I hate trying to think of titles. That is my title.

     Seriously, I really think the worst part of this whole blogging business is having to think up some title to go along with my post.  I may boycott it.  Who knows?

     So, where was I last time?  Oh yes, saying that I was going to try to do this weekly.  Well, TRY is the operative word there, so...there you go.

     Last week we went to the rodeo y'all!  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the rodeo.  Especially the bull riding.  It's my favorite part.  We didn't make it to the pro rodeo this year, but the one we saw was still pretty good.  The school field trips are to the youth rodeo portion of the American Royal.  We chose to go on the day they had the high school kids, hoping it would be more like the "real" rodeo.  ;)  We also went to the World of Agriculture, which was alright, but the rodeo was definitely our favorite part.  Some of the World of Ag stuff was just not as fun for our age of kids.  The oldest kids in our group are 12...they don't care to see a presentation on veterinary college quite yet.  It was a fun day though.

     We also had art with our homeschool group, and we made tie dye t-shirts to wear when we do group outings.  So much fun!  The kids love their shirts.  This Friday is PE, and I'm the teacher, so we'll see if I survive that!

     One thing that has particularly stressed me in the past week and a half is the number of things we have going outside our home.

      Every Monday through November 12, Motormouth has a prep class for the Geo Bee.  It's 30 minutes away from home, and it's two hours long, from 9:30am-11:30am.  So, IF we go straight there and straight back with absolutely no chatting with the teacher, etc., we have a minimum of 3 hours outside the house.  I don't drive back home while he's in class because it just takes too much fuel in my gas hog of a SUV.  My mom is also taking him to the class sometimes, which does help with me being able to accomplish more of the Tweebs schooling while Motormouth is at class, but he still has a lot to do when he gets home.  That gets crazy.

     Let's move on to Tuesday.  Every other Tuesday the kids have a 3 hour nature class at my cousin's house, which is about 20 minutes away.  Every Tuesday evening the boys have scouts.  One Tuesday a month, Thing 1 and I have scouts.  One Tuesday a month I have a service unit meeting for scouts.

     Wednesday is usually allergy shots, schoolwork and Bible class in the evening (where I teach Motormouth's Bible class).

     Thursday, THANKFULLY, is usually free.  I say usually....there are random doctor's appointments thrown in there.

     Friday is Art/PE day.  Every other week it's here, and the other weeks, it's at my friend's home, 30 minutes away.  It usually takes a couple of hours.

     Oh, and sometime Monday-Friday we have to find time for schooling and cleaning.  Unfortunately, this all led to a near nervous breakdown yesterday.  The house was is a disaster, we were behind on our school schedule, and there was never a moment of quiet in my head.  My friends, I thought I was going to lose it.  It was one of those nights where, before bed, you're kissing your kids goodnight, and also apologizing for turning into this:

Momma needs a time out.

     But, this too shall pass.  I will look back and wonder where all the time went, and how my kids turned into adults in a matter of minutes.  I breathe.....I pray.....and I ask God to help me remember how blessed I am, even when I'm feeling like I can't get through the next minute.

     I know that this wasn't a particularly funny post.  You know, I have quite a few close friends who tell me often how funny they think I am.  Then when I go to type a post, I think "wow, I am full of wit and I'm really going to show everyone!".  Then you get the above post.  Ugh.  I've decided it's one of two things.  Either I'm not a good writer, OR (and this is probably a lot of the reason) there are some things I can get away with telling my best friends that I don't particularly want embedded on the internets from here to eternity.  I tend to say things that really should probably never leave my brain.  Like when one of my children asks me a question that is ridiculous, or does something equally as ridiculous as the question, my response is usually "Are you on crack?".  In my defense, my kids ask some crazy questions.  

     So, as I wrap up my post for the day, let me leave you with some insight into Thing 1's brain:

        "I wish that you could take the seeds on top of the bun at Burger King, plant them, and grow cheeseburger trees."  Don't we all, sweetie.  Don't we all.

No, I didn't fall off of the face of the earth.....

     Wow.  It's been a LONG time since I've posted.  I think we've all figured out by now that my attention span is roughly that of a 3 year old.  I'm really going to try to stick with it this time....at least a post a week or something.  That said, it may be March before you hear from me again....who knows?  At least I keep ya guessing.  I do love this new little feature that shows your stats though.  I honestly thought my page was NEVER looked at.  But I've had 1,842 views!  Woo hoo!  Maybe I will write more often!

