OMG!! A school any Star Wars loving adult would love to go to!!

Getty Images http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/03/18/star-wars-school/

OK so if you know me at all by now you know that I am a geek/nerd/dork of almost all things sci-fi,superheros,etc. I came across this article when I was looking around to see what was out there for educational unit studies off the Star Wars movies, books, cartoon series. Yes, I do that occasionally for the boys, thought that this one would be fun to do if there was something out there. Ya know, something fun and painless for some summer learning! (I also know that my grammar skills are TERRIBLE but my good friend K is always helping me out with that!) You would be surprised how many times you can slide in some math vocabulary or spelling games into a book that my boys think are fun to read over and over again! LOL, It is always funny when they catch me sneaking something educational into something they thought was going to be pure fun!

I loved the way that this school is doing the same things that I try to accomplish everyday with my boys! They are taking something that is fun and making the kids better people in the long run! If the kiddos are lucky they receive a light saber, how cool is that? A new twist to yoga and Tae-Kwon-Do, me likey A LOT!

A good base for successful homeschooling

This seems to be the time of year when on the forums, Facebook and email loops that there are tons of questions from what I once was~  a newbie to homeschooling;) OR a seasoned homeschoolers that is just needing a change for their families. The questions always are the same, What do you use to get started? How many hours a day do you homeschool? What do you do for socialization? What sites do you use online? My personal favorite that I get~ How can you stand to be around your kids all the time? This questions always throws me for a loop-the others I am more than happy to answer BUT this one I always want to say something that is probably not too nice! I totally understand that every child isn't the most pleasant ALL the time, but to be truthful NEITHER AM I! SO I usually respond by simply saying that my boys and I are closer than most families I LOVE IT!

 Now for some of the other questions;) now mind you I am not an expert but this is info that I was given when I started, from research or just basic common sense. To get started you need to figure out where your child stands in a couple different areas. First one is where are they at in their learning process (especially helpful when you have pulled your child out of school) because if they are still learning to read for example you need to find a reading program that works for your family. The other thing that I think is helpful to get assessed in the beginning is how does your child learn? What is their learning style? Another area is doing research on curriculum BUT my suggestion that will save you money and headaches down the road is to join an online or local homeschooling support groups. This will enable you to ASK about curricula that you have heard about BEFORE you buy them. I am going to share my first 6 months with you so that you can see where I am coming from on this subject;) I pulled my boys out after their 5th and Kindergarten years, I decided from volunteering at all their schools that taking 3 months off from school wasn't an option. I didn't want to have to back track and review things that they had learned until Christmas only then to be able to start on the new stuff that late in the school year. SO I started my research in March of their last year in school, made up a "school room" in the living room, went to garage sale to get any books, textbooks I could get my hands on, joined several local homeschooling groups, DID so much research I thought my head would explode and without asking about success stories from other homeschooling families bought a year's worth of curricula. I didn't de-school the boys we took a week off after they got out in May and then started right in with all my shiny new lessons. BIG MISTAKE but it took me 6 months into it to realize it! We were doing school from 8 to 5 almost everyday and still not getting through what I thought that we needed to. After many LONG discussions with some of my new homeschooling mamas they told me with a straight face" YOU ARE TRYING TO DO TOO MUCH!" With that I did a month of de-schooling with the boys, we had so much fun with it! We did field trips, museums classes, nature hikes, art classes with dad you name it I signed up for it. It really gave me a look at what learning should look like;)

Now how many of hours do you homeschool a day? Well this is the question I almost always never got a clear answer on! It's tricky, that question for so many homeschoolers, because what I consider homeschooling they didn't. OR the other way around! Here is what our typical day looks like and it took about 3-5 hours to complete start to finish. 

Up at 8am- breakfast,feed and take care of  the dogs, get ready (showers, getting dressed etc.)

9am -10am ~ boys practice their instruments for an hour

10am-11am ~ boys do their time4learning lessons (I help when needed)

11am-noon~ lunch break with dad then down time (they play, go outside, etc)

noon-1pm ~ do individual lessons in spelling,grammar, writing

1pm-2pm~ math and silent reading

2pm-3pm ~ science or history

3pm until they are finished~ work for outside classes, any work they didn't get to, special interest research, etc.

They also are required to do some household chores or LIFE SKILLS class, then a big difference between us and regular school is there is almost never any homework! This is something that is a blessing in our house with our oldest! He used to have 3 hours of homework a night to keep up in school! When I would talk to his teachers they would always say it shouldn't take more than an hour.

Socialization is a big question for anyone who hears that you are homeschooling your child. BUT I have never had a problem with it. We have neighbors so when they get home the boys can play with them after supper. We also do a weekly game day at the community center with other homeschoolers and then there is park day on Fridays. My boys are also involved in music classes, swimming and various other activities where they can be around other peers. That first year we were gone more than we were HOME! I have settled down and not signed up for everything that comes along so that we have time to work on other things;)

NOW what do I use that is online? This list is ever growing but here it goes....

Time4learning.com ~ is the only thing that we have kept using since the beginning as far as curriculum goes.

SpellingCity.com ~ OMG if you don't know about this site CHECK IT OUT!

BBC typing and Learninggamesforkids.com  typing after all it is necessary for them to know how to type!

Supercharged Science- new find but my boys LOVE it , science experiments you won't believe!

