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Today was our 1st day of Summer homeschool.  Teddy was out for a week vacationing with his grandparents, so we took the week off, also.  Now that he is back, I started in on my Summer plans for learning.  First up:  Mad Dog Math.  This is a program for learning your Math facts.  We are working through the multiplication/division series, but an addition/subtraction series is also available.


I purchased the homeschool binder edition.  Also available is a homeschool computer program and then a School program- both binder and computer.  I kind of like paper and pens ;)

I set myself up for some angst when I first brought it home- and kept putting off opening it till I had a chunk of free time to sit and read through the instructions and time for photocopying the drills.   

Sheepish admission here...when I did pop it open (late at night during an asthma breathing machine episode for Demi..I figured, hey, I'm awake...!) I realized that no prep work/time/reading was needed.  I was happily disabused of that notion.  I didn't really need to make copies, either- the drills are intended to be worked with handy wipe- off protectors and a dry erase pen. :)

Today was our first day.  We spent the morning reviewing our 2 times tables, using the flashcards that came with the program and then I had the kids write them out a few times, and we chanted them.

Next came the timed drill.  Demi and Teddy made the 2 minute club, Amie had a bit of trouble, so she will be working with me tonight on them and then doing a slightly different 2 times drill tomorrow.

Tuesday, the kids will move on to the 2 division facts.


 A Full review coming soon after we have used the program a few weeks, promise!

*disclaimer: I purchased Mad Dog Math at a discount in exchange for my honest review here  -keeping it all so real and legal, blog friends ;)

Labels: curriculum, homeschool, Math

So much of what I do is pieced together.  I would love to be able to say that we've used such-n-such curriculum for so many years.  I'd love the safe feeling of having one curriculum to fulfill all our needs; one program to follow year after year-insuring no learning gaps.

I'd love to be that together.  Okay, I'd love to seem that together.  But I'm not. {obviously}

What I am, it seems, is eclectic.  And meandering.
And rambling. 

I was contemplating the other day on how my homeschool life seems to be one of making homeschool soup.  We use a bit of this, a bit of that,  the recipe this year might taste great, but next year I will change it up a bit.

We just started using Writing With Ease by Susan Wise Bauer for writing with the 3 Littles and for Josie.  This is week 2 and I'm loving it, still.  That 's a good sign, right?

I love the philosophy behind her method, I love that she is a college writing professor, beside homeschool mom- and that she obviously knows what she is writing about.  I love that the directions are in the front of the book, and I can tear out worksheets at the back.  -remember my worksheet lust?

A review will be forthcoming, after I've used it a few weeks, promise. :)

Here are a few other stand-outs in our years of making homeschool soup:

• Five in a Row.  -gentle.  If you are starting out with littles, I encourage you- do this, a smidgen of Math and that is all!

• Headsprout phonics -online!  Because I am too tired/bored to teach phonics. again. -and my boys won't sit still.

• Story of the World.  I keep coming back to this.  The activity book has worksheets! {lust}

• Growing with Grammar - I was a diagramming fool in Jr. High. Diagramming makes me happy and squishy inside. -nerd much??

• Math U See.  the lesson each week is on video.  Each week is predictable, we do a page a day and then a test. :)

• Abeka cursive handwriting

• Sonlight.  -this has made homeschooling my elders much simpler. I love the books.  The lack of worksheets brings me seriously down, tho.  -I tweak, I stir, it comes out good...

Labels: curriculum, homeschool, show and tell

Hun, I just spent $500 on books!

April's fools!

Hun, jk (just kidding)...not April's fool but that was sure fun

Mild-mannered homeschool moms have to get their kicks somehow...!

So, what do I do for fun after the adrenaline rush from clicking the 'buy now' button- wears off?

Labels: curriculum, homeschool, starting with Sonlight

We have been studying The Odyssey for the past few weeks. Tapestry of Grace had a book about Troy scheduled for the lower grammar students (my youngest 3 ) and a portion of Story of the World Vol. 1.
Josie and Meg were assigned first, Black Ships before Troy, and then The Wanderings of Odysseus. Meg so enjoyed these that she asked to read the original Odyssey, so I ordered the Norton Anthology scheduled in TOG for rhetoric students.

