Digging into Writing...

Well this is an update photo from last week's ART lessons...The boys are loving the  lessons and equally as fun showing them to dad when he gets home from work.

This year as I have posted about already I decided to get some creative writing help both online and through my wonderful new writing teacher for the boys, Jennifer. She is using Excellence in Writing courses , which the boys seem to be enjoying very much. I think that it is a win win for us..someone else who is very positive and has taught several different age groups. My good friend, Sandi L., was the one who turned me on to her:), from my numerous talks with her about our troubles with writing. I think so often when we are homeschooling I totally think of having to do it all. But that just isn't the case...after going on our 5th year of doing this and failing at trying to teach the boys something that isn't my strong point either, it was time to get help. That's something that I hope all homeschooling parents, grandparents,etc. take from my blog is if you can't teach it in a way that helps your kiddos then find someone who can! In fact, I also have in the works for the 2nd semester for Alex is an online high school research writing course.  We are in the mode where we are preparing for the SAT tests that I want him to take sometime next year.

So are you "out sourcing" anything this year?

New Art Programs I just ADDED:)

Artistic Pursuits Senior High Book 1

Home School Art Studio
http://www.jerrysartarama.com/discount-art-supplies/dvds/home-school-art-studio-program.htm

OH YEAH!! Well we really don't do too much back to school shopping especially for school supplies. You know there is no reason to buy those things every year. We buy what we need, when we need it. But we are so excited for the first ever in this house art programs for the boys! Shane (aka artist hubby) has taught them since we started homeschooling. This year he is extremely busy and I didn't want them to go the whole year without having some art in their day. Found the  Home School Art Studio  on one of the sites I admin on and love what I saw of it so far. For Alex (aka high schooler) I found Artistic Pursuits Senior High Book 1 and loved the reviews I found of it online. My plan is to have them do at least two lessons a week, and then have the art teacher (aka dad) look them over. In hopes of getting more done this year I am setting up a schedule for us to do Spanish, geography and Art two to three times a week. At least then I will not stress out when i want them to do it every day but life gets in the way!

Just signed the boys up for music, writing, 4H, basketball (for Alex), skateboarding (for Anthony) classes which means we will be out a lot this year! That doesn't even include Alex's volunteering, new cooking class, nature classes, and so many more camps that I am having them do this year. I want them to have so much fun this year learning and playing that they forget they are learning!

I still, of course, have to find time with all of this to do the basics! BUT I did find out that my favorite spelling/vocabulary site just added a APP for the iphone/ ipods so at least I can have them do some spelling or vocabulary matching definition  games while we are driving!

Week 2 under our belts

Well while we are not totally back to full speed we are doing things like spelling test online, geography and religion study, music, an anything we feel like doing for the week!!
 I wanted to share a couple videos for our country of the week.. AUSTRALIA!!

Boys thought this one was a bit usual.....

OK and this one... I had a hard time explaining that Australia  was the dumping ground for England.
Along with watching videos on Australia, we did some coloring in the Geography Coloring Book and the boys looked at some religion in Australia links from the Usborne World of Religion.

We are gearing up for the "full" load of school work..it just is going to take some time. And you know what? THAT'S OK!!

The importance of fractions

 I was really hoping on some down time on our break to be able to post more about the resources I have found through homeschooling my boys. Also, to highlight other bloggers out that that have been an inspiration to me. But like a lot of things around here....they are started but not finished!! My ADD allows me to multi-task like you wouldn't believe but sometimes something more shiny takes the place of those things less shiny:(

So for this post I wanted to highlight some of the importance of fractions... My high schooler still hates to do problems that requires him to use fractions. His own ADHD brain doesn't see a need for them. Until I can get him to realize that YES he needs to know the ins and outs of fractions, they are not going to stick!

Some fraction lessons that work for my visual learner are video lessons like from this site. Of course, there is always YouTube with its mountain of videos at your fingers tips( My personal favorite is Captain Fraction, who saves the day.. half way anyways see the short clip above). Then there are sites that you pay per lesson for like Lesson Planet or AdaptedMind, which has them broken down by grade level. (for those of you that know which grade level your kiddo is at). I felt like my boys received the best lessons in the way of  fun, cartoon style lessons from our favorite resource Time4Learning. I even have weeks where we do a math spelling list, this gives us all a refresher on what the math words mean... like denominator is which the bottom number or the top? Not to simplify it too much but honestly if you have a student that could give a flying *&#@ about fractions OR is young do you really start with the long definition?? Maybe you do?


