Teachable Moments/Teachable Me

Get it together!

2012-02-21T06:14:00.000-08:00

Finally, available time meets, inspiration and motivation. Hence, my first blog post of the new year! Isn't that the way it is. As a homeschool mom, it is often the second biggest struggle, to keep up with your everyday tasks and homeschool. Some, myself included, would say that homeschooling is equal to having a full time job. Only you do not leave the house and come home to everything just as you left it. You are here all day, creating and cleaning up messes. So how do you maintain your home, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and everything in between, AND homeschool and do a perfect job???? I have the perfect answer...wait for it....wait for it.....I HAVENT A CLUE!!!!! :)

Does that make you feel better. You see there is never going to be a complete balance where everything works in harmony together. Schedules change, stages of life change, and circumstances change and all of those things are a huge factor in how the outflow of your days run. So does that mean we need to throw it all out the window and just wing it....absolutely not. We need to be faithful stewards of our time, resources and heart attitudes. We are teaching our children more than just reading, writing and math. We are teaching them how to handle life, how to live in day to day life, how to faithfully pursue what is good, even when all odds are against us. When we are organized and have a plan, things run more smoothly and we are less likely to fall into patterns where our sinful attitudes take over and make ours and everyone around us lives miserable. The fact that they see that we are trying to make time to get to the important things, is teaching them to be good stewards of their time.

So, you say, how do you do that, if there is no perfect balance. Well there's not a pat answer. I would say the first place to start is with your spouse. Some spouses will be more understanding and allow grace, when the laundry piles up, as long as the floors are clean, while others may believe that laundry washed, folded and organized neatly in the drawers is a necessity and that the floors can wait. There would be no use in polishing those floors till they shine, when your spouse values clean laundry over that, it can cause tension between two people, when one feels like, Goodness, I thought I was doing a great job, look how clean the floors are, and the other is frustrated with the laundry. Getting on the same page by sitting down and figuring out together the top things that need to be done each week, that are important to both parties, and getting them in order together by priority is a huge way to avoid arguments over unmet expectations and it provides a great starting block for how to focus on your daily tasks.

After you do this, you can sit down and plan. I have found it very helpful to have a written schedule. This being said, you MUST not take the written schedule too seriously because times, they are always a changin. If you don't know where to start, there is a great resource out there available from one of my favorite bloggers Jessica, at Life as Mom. She has an e-book, Organizing Life As Mom. The resources for planning are worth every penny, and it doesn't cost a pretty penny either. I highly recommend this as a place to start. Since it is an e-book, you can download it right away and print the pages you want to use (there are several different options included, for each category so you can pick the styles that best fit you). I have used these for a couple years now. I have also created my own forms for the things that changed over time and didn't line up with the forms offered there.

Since times are changing I recommend either sending the forms to Kinkos or another copy shop and getting them printed on laminated pages, or another more affordable alternative is putting them in page protector sleeves. With both of these options you can use dry erase markers to fill in your schedule and you can change it freely as you try things out to find what works. She also has one available specifically for homeschool, but I do not have that one.

So that is generally speaking. More specifically speaking, let's talk housework. Keeping up with the housework is by far one of the biggest challenges for homeschool moms, especially ones with younger children that are limited in their chore capabilities. I highly recommend having a list of chores for your children to complete each day, based on their ability level. Post it on a chart and give them a star or check every day they are complete and a reward at the end of the week if you so choose. For Moms chores, I have found that different things work at different seasons. Here are my top three that I change between, depending on what season of life we are in.

Option 1: One Room A Day-Using this option you create a schedule M-F (you can include weekends too if necessary) where you concentrate on cleaning just that one room (or zone) that day, when it's done, your cleaning tasks for the day are done (for me I include rooms that are attached to other rooms, such as, the master bath with the master bedroom, powder room with the kitchen, upstairs bathroom with the school room etc but you could break it down so that bathrooms is one of the days I say zones because you could call it by zone I usually include the two upstairs bedrooms, bath and school room as one day. It doesn't take long to clean them. Break it down in a way that works for you, the idea is to keep it to something you could spend only about 30-45 min tops (or less) cleaning a day (that's not including the things you do every day, we will get there) Think about what rooms would be better on which days...if you have a big out of the house day, the easiest to clean room or zone should go on that day. If you have a day when people come to your house, make it the main room you will be entertaining in. Just think about what will work best for your family. I created my own schedule specifically for my day to day cleaning, with a list of the room to be cleaned and a checklist. Life as mom also offers a cleaning checklist in her book.

Option 2: One Day To Clean It All-There have been seasons where schooling days don't go as smoothly as I would like, or doc appointments etc. fill up the days when we are not schooling and I am unable to do Option 1. In order to not make myself feel like a total failure at keeping up with the house, I throw option 1 out the window and move to option 2 and pick one day, where I have a review day, an easy school day, and we all clean the house as a team...mostly me though, if I am being honest :) This works for me because my house is not huge, but I have friends that say it would not work for them because their house is too big and they wouldn't be able to do it in one day. You could consider breaking it into two days in that case, maybe an upstairs day, and a downstairs day or something.

Option 3: Duty a day-Similar to option 1, but break it down by cleaning duties, one day you vacuum/mop, one day you dust, one day you clean the bathrooms etc. This is also good and keeps it more open and not too much pressure on you.

So these are the three options I use most often depending on where we are at in our season of life. I am usually always touching up during the week too, by wiping down dirty sinks with a towel, giving the kids the dusters to have them go through a quick run through of the house just helps keep up easier and makes less pressure if you fall behind. These ideas are to be a guide line to getting the house clean. In addition to this there are daily duties that need to be done, such as laundry, dishes, making beds, picking up and touch up cleaning.

For beds and such, we do a morning High five, and an evening High five, with the five things the kids need to do in the morning, make beds, get dressed, put away pj's, brush teeth, and kitchen duties. For bedtime, its bath, pj's, put away dirty clothes, brush teeth, potty. Life as mom suggests this and has a chart available in her book. I created my own chart in word, with clip art for each thing. Its posted on their bedroom door so that we can make sure we do it each morning and evening.

For laundry, I have a rule, one load of laundry, from start to finish (wash, fold, put away) EVERY DAY. Some families may need to do two loads a day like this if you have a larger family or if you usually do 1 load a day, but need to catch up . I usually put a load in first thing in the morning, switch it at snack or lunchtime, and fold it during naptime, put away after nap (my kids all still take naps, even my 6 yr old so I am blessed) fold it during whatever free time you have to do tasks like this. I usually separate them, whites, colors, jeans, towels etc. and choose the pile that is biggest, but if there is a need for white shirts and the colors pile is bigger, I still choose the one where there is a need. Just some basic laundry principles to guide you.

For dishes, I usually run the dishwasher after dinner and try to unload it before bed, that way I start the morning with a clean sink and ability to clean up after breakfast with ease. That's just me.

For picking up and touching up, I usually clean up everything right when we finish in a room. I have a toy organization system, which I will share in my next post, where I have everything categorized into bins, in a LOCKED closet and the kids are aloud to choose a bin of toys each to take out. They are to be responsible for the cleanup of that bin of toys as long as it is out, no matter who played with it. When its cleanup time, that's the bin they are responsible for.

They each have kitchen duties (simple ones on their level) so whenever we are done with a meal they do their kitchen duty. We always clean up the areas we play in or school in, before moving on to another. Another thing I have done on crazy days (and a lot of them are) where the clean up each room before we leave it principle doesn't work, is group clean up at nap time, and just before daddy gets home. I always try to have the house in order before daddy gets home. He's been hard at work all day, I want him to have a nice environment to come home to, so I make this a priority each and every day.

