Blooming at Home

I'm still here!

2011-11-11T19:28:00.000-05:00

I hate that I haven't kept up with blogging recently :( But, I'm still here and I'm hoping to get back to some homeschool related posts soon.

For now, I've really been trying to get my own business started so that has dominated my time. I added some new pieces to my inventory. Enjoy!

The Ant and the Grasshopper

2011-09-19T11:55:00.001-04:00

Last week Buster Brown and I read the Ant and the Grasshopper. The book is a suggested reading title in MFW 1st grade curriculum. So I wanted to tell you about a great resource that Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations has shared! These animal classification fandex cards were created to go with Five in a Row, but could compliment MFW as well.

Thanks Jolanthe!!!

Calendar Time

2011-09-08T09:00:00.012-04:00

My youngest 2 start each day with calendar time. At this point MJ can almost teach Buster Brown all the information we cover during this activity. I stay close to prompt when needed and to answer questions. I try to get J-saurus going on something while the other 2 do calendar time.

Pictured below is just an inexpensive dry erase board that I turned into a changeable calendar. I used a sharpie to make the grid, write in the days, etc. Then we use a dry erase marker to fill in the days. We used to add each day one at a time, but MJ likes to write out the whole month and cross of the days. On here we...

Write:   Month (Looks like a spelling lesson is in order!)
             The Date m/d/year
             Day of the Week
             The Season
             Weather Condition
             The Year

Next we...
Say the Pledge"...one nation under GOD!.." :)
Season
Number of the Day (MFW First Grade)
Yesterday/Today/Tomorrow
Address & Phone Numbers
Weather Chart

We finish with our Weather Calendar. I think I found this at Deals, a dollar-type store in our area. I've laminated the dates and weather symbols that we add each day. The black sqaures are velcro. Would've been nice to have white, but the black was free and free is good!

HTH!

MFW First Grade Phonics

2011-09-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

Buster Brown is doing very well with his new curriculum. This is the first year I've used MFW for first grade even though I've done first grade twice already! ;) In his workbook he's been writing the beginning letter for each word I read and then practicing some sound blending at the bottom of the page. Rather than cut out the vowels on the dotted lines, we use our letter tiles for this activity.

Hope you're having a great week in your homeschool!

Revised Schedule

2011-09-06T09:31:00.000-04:00

Now that we are a few weeks into the school-year, I'm getting an idea of how our days will flow. I came up with a revised 4-day schedule. On Wednesday morning we have Community Bible Study and AWANA in the evening so, that day will not have schoolwork planned. We can use any time we have that day for make-up work and for Buster Brown's Exploration Day which is part of the MFW first grade curriculum. It's a chance to get outside and study God's creation in a fun hands-on way.
(BB is Buster Brown, my 6 yo ds; FLL stands for First Language Lessons)

7a.m. Mommy: wake, dress, coffee, devotion

7:30 Kids: wake, dress, breakfast, teeth & hair, make bed

8:30 *Kids should be seated and ready to work!

-All: Bible (J-saurus & MJ CBS, AWANA -BB: MFW, AWANA)

-J-saurus & MJ: Spelling, Vocabulary, FLL, Writing

-BB: MFW1st Workbook, FLL, Explode the Code, Quiet Play

-All: Reading

10:00 Snack Break

10:15 Math

-J-saurus & MJ: Singapore Math, Drills, Computer Game

-BB: MFW Math, Drills, Computer Math Game

*Alternate between one-on-one Math help & Spanish

Noon Lunch

12:30 Chores, Clutter Control

1:00 MFW

-Monday: History

-Tuesday: Science

-Friday: Art

2:30 Free-time IF all work is completed and chores are done

5:00 Dinner

8:00 Bedtime Routine

9:00 Lights Out!

More Bracelets!

2011-08-25T18:04:00.000-04:00

I've been playing! I am lovin' creating with wire. These designs are not my own, but they've been good practice in getting comfortable with the medium. Each one is hand-crafted copper wire, artificially aged, and polished.

This one is made from copper washers that have been hammered, layered, and linked together. It is finished with a toggle clasp.

The next is a series of spiraled links connected with jump rings and finished with a hook.

Last is a very lightweight piece made up of a variety of spiraled links joined with jump rings and finished with a spiraled hook.

Which is your favorite?

