Homeschool Wrap Up Week 32

This week went by in a bit of blur.  I was under the weather of the weekend and unable to do several things that I wanted to and needed to do.  So Monday morning rather then having school we headed to Walmart to do out grocery shopping.  We did get our afternoon school work finished.  We did not do any school work on Thursday because of a field trip.


I have been spending a lot of time trying to figure out my plans for our next school year.  I do spend a lot of time figuring out what curriculum we should use and what activities we should be a part of and I will be talking about those choices soon.  But those are not the most important things.  Yes I want my children to have a good education and I try to make it fun and interesting for them as best I can.  But really the most important things I want them to learn is to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love their neighbor as their self.  I want them to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior and to know about God's Grace. I want them to be people who can be counted on to do what they say they are going to do.  I want them to have a good work ethic no matter what they choose for their career.  I want them to stand up for what's right even when (I should say especially when!) it is not the popular choice.

One thing that I have learned is that you can only plant the seeds and nurture them for awhile.  The time will come when our children have to choose what kind of person they will be and what kind of life they will live and then all you can do is sit back and watch and pray.

Enough rambling.  On to our weekly wrap up!

Week 32 in our Homeschool

P.E.: We skipped it this week.

Bible: We read 2 chapters in Get to Know King David

Read Aloud: We completed 2 chapters of The Minstrel in the Tower.  We are doing the Progeny Press study guide (upcoming review) to go along with this book.

Science: We continued with our reading of The Geology Book.  Anthony learned about the Zodiac in Memoria Press's  Book of Astronomy.  Lillian completed 2 days of Week 3 in Science Shepherd Introductory Science.

My Father's World Adventures: We finished Mountain Born.  In our state study we learned about North and South Dakota.  In American Pioneers and Patriots we read about living on the plains.  In Birds, Nests, and Eggs we read about the House Sparrow, Blue Jay, Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, and Red-Winged Blackbird.  In First Encyclopedia of Science we read about light and color and friction.  We also finished up the last magnet activity.

Music: We started the week one activities of Joseph Haydn.

Art: We finished up the last activity of our ARTistic Pursuits chapter on paper.

Math: Nick finished lesson 30 of his book.  Alex finished lesson 29 of his book.  Lily started working on lesson 28 of her book.  Anthony and Christian started lesson 27 of their books.

Writing/Literature/Poetry: We have memorized 6 poems from IEW Poetry.  Alex completed 2 lessons from Writers in Residence.  We did not do any PAL writing this week.

Reading/Spelling: Anthony and Christian finished step 18 in AAS Level 2.  They completed lessons  42 and 43 in AAR Level 3.  Lily completed lessons 20 and 21 in AAR Level 2.

Other Activities This Week:

Last Sunday afternoon, Art, Nick, Alex, and Christian went on the boat.  They caught a bunch of fish! I stayed on the couch and watched movies with Lily, Emmie, and Anthony.

Monday we headed off to Walmart to buy groceries.  On our way home we stopped by the greenhouse and bought some flowers and some vegetables for the garden.

the greenhouse has a playhouse

Thursday we went to Cossatot River State Park.  We had never been there before.  We were able to participate in 2 programs one on the water cycle and one on animal tracks.  The programs have no cost because in Arkansas part of our tax money goes to support the state parks and the educational programs that they put on.

The Water Cycle Program

 They really enjoyed the picnic lunch and the playground.

 For the animal track program the children got to choose a track, color, and scent for their animal track soap.  The moms made the soap while the children watched a video on the state park and played Animal Track Bingo.

This room was really cool!  We loved looking through here.

After the programs were over we went down to the river for a little while.

Saturday we finished planting the garden.  I have been working on it for several weeks.  We have planted green and yellow beans, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, zuccinni squash, yellow squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, broccoli,and corn,  plus some marigolds, sunflowers, and lantanas.  We are hoping to plant some pumpkins but the ones we planted in our containers have not grown yet.

I hope you had a great week in your homeschool!

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4 Tips To Help Your Struggling Reader

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I was so happy to see this sight I cried!  My 10 year old willingly reading on a Saturday morning. Not just reading, but reading a book that he has wanted to read forever but was convinced it was too hard and he wouldn't be able to do it.

I'm not sure if I can adequately describe how hard it is to be the homeschool mama of a child who struggles to read.  It can be so heartbreaking and frustrating.  It makes you feel like a complete failure.  It gets harder when you know children that are younger than yours that are reading like crazy (worse if they happen to be a younger sibling!)  You worry about situations where your child might be asked to read something out loud and then get embarrassed or ridiculed because they can't do it. You see how frustrated they get when they try to read. You keep praying that it will get easier, that the light bulb will finally turn on, but worry that it never will.

Out of my 7 children, 3 of them have struggled when it came to learning how to read.  I foolishly thought reading would be an easy skill to teach.  I love to read and devoured books as a child (and still as an adult!)  My oldest two children I didn't even have to teach.  They learned at a very young age by reading with me. Then we hit a wall.  My next 3 children all had difficulty learning to read.  3.  In a row.  It has been hard.  But I promise there is hope and some things you can do to make it easier on both the child and you.

The idea that children should be reading at the age of 5 is crazy.  I don't know who randomly chose that age.  Once upon a child children did not even begin learning letters or reading instruction until age 7 or higher.  Studies have shown that the best age for reading especially for boys is around age 10 (and personally in this house there has been something magical about that age!) But knowing that does not help when you have a child that wants to read and can't.

