TOS-Crew News

I announced earlier in the year that I was trying out for TOS Crew. Well I submitted my reviews for that process and have gotten the word. I am officially a newbie Crewmate. I will be reviewing various products for the middle and high schoolers from different companies and sharing my opinions here. I am so excited since my oldest is embarking on his high school years. I am trying to learn all the ins and outs of this new venture before we officially start our Cruise in July.  I am looking forward to meeting my Crew Mates and making new friends.

I am spending a few days away to plan out our school year so I am not trying to do it as we go. I found out we work much better with a plan before hand then trying to plan as we go.  I hope to have our lessons planned out on paper at least and hopefully all plugged into HST+ or Home School Inc not sure which one I will be using yet. I may decide to use one to plan and one to record but still playing around with that idea.

Well enough rambling for now...reading the Cruise Handbook and so excited to do this! I am excited can ya tell?

Having a rant today

I had not planned on posting today but after some things someone has said to me I felt the need. I chose to homeschool because my children were slipping through the cracks at school.  We also homeschool because it allows us certain freedoms. We homeschool because my son asked us to. We homeschool to learn to love the Lord. We deal with multiple behavior problems caused by a variety of medical conditions. In other words we do it for a variety of reasons.

In the past year no one has outright challenged out decision but many have made innuendos. Innuendos that suggest I am off my rocker and that I do not know what I am doing. That it is wrong or sheltering, that I am doing my children an injustice. I am sure everyone of them feels justified in their thinking. I however know better. I know my children and I know what traditional school has brought them. Heartache and pain! I know that they walk closer in the Lord because we homeschool. I know that they thank me for being their teacher. I know how to teach them the best.

Timeline is coming down!

Before I take down our timeline we created for this school year I thought I'd share it in some pictures and explain how we had set it up. We don't have much wall space to put up a time line and since we were using Ambleside Online as our curriculum for the boys we just had to have one! I loved the idea and so I set out to make it work.

First, of course, I Googled and searched the web to see how other home school families used timelines. I came across Higher Up and Further In where they color coded their cards by civilizations. I thought, hmmm...perfect! So I followed her directions and came up with our own color coding. We decided to categorize our events/people into four groups Politcs, Arts, Medicine, Inventions.

 So we had 1 timeline for each boys history. 1 for Ancient history and 1 for Modern history.  We only did the coding for the Modern since it was a wider variety of events but I think it worked well. The boys really enjoyed putting up the newest card and reading all the ones already up.  It was great as a built in review and towards the end of the year they had cards that actually brought the two time periods together and they needed to put cards onto the others timeline.

So changes I am making for next year...I will probably color code the clothespins, make a distinction somehow of the centuries, and  have the kids type up the labels for each card so it is more legible. Go here to see some other great examples of timelines and how tos!

Do you make a timeline?  How do you construct and display it in your home?  If you do please post a link I'd love to see them!

Chubby Cherubs Cloth Diaper Giveaway

So I have hubby's OK to try and start D back on Cloth Diapers. I love how cute she looks in them and the washing is not a big deal except when I end up picking liners out of the dirty bag! Daddy needs a refresher on that one. So far only 1 leak on mommy's jean this evening and that was probably beacuse I did not pre-wash 5 or so times like all the older dipes. I am looking forward to getting my stash up and having some good absorbent dipes on hand. For now we are usingcloth only during the day and while at home. It is so cute because I will watch D and can tell she has gone potty because she pats the front of her diper when she wets. She never does this with the paper dipes so maybe this will make it a benefit to potty training.

I have a great site for you to visit today.
Chubby Cherubs

Go to Facebook and "Like" them to be eligible to enter an awesome Dream Diaper Giveaway!

Lil Man makes progress

I am so happy yesterday we had a break through. Many of you may not know my kids, but you know some like them. They are the kids that slip through the cracks in the public schools. The ones who are exceptionally intelligent but with behavior issues that are deemed as annoying and not "really" a disability. They are the ones who know enough to get passed on but get through it so fast that eventually they will not retain it. They won't fail in school just later in life when it really counts, right. So because of this we homeschool.

We also homeschool for other reasons but I won't go into those today. For now I am sharing my pride in our trouble spot with Connor. Connor loves to tell stories but when it comes to writing it takes 45 minutes to write 4 words and that is with much crying and teethpulling. We have been doing lapbooks lately and even that smaller amount is really hard on him. But today he was awesome. His assignment was to write about the bullets and weapons of the American revolution on a 3 piece mini-book. He wrote in complete sentence format (without asking if he can only write the important words), he wrote in his own words (where I usually write the info on the board and he copies it), AND when I told him to add more to it  he happily did so with a short discussion of what he need to add. This was done in 10 minutes tops and done right.

