Learning Laughter Love

Wordless Wednesday - Disney World

2012-01-31T23:39:00.000-06:00

Weekly Review–Week 2 & 3

2012-01-22T21:01:00.001-06:00

Week 2 and 3 of the new year was a bust. We got in a half a week of work and then Kiddo got sick. It was some virus he could not shake on his own so we ended up at the Doctor over the weekend getting medicine to help. He is feeling better now still tired and coughing but on the road to recovery. I got sick last week with the same thing and once my hearing and sense of smell return I will feel better. And this weekend DH has caught it, so we have passed around to everybody. We hope to get rid of it by this weekend because our vacation starts Friday!

Since we have completely derailed from my lesson plans due to illness and this week is a mad house trying to get ready for Disney World our lesson this week will be centered on our trip and we return we will get back on track.

I am planning all of our lessons this week to revolve around travel and Disney. We will be reading up on Disney World, planning our travel route, counting miles and learning about gas mileage. Our handwriting and spelling will come from the Disney character encyclopedia. We have made our touring plans and he is helping to map out where each ride and attraction are. It will be a light week but fun with Disney as our inspiration for lessons while still getting plenty of learning in.

Have a good week!

Wordless Wednesday–Say Cheese

2012-01-11T00:09:00.001-06:00

Science Experiment–Rock Candy

2012-01-09T00:30:00.002-06:00

For a science experiment we grew sugar crystals, a.k.a rock candy.
It was a fun easy experiment to do. It takes a little patience since it takes a week to grow the crystals.
I used this web page for directions.
Rock Candy

Supplies needed, water, a glass jar, a cup of sugar and a stick for the crystals to grow on and a cloths pin or other way to hold stick in middle of jar.

Boil water and let sugar dissolve, lots of stirring.

Setting up in a out of the way to place to be undisturbed.

Day 2 – you can see a few little crystal starting to form

Day 3 – I think it is going to work. We definitely have crystals

Day 5 – Progress but certainly not like the photo in the directions.

Day 7 – Hmmm it worked but not quite as much rock candy as we were hoping for.

Our rock candy.

This experiment was a success , Kiddo was a bit disappointed we didn’t have a huge growth of rock candy. I wonder if we had left it alone another week what we would have ended up with. We might try that another day with colors and flavors.

This was a fun and very easy to do experiment. the perfect way to start back our school last week.

Weekly Review– New Year

2012-01-05T21:47:00.003-06:00

We started back to homeschool first thing Monday morning. Other than changing our location and adding a new daily book, I really did not make any changes to our schedule.
Here is our new temporary school location. One wall of the living room.

We have started studying the American Revolution which he is very interested in. I purchased a few new books, we will also be using the library a lot for this topic and we are watching Liberty Kids on Netflix.

Our new book this year is a coloring book on the Periodic Table. He loves it, my child who hates to color loves this book. We are going one element a day in no particular order, I let him chose. He reads and does the coloring page and then we look up more information on the element. We are working on a list of a few experiments that we will be able to do for some of them.
This coloring book was expensive $25.00 on amazon.
The Periodic Table of Elements Coloring Book

I consider it a curriculum book and as much as he likes it, it is worth the money.

This week we have reviewed Latin, spelling, math and done our daily gram pages everyday. It has been a fairly light week for getting back into the routine.
For a science experiment this week we are making rock candy. It takes 3 to 7 days to grow the sugar crystals so it is not done yet. Not real reason for the experiment other than fun, it has nothing to do with the circulation system which is what is up next in science.

The beginnings of rock candy, I hope.

We start winter bowling league this week, he has his first horse back riding lesson coming up and both he and Dad are training for a marathon this spring. Kiddo will be doing the kid version where over a 8 week period he will run 25.2 miles on his own and then on race day the kids will run the final mile on the race course and cross the finish line just like the adults. It should be fun for them. I am happy to be the coach and cheerleader. ING for kids has several kids marathons, if interested you can see if there is one located near you here : ING Kids Rock

Wordless Wednesday - Back to Work

2012-01-03T23:06:00.002-06:00

2012 - A New Year and New Goals

2012-01-01T01:23:00.001-06:00

I can’t believe it is 2012 already 2011 seemed to have flown by. We are getting ready to start our school year back on Monday. We took almost all of December off and it is time to get back to work.

I have been working on lesson plans for the month of January. we will be taking a week off for a trip to Disney so it is a short month. The first week back I always add in some fun projects to make it a little easier to get back into the schedule. I have some crafts planned for us to do for the trip. We are going to make rock candy for a science experiment. It has nothing to do with the circulatory system but it will be a fun science experiment.

He is very excited to start studying the American revolution. I am so happy to see his interest in history since I was a history major. I plan on taking as much time as he wants on the American Revolution. Isn’t that just one of the best things about homeschooling being able to take time and really study a subject at length. He has already watched about half of the Liberty Kids series on Netflix. It is available for instant streaming on Amazon also.

I also bought a few books for extra reading and we will be making a trip to the library next week for huge book run.

He also picked Neil Armstrong for his next biography read.

I found a coloring book for the periodic chart, very excited to start this. One side has a coloring page with visual images of the element and the page to the left gives you all the basic information. A great way to learn about the periodic chart. I bought it from amazon and it is a bit pricey, $25.00 but I look at it as a curriculum book.

We have a new temporary school area. We have done so much school work in the living room vs. the schoolroom/office we have. He does much better paying attention that way, drives me batty but what works it what counts. We are needing a little more space for spreading out his books and things. While I reorganize the office to hopefully make it work better and we are shopping for new living room furniture, I set up a small area in our living room. It looks a bit odd when you walk the front door but we are a homeschool family. I hope it will work for a couple of months.

I hope everyone has a great 2012!

LEGO Nativity Scene

2011-12-22T12:30:00.000-06:00

His nativity scene

(the large white thing in back is the star)

3 wise men with gifts for Baby Jesus

Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus

Wordless Wednesday - Reindeer

2011-12-20T22:00:00.000-06:00

They had a Live Reindeer experience here this week for you to come meet reindeer and learn about them. What they really meant was come see 2 reindeer in a pen. Kiddo still enjoyed seeing the reindeer.

Wordless Wednesday - Blacksmith Shop

2011-12-14T15:50:00.000-06:00

Wordless Wednesday - Birthday Hot Wheels and Mickey Mouse

2011-12-07T00:14:00.002-06:00

Weekly Review–First Semester Review

2011-12-01T19:41:00.001-06:00

We worked extra hard this week and finished up our semester today. I am ready for a break we started our year in July. Even though we are year round homeschoolers, we take breaks at Christmas, early spring and fall.

We have accomplished everything I wanted to before break. We did not do as many experiments as I would have liked, it seems there is never enough time and the health issue I still have going on has slowed down a few of the extras.

I have plans for a few unit studies next year such as one on government and the election process and I have a lap book on inventors we are going to incorporate into his reading of biographies next year.

Here is a progress update for each subject:

MATH – We are almost finished with Teaching Textbooks 3 and I will be ordering TT4. We are working through Singapore math workbooks 2B, 3A and word problems. I think the extra practice in Singapore really helps with mental math and speedwork. He is getting better at multiplication but subtraction is still a trouble spot, borrowing that second column he has a mental block with it. It will click one day.

History – We are half way through Story of the World and are ready to start studying the American Revolution. He can not wait, he has been watching Liberty Kids on Netflix and has read one book already. We will spend a good bit of time on the American Revolution and the beginning government and then I am going to incorporate a unit study I bought from CurrClick on government and elections. With the election next year it is a perfect time to introduce the process to him.

Language Arts - We started Easy Grammar about a month ago and it is going so well, he likes the easy small worksheets. I am amazed at how fast he is picked up the concepts, I wish I had Easy Grammar when I was in school! He also does a Daily Gram every day he loves them(go figure).

We finished Wordly Wise 3 and have started on Wordly Wise 4. I think Wordly Wise 4 is still a bit too easy for him. He started reading on his own at age 2 so he has a huge vocabulary but I want a solid foundation.

Spelling – Spelling causes me a headache we are using Sequential Spelling, it is great and works but… He hates writing and writing out the spelling words everyday is a huge chore, it can up to an hour. Recently I started dividing up the week 2 days he has to write the words and the other 3 the can say them. It is working better.

Latin – Latin is going great we are using Prima Latina, we are more than half way through the book so next year I will need to start looking into what comes next.

Bible – We are using Telling God’s Story and while we could easily do more than one lesson a week, they are short we are spending a week on each lesson. We read the lesson one day, do an activity from the activity book next day, we the Bible passage next day and the the next day He tells me the lesson in his own words.

Science – We are studying Apologia Human Anatomy and he read the book before we ever started school. We are a little more than half through the book. I am taking time to make sure he gets the vocabulary and definitions down. He loves science, it is his favorite subject.

Reading – He reads so much on his own I don’t require much reading. He is reading biographies

I think that covers it for the most part. I don’t have many changes I plan on making next year, tweak our schedule a little and try to work in more extra curricular activities. He is doing great and I am always wondering should I be pushing him a little harder he can learn so fast on most things. Moms we never stop worrying about something

I may not post much the rest of the month since we won’t be doing many formal school things. We are going to keep doing our calendar page everyday, per his request, reading, he will be helping to make a touring plan for Disney, and I will sneak in math as often as possible.

Happy Holidays!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-30T10:13:00.000-06:00

Kiddo's Christmas tree, he decorated it by himself.

Weekly Review–Week 18

2011-11-11T00:39:00.001-06:00

We have been busy with school this week. It is almost time for our winter break and I have my list of things to get finished before then.

We started division this week! His only question was when did he get to start algebra and geometry. I wanted to say NEVER! I did tell him he had to learn his multiplication tables first.

I am surprised by how much he is liking Easy Grammar. We are working on prepositions. I found a daily calendar journal on pinterest and he loves it. Everyday you fill out the date, tally marks, day and draw a picture of the weather for the day.

My Pinterest Homeschool Board

This week I started working on my Disney World planning notebook and Kiddo wanted to make his own planner. He drew a front cover and chose a graphic for the back cover. He wanted to include chapter with the maps to all the parks, a map and photo of the hotel we are staying and note paper. After he organized it in the order he wanted we took it to Kinkos and had it bound. Seeing how much fun he had making his own book I am going to look into getting a spiral binding machine for home. It would be a great way to begin journaling and book reports.

