Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs...For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100:1-2, 5

Monday, June 28, 2010

Victory!

I ran in the Seattle's Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon this past Saturday. A 1/2 marathon is 13.1 miles for those who may not know. I was in pain the whole time (knee and hip), but I ran the whole way and finished...subsequently my time (2 hrs 37min) was not as good as I had hoped . But never the less...Victory!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

"School" Year 2010-2011 Curriculum

Here is a list of curriculum we are using for next "school" year...some of it looks weird, but I can't seem to fix it. Sorry:)

For Bible time I plan to do devotions (teaching them to have their own quiet times), this 7 C's curriculum
https://store.creation.com/us/product_info.php?products_id=355&osCsid=754e893f53a08b001f0ce11d8644ce7e
The Seven C's of History
I actually found many books at that same website that we will read and discuss...go check it out for yourself! As well as doing character studies, scripture memorization and doing studies on certain passages of scripture. There are many good devotion books out there...here are a few that we have enjoyed or are currently going through. There was 1 maybe 2 things that we didn't agree with...nothing doctrinally speaking though...I just skipped those.




























 I also love anything from Clay and Sally Clarkson...here is their devotion book, Our 24 Family Ways.

I will also be teaching 3 of my kiddos, Signing Exact English (sign language), which they already know some, but I want them to know much more.
















Art and Music, I plan to do more that we've done in the past couple years. I plan to do a artist/art study and composer/music study...one each month. I plan on just using online resources and the library for these. Hubby, I hope, will still be able to teach them the recorder...maybe get started this summer. We will continue this book we got last year... and my kids will do the YMCA Homezone program that is a swim, gym and art class.













Language Arts (grammar, writing, reading and spelling) I am going to try Total Language Plus this year. It combines all aspects fro LA with reading a book. The books we will read this year are The courage of Sarah Noble and The Whipping Boy and probably The Sign of the Beaver.

My daughter is going to learn cursive this year, so I will use what I used with the boys last year, which is Handwriting Without Tears, Cursive Handwriting. The kids learned printing with this curriculum as well. The boys will use the HWT's Cursive Success to get faster at it and writing on narrower paper.

For Math...we use Math U See for our math curriculum...2 children will be using Gamma and one will be using Delta. The thing I like about this curriculum is the progressive flow of concepts...there is a reason for what they learn and when. There are 30 "chapters" with 6 lessons in each one. The first 3 lessons are new content, the last 3 are new content plus review of previous content. It is a manipulative based curriculum...though some of my kids don't always use the blocks all the time. It comes with a test booklet...which I haven't really used much.
Math-U-See / Gamma Teacher Kit (Complete Kit)Math-U-See Delta Teacher Kit (Complete Kit)

For Science we will be learning chemistry...experiements galore! We are using a couple different books. Adventures with Atoms and Molecules is basically a little book of experiments with easy to gather ingredients.
The other book we are using is from Creation International Ministries.

Matterhttps://store.creation.com/us/product_info.php?cPath=21_28&products_id=990&osCsid=754e893f53a08b001f0ce11d8644ce7e




History for us will be American history from Native Americans all the way to WWII. This will make our year a little longer because I am trying to fit it all in, but we will still end in late June. I found some unit studies you can get at either Currclick
http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=24577&it=1
or from The Old Schoolhouse 
http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=334_407_417&products_id=2189
It is Native Americans, Colonial America (American Revolution included), Lewis and Clark, Westward Ho and the Civil War. I will be finding online resources and using books to get us through women's suffrage, WWI, The Great Depression/Dust Bowl Era and then WWII. I also found these History Pockets to along with most of the unit studies.































My goal this year is to make "school" more fun...so we will do critical thinking, games and activities. I will be doing my own modified version of the Workbox System from Sue Patrick, to teach more independence and responsibility.

Since I am also reviewing homeschool product for The Old Schoolhouse...I will also be using whatever the vendors send with my kids.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Online Homeschool Conference

Back in March, I took the opportunity to sign up for an Online Homeschool Conference called The Schoolhouse Expo given by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. In May, The Schoolhouse Expo, was a 3 day, jammed packed, morning until evening, speaker after speaker, learning and encouragement in the comfort of your own home. It also included 2 evening sessions that were before the actual conference.  I paid only $19.99 and that price includes $300 in free downloadable gifts, prize drawings every hour during the conference and best of all mp3's of all the speaker sessions. The Expo had a vendor hall with specials or freebies for anyone to frequent. I would highly recommend this to anyone, especially those who can't go to any conferences/conventions in their area.

Waiting!

Well...I am just waiting for the getting started information to proceed with the TOS Homeschool Product Review Crew. I am excited to start reviewing product...though I know that it will take up some extra time, but I think it will be good for me to "get out of the box" a little:)