Homeschooling: Our way of life

Much Thanks

2010-05-07T19:07:00.001-04:00

http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2F%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref_%3Dgno%255Flogo&tag=homeourwayofl-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957

Frog Habitat

2010-03-27T15:09:00.002-04:00

Ryan received a tadpole habitat for his 5th birthday. We ordered the tadpole and waited three months for it to arrive (the company only mails them Nov.-March). Ryan was very excited when his tadpole arrive the first week in Dec. He named "her" Phoebe (after the girl on the Magic School Bus). She was so tiny that I couldn't even take a picture. She looked like a speck in the water! For the longest time Phoebe didn't change much. Then in January we saw the first leg growing. It was so neat! By the middle of February, she had both legs, and at the end of February she jumped out of the water. We were all excited to see her as a frog!

Sadly, Phoebe didn't live very long as a frog. I think that I rushed too quickly in changing her food from fish food to baby crickets. : ( Ryan was terribly distraught over losing Phoebe, although he tried hard not to let it bother him, he just couldn't hold back this grief and tears. It broke my heart to see him so sad.

If we do this again, I'm not going to use the little habitat as it was a pain to keep clean and it leaked. The plastic also made it difficult to see the tadpole/frog, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Counting Pennies

2010-03-27T14:31:00.000-04:00

Ryan loves his "piggy bank." It's not a true piggy bank, but rather big, plastic container from Costco that used to hold cashews. One of the things he enjoys is counting his money. So I decided to combine his love of money counting with the Math U See blocks. This year he's been learning about units, tens, and hundreds. So I had Ryan pile up his pennies in piles of ten. I reinforced the concept that only nine occupants in any of the "houses" (units, tens, hundreds) and once the house reached ten, it transformed from a unit place to a tens place. After we finished the pennies, we worked on the dimes to create the hundreds place.

Dinosaur Dig

2010-01-30T13:53:00.003-05:00

Dinosaurs are a popular topic to my 5-year-old. He's fascinated by them and knows many by name. We have gone over dinosaurs, creation, paleontologist and their tools. To give Ryan an idea how long it takes to remove fossils, I had him remove dinosaurs from a block of plaster in this kit: Dig-And-Play Dinosaur World. Here's another one that's similar: I DIG Dinosaurs T-Rex Skeleton Excavation Adventure.

One of the great things about this exercise is that it takes patience and determination to dig out the dinosaurs. Ryan spent a total of six hours digging out the dinosaurs with the tools provided in the kit. We hope to some day take a family vacation to the Creation Museum in Kentucky.

Mapping

2010-01-13T23:18:00.002-05:00

We spent a couple of days on mapping. First we read Katy and the Big Snow. This book has an illustration of a map of town where Katy (the snow plow) has to maneuver through to clear the roads so the town can function again. Next we mapped out our house with all the rooms. Then I asked Ryan which direction North, South (pictured above), East, and West (pictured below) were. Surprisingly, he got them all correct. I think because we've talked about it before when we took the dogs for a walk and he just remembered it.

The next day, I have Ryan put a map together of our street with houses, trees, and cars. Then he did a map of our neighborhood with the compass rose pointing North. After all the hands on activities, I talked to him about the various types of maps such as a treasure map, a strategic map (like one used in battle), road map, state map, and an atlas, and how maps can be written directions, visual, or a combination of both. We discussed common maps symbols and looked through some examples of maps in a geography book, a wall map, and a map of the solar system. This was a fun lesson for both of us.

Creation

2010-01-06T22:30:00.000-05:00

We're studying Creation from the book of Genesis. The first day we read Genesis 1 and talked about what God did each day. To reinforce what we just learn, I created a game. Ryan had to stand in the middle of the room and when I called out a day, he'd have to tell me what God created on that day. Or I'd call out "stars" or "rest" and he would need to tell me the day. If he got it right, he'd go forward the amount of steps of the day and if he missed it he'd go back. He loved this game!

