Homeschooling Questions

Posted by Cindy on September 30, 2011

I’ve seen this meme on several blogs and thought it might be fun to participate.

Homeschooling Questions

1.  One homeschooling book you have enjoyed.

For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macauley

This is truly the main book that shaped my homeschooling style in the very beginning.  I recommend it all the time for those who are interested in a gentle, Charlotte Mason or relaxed style of homeschooling, and those who are frustrated with the “traditional” method.

2.  One resource you wouldn’t be without.

The Internet!

3.  One resource you wish you had never bought.

I don’t like to negatively mention any product.  What doesn’t work for me, will certainly work perfectly for someone else and I wouldn’t want to be a stumbling block by saying the product isn’t worthwhile.  There are several products that haven’t worked in our homeschool, but as I get more experienced with choosing things to meet our needs, I find I make fewer and fewer mistakes.

4.  One resource you enjoyed last year.

Just one???  If I have to narrow it down to just one, I’ll say my county’s extension office and the classes they offered.

5.  One resource you are using this year.

All of the curriculum resources I’m using are listed here.  Two others that are important resources this year = co-op (especially the biology lab) and field trips.

6.  One resource you would like to buy.

I really wish I would’ve purchased Diana Waring’s 2nd set in her History Revealed series: Romans, Reformers and Revolutionaries.  The price scared me off, but now I realize the price is well worth it because the curriculum works perfectly with our style.

Update – A wonderful cyber friend, Melissa, saw this post and sold me the curriculum for a great price.  Joy filled my heart when it arrived in the mail!

7.  One resource you wish existed.

I find myself patching together this and that for character training because I haven’t found anything that works just like I want it to.  Hmmm…Maybe that’s an idea for my next writing project???

8.  One homeschool catalog you enjoy reading.

I love CBD’s homeschooling catalog.

9. Which homeschool subject gives you the most frustration or anxiety?

Writing!  Strange for someone who writes herself, huh?

10. What is your greatest challenge in homeschooling right now?

My greatest challenge is balancing high school, middle school and preschool at the same time.

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I’d love to know if you complete the meme on your blog, too!

2011-12 Curriculum and Schedule

Posted by Cindy on July 29, 2011

High School, Middle School and K4.  Wow.  This year will surely test my homeschooling grit!  (Like the others haven’t, right?)  I’ve finally pinned down curriculum for the year ahead.  We’re all really looking forward to diving into some new materials, as well as some of our comfortable oldies-but goodies.

I’ll get right down to business sharing the main curriculum for each kiddo.  Remember, we NEVER do everything every day!

Mahayla – 9th Grade

Caleb – 6th Grade

Together

Eli – PK/K4

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We’re also jumping back into co-op this year where the kids will enjoy some fantastic classes once a week.  (I’m teaching the logic/critical thinking class and have shared those resources here.)

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Our daily schedule is always subject to change depending on projects, field trips, appointments, etc. – but here’s the tentative weekly schedule.

Schedule – Mahayla

Schedule – Caleb

Schedule – Eli Daily

AM

Primary Arts of Language Games/Worksheets

My Father’s World Science Activities

PM

Math and/or Art Activities

Bible Story and Literature Books

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 Happy 2011-2012!

Organizing E-Books

Posted by Cindy on July 19, 2011

I was giddy with excitement when I came across this post about keeping a visual organizer of all your e-books. Melissa and I have struggled much with the fact that it’s entirely too expensive to put our e-books in print. We know how many of you would much rather have a hand-held copy. Luckily, we found it really doesn’t take that much ink to print the units, and we’ve written our own post about how we personally put print and store our units.

However, many people don’t want to print entire e-books and we understand! Like most of you, we’ve purchased PDF files from other companies and stored them on our computer only to forget about them. Out of sight, out of mind. We don’t want you to forget about the NaturExplorers units – they’re far too much fun to stay hidden in the depths of you computer!

Sheri from Scrapbooks and Lapbooks agreed to allow us to post her wonderful idea for keeping a visual file of all the e-books on your computer. She has specifically written her post about the Hands of a Child lapbooks (which we love, too!), but the idea can be used for any e-books you own.

