At Currclick...

Currlick is hosting a Mock 2012 Election and Sale for Homeschoolers with savings up to 50% off on election and goverment resources.

Sounds like fun and big savings! So, head on over there- the polls will be open from October 16th to November 6th.

Enjoy the Ride!
Brook

Over at CBD...

From October 8th thru October 15th, CBD will have Amanda Bennet Unit Studies marked of 25% off.  Amanda Bennet has a Unit Study on just about everything under the sun.  There is a Christmas Unit Study, as well, if your already gearing up for the holidays.
So, click the link and take a look...



Thanks for stopping by.
Brook
 

Checking In...

Hi, there!  Just thought I'd check in and let you all know... I'm still here.

We've been busy these last couple of months with getting back to our homeschool routine and helping out with my grandfather. 

Our homeschooling is going slow but moving forward...which is good. Finding  Isn't this one of the beautiful things of homeschooling is working at your child's pace and not of someone else? The important part is helping and encouraging my children in what ever it is they are struggling with and remember this is not a race. 

We're mainly focusing on the 4R's: Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, & "Biblical" Reasoning.  I have casually added books on history and science subjects for read-a-loud and individual reading-due to other life events occurring in our family.

My grandfather is doing wonderfully.  He is now able to walk around on his own with help of a cane for just in case.  And he no longer needs 24 hour assistance.  He was afraid that he would never walk, again.  But his determination and faith in God overcame his injury, yeah!

Thank you for those who prayed.

So, with things winding down now (hopefully), I will be able to put in a little more time into this ministry and share what we have and  will be doing.

Thanks for stopping by!
Brook

Math Mammoth Sales...

Note: I do not get compensated for this advertisement.  I just really like Math Mammoth!

This notice came from an e-mail by Maria Miller @ Math Mammoth today regarding current sales :

1) Homeschool Buyers Co-op

The traditional group buy for Math Mammoth and Make It Real
Learning bundle products at Homeschool Buyers Co-op is now live
- for the whole month of August.

https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/math-mammoth/?c=1

The discount is 20% up to 50% depending on the number of participants.


2) Rainbow Resource is running a sale on the PRINTED books and CDs
for the Light Blue Series. Save $2 on workbooks, $5.45 on CDs.
and $6 on sets.

http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?subject=10&category=9820
I've been using Math Mammoth Light Blue series for a year now.  I can honestly say that is has helped me teach my children math.  It is a worksheet oriented but not overwhelmingly so. I think that's because it's mastery based.  You can go at your own pace and Maria has many of suggestions and suggested web sites to visit for addition practice.  When you have multiple ages under 9 to teach sometimes a worksheet can be your best friend.  Anyway, homeschooling is all about using what fits your needs and family and this has definitely fit our math needs.

So go ahead and check out her materials.  They are already affordable even without the sales. 

First Day of New Learning Year...

Monday is officially our first day of our new learning year and I'm already making adjustments before we even begin.

This year we're putting more focus on our language arts since I feel we were a little weak.  I'm wanting to do more dictation and copywork. My biggest task is implementing it.

Here's the thing, my 85 year old grandfather has some how managed to rupture his hip muscle and is pretty much immobile right now and in need of 24/7 care till we can get him mobile again.  He's taking it pretty hard considering he's a very active, independent man for his age.  Not to mention, he's still dealing with a broken heart from losing my Grandmother last December. But because he's such an awsome "Papa", the kids and I for 3 days out of the week are helping care for him.  So, between caring for him and runnning after the 3 year old and 1 year old, I think there will be more copy work than dictation.  I'd still like to dictate once out of the week as a sort of test.  But it will have to be on the days we are home and my house work load is low. (Scratching brain right now.) Maybe, I can get the three year old and one year old to take a nap-their schedule has been so messed up that they don't know up from down right now.

Any-how, I think what I'll do is use the on-line worksheet makers and print copywork ahead of time using text from the McGuffey Readers and Scripture for the older two.  For my five year old, I'm going to use some free worksheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler (thanks Sheri) to help her with letter formation as well as use her composition book (just to get her use to it).  We'll read the text, then discuss the text/letter formation, then they'll do the copywork, and then review.

For our Math, we are going to review our math facts and previously learned concepts these next few weeks since we took two months off.  We'll be using Math Mammoth and supplementing with Ray's.  Though, I see us using Math Mammoth more than our Ray's considering our situation right now.

For our Bible Study, I have been reading a bible story right after breakfast and have the children read a Psalm and Proverbs to my grandfather-hoping it brightens his outlook a bit.

For History/Geography and Science, we'll read from our history based or science based literature. Then go over unknown vocabulary and do Notebook pages and a science project once or every two weeks. I'm trying something new with our History/Geography and Science we're going to alternate quarters-hoping this will elimate the rushed feeling I get when teaching these subjects due to we heavily depend on library books and always seem to have to return them before I'm ready.  I thing we'll do the same for our Art and Music Appreciation.

Piano lessons have been put on hold for the moment. So, I'll sub with a forgein language-Spanish preferably.

I actually had a schedule all done up-but now needs re-tweeked.  Maybe when I find some more time I'll post it.

Thanks for listening to my rambling and please pray for the healing of my grandfathe's hip. Thanks!

PS- There's a new tab above blog for Handwriting/Copywork gernerating.  Feel free to take a look.

Freebie Alert!!!!

Dollar Homeschool is giving away a free e-book (for just one week) called Homeschool Sanity written by Sherry Hayes- a Homeschool mama of 15 (that's right-15) children.

You can visit her blog Large Family Mothering and learn more about her and her insight on homeschooling.

Enjoy!

The Homeschool Bus "Book Spotlight"...

The book in the spotlight this month for our family is "Blockhead: The Life Story of Fibonacci" by Joseph D'Agnese.

I checked out this book from our local library.  It was recommended by another from a yahoogroup  Living Math Forum. Living Math, also, has it's own website, owned by Julie Brennan, with many helpful resources.  I highly recommend it to homeschoolers and people who are good or not so good at math.  They are a great support system for those who are interested or have questions regarding math and math curriculums.

Back to the book.  My children (8-1yr olds) and I really enjoyed this book. It's a brief biography of Fibonacci (the man responsible for the use our number system today) from his childhood years to adulthood.  It tells about his fascination with numbers and how people misunderstood his ability to think outside of the box-hence, being called "blockhead".  It contains humor and charming pictures that my children loved with the history and math that I wanted to introduce to them.  It is just long enough to keep the attention of a 3 year old-though geared for 6 and up. 

I highly recommend this book for any Read-a-Loud or individual reading for a child who is capable of reading on a 3rd grade level and up.

And remember to enjoy the ride!