4 Tips to Help Your Struggling Reader


1.   Find a good multisensory reading curriculum that can grow with your child.  The type of reading curriculum you choose is very important. I am a big, big, fan of All About Reading from All About Learning Press.  This curriculum has been amazing for my children! It allows children to build their words using letter tiles, has fun hands on activities and great stories.  Something about building the words with the magnets really makes them make sense to my children.  I love the built in review and the hardback readers have wonderful stories.  You can use it with multiple children too.  Children can move at their own pace.

Whether you choose All About Reading or something else, stick with it even if you don't see results right away.  Try to keep your lessons short and to the point and always be willing to offer help if needed.

2. Read Aloud Often.  If your child cannot read well schoolwork can be very difficult.  Look for curriculum that you can read aloud and answer questions orally.  Choose fiction and non fiction books your child will enjoy in addition to your regular curriculum.  Read aloud as often as you can.

3. Use audiobooks. There are several sites that offer free audiobooks.  Many libraries also allow you to check out audiobooks.  Listening to audiobooks are great for children especially if they can't read well.  It also helps out the busy mama who cannot read aloud all day!  I have discovered that it really improves children's vocabulary too.

The new immersion reading from Kindle is fantastic!  You can download an ebook and an audiobook and it highlights the words as they are being read.  This allows your child to not only listen to the book but see the words as well.  I love this feature!

4. Be patient.  Okay I know this is hard.  Patience is definitely not one of my strengths.  But we have to remember that just because a child does not read as early as others does not mean that they won't ever read or that they will not become successful adults.  We have to remember that God did not create us all the same and many blessings come through struggles.  I mentioned above that 10 seems to be a magical age in this house and there really is something to be said for that.  The first child that I feared would never read started reading well just shortly after turning 10.  He loves to read now.  My next child just recently started making huge improvements in his reading and he is 10 and 1/2. Encourage a love of reading and help lessen your children's frustrations as much as you can. Surround them with good books on a variety of subjects and be as encouraging as you can.  It will get better!


Happy Homeschooling!

*links in this post are my affiliate links.  I only form affiliate relationships with companies whose products I actually use and can recommend!

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Homeschool Wrap Up Week 31

I struggled with motivation this week.  It was really hard to get going in the mornings and as much as I try to always start school at the same time every day, that did not happen this week.  In fact we started a little later each day but we still were able to get several things accomplished.

Week 31 in our Homeschool

P.E.: 2 days Family Time Fitness and one day of yoga.

Bible: Since we finished our Grapevine Studies last week and just needed a fill in Bible study for a couple of weeks, I decided to read Get to Know King David by Nancy I Sanders as our Bible study. This actually worked out really well because even though I did not know it, the book I am reading aloud to the younger children for MFW has been talking about King David and it has fit together nicely.

Read Aloud: We finished YWAM Heroes of History Thomas Edison.

History: We finished The Mystery of History Vol IV last week.  Be sure to enter my giveaway for a copy of it!

Science: The older boys and I are reading The Geology Book from Master Books.  I confess I am not finding this at all interesting.  Anthony is learning constellations using Memoria Press's The Book of Astronomy.  Lily finished Week 2 of Introductory Science from Science Shepherd,

My Father's World Adventures: Our read aloud is Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates.  In American Pioneers and Patriots we read about the Greatest Pioneer of them All and building the railroad.  In Exploring American History we read about after the Civil War.  In our state study we completed Nevada and Nebraska,  The science activities have been more experimenting with the Magnet Kit. We are on week 30 and have four more weeks to go, but I may try and get it done in 3.

Music: We finished the Handel lapbook.  Next week we will begin reading about Haydn.

Math: Nick and Alex completed lesson 29 in their books.  Lily did some extra worksheets on lesson 27.  Anthony and Christian finished lesson 26.

Grammar/Writing/Literature/Poetry: We finished Fix It! Grammar!!! Anthony and Christian loved The Nose Tree and will move on to Robin Hood next year.  I think Alex will go back through Robin Hood with us.  I am not sure whether or not I will have Nick continue on with it or not.  Does he still need to do grammar?  I'm not sure.  We have memorized 5 poems from IEW Poetry.  Alex completed 4 lessons in Writers in Residence.  Nick will be finishing Treasure Island soon. We did not do any PAL writing assignments this week.

Reading/Spelling: Somehow we did not do any AAR Level 3 lessons this week.  They did complete step 17 AAS Level 2.  Lily completed lesson 17 in AAR Level 2.  Alex completed lesson 25 in The Phonetic Zoo.

Other Activities This Week:

Monday the soccer tournaments started.  Alex's team lost so his season ended.  Christian's team won.

Nick helping the team warm up before the game

Miss Emmie playing at soccer

Alex being goalie in the shootout

Tuesday was the first meeting of a new STEM 4 H club for kids ages 9 and up.  This club will start out meeting once a quarter.  My boys will be participating in this club along with the Nature Seekers Club.  This month's topic was aerodynamics and they made and flew paper airplanes.

After the meeting the children had time to play on the playground for a little while.  Then Christian had his soccer game.  They lost and their season ended.

Wednesday was our last day of Kid's Club.

Watching Nick playing frisbee with Emmie made me smile :)

I hope you had a great week in your homeschool!

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