At this time of the year many of us are looking for ways to tie our teaching into the holidays. There are tons of ways to do this and even a term for doing this. It's called "Christmas Schooling". Have you thought of giving your kids Christmas words for spelling during this season? If you have trouble coming up with words to use, check out the monthly holiday lists on www.SpellingCity.com.
For the rest of the year there are popular word lists to inspire you. One of my favorite new features on www.SpellingCity.com is the new assignments feature. This is one of the many features available to Premium Members only. I love being able to set up assignments for each of my kids for a week or two at a time. Then on their lesson plan I simply tell them to check the assignment when they log into www.SpellingCity.com. It also keeps track for me when the assignments are completed. Talk about making things easy for the teacher!!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
All I want for Christmas...
ManBoy was looking through the Toys R Us Christmas sale flier and informed me this morning that he was going to be devastated if he didn't get a specific gift for Christmas this year. What is the gift he wants? It's only the Crayola Masterworks Art Case. You'll shoot your eye out, kid! Oh, sorry, wrong gift! Anyway, this thing is an "all-in-one art studio", according to the ad. It comes in a wooden case and has 200 art supplies.
I'm thinking that we should put all these art supplies to good use by adding a good art curriculum to our school day! ManBoy is a budding artist and I've always wanted to encourage this talent. However, we really can't afford art lessons and I normally don't have a way to get to them anyway.
Praise God that www.time4learning.com has an art curriculum available! ManBoy has been through this curriculum once before, but I believe that he rushed through it in his excitement over it. This time I would like to see him go through it slowly and try doing each of the assignments.
Now if my other two kids have such definite ideas on what they want for Christmas, and their ideas are ones can we agree with, (not thrilled with the makeup case Fashionista wants) then we will be doing great!
I'm thinking that we should put all these art supplies to good use by adding a good art curriculum to our school day! ManBoy is a budding artist and I've always wanted to encourage this talent. However, we really can't afford art lessons and I normally don't have a way to get to them anyway.
Praise God that www.time4learning.com has an art curriculum available! ManBoy has been through this curriculum once before, but I believe that he rushed through it in his excitement over it. This time I would like to see him go through it slowly and try doing each of the assignments.
Now if my other two kids have such definite ideas on what they want for Christmas, and their ideas are ones can we agree with, (not thrilled with the makeup case Fashionista wants) then we will be doing great!
Friday, December 2, 2011
Roadschooling? Not here!
I'm sure you've heard the jokes. You've probably used them yourself, "Why do they call it HOMEschooling? They ought to call it ROADschooling as much as we are in the car!" That is NOT something our family can say.
You see, we are a one vehicle family. We basically have always been a one vehicle family. Even before we had children, my hubby and I shared one car. It's been one of the many ways that we make ends meet.
"How in the world do you manage with one vehicle?", you may ask. Well, it takes some creativity at times but we've always been able to make it work. Thankfully, my hubby doesn't work terribly far from home. So on the days that I know I'm going to need the van, I simply drop him off at work. Yes, there have been many times when I've wished that I could have a vehicle at my disposal all the time. However, in order for me to be home with my kids, sacrifices must be made.
As our kids get to the age when they will be learning to drive, (insert shudder here), I'm not sure how things will change. We may end up having to get an old clunker for them to drive. In the meantime, they practice their driving skills using our family's preferred homeschool learn-to-drive program, "Burn Out Paradise". LOL
You see, we are a one vehicle family. We basically have always been a one vehicle family. Even before we had children, my hubby and I shared one car. It's been one of the many ways that we make ends meet.
"How in the world do you manage with one vehicle?", you may ask. Well, it takes some creativity at times but we've always been able to make it work. Thankfully, my hubby doesn't work terribly far from home. So on the days that I know I'm going to need the van, I simply drop him off at work. Yes, there have been many times when I've wished that I could have a vehicle at my disposal all the time. However, in order for me to be home with my kids, sacrifices must be made.
As our kids get to the age when they will be learning to drive, (insert shudder here), I'm not sure how things will change. We may end up having to get an old clunker for them to drive. In the meantime, they practice their driving skills using our family's preferred homeschool learn-to-drive program, "Burn Out Paradise". LOL
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
My Young Authors
My kids enjoy writing their own stories. Sometimes they will collaborate on this, but often they will work alone. They have written dozens of chapters, not sure that any of them have ever finished a "book" yet.
I encourage their writing without burdening them with any of the mechanics of grammar or spelling. I figure this stretches their creativity. We can always go to http://www.time4writing.com/ to work on the mechanics. I just want them to have a love for writing as I do.
Who knows? Maybe some day their stories will join the ranks of other famous homeschool authors!
I encourage their writing without burdening them with any of the mechanics of grammar or spelling. I figure this stretches their creativity. We can always go to http://www.time4writing.com/ to work on the mechanics. I just want them to have a love for writing as I do.
