The Homeschool Project

A Groupon Deal that ROCKS…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:22:00 +0000

Hey guys, here’s a fantastic holiday Groupon deal for you. My kids are gonna flip out when they see it.

$120 for a Magic School Bus Science Club Membership ($239.88 Value) Shipping INCLUDED.
For REAL. Each month your kids will receive a science kit from the amazing Ms. Frizzle. Topics include: Magnets, Acids/Bases, Human Body, Weather Station, Water, Light/Rainbows and Mirrors, Volcanoes, Air, Fossils, Stars/Planets, Bacteria/Fungi, and Solids/Liquids/Gases.
This deal starts Friday so be ready! It will be gone FAST.

If you wanna see some of the other deals Groupon has for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend check them out here!

And Happy Thanksgiving!
-Sara O’

A Nature Scavenger Hunt…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:26:00 +0000

It’s fall again, y’all. It’s kinda funny that when everything starts dying, the O’shea household starts to come alive. We hibernate through the hot summer months and come out just in time for the first frost. What can I say? We’re Canadians at heart.

This weekend my husband cooked up a last minute activity that had everyone outside, running around, and working together – on a nature scavenger hunt. With two homemade lists of wild and wonderful creatures and features of the forest, the kiddos split up into groups and went to work hunting. I love these kinds of activities. So Charlotte Mason. Full of cooperative fun. Even exercise included. This fits right in perfectly with the Nature Walk assignment in My Father’s World.

The kids were challenged to find everything on the two lists in a limited amount of time for a small prize. If they found the 12 total items within 30 minutes, the prize was a hot chocolate chip cookie from a favorite restaurant. If found in 20 minutes, a slushee from the service station. They just barely got under the 20 minute mark. Yes!

The scavenger hunt was an easy activity that required little preparation. I hope you’ll try this with your family. It was nice to get out of the house for the afternoon and do something worthwhile. The kids had fun and we all got a little exercise and learning. While at the park we got to watch the fish in the creek, identify leaves, see a cool burnt out tree and observe a dead mouse. Dead things. So cool. (at least according to the boys.)

I hope you’ll plan your own nature scavenger hunt this weekend. Here are some ideas of things to look out for.

smooth rock
maple leaf
oak leaf
pinecone
nuts
mushroom
feather
berries
animal print
wild flower
butterfly
grasshopper
spider
bird
squirrel
litter (and throw it away)

Happy Hunting!

-Sara O’

the end of summer… hooray!

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:29:00 +0000

It’s that time again, isn’t it? Time to start waking up at a reasonable hour. Time to start going to bed at a reasonable hour. Time to start keeping track of schedules and hours and lesson plans. *sigh* For being the homeschool mom who said she wouldn’t take a summer vacation, I sure enjoyed summer vacation.
But you know what? I’m SO glad school is starting again!! Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the freedom and slowness of the summer months but really, I am so done with doing nothing. Summer is just not a great time for us to not be doing school. It’s so boring! It’s too hot outside to do anything and it’s too mind-numbing inside to be stuck in here with a tv and video game system. The only saving grace all summer was Bible study and Chess club! Next year we are definitely schooling through summer. I think we’ll just take all of December off instead. At least we can enjoy the outdoors and do lots of fun Christmasy stuff!

Anyhoo, I’m done ranting about my hatred for hot weather and the boringness that is television. On to the fun stuff – butterflies!!! We eased into learning with this fun activity last week. If you are a Sonlight homeschooler you’ll find this activity perfect for Science A: Biology, Botany, and Physics. (that’s Core K for you older Sonlighters)

Thanks to Groupon, I picked up some caterpillars and a butterfly house for free a few weeks back from Insect Lore. While we waited for the tiny creatures to arrive, we psyched ourselves up with a really great butterfly film called In the Company of Wild Butterflies. The kids were very excited to get their caterpillars in the mail. Aren’t they cute? The little guys arrived in a heavily protected clear cup which they would live in until they formed their cocoons.

It was just a few days later when they all climbed their way to the lid of the container formed those cocoons. It’s interesting to watch them. At this stage, the cocoons will shake when they sense a predator nearby. With four kids and a screaming baby… yeah, we got to witness the shaking cocoons on more than one occasion.

Fast forward a week later and voila! Beautiful butterflies!

All five of the dear little things hatched from their cocoons and flitted away. We kept them for just a few days. While we had them ‘in captivity’ we fed them slices of an orange. Once the zipper was unzipped and the lid flipped, the beauties didn’t waste any time getting out into the great big world. They flitted happily away in the blink of an eye.
Afterwards, we inspected the leftovers of their cocoons.

All the kids enjoyed this activity. I suspect we’ll be doing it again. Here are some other ideas you can add to your butterfly lessons.

butterfly lapbook
play Elefun!
color a butterfly picture
identify butterflies in your neighborhood
read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, of course!

I’ve seen other hatchery-type activities out there such as tadpoles. I’m wondering if this would go as well as the butterly project did.
Have you hatched any other critters in your homeschool? How did it go? Can you recommend any other critters?
Leave a comment telling me about your homeschool live animal adventures!

-Sara O’

Art the Fun Way…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Thu, 19 May 2011 19:17:00 +0000

Over the past year or so, we’ve discovered some hidden talent in our 7 year old, Beans. Who knew this rambunctious, can’t sit still for one minute, impetuous little boy could draw like nobody’s business? This discovery has sparked a drawing craze in all of our children that has lasted several months now.

Drawing is one of those things the kids do daily – purposefully and not. They usually have paper and pad out anytime we read aloud which can vary from one to two hours a day. Plus, drawing for fun, drawing during Bible time and study on the weekends… That’s a lot of paper! Yes, I know this. So we recycle everything from printer mishaps to business leftovers, blueprints, brown paper from packages we receive – just about anything you can write on.

Recently, I discovered a fun and easy program called Mark Kistler’s Online Drawing Lessons. Mark Kistler is an Emmy Award-winning artist who has taught 3-d drawing lessons all over the world. He has hosted several public television programs and has written and illustrated many popular drawing books for children.

