Oct. 2, 2008
My meeting with our Superintendent
Posted in School Year Stuff
Like the previous post said, I was going to post about my meeting with our local Superintendent in a seperate post.
Meetings are not required here in MA, but because he is new to our district and has no clue to who I am, I decided to meet with him.
Now, in the past, all we had to do is show the Super the books/texts (is any) we will be using and that is that. I went to the first meeting my first year of homeschooling (after much fighting with the Super at the time) and never went back.
Well, for this meeting, things were very different. First off, they made me wait 45 minutes in the hall. I was 5 minutes early and I hate to be late as well as made to wait for a long time. I was getting ready to see what the hold up was (as my time is valuable to me and my son was at home not learning anything with me sitting on my butt twiddling my fingers), when the Super came over to me. I offered him my hand as a greeting, and he looked at it, then me before even shaking my hand. He did not havea good grip and had a weak shake. My father always told me that if a person has a good grip and a good handshake, then the person is excited and happy to see/meet you. My assumption fromthis guys shake was that I am a waiste of his valuable time and he just wants this over with (just as much as me by this time)
I head into his office and sat down at the conference table. He handed me this paper (more like a checklist) of the things he requires of homeschoolers in our town. He askes for my sons name and grade. He also asked for my reasons to homeschool. This is not required. I tried to tell him politely that the school system sucks, but he already is aware of this (see this article here. There is even a picture of the Super for you to see is normal facial expression). He also asked for my lesson plans, which have never been required before and are not listed as a requirement in the two case studies we follow for our homeschooling guidelines here in MA (see Charles and Brunelle).
So, I started to tell him about what we had planned to learn about in science (I have done this in the past with the former Super with no problems), when he rudely interupts me and was shaking his head. He went on to say that what I was tellign him was not what he wanted. Hello, I am not a mind reader. I told him that this is what I have done inthe past with no problems before. He sighed and asked to see what texts we will be using.
I showed him the Singapore math books. He looked at me and goes "You know that they teach differently in these books than in our school system". I felt like saying "Ya that is why a magority of Americains can't do basic math and why Asians and Europeans out rank us in math"; but I was a good girl and just said "I know". he is familiar with these books, so he said he had no problems with them.
The Pathway Readers were next. He was giving them faces as he flipped through them. He said that he did not like them and thatthey were out dated and told me I needed to pick something else. I told him I would think about it, knowing full well, I was not goingto do any such thing.
Here he is complaining to me that the copywrite date of one of the readers was 1976 (but there w as also another in 2005). Umm, Hello?!? Has he seen the history books in the high school recently? They most recent president in those books are CARTER! He was president when I was born 32 YEARS ago!
He also had nothing niceto say about the Climbing to Good English book, but I hoenstly don't care what he thinks.
History was up next and the reaction was the same as the readers and English. We are using Story of the World Volume 1 with the accompaning activity guide. I also have a ton of extra books to suppliment as I already used this book with Chantelle. The Super told me that this book was above Matt's level (and how does he know what Matt's level is? He has never met my son). He also said that I have to follow what the schools are learning so that Matt will not suffer should he go back into school. Matt lvoes this subject and is doing well, so we are not changing anything. Not only that, but we do not have to follow what the schools are doing.
The meeting lasted 1 hour and it ended without any approval until I submit my detailed (with goals and scope & sequence, which are not required) lesson plans.
When I got home, I ventedto my husband and then I called a local homeschooling mom to see what he asked of her. She was kind enough to send me a copy of the "lesson plans" she submitted for her son last year (he is one year ahead of mine). I recreated my "plans" using her format and some of her wording (I hope you don't mind B). I have it all typed and printed out and ready to be certified with return reciept. I hope likes this as I am not doing anything else.
Oct. 2, 2008
The Week in Review 9/22 - 9/26
Posted in School Year Stuff
This past week has been crazy. Between homeschooling and work, I really have no time for much. There was even a day I saw my husband just long enough to grab a kiss before I headed to work. Ilike I said busy, busy.
Monday night was Mabon (Autumn Equinox). Normally we have a harvest theme meal and take a nature walk to observe any seasonal changes in the leaves and such, but that never happened. It's not a huge holiday for us to celebrate anyway. Samhain (Hallloween) on the other hand is huge for us. I'll post more on this as the time gets closer.
Tuesday was my meeting with the new Superintendent of our school system. I'll post a seperate post all about this one as it is long.
In Science this week, we begain a unit of hearing. We read a ton of books related to hearing, made a model of the ear and learned about the parts of the inner ear. We also did an experiment to show how we use our sense of hearing.
We never got around to doing history this week. We did no school work on Monday because my hubby had the day off, so we cut our day short, only doing math and english.
