Friday, February 13, 2009

Homeschool Groups

Ahhh...just got back from our valentines party with the homeschool group! I haven't been all school year. So it was very nice to see some of the ladies again. Both of the kids had a really good time and made friends! Praise God. We will try to go again.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Presidents Day and the Bible Sites

I have a few more sites for you!

For bible study: They have each of the books broken down. We are going to finish Genesis today. They have maps, charts, etc. too. The Church of Zion does it, but so far the content has been pretty good. It's amazing the topics we have covered. Some very "adult" topics. I myself have enjoyed it.

For studying the Presidents: I wanted to study the presidents a bit since Pres. Day in here soon. This is actually coloring pages. BUT they are cool pages. Our DC are 13 and 10 and like to them! We do five a day. So, we are going to do our 4Th set today. After they are colored we cut them out and hang them on the wall just under the ceiling. I made numbers and names. We have read some about pres. before so they kids have a few faves. J is excited to get to Garfield and Grant today! They even have a page for our newest president. We even used the pic in our LA study. I veered off of our curriculum. (Which I do now and then.) I want the kids to get better writing skills. (Poor kids have a mother who wanted to be a writer, has four blogs, etc.) Anyway, I explained how words can paint a picture. We had to pick a pres. and describe him/the pic so we could guess who he was. I tried to tell the not to be too obvious, especially at first. It was fun to see how we described the same pres.

We have also been borrowing the School House Rock DVD from a friend. WOW! I don't know who's liking it more the kids or the parents. The kids keep saying, you know this song? Yeah, we grew up on it! But as an adult, I really get what they are talking about. Like I think I get the electoral college now. I KNOW what a conjunction is, etc. Too funny.

I need to stop rambling!
Have a great day!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

I have some curriculum recommendations for you.

The first one is for the kids, but will greatly help the parent/teacher as well.

Math-U-See Is so worth the money. We have been using it for a little more than two weeks now. The curriculum comes with student book, teacher book and test book. They are VERY user friendly. It also comes with a DVD where Steve Demme teaches you the teacher how to teach the next lesson. Our kids watch it with me. Every time we've watched it we've said, "Oh!" or, "Ah!" Math really makes sense. I can't recommend this enough. I'd even suggest it to non-homeschoolers. If your child is struggling in math this would be a great tool to help them. They have free demos online so you can get an idea of the lessons. They also have manipulatives to use that make sense too.

The second one is for parents/teachers.

Dianne Craft Teaching the Right Brained Child. (I have a test under the labels to find out more about right/left brain.) I cannot say enough good about this way of teaching! Our DS is more right brained. And let me tell you these techniques work! (Also, look under lessons in my labels.)
Now this is not curriculum. It is a teaching DVD with book.