Next year

Ok, I've spent the evening looking at curriculum for next year and I have to ask... what is anyone out there using for High School Chemistry?  I'm looking and looking....

For Biology this year we started out with one thing and hated it so we moved on to a thing I found online that is a Biology course through living books and it's working out pretty well for us.  I'd like to find something similar for Chemistry too.  Anyone of know of anything?  I'd love to hear from you!

Trying to finish out this school year...

Boy, this year has gone by much too quickly for me.  So much has happened.  Let's see... We went on a vacation, we moved, we lived in our camper for a month or more and then moved on post, we schooled, we've played, we've had visitors, we visited, we just been busy!  WHEW!

I'm a little worried though that we just might not get all finished this year.  We are trying, though.  We may make it but...  only time will tell.  How about any readers out there?  Do you always finish up your curriculum?  Do you go through the whole thing every time? 

I'm also trying to get some planning done for next year.  What are any of you doing?  I'm considering Beautiful Feet next year.  Have any of you used it?  What do you think of it?  I think someone told me once that it's not enough but I can't remember.  I have another friend who swears by it.  We love reading so I think it just work for us.  I am going to borrow a friends and look it over before I buy it so we'll see.

We'll still be using Life of Fred.  We love it and the kids are doing well with it.  I need to find a Chemistry course for DS... any suggestions?  (anyone use this one on the left?) We love living book type courses so if any of you know of any, please share!!

Well, I think this is about it for now.  I'll try to share some pictures later of what we've been doing.  Have a great week!!

Don't you just love it....

Don't you just love it when you get to really see and hear that your kids really are learning?  I've had a few of those moments recently and it is AWESOME!!  We are in the Renaissance period right now. We have been reading like crazy the reading list that came with DD's unit.  She has loved it.  She has read so much.  One of the books was called "Nory Ryan's Song".  It's about a young girl in Ireland.  Anyway, last night at dinner as we were eating our baked potatoes, DD started telling us about potatoes and the Irish and before we knew it we were discussing the British and how they weren't really the nicest people (sorry to any Brits who may be reading here) in the past.  She talked about why "we" left there and came here.  She talked about how poorly they treated the Irish (I wanted to talk about how they weren't treated well here either when they first arrived but didn't get the chance yet).  Before I knew it we were talking about the Native Americans and how badly we treated them.  It was just unreal the knowledge she has.  Well, not really unreal but I guess I just didn't realize how much she had learned and retained.  Her thought process was just amazing!  The reasoning that was going on in her little head and so nonchalantly too.

The same thing is going on with DS too.  I don't remember what we were talking about but somehow we ended up talking about WWII and the different countries involved and he was just showing me up with his knowledge and he was right too!  Again, this was all off the cuff and very nonchalant like everyone should know this stuff, MOM.  I asked him how he knew all this because we haven't really studied this yet (that's next year) and he said, "I know you don't believe me but I read A LOT."  LOL  That cracks me up.  I do know he reads a lot but just didn't know he had read much about this subject.  I've not picked out those books for him yet so I just didn't realize he was reading them on his own.  Both of my kids are readers and I LOVE THAT!! 

I've said this before, but it has been a while so I want to say it again.  If you make it available, with little encouragement, they will eventually pick it up on their own.  Really, they will.  I have seen this over and over with my kids and I'm a true believer in it.  I just wish I had the money to make it ALL available to them.  LOL

The funny part of all this is that these were just normal conversations.  We weren't talking about school, we weren't doing school work, we were just driving down the road in one conversation, just chatting and the other was at the dinner table over baked potatoes.  It just amazes me sometimes.  I guess they are doing okay.  (Notice I said THEY.  They do it themselves with me just providing the books and curriculum and being available if needed but really and truly, THEY do it.)  I have AWESOME kids.... well, most of the time anyway.  :o)

Have a great day!

Long time, no write...

I know, I'm sorry.  I promise to get back to it soon.  I have lots to update here and I promise to do it soon!!

We have been reading our little heads off!  Well, DD and I have been anyway...

