Dive in Deep

This is my second week joining in on the Homeschool Blog Cruise. Last week I posted my thoughts on socialization HERE. The topic this Tuesday is:

“How do you know what to teach?”

This is a question I have heard from time to time. A related question is:

“How will you make sure you do not miss something and have gaps in the children’s education?”

In the beginning, I did not need someone to tell me what to teach. Preschool is basic, or should be. I try to teach my preschoolers scripture stories first of all. We learn to recognize colors, shapes, letters, and the sounds letters make. We count to 10, then 20. We learn about animals, plants, vehicles, and things they are interested in. We read a lot of stories.

When my oldest finished kindergarten I did some research to see what my state department of education planned to teach in each grade. This list comes under many names, including scope and sequence (there is a free one by World Book Encyclopedia HERE). In Ohio this list is the Academic Content Standards, and it was free to download online.

I read my state’s plans for each elementary grade, by subject. Then I shook my head in disgust. Each year a pathetic amount of material was covered, in unrelated, disorganized bits. History was shallow and did not cover more than holidays and ‘my community’ for the first 3 years(K-2nd). In the entire 13 year plan world history received no more than 2 years of study. Our nation has only been around for a little over 200 years and you are going to study it nearly exclusively for 11 years?

Each year in science was a collection of random topics studied in a shallow way before moving on. For example in 2nd grade students are to learn that there are more stars than we can count; that sun and moon move across the sky; that weather can be different each day; that animals need air, water, and food; that plants change each season; and that some things make sounds. Those things could be covered completely in just a few weeks.

At that point I realized that anything I taught my children was going to be a deeper, more thorough education than the public schools were offering. We do not want our children to have knowledge a mile wide but only an inch deep. We want to follow their interests as deep as they go whenever they are ready to learn. Our goal is to teach them how to learn and then hold on for the ride.

For example, when my oldest looked through a science catalog at the end of 1st grade she decided she wanted to learn about animals. That is nothing unusual. However her interest lay in seeing how they are physically made – she wanted to spend the next year doing dissections! So we did. We dissected animals that had been preserved, just like in my high school biology class, as well as a rabbit we found (you can see photos of that one HERE). Makayla and her siblings learned a lot that year about God’s wonderful creations, how they are similar – and different. They did not have to wait until high school to learn about what was interesting to them.

So, to get back to the questions at the beginning of this post, here is how I know what to teach. I liken it to a trip to the ocean.

1. Get in the water - Follow my children’s interests through unit studies. Give them some say in what we study.
2. Take them to a new part of the ocean - Introduce them to topics, people, and events that I think may interest them. Sure, the water was great in the first part of the ocean, but we can meet new creatures if we try a different spot.
3. Get some scuba gear ready and dive in deep! - Follow the rabbit trails that come up as we read. Questions are not a distraction, they are the compass in our learning adventure.

As for gaps in our learning, everyone has gaps in their learning! I cannot remember a single year of public school where we actually finished the textbook in any subject. I want to teach my children how to learn, how to find out information when they want to know something. Then they will be able to fill in any gaps that they find.

When my children reach high school I do not suspect things will change much. By that point my children will have taken the reins for guiding their own education. They will pick the beach, get in the water, and probably invest in a submarine to get even deeper than we went when they were young. They will set goals and work to meet them, including career and life goals. I will then be the facilitator, simply there to help them find the resources they need, and to provide a scuba dive study partner.

I am just one mom, and I have one opinion(which I like, because it is mine). I can only tell you what I have done, and what I plan to do in the future. Check out other responses to this question at the Blog Cruise on Tuesday HERE.

February Unit Study Plans

February should be an interesting month.  We are doing a unit study I’m calling Health and Safety Month.  It is really a series of smaller units that go together somewhat and meet some requirements for Ohio homeschooling laws. 

Week 1 we will be studying First Aid.  Makayla is so excited about this.   She has already started studying our main book and taking notes.  Our spine for this  part of the unit is The Kid’s Guide to First Aid: All About Bruises, Burns, Stings, Sprains, & Other Ouches by Karen Buhler Gale.  I love the format of this book!  The book is from the library but I ordered a used copy from Amazon with free giftcards I got with Swagbucks because it is great.  {{You can sign up through me HERE to start earning Swagbucks just for searching the internet.  I have already earned over $100.00 in Amazon Giftcards with Swagbucks!}}

One of the things we are working on is giving the children more responsibility for their learning as they are ready.  In keeping with that goal, I am not planning out what to do for the First Aid part of our unit.  Makayla is taking the lead with this.  She’ll read from the book daily and make notes about what she learns.  We will make a first aid kit together (she’ll come up with the list and we’ll go shopping).  Our first aid study will probably happen all month long.

Week 2 we will begin Doctor Week using the WannaBe e-book  from The Old Schoolhouse “When I Grow Up, I Want to Be a Doctor”.  I got this as part of a set of 10 unit studies for $20.00 this month (The sale ends Jan. 31st.  See this post for details).  We will not be using the entire e-book right now, our focus is on learning about what doctors do and how they become a doctor.  The study of the eye will be saved for later.  Again, I’m going light on planning.  We will read aloud from the e-book and discuss it.  I have a list of things the kids can do to record what they learn.  These ideas are printables from the unit as well as ideas for notebooking pages.

Week 3 is Police Week.  Can you guess what we’re using?  Yup, “When I Grow Up I Want to Be a Police Officer” will be the main book for our unit.  While learning about safety and the jobs a police officer may do, we will also learn about fingerprints and do a little detective work of our own.  I’ve made a list of activities the kids can choose from each day here too.

We hope to finish up the month with Firefighter Week in week 4.  Again, we found the perfect e-book with “When I Grow Up I Want to Be a Firefighter”.  This  week will cover fire prevention, the job of a firefighter, etc.  There are several movies that could be watched (in part or in whole) with firefighting, including Fireproof, one of my favorites.

I am thinking about setting up a field trip to the police station or fire station.  It might be fun to do one Monday with Daddy.  We’ll see.

Week In Review #33 – Goodbye Egypt

Hooray! We made it through another week and accomplished a good deal.

Math happened daily, with Makayla working through the Math Mammoth book we’re reviewing. Joseph and Emma used dry erase books, and I posted HERE about our day with pattern blocks.

Writing is slowly becoming a daily habit for Makayla. She chooses her own topic some days, I choose on others. One of her choices this week (on a grumpy day) was “Why I Hate Writing”. She had a lot to say about it and got her writing done in the process, so I’m not complaining.

