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Showing posts from August, 2014

R is for Right ~ Doing Things Right

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Do you ever feel like everything you do is wrong; that you can do nothing right?  I do sometimes feel like that.  I can’t seem to keep my house clean enough or be consistent enough with getting enough school done in a day.  My laundry system is failing (ok ok it’s currently non-existent). If I have a great day with school and chores, I somehow can’t manage to get dinner cooked. When things start feeling overwhelming ~ the lesson plans aren’t done, the laundry is piling up, menu plans are a distant thought in a galaxy far far away ~ it becomes important to think about the things you are getting right. For me, anyway, I need to step back and look at what is going well or when I am doing things right . This past week I finished reading Getting Rid of It: Eliminating Clutter from Your Life by Betsy and Warren Talbot.  I liked the book OK (that’s a two star rating on Goodreads). I don’t think a 40 something year old, home schooling mama who doesn’t have an outside career is the intended

Random 5 on Friday ~ August 29th Edition

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This is the last Friday in August.  I am very sad to see August end.  I’m sorry to see summer end.  I love summer. Spring is my favorite season but oh I do so love summer here in the Pacific Northwest. 1. Turtlegirl, Tailorbear and Boobear went camping two weeks ago.  They were with our Church.  Like last year they camped at Mt Rainer National Park and went hiking. Unlike last year, they did not have a camera so this picture is from last year. 2. The grandparents arrived for a week long visit.  They drove out.  Yes DROVE.  2000 miles one way.  Usually they fly, but not this time.  They left a couple of days ago and we were already missing them as soon as the door had closed. While they were here we had fun playing games like Sequence, Farkle, TransEuropa, Clue and even the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary edition of Yahtzee. We fed ducks at the local park.  The husband, children, and grandparents made a day trip to Mount Rainer for a picnic. I stayed home and wrote out lesson plans. It w

5 Random Quirky Cat Habits

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I know it’s Saturday and a Random 5 on Friday just doesn’t really flow on Saturday but this is certainly not the first time I’ve posted a Random 5 on Friday on a Saturday. I also need a q topic for ABC Blogging so this post has a theme. Cats are, I think, quirky by nature but some some kitty habits are strange even by cat standards. As a married couple Honeybear and I have adopted 4 cats and had one cat adopt us. Each cat has been completely different in personality and each one has had a least one quirky habit! 1. Cats like to play. That’s not quirky.  Cats like to jump up on things.  That’s not quirky. But Daisy liked to play with pens. She loved them. She loved to bat them all over the floor and chase them. She preferred pens or pencils over traditional cat toys like balls of string.  What made her really fascinating to watch: she would help herself to her toys. She would jump up on the desk, pull a pen out of the cup, drop it on the floor, jump down and begin her play session.

Downloadable Math Drill Software: UberSmart Math Facts {A Crew Review}

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Mastering basic facts can be a chore. A student might master the concept of addition or subtraction but still need lots of practice and reinforcement to memorize the math facts. A common method to achieve memorization includes drill with flashcards. In this digital age you can also find online programs to drill those math facts. Many of those drill programs are flashy, colorful and are more “game oriented” than learning oriented. Usually those programs require a subscription because they are entirely internet based. UberSmart Math Facts from UberSmart Software is different. This Downloadable software comes with a license that allows you to install on all your [Windows based] computers. It is a computerized flashcard based drill program. There are no flashy characters.  No quests to perform. No animation that can distract students. That sounds boring, doesn’t it? But it’s not boring. Really. Three of my girls used this program and I played around it.  Not once did I hear “mom, this

Back to School Celebration Giveaway

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My friend Karen from Tots and Me is celebrating both back to school and her 5 year Blogiversary. I am so excited to co-host this giveaway with her! She’s giving away a set of Supergirl’s favorite DVDs! Fascinating World of Series from Brain Food Learning . I think this giveaway is worth entering just for a chance to win those!  And we co-hosts are offering your choice of a $30 Amazon Gift Card or PayPal!  You know you want to enter!  I almost wish I wasn’t participating so I could win a copy of The Well Planned Day. I reviewed an earlier edition of The Reading Game. How cool that they have a 2nd edition now.  So check out the great products that Tots and Me put together! Have you used any of these products before?   Welcome to the Back to School/5 Year Blogiversary Giveaway Hosted by: Tots and Me Co-Hosted by: Chestnut Grove Academy , Circling Through This Life , and The Shady Lane Back to school time is here!     The summer, once again, just flew by and now it is time to thi

