My Blessings from Above

Homeschool Blog Awards Revisited

2009-11-11T09:34:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I posted that I was nominated for the Homeschool Blog awards in the category of Best Thrifty Homeschooler. I was informed yesterday while visiting an online forum I belong to that I was also nominated for Best Cyber Buddy Blog. That was a shock! I obviously will not get an award for most observant blogger though. (just kidding there is no category for that!).

Anyway if you are so inclined to vote for me in either or both categories I thank you very much. ( you can click on each of the categories I mentioned above to vote.) Even if you are not inclined I thank you for taking the time to read my blog! I am honored to be nominated in both categories with some other fantastic bloggers. Why not stop over to the Homeschool Blog Awards and see all the great categories and maybe find a few new favorite blogs to read!

Veteran's Day

2009-11-11T09:17:00.003-05:00

Please remember those who have served and continue to serve our country. Remember that Freedom isn't Free. Thank you to all the men and women and their families who every day put themselves in harms way to protect the USA.

Homeschool Blog Awards~Time to Vote!

2009-11-10T10:25:00.005-05:00

I've been nominated for the Homeschool Blog Awards in the Best Thrifty Homeschooler category. I feel very honored to be running with some really fabulous homeschoolers! Thank you to those that nominated me! If you feel inclined to vote for me you can do so at the above link.
Now get over there and check out all the categories and all those fabulous blogs!

Review~American Heritage Education Foundation

2009-11-09T00:05:00.005-05:00

The American Heritage Education Foundation is a non-profit, non partisan educational foundation dedicated to the understanding and teaching of America's factual and philosophical heritage to promote constructive citizenship and Freedom, Unity, Progress and Responsibility among our students and citizens.

This is a supplemental history CD that is offered as a free resource by The American Heritage Education Foundation.

There are three levels of lessons included on this CD.

Elementary School Level
Middle School Level
High School Level

Here are the topics covered in the elementary level:

Colonial America
The Declaration of Independence
A Famous Signature
George Washington
U. S. Presidents
The Great Seal
Thanksgiving
The United States Flag
The Star Spangled Banner
The National Motto
The Statue of Liberty
The Pledge of Allegiance
America the Beautiful
What is an American

There are lessons for each topic as well as games, songs, puzzles and more.
For each lesson there is a purpose, objective, theme, core knowledge, how much time the lesson requires, materials needed for the lesson and how you need to prepare for the lesson.

We are working on The Pledge of Allegiance there is an activity sheet that gives you ideas of what to teach. For example how you should stand and face the flag and put your right hand over your heart when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Read the history of the Pledge of Allegiance. There are vocabulary words, a print out of The Pledge of Allegiance, synonyms to learn and a printable word puzzle. You can practice reciting The Pledge of Allegiance and then print and cut out the word puzzle. Have your child put the words in their proper order and then remove some of the words and have them figure out which ones are missing and see if they can recite it with the missing words. Continue on until you are only using a few words and your child is reciting confidently.

We will be using some of these lessons to supplement our US History.

This is definitely written for a classroom setting but can be adapted for one or more children easily.

To order your FREE copy please visit The American Heritage Foundation.

To see what my crewmates are saying about this resource be sure to visit the TOS Homeschool blog.

Disclosure: This product was provided to me free as a member of the The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew 2009-2010. All reviews and opinions expressed on this blog are my own

Review~Bright Ideas Press A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers and The Mystery Of History Volume I

2009-11-06T20:56:00.004-05:00

Bright Ideas Press is a company I had never heard of before. When I found out I was going to be reviewing some products for them I was interested. When I saw what some of my choices were I was ecstatic! My two choices were A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers and The Mystery of History Volume I. I was sent both of them to review.

I have been wanting to add a composer study to our school and A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers intrigued me. I had not quite figured out how I was going to add this in and just never got around to it. Using this curriculum has made it easy.

First the info: A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers is a one year curriculum. (32 weeks) grades 4-8, $34.95 for the print copy, 298 pages(book) and $29.95 on CD-ROM. I received the print copy.

The first thing I did was to have the binding removed and have it spiral bound for easier use and copying. I had this done at my local office supply store for about $4.

