Homeschooling Room Re-Do

Homeschool Room Re-Do

I am so excited to share this post with you! The first weekend in Sept (yes, I know it's November) Dan went out of town to pick up Patrick who had been spending a few weeks in IL with my parents. I asked my sister Karen to watch David and Derek for a few days so I could have a much needed break from parenting, homeschooling, being the mama taxi and meeting the needs of my husband and family. (hey, everyone needs a break now and then) I made my lists, prioritized them, started over, made more lists, made more lists and MORE lists, and before long, I had way more planned than I could get done in a MONTH alone. So I settled on one large project and made it my focus. Our school room had been needing "something" for a while. It was crowded, cluttery, disorganized and discouraging to be in for any length of time. "Something" needed to be done. So I endevoured to do that particular something. *winks*
Once all of the Man Crew was off to their adventures without me, I settled in with some music, some snacks, a new Gaither DVD, and my camera. I'm sure I annoyed everyone on my FB friends list by posting every 5 minutes for a few hours. I am not used to being alone (as in, it's been 10 years since I've been alone for more than a few hours~ seriously) so once I got the hang of that, I got down to business. I started with the pre-requisite BEFORE pictures that looks like this *cringe*

I hope this is a No Judgement Zone :) I know. Clutter clutter clutter. Anywho, after that, I just scooped up every single thing in the room and drug it to the LR. I piled all the papers, and books, and games, and manipulatives on the couch, chairs and floor and started going through every single thing. THAT took 2 full days. It was slow going but so worth doing. I pulled almost 1/2 of the things out to either be put into storage (boys old school papers and projects) sold on eBay or to homeschooling friends, or just be tossed, tossed, tossed. It felt GOOD! I cleaned the room, the furniture and the walls. I also rearranged so that the room was more open and airy. So, here is the fruit of my labors. 3 days well spent in my opinion. The boys are able to find all of their things at a moment's notice. Plenty of things went to other families to bless them. The room is clean and useable, we almost never have to LOOK for somewhere to sit down our papers these days, and that's ALWAYS a good thing!

Oh, and we even finally had room for all my encouraging posters, informative reminders and seasonal decorations.

I know, I'm a super dork to get so excited about a clean and well organized space, but I'm ok with that. :) Being able to effectively corral our homeschooling 'schtuff' has always eluded me, so it's a big deal. LOL
Blessings, ~K~

Fun Fall Activity/Snack Idea (super easy)

DT and I just came up with this one together. Take a handful of candy corn and set it up like a bowling game. Then toss a Nerf dart at it to see how many you can knock down in one pass. When you get a strike, you can eat one! How is that easy peasy and super fun! You are working on fine and gross motor skills, plus counting backwards/subtraction. Check it out. He's having a ball!

Start with a handful of candy corn and a cheesy grinning kiddo

Then, line it up with a Nerf dart (or other small non-harmful object~ like a crumpled ball of paper or a ping pong ball

Knock them all down, eat one, recount and start over!

Happy Homeschooling Adventures!!
       Blessings, ~K~

Have I Ever Mentioned That I LOVE Homeschooling?

Hey everyone! Just passing through on the run (as usual) and wanted to just say that I LOVE HOMESCHOOLING! We are in Co Springs for the weekend awaiting the gymnastics regionals for David. The glorious part? Homeschool can come along since we've been slacking a bit between the move and all the travelling for gym. David's math CD-Rom came along as well as some library books, puzzle books, and brain games. And, of course, one can always draw a picture and write/narrate a story about our adventures here. *sigh of contentment* Homeschooling rocks. That is all.
Blessings,
Kristy and the Man Crew