Who knows? Maybe some day their stories will join the ranks of other famous homeschool authors!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Mom, How do you spell?
"Moooom! How do you spell...?" Do you hear this in your house? I do on almost a daily basis. I usually have them try to spell the word on their own before helping them. I will ask them, "How do you think it's spelled?"
By doing this I feel that I'm causing them to think for themselves rather than just looking to someone else for a quick answer. I'm also helping them to continue building their phonemic awareness. We often think that this skill is only for younger elementary children. I think that we all need to continue building this skill in order to be a great speller and reader.
My kids are great readers, but they struggle with their spelling. One more great reason for me to make them try to figure out how to spell words on their own. Another tool that we utilize in our homeschool is www.spellingcity.com. There are games and other resources to help kids stretch their spelling muscles.
So the next time you hear one of you kids ask, "How do you spell...?" Ask them, "How do YOU think it's spelled??"
By doing this I feel that I'm causing them to think for themselves rather than just looking to someone else for a quick answer. I'm also helping them to continue building their phonemic awareness. We often think that this skill is only for younger elementary children. I think that we all need to continue building this skill in order to be a great speller and reader.
My kids are great readers, but they struggle with their spelling. One more great reason for me to make them try to figure out how to spell words on their own. Another tool that we utilize in our homeschool is www.spellingcity.com. There are games and other resources to help kids stretch their spelling muscles.
So the next time you hear one of you kids ask, "How do you spell...?" Ask them, "How do YOU think it's spelled??"
Friday, November 11, 2011
Playing with Words
Learning about compound
words can be lots of fun if approached in the right way. You may
be surprised to find that your older kids might not know what a
compound word is. My 13 year old asked me this morning what they
were. I told him that they are basically two words stuck together.
There are tons of ways to teach about them. One of the ways I thought of is to challenge your kids to find as many compound words as they can in one room of your house. Perhaps it's your kitchen. Some of the words could be cupboard, tabletop, microwave...oh, wait microwave is not compound. This can open the door to teach about prefixes and suffixes. They can learn about root words and how they effect the meaning of different words.
There are tons of ways to teach about them. One of the ways I thought of is to challenge your kids to find as many compound words as they can in one room of your house. Perhaps it's your kitchen. Some of the words could be cupboard, tabletop, microwave...oh, wait microwave is not compound. This can open the door to teach about prefixes and suffixes. They can learn about root words and how they effect the meaning of different words.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Work, work, work!
It seems that I just keep getting busier and busier. Homeschool, housework, computer work, crochet work. Yes, I did say crochet WORK. I have 2 big crochet orders! One is for 3 sets of Star Wars Amigurumi characters. The other is for 3 afghans. Thankfully the afghans don't have to be done before Christmas.
With all this work, it would be tempting for me to look into umbrella schools for my kids. They would take charge of assigning my kids all their schoolwork and keep all the records. But why should I do that when I have Time4Learning? They already keep all the records for me!
I'm not the only one who has been busy, busy, busy! I'm praying that MyHero will be able to get the dishwasher hooked up and running this weekend. It would be soo wonderful to have my kitchen back again!!
For those of you who follow me, I had my kitchen back for a while. But then we decided that we wanted to take this opportunity to install a dishwasher. We have never had a dishwasher in the 11 years we have lived in this house. That meant that we had to save up for one.
We finally got the dishwasher. Now, MyHero has to brave the attic to install a dedicated circuit for the dishwasher. That's not as easy as it sounds. We do not have a walk in attic and we live in FL. Add to this that he's been working 2 jobs, 3 if you count working on the kitchen. Most weeknights, if he doesn't have to go to his second job, I just don't have the heart to ask him to work on the kitchen.
Looks like both MyHero and I will be busy for quite some time yet!
With all this work, it would be tempting for me to look into umbrella schools for my kids. They would take charge of assigning my kids all their schoolwork and keep all the records. But why should I do that when I have Time4Learning? They already keep all the records for me!
I'm not the only one who has been busy, busy, busy! I'm praying that MyHero will be able to get the dishwasher hooked up and running this weekend. It would be soo wonderful to have my kitchen back again!!
For those of you who follow me, I had my kitchen back for a while. But then we decided that we wanted to take this opportunity to install a dishwasher. We have never had a dishwasher in the 11 years we have lived in this house. That meant that we had to save up for one.
We finally got the dishwasher. Now, MyHero has to brave the attic to install a dedicated circuit for the dishwasher. That's not as easy as it sounds. We do not have a walk in attic and we live in FL. Add to this that he's been working 2 jobs, 3 if you count working on the kitchen. Most weeknights, if he doesn't have to go to his second job, I just don't have the heart to ask him to work on the kitchen.
Looks like both MyHero and I will be busy for quite some time yet!
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