Our journey of Homeschooling
• Nov. 16, 2009 - Neat Homeschool Project
| I just wanted to let you all know about a a neat project some of my friends are doing on eHow. Several of them are going to be sending a doll around the country and taking the doll to different landmarks and places in their community. They will be taking pictures and writing about the adventures. The project can be followed at this link: http://www.squidoo.com/ehowdollysgrandadventure This would make a really good geography project. I will say, though, a couple of the people sometimes have a uhm... colorful sense of humor, so I would preview it before showing it to your kids. lol!!! Just in case. Dolly is about to arrive at her first destination which is Maine. This project will be going on through the winter and possibly into the spring. Each person will be adding their adventures as they do them. |
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• Nov. 3, 2009 - 2010 Olympic Torch Relay
With all of the excitement that has been building on the news about the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay starting in Victoria and making its way up Vancouver Island, I just had to take the kids to see it in real life :) Plus I have to admit that I really wanted to see it myself *grin*. So we made the trip to Campbell River and found ourselves a nice little spot to hang out near the 50th parallel to wait for the runners. As it neared there were tons of police vehicles monitoring the traffic and then the big red Coca Cola truck was the first thing to come into view :)
As the Coca Cola truck was passing by us they started hopping off of it and gave all 3 kids flags & these really cool coke bottles that have fibre optics in them so they randomly change colors from green to blue to red. They were a BIG hit in the car on the way home in the dark *grin*.
Next vehicle in the relay entourage was the RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) truck pumping out the tunes while they danced around on it. It was like being at a parade *grin*.
Once the sponsors had gone by we could finally see the flame! At first all we could see was fire floating above the heads of others watching ahead of us and then it finally came into full view. That baby was really burning! I think the fact that it was starting to get dark really made it look even more impressive than what we had seen on tv :)
And there it goes. It was only seconds from the time it came into view to the time it went past us but it was so worth it to see the excitement on the kids faces as it burned right in front of them :) We never made it to the new Spirit Square downtown Campbell River where the torch finally ended by lighting the cauldron on stage because the crowds were so fierce but we found a nice little spot right in front of the fireworks display *grin*. It'll be great memories for all of us as we may never get the chance to see it again :)
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• Nov. 2, 2009 - Swine Flu!
Posted By EclecticEducation
| Ugh! I've had a rough month! My 2 sons came down with the Swine Flu on Oct. 7th and I followed on Oct. 8th. My kids are doing ok. I am still fighting to get well. That is why I haven't written at all for so long. I've been very sick. I've seen the doctor's 4 times and had to get chest X-rays. They say if my cough is not better by the end of the week, I may be getting more X-rays. *sigh* I was having trouble eating and couldn't keep my food down. I lost a total of 12- 14 pounds and I was getting dehydrated. If I hadn't started keeping my food down over the weekend, my husband was suppose to take me to the hospital on Sunday night. Luckily, I started keeping it down!!! I think I am finally on the mend, but I still have a ways to go, so my post may be light for another week or two. Hopefully by then, I'll be doing better. |
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• Oct. 29, 2009 - Sausage & Bean Soup ~ Recipe
With the snowy cool weather upon us I thought it would be the perfect time to share a recipe for one of my favorite soups :) I actually took these photos during the summer months when I had an odd hankering for hot soup during a heat spell! LOL
Ingredients:
Roast chicken bones left after meal
1 whole head of garlic
2 or 3 ribs of celery
3 or 4 carrots
5 onions
1/2 pound of bacon
6 sausages
pepper & salt
basil
Start by grabbing a large stock or soup pot and add your chicken bones, peeled carrots & onions and the entire head of garlic. I love to cut the head of garlic horizontally across the middle so that it opens up the making it even easier for that wonderful flavor to escape. Don't worry about the skin on the garlic as you are going to strain it all out before finishing your soup :)
Once you have all of your veggies in your pot fill it until the water level is just under the rim and place it on the stove. Turn the heat on high until it comes to a boil. As soon as it boils you can put on a lid and turn it down to low so that it can gently bubble away for a couple of hours to infuse your water with all of the yummy flavors.
While you are waiting for you chicken stock to cook you can start to get your meat ready for frying. Take your half pound of bacon and slice it up. I cut mine about a 1/4 inch thick but you can do it thicker if you like. There are no rules to how chunky your bacon has to be!