I also have a set time that I start dinner, it's usually toward the end of the kids naps, but if that doesn't work, either have them help you, even if that's hard at first, they will eventually learn and it will be less of a hassle, but if you don't want to do that figure out activities such as outdoor play, play dough, puzzles, games, a movie, extra school work, whatever you choose to occupy them so you can focus on cooking. This goes for your 30-45 min cleaning time as well, if you have children that don't nap.

These are just some of the things I do to stay on track, but that is not to say I don't get off track. When I do, I just try to take it a day at a time, try not to freak out, my frustration trickles down to everyone else in the family and makes life miserable. So stay calm, breathe, pick an option 1,2, or 3, to focus on and just start from there instead of trying to put all kinds of pressure on myself to get it done right NOW!

If you just can't do that, take a day or two off from formal schooling, give worksheets, use online resources, whatever you want to do, and get it together. I try not to do this too much, but the reality is, sometimes you really have no choice and it's the better option for everyone, especially if you are having a hard time keeping your cool.

So if you choose to hop in where you left off and its option 1, start with whatever day it is and clean that room. You will be back on track in a week. If its option 2, wait until the day you have for cleaning and do it then or revert to options 1, or 3, to help you get caught up in the week. Then resume full option 2 level cleaning on the appropriate day. Etc. I have provided links to the organizing book by Jessica at Life As Mom, and I will be happy to provide you with my own templates as well if you would like. I will talk about how to get a handle on organization and less disastrous messes to clean up in my next post. I would be happy to hear your suggestions on organization and how you keep on track as well.

Can we afford to homeschool????

2011-11-29T06:18:00.000-08:00

One of the things I struggled with when considering homeschooling was if we could afford it. Some of the curriculums out there can be pretty pricey. Some of the ones people recommend most, were out of our budget.

I have good news, it IS possible for even the most financially challenged family, to homeschool their children if they so desire. There are tons of free resources out there for early child education, the downside of that is that it does take some time to research, and also some preparation time to put it together and teach. Here are some of my favorites:

www.hubbardscupboard.org

www.homeschoolcreations.com

www.1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com

www.education.com

These are just a few of my favorite places to go, but a little research and you will be pleased to find there are MANY free resources out there. Decide what's right for you.

I homeschooled my 6 yr old since he was small, mainly to pass time together in a constructive way. I wasn't planning to homeschool, but it became such a part of our life, and I had a huge network of friends and support, that we decided to give it a shot. The year before my son was going to enter Kindergarten I did a full time homeschool regiment to find out what worked for us and what didn't. One of the things I learned was that I really needed to find a good concrete curriculum.

In spite of all the great free resources available, I felt like all I did was plan, plan, plan. I actually like the planning part, but it was taking time away from my family of very young children who really need mommy's attention and direction at this stage of their life. I found myself planning and putting together lessons the morning of the lesson, I felt frazzled and like I wasn't doing my best job, and I wasn't even sure I was teaching him everything he was supposed to learn.

I thought to myself, if I am going to do this I need to get a good curriculum that would tell me what to teach and have the lessons generally planned for me. I searched alot of different options and I found many affordable options. Here are some of my favorites:

www.rodandstaff.com (this is the curriculum we chose, it is a good solid curriculum, but I have had to do some adapting to make it more interesting and challenging for my son)

www.aophomeschooling.com (Alpha and Omega Publishing has some affordable options as well as some free resources)

There are a number of others as well. There is a book called 100 top picks by Cathy Duffy that I highly recommend to anyone considering homeschooling, it has great reviews on many curriculums out there.

In addition you should check your local resources, there are many used homeschool bookstores out there, they sell the books and curriculum and other resources that homeschool families have sold to them and they are offered at a more affordable price than buying brand new.

You may also find a curriculum you love for the core subjects, and then find other free or low cost resources to supplement the other subjects. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can teach what you want. There are a number of Christian books available at the Vision Forum a favorite site of mine for finding supplemental learning materials.

There is such variety out there, that with a little research I think you will find, that you CAN afford to homeschool, at this point for our family, I feel like we can't afford NOT to.

Teachable ME! - Is it something I'M doing??

2011-11-17T13:31:00.000-08:00

So after my crazy mommy week last week, I got to thinking, why in the world are my boys doing these foolish and crazy things SOOOO often, and as soon as the opportunity arises. After much thought and prayer, I concluded that they obviously have too much free time on their hands. Too much free time, means too much time to think about foolish things, and this momma ain't raisin no fools! The other issue has been that they also are obviously not taking into account how their actions affect other people. Lets not forget to mention the obvious reason, they are sinners in need of a savior. The only obvious solution to that is to immerse them in scripture teaching, more than ever.

Therefore, I am implementing a new way of doing things around here. We will be having many more devotional breaks in the day. Our current curriculum is a Christian curriculum and is wonderful, but we need more time with one on one discussions about life using the scriptures as a guide, teaching them how it applys to thier life...Also Mommy needs to be more diligent to make time for QUIET TIME!!!! Now while I would like a little more "quiet", what I mean by quiet time is time for myself to be immersed in the scriptures, checking my own heart and seeing where I need to change...this time cannot be neglected, when it is...believe me it comes out in ugly ways, and guess what...little eyes are watching and learning. Often when I come to these times when things are overwhelming, it is really nothing more than my children acting out what they see in my own life. The Lord is always so faithful to reveal those things tenderly to me, to bring conviction and repentance.

From a practical standpoint, the oldest, and middlest boys are old enough to do many of the things that I do for them, so it's time to step up the responsibility level for them. From now on, if they create a mess, whether it be as a result of foolishness, or as a result of playtime, THEY will clean it up. I almost always have them help clean up after their playtime, but usually in the case of their foolish messes, I administer proper discipline, correction and instruction and then send them to a secure location (their room, the couch etc.) as sort of a time out, while I clean up the unexpected mess.

That is NOT going to be the case anymore, they need to learn that it takes hard work and time away from things that are more important or desirable to clean up a mess that shouldn't even be there in the first place. Shame on me for not doing this sooner. To be honest, I think most often the areas my kids struggle with the most, are because I enable them, by doing not giving them enough responsibility over whatever area of life they may be struggling in, usually because of my own selfish desire to get things done the easy way....well easy doesn't always pay, you usually pay later, with interest! At least that's what I am learning in my own life. I always try to see the bigger picture. I want to be faithful to deal with these issues now, when its just a spill on the carpet etc, so that I am not facing these issues in thier later years, when it will be harder to correct. I dont want to watch my kids spiral out of control like a tornado, leaving destruction in thier own lives, and the lives of those around them.

I've instructed them on why I am doing this, and that they need to take responsibility for their actions. I will provide them with the necessary items needed to clean up their mess, when they make one, as well as standing by with instruction when needed, for as LONG as it takes to get the job done. They will have to clean the whole thing up. Of course I know they are only 3.5 and almost 6 ysr old, and it's not going to be a job done to my high standard of course, but I can go over it afterward and "perfect" it if I have time or so choose, but mainly I am hoping this will make them think twice before choosing to do something foolish.

The other principle I am applying is that of keeping them busy with hard work. A child who is busy working hard on GOOD THINGS, won't have much time to think about doing foolish things. Right now I have decided to start giving Joshua more school work than I was previously giving him, of course breaking it up throughout the day, but instead of having so much "free time" I will be giving him some more fun projects focusing on what we've been learning in our class time. Also more review and studying on the things that he needs to work on. He is a very bright boy who loves to learn so this isn't like torture for him lol.

This is not to say that I am not allowing them to have free time, just not as much of it. I am hoping that they will realize the value of free time, and decide to spend it wisely when they do have it.