The things that were different; I asked my oldest to take the answer sheet and using it as his guide work with his lil bro and help him, grandmother wanted to take them to lunch, we worked on our science project lab reports and then did our lapbook at our desks (which is a new thing). I am sure it had most to do with going to lunch BUT he did beautiful, nearly perfect work and did not rush through it. I am so proud of him and his bro for working together well, and for doing such an amazing job at school today.

What I did different today; read a World News Magazine while they were actively writing or left the room.  Hmmm wonder if that'll work again?  I love that God has given me this blessing. If he had been in public school this would have not been able to be celebrated and would have passed as just another day. If it even would have happened at all. 

Curriculum Part 1 - Spelling plans

I decided to go ahead and do the survey and placement tests for our spelling program now so I am prepared in the Fall to start our lessons. I think Connor tested right where I expected him but Brad tested lower than I thought he would. I am not surprised since I know how he writes and spelling is not his strong point but this was much lower than I thought considering his reading level is very high. 

I am hopeful that this program will benefit both boys and they will learn to enjoy spelling. I also am planning to somehow include Sequential Spelling for them both as a group lesson. I think they can both benefit  greatly from this course of relationships between words. It does not use traditional phonics lessons but shows the relationships instead a type of intuitive phonics if you will. I think they boys will respond well since it won't seem overly juvenile. I am starting with the first level and using the DVD with it so they can work together as I work with the baby. I really like that it is not a study type program which is the main reason I think it will work so well as a second program.

I plan on putting up some more of our curriculum we will be using this Fall. I am currently trying to reorganize our school room including our new desks for the boys. and will post on that when it is finished. We have about 3 more weeks of school before summer break is here and then things will get really crazy (and that's a whole other post)  so I am trying to get everything in order before August.

One tough cookie

Ok well I have a 14y/o son who was diagnosedwith ADHD at age 7. One of the first things I did was explain how the meds help him to control himself BUT that he was still responsible for how he acted. That meds are just a tool and that it's only until his body matures and he can control it himself. We have always made him responsible for his actions. Did he always take responsibility? No, but he knew it was expected and as he has gotten older has matured and worked very hard to control his impulseiveness and bounciness. Does he still ramble on a mile a minute about one single thing for hours on end? Yes, but he is much more aware and able to control it if he knows we are not listening or if we tell him it's not a good time.

We focused on giving him tools to help him learn to control himself, limiting screen time, certain activities (fidget sensory "toys"), empowering him in the direction of his care. He recently expressed a desire to get off the meds because he felt he no longer needed them. We agreed if his doctor would and so we made an appt and his doctor was ok with it. So he is now in total control of his own body, does he slip and act hyper? yes. Is he a much happier kid? YES! And that is even with being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes the very same night his doctor told him he could stop taking the meds for ADHD. He conquered ADHD and now has a battle to win over Diabetes.  He will be graduating 8th grade in about a month and I just can't say enough how proud I am of him.

From 2009-07 (Jul)

Giveaway Winner!!!!! & Expo

We have a winner for the giveaway. Congrats Jenni!

I went to the St. Louis Homeschool Expo Thursday night and Friday and will go again tomorrow. I will be posting all about it but suffice to say I was a little overwhelemed but all in all very pleased. Such a relaxed and friendly experience. Most times when you are looking for things and shopping with a few hundred of your closest friends (laugh it was funny) you end up in a not so happy state to say the least. This was the most pleasant experience for me though. No pushing, no snobbery and just a relaxed and rejuvinating feeling.

Lingua Angelica Giveaway - 3/28/2010

In the past I have been blessed by the wonderful ministry of The Book Samaritan and one of the books which I have received is the student workbook for Lingua Angelica I by Memoria Press.

This is a Christian Latin reading course designed to go along with Latina Christiana.  I have not used this student book nor the accompanying curriculum but it looks very good. SO I am hoping to bless another family by my giveaway. Now I have never done a giveaway on my blog before but it seems appropriate to require a comment as an entry. In your comment please tell me why you love teaching Latin to your kiddos and follow my blog, you can earn an additional entry for spreading the word on FB, and 1 (for a total of 3) for blogging about my giveaway with a link to my blog.
 I will use a random generator to choose the winner on Friday April 2. I will announce the winner's on Saturday April 3 I have decided to extend it. Entries will be accepted thru April 8th midnight with drawing held on April 9th.. Good Luck!

