Time4Learning review

 I've been wanting to try Time4Learning for quite a while now, but I kept putting it off.  A few weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to try Time4Learning free in exchange for a review.  That was an offer I couldn't pass up!

I initially signed all the kids up.  After exploring it a bit and letting Shaoey do a few lessons, I realized that for Connor (10th), Jacob (8th), Shaoey (2nd/3rd), and Grace (1st) it probably wasn't the best avenue for them.  We have used a literature based style for years and it works well for us  

Eliana (age 8, adopted last year) is a different story.  Eliana came home with a couple of known special needs--hydrocephalus and scoliosis.  After meeting her, we realized there were other significant special needs.  We have spent the past year doing testing and evaluations.  We have learned that she has cerebral atrophy, corpus callosum issues, auditory processing disorder, some sensory issues, and a few other suspected issues.  With these issues, a literature based style doesn't seem to be working.  Her listening/retaining/responding skills seem low even on good days when her bridge (callosum) is working well.  We've both been frustrated and seemed to be at a standstill.  

Enter Time4Learning.  When we traveled to SFCV and adopted Eliana, she took us to the computer room, turned on the computer, went to the internet--straight to her game site, and started playing.  That should have told me something.   I have Eliana working on kindergarden level skills.  She has been doing some abc lessons and math/pattern skills.   When we work with her face to face, she has to take in our language, transfer it to where it needs to go. With callosal issues and auditory processing disorder, the message gets bounced around many times before it gets to it's destination.  By the time it gets there, it is often distorted.  She then has to process it and form a response which gets bounced around on the way out…. She often freezes up when we ask questions and try to get responses from us.  Think fight or flight, blank…  She seems to be doing really well with Time4Learning and is less frustrated and more likely to complete the task--meaning forward progress!!

I am excited to continue with Time4Learning, excited to see what progress we can make.  The lessons are short and entertaining, with good prompts to help her know what to do next (ex. the arrow lights up when she needs to press it to continue).  There is also a quiz at the end of the lesson to help us evaluate if she's understanding the information.  I also read today that people have been able to use it on tablets and Kindle Fires.  I'm anxious to try that to allow her to work while we're working and possibly take it with us to some doctor appointments, etc.  

(The opinions in this review are mine and do not from Time4Learning.)

Midyear checkup!

We've almost finished 24 weeks of school!  I thought it would be a good time to look back and evaluate what we've done and see if anything needs adjusting or tweaking.

Overall, this year has gone pretty smoothly (said in amazement!).  I honestly have to say it's been our best year ever.  One thing that testifies to that is how little I have changed course over the year.  In previous years, I would get swayed by "new" curriculum I'd run across.  I'd switch and change and realize that it had it's problems too.  Here and here I posted about our upcoming year--schedule and curriculum.  It was fun just looking back over those 2 posts, because not much has changed (unless we finished a book)!  To me that symbolizes a peace with where we are, a peace with the curriculum, and with the style of learning (Charlotte Mason).

I thought you might be interested to see the minor tweaks I've made and what we've kept.

Bible and devotions:  The boys are still reading one chapter a day in their bibles and we have moved on to a new devotion book Grace for the Moment Morning & Evening Edition.  Both boys finished their bible study books and we started The Book of Proverbs God's Book of Wisdom .  We still do scripture memory daily.  For the girls, we have started Truth & Grace Memory Book #1 and they love it!

Character issues:  I've added in Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends.  Jacob seems to be having a tougher time than usual with Connor and his AS...  Jacob longs for a brother to play with him in a more interactive way.  I am hoping that using this book will be a good sort of social story for Connor and of course, what brothers and sisters don't need to work at being better friends.  We also still read one selection a week from The Book of Virtues for Young People.

Math:  Both boys are still using Saxon Math and it's going well.  We'll stick with it!  We also finished reading Mathematicians are People Too.  The girls use the Math-U-See Primer a couple times a week and LOTS of life skills--counting, helping mom cook, etc.

History:  Gotta love the SCM History guides!  We're on lesson 146 of Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation, & the Epistles.  I can't believe how much we (yes, we) are learning.  We are learning so much about the reformation that I never knew.  We have about 30 lessons left and then we move on to some American history (hoping to time it right when SCM comes out with Module 5...).  I really enjoy these guides because they aren't overwhelmingand they give you such a nice outline of daily readings, a little less work for me.  We've tried numerous ones (Weaver, SOTW, MOH...) and I always felt like it was too much--too much for me and too much for them.  Lots of stuff that was just fluff thrown in just for the sake of filling it up with activites.  SCM gives you what to read as a family (the spine and other books) and what to assign each level to read independently (if possible).  We've loved most all the books this year--The Man Who Laid the Egg, Thunderstorm in Church, The Beggar's Bible, Around the World in a Hundred Years, Christopher Columbus...and that's just our together reading!  Connor has read The White Stag, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, The Shining Company, The Magna Charta, In Freedom's Cause, and he is now on The Prince and the Pauper.  Jacob has read The Pied Piper of Hamelin, The Vikings, Adam of the Road, and he is now reading The World of Christopher Columbus and Sons.  Wow, kind of an eye opener for me.  Sometimes when you're in the middle of it you don't see the big picture.  We've covered a lot of history.