I will also be having them work alongside me more often, even if it is a little slower for me, or a little frustrating at times, I would rather deal with a little frustration, for a short time, until they master a skill and can be completely helpful and a little more self sufficient, than have to deal with the frustration of the many consequences of their foolish choices while unsupervised in their free time, as I am working on my stuff. So with dinner prep, if they are around, they can help me with what is not a danger to them, even if it's only helping me to clean up as I go. With laundry, they can practice folding things, or sorting things into piles of whose stuff belongs to who, matching socks etc. Sometimes I give them some baby wipes and have them wipe their toys tables etc down with them. These are all things they are capable of. They enjoy doing most of these things anyhow, I usually just would rather do it myself so I can get it done, fast, and right....are we seeing a pattern here......

I think if we are to be good parents, and this principle works with most any relationship, we need to be willing to examine our part in the other persons failures, maybe we are not playing a part, but I think a wise friend/co-worker, brother/sister, husband/wife etc. will at least take the time to sit back and examine themselves to see if there is any way they are personally making a difficult situation worse, and if so, what can they do to help make it better. As a mom it is my duty and responsibility to be faithful in my training of my children, and I believe that means examining myself and if I am helping or hindering my young ones.

Even if I wasn't playing a part in hindering them, by allowing them too much free time, and doing too much for them, therefore not allowing them to learn that their actions have deeper consequences than just simple discipline and correction, I would still say that these are great principles to establish to keep your kids on track and not pummeling down the road to destruction.

That's my teachable ME moment. I love how the Lord provides these wonderful teachable moments to help us to grow in wisdom. Parenting is no easy task. I don't know what I would do without the wisdom and guidance that comes from above.

Teachable ME! What I am learning in my own life

2011-11-14T06:02:00.000-08:00

I am a firm believer that there is something to learn from every situation, if you are open to seeing what there is to learn, you can be blessed by even the most frustrating and even heartbreaking circumstances, and grow in wisdom and knowledge.

This past week as I took some time off from formal schooling, to do our seasonal clothing switch, I was faced with a number of extreeeeemely frustrating circumstances, while my kids were off routine, and less supervised than usual, I have been dealing with one crazy mess after another, that my kids have created, using the insanely intelligent and overly curious minds that God gave them, and I truly rejoice in this about them, because I know the Lord created them with these qualities, because he intends to use it in their lives for his GOOD purpose. I love finding ways to channel these qualities for good in their lives. Sometimes, however, as in my own life, they use the gifts God gave them to do not so wise things.

I think the following series of pictures should be self explanatory…..But some others that were not photographed include, milk on the computer, hot sauce in the dog dish, and rice all over the family room floor….

Joshua, my 5 year old decided to carve his own pumpkin out of a pumpkin I had to make a pie...

Baby threw the leapster Explorer in the toilet...money down the drain...literally

My three year old unraveled 3 rolls of toilet paper in thier entirety...

My 5 year old did this last mess trying to make cupcakes he said...

He put it in the oven

the entire house covered in green food coloring....

Yesterday, upon cleaning up the Green food coloring mixed with dish soap, ice cream and my dog (who ran through the concoction and then through the house) I was struggling with the frustration of having to clean up yet another mess, a mess that was making me less productive with the things I needed to get done. I continued to struggle with this in my mind all evening, “All I ever do is clean up after everybody else’s mess, don’t they consider the consequences, surely they know better, surely I am training them to make wiser choices than this…..” I was having a hard time dealing with this graciously. I was at the end of my rope after this grand finale for the week of disasters. I was angry and frustrated and everyone was well aware.

After I got my composure and got the kids in bed. I lay praying about all of this pouring my heart of anger and frustration out to the Lord in brokenness. He is so faithful, He called to my memory, all the MANY times, that I have created a mess of my life, even with consequences that affected others I loved, all because of my poor choices and decisions, when I should have known better.

I was reminded of how graciously and mercifully he dealt with me through those situations. How often He gave me insight and restoration, all the while cleaning up my messes for me, not dealing with me as I deserved. He is a just God, those whom he loves he disciplines, I have had my fair share of discipline from the Lord, but I have had so much mercy and grace poured out in my life, I have no right to not extend the same to my children when they fail.

The Lord has set the standard, and he has also set the example. I need to model the Lord and his attributes in my life, so that my children may see him through my example and come to know him. If I teach them about the love, mercy and grace of God, apart from his Justice, I am doing them harm and not good. Likewise, I need to provide discipline, correction and instruction, but if I do that apart from Love, Mercy and grace, I do no good, I am like a clanging gong or a cymbol.

That’s my Teachable ME moment for the week, as the Lord continues to be faithful to reveal to me my own sinful heart as he teaches me to be more like him. What ways does the Lord use your kids to reveal the areas of life you need to work on?

Recycle, Recycle, Recycle! Re-purposing common household items for teaching

2011-11-09T11:15:00.000-08:00

Re-purposing containers

We’ve been talking about how to take common household items you would normally throw away in the recycle bin and re-purpose them for your learning environment. This not only saves you $ in your budget, but it gives you more room to do some other fun things or buy other resources you need. Why pay full price for something that you could make yourself. That’s my motto with pretty much anything.

The other reason is that in doing this you are teaching your children valuable lessons about being good stewards of the resources they’ve been blessed with. Not only are you educating them on keeping the environment healthy, but you are teaching them resourcefulness, and creativity.

I grew up in a family, where my mom and her sisters were the most creative people I knew on the planet when it came to resourcefulness, my mom when shopping would always say, I’m not buying this I could totally make it myself, and then she would! I learned from her and plan on passing that on to my children as well.

We may be just creating simple learning tools, but it’s so much more than just what is on the surface.

That being said, today’s recycling idea of the day is re-purposing containers. I am notorious for storing up containers for a rainy day. I use them for everything. When I got a great buy 2 get 3 sale on some nut mixes in a plastic container I was overjoyed! We used 2 of them to make a time capsule to go along with a history lesson, and 1 to store pencils, and another to store markers. This is perfect so that my little 1 yr old will not be able to unscrew the tops and get to them.

The larger containers I use for storing random items, like this large container I use for storing some simple foam squares acquired in the dollar section of target that we use for counting and sorting and building.

Egg crates are another EXCELLENT recyclable. You can use them as paint pallets for keeping colors separated, for counting activities, sorting, creating games to practice learning. A favorite of ours is moving a board piece and you have to spell your vocabulary word and state the definition, if you spell the vocabulary word correctly you move one space, if you say the definition and spell the vocabulary word correctly you move two spaces. We’ve also used them for progressive story telling where I put some random small toy inside an easter egg and as the child opens the eggs they need to build a story around what is inside the egg. It is a great way to get them using their imaginations.

You can also recycle things such as Kleenex boxes, and baby wipe containers to hold things such as note cards and vocabulary words, you can even turn them into prize grab and go containers for rewards. I recently repurposed a Kleenex paper towel dispenser to hold my “what’s the weather like today?” cards so they are handy when I go to do that portion of our school day with the little ones. It even matches nicely :) I also repurposed a baby wipes container to store my chalk and eraser, I can easily grab one or put one back through the slot in the top.

I hope these ideas will inspire you to look beyond the container to see the many other ways you can enjoy creating fun learning activities and memories to cherish with your little ones to make their educational time fun and interesting.

Recycle, Recycle, Recycle! Re-purposing common household items for teaching

2011-11-08T05:04:00.000-08:00

I am beginning a new series on recycling everyday household items and making them into great tools for learning. Recycled idea of the day is, bottle caps! These are a favorite thing of mine to use when teaching. I save all of them in a big bin. Then I have the younger ones sort them by color.

I use them for all kinds of things, from counting, number/letter recognition and order, pattern making for the younger ones, to making mathematical equations, distinguishing vowels from consonants and spelling with the older ones. They are also great with art projects and games. A favorite of ours is tossing the caps to get them in a bowl while saying their memory verses, they have to say it until they get the cap in the bucket. You can do this with math facts, spelling, or any fact your little ones are trying to memorize.

