Workboxes for the Week

I thought I would try sharing our workbox plans for the week in a table (which is how I keep track of it).

Here is Makayla’s:

Mon.	Tues.	Wed.	Thur.	Fri.
Gospel	Gospel	Gospel	Gospel	Gospel
Math #17	Math facts	Math #17	Math facts	Math Test
Spelling Step 15	Spelling Step 16	Spelling Step 16	Spelling Step 17	Spelling Step 17
Write w/the Best	Write w/the Best	Write w/the Best	Write w/the Best	Write w/the Best
Music Study		Music Study		Music Study
	50 States	50 States	50 States	50 States
	Health		Health
	Artistic Pursuits
		Zoology		Zoology
		French		French

Here is the one for Joseph and Emma:

Mon.	Tues.	Wed.	Thur.	Fri.
Gospel	Gospel	Gospel	Gospel	Gospel
Math	Math	Math	Math	Math
Rocket Phonics	Rocket Phonics	Rocket Phonics	Rocket Phonics	Rocket Phonics
Writing Dry Erase	Writing Dry Erase	Writing Dry Erase	Writing Dry Erase	Writing Dry Erase
Read Aloud	Read Aloud	Read Aloud	Read Aloud	Read Aloud
Music Study		Music Study		Music Study
	Artistic Pursuits
		Zoology		Zoology
	Lit. Pockets		Lit. Pockets

Mine actually has lesson numbers for everything, but it wouldn’t fit here. I couldn’t quite get Makayla’s table to fit the edge either. I love making a table or list each week because it makes filling our workboxes quick and easy.

Help Comes at the Right Time

We are home with sick children today. We will try to spend the day focused on the Sabbath. While waiting for everyone to climb out of bed I came across two scriptures that speak to things that have been on my mind the last few days. I thought I would share them here.

“For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.” - Psalm 128:2

My husband and I have been talking and thinking about chores. You see, after having Oliver 6 months ago I became lazy. I started taking over many of the children’s chores for the simple reason that I could do things faster. With baby number five in the house I simply didn’t feel I could wait around and oversee little ones doing chores I could do myself. They still do a few little things, but I have taken over the majority of the chores.

There are a few problems with that. One being my children are not learning to work and contribute to the family. A bigger problem is that I am getting exhausted trying to care for and cleanup after a family of seven all by myself. Laundry and dishes alone need done several times a day: at least two loads of laundry (regular clothes and cloth diapers), and 3 loads of dishes. That doesn’t include all the other chores that need done, plus the homeschooling, spending time as a family, and life in general!

With all that in mind my husband and I made plans to create a chore chart or chore cards for our children this weekend, and to work on the fall schedule for our family to make times to do those chores. We will be working on that this evening hopefully.

Here is the second scripture:

“Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great. Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days.” - Doctrine and Covenants 64:33-34

When I read this it was one of those moments where the Spirit shows you the application to your life. I was not expecting it, but I am so grateful for the insights. Let me see if I can explain them. I’ll break the verse down and add the application.

1. “Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work.” – This was so encouraging to me. I feel overwhelmed sometimes at all the work involved in training my children to do things like chores, as well as in behavior areas of cheerful obedience, speaking kindly, and so on. I lose sight of the big picture(the great work) and then I do not share that big picture with my children. Just why is doing this chore important?
2. “And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.” – Have you ever jumped into something headfirst instead of taking baby steps? It makes me think of exercise. How many people jump into heavy exercise in January each year planning to “Lose weight” or “Get healthy”, only to burn out before the month is out? They don’t start where they are and make small changes, working up to where they would like to be. I was thinking of the chores in the same way – getting it all laid out the way I want it to be and expecting my children to happily and effectively start doing all sorts of chores with no learning curve. Instead, I need to make some long-range goals, but break it down into shorter steps to work our way there.
3. “Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind;” – this is what I want from my children too! Doing your chores wholeheartedly and cheerfully is totally different than doing your chores while complaining and procrastinating the whole time. How can I help my children to learn this lesson? How can I learn this lesson in my own life?
4. “and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days.” – okay, does anyone else see the obvious application here? It was one of those ‘duh’ moments for me. Getting the kids to do the work isn’t too hard. How can I encourage the right attitude when doing work, be it housework, school work, or some other work? Positive reinforcement! Rewarding the willing and obedient attitudes instead of focusing on consequences for the complaining and procrastinating attitudes. Yes, there are consequences for not doing the work. However, the consequences for doing the work with a bad attitude are the lost blessings that come to those who work cheerfully. This verse specifies eating the good of the land. What child doesn’t love a treat? I’m seeing all sorts of possibilities here.

Do you know what else this has reminded me? I have struggled and thought and prayed about what to do about my exhaustion and the chore situation for a while now. I have not received any answers. I counseled with my husband. Still no real answers. We committed to a plan of preparing chore cards this weekend. No confirmation arrived. Yesterday evening we started the actual work of creating chore lists to divide up for the family. This morning, after we had taken steps in faith to work on a solution, the confirmation comes through these verses. Not only a confirmation that we’re on the right path, but further light and knowledge to show us what to do on this path. God wants to help us, but He asks for sincere effort on our part as well. Once my husband and I made sincere effort to work on the problem God not only confirmed our direction, he gave us a better (more specific) plan!

Is there an area in your life where God is waiting for you to make sincere effort so He can bless you and help you?

Week in Review #13

Review items are arriving quickly at our house this week, so we are adjusting to the new state of flux. I recognize that God has a direct hand in this experience with the TOS Homeschool Crew for our family, and that most of His lessons are directed at me. I am learning flexibility, being willing to let go of my plans and joyfully follow His. At the moment that is taking the form of many items to review at once, which means many things for mommy to wrap her head around. It also means finding a good way to use each item in our family. My children have had a good week because each new package brings the feeling of Christmas. I am doing my best not to tell them a package is coming ahead of time even if I know. Now on to the report~

All the kids did:

1. Science – started Apologia Zoology 3. Technically we did Zoology 1 Lesson 1, which is free online and covers classification. We studied classification last year, so it was an easy review.
2. Artistic Pursuits – lots of fun making messes masterpieces.
3. Rocket Phonics – Makayla is acting as assistant teacher, Joseph and Emma are learning a lot while having fun. The games are the highlight by far, but both are using the reader too!

Makayla did:

1. Math U See – another lesson this week, she nearly has all the addition facts finished.
2. Write with the Best – the second week of a unit on describing an object. Makayla chose to describe her current favorite book character: Harry Potter.
3. All About Spelling – Flying through this still. She’s halfway through level one already – umm, anyone have level two? I really need to order it in a week or two.
4. Nutrition 101 – This is a review item. Back to God providing what we need, health was the one area I had not made major plans for. We’re learning about the brain and feeding it well this week. Next up is digestion. The book is meaty, so I’m getting a ton out of it, but simplifying for the kids, which means we can use it again at a much higher level later on.