What you will find inside:
26 biographies from Antonio Vivaldi to John Williams
An explanation of 6 eras of music
Maps
Composer Info cards
Coloring pages
Reproducible Timeline
Games to play
Book list Resource
note taking pages
Music listening suggestions

There is a story to read each week You can choose to do the additional items I listed above. You can do all of them or pick and choose what fits your student and your schedule. We are using this 2-3 times per week depending on our week.

There is no music included with this curriculum. There is an appendix of music suggestions towards the back of the book with websites such as you tube for finding the pieces for each composer. You could also do an internet search to find the suggested pieces or try searching your library as well. You will not need to purchase the music to listen to the selections unless you choose to.

I like that I am able to use this with both of my boys. They both have an interest in music and both enjoy classical music. We listen to classical music almost daily in our home and this curriculum has made it very easy to add in learning about different composers, their history as well as learning when those pieces were written and where on the timeline they belong. My four year old is able to do the coloring pages and listen along to the music while my 8 year old does the lessons.

Young Composer's Sample Pages

The Mystery of History is a history curriculum that I have been wanting since I heard author Linda Lacour Hobar speak last summer at an online homeschooling conference. I was so excited that I was going to get to review it!

Info on Mystery of History: This volume covers Creation to the Resurrection. targeted for grades 4th - 8th. (this can be adapted to younger and older grades-see below) Print copy $49.95.

The stories are chronologically based and combine biblical history with secular history all in one. This curriculum is broken down into three age groups younger (K- 3rd), middle (4th-8th) older (High School).

Here is what you will find in this book:

There are roughly 100 lessons in this volume ( three lessons each week to cover a 36 week school year)
Pretests for each lesson to see what your student knows about that particular story or event and expose them to new terms and names they may not have heard before.
Around the World summaries at the beginning of each quarter to introduce the time period.
Hands on activities
Memory cards
Reviews
Quizzes
Quarterly worksheets
Semester Tests
Student Notebooks
and much more....

Once again I took this book to my local office supply store and had the binding removed and spiral bound for easier use.

I love this curriculum! It is easy to read and makes a wonderful read aloud without even adding in the activities, quizzes etc listed above. I love that we are learning both Biblical and secular history at the same time. It puts it all together for us. Unlike the way I learned history Biblical and secular separate from one another which made it difficult for me to put together what was happening in other parts of the world during Bible times. I know we will be using this and future volumes of The Mystery of History.

Find out more about the Mystery of History.

Mystery of History Sample Pages

Sample Week

Please be sure to visit my crew mates at the TOS Homeschool Blog to read other reviews from Bright Ideas Press.

Disclosure: This product was provided to me free as a member of the The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew 2009-2010. All reviews and opinions expressed on this blog are my own

A boy and his snake

2009-11-03T18:47:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago Larry found a baby snake while he was out doing yard work. He called the boys over to have a look. It was a baby garter snake. When I came home from my grandma's, Justin was all excited about the snake and begged to keep it. He kept it in a bucket on our porch for several days. He really wanted to keep it as a pet but we did not have an aquarium to keep it in and I did not want to invest the money needed to buy one. Justin was disappointed but decided that it was best to let him go. We had a couple of great days holding and observing the snake.

We were even able to convince Kaden to hold the snake. Although he was not overly thrilled to do so.

Justin has vowed to find his snake next spring!

ABC Teach~Review

2009-11-02T21:15:00.006-05:00

As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew I was given a one month membership to ABC Teach to review. Guess what? I was already a member before I received my trial membership. I love this site. What is ABC Teach you ask? It is a website with tons of printables. Tons of them. You can access 5,000+ free printables at anytime on their site. If you purchase a one year membership you have access to 35,000 printables. New material is added each week.

ABC Teach has so much to offer! Even if you are not one t o useworksheets there is so much more available to you. Be sure to look at the list of categories .

Here is some of what we have used and will be using:

File Folder games
Clip Art
Learning Centers
Mini offices~I just made one up on telling time for Justin
Bingo games
Dot to Dot
On the Go Cards: On the Road~I made one of these over the summer.
Paper Roll Pals~animals and people
Center Cards
Pattern Blocks

One of my favorite parts of ABC Teach is ABC Tools. When you purchase a membership you have access to ABC Tools to create custom worksheets such as math, word walls, spelling lists, sudoku puzzles, shape books , handwriting and much more.

