Feb. 8, 2009
Inspiration for a teacher's heart....
Posted in ideas in action
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This poem was shared in "The Homeschool Classroom" email I received and I wanted to share it and keep it in a place where I can refer to it. The blogger, Michelle from "Pass the Flu Bug Please," said it was a framed poem she had with no author's name. I think I may print it out in a nice font and put it on my fridge as a reminder: Teacher's Prayer
I want to teach my students how
To live this life on earth
To face its struggles and its strife
And to improve their worth.
Not just the lesson in a book
Or how the rivers flow
But, how to chose the proper path
Wherever they may go.
To understand eternal truth
And know right from wrong
And gather all the beauty of
A flower and a song.
For if I help the world to grow
In wisdom and in grace
Then I shall feel that I have won
And I have filled my place.
So I ask your guidance God
That I may do my part
For character and confidence
And happiness of heart.
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Dec. 21, 2008
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Posted in ideas in action
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I guess it should-- it's in four days! Today we made some ornaments and Christmas presents. Remember I posted about wanting to make ornaments to remember some of the topics we studied this year? Well we made a couple of them! Ana and I went to see The Nutcracker yesterday. Here's a picture of us and one of the stars, The Sugar Plum Fairy. (She wouldn't be in the picture without me.) |
Dec. 12, 2008
The Grinch, Max the Dog and Cindy Lou Who~ Hooray!
Posted in ideas in action
Lately I've been entering a bunch of contests on blogs because it's fun and I'd love to win something (and since funds are tighter than tight here, it's a great way to get "extras"). Well I actually won something! TC Moms was giving away a Dr. Seuss Grinch ornament and we won! Yay! I say "we" because the kids and I studied Dr. Seuss this fall, which is why I wanted to win it in the first place. So I wrote 2008 on the bottom so we will always remember the year we learned about Ted Geisel. This got me to thinking about making ornaments for the different studies we complete throughout the year. My husband and I used to collect ornaments from trips we went on, but we haven't gone on many trips that haven't been Renaissance faire-related in recent years. This will be a good way to celebrate our learning. This past year we studied The Iditarod, The Summer Olympics, Greek mythology, and Plants (among other things). Ana and I met a sled dog racer at the library this summer, so I could take a picture from that and put it on an ornament. We could make some rings for the Olympics. Greek mythology may be tougher, as we don't want to glorify any of their false gods. Maybe a pegasus or something from the Odyssey. Oh, and we studied dinosaurs too! I remember that Dinosaur World was just this spring. I think my daughter has a cute dinosaur toy we could hang on a ribbon and use as an ornament. The wheels are turning now... LOL! An ornament for plants is easy-- we collected acorns, pinecones, leaves... I can turn them into some kind of ornament. Now I just have to DO it! That's always the hard part for me. I always have LOTS of ideas.... One idea that I DID manage to put into action was to create a homemade advent countdown. I got the idea from dltk-kids.com. I just LOVE that site! If you haven't checked it out yet, what are you waiting for?  Additionally, we use the Adornaments from Family Life, which appear to no longer be available for purchase. That is sad because I think every Christian family should have something like these. Each ornament is a nicely drawn name of Jesus, complete with the Bible reference on it. The ornaments depict the following: a baby in a manager with Matt. 1:23, a door with John 10:9, a candle with John 8:12, a lamb with John 1:29, a lion with Rev. 5:5, a star with Rev. 22:16, a vine and grapes with John 15:5, a loaf of bread with John 6:35, a crown with I Tim. 6:15, a cross with I John 4:14-15, a pitcher of water with John 4:10, and a shepherd's staff with John 10:11.  Jesse looks up verses in the Bible to read aloud. Some of the verses the kids realized they knew from AWANA. That was exciting for them!  Ana puts the baby Jesus ornament on the tree, which we later moved up toward the middle so it wouldn't be knocked off so easily! I did end up getting a litte frustrated because they kept putting the ornaments on the same branches, close to the ends and if someone bumped the tree, three things fell off. However, I hope I was able to teach them better for next year...We enjoyed looking at ornaments we created last year at our homeschool group or at library events. There are photos of them as babies, as toddlers, and from last year. It was a nice trip down memory lane. And here they are with the finished tree.  |
Dec. 10, 2008
Here's a way we can earn money for our homeschool-- and you can help!
Posted in ideas in action
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I realize that many who read this will be homeschoolers and want to check this out for their own homeschool. Please do so! If you don't have a homeschool to support, please consider ours. Today I sent this to our family, posted it on my LiveJournal and on my Facebook. It's something that can help us and so I am going to try it. A friend of mine is already earning money for her homeschool! Hi family and friends!
