Looking Back: The Early Years

My kids are older now 15/14 (well nearly 14 and 15). When you get a chance to look back and reflect you may realize you did somethings good, some things great, and other things ... well you just wish for a do over.

I have a do over wish.

Before I continue I want to make it clear: Your kids, you and only you know what's best for them. You and only you can decide what to do. If you are the type that wants curriculum and formal learning for your 3, 4, 5 year old then this post isn't for you.

If you are on the fence, have doubts, or feeling you have to keep up with the Jones ... this is for you!

This is my 8th year homeschooling. Yes, it's just my daughter now; the boy is at the public high school against my wishes. (Hubby wanted him there).  My feelings about education has changed over the years. If I had a do over ....

If I had a do over I would have never sent my kids to public school for those 2 years. (1st/K for the boy; pre-k/k for the girl) If I had a do over I would have pushed harder to have been able to keep them home and always homeschooled .... or at least waited for the state's compulsory age which at the time was 7 in Illinois (It a few years ago changed to 6). Heck, I didn't even know, back then, that legally I didn't even have to send my kids to school until 7.

I just did what everyone else did .... even though I didn't like it. I truly didn't fully understand my options. I was young 20 something. Now as a 30 something. I get it. If I had to do it over...

If I had to do it over I would have kept my kids home. I would have never sent a 4/5 year old to school. I would have NOT use a curriculum or any formal learning. I would have continued to do what I was doing as MOM.

A good mom. cuddles with books and movies. Library trips, trips to the park. Lots of outdoor play. Always making sure they had access to crayon, pencils, and paper. Taking out the paints, play dough, scissors time to time. Helping them learn self help skills, colors, numbers. All WITHOUT a curriculum.

Help me sort the laundry. I need 3 cans of tuna can you get them? Can't find them they are the small cans with the blue label.  Teaching them our address, phone number, what my name is (real name, not just mommy).  Lets spell your name. All those things that good parents does without the need to use an actual curriculum, books, worksheets.

I would have insisted that formal learning, school, waited until they were 7.

I have realized there is no need to push school any sooner than that! If you do that fine, they are your kids.

I'm speaking to those that are on the fence. Those that have no desire to start formal schooling, but then panic and have doubts because they hear Sally is sending her kids to pre-school or is buying a ton of curriculum to work at home with.  

If you don't want curriculum then don't use it. Do not feel pressure to having to do formal schooling just because that's what the Jones are doing. If you have no desire that is perfectly acceptable! It is totally okay.

God willing if I had younger kids this is exactly what I would be doing today. I would be just MOM. I would be just letting my little kids play and would NOT be doing any kind of school work with them until they were 6.....

Complete Curriculum

So over Christmas the kids received tablets from Santa. I'm looking more towards ebooks because they have their tablets. I came across Complete Curriculum.


First I know it's "secular" curriculum. All these years of homeschooling I've been using things that are Catholic/Christian based and over all I've been reasonably happy with my choices.  I could do what I have been doing and more, but I'm also looking at price.  What appeals to me about the Complete Curriculum you can use any 10 ebooks you want for $29.95 per calendar year.

The books they offer are just core subjects math, social studies, English  and science.  With two kids I could have age/grade material for them for a very cheap price.  I've heard that for the $29.95 fee you get access to the whole book, materials, but they are broken down into 180 lessons and each lesson is its own pdf file. So  for the math material, for example, I would have to download 180 different files to get the complete math book.  For an additional fee you can get the whole book, all the lessons, in ONE file.  Or you can just spend the money for the book, one file, without the membership fee. (Buying each book as one file cost more then the yearly membership fee).

I really don't have anything more to say about Complete Curriculum. I'm wondering if any of my readers have heard of it? Have used it? Or know someone that has? What are your thoughts?

Or do you know of other whole curriculum options that uses primary ebooks. I would want access to their books and teacher manuals/answer keys. I'm really interested in making their tablet more of a learning tool and not just a gadget to play angry birds or watch Netflix!

Glasses ARE making a difference.

It's amazing what some glasses can do for your child!  She still struggles with some reading, because she's lacking some basics skills, but she grasping and getting the information so much faster now. I really think it's helping her that she can see! She was just on the boarder line of needing glasses and we went with it, because we could also get them to be prism to correct for convergence insufficiency.