On the second day of the study, I had him cut out images of things God created. Then he put them in piles by the day. Today, he glued all the images on paper for each day.

Crafty Foam Thank You's

2010-01-01T18:54:00.003-05:00

I couldn't find Thank You notes and so I improvised with some foam die-cuts, foam stickers, a Sharpie marker, and some yarn. I found the foam die-cuts at the dollar store and there were six shapes to a pack. The stickers I found at Hobby Lobby, marked down for the holidays. I could see this working with paper die cuts, such as those cut from my Cricut Machine.

I had my son decorate the tree with foam stickers and then I wrote the note and attached the yarn. This actually was cheaper then the prepackaged Thank You notes and way more fun too!

Ryan's Thoughts...On Sin

2009-12-30T22:33:00.001-05:00

Ryan and I were in the car today returning home from an appointment when he said something that made me think. So often he says things and I think, I need to write that down, but then I forget. So here's our conversation...

Ryan: Did you know [long pause], did you know that when people sin it's like their heart is made of glass and it shatters. It shatters all over the road and no one can fix it.

Me: You're right.

Ryan: No one, but Jesus. Only He can fix it when we ask Him for forgiveness.

I love how he thinks about God throughout the day and he has deep thoughts about God. I'm so lucky to be Ryan's mommy.

The week after Christmas

2009-12-30T12:03:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I wasn't planning on taking a Christmas break from school, but I changed my mind. Ryan wanted to play with all his new Christmas toys and I wanted to do some organizing and planning. I understand why public school teachers have scheduled work days. I'm needing to get some mid-year planning done so that I can see where we are and plan out the rest of the school year.

A Christmas Tradition: The Jesse Tree

2009-12-24T11:40:00.000-05:00

Many years ago I learned about the Jesse Tree from some church friends. I really liked the idea and bought a kit and put it together. I tried to search for this kit today so I could link to it, and just couldn't find it. I'm not even sure where I bought it from because it was about 17 years ago.

The purpose of the Jesse Tree is to remind us of God's plan for all of us. He created the world and has had a plan since the beginning when He created time, space, and all matter. His plan is revealed in scripture. The Jesse Tree ornaments and scriptures show God's plan for us to have a Savior, which is Jesus, who came to earth as a baby, fully God and fully man, to serve as the ultimate sacrifice for all mankind. Everyone has the opportunity to choose to accept Christ as Lord and Savior.

Here's an excellent resource to read about the meaning of the Jesse Tree, how to make the ornaments, and the scriptures to read along with the ornaments. When hanging to the ornaments and reading the scriptures, you can do it daily, or several a day, or many over a weekend. You can put all of them up at once and then go over the scriptures daily after that. The tree can serve as another means to tell people about the promises of God, and as an evangelism tool for visitors to your home. The tree itself can be a small Christmas tree, a branch, or anything that displays the ornaments. We have ours on a small tree that hangs on the wall.

Merry Christmas!

Are you planning to buy something from Amazon?

2009-12-21T21:04:00.000-05:00

Did you know that you can help offset homeschool expenses by clicking on an Amazon link on my blog? You don't have to buy the item that you click on, I get a small referral credit (in the form of an Amazon Gift Cards). Thanks to everyone that has already purchased through our blog! It's much appreciated!

A Year At A Glance: 2009

2009-12-21T20:49:00.000-05:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Santa craft

2009-12-16T19:13:00.000-05:00

When I was a kid, I remember making a large Santa and thought it would be fun to make one with Ryan. I searched and searched for a Santa craft template on the internet and couldn't find one. I found a lot of Santa faces and Santa's made from lots of different craft materials, but not a construction paper full body craft. So I just winged this one and we made it up as we went along. We started with the face. I just used a piece of construction paper and rounded off the corners. For the eyes, I originally intended to just put two black, round eyes, but it just seemed so plain. So Ryan suggested to thin, foam pieces (he originally wanted two different colors, but we went with blue). Then I just happened to find to flat sparkly pieces for the eye centers.

