Moments with a Montana Mom. Using Real Life and the Charlotte Mason Method with a good dose of Notebooking thrown in for Good Measure. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:56:00 -0500 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:56:00 -0500   I wanted to share a website with ya'll</span> that my sister had told me about last year. I signed up then for their newsletter and visited their site a few times over the last year. It was not until a few months back I started to think about this site again and I went back and bought their E Book, Food Storage Made Easy. With things being the way things are right now in this country I started thinking about food storage for emergencies. When we lived in Florida every hurricane season would would make our supply boxes and buy our batteries etc. but this girls take it to a whole other level. THEY know their stuff. God forbid our economy collapses or we are hit with another terrorist attack but being prepared is not a bad idea. The girls help you set up a 72 hr. kit,a car kit and then a longer supply of food but not just canned meat and crackers they have recipes and all sorts of ideas to help you through an emergency and they break it down to just add a little bit to your budget each week. They also give you ideas of where to store your supplies especially if you do not have a lot of space. I have started on my plan and wanted to share it,hopefully we will never need it. Keep the Faith, Marie http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/698545/ Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:56:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/698545/  How  are you planning to honor your dad or husband this Father's Day. Why not honor him by writing him a book and publishing it.  Books are great because your dad can pass them along to future generations.  You can add photos,artwork, anything that can be scanned can be added to your book.For some neat  ideas   go to my blog at http://memoriesthatbind.blogspot.com. I would love to hear what your plans are to honor your dad.  "Books May Well be the Only True Magic"-Alice Hoffman Keep the FAITH, Marie   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/690465/ Tue, 19 May 2009 10:17:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/690465/            American History in Verse by Burton Stevenson is a wonderful addition to your American History Studies. This if from the back cover.  No nation today of which its people have a better right to be proud than these United States. This book is an effort to show why this is so. It tells the story of Ameirca in terms of poetry,much of it stirring poetry,which sets that story in bold relief and presents it graphically to the imagination.   From the First page: The American story is woven with strong threads of heroism,sacrifice and compassion. It is a vibrant story of a nation"under God" unshackled from the old chains of oppression,seeking to fulfill a destiny.Sadly,we have since lost that spirit and vigor. This collection of poems was originally published for public school use in the 1930's and was well received. Too many public schools today no longer find patriotism and good literature"relevant" to their goals,but we know this book will find a warm response among those who still love their country.  It starrts out with The New World, The New Nation,  Conquering the Continent and The Struggle for the Union, With 454 pages there is bound to be plenty of poems you can use for your studies.  Keep the FAITH, Marie http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/689785/ Sat, 16 May 2009 21:46:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/689785/        The Humming Bird The sunlight speaks and it's voice is a bird: It glimmers half-guessed,half-seen,half-heard. Above the flowerbed;over the lawn- A flashing dip and it is gone, And all it lends to the eye is this- A sunbeam giving the air a kiss.     Harry Hibbard Kemp Keep the Faith, Marie http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/688810/ Wed, 13 May 2009 21:58:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/688810/     This morning we woke up to a rather cool morning. We got started with school early since we had to go to our Science Co op this afternoon. They are still working on the addition to the house(see the pictures below) and they turned off the electricity at 9am for about two hours,another reason to get started early. Jackson worked in his Civil War Notebook and I admired  how well it has turned out so far. We have been using Hands of a Child Lapbooking materials  but we have been putting them into a notebook instead of the Lapbooks. I think next year we will make some Lapbooks as well.  We also read Stories From The Civil War.We worked with fractions in Math and Jackson drew a very nice picture of the solar system for Science. He  is reading Swamp Fox of the Revolution(yes, I know we are studying the Civil War but that is what he picked). We also watched more of Ken Burns' Civil War Documentary(see earlier post)  which is a 5 disc series,we are on disc 5. For Language  he worked in Cursive Writing in Pictures, Spelling and Langauge Lessons from Queen Homeshool. We went to the Co op where they were studying The Solar System and they finished their t-shirts that they had screen printed on, I wish I would have taken the camera, I will next week  we are going to make another one and I  think I will make one as well.(stay tuned). When we got home it started snowing,it did not amount to much but snowed none the less. We walked outside to look at all they had accomplished on our addition. I worked on my family history book online which is coming along nicely. I will post some old pictures I dug up tomorrow.