Homeschooling Hiatus~ Winter 2011

As this Mama has gotten smarter through the years (or lazier, you decide) we've
started taking our long break in the winter months while Mama is working MORE
and LATER hours at her Kohl's job, so that she has a chance to sleep once in a
while, plus we don't end up frustrated by trying to stay on schedule while the
season gets busier and busier. So, we've been on break since the week of
Thanksgiving and we've LOVED it!
Now, before you think I've got and thrownall caution to the wind and that my children are irreparably and irrevocablydamaged, let me also add this. We've done lots of hands on learning, lots ofreading, lots of enjoying family time, and lots of projects. All interspersed
with tons of Christmas music, movies and activities. We've done puzzles and
games, played outside while the weather was nice (and even when it wasn't) we've
baked, cooked and crafted our way through the season. We've even thrown in a
random math or grammar lesson as the whim struck. And yes, at least one of my
boys ASKED for school work so he wouldn't get behind. Can I get an "AMEN"?
Soa quick update on each of the boys and I'll close. (I'm working on not being so
long winded, wish me luck) David is in the 9th grade and enjoying the
opportunity to pick his own projects. Right now he's working his way through the
Famous Men of Greece book and the Greenleaf Guide to the same. He's LOVING it!!
Next up, Famous Men of Rome. Earlier this year, he memorized the entire first
book of Genesis. I should mention that I'm loving this curriculum as well. He
gets to pick the projects, but they are all appropriate, Bible based, God
fearing choices. Patrick is working through his My Father's World Creation to
the Greeks package, but he and I had a rough start this year, so we may need to
go back and redo some of the lessons. His writing, grammar and math are
excelling, so I'm thrilled about that! Derek is coasting through his 1st grade
year, and while he LOVES to be read to, and to spend hours poring over books, he
is still showing little interest in actually learning to read for himself.
However, I am not worrying over it, he will read when he is ready. His
handwriting/scissors skills are improving recently, as if his fine motor skills
are finally catching up to his gross motor skills.
So truly, good news on all fronts and that's always a good feeling. I'll post more later about some of the projects and activities we enjoyed over the break, along with some pictures.
Thanks for your support!
Blessings,
Kristy

Turtle Week

This week it's all turtles. Here's our cute little craft. Please excuse my underwear boy, he decided it was Naked Tuesday. lol

What's Going on in YOUR School This Week?

We have had some ups and downs this past week. I'm really enjoying the new copy work study of patience the boys are working on, except that I've very nearly lost mine while getting them to work on it...oops : ) David is flying through is section on decimals which is a welcome relief after fractions. Pat is doing well on his linear and volumetric measures after we decided to take a break from long division. Both are doing very well in their language arts sections and are still loving geography. We got our HUGE world map laminated this week and back up on the wall. We all were missing our geography game so that's great news. My Father's World continues to be the favorite for the boys and I'm so glad they are enjoying it. Our arts and craft class with Miss Tracy was a huge hit yesterday as the boys learned about cultural diversity, the 'melting pot' of America and why prejudice is wrong. They made a 'children around the world' poster back dropped by an American flag and they turned out very well!
On another note, as to my schedule adaptations from my last post...Dan has started taking one of those weekend days off each weekend, which is wonderful. So, I'll have to just keep preparing myself for those joyful days when we get a surprise day off of school : ) Reminds me that life doesn't always fit into the neat little boxes that I would like...LOL!
So, for next week, we have GOT to get to the library for some new books, spend some serious time reading those books, David needs to start his literary guide about Holes, Pat needs to continue working on nouns and cursive, Derek needs to play letter and number flashcards with Mama, plus practice writing his name, and I need to write a review of the patience copy work we are using. Another busy week in a homeschoolers haven!
Blessings and Homeschooling Happiness,
~K~

Notes From Rhonda

Where did January go? My how these months just fly by!
For February, Our shape is "Heart", Our number we are working on is "7", our color is "Pink", and we will be working and talking about eating healthy and exercise, so we'll be looking at healthy fruits and vegetables, healthy cooking, and healthy snacks. Our rhyme is "Queen Of Hearts" We will be doing lots of activies with hearts. Since it is "Dental Health Month", we will also be talking about dental health, I can't wait to tell about some ideas I have come up with to show Maria how to "Floss" her teeth!

Music music music! We took a class today on music and made "insturments" we made a drum, a shaker, and a jingle bell wristband. Then we sang and played our musical insturments. It was great fun! We also danced to music and when the music stoped we had to stop dancing.

Our art project today was "How many teeth do we have?" So we made a "mouth" and used marshmellows for the "Teeth" . We talked about how many teeth we have and read the story, "The Tooth Book" By Dr. Seuss.
"

Updated School Schedule~MeYeR's

Most of you know that we have been doing a 4 day school week so far this year, and to be honest I've really enjoyed it except for an occasional twinge of guilt that possibly we should be doing more than we can squeeze into 4 days. Since Dan is now not only working his 40 hours in Tularosa, but also working Fridays and Saturdays...I've decided that we should be working those days as well. Here's a few reasons why.

