Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Review: Easy Grammar and Daily Grams, Grade 4

2010-09-02T08:00:00.107-04:00

If you've hung around here for awhile, you know it's no secret that my family loves Easy Grammar and Daily Grams. You can read my review of the Ultimate Series, as well as a comparison of Easy Grammar and First Language Lessons. The folks at Easy Grammar recently sent me the fourth grade level of Easy Grammar and Daily Grams to review and, of course, we love them, too!

Because I'm so vocal about the fact that we're huge fans, I get a lot of questions about Easy Grammar and Daily Grams. For that reason, I'd like to do this review in a Q&A format. Please realize that I am answering these questions from my own personal experience, not as an official spokesperson for Easy Grammar and Daily Grams.

Do you have to use Easy Grammar and Daily Grams together? It's not required that you do. Both can be used independently of the other, but they combine to make a comprehensive grammar program for kids in grades 3-7, with additional books set up in the Daily Grams style for grades 2 and 8-12. We have loved all of the books in the series, but I was especially fond of the second grade book. It was perfect for my kids, both in lesson length and scope and sequence, when they were that age.

Easy Grammar provides the actual teaching text, while Daily Grams provide daily 5-10 minute review sheets that help reinforce and cement concepts learned. Both texts use a cyclical style of learning that helps students master and retain concepts such as:

Punctuation
Capitalization
Parts of speech
Subject/verb agreement

Each Easy Grammar level begins by having students memorize a list of prepositions -- in the fourth grade text, the list increases to 40. Then, students learn to find and cross out the prepositional phrase, making it easier to identify the subject and verb. Students spend time learning about individual parts of speech, such as pronouns, adverbs, and adjectives. There are also two complete sections dedicated to punctuation and capitalization.

My child hasn't used Easy Grammar and Daily Grams before; on what level should we start? Because all of the grade levels have the same basic information, taught in a cyclical style to help students achieve mastery, I suggest starting at whatever your child's grade level happens to be. Each level simply increases in complexity and builds on basic concepts, which are reviewed at each level. An exception to this suggestion is if you have a child in 8th grade or above. In that case, I would use with Easy Grammar Plus, which is the final installment in the Easy Grammar series and was written for middle school through adult users.

Do I need both the teacher and student versions of the books? Not necessarily. The teacher's versions of both Easy Grammar and Daily Grams contain both the answer key and reproducible student pages. In Easy Grammar, the student page and the answer key page are side by side, so you would need to copy the student page for your child. (To make this easy, I usually have the binding removed from the book and have it three-hole drilled so that I can place it in a binder.)

In the Daily Grams book, the answer key is in the back of the book, so photocopying isn't necessary. For both books, a non-reproducible student book is available for your convenience. It's often less expensive to buy the student book, rather than doing all that copying, especially if you have multiple students. I like having the answer keys for quicker grading or for reference if I'm not sure of an answer...which happens more often, the older my kids get. The Easy Grammar teacher edition is $27.95; the student text is $13.95. The Daily Grams teacher edition is $24.95, while the student text is $12.95.

Easy Grammar and Daily Grams are one part of our homeschool day that my kids never complain about. As a matter of fact, Brianna actually said she was a little disappointed to finish the Easy Grammar series because she enjoyed doing it. She's still doing the Ultimate Series books, of course. To me, there's not a better endorsement for a grammar program than kids who love grammar. It does their grammar geek mama's heart good to hear them say it. The only complaint I've heard about Easy Grammar 4 was from Josh: the book is pink. Hey, if that's the worst thing he's got to say about it, we're good.

I received these products free for the purpose of reviewing them. I received no other compensation for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are my personal, honest opinions. Your experience may vary.

On Humor and Bad Attitudes

2010-09-01T08:00:00.008-04:00

We all have them -- those moments when bad attitudes rear their ugly heads during school time. Last week I shared my top ten ways to handle a bad homeschool day, but after one day last week, I have another one to add to the list: humor.

Now this one may be more for the bad homeschool "moment" rather than one of those really lousy days, but on this particular afternoon, Megan was pitching a royal fit about about doing her reading instruction. I'm sure you know nothing about the royal fits that kids can pitch, so let me just tell you, it was ugly. In the midst of all this, as I was beginning to lose my cool, Megan screamed, "I hate this book! This book stinks!"

It just struck me as funny. So, on impulse, I leaned down, pressed my nose to the book and sniffed really loudly before declaring, "It smells fine to me."

There was a brief moment where Megan couldn't decide if that was funny or if it just made her more angry than she was already. Then, she gave it up and slipped off on the funny side. We both got a good laugh out of it before she continued her reading lesson with a much improved attitude.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you just went completely the opposite direction from what your kid expected and wound up defusing a situation that could have been blown all out of proportion? It's kind of humbling when it happens and you realize that there were probably dozens of times when it unnecessarily went the other way.

Top Ten Benefits of Homeschooling

2010-08-31T08:00:00.128-04:00

There are so many benefits to homeschooling. I mean, obviously we're fans. I've shared before the things we don't miss about public school. As far as homeschooling's benefits, I'm sure they vary widely among homeschooling families, but these are my top ten:

1. Personalized education. Always topping my list will be the personalized education. That means we can slow down for the hard things (which vary from child to child) and breeze through the easy ones. We can take rabbit trails when a certain topic peaks a child's interest. We can tailor the education uniquely to the student, whether he is a struggling learner or a gifted one. As an interesting side note, I asked my kids what they thought the benefits of homeschooling were, to see if they mentioned anything I might want to include in this post. My oldest daughter quickly mentioned being able to work at her own pace.

2. Sleeping late. And, this one will always be a close second on our list (or, maybe it should be the first -- it was Brianna's first before the work at her own pace thing). We are all such night owls. It's so nice to be able to work with our body's natural rhythms. My oldest recently asked if she could start doing her work after midnight and sleep until 1:00 or so in the afternoons. I'm not ready to go quite that far yet, but we do enjoy the fact that we can all get the rest we need and work during the times that we're most productive.

My mom recently asked what the kids would do when they had to get a job someday. I told her that, if they do have to get an early morning job, as opposed to an alternate shift, they'll adjust. I held down a first shift job until just before Josh (age 10) was born. I hated getting up early and I was tired all the time, but I managed. The kids will do what they have to do when the time comes. For now, we'll enjoy this huge benefit of homeschooling.

3. Scheduling freedom. Not only can we work at the time of day when we're most productive, but homeschooling allows us to work around family vacations, birthdays (we take family birthdays off), and my husband's work schedule. I love that we can plan things when they're right for our family, not when the county decides that it's time for a break that we get to share with all the rest of the county -- or even the state.

4. Learning together. I love learning alongside my kids. I learn as much as they do most days. It's so much fun to delve into a topic together and see everyone get excited about it. I am loving science this year. All the kids are studying biology and we get to play with the microscope that we got to use with Brianna's science text from Apologia. When I asked the kids what they liked best about homeschooling, Megan said her favorite thing this year is biology.

5. Living together. I love that we get to spend the majority of our days together. I recently commented to the kids that, if they were in public school, all five of us would be in a different place for the majority of the day -- Brianna would be in high school, Josh in middle school, Megan in elementary, Brian at work, and me, hopefully at home, but likely at work. That would stink! The years we have at home with our kids are so short; I want to enjoy as much time together as we possibly can.

6. Relationships. Yes, my kids bicker. Sometimes from the time they get up until the time they go to bed, but, when push comes to shove, they love each other. I think they are much closer than they would be if they were only together in the evenings after school. And, I can only imagine what my relationship with Brianna would be like. She's a teenager who enjoys spending time with her mama. Do we get on each other's nerves? Sure, but we're still much closer than I imagined we'd be when she hit fifteen. I think that's a direct result of our decision to homeschool.

7. Encouraging strengths. I love that homeschooling affords us the opportunity to encourage our kids' strengths. Whether it's an artistic bent, an athletic talent, or an unusual academic interest, we can allow our kids to explore their areas of gifting in ways that they might not get to experience if they were in school for 6-8 hours a day.

8. Shoring up weaknesses. The flip side of encouraging their strengths is shoring up their weaknesses. Because we can tailor our kids' education to their own unique needs, their areas of struggle can be addressed without defining who they are. A diagnosis of a learning disability can become a tool for shaping their educational needs, rather than a label slapped on the side of a box into which they are shoved.

9. Quiet and peaceful places of business. Okay, I'm sorry, but I know I'm not the only one who loves enjoying a practically empty playground, children's museum or kid-friendly restaurant once schools resume each fall.

10. School and life seamlessly meshing. This one is probably going to be the hardest to explain and actually have it come across the way it felt to me, but I had a moment, a few weeks ago, where I realized that schooling at home isn't something that is just some separate, compartmentalized piece of our lives. As my friend, Rebecca Ingram Powell says, it's just that thing that we do. It wasn't any huge moment; it was just the realization that we'd fallen seamlessly back into our homeschooling routine after our summer vacation because it's just part of our lives. As important a part of our lives that homeschooling is, it isn't some big thing; it's just part of us living, learning, and enjoying life together.

So, what are your family's favorite benefits of homeschooling?

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday.

Reader Questions: How Do I Teach Multiple Grades at Once?

2010-08-30T08:00:00.084-04:00

It's another reader question day. Recently, I've shared my thoughts on making friends and why our family homeschools. Today, I thought I'd tackle another question I hear frequently.

Living Creatively asks, "How will I have time to do it all? How can I teach three grades at once, and still do pre-K stuff, as well?"

I think just about every homeschool mom with more than one kid wonders, at one time or another, how to get it all done. I also think that the answer probably varies greatly among homeschooling families. I've posted before on homeschooling with babies, toddlers, and preschoolers and on schooling children close in age. Today, I'll share some tips that have worked for my family and some that have worked for other families that I know.

