13. October 2008 by Shannon.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY CANADIAN FRIENDS!!!

Okay, in honour of a fun day… I have a completely frivelous, nothing at all related to homeschooling, parenting or anything post… Enjoy! :o)

What Your Pizza Reveals

Your appetite is pretty average. You don’t go overboard - but you don’t deprive yourself either.You aren’t particularly picky about pizza. It’s so good… how could you be? You fit in best in the Western part of North America. You like food that’s traditional and well crafted. You aren’t impressed with “gourmet” foods.You are dependable, loyal, and conservative with your choices. You are deep and thoughtful. You should consider traveling to Paris. The stereotype that best fits you is guy or girl next door. Hey, there’s nothing wrong with being average.

What Does Your Pizza Say About You?

Blessings!

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11. October 2008 by Shannon.

I posted this review on my www.momlovesbooks.com blog… but it’s worth sharing here as well. 

Having been at this ‘Homeschooling Thing’ for 10 years now… I know the fears, doubts and frustrations with starting out… or restarting homeschooling. I’ve had the “homeschooled since birth” experience as well as the “yank ‘em out of school fast” experience, as well as one “he’ll finish up the year and that’s the end of that” experience. And every single time it comes with that butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling of

NOW WHAT?!

Well, a friend of mine, Terri Johnson, came up with a wonderful answer! She’s created an ABC’s of Homeschooling E-Course (oh, and btw, I’m not the ‘brightest bulb in the house’ as it took me to lesson F to realise that she was indeed going through the Alphabet - even the fact that there were 26 weeks to the course didn’t tip me off… *oh brother*).

Ahem! Back to what Terri did…

Imagine walking hand-in-hand with a Veteran Homeschooling Mom who is there helping you week-by-week to plan what you will be doing…

Imagine being introduced to all her Homeschool Veteran friends who want to bless you with gifts of curriculum and encouragement…

Imagine learning alongside your children, in a pleasant, RELAXED way…

Imagine knowing that what you will be learning and doing can be re-used and re-done a thousand times without wearing out either the learning or the fun…

Imagine developing your OWN Educational Philosophy (a lofty goal for some… but completely attainable!)…

Imagine having the time and know-how to create your own “Unit Study” geared to your children’s gifts and passions, or know that you can fully meet all Provincial or State requirements…

Or best of all - Imagine having the ANSWER when your neighbour asks “What about SOCIALIZATION?!”…

Would it be worth it to you to have this kind of help? Would you be willing to give up a cup of coffee at a Fancy Coffee Shop a week for it?

Well, Terri’s Homeschooling ABCs E-course costs as little as that… less than 2.50$ a week ( only $10 a month for 6 months)!!! And you’ll get lots of free goodies from Terri and her friends (your new friends!), not to mention the incredible opportunity to “sit at their feet” and soak up all their years of experience and wisdom!!

This course is worth every single penny, in my humble opinion… and I’ve seen lots of “ABC lists” for Homeschooling (or any other topic you might wish to research) and this is not just a list… each course comes in an email with a link to the Homeschooling ABCs Site with links for downloadable PDFs (which can be read/printed from the free Acrobat Reader ) and any links to your new Homeschool friends’ gifts to you (gifts totally hundreds of dollars, I might add.. nice friends, eh? *grin*). You’ll receive one course each week for (you guessed it… even if I didn’t! LOL!) 26 weeks… a whole Alphabet of weeks! :o)

One of the things I really REALLY liked about this course is that it was MUCH less intimidating than reading the ‘Guides to Homeschooling’ that are available in the market, and not full of all the “perfect homeschool - lookitus” mentality that can downright discourage a new homeschooler (heck, even a veteran like myself can be left wondering if I have what it takes in reaction to bragging like that!). This is not a collection of how all these wonderful things that happened when our kids got into “Ivy League schools on full scholarships the same year they won the Nobel Peace Prize just for being Homeschoolers” kind of encouragement - instead, it’s a PRACTICAL, HANDS-ON, WALK-YOU-THROUGH-IT-IN-BITE-SIZED-CHUNKS kind of encouragement. I like that kind! :o)

Terri (in case you don’t already know) is the talent behind Knowledge Quest Maps - she’s been homeschooling for at least 11 years - so she knows of what she speaks! I’ve had the priviledge of listening to web-seminars offered by her in the past, and her passion and vision is an inspiration.

