My cutie pies

I just had to post this. Jasmine and Rosie dancing around. ;)

Homeschool Freebie

I just wanted to share a site that I recently found.

Homeschool Freebie of the Day

Each day of the week (Mon-Fri) they post a new freebie. Each freebie looks to be a PDF download. This weekend they are having an 'End of Summer Bash' where you can get more then just one freebie.

Hope you find it useful. Have a great weekend!

This is so Awesome...

I just came across a new toolbar today. Yep a toolbar. But this isn't just any old toolbar. This one is so perfect....perfect for homeschoolers! :)

I love it! Seriously. It's the Homeschool Toolbar and it has some great features.

• Homeschool blogs
• homeschool websites/resources
• email
• Gadgets - todo list, notes, calculator. (I love the notes)
• weather
• You can personalize....I added buttons to open Word, Excel, notepad and paint with one click.
• The search box is really neat to. You can search the web, the site your on and ebay! AND if you see something on the page you're on that you want to learn more about just highlight the words and they automatically show up in the search box...just press enter to do your search!

How cool is that? Really? Ok, so go check it out. On their site you'll see their complete list of items on the toolbar (I didn't name them all) and at the bottom of the page they have a picture of the toolbar. I hope you like it too!

All About Spelling

Lily (10) recently started doing All About Spelling and so far it's working well.

She's a terrible speller (the poor thing) and after looking at many different programs I decided on AAS. Being that it's hands-on (letter tiles) with constant review of what she needs (index box system) I knew this would work very well for her.

We started with Level 1 and have been doing about a 'Step' a day. We are now almost through Level 1 (It's been 3 weeks now).

I just received my order of the next 3 Levels. :) Yep, the next three. See, I knew we needed Level 2 really soon. And then there was a sale on Level 4 so I wanted to buy that one too. So I might as well get Level 3 also. Right? To save on shipping. :)

Well, back to how Lily is doing. She really likes it. She likes spelling words with the tiles. She doesn't even mind spelling the words on paper too (and she hates writing). She's flying through the first level because the words are so easy, again she is 10. But I'm glad that I started with Level 1 for a couple of reasons. First, Lily's confidence about spelling is up because she is flying right through this first Level. Second, the review of all the letter sounds and the rules. For instances the letter o. Did you know that it makes 4 different sounds? As in - odd, open, to, and oven. I hadn't realized that. Then again, I never sat down to try and figure that one out. Anyhow, I'm glad that Lily is learning to memorize all the sounds associated with a letter and not just the basic sounds we all know.

In yesterdays lesson she learned how to tell whether or not to use the letter 'k' or 'c' in different words. Like 'kit' and 'cut'. It depends on the letter following it.

Oh, and I don't get a fight when it's spelling time now! That's a huge plus in my book.

When Lily is done with Level 1, I might start Jasmine in it. Of course we would go really slow. But I think she would be ready for it. She already can spell some what (3 letter words). She can read the Bob books, so I think she's ready for this. In fact, I believe that it will be fun for her because of the letter tiles. She's already trying to help Lily. Of course so is 'Rosie', but her idea of help and our idea of it are two different things. :)

Funny...

(from an email my mom received)

My five-year old students, are learning to read.

Yesterday one of them pointed at a picture in a zoo book and said,

'Look at this! It's a frickin' elephant!'

I took a deep breath, then asked...

'What did you call it?'

'It's a frickin' elephant!

It says so on the picture!' And so it does...

' A f r i c a n Elephant '

Wordless Wednesday

Argh

So my girls are currently all outside playing. I'm upstairs in my room when I hear the front door open, then Jasmine's voice travel up the stairs "Momma, is Santa Clause real?"

WHAT!?! She's only 4 (barely), who in the world is telling her that he's not real!

I dart to the top of the steps as fast as I can to say, "Of course he's real! Who's talking about Santa anyways?"

I race outside and set the kids straight. ;)

Then I looked at Jasmine and I asked,
"You get presents every year at Christmas from Santa don't you?"
"Yes"
"See, he's real."

I think she was fine with that. You know, if momma says he's real then that means he's real. After all, I know more then little kids. :)

That just really irritates me!

Kids need to know not to spoil it for the little ones!

