Another instant challenge for the week from Michelle at Delightful Learning. This time it was titled Boat Race. The kids were given certain materials for which they could look at for 2 minutes before having 8 minutes to build a boat that would race across the water as quickly as possible.
As before, I was not that creative on how to create a boat other than a folded paper one. Fortunately, the kids apparently got their Dad's analytical mind. Within 2 minutes they had a game plan and were ready to go. First, Jack-Jack went to the tub of water to see how the styrofoam cup would float best-upside down or right side up. Then the construction began.
Before 8 minutes were up they had their boat and were ready to test.
The boat raced across the water in the Sterilite tub in about a second. The big sail helped it move quickly as Violet blew on it. Dash' feet were inside the lines, but this was after they had already done it for the record and were trying to see if they could go faster.
I then suggested we jump on the floor and see if it would move without any blowing. Depending where we jumped, the boat moved in different directions. Then we left the boat in the water to see how long it would float. Late in the day, I finally dumped out the water as it looked like it would float a very long time.
The children thought this task was pretty easy. Once again they worked together well, without fighting or arguing about who did what. I am not sure if all materials needed to be used or not, but they did not need them all so I went ahead and marked them down 5 points for that. Doesn't seem that creative to just blow the boat across, but don't see many options with that. If there was a rubber band included, they could have wound it up.
Usually exercise DVDs move way too fast for my non-auditory mind to follow. The 30 minute Gymathtics Exploramania DVD moves at a pace we all can follow . It is enjoyable and a good little workout for us. Dash does not like it because he would rather use equipment at the YMCA than watch a DVD. Jack-Jack would rather run and play outside, but still likes Gymathtics. Violet hates to exercise-hmmm wonder where she got that? Playing football or walking is more her thing. Gymathtics was created by Carrie Scheiner and a fitness expert along with doctor supervision. The workout DVD was recognized as one of Dr. Toy's 100 Top Children's Products of 2009 and has received other awards.
Jack-Jack during the workout
Gymathtics has four parts.
*Shape Stretchers Warm-up has the children using trapezoid shapes, perpendicular lines etc. to stretch.
*Counting Calisthenics includes skip counting, evens, odds, prime numbers, and more for an aerobic workout.
*Pattern Power works out the muscles with push-ups and my favorite-Supermans.
*Well-Being Wind Down are cool down stretches with Carrie telling good habits to follow.
What I like:
*First three sections have great music with a James Bond or Charlie's Angels kind of sound.
*This is not a high impact workout that exhausts, but instead makes you feel good.
*Creative math component.
*Exercises are simple enough for all ages.
*Great for a rainy day to use some energy.
*This is not a Tae Bo workout. You can actually breathe with it :)
What I did not like:
*The last part had a New-Age kind of feel. It was not overly creepy or anything. Just left me wondering.
*Carrie has many good habits which she goes over with the children. However, she says to eat many small meals during the day, which I disagree with. Seems like that teaches eating between meals rather than having a solid meal.
I do think this is a fun workout DVD to do with children. It is geared for 2nd- 5th grade but all ages can participate. The next DVD, Gymathtics 2.0, introduces algebra concepts. These are not must have items for homeschool, but they would make a great Christmas gift that is actually useful. Though I received this through the TOS Review program, I may purchase the next DVD since it is for a little older child. Each one costs $24.99. You can see some still shots of the first DVD here.
Jack-Jack rolling up after cool down
www.exploramania.com has other products which may be of interest to you. The Thumballs look fun, especially Geometry 3-D which helps remember formulas. A math Yoga mat is also available, but I would not use that in my home.
AVKO-help for those concerned with teaching language arts or those challenged by learning disabilities
AVKO is a non-profit educational research foundation whose mission is to provide free and low-cost resources which will help achieve literacy despite learning challenges or dyslexia. They focus greatly on using word patterns for spelling and reading. For reviewing purposes, I was given a basic year's membership to the AVKO website. Some of the benefits are:
*25% off printed AVKO products
*mp3 workshop recordings of Dr. Don McCabe, creator of Sequential Spelling
*free e-books available for download
*various readings for comprehension
*instructional ideas
*AVKO newsletter with special discounts and resources
*answer keys for the Language Kits
The yearly basic membership costs $25. For $100, the Deluxe member has the above benefits plus is able to READ every book online except for Sequential Spelling and Engaging Language Kits. Deluxe members also receive 25% off any purchase.
Note: Sequential Spelling gives word patterns to use knowledge to build knowledge. For example, the first day's spelling may be "in, sin, pin, spin," etc. Then, the second day would have "sins, pins, spins," etc. "Inning, sinning, pinning, spinning, etc. would be added on the third day. This type of spelling practice really makes more sense than the spelling books I have used in the past. With just a few additions many more words could be learned each week than with the typical spelling curriculum.
