4H Project Updates

All the projects we have done including Pizza Garden 

Sweet Potato

Mango seedling

As we are getting to the last two classes for 4H, I wanted to let you see how my gardening class projects are doing. I began working out of the 4H curriculum within the first class the four kids in my small class were bored, bored, bored . (as so was I!) So I asked them what they wanted to know more about.... catnip, mango,lemon trees,apple trees, avocado, sunflowers are the answers I received from them. So the first class I did something I thought might be fun we planted a pizza garden!! Tomatoes (2 kinds-Big Boy and Yellow Pear) Basil, Oregano, Sweet Peppers were what I came up with... I purchased the seeds, starter greenhouses and markers and away we went! After that we learned about avocado and mangoes, while you can't grow them outside here in NC they can make fun houseplants. Well we got our seeds from the fruit at the grocery (for all our items above) germination rate is 1 in 10. So far I have gotten ONE mango seed (above pic) to sprout, very excited about that one! The other things that are doing awesome are the pizza garden, I knew those would. Apple, lemon, avocado have been the ones that I haven't gotten to sprout yet but I am not giving up!!
Just wanted to share how the seedlings are doing! So what are you growing from seed??

Sunday Walk in the Park

Getting a little sugar,LOL!

Anthony taking a bite out of things:)

Reflecting spot

Awesome walk

We decided to get up this morning, have some blueberry pancakes, YUMMY and drive out to the park for a breathe of rest air. I also wanted to see if the boys could point out any animal tracks, etc. from the Homeschool Day Camp they took last week. Both hubby and  I were treated to a non-stop gab fest from the boys. We saw little fishes, baby frogs (didn't think that they were out yet!),tons of ducks, turkey vultures and more. As you can see from the pics it was a little chilly and I was the only one who stayed warm:)

So what did you do this weekend?

Homeschooling Day Camp

Boys with Gumby at the Piedmont Nature Center

When someone talks about the pros and cons of homeschooling, I can always say the pros out weigh the cons!

Take this day of learning at the Piedmont Nature Center Homeschooling Day Camp, this wonderful place gave us homeschoolers a free day of learning at their awesome facility. I also got to be on the ground floor of their desire to create a program geared towards homeschoolers. The boys had a great time learning all about how to make a fire, herbs/plants that are safe to eat, tracking animals, playing great games with others without it being too competitive( a good thing in our house!). The parents,kids and counselors sat down at the end of the day in a sharing circle, where we went around and said what we were thankful for.... Anthony was thankful for being able to wash his hands after touching poison ivy, Alex was thankful learning to build a shelter and tracking and I was thankful for the opportunity that this amazing place offered us for free!! At the end of the day we were able to try some pine needle tea, which has an unique taste and chewing on the pine needles gives you some Vitamin C. Two things that we had never tasted before or knew were edible.

This is just one day that makes homeschooling the most incredible experience for the boys and myself. I am learning right along with them. So what did you learn with your kids today??

Berenstain Bears Author Dies, Thanks for all the great stories!

So sad to read about Jan Berenstain's passing on February 24.... The Berenstain Bears were a favorite in our night time reading routine when the boys were younger.
 I still read

when their rooms get too messy!! Yes the eye rolling is a part of the fun!

Jan's creative partner and husband, Stan, passed away in 2005. The Berenstain Bears have been delighting young readers since 1962 with over 330 titles, and will continue to do so for the next 50 years and beyond. Rest in Peace, Jan and Stan, from the Pierce Family.

My Fav Sites/Links for Homeschooling!

Well there is no way I can name them all BUT I wanted to give you all a run down on just a few that we use ALL the time in our homeschooling lessons! I find that it is hard to remember all the sites that you have used for homeschooling or even other areas of your life. While I am still sorting thru the bazillion sites that I bookmarked that first year of homeschooling here are a few that I LOVE. Most are free, the ones that are not are ones that I couldn't do without!!

