Homeschooling with two

What are Your Ideas for Making this School Year Exciting?

2009-09-26T06:22:00.000-07:00

So, What are Your Ideas for Making this School Year Exciting

and Different?

Here are some of my ideas:

Start a Nature Journal

Once a week go outside and study something in nature (We take Fridays for our nature study.) Give your kids a notebook with some blank pages, you may want to print out some free nature or animal pages also, and take one day a week to just go outside and see whats happening in your own backyard.

One year we studied spiders, and it was the best year of nature study we ever had! Spiders are everywhere and it didin't take the kids long to find 5 different types of spiders in our backyard. We watched them and even caught a few and learned so much through our own observation. We journaled everything in our notebook. Three years later my kids still love to get their spider notebooks out and read them to me or dad. That years is definitely remembered as our "Spider Year."

Use the internet to teach a subject

Something as simple as using the internet to teach or reinforce a subject can break up the monotony and bring new life to your classroom.

If you usually teach math or grammar from a textbook, why not take a semester and let your kids learn these subjects using an online program. If they like it then you might consider sticking with the program all year.

Using the internet to help teach your older students also frees up teacher time to work one on one with younger students.

Some other ideas are:

switch up your subject order periodically
Let your older students teach a subject to younger students one day a week
Take a break from your regular studies and try a unit study for a few weeks
Instead of having older students read silently, try reading a classic aloud to the entire family. This is a great opportunity to talk about elements of a story (setting, plot, characters) and have family discussion about the story...include dad too!
If you've never notebooked a subject before...why not start now? Pick one subject and start a notebook for it.
If you have used notebooking before, try taking a subject like math and notebooking it for a month. You will surprised of all the notebooking ideas you and your kids can up with for math.

Please Post your ideas in the comments section. I will include your ideas in my upcoming newsletter.

My plan for using Teaching the Classics

2009-09-23T16:21:00.001-07:00

I am using "Teaching the Classics" this year with my second and fourth graders. I am really excited about this program. It's not a curriculum per se, but rather an outline for the teacher on how to teach your students to analyze and dissect any literary work. I have been watching the videos and reading the manual for about a week now. I think I'm ready to start our first book and discussion. Here are my plans:

week 1

Read "Where the Wild Things Are" and use the Socratic method to analyze Setting

Read "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" and use the Socratic method to analyze Conflict and Plot

I am also going to introduce them to a couple literary devices such as alliteration, Imagery, Smilies and Personification. We will find examples of these literary devices in the reading and start learning to recognize them in future books and poems.

week 2

Read "Brave Irene" and use the Socratic method to analyze Characters

Read "Horton Hears a Who" and use the Socratic method to analyze Theme

Depending on how all of this goes we will either keep practicing on these elements seperately (setting, conflict, plot, characters, theme) using a selected reading to study each one, or we will move on to reading a longer book and looking at all 5 elements in that one book.

I have a plan. Now let's see how it works!! Will report on our results soon.

Finally Getting Started

2009-09-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

Well, we just officially started our new school year today. Yea! We were supposed to start three weeks ago but unfortunate circumstances seriously delayed us. This is the latest we have ever started a school year, but that's the great thing about homeschooling, you can always rearrange your schedule when things come up and still make it work in the end.

We are kind of starting off slow this week, just getting back in the hang things. We got our student planners ready to go. I printed out all of our pages and put them in a notebook for each child. We went over the pages and the kids looked at what is required of them everyday. The great thing about this planner is that it's so easy to use and the kids enjoy keeping a planner in a notebook like mom has.

In the planner there are pages for budgeting money. My kids are really excited about this. They each started a savings account( in a glass jar for now) and have agreed to save at least 10% of their money for an entire year. They get an allowance and these budgeting pages are really gonna help them see where their money is going. These are life lessons that will hopefully last them a lifetime.

Student planner sample pages ( boy/ girl)

Purchase planners

We also started Apologia: Exploring Creation with Astronomy. We made a cover sheet for our notebooks and read most of lesson 1. Evan has already fallen in love with it. I started making Notebooking pages to go along with the curriculum, so those will be up for sale sometime by the end of this school year.

We started copywork and dictation today. I have made copywork pages for Psalm 121. We've never used dictation in our school before so I am curious to see how it goes. I have heard it helps with spelling and punctuation, which Evan needs to work on, so I am excited about it. Evan is now using the smaller primary lined pages. I am trying to get him ready for regular lines by the middle of the year. Juliet is still practicing cursive. She is doing well, just still writing very big. She was using regular lines but I am switching her to small primary lines so she can remember to keep her cursive small.

Started using IEW's "All Things Fun and Fascinating." Evan is starting to just do the key word outlines orally. He will probable be doing this for several weeks or maybe months before he is ready to move on.

That's about it! We will be starting math and grammar next week. After doing science for a while we will start geography. Looking forward to this year even though we got off to a late start.

Poetry Memorization

2009-01-29T16:57:00.000-08:00

I have been reading about poetry memorization for a while now and I finally decided to start it with Juliet. I am going to purchase IEW's poetry memorizatiion cd's for next year, but for the remainder of this year I decided to just pick out the poems myself.

Juliet started a poetry notebook. We are just using a sketch book. If you open it up to a two page spread, we typed up the poem on computer paper and cut it out and pasted it on the left side, the page on the right side is reserved for her to draw a picture to illustrate the poem.

We just started this last week. On day one we looked over the poem and I read it to her. We glued it into her notebook. I recorded the poem into our voice recorder for Juliet to listen to everyday. This is really helping her to memorize the poem. She listens to the recorder once to twice a day. After she listens, she repeats as much as she can to me out loud. I then work with her for a couple of minutes, making sure she is memorizing more of it each day or so.

