Our Patriarchs early this COLD a.m.

It was fun. They'll sleep inside tonight. We ended the school week by eating homemade pizza. Both the older boys are home tonight! Yippee! We watched *Joseph King of Dreams* tonight. It seemed fitting as we studied Gen 11 - 50 this week.

Jamin seems to have got the flu. Ugh. We're watching "We Are Marshal" from Netflix.

Jared's Science Experiment

This was a bit unexpected

School Shopping....

I suppose if we were in public school we'd spend money each fall for a few new school clothes. Last year I bought the kids homeschool t-shirts. Arielle and Nolan have worn theirs out. They asked for new ones. It seemed like a reasonable request. The older boys have outgrown homeschool t-shirts. Mike said he has enough t-shirts. I ordered these for us from Great Homeschool T- Shirts . I only wish I'd remembered to order one for Stacia. We've been very happy with the quality of these shirts and the customer service of the company. They also make tote bags and bumper stickers. All the shirts are really cute. I love the saying on Nolan's: Warning, Unsocialized Homeschooler - interact or communicate at your own risk.

This is MY shirt

Resourcing Your Weaknesses

I've been spending our curriculum dollars a bit differently the last few years. I couldn't have concisely told you WHY.....but now I can. ::snort::

Lee, an online friend, has recently published a DVD series which discusses homeschooling the high schooler. Lee has a business and newsletter that you may enjoy. You can find more info, as well as view a sample of the DVD here. I think Lee's DVD's would be a great resource for a homeschool support group or co-ops to have in their library. Now, I've not purchased or viewed them in their entirety, ::snort::, but from the clip and from what I know of Lee, I think they would be a treasure trove of information.

ANYWAY - I know Lee said something about how you spend your dollars - I think on the youtube clip. The phrase that has stuck in my mind is "resource your weakness". In other words you WILL naturally spend curriculum dollars on areas that interest you - your strengths. Many of us, however, avoid those areas that we aren't so great at.

THIS is what I've been doing the past couple of years. I purchased a TOTAL new math program last year - Math U See - though I have shelves of perfectly good Saxon. Why? Because for some of my children Saxon wasn't working. Math is a weak area for me, and Math U See makes it understandable.

Last year we attempted lap books. We now have lap BASKETS...lots of little booklets that we never figured out HOW or took the TIME to put into a big folder, sitting in baskets. THIS year I purchased an ASSEMBLED LAPBOOK that we only have to fill out for unit 1. I figure then we can decide if we like it enough to learn how to assemble our own. I'm resourcing my weaknesses. Don't hassle me about how easy it is to do it - it's YOUR strength. ::snort:: I really WISH I were in a co-op where there was a teacher who KNEW what she was doing to demonstrate how to make the folds and assemble the books...then I'm sure I wouldn't need to buy one already assembled...but for now - I did. LOL

I shared before how I HATE mess and disorganization....and the road I've traveled to become a funschooler has been observed by many of you...some with alarm that I'm getting soft in my old age, and some in great amusement that I'm actually buying paint and clay and making messes. ::snort:: I KNEW I needed to do more FUN and hands on things with the children. We've done better the last few years. This year, however, I began to resource my weakness. When time is short ART, hands on things - go first. I'm not consistent. I do well for the first 9 weeks and then begin to slide. THIS year I ordered history kits for the next nine weeks. We'll see how that goes.


Here Arielle unpacks our new kit on Ancient Greece and Rome from Hands and Hearts

It becomes quite apparent that I COULD do this on my own...but having the supplies in one spot, all the little pieces ready to go...will keep me motivated to add fun even when the crunch months hit. The kids were really excited to see these arrive. I'm excited that I won't have to run to Hobby Lobby for craft things each week. LOL

Many of these activities are ones that we'll have listed in our TOG manual...but with the supplies all here I am more likely to keep my commitment. This kit contains supplies to:
Paint a beautiful fresco
Make a relief
Create a mosaic place mat
Paint a Greek amphora
Play knucklebones
Play Roman Numerals Memory Match game
Learn to identify and sketch columns
Clean and restore an AUTHENTIC ancient Roman coin
Memorize Bible verses and principles with our exclusive Bible Truths Cards
Create lovely notebook pages with our exclusive notebook pages

