Homeschool Convention 2012

I spent the last 2 days at our state's homeschool convention!! I've gone for several years now, but this year was different, this year Sassy and MiniMe came with me! The last several years they've listened to some of the seminar CDs I've gotten (there are WAY too many seminars to go to them all, so I buy the CD or mp3 for the ones I want to hear but can't get to), so they had a good feel for what they were getting into as far as sitting in seminars. They generally have enjoy listening to the seminars even if they're not geared for kids specifically. So, they liked the idea of hearing some of the seminars in person, and they were intrigued by the idea of a huge vendor hall full of homeschool stuff. So, this spring they asked to go with me. When we started talking about it, and they found out that "Uncle Rick" from The Learning Parent was one of the speakers they for sure wanted to come. All three girls fall asleep at night to Uncle Rick Reading the Bible, and we've included several audiobooks, read by Uncle Rick, in our history as well.

So, the three of us headed out EARLY Friday morning. They had so much fun! We went to a mixture of seminars for me, and seminars for them. There was an animal guy there who did a seminar each day which the girls loved! And I have to admit, while I probably wouldn't have taken time to go to the one on Friday, for sure, if the girls hadn't been with me, he WAS really good!! And it was nice to just sit and enjoy seeing and hearing about animals instead of taking notes and stuff like I do in most of the seminars. And Jim Weiss had some seminars that were basically just him telling stories and he's AWESOME at telling stories!! So those were lots of fun too.

The girls also had money burning a hole in their pocket to spend in the vendor hall, so we spent quite abit of time there. Being my girls, they of course, spent their money on . .. books!! As we were walking through the vendor hall, Sassy said "that's Uncle Rick!!" She said she thought it might be him when she saw him, but then when she heard his voice, she knew for sure. He was soo nice! Took time to tell the girls all about how he trains bloodhounds. They were thrilled! As you can tell from the picture I took of them with him above.

We met my friend Monica, and her 8 year old son, M there. The kids had never met each other, so were shy at first, but before very long they'd warmed up and were chattering away, and seemed to hit it of well. Monica had generously offered to let us stay in their hotel room with them Fri night, so we had a nice evening visiting together, and with some of Monica's friends, who had come just for Friday, but came and ate supper with us before heading back.

I also got a chance to meet a couple people who have been on the TOS Crew with me, in person, so that was fun!

As always, the convention was nowhere near long enough, and also, as always, one of my main expenses was purchasing the CDs of all the wonderful sounding seminars that I didn't have time to attend. That means we have lots of great car-listening material to keep us busy for awhile :)

The girls did great! It was a good weekend all around.

Meanwhile at home, Daddy and Little Bit had 2 days together, just them! In preparation, we went shopping and I had Little Bit help me buy cheerios for her to "share with Daddy", and at her request, we also bought "daddy candy" (sweettarts), for him to share with her LOL. When we got home from the store, she put both boxes in her playhouse and, when Daddy got home, she told him about them and said "I'll have to get them for us tomorrow, because I'm little" (her playhouse is a felt house over a card table, so kid-size, not daddy-size).

On Friday Daddy took Little Bit to Chuck-E-Cheese and out for ice cream. All was going well until bedtime. BUT it wasn't me, she missed at bedtime, it was "Sissies"! Rodney said she had a HUGE meltdown over the fact that Sissies weren't here for her to sleep with. He finally ended up laying down with her in their room until she fell asleep. I had figured she wouldn't want to sleep in there alone, but had assumed she'd be fine with sleeping in our bed with Rodney. No such luck. Needless to say, big sisters were pretty proud of the fact that THEY were who Little Bit had missed LOL.

So that was our Homeschool Convention fun for this year!

TOS Crew Review: Judah Bible

A few years ago, I was reading something homeschool related, and came across the idea of the the Principle Approach to homeschooling.  As I first read about it, the Principle Approach is homeschooling while placing emphasis on a Biblical Worldview and incorporating the Bible into all subjects. I *love* that idea!! And, while we're much too eclectic to pick one approach and follow it to the letter, I *do* try to keep our focus on God, and help my children (and myself) to remember that God is in EVERYTHING, not just when we have "Bible study" on our schedule. So, I have been wanting, ever since, to look into the Principle Approach and see about incorporating some of it's ideas into our schooling/life.