As you probably know, we homeschool our children. Jesse is now 7 and in 2nd grade. Anastasia is almost 6 (next month!) and is in first grade. I was recently made aware of an awesome fund-raising opportunity for our homeschool. We are registered with My Homeschool Rewards, a site where you can purchase gift cards and magazine subscriptions, and a percentage of your purchase goes to our fund for curriculum! How wonderful is that?! My friend who told me about the site said she buys Jewel (grocery store) cards and uses them herself, which earns her school money! So even if you don't need a gift for someone else, you could buy yourself a card for something you're already going to spend the money on and help our homeschool in the process. Every little bit helps! There are even gas station and pharmacy gift cards you can get. If you're looking for something fun, there are Blockbuster cards, movie theatres, and more. And don't forget those magazine subscriptions! Here's some information from the site: How it Works * Purchase gift cards through MyHomeschoolRewards.com, auto-order, or phone. * With each purchase, we'll add a donation to your account. * Gift card orders are shipped directly to your home. * Your earnings are tracked and a check for the amount earned will be issued directly to you each quarter. Be smart with your money. Use gift cards for all of your gas, groceries, entertainment, and restaurants -- the donations really add up! Important Note: The cash back is provided by MyHomeschoolRewards.com, not from a reduction of the gift card value. You spend the full value of the gift cards, just like cash. The gift cards we offer are the same gift cards that you would purchase at the store with one important exception: only MyHomeschoolRewards.com gives you cash back on every purchase! Here's the site: http://myhomeschoolrewards Thanks for considering supporting us in this way.  Here are the kids on our recent field trip to Chicago Botanic Gardens to collect leaves and study plants for science.
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Dec. 3, 2008
More holiday fun!!
Posted in ideas in action
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I found some wonderful free resources for teaching this Christmas. Today, we started "The Names of Jesus" study, which is free to download here. It is 149 pages and has a name each day. Day one is The Alpha and the Omega. Each day has possible activities to extend the lesson. So for the first day, we talked about how a circle has no beginning or end, copied the Greek letters for Alpha and Omega, copied the "chi ro" symbol for this name and wrote it as a note to Grandma, copied Rev. 22:13, one of the verses where this name is mentioned... And there were still more activity ideas that we did NOT do! There are cooking ideas, history ideas, science ideas, word searches, coloring pages, notebooking pages. What a great resource! I actually would PAY for something like this, but thankfully it is free. Another resource we are going to use is a Symbols of Christmas lapbook (we may incorporate the two, such as writing the names of Christ on the lapbook as well). It is free and is available here. If lapbooks aren't your thing, there is a Christmas Symbols Unit Study here (which is what you use with the lapbook anyway). There are some advent coloring sheets for free at dltk-kids.com. Here is the exact link. I am using these for the MOPS kids class I teach. And if you want to try a Jesse tree (something I always say I'm going to do but have yet to accomplish), here is a link for information, pictures, etc. I also mentioned The Advent Book in a previous post. I love this book and cannot say enough about it. I feel so blessed to have received it as a gift. We use it each year. A new addition this year is the Usborne Advent Nativity Book. It has sturdy, punch-out pieces, one for each day to add to your nativitry scene in the days leading up to Christmas. I am holding off on punching them out until after I use it for the MOPS kids on Friday morning. Then the kids can have at it! You can get the book from an Usborne consultant. If you don't have one, the youth pastor's wife at my church sells them. You can contact her here. You can even place an order online and have it shipped directly to you! (And no, I don't get anything from this; she's just a friend and I want to help her.) Merry Homeschool Christmas!!! |
Oct. 9, 2008
Presidents and Movies, Presidents and Horses....
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For our monthly HOUSE meeting, the kids were supposed to do a report of some sort on a president of the US. My son (7) did Presidents and Movies. My daughter (5) did Presidents and Horses. We made them into basic lapbooks and I posted photos here. Lapbook Lessons is a great site to check out if you like to do lapbooks! (Even basic ones like us! LOL!) |
Sep. 21, 2008
My very own Lego Maniac
Posted in ideas in action
So at least we got something done while we watched the game. In an effort to make it easier for Jesse to make his Lego creations, he said he would like to separate them by color, etc, as the "Lego Master" Nathan Sawaya does (we saw him a couple of summers ago building Lego sculptures at Rockford Children's Museum. So here's what we did: The categories are black, white and grey in the top left; green; blue; Bionicle pieces; K'nex; yellow; red; "special" pieces, such as Lego people, windows, doors, etc.These bins will go on a rack in the kids' bedroom. I've added a small desk for building on and displaying creations. Maybe we'll have some creations to show you later on. : ) |
Aug. 31, 2008
Homeschool yearbooks in 3-ring binders
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I am getting ready to start the new "school year" with the kids, which I decided to do based on the yearbook idea from this blog post. I will take their photographs for this yearbook on Sept. 2, our first "official" day (though we learn year-round), the day after Labor Day. It makes for a good benchmark to review their progress and to see their likes based on their answers to this sheet I made (which may not be fancy but it's my version of something I read about on the original blog post) to be used each school year: Name________________________________________________________________________________ Grade________________________ Age_____________________ Favorites: Color________________________________________________________________________________ Animal_______________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ In addition to this, I've been clearing out unused items, getting some lessons ready (but still too much I haven't done). Tomorrow we are going to attempt to complete our study of the Olympics, which includes putting together our lapbook. We did some of it yesterday. It was neat to see the kids copy Chinese writing to write their names. They designed their own emblems for hosting the Olympics (maybe Chicago could use one in 2016! I hope!). |