This is just one of many ways to recycle common household items, and save your family money! Instead of spending outrageous amounts of money on fancy counting blocks or letter blocks etc., I usually don’t pay full price for something I can make on my own, buy a book or take a field trip instead with the money you save, your kids will also learn from your example on how to be wise with their resources.

What the Teacher Wants!: freezing weather, snow, and bears...oh my!

2011-11-05T06:51:00.000-07:00

What the Teacher Wants!: freezing weather, snow, and bears...oh my!: Guess what? We had snow. I know, right? The day after Halloween, we HAD SNOW and it was only about this much . but I pouted like a 4 year o...

The Curriculum Challenge Part 3-Homeschooling The Gifted Learner

2011-11-02T04:40:00.000-07:00

So last time we talked about how we came to settle on a curriculum. This week I will share about how we have had to adapt that curriculum to meet our needs. I mentioned that We have been blessed by this curriculum, that it was great for my own strengths and weaknesses. But the one thing we have found to be a challenge has been Joshua’s intelligence. The first grade level curriculum we chose for him because he was already advanced, has not been challenging enough for him, it is very slow moving lots and lots and lots of repetition for a boy who grasps things very quickly, it has been frustrating for him. I think he is a gifted learner, though I won’t go through having him tested at this time, because I am homeschooling and can adapt to his educational needs with freedom. If he was going into school, I would have him tested only for placement purposes. I’m wary of testing because that just gives him a label, and I’m not into labels…that’s for another post.

Back to the curriculum challenge, I was very discouraged the first week of school when he was saying, I already knoooow this mom, I need something more challenging…most teachers would love this comment, and I am pleased that he is such a fast and eager learner, but I had no budget to go out and purchase a whole new curriculum, I had purchased this one with the idea that I wasn’t going to have to spend hours and hours planning lessons, and now it looked like that was exactly what I was going to have to do in order to keep up with his needs.

This is where having a positive network of friends and other homeschoolers is a must for the homeschooling family. I asked several of my friends what they would do in this situation, and I also posted a question on one of the blogs I follow stating my issue and requesting advice. What did we ever do without the internet? The response was amazing. I had so many people who had been in the same boat give me support, encouragement, curriculum recommendations and the like. So I have some different things to consider when we choose next year’s curriculum, though the advice that was so helpful was a recommendation, to stick with what we have, and teach it at an accelerated rate, and if we finish early, then we can take an early break and then even start on the next year.

So that is what we have been doing. I have been teaching 3 lessons at a time, per subject each day. Sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming to give him all those worksheets and workbook pages, so I split them up into “homework” that he works on later in the day after his nap, usually when I am trying to get dinner ready or at times when other mindless activities would compete for his time. Another recommendation was to supplement, supplement, supplement. Find different things, books activities, and fun learning excersizes to supplement what is being learned in class time. This has been working great for us. I am so glad I didn’t run out and get a new curriculum. I may try something new next year, I may just continue doing what we are doing as well, we have some things to consider, but overall choosing to make the curriculum we chose, meet his needs has been the best decision yet.

The beauty of homeschooling is that you dont also have to follow the teachers manual exactly as it is written, Im not even sure public/private school teachers do either. Though I think its a misconception and something we as homeschool parents can get hung up on, and it can hinder us sometimes. I skip over the things I know he already knows and/or adapt them to make them more interesting. Sometimes I even ask him for suggestions on creating a game to practice the lessons. Its wonderful to have that freedom.

I’m sure this is not the case in every situation, but it was the case in ours. My advice that anyone can follow, is to find a network of friends and other homeschool families that you can trust and lean on for advice and support. It is key to successful homeschooling.

The outdoor classroom-Taking advantage of a good thing!

2011-10-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

Today is such a beautiful fall day, the leaves are falling, changing colors, there is a breeze in the air that with one breath brings a flood of memories of this time of year, I get the sudden urge to create some new ones. We have missed a few of these beautiful days recently due to my being under the weather, so we are taking advantage of this beautiful day, and I am so thankful that we homeschool and have the freedom to do that.

So how do you get out and enjoy the day, but not skip school. I could just say it’s a field trip day, observe nature day or something, but really we need to do some critical work today so its not an option. So I had Joshua practice his writing, (he is an advanced reader and writer) I had him write a story, and we are all going to act out his story in the woods. That’s fun, will work their imaginations, and he gets practice with his printing, spelling and punctuation.

We will also be practicing his math facts…He is very bright, he memorizes all his math facts in seconds, and even figures out the ones I hadn’t even taught him yet. We are up to the 8’s addition family and he taught himself the 7’s and 8’s all by himself!

This is great! Though I’ve said it before,in my M+M=MM MM Good Math time Learning post, that when it comes to math, kids need to learn word problems, so they learn the math concepts, not just straight memorization. It is critical to understanding math concepts they will learn in the later years. So I am going to have him create word problems and equations using items from the environment (ie: 5 red leaves, + 2 yellow leaves = 7 leaves, or the tree had 5 yellow leaves and 2 red leaves for a total of 7 leaves) who knows what we will come up with, the possibilities are endless.

We are also going to make more of our pinecone bird feeders, and hang them in the trees in the woods for the birds, and the squirrels.

We will finish with our PE lesson and a snack, which goes with today’s lesson, and then head home for naps. These are some awesome ways to utilize the outdoor classroom.Later I will have Joshua work on some workbook work, as "homework". Getting out of the house is not only ONE half of the battle, but its the second half of the battle too, two halfs equals a whole and that makes it 100% of the battle, so I better get moving! (Had to sneak in a little math time fun:))

I would love it if you would share with me how you utilize the outdoors for learning. Send your info and pictures if you have them, to teachableme@gmail.com.

Curriculum Challenge Part 2-Making An Informed Decision

2011-10-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

So in my last post I discussed how finding the right line up of curriculum really depends on your family’s individual needs. Today I would like to share with you what my experience has been. Very early on, I started out using www.hubbardscupboard.org just to pass the time constructively with my children. They provide a great variety of resources already planned out for you. It is a Christian resource which has the units designed in themes, centered around Bible stories at the younger ages, and character traits for the older ages, so if you are studying about Adam and Eve, you learn a corresponding Bible verse, the letter A, with a rhyme to illustrate the sound…”Adam at an apple a, a, a…” counting by putting apples on a tree which is a printable they have available to you…and a whole host of other activities to fill your week. This was the greatest resource for me. Once that curriculum finished I was at a loss. I wanted a curriculum that was laid out the same kind of way.

Joshua was not supposed to start kindergarten until 2011 bc of his birthday but he was clearly able and ready to learn, so I did kindergarten with him the year before he was supposed to start, this was the first time I did full time homeschooling in our home. I did it this way just so I could try to play around with what worked and what didn’t for us, before he was really supposed to be in school. It was a great decision, but that’s for another post J

I tried to do research, for a similar set up of curriculum most of the ones that were unit study, were out of my price range, so I tried a variety of things that I found at a local used homeschool bookstore, and utilized tons of free online resources. We made it work, but doing it this way, was a lot of effort on my part, to do the research and prepare all the things I needed for the lessons. It was a bit overwhelming, for me as I also had a 2.5 yr old and a 6 month old to care for as well.

In considering this, I knew that I wanted something with minimal planning on my part, I also had to take into consideration, my strengths and weaknesses. I observed as a weakness, that organization is something that takes a lot of concentrated effort on my part, as a strength, I am very artistic and creative and can come up with pretty much a creative way to teach anything. In considering Joshua’s strengths and weakness, I needed to take into account that Joshua is a very intelligent child, he learns things very fast, it’s fascinating to me. Basically I teach him something once and he knows it forever, he also does well using workbooks, and even taught himself how to read while we were working on beginning and ending sounds in a workbook we bought in the $1 section of target!