TOS giveaway

I am short on time today but wanted to give you a heads up on a giveaway at The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew blog. It is for a curriculum called Truthquest and it looks fantastic, Here is last years review. Also I will be hosting a giveaway myself soon. Details forth coming.

Currclick GC

So last week I won a GC to Currclick (which I never win stuff) and I have been trying to figure out what to spend it on. I think I may have decided on this but for the 1st edition. Unfortunately that is the one I can not find on the site. I have emailed the creator of the lapbooks and hope to hear good news otherwise I don't know what to use my gc on.  I am sure I could find something but want to be a good steward of my gift and use it on next years curriculum.  Maybe I'll get lucky!

Field Trip Today

So we were supposed to go to a Missouri Conservation Nature Preserve to take a Nature Journal class today. It rained! Alot...so we went to the St. Louis Science Museum instead. We spent about 5 hours there and we all had a wonderful time. We really got to take our time and play with all the "toys" and we went to the special exhibit area, which we never get to do. It was called Dinosaur Exploration and was very interesting. We had to keep up with the boys because they had too much fun going from one dino to another and back again.  Did we learn anything? Yes I believe so, did you know that some dinos had a feather like coverings? Apparently in recent excavations and study it has been discovered these dinosaurs were not reptilian but more bird like. It was quite an eye opener. I took some pics with a dinky disposable since like a dummy I forgot my camera but hope fully will get some up here next week (pray they turn out).

Lil Bits School

(we went with trays for now instead of the drawers)

So I have been spending the better part of the last few weeks training my 12 mod to "Please give Mommie back the boys workbox tags, thank you." I kept thinking what could I do to get her to leave their boxes alone. She has at least progressed beyond just putting said tags into her mouth and is now putting them "away" which essentially means almost anywhere but sometimes in the boxes. I finally decided to make her a set of boxes for some of her new playthings to go in and make her some tags too! It is working beautifully and if I get some time this weekend I will be posting pics to show how much she likes it. Right now she has her Tag Jr., Violet Pal, soft blocks, rubber duckie, and 2 other books in there and she hasn't mastered the drawers yet (they don't open as easy as big brothers' since they are newer) but soon I am sure. I also introduced her to the Color Wonder markers and paper with a resounding crinkling she approved. She is just growing so fast, becoming more interested in how things are used then how they taste!

Teacher's Book Bag Giveaway

I never win anything so when I opened my email this morning and saw I had won the first giveaway at Teacher Book Bag for a $20 gift certificate to Currclick I was pleasantly surprised.  TBB is having a week long spring celebrations and giveaway so head on over and check them out they always have something great.

TOS Crew Review #2

"Molly's Money Saving Digest January 2010, Evaluate,Prioritize, Organize" published by The Old Schoolhouse is the second e-book I was invited to review from The Old Schoolhouse as a part of the Homeschool Crew. I was in no way compensated for my review other than being allowed to keep the free copy of Molly's Digest I was asked to review. This one really floats my boat because I am a military wife and we ALWAYS are looking for ways to save some money! I am familiar with Molly Green's Econobuster's  and have frequently checked out her advice; but what I haven't done, that I now wish I had, was subscribe to her digest. After all it is only $4.95 an issue. After reading this one I am hooked for certain.

I really loved the candid articles and wonderful pictures that accompanied them. Each issue is organized around a central idea (good for those of you like me who tend to wander, lol), and is chock full of great ideas.  There is always Molly's Minute, where she lays it on the line. Begin With The Basics is excellent for teaching those homemaking skills,a list of things that would be on sale this month, special holidays to celebrate, and then there is my favorite, organizational tools. This section is the meat, full of awesome printable charts and planning sheets for anyone who needs to budget and save.  Also included are ways to decorate on the cheap (and not look like you did), and a whole week of dinner menus (including shopping list).

There is an entire section for teaching kids the ways of being frugal and finacially wise too! I don't want to spoil the goodies inside this gem but Molly really has a great resource for you. So many great links and printables to use to save you some money and improve your home and school while doing it, and for such a great deal. If you buy 5 you save $5 how cool is that, it's like getting one free. And since they are downloads you have them in your hands right away.

Now of course what review wouldn't be complete with out a suggestion, right? I suggest you load these onto your book readers and enjoy during those long waits at the dr.s office or what have you. By the time you get home you'll be so ready to tackle those stumbling blocks in your path!