Joseph and Emma did:

1. Rocket Phonics, which I mentioned above, but I want to mention again because they are really loving it.
2. Math – numbers, counting, and……
3. Puzzles – I have to tell about this because last week I mentioned needing to get out some harder puzzles for Joseph this week(bigger than 24 pieces). We went to the park and hit a yard sale on the way home over the weekend. They had tons of puzzles. I spent less than $10.00 and came home with 13 puzzles. They range from 63 pieces on up, including:

• a 3 ft tall Tigger puzzle
• themes like turtles, pandas, kites, Toy Story
• a Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? puzzle with accompanying book
• a 3D puzzle of the Egyptian Pyramids at Giza (my kids love Egypt)
• a 3D puzzle of the White House

Another blessing!

Next week watch for some new homeschool subjects (new review items) including a Composers study!

Almost to 100!

I just noticed today I have 99 followers. I nearly fell off my chair. When I started this blog I had no idea anyone outside of family would be interested in reading about our homeschool life. I enjoy getting to know you and reading your comments. I like checking out your blogs too. Thank you for joining me!

Update: Before the day was out I passed the 100 followers mark - I'm still amazed. Thank you!

Real Life – Today at My House

I thought tonight I would do a post just telling about today at my house. One of the reasons I write on this blog is to keep a journal. It has already been fun to look back in my archives and read about what we were doing a year or more ago. Five years down the road my family will be in different ages and stages. Today’s post is just to capture life at this point, and I may be the only person interested in reading it, but here it is anyway. It’s very long for a blog post, over 1400 words, or so my computer tells me. Read at your own risk!

At 5:45am Oliver was my little alarm clock, needing a diaper change and bottle. I kept the lights off (we finally found nightlights that are just the right amount of light!) and he drifted off to sleep by 6:00am. I headed downstairs intending to exercise in the peace and quiet.

First I checked my email. Miraculously, I did not get sucked into the black hole of computer time. Five minutes later I started the 2 mile Walk Away the Pounds DVD. It is about 30 minutes long, and a challenge for me right now. Yes, I am totally out of shape, and my baby Oliver will be 6 months old tomorrow.

Ten minutes into the DVD Emma stumbled down the stairs complaining that I had not come up to snuggle her for bedtime yet. The poor girl didn’t realize it was morning because it was still dark. After reassuring her that I had snuggled her before bed and it was already morning she snuggled down on the couch to watch me exercise. Just what I wanted, an audience. I was committed now though, already sweating, so when Joseph trotted down the stairs at the 1 1/2 mile marker it didn’t matter. After the DVD I did 75 crunches – I’ll be feeling those tomorrow. I turned on a Magic School Bus video for the two early risers and hopped in the shower. By the time I was dry and dressed it was 7:00am. I woke Makayla and Daniel for breakfast.

While I made breakfast(cereal for the kids and a bean burrito and apple for me) the girls went outside to feed the cats. Everyone then ate quickly, except for Emma, my slow eater. She talks and daydreams and talks some more. Every meal takes at least 35 minutes to finish, often more. I don’t see how she can eat cold, soggy cereal, but she does. She even drinks the milk from the bowl. As Makayla left the table she reminded me we are to start homeschool early, at 8:00am, trying out fall schedule. (I’ll post about it later, when we’ve worked out the kinks.)

The kids go get dressed, brush hair and teeth, and play. I wash the dishes, start a load of cloth diapers washing, and check my TOS Review Crew message boards.

At 8:00am I call for Makayla. First up is Math U See. I didn’t look at the teacher’s manual because I knew we were learning the facts that add up to 8. We practiced those facts with magnetic numbers on the dry erase board. Makayla struggled a bit, which surprised me. I sent her to do the next workbook page for those facts only to discover that we were supposed to be working on facts that add up to 9, not 8. No wonder she struggled, she had not learned the 8’s on Monday! Oh well. She did her worksheet in less than 5 minutes. While she was doing it I took turns with Emma and Joseph. I gave them the pile of magnetic numbers and asked them to build a number train with things in the right order. Both of them did great. Then Daniel wanted to play too so we did the colors of those numbers. He’s getting a few right consistently.

We moved on to Rocket Phonics for Joseph and Emma. First I alternated showing one or the other of them a letter card to say the sound. Makayla played with Daniel and his own cards, naming the pictures. That only took 5 minutes. Next was a game where each was handed a card and sent to find something that began with the sound on the card. Makayla gave Joseph cards, I gave Emma cards, and Daniel simply ran around after everyone. Rocket Phonics is a hit at my house so far.

At this point Makayla began health. We’re reviewing Nutrition 101. Yesterday she made a guacamole recipe from a chapter about good fats and the brain. Today she made a notebook page where she recorded ingredients and directions, as well as grading the recipe. This sheet is one of a set of notebooking pages I’m creating as we go through this book.

While Makayla did this the younger kids went to play, Oliver woke up and I changed his diaper, played with him for a minute, then put him in the Exer-Saucer in the kitchen to watch while I ground wheat and baked bread. Somewhere in that process I also talked on the phone to my sister and promised to watch her two boys while she took her daughter to the doctor this afternoon. I also switched loads of laundry. Makayla finished the notebook page and went to play. I fed Oliver a bottle, got snack for the kids (goldfish type crackers), and called Makayla back for spelling.

Spelling went great. Yesterday Daddy was a superman and helped rearrange the computer/homeschool area so my treadmill was out of the way enough to hang the magnetic dry erase board we use for All About Spelling (among other things) on the wall. So now we can do spelling right with the rest of the family, and the younger kids get turns with letter tiles and sounds. Makayla flew through another lesson and grabbed Write with the Best. Today’s assignment was to discuss the 5 requirements of a good paragraph. She made a page of notes listing what she learned, then looked back through some books to see if they followed the rules. During this time the bread finished baking, Joseph, Emma, and Daniel played upstairs, and Oliver sat on my lap drooling and chewing my fingers. Then everyone did a 5 minute pickup of the house.

Science started today. All the kids snuggled on the couch while we read out of our book and talked about how God created the animals then had Adam name the animals. We learned about how scientists give creatures names in Latin, and how they put everything into groups like Kingdom, Phylum, Class, etc. These groups get more and more specific. We learned the term Binomial Nomenclature and then went to the dining room to come up with our own mnemonic to remember the divisions in classification from Kingdom all the way down to Species. Daniel’s favorite part was drawing on the dry erase board.

Oliver fell asleep for a nap and the kids and I made lunch(fresh bread with peanut butter and jelly, or banana, or apple butter). Then the kids got out Legos and I got some work done on the computer. Oliver decided he didn’t want a long nap. Sigh. He’s too young to start cutting out naps, but try to tell him that. My sister arrived early. We chatted then I got Daniel to sleep for nap, put my bigger kids into their beds for quiet time listening to an audio book (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), and my nephews got to play Xbox for 20 minutes each, something I had promised a few days ago.

After that the kids all played Legos, Oliver fell asleep again, and finally my nephews headed home. It was time for Artistic Pursuits lesson 3 – drawing from a photograph. The kids had fun. They always do when making a mess is involved. Daniel tried drinking the water he was using for his paintbrush too – yuck! Thank goodness for non-toxic materials.