Weighing all these things, I figured that whatever curriculum I settled on, for the core curriculum (math, reading, phonics) I wanted it to be a Christian curriculum, a complete curriculum, one that was put together by one company and came with everything I needed to teach a full year of school, and that it have some workbook centered time. I wanted one that outlined everything I had to do, and had all the resources, and was workbook centered. And of course that it fit our budget.

Our pediatrician homeschools, and he recommended Rod and Staff to me. I checked it out online, and it was completely affordable and came with a complete 1 yr of curriculum, workbooks, flash cards, even art and music curriculum. Everything that needed to be taught was completely outlined for me all I needed to do was pull the things they told me to have ready for class, and then teach their curriculum. I was sold. I ordered it and was ready to go at the start of the year in 2011.

We have been blessed by this curriculum, it was great for my own strengths and weaknesses. One thing we have found to be a challenge, Joshua’s intelligence, the first grade level curriculum we chose for him because he was already advanced, has not been challenging enough for him, it is very slow moving lots and lots and lots of repetition for a boy who grasps things very quickly, it has been frustrating for him. I was very discouraged the first week of school when he was saying, I already know this mom, I need something more challenging…most teachers would love this comment, and I am pleased that he is such a fast and eager learner, but I had no budget to go out and purchase a whole new curriculum…what was I going to do…That will be covered in my next post, The Curriculum Challenge Part 3-Making the curriculum you chose work for your family’s needs.

The Top Challenges to Homeschool Families-(Part 1-Finding a curriculum that works)

2011-10-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

So there are 3 main things that are a challenge to most every homeschool family, curriculum, home keeping, and occupying younger brothers and sisters. I am starting a series of posts on these three things.

Today I am tackling the ever complex topic of curriculum. To start I am going to just say, if you are a first time homeschooler and are asking around about what people use, do not have the expectation that someone will just give you a magic answer where you will be able to run out, buy it, and it will be your perfect ever curriculum, that’s what I was hoping for, it never happened. People would whip off names of like one hundred different curriculums and I was like, uhhh ok. I went to an informational meeting a homeschooling mom from our church organized, and I was so confident that I would walk out of there, with a better plan than I had.

I was W-R-O-N-G… Wrong. All these women showed up with what seemed like thousands of these mega sized textbooks and filled up a huge dining table with them. It was very overwhelming, I felt very discouraged afterward. I looked through so many of those books, there were toooo many choices. I had no clue which would be best for us. I had been mostly making my own Pre-K lessons all along, I am artistic and creative by nature, so planning fun activities around a theme was always something that just came natural to me as a mom, and for the more technical things, I had a little help from www.hubbardscupboard.org ,which I highly recommend as a place to start for anyone thinking about homeschooling, and its FREE! I left there thinking, how in the WORLD am I supposed to take a big ol’ textbook and make a lesson from it?!(I didn’t reaIize that those big ol’ textbooks WERE the lesson plans) lol. Either way it was very intimidating. Like I said, I left there, neither confident, nor with ANY kind of a plan at all, in fact I was more panicked than anything, wondering if I could even do this at all.

I continued to ask around, hoping someone would just tell me I HAD to use this one particular type of curriculum and that would be that. But I would ask and get like 200 different things they had tried, and what they were using now, and what they liked or didn’t like about each one and what they were switching to. Everyone always said, you just have to find what works for you….well what was that?

We are on a budget, so I didn’t have the freedom to just be buying and trying out this curriculum and that, some of the ones people recommended where well out of our range to begin with and I was like, well if its that much money and it doesn’t work, then what?

I just kept researching. I found some great sites I have them on the side panel of my blog. The first is www.letshomeschool.com it has a wide variety of very helpful information, teaching tips, curriculum reviews , state standards, ideas and more. The other is http://cathyduffyreviews.com Where the author of the book, 100 Top Picks, which is highly recommended for any homeschooling family, has detailed reviews of curriculum and more based on subject, and lots more information to help you find your way.

Now, the reason I say that you will never get an answer that will solve all your problems with deciding on a curriculum, is that what you decide will absolutely depend on what will work for you and your family. So to conclude this post, I would encourage you to think about what kind of learning style your children have, what kind of organizational/planning person are you, do you do well at balancing many different tasks, or do you find it hard to do that, consider how much planning time you have available, Do you want to do a lot of the planning and prep yourself, or do you want something that just has everything done for you and you just have to organize it, and teach it, consider what YOUR strengths and weaknesses as a teacher are, and what your children’s strengths and weaknesses are. Write these down somewhere so that you have them, when you are reviewing the different choices of curriculum out there.

In my next post, I will talk about my personal journey down this path, and where it has lead us, and what it is looking like moving forward.

Written History-Making it personal

2011-10-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

What is history? It’s the study of what happened in the past. I love to take what we are learning and make it personal. Today we studied that one way of finding out history of a person, place, or thing in time is to study written records. We learned about different types of written records, and what is held within them.

Books are the first thing they thought of, so we pulled out some different kind of books, learning books, entertaining books, true story books, of course the Bible. We talked about birth certificates, how they tell when, and where someone entered into the world, death certificates, to note the opposite, medical records to tell the history of a person’s health, Dental records, and how they can be used to identify a person, and finally personal letters which can tell you so much about the intimate details of a persons history, you can tell from a letter a woman wrote to her mother in the pioneer days how life was starting up, you can learn of wars, and wartime strategies, and even stories of love. I also showed them my “mother’s diary”, and we had fun reading all the little things I jot down that are funny, cute, or monumental that they do. There are so many written records we could hardly discuss all of them and it would be way above their heads, but I tried to have some of these available to them, to see, birth certificates, medical records, whatever I had on hand.

I am all for hands on learning, and I believe that when the kids can see touch, taste, feel whatever it is they are learning about, it becomes more personal and they are more likely to remember it. The night before this lesson, I remembered that a yr ago we had done a time capsule as a family, where we all put in items that characterized our lives, so I dug it out of the linen closet and had it ready to present. Then I had some empty plastic nut canisters and some note cards so we could create a written record of our current time. After presenting the lesson, we pulled out the time capsule from last yr, there was a letter from daddy, a church bulletin, and even some bible memory verses from the kids Sunday school class with the date on it, this was perfect for teaching how we can use written records to determine history.

If we were trying to find out about this time capsule, we could conclude that this was from a Christian family (Bible verses/church bulletin) , with a devoted dad who loved his 3 boys. We could conclude that it was during or after the year 2010 because he mentioned baby Joseph who is only 1 yr old currently. We can affirm that year because of the date on the bulletin and Bible verse pages.

After this we created a written record time capsule. I had written out questions on the cards and asked each boy the questions. and placed their answers in a time capsule to be revealed at the beginning of next school year. I can’t hardly wait!

Teaching your kids to enjoy life-Priority and Privilege

2011-09-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

There is such a beauty in the gift of being able to home school. You have a great opportunity to cultivate deeper relationships with your children than you would if they were off under the care of the public school system for the bulk of the day. This is a special reason we choose homeschooling. Through each subject taught and every moment enjoyed together, there are moments that we can make it count. Every day through teaching my children, I shape the way they see the world around them. Whenever I feel like I am not doing enough to “change the world” for the better, I remember that I am building up and training a generation of young men and through my influence and teaching, I hope that they will be changing the world to the glory of God.