There are a ton of articles to explain the importance of fractions just google the "importance of fractions" and take your pick. What resources do you use for helping your kiddos understand fractions better?

MADE IN THE USA? It's like " Where's Waldo?"

There is so much more to the way I homeschool then finding the latest spelling test online, geography games for the boys to play or even the newest games for learning.

I was recently looking for a microscope for the boys science labs this year and found myself ...welll LOST. I reached out to Bob from The Homeschool Science site, to find out what kind of microscope he would suggest. ( I plan on using his program for the boys biology lessons this year, he has some FABULOUS SCIENCE KITS!) He immediately got back to me, which is always helpful for this ADD mom, who can get side-tracked easily and....look something SHINY!! OK I am back:) He gave me an amazing list of brands, options to look for and that almost all the affordable ones were made in... you will never guess....China. He also commented on making sure that you buy on that is QC (quality control) BEFORE it is shipped out. WHO would have thought that was something that you had to make sure about!? A couple emails later, I was pleased to hear that he too, tries to include made in the USA items in his kits. He even said that if it didn't cost double for the items that he could find that were made in the USA, he would use only those.

We ,as a family, are always looking at trying to find things made in the USA. It just seems important, with so many of our friends and family out of work at the present time. I found several places that make gardening gloves, Shane (aka hubby) buys oil paints made in the USA. Just wondering what you all buy that is still made in the USA, I think that is very important to try and find things that are made here OR in what ever country you live in. Supporting local farmers markets, mom and pop stores, artists and others is the only way to show our government that we do STILL care about supporting local jobs!

Well that's my two cents anyways... what is yours?

My review of Magic Mike movie....

Well this post isn't about homeschooling in the least bit... well unless you count my take on this "chick" flick and whether or not to make it a homeschool mama's night out event!  I thought maybe it would be a "fun" movie, with let's face it sexy men shaking their money makers, I thought it can't be as bad as they say it is.


Now maybe it was the before movie drinks OR lack of enough drinks but they reports are true. NO plot and terrible acting, sure the dancing was nice but honestly...well you are here so you know I am going to just fill in the blank of what I think right??(sorry needed to add in something for my need to let you walk away with some homeschooling info!) I think if I am going to take the time and money to go and see a movie nowadays I need some sort of story to follow. This one had me wanting to sneak into the Batman movie right down the hall, to see a fully clothed Mr Bale. 


I should tell you that I did go with 3 other awesome homeschooling mamas who said they liked it. SO I will leave it up to you.. maybe you should wait until it is at a more appropriate $1 showing of it!

Math... Don't make the same mistake I DID!

Word to the newbies who might be starting their homeschool journey with a visual learner... too many worksheets/workbooks will make you both GO CRAZY! When I first started our journey, I thought like school should be the way I teach the boys( cuz it worked so well up until then...NOT but I didn't know how else to teach them) with lessons then a butt load of worksheets. It didn't help that most of my new homeschooling friends had kiddos that COULD do worksheets all day long and learn from them. My experience was the youngest who can do as many worksheets as I give him had no problem. The oldest well he made me think he was doing them all, I was giving him a ton of them that it was hard me to remember which ones I gave him! I am happily grading worksheets and returning them to him to go over the ones he got wrong. What is the point in moving on if he doesn't get it right? That is when I realized that we were missing some worksheets, ABOUT HALF of the ones I had assigned or handed back to him in the past 6 months was missing.  OK so yes my ADD tends to have me all organized and on top of things at first, until I get the routine down then I think hey I don't need no stinking check list anymore...... WRONG!


FAST FORWARD TO PRESENT TIME..

In our house, it is a mix of online math and workbook type math learning. This holds especially true with our high school math lessons.... this past year for the 9th grade math. My 9th grader did a mix of subjects for math last year, he started with personal finance, then to accounting through a couple of free resources online, and finished by starting pre-algebra (which he doesn't care for). We found an online site that is pretty close to the way Time4learning teaches lessons, they cost more but since Time4learning only goes up to 8th grade it was something I felt like we needed. Since he learned so much from that style of funny yet engaging lessons.  He does still do some worksheets but they are only to make sure that he gets the new math concept days after the initial lesson. 


