This school year,  we are using a curriculum called Sonlight.    It's an wonderful blessing complete with lesson plans mapped out for us that is rooted in world history from a biblical perspective.  It's a literature-rich education that engages kids through history, geography  literature and bible study as a coordinated whole.  Other pieces of the puzzle are Language Arts, Science and Electives. We use Math-U-See as our awesome math studies.   Included in our boxed curriculum are real books ( historical fiction, biographies, fiction and non-fiction), rather than textbooks so that the experience is broader and deeper providing a far richer tapestry of study than you would get from memorizing dates from a boring textbook. 

Our focus this year is digging deep into World History.  We are now finishing up our studies on Vikings.  Our spines for this time period has been the Usborne Time Traveler book and Children's History of the World.  We are about to complete the reader titled  Viking Adventure by Clyde Robert Bulla which is told through the eyes of a young boy.   We have learned so much about the geography of Scandinavian countries where the vikings got their start and the countries they found on their voyages.  One fun extra I have added is The Story of The Vikings Coloring Book from Amazon.  This is no ordinary coloring book!  The pictures are very intricate renderings of the Viking lifestyle with accurate historical details on each page.  For my on-hands learner, this is helping to 'cement' all that has been learned!!!

This is a scanned picture of her first Vikings Coloring page this past week which shows the Scandinavian beginning:

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Visit my friend Karla at Roads to Learning for a wonderful October Contest!  She has an delightful blog that I love to follow because we have 2 very important things in common.  We both LOVE Sonlight curriculum and we are both RVers! 

For the month of October she will be giving away the a bundle of these 3 books:

Honor in the Dust by Gilbert Morris

The Friends We Keep by Sarah Zacharias Davis

The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla

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Head on over to my friend's blog at http://benmakesten.blogspot.com/  to get the full details of this contest.  Here's what it's all about:

To get started, Eco Store USA is offering you a $25.00 E-gift certificate GIVEAWAY DRAWING!

Simply use the following instructions to enter the drawing...and in the meantime, visit ECO STORE USA's website and browse the shelves so that you can get an idea of how you'd like to spend your winnings!!! Exciting, huh?!?

Ok....here we go...this drawing officially begins NOW...and officially ends Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at NOON! To be eligible to win, do the following: (You do NOT need to have a blog or website to enter!)

1) IF YOU HAVE A BLOG OR WEBSITE: Leave a comment under this post with a LINK TO YOUR BLOG OR WEBSITE where you have posted an entry telling others about this GIVEAWAY! Also, in your post, leave a LINK BACK to BENMAKESTEN! (Make sure that the link you leave here links directly to your POST PAGE and not your homepage...THANKS !) Once I confirm your post on the giveaway and your link back here, then your name will be entered in the drawing!!! At NOON, on Thursday, April 30th, 2009, BENJAMIN (the sweet namesake of this blog) will DRAW ONE FORTUNATE WINNER'S NAME from the jar!!! I will then post the WINNER on this blog, and get in contact with you so that you can provide the needed info for ECO STORE USA to email YOUR PRIZE!!!

NOTE: I know that many BENMAKESTEN readers do not have blogs or websites of their own. THEREFORE, I'd like to give those readers an opportunity to ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY DRAWING too! Following are instructions for entering this drawing for those who DO NOT have a blog or website:

1) View my full profile page. Use the EMAIL LINK there to EMAIL ME a comment saying that you'd like to ENTER THIS DRAWING! THEN, you must EMAIL others, telling them about the GIVEAWAY and SENDING THEM A LINK TO BENMAKESTEN! CC me a copy of that email...once I get that copy, it will CONFIRM YOUR ENTRY and your name will be added to the jar!

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    Recently we had a wonderful weekend with my in-laws.  They don't live close to us so we cherish the time that is spent with them.  I am beginning realize that each time we are with them, our kiddos really need to really get to know these grandparents.  They are both very wise in life skills and have a lot of love to share.  Since my beloved father has passed away, I often wish that I had asked him more questions about himself and other things he wanted me to know.  He shared sooo much and taught me more than I could ever imagine but you never know when your time has been cut short.  Life on earth is our temporary home and it is but a vapor.  We must cherish each day as our last.

