The Schoolhouse Expo
Do you homeschool? Then, you won’t want to miss this!!
Registration is open for The Schoolhouse Expo! 3 days of online, homeschool encouragement. Susan Wise Bauer, Clay and Sally Clarkson, and more! Save $5 by registering now. Over $300 in free gifts when you register. Plus, check out the March Madness sale while you’re purchasing your ticket-items up to 80% off.
Visit: http://www.schoolhouseexpo.com today and register!
Finding the Perfect Curriculum…
Even though our current school year is in full swing, I’m already planning ahead for next fall: curriculums, schedules, planners, start date, etc. I’ve also noticed the array of catalogs that are piling up in our mailbox each week from many different homeschool vendors. I LOVE browsing through the catalogs, seeking out that “perfect” curriculum. But you know what? I haven’t found the “perfect” curriculum and I probably never will. And that’s okay. Our family is unique and not every curriculum is going to work with how my children learn (or how I teach).
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the six years we’ve been homeschooling it’s that we’re not a static family. We are constantly changing and growing and adapting. Our interests change, our horizons broaden and we adapt to new circumstances, situations and learning ideas. What worked for us this year may not work for us next year and what we used last year may be something we want to try again in two years when my children are older. And, what works for my family may not work for yours. And that’s okay, too. The beautiful thing about homeschooling is the fluidness of it – like changing curriculums mid-year if the children are so frustrated that their eyes pop out of their heads at the mere mention of the subject.
So, as your family considers curriculums and schedules for next fall take it all in stride. Throw stress out the window and kick its partner, worry, to the curb. No matter what curriculum you choose or what schedule you plan, place it all in God’s hands. As the superintendent of our school (my hubby is the principal), God is in control. When we honor God in our school and place Him above all else, the rest just falls into place.
Free Printables
I always love it when I find new free printables for our homeschool. I came across this website – Sunflower Schoolhouse – today and there are lots of printables for everything from the Alphabet to Workboxes. I bet you find something you can use!
Homeschooling with Workboxes
On Friday I talked about my new File Crate System for staying organized. I so excited about that!
Workboxes
Well, I have a new way of doing things for our homeschool, too – Workboxes. Apparently this new craze began this past spring, but as we are winding down our homeschool each year, I am just getting cranked up for Campmeeting which takes all of my attention in the Spring, so I missed this one! If you are like me and have not heard about the Workbox system, you can purchase the e-book over at CurrClick. I did not purchase the book because after reading here, here, and here I decided to make my own “system” which may very well be inferior to the actual Workbox system, but I am very excited about it and I think my own version will benefit our family very well.
The original system was developed by a homeschooling mom, Sue Patrick, for her autistic child. She has specific reasons for doing things the way she did them, so you may really want to read her book to discover all of her reasonings and techniques.
The original system has a shelving unit and 12 clear plastic “shoeboxes” for each child. I thought about that, but honestly 12 boxes x 4 girls… I have no room as it is! In the past I have used one large plastic drawer labeled with each child’s name for them to keep their personal school stuff in. Well, this year, just like my new file crate system, I purchased 4 more file crates – 2 pale ink and 2 lime green from Wal-Mart at $5.00 a piece. I bought 2 boxes of hanging folders (25 folders per box) at about $7.50 each. I placed 12 folders in each child’s crate and labeled them 1 – 12.
Each evening before bed or perhaps in the afternoon after school has been completed each day, I will fill each file folder with a new assignment for the next day. The twelve folders will have a different lesson or activity in a different order each day. I plan to add in some fun activities and mix it up so the girls have a surprise and something to look forward to each day. Each folder will be a surprise. They won’t get to look in the folders until it is time to do the lesson.
For lessons where the girls share a book, I am laminating 4 x 6 cards decorated and printed with the name of the book. Then, I will place those lessons in alternating folders so they don’t have the same lesson at the same time. All four of the girls are excited about this new system. I am thinking that this new system will help keep my children focused on the task at hand and encourage them to work through their lessons without much prodding.