I so wished we went with this passive route several years ago when we learned she had convergence insufficiency. She's even doing math work with no fuss.  For the last several years I've had to deal with I don't understand it and had to work through her whining over the work. Looking back I think she was this way, because she couldn't see properly.

When she got her glasses on she said without my glasses things are 'normal'; with my glasses things are super clear and just pop-out at you!  I had to explain to her that super clear and pop-out at you IS normal!

She even this last week has been, are you ready for it, doing WORD problems WITHOUT my help!! For the last several years I've have had to sit next to her while she reads the word problems and correct the mistakes she was making.  This week she just did it without having to have me sit next to her while she read them to me! Can I just as that's awesome! She said for the some: I didn't know the person's name so I just skipped that part, but I understood and read the rest of the word problem just fine. That is a HUGE improvement for us. I really can't share how that's an improvement.


We've always have done spelling, math, reading, writing, and all the other subject required by my state, but this year I'm going to make spelling, writing, and reading more of a priority and  focus. We still will be doing all of subjects we just will be doing more language arts then in years prior.  I was given the first level of All About Spelling so I'm looking forward to giving that ago. I also have a list of books I'm going have the kid read this year in addition to reading to mommy and other free reading materials.

In years passed I've done history with a text book. This year I'm going to approach it with literature. I'm looking forward to that as well.  How have things been going with you? Are you doing anything new this school year?

Let's Talk About Blood?

Oh, boy! The human body, blood, hearts, lungs, etc. are all things that make Superstar very uneasy! Just seeing a cut makes him turn pale, so you can imagine what I'm going through this week, seeing our science chapter is about the circulatory system.

I'm making him get through it. I'm reading the material, reading the questions in the workbook, and having him verbally answer them. It's not a pretty scene.  I don't want to skip over the material just because it makes him uneasy, but at the same time I don't want him being so upset.

I know it's not an easy topic for him, but I think on some levels he's being a bit of a 'Drama King' about it all. I don't want to snap and tell him to knock it off, and just 'grow up', but at the same time that's what I want him to do.  I know it's hard, my husband doesn't like this stuff either and will actually leave the room or change the channel if any of this stuff is on or being discussed. I know that's exactly what Superstar wants to do, but we have to through it.

As I'm typing this out, I just had a brainy idea. I wonder if I can get my husband to teach this chapter to our son? I know he hates the topic as well, but perhaps the two of them can work it out together! It think I'm going to ask hubby tonight about that!

Mealworms!

So we've completed chapter 3 of our science book "Behold and See 5".  The lab works at the end of this chapter suggested we catch some animals, feed them, and observe their behavior for a period of time.  Seeing its the dead of winter catching animals isn't the best option right now. The book did suggest if we can't catch any to buy some mealworms or crickets to watch, feed, and observe.

I chose mealworms over the crickets because with the mealworms we can watch metamorphosis take place. The beginning of the chapter dealt with metamorphosis so it seemed to be more fitting. Plus from reading the book taking care of the mealworms seemed like an easier task. Keep them in a jar with some dry oatmeal and with some fruits or vegetables. 

I bought the mealworms at a local pet store just over a week ago. I bought 50 of them for just over $3. Several of them didn't "wake-up" after warming up. The pet store keeps them in the refrigerator and I was told to put them back in the refrigerator so they don't move around. Of course moving around is what I wanted so I didn't follow that advice.

We measure several of them last week when we bought them and the average length was about 1 cm. Now the average length is about 2 cm. We think we have lost about 20 of the 50 we started with, but are hopeful that several will make it adulthood.  I'll have pictures to share in a future post about our mealworms.

We have some ovaries on our kitchen counter.

We've been working with our science material: Behold and See Science 5. The current topic we are working with is the anatomy of a flower.  Our book describes the ovary as the part of the flower that will become fruit.

So my kids, thinking that it's funny, has decided to use the word when asking for the apples, oranges, or whatever other fruit we've had on hand this week.  Mama can I have a red ovary? (apple).  Mama can I have a orange ovary? (orange).   We have NOT discussed human reproductive anatomy yet, so they have NO idea that this is a name of a female reproductive part. They just think it's a funny sounding word and are proud that they have understood the lessons.

They even said it public at the store today. Mama can we buy more red ovaries?  I love that my kids are learning and absorbing the materials. It's good that they can look at the fruit and understand that when it was a flower that was the ovary and the seeds inside were the ovules.

