on over to www.ravelry.com and get an invite to join the site.  You'll drool for hours... no days...  well, I'm still drooling.  : )

well it's only day two and i'm already behind. lol  oh well, i do have two pics to post today though

Day 1

poor mags, she waited patiently to watch her barney movie but just couldn't hold out

Day 2

mom and mags enjoying a late night goody.  because at nanny's house you get to do just about anything

I'm pretty sure that 20-something years from now, when we're in our very last year of homeschooling with our very last child..... I'll still be switching curricula.    Just when I settle into something, I 'realize' that it's not cutting it.  Out goes this system or that workbook and the search is on for something new. 

So we've had this on-going language arts issue and it just hasn't gotten much better.  I was trudging on with Zi-bug and Sonlight's LA program.  I finally shelled out the $$ for Abs' grade too.  And 4 weeks later... what do I decide???  Heck, neither one are working for either of them so out they go.   Okay, so not 'out' out.  But on my table, in their binders, never to be opened again.  Ever.  I mean it.       Now before you start smacking me on the wrist for saying what I'm about to say..... let me assure you, I LOVE SONLIGHT!!!!  But that LA program?????  Oh.  My.  Cow!!!  It's the bane of my existence!  Yes I said bane.   Of my existence, yes!   It's like driving screws into my toes..... just having to think about doing a lesson from that program.    (incase you're lost, I can't stand Sonlight's LA program!)

So once again the search continued for something else.  And I think I'm on to something.    My children love, love, love workbooks.... specifically, their Horizons Math workbooks.  So I meandered over to Alpha Omega to take a look-see at what they might have to offer.  Then I remembered!    I've got some of this Lifepac business here somewhere?  Yeah, I know I do.... hafta dig......  (a few hours later)  Yep, found it.  So now, I've pulled our the grade 1 LA Lifepac business from ohh....... 1970-something!
But you know what?  The love it.  We've had a week of it now and they've learned more in this week that they have the past two months with that other crap! 

Then I got to thinking... right.  If this is so great for LA and for Math.... I wonder what it would do for our Bible lessons?  Or how about supplementing History?  And spelling?  And penmanship?  (you see where this is going, right?) 
But don't worry all you Sonlight folks... I haven't completely jumped ship.  I've worked out the plan for next year and this is how we're shaping up:

2008 – 2009

Zion and Abigail

Math: Horizons Math 2

Bible: Lifepac Bible 2

Science: Sonlight Science 2 (supplement w/ AO Science2, the ancient version, of course)

History: Sonlight Intro to world history, pt. 2 (Sonlight); (supplement w/ AO history2)

Lang. Arts: Horizons Phonics & Reading 2, Horizons Spelling, Horizons Penmanship 2 Grade 3 readers, wordly wise b (Zion) Grade 2 readers ETC 4, 5, 6 Wordly Wise A (Abby)

 Caleb

Math: Horizons Math K

Bible: Sonlight Bible Program C

Science: Sonlight Science C

History: Sonlight Intro to World:Cultures (C)

Lang. Arts: Horizons Phonics & Reading K, Sonlight C Readers

So this is the plan.  And figuring in only what I have to buy new, it's only gonna cost me $1145.75!  Not too bad for three kids! 

What about you?  Have you used AOP in the past?  Are you using it now?  Tell me what you think of it.  I'd LOVE some opinions on this.   

Talk soon.

Thought you might want to see my new topiaries for the holidays.... I was pretty happy with the way they turned out.  Though I wasn't able to make as many as I originally intended.

Instructions follow....

Supplies: 

• small clay pots (these were the 2" variety) if you want a bigger topiary, use a bigger pot too
• 2 1/2" styrofoam balls (1 and 1/2 for each pot)
• deep forest green natural excelsior moss
• sticks of bamboo, about 12" long (one for each topiary) or you can buy them in very long lengths and cut them down yourself if you have a saw to do it.
• small to medium flowers with about a 1" stem clipped off their bunches

These really are super, super easy.  My husband even made some. : )

When you are picking out your flowers make sure they have a bit of strength in the stems.  You don't wanna be wrappin' picks around all those puppies.  This is supposed to be easy not torture.  Get all your bunches and start clipping away.  Leave about 1" to 1 1/2"  so you can be confident they won't fall out of the styrofoam.  If you're unsure, leave extra rather than cutting too much.  More than likely your stems will have a wire in them.  You can cut this with a regular old pair of scissors and not cuss yourself every two minutes for pinching your hand, if you're careful.  All you have to do is give a little turn around the stem with the blades, then snap it off by hand.  This works soooo much better than squeezing with all your might, pinching your hand in the process and smacking your husband in the head with a renegade stem.  Trust me, he won't think it's as funny as you do.