I'm not sure we'll use the Bible portion - as we have things we are already doing. I'm not sure we'll make a notebook, but we'll use the notebook drawings and pages for our lapbooks and such.
I'm so glad to have seen Lee put a name to what I'd been led to do. It is making a HUGE difference in our school. We've enjoyed school so much more the past two years. The girls came home and said, "Mom - you never did all this fun stuff with US". ::snort:: No, because I was still a school at homer when they were young. LOL

If you've read this far, you deserve a reward. Here's a true confession. I threw out 3 crayons yesterday. I hate picking them up. I will do better or we will soon be crayonless once again.....can I still be a funschooler after this post, Jodi?



BTW - I am not an affiliate for any of the companies listed in this post. LOL

Thursday Night

I am SO glad that tomorrow is Friday. I'm not sure why, but this week has been draining. We've not had an especially hard week of school - I don't know why I'm so tired.....

The kids are determined to sleep outside another night. It is supposed to get down to 45* tonight. I don't know about this.....

All are working long hours. All are schooling long hours. That's about life this week.

We DID receive two new movies from netflix today. I also received notice that one of my wish list books is coming my way.

Hmmm....I better go look at pictures and see if I can figure out what we've done today.

We've reorganized our school shelf...finally switched out TOG Year 4 books with TOG Year 1 books. I found two duplicates of two books. ::snort:: This is year 3 and 4 in big binders - because I put each page in a sheet protector.

We checked out our apple mummies. The difference between the apple buried in salt and the one left out in the air is becoming more apparent. The buried one is larger, still moist...see for yourself.

We received another great hands on history kit from Jeff and Kate (Noah's from the side bar parents) at Hands and Hearts. I think I'll write a separate post about that tomorrow.

Update: This is not saving me time....I reloaded the code for these two photos and won't spell check. LOL

The Relaxed Home School by Mary Hood, Ph. D

I missed an opportunity to hear Mary Hood speak when we lived in San Antonio. I determined that I would find her books, eventually, and read them. I received this from PBS and it was a quick read. I read it in one night.

I found many parts of the book to be refreshing. I found parts of the book with which I did not 100% agree. I am glad I read it. It does give me a bit more confidence to simply continue on my own path and not worry about what others think. Though I'd pretty much reached that stage of homeschooling anyway. ::snort::

Here are a few thoughts that I want to remember. When discussing world view Mary beautifully discusses how silly it is to think that our God, who loves creativity and diversity (as evidenced in creation), would suddenly decide there was ONE RIGHT AND GODLY way to home school. She then went on to explain that there is a difference between educational beliefs and religious beliefs. We all KNOW this but we don't always ACT like we believe this. (I suspect this is true on a variety of issues besides homeschooling). "Unfortunately, many people have confused these two issues (educational/religious beliefs), and have started arguments that have confused parents and caused needless rifts within the home-schooling movement." Amen! I have personally seen this. I have been part of groups that seemed to feel that only traditional, school at home type schooling was "Biblical"....delight driven, unschooling, funschooling, hands on unit studies, all were somehow "un-Biblical".

She talks about three types of motivation to learn: internal, someone else has a love for a subject and transfers that enthusiasm to the student, and when students set personal goals and are willing to do things that are difficult and/or boring to reach them. I've seen all three motivators at work in our school.

I loved her discussion on outside prizes and motivators. She loves Charlotte Mason - that's always a plus in my mind. ::snort::

I enjoyed this book. I was debating keeping or swapping this book. I checked to see if this book was on anyone's wish list - and it was. I decided to swap it. It turns out it is going to my friend Debbie. LOL I have *The Joyful Home School* by Mary Hood to read here too...also from PBS.

This is one of my fall challenge books.

Stacia slings her baby - she has years to practice...