For my membership, I found many useful resources. Dog quotations, "Tom Swifties", essay on the word "up", and puns are all at my fingertips to use as a dictation, copywork, or other Language Arts activity. So much to explore exists at AVKO. I did find some questionable puns and quotations which I would NEVER give my children. These really should be taken off the site as they center around a bar, hell, etc. However, many are quite funny so just look at them yourself and be choosy. Here was one in the Southern Speech article: And a true Southerner knows you don't scream obscenities at little old ladies who drive 30 MPH on the freeway. You just say,"Bless her heart" ... and go your own way. One little story is attributed to Bill Gates, but he did not write it. You could find many of these on the internet and maybe have even received some as email attachments. The AVKO site puts them all in one place and reminds you to think outside the box when teaching language arts. Keep those funny jokes and stories that come through your email to use in dictation exercises or grammar practice.
The e-books center around spelling and reading. They remind me of my college "Teaching of Reading" textbooks. Since I taught grades 1- 4 for 7 years, many of the e-books have not been useful to me. They also are so packed with information that it makes my eyes dizzy trying to read it all. Someone who is struggling in the teaching of reading and spelling or a parent who needs help reaching a dyslexic child or one with learning challenges would probably find this extremely helpful. Starting From Square One is a 316 page handwriting/keyboarding curriculum that teaches reading & spelling as the alphabet is being taught with all decodable words. This concept is very interesting to me, so I may modify it for my youngest.
Dr. McCabe also offers non-members many freebies at the AVKO website. These include teaching resources and articles, as well as helpful homeschooling links. Some titles are Syllabication Rules, Spill Chick, 50 Easiest Words to Spell, and What is Dyslexia? The top 100 homeschool links are great. I would encourage you to take a look around the AVKO website to see if this membership would be useful to you.
We tried our first Challenge today from Michelle over at Delightful Learning . The challenge was to build a bridge out of 52 cards that had to span 6 inches and stay within two 8 inch squares. It was supposed to take 5 minutes, but theirs took 8 minutes. After making the bridge, students were then to place weights on it. For every nail, they placed on it, they would get 5 points up to a maximum of 50 points.
They sat looking at the challenge for a few seconds, then "Dash" said, "Hey, remember folding up a card like a fan makes it much stronger." "Jack-Jack" started folding up the cards two times lengthwise then cut like a Lincoln Log. He and "Violet" worked on the base while "Dash" worked on the fan span itself. Cuts were made to hook the span together. The span was then wrapped with several cards and hooked together with cuts.
Once it was all assembled, they began putting some type of nail screw that Dad had in his tool cupboard. After 10, it was easy to see that this bridge was strong. Well done, guys!
It was then decided to see how many nail screws the bridge would actually hold. After 38 there was no more room for the screws. Because they took 8 minutes rather than 5, they did not receive 10 points, but received a score of 90 overall. I did not help them in any way. (I couldn't figure out how they were going to do it. haha) No bickering whatsoever was heard and I probably should give a few bonus points for the amount of nails they actually got on the bridge.
Please join us and Michelle each week as she provides us with another Instant Challenge
http://delightfullearning.blogspot.com/2009/11/up-for-challenge-instant-challenges.html
"Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people." -John Adams
"No man is entitled to the blessings of liberty unless he is vigilant in its preservation." -Gen. Douglas MacArthur
Too many young people today do not understand the privilege they have to live in this country. They cannot comprehend what are forefathers were fighting for because they have had freedom for so long. They do not know where we come from, so how do they know where we are going? The American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc. is promoting a FREE social studies/civics curriculum for grades K-12 developed by the Houston Independent School District. Obviously, this does not have a Christian slant. Many organizations have partnered with the American Heritage Education Foundation. Some of these include the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, American Federation of Teachers, Christian Law Association, Home Educators Resource Directory, National Flag Foundation, Clemson University, and Kentucky Department of Education. These organizations see the need for students to learn more about our heritage.
Elementary topics focus on "The Declaration of Independence", "George Washington", "Pledge of Allegiance", "The Statue of Liberty" and more. The Elementary lesson plans are also given in Spanish. Middle School topics include "Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor", "U.S. Constitution", "Our National Documents", and "What Is an American?". "The Mayflower Compact", "Federalist 47", "First Amendment", and "Entrepreneurs in History" are some of the High School topics. The American Heritage Education Foundation will allow you to order the CD with all the topics on it or you can download them directly. ALL FOR FREE! These studies are geared for schools, but can be adapted to the homeschool environment. Each lesson contains purpose, objective, theme, core knowledge or standards met, time for actual work, materials needed, and preparation necessary. Information is laid out with simple instructions for teaching. This is a curriculum that does not need hours of studying before the parent understands what to do. Texts for important United States documents are given so the parent does not need to search for them.
Some activities are worksheet activities and others are more creative in their use. For example, a lesson on The First Amendment has the high schooler make a collage of "the rights the First Amendment guarantees them." Another activity in that lesson is to "review court cases examining First Amendment freedoms." I use more of the creative activities. The Pledge of Allegiance lesson in the Elementary curriculum has a game where the words of the Pledge are cut out and the student puts them into the correct order. This would be perfect for a workbox activity. The Middle School lesson, Lives, Fortunes, Sacred Honor, teaches about our own South Carolina hero signer of the Declaration of Independence, Arthur Middleton. It has a crossword puzzle of various signers and an activity in which the student makes a life-size signer. When we studied this topic, we made berry ink and signed our "John Hancocks" on calling cards.