So are are a online, worksheet lesson or BOTH kind of family?

How SpellingCity has helped us!

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Did I ever tell you that I am a terrible speller?? Yes, I am!! As a child and even as an adult, spelling is hard for me (guess who was doing a happy dance when SPELL CHECK was invented!). Thanks to my boys I am getting better, since I have to teach them spelling it is only natural that I would get better at it too. But my secret (well not so secret) weapon in SpellingCity! We have been homeschooling for 5 years now and we still use many of the "tools" that they provide! (mostly free even though we did upgrade last year to a premium membership or was it the year before?!)

For those of you who don't know about SpellingCity...I want to give you a list of some of their FREE resources!

They just updated their teacher spelling resources page with some great new items. I have used it A LOT over our homeschooling adventure. If you have been on their then you already know about their online spelling games, which my boys love...their all time favorite is probably LetterFall or HangMouse. (if you want to know.. my favorite is their word search maker...I loved doing these as a child STILL DO) BUT did you know that they also have other useful resources like printable handwriting sheets, popular spelling lists, vocabulary , parts of speech helpers, crossword puzzles  (I think these last three are premium membership activities)and more!


I hope this helps those of you who want to add some spice into your spelling assignments. We use it all the time!

When its too damn hot!!

Well... its been HOT as hell here lately. So what's a homeschooling mama to do? Of course, plan for next year!!!  I have been in research mode for the past 4 weeks, and our break is almost up. I have found some great spelling printables, cool free science e-classes, found some great new lesson thru these curriculm reviews, and even been reading some fellow bloggers posts.  I am taking some time to try cool off with some  yummy treats like from above:) What things are you doing to keep cool and stay ahead of the game plan for next year?

Ways to learn that worked for us....

HAHA ok so this could be consider trial and error:)

This year we did a lot of trail and error.... I had some successes and some failures. They were things I had heard worked for others but it just didn't click for us. Some of the successes were using familiar sites like Time4learning, Spelling City,  I Tunes U, Khan Academy, and for our animal loving family National Geographic.  The things that we also tried this year was educational songs, apps for the ipod, coop classes for Alex and some secular unit studies by other homeschoolers. Areas that we required more than my abilities this last year were Spanish, music and writing, these subjects I left to professionals both near by for Spanish and music. I used an online writing 8 week course for the boys with an actual teacher on the other end. The boys learned a lot from getting some outside the home resources. That is one thing that I can pass on to anyone who is new to homeschooling or maybe just homeschoolers who have less time to teach certain subjects... OUTSOURCE. You are still an awesome homeschooling parent!! And you can't do everything even though we all try!! Now I want to know what worked or didn't work for you this year... come on spill the beans!

Needing help...

I am starting to plan out our writing program for both boys next school year that starts in a couple of weeks after all our day camps are over. I have found a couple of great sites like these for grammar help, match sentence games, helpful writing tips ideas, online English usage rules... just to name a few. After what 4 or 5 years now.. sorry the time just melts into each other,doesn't it? I am trying a new approach, I really want to make a big improvement in our writing this year. Nailing everything down from spelling to grammar to putting in great vocabulary. The problem is we have done a lot of what's out there and then comes the scheduling of exactly how much time a day we need to studying and work on these things. I almost feel like it needs to be our main subject  for a while... but not sure exactly how to put that into a high school credit. So that's the question I am asking you all... HOW would YOU do it? I realize that there isn't a big following on my blog but the peeps I have that check in are AWESOME. Thanks in advance for reading my post and for any helpful hints you can give;)

Taking some time off....but not really!

Well we are "on break" for a month, I have been busy with helping hubby out, catching up on household projects(which I create ALL the time!), swim team practices, working, and planning for the next year.  Why is it so hard to relax? Am I the only one who finds things to do instead of chilling out? I can't be!!! I find myself doubting some decisions and wondering what stays and what goes for next school year. (BTW I now have a 10th and 5th grader in the house! YIKES) Anytime that I take a break from "teaching" the boys feelings like this creep up, and I guess that is why I can't relax. Do any of you feel the same way? When I am doubting or in need of some motivation I turn to my personal favorite site, and start reading the posts by the amazing homeschool secular bloggers. OMG those bloggers are so amazing and just wishing that I had half the creative juices!! I have gleamed several great ideas from going to their blogs! So if you have a minute or hundred maybe you can tell me what you think of these amazing secular bloggers!!!!