Weekly Review - 17

2011-11-06T19:40:00.001-06:00

I have a very fast update for this week. There is no review we have both been sick with a virus that turned into a wicked head cold for the both of us. Kiddo is still under the weather and may get a trip to the doctors this week.

Other than endless games of Wheel of Fortune on Wii (could count as spelling or problem solving right?) and reading we did nothing this week.

I have been working hard on our to get finished by the December list. We take the month of December off for the holidays. In December we will keep doing a little math and a unit study of the meaning of Christmas. I learned the hard way a whole month off with no school at all makes January very hard on everybody. Doing just a little on top of reading along with crafts helps make getting back to a full schedule in January easier.

Have a great week! We will be very busy getting to the end of our semester.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T20:16:00.001-05:00

Hope everyone has a great day.

Weekly Review 15 & 16

2011-10-30T19:02:00.002-05:00

Not much to report school wise we are moving along with our new schedule which is working fairly well. We have spent a lot of time outdoors enjoying the fall weather.
We did finish Wordly Wise book 3 last week. The last thing we did was make a sentence from each word in the book, he did great there were only a few he couldn’t remember and as soon as he looked them up he remembered. We will be starting Wordly Wise 4 next week.
We worked on(caught up) our Anatomy Notebooking journal , I am terrible about putting it off until we have 2 or 3 chapters to fill out.
Here is one of the items we did, an idea I got from pinterest. It is a skeleton made with Qtips.

We enjoyed our annual trip to the farm and pumpkin patch.

I purchased a bulk order of apples through a local co-op many homeschool families here use. I had a moment of insanity because I am now working on baking with 40lbs of apples.

Have a great week!

Wordless Wednesday–Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-25T23:37:00.001-05:00

Wordless Wednesday - New Books

2011-10-19T00:56:00.000-05:00

I can't believe we are ready for more school books already. We are finishing up Wordly Wise 3, we just started Easy Grammar 3 and we need the daily grams. The new Singapore math book is to help with mental math, speeding up easy addition and subtraction. I think he will love the speed tests.

Weekly Review - Week 14

2011-10-17T00:14:00.001-05:00

This was a pretty typical week for homeschool. We started working in Easy Grammar 3 and finished up the printing portion of A Reason of Handwriting and we begin cursive next week. We are sailing along in the new Singapore math workbooks. We are moving a little slow in history and science with the weather being nice we have been spending more time outdoors.

He worked on life skills this week, he helped Dad replace an O2 sensor in our car and he cheered Dad on while he ran his first half marathon. WAY TO GO DAD!

We also made a fleece blanket, this was fun and only took a couple of hours. I let him pick out the fabric he wanted and he helped tying the knots in between playing with Transformer toys, of course.

This is the patterns he chose, TN Vols and checkered flag.

Working on the knots

Enjoying the blanket he help make.

Wordless Wednesday - Knex

2011-10-12T12:09:00.000-05:00

Kiddo built a double ferris wheel from Knex this week. It has a motor, turns and 3 feet tall. I wonder where I am going to put this thing:)

Weekly Review 13

2011-10-07T13:50:00.001-05:00

This week has gone well, we are moving right along with our new schedule. Nothing really new to report, ordered a few new school books and learned I forgot to order a few more.

I got our new math books in Singapore 2B and 3A we are going over them as a review to supplement Teaching Textbooks 3. We are on the last cd of TT so I will need to order TT4 soon.

After placing a order with CBD.com I realized we are almost finished with Wordly Wise 3(only 3 lessons left). We also started Easy Grammar 3 this week and I do believe we will need the Daily Grams to go with it so I will add it to my order list.

We did a few crafts this week. We were working on a You have been booed basket for his great grandmother and we made a couple of little things.

Oranges with Jack O’ Lantern Faces drawn on. I got this idea from pinterest, I love that website. One of the face he drew reminds me of Wilson from Cast Away with Tom Hanks.

A hand tree. You paint their hand and wrist for the tree and use fingers to make the leaves. A quick messy art project that is fun.

Wordless Wednesday–Hot Wheels

2011-10-05T15:40:00.003-05:00

Walked in to find this – Hot Wheels tracks and little boy all on dining room table.

Weekly Review Week 12

2011-10-02T14:19:00.005-05:00

I can not believe we are in week 12 of our school year already. Time is flying by. I thought I might give an update as to where we are in each of his subjects and the progress he is making.
Handwriting - This year he is only doing handwriting 3x a week. It has made a difference since he dislikes handwriting so much only doing it part time is great for him. There is no balking about handwriting and he has yet to realize all the writing he does in grammar, Latin, and Bible counts.
Grammar – He is almost finished with Easy Grammar 2. We will be starting Easy Grammar 3 next week. He is doing well with grammar and I like the easy no stress way of learning rules and definitions.
Science – We just finished chapter 6 in Apologia Human Anatomy book. It takes about a week to complete one chapter with the experiments. We have also been watching Standard Deviants dvd on anatomy and using the Greys Anatomy coloring book. I am in no hurry to go through this book. He is very interested in the book and has already read most of the book on his on time.

History – We are on chapter 15 in Story of the World 3. I would like to be further in this book but we have stopped to read extra on American History and on some of the figures in the book. He is very interested in the American Revolution and we will be spending time on that subject with lots of extras. We have been watching Liberty Kids on Netflix streaming which is excellent for kids.

Latin - He loves Prima Latin and would do it every day if we had time. We do Latin 2 to 3x a week. Every Monday we do a review of all the vocabulary we have learned so far. We are on Lesson 10 in Latin.
Language Arts – Wordly Wise has been a huge hit. We are on lesson 11. Spelling has been a bit of a struggle. Sequential Spelling is meant to be done once a day but that is too much for us. He wants to sound out the words and figure them out for himself, which is fine but some days we are doing spelling for over an hour. We are doing spelling 3 days week, that way I can schedule the time we need but keep up with the building on words, some days are much faster than others.
Bible – We are using Telling God’s Story. I am very pleased with the program. It maybe a bit oversimplified for Kiddo’s age but I would rather it be too simple rather than too hard to understand. Learning about Jesus, his life and his teachings in a conversational manor is prefect for us. We are also using the activity book. We do 1 lesson a week, one day we read the story, the next day we read the Bible verses, next day reread the main Bible verse and do the activity book and the next day I have Kiddo retell the lesson in his own words.
Math – We are using Teaching Textbooks and Singapore math. We are almost finished with TT3 and I will be ordering TT4. We have also been using Singapore 2A, Intensive practice and challenging word problems. We are working on learning times tables and doing extra practice on subtraction with renaming. He does math to figure out the multiplication questions. He does not have them all memorized yet. He can do his 0,1,2,3,5,and 10s. I just ordered Singapore 2b, 3a and Math Express level 2.
Reading – I don’t count any books his reads on his own time for fun and he does a lot of that. He has read two autobiographies so far this year one on Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison. He wants to read one on Paul Revere next. He also loved Charlotte's Web and after reading the book I think he has watched the movie a dozen times. He had Dad are reading Harry Potter together and they are on book 4 still. We have also reread a few Magic Tree house books that have to work into history.

I think that about covers it. We are moving right along making progress and enjoying the school work. I do have one confession. I wanted to start on piano this year. I bought the books, I did some practicing since it has been a long time since I played but we have yet to start. Between all the work we are doing and my medical issues which have zapped me of all energy I just have worked it into our schedule yet.

12 weeks worth of grammar, singapore, activity pages. Time for a new folder it is full.

Wordless Wednesday - Bread Bowls

2011-09-28T20:45:00.001-05:00

Bread Bowls

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast(2 packs)
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
7 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water

In a large bowl (or bowl of an electric mixer-I used my kitchen aid), dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
Add salt, oil and 4 cups flour to the yeast mixture; beat well. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well with an electric mixer at medium speed after each addition until a soft but not sticky dough is formed.

When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes (or let knead in an electric mixer). Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. Punch dough down, and divide into 6-8 equal portions. Shape each portion into a round ball. Place loaves on lightly greased baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal (or use silpat liners or parchment paper). Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, until doubled in bulk, about 35 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, beat together egg white and 1 tablespoon water; lightly brush the loaves with half of this egg wash. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Brush with remaining egg mixture, and bake 10 to 15 more minutes or until golden. Cool on wire racks.

I divided mine into 9 portions (since there are 3 of us). The bowls were a bit small but they worked fine. I will try 6 portions next time. Husband thinks a bigger bowl will be needed for chili, LOL. These will be so great for soup dinners this fall.

Science Experiment–Acid and Teeth Update

2011-09-25T16:58:00.003-05:00

Here is an update to our tooth vs. acid experiment. A very successful experiment and an easy one to conduct.
Just a warning the last picture is gross and will make you want to brush your teeth immediately.

We have been doing an experiment listed in the Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy.

You can see the beginning of our experiment here.

We used a baby tooth. Here are our results: Within 21 days all enamel was gone and the tooth had softened considerably.

Day 1

Day 10

Day 21

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-20T23:04:00.000-05:00

After having been stuck inside playing hot wheels and Legos, due to the heat and allergies

he is enjoying the outdoors and cooler weather. He is always on the go

running and

biking and hiking

and tug of war. Fall a great time to be outside.

Weekly Review 9 & 10

2011-09-20T19:02:00.001-05:00

Week 9 for homeschool was a long week. Kiddo has been resisting doing school work, dawdling, arguing and one day he threw a honest to goodness temper tantrum. I don’t think he has ever done that in his 7 years.

We got through school barely it was more of a tug of war but we got through it.

I decided over the weekend something has to change I was not going to spend the next several years fighting him to get his work done. We had been starting school around 10 a.m. which gave him time to get up play burn of some steam before school time.

I decided to change our schedule and the order in which we do our work. I took his binder and made labels for his folders, one for each subject. I then added assignment sheets where each day I wrote what he had to finish before anything else can be done.

Sunday night before bed we sat him down and explained the new rules. He was not happy. We told him as soon as he got up and ate breakfast he had to complete everything listed on his assignment sheet. If he finished before lunch, great he could play until lunch. Immediately following lunch, I do mean as soon as plates are cleared it is school time. We finish our schoolwork and then it is free time.

It has worked better than I though it would. Monday he grumbled a bit about having too much to do but he did it and finished in time to play a little before lunch. I was surprised to see he was ready to tackle the rest of his work right after lunch without even a grumble. The week has gone smoothly we have finished more work in less time then we have been doing.

