homeschool blog http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:27:00 -0500 Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:27:00 -0500 Master Homeschool Schedule-3rd grade (with links at the bottom) Monday Bible: Rod & Staff: God Chooses a Family Bible Memory : Awana Grammar: Rod & Staff English (supplement as needed with Easy Grammar and T4L) Handwriting: Beginning Cursive Math: Singapore (supplement with math games and T4L) History: Biblioplan for Ancient History Music: The Story of the Orchestra/composer of the month study Vision Therapy: vision therapy cards and Building Thinking Skills software Keyboarding: Individualized Keyboarding Read Aloud: go along with Biblioplan History Independent Reading: 30 minutes a day Tuesday Apologetics: Answers in Genesis: Answers for Kids series Bible Memory: Awana Grammar: Rod & Staff English (supplement as needed with Easy Grammar and T4L) Spelling/Vocabulary: Sequential Spelling or Wordly Wise (alternate weeks) Creative Writing: Writing Strands Math: Singapore (supplement with math games and T4L) History: Bibliplan for Ancient History Science: God's Design series: Our Planet Earth, Human Body, Astronomy Spanish: The Easy Spanish, The Fun Spanish Vision Therapy: vision therapy cards and Visual Perceptual Skill Building book Read Aloud: go along with Biblioplan History Independent Reading: 30 minutes a day Wednesday Bible: Rod & Staff: God Chooses a Family Bible Memory : Awana Grammar: Rod & Staff: English (supplement as needed with Easy Grammar and T4L) Handwriting: Beginning Cursive Math: Singapore (supplement with math games and T4L) Spelling/Vocabulary: Sequential Spelling or Wordly Wise (alternate weeks) Vision Therapy: vision therapy cards and Building Thinking Skills software Read Aloud: go along with Biblioplan History Independent Reading: 30 minutes a day Co-op/Playgroup: alternate every other week Thursday Apologetics: Answers in Genesis: Answers for Kids series Bible Memory : Awana Grammar: Rod & Staff English (supplement as needed with Easy Grammar and T4L) Spelling/Vocabulary: Sequential Spelling or Wordly Wise (alternate weeks) Creative Writing: Writing Strands Math: Singapore (supplement with math games and T4L) Spelling/Vocabulary: Sequential Spelling or Wordly Wise (alternate weeks) History: Biblioplan for Ancient History Spanish: Easy Spanish, The Fun Spanish Vision Therapy: vision therapy cards and Visual Perceptual Skill Building book Read Aloud: go along with Biblioplan History Independent Reading: 30 minutes a day Friday Bible: Rod & Staff: God Chooses a Family Bible Memory : Awana Grammar: Rod & Staff: English (supplement as needed with Easy Grammar and T4L) Handwriting: Beginning Cursive Math: Singpore (supplement with math games and T4L) Science: God's Design series: Our Planet Earth, Human Body, Astronomy Art: Lamb's Book of Art/Artist of the month study Keyboarding: Individualized Keyboarding Spanish: The Easy Spanish, The Fun Spanish Vison Therapy: vision therapy cards and Building Thinking Skills software Read Aloud: go along with Biblioplan History Independent Reading: 30 minutes a day Sports: swim lessons year round, fall soccer   Biblioplan Ancient History Rod & Staff English Rod & Staff Bible Answers for Kids series God's Design Science Singapore math Time 4 Learning Easy Grammar Sequential Spelling and Individualized Keyboarding Writing Strands Beginning Cursive The Easy Spanish The Fun Spanish Lamb's Book of Art The Story of the Orchestra http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/718659/ Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:27:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/718659/ Ben and began what I think will be a fun summer nature observation study.  The idea came from Amanda over at Hearts and Trees.  If you haven't seen Amanda's blog, you'll want to take some time to peruse.  She has so many fun nature and art studies, very Charlotte Masonish!   Anyway, we have put together tabletop garden, using root vegetables.  You'll need a few supplies, incuding several jars (we used everything from a baby food jar to salsa jars and one bowl, because the veggie was too large for any of our jars), toothpicks, veggies, water, and a tray of some sort.  You'll also need an area in your home that gets some light.  Our kitchen table works perfectly for this.    We went to our local grocery store and bought one of each root vegetable we could find.     From left to right, we have a carrot, sweet potato, beet, turnip, parsnip, radish, and rutabaga.  Now the rutabaga had its top sliced off, so we aren't going to try and grow it (the veggies need to still have a bit of the green stem on top in order to grow).  But since we plan to roast all of the veggies and do a taste test, we thought it would be fun to try it as well.   You'll need to slice the top off of each veggie, about 2 inches down from the top stem, and then poke 3-4 toothpicks around it in order to set it on the mouth of your jar.   Then fill your jars with water to a level that will allow the bottoms of the veggies to touch the water.      This is how the turnip looks up close.     Here's the finished tray.  We will observe the veggies daily, add water as needed and record our findings (on paper and in photos) every 1-2 weeks.  We can't wait to see what happens!  