Work hard and get what you want!

I just wanted to blog about something that I feel VERY strong about... working hard to get what you want out of life. To me, no one gives you anything in life unless you are extremely lucky to have someone willing to help you out. But even if you have EVERYTHING handed to you  (money,trips,cars,job,etc) , you still don't have everything. You have to work and learn from your mistakes,otherwise you will never grow!  I have been lucky enough to have a loving husband for over 18 years now, that supports and helps me. We have learned many things together.. for better or worse. Our childhoods were both hard in different ways but we are hard workers and dug ourselves out!

It's just like homeschooling...I don't think it comes easy for most but the rewards are so amazing and rewarding. When Anthony learning his math facts, he struggled for a bit then he dug in and now they are no problem!! Our results from our end of the year testing, was positive to me, both boys are doing really well. Alex is out of the high school range for his reading fluency and comprehension and Anthony is 8th grade in his math! Of course, we have our weaknesses just like in everyone's life but we are getting a plan together to BEAT them this next year! I am trying to show my boys who haven't had an extremely hard life that even when your bellies are full and you have a roof over your head.. that working hard is the only way to live your lives!

Enjoying the weekend..and thanking the vets

It looks like it gonna rain but that's ok with me!! We are all having a relaxing time reading,playing and enjoying each other on this Lazy Sunday:) Since it is a three day weekend, I am sure all of you are doing the same.

 I just wanted to tell all the AWESOME vets out there, THANK YOU for risking or giving your life for my freedom. I found this great site that helps vets who were injured and I wanted to share it Wounded Warrior Project. It asks for monthly donations but you can also give a one time gift as well. There are tons of great people out there with loved ones over seas, (like my sister) who are celebrating Memorial Day without their loved one. So take the time and make sure to tell a soldier or his/her family "thank you" the next time you see them.

Unschooling it!!

After our end of the year testing, we are doing something different this summer.  For the summer, I am doing what most would consider unschooling and this is a perfect example of the boys doing just that!! We just got back from the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live Show and I can only say that it was a humbling experience to see all the artists' work. We even saw Phil Hale  a personal favorite since Shane and I began dating!  The boys really enjoyed seeing the artist of their fav card game "Magic" up there getting a few incredible artists signature on their playing cards, including Brom:) While we were there they also got to see the Bat Mobile from the movie!! Check out the picture below for the car at the show!! It was so much fun and hard work but totally worth it. Hubby did an awesome job and I am SO proud of him for putting himself and his artwork out there!! Who says that school can't be fun!!! NOT ME!

I can see it!!

I can see the finish line just around the corner... finally scheduled our EOG tests for next week. This week we (Shane and I) are getting ready for the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live Show in Kansas City, MO. So for school I have been a little relaxed in adding new things to our schedule, the boys have some review sites and worksheets that they are doing right now. I just want to make sure that they remember things that we did last summer. Since I still have tons to do for the art show, to help hubby out, I have them go onto sites that help them review everything. They are doing everything from some typing games to making flashcards for those things that I can't find sites for OR for personal favorites that they want to quiz themselves on. I personally use our EOG tests as a guideline of what we need to work on... the last couple of years it has been spelling and writing. So I am interested to see how they do this year.


I have something else to share.. Anthony was telling me about the Titanic the other day. Things about the boat that I remember talking with him about that first year of homeschooling. He was very interested in why boats sank that year, we went over a ton of them and found out all we could about different ships/boats. As he is talking I can hear Shane coming home from work and I feel like this is going to be my moment to shine.... cuz you know I need to know that they are actually listening to me right??? So before Shane comes inside I said, "Do you remember us talking about that? Wasn't that fun?"

Wait for it... "Mom, I learned that on Time4learning the other day." Then he continues to tell me everything he learned. So while I am happy that T4L is teaching him things I am wondering why oh why they don't remember us doing that together!!  HOPING that the thing special things that we are going to be doing this summer will be remembered as something they did WITH MOM!