For his assignment sheet, he has one grammar page, a math worksheet/teaching textbook lesson, handwriting page, wordly wise, and sometimes a history drawing worksheet. After lunch we cover history, science, Latin, spelling and Bible.

I hope this schedule works for at least a little while, it will give me time to come up with another approach. One thing for sure homeschool is never boring

P.S. Update, We are in week two of me giving him assignments to complete first thing in the morning. It is going great,he does his work with no complaints at all. He enjoys free time before lunch and it is ready to finish school right after lunch. I am loving our new schedule.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-06T23:15:00.004-05:00

I have no picture this week Our camera bit the dust last week. It was only a year and half old. Finally after looking at a 100 cameras it seems, research and reading reviews I ordered a new camera. The weather has not been working with us, and I am not complaining we are so happy to see rain, I have not had the opportunity to take many photos. The few inside shots have been good, color and lighting accurate. I can’t wait to take some outside shots and it has a panoramic mode.
Here is the camera we decided on and it better last longer than a year and a half!

Science Experiment–Teeth and Acid

2011-09-06T01:44:00.000-05:00

In Chapter 4 of Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology there is an experiment using a tooth. We saved a baby tooth Kiddo had lost recently. We wrote the Tooth Fairy a letter and let her know we needed to keep the tooth for school, she was fine with that and left him money and the tooth.

All you need for this experiment is:

1. A tooth

2..A coke

3. A plastic cup

4. Time

You put the tooth in the bottom of a cup and pour plenty of soda on top. Every few days you check on the tooth and over the course of several days you will be able to document the effect acid has on tooth enamel. While tooth enamel is very strong eventually the acid will wear down the enamel. I will be sure and post a update at the end of the experiment.

Weekly Review– Week 8

2011-09-05T22:20:00.001-05:00

I have no photos for this week our camera broke and I am currently shopping for a new one. The life with a boy, a never ending supply of items to deconstruct.

This week we did a subject a day. I did this last year and Kiddo liked it. It changed up our schedule and made things more interesting. Monday was a long day, we did grammar which consisted of spelling, grammar, Latin and handwriting, Tuesday was History day, Wednesday was Science, Thursday was Science and Friday was workbook day, Logic, Maps,etc. We did Bible everyday like usual.

He had his first Latin test and I even graded it. We don’t really do grades yet. He made a 90 because he missed two questions. He told me that grade was too high, it should be lower because he missed two questions I should take off 10 points per question, LOL. I told I would remember that for later.

This next week we will get back to our regular schedule with hopefully a lot of outdoor time thrown in. It has finally cooled off here and if the rain lets up some we will take advantage of the cooler air. It has been so hot here and his allergies have been so bad we have been stuck in the house.

I am still looking for some fall activities for us to do. Most of the things available here are for ages 8 and up. I have found locally there is a gap between the ages of 5 – 8 of activities. Once he is a year older there will be many more options.

I think we are going to join a local gym that has an indoor pool for some more swim practice. I also found a place that offers horse riding lessons and we might try that. He is signed up for fall bowling league, he wanted to play again with his team mates from summer. The first of the year we are going to start TKD back, he has been on break this summer and my husband is too busy with work this fall for us to fit that much time into our schedule. He will also be training for his first kid type marathon in the spring.

I hope everyone has a good week.

Wordless Wednesday - Football!

2011-08-30T22:45:00.000-05:00

We are BIG football fans and take our football seriously even preseason games:)

Weekly Review 6 & 7

2011-08-25T23:18:00.001-05:00

I am behind on this blog, I know. I am still having some medical issues, more doctors appointments etc., I did finally get a diagnosis and medicine to fix my problem so hopeful in a few weeks I will be feeling much better.

As far as school has gone we have done the basics math, grammar, spelling, reading every day and split up history, science and Latin on alternate days. We are behind where I wanted us to be but we are making progress so that is o.k.

He finished his Thomas Edison book, and chose Ben Franklin for his next autobiography. We have made a few library trips the past couple of weeks and loaded up on books. He gets to pick his books and he has picked everything from dogs, nfl, earthquakes, robots, machines, plants and the American Revolution.

We have been watching Liberty Kids on Netflix he is enjoying the series and is very interested in the American Revolution. I can’t wait to really start studying it with him. Not school related but also he has discovered Dr. Who and the sci-fi lover in me is tickled pink.

I am proud of this picture he colored for his Great Grandma. He hates coloring with a passion, drawing is great coloring not so much. It is the first page he has ever completed it took him a week but he wanted to color it for her and he did.

Next week my lesson plans will be a little different. I did this last year and he really liked it so I am planning it for next week. We do a weeks worth of lessons in one day per subject. He thought it was so fun and it changed up the routine a bit which is always good. So next week we will spend a day on each language arts, history, math, science, and Bible/Latin.

Have a good weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-24T22:15:00.000-05:00

Wordless Wednesday - My Little Runner

2011-08-16T22:26:00.001-05:00

He is getting ready to train for a kid version of a marathon next spring. For a heart kid this is a big undertaking and he is ready.

Weekly Review–Week 5

2011-08-11T21:09:00.001-05:00

There was no school this week. I started the week in the hospital with a unknown allergic reaction. After spending the first part of the week in the hospital and coming home on medicine that has made me feel terrible, I decided school was not on the list this week. Kiddo has been very good and helpful all week.

Since there was no school this week, I thought I would list what we do on days or in this case week, when school is not an option due to illness or whatever. We don’t have any family near us, so we don’t have any extra help when something is up, so I try to have a plan to deal with those pop up situations.

One thing I do is collect LEGO kits. Kiddo loves LEGOs and they can keep him busy for hours. As I find a good deal I keep a few kits put back for these times. I had LEGO: The Rise of the Sphinx kit, it is 550 pieces and a difficult build as far as LEGO kits go. It took him about 4 hours to build, and he has played with it for days. After he is done with the kits he takes them apart and then starts building all new creations. Have I mentioned we love LEGOs!

He loves reading so having a new book or two put back it always good. He loves the Buddies movies from Disney. We have all of them and they are some of his favorites. I found a Spooky Buddy book, about the new movie that comes out in September.

Spooky Buddies

He has also done a lot of drawing this week. I think we have gone through a 1/2 ream of paper. I ordered a set of Sharpies for a craft project for us to do later and he has had the best time getting to use Mom’s “special pens”. I love Sharpies. If you are looking for a good deal on Sharpies I found this set.

Sharpies 24 pack

Here is one of the photos he made for me, most his drawings are of cars, hot wheels, fire, engines, etc., boy stuff, but he made me this one and said I would like a pretty flower.

I am really looking forward to getting back to school and a routine next week.

Wordless Wednesday - Lego Rise of the Sphinx

2011-08-09T23:15:00.001-05:00

LEGO Pharaoh's Quest - Rise of Sphinx

A Lego kit is a great activity for a child to work on, when Mom is sick. We love LEGOs.

Weekly Review–Week 4

2011-08-05T12:51:00.001-05:00

This has been a tough week. Kiddo is not cooperating and is taking forever to get his work done. We have been starting school around 8:30 and not finishing for the day until after 4:00. What we are doing in no way should be taking that long to do. He is all over the place, not wanting to do his work, being intentionally slow, day dreaming, talking about anything but the subject at hand, etc.

Thursday we had a reading day. I needed a little break to see how to address this issue. He read Horrible Science, Thomas Edison, library books, the next chapter in his science book and other misc. Star Wars books. It was a good day of reading and taking a break.

I got in a new coloring book to go with Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy. I think I am more excited about it than he is. I want to color too. I was less than $7.00 from amazon.com, it is for ages 9 –12.

Friday, we had a contest. Dad was coming home for lunch so we tried to see if he could finish spelling before he got home. That worked great, we were finished with spelling in less than 15 minutes instead of the 45 to 60 it had been taking. Hmm, maybe I should make everything a contest.

Kiddo has also been busy with his ice skating lessons and bowling league. We are looking at options for activities for the fall, I think he has decided on bowling again vs. ice skating lessons. This fall both classes are at the same time, bummer. We took a summer break from Taekwondo because he was just not liking the new group that took over the school. We plan on finding another school with hopefully weapons training, which is what he is wanting to learn. He is waiting until he is 9 when he can join a fencing group here.

I am joining the local and large homeschool group here, they seem to be more organized now and are offering more. I am hoping we find some great field trips and activities with other homeschoolers. Do you find it hard to find other homeschoolers locally? Everyone is nice but they seem to fit into one or two specific categories and we are not either one. It has been hard to find a group we are compatible with.

With our first month of the new homeschool year in, we are working on a few issues and learning lots.

Have a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesday–Summer Fun

2011-08-02T22:58:00.001-05:00

Summer fun at the splash pad.

Weekly Review–Week 3

2011-07-29T19:45:00.001-05:00

We have had a slow week of school this week. Kiddo had doctors appointments, Husband was travelling this week which always means something will break, or somebody will get sick etc. It was one of those weeks. The first day DH was gone, I got woke up to Kiddo yelling for me from the bathroom saying he needed help. Let’s just say it went downhill from there.

We did a lot of reading this week from the library. He is still reading his Thomas Edison biography, he likes it but it is not interesting enough for him to read without me saying it is time to read on Thomas Edison for a bit.

He is enjoying the Standard Deviant Anatomy dvds he has watched them almost every day. They go really well with Apologia Human Anatomy.

This week I made some multiplication flashcards for us to work on. We are using Teaching Textbooks for math and they started giving him complex multiplication questions and he does not have his facts memorized yet. Working on the tables will be our goal in math for the next week.

He made a mustard see tree in Bible this week. I also learned that I have watched too much Mythbusters with Kiddo when I started using an Mythbuster experiment as one example to help explain faith to him.

Other than school time taking more time than I was expecting the year seems to be off to a good start. We are getting in a groove and moving along in all our subjects.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-26T21:55:00.000-05:00

Kiddo picked this book at the library this week, he thinks it is so interesting. It has real pictures in it, can I just say, GROSS! It has been a Dad and son book, I don't want to see it or hear about it, which Kiddo thinks is too funny.

Weekly Review–Week 2

2011-07-21T23:21:00.001-05:00

This was a week of catch up, between doctor’s appointments, sleeping issues and reaction to medicine trouble, we have been a bit behind all week. Other than science and finishing up a book on Pocahontas we are all caught up. Science works out this way instead of me having to do a chicken wing experiment on Friday, Dad can help us on Saturday. And that works perfect for me, I was not looking forward to it.

