Choose the song you like from my favorites and enjoy a new one each day.
There is new content every day the month of December.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 - Homeschool Memoirs- "Mom" Help
This week I’d like to invite you to share what YOUR “Mom” help is. Some drink coffee, soda, or chia-tea. Others check email or read their favourite blogs. Some talk a walk…. what do you do when you need to clear your head and take a breather?
There are a couple of things I like to do whenever I need to clear my head and take a breather. I am always encouraged and uplifted after reading God’s Word. When I have free time I love to read some of my blogger friend’s blogs. When I really need to wind down in the evening, I slip into my jammies and my fluffy bathrobe, settle onto the couch, and watch some of my favorite TV shows. With all the things going on in my life, watching TV just allows me not to think about anything and to just enjoy being entertained. Some of my favorite shows are Survivor, The Amazing Race and I love the old classics like Hogan’s Heroes, Dick Van Dyke, and I Love Lucy. A healthy dose of “Vitameatavegamin” cures what ails me.
Jeremiah 35:25- For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.
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Wednesday, November 5, 2008 - Homeschool Memoirs- Let's Play a Game!
Over the years we have used many games for learning tools. I have a cabinet full of wonderful games.
We have used the classic game of ‘Scrabble’ for spelling on several occasions, although not so much as a competitive game but for my kids to practice their word lists. I have them take their list of words and try to arrange the letter tiles on the board so that they form a crossword of them. They also get a kick out of using sidewalk chalk and writing their words as big as they can on the driveway. We have also incorporated spelling into basketball. I give them a word, they have to spell it correctly, and then they get to shoot to score a point. If they miss the hoop, they spell it again for another chance. They get to shoot until they score as long as they spell the word correctly.
Other classics that we love to play are ‘Monopoly’ and ‘Payday’. We have used them to strengthen math skills. We have also used a deck of cards to practice the multiplication tables. Each card is its face value with the jack, queen, and king as 11, 12, and 13 respectively. They flip over 2 cards then multiply them. If they are correct it goes into one pile; incorrect another. Then they shuffle the incorrect pile and go through the process again until all the cards are in the correct pile. We have used Dominos in a similar fashion. Larry Burkett's 'Money Matters' really helps them learn about budgeting. We also enjoy a good game of ‘Yahtzee!’ whose mathematical benefits are obvious.
For geography, which is one of my daughter’s favorite subjects, we play ‘Great States’. She also enjoys playing the computer classic, ‘Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?’ and ‘Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase through Time’ For history, we love Amy Pak's games that are part of her Time Travelers packs. Even when we have finished the units, we go back to play them.
For English, we have made up games using word tiles and played games similar to Scrabble, creating silly sentences. We have also used them to play what we call ‘Add a Word’ where they take turns adding words to come up with very long and crazy sentences. Because the tiles are color coded to the parts of speech, I have also written sentence patterns on the black board and they have to create sentences using those patterns.
For science, we have only a few games like ‘Somebody’ and ‘Amazing Animal Trivia Game’.
Games we play that provide and overall review and challenge are ‘Go to the Head of the Class ’, ‘Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader?’ and ‘Trivial Pursuit Junior’. We also play ‘Bible Challenge’ and ‘The Ungame’ to improve our knowledge of God’s word and to examine our relationships with Him.
After doing this assignment it makes me want to spend the day playing some of these wonderful games.
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Thursday, October 30, 2008 - Homeschool Memoirs- Timely Facts
I’m playing a bit of catch-up on the assignments, thus the reason for them being out of order. This was last week’s assignment for Homeschool Memoirs.
The time will be changing again. I think on Sunday but not sure. Anyhow this is our 10th Homeschool Memoirs so this week it’s going to be about 10 timely facts about you! Write 10 interesting, crazy, weird, fun facts about you! Include facts about you as a woman, a wife, a mommy, a homeschooler, a homekeeper, a taxi-driver, a cook, etc . I only put 10 facts because I didn’t want to overwhelm you, but you’re welcome to do more.
What don’t you know about me? This will be hard.
1. I am a cheerful early riser. I love my Bible-time and my decaf coffee (2 sugars and milk) in the morning.
2. I hate to cook but love to bake.
3. My husband and I went to Disney World for our honeymoon and about 5 years later went again for a second honeymoon. (I’ve been to Disney 4 times in my life)
4. My favorite board game is Scrabble, but living in a house of non-spellers, I have to play alone.
5. I love to go on walks and to the parks with my kids.
6. When I was 18 I tried to join the Air Force but because of kidney problems I wasn’t accepted.
7. I don’t mind doing the laundry, folding the clothes and sorting them, but I hate putting them away.
8. I definitely would rather clean the bathroom than do dishes.
9. I absolutely love homeschooling and get very excited when I talk about it and all its benefits.
10. Lastly, my husband and I have issues over driving. He’s a professional driver and we differ about directions and driving style whenever we are out together. So mostly I let him drive so we don’t have ‘discussions’ about it. lol
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Wednesday, October 29, 2008 - Homeschool Memoirs- Favorite Field Trip
This week I’d like to invite you to share your favourite field-trip that you’ve been able to go on since you’ve started homeschool. I’d encourage you to include photos, but you don’t have to.
My favorite field trip that we have taken was actually the first one we took about 5 years ago. We had gone to my sister’s wedding in Massachusetts. After the big day, we take a ride to Sturbridge Village. We had a wonderful time and the kids learned so much just experiencing colonial America. If you are ever near there I highly recommend a visit. I had gone several times as a young girl, but I think I had a better time exposing my children to living history and watching them as they participated in the various activities.
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Wednesday, October 15, 2008 - Homeschool Memoirs-The_______Family
This week’s theme is about your family. Don’t worry. I’m not going to make you write a long essay about all the great things your family does. Just something little diddy that I know everyone will have fun with!