The picture below is Pop giving Golf tips to Muscles while Daddy-o looks on.

Later on in the day, Pops decided to give Muscles and his friend a lesson in ballroom dancing.  First photo is of pops dancing with the friend. 

And last photo is of Muscles and his friend giving it a whirl while Pop looks on!

We didn't get any pictures of my mother-in-law this time but maybe next time!

Good Times! 

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Sorry for the absence but I've had difficulty getting my pictures to load and what is a blog entry without a picture that says a thousand words. 

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You know how the Lord just places things together sometimes and you know without a doubt that HE is behind it all because YOU could never have planned it so perfectly??   I feel that He does that each and every week with our schoolwork.  After finishing with the Biology of plants last month, science is focusing on Energy this week.  I was a little concerned about how I was to make an Energy Unit fun and interesting but as always...God showed off.   We started with a free unit study called Energy Works.   We then moved to the website Energy Kids Page where there was a great visual lesson and booklet about renewable and non-renewable energy.  We ended this week with the cute but informative The Berenstain Bears' Science Fair.  This book is just right for an elementary student that wants simple information and fun projects.  One project was called a Bear-Powered Jet!  You make a paper airplane and apply tape to the top to hold the blown-up balloon that sits atop.....without sealing the balloon, you let 'er fly!!  This little project showed how all jets and rockets get their 'go' from the gases (energy) inside tubes and such.   See below:

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I can hardly believe that it is already March!  Wow how this year flies while we have so much fun!

Join our family as we participate in the Great Sunflower Project.  

 Here's some info from their website below:

Join the Hunt for Bees!

By watching and recording the bees at sunflowers in your garden, you can help us understand the challenges that bees are facing. We'll be sending out annual Lemon Queen sunflower seeds in early March 2009. Just in time to plant!

• It takes less than 30 minutes.
• It's easy.
• Free Sunflower seeds for planting.
• No knowledge of bees required!

Enter your bee counts online or send us your paper form.

Check it out at GreatSunflowerProject!

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How can I put this.....We LOVE Lapbooks!  If you don't know what a lapbook is...it's simple.  To us, it's like a miniture version of a Project Report/Scrapbook of what you have just learned.   You can choose from a myriad of styles.  We always use file folders and keep it simple and neat.  I help to gather the materials and offer advice of placement but after that...it is all hers.

Here's one Princess created after we completed 'Colonial Times' in history while using 'Time Travelers'.'

This is the outside of the Colonial Lapbook.  It was so much fun helping to put this together!!!

If you would like to begin with a lapbook that would get you started, click on over to Hands of a Child  where you can download a FREEBIE project and lapbook template.  Then you can order additional lapbook materials from them that make it easy.  Enjoy!!!

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One attribute that I would pray the Lord writes on my children's hearts is ministering to other's needs.   I am reminded of what Jesus said, "What you do to the least of these, you have done to me." 

 The homeschool moms in our homeschool group feel the same and one of the moms planned a very sweet project for us.  We met at our local library and the children all made happy, cheerful cards.  The children later will deliver these precious little cards to the elderly at our local nursing home.  What a brilliant idea to teach our children humility and caring for the elderly in our community.  We didn't tell the children what to write in the cards but I noticed quietly that a majority of the cards mentioned God and the children loving them.  These are children making cards for total strangers but felt led to extend the love that they know Christ has for them.  It brings tears to my eyes even now. 

Thank you Lord for the sweet, unfiltered love that our children have for others.

See if you can read what her card says at the bottom?!   "God loves you so much"

I am so blessed by her!

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After taking off for President's Day yesterday, we are back to work and having tons of fun with science.   After a long, cold winter what is better than to get outside on our first warm day and do experiments with plants?  

