The Schoolroom~She is Ready

Heart of the Matter Blog Hop

The walls are prepped with maps and grammar helps. The table is waiting for the eager students that will be doing their math work, science work, and fun activities.

The bookshelves are loaded with living books for history and reading. Eager minds await the day that we will dig into these books for the first time.

We are ready for another new adventure! Year number 4 is upon us. Has it been that many already?

Learning Math Through Playing Games

My kids love to play Monopoly. Me--not so much. Why? Because it takes soooo looooong  to play one game of it!

However, I have learned that by playing Monopoly, they are learning math skills. Sometimes, it is better to teach a lesson when it can be fun and interactive. Skills that can be taught when playing games are:

• counting~how many spaces do you have to move? Count them out loud.
• estimation~how many inches do you think you will move?
• logic~if I move there, what will happen? How can I move to make sure I stay in the game?
• counting back change~That property is $320. If I gave you $500, how much will I get back?
• multiplication~I landed on that property and now I have to pay you 5% of whatever rolls on the dice. How much will that be?

As you can see, there are great ways to teach math just by playing games! My idea is to loosen up a bit in math this year and find more fun ways to learn.

Do you have any particular games you like to use to teach with?

Gearing Up For School

I have been working super hard the last couple of months gathering our school books for the new year. As many of you know, we homeschool in our family, so I do my best to find good books that my kids can really learn from.

This year, my children wanted to study World History in depth, so we decided to go with Sonlight. When I checked out the package that I was going to have to purchase, the price was a total of $653! WOW! I almost fell off my chair at the sticker price.

Many people that use Sonlight say that they don’t like the hassle of trying to piece together and track down all the books, but for me, I love a good frugal challenge–and that is what I looked at this as. So I posed myself a question–Could I really find all the books in this curriculum package and still be within my budget for school curriculum for the year?

Do you see how full that bookshelf is? Let’s see how I did! My budget for our school books this year was not to exceed $400.

Sonlight Alt7 Program (new $653)                                             Total Paid–$305!

Math U See Pre Algebra (new $85)                                              Total Paid–$27!

Math U See Epsilon (new $65)                                                       Total Paid–$35!

Ace Science Biology for my older child  and Earth Science for my younger child (new $85) Total Paid–$30!

Biology Dissection Kit (new $39)                                                  Total Paid–$20!

Biology Labs DVD (new $44.95)                                                    Total Paid $13!

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So the total is just a bit over my budget of $27. However, how I paid for these purchases, I only spent about $150 out of pocket. How did I pay for the rest? And how did I find such great deals? Here’s how!

~I signed up for Swagbucks last year and do all of my searching on this website. By searching from their site I earn bucks which I was able to spend on Amazon gift cards. So much of my shopping I did online at Amazon–and I purchased from sellers rather than the Amazon store.

~I bought many of the Sonlight titles from places like Vegsource, Sonlight used book forum, E Bay, Paperback Swap, Half.com, and used curriculum swap groups on Yahoo (there are TONS).

~I sold our older curriculum from last year and used that money to apply towards our new curriculum.

The really neat thing is that all this money did not come out at one time. I simply spent a little here and a little there when I had a few dollars to spare.

So, as you see, there are many ways that you can save money on buying your curriculum. Don’t get frustrated by the price of something. Search and find a way to get it at a frugal price!

What about you? What are you doing to gear up for school??

Refresh

I am joining up this week over at Layton Family Joy to talk about what I do when school is out for us. Here is the question:

What do you - homeschool mom - do to get refreshed for the next school year?

It is very simple. To get refreshed for the new school year, the kids and I BOTH take a complete break for the summer. We end our school year in May and don't pick up another school related item until July.

During June, we spend a lot of time outside playing and having fun with each other. We visit the water park, go fishing, have a picnic lots of sleepovers.

During July, the kids spend time just vegging out with their favorite things to do with just each other. By this time it is super hot and we enjoy just playing games and hanging out. While they do that, I am busy pouring over catalogs, getting school supplies and curriculum purchased and making plans for school.

In August, we always hold a Back to School Bash for our neighborhood kids since that is when public school goes back. We usually don't start up until the middle of August, unless the kids get restless--then we will go ahead and start.

For the most part, we just enjoy being together and taking a break.