One important thing I make sure never to neglect to teach, is teaching them to enjoy this life that God has given them. I want them to never take for granted, the beautiful things in this life, like a beautiful sunrise or sunset, the sound of the rain falling, the big round moon and all its changes, how the trees seem to have hands raised up to heaven, the lovely sound of the birds singing their morning song and the crickets singing a lullaby. It is so important that they are aware of these beautiful things in a fallen world that threatens to drown out the beauty with all of its seemingly inescapable noise.

I make sure that as we go about our day, I do not neglect to point these things out. It shapes the way they see things, when my 5 yr old exclaims with great joy, “Mommy! Look at the beautiful sky God painted for us!” or when my 3 year old, who incidently is supposed to be sleeping, but is instead staring out his window at the moon, comes to get me urging me to come and look at the big round circle in the sky, “The moon, the moon, what color is it mommy?” It happened to be yellow this particular night. “we have to wake up Joshua, he needs to see the pretty moon.” afterwards praying, "Thank you God for the stars and moon in the sky."

I love to take these moments and make them personal, I believe it is important to bring life into the classroom, and take thier learning to another level through hands on activities. For example, since John Carlos was so fascinated by the moon, the next day we did a learning activity about the phases of the moon, where we scratched them into the cream of an oreo cookie. (see previous post moons over my oreo in the food for thought series) Since Joshua had been so amazed by the beautiful sunset, we made our own finger paint and painted sunsets with them.

Today, we are going to just go and enjoy Gods creation by being out doors in the beautiful places, observing and taking it all in. Who knows what kind of teachable moments will come out of our time together, there are always teachable moments, you need to be aware of them, and never let them pass. Being together, enjoying life, it’s such a privilege of homeschooling.

Apples to Apples-Food For Thought Series (3)

2011-09-22T08:01:00.000-07:00

Can you compare apples to apples? Absolutely! That’s exactly what we did with Todays history lesson on archaeology. Last lesson, we talked about history, and that it is the study of what happened in the past, we talked about how you can learn history based on what people in the past have written about. But how do we find out the history of a given time, if there were not any letters written. We talked about how studying the things people leave behind, can tell the story of history too.

We learned about Archaeology and did a backyard dig, that they were not as interested in as I had thought they would be. So I brought them in to do another activity in which I had dumped out an entire bag of apples on the table and told Joshua to choose one…He chose one and began eating it…not part of the plan…so I told him to choose another one. I told him to tell me in detail every single thing about the apple he had chosen (the uneaten one of course) I wrote down each distinguishing characteristic he told me

1. It has a dent on the bottom of the flatter side of it

2. The stem is brown and skinny with a rounded top

3. One side sticks out more than the other

4. Its green around the top

5. Its green on the bottom with pointy leaves

6. It has a lot of dots all over it

7. It is red

Then we placed the apple in a bowl with all the rest of them and I read him back his description and he had to find the apple based on his description. That is what archaeologists do they carefully examine every detail of things to learn about history of a person, place, or thing in time.

We enjoyed the lesson and plan to try it out on daddy!

M+M=MM MM Good Math Time Fun-Food for thought series (2)

2011-09-15T04:34:00.000-07:00

My Joshua was feeling less than challenged by the way I was teaching his math facts. I was following the teacher’s manual to a tee and he was frustrated with the repetition and boring way it was being presented. He said, mommy, I need something more challenging than this.

That is the beautiful thing about homeschooling, and also the reason I LOVE it! You have the freedom to teach a lesson any way you want.

For today, I just taught the basic math fact concepts outlined in the teachers manual, but instead of having him do worksheet after repetitive worksheet, I Pulled out some colorful coffee mugs and a bag of M&M’s and had him create math equations for each of the math facts that he learned.

It is important for kids to understand the why about the math facts and not just memorize until they are blue in the face, otherwise they can have difficulty in later math when logic and other critical thinking components are more important than straight memorized facts. Therefore I had him create a word problem to illustrate each equation, which was quite comical at times. I also gave him word problems and he had to make the equation with the M&M’s. The bonus was, when he got it right he got to eat the answer! We did that until we ran out of enough M&M’s. Then split the lot J

Then I wrote equations on the board using the math facts we were covering and he had to tell me a word problem to go with it, and I would say a word problem and he would write the equation on the board. Then I even wrote an equation on the board and said he wanted to write the word problem out in pictures, "One beach ball bouncing on the waves, plus two beach balls bouncing on the waves, equals 3 beach balls bouncing on the waves." I love it!

He replied at the end. Mom, that was much more challenging, thanks!

Moons over my Oreo -Food For Thought Series (1)

2011-09-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

This is my first post in my "Food for thought" series, on using food as a motivational and fun way to teach.

One great thing about home schooling is having the freedom to teach whatever you want, whenever you want, and however you want. A great example of this is what I did today with my boys as a result of my 3 year old John Carlos fascination with the moon all of a sudden. Last night, I heard some thumping around when he was supposed to be going to bed and found him staring out at the full moon. It was shining bright in a sort of yellowish hue. He was saying, the moon, the moon, I see the moon! What color is it mommy? So we talked about the moon and looked at it through binoculars, it was a moment to be cherished. I told him it was time to say “Goodnight Moon,” but that we would learn more about the moon tomorrow.

So I found a cute lesson plan online at one of my favorite websites for free learning printables and ideas, www.teachmama.com whereby you use the cream of the oreo to make the moon into all of the moons different phases. They had fun with it and Joshua, my 5yr old was fascinated by the way the phases are changed by the different positions of the sun, moon and earth, and practiced moving the sun and earth into the correct placements above each phase, using the sun as a vanilla oreo and another chocolate oreo as the earth.

It was a fun way to teach these things, I don’t think John Carlos Got it 100% but he enjoyed eating the cookies and frosting and we even crushed up the leftover oreo tops that no one wanted in paper bags by stepping on them…any boy will love that idea…we will be rolling our vanilla ice cream cones in the crushed oreos to make it look like our favorite phase of the moon, after supper tonight. Great times!

Ladybug's Teacher Files: Organization Linky Party at Growing Kinders!

2011-02-28T04:35:00.000-08:00

Ladybug's Teacher Files: Organization Linky Party at Growing Kinders!: "Aaahh..one of my favorite obsessions--organization!! Growing Kinders is having an Organization Linky Party and I wanted to share some of my ..."

Ladybug's Teacher Files: Homework can be fun with...

2011-02-09T18:36:00.000-08:00

Ladybug's Teacher Files: Homework can be fun with...: "Homeworkopoly! In our class, one of the most anticipated activities each week is Homeworkopoly, which you can learn more about at teachnet.c..."

Teachable Moment turns into "Kidspiration"

2011-02-03T04:34:00.000-08:00

So as Christians we are always teaching and talking about the Word of God, whether in schooltime or not. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 11:18-19 So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine...Teach them to your Children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.

In this one particular instance Joshua and I were talking about how God made each person with their own unique purpose. In his wisdom he designed each one, giving them each their own gifts in order to acomplish that unique purpose. We started talking about what we thought our gifts were, and how we could use those gifts to glorify God.

He stated that he believed that drawing was a gift of his...and it is...I asked him what different ways he felt he could honor God using those gifts. He quickly said he should make cards for sick kids in the hospital, and tell them about Jesus...and immediately got to work doing just that.

The more we talked about it the deeper the idea went, He said , we could do this regularly, not just this once, and we can write down their names and pray for them. We should help other kids try to think of ideas on how to use thier gifts to glorify God....Wow! I have been humbled by the desire of my 5 yr old to serve others like this. Its as if by this one conversation, we have tapped into a well spring of ideas in his little 5 yr old heart.

So in examining my own areas of gifting, one of them being a joy for writing, I decided that the best way to put all of his ideas into motion, would be to start up a blog....or a dot com as Joshua calls it. So I started this blog for him, http://www.theboomerangang.blogspot.com/ So that we could post our journey as we embark on this new mission from God which has sprung up in my little boys heart. We called it The Boomerang Gang because we were created by God with these gifts, sent out into the world, and by using those gifts as they were intended, to serve others and spread the word of God, we bring glory back to God in heaven.