Needless to say, when I had the chance to review the Judah Bible Curriculum, as soon as I saw that it is "A Principle Approach curriculum for Bible class", I was excited! To make it even better, since the big girls had recently switched from attending their own class at church, to being helpers in Little Bit's class (where I lead), I had been keeping my eyes open for something to use with them during our evening Bible lesson time.

The Judah Bible Curriculum is designed to be used for Bible for all ages (K-12). It can be purchased in a hard copy ($74, including shipping) or download ($44). We received the download version for this review. Regardless of which version you choose, you receive:

•  the K-12 manual
• an elementary notebooking idea boo
• and an 8 lecture "Teacher Training Seminar" audio

The program is designed to be used for Kindergarten through 12th grade, going through the Bible once per year for 6 years, then repeating back through it all, going more in depth for older children. The "textbook" of this curriculum is the Bible, supplemented by various Bible study aids such as Bible dictionaries, atlases, commentary, etc. 

One nice thing about this, for use in a homeschool environment, is that none of this is "age specific". So, while, in a classroom environment, specific topics are listed for specific grade-levels, in a homeschool environment, the whole family can work through the 6 year cycle together, then start over. The "class" (or family, as the case might be), spends one week on each topic. Reading the Bible passage, and then digging deeper by focusing on key events, individuals, etc. and learning to use Bible study aids.

As I began reading through the manual, I was excited to be reminded of the importance of teaching children to study the Bible for themselves, and to encourage them to study deeply and draw their own conclusions. I was excited to get tips on how to implement this, something that I'm still learning for myself, with young children. However, as I got past the introductory section that was telling me what this curriculum was going to teach, I found that this is a pretty high-level manual. It never drills down to a step by step of HOW to teach this, especially for young children. There are examples of what/how to do, but after the initial examples, for each week the curriculum just lists the theme, and Bible passage to focus on. The recommendation is for the teacher to spend time ahead of class studying the passage on his/her own, and then guide the children through the passage. This makes this, by far, the most teacher-preparation-time intensive curriculum I've used. 

One thing that I hadn't realized, is that there's a major focus, in the principal approach, on government, and how a Biblical worldview will affect government. You can read about it here. 

This program has alot of potential!!! I feel soo strongly in the value of teaching children to dig deeply into God's word, and to incorporate God's will into all aspects of our life and homeschool, so I love that emphasis in this curriculum, and the principal approach in general. However, I'm struggling with this. I think many homeschool moms (and dads, but for ease of writing, since in most cases mom is the primary teacher, I'm going to go with moms)want everything spelled out step-by-step, first teach this, then teach that . . . This curriculum does NOT do that. On the other hand, there are homeschool moms who like to do their own thing (as you probably know, if you've read my blog much, I fall into that category). The problem with this curriculum for that group is that . . . we can probably figure out this type of thing without a curriculum. In fact, other than the specific Bible passages recommended, this approach is pretty similar to what I've been doing with the girls for morning Bible time for the past year. . . so really, this curriculum seems to be targeted at a niche market of those who strongly want to teach their children about the above mentioned worldview/government philosophy. In that case, this curriculum does a great job of breaking the Bible down into topics that focus on this philosophy and the audios, and related book excerpts, available on the website once you've purchased the curriculum, give tons of information pertaining to this idea.

My recommendation, if the principal approach intrigues you, would be to read carefully through the philosophy of education. If you like what you see, and are excited to dig deeply into these topics on your own, and then teach them to your children, this might be a great fit for you!

What would I change? I think this would appeal to a wider audience if it gave more step-by-step instructions for implementing the program.  I also think it would be very helpful if printables for the lower grades were included. The manual recommends using coloring pages for the youngest children. And the curriculum includes a 60 page book of "notebooking ideas", but these are all samples of notebooking pages prepared by students, while many of the ideas can be prepared on plain notebook paper, there are quite a few that are on specific forms. Maps, coloring pages, or other forms. If you want to use these ideas you are going to have to hunt down the printables, or create them, on your own, they aren't included. For the price of this curriculum, I would expect to get the printables as well.  The curriculum does include printables for summarizing key points but this is geared toward older children, not lower elementary.

Because we were already doing something similar for Bible time, and because I chose not to put extreme focus on the government aspect of things, my children didn't really notice a difference when we switched to this curriculum. It did mean we jumped back to Genesis, instead of the NT where we'd been reading, but beyond that, they didn't see a much change. To avoid burdening them with too much writing, and because we were already doing Bible notebooking for our morning Bible time, I chose not to incorporate the notebooking aspect of this curriculum, but since the curriculum doesn't provide printables, the notebooking would be essentially the same as their morning Bible notebooking, just focused on different topics.