My husband happened to see Santa at work today (not in a Santa outfit). So he took a picture with his phone. I plan on showing the picture to Jasmine tomorrow. :)

Rosie-Posie

My little Rosie-Posie recently celebrated a birthday. Ah, my sweet, bratty baby girl is now two years old.

Here she is wearing her birthday hat.

Just Kidding!

What can I say about this little girl? Well, she's starting to come out of her shell a little more. She enjoys playing with the neighbor kids. She'll now give some of them hugs and let them hold her. She has started to talk a little more. Yesterday she put three words together (instead of the usual two) to say "Momma helpa me". :) She absolutely loves her big sisters! In fact, they haven't been her the past couple of days and I can tell that Rosie misses them. First thing in the morning these last two days she got out of bed, went into the hallway and started calling "Me-me". (Me-me is what she calls Jasmine). Awwww. That really made me smile.

Well, enough of that. Here are some more pictures.

Her yummy birthday cupcakes...

A pic of the three girls...

I love this one...the birthday girl playing with one of her new toys.

Or perhaps just the box it came in! :)

New shoes...and a new BUG?

Here's my Lily...

Do you like her fancy new shoes? Hey, they even match her shirt!

She made those herself. Well, with a little help from her Grandmother! It was her history project for the week from Days of Knights and Damsels.

Here's a pic of Granddaughter and Grandmother...





and finally...

A very strange looking bug that I'm told "Just fell from the sky".

Anyone know what type of bug this is? Jasmine keeps telling us it's a caterpillar. :)

Just some thoughts...

I just finished reading The Latin-Centered Curriculum by Andrew Campbell.

Here are a couple thoughts....

First, I decided while reading the book that I would drop Wordly Wise 3000 from Lily's schedule. The book pointed out that if they are learning Latin they really don't need an additional vocabulary curriculum. Well, duh. Just wish I had thought of that before. Lily never really liked doing Wordly Wise anyhow and I don't think she was really learning the vocabulary. So, that was an easy decision.

My next thought was this - Self-Education. For Me!

I'm really looking forward to starting down this path. I have already requested How to Read a Book, and The Well-Educated Mind from the library. Those should be in within the week. Then I'm going to move onto A Student's Guide to Liberal Learning and A Student's Guide to the Core Curriculum (My library system has those as well. Yeah!).

I'm excited. Now I just hope that once I start reading the Great Books that I don't get overwhelmed right away and give up.

You know, I really need a Grammar/Writing course. Hmm. Are there any adults that go through the Classical Writing series? Or are there any other good adult programs. Maybe (and I know this sounds funny), but maybe I should do copywork from the Great Books. That seems so silly though. If kids can learn that way though then I should be able to, right?

Ah, well. I don't really need to worry about that right now. It's not like I have the extra money to run out buy something for myself. *pouts* No fair!

Signing Time freebie

I was over at Signing Time today and found this freebie...

Starting June 10th, Signing Time Summer School is in session! At the beginning of every week from June 10th to August 22nd, come to www.signingtime.com to download fun, interactive worksheets and Signing Time summer activities that will keep your child learning and exploring the wonderful world of sign language. From making tambourines so your child can dance along with ‘Move and Groove’ to making ice cream with ‘Everyday Signs,’ the Signing Time summer packet will exercise your child’s mind and help to keep them one step ahead all summer long.

Click here to go to the Summer Activities page.

They also have a Teachers' Page here. There they have some activity guides, a chart to track your progress and some other useful information.

History Copywork

I created some copywork pages to go along with History Odyssey 1 - Middle Ages using a Getty-Dubay font from Education Fontware. A lot of the quotes that I used came from Trivium Academy's SOTW2 copywork and other sources.

Here's a sample...

If anyone is interested you can download the pdf document here.

*Here's hoping that I'm allowed to post that document. If not, please let me know*

Our timeline book

I'm so excited about our timeline! What can I say, I'm one of those people that gets all excited over anything that I work hard to create. Yeah!

So of course I have to post pictures of my work. :)

When thinking about doing a timeline I decided that a book would work best for us. I decided that I liked the notebook timeline from Homeschool In The Woods the best. They have a whole page that shows pictures and gives directions on how to make many different types of timelines. The one I made is about have way down the page, number 2 under Creating a timeline notebook. I printed each time period on different colored cardstock. I also added the time period to the top right corner of each page. It took me awhile to figure out how to do this. :) But in the end, I made mine using Excel. I made four pages, one for each time period, and printed each sheet separately changing the date each time. Yeah!