There are also video tutorials that show you step by step how to customize a worksheet, make a shape book, add clip art to a page, create a spelling list and several other tutorials.

Take a video tour of ABC Teach. While you are there visit the free part of the site to see if this is something that would be a fit for your family. A one year membership is $40 and group rates are available.

Be sure to check out the TOS Homeschool Crew blog to see what my crew mates are saying about ABC Teach.

Edited to add that if you join Homeschool Buyers Co-op you can save 50% on your ABC Teach membership. You have to purchase through the co-op though. Homeschool Buyers Co-op is free to join. This offer is good until 11/30/09

Disclosure: This product was provided to me free as a member of the The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew 2009-2010. All reviews and opinions expressed on this blog are my own

One more Halloween post

2009-11-01T21:46:00.009-05:00

The other night we went to visit Larry's grandma and Aunt Lynn. The boys wore their costumes and were excited to visit great mom mom as we call her. They also got to play with their cousin Kiara whom they just adore.

A funny story about calling her great mom mom. We also call my grandma great mom mom. When I referred to Larry's grandma I would say we are going to great mom mom's and they would get confused and say which one. I said your other great mom mom. They started calling her "their other great mom mom"! They thought that was her name! I decided we needed to change that so now we say great mom mom G or great mom mom K! lol.

Here are a couple of pictures from our visit.

Great Mom Mom G and the boys.

After Aunt Lynn joined in the picture taking it was just hopeless to get this group to pose nicely! We were laughing so hard at her!

We had a really fun night eating, laughing and visiting!

On Halloween we carved our annual pumpkins. This year the boys chose a Star Wars theme. Justin actually wanted me to carve the Death Star. After looking at the directions and reading it took between 4-10 hours to carve, I quickly vetoed that idea! (maybe next year)

Cutting the tops off their pumpkins. They both did well. I was a little leery to let Kaden have that cutting tool but he was so insistent and is so independent. I let him have a go of it. He did really well.

scooping out the guts......(yes it was really warm here, notice the missing shirt!)

Our completed pumpkins....after two hours of me carving!

Darth Maul

Darth Vader

Our Halloween

2009-11-01T14:41:00.004-05:00

The boys had a great Halloween. We went trick or treating in our neighborhood. The of course got too much candy! It was a fun night though!

Here they are in their costumes.

Kaden was a Wii mote

Justin decided to be a wizard.

Miniature Apples

2009-10-31T10:12:00.003-04:00

We made these last night when we went to visit relatives. They were a hit! You can find them here. Yummmmmm! My favorite though was to eat them with just the peanut butter chips and no sprinkles! Shh.....don't tell!

Need a last minute Halloween treat?

2009-10-31T09:55:00.007-04:00

Aren't these little ghosts adorable? I gave these out to my nieces and nephews for Halloween. Everything came from the $1 except the two Jr. Frosty coupons that are in each one. (and they were only 10 cents each) even the nail polish came from the dollar store. It was a little set of four miniature nail polishes with a little Emory board. My niece was recently diagnosed with diabetes and I wanted to find some alternative to candy to give her this year. These little ghosts were super easy to make. I found them at Dollar Store Crafts which a fabulous blog by the way!

Happy Halloween!

Homemade Halloween Shirts

2009-10-30T16:26:00.005-04:00

The boys and I made Halloween shirts yesterday. It was easy and fun! I bought shirts at AC Moore when they were 4 for $10. So our shirts were only $2.50 each.

We decided on bat hand prints. Justin wanted his shirt pretty plain.

Close up. I used puffy paint for the eyes and fangs. I just free handed the Happy Halloween with red sharpie and outlined it with a fine tip black sharpie.

Kaden on the other hand wanted his shirt very busy! So we ended up making a spider, a bat and little ghosts. (there is a spider web at the top that I sort of goofed on but he didn't care, he loves it!

The ghosts are made of his thumb prints and metallic white paint. I used a fine tip black sharpie for the eyes and mouth.

Here they are in their shirts. I love that they are holding hands. (I did not ask them too) So cute!

I had everything on hand so two Halloween shirts $5! Yippee!!