So, those were the assignments from TOG, but then I had to include this;
The Adventures of Odysseus by Barefoot books. It is a simplified, but poetic retelling of
The Odyssey for children.

and the artwork is wonderful, beautiful, inspiring, artistic...I could go on and on about this book.
(actually, I already did so, read my review *here)

..and then, I found this Wishbone episode, "Homer sweet Homer" at the library. Unfortunately, Netflix did not carry this one, but one of our library branches did.

The kids loved it. I have to say that the attention to detail in this show was pretty impressive, right down to the bed carved out of a massive tree. Raise your hand, who can tell me about the symbolism with the bed? Anyone, anyone?...Bueller?

The actors were really good, too.
Unfortunately, when we came upon the very stirring scene of Odysseus revealing who he is to his son, Telemachus-who he hasn't seen in like 19 years...

-having the big, strong actor playing Telemachus turn very emotionally towards Wishbone the dog- calling out, "Father!" ...was just too much for my young audience. They shouted with laughter.

And I had to pause it, because we had all lost our concentration, we were laughing so long and hard. And then I had to rewind and play it again. And we laughed some more. It was a vicious cycle... and then we had to replay it yet again, because it was such a good laugh...


Okay, and then I found this book for Demi, it is part of a graphic novel series. What young boy wouldn't gobble these up? (We own 3 of these, and the Beowulf was stellar!)
And then, someone stop me!...I also found Mary Pope Osborne's Tales from the Odyssey, which includes 6 unabridged books, an audio collection...

It's becoming glaringly clear why I cannot get through 1 week in TOG in one week, isn't it?

I can't resist adding on books. I love the hunt.

We are going to have to move on this week. Meg will have to finish The Odyssey on her own. This includes mom, too. I have to pre-read ahead of her...sobbing/Sabine women and all (quick, name that movie!..okay, wrong ancient civilization, but you know what I mean...)

Last parting thought,

Extra-curricular activities around here include building a better hen-trap. This one was supposed to be self-activating.

Labels: curriculum, homeschool

The Sonlight catalog proudly proclaims, "The way you wish you'd been taught. Guaranteed." I have to admit, when I browse through the listings of books in the catalog- I would have loved to be schooled this way. I am a book lover, and listed in the catalog, beside great history reads, I spy many favorites from my childhood.


This claim kept running through my mind as I weighed my options for homeschooling next year. While I have enjoyed the history program we are using-and my first aim in looking elsewhere was not a lack in the program, but a lack on my part in getting through the material at a respectable pace...I had to admit upon reflection, that my kids don't beg me to keep reading a history read aloud, and I don't have to lock up the books lest they devour them ahead of schedule. A big part of the lure of Sonlight for me, were the daydreams of children begging for one more chapter, begging to start school early, and having the dilemma of whether to put away the literature out of the kid's reach- because they would read them all ahead of schedule-or to just let them have at it.

The first week into our Sonlight language arts 2 adventure, I had one of 'those' moments..I could not find our reader for the day, "The beginner's Bible"...and I found it in Demi-Sky's bed, where he had taken it the night before to read.

The first day into our second week, I sat down to do some 'catch up' reading with Amie. She is able to read the book, but is tiring quickly. I let her quit the readings early, and so we were a few behind. She read out-loud for a respectable amount of time, and I bookmarked the page, ready to let her go. She begged to keep reading and finish the chapter. And then, she begged to keep reading and read 2 more chapters.

Demi is enjoying the extra, "intermediate" readers he is reading, along with the regular reader's schedule.

I think we are unto something.

Labels: curriculum, homeschool, starting with Sonlight

We finished up our first week using Sonlight's Language Arts 2 material...and I was in love with it on the first day. I wanted to wait till I actually made it through the week before sharing my thoughts here on the blawg.

Language Arts has been very light, and not a regular thing, since my 3 youngest students were not quite reading. We are getting close to the end of Headsprout phonics, so I felt it was time to bring in some LA. I puzzled over which LA program, and then realized the answer was probably Sonlight. Kind of an out of the box thing, to order the LA portion when I am not using the rest of the program, but hey- I live life on the edge...


Soo, Sunday night I pulled out my binder and looked to see what we would be doing on Monday with our new LA and *readers... :) (It's sort of weird the way I love new books and new programs..but hey, it could be shoes or bags...)