The kids decided to watch an episode of Planet Earth (Great Plains) and we had a wonderful time watching God's creations. During this a package arrived in the mail - more review items! This packages was from Bright Ideas Press. We knew it was coming, but we did not know for sure what would be in it. We had been asked to list two items we would be willing to review, one of which Bright Ideas Press would send to us. We were thrilled and totally blessed to find both our choices in the package! Keep an eye out for information about Hands-On Geography and A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers in a few weeks.

At this point the kids were free for the day, so I’ll sum up the rest. They played, Daddy came home and we made dinner, told scripture stories, played in the backyard, had some cookies and milk, watched part of Journey to the Center of the Earth, I did some research on the Young Writer’s Program for NaNoWriMo, and then everyone went to sleep. Except for me. I typed this post. It is now time for me to sleep as well, so good night!

I’m Trying NaNoWriMo – I think…

I happen to be a visual print learner. That means I learn best when seeing print (makes sense, no?). My husband thinks I am totally weird because when visualizing things, I visualize words. Really. My visual picture memory is not great. I have a hard time picturing what color shirt I put on the kids earlier in the day, or seeing a face or place or thing in my mind. When given a choice between reading the instructions or seeing a diagram I’ll take the written instructions any day.

I would like to think all that translates into being a great writer, but it doesn’t. I can write passably well. No masterpiece has flowed from my pen yet. I still enjoy writing, as is evident from my persistent blogging. I discovered an activity just for me – NaNoWriMo !

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It is celebrated every November as people around the globe put pen to paper in an attempt to write a 175 page(50,000 word)novel in a month. Value is placed on output, not perfection.

Being naive and enthusiastic, I have signed up to participate this November. Knowing my enthusiasm may wane, I am making this post so my readers can hold me accountable. Not only that, but my readers can join me! While 50,000 words seems like a lot, it is only 1667 words per day. That is doable, right?

You can learn more about NaNoWriMo, or it’s counterpart for young writers(with individualized goals you set for your young writer) at the official website.

Will I write 50,000 words in November? Maybe, maybe not. The important thing is the fun I will have just trying. Oh, and all the chocolate I’ll eat while writing – because, after all, chocolate is brain food! Brains thrive on sugar – honest. You can look it up. Fats and sugar. Which means I need to start stocking up on dark chocolate, hot chocolate, and some peppermint….mmm.

Clothing in the Mom Store

I have mentioned in passing one of our financial solutions to clothing our growing family of children is to keep some for later children to use. I also shop sales, end of season clearance, thrift stores, resale shops, Craigslist, and so on. HERE is a post about a recent Craigslist purchase.

The challenge then becomes “What do I do with all these clothes my children are not currently wearing?”. Many families have their own system. I do not claim that ours it the only way, or even the best way, but it is what works for us. We use 18 gallon tubs and call it the Mom Store. When children need clothing in a new size or for a new season they go shop in the Mom Store. It is a lot of fun!

As we have made some recent purchases it was time to grab more 18 gallon tubs (on sale at Wal-Mart) to do our seasonal sort. I thought you might be interested to see pictures of how we spent Saturday evening. The kids were a lot of help and had fun during the evening. Daddy provided the muscle to haul all those clothes up and down stairs. Here is a picture Daddy took midway through the process. Yes, I really do love organizing – see my smile?

Basically, we label a tub (or two or three) with a particular size. Right now we have tubs for the following sizes:

• 0-3 months
• 3-6 months
• 6-9 months
• 12 months
• 24 months/2T
• 3T
• 4T
• 5T
• 6/6x
• 7/8
• 9/10+
• Mommy maternity and non-maternity
• Shoes

In some sizes there is more than one tub full of clothes because we have boy and girl clothes for all seasons. And the bigger the clothes get the more space they take up.

Here is a picture of all the tubs in the basement. There are currently 24 tubs. We need to put one more with the new shoes we picked up for boys on Craigslist.

Not bad for our own store. If you live near me feel free to pass along any clothes your children have outgrown – I would love to add them to the Mom Store!

Web Design for Kids (…and Curious Grownups!) Review

Several weeks ago an unexpected package arrived in our mailbox. It was another item to review as part of the TOS Homeschool Crew! Inside was this:

Web Design for Kids (…and Curious Grownups!) is a DVD published by Click Drag Solutions. I didn’t know what to think. My oldest is only 8, would she be able to use this? This DVD teaches 10 basic lines of HTML code, as well as simple enhancements like changing colors, letters, and backgrounds, adding pictures and even making words scroll across the screen. Forget my 8 year old, would I be able to do this?

We have two computers, one an old laptop that is running the Beta version of Windows 7, one a new desktop that is running Windows Vista. Once Daddy came home we set up Makayla with the laptop, Mommy with the desktop, and Daddy with the remote to pause the DVD as needed.

The DVD made things clear and easy to follow for the most part. Makayla does not have keyboarding skills however, which meant that the DVD had to be paused every minute or so for her to type. I think a slightly older child familiar with typing or an adult would have been able to do the it without pausing much. Web Design for Kids is about 1 hr 22min long, but it took us nearly a week to complete due to our slow pace.

Makayla liked it and created not one, but 3 web pages. I learned a lot too. Now I can get into my blog code and play around with things!

The only problems we had with the DVD were related to our operating systems. Vista and Windows 7 have points where they differ from the instructions. As long as an adult is there to help the student it is no problem. Here are the ones I specifically noted:

1. In both operating systems the taskbar is hidden on any given page. You simply can’t see those words “File, Edit, View” and so on. Thankfully my computer smart husband knew the simple trick to have them appear (click Alt). However, you have to do this each time you need access to one of these menus, and the DVD does not explain that. There is no way Makayla (or I) would have figured it out on our own.
2. When you first open Notepad you are instructed to adjust the Font settings to Arial, with Font Style set to Regular. Vista doesn’t have Regular as an option! I used Italic under Font Style and it worked fine.
3. Throughout Web Design for Kids the student is instructed to open the web page in progress with Windows Explorer. Then they use View : Source to access their code and make changes. On Windows 7 and Vista however, clicking View : Source does not bring up your code in Notepad, but in an Internet Explorer type window. That means you cannot edit the code right there. Instead we had to go back to our folder where we had saved the web page and Right Click. We chose the menu item Open with… and under Open With… was the Notepad program. That did the trick, but again, the DVD does not tell you how to do this, we had to have Daddy show us.

I really think the issues we had are not addressed because Windows Vista came out after Web Design for Kids was produced, and Windows 7 has not even been officially released yet! We just happen to have the Beta version.

Would I purchase Web Design for Kids? Yes! As a matter of fact the second DVD is scheduled for release this fall and we are making plans to purchase it. Makayla and I both enjoyed it and will continue playing around with what we have learned until the next one is available.

Web Design for Kids (… and Curious Grownups) is regularly $40.00, but is on sale this summer for $19.99 +3.99S&H. Check it out HERE.

Want to read more reviews? Check out the rest of the Homeschool Crew's thoughts HERE.

(Disclaimer: I received this product free of charge to review as part of my experience with The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I receive no other compensation and my reviews are my opinion only.)

Week in Review #12

Twelve weeks is three months folks! Today was day 55 – we’re doing some fun celebrating for our 100th day, which will be sometime late October or early November.

