New Blog Look

I have already decided I wanted a new look for my blog. I really liked the old one with the books at the top; however, I wanted a 3 column template, so that readers did not have to scroll all the way down to see all my sidebar items. I didn't like scrolling all the way down to view them!

Now I have to rebuild some things on it, but I should have it completely redone over the weekend. Check back to see how it turns out!

Cheap Finds

I was so glad to see the sun out today!

We had to take a break this morning from school to run a few errands and I decided to stop at a favorite thrift store of mine. Usually I visit this store on Tuesdays, because everything is 50% off. But I was in the area today, so why not? I was happy I did because we found a few treasures.

I found three interactive poster sets. They are the history of flight, the dinosaur era and dinosaur giants. The sets include the poster, 20 reusable stickers and a teacher's guide. These were marked with a retail sticker of $7.95, but I paid only....are you ready for this.....29 cents each!





I bought this Hexed logic puzzle game. 49 cents. Thought it might be a good workbox item.

I picked up this Children Around the World poster set. There were supposed to be 16 posters, but it only had 8 in it. I have some workbooks & flashcards that I can use with these for a children around the world study. This was 99 cents.

This next one might very well become a favorite of mine. It is Teacher Tested Timesavers, a workbook filled with reproducible forms. I skimmed through it and found so far: award pages, bookmarks, subject banners, story starters, checklists, blank calendars, month banners, game board sheets, word lists and planning forms. I'm going to look through it more tonight. This had a retail sticker tag on it for 99 cents and I paid 29 cents.

For crafting, we found a bag containing 220 small googly eyes for 29 cents. Lulu picked out a bag of fabric scraps for quilting for a dollar.

I always find a few books to bring home. Today I found:

"Feelings" by Aliki

"What Time Is It? A Book Of Math Riddles " by Sheila Keenan

"The Cloud Book" and "The Mysterious Giant of Barletta" by Tomie de Paola

"Maggie and the Pirate" by Ezra Jack Keats

"What Am I Made Of?" by David Bennett

"The Crayon Counting Book" by Pam Munoz Ryan

"Counting on the Woods" by George Ella Lyon

Pilgrim's First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern

"Where's Gomer? " by Norma Farber

These were all 29 cents each!

I also picked up a couple magazines for the kids to cut up to make a large food pyramid and a book for myself.

Can you tell I love a good deal? Homeschooling can become expensive if you let it. I'm always on the lookout for something inexpensive to add to my supplies. So I'll post a "cheap finds" section when I find some good deals!

Random Ramblings

I had told myself I would post something everyday. I missed yesterday. I woke up feeling yucky and very tired. We managed to slog through school and then I collapsed on the couch for a nice, long nap. I'm lucky the kids were so cooperative and let their poor mom catch up on some much needed sleep.

Lulu finished her reading and then went to her Grandma's to work on a knitting project. Blakester completed his reading and then alternated between playing on lego.com and actually playing with his Legos for the afternoon. Conman watched some animated stories on youtube that I found a link to at Learning Parade thanks to a blog at Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Then he played on lego.com with his brother and spent the rest of the afternoon playing with his Legos.

Once evening hit I was just ready for bed. I guess I'll have to post twice today to make up for it!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Yes, I know it's not Monday, but you know how some days feel like it? Just kidding! I discovered this great weekly meme and wanted to share it. Here's my first "unofficial" (since it's Tuesday) Not Me Monday post.

I did not discover at my Curves weigh in yesterday that I've gained 5 pounds over the holidays. I did not agree to weigh in weekly AND keep a food journal. NO WAY am I writing down everything I eat for someone else to look at.

I did not fold 4 out of 5 loads of clean laundry that had been sitting in baskets, leaving the 5th load of socks & underwear for my daughter to fold, simply because I hate folding those.

I did not, with a compulsive nature, sort and organize my boy's Legos, then affix little pictures of the contents to the bins, with the hope that they won't get all mixed up again. Nope, not me.