It was just the right sort of work and lightness, we had a copywork passage (taken from the reader assignment, sigh-I love when things are inter-woven!) and then a note suggesting I write a few compound words on index cards, explain what a compound word is, and then have the student(s) put them together. They even gave me a list of words. So I did it, because it was the small kind of project I can handle....and then I tucked the cards away in my binder pocket.

The kids had a ball, and it even became a competition to see who could make the most words. Teddy was in the lead right till the end (which made me very happy because he is our struggling learner and I love moments when he can shine), and then Amie swept in and won by one word.

These are the kind of activities I love to do, it reminded me of a Montessori- education way of doing things- I love to do things like this, but I do them very sporadically because I am 1) either feeling behind in everything, 2) very busy and just forget, or 3) I don't plan ahead.
It was wonderful having it scheduled for me.


The next day we had a portion from the reader to unscramble- short and sweet! And then the next day we had a lesson on descriptive words and answered some questions about an animal they would like to write about; a pre-writing lesson. *here are Teddy and Amie hard at work on their adjectives...

Friday was the big writing assignment day, they took their list of adjectives and wrote about the animal they were describing. *Here is Demi-Sky's on the left, his student activity page for the week is on the right.

I really like that we do a little bit of work everyday, so they don't get burnt- out.
The Regular Readers-2 are just right for Amie, she reads them fluently but tires quickly with it. Demi is zooming through them and begs for more- which is perfect, because I anticipated this and ordered him the Intermediate Readers-2 schedule/study guide to add, in addition to the regular readers. Teddy is floundering a bit. He has an auditory processing disorder-and has come a long way since being pulled from public school last year, he has been doing great with phonics type readers...but the reading for this program is from The Beginners Bible, and is not limited to an easy phonics list..and he is not able to read as many pages as are scheduled.

I waited, watched and worked with him this week..and decided to go ahead and order him the Sonlight Reader's schedule for core 1. I am going to keep him with the
Language Arts 2 portion..and just hold his hand with it- because I think he needs the stretching it will give him with writing. But, I thought about it a lot, and decided that we want to foster a love of reading for him, not frustration or defeat- so the reader's for core 1 will be at a level he can triumph with. I love the fact that Sonlight has so many different reading and Language Arts levels within the different cores, it makes it easy to move the kids up and down if needed, but still keep them in the same history year...which we will be doing next year. It's decided, we are doing Sonlight complete cores next year with all the kids.

I will share more with you on planning, what the schedules are like and such, as I go along and figure it all out.

This week was a really fun week for me, Language Arts wise.

Labels: curriculum, homeschool planning, starting with Sonlight

Things are not dull for long around here! Well first, homeschool news-wise: I went ahead and ordered the Core 2 Language Arts from Sonlight. I also ordered the regular readers and intermediate readers guides with it.

I am really excited, aside from the fact that I love new books, new programs and packages in the mail (I am a curricula junkie, I admit it) , I am so excited about the point my youngest 3 students are in their learning to read journey. We are a little more than 20 lessons away from completing the headsprout phonics program, which is supposed to land them at a second grade reading level. They are just getting to the point of being able to enjoy what they are reading. The Sonlight program has a whole bunch of readers that look like so much fun.

Will the Bridgett Jones- homeschool mom be able to actually stick with a program? Well, my track record this year has improved tremendously, so I think I have a chance this time around.
You can all watch my progress, trials and triumphs here on the little ole blog...maybe,
unless it gets real ugly, then all bets are off and I will happily announce my new find next year...

With Meg starting high school next year, I really feel the need to have some continuity in our homeschool journey. That, and I am working my way so slowly through the program I have, which has been a great program, but I think I need more direction and a tightly scheduled day to keep me moving.



Other news, we have the kids of dear friends staying with us this week...there are 3 of them. So, this means that during the week I have 8 kids.

Here is the gang at McDonalds. We have been skateboarding and to Disneyland this week...I think a cheap movie theater is next. The really, really great part?... I got to drop off the 5 oldest kids at D-land and leave!!
It's the small things in life, really.

Labels: curriculum, homeschool, homeschool planning

I've gone back to school, sort of..I call it "mom-school".
Here is my new study- RosettaStone French. I have been saying for many moons that I would like to study French again, and I have to thank Sky for finally getting me going with it. He studied a little Spanish with RosettaStone, and then decided he was interested in learning French with me.
Somehow, that makes all the difference.

