Keeping It Simple

I went to an educational talk years ago about learning disabilities. The very sweet lady who gave the talk relayed that we all have what she referred to as our "ten to twenty percent" to deal with. By that she meant that while most of us may be able to function in the world, we all have some challenge. A dear friend of ours has a partial hearing loss, and she is newly learning to deal this challenge. Others deal with depression, physical ailments, speech impediments, old age... everyone has something!! My son's is moderate to severe dyslexia. All About Spelling has been a Godsend. But I am hoping for an extra push. I have looked in to Susan Barton's materials, but it is tough to swallow spending hundreds of dollars ($250-$700 per level) when I think we have actually covered a great deal of the material through AAS. I am not sure it is the best use of our resources (it may be). More reading and grammar is included. It is a complete language arts program. I have ord...

Recently Watched: Tintin - We loved this movie! I am not sure why. Maybe it is that Tintin is in a movie! Then there is that the movie really honored the feel of the book (we felt), and that the makers seemed to want to do right by the author's vision (watch special features). Of course, it could be that I just love being able to sit down and watch a movie just for fun without feeling like, on some level, I might be corrupting my children! The Adventures of Superman: Season 1 (1952) - If your kids are super sophisticated, they may not appreciate this. Mine did. I don't know what else to say. It is just fun. Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire  Always grateful when our Netflix subscription can enhance the learning experience! Recently Cooked:  This super simple (like 5 minutes of prep) Easy Garlic Chicken dish found at food.com. I read through the comments- some said that the dish was too sweet, some that it needed onion, others that the cook time was too short/long.....

Here are just a few resources that we have used while learning about Japan. There is more to tell- I was not actually prepared to write a post, but I miss participating in Phyllis' history and geography meme at All Things Beautiful ! I need to get back in the habit. So this is what I have for now. :) We have added a few picture books to our reading list: By Allen Say:  Grandfather's Journey Tea with Milk Kamishibai Man   A Boy in the Garden     Erika-San (mentioned before) I love all of Allen Say's books. The pictures, the story... they are just wonderful books. You learn about Mr. Say, his family, and his love for Japan through reading his stories. From "Grandfather's Journey" One of our favorite resources for globe galloping is " Children Just Like Me " by DK books. And I found this awesome page  to go with this book for the boys to add to their notebooks. The boys fill in information about each child we read about. They don...

Wow. Honestly. I just purchased the " Getting Started Challenges 1-10 " by Barbara McCoy. I love it!! On my iPad!  First, let me explain. I am a "do it right" kind of person. There is nothing that stops me in my tracks like the fear of doing something-- gasp!-- wrong. And when it comes to nature studies, there are so many beautiful blog posts of perfect looking nature studies. Even if you insist that yours are not always the blissful moments they appear, somehow I work it up in my mind that they are. But I fight it. So off we went this week on our first official "nature study" . It was wonderful. Just being outdoors is wonderful. Being outdoors with my boys and my niece and nephews- even better. :) But I confess to feeling quite discombobulated. There were mitigating factors having nothing to do with our actual walk, but I was still feeling like I needed to evaluate the process. So, of course, I came home and started looking at the  Handbook ...

As is usually the case with me, it takes me a while to "figure it out". I'd hop over to this "Pinterest", look around, shake my head, and run back to safer ground. Finally, something drew me over there yet again and it clicked. I love it! I guess that tells you where I am when it comes to all things computer/Internet related. But I give myself credit that I keep trying. I am a "see it" kind of person. One picture is worth a hundred lists to me, so being able to click on the recipe, craft, or school item that I want to remember and have a picture of it saved (with the link) is a perfect fit. If you have not used Pinterest, it is super simple. You love a recipe? "Pin it"- make sure you are on the page you want to access (not to the whole blog), click on the picture of the food, and then "pin it". Pinning it is just clicking a button that you have installed that says "pin it". You will pin your items on your boards that y...