     So, what has been happening in our crazy house since May?  Let's see....
         
          1. Motormouth attended his very first year of Bible camp and LOVED EVERY MINUTE!  It was hard for this momma....between you and I....I cried for a good half hour after we left camp.  He had never been away from us like that before!  He was gone from Sunday afternoon through Friday afternoon.  It was such a wonderful experience for him.  He made so many new friends.  Most importantly, he learned more about our great and awesome God.  He even led a cabin devo!  I was so happy to hear that, and he loved doing it.  He's going to be a great Christian man someday.  :)  He also attended Webelos camp with his dad.
        
          2.  We took a family trip to Pasadena, TX for the lectures at Southside Church of Christ.  It was absolutely fabulous seeing all our friends there, and the lessons preached were great.  We drove to Galveston to visit a friend there, and the kids had a great time playing at the beach.  We also visited NASA...the kids loved that!  I will have to upload my pictures soon.  I think their favorite thing we did was the Kemah boardwalk....it was a nice, relaxed day.  We were sad to leave our friends when it was time to go.  But we already have plans to go next year!

          3.  Thing 1 and I went on our first Girl Scout campout.  It was a really fun day....super hot though!  By the end of the day, when it was bedtime, she realized she wouldn't have a night light....uh oh.  So, we ended up coming home and sleeping here, but it was still a great experience.  6 years old is kind of young for an overnight, and with her horrible allergies, she probably would have woken up with her eyes swollen shut.

    
      Thing 2 was very sad that he wasn't able to attend any campouts this summer, because he wasn't old enough for scouts yet.  Having a twin sister is kind of hard when Girl Scouts start a year younger than Cub Scouts.  It will be different next summer though, because he is now a Tiger cub!  He's loving it, and his daddy is his den leader, so that makes him happy. 

     We're on our third week of school now, and so far everything is going smoothly.  We are using Sonlight curriculum again....Core F.  It's the Eastern Hemisphere, and so far, so good.  Motormouth has loved studying about China.  The Tweebs are using Abeka this year, because we have it from when Motormouth was their age.  They'll start Sonlight next year.  They always do our read alouds with us though, and history and science.  So we just kind of mix it all together. 

     One big change for us this year was switching from Sonlight science to Apologia.  Motormouth loves Sonlight, but he was just wanting a change of pace in science; something more hands on.  Apologia has been a perfect fit for us so far!  We're using Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology.  The Tweebs are also doing that along with their older brother.  They're all notebooking, which has been really cool addtion to what we've been doing.  Having all the different types of activites within one lesson has really helped them to retain what they've learned.  The Tweebs can even tell you the parts of a cell and what they do! 

     Motormouth is studying for the National Geographic Bee.  He's really excited for the experience, and will learn SO much. 

     Well, tomorrow we are going to the American Royal rodeo with our homeschool group, so I had better wrap this up.  I'll try to be back soon with some funny stories, and to update what's going on in our little family. 

Goodnight! 

My review of Time 4 Learning

About a month ago, I agreed to give a candid review of Time 4 Learning in exchange for a month free trial.  That trial ends tomorrow, so I thought I would go ahead and give my review! 

First of all, just as a reminder, the Tweebs are in Kindergarten, and Motormouth is in 4th grade.  So those are the grade levels we used.  I'll start with Kindergarten, and then move on to the 4th grade stuff.