1. Consolidate. We do as much as we can together. Until this year, all of my kids did Bible study, history, and science together. There are a couple of different schools of thought on how to make group subjects work most effectively. One is to teach to the oldest and let the younger kids pick up what they can. You might be surprised at how much the little guys to pick up. The other thought is to begin teaching to the youngest, then, increase the complexity for the older kids. So, for example, you might read a picture book about a historical figure, then, move to a biography geared toward an older audience. Though I tended to use the first method, one big benefit to the second is that picture books tend to boil everything down to the essential facts, so hearing them first may help reinforce them for your older students as you move into more complex reading.

2. Divide and conquer. While it makes sense to do many subjects together, for others it is much easier to split everyone up. When Josh and Megan first got old enough to do formal schooling, I had this idea that we'd all have things like math time and writing time. I quickly discovered that trying to teach more than one kid on more than level can be an exercise in frustration. There are three of them and only one of me, after all.

I've discovered that it's much easier to stagger the subjects that are probably going to require me to work one-on-one with each child. So, I'll have two go work on something they can do independently (which is most everything now, as far as my oldest is concerned), while I work with one, then, we'll switch.

3. Nap time! For families with younger children, nap time can be the most productive time of the day. When Josh and Megan were younger, I would always save Brianna's most "mom-intensive" work for the afternoons when they napped. Even if your little ones don't nap for a long time, twenty to thirty minutes of concentrated time with Mom can be very productive for an older child.

4. Workbooks. Now, if you've been around here for awhile, you know that I'm not a huge fan of workbooks as a whole, though we do have a few that we use and love. For most subjects, workbooks just sound incredibly boring to me. However, what sounds boring to one mom may sound like a sanity saver to another. I have a friend who homeschools her five children. Very early on, she discovered that it made her life much simpler to have everyone in workbooks. One-on-one time, planning, and keeping everyone on their appropriate grade level were accomplished for her family this way.

5. Timing. Pre-K is not, in my experience, a time intensive part of a homeschool mom's day. It can usually be accomplished in little bursts of 15-20 minute time slots. These can be fit in while older children are working independently or at other times, creatively, throughout the day. For example, bedtime stories can be themed with preschool lessons. T is for turtle might mean reading stories about Franklin while snuggled in bed with your little one at night. You could even toss in an age-appropriate non-fiction book about turtles as a follow-up.

You can also enlist the help of older students. I know several moms whose older kids have an "assigned" time during the day to spend some meaningful play/teaching time with a younger sibling. This serves several purposes such as freeing up time for Mom to work with other kids, allowing older and younger siblings to bond, and helping an older student gain confidence by teaching a younger sibling.

These are just some of my ideas for multilevel teaching. Now, if, by "doing it all," you mean the laundry, the dishes and the housework, um, don't drop by my house unannounced, please.

What suggestions do you have for Living Creatively on how to homeschool a varying age-span of children at once?

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One Where I Quickly Saw the Need to Adjust Our Scedule

2010-08-27T16:53:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday! I, for one, am very happy that it's Friday. It's been a crazy busy week and I'm ready for some time to relax and catch up on things at home. Next week promises to be more of the same, so I'll be spending some time this weekend adjusting our schedule. It's either that or we'll all be suffering from burn out by Labor Day, which, as you know, is just a little more than a week away.

Although it's been busy, it's been a fun week. Monday started with Brianna's first Spanish class. There were more kids than I expected in the class -- I'd say about 20 -- and it was nice to see some familiar faces. Brianna isn't totally thrilled about taking the class, but two years of a foreign language is a requirement for just about any college she'd want to attend, therefore it's a requirement for graduation from our homeschool. I think it helps, though, that she already knows some of the kids in her class. We can mark that socialization thing off the checklist once a week.

While Brianna had her class, Josh, Megan, and I went to a nearby McDonald's and had something to drink while we did history and science. That's going to be my plan each week since Brianna's class is an hour and a half and we're not allowed to use another classroom at the church. I think it's going to work well for us, though, because the kids get to have a Coke and Mom gets a sweet tea -- treats for all of us -- and the kids get to play in the play area once their work is done.

Brianna also had a volleyball game Monday night. They lost again, but they played really well. They played this same team a couple of times last year and I'm sure that the other team could even tell how much our team has improved. A couple of the games were really close.

Tuesday we were actually able to stay at home for the day and get some stuff done. We hit the books pretty hard since it was one of the few days this week that we were able to be home all day. Wednesday we had an orthodontist appointment, but I was impressed with how well everyone was able to get back on track and finish up once we got home. It's usually pretty difficult for us to do that.

If you saw my review of Science Odyssey yesterday, you know some of the fun things we've been doing in science. We also had a chance, this past week, to use the microscope. That was fun! One of the books recommended with one of our recent Science Odyssey units was Greg's Microscope. I highly recommend the book if you've got younger kids who'll be using a microscope. It was a great introduction and Greg looked at many of the same things in his microscope that we were able to look at in ours.

We've also been working on sun king plaques in history. We were supposed to just do a simple paper plate version, but I thought a salt dough version would be more fun. They're not quite finished yet. After the paint dries, I've got some clear shellac to spray on them.

I've learned, this week, of a new website, called Snag Learning, which offers high-quality documentary films for students. I've been asked to share the press release, but, well, I just thought I'd share about it in my Wrap-Up instead. At first, I really wasn't interested in the site since watching movies during school rarely gets past "good intentions" for me, but I clicked over, out of curiosity, and was impressed with what I saw just looking around. As far as I can tell, it's free, and the films really do appear to be high-quality. I haven't watched any of the films yet; I'm just going by what I saw in the screen shots, so this information is passed along without endorsement.

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Review: Pandia Press

2010-08-26T08:00:00.207-04:00

I was introduced to Pandia Press last year when I had the opportunity to review History Odyssey: Modern Times (Level 2) as part of the TOS Crew. I was really impressed with their products, so I contacted the folks at Pandia Press about doing a couple of reviews for them this year. They graciously sent me both R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey: Life (Level 1) and History Odyssey: Early Modern (Level 1).

R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey

We have absolutely loved R.E.A.L. Science! R.E.A.L. is an acronym for Read, Explore, Learn, and Absorb and that's exactly what you and your kids will be doing with this curriculum. It's full of great, fun, hands-on science experiments in every lesson. Each lesson begins with a read-aloud page, called For My Notebook, to introduce the concept. I make a copy of this page for Josh and Megan so that they can read along and pick up on new terms, which are introduced and casually defined in the lesson, with pronunciation helps in parentheses.

After I read the lesson, the kids use highlighters to mark the "big idea" and some of the "small stuff." The big idea is the main point of the lesson that all grade levels should understand. (Level 1 is geared toward 1-4 graders.) The small stuff are those points that older children would do well to know, but it isn't expected that they'll get it all. Going back over and highlighting it has been great reinforcement.

The lessons are then followed by hands-on experiments that get kids excited about studying science. I don't think we've come across an activity yet that my kids haven't enjoyed. From getting outside observing life in a "plot study" to looking at cells (eggs) to piecing together a paper skeleton, the hands-on activities are the variety that teach while still being fun.

I love that R.E.A.L. Science: Life author, Terri Williams, realizes that parents, like their children, have different learning/teaching styles and she makes it easy to use the book based on your style. There are several pages of useful websites for those who like to get online to read more and supplement the activities in the book. There are several pages of book suggestions for each lesson for those who like to use the library to supplement. There are even tips on keeping an optional nature journal.

A friend had commented to me that they had used Science Odyssey and didn't like it because it was basically a collection of labs without enough substantial teaching. I haven't found that to be the case. Pairing the For My Notebook sections with supplemental material from the website or book resource pages provides a very thorough elementary science program. I had thought that we might pair Science Odyssey with a separate reading-heavy/experiment-light science program, but I've found that hasn't been necessary. Science Odyssey seems to be providing exactly what we need.

You can't buy the Science Odyssey books directly from Pandia Press, but they offer a list of retailers. The price varies depending on the retailer from whom you purchase. The list price is $58, but I've seen it for quite a bit less than that.

History Odyssey

I was anxious to try the Level 1 History Odyssey. Brianna is using Level 2 and I really like it. She's not too crazy about it, but only because it's a little more work than she'd like to be doing and she's found the reading somewhat challenging. As the mom, I think it makes a great high school level history course.

I like that all of the History Odyssey books take a classical approach to history, learning through living books, our preferred method for studying history. The required spine book for Early Modern: Level 1 is The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of the World, with one of our favorites, Story of the World, as an optional resource.

The lesson plans are written for children in the grammar stage (ages 6-10), so there are suggestions as to how to use the guide with both independent and non-independent readers. The lessons are well laid-out, though it's important to realize that each part of the lesson is designed to take about a week to complete. Even though it says that right in the book and is laid out accordingly in the accompanying suggested weekly schedule, I kind of forgot about the suggested schedule and missed that line about one week and really pushed my kids' attentions spans a bit the first couple of weeks. How's that for being real with y'all? In my defense, I was breaking the parts down into a couple of days, but three or four days would make a lot more sense.

In each lesson you will do several activities, such as:

Read an overview in The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World Hisotry
Read from one or both of the optional spine books, A Child's History of the World or Story of the World
Do a writing activity such as looking up and copying one or more vocabulary word definitions or writing a simple outline summary of the day's lesson
Hands-on activity project
Coloring page and/or map work
Do an activity from one of the two History Pockets books you'll use with this course (only for the American history portions of the guide)
Read your choice of supplemental literature

We have already dropped the outlining portion of the lessons because my kids hated it. I now have them do an illustrated narration sheet for most lessons. They don't really like that either, but they like it better than the outlines.