As a member of the Homeschool Buyers Co-op, we were able to get a great deal on Mark Kistler’s online programs. For $36 (a 60% discount!) you can order a 3 year family subscription. If you are already a member of the Co-op and you have accumulated smart points, you can also get the subscription for 4,000 points – free!

These online lessons include Online Video Art Academy with 100+ art lessons, The School of Imagination with over 50 animated art lessons and, our personal favorite, Mini-Marshmallow lessons which are designed for the younger crowd.

Mark’s lessons are perfect for school time. They are fairly short and extremely entertaining. My oldest children are at that age where everything is boring and unenjoyable unless they’ve done it before. (does anyone else have kids like this? ugh) After the first lesson they were SOLD. Begging for another right away, in fact. Of course I just smiled and said “not today, dearies!” (ha! teach them to be bored at me!)

One of my favorite things about these lessons is they require very few supplies. Mark does recommend getting a drawing pad or two but stresses that any paper is perfectly fine. After seeing how much the kids learned in just the first two lessons, I quickly decided to get each of them a drawing pad. As they complete more and more lessons it will be fun to look back and see how much they have accomplished. The other tools you need are #2 pencils and a blending stump. *By the way, a blending stump is a pencil made out of paper. It doesn’t actually have lead. You use the tip to blend, smudge and smear pencils marks on your drawing.*

If you’re in the market for an art course for your upcoming school year, I recommend you check out Mark’s programs. They are so FUN! Even dad and I have joined in on a couple lessons.

The Homeschool Buyers Co-op has a great deal available now through 31 May for folks purchasing Mark Kistler’s art lessons. Not only can you get the program at the 60% discounted price, but you will also earn 200 bonus smart points! Check it out and let me know what you think.

-Sara O’

Jumping Ship…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Sat, 14 May 2011 15:36:00 +0000

We’re in the home stretch of our school year, working hard to finish up for a small summer break before the new school year. I’m excited just thinking about the upcoming year. *But really what homeschooling mom doesn’t get giddy over the prospects of a fresh start and new material?*

This year is a little different for us. It’s a transition. For the past 5 years we’ve been a Sonlight family. Core K through 3- we’ve taken two years to get through Core 3 – Sonlight has been our main course and we are very grateful for the faithful way the Holzman’s have served us and the homeschool community by providing such excellent curricula. I can’t say enough how much we’ve enjoyed the books in our Sonlight Cores.

So why say goodbye to Sonlight if we love it so much?

Well, I’ll tell you that as of March, we had no intention of switching curriculum. Looking ahead to Core 5, I was considering whether we would keep on with Sonlight or try something new like Tapestry of Grace or Mystery of History. But honestly, that was a whole ‘nother Core away! I had a whole year to figure that out, right? So I thought.

For years, I’ve listened to my fellow homeschool moms in our local group talk about My Father’s World. Every year on curriculum review night, there would be a new convert raving on and on about what an amazing treasure they’d stumbled into with this new program. Reputation had certainly preceded My Father’s World when my husband and I stepped into the booth at our local homeschool convention ‘just to see what the fuss was all about’. I’d walked past their large displays for three years now and never stopped to talk to them. I was a Sonlight girl. Nothing was gonna change that. And I promise you, with my husband by my side (he’s my spending conscience! hehe) I had NO intention of purchasing a full year’s curriculum and jumping the Sonlight ship. But. That’s just exactly what we did.

As I pour over the planner and the materials (I can’t believe I’m about to say this) I seriously think we are going to love this even more than Sonlight. My only beefs with the Sonlight programs are 1) language arts – don’t even get me started and 2) the restricting feeling of the schedule. It really was a burden to me and by the third year, we had to abandon it. Now it’s more just a guide for us. The notes, while extensive, are spread out among the various appendices and it makes for a lot of shifting back and forth through the schedule. I abandoned all those wonderful notes too by year 4.

The My Father’s World planner – it’s only an inch thick. Seriously. There is no monster appendix and the notes for the week are right in the schedule. I’m much too scatter-brained for all that flipping back and forth – I admit it! I don’t need a separate binder for science. It’s already in the schedule. And it’s creation science. Another thing I didn’t like about Sonlight was the heavy reliance on Usborne books. My Father’s World uses Usborne too but not to the extent Sonlight does. If you’ve ever used Usborne’s history books you’ll easily recall the vast amounts of nudity and millions of years spread throughout. *Before you send an email – yes, my kids are aware of body parts and yes, they know what evolution and old earth theories are but I really don’t feel the need to cover these topics 3 – 5 times a week.*

What I’m looking forward to with My Father’s World this upcoming school year is a more cohesive study program. Unit study-based learning that incorporates Bible, history, science, art, music, etc. Sonlight tried to do this but I just don’t think it ever really worked that well. It was the deciding factor for us. Many of the things Sonlight has attempted to do – Charlotte Mason, classical education, Biblical training… I believe My Father’s World just does it a little better. Starting with Exploring Countries and Cultures, we’re excited about a good geographical foundation for the olders as they enter into their second cycle of history. Mags, who will be 7 at the start of the new school year, will enjoy the fun aspects of the program like the passports and stickers, science experiments, etc. I’ll certainly be referring to some of my Core K &1 items for her though.

One thing we won’t be giving up from Sonlight is the delightful readers. And one of the things we are happy to see is that many of the books we’ve loved in Sonlight are used by My Father’s World as well. I’m telling you, the programs seem very similar. I guess by the end of next year I’ll have a better idea of just how similar they really are.

Have you used My Father’s World? Sonlight? Both? What has been your experience? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

-Sara O’

*photo by Jef Bettens

Herbalism in your homeschool plus a giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:09:00 +0000

Hello, homeschoolers! I just have a quick word for you today. It’s Friday which means busy, busy, busy. I want to let you know about a dvd that I’m giving away on my main website, knittingprose.com. The giveaway ends tomorrow so you’ll need to hurry and enter.

The Bulk Herb Store is giving away five copies of their dvd, Making Herbs Simple Vol. 1 to my readers at knittingprose.com. Herbalism is a great way to incorporate more science and health into your homeschool. My kids have learned so much about plants from our herbal endeavors. They are also learning how to take better care of their bodies.