Spelling and Copywork and Grammar:  Jacob does SCM Spelling Wisdom 1 and Connor does Spelling Wisdom 2.  They do it 3 times a week and Copywork the other 2 days of the week.  It is amazing to see their skills increase without using dry, boring, contrived lists.  And their handwriting!  To flip through their pages of writing and see the improvement....sure gives them a burst of encouragement.  They didn't believe it would happen and they don't see it in the day to day of it, but to go back and flip through...good stuff!  They both finished their Analytical Grammar for the year.  Connor does have to do one review selection every other week.

Reading and Handwriting:  The girls and I have been working on Get Ready for the Code - Book a and Handwriting without Tears.  Shaoey is into writing all of our names and then Grace copies Shaoey's paper!

Literature:  I added this in.  They have a literature piece to read 3 times a week and a science selection to read 2 times.  Connor has read Gentle Ben and now The Deer Slayer.  Jacob read Gentle Ben and is now reading In His Steps.  We were using Jacks' Insects for science reading, but we found it too dry for us so we switched to The Story Book of Science.  We really like the conversational tone much better.

Foreign Language:  After dragging it out longer than I should have, we finally ditched changed from Latin to Spanish and it seems to be a better fit.  We're using Getting Started with Spanish and SPANISH in 10 minutes a day®.

Science:  We are reading Discover Nature in Winter: Things to Know and Things to Do a couple of days a week and we try to take a nature walk and make a nature journal entry on Fridays.  The girls and I are reading Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 1.
.

Picture, composer, and poetry study:  This seems to be hit or miss.  We only do each one one day a week, but some weeks we don't hit all 3.  This would have bothered me in the past, but I feel that we have such a rounded selection that we are hitting quite a bit.  No guilt!

Extra:  We still do The Fallacy Detective and we added in Mavis Beacon Typing.

In addition, we've had numerous field trips so far this year--Houston (NASA, Houston Zoo, and the Cockrell Butterfly Museum and Museum of Natural Science), a corn maze, a Christmas tree farm, hunting in Sonora (both boys killed bucks)...

I know this looks like a lot, but would you believe we are done by noon most days!  Honestly!  We don't do every subject every day many of these things only take 10-15 minutes each.  It really is such a delight to spend the days with my children.  (Please don't read that as we never get under each other's skin...we are human, not saints!)

How are you doing this school year?  Have you made changes?  I'd love to hear about it!  I've been wanting to try my first Mcklinky and this sounds like a good place to try it.

More summertime fun

We started our year about 6 weeks or so ago. We have been doing well at it, still tweaking it, but don't we do that all the time! So far we are enjoying our choice of topics and books.

I've started a schedule using Managers of Their Home. I have most of our school time accounted for, just waiting on a couple of books to come in. I have implemented the first 3 hours of the day and it's getting easier. I'm hoping to extend it more this week. I've done from 5:30 am - 8:30 am (quiet time, EXERCISE!, sort and fold laundry, computer time, breakfast, and morning chores for the kids while I shower!). I am feeling like I'm accomplishing so much more in those 3 hours than I did all day before!

I also incorporated some items into a "circle time" structure...we're still working on that. We still need a name for it, as the boys say "circle time" sounds like Kindergarten--any ideas? It consists of many of those subjects I wanted to do, but often pushed til last and then never got to (got any of those?)--poetry, memorization, today in history, oh and Biblical Art of the Day. It's pretty neat, I have it linked to my dashboard (Mac) and it brings up a new piece everyday. When you go to the site, it shows where it came from in bible (cool way to incorporate even more of God's word in our studies!). We're also doing Draw the Proverbs and we are reading Wisdom and the Millers (about Proverbs). A big goal for me this year was to focus on God's word in our school time. For so long, I have skimmed over it, but now I want it to be the main goal in their education. If they don't know and love and fear God, I have not succeeded...

Amidst all this, the kids are still enjoying some downtime and summer fun.

Playing dress-up, not sure what style they're going for...

Want to play a game of I Spy? What do you spy in this picture?

I'll give you a hint: it's white.

Having some fun pool time! Dad is so wonderful to take the kids in the pool in the evenings so I can get some downtime and maybe some work done. What an amazing husband!

Speaking of--here's my sweet husband!

Don't you love the hairdo?

This poor hummingbird was trapped in our garage yesterday, so J used his insect net to capture it and we put it in the butterfly pavillion to feed it. (the red you see is the nectar mix).