Kiddo is truly enjoying spelling and Latin. He is a little frustrated with math right now because it is getting harder and he does not like things that do come instantly to him. He is used to understanding everything after one try and multiplication is slowing him up.

He is enjoying ice skating classes and bowling league. I hope to start piano next week, we have run out of time the past two weeks and have not been able to start yet.

My two weeks of lesson plans I made worked out well so this weekend I will be making out the next two weeks. I think two weeks at a time is a good schedule for me, it allows flexibility for changes in the schedule and extras. I make the lesson plans and print off any printables I will need for the two weeks plus make sure I have all the supplies for any experiments of projects we are going to do.

Have a good weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-20T17:00:00.000-05:00

We are studying bones in science this week, he made a body out of play doh.

Edible Cell – Science Project

2011-07-19T00:12:00.002-05:00

We attempted to make an edible cell that is a project listed in Apologia’s Human Anatomy book. It took a lot of candy for this project. Any reason for buying candy is a good one, right?

First you use lemon Jell-O to make your mold, that part went fine. It did take more than a day for it to set up with the extra gelatin in it.

Next using the candy you recreate all the the parts of a cell. This is were things started going down hill. The candy was melting and turning the Jell-O colors and some of the pieces as they melted popped back up. We were having fun and he did remember ever part of a cell.

Finally it was time to turn out the mold. Guess what didn’t happen. It was all good fun though, Kiddo said it was a dead cell it had been destroyed.

Then Kiddo started playing with the Jell-O and it became ballistic gel like they use on Mythbusters(his favorite show). Then there was talk of making a body using Jell-O etc. We had fun and Kiddo knows all the parts of a cell and certainly won’t forget now. It was a fun but a bit costly experiment with all the candy.

Weekly Review–Week 1

2011-07-15T19:17:00.005-05:00

Day 1 – I did not have a lot of hope for today. I had told Kiddo, let’s get up work hard and finish our work and we will have the rest of the day to play. He told me his goal was to avoid school work at all cost. It did not go too badly, the work took longer than it should have. He can dawdle over handwriting and math worksheets better than anyone. He was very excited to do science, I scheduled that last to get everything else done. He wasn’t sure at all about spelling but once he did his first “test” in Sequential Spelling it was no big deal. He liked Wordly Wise and wanted to keep reading in history and science, so overall a good day.
He did create a very colorful conquistador.

Day 2 - Ahhh! Thank goodness for Excedrin and Lindt Chocolate, it is that kind of day. He is not interested in even trying today, 2 hours on one TT math lesson. I know he knows the information, he is just not trying. Getting back into a routine is rough. We did mange to get through the day and he enjoyed drawing the anatomy of a cell and making Spanish doubloons. We also had our first Latin lesson, I may look for the dvds.

Day 3 – Today was better, he did not complain as much but still took forever to get anything done. As we get back into the swing of things, it will pick up. The first couple of weeks are always hard getting back used to the work schedule. He is enjoying Sequential Spelling asked to do it first today and he wanted to listen to the Latin cd again. As usual he loves the Apologia science book, we finished reading chapter 1 today and will do the notebook journal tomorrow. He drew the Nina today from his Draw through History. Not exactly what we were reading about but it works for a Spanish ship going to South America.

Day 4 – We did not get much done today. I felt bad, he had sinus issues and I had a doctor’s appointment. We did spelling, reviewed Latin, and did some math worksheets. Tomorrow will be a busy day with catch up and our science project.
Day 5 – Today was a good day, he worked hard to get caught up from yesterday and we finished everything. Fridays are set up to be a light day to allow for catch up from the week and experiment day. Today we worked in the Apologia Human Anatomy Jr. Notebook. I really like the new jr. notebooks, they are perfect for younger kids with more drawing and lap booking type activities. We also are working on a edible DNA project. I should have pictures of it when finished tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures from the Jr. Notebook for Chapter 1. There is also a copy work page and the cell anatomy page which can be seen above.

I am pleased with how our first week went overall. I can tell the curriculum seems to be a good fit for now and the amount of work is good. I do hope he speeds up a bit he can drag his feet on things he is not interested in doing. We will work on that this year. He seems to really like Latin and Sequential Spelling which are both new this year.
I have next weeks lesson plans made and ready to go. I did two weeks at a time and I hope I can keep it up.

Have a good weekend!

Wordless Wednesday–Library Haul

2011-07-13T07:00:00.001-05:00

Some for homeschool and most just books he picked out to read. I was disappointed our library had only one of the extra reading books I wanted.

Terrific Tuesday

2011-07-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

Boys Garage Style Room
Kiddo got a big boy room makeover. He wanted a car garage style room iin red, white and blue. If you click the link above you can see more pictures and details on we did. He loves it.
Kiddo loved the month of hockey lessons so much we signed him up for ice skating classes. This is perfect for a summer activity. It is indoors and once a week.

P.S. I know his helmet is too small here, I ordered a new one and it showed up after he got back from class, naturally. He has a new proper fitting helmet now.

Time for School

2011-07-10T17:59:00.003-05:00

It is time to start back to school on Monday. We are basically year round but we have taken a few weeks off for a break. We had finished most of our curriculum so we will be starting new books and changing a few things.

I would like to say I am excited to be starting school again but a few more weeks would be nice. I have been busy making lesson plans, printing worksheets, copying, laminating, organizing, labeling, etc. You know all those things you do to get ready for school.

Kiddo is excited about studying Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy this year. I am not so thrilled but we doing it anyways. I have read the first chapter and gather all our supplies for the experiment at the end of the chapter. This is going to be a difficult book with lots of vocabulary and difficult concepts. I plan on taking the whole year to go through the book slowly. Maybe 1 chapter a week but I think it will take a bit longer for some chapters. I am planning on doing as many of the experiments as we can, along with the extra reading and dvd suggestions.
Kiddo was also thrilled to hear he only has Handwriting twice a week now. Nobody tell him he will be writing everyday in Easy Grammar and Sequential Spelling. His handwriting has improved greatly since we started drawing class. For this year I got two drawing books, Star Wars the Clone Wars and Draw Through History. He has asked for a book on how to draw vehicles.
Here is our curriculum for this year:
Math – Teaching Textbooks with Singapore workbooks for extra practice
History – Story of the World
Grammar- Easy Grammar 2 and 3 (almost finished with 2)
Spelling/Vocabulary. – Sequential Spelling and Wordly Wise
Science – Apologia Human Anatomy
Bible – Telling God’s Story
Handwriting – A Reason for Handwriting Transitional workbook
Drawing- SW Clone Wars and Draw Through History
Piano – John W Schaum ( until fall and them piano lessons)
Latin – Prima Latin (2x week)
Extras we will be doing:
Map Skills Grade 3 workbook – He loves these and does them on his own time
Logic Countdown – Did Mind Benders last year and he sailed right through.
Reading – He is an advanced reader and I usually let him read what he wants to. I do pick one set of books specifically for him to read and do narrations on. We have done Magic School Bus, Magic Tree House and Horrible Science series before. This year we are doing biographies on people he would like to learn more about. He chose Thomas Edison for his first book.

We are ready.

New pencil and Crayola Twistables for the year. Since we found out Kiddo is colored blind I labeled all of his colored pencils, I think that will help with the frustration factor.
Mom also got new pencils this year. I found some colored mechanical pencils and a set of multi colored uni-ball pens. I have mentioned I love all things writing instrument wise. Back to school supplies is almost as good as Christmas shopping.

Pencil Boxes .25 at Staples.

I will be back to blogging more regular now that I will have something to blog about.

Wordless Wednesday - Getting ready to start back to school

2011-07-05T19:30:00.001-05:00

Lesson Planner printed from Donna Young.

We start our year on Monday. I am busy organizing my planner and making lesson plans. We have several fun experiments this year. I am hoping to do all the activities in the Apologia Human Anatomy book. I will back to posting regularly soon. I am ready to start a new year and I am really not ready. I have enjoyed our break.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-22T17:55:00.000-05:00

Still loving hockey. School starts back in a few weeks!

Wordless Wednesday - Hockey

2011-06-07T22:53:00.000-05:00

Ready for his first Hockey class

Learning to stand in skates is hard work.

Having workbooks spiral bound

2011-06-04T20:03:00.002-05:00

A couple of years ago on the advice of another homeschool mom, I took my Story of the World activity book to Kinko’s to have it unbound and rebound on a spiral. It was a brilliant idea, it makes making copies of the activity sheets so much easier and flipping through the book it, the pages stay open, etc. I now do this to most of our workbooks. It is a convenience that just makes things a little easier.
I took in 4 workbooks, SOTW activity book, Telling God’s Story activity book, Easy Grammar 3(why did they not make it with tear away sheets like book 2) and Wordly Wise. My local Kinko’s charged me $5.50 per book regardless of size. While it is not a necessary item, it makes the day just a little easier not fighting to keep a book open or Kiddo saying it won’t stay put, I can’t write in it etc.
I have considered purchasing a binding machine, I can see so many uses for it in both homeschool and crafts. But honestly instead of taking hours to do them myself in 30 minutes I was in and out of Kinko’s, and time matters. If I ever find a great deal on a machine I might get one, it would be great for book creations, drawing reports, and smaller workbooks. But for now Kinko’s works great.

Wordless Wednesday–Cicadas

2011-05-18T13:29:00.001-05:00

Kiddo has a great time finding and learning about cicadas.

We are finished!

2011-05-10T21:35:00.004-05:00

Can you see me doing a happy dance?! (I certainly hope not) We finished our “school year” today. We are technically year round but we have finished our curriculum and taking a month off before starting again. Did I mention how happy I am, one we finished most of the curriculum and two we are taking a break.
We have been working really hard the past two weeks to get finished by today. I had told Kiddo if he got all his work done by today, I would get him the new LEGO Pirates Wii game. He had a list of what had to be finished and a goal. He did really well working toward finishing. Not sure if that was bribery or incentive but he enjoyed working toward a goal where he could see the finish line and wanted the prize.
This year we completed:
Exploring Creation with Astronomy
Exploring Creation with Zoology
Horizons for Penmanship
Drawing Program
Story of the World 2 with activity book
First Language Lessons (did a lot of skipping)
Reading – Every year I say I am going to keep a list of all the books he reads but I never keep it up. (a goal for next year) He reads everyday and reads every night at bed time with Dad. I know he reread Magic Tree House books, he read a few Magic School Bus Chapter books, he finished the Percy Jackson series and is on Book 3 in the Harry Potter series. He has read every Horrible Science book he has(about 20, I think) and then there is the books we gets every two weeks at the library. There are a lot of books, I am so happy he likes to read like we do.
What we are working on and will pick up with in July.
Math – We started with Singapore 2A and 2B. The workbooks got very frustrating for him and it was becoming a struggle. We switched to Teaching Textbooks 3 in February. He has finished 2 of the 4 cds and it is going great. We will continue to use TT and Singapore together next year.
Grammar - I purchased Easy Grammar 3 for next year and to be sure he would be ready for it I also purchased Easy Grammar 2 Student workbook in March for him to do. He is on lesson 61 of 180. Easy grammar has been great it is quick and easy while teaching at the same time.