Be sure to check out my crew-mates' reviews to see how other families used this product!

Disclaimer: I received the above mentioned product in exchange for writing an honest review. No other compensation was received and all opinions are those of myself or my children, as stated.

C is for Cute

Little Bit is 37 months old

This past week was "C" Week for Little Bit, here's some of the fun we had:


She is still LOVING the sensory bin! I was lazy and just used the pinto beans again, but obviously switched out the stuff in the bin for "C" stuff. C was a fun letter since it included a "can" and a "cup", so lots of pouring fun.

We sang the "C" memory verse song from Songs for Saplings. 

Each day we sang "The C says c" from Leapfrog

I printed, and laminated the letter C from 1+1+1=1's Animal ABCs. We put it on our white board for the week.

Little Bit made the cutand glue letter C from the Animal ABCs

Each day in her sensory bin, Little Bit found 3 chocolate caramel candies, one for each of the girls. 

I printed and laminated these "road" letter C's for her to drive a matchbox-type car on.

Little Bit is loving playdoh! So I went through and pulled out several "C" cookie cutters for her to use this week.  I also printed the C playdoh mat from 1+1+1=1's Animal ABCs for her to play with.

I printed a C do-a-dot page for her to put magnets on.

I printed a "C" cut and paste page and let her cut out the pictures and glue them around the C.

I printed and laminated the letter C  pattern block page from this site. That page also has the pattern blocks you can print out. We already have pattern blocks similar to these, but this week we took it with us to MiniMe's piano lesson, and used our magnetic pattern blocks instead.

We played with the letter C beanbags from the sets of alphabet bean bags the grandmothers made for Little Bit for her birthday.

She continues to love the salt box (salt in a plastic shoe box), but generally just sifts it through her fingers and draws random designs in it,  or covers my hand with it. 

I printed a couple different C coloring pages for her to color, and we added them to her ABC book. 

We read "C" themed books. I went through our bookshelves and pulled out any that seemed in her age range. I also got some from the library.

On Friday we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and she added a C sticker to her  "Coconut Tree" (inflatable palm tree from the dollar store).

This last picture is only a "C" thing because it's made out of crackers. Little Bit was eating crackers for a snack and came up with this flower all on her own. She was soo proud of herself :) 


To see what other Tots are doing, check out this link.

Weekly Wrap-up - May 6

Well, it's finally warming back up, but we're getting all those April showers we didn't get in April, sigh . . .

Despite that, we had a good week.

This week was our first time of Sassy and Little Bit coming with us to MiniMe's piano lesson (daddy was available to watch them the last 2 weeks). It worked fine. I brought a selection of things from Little Bit's "school" and worked on them with her quietly on the floor while MiniMe had her lesson, and Sassy read a book and knitted. Of course, it got Sassy inspired to decide SHE wants music lessons too. But she wants violin lessons. I told her that might have to wait abit . . . It doesn't seem "fair", but that was why I talked to her about if she was going to want lessons, before I agreed to MiniMe's lessons. I knew the budget wouldn't allow for adding 2 sets of music lessons right now, so if she wanted them too, we'd have to decide how to handle it. But at that point she assured me she did NOT want lessons, so we went ahead with MiniMe's lessons. Now that MiniMe is already going on her lessons, I'm not going to mess with that for right now, so we'll see what the future brings . . . I'm guessing it will mean asking the grandparents to contribute to both girls' lessons for xmas presents, but we'll see . . .

For the new month, I came up with a new way of menu planning. I wrote out a whole month of meal suggestions and then the girls get to use that list to choose the meals for each week. They take into consideration what we have scheduled that week, and then they choose meals, and come up with the shopping list. So far it's worked well. The girls are "owning" the meals more, and having fun with it. And, of course, learning tons of important life skills like menu planning and shopping skills, besides cooking. This coming week will be more challenging, we have alot going on to keep in mind while figuring out meals, we'll see how it goes . . .

My "spare time" has been spent pulling things together for the girls' end-of-year evaluation for homeschool (coming up this Thurs), and also pulling things together for homeschool convention (coming up this Friday).

