Homeschooling A Houseful

Family Math With over 300 pages of lively activities, the classic FAMILY MATH book represents one of the greatest strides taken to involve parents in the mathematics education of their children. Using easy instructions and simple objects such as beans, blocks, pennies, buttons, and string, parents and kids solve problems together. FAMILY MATH is a rich resource including number and estimation, logical thinking, probability and statistics, geometry, measurement, and calculators. The stimulating games, puzzles, and projects entice kids in playful ways to master math concepts.  For families with children five to twelve years old. Grades K-8.    This is an amazing hands on Math book, with fun games for many ages!  

Isn't that the question?? It seems that everyone out there wants to know the best curriculum, the best choice in educating their children. That is one blessing, and possibly one curse to the popularity of homeschooling.... Oh the choices! There are so many, so many different methods, so many different ideas, so many different programs, and ways to school.... honestly it's overwhelming. It gives me a headache just pondering them all. I seem to get asked about curriculum, a lot. I guess part of it is that I have been homeschooling all my A's from the start? I guess it's that we all seem "together". I guess it's.... well it's just "the" question when it comes to homeschool mom's getting together. So what do I use.... it doesn't matter!!! What?? What??? are you going to just leave me hanging like that?? Yes I am! {once in a while I mention things we do and use, but honestly I try not to} I believe what works for me,...

I am an organizer, planner and maybe over achiever! {No I didn't say that, that was Papa Bear jumping in!!! HEE, HEE} I have started this post a few times, and it always became so LONG, and overwhelming!! I decided to break it down into Family Time, and then the children individually, or as they will be doing things together. Family Time Family Scripture Stud y~ every morning with Papa Bear. We simply read through at least 1 chapter of scriptures. We are currently in the Old Testament. Once finished, we will have read the entire set of scriptures as a family!! Then we will start all over again! Music ~ we sing the same songs, and hymns the entire week. Making them more familiar to us. I try to find ones we don't know, or don't know as well. I choose one from the LDS Hymnal, one from the LDS Children's song book, one educational, one patriotic, and sometimes throw in one seasonal or fun song too. I am also hoping to continue the recorder lessons we started at the begin...

Carissa from 1+1+1=1 mentioned Multiplication.com , awhile ago. I looked at it, and well was overwhelmed by the site! I put it on the "to do later list" You know the one, the one you always forget about!!! Well she wrote a post about this site, and explained what her family loves about the site.... with that help, I now and very impressed too!!! We will definitely be adding this to our daily studies, for VIRTUE, CHARITY, VALIANT, and PEACEFUL. They are all still working on their math facts and this site, will aid in that a lot! I will be adding these timed self correction drills to their daily work. Not only is there multiplication, but also addition, subtraction, and division. You can print these, or do them online. To do them online, you push the start to begin. This begins your time and then finish when completed. It will then correct it for you. Tell you the time, amount wrong and right, and the date!!! Love it when technology, helps the teacher out a bit!!! Carissa als...

Let's just say Spelling has never been one of Virtue's favorite subjects, nor has it been something she has ever caught on to. Noble and Charity have been using Spelling Workout, which is a recommendation in The Well Trained Mind. I used TWTM in the beginning with Noble, and just stuck to what worked for him... as long as I could. Noble and Virtue learn very differently, it's black and white, complete opposites. The last few years I have been simply taking words from Virtues writings, that she spells incorrectly, and using that list to make her spelling lists. This works, but it never felt like I was "teaching" her anything about spelling. I want it to be a bit more organized, but more so importantly teaching her the rules. I have been looking at the program All about Spelling. I am hoping to be able to get a good look at the program at our homeschool convention and curriculum sale in June. It is pricey, and I don't want to purchase it if it doesn't work a...

Since my decision to go to more of a textbook curriculum, I haven't said much more about it. How is it going?? Well I LOVE it!! I am not having to plan, and organize and come up with ideas and think, and be creative, and be on top of everything... all the time. It has really lifted a large load off my shoulders. I spend most of the morning teaching Peaceful phonics. I also spend a lot of time helping Valiant with his work, and mostly his reading. He has a speech impediment, along with being all boy, he has struggled with his reading. He is doing a ton better, but I work a lot on his speech. I also read aloud his Science and Readings with him, and Peaceful usually sits in and listens too. That along with keeping the two younger children busy, occupied, and somewhat quiet. I was having a hard time keeping up with my teacher prep time, and {honestly} my peaceful meek teaching spirit! It was getting very overwhelming. So I decided to give you a run down of how I do it. How I organize a...