Okie doke so now that your flowers are all cut I recommend just piling em all up in one big bunch.  Mix all the colors if you are using different flowers.  Grab a styrofoam ball and start poking.  Your first mistake will probably be putting your flowers too close together.  Leave about 1/2 to 3/4 inch between any two stems.  This will certainly depend on how much your bloom 'spread' too.  After you have done about 4 or 5 together in a section, hold it away from you a bit and see what you think.  This isn't rocket science ; you can tell if they need to be adjusted.  Just poke em in all over and leave a flower out at the bottom.

Next, take the other styrofoam balls and cut em in half with a steak knife.  Or whateve else you have.... a steak knife was the quickest thing for me.    Take one have and place it down into the pot.  Give it a good shove so you know it's not going anywhere.  Now grab one of those bamboo sticks and shove it right down the center of your pot.  Make sure you take a peek at it from the side so you know it's standing straight up and down.  You don't want your topiary lookin like it shoulda had a V8!   

Take the flower ball, find the bare spot you left and shove that puppy down into the bamboo stick. 

Now for the messy part.  Be sure you're not on carpet when you do this..... take some of that moss and start stuffing it in the pots.  I've found that to get this down, I just have to poke and jab until it's not all hanging out.  You could also try some sort of adhesive I suppose.  But I was too excited to think of that at the time. 

That's it, you're done!  Except for the other 9 or so you plan on making. 

This really is an easy project  that is great for kids since it doesn't require any hot glue.  Now I know some of you are thinking, "You mean to tell me that all them flowers are gonna stay without glue?"  Yep, that's what I'm telling ya.  I made a much larger one with about a 5" ball the exact same way and it's been fine for about 3 years now.  And this thing has been knocked over I don't know how many times! 

A hint for making it more kid friendly.... paint your styrofoam balls with a green spraypaint first.  That way if the kids leave a little too much room, no one will notice.    Happy crafting!

Wanna see more fun things you can do with your family this holiday season?  Hop on over to Lilliput Station for some great ideas and Christmas fun!

I get so many questions and comments about my coupon binder that I thought you might want to take a peek at it. 

Most people have a dozen excuses as to why they don't use coupons - it doesn't save them money, it's too time consuming, they buy things they don't need - yada yada yada.  But to someone who understands the value and proper use of these little paper scraps - couponing is serious business.

Having been a coupon queen for quite a while, I can't imagine anyone having a great reason for not doing it.  Everyone can save anywhere from $10 a week to $100's just with a little planning. 

Seeing as how planning is a major part of this frugal art I've decided to give you a peek at how I organize and store my coupons. 

Thus, my coupon binder....

Of course being in love with papercrafting I had to make my own rather than buy one.    This was just a plain chipboard binder that I covered with paper and embellished.  

I've used binder inserts for baseball cards to store the coupons.  I've also used larger pockets for the first page (see below) for easier access and page protectors for the store layout sheets.  On the inside cover is a pocket I made to hold my gift cards.  Another pocket to hold the current days reciepts and a lanyard for my ink pen is attached to the metal center.

I sort my coupons into categories:  baking, boxed foods and dry pastas, bread & cereals, canned foods, cleaning supplies, condiments, drinks, frozen foods, health & beauty, medicinal, misc., paper & plastic products, refrigerated foods, snacks

In the back I have a page protector for misc. rebate forms, one for Walgreens rebates, and a pocket for ads and other junk I tend to carry with me.  There's also some loose leaf paper in the back for handwriting lists.

I usually print my lists from www.grocerygame.com and www.couponmom.com .  These are excellent resources for getting the most out of your coupons with little effort. Some stores I do manage on my own though and handwritten lists are a must.

Anyhoo... just thought you'd like to know.  If you have any coupon tips or suggestions, leave a comment!  Happy couponing!

