Keeping It Simple

I am adding two Amazon lists to my "Listmania" page above. The first, a "Mom's Book List" , is just a list of books that I have enjoyed over the years. These are not the books that I have read for spiritual nourishment or to improve our homeschool-- these are the books I read just for fun because I felt like it. :) I spend so much time planning school, reading school stuff, and recording the things the kids do and read, I thought it would be nice to make a list just for me. On the second list are some games that I have collected over the many years we have homeschooled. I always say that my kids love games, but, really, I think it is a possibility that I enjoy playing them more than "doing school" too. :) I hope to add more to both lists over the next week or so. We store our "out of circulation" games in the attic, and I plan on looking through those. I also am trying to rack my brain for my "mom's book list". I remember...

When my adult daughters were in high school, and drowning in all their activities, they would often get frustrated that they never had enough time. At that point, I would hand them this handy-dandy form (below) that I have and tell them to fill it in. This is how it worked- I would have my daughter fill in all of her non-negotiable activities. So, things like soccer practice, Irish dance, Latin class, babysitting job... would all be filled in in ink . This first step helped my daughter (s) to realistically look at her schedule and see where all of her time was going. Then I would have her make several photo copies of this filled in form. (I filled out a few activities give an idea of how it would look- there are time slots to 10 p.m.) At this point, on one of the copies, she filled in the things that were a bit more flexible (things that have to get done, but when is a more negotiable). Everything from getting up in the morning, working on school assignments, chores, and maintaining ...

A few disclaimers--- #1- these pictures are not very good. #2- this is a work in progress, but this is what I have so far. So, lest you think I was kidding that our decor is "better crate and barrel", I am here to prove my point. I wanted to do something a bit more quaint and charming than what I am about to show you, but when I showed my dh all my nicely bookmarked blogs with all the marvelous ideas, all he saw was $$$ and time. Both of which he and I are short on. So here it is. Our solution for a communication center/display board. In our very small home, we have this one blank wall (blank only because there is a heater on the bottom fourth of the wall). We have been lacking anywhere to hang a calendar, write notes, hang projects... so, my dh's quick and easy version of a solution is this large piece of sheet metal. As hideous as it is, I don't hate it. Like I said, it is a work in progress and I envision us making good use of this space. The board (above) will be ...

We were moving a long at a steady pace, but I have found that lesson #12 brought some adjustments. We were completing one or two lessons a week. Lesson #12 took us over week and Lesson #13 will certainly take us longer than that. (James using the letter tiles) This is not at all discouraging to me. I am learning so much about my boys and how they learn!! A lot of what is presented in this program are things that we have tried before in a more haphazard way. As each step is clearly spelled out for me, I am able to be consistent in how I work with my boys. Because of this, I am able to see progress each day as we work together. I have not found anything this successful in teaching spelling (and reading) to my three boys. That's it so far!! :) All About Spelling post #1 All About Spelling Update #1

This is just kind of fun. I knew we put together a binder for Family Math years ago when my adult daughters were homeschooling, but I thought is was long lost. Oddly enough, it appeared in the cabinet the other day. It made me smile to see the cover that my daughter made for me all those years ago--- her initials, JRD, are in the bottom corner. Copies of instructions for games we planned to use along with copies of graph paper and other pages that we would need to play some of the games were in page protectors in the binder. So, there is no real point to this post than it but a smile on my face to find this. **A note about page protectors-- they were much sturdier back then!!

Last spring, when we had hit a road block with math, I made the commitment to playing a math game every school day with my kids . It was a huge success. Within just a few short weeks, my then 8yo (Mark), who had been struggling with basic math concepts, was making remarkable progress. It was also helpful to my other two boys. As often happens, life has been crazy, and we have gotten back in the mode of just "getting it done". One day last week, Mark was not super into school -- not unusual for my gloomy Eeyore type 9yo. To change things up a bit (and possibly motivate him), I grabbed a math game off the shelf instead of moving on with his lesson. We finished to Mark saying "that was fun!" and asking his big brother to play with him. :) It was just the kick in the tushy that I needed to get back to playing math games. So, I challenged myself this week. One math game or activity every day for one school week. We just started using Family Math , so, in some cases, our...