The Tweebs were really excited to try this out, and in the beginning they thought it was really fun.  I like the way it's set up, to where the parent chooses how long the child has to spend on a lesson before they're allowed to access the "playground" part of the site.  So they actually have to do their lessons before they can do anything else.  You can also go in at any time and choose to change the grade level.  This is something I REALLY wish I would have done with the Tweebs from the beginning.  Alas, I didn't get it done until yesterday.  :(  The Tweebs are pretty much right on level for their age....not behind, but not really ahead either.  So I was afraid to move them to the 1st grade lessons.  I really wish I had, and I'll tell you why.  When you go into a lesson (in Kindergarten you have the choice of Language Arts, Math and Science) it explains the instructions.  Then it shows an example of how you choose your answer and submit it.  It talks fairly slow, to make sure they don't miss anything.  Which I like, for the first question, so they can really understand it.  The thing I didn't like, and they didn't either (especially Thing 2, who has attention and focus problems, so he is very impatient) was that every time you go to the next page, it repeats the instructions AGAIN, very slowly.  If your kids are like mine, where they are pretty proficient in video game and computer use, they don't need the instructions over and over, and just want the voice to be quiet so they can choose their answer and move to the next page!  I was afraid to skip to the 1st grade though, thinking they would miss something.  I wish I had, because the 1st grade lessons are more on par with what they are learning.  Thing 2 did a little of it this morning, and he liked it much better, as it had the short vowel words and such, where the Kindergarten, unless I'm just missing something, didn't get to that.  The math they enjoyed a little more, because it was things like patterns, matching and such, but once again, the slowness of it because of repeated instructions really annoyed them.  They also enjoyed the science, and would have liked it better if it was faster paced.  So, overall, my advice would be to really check out the different grade levels, and don't just assume that if your child is a certain grade, that is the level they need to use.  They will get much more out of it if they aren't getting frustrated.

Motormouth used the 4th grade lessons.  He LOVED it.  I liked the way it was laid out....on each concept it would have a few pages of lesson, and then move up a little to the next step.  After a few of those steps, there would be a quiz.  You can do math, science, social studies, language arts, and language arts extensions.  The extensions are things like grammar and spelling.  That is what I had him use the majority of the time, because that is the area he needs the most work in, so it's what I needed to supplement.  He also used the science, just for some added fun.  I really liked that the spelling lessons included alphabetizing.  He HATES alphabetizing, but he really, really needs to work on it, so this momma loved it! 

Overall, I really did like Time 4 Learning, and would recommend it.  I may use it next year when we start up school again.  I just would advise you to really check out the activities for your child's grade level to make sure that they're what you're needing.

Have a great day!

Time 4 Learning Disclosure

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 homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

My INFORMAL Abeka 5 year old Kindergarten review

     Okay, let me stress to you that this in an INFORMAL review.  I'm getting nothing from Abeka by doing this, it's purely for informational purposes so that maybe some mom who is where I was 5 years ago, desperately trying to figure out what is going to work for her child, might get some insight.  I will give what I think are the pros and cons of this curriculum, but just as a disclaimer: your child and my children may be very different.  What works for me and my family may not work for you and your family, and vice versa.  So, here we go.....

     First of all, here is a link directly to the Abeka page that shows the different books I used for 5 year old kindergarten.  I used Abeka's K5 Manuscript kit for Motormouth and am currently using it for the Tweebs.  I used the child and parent K5 manuscript kit, Social Studies K, Readiness Skills K, and Art Projects K for Motormouth.  I only used the child and parent K5 Manuscript kit and the Social Studies K with the Tweebs.

      Abeka K5 Letters and Sounds has worked well for all three of my kids.  It's pretty straightforward, and has lots of colorful workbook pages, which my kids like.  They think plain old black and white pages are boring.  Sometimes the pictures can be a little distracting, especially for Thing 2, but he's distracted by a speck of dust floating past his face, so I wouldn't base your opinion on that!  Like I said, they take a very straightforward approach to phonics.  You start the year by learning each individual letter and letter sound (you learn the short vowels and consonants first, then they bring in the long vowels) with worksheets and flashcards.  Your standard "A says a as in Apple" stuff.  They learn a clue word and sentence for each letter, which my kids liked.  I know that some children have a hard time understanding that vowels have "long" and "short" sounds, considering you don't usually use those terms to describe a sound.  If you think that will be a problem for your child, I would suggest checking out Scaredy Cat Reading System.  I have not personally used it, but a close friend, who had previously tried teaching her kids to read with Abeka, said it worked much better for her kids.  I have three very different types of learners, and Abeka has worked well for all three when it came to teaching basic phonics.  But that doesn't mean it works for everyone.  After you learn basic letter sounds, you will then build on that to make sound blends, short vowel words, and then will progress to bigger words with more than one vowel.  We're at the end of our kindergarten year with the Tweebs, and they are learning the different "special sounds" that words make.  (Example: O says it's long sound when it's the only vowel at the end of a short word)  About halfway (or somewhere there abouts) through the year, your child will start reading practice.  If you purchase the kit, you get all the readers to go along with the curriculum.  The kids really enjoy them, because they have their own little "books" (they're pretty much just a few papers stapled together) that they can put their name on.  For added fun and a sense of accomplishment, I would stick a sticker on the front next to their name once they completed a book.  By the end of the year they will be reading simple books, recognizing and writing all their letters, and will know the proper way to write a sentence (capital letters, all sentences have a period, question mark, etc.).  I think that about covers it.  I kind of over simplifed what they learn, but I'm not going to list every rule they learn for reading, etc. here.  Feel free to comment with any questions if I left something important out that you would like to know!  All in all, I really don't have any complaints about Abeka's K5 Phonics/Reading program.  It's worked great for our family.

