Our Curriculum 2009

I had a commenter point out I do not list our curriculum in my sidebars here on the blog.  I know it could be helpful if I did, but I have avoided that on purpose.  The main reason being our curriculum this year is our “basic plan”.  Being a member of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew this year means we are receiving different products to use and review all year long.  We decided when the year started that we would willingly set aside our curriculum as needed to try review items.  For those who are curious I will share our curriculum plans for the year.

Makayla age 8, Grade 3:

Math – Math U See Alpha (we’ll finish around Christmas) and then MUS Beta.

Science – Apologia’s Zoology 3 Exploring Creation with Land Animals of the Sixth Day.  Also a unit study + lapbook here and there.

Geography/History – Star Spangled States book and workbook.  Also a unit study + lapbook here and there.

Spelling – All About Spelling Level One (finished already) Level Two ( working through this) Level Three (after we finish level two).

Writing – Originally I was creating our own assignments.  We reviewed Write with the Best Volume One and loved it, so we are using that for the rest of the year.  Except this October and November Makayla and I are participating in national Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  We also do grammar practice with Mad Libs for fun.

Art – Artistic Pursuits K-3 Book One This has been a great fit for my family.  Each week we have a piece of artwork to study and learn from, then we create our own art.  All the kids from Daniel on up like this one.

Health – Unit studies I’ll create was the original plan.  God provided Nutrition 101 through the Crew to review, so we’ll use it for health instead.

Reading – This is chosen as we go, no real curriculum needed.

Music – We learn a new song each week, Makayla participates in a music class at church weekly, and I have plans for a lapbook about instruments in the orchestra later this year.  We received The Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers to review as well and it is a perfect compliment to our music education.  I’m hoping to be more diligent in teaching Makayla piano starting in January.

Games – We play a variety of board and card games with all the kids, and they love playing with each other too.

Joseph just turned 5 and Emma will be turning 4.  They participate in a lot of the above curriculum.  (Especially art, music, science, reading, and games.)  They also have the following:

Phonics – Rocket Phonics was a review item that they ask to do every day.  We love Rocket Phonics!

Math – Funtastic Frogs.  I own many of the books that accompany these great manipulatives. 

Handwriting – no curriculum, just lots of practice.

Fun-Sheets – Worksheets, activities, printables, and lapbooks from various sources.

We also like to do a unit study when some new interest comes along.  We are currently in a Rocks unit study.

There you have it.  That is our basic plan.  We work through this every week with our workboxes, but some weeks we drop one or more items from this list to try out a new review product. 

Music I’m Listening To

I wanted to do a quick post to share a song I’m listening to right now.  It is called “While I’m Waiting” by John Waller. 

I will Trust and Rejoice

Around my house we leave when babies come up to God.  If He is willing to send us a little blessing we are more than willing to have one.  It wasn’t always this way.  We tried to plan our own family and God had different plans.  

We got married when I was 19.  After a very short time on birth control, we threw out the pills.  We were pregnant very quickly.  Makayla was born only two days after our first wedding anniversary.  We were thrilled.  We also decided to use birth control so we could have time to adjust to parenthood before having another baby.  After a few months we went off birth control thinking we would quickly become pregnant, just like last time. 

God stepped in.  We did not get pregnant for two years.  When we found out we were expecting we were thrilled.  It was mid-November.  On Thanksgiving Day I started to bleed.  My first miscarriage was devastating.  We had wanted this child so much, prayed and pleaded and waited for him.  But God stepped in. 

A few months later I was pregnant again.  I was hopeful, but terrified that I would lose this baby too.  A few weeks later I started bleeding.  I bled on and off throughout the entire pregnancy, but delivered a health boy, my son Joseph.  We were ecstatic.  I was nursing him completely and we were talking about starting some birth control.  I went to the doctor when Joseph was 3 months old for an exam and a prescription.  They did a routine pregnancy test, which came back negative.  I picked up those pills at the pharmacy and was told I could start them the following Sunday.  When Sunday came I didn’t feel like I should take them.  A week went past.  Then two weeks.  I was exhausted caring for a 3 month old and a 3 1/2 year old, and I just wasn’t feeling well.  (you can see where this is going, can’t you?)  I went back to the doctor’s, thinking I had a cold.  They gave me another “routine” pregnancy test.  It had only been two weeks since the last one.  It was positive.  According to ultrasound, I was 6 weeks pregnant.  The first test had been a false negative.  I was surprised.  My husband was shocked.  We realized God had stepped in again. 

Over the course of that pregnancy we prayed and fasted about birth control.  I was feeling like we should leave our fertility in God’s hands because He was obviously the one running the show, but Jason wasn’t sure.  We decided to keep praying, to fast about it again after the baby was born.  We did.  I knew what I felt in my heart that day, but I didn’t know how to tell my husband.  So I waited for him to bring it up.  I wanted to know what he really thought.  If I’m honest, I was scared.  Here I was with a newborn, a 13 month old, and a 4 year old.  The last spacing between pregnancies had been 3 months.  I didn’t know if I could do that again, but all I heard from God was “Trust me.”  I had the pills sitting in the kitchen, ready to start that night.

“Why don’t you throw away those pills?” my husband said.  So I did.  We still pray about it after each baby, and every time the answer has been the same, “Trust me.”

We conceived again when Emma was 6 months old.  We went in for our first ultrasound at 9 weeks.  I was an old hand at this.  I knew what I was looking for.  I knew before the technician said anything that our baby was dead.  There was no heartbeat, and the baby was not as big as it should have been.  My body just hadn’t noticed yet. 

I was in shock.  Jason was in shock.  What was supposed to be a happy visit turned into a nightmare.  I scheduled surgery for the next day and went home to explain to my 5 year old why we weren’t having a baby now.  It was hard.  But I had been through losing a baby once.  I knew God was in charge, not me.  Within hours I was at peace.  I did not know why this was happening, but I trusted that God knew what He was doing.  I snuggled my three little children and walked forward.

A few months later I was pregnant again.  I had some spotting, but delivered a healthy boy.  We named him Daniel. 

Oliver was conceived when Daniel was about 5 1/2 months old.  He was born in February and has just turned 8 months old. 

Other than that first long gap, I’ve never gone more than 6 months after having a baby without getting pregnant again. 

This month what I thought was my period came two weeks early.  I started spotting, but after 15 days I still had not done anything more than bleed a little each day, not a regular period at all.  Tuesday I took a pregnancy test.  It was positive.  I’m pregnant, but I’m still bleeding.  I’ve been bleeding for 19 days.  Am I having a miscarriage?  Today I had an ultrasound to see what is going on.  In true God fashion, I am still being asked to trust Him. 