Joseph and Emma have been trying reading things outside of their Rocket Phonics materials this week for fun. One of their favorites this week was having me write a sentence at a time on a large dry erase board. After they read it to me I would illustrate it. Some were regular, some were silly (like the one about the dog that bit the pig).

We did some sign language practice this week with everyone. Daniel still really likes to watch the dvds, but he does not sign along often. He does talk along with it though, so he is getting practice saying all sorts of words and counting.

I posted HERE about our Artistic Pursuits day where we made murals like you find inside the pyramids.

The biggest accomplishment this week was finishing our Ancient Egypt and Simple Machines unit and lapbook. In my effort not to overwhelm you with photos I made a video. I have never made a video before, so keep in mind that I am not a professional! This video shows Makayla’s entire Ancient Egypt and Simple Machines lapbook.

See what other homeschoolers were up to this week in the current Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Manipulative Fun

We took time today to use our pattern blocks.  The kids started out creating anything they wanted with them.  We had robots, bees, and other fanciful designs appear.  

I have a reproducible book called Pattern Block Activities that was published in 1985.  I was 4 years old then folks!  I found this  treasure for free about a year ago.  I cut off the spine and put the pages into page protectors.  The book is easy enough in the beginning for my two year old to do by matching shapes. 

Then it becomes more challenging and gives the students outlines of larger shapes to fill with pattern blocks any way you can.  The book even goes on teach about fractions, symmetry, area, and perimeter – all with pattern blocks. 

As you can see, my children have fun with this book.  Emma was quite proud of herself when she got this dinosaur filled in.  I have two other books that I also cut apart and put into another binder full of page protectors.  It makes it easy for more than one child to use the same book at the same time, and protects those pages from being torn and crumpled.   Those two books are for tangrams, with pages for Preschool to 3rd grade.

Of course, Oliver is not quite old enough to use the pattern blocks without trying to eat them.  He got to play with the toy kitchen instead.

                                    Isn’t he cute?

Winding Down to Friday

Ahhh! I feel so much better having posted all those reviews this past week. Thank you for being patient, now I can go back to my regular posting habits with reviews much more spread out.

Do you know the other thing that has me feeling better? We are almost finished with this simple machines unit! When we began the month studying Ancient Egypt with a side of simple machines I was hoping it would catch the kids’ interests. They loved loved loved the Egypt parts, which we finished up Monday. They have enjoyed parts of the simple machines unit, but as Makayla put it yesterday:

“Are we about done with machines mom? They’re getting boring.”

I have to say, I agreed with her. The reason I included simple machines in our unit was two-fold:

1. It really related well to pyramids. The kids have found the connections, and liked them. They even made some connections outside pyramids.
2. It gave us a needed portfolio item for the end of year assessment. Not a good motivator for the kids, but it was one of my reasons. I told Makayla, my 8 year old, that I really needed her to finish the lapbook pieces for this one. I even bribed her (yes, I really did!) by letting her know that as soon as she finishes the lapbook there is a computer game to play about simple machines. That was motivation enough for her. She has maybe 4 lapbook pieces yet to write in for simple machines, and once those are done it is over. She’ll get to play the game, which you can play free HERE, and it will do our review painlessly.

Next month’s units should be fun once I get them planned. Yeah, maybe I should stop blogging and go work on that… oops!

Eclectic Education Series Review (Dollar Homeschool)

Each family’s goals when homeschooling their children is unique, and the way they go about meeting those goals is likely to be just as varied. The amount of money spent over a child’s education will vary based on all these factors and more. As a member of TOS Homeschool Crew I received downloads of the Eclectic Education Series from Dollar Homeschool. Hold on to your hats folks, this product is huge and I have a lot of explaining to do!

What is the Eclectic Education Series? The EES is a set of textbooks used in many one room schoolhouses of the United States between 1865 and 1915. Some familiar names in the EES include Ray’s Arithmetic and McGuffey’s Readers. The EES covers math, reading, science, history, and grammar for elementary through high school. The science and history are incomplete in that they end in the early 1900’s, so keep that in mind.

What is being purchased? Dollar Homeschool has taken all these public domain books and compiled them on CD as PDF files for $159.00. A list of every book included with descriptions can be found HERE. There are over 50 books included, including some specifically for teachers to organize your use of the books in the EES. While nearly all of these e-books are available free online, what Dollar Homeschool has done is save parents hours of searching to collect these books themselves. I would not have known where to begin finding even what books are in each series, so this is a big timesaver. You can print pages as needed, or work from your computer.

Another benefit is that for $159.00 a family has a nearly complete basic education library for math, grammar, history, reading, and science. Supplementing with library books on current science and history topics, a family could homeschool all of their children for an entire 13 year education very affordably if the Eclectic Education Series meets the family’s goals. Using my own family as an example, $159.00 divided by 5 children is $31.80 per child. Broken down by 13 years of education that comes to less than $2.50 per year. Even a family with one child sees benefits, with the cost for 13 years of education breaking down to less than $12.50 per year.

Like any product, the Eclectic Education Series has pros and cons. I will talk about what we liked first, then explain the cons (in my opinion) at the end of this post.

What books did we use in our homeschool? Let me tell you how I handled this review. I spent a few hours reading through the books in the Eclectic Education Series. I was trying to wrap my mind around how I could use them for our homeschool both now and in the future.

I began by reading Successful Teaching in Rural Schools. This book uses a series of letters from a teacher to explain how she implemented the Eclectic Education Series subject by subject in her school. It was a treasure trove of teaching ideas that really put me into the one-room schoolhouse homeschool frame of mind. For example it encouraged me to whet my children’s appetite for a subject by giving a little introduction with some problems to solve or discoveries to make.

I also saw that working with all my children at once the older student could benefit from listening in on the younger students’ lessons (as review) and the younger children could begin laying a foundation in subjects for future years by listening to older sister’s lessons.

I then moved on to reading the Manual of Methods. This book has sections explaining how to teach each subject area using the books in the EES. It was very helpful, especially to learn in the arithmetic portion that the first two years are oral and hands-on. There is little to no writing at this stage.

When I implemented the things I learned, I started with math. We used Ray’s Primary Arithmetic for my 4 and 5 year old, and White’s First Book of Arithmetic for my 8 year old. We made our own abacus to use for the manipulatives (my tutorial is here). After the first lesson with my younger children, where I read from the book and they used the abacus to figure the problem, my 8 year old was able to read the problems for them and help them with math. Then we moved to reading story problems for my 8 year old. She worked at one dry erase board on the wall, while the 4 and 5 year olds, (and 2 year old!) played with dry erase markers at the second board drawing pictures to go with big sister’s story problems.