I really like following up the Encyclopedia of World History overview with SOTW. The overview provides a nice foundation upon which the corresponding Story of the World chapter can build. When I first read the reading list (which you can see for each level by clicking on the History Odyssey tab and scrolling down a bit) I thought the book choices were a bit light. Then, I realized they were chosen so that a grammar stage independent reader can read on his own. More in-depth books can be chosen as read-alouds from the suggested literature in the guide.

The only thing I dislike about History Odyssey Level 1 is that there aren't enough hands-on activities for my taste. I mean, there are the coloring pages and map work, but there are only eight projects included in the guide. I know it can be hard to come up with meaningful projects, but I'd love to see one for each lesson even if they were listed as optional suggestions, rather than hard and fast assignments. As a matter of fact, we've just started our first project, a sun king plaque, with lesson 4, which is why I don't have any photos for the history portion of the review like I do with science.

Overall, I'm pleased with the History Odyssey series, both Level 1 and Level 2. Again, Pandia Press doesn't sell their resources directly, but you can purchase from any of their suggested retailers for a retail price of $36-45, often lower depending on the vendor.

I received these products free for the purpose of reviewing them. I received no other compensation for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are my personal, honest opinions. Your experience may vary.

How Do You Handle Sick Days?

2010-08-25T08:00:00.052-04:00

One question that I've heard many times since we began homeschooling is, how do you handle sick days? It's inevitable that the days are going to occur when one or -- God forbid -- all of your kids are sick. If everyone is sick, it's pretty much a given that we'll just take the day off -- or a few days, depending on the severity of the illness.

Just one sick child is a different story and it depends on how sick they are. If it's just a general, "I don't feel good," they're typically expected to complete their wok unless I can really tell that they just don't feel good. If there is fever, vomiting, or other obvious signs of illness, that rates a day in Mom and Dad's bed with the TV on for company and maybe meals and drinks brought to you -- a good dose of pampering.

Because we do most of our formal schooling in our dining room, which is within hearing distance of the master bedroom, I will usually leave the door open and ask the sick child to listen in on the Bible lesson and history and science if it's a reading day for those two subjects -- or sometimes we'll even take the books up to the bedroom and let everyone lie around in bed and listen.

Brianna works independently, so I will usually let her make up missed work at her own pace within a few days of getting over the illness. I do require that she make up the work (or most of it, anyway) because our state requires the equivalent of 180 days of instruction. I don't mark a sick child "absent" on our attendance forms because -- hello? -- they were here. ;-) I also don't necessarily require that all work be made it. It just depends on the subject and what was due. For example, I'll usually have Brianna make up any workbook pages, such as math or grammar, but I'll just reschedule more project-based assignments like history and science.

For Josh and Megan, I expect whoever was sick to catch up Easy Grammar and Daily Grams, which we typically do together, and usually math. I don't go ahead with things like history and science, if it's anything other than a reading assignment, which we may do together, as I mentioned before. We just catch up any hands-on projects together once the sick child is feeling better.

I often find that a child who doesn't really feel well enough to sit at the table and do schoolwork, doesn't really mind lying in the bed and doing the work. Once they've laid around for awhile and watched a little TV, unless they're really sick, they tend to get bored and there's just something novel about doing schoolwork in bed.

So, I guess that's my long, rambling way of saying, typically for sick days we just do a lighter day of schoolwork and let the sick kid catch up any missed work.

How do you handle sick days?

Top Ten Ways to Handle a Bad Homeschool Day

2010-08-24T08:00:00.096-04:00

I'm getting ready to make a shocking statement. Are you ready? Are you sitting down? Okay, here goes: Every homeschooling day is not a bed of roses.

I know, I know. I can hear all the homeschool moms gasping in a collective shock of disbelief, but it's true. Some homeschooling days are better than others and some homeschooling days just plain stink. So, how do you handle the bad days? Well, after nine years of homeschooling, I have had my share of bad days, so I've come up with a few tried and true ways of handling them.

1. Pray. I listed this as my first reason here because it's not always my first reaction at home. It usually comes after fussing, yelling, or crying...or all three on a really bad day. When the thought to pray does cross my radar, though, I always wish I'd done it first and it always helps.

2. Call a friend. Thankfully, though all homeschool moms have had bad days, you can usually find someone who isn't having a bad day on the same day you are. There's nothing like the listening ear of someone who's been there, done that, and knows exactly where you're coming from. Sometimes just talking it out is all you need to regain a little perspective.

And, hey, if your friend is having a lousy day, too, you can commiserate together...or maybe you'll find that you're day isn't as bad as you thought it was and end up encouraging your friend yourself. Either way, you'll be glad you called.

3. Reassess. If you're consistently having bad days, it may be time to reassess. If your child is just coming out of a more typical school setting, could he use some "deschooling" time? Are you expectations too high? Is your curriculum a good fit? Do you and your child have some teaching style/learning style differences that need to be addressed? Talk it out with your spouse or a trusted friend. Spend some time in prayer. Sometimes just a few tweaks or recognizing readiness and developmental discrepancies can make a world of difference.

4. Reconnect. Some bad days are caused by spending too much time in "teacher" mode and not enough time in "mommy" mode. Others are just caused by everyone getting off on the wrong foot in the morning. We have times where we've all stopped what we were doing and started over, greeting each other as if for the first time that day. It usually makes everyone at least smile. We sometimes even start a "hug circle" in which someone starts a hug and passes it around the circle. When it gets to the end, it gets passed back. Yes, teenagers can act like they're too big for a hug circle...but, they're not.

5. Take a field trip. Bad days are often caused by stress and burn-out, which can often be alleviated with a field trip. A change of scenery can do everyone a world of good and field trips are great because they meet that requirement without making you feel like you've lost a day of school. Some great spur-of-the-moment field trips include the zoo, a local museum, or a nature walk.

6. Take a day off. Sometimes it's just a good idea to know when to throw in the towel. We all need a mental health day every so often, and homeschooling families are no exception. Homeschooling offers the flexibility to make up any state-required days at a later time, so don't compound a really bad day by continuing to push everyone.

Another alternative to completely taking the day off is to turn it into a "life skills" day. I can't stand clutter and sometimes that's what's causing my moodiness and stress, making it worth it to me to take a day off to clean up the house and catch up the laundry, something all kids need to learn to do before they leave the house. Baking cookies together certainly never hurt anything either.

7. Do a unit study. Are you noticing a pattern here? A lot of bad days can be caused by burnout. A surefire method to cure burnout is to take some time off the thing that's causing it. If that thing happens to be your regular school work, spend a week or two on a fun, interest-led, but still educational unit study. Everyone is still learning, but also engaged in something that you might not have gotten around to in your regular curriculum, but that might just prove to be one of those really memorable moments in your school year.

8. Enjoy a Mom's Night Out. Our local homeschool group has a Mom's Night Out one night a month. We meet at a local restaurant for dinner, where we may or may not talk about homeschooling. It does typically come up since it's such a huge part of our lives, but Mom's Night Out is a chance to just get together, eat an entire uninterrupted meal that none of the moms has to cook or clean up, and recharge. I always come away feeling refreshed.

9. Call a family meeting. Maybe there are issues totally unrelated to school that are causing the stress, or maybe you just need to get your kids feedback on what's causing the bad days. Sometimes kids need to be reminded of the expectations. Sometimes it's not that our expectations are too high, but that theirs are two low. It often helps to get together as a family and talk through any ongoing problems that may be causing stressful school days, whether that be attitude problems, lack of initiative, irresponsible behavior, or a family crisis that has everyone out of sorts. This would also be a good time to take another look at number one.

10. Reflect. Many times just spending some time looking at where you've come from and where you are will improve a bad day. Is your child struggling with reading? Well, maybe last year he could sound out a CVC word, but was unable to blend them together, whereas, today he can blend them easily and it now working on sounding out multisyllable words. Maybe your daughter is struggling with fractions, but has mastered long division, which gave her a fit last year.
Sometimes progress is slow and difficult to see, but spending time looking at where you've been can bring it all back into focus.

We've all had bad days, but, hopefully, the good far outweigh the bad. I hope that the ten tips above will help put everything back into perspective the next time you're having a bad day. I may need to print them off and keep them handy for my next bad day, too, since the tips sometimes escape me in the midst of the struggle.

How do you effectively handle the not-a-bed-of-roses days in your homeschool?

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday.

Homeschool Showcase #54

2010-08-23T08:00:00.113-04:00

Welcome to the August 23, 2010 edition of Homeschool Showcase, where we spotlight all the encouraging, inspiring and just plain fun ways that homeschooling families live and learn together. I hope everyone's school years are off to a great start. For those who haven't started yet, I hope you're enjoying the last few weeks of your summer break. No matter where you are on your school calendar, you're sure to enjoy this week's fantastic edition of the Homeschool Showcase. Special thanks to all who submitted their blog posts this week.

Robin Phillips shares tips on How To Use An Animal Rescue Book to Teach History and Science. I'd never heard of the book Robin references, a true story of the rescue of an Iraqi zoo. It sounds like not only an interesting book in its own right, but also a wonderful jumping off point for a discussion of current events. Visit Crack the Egg for more details.

From zoos to farms, Charla Pearen presents Old MacDonald - Letter Recognition, showing, with a video, how she uses the popular children's song to encourage letter recognition. Check out ideas for your preschoolers at High Park Home Daycare. (I have a soft spot for home daycare moms because Brianna was in an awesome one for a little over two years.)

I'm totally following along with Denise's FREE Homeschool Blogging Correspondence Course, even though we probably won't officially sign up and risk being perpetually behind. If you want to sign up or learn more, visit Blogging 2 Learn for more details.