     Numbers Skills K is the K5 math with Abeka.  There is a Numbers Skills K workbook, and a Numbers writing tablet to practice writing numbers.  Like the Letters and Sounds book, it is colorful and fun to look at.  They start off learning to recognize patterns, alike/different, counting, and writing each number from 1-10.  Once they've gotten 1-10, you move on to the other "number families"...the teen family, twenty family, thirty family, and so on.  By the end of the year they will have learned how to recognize, count and write numbers 1-100, how to tell time by the hour, half hour and quarter hour, colors, shapes, basic addition and subtraction, and the basics of money (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters..).  I think that about covers it.  We liked how it taught adding and subtracting by showing pictures of objects to count.  We also added in our own manipulatives, because who doesn't like playing with blocks??  Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with their kindergarten math curriculum.  Thing 2 HATES the numbers writing, along with the handwriting, because he gets bored.  But that's nothing wrong with the curriculum.  He just doesn't have a long attention span, and doesn't focus well.  But he still has to learn how to write, so we just try to break it down into short sessions so that he doesn't get too frustrated.

Oh!  One thing I forgot to mention about the phonics and math.  There are sporadic "tests" throughout the books that are just reviews of what they've been learning.  I don't stress too much about those.  They take them, but I try to praise them no matter what the grade is, because I don't want to foster a sense of competition and being disappointed in one's self, especially at that young of an age.  In our state, the compulsory attendance age is 7-16.  So when they are 5 and 6 years old, I don't track "grades" persay.  I just watch to see what they miss on those periodic assesments so that we know what we're still needing some work on.  There are also reading tests that you can keep track of.  I did those with Motormouth, because he took to reading right off the bat, and has a very high reading level.  He liked to get a grade, because he thought it was fun to show off his "report card" to his dad.  With the Tweebs I have not done graded reading tests.  They're learning to read at a different pace than their brother, which is just fine.  All kids are different.  I've found with them though, that if they feel pressured by "testing" them on their reading, it just causes unneccessary stress, and actually causes them to trip up more.  I want to foster a lifetime love of reading and learning, and if they are constantly feeling like they're not good enough, they will want to give up.  So I just give lots of positive reinforcement, and we practice, practice, practice!  Just make sure that you check out whatever the homeschool laws are in your particular state though, because every state is different.  Some require much more record keeping, and some are even more lax about it than Missouri.  If you don't know the homeschool laws for your state, visit http://www.hslda.org/ for homeschool laws and other great info. 

     The thing that all three of my kids would list as their least favorite subject?  Writing.  Oh how they despise writing.  I chose Writing with Phonics Manuscript.  Abeka does give you the choice to start kindergarten with cursive, but I wanted my kids to learn how to print first.  I know that, as an adult, I tend to print more often than not, so I want to make sure they know how to form their letters properly in print first.  We moved on to cursive in second grade.  But do whatever feels right for your family.  Abeka's writing curriculum corresponds with what the kids are learning in the Phonics curriculum.  The letter they're learning the sound of at the time is also the letter they're learning to write.  The Writing with Phonics book is colorful just like all the other Abeka workbooks.  I don't have a ton to say about the writing, to be totally honest, but that's not saying it's a bad curriculum.  I actually have used Handwriting without Tears in 2nd grade for my oldest, and didn't care for it as much.  The way that Abeka teaches how to form your letters is the way I want my kids to learn it.  Some of the HWOT letters were formed differently, which then tripped up my oldest when it all changed in 2nd grade.  But that's for another review.  I guess what all this rambling means is that, between the two handwriting curriculums I've used with my kids, I prefer Abeka's.  Either way, all three of my kids pretty much despise writing and think it's totally boring and repetitive.  So, once again, I just try to keep the increments of time small when we work on it, so that there is as little frustration as possible. 