For English, Matt has been working on rhyming words, capitalization and punctuation. He also read a few stories in his readers and did a few pages in his workbooks about them. I fill in with lots of oral narrations. I plan on adding some spelling lessons next week. He has been reading a half a book + a day on his own. Well, I tell him he has to read for 30 minutes everyday, the book is his choice. Recently he has been reading the A to Z Mystery series.
Math was a struggle this week. We started a lesson on "greater than" and "less than" which totally confused him at first. It took 3 days before he started to understand it. I wish the Singapore books offered more practice before moving on to another topic. I know I can buy another book, but I don't wantto have to buy another book. I see myself either supplimenting a ton from various websites, or just switching to Saxon, which he did well in in the past. (He did the 1st grade book while in kindergarten).
Sep. 15, 2008
Homeschool Week 9/8 - 9/12
Posted in School Year Stuff
This past week was a busy time for us. Between Matt getting use to a homeschool schedule and me startnig my seasonal work back up at CBD both last Monday.
Matt is loving the Pathway Readers and workbooks (although he hates to read with a passion) and the Climbing to Good English workbook. Both are short and sweet, but give him a good understanding of english.
In science, we are still learning about the eye in depth. We should finish it up in a couple of more lessons. I have science planned twice a week alternating between history.
In history, Matt learned about Archeology and we went on a archeology dig in our sandbox. I buried some objects that you can find today that might give clues to who we were if someone from our future was to find them. They were some pens and pencils, a pad of paper, a toy crab (to represent a real crab) and a toy car to show what our cars use to look like. Granted the car I used was a Bug from the 60's, but it worked. LOL
We also learned about the first nomads and how we learned about them. Matt made a cave painting out of a brown paper bag. I crinkled it up to represent the uneven surface of the rock walls used by the nomads.
This shows a man with a bow and arrows getting ready to shoot a deer.
Because I am still waiting for the fist workbook for our math curriculum (I could probably begin the books without the workbook, but I don't want to incase I ever have to show Matt's work to someone like a Superintendent), Matt and I are continuing with learning how to tell time with a non digital clock. He is doing quite well. I am loving the ebook that I got free sometime ago. You can find it here: Mammoth Math Clocks.
Well this pretty much sums up what we did for this past week. I'll be adding weekly update posts because I really don't have much time to do daily like I did last year.
Sep. 4, 2008
Homeschool day 1 and 2
Posted in School Year Stuff
Yesterday was our first day of school. I amnot new to homeschooling (I homeschooled my eldest for 3 years) but it is new for Matt. We are starting uot slow. Mostly because I don't have my order from Rainbow Resource yet, but I also don't want to give Matt too much to do all at once and make him hate homeschooling.
So, we started out the day with a little journal work. He did this in school and loved it. I have two books from the Draw Write Now series that we are using for the journal work. It takes care of the penmenship and art. It is more of a copywork lesson, but Matt loves it so far. He gave it two thumbs up.
Here is the page after he was done with the picture.
I was actually surprised about how excited he was about doing the journal work. I figured it was the one thing he would complain about. But I was wrong. When I was going over what work we would be doing each day (I will do this again once we get the math and language arts books) he was going on and saying he wanted to do his journal now.
So yesterday we just did the journal, history and science. I told him that history will only be 3 days a week and science will be 2 days a week (the none history days).
Today we did another journal page and then hit the mall for lunch with a girlfriend of mine. When we got back, we did a Mammoth Math lesson on telling time. He has no clue how to tell time on a non digital clock, so while we wait for his Singapore Math to get here, we will learn about telling time.
After that, I dug out some Patternable pages and shapes and let him do them. He loves puzzles. These start out super easy and tell you what shape goes where, but then later on moves to one huge shape and you have to fit all of the different shapes into this one big shape. Kind of like tanagrams only with different shaped pieces.
LIke my chick backpack in the background? LOL
I warned Matt that next week starts the full day school. Well not full day, but a full schedule with math journal and language arts every day and alternating history and science.
Jun. 18, 2008
It has arrived!!
Posted in School Year Stuff
That H-U-G-E catalog that every homeschooler looks forward to. That bible of all homeschool catalogs. The one that we all read cover to cover even if we know every product they carry. You guessed it, my Rainbow Resource catalog finally showed up yesterday! I curled up in bed with it last night with my hubby shaking his head like I lost it. LOL
Jun. 17, 2008
Last Day of school for Matt
Posted in School Year Stuff
Every year for the last day of school, we go out to Chuck E Cheese. Today was Matt's last day of public school. Here's a few pictures of our day (including a rather dark one of me that Matt took).
This trucking game we have at home for the Game Cube, but of course it doesn't come with a huge wheel and it isn't played on a life sized screen.