With another great vlog post, Denise gives tips for starting a Math Club. They're good tips, too, because they actually make math look like fun! Head over to Let's Play Math! and see what I mean.

Pamela Jorrick share sights and memories from her family's recent trip to Burney Falls, posted at Blah, Blah, Blog. It looks like a gorgeous place to visit and has me daydreaming of field trips and nature study.

photo by pamela

J.Edwards presents 10 Must-read Books For Teenagers posted at EverydayChristianFamily.com, saying that they are, "encouraging, interesting and engaging books that will help guide children into solid foundation for life"

Kendra Vicknair reflects on how she's been spending her family's afternoon quiet time in her post, Am I Really Resting?. I found that I could definitely relate. Stop by Habits for a Happy Home and see if you relate, as well.

For many homeschool families "recess" takes place in your backyard playground. If this includes your family, you might want to check out this Home Playground Safety Checklist from Jason Koeppe - IntelliCorp, posted at InTouch & Informed Blog.

If you're like us and you really enjoy back-to-school time because it means that all those places that have been crowded with kids all summer are now peaceful and quiet again, you'll enjoy Aadel's post, Shorelines and Islands. . . posted at "Hi, I'm (insert name)." Aadel says, "The first day of school in our district presented an opportunity for us to enjoy learning in its natural environment."

photo by aadel

Nancy Kelly wonders, "Why Should Anyone Be Tense About Tense?" Visit Sage Parnassus for a review of an out-of-print, but worth looking for book that makes grammar meaningful and fun.

Samantha, of To Be Busy at Home, has broken into the Styrofoam kits and is Making Molecules with her kids. You've gotta love some good hands-on learning.

photo by samantha

Rivka photo-docutments Alex's neighborhood adventure in a post highlighting her daughter's hands-on map-reading practice, posted at Tinderbox. I love this idea! Much better, in my opinion, than the lady who put her 9-year-old on the New York subway alone with $20 and told him to find his way home...but that could be the over-protective mom in me.

You've got to love the creativity of homeschooled kids. Check out the entirely kid-produced video, The Day I Blew Up the Empire State Building at Amida's blog, Journey Into Unschooling.

That concludes this edition of Homeschool Showcase. Submit your blog article to the next edition, scheduled for September 6, using our carnival submission form. Deadline for submissions will be Sunday, September 5 by 4 PM (EST). Please read the guidelines before submitting your post. Past posts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Cells and Volleyball

2010-08-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday! This week's wrap-up is an early one because I'm getting ready to wrap school up today and send the kids off to the grandparents' for the weekend. My and Brian's anniversary is next Tuesday. (Is there a grammatically correct way to say that? If so, was that it?) We'll be celebrating 19 {mostly} wonderful years of marriage. Unfortunately, we'll be celebrating on the actual day with school, volleyball practice and a softball tournament. So, we're celebrating early this weekend. Nothing terribly exciting, but it will involve a meal or two that I don't have to fix and time alone with my husband, so I'm not complaining. It might also involve me getting to see Eclipse again. Maybe. I'm just sayin'.

I don't know about you, but this week has flown by for me. Our second full week of school has gone reasonably well. We added in writing on Tuesday, with Institute for Excellence in Writing. The first day went well, with everyone watching the DVD lesson together. It was long, but there wasn't really any complaining. Andrew Pudewa is an engaging and funny speaker, so I don't think it's going to be a problem keeping the kids' attention with the DVD lessons as we go along.

Having the kids write their own paragraphs from their key word outline was a different story. Brianna did great on her own, but this is Josh and Megan's first experience with formal writing and they needed a lot of one-on-one help. There are two of them and only one of me. Not a good combination. I was going to split them up next week, for the writing part, since that's ultimately what I wound up doing this week -- sending one off to work on something else while I worked with the other. However, I think next week I might just let them work on brainstorming and writing the sentences together. I think talking it out might help both of them and I don't think it really matters, at this point, if they wind up writing essentially the same paragraph. Once they get the hang of it all, they'll be writing their own. Anyone who's used IEW have any thoughts on that?

We've had a lot of fun with science this week. We've been studying cells with REAL Science Odyssey and it's been one of those weeks where I've learned something myself. We've looked at eggs many times as an example of a cell that you can see without a microscope, but nothing I've ever used has ever pointed out that little white dot on the yolk (the blastodisc) is what the chick develops from. I always thought the chick developed from the yolk (don't laugh, it's not nice), but that's actually what feeds the chick, you know, in case you didn't know either. Reason Number 102,339 why I love homeschooling.

We were supposed to make a three-dimensional cell, you know, the whole Jell-O thing, but somebody -- I won't say who; it might have been the youngest male in the house, but I'm not saying -- at our ~~orange~~ nucleus. I got a new orange and hid it, so that will be on the agenda for next week.

Brianna had her first volleyball game Thursday night. Her team lost, but they played so well! They have improved so much since last year. Their coach had told them that this would probably be the toughest team they played all year, so we were all very excited to see how close the scores were. Our girls lost, but they didn't get stomped. A couple of the games (sets? matches?) were very close. If this was, in fact, the toughest team, I think we're going to have a really good season.

Next week the craziness begins. Brianna starts her Spanish class, taught at a local church for a small group of homeschoolers. It's supposed to be a pretty tough class, so we're a little nervous about it, but it's an extremely reasonable price and a much better idea than me teaching Spanish, so we're going to see how it goes. The following week, Megan's last year of music starts and we'll be at a full load of subjects and outside classes. Yikes!

How was your week? Be sure to post about it and sign up with MckLinky. If this is your first time to join us, be sure to read the Weekly Wrap-Up guidelines.

**Remember, be sure to link directly to your Weekly Wrap-Up post so that others can find it easily when they visit your blog and be sure to post a link back here so that your readers can find the Wrap-Up and join us.

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Box Tops and a Giveaway

2010-08-19T08:00:00.069-04:00

**This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to #19, Jennifer at Crow Family of 5!**

I bet you've seen the Box Tops for Education coupons on top of a variety of products that you purchase. The Box Tops can be clipped and turned in to local schools which can, in turn, use them to earn cash for items they might need.

I've been saving Box Tops for several years, first giving them to a neighbor girl to turn in and, now, to my niece. The kids earn prizes, the school earns money, and it costs me nothing to clip Box Tops, so it's a win-win situation. Did you know that homeschool associations with 15 or more students can also enroll to earn money with Box Tops?

A couple of weeks ago, I received a $25 Walmart gift card to use for purchasing participating Box Top products. Now, I seriously considered purchasing $25 worth of Toaster Strudels because my kids love them and think I'm the greatest mom ever when I bring them home, which isn't as often as they'd like. However, I thought, since the gift card was sent to me for a purpose, I should probably purchase a wider variety of things than multiple boxes of Toaster Strudels. I was still a popular mom, though, because I brought home lots of special treats that I don't usually buy. See?

Plus, I got lots of Box Tops since, from now until August 31, many items are offering bonus Box Tops for back-to-school, including select General Mills products, which have 4 Box Tops on each package! So I'll be a popular aunt, too, when I take all those Box Tops to my niece.

Some favorites that you can find at Walmart with 4 Box Tops this August are: Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, Pillsbury Toaster Strudels, Trix Yogurt, Hamburger Helper, Totino’s Pizza Rolls, Nature Valley Granola Bars and Betty Crocker Fruit Roll-Ups. Be sure to keep an eye out for Box Tops on great products from Kleenex, Ziploc, and Hefty too!

In addition to getting a $25 Walmart gift card for myself, I get to give one away! One winner will receive a $25 Walmart gift card from Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and General Mills. To enter, simply leave a comment telling me which of your favorite Box Top-bearing products you'll be purchasing to earn money for your homeschool group or your favorite relative or neighbor kids' school. I'll draw a winner, at random, on Monday, Aug. 23.

The winner will be contacted via email, so be sure that you leave your email address in the comments or that it is easily accessible through your blog and that your comment links to your blog. If I can't contact you via email, I will draw another winner.

I received this a Walmart gift card to use and one to giveaway free from General Mills and My Blog Spark. I received no other compensation for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are my personal, honest opinions. Your experience may vary.

Our Recommended Reading

2010-08-18T08:00:00.024-04:00

At The Homeschool Village this week, they're talking about favorite books. I thought it would be fun to ask my kids what they'd recommend and why.

Megan, age 8, said she'd recommend new favorite, The Princess and the Kiss by Jennie Bishop. Megan says that it's a good book and interesting because God gave the princess her first kiss. Then, she save it to give to her husband. This book also has a workbook to go with it which you can use to spend time each week talking to your daughter about purity and related topics. We have the workbook, but haven't started working through it yet.

Josh, age 10, had trouble coming up with a favorite. He's not much of a book guy, but I asked him to think about books that he enjoyed a few years ago that might recommend to his younger boy cousins. He named Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton because it's a book with stuff boys like, such as digging holes and trucks and stuff. I love this book because it's the first one that Josh ever willing sat through. He was more of a "wander around and play Lego's and do other stuff while you read" kind of guy, but he always really enjoyed Mike Mulligan.

Brianna's, age 15, favorite book probably won't come as a surprise to those of you who read my blog regularly. It's Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer. Brianna says that Twilight is just the right mix of love story and fantasy. Of course, you probably know that I share her obsession. I love that Twilight has given us a common interest. I've never had anybody with whom to really share the love of a particular book. It's cool to be able to share Twilight-related inside jokes with Brianna. Twilight has even encouraged Brianna to read more classic literature, such as Romeo and Juliet. We enjoyed Twilight so much that I even wrote a unit study based on it.