I took 2 years of French in high school, so far the RosettaStone has been a refresher course for me.
Except
for the pronunciation part. Oh boy... I realize now that my French teachers let us get away with consistent, dreadful pronunciation. RosettaStone has brilliant units where you hear a pronounced word and then you have to speak into your headset and repeat it. It is very effective. I am learning quick to listen to the small change in pronoun or consonant ending to figure out a change in verb...instead of the dreadful "ment" we high-schoolers tacked onto the end of the verb. Which, I was surprised to learn...you don't hear in real French. Ahem.

I have to tell you all, the simple word "garcon" is kicking my arse. (pardon my uh, French) Every-time it comes up, I have to try like 15 times before I can say it passable. I am beginning to cringe when I see it come up. It's pretty humbling, since it was one of the first words I learned in high school. I thought about going across the street and asking our neighbor, the real French chef extraordinaire (...look, more French, I am soo talented!) to help me with that one, sorry, horrible word...but then I imagined facing him and trying to say that word correctly over and over for like 20 minutes, and I just couldn't put him or I through that...

All of this to say, that Mother Culture is always important, but I think doubly important when you are a homeschool mom. As teacher to our own children, we are apt to get lost in the job of homeschool mom, forgetting that we need to feed our souls, too. A new language, a new hobby, a challenging book- all are pursuits we should continually cultivate. -If not all, then pick at least one.

"I think it is a definite gain to the whole family when mother is able to take a little time to pursue her own interests,..."I have no time for these simple pleasures," is the mournful cry. Yes, there isn't time for all of them. Think seasonally. One interest per season, coupled with thirty minues of reading a day, may be all that is needed to keep up the Mouther Culture... Billy Graham said, "Mothers should cultivate their souls, that in turn they may cultivate the souls of their children."
-A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola, pg.350

Labels: Charlotte Mason, curriculum, mom school

Signs of the worsening economy are beginning to manifest themselves. This letter went out from Lampstand Press a few days ago, Lampstand Press publishes Tapestry of Grace Curriculum. I am a big fan of TOG, we are using it this year and I plan to keep using it throughout our homeschool adventure.

I am going to paste the letter here on the blawg, for anyone who did not get the letter (I did not receive it) and because it is next to impossible to find it on their website, so I cannot just link to it.

Sky and I had a serious discussion after I read the letter, and we decided to go ahead and pre-order Years 2 and 3 in print, because I like to use the printed version in my binders-and we don't really know when the Digital version will actually be released. I really feel bad for the company, and I am very grateful that they let the customers know what is going on..and I am grateful that they are planning to publish it in some format, so that homeschool families can still continue to use it.

Here you go;

Dear friends,

I'm sure that you, just like the rest of the nation, have read about the financial crises that began to unfold on Wall Street a few weeks ago. The prediction was that this devastation would trickle down to Americans across the country as capital assets began to lose their value, and mortgages were in jeopardy. Unfortunately, Lampstand Press is experiencing in real time what you are hearing in newscasts.

For some time we have known that we would need some additional investment to finish what we've started, and were very grateful to have had an investor who was willing to provide what we expected to need. Unfortunately, just as we were about to receive this vital investment, Wall Street's woes made it impossible for our investor to follow through, leaving us trying to another source of funds at a particularly bad time. Credit, investors, and capital have become impossible for us to find.

Things have looked rather bleak at Lampstand Press and we actually began making plans to shut down, even as we prayed for other options. Over the years we've received many calls and emails from people who tell us that Tapestry of Grace has borne fruit in the lives of their families and that homeschools have been revolutionized. After much prayer and counsel, we feel that our current experience is best expressed by these verses in John: Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." (John 15:1-2) We believe that God is pruning Tapestry, not cutting it off altogether.

If we are right, it means there has to be some way to keep providing you with this God-honoring homeschooling curriculum. Over the last month, we've seriously considered a long list of increasingly radical options, including moving our whole operation to an economically depressed area so that we could qualify for targeted investment money. We've put everything on the table, but God has not provided any outside source of financial supply as of today. After ruling out every other alternative, we've come to the conclusion that the only way to complete the Redesign project is make a fundamental change to the way we produce Tapestry year-plans.