I did not let my kids eat animal cookies for a snack right before lunch, while at the same time teaching them about the food pyramid and healthy eating.

I did not ask my daughter, "Are you wearing eye shadow?", when she knows full well she's not allowed to wear makeup. I was not told in response that she had it on yesterday and wore it to Church on Sunday night. I am way too observant for that to happen to me.

Oh, and that laundry I put away? I did not hang up any wrinkled clothes!

Now, I feel so much better. Don't you?

Group Time

The one thing I am doing different this term is combining more subjects for group time. Someone had asked if I had posted what I do during group time, and since I hadn't, and since I changed it up some, I'll go ahead & describe it.

We used to just read a bible story, bible verse, poem & read-aloud and then I would send everyone to their individual tasks. This would then entail me trying to work with Conman, while the other two were lining up with their little "Help, Please!" signs. So, if I felt Conman was ok for the moment, I would dash off to help one of the others. This did not result in a lot of productive work. Especially when Conman saw me otherwise occupied. He would then wander off to do whatever he felt like at the moment. When I finished helping one of the other kiddos, I would then have to redirect Conman back to his work. I got to thinking, "There has to be an easier way to do this!" I decided to spend more time teaching them together & then have them work on Math, History and Science (the older kids use Apologia in accordance w/their grades) individually. I also wanted to introduce/review some areas. Here's how today went:

Group Time:

Bible Story Book: We've been reading through the 10 volume set of "The Bible Story"

Review OT books of the Bible & start on NT

Read our character building book & worked on memorizing verse of the week. This week our character trait is generosity.

Read a couple poems from "Favorite Poems Old and New" by Helen Ferris. Usually a poem that has to do w/the season, holiday or something we're studying.

Did a dictionary skills page

Did an Easy Grammar 6 page & a Daily Grams 6. This is new for us. Although I ordered it for Lulu, the other 2 were very interested and participated well. I think this will take place of Blakester's Rod & Staff for now.

Started the unit study "On the Loose with Dr. Seuss"; read a short bio of Dr. Seuss and his book "Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?" I had never read that before & I love Dr. Seuss books! Oh, and the kids liked it, too!

Introduced healthy eating by reading "Oh The Things You Can Do That Are Good For You". Another Dr. Seuss type book. We'll be studying the food pyramid over the next few weeks.

Read, discussed & mapped some of Blakester's new Ca. history curriculum. I had Conman & Lulu listen in also. Lulu says she doesn't remember studying any Ca. history in 4th grade at public school, and come to think of it, I don't remember her studying it either.

Alot of this we were able to do orally, and with the white board, which made it so much more interactive. The older ones chose to answer some questions on worksheets or in their grammar notebook, but it was nice to be able to discuss the answers & have the youngest join in, also.

Some of the other things I plan to cover in group time are: Wordly Wise Vocabulary, It's About Time workbook that covers calendars, clocks, time zones, etc., an Analogies workbook I picked up at the thrift store, library skills assignments and art. Since I had a lot of these resources on hand, I wanted to start incorporating them into our day.

We started about 9:00 and we were done with group time at 12:00. After lunch & a short break for outside play in this chilly weather, they came in and worked on their individual items. I read to Conman about the brain & the 5 senses, and I noticed that when I'm reading out loud to him, the other two tend to migrate to the room we are in, even when I'm reading something way under their level! I'm glad they enjoy listening.

Everyone finished their assignments this afternoon and we read a chapter of "Mary Poppins" and two chapters of "A Child's History of the World" tonight before bed.

I was even able to play on my computer a little this afternoon. I figured out how to create a cute signature line, and grabbed a couple of buttons from blogs that I enjoy reading. You can see them on the sidebar.

Our first day back to school has come and gone. All in all, it went very well. Work was completed, corrected & we're ready for tomorrow. Now, the kids are in bed and there's silence. My favorite part of the day!

Good Night!

Meet My Students...a.k.a. My Kids!