It only took her about 5 days and she memorized her first poem! I decided to take two weeks for each poem, letting her illustrate it on the last day.

We started out with "The Lord's Prayer." I am putting together our list of poems for the remainder of the year. I will post the entire list when it's finished.

My son is also memorizing the poem. I didn't intend for him to start this year, he just picked up it from hearing his sister and he wanted to listed to the recording. I am not starting this formally with him until next year, but I have a feeling he already likes it!

What's with the Attitude?

2009-01-29T16:44:00.000-08:00

I am really having a hard time with my 7 yo son. His attitude is so difficult right now. He complains about doing everything and this is really making my life hard right now. It is affecting my daughter too because we do many subjects together. He stops our reading with complaining and when asked to do a notebooking page he will say his hand hurts too bad to finish. This week has been the worst. He had me in tears on Tuesday, I just couldn't take it anymore.

I want to be a good mom to him. I just don't know how much more of this I can take. The only thing I know to do is to pray for the situation...I mean really pray. I am also going to start punishing him by giving him extra chores to do when he just refuses to mind during school for absolutely no reason. I have asked my husband to help me out. We decided that during school time he is the principal. If Evan can't send him to the principal (dad), and then dad will decide what is wrong, and what, if any, the punishment should be. This way I don't have to completely stop school work with my daughter to deal with my son.

We are going to try this out and see how it works. I desperately need something to give with him. He really is such a sweet boy with a good heart. I definitely believe that he wants to behave, he is just going through something right now.

Thoughtful Thursdays January 29, 2009

2009-01-29T16:15:00.000-08:00

Today's date is...

January 22,2009

This week my greatest challenges have been...

my son's bad attitude toward doing anything

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...

cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...

learning about Daniel Boone and the wilderness road

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...

spelling

My biggest accomplishments this week were...

just getting through the week

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...

not stressing over the little things

I feel I need the Lord to help me...

learn how to better deal with my children right now, especially my son

I am most thankful this week for...

my loving husband

One word to sum up my week...

difficult

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Thoughtful Thursdays January 22, 2009

2009-01-22T17:56:00.000-08:00

Today's date is...January 22,2009

This week my greatest challenges have been...trying to battle my kids bad attitudes

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...too much to mention...mostly things related to my homeschool website

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...Our state notebooking sheets. Both kids love to learn about a new state

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...spelling and math

My biggest accomplishments this week were...starting out the week on a bad note but finishing it up on a good one. I had to readjust my attitude A LOT to get through this week!

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...delegating more chores to the kids. They are getting bigger now and I think they should be expected to do a little more than what they do. I need to find bigger chores and follow through with making sure they get accompolished

I feel I need the Lord to help me...study his word more diligently

I am most thankful this week for...being a homemaker

One word to sum up my week...introspective

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Thoughtful Thursdays January 15, 2009

2009-01-15T12:12:00.000-08:00

Today's date is... January 15,2009

This week my greatest challenges have been...getting organized

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...lots of stuff on line like ordering books from amazon and looking at some curriculum for next year

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...build a model volcano

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...writing

My biggest accomplishments this week were...getting all of our school assignments finished even though we were behind from last week...we got all caught up

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...staying cool and calm when my daughter refuses to do her writing assignments

I feel I need the Lord to help me...be the mother he wants me to be, even when my kids don't appreciate me...(which seems like always!)

I am most thankful this week for...my salvation, and my alarm clock

One word to sum up my week...fast

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My kids can say all the books of the bible!

2009-01-12T14:24:00.000-08:00

We have been working on memorizing all the books of the bible since last year and we finally have learned them all. I am so proud of Juliet and Evan. They have worked really hard and they are so proud of themselves. I have memorized them too! Praise the Lord.

Choosing Curriculum

2009-01-10T19:57:00.000-08:00

I must admit I am struggling a bit right now with choosing our curriculum for next year. I am a little torn about what to use for history. I am still going back and forth between using "My Father's World" again or changing over to "TOG." I am leaning more toward My Father's World because I have been using it and I really like it. Also, I think it is a lot cheaper than TOG( if you buy all of the books for reading).

Also, we will be finishing up My Father's World first grade in two months. We have been using this for our bible studies. I have been searching for a replacement bible study to use once we finish up in March. Well, I found what we will start using. It looks really awesome and I think it will provide Juliet with a chance to do some independent study. I really like that fact. She is getting older now and we still do everything except spelling together. I want her to have something she does kind of on her own and I think this will be perfect. We will start using Explorer's bible study: Discovery Genesis and Keepers of the faith character traits study (still deciding on which character trait to study). We will of course review everything together, but she will do the reading and the questions on her own.

I think Evan will start using the Explorers bible study for first grade too.

So much to think about. I feel like this year is going by so fast and I want to be prepared for next year... early.

I am still undecided about grammar too. I really don't like the fact that Shirley Grammar takes so much time to do. It seems to be a really good curriculum but it just takes so much of our time. If I do change it I will probably switch to something like easy grammar.

I will stick with math on the level, we really like it. Science is pretty much unit studies for us right now. I ordered Considering God's Creation and am excited about looking it over. We have also used Noeo science and apologia, but we haven't stuck with a single curriculum through the entire year. We just skip around and use what we like from each of them. We will probably keep to this same system

Writing is definitely staying the same! We use Institute for excellence in writing and I wouldn't change it for the world. I am excited about starting it with Evan next year.

I still have a lot to think about. Thank goodness I still have time to decide.