However, given the word you can imagine why my face turned flushed at the store while doing a quick look around to see who heard and if they were given me some crazy looks.

Classical vs CM vs Literature Based?

I've been thinking about next school year.....

Does any of my readers take a Classical, CM, or Literature Based approach when it comes to homeschooling? I've been thinking about these methods and would like some input and opinions from my readers!

Thanks!

2011-2012 School Year: What to use?

I still have several months before I'll wrap up our current school year. I had plan to go all the way to the end of July. We are going to give our hand at all year schooling. However, spring is clearly in the air, because homeschool social sites, such as The Homeschool Lounge, are buzzing with discussions about what to use for next year for science, history, language arts, etc.

Even though I have several more months left I to have been looking at what to use for next year. I have my math and history covered. I have some of my language arts covered like: grammar, spelling and literature.

I HAVE to figure out what I want to use for science. I also need to do something about my children's handwriting and I need to do something to encourage writing.  The grammar workbooks are great for the basics of grammar, but I need to do something that will get them to write paragraphs, reports, or something along those lines.

Fine Arts are a requirement in my state and I think I have that covered okay. Although I think we are at the point were we would like our kids to learn and instrument, but I'm not sure what instrument to encourage or that will even be in our budget. If you have any suggestions that will be great!

2010-2011 School Year Curriculum

We have already done 3 weeks of school. Tomorrow the 27th, will be the start of our 4th week. Then for the week of Oct 4th-8th we will have NO SCHOOL. I've decided to school for about 200 days over 40 weeks. I've also decided that it will be more of an ALL year schooling. Because of this I can almost every 4-5 weeks take a WHOLE week off!  Our off weeks will give me time to grade papers, tweak our plans, and see how things are going.

Language Arts:

• Journaling
• Treasure Spelling Books (Free downloads from Mchschool.com)
• Total Reader
• Phonics Games

Math:

• Web-princess is using MCP Mathematics Level C
• Superstar is using MCP Mathematics Level D

History:

• Library Books
• America the Story of Us DVD
• American Heritage
• Heifer International Lesson Plans (which I got for FREE a while back)
• Drive Thru History America (we got that for FREE when we joined HSLDA 3 years ago)

Science:

• Behold and See 3
• Library Books
• NASA Journey To The Stars (I'm STILL waiting for that one to come)

Fine Arts

• Arts & Crafts
• Music: Recorders
• Various Library Resources

PE/Health

• Various fitness DVD
• Library Resources

Foreign Language:

• Rosetta Stone French

Miscellaneous Enrichment:

• Pizza Hut's Book-It program (Must read 20 books per month to earn pizza)
• BookAdventure.Com
• Head Of The Class
• Classes @ our Homeschool Co-Op I-HOPE

Catholicism:

• Mass on Sundays and Wednesdays
• Find God Faith Formation

FREE DVD FROM NASA: Journey to the Stars

Journey to the Stars began as a planetarium show produced by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and supported by NASA's Heliophysics Division. It surveys the mind-boggling variety of stars that dot the cosmos—exploding stars, giant stars, dwarf stars, neutron stars, even our own star! 

NASA will send you a DVD, for free! (Including Activity Sheets that meet national standards for Science and Technology instruction in grades 3 through 12) To request a DVD and Activity Sheets please see NASA's Site: Journey to the Stars.

FREE DVD TO HOMESCHOOLERS FROM HISTORY CHANNEL

HISTORY is offering America The Story of US on DVD to every school in the United States. School must be an accredited public, private or home school, for grades K-12 and college. Please see History Channel's Website for more details on how to receive your copy today!

T/H: Betsy's Price is Right

Look and Say vs Phonics

Imagine walking into a place with books and more books. Books on shelves, books on the floor, books stacked against the wall. There's just enough room to walk through. There are more books then any one person would know what to do with. Well that's where I was this pass weekend.

picture source

DH Saturday morning said I want to go to Toad Hall? "Toad What?" I replied, "What is that?" "Toad Hall" DH replied, "It's a store that sells old books and comics." I quickly learned that DH has known about the place for YEARS, just never told me! He said it doesn't open till noon. So we decided we would go then. My FIL (Father-In-Law) called to see what we were up to and decided that he would join us at Toad Hall.