Note: I would recommend the Twilight series for high school age kids and up. Use your own judgment, but I would encourage parents to read the books themselves before allowing a younger child to read them.

Other books that have been some of our personal favorites over the years have included:

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf

Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann

I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff

Alexander by Harold Littledale

The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone (which I first discovered as a young teenager reading to my younger cousins)

Button Soup, a Walt Disney Productions book (also a begged-for favorite of my younger cousins when I was their teen-aged babysitter)

And the rest of the books on this old Thursday Thirteen post (some of which are included above). What are some of your kids' favorite books?

This post is linked to The Homeschool Village Thursday Link-Up.

Top Ten Ways to Review

2010-08-17T00:45:00.000-04:00

It doesn't matter if you homeschool or your kids are in public or private school, you've got to review what you've learned if it's going to stick. Nobody ever said, though, that review had to be boring. Here are some of our favorite ways to study stuff:

1. Roll a giant die. There are lots of different ways you could use the giant game die, from using computer paper or cardstock to create a life-size game board to simply having review cards labeled with numbers -- roll a two, select a review card from stack number two. Don't forget the fun rolls -- like double points or roll again for rolling a six.

2. Review cards. We like to review history and science as we go, by keeping review cards on a ring and stuck in our notebook for daily or weekly review.

3. Play bingo. Bingo is one of our favorite all-purpose games and it's great for review. Just put the answers on the bingo squares and use the review questions as the call cards.

4. Adapt paper bag book report. Rather than use the paper bag to hold items representing key facts about a book, use it to hold items representing science or history (or whatever) facts. If your child can tell you why the items are significant, he probably understands the material.

5. Do a presentation for the family. There are lots of ideas in the paper bag book report link for different types of presentations your child could do. You could also utilize a tri-fold presentation board or let her prepare a short speech for Mom, Dad and siblings. In addition to reviewing the facts while preparing for and giving the presentation, your student will also get some public speaking practice.

6. Make a bookmark. Brianna is doing Apologia biology this year and DonnaYoung.org has vocabulary bookmarks for each module. Brianna is supposed to be reading over the bookmark every day as she does her biology work for the day. I think this is a great study idea for most any subject.

7. Play "Memory." We love learning with games whenever we can. Memory (a.k.a. "matching") is a great study tool for just about any subject. Put the question on one card, the answer on another. Each question/answer match makes a pair.

8. Play Jeopardy. This one really only works with at least two players, so you might have to drag in Dad in a pinch (which can be fun because maybe, since it's been awhile since he's studied the facts, he's not smarter than your first grader, fifth grader, or whatever grader). Let your players choose from subject related categories.

9. Adapt Scripture Memory Box. We love Simply Charlotte Mason's Scripture Memory System for learning Scripture, but lately I've been thinking that the same premise could work grade for cumulative review throughout the school year.

10. Adapt a board game. This is another one we use a lot. Just about any board game will work. You can play a few different ways. Roll to see how many questions you get and move a space for each correct answer. Roll to see how many spaces you move if you get the answer correct. Or, for games where players take turn making a move, like checkers or Connect Four, the player has to get a correct answer before he can take his turn.

These are just some of the ways we've found to make studying more fun. What are some of your favorite fun ways to study, memorize, or review facts?

Reader Questions: Why Do You Homeschool?

2010-08-16T08:00:00.108-04:00

This is the second in a series of posts answering your questions about homeschooling. The first post was answering the question about how to find friends. If you have a question, I'd love feel free to ask and I'll try to answer it in a future post.

Today I'll be answering Gabi's question, "How did you start homeschooling? Was that a lot of change in your family's life?"

It's been almost exactly two years since I've answered the why question on my blog, so I bet there are a lot of people who haven't heard my answer before. Homeschooling was something that I had always had in the back of my mind. I had a close friend and a step-sister who homeschooled, so the idea wasn't foreign to me. When it got close to time for Brianna to start Kindergarten, however, she wanted to go to "big school." My husband, who knew me to be a woman of grandiose plans, but with issues on the follow-through was concerned about the long-term commitment. While I would have been willing to try homeschooling, I wasn't yet convicted about it, so we sent Brianna to school.

By the end of first grade, it was time to make a decision. Brianna was really struggling with reading (we didn't know, at that time, that she had some dyslexia and tracking problems) and the school wasn't sure what to do with her. "We'll just pass her on to second grade," they said. "She should catch up by the end of the year."

"But what if she doesn't," I asked, wondering how continuing with what obviously wasn't working was going to fix anything. "Isn't that going to be a pretty miserable year?"

"Well, we'll just hold her back," they countered. "She'll be a leader in first grade and can have another year to catch up her reading."

"What about all the stuff that she's not struggling with though? Math? Science? Social studies? Won't it be boring for her to repeat all that stuff?"

Silence. We decided to go with Option C -- homeschooling.

It was clear, midway through our first year homeschooling, that this was the path for us. We were able to focus on Brianna's strengths while shoring up her weaknesses. We took a completely different approach to reading -- phonics, with Sing, Spell, Read and Write, as opposed to the "whole word learning disguised as phonics" that she'd been taught in school -- and in months, she was taking off, reading on grade level by the end of her second grade year.

That was in 2002 and we've been homeschooling ever since. Was it a big change in our family's life? To some extent. It was an adjustment, more for Brianna and I than anyone else, to go from sending her off each morning for school to doing school at home. There wasn't as much "that's not how Mrs. So-and-so did it" as I expected. There were some rough moments as far as me trying to teach Brianna, as opposed to just being Mom, but I've often said that it really was never any worse than trying to do homework with her, as any parent who's ever had to help a child with their homework can probably understand.

As far as our overall lifestyle, homeschooling was much easier than public school. Josh and Megan were 3 and 1 at the time. It was nice not having to drag everyone out every morning, no matter what the weather was like, to get Brianna to school. It was nice being able to live, eat, breathe, and school according to our schedule, rather than the public school schedule.

It took some time to find our groove -- four years to be exact. During those first three years there was a lot of trial and error with curriculum and schedules. However, we found a good fit with math and reading early on, so I always felt that as long as those two subjects were solidly in place, everything else would fall into place and it did.

About January of our first year, Brianna announced that she wanted to go back to public school. We sat down and discussed that and worked our way through it. Now, Brianna will be the first to tell you how much she loves homeschooling and that she has no desire to return to public school.

So, yes, there were some aspects that were a big adjustment, such as redefining the parent/teacher/student/child roles, but other things, such as meshing the homeschooling part of our days with the living life together as a family part of our days seemed to happen pretty quickly. There are some things that I wish I could go back and change. I'll admit that it took me a couple of years for me to loosen up and let go of that public school image of learning and realize that our homeschool doesn't have to mimic a classroom to be effective. Just ask the people who knew me back then.

Was homeschooling a big change for our family? Without a doubt. When I try to imagine our lives without homeschooling, I can't. We have a teenager who, for the most part, enjoys spending time with her family. We have a family that is together 90% of the time. Yes, there is bickering among the kids, but they love each other and they're friends.

I pointed out to the kids recently that if they were in public school, all five of us would be somewhere different for the majority of the day -- my youngest would be in elementary school, my son in middle school, my oldest in high school, mom at home, and dad at work. I can't imagine how that would affect our family life and I don't want to. We began homeschooling for academic reasons, but we have discovered that homeschooling is about so much more than just an education. It's a lifestyle of living and learning together and I wouldn't trade these few precious years of having our family together for anything.

What about you? What ultimately led your family to choose homeschooling? Was it a big adjustment for your family?

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with the Ducks, Snails, and Dental Appointments

2010-08-13T17:01:00.000-04:00

We did it! We successfully completed our first week of school! It was a good one, too, which really feels good after feeling so burnt out by the end of last year. Of course, we're not at a full load yet, but things are going well.

Monday was busy with afternoon dental appointments for everyone. The older I get, the more I dislike going to the dentist. I think it's because my teeth have gotten more sensitive. And that high-powered water cleaning tool? It's of the devil! It hurts my teeth and my ears. Thank goodness we get our dental appointments over in two fell swoops twice a year, though five back-to-back appointments aren't exactly fun at the time.

Tuesday we had an afternoon field trip to ride the duck boats. I was very proud that we got our morning work done before leaving the house -- an almost unheard-of feat on field trip day. We'd never been on the duck boats because it's usually rather expensive. We got a good deal for our homeschool group, though, so we went. I'm still not sure it was worth the $35 it cost our family to go, but at least now we can say that we've been.

One of the first things we saw when we drove off into the water, was a blue heron perched on a piece of driftwood.

It was interesting to learn the history of the duck boats, which were used in World War II to transport people and ammunition. According to what we were told, all duck boats in operation today were built in the 1940's. All of the kids on-board -- and there were a bunch of them because it was a homeschool group -- got to drive the boat.

The rest of the week, it was back to the books. We added in science this week, using REAL Science Odyssey from Pandia Press. So far, we're really enjoying it. It's filled with hands-on science labs and we've already done two this week. One was to go outside and rope off a plot, preferably in an overgrown area, to study for signs of living and non-living things.

Though it was hot, we trooped outside into a shady, overgrown portion of our property for our study. Thankfully, it was overcast, so it wasn't as hot as it could have been. I really wasn't expecting to find much since we didn't have what I considered to be a very good area to study. I was pleasantly surprised that we found fungi, ants, snails, and plants to add to our "living things" list. Despite the heat and the mosquitoes, which drove us in rather quickly, I think we all enjoyed the hands-on learning opportunity.

We finished off the week with our Friday projects, this week another living math lesson and a couple of chapters from Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?. I was surprised at how well the Penny Candy book kept everyone's attention. I guess it's because it's something that they can all relate to, whether or not they understand every bit of it. So far, though, I'm really impressed with the book; I learned some things, too.