The problem we face is very simple--we don't currently have the kind of capital we need to continue business as usual. Our business has always been seasonal, and thus it involves carrying inventory and fronting printing costs through the winter, when, of course, very few people are buying curriculum. Also, we have struggled to keep up with the up-front costs of printing. Each time our sales go up (and they keep going up) we sell out of our existing supply of Tapestry, which means we have to find the funds to reprint thousands more copies in order to supply even one more order. We are ready, willing, and able to keep redesigning Tapestry, but we just don't have the capital we need to print thousands of volumes a year in advance and warehouse them until the orders come in, nor to keep open a bookstore that stocks every resource book that we recommend.

The solution to the problem that seems to have emerged is equally simplestop delivering Tapestry through printing presses. This letter is to inform you that we are exploring a shift from printing year-plans to electronic delivery. If it succeeds, with God's help, we would be able to redesign Tapestry of Grace Year 4 on the same basic schedule as the previous three years. The only difference is that it will only be available digitally. While for some people this may at first seem like a real inconvenience and an added cost because you anticipate printing the entire year-plan at home, please consider that printing really unnecessary in order to use all of the content that you are used to receiving in print. The typical user mom reads Tapestry background materials from the printed manual, and then prints out only the worksheets or maps that she needs for her specific students from the Loom disc. Delivering Tapestry on disc instead of in print is really only a small change for most users. Change is often disheartening at first, but please consider this: there are many clear advantages to a digital version of Tapestry of Grace. A few of these include:
-All of Tapestry becomes searchable, constituting an instant index feature.
-Tapestry becomes highly portable: just take your laptop and disc wherever you're traveling! No more bulky manuals to lug around.
-Tapestry volumes on disc take up a tiny fraction of the space that printed manuals do in your home.
-The Loom files and the year-plan PDFs will all be on one easy-to-use disc.
-We will be able to offer Tapestry at a lower coast to all customers. This makes us dance and sing, because it has been the increases in printing costs and overhead that has partially been to blame for our price hikes in recent years.
-Shipping costs will also be much reduced for you and for us. Indeed, for those who buy via a new download system that we envision in the future, there will be no wait or cost involved. Shipping issues and expenses will be eliminated altogether.
-You will now be able to print out all the Reading Assignment Charts that you wish to! This has been an often-expressed desire, which we can now satisfy.
-It will be much easier to keep book lists and assignments current. Indeed, one exciting option with a digital delivery system is the opportunity for us to support Tapestry for years to come in an easy and straightforward manner by creating interactive, Internet-based Reading Assignment pages (like the PDFs on the online Loom) that receive digital updates automatically at the click of a mouse via the Internet.
-Electronically delivered Tapestry pages will be immune to damage, and won't need page protectors . Also, if you lose any part of your manual, you'll be able to just print out a replacement copy for yourself!
-If you have PDF writer software installed on your computer, you can easily add digital notes and/or highlighting to your electronic version, just as you do in your printed version, but your Tapestry original files will truly remain pristine in all circumstances. Flexibility is still our middle name, however, and if you wish to print Teacher's Notes or any other pages of your week-plan, you will be able to do so (without a PDF writer), and mark them up with your own notes, creating your own customized teaching notebook.
In the future, we conceive of re-mastering Tapestry so that customers can buy it for specific learning levels. So, for young families, we anticipate selling at a reduced cost the Tapestry materials one needs for just the early years, and then giving parents the flexibility to add in Tapestry materials for older students in later years. This will lower the entry price point, giving moms of younger students only what they need to complete Tapestry studies in the grammar stages with the ability to add upper level materials in later phases of their homeschools. Thus, digital Tapestry can grow with the family, and expenses can be spread out over the years, instead of needing to be a one-time, up front purchase that then lasts for years.
When available, and again, in the future, we will be able to interlink Tapestry sections with our other supplementary products. So, we envision that you will be able, from the week-plan, to click on, view, and/or print associated maps, evaluations, writing helps, etc. that relate to the material in each week-plan.
Also, we will be able to link to online resources, like Project Gutenberg free copies of literary and primary source works, core books that are free online, etc. In looking at the landscape of publishing, we see that more and more books are becoming digitally available at very inexpensive prices. While we bemoan the passing of printed books, the new world with which we are all confronted may soon make these as much of a luxury as hand-written manuscripts became as the printing press came into use in the 1400's. As far as we are concerned, our preference will always be for printed books, but there is no denying that an optional for digital resources will make Tapestry more affordable, portable, and available to a greater number of homeschoolers as time goes on.

Labels: curriculum