Tag Archives: homeschooling

Our Homeschooling Week Ending 8/30

This was not such a great week. Car troubles, a broken faucet in the kitchen sink, a broken drain pipe in the bathroom sink, hurt bodies, snotty noses, sore throats, upset tummies, blown out tennis shoes, and heat index temperatures over 100 degrees. Gee, I’m glad the week is over.

This was one of those weeks when I was happy to have some flexibility with our schedule. E, B, and I decided it would benefit us if we switched to economics instead of algebra (for this week only). Algebra is challenging enough without stuffy heads. We only took notes instead of writing essays and watched extra educational tv in place of reading. And, of course, added some extra health lessons as we’ve sought natural remedies, disinfected our germ areas, and changed up our diet while fighting our summer colds.

The highlights of the week were again from our pirate unit study. This week we learned about ships and sailing, and added a bit more to our lapbook board.

And the chalkboard wall mural is probably finished. We are still kicking around a couple of ideas to improve it, but for now this is what has been done.

I hope you and your family had a nice week!

betty jo

Coffee With Giggles

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The past couple of Mondays, I’ve had my early morning coffee while reading something funny about homeschooling. It’s been a nice way to start off the week, and just maybe, Monday coffee with giggles will become a habit. I’m sharing what’s making me smile as I start my Monday and I’m hoping it adds a little fun to your Monday, too.

http://www.knowledgehouse.info/hshumor.html

betty jo

Our Homeschooling Week Ending 8/23

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This was our third week of the new school year. E17 had her 12th Day of the 12th Grade photo taken for our yearbook.

Now that the kids photos in front of the chalkboard wall are finished, we’ve been able to start on the next mural. We’ve got a lot left to do on it, but so far we’re liking it.

J10 and Z8 have been working on their pirate lapbook. I like to put the booklets on the bulletin board as we make them. Later, they will be transferred to a file folder.E17 and B15 have been researching pirate facts and superstitions for their notebooking assignments. Some of the things they are learning are pretty strange. For example, when a pirate said “Shiver me timbers” it was actually a request for another pirate to shave an especially difficult to reach portion of his back ( “shiver” means “shave” and “timbers” means “lower back”). Now if only the research could help us in answering why would a pirate need his lower back shaved because that was the question we had.

We’ve been reading more pirate themed books. Our movie of the week was Muppet Treasure Island.

The movie lead us to our next pirate lesson, music! We all enjoyed the soundtrack as we listened to identify instruments and applied what we have been learning about music theory . This was the most popular sing along of the week. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltWirB6jKh0

Next week we’re looking forward to more pirate adventures as we continue with our first unit study of the school year. And I’m looking forward to finishing the mural and getting the dust mess cleaned up, argh!

School Picture Days

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This past week homeschool bloggers have been sharing their new school year photos, and I’ve decided to do that too. Here’s the students of Covenant Home School! And a silly song to listen to as you take a peek!

Our Homeschooling Week Ending 8/16

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This was our second week back to full time homeschooling since summer vacation. I feel that we are getting back into the swing of things!

August 12th was both Herbert Hoover’s birthday and the statehood anniversary of Missouri, therefore we have a start to both timeline projects. And we celebrated with cupcakes.

B 15 had his 10th day of 10th grade. Hopefully, this upcoming week we can start on the new mural for the chalk board wall.

Our nature observations this week included the new seeds on the big maple tree in the front yard,

grasshoppers in the garden, and the mystery vine blooming and smelling wonderful.

I believe that we have adjusted to having character studies, math and language arts lessons daily again. Our pirate unit study is going well. The house is even slightly neater, now that we are back to our regular chore system, too. So all in all, I think we had a pretty good week.

Ha, no I didn’t. We went to the park twice.

We also attended the Back to School Youth Rally with around 200 teens from our area.

Silver Lining (our homeschool color guard) started practicing again. They are working on the marching and show routines for the Labor Day Parade.

My in-laws came for a visit and Z tried to teach his cousin to play chess. He got pretty good this past school year.

I’m looking forward to the upcoming week as we add more science and more pirate adventures to our studies. And I think things will run a bit smoother now that we’re back in the groove of full time homeschooling.

You have a good week, too.

Blessings.

betty jo

For another post about our color guard click here https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/03/16/silver-lining/

Our Curriculum Choices

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We’ve only purchased curriculum once throughout our 16 year homeschooling journey. Let me just simply say that it was not a good choice for us. Had we continued on the curriculum buying route, no doubt I would be making furniture with it now, for I’d be dissatisfied and changing it every semester (or even more often).

These past few weeks homeschool bloggers have been sharing what they are using this year for curriculum. I felt that those of us who choose not to use manufactured curriculum got left out. I confess that I even had a brief moment of longing as I saw photo after photo of shiny new workbooks and texts.

So, with that in mind, I’m sharing some of the reasons we do not go the curriculum route in our homeschool.

I love the freedom to learn without restrictions. When we are learning about a topic we find particularly interesting I would not want our study to be limited to only a few pages or an “x” amount of time to get it finished. Also, I feel that researching a topic from several different sources is a much better way to learn.

I hate “busy work”. I’m not fond of how some curricula have pages and pages to be completed when only a page or two would get the job done. And, I dislike how others barely cover a skill without enough practice before moving on to the next lesson. Sometimes kids will catch on to something quickly, other times it can take a long while.

No matter the curriculum, it isn’t designed for individuality. And teaching my kids according to their learning styles, interests, speeds, strengths and weaknesses is the best aspect of home education.