A homeschool parent could use this as a stand-alone civics class for all students. Combining ages and thinking up more activities should not be too difficult. It may not be as meaty as other curricula, but helps to teach important historical information in an easy-to-follow manner. I would recommend this especially since it is offered to us FREE. Anything you could use from this product would be a plus. I would pair this with other more Christian based information and quality books. Otherwise, I think much of this information could go in one ear and out the other. Take the time to learn more here. Here is the website: http://www.americanheritage.org
My friend, Brenda, introduced me to a great place to find ideas for use in studying just about anything. The popcorn link and chocolate link are where I am starting! Warning, if you start exploring you may forget about supper cooking in the oven. Enjoy.
November 4-Birthday of Will Rogers How about some Copywork?
Will Rogers was born today, November 4, 1879 . How about some copywork for the older kids using his quotations? Might be fun to put some of these up around the house.
"Ancient Rome decline because it had a Senate; now what's going to happen to us with both a Senate and a House?"
"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
"Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip."
"We don't know what we want, but we are ready to bite somebody to get it."
"You know everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects."
"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."
Nurse, Teacher, Miss America, Sales Clerk, and Occupational Therapist.Throughout my childhood, these were my careers of interest.As I worked my way through high school and college at our local Christian bookstore, sales was a definite possibility.However, since both parents were teachers and I seemed to always gravitate to educational activities by teaching in the children’s division of our local church by the age of 12 and grading for my high school math teacher, teaching became my choice.Taking an online career planning program was unnecessary for me, however, some young people would do well to spend some time strategizing their future.So many youth think more about money, rather than what job they will actually enjoy.Others enter college still not having a clue what to take.DISCOVER, ACT’s (Yes, the ACT that some take for a college entrance exam.) online career planning program will help them start planning NOW, long before college tuition needs to be paid.DISCOVER should
*Identify strengths and needs with various assessments.
*Build a plan based on their personal profile.
*Explore occupations, majors, and schools.
*Build an education plan that relates to career plans.
*Improve job-seeking skills and develop a resume.
Sounds intense, right?Fairly simple to navigate, DISCOVER begins with assessment inventories.The primary purpose of this early stage career planning is to give options.The Interest Inventory asks them to choose whether they like, dislike, or are indifferent to activities like “Studying biology”,“Composing or arranging music”, or “Build a picture frame”.Another asks them to rate themselves on their competency compared to others their age in“Your ability to help people feel at ease; to be courteous, pleasant, or informative; to remember names and faces.”No questioning “Do you want to be a nurse?” here.After the inventories are completed DISCOVER then shows the student interest areas of occupation in a “world of work map”.My son’s plan seemed to be very accurate, except for winemaking.LOLMy math-hating daughter’s was somewhat accurate except for when it encouraged her to try out fields of engineering.Then the student looks into their career fields and if this interesting to them, he puts it into a “My Favorites” section.He can click on the occupations in each field and “favorite” them, also.As each section is explored, the printable career portfolio begins to be built for the student.
Exploring the occupations, majors, and schools was fascinating.Many search options are given in each area.Colleges from all over the United States are listed with addresses, phone numbers, costs, offered majors, extracurricular activities, etc.I found out that the college they probably will attend requires a GPA of 3.41 and which high school classes are required. General information is given on many, many majors.General characteristics a person should have for success in the chosen major is listed.Studying the occupation section helps the student to see:
Work Tasks and Settings
Abilities Needed
Training Necessary
Salary, Size & Growth Possibilities
Other Characteristics Wanted
Hot Occupations show what jobs are the fastest growing, have the most openings, and give the highest salary.This was interesting to me because I knew many students who took English or History and then did not know which career to follow.Being able to see the fastest growing and most open careers seems like a great place to begin. I plan to have them print out any of their favorite occupations just as a reference point for their high school study.Starting to build the education plan NOW will help the student take high school classes in his interest areas.I have seen that my daughter needs to take all the creative classes that she can-Writing, Art, Web Design, but also many science classes and not just the required two of her chosen college.My son needs to read all he can on computers and take Accounting.
All this information is great, but what about the real purpose-finding a job?DISCOVER discusses job applications, interview skills, cover letters, resume building, internships or apprenticeships, and much more.Samples of resumes and cover letters are shown.
Another plus in this subscription is that a complete career planning curriculum guide of 260 pages can be downloaded for use in a co-op, classroom, or home situation.This is very much geared to a classroom, but could be adapted most easily to a co-op class for 8th grade and higher.I am not planning to go through the entire curriculum with my 8th graders, but there are some activities that I could use.