Remember the lone snail in my peace lily that reproduced itself? Well, she (and I use the gender loosely) must have been really lonely in there. Check this out!

I know it's a bit blurry, but all those little brown things? (Ignore the big brown things -- those are bits of cat food that I used to draw the snails out.) Those are baby snails! There must be twenty or thirty of them in there now. Amazing! And, they all came from one lone snail that I decided not to toss out when I repotted the peace lily. I love when hands-on science just throws itself at you.

On a funny note, we're supposed to acquire a garden snail to observe later on in our science lessons. Um, I don't think that's going to be a problem.

One final note: Don't forget to register to win an Oster blender! The winner will be drawn Monday, Aug. 16.

How was your week? Be sure to post about it and sign up with MckLinky. If this is your first time to join us, be sure to read the Weekly Wrap-Up guidelines.

**Remember, be sure to link directly to your Weekly Wrap-Up post so that others can find it easily when they visit your blog and be sure to post a link back here so that your readers can find the Wrap-Up and join us.

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Review and Giveaway: Oster Blender

2010-08-12T08:00:00.023-04:00

**This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to our winner, #64, Diane. **

If you're one of those people who would not get excited about a blender as a Christmas gift, you may want to quit reading. However, if you're like I was a few short weeks ago and your current blender is the not-especially-high-quality one that was given to you as a wedding gift nearly 20 years ago and you would do the happy-clap if someone were to give you a new one, read on.

So, a few weeks ago, I was approached by CSN stores about doing a review and giveaway. I could choose whatever I wanted (within a certain price range, of course) to review and one to giveaway. Let me tell you, I was giddy at the prospect of getting myself and one of you this baby:

I love it! It's the Oster 12-speed glass jar blender. Yep! Glass, not plastic. Not nineteen-year-old plastic with a broken lid that you have to hold in place when you blend stuff so that you don't decorate the kitchen ceiling. Nope, this baby features a break-resistant, 5-cup glass jar with a lid that's made of some thick rubber-type stuff (pardon the technical jargon) that seals tight, so that when you start blending with 450-watts of power, everything stays inside the blender, right where it's supposed to.

You can blend smoothies, homemade hummus (yum!), even homemade milkshakes with the stainless steel, ice crushing blade. (Um, there's no ice in the homemade hummus. You knew that, right?) When you're finished blending, everything except the motor housing can go right into the dishwasher.

So, do you want one? You know you do! All you have to do to enter to win your own Oster 12-speed glass-not-plastic-jar blender is leave a comment telling me what you'll be blending most often if you win. I'll draw one winner, at random, on Monday, Aug. 16. I'm sorry to my international friends, but U.S. residents only.

The winner will be contacted via email, so be sure that you leave your email address in the comments or that it is easily accessible through your blog and that your comment links to your blog. If I can't contact you via email, I will draw another winner. Good luck!

I received an Oster blender free for the purpose of reviewing and a free one to give away from CNS Stores. I received no other compensation for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are my personal, honest opinions. Your experience may vary.

Top Ten Homeschooling Words of Wisdom

2010-08-10T08:00:00.122-04:00

Maybe "wisdom" is a bit strong, but if I could write a letter to my first year homeschooling self (circa 2002), it would be sure to include the following top ten points:

1. Socialization is a non-issue. I've posted a time or two or three about my opinion on the whole socialization issue. The truth is, if you're anything like us, sometime about midway through the first or second year of homeschooling, the socialization problem becomes making sure that you turn down enough social opportunities to actually be able to stay home and get some school done once in awhile.

2. It will take a while to find your groove. This whole homeschooling thing is an adjustment for everyone (especially families, like us, who've gone the public school route for a couple of years). While homeschooling can be a great thing from Year 1, as it was for our family, don't expect to really feel like you've got it together until about the fourth year. And, that's okay, first year homeschooling me, it's still the best choice for your kids.

3. Your home doesn't have to look like a public school classroom. I mean, if you want to say the Pledge of Allegiance so your kids can learn it or take "recess" so you can go outside and play for awhile, that's fine, but chill out. It's called homeschool for a reason. Live, laugh, and learn together. Naturally.

4. Character training is as important as academics. Those people on that email group who are telling you to put the academics aside for a bit and focus on the character issues aren't insane; they're experienced. Academics are important, but character is that aspect of your child's homeschool education that will be there long after she's forgotten the names of all the Egyptian Pharaohs -- except, of course, King Tut and Hatshepsut because, hey, they're really interesting.

5. Don't focus on the areas of struggle. Yeah. No, seriously, don't turn your child's area of struggle into the thing that defines him. The world focuses enough on your child's area of weakness without your help. Instead, spend some time shoring up that area of weakness, but focus on your child's gifts and talents. Let his strengths be what define him. Know when to back off on the areas of struggle.

6. There will be learning gaps. Really, do you remember everything you learned in school? Did you learn everything you need to know about everything in school? Of course not. Neither will your kids. The important thing is to give them the basic skills they need to succeed -- reading, math, and effective written communication skills, in my opinion -- then, make sure they know how to learn.

Does that mean that you only teach them the basic skills and nothing else? Nope, but if they have those skills and they know how to learn, anything that you might miss -- or that they might forget -- they can learn on their own when the need arises. Homeschooling's goal is to equip kids for life, not teach them everything about everything. If you try, you'll drive yourself and your kids crazy.

First-year-homeschooling-self, read the following:

7. The Well-Trained Mind, by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. Don't try to do everything in TWTM (see the last sentence of #6 above), but use the basic classical learning outline as the skeleton for your homeschool style. You'll be glad you did and you'll save yourself a lot of work trying to reinvent the wheel during your first three years.

8. A Charlotte Mason Education, by Catherine Levison. The quick, easy read offers a great basic overview of the Charlotte Mason style of teaching and will add the "Charlotte Mason twist" to your "classically eclectic" style.

9. Homeschooling: The Early Years, by Linda Dobson. A great overview of homeschooling styles and homeschooling, in general, this book will give you a fantastic "big picture" view of what homeschooling can look like and will help you define your approach and craft your family's unique style.

10. The Unschooling Handbook, by Mary Griffin. No, you'll never really be an unschooling family, but this great guide will temper your micromanagement tendencies and help you to see that interest-led learning and free time to explore have huge benefits that make it worth letting go of the reins a bit.

This concludes my letter to "first year homeschooling me." What would you say to yourself if you could go back to your first year and give yourself a tip or two?

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday.

Homeschool Showcase #53

2010-08-09T08:00:00.131-04:00

Welcome to the August 9, 2010 edition of Homeschool Showcase, where we spotlight all the encouraging, inspiring and just plain fun ways that homeschooling families live and learn together. This is the first Homeschool Showcase of our family's new school year and I'm excited to bring you some great posts full of inspiration and ideas for your homeschool. Enjoy!

I don't know about you, but lunch is one of the areas in which we find ourselves in a rut the quickest when a new school year begins. Tricia Hodges presents a great idea for a fun homeschool lunch posted at the group blog, Habits for a Happy Home. Check out Back to basics: The Lunch Lady for some fresh new lunch ideas and share your own ideas in the comments.

Over at her own blog, Hodgepodge, Tricia Hodges offers a fantastic blog post chock full of ideas for Bible Study and Character Training. Seriously, there are so many ideas here and Tricia has offered both her own suggestions and a collection of ideas from around the blogosphere. If you're looking for a way to include more Bible study time in your home, your sure to find some ideas here that you can use.

photo by tricia

Terry Holliday again hosts the Art For Homeschool Art Show posted at her blog, Art For Homeschool. This month, there is a People's Choice Award, so be sure to stop by and vote for your favorite artwork and help spread the word about this online art show for homeschoolers.

Robin Meyabadi shares in her post, Preparing to Chop, how she is preparing a learning-rich environment for her young daughter at her blog Teeny Greenies.

Okay, if you're really, really busy today and have time to read only one post from this week's Showcase, be sure to read April Gainey's post, Homeschool Is Not For Sale posted at Homeschool Musings. It is a seriously excellent post about the heart of homeschooling. (But, hey, come back tomorrow and read the other posts, too.)

Denise presents Alexandria Jones and the Birthday Surprise posted at Let's Play Math!, saying, "Imagine that Indiana Jones got married and decided to homeschool his kids --- the adventures of Alexandria Jones are back!"

Chi-ann Rajah shares her family's Year in Chemistry posted at A Pilgrim's Heart, featuring a review of Real Science 4 Kids, and lots of resources, links and pictures.

photo by chi-ann

I love Aaron Hilton's post, Robots Kids and Homeschooling, posted at MAD Robotics. It is the epitome of awesome, hands-on learning. All I know is, Josh would love to come over and school with Aaron's kids.

Nancy Kelly shares Fall Planning tips at Sage Parnassus. Stop by and pick up some tips that you can use.

Dana♥ tells us Why Read-Alouds are more than reading aloud. Find out how they're also about reading comprehension and homeschooling humor at Noggins & Nonsense.

Amida, of Journey Into Unschooling, shares an idea that I bet my kids would like: The Great Cookie Bake-Off. That sounds like some good rainy day, Sunday, almost any day kind of fun.

Did you know that there was such a thing as National Watermelon Day? Well, Piseco and family did! Visit Mind Games to see how their family celebrated and what all they learned.

photo by piseco

Visit Paige, at Elemental Science, for tips on learning through exploration in her post Science Corner: The Science of Exploration, especially if you, like me, are in need of a reminder that sometimes learning is messy and some of the greatest human discoveries came through the process of trial and error.

Are you in need of some fantastic Geography Notebooking Pages? If so, be sure to stop by Homeschool Creations where Jolanthe has created some great pages free for you to download.