Basically the doctors don’t know much.
1. Yes, I'm pregnant.
2. I am so early (4 wks ish due to my long cycles) that ultrasound is useless for a few weeks.
3. I may have an ectopic pregnancy.  There is something by my right ovary/fallopian tube. We'll know more as time passes. It could be a cyst, totally harmless.  They don’t know yet.
4. I may be having a miscarriage(today is day 19 of bleeding...).
I got blood drawn for tests today and repeat draws at the hospital Sunday after church. That will narrow things down a bit, maybe. It will be followed by another repeat a few days later and an ultrasound at some point.

So now I’m waiting.  I’m trusting God is in control.  And while I’m waiting I will rejoice in this pregnancy. 

I am pregnant!   

I am blessed.

Week in Review #22

Where do I begin? This week I’ve had some health issues keeping me distracted(I posted about it HERE). Thank goodness for workboxes! I was able to load them and just keep the kids doing the next thing each day. I used my grid posted HERE.

Things the preschoolers did:

Rocket Phonics, some worksheets on shapes, numbers, and letters from ABC Teach, and some work on math with Funtastic Frogs.

Things everyone did together:

Rocks unit study(though not all I had planned), gospel study, art, listening to Mommy read aloud The Horse and His Boy, Gymathtics(review coming next month), our Mozart study, and the fun 100th Day activities Monday with Daddy.

Things Makayla did in addition to group work:

50 States workbook, Math U See Alpha lesson 23, several steps in All About Spelling Level Two, ballet practice (no class this week), some MadLibs, and the final preparations for NaNoWriMo. Makayla has outlined her entire novel! She is excited to get writing next week.

Next week we’ll be dropping all Language Arts for the month as Makayla writes a 3000 word novel. I’m planning some fun activities to encourage her when writer’s block (or writer’s boredom) hits. I will post our plans for the week sometime this weekend.

Be sure to visit Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for today's Weekly Wrap Up, of which this post is a part.

Scriptures On My Mind Tonight

Psalms 121: 1-2

1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

  2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

Psalms 23:4

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Growing So Fast

Oliver is just 8 months old.  This week he has learned some new skills including pulling up on the furniture.  Isn’t he the handsomest little guy?  Now if he will just take his time learning to walk because I’m not in any hurry for that!

WFMW – If/Then Chart

Have you ever realized how inconsistent you are as a parent? The discipline at our house can vary depending on how I'm feeling that minute day. If I've had a bad morning and one of the kids repeats an offense *again* then I am quite likely to overreact in the punishment that is handed out. If I've had a great day I may even go the other direction and under-react, inconsistently giving a punishment that is too easy (or not even disciplining at all!).
The problem with that is my poor kids never know what kind of mommy discipline they will face that day, or even if they can do something and "get away with it" because I'm not being consistent.

A long time ago I blogged about making an If/Then chart for discipline in our family. By a long time ago I mean last February, right before I gave birth to Oliver. Should I really admit that we finally finished one 8 months later?

Well, we did.

For those unfamiliar with an If/Then chart I’ll give a quick explanation before sharing our actual chart.

Basically we made a chart of misbehaviors our children frequently do under a column labeled “If you…”. The corresponding column is labeled “Then you…” and lists the consequence for that action. This chart helps us be more consistent in our discipline.

To make our chart we sat with all the kids and they helped make the list of misbehaviors. They had great fun listing the things the other children tend to do wrong. At that point we opened the floor for consequence ideas for each misbehavior. Again, the kids had a lot of ideas, some of which were perfect for the chart.

Remember as you read our If/Then chart that each family and each family member is unique. What works in one family or with one child may not work with another. We are still in the early trying it out phase of this, but so far it has been helpful. The only children not using the chart are the baby and the just turned 2 year old. We have had the expected screaming, crying, and tantruming from various children as they discover that the consequences apply to them personally. However after just a few days we are seeing a marked improvement in certain areas. Here is what we came up with as a family:

If you…	Then you…
Hurt someone else	Go to a 30 minute quiet time and lose all fun for the day.
Argue with a sibling	Sing Love At Home with sibling.
Argue with a parent or murmur	Go to bed 15 minutes earlier per offense.
Call someone a name	Must do service for that person.
Whine or beg for something	Do not get what you are whining for.
Disobey mom or dad	Scrub assigned area for 10 minutes.
Talk or sing after bedtime	Go to bed 15 minutes early the next night.
Get out of bed to get a toy	Must throw that toy away.
Tattle or tell on someone else	Must do a chore or job Mom assigns.
Tell someone else what to do (bossy)	Must do what you were telling them to do, for them.

A few notes for those you may be wondering about.

Why sing a song when squabbling with siblings? Because this invites the spirit back into the home, and the song we chose speaks directly to why we want love and peace in our home.

Why scrub an area for disobedience? We want an unpleasant, hard labor consequence. Scrubbing walls, floors, baseboards, cabinet fronts, or anything else is not fun after the first minute or two. Besides, if the problem persists our house is going to look great!

Why an earlier bedtime for talking and singing after lights out? The typical offending child shares a room with a sibling and regularly keeps said sibling up as the offending child talks and sings for as much as an hour.

Why throw away a toy if you get one after lights out? The typical offender here is always tucked into bed with a toy. After lights out the pitter patter of little feet and sounds of tubs being dug through were common. At.least.ten.times.every.night. By morning it was not unusual to find a pile of toys on the bed, with said child curled in a tiny ball at one end, and the rest of the room a mess from the nighttime searching.

See, reading that list of common offences at my house makes you feel better, doesn’t it? Go ahead and admit it. We have normal children that drive us and each other batty as they learn, grow, and {hopefully} mature. It’s okay. I’m not perfect either, and many of their behaviors were probably learned from my not-so-great example. Maybe I need an If/Then chart for me too!

This post is part of the Works For Me Wednesday meme at We Are THAT Family. Read today's edition HERE.

What do I hear?

Right now I hear the thundering pitter patter of 16 little feet, 16 hands, and 8 children’s voices.  My niece and nephews are over this morning while their mommy is at the midwife checking on the progress of niece #2 (come out to play soon Alyssa!). 

So far everyone is playing together well.  Most of the children are playing hide and seek.  The 8 month old is trying to climb up the stairs again.  And as of yet there are no injuries.  There are 5 boys and 3 girls.  The children’s ages are as follows: 8, 8, 5, 5, 3, 2, 2, 8mos. 

What can you hear right now?

American Heritage CD Review

American Heritage: an Adventure in Liberty is offered for FREE in e-book and CD format by the American Heritage Education Foundation. I received a CD copy to review for The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. On the disc you find four e-book files, one elementary level in english, one elementary level in spanish, a middle school level, and a high school level. My review will focus on the elementary level, as that is the age of my children.