Watch the youtube video below and then take this song and add your own words, about your family. The end of the first three lines should rhyme. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
The zoos we like to see-em
Exercising our freedom
Our Homeschool Family
Over Math that can be frightening
Saxon ‘s been enlightening
Our Homeschool Family
(Impressed)
(Progressed)
The Bible our foundation
School is a sensation
Our Homeschool Family
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Wednesday, October 8, 2008 - Homeschool Memoirs-Study Time
Back in February I posted about our classroom switch. Our new room has become our haven for learning. I’m reposting the pictures of the classroom for this post, but I must confess, it is definitely not that neat anymore. It has a lived-in-learned-in look to it now.
When it comes to studying, the kids prefer to do that in their bedrooms with the door closed. I have tried to ‘help’ them study but they do so much better on their own. Learning does take place all around our home and outside the house. The car really is one of my favorite ‘study’ spots. We listen to books on CDs. We stop the CD and discuss different aspects to the stories. I am always excited by their observations and the conversations that happen. I guess because there are fewer diversions the car makes a peaceful place for learning. No matter where we are is a perfect place for learning whenever we are together.
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Thursday, October 2, 2008 - Homeschool Memoirs-Snacks
Ah, snacking. That is always an issue here at our house. My children love to snack and we struggle with the control of it. The problem is that just about anything constitutes a ‘snack’ around here, whether it be the crunchy kind like chips or carrots, the sweet kind like cakes, pies, or fruit, or the kind leftover from last night’s dinner. My son loves peanut butter and will often grab a spoon, scoop some out of the jar and eat it up. My daughter loves apples and has taken to the philosophy that if an apple a day will keep the doctor away, two or more should prevent any trips to her office. Cereal is an option any time of day and ice cream doesn’t stand a chance around here. So when it comes to snacking, anything goes.
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - Homeschool Memoirs-Summer Photo Essay
This was a fun assignment that I probably spent too much time on, but I had a lot of fun creating these little collages with my free Paint.net program and found it really relaxed me. I also noticed that I have really slacked off taking pictures and have made a mental note to take more.
Our summer consisted of the usual all-American pastimes of ballgames, cookouts, fishing and camping, and just the everyday warm weather activities. We had a few interesting encounters with snakes and experienced the birth of kittens. My daughter learned all about horses while working on 2 Girl Scout badges with a neighbor and we all were blessed by a visit from my husband's sister. I thought it was a wonderful summer spending time doing the things we love.
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - Homeschool Memoirs-My Favorite Things...Er-Sites
This week we are doing something fun. We are to share some of our favorite sites from selected categories:
· Magazines/Carnivals - in print or online- The Old Schoolhouse
· Freebie sites - any sites that offer freebies or often have giveaways- Donna Young.org
· Homeschool news/informative- HSLDA· Forums/book clubs-
· Networking, Blog “About” (sites that offer tech-support or tutorials for computer/internet) & Quick Links-Dynamic Drive
· Mom site - a sites just for moms- Marmee Dear
· Inspirational/encouraging/motivational - Homeschoolblogger Just pick any blogger and you are bound to find down to earth inspiration, encouragement and motivation,
· Youth/kid - sites geared towards youth/kids or owned by them-Disney (My kids chose this one)
· Memes-Home School Memoirs and Blogger Friend School
· Organizing/crafts - sites that you look to for organizing tips or crafts- There are so many, but one of my favorites for the kids is Making Friends
· Homemaking/Homesteading- A Christian Home
· Bible-focused - sites mainly about God’s Word- Focus on the Family
· Homeschool Method - sites that offer a lot of info on a certain method- Simply Charlotte Mason
· Family blog - sites that give you a glimpse into another family’s life, run by a family- So many out there, but I think the following blogs really show what thier lives are about:
Hilltop Academy, My 4 Sweetums, Teacups in the Garden, Song of the Sagebrush, and Reviews By Heidi.
· Businesses, particularly homebased- Homeschool Boutique
Now you know my favorites list could go on and on, but I honestly can say that my all time favorite site really is HomeschoolBlogger. Where else could I have met so many wonderful people on line and God has used HSB to open so many doors in my life.
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - Homeschool Memoirs-Something New
This week we are asked to share something new we’re using, why we’ve decided to use it, and if we have used it, how we like it. Make sure to include the publishing information and where we got it from so others can look into it if they like.
We are using a few different things this year especially with my son entering high school.
Among other things we decided to use Write with the Best Volumes 1 & 2 as part of my son’s English course this year. This series by Jill J. Dixon really seems to fit my son well. Although he started struggling with the assignments, he has begun to figure it out and is doing a lot better. I love that she uses classic literature passages to teach the concepts. I bought this directly from the publisher when they were having a ‘ding and dent’ clearance.
I found Powerglide Spanish at a huge homeschooler’s tag sale this summer. I was looking for a fun language course. I had heard about this and thought I’d give it a shot. While I first found this program kind of hard to understand how it worked and how this method was going to teach the language, after only two weeks my son has picked up on many of the words and uses them correctly. I am very interested to see how much he will be retaining and actually be able to use. I know so many kids that take a language and only remember a few words.
I purchased the following from Rainbow Resources.Also as part of my son’s English course we are trying Design-a-Study’s Movies as Literature by Kathryn L. Stout. I think this is going to be an awesome course and really help my son dig deeper not only into the movies he watches but also will develop better analytical skills for when we have to do American and British Lit in the next few years.
U.S. History Power Basics is exactly what its name implies. We are using this as a skeleton for his history, that way we can still work together exploring historical topics together, but he still will have his required U.S. history.
There are a few other things that are new for us this year but these are the major changes.
Share your Homeschool Memoirs at the Homeschool Blog Awards site.
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