Here's a few pics.

Here's a page from the Middle Ages printed on blue cardstock!

*warning - the enlarged photos are really large, not sure how to fix it*

And a page from Ancient Times printed on tan cardstock.

After Lily gets some of her timeline figures in the book I'll post more pics!

Getting Organized Part 2

After creating the daily folders, I know need to create a weekly schedule.

In my last post Getting Organized Part 1 I mentioned that we were using an excel form from donnayoung.com that we really liked. But, I wanted to come up with something that would help Lily stay even more focused. Lily is my motor mouth and she distracts herself (and every thing distracts her) so easily. So I decided that it would be nice to have some sort of daily schedule to put into each of her folders. Good idea huh? Well, I couldn't find anything I wanted online. You know what that means...do it yourself. I created this very basic chart that I could just change each week, print off, cut up and place in her daily folders. Yeah. (Oh yeah, I've been printing it on colored paper for a splash of color.)



See, a very basic form but it's really helping. This system works even better if I gather all of her books and set them in a pile next to her. :) The only thing that may be an issue is that I don't have a copy of her 'weekly schedule'. I kinda do, I have the copy on the computer. Currently I've been looking in her daily folder to see what exactly she needs to do. So I might create another form for myself. I'm thinking maybe a 2 child weekly form so that I can schedule some stuff for Jasmine all on the same form. There's a form over at donnayoung.com that looks like it might work. It's called Planner for Two Children.

I must say that I love her site. :) I also printed off a yearly calendar from her that I put in my binder. I highlighted our planned 'vacations' and then I just mark an X on each day that she's present. Tuh-dah, our fancy attendance form.

I then printed off *surprise* another form from her site. :) This one lists subjects across the top and dates down the side. Then after she completes a subject I put a check in the box for that date. This is a great visual for me. I can just glance at it and easily see how we're doing or if we're behind on doing a subject (like art).

This year-at-a-glance form at Smooth Stones Academy looks like it might be nice to create. Hmm, I think I'm realizing that I like seeing stuff in bright colors.

I suppose that's good for now.

Have a great day.

Getting Organized Part 1

I haven't exactly figured out how to organize our homeschool. So far I have tried something different each year. Let's see here...

For the first year I used The Homeschool Planbook. Which probably would have worked wonderfully except that I filled out the planner for the whole year, at the beginning. Yep, you guessed it. I set myself up for failure. As soon as we got behind in one thing it messed everything up. Then I would start feeling bad, and that voice in my head would start commenting about me not being a good enough homeschooler...blah blah blah.

So then I switched to just scheduling one week at a time. Which helped a lot. I used this lovely excel form for donnayoung.org. I really liked this form. I would type out Lily's schedule for the week and print it out. Then I would tape it up so that it was right there and easy to get to. Then when Lily when finish a subject she would put a check mark in the little box.

This was a great improvement on keeping Lily focused, but not perfect. Also, I was trying to type up the schedule on Sunday evenings. This process meant that I would pull out each book and see what she needed to do next and the page numbers then key it in. As you can see, it was still a lot of work for me to do each week. This was also the time that I made any copies that we needed for the week.

And that brings us to now. We have only been using this new method for almost 2 weeks now. But so far it has been working wonderfully! But before I tell you what I do....I must tell you where I got my info. :) I have visited many blogs and websites (and I mean MANY) and I took a little from here, and a little from there. So I will try to give credit as I go along.

The first thing I realized that I needed (from many ladies over on the WTM board) was to continue making a weekly schedule each week BUT have a master schedule for each subject first to pull the information from.

I hope I'm making sense! :)

So to make up my Subject schedules I used a blank schedule form from Core Foundations and typed in our lesson plans. I then printed it off and put it my teacher binder. (I put colored dividers in the binder for each subject).

Here's an example of our Latin schedule keyed into the blank schedule.

Phew! It took me forever to figure out how to post that image. Anywho...

Next I decided to create daily folders. So Lily would have one folder for each day of the week and in each folder she would have all the worksheets/handouts that she needed that day. Yeah! And it's working. Lily is staying focused, she doesn't have to get up (and distracted) quite as often. I got this great idea from Trivium Academy. I plan on getting this desktop organizer for the daily folders.

It's been awhile...

