Feb. 2, 2006 - Indiana Homeschoolbloggers!!!
Are you going to the IAHE convention? I am going on both days. I am so excited!! We have wonderful speakers on the roster. If you would like to know more about it then here is the website: http://www.inhomeeducators.org
Blessings~
Holly
• 3 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
Feb. 2, 2006 - WriteShop...opinions please!!!
I am looking into WriteShop for my son for next year. I need opinions if you have used it. Can you tell me why you like it or not like it? Also what do you like or not like about this program? Is it easy to use? Do your children like it? Does it improve their writing?
Thanks
Holly
• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
Feb. 2, 2006 - Art!! I am not good at it but my dh is teaching it to the kids!!
Yippie!!
I am so happy that my kids are finally getting an art education. The kids are doing great and look forward to this time with Daddy while I am work. We bought each child a very nice professional bounded art book that they can keep (and good record keeping for me). Even my autistic dd is happy about doing art. I am so thankful for my dh to do this for me. I am still going to do fine arts education of looking art work and learning about artist in the future. I just do not have time right now. By the way my dh is a wonderful artist. Look way down below on this page to see a picture of my dd's room. He painted all that except the faires on the walls and the flowers on the walls (he did the stem and everything else--yes he did even the well and the fence). I will have to show you a picture of the hummingbird he did in our window seat room.
The books he is using are:
"The Art of Cartooning" by Walter Foster
"How to Draw Cartoon Animals" by Christopher Hart
I will try to link these two books from Amazon since I became a commision based person (not sure of the formal name for it). Sorry!! So if you ever click on my links to buy I get a percentage. Just a small way of making a bit of money for recommending books. Something for you to think about for your blog. It is free!!
Blessings~
Holly
• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
Dec. 9, 2005 - Lesson planning....
Here is my struggle that I have:
Lesson planning and having it together.
I am at my wit's end over this one. I only have 3 children (I do not know the large families do it but I did talk to quiverfullmomof10 and she has a been a help)
I have edu-track for computer tracking but I do not want to have to go to the computer for everything especially for figuring out what I need to do next.
I am thinking of having a notebook with all the kids information on what they need to be doing and what I need to be doing. I am also wondering if having individual notebook for each child is better but the problem with that is we do science, history and read aloud together. We also do math meeting together (calendar work, money-via Saxon Math). Any ideas????? Also I am thiniking of having a schedule on the wall like MOTH schedule only on a posterboard with post it notes (the smaller version and get 4 different colors so I can change them around if needed).
Also I have an autistic dd who really needs me to get the ball rolling on her therapy. We took a long break from that. We also took this month off from school.
I need some ideas so if you can telll me what you do that would be great.
Blessings~
Holly
• 11 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
Oct. 27, 2005 - Our library is wonderful!!
We just got back from our trip to the library. For the first time they hosted homeschoolers with a class on how to use the library, gave a tour to the non-public access part of the library, did scavenger hunt and more. The staff was very nice to us. My two boys have learned alot about the library and how to find books. This was free!! Yippie!!
My dd played on the computers and puzzles while the boys were in class.
I am glad I took the opportunity to take the boys there today.
Blessings~
Holly
• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
Oct. 4, 2005 - Classical Homeschooling...
I went to Crystal Payne's blog (Biblical Womanhood) and she asked a question about Classical Ed.
Here are her questions:
- What books would you recommend we begin reading with Kathrynne now?
First of all, I would start with looking at book list. I am linking several websites that have very good reading list.
This one has several book list links on her website for history and science.
Here are some books that I use personally for booklist:
These three books I use all the time to look for books for my homeschool and fun reading/read aloud. They break down the list by ages/grades and sometimes boy/girl.
***What books would you recommend that we read to prepare for the future?
The number one book I highly recommend is the Well Trained Mind. Another link down below:
This book is very rigorous. It is very fast-paced and it has turned people off from using this book as their guidelines for Classical Ed. I have the Teaching the Trivium book and I like it but it didn't give me enough to go on in my personal opinion. I have gained alot from the book. The Well Trained Mind book gave me a better outlook and guideline on classical education. I do not do some of the things she said to do in the book and I do not agree with some she says to do such as mythological readings in grammar stage. I read her book and then I pick what I want to focus on. I leave the rest. This book was a better fit for my family than the Teaching the Trivium was. A really good website that is more of a balance between Well Trained Mind and Teaching the Trivium.
Christine Miller's Christian Classical Homeschooling website
- Also, any particular websites you would recommend to help us learn more?
