My children are very supportive of my couponing. They regularly alert me to coupons on boxes, in boxes, and elsewhere. Sometimes they just bring me coupon-like gifts like in the photo here. Q cut it from the piece of paper it was printed on. Very thoughtful.
Day 3 – My 21 Day Fast from Social Networking
Switching to year-round homeschooling in 2009 made such a difference in our not only our homeschool, but our family. Registering with a private school for unschoolers where the only requirement is reporting attendance gave an added freedom. No longer were we trying to demonstrate yearly progress in a 3-ring binder and/or trying to cram for the end of the year. In areas where we used to struggle, the kids are now a grade ahead of their peers. And being free from my area of struggle (keeping portfolios for the district to review on a whim & for annual reviews), has allowed us to accomplish more.
In our family life, this schedule has allowed the greatest flexibility. We can take vacations in the off-season, host a long-term guest, and have wiggle room for life’s unexpected things. In year’s past life’s interruptions added to the difficulty of complying with the state’s portfolio requirements, being called for portfolio reviews, and just made it tougher to complete the curriculum by a prescribed date (to allow for the schedules of the certified teachers who did the annual portfolio reviews).
Homeschooling, like all educational venues, is not without it’s challenges. But these past 18 months have been the best homeschooling we’ve done since we started homeschooling 7 years ago. I thought it would be difficult to make such a change. I worried about a child-led revolt over the summer or wanting a long break for myself. What we’ve all found & realized is freedom & success.
Anne-Marie
I’ve recently returned from Pennsylvania where I was privileged to learn the candy-making secrets of Grandma Ida. Grandma Ida, my husband’s paternal grandmother, has been making hand-dipped chocolates since the 1940′s! No one in the family, until now, has held her recipes.
While I’m not faulting anyone, no one else has had the interest in carrying on her tradition. Well, that’s not entirely true. She also had no interest in letting just anyone have the recipes. But of the people she would have given her secrets to, they just don’t have the time or the desire to do it.
Enter me. I love to learn new things. And my father-in-law has been asking me for years to come up while Grandma is doing candy so I can learn to do it. A few months ago it was decided that it was now or never. So, I gave up my plans to go to Hawaii (alone) for the opportunity to learn to make Grandma’s candies.
Long story short, it wasn’t a picture perfect week, but the candy-making effort was so successful that we’re now moving forward in starting a family business.
There are lots of things that I am researching and working to pull together to get this endeavor launched. One of the most important things, in my opinion, is the right name. That’s where you come in. I am asking you to cast a vote http://twtpoll.com/r/zqjg2e for the most appealing name on the list. Could you do that for me? Thanks! I really appreciate it!
Anne-Marie
Christian, homeschooling mom to 4, Republican Club Officer, local campaign manager, life-long-learner, home-birther, birthmother, ….and now candy-maker.
For several years we homeschooled under our state’s Home Education Program (HEP). The HEP required a Letter of Intent to the school district to announce our establishment of a homeschool program (done for each child), an annual evaluation by 1 of 5 state statute approved methods, and the mandatory keeping of portfolios. These things were sore spots for me. I complied, reluctantly, because I didn’t see that I had any other options.
Because of my strong dislike for the public school system under which I was tortured and persecuted (a topic for a whole post of it’s own), I wanted no association with the public schools. I tried to keep the contact to a minimum and hoped they would never ever ever call me to submit to a portfolio review. (We did get called in 2008, but were dismissed because of a scheduled trip out of state on that date.)
Annual evaluations always felt more like judgment day even though I have had nothing but wonderful certified teacher’s who have evaluated my children’s work. However, there are just so many things you can’t take pictures of, moments and achievements that cannot be demonstrated in a 3-ring binder. The longer I homeschool, the further away from workbooks I move. We do a lot of oral work. I read to them (a lot!) and we have long discussions. How can any evaluator ever “see” that?
From the very beginning, we have had trouble finishing certain subjects by the end of the “school year”. So we often rushed through the last month of our math curriculum, with me crossing off things I didn’t think they needed to review yet again, especially with next year’s math not so far away. Instead of allowing them to work at their own appropriate pace, I felt I was homeschooling to meet bogus requirements. That was very contra-indicative of our purpose.
The portfolio concept, while warm and fuzzy to an eduction major and politicians, is the furthest thing from my natural abilities. Try as I may, different methods of compiling throughout the years, it was always a last minute rush to put it together. I hated it! As I already stated, a portfolio never contained an accurate picture of what my children were learning. It was a big farce.
Each year at convention time, I longing gazed at umbrella schools. I was attracted to the idea of not being under the government system, but two things prevented me from going with an umbrella school. Costs and feeling like I was under an even bigger thumb.