May. 30, 2008
Summer Reading Programs
Posted in School Year Stuff
Trying to get my kids to read has always been a challange. I am an avid reader. I devour books. I read a 300 page book today infact. (I was up at 5am and read most of it by 8am and finished it at lunch).
Chantelle has been better at reading since we joined our homeschool groups reading club. She has actually read the other books in a series after readign the first ones in the group.
Matt on the other hand hates to read. Well, he hates to read when he is told to read I should say. He reads instead gaming manuals, magazines, and anything other than a book. I have been thinking of taking him to a comic book store and letting him choose a few to read. Anything to get him to read.
Every year since we begain homeschooling, we have participated in a few Summer Reading Programs.
One is through our local library. Last year they didn't have the program because they lost their funding and accreditation, but I read in our library's newsletter that it will be running this year. Yippy! It's different every year and my kids were ever featured in our local paper promoting the program.
Another is put on through Barnes & Nobles around the country. All you have to do is read 8 books and fill out a form and return it to your local Barnes & Nobles and you get to choose a book from a selection that the store has chosen.
The third one we participate in is through Homeschooling.About.com. This one has been going on for the past 7 years. You simply read at least 500 pages (it was easier for Chantelle to complete than Matt which always bummed him out, but he got to read more books) and return the list to Beverly. Come the end of September, you get a certificate and some prizes (usually book marks, pencils, stickers and such).
Normally those are the only ones we do, but this year we found another one to participate in. It is put out by TOS called Summer Reading Splash. You simply read books and keep track of how many you read and at the end of the program ou turn in the logs. Also every week there is a topic of the week that the kids will answer and email for a chance to win a prize.
Have a fun summer reading!
Mar. 6, 2008
Cindy Rushton ~ Jumpstart on the Charlotte Mason Approach
Posted in School Year Stuff
I have always loved the idea of a Charlotte Mason education, but my daughter didn't. Way to much reading for her. I subscribe to Cindy Rushton's newsletters and this weeks includes a free (only for this week though) newsletter on the Charlotte Mason approach. Enjoy!
Hi There Mommy Pals!
Ready for a treat? I have a fun gift for you tonight. I am buzzing all about Charlotte Mason this week. This weekend, we are hosting our annual Charlotte Mason Virtual Seminar ONLINE (Learn more here: http://www.CindyRushton.com/CharlotteMasonPrimer.html).J I have been getting all of my notes together and gifts together for all of you who join me. I just could not wait on one of them. It was SO fun to create. So, tonight it is our weekly download.
Want to know what it is? It is a Jumpstart on the Charlotte Mason Approach. Actually it is more than AN article--it is actually an ebook. Ok...yes, I do get excited when I talk about Charlotte Mason's ideas. Tonight, I think it will bless your socks off!
Ready to download? Here is your link:
http://www.cindysdesktop.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/JumpstartCharlotteMason.pdf
Keep in mind tonight that this download is actually 48 pages. Give it plenty of time to download. I think it will be worth the wait!
OH! If you want to pass this one on to a friend, please DO! You are welcome to share the link on your blogs, in your e-groups, and even on your websites. This is one issue that we want to share with as many people as possible. I think it just might help them to make Homeschooling easy. So, pass it on! J
One other note...SOMEONE on this list is hitting SPAM instead of delete on our ezines. Could you PLEASE stop? If you are hitting SPAM to delete, please scroll to the bottom of this email and unsubscribe. Doing this over time causes deliverability issues with email--ALL of your email, not just our ezines. We want you here, but we also want to get our emails into everyone's email box who requests our ezines. Help us to keep a good reputation. If you are on this list, you DID ask to be here. If you don't want to receive emails, just take a moment to unsubscribe. Again, scroll to the bottom of this email and click UNSUBSCRIBE. We will take you off immediately. Thanks!
One other note...I mentioned our Charlotte Mason Seminar. If you want to join us, we have two options: we have memberships and complimentary passes. You can simply sign up to join us live with our complimentary passes--they are for any of you who would like to try us out! NO EXCUSES!! Just sign up! If you want access to all of the audios and free gifts after the event, you can also get your ticket now. Here is the link to do both:
http://www.CindyRushton.com/CharlotteMasonPrimer.html
Grab your ticket today and join us this weekend for a BLAST! You won't want to miss this event. We have ALL NEW workshops. Whether you are a beginning homeschooler, an old pro, a die-hard CM mom, or you are not interested in another approach to education, I think you will LOVE this seminar. I literally take you by the hand and walk you through how to teach each and every subject as a lifestyle. It is going to be great! We dig deep in this seminar. Don't miss it!
