We are now on the 2nd week assignment where we are suppose to share our plan for our homeschool year. I have shared somethings already but I will try to be more detailed for all the new people stopping by. I have a 4th grader, 1st grader and preschooler.
For our core subjects we do My Fathers World. This covers our Bible, Science, and History. MFW suggest different companies for the other subjects, some of those we use, some we don't.. So here goes!
My Father's World starts their history cycle with geography. You start with this year when you have a 2nd-6th grader. So my son starts here this year. K and 1st are separate so my 1st grader has his own year. They believe its best to have a firm foundation of where the places are in the world before learning about them. They don't believe geography should just be an add in where you kind of learn it. So Monday which was our first day my son and my husband and I took this geography test to see if we knew where places were. Well, we all failed - it will be so fun because at the end of the year we will take it again and we will know them all or at least most of them. They have some fun games and books where ones who have took it before us all say that we will be amazed how much we learn. We will also have a strong emphasis on missions where we will read about the missionalry lives of so many, Gladys Aylward, David Livingstone, George Muller and more. We will also learn about all the nations that still don't have the Bible in their own language and we will praying specifically for the nations in the book Windows on the World. I hear so many great stories how this year really brings others to life to your children and how they do amazing things with praying for others. I can't wait. To bring missions even more alive we will be praying for the missionaries that are talked about at our church, we will have a missionary table with pictures and letters from them on that we will pray for regulary.
We also do Singapore Math with the 4th grader, and the Complete Book of Math with my 1st grader, we do Jessie Wise's First Language Lessons for English and Sequential Spelling for Spelling. If you go to my sidebar under catagories you will see reviews I have done for these under Book and Product reviews.
My first grader is learning about the Bible this year. MFW really believes in starting history with the young ones with God's Word first. So he will be doing a bible notebook-we will talk about a story and he will draw something for it. He will also get his first bible reader and hopefully if phonics goes well will be reading it soon. I love Teach your child to Read in 100 easy lessons so I will skip the reading section in MFW and use that instead. Its more direct and my oldest son is such a great reader because of it I didn't want to change. My 1st grader is loving it and reading several words now.
We do Handwriting without Tears. We love this handwriting program, we have had great success with it. A while back my son had to have physical therapy for his legs and I even saw the occupation therapist there at Children's Hospital using it with kids for writing, It is a great program. My oldest is doing cursive and of course my youngest is learning to print.
I'm hoping to do several hands on things this year with my preschooler. I would love to get some lapbooks in and we are doing sonlight pre k where we just read lots of great books. She is also welcome to join us in the 1st grade whenever she likes.
At the top I have Our Homeschool where I list all the curriculum we use, that's where you will find all the links to their websites!
I do a Tuesday Meme called Tueday Review, make sure you stop over sometime and do a review and sighn Mr. Linky. It can be a book, curriculum, household item or beauty product you love. Anything at all!
If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing. I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun! Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry
New: If would like to do a review but Tuesday is not good for you please feel free to link up to Mr. Linky any day this week, we would love to read your review regardless the day you post it!
Today I thought I would share the Language Arts (English) program we are using. In a previous review I talked about our spelling program called Sequential Spelling-you can find the review here.
We love the First Language Lessons by Jessie Wise, we used the 1st and 2nd grade book with my oldest and now my middle son is doing it. Its very short lessons on grammar, short fun stories for reading comprehension, poems to memorize, abbreviations and much more. The great thing about this book is the lessons are short and sweet and everything you teach you repeat three times. I find everytime I teach a subject that is 5-10 minutes a day my children learn that subject the best, there really is something to that short but good approach, especially with young children that can get so bogged down with information. Its a classical approach that repetion helps children really get it and it WORKS! This book is really fun too, my kids enjoy it, my oldest used to say I love the blue book-that's what he called it. I think if you can find a book to make grammar fun its a MUST HAVE!
We are now using their new 3rd grade version, my son is in 4th and that's suppose to be out later this year however the 3rd grade is a great place to start with the new books, its really just the start book for you if your child doens't have a strong background yet in grammar and studies show children don't retain those rules anyway until an older age so you should start with the 3rd grade version unless your child has a strong backgroud and has retained it! I will have to let you know later how we like it!