• The reason we were taking them off was to spend time with Dan...if he's not home, why NOT do school?
• We started school in OCTOBER, since we were in IL for most of September, and we weren't going to get a summer break this year, so this will help up get a little less behind.
• The boys are spending too much time in front of the TV when they aren't at school, and I'm tired of trying to pry them away from it, so more school equals less TV.
• With trying to fit a full week's worth of school into 4 days...we are skipping some of the fun stuff and some parts of school are just becoming a drag, even for me, so this will allow us more time to do the extra things that they enjoy so much.
• Both of the boys have an area where they are needing extra help and more time in the class room means more practice in problem areas.

So, here's the plan until Dan quits working weekends. ABeka each morning M-Th, Saturday afternoons but not Friday at all. MFW will still be T and TH afternoons with Jodi and James and we will do some of the extra projects on Friday which will become our Arts, Crafts and Library Day. I'm thinking about inviting a special friend who is the crafting queen to come and lead art classes on Friday morning...whee! Friday afternoons will be loads of reading those new library books, some life lessons and helping with the game night prep. I think that should do it! Thanks for letting me ramble and get a few things out of my head and onto 'paper' : )

~Kristy~

Homeschooling Tidbits

Another week of school is wrapped up at the MeYeR house and as they say, "All's well that ends well" Right? This week was a tiny bit Topsy Turvy, but we managed to get a good amount of work done, have some fun and still get our other things done. In our MFW curriculum, we are focusing on geography all year, with this month focusing on North America and this week and last focusing even more on Mexico. We've learned songs they like to sing, food they like to eat, the capital city, the agricultural aspects, the major religion and language, how to color the flag and what the colors of the flag stand for and many other interesting tidbits about Mexico...many of which, I'm humbled to say, I didn't know before...oops! (Education is SO wasted on the young) We've added a new starting and ending tradition to school. Every day we take turns finding things on our world map that hangs at the back of the classroom...everything for the obvious like the Pacific Ocean, to tiny little things that I've never even noticed before (geography is NOT my forte) The boys really love it. Even Derek tries to get in on the fun, I give him something obvious and then give him hints like what the first letter is and what direction to look, etc. It's fun...and a great way to learn the map. The older boys can hunt if given a certain line of longitude or latitude, or even just what hemisphere or continent to look in and such. I'm really pleased that they are enjoying it so much...they cheer when I say it's time for MFW...WOW! Even for book basket time, Pat will sit and pore over the atlas that I checked out from the library for hours at a time. And this is my child that several people have insisted has ADD or ADHD and needs to be medicated. NO, he needs to be interested! : ) The blessings of homeschooling...they are numerous!

On the flip side, our 'core' subjects of math and language arts aren't going quite as well, and I still get a BOO HISS now and then...but we are slowly working our way through it and are making progress. I'm trying not to think about how long this school 'year' will take at the rate we are going, but for now, I'm happy with any type of progress. David will be having some extra study time now that I'm working on Saturdays at the gym...so after he is done working out his muscles, he can exercise his brain while I work. Still pondering where to squeeze in a few extra hours for Pat without him noticing that much...LOL! David seems to be catching on in the Language area, but Pat is still struggling with long division. He understands the concept, but the amount of time it takes to solve one is frustrating for him. We will get there, it's just taking a tad longer than either of us expected. But, we are plugging away at it. As my good friend Rose told me once, "If you sling mud up against a wall for long enough, eventually it will stick." So, in other words, if I keep teaching it and working with him, eventually he will get it. So we may skip ahead in the book to something else and come back to it later...and I'm OK with that these days. Anywho, I'm rambling on and on...suffice it to say that we accomplished 'enough' to make us all happy this week and the boys are looking forward to a short week next week since Pat's birthday is Monday and we don't do school lessons on Fridays. Have a great week everyone, I don't know about you all, but I'm really enjoying this!
Blessings,
Kristy

Yeah for more Help!

Invites have been sent, they are being accepted and we are going to have some new authors...hurray! This is a place for you to share your home school journey, ask questions, offer advice and encouragement for those on the path with us, and just let others take a peek into the life that homeschooling offers. Please start with a brief bio of you, your family, your homeschooling 'style' (if you claim one) and why it works for your family. Ladies...this is gonna be great!! Thanks for joining me!
~K~

What to DO, What to Do???

I'm not sure what I want to do with this blog..anyone have any suggestions?? I thought it might be a fun way of sharing our homeschooling adventures, but haven't decided if I want to completely separate it from our 'regular' life adventures...Hmmmm. Anyone want to lend a hand, Join the party...etc? I'm open to having other team members write here. I'll be sending an invite to a few people.
Let me know, OK?