We recently purchased a brand-new resource to use in our homeschool this upcoming year.  It is called Animals in the Bible and is published by Piedmont Educational Services.

The set consists of a 40 minute DVD filled with interesting information and spiritual insights to be gained from the animals in the Bible.  It is a superb DVD and has been awarded The Best Children's Film and Best of the Festival Award at the Creation Arts Awards.

The study guide is a real gem.  There are 2-4 pages of information about each animal.  The information is presented in short segments making it easy to read and locate specific topics.  The book contains both scientific and historical information about the animals.  There is also a short activity such as a word search, code, or scrambled word for each animal.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the study guide is a resource page with helpful websites for each animal.  Included are sites for hands-on activites, free online games, lesson plans, toys and gifts, and additional info. The beginning of the study guide also has 2 pages on suggestions for using the study guide.  It has ideas for using the animal studies as a springboard for writing, history, geography, art, Bible, and science. This guide would be great for planning unit studies. 

The animals included in the DVD and study guide are:

• Ant
• Horse
• Lamb
• Eagle
• Snake
• Deer
• Fish
• Lion
• Dove
• Wolf
• Fox
• Quail
• Camel
• Donkey
• Dog

I'm excited about incorporating this book into our science studies this year alongside Apologia's Exploring Creation with Zoology 3 by Jeannie Fulbright.

I confess, I have always been scared of scrapbooking.  I was scared of the cost, the clutter, the mess, and the overwhelming variety of things to choose.  I have a hard time making decisions and the scrapbook aisles in Michael's make me hyperventhilate. 

So, when I heard of digital scrapbooking, I was a little more interested.  With digital scrapbooking you can eliminate the clutter, the mess, and most of the cost of traditional scrapbooking.  You still unfortunately have the overwhelming variety of options.  I downloaded free digital scrapbook software from here on scrapbookflair.com.  It's pretty nice software.  (Especially for free!)  They also have backgrounds, embellishments, design templates, and designer collections that all can be downloaded for FREE! 

I finally got around to trying it out over the weekend.  I was going to visit both of my grandmothers who live in Tennessee.  They have never been to our house and most likely will never get to visit here because of the distance and their health.  So, I made scrapbook pages of pictures of our house.  Here they are.  I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.  I think I may not be artistic enough for this hobby though. 

Wow!  I feel like summer is almost gone!  We are starting our Tapestry of Grace co-op on August 12.  By that time we're supposed to have completed the first 2 weeks!  Yikes.  I spent most of my free time this week preparing for the semi-annual consignment sale I participate in.  I priced a ton of stuff for this sale.  I hope that it does well.

This afternoon, I took some time organize my Grammar plan for school. (To see what I'm talking about you can read here.) I went through the table of contents and made a spreadsheet that matches the lessons in the textbook to the worksheets.  I filled in days for review and tests as well.  If my plan works, I will definitely spend a lot less time planning our grammar assignments. 

We have been using Rod and Staff's English Grammar textbooks for 3 years now and I really like them.  They are thorough, well-organized, with good explanations.  There are more exercises than I feel are really necessary for my children, but I have solved this by not assigning every question in each set.  Doing this took about 30 minutes each week as I planned the lessons for the week and entered each assignment in Homeschool Tracker.

For this upcoming year, we are going to begin using Tapestry of Grace (TOG).  Up to this point, I have tried a couple of writing programs half-heartedly, but mainly I've just had my children do the writing assignments in Rod and Staff.  However,  since next year I'm planning to use the writing assignments with TOG, some of the Rod and Staff assignments will be redundant.  Since I was unwilling to give up Rod and Staff for another grammar program, I first decided to just leave out all the writing assignments.  Then, as I started looking at the number of remaining assignments and the number of school days I had a brainstorm.  I have been purchasing the worksheet books, but rarely using them because there was enough practice in the texts.  For this school year I've decided I'm going to have my chidren read the lessons from the textbooks and ONLY do practice from the workbooks. By doing this we will only do grammar 3 times per week, freeing up more time in our day to do TOG reading assignments.  It will be less busy work for the kids, which they will appreciate, and it will greatly decrease the time I have to spend planning grammar, which is a good thing since I'm going to need it to plan TOG. I'm excited about trying this plan and am anxious to see how well it works.

I finally figured out at least one way to post my schedules here.  I converted my spreadsheets to images and then post just like pictures.