What about you? What do you do?

Almost Done Curriculum Shopping!

It took me a few months to really decide what the kids needed for school this year. I finally got the decisions made and am almost done purchasing curriculum. My goal is to have all of it purchased by the end of this month so that I can spend the month of July creating lesson plans ( I really don't even know why I do that because I change them even after I make them)!

Here is a breakdown of what we will be doing this year!

Math
We will continue using Math U See. It is the ONLY math that my kids like, and believe me, they have tried many different types. Math U See helps them to visualize the problems and they are really understanding it. 

Robert's math: Pre-Algebra

Kayla's math: Epsilon (fractions and more)

Science

For Science this year, we are going to do ACE School of Tomorrow. The kids wanted to get a taste of the ACE curriculum before we jumped in with all of our feet, so we decided to do Science. Robert will be doing Biology. He is SO excited. He loves Science. Kayla will be studying Life Science. She says she will never dissect anything. Thankfully it comes with a dissection labs dvd where you can watch it being done. Robert on the other hand wants to dissect!

History English, Bible, Spelling, Reading

We will be doing Sonlight Alt 7 package. I have been skeptical of Sonlight simply because the price is SO high, however, I started collecting books a while back and I have purchased almost the WHOLE curriculum set for half of what it costs on their website. I am not scared at trying to piece together books. I look at it as a challenge, and I love those!  

Sometime in the near future, we may tackle foreign language, but my kids have no interest in learning one and I have no interest in teaching them something they do not want or care to learn about. 

Other things that will get thrown in the mix is PE, Home-EC, Art, Music (done our way of course), and then all the things we learn throughout the year regarding field trips and homeschool meeting classes.

What about you? Do you have your curriculum purchased yet?

Homemade Bubble Mixture

Kayla and I made some homemade bubble mixture for an article that I had to write for the July Digest coming up for Econobusters.

Of course Kayla got to be the guinea pig and try it out and make sure it actually worked.

She is definitely having fun with it. I bet you want a recipe for it right? Well, you will have to wait until the July Digest comes out to get it! Sorry peeps!

My Kids and Legos

Around here, Legos are like the ultimate fun toy. I have encouraged the kids to think outside of the box and build with their imagination. When they do, I get to take photos like these:

Glasses made by Kayla

Robert's Viking Ship

There are tons more, but I just don't have photos of all the things they have built!

What things do you encourage your children to build with Legos?

Making Homemade Playdough

A few weeks ago, we tried our hand at making homemade playdough.

We made two batches. . .purple and pink. It only takes just a minute to mix it up. And then when you are done, you can create lovely creations like this!

Here is a link where you can find recipes to make your own playdough. We used the Kool-Aid one.

Field Day~Our Last Hoorah for this Year

As we wrap up our homeschool year and get ready to enjoy our summer, we had one final fun day left with our homeschool group. . .FIELD DAY!

I have had the privilege the last three years getting to put together Field Day and I cannot tell you how much I love doing it.

The kids, the moms, and everybody gets involved! It is the most fun in the whole world!

From this point on, our summer is very slow and we don't have much going on. Our group meetings don't resume until August, but we do plan a couple of homeschool get togethers during the summer like water parks, or one or two field trips just so we can stay in touch.

What do you do to end the homeschool year?

Strawberries are SO Fun!

Kayla and I went strawberry picking earlier this week. We had a really good time. In fact, we were the only ones there that day! We got a good bounty of strawberries.

Kayla took some really neat photos of the field--cause she likes to take photos like that!

After we brought our yummy pile of strawberries home, I made my first batch of strawberry freezer jam. It was really easy to make!

I love doing things like this with my kids!

Making Oobleck

To me, this stuff looks like a gobbly, goopy mess. But to kids. . . it is the divine and fun way to play!

It basically starts out all runny, but when you apply pressure to it, it turns into a hard solid ball.

Once pressure is released, it automatically turns into a runny, gloopy mess again. Apply pressure and it stars all over again.

The kids played with this stuff for over an hour. After a while, the liquid dehydrates from it and it just starts to crumble, but for a while it is SO fun to play with. I even enjoyed it!

If you want to make your own Oobleck, here is the recipe. I love it because it uses simple household items.