So, If you are just starting out, or starting over - maybe what you are doing isn’t working and you’re ready to toss in the towel… WAIT! Don’t give up… think of Maria’s advice in The Sound of Music… “Let’s Start at the Very Begining, A Very Good Place to Start”… Well, Homeschooling ABCs E-Course will certainly get you off to a Very Good Place - and you might just hang that towel back on the hook (or better yet - why not wrap it around your head like a Pirate and chase the kids around the living room, fall laughing on the couch, pull our a copy of Peter Pan and snuggle down for a Good Read?).

Whatever you decide… don’t give up - just go back and learn your Homeschooling ABCs!

Posted in Great Ideas, Curriculum Choices, Great Finds, General Homeschool | Print | No Comments »

9. October 2008 by Shannon.

 Once again, you are all standing around scratchin’ yer noggins saying, “Huh?”  heehee….

A friend was wondering what to use that was more “Charlotte Mason Friendly” than a big science textbook (like Apologia).  I just wanted to share my reply to her concern here in case it blesses someone (else… I know my friend, Lori Lynn was blessed by it *smile*):

What we do for Science (using Aologia) is read Dr. Wile’s chapters together… very CM.  I read it to them, cuddled up on the couch, then we do the experiments together and have fun (I record my own lab sheet too!) and then we talk about the results before we move on to reading what Dr. Wile has written about “what was supposed to happen”.  We use a lapbook system for the “study questions” so they can quiz themselves effectively, then we do the test… it’s been very interactive.  I cannot imagine asking my kids to do that HUGE text alone… You can find some interactive hands-on materials for Apologia at Currclick  and you can get the lab kits at Sonlight (which can make a difference between facing the experiments confidently or not)… you can find them in the core 7 science they are called NSK and I’m not sure the other one, the other one is the one gears specifically for “General Science”)

I believe that almost anything can be done in a somewhat CM-y way… reading the lessons together and getting excited about it and discussing it with Dad ‘round the dinner table (narrations anyone?) cements the learning.  Don’t give up quite yet…

BUT…another resource (with the exception of the first course, which I recommend ONLY if you omit the last lesson) are the connect the thoughts science courses… they are thorough, however NOT faith based (and in my humble opinion it is impossible to separate the two and get a “good” science education… since a good researcher would go to the source of the thing they are studying, right?  Well, since God made everything, it seems logical to go to Him about His creation.  Ya know?).  However, from a completely “separate from God” point of view.. these are excellent.  They can also be done as a “read together” then “discuss the questions or do the projects together” kind of way, although it’d be a bit more challenging.  You can find them at also at Currclick.

High school science is tough… not tough to understand with the right “teacher”, but a tough “responsibility”… you don’t want to leave your kids short changed, yet it’s hard to make a not-text book type choice and be sure you’ve covered all the basics. 

I was also thinking, maybe ask around and see if anyone else in your homeschool community is doing the Apologia and see if maybe you guys could organize “group experiments” or something, your son might be more interested if he knows he’s not alone and has something to look forward to (getting together with some science buddies)?  I have the benefit of both my Bigs doing this science together with me, so it makes it a “mini-group” and we’ve had some fun “arguments” over what we think should happen or should HAVE happened (um, the balloon apparently wasn’t *supposed* to explode all over the kitchen – who knew?) and to discuss the lesson together.  

I hope you can find something that works for you…

Blessings!

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

8. October 2008 by Shannon.

I was visiting my friend, Lia, the other day and of course, whenever homeschool moms get together there is the eventual, “So, how do YOU do it?”… of course I asked.  You see, my friend Lia has 9 children, all homeschooled from the start… she has graduated 2 or maybe 3 of them already into Post Secondary and right now one of them is actively pursueing a job as a fire-fighter!!!  (Personally, I don’t need any more white hairs, thank you very much!)