Virginia Soaps & Scents~Review

2009-10-29T22:27:00.005-04:00

Virginia Soaps & Scents (VSS) is a soap making company created by a homeschooling family, the Spargurs. What started as a one time school project became a family business. VSS makes soap from their own recipes they have developed over the years. All of their soaps are hand cut giving them their own unique look.

We received a sampler box from VSS to review that contained 3 bars of their bed and breakfast sized soaps, a shampoo bar and a laundry making kit.

The soap: The scents of the soap we received were Fresh Orange, Coconut Lemongrass and Oatmeal Milk and Honey. All four of us have tried these soaps with no problems. They smell divine and lather up very nicely. The first thing I noticed was how soft and moisturized my skin felt after using it. The bars have lasted quite a long time and these are only their bed and breakfast sized bars which are 1.75 oz. whereas the full sized bar is 4.50 oz. which is $4.50 per bar.

The Shampoo Bar: I had never tried a shampoo bar before and I was pretty skeptical about it. I decided to give it a go and try it for one week. Now I am a shampoo and conditioner kind of girl and it was hard for me to give up my conditioner. I need my conditioner, really I do. So I bit the bullet so to speak and started shampooing. I will be honest with you the first time I tried it I did not like it, but I was determined to press on. After the second day I noticed a difference and I did not need conditioner to get a comb through my hair! Really! I was shocked. I have used conditioner since I was a teen. This soap lathers so nicely and my hair feels very clean.

What started as a one week trial is still going strong. I have been using the shampoo bar for three weeks and I love it. Larry and the boys each have tried it and Larry loves it as well. The boys well, they only want to play in the tub so they don't care what shampoo we are using. LOL

I can say that all four of us have different hair types from oily, dry, coarse and fine hair. It worked well on all of us. Larry suffers from dandruff and has noticed a difference since using the shampoo bar. The shampoo bar is 5.5 oz and $5.50 each

The Laundry Soap Kit: I have made my own laundry soap in the past and have been meaning to start making it again but I have just not gotten around to it. The soap making kit has renewed my commitment to making my own once again. I made this up, it took all of 10 minutes. You get a packet of borax and washing soda and a packet of grated soap, melt the soap in a pan on the stove top, add the two above ingredients. I put my laundry soap in some old laundry soap containers I had on hand. I just used a funnel to fill them.
The sample I received made a half gallon. The regular size will make an entire gallon.
I love that is it not scented. My laundry comes out smelling clean and fresh.

You can purchase the laundry soap making kit all ready for you to just mix up for $4.95 or you can purchase the borax and washing soda on your own and just purchase the cleaning bar for $3.95, grate it yourself and mix up the ingredients.

Virginia Soaps & Scents has a full line of products, soaps, shampoo bars, shaving bars, lip balms, all-in-one body bars, gourmet soaps, even pet shampoo and much more.

There are a few items I am interested in. They have holiday scented soaps. Pumpkin Spice and Peppermint are two I have my eye on...oh and they have a Country Clothesline scent now that sounds heavenly!

Christmas is coming and these soaps would make wonderful gifts!

To read more reviews stop by the TOS Homeschool Crew blog.

Disclosure: This product was provided to me free as a member of the The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew 2009-2010. All reviews and opinions expressed on this blog are my own

Homemade litter box

2009-10-29T14:14:00.005-04:00

So we have this crazy cat named Jupiter. If you haven't figured it out she is named after the planet Jupiter by none other than our resident astronomer Justin.

Do you know that Justin actually wanted to name Kaden Jupiter! We convinced him it would be better to name the cat Jupiter instead of his brother! Although Jupiter Gerrells does have a nice ring to it!

This past summer Jupiter discovered we have a screened in patio. She also discovered she LOVES being out there. Every day. I discovered she is apparently too lazy to come to the door to come in to use her litter box. She comes to the door when she is thirsty or hungry but lets just say I found a surprise or two on the patio that I did not like finding.

I really didn't want to buy another covered litter box like we have in the house, so I used an open small plastic container. There were two problems with this. Open and small. I didn't like that it was open when we were eating or spending time out there and Jupiter did not like the size. Still she used it and that was most important. I thought of finding a spot where it would be inconspicuous and really could not find anywhere suitable.