School This Week: January 5-9

2009-01-06T19:34:00.001-08:00

Bible

This week we started the New Testament in "My Father's World" curriculum. We read:

An angel speaks to Mary
Jesus is born
When Jesus grows up

we read the story and then completed a notebooking page for what we read about.

Math

Juliet is reviewing her times tables 2-7. We just started with 3 digit multiplication (327 x 763) and she picked up on that right away.

Evan is still working on subtraction with regrouping. He tends to get a little sloppy with it so we will probably be working on this for a while to come.

Science

We started our Rocks and Minerals unit study. We read about the layers of the earth, igneous rocks, and volcanoes. We completed a notebooking page after we read and also did a couple of flip books and a worksheet to go into our notebook.

history

Continueing on with our state studies, we completed a notebooking page for Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina. We are working on remembering the capitols. I recorded the names of the states and capitols that we have learned so far into our voice recorder. We have only learned 6 so far. Every day both kids listen to recording for 2 minutes 2-3 times a day. I got this idea from this website. I plan on doing this with poetry and other things that we will be memorizing. Our spelling curriculum(phonetic Zoo) is setup on cd's and follows the same system...it has worked really well for us.

Handwriting, cursive,spelling,and personal bible reading are also done every day of the week except Friday.

Thoughtful Thursdays January 1, 2009

2009-01-01T10:20:00.000-08:00

Today's date is...January 1, 2009

This week my greatest challenges have been...tackling a large amount of things on my to do list that I have putting off until after Christmas

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...so far I can't think of anything

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was.. well, since there was no school this week I have to say that the "no school" part was the best, although I must admit I am ready to start back

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...since there was no school I can't say

My biggest accomplishments this week were...staying strong and on top of things while entertaining business partners of my husbands this week, and still tackling my heavy to do list

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...getting up earlier...haven't I said this one before .)

I feel I need the Lord to help me...stay committed to my new year's resolutions and see them through. I really want to do them, I just need the Lord to provide me with the strength to maintain once the new has worn off.

I am most thankful this week for... the copy and paste application on my computer

One word to sum up my week...busy!

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Thoughtful Thursdays November 13, 2008

2008-11-13T22:42:00.000-08:00

Today's date is...October 13, 2008

This week my greatest challenges have been...taking care of a sick family

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...schoolwork and working on our homemade Christmas gifts

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...no school this week, we rested instead

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...being sick was bad, but Evan's poison ivy was the worst

My biggest accomplishments this week were...staying on top of house work even though I was not feeling well; getting my thanksgiving shopping list ready to go

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...resting when I need to while not worrying about all the things that aren't getting done

I feel I need the Lord to help me...recoup from a no school week and get back on track for the upcoming week

I am most thankful this week for...my children and husband and our wonderful beds, hot homemade chicken soup, tea tree oil, hot showers

One word to sum up my week...restful

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Horse Riding Lessons

2008-11-10T21:42:00.000-08:00

Here are some videos of Juliet's horse riding lessons. She has been taking lessons for a couple of months now. This is the highlight of her week.

Thoughtful Thursdays November 6, 2008

2008-11-06T22:41:00.000-08:00

Today's date is...November 6, 2008

This week my greatest challenges have been...Again getting school started a littler earlier

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing... this week I seemed to get most everything done that I had planned

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...Arts and crafts for American history

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...Grammar

My biggest accomplishments this week were...getting my Christmas list started

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...following through with our book reading before bedtime...lately I have been too tired and I keep putting it off until "tomorrow" and now we are really behind with our reading schedule

I feel I need the Lord to help me...Accept some things that I cannot change

I am most thankful this week for...hope in the Lord who is my Rock and my refuge

One word to sum up my week...great

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Thoughtful Thursdays October 30, 2008

2008-10-30T22:39:00.000-07:00

Today's date is...October 30, 2008

This week my greatest challenges have been...getting to bed before 1 AM

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...my journal writing, lots of cleaning, ordering books for our history studies, holiday planning

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...read about Ben Franklin

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...math

My biggest accomplishments this week were...keeping a good attitude even when I was really upset

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...starting school earlier

I feel I need the Lord to help me...stay on track with our lesson plans this upcoming holiday season

I am most thankful this week for...my heating pad...it has been really cold!

One word to sum up my week...patience

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Thoughtful Thursdays October 23, 2008

2008-10-23T22:38:00.000-07:00

Today's date is...October 23, 2008

This week my greatest challenges have been...keeping up on the house work

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...pretty much all of my house work, cleaning the bathroom, sweeping and mopping, and cleaning up the porch.

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...Go to my son's first football practice (this wasn't for school, but it was a blast!) for school I would say our bible study
(my fathers world first grade), we finished up reading about Moses' death and the Israelites entering into the promise land

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...learning about report writing

My biggest accomplishments this week were...staying organized with school planning. I planned out my week on Friday night ( making all my photo copies and writing out my math sheets (math on the level) etc, and the week went very smoothly

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...giving my oldest daughter more personal responsibility for her school work getting finished, as opposed to me always reminding and asking her to do it ALL the time

I feel I need the Lord to help me...make quality time to read his word.

I am most thankful this week for...family togetherness. My husband is working from home now and the whole family is able to spend a lot of quality time together...this wasn't always so, and I am so grateful for this. Thank you dear Lord!

One word to sum up my week...wonderful

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Dinosaur Lapbook

2008-10-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

Here is our Dino Lapbook. We got this for free off of homeschool Share. You can get this lapbook here.

This lapbook is creation based. It has some really good reading for parents to prepare for this study. The website it directs you to has great reading about creation science. I learned a lot. We had a lot of fun doing this lapbook.