Then last summer, someone on Twitter introduced me to a free private school (umbrella school) for homeschoolers…or rather, unschoolers. I was in the process of yet again compiling several portfolios for a very impromptu portfolio review that a friend had arranged for anyone who wanted to get it done and over with. As soon as I dropped my annual evaluation paper in the mail to the school district, I enrolled my children in Florida Unschoolers.
Now I have finally gotten to the reason for my post today. It’s March and I had to order MORE curriculum. My 10yo son completed his 4th grade math a few weeks ago and is now into his 5th grade math curriculum. My 11yo son is two days from completing his 5th grade math and will be starting his 6th grade math next week. We are 3 weeks from finishing our history curriculum. There have been numerous other accomplishments this year as well.
Without an impending portfolio review to worry about throughout the year, we have been free to learn without restrictions or regulations or government interference. And we have gotten more accomplished in a shorter time than in any previous year!
We are rolling right into “next” year’s curriculum, finally realizing the dream of year-round homeschooling. Year-round isn’t really as bad as it may seem. It’s not working 5 days per week for 52 weeks straight. It’s being able to take breaks without falling behind (to cram for portfolio evaluations). It’s each child working at their own pace and being able to have time to focus on their interests as well as having some structured learning. It’s working on family projects, doing life, learning new skills and training up the next generation. It’s losing the summer knowledge loss and gaining consistent reinforcement of important concepts.
Never in the course of our homeschooling journey have I felt more at ease while feeling we’re getting somewhere, where each child needs to be. We’ve got so many cool things on the horizon. And I finally have the strength to tackle and plan some new things with my kids…things they have been begging to do.
I am so thankful to God for this new opportunity He brought to me,. For opening my eyes and helping me change my original perspective. For seeing me through the rough times and for pouring out His peace on me along this journey.
Crafty is not a word I use to describe myself. As I have mentioned before, I was more than content as a child to color in coloring books. I can recall two freehand drawings and I remember loathing art class.
This is not so with my 4 freehand drawing kids. They draw and draw and draw some more. I can put a ream of paper in my printer paper drawer and it will be consumed in short order. 500 sheets…gone in a flash.
Worse yet is the mess left behind. Paper everywhere.
In the past, I tried to contain it by purchasing ring-bound sketch pads. (Tear-off sketch pads, while cheaper, were not considered since they would share the same fate as loose paper.) This worked for awhile, but my children quickly went through the sketch pads. Then I couldn’t remember where I purchased them since I had acquired them for our airplane travel entertainment. Then when I did locate them, oh my gosh…I could not believe how expensive they were. Some sketch pads can run up to $12 a piece. And in my mind $4 was too much already. Not to mention the hassle of tracking them down.
Enter Macgyver. What I am about to show, I did out of desperation for my sanity. Here’s how I plan to tame the beast:
A stack of 3-hole punched copy paper & 3 - 1
Using scissors, I split a pocket folder in half.
Attaching the back half of folder thru the binder rings...
Attaching the front half of pocket folder to binder rings...
Taping the pocket...
After I took the photos, I realized that I would do all future books a little differently. The difference is that I had already put the rings on two books last night so my girls could start.
Starting without binder rings, you just line up the bottom folder half under the stack of paper, put the rings through, slip the top folder half onto the rings and snap them shut.
Here’s the cost breakdown for 40 books w/125 sheets each:
$42.99 – box 8.5″ x 11″ 3-hole punched copy paper, that’s 10 reams or 5000 sheets.
$34.32 – 128 – 1″ binder rings, 16 pk ($4.29 in store or $3.79 online per box)
$20.00 – 40 folders – I’m rounding high, I usually pay .10 to .50 each
This comes out to:
$2.43 per book, as listed above
$1.83 per book, if you don’t need any folders (I have plenty)
$3.06 per book, buying paper by the ream, rather than the case
I am so looking forward to reclaiming the floors from the paper mess & keeping the kids out of my printer paper.
Hope this helps someone else too.
I wasn’t aware of this when I posted my update this morning. So I am editing my post a tad & linking up to share & participate.
Local public schools will be in full swing next week. And even though we are homeschooling on a year-round basis and are not on the public school schedule, out of habit we tend to evaluate, make curriculum changes, & refocus during the summer. (Might have something to do with attending the curriculum convention in July too!)
A book was mentioned in a seminar (2 books actually, but I’ve only managed to find the 1st one) at that homeschool convention I attended in July, Discover Your Child’s Learning Style
As for the children, I have completed 3 of the 4 profiles. I started to work the final profile, on son #2, but he was not in the right frame of mind & we got nowhere. But the words written about my oldest sons dominant learning style could not have been truer. Again, another set of things we viewed as vices and tried wrongly to eradicate in him.