The elementary file is 184 pages long. There are 15 units. The CD is a supplemental resource, not a complete curriculum. Each unit uses one or more of four themes to learn more about American history, people, events, documents, and symbols. The four themes are:

1. Freedom
2. Progress
3. Responsibility
4. Unity

I found a few printable activities, from a readers theater on the Declaration of Independence to crossword puzzles, a Colonial America game to U.S. Presidents cards. There was even a Statue of Liberty puppet to make.

On the whole American Heritage is written for a classroom, needing multiple students to effectively do many of the games and activities. Some of the games could be used in a large co-op setting, however the printable crossword puzzles and other graphics were a bit fuzzy or pixelated, they were lacking in quality.

The last 15 pages in the elementary level are written to public school teachers to educate them on “religious expression in public schools”. It is another affirmation to me that the public schools are not the place for my children. You cannot separate religious life from learning. God is the author of all truth. It is sad that public school teachers have to know the ‘rules’ for what they can say, do, and teach, as well as what a student is permitted to do during their time at school. However, if you happen to be a public school teacher this section of the e-book explains clearly how to work within existing laws.

I did not find the American Heritage CD to be something we would use in our homeschool. We prefer to have engaging stories to read about historical people and events, immersing us in the time period. Each family is different. Because it is free you can easily download it and decide that for yourself. This may be just what you are looking for to add to your homeschool.

Want to know more? You can read the opinions of my Crewmates 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.)

100th Day Photos

Here are a few pictures from our 100th day of homeschool this year.  First up are two cute shots of Oliver.  Today Oliver is 8 months old.  He can sit himself up.  Oliver is also trying to climb up the stairs.  Yeah, life is about to get interesting!  While I love this age because he is  happy to entertain himself instead of being Velcro baby, I also hate all the new bumps and bruises as Oliver learns to get around. 

Here are some of the pages about 100 we did today.  After coloring each shape a different color the kids made a bar graph of the results.  Obviously there were 100 shapes in the picture. 

Daddy played Chutes and Ladders with Emma, Joseph, and Makayla.  The game took less than 25 minutes – which is good.  Some of the children, who shall remain nameless, are still learning to lose gracefully. 

Meanwhile mommy played Snakes and Ladders with Daniel.  He enjoyed this version, which uses marbles that really slide up and down the ladders and snakes. 

We had lots of other homeschool work today too.  All in all it was a great 100th day.

Happy 100th Day!

Today is officially our 100th day of the homeschool year.  I knew I wanted to do a few fun themed activities today about the number 100.  Here is what we will be doing:

1. Counting to 100 – This would be the obvious activity.  I printed out a hundreds number chart for each child from ABC Teach.  Depending upon age they will count to 100 by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s, putting a dot on each number with one of Mommy’s highlighters.
2. 100th Day Shapes – This is an activity I printed from the membership area of ABC Teach.  The first page is a large outline of the number 100.  Inside each numeral are shapes: circle, cylinder, heart, star, cube.  The kids have to search and find all the circles and color them orange.  They add the number of circles to a bar graph.  Then they color the next shape a different color and graph it.  After all the shapes have been graphed they will answer some questions using the graph they made.  The great thing about this activity for Joseph and Emma is the repetition of counting the shapes.  Makayla likes graphing, so using the graph to answer questions will be fun for her.  (Yes, I said fun.  I’m just grateful that she finds something math related fun.)
3. Chutes and Ladders – We’re going to play a family game of Chutes and Ladders with Daddy.  Did you know the board for this game has exactly 100 numbered squares?  How convenient is that?  This is one of those children’s games that can drag out f-o-r-e-v-e-r.  While usually we would set the timer and be done whenever it beeps, today we’re really going to play until we make it to 100.  I’m hoping with so many players that someone will make it there in the first half hour. 

That’s it.  We’re just keeping it simple.  I thought of many more elaborate plans for our 100th day, but, in the end, the kids will enjoy a few fun activities more. 

Workbox Plans – Rocks Week

Okay, so we’re learning about a lot more than just rocks, but the kids are most excited about rocks.  First I will put in my table for my 3rd grader.  Remember each square on the table represents a workbox.  A quick note, we’re on light schedule each Tuesday until my sister has her baby because we watch the cousins then while my sister sees her midwife.

Mon.	Tues.	Wed.	Thurs.	Fri.
Gospel Study	Gospel Study	Gospel Study	Gospel Study	Gospel Study
Read Narnia	Read Narnia	Read Narnia	Read Narnia	Read Narnia
Math Ch. 23	Fact Practice	Math Ch. 23	Math Ch. 23	Math Test
Rocks Read + LB		Rocks Read + LB	Rocks Read + LB	Rocks Read + LB
Spelling Step 6		Spelling Step 7	Spelling Step 8	Spelling Step 9
Mozart	Art	Mozart		Mozart
NaNo	Mad Libs	NaNo	NaNo	NaNo
50 States KS	Finish Ohio LB	50 States KY	50 States LA	50 States Quiz
100th Day ! !	Gymathtics			Gymathtics
Ballet	Ballet	Ballet	Ballet	Ballet

Now let me tell you more about each of those subjects. 

Gospel Study – This week we will read more from our Old Testament scripture reader and learn a new hymn, Love At Home.  You can hear it by clicking on the title.  This is all the kids together.

Read Narnia – This is more of The Horse and His Boy.  I blogged about our first week with this book HERE.  This is all the kids together.

Math – Makayla is on to subtracting the doubles in Math U See Alpha. 

Rocks Unit Study and Lapbook – We are using the Rodney Rockhound’s Rocks and Minerals lapbook from Hands of a Child.  This unit will take us two weeks and involve all the kids.  I have gathered a lot of books to read (read about it HERE).  The read aloud that we will start with is Rocky Road Trip, a Magic School Bus chapter book.  Each day there will be 1-3 lapbook pieces to do.  As we learn the 3 types of rocks we will cook an example.  So for sedimentary rocks (which are layered) we’re either making layered sandwiches or layering graham crackers with fillings.  I’ll post the recipes when we do each kind.  We also have plans to go on a rock hunt next week to add to our rock collection, and try to identify and label some of the collection the kids already have.

Spelling – Makayla will likely complete 4 steps in All About Spelling level two this week. 

Mozart - part two of our study on this composer.  Last week we read some neat books about him.  This week we are focusing on listening to two pieces of his music and reading the overview of his life in our Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers (read my review HERE).  Then Makayla will take the quiz on Mozart.

Artistic Pursuits - I still love that this is all laid out for me.  While we learn about lines around us we will study The Flight into Egypt: Life of the Virgin.  Then all the kids will make their own line drawing.

NaNo – this is our last preparation week for NaNoWriMo!  Learn more HERE.  Makayla and I are on the last few lessons hammering out our plot and learning more about setting and dialogue.  The lesson plans have been a great help.  On Tuesday Makayla will get in a little grammar practice doing some Mad Libs.