We are still reading "Do Hard Things" and it is really good.  I like what it has to say.  I know it is written for teens but it speaks to me everyday.  I need to work on all of this too.  I'm glad that we are reading it.  I just hope the kids are getting as much out of it as I am.  I hope they are really listening and taking it all to heart.

We finished reading "The Warhorse" and LOVED IT!  It was so exciting and full of adventure.  It was a little on the easy side but we enjoyed it anyway.    We had a hard time putting it down each day and on Thursday we had two reading sessions and we finished it.  It's a good read.

We are getting ready to start either "Mary, Bloody Mary" or "Nory Ryan's Song".  I can't decide.  They both sound really good.

DD has finished one of her books.  She read "The Midwife's Apprentice" and she enjoyed it.  I need to read it too.  It is short so maybe I could get it read in a day.

DS is still reading "The Pirate's Son"  and so am I.  I was really enjoying it and need to get back to it and finish it. 

We are working on the Renaissance and I'm enjoying it.  I think the kids are too. 

DD is working on Dental Health for Science.  We thought it would be a good time to do so since she has been in the process of getting braces the past few weeks. 

DS has picked his French back up and is enjoying it much more this time.  He is still busy with his Algebra 2 and Biology, music and more.

We are moving right along....  How are you doing?

I have a problem!

 I love homeschooling but one of the hardest things is.... you are going to laugh.... reading ALL the books!  When we do a study, there is usually a list of recommended books.  We are probably only supposed to pick 1 or 2 maybe 3 tops right?  Well, I have a hard time with this.  I want to read them ALL!!  They all sound so good.  We went to the library on Friday and we chose 6 or 7 books with all of them being chapter books except one.  What was I thinking? 

I figure we will try to read 2 of them aloud and then they will each read at least one on their own but I really want to read the others too!!  I guess we will figure it out but they all sound so very good.

This one I've started reading and I am really enjoying it.  I think the kids will love it.

 

We started this one aloud today and it will be a quick read. 

DD just started it and thinks the will be done in a couple of days.

 

This one sounds interesting... may be a read aloud but I'm not sure.

 

DD wants to read this as one of her's but I think we would all enjoy it so...

 

Again, not sure how we will do it or if we will even have time.

See my dilemma?  I run into this with all our studies!  There are just too many good books out there!  What a problem huh?    A good one but a problem still the same.  I'll let you know how we like them.

The Medieval Feast

Yes, we finally had our Medieval Feast that DD has been planning for a week now.  It was wonderful.  She did such a great job on it.  She decorated...

Her Stained Glass

 

Her Cross because every household had to have one in the middle ages

 

Her bow, arrow and cross

 

These clay figures she made with some candles

Praying woman and coat of arms

 

  

Her crests she designed.  She could not decide on which one she wanted to use so she just hung them both up.

The meal was wonderful.  We had 3 courses....

We had bread, lemon salad, cut up apples, and cubed cheese.  YUMMM!!!

 

Venison with a yummy sauce (not pictured) and roasted chicken

 

A Cheese tart and custard

It was all super yummy and she helped with every bit of it.  Then she provided entertainment for us.  She was a jester and mistrel.

 

 

She had planned on us dressing for the occasion but DH didn't get home from this trip the day before as planned.  He actually got home just about an hour before we ate and I had to go pick him up from the airport!  So we just ate in what we had on that day.

She was so funny.  She was totally into it.  At one point during the meal she asked her daddy, "So, Lord ****, tell us how the war in the holy land is going?"  Keep in mind that DH had only been in town for an hour and had been gone for 2 weeks.  He was totally taken off guard.  I told her she should have prepared us better for the table conversation!!  LOL  

It was great fun and we really got to see how much she had learned.  I was very impressed.  I can't wait to see what our next unit has in store for us. 

The Double Helix

DS has been studying DNA so we made DNA models the other day.  They had a great time with it.  Check them out below.