     In all of Abeka kindergarten's "core" subjects, they take a spiraling approach.  They take what you've already learned, review it, and then add a little more to the lesson to build on it.  Especially for kindergarten, I really like that about it.  It got frustrating for my oldest in first grade, which I will address in my review on Abeka 1st grade curriculum.  He has always caught on to things rather quick though, so too much repetitiveness annoys him.  It has worked very well for my younger two. 

     I've also used the Art Projects K and the Social Studies K.  They are both nicely put together just like the rest of Abeka's workbooks, I just really didn't use them that much.  It was all stuff that I could put together on my own without purchasing a workbook.  All of the art projects could pretty much be done with crayons, scissors and glue.  That's not bad, I just didn't want to spend the money a second time to get something I could do pretty easy.  But if you are someone who is short on time or creativity, and would rather just have it there to tear out and do, then you might really like it.  The Social Studies K focuses a lot on community and community helpers.....teaching the kids about their neighborhood, policemen, firemen, librarians, etc.  Once again, not a bad book, but it's just stuff I really can handle pretty easy with some free printables online. 

     So, you might be wondering.....do I not have ANYTHING I didn't like about Abeka?  The one thing that I don't just love is that Abeka seems to be Christian school curriculum that can also be used for homeschooling.  Which means, sometimes, (more so in the 1st grade than the K curriculum) there is "busy work" for the kids, so that the teacher can be working with other students while it's being completed.  Considering I only have 3 children at home with me, and one of them is basically self taught, I don't need the busy work.  But, if we get to something that seems to be repetitive just for the sake of giving the teacher time with other students, and I don't feel that we need it, we just skip over it.  But it definitely wouldn't keep me from recommending Abeka kindergarten curriculum to anyone looking.

     That is my ridiculously rambling review of Abeka K5 curriculum.  Hopefully in future reviews I will be able to sum things up a little better, and not write an entire encycopedia on why or why not I would recommend something!  Overall, Abeka K5 has really worked for our family, and the kids have done well with it and liked it.  Once again, if there are questions you have that I left unanswered, I would be more than happy to answer them to the best of my ability if you leave a comment below. 

Until next time! 

Trying some new things....curriculum reviews, book reviews, etc.

Okay, I'm making a concious effort to blog more!  I figured a good way to "feel accountable" was to start posting some reviews on books/curriculums I've tried with my kids. 

My first post, which I hope to get done today, will be on the Abeka curriculum we've used.  I used Abeka for K-1 with Motormouth, and used it this year for K with the Tweebs.  I'm kind of up in the air about using it for 1st with the Tweebs.  More on that in my Abeka review.

I will also be posting a series of reviews on the curriculum I've used with Motormouth for 2-4th grades.  We began using Sonlight in 2nd grade, and have used it every since.

I will *hopefully* be posting a review of www.time4learning.com.  I'm kind of "shopping around" to see if I'm going to stick with Abeka for the Tweebs in 1st grade, or switch to something else.  So I applied to get a month of a subscription on the Time 4 Learning website to try out with the Tweebs, and then I will post a review of what I think.  Thing 2 is a very visual learner, and gets bored very easily, so I thought it might be worth a shot to try online curriculum. 

Since we have been using Sonlight, we read A LOT of books.  Most of which are very good.  I'll probably review the books we've read this year first, since they're fresh in my mind.  But there are also a few real standouts from previous years, that Motormouth still talks about. 

So, that said, look for my informal review of Abeka's Kindergarten and 1st grade curriculum later today.  I hope maybe I can give some good info for anyone looking into curriculum for the next school year!

See you soon. 

Trying to get back into the swing of things, and a new look

Okay, first things first....bear with me on how the blog looks right now.  I'm not so good at this template designer thing, and am having trouble getting "the look" just right.  So if you have trouble reading the font the color it is right now, I promise, it will change! 

Second, I really, really am going to try to stick with this blog thing again.  I must have some mild adult ADHD or something, because I have some serious issues staying on task.  I tend to switch subjects mid-sentence.  Ugh....try teaching a couple of kindergartners how to read when you tend to be like that.  Especially when one of said kindergartners has the same attention span you do.....roughly 4 seconds.  But, I guess the only way to get better at it is to keep trying, right??? 

So, here we go again.  Assuming that there are actually people out there, waiting with bated breath to hear what ramblings come out of my chaotic and frequently unstable mind....