We're home from our wonderful vacation to Atlantic Beach, NC.  We had a fantastic time with fantastic weather.  I don't have time to post too much about it, but here are a few pictures of our trip.

I have finally come up with a schedule that we can give a shot for school in the fall.  There are still a few blank spaces but I think we'll just have to try it to see where the problem areas are. 

I have been enjoying our break.  I've done more organizing of my computer files.  I've been working on read aloud ideas.  I have done quite a bit of cleaning and am working on redecorating our living room.  Yesterday I painted some picture frames that were green, black.  My living room has now been stripped of all it's hunter green!  I can't say that I'm sad to see it go. I tried to work on our school schedule for the fall but got absolutely nowhere.  Maybe I'll have a brainstorm today.

It is interesting to me how differently my children handle their extra time.  My older son has done some reading and working on the computer.  He has illustrated a comic strip by hand and then converted it to a computer animation.  He created a notebook page for the play that our bookclub presented in May and set up a notebook for all his bookclub presentations.  He has played outside some and annoyed his sister and brother some too.  My older daughter has woven several potholders, drew, worked puzzles, played with Snap Circuits, played Rush Hour, read a lot, and played with her siblings.  My biggest concern is with my younger son.  He is the type of kid who would be happy watching TV or working on the computer all day long if I would let him.  I have forced him to be read to, which he did enjoy afer all.  He also has helped with the Snap Circuits and played outside some but I have a very hard time getting him interested in things.  I was planning to have reading lessons with him this summer but so far I think we've had 2!

We're all looking forward to our upcoming beach trip. 

I guess you could call me a "Binder Queen" wanna be.  Cindy Rushton has a book entitled Notebooking! Yes! You Can Be a Binder Queen Too!. 

I think to qualify as a Binder Queen the binders have to be full! I have been working on sorting, filing, and discarding our papers from this year. I have combined history and science from the last 4 years into 2 notebooks for ds. DD has one of each for the last 3 years.

I'm cleaning off bookshelves trying to be more ruthless about getting rid of old books that we don't need. For some reason I have a hard time getting rid of my chemical engineering textbooks. Why? What am I going to do with them in the next 10 years that I haven't done with them in the past 10? Why have I moved these things 4 times? I guess there is some part of me that says if I get rid of the books then I am definitely never going back to work. Like anyone would hire me now after 10 years out of the workforce. The really funny thing is that I have absolutely no desire to go back to work. My whole philosophy of working outside the home has completely shifted in the last 10 years. Anyway, if I homeschool all of my children through high school I have 16 more years to go! Does my reluctance to get rid of my textbooks demonstrate a lack of trust in the Lord for our future provision? I don't know.  I'm still pondering.

Woohoo!

We are finished!  To mark the end of the year, the kids each ran around the house the number of times for the grade they had just completed.  So ds ran around 4 times and dd 2 times.  The rest of us tried to keep cool.  It's 93 today!

I have added a school to-do list to my side-bar.  I'm sure I'll add other things as I think of them.  Knowing me, I'll add them after they're finished just so I get the pleasure of crossing it off.  I'm such a weirdo!

We're in our last week of school!  We have just a few things to finish up and then we will be taking a break for the rest of June.  I am planning a Physics (Forces and Motion) unit for July and we will be starting Tapestry of Grace Year 1 the first week in August.  I don't plan on adding everything else into the schedule until either the end of August or I may wait until after Labor Day. 

I've been busy doing some redecorating in the living room.  I've got so many projects to catch up on.  I'm planning to organize the art supplies, our homeschool supplies, and my closet.  I'm also going to catch up on my photo albums and make some more pillows for my living room.  We just reserved a week at the beach the week of June 21 too.  I'm looking forward from some time off from the usual school routine.

I got my box with my Tapestry of Grace Year 1 in it last Friday.  I am really excited.  I love it!  I am trying to go easy on it, but boy is it tough!  I have only opened Unit 1 so far.  I have looked through it trying to decide which books to buy.  I already had made a list of which books we owned, and which ones the library had.  It has been helpful for me to see exactly when and how the books are used. 

Yesterday I rediscovered some resources on my hard drive that will fit nicely with our studies next year.  First there is Great Ancient Egypt Projects, You Can Build Yourself which is available free at wowio.com.  I also have  Tools of the Ancient Greeks and Tools of the Ancient Romans.  I'm thinking of not purchasing any of the activity books since I have these and my co-op leader has Old Testament Days and Classical Kids.  I also found this Ancient History Copybook which has some great selections in it.  I may use it for dictation as well. 