A side note: After we finished our lapbook in Zoology today, I told Kiddo he could do whatever he wanted for the afternoon he played for 2 hours and then asked to start the new typing software I bought for next year. He worked with it for about an hour. He mentioned something about reading his Human Anatomy book tomorrow. And at bedtime there was something about lots of school work to do. Doesn’t he know Mom needs a break, but you have to love, the love of learning he has.

Curriculum is Here – Mom has homework.

2011-05-05T00:16:00.001-05:00

I finally got all of our curriculum in for next year. Technically we are year round now but for the official beginning of the new year in July, the books are here. I have to return one set of books(piano) but other than that I am ready to start my homework. It looks like this year I will have a good bit of prep work to do beyond lesson planning.

Here is what I have chosen for our curriculum this year.

Drawing – The Draw and Write will go along with STOW 3 and he is super excited about the Star Wars Drawing book. He may have it mastered before July.

I downloaded a free drawing program for him this year, thinking he would not like it. He loved it. I was so surprised since he hates coloring but he loves to draw with a pencil.

Spelling and Vocabulary – Wordly Wise and Sequential Spelling. We have been going through Words are Wonderful this year and will keep it up.

Grammar and Handwriting – Easy Grammar and A Reason for Handwriting. He can ‘t wait for cursive writing.

Latin, Piano, and Typing - Prima Latina, Typing Instructor and John W. Schaum. I know the photo shows Piano Adventures, even though it had been highly recommended I was not happy with the books. To me they looked too difficult for a beginner. I did not like the lay out of the books. I am returning them and purchasing the John W Schaum books, it is what I learned with and I feel more comfortable with it.

Extras – Map Skills for Today and Logic Countdown. He loved the previous map skills workbook he did and he flew through the last logic book. This logic book looks more difficult and I believe will give him a challenge.

Math – We will finish Teaching Textbooks 3 and continue to use Singapore level 2 for extra practice. He is half way through TT3 and I plan on ordering TT4.

Science – Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology. I will have to go through the list of supplies needed for this book, in Chapter 4 you need a tooth!

History – Story of the World 3 with activity book.

Bible – Telling God’s Story. I will be reading these books completely before we begin them but I think this will be a good fit for Kiddo.

There is all my books for the new school year. Lesson planning should be interesting this year. I have a good bit of planning, reading, researching and scheduling to do for this curriculum. Mom has homework!

Wordless Wednesday - Big Box of Curriculum

2011-05-04T17:59:00.000-05:00

My last box of curriculum arrived today. Kiddo is super excited about the Star Wars drawing book. (He is already working with it)

Wordless Wednesday - I love this guy!

2011-04-27T00:37:00.000-05:00

Menu Plan Monday

2011-04-25T11:00:00.002-05:00

It is the end of the month so our menu is mostly from the freezer this week.
Monday - Easter dinner leftovers
Tuesday – Italian Beef, green beans, corn on cob
Wednesday – Stuffed Bell Peppers (chicken)
Thursday – Taco Salad
Friday – Out (TKD testing night)
Saturday – Breakfast for Dinner - Waffles w/ strawberries, Bacon, Frittata

I went a little crazy–Lapbook for Exploring Creation with Zoology

2011-04-24T22:52:00.002-05:00

I am not sure what went through my mind. I had a moment of crazy, I was looking around currclick and saw a lapbook for the second half of the Zoology book we are currently doing. I thought Kiddo would love this, he would have so much fun with it.. That must have been when I lost all leave of my senses because, I bought it.

I know all the hard work was done for me, there were clear instructions for putting the lapbook together. All the printables were provided and even extra reading materials were suggested. I admire those who do lapbooks for school, they look so good but they are work. I am so tired of cutting out and gluing. Everything is done and ready to go, tomorrow we will go back to chapter 7 and start filling in his lapbook. I know he will like it and it will be great fun, but really I lost my mind just a little.

This lapbook required 3 folders and it took over 50 pages of printables, a fair amount of glue, brads, staples, and construction paper. It took a couple of hours to cut out and assemble.

Have a great week!

Weekly Review

2011-04-23T21:58:00.002-05:00

We did not get a whole lot done this week because DH was off Wednesday through Friday. There were doctors appointments, insomina and playing around with Dad but not a lot of school going on.

We did manage to get most of our work done other some reading and we will catch up next week. When Dad is home, somehow my schedule for everything goes out the window.

Kiddo is bursting at the bit to start Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology. He has almost read the entire book and been through the junior notebook. He is already to start next years books with cursive and Anatomy he is excited.

We listened to a sample of Story of the World on audio and he loved it. I got volume one and he is listening to it at night before bed. I am thrilled he remembers some of the stories for the first book, we read it 2 years ago. While I think they are expensive, he loves listening to them and what a great way to refresh the information. I will be getting the other volumes as well.

Kiddo is also proud of his baby veggie garden. He checks on it everyday and is sure he can see the lettuce growing He may water it to death, we have talked about enough water vs. too much water but he loves his plants.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-19T23:46:00.001-05:00

Planting his seedlings he grew for a Botany project.

Weekly Review

2011-04-14T19:35:00.002-05:00

I did something different this week. I wrote out all the work Kiddo had to do for the week. I told him he could do the work in any order he wants to but it all has to finished before the weekend. When he saw the list, you would have thought I took away all his Legos. After a more than small amount of grumbling he got into it. He started marking through the list as he finished. It was fun to watch him pick his favorite things to do and leave the others. Let’s just say he will be doing a good deal of handwriting and zoology on Friday.

I also made a list of what I want to have finished by May 10th. The reason for May 10th, I made a deal with Kiddo, if we finish all of our work by then I will get him the new LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean Wii game. Talk about incentive or bribery. I am ready for a break. We will take May off for a small break and get back started in June with new curriculum.

Speaking of new curriculum, my order came today from CBD.com. It is so much fun getting in new books. Kiddo promptly took off with the Anatomy book and started reading. I looked through the Latin book and wondered if I could hire someone to teach it. I will order the last of the curriculum we need in a week of so. Then I can start reading the books and planning our schedule.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-12T23:14:00.000-05:00

Flower Dissection

2011-04-12T15:56:00.001-05:00

I love my roses. I have many roses in my yard and I love bringing them in to enjoy. Today was a first, I brought in one of my newly blooming roses for my son to dissect.

We are working our way through Apologia Botany and now that it is spring we can do many of the experiments and activities. We have already started seedlings, gathered maple tree seeds, and today we dissected a rose.

We are enjoying Botany but it is the hardest of the Apologia books so far. It is slow going but we are both learning a lot.

Ordering Curriculum

2011-04-10T23:10:00.002-05:00

I did it, I placed my first order for next years curriculum. I have one more order to place from amazon.com and I will be ready for next year. I can not believe we will be starting our 4th year of homeschooling. While Kiddo will officially be in 2nd grade, we go by age, he will be doing mostly 3rd grade work. If you ask him, he will tell you he is in 3rd grade because that is what his books say. That is fun to explain when people ask.

Here is what I ordered from CBD.com

Prima Latin

Map Skills for Today Grade 3

Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Junior

Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Junior Notebooking

Easy Grammar 3

Sequential Spelling Book 1

A Reason for Handwriting Transition Student Workbook

Wordly Wise 3000 Grade 3

Pilgrims, Pirates, and Patriots Draw and Write Through History

Discovering America's Founders DVD – on clearance for $5.00

I still need to order

Story of the World 3 book, activity workbook and test booklet(we use at a workbook)

Telling God’s Story set

Piano Adventure

Logic Countdown

We just started Teaching Textbooks 3 for math, we will continue until done and then I will order Grade 4. We will also continue to use Singapore workbooks for extra practice.

I can’t wait to start getting books in. I love school supplies. It is so much fun getting in new curriculum and supplies. Now if someone would make lesson plans for me, it would be great.

Weekly Wrap Up

2011-04-08T11:43:00.001-05:00

We are at the end of our curriculum so, there is not a lot to update. We are working on zoology, math and Easy Grammar 2 workbook everyday. We are slowly working our way through Botany. I am in the process of ordering new curriculum. We will be taking a good bit of time off between now and June. We will spend time outdoors playing, enjoying the weather before it gets too hot for Kiddo. Our school year officially starts in July, even though we have switched to a year round school with time off in the spring and fall. Since Kiddo can’t handle the heat of summer, it is the perfect time to get schoolwork done, one of the many reasons I love homeschooling.

I am trying to get finished with Easy Grammar 2 so we can start on Easy Grammar 3 by July. I just received the workbook a few days ago but so far it is easy and he is able to do 4 pages a day. We started Teaching Textbooks a few weeks ago and when we finish it I will purchase grade 4 in it. We are also using Singapore 2A, 2B and word problems workbooks for extra practice. Botany will we work on through the summer, it is a difficult book and it is taking us longer than either Astronomy or Zoology.

I can’t believe we have finished so much and it is time to order new books.

Have a good weekend!

Wordless Wednesday–Working Hard

2011-04-05T22:31:00.001-05:00

LEGO Thursday–LATE

2011-04-01T17:24:00.002-05:00

I forgot about LEGO Thursday. Kiddo loves LEGOs, did I mention he loves them. I rarely catch a picture of his creations, he takes them apart as fast as he builds them. He into building mini figs and robots right now. He recently got this book Cool Robots and is having a ball building all the LEGO robots.

Here is a vehicle with travel pod he built this week. It started out as a electric car but he was not happy with the charging station he built to go with it so it became a gas car with travel pod

Weekly Round Up

2011-04-01T14:56:00.001-05:00

This week we worked hard and accomplished a few goals. Kiddo finished the first disc of Teaching Textbooks 3. We also finished Story of the World 2. I got in the first of next years books, Easy Grammar 2. We started on it today. I plan on ordering easy Grammar 3 but I wanted to go through this workbook first.