In the middle is dinosaur report sheets (these come with the lapbook). My daughter went to "Zoom Dinosaurs" at enchanted learning.com to find out the information for these sheets. You can go here to check it out.

I added this to the lapbook. I had the kids draw their own dinosaur
and come up with their own name for it and tell how tall it was and
what it's diet was.

We did two projects with this lapbook. We made fossils with plaster of paris, ( we put a picture of them in our lapbook) and we made these paper mache dinosaur eggs:

I will post a picture of the eggs as soon as they dry.

Here is a video of the lapbook so you can see how it folds up:

Making Yummy Homemade Butter

2008-10-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

This week we made homemade butter from whipping cream. We are studying American History using Adventures in MFW, and we have been reading about the pilgrims. We learned that they had to make their own butter, so we made our own to see how it was done.

This project was included in the curriculum.

First we bought a carton of heavy whipping cream. We took two glass jars (one for each child) and poured some cream into the jar. Then we started shaking. We shook and shook. The cream started to get thicker and thicker. We kept shaking for about 15 minutes. Then little tiny lumps started to appear. We kept shaking. Then, all of a sudden, it looked like there was water in the jar. When we opened it up there was a big ball of yellow butter that somehow had separated from the cream, which now looked like plain milk in the bottom of the jar.

This is what it looked like:

It really was amazing! I never knew you could make butter this way. I was surprised at this beautiful yellow color. The cream was so white and everytime we opened the jar and looked at it, it was still white. Then in what seemed like a shake or two, it just turned into this.

So, if you haven't done this yet, you need to. My kids loved it. They immediately made some toast so they could eat the butter that they made, and it was so yummy!!

Thoughtful Thursdays October 16, 2008

2008-10-16T22:36:00.000-07:00

Today's date is...October 16, 2008

This week my greatest challenges have been...a lingering cold with a severe cough and sinus infection

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...go to the library, plan new science unit study

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...make homemade butter from whipping creme. It was just amazing and it tasted wonderful!!

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...math as usual

My biggest accomplishments this week were...getting up early and doing schoolwork and housework despite being very sick

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...planning all of my schoolwork for the week on the weekend so that everything is ready to go. This will save me time during the week.

I feel I need the Lord to help me...have more patience with others

I am most thankful this week for...the Lord's peace

One word to sum up my week...peaceful

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Thoughtful Thursdays October 9, 2008

2008-10-09T22:35:00.000-07:00

Today's date is...October 10,2008 (I am a day late posting)

This week my greatest challenges have been...taking care of sick kids and a sick me

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...everything...housework, schoolwork, cooking

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...tasting sweet, fresh apple juice while being very sick

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...well, we didn't do any school work this week

My biggest accomplishments this week were...listing my notebooking sets with curriclick.com

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...resting when I am sick instead of trying to push through and do too much work

I feel I need the Lord to help me...just get over this horrible flu and cold right now and make it to the grocery store

I am most thankful this week for...my wonderful bed and my wonderful daughter who cleaned up the entire house when I couldn't even get out of bed

One word to sum up my week...Sick

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Thoughtful Thursdays October 2, 2008

2008-10-02T22:35:00.000-07:00

Today's date is...October 2,2008

This week my greatest challenges have been...keeping the house clean

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...creating new notebooking pages for our travel journal, we are taking this journal with us when we go to new york so I have to get these finished

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...Finishing up learning all the books of the old testament...we can now recite them all from memory

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...actually, we enjoyed everything this week, but I would say writing was the most challenging

My biggest accomplishments this week were...Staying on track even when things haven't been perfect

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...getting dinner cooked earlier. For some reason dinner has been served much later than usual for the past few weeks, I have to get back to an earlier time.

I feel I need the Lord to help me...relax a little more

I am most thankful this week for...two days off from school for Juliet's birthday!!

One word to sum up my week...hectic!

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if you are participating in this and have written your entry, please come back here and put a link to the exact page where your entry is located. Make sure it is the exact page your journal entry is on rather than your home page so that others can find your post easily. This way we can all share what we are going through together. I encourage you to invite others to join in with us! DO NOT put a link here if you haven't written a journal entry for this!! Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Writing Mini - Office

2008-09-25T22:53:00.000-07:00

I just discovered mini offices this week. I found out about them from lapbook Lessons.

basically, Mini offices are small dividers that you make for your child to use while they are doing their work. It provides privacy and information at the same time. You can create all kinds of Mini Offices...Math, Science, Writing. You just use file folders and glue them together to create your office. I only used two for mine, but you can use 3 or 4 if you have a lot of information you want to put in yours.

After a little looking at this site (they have lots of things to use to make all kinds of mini offices), I decided to make my dd a writing/grammar mini office. She does writing and grammar everyday, and there are lots to remember. I really think this is going to help her, and give her more privacy while sitting at the kitchen table doing her work.

We use Institute for excellence in writing, so I printed out some things that she needs to remember for her writing assinments, like "banned words" and "paragraph dress ups". I just went into word and printed some things up to put in our mini office. I also put some grammar reminders in there that I got off of the above mentioned site. We also use shirley grammar, so I added in the "Question Answer Flow" and a list of abbreviations for the parts of speech.

Here are some pictures of the finished mini office.

The front cover

The entire mini office standing up

A close up of the left side

A close up of the middle section

A close up of the right side

The directions said to cover with contact paper or to laminate. Instead of doing either, I used colored paper to tape all of my cutouts onto. Then I put the paper in a page protector and cut off the strip of holes down the side. next I taped the page protector onto the file folder. I figured this way, if I want take something out and put something new on there, I can just pull the paper out, and because I used tape, I can easily pull the cut out off that I don't want and add something new. It seems better than laminating, so that I don't have to create a new mini office just to change a few things. This way you can make unlimited changes and use the same mini office over and over again.

