23. May 2008 by Shannon.

Nah… I’d rather pass on those, BUT…. after suffering really bad and ending up in bed this afternon, I am wide awake this evening…

 And, apparently, feeling quite creative/resourceful!  I was putting stuff away that the Littles had taken out, when I noticed that Greyson was doing some “math flashcards” (they have the simple problem, shown in pictures, “such as three fish - two fish =” and a blank to fill in the answer).  Not all the answers were right obviously, BUT he was definately INTERESTED.  I also noticed (while cleaning up) that he had found some colouring pages and had coloured quite nicely on LOTS of them… so he must like colouring AND math, right?  

Now, I know what you are thinking I’m going to say… you’re thinking I’m gonna say that we could do up some colour by numbers using math equations… NOPE!  I had an even more “fun” idea… and less frustrating, imho.

 Math Hidden Colouring Pages!

Look…. FIRST I drew a picture and covered it with post it notes (which just touched to overlapping) and wrote math equations on them:

THEN, as he DOES the math equations (CORRECTLY)… he gets to peel off that part of the picture!

THEN when he’s done… he has a picture to colour as a REWARD for working hard at his math! 

How stinkin’ clever is that?  I’m POSITIVE there are lots of other creative Moms who have thought of this first… and NO, I will not be using my DH’s work post-it notes for my son’s math… this was a quick mock-up to show you what I mean.  I’m going to get some coloured ones and vary the colours for each problem… make it more fun.  But as  you know from past posts… I’m the Mock-Up Queen!  LOL!

Hope this blesses you!

Posted in Great Ideas, Greyson, General Homeschool | Print | 1 Comment »

23. May 2008 by Shannon.

That is the title of the “project” I’ve been wanting to work on for years.  For those who haven’t figured out that the name of this site (little homeshool on the HILL) might mean something… well, it does.  We live on a small mountain.  And as such, we have very, very rocky land.  The only way I’m going to have a nice veggie garden is if I build UP.  SO, that’s where Square Foot Gardening comes in.

This is not a new concept either… it’s been around since I was a wee babe.  I even think my Grandad was using a variation on it (from my childhood memories… mmmm… I loved puttering with him in his veggie garden, probably doing more damage than good, but he was ever patient and ever kind - I miss you, Grandad!).  Anyhow… we’ve never managed to “get it going” here in the spring because of all the blackflies on the mountain… but this year we finally decided to just DO it - and surprisingly, we weren’t bothered that much by the blackflies after all.

I am NOT sorry!!!  My garden looks fantastic!!!

What we have planted.  Well, in that first box (and I am sure later on I might be sorry with the volume, but I really love them… ) are 4 zuchini plants.  The second box (the big one) are 9 cucumber plants, two tomato (one grape red, and one yelllow) plants, 3 squares with bean seeds planted… we’ll see how those work out, and one brocolli.  The last box has 4 more tomato plants (cherry, pink, big red and an orange variety), one green pepper plant, and three more brocolli.  I know, not too much variety there, but I really don’t like growing lettuce, hate red peppers, have a kid who is allergic to carrots, and well, cellery probably wouldn’t work in these boxes… so besides cauliflower, I couldnt’ think of anything much else to plant. 

There are pots too, which we did a day or so later, which aren’t in this picture.  one big pot has strawberries in them, and three pots have eggplants (one plant each pot) and one additional  pot has chives planted in them.  Now to week, watch, tend, and wait and see what our harvest yields. 

This was a fantastic homeschool project… we did it with the Littles (the Bigs were out for the day).  they had SUCH a kick out of mixing up the 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss (they called it PoppaMoss, since their Grandfather “Poppa” ’s name is Pete) and 1/3 compost (we used composted sheep manure… and thanks to Dad who didn’t think the first time he did it, spent the day calling it sheeppoop).  They got really dirty, as did Mom and Dad (guess that’s part of the fun, eh?)!  But at the end of the day, we felt so accomplished.  We had built boxes, and since we bought 4 10-foot long pieces, we were able to cut 2-foot long ends, then split the rest into a bunch of 4-foot lengths…which gave us exactly what we needed to make the three gardens.  We put them together with L-brackets (actually, I have to admit, at this point our oldest son, Ev *was* still home and helping… ).  It went very fast, the hardest part was digging off the top layer of the ground.  We wanted to get rid of as many dandilions roots as we could - and BOY were there a LOT! 