We have a library trip planned for this weekend. Kiddo wants to learn more about Galileo. There is also the Home Depot Kids workshop this weekend.

April Fool’s Day- Spaghetti Cupcakes

2011-03-31T22:36:00.001-05:00

The office where my husband works, people regularly send in treats for everyone. I had not sent anything in a while and needed to come up with something. While I was looking around the net for an idea, I saw these spaghetti cupcakes and since Friday is April Fool’s Day I thought they would make a good funny treat.

These cupcakes are so easy to make and took little time. You could buy premade cupcakes from a bakery and turn them into spaghetti cupcakes easily. My son thought they were so funny. These are perfect to make with the kids, you can’t really mess them up.

All you need is a tray of cupcakes.

Icing, a piping bag with a small round tip. I used a Wilton No. 5 tip. I added a dot of ivory food coloring to give the icing a more pasta color.

I put all the cupcakes on the tray I was sending the cupcakes on. It made the icing noodles look a bit more like a platter of noodles having all the cupcakes together.

Then you need to add the “meatballs” and “sauce”. I used chocolate candy and raspberry jam. You could also use truffles. Heat the jam just a little to make it easier to dip the candy and spread the jam. Dip the candy in the jam and place on the cupcake. Spoon a little extra jam to make the sauce. I keep the jam light on my cupcakes.

Ready to serve

I hope they like them. I will hear the reviews tomorrow.

Have a great weekend.

Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-03-26T18:11:00.001-05:00

We had a good week this week. We did science experiments, bird watching(becoming a favorite hobby), seed planting, wood working and of course school work. I have made plans for next years curriculum and have started shopping around for it. I have a bird watching experiment planned and if the weather will clear up hopefully we will get to it this weekend.

This week we did a subject a day again. Kiddo loves this schedule so much I am considering switching to it. I usually use it just to break things up and make our day different. He does great with the schedule though. We will see I might start doing once a week every month, it would be a great way to catch up in any areas we have fallen behind in. Our schedule this week was:

Monday – Math He did 3 lesson in Teaching Textbooks, one quiz and we did a lesson in Singapore math on measurements.

Tuesday – Language Arts He did 3 handwriting worksheets(took forever), Words are Wonderful worksheet, 3 lessons in First Language lessons and spellingcity.com

Wednesday – Reading day per his request. He read 3 Horrible Science books and we started Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban. We have a rule at our house you have to read the book before you can watch the movie.

Thursday – Science We read a chapter in Zoology, made creation book in Zoology notebook journal. Read Genesis 1. Did vocabulary crossword puzzle. Read chapter in Botany and did a little work in the notebook journal.

Friday – History We read 3 chapters in Story of the World, did 3 maps worksheets, and took the test to go with each chapter. I use the test book as worksheets. We will finish history next week most likely. I am working on a geography unit study for us to do before moving on to Story of the World 3.

In the pictures above: we met Rufus the screech owl at Animal Encounters, did the coke and mentos experiment, helped Dad with some furniture building, and planted seeds for spring.

Looking forward to next week. I can see the end of the year or curriculum since we are year round schooling now and I am ready to move on to new things. We took a month off from TaeKwonDo and we will start that back next week, I am very happy about that. It is spring which means getting out and doing more, yeah!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Wordless Wednesday - Spring Planting

2011-03-23T07:00:00.001-05:00

Science Experiment–Coke and Mentos

2011-03-20T20:31:00.002-05:00

We did the coke and Mentos experiment again. He loves doing this experiment, we have done it several times before. I have a science experiment for us later this week involving bird seed and we will need 4 bird feeders for the experiment. Since we had to purchase the plastic bottles to make the bird feeders, might as well get two experiments from the bottles.

For this experiment we tested which diet soda had the best fountain. We tested Diet Coke, Diet, Pepsi, Diet Sunkist and Diet Sam’s Cola (store brand). We used a simple scientific method for our experiment and filled out a lab worksheet to show the results.

Scientific Method we used.

1. Ask a Question - Which diet soda has the highest fountain?

2. Construct a Hypothesis – Kiddo thought the Diet Coke would do the best because of the Mythbusters Diet Coke experiment.

3. Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment – Tested 4 different types of diet coke with mentos.

4. Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion – Reviewed photos and eye witness accounts draw a consensus on the conclusion

5. Communicate Your Results - Filled out a lab chart worksheet

DIET SODA AND MENTOS EXPERIMENT

Supplies Used

4 - 2L soda bottles (any kind will work)

Diet Coke

Diet Pepsi

Diet Sunkist

Diet Sam’s Cola(store brand)

2 pkgs - Mentos candy

1 piece of paper

Tape

Scissors

Cut paper into strips and make a tube for the mentos candy to fit into. We used 4 candies per soda bottle but the more mentos you use the bigger the fountain you will get.

Findings - The Diet Sam’s Cola had the highest fountain. Followed closely by Diet Pepsi then Diet Coke. Diet Sunkist came in last. The Diet Sunkist actually took a few seconds for it to bubble up into a fountain where as the others were almost instant.

Curriculum for New Year

2011-03-20T00:42:00.001-05:00

I can not believe it is time for new curriculum already. We started our school year last July and we have finished some courses, switched math programs and are almost finished with history. We decided to switch to year round school this year so we can take more time off in the spring and fall when Kiddo can spend more time outdoors. Since we are getting close to the end of some of our courses and I can tell he is ready to start learning some new concepts, it’s time to start the search for curriculum.

I enjoy looking at new curriculum, reading about what everyone else is using, reading reviews, etc. and I hate it at the same time. I always feel such pressure to pick the right one; I start to stress myself out over choosing a program that is right for Kiddo and I start doubting my ability to adequately educate him (why I do this I don’t know). I have no doubts about my ability to raise him, if I can raise him, educating him should not be that big of a stretch. I never said I wasn’t a little neurotic and crazy. I’ve found being a bit crazy helps with the whole homeschooling adventure anyways. That being said, it is the season of spending too much time on the computer reading and researching curriculum choices.

I reserve the right to change my mind on any of these choices, since I have not purchased any of the books. I still have time to research more. Here is what I have picked for curriculum thus far:

Bible – Have not decided which but we are going to use a devotional book.

Handwriting – Horizons Penmanship Grade 3

History – Story of the World Vol. 3

Story of the World 3 Activity book

Story of the World 3 Test Book(we use as worksheets)

Math – Teaching Textbooks 3 and 4 (We started Grade 3 a few weeks ago)

Science – Apologia Exploring Anatomy and Physiology

Apologia Jr. Note booking Journal

Grammar - Easy Grammar Daily Review Grade 2

Spelling – Sequential Spelling (still considering All About Spelling)

Latin – Prima Latina

Reading – This year we are going to read biographies. First up is, Thomas A. Edison – Young Inventor.

Other – Typing Instructor for Kids

Science Detective

Logic Countdown Grade 3

Map Skills Grade 3 and 4 ( he loved these workbooks)

I will purchase most of the curriculum from Amazon.com or Christianbook.com. I never seem to have good luck finding used books. As much as I love getting a good deal, I can not complain. The difference in cost between private school and homeschool including umbrella school fees, you can not even compare.

St. Patrick’s Day

2011-03-17T16:28:00.002-05:00

May the sound of good music, and the lilt of a beloved's laughter, fill your heart with gladness, that stays forever after. Happy St. Patrick's Day

I did not really plan anything for St. Patrick’s Day. We went over the history of St. Patrick’s Day and some of the folklore around it. I did not think of a good craft for today so we did this little one. It is a bit preschool but he had fun. He made a rainbow using Froot Loops and cotton balls for clouds.

I also thought hunting for a four leaf clover outside would be fun since the weather is perfect today. The little stinker took a 3 leaf clover, tore one leaf in half to make a 4 leaf clover. I have never thought to do that before.

Have a good day!

Wordless Wednesday - Curious

2011-03-16T00:33:00.000-05:00

Back to Work

2011-03-14T18:29:00.003-05:00

We have had a lot going on the past couple of weeks and have half done school. Today we are back to a full work load. Between all 3 of us being sick, a trip and getting ready for Dad to go to Japan for weeks, then having his trip canceled we have been busy and tired. He was to leave the day the earthquake hit in Japan, I am so thankful he was not already there. We have heard from all of his coworkers, they are safe and working on getting home.
Today we had a full day of school with handwriting, botany, math, drawing class, history and grammar. We also learned about Pi and made a peanut butter pie with oreo crust for Pi day.

We are getting to the end of some of his school books and that means curriculum time. I have begun working on our list for next year and will be making a post later this week. Since we have switched math programs and finished astronomy it is time to make plans for our next year. We are a just a few lessons from being finished with Story of the World. I can ‘t believe it is time for new curriculum again. I always get nervous and excited when it is time to pick put new books. Somewhere between the fun of new school supplies and ahhh! I am responsible for the education of my child. You can ask my husband I read, research, read reviews, question and question some more every time I get ready to buy schools books. And he always tells me the same thing, “If it doesn’t work, what is the worst that will happen? You will have to buy new books, big deal”. I only married him because he is so smart

Have a great week!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-03-09T10:48:00.000-06:00

Home Depot Workshop - Nascar Car

Weekly Review

2011-03-05T14:29:00.000-06:00

I don't have a review for this week. We have all been sick. Kiddo has a double ear infection and lung congestion. He has felt rotten and tired all week. Dad has laryngitis and ear trouble. I thought I was going to make it through until I ended up sick at the end of the week. Kiddo did a little math because he wanted to. Other than the math there was a lot of reading and movie watching. Next week will be better.

We are getting ready to start back with botany, we have our seeds and light box ready to go.

Wordless Wednesday - LEGO

2011-03-02T12:19:00.001-06:00

A visit to the LEGO store

End of Month Review

2011-03-01T11:13:00.003-06:00

This month flew by, I can’t believe it is March already. I am happy to see spring it is on its way!
I made just a few changes this month to our homeschool but mostly we were grooving right along. We started a new math curriculum Teaching Textbooks. It is going along great, he loves doing computer math and I can see improvement in his mental math and confidence. Since we completed Astronomy we have been focusing on Zoology. With spring on its way this month we will be picking back up with Botany and have experiments planned. We also added LEGO club through CurrClick which is fun, I will be glad when he is old enough to join the local club.