Well, that is all today! Do be sure to download your goodies. They are online for only a small time. Here is that link again:
http://www.cindysdesktop.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/JumpstartCharlotteMason.pdf
Have a super night!
With much love,
Cindy
See Us Online!
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http://www.UltimateHomeschoolExpo.com
http://www.Playmasters.info
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Homeschooling? Make this year the best year yet!
It is time for the Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2008!
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Feb. 4, 2008
Bass Pro Shop "field trip"
Posted in School Year Stuff
My hubby has recently gotten into fly tying. He doesn't fly fish, he just enjoys making the flys. So, we took a trip to Foxboro MA to the one and only Bass Pro Shop in MA. The place was cool. The first time we went, I didn't bring my camera. Honestly who would think to bring a camera to a store. But, OMG, this is way morethan a store. It is like a huge museum.
The outside middle part of the store.
If you turn to the left, you will see...
Gillette Stadium, home of the Patriots.
When you first walk into BPS, there is this HUGE fireplace to your left with a huge deer (or was it a Moose) over it. Full animal, not just the head. You have to walk through those turning things like at an amusment part to actually enter the store.
Once in there is so much to see, not including all the merchandise. I swear half the store is all fishing stuff, the other hunting stuff. Never before have I seen so many guns before. LOL
There is even a shooting gallery that the "kids" have fun playing at.
You shoot these green blinking sensors and something will happen. Like if you shoot the tree at the bottom, it will fall over and you can hear "Timber" being shouted, if you shoot the top, a racoon will come out. It was fun even though I am a lousy shot.
As you are walking down the stairs (to the fishing level), there is this real river going all the way down into a huge tank that is filled with real fish. Yummy local fish. Catfish and salmon and other things I couldn't identify without looking at the chart.
Stupid flash would not turn off. The tank was dark, so the flash kept going off even after I turned it off. Oh well.
They had a pond with a huge Moose in it, not alive anymore and fish swimming around it's ankles. In another part of the pond, past the beavers dam (with real stuffed beavers), there were turtles. Cute box turtles.
They were chilling out on to of a plastic tree under a bucket turned into a heat lamp.
after the turtles, I happened to look up and saw this:
I was in the middle of camping land, but thought all the deer running down the side of the river, not to mention the waterfall, were pretty.
Under all the deer, is a cave, and inthe cave, is a huge bear standing up ready to attack. So of course everyone wants a picture with the bear.
Ya don't they look so excited? LOL
Steve was trying to get Matt up as high as the bear, but Matt didn't want to.
Hanging all voer the store from the ceiling are life sized replicas of fish and sharks and of course a huge humpback whale.
It would have taken me three shots to get the whole thing. I was up in gun ville looking down at fish town.
As your leaving, if you look up you see this:
Nothing says Welcome to New England better than a bunch of animals heads.
Nov. 28, 2007
All About Spelling November Newsletter
Posted in School Year Stuff
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Hi Heather,
As much as we'd like for our children to be surrounded by positive people at all times, a wise parent knows that kids are bound to run into those occasional "rule breaking and troublemaking" characters in their travels. We could keep them inside, far away from that bully on the playground... but we also know that one day they'll be out on their own without our protection. So we do our best to offer them coping skills before we send them out into the world.
It's not so different from teaching your student spelling. There are many words which follow the rules quite nicely, but there are others that don't fit the expected script. Instead of letting those difficult words "bully" or scare your child away from using them with confidence, equip him or her with the skills needed to sail past spelling challenges! Enjoy today's article!
Rule Breakers and Troublemakers: 5 Ways to Handle Misspelled Words
Troublemakers are words that, for one reason or another, are frequently misspelled. They tend to fall into one of three categories: words with careless mistakes, mispronounced words, and words that don't follow the spelling rules.
To tame these troublemakers, you need to match the problem with the correct remedy. Figure out why the student is misspelling the word, and then correct the problem by using one or more of the following strategies.
Problem: The student misspells a word you think he should be able to spell. For example, your student writes down the word form instead of from, and you know that he has spelled this word correctly on other occasions.
Remedy: Ask him to slowly read exactly what he wrote down. Make sure that he reads each phonogram. Many times, the student will catch and correct his own mistake. If he doesn't see his mistake, tell him, "You wrote form, but we want the word from. What do you need to change?" This encourages the student to check his own work.
Problem: The student's pronunciation of a word makes it difficult for him to spell.
Remedy: If a student learns to pronounce a word clearly, he has a much better chance at being able to spell it correctly. Some words that are commonly mispronounced and misspelled are probably (probly), secretary (secertary), because (becuz), and library (libary). Model the correct pronunciation of the word, and have your student segment the word syllable by syllable.