Then I came upon this post at Keeping the Kingdom First. This was just what I was looking for! I had some extra empty totes and had Larry cut the lid for me to make an opening. Here is the result.

I love it and most importantly Jupiter loves it! Another benefit is there is very little litter on the floor like we have in our bathroom litter box. Larry wants to make one to replace the one in the bathroom with one like this but I am thinking it may be too big. But I do have another empty tote so maybe I need to go measure......

Over The Top Award

2009-10-29T09:33:00.005-04:00

I have been given an award! Ami over at Walking by the Way was sweet enough to send me this award. If you have not visited Ami's blog you really must! Ami has two darling boys that she is homeschooling and she always has fabulous ideas for school! If you didn't know Ami is the owner of Homeschool Share one of my favorite homeschool sites! So get on over and vist!

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your hair? messy
3. Your mother? creative
4. Your father? smart can build anything
5. Your favorite food? Chinese
6. Your dream last night? gone
7. Your favorite drink? Snapple peach tea (this week anyway)
8. Your goal? to be a good daughter, wife and mother
9. What room are you in? family
10. Your hobby? photography
11. Your fear? SPIDERS Yuck, Yuck and YUCK!
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? to be clutter and debt free
13. Where were you last night? home
14. Something you aren’t? organized
15. Muffins? pumpkin
16. Wish list item? proclick binding system
17. Where did you grow up? NJ
18. Last thing you did? made 7 quarts of spaghetti sauce
19. What are you wearing? green
20. Your TV? Army Wives
21. Your pets? Jupiter our crazy cat and our three nameless hermit crabs (poor things)
22. Your friends? more than I deserve
23. Your life? grace
24. Your mood? stressed
25. Missing someone? always
26. Vehicle? Pontiac Apple red grand am
27. Something you’re not wearing? my glasses (I have misplaced them)
28. Your favorite store? Aldi
29. Your favorite color? Purple! I've been a purple girl forever and ever.
30. When was the last time you laughed? this morning
31. Last time you cried? a week ago
32. Your best friend? A Jewel
33. One place that I go over and over? my grandma's
34. One person who emails me regularly? Sue
35. Favorite place to eat? Friendly's

Now, I am to pass the award on to some over-the-top bloggers who should copy the list (answering each question with one word) and pass the fun on to even more over-the-top bloggers.

Kendra over at the Pumpkin Patch

Nancy over at Southern Blessings

Sheri over at The Shades of Pink

Debbie over at The Architect and the Artist

Honey over at the Sunflower Schoolhouse

Amazing Bible Timeline~Review

2009-10-28T20:48:00.005-04:00

The Amazing Bible Timeline is huge measuring 37"x45". It is made in a circular shape. Not linear as many timelines are. It is made of heavy card stock. and is quite sturdy. It is color coded. It covers 6000 years of Bible and world history, covering Creation through the year 2000. You can view world history and Bibilcal history at the same time, which is really neat.

The timeline can be purchased for $29.97+$6.00 shipping. You also get 2 free products with your purchase interactive maps of the Holy Land (a $14.97 value) and The Digital Amazing Bible timeline (a $14.97 value). If you are not satisfied with your timeline purchase the company has a 60 day return policy.

When we received the Amazing Bible Timeline in the mail, we were very excited! Justin loves history and is very interested in bible history. He has been wanting a timeline for the for quite awhile now. However, it was brought to my attention by some of the other reviewers on the TOS Crew that this timeline has Mormon references. Upon further examination of our timeline I found this to be true. This does not mesh with our religious beliefs.

I found the circular format although unique was difficult to read. I would prefer a more linear type of timeline.

We also had a problem with the size. It was so big we had no space to put it except our hall. We were going to put it on our kitchen table but it was too big to fit properly. I found the type very small and difficult to read in the hanging position.

For us this product was not a good fit for our family due to our beliefs, it may not be an issue for you.

Be sure to visit the TOS homeschool Crew blog to read more reviews on this product.

Disclosure: This product was provided to me free as a member of the The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew 2009-2010. All reviews and opinions expressed on this blog are my own.