We will post a summary of our visits each week, as well as prayer requests for the kids whos parents permit us to, we will give them the information from the site so that they can visit and give updates if they would like. There is also a tab on there so that other kids and parents can be challenged to examine their gifts and how they might be using them for the glory of God. As they are challenged to put ideas into motion, they are welcomed to share their journey on our blog, so that we may be praying and supporting them as they step out in faith.

I am very excited and humbled by what God is doing in the heart of my little boy. I want to sew the concept of this way of thinking and living in his little heart early on and I cant wait to see how this "kidspired" idea plays out. :)

Beginning Reading Help: Use Magnetic Letters to Teach Decoding Words Before Reading a Book

2011-01-26T04:27:00.000-08:00

Here is a great read on helping your child learn how to read in a creative and fun way. She includes some really helpful videos. Magnetic letters are not hard to come by, in fact you probably already have some. However if you are looking for them on a budget, you can proably find some at the dollar store. I also use bottlecaps to make letter learning time fun. Save your bottle caps, set some aside to write the alphabet on the cap tops, and store them in a ziploc. IF you were feeling ambitious, you may even make some into magnets yourself :) Enjoy the article!

Beginning Reading Help: Use Magnetic Letters to Teach Decoding Words Before Reading a Book

Teaching Kids to Type-Reviews

2011-01-24T18:15:00.000-08:00

So I had some time to look through and have Joshua try out the resources posted by Book Chook on Teaching Kids to Type.

Her first recommendation was Tux Typing which features Tux, the Linux penguin. It's available as a free download for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux. There are two games, Fish Cascade and Comet Zap and each comes graded from easy to hard. Games start with alphabet identification or finding the keys on your keyboard, and move on to practice fluency and accuracy. I did not try this link out personally because my computer said the security software was not ...well...secure...you will have to check that one out for yourself if you are interested, if you do try it, please do let me know what you thought.

Her second recomendation was Type for Gold which is a game you don't need to download but you can play online. It is a racing game, like track n field racing. There are a number of runners on the starting line and there is a bulletin board above them, when the race starts, the bulletin board will reveal a word, the player has to type the word that is in the bulletin board and it makes thier player run faster. After each word is typed(whether correct or incorrect) the word changes. The faster you type, the closer you get to the finish line, the slower you type, the slower you get to the finish line.

There are different levels and the higher the level the larger the words are. I would recommend this site for older kids or even adults who perhaps are a little more seasoned in typing and just want to enhance thier speed and accuracy. My reasons behind this are that the game moves really fast, even when I myself typed the words at my usual pace, on the easiest level, I lost more often than won. If the child is constantly losing, that makes the game not fun, or motivational. So I dont give this website a GOLD metal recomendation, but I would give it a bronze for someone who wanted to enhance and practice their skills.

Her third recomendation was Dance Mat Typing which is an offering from the BBC Online. It is very well organized, it starts with an explanation and teaches correct finger placement. Then it moves on slowly, emphasizing lots of drills and repetition to drive the key locations and movements into their memory. I do give this site a GOLD metal. It was very much a great teaching resource. It shows the kids where to put thier fingers and gives them a screen that shows where the letters are so they are not always lifting thier fingers to find the letters. It has a number of levels too, which I didnt try all of them, but level one was very helpful. There are a number of fun characters and interesting and unique features to help make it exciting. My 5 yr old really enjoyed it and seemed to really understand the concept. I think if we do a little each day he will have it down in no time. Best of all this is a FREE resource! Free is always a good thing :)

So there are my teaching Kids to type reviews, try them out for yourself and let me know what you think :)

What Are You Looking for?

2011-01-24T15:04:00.000-08:00

I would like to post a Q & A blogpost to try and answer as many questions as I can that people have about homeschooling, and parenting ideas. I am not all knowing, but I will be sure to research and find answers to the questions I dont know the answers to :) I would also love to recieve emails on topic suggestions you would like to hear about, as well as some general feedback on what you would like to see more of, or less of on my blog. I want to make my blog one that is helpful to YOU! Help me to do so by sending your questions and comments to teachableme@gmail.com

Thank you,
Marybeth Santos

Todays Website Highlight www.hubbardscupboard.org

2011-01-22T17:29:00.000-08:00

When I first started doing home education with my oldest son Joshua, when he was around one year old, I simply wanted to be a faithful as a mother, to nurture and love my son, and train him up in the way he should go. I would basically wing it, coming up with ideas to pass time, and grow us closer together through playtime and learning. I was usually getting books from the library in a theme, and then making up art projects and games etc. to surround the book theme for the week. I tend to be more of the creative artistic type, so that kind of thing was fun for me to do and came naturally. However, when he started getting a little older, I wanted something more concrete. I would still do the same kind of thing, just on a deeper level, but I had things I wanted to teach him though I was not sure how that should look. It was around then that a good friend turned me on to a great resource. The website she sent me was http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/ and it was what completely jump started my journey, and excitement for homeschooling.

This website has it all! They have full lesson plans outlined for you in full detail, there is only minimal preparation, such things as printing, organizing, and cutting. They have all your lessons pre-planned for you, what you should do day by day, broken down in a few different kind of ways, so it appeals to many learning and teaching styles, they even have it broken down hourly if you need that, They provide many printable worksheets, they suggest books to buy or check out at the library which supplement the lesson, they have songs, poems, nursery rymes, and many projects games and other items to illustrate and practice as per their lesson plan for each week.

It is a Christian curriculum and goes along with a Bible theme each week, or as the kids are older, a character trait theme, always with corresponding Biblical verses, stories, and songs to illustrate that trait or theme. A variety of subjects are covered in a weekly plan, all somehow connecting to that weeks theme. This is MY personal favorite way to teach my kids. I love when every subject is connected, thats how the world works isnt it. It helps me to show how all areas of life work together, how God is in everything, and how we are constantly learning, even in our everyday tasks.

Here is a good example, when learning about Adam and Eve, you will, read the story, sing a song and memorize a verse, as well as do counting math by using 10 5x7 full color tree print outs provided by the site, and small apples to fit the trees (you will need to cut them out) to create an apple tree counting book, you and your child will count out the appropriate ammt of apples, placing each one on a designated tree, each page has a different number, they are numbered up to 10. You will also do a letter which is A is for adam, which pairs with the song Adam ate an apple, a-a-a to illustrate the sound of the letter as well. Apple paint prints, and apples for a snack.

Hubbards Cupboard provides ideas and pictures of those ideas for different art projects, sensory tub ideas, etc. and and often provide everything you need through printable worksheets to make them. You can use their ideas or create some of your own, which I do often. It is everything you would get in a "boxed" curriculum....for FREE! They also provide many useful links on thier site for you to look through and they are extremely informative. I really attribute this website to my feeling confident in my ability to homeschool my kids, and for giving me a one stop resource to show me what that should look like. It really got me started on the right foot. They have curriculum plans for babies thru 5 year olds and then have many links to provide homeschool support for kindergarten as well.

I hope you will check this site out, even if you are not planning to homeschool, its got lots of exciting options to entertain your children in a way that provides enrichment and fun, for a rainy day, a weekend, or just for everyday ways to spend time together. :)

If this article was helpful to you, I would love to recieve your feedback.

Internet sites and Game day learning - great in a pinch

2011-01-19T10:44:00.000-08:00

Here is a helpful tip. Stock up on lots of learning games they come in really handy in a pinch, and are a great way to test the skills out that you have been teaching your little ones. They come in very handy on days when you may not have a ton of time to sit down and focus on a "rigorous" lesson plan for the day, or if your schedule doesnt allow you a lot of time for planning for some reason or another. Instances that this has happened for me are around holiday times, doctor appts, and recently when I was potty training my middle child.