Happy Mother's Day

Love this cartoon and wanted to share it!  For all those days when you wonder if your kids really appreciate ALL you do! Because lets face it WITHOUT  MOTHERS NONE OF US WOULD BE HERE!

Hoping my boys never have to use this chart..

Otherwise this will be what happens,LOL

I love my life and every Mother's Day that I am able to be here with them is a GREAT DAY!  Now off to eat my Mother's Day breakfast of yummy french toast!

But before I go ...

Now let me clarify something..

I was laughing by one of the comments I received from my last post about summer lessons. YES we homeschool year round, this year I am giving the boys a month (yes a whole month off) after we take our state required tests. (which I have yet to schedule, I swear its on the to do list!)  I can't believe that it is already the second weekend in May!

That month off from "school" we do camps, trips to the beach and hanging with friends ... (well from most of their lessons~music, sports, unreal engine for Alex are still a go);  then we are doing some (hopefully) fun things that we didn't get to during the school year. One is geography, which I am hoping to post about at least once a week, posts will include the geography lists for spelling, books and sites I am using, pics of how we are doing, etc. My plan is to make an unit study for other homeschoolers to use because it is always a  help to me to search for an unit study and one be already made up:) Not that I don't add my own touches to it BUT sometimes its hard to know where to start.

Ok enough rambling for one day..
off to play in the dirt!

Getting it all ready for summer classes

Are you in need of some online homework help? Especially in the area of writing? Well I am on the search for a bunch of different fun ideas for writing for the boys' summer school. I found some really cool sites with links to other sites and other resources that we will be using. Sharing them with you below... let me know if you find any others that worked for your family. ESPECIALLY any fun games..

http://www.teachkidshow.com/teach-your-child-to-write/
http://www.teachkidshow.com/teach-your-child-how-to-keep-a-journal/
http://www.cardamompublishers.com/CardamomPublishers-Teach-to-Write.pdf
http://thecurriculumchoice.com/2012/04/silly-sentence/
http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary_games/parts-of-speech.html
http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/english/contents_writingfiction.htm
http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource_topic/teaching_writing?gclid=CJDq6Yjq668CFY_J7QodIHzy2w
http://www.funenglishgames.com/writinggames.html

Keeping my sanity.....

a rock on the path?

Nope a tiny turtle:)

where's Bambi?

There he is!!

To keep my sanity, I began jogging about 2 years ago. So when I feel cooped up or can't find what I am searching for online, I go for a run. Nice amount of nature all around me here in NC, on my run one morning this week I saw a cute little turtle and some deer grazing (and unafraid of me running by). These types of things always make me run faster "around the loop" and back to tell my nature loving kiddos about what I saw. I get bombarded with questions about the tiny turtle, hinged or not hinged, shape of his little head, etc.
I love homeschoolng my nature loving boys!!

So thinking that I am not doing enough with them that is purely physical.. Ok so the song "Lets get Physical" just popped into my head,LOL. I did do a search about homeschoolers and how they incorporate P.E. into their daily lessons. I really was impressed with everything that I found others were doing! I think that you will be too:) SO what are you doing to keep your family fit??

Wrapping it Up with a Bow

We are well past the preschool flashcard phase.. but sometimes you just have to go back to basics when you are learning something new right? Every year when it is almost time for our homeschool standardized tests, it means its time to go back to the beginning and review, review, review. Now like most states NC, requires that you test at the end of your school year/grade and even though,unless you are audited, you don't have to show anyone the test scores. I personally like to know where the boys are at, and see if there is anything that we can work on during our lighter months of the summer.

 Usually over the summer we tend to do anything that we didn't have time for during the year. This summer, I am planning a geography course and religions study that I will combine together. As we study a certain place in the world we will also study the major religion of that area. After much searching on my favorite secular site, I came up with this list of books for teaching both religions and geography. Because to be honest I am a member of A LOT of different forums and online homeschooling groups, and they are are very helpful. But I always seem to get more out of the discussions and trust their options more when it comes to a secular way to teach my boys.

