Conference

Tomorrow morning hubby and I are off to our state homeschool conference put on by OCEAnetwork.

The main speaker is Voddie Baucham who is a preacher and homeschool dad. I am so looking forward to hearing him speak. It should be great.  They will have the curriculum sale as well as the used book sale available too.  Hubby and I will be volunteering at the used sale. In exchange for our time we received our hotel for one night and the conference fee paid for. What a deal.  I love that they make CD’s of all the talk and breakout sessions because we can purchase the ones we missed and wanted to hear.  It really is a great time of encouragement to see so many homeschool families in one place and to be taught by veterans.

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school help

Dear Homeschool Parents,

I have a child. She is wonderfully cute, joyful, smart, and social, not to mention very funny.  She is very young for her grade because of where her birthday falls. While she technically a 1st grader right now, she is more at a Kindergarten level.  She is reluctant to learn.  She is simply not interested in sitting down and learning. She is a mover and shaker, a true kinesthetic child. She touches everything.  I have found a few games that we have played to add interest in school and she loves them.  She knows all her sounds and is slowly learning to read. She can count to 100 but does not recognize all the number symbols.  She doesn’t like to write.  Adding is confusing to her.  I have just started her in the Singapore math book, level 1A. I am finding that this might not be a good fit for her.  Does anyone have any suggestions for me about math and getting this child to be motivated to learn?  Will I need to play games with her for all her school?  She has a hard time focusing for a small amount of time.  I do have her doing dot to dots and she really likes those.  I feel like we will get further and further behind, especially as I look at curriculum programs for math and language.  I am using the Abeka handbook for reading right now and will start her in the letters and sounds book when she catches up to a first grade level.  I’m just not sure what to do with her. Any ideas?  She is so different from her sisters and I knew she would be when she was in my womb.  She is a tremendous blessing and I adore her. She is challenging me.

Thanks for any input you experts might have…

Susan

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Curriculum Fair

Our local curriculum fair is happening this weekend. Tonight was the presale and the pre-pre-sale. I get to go to the pre-pre-sale because I am working both days and it’s my incentive to volunteer. This is my third year doing this and I love it. I look forward to it each year.

I was noticing tonight the seriousness of shopping for used books. There are tables set up and organized by grade and then subject. I usually start at the table for my youngest child and then work up. Then I go to all the extra curricular tables. I move fairly quickly and I try to browse every piece that is on the tables. I pick up books that I know I am getting and I hold onto those that I need to inspect further before making my decision. I don’t want to stop because someone else might pick up the book I want. But when my arms can hold no more I will sit on the floor and go through my stash. I put away the books that I don’t think I want and continue on in my search. When I have made the complete rounds then I smile at someone, say hi and have a conversation.

I stress a bit, worry a bit, that I may have missed something that I want or need. I didn’t bring a list this time so I felt a little unprepared. I was pleased with what I found. Some things were exactly what I wanted, others I wanted but didn’t know it before, and some were just extra special surprises. Some books were specifically for school, others were for fun and a couple were for me. After the pre-pre-sale was over the pre-sale began and I sat at the table with the adding machine and others could come to me to ring up their purchases. It’s a fun job really and I love to see what inspires other people. But when I notice a book they found, and it is exactly what I wanted, I think to myself, “how could I have missed that”, and then I sigh. Maybe next time.

Susan

There were a couple more books but I couldn’t pry them from the kids hands!

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A new blog

I started a new blog. Yep, I now have two that I will be writing in. The focus on From the Narrows is to write about my life, what I am accomplishing, struggling with, have opinions about etc. The purpose of

Classic Academy

is to write about the girls solely.  I will be writing about our homeschool, their accomplishments, their creative projects and anything else that relates to them.

Why two blogs you ask?  Have you heard of Blurbs?  It is a website that sucks all the info from your blog and puts it into book form.  It is a way to record their education in a creative way. It is a scrapbook of sorts. Since I don’t scrapbook and I don’t even print photos out and put them into albums, I thought this would be a way to have something for them to look at and read that is about them.  It is something that I will do. I like to write, but not on paper. I don’t journal and never really have.  But I type and I love blogging so I thought this would be the perfect method for me.

So, what does that mean for you, the reader?  Well, you can read From the Narrows only, or Classic academy only or both. Then the other option is neither, but I would prefer you stick around. At least this way if someone was more interested in the school side of our life they can read Classic Academy.

Oh, and I have actually already started that blog and have a few entries so far.  So leap over there and check it out.  Leave a comment.