Meet our pumpkin head family

2009-10-28T10:36:00.007-04:00

Last year I saw Halloween themed pieces sort of like Mr. Potato head parts to decorate your pumpkins with. I thought why not just use Mr. Potato head parts. We have a whole bunch of those. So the other day the boys and I got to work. I'd like to introduce you to our pumpkin head family!

From left to right

Kaden~yes he has one big ear and his mouth is upside down he insisted it be that way .
Daddy~notice the big eyes and mustache
Mommy~notice how my eyes are rolled up. Larry says I look like this frequently! hrummmp! Are not those green earring just so fashionable? I swear that daddy pumpkin head is trying to hold mommy pumpkin head's hand is he fresh or what.
Justin ~see the purse over his left arm. Justin said it was his man purse! I about fell off my chair laughing at that one!

Two happy boys with their pumpkin head namesakes!

And finally....even though I hate having my picture taken but I promised my boys, (oh why oh why do I make such rash decisions) here I am holding my pumpkin head....see the resemblance?

Homemade Granola

2009-10-27T20:43:00.004-04:00

I have been wanting some granola for the last couple of weeks. I usually buy it at Aldi grocery store but since I am trying to stretch my grocery budget and we are eating from the pantry I decided to make it myself.

I turned to one of my favorite recipe sites, Recipe Zaar. After reading through a few granola recipes, I decided to try this one. It earned 5 stars and had 117 reviews. It had to be good, right? It was! Too good. I am afraid the batch I made (2 large cookie sheets full) will not last long. Justin and Kaden discovered they like it too! I had a feeling this would happen. We had some for a snack this afternoon. It was so yummy! I am looking forward to tomorrow morning when I have some with raisins and milk. Heavenly......I have a feeling I will be making more again soon!

Oh the only thing I changed was I added half a cup of wheat germ and used a cup and a half of sliced almonds and no pecans. (yeah I had to tweak it)

The Simple Woman's Daybook~Tuesday edition

2009-10-27T10:49:00.005-04:00

I'm late posting my daybook this week!

Outside My Window...it's cloudy and rainy.

I am thinking...what a fun afternoon we had yesterday walking through the woods near our home, enjoying the fall foliage and hearing the leaves crunch under our feet.

I am thankful for...grandparents who find great deals on winter boots. Justin has new boots!

From the learning rooms...finishing up our Johnny Appleseed unit and the letter A with Kaden.

From the kitchen...tonight it will be some type of chicken...not sure what yet. I'm making granola later today.

I am wearing...still in my pj's here!

I am creating...lots of pumpkin activities this week. We're also making a few Halloween decorations.

I am going...to clean my kitchen. It needs to be cleaned badly.

I am reading....I'm still reading Pocketful of Pinecones and have started The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I am hoping...the weather is nice for this weekend.

I am hearing...the boys playing legos in the living room.

Around the house...time to change the summer to winter clothes. Larry brought the boxes out of the shed the other day. The boys want their room rearranged.

One of my favorite things...the smells of autumn, wood smoke in the air, leaves, the crispness in the air.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week...a pretty quiet week here at home. I need to run a couple of errands and continue with school. The weekend will be busy with trick or treating.

A picture thought I am sharing...

Brotherly love

More daybooks here.

Sue Patrick~Review

2009-10-26T20:48:00.010-04:00

If you are a homeschooler then chances are pretty good that you have heard of Sue Patrick's Workbox System. I first learned about the workbox system last spring. Many homeschoolers were posting about this new method of organizing your homeschool on forums and blogs that I frequent.

You can find Sue Patrick's Workbox System at her website. The E-book sells for $19.00 and the bound version for $19.95.

The following chapters are included in this e-book.

The Benefits of Homeschooling
How We Teach and Train
What the Workbox System is
Who the System is for
How a Day Works
Curriculum and Material
Breaking Down Curriculum for Success
Life Skill Foundations
the built in Discipline of the Workbox System
Problem Solving and Specialization of Your Child’s Education
Family Dynamics and Homeschooling
Tips and Tricks and Problem Solving

With the purchase of Sue's e-book you will also have access to all the downloads on the website once you register your book. You can also purchase consulting time with Sue for an additional fee. There are sample pages of her e-book found here. You can watch a video here. There is a recent interview with Sue Patrick here.