Joseph and Emma have done Rocket Phonics and are still enjoying it. Who doesn’t enjoy games? It was really sweet today to see them all playing Sound Bingo and including Daniel in the game with his own bingo board and chips. I think they are finally learning the best way to get him to leave their pieces alone is to give him his own!

Joseph and Emma really have not done much in the way of math skills this week other than puzzles (spatial reasoning and logic). They are both getting better at puzzles. Joseph flies through 24 piece ones, while Emma completes them at her own pace. I need to pull out some 63 piece puzzles for Joseph to try next week I think. They simply haven’t been interested in math this week and so I’ve capitalized on their interest in Rocket Phonics instead.

They also had fun with Artistic Pursuits with Makayla and Daniel, which you can read all about in THIS post. Everyone went on to create more watercolor pictures on another day for fun, and Joseph and Emma seem to have certain themes they’re sticking with at the moment.

The other thing I saw happen a lot this week was Joseph pretending to be the Professor at Barnett College and teaching Emma with some of their completed lapbooks. I love lapbooks for just this reason! The kids go back and play with them and remember everything they learned months before. The most popular ‘class’ Joseph taught was Hermit Crab 101 with the A House for Hermit Crab lapbook.

Daniel’s week has been good too. He has fully come into his verbal explosion stage. I can’t even list all the words he’s picked up in the last month, it is simply too many. I love this stage. Hearing their sweet little voice ask for something or answer you is precious. The two that have made me laugh this week from Daniel:

1. “Super Spy” – he’s asking to watch the Backyardigans International Super Spy DVD.
2. “Yes ma’am.” – this just started yesterday. At our house we work really hard on the children responding “Yes ma’am” or “Yes sir” when an adult speaks to them. It is still a work in progress, but has cut off the long negotiations we were getting when we asked certain children to do a task. Yesterday and today both I’ve asked Daniel to do something and he’s responded with “Yes ma’am” and done what I asked!

Makayla is doing so much better than last year at this time in homeschool! Last year her first response to several subjects, especially math and writing, was to whine, murmur, and drag out the process f-o-r-e-v-e-r. We still get the occasional day like that, but they are few and far between.

This week she did math without complaining, learning the 10’s friends. Those are the addends that add up to 10: 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6, 5+5, and 0+10. She is continually reviewing the other facts too, and is retaining what she’s learned. The Math U See blocks really seem to make things stick for her. I’m so glad!

Spelling progressed through 4 lessons. She likes All About Spelling, though I need to find somewhere to put up the magnetic dry erase board we use for the letter tiles. For now we simply lean it against the freezer, but Daniel likes to join in and knock off all the tiles. It’s a little frustrating.

Makayla began a new review item, Write With the Best volume 1. I was not sure how it would go, it is written for grades 3 – 12, and writing is not her strong suit. I love how this is set up. Each unit helps you practice descriptive writing, the first one is describing an object, and the literature selection is from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – not easy reading by any means. Each day is broken down into objectives. This week she has focused in on identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in the passage, using a thesaurus to replace general nouns and verbs with more specific ones, and so on. She’s learned 3 characteristics of the best writing and looked for them in this passage. Next week she’ll be applying what she’s learned to write her own paragraphs describing an object. She really enjoyed Write with the Best this week because she likes grammar. I’m hoping that will carry her through next week when writing!

Next week we’ll be starting up science I think, and health. That will leave geography for September.

Happy Homeschool Day in Pictures

I wanted to share a few pictures from our party with other homeschoolers today. You can read my earlier post HERE about what we’re celebrating.

It’s been a rainy day so we stayed inside to play. There were 5 moms and 17 children between us at my house. The ages of the children: 8, 7, 7, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, and 5 mos. That is 11 girls and 6 boys. I got some pictures of snack time I wanted to share. First is the assembly line of plates being prepared:

Next are pictures trying to catch all 17 children. We had some eating at the table, at the desks, and on a blanket.

Here I am after the party was over:

Everyone had fun – both the children and the mothers. We’ll be doing this again sometime for sure!

Oh, and here’s a few pictures of my kids enjoying their cinnamon rolls this morning before everyone came to play:

After several requests here is a link to my cinnamon roll recipe.

Happy NOT Back to School! or Happy Homeschooling!

Today is our local school district’s first official day for 2009-2010. Following our yearly tradition we take this day off! We start our day making homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and waving as the big yellow bus drives past without stopping. The rest of the day is spent having fun and celebrating our freedom to work education into the family’s schedule instead of family into the government run education schedule.

Other homeschooling families are coming to play in the backyard in the morning. We'll have a picnic of snacks when kids get hungry. After that my family will play as many of our games as we want.

If the weather cooperates we will play outside in the afternoon enjoying the sprinkler – it is still summer after all! If it rains then we’ll play outside in God’s sprinkler. If it pours then we will bring our games out to the covered porch and play while we listen to the rain and watch the patterns water make on the windows.

When Daddy comes home it is movie time with some popcorn, pillows, blankets, and the lights turned out.

How will your children spend the day? Do you get to choose or is the government choosing for you?

Organizing Closets

I have a confession to make. While I have a obsessive-compulsive healthy organizing gene, I still don’t think of the perfect solution right away. Or even within a year or two.

If you have several children like I do you probably own a few toys. Especially when there are loving grandparents to buy toys. We like to collect sets that can be played with together, like a set of cars, a set of dolls, a set of animals, and so on. We also have to keep toys for a range of ages. We still have and are currently using the infant and toddler toys, as well as toys for slightly older children. Our long-time solution has been to sort the toys into Rubbermaid tubs and stack the tubs in the kids’ closets. Ahem. Stack is a loose term.

Those closets have a latch across the top to keep the kids out, and each week the children choose a tub to play with, which comes out of the closet. It was a pain to go through the closet of tumbling tubs every week. I hated it. Jason hated it. But for several years we had no better solution.

Last Saturday inspiration struck when the kids asked to have the closets left unlocked for free access. I really liked the idea of not having to help them get new toys out every week. But being the responsible mom I am, I simply couldn’t unlock the closets and let them be crushed under the avalanche that would ensue. We also do not own the right kind of tools to build shelving into the closets. Buying the organized shelving made for closets was way out of the budget too! However some handy garage shelving units would:

- fit the tubs we already used.

- fit the closets.

- cost under $70.00 for both closets, unlike the ‘systems’ you can buy that are really for closets and cost several hundred dollars per closet.

Here is the girls’ closet:

Here is the boys’ closet:

I’m working on some labels with pictures, as well as training the kids to pick up each tub of toys and shelving it when done playing. It is Wednesday. The verdict so far – I love it!

Art Workboxes

We still use our workboxes daily, I just don't even remember to mention them because they are such a part of our routine now. I thought I would share how workboxes keep me ready for art. We are using the Artistic Pursuits curriculum this year. In the front of the first book for K-3 is a page titled Materials. The author has four groups of materials listed on the left of the page, and even the lessons those materials will be used on the right side of the page. She suggests storing the groups of items in separate containers ready for art class. We loved the idea, so we have 4 art workboxes. Box 1 has our Artistic Pursuits book and group 1 materials (pencils, paper, and more). Box 2 has group 2 materials(watercolor paper, paintbrushes, and watercolor crayons). You get the idea. When it is time for art class one of the kids grabs the book and appropriate box of materials and off we go. Take today for example:

For lesson 2 in Artistic Pursuits the kids learned about imagining and how it relates to art. They studied the oil painting I and the Village by Marc Chagall, painted in 1911:

Interesting, isn’t it? My kids liked finding the silly things like two upside down houses. Last week we drew things we had seen. This wee we were able to talk about how we could choose to draw things we had seen, but change details to make something new.