Books on Religion
My Friends' Beliefs
The Usborne Book of World Religions
The Usborne Book of World Religions Internet Linked (newer version)
One World Many Religions

Books and Courses on Geography
The Complete Book of Maps and Geography
Trail Guide to World Geography
Trail Guide to US Geography
The Geography Coloring Book
The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide
Mapping the World by Heart

I am hoping to make this a fun but VERY educational summer, giving the boys an intense look at geography and the religions that are out in the world:)

Noah's Landing Field Trip

Llama, Zebra, Donkeys and Anthony

Jacobian Pigeon, Dora and Alex

Zoboomafoo's friends:) (aka Lemurs)

Bearded Dragon ( I believe)

bald python, Anthony and Dora

Alex's turn

New baby Lemur

My arch nemesis, rose haired  tarantula

My skin is crawling like this thing on the boys

Not on the zoo's list of animal, common toad Anthony found:)

This is no ordinary zoo, Noah's Landing, is a non-profit organization that teaches kids like no other zoo we have ever been to.... This is the place that Alex volunteers at and has an awesome family behind the scenes and in front of the tours as well. If you are lucky enough to be close to this zoo then you don't want to miss a tour on Saturdays 11am and 2 pm!! If you are REALLY lucky you will get Dora as your tour guide, she is one of the most informed people we have ever met. The animals that she rescues are very lucky to end up here. After we visited one of their special events last year, I made up my owl unit study to go along with the special guests that were there.

Hiddenite Gems Mining

Alex Mining for Treasures

Anthony Panning for Gems

Amethyst

Before Smokey Quartz and Emerald

Ring that they made from the Smokey Quartz

Well a about a month ago we ventured out to the Hiddenite Gems Mining Site.  Needless to say we came back with a ton of gems and treasures. Once such treasure was the smokey quartz I had made into a ring for me:) (see above pictures), so the pic doesn't do it justice, it is gorgeous! We were there for a couple of hours getting very dirty but it was a lot of fun, something that our family will remember for years to come. This trip we just did the panning for gems, next time we will probably be better prepared and do some DIGGING.  This is just one of many family "field trips" we are planning to do, before the boys are grown. It seems like there is never enough time and time flies when you have kids before you know it they are grown and out of the house. I am excited for them, but sad for me and hubby. I am wanting to make a bunch of great memories for them to remember and tell their kids about one day.

I am planning on taking it further with the gems they found, over our summer "break". I say break but we really are not taking much time "off" from school, just shifting gears for a couple of months. The boys are going to be doing research on the treasures they found, first they are going to find out exactly what they panned out of the dirt. My plan is then to have them put them in alphabetical order, tag them, find out if they are worth anything, discover any history of when they were first discovered, if the American Indians used them for anything, things like that:) I have seen several other homeschoolers who have done studies like this and it looked like a lot of fun. Just what we need for our summer activities.

What fun family field trips are you planning this summer? Are you going to continue to homeschool or doing other educational research projects?

Neat Swifter Replacement

 

I found this blog where the blogger had made these cool swifter replacements. (http://justpeachyindixie.blogspot.com/) Jennifer made these up for me in a matter of a week or so, now I have washable swifter pads!! I am so excited about this they work awesome and now for the price of one extra large box of swifter pads; I have something that will not go into the landfill. They work so great at picking up our Tuffy and Dino dust bunnies;) I especially like the ruffled one it works great for the corner molding. So if you are looking for green way to use your swifter than contact Jennifer and see if she can make them for you! Now off to share my find with my friends at Secular Homeschool, they are always sharing great ideas with me now its my turn:) Happy Swiftering!

Tired of the Labels

                       
This video hits close to home with me.. only because at age 7 my smart, energetic, happy, always trying to make friends son was diagnosed with ADHD. Reluctantly, we put him on Strattera (non-stimulant) meds and for 5 years struggled to help him first swallow and keep down the meds. Then as he grew having him not want to take the meds cuz it made him feel funny and made his stomach hurt if he didn't eat snacks. But felt like it was required because the school system wants kids to be able to sit and focus all times. ( I still can't do this for extended amounts of times) So the first thing we did when we started to homeschool him was chuck the meds out the window!! Looking back I wonder why I let anyone tell me to shove that stuff down him when I knew he hated it. I guess the feeling of wanting your kid to "fit" and not be singled out as a problem student that made me do something that I didn't want to do.