I intended to use cotton balls for the beard, but we were all out of cotton! So I looked in my craft room and found some tissue paper (for wrapping gifts). Ryan loved crumpling it up and gluing it on. To make gluing easier, I used Spray Glue Adhesive. Ryan used black and gray crayons on some of the tissue pieces so they're not all white. For the nose, Ryan picked out a button from our button box of lose buttons. The hat has a white pom pom at the end.

The finished project is an inch shy of three feet. It's nice, festive wall art for the Christmas season!

Us "Elfed!"

2009-12-08T01:19:00.000-05:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Free Homeschool Book

2009-12-07T22:44:00.000-05:00

Homeschooling and Loving It is being offered for free except for shipping on this site. I've read about half the book and I'm pleasantly surprised. I wasn't expecting much at all, but I think this book is good, especially for those who are "on the fence" or new to homeschooling. The author is the owner of homeschool.com. The book is free because it advertises for a distance learning school, Laurel Springs, throughout the book. I like how the author keeps her writing to a minimum so it's just all information and not a lot of fluff to fill space. I am encouraged by this book and think it's a good read for any homeschooler or homeschooler-to-be.

Our latest game obsession: Catan

2009-12-05T15:54:00.000-05:00

My husband and I have an addiction to The Settlers of Catan with the Catan: Cities & Knights Expansion. The picture above shows the 3rd edition of the game which was loaned to us by friends, but we have since received the 4th edition of both games. The game is fun and different every time it's played because the board is never the same twice. The pieces are like puzzle pieces and set up randomly. We play two-player quite a bit, but really this game is more fun with three or more people playing.

Telephone Craft

2009-12-05T15:05:00.000-05:00

I've been searching for a creative way to have Ryan learn his home phone number. I stumbled upon this phone template in the Jumbo Fun With the Alphabet book. I made a copy of the template and had Ryan trace it onto yellow construction paper using a Light Box. Next, he wrote "Ryan's home phone" on the front of the phone and his seven digit phone number on the back side of the receiver. We put some corrugated black paper under the number pad to raise the numbers so he could press them and they would feel more realistic (his idea). I added the ribbon so he could pick up the receiver and then we decided the phone need a rest for the receiver so I added two small strips of paper to the top. He was quite satisfied then. After a few minutes of playing with the phone, Ryan said, "Mommy, this is an old phone from when you were a kid." I was puzzled, and he pointed to the ribbon. I forgot most phones don't have cords! We've been using the phone to quiz him of his home phone number and practice 9-1-1 calls.

Thanksgiving "Thankful Turkey" Craft

2009-12-05T14:38:00.001-05:00

I modified this turkey craft sheet in Photoshop by removing the color from the turkey body and adding the words, "I am thankful for" to each of the feathers. I had Ryan create a list on a white board of all the things he's thankful for. He came up with the following:
1) My dogs (Cody & Quincy, our two American Bulldogs.)
2) Jeep (the big motorized one Grandma gave him for Christmas last year.)
3) Mommy (Whew! I didn't think I was going to make it.)
4) Food (He's always hungry and isn't a picky eater at all!)
5) Grandma (Who was visiting us from CA when we did this craft.)
6) Bed (This is a surprising one since he's not much of a sleeper!)
7) My brain (How clever is that?!)
8) Toys

Sadly, Daddy didn't make the list, but I think it's because he was talking about showing Daddy his turkey craft when he got home from work, while creating his list.

After all the pieces were complete, I ran the pieces through my Xyron and put it on a black construction sheet of paper. By the way, I love my Xyron! I use it weekly for homeschool and craft projects. In addition to an adhesive cartridge it has magnet and laminate cartridges which come in very handy.

First Spelling List

2009-12-02T17:49:00.000-05:00

Last month Ryan became an author! Well, that's the how the Spell to Read and Write (SWR) teacher's guide instructs educators to teach it. Ryan absolutely loved it! Ever since he became an "author" he's been telling everyone about it. The Primary Learning Log is the book he's authoring. Basically, it's where he records rules for spelling and grammar and spelling lists. He looks forward to writing in the log because he's the author.