If you have any questions just email me at michelle@homeschoolnotebooking.com

Thoughtful Thursdays September 25, 2008

2008-09-25T22:34:00.000-07:00

Today's date is...September 25, 2008

This week my greatest challenges have been...keeping caught up on my housework

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...setting up our new math curriculum

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...reading "Squanto" and our dinosaur lapbook

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...grammar

My biggest accomplishments this week were...getting to bed earlier than I did last week, and finally getting my son signed up for football

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...incorporating yoga into my mornings.

I feel I need the Lord to help me...stop complaining so much about messes in the house

I am most thankful this week for...the safety of my family who had to ride out hurricane "Ike" in Texas. Thank you Lord !

One word to sum up my week...Lovely

______________________________________________________________________

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Free From The Almighty Schedule

2008-09-22T22:47:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I fell into a trap. before we began our new year I started reading other blogs about school time scheduling. I was extremely busy over the summer with my notebooking website, and for some reason I started to think that a strict schedule during the day would allow things to run more smoothly and actually give us more time. I knew we had a lot more to do this year than last, and frankly I was worried how we would fit it all in. So, this schedule that I would create was to be the answer.

I literally spent a week preparing the schedule. I planed out exactly what time of the day each subject would be studied (the time it would begin and end) ; I added in a set lunch time; then I added in exact break times. Everything was so perfectly planned out.

Our first day back to school we started this new life on this perfect schedule. We got up on time, ate on time, did our subjects on time, and chores on time. It went just perfect. We continued this over the entire week, trying hard to stick to the timeline that I had established. Each day was a new start of trying to keep up with our time.

By the end of the week, something wasn't right. I started feeling like my schedule was my boss. If I allowed one time frame for work to run into the next, then my whole day ended up being behind. I actually started to measure my days success to how closely I was able to keep to this Almighty Schedule.

We kept this up for another week before I couldn't take it anymore. I broke down and cried.

Now, maybe for some of you this would seem really ridiculous. But for me, I was confronted with failure. The schedule I had created was the answer, so I thought, and I wasn't able to perform.

I actually had to take 3 days off of school the next week. My mind was clouded and my joy was gone. I had to hide my schedule away and look to God for the answer. I think I spent one whole day just crying to God.

I think as homeschooling moms, some of us try to be perfect. We compare ourselves to other moms, and try to spot our weaknesses by looking at others strengths, and then assessing where we don't measure up. This is very natural, at least for many of us. The truth is that we are all different, and what is right for one mom may be the totally wrong thing for another mom. We have to stop comparing ourselves to each other. we shouldn't become fixed on what others are doing, but rather search for the answer to the question "What does the Lord want for me and my family." You see, we were all created differently, with a different purpose in mind for our lives. Looking up to other moms, and comparing ourselves to other moms, is a very different thing.

I realized that my schedule was causing confusion and chaos in my life, as well as the life of my husband and children. God is not the author of confusion. So, I had to let it go and ask the Lord what he wanted for my family. I poured out my heart to him.

Since my schedule days ended, I have implemented a new routine, and it goes something like this:

Wake up between 7 and 8:30 ( sometimes I go to bed a little late because I am working on my business and the little bit of extra sleep in the morning goes a long way.)

Eat breakfast and do our morning routine

Start our day with daily devotional and prayer

Then we do our bible study, phonics and spelling. I do not put a time limit on this. Some days require more time than others depending on what we are learning. I think it's important my kids learn the word of God and I don't want to rush it if God is teaching us something great!

We then take a break. About 15 minutes, some days it's longer if I get a phone call or a visitor, or if a catastrophe happens!

Then we resume and do American History. Our time varies greatly from day to day on this. some days we have lots of reading, and some days we will do an arts and craft for this. On these days we will just spend what ever time it takes to get our activity or assignment completed.

we alternate science and math. Math is done for about 20 minutes on M/W/TH. Sometimes we only do math 2 days of the week. We use Math on the level, which makes for easier, lighter math assignments.

On T/F we do science. Friday is our nature journal day and we actually spend the entire school day on friday doing science. In the mornings we still have prayer and grammar ( we use Shirley english and it has to be done 5 days a week to keep up with their pace. So far it's going okay, but if it ever interferes with our enjoyment of our Friday nature studies then we will cut back to 4 days). If we are doing a science lapbook or unit study then we will do our work for that in the morning, and then spend a few hours out in nature. Each Friday is different and we are flexible to do as we wish. Our easy Fridays has been a blessing to our homeschool!

After science we break again for about 30 minutes.

My 1st grader is finished with school at this point. My 3rd grader will then sit with me as we do grammar and writing. Sometimes she does her writing as homework later on in the evening if our day has lingered.

Now this is just a rough plan of our day. Somedays we don't get around to everything, well actually, there are quite a few days that we don't get around to everything. I plan for a lot and we just do what we can do while still remaining happy and sane, which varies from day to day.

Isn't that a least one reason that we started homeschooling in the first place? To be able to have freedom in our day? Now, I'm not talking about the kind of irresponsible freedom that allows us to put off our responsibilities and duties. I am talking about the kind of freedom that allows us to enjoy each day, each moment, with our beloved children. These days will be not last forever. Homeschooling is not just about doing everything; being the best at every thing. Homeschooling is about precious, quality family time with our kids that will carry them through their life.