Planning for 2009-2010 (Part 2)

Now that I have plans in place for 2009-2010, I am devouring all the sites and books I can find on Charlotte Mason, nature studies, homemaking, and drawing closer to God . I thought I'd share some of the books I'm reading and websites that I'm stalking following and ebooks I've downloaded in this quest. I have found some wonderful books and unit studies and ebooks and nature journals.... WOW! The list goes on and on. I tried to pick some of my favorites. It feels good when your books and sites seem to form an unending circle, they all seem to end up related to one another somehow. It gives you the feeling that God is smiling down at you encouraging you that you are going in the right direction. What a feeling!

I hope you enjoy searching these books and sites. I remember feeling so overwhelmed the first year I tried to incorporate bits and pieces of Charlotte Mason. I was barely dipping my big toe at the time. This year I am ready to DIVE in! I wish I had seen some of these sites early on in my search for simplicity, Charlotte Mason, and a closer walk with God. I hope you're as blessed as I am through these books/sites. (I'm giving links--just remember to COME BACK!)

BOOKS:

A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family by Mary Ostyn (This link makes it in both this section and the websites.)

How to Create Your Own Unit Study by Valerie Bendt

Charlotte Mason Study Guide: A Simplified Approach to a "Living" Education by Penny Gardner

Teaching Children: A Curriculum Guide to What Children Need to Know at Each Level Through Sixth Grade by Diane Lopez

Handbook of Nature Study by Amanda Comstock (pretty much every CM site/book talks about this book!)

WEBSITES:

Living a Blessed Life --God has blessed me with Amy, one of my dearest friends. She has a wonderful heart for God and His people. Her blog never ceases to hit it's mark on where God is working in my life!

Owlhaven (Mary Ostyn)

The Pioneer Woman (Great recipes and homemaking, photography, homeschooling, and even some giveaways!)

Copper's Wife and Preschoolers and Peace (on Mondays they review curriculum for different subjects, very CM!)

Katie's Homeschool Cottage (This is where I got our CM insect study.)

Higher Up and Further In

Charlotte Mason in America

Handbook of Nature Study

EBOOKS/Downloads:

Insects: A Unit Study using the Charlotte Mason Method and More (fantastic list of CM books and videos on insects)

Ourdoor Hour Challenges: Nature Study Close to Home (great ideas and easy "worksheet" style nature journal pages to get you started)

Eric Carle bundle (by Grace Bound Books, bought at Currclick)

PS...this post has been saved as a draft since June!  I just noticed it and decided it might be time to publish it!

Family Art Notebook

I don't know about you, but I always struggle with teaching art. I want to teach it--both the hows and the appreciation, but I don't know the hows and I slept through art appreciation in college. Connor and Jacob went to an art class last summer. We bought Connor a dvd of the presenter teaching art (Feed My Sheep by Barry Stebbing) and Connor occasionally does it in his free time. But I know there's more.

I just got an email from Yes You Can Publishing about making a Family Art Notebook. She only gave a teaser, but for some reason, I feel that this is something I'm going to want to do. She said she'll be sending out more emails in the next couple of days with more details. I'll let you know what I hear. You can also check out her art freebie How Am I Suppose To Teach Art When Noone Taught Me? .

Home School freebies!

Don't you just love freebies?! There's a great site that offers free Ebooks and audios. Monday through Friday they offer a different freebie. It's only available that day. Today's freebies are about Paul Revere--2 audio stories, a listening guide, AND an art guide focusing on painting and scultures Paul Revere and the Minutemen. Multiple freebies today!

This one came at a perfect time for us! We recently finished Mr. Revere and I by Robert Lawson. The boys really liked this book. It's told from the perspective of Paul Revere's horse! (They also liked Ben and Me by Robert Lawson. The story's told by a mouse named Amos.)

Check it out at http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/

I love freebies, too. If you know of any cool sites, please pass them on!

Homeschool field trip to N. O.

We went with our home school group to N. O. We had a GREAT time! There were 17 families and over 90 people (adults and kids of all ages)! We did the Aquarium, Insectarium, and the Audubon Zoo--a fun filled 2 days! Thought you'd enjoy some of our pictures:

The boys are holding crickets.

The boys are EATING crickets--barbeque flavor!!

I PROMISE that this is NOT my cabinet!
What a cool (gross) exhibit at the Insectarium!

The girls were worn out at the Aquarium. I am LOVING my new stroller!
So smooth and turns on a dime!

These girlies can giggle!
Jacob is spinning it and the girls are having a BLAST!

What a beautiful ice cream smile.

This was SO cute!
There is a baby anteater on it's mother's back! Awww....

Notice anything funny about this picture?

Sometimes I feel like this poor little turtle... I work and work
through my own efforts only to find myself out on a limb.
I am so thankful that I have a God that won't leave me hanging...

Feeding turtles and ducks

We really had such a wonderful time. We are already planning ahead to next
year's overnighter. The boys had so much fun visiting with friends.
I had fun hanging out with other moms, too!