Sue Patrick's workbox system is based on the teaching approach from TEACCH Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-handicapped Children. She developed this system when her son was diagnosed with low functioning autism at age 2. It was very beneficial to him so much so that he became high functioning and is now on grade level with his peers.

Basically the workbox system is a method that organizes and gives structure to your homeschool. It gives children a visual of how much work they have at the start of the school day, exactly what is expected of them and shows their progress as they move through their school day. This program's main focus is to foster independence in our children and as I mentioned above give organization and structure. Children learn to work more independently needing less of mom's time.

To be perfectly honest, back when I first heard about the workbox system and before I read Sue's book I tried this system on my own using two canvas file boxes and manila envelopes. As I said I had not read the book. It worked ok and the boys liked the idea of knowing all of their work for the day was in their boxes. No they could not see all of their work since we were using Manila envelopes. For my four year old that was a very good thing. He would be into everything all at once because he loves school so much and wants to do it all right now!

Then I found out that I would be reviewing Sue's book as part of the TOS Crew. I thought I would see exactly what I was missing in not having purchased the book.

The first thing that really bothered me was that Sue is very adamant in that her way of setting up this system is the only way. There is no room, in her opinion, for someone to adapt this system to fit the individual needs of the child(ren). This just does not sit well with me. Every family is different and what works for me may not work for you. Maybe we use the same exact curriculum and yet you or I need to adapt it to make it a fit for our families.

Sue's approach is more a school at home whereas mine is homeschool. I do not want to try to replicate a classroom or bring the classroom home. If this is your approach in your homeschool that is your choice. I am fine with what other families choose to do in their homeschool. That is the beauty of homeschooling, you can tweak things to suit your needs, philosophy, beliefs.

Sue believes that there is no room for doing laundry and other household chores while homeschooling. Here is a quote from the book .

"Homeschooling is hard work and it’s a serious job. Homeschooling is not what we do when we don’t have anything else to do. It’s not what we do when we’re not doing laundry and cooking and cleaning."

I agree homeschooling is hard work and it is a serious job. However for us laundry and household chores are of our everyday life as they are for everyone and we do them during school hours. Sometimes we have to. My boys are learning life skills as well as reading, writing and arithmetic. Our school is not just confined to bookwork and our studies. It encompasses everything we do. Doing our household chores gives them many more opportunities to learn.

Another statement that stuck me as I was reading her book is that "I find there is too much talking going on in homeschools". That is probably true of our family. Talking and having conversations during the course of our schooling is important to building relationships. Yes we do work on not interrupting or waiting your turn to speak.

I just could not bring myself to use this system as is. Do I need more structure in our homeschool? Probably. Do I want that structure so rigid that it never allows room for spontaneity? No.

Our home is small. We live in less than 1000 square feet. I honestly do not have the space to set up two carts and 12 boxes. Space is at a premium in our home. We have no designated classroom and we do not use desks. We do school at the kitchen table or in the living room on the sofa.

What did I do? I adapted this system to fit our needs. I bought 2 Sterlite 12 x 12 carts with 7 drawers in each. I knew that 12 was too many for my boys. There are many parts of our school day where we do our studies together. This is what is working for us.

I think for me the main thing that The Workbox system has brought to our homeschool is that is has caused me to become more organized. I am using more of the items that seem to get put aside or I have forgotten I had them. By me being more organized helps tremendously to stream line our school day.

Some things to consider. The additional cost for supplies such as cart, boxes, card stock/paper for printing out the additional resources. Laminating and velcro.

Family size and space. For a large family this could be an expense to purchase a cart and shoe boxes for every child, if you have limited space this could be an issue as well.

Prep time each night to fill the boxes. The first few weeks it seemed to take me quite a while to get those boxes filled. Now that I am becoming more organized it is taking less time and becoming second nature.

So would I buy this book? Probably. Regardless of Sue's approach and insisting there is no room for adaption, I have gleaned some wonderful ideas to add to our school day. I like the idea of dividing up daily assignments into manageable portions and adding more fun and variety to our day. Reading Sue's book has caused me to look at my approach to our daily routine and be more creative in what I add to our days.

Be sure to stop by the TOS Homeschool Crew blog for more reviews of this product.