I am so profoundly proud that I stay at home with my darlings. This time is a gift from the Lord and I trust that he will make sure my little ones learn all they need to learn, as long as I surrender to him and let him be our homeschool leader. he knows our children better than we do. He knows their strengths, weaknesses, and HE has a plan for their lives. If we give each day to him and do what we can do, we have to trust that he is leading and guiding us.

I encourage you to ask the Lord today to lead your homeschool and guide your family where you need to go.

So, I am happy to say that I am free from the Almighty schedule, but a slave to my Almighty Lord.

Totem Poles

2008-09-19T22:55:00.000-07:00

We are studying American History using Adventures in My Father's World. We made totem poles today because we are learning about the North American Indians. We were even able to get good ol' dad to join in the fun!

We used a pre-made template (for the kids) and ideas from enchantedlearning.com

Here are the end results:

Mine

These were really fun to make. Each totem is supposed to tell a story about your family.

Juliet's

Dad's

We all agreed that Dad's turned out to be the best.

Evan's

Thoughtful Thursdays September 18, 2008

2008-09-18T22:32:00.000-07:00

Today's date is...September 18, 2008

This week my greatest challenges have been...getting to bed early. My goal is to be in bed by 11:30 pm, so far this week bedtime for me has been 1 am. This has to stop!!

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...Cleaning out my fridge

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...American History. We are reading some great living books about the Indians and English people of Jamestown.

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...Math

My biggest accomplishments this week were...having a relaxed attitude and getting our school work done early every day this week.

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...praying more with my kids one on one as opposed to just in the morning during bible time

I feel I need the Lord to help me...manage my time better during the day so there isn't so much for me to do in the evenings and at night.

I am most thankful this week for... a brand new juicer and Fresh squeezed orange pineapple juice

One word to sum up my week...happy!

______________________________________________________________________

If you would like to participate in this just put the image above on your blog with a link that redirects back to this page. Use the setup below each time you post.

Today's date is...

This week my greatest challenges have been...

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...

My biggest accomplishments this week were...

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...

I feel I need the Lord to help me...

I am most thankful this week for...

One word to sum up my week...

Just copy this into your blog page and then fill it in. I ask that as you read others entries, you would pray for one another using the information that others put after "I feel I need the Lord to help me..."

if you are participating in this and have written your entry, please come back here and put a link to the exact page where your entry is located. Make sure it is the exact page your journal entry is on rather than your home page so that others can find your post easily. This way we can all share what we are going through together. I encourage you to invite others to join in with us! DO NOT put a link here if you haven't written a journal entry for this!! Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

All about Evan

2008-09-15T21:49:00.000-07:00

This is our Evan, or Biggun, as we like to call him.

Evan is 7 years old and is first grade.

Evan LOVES to watch and play football. His favorite team is the Florida Gators.

He plays flag football with our YMCA and dad is the coach. He just finished his first season and is starting his second next week!

Evan's favorite subject is math. He also loves exploring nature and writing in his nature journal.

Here is a poem he wrote about spiders:

The Little Things

2008-09-12T22:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Lord,

while sitting here today I can think of so many things that are wrong in my life. I am so disappointed with myself this week, and I am disappointed in others to. But I believe that somehow all of this is working together for my good, and I know that you're very close to me through it all.

Today I am thankful to you dear Lord for the little things in my life, even though some of these little things annoy me sometimes!

Thank you for the scrambling feet of little kittens, 4 of them, tearing up my house and knocking down things on my dresser. I know one day I will look back on this time and recall it with smiles and laughter.

Thank you for a mornings that I don't get up on time, instead I get to snuggle up with my husband a few hours longer than I should.

Thank you for healthy children, who try and make breakfast for themselves, and succeed in both cooking and tearing down my kitchen.

Thank you Lord for my messy floors, they remind me that this home is mine, clean or not.

Thank you for tears and restlessness, they draw me closer to you and reveal to me how dependent on you I really am. They tear down my walls of pride and make all of my intentions become transparent.

Thank you for all of the broken things I have, physical and spiritual, mental and emotional, because they all point to you, my unwavering foundation.

Thank you for all of the rain, I now have more frogs in my yard than I ever imagined possible. Since frogs are my favorite animal, I take this as a loving gesture from you.

Thank you for all the messes my husband makes, it reminds me that there once was a time when he didn't work from home and just how lucky we really are.

Thank you today for all the little things I have, beautiful and ugly, because you are in control of them all.

Our Children Belong To God

2008-09-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

I was reading someone's blog today and saw this. It touched my heart and I wanted to share it with you. To me, this is a reminder that our children truly belong to the Lord, and it is our responsibility to allow the Lord's will for our children to be fulfilled in their lives, instead of what we desire for them.

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, “Speak to us of Children.”

And he said:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit,
not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

– Kahlil Gibran, “Children”

Thoughtful Thursdays September 11, 2008

2008-09-11T22:20:00.000-07:00

Today's date is... September 11,2008

This week my greatest challenges have been...getting school started on time

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...starting our science labook on Rocks and minerals. I haven't even ordered it yet!

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...nothing. we had a hectic week with doctor appointments and didn't get much done at all this week.

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...refreshing up on math

My biggest accomplishments this week were... getting my mind to slow down and remember that I am doing this all for the Lord.

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...getting school started on time.

I feel I need the Lord to help me...get back to the basics with school and forget about a perfect schedule

I am most thankful this week for...God's patience with me

One word to sum up my week... soul searching (oops, that's two!)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you would like to participate in this just put the image above on your blog with a link that redirects back to this page. Use the setup below each time you post.

Today's date is...

This week my greatest challenges have been...

Things I wanted to do this week but didn't get around to doing...

Our favorite thing we did in school this week was...