Our art project was to imagine a picture and draw it. After drawing in pencil we colored our pictures with watercolor crayons. I had heard of watercolor paint and watercolor pencils, but what do you know – the make watercolor crayons too!

My children did not know what watercolors do when you add water. They were thrilled when I told them there was one more step to our art today – painting our pictures with water! Here are the boys:

Here are the girls:

I love that Daniel enjoys coloring and joins in too! I have to say Artistic Pursuits is making it easy for me to incorporate great works of art, art history, art techniques, and art appreciation in our homeschool, as well as appropriate projects to go along with what we learn. We will definitely be getting more of the Artistic Pursuits curriculum – they have books for preschool through high school.

Life Lessons and Homeschooling

Today had lots of plans squished into one day. Makayla needed to do some specific homeschool lessons including starting Write with the Best volume 1. Joseph and Emma had a new lesson in Rocket Phonics to try. Mommy had to make a trip to Staples in the early morning to get some binding done on new e-books. There was an air duct serviceman coming this morning too. Then this afternoon we were to watch my sister’s 3 kids while she had an appointment with her midwife. They would then be staying for dinner. Not to mention the laundry, cleaning, and other tasks to accomplish today!

Everything was rolling along well. Several items were finished before the serviceman arrived. I had never had air ducts cleaned before, so I had no clue what was involved. I thought we would simply keep rolling along with our day while the work got done. I was wrong.

First of all, the hoses and vacuums are really loud. Loud enough that you couldn’t hear the kids unless they were next to you. And those hoses stretch out the front door to the truck. Open doors are just an invitation to Daniel so I was a bit worried.

Second of all, furniture and things needed moved around to get better access to vents(thankfully my husband was here for this).

Third, and really most important, my children love to visit with anyone who carries a tool into our home. Johnny was a friendly man with a Louisiana accent. I think patience is also high on his list of good qualities because he was here for 3 hours with my 4 older children trailing along behind him peppering him with stories and questions. Not only was Johnny patient, he was great with children. He let all 4 big kids help him! From using the air compressor and hoses, to looking in the vents with flashlights to make sure they were getting clean, he let them help him. Here is the one picture I got of the process, and it’s not a great one, so forgive the fuzziness:

Oliver was pretty good during this time. He didn’t mind all the loud noise. As a matter of fact here is what he did for most of the visit:

I was able to get some reading done in a new review book while snuggling my baby on the couch. The only down side was he’s teething and my shirt was soaked from his drool. But hey – he’s still the cutest baby I know!

We did get the homeschooling done eventually. The most important lessons today though were the ones my children learned because they were home. They practiced hospitality to family and strangers. They had true socialization, interacting with people in a wide range of ages(5 months up to 50years); instead of the false socialization a child gets in a classroom of children all born within a year of the same date. My children learned more about caring for our home first hand. They got mini lessons in air circulation and dust. They learned that even a child can make a difference in someone’s day when they smile, talk nicely, and ask questions.

I am glad for the blessing of unplanned lessons!

The Quarter Mile Math Deluxe Review

What do race cars and horses have to do with math? They make it fun to practice!

We were blessed to receive a 2 year subscription for The Quarter Mile Math Deluxe from Barnum Software for our family to review. I have to say I love being part of the TOS Crew. This came at a great time for Makayla, who is working diligently on mastering her addition facts.

The game has a choice of themes: horses or race cars (which you can switch anytime). Makayla chose horses and began picking topics to try. She went with +0 facts for an easy intro. When the student pushes the start button math facts appear at the bottom of the screen. As they type the answer their horse begins to run. Each answer speeds up your horse until the quarter mile has been run. There are no penalties for a wrong answer. As the child repeats the race the 5 other horses in the race run too. The great thing – you aren’t racing the computer! Those other horses run your 5 best races in that topic. You are simply racing against your own personal best.

Even Joseph and Emma were able to use Quarter Mile Math Deluxe. No, I don’t have any math geniuses. Some of the topics available include keyboarding skills! From single and double digits to the alphabet and more, this software has something for everyone. The Deluxe version contains 323 topics and over 70,000 problems for grades K-9.

My kids all enjoyed it. The asked to play it most days. The Deluxe version has great tracking features. I was able to see each student’s progress over time, their best scores, how many races they completed sorted by date (as well as a grand total), how many correct answers were given daily (as well as a grand total), and all of it was on one screen. Talk about a time saver! It is even printable for our records.

The Quarter Mile Math Deluxe is a subscription service and does require internet access because the information is stored online, but students never get on the web. Another fun feature is that families can do real-time tournaments on multiple computers, which would be handy for older kids. For a subscription I find it to be very affordable:

• $2.95 per family per month
• $19.95 per family for one year (save $15.45 over one year)
• $34.95 per family for two years (save $35.85 over two years)

If you want to buy Quarter Mile Math and use it without the internet they do sell other options, however you lose a lot of the tracking features, as well as the real time tournaments. You can purchase 3 levels individually or in bundles for $39.95 - $89.95.

SPECIAL OFFER: Use the Referral Code 7J7Z7 for $5 off any product--Standard or Deluxe. This Referral Code will be good until September 30.

Want to read more reviews? Check out the rest of the Homeschool Crew's thoughts HERE.

(Disclaimer: I received this product free of charge to review as part of my experience with The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I receive no other compensation and my reviews are my opinion only.)

Wonderful Craigslist Purchases!

At my house we keep clothing sorted by size in large tubs for boys and girls. As a new season approaches we go ‘shopping’ in the Mom Store for clothes. The kids have a blast. Each season change, but especially at the end of winter, I grab clothing at Wal-Mart on clearance. However Makayla and Joseph are the oldest children, so there is nothing to pass down in the Mom Store usually. Instead we try the resale shops when we can, or things like Craigslist.

As I mentioned in my last post, I had a pickup from my local Craigslist today. A wonderful mom was clearing out clothes and shoes in several sizes that her boys had outgrown. Most of the clothing and shoes are name brand and in great condition. I spent what is, for us, a very large chunk of money - $75.00. It sounds bad when you say it like that. Want to know how much I spent per item?

Less than 75 cents per item!

That’s right, I came home with 82 pieces of nice, name brand clothing:

• pants
• shirts
• shorts
• jackets
• pajamas

I also brought home 20 pair of boots, tennis shoes, rain boots, and sandals with brands like:

• Tommy
• Buster Brown
• Timberland
• Bugle Boy
• Stride Rite
• Stride Rite
• Cross Trackers

It was a great day!