For a $19.95 3-month subscription or $24.95 6-month subscription, the student can gain valuable information which may save many dollars of tuition and time.Anyone in high-school needs some kind of career planning whether online or not.If this sounds like something your older student or you need, learn more at DISCOVERhttp://www.actadvantage.org
Michelle over at Delightful Learning is in the process of posting weekly challenges to encourage creative thinking and problem-solving skills. She invites you to join her each week at
The idea for this came from my desire to give my older kids a weekly challenge in their workboxes. A couple years ago, we had the opportunity to be onDestination Imagination (DI) team. The boys had fun, learned so much while participating and their team took first place at the state competition. The Instant Challenge is the heart of DI, and our favorite part of the experience. And I thought it would be a perfect addition to our workboxes.
I am really excited about this, and I think you will like it too. So I am inviting you to join us!
"Up for a Challenge?" will be a weekly meme designed to get students involved in critical thinking and creative problem solving by doing an Instant Challenge.
According to the DI website, Instant Challenges promote critical thinking, creativity and the ability to solve problems quickly.
Furthermore, IC's promote:
The ability to assess and use available materials in creative ways
A knack for improvisation
A collaboration of efforts
Their engineering skills
A flair for performance
Time-management strategies
Teamwork
Instant Challenges can be Performance-based, Task-based, or a combination of the two (called a hybrid challenge). For the purpose of this carnival, I will focus on task-based and hybrid challenges and give Performance-based challenges as an extra challenge from time to time (unless you are willing to video record your challenges, it can be harder to share performance challenges online).
Using the challenges at Instant Challenge Gold Mine, I will post a new instant challenge each week on Monday and then ask you to join us.
Each challenge uses common materials that you can find around the house, such as mailing labels, chenille sticks, straws, rubber bands, etc.
This looks like something my oldest son would enjoy doing from his workbox. I'll share with you in the next few days how it went.
ABC Teach is a website with a HUGE amount of ideas for use in your homeschool. Huge doesn't even explain it well enough. After receiving this to review for one month, I decided to purchase a yearly subscription. Let me share with you just a few things I found in a short amount of time today.
*Created my own word cards for Jack-Jack to use in reading. I chose the size of the letters, the font, and what colors to print on cardstock, rather than me hand printing them.
*Created word wall cards for autumn words that Jack-Jack will use when making words out of magnetic letters.
*Printed up a whole middle school unit on Pumpkins to give my 8th graders some "fun" learning. One of the ideas was to "Draw, label, and color a poster showing things pumpkins do when humans are not looking."
*Made a copywork page of the children's memory verse for the week.
*Printed a glyph. I didn't know what that was either. This one is a picture of a tree with a basket under it. It contains directions to follow based on each student. For example, if the child is a boy, he colors the leaves orange. If a girl, she colors them yellow. Another item tells them to draw apples in the basket relating to how many people are in their family.
*Printed clothing flashcards twice. One to cut out and pin on clothing items all over the house and the other to hand to Jack-Jack to go on a treasure hunt.
*Used a Reading Comprehension worksheet to tell the kids that it is pumpkin carving day.
I could have also created a crossword puzzle or bingo page for the older children. Or printed out some clip art or coloring pages. Or maybe designed my own math worksheet or word search. Or. . . .
Many of the items are definitely geared for 5th grade and under, but others can be adapted for older students and some items are for older students. Writing prompts are given which older children can use. Ideas are given for keeping the little ones busy while working with the upper graders. A search feature lets you find things for your own studies.
To use the member site for a year costs $40. Homeschool Co-op offered an even better deal earlier this year. Since many pages can be printed for free, sample just a little of their site and you may be hooked. Here is where you begin to explore. Don't say I didn't warn you. Workbox people beware. My mind is reeling with all the possibilities.
Take a day off regular school and play with pumpkins tomorrow. We don't do the scary pumpkin or Halloween thing because of the origins of Halloween. However, getting a pumpkin, taking out all the seeds and slimy pulp is a fun experience. Use this recipe to make a delicious and healthy snack or go to http://homecooking.about.com/od/vegetablerecipes/r/blv310.htm
Count how many seeds are in your pumpkin.
Draw a design on the pumpkin to cut out with Mom or Dad's help. Stick a candle in it and what a lovely autumn decoration you have.
Write a story about your pumpkin coming to life or about the life it had before you bought it.
Make pumpkin pie for a weekend dessert. It's easy enough for the kids to make.
My Access from Vantage Learning-Online Writing Curriculum
My Access Home Edition is a one-year subscription program costing $99.95 which allows up to three students ages 8-10, 11-14, or 15-18 to pick a topic in the areas of narrative, informative, and pursuasive essays. The parent is also able to add topics from their own studies under the My Topic section. After choosing a topic, the student begins writing and then submits the essay. After it is graded and returned, revision goals are listed. With each revision goal are explanations of how to carry out the goal within their own writing. The area needing the most improvement is listed first. Revision activities are also given which consist usually of a reading selection and related questions.
Granted, I was a little skeptical about an online writing program. How would their essays be graded? I am still not sure how technology does it, but somehow within seconds of my children submitting an essay, their work is returned with a score and improvement-needed areas. The score is a holistic score out of 6.0 and a percentage. Points are also given. A goal is set by the parent and when the point goal is reached a prize is given. For their prize, I chose to let each child choose a book from my reward box. The essay itself and the following areas are graded as below, proficient, or advanced: Focus
Content development
Organization
Language style
Conventions
Intellimetric grades the essay. Here is how My Access Parent's Guide explains the grading.