If you’d like to learn more about herbalism and enter the giveaway too, visit knittingprose.com.

Thanks guys, have a great weekend!

- Sara O’

Well Planned Day Pre-Release Sale…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:55:00 +0000

Home Educating Family Magazine is having a pre-release sale for their Well-Planned Day Planners. The first year I purchased one of these planners, it was halfway through the year and so I got it for half-price. The next planner, I purchased during the pre-release sale last year. This year, I purchased my planners the second I got the email! LOL

I absolutely love this planner. I did the Sonlight schedule for a while. Then I did the computer program tracking system for a couple years. With both of these, I ended up way far behind in my logs and really frustrated that we weren’t “keeping up” with the schedule. I was so aggravated that I just about gave it all up and said forget it.

Thank goodness for half-price sales! I met the Well-Planned Day planner and for the first time I felt like I had a shot at this scheduling and logging business. It wasn’t smooth sailing right away. In fact, the first year I used the planner I know I use it to it’s potential, nor this year either. But here’s what it has done for me. The Well-Planned Day planner has gotten me on the right track to getting organized, developing a workable schedule and keeping a good routine.

Let me tell you about some of my favorite features.

1) Daily household and homeshool schedules are all in one place. They really did a good job with this. Each month includes a full calendar, daily lesson plans, a Bible reading schedule, budget tracker, weekly priority lists, field trip & reading log and a place for your weekly menu.

2) Individual Student Information forms – 4 per planner. I can track all four of my kids in one planner, each having their own report cards, attendance and grade sheets, plus information pages that include their grade and curricula information. We don’t keep traditional grades but we do track hours. I’ve found the perfect way to track hours on the grading sheet!

3) Household forms are included in the front of the planner as well. These include things like birthday lists, addresses and phone numbers, budget form, greeting card lists, cleaning routines, and chore lists.

4) Tear-out shopping lists are in the front of each month’s section. I use these not just for shopping lists but for any other little notes I may need to jot down.

Each month also has an encouraging article written by some of my favorite Christian writers, such as Elisabeth Elliot.

The collection of planners available include (and also available as PDFs):

Well Planned Day Student Planner
High School 1 Year Plan
High School 4 Year Plan
On the Go Planner New!

The new On the Go Planner is a purse size household planner, much like the household aspects of the Well Planned Day planner. I’ve purchased this one as I’m excited about keeping it in my bag when I go out.

Another cool new product is the accessory binder to hold any of the 8.5 x 11 planners. It comes with a beautiful fabric cover, interior pockets, a zipper closure, and 12 high gloss tabs. I’m looking forward to using this binder with my Well Planned Day planner. I’m always sticking papers and assignments into the front of my planner and things frequently end up all dog-eared. The coupon pockets will also come in mighty handy for my weekly shopping trips.

The pre-release sale is on through February 28th – the lowest price you’ll get until the clearance sale. You can purchase a bundle that includes a binder and a planner for a special price, saving you even more.

The Well-Planned Day planner is a tool I use every single day, homeschooling or not. I’m so glad I found this resource and only wish I’d had it sooner!

Have you used a Home Educating planner? What was your experience? I’d love to hear how others are using their planners.

-Sara O’

$20 for 5 at the Magic House…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:24:00 +0000

I just have to share this deal with my St. Louis homeschoolers! Straight from LivingSocial – spend $20 on admission for 5 people, FIVE, to the Magic House. (regular price is over $43 giving you a 54% savings)

One of the highlights for children visiting St. Louis is definitely a trip to the Magic House. If you live in the area or if you’re planning on visiting anytime between now and July 24, 2011, I highly recommend this steal. Right now Bob the Builder is at the Magic House with his crew and they’ll be hanging around through May. But there’s so much to do for all ages, no one, no matter their age, will be bored. I promise. keep a secret? sometimes I think I enjoy it more than the kids! LOL

If you plan on going later in the summer, you can catch Alice in Wonderland beginning May 28th. Just remember your deal is only good til July 24th. You could even purchase a second deal as a gift to be used on a second trip. Woot!

Anyhoo, catch the deal before it expires in two days and I’ll see you at the Magic House!

-Sara O’

Good books…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 23:46:00 +0000

One night a month I get out of the house for my homeschool moms’ meeting. It’s sort of a discussion/support group so mama don’t make the evening news thing for me. Once a month I regain my sanity. This past Monday we did our annual book reviews and let me tell you, it’s one of my favorite nights. I love love love to read and I always come home with a fresh list of reading material.

Of course I was running late – new baby and all – so I didn’t bring any books to share. I thought I’d share some of my favorite reads from this past year with you here instead.

Created To Be His Helpmeet by Debi Perl

I absolutely LOVED this book. It should be required reading for every married woman. Debi does an excellent job getting to the heart of a woman and exposing to her some of the more elusive bad habits we’ve managed to accept in ourselves that do so much damage to a marriage. For years I knew that the attitude of women (toward men) in our society wasn’t exactly right but I had a really hard time figuring out what was sinful, what was stupidity and what was ‘normal’. Debi helped me to flesh it out and I realized that the majority of ‘being a woman’ as far as attitude goes is really just code for “I’m going to emasculate, dominate and berate my man in a way that society will deem acceptable.” Really, how in the world did we get to the point where it’s okay to brow beat the men in our life and not think twice about it? It’s beyond acceptance. It’s to the point that if you treat your husband with respect and love, you better be prepared for criticism.

Another helpful part of this book are the chapters explaining the different personality types of men. Not all men are the same and, boy, does it help to know what kind of man you have! Your ministry to your family and husband will greatly benefit from your ability to decipher the specific needs of your husband. A kingly type man will be very demanding and want to be served, literally. But a steady man will often be the one doing the serving. You can see from just these two statements that your daily tasks can vary greatly depending on which kinda guy you married! I’m not a huge fan of categorizing people by their personality traits but I really like the way Debi explains her theory on this and it is very helpful in understanding the thought processes of men. They really don’t all think alike!