Our least favorite thing we did in school this week was...

My biggest accomplishments this week were...

The biggest thing I need to work on doing better is...

I feel I need the Lord to help me...

I am most thankful this week for...

One word to sum up my week...

Just copy this into your blog page and then fill it in. I ask that as you read others entries, you would pray for one another using the information that others put after "I feel I need the Lord to help me..."

if you are participating in this and have written your entry, please come back here and put a link to the exact page where your entry is located. Make sure it is the exact page your journal entry is on rather than your home page so that others can find your post easily. This way we can all share what we are going through together. I encourage you to invite others to join in with us! DO NOT put a link here if you haven't written a journal entry for this!! Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Advertise Here

2008-09-11T22:04:00.000-07:00

Do you have a website that helps homeschool families? Do you offer products or resources for homeschoolers or work from home moms?

If you feel that your site might be of interest to our readers and you would like to put your advertisement here on my blog Please send an email to: michelle@homeschoolnotebooking.com

In the email please leave a link to your website and what size link you choose from the list below.

We will only accept relevant ads that pertain to homeschooling or work from home. Each ad will be approved on the basis of quality and relevance. The prices are as follows:

Text link ads:

text link ads may be up to two lines

$15 for 1 month
$35 for 3 months
$50 for 6 months

Banner ads are priced on a monthly basis:

$25 125x125
$35 200x50
$45 185x200
$55 460x80

Our Children Belong To God

2008-09-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, “Speak to us of Children.”

And he said:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit,
not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

– Kahlil Gibran, “Children”

Why Are You Homeschooling?

2008-09-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who responded to this discussion. I have enjoyed reading all of your reasons for beginning to homeschool. I wanted to add mine in as well.

My parents divorced when I was 5. I didn't see my father again until I was 12. My mom got a job working nights and my grandmother pretty much raised me. My mom worked nights and slept all day, so there wasn't much time left for me. I always knew I missed out on having a real family life, which was something that I always longed for. Once I had my own children, I knew that I wanted to give them the family life that I didn't get to have. I didn't know that I wanted to homeschool until my oldest child was about 4. I knew the time was getting closer and closer for her to start school. It was at that time that I really felt the Lord tugging on my heart to keep my daughter at home with me and her younger brother. I discussed this with my family and most of them laughed at the idea of me being able to actually teach my kids because I wasn't a "teacher." Despite their negativity, I pressed forward with what I believed the Lord was calling me to do. I knew nothing about homeschooling at the time. I was scared, had a lot of doubts that I wouldn't be able to teach my kids at home, and felt like I was going against all the advice of my friends and family. But deep inside, I just KNEW that I had to homeschool. I felt it that strongly. The main reasons behind my interest in homeschooling in the very beginning were a lot of the same reasons as many of you had:

I wanted to be with my kids instead of them being gone all day away from me

I wanted all of us to be able to spend time studying the bible as a family

I wanted them to have memories of learning together as opposed to going to school and being separated all day

I wanted to have flexibility in our schedule because their father's work schedule was always changing

When I first started I just knew that I had to jump in and see where it would lead us. We are now on our fourth year, and God has been so gracious to allow me the opportunity to be home with them everyday. I am so grateful that I followed the Lord's leading instead of listening to what others were telling me to do.

I keep on doing it because, you see, the Lord is the only one who truly knows our children. He knows their strengths and weaknesses better than anyone. Each day is a new opportunity for us to allow God to speak to us through our studies, reading, conversations...we just give the day to him and let his spirit lead our family and our homeschool. I know that our home is the best place for our children to learn about God, life, and yes, even math.

Academics for me, really didn't play a role in my decision, although I had heard that homeschooled children were usually way ahead of public school kids. Family was the main reason for my decision to keep my children at home.

I continue homeschooling because I feel it is my calling as a wife and a mother.

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Our Precious Monarch Butterfly

2008-09-06T22:59:00.000-07:00

We bought a milkweed plant last spring and it had 5 Monarch Butterflies on it. We followed this little guy (or gal...we can't tell which) from caterpillar stage all the way until adult.

It ate and ate, and then ate some more! For two weeks all it did was eat.

And then one day it crawled onto our fence and started to spin a tiny little dot of silk. It attached one end to the silk and then hung itself upside down.

Within hours this is what it looked like. This is it's chrysalis.

The chrysalis has a beautiful gold ring around the top of it.

After two more weeks the chrysalis became completely transparent. This is just hours before the butterfly emerged. You can see the orange color of it's wings.

It had been 14 days exactly, and I knew it's time was getting close. We had begun to look at it almost every hour because we wanted desperately to see this Monarch that we loved say "hello" to the world.

We checked on it once and all was the same. Then about an hour later, I was hanging clothes out on the line, and I looked over and there he was, out of his chrysalis just sitting on what remained of the chrysalis shell.

We sat and watch him for almost 3 hours. We didn't know it would take this long for his wings to dry. We just there, eyes glued to him, camera ready, so that we could capture what we knew was a once in a life time experience. We wanted to see him take his first flight. We wanted to make sure a predator didn't get him before he could fly.

I kept taking video of him as he was drying his wings. He would open and close them over and over. Then he crawled up the fence and stopped and dried them some more.

I kept taking video, thinking every moment would be the moment he would fly away.

Find more videos like this on The Homeschool Lounge

Finally, when we thought he would never fly, I turned on my camera and started filming. All of a sudden he flew right past my son, and then up into our tree. We lost him for a little while and then found him again. We knew it was him because he kept sitting on a tree branch drying his wings again. We watched him all afternoon.

Find more videos like this on The Homeschool Lounge

God is so good to let us have such a memorable and loving experience.