As we continue our 2 or 3 week study of biology, a wonderful resource for a simplified view of plants and their life cycle is  Biology of Plants.  It's has a very comprehensive, but visual explanation that we needed.  We dug into lots of detail by learning the anatomy of a seed, a leaf, a plant and a flower thanks to EnchantedLearning.com.   We watched a lengthy video by a student on "Seeds and Plants" at Studio4Learning.  And last but not least, I have found a wonderful author who has quite a menagrie of simple experiments in his books.  The author's name is Robert W. Wood.  In the last photo, you can see the book of his that we used for biology but since then I found out through the library that he has a huge book that encompasses experiments for ALL science areas: geography, chemistry, meteorology, geology, animal biology, plant biology and engineering.  It is called The McGraw-Hill big book of science activities Fun and Easy experiments for Kids. 

Here Princess is placing a small piece of paper to the top of a leaf  to find the answer to why plants have leaves?  By covering up a small portion of the leaf, we'll find that the plant can't produce chlorophyll if the sun can't penetrate the leaf. 

Here you can see the small square of paper on our leaf on the right-hand side.  We left it outside in the sun for 3 days before our conclusion.

Here in her science journal it says "where the square was on the leaf, it was lighter which proves that sunlight couldn't penetrate and it was unable to make chlorophyll.  She then drew some leaves and their veins.

Thank you Lord for this fun opportunity!

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I cry out to you Lord and thank You in advance like John when he said ' Father, I thank you that you have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me."  (John 11:41b-42)  I pray confidently and with new fervor that you will answer the desires of my heart.  You know me and love me and have plans to prosper me.  I strive to be obedient to you today Lord and give You glory for all that You will do through me!"

What a beautiful morning!  We couldn't wait to get outside again today! Gorgeous.  Princess and I are in awe of the enormous amount of birds who have already made their way back home for the Spring.  While walking, we could hear the 'chorus' and I then praised the Lord for His awesome gift to us.  Birds singing makes me happy.  Doesn't it you?

Yesterday in Science we were answering the question, "How do Plants Prevent Erosion?"  Here's what was written by mOm in our Nature Journal after the experiment:  Our materials only consisted of an unwanted couple of weeds and water.  Princess softened the ground around the weed with water. After one minute, she carefully pulled the plant from the ground.  Princess said, 'I pulled the root up and the root system was strong and hard. I noticed soft soil was black and being held onto by the roots. It was cool how the roots keep the dirt from washing away."

 Princess looking at the roots securing the soil even when lifted away from the ground!

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Thank you Lord! The weather is much more enjoyable today!  Princess literally begged to go out to walk for our P.E. today since we've been stuck inside exercising for a while now.  Then we did an extra 'lap' around the neighborhood!  It's about 55 degrees with plenty of warm sunshine and the slightest breeze....feels like heaven to us.  One of the roosters came to meet us as we came back from our walk.

Our bible studies this week will include the study of King David from 1Samuel 16 through 2Samuel 8.  We'll have in-depth study and use our worksheets to reinterate that knowledge located here.

Our language arts this week is through Time4Learning.  The chapter includes a story about 'Maps and Globes' where we'll get our questions, phonics and spelling words.  There is a full packet where she will practice writing sentences as well as work on reading comprehension.  She just loves it! 

Social Studies focuses midway through American Revolution TImes.   The spine will be the text pages from Time Travelers.   We have come to the portion of the era where the troubles begin in Boston.  Some of the projects will be:  writing famous quotes in cursive; making a 'bad news in Boston' map showing Paul Revere & Dawes route and the patriots route to Lexington & Concord; scrolls of important documents such as the book 'Common Sense' by Thomas Paine and The Declaration of Independence; profile of Benjamin Franklin; and being a 'compositor'  like Ben.   Our living books are: 'Toliver's Secret', 'Revolutionary War on Wenesday', Faith of our Founding Father',  and 'George vs. George The American Revolution as seen from both sides."

Science will be very fun with our continuation of Botany.  I borrowed the BEST book from our library called, 'Science for Kids 39 easy Plant Biology Experiments' by Robert W. Wood.   Alongside our study of seeds, plants and trees will be very fun experiments answering such questions: How plants prevent erosion; Why plants have roots; Why plants have leaves; why plants need sunlight, and How plants breathe.

Grammar, Math and  Read Alouds will continue with diligence. 