I highlighted The Read Aloud Handbook in my first "must have" post  . I can't imagine life in our homeschool without it. So far, my selections have very little do with actual homeschooling. My experience is that our homeschool thrives when our house is orderly (relative to having 3 rowdy boys, 1 teen daughter, and toddler grandbabies who visit), and when I am attentive to how I am parenting my children. These two books are ones that I reread every so often to keep me on track: Sink Reflections : written by Marla Cilley also known as the Flylady Reading this book was life-changing for me. If you signed up for "Flylady" emails in the past and threw your hands up in exasperation over the slew of messages cluttering your inbox, I strongly suggest this book. I had three different encounters with the Flylady before I ran to my local bookstore and purchased a copy of Sink Reflections . My final push toward the Flylady was listening to a young mom,...

Not so much. The funny thing is that after 20 years of homeschooling, I am still not an expert. Homeschooling girls is different than boys, having adult children humbles you (even wonderful adult children!:)), and, like anything, the more you know, the more you know that you don't know everything (or maybe anything). However, I know a good thing when I see it, so I thought I'd share a few of my homeschool resource library must haves . My very first pick is this fabulous book . It is not a homeschool book per se, but it is the book that set our homeschool on a different course. Like many homeschool moms, I was already a book nut when I first read this book. And I already read aloud to my children--- lots. However, this book revolutionized the way I viewed reading aloud to my children and how I incorporated it into our day.  I am tempted to go on and on... how my son who did not like books became (and still is) a huge book fan, how my college a...

Somethings are just worth mentioning again. I wrote a post after reading this book for the first time, and as I start a "reread" over certain sections, I am inspired to mention it again. My original post is here .  You can view the book here on amazon.com.

Our Homeschool Resource Page : As an "old timer" in the homeschool world, I find the internet amazing! Having spent hours in years past at Kinkos making copies for our homeschool, and having experienced the frustration of trying to order materials on the phone or by mail sight unseen, I have an unmatched appreciation for the resources available at my fingertips! That being said, I went through my resource page to check the links (got rid of a few), and edited a few that were misdirected. Under "Favorite Resources" (the first section of the page) I have listed a few books, but most  items in the other sections are links for resources that can be used for free (or limited use for free). And we have used all of these resources, except one that is explained on the list, at one time or another. Please let me know if you find a link that does not work.

Mathwire Blog leads to activities posted on Mathwire.com . I don't know if everyone has heard of this amazing blog. I mentioned  it in passing when I first heard about it, and have really enjoyed it since then. This is a great resource for many math concepts- the tags are listed at the bottom of the blog page, so scroll down and take a look.  Most of the activities involve little prep work. If there is a hand-out needed for an activity, there will be a link to the Mathwire Template Library . Things I love about this blog- 1. The activities are fun. We have done several of them and my boys have enjoyed each one. 2. The activities are not overly complicated- they work on a concept in a direct way. Anyone who has ever pulled together an activity and thought "what were we trying to learn?" at the end of it, knows what I mean. 3. I don't have to go in search of materials. We have needed a few things- dice, dominoes, coins..., but most s...

Or, maybe it is a blogger senior moment . ;) Not sure. At the ripe old age of 47 ( yes , I am admitting it), all this technology stuff is a challenge for me. Although, I mostly love it!!  It is comical to me to think back to 5 or 6 years ago when I got my first computer- I was always in a tizzy.   I can't help but laugh at all "moments" I had. How many times I "lost" something that I had been working on for-ev-er (because it took me that long to do anything!:)). Well, I was just complaining to my daughter that I really love this one blog, but for the life of me I can't find the button to "follow" it. My daughter said, "well, just add it".  I sat there for a moment... you mean... oh! I bet there is some way to do that from the "manage" button, isn't there? She had the courtesy not to say "no-duh". For those moments when you do have a problem, and no lovely daughter sitting next to you, I re...