Some words are not pronounced clearly in everyday speech. For example, most Americans pronounce the word button as butn and little as liddle. The vowel sound in the unaccented syllable gets lost in the normal rhythm of speech. In these cases, it is helpful to "pronounce for spelling" and enunciate each syllable clearly and as it is written. Regional accents can also make certain words more challenging. If your student pronounces forget as ferget, remind him to "pronounce for spelling."
Problem: The student forgot a rule or generalization.
Remedy: Keep those spelling rules fresh in your student's mind! Demonstrate the rule by writing out or using the letter tiles to spell the troublesome word correctly and explaining how the rule applies. Have your student spell other words that follow the same rule or generalization. Make sure to revisit that rule several times over the next few days until your student demonstrates mastery of it.
Problem: The misspelled word is a Rule Breaker. A Rule Breaker is a word that does not follow the rules of spelling. For example, in the word said, we expect the ai to say /a /, not /e /.
Remedy: Each time the student encounters a new Rule Breaker, have him circle the letters that don't follow the rules. If your student misspells the Rule Breaker at a later date, have him follow these steps:
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Look at the Word Card, and then look at an empty spot on the table.
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Picture the word on the table, and spell the word aloud three times.
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"Write" the word on the table with his finger in VERY BIG LETTERS three times.
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Spell the word on paper three times.
This exercise allows your student to practice spelling the difficult word nine times in the space of a few minutes.
All of the above tips for handling misspelled words can be used no matter which spelling program you are currently working with. If you are using the All About Spelling curriculum, the following additional features are built in:
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A "Jail" for Rule Breakers is included in the material packet beginning in Level Two. Words that do not follow the rules are on flashcards. After the tricky part of the word is identified, the bad guy is thrown into jail and the word is practiced.
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Spelling rules are on flashcards, making for easy and regular review. Prompts to review are given in the lesson plans.
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After a spelling rule or generalization has been taught, additional words are provided to help illustrate the rule in various ways.
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The lessons provide your student with multiple opportunities to apply what he has learned through activities such as writing dictated phrases (Level One), writing dictated sentences (Level Two), and writing original sentences in the Writing Station activities (Levels Three and up). The more your student uses what he has learned in context, the better it will stick.
In a nutshell, here are five ways to handle misspelled words:
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Have your student read exactly what he wrote down, and give him an opportunity to self-correct.
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Make sure your student pronounces the word correctly. Have him break the word into its individual sounds.
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Review any spelling rules that apply.
If the word is a Rule Breaker, help the student identify the tricky part of the word.
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After the student has rewritten the word correctly, provide multiple opportunities to use the word in context.
Have you found other ways to correct or prevent your student's misspellings? I'd love to hear about them! If you have a tip that works well in your classroom or at home, reply to this newsletter. I will add your tip to the online version of this article. Let me know if you would like to remain anonymous; otherwise, I will give you full credit for your submission!
Make spelling a joy!
Marie Rippel
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Feel comfortable knowing your information is safe here.
© 2007 Marie Rippel, All-About-Spelling.com. All rights reserved.
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Oct. 30, 2007
Upcoming plans and a few changes
Posted in School Year Stuff
Chantelle has not been enjoying her history this year. We had tried Ambleside's history again (we used the whole Ambleside our first year homeschool 3 years ago as well), but this time she can't stand it. Last year we did Story of the World Ancients and she loved it, but I thought it wasa little below her, so that is why I went back to Ambleside's more rigorous curriculum.
So she was looking on the CBD website and asked me to get her the Bob Jones Heritage Studies grade 7 (even though she is in grade 8) because it goes along with what we had started to study this year, the middle ages. So I ordered it (with my discount of course) and while we wait for me to get it, we have started a middle ages lapbook.
So far she has learned about the Vikings and will continue on with them today as well. It is going much better. No more groaning or even skipping work, but this has only been one day with the change, so we will see.
We are also working on a lapbook for Halloween. She should have that finished this week. We started it yesterday with learning the history of Halloween as well as the symbols. Today we will learn about pumpkins and the history of Jack O' Lanterns.
I'll post pictures of both lapbooks once they are finished. The middle ages one will take some time though.
Sep. 5, 2007
Start of a new school year
Posted in School Year Stuff
Yesterday was our official first day of school.
I forced myself out of bed at 7am (not easy to do after a summer of late wakeups) did my normal shower, and make breakfast. I got Matt ready to go to school. He didn't seem excited or anything. A typical response to a child going back to school after a long summer of freedom. Once we got to school, we found his teacher made our introductions and we waited for the class to file into school. Matt was getting bored and kept saying "Let's go in already". He hates to wait. Anyone who knows him, knows how he is always on the go. I am forever telling him to slow down or stop running.