"What is IntelliMetric®? How does it work?
IntelliMetric® is an artificial intelligence scoring engine which emulates the scoring process carried
out by expert human scorers. It is trained with a set of previously scored essay responses
containing known scores for each score point. These essays are used as the basis for the system to
infer the rubric and the pooled judgments of the human scorers. IntelliMetric® internalizes the
characteristics of the responses associated with each score point and applies this intelligence in
subsequent scoring. The approach is consistent with the procedure underlying holistic scoring.
IntelliMetric® creates a unique solution for each stimulus or writing topic which is conceptually similar
to prompt-specific training for human scorers. For this reason, IntelliMetric® is able to achieve high
correlations with the scores of human readers.
How accurate is IntelliMetric®?
IntelliMetric® is about as accurate as an expert human scorer. How do we know this? One way
educators evaluate the accuracy of scoring is to look at how often two experts who independently
review a set of essays agree with each other on the scores that should be assigned. In most
controlled situations using a six-point scale, two experts will agree with each other within one point
about 95% of the time. When we look at how often IntelliMetric® scores agree with either of those
experts, we find that IntelliMetric™ typically agrees with either expert about 97% to 99% of the time."
Violet did have a problem where after polishing her work she wanted to revise it a fourth time, just to be sure it would be well-done. After submitting the very minor changes, her work was graded low even though she had scored high on every other submission. She has not done enough multiple submissions on one essay to see if this happens again. In consultation with the company, I found out that the artificial intelligence filters are set to "catch" problems which just minor changes can solve. This appears to be the problem with her low score. I was also told that just like in the real world, a writer does not have to take every recommendation. Dash and Violet complained that some of the topics were not that interesting and not what they enjoy writing about. I reminded them that school works that way sometimes. I also added some additional topics from our own studies and that pleased them.
Another helpful feature of My Access Home Edition is the ability to send progress reports to whoever the parent chooses. For example, a weekly report goes to myself, their dad, grandpa, and aunt. Since Grandpa and Aunt Erinn are former teachers, their input is valuable. The student can also send any essay to any email address they choose. Any essay can also be printed.
Many excellent writing curricula are available for homeschoolers. Because I received this for review, we will continue to use this program with topics from our own studies. I will also use teacher-directed writing assignments from other curricula. I like that this program allows the grading to be done by an impartial party and helps to improve areas of weakness for each child. A subscription for 6 children is also available.
Timelines are a way to visualize what happened in history and when. The "Amazing Bible Timeline" is different from the long, straight timelines you may have seen. This is a huge ( 37" high and 45" wide) circular timeline. It is on a shiny posterboard type of paper. We put it under clear vinyl on our dining room table.
The timeline is circular because it links all of civilization. For example, did you know the the 1st Olympics were held around Jonah's time? Or that Confucius taught just before Queen Esther's time? What a fabulous way to tie history together. This works as a reference tool for us.
You must study the timeline for a while because it is a little confusing. Many of the words are quite small, but we have had no trouble reading it. Three colors of yellow, bright pnk, and blue separate the nations by the three sons of Noah. Light pink shows some of the reformers and purplish pink the history of the Catholic church. An alphabetical listing of people of historical events is on both sides of the bottom of the timeline.
The time periods are based on Ussher's Chronology. Written in the 17th century, Ussher's Chronology is still considered to be quite accurate by Bible scholars. Obviously, with ancient history exact years are impossible to pinpoint. I do wonder at why they put in the 2nd Coming of Christ around the year 2000 AD. This must be from the belief that the duration of the earth would only be 6,000 years. If I were making this timeline, I would only put on what HAS happened in history, since the Bible does tell us, that no one knows the day or the hour of His 2nd Coming. They also have a Mormon version of this timeline.
The timeline costs $29.97plus US shipping/handling of $6.00. You will also receive a download of interactive maps of the Holy Land and a digital Amazing Bible Timeline. I received this for reviewing purposes. You can find out more about the Amazing Bible Timelinehere.
Sue Patrick Workbox System-Organization that really helps the day run smoothly
Even though I was an extremely organized teacher of a multi-grade classroom, keeping organized in my homeschool has proven to be more difficult. Then, I received an e-book download for reviewing purposes entitled, "Sue Patrick's Workbox System, A User's Guide". This has totally organized our school day. Not that my methods have changed, just the flow of our day.
Since this is a copyrighted item, Sue Patrick will not allow me to give you too much information, but I can tell you how we have used it. Sue designed this program for a particular purpose which works well for her and many other people. She has reasons for the way that each component of the program works. In our particular home, the system as been tweaked somewhat. This would probably not please her much, but I have found it to work wonderfully. Those of you that are homeschoolers know that tweaking is just something we do and that is one of the beauties of homeschooling. If you are just starting out with her system, I recommend doing just as she suggests as much as possible first, and then tweaking it to work within your own home. Her oldest child has autism and this helped him. However, ANY STUDENT MAY BENEFIT FROM THIS SYSTEM.
