December 4 H Cloverbud Meeting

Yesterday was our December 4 H Cloverbud meeting.  Usually our December meeting is a pizza party and this year the children voted for the same.  The club bought the pizza, our family brought the supplies for an edible craft and a craft to donate to the nursing home, and other families brought chips, dessert, plates, cups, and drinks.  We had 22 children including siblings.

It is hard to get a lot of good pictures while running around doing other things too, but I did get a few.

After pizza we did the edible craft.  We made Rice Krispy ornaments.  Chelsea made the balls before we left for the party so all the children had to do was decorate them.  They decorated with green frosting, M&M's, and sprinkles.  Then they got to eat them!

The next craft was to make pine cone bird feeders.  The children spread peanut butter over their pine cones and rolled them in bird seed.  We tied a string around them so they can be hung up.

Then we made ornaments for the nursing home.  I found a pack of foam Santas and Snowmen ornaments at Hobby Lobby last year after Christmas on clearance for .25.  So I picked them up and saved them for 4 H. I did not get any photos of the children making them as I was peeling off foam stickies, but here are a couple of them finished.  They turned out pretty cute!  They are going to a local nursing home where the uncle of some of our club members lives.

The children also brought in some canned foods to donate to the Bread of Life soup kitchen.  I was so thankful to have parents that were willing to bring items for the party, help with the crafts, and help clean up!  When you have a group of children this age, it makes a huge difference to have parent help!

Tweet

Review: What Once Was Lost by Kim Vogel Sawyer

• Author's Web site
• More Info
• Read Chapter One
• Author Bio

Christina Willems is in charge of the Brambleville Asylum for the poor a duty she lovingly took over when her father passed away.  When a fire breaks out making it impossible for anyone to live in the house, she must find temporary shelter for all of the inhabitants including herself until she can get the funds sent from the mission board to fix the house.  She has the hardest time finding shelter for a young blind boy and when faced with no other options convinces Levi Johnson, a reclusive mill owner to keep him just until she finds someplace else.  Levi is surprised how quickly a bond forms between him and Tommy and how much he comes to care for him so quickly.  In the meantime, Christina's troubles continue to pile up.  The mission board refuses to send the money as they have decided it is "unseemly" for a woman to be in the position of authority over the poor farm.  Her residents that are like family to her become scattered, two of the boys turn up missing, and Christina ends up in jail.  When everything falls apart, Christina finds an unlikely ally in Mr. Johnson, and they both come to realizations about their lives and faith in God.

I enjoyed this book very much.  It can be really hard sometimes to write a book review without giving the entire story away, or being too vague and not saying anything at all.  But for this review I am going to talk about one of the themes that I liked in this book and that is the idea of what a "good Christian" is and isn't.  Levi Johnson is a reclusive outcast in his town and Christina is not happy to have to leave Tommy with him at first.  She also is given a hard time from other people for leaving him with a heathen even though they refused to shelter and care for him.  Yet Levi treats Tommy as a person, cares for him, and gives his life purpose that nobody else had before.  He believed in Jesus even though he has had doubt and lost some of his faith due to circumstances in his life.  At the same time, a "good Christian" treated Tommy as nothing better than an animal, and looked down upon others who were "sinners."  I loved how this topic was handled throughout the course of the story.  I loved all the resolutions in the story and that even though things did not go back to being as Christina wanted, God's plan was much better than hers and He worked it out in the end.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of What Once Was Lost for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance to FTC regulations.

Tweet

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 16

It was great to get back to work after a week off for Thanksgiving.  Short breaks are nice, but I admit I feel a little lost without having schoolwork to do during the day.  This week we were were glad to be diving back in.

For part of our mornings, we have been working on a review of Friends and Heroes The Long Journey which is a DVD that you watch and a unit study to go along with the DVD.  I should be posting my review on that sometime next week.  We have been working on this in place of our Bible Study Guide For All Ages worksheets and readings.

We finished  up The Great Turkey Walk.  Our next read aloud is Brady by Jean Fritz.  I took a look where we are in America the Beautiful, and we just finished lesson 40.  There are 150 lessons in the whole course which means we should be on lesson 75 by the end of the semester.  The course is meant to be a 5 day a week course and we only do school 4 days a week.  Plus we have taken off days here and there for field trips.  But I really want to complete this course in a year so we can jump back into Mystery of History Volume 3 next year so we will probably have to double up for a little to get us on track for finishing by the end of the year.

We finished Lesson 4 of Apologia's Land Animals.  Completed another lesson in Levels One and Three of All About Spelling.  Alex finished reading aloud The Matchlock Gun and has started reading The Bears on Hemlock Mountain.  Nick and Alex started working on an original story for IEW.  Nick's is about a bear who escapes from the zoo and Alex's is about a fish who gets caught by a fisherman not once but twice.  I took advantage of the Compass Classroom Black Friday sale and ordered Nick's next 10 lessons of Visual Latin.  It came just in time for him to do a Latin lesson Wednesday and Thursday.