Timez Attack ~ for any video game loving child;)

SecularHomeschool.com ~ online support forum! I love the members on this site could be because they are like me a little Crazy!

PHEW I am tired now, so that's it for now! Feel free to add to this list in the comments below or ask any questions you might have about what I have said. 

Happy Homeschooling!

Super Powers Activate!

Want to hear a loaded question? Well this is one I hear a lot when we go out and people find out that I homeschool my boys. They are usually talking to me about something that their child is doing in public school and I try to act interested really I do ( as my eyes glaze over, like when my teenager talks about video games!).  I was there once and it didn't work for my family but more power to anyone who thinks its right for their family. Of course, that's usually not the case! BUT once they find out that I have turned to the dark side and GASP pulled my boys out of public school they always say/ask " I wouldn't know how to homeschool my kids in all those subjects. Aren't you afraid that they won't learn anything? I mean it's not like you are a qualified teacher or anything, are you?" OK here is where I use my SUPER HOMESCHOOL MOM POWERS and resist to the urge to reach down their pretty throats and rip out their tongue out, there I feel better now! too much? Yes, I have issues, I know, I know -but this was said to me last year at our neighborhood swim team practice and it haunts me to this day. This is where I calmly say" Well.... I do feel like I am qualified to do what is best for my boys, and they were not getting the education in public school that I can give them at home. And furthermore, ( stepping on my soap box here and no I didn't say furthermore but its what I would have said if I would have thought of it at the time!) I have a great support group both online and locally that can help me anytime I need it!" (So take that!)" Most of the time, this allows them to walk away in the cloud of shame that I just put them under or they come back with "Oh well, I couldn't do it anyways, I couldn't stand to be around my kids that much!" Sad huh?

Every once in a while, I get someone who was listening in come up to me later and confess that they are thinking of homeschooling too. Imagine that! Then the questions start, like, "Where do you start?" I have a bookmarked online guide( for those new to homeschooling or thinking about it)  that I send them, for just this occasion that gives them a jumping off point. For the rest of the time, they usually ask all kinds of questions, like what do you do for spelling lists, or what is the best way to teach science at home? That's when I usually tell them everything that I do right down the the breaks and outside the home classes we take. Also saying in the same long winded breathe that this is what works for my family but it might not work for yours. It is trail and error to find what can make your kids love to learn again, and the rest of it will come.  Whether they take the next amazing step or not, I usually have another person to call a friend. Homeschooling to me (most days anyways) is the precious time I get with my boys while they are young. Learning or re-learning (for me) History, science, Math and even English ( by far my worst subject in school) with them has made my life fuller (and busier too) but I won't change it for a million bucks.

SO am I crazier than the Mad Hatter? Maybe, I am not telling, you have to decide that one for yourself!

This is a post that I wrote for another site and I wanted to post it here too;) Maybe someone can give me the advice I need to help us get over this hurdle? I am feeling a little disappointed with an assessment reading/spelling test that I gave my boys and of course they scored high in comprehension but scored poorly in spelling:(

What I have realized so far this year is that we are still behind in spelling! I can't seem to get this subject up and going for my boys. They can read well BUT when it comes to writing the words down then that is where we have the problem.  I think this is why my boys are not writing like I know they could because they are still struggling with spelling. We use several online spelling lists and they can retain the words for that week. But when we go to the next week and I surprise them with a word from last week~ that's when we have a problem. We use several other sites for educational games that also have spelling games or help with the rules of spelling. But there is so much out there I sometimes feel overwhelmed with the choices. I just want to make it fun for them to learn spelling or at least something besides just spelling lists. Maybe I am wrong and just need to have them do the lists and still work on phonics to help sound out the spelling of difficult words? I am at a loss here, I feel like I am banging my head on the wall consistently and that we are in a constant state of review. I know that I can't be alone here but it sure does feel like it!

I am just wondering how many of you have this same problem or is this your best subject? Do you struggle with another subject?

I am thinking of buying another spelling program to use with our AAS program

and I have heard a lot of great things about this program. I am willing to spend the money if it actually helps us. Maybe I will bite the bullet and get purchase it then I can review it for you all so that you will know whether it will work for your family!

All About Spelling~ How we use it

Today we used our AAS workbook, to go over how to spell simple words with all the short vowel sounds. This is one of the areas that I have a problem with myself since I was never taught phonics in school. So I went to this well used program that includes a CD with the sounds that you can download to your computer and use as reference to make sure you are getting the sound or sounds right for each letter.  In as little as 20 minutes a day I can get both boys done with their lesson (or review in the case of my older son). I have them taking turns on identifying the letter sounds that I call out or I call out a letter and they  tell me the sound or sounds that letter makes. It has helped me along with them remember the sounds because it is something that we do everyday. I do see them using the skills that we work on using this program!

After we finsihed our AAS lesson, I usually have the boys go onto http://www.spellingcity.com/ so that they can use the online games to spell our list for the week.  It seems to be the most enjoyable way for them to practice their spelling lists. And at the end of the week, they do an online spelling test. I have the premium membership so that I can track the boys progress and input the spelling words for each week. This way I can get as far ahead as I want to and the lists will be there waiting for them when we get to it! But this site also has a free membership that allows you to input the words each time you visit and play all the free games, too. Most of the homeschoolers in my local homeschooling group use this site to add a fun alternative to the sometimes boring tasks of spelling.