50 States – Chapter 6 in Star Spangled States is on Kansas, Kentucky, and Louisiana.  This is totally independent work for Makayla. 

Gymathtics – a review item we’re working on.  More to come later…

100th Day ! ! – Monday is officially our 100th day of this school year.  To celebrate the whole family is doing some fun activities with Daddy about the number 100.  We’ve got some coloring, graphing, counting, and a good old game of Chutes and Ladders (which just happens to have 100 squares).  I’ll post more Monday or Tuesday on this.

Ballet – Makayla is practicing every day but Thursday, which is class day.  Which means Mommy is practicing every day too, but there is no way you’ll catch me in a tutu!

The preschoolers only have three activities outside of the combined work.  Combined work this week is gospel, rocks unit study, Mozart, Artistic Pursuits, The Horse and His Boy, Gymathtics, and our 100th Day activities.  The 3 preschool only activities are:

Rocket Phonics – I am going to try and push the kids reading boundaries this week to see just what they can do.  Other than that attempt, we will keep on keeping on where we are.  I’m just curious if either one is ready for more.

Handwriting – I’m printing some worksheets with my ABC Teach membership.  I love customizing them with the ABC Tools.  This week they will trace a line from The Horse and His Boy.

Math – More Funtastic Frogs.

That’s the plan for our workboxes.  What about you?  What do you have planned for the week?

Fun Family Field Trip – The Works

We went with Aunt Tina, cousins, and grandma and grandpa to explore The Works today.  The Works is a small museum and science center about 5 minutes from our house.  We had not been there in a long time and much remodeling has been done.  My camera batteries died early in our visit, but here are quick shots of my kiddos enjoying themselves. 

Makayla working out.Joseph building a car to race down the track.  Emma in the farmers market weighing vegetables. Daniel playing with cousin Hannah. Oliver enjoying some toy food. We will definitely be taking more advantage of The Works this winter.  It is close enough to pop over for an hour when we need out of the house to run and play, plus they have great science and history opportunities.  One thing I don’t have pictures of is the Military History exhibit for our county.  It was neat to see.  Another neat part of The Works is the glassblowing demonstrations.  There is a lab where kids can build or take apart things like printers, DVD players, etc.  The older 5 children enjoyed the lab today, but again, my camera died.  I’ll get pictures next time. 

Ask What They Want to Learn

In last Tuesday’s post I mentioned I would be asking each of my children for lists of things they would love to learn more about. On Friday I posted about how I’m evaluating this year and thinking about the next. I finally got around to asking the kids for lists Friday as well. Now let me preface this with the disclaimer that these answers are unscripted and come straight from my little children’s mouths. The post is a bit long but hopefully you’ll be able to apply what I’ve learned in your homeschool.

Here is what I did. I sat down with one child at a time and asked two questions:

1. What are some things you like, things you would like to learn more about?
2. What are your favorite things we do when we are homeschooling?

Joseph was the first child I tried this with. Depending on the age of your child you may need to start randomly naming things they could be interested in to get them started, including jobs they might want to know more about. Joseph had no trouble though. He wants to learn about:

• places with ice on the ground
• Legos
• Star Wars
• “disgusting stuff like poop and pee” (that is a direct quote – what can I say?)
• flags
• maps
• Earth, planets, stars
• robots
• astronauts
• magnets

For question number 2 Joseph’s favorite thing to do for homeschool is listen to mommy read books. I think from Joseph the things that surprised me were flags and maps. Sad to say I was not surprised to hear he wants to learn about ‘disgusting stuff’. He is a boy, after all.

Emma had the shortest list. It is:

• coral
• oceans
• fishes
• scuba divers
• treasure chests
• horses

Her favorite thing to do for homeschool is “snuggle up and read”. Yeah, she’s my snuggly girl. I was really surprised at how interested she is in all things ocean. I will be taking advantage of this one.

Makayla had the longest list, and the most detailed response to question number 2 as well. First the list of things she wants to learn more about:

• ancient Egypt: why the black cat statues? more about mummies, pyramids
• wild cats - which just happens to be the next chapter in our science book. We will do this after our rocks unit.
• horses, giraffes, zebras
• cockroaches – one of the few insects we have not studied in detail. Can you blame me? Yuck!
• the arctic and Antarctica
• the zoo, being a zookeeper or a veterinarian
• China and different languages
• pioneers and the American Girl Kirsten

Of those the surprises were ancient Egypt and different languages.

Makayla had quite the list of things she likes to do for homeschool, with some detailed commentary about each that I will sum up.

1. Lapbooks – this is #1 for a reason. She was emphatic that we need to do more lapbooks again, she loves them.
2. Notebooking – this surprised me a bit as she often complains about the writing portion of a notebooking page in passing. Her reasoning: “I do it anyway because I know I can use my notebook later to read through. I like having my own notes. Even though I don’t like the writing sometimes I still do it because I know I like the finished notebook.”
3. Reading stories, both on her own and read alouds by Mommy – yes, I knew this. She devours books by the armful and then asks me to read some more.
4. Coloring projects - goes in with the lapbooking and notebooking if you ask me.
5. Workbooks – yes, really. She likes the independent aspect, and that it becomes almost a notebook.
6. Computer games – we have some Magic School Bus games she really enjoys.

The other thing I did with Makayla was have her go through a list of all the lapbooks I have available for us to do and mark the ones she would be interested in. She had a blast with this, though she wanted to get started on a lapbook right away. I am going to take advantage of her enthusiasm soon, very soon.

So what did I learn in all of this? What can you learn from my experience? First I learned to ask. My children’s list of interests is important. The more that we take time to learn about what interests them, the more that learning will stick with them. They each have interests I would not have guessed at mixed in with the ones I would have named. Your children just may surprise you too.

Second, this gives me a great way to evaluate what I have chosen to teach this year. While there are topics I feel we need to learn about, or topics I am sure they will be interested in once they are introduced to them, I also have the freedom to follow their interests. It is one of the perks to homeschooling. I think a good mix of topics they want to learn about and topics I want them to learn about makes for a good balance.

Third, asking what they like to do in homeschooling, the ways they like to learn, reaffirmed my feelings that we’ve been missing our read alouds and unit studies. Our curriculum centered year without literature supported unit studies is working alright. They are learning. It is not where their heart, or mine, thrives.

So now I have a decision to make. Do I continue the year as planned and not taking time for unit studies? Do I scrap the whole plan and go back to only unit studies? Is there a middle ground – some happy mix of using the curriculum while taking breaks to do a unit study here and there? Check back later to see what I decide to do.

I also have to keep thinking about and checking out options for next year. I will be posting about some of those options later, as I continue this series of posts.