Sheri’s Post…

Ok, so after attending a conference last weekend, and hearing Niki from Hands of a Child speak and show her wares, I got to thinking….I know I have a lot of their ebooks, but which ones and where are they all. Well, yes-I am that unorganized with such things-I have them burned to CDs and on my flash drive…but not all in one spot (now I do, as I made one CD with just those on it). So then I thought-hmm, when I am planning, I don’t want to have to go thru the CD to see what I have…how can I make it so I know which ones I have and have it all neat and tidy? Hmm…then duh! I have had some postcard plastic sheet holders (I used them in my SU demo chick days to showcase the cards I made) and well-why not…

So I right clicked/saved then transfered to MS Word, the pics of the ones I have. I resized em to fit the holder slots, and now I have a nice display and reference of what I have. No more guessing. I can easily slide them out and rearrange to add more down the road too. I did copy em in color, but one could easily do just gray scale. I used what I had laying around…so these holders are bigger than what most would want. I know you can buy those baseball trading card holders (most stores carry them in the sporting goods or in the trading cards area) in a pack, and then you could just size them for those slots. It would save on ink as well as get you more per sheet, due to the smaller size. I also am have a section going for my Home School in the Woods lapbook collection, my Live and Learn Press and the A Journey through Learning lapbooks too. I just haven’t printed those but for one, due to running out of colored ink and time (IE: having to go thru my CDs to find them again…after knowing I had to get my puter diagnosed and then subsequently get it switched out from Vista to Windows 7-I had to do a quick “save it or lose it” CD burn-a-thon…so they are everywhere). SO that is for another day when I have nothing better to do.

Hope this idea helps you organize your ebook collection too…and man, frankly-I could do this for all my ebooks I have. Hmm, another project for down the road.

I have these stored in my Lapbook 3-ring binder. I also have the stuff I copy off from Homeschool Share in tabbed sections behind this-that way if I revisit the stuff, I have it already to go.

That empty spot is for the Hot Diggity Dog cover…I believe it is the current free one for the semi-annual freebie on HOAC..so until that is back on the site…that spot sits all empty like. Oh that is funny-just realized the Galaxies needs to go down to that blank spot and Hot Diggity can go after…guess I need to brush up on my alphabetizing skills-LOL!

I have one more on the back side of this…a couple are the free sample lapbooks (so I only have some sections of it-and plan on just writing “sample” on a slip of paper to slide in on top of them until I buy the full kit). Many of these are ones I got for free, others I bought, and one was a part of the goodie package I got when I renewed my TOS magazine subscription. I am awaiting the States, and the Astronomy one (just purchased them at the conference)…looking to check them out. Fun, Fun!

Thank you, Sheri! Be sure to check out her original post. Others have commented with some of their own organization ideas, too. And below is a little more about her and the FOUR blogs she maintains.

I also like to find ways to organize, and remember the huge collection of eBooks I now am in possession of. The highlighted post is one way I came up with to do just that.

Favorite Games

Posted by Cindy on November 22, 2010

During my workshops about creative homeschooling and living math, I often talk about incorporating games into the school schedule.  The question that always follows is, “Which games are your top picks for each subject?” So, for the record, I’m posting some of my favorites for various subjects.  Since this is the Christmas gift season, some of these games might be good choices for secretly educational gifts!

You’re gonna think I’ve gone widget crazy!!!! However, this was the simplest and easiest way to put together a post with photos rather than just writing a long and boring list.

I would love to hear about some of your favorite games!  We’re always up for something new!

2010/11 Schedule

Posted by Cindy on November 4, 2010

I promised this ages ago and it took a kick in the tail from Sprittibee to get me moving.  Here’s our general weekly schedule.  It’s just a sketch of what we try to do daily and weekly, but so many other things come up (like field trips, 4-H or orthodontist appts) that the schedule is very loose.  Very loose.

We do most of our Bible, science and history studies together.  You’ll notice I don’t have particular things like writing, art and music in the schedule this year.  That’s because I’m using science and especially history lessons to cover those subjects this year.  For example, at least once a week there is a writing assignment that goes along with the history learning – maybe a research report or historical fiction piece or project.

So, in short, just because it looks like each day’s lessons are rather light, there’s a lot more involved in the history and science subjects than meets the eye.

Since almost everyone asks…We’re TYPICALLY finished with school around lunchtime.  That doesn’t include read-alouds, music lesson practice, nature walks, horse training and the like.  Those are our more casual afternoon activities and aren’t usually “scheduled”.  Not every afternoon is spent doing academic style things either.  We plan most of our appointments and errands during the afternoon, so at least one afternoon a week is eaten up with these things.

When you live and school with the Charlotte Mason/Unit Study styles, a lot can be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time.  My kids are by no means geniuses, but they are very academically capable without having to pour over schoolwork for hours and hours a day.

You can see what curriculum we’re using this year here.

**Editing to add:  My children usually read before they go to bed at night, so reading is not typically part of the “school day”, even thought it’s part of our daily curriculum.