This is DS's first model

This is DD's

They had fun with this one.  I was so afraid that DS would eat all the twizzlers and gummy bears before we got done but it appears that MOM was the one with this issue!  LOL  I ate a ton of gummy bears.  No wonder I don't usually buy them.... well that the fact that there is nothing REAL in them!  There were also safety precautions as they were using pointy tooth picks.  We laughed when we read this and joked about it being silly until we heard DS say, "OUCH!  I'm bleeding."  HAHAHA  We got a good laugh out of that.  He is 15!  I really think he was trying see why they would even bother to put such a silly precaution... he found out.  LOL

 

DS's other model

 

DD's other one

They had fun again. There were safety precautions with this one too... be careful with the scissors... after DS's goof on the other one I did the cutting for them.  LOL  They had fun and learned a lot.

Humility

I think I need to have a few lessons or even a full study on humility for my family.  Yes, there is one that needs it more than others but it would be a good lesson for all of us.

Last night I spent about an hour scouring the internet for lessons, plans, or curriculum on humility.  There is very little out there.   There are books for young children, too young for mine. There are books for parents. I want more than just a book directed at me, the parent, telling me what it is and how we show it.  To lead by example.  Sometimes, you just need more.

Finally, this morning, I found a couple of books that look promising.  There is a curriculum called "Choosing Humility" and I may just use it.  I don't know.  I don't want to humiliate the one that needs this the most by doing this so we may do a different character trait first and just say we are doing a series.  I don't know.  Does anyone out there have any ideas?  Please share if you do!

In my searching I found another interesting book that I think we will read.  I know it is probably just for the teens but I think I want to read it too.  I like to know what my kids are reading and be there while they are reading it for questions, comments, to interject my thoughts and so on.  I think I'll make it a family thing.  DS is 15 and he fits perfectly in to this age bracket.  DD is only 10 but I think it will be good for her too.  Oh! Sorry, I haven't told you the name yet.  It's called, "Do Hard Things"  It sounds very interesting.  I ordered it today so I hope it is good.  Anyone out there read it?  Let me know what you think!

Unit Studies

Wow, I can't believe it's been a week I since posted something here.  We've been busy. 

DD has been doing a Middle Ages Unit Study by hip2homeschool and we have really enjoyed it.  She is ending the unit by putting on a Medieval Feast for our little family.  She has been researching and crafting.  She is making lots of crafts to go with our feast.  She has learned so much.

DS just finished studying the Middle Ages as well and it was really great having them in the same time period.  He has his own curriculum but we included him in a lot of what we did with DD and think it really enriched things for both of them.  I felt the need to add a little more for both so we read a history book together and it was so interesting to hear them both add in what they had learned or to explain what was going on in our reading.    It was so fun to hear that they were actually learning and understanding and retaining.

Next we will try to find a unit study to go with DS's curriculum for the renaissance.  I'm looking at a couple of different ones.  One is The Renaisance by Hands of a Child.  I'm really leaning toward this one.  I also need to look for one on the Reformation.  I've found one that I think might work for us but we'll see.

I'm also looking at some units for Science.  I don't really like to do 2 units at once but Science has been being neglected by DD and it's her favorite subject so... we'll have to do 2. 

She really enjoys unit studies and so do I. They work so well for us.  I wish there were more fun unit studies for high schoolers.  Supposedly the curriculum we are using is made up of "unit studies" but they are definitely not fun nor do they have much outside the text to do.  We really do better with units that's why I've been trying to keep DD in the same time period as DS so that we can include him.  It makes his more interesting this way.

Goals

Do you set goals?  Do you have new goals each year?

Since we started homeschooling, I've tried to set up goals for the kids and our school but I'm really not very good at it.  Usually it just ends up being finish what we start.  That's good but not really good enough.

Lately, I've been wanting to set more personal goals for myself but I think it is even more important in our school.  I have goals in my head of course but I feel like they really to be put on paper some where that I will see them often so that I can keep myself on track. We need to come up with better goals for us and then really work at reaching them.

Do any of you do this?  Do you have any tips you could share?  I'm going to set a goal, right here right now, that by the end of the month, the kids and I will set up some achievable goals for our school, put them on paper and place them where we can see them and keep track of them.  If anyone reading out there has any suggestions or ideas please share them!!  I'd love to hear your experiences.

I LOVE HOMESCHOOLING!!