As for M & Q: M scored a 10 out of 10 on the Performer Learning Style & Q scored an 8 out of 10 in the same. So, they don’t just like dressing up as princesses or pretending to be animals (M actually gets on her knees & howls at the moon), but this role-playing is a big part of how they learn.
Can you see how/why this is great information to have?
This year we have made some big changes to our curriculum.
After 4 years of using Horizons Math for my boys & attempting to use it for my oldest girl, we are switching. Actually, I have been waiting patiently for about two years to try Teaching Textbooks. Well, it’s finally out for 4th & 5th grade. The boys tried the online samples and were begging for it! They were begging to do math? Who stole my children & replaced them with math-enjoying aliens?
For my girls, I purchased the manipulatives for Math U See. We bought the Primer & Alpha DVDs & Teacher’s Manuals last year. I wanted to see if it would interest anyone before I became completely financially invested. My youngest loves to watch Mr. Demme. She was asking for the blocks all year, so I decided to give it a try. Neither girl is interested in workbook math. I’ve long suspected that Q knows more than she will let on during a workbook session. She’s been caught several times lately adding things she’s never been “taught” to add. She’s practically doing multiplication. M is paying attention and following in her footsteps.
We’re trying Mystery of History this year, Volume II. We skipped Volume I since we have focused on that part of history for 2-3 yrs now and really need to move on.
Our 2009-2010 Curriculum Summary:
Math: Teaching Textbooks, 4th & 5th grade (boys I & G, respectively) and Math U See Primer & Alpha (girls M & Q, respectively)
History: Mystery of History Vol. II
Science: Creation Geology (pub. by Media Angels) & the In The Hands of a Child complementing project pack and World of Plants (AiG)
Character: Developing Godly Character in Children
Literature Study: Heir of the Forgotten Realm (Tweener Press)
Handwriting: Classical Cursive Book I (the boys)
Critical Thinking: Visual Perceptual Skill Building Book I & Book II (girls)
Latin: Prima Latina (We started this 2 yrs ago, but now I think the boys are ready to do the actual workbooks. Girls love to be involved & recite the prayers & memorize the words too.)
MISC: I am also looking at All About Spelling, various reading & language arts programs, typing, & finding more ways to incorporate fun into our learning & our lives. And just for fun, we are going to do the Hot Diggety Dog lapbook (the semi-annual Freebie) from In the Hands of a Child. I am hoping that this will be a really good experience, full of fun & intrigue, so that we can do more lapbook projects. I love the concept, but I hated doing all the work. At first glance (last year), I thought Pre-made lapbooks were too expensive, but I’m starting to see their value.
Community Service: Another family project this year (and forever) will be in politics. I am in the process of helping to establish 2 groups for young voters (1 for teens, 1 for 18-40). Since my oldest son has had a long desire to be president and his brother has a desire to serve in his brother’s cabinet, I sat them down to see if they would be my helpers in these endeavors. Of course, the girls were anxious to offer their help too. And by the 2012 election, my boys will be 13 & 14 and my girls will be 9 & 11. That makes me want to cry because it seems so far off, but it will be here before I know it.
Additional Goals:
About The Students:
As a home educating mom of 4 and a wife to a technology guru, two things are prevalent in our house: researching & trying out new curriculum & learning tools and technology.
ItzaBitza is one of the most intriguing kid’s programs I have ever seen.
Most computer games of this genre make claims they never come close to delivering on. Our game bin is full of so-so and down-right disappointing wastes of money.
ItzaBitza, while it has a slight learning curve (no more than any good game), is so enjoyable. All of the integrated aspects (drawing, reading, following instructions, problem-solving, and creative play, etc.) was beyond my expectations. I especially enjoyed watching my children work independently, not requiring too much assistance from mom after the initial run through.
I downloaded the game last week at ItzaBitza.comand had my 6 yr old try it. I meant to have my 5 yr old try it out that day to, but we didn’t get around to it until this morning. Before long, the entire gang was crowded around the computer, each demanding a turn.
When they were finally done playing (3 hrs later), I interviewed them. Here’s what my crew had to say:
My Suggestions to Parents:
My Playing Tips:
Well, I hope you enjoyed our family review of ItzaBitza. You can download your free trial at ItzaBitza.com You can also Follow the CEO, Margaret, on Twitter .
Note: This was an independent, unsolicited product review.
Friday morning started out pretty good. I got up at my new forced time of 7:30am.
I spent some time working productively on my travel plans notebook. As I often tell people, I don’t plan much in my life except vacations. While I don’t schedule my plans down to the minutes & seconds, I do like to have all of the essential information at my fingertips. This will be especially handy before we (that’s myself & 4 kids) disembark to run down the concourse to breathlessly catch our connecting flight. In my notebook are maps of all the airports we will be in, so when they tell me our connecting flight is at gate such & such, I won’t be hurriedly traversing thru the airport trying to read signs & keep track of my children. I’ve also got all the family bathrooms mapped out.