Unexpected Yard Sale Finds

Early this morning Daddy and I took the kids to a local playground for some fun before the heat began to rise. On the way home we saw a series of yard sales all along one street. We really do not get out yard sale shopping as often as we should, but we decided to check them out. I actually have a pickup later this afternoon from our local Craigslist, which we often find to be more convenient than yard sales because you get what you’re looking for specifically.

Well here is what we found at the yard sale:

Five shirts for Mommy, one pair of pants, and one pretty tie top for over dresses.

Three pair of pants, a shirt, and a onsie for a baby girl.

Three shirts for Makayla.

Grand total for 15 items: $3.00 Yes, that is 20 cents a piece!

I Go to Feed the Cats - Eww! by Makayla

The following is Makayla's latest story:

I have two outside cats. Their names are Butterscotch and Cookie. They sleep in the garage. Their food and water are in the garage.

I feed them at breakfast. I feed them at dinner. I sometimes feed them when we play outside.

One night I went to feed the cats. I heard a sound. I ran in the house! I told dad to come and see what it was.

Dad went to see what it was. It was a SKUNK sleeping in the garage! The next morning it was gone.

The End.

This is a true story.

Week in Review #11

I love those weeks where everything goes smoothly in homeschool. We are still using workboxes, which have made Makayla nicely independent on many of her subjects. Workboxes have also given Joseph and Emma the opportunity to do activities right when they are ready because all the materials are in the box. No need to wait for mom to find everything. Workboxes are wonderful!

Joseph and Emma both started Rocket Phonics this week. It’s been a lot of fun. Both kids were sounding out two and three letter combinations this week based off 9 letters. There are tons of games involved too, like Letter Swat and Bingo. Our version of Letter Swat used plastic spatulas to swat the card for each sound that was called out. The kids thought it was hysterical. Then we took it a step further and they used those spatulas to balance a card and walk an obstacle course. When they reached the destination they shouted out the sound of their card and headed back for more.

Makayla was able to get in on the fun of Rocket Phonics as a teacher. She’s able to help Joseph and Emma practice the sounds with cards or run one of the games all on her own! We’ve done a mix of everybody working together or one child working on games with Makayla while the other child is somewhere quieter reading out of the readers with mom, then switching places.

Besides Rocket Phonics the preschoolers have kept playing with puzzles and keyboarding with Quarter Mile Math.

All the kids started Artistic Pursuits together too. The first lesson was on composing a picture. We discussed the painting A Boy Bringing Pomegranates, and how the artist composed the picture carefully to draw your eye to specific details:

Everyone then had to compose (draw) a picture of something they had seen in the last day or two using ebony pencils. As the kids finished their drawing it was labeled on the back with their name and the date. then I took down their narration(description of what they drew) on an index card labeled with the matching name and date. If I keep on top of that we’ll be able to make a fun portfolio of each child’s artwork at the end of the year with their own descriptions of the art!

Makayla’s week was atypical in some ways. She hit a point in Math U See where she already knew the material for several lessons very very well. Instead of having to drag along with an entire class of students she was simply able to show me the concepts and take the chapter tests. In one week Makayla tested through a section review and 4 chapters! I’ll have to look at the next few lessons this weekend and see if there are more to test through or if we’re back to material she has not mastered yet. She also kept working with Quarter Mile Math to practice her math facts and keyboarding skills.

Makayla finished two more sections in Web Design at the time of this post, with plans to finish the final two sections of the DVD later today.

Makayla’s writing this week was editing and rewriting her skunk story, which I will share in the next post. Next week we will begin a new review item, Write with the Best volume 1, which is a writing curriculum for grades 3-12. I’m hoping she enjoys it, it looks like something she will like.

Makayla’s first week of All About Spelling was fun. She really liked it. Level One has 24 steps, or concepts, to master. Makayla is on Step 6. I know she’s going to fly through some of this because she reads well, and we will move into Level Two after Christmas probably. Which reminds me – I need to order Level Two still!

All in all a nice week for the end of summer. We still have not set our week off – mostly because we haven’t needed it. I imagine we’ll end up taking it next month sometime, or divide it into some short weeks instead of an entire week off. The kids tend to ask for homeschool on the off week, so I might as well prepare for it. Except math – Makayla doesn’t mind skipping math for a week. We’ll see how it plays out.

Upcoming Reviews

I do not know if you look at my sidebar often. I try to keep an updated list of what items we are or have reviewed so far this year for TOS Homeschool Crew. At first those links will simply take you to the product website. Once I post a review of an item I change the link to direct you to my review. You can get to the product website from my review as well.

We have several things sitting in our house right now to review over the next 6 weeks. Here is a sneak peek for you:

• Quarter Mile Math Deluxe – did you know you can use this with 3 and 4 year olds? We are!
• Rocket Phonics – This week is our first using Rocket Phonics. So far, so good.
• Web Design for Kids (and Curious Grownups) - a DVD that Makayla and I are both using to learn basic HTML. We are creating our own websites already!
• Write With The Best volume 1 from Educational Diagnostic Prescriptive Services – modeling writing after great works of literature.
• Nutrition 101: Choose Life! from Growing Healthy Homes – a 448 page family nutrition and health class.

The last two I just received this week, so I’m reading through them in my spare time. Yes, I have spare time around my five active and nosy children. It takes them at least 35 seconds every time I go to the bathroom to notice I’ve left and come to find me. Needless to say I’ve learned to read really quickly!

E-Homeschooling Review and Freebie!

Life is so funny sometimes. I got E-Homeschooling: Embracing the E-Book Revolution as a freebie from The Old Schoolhouse. I read it. I loved it. Then I was asked to help spread the word about it as part of the TOS Homeschool Crew about a week later! Keep reading and you can get a copy of it FREE right now.

Let me be honest, I’m a book-in-hand kind of girl. If I get the choice between an audio book to listen to, an E-Book to read on my computer, or a paper copy of a book to read my first choice is the paper book. However I have been using E-Books more and more in our homeschooling for three reasons:

1. They are ready right this minute – I can download immediately and start reading(I can even print and read if I really want to).
2. They are typically less expensive than a printed book.
3. They take up no shelf space! This is a big deal at my house.
4. If they include reproducible pages I’m all set to print the minute I download or three years later.

So what’s it all about?

The first half covers everything you’ve ever wanted to know about using, organizing, and storing E-Books. It doesn’t just give you one method either – it gives you several ideas to try.

The second half of E-Homeschooling: Embracing the E-Book Revolution is what I really fell in love with and had to share immediately with my husband. It covers information on the market for E-Books, publishing your own E-Books, and a whole chapter on copyright and E-Books.

I learned so much, and it strengthened my desire to find more time to write. I have had ideas tumbling around in my head I want to share related to homeschooling, family, homemaking, and more for several years. However, being a busy mom already, I simply did not know where to begin! E-Homeschooling: Embracing the E-Book Revolution has given me a roadmap. I’m sure I will sometimes put down the map for a scenic route, or hit some road blocks and need to find an alternate route, but at least I’m heading in the right direction now.

You can get your own copy of E-Homeschooling: Embracing the E-Book Revolution simply by clicking on the title anywhere in this post, or even by clicking on the cover graphic at the top of this post! I believe this will retail for $14.95, but for now it’s yours free!

Come back after you’ve read it and tell me what you think!