The first page to complete is the Consonants & Vowels page. This is a reference page for Ryan. For instance, if I ask Ryan how many consonants have more than one sound, he can look in his book to figure it out - they are notated by the red marks. The vowels are broken up by most common vowel sounds with a sample word divided by syllables and marked with red pencil.

This is Ryan's first spelling list which he wrote in his Primary Learning Log. After I dictated the spelling list as described in The W.I.S.E. Guide for Spelling. I love the way method:
1) First you say the word.
2) Use it in a sentence (either make your own or use the one suggested in the book).
3) Repeat the word and ask the student how many syllables the word has.
4) Break apart the word in sounds using your fingers to count the sounds.
5) Write the word (both student and teacher) - we use individual white boards and markers.
6) When the student is done writing, have the student check work with the teacher's board.

After going through the list, I created cards for the twenty spelling list words. One side of the card had the word in uppercase and the other side was in lowercase. Then Ryan had to create a sentence. This is not very easy. I was very impressed with his sentence.... Six red cat(s) all ran but my bed did not run. When I did this exercise at my training, my sentence was, "My cat is red." So I really think Ryan's sentence was better.

How To: Teach Reading

2009-12-01T20:00:00.000-05:00

I get asked a lot about homeschooling and one of the most common questions I'm asked is how to teach reading. So I thought I'd post it here so it's all in one place.

When Ryan was a toddler, I stressed over how to teach him how to read. Part of the reason it stressed me was because I hold reading in very high regard and didn't want to mess it up. Unfortunately, I can't draw on my own experience as a student because I really didn't like reading until I was an adult. I was also taught the "whole word" approach so I didn't know short vowel sounds and how to sound out words (this has changed since I learned along with Ryan).

When Ryan was 2.5 years old he said he wanted to learn how to read. I was at a loss on how to teach him so I contacted a few homeschool mom that had older kids and asked what they used. My sister-in-law used Rock 'n Learn Letter Sounds so we gave it a try. It's a CD and I'd play it in the car while we were running errands around town. The letter sounds, including short vowel sounds, are played to musical rhythms. This worked really well! Within a couple of months, Ryan knew all the primary letter sounds and short vowel sounds. If you'd rather use a DVD format, the Rock n' Learn Letter Sounds comes in the DVD too. I prefer the Letter Sounds CD over the LeapFrog Letter Factory because I found the vowel sounds aren't as distinct on the Letter Factory DVD. Being able to identify and say short vowel sounds is important to reading and spelling.

After Ryan learned letter sounds and short vowel sounds he could read simple words. Next, I used Hooked on Phonics: Learn to Read K-1st. We leisurely completed the Kindergarten level in a year, when Ryan was 3.5 - 4.5 years old. I liked the Hooked on Phonics method because it was easy to implement and the material varied enough to make it enjoyable for both of us.

Some days we'd spend ten minutes working on the skills, and other days Ryan would work for forty minutes. I let him set the pace. All that's needed is a CD player (or cassette player for the earlier editions) and you follow along with the CD every step of the way. Ryan really liked following along with the CD and like to turn it off and on between the steps. In addition to the workbook, there's flash cards, and simple to read books, similar to the Bob Books - which we used as well to mix it up a bit.

This year we're working on phonograms (this page lets you hear what sounds each phonogram makes) with Spell to Write and Read. Ryan is in the process of memorizing 70 phonograms. I really like how this curriculum is working and can see how he'll be a better speller and reader because of it.

I hope this helps you and others looking to help their little ones with reading. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll do what I can to help you. :)

How To: Lapbook

2009-11-16T23:01:00.001-05:00

Lapbooking is a great way for children to store all bits and pieces of information they have learned on a particular topic. Here's some examples of completed lapbook on volcanoes. An excellent resource to find lapbook topics, samples, and free downloads is Homeschool Share. For instance, here's some great lapbook materials for a volcano unit study.