We walked into Toad Hall and I wanted to run out. I was just in awe over the books and how everything was stacked up on each other. I thought to MYSELF "My gosh, I'm surprise they are allowed to be in business and that this isn't considered a fire hazard." The lady behind the counter welcomed us and asked if we were in search of something special. We told her no just looking. Eying Superstar and Web-princess she offered that the Children's books were up on the 3rd floor! 

We looked at her an amazement 3rd floor? Yes this is the second floor there's stuff downstairs, upstairs, and in the building across the street. I made my way then to the stairs and climbed them. As I got to the top I couldn't find a light, thankfully there was a HUGE window, and noted there was no heat up here. Again I wonder how can they be in business? Not only that I had to stretch my legs over things just to get to the children's section.

They had some children books and next to them were older books. I pulled an older book of the shelf and had to wipe the dust of just to read the cover. To my amazement there was MORE BOOKS behind the one I pulled off. It was a reader. I pulled another book and it was speller. I pulled another book and it was an old math book, An Ray's arithmetic book to be exact. I pulled another book and it was a McGuffey Reader. Ray's Arithmetic, McGuffey Reader these are titles I'm familiar with. I got excited. I wondered is there a set here?

I started to pull, wipe, and dust books. I started to make piles of Readers. I started to make sets. I shortly realized that I wasn't going to get a McGuffey set, but I most likely will get an Elson Set. So I focused more on the Elson books. 

Superstar found his way up to the third floor and started to help me make sets. Some more time past and DH called up the stairs were leaving. I yelled down okay. I looked at the sets I've started to make, grab the most complete set, and put the rest on the shelves again to the best of my ability.They clearly where in no special order before, so as long as it fit it was okay.

I came down the stairs with my 5 new found books (seen below) and told DH I want these for school. He asked if I got a whole set. I said no, but I got most of them. I have book 1, 2, 4, 5, 6. 

The lady said they could be mine for $25. I agreed the to price and left. My FIL wasn't too thrilled with our expenditures. He felt it was over priced and wasn't afraid to say so. I told him that I felt I got an okay price seeing I know what people pay just to have pdf files of some of these older books.

 

We then decided to go out to lunch with my FIL. On the way to the restaurant, DH offered that I might find the missing book (3) on ebay or something like that. Of course the primer book is missing as well, but I don't need a primer book for the kids. So what does this have "Look and Say" vs "Phonics"?

It is without a question that Jane, Dick, and Spot gets the blame for the "Look and Say" era. Phonics are the new thing again, and I think that's why the McGuffey Readers are popular with homeschoolers. They, without a question,  are among the first phonics books. With some digging in places like Project Gutenberg you can find pdf, txt, or HTML files of the McGuffey Readers for FREE vs buying a CD with the files. (There are other books as well)

So where did Dick, Jane, and Spot come from? Well it turns out they were introduce to the children in the early 1930s in the Elson-Gray Readers. Especially in the PRIMER and PRE-PRIMER reader!

Those Readers that I picked up for $5 a piece just HAPPEN to be the very SAME readers the introduced Dick, Jane, and Spot to the world! To bad I didn't find the Primer or Pre-Primer book of the series (or book 3 for that matter). he-he. However I'm sure that if I went back to Toad Hall, that I would find it there. I would just need several more hours to dig!

Besides having readers for the kids to read with, I actually have a piece of "history" now. It has been fantasizing to learn how these 1930 readers, the readers that I picked up, changed the way reading was taught in schools for several generations. That is until they decided to go back to phonics in the 1960s.

Although many schools even in the early 1980's still taught with the look and say method. I know because I was never taught phonics in school. I think now most schools teach phonics or a combo of phonics and look and say methods.

Lesson Pathways is NOW FREE!

Have you heard of Lesson Pathways? Have you been wanting to test it out but wasn't sure if it was worth of the investment? Well now it's free!

To be honest I didn't even know that Lesson Pathways was out there until just a few minutes ago. It use to be a paid subscription, but due the economic down turn they have decided to make it free. The idea is that traffic, hopefully, will produce an income via the ads, good will donations, etc. I just registered myself and I'm amazed at the amount of material that is available! (registration is 100% free)

Lesson Pathways goal is to help homeschooling parents and classroom teachers spend less time searching for educational resources and more time engaging with and teaching their students. They do this by providing READY TO USE learning pathways. Each pathway is filled with information, activities, and links to related resources.