So check back in a couple of weeks, hopefully we'll have some fun pictures to share!   Ben's first observation was that the water in the beet bowl immediately turned pinkish purple.  That led to a quick discussion about natural dyes vs. artificial food coloring.  We eliminated artificial colors from our diets several months ago.  And although Ben had read the labels on things like his vitamins and favorite lollipops, which both mention being colored with beet juice, he had never put the 2 together.  Very cool.   We'll let you know how the test taste goes tonight! ETA:  ick!  the taste test was not a hit :( http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/698735/ Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:07:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/698735/ Every year I find myself rather impatiently waiting for its arrival.  What new things will I discover?  Where will I carve out an afternoon to peruse?  When I can I fit it into my budget to place an order for at least $150 to get that free shipping?!?!   Yep, you guessed it, it's the RAINBOW RESOURCE catalog and mine arrived today!!  And let me tell you friends, it is humongous!!   What?  You've never seen the Rainbow Resource catalog?  Well let me tell you, you are missing a gem.  Not only will you find almost anything you will need to homeschool, you'll find prices that are hard to beat, and little nuggets of product reviews that will inspire and thrill even the calmest of homeschoolers.   So be sure and order your catalog as soon as possible and then carve out some time to enjoy it!  The best thing?.......it's FREE!!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/698153/ Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:14:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/698153/ I've compiled Ben's summer reading choice list and thought I would share it here.  He is a rising 3rd grader, and a good reader, so these are all chapter books.  He'll also read quite a few of our favorite picture books (mostly for the summer reading program at the library).  I don't expect him to read all of these books this summer.  Whatever he doesn't read will carry over into our 3rd-grade school year.  There are several books listed here which are apart of a series.  My hope is that reading the first book in the series will spark an interest in the entire series. Of course there is a chance that by reading the first book, he'll find he doesn't care for the series.  Either way is fine. I think this list could work for an advanced 2nd or 3rd grade reader, or an average 4th or 5th grade reader.  Ben has already chose the first 4 books he wants to read.  They are the first 4 on the list. Owls in the Family Einstein Anderson, Science Detective Henry Huggins Robin Hood Encyclopedia Brown Stuart Little Homer Price Centerburg Tales Mr. Popper’s Penguins The Cricket in Times Square Rabbit Hill Grandma’s Attic The Midnight Fox Indian in the Cupboard The Borrowers The Railway Children Pinocchio Sign of the Beaver James and the Giant Peach The Mouse and the Motorcycle Mrs. Piggle Wiggle My Father’s Dragon Little House in the Big Woods Little House on the Prairie Farmer Boy The Story of Dr. Doolittle     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/694989/ Mon, 1 Jun 2009 23:08:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/694989/ We have one more week of 2nd grade!  Wow!  I'm planning 3rd grade already!    This will be our first year we haven't just taken the month of June off from school and then started our next grade level in July.  Instead, we're going to do "summer school."  How is that different, you ask?   Well, first of all, we're not really taking any time "off" and yet we're not really doing a full schedule of "school."  We will continue with 3R's kinds of things, mostly using Time 4 Learning and Ben will have a summer reading list.  We've already begun compiling his reading lists (yes, 2 lists...his and mine!).  Actually he's already begun reading from "his" list.  As I type this he's reading a book entitled, True Life Treaure Hunts.    A great resource we are using for summer reading is Book Adventures.  If you are not familiar with Book Adventures, you may enjoy checking it out, especially if you have relunctant readers.  Within the website are book lists, by grade level.  Your child (or his mom) can choose a book to read from the list, complete the comprehension questions online, and earn points.  The points can be accumulated and traded in for prizes.  Using incentives such as this works well for Ben.  He LOVES being rewarded!!   Our backyard bird study will continue for the next few weeks.  It's pretty low key.  We're bird watching and learning bit and pieces about some of the birds we commonly see, adding minit books to our animal notebook.  I can see this going on most of the summer!   We'll begin 3rd grade in August.  I'll be posting those plans soon!  But we are going to have an exciting year!!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/691211/ Thu, 21 May 2009 11:40:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/691211/ We began a unit on birdwatching today.  We're working on some pages in our Animals Around the World notebook with the our friends, the Veals.  Today was our first day.   We began by reading this sweet little book.  