Second semester underway!

Once again, I have failed miserably about updating my blog.  One day I'll be better and post more often.  Of course one of my goals of blogging in the first place was to chronicle our homeschooling journey. If only life wasn't so busy......sigh.

We have had a pretty good school year so far.  We are part of an awesome co-op which is growing each semester.  Each co-op semester consists of 10 weeks.  My children had the opportunity to take some amazing classes.  The preschooler took Dr. Seuss and Eric Carle book classes.  My daughter took a magic class and a cake decorating class.  She couldn't get enough of the cake decorating.  My son took a literature class based on Around the World in 80 Days.  He also took a photography class.  I enjoyed seeing some of the photos he took during that class.  Here's one:

We took one field trip with the co-op to an apple orchard along with many park days.   We are looking forward to the activities planned for second semester.  It involves teen outings as well as family events!

During break from co-op in November and December, we used the time to catch up on some of our homeschooling.  Next year I will be using the Prairie Primer with my 10 year old daughter, so we took the opportunity to attend a Little House on the Prairie Christmas play.  It was a great way to introduce my daughter to the characters.  We were  so excited about this curriculum that we jumped into reading Little House in the Big Woods.  We have lots of activities to try out--tracking animal footprints, making butter, gun safety--all of which we will wait until the summer to do.  We are anxiously waiting for our first snowfall so we can make the sugar candy mentioned in the book.

Second semester is now underway.  My son has been taking free online classes from Virtual Homeschool Group.  If you aren't families with it, check it out.  He has been using the Apologia science classes for two years.  He just started an 18-week computer programming class.  I love the dedication of these volunteers who teach the classes.  I know from experience as a member of the leadership team for our co-op just how many hours outside of those 10 weeks each semester we put in and how much that time takes away from our family.  Not to mention that our summers and co-op breaks are used for planning and preparing for the next semester.  I'm sure it's the same with this online resource.  I don't want to just take advantage of free classes without being grateful for the time and dedication put into this great online resource. And yes, you can donate money to help maintain the blackboards and website.

My daughter and preschooler will continue using Easy Peasy all in one homeschool.  This is a free online curriculum.  It has been a lifesaver.  The high school curriculum is called Easy Peasy all in one high school. Lee Giles, the creator, of Easy Peasy has spent a lot of time putting the curriculum together for her children, and I'm so glad she decided to share it with other homeschoolers.  She has been a blessing to many homeschooling families.

Our co-op will begin second semester shortly.  My children have many class offerings once again.  The preschooler will be taking a science class called A Bug's Life as well as a Funny Phonics and Silly Spelling class (taught by me...this should be interesting...haha).  My daughter gets to take Fun with Science and a doodling diary art class.  My oldest son gets to take Public Speaking without Butterflies (taught by me as well....once again...this should be interesting....double haha), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea literature class, as well as an Introductory class to Drawing.  Just like with the Virtual Homeschool Group, I am very grateful to the ladies of our co-op willing to take their precious time to prepare and teach these classes for 10 weeks.  It's definitely not easy but the ultimate reward of teaching the children is the payoff.  And where else can I pay less than $25 for all the above mentioned classes?  Seriously!  That's it!

I'll also be adding a page for the Public Speaking 10-week curriculum with homework assignments and videos.  Be on the lookout for this in the next few weeks.  If you are not part of the co-op and choose to use the curriculum, please be aware that some of it might not make sense to an outsider simply because I am custom designing it to fit for our 10-week one hour classes; however, I will be posting other free resources for public speaking so students can expand on the subject outside of the 10 week timeframe.  One of my other goals for this blog is to SHARE--share free curriculums and even my attempts at homemade co-op curriculums.

-Jen

Priorities, priorities, priorities.....

Oops!  Did the title give it away?  Good!  This will be short and sweet.

We are on Week 3 of schooling.  All has gone well up until today.  I wanted to blame it on the fact that the boys had been out of town so two days of schooling didn't get accomplished.

Today was  Hump Day....Wednesday...the first day this week to get "back on track" now that everyone was home.  What a day!  Nothing went right.  Then as the day ended I reflected back on today realizing our priorities had gotten way off track.  We went straight into school mode today and we forgot to do something very, very important.  We forgot to have our Bible time this morning before we started our schoolwork.

Have you ever seen the object lesson about the jar, sand, pebbles, and rocks?  The sand represents the very small things of life.  The pebbles represent the slightly larger things in life, and the rocks represents the most important things in life.  Can you guess what the jar represents?  Yes, your life (or your day)!  Depending on how they are placed in the jar depends on if all the items will fit.  If you choose to fill your life (or day) with the things of little importance, you won't have time for the most important things.  However, if you put your priorities in order and fill your life (or day) with the most important things, all the smaller things in life (or in your day) will fit in and surround themselves around the most important things.  This little demonstration really puts things into perspective

So guess how our day tomorrow will start off?  We will start with our Rock, Jesus Christ!


*If you have never seen this object lesson, here's one version of it (minus the pebbles):
Rocks and Sand: Priorities

New name, new look for the new school year

Originally this blog was completely dedicated to our homeschooling journey using a particular curriculum.  We still use this curriculum and love it, but I want to expand this blog to more than just homeschooling. Our family passions stretch much further than homeschooling so we are now opening up this blog to everything that we are blessed with and hope to share this information with you.  One day we might post a quick, cheap family dinner recipe.  One day we might post a recipe for a homemade cleaner.  One day we might just blog about our dreams of owning chickens and goats.  One day we might write about far away places we hope to explore.  One day we might blog about our favorite Bible verses.  One day we might blog about our homeschool field trips and science projects.  This blog will offer a little bit for everyone, from all age groups.  We hope you will be blessed along the way.