The tabs across the top mark the beginning pages for Flight Info, Rental Car, Hotels, & To-Do (as in things I “want” to do on my vacation).
The tabs along the side mark the pages for the specifics: actual flights, hotels, rental car, places. These tabs are in chronological order down the page even though the bottom two tabs are for pages more towards the front of the book.
I worked on my notebook until my girls woke up. They had expressed a desire the night before to bake a “blueberry cake” in the morning. So, I bought a Krusteaz blueberry muffin mix and we followed the instructions for making a Blueberry loaf.
Initially, 6 year old Q was very distraught that I was using a loaf pan (which I had to buy the night before too because I somehow have gotten by without one…oh yeah, I have a bread machine). Somehow I managed to convince her that her “cake” would still be a cake, but just be shaped like bread.
.
…and of course, they had to add food coloring swirls.
We hadn’t been at the cake baking long when 9 year old Ee-duh (a sibling mispronunciation we use to harass him with) demanded his daily ration of pancakes. I opened up the freezer and terror gripped me. Well, it wasn’t that bad, but he wasn’t happy when I told him I forgot to buy pancakes. See, I had intended on making the pancakes first thing that morning, but had forgotten about that when I saw my notebook calling me to organize our vacation.
He was miffed. But I assured him that I would make his pancakes while the cake was baking. He just had to be patient…which no one in this house seems to enjoy being.
As soon as the cake was in the oven, I grabbed all the pancake ingredients to make my quintuple batch. Wouldn’t you know it? My ground oatmeal was on E and I didn’t have time or feel like grinding up anymore. So, I grabbed the wheat flour instead and was on my way.
Since I do this on a regular basis, I don’t even bother digging the recipe out. Of course I have trouble remembering how much baking powder & salt I need. So, I guessed. When it hit me that I had put twice as much baking powder in as I needed, I really thought I had botched the pancakes. I didn’t know what would happen really. Oh well, I moved forward. It wouldn’t be the first time I slaved over pancakes only to have him tell me how much he hated them.
Just as I toss the beaters from the hand mixer into the sink, I remember what I always forget…the vanilla and almond extract. I added my vanilla. Then I went to pour the almond extract into a measuring spoon and I swear half the bottle emptied into the mix. It’s a small bottle, but still…that’s a lot of almond extract. I mixed it in with a wooden spoon figuring he was going to hate my botched pancakes anyway, so why bother worrying about the almond extract.
As I got to the end of the pancake batter, 9 year old son said he wanted to try making the pancakes on the griddle. He was able to make about 14 of them and use the spatula to remove them. He also made a big deal about wearing one of my aprons. I don’t know what all the fuss was about really because it’s a unisex black apron.
Anyway…so here they are…minus the 4 he ate.
So, that’s what this crazy household did on Friday morning.
(Remember the “cake”…between the girls who did some heavy damage and dh only a tiny square remained.)
* Pictures taken with a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P10
Recently, I came upon another homeschool site/blog HomeSchool With Index Cards and I had the biggest DUH moment of my homeschooling career.
For years I have been stockpiling a variety of flash cards…you know…for the kids, of course. I would excitedly purchase them for educational purposes. Once home, I locked them safely in the cabinet in the mudroom with all their other flash card friends. After all, what good is a flash card deck of 23 letters or 45 states? And that’s exactly what happened IF I dared to let the children use them.
Well, Molly has liberated me with her ingenious homeschooling method.
Today, I made 13 of these ring books (named for the Book Rings used to hold them together) from the unopened flash cards I had.
Ring Books
I’ve also embarked on creating some of my own (I think Words for Writing is visible in the photo).
This is such a GREAT idea that I just could not believe that I hadn’t considered it before. I’m so thankful for finding Molly’s website. She offers freebies index cards to print and sells others that she has created (for pennies when you consider her effort). We’re already having fun with these books.
I also want to share the Classical Astronomy website find too. Jay Ryan has inspired us to look at the stars. And it was a link on his blog that led to me to Molly’s website.
Check them both out!
When my 3rd grade son, finished his math test today, he decided to check it himself. This is not unusual though due to a difficult math day yesterday, I suspect he was hoping to keep me from seeing what he didn’t get right. Through my inquisition I discovered that he had checked it and “corrected” his wrong answers.
I double-checked his “check and correct” and was able to see which ones he had corrected. It wasn’t too bad…until I got to the very bottom on the 2nd page. He found an error and he corrected it. And here it is…
You just can’t make this stuff up!
AMS