Heidi over at reviewsbyheidi is hosting a meme about Disney, She has a schedule when to post certain pictures, tips for going to Disney, etc. If you have ever been or dream of going it is a fun meme to read and partcipate in, you can learn so many tips for planning your visit! We went in 2006 with my inlaws. We had a nice time and I feel blessed we got to go because my mother in law went home to be with the Lord this past January and it was great that we were able to take such a big trip together. However I wished we could have planned better, and my two youngest children were very young (still needing naps, etc.) so that made somethings really hard. We are hoping to go back in January of 2010 with my brother and his wife so we have plenty of time to plan and save and I am hoping to learn a lot from these disney experts. My kids will be 11, 7, and 6. I think that will be really fun ages to take! We are hoping to go to Magic Kingdom and Epcot.
This weeks meme is about anything Animal Kingdom. This was a nice place but honestly my least favorite, most of the animals you see there you can see at the local zoo. However there were a few things I loved. I loved the tree of life, this was a tree that had beautiful carvings throughtout the bark, you could walk through it and see some animals and beautiful markings throughtout the tree of animals and other things. My mil and daughter and I went through this while others were riding rides and we loved it. Also the ride where you get on a little tram and take a drive through an area where you can get a close look of animals, thats really neat! Here are some pics from our visit!
The Tree of Life!
What's an Animal Kingdom post without an animal? Look at this guy!
We captured this pic from a bridge with the characters in it!
Well Monday we start school, I'm excited and believe it or not I think my kids are a little excited too although they hate to admit it. We always buy fresh doughnuts the first day from a bakery and I have some special suprises at their seat when they come into the room-I thought I would share what I got for them this year. I found these galvanized buckets in Target's 1.00 bin so they each get one with their names on it and inside I have filled them with a new set of crayons, a pair of scissors, tape, a glue stick, pencils, and a special notebook they can write or draw in. I usually have a big bucket with all the crayons in it but we are always chasing them down with my preschooler that takes them everywhere. I thought it might work if they all had their own bucket for their supplies. We will see! Here is a picture of them:
It's hard to see but my husband wrote their names with colored sharpie markers!
Isn't it wonderful teaching and learning right beside your children? I wouldn't trade it for anything!
I thought it sounded like fun to partcipate in the homeschool blog award assignments. It sounds like a great way to get to know fellow homeschoolers and bloggers.
My name is Angela and I have been married 14 years. I have three children-a fourth grader, a 1st grader and a preschooler. I have been homeschooling since my oldest started school so this will be my 5th year. I love homeschooling, I really do. We start next week for the is school year and I'm so excited! We love the Charlotte Mason approach where there is real living books, nature study and gentle learning so there is time for special interest and learning life! This is why we do the My Father's World curriculum, we feel as a family this has all of the above with a Biblical Worldview! We learn history from Creation and on! Its also wonderful to teach multi ages, 2-8th all learn together!
I love to encourage ones that are considering homeschooling and I want the world to know that you can truly LOVE doing it! I have a passion for sharing the message and actually love to public speak especially when there are about things I'm passionate about like homeschooling.
I love to read, blog, and make scrapbooks for my family. I'm very active in my church and homeschool support group. I serve on a board and teach with my coop that we do on Fridays. This year I'm teaching goverment, which I happen to love to study myself. I know boring for most but I have a real love for my country and love to keep updated on current events and the history of our great nation! So it should be fun, we will see!
There is nothing I love more then to spend time with family and friends. I'm so blessed in this area and I wouldn't trade those times for anything. I can't wait to get around and get to know some of you!
If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing. I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun! Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry
New: If would like to do a review but Tuesday is not good for you please feel free to link up to Mr. Linky any day this week, we would love to read your review regardless the day you post it!
We LOVE James Herriott books. The great stories about a veterinarian's adventures with his towns people and their animals- the Treasury for Children is our favorite. Not only do I love the great stories about the horses and cats (tabbies are mentioned a lot and of course I'm biased toward them) and all the other animals but the illustrations are just beautiful, they bring the stories alive! You can just picture yourself there on a farm having the vet stop by and visit and having some cold lemonade while he visits with the cats laying at your feet! He now has a book on Labs I would love to get! Its on my wish list.
This is such a wonderful book for your young children and even 8-10 yr olds, well I'm an adult and I LOVE it so I guess its for any age that has a love of animals. This is for sure a book I will be saving for future grandhchildren when they visit!
Wow! I'm really feeling overwhelmed. I really want to get things together to start school next week. My post will be short and sweet this week I'm sure but hopefully next week I will be able to share our first week of school with you! I will be doing Tuesday Review so make sure you join us if you have any thing to review. Household product, food, place, curriculum or books-anything at all!