Because I have three children using the workbox system and because my husband would not like it, I did not use the workboxes she suggests. Instead, I got four 3-drawer units for each child and stacked them. They are 12 X 12 so will fit any textbook we use. I then put the three stacks against one of the window walls in our sunroom. Hubby loves them because they blend in well. I also purchased a couple of bins for some of the "on-your-own" time items. The setup looks like
On the top of the drawer units you will see a supply bag with crayons, glue, markers, scissors, and other essentials. Also, a holder for finished papers and my stack of The Old Schoolhoouse Homeschool Planner and items used in our group times. Library books and bins for games and other activities are on the floor beside the bins.
Each evening I spend approximately one hour filling the drawers with work for the next day. At first filling the drawers took several hours, but now I think throughout the week of various things that I want them to do and also photocopy ahead of time. Because we were on a trip yesterday, I filled the workboxes this morning taking only about 30 minutes. This time does include the record-keeping aspect of what they will do. Ta-da, those records that were so hard for me to talk myself into doing-done. I must emphasize how important filling workboxes the night before is. Do not put it off, just get it done!
What I really love about this system is all of the learning that is taking place and the ease of recordkeeping! I am amazed at how much the children get done in one day. My youngest son wakes up early each morning and runs to see what is in the workboxes. You see, not only workbook-type assignments are in the boxes, but games, exercising, an occasional edible treat, and more find their way into the boxes. Sue Patrick is a little more rigid than I am. She seems to run her schoolday more like regular school at home. Some of our subjects are done in this manner, but others are not. Sue Patrick also demands more quiet time during the school day than I do. The Workbox System method would also work well for someone who does unit studies.
My children seem to appreciate knowing just what is expected of them at the beginning of each day. Even our dog Broki likes the workboxes.
If you are at all interested in streamlining your homeschool organization I suggest visiting the Sue Patrick Workbox System. http://www.workboxsystem.com This interview may also help you understand her goals even better. A small sample of her e-book can be read which will also explain a little more of her philosophy. The whole book is more than 100 pages. The Resource section of the book helpful. With purchase, you also receive access to the members only section of her website that offers printables used in workboxing.
Watch this video to see how it works.
Her book costs $19 as a download and if all it does is jumpstart you to organize your school day and have your children accomplish more each day, then the purchase would be worth it. I have been using this for six weeks and love it. My kids get more accomplished and so do I!
"The Leak in the Dyke" by Phoebe Cary is a great poem for use during the study of prepositions. This poem tells the story of the little boy who put his finger in the leaking dyke to save his Dutch town from the sea flooding in. The older two crossed out all the prepositional phrases and watched out for infinitives.
Find the words here. A children's book telling the same story with illustrations which look very much like the famous Dutch painters of old-Vermeer, Van Eyck, and Rembrandt is The Boy Who Held Back the Sea by Thomas Locker.
Looking at the label of a shampoo bottle just about necessitates having a chemistry degree. What are we putting on our bodies? I have tried natural beauty and cleansing products before but have been disappointed in the results. Not this time!
I have fallen in love with Virginia Soaps & Scents, a company born out of a homeschooling project by the Spargur family. They launched the family-run business in June of 2008 and have been growing, growing, growing. For reviewing purposes, Virginia Soaps & Scents (VSS) sent me a package of yummy smelling soap bars, including a SHAMPOO BAR, and a package of make-your-own laundry detergent. Their soaps use all natural ingredients and are based with olive oil. The lather comes from coconut oil. The laundry detergent does contain lard for those who may have a problem using unclean animal products.
The soaps are $4.50 each or 3 for $12 or Buy 4, get 1 free, or 10 for $35.
The larger shampoo bars are $5.50 or 2 for $10.
The laundry soap packet which makes 2 gallons is $4.95 or six kits for $25
The Coconut Lemongrass and Fresh Orange soaps smell lovely, yet do not leave a lasting scent on your skin. Just a clean feeling was felt without the tightness or greasiness of some popular soaps on the market. When used on my face, the soap left my skin toned. It lathered well.
I let my sister try the Oatmeal/Milk/Honey bar as she fell in love with Oatmeal soap after we made her some for Christmas last year. Kerry loved the clean feeling her skin had after using the VSS Oatmeal soap. She also used it as a shampoo bar and felt that the soap clarified her hair. She did prefer our homemade oatmeal soap because it contained oatmeal pieces and she felt that was better for her facial cleansing routine.
The Ginger Lime Shampoo Bar is G-R-E-A-T! I am super picky about my shampoos. Most leave my hair greasy or tangled. After using the VSS shampoo bar, my hair was soft, smooth, and shiny. The way my hair has felt is convincing me that maybe I do not want to cut my hair, but let it stay long a while longer. For those that may wonder, a shampoo bar is a soap bar that you rub all over your head. After rubbing, lather away. Castor oil is used in the shampoo bar. After about a week of use, I began to feel more oily so switched back to my other shampoo for a couple days and then back to the shampoo bar. I have heard that a vinegar rinse may help if I have the greasy problem again. So far, no more problems. My daughter, an oily head, did not like the shampoo at all because her head still was greasy. I bought their special blend bar for oily hair, Tangerine Grapefruit. It worked better. She doesn't think the "ungreasiness" lasts as long as her regular shampoo.