We read from some of the McGuffey’s Readers, doing phonics practice with the little ones and actual reading for my oldest. There are more readers than I knew – including alternate readers. My children liked them.

We were studying Ancient Egypt, so we were able to use some of Thalheimer’s history books. I used Thalheimer’s General History as a read aloud. It was a good overview. Then I was able to pull questions from Thalheimer’s Ancient History to see what we had learned or what more we could learn about Egyptian History.

One of the books I plan to use in the spring is the Nature Study book. It has 33 short chapters with things to study, laid out for 8 to 11 year olds, with the opportunity to include younger children by allowing oral narrations instead of written ones after our outdoor studies. We will take our lessons outside and find the insects and plants, draw them, and learn what we can with this book.

What are the Cons? This area is always subjective, but here are the things I did not like about the Eclectic Education Series:

1. These are e-books. I like having a book in my hand, and my children needed a book in hand to use the McGuffey’s Readers. For the review we printed some pages, but we would like at least some of these books in a bound copy.


2. Some of the e-books were not scanned well. While all the text seems fine, illustrations in some of the books were awful. In the readers and early math books the children are asked questions about the pictures, or use the illustrations to answer problems, but the illustrations were not clear enough to use(on the computer or printed out). This was NOT true of all the books, only some of them. I was able to find better scanned illustrations free online for these books as they are in the public domain.


3. Customer service is not what I would hope for a product that costs over $150.00. A few e-books were missing pages. That happens when scanning hundreds of pages at a time. I understand that. However, when I contacted the company they were only willing to send me scans of the missing pages, not a complete e-book file that had the missing pages included. When I want to read those missing pages I have to go to an entirely separate file on my computer, read the pages, and then go back to the first file for the rest of the book. I would like to see the company fix the files that had missing pages and offer a download link to all past purchasers for the fixed file. Maybe that will be offered in the future, I don’t know. UPDATE: The company is fixing the files with missing pages for future customers. Not for past ones (though you can request the missing pages in a separate file).

** The Eclectic Education Series is a good product, and if the blurry scans and missing pages were fixed I would recommend it to families looking for a back-to-basics, affordable approach to homeschool. For now, you will have to be the judge for your own families. **

Many of my Crewmates are reviewing EES and/or Ray’s Arithmetic (a part of EES). Be sure to read their reviews HERE for more opinions. I am just one mom, and while I like my opinions, they are not the only ones out there. ;)

{Disclaimer: I received this product free as part of TOS Homeschool Crew to review. I received no other compensation and all opinions presented herein are my own.}

Homeschool Blog Cruise Jan 26th

No, I’m not going on a cruise on a boat (you wouldn’t catch me dead on a boat in the middle of the ocean!). Remember my post about the socialization question? It is part of today’s Blog Cruise on The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew’s Facebook page. It is just like a blog carnival, where articles are submitted and gathered into one post to read. Today’s posts all answer the same question, “What about socialization?” and come from more than 25 viewpoints.

Did I mention I don’t even have a Facebook account? Yes, I’m behind the times. I don’t have a Twitter account either, but I’m surviving. However many weeks I will be participating in the Blog Cruise from TOS because I can do that with a post on my blog. Part of the fun is reading everyone else’s answers to the question of the week, so go check it out!

Artistic Pursuits and Egypt

Today we had a fun lesson that combined our Artistic Pursuits Grade 1-3 Book One with our Ancient Egypt Unit Study. The children became tomb painters today and made murals. We set up each child in a different 'chamber' of the house today with a piece of poster board taped to the wall. They used chalk pastels or oil pastels, depending upon their preference.

In the Artistic Pursuits lesson about murals we studied a portion of the Tomb of Nakht. This mural depicts servants with offerings, foods that are being piled high. It also has hieroglyphs, which was neat to see.

We talked about how Egyptians painted people in a style called frontalism. They felt the human body’s proportions were best shown off with the head and neck in profile, the shoulders to waist from the front, and the hips to feet in profile. Makayla was the only one to attempt a person in her mural using what we had learned. She decided by the end of it that frontalism is very hard to do if you are not used to drawing that way!

Family Workbox Plans – End of January

The month has flown by and we are heading into the last week of our Ancient Egypt and Simple Machines unit studies.  The plans for the family workbox this week are as follows:

• Monday will be the last day for Egypt. We will finish up the lapbook/notebook today.  A few things still need colored and glued in.
• The whole family will participate in an Artistic Pursuits lesson on Ancient Art in pyramids(Monday too).  We will then make murals.  Part of the discussion will cover frontalism, which has to do with the way people were drawn in Ancient Egypt, and hopefully Makayla will be able to incorporate that into her mural. 
• For writing Makayla will write for 10 minutes to a prompt daily, while Joseph, Emma, and Daniel work with dry erase books to do their letters and short words.  This is one of Daniel’s favorite things to do.
• Math for Makayla is chapter 2 in the Math Mammoth book we’re reviewing.  This week is all about clocks and she will do 3-4 pages each day.  Joseph, Emma, and Daniel will work on learning the number 12, and the term dozen.  Of course we will have to bake a dozen or two of something yummy – muffins or cookies I suspect.
• Signing Time will be focusing on numbers, time, and days of the week.
• Tuesday through Friday we will finish our study of simple machines.  We have a few lapbook pieces to do, short books to read, and then a computer game to play Friday where we search for simple machines.
• Rocket Phonics for Joseph and Emma daily.  They are trying a new book this week along with their regular fun in Rocket Phonics, the Beehive Reader from All-About-Spelling.  It is just for a fun challenge to see how they do with it.
• Our gospel studies continue in the Old Testament this week with the Israelites and Joshua.

I am excited for this week because it is the end of a unit.  That is always fun, seeing everything we’ve accomplished and making plans for the next unit.  Hopefully I will find time later this week to post some of February’s plans.

What do you have planned for your week?

FactsFirst Review

Developing quick recall of basic math facts takes repetition, sometimes a lot of repetition.  FactsFirst is an online math program that give students that repetition while motivating with fun graphics and the opportunity to spend time in the arcade after completion of a lesson.  Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are covered.

When a student begins FactsFirst they create their character.  They have options for face, hair, clothing, and accessories.  This character then appears in every lesson.  Above is a peek at the Character Creator screen.