I know many of my readers know that my mother in law passed away this past January. We were very close, she was very special to me. To say I miss her would be putting it lightly. There has not been one day that has passed that I have not thought of her and wished to see her one more time. Oh I know I will see her again and there comes a great peace in knowing that however it doesn't always seem to help the missing her so much! We lost her very quickly, 2 months of cancer and she was gone. Even now its hard to believe that last school year she was here shopping with me for school supplies with no sign of sickness!
I have had so many wonderful friends and family members help us through by praying for us and even some online friends such as Tammy who has ministered more to me then anyone can imagine. One of the things she has told me is to walk through it, not around. She lost her mom a few years back and she knows first hand of that kind of loss. This is the first time in my life I have dealt with this kind of grief but I have felt God's presence for sure! It would be so much easier to skip the first year, the first birthdays, first holidays, and on and on. We can't do that though, we have to go right on through the first and right on through the pain. Its been the hardest things I have ever done for sure...........
Not too long ago I was sitting at church waiting for my son to finish his piano lesson and my cell phone rang, it said Judy's home. My heart raced for a minute wondering how that can be? No one had called me from that number on my cell since she died, then I realized it must be my father in law-he never calls my cell phone so when he calls our home his name and number show up but when he called my cell I had programmed her name for their house. After I spoke to him I pondered for a minute, should I change it? I took a deep breath and prayed and said to myself, yes I should change it- her home here in Ky is no longer her home, it needed to be changed. I was ready although it was terribly painful! There have been other things I have not been able to do yet.. I still can't watch the home videos with her in them yet, I took my picture screensaver off because the pictures remind me so much of her. We had so many memories together because I spent every Thursday and every other Sunday with her. Not to mention all the holidays, she was so into ALL of them-when the family gets together now its like there is a huge hole in the room missing someone so important, however its been 8 months now and its getting somewhat easier, we are making new memories and like Tammy said, she will always be a part of us, always.
Tonight after celebrating my sons and nieces birthdays with my husbands family we were coming home and out of the blue my 9 yr told me he wished he could see Gee one more time and just started to weep-as soon as we came in he went to bed and just cried and cried and cried! I wasn't expecting it tonight, we had a really nice time but I guess he realized how she isn't going to celebrate birthdays with us anymore. It just broke my heart because I know nothing I can say can stop the pain, nothing-he has to walk through it, of course I prayed with him and reminded him how much I loved him and just reminded him we weep but someday we will be reunited! Him like me knows this but it doesn't take the pain away or the missing her part-thats just the part we have to walk through! He cried quite a bit when we told him about her cancer but he has truly tried to think of her little because he said he hurts too much to think of her, I think tonight he just couldn't avoid it and I'm sure the cry was good for him even though it was so hard to hear! my precious son just weep with sadness that I couldn't change.
I was able to talk to her quite a bit while she was dying. It was such a painful time and although I'm glad we got to say things it was very emotional and intense. One of the things I told her was that I had learned more from her then she could ever know and she looked at me and said Oh I have learned more from YOU then you will ever know! How could that be? But oh what a gift! I miss you Judy! I love that song Homesick by MercyMe, it talks about losing someone and how it makes the ones left even more homesick for heaven. I am going to share a couple of things I have learned in this journey soon! My prayer is that it may help someone else who has recently lost someone, I know hearing other's stories has been so theraputic for me.
If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing. I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun! Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry
New: If would like to do a review but Tuesday is not good for you please feel free to link up to Mr. Linky any day this week, we would love to read your review regardless the day you post it!
I recently received a subscription to the Digital Old Homeschool Magazine to review! How fun!
I really was skeptical before reading my copy. I just couldn't imagine reading my favorite magazine on the computer and not in my hands. This is the magazine that I can't wait to open every month and read every article AND the ads. It is by far the greatest homeschool magazine I have seen! Could I really enjoy it in the same way on the computer?
Well I did! The pictures were colorful, and you can zoom in on any page for a closer look! My favorite thing was everytime you see a website, EVEN in the ads you just click on it and it actually takes you to the site, how great is that? You can look at all the pages in one screen so you can pick what you want to read in case you don't want to read it in order. If you own a laptop and take it with you a lot you can read it on the go! Another great thing is you don't have to store the magazine, you can just save the articles that interest you-I'm so bad about keeping all the magazines and telling myself I will go back later and tear out what I want to keep but never seem to get around to it. This way you can just store it and always have it and not have to organize a large amounts of magazines.
It is a truly wonderful way to read your magazine! You have to try it for yourself, you won't regret it! You can go here to get your own!
