Time4learning was this my answer from above?

This is not my full review not even close, but I did want to give you all an update on how this Curriculum review is going. Well I will have to say first off I am thinking that me being asked to do this review is a God thing completely! I have been so scared of how I am going to do school when the baby comes and I may have just had it handed to me. I have been praying about this and searching for the perfect thing. Well I may have just found it. Praise the Lord!! We will have to add to it here and there with the library and things like that. Which I would have to with any thing we would be doing with any other thing also.

As you know that Vinny is already using a computer based school this year called Switched on School house. He likes it and has asked to do it for next year. Well after he has done this program for a couple of days he is not sure which one he wants to do. We literally roll on the floor laughing while doing some of these lessons. I have sat thru a few with him just to see what it is all about and I have to say they get their point across right along with adding some very funny things. Language arts is the funniest so far. All of the subjects have challenged him quite a bit which is awesome!

With Will he is loving it also. The stories they use are very engaging and informative. He yells to me “MOM! You have to come see this!”

Croix is a little different. He has a mixture of grade levels and not sure where he actually fits in. Also he does not enjoy the Kindergarten stuff because it is to “baby” as he says for him. I am thinking that is my fault because we do not do those funny silly songs to learn different things like most preschool and kindergartens do so I think he thinks they are silly. Sadly they do not have a lot of lessons for this age for Science so we finished all of the lessons in the first few days. What I do with him is I give hime free range of the site and he does as much as he wants and he loves science that he did all of it so fast.

Well there is a quick look at how this review is going. But most of all I had to Praise God for giving me this chance because I would of not even did the trial offer before if it was not given to me free. I love the reminders that God will always provide if we just ask. I asked and finally gave it over to Him and He delivered.

So until next time when you see the complete review.

God Bless,

Jen

Time4Learning Review

"I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschoolcurriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your owncurriculum review for Time4Learning."

My thoughts on next years curriculum 2013-2014

Okay I have been doing a lot of research and if you know me personally you know I am a research the heck out of something before I decide on it. Especially when it comes to homeschooling my children. The reason why I am already thinking about next year it is just the time of year I do this and buy things I will need for next school year that way it is spread out for a longer period of time instead of just buying all at once. So I have a few options I am thinking about right now. I am not sure the exact curriculum I will be using but I here are what I have narrowed them down too.

Option #1

History- Will and VInny would be doing this together. Then Croix sitting in and taking in as much as he can at this age.

This is from Creek Edge Press. I have been wanting to do Ancient World history for the up coming school year. Then do a 4 or 5 year cycle starting with Ancient then moving to medieval and so on up to present day. This looks like a very neat way to do history. We would be using task cards. With these task card you use one pre week and do the list of things on them.

Science – This will be for all 3 again just like above.

So here again is from the same company and the same kind of style using the task cards.

Math – .

Croix will be finishing up his book he has started. There are actually 2 books to the set he is working on. He is is doing a first grade level book and about half way thru the first set

 

 

 

 

Will- This is wills book that I found at an antique store. I love these old books that I find here. This one was actually printed in 1934 and was owned by a district school here in Nebraska. I love thinking about how many kids learned using this book. I also love these older arithmetic books because they teach how to actually understand math not just do this because this is the formula. This book is actually for 3rd – 4th grades. But the level of this book is higher then most of the grade level books out there you buy now.

 

  Vinny- I have this book downloaded on to my computer and will be printing it off to use. As I told you before I love the older books. I still don’t know why schools went away from them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Arts-

Croix- will be doing copy work and learning phonics using the McGuffey readers.

Will – Is going to start probably half way thru this book. Called New Language exercises. He will also be working thru the next McGuffey reader.

Vinny- Pinneo’s Primary Grammar THis book he will start somewhere in the middle also.

Option #2

Croix-

This is from Rod and staff. I really like this site.

Will-

Vinny-

 

Option #3

History, Science-

Creation to the Greeks from My Fathers World for all 3 of the boys. I have been wanting to try this curriculum for quite some time now.

 

Math-

Croix-

Will-

Vinny-

Language Arts-

Will-

Vinny-

These 2 books are recommended by My fathers world.

These are my top 3 choices for the next year. I am kind of stuck with what to pick. I guess I could get my dear husbands input *smile*. Any ideas for you all what we should do? I am really wanting to find something affordable and that would not cause me extra stress because we will have a new baby in the house.