Lessons have an organized pattern.  First two new facts are introduced, the commutative property is shown (5+4=9 and 4+5=9), and students get to practice the new facts.  Each correct answer shows a check mark.  Speed in answering problems correctly earns a student a “+” beside the check mark, indicating mastery.  The goal, ultimately, is to be able to answer quickly and accurately.  {Handy Hint:  Parents can adjust the acceptable mastery time in the Progress Chart area, or even remove the timed aspect completely.  We gave Makayla more time per problem and it made a big difference.}

After practicing the new facts the quiz time begins, where speed and accuracy are both important.  This tests the student on recall of the new facts as well as previously learned facts.  The student is then taken to the scoring section.  They learn how they did on the new facts first, then on the quiz as a whole.  One neat feature is the Math Facts Matrix.  It shows your student where they are at in learning facts with the following  designations:

• Excellent – correct and fast (green check plus)
• Good – sometimes wrong or slow (yellow check)
• Needs Work – mostly wrong (red ‘x’)
• Not Sure Yet – facts they have not done (light blue shading)

  Upon completion of a lesson the student is taken to the arcade.  There they may choose from five games, including the character creator, to play for 5 minutes.  This time is controlled by the computer, a student plays or edits their character until the time runs out.  They are then brought back to choose the next lesson.  The above picture is one of the available games. 

What do we think?  FactsFirst was a fun way to practice math facts independent of Mom!  Each lesson is set in a different place.  We visited the bowling alley, the grocery store, a recycling plant, and a restaurant to name a few.  Makayla’s character was in each of these places, with the new facts being explained and practiced in applicable stories.  Working through the lesson was a means to earn time in the arcade, so my daughter worked away, often doing two lessons in a sitting to visit the arcade twice that day.  Her speed at recalling the facts improved, and we were able to easily pinpoint her trouble facts (ones she consistently took a long time to remember) thanks to the handy Math Facts Matrix. 

Another thing I like is that the focus of the whole program is math facts.  Makayla could not get distracted doing other things like measuring, clock or money skills, or even more complicated math.  Developing basic fact fluency is makes all other math easier.  It is one less thing to think about or figure out when working a multi-step problem in later years.

A 1 year subscription to FactsFirst costs $49.99.  That price gives you a household license for up to 4 students, less than $12.50 per student for an entire year of math practice.  You can try the addition or multiplication demo HERE (buttons at the top of page). 

You can see what my Crewmates’ thought about FactsFirst HERE.

{Disclaimer: I received a free 90 day subscription to enable me to write this review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions presented here are my own.}

Week in Review #32

Wow!  It was a good week, even though the kids changed some of my plans.  In my efforts to let them have a bit more control I let them run with it.  The big change they made was to work in our Ancient Egypt unit study every day and save the rest of Simple Machines for next week.  With our family workbox that change was easy enough to make.  All our materials were printed off before we began the unit, so we simply kept pulling things out of the Egypt folder all week. 

Many things were added to the lapbooks this week.  I will post pictures when they are all done.  They range from pyramid information to tomb schematics, from information about specific pharaohs to a report Makayla typed about how to make a mummy. 

Makayla completed the first chapter in Math Mammoth Light Blue 2A.  It was a challenging week to jump into a new math curricula, but she did great!  She averaged 3 pages of math each day and has discovered that she really likes doing her work on a small dry erase board instead of cluttering up her paper with it. 

Joseph and Emma used some dry erase books to do subtraction this week.  Joseph got the concept, he was able to use the pictures to help him figure the problems (2-1, 4-3, etc).  Emma just counted the pictures on a line and wrote the total.  That works too. 

Another week of geography is done, only a 10 states to go before we can put away the book for the year.  The last state this week was South Carolina. 

I am working on plans for next week.  We will be finishing up our studies of Ancient Egypt and Simple Machines (I hope!).  That means I will also be getting things ready for February too. 

What about Socialization?

If you have homeschooled for longer than, say, 5 minutes, you have probably heard the question “What about socialization?” in one form or another.  I know I have heard it many times.  I do not mind the question, I find what really matters is how it is being asked.  Some ask out of curiosity, others out of true concern for our children, and still others ask without really being willing to listen to your answer. 

I have answered differently to each questioner, sometimes with more or less grace than I wished.  I try to “be ready always to give an answer to him that asketh you” (1 Peter 3:15).  If someone is simply and honestly curious I share that there are many opportunities for homeschoolers if they choose to participate in them. 

To those asking because they are truly concerned over our children’s education and development I share specific ways our children socialize with people of all ages in a typical week.  I let them know we find satisfaction in watching our children develop true social skills instead of the peer-dependent pack mentality prevalent in single age classrooms.  We sometimes discuss why we feel “classroom” socialization is not the way we want our children to relate to individuals.  It is not our goal to have peer-dependent children.  We want a family centered interdependence where siblings are best friends and each is comfortable socializing in the real world situations that make up our daily life. 

We do not need to teach our children about the job of the postal worker or how the package for their Uncle gets across the ocean to Iraq when it is too big to even fit in our mailbox.  They know our mail carrier personally and regularly visit the post office to drop off packages, asking their questions directly of the workers there.  How to care for an infant, cook, sew, or balance a checkbook will not need taught in a “home ec” class, it is a part of everyday living and learning.

That brings me to the third type of questioner.  This is the one who asks “What about socialization?” in a way that tells you they aren’t interested in your answer.  They simply want you to know they disapprove of homeschooling in general, and are looking for the opportunity to argue against it.  To these questioners I do not try to defend homeschooling and the opportunities for socialization inherent in it.  I choose to testify about why we homeschool, and who is the one that really provides all our children need. 

“We are homeschooling because it is what God told us to do.  He has the perfect curriculum planned for social skills and every other area.  We just keep praying and following His lead.” 

Really, that is the most important answer.  We homeschool because it is what God wants for our family.  Learning the lessons He has planned is the important thing. 

Garden Time! Coupon Code for my Readers

Mid-winter is the time I begin planning our garden. I miss springtime and reading through all the seed catalogs warms my heart just a little bit.

Hometown Seeds carries many products. I received their Survival Seeds package last year, containing 16 non-hybrid varieties of seeds (enough to plant 3/4 acre). This year I plan to explore their garden seed offerings, while my daughter Makayla is already asking to plant her own flower garden this year.

I received a coupon code from Hometown Seeds to share with my dear readers. Receive 10% off your entire order by entering the coupon code ‘thanks’ when checking out. The code is good through February 28, 2010.

Enjoy a little bit of spring today and plan a garden. If you are new to gardening my favorite book is All New Square Foot Gardening. It has worked well for us the last two years.