Summer Swap Packages

We participated for the first time in the Super Summer Swap. Each of my four older children were paired with a child the same age in another state. All four packages arrived last week, but now is my first opportunity to post pictures.

Makayla was paired with Colleen in Texas. They have emailed each other and here is Makayla with her package:

Inside were crafts, stickers, and all things girly. Makayla’s favorite item in the package today – the bubble gum flavored lip balm!

Joseph was paired with Joe in South Carolina. You can meet Joe at his mom’s blog Our Homeschool Fun. Here is a picture of the package Joseph received:

Inside were ornaments, a sticker, shells, a pen, photo of Joe, and a lion and cub. The favorite today is the lions!

Emma was paired with Corey in Texas. Emma’s package was the first to arrive:

Inside were stickers, a book of poems made for her by Corey, a photo, and even a great book about Texas! Emma’s favorite item today – the poems! She’s nearly memorized the No-No Bird poem.

Daniel was paired with Henry in Maryland. Daniel’s package also arrived the day Emma’s arrived:

It was packaged in a Spiderman Shoebox, and Daniel has been carrying it with him on and off since it arrived. Inside he has a cd of songs, shells, magazines, toys, and even stickers of his favorite characters. Favorite item today – the animal magazines.

You can check out more swap packages at Superheroes and Princesses.

Sense and Sensibility Review

I bake bread from scratch, homeschool my children, use cloth diapers, and do many other interesting things. There is one skill I want to learn: sewing. I got the choice to review Sense and Sensibility’s Girl’s Edwardian Apron e-pattern and e-class, or not try it. Did I mention I cannot figure out how to use the sewing machine sitting in my basement(at least it was free!)? It just locks up no matter how I thread the silly thing. I even read the manual and failed.

Knowing all this beforehand I still said yes to this review. Why are you laughing at me? I work better under pressure. It gave me a deadline for learning to use a sewing machine.

I received the Girl’s Edwardian Apron E-Pattern sizes 2-14 ($7.95, also available printed for $12.95) and the accompanying E-Class($19.95 or just $5.00 more to get the pattern too). I downloaded the files, turned on the audio, and started my class flipping through photos and text covering:

• Choosing Material
• Getting Started – Tips for Success
• Layout for Cutting out the Apron
• Making your own binding( I opted for store bought, but the instructions didn’t seem hard, just time consuming.)
• Photos of every step in the sewing of the apron, and links to some videos online too.

The class was great! It clearly walked you through the process from start to finish. The only problem for me was it assumed you had a basic knowledge of sewing and using your sewing machine. I don’t know how to use a pattern, cut out fabric (which side of the material do I put the pattern pieces on?), or what the words basting, selvedge, and gathering mean. Great Grandma to the rescue!

Our first sewing session Grandma got my machine working (who knew that adjusting the tension and cleaning the machine would help so much?LOL), then we taped the 25 pages of the e-pattern together. I have to say I did NOT like e-patterns for several reasons.

• First, it took an hour just to lay out and tape those pages at my Grandma’s house. If we had tried to do that at my house with 5 little children running around it could easily have taken twice that with interruptions.
• Second, it wasted a lot of paper and tape. I needed a size 8 and a size 4 for my girls. I would love to have seen files to print for each individual size.
• Third, despite the printer help to get the scale right, not all the lines on my pattern lines up perfectly. For an experienced sewer that wouldn’t be something to worry about, however to a beginner it can be a big deal.

Thankfully Sense and Sensibility offers printed patterns as well.

After taping, we cut out the pattern to a size 8 for Makayla, pinned it to fabric, and cut the fabric. We got a little sewing done before I had to head home to rescue my sweet husband from the children.

Before our next sewing session Grandma gave me the responsibility to trim the pattern down to a size 4, pin, and cut out Emma’s fabric. It went much faster than the first one because I didn’t have a whole pattern to tape together first.

We did get the aprons finished with lots of help from Grandma, and they are adorable. The girls chose their own fabric and trim, so it was neat to see how different their tastes are. Here is Makayla:

And here is Emma:

The girls have hardly taken the aprons off, and they act so much more ladylike with them on. I would love one for myself and Sense and Sensibility has one HERE! I admit I am already browsing more of Sense and Sensibility’s patterns for a dress or two. They have several collections including Romantic, Edwardian, and Regency eras.

I’ll be sure to order a printed pattern next time!

Want to read more reviews? Check out the rest of the Homeschool Crew's thoughts HERE.

(Disclaimer: I received this product free of charge to review as part of my experience with The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I receive no other compensation and my reviews are my opinion only.)

New Subjects This Week

We’ve reached the point in our year when we begin adding in new subjects to our homeschool. Yes, we homeschool year-round. Our summer homeschooling is lighter, focusing on only a few subjects. Then when August rolls around we begin adding in more subjects every week or so until we are up to a full set by September.

This week Makayla will start All About Spelling Level One.

We have had the curriculum for several months on our shelves because I was able to get it on sale. Now it is finally time to use it! All About Spelling is a hands-on spelling curriculum that I think will be just right for Makayla.

Joseph and Emma will be starting Rocket Phonics together. This is one of those unexpected blessings that has come from our TOS Review Crew opportunity this year. We were one of the families chosen to review Rocket Phonics and I promise a full review in a month or so. It will be the first curriculum I’ve used to teach a child to read. With Makayla we simply taught her phonics and practiced reading. It was an up and down trek that has blossomed into an avid reader. Hopefully Rocket Phonics will make the path a little less bumpy for Joseph and Emma.

One other new thing this week: Artistic Pursuits!

Makayla, Joseph, Emma, and Daniel will be doing this one together. It is once a week and we picked up materials for the whole course on Saturday with Daddy. We’re starting in Artistic Pursuits K-3 book 1 – An Introduction to the Visual Arts. This has everything in one place for a study of artists and their art, as well as the opportunity to create art each week using what we learn.

So that’s the plan. We’ll keep on going in Math U See, writing, and our regular summer subjects too. It looks like Makayla may be testing out of a few chapters in MUS Alpha this week for things she already knows. It should be interesting! All of these are set up in workboxes and ready to go.

Week in Review #10 - Unschooling

Okay, I’m not an unschooler, and we did have some planned lessons this week, but we also had lots of unplanned lessons when Grandma from California flew in midweek for a quick visit.

Makayla’s planned work was Math U See (+8’s) and Quarter Mile Math, writing a true story about her adventure with a skunk, a few file folder games, and some life skills like learning to do laundry on her own.

Joseph and Emma’s planned work was simply writing letters and numbers, typing letters and numbers on Quarter Mile Math, playing alphabet file folder games, puzzles, and counting.

That’s it!

Curriculum Clean-Out Giveaway Winners

I want to thank everyone who has visited my blog and taken time to comment! I hope you all come visit again sometime.

