International Space Station

The ISS passed over our place on August 25 & 26, with possible additional viewing nights on August 27, 28, 29 and September 7. Tonight, it could be seen by the naked eye for approximately 4 minutes!

The video is a little shaky, but this gives you an idea of how quickly it was moving.

To see what dates and times the ISS is visible to you, check out the NASA Human Space Flight website.

Make Some Lava

Over the last couple of weeks, we've been studying Venus in science using Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy text. Each lesson incorporates a mid-lesson activity (usually an experiment). This unit's mid-lesson activity was to make lava using some basic household supplies.

We used butter to represent rock. When heated, the rock melted into molten rock (or lava once it's spewed from a volcano). After the volcano erupts, lava rolls down the mountain, destroying everything in it's path and ultimately cools and rehardens into rock.

The change in chemical properties were what was being presented as well as giving the kids a visual of what happens when a volcano erupts. Our volcano erupted the butter, which ran into our dirt (flour) destroying/displacing all the dirt in its path and rehardened leaving lava trails in the dirt.

My daughter really enjoyed this activity and was very excited to build her own volcano!

Getting (Back) Into the Groove

So, I'm back after nearly a month of traveling and excitement!

We are back on track with school now this week, and I'm rather excited about it! Our school days have been looking a bit like this after our "little" break.

Bible - 1 worksheet and memory verse work
Phonics - 1 worksheet after boardwork
Grammar - practice sentences
Literature - 1 chapter of "Farmer Boy"
Science - continued study of Venus

To ease back into things, we've done 2 hours per day this week, and next week, it will be back to our regular 3-4 hour schedule!

And because no post can be complete without a pic, here ya go:

Big Announcement from Apologia

Apologia just announced that it will be expanding it's Exploring Creation elementary science series! Now included is anatomy and physiology, one of my favorite subjects of all time!

Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology

This is human anatomy for elementary school! This text covers everything from head to toe plus a history of medicine, nutrition, and health. Notebooking assignments and awesome labs (blood typing anyone?) accompany the text for a well-rounded, multi-sensory approach to learning about the body.

I am now more excited than ever about using Apologia's products!

Lapbook Giveaway

I just wanted to let my readers know about a giveaway on a blog I follow...http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/. Check it out!!

Here's the direct link to the giveaway:
http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2010/07/liberty-lapbook-giveaway.html

Curriculum Review - Bendon Books

Let me preface this by saying that these books were actually meant to be supplement materials, not a full curriculum.

The Bendon Pusblishing activity boks made a wonderful advanced preschool option for us! Plus, since they are available in a variety of characters, the motivation for school is built in. Characters available include:
 - Sesame Street
 - Disney: Princess, Fairies, Little Einsteins, Cars, Tigger and Pooh
 - Mickey Mouse Club
 - Handy Manny
 - Hello Kitty
 - Word World
 - Littlest Pet Shop
 - Marvel Heroes
 - NASCAR
 - Veggietales

This is no where near a complete list of what they have!

The particular book I used was the Disney Princess Alphabet. By the time we got to this book, we had worked our way through 4 Step Ahead books (see previous entry). This is NOT a book you want to start with, as it just jumps right in with the writing of letters on actual lines.

The book actually starts out with blank lined pages. The first thing I did was skip those and came back to them once she learned all the letters. The rest of the pages look a little something like this one.

I had her practice the uppercase and lowercase simultaneously. I know most curriculums and teachers prefer to do them separately starting with lowercase, but I find doing them together helps with letter recognition and lessens confusion when it's time to use the uppercase letters. Plus, I love that each page gives the student a word with that letter they've just practiced. The main thing I loved was that my daughter ask for "Princess School" every morning!

Curriculum Review - Step Ahead

Preschool can be tricky for some to figure out. Few companies provide preschool curriculums, especially those that are appropriate for very young learners.

My daughter was 2 when I started preschool with her. Many preschool activities were too advance for her physical development (i.e. dexterity). My goal for preschool was to help her develop better muscle control for writing while challenging her mentally.

What I found was the Step Ahead series by Little Golden Books. I used the 4 titles in the series that were available at my local ALCO/Duckwalls and was instantly impressed.

I'm Ready for School

This book taught such concepts as left & right, matching, colors, and drawing. The book also taught some basic reading skills by identifying pictures. Much of the book is sticker based and what wasn't, she was able to complete with a crayon.

Before I Do Math and Counting 1 to 10

These two books were great for introducing number concepts and for number identification. They are both set up in a similar presentation style as I'm Ready for School. The first title here teaches comparisons and number identification. The latter title helps with counting and number identification. I also used it to help with some basic writing skills by having her trace the numbers on the sticker pages.

Before I Write

This was probably my favorite book of the bunch! The work starts out with straight mazes about 1" wide getting narrower over the next few pages. It then adds curves and sharp turns before working to staying on a dotted line. A few letters are introduce on the last few pages written two way - maze and dotted line - with space to write on the child's own.

These are what I started my daughter using. It took us a couple of months to get through the four books before moving on to more advance books in this series and other companies' materials. This series though was my absolute favorite and one that I recommend to everyone who asks what to do with their preschoolers who are ready for school.

