Homestead Acres - Homeschool Blogger

Notebooking Sale!!

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:23:00 -0500

Many of us are busy organizing for the new school year. My little ones LOVE note/lapbooking. Notebooking Pages is having a wonderful sale right now. Don't miss out!

FREE Dinosaurs Lapbook!!

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:22:00 -0500

Check out CurrClicks freebie this week, Dinosaurs Learn 'N Folder. A awesome deal, normally 21.00!! Thank you CurrClick and Live & Learn Press!

NEW site! Lesson Pathways

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:21:00 -0500

I'm so excited to have found a wonderful website! I found out about this from a homeschooling forum. The site is Lesson Pathways and it's filled with wonderful lesson plans and resources. It is in the beta testing right now so the membership is FREE. So if your interested head on over and sign up for your free 12 month membership. I have already found a lot of useful plans for our family.

Our School Plans

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:19:00 -0500

I have been busy at planning our new school year. Our focus this year will be on geography and cultures. I've chosen Galloping the Globe (GTG) as our spine. I've really liked what I've read so far. Its a unit study approach and encourages notebooking. Many of the book suggestions are also Five in a Row (FIAR) books. Since we LOVE FIAR we will be using thoughts books when there is one for each country.

I will post soon a more detail plan for our year.

I have included a links carousel at the bottom of the post.

2nd Grade

Language Arts

First Language Lessons

Copy work
Natural Speller

Readers (Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers, Pathways)

Language activities from Five in a Row

History

Story of the World 1 with activity guide (we are about half way through this already)

Geography/Social Studies

Map time

Galloping the Globe

Five in a Row

Science

Science selections from GTG and FIAR.

Considering Gods Creation

Nature studies

Extra studies on botany, weather, animal kingdom

other interests

Art

Drawing with Children

FIAR suggestions

Composer and artist study for countries studied in GTG

Math

Math U See Beta

Supplemented with MEP and Mammoth Math as needed

Bible

Leading Little Ones to God

Language Arts

Teach Your Child to Read In 100 Easy Lessons (we have already started this)

Writing worksheets/copy work

Bob books

Math

Math U See Primer

Geography/Social Studies/Science/Art/Bible

Same as 2nd grade, adjusted for grade level

PreK

We will be making an ABC notebook (also for our K'er)

Also joins in for map time and Bible study

Lots of play and fun.

Toddler and Baby

Lots of play :-)

It's been a while

Sat, 1 Aug 2009 23:07:00 -0500

Boy I didn't realize how long it's been since I posted here! Life just gets busy...I have been posting more often on my other blogs. Over on homestead blogger and my website. Back in the winter my dh and I started making a homesteading series. This has been following us through the year showing how we get our gardens ready, plant, can etc. So that has been keeping my busy!

I'm in the middle of working out our school plans for this year. I'll be back to share more about that soon. It's getting really late here and I need to be up early.

Joyous Home ~ Making Seminars!

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 13:03:00 -0600

Jessica Munday and Theresa Powers, a mother-daughter team started Seasons at Home Magazine in hopes of sharing their love of homemaking. The print magazine has become a wonderful blessing to many women, including the publishers! The Joyous Home-Making conferences are meant to give women live interaction with us while we dig into the wonderful world of homemaking!

Join Theresa and Jessica live to learn about soap making. Learn basic embroidery and how to teach it to our daughters.

Jennie Chancey of Sense and Sensibility is teaching how to sew her Girl's Edwardian Apron!

Click HERE for more information or to buy your ticket!

Our weekend/ Homeschool shopping

Mon, 7 Jul 2008 21:49:00 -0500

We made it out to the Learning House homeschool store on Sat. I've been wanting to visit there for a long time now and since they were having their yearly yard sale it was the perfect time!

We arrived about mid morning and I found lots of great stuff on the clearance tables. I had to be strong LOL. I picked out the Five In A Row Holiday book and a human body activity booklet. Then went on to get the other things on my list. They had a nice play area set up for the kids and comfy chairs to. So dh was happy to sit and play with the kids while I looked around.

I made one change to my plans this year. I'm going to use the Exploring Creation with Botany with Botany instead of God's Design. I have been looking over the samples of them for a while and really liked it when I got to sit and peek through. I wont need to supplement it at all unless I want to. With the GD book I would have had to do all the lessons from supplemental books to fit my children's ages. And I love the project ideas, it fits in well with our notebooking/lapbooking love.

I also picked up the following that were on our list:

Christian Liberty Nature Reader 1
Bob Books #1
Leading Little ones to God
FIAR Christian supplement
Before FIAR
Canada My Country
Ecoutez! Parlez! Book/cd 1

I also picked out some of the story books for B4 FIAR that we needed and dh picked out a really nice story bible for dd6.

After we were finished there we walked down to the big craft show that was going on that weekend. It was huge! We had to be really strong there were so many nice things LOL. We did buy each of the girls a nice kerchief though as they all managed to forget their hats. We had a nice lunch and lessoned to some of the music playing.