MathTutor DVDs Review

We receive packages regularly at our house.  My mailman knows each of my children by sight and he knows that we homeschool.  He is used to 5 excited children gathering at the door when he makes a delivery.  Many of those packages have been items to review.  One package was from MathTutor DVD. 
My children received it with just as much enthusiasm as every other package.  At least until my oldest read the company name.  Then her enthusiasm dimmed a bit.  We’ve had a lot of math products to review this year.  (smile).

We received two products, so I will tell about each one below.

Young Minds Numbers and Counting ($19.99) was created to help preschoolers recognize numbers to 10, count objects, and even learn names of fruits, vegetables, machines, animals, and the sounds animals make.   All of this is set to classical music.  Bonus Features include a Dot-to-Dot section with a line drawing partially completed.  The line is drawn as you count to 10, then the drawing is colored in(like clipart).  The Puzzle section has 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 pieces.  Each piece is counted and slid into place, revealing a scene.  The Guess Who section is zoomed in video of animals that gives the child clues as the video zooms out and then asks, “What am I?”

You can see this great video that shows parts from the entire DVD, including each of the bonus sections:

 Our Thoughts:  We watched this as a family the first time and is was simply beautiful.   My baby enjoyed the music, the 2 year old, 4 year old, and 5 year old counted along and each liked different photos.  Even my 8 year old enjoyed how beautiful everything was.  I kept hearing her say, “Mom, look at that.  It’s so pretty.”  Young Minds: Numbers and Counting was too long to do in one session really.  The little ones lost interest after about 15 minutes, but watching it in 2 parts works well.    

The second product we received is a 2 DVD set with 8 hours of content.  The Basic Math Word Problem Tutor ($26.99) teaches students how to apply basic math skills to word problems.  Knowing how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, for example, does little good when you do not understand which one you need to do to solve a word problem.  The teacher works problems right with the student on a white board in a friendly, easy style.  Each type of problem is covered in it’s own section on the DVDs:

Disc 1
Section 1: Adding Whole Numbers
Section 2: Subtracting Whole Numbers
Section 3: Multiplying Whole Numbers
Section 4: Dividing Whole Numbers
Section 5: Adding Decimals
Section 6: Subtracting Decimals
Section 7: Multiplying Decimals
Section 8: Dividing Decimals
Disc 2
Section 9: Adding Fractions
Section 10: Subtracting Fractions
Section 11: Multiplying Fractions
Section 12: Dividing Fractions
Section 13: Percents, Part 1
Section 14: Percents, Part 2
Section 15: Ratio and Proportion

Our Thoughts:  These DVDs are a bit above my children yet.  Math is not my my oldest child’s strongest subject, so she only watched a small part of the DVD, and I watched more without her.  The DVD seems to be a good explanation of word problems and watching for the key words in a problem to tell you what operation you will use.  The teacher does a great job explaining that you must figure out what question they are asking you to solve, as well as remember to label each number so you know what type of unit you are working with (feet, pencils, etc.).  You can see Word Problems video samples about:

•  the addition section
• the subtraction of decimals 
• the addition of fractions

One thing that I did not like:  In the addition section it begins with the teacher reminding you that you should already know your math facts, that teaching them is not the purpose of this DVD.  Then during several problems in the addition section the teacher proceeds to tell the kids to count on their fingers.  He also physically shows the students how to count on their fingers for the problems.  That is not what we want modeled after the student has been told they should know the math facts.  It just seemed a bit contradictory. 

Even with that being said, I think this DVD is a good resource, and one that will definitely be put to use in our home.  Learning to solve word problems, which are often real life applications for math, is a skill we want our children to develop well.  Watching the Basic Math Word Problem Tutor has encouraged me to check out the other Math Tutor DVDs as we go further in our arithmetic studies.  They offer products beginning for elementary math clear through calculus and physics, which can be seen HERE. 

Check out my Crewmates’ thoughts HERE for more reviews of MathTutor DVDs.

{Disclaimer:  I received one copy of these DVDs for free to enable me to write this review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions presented are my own.}

The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Review - Apologia

If I could put one book into the hands of homeschoolers, both new and experienced, it would be The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell, published by Apologia.  It is that good!  I received a copy to review as part of my journey with The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew.  When the 509 page book arrived in the mail I really was not sure how much I would gain from it because I have read nearly every book written on homeschooling already.  I have also been actively homeschooling for over 4 years. 

With that in mind I decided to grab a notebook and a pencil and study The Ultimate Guide as a course on homeschooling.  I wanted to know just what someone could learn with this book.  With 10 parts and 34 chapters there was so much information covered.  Within not very many pages I began feeling this overwhelming need to highlight things in my book.  I resisted, just in case it was a book I was going to end up giving away after one reading.  So I took note.  Lots of notes.  Some of the chapters that stood out to me on my first reading were:

• Determining Your Destination
• Six Ingredients to a Successful Homeschool
• All of part 2: Choosing a Curriculum - 5 chapters.
• Burnout Buster #1: Raise an Independent Learner
• Subject-by-Subject Guidelines
• The section on Homeschooling Teens
• Measuring Your Success

The Ultimate Guide motivated me to really look at why we are homeschooling, what fruit we want to see in our children, and it inspired me on nearly every page.  It was like going to a mom’s night to chat with your friends about ideas in some chapters, while other chapters challenged me to grow. 

Can I share something here?  When I was reading The Ultimate Guide the first time through I came to the chapter about raising independent learners.  As I read it was like God was standing behind me nudging me to pay attention.  Honestly, right at that moment I said "Please, God, not right now.  Can I just have a few months to finish what we're doing?"  Yes, I really said that. 

You see, I was comfortable with my plans and did not want to re-evaluate them.  I talked with my husband about the chapter that night when it was still on my mind.  We're looking at what we are doing and how we can move to giving the children more control as they grow.   We're taking it slow.  I know we are supposed to be adjusting things and we are making baby steps.

Before I finished reading the book my sister, who also homeschools her children, was asking to read it.  She borrowed my copy and had the same itch to highlight things that I had had.  She plans on purchasing her own copy because she thought it was just that good, too!

I believe The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling is a book that everyone considering or currently homeschooling can learn from.  I think every family should read this book, and that is not something I can say about very many things.

Like any book, though, the advice given on every subject may not be exactly right for your family.  Take what you read and pray about it.  Ask God just what parts of this you need to apply in your family. 

The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling ($20.00) is one of Apologia’s expanding product line.  They are well known for their science curricula (we love Exploring Creation with Land Animals of the Sixth Day!).  Now they offer many more products. 