Posts in this series:

1. Thinking Ahead to Next Year?
2. Ask What They Want to Learn
3. Exploring Options for Next Year: Option 1
4. Exploring Options for Next Year: Option 2

Week in Review #21 – Basics Week

It has been nice to have a very relaxed week. Our basics week plans have been mostly accomplished, though our colds are still hanging around. We took Tuesday off completely as everyone hit the worst day of illness. That means today was day 99 of the school year. We will be celebrating our hundredth day next week. On to the report:

Makayla finished another chapter in Math U See. Can you tell me why subtracting 8’s (this week’s lesson)made more sense to her than subtracting 9’s (last week’s lesson)? Whatever works, I suppose. She also did All About Spelling. Still trotting along with that one.

For NaNoWriMo preparation Makayla worked on her villain for her novel and began planning her plot. I am having so much fun watching as the light bulbs go on in her head. She was totally overwhelmed at the idea of writing a 3000 word book in a month. (Remember this post where she was in tears?) Now she has a main character, supporting character, villain, and the first broad strokes of her plot figured out. As a matter of fact she is a bit further along than me! I’m still working on some character development and have yet to get into the plot planning very much. Just one more week until we start writing!

Joseph and Emma did handwriting, tracing, coloring, and Rocket Phonics. I even used the All About Spelling tiles to make words for each of them to read. We’re working on reading phrases now. Did you know it takes some brain power to sound out a word, figure out what it is, and sound out the next two or three words and still remember what that first word was in the phrase? It is funny when Joseph or Emma get to the end of a phrase and have totally forgotten first word. We’ll get there eventually.

The other big fun this week has been our read aloud, The Horse and His Boy. I posted all about it HERE if you want to know more. This will continue next week.

What about my to do list for this week? I got to most of it. I did get our read aloud done each day. I wrote a few reviews that needed done. I took a good look at some of the other review items we’re about to start using, trying to find a way to use them for our family. The only thing from my to do list I didn’t finish was planning out the rest of homeschool from now to December. I got things ready for the next few weeks, but I’ve been contemplating a few adjustments. I’m still praying about it all. We’ll see what happens!

Be sure to visit Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for today's Weekly Wrap Up, of which this post is a part.

Thinking Ahead to Next Year?

I would love to know how soon other homeschoolers start thinking about and planning for the next school year? I am a perpetual planner, but with the first half of our year behind us(remember, we are year round homeschoolers) I am seriously beginning to evaluate where we are. I am starting to see what we love about this year and what we miss about past homeschool years.

I love that Makayla is working more independently in some subjects. I see that she has matured over last year. I can teach her our math lesson on Monday and she can do the practice pages all week and test on Friday independently(I check her work each day). I also love having everything gathered for the day in our workboxes. I love Rocket Phonics for Joseph and Emma.

There are some things I am missing, as are the kids:

• lots of lapbooking
• unit studies
• doing most of our schoolwork as a family

Which explains why we’ve done units and lapbooks recently and will be doing more next week. One thing we have not done this year is dive into a long unit study with a great big read aloud that is related. I miss that too.

One item we’re using that hasn’t been as wonderful as I hoped is our Star Spangled States curriculum. It is a two-edged sword. This is a workbook curriculum on the 50 states. Makayla is able to be completely independent, which is a good thing. She reads the state page, does the worksheets, and takes her quiz. We practice identifying states by their outline, naming capitals, and naming postal abbreviations. Sadly, that leaves us missing a lot of fun because we’re not doing much history beyond what she is learning with this curriculum. I planned it that way. I wanted to focus more in other areas. For this year I am going to supplement with a few units here and there. Don’t get me wrong, Makayla is learning a lot with this curriculum. It just is not as alive as we like our history to be.

I have been daydreaming of an ideal homeschool curriculum. In my daydream we would read living books (that make a topic come alive) for history and science. This would be done as a family. Then each child would have related assignments according to ability. Makayla would have research, writing, and a project assigned. Joseph and Emma would have an activity or project assigned. Daniel would get to play with something related, or just color a picture. I would have some easier children’s books on the topic to flip through with the younger children.

Music, art, and gospel studies would continue to be done as a family.

Math, writing, spelling/phonics would be done individually according to ability.

Basically I want literature-based or literature-supported unit studies. Which is exactly what I designed and created every year up to this one. God led us in the direction we are trying this year. I know that and I am learning a lot from it. One thing I am coming to see great value in is having a lot of the lesson planning/creation done for you. I’m a busy mom with 5 little ones. I just might be willing to PAY for that, but that is the topic of another post. Keep your eyes peeled for part two of Thinking Ahead to Next Year coming soon.

This post is the beginning of a series:

1. Thinking Ahead to Next Year?
2. Ask What They Want to Learn
3. Exploring Options for Next Year: Option 1
4. Exploring Options for Next Year: Option 2

Read Aloud Thursday – The Horse and His Boy

We began a read aloud Monday: The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis. We are not done reading. As a matter of fact we still have 10 chapters left(there are 15 in the book). Now remember, we are on basics week. That means we are reading this book and doing NO related assignments. Reading for the fun of reading a good story together is great!

If you are unfamiliar with this book: This tells the story of two human runaways trying to escape “to Narnia and the North” along with two Talking Horses. It is a great adventure.

We’ve also found another use for our home-dyed playsilks! The kids spread their playsilk in the listening spot of their choice. This may be on the couch, the chair, the floor, or even under a desk - they prefer to call that in a cave. Then they stay put. No creeping off the playsilk to bother your sibling. No running around like crazy while mom tried to read over the noise. Each child can bring one quiet activity onto their playsilk. We had previously tried small foam rectangles about 4"x6", which were not as successful because the kids couldn’t see the spot once they sat on it.

Okay, back to the read aloud! Our book is The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. I learned a neat tidbit once about The Chronicles of Narnia. Originally they were published in this order:

1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
2. Prince Caspian
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4. The Silver Chair
5. The Horse and His Boy
6. The Magician’s Nephew
7. The Last Battle

However, C. S. Lewis expressed his desire that the order of the books be changed. He wanted readers to experience his Narnia books in this order:

1. The Magician’s Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle

We read them in C. S. Lewis’ preferred order at our house, though you are welcome to try a different order at your house. ;-)

The bigger kids are all enjoying The Horse and His Boy. I asked them each what they like about the story so far. Emma is especially thrilled with talking horses. No big surprise there. Joseph likes Shasta “because he is a boy”. Makayla likes Bree the talking war horse. She says, “Bree is funny, and a little bossy.” Hmm, that sounds a bit familiar...

Be sure to check out this week’s Read Aloud Thursday post HERE at Hope Is the Word and link up with your own read aloud story!