"Why? How can you stand being around them all day?"

The reactions I get from people about homeschooling range from laugh out loud funny to downright rude. The biggest question is why in the world I would do this.

Assumption 1: My family and I are overly religious.
Yes, we are religious. We do attend church on a regular basis; however, it is not why we homeschool! Providing my child with a religious education is a definite plus, and one that I do take advantage of. Frankly, though, I could give my child a Christian upbringing without keeping them home for school.

Assumption 2: We are trying to keep our kids sheltered away from the "real world".
No, it's not us to stay locked away. My kids are involved in community activities. Both attend storytime, and my eldest takes baton classes. They interact in the "real world" by helping Mommy shop, run errands, pay bills, etc. The Bible says we are in the world but not of it. ( We are supposed to be out and about. We are just not supposed to live as if the Bible and God never existed, like so many in our society do.

Assumption 3: I am one of those helicopter parents who won't cut the cord.
No way!! My kids go to friends' houses, spend the night with family, go on vacations with other fmaily members, etc. I have no problem sending my kids elsewhere (and with other people) for fun and education activities. In fact, my eldest my be experiencing Disney World for the first time without Daddy or I! (That I have to admit has be a little freaked. *wink*)

Assumption 4: The school in my area must really stink.
Not at all. Both the public and private school options around here are very good! I personally know many of the teachers in both environments, and they are wonderful teachers who love their jobs. The local public school is where both DH and I graduated from, and we both feel we got an excellent education.

So, why do we homeschool?
It's for academic reasons and more importantly is something God has called me to do!

Studies are all over the place out there that show how important student-teacher ratio is, and the lower it is, the better. Well, I have to ask. Can you get any lower a ratio than 1:1? My eldest child has my full attention. No classroom teacher can say that about their students!

I was also dealing with typical "terrible twos" tantrums over not-so-typical reasons. My daughter's tantrums were over her inability to read and write her name. I personally didn't want to start educating her at 2, but this is about my daughter. Not me. She was ready to learn at that age, and I felt I'd be doing her a disservice by telling her "no school until you're 5".

DH and I were also less-than-pleased with some of what we saw in a group education setting. Kids were forced to work at the pace of the slowest person. They were not encouraged to work at their full potential and even punished when they tried to do things at their own pace. We didn't want that for our child. It didn't seem fair to hold her back because another child in the group was catching on as fast. On the flip-side of that, we would feel awful if any of our children were holding another back because they needed extra time to understand a concept.

I love that my child can work at her own pace, flying through topics that are easy and taking extra time on topics she needs help with. She can choose what topics to study (from a list of options I give her). I have time for extra learning opportunities that she may not get elsewhere.

Probably most importantly, God has called me to do this. I knew somewhere between my freshman and sophomore years of high school that I wanted to homeschool. I pursued my degree in education (starting out focusing on biology and mathematics and finishing up in elementary) with the thought of homeschooling in the back of my mind.

Well, there you have it. We homeschool because God has called me to it and so that our kids can have the best education possible. I love my kids like crazy and being around them all day is pretty easy (most days).

Vocabulary Fun for Girls

Growing up I loved school. To this day, I love to learn. I so looked forward to sciences and math. I liked playing with my friends at recess and other breaks. I was excited about reading and enjoyed it when I actually kicked out a good piece of writing.

All this considered, I loathed one thing...vocabulary. I hated the assignment where we were given a set of words and had to write definition after definition and sentence after sentence. It got so bad my freshman year, I flat out told my English/speech teacher that I wouldn't do vocabulary anymore after seeing the first set of words for the school year.

Abhor was at the top of the list. It was a word that had appeared on the first list of the school year for the past two years. By year three of the same word list, I had enough. I refused to write 1 definition and 2 sentences yet again for this word. I abhorred the very idea of it.

I didn't want my children to have this type of experience. I know how important it is to expand our vocabularies, to learn and appreciate new words, but there has to be a better way than how I was taught. I wanted words to come alive, to be relevant for my kids.

My daughter happened upon a certain book series at the library, and at first glance I wasn't sure I'd like it. After reading a few, I find myself seeking them out and even adding them to our home library.

We love Fancy Nancy! The books are written in first person from Nancy's point of view. She uses "big words" and immediately defines them in a fun way. Her antics are so typical of my daughter, so we both get a good laugh out of them. The words she teaches in the book are words that easily fit into everyday conversation, so not only are little girls introduced to and given a definition of a new word, but it's something they can immediately start using without that awkwardness that often comes with trying to show off their newly learned skills.

"I adored visiting my neighbor Mrs. DeVine.

Here we are having tea on her veranda.

(That's a fancy word for porch.)"

 - Fancy Nancy and the Late, Late, LATE Night -

"Bree and I are the founding members of our club.

(That means we started it.) ...

First they have to prove they are mature enough.

(Mature is a fancy word for acting grown up.)"

- Fancy Nancy: Explorer Extraordinaire! -

*No copyright infrigement intended.

Addicted to Books

After my last post, I have to share what I walked into the playroom and found.