You can see a day this week in my 12th graders homeschool life here.


I have decided to start using Before Five In a Row again with my two little girls.  I have used Before Five In A Row and Five in A Row off and on over the years.  I LOVE the books that are used with both of these and the activities are a LOT of fun.  I actually had sold my BFIAR and FIAR (I don't know what I was thinking!), so I purchased BFIAR again along with some of the books I didn't already have.  They should be here in a few days and I am very excited to get started with it again!

Chelsea went to Little Rock on Wednesday.  She was in a state wide competition called Sew With Cotton.  She ended up winning 4th place in her category.  I am very proud of her hard work!

We did not get to go to the Christmas Tree Farm this year like we usually do.  Instead, daddy bought our tree from Walmart.  It is a beautiful tree and the children did a great job decorating it.

We did a couple of Art projects of Friday.

Next week is very busy!  We have something happening almost every day.

I hope you had a great week in your homeschool!

*links to All About Spelling and Visual Latin are my affiliate links.  I only form affiliate relationships with companies whose products I actually use and can recommend.

Tweet

Art At Home: Winter Scene and Georgia O' Keeffe

 Today the weather outside is cold and yucky.  I did our shopping and errands the other day in case we got the ice and sleet they were predicting for us, and my plans for a surprise field trip had to be cancelled due to weather.  The younger children needed something fun to do this morning so we did two art projects.

The first one was a simple winter scene.  They could put whatever they wanted in it using paint or crayons and cotton balls for snowmen.  They got very creative!

Christian's

Emelia's

Anthony's

Lily's

The next project we did was out of our Usborne Art Treasury Book (you can see our Picasso project here.)  Today we did a Georgia O' Keeffe project.

the project page

Emelia's

Lily's

Anthony's

Christian ran away with his and put it up on his wall upstairs before I got a picture of it.  They all had fun!

Tweet

A Day in the Homeschool Life of My 12th Grader

By the time the children get into upper middle, and high school, I expect them to be able to complete the majority of their work independently.  That does not mean that I do not assist when needed, because I do.  But I do expect that they are responsible for all of their own work and managing their time.  I do not tell Chelsea how much work to do in each subject each day.  She has to be at a certain point by the end of the semester and has to figure out on her own how much she needs to complete each day to meet that deadline.  She even grades her own assignments, with the exception of papers.  I grade those.  I think by making them responsible for their own work and managing their time it will better prepare them for college and the "real world" beyond.

Chelsea's morning chores include feeding and caring for our two dogs.  She also is responsible for cat litter, dishes, and helps me prepare meals (when needed.)  She also takes care of her own laundry and is called upon to babysit from time to time.  On Fridays she is on "kitchen duty" and cleans the kitchen top to bottom.

Chelsea has her own little corner of our family room that she does her schoolwork in.  She has all of her books in a crate by the love seat and her computer and everything else she needs.  Sure is more comfy then sitting in a desk all day!

Our school day starts at 9:30.  Chelsea starts her school day with Math.  She is working on finishing up Math U See Algebra 2 by the end of the semester.  MUS DVDs do the teaching and she completes the worksheets.  If she has difficulty I (or daddy when available assist her.  Math takes her around 45 minutes to complete.

Next up is Notgrass Exploring Government.  This is a one semester course.  She works 45 min to an hour every day on her readings and assignments.  This day she had readings and a paper that she was editing.

Next up is lunch and recess.  Chelsea usually reads or listens to music during recess.  School starts back up again at 12:30.

Science is next.  Chelsea is working through Science For High School Physical Science.  This Science is a little different from most programs.  The student has a manual with questions on different topics and they have to use various sources to find the answers.  Chelsea uses the internet and also a few Creation based books that we have on.  You can read my review on this course here.  The course also includes tests and quizzes, and labs.  Chelsea spends 45 min- an hour each day on Science.

Last up is IEW SWI C.  If you have an opportunity to use one of the Student Writing Intensive courses from IEW, I highly recommend it!  They are outstanding!  Chelsea started this course over the summer because it was a review so she will complete it by the end of the semester.  The length it takes her to complete varies depending on the assignment or if it is a video day or not, but generally speaking it takes around 45 minutes per day to complete.

Our school day ends around 2 o clock.  We "do school" 4 days per week.  Since three of the courses Chelsea is taking will be finished at the end of the semester, she will be taking new courses in January.  They are: Math U See Stewardship, Classical Academic Press The Art of Poetry, and Economics For Everybody. She is also planning on completing the I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist Bible Study and British History just for fun. For extracurricular activities, Chelsea is very involved in 4 H and many areas of our church including the youth group.  She loves to sew, read, and cook.  She will be graduating in May at the age of 17 and is planning on attending a local community college for her first two years of college.

That's a "Day in the Homeschool Life of My 12th Grader."  Next week I will be featuring my Preschooler.