This book is amazing! Absolutely amazing. I have been reading parenting books for years (27 years to be exact!). The first one that I have a distinct memory of, released the year my oldest daughter was born, is A Mother's Touch by Elise Arndt. I tend to stick to Christian parenting books and have read many from popular authors- and I love them all. But , with the disclaimer that this book is not from a Christian viewpoint, this just might be my favorite parenting book yet. This is one of those rare books that inspires you to act- right away. It does not just introduce a concept- it explains it, gives examples, and makes the possibility of enacting change seem manageable! Whether it is decluttering your child's environment, creating routine, managing a schedule, or reducing media in your child's life, this book gives you the information to deal with it and solid reasons to want to deal with it. I think I may be more moved by this book than a newer parent would ...

I mentioned back in February, when my lovely dd made some changes to my blog for me, I don't take well to change. One of the things she encouraged me to use were these "pages". I wanted nothing to do with it- to be honest, I was not sure what in the world she was talking about. :) Computer savvy I am not! After seeing others in blogland utilize the pages option (and having dd explain how to create them), I decided to give it a try. The reason I am pointing this out is that I have moved the homeschool resource links from the sidebar and put them on a page. This was a bit painful. ;) I love all of the resources I linked- honestly, I only posted resources that we love and use (or have used). I don't want them to be "out of sight, out of mind". Just to note, most of the items I have listed are free online resources or resources that are available through the library. Investing in solid homeschool curriculum is worth it to me, but I am always grateful to find...

I have not had time to post anything (busy week!), but I had been working on updating some links on this blog. On the left side, I have linked our amazon book lists, some lapbooks that we have completed and a few reading lists. (now on pages- left) On the left side is a link to Donna Young's Printables (we use these often!). If you have not been to the Donna Young site recently, it worth taking a look. Take your time and explore- every time I click a new link, it is like finding hidden treasure! I also added a link to another great language arts resource to my resources page - Grammarbook.com. I love the videos! There are more than 60 short Videos on Usage . Last, I have a few notebooking and lapbooking resource links!! Lots of fun stuff! :)

I have to say that I love this book. If the author of this book can get up and be at school by 6:30 a.m. ready to teach children that he is not even related to, how much more inspired should I, the mom of my students, be? He really is more like a homeschool parent- he shares movies with his students, takes them on trips, reads to them, spends his spare time with them, ... the list goes on. His method of teaching is all encompassing. I found Rafe Esquith (author of above mentioned book) to be inspiring!! * Before posting this, I read through the reviews on Amazon.com. People have many opinions of this book- they range from being critical of the the author and his methods to finding the book "exceptional". Regardless, I think any teacher or homeschool parent could glean a lot from reading it! :)

Here is an explanation of the Dolch word list from the Dolch Sight Words website: "The Dolch Word List is a list of commonly used English words that was originally compiled by Edward William Dolch, PhD and published in his 1948 book, "Problems in Reading". Edward Dolch compiled this list based on children's books of the period, and selected 220 "service words" which children need to recognize in order to achieve reading fluency. Dolch excluded nouns from his main list, but did compile a separate 95-word list of nouns." I am sure the rest of the world knows this, but, for the longest time, I did not know what these "Dolch" words were and felt too silly to ask!! Having a 11yo struggling reader and an enthusiastic 6yo up and coming reader has motivated me to step up our reading program. One of the ways we have done this is by using the Dolch Kit from The School Bell (one of the LA resources I have listed). All of these Dolch resources are free...

This is the first in series of posts I want to write to feature how we have used the resources that I have listed down the right column of this blog-- they really are places that I have found useful and inspiring, and I did not choose them lightly! Sometimes it takes a bit of exploring to get started, so I thought I'd offer an introduction. :) Okay, so Let's Play Math is the coolest blog ever ( well , certainly the coolest math blog ever!). I have to admit to having a healthy fear of math, but reading this blog can actually make you believe that math is fun! One of the many ideas from this blog is "math concentration". You take a card deck- remove the face cards- and play concentration. Instead of matching numbers like you would in traditional concentration, you find two cards that equal 10. Pretty simple. Even though I set up to play with James (going in to 1st), his big brothers were happy to play too. There was more than enough competition to keep them interested ...