We enjoyed VBS and hopefully many children were ministered to. I know even my children who are growing up in church just LOVE VBS! Its 2 1/2 hours of undivided attention from adults for them, they have such a great time. Everyday when they woke up they wanted to know if it was time to go to church yet! We did the Power Lab theme and enjoyed mixing up science experiments and making really fun science crafts. Most of all we learned God gives us power to do many things, like give thanks and have bravery and the greatest gift eternity in Heaven! Here is a slide show with some fun things we did!
This is open to all school families! Homeschool, and traditional school!
Come and join in on all the fun!! Mommies United is having an entire week dedicated to that one day the kiddos go back to school!
Plus the prizes... Yes there will be prizes to win, to get your little one started with school shopping. From educational, to clothing there are some great things to win. Just in time for school to begin, so stop by and join them.
In anticipation of our big event they are giving one very lucky blogger a chance to win one of our SURPRISE GIFT BASKETS!
Your basket will include:
V-Tech VMotion
Kraft Bagel-fuls
Gift check for Starbucks new beverage, Vivanno
Burger King Crown Cards and Kids Meal Crayola back-to-school toys
Brothers-All-Natural Fruit Crisps and Potato Crisps
So, you want to know how to win? Blog about their Back to School event and add their button to your sidebar. You can get this at the site above in red! Then make sure you sign their Mr. Linky!
Well today my husband and I have been married 14 years. I'm so glad I have had the chance to spend my life with him! Like any marriage it hasn't always been easy, there have been trials and sadness and times we just wanted to throw each other out the window! However the joyous times have by far won out! We have three beautiful children God has blessed us with, a love of Jesus, and a commitment till death due us part that we really mean!
I'm so grateful that we have the same priority for our family, to raise our children in the lord., to homeschool them, to take them to church. I can't imagine the heartbreak of not having a mate that wants that for their children and I know what a blessing that is.
I also feel blessed that my husband works so that we can be home. We don't have much and many times have struggled with money but he feels it is well worth the sacrifice for us to care and school our own children. I know many men that would never support that-oh how blessed I am!
If I could go back 14 years and get to make that decision again, I would make it without hesitation.
Wow! I can't believe my middle son turns six years old today! Where has the time gone? Zach is such happy child and such a blessing to our family. He LOVES cars and trucks, I mean LOVES them. By the age of 3 he knew more makes and models then I did! They were some of his first words! His favorite bed time story is the car dealer magazine(you know the ones you get free coming out of a store that has cars for sale in it) He could look at one of those for hours.
He is my high emotional guy. When he is happy he is VERY happy, when he is angry-oh boy he is VERY angry. He has been the child that has challenged my husband and I more then we thought we could ever handle but God has taught us so much in it. He is strong willed for sure! We have learned so much about anger and how to handle it and Zach is becoming such a great little guy! Its convicted me more then anything on my own anger issue and has made me confront it head on. Zach is learning too how to be Angry but Sin Not! It hasn't been an easy lesson to learn but the rewards are paying off.
Zach loves to cuddle, he is my true cuddle bug and I'm going to miss this so much some day when he doesn't want to do that anymore. He loves to draw and is becoming a great little artist (something he totally gets from Dad, sorry to say) He is learning to read and its so great because everytime he read a word he gets so excited we all end up jumping up and down-its so fun to have a child that truly gets excited about life and teaching him is pure joy! I really thought he would be the child the most difficult to teach but God has taught me not to underestimate him in that area either!
We love you so much Zach and hope you have a wonderful birthday!
If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing. I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun! Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry
New: If would like to do a review but Tuesday is not good for you please feel free to link up to Mr. Linky any day this week, we would love to read your review regardless the day you post it!
I just bought a bathing suit. I hate buying bathing suits-even when I was a nice thin woman I hated wearing them. I never felt they were modest enough, I thought it was crazy you had to feel naked just to go swim. Well now that I'm NOT a skinny woman I sure don't want to be wearing one, its even worse. So I decided I was going to get one this year I felt comfortable in and was very modest, I knew I would have to pay big for it but it was worth it if I was going to be in public with it. Well I found one on the Lands End website, it looked perfect. Now I didn't know how it would look on me since I don't look anything like the professional model that wore it for the website so I was still skeptical until I tried it on. I LOVE it. It is very modest (as modest as it can get I guess) and its so comfortable. It looks like shorts and shirt. It was 59.50 but I will keep it for years, even if I do good and lose some weight it should fit and well if I lose ALOT thats worth the reward of a new suit. If your looking for something comfy and modest this is it!
Wow! We have a busy week coming this week. I'm teaching VBS every night and we have a birthday and anniversary this week in our family, I will be writing about them later in the week.
I will be posting my Tuesday Review this week so if you have anything at all to review-household products, books, curriculum, anything that makes life easier or fun for you. We would love to read your reviews!