Update on Vinny ~ Switched On Schoolhouse

I just wanted to give a little update on Vinny’s schooling. We had started with a mixture of Robinson Curriculum and things ordered from Rod and Staff. It seemed to be going pretty good. We would have our good and bad days which is normal. Well part way thru this semester Vince had suggested we use Switched on Schoolhouse. He had seen this curriculum used by the Duggers’ (19 kids and counting) and he had looked it up a bit. I think he wanted to give Vinny a bit more independence and I think it was partly for me too so I would be able to just set up the program and then the program would assign the lessons to be done. I just need to go in and go thru his lessons and see where he is having problems and look at his grades and  so on.  Well this sounded good to begin with and Vinny was very excited about doing his school on the computer.

When he first started it, it was great then as time went on it is not so much fun. He gets headaches from reading on a computer screen and I don’t know what he is learning unless I go read the lesson first. He is doing well as far as grades goes but he did get a bit behind because he will head off to band practice after lunch and he is not always done by then and I will ask when he gets home if he got his work done. He will say yes most times and I will believe him because I trust him. Except for lately he was getting behind and I think he got a bit overwhelmed about how many lessons he was behind. See I look at what he does every few days but I will have to go back to looking daily to make sure he is doing it all. He spent his weekend getting caught up. I did feel kinda bad he had to do school all weekend but he has to learn to be responsible.

Another thing I do not like about Switched on Schoolhouse is that I don’t get to do the lesson with him. Well I guess I could but it is a bit more difficult using this program. I guess I just miss being the teacher and not the computer.

I am not sure if I will have him do this program again next year. He can if he learns more responsibility, and is able to not get behind like he has been. I do like the fact that it is a Christian based curriculum and does do a good job at learning all the facts keeping God in it the whole time. I may have him do some of the subjects.I think if we do let him do this program I will have him do Math using a different program for sure and maybe History.

All and all the program is a good one but just doesn’t fit my style of learning that I want my family to follow. But that is the joy of homeschool you can choose the style you homeschool in. This program is just to “schooly” I know that’s not a real word but that’s what I want to get away from. Maybe next semester will change my mind.

God Bless,

Jen

A school day in the summer

Most of the homeschool families around here do not school during the summer. But we do because we like to take days off all year long. This way we get all of our school hours in even if we take of a Tuesday in February. Or a week off because everyone in the house has the tummy flu. I do not schedule the way some people do I make a schedule but do not put dates on it. I just add the dates when we do the assignment then I keep a daily journal of our school days so I can see progresses. Well I thought that I would share with you what we have been doing.

First off I want to share with you that the curriculum that we were going to use was not working for us. We have been trying to do it but it is not fitting our family. Everyone was in tears daily including me some days. Homeschooling is about learning not doing it a certain way. So since I spent my school budget for 2012- 2013 I could not buy anything else. Well until I sell the stuff I bought. Please don’t get me wrong the curriculum that we got was a great program but it just was not working for us. The best advice I have gotten from another homeschool mom was that if it is not working for you or your children change it. So we are going back to our eclectic style of school that we were doing before that worked for us but I changed for some crazy reason. *sigh*

If you have been reading a for a couple of years you know that we were using the Robinson Curriculum. We are going back to that and adding a different math which is actually from 1900 called Ray Arithmetic. You can find these free on Google books. Will is using the primary lessons Vinny is using intellectual arithmetic. Croix is working on memorizing additions facts. We are still using our McGuffey readers. I do have to suggest if you want to make it a lot easier on you if you use the McGuffey's or the Rays books buys Sherry’s helps. They are wonderful helps and not too pricy *smile*. One thing I did find out with Ray’s math is that America used to be way more advanced in school then our schools are now. I thought that it would be the other way around. We are also learning about Ancient times this year for history. Agani we are using another free book called, Ancient history told to children, and for science we are using The story book of science . The boy are enjoying these living books. Here are some pictures of a day this summer.

Will doing copy work from his McGuffey reader

 

Vinny doing some copy work also

Croix doing his Kindergarten curriculum from Rod and staff

Vinny working on his language arts I bought from an antique store. This is an awesome book!

Vinny and Croix playing War helping Croix with math. Kids learn so much when they can have fun.

Here is our History. We have are doing Notebooking this year with our History and Science. If you have not ever though of using this method it is awesome. Kids remember so much more about what they learned if you have them write, tell back in pictures, or essays they can go look back at their own notebook and remember so much. 

We were learning about ants and all the different things each ant does. This book is so detailed.

So this was a day for us a week or so ago. I just can not wait to get in the full swing of school and be back at it every day. I love the rhythm of our days when we have school daily.

  God Bless,

    Jen

Summer schedule

I know that most homeschoolers in my area take a summer break along with the public school kids but as I remember when my kiddos were in public school they spent most of there first few weeks of school re learning things from the year before. I myself do not like the idea of having to redo what we already went thru the year before. With that said we will not be doing a full days worth of work during the summer just a little. So here is what we will be doing this summer.

We first of all will be doing the summer reading program at the library that they off each summer.

