July 28, 2010

Oh, the joy of getting ready for the new year!

LOL...

I want to do everything!!

This years choice has been a hard one. I have noticed with working nights I stay on the same sleeping schedule whether I am off or not, so I am changing my days around at work.  I pretty much work one day here, day off, two days work, another day off and so on.  I think that should be more beneficial.  We'll see!

This year my 7yo is stuck on Time4learning.  She enjoyed it so much last year she doesn't like any other and will not budge. I love this program, but wonder sometimes if it has the review.  I was looking at AOP/Abeka when I came across

http://www.gigatribe.com/

Wow!! It's like a cross between limewire/facebook.  You post your folders and such, and when you are on your 'friends' can look at them.  I have people on there with Abeka, AOP...all free for the download!!  Give her a few worksheets for review, and she's still on Time4learning.

:)  One down!!

This year with my 9yo is kind of rough.  She is losing interest for the most part.  She does show some interest in AOP so I am going to give her copies of those, and when she finishes the 'lifepac' she'll get a week off.

I've also looked into the 'Little House on the Prairie' Book Series.  I have always been hesitant on this, as the teaching books can add up, but thanx to giga, I have them now!:)  So this year all of us will do these.

For the first few books we will be using 'Little House Classroom'.   This has background information on Laura's heritage.  We will be reading (together),

Set in Scotland, we will meet Laura's great-grandmother..

Next-

Here they meet Laura's grandmother.

Meet Laura's mother.

We will end the year with

Along with the 'Little House for the Classroom', manual, I also plan to use

I got this off giga :) Big smile!!!  Been wanting it for a long time.  Anyways, with this, it is pretty much a complete curriculum, minus a few 'additions' that I will make.  It puts science, simple math, geography and history-all in one!  Of course, you have to add more math and some Language Arts.  I plan to also use

for a brief understanding of grammar with my 7yo, perhaps trying to 'add it into' the unit conversation.  For my 9yo I am also adding a worksheet on AOP and another on Abeka for both math/language arts. ;) Can't decide on which one, so I am just going to use them both!  I also have a 'homework sheet' from Critical Thinking Press.


For Language Arts, I think this will be good for my 9yo.  We start grammar at around grade 3, and this has a lot of critical thinking activities to do, along with learning/reviewing language arts skills.


This is also for her 'review' homework.  I do not have this for my 7yo, as I don't start 'formal schooling' until grade 3.  Right now I have a couple sheets for her to get by.  But nothing extensive.

But, anyways, this year I plan to have fun.  I think we have become too passive with me working nights- I am going to get more involved!  Will we finish all these books by the end of the year?

Well, I also plan to stop and do 'state studies', or any other area of interest.  That sure is the goal;) I also plan to read to them more often.  My biggest problem with this is falling asleep while I am reading (believe it or not, when you're tired, it really isn't that hard!;)  I will post the books as we read them.

Happy Homeschooling!!

July 7, 2010

Only July and I am aching to get this year started, lol...

I think I am used to year-round...







Anyways, we found out our library has a reading program. The kids read 20 minutes a day, color in a picture. When all 5 pictures are filled up, they get to chose from a prize box! I brought this idea home, and they immediately sat down to read a book.



Rachel read-




when she was done with this, she began working on



The twenty minutes ended before she had time to finish.  Gracie picked up this book too (turns out, we have 2!).  It was challenging for her, but I told her next time we could sit down and read together. 

What fun!!  Finally a way to get them excited to read! ;)-now if I can just get them to form the habit.

Happy Homeschooling!

July 1, 2010

We have had been considering some things for this coming year.

These things may make some homeschoolers/unschoolers cringe a little, but it is only a consideration.

I guess we'll wait and see where the year takes us, and then I'll let you know.  It is an expensive program, so I will have to wait on it a while to make sure it's what I want-then save.  So if you see some missing subjects for my 9yo, do not fret/think that I do not feel they are important.  I am, more than likely, to 'delay purchase', to afford all there is that I want.

I purchased

2010 SOS AOP (Alpha Omega HomeSchooling Curriculum), Switched on Schoolhouse 3RD GRADE, (Grade 3) Language Arts

This is suppose to be a good program, so heres hoping!!  Of course, after I purchased this

(and just an FYI- I did get $50 off, so it's not a total waste)

I read how there isn't much instruction on the math one, and your child has to be great at math to get it...

Hmm.... she's good at language arts, math is kind of....what's the word? lol...

But I have time on math to consider another program, known to be good, but she probably won't get through the books till a little later on.  So I have time.

I also purchased this, but only 6 packets from ebay-great deal! It says history, but AOP is more into 'social studies' at this level, and the grade 3 goes through several states and studies more geography than history-good info for her, and I thought she would like that.  It is missing the 'Oregon' one, though, and I get a feeling she may enjoy that so I am considering purchasing that myself from the company. 

Science/History/Math are taught in the package I want to get from the other company.  So I guess grade 4 starts at different times throughout the year;)

Anyways, still planning!  We have been going to the beach off and on this month (twice this month), so school has kind of been put on hold a little.  It doesn't help that all their friends are out of school...I kind of feel guilty pushing the issue.  But it leaves me more time to plan!:)

Happy Homeschooling Everyone!!