Informational Sites on How to Homeschool or great forums with tons of info!
Homeschool Portfolios (its for my favorite online educational program BUT it has free links with pics that let you see what they need to look like if your state/country requires it)
Secular Homeschool (yes I am an admin on this site BUT just look at all the resources that on there. Another plus is the members! They are always chiming in with what worked for them and what didn't. A great money saving site, wish I had found it sooner,LOL)
State by State Info on homeschooling (there are tons of these out there, I like T4L because it gave me great links without being overwhelmed. A plus for those first few months)
The 8 Strictest States for Homeschoolers (this one was emailed to me from the site's admin., it is great read if you are looking into college in the near future)



General Fun Educational Sites
Dr. Seuss site  (OK we LOVE this site but of course we are a bit of junkies when it comes to Dr. Suess)
Learning Games For Kids ( site with typing, math, english and more!)
BBC Kids (site like LGFK)


Educational Sites that we use

Spelling City (great website for helping your kiddos with their spelling)
Time4Learning (we have used this site since we began homeschooling, it has a monthly fee but it has been well worth it)
Khan Academy (very helpful site with free videos)
iTunes U ( again another great free site for educational videos)
Spanish Town (free site for those learning Spanish)
Supercharged Science (I sign up for their free newsletter and tele-classes! The boys love them!)

Now while there are hundreds if not thousands more sites, like YouTube( you would be surprised the amount of educational videos on there!), homeschool moms and dads that have made up their own curriculum for sale and for free to download, and all of them are just a Google search away!

Please feel free to list the sites you love with links to them in the comments below!

Why analogies are important for us....

When you are homeschooling a high schooler, you need to get them ready for the college placement tests. NOW while I don't teach just to get my kids to pass a test, like what happens in the school system, I do believe in teaching in our own way the things that will appear on future important tests like SAT and ACT. Analogies are just one of those things...now while most online analogy games are geared for younger kiddos, I did find a couple of sites that had some for high school aged kiddos.(like the one linked above;)

Here is the defination of Analogy from dictionary.com
a·nal·o·gy

1.  a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based: the analogy between the heart and a pump.
2.  similarity or comparability: I see no analogy between your problem and mine.
3.  Biology . an analogous relationship.
4.  Linguistics .
     a. the process by which words or phrases are created or re-formed according to existing patterns in the     language, as when shoon  was re-formed as shoes,  when -ize  is added to nouns like winter  to form verbs, or when a child says foots  for feet.
     b. a form resulting from such a process.
5.  Logic . a form of reasoning in which one thing is inferred to be similar to another thing in a certain respect, on the basis of the known similarity between the things in other respects.

So learning about analogies, is a great life lesson not only for those college placement tests but for my kiddos everyday life!  Little things like this add up into a well rounded homeschooler who is ready for life AND those pesky tests,LOL

What are some things that you really never thought of before to be important to teach your homeschoolers?

Another week of re-organizing with my ADHD teen son

Well it happens about every 6 months for us, he just gets bored or lazy with doing his school work. After a long, and I mean long talk with a veteran homeschooling mamas (Thanks Jeri, Sherri and Amanda), I decided once again to re-vamp his schedule into things that he is interested in; mixed of course, with the things that have to be done! I spent the last two and half hours of this rainy Sunday breaking down what needs to be done by the end of our year. This also included daily chores, and his personal goals. All of this with him sitting right beside me, the only way I know to make sure he understands how much work goes into planning out his education. Sometimes I have to talk/vent having to redo the schedule yet again, just because it is so labor intensive. But it always helps and in the future that there are at least a couple things that don't have to go back onto our list. (ya know the things he gets or completes, OH YEA) Our newest tool is the monkey planner above, he picked it out with me and it seems to have everything that we need to get him organized. We have tried free print outs/ blank notebooks and Google docs in the past and they don't have the sticking power for him. Hoping this time it works!!

I always depend on local and online homeschooling parents for all the trails of homeschooling. I think that one thing that you need if you are homeschooling any teen through high school is a great support group with all different backgrounds(especially if they have a special need). I have a great local resource of moms and dads that help me when I am getting ready to throw in the towel. But sometimes I just can't meet up with them or have the time to call them, so I go to my favorite online resource for everything homeschool related, Secular Homeschoolers.  I use my online group for help when I can't see my girls and get their support. I recently found a resource that I am excited about, because I was going to make this our next group science assignment. Wondering what it is?..... I really want to homeschool the subject of evolution with my boys. Its really important to me to show them ALL that is out there so that they can make an educated decision about how we all came into the world. My take on evolution is to teach it using secular resources, I do have friends and family that would disagree. BUT I think it is the only way to teach this subject. Then are are following it with a religions of the world study, from the early religions to the ones that are most practiced today.

Ok I have rambled enough about the two biggest tasks of my last week.... How was your week? What challenges did you encounter?