Once Matt was safely in school, I ran home to pick up my hubby to take him to the Dr.s. We left Chantelle at home to do her morning chores and some school work she can do without me. Once we got back though, Chantelle and I started to work on science.
We are using Apologia Physical science this year. In the first module of the book, there is an experiment on atoms and molecules right off. I had purchased a science kit from Creation Sensation to go along with this book, so I didn't have to hunt all over creation for the materials needed. We had fun doing this experiment and watching the changes that happened. We used a 9 volt battery, some wire, and a baking soda/water solution for the experiment.
Mixing up the baking soda and water
If you look close at the black wire ends, you can see tiny bubbles coming up.
The end of the red wire (which was attached to the positive side of the battery) turned blue, which in end turned the water blue. But of course my camera batteries had died, so I never got a shot of that. Oh well. The rest of the day went smoothly with some complaints from Chantelle.
At 2:30 I left to pick up Matt. BIG mistake. Today I plan on leaving at 2:15. The kids get out at 2:40. Yesterday the parking was horendos. Almost everyone drives there kids to school in my town. The charge 700.00 per child (no breaks for more than one kid) to take the buses here. So naturaly only 5 bus passes got sold. So you can imagine all the cars there were at the school. Every side street near the school was filled up. I had to park 10 minutes away from the school. I should have just walked from my house (only 15 minutes away walking, like 2 minutes driving). I do have a homeschool friend who lives right off the street the school is on. Maybe I'll call her and ask if I can park in her driveway. Hehe.
I didn't have much time to chat with Matt about his day because I had just enough time to drop him off at home before I had to head to work. I hate that. It is going to drive me nuts not being able to see my son more than 30 minutes every day during the week.
I have asked my job if they can change my hours so I get out at 9 instead of 11, but they say they do not have the hours to do that. Whatever that means. I am so exhausted today it isn't even funny. There is no way I can do my job at home and work the shift they expect me to at work. Good thing it is only seasonal, but the season is going to be very long for me.
I hope everyone had a fun and exciting start to their new school year.
Jul. 16, 2007
All-About-Spelling Newsletter
Posted in School Year Stuff
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Hi Heather,
Summer is in full swing, and the kids have traded their notebooks and brown bag lunches for swim trunks and sand pails.
Hope you're enjoying the balmy weather as much as I am... and also thinking about your plans for spelling lessons in September.
Get a taste for what's offered in the All About Spelling program by exploring this issue's main feature - The Many Jobs of Silent "E."
I just returned from a 2-week vacation to England where we toured castles, gardens and historical sites. At Shakespeare's Globe Theater in London, I saw a copy of Shakespeare's will. He signed his own last name three different ways, all on the same document: Shakespere, Shakspere, and Shakspeare.
I'm sure many kids today would appreciate such freedom of spelling!
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The Many Jobs of Silent "E"
Silent "e" can perform different functions, depending on the word where it is used. Most spelling programs only discuss the first function that I've listed below, and skip the rest.
At All About Spelling, we believe it's important for kids to know the whole story, so they can see the patterns of English spelling. It is our experience that in learning the roles that certain letters such as silent "e" play, students are able to recognize similar occurrences in new words they encounter in their reading adventures.
Here are the 6 jobs that Silent "E" performs:
Job #1: Silent "e" can make the vowel before it long. (note)
Continue reading this article
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Free Download: "Go Fly a Kite" Game
Here at All About Spelling, we use hands-on activities such as spelling games and flash cards to help kids understand and master the spelling concepts we teach.
Today's complimentary download works to help kids learn, practice and review Job #1 of silent "e".
 This game fits in perfectly with All About Spelling Level 2. In Step 7 of this book, students are taught the Vowel-Consonant-E pattern. They learn words such as date, note, five, name, here, gave, and time.
The "Go Fly A Kite" game is a fun way to reinforce this concept.
The free download link for subscribers to this newsletter will be available for one week. After that, it is available for purchase at www.all-about-spelling.com/order.html.
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Sample Our Spelling Lessons
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Try Before You Buy!
Here's your chance to sample firsthand the spelling curriculum which has helped so many students. You'll be able to get a feel for how well-balanced and comprehensive the All About Spelling program is, as well as experience what it will be like to teach these lessons to your children in the future.
The All About Spelling series is fully guaranteed. So even if after viewing our sample lessons and trying our program out on your own, you're still not satisfied... we will gladly refund your purchase.
Click here for Sample Pages of Levels 1 and 2.
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© 2007 Marie Rippel, All-About-Spelling.com. All rights reserved.