Disclosure: This product was provided to me free as a member of the The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew 2009-2010. All reviews and opinions expressed on this blog are my own.

My Apple Stand

2009-10-24T10:31:00.003-04:00

It is apple season here in NJ. We love apples here! I have always wanted one of those apple peeler/corer/slicers but never bought one. A couple of years ago in Goodwill I found one for $4.99. It attaches to your counter or table. The only problem was that it never stayed attached to the table very well. Our table has lip underneath it and I could never get to stay attached and not wiggle all around. I could not use the counter because of the way the edge is formed.

I decided to go online and look for a stand Everything I found was at least $15. For a block of wood? That I would only use a couple times a year? I decided I needed to come up with something myself. I asked Larry if he had any 2 x 4's or something similar that I could use to make a stand. He said he did not think we had any.

A half hour later he came in with this.

He made it out of some scrap wood.

It works perfectly and best of all it was FREE!

$5 Friday~Amanda Bennett

2009-10-23T10:06:00.004-04:00

If you like unit studies and you like Amanda Bennett you want to check out her $5 Friday sales. Each week she has three unit studies for $5 each on cdrom. This weeks unit studies are:

Oceans
Heroes of Invention
Easter

Save America's Space Program

2009-10-23T10:00:00.003-04:00

Save America's Space Program

Great Deals at Office Max

2009-10-22T09:54:00.001-04:00

Office Max is having a sale on printer paper, file folders and bankers boxes. You also will earn Max Points on these items making them free( you do have to put out the money up front first). Spend $50 and get free shipping.

You do have to join their Max Points to get the savings. It is free. If you are a teacher (homeschoolers included) or business you can sign up here.

You can make this deal even sweeter if you shop through Ebates or Shop at Home . If you are a new Ebates user you will get a $5 sign up bonus and the 3 % back from Office Max. Go to Ebates sign up and the enter Office Max into the search engine and shop through that link.

If you are a new user of Shop at Home you will get a $5 sign up bonus and 4% from Office Max. Your balance does have to reach $20 at Shop at Home before they will mail you a check.

This is what I did:

Signed up for Max Points be sure to write your Max Points number down or print it out.

Signed up for Shop at Home received $5 sign up bonus (in my account)
Type in Office Max and shop through that link

bought three cases of paper from office max for $16.99 each (get $17 back on each case) LIMIT THREE

You do not have to buy three cases of paper you could buy bankers boxes and file folders. Banker Boxes are $9.99 (10 per pack) you get $10 back in Max Perk Rewards. File folders are $6.99 (100 per pack) you get $7 back in Max Perk Rewards

Total $50.97
Received free shipping for spending $50
Max Points earned $51.00
$5 sign up bonus from Shop at Home (I chose Shop at Home because I already have an Ebates account)
Earned 4% back from Shop at Home

THIS OFFER IS GOOD UNTIL OCTOBER 24 2009

Happy Saving!

Simple Woman's Daybook~October 19th

2009-10-19T22:30:00.005-04:00

Outside My Window...Chilly and Dark. The rain finally left.

I am thinking...how much I want to accomplish this week.

I am thankful for...being able to stay home everyday with my boys.

From the learning rooms...we had a good day with history, apples and Johnny Appleseed. We are continuing on with our autumn unit studies.

From the kitchen...hot dogs for the boys and leftover chicken pot pie for Larry and I.

I am wearing...jeans and a red t-shirt. I can't wait to put on my comfy new pj's.

I am creating...I just finished putting together a mini office on Time for Justin and an apple seed file folder game for Kaden.

I am going...put two roasts I bought at BJ's in the freezer.

I am reading...I'm still reading Pocketful of Pinecones and have started The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I am hoping...the weather holds for our field trip later this week.

I am hearing...the boys watching Mork and Mindy.

Around the house...more decluttering. We made two trips to the thrift store this week. My kitchen counter is now in view! I want to continue with the counter, school plans for the coming weeks, thinking on some gifts I want to make for Christmas.

One of my favorite things...my new piece of pink depression. I single drinking glass!

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week...field trip to the pumpkin patch, visit with my grandma, a few phone calls, maybe a trip to the corn maze.

A picture thought I am sharing...

Gettin' ready for Halloween!

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