I am pretty happy with the progress we are making this year. It is almost time to start looking at curriculum for the next school year. We are almost finished with Story of the World and I am starting to look at language arts/writing programs. We will be taking a lot of breaks and doing school lite, as I like to call it, through spring. Since Kiddo does not handle the heat of summer well, we take time off through the spring to enjoy the weather.

A few weeks ago we did a subject a day. Basically we did a weeks worth of lessons in one day on one subject. Kiddo liked it and did really well. I will be doing this again this month just to change things up a bit.

We took a road trip this month to the beach! We used to (before child) take spur of the moment weekend trips all the time. We decided last Thursday to hit the road on Friday and go to the beach. It was a little crazy but then again that works for us It was a great trip and the weather was perfect. On the road Dad and Kiddo discussed Newton’s laws of motion and I thought the geeky engineer Dad was going to stop the car, get out and do a happy dance when Kiddo told him the 3 laws of motion. Kiddo also did a little zoology discussing the difference in the seagulls beak colors. We got a few odd looks on the beach while he was going through the classification system for the animal kingdom. You can homeschool anywhere. He had a great time hunting for seashells, playing in the cold ocean, building sandcastles and riding his first ferris wheel.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-23T11:57:00.000-06:00

Made mac&cheese mostly by himself, he was very proud

Weekly Review Feb. 14 - 18th

2011-02-18T17:03:00.001-06:00

Hi everyone! I hope you had a good week and maybe some nice weather. We have had a case of Iwanttoplayoutsideitis this week. They weather has been so nice, we have enjoyed playing outside. Since the weather has been nice we had a light week. We always take advantage of nice spring weather because it will be summer and too hot for Kiddo to play outdoors before long.

He has been doing Teaching Textbooks Math for a week and half now, he is on lesson 15. He is loving it. He has started learning some geometry terms and thinks that is the coolest thing ever. (He made need to have his head examined, if you ask me). I can tell his mental math is getting faster and better, so I am thrilled. No experiments this week, but he is begging Dad to do the menthos and Diet Coke one this weekend.

We are doing the Great Backyard Bird Count this weekend. We have been outside today counting and identifying birds, Who knew bird watching could be so much fun, but getting to count and identify a bird is jump up down exciting at our house.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesday - Ladybugs Have Arrived

2011-02-15T20:23:00.000-06:00

Weekly Review 2/7–2/11

2011-02-13T23:23:00.001-06:00

My weekly review is late, I know. It has been a busy week, with headaches and no sleeping thrown in for extra fun..

We had a good week in homeschool. We got back to our regular schedule and I am back to doing school after lunch. I tried the entire month of January to get school done in the mornings but he was just not adjusting to it and I saw no reason to fight it. Maybe I will start sneaking in a subject and here and there and see it I can slowly get him used to the idea.

This week we started Teaching Textbook in math. He is loving it is so far. We are back studying Zoology. We have worked on homophones and synonyms this week. We read about the War of the Roses and Joan of Arc. I did not do any “handwriting” per say this week, I just worked in a good deal of writing into our other classwork.

I would tell you what we will be working on this coming week but I am behind and have not done lesson plans yet. I better get busy myself.

Teaching Textbooks Math 3

2011-02-13T22:42:00.002-06:00

I had posted a few days ago about deciding to switch to Teaching Textbooks for math. We have been using Singapore for the past 2 years and I have been happy with it. I use the textbooks along with extra practice workbooks and the challenging word problems book. We sailed right through the workbooks last year so it was an easy decision to decide to use Singapore again this year.

Kiddo did ok with the workbooks at the beginning of the year a little slow in getting his work done. It has gone downhill from there, he complained about having to do his math, he claimed he couldn’t do it, he took forever to get one page done. I was pulling my hair out and he was getting frustrated. After trying different ways to get him to do his math better, and none of them working, I decided maybe it wasn’t’ him maybe we just needed a different way of doing math.

I already knew a little about Teaching Textbooks from a friend of mine, who is using it with her kids. I thought Teaching Textbooks started with grade 4. While I was researching different math curriculums. Saxon, Horizons, MathUSee, private school(joking), I discovered Teaching Textbooks now has grade 3. I was thrilled they now had grade 3 but I wondered could he do that level. I looked all over for a review of Grade 3 and could not find one. I went to their website and printed off the placement test and he got ever answer right. I then printed off the placement test for grade 4 and he got more than half of those answers right but I do not think he is ready for grade 4. After looking at the placement test and sample pages online, I agree with most, Teaching Textbooks is a year behind from the grade level they provide. For example, we have been using Singapore 2A and 2B workbooks and Grade 3 of Teaching Textbooks is about the same level or even a little behind what is in the Singapore books.

I then had to decide if I wanted to order just the cds or both the cds and workbooks. I decided since we still have the Singapore workbooks to use that I would order just the cds. I ordered the cds from ChristianBook.com for $99.00. They arrived 3 days later, and Kiddo was ready to use his new computer math right then.

He loves getting to work on the computer and he having his own password to use for the curriculum. He has done 4 lessons so far, I will be able to tell better about the curriculum after he has completed more of the 118 lessons. The first 3 lessons have been very easy, learning the even and odd numbers, the vocabulary works sum and difference. The math problems are very easy 9+0, 1+2, etc. The first lessons are definitely a review.

If you are thinking of using Teaching Textbooks head over to their website, they have placement test and several sample problems for each grade to try. Having the sample problems really helped me to decide this curriculum was worth a try for us. The Grade 3 curriculum came with 4 cds, and has 118 lessons. Each lesson has a short lecture, practice problems and 22 graded problems. There is a hint button and a detailed how to solve this problem button. Kiddo can do this on his own with no help from me. It took just a little instruction on using the keypad on the laptop and he was ready to go.

I will still use the Singapore workbooks in addition to Teaching Textbooks. I have high hopes that this will work for us and make learning math easier.

Wordless Wednesday - Reading

2011-02-09T22:26:00.000-06:00

Checking out a Japanese newspaper.

Weekly Review 2/4

2011-02-04T16:37:00.002-06:00

I am pleasantly happy with how well this week has gone. As I have posted before we have been having a few behavior issues with getting work done in a timely matter. I switched things up this week, and looked into making a curriculum change.

As I had posted earlier I had to break out my old kitchen timer to encourage Kiddo to get his work done in a timely matter. Taking an hour to do one handwriting page or dawdling so much on math we did not have time to finish in a day. We were both frustrated and getting no where.

The timer helped, he saw it as a game, could he finish before the timer went off. This helped with handwriting. Math he was still getting frustrated saying he couldn’t do the worksheet when I knew he could. Instead of moving forward I pulled out the extra practice workbook for Singapore and went back to easy addition and subtraction to see if that would help, it didn’t.

It finally dawned on me maybe it was the curriculum not one of us. That lead to a search of math curriculums. I like Singapore but if it is not working for him we need a change. I found that teaching textbooks has a new 3rd grade program, I was excited to find this. I had read such good things about teaching textbooks but didn’t think it started until 4th grade. I printed off the placement test from their webpage and Kiddo got every answer correct. So, I printed off the placement test for 4th grade and he did really well on that one but I do not think he is ready for the 4th grade program yet. I then let him try the sample problems they have on their webpage and not only did he love it, he has asked everyday this week to do more math! I was wondering about spending so much money on a single class but if he is asking to do more math, I am happy. I ordered the cd set for 3rd grade. I chose not to order the workbooks because I have the Singapore 2A and 2B books we can use for extra practice. I think he will go through it quickly, it will be easier to tell once we get the program in but I feel he is between the 3rd and 4th grade program. The 3rd grade level may be a little too easy for him and the 4th grade level too difficult, I chose the 3rd level because having an excellent foundation in math is so important. Extra practice learning the basics is never a bad thing.

One of the other things I did this week was change up our schedule. We did a subject a day this week. We spent our entire school time on only one subject. Kiddo really enjoyed it and I will do this again when we need a switch up from our regular school schedule. This is what we did this week.

Monday – Science: We finished reading the Apologia Astronomy book, Built the international space station with Legos, watched Journey to the Stars DVD, spent time on NASA’s website looking at the mission to the moon Titan and as a bonus watched Apollo 13 movie.

Tuesday – Math: Took 2 placement tests for Teaching Textbooks and did sample lessons online. He spent over an hour doing sample lessons because he like them.

Wednesday- History: Read 2 chapters in Story of the World and did matching maps and activities from the Story of the World activity book. Looked at photos for some of the things we read about and researched the Black Plague in detail, he found it very interesting.

Thursday – Spelling/Vocabulary/Reading: Started on new spelling words with sentences and a story. Did 3 exercises in our Vocabulary workbook and started reading a new chapter book.

Friday- Experiment Day various experiment and activities to go with what we learned from the week.

It was a much improved week over the past few. I am glad switching things up did the trick and I am looking forward to getting the new math curriculum.

3 in 30 Goals–Week 1

2011-02-03T19:02:00.000-06:00

How did my week go? I made progress not as much as I wanted to, but that is always the case.
1. Deep Clean the whole house - I started on the office, the worst offender in my clean the house plan. So many things to organize, clean out, file, etc. etc. I made progress, have not finished yet hope to this weekend.
2. Make a 30 day menu and shopping list. I made my menu 30 days of breakfast, lunch and dinners. It was easy for the most part, I have done this before and since I am planning for just two while my husband is travelling. I was heavy of meals that Kiddo likes and ones that make good freezer meals. Now who wants to make the shopping list and cook all the food? NOT ME I will probably do the cooking at the end of the month.
3. Blog more often I have not had a chance to schedule any preplanned blogs. I am going to set up a file to make notes of ideas I want to blog about. I am planning on doing a weekly review post every Friday.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-02T20:51:00.000-06:00

Snap Circuits hours of fun

Apologia Astronomy Review

2011-01-31T15:29:00.000-06:00

We finished Apologia Astronomy this month. It took one semester to complete this book. So far I found it to be the easiest Apologia book. We are also using Zoology and Botany. If you are looking for a beginner book in the Apologia science books, Astronomy would be a great start.

We did go through this book fairly quickly. Kiddo has read a few books on space and knew most of the material in the book. We did many of the projects in the book, he loves all the activities that come along with the book. We did several other activities to go along with the reading. We went to a planetarium, took a trip the the NASA museum in Huntsville,AL, read other books on space, built the space station out of LEGO bricks, watch the dvd Journey to the Stars and watched the movie Apollo 13. We are planning a night trip to look for constellations once we have clear and warmer weather. He wants to find Orion and Ursa Major.