(see the link on this site for my business  site to see  how my book is coming along. Enjoy the Pictures below. Keep the Faith, Marie http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/688452/ Tue, 12 May 2009 23:18:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/688452/   Narration, Copywork and Dictation Made Easy Narration, Copywork and Dictation all important aspects of the CM method but they do not have to be hard and cumbersome. I love Queen Homeschool Supplies(http://www.queenhomeschool.com/) so most of my CM resources come from them. I also freqeuntly use books from Living Books Curriculum. First of all we use Aesop's Fables,which will work for narration,copywork,dictation, and Bible. I bought this edition from http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com/. I love this edition because they have Scritpture references with most of the fables so you can use it as your Bible lesson as well. You can download a free sample at their website.(other great samples as well). Jackson love using this book and asked to do it often. We usually print out the fable, some have pictures, so we put those in his Language Arts Notebook. We also we look up the verses from the book and discuss those, he then picks one for copywork and puts that in his notebook as well. We also use Pictures in Cursive by Queen Homeschool. This is two-fold as well because it has picture study along with the cursive writing and the pictures are of great quality. These are just a few things that we do in our homeschool.     Keep the Faith,  Marie http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/687790/ Mon, 11 May 2009 09:12:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/687790/  We are still in our unit on Civil War.  We have used many resources for this study. I think you could stay on this subject for a whole year. One resource we have really enjoyed that reinforced so much of the material and taught us tons of stuff we did not know. We used Ken Burns' Civil War Series DVD. I rented mine from Netflix. Jackson usaully watched it while he would work in his Civil War Notebook. The set is a  five disc set so it is lengthy but well worth the time. .This DVD depicts the strategies and action of famous Civil War battles, and relates the stories of generals, field soldiers, politicians, heroes and a beleaguered president.  The series starts with the Firing on Fort Sumter  and ends with Lee's surrenders and Lincoln's assasination. We have enjoyed the series a lot. It is very detailed and loaded with facts,tales,historical accounts and tons of images of this time in our history. Keep the Faith, Marie http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/685902/ Tue, 5 May 2009 11:26:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/685902/  I just love to see kids just being kids. Finding such delight in  the small things, I long to be more like that again. Enjoy the pictures of Jackson being 11. Don't forget  about my give away at my business blog at http://memoriesthatbind.blogspot.com. You can also see a book that Jackson has started at the publishing center. Keep the Faith, Marie http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/684932/ Fri, 1 May 2009 23:04:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/684932/  Good Morning,  Everyone has a story that needs to be told and   I can help. Hop,run or walk on over to http://memoriesthatbind.blogspot.com  for my give away celebrating my new blog. You could win a publishing  certificate so YOU can go start your own story or let your kids start theirs. Need a little help? We have all the tools to help you get started getting your stories in book form in no time. If you win you also get to pick a story starter pack to help get the ball rolling.  What a great summertime activity for your kids.  They could be a published author  and have  their books sitting proudly on the shelf. Not to mention all  they will learn during the process. Jackson is working on a book now called, Me and My Dogs and I will post pictures as he progresses.  Keep the Faith, Marie http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/684423/ Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:39:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/684423/  We are studying the Civil War and besides reading about it we are also learning  songs of The Civil War. More music was produced during the Civil War than in all our other wars combined. The North and South had their own compositions,but if the other side liked a tune they would adapt  it for their own use such as When Johnny Comes Marching Home.  Military bands which has recently become popular assumed a major role in The Civil WAr. They would  express joy in victory and encourage the soldiers in defeat. Song is so powerful and makes  a wonderful addition to any study.  History Alive Through Music by Diana Waring--for this particular study we used The Heart of a New Land America 1750-1890.  We have others by Diana Waring for other time periods. I do not think she has these anymore but you could check. The  set comes with a book which gives a history of  the songs and then a  cassette(this is an older set) with all the songs.  We also use Of Thee I Sing Lyrics and Music for America's Patriotic Songs. This book has the words  to all the songs and the sheet music.  The following songs were written during  The Civil War:  The  Battle Cry of Freedom The Battle Hymn of the Republic Lincoln and Liberty  Roll, Alabama, Roll  Tenting on the Old Camp Ground When Johnny Comes marching Home  Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier   John Brown's Body  Jackson enjoys listening to  these songs and usually will listen while  he works on his Civil War Notebook. Keep the Faith, Marie http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/683561/ Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:03:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/montanamom/683561/