I love using our homemade sausage for this soup which is a garlicky beef & pork blend but you can pick up any of your favorite flavors at your butcher. If you want a soup with a little bit of a kick you may want to find yourself some spicy Italian sausages! To prepare your sausage for frying take a sharp knife and slice through the outer casing and peel it off of each of the sausages.
So it's been a couple of hours or perhaps an entire afternoon if you got busy and forgot about your simmering stock  , but now it's time to strain it. Taking your largest colander and another large soup pot, place the colander into the empty soup pot and pour the hot stock into it. Be very careful trying not to splash any of the hot liquid onto yourself. Quite often I actually wear my oven mitts when I do this to protect my hands from splashes and steam burns :) Let your colander drain a couple of extra minutes to catch the final drips of stock and then place both the stock and colander of bits to the side for later. If you have chickens the boiled veggie leftovers is a delicious treat for them :)
Now that your soup pot is empty again, return it back to the stove and add your chopped bacon and sausages to it. You are going to fry them right in your soup pot. That way you won't loose any of the good flavors. Fry until nice and brown :)
As soon as you have browned your meat you can add your homemade chicken stock and all that's left to do is to season it with salt and pepper. I LOVE adding basil and usually add about 3 tablespoons of dried basil as I don't have any fresh at this time of year, but that's not set in stone and if you hate basil just leave it out and add your favorite spices :)
Mmmm, so delicious and I think I've got some fresh Portuguese rolls that are just begging to be dipped in it *grin*.
Enjoy!
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• Oct. 3, 2009 - Make Homeschooling Fun
School does not have to be a drag! There are many ways to jazz up your homeschool, allowing your child to have fun and get a good education. Here are some tips:
1. Use living books instead of textbooks when possible. Children can get into stories much easier than they can a dry textbook. Use the living books as a jumping off point to learn more about the subject. You can build an entire study around the book.
2. Make lapbooks or an interactive notebook to go along with your studies. Most children love colored paper, stickers, colorful markers, cutting and pasting. Use this love to do something creative, fun and educational.
3. Use puzzles. Puzzles require thought and so they are educational, in among themselves, but if you do a puzzle of the United States, the World Map, fine artwork or something, then you have an added benefit. By studying the pieces, your child is learning the parts of the map or is studying the fine detail of that makes up the artwork.
4. Go on nature walks. Studying nature not only teaches your child about the world around them, but it helps them develop important observational skills.
5. Play games. There are some games, like Made for Trade , that are made to be educational even though they are fun. Then there are games like, Monopoly that were not made for educational purposes, but still have many educational components. Games are a wonderful way to have fun, but learn also.
6. Add movies and videos to your school day. Ok, I know this is a controversial one, but I truly believe there are some awesome shows and movies that teach. A few that my son loves are Word Girl (teaches vocabulary), Cyber Chase (math), Magic School Bus (science), Liberty's Kids (American History) and Between the Lions (Reading). Now obviously, you don’t want to try to watch them all in one day, but one or two of them a day a few days a week is a good balance. Kids love the idea of getting to watch tv in school and a lot of the educational shows are packed with information. It’s a good use of the 30 minutes.
7. Make sure art, nature, music and physical activity is a part of the daily activities. These extras are fun as well as good for your child.
8. Make scrapbooks for learning. These can be for history, science, geography, or even art. It’s a fun and educational way to display what your child learns and they can get creative putting it together (if they are old enough).
I hope these tips help you make your homeschool fun as well as educational!
A Craft Apron and Craft Bag you can order for your child:
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• Sep. 28, 2009 - Mummies, Flowers and Blue Dolphins
Ok, it's been a few weeks since I have posted about our school work. We've had some unorganized weeks, but I finally feel like I'm on track again. Here is a sampling of what we have done.
In the School House:
I finished the Magic Tree House book Mummies in the Morning with Little One. Then we made an interactive notebook page for the story.
I am really liking the format of an interactive notebook for the Magic Tree House series. We basically just do enough minibooks to fit in a two page spread (or a two page spread with flap) and when we are done, I glue them in on a page labeled with the title. This allows us to extend the study to include other things like geography without spending a lot of time on it. I try to do 1 book every week to a week and a half. Since there are so many books in the series, I don't want to spend a ton of time on each of them. That is why about 5-7 minibooks for each book is ideal. I try to find stickers to go along with the studies (if I can) to make the pages more colorful and stand out. They are not necessary, but since I am a scrapbooker and have tons of extra stickers, I might as well use them.