As the parent/teacher I did enjoy the Astronomy book, it was written in a simple but clear matter without “dumbing” down the subject matter. The conversational tone is great for easy reading and discussions. I like that Apologia does not over simplify the subject matter or vocabulary. I will be keeping our Apologia books as reference books plus he likes to read them on his own time.

This is a Christian based program. I will say I did not agree with all that is stated in the book and that is fine. This book is very New-Earth creationist. It opened up dialogue for us to discuss different beliefs and why some believe the way they do and why we believe what we believe. The same can be said for the Journey to the Stars DVD from NASA. They discuss the big band theory in this dvd. We discussed many times why some believe that universe was created that way vs. created by God. We talked about how it is possible that God did create the universe with a big bang. Kiddo came up with his own theory as to how God created the universe and can not wait to go to heaven to discuss it with Him.

Kiddo truly enjoys the Apologia science books. He naturally likes science and these books further his love of learning. When we finish Botany this summer he wants to get Human Anatomy, I am not sure Mom is ready for that one!

For the month of February we will be concentrating on Zoology and in March we will add Botany back in. We started Botany last summer and as fall came, it was harder to do the activities in the book and note booking journal, so I put it up until spring. If you are wondering why we are doing two science books this year, when I was working on our curriculum for this year, Kiddo made a convincing argument for studying two different subjects and here we are.

Lego Space Station

3 in 30 Update and February Goals

2011-01-27T21:16:00.003-06:00

I have enjoyed being a part of such a great group. Everyone’s encouragement has been amazing. I am looking forward to next month.

It is the end on week 4 for the 3 in 30 goals for January and here is my update.

1. Stop drinking soda, of any kind. I gave up soda at Christmas and I have done great with this goal.   I had 1/2 a Coke when we went to Red Robin, we had onion rings, you have to have a Coke with that! Other than that, I have no soda. I don’t really miss it anymore.

2. Start school before lunch.   O.k. this one still needs work. I really want to get us on a morning schedule but the past few weeks we are having some behavioral issues and once we get past those I will go back to working on school before lunch.
3. Start Project 365 I have to say remembering to take a picture every day is hard.   I am working on it. I have missed 2 days so I consider this a success. I plan to keep this up for the year, one month at a time.
Overall I am happy with the progress I made on the goals, I have to say knowing I had write about my progress every week really helped to keep me going. I look forward to next month.

February Goals
My goals this month center around getting us ready for this spring. My husband will be travelling overseas for several weeks and that is going to make for some changes around the house. Not having him here to help is going to be exhausting for me (medical issue) and I am trying to get as organized and prepared as I can to make it easier. I chose goals this month to help me get prepared and organized.
1. Deep Clean the whole house
2. Make a 30 day menu and shopping list. I used to cook 30 meals for 30 days all the time and I need to get back to it.
3. Blog more often   I want to work at blogging more often and get ahead by scheduling some of my post.

LEGO Club

2011-01-25T15:00:00.002-06:00

To say my son likes LEGO would be an understatement. If he could only play with one toy ever again it would be LEGO bricks, no question. He can spend hours playing and building creations. He reads LEGO books, catalogs, plan his next purchase, watches LEGO TV, and plays LEGO games on the Wii. We are LEGO people.
I would not even begin to guess how many LEGO kits we have. He has been playing with them since the age of 3 so we have years of collecting. His room is decorated in a garage workshop decor (his other love cars). To house all said cars and LEGO kits I lined one wall with Craftsman tool carts. You know the red and black ones with 5 drawers. We bought 3 of them and put up against the wall and then we made a top out of a piece of pine. Here is a old picture. We have stained the wood top and it is full of stuff now:)
The drawers are perfect for storing LEGO bricks. I long ago gave up keeping them together in kits so other than a box for minifigs and a box for power function pieces it is a free for all. He likes it that way. In the small drawer at the top he keeps the instructions and catalogs.

We have looked for a local LEGO club here and other than one for older kids working with robots, there is not one for younger kids. My husband and I have talked about starting one and are still thinking about it. In the mean time though I found a LEGO club online through CurrClick. This club is free.I have recently discovered this site and so far I am impressed. I have purchased a few classes and we have watched a couple of live classes that had been recorded. We joined the LEGO club and he loved it. It is a live class via webcam, while I think an actual club local with kids would be better this is an excellent alternative.
For class they built a simple 2011 sign and learned about gravity and how it effects everything. They then rebuilt a better sign that would stand up on a base on its on. It was a quick easy lesson. We look forward to more LEGO club.

Here is the sign he made with Wolfie who is with us all the time right now.

Ever had ONE of those weeks?

2011-01-24T16:08:00.002-06:00

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you question homeschooling, thinking about running out of the house screaming, maybe pulling your hair out? It has been one of those weeks at our house.
I don’t know if is the change to school in the mornings, I doubt it or this new “NO” phase my 7 year old is going through but what a week. Our week started out with handwriting and I asked him to write his ABCs both lower and upper case. He told me he did not remember his ABCs, I know he knows his ABCs. Let us just say requiring him to write his letters created all kinds of tears and drama. He cried saying, “but Mom even 7 year olds forget things” (I tried really hard not to laugh at that). Our whole week was like this, it was one of those weeks.
In order for me not to pull my hair our I made a few changes to our day to see if you couldn’t get a better week going. First thing I did was get out my kitchen timer. There is no reason at all to spend an hour doing one handwriting page or math worksheet. He was not happy when I set up the timer and told him he had to get his page done before the buzzer went off. He fussed and complained loudly saying, he couldn’t get it done it time etc. After a while though he got into the game of it, I wonder if I can finish before the timer, I am going to finish before it gets to 5 minutes left etc. As long as it got done correctly I was fine with it, anything to get him moving and working.
Next thing I have done it break the day up. We usually work straight through get our school work done and are finished with book work for the day. I am working on one or two subjects and then letting him take a small 10 or 15 min. break to play, run around, or get a snack. It is taking us so much longer to get school work done but it seems to be helping with the complaining, and the dawdling. Did I mention dawdling drives me crazy, can not stand it.
He generally good about school work but the last few weeks have been a test in my patience. I hope the changes I have made will help get us back on track. I am sure I am not the only homeschooler who has had days or weeks like this. While I love homeschooling some days are harder than others.
Have a good week!

Wordless Wednesday - Science is Fun

2011-01-19T15:47:00.002-06:00

3 in 30 Week 2 Update

2011-01-13T20:58:00.001-06:00

This week has not gone so well but I am still trying.

1. Stop drinking soda, of any kind. I still have not had any soda this week but I have wanted one! It has been almost 3 weeks now, you think I would be getting used to it. I almost had a sweet tea from McDonalds but I was afraid it was a slippery slope to Coke, Dr. Pepper or even worse a cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper from Sonic, LOL.

2. Start school before lunch. Don’t even get me started, this has not been a good homeschool week. First off kiddo has been a handful and by that I mean I was asking my husband, “ we decided to homeschool, why?” Kiddo says he has forgotten his ABCs, I know who knows them. So, for practice and a reminder he has been writing out the ABCs for handwriting to help “remember” them. This has lead to crying and drama, etc. Monday was one of those pull your hair out days. I hope we will see an improvement soon.

3. Start Project 365 I was so excited to start this project and now I feel like it is work instead of something fun. I need to change my thoughts on having a “good” photo, I don’t need a good photo, I just one that will remind of the day. I am working on it.

Wordless Wednesday – Snow Day

2011-01-11T22:05:00.002-06:00

3 in 30 Week 1 Update

2011-01-07T11:29:00.003-06:00

It is the end on week 1 for the 3 in 30 goals for January and here is my update. Is it just me or did the week fly by?

1. Stop drinking soda, of any kind. I have not had a sip of any soda since Dec. 25th. My dentist was thrilled with me giving up soda.
2. Start school before lunch. This has been working so so, I had dental work done on Tuesday and felt miserable on Wednesday. We have at least started school everyday before lunch, I would like to get more done before lunch. I will keep working on it.
3. Start Project 365 This goal is more work and harder than I thought it would be. I don’t know if I am over thinking a photo a day or stressing over the quality of my photos. I have taken a picture everyday since the 1st and I joined a Project 365 group on Flickr for inspiration and accountability. I can not wait to make a photo book with my 365 photos at the end of the year.

Nintendo DS Spelling Game Review

2011-01-05T20:48:00.002-06:00

I have had a few questions about the new spelling DS game, we were using in homeschool this week. It was brand new and we had not tried it yet, now that we have played it for a few days I have enough information for a review.
This review is based on my 7 year old who is just starting with spelling but can read on a 5th grade level.

The spelling bee portion, which can be played with multiple players and on several levels from easy to ultimate was harder than I was expecting. On easy it was too hard for him, there were words such as: obvious, attack, massage, frolic, etc. These words are too difficult for my kiddo to do. I think this portion would be great for middle school age or a child who excels at spelling.

The mini games are GREAT for all ages! They are fun and a great way to practice spelling. The mini games are perfect for him, it gives him a fun way to work on spelling. This of course does not replace our spelling workbook. His favorite is the Blast Speller, the game gives you a word to spell and you have to blast the letters in order to win. The Connector game is also fun you have to connect the letters in order to spell a word. The Mystery Game, is like Wheel of Fortune, there are missing letters you have to fill in to finish the word. Tumbling Letters is like the game Tetris but with letters, you have to move the letters to the correct row in order to spell the word correctly. Kiddo did not care for this game as much he said, “it moves slow.” The other games are what you expect from a memory and search word games.

He likes the game and doesn’t mind playing it when I call it “school time”. I can see this game being used for several years with the different levels available.
We also have Personal Trainer Math and Learn Geography for the DS, both are excellent games which are also learning games. I will keep adding more learning games to our DS collection.

I keep the games in the case with all his other games, and he does get them out to play on his own, especially the math game. I use the games for school time when we are having a rough day learning and need a break from school work for a bit. I also use them as a reward type system, for example get this done and for math today we will play the Nintendo math game. They also come in handy if Mom is feeling under the weather and needs a small break:)
While they in no way replace our curriculum the games are a fun way to learn and reinforce what he has already learned.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-01-04T22:38:00.000-06:00

Working on math at McDonald's with Dad, while Mom was at the dentist having a root canal.