Do you like tuna?  Well I can't say I love it.  More like... it's tolerable.  While I recognize the goodness of omega-3s and such, I find it difficult to enjoy the vehicle by which I must attain it.  So here's my solution for transforming my tuna:

1/2 tbs. of mayo (cause 10 g. of fat/tbs. is insane! use the low fat variety)

about 1/2 tbs.  yellow mustard

and I'd say about 1/2 tsp. of spicy brown mustard... cause I like things 'spicy'

a dash of celery salt

and if you're feeling saucy throw in a few dashes of worcestershire

Stir, stir, stir.... stick it on some honey wheat and you've got yourself a high-protein, quick mom-sized lunch.  don't forget to munch some baby carrots and guzzle down your glass of water.

for another tuna transformation, use 1 tbs. of low-fat mayo, a hand full of grapes, halved and a chopped celery stick.... mmmm. it'll make yer tongue slap yer brain, as my mamie would say!

Well... it happened.  A day I never thought I'd see.  Nothing froze over, no barnyard creatures flew, not even a lead balloon was seen.  

We actually finished school before lunch today.  I know.  It was nothing short of a miracle.  The heavenly glow streamed in from the window.  An angelic choir could be heard in the near distance.     And then Abs took off running for the bathroom to wretch. 

Ok so while we did finish before lunch today it wasn't exactly the ideal school day.  (has anyone ever witnessed this phenomenon?  I'd love pictures)  Abs was ill so she didn't join us.  We didn't do math today and we've moved read alouds to the evening.   So minus a small handicap - we actually did it! 

After all the support and suggestions I've received from the wonderful homeschool community at yahoo, I'm beginning to see the light.  Maybe it wasn't really  accompanied by the angelic choir but to me.... it wasn't far off. 

In case you're wondering what's different, here's a run - down.

First, we moved the language arts to early morning.  Right after our Bible reading.  I think getting the worst over with first has allowed us all to look forward to everything we have left to do.  We KNOW it won't be that difficult. 

Second, as I said before, we've moved our read alouds to the evening hours.  This is a very nice and welcome change for me.  Padre loves to read to the kids in the evening. (Yay!  something I don't have to teach!)  Not only that, but he loves pulling out the maps and reference books to dig up some interesting fact about a subject.  He's great at this stuff with the kids.  Sunday evening, in fact, him and Zi-bug were in the floor with the markable map locating all the NFL teams.  And I know he's much more capable of teaching history than I.  I think this will be the most significant change.

The next change we implemented was to eliminate one subject a day and do a special project or activity in it's place.  We are now in the process of making a Charlotte's Web notebook and we're about to start working on some nursery rhymes projects too!  This change I am most excited about.  We love doing projects and crafts around here.  I think the kids are going to appreciate this one the most too.

Our organization is slowly coming together as well which allows for a much smoother flow to our days. 

This journey is much like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle for us.  Slowly but surely we add another peice... then another... and another... until finally an image begins to emerge.  While it's quite unrecognizable in the beginning and I often don't have a clue as to why this peice fits here or there, it only takes a little time til I begin to see the connection.    Thanks again to all the wise who've helped.

First off, thank you, thank you, thank you! for all the suggestions and comments!  It's funny how you can't see the obvious when it's two inches from your nose.  For example, my ds8 was absolutely hating this book we were reading and I was forcing him to read this awful boring book everyday... why?  Cause it's on the schedule.   As I was talking to a girlfriend last week, I was once again struck by the wisdom of distance when she suggested... "Just skip it."

Skip it?  Can I do that?   Duh!  Of course I can!  *smack myself in the head*

Here lately I've really been trying to stick to my schedules.   I'm such a disorganized mess and I'm really really trying NOT to be.  So my resolution this year has been to clean up my procrastinating act. 

But I'm beginning to think that I've stepped into a whole new realm of chaos.... the kind caused by schedules!! 

We are a Sonlight family and for those of you familiar with Sonlight, you'll get this better than others. 

I have an 8yo boy and a 6 yo girl who are doing Core 1.  Ds is doing LA2 while dd is doing LA1.  Other than that, everything is the same for them.  I'm also just starting out our ds that is 4yo.  He's doing a mish mash of things I've come up with.  No real schedule for him.  He joins us on the days he feels capable.  And the little bit, ds3, just hangs out and gets shushed alot. 

Seeing as how we haven't managed to get through an entire year worth of curriculum yet, I was hoping my 'schedules' would allow us to accomplish this.  Only.... I think I'm defeating my purpose. 