My husband has been using Pumpkin Spice. He likes the smell and the fact that no chemicals are involved. He does not like that the bar does not "roll over his skin quickly." I had not noticed that. Some of the other scents I bought but am waiting until the holidays to try are Peppermint and Wild Bayberry. Imagine how wonderful my linen closet smells. I also am looking forward to trying out the all-in-one camping bar on our next trip.
Making the laundry soap was a breeze. As simple as boiling water and stirring. but would it remove camping filth?! Look at a before and after picture.
I did rewash it with Tide to see if there would be a difference, but couldn't see that any more had been cleaned. Are you impressed? I also used it on my towels and underwear loads. They smelled clean. No scents of any kind. With the homemade laundry soap, scooping it out is better otherwise it will plop out too much.
This was a fun review, a switch from the usual book work. I found a new company that I plan to continue purchasing from. Here is a photo of some I purchased. Aren't they pretty?
Their customer service is great. When I called and talked to the Mom of the production, Richelle, she let me know that all their soaps could be used as shampoo bars also. They may or may not work as well, but they are able to be used as shampoo.
Contact http://www.va-soaps.com or http://virginiasoapsandscents.com for more on their products. Or go straight to their site with this link.
If you have not gotten into geocaching yet, I would encourage you to give it a try. Geocaching is a modern day treasure hunt. The thrill of the hunt excites all ages, yes even grown-ups! What a fun way to spend time together and get a little exercise while exploring your surroundings. All you really need is a handheld GPS receiver. My husband got me a Garmin eTrex one for Christmas a few years ago for less than $100. Once you have a GPS receiver you log onto www.geocaching.com and put in a zip code to find all the the caches hiding in the vicinity of the zip code. Print off the coordinate sheet, put the coordinates into the GPS, load up the car, and head for fun. We have explored various parts of our city and cities we have vacationed to. Different types of caches exist. Some are merely a piece of paper for you to sign that is rolled into a film canister. Others have prizes for which you bring a trade item. Another is just one where you take a picture of yourself there and post to geocaching.com.
We have been geocaching for several years now and enjoy it. Receiving the Educaching curriculum has opened up a whole new world of possibilities. The idea behind Educaching is using the GPS system to help teach in a creative, fun way. The whole book sells for $32 electronic download or around $39 for the book including shipping. Section 1 describes GPS and fully explains how to set up the projects in this book. Basically, a teacher training section with starter activities. The next section has 20 lesson plans from beginner to advanced. Look here to find an interesting way to teach triangles using the GPS. We did some of these hunts, but then I also was inspired to make up my own. Worksheets or "Field Sheets" for each lesson are in the third section, followed by how to keep costs down for purchasing a GPS. This pertained more to an actual school purchase as each family really only needs one GPS. Beyond the Basics discussed student created hunts and podcaching (using audible clues). Listen to this sample of a podcache.
How we used this:
Let me tell you about three of the hunts we did. One was a variation of "On Average", the first hunt in the book. I hid various sized horse figures all around our yard. The kids then went searching for the hidden spots using the coordinates programmed into the receiver. As they found the five horses, they measured each one and averaged the length of the whole group.
The one con of this product for our family was found out during this hunt. Our yard is very wooded, so even though I could mark coordinates, when they went to find them, it worked at times and not at others. This is no fault of the curriculum, but wanted to make sure you know about that problem. The people at Educaching tell me that "this can be easily resolved. The high sensitivity feature is basic on most, if not all, manufacturers newer units. It provides users excellent reception under heavy tree canopy, or on a cloudy day. In fact, Garmin now only produces hand held receivers with this feature. It's like radios in cars. You can't buy a car off the lot without it. These units can be purchased direct from Garmin for $135, or from dealers like Amazon, which lists the Gamin eTrex H (h stands for high sensitivity) for $75." Since we have an older unit we will have to educache in more open areas.
I set up another hunt on my Dad's 35 acres based on "Which Tree is Which?" They have already been through a tree identification course, so I changed the goals of the #8 hunt to have them find 10 specific trees all marked by me on the GPS receiver. Once they found each tree they did a bark rubbing.
On our church camping trip, we hid Bible verses dealing with Creation all over and had the youth follow the GPS coordinates to find them. They enjoyed this more than simply reading out of a Bible.
This is best used by 4th graders and above, however my younger son enjoys it. It is easy to alter the assignments to something he can do. I next plan on doing "What Should I Wear to the Mall?" for a lesson on "listing all possible outcomes". A variation of this was "What Shall We Take on Our Picnic" which sounds like a blast, too. My eighth graders are going to set up an educache at our next co-op.
They suggest making a map of the area and marking where you put the geocaches. Believe me, even though you KNOW you will remember, just make a quick little map to remind you. You will be happy you did.