If you would like to do you own study of Mummies in the Morning (or just an Egyptian study) here are some resources:
http://www.squidoo.com/magictreehouse--mummies-in-the-morning-studyguide
http://www.squidoo.com/magic-tree-house-study-guides (this has a directory of other MTH books)
http://www.squidoo.com/interactive-notebook
Both of the boys did some indoor nature studies since the weather has not been cooperating lately. I brought some wildflowers in from our garden for them to draw.
Prince Caspian's Drawing:
Little One's Drawings:
and
Here are some resources for your own nature studies:
http://www.squidoo.com/naturestudywithchildren
http://www.squidoo.com/homeschool-nature-studies
Prince Caspian was reading the book Island of the Blue Dolphin and he was to notebook what he read. Here is a page he did:
The notebook page is a part of the Basic Primary and Regular- Lined Notebooking Pages set by NotebookingPages.com. You can find them here: Notebooking Pages I love notebooking with older children. It gives them more practice in writing and it involves more thought than just circling a,b or c.
Being a WAHM:
I've also been busy working! I've gotten some of my Christmas line out on Zazzle. Here are a few examples:
to see more, go here:
http://www.squidoo.com/christmas-zazzle-dazzle
I plan to add a lot more in the following weeks.
Well, that was our wrap up. To see more wrap ups, check out: My Heart's Desire Have a great week!
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• Sep. 22, 2009 - Here Comes Autumn!
Posted By EclecticEducation
It's hard to believe that autumn is here!!! It's funny it felt more like autumn during the summer, than it does now. lol!!! I for one am looking forward to the cooler weather. I just wish we would have had a better (warmer, dryer) summer.
Well, I have been busy on fall stuff. I have put together fall resources for lapbooking if you are interested. You can get them here: Fall Lapbook.
I have also been busy designing Autumn products for my store. Here are a few of what I have done.
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• Sep. 20, 2009 - Yummy Recipes!
Posted By EclecticEducation
• Sep. 16, 2009 - Motivated Moms
Posted By EclecticEducation
I have mentioned this product before, but I never quite went into detail about it. I love Motivated Moms!!! Motivated Moms comes in several different styles to fit your personal preference. I personally choose to have the daily pages that fit into a binder. Motivated Moms also can be gotten with a daily Bible reading on the pages if that is the style you want. I love that it reminds me of both the larger chores (such as cleaning out the fridge) and the smaller chores such as clipping my son's finger nails (I don't know about you, but I always seem to forget that!). One thing to keep in mind, you don't have to be a slave to Motivated Moms, it's just a suggestion. If you really don't have time to do all the chores listed for the day, you don't have to feel guilty that you didn't get them done. With all of my health problems, there is no way I can do every chore, every day but that is ok. I just do the ones that I am able to do and move on. If you do have the energy and the time to do them all, then you would probably have a really neat and tidy home, but even doing part of the list helps keep things organized. The think the I like the most is, it helps remind of the things that I really do need to get done towards the home and I do those things. To see examples of this product, go to the website. Click on the button to get there:
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• Sep. 16, 2009 - Organization
Does anyone else here have a hard time staying organized??? Geesh! I think I'm doing pretty well, but some days I just feel very swamped. Ok, actually some weeks I feel very swamped. lol!!! The last two weeks I don't know if I'm coming or going!!! lol!!! Last week, first the holiday and taking a day off from school threw me off, then on Thursday it was Little One's 7th birthday. I feel like I got very little done. Then this week started off with a playdate/ PE time on Monday and we weren't able to fit school it. All this is creating havoc on my schedule!!! lol!!!
I also need to ask for prayer for Little One. He's really having a tough time. We now believe he may have OCD and Tourettes and well, it is REALLY interfering in his life and ours. We are hoping to get him into a doctor that can maybe give us some answers soon. I think that is another reason, I just feel out of sorts right now.
Here are some things that help me stay somewhat organized:
My Home Management Binder
My Homeschool Planner
What I need to use more:
My WAHM Organizer
My Special Needs Child Medical Binder (I guess I'm going to have to start updating this again *sigh*)
And soon it will be time for:
My ChristmasOrganizer (Hard to believe it's getting so close!)
If you have not made a Home Management Binder, I really suggest you do so. It is really helpful in keeping yourself organized. Here is where you can learn more about them: http://www.squidoo.com/home-management-binder |
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