I believe it could be too early, if it's done in the wrong way. If you make it a stress and you must pass the test, when the child is too young... that's the wrong approach. However I feel I have found a great approach. Of course when to start this with your child, it should be handled individually to each child. There is a free service from the SAT collegeboard . I signed A1 up for the daily questions, and I signed up to get them too. Each day he will read them, and try to do them himself. Then he will let me know if he got it right, and on what try. While A1 just turned 13, he loves knowledge, he loves a challenge and he loves facts. I figured this would be something he would love, and well I was right!! I made it no stress, nothing to worry about. I told him if you don't know, simply make your best guess, then use the help section to get help, and always read the sections that explain the answers. This will not only help him prepare for the SAT, and test taking, but it w...

{Photo from Amazon, link below} I am sure you have all heard of workboxes, they are everywhere... in the homeschool world. I started implementing the workbox idea with A5 and A6. I am still working out all the details. We currently have their regular work in the drawers, and they work through them. I am finally {sad to say, FINALLY} ready to start getting myself into gear here!!! I found a few wonderful workbox finds, and thought I'd share! ~I came across these drawers , {pictured above} and love the look of them, the simplicity in design.. and size. I purchased two of them. {no I didn't pay that price!!} ~I also found this wonderful planning sheet at Robin's Blog, Heart of Wisdom. I love these, I printed off two. I copied them to my computer and made one for A5 in "boy" colors and one for A6 in "girl" colors. This way I can glance quickly at them to "see" who's who and what they are suppose to be doing. These are pretty simple forms, and ...

Just sending out a heads up to everyone... Brite Music is have a 40% off their "systems" and 25% off some of their bundles!! We don't have many of these, but love the ones we do. They are pricey, but so worth it! Here's a link to the Brite Music Website and Sale .

What does that mean!??! What ship are you jumping from? Where are you jumping to? How are you planning on jumping?? Well let me tell you.... I am jumping into the great deep, dark and "unknown" world, I am planning on jumping Titanic style, Spread Eagle that is!!! No seriously folks, I have decided that for our upcoming curriculum, we are going to jump into the area of {dare I even say it??} Traditional Christian TEXTBOOKS!!!! {I can hear you all moan, and groan and say OH NO!!!!} Yes TEXTBOOK, tends to be a "bad" word in the homeschool world. It's one of those 3-letter words, okay so it's actually an Eight-letter word. I am not sure why TEXTBOOKS have such a bad name to homeschoolers. Actually I do, it has to do with the dumbing down of America. It has to do with short tidbits of information crammed into a lesson, bits and pieces of history... never knowing the whole thing. HOWEVER, you must also admit, that there are NOW so many choices in TEXTBO...

Yes we are going to become year-round schoolers. We use to be year-round, then for a few years Papa Bears Nephew lived with us, and it was "easier" for everyone to go along with the public schools schedule. However if I ever had another child in public school, I'd still go year round and make it work in others ways. {but that's a whole different post} We also love Saxon Math. I always thought A2 would need a different math curriculum, however she has learned to work Saxon, and it works!!! That being said, I do not use the early Saxon. I used these with A1, and when it was only him, it worked. However I can not sit down and "teach" math to all my children day in and day out. Not to mention, Mama Bear all but detests math!!! We love the Rod and Staff Math, and we have used Abeka for the first years. Now we are only using Rod and Staff, it's much cheaper and I believe has better review. I also enjoy being able to purchase materials and keep using them for a...

that is one thing I walked away from our local winter homeschool convention thinking.... need more science fun. We do science, and it's fun, but we need to add those WOW...AWESOME...AHHHHH type of activities too. I found two fun sites, and you know what's awesome they both will send me fun science activities each week! Some are even from simple things around the house. I am so excited!!! Steve Spangler Science ~ this guy is awesome!!! there's videos and all sorts of fun ideas on this site. This is the site the homeschool mom/teacher told us about, and she said there's easily a years worth of science on this site.... she was so not kidding. Home Science Tools ~ this is another great one. I have received a few of their emails, and they use a lot of around the house items for many of their emailed experiments, or at least the ones I've seen so far. Anyone else, have any great sites to add or share???? Remember, I LOVE COMMENTS!!!!

and well let's just say we all have a love/hate relationship with it!!! However I do not give up that easily, and will try a few more! We "rowed" {that is five in a row} with How to make an apple pie and see the world Here's a few highlights from our week. Spell Out Loud~ Apple Pattern Cards HS Share~ How to make an apple pie and see the world unit {I do love that there are so many ideas on HS Share that go with five in a row!!} HS Share~ Apple tree math game ~made apple flashcards and three part apple cards. The science experiment in the Five in a Row teacher book~ Salt Water. Here's A4, A5, and A6 all helping stir the salt into the water. Here's the finished product....salt!