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May. 24, 2007
Barnes & Nobles Summer Reading Program
Posted in School Year Stuff
My kids have done this every year and loved it. Nothing like a free book as a reward to reading. It is only for grades 1-6, but I had my son do it last year. If the links do not work for the pdf files, click on this:
Barnes & Nobles Summer Reading Program
From the website:
Fostering a love of reading and its rewards, the Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program is popular with both students in the first through sixth grades and educators throughout America.
Last summer, we provided more than 291,000 free books and participants read 2.3 million books! This year, children can join Jack and Annie from Mary Pope Osbourne’s Magic Tree House on their summer adventure as part of their own journey in our Summer Reading program.
Participation is fun and easy for kids to earn free books! They simply read any eight books — library books, books borrowed from friends or books bought at Barnes & Noble — write about their favorite part, and bring a completed Summer Reading in the Magic Tree House Journal tear page to a Barnes & Noble bookstore. Children can then choose from a list of paperback books. We’re confident there will be plenty of titles they will like.
No matter where your child spends their summer vacation, reading has the ability to take them far, far away — and it can even earn them a free book!
Information kits are available at your local Barnes & Noble store, or simply print out the documents below. (Note: Documents may take longer to download if you are accessing from a dial-up connection.)
These materials are copyrighted, but feel free to make as many copies as you need. Random House has provided the attached permission letter if needed.
To view the documents, you will need Adobe Reader, Version 6.0 or higher, available at no charge from Adobe. To download Adobe Reader, simply click on the icon and follow the step-by-step instructions.
Apr. 24, 2007
Chocolate Unit Study
Posted in School Year Stuff
Here is the chocolate themed unit study that my kids and I did the week of Valentines. I'll add pictures later when my computer is up and running.
We did this study using the Chocolate lapbook from Hands of a Child as our spine. You can find our finished lapbook here.
These are the links or what we used for each activity in the lapbook.
History of Chocolate Timeline
About the Coco Tree
We used the Biography pages from Edhelper to do a biography on Milton Hershey
How chocolate is made
How chocolate works
We also made Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies, smores, ate some Valentine's Day candy and drank chocolate milk. Needless to say, we all had a sugar high this day. We also watched both versions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
We read Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith and did a little study of the book which you can find here.
Matt did some math using the M&M math book as well as M&M's. He was eating them while working through the book.
Here are a few links that are chocolate themed that we used a little of, but are filled with a ton of info including virtual tours of chocolate making factories:
Chocolate Theme There is also a webquest for Chocolate fever here.
Hershey's
Cadbury
Ghirardelli
Scharffen Berger
There are a ton more places out there, but these offer virtual tours. Just do a Google for Chocolate and see all the wonderful things that pop up.
Feb. 24, 2007
Free File - Folder Game
Posted in School Year Stuff
This is from the all-about-spelling.com newsletter I have recently signed up for. I love it so far! You can use this game with any subject for reviews, quizes, anything like that.
February 2007 Newsletter
Dear Friends,
The Northwoods of Wisconsin is spectacular during the winter months. There is a special beauty in the play between the sparkling snow and the festive evergreens, the still frigid air and the angled sunbeams. I just saw the gleaming bushy-tailed fox out by the wood pile and tracks from the porcupine, so all is well with our little neighbors! We brought out sunflower seed for the chickadees:
Want a fun and effective way to review spelling words or the phonograms? This month's free downloadable game will do just that! Have you heard of file folder games? I like to make these for my students, and they are great fun! You can also use them to review math facts, geography facts, or any other subject.
If you know of other teachers, moms, or homeschool groups who would benefit from this educational game, feel free to share this link (cut-and-paste):
www.all-about-spelling.com/get-a-free-file-folder-game.html
You may post this on forums, egroups, or blogs.
This Dog Walk game is a fun way to review facts! All you need are the gameboard and some flashcards. Complete instructions are on the download page. You can make up your own flashcards for any subject you want your student to review. If you would like to teach the phonograms for spelling purposes, you can get the full set of Phonogram Cards for the sale price of $9.95 (regular price $12.95).
Try to make some time this week to get outside and enjoy God's creation!
Take care,
Marie
Jan. 30, 2007
Conjunction Junction
Posted in School Year Stuff
Today in English, Chantelle and I were doing conjunctions. So of course as I was reading the lesson, I had that lovely song by School House Rock stuck in my mind. So I ended up finding it so that Chantelle can understand why it was torturing me so much and to help her understand conjunctions much more. I did find it on Myspace just a heads up. Conjunction Junction by School House Rock.
Oct. 13, 2006
It's Fair Time !
Posted in School Year Stuff
This past weekend we went to the Topsfield Fair here in Massachusetts. I haven't been in years. I think the last time we went either Matt was an infant or he wasn't even born. Either way we had a blast.