I love great vacation/field trips, when learning as a family just becomes and extension of what you do together. Check out Kristen and her family's trip to Brookgreen Gardens at A Day in the Life.

That concludes this edition of Homeschool Showcase. Submit your blog article to the next edition, scheduled for Monday, August 23, using our carnival submission form. Please read the guidelines before submitting your post, due by 4 PM (ET) Sunday, August 22. Past posts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Weekly Wrap-Up: First Week of School 2010

2010-08-06T17:12:00.000-04:00

It's the first Weekly Wrap-Up of the 2010-2011 school year for my family. Finally, something besides, "We slept till noon, got up, watched a little TV, played on our laptops, ate some food, and went to bed." I appreciate all the input on the Weekly Wrap-Up poll. The vast majority of you, seventy-five percent, prefer having it posted Friday afternoon so that you can include what you do on Friday. That works for me, so we'll just keep it that way.

We started school on Wednesday. The first week has not been without its bumps -- surprisingly, attitude problems don't magically disappear over the summer -- but it's not been awful either. We spent Monday and Tuesday cleaning up around the house, in preparation for starting school, and feeding Brianna soft foods. It's been just over a week since she got her wisdom teeth extracted and she's just now starting to be able to eat regular foods. It's been a rough week on that front.

Monday evening also included a first-ever event for new homeschoolers in our area. It was sponsored by the local branch of our statewide group. I was one of the veteran homeschoolers who went to share with new homeschoolering families tips and encouragement. We then broke off into smaller groups so that the new homeschooling families could ask questions, look at some of the veterans' favorite curriculum, scheduling and planning tools. We're also going to match up those who were interested with a mentor for the year. I wish there had been something like this when I was a new homeschooler. I think it would have been so helpful and reassuring.

Tuesday was try-out day for our homeschool high school volleyball team. Brianna made the team! I was so proud of her. Last year, there were barely enough girls to make an A- and B-team, so everybody got to play and it was an instructional year. This year, word had spread and there were about 25 girls who wanted to play, so they had try-outs. I don't know who was more worried that Brianna might not get to play -- her or me. Volleyball is the only sport Brianna has ever shown any interest in, so I'm really excited that she'll get to continue this year.

Wednesday, we started slowly with a light schedule: Bible, grammar, math, reading, and a little history. We also spent some time looking over new books and talking about the upcoming year. I introduced Josh and Megan to their assignment sheets. I don't think that Megan has looked at hers since, but Josh checked his this morning, just to see what was in store for the day.

art caddy

After we finished school for the day on Wednesday, we went to the library to stock up on some books. Then, Brian took us out to Chick-Fil-A for dinner since the kids and I were going into withdrawal -- it had been nearly two weeks since we'd been! *gasp* I really thought they'd give us some special discounts since they must have missed us terribly, but no. Oh, well.

Our second day of school was a PE day at the pool. We were invited to join some friends in their annual "the day after public school resumes" trip to the pool. I almost said no since it was only our second day of school, but I decided that going was in keeping my motto of more friends, fun, and field trips this year. I'm glad we went; we all had a great time.

(Isn't this the quintessential teenager facial expression?)

Friday was a morning of basics, followed by an afternoon of projects. That's my plan for this school year. The projects will rotate between living math, civics, economics, Fifty State Fridays, art, and music. Today was living math and civics. For living math, we discussed what math is -- not just addition and subtraction, but patterns and shapes. We used several books, along with some miscellaneous objects from around the house to demonstrate this concept.

One of the things the kids were supposed to do was describe the objects using mathematical words. I started with Megan since she's the youngest and I thought Brianna might be able to figure it out a little more quickly. I was very proud that Megan described the Post-It notes as "square" and the soap box as "rectangle" without any more prompting than the instruction to describe them with mathematical words.

For civics, we're using The Land of Fair Play. Today we read chapter one and talked about the five principals on which America is founded. We've got an older version of the book (the second edition), but when I read this paragraph, I was thinking that it could have been written last week:

...Gradually, though, as we have become more prosperous, we have also become less willing to shoulder individual responsibilities. More and more, we have government do what the individual should do. Either we will again assume the responsibility required by freedom or that light will go out in America. And, if it does, it will go out all over the world. If the wealth, luxury and leisure that our system has brought us make us smug and complacent, willing to load our responsibilities on our government, we will lose -- and deserve to lose -- all these fruits of freedom. -- The Land of Fair Play, p. 2 (emphasis mine)

Wow. Kind of prophetic.

We ended by listening to one of my favorite Schoolhouse Rock songs, The Preamble. All in all, it was a good first week and I'm glad to be back to a predictable routine that keeps everyone constructively occupied....now, just remind me that I said that in a couple of weeks when I'm looking forward to our next break.

How was your week? Be sure to post about it and sign up with MckLinky. If this is your first time to join us, be sure to read the Weekly Wrap-Up guidelines.

**Remember, be sure to link directly to your Weekly Wrap-Up post so that others can find it easily when they visit your blog and be sure to post a link back here so that your readers can find the Wrap-Up and join us.

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Homeschool Scheduling and Planning

2010-08-05T08:00:00.151-04:00

Scheduling. Planning. There are those homeschool moms who see those two words as a necessary evil, those who get giddy with excitement over the idea of a blank piece of paper ready to be filled with lesson plans, and those who fall somewhere in the middle. I tend to fall in the middle with a slight leaning toward the giddy side. I enjoy planning, for the most part. It's what keeps me sane during the school year, but I'm not a huge scheduler.

It seems like a really big question among new homeschooling parents is: How do you plan? How you do schedule your day?

(Okay, okay, so that's really two questions.)

While I'm big on lesson plans (because I'll totally forget the little things -- like, oh, say, reading -- if I don't have lesson plans written out), I'm not big on a hard and fast schedule. It goes against my grain. I tend to get very stressed with specific time frames. Yet, somehow, we seem to make it to church on time each week, quite possibly because we love our new church, but I digress. We have a homeschool routine. And, for those of you stressing about late start times, I'll be honest and say that it is my goal to move our schedule up this year from a start time of 11:00 or 11:30 to an earlier start of 10:00 or 10:30. We'll see how that goes. We're not working on it this week.

Our daily routine looks something like:

8:30 -- Mom drags her sleepy behind out of bed
8:30-9:30 -- Mom's Bible study and computer time
9:30-10:00 -- Mom's workout time
10:00-11:00 -- Mom wakes kids, so they can start work on chore chart. Mom showers and works on household chores
11:00-12:30 -- Bible (everyone), then, Brianna works independently, while Mom works with Josh and Megan on grammar, spelling, journals, etc. Josh and Megan begin independent work (math, Explode the Code, handwriting).
12:30-1:00 -- Lunch prep, kids work independently.
1:00-2:00 -- Lunch (includes TV and computer time)
2:00-2:30 -- Silent reading time
2:30-?? -- Science, history, reading (for instruction), hands-on activities, family projects, and any unfinished work from the morning

While I don't have color-coded blocks in thirty minute increments, we typically stick fairly close to our routine times out of sheer habit. Like I said, I'd like to work on getting school started by 10:00 or 10:30, but I won't stress if it doesn't happen. None of us are morning people and I enjoy being able to work with our bodies' natural rhythms as a benefit of homeschooling.

As far as actual lesson plans go, I've mentioned before that I use forms from DonnaYoung.org. There are tons of forms to choose from on her site. I've got one that I use for both my master planning and as assignment sheets for the kids. I like to plan my lessons for three weeks at a time. That three week planning was born, years ago, from a 28-day check-out time from the library and me wanting to leave the last week free to finish up books as needed. The check-out times at the library have changed, but the three-weeks planning schedule has stuck.

I generally start by filling in any outside activities that we may have going on. Then, I plug in the easy stuff: math, Easy Grammar and Daily Grams workbooks -- the subjects with specific lessons or pages each day. Then, there is the stuff that never really changes -- our Bible Study Guide/Keys for Kids rotation (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday for the former, Wednesday and Friday for the latter) and spelling and reading, which are just "pick up and do the next thing" books.

Honestly, math, Easy Grammar and Daily Grams are "pick up and do the next thing," too, but this year I'm giving the younger two kids lesson/page numbers on their assignment sheets to a) encourage independence and b) make sure that I know what lesson they're supposed to be doing in case it happens not to get done...not that anyone around here would try to get away with not doing their work from time to time.

Then, I tackle the more difficult stuff, like history, science, and our Friday projects. Because these take more time and mental effort to plan, I save them for last, so that I at least have a sense of accomplishment in having the "skeleton" of the schedule in place with the easier-to-plan stuff. These last subjects are the ones that I have to sit down and look at to determine what we're going to do from the text, what comes from supplemental materials, and when and where we'll want to do hands-on projects.

The hardest part of planning seems to be the beginning of the school year when we're out of our routine. Those first three weeks' schedules took forever to plan. Now that they're done, though, I'll typically spend a Saturday afternoon, once a month, planning for the rest of the year, three weeks at a time.

What kind of planner are you? If you have any specific questions about how we plan, our routine, or the forms I like, just let me know and I'll be glad to try to answer them.

Works for Me Wednesday: Five Back-to-School Tips

2010-08-03T23:13:00.000-04:00

It's back-to-school time for kids everywhere, including homeschoolers! So, I thought I'd share some of the best back-to-school tips that I've shared over the years. These are the tried-and-true ones that I still use every year.

