Summer Plans {2014}

Hard to believe how much we always cram into those last few weeks before summer begins ... we've done baseball games, a dance competition, dance recital, and testing. So nice to have a breather for a few weeks before our summer plans kick into gear.

On tap this summer ...

• Classical Conversations Practicum/Tutor Training/Camp for the kids and I
• Homeschool Group Book Sale
• VBS at our church
• 4th of July trip to Asheville, North Carolina
• 90 hours of a ballet summer intensive for Lexi and Ava Mae
• Baseball Private Coaching for Devin
• Lots of swimming and fun with friends!
• Camp Winshape for Devin
• Two different Camp Crafty Girls days at my home
• Hosting a foreign exchange student from France in July

After all that fun, I have a feeling we will look forward to heading back to school at the end of August! Speaking of school ... we aren't putting our studies aside for the whole summer. Devin and Lexi are working on getting all of their reading done, for the 2014-2015 school year. We are also going to start working on Latin vocabulary - doesn't that sound like fun! Ava Mae will work on becoming a more fluent reader, so lots of reading on tap for her.

The kids can't wait to get to our pool ... I like to wait until at least Memorial Day. With the cold winter we had I cannot imagine our pool warming up before June. 

Going Ons {April 2014}

Wow ... another month has just flown by. I wish I had more time to keep my blog updated but, there are just not enough hours in the day! So, I have decided my goal will be to update once a month with a review of our "going ons". {Pictured above - spring has sprung!}

{Ballet picture week ... so glad this is done and behind us}

{We got a new black kitty named Binx}

{Our Classical Conversations school wrapped up with a fun dinner and awards night}

{The girls performed as part of a trio in their choir spring musical}

{A quick trip to Asheville to spend Easter with my family}

{Lexi performed a short dance piece for her GA's skit night}

{Devin enjoyed some great baseball games with his middle school team}

{Crunch time for these two girls - as they spent countless hours rehearsing for their dance competition}

{Lexi graduated from GA's ... on to middle school}

Going Ons {March 2014}

Here's what we have been up to ...

Spring means our lives seem to get crazier and crazier ... it gets worse as the kids get older and we have more commitments. 

Wish I had more time to blog everything we do but, there are just never enough hours in the day. So a quick look into our going ons ...

Ava Mae donated 12 inches of her hair to Locks of Love ... she loves the new hairstyle and I am finally getting how to create a professional looking ballet bun with little hair to work with.

Devin got braces ... he really wanted to wait until he was old enough for Invisaligns but, we convinced him to go ahead and get it over with. He seems to be adjusting well. Two in braces ... so glad Ava Mae is still a few years off. Braces are EXPENSIVE!

Lexi is working so hard with her very good friend and dance bud, Ellie, to prepare for their duo in an upcoming dance competition. They are learning lots ... most importantly ... they are finding out the hard work and dedication that must go in to preparing for a dance competition. It is nothing like the small snippet they see on Dance Moms.

In other news, our yard is finally back to good condition - lots of clean up from the horrible storm that literally blew through a few weeks ago. The insurance adjuster finally made it out and our fence has been repaired!

Classical Conversations (our hybrid school) is finishing up and the kids are working hard on their 24 weeks of memory work. We are proofing now ... Devin is going for Memory Master and the girls are going for Jr. Memory Master. We are happy to be returning to CC again next year. Devin and Lexi will move into Challenge A. Ava Mae will continue in Foundations and I look forward to tutoring the Masters class.

And, surprise, we are wrapping up our month by heading off on an early Spring Break to Walt Disney World. {My husband's boss gave up his spot, at a conference in Disney} Looking forward to some spring like temps in Florida and spending a few days in the parks.

Butcher Paper Covered School Table

I don't know why I did not think of this sooner ... last fall we covered our dining room table {which for the most part doubles as our school table} with butcher paper for Ava Mae's art party. The kids loved it so much we decided to leave it in place. They loved using the butcher paper during school to work out math problems or sketch out an idea for a paper they were writing. Their friends loved doodling and writing messages to the kids when they were over. I wish I would have taken a picture of it before I removed the paper and decided to put down a new sheet of butcher paper.

So, I figure this is my big homeschool idea for the year ... not only is it protecting our dining room table {when we have a need to use the dining room table I just throw a table cloth over the butcher paper} but, I don't have lots of scrap paper laying around at the end of the school day. I may even save a section of this butcher paper when I take it off the table in a month or two. I figure it would be a nice addition to my art journal this year ... more to come on that in a separate post.