Adding spice to the school day is something I enjoy doing, even though I sometimes forget to do so. If this sounds like a curriculum you would enjoy, go to http://www.educaching.com or this website.
Imagine a classical music star playing in a D.C. Metro station incognito for 45 minutes. Only one person out of 1,097 recognized him, and only 7 stopped to listen. Without fail, children tried to stop but were pulled along by parents. One 3 year-old kept turning his head around to see Joshua Bell playing on his 3.5 million dollar violin. How amazing that children saw the beauty while others rushed by.
May I suggest playing beautiful classical music during your homeschool day? Not only does this help with peacefulness, but also improves brain function brain researchers have discovered. Some articles on that can be found here and here and here. Too many people comment on the boring sound of classical music, yet listen to the same beat for hours. I love ALL types of music, but have experimented with different music throughout my professional teaching career as well as teaching homeschool. Both calm religious music and classical music has by far contributed to more careful work being done and a peaceful atmosphere in the home.
Lori Seaborg is holding a contest for this Joshua Bell's CD "At Home with Friends" here. You can listen to selections from the CD at this Amazon link or buy it for yourself. Josh Groban, Kristen Chenowith, and Sting are just a few of the contributors to his album. Mr. Bell got the inspiration for this album from the house concerts he has in his home. Wouldn't they be great to attend? I haven't played music for quite some time now, so Lori has inspired me to begin again. Think we will start tomorrow off with one of my favorites, Mozart's 40th Symphony . Listen here.
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Ebooks. Just a couple of years ago, I did not have a clue what these were. But now, electronic books and papers fill up my 4 gig thumbdrive. Why? Because they can be stored and accessed easily. Electronic books are easy for a small company to produce because of no printing costs. This savings can be passed on to the customer. Guardian Angel Publishing eBooks are produced in PDF, FLIP, and HTML. They are just branching out to include books for an iPhone application called iKids. While waiting in the doctor's office, a child could read a book, use their finger to color a picture, etc. I see real potential for this product as a way to keep children calm in crowded areas.
Guardian Angel Publishing (GAP) produces approximately 100 electronic books in all areas of the curriculum. CDs and printable books are also available. For reviewing purposes GAP sent me the following books as PDF downloads: The Sum of Our Parts: No Bones About It . . . , Hamster Holidays, Maybe We Are Flamingoes, Rainbow Sheep, Andy and Spirit Go to the Fair, and Stubby's Destiny. Using different authors and illustrators, the books varied in their presentation just as print books would in a store. I printed these out to read to "Jack-Jack" rather than reading them from the computer. I just cannot give up holding a book in my hand as I read to my children. For this reason, I would have a hard time purchasing children's books as downloads or in cd form. However, the $5 pricetag and no shipping/handling costs help the budget conscious.
GAP's aim was to "lovingly create fun, affordable, and educational books." Some of their books contain study guides, recorded music, and crafting fun. Their website has FREEBIES andphotos of their book selections.
Maybe We are Flamingos is a story of two baby flamingos who feel bad because they look different from the other flamingos. They learn that what they eat helps them become the "correct" color. They begin drawing pictures of what they would look like if they ate broccoli and other foods. After we read the book, my son drew a picture of a fruity flamingo.
Hamster Holidays was a fun book to read while we were studying nouns and adjectives. Made-up holidays for each month with adjectives highlighted in red and nouns highlighted with blue were used. I did object to the October page since it listed monsters and ghosts. With any of these books I would carefully check their content or email GAP for more information if you are concerned. I found books with magic, Halloween, and other topics which go against my family's beliefs. Rainbow Sheep was a story that I would not read to my children, though the creative felt illustrations were great. I would love to see the felt illustrating another book.
The Sum of Our Parts: No Bones About It . . . was perfect for our anatomy study. This was more interesting to my 8th graders than to my younger son. A week later, my little man came in telling me he hurt his scapula so apparently he was listening. He enjoyed the rhyming nature of the book but didn't care much for the extra "factoids", though the older two did enjoy them.
Stubby's Destiny is the sweet story of the donkey who carried the King of Kings. Soft artwork is used for the illustrations. We have not yet read Andy and Spirit Go to the Fair because on Wednesday we are also going to the fair and wanted to save it for that special day. It is an encouraging story of overcoming disability.
Because I have a vast book collection and visit a huge used bookstore any time I go home to Tennessee, I probably would not buy too many books from this company even though they are only $5 for a download. CD and print books were around $10 plus shipping and handling. However, I do like that they are supportive of the "little guy" who has a dream to publish a children's book, but cannot because of the high costs involved. Some of their other titles sound intriguing and I plan to check them out . See what you think at http://www.guardianangelpublishing.com or click here.
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Dash' feet were inside the lines, but this was after they had already done it for the record and were trying to see if they could go faster.
Jack-Jack during the workout
Jack-Jack rolling up after cool down
Dash and Violet complained that some of the topics were not that interesting and not what they enjoy writing about. I reminded them that school works that way sometimes. I also added some additional topics from our own studies and that pleased them. 
I also am looking forward to trying out the all-in-one camping bar on our next trip.