Our first day (NOT) back to school

2011-08-23T16:04:00.000-04:00

Last night we had a mom's meeting for our homeschool group and opened the evening by introducing ourselves and stating how long we've been homeschooling. I hesitated...5? ...Really?...this is our 5th year?!
I began my homeschool journey assuming that it was what I would do for a year and see how it goes. I knew that it was the Lord that had laid it on my heart to raise our children this way, but I honestly didn't know how long it would last.
So, here we are. My oldest, who was just in Kindergarten when we began homeschooling, is starting 5th, my sassy girl is starting 3rd, and my little man is doing K....sigh....
Today was our first day back....Not back-to-school or even back-to-learning. That's always going on. But, it was our first day back on schedule and starting in on our new curriculum. We had a wonderful first day. A bit light on the workload to start, but overall productive.
Happy Homeschooling All!

Cleaning the Classroom

2011-08-16T14:03:00.000-04:00

Well, I spent most of the morning doing some more planning, organizing, and cleaning. Our classroom is just about done, so I thought I'd share my progress. This room used to be our livingroom, but shortly after deciding to homeschool it turned into our classroom. We have a familyroom so it's really a blessing to have this space just for us to work in.

The big black desk is mine, but my oldest likes to do most of his work here. To the left I have all the books we use most frequently, TM's and workbooks. Next to that, I have manila folders for each week of the homeschool year. I've gone ahead and put the student sheets from MFWCTG and MFW1st in the corresponding folder. To the right you can see J-Saurus' orange folders. We use these like workboxes. The tall bookcase has all our reference books, word and math games, and puzzles. On the wall are two cork boards at either end. The one on the right is our "Missions" board. Here we have a photo of our sponsor child, a map of Africa, and photos of missionaries we pray for.

So, at least half of the room is done. I'm waiting for my table to be delivered. It'll go on the other side of the room under the picture window. I can't wait! Right now I have little desks that my 8 and 6 yo have outgrown :( I'm giving them to a friend who has twin 4 yo girls. Just picturing them sitting at those little desks together makes me giggle!

Can't wait to show you the rest!

Preparing for "Not Back to School"

2011-08-11T23:15:00.000-04:00

It never ceases to amaze me how looooong winter seems and how lightening fast summer flies by. We have 1 more week to enjoy summer AND Daddy. He's off until the 22nd, when we plan on starting our homeschool schedule.

I have all my curriculum together with the exception of a few supplemental materials I hope to order on payday! So here's what we're using this year:

J-Saurus, age 10 (11 in October):
* MFW CTG (Creation to Greeks)
* First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind
* Writing Strands
* Spelling Power
* A Reason for Handwriting, Cursive
* Singapore Math

M.J., age 8 (9 in October)
* MFW CTG
* First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind
* Spelling Power
* A Reason for Handwriting, Cursive
* Singapore Math

Buster Brown, age 6
* MFW First Grade

On my Wishlist
* Mystery of History

This weekend I hope to get our "classroom" organized and ready for our first day!

I'll share pics ;)

Hanging on to summer

2011-08-09T18:13:00.000-04:00

I can feel it slowly slipping away...summer is coming to an end. We've been so blessed though to have had perfect swimming weather. On those super hot days, you could find us at MiMi and Papa's, my parents house. My dad and husband worked their tails off to build a deck that the kids could jump into the pool off of.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Copper and Pink Heart Necklace

2011-08-08T11:53:00.000-04:00

My second completed project! I'm pleased with how this necklace turned out. I started playing with some 16 gauge wire and ended up creating the heart. I just went from there. I think I'll keep the original copper finish as opposed to antiquing. Now I need to get a good inventory of art pieces completed and I'll be ready to sell!

Copper Bracelet

2011-08-06T18:48:00.000-04:00

I'm so excited to share my first completed piece of jewelry art! I've dabbled in jewelry making and other crafts over the years, but never found a medium that I felt confident in. Recently, I began playing with copper wire after finding a book at the library. One of the pieces in Sharilyn Miller's book, Contemporary Copper Jewelry, inspired this bracelet.

The last photo is my favorite. I love how it looks in natural light. I'm playing around with the photography a little bit to see what works best. I wanted to show what the bracelet looks like on the wrist, but I don't think that photot does it justice. Each of the links and dangles are handmade. After assembling the bracelet, I gave it a bath in liver of sulfur to get the color I was after. I cleaned it up with 000 steel wool and polished it with a jewelry cloth.

I've been working on other projects all week, but I've run out of wire! I can't wait to show you my next creation.

Home Educating Family Publishing

2011-06-28T11:21:00.000-04:00

Giveaway!

From Home Educating Family Publishing...