Nature Studies in Winter

In the winter this is our window to the world ... or at least, our front yard. It is a great place for us to do nature studies ... especially when it is just too cold to bundle up and head outside.

 

Lately, we have been fascinated by the woodpecker who has made this large hole in a branch on one of our trees .. unfortunately, he has been too fast lately going in and out for me to capture him on film. He darts in and out of this hollowed out branch pretty quickly.

We have lots of male and female cardinals that visit our yard. They are so beautiful against the winter background.

Some days we document the comings and goings of all the birds in our nature/art journals - other times we just snap lots of photographs.

Weekly Rewind {September 20, 2013}

Week four of school is behind us ... here is our week in pictures. {Pictured above Ava Mae dressed as a pirate for Talk Like a Pirate Day - it earned us a dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme.}

Devin pitched for the first time for his middle school baseball team. He was so excited and nervous! I was sad to miss but, had girls at the dance school that had to be picked up at varying times. Thankfully, my husband was there and could text me a play by play. :) Devin did a great job and had a good time pitching. It really was a surprise to us as we figured it would be a year before they allowed him to pitch. Loving his baseball team and the sweet boys and parents!

Pictured above, Devin and one of his teammates during prayer after the game. Ava Mae doing a science experiment at Classical Conversations. Our history and science cards from school this past week. And, the last picture is Lexi and Ava Mae on a cool fall morning doing their school work outside on our deck - along with their golden retriever, Maggie.

Weekly Rewind {Aug 30, 2013 ~ Our First Week of School}

We survived the first week of school! Woo Hoo!! And, I should say we not only survived but, everyone was still smiling on Friday - bonus points for that! It was our first week with an almost full schedule {only thing missing was our Monday Middle School/High School PE class for Devin and Hope which will begin on September 9th}.

This year Devin, Lexi, and Ava Mae are in Classical Conversations - they are all doing the Foundations program and Devin and Lexi are also enrolled in the Essentials program. Hope is enjoying her time in the nursery working with the little kids. This is new for us this year but, just what our family needed as we tackle adding a new child to our homeschool mix and finish up required trips for our adoption. We love our community and all the friends we get to attend school with!

We are all back at Timothy this year too ... I am teaching Exploring Creation with Anatomy & Physiology and Knitting for Beginners and Advanced Students. So thankful that Devin and Lexi are both assisting me in my science class and Hope in my knitting class - as my student count in both is high. The kids each have an enrichment class or two they are taking this semester. 

Pictured above is our fun science project of the week ... we made models of animal cells out of jello and different candy.

In other news this week, Hope had her check up this week at the pediatrician - everything looks good and she just needed to get 4 shots this go round. Brave girl ... I think I freaked out more than she did. Devin is now on the JFCA Middle School Fall Baseball Team - a goal he has had for the last two years. We are proud of him and he is so happy to have begun practices!

As One School Year Ends ... Planning Begins

I feel like this past school year was a blur ... I am amazed we accomplished as much as we did! Last week I was able to wrap everything up with our standardized testing and, then began the process of packing away our school work. During the summer the kids will continue to work on math, reading, and journaling. I just held their math books out as we have plenty of additional practice pages in the back of their Abeka books they can use. They are super excited about bringing those to Latvia ... NOT.

So, as I wrap up the 2012-2013 school year, planning for 2013-2014 is in full swing. The kids and I attended a 3-day practicum last week, for our new school for next year. We are making a move into Classical Conversations. All three kids will be in the Foundations program and Lexi and Devin will also be in Essentials. The kids will also be enrolled at their enrichment school too - my husband and I will be teaching three classes {Anatomy and Physiology, Loom Knitting, Creative Writing-my husband teaching}. So, at least for the fall, we will be out of the house 2 days a week. We are super excited to begin CC in a great community with many friends.

As I began planning our 2013-2014 school year, I am looking at some different possibilities for Math, including switching to Teaching Textbooks for Devin. We are going to go back to utilizing Story of the World for History. Hoping to score the audio CD's at our homeschool groups upcoming Used Curriculum Sale. For Science we will be going through Apologia's Exploring Creation with Anatomy and Physiology.  We will also be doing several activities tied into our week's memorization work at CC. Miranda will work all these subjects with us along with working through an ESL program.