1. Caring for books and workbooks helps me to preserve the shelf-life of books that we use regularly.

2. Starting Slowly saves my sanity and helps us get back into the swing of school with less stress.

3. Divided Lunch Trays make lunch fun and, believe it or not, often healthier.

4. My Mom Binder, also known as my brain, keeps me organized and our days on track.

5. While the index cards are a few cents a pack, stock up and use these ten uses for index cards.

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Homeschool Curriculum

2010-08-03T08:00:00.001-04:00

It's Top Ten Tuesday over at OhAmanda! and I'm excited to participate today. I love lists, so these Top Ten posts are right up my alley. Maybe, now that our new school year is starting (tomorrow) -- which means that my life will be getting back to a more predictable routine -- I'll be able to participate more often.

Today, with the smell of fresh, new crayons and newly-sharpened pencils in the air and visions of new school books dancing in my head, I thought I'd share my top ten all-time favorite homeschool curriculum. These are those pieces of curriculum that I would recommend to just about anyone, without reservation.

1. Horizons math. We've used Horizons since we switched Brianna to it from Saxon way back in third grade. My only beef with Horizon is that it only goes through 6th grade. We tried Teaching Textooks for the first time last year when Brianna used it for Pre-Algebra. I've decided to try Teaching Textbooks with Josh and Megan this year, for a variety of reasons, but I can't tell you that it's completely without trepidation. I confess to having the next set of Horizon workbooks ready for them if Teaching Textbooks turn out not to be a good fit.

2. Bible Study Guide for All Ages. We're going into our fifth or sixth year with Bible Study Guide for All Ages and I love it. My favorite two things about it are: a) I can use it with all the kids, giving them each age-appropriate activity sheets all based on the same lesson and b) I love that it covers entire chapters, sections, and even book of the Bible, rather than just hitting a few well-known Bible stories.

3. Easy Grammar/Daily Grams. We used Easy Grammar and Daily Grams since Brianna was in third grade, as well. I love the systematic, cyclical approach to learning grammar. I also love that all my kids actually enjoy grammar.

4. Story of the World. These great little history books walk young children through history via a text that reads like a storybook. I've learned as much as the kids have about history through our years of using Story of the World.

5. Explode the Code. I like that the kids have always been able to do Explode the Code fairly independently and I've found that it makes a great supplement to a variety of reading programs. It is also wonderful for reinforcing what the kids are learning in my next favorite...

6. All About Spelling. All About Spelling is the best, most logically ordered spelling program we've ever used. I can actually see the improvements in my kids' overall spelling as they learn and practice the rules they're learning in their spelling lesson. "Well, isn't that the point?" you may ask. Why, yes, it is, but you don't always see that with list-based spelling programs. AAS is a concept and mastery-based program that, in my house at least, really works.

7. Homeschool in the Woods time line figures. These timeline figures are awesome. Several years ago, my dad and step-mom blessed us by funding the purchase of the complete set on CD-Rom. We've had very few instances where we needed a figure for a certain event or person in history that we've not been able to find something suitable. The list of figures is extensive and beautifully drawn.

8. First Language Lessons Vol. 1/2. First Language Lessons is actually one piece of curriculum that I miss using. It was the perfect, gentle-but-thorough introduction to grammar for my younger two. I wish it'd been available when Brianna was their age.

9. Christian Kids Explore science series. Another set that we've used forever, the Christian Kids Explore set is a nice introduction to science. They're a little light on experiments and hands-on learning and, in my opinion, need to be beefed up a bit with library books, but they make a great spine book for an elementary science study.

10. Handbook of Nature Study Blog. Barb does an incredible job with her blog. If you want to learn how to enjoy studying nature, all you have to do is visit Barb. Her weekly nature challenges do the majority of the work for you. All you have to do is get out there and enjoy the challenges. I can't wait to get our crew back to nature study. We loved it while we were doing it, but we got off track last winter -- we're wimps about the cold...and about extreme heat, too, if you want to know the truth. Wait till fall, though! Then, you'll find us eagerly enjoy nature study again.

Those are my top ten favorites; what are some of yours?

Reader Questions: Finding Homeschool Friends

2010-08-02T08:00:00.046-04:00

Recently, I posted an invitation to readers to ask whatever homschooling questions they might have. It's not too late, if you'd like to ask a question. Just visit the original post and leave your question there so that I can (hopefully!) keep them organized.

Laura asked, "Do you have suggestions of how to meet/befriend other homeschooling families in my area?"

I used to be the moderator on a homeschool message board and that question got asked a few times a year. I remember wondering the same thing when we began this journey. Fortunately, I found a few things that worked really well for us:

1. Join a support group. A great way to get involved with local homeschoolers is to join a support group. Most groups offer lots of opportunities to get together, from field trips to play dates, social studies or science fairs to holiday parties. One of the best ways to find a local support group is through your statewide support group. Most state support groups can be found listed on Homeschool Legal Defense Association's Home School Organizations page or you can search your state name plus the keywords "homeschool support group."

2. Don't overlook online groups. My local support group of choice is a Yahoo-based email group. It began the first year that my family homeschooled when several moms and I met on another group, realized we were all close to each other, and started a group so that we could arrange outings for our kids. It's grown into a huge group and a wonderful source for making friends, both online and off. One of the nice benefits of an online support group is that you can get to know each other online so that, once you meet in real life, there isn't that awkwardness of meeting or approaching a total stranger.

3. Go to places where kids congregate -- during school hours. Visit your local playground, library, restaurant with a play area, children's museums and other places that kids like to visit and go during school hours. If there are school-aged kids there with their parents during normal school hours, there's a pretty good chance that they're homeschoolers. Don't be afraid to ask. We've made friends a few times that way.

4. Join classes or co-ops for homeschoolers. While the emphasis may be on learning in these settings, there's always a little time for kids to chat before or after class. Be willing to suggest a play date to the other moms or to the parent of a particular child that your child may seem to click with.

5. Host a get-together. Whether it's a book club, an art show, a nature club, or just a play date, if you invite them, they will come (usually). If you're not comfortable hosting an event in your home, try a local park, a kid-friendly restaurant, a library, or even a bookstore (many of whom will allow you to have book club meeting in their store).

Most kids just need an excuse to get together to start forming friendships. Fostering them may take a little more work than it would for parents of children in a typical school setting, but the results are worth it.

How would you answer Laura's question?

photo by stuseeger

Weekly Wrap-Up Question

2010-07-30T22:10:00.001-04:00

I was debating making some changes to the posting time of the Weekly Wrap-Up. If you participate in the Wrap-Up each week, please take a moment to vote in the poll that I've set up on my right sidebar.

Thanks!

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One With All the Surgical Procedures

2010-07-30T13:53:00.001-04:00

**Please be sure to vote in the Weekly Wrap-Up poll in the right sidebar. Thanks!**

What a week! I loved seeing all the link-ups from last week's curriculum sharing post. I haven't gotten to visit everybody yet, but I'm working my way around.

This week has been crazy for us. I had my first colonoscopy on Tuesday. Fun times, fun times. Monday was spent on prep, which was even more fun than the procedure itself. Um, not. It wasn't as bad as I'd feared, but definitely not something I look forward to doing again and I don't care if I never see another Powerade again. I don't even like them on a good day. I wound up having two polyps removed and ten biopsies. I'd appreciate your prayers that everything comes back okay.

Wednesday was the calm between the storms and I was able to finally finish up my planning for school, as well as meet some friends for a playdate. Now, the ledge in my dining room is finally cleared of piles and piles of school books and binders. Everything is packed away in my storage cabinet, in workboxes, or on bookshelves in preparation for us to start school next Wednesday. I can't believe summer break passed so quickly.

I'm a big fan of getting the binding cut off of books that I'll be using regularly, particularly those that contain reproducible pages because they're hard to copy in the books. Did you know that Office Depot will cut the binding for less than a dollar? At least, the ones in my area do. I've started having them do that, then, just bringing the pages home and three-hole punching them myself. It's a good chance to listen to music or book on CD and it's a lot cheaper than having them three-hole drill it. They also have automatic three-hole punches that you can use in the store, as I was informed by the extremely nice manager in our local store this week. I just didn't have time to use the hole punch at the time because we were on our way to meet friends.

Thursday, Brianna had to have all four wisdom teeth extracted. The procedure actually went really well and the oral surgeon said she was the perfect patient. She slept most of the day yesterday, thanks to powerful pain meds. Today, she's really swollen and still can't chew (she was very frustrated not to be able to eat scrambled eggs today), but not in too much pain, thankfully. I'm trying to be really mindful of giving her the pain meds at regular intervals so that she can, hopefully, avoid as much pain as possible.

My kids amaze me. As much as they may fuss and bicker with each other, they rally around when one is hurt or sick. Josh and Megan have taken excellent care of Brianna the last two days -- sitting with her so she won't be lonely, bringing her drinks or soup or applesauce, even not expressing their jealousy as she gets Frosty after Frosty, knowing that it's because she really can't eat much else. Yeah, I think they all should get a Frosty tonight. I've got good kids.

A personal milestone for me is that I hit 60 pounds lost this week! Although, as I began this journey, I certainly hoped I would reach my weight-loss goals and worked to reach them, it's sort of surreal having reached such a big milestone. I feel so much better and can't believe how far I've come. I've got 35 pounds to go, but, after losing 60, that seems so doable. I'm hoping to be at my goal weight -- or, at least, really close -- by the week of Thanksgiving this year.

The pictures in this week's wrap-up are from the photo walk that I went on last weekend. I could share some glossy, close-up pictures of the inside of my colon, but I think you'd probably prefer that I not. ;-)

How was your week? Be sure to post about it and sign up with MckLinky. If this is your first time to join us, be sure to read the Weekly Wrap-Up guidelines.

**Remember, be sure to link directly to your Weekly Wrap-Up post so that others can find it easily when they visit your blog and be sure to post a link back here so that your readers can find the Wrap-Up and join us.

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