Both Sides of the Barn Giveaway

Enter to Win
1. "A Journey Home" from Franklin Springs Media
2. "Beside Still Waters" by Tricia Goyer
3. Well Planned Day Planner, 2011-2012
4. 1 year subscription to Home Educating Family Magazine

This prize pack has a value of over $70.
Contest Dates: June 23, 2011 through June 30, 2011.

One entry per person unless you share this contest. Fan us on facebook and let us know where you have shared, and we'll give you an additional entry for each share! Be specific so we can verify it for your entry.

Summer School!

2011-06-14T15:35:00.000-04:00

After much thought and prayer (and reading other blogs), I've set our schedule for summer school. If you homeschool, you know that learning never takes a vacation, but as far as any formal learning or following a curriculum goes, school is NOT OUT for summer!

Throughout June, July, and August, we will be doing schoolwork 3x's a week, taking off the week of VBS and the last 2 weeks of August. I'll use those last weeks in August to finish preparations for the 2011-2012 school year.

Tues., Wed., and Thurs., will be our planned summer school workdays, but we can use Mon. or Fri. if something comes up on the other days. If Monday is rainy and Tuesday is a perfect day to swim, we'll do our work Mon. and enjoy the weather Tues. It should only take a few hours to do our work so even though we aren't putting the workbooks away for the summer, we'll ceratinly be enjoying SUMMER!!!

Wildlife Fair

2011-04-26T19:32:00.000-04:00

Our local homeschool group hosted a "Wildlife Fair" several weeks ago. Each child picked an animal to report on using a project board or diorama. J-saurus put together a power point on the Komodo Dragon ( I didn't get a picture! ), M.J. decorated a 3-panel project board with Cheetah facts,

and Buster Brown constructed an Emperor Penguin diorama ( We also did a lapbook ).

Our group's coordinator invited "Alligator Eric" to show the children some of his animal friends...

J-saurus was in heaven! He couldn't keep his hands off the alligator, named "Beautiful," and he showed off his knowledge of reptiles answering almost all of Alligator Eric's questions! Since we are studying biomes and animals from every continent in My Father's World, this event really enhanced our curriculum. We just finished Africa in ECC and we plan on going to the matinee Friday to see African Cats!

Blessings!

Fact Families

2011-03-24T22:38:00.000-04:00

Well, it happens I guess. You buy a curriculum for one child and it works well and you're all set to use it for the next child and it's not the same experience...because it's not the same child.

Well my 2nd grader, M.J., is struggling with Math. It just hasn't clicked for her. We're using Math U See right now, but will most likely be switching here soon.

I searched for some resources to help her really master her addition and subtraction facts and stumbled upon these. I printed off the +,- set after some copying and resizing. I'll let you know how it works for us!

Ta~Da! I got a blog makeover!

2011-03-22T01:26:00.000-04:00

I have spent entirely too much time giving my blog a makeover, but it was worth it! I drooled over all the gorgeous designs on this site: http://shabbyblogs.com/. She has amazing stuff on there and it's all free! I hope you like the new look and I hope the new design will inspire me to be a better blogger. Please check back...or better yet FOLLOW me! I have much to share as we travel on our homeschool journey.

Be Blessed!

Rosetta Stone Giveaway!

2010-12-13T11:11:00.000-05:00

Now is the perfect time to give your child the gift of possibilities for the holidays with Rosetta Stone Homeschool — and you can WIN a Level 1 Homeschool program, language of your choice (valued at $249)!

Right now Rosetta Stone is having a special Holiday promotion on our Homeschool Edition program and we’d like you to help spread the word! Everyone can save up to $150 on Rosetta Stone Homeschool by visiting our website at http://www.RosettaStone.com/hsw1110.

By helping us spread the word you can win a Rosetta Stone Homeschool Edition Level 1 program, language of your choice, valued at $249.

This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever!

Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

To win this program, copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR post about this contest on your facebook page. Then go to the original page at
http://www.othersuchhappenings.com/2010/12/rosetta-stone-giveaway-yay.html
and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post, and good luck!

Great Geography Game!

2010-11-16T14:55:00.000-05:00

This morning we rapped up our study of Canada. I fortuitously stumbled upon this great interactive game! The kids really enjoyed playing it and even my 5 yo caught on shouting "Northwest Territories!" when he knew the answer. The site has an interactive game for every continent on the globe.
Enjoy ;)

Monday...again!

2010-11-08T09:40:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but I always feel that hour we LOSE more than I feel the hour we GAIN!

Here we are at the start of another work week and we have plenty of work to do! Tomorrow the kids are participating in a book report with our homeschool group. It's a great opportunity for them to practice public speaking and it's fun for us as their parents to see them share their thoughts on the books they've read.