We have been having so much fun this summer, I hope to post pictures of some of the things we have been doing soon. I know friends and relatives love to see these.
Are you all ready to start school again? We are getting ready and I'm looking forward to sharing some post about that!
I hope you all have a great week, Pray that our VBS goes well and that every child there is blessed and ministered to!
A couple of weeks ago we had to go to our basement for a possible tornado sighting. What really made this scary was the sky near our home was really creepy looking. The clouds were lower then I have ever seen in person and the storm was bad. We gathered our pets (two cats and 1 dog) and of course our family and went to our basement. We prayed, TWICED! Praise to God a tornado never came and it it wasn't long and we were able to come upstairs. The real bummer ended up being that our electric was out for hours and it was a 90-degree day but hey that beats a tornado any day!
I have really been convicted lately to simplify my life, less stuff all the way around. I have really enjoyed de clutterering this summer. Every bag that goes in the garbage, to Goodwill, or to other people has been a huge blessing and feels like a load off.
I was thinking as I was in the basement what would I really miss if my home was destroyed? Trust me I don't want to lose my home but I do know it can be replaced. I was amazed of how little that would feel like a great loss. Of course before anything would be my family, the thought of a loss there is too painful to even think of , I would hate to lose a pet (you know how that is) They are a part of your family but material things, well what would I miss? Of course my prayer was and thankfully answered I wouldn't lose anything but if I had to this is all I could think that would cause a real ache in my heart.
My pictures (ones developed and ones in my computer) There are so many memories there! That would be a great loss.
A few things my daughter and I inherited from my MIL"S passing this year- they don't have great monetary worth but they are worth so so much in my heart. It would be sad to lose them.
My curriculum and school books-its true these could be replaced. But with a tight budget and many of these things borrowed-it would be so difficult to replace them for this coming school year.
Our home videos- Wow, my husband is a video making machine-he would be DEVASTED to lose these. There is nothing he loves more then to video his family making memories, let me tell you! Many Many hours of our family making memories, many with my MIL that passed. What a loss that would be!
That was my list; out of all the stuff we have when it came down to it that’s what I would miss the most! It’s amazing how things that cost so little are what we cherish the most. It’s a great thing to remember when we want to spend too much on something that doesn't have real value! It helped give me a new perspective!
If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing. I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun! Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry
New: If would like to do a review but Tuesday is not good for you please feel free to link up to Mr. Linky any day this week, we would love to read your review regardless the day you post it!
Today I'm reviewing the IF/Then chart and The Blessing Chart from doorpost. These are some great charts and they really help in your discipline and help you to stay calm when handing out the consequences. I had seen these for the first time at the doorpost booth at a convention but didn't think much of it. However when I read Terri Maxwell's book Homeschooling With a Meek and Mild Spirit I really became interested in the charts. She talks about her struggles with her temper when her children were younger and how the frustration came because sometimes the punishment seemed too easy or too harsh and never consistent. It was causing her to yell and not really know where to go somewhere with disciplining her large family. The if/then chart changed all that. It has the sin/bad behavior in one column, a scripture verse in the next column about that particular problem and then the consequence. So for example if you have a child who was caught lying you would take the child to the chart, read the verse together and give the consequence for lying. She didn't need to yell anymore. It was just you did this, this has to happen now. If they continue to argue then you go to the arguing problem. If you have never done this before and your children are used to you yelling, negotiating, giving in, etc. It will take awhile to adjust but if you are consistent and you don't lose your cool it really starts to be effective.
The Blessing chart has the same thing except it rewards exceptional behavior so when you catch your child doing great things you can have a little reward to encourage it. It doesn't have to be a gift. It can be 15 minutes later bedtime, extra snack, etc. Of course you don't want to reward for expected behavior but it is a great thing to reward really great things your kids do sometimes. Its really encouraging to them, especially in a character trait they need work in. My son has really struggled with greed lately, (really bad) We have really been working on it, I truly wondered if my husband or I was getting through and just recently I have really seen him putting himself second. He actually gave something to his brother today that he really WANTED because he knew it was something that meant a lot to his brother. Thats so exciting for a mom to see.
We laminated our charts so we can change the consequences and rewards when ages change, etc. My husband actually colored the black and white images so its really colorful now and the consequences and rewards are written in a black erase pen so they can be erased easily. They are in our hallway!
This blog will just be about all the things I love-my dear hubby,-decorating, MFW, teaching and enjoying my three children, reading great books, and longing to serve Jesus in all that I do
Our year!