I am preparing for this to be a big transition year for us ... with adopting another child we will definitely need to have flexibility in both schedule and our schooling. I have to admit though, right now as we sit and wait for travel dates to Latvia, I feel like the fall is an eternity away.

My Home School Grades {A Mosaic Review}

Earlier this year I attended a seminar on homeschooling through the high school years. It was great to glean wisdom from a homeschool mother and teacher who has graduated several high school seniors. It all sounded great until the talk turned to transcripts. I think at that point I began to break have a panic attack. The information presented to us made it sound so simple but, I just could not wrap my brain around collecting all that schooling data and making it look "official".

Then I got this great opportunity to review My Home School Grades and my faith in being able to handle high school transcripts greatly increased. First and foremost, this program is so simple to use! You can have all your children entered into the site and ready to begin tracking in a matter of minutes. There are even tutorial videos on the main page of the site which easily walk you through step by step - though I don't know if you will need them, this site is so user friendly.

Several curriculum packages {Apologia, IEW, ALEKS, and Rosetta Stone - to name a few} have already been linked with My Home School Grades which makes it super easy to enter lessons. And, if you have a favorite curriculum they are not currently linked with, you can request yours to be added.

The program is as easy as just entering your child's courses, grades, and activities and then printing a transcript. If you are entering grades at the end of the year you can just enter a final grade rather than every lesson.

You can give it a try yourself for two weeks absolutely free! My Home School Grades does not even require a credit card for your 2 week trial. If at the end you love it as much as I do, you can purchase a LIFETIME membership for just $49.99. With it being the end of the school year and here in Georgia time to write those fun end of the year reports, this is a great time to give this program a try.
 

Hymn Sing {2013}

Hard to believe but, this is it ... we are wrapping up our 2012 - 2013 school year. I know being completely wrapped up in our adoption over the last few months contributed to the last five months seeming like a blur. Between keeping up with our school work, extra-curricular activities, and all the paperwork and appointments that our adoption brought with it - I am kind of surprised I still have any brain cells left.
 

We are enjoying all the fun that the end-of-year activities bring with them ... last Wednesday night was the kids' Hymn Sing. Devin, Lexi, and Ava Mae all received their Hymn Memory Awards this year. So proud of them!

For Devin it was a special night because, as a 5th grader he was graduating from Children's Choir. I have to admit it was a little bittersweet. Devin's Hymn Memory Award was a special Hymnal with his name engraved on the cover.

Devin pictured with the AMEN Choir Director, Ms. Pamela. She is the most amazing choir director ever!!

Ooka Island {A Mosaic Review}

I was asked to review a software application called Ooka Island Adventure that helps children ages 3 - 7 learn to read. Though, my youngest is 8 years old - she is always "game" for a fun learning computer application. Ooka Island Adventure ensures skill mastery in five areas of of reading instruction - phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. It is all based in a fun learning environment meant to adapt to your child's strengths and weaknesses.

So, even though Ava Mae was at the top of the recommended age, she loved the various areas of Ooka Island and couldn't wait to have me write this review. In Ava Mae's words "the books were really fun - I enjoyed that I got to read them! I liked the Seashell Sentences and sailing along on Jet Skis and saying the right phonic sound. I also liked I got to create my own hero at the beginning of the game - I even picked her hairstyle. My mom didn't have to help me sign into the game - I would just pick my character and start back where I left off. I really liked earning stickers and I think kids younger than me will love it."

I liked Ooka Island Adventure as I feel it is one teaching tool that has some great science behind it. Here is a little info on their Learning Flow Cycle - 

What is the Learning Flow Cycle?

There are three distinct parts to the learning flow cycle in the Ooka Island Learn-to-Read System. This unique learning flow is what makes Ooka Island so engaging for young learners and keeps them eager to play and learn on Ooka Island.

1. Guided Play – focuses on phonological / phonic development through skill-building instructional activities.
2. e-Reader – focuses on concept of word, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension through the Ooka Island Books Series (85 leveled and sequenced books in total)
3. Free Play – allows children to play activities that reinforce what they have learned, to reread books from the Popcorn Library, or to do just-for-fun activities.

*Helpful Hint – Children can exit out of Ooka Island at anytime and their progress and spot in the program is saved for the next time they log in.