Homeschool Blog Awards Accepting Nominations Now

Last year I had so much fun when I discovered the Homeschool Blog Awards in November.  These Awards are hosted by The Homeschool Post.  I looked at every single nominated blog last year and found some new favorites to read.  This year I plan on doing the same thing.  However, right now  until October 30th they are taking nominations for all the categories.  I’ve spent a bit of time nominating my favorite blogs.  The rules this year say you can only nominate a blog for one category.  There are lots of categories to choose from, which you can read all about HERE.  Then November 9th the voting for favorite nominations begins.  Winners in each category get a few fun prizes and a chance to share their blog with a larger audience as word spreads.  So go nominate some of your favorites from THIS PAGE! 

And if you’re wondering what category my blog fits under it’s Eclectic read those descriptions HERE .  ;-)

Online Library Catalog

Like most homeschool moms, I spend a lot of time with books.  The library is one of my favorite places to visit.  Thousands of books to read for free, as long as you return them on time.  Beyond books a library may carry media, newspapers, and more.  But there are weeks when I just don’t have an hour and a half to lose myself at the library.

If I need to gather books for upcoming unit studies it may take up most of my library time, with no time left over to browse.  I have found one thing that works for me is using my library’s online catalog from home. 

Here is my most recent example.  We are planning on studying rocks and minerals soon.  We are centering our unit around a lapbook I received free from Hands of a Child called Rodney Rockhound’s Rocks and Minerals.  (You can see my copy I printed out in the picture below).  There just happens to be a handy booklist inside.  I sat down at my computer, opened my library catalog and searched for every book on the list.  My library had about half of the books sitting on their shelves ready.  The other half of the books were spread out over the branch libraries in surrounding towns.  With one simple click I requested each book.

Over the next week and a half I received emails from my library when my books arrived.  I had 10 days to come pick them up before the books would be put back out for other patrons.  So once all the books were in I made the 5 minute drive to my favorite library.  I drove right up to the drive-up window.  Yes, my library has a drive-through like McDonalds.  Don’t be too jealous, but it is wonderful.  Two minutes later I had checked out and was on my way home.  Want to see what less than 15 minutes of my day brought me? The hard part now is simply keeping the kids from reading all the books before we do our unit study!  Of course, we have another 43 books checked out from the library already, so there is plenty of new reading material at my house. 

So now you know, my online library catalog works for me!

This post is part of the Works For Me Wednesday meme at We Are THAT Family. Be sure to check this week’s edition for more great posts and to link up one of your own.

Bright Ideas Press Review

I received two items to review from Bright Ideas Press. My absolute favorite is one that filled a niche in our homeschool, so I’ll tell you about it first.

A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers is a 32 week curriculum covering composers from Vivaldi to John Williams, with lessons on each musical period as well. Available on CD for $29.95, or printed for $34.95, I received the print copy. I do wish the book was spiral bound to make copying easier, but I was able to get that done at my local office supply store for under $5.00. Each week there is a story to read. Beyond that you can pick and choose from a detailed coloring page, a timeline, a map, a composer card to make, and a quiz to take.

What about the music? This curriculum offers lists of specific You Tube videos for musical compositions. The good thing is that means you do not need to buy a ton of music CDs trying to find pieces for all these composers. The bad part of that is you need internet access to listen to the music each day. We simply made a playlist specific to our composer study on You Tube so we could easily listen to the music with the push of a button. Another alternative is looking for music CDs at your local library.

This curriculum really worked for my range of ages because there was something for everyone. We used it three days each week. On day 1 we read the story, listened to music by the composer, and my oldest worked on her composer card. Day 2 was listening to music again while doing the coloring page. My oldest would also do the map and finish the composer card on this day. Day 3 we again listened to the music, this time dancing along. Occasionally Makayla would take the quiz, but usually we just talked about the composer and what we remember best about his life.

The book is written for grades 4-8. I think that is true if you want to be able to hand over the story to read and assign the composer card as independent work. However, if you are willing to read aloud and spend the time as a group this becomes accesible to much younger ages. My 2 year old enjoyed the coloring page, and listening and moving to the music. The 3 and 5 year old liked all that and listening to mom read the story. My 8 year old could do the author card and map work too.

A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers is a year long curriculum. We will probably stretch it out over two years now and two years later on when the kids are older. I am thrilled to have it! It is everything I wanted to do in a music study with my children that I never had the time to research and pull together on my own. You can download a free sample (22 pages!) HERE.

The second product I received from Bright Ideas Press is a copy of Hands-On Geography: Easy and fun activities for exploring God’s World.  Priced at $14.95, this book is full of ideas to make geography fun and memorable. Written for grades K-5, this book will be used a lot in our homeschool. There are game ideas, printables like a passport and outline maps(with more than 44 ideas to use an outline map for), and many more ideas ready to be used in your history, science, or literature studies. Here is the table of contents:

• The National Geography Bee
• Homemade Games
• Homemade Books
• The Country Notebook
• Passport Fair
• Joseph’s Journey
• Missionary Geography
• Genealogy Geography
• Nature and Geography
• Language Arts and Geography
• History and Geography
• Maps Galore
• Teaching through the Five Themes of Geography
• Outline Maps
• Geography in a Flash (50 states card game to print)
• Geography Resources

Before reading this book I had limited geography in my mind to the study of places and land formations. As mentioned in the book, geography covers so much more. Here is the definition of geography from page 9 of Hand-On Geography, which was provided by the National Geographic Society:

“A knowledge of place names, location of cultural and physical features, distribution and patterns of languages, religions, economic activities, population and political systems. Physical regions and physical phenomena, such as tectonic activity, land form, climate, bodies of water, soils and flora and fauna. The changes in places and areas through time, including how people have modified the environment. Cartographers’ tools, such as maps, instruments, graphs and statistics, are also a part of geography.”

I look forward to using Hands-On Geography to enrich our homeschool studies in every area. Our world is so big. My children have seen a few other parts of the United States, but there is so much more to learn about. This book will make it fun and easy.

Want to read more reviews for this product? Check out the rest of the Homeschool Crew’s thoughts HERE.

(Disclaimer: I received these products 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.)

Teaching and Learning from Others

Last night I had the opportunity to participate in my local homeschool group’s Sessions of Sharing (S.O.S.) evening. Makayla and I were teaching a class on lapbooking in the first session. Can you believe I did not take a single picture? My hands were a little busy with the students, who included boys, girls, and even an adult. So this morning I took pictures of my finished lapbook to share. Our lapbook is called Ohio Facts. It covers some basic state information. During the class I was able to give a history lesson about our state. This is a topic required to be taught by our state, and one that many people find to be dry and boring. Lapbooking made it fun. I’m already planning the next Ohio history lapbook to do with Makayla.

If you're interested in lapbooking, most of the pieces for this lapbook came from the State by State Graphics Pack from Hands of a Child.

After the lapbooking class Makayla went to a gym class facilitated by another homeschool mom. She had fun playing kickball, basketball, and even a few races. By the end of the night she was worn out. I went to a homeschool encouragement session. I was excited to be with others who like talking about homeschooling.

