Still Homeschooling

How do we roll?

We have tried several things and this is what is working for us today.

Classical Conversations. It is the classical model of learning. Once a week, it's good for the mind and the kids enjoy it too. I have learned so much there, probably as much as the kids. Do you know the 7 wonders of the Ancient world, the Greek Roman gods or the Latin noun cases?

Virtual Public School. This can work for some. I think this is great for someone who doesn't have confidence in what they are teaching. Or those who need a lot of structure. If you already know what you are doing or what works best this may not work for you. It is straight up 5 hours a day though, sometimes 6-7.

My favorite curriculums at this point.

Saxon Math
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 EZ Lessons (Or 150 if you have active boys).
First Language Lessons by Wise (you can do this at the breakfast table with all ages)
Building Scientific Foundations for Understanding
Handwriting without Tears (moves slower but is less intimidating for those hate to write)
Spelling Workout by Modern Curriculum Press (this pretty much stays on target with what the PS is teaching)

Good luck.

Math Manipulatives for Sale

"Mommy I Want To Die With You"

"Can we go in the same hole"

-3yr old girl.

Visual Latin Giveaway

There is an awesome giveaway going on over at Home Educating Family Magazine.

It is a giveaway for Visual Latin.

We currently are using Song School Latin in the home but some visual reinforcement (other than the workbook).

So head on over and sign on up!

"Mommy I Was Trying to Sing My Heart Off"

Honey I think you meant "Heart Out".

Things I thought I would never say, "Go say you are sorry to the cat".

And earlier, "Take the salt away from the baby".

"Take The Hot Sauce Away from the Baby"

#43 Things I thought I would never say.

"Mom Jesus is John's Cousin!"

He comes up to me all excited saying this after reading his kid bible.

King Tut Exhibit Woodstock

I am so excited, we read Tut's Mummy: Lost...And Found (Step-Into-Reading, Step 4) last week. After reading about Howard Carter's amazing and exciting discoveries, my oldest wanted to get on a plane that day and head over to Egypt to find some more tombs.

I searched on the internet and could only find this King Tut exhibit in Houston. I thought God would somehow work it out for us to get to Houston to see the display. Atlanta has had King Tut exhibits but it has been a couple of years.

And then low and behold God worked it out. There is a brand new King Tut exhibit in Woodstock. Complete with dioramas and replicas!

Free Online Art Lessons for the Kiddies

Great for those who follow Charlotte Mason. Art Lessons by grade.

For first grade there are 10 lessons to download. The first lesson is Paul Cezanne.
I like these because it has directed questions to ask after viewing the piece.

What colors do you see?
What room in the house does this look like?

And so on... Check it out from the Concordia University of Chicago.

Baby Sling Cheap Slingling

Baby Sling Cheap Slingling: Today�s deal at Moolala is a baby sling for $22. The Slingling is for babies up to 35 pounds. I love baby slings

I am going to get some birds wings wet

so that I can catch them and eat them.

Horseshoe Magnet Sale-Cheap

Last week in the Building Foundations for Scientific Understanding (BSFU) we did a magnet study. I could not track down in Lakeshore Learning any magnets in price range (cheap). So I ordered off ebay a horseshoe magnet. In the picture it looked really big. Like I said in the picture (see picture #!)

I got it and it was about 1.5 inches long. Let me tell you trying to show magnetic field with iron fillings and that little ol magnet was a bit of a stretch.

And I paid $5.99 for it. Can you believe it? I put that study off for 2 weeks trying to find a reasonably priced magnet.

And then look what I just found tonight?(see picture #2)
A big ol horseshoe magnet for $5.99

Mommy your dress is soft

Your shirt is soft.

Can you be my pillow for my head?

Homeschool Planners 35% off

Great deal. I just got mine recently and have enjoyed using it.

I went to the Well Planned Day workshop at the Homeschool conference and got to hear her speak. I see a lot of benefits to this particular planner. The best part is that you can see any holes you missed in looking back if you use a planner more like I do, a recording of what we actually did get done.