Sort of an introduction to the idea of birdwatching.   Afterwards, we glued a birdwatching graph into our notebooks.  This will be a place for the kids to record their observations whenever they see a bird outside.  They will be able to jot dot a description of the bird, along with a note about what the bird was doing.  I'm also encouraging them to draw a picture of at least one bird a week.   Along with birdwatching, we are also spending some time learning about different birds.  Today our focus was on the American Robin.  The children learned about the markings, nests, eggs, and diet of this bird, filling out a few minit books for their notebooks.  The minit books came from Homeschool Share's Animal Studies' unit on Backyard Birds and Enchanted Learning.  After adding the minits to their notebooks, we spent some time listening to the robin's song, using the CD from the book, Music of the Birds.  This book has wonderful information about the songs of birds, and the CD has little snippets of information along with a couple of minutes of "bird music."  For example, did you know the robin's song sounds like "cheery, cheerio?"   A few other books we'll be using for this unit include the following:        Other plans during our unit include making a birdhouse, a couple of different birdfeeders, and a trip to our local Nature Center, where they have a birdwatching program!  I think this will be the perfect way to wrap up our school year!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/688853/ Thu, 14 May 2009 00:37:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/688853/ I love that we have a day set aside each year to appreciate the world God created for us!  It's kind of like Christmas and Easter.  We should be appreciating our world every day, but we get busy with life and forget.    We have been spending some time talking about caring for our earth.  Ben is intrigued by the idea.  I think even he understands how we take things for granted.  Today we spent some time doing a scavenger hunt around our home, finding things that we could reduce, reuse or recycle.  I'll be the first to admit that we, as a family, have not focused enough time and energy to thinking about these 3 Rs.  I wanted to share a few of the items Ben found.   Reduce:  this one was difficult, but with a little prompting (and a discussion about the length of his showers) he came up with water, electricity, heat/air conditioning, paper plates. Reuse:  ziplock baggies, bath towels, newspapers and magazines (arts and craft projects), clothes, dishes, silverware, milk jugs, aluminum foil. Recycle:  newspapers, magazines, plastic bottles.   Tomorrow, we'll be reading about the loss of rainforests and other habitats and the effects on animals and the environment in general.  We'll also be going to see the new movie, Earth.  It's opening day!   I wanted to share a few really nice resources for learning more about Earth Day and ways we can all help Save Our Planet. Books to Read   Websites to Visit Kaboose  crafts, games, projects, foods, coloring pages, and other fun fun fun!! EarthDay.gov   For kids.  This page provides links to federal government Web sites for kids related to Earth Day and the environment. ABCTeach  here, you'll find an Earth Day theme unit. Evan Moor Theme Pocket  the April Theme Pocket has several fun and hands-on Earth Day activities.   Happy Earth Day!!     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/681569/ Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:45:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/681569/ Our homeschool has been revolutionized!  If you haven't heard about Sue Patrick's Workbox System  yet, then please, allow me to share this wonderful system that is making our homeschool so much more pleasant, organized, and efficient.     Sue Patrick's Workbox System , is an organizational system that can be used with any homeschool curriculum.  It's simple to implement, though it does take a bit of time to gather together the supplies you'll need.  You will want to begin by purchasing Sue's book, available in both print and ebook form.  Once you've read the book and understand the concept, along with the reasoning behind each step, you'll be ready to go shopping.  What's on the shopping list, you ask?  You'll need the following for each student: ~a $15 shoe rack (I found mine at Target) ~approximately 12 clear plastic shoeboxes ($1 each at most dollar store--mine came from The Dollar Tree) ~colorful printer paper or cardstock ~lots of velcro dots ~a book ring   Basically, you'll be setting up the shoe rack with the shoeboxes (workboxes).  The shoeboxes are labeled 1-12, and you'll make a schedule strip, on which you will place the numbers 1-12 and maybe a few other cards for breaks, lunch, outdoor play, computer time, etc.  In each workbox, you'll place one assignment, along with everything needed to complete that assignment.  For example, if you place a Draw Write Now book in a box, you will also include the paper for the writing and drawing, a pencil, and colored pencils.   The child will work through the workboxes sequentially, following the schedule strip for breaks, lunch, computer time, etc.....you decide what your child will be doing.  Some of the workbox assignments can hopefully be completed independently, while other will be labeled with a 'work with Mom" card.   