Mazzy's Page

2008-09-05T21:53:00.000-07:00

This is our Mazzy.

She was the most wonderful dog that anyone could have. She bravely protected our family, and loved all of us unconditionally. We got her when she was only 6 weeks old, and brought unspeakable joy into our lives. She was our baby and our friend. We once had three dogs and now we have two. Our home will never quite be the same without her.

Mazzy was almost 5 years old when she died, on December 1, 2007.

We will never forget this wonderful girl.

We love you maz!

Dog's Page

2008-09-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

This is our Krissy.

Krissy is our 2 1/2 year old german Shephard. She was a stray that we found wondering around my mom's neighborhood. She was only a small pup then. She is very protective and likes to kill possoms and squirrels in our front yard. I know that's horrible, but we can't stop her!

This is our Clifford.

Clifford is our 4 year old red dog. We think he is a mix of Irish Setter and Lab. He was also a stray that wondered into our yard one day and decided he didn't want to leave. After checking around the neighborhood, we found out that he had been abandoned by his owner who had left him in a fenced yard with no food of water while he went to work out of town for a month. When the owner got back he agreed to let us have Clifford.

My kid's named him Clifford because he is Red like "Clifford the Big Red Dog."

He is as sweet as pie, and has never met a stranger he didn't like.

All About Juliet

2008-09-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

This is our Juliet, or Sissy, as we call her.

Juliet is 8 years old and is in third grade.

Juliet LOVES horses with all of her heart.
She wants to be a "horse doctor" when she grows up, and she has said this since she was only 3.

Juliet has written a collection of short stories called "Sara's Adventures." Juliet also likes to write her own poetry and songs.

Here is one of her poems:

A Pony

Wish I had a pony,
Who was plump instead of bony;
Who was black and white,
And ran like lightning.

When her hooves hit the ground,
It makes a sound like thunder.

Wish I had a pony,
Who's nose was as soft as a pillow;
Who had a name like Selo or Melo.

Wish I had a pony,
Who's eyes were the color of daises;
Wish I had a pony,
Who was as wild as an eagle.

Wish I had a pony,
Who was playful instead of lazy.

When I ride her it would fell like
I was flying and soaring through the breezes.

Wish I had a pony,
who loved me and I loved her.

Wish it didn't take so long
for wishes to come true.

This is just a portion of Juliet's stuffed animal collection. These are the ones that are being kept in the garage because there just isn't enough room for all of them in our house. She periodically switches out the animals that she keeps on her bed and exchanges them for some of the ones in the garage.

Bacteria and Fungi

2008-06-25T23:02:00.000-07:00

This week we are studying bacteria and fungi. We are using the book "Pasture's Fight Against Microbes" as our foundation for information. We are also using the "bacteria and fungi" science kit from the young scientists club. We are very excited to see our bacteria grow!

We got our bacteria off of our playstation controller.

Then, we wiped it into our petri dish which has a special solution in it.

Next, we added antibiotic cream to one side of the petri dish only.

Our hypothesis is that the bacteria WILL grow on the side with no antibiotic cream, but that it will NOT grow AT ALL on the side with the antibiotic cream.

To buy this "Louis Pasteur Unit Study and Notebooking set" that I created go here and
you can view sample pages as well.

Contact me

2008-01-02T13:56:00.000-08:00

You can contact me by sending an email to:

michelle@homeschoolnotebooking.com

My Websites and Blogs

2008-01-02T13:55:00.001-08:00

Homeschool Notebooking
www.homeschoolnotebooking.com

Homeschool Notebooking is my website. I started creating notebooking pages and unit studies a while back, so I decided to start a website to showcase my work. I have many free notebooking pages there, and new free pages are added each month. I am constantly having fun giveaways and contest. If you have never heard of notebooking before, I encourage you to stop by my website and read all about it. It is a wonderful way of documenting what your children learn.

If you would like to receive my monthly newsletter for updates about contests, new free notebooking pages, and more, just go here to sign up now!

Homeschool Notebooking Blog
www.homeschoolnotebooking.blogspot.com

This blog is all about current happenings at my website Homeschool Notebooking.com stop by if you would like to learn about what I have in the works for 2009. It's also a way to stay updated on all our latest giveaways and more!

Michelle's Homemaking Journal
www.michelleshomemakingjournal.blogspot.com

This blog is my homemaking journal. I enjoy sharing about everything going on in my home. I share recipes, homemade gift ideas, and other things that pertain to being the "keeper of the home." I feel so privileged to to be the keep of my home, and you should too. Please stop by and say hi.

Homeschooling With Two
www.homeschoolingwithtwo.blogspot.com

This blog is where I share all the adventures of our homeschool. This year (2009) I plan on keeping a weekly account of all we are doing in our homeschool and sharing it with you.

About Our Family

2008-01-02T13:55:00.000-08:00

We are the Taylor family.

We are a christian homeschooling family of four from Orlando Florida. I am a full time homemaker and homeschooling mom. I have homeschooled both of my kids since kindergarten. I love staying at home with my family and I am so thankful for everyday that I am able to be at home with them.

I chose to homeschool my kids primarily because I wanted them to have a christian education and I feel the best place for little ones to learn about life, the Lord, and get educated is right here at home ...where they belong.

Dad is also at home with us these days. He started working from home about 6 months ago and we all love having him around the house.

Juliet is our oldest. She is 9 and in 3rd grade.

Evan is the baby. He is 7 and in 1st grade.

You can learn more about all of us by visiting our family pages located in the upper left hand column of this blog.

Hope you have fun checking out our blog. Leave me a note and let me know you stopped by.