Here are the winners for my Curriculum Clean-Out giveaways:

Giveaway #1 - Visual Mind Benders and Simple Centers books:

Comment 11 Bailey's Leaf

Giveaway #2 - Skill Builder Cards:

Comment 18 PisecoMom

Giveaway #3 - Digital Bookmark and Journey to the Homelands book:

Comment 3 Melissa

Giveaway #4 - Hank the Cowdog book and CD:

Comment 24 SpesamorAcademy

Giveaway #5 - Lapbooking CDs (this has two winners):

Comment 26 Sarah Dawn

Comment 9 Michelle

Giveaway #6 - Notebooking CDs:

Comment 9 cooperkelly4

Giveaway #7 - Children's Devotional CDs:

Comment 5 Clemencia

All winners were chosen at random using http://www.random.org/. If your name is on the list please check your inbox for my email or contact me through this blog. Thank you!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the giveaways still running at the Curriculum Clean-Out by clicking on the button above!!

Pictures at the Park

Today we took a walk with Grandma to the nearest park to play. While there I took advantage of the opportunity to take a lot of pictures (146 ! Gotta love a digital camera!). Of course a lot of those were not the best. One big drawback to this park is that nearly every surface has graffiti of not so polite words, which makes it necessary to do a lot of editing. I took mostly candid shots, but did try a few posed pictures. I only have a minute, so for now I’ll share one picture of each child.

Emma on the swings.

Joseph posing by the tree.

Makayla posing by the tree.

Oliver in the stroller.

Daniel climbing onto the horse.

We're Here - So Is Grandma

Sorry to be a bit irregular in posting but Grandma flew in this week for a quick visit on her way home to California from Florida with a few days stop here in Ohio. I hope everyone is enjoying the giveaways - remember that my 7 giveaways end this Saturday morning! Go make your entries and I'll have the winners on Sunday!

Happy Homeschooling!

Grapevine Studies Review

If you are looking for a fun and effective way to study the Bible with your children read on! We received level 2 of the New Testament Overview from Grapevine Studies to review.

Grapevine Studies uses a teaching method called stick figuring to make the Bible accessible to and memorable for all ages. As you read a passage of scripture you draw a stick figure to represent the passage.

Another important part of Grapevine’s philosophy is putting the timeline, or frame, in place first. In the New Testament Overview the first lesson is drawing the entire New Testament timeline (over the course of two weeks), reading a brief description of each picture on the timeline. In the following weeks you then study one story at a time, continually reviewing a section of the timeline to put the stories in perspective. While you can do a lesson all in one day, as you would for a Sunday class at church, we enjoyed breaking it into a whole week of short lessons as suggested in the teacher’s manual.

At the end of the review I’ll give you a list of what Grapevine offers and a special discount code just for my readers, but let me share our experience with their New Testament Overview first.

We are using New Testament Overview level 2 for ages 8-10(grades 3-4). What we discovered is that our 3 and 4 year old could learn right along with us thanks to stick figuring!

The first two weeks we did 2-3 pages a day of the timeline. I looked in the teachers’ manual and drew each picture on our wall size dry erase board. The kids drew similar pictures in the student workbook(Makayla) or on plain paper(Joseph and Emma).

For the last day of the timeline I tried drawing the figures on a lap size dry erase board sitting beside Makayla. It worked fine because it was just the two of us, Joseph and Emma were busy playing elsewhere.

Our next was the birth of John. Day 1 we drew 3 pictures on the timeline for review and read our memory verse for the week – Luke 1:80 – as well as the fact for the week – the Bible has 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. I had made a fill in the blank page with the verse and fact for Makayla to do. That was it for day 1!

Day 2 Makayla read the verse and fact aloud and everyone gathered for page 1 of the story. I read the verses mentioned for 4 pictures, stopping to draw each picture with the children. You can read out of your favorite version of the bible (we use the King James Version), or read from the teacher’s manual. There are discussion questions for points in the story as well, which we discussed as the kids drew stick figures.

Day 3 I asked Makayla to look at her drawings and narrate the first part of the story. After that we read and stick figured our way through page 2 of the story, used the discussion questions, and recited the memory verse and fact.

Day 4 Makayla retold the whole story to her siblings, then got out her student book. Page 4 of the lesson has a Character/Event card. This is where Makayla wrote the important points of the story. Page 4 also had a place to write from memory Luke 1:80, and had the fact written to review.

We are several lessons along now. I’m loving this Bible study and so are the kids. They are really remembering what we read with a lot of details. Every 6 weeks or so there is a review week that has questions about what you have studied. We read them aloud and answer as a family, but you could have a child write answers instead. The review also includes one character card to fill in, memory verses to write, and a portion of the timeline to draw.

You can see several free samples on Grapevine’s website HERE.

Grapevine Studies offers e-books and printed materials for ages 5 to adult, but it has worked just as well for my younger kids. They have Old Testament and New Testament Overviews (50 lessons each) available, as well as shorter studies on Biblical Feasts and Holy Days, The Birth of Jesus, and Esther.

We received the printed (black and white version) New Testament Overview Teacher Book level 1-2 ($35.95) and printed Student Book level 2 ($25.95).

Grapevine Studies is offering a coupon code for my readers. Use the code: acrew before August 30th, 2009 for a 30% discount on all books in your order.

Want to read more reviews? Check out the rest of the Homeschool Crew's thoughts HERE.

(Disclaimer: I received this product free of charge to review as part of my experience with The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I receive no other compensation and my reviews are my opinion only.)

Integritas Academy File Folder Games Review

My kids love file folder games because they are fun. I love file folder games because they are an easy way to reinforce what you are learning and they are perfect for workboxes.

We were able to review 3 file folder games from Integritas Academy:

Name That State!

With outline cards of the states players learn to find each state on the map, as well as name the state and even it’s capital if you’re ready for that(answers on back of card). My kids don’t know the states yet, but that is what we’re studying this year. So how did they do? Great! Even my 3 and 4 year olds could match the outlines of the states, and my 8 year old was able to find outlines and read the back of the card for the name and capital. She already remembers a few states!

Contraction Contraption

“How do you squeeze two words together to turn them into one word? With the Contraction Contraption, of course! Take turns with a friend or parent or practice making contractions on your own.”

I was not sure if Makayla was ready for this game because we have never discussed contractions. I gave a quick explanation and we tried the game. What I discovered was she did better if I gave her the contraction (the answer) and she had to break the word apart into the two base words (the parts). She loved the idea of a machine that squishes the words together to make them shorter and has played around with this on her own thanks to a handy answer key that was included with the game.

Letter Match

We have a few letter matching games at our house but who could resist this mail themed game? Each mailbox is printed with the uppercase letter, while the lowercase letter is printed on an envelope to match. The picture above is from Integritas Academy’s website, but I wanted to mention how I made this one. Instead of pasting the two boards of mailboxes down I cut the mailboxes apart to paste in. My reasoning was that I wanted the letters to be mixed up instead of in order so the kids really had to know what they were doing. It took a few more minutes to do that, but it is working well for Joseph and Emma. This is their most requested file folder game now.

Integritas Academy File Folder Games are the creation of a homeschooling mother of 7. She has games for PreK – 3rd grade on many topics. Each game is available to download for $3.00. If you just can’t decide which to buy she offers a CD of 17 games for $15.00 – that is less than $1.00 per game! What if you are looking for a specific topic for a file folder game? You can order a custom made File Folder Game for only $3.00. Go check them out, we’re off to play ours again!