I received a comment/question about our devotional time, Tracy would like me to give more details about our devotional time. {WARNING~ this post has become extremely LONG!!!} First off before I start into all that I'd just like to say I am so glad Tracy decided to comment, and especially with a question!! The main and only reason I blog is to inspire others, help others, and well sometimes it's as close as I get to adult conversation! I noticed that as of right now {as I right this} I have had 787 visitors to my blog... and only 2 people who have commented! The other one is my O' So kind SIL!! Please feel free to comment...because as it says on the Right Sidebar...I LOVE Comments!!! I also want to clarify and answer any questions that I might have stirred in your heads with my thoughts!!! So on with the Question.... We have ALWAYS had devotional time... it's changed and grown with our family. It's what we, Papa Bear and I see as the things our children need. Just be...

This year for our science curriculum, I am doing something a bit different. You see, A1 thinks that he needs to venture off on his own for most of his school work. I tend to agree, it seems there is a large gap between him and the other kids. I don't say that in any harsh way towards A2-A7 nor do I say that, meaning he's a genius. It's just a simple fact. I think every child will hit that point of Independence at different times. It almost reminds me of beginning reading. I can sit there and push reading upon a child, making the whole situation miserable....or I can calmly wait for that child to be ready. I know afew A's that caused me great stress when it came to reading. Then I just had to remember all those people, books, blogs, friends and strangers who told me this....reading will come!!! It also reminds me of potty training!!! {yes that is one thing I was hoping to start a6 on, but it's just not happening right now, and I had to just say, it's okay, it wi...

A friend of mine is starting her planning for next years curriculum. She is posting different curriculum she likes to use, and things she is considering. As we are year round schoolers here. I am not necessarily planning for next year. I am always planning and looking! I must admit, I have a bit of a curriculum/book problem. I am an addict to books! I love books. Yet I am not necessarily a big reader. I like to read, I just hate getting into something and then boom having to stop. When I study I want some real study time! Oh well....with our lives we must live in seasons. My season to study and really read will come! For now I will be content with the time I do manage to get. Though I must admit I have a few bookworms around my house! I love that. So what I am going to do for the next little while is post some of my favorite book suppliers or curriculum suppliers. I am going to label this series, home library. I hope that some of my finds, will help you with some of what you are lookin...

Audio Memory This is a great company. A great resource. We love these. We use these for Drills. We have all the math facts ones. We also have the grammar and geography ones. I haven't used the grammar and geography ones as much. However now that I found them in a pile of teaching supplies!!! I will be adding them in. I noticed they have more now, then I have ever seen. These come highly recommended, from yours truly!!

We have really enjoyed the A REASON FOR HANDWRITING series. The things I really like about this, is that the Kindergarten/beginning level uses mostly animals for their themes for each letter. In the lesson book, they give a brief introduction to each animal. A bit on the climate or area it lives, what it eats, what type of animal it is, about their family groups and babies. It is something all the little ones have enjoyed. We have made animal notebooks/books with these after. I believe all the lowercase letters are animals, and then most of the uppercase animals are animals. A few of the uppercase animals are things like rainbows and I think quarts was another one. However they still have a fun introduction to each of these. I also love that they are scripture based. The introductions to the animals, usually have something in them about how wonderful God is to do such great things for the animals. If not, you can usually add it!! Also once they pass the beginning level, they are writin...

I am so excited to start using the All American History Curriculum , by Celeste W. Rakes. It says it is for a 5th-8th grade range. I am planning on getting some pictures or maps for the younger kids to color while I am reading and talking. In the student workbook there are multiple choice and fill in the blank tests. I will probably do some of these together, some individually, some orally and some written! That way it mixes things up a bit for everyone. What I am really excited about are the Further Research Ideas in the Student Workbook. These are suggestions, or ideas to use for researching what we are talking about. This curriculum says it is for 32 weeks, however I am planning on using one lesson for 2 weeks, and either 2-3 days a week. Then on the other days we are not doing our family history, some kids can be working on some of their individual research projects. I am also planning on adding in some readings. We have been reading This Country of Ours by Marshall , which is a fr...