Be sure to read my Crewmate’s thoughts HERE.

{Disclaimer: I received one free copy of The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling to enable me to write this review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions presented herein are my own.}

A Quick Posting Note

I love my readers.  I love receiving comments.  I love receiving emails.  One thing I do {just because I think it is nice} is try to keep my review posts spaced out to about one a week with lots of regular posts in between.  I do that because my favorite blogs are ones where I get to read more than just reviews, although I love reading reviews too.  It is an addiction of mine.  I am a curriculum and book junkie.  {I’ll bet you never would have guessed that.}

This post is to officially let you know I’m breaking my own rule over the next week or so.  I have quite a few review items and several of them are at the point where I’m ready to review them.  Did you catch the part where I have quite a few review items?  I’ve decided that I am going to write the ones that are ready and go ahead and post them.  Just know that the heavy-on-reviews week (or so) is only temporary.  I promise.  I just have several neat items to review that I really want to tell you about, and I’m not the best at waiting patiently.  I will try to fit regular posts in between too, but I will definitely be posting more than one review in the next week.

Thanks for being flexible! 

WFMW: 10 Unit Studies for $20.00!

I spent money. It happens often occasionally. While browsing The Old Schoolhouse Store for some resources to use for learning about first aid, fire safety, and safety in general I came across a current sale: The WannaBe series of 10 e-books was only $19.95 for the whole set(regularly $89.50). Each book is titled “When I grow up, I want to be ____”. A little light bulb went on. I had received three of these e-books months ago as a free download when the series launched and filed them away. Yes, I had forgotten to look at them. I went to the Old Schoolhouse folder on my computer to read the one on Firefighters and nearly fell out of my chair. It was perfect! It was not an e-book, it was a complete unit study. After a brief discussion with my husband that night I went to bed without making a purchase. I wanted to be sure I was not jumping into a purchase I would not use.

The next morning I took a close look at the free samples, the three units I already had, and the other titles in the series. The WannaBe series was still amazing and I made my purchase. The sale is still going on HERE if you want it too. I think it goes through the end of January. Even though I owned 3 of the 10 units, paying only $19.95 for the set of 10 is an amazing deal!

What’s inside a unit?

• Information pages about the career, with information for preschoolers through high schoolers.

• Crossword puzzles

• Coloring pages

• Handwriting Practice

• Vocabulary

• Copywork

• Math

• Word Search

• Quiz

• Fill in the Story

• Experiments

• End of Unit Activities – games, memory verses, and ideas for great themed parties.

• Great resource lists that are internet linked.

I loved that these units are written from a Christian homeschool perspective. The information for high school homeschoolers is wonderful, giving them direction on how to prepare for that career.

Titles in the series:

• Firefighter

• Police Officer

• Doctor

• Farmer

• In the Military

• Veterinarian

• Chef

• Missionary

• Pilot (will be emailed to me upon release)

• Artist (will be emailed to me upon release)

Did I mention these are over 75 pages long? I gave my kids a peek at one and the oldest is begging to read the one about Veterinarians. Next month we’re going to do “safety month” and use at least part of the Firefighter, Doctor, and Police Officer units. I love resources that make it easy for me to do unit studies with my whole family together! The WannaBe series Works for Me!

Read my other Works for Me Wednesday posts HERE. Visit We Are THAT Family for this week’s WFMW post.

{Disclaimer: I bought these products with my own money. I am not opposed to receiving products for free (feel free to email me!) but the WannaBe series was totally worth spending my own cash to own them all!}

Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class for Kids - Review

I love music for many reasons:

• You remember information you sing easily. I can still remember songs I learned when I was 8.
• God loves music, it is a way we can draw close to him, thank him, or even plead with him.
• Music usually catches the attention of little children. Very helpful at my house!

I can read music and play the piano a bit, but I have no experience with other instruments.

When we received the opportunity to review Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class for Kids from WorshipGuitarClass.com I was thrilled. I figured if it was written for kids even I could learn with it! I prayed for help in finding a guitar and God provided a family in our church who had an extra guitar we could borrow indefinitely. We were set.

For the review experience we received access to the class through online streaming video($28.00), (it is also available on DVD for $29.97, or both for $33.00), with an e-book that comes along with the class. This program is for ages 5-9, though older students can get a start with it as well(I’m 28 and it works for me). Included in the class are 9 lessons, plus 9 practice sessions. You learn 11 chords and several songs.

A lesson has Jean sitting down teaching you how to play. It is much like I imagine sitting with a guitar teacher in our home would be, she talks right to you. The lessons also include Abigail, a girl who is learning guitar with you. I think it goes a bit fast for the younger end of the age range, but we simply paused the video long enough to try each finger placement if it was giving us trouble.

I like that each lesson is short and easy to fit into our day. We do one lesson and then spend the rest of the week using the practice session or just the e-book, which we printed out. In the e-book after the lesson pages the student sees a page with a large gray box telling them what to play this week. After lesson one, for example, it says:

• Pray First
• Play the guitar for 5 to 10 minutes a day, 5 or 6 days a week.
• Do the arm/rhythm exercise 4 times.
• Walk ‘i’ and ‘m’ on the 1st string with the rhythm.
• Sing and play ‘Thank You Father’.

Makayla is able to do this independently, or turn on the practice session and do it along with Jean and Abigail. The songs are sweet and adaptable. Using the first lesson again for my example, you learn to play “Thank You Father”. Once you know the pattern the words can easily be changed to thank God for whatever is meaningful to you that day (and this is shown and encouraged in the lesson). What a blessing for a child to have an easy way to praise God while learning an instrument.

What do we think? My daughter is enjoying this approach to learning guitar. She is having fun and really learning. I am too! I like the fact that I can do this in my own home instead of finding a babysitter or taking the 4 younger children along when we have lessons.

Another thing that stands out for me is the cost. Worship Guitar for Kids is 9 music lessons for under $30.00. In my area guitar lessons cost $15.00 per lesson. That is $135.00 for the same 9 lessons, a difference of $105.00. In our one-income household that is important.

Another perk: We can watch the lesson over and over and over. The DVD teacher has infinite patience and we do not need to wait until the next week’s lesson if we forget what we are supposed to have learned.

Anyone can see just over half of the first lesson of Jean Welles Worship Guitar for Kids HERE. They also offer a Worship Guitar Class of four separate levels for older students (ages 9 and up) with Jean Welles. If guitar really takes off with my children that would be the next thing I would invest in.