We are now.....Blessed to Infinity and Beyond!

A new school year begins with organization

This is my fifth year homeschooling, and for the first time I felt ready and prepared.  It felt great to wake up and start the day knowing that I have the whole school year already planned out and ready to go.  You might be asking, "Well, don't you always do that?"  Quite frankly, I can't say yes.  Each school year would start off with a bang but would quickly fizzle out by the end of the week. Yes!  By.the.end.of.the.week!  We would quickly get frustrated and see that our schedule wasn't working.

You know those moms who work all summer long to create the "perfect" schedule?  These moms make a minute-by-minute schedule of their entire day, and it would take a full wall in their house to write out the schedule for all the family members for just one day's worth of activities.  I've read those books.  I've seen those planners.  I've even considered buying one of those planners just because I thought if I paid the money, I would use it.  If I used it, I would follow it.  If I followed it, everything would be "perfect."  Bahahahaha!  I realized THIS homeschooling family can't stay on a schedule, and I have come to the conclusion that it's okay.  We don't have to have a set time to wake up, or to eat lunch, or to go to bed.  I know most parents would cringe at that idea but it's what works for our family.  Instead of a set time, I like to look at it as a "round about" timeframe.  Yes, we do have things that are at a set time on our schedule, such as doctor appointments, and we are diligent to follow those set times but all the other things in life, we work best by following a "round about" timeframe.  And, yes, this is part of what has made this year of homeschooling different.

I didn't start the school year off with some crazy time schedule posted on the bulletin board or start out with picking and choosing the days we would do school.  I've done that, and see how it doesn't work for our family.  It only causes frustration if we can't follow a schedule.  Frustration leads to tension.  Tension leads to an unhappy momma.  "If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."  That sums up the last few years of homeschooling.

I've been determined to do things differently this school year.  We even schooled right through the summer because we tend to change curriculum mid-year simply because I think that is the problem. It only puts us further behind. Luckily with four years of homeschooling under my belt, I finally feel I'm getting the hang of it.  It was never the curriculum's fault.  It was a fault of my own.  That fault is called a lack of organization.  This is the first year I can really say I am organized and ready for the school year, and IT FEELS SO GOOD!

Do I know which days we plan to take off for holidays?  Nope.  Do I know when the last day of school will be?  Nope.  But I'm organized.  In my opinion, being organized and having a schedule are two different things.  Yes, you can have both and it work out fine but if you think that having a fancy schedule posted on the wall is going to make everything fall into place...well, momma, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but without the organization, that beautiful schedule on your wall is doom to fail.

If you read this and thought I must have been a fly on your wall at home...immediately run to that fancy schedule on your wall and rip it down.  It's okay.  You'll still make it through the school year.  Rather than concentrating on the clock and running your homeschool similar to a public school day, enjoy it.  Sit back, cuddle with the kids while reading a book, and enjoy your homeschooling days.

Astronomy

Geology and the Flood

Once again, I am way behind in updating my blog.  What's new?  During the months of September and October, we studied Geology.  We examined rocks and gemstones, matching them to their names and properties.  We studied the three types of rocks and even made cookies, layered bars, and fudge based on the idea of the three types of rocks.  We found these recipes easily on the internet.  Here's a picture of our cookies.  The recipe called for pineapple chunks and "smart momma" thought kids would like fruity gummy bears better.  "Smart momma" forgot that gummy bears melted which meant they oozed out EVERYWHERE!  They were fruity but not so tastey.

I discovered it's very hard to take pictures when I'm teaching, especially for hands-on projects.  When I first started this blog I thought how cool it would be to document EVERY project and event during our homeschooling adventure.  Wow!  I discovered its very hard.  So even though I may not write much here or show many pictures we did much, much more than I can write about.  I have found that the homeschooling links page here on this blog will contain much more of the bulk.  Don't forget to check out that page!

Oh, and how could I forget our study on volcanoes during this time.  Check out our volcano we made.  Then we used Mentos and Diet Coke for the eruption.  It was cool!



Our "cage" for the frame



Preparing the paper mache and added balls of newspaper to the frame







 


The finished volcano!



Creation Study

We have now been using the Blessed is the Man curriculum since July.  We are doing our studies chronologically; therefore, we began with the Creation of the world and Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden.  We have had a great time studying dinosaurs and fossils.  We watched DVDs by Answers in Genesis, and I had the desire to be able to visit the Creation Museum.  For me this was just a wish and a future vacation idea.  Little did I know that God would direct us during this time to Shriner's hospital for my son's medical care.  (I will discuss this in a separate blog post at a later date.)  I discovered that the Creation Museum was just 15 minutes away from Cincinnati.  I was so excited.  We left two days earlier so we would have the opportunity to visit the Creation Museum.  It was better than Disney World in my opinion.  I always think it has much more meaning to visit and explore museums when the content is fresh on the child's mind.  Being that we were just finishing up our study, it made for such a wonderful, educational experience.  I highly recommend studying a topic BEFORE visiting the museum, historical site, etc.  Knowing the history or content of the topic prior to the field trip makes it so much more exciting.

Here's a little glimpse into our visit to the Creation Museum.