Go check it out: Lesson Pathways

Book Rescue: Low Cost Text Books for Homeschoolers

 

Do you live in Northern IL? Do you live near Glen Ellyn, IL? If so then you might want to check out Book Rescue! Book Rescue collects text books from various sources and then turns around and give them or sells them to others for a low fee. School teachers get the books for FREE! However for Homeshoolers there is a small fee. Please see SCARE's Website for details on the fees for homeschoolers.  

What kind of selection is there? I don't know for sure because I have never been there. However seeing this local ABC station's news report I want to go check it out! I'm willing to pay the small yearly fee and text book fee! It seems it would be possible for me to get books for the kids for $50 per year. Assuming that I would be able to truly get all the text books I would need there. 

From the video it looks like a homeschooler's paradise!

Don't get me wrong I love using what I'm using, but I also like to save money. Even if I don't buy anything I would like to go and at least check it out in person!

PRINTING! UGH! The cost!

One of the down falls to homeschooling is the PRINTING! Our Lexmark printer sucks, literally! The ink cartages for it cost $50 (This is 1 black and 1 color cartage). That yielded us about 300 pages. If we were lucky!

I tried really hard NOT to print things because of the cost. When we switch to Ubuntu for our operating system we found the printer to even be more problematic. It's really NOT compatible with Ubuntu. So we we have been in the market for a new printer. We knew that no matter what we would get an HP printer, because they work the best with Linux.

We figured that we would just get a laser printer because DH knows that toner would give us better yields then ink. We didn't want flush more money down the drain on expensive ink replacements. We ran out to Best Buy and started looking at the HP options there.  It just so happen that an HP rep was in the store! This for us was luck because we were in the market for an HP product!

Best Buy had one HP laser printer on sale for $99 (reg. price $200). I told DH well that seem like a good deal. We knew that it was just black and that we really could not afford the color laser printers.  Not only that but there was no way we could afford a color all-in-one laser printer. (Our current model is an all in one and I love being able to copy things as needed).

DH grabbed the toner cartgage for the laser printer it was $80. Knowing that the toner was nearly the price of the printer made me ask DH "How many pages can I print before I run out of ink?"

He said you mean toner and started to look on the box. He then said we have to go to HP website to learn the yield, because that is what the box said.  I told him to find a sales associate and see if they will find out for you. He found the sales associate and learn from them that there was an HP rep in the store and the rep would be able to answer all of our questions.

The rep shortly learned that we actually didn't own a HP printer and that we were in the market for one. DH explained to him that we homeschooled and that I needed a printer that was NOT an ink hog because of the amount of ink we go through.  We told him what we had at home and what ink cartages it took and he knew how it sucks!! $50 per 300 sheets is a lot of money!!

We explained to him how it's an all and one and that we figure we would keep it and use it as a copier as needed. 80% of my needs come out of printing but I do make copies some what regularly.  He then directed us to the HP Pro 8500. It IS a inkjet printer, but it's cartages rock. The black cartages alone yields 2200 sheet of paper. That already is 7x better then our current print and very comparable to the $99 laser printer. The laser printer toner yields 1800 pages.  The HP Pro 8500 is an all-in-one and does color. It's cost today was $280 (reg. $400).

I listen to him share what the ink yield was on the 8500 and some of the other bells and whistles like how I can scan a piece of paper and email it straight from the printer. Or if I scan items it will automatically file it. So lets say I scanned a art project that web-princess made it would automatically file it in "web-princess folder" straight from the printer.  Bells and whistles that we didn't really need.

I then turn my head to another HP inkjet printer. It was an all in one printer that was $200. He said you don't want that printer. I said what do you mean? He said I'll be right back went around the corner, grabbed some ink cartages, and came back. He showed me  how the ink cartages were for the model I was looking at and then showed me the yield on those cartages: 500 pages. Then took me around the add pointed out the price of various models (including non HP products), the cartages for those models, and what the yield on those cartages.

So in other words that $200 HP inkjet printer was only going to give me 500 pages for  $35 a black cartage where the HP Pro 8500 was going to give me 2200 pages for $35 a black cartage.

500 would be better then what we have now but not that much better. The HP rep said that's the problem SOMETIMES with cheaper models. The models are cheaper but the ink often cost just as much or if not more then the printer.