Making Do Without a Homeschool Room

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I have always wanted a separate space for homeschooling.  A place where we could have everything set up and not worry about it wandering all over the house.  A room with a door so we could exit the room, close the door, and not see the in progress experiments or drying art projects.  A space large enough with a comfy couch for snuggling and read alouds yet also big enough for a big dining room table for experiments and “seat work.”  Oh and of course plenty of shelf space for great books. I’d love a closet to store book supplies.  Oh and a desk for mom with space for a computer, printer, copier and scanner. Yes that was my fantasy.  My reality?  We live in an 1100 square foot 3 bedroom house with no attic, no basement and no dedicated storage space.  2 parents, 4 children and 2 cats.  We moved here when my oldest was in Kindergarten.  She’s about to start her sophomore year in college. The girls were so little that we put all four of them into one bedroom.  We tried using the 3rd bedro

First Day Traditions ~ Back to Homeschool Blog Hop

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As I said earlier this week, we have tended towards a year-round/take-as-much-time as-we-need approach to home schooling when the girls were younger. There is just something about taking a least a couple of weeks off at the end of summer before beginning a new school year. We’re odd ducks here because I call it the first day of school and it is the start of a new school calendar but we might not actually be starting new curriculum. We might just be picking up where we left off. (For Turtlegirl, especially, we are not really starting anything new in September.)  But I want there to be something different.  Something special.  Something that marks the changing of one school year to another. One thing that I have always done was, to quote Turtlegirl, “pass out pretty new school supplies like new pencils and notebooks.  That’s always my favorite.”  BooBear remembers that back when we used Sonlight I would often save “Box Day,” the opening of the box with all the wonderful new books, for

Planning: The High School Courses

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**Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!** For the last three days I’ve talked about planning. When I plan, I start with determining my school calendar and then I begin figuring out my course of study .  Yesterday I talked about types of planners . Since I’m working through our course of study I have lots of curriculum on my mind.  Because we get to review so much great stuff we often set aside a  program and then come back to it. Some of the curriculum listed is “in progress” and we want to finish it. Turtlegirl’s Course of Study Math:   She’ll finish up CTC Math Geometry and then go back to VideoText Algebra. She is nearly 1/2 way through both but might not finish both before the end of the year.  That’s OK. When all is said and done she’ll have 1 Credit Algebra 1 (already has that), 1 Credit Algebra 2 and 1 credit Geometry. English: We’ll start with High School Essay Intensive from Institute for Excellence in Writing. We’ll also do some

Planning: Digital, Paper, or Both?

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**Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!** I love planners.  A couple of weekends ago I was on a date with Honeybear and we stopped in an office supply store. He left me behind in the planner and office supply section.  He wandered over someplace else because he knew I had found a bit of my heaven. When I say planners I don’t just mean lesson planners or homeschool planners. I love home management planners and meal planners and plain calendar collections. I have digital planners, paper planners, planning software and even a planner based in Excel! Just last week I received the 7 Minute Life Daily Planner to review. (Look for the review Mid-September!) On Monday I talked about Planning: The School Calendar .  I use the School Year Calendar tool in Homeschool Tracker Plus (HST + )to create the school calendar. This is a downloadable software. Unfortunately, it is no longer being offered but Homeschool Tracker does offer Homeschool Tracker Online.

Planning: The Course of Study

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**Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!** Before I can make lesson plans or create assignment sheets I must know what we are actually studying. My two favorite planners for planning our courses is the Course of Study page from the TOS Schoolhouse Digital Planner . Did you know that if you purchase a membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com you get access to all of the TOS Digital Planners ? I know I digress but tomorrow I’ll be talking more about the different planners available from The Old Schoolhouse . Yes, it’s a digital planner but what does that mean?  It means that it is a PDF. It is not software like Homeschool Tracker Plus or Homeschool Tracker Online. But the TOS Planners can be printed out or you can just type right into the planner. You can use the SAVE AS to create a planner for each of your children. When I first start to plan the courses I print out a copy for each of my students. This is like a scratch copy or rough draft. I list