 The one teacher only really to ever understand him was Mr. Nilles from Kenwood in IL. He had "ADHD", too but until I knew that I just thought he was a man with a lot energy and I wanted to steal some!!  I tended to help out a lot in his class with Anthony in tow. I mostly helped organize his records,grade papers or get something all together for him, things that were not exciting but needed to be done.  I was in awe of how he ALWAYS had the kids attention, he made learning as fun as anyone I have ever met.  He was an energetic(to say the least), creative, caring and understanding teacher, that has molded SO many young lives. I for one am thankful to him for letting me into his classroom on a daily basis to help out and soak in the creativity that oozed from him. He is one person that I try to be like with the boys here at home. So Thank you to a teacher, Mr. Matt Nilles, who cared about my son and gave 150% to teach him.

Sorry I tend to get off subject....

I decided to look into the labeling of kids and how it is affecting us all, so I shared a couple of good articles I found on the subjects below...

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/homegarden/144243765.html

Labeling Kids

Now whether you homeschool a PDD or OCD child or anything in between (frankly I have never heard of all the ones I found during my search), don't limit them by giving them a label. Or least not make it all of what you and people know about them. I really liked in one of the articles above that the mom never told anyone about her son diagnosis of autism. She did let others know when appropriate, but for the most part no one really knew. I am sorry to ramble on about this but I want others to know what I did so that they can learn from my experiences and make better decision for their family.

Knowledge is POWER people so now you know what I do...pass it on and add to it!!

Origins of my Favorite Bunny

History Channel's Short History of Easter 

As a child growing up.. we celebrated almost every holiday with decorations, special foods or candies. I was always excited about three holidays in particular, (funny the boys also loved these three could it be... that there is candy involved!) Easter,Xmas and Halloween were holidays that we celebrated and my mother had decorations a plenty for all of them! Being raised as a christian, now a non-religious mama, I wonder how to explain these holidays to my boys. I do feel that the boys need to know the "story" behind all the holidays so that they will have a better understanding of other cultures. BUT it is a little strange to me that one holiday that is SO religious in its nature would incorporate things that have pagan beginnings.

Let's talk about the easter bunny and the eggs and treats he leaves behind....can you tell me a passage in the bible that talks about this long ear rabbit? Or why most churches do an easter egg hunt? (well now I know since I did some research:) Now, if I had not started homeschooling my boys I don't know whether or not I would have even thought about the history behind the holidays. Not in any kind of depth, anyways.

My research on the subject found several great sites that talk about the easter bunny and why he leaves us those yummy chocolate eggs. So if  you don't already know then check them out and let me know if you are surprised or not.

One of my favorite resources for anything history is the.....
The History Channel and once again they do not disappoint with their Easter Symbols and Traditions.

If you type into YouTube "the history of the easter bunny" you will get a LONG list of videos made by people who show the pagan origins of this holiday.

Here is the short and sweet version of my long ear friend...from this article

According to University of Florida's Center for Children's Literature and Culture, the origin of the celebration -- and the Easter bunny -- can be traced back to 13th century, pre-Christian Germany, when people worshiped several gods and goddesses. The Teutonic deity Eostra was the goddess of spring and fertility, and feasts were held in her honor on the Vernal Equinox. Her symbol was the rabbit because of the animal’s high reproduction rate.

Spring also symbolized new life and rebirth; eggs were an ancient symbol of fertility. According to History.com, Easter eggs represent Jesus' resurrection. However, this association came much later when Roman Catholicism became the dominant religion in Germany in the 15th century and merged with already ingrained pagan beliefs.

 Yet another site aimed at kids gives you a simple explanation for easter, that bunny and the eggs he leaves behind. But I have a question for you???? Why is the easter bunny a male??

Checking our Reading Fluency

I tend to see a lot questions about reading with homeschoolers with little ones. It was a big weight on my mind when I pulled my boys out of the school system as well. Alex was a pretty good reader, or at least he loved the read at night to relax at night. Anthony, however was just coming out of Kindergarten so reading was a big concern. I didn't know if I could teach reading... silly me I had already been doing it anyways but didn't realize it.  Both boys loved the nightly stories that we did, they would pick the longest book they could:)

So when I first started homeschooling I needed to check our reading fluency, I like this reading skills pyramid even though it was a bit young for Alex. It worked well for knowing whether Anthony was on track with his reading. When I found Time4learning it was awesome because we could sit and learn together then I would take the lessons further. He was like a sponge, I was so happy. Fast forward 5 years later and I have two boys that love to read...well about things that interest them.