As you can see, we are very busy and enthusiastic learners!! 

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This week has been a frosty one!  We aren't supposed to have 19 degree weather here in the south!!!  I'm sure it will go back to normal soon.

It's Friday afternoon and we are winding down after another great week.   I have been SO encouraged by Princess' huge desire to read-read-read this week.   Her confidence has grown by leaps and bounds.   We went through 11 books just on Thursday!  She couldn't get enough so I just went with it!  This is the best news that this book-loving mom and teacher could ever get !  I'm seeing incredible progress this year and it's all been worth it! 

Here is where I must give a shout-out to the public library.    Princess'  new love of reading (I think) is because of the very large selection of books that she has at her fingertips at any given moment.   In our state (and I hope all others too), you can search for books and normally SOMEWHERE in the state is a library that has it and they will send it to your local library for pickup.  I request many, many books that are relevent to our different lessons and in addition she is allowed to pick out many books that SHE wants to read to me that coming week.  We keep all of our library books displayed on our special Book Display.   Here are just a few of our current books:

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History...it's all HIS...story, right?  I have been so blessed by the christian-based education that is available to us if we just look. 

What a fun time we are having with our studies these days.  Last post I wrote about our Bible History and today is all about Social Studies History!  Aren't you just in love with the era of the American Revolution?  Teaching it to Princess.... it has come alive again.  I'm so excited about it that I just want to go up to people at the library or at church and say things like, "Did you realize the sweet romance story of George and Martha Washington?  Did you know what a man of faith he was?"  Of course, people would think I was a lunatic!

"The british are coming! The British are coming!"

We are using the history curriculum called Time Travelers.  We loved the one for 'Colonial LIfe" so we also got "The American Revolution".  The website is homeschoolinthewoods.com.  We absolutely LOVE the unit studies there.  We not only learn the text, dates and history but then we have activities that encompass creative writing, factfile cards, science experiments, penmanship(cursive) pages, recipes of the era, games, notbooking activities, crafts, and lapbook components.  One thing that Amy includes is a timeline which to me shows how God's history all fits together.  My daughter is getting the 'big picture' as she sees chronologically how the pieces of the puzzle fit together...simple!

Along with this supplement, I use other areas of intrigue for her to learn in-depth all about each era.  I was able to locate educational but interesting videos titled, "Liberty Kids".  We watched the animated video about the Boston Tea Party and she was glued!  There is another series of educational videos for kids called "Dear America."  Now these I could watch all day.  They are not animated but played out with historical detail obtained by diaries of actual people of that day and in the lives of young people!!!  Ours last week was called, "Winter of Red Snow  Pennsylvania 1977"      We watched it during our lunch break because we were so curious and she wanted to immediately watch it again.  We are so blessed!

Living Books for this era:

Magic Tree House:American Revolution & Revolutionary War on Wednesday                                          

George Vs. George-The American Revolution as seen from both sides

Things to Make and Do for George Washington's Birthday

Faith of our Founding Father-The spiritual Journey of George Washington

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A peek into our school day!

Some days I am overwhelmed with gratitude to my Lord and Savior for the priviledge of homeschooling!  This is one of those days!  Homeschooling for me is a very tedious, important role that I take very seriously that comes with much responsibility but FUN!!!   But it's one of the most rewarding and inspiring things the Lord has allowed me to do in my lifetime.  I can't explain the joy I feel of being a part of  my daughter wanting to learn and be intrigued by learning and discovery .......at HER pace.  Of course, I am there to nudge her constantly as she can get a little sidetracked....like her mom! haha 

But she enjoys learning and we have a blast. 

I am especially enjoying the subjects these days.  In our bible history studies we are following the pace (and book of the bible) that my she is learning in Sunday School.  Of course during the week we really dig into the scripture and see what God wants us to learn from the passages.  That way we can study it all week chronologically and then she puts it into action each Sunday morning.  1Samuel chapters 1 thru 4 is our focus this week.    I found a great resource of free bible story printables for each bible story:  Bible Story Printables  As you can see in the picture, she is coloring a picture of Samuel as a baby and then she'll fill in the blanks, do a crossword puzzle and word search.  FUN!