Throughout the pages of this book, Debi expertly calls women to kindness and respect no matter what kind of husbands they have. Jesus didn’t say to love the people who are always good to us. He commanded us to love even our enemies. I sure hope the majority of husbands and wives aren’t enemies! But often, to hear them talk to each other, you’d think they are! Created to be His Helpmeet was a great reminder of my responsibilities as a wife and Christian to love my husband with perfect holiness this side of heaven… when neither of us can fully display that perfection.

The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church by Greg Boyd

The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church (9780310267317): Gregory A. Boyd: Books

The church was established to serve the world with Christ-like love, not to rule the world. It is called to look like a corporate Jesus, dying on the cross for those who crucified him, not a religious version of Caesar. It is called to manifest the kingdom of the cross in contrast to the kingdom of the sword. Whenever the church has succeeded in gaining what most American evangelicals are now trying to get -- political power -- it has been disastrous both for the church and the culture. Whenever the church picks up the sword, it lays down the cross. The present activity of the religious right is destroying the heart and soul of the evangelical church and destroying its unique witness to the world. The church is to have a political voice, but we are to have it the way Jesus had it: by manifesting an alternative to the political, 'power over,' way of doing life. We are to transform the world by being willing to suffer for others -- exercising 'power under,' not by getting our way in society -- exercising 'power over.'

I expected a highly political book that hammered away at the current administrations but I was pleasantly surprised to find that Mr. Boyd leaves all of that alone. He spends the majority of this book looking at the Word of God and world history, calling us to examine the evidence and reconsider our role as the body of Christ.

After spending nine years in a setting where doctrine and biblical education were top priority, the Holy Spirit has been teaching me how to put that into practice. It’s easy to ‘know’ a lot about God, His Word and sit around discussing it for hours on end. It’s another matter to put all that knowledge into practice. This book showed me what the Lord would have me to be and do, or more accurately what NOT to be and do as far as loving the church and loving the people of this world goes. In the realm of conservative Christianity, getting sucked into the political hype of what we are ‘responsible for doing for our country’ is hard to avoid. Greg Boyd strips away the layers of conservative morality, legalism and political spin the well-meaning Christian Right and Left have piled onto the Gospel. What’s left is the simple command to love our God and love our neighbors as ourselves. Boyd challenges us to rethink what that looks like.

Morning and Evening by C.H. Spurgeon

Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (9781604596762): C. H. Spurgeon: Books

ISBN: 1604596767
ISBN-13: 9781604596762

I just started reading this little gem and it has been such a blessing. Morning and Evening is a devotional type book written by Charles Hadden Spurgeon. Each devotional, there’s a morning and an evening, consists of a verse or snippet of a verse to read. Then Spurgeon uses that tiny bit of the Word to warm you up with the Son, wash you with the Holy Spirit and wrap you completely in the Father’s love. I’ve struggled with anxiety for almost two years now and I’ve managed to cope without medication for 12 months. I’ll admit it hasn’t been a piece of cake through the past year and these last couple months, for certain. Having a baby followed by complications and the uncertainty of another health condition… I’ve been a slight mess as of late. Anxiety is so easy to hide for a while, but if allowed to continue it will eventually wash over me like a tidal wave. Here lately I had begun to feel that wave inching closer and closer. Then, I opened up Morning and Evening in the wee hours of a restless night a couple weeks ago and since then I’ve been resting quite well in the Father’s arms. I wake with a little bit of the Word and go to bed with it too. Even if I get no other time to spend in the Word or in prayer, I’m always granted a few moments of fellowship with God as the day ends and begins. It’s been such a blessing having this little book.

Well, that’s only three books but I better stop for now. I’d love to add a few more to my reading list if you have any suggestions. Leave me your list in the comments below, please.

-Sara O’

Technorati Tags: books,reviews,homeschool,Spurgeon,Gregary Boyd,Debi Pearl,Created to be His Helpmeet,Myth of a Christian Nation,Morning and Evening,reading

Hoop what??

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 06:31:00 +0000

We have a new hobby here in the O’shea home – hooping. No, not the kind you do with a round ball and a basket. I’m talking about the kind you do with a big round plastic tube. During the fall we were introduced by another homeschool family to hooping and we’ve taken to it like ducks to water. Okay, so some of us better than others. The kids are really good at least. : )

Who knew there was such a large community of hoopers out there but apparently this is the new exercise craze. Since we’ve taken up the hobby, I’ve noticed a ton of attention given to it from classes at the Y to it’s very own annual Day.

We have had such a great time learning how to hoop! Some days I’m not sure if we burn more calories hooping or laughing. One thing is for sure, we’ve found an activity that will get us all up and moving, having fun with each other as a family. We’re learning together, laughing together, and loving hooping.

Wanna learn how to hoop? Well first you’ll need a hoop! Not all hoops are equal so, mom and dad, make sure you’re using the right size. An adult hoop is way bigger than you think it would be.

There are many places online that sell hoops anywhere from $20 – $many hundreds

Or you can make your own hoops with a little instruction and a trip to the hardware store.

Here’s a couple videos of the girls having fun with their homemade hoops.

Abbey age 9 hooping

Maggie age 6

Get hooping!

-Sara O’

A Crayola Prize pack Giveaway Winner…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 14:23:00 +0000

Wow, Christmas already? Anyone else feel like that came too quick? : )

Okay on to our winner of the Crayola prize pack. Drumroll please….

Comment #13 – “That's awesome! Grace is a little young for some of the stuff, but she would really like to get into some of the others :-).” --Miss Stephanie Moslander

Merry Christmas, Stephanie and little Grace – Enjoy the Crayola goodies, courtesy of Crayola through MyBlogSpark.

Thanks everyone for entering the giveaway. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

-Sara O’

the bright side…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 10:27:00 +0000

Oh my goodness. It’s as though the sickness will never end. Here we are almost three weeks out from Talitha’s birth and we are still fighting the yuckies. It’s 4:22 am. I’ve already treated one for a high fever and I’ve showered another who threw up. We’re in ‘divide and conquer mode’ which basically means daddy takes the recliner and the puker gets the loveseat while baby, fever child and I get the bed. Now I’m waiting for the washer to stop (gotta wash all those nasty bed sheets) so I can go back to sleep. Probably about the time the baby wakes up to eat.