Some of my TOS crewmates received the younger class like I did to review, while others received the older series, so check out their reviews HERE.

{Disclaimer: I received free access to Worship Guitar for Kids so I could review it. I received no other compensation and all opinions presented here are my own.}

Family Workbox Plans – 4 Day Week

This week we took Monday off and had fun with Daddy, so the homeschool plans reflect that with only 4 days of work listed. This week we are shifting math to another new review item, Math Mammoth. We will also start doing a lesson a week with our Math U See Beta book and DVD. Other than that most things are similar to last week, I’ll explain below the table.

Tues.	Wed.	Thurs.	Fri.
Gospel	Gospel	Gospel	Gospel
Math	Math	Math	Math
Egypt	Simple Machines	Egypt	Simple Machines
Write	Write	Write	Write
ASL	ASL	ASL	ASL
50 States	50 States	50 States	50 States
Rocket Phonics	Rocket Phonics	Rocket Phonics	Rocket Phonics
Math 2	Math 2	Math 2	Math 2
Guitar	Guitar	Guitar	Guitar

Gospel – We’re continuing our readings in the Old Testament Stories with Moses, practicing our memory verses, and the song we’re learning.

Math – This first math slot we’re singing the 3’s and 4’s skip count songs this week for review. Makayla will do 3 pages of Math Mammoth while Joseph and Emma do some work with numbers or manipulatives.

Egypt/Simple Machines – This week in our unit study we’ll cover pyramids, jobs in ancient Egypt and a few more simple machines. We’ll try to alternate days on each topic, but the kids often want to do both. We have finished over half the unit now and it has been a fun one.

Writing – Daily writing to a prompt. This week Makayla requested some ballet related prompts.

ASL – We play sign language games together or watch Signing Time.

50 States – Makayla does a page in her Star Spangled States book. Meanwhile I do Rocket Phonics with the littles.

Rocket Phonics – I work with Joseph, Emma, and Daniel on letter sounds and reading.

Math 2 – One day this week will be our MUS Beta lesson, the other 3 days Makayla will use FactsFirst on the computer.

Guitar – Makayla is doing Jean Welles’ Worship Guitar Class for Kids (review coming). This usually is after quiet time.

We’re finishing up using several review items and I will start posting reviews this week. Never fear, we have more items here to review and even more on their way to our home!

Safety and Preparedness for Kids and Families

In Ohio homeschool law there are several subjects laid out that we must cover (though how or what we specifically cover in a subject is up to us). I was looking for some things to use for: fire prevention, safety, and first aid and came across some free resources I though I would share here.

First is Ready Kids, from the Department of Homeland Security. From the main page children and families can walk through a 4 step Readiness University with the Mountain Lion family, including a certificate upon completion. There is a section for parents and teachers as well with printables and lessons to support the information being learned.

The second site is the American Red Cross. There is a ton of information on this site so let me point you to a few areas I liked.

Prepare your Home and Family – this page is for the adults with a lot of useful links and information.

Tools for Teachers and Parents – this is where I hit the goldmine. There are 5 different curricula here designed for different ages and topics. My favorite is the Masters of Disaster Family Kit. There is a whole online curricula with printables covering everything from fear, fire, and tornadoes, to home safety and hurricanes. A Resources button has a printable family certificate to use when you complete Masters of Disaster.

I know we’ll be using some of these in our family and homeschool soon. Next I hope to find some kid appropriate first aid resources. Do you have any suggestions for me?

I’m on Curriculum Choice!

Today is my very first post as an author on Curriculum Choice!  Here is a sneak peek:

“We’re a unit study and lapbooking family.  We love to take a week, two weeks, even a month to explore a topic.  We have used the Magic School Bus series to shape our units from the beginning.  As a matter of fact, we spent one entire year doing science units that centered around the Magic School Bus books . . .”

Please read the rest of my post at Curriculum Choice and leave me a comment there so I know you stopped by.  Thanks!

Homeschooling Harvest – Choose Your Fruit

When we had our first baby we knew she was sent from God, but He did not give us a manual with her. When we began homeschooling we started with the conviction that this was what God wanted us to do, but again, He did not give us a manual. We have had to figure out this homeschooling thing a little at a time. We are still figuring it out!

One thing that has helped us along the way is finding some targets to aim for. What fruit do we want to see in our children’s lives at the end of this homeschool season? Just like gardening, in homeschooling there is a time to prepare the soil, to plant, weed, water, and prune. The harvest is, generally, a long way off. Sure, we have some early season plants that will bear fruit along the way, but the majority of the harvest will not ripen for a long time.

What fruit do you want at harvest time? If you do not prepare the soil it will not grow. If you prepare the soil but then forget to plant the seeds, there will be no fruit. Even planting the seed is usually not enough. We must be diligent in watering, weeding, and caring for the plants if we want the fruit to grow and ripen for harvest.

Some of the fruit we are wanting to harvest in our little field may be similar to yours. Ours include:

1. Children who love God and keep His commandments because they want to.
2. Children who are motivated to learn, who are passionate about their interests.
3. Children who work cheerfully at whatever task is before them.
4. Children who are prepared to earn a living.
5. Children who are confident and comfortable speaking in front of a group.

When I start to feel overwhelmed, or I am trying to make a decision about what curriculum to use or which topics to study knowing the fruit I’m growing helps. There are things that may be more important to focus on, or things we should drop because they are taking time and attention away from growing the fruit we want the most.

What fruit are you hoping to harvest at the end of the homeschool season? Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Week in Review #31

Another week is done and I have finally succumbed to the cough and sore throat the kids have passed around. We got lots of homeschool plans accomplished Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Thursday was a much lighter day. We managed to do about half of our usual work and the kids got to play an awful lot. Thankfully it was a day where they got along really well together. I curled up in a ball and started reading Cheaper by the Dozen while snuggling with any child within arms’ reach.

Makayla also had her first day of ballet for the new year. She began her routine for recital in June. She’ll be dancing to “Go the Distance” by Michael Bolton as found in the movie Hercules. You can listen to it on YouTube HERE. She got to try on her costume last night and bring it home. It is blue, her favorite color. I have to say I like it a lot more than last years’ costume! Last year had the stiff tutu that is a pain to store for months while waiting for recital to arrive, but this year’s tutu is a long, flowing skirt that is lovely and easy to store.

Today is Friday and we’ll probably do about half a day’s work again because I’m still feeling about the same. We will just do the other half of what was planned for yesterday.

You can read our homeschool plans HERE and just ignore the Friday stuff to see what we’ve done this week.