Yes, I do.  My DH travels alot (thankfully not long deployments anymore but still travels) and so sometimes he is off during the week to make up for some of the time he is gone.  I love that with homeschooling we are able to work our schedule around that and have time with him.  Yep, a definite perk!  Yea for homeschooling!

DH's new job here at our new duty station, has him traveling a lot.  Because of this he gets time off to compensate the time gone.  YEA!!  So this means that our homeschooling needs to work around this so that we can spend that time with him.  So, Friday, the kids had a short day and it will be short again on Monday.  We love having fun with DH when he is home.  I think that it is just important as any book work.

Reading

One of my favorite things we do in our homeschool is reading aloud. We try to read a couple of books for each topic we cover in the school year. We love it and the kids learn so much from it. I do too!! I really think that my reading aloud to them has made them better readers too.

Read Reading with your children

Settling in...

The kids have busy on their schoolwork. I don't even have to try to get them on it. They are just doing it themselves. How awesome is that? I love it when things go so easily. Have some planning I need to do but we are going a long pretty well right now and I feel very pleased.

The kids are finally getting involved here in our hometown. DS is in the musical "Footloose" at our local theater. He is pretty excited about it and so am I. DD has been in Ballet and she was the Christmas play at the theater too and now today will be here first day to go to the choir and chimes and our church here. She is very excited. I'm glad that we are getting involved. It's time.

Yummy, Yummy!

DD and I got up and made homemade bread this morning and we just had a piece fresh out of the oven. I know, you are supposed to let it cool completely before you cut it but who can resist? NOT US!! It is so yummy. We used a new recipe from a Williams-Sonoma cookbook and it turned out really yummy. It would have probably worked out better if I had a better mixer but... you make due with you've got. Oh, I'll thinking of that bread all day long now!! MMMmmmm.....

Good Monday... Afternoon!

Whew, today has really gotten away from me. We had dentist appointments this morning that took up a good portion of our morning. By the time we got home it was almost lunch time!

We were able to get some schooling done, although not as much as usual. They both got on their math and history pretty easy but we need to do a science experiment. I think we will put off till tomorrow. They both read a lot at the dentist office waiting room.

DS has been using "Life of Fred" for math for a couple of years now and he really likes it. DD just started it today with Fractions and she said, "That wasn't too bad. I usually hate math but this was kind of fun." WOW! What a testimony. She is the kid who cries at least once a week if not more when doing math, I am totally excited about this! DS finished his Advanced Algebra in about 15 minutes today! That's amazing too. If you look back to when we first started homeschooling you would see that he used spend hours on math and it was excruciating agony. "Life of Fred" has been such a blessing to us.

Read more about this curriculum and what has done for our homeschool.

Now, I'm off to see about doing some prepping for dinner. Have a wonderful afternoon and evening!

High School Biology

This year DS is studying Biology. This started out as a difficult task for us as he really does not like science. We struggled with it for a couple of months. He would read his text but it just wasn't sticking. I decided I needed to find something better so I scoured the internet for helps. I found some great sites that have really great tips that seem to be working!

Read on for Online High School Biology Helps

Whew... Life can get overwhelming...

Well, now, let's see... since I last posted we had a wonderful vacation during our move in our new camper. Camping is awesome in our new camper!! We visited St. Louis, MO and had a blast!! It was an awesome learning trip. We put lots of learning into it. We visited The Arch and the museum in it, we went to the zoo, we visited the Science center, and the old courthouse. It was such a wonderful experience. We didn't even cover half the places we wanted to go and hope to go back again soon.

When we first arrived to our new town, we lived in the camper for about 3 weeks and really enjoyed it. We looked around our new town and visited new places. The kids started back on their "regular" school work while we were still in the camper and they really did good with it. Then we finally got into our new home.

We are getting settled in and our schooling it going pretty well. DS is sophomore this year and DD is a 5th grader. We are studying the Middle Ages right now and are loving it. Both kids are doing great.

I will try to get on here more often now and update regularly but please if you find us here at home on the web, take a while to look around at past posts and get to know us. I'll be back again.... I promise!

Visit My Gallery at FinerWorks.com