*sigh* At least we don’t have get doctor’s excuses to keep them all home Monday.

-Sara O’

a Crayola giveaway for the holidays…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 02:53:00 +0000

Yes, yes, I know it’s late but hey! I didn’t promise any specific time for the Crayola giveaway. Just a day. : )

Courtesy of Crayola through MyBlogSpark, our crazy bunch have had the best time creating with some fun new art projects. If there’s one thing my kids love about homeschool, it’s the art projects. We’re all the time drawing, cutting, gluing, or painting something around here. When you give them a new box of crayons or those cool mechanical colored pencils, they just go nuts! Seriously, friends who come to visit bring us their recyclable paper because they know how much our kids love to draw. We can’t keep enough paper on hand. We even get castoff blueprints for our drawing addictions!

So anyway, now you know how much we love art. Can you imagine the squeals when I opened a huge box from Crayola??? Oh my cow, you’d thought I was Ed McMahon. Inside this impressive we found a Glow Explosion Spin Magic project, Model Magic Presto Dots, a Color Wonder Sound Studio, and a box of 64 ct. Crayons.

I divvied the packages out and the kiddos scrambled off like little addicts into dark corners. First up, the Presto Dots. This was our first experience with Model Magic and I must say I absolutely LOVE this stuff as an alternative to modeling clay. It was very NOT messy which is just about the end-all in mom’s book for any toy. The kids sat and played on the hardwood floor and the crumbies that were left were very minimal. Even the ones that made it to the carpet cleaned up easily without sticking to the fibers. Everyone spent a good deal of time shaping the stuff into cute little ‘men’ like the kit shows. Of course, after a while, everyone came up with their own creations as well. My biggest complaint with the Model Magic is that it mixes extremely easily. If the colors touch, plan on them not coming apart. We ended up with one miscellaneous tub from all the bits that we couldn’t separate.

Next up was the Color Wonder Sound Studio. The 6 year old had a good time with this one but funny enough, my 11 year old played with this item the longest. Programming all the sounds was a ton of fun for him. Both kids enjoyed the little hidden drawings in the Color Wonder coloring pages. While the 6 year old was capable of using the sound functions, she became so engrossed in the coloring she just forgot about them! All the kids really liked that this set came with blank coloring pages. Their creative juices could spill out onto the pages and they could add their very own sound effects to boot!

The Glow Explosion Spin Magic was a very cool new addition to the Crayola family. The olders enjoyed this one the most and once it was all put together and glowing, it made it’s way to the boys’ room. They love glow in the dark things. I mean, they’re boys. This one was right up their ally. The spinning display will give off a glow for about four hours once activated. The Glow Explosion Spin Magic was definitely a hit in our house.

Of all the cool new gadgets and fad toy phenomenon that occurs year after year, I must say – nothing beats a new box of crayons. I don’t know what it is exactly. But I find this wonderful, new feeling that washes over a person when they open the package of anything for the first time. A new bar of soap, a fresh box of candy, a present and definitely a new box of crayons holds this magical feeling. It’s a whole new beginning with unlimited possibilities that enchants us, I guess. While the box of crayons may be the least expensive of all these item, the least exciting at first glance, it actually holds the most potential and will be used the most by everyone. A fresh box of creativity awaits and is only limited by your own imagination.

Included was also a six month subscription to the Crayola Story Studio where you can create personalized coloring books. This is a pretty cool little gadget and just requires an uploaded photo. If you’d like to try out the Story Studio, simply visit the Crayola Story Studio and use this Access Code: PRY4DBJJ for a free trial.

Crayola has some great products out there for gift giving. It never fails, our kids receive a ton of toys that will eventually find their way to the bottom of the toy box. Might I suggest giving a gift at won’t even make it to the toy box? Art is a great toy for any kid. Even reluctant artists will usually find a groove after a little encouragement.

**** Crayola has graciously offered to giveaway a prize pack of these same items to one of my readers. If you’d like to win, simply leave a comment below.

For extra entries, tweet, facebook or post this giveaway to a blog. Be sure to leave a new comment for each entry. I’ll draw a winner on Christmas morning.

In the meantime, check out this holiday guide from Crayola. You can search for the perfect gift with information like the child’s age, gender and type of product. Also grab this $20 rebate form and save a little cash on your holiday purchases!

Thanks again to Crayola for supplying these creative products and giveaway through MyBlogSpark.

-Sara O’

homeschooling through life…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:38:00 +0000

It’s been a busy couple weeks around here at the O’shea homeschool. We got our baby girl along with a couple other surprises like hypertension and medicinal side effects such as constant fatigue and low milk supply. Oh. And jaundice.

So how does one keep a homeschool going when you sleep for three hours at a time twice a day (not including the night hours) and you nurse a baby then pump every two hours? Simple. Remember when I told you that our inability to afford the curriculum I wanted was actually a blessing the Lord knew we would need? Well turns out, that’s all true. : ) The kids have carried on very well with their lessons thanks to their Lifepacs. Any questions the workbooks do not answer and mom is too asleep to answer, Nanny can easily find. Those instances are few and far between though.

Another big help in cruising through school when life is at warp speed is Netflix. I am loving Netflix. With streaming through the Wii, our choice of educational programming such as documentaries and classics are right at our fingertips 24/7. If you haven’t taken the time to get a free trial for the service, I highly recommend it. As a family without television service, we like having the option of watching what we want, when we want, and nothing else. Too often when we had television service the tv would just be on. No one watching and no one needing to watch really. It’d just be on. With Netflix, we have lots of choices but aren’t tempted to waste our tv time on junk. In the past two weeks we’ve watched lots of Liberty’s Kids as we studied the birth our nation and several Christmas classics as the holiday approaches. We saw Monster Quest: Jellyfish when we returned from our trip to Florida. All these resources we wouldn’t have had access to without Netflix.

