Digging, Reading, Baking, History.....

Thankfully Superstar is not sick and even though today is Martin Luther King Day we did school work today. This morning started off rough. Superstar had a bit of an attiude about math. He picked it as is first subject but started to cry over it because it was division. He really loaths division and if he had his way not do any.

I did allow him to pick a different subject to start with so after some science, history, and reading he decided to tackle those division problems. Thankfully the rest of the day for him went well, school was done for him by noon, and he got to enjoy the rest of his afternoon doing other activities.

Seeing I've split the kids up Superstar in the morning and Web-princess in the afternoon, Superstar is free to do other activities in the afternoon. He spent his time digging for dinosaurs bones (a kit he got for Christmas) and making corn bread to go with tonight's dinner.

He did these activities while Web-princess did some reading with the McGuffey reader and online tutor. I've only used the online tutor videos for two days now. I'm not sure if that's the direction I want to go to completely, but so far Web-princess does enjoy it.  We've had the readers for a while now and have been using them. The tutor was something a friend of mine told me about. I've had the link for a while now and just started to use it. Web-princess also read some of her history text book while Superstar was busy being a baker!

Oh and if you use currclick and have any times in your wishlist go check them out. I got an email from currclick today saying that some of my items on my wishlist were on sale. One item on my wish list was $25 dollars but it was mark down to $2. So you know I got that today. I'll have to look it over more closely now that I have it, but I'm thinking I can use it for some American History in the near future.

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.

Where In The World...

Is Carmen Sandiego? LOL Do you remember that game? I remember playing that in computer lab in 6th-7th grade.

Actually this post is about: Where in The World Are the Readers of Catholic Christian Homeschooling? I use sitemeter to help track how many hits (visitors) per day I get and where those hits (visitors) come from.



The above picture of where my last 100 visitors came from. The red dot was the last one, the green dots are visitors 2-10, and the white ones are visitors 11-100. Of course if you look at my visitor meter it's clear that I've had more then 100 visitors, it's just I can only see the last 100 on the map.

As you can see I've had at least one hit from every continent but Antarctica! Why don't I get any hits (visitors) from Antarctica?? Is it illegal to homeschool in Antarctica? Are the people there against homeschooling? Or is it simply they just don't have internet? Why don't they have internet? You would think that with it being 2009 there would be internet in Antarctica!!

Maybe the people there are to busy trying to stay warm that they just don't care about blogs!!

Footnote: According to Wikipedia Antarctica has about 1,000 non-permanent residents. I'm sure they are there for "scientific" reasons; but honestly is it to much to ask for someone from Antarctica to visit my blog? LOL!!! --Cheesy Grin--

Hey, it's okay really!! I just think it's cool that I have touched the world with my little blog, well almost the world~~maybe some day I'll get a visitor from Antarctica.

Over 2,000 visitors!

Almost 5 months ago to the day I put sitemeter on My Adventures Into Christian Homeschooling. I really did it as a way to help track how many visitors I have.

I just hit the 2,000 visitor mark! That's about 400 visitors per month; 13 visitors per day! That's so awesome! Not to mention the fact that I have over 30 followers and over 40 subscribed readers!!

Thanks for visiting, being a member, or subscribing to My Adventures Into Christian Homeschooling!

Honest Scrap Award

I have been awarded the Honest Scrap award by Alexandra from Happy Hearts At Home. Thank-you Alexandra for presenting me with this award: Honest Scrap

There are 4 steps that need to be taken in order to fully accept this award.

1. Say thanks to the presenter and give a link back to their site.
2. Share "TEN HONEST THINGS" about yourself.
3. Pass this award on to 7 people whose blogs you find brilliant in blog design and/or content. Or pass it on to someone that you find inspirational.
4. Let your chosen award winners know that they have been awarded with THE HONEST SCRAP AWARD.

Ten (more) Honest things about SAHMinIL

I've been awarded this award once already. Detail on previous award can be found here.