Clicking HERE will take you to a project the kids decided to do this week.

Right HERE I posted a few of our lapbook pieces we’ve done for Ancient Egypt.

Next week we’ll be exploring pyramids and ancient Egyptian jobs. Should be fun!

Be sure to stop by Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for this week's Weekly Wrap-Up to see what everyone else did this week.

Two Egypt Lapbook Pieces

I just wanted to share two of the lapbook pieces the kids have done for Egypt.  The first is the Nile river with descriptions of life along the Nile. This second one is called “Where’s My Mummy?”  We had a lot of fun learning about making a mummy this week.  The Egyptians liked layers, from the sarcophagus:  to the death mask:  down to the layers of linen:  We made this flap book showing some of what we learned.  Makayla will be adding text to her book explaining each piece, but this is as far as the younger kid piece will go.

All of these printables started in the History Pockets: Ancient Egypt book from Evan-Moor.   I bought six of these History Pocket books with Amazon gift cards I earned through Swagbucks.  (You can sign up through me for free HERE).  You can’t beat totally free books.  We like to adapt them to lapbooking!  Even though this particular book is for grades 4-6 I have easily been able to make parts work for my 2, 4, and 5 year olds. 

KinderBach Review

Playing piano is a skill I would love all my children to learn. I can plunk my way around the keyboard, read music, and we even have a big old upright piano in the dining room. I can teach my own kids the basics, I think. Piano lessons are out of the budget right now either way. I was happy when we were given the opportunity to review KinderBach. We received a 3 month subscription through the TOS Crew and I hopped on the website to look around. KinderBach is an online piano instruction program for ages 3-7. There are 6 levels with 10 weeks in each level, for a total of 60 lessons. Each lesson has 4 days of activities, though with children on the younger end of the age range repeating lessons is always helpful. KinderBach is also available as individual levels on DVD.

Video consists of the teacher against a cartoon background. The songs and cartoon characters are fun. There are books, activity sheets, and crafts to download that really make this program a hit for preschoolers. While KinderBach is recommended for ages 3-7, I think many 7 year olds would find it a bit to young for their liking. I know my 8 year old got bored with the slow pace and some of the songs. My 4 and 5 year olds enjoyed KinderBach, with some issues I'll mention in a moment.

I like that actual music terms are taught. You can see what is covered in the 6 levels HERE. A free 2 week trial is available HERE.

Online lessons begin at $7.99/month when you pay for a year in advance. Paying by month KinderBach costs $19.99/month. DVD levels begin at $40.45 each.

The big down side to KinderBach for our family is we have a piano, not a keyboard. The piano is in the dining room and the computer is in a different room. My children had to travel back and forth between rooms, pausing the online video to do each task, then come back. Often they forgot halfway there what they were supposed to be doing and came back to restart the video again (they are just 4 and 5). Sometimes they got lost in the fun of making music on the piano and never came back to finish the lesson. They also needed my help throughout the process to stop the video, start it again, rewind when needed, etc. It would take less of my time to just teach them the basics myself I think.

It just didn’t work out for us. If we were to invest in KinderBach we would choose the DVDs to use over the years with all our children, and we would need a way to play the DVD right at the piano (a laptop with really loud speakers comes to mind). Buying a portable keyboard would be another option.

If you are interested in KinderBach be sure to check out my Crewmates’ reviews for more opinions.

{Disclaimer: I received a 3 month online subscription free of charge from KinderBach to enable me to do this review. I received no other compensation and all opinions presented here are my own.}

WFMW: Reading Aloud is Contagious

We enjoy reading aloud in our homeschool.  Mommy reads aloud, we listen to audio books, and sometimes Makayla, our 8 year old reads aloud.  We try to saturate our children’s environment with good books.  They are everywhere in our house.  We make time to slow down and read together.  Even the baby’s board books are enjoyed as a family some days. 

Last night when we went to gather the children for bedtime prayers this is what we found: Makayla was reading aloud to her brothers and sister.  They were not quite finished so we (of course!) let them finish the story. 

Reading aloud is contagious, and that works for me!

Check out more of this week’s Works For Me Wednesday posts at We Are THAT Family.

This Week’s Family Workbox Plan

I’m going to put up a grid with our plans, then explain them in more detail below.  Remember that almost all of this is done together as a group using our family workbox. 

Mon.	Tues.	Wed.	Thurs.	Fri.
Gospel	Gospel	Gospel	Gospel	Gospel
Math	Math	Math	Math	Math
Egypt	Simple Machines	Egypt	Simple Machines	Egypt
Write	Write	Write	Write	Write
ASL	ASL	ASL	ASL	ASL
50 States	50 States	50 States	50 States	50 States
Rocket Phonics	Rocket Phonics	Rocket Phonics	Rocket Phonics	Rocket Phonics
Math	Math	Math	Math	Math
Guitar	Guitar	Guitar	Guitar	Guitar

Gospel – We’re continuing our readings in the Old Testament Stories, practicing our memory verses, and the song we’re learning.

Math – This first math slot we’re singing the 4’s skip count song this week and doing Ray’s Primary Arithmetic for Joseph and Emma.

Egypt/Simple Machines – This is our unit study and we’re covering mummies and a few more simple machines.  We’ll try to alternate days on each topic, but the kids often want to do both.

Writing – After a meltdown from Makayla last week over writing a paragraph we have instituted a daily writing prompt.  She and mommy both write for a specific amount of time in a notebook.  That’s all.  There is no editing.  Makayla is often paralyzed by perfectionism.  She doesn’t want to write if she’s going to spell it wrong, and she knows when she spells words wrong, she just cannot always remember how to spell them right.  Then she cries.  And cries.  Or sits there for 40 minutes having only written one or two sentences.  Frankly, it drives me crazy.  If you ask her to tell you something (like the writing prompt) she will talk forever and go on and on.  Ask her to write or type it and she would swear she’s going to die.  So now we’re not allowed to edit.  We just write and try to enjoy the process.

ASL – We play sign language games together or watch Signing Time.

50 States – This is where we split and Makayla does a page in her Star Spangled States book.  She only has a few weeks left of this (maybe 5?). 

Rocket Phonics – I work with Joseph, Emma, and Daniel on letter sounds and reading. 

Math – This section is where Makayla is using some of our review items, usually FactsFirst(review coming later).

Guitar – Makayla is doing Jean Welles’ Worship Guitar Class for Kids (review coming).  This usually is after quiet time. 

That is the plan, and seeing that today is Tuesday, we’re already well into it.