Okay, back to “how she does it”.  Well, the way she homeschools isn’t really what I want to write about… I want to just share one little nugget of gold that she practices that jumped out at me and I immediately had to go home and implement… and my kids are THRILLED!

Lia makes a binder full of pageprotectors (nothing special yet, eh?  hang on to your hats… there’s more!) and then she FILLS said page protectors with several copies of different layouts of templated notebooking pages.  There are so many amazing Homeschool Moms out there who have designed incredible notebooking pages; with spaces for pictures, maps, timelines even!  And of course… a written narration (summary) of that days/subjects lesson. 

So, her children do their school reading/research, then go over to the Master Binder, flip through and choose something that appeals to them that day, slips a page out of the page protector and go back and do their notebook page.  When finished they slip it into the last place in their own personal notebooks and have added to their “Personal History Book”.  It’s so simple an idea.  When they take out the last sheet, they inform Mom who then looks at the sheet they printed out, goes to the computer, prints out more copies of that particular sheet (and believe it or not, it’ll surprise you which ones your kids will “click” with!) and plops them back into the empty page protector … ready for the next lessons!

Now, as you all know, I’m all about the pictures, so here is a picture of a few pages from MY notebook page binder… and a picture of a page Kenzi did today on Madeleine de Verchères:

 So, my thought for today is….

THANK YOU LIA! :o)

 Blessings!

OH!  PS, here is my “creepy crawly of the month”… I found him crawling up my study window—>

 And here is my other little friend who is OBVIOUSLY not doing his job!

Sweet Dreams! *grin*

Posted in Notebooks, LapBooks, Great Ideas, General Homeschool | Print | 2 Comments »

2. October 2008 by Shannon.

Well, my first attempt at a book draw has come to a close (yesterday) and thank you to the ladies who participated for not attacking me with emails about not paying attention that the 1st came and went.. I was working really hard yesterday and time got away from me.. it wasn’t till I looked at the calendar today that I realised I’d missed it by a day.  Sigh.. busy homeschool life, eh?

SO… without further ado…

The winner is *insert drum roll here* ….. RACHEL LARKIN of http://www.Rachel-Larkin.com.  I’m inspired like crazy at all the possiblities now (why didn’t *I* think of that?).  BUT… since all the entries were on the same “wave length” in ideas (hers just took it to another level) - I’ve decided to send everyone something…. so Danielle, Jennifer and Laura… keep your eyes open in your inbox for a treat from me! :o)

On another note… my husband is an addict.  Okay, not *that* kind of addict… but a sports addict.  He’s a die-hard fan of the Montreal Canadiens Hockey Team… and this week he decided it was time to fully indoctrinate our youngest son into the ranks of the truly addicted.  He took him to his First Game. 

This is Greyson’s report on the game:

“Daddy took me the hockey game.  It was so loud but I wasn’t even scared, I was humming to myself.  People were screaming except for me!  A big huge machine and another came out and they cleaned all the ice up.  And the other got rid of the scrapes.  I saw a guy with a costume.  I liked him.  He was hiding from me -  he was sneaky.  I was looking for him.  I wanted him to come and see me but he didn’t, he just came to see the other kids.  He was big and hairy!   The hockey players made the scrapes and made snow and the man witht he shovels cleaned up the snow.  In the picture, that is the thing that shows the players playing the game.  This is a picture of me with my costume, I went in front of Daddy and he took this cute picture.  There was nothing else I could see.  Daddy bought me some pizza with pepperonis and some pop.  The best part of the hockey game was Daddy taking lots of pictures.”

I think narrations of events count too, right? ;o)

The “big and hairy” guy was the Youpi (I think I spelled that right) mascot who was the mascot of the Expos, but then they left, so he was adopted by the Habs (the Canadiens).  See, I know SOME stuff about sports… not much, but I do know a little!  LOL!

I also wanted to share a pretty picture of Chaeli too… I think Kenzi took it, but I just love her eyes… and this is “so her” because she’s ALWAYS got an apple on the go… I’ve read it might have something to do with her GERD, apparently apples can help ??

Posted in Chaeli, Greyson | Print | 1 Comment »