There is a Yahoo! Group that you can join to discuss with other moms creative ideas about what to place in your workboxes. And as Amy said, this is the perfect opportunity to use all those fun homeschool “extras” that you have around the house that never got used in the past because you didn’t have time.
In the back of our “work box crates” the girls will keep their binders with their pencil holders, and their clip boards . This way, they have most of their supplies right at hand. They can carry their crates over to set next to their chairs at the table (or sofa) and work efficiently through their assignments.
Some of the ideas I have for extra goodies in our workboxes:
- recipes – Emily wants to learn how to make my Sweet Sourdough Bread, so one of her first fun assignments will be to learn to bake the bread!
- watercolors
- nature journaling
- a card telling the kids to go play outside for 30 minutes
- a card telling the kids to go on a walk with mom
- games
- fun worksheets
- crafts
- mad libs
- sewing projects
- playdough
- garden seeds in the Spring
- movie time
- story prompts
- flash cards
- Leap Pad
- Draw Write Now
- library books
- one on one time with mom
- paper toys
- paper dolls
- audio books
- lapbooks
- unit study materials
- holiday activities
- post cards to write to friends/ family
- Pathfinder Club home work
Oh! And if you hop on over to Homeschool Share, you will find lots of new “workboxables” to print out and use in your own program!
My New File Crate System
July has been a really good month for ideas! As I began preparing for our new homeschool year, I came across some new ideas that really captured my attention. I am very very excited about some changes I am making!
The File Crate System
Okay, so I have been sharing with women for over eight years about how to get their lives organized. I came across this idea over at Dawn’s blog. She has been apparently using this system for several years.
I have been using my Household Notebook “system” for a very long time – years! And it works great. It helps me stay on top of my chores, menus, and schedules. In fact, you can print off some pages for your own Household Notebook over on my side bar to the right. But the Household Notebook did not solve my major issue with papers, ideas, and -um- papers.
So, I plan to use a variation of Dawn’s system.
I purchased a super cute file crate for $5.00 at Wal-Mart. I love pale pink! It has to be my favorite color! Wal-Mart has these really cute crates right now for the “Back to School” season. They have several colors – pale pink, dark pink, purple, lime green, orange, and blue.
I also purchased a box of hanging file folders and labeled the tabs. Twelve of them are the months of the year. Dawn labeled hers in two month increments, using only 6 folders – January/ February, March/ April, etc.
I know, it is hard to see the labeled hanging files in the picture above. I also added some hanging files in the back for the major aspects and events of my life: Children’s Ministry, Campmeeting, A Virtuous Woman, Gardening, Camping, etc.
And in the very front, I added a hanging folder that I plan to leave in the spot for daily use – Homeschool Records. In years past these records have made their home in my Household Notebook. This year, I decided to try Daily Journaling for our homeschooling. I could have printed off pages for this and placed them in my Household Notebook, but I decided instead to purchase a pretty composition notebook and use it like a real journal. So, I put the composition notebook in the Homeschool Records folder.
In each of my monthly hanging folders I have labeled a file folder (I purchased the Fall Colors File Folders from Office Depot) for each week. Since I plan to begin my “new year” in August I began the first folder with Sunday, August 2 – August 8, 2009. So, this means I will have 52 folders – one for each week, plus extras for the different categories. For instance, in my Children’s Ministry folder, I will have a folder for VBS 2010, Sabbath School, Pathfinders, etc.
You can read more about how Dawn uses her file crate system. I am looking forward to this year!
Learning to Read
I just came across a new reading program that is totally free and looks awesome! Progressive Phonics has free downloadable/ printable reading book along with handwriting activity books!
The program is free for registered members!
I have probably mentioned it before, but another great phonics website is: Starfall.com. My daughters enjoyed using this program online last year. For those of you with young readers, these programs are a “must”!
The One Year Adventure Novel
Have you seen this curriculum? I was looking at their website tonight and really, really, want this for my girls. My daughter Sarah especially wants to do this instead of our planned curriculum Learning Language Arts through Literature. Emily, doesn’t really care as she really doesn’t care for writing. However, everything I have read suggests that this curriculum will make even the reluctant writer excited about writing! Plus, the TOS Crew loved this curriculum!