Thinking about our School Year

Thu, 3 Jul 2008 21:38:00 -0500

Last week when we went shopping the library was having their annual book sale, it's by donation. I stopped to look and picked out a nice box of children's books! Some of them are for the Before Five in A Row and Five In A Row program we use. I was so excited about that! I also found some nice history story books.

We happened to be back in town a few days latter and they were still having the sale. So I just had to peek again. LOL I found another book to go with the B4FIAR and some nice children's farming books! I'm planning to do a farming unit this fall with the kids. The International Plowing Match will be in our area and we are planning an all day field trip there. Dh is really looking forward to that to. I also picked up some wonderful animal videos for the kids and some documentaries for us. Dh also picked out a encyclopedia set on natural history.

I'm hoping to get to a homeschool book store this weekend. My shopping list has been gone over and over..I'm still tweaking it. So far I'm thinking of getting this:

Christian Liberty Nature Readers 1 & 2
Bob Books #1
Leading Little ones to God
Canadian Colouring book
FIAR Christian supplement
Before FIAR
Canada My Country
Ecoutez! Parlez! (beginner French)

Our plans this year are:

2 year old.

I'm going to use B4FIAR with her at a slow pace. Should be fun!

4 year old PreK

Teach Your Child to Read 100 Easy Lessons
Bob Books
B4FIAR
FIAR
Leading Little Ones To God

6 year old, grade 1

FIAR
Math U See Beta
SOTW 1 (we started this last year and put it on hold for a bit)
God's Design for Science, The plant kingdom and human body
Leading Little Ones To God
Canada My Country
Nature Study
Copy Work
CL Nature Readers

DD6 and 4 will also be starting on some hand crafts, keep working on crochet and maybe simple sewing.

Canada Day Photos

Thu, 3 Jul 2008 21:37:00 -0500

Tuesday was Canada Day and despite the littles still being some what sick we had a nice day. Dh had some errands to do but after supper we took the kids for a walk at the park. They got to see all the animals (birds and deer) and play for a while.

Then we headed home and dh surprised them with a few fireworks! They LOVED it we'll have to get some more before summers over.

Little dd2 wasn't to sure about it!

Ultimate Homeschool Expo

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:15:00 -0500

Have you heard about the Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2008? It is an AMAZING online homeschool convention hosted by Cindy Rushton. I find many conventions in my area imposable to get to, either a family commitment comes up or they simply don't allow children to attend.

Have all the fun with out the long lines, expensive parking all at YOUR convenience!

You see one of the neat things about the Ultimate Homeschool Expo is that everything is ONLINE. Cindy builds a private, exclusive Membership Site that includes everything from the UHSE in one place--it has audios (from all of the sessions and from the bonus gifts that her speakers give to us), ebooks, complete unit study guides, articles, printable notebooking pages, cookbooks, on and on. I can't believe all of the things that we receive for only $40. It is truly ULTIMATE!

Since EVERYTHING is recorded and saved online it gives me the freedom to join in live if I can or download all the sessions and free gifts when it's convenient for me.

Cindy has given me permission to give you a sampler of one of her free gifts that is included on the Membership Site. I am so excited to share this with you! It is a audio and ebook set that she sells on her website, but she is giving away on the Membership Site. Here is the link:

A Quick Start for Notebooking Mini-Set!

Need ideas for encouraging your young writers and QUICK? Ready for a FUN way to encourage your most reluctant writer to write AND like it??? This fun-filled, hands-on workshop is one that you simply CANNOT miss!! Cindy Rushton, who has become known through the years as THE BINDER QUEEN, uses Notebooking for EVERYTHING! She will show you how to begin whether your child is a toddler or the most skeptical high schoolers. This workshop is sure to light a fire that will equip YOU to help your children deepen their studies and document learning all along the way! TOPICS FOR THIS WORKSHOP INCLUDE: Hey! Do I Have A Chance At This??; Why On Earth Notebook???; Down to the Nitty Gritty...WHAT Do I Need and HOW Do I Do It?; Step-by-Step Through Notebooking; Scrapbooking! YES! You CAN Have Fun Homeschooling; Hey? What is Legal? What All Goes Into A Notebook???; Developing FUN Studies That Teach and Inspire!!; Copywork...Answers to ALL of Your Questions; Taking the Writer From Reluctant to Researching; Ideas, Ideas, Ideas, There’s Gotta Be One for You; PLUS Much, Much More! PLUS! Cindy doesn't stop with the workshop, she also includes the Q/A Session after the workshop AND her handouts/samples of student notebooks. Awesome!

Let’s Try Notebooking Audio Mp3:
(Cindy's Workshop)
http://www.cindysdesktop.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/TALNotebookingPartOne.mp3

(Questions and Answers)
http://www.cindysdesktop.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/TALNotebookingPartTwo.mp3

Handouts:
http://www.cindyrushton.com/Ebooks/LetsTryNotebooking!.pdf

Samples of Student Notebooks:
http://www.cindyrushton.com/Ebooks/SamplesofStudentNotebooks.pdf

Isn't that WONDERFUL? And, just think...this is only ONE of the awesome gifts included on the Membership Site. There are hundreds more! Believe me you will love to join in. To get your ticket and more information click here:

Ultimate Homeschool Expo