In school we are:
Enjoying learning about the ocean for science

Using a computer program for the girls to practice their math facts

Notebooking through the Old Testament for Bible

Reading tons of fun books about the War of 1812 for history

As part of getting the girls' homeschool portfolios together, I listed out all the Junior Ranger badges they earned this year. While I may have missed one or two, it still is a rather impressive list, thought I'd brag on my kids abit and share it here (in no particular order):

Valley Forge

Hopewell Furnace

Assateague Island National Seashore

Clara Barton

Glen Echo Park

C&O Canal

Ford’s Theatre

Independence

Jamestown

Monocacy National Battlefield

Fort Necessity

Rock Creek Park

Cherry Blossom Festival

I think I mentioned a few months ago that Little Bit decided one day, to start sleeping in "Sissies' room" and never looked back.  Well, she truely HAS never looked back. Once or twice when she's been congested or something I've brought her to our bed, but she's completely transitioned to her bed in "the girls' room". Sabbath morning I peaked into the girls' room on my way to the shower and this picture is what I saw (Sassy was awake and reading her Bible on her bed, on the other side of MiniMe). Don't mind the clutter by MiniMe's head, poor child is related to her mommy, so I've given up on convincing her to keep that area uncluttered, sigh . . . 

Given the size of our house we don't really have a choice about sharing bedrooms, and it was the older girls' choice to move down and sleep under the loft when I started talking about setting up a bed for Little Bit there, but I LOVE this! I love that they can cuddle together! This morning I woke up to find Little Bit sleeping in Sassy bed. Sassy said she woke up fussing and wanted to cuddle, awww . . . 

Book Review: Heaven in Her Arms

In Heaven in Her Arms by Catherine Hickem looks at the relationship Mary, the mother of Jesus, had with her Son.  Hickem offers practical applications for mothers today to learn from Mary.

I don't think I've ever reviewed something that I found it necessary to say do NOT buy this! But I feel like that's what I need to do with this book. I was soo excited about this book from the description. I love digging deep into the PEOPLE of the Bible, and seeing what we can learn from them, as we look at them as people, not just 2-dimensional words on a page of an ancient book. So I had high hopes for this book. However, as I began to read it, I was not only disappointed, I was appalled!

I knew this wasn't a book for me when the author shares a story in which she tells of a mother bringing her 4 year old daughter with her to a counseling session. The child was, according to Ms. Hickem, out-of-control. Not obeying when her mother asked her to come sit quietly. Ms. Hickem proceeds to describe, in the book, how she, the counselor, whom the child had just met, physically held the child, "kicking and screaming" to keep her in the corner for more than half an hour, until she "made a different choice" (as an adult, I'm not clear on what that different choice was, I  assume it meant sitting quietly instead of kicking and screaming, though I'm pretty sure that I don't want anyone teaching my child, at any age, to submit quietly to a much bigger/stronger stranger physically holding them down) . The author ends this description with these words "When the little girl finally broke, I bent down and told her she had just made a really good choice . . ."  I am appalled at this kind of "parenting advice" especially implying that this is how Mary parented Jesus! I am quite certain I do NOT want my children described as "broken" as if that's a good thing! If this was just a book I had purchased or borrowed, I would have closed it and been done with it as soon as I read those words. But since this was a book I had agreed to review, I felt I needed to continue reading.

The next chapter described how the author and her husband,upon deciding to adopt, gave their lawyer a list of "criteria" for the child, and the child's birth parents, that, again, left me appalled. Here's a woman who put in her "order" for a child with "higher than average intelligence" and a whole list of other things I won't go into, WHAT?!?!?! The great irony of this to me is, had Mary chosen to put her Son up for adoption, JESUS would not have met this woman's criteria for a child to adopt!!! Why should I read this woman's ideas about what kind of a mother Mary was if someone meeting Mary's description isn't even qualified to be the birth mother of her own adopted child?

Still, I pushed on through another chapter or two, trying to "follow the rules" and read the whole book. But what I found was, at this point, I was so ANGRY at what I'd already read, the disrespect toward children and adoption, that even when she made a point that, on it's own, would be good, all I could see was how it contradicted the very thing she had described in the earlier chapters. I finally gave up, there may very well be some good points in this book, but the horrendous parenting advice and attitude toward adoption, that is present in those first few chapters negates any good that might be found in the book, in my opinion!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

TOS Review: Homeschool Library Builder

Those who know me "in real life" already know this, but for the rest of you, I have a small obsession with books! The entry area of our home has some pretty little shelves, complete with lighting recessed into them, you know, for displaying prettily arranged knick knacks. But from the second I walked into this house, I was calculating just how many books I could fit on those shelves. They are PACKED FULL of books. I even had my dad add an extra shelf to make sure I fully utilized the space, no big, lit, decorative shelves for me, just let me fill those shelves with books.Lest you think those are ALL the books in my house, nope. I have 2 big bookcases in the dining room, a smaller book case in the girls' room, boxes of books I don't have room to unpack (things like Shakespeare, that the girls are too young for), and piles of books in most rooms just because, either I'm reading them, or I don't have room for them on the shelves.  Every few months I sit in my living room and contemplate adding a shelf all the way around the top of the room, just to give me more space for books.