Blakester (Blake) is my 9 yr old. He is a fairly calm & serious middle child. But if you get him going, watch out! He's definitely all boy & has a mischievous side to him.

Blakester is a hard worker. He likes to help his dad in the shop & with bringing in the firewood. He likes to work his way through his schoolwork without a lot of fuss and just get it done so he can move onto something else.

Blakester is a natural learner. Whatever he tries, he picks up on effortlessly. When he learned to ride a 2 wheeler, we took the training wheels off and away he went. I had never seen a kid do that before!

He's into Legos, Pokemon & Star Wars. He likes western stuff & military stuff, and watching shows on TV-Animal Planet, Discovery, History Channel. He's the one that comes up with off the wall facts. Just last night on the way to church he informed us that kangaroos can jump 30 feet. He said he read it in his science book. No, we were not discussing kangaroos at that moment.

He also is an avid reader & likes to draw. He just finished a book called "Blue Ninja" and is also working on "Jed Smith, Trailblazer". Most of his drawings are of made up Pokemon creatures or army battle scenes. Here are a couple of his drawings that I found that are actually of neither of those things:





Conman (Connor) is our youngest. He is also our busiest. Very full of energy. We joke that he goes to sleep talking & wakes up talking. Actually, it's not really a joke, it is true! He is what speaker/author Carol Barnier calls a "Sizzler".

Conman is always on the move. He puts his whole being into everything he does and his smile lights up a room. He is the child that stands on his head while reciting spelling words. He says it helps him think better. His little hands have to be busy during school time, but even though he's playing or creating, I know he's listening, because he can answer any question I throw at him. He has a great memory, and usually is the first one to memorize our verse & the books of the Bible each week.

There are some days when something that just worked with him, no longer works. I refer to him as my "consistently inconsistent child". Workboxes do work well for his schoolwork because he can see what has to be completed and in what order.

Like his brother, he is into Legos. He also likes Playmobiles & Super Hero Squad guys.

He picked up on reading quickly, but prefers to be read to. He is currently working on an "Indiana Jones" chapter book, a little at a time. He likes to draw & do projects. His drawings usually consist of super heroes. He uses his imagination well, and we're never sure what he's going to come up with next. One day he made a complete storefront out of a cardboard box & was "selling" his toys. The picture below was taken a couple of days ago when he created a Mars Mission (Lego) costume out of all of my tin foil:



Oops-when I posted this pic, I thought it was a picture of the whole outfit. This is just the helmet & shoes. He also made gloves, a shirt & pants; therefore, successfully using all my tinfoil!

So there you have it, my kiddos.

Well, we are back to our school tomorrow after being on break for way too long. I have my papers copied, my white board filled out & my workboxes filled. So now, we are off to an evening of church & some rest!

Book Data Base Link

Here is the link for the book data base I use to catalog my library.

http://www.spacejock.com/BookDB.html

In order to view the page, you will need to copy & paste the address onto your browser.

Our Schoolroom

Thanks to my friends and family, and to my new friends from the homeschool groups & forums, for their positive emails & comments! I have to admit I was rather proud of myself for tackling this project! Now I'm off to look up verses on humility:)

Ok, so on to the topic for the day....our schoolroom.

Since homeschooling is my subject and my life, I thought I'd show everyone where the learning takes place. Actually, it doesn't all take place here, it takes place sitting on the couch, at the kitchen table or counter, lying on the floor or bed, sitting on a rock or the grass outside, in the car, on a nature walk ,and, for one of my kids, sometimes standing on his head...but you get the picture. Even though we have a schoolroom, learning is happening all the time, no matter where we are.

Some of you have seen this room, but maybe haven't been told all the components of it, and for those of you that are new, I'll do my best to describe it. Enjoy the tour!

Our schoolroom is in our den, which is right off the kitchen, so you do see it when you come in the house. Not my ideal location, but we make it work. There is a woodstove in the room, so we get to read by the fire on cold days, so that is really pleasant!

