Wednesday, March 31, 2010

What We're Reading Wednesdays...

This week it's...
Dusty D. Dog
This was one of my favorites when I was little. It's a tiny book my mother read to me so often when I was young that I still have it memorized today. It teaches feelings from the point of view of this little dog named Dusty D. Dog. So cute.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Monday Matters...


... licking the bowl clean, and other things...


So I've been thinking about giving our school a name (after reading that cute article). We have given our extended family co-op a name, Finstad Homeschool Cooperative. It's not very original, just the family name, but I needed it to register us with Scholastic Book Clubs. Still, I would like a cute name for our own family's homeschool. My daughter suggested "Pretty Cutie Pies", not so sure that that sounds like a respectable school. Any suggestions?

Friday, March 26, 2010

Fun Fridays...

This week's site is
www.wikihow.com/Category:Homeschooling
This site has a list of "how to" articles on homeschooling. Like Wikipedia, it's sister site, it is open for anyone to add their own instructions, so if you want to give advice, here is great place to do it.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

What We're Reading Wednesdays...

This week's book is...
I Can...
This series includes I Can Listen, I Can Help, and I Can Share. They are cute little books I got in a set from Scholastic this month. We are working on our life/social skills this week. Help & sharing come pretty easy to Gabby, but listening is not her favorite activity (however, she expects a lot of listening from others).

Monday, March 22, 2010

Monday Matters...


...learning to dress ourselves, and other things...
Today I just have a short thought (and it's not even mine). Over at homeschool.com, there is an article titled The Ten Most Important Things. I loved number 10, so here it is... "Trust in your child. They learned how to love, smile, crawl, walk, talk, run, dress themselves, and understand their world before starting school, and they will continue to grow and learn without school."

Friday, March 19, 2010

Fun Fridays...

This week's fun site...
www.tlsbooks.com
This site has some neat worksheets for just about everything. You can browse by subject or by grade. My favorites were the holiday ones, which I plan on using this year.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

What We're Reading Wednesdays...

This week...
Homeschool Your Child For Free
It's full of fun, interesting, & unique internet sites (some of which I will share in coming weeks). There are also little stories and notes of advice all through the book. It's a great resource for anyone who wants to use the internet with their homeschool curriculum.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Monday Matters...


...taking a much needed break, and other things...
Often I feel like I can tell, or show, my child something 5 million times and it just doesn't click until they want it to. I think that that moment of inspiration and understanding is difficult to achieve everyday. I notice that lots of things (those awful distractions) make it difficult for Gabby to concentrate. Some days it's a TV someone is watching in another room, other days it's her ADHD coming out, and occasionally it's just the wrong time of day. I find these to be much bigger hurdles in homeschooling than worrying about curriculum or making sure my daughters is on the right track. People will tell you that your own intuition is the best judge of what to do for your kid, which is true, but I occasionally find it difficult to seperate my intuition from my insecurities (which sometimes tell me I must have been slightly crazy when I decided to homeschool). I give no advice on how to overcome this, just the knowledge that you are not the only one out there that feels this way sometimes.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Fun Fridays...

This week's fun site is...
http://www.heartofthematteronline.com/
This site has cute little articles about all different aspects of homeschooling. My favorite so far was an article in February about why you should display your children's "masterpieces" in the home. As a scrapbooker, I always think about displaying my work, but not always my child's. Also cute is their article on ideas for naming your homeschool. I think I have inspiration for my Monday post...

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

What We're Reading Wednesdays...

This week...
Chicken Soup With Rice
I'm not really a fan of this book, but after finishing learning the days of the week, we needed something that taught the months in order. I'm thinking that it may be time to go back to the library, there has got to be other books which teach the months of the year. Any suggestion?

Monday, March 8, 2010

Monday Matters...



... building a masterpiece, and other things...
I'm not sure if it's due to my daughter's age (only 4), her disposition (naturally curious, sometimes down right nosy), or my superior teaching skills (highly doubtful), but for some reason Monday is one of Gabby's favorite days of the week. I don't let her do her workbooks on the weekends, so by Monday she can not wait to do school work again. Now I remember when I was young I dreaded the school week, especially Mondays, because I felt like all we did was memorize facts for a ridiculous standardized test. Maybe that's the real difference in homeschooling. I don't teach to a test (this does not mean I will not use other methods to asses her progress). Everything we study has a purpose. We don't learn math to pass a quiz, we learn math to know how to measure ingredients in a recipe or to know how many miles it is to grandma's house. We don't read to write research papers, we read to have better understanding of good books or to know if a book is in fact a good book. And now I have gone on much longer than intended. But my point is simple that we homeschool because we want to continually learn, because last time I checked, knowledge is the only thing I get to take with me after this life (now if only I get by scrapbooks to come with me too...)

Friday, March 5, 2010

Fun Fridays...

This week's fun site is...
http://www.scholastic.com/
While selling books is their main business, if you register with them as a homeschool teacher (which is free), you can access all kinds of fun printables. Many of them you have to pay for to print, but you can always look at them to get your own ideas of things to do. Since my husband is an attorney, I have to tell you that directly copying anything from their site, or any other site, without permission is copyright infringement (which is against the law). So please don't do it. Because who would homeschool your child if you went to jail?

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

What We're Reading Wednesdays...

Every Wednesday I will try to share one of the books we have been reading together. Here is this week's...
Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons
Let me tell you, when they said easy, what they meant was easy if your child is a phonics reader like the majority of the population, not easy if your child is the rare sight reader. I'm not saying the lessons aren't easy, because they are; or that the results aren't easily noticeable, because they are too. It's just much more difficult to try to train a sight reader to understand phonics.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Moday Matters...


...contemplating a sandwich, and other things...
Mondays are at the beginning of the week, so they are the perfect time to think about the week ahead & reflect on the mistakes of the week that just passed. This applies to homeschooling as well as the rest of my life. Mondays are a great time to contemplate whether or not you are going where you want to go in life. I usually spend this time telling myself that as long as Gabby is growing and learning everyday then I must be doing something right (I think).