OH!  We also had a pleasant surprise!  A few years back I tried a pseudo-SFG (not really planned out at all) and had planted asparagus into one corner (being perrenial and all)… well, we were about to take apart that mess and Lo and Behold, guess what???  We had a harvest of asparagus buried under all those weeds and grasses!  So, it pays to pay attention, Lord only knows how many years that’s been harvestable and we just let it get overgrown.  Live and Learn, eh?

So.  That was our foray into Square Foot Gardening for this year.  I will keep y’all posted on how my garden grows!  I cannot recommend this enough to all you homeschoolers out there who might be interested in a “plants” project for the kids… all you need is a couple of planks of wood, some mix, some plants (or seeds, if you like)… and you can easily make a couple of the small gardens… maybe one for each child? 

Now, if I could only get the SUN to shine on my pretty little garden, that would help! *grin*

Blessings!

Posted in Great Ideas, Chaeli, Greyson, Everett, Bragging | Print | 1 Comment »

5. May 2008 by Shannon.

 CurrClick has a real treat for those who visit their site this week.  Of course, every week they offer a free ebook (curriculum or sometimes even a story), but this weeks ebook is really something special!  They are offering one of Knowledge Box Central’s Interview Series Lapbooks called “Grandfather’s Wisdom“.  What a treat!  This lapbook is designed to help your child glean the wisdom of his/her grandfather and to compile it in a neat way that will certainly become a keepsake to treasure!  Summer is coming, lots of “family time” to work on it.  Why not make it a summer project?  The ebook is regularly priced at 24.99$ but you can get it FREE this week only at CurrClick!  Don’t miss out!!!

OH!  And something really neat has happened here in our homeschool (well, for Mom anyhow *grin*) - Steven David Horwich, author of the Connect the Thoughts course recently sent an email out to several hundreds of people who had signed up for his newsletter - and a little known Yahoo Group exploded!!  My friend Stephanie and I, who are both using CTT in our homeschool, had started up a Yahoo Group looking to find others using CTT in their homeschools.  Well, it was slow going as neither of us is a marketting guru (apparently).  But with Steven’s email came a big surprise!  He had listed our group on HIS site (http://www.connectthethoughts.net) and our “population” grew… often by the minute!  It was a crazy chase to get everyone approved, but I am DELIGHTED to say that everyone started sharing and encouraging from the get-go, and Steph and I have found ourselves exactly what we wanted - Community!  Yippee and BIG THANKS go out to all those who joined and of course to Steven and his Webmaster,  Ray!  If you’re using CTT or would like to know more, I encourage you to check out the official site and you are also welcome to join our little (but growing!) Yahoo Group too at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/connectthethoughts .

What a whirlwind week -  the Ultimate Homeschool Expo is over (phew!  What a ride!!!) … BUT NOT REALLY!  I’m seriously going to talk to Cindy about renaming this amazing event to the Ultimate Forever Parenting Online Convention… or something equally appropriate!  I was talking to a friend of mine about it, who doesn’t homeschool and I was trying to explain how this isn’t just for homeschoolers, and it isn’t over!  Not only have all the sessions been recorded and will be available on the Members Site, but they aren’t just audios for homeschoolers.  These are really audios for great parents (LIKE YOU!).  There is everything on there from bringing up Godly children to Planning for your future to spiritually uplifting talks like God is Sufficient.  And all the “homeschool” related talks are equally appropriate for those who are involved in their children’s education in the public system, or could I even say, for public school teachers to learn how to intill the love of learning in their students?!  So don’t feel like you have missed the “ticket”… you haven’t!  And if you buy it now, you’ll get the “convention” price of only 40$ (soon it’ll be repriced at 99$ - so don’t delay!!).  Go grab your ticket here:

Now - one last thing (I saved it as your “dessert”)… KENZI was in a THEATRE production this week!!  Okay, it was a homeschooler play, but I am SO proud of my BIG girl!!!  She’s so shy, and overcame many obstacles to play the part of one of the narrators (which meant she was on the stage the entire 45 minutes while the play was being performed).  She was dressed as an “ancient greek” because the play was an adaptation of several of Aesop’s Fables (written by Gerald Murphy - which I got a kick out of because that is also my uncle’s name… LOL).   The whole cast did amazing and I was so proud of them!  It was directed by Melanie Doerr and was performed at the Hudson Village Theatre.  Well done everyone!  (psst… that’s Kenzi on the left with her little narrator friend who, in my opinion, was the funniest member of the cast hands down!  “Don’t ask ME - ask AESOP!”  HAHAHA!)

Have an ABUNDANTLY blessed day!

Posted in LapBooks, Curriculum Choices, Kenzi, Great Finds, General Homeschool | Print | 2 Comments »