Happy Homeschooling!

*link to Economics For Everybody is my affiliate link.  I only form affiliate relationships with companies whose products I actually use and can recommend!

Tweet

What If It Is Not Working?

You spent hours and hours pouring over catalogs and reading reviews.  You went to the convention and listened to the vendor talk forever about the merits of their program and you decided that yes this is perfect for your homeschool.  But now, you are 3 months into your school year and you just don't like it.  Or your child doesn't like it.  Or it is so much harder for you to implement then you thought.  Or he just doesn't understand the way they are trying to teach it.  Now what?

One of the greatest things about the expanding homeschool movement and the newest technological advances is that there are so many options for homeschool materials.  And it is growing everyday.  The hard thing about so many choices though, is that it can be hard to find the right curriculum for you and your child.  Searching through catalogs, reading reviews, and seeing the items in person can help you narrow down your choices, but honestly you won't know exactly how something will work for your family until you actually get a chance to use it for yourself.

The first thing that I would do if something is not working is to try to figure out why.  You do not have to use curriculum exactly the way it is intended, and it might be possible to "tweek" it a bit so it works better for you family.  For instance if you feel like you are spending too much time everyday, you can cut some things out. Really.  You do not have to "do it all."  You can use parts of a curriculum you really like and leave out parts that you don't.  Or if your child learns better by hearing rather than reading, you could start reading it aloud to him.

Children are not always going to be excited about their school work (shocking I know!)  If your child doesn't like it, you need to find out why as well.  They could very well have legitimate reasons that they don't like a particular curriculum that you can make a change on.  My oldest doesn't like Math.  Obviously not doing Math is not an option, but we were able to switch to a program that is taught by DVD that allowed her to work independently and understand the concepts.  She still doesn't love Math, but it is working much better for her.

After trying to see if you can make changes though and it still isn't working.  Don't feel like you have to keep beating your head against the wall.  The flexibility of homeschooling allows you to make changes and you are free to try something else.  You can stop where you are and try something new.  Most curricula is allowed to be sold (see my post on homeschooling and copyright laws here) so you can get at least a portion of what you spent back.  You can look for something new to try.  Think about what didn't work with the old curriculum and make sure you are not looking to buy something else that has those same qualities.

Just because something doesn't work, does NOT mean that you have failed!  I cannot tell you how many different reading programs I went though with my now 10 year before I found something that worked for him.  Or the different Math programs we have done.  Or the different History programs we went through before I found my absolute favorite.  There is a lot of trial and error in homeschooling and you have to try different things to figure it out.  Even then when you figure it out for one child, that same program may not work the same for the next child.  Don't be afraid to make changes!!

I just wanted to say one more thing about reading reviews.  Many of us rely a lot on other people's reviews, and I do encourage you to read reviews before purchasing things.  But, make sure you are reading not just that people like the product, but what they do/do not like about the product.  If someone says they like something because of the amount of reading that is involved and your child is a struggling reader, it may not work as well for you as it does for them.  Or if someone didn't like something because it involves so much hands on learning, but that is the type of thing you and your child love, it might be something you want to take a look at.

Happy Homeschooling!

Tweet

Review: Plain Peace by Beth Wiseman

Book Description

Anna loves the grandfather who raised her, but his strict adherence to the Ordnung is scaring away any boy who might be interested in her—except newcomer Jacob.

In normal circumstances Anna Byler would have her choice of any of the young men in her Amish community. But because of the strict rules enforced by her grandfather, the bishop, the available suitors are afraid to court her. Then handsome Jacob Hostetler moves to Paradise and decides Anna is worth the challenge.

Anna sees that the bishop’s legalism is dividing the community and risking the lives of its members—but her grandfather doesn’t. When she is forced to deception in order to pursue her dream of marriage and family with Jacob, Anna feels her own faith slipping. If only she could get her grandmother to help her stand up to the bishop. But Mammi is keeping secrets of her own.

Anna wants to honor her grandparents, the two most important people in her life, but her heart is divided by the rules that guide their little Amish community and the growing love she has for Jacob. How can she be true to both?

Plain Peace is the 6th book in the Daughters of the Promise series.  It is the first book that I have read in the series.  I have to say that it was not at all what I was expecting.  It was definitely not what I would consider a "typical" Amish Fiction.  It is a very good story.  The characters in this book all have real problems and struggles just like the rest of us.  Some of the problems were easier to solve then others, and at several points in the story I wondered how the author would resolve many of the issues.  I enjoyed the plot twists and turns.  I really enjoyed the resolution of the problems, especially how Anna's Mammi dealt with the secrets she had been keeping and the enormous good it brought to her community.  I think that even the big problems were handled well in the story.  The author didn't wave a "happily ever after" magic wand, but instead acknowledged that some things take a long time to work through while still giving the book an ending that was pleasing to the reader.

Disclaimer:  I received a complimentary copy of Plain Peace for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance to FTC regulations.

Tweet