It turned out to be a wonderful small group experience. The facilitator, who has homeschooled children ranging from already graduated down to a 7 year old, was amazing. She truly facilitated discussion between the group of moms, instead of presenting a lecture. In the group we had a variety of backgrounds, from those who have always homeschooled (like me), to those who pulled children out to homeschool after a failure of the public schools to teach, to one sweet, nervous mom who is beginning her homeschool career today with her 7 year old son.

This mom had some very real concerns about how she could add homeschooling into her already full life. She has two older children in the public schools, and a toddler at home as well. She was not sure how she could keep the house clean, the chores done, and add in a few hours of homeschooling. We had a great discussion about the many ways you can make it all work, including using a schedule or routine to block off time in the day for homeschool as well as the chores you need done.

She wanted to know what she was supposed to do with her toddler while she was trying to teach her 7 year old. My answer, which is only what works for me, is to keep him in the same area and involve him in activities where you are. The times my little ones have gotten into mischief are usually the times when they are in another part of the house playing all by themselves while mom is busy doing something else. Keep those toddlers close! They love to be involved anyway.

The discussion also included a time for moms to share what they felt was an area they needed advice or encouragement in. My area was how to encourage my son, Joseph, who is stuck between two sisters. His older sister is several years older and he (obviously) cannot keep up with her academically. His younger sister, Emma, is only 13 months younger. Learning comes very easily for Emma. She picks things up quickly. Currently I teach both Joseph and Emma the same things. I can see in the near future that she will pass Joseph in some skill areas that come easily to her. When that happens Joseph may begin feeling frustrated that he can’t keep up with his little sister.

The facilitator, Teri, shared about a similar experience with her children. Then she gave me wonderful counsel:

Find what Joseph’s strengths are, his God-given gifts, and support him in those areas. What is he interested in, good at, or passionate about?

This is something I needed reminded of! For several years my teaching has mostly centered around Makayla’s interests, as everyone else has been little. I know a lot of her interests, strengths, and gifts. Then Joseph and Emma together became a focus, but always together. Our preschool unit studies have been influenced more by what both of them can enjoy than by truly following one child’s interest and then the other.

I am going to take the time today or tomorrow to take each of my children aside and ask for a list of things they would love to learn about. We still have our curriculum items we will use, but I’m going to make an effort to work in more of their interests. Then I am going to watch and pray. I want to discover those special gifts, interests, and areas where each child excels.

Meeting some of those interests is going to challenge me. For example, Joseph is not nearly as interested in animals as I am. His interests run more to mechanical, non-living things. Eeek! I think a homeschooling mom gets a great education. I have learned more in our 4 years of homeschooling than in most of my 13 year public school education combined. Public schools usually focus on a breadth of knowledge, knowing a little bit about a lot of topics. In our homeschool we focus on a depth of knowledge, learning a lot about a topic, diving in head first and swimming as far as we can. It’s always an adventure. Enjoy the journey!

Virginia Soaps and Scents Review

You know a review is going to be fun when you can smell the contents before you open the box.  We received a package from Virginia Soaps and Scents that smelled heavenly!  Inside we found several items to review, which I will tell you all about below.

First the soaps.  Each 4.5 oz bar costs $4.50, with discounts the more bars you buy.  We received three scents:

• Oatmeal, Milk, & Honey – this was mommy’s favorite scent.
• Coconut Lemongrass – this was daddy and Joseph’s favorite scent.
• Fresh Orange – this was Makayla’s favorite scent.

Emma, my 3 1/2 year old, is not a smell girl, so she didn’t want anything to do with these scented soaps.  While we typically use liquid soap, I think these would make great gifts for Christmas.  They have even more scents available including a few Christmas ones.  I want to try Bay Rum, Sandalwood, and Peppermint! 

Next was a shampoo bar.  That’s right, it looks similar to a bar of soap, but made for your hair.  I was unsure about this one as we have quite the variety in hair at my house.  From thick to thin to baby fine; from curly to wavy to straight; and from oily to normal to dry and itchy.  All seven of us used it.  At first it feels really weird because the all natural shampoo doesn’t coat your hair with plastics like shampoo and conditioner.  You couldn’t run your fingers right through your hair until you brushed it.  However it gave your hair great body.  In general we liked it.  My husband was the only one who ended up getting an itchy scalp from using the shampoo bar, and that is probably because everyone else only washes their hair every few days, while daddy washes his every day. 

A 5.5 oz shampoo bar costs $5.50.  Because we do not have any ‘special’ hair needs, for example I don’t color my hair and no one in our family uses heat on their hair daily (hair dryer, curling iron), we can get away with buying the cheap shampoo and conditioner bottles at the store.  For the same price as one shampoo bar we can buy 4 bottles of shampoo and conditioner.  We can buy even more with coupons.  So for our family, while the shampoo bar works, it isn’t as cost effective as regular shampoo and conditioner.

The third item we received was a Laundry Soap Kit.  In the kit is a grated bar of unscented cleaning soap and a pre-measured amount of borax and washing soda.  With this kit you can add water, cook, and make your own laundry soap.  The kit contains enough ingredients to make half a gallon of soap. 

Can I be really honest here?  I do a lot of laundry at my house, including cloth diapers every single day.  I don’t need another thing to cook and make.  I also can only use specific ingredients on my diapers.  That extends to the clothing as well, because residue left behind from washing clothing in one soap or detergent then gets on the cloth diapers.  Worst case scenario is the diapers stop absorbing liquid.  And I’ve had that happen in the past with other products.  Fixing it is a long process.  I was not willing to risk it. 

Instead, thanks to another crewmate’s suggestion, I skipped the cooking process for the kit and scooped the dry ingredients right into some loads (1 T. per load).  We spent an entire day washing bedding with this laundry soap.  It worked fine, everything smelled clean.  Now I’m washing several loads of clothing in my regular detergent that is safe for my diapers to clean out all the residue before washing diapers in my machine. 

The Laundry Kit sells for $4.95.  If you do not use cloth diapers you could use this kit and probably save some money on store bought detergents.

Want to read more reviews for this product? Check out the rest of the Homeschool Crew’s thoughts HERE.

(Disclaimer: I received these products 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.)

Basics Week Here We Come!

We’ve finished just over half the school year at my house.  I didn’t realize that until Saturday.  I figured it up, with taking a few weeks off around holidays and mid-winter blahs we will still complete our school year (according to the state’s requirements) in early March.  Do you see why we homeschool year round?  It just makes sense. 

To celebrate and give us a bit of a break we are going to do basics week this week.  That means the only lessons the kids will find in their workboxes are:

1. Gospel related – our usual children’s hymn of the week, scripture story, and memory verse.
2. Math – much to Makayla’s dismay math really is a basic.
3. Writing – for Makayla this is more lessons preparing for NaNoWriMo next month.  For Joseph and Emma it is handwriting.
4. Spelling/Phonics – Makayla will keep up with All About Spelling level two.  Joseph and Emma will continue Rocket Phonics.