The benefits of this system are numerous.  On a personal level, it has created more organization (both for me and Ben), more independence for Ben, and no questions about what we'll be doing each day or what comes next.  It has created more organization for me as his teacher.  Each night, I am required to fill the boxes, and thus plan (at least one day ahead) what we'll be doing.  I can also arrange Ben's schedule with enticing "fun" projects and assignments that will spur him on through the tougher assignments.    Developed for a child with autism, this system is also recommended for children with ADHD, those who need to move toward more independence, and for larger families.  But trust me when I say, this system can work for anyone!   I have several friends who are also using the Workbox System.  Some of us are using it pretty much as it was designed, but many are tweaking it to fit their homes, lifestyles, or children's needs.  I've seen gallon-sized ziplock bags, manilla folders, decorated cereal boxes, and plastic drawers used.   Here are a few links to some blogs of friends of mine who are using the system, so that you read more about how others are using the system.   Ami's blog  if you look over on the right, Ami has a category for workboxes, including some free helps! Heather's blog  check out the lefthand sidebar of Heather's blog for lots of Workbox fun! Jessica's blog  Jessica has 8 kiddos and is adapting the system using manilla envelopes. Leslie's blog  Leslie introduced most of us to the system, see how she uses it with her 6 children. Candace's blog  Candace is adapting the system with ziplock bags Ginger's blog  check out Ginger's blog for how to use drawers with the system. Lynn's blog Lynn beautifully decorated cereal boxes to use.   So after 3 weeks of using this system, I heartily recommend it.  I wish I had learned about it a long time ago, but am very grateful to know about it now.  I am more organized, and we are getting so much more accomplished than we ever did before.  Our day is more fun, since I'm spending time actually thinking about what fun things to include.  Ben loves it because he knows what to expect and enjoys watching the boxes disappear off the shelves.  It give him such a since of accomplishment! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/676995/ Tue, 7 Apr 2009 20:24:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/676995/ Steve is Jane Clair's husband, the author of Five in a Row. Last month, Steve fell on the ice and hit his head. Apparently, he sustained a pretty serious head injury at the time, that only manifested itself yesterday, when he woke up with a bad headache and numbness in one arm. Today he was operated on for a subdural hemotoma and to remove fluid from around his brain. Praise God, he is doing well and they expect a full recovery. He's currently in ICU and will spend a few days in the hospital. I've had the privilege of knowing the Lamberts for about 4 years now. They are the most down to earth couple, who love the Lord, and love homeschooling families. They have been a blessing to me over and over, not just with their awesome curriculum, but with their friendship as well. I feel burdened for them right now. The Lamberts do not have health insurance (many self publishers do not due to the high cost). So TOS magazine and the St. John's of First Class Homeschool are asking that anyone who is able to please go to their website and make a purchase. If you happen to be a FIAR user or would like to be ;), I know this would bless them. Even if you don't use the curriculum, Jane has written some wonderful nature units that are digital and downloadable from their website. Anyone can do nature units! And their daughter, Becky will make sure your snail mail orders get filled. Also, please pray for Steve and Jane, and the rest of the Lambert family as he, hopefully, makes a full recovery.  And if you feel particularly generous, bless them with a purchase from the store at their website. Five in a Row http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/655806/ Sat, 7 Feb 2009 23:03:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/655806/ 2 inches of snow, topped with 1 inch of ice, topped with another 2 inches of snow that is.   School is out this week.  We're taking some snow days!!  Over the course of 2 days, we rec'd a total of 5 inches of snow then ice then more snow.  Ben is the most snow-loving kid ever, so he's spent a lot of time outdoors this week.  He literally bundles up, plays for a couple of ours, comes in to change into warm, dry clothes and then heads back out.  We've had the fireplace going almost every day, and I should have bought stock in Swiss Miss.  It's been a great week for him!   Hundreds of thousands of people in our state, most of which are in our city, are without power, and thus heat today.  We have been very fortunate not to have lost power so far.  Hopefully, it will stay that way.  Please pray for those without heat and power right now.  I know they would appreciate that.   Here's a quick slideshow of pics I took this morning.     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/652019/ Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:46:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sirgalahadacademy/652019/