And last but certainly never least, we rely on good old-fashioned read alouds. When mama’s tired, everyone’s running a fever and no writing work is anywhere in sight, the perfect homeschool remedy is a wonderful adventurous story. Historic read alouds tend to be a favorite around here. Currently we’re working our way through Johnny Tremain and everyday the kids beg me to read ‘just a little more’. When all else fails, just grab a good book and read.

Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing with you another great boredom buster when school time is on the verge of collapse. Courtesy of Crayola, we got a chance to play around with some fun art tools and you could win your own set. Be sure to stop by tomorrow and enter the giveaway.

-Sara O’

Thanksgiving freebie…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 20:03:00 +0000

If you’re looking for something out of the ordinary for your school time this week, I’ve got something for ya.

You can pick up a free m4b of The Legend of Squanto from the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre Series over at Christianbook.com. This would be a great travel activity as well! Give the kiddos some coloring pages and let them listen along to the dramatized story while heading to Grandma’s tomorrow (or wherever it is that you go).

To get the free download, visit Christianbook.com and add the M4B Audio to your cart. It will show up in the checkout with a cost of $0.00. There’s no coupon code needed, just simply add to the cart and checkout!

Thanks, Focus on the Family, for this freebie. : )

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

-Sara O’

Homeschool, holidays and a whole new person…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:12:00 +0000

Well, while life has gone on in our tiny town, my little blogging world seems to have halted. So much has been happening around our house that I’ve made no time for my bloggy friends. : ( I’ll do my best to catch you up to speed here and now.

Home life has sped up since the school year started. The kids are into a nice routine and daily work goes quite smoothly. (I know, right? I probably should not have spoken those words so soon!) We’ve stopped our Madsen journey. At least for the moment. Mainly because I just don’t have the funds for Part 2 right now. It’s amazing, though, how the Lord knows our needs better than we do. With baby #5 on the way, I am welcoming the Alpha Omega Lifepacs that we’d shelved last year. The kids are enjoying them quite a bit too. After all the testing and trial, I have a feeling we’ll be hanging onto the Lifepac Language Arts for a long time. They really are a good fit for us. All the bells and whistles (and sometimes lack thereof) have drawn me away in the past. I think I’m over that now. … okay so until convention season, that is.

As I mentioned, baby #5, Talitha, is scheduled to make her appearance in 7 days. We had a few hours of contractions just a couple days ago, so we’ll see if she holds out that long. A few weeks ago, we spent several days deep cleaning the house – knocking down cobwebs, moving all the furniture, wiping the walls, dusting everything. It was wonderful. I’m always amazed at how a good cleaning can make a house sparkle. And now it’s all ready to be decorated for Christmas. Thankfully, I had the forethought to get all that cleaning done before time to decorate with a new baby in tow.

As the holidays approach and the excitement of the new baby grows, I’m trying not to get too distracted from our schoolwork. So far, so good. Math is coming in the form of Alpha Omega Lifepacs, just like the Language Arts. History is a slow go, mainly because we keep finding such fun and wonderful books to read. We really enjoy our history reading and every now and then we work on some lapbook project or other craft from our History Traveler series. I just can’t say enough good things about these resources. I highly recommend them for history supplements. We’re hitting science once or twice a week. Our studies here have been focusing on various topics we’ve come upon in daily life. For example, after spending a week in Florida during October, the last few weeks’ studies have been revolving around jelly fish, sea turtles, dolphins and the like. Lapbooks and films make the learning very memorable for the kids.

Reading has been going very well for all the littles. I’ve found that as I relax about which books are acceptable for school reading, they seem to read much better! Go figure. I’m sure I’ve never heard that kids read better when they enjoy what they’re reading. : P

Anyhoo, I could go on and on but I think I’ll give it a rest for now. I do have some good stuff planned for the next few weeks. We’ll talk about Netflix, what kinds of books you allow your kids to read and count for school credit, and we’ll look at some fun Christmas gifts that aren’t necessarily T*O*Y*S. I don’t know about you, but that’s one thing there’s no shortage of here!

Not only all that, but we’ll be looking at some fun stuff from Crayola that includes a prize pack giveaway. Stay tuned…

Oh, and it’s good to talk with you again. : )

-Sara O’

Lapbookers Unite!! A giveaway…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:07:00 +0000

So most of you know by now how much I love lapbooking. I just had to share this wonderful bit of news with you. The community known as Lapbook Lessons is giving away a super membership for my absolute favorite lapbooking resource – In the Hands of a Child!!!!!

I had a super membership for a year and absolutely LOVED it. Ever since it expired, I’ve debated getting a lifetime membership. I mean really… we’re having another baby in December so I’m gonna be schooling kids for a reeeeeaaaallllyyy loooooonnngg time.

Anyhoo, if you’ve been thinking about lapbooking but haven’t tried it out yet, you definitely should enter this giveaway.

If you’re a lapbooking pro then you already know how awesome an HoaC super membership would be!

Here’s the deal – Go to Lapbook Lessons for all the details. You will be entering the giveaway there. NOT HERE. Lapbook Lessons is in the form of a ning community so you’ll need to join in order to enter but if you love lapbooking, you’re probably already there. : ) Membership is entirely free so you don’t have to worry about that. They have many free lapbooking resources available that make the craft so enjoyable.

Hope to see you over at Lapbook Lessons – I’m sure you’ll find lots to do there! Good luck in the giveaway!!

-Sara O’

Yoplait Prize Pack WINNER!!

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:48:00 +0000

Thank you, Jason Vaughn for entering the Yoplait Prize Pack giveaway – you win!!

: – )

Have a great holiday weekend everyone!

We’ll get back to blogging after the holiday is all done. The school year officially starts for us in two weeks!!

-Sara O’

Staying cool through the summer (Yoplait giveaway!)…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:54:00 +0000

Oh my word, it is HOT out there! I’ve mentioned before that we school through the summer and one of the reasons is it’s just too darn hot to be outside in July and August. We’re almost through the killer months here in my part of the Midwest and we’re desperate for some hot-weather relief.