So, I think you get the idea, I kinda like books.  We use our public library EXTENSIVELY, but books, not textbooks, but "real" books, are still one of or main homeschool expenses, and I *always* have a long "wishlist" of books I want to get but haven't found at a price I'm willing to pay.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear of a new-to-me, website all about books, to build homeschoolers' libraries! What more could I ask for?!?!?!

Homeschool Library Builder is a site that sells books to homeschoolers. They have a variety of books, some new, some used. From what I've seen on the site, the prices seem reasonable. One thing that I think is really cool is that they have a category called "Search by Curriculum" this would be IDEAL if you are using a curriculum like Ambleside. Just click on the curriculum you're using to see what books they have for that curriculum. Isn't that handy? Too bad we're WAY too eclectic to follow a curriculum LOL.

When you become a member of HLB (which is FREE to join!), you'll receive a monthly newsletter with information about sale items. For May, the special is a 25% off sale! Membership also allows you to earn points toward future purchases, and some other great benefits!

So, if you're looking for books for your homeschool, or just for your family, this is a great place to check!  And if you decide to become a member, or make a purchase, if you don't mind entering "Broad Horizons" as your referral, I'll get some extra book points for my own future purchases!

See what other Crew members think of Homeschool Library Builder here.

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I was asked to promote HLB. I did not receive any compensation. I will receive book points from HLB for anyone who lists me as a referrer when they purchase from HLB.  Additionally, I was given a coupon code to use for my own purchase, if any, during the month of May. All opinions are my own.

The B Says B, The Be Says B . . .

Little Bit is 37 months old

This week was "B Week" for Little Bit. Here's what we did:

• A "B" Sensory in. This was alot easier than A for some reason, we had TONS of small B toys around. I used a bigger bin, and filled it with dry pinto beans. I'm not sure she ever made it to the bottom of this one, but she loved it just the same (on a side note, if you've ever cooked with dry beans and considered NOT rinsing them first, don't! The first day or two that she played with this her hands were BLACK after sifting through the dry beans, sigh . . . ) 
• We sang the "B" song from Songs for Saplings. 
• Each day we sang "The B says b, the B says b, every letter makes a sound, the B says b" (anyone who's seen Leapfrog videos, no doubt recognizes the song LOL).
• I printed, and laminated the letter B from 1+1+1=1's Animal ABCs. We put it on our white board for the week.
• The above Animal ABCs also has a plain letter B, and then Bears to cut out and glue onto the B. Little Bit cut out the Bears and glued them on the B, then we added the page to her "ABC book".
• We had biscuits for breakfast one day, bananas for snacks, and banana muffins for breakfast another day.
• I printed and laminated these "road" letter B's for her to drive a matchbox-type car on.
• I printed a Butterfly do-a-dot page for her to put the magnets an
• I printed a "B" cut and paste page and let her cut out the pictures and glue them around the B.
• I printed and laminated the letter B pattern block page from this site. That page also has the pattern blocks you can print out. We already have pattern blocks similar to these, so we used them. 
• We played with the letter B beanbags from the sets of alphabet bean bags the grandmothers made for Little Bit for her birthday.
• She continues to love the salt box (salt in a plastic shoe box), but generally just sifts it through her fingers and draws random designs in it,  or covers my hand with it. On Friday, when Sassy was the teacher, they added some rocks and "dew drops" (blue flat marble thingys, for putting in the bottom of vases and such) so now she hunts for those, covers them up, etc.
• I also printed a couple different B coloring pages for her to color, and we added them to her ABC book. 
• We read lots of B themed books, and alphabet books this week. I went through our bookshelves and pulled out any that seemed in her age range. I also got some from the library.
• I got an inflatable palm tree from the dollar store (conveniently they have a bunch of "luau" theme party stuff right now). We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and she put an A sticker (because we didn't get to it last week) and a B sticker, on the "Coconut Tree". My plan is to continue adding stickers each week. 

Find more Tot School ideas here.