 
Many of the computer based phonics programs we have tried out in the past focus on one area of the learning to read process - Ooka Island Adventure covers it all and can have your child reading within 8 hours of beginning the program. I also felt the reporting end of Ooka Island allows parents to keep track of where their child is succeeding or an area they may need extra focus.

The only area we had issue with was technical in nature. My childrens' laptop would not run the program without throwing us out. I contacted Customer Service and they were awesome both in their response time but, also in quickly finding a fix and emailing me a patch to download and install on the computer. It did help, though we have continued to have spells where it would run slow or kick us out after playing for awhile. 

Ooka Island Adventure pricing begins at just $12.95 a month for one student or $19.95 for up to four students. And, I have been given a special coupon code for 30% off  - good through June 1st.

I think this would be a great summer learning activity for your per-schooler through 1st grader!
 

Last Day of Timothy {2013}

Last Day of Timothy ... I had two fun classes I taught this semester. I was so sad to see these classes end. A few of the kids will move on to new schools but, I am hoping to see many of these precious students back this fall.

Our last class together in Loom Knitting ... we finished up our service projects.

We ended up with sixteen hats total to be donated to a charity that distributes them to hospitals to be used in the NeoNatal unit.

Our last class in "Little House in the Big Woods" was picnic day ... some of the kids even came dressed in period clothing. We enjoyed snacks outside in the beautiful weather and playing games using only our imagination.

I don't know where the time went to this semester ... it seems like a blinked and it was over. Maybe being so busy with an adoption had something to do with it. Loved all my sweet notes and gifts from these precious kids on our last day together!

Spanish For You {A Mosaic Review}

My children love learning foreign languages - we have been working on conversational Gaelic, Russian, and Latvian {the latter two due to our adoption this summer and spending a month in Latvia}. Spanish is something the kids have been learning for years - I remember being somewhere when Ava Mae was just four and she started speaking Spanish to a woman and her little girl. The mom was thrilled to engage her in some phrases.

We had the opportunity to review Spanish For You! in our homeschool over the last few weeks. Having tried several different curriculums for Spanish - even the expensive go to software for all foreign languages, I feel like an expert in Spanish curriculum. So far, this has been the most child friendly curriculum we have used. In fact, the whole time I was working with the curriculum I kept thinking this would be a wonderful package to use at a hybrid school or co-op.

Spanish For You! is a theme based curriculum. We received the Fiestas package {also available - Seasons or Travel}. So while we were learning Spanish we were also learning about holidays, special occasions, and party themes. For a younger child {younger than 3rd grade} I could see putting together a fun lapbook with this curriculum. The curriculum in our package included a lesson book, downloads of student materials in pdf format {worksheets, flashcards, etc.}, mp3 downloads of the audio files, and a Lesson Guide.

Having never scored well in enunciation during Spanish class myself - I love the wonderful audio files in Spanish. No guessing how to pronounce a word or phrase.

The lesson guide is easy to follow and has short lessons for 4 days a week.  There are 30 weeks of lessons for grades 3 - 4 and 24 weeks for grades 5 - 8. With our mix of ages we chose to just follow the 3rd - 4th grade level and that worked really well for us. We made flashcards, vocabulary cards, played games, and my older two did worksheets.

The only drawbacks I found for the program is that it is not "pull it out of the box ready to go". Sometimes I really need that type of curriculum. There was a little bit of needing to figure out how to use everything that came with the program. Spanish For You! does easily explain on their site how to use everything - it is just a matter of sitting down and going over it. I am also not always a fan of curriculum that you need to print lots of materials out for - though it is not a curriculum where you have to print everything at once - you can choose to print things as you need them.

Spanish For You! was created by Debbie Annett.She has taught Spanish for grades kindergarten through high school for 14 years.  Debbie has also has taught Spanish enrichment classes for grades 1 through 8, and all levels of high school classes for homeschool students. Debbie Annett is an Illinois State Certified Teacher with a bachelor's degree in Spanish from the University of Illinois and a master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Northern Illinois University.  Debbie even studied in Seville, Spain.

Spanish for You! is a very affordable curriculum! For $64.95 you receive all materials needed to teach grades 3 - 8. You can also choose to just purchase one level, which costs just $39.95. Teacher lesson plans are available for $14.95 for Grades 3 - 4 and just $12.95 for Grades 5 - 6 or 7 - 8.
I feel that Spanish for You! is a great curriculum for a family looking for something affordable that spans a wide range of ages and learning styles.