We got in for free by donating old cell phones to the "Hope Line". The Hope Line is a program that I believe our phone company puts on that takes old and new cell phones, refurbishes them and then gives them to women who are or were victims of domestic violence. I very worthy cause and a good way to get the dusty phones out of my house.
We ended up spending over 6 hours at the fair. (We all slept very well that night). Matt and I got to ride an Elephant named Beula. I am in the way back, naturally, and Matt is right in front of me with the red cap on.
Last year, Matt and I did a lapbook on Elephants and when he saw Beula, he just had to ride her. He was telling the lady that walked Beula around all about how this was an Asian elephant and the other things he learned. I had no clue he still remembered! Her skin is very tough and is covered in these hairs that are very corse. Kind of reminded me of the bristles to a scrub brush.
When we were over near the horse arena, we had to wach the horse judging because my daughter loves horses, there were tons of tractors and John Deer stuff. Matt was in little boy heaven! Here he is "driving" a loader.
I had to kick off some other older boys so that I could get this picture. They ended up getting so rough that Matt had to walk away in tears practically. So then we moved on to the John Deer lawn mowers. Now he was all smiles again. I just love how he poses for these pictures. LOL
We saw this totally awsome swing set that was made and painted to look just like a loader. When my husband asked how much it cost, (thinking if it wasn't too much we could save and get one for Matt) we almost had a heart attack. They wanted $25,000.00 for it!!! We can buy a real one for that much and turn it into a swing set. I'll admit that lots of labor went into making it and the company said it was made out of mahogany but it was painted so I don't see why they used such a beautiful wood.
Ride time! Man we spent a ton of money on tide tickets. Most of the rides took 4 tickets and each ticket cost 1.00 each! Of course I didn't get any pictures of Chantelle on the rides. Steve was over at the big kid rides with her and I was with Matt at the little kid rides. Here is Matt riding a truck, what else.
Oct. 12, 2006
Our "Music" Class
Posted in School Year Stuff
I have never been much for teaching music. I took classes all through school on music theory and know how to read it, but thats about it. I have a very eclectic music library with all sorts of music with the exception of Rap. (Is that really music?)
Some sort of music is always playing in the house or car. I tend to turn up a song I like and sing along. Weird thing is all the music I listen to, my kids love too. Well with the exception of the 80's and 90's stuff I grew up on.
Anyway, yesterday I was on VH1.com listening to some music that I want to buy, mostly the top 20 stuff. My daughter asked me to find and play a song called "White and Nerdy" by Weird Al. I use to listen to this guys stuff in the 80's and 90's so I was surprised to see that my daughter knew who he was. (For those of you who don't know who he is, he writes parodys of other musicians songs.) I found it and played it. I had seen the video on tv before, but my kids had not, so they all huddled around my computer to watch it. After that I did a search for Weird Al on VH1 and found a bunch of the songs that I remember hearing like "Fat" parody of "Bad" and "Eat It" parody of "Beat It" by Michael Jackson. We ended up spending an hour watching Weird Al's videos then the original artists version of the videos. My 6 year old now LOVES "Eat It" and has asked to see the video constantly.
Last night I was thinking of having my daughter pick her favorite song from her favorite artist and write a parody of the song as a writing assignment. She hates to do creative writing so I have a feeling there will be a ton of complaints from her.
Sep. 27, 2006
Busy Busy Busy
Posted in School Year Stuff
We have been busy these past couple of weeks. Chantelle with her lessons at home and Matt with both school stuff and stuff we have been teaching him at home.
Matt is begging me and my husband on a daily basis to not go back to school. He says it is too boring. I have to believe him after going to the schools "Back to School Night" last week. The parents got to listen, not talk to, the teacher tell us about what the kids will be and what they have been doing. Everything that she will be doing is stuff that Matt and I did last year while we were unschooling him. After listening to her ramble on and on, I came to the conclusion that they will be doing nothing more than Language Arts, which the kids need, but they also need more math than the 2 days a week the teacher is giving them. No science in any form or even social studies. I remember doing them when I was in kindergarten, but then again that was years ago.
Matt loves math and science, so when he gets home from school (which is only 2 hours long most is prolly fluff stuff too), he hops on the computer to do a lesson on Study Dog while I make lunch. Then after lunch we do a math lesson in his Saxon 1 book. I don't do the meetings, just getto the meat of the lesson and I only do one side of the lesson paper per day. This way each lesson takes 2 days. After the math lesson we do either a science or history lesson. Science is 2 days a week, history is also 2 days a week.
He only complained once so far. All he wanted to do was a science experiment that he saw his sister doing in her Apologia General Science book. It was the Chemical Reaction experiment in Module 1. He may not totally understand what happened in the experiment, but he loved it just the same.