I'm behind on blogging but I guess that's pretty obvious. It's so hard to get it up and going. I still haven't decided what to put on my sidebars. They're looking a little bare. So here's another attempt to get going again. =)

We're all doing good, enjoying summer. You know, swimming and playing outside. Fun, fun.

Jasmine just recently got her hair cut. It's really cute, but... well, I miss her long spiral curls. =( The curls kinda disappeared. The back is just slightly wavy now, almost straight.

So, here's before

And here's after...

Well, the pictures aren't the greatest. Ah, just another thing to add to my to-do list [figure out how to take better pictures]. Yeah, no problem. *rolls eyes*

Here's another pic, just because I think it's cute.

Me & my girls

Oh Happy Day!

Oh what a beautiful day today was!

We had the windows open!! I think I have spring fever. =o)

We took a long walk again today. Well, not Lily, she was running around with a friend. It was very enjoyable. When we were done with our walk neither girl wanted to come back in, so we went to the little 'baby' park here.

India went down the slide all be herself. It was so cute. The first couple of times she had a 'I'm not sure how I feel about this' look on her face. But she kept going done it again, and again.

They were outside almost all day though. Inside for a 'Littlest Pet Shop' break and then right back out the door.

Lily had a lot of fun climbing the trees with the neighbors. I didn't get to see her. But she was pretty excited when she was telling me about it. Apparently she is getting better. =)

______________________________________________

I made some very yummy oatmeal/chocolate (with a touch of cinnamon) cookies tonight! They taste good. Ok, well we think so. =P I usually don't make home-made cookies though. I'm usually a 'roll of cookie dough' kinda gal.

Here's the recipe if any one wants to try it out: (makes 2 dozen cookies)

1/2 cup rolled oats (regular or quick), 2 1/4 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter, 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 2 tsp. vanilla extract, 1 tsp lemon juice, 2 eggs, 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips, and 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts.

1. Preheat oven to 350`F. Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place rolled oats in blender or food processor and process until finely ground. Combine ground oats, flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a mixing bowl.

2. In another bowl, cream butter, sugars, vanilla and lemon juice together using an electric mixer. Add eggs and beat until fluffy.

3. Stir the flour mixture into egg mixture, blending well. Add the chocolate chips and nuts to the dough and mix well. Using 1/4 cup of dough for each cookie, place 2 1/2 in apart on prepared baking sheets.

4. Bake until cookies are lightly browned, 16-18 minutes.

Store in a sealed container to keep them soft and chewy.

Enjoy!

The recipe says that the prep time is 10 minutes. Well, it took me longer then that. But then again, I'm not a natural cook by no means and I was putting everything back were it goes once I used it. It made for a quicker clean up. =)

I hope everyone has a great week! =O)

Yes! It's starting to warm up...

I am so happy that it is finally spring. I don't like being cold. I hibernate in the winter. =(

Today we were able to get out for a walk. We still had to wear jackets but at least it's dry and not so cold, although it was pretty windy.

Before we headed out today I pulled out our copy of The Berenstain Bears' Big Book of Science and Nature'. We read the section on Spring. Then while we were on our walk we looked at the different trees and the grass and talked about the changes that will be happening soon.

I got a little workout there too...pushing the double stroller against the wind. Go me!

Your Business Math update

Lily loves it!!!

She just completed the first month of business of her very own 'pet store'. It is so exciting to see her enjoy doing this. We only do it on Fridays, the rest of the week she works on Saxon. But here she is, learning new math concepts and she doesn't even mind. And dare I say she's having fun...

Are there any other similar math products out there? I would love to add in something hands-on like this every year. If you know of something, please let me know.

Writing Tales

We started Writing Tales I about a month ago. So far so good. It's easy to do/teach. Lily gets done with the daily lessons pretty quickly. Which is a good thing (for her at least, she likes to take ALL day to do school). I need to work with her on....creating more. No....oh heck, well her stories have just been short and to the point. I want her to get into it more, spend more time on her story. Lily is a talker. She NEVER runs out of things to say or talk about. I just need her to apply this to her writing too. Not totally though!!!! Oh man, the story would never end then. =) Hey, she's a jabber box.

Any ideas on how to get her to output more?

Well, we are only on lesson 5 so I suppose she will get better as she gets more practice. I really shouldn't worry about it yet, huh?