While potty training, I needed to be connected at the hip and devote much attention to him during the three days of initial training, I would at many times have to drop what I was doing to rush him off to the potty, Ironically I just had to do this while writing this sentence :) That being said, I didnt have alot of planning time, nor time to devote to concentrated lessons.

His training crossed over into two of our homeschool days. Heres how I utilized internet and learning games to my advantage.

Day 1: No matter what, we always start the day with our Bible study. I utilize a great curriculum for their age that I ordered from http://www.biblestudyguide.com/ the curriculum is very affordable and the whole lesson is outlined for you in a really great way, you can choose your age group. My kids love it, and I love using it.

Then I had Joshua just work on a few worksheets, then I utilized the web to practice the skills on the sheets. He spent 30 minutes doing math practice problems on http://www.ixl.com/ this is a great learning and practice site that allows anyone to have 20 free practice problems a day. If you subscribe, they will give you updates on your childs progress and give your child rewards to motivate them to keep practicing. Then he spent 30 minutes on http://www.starfall.com/ practicing his reading. This site is free as well, and does have additional resources available for subscription.

The boys got a big bucket filled with wild animals for Christmas. I had each of them pick an animal that they wanted to learn about. Once they made their selections, we went to http://www.animalplanet.com/ to find out all about that animal. We noted all the general information about those animals, habitat, food, etc. and they had to utilize that information in imaginative play. I had joshua put together some drawings for each animal to illustrate what was learned. We will compile a book of these drawings to be used as a presentation at the end of the week. The rest of the time I let them use thier imagination to build using their Roylco straws and connectors http://www.fatbraintoys.com/ or http://www.strawsandconnectors.com/ which occupys them for hours.

Day 2: This day was purely a game day. Dont feel guilty for these kinds of days, even public schools have "extracurricular" days where they take a break from thier regular standard classroom learning to engage in other activities. Sounds like a cop-out but I assure you it is far from it. With the right kind of games, you can get a glimpse into just how much your child is understanding what you are teaching them, if you pay close attention you can find out what you may need to concentrate a little harder on in your one on one time.

Games are an excellent way to give them a chance to utilize what they are learning in a practical way. We started the day working on some mind blowing science experaments exloring acids and bases using our science for creative minds kit with everything you need to conduct multiple experiments the kids looooooove it, and there is enough supplies to conduct the experiments multiple times. Check out http://www.scientificexplorer.com/ or http://www.fatbraintoys.com/. We followed it up with a game of hyperdash, which I love!!! You can set it for any level and it calls out numbers, colors, mathematical equations, sequences, and you place these discs all over the table or all over the house, and you take the wand and find the colors that are called out. It can be simple enough for my 3 year old to understand, or complicated enough to challenge even my husband and I. Its great for color, number recognition as well as math practice for older kids and adults. visit http://www.fatbraintoys.com/ to view a video.

After a little break and snack we played a game of chutes and ladders to work on our number recognition, counting, number sequencing, and of course learning to follow rules and instructions, wait your turn etc which is always good practice especially for my 3 yr old. Soon after we played spanish bingo http://www.eeboo.com/ or http://www.fatbraintoys.com/. After naptime we worked on our spelling with Match it puzzles from http://www.learningjourney.com/ I got mine at Ross for $4.99. Even my 3 year old can do it even though he doesnt read, he LOOOOVES puzzles but over time it will give him good letter recognition practice as he puts together pictures with the letters spelling what the picture is. We ended the day doing math problems with our Inchimals, using these brilliant wooden animal blocks to create math equations. The kids love the fun painted animal "rulers" which have inch marks painted on the sides and counting decimals on one end and numbers on the other end, marking how many inches each animal is...you can follow the equations in the book or create your own. Visit http://www.fatbraintoys.com/ for more inormation and a video on this creative resource.

So my recommendation is that you try and stock up on these learning toys as you go, they are great in a pinch, as well as an actvity related alternative to television if you need a break in the day. I usually try and use at least one or two a day as part of my regular days plan, and have been known to pull them out if the boys start getting a little wiley and I want to get them to settle down. Ive attached the websites, though you can find many of these at discounted prices in stores like Ross, Marshalls, TJ MAXX, consignment stores, garage sales you name it. So keep your eye out and stock up when you get a chance. There is a world of fun just waiting to be had in those little brains, fill em up with things that help them grow, and not mindless activities.

First things first

2011-01-18T19:06:00.000-08:00

To start I would like to make known that this is my first ever blog that I have actually been able to follow through enough to get it going. Life as a homeschool mom of 3 boys 5 and under doesnt always leave loads of time to take part in things like blogging, though Ive wanted to start one up for quite some time. I was struggling to keep all my homeschooling records straight and I figured if I could keep all the information stored somewhere electronically...like in a blog...that it would be a great resource for me to reference quickly when I need it, to reference when I need it for my younger kids as they approach elementary years, as well as when others who may be new to homeschooling come to inquire as to my experience, strategies and where to start. I can have a solid resource to refer them to.

It was my experience, when inquiring of my seasoned friends, that there really is no short answer to give to a first time homeschooler. If any of you first timers are anything like me, you wanted to state your needs and have someone drop a box on your table of the ultimate homeschooling curriculum. Unfortunately that is not how it works. What works for one person, won't neccesarily work for another, and its a neverending system of trial and error.

For the most part, you need to find something that works for your family. Each student learns differently and the beauty of it all is that you can tailor a curriculum around meeting each childs unique needs. That my friends is what I LOVE about homeschooling. I have so much fun finding a new thing that works and excites an area of learning in my son, especially when I find something that he enjoys and wants to learn from, in an area he may not be overly interested in. I am aware of each childs strengths, and weaknesses and can form a curriculum that works for them, considering these needs. Its so great to have that freedom instead of having them go through school being forced into the same mold as everyone else. I am not knocking public, and private schools, we may even pursue those options in the future. We just feel this is what God has for our family right now in these early training years. I feel that the freedom learn at thier own pace, skill and interest level, that homeschooling offers, gives them more of an opportunity to excersize their areas of gifting, giving them that much more of an advantage to grow and become the person whom God designed them to be.

It is also finding what works for YOU as a homeschooler...What kind of budget do you have to work with, do you have alot of time to plan, are you organized, disorganized, creative. Do you want to plan it all yourself or do you want someone to tell you exactly what to do, a line by line, play by play of what to say and do to teach a concept.

Its all out there, you just have to look and find what works for you. That was a wake up call for this homeschool mom, I had to realize that no one was going to drop that box of perfect curriculum for our family on my front porch, that I was going to have to saddle up and do the dirty work myself. One thing I can say is that as a homeschool mom, you will spend alot of your free time doing research, research, research. Thats really the best way to grow in knowledge about the subject and find what works best for your family.

I am hoping that by posting the sites I have found helpful, it will at least lift some of the burden of finding reliable information. I am certainly not finished posting, I have some other resources to post but I was eager to get my blog on :) By all means if someone has any kind of reccomendations, resources, blogs, or suggestions PLEASE let me know so I can check them out for myself, as well as share them here. Advice and resources for any age are welcome. Most of the information I will personally post will be for Pre-K and elementary age, just because that is the stage of life we are at right now.

Just a disclaimer, I am new to this blogging business so bear with me if I am slow to post, reply, or whatever it is I am supposed to do here hehe. I am just so happy to be able to share this journey with other like minded friends. I look forward to growing together as we allow ourselves to be teachable in the area of homeschooling. I am really praying this will be a blessing to the homeschool community.