Homeschooling in the Mountains

So I was converted to the light side out of necessity for time and structure which I thrive with. I had been eagerly awaiting box day's big arrival and finally last night it was here! We pulled up to find a big sonlight box by our garage and it was pure bliss :op I finally got it upstairs, opened it up and then basked in the glory of the box FULL of books. There really are some fantastic selections in their curriculum and I think the boys with gain a ton of learning and enjoyment out of them. Now the best part was the IGs. For a planner like me, who does best with everything scheduled out and ready to go so I know exactly what I am doing when, this is the perfect curriculum hands down. I followed the suggestions and got them loaded up into binders, got the tabs labeled and sat down on the couch to have a look through them. It really was pure bliss because everything I needed was right there WITH CHECK BOXES! I love check boxes and notes and day view schedules. Man if I could buy IGs for the rest of my daily life could you imagine how much I'd get done and how on top of things I'd be :op Now I just have to wait for the rest of the books to trickle in from amazon and such and then I can start full force into P3/4 which I have a feeling T will tear through. This is really going to be one super fun and memorable ride and thanks to sonlight I won't go out of my mind trying to plan it all now!

you know the small ones like BOB books with nothing on the spine that become a huge mess of disorganization every day when a 3 year old ravages them looking for things to read? Well with mommy ingenuity from hating to reorganize them daily I thought hey what about putting them in a photo album! Well photo pages (4x6) are just a tad too small even for our tiniest readers so.... I thought maybe cut sheet protectors in half and then put them in a binder. Well you can guess what I am trying tonight. I'll add pics if they are worth adding and if not well I will keep searching for the perfect way of storing those suckers in a book sort of thing :op

The song that started it all from the ever glorious and masterful Talking Letter Factory. It's been a year now since the bog boy has learned his letter sounds almost overnight singing along with Tad and the gang. We made it about halfway through "The Ordinary Parent's Guide To Teaching Reading" before he hit a wall. Not that he hit an I don't get it wall but more of an I don't like this book kind of wall. Don't get me wrong OPGTR is an AWESOME book and I plan to use it again, it's just at some point it becomes not quite as fun as other methods. It made me step back and figure out how to attack the problem of him not liking the book but also still being ever so hungry to learn. What I have come up with after hours of exhaustive reading and searching on forums and the net is Mcruffy! I cannot say enough about this program. Now I didn't buy the whole SE K package as he already has a pretty good foundation in CVC words and all of the very basics but we did get the transition package for K. It has TONS and I mean TONS of fun to learn books, activities and more that make my big boy not ever want to stop! I think we have stumbled onto our perfect progression and combination here. He is also using All About Spelling which he is loving as well.

So the plan wil be to work through AAS1 and mcruffy for the rest of prek and then move onto AAS2 with the possibility of continuing onto Mcruffy 1st grade phonics for an even stronger foundation.

Now for the littles I think I will use the exact progression I accidentally followed with the big boy. In that we will start with OPGTR and talking letters factory then halfway or so switch over to AAS and Mcruffy. Although I am kind of thinking of just starting Mcruffy right along with OPGTR and at some point getting the full curriculum just for the fun and colorful factor that seems to really captivate the big boy!

It's been awhile since I last posted anything and I keep meaning to be more proactive in keeping my blog updated as a journal of our journey through homeschooling. We have taken a bit of a break and lesson have become a bit more low key due to morning sickness, first trimester sleepiness and a newly mobile toddler on the loose! LOL I've been doing a lot of research, book reading and experimenting to put a game plan into place for this year and the next year for the kiddos. I have some new loves and a lot of new books to review and blog about. So the next few posts here will mostly be about what I've learned and what I am planning to follow for the big boy's pre-k and K years!

I love crafting and I love history so when I get to combine them it's fun all around! I recently came across some new Toob products from Safari LTD and an idea was born in my mind. I am going to set out to make paleontology and archeology discovery kits for HSing for my kiddos. Granted it will probably be a bit until even DS1 is coordinated enough to "dig" and really grasp the idea of what is going on but hey I'll have tons of fun making them and then they will be ready for when he is :)

So here are my plans for now. Later when I can actually get the toobs I will post creation pics of them.

Items:
Small boxes
a large old bowl or a bucket
plaster mix
vaseline
dye to make brown
Thin dowel rod cut into lots of 1 1/2 in pieces
white string
whichever toobs you want to use for your kits
metal cuticle pushers, soft paintbrushes and plastic toothpicks for digging tools

First mix half of your plaster and add in dye to make it turn a brown earth color. Pour the plaster into your box and fill box about an inch and a half to two inches deep. Let this plaster set up. Next arrange your toob items around the plaster. Mix the second half of your plaster and add in dye to turn it brown earth too. Fill the boxes so the plaster is just slightly above the treasures or bones. Get your dowel rods and dip the ends in vaseline so they do not get stuck. place them into the plaster on the outer edge of the box but leave a margin of about 1/4 inch between the edge and the dowels. How many to put in depends on the size of the box but you want at least one in each corner and then one or two in between them. When the plaster has fully set remove the dowels and wash them off. Put each set for each box into it's own baggie and them put each baggie with it's "digsite". Also inside of the baggies you will want to put some string so that the kids can grid off their digsite like the pros would. :o) You can either leave the finished digsites inside the boxes and trim down the sides to "ground" level or you can peel the boxes off the digsite and then store them inside a bag in a box or whatever you have that will keep them safe until used.

When the children use the digsites talk about archeology or paleontology first and explain how a digsite is set up. You should be able to find lots of info about this by searching google. Have the child put the dowels into the post holes and then use the string to make a grid. You can now record on a sheet of paper where you dig and what was found! Just draw the same grid on your paper and you are ready for fun. Have the child use the metal cuticle pusher and toothpicks to dig and the soft paintbrush to begin brushing the "dirt" of the finds as they dig them out.

Here are some pics from the Safari LTD website of the Toobs I plan on using in mine :o)

Ancient Egyptian digsite


Dino bones!


Fossils

We did have a dedicated area in our office upstairs to our greatroom since we spend the most time down here. I got sick of running upstairs a bagillion times a day to get books and papers for class. So now upstairs is just the kids bedrooms and the big playroom for the boys.

We got and are now using the home school edition of Rosetta Stone and LOVE it! It is so easy for T to use and learn from!! We learned how to say "the boys are eating" today and T thinks it is the funniest thing ever! We started the Japanese now to take advantage of the window of time where it is easier for a child to learn and become fluent in a language. We'll add in latin once T begins second grade level.