Nothing says cool-down like frozen treats and I’m happy to share these frozen treats with one of my readers! A special thanks to Yoplait for providing a bit of comfort this steamy August with some free Yoplait yogurt, a cool canvas cooler and these nifty Tovolo ice cream pops.

My kids love frozen treats in the summer and these are some of the easiest to make. We always have yogurt around and usually some fresh fruit to mix in with it. I rarely buy popsicles and ice cream pops due to all the sugar and fat. My kids will eat them everyday until the box is empty if they’re in the house! These Yoplait pops are quick to throw together, require simple ingredients we have on hand and are a better choice for us. We only get to enjoy them when we make them which means less temptation laying around!

Our family loves Yoplait yogurt. The kids will often choose Yoplait flavors over the ‘kid varieties’ I buy them. It never fails - they eat all of our Yoplait yogurt before they will touch the other brands. My husband and I always choose our own favorite Yoplait flavors and we get about half of what we buy! I can’t say I blame them.

Free Coupons!

Ever tried Yoplait yogurt before? We usually get the Original and Low Fat varieties. But the Whips! Oh my, these are delish. Visit this link to get a coupon for $0.55 towards the purchase of any (2) cups of Yoplait Whips! yogurt today!

The Giveaway!!

Yoplait has generously offered to give one of my readers their own Yoplait Whips! Prize Pack. This giveaway includes a coupon for free Yoplait yogurt, Tovolo ice cream pops, and a canvas cooler.

If you’d like the opportunity to win this prize pack, you’ve got a few options.

For one entry, leave a comment below telling me your favorite summertime treat.
Blog about this giveaway, for an extra entry. Be sure to leave a separate comment.
Post a link to this blog post on Facebook.
Tweet this giveaway.
Follow The Homeschool Project.

Remember to leave a comment for each entry. Come Friday I’ll pick a winner.

-Sara O’

the Yoplait Whips! yogurt, prize pack, information and giveaway were all provided by Yoplait through MyBlogSpark

It’s summertime!!!

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:56:00 +0000

Okay so for us, summertime just really means lots of air conditioning and doing extra fun stuff on the weekends. We’re still plugging away at schoolwork every day, but it’s seems like we’ve finally hit a nice stride. Funny, huh? Just when most people are unwinding and taking a nice break, we’re steadily gaining momentum in our daily rhythm.

Honestly, I think it’s just because we’re such a cold-loving family. The kids have zero desire to be outside in the summer and only venture out when forced or the sun has hidden itself. Truthfully, I don’t mind that at all. We do lots of gardening in the evenings and spend the daylight hours on life and learning. Our mornings are always for bookwork. We get that out of the way by lunch and then we spend the afternoon on chores, reading a good book, doing craft projects etc. Anything involving air conditioning. : )

I keep telling my husband we seriously need to consider moving to Canada. I’d pack up in a heartbeat. For me, it’s all about weather, environment… something about the northeast that just calls every ounce of my being. And it’s CANADA! Hello!! Home of hockey, snow, stable economy… What about you? Where do you dream of moving off to and why?

--Sara O’

hardly homeschool, but who wouldn’t want a new baby carrier…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:56:00 +0000

So as I’m browsing around this morning with my morning coffee I get the most awesome message. Raising Olives is giving away an ERGO baby carrier!!!

We are expecting another child come November and seeing as how it’s been 6 years since we’ve birthed a little one, we’re pretty much starting over. Wouldn’t an ERGO be super duper nice?? Now if I can convince my husband that we should totally spend the $120 to buy one… and $600 on that beautiful eco-friendly crib. : )

Okay, while there’s really no chance to win the $600 crib, I’m gonna shoot for the carrier. If you wanna give it a shot as well, hop over to Raising Olives place and enter!

- Sara O’

Super Star Speech…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 18:06:00 +0000

Debbie Lott of Super Star Speech recently sent me copies of her Super Star Speech, Speech Therapy Made Simple ebook and her Super Star Games. Debbie is a licensed speech language pathologist with a master’s degree in education/speech pathology. Personally, the fact that Debbie has homeschooled her 4 children for the past 16 years (while doing speech therapy part-time, mind you) equally qualifies her on this subject as much as any degree! Let’s take a look at these two resources.

Super Star Speech ($12.95 - $22.95) was designed to be used at home, by parents who suspect or know their child has a speech delay. Parents are eased into understanding, detecting, and correcting the problem/s their child may be dealing with. I love Debbie’s down to earth, easy language approach. For a parent, it can be so frustrating dealing with all the professional jargon and over-complicated solutions. Debbie makes you instantly at ease and confident that you can help your child. The lessons are simple to execute and fun for both teacher and student.

Super Star Games is a collection of homeschool enrichment games available in an instant download format. They cover history, geography, language arts, science. You’re sure to find a game that you’re kids will enjoy. These games are extremely helpful for review and make memorizing facts very fun. The kids get so caught up in the games, they forget it’s ‘boring school’. My favorite way to use these games are as a reward for completing an assignment or project. For example, it’s fun to make each day of the week ‘Game Day’ for a different subject. It’s a break from book work and every day the kids get a chance to relax and have some fun all while still reviewing the material. It’s a win/win situation for us. The games can be printed on card stock and stored like file folder games. Very simple and easy to use – most can be adapted for the youngest and oldest of our kids. The games are sold individually for $3.50, but why do that when you can get the bundle of them for just $2.00 each?

You can get these games and other products by Debbie at Curr-Click.com!

-Sara O’

Disclaimer:

As a reviewer for the TOS Homeschool Review Crew I receive free products from companies including the product mentioned above in return for my honest opinion.

Alphabet Beats…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:38:00 +0000

We received the Alphabet Beats lowercase dvd ($35.95) from The TV Teacher as a part of the TOS Review Crew a while back. I popped the dvd in right away and my 5 year old watched with great interest for quite a while. Actually, all the kiddos found it very entertaining.

The dvd’s purpose is to teach children how to quickly and easily write their lowercase alphabet. Each letter is given a 5 minute segment with word instruction and demonstration in forming the letter along with a hokey comical bit about words that begins with that particular letter.