This is the boys workbox system. (More on that later) The bookshelves are inexpensive ones from Wally-World. They are sitting on top of a large credenza which houses supplies for our workboxes: math, science, language arts, thinking skills, teaching aids, music cd's. The workboxes are dollar plastic shoebox bins. Underneath are two blue bins, which hold the boys current workbooks until they get placed in the workboxes. Lulu has her own bookshelf in her room with her books and she works off a checklist.


This is the bookshelf where various supplies are kept. The top shelf holds teacher manuals, art & game books, Highlight magazines, Zoobook magazines and my workbox components. The other shelves hold art supplies: scissors, punches, adhesive, crayons, markers, pencils, etc., coloring & how to draw books, stickers, Math-U-See manipulatives, construction, drawing and origami paper, and some other misc. how-to books. Above the shelf I have posted the books of the Bible on index cards. The kids are working on memorizing them. Conman has actually memorized all the OT books. To the right is a poster of the Ten Commandments (which I got at the Dollar Tree!) and a word strip holder (another $ find) which we use for spelling words or parts of speech. The red bin in the corner is full of building blocks. Always popular no matter what age you are.

This is our table for crafts, planning, etc. Right now I'm working on putting together mini-offices for the kids, so that's what's spread out on it. This red bin on the floor is where our current read alouds and library books are corralled.

Here is my comfy teacher chair & the whiteboard we're going to start using for group time. It's not going to stay there, since it's in front of the woodstove. I'll probably move it to the kitchen for use.

Here are just a few of our books. The bookshelf on the left is arranged by subject: science, bible, history, space, writing, reference, etc. The bookshelf on the right is arranged by grade. The books piled on the top of that shelf are free reading. I do have a program on the computer for keeping track of these. I'll post a link to it later in case anyone is interested. We have our United States map and World map on that wall, along with the globe on top on the bookshelf for our geography.

This is our geography basket in the living room. In it there are reading books, coloring books, atlases, word searches, wrap-ups, map workbooks, flash cards, games, puzzles, and anything else I can find that relates to geography.

This is the final item in our schoolroom-a place for the kids to sit. Yes, it really is a church pew!

As for me, I have some areas where I keep my goodies. I use the bottom half of a curio cabinet for extra school/office supplies. I keep current books I'm reading or researching in a basket by my chair in the living room. I plan out schoolwork either at the table in the schoolroom, my desk in the office area or sitting in front of the tv. All in all, it works!

Tomorrow I think I'll introduce you to my students!

Welcome to my blog!

So I've decided to do a blog.

I know they have been around for a while; however, since I am technologically challenged and prefer to do things on paper, I had never really considered starting one before. Those that know me know that I do not have a fancy cell phone (the only thing I use it for is to make calls) and that most of the time it's not even on! My calender is actually on the wall, not on an electronic accessory. My computer has always been dial-up, so emailing anything over a few lines would take forever. At the encouragement of some friends I signed up for facebook, but due to slow computeritis I only checked it about once a month and never updated any photos.

So why the blog, you ask? And why now? Well, a few reasons:

1. Our internet is now wireless AND I have a faster speed computer, so I can actually do things with it.

2. I thought it might be a fun way to let friends and family know what we're up to in our homeschool and other areas of our lives and now share updated photos of the kids.

3. I enjoy reading other homeschool blogs, and gleaning ideas, so this is a good way for me to share ideas and connect more with that community.

4. I can ramble on about things I'm excited about that might bore other people if I was actually talking to them.

5. I love books and reading, and was excited to find out I could direct everyone who reads my blog to my own bookstore at Amazon that is filled with books I get to recommend! I think my dream job would be to work in a bookstore, or a library.

So there you have it. My first blog post. It wasn't so hard! But since I'm still new to this and it's a work in progress, there won't be anything fancy for a while. Until I learn what linkys, widgets and gadgets are all about, I'll just type. Oh, and maybe add a few pictures!