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Visit my friend to Enter a contest at BENMAKESTEN and win :

Monday, January 26, 2009

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We've had a very interesting holiday season this year.  We started Thanksgiving Day with 'Muscles' hugging the porcelain.   To his dismay, the Thanksgiving meal he had anticipated all year was unattainable.  We were all sad for him.  Later that afternoon, red polka dots began popping up all over.  You guessed it.........Chicken Pox at 15 years old!  He had a horrible next few days full of itching, restlessness, fever and body aches.   He's been monitored closely by our family doctor who has kept a very close eye on him to ensure no further complications occur. 

Decorating  is normally started on Thanksgiving evening when all the company has gone home.  This year however was altered so last nite we finished putting final touches on the tree.   Of course we save the honor of putting the angel on the tree to DaddyO.

I am so blessed with Family!

Princess enjoys decorating of her own designed tree!

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A Life Skill......tying a tie!

Muscles is growing up.  It'd been a while since he'd tied a tie so DaddyO gave him a refresher course.   Don't they look like they are having fun?

A little lesson before a big dance.

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Today was a beautiful day for a field trip with our homeschool group.  Our group is such a blessing to us.  We all live fairly close to each other and get together weekly.  This was a trip to 'Mule Days'.   We all began in long sleeves but the warm, Autumn sun make the outdoors bearable for us Southerners!

Part of our field trip with our group was to end up at the petting zoo and Princess went straight for the puppies!  We had a blast.  Thank you Lord for leading us to our wonderful group of friends.

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Whether you're young or old you have enjoyed the treasure of Beatrix Potter's stories, and we'd love for you to take part in the Peter Rabbit Book Giveaway! You can enter a chance to win a copy of The Tale Of Peter Rabbit

This giveaway will end at midnight, Friday, August 15th and the winner will be announced the following Monday. Please make sure you follow all the rules to be entered! We don't want to have to exclude anyone due to lack of participation!

Click on the following link to see directions of how to enter:

http://www.growingingraceonline.com/2008/07/portfolio-de-couturier-miss-potter-era.html

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Today is a gift from the Lord.  As I sit here listening to nature outdoors I am so thankful to the Lord for all His recent blessings.  Although we've had hardships in the past year, so many blessings have come forth.  Namely, I am able to be at home with my children and homeschool my youngest & be readily available for my oldest! The previous sentence is an awesome fruition  of faith in itself since I have prayed for 5 years to be able to be home...I can prove it to you in a prayer journal!! : ) 

I desire to be a modern-day Proverbs 31 woman who is virtuous in all respects of our household.  The Lord has revealed to me the importance of having a small farm full of food we've grown ourselves and using the land we have been blessed with to be profitable to our family showing our children what fun we can have in the process.  I also have the training and knowledge and contacts to be a profitable Mary Kay consultant who enriches women's lives and in return blesses my family with the money earned.

Thank you Jesus for loving me so much that you trust me with so much!

PLAYING IN THE RAIN!!

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Check out this great contest!  Fogware Publishing, owner of the Innovative Knowledge brand, offers over 200 educational titles for your home schooling needs.  They have adopted new technologies to help children learn by multi-sensory methods, using images on screen, text to read and narration by voice.  Each download includes learning objectives, review questions, discussion questions, debate questions, essay assignments, research assignments and other activities.

Two winners will receive credit for 5 subjects of their choice and will be able to download them all FREE!  The software can run on Windows or Mac, and you can even download the contents for your iPod!

So go to homeschoolblogger's front porch and leave a comment..it's that simple!  Here's the link:http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HSBCompanyBlog/513130/

shan

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I simply love this time of year.  It's pleasant outside and everything is green and alive again after the harsh cold and darkness of winter.  I love everything that Spring stands for to our family......

New Life in Christ!

He is Risen!

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Ok!  The cRaZy fArM has officially begun!  We are the proud owners of our first farm animals: 2 ducklings and 2 chickadees!!!

Her first chick named Sam!

His first chick, RED !

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