So my motivation today is to have them finish up those books and write or type their reports...pics to follow!

Happy Monday!

Update: The kids did a great job at their Book Report night. Attendance was a little slim, but it was still a great experience for everyone. J-saurus did his report on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.

M.J. did Lainie from the American Girl book series.

Buster Brown didn't do a report, but made a bookmark at the craft table.

Wait...what day is it?

2010-11-02T14:29:00.000-04:00

Oh, that's right it's Tuesday. Does that ever happen to you? Sure it has. Anyway, I was hoping to show our finished craft that I mentioned last week. Alas, it is UNfinished...sigh.

So here's why the fall craft (along with a list of other things) didn't get done...

We started out the week with dh getting food poisoning (tip: If the grilled chicken sandwich you order looks questionable, DON'T EAT IT! No matter how hungry you are!)

Then MJ was struggling to breathe which led to a dr. appt. and asthma medication :(

We did accomplish some schoolwork, too...

Studying Mexico in MFW: Yarn Art

J-Saurus did a dragon...big surprise!

What's a fiesta without a pinata?

And then there were costumes to make for "Free Candy Day" :)

So I missed "Motivated Monday" this week, but hopefully I'll get back on track this week. I'll let you know how it goes!

Motivated Monday?

2010-10-25T11:08:00.000-04:00

Sigh...it seemed like a good idea: Pick a goal for the week with a few ideas on how to accomplish it and call it "Motivated Monday." Well, I'm not so motivated today. My dear hubby called off sick after throwing up half the night :( My youngest was a bit under the weather yesterday with stomach issues and I'm not feelin' too hot myself. Oh well. Life goes on. I'm on my second cup of coffee and we're wrapping up our a.m. schoolwork.

Things don't have to be in perfect order ( what's that!?) to proceed with my blogging. I have PLENTY of goals and aspirations to be a better me, soo....

This week I am motivated to tackle this adorable craft from Family Fun magazine. Fall is without a doubt my favorite season and this creation beautifully captures why I love it. We're past "peak week" for ooh-ing and aah-ing over the brilliant colors, but there's plenty of fall left and I want to soak up every second!

Have a Great Week Everyone!

Birthday Girl

2010-10-21T22:31:00.000-04:00

When you're a kid the entire year revolves around two events: Christmas and your birthday. There was plenty of excitement in our house last week as our only girl turned 8. Her birthday was on a Thursday, so we had the grandparents over for cake and ice cream. Of course she wanted a "friends party," too. We don't usually do this sort of thing, but we had her party at an indoor bounce center. It was really a "2 for 1" as we celebrated our oldest son's birthday, too. He'll be 10 in just a few days. Anyway, leave it to MiMi to get THE gift...

MiMi is my mom by the way. She couldn't wait to give M.J. her American Girl doll. These two have been inseparable... so cute!

Incidentally, the matching jammies came from K-Mart! I know! K-Mart, right. Who'd a thunk?

Crossing the Border

2010-10-19T14:28:00.000-04:00

We're heading south of the border this week to study Mexico! Don't worry. We are merely traveling in our imagination. Our neighbor to the south hasn't sounded very hospitable lately. So, we'll stay safe in our Ohio home and open our atlas.

This is our first year using MFW and so far I'm loving it! We're beginning with Exploring Countries and Cultures (ECC) which provides a strong foundation in geography.

These passports created a ton of excitement for the kids! They couldn't wait to add their photo and have their pages stamped. You can see them proudly posing in front of our map.

Break time is over...back to work!

~Adios!

Motivated Monday!

2010-10-19T00:01:00.000-04:00

If there's anyone actually reading this, it's clear to you that I'm a casual blogger. I don't post consistently and I don't have a single theme to my blog. We'll, I'm working on changing that and I've been extremely motivated to start today! I'm not quite sure what's gotten into me...I'm envisioning redecorating projects, cleaning out closets, lesson planning, and making lists. I may even plan out the menu for the week!

Maybe "Motivated Monday" is a good place to start! I see a theme emerging...

What goal are you motivated to accomplish this week? What task would you love to check off your "to-do" list?

I think I'll start with that one thing that should be my top priority. That thing that isn't really a thing at all. This Monday I'm Motivated to start each day on my knees...in the Word...at His feet. How else can I even begin to tackle the mountain of tasks that fill my day? Before I pour that first cup of coffee or take one bite of breakfast, I need to "sink my teeth" into my "daily bread."

Incidentally, our memory verse from My Father's World ( our homeschool curriculum ) is Matthew 4:4 ~Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Have a Great Week!