Just in case you are wondering what Mommy will be doing with all her spare time, here is my list:

1. Read The Horse and His Boy to the kids (the 3rd book in the Chronicles of Narnia).
2. Write some reviews that are coming up.
3. Wrap my head around new review items and decide how we’ll use them to fit our family.
4. Plan homeschool for the rest of 2009, bringing us up to Christmas.

Right about now I can hear someone asking why we don’t just take the week off completely.  I have a simple reason.  Actually, I have 5 of them.  My children thrive on our family’s routines.  Dropping all the usual routines of homeschool would throw them out of balance.  Whining, boredom, and tantrums would result.  As it is I will be hard pressed to keep them from some favorite subjects like science and art.  My plan is to hand over the books and let them go for it without me if they ask. 

We do have a few fun activities planned.  Monday Makayla and I are teaching a class on lapbooking to some homeschooling families.   We’ve planned a get together with friends on Thursday if our fevers and runny noses are gone, and a trip with family to the zoo on Saturday (shhh!  it’s a surprise….). 

PS.  Remember our opossum and raccoon adventures last week?  We did trap another opossum Friday night.  We’re working on alternative solutions for the cats’ food now because the kids want to keep every animal we trap.  For some reason that seems like a very bad idea to me.

Home-dyed Playsilks

One of my amazing Crewmates has some great tutorials on her blog Raising Olives. Yesterday evening we used this tutorial to dye our own playsilks. We ordered silks in two sizes (cape/headdress size and scarf/rope size if you ask my kids), bought some Kool-Aid, and got to work as a family.

First you soak the silk in hot water. You add Kool-Aid to a pan of water and heat almost to boiling. Add a playsilk and stir. Kool-Aid comes in lots of colors. Rinse well in cold water. Hang to dry. For the scarves we used mason jars to cook several colors at once. You can remove your silk at any point, but if you leave them in long enough the water turns milky or clear. Here are the leftover jars after the scarves were finished. From left to right it was grape, cherry, pink lemonade, lemon-lime, and orange. Here are the silks dry and waiting for the children to discover them this morning. Be sure to visit Kimberly at Raising Olives to see the rest of her great tutorials. We’re hoping to try her Rain Gutter Bookshelves tutorial next.

Update: These have been a hit at my house. So far I've seen the children use the playsilks for:

• capes for superheros
• a veil for brides
• a headress for chieftan/princess
• a skirt
• a belt to hold lightsabers
• a rope to pull someone out of a 'pit'(from the floor to the bed)
• peek a boo with the baby
• a place to sit during read aloud so they stay still

Week in Review #20

We just finished up day 95 of this homeschool year. Next Friday will be our 100th day. I’ve never kept track before because we just homeschool year round. This year I’ve had a calendar to keep track of when reviews are due, so it has been easy to circle each day we’ve done homeschool.

This week the preschoolers enjoyed reading several versions of Little Red Riding Hood. Some are obviously written to be nice. The people are not eaten, just locked in a closet, and the wolf is tied up, not killed. The illustrations ranged from black and white outlines to cartoon to beautiful drawings. They enjoyed them all, including the not so nice ones.

Each day Joseph and Emma did activities from an Evan-Moor pockets book. Each day they were given a few parts to do in workboxes. There were character and item cards to trace the word and color, puppets to make, sequence cards to put in order, and even a basket to fill with things for grandma when we acted out the story. It was fun and easy.

Emma and Joseph still ask to read with Rocket Phonics every day, so I oblige them. They are becoming more confident with the section we are in.

Makayla worked on subtracting 9 again this week and passed the test just fine. We’ve got 9 chapters left in Math U See Alpha. We also have some math review items arriving soon, which will be interesting to try.

Makayla also created a main character and supporting character in her NaNoWriMo workbook. She’s begun work on a villain too.

Ohio week went well. We have several fun books we read through and are looking forward to the lapbook next week. She liked learning that the state insect is a ladybug.

Our Mozart study kicked off this week with a great book by Catherine Brighton. Makayla enjoyed it so much she wouldn’t put it down until she had finished it, so I’ll add some more books on Mozart to the pile next week.

Artistic Pursuits lesson was on form. We talked about how drawings are flat, shapes are flat, but objects can have more dimensions. (Drawings can too, but that is way above our skills). The 3 older kids did this art project while Daniel and Oliver were sleeping. Basically we used construction paper to make the basic animal shape and each chose to decorate their own differently. Joseph and Emma say theirs are dogs. Makayla’s is a raccoon.

The other subjects went fine as usual. Science was fun with trapping the opossum yesterday and the raccoon today. The kids are hoping to catch another animal or two before we give the trap back to great grandpa.

We’re heading into the weekend with 5 kids who have fevers today. I’m sure that’s not a good sign. Maybe that 100th day will happen the following Friday and we’ll take next week off . . . I’ll let you know on Monday.

Be sure to visit Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for today's Weekly Wrap Up, of which this post is a part.

Free Autumn Unit Study and Lapbook

Download N Go Autumn Treasures is the first in a new E-Book series from Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse®.  You can get this first one free HERE.

So what’s so special about this new series?  Each one is a complete, one week unit study.  You do not need to do any research, just print and go.  There are 5 lessons per day with lapbook components to do.  Personally, we would even stretch this out over 2 weeks because there is so much to choose from. 

If you want to know all the details for each day you can read them HERE.   

One more quick note – you can still get a one year print subscription to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine through Sunday October 18th HERE.  Feel free to order me a subscription while you’re there.

Okay, Maybe I was Wrong

In yesterday’s post I showed photos of the opossum we caught.  I said we would set the trap again to see if we had any more thieves eating our cat food. 

Yup.  But it was not another opossum.  Meet Bandit the raccoon.  Today we’ll go right back to where we left off in our Zoology book and learn about raccoons.  It’s never dull around here.  What do you think we’ll catch tonight?  I’m just hoping the next animal is not a skunk.

It Was Not a Raccoon . . .

I mentioned earlier we’ve got two outside cats.  Their food was disappearing at an alarming rate, the 6 gallon bucket was often knocked over with scratches in the lid, and we suspected a raccoon. 

Nope.

This cutie has been named Watermelon by my kids.  A Virginia opossum has been our food thief.  We’ll set the trap again to see if there are any more thieves.

Don’t worry, with my animal activist daughter this opossum will be released in the woods.  No harm will be done. 

The kids thought it had quite an interesting tail.  I probably don’t need to tell you we’re dropping our raccoon lessons today to learn about opossum, do I?

Besides, it’s kind of cute.