On another topic, tomorrow is the first day of the NCHE conference.  More importantly, it's also my 15th wedding anniversary!  My husband and I have decided to forego the first evening of the conference in order to go out to dinner and a movie.  He is taking Friday off though so we will go and buy some books on Friday afternoon.  I really love shopping for homeschool books.  I look forward to it every year.

After I finish this I've got to go make a batch of strawberry freezer jam.  We bought 2 gallons on Saturday.  We had eaten/frozen all of those when my father-in-law brought me 4 more gallons today! So, I really should not be sitting here typing.

My family loves games.  I mean all of us, really love games.  If you want to see how much we love games, take a peek into our game cabinet. (It's not as neat as I would like it to be but...)

We have a family game night once a week. (Usually) So why have I not used our love of games in our homeschool?  I really don't know, but it seems that the idea of using games to teach has been coming at me from all directions in the last couple of weeks.

The first mention of games came through a yahoogroup.  It was an invitation to join a group called Games4Learning because they had just published a new game on their group called Globe Probe.  If you're interested in getting the game for free, then join the group here. After I joined the group I started looking at the files and found a really fun way to study state capitals: Capital Bowling.    The idea is to deal out 10 cards. Then go through the cards one at a time and see how many you get right.  If you get all 10, then you've bowled a strike.  If you get less then 10 (say 7), then deal out 3 cards to replace the ones you missed.  Try to answer those additional cards.  If you get them all right, then you've bowled a spare.  If not, just note the total correct and deal 10 more cards.   You score the game just like bowling.  I tried it with my kids with some state flash cards that we had and they absolutely loved it.  More importantly, they learned a lot more capitals.

Last week, we completed a lesson in Exploring Creation with Botany book on fruit. One of our assignments was, you guessed it, making a game.  Here are pictures of our game called Tooty Fruity (not our idea for a title, it was in the book and we liked it)

This is the board.

Here are the cards.

He doesn't look too thrilled, but he does like it.

We decided several months ago to use Tapestry of Grace Year 1 next year.  I am very excited about it.  I am going to be involved in a small co-op (5 families) meeting every other week.  We've never been in a co-op before so it will be a new experience for us.  The kids are excited about the prospect.  I hope to really have fun with TOG. I feel like we've just been going through the motions with Story of the World for the last 2 years.  I have been busy studying booklists and trying to make decisions about which books to purchase. I still haven't actually purchased my year plan.  I hopefully will do that over the weekend. I know that I'll really go nuts when I have it in hand, so it's probably best for me to finish up this year!

I did find several books for our year plan at our homeschool group used book sale today.  I got Usborne Beginners Egyptians, The Librarian Who Measured the Earth, Ancient Egypt Make it Work, and Black Ships Before Troy. I also found Miquon Red, Gizmos and Gadgets, and 7 paperback Thorton Burgess books. My grand total was $13.75. 

This week I gave my older son the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the CogAT.  We took 4 mornings, but we are DONE!  He did really well and for the most part had a great attitude about testing.  He typically likes testing better than actual school.  I guess because it's easy for him.  My older daughter watched my younger daughter while we tested and my younger son watched TV and worked on the computer.  I have promised no seatwork tomorrow, but I think we'll do some science instead.

I joined a yahoo group called Games4Learning.  They have some really nice games in their files.  I joined because of a new game they have posted call Globe Probe.  We may try playing it tomorrow as well.

Last Friday, our local homeschool group sponsored "Around the World Night".  This was the first year we participated.  We chose Madagascar for our country.  Here is a picture of our display.

Here are my kiddos in front of their board.

Here are a couple of other displays.

I didn't take as many pictures as I meant to. I got busy running my mouth.  We enjoyed the event and the kids learned a lot.  I think that if we participate next year, we'll try to bring food and items from the country.  My daughter also wished she was in costume.  At the time I felt good just managing to get our poster done.  Hopefully, next year they'll do more independent work on the project.

This morning when I peeked out the boys' window to check on our bird, she was gone and so were the eggs  I'm not sure when she left.  I don't remember for sure if I checked on her yesterday, but I know she was there on Saturday.  It has been raining all day so I haven't wanted to go outside to check for the eggs on the ground under the window. 

I was so excited Monday morning when I heard a flapping outside my boy's window.  I opened the shade to see...

Here is the male bring more nesting material.

Home sweet home.

Then Monday night.

Here is Mama Tuesday.