For another post about curriculum choices click here. https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/04/09/abeka-lifepac-and-fiar-oh-my/

For more about why and how we school like we do, click here https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/05/08/why-and-how/

betty jo

Our Homeschooling Week Ending 8/9

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This was our first week back to full time homeschooling! It’s our 16th year of educating at home. We kicked off the new school year with waffles, (according to the special days calendar, it was International Waffle Day)!

No shirt, no shoes, no problem serving up a geography lesson.

We erased the ocean mural from our chalkboard wall. What a dusty blue mess! At least it cleans up fairly easy.

For history we learned about the explorers from the “Age of Discovery” as the introduction leading into our first unit study of the school year, “Pirates”!

Our first library check outs of the school year.

Z’s third day of the third grade!

A movie day with Veggie Tales, The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, and a remake of Treasure Island.

J’s fourth day of the fourth grade! (Sorry about the blurred photo, but this kid was not able to stand still, nor the photographer, apparently)

These are the prettiest pickings from our science project garden this week. That’s not an apple, it’s a sweet red pepper. We harvested only a few tomatoes, but have dozens almost ripe on the vines.

I hope you had a good week and that the upcoming week will be even better!

August Special Days calendar https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/07/29/special-days-in-august/

Our Chalkboard Wall https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/one-of-our-favorite-things-the-wall/

Our Garden Science Project https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/04/14/homeschool-gardening/ and https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/05/23/watching-our-garden-grow/

Blessings,

betty jo

Back To School

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I have prayed over our 2013-2014 school year. Goals for the year have been set. Our study focus is decided and brain storming lists are filling up with possibilities. The letter of intent, required my our state law, has been mailed. The attendance records are printed and sorted into folders. New binders and supplies are waiting to be used. There are daily plans on the chart. I have a coffee and chocolate. I am ready!

Today is our first day back to full time homeschooling. E’s starting her senior year and she is excited. B is in 10th this year, and I see no visible signs of excitement. J covers his ears and yells, “I don’t want to hear it!” every time schooling is mentioned. Z has been practically begging to get going on the 3rd grade.

I’m smiling and confident. Smiling and confidence are good ways for me to kick off my 16th year of this homeschooling journey. Smiling and confidence are good for all of us homeschooling mamas, don’t you agree?

I’m sharing some links to help with that!

A cute co-op group and those silly questions that we get asked.

A very sweet prayer for the homeschooling mama, (even addresses my concern over algebra) http://www.educatorsathome.com/homeschool-moms-prayer/

No matter how our first day back goes, I know it won’t be as terrible as this one!

A always remembering this!

betty jo

Unit Study Theory 101 – Class 3

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Welcome to the third and final class of Unit Study Theory 101. For today’s class I will be answering the question, “How do you make weekly plans for unit studies?” However, before we get to that, I’ll explain how my longer term plans are designed.

After years of having a messy planner, (erase marks, comments in the margins, and scribbled out assignments), I gave up traditional planning and threw the planner away. It seemed like we hardly ever “stuck” to the plan because life happened, we took advantage of unexpected learning opportunities , or group activities would consume a day or two. Sometimes assignments took longer or went quicker than I expected them to.

Keeping a journal works much better. I keep my journal in a binder. The first page is this printable from Teacher Files (I changed the months to match our school year). I fill in some of the blanks as we start each month, the rest gets filled in as it happens. http://www.teacherfiles.com/downloads/Long%20Range%20Planner.pdf

Making a “possibility” list of topics and the subjects it will include for the current unit study is the next page in my binder. I add the start and finish dates as they happen, (or cross out what we didn’t do). The next page is where I record resources. I print off themed notebooking pages for my journal (usually the same pages I print for the kids notebooking/journaling assignments). When the unit study is over, I begin a new possibility list for the next study . This a simple way to keep track our learning.

I love sticky notes for weekly planning . Usually Saturday is the day I make the upcoming weeks plans. I look over the special days list first to see what I want to be included in our studies for the upcoming week. I write that on a sticky note and place on the weekly chart. Next, I put extra curricular activities on other sticky notes and add those to the chart. Finally, I make sticky notes for daily assignments (based off of my “possibility” list) to add to the chart. At the end of each day, I move the notes to my journal to record later or move the sticky note to the next day if the assignment needs more time. I found this chart at the $Tree for us to use this school year. In the past, I made my own weekly charts on poster board.

Fridays are left blank on the planner. This is the day to catch up on any uncompleted assignments or free study and group activities.

Our Homeschooling Week Ending August 2

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This homeschooling week ends finding this mama tired but happy. What a week! I’ve been getting our house and schooling in order so that all will be ready on Monday, our official start back to full time homeschooling.

A week or so ago, I saw an idea for refurbishing a crib into a desk. I wanted one. We were able to get an old crib from our church’s supply closet and B15 assembled it just how I had envisioned it. The desk top is our dry erase board (a leftover piece of white Formica). Z thinks it’s cool to be allowed to draw on the desk top. I like the size. It’s large enough for two with plenty of room for a puzzle or math games. Placing it in front of the window will be nice as we journal seasonal observations (and spy on the neighbors).

I enjoyed the “Back To School” sales this week. I still have a bit left to get while the prices are low, however our haul is looking rather large and it’s more than what we need to get started including coffee and chocolate for the teacher!

The bulletin boards have been emptied and are ready for new word walls and timelines.

Our new calendar and weekly planner are on their boards.

Our materials from Nutrients for Life arrived this week. I told the kids we would be waiting until school started to open it. I’m hoping it will have useful information and resources to add to our science studies.

Free teaching materials can be ordered here http://www.nutrientsforlife.org/teachers/curriculum/toolkit.

We have one major project left to do this weekend. It’s time to erase our ocean mural. I feel a little sad about erasing this one. I think it has been my favorite. It certainly was the most fun to work on (yet).