Along with the dvd you can also purchase workbooks and lined dry-erase boards and laminated workbooks for your child to use with the dvd.

Handwriting and letter formation is one of those things that I believe if you spend a great deal of time on getting right in the beginning, you will need to spend very little time on down the road. For us, Alphabet Beats is not a good choice. It relies on sing-song type instruction (think “around, up and down”) and sight for mastery which in my opinion leaves a whole lotta room for error.

If you have a very simple approach to handwriting and you want a fast way for your child to learn to write then you’ll probably like Alphabet Beats. If you’re looking for a more in-depth, instructional program, don’t waste the $35. : (

- Sara O’

Disclaimer:

As a reviewer for the TOS Homeschool Review Crew I receive free products from companies including the product mentioned above in return for my honest opinion.

Time4Learning.com…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:16:00 +0000

Time4Learning.com is an online curriculum for grades pre-k through 8th that teaches language arts, math, science and social studies. Children learn on the computer using interactive lessons and activities as well as printable worksheets.

Some of the benefits of Time4Learning are:

reporting system for your record-keeping
state standards correlation
curriculum ranges from pre-k through 8th grade
project-based activites
student-paced learning
access to 3 grade levels of lessons for each student

My daughter used Time4Learning’s pre-k program for about a month. She enjoyed the activities available at that level which are things like learning the alphabet, shapes, colors etc. One of my favorite features of the pre-k program is the ease of use for pre-reading children. All actions are accompanied by sounds and smiley faces with a nodding ‘yes’ or a head-shaking ‘no’. The story creator is another example of pre-reading activity that is usually a reader-only activity. I found that she could truly use the program all by herself and understand what she was doing.

The record keeping is very handy for anyone keeping track of the program use for school requirements. It’s nice having the ability to print this all out rather try to go back and remember what was done and for how long.

A Time4Learning subscription is $19.95 for the first child. Each additional child is an added $14.95. I wouldn’t pay this for a pre-k program. For us, that’s too much money to spend on a child staring at a computer screen every day.

Now, the program does go all the way through 8th grade so I do think it’s a good possibility for the upper grade levels. If this were to be a major portion of the child’s curriculum, then the cost would be a good value. It’s a great program – very fun and educational. I just don’t think it’s a good value for a pre-k system. These skills are better taught in person and limiting screen time is much more important at the pre-k age.

If you’re looking for a supplemental program, summer schooling, or even a major portion of a homeschool curriculum for your school age children, I encourage you to take a look at the Time4Learning site. Definitely check out the demos available and see what you think. If computer curriculum is what you’re looking for, Time4Learning may just be your answer.

-Sara O’

Disclaimer:

As a reviewer for the TOS Homeschool Review Crew I receive free products from companies including the product mentioned above in return for my honest opinion.

Beehive Readers…

noreply@blogger.com (SaraJane) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 02:26:00 +0000

As promised, the new Beehive Reader What Am I? is here!!! If you recall, back in February I told you guys all about the awesome new readers from All About Spelling. My son Caleb devoured the first reader called Cobweb the Cat in two short days.

And now I give you “What Am I?”

"What Am I? is a Level 2 collection of delightful short stories for beginning readers. It contains ten fully-illustrated short stories.”

Just as Cobweb the Cat corresponds with All About Spelling Level 1, this reader corresponds with All About Selling Level 2. It follows the same sequence and word lists as Level 2, Steps 1 – 14.

Once again the quality of this book and the attention given to its detail is absolutely superb. I just love love love holding these books! They’re warm and sturdy and good for little boys less than dainty hands.

Take a peek at the wonderful illustrations in this reader.

View Full Album

They truly are beautiful and even out-do the gorgeous drawings of the first reader.

What Am I? is due out any day now and will be available on the All About Reading website.

I’ll keep you posted as soon as I get word the book is available. Once it is, I suggest you RUN to pick up What Am I? as well as Cobweb the Cat!! We are looking forward to picking up the next one as soon as it’s available. Rumor is… you can already pick it up at convention.

Can’t wait to see what’s next for All About Reading!

-Sara O’

Disclaimer:

As a reviewer for the TOS Homeschool Review Crew I receive free products from companies including the product mentioned above in return for my honest opinion.

The Homeschool Project

A Groupon Deal that ROCKS…

A Nature Scavenger Hunt…

the end of summer… hooray!

Art the Fun Way…

Jumping Ship…

Herbalism in your homeschool plus a giveaway!

Well Planned Day Pre-Release Sale…

$20 for 5 at the Magic House…

Good books…

Created To Be His Helpmeet by Debi Perl

The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church by Greg Boyd

Morning and Evening by C.H. Spurgeon

Hoop what??

A Crayola Prize pack Giveaway Winner…

the bright side…

a Crayola giveaway for the holidays…

homeschooling through life…

Thanksgiving freebie…

Homeschool, holidays and a whole new person…

Lapbookers Unite!! A giveaway…

Yoplait Prize Pack WINNER!!

Staying cool through the summer (Yoplait giveaway!)…

Free Coupons!

The Giveaway!!

*the Yoplait Whips! yogurt, prize pack, information and giveaway were all provided by Yoplait through MyBlogSpark*

It’s summertime!!!

hardly homeschool, but who wouldn’t want a new baby carrier…

Super Star Speech…

Disclaimer:

As a reviewer for the TOS Homeschool Review Crew I receive free products from companies including the product mentioned above in return for my honest opinion.

Alphabet Beats…

Disclaimer:

As a reviewer for the TOS Homeschool Review Crew I receive free products from companies including the product mentioned above in return for my honest opinion.

Time4Learning.com…

Disclaimer:

As a reviewer for the TOS Homeschool Review Crew I receive free products from companies including the product mentioned above in return for my honest opinion.

Beehive Readers…

Disclaimer:

As a reviewer for the TOS Homeschool Review Crew I receive free products from companies including the product mentioned above in return for my honest opinion.

the Yoplait Whips! yogurt, prize pack, information and giveaway were all provided by Yoplait through MyBlogSpark