Trying to get through everything on the schedule is taking up all our time.  Maybe I should just make my own schedule?  Once again.... I think I'm just needing permission here.  Does anyone else have this issue?  I seem to always feel the need for approval in matters such as this!

I do love the idea of skipping one subject a day and doing our 'special' projects for that subject.  That is awesome and would really work well for us.  Tanks!  Keep em coming!

I've quickly discovered that this blog is going to obsess some of my daily minutes, if not hours, of thought.  I find my self looking off into oblivion and thinking "I'll have to blog about that and see what the others think".  So now I just have to get all these topics floating around in my brain down onto paper.... errr hard drive so I will remember what to write about. 

There is so much value in other homeschoolers' opinions.  It seems that no matter how satisfied I am with our homeschooling experience, someone comes along and introduces me to a new technique, project or concept.  And of course the first thing that pops into my head is 'we HAVE to try that!"

Well I've finally come to the realization that we are never going to work in everything I've said THAT phrase about.  But I do want to work in a few every now and then. 

Here's my dilemma:  We already have a full day of work in our schedule.  I mean full.  It goes something like this everyday:

7:30 - 9 am breakfast and chores

9 am - lunch :  Bible, History, Math

lunch - 2 or 3 pm:  Lang. Arts, Science, Read Alouds

2 or 3 pm - 4:  outside time, sometimes we end up doing our read alouds outside

4 - 5 pm: cooking and chores (kids get 20 minutes of tv, video game, and computer time)

We eat dinner, do a Worship time and then have about an hour or 2 before bed time.

I'm just not seeing where to work in all these wonderful ideas that are gathering virtual dust.  There are so many I literally peruse them every few months and catch myself saying, "oh I forgot all about that! we have to do that one soon!"

So any ideas on how to incorporate some fun projects into an already packed school day? 

I'm all ears.....

After much deliberation, padre and I decided to go ahead and start a new year of curriculum even though we still had a little ways to go in last years stuff.  It was just one of those things where I was burnt out, the kids were burnt out and we were all just ready to move on. 

The plan is this:  Begin the new work and use our 'leftover' books and worksheets for our evening and weekend fun time. 

Now we are 2 days into the new year and so far.... we're loving it!  It's amazing.  Zironi is asking to do his reading assignments - something that, last year, was a major bone of contention. 

Last year our handwriting and copywork assignments left a lot to be desired.  The kids were resistant to any decent amount of writing and I didn't force it.  This is something I was very worried about going into the new year.  After looking through the language arts curriculum, I knew they would be doing quite a bit more than they were before.   But, once again, I'm amazed that they have taken to it so eagerly. 

Some other changes.... we've begun a notebooking journey in several subjects.  These are our first encounters with notebooking though I've been reading on the subject for quite a while now.  I'm hoping this will be an interesting and engaging addition to our studies.  We just started reading Charlotte's Web and we are using the notebooking pages from the Notebooking Nook. 

Outdoor time is another area we have neglected and we're making a serious effort to enjoy the yard a bit more.  This is apart of our 'more work and play.... less tv and games' campaign we've been running at our house.  But more on that tomorrow.... I don't have the energy to go into it right now!  LOL

All in all, it looks like we're in for a very fun and challenging year.  I think we're all going to enjoy it.

"So.... you excited about getting back to school?"  We hear this question a lot around this time of year.  And my answer?  "Well, we never really stopped school.  We go year - round."   "Really?" comes the concerned reply....

Why does this seem to bother people? It's as if we have some dusty old lab (all black and grey, of course), chains around the kids' ankles attaching them permanently to their desks and no trespassing signs posted all over our property.  We're not Waco, people, just because we find it more convenient to learn all year long, rather than giving our brains a three month vacation. 

We have a great schedule.  It fits us perfectly.  We travel for a week at a time ever couple months.  We're off on holidays and most Fridays.  And we have plenty of time to schedule in our favorite outings like the zoo and numerous museums in the area.  We have a GREAT schedule. 

Now I'm sure for some people the brain hiatus is a welcomed event every year but for us... it just doesn't work.  I have no problem with you sleeping for three months straight, going to the pool everyday or globe-trotting the summer away.  Have at it!  But please don't look at me like I've just shaved my head and am about to drink the kool-aid when I tell you that we don't stop learning for the warm weather.  Just smile and say "that's nice"..... cause if you can't say something nice.... ah well, just come sit next to me then.