Teach Topic
To start, save all the information for the topic your child is studying in a gallon-size zip-lock bag. For example, let's say you're child is learning about the human body and you introduce the names of the body on Monday. Then on Tuesday, describe the function of certain body parts. On Wednesday, you cover the five senses and Thursday you go over internal organs. Friday, you and your child spend time piecing together all the information learned into a compact lapbook that can be review over and over. What you'll need to do is figure out how your child needs to display the information (as they get older, they will be able to do this on their own).

Create Lapbook
1) A lapbook is made from an ordinary file folder, folded in a special way. Watch this short video to see how.
2) Decide how to display information in the lapbook. If you want to show the life cycle of a frog (eggs, tadpole, frog with tadpole tail, frog), you could use a "shutter flap" fold. Here's list of all the different types of folds with downloads and here's another site. If you're looking for a great book, try the Big Book of Books and Activities.
3) The lapbook can be as plain or creative as you desire. The most important part is to have a place where all the information is stored so it's easy to review and store for later use such as an annual portfolio review.

So give it a try! I think you and your children will love lapbooking!

Handwriting - Clock letters and beyond

2009-11-09T17:06:00.000-05:00

We work on handwriting daily and Ryan's handwriting is improving. I created another worksheet of clock letters and then had him practice the letters on the white board to see how he'd do without the clocks. I was impressed.

Last week, I had Ryan hand write a thank you card. It took around 2 hours to complete, including coloring the picture. I had him do each letter in pencil and then use a marker over the top of the pencil. It was his idea to use multiple colors.

More on Ping

2009-11-09T00:11:00.000-05:00

We finished up on The Story about Ping two weeks ago. I had thought I was going to have Ryan finish with a lapbook, but instead we just did individual projects and put them in the folder for next year.

I found the about duck clip art from HomeschoolShare.com. I told Ryan to color it yellow and this is what it turned out to be. I really like it. It looks like a wood duck to me. After he colored it, I ran both pieces through my Xyron 900 using the laminate cartridge. Then, we used a brad to connect the wing. To demonstrate ducks waterproof feathers, I dripped water on the laminated duck and Ryan saw how it beaded up and rolled off. That was pretty cool.

I created these Ping Sequence Cards. I've had Ryan use prepackaged sequence cards and he hasn't done so well with them, especially if there's more than four cards. I was pleasantly surprised that he did fairly well with these cards. It made me realize that when there's a story connected with the visual sequence cards, he can remember the order better. Some of the Ping cards are a little confusing and I had to look at the answer to get them correctly.

Obstacle Course

2009-10-26T23:08:00.001-04:00

One afternoon, I thought of a fun way to have Ryan get some exercise and give me a break while he has fun. I made an obstacle course we stuff in our garage. First I had Ryan go through the course several times, making sure he did each obstacle or skill correctly. Next, I timed him while he went through (Timing was really high tech...I counted in my head...). If he missed I cone, or skill, I'd add 5 seconds for each missed skill. Here's our course....

This is the beginning. Move on the skateboard across the driveway, with the skateboard ending in the grass on the other side.

After the skateboard, he'd dribble the soccer ball around the cones correctly, making a goal at the last two.

After making the goal, he ran to the cone with the football and threw it to the next obstacle....

....the chair crawl-through.

The last station was the baseball skill where he'd throw the ball into the air and hit it with the bat. Then he'd finish by running to the finish line where he started.

Free this week....

2009-10-26T22:00:00.000-04:00

Free this week: Thanksgiving Themed Alphabet
Skill: Alphabetical order

Free this week: Summer Nature Study
This nature study allows you to enjoy nature and time with your child outdoors. At the same time you will help guide him and make connections between his natural world around him and more formal scientific concepts.

The Summer Nature Study and More has topics for June, July and August. Each month has several topics pertinent to the season. For each topic, you receive living book reading suggestions, questions to promote discussion of the topic during your nature walk, suggested nature walk or post-walk activities, and scientific connection topics.