Start of School Panic!

School starts Monday! Here's what we have going on:

DS has a cold. The rest of us are getting over it.

DH is taking that day off. (He is working the grave yard this weekend.)

It is a grocery shopping day.

I am feeling like I am not ready.

We have found this great site. Audio books.

Confession...

I have to confess...I just read a friends blog. She is just going to start her first year of homeschooling with 4 kiddos. She is super organized, always has been. People like her always make me feel like I need to get my act together. Then I realize I am not like her. She has chore charts on her frig. (Chore charts never worked for us. I still have to double check the kids stuff.) Her magnets and clips are colored for each kid. Her schedule is already up. I again have to confess that after reading her blog (though I know she is like this for everything) I felt a bit inferior. Though my closet is color coordinated, that's about the end of my super organization skills. I know she is reading this, yelling at me from across the states. But I need to go now and reorganize my school supplies for next school year!

Great Find and Less Than a Month

Less then one month left of our summer vacation! The kids are NOT ready for school to resume at all. They are totally enjoying the summer.

I, on the other hand, though I have been doing the deep cleaning that doesn't happen during school, etc., am getting ready for school. I think it's having a routine that I like. Don't get me wrong, we do have a routine. I just like the school routine better, most days.

I also have to tell you (because as fellow homeschoolers I KNOW you'll appreciate it and not look at me funny) I found a nice, US map. I looked online, looked in our local stores, etc., nothing that wassuitable. Do you know where I found it...it makes it all the better? The Dollar Store (where everything's a dollar!!!)! It's perfect size too.

Now if I can just get my hubby to agree to switch two rooms so we can have an actual room for school, I think I'd be one happy camper.

Anybody There?

Does anyone still read my sadly neglected blog?

If you do, then this may be the last post for the summer. School gets out for us the Friday! I couldn't be happier! I need some time off. I have next school years curriculum all lined up.

Here's what we do the last 2 weeks of school. (We don't seem to completely finish our books.) Once the kids get to a good stopping point like a test. If stopping in 1-2 weeks would mean stopping in the middle of a chapter/unit then we just stop. They use that time to "catch up" on some other subject. So DS is finishing a book for Lang Arts. DD her Math. We finished our History early and were filling it in with study the 1900's with a timeline and reading about the Oregon Trail.

I am going through their books and getting together a "list" of the subjects we've covered this year. Being our second year of HSing, I think I am just getting somethings. And since our DD will be in high school in two years, I know I need to start keeping better records. Anyone used a transcript maker?

Well, I do need to get going. I took a nap, from which I woke up more tired than when I laid down! Please be back in August to read more of our Homeschool adventures! And thanks for following us this year!

School Outside

How do you NOT take class outside on a day like this!!

Science Experiment

DD had to do a science experiment on a classmate. Since we have two "students" Dear Brother got to be the guinea pig! He was very willing though. You had to hold your nose while tasting different foods and see if could tell what you were eating while your holding your nose. DD didn't really explain the whole nose thing to son. So he'd hold his nose for awhile then let it go. He'd tell us what he was eating after letting his nose go.

So I stepped in and let the poor guy breathe some!

Out of apples, cornbread and two different crackers, he was only fooled by the cornbread. He thought it was broccoli. This boy knows his food.

Writing Fair

We just got back from dropping of our entries for the writing fair. This is the first year that it's open to HSers. J & C both have one entry. Here's how it works...if there are three or less entries per category then they'll just send those off to the county writing fair where they will compete with the winners from the public schools. If there is more then three per category then they will judge those and have the winners go to county. We should know something maybe by the middle of April!

I'll post the kids' entries later. I have to make you all come back! heehee

Spring Break and Books

Ok, do I still even have any readers? It's been so long since I updated. Sorry! School has been going good. We are on Spring Break right now. Will be back to school on Monday. So we have gotten caught up on cleaning. (You know the deep stuff.)

I have ordered most of the curriculum for next school year! I am excited. The kids are like oh. Here's a quick break down of what we are going to be using. Sorry no linking. I'll do that later.
Math - Math-U-See
History-A good amount of living books from Beautiful Feet and Amazon (CM books) and some cd's/workbooks from Your Story Hour
Science-undecided still, but it will be hands on experiments
Geography-Beautiful Feet and amazon (CM books)
Grammar-Analytical grammar (one year course for C and 3 yr for J) (Simply CM)
Writing-free workbooks from another homeschooler!
Have timeline charts on history, science, composers, etc from Beautiful Feet
Spelling-(dictation too) Spelling Wisdom (simply CM)

I think that's it. We are almost done with this years History Alive. We all like it, but will probably wait to continue the next sections until they are older. I got 9 history books from the library at under $.10 each!!! So we'll use those when we are done with History Alive.They are century books. they break down the 1900's in ten year sections. Also, a lady from church, who HS'd her boys is giving us a full set of encyclopedias!! J LOVES encyclopedias! He takes them to bed to read, seriously!

When I get my schedule written out for next year, I'll post it for you guys.

That's all for now.

Stuck on Nine?

Gosh, it's been awhile since my last post. So sorry! Sometimes no news is good news.

I have a couple of math tips for you. You may already know these.

Multiplies of NINE!

Tip one: 9x4=36, 9x6=54, 9x1=9, right? Look at the numbers...the first number of the answer is always one less then what you are multiplying nine by.

Tip two: look at the examples above. Look at the answers. They all add up to nine!

So if you are stuck on 9x7....6 is one less then 7...6 plus...3 equals nine...your answer will be 63!

Have a good day!

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.

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!

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.

OK, these are backwards. Yesterday, school went well and the weather was just too nice to stay home. So we walked to the zoo. It was about a 30 minute walk. We were outside for alittle more than two hours! We actually got sweaty! These are some photos from the zoo and the walk there.

The monkeys are always a fave! This one is actually watching DS. He even did a dance for him. The kids call him Elvis! J was really interested in the swan. We just finished reading The Trumpet of the Swan. Just a sign on the way. The buildings in the window look like an old western! Actually the street in the window is the original downtown. It has some neat buildings.

Our performing arts center.

The house is a constant remodel. It was the school district building (I think). Some guy has been remodeling it into a house (I think). This is one of the gates to the house. I always like driving by and seeing what's been added.

Today, we did a hands on project.

Project: Take apart this radio and put it back together. And still have it work.


DS taking the screws out.

Wow, the screw driver's magnetic!

The guts!! We wanted to take it further apart then this, but most of the items were welding on.

DD amusing herself while Mom and DS check out the inside. Another lessons with magnets.

Final outcome: We got it back together. We weren't able to turn it on as the previous batteries had corroded inside.

But it was fun.