1. My kids are 10 months apart. When they were younger it was very stressful for me and often I felt alone. However, I wouldn't trade them or what I went through for the world.
2. I lost my Dad 1 week after my DS was born to a heart attack. (It left him in a comma for 4 years before he passed away). That and having 2 babies was horrible. All my family was always at the hospital, and I was home with babies. Some of the reason I was so alone.
3. I've been married to my hubby for about 9.5 years. We are happy, but it hasn't been all roses. We've had to deal with issues of infidelity.
4. It's easy to say that God has helped me through everything, but at times I wondered if He was really there.
5. I'm a horrible housekeeper. It's something I struggle with! I know I mention that already, but it's worth saying again.
6. I didn't always "believed" in the Church teachings, regarding things like abortion, BC, etc. I remember being 17 and say things like "Well I never would do it, but I couldn't tell you not to do it". I've come to realize that if something is wrong, it's just wrong! It doesn't matter who or what. Somethings things are truly black and white.
7. Deep in my heart I would love to have more children, but the actions that my husband and I did out of FEAR, will forever prevent us from having more children.
8. I have panic attacks almost daily. We have so many things gone wrong with this house. Things that we can't totally fix, things we can only do band aid things for: So I panic when something goes wrong or if I notice other problems. It's just not with the house, I will have a panic attack over not being able to find the phone, keys, checkbook, etc.
   
9. I pray that I can find away to help supplement our income without loosing the ability to homeschool the kids. I know that money isn't everything. I know that we can't serve God and money. But at the same time, I don't want a ton of money. I just want to be able to do the repairs that need to be done around the house. Repairs that I know would help me feel better, and I'm sure they would help to reduce my panic attacks.
10. Lastly, I struggle with my prayer life...

I would like to present the Honest Scrap Award to....

In my previous award I picked 7 people, and to be honest I don't know who else to pick. So what I will do is leave an open invite to all my readers! If you want to do this then consider yourself awarded by me! Just make sure you link back to me :)

Thanks Everyone for reading my blog and God Bless!

New Links In Sidebar

Hi everyone

I just wanted everyone to know that I have added a few new links in my LEFT side bar. Right under by profile you will find links to my website, lesson plans, favorite music, pictures and a link to various articles, and blog posts from the WWW that I found interesting and/or useful.

If you have any issues with trying to view any of these items please let me know.

Sincerely,
SAHMinIL

Poll NOW closed!

The poll regarding the feed is NOW closed!

The results are as follows:

6-85% - full text
0-0% - preview text
1-14%- I don't care

Thank-you to everyone that voted and gave a voice to their opinions on this matter!

As a result I will leave the feed as is (full text).

Sincerely,
SAHMinIL

PS: Seeing the poll is closed and has served it's propose I removed it from the site. I also closed the comments to this post, just because I don't think comments are needed. :) Thanks Again!

Questions about the feed?

I've noticed that my readers and followers have slowly but surely grown over the last few months and I just want to take a moment to thank-you all for being here!

For those of you that are subscribed readers (subscribe to the feed) I wanted to know if I should leave the feed as a full text as it is now? 0r if a preview would be better?

I know whatever I do with the feed I WILL NOT add ads to it. I personally find feeds with ads to be annoying! So I won't go there. I'm just wondering if a preview might be better? Or if I should leave it full text as it is now? It's just something that I've been thinking about. So instead of just making a decision I thought I would get input from the subscribed readers. After all you are the ones reading so the change would effect you more then me!!

I've added A POLL to the blog just for this. It is located just ABOVE the posting here on the blog, so please take a moment to vote in the poll.

Seeing I just want votes, I'm closing the comments for this post.

Thank-you, everyone, for taking a moment to vote. Thank-you for taking a moment or 2 out of your busy days to even read my blog! I feel truly honored to have each and everyone of you here! After all this is just one small corner of the WWW, and well with everything that is out there it's humbling to know that there are people here too!

God Bless You All
SAHMinIL