He said I would either go with the $99 laser printer that we were looking at when we first came into the store, or this HP Pro 8500. Either one of them are going to give a x7 better printing capabilities per (black) cartage then what we get now.

He also then picked up a coupon that was sitting on the shelf and said that this coupon is good for the 8500 model. It was $50 instant savings. All we had to do is give them our old printer as a trade in with the coupon and get $50 off the sticker price. So now this $400 is going to cost $230. That $230 also included ink to start with.

So now we had to decided do we spend $230 on the HP Pro 8500 or $180 on the HP laser printer and toner. (The laser printer did not come with toner).  Was the HP Pro 8500 worth the extra $50 today?

Well lets see besides the fact that the HP Pro 8500 is an all and one (print, scan, copy, fax) and has color printing its cartages were cheaper. Black at $35 gave us 2200 sheets and the color cartages would give us 1700 sheets for $26 a piece. Not only that but each color, yellow, magenta, and cyan was it's OWN cartage. So we could only have to buy the color we need when we needed it. 

Yes if we needed ALL 4 cartages at the same time it would be about $20 more then just the BLACK laser toner replacement. However I doubt that we would need all 4 at once and DH said that fact that each color is it's own cartage will mean that over time it would save us money because you aren't always going to need to replace all the colors.

So we went ahead and got the HP Pro 8500 for $280 today (It will be $230 as soon as I give them my old printer)! Although we do NOT have it today! The model was NOT in stock so we have to wait for it to be delivered to the store for pick up. We did a store pick up because I have to go back with our old printer. We didn't have it with us today in the store either.

It made sense to do the store pick up. I'll go pick up the new printer and drop of the old on the same day. When I give them my old printer I will have $50 instantly credited to our account making our final price for the printer (and ink to start with) $230.

I'm EXCITED! I NOW feel like I can AFFORD to print! Not only that but there have been materials that I have been considering using for our curriculum. They are free materials I just have to print them off, but didn't do that because our printer sucked! Now with a printer that give me 2200 pages per $35 I will be able to print materials off vs. buying them.

Head Of the Class

Head of the Class: No-Cost Online Education

Head of the Class provides preschool through eighth grade parents, learners, and teachers with free access to curriculum-based content. Organized by grade-level, you will find instruction, activities, and multimedia on reading, math, spelling, writing, art, history, music, geography, science, Spanish, and more.

I know the short-bio above states grades preschool to 8th, however they only have up to grade 2 posted on the site. It seems from browsing the site over that it is still a work in progress. I don't have an opinion about the site, I just found out about it last night via: The Homeschool Lounge.

I've added it our Homeschooling HELP! Page (check it out!!)

About 1/2 Done!

I've before have listed what we are using for the 2009-2010 school year. I can't believe that we are just about 1/2 done with our books. Wow 1/2 the school year is almost done!

With 1/2 the school year almost done, I've realized that I haven't really been posting lesson plans like I wanted too. Honestly I haven't been making lesson plans like I wanted too. I just the night before look at our books and decided what to do next. Some of it also is just routine. I tell the kids to do math and they will automatically do 4 pages. I tell the kids to do grammar and they will automatically do the 1 page. There really isn't much planning to be done. We just are working through the books. From the beginning to the end! LOL

Althoug I want to be better planned out and have more of a schedule or weekly planner for them, so they know this is what needs to be done this week. With perhaps the goal of them being able to plan out their days accordingly or their week accordingly. That if they have to do 4 page of grammar all week, that it's okay if they do it all on Day 1 or they can not do it one day and do 2 the next, etc. That it really wouldn't matter as long as at the end of the week the work was done.

Anyway we are about 1/2 way done and it's AWESOME!! It took us 5 months to get here and that was with a month of no schooling do to flu and surgery. So I imagine that it will take us another 5 months to finish. That means we should be done some time in May. Which is cool seeing the public schools here go to school until Mid June! LOL

Peggy The Pint-Sized Pirate

The audio and video isn't the greatest but I wanted to share this with you all seeing many of you seem to be interested on how the play went seeing I've been talking about those darn costumes.