I answered this above in the 2nd question.
I will post more answers later this week sometimes. I hope this helps Crystal and others in their questions about Classical Education.
Blessings~
Holly
• 5 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
Oct. 4, 2005 - The Giant House field trip
The kids and I went on a field trip two weeks ago to a Giant House. Here is the link to information about it.
Giant House in Pendleton Indiana
The kids and I were very dissappointed with this trip. We weren't informed this was from a environmentalist standpoint. The guide took us through a nature walk. It was beautiful until she told us not to pick up anything off the ground even acorns and rocks. We were puzzled. My boys who have a love for Nature was very very sad about this. So we bought back nothing to remember this trip. The man that owns this place was a very nice man. He loves homeschoolers he told us. Anyway it was dissappointing because the house didn't seem like 7,000 square feet. My house is bigger than his but according to the sq footage mine is supposed to be smaller. Of course my feul bill is higher than his. 
Anyway check the website out and read about it. The nature walk was the best part of the whole thing. The only thing I didn't like was the guide giving us alot of environmentalist viewpoints that I didn't agree with. I am not against all environmentalist viewpoint but just those that goes against the Bible.
Blessings and enjoy the website!!
Holly
• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
Oct. 4, 2005 - New Math game online
On the autism list I belong on somebody posted a really neat link to a website that has math games.
Have fun!!
Holly
• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
Oct. 4, 2005 - Note Taking skills
My goal this year is to teach my oldest son note taking skills. Yesterday was his 1st Chemistry class at the homeschool group. One thing he is supposed to do is take notes during class. I looked through his notebook and I can't figure out what his notes were. The words he wrote relate to Chemistry but nothing else. So with the help of a WTM mom I have these two websites that has note-taking skills.
Here are the links to them:
Academic Skills Center on Note Taking
Enjoy!
Holly
• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
Oct. 2, 2005 - We are on a break this week.
I am so excited. The only thing is Monday is not really a break since my son has a class to go to through our homeschool group. This is a supplement class to our Chemistry course at home. I will spend some time this week adjusting our school/home schodule. I am not liking the way things are going with school. So I will be spending time figuring out what I need to be doing and coordinating my three kids education.
I will be on here alot this week putting up a schedule for all of you to see (if I can get the HTML coding right to link it but if not then I will try to post it by copying from excel to here). I will also post both of my boys curricula. I also will post some of our homesteading or country living pictures here this week. So do come back often as I will be posting alot more this week.
Blessings~
Holly
• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
Sep. 30, 2005 - I love Saxon Math DIVE cd's....
I just got the Saxon Math 5/4 2nd edition DIVE cd last week. My son is starting to love math again. His grades are picking up better. He is learning note-taking skills with this program too. I have more time to devote to my autistic dd. I went ahead and got the Saxon 6/5 DIVE cd since I already have the book. This is a 2nd edition too. If you have a Saxon 2nd edition books and you want to use a DIVE with it then you need to order as soon as possible because they have them until it runs out. They will have the 3rd editions Dive cds as those books are still in print.
I bought mine from Love to Learn catalog. Here is the website: http://www.LovetoLearn.net
Blessings~
Holly
• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
Sep. 30, 2005 - A very good online resource to use....
I found this wonderful website that is full of printables for free. She has many charts, calendars, and many many more different things including water intake charts, tv charts, vegetable garden tags to name a few. My favorite is her calendar for the school year. It is from July to June the next year. It is perfect for me as we homeschool year round and in my state school is from July to June next year. It is called the Chart Jungle. Here is the link: http://www.chartjungle.com (sorry I do not know how to put the link wtih the word in place of the web address. I have alot to learn about HTML language. I just wished there was a book about HTML and blogs for dummies.)
Check the website out!!
Blessings~
Holly
• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
Sep. 15, 2005 - Here are the book I got at the Library for our history studies.
We are studying Middle ages.
Video:
The Middle Ages (Just the Facts Learning Series) I found this in the Junior section of the library. They have other videos that are worth getting which I will post later once I get them next week.
Books:
Castle Diary The Journal of Tobias Burgess, Page; Transcribed by Richard Platt and Ilustrated by Chris Riddell. This is a beautiful hardback oversized book.
The Truth about Castles by Gillian Clements
Medieval Places by Sarah Howarth
Fourtheenth Century Towns (Living History series)
In the Time of Knights by Shelley Tanaka
What Do We Know about the Middle Ages? by Sarah Howarth
We will be watching the video today and reading one of these gems mentioned above.
Blessings~
Holly