Use code hedua927 to get 35% off. Don't worry the code is written all over their website.

Here are the details directly from the Home Educating Family site:

Spiral Bound with Three Hole Drilled to Fit into Binders
Over 230 Full Color Pages
Full Year Planner: July 2011 - June 2012
Home Management with weekly cleaning schedule, monthly projects, greeting card registry, and monthly budgeting.
NEW in 2011, Holiday Organization Section: Greeting card registry, activities and event schedules, gift giving, around town shopping, and internet shopping.
Organize and plan for up to 4 children in one convenient book.
Four Student Class Plans: Schedule each student's class assignments.
Four Student Time Schedules: Track each day by the hour.
Weekly Schedule: Organize your week with class assignments, weekly priorities, prayer requests, dinner menu, and notes.
Month at a Glance: Plan field trips, enrichment activities and books to read
Semester Attendance & Progress Reports
Perforated Report Cards
Menu Planning: Plan weekly meals and conveniently shop with perforated shopping lists.
Family Worship: Read through the Bible in a year.
Insightful homeschool articles and tips to inspire you throughout the year.
and much more....

Mommy Why Are Boats Called Girls?

He thinks for a second, I know a good one is coming.....

"Maybe boats are called girls because they break easily"

We just started a condensed Swiss Family Robinson and all the boat talk had us pulling out the dictionary for the words keel, outrigger.

Review-Lego City #7286 Police Transport & Lego City #3366 Satellite Launch Pad

I was officially inducted into the unofficial Lego club around here today. For the first time we built a Lego City set. It was like putting together Ikea furniture but with detailed color directions. I received today from Son#2, "I love you". Maybe I earned his sentiment because I probably spent 3 hours putting these together. I found these on Amazon so I could show you, but we bought ours at Target.

When you open the package for the boxes there are 2 baggies of Legos, bag#1 and bag#2. DON'T MIX THEM TOGETHER! :) You make these Lego projects in stages. So first off we did bag #1. I am in my late thirties and have a college degree so together with my 6 year old son who had the Lego Police Transport package we were able to do this quite easily. Occasionally I had to snap the smaller pieces together. The windscreen was a little difficult to snap on but I found if you stretched it and then pushed down it would go in.

For the Lego City Satellite project we put together the vehicle first. Son#2 is five and he was pretty good at looking at the picture and figuring out where to put things. He needed more help than the six year old snapping the smaller pieces together. I will say that even though the red coffee cup is on the dashboard in the color photo on the box, it does not fit there and that is why in the instruction book the coffee cup is next to the computer that fits on the track in the back.

Details: Ages 5-12
Cost: About $20
Time: 1-2 hours (but you can do it in 2 parts which I did)
Fun Rating: 5 stars, I can't believe they focused for so long. There was a little wandering in part 2 this afternoon but they pulled it together.







The links above are Amazon affiliate links

"Mom I met a girl on the mall train and she was...

cold blooded.

She can wear a tank top in the winter."

The Braves

The Braves won, they got 7 points. The other team lost they got one.

Mommy did you know if the balls comes into the people you get to keep the ball?

At the end the fireworks shot out of the green bottle. (BIG SMILE HERE)>

There was a man yelling stuff at the players and it was really funny.

Where to Put Library Books?

We have two big baskets in the living room. One for our books and one for library books. And if you ever lost a book you know how expensive that can be. Since we check out 20-30 books at a time, we have to have a system.

That being said, they just weren't getting read as often sitting in that basket.

So I dumped them on the couch. Now they all get read.

Today we came home from the library and everyone just ran to the couch to read. Well the oldest read, the others looked at pictures.

Ahhhh, I love homeschooling.................

And if you would like to know my take on preschool here it is......

I didn't push reading to early on my oldest, in fact I could of let him go longer, but I wanted to show some progress for family. I am taking reading real slow for #2 who is almost five. Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons worked for us, although we split the book up and make it into 150 lessons........