My problem? For two children this will cost $224.00. Yikes! My budget for ALL of our books for all four of my girls this year was only $200.00. Obviously, if I am going to be able to buy this curriculum for them, I will need to come up with some more money. I am going to try to sell some of our used books that we don’t need anymore. Hopefully, we will be able to purchase this. It sounds so much fun! School should be exciting right! I think so.
If you have not seen this curriculum, visit their website and watch the info video on the main page. Just watching the video inspires a feeling of adventure – making you want to sit down and write something exciting! You can download free sample lessons here and even get a free demo DVD here.
Back to Homeschool 2009 – 2010
It’s that time of year again. Time to decide what to learn this year….
I am very excited – I love buying the new books each year and making plans for our studies. I was very pleased with most of our curriculum choices from last year, so I will be using many of the same publishers and resources.
We have been using Math U See. I may use it again this year, but I am considering a new curriculum for math called Teaching Textbooks.
Mystery of History – Vol II
Learning Language Arts through Literature:
Apologia Science – Land Animals of the Sixth Day
Peterson Field Guide to Mammals of North America: Fourth Edition (Peterson Field Guide Series)
A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guide Series)
Draw Real Animals! (Discover Drawing Series)
Books on My Wishlist…
Creating Nature in Watercolor: An Artist’s Guide
I also found this resource that I hope to be able to use not only with my own daughters, but with the young girls I work with in our church and community:
Future Christian Homemaker’s Handbook – free download!
We will be using Homeschool Share again this year, quite extensively for my youngest children. This is a wonderful resource!
Our love of nature study continues. We are currently raising three Ringneck Snakes (with four eggs waiting to be hatched!), two Fowler’s Toads, one Skink Lizard (Red Headed Scorpion), have found two bats in our house this week which we watched and then released, and spend hours every day watching the myriad of birds who dine at our feeders.
I think this is what brings me the most joy. Spending quiet moments wrapped up in the beauty of God’s creation enjoying all of the sights and sounds and tastes alongside of my children.
Each of the girls received really nice art sets for their birthdays this year. Each set included an easel, watercolors, acrylics, oils, oil pastels, colored pencils, watercolor paper, and more. We will continue to use these and I hope to spend more time this year on our nature journals. I want to begin using the Outdoor Hour Challenges – you can download these wonderful guides free – look on the sidebar at Harmony Art Mom’s blog!
I will also be re-reading Pocketful of Pinecones: Nature Study With the Gentle Art of Learning.
I have handwriting workbooks that were given to me and lots of wonderful Bible Readers from years ago that we will be using. I also want to focus more on Church History and the Martyrs this year. Also, we are about to begin a read aloud of “Blessings” by Jerry D. Thomas, adapted from “Mount of Blessings” by Ellen White’s original writing. The book is a commentary of sorts on the Sermon on the Mount. Really good stuff!
Something different I will be trying this year for our record keeping is “Homeschool Journaling.” I am going to journal our learning each day rather than plan actual lesson plans for my younger children. My oldest two will still have their lesson sheets that they must complete and mark off.
I will be adding all these links to my sidebar. As I change my plans and such, you can find the updates there.
Homeschool Freebie
Here is a sweet little Homeschool Weekly Calendar that I created just to share with you. I also added it to the sidebar under e-Books. Enjoy!
LapBooks
I enjoy doing “Lapbooks” with my daughter Hannah. However, after having done two or three traditional lapbooks with the tri-fold, I just was not happy with it. Trying to store them was an irritant to me. Plus, I wanted to incorporate worksheets and notebooking in to the lesson. So, for me the answer was, what I call “Folder Books.” I’ll be talking more about those in an upcoming post. What I wanted to tell you today was that my youngest daughter, Laura, who is five years old, asked to do a Folder Book like her big sister. She did a couple of them last school year. I like the LapBooks from Lapbook Lessons for preschoolers. I thought there may be some of you who might want to use them, too.
Have a great day!