Susan

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An assortment of thoughts

The bed is making a transformation. I will post a picture when it is finished. I found king size shams on clearance on Lands End. I found a bed skirt on sale today and I bought a bolster pillow. The pillow was not on sale but it wasn’t hugely expensive either. I really need a head board but we don’t have time to make one yet. I have this idea (not original) to transform an old panel door into a headboard. We have a recycle place in town that has many many doors to choose from for a good price. I think I may need to get some extra large pillows to prop up the pillows I have to give the head of the bed a boost.

Random thought:

There are three show on tv that I don’t get. I know they have huge followings but I don’t understand why.

1-The Office

2-Survivor

3-Lost

edit: to be fair, yes I do have my shows that I love. I am an AI fan.  But my favorite is Men In Trees. I like Numbers too. Other than that I don’t watch much else.  However if I had cable I would be glued to HGTV and the cooking shows.

We are really hoping to warms up and dries up in the NW this weekend. We really need to get those doors painted. Another weekend of work is ahead of us. I am really hoping for a little vacation when this is all over. Luckily we don’t have to worry about the yard. Why, you ask? Because I hired a company to come this week and beautify it and boy does it look great and we are both giddy with excitement that we don’t have to do all that work, and for those of you who have been to my house you know how BIG our yard is.

I just finished reading aloud a history book to the girls and hubby when he is around during reading time. (sometimes I read in the afternoon, sometimes at the dinner table). It is called Madeleine Takes Charge and it is fabulous. The girls would beg me to read and not stop. It is about the French and Indian wars and about a young girl who takes charge while her parents are away. She becomes a heroine and in Quebec there stands a statue in her honor. Amazing story! I love historical fiction.

Have a great weekend!

Susan

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Princess of Green Gables

My oldest girl aka, Princess spoke these words today:

“Division is a sorrow for me. It will be a heavy burden the rest of my life.”

Yes, we’ve recently watched Anne of Green Gables and the girls have been listening to it on audio tape checked out from the library. I just love how what they read and listen to comes out in their words. Only if it’s good however, and I can definitely tell when they have been influenced by something that I do not desire.  Whether is is books, audio, tv, friends, the rule applies—-garbage in, garbage out.  And the opposite would be true also.

Susan

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Some days go like this…

But rarely a Monday. I got up at 8:00, well 8:15 but who’s counting. The girls were all out of bed, dressing, fixing themselves up. They are currently doing their math, without being told and little one is coloring. Me…I am in my jammies, reading my email and blogs and typing this post, while finishing up my coffee. This is a rare Monday indeed. Don’t worry, I’m going to get dressed now, really.

Susan

EDIT:  Just so you know the day went downhill from there. I got mad, threw a fit, was really ugly and then began to clean out the room that instigated it all.  For my own self preservation, most of the room will be packed an taken to the other house. It does not matter how many containers we have to organize the toys if the children living in the room cannot put anything away.

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A great homeschool find

My little girl (6) loves to do lapbooks and during this busy crazy season in our home, I just don’t have the time to put one together for her.  I am much in favor of the premade lapbooks that I can find either free (currclick.com and various other websites) or very cheap.  Even better is when I can find a complete lapbook kit with supplies. I have found just that.

Amanda is a homeschool graduate and she puts together these wonderful kits, with all supplies included. They are inexpensive and just what the teacher/mom needs to keep little hands busy. These kits are well thought out and usually include an art project (studying a great artist), a craft and  nature study of some sort.  She now has her Spring kits ready and I just received mine in the mail. My daughter is going to be so excited when she sees her little wooden bird that she will get to sand and paint.

I have purchased a small sewing kit, the winter kit and now the spring and I have been so impressed.  You can got to Hearts and Trees to see the details of her spring kit.  I think you will love it too.

Susan

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Contest—–Rosetta Stone

 One of my friends from bloggy land is going to be a rep for Rosetta Stone. She and her daughter will represent them at homeschool conventions. How fun is that.  And good news for us, in that she is able to give a brand new language program away.  Follow the instructions below to enter in this contest.

Susan

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE! 

This is a $219 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.

This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program.  Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking.  Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they’re included!  For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports. 

 

To win this most excellent program — in the language of your choice — copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post — then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/  and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it.  And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it.  And good luck!  The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg.   And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win.   Yay for free stuff!

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Hi—-

If you are a bit confused about the Judges ruling on homeschooling in CA, please read a post from Mangotime.  Fletch helps to put things into perspective.  It is frightening to think that our rights to choose the how to best educate our children might be at risk.  Just because we live in Oregon doesn’t mean that we should get too comfortable.  California often leads the way in many areas and we need to support California homeschoolers as well as Oregons.  Here is a petition from HSLDA that you can sign to get the Judges ruling depublished.  Here is an article  in the LA Times and on at Worldnet Daily  to read up on what happened.

Susan

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