I still like to test their reading fluency from time to time, right now I am doing short stories and reading comprehension questions. They both think I am nuts because it started out so simple but it is getting harder in terms of reading and the comp questions. I don't think that I will ever stop checking things that I think that we have down... if for nothing else to give me something I can say. WE HAVE GOT THIS!! We all need something that is going great and reading is one of those subjects for us!!

So do you test your kiddos on reading, math facts, etc?? What sites or things do you use?

Let's Talk ART, BABY

Anthony's "Where the Wild Things Are" 

Alex's Flowers for me 

Alex's Drawing (from 4th grade) of Schultz and Tuffy with him

Anthony's self portrait from Preschool

Art is a major part of my homeschool curriculum, whenever possible we talk about the art of books we are reading, art in history, nature crafts/art when we are taking a walk, and many other areas that escape me at the moment:) I find that it pops up whenever I least expect it, especially when driving in the car, which is why the boys almost always bring their sketch books! I have a bonus in my pocket though, my hubby is an artist, he can do just about anything art related. (Well except for the crafts,LOL not his area, that's MINE)

We did do one art curriculum that the boys loved and learn a lot about how art has been used throughout history. EVEN telling hubby a couple of things that he didn't know about it! (plus in my book teach the teacher) Mostly, it is hubby teaching the boys techniques to draw then giving them an assignment of what he wants them to draw that week. It is a time that I know that the boys will cherish for years to come.

From reading a lot of forums and group emails, I have noticed that most homeschooling families out source the subject of art. I figured that it might be good to list some of the sites that I have found online to help those of you that don't have a live in art teacher. These are books and sites that I have used in the past when hubby is working and the boys want to do some art to show him when he gets home. A site that we have used on more than one occasion is cartooning for kids ,they have other areas for you to check out on there but the boys LOVED the hound dog lesson. YouTube is another great resource ,just type in "How to Draw" and you will get a great list of videos. We used HelloKids, to learn to draw dinosaurs, which are a favorite in my house. How To Draw site has tons of different lessons from Transportation to Manga lessons, and everything in between! Artists Helping Children Draw is a fun site for kids because most of the how to lessons on there are on drawing their favorite cartoon characters from shows. The boys love books like these How to Draw series, or these Manga How to draw books.

So... have you used a site or curriculum that you loved for ART?? Share it below so everyone can benefit!!!

Shout out to the Animal LOVERS out there

My personal favorite PANDA cam!

Cam 1 - Yaoman & Shenbing - Pandas - explore

What child doesn't love animals, for that matter what adult doesn't like animals!! Even if people don't like all animals, they have one type of animal that makes their heart go ~AWE!! SO I thought that I would share some of our favorite sites,etc. on the subject of animals!! Feel free to shout right back with any of your favs!!

We are a family of watchers here.... OK maybe that sounds wrong but it is true, HA! So we have a ton of sites that we rotate thru spending time watching all the animal cams out there. I love this one for zoo animal cams, this is one for an African animal cam by the old watering hole, our favorite owl "Molly" famous web cam (well famous to us!), and yes even goat cams that we recently found out about!!LOL Friends were waiting for these goats to even birth on the 24 hour web cam! I think our favorite right now is the African web cam, we have seen lots of animals that the boys love in their natural habitat.

Then come the animal educational sites, and oh the amount of sites I could list from online animal games to educational sites like WWF and National Geographic (two of our favorites) to animal activist sites that need your help to save one animal species at a time. One such place that we would love to visit is the Australia Zoo, once the stomping ground of the famous Steve Irwin. Hubby and I first saw this guy with his new wife Terry back in the 90s, we both were hooked by his style of getting involved with the crocs!

Lastly, here are a couple of great sites that offer a wide range of animal unit studies. Discovery Kids, has some great animal lesson plans for k-12; Secular Homeschool, has some great secular animal unit studies that members of the site have shared; Farm animal lessons for Pre-k is a fun one for those of you with younger kiddos; The Humane Society has some great free pet lessons and then there is Switcharoo Zoo creative writing lessons with some great animal prompts.

So what are doing to nourish your animal lover?