Butterfinger

For math he will be doing half of a page a day in his workbook. I am not sure if I will have him do the top half then the bottom or odds on day and evens the next. I think it will depend on the page. We use Study time math for him. If you click on the picture below it will take you to it on Rod and Staff publications.

 

For reading he will read daily at least 30 minutes but 2 times a week he will read from his Pathway reader and answer questions to the story in his workbook.

Science once a week he will do this subject.

Social studies he will also do once a week.

So here is how the boys schedule will look for the week.

Monday- math, pathway readers

Tuesday- math pathway readers

Wednesday- math, Science, 30 mins reading

Thursday- math Social studies, 30 mins reading

Fridays – read 30 mins.

Tootsie Roll

He will have the same schedule as Butterfinger. But I will add pictures of what he is using and the pictures will link to the website its self.

 

If you noticed I have bought all of these book from one place. I do have to say I love Rod and Staff. Their shipping was so fast even though I pick the slowest cheapest shipping time. Also they as so nice. I am thinking we will be using this company for next school year. They also have such great prices too!

I almost forgot about Snickers. He is doing their Kindergarten program they don’t call it Kindergarten. They have 2 levels of preschool 3-4 and 4-5 years we went with the 4-5 some of it is very easy for him but that is ok we are just practicing doing school. Sitting in one place for a little bit and doing some school. We also do hands on things and some computer programs . Once he finishes his 4-5 curriculum he will start the 1st grade stuff. Well slowly I don’t want him to start to not like school yet I don’t want him to be bored.

This is a picture of what you get with the curriculum.He is having fun at it too. We are also learning to read too.

I hope your summers go great too!!

    God Bless

  Jen

A day with a Kindergartener……

My little man Snickers is  doing such an awesome job learning. I can’t believe that he was ready to start school and not just fun play time school things. It is just amazing that he is learning so well. The curriculum that I use for him is considered a Preschool program From Rod and Staff but I incorporate more to it like the 100 easy lessons to read and some computer programs. We also are using this because they di not have a official kindergarten book. But if you look through these books they are pretty much what kindergarten would be doing. Learning shapes, letters, numbers, about the world around them and God.  This book is part of the curriculum we are using. We read a bible story and then he colors a picture for a color book that goes with this book.

 

Didn’t he do a great job!

This is the the workbook from the curriculum that we are on right now. We use this more like a review and also working on motor skills and working on his handwriting. Along with this book we are also adding and subtracting.

He loves to cut and paste!

After we are done with his workbooks and his reading lesson he does some online learning. As of right now he is using 2 programs one I pay for the other we are doing a review for the company which you will see in a couple of days. The one that we pay for is ABC Mouse and he LOVES it! He has been using it since the beginning of this school year and he is still loving it. It is a lot of fun with rewards and yet learning. There are I believe 7 levels to it. He is on level 6 now which is 5-6 year old kindergarten. I believe that you can do this program for free but it is limited use so you can try it out and see if you would like it.

Don’t you just love his mowhauk??

This one just happens to be a puzzle.

     God has blessed our family so much. When we listen to God’s calling for us He blesses us in so many ways. I know that when I felt the calling to homeschool I was like Really??? Me??? Why I am not that smart?? But now I see why. The blessing that we have received are so worth any stress that I have during the day. Also know that my children are not being left behind in a class room setting is so wonderful. One of my children struggles but is coming along nicely. he is almost caught up to his grade level. When I pulled him out of school he could barely read or do math he was in 3rd grade and at a 1st grade reading level and today he is 10 and is reading at a 4th and 5th grade levels and just starting 5th grade level math!! I am so happy for him. He still struggles a little but he is almost caught completely up!. Also one of the most important things that they are learning everything using Gods word to back it up. Like in Science 5th grade we are learning what you would in public school but praises are given to God in every aspect of life!

       I hope you enjoyed watching what a day in kindergarten looks like for us. It is a very fun time to learn and teach is this age. It is amazing the leaps and bounds you see daily.

  God Bless,

   Jen

Science Experiment “Water Tower”

First off I have to say This little man loves this science book. It is from Rod and Staff We are loving this curriculum. We finished or other science and decided to start on our next years curriculum. So today He had to do his first experiment and I thought that I would let you all join in. Se we are working on water pressure and how it works. So we did our experiment using the idea of a water tower. Our tower was a 2 liter pop bottle. He set up his data sheet and was ready to start.

 

    So what the experiment did was you marked inches and poke a small hole in to in it and fill it up and as the water moves down you see if there is a difference as the water gets less, more or stays the same. So he marked it on the data sheet then answered some questions afterward. It is always a nice change to do something different every once in a while.

  God Bless,

    Jen