Oobleck

2 parts cornstarch
1 part water
food coloring of your choice
(FYI--the food coloring will stain your hand, but it should come off with soap and water)

Mix all items together and play until your heart's content!

In The Midst of the Storm

I love these pictures of the kids. During a very bad storm last week that knocked out our power for several hours, they both decided to do something productive. Robert was reading the Kingdom Series by Chuck Black (which is a GREAT series if you have boys), and Kayla decided to do some of her math.

I love it when they choose to have peace in the midst of the storm and trust their Savior instead of being frightened by the wind and the rain.

What a lesson I learned that evening.

Field Trip Friday: The Homeplace at LBL

Nestled on the Trace at Land Between the Lakes is a wonderful place to visit called The Homeplace.

If you are studying American History around the 1800's or so, this would be the perfect place to go! Step back in time and learn about how people lived during this time period.

Before the tour starts, you go inside a building where they have all these displays set up with information about different things during the 1800's.

Once it is time to start the tour, you get to view a movie that gives you a little background history about this certain time period.

From this point on, after the movie, you get to actually go out and look at some of the wonderful buildings and artifacts that the Pioneers would have used.

They dress the part, they live the part, they interact with everyone there. This lady was working on a quilt that was set up on the front porch of the house.

Our guide came and began talking to us about the land, the fences, the yard (it is amazing how they had to mow their yard during this time) and about the house. The house was my favorite part!

It has two sides and a breezeway all the way through. The breezeway is where the family spends the majority of their time during the warm months. I could live on that front porch. The breeze was absolutely amazing! I loved the simple but very elegant dinner table they had prepared for the men that day.

We got to go upstairs and see both the boys and the girls rooms. They said that sometimes up to twelve kids would sleep in one bed!

In the girls room, Kayla fell in love with these adorable little dolls. Can you tell she is my crafter?

We got to tour the kitchen where the lady was cooking lunch for the men for that day. It was really hot in there so we did not stay long!

Robert's favorite part was the tool barn. He loved all the old tools and the very beautiful projects that could be created with them.

After the tour, went to the picnic area to eat our lunch. Over there is a creek that is cleared off for the kids to play in.

While the boys were playing in the water and skipping stones, the girls were busy gathering up these little lovlies:

If you ever get a chance to visit here, I would suggest you come see it! The Bison Range is right down the road as well. This is a great place to go!

Just When I Thought I Had It Figured Out!

This past week, the kids and I sat down and did some talking about curriculum and learning and stuff. I rely on them quite a bit to tell me how they like the way we are doing school, because let's face it, they are the ones doing school. . not me, so I want to make sure they are really learning.

The last month or so, they have been doing school very independently and they both told me that they want to go back to the way we were doing school this year. They like the independence when it comes to Math and English, but they miss the interaction we had during Science and History. SO, we have decided that we really like My Father's World, which is what we have been using this year, so we are going to stick with it.

We are going to do Creation To Greeks this coming school year. Even though my son is in high school and this particular curriculum stops at middle school level, I am going to beef it up for him so it will be considered more of a high school material.

I am really glad that they told me how they feel because I really love the Charlotte Mason method of teaching and truly feel my kids are learning so much by being able to explore and dig deeper instead of being stuck inside a textbook and worksheets all day. That is just not them!

As I have said before, and I will say it again, find what works for your family and stick with it! Don't worry about what everyone else is doing, and where they are at. This is about your kids and your family.

A Great Place To Buy Homeschool Books Cheap!

I found a new website this weekend that I have fallen totally in love with! Have you ever heard of. . .

This place has tons of great books at deep discounts! Here are a few that I plan on purchasing this year for school. You can click on the link to order them yourself if you are interested!

 Amos Fortune: Free Man~ usually sells for $4.99 or more. . .only $2.49! Click here to order

Classic to Contemporary Artists and Activities~ usually sells for $12.95. . .only $5.99 Click here to order

What People Wore Then: A Guide to Costume from Ancient History~usually sells for $29.95. . .only $6.99 Click here to order

This is just three of the books I have picked out so far! My looooong list would take forever to put here! If you are needing books for your homeschool, or just looking for something to read at a great price, then you should try hooking up with Book Closeouts. They even have a scratch and dent section where you can get books for a fraction of the price!