DD and DS did a wonderful job! I was very proud of them! The clip is about 2 minutes long. It really is just the part of the play they were in :) The play is Peggy The Pint-Sized Pirate. It is about how Peggy is trying to save the other other pirates from the sea monster. In this part of the play Peggy (and Scummy) are trying to find the way to the sea monster. She stops to ask the whale (my DS) and the barnacle (my DD) for directions to the sea monsters lair.


EDIT ADD: I just want to add that you may need to turn up your sound/speakers on your PC to hear, but don't forget to turn them down when you are done :)

Edit Add May 21, 2009: more (still) pictures are up. click on "pics" in the menu above. Album's Name: Peggy the Pint-Sized Pirate.

Dissection: frogs, cow eyes, squids, oh my!

Granted my kids are still a little young for those dissection labs, or are they?? Hmm, after becoming aware of this VIRTUAL dissection tool, I'm starting to wonder. I came across Froguts yesterday, during my internet surfing.

Froguts states that their home program ($30 per year) can be used as a stand alone instructional tool, it can be used as a cost effective alternative to dissection materials and specimens, and can be repeated as necessary. However, as a supplement to actual dissection, our service helps students make the most of their limited laboratory time and improves their level of comprehension.

I've done their demo. At first I was a little lost, but very soon I got it! Of course the demo was very limited and I wasn't able to get the whole perspective of what the product has to offer. However, based on what I was able to do with the demo I think it can be very helpful and a good tool for those homeschoolers that are need of labs! Or for those homeschoolers that are wanting to dissect things.

I don't think there is much difference between the home version or school version other then cost. Clearly a home subscriber isn't going to need the product loaded a bunch of computers. The fact that they give the home subscriber the ability to load the program on not 1 but 3 computers is a good deal for me. Not to mention that you can use the program for a whole year and do each dissection as often as you like during that year. So if you have multiple kids no big deal, they each can take the time to do their own dissection! That's a big benefit too!

The fact that you are allowed to do a dissection multiple times to me seems like a good deal. Each kid can do their own virtual dissection, or the child can do it over again and again and again. Some kids get more out of something if they can do it again and again and again.

The only downside I see is the fact it's virtual. Can't touch the item, no funny smells, no messy clean ups, not worrying about the 2 year old getting a hold of the specimen. Well, maybe they aren't downsides unless you really WANT those things! So check froguts out!

curriculum for 2009-2010

As I was saying at the end of Feb I was going to be buying our curriculum for what will be our 2009-2010 school year. The new school year will actually start July 2009. I have decided that we will homeschool ALL year. Our school year will consist of 34 weeks with 6-8 weeks off in-between school years. (Of course there will be breaks/vacations during those 34 weeks)

Living in Illinois I'm required by law to teach the following subjects: Language arts, biological and physical science, math, history and social sciences (which shall include a course in the U.S. and Illinois Constitution), fine arts, health and physical development. So I thought that I would give a run down of what I've decided to use for the new school year!!

First there is some some subjects that I'm going to do together.

Devotionals/Saints (For Both):

• Devotionals Stories for Little Folks
• Devotionals Stories for Little Folks 2
• Great Saints In World History

Language Arts

• My Catholic Speller Level B (for my 3rd grader)
• My Catholic Speller Level A (for my 2nd grader)
• Language of God Level B (for my 3rd grader)
• Language of God Level A (for my 2nd grader)
• Hooked on Phonics (1993) (for both)
• Literature~me reading various novels to the kids~ (for both)
• Literature ~them reading various books to me~ (for both)

Science

• Science Easy 1, 2, 3 (Both)
• Behold and See 3 (for my 3rd grader)
  
• Science 2 for little folks (for my 2nd grader)
  

Math

• MCP Math Level C (for my 3rd grader)
• MCP Math Level B (for my 2nd grader)
• Math Facts NOW~PC game~ (for both)

History

• Catholic Faith Comes to the Americas (for my 3rd grader)
• Our Father's World (for my 2nd grader)
• Maps, Charts, Graphs C (for my 3rd grader)
• Maps, Charts, Graphs B (for my 2nd grader)

Fine Arts

• ???

Health and Physical Development

• Homeschool Family Fitness (for both)
• Sports and/or classes such as dance, swimming, etc (for both)
  

All the material that I'm using can be bought either at CHC or Seton. The only subject area that I do not have covered is fine arts. I'm just not sure what to do there yet. Perhaps some of my readers will be able to offer some ideas!!!