Spotlight On....

Today I'm starting something new as I try to get this blog going again and life back into some sort of order. Usually on the weekends I visit some of my favorite blogs for homeschooling ideas or find new ones and I look for advice from veteran homeschoolers who share their knowledge with those of us on the learning path with our kids. Since there are so many blogs and websites out there its almost impossible to have the time to find all the incredible ideas. Pinterest has helped in this area because its a lot easier to quickly scan through pictures than to read entire blog posts.
I'm however going to start a "Spotlight on..." series - of blogs or websites I've looked at during the week and think there's something there to share with others.
So, here are the first ones.....I hope you find them helpful or inspiring in some way....

1) Topic Jar - From Laughing With Aspergers

Fantastic idea for child led learning (or any learning) having your child or children choose the topics they would like to cover for the year and have them randomly pick them from a jar. It covers that "remember when I wanted to learn...?" and naturally you have forgotten it amongst the five-hundred other things thrown out into the air that you were supposed to catch and make a note of and you didn't and of course its the one thing he comes back to four months later and he can't quite get why you don't remember him mentioning it - nevermind that it was probably in the middle of you cooking dinner or doing the laundry and you were supposed to jot it down and well, frankly you just didn't have a pen and paper handy in the laundry room. (Not that my child would do anything like that)

2) Fall Seeds - From Blue Bells and Cockle Shells

This nature walk looking for fall seeds comes at just the right time as I'm about to take orange Halloween Pumpkins and harvest them for seeds for a backyard pumpkin patch for next year and storing and baking the pumpkin meat into pumpkin pies and pumpkin bread for the holiday's.
In this time of high food prices and lean finances, I find myself trying to make things stretch...therefore pumpkins were Halloween decorations and now a food source for us at home and for our holiday baking for friends.
Come back later this week for how to use orange pumpkins in your baking...Yes, you can bake with them no matter what everyone else tells you...

Meanwhile...here's my Pumpkin Bread Recipe. I'll be posting my Pumpkin Pie Recipe later this week as well once I check out a new recipe for making my own crust. The crust was the one thing that wasn't homemade in my pies and I'm working on finding just the right recipe.

3) Wondering what to do with ALL of that candy.....use it for lessons.
* Fractions using M&Ms  - free downloadable worksheet from TPT (Teachers Pay Teachers)
* Candy corn counting and math - cute fall tree cut out, easy number dots, with links for additional candy learning.
* Autumn mix candy sequencing - with templates - love the group idea on here too!
* Calendar project for halloween candy - great idea for calendar work with a reward for snack time!
* Halloween candy graph - a pin from Pinterest.
* 5 cool ways to use halloween candy - seriously cool ideas!

Trust me this is only a sampling of countless ideas on using that candy.

Quick Halloween fun - card game and cupcakes!

Its been ages but here we go....

Just in time for Halloween some of our new favorite things that we've tried out from Pinterest.

Pumpkin Life Cycle War Card game -
We tried this out for free at our homeschool library group (below) and everyone enjoyed it, as of this writing its still available for free download (you do have to sign up for an account but its also free) from TPT also known as Teachers Pay Teachers. It's quick to print out and have on hand.

And here is the link to go and grab it for yourself - Pumpkin Life Cycle War card game

Here are three great designs for pull-a-part cupcakes, we made the ghost one and the whole tombstone. Kids seem to LOVE  these things...and there's no right or wrong way to decorate them.

Curricula we use - Our spines

What we use for each grade level each year.
(***UPDATED*** 10/30/2013
The Red Ranger is now in 5th grade and we still use the same spines for our homeschool. We have added a couple and those will be noted below. )

I've been chatting online in many areas with new homeschoolers and I can remember how lost I was when we started as accidental homeschoolers. I decided to add a post about our spines, our starting points for our studies. Over the past couple of years its been hit or miss with some curricula out there but these work for us. Having said that, I'll warn you that not everything works for every student or family and to top it off each child learns differently even in the same family. The good thing about homeschooling is that you can find what works for each individual child instead of just using a blanket system for all.
These are just our base line we add lots of other materials both at home and online.
I'll also add links to future blog posts about how we use some of the below as they are written.
NOTE: If there isn't a link to a company website it usually means that those resources are out of print and must be obtained used. I find my used materials through Ebay, Amazon, PaperBack Swap and Barnes & Noble used sellers.

Complete Curriculum -
Learn at Home Series - /
available for grades kindergarten through grade 6. Gives you a weekly schedule/map to begin with and you can tweak it from there.

Flashkids Complete Curriculum - /
we use this with the Learn at Home series, they seem to compliment each other.

What Your ? Grader Needs to Know series - E.D. Hirsch / Core Knowledge Website

History -
Story of the World - History for the Classical Child - Volumes 1-4 - Susan Wise Bauer /
Story of the World - Well Trained Mind Website
Volume 1 - Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor - 5000BC to 400AD.
Volume 2 - The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance - 400AD to 1600AD.
Volume 3 - Early Modern Times: From Elizabeth the First to the Forty-Niners - 1600AD to 1850AD.
Volume 4 - The Modern Age: From Victoria's Empire to the End of the USSR.

Each set has a text book of stories, an activity book, a test and answer book, audio tapes or CD's.
We use only the first three items for each era/age. Each Volume Set has grade levels associated with it, however prior to us starting The Ancient Times in January 2013 we've been using parts of all volumes for our history studies as certain days approached on the calendar or if we've done a unit study on a certain time period.

Math -
Math-U-See - Steven P. Demme / Math-U-See Website

English -  Language Arts - Grammar - Reading - Spelling - Writing -
Reading -
McGuffey's Reader's / McGuffey's Readers World/Ray's Arithmetic
Along with many books of choice and classics.
Language Arts and Grammar -
Easy Grammar & Daily Grams - Wanda C. Phillips / Easy Grammar Systems Website
Used along with the components from both complete curriculum books listed above.
*NEW*
Spelling -
All About Spelling - Marie Rippel / http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/all-about-spelling
*NEW*
Writing/Handwriting -
Handwriting Without Tears - Jan Olsen / http://www.hwtears.com/hwt

Geography -
Currently studying countries with Little Passports.
Little Passports / Little Passports Website
Great World Expedition - WebQuest / Brodie Education Consulting available through CurrClick.com. CurrClick - Brodie Education Publisher Page
Our Homeschool Geography Club

Daily Skills -
This is a daily warm-up or skill building review area that I've added using the following resources each day. Each day there are 3 or sometimes 4 sheets in this folder depending on the content from each source.
Daily Grams from Easy Grammar above - /
Daily Learning Drills - Brighter Child Series - /
Flashkids Summer Skills and/or The Summer Bridge Series - / Flash-Kids Products - Barnes & Noble
Carson Dellosa - Summer Bridge Activities

Please Note: We use CurrClick.com for a lot of subjects. The site is searchable for many materials and also has some free materials each month.
We also use lots of supplemental materials for each subject and we also use online sites.

New house - New year - New stuff

Its been a very busy few months - okay - half a year...
At the beginning of the summer we started looking for a house to purchase, we were lucky enough to find a great one in a wonderful neighborhood and moved in over this past Labor Day Holiday (2012). Things were going very well and then my husband's employer of 26+ years laid him off just before Halloween. It has been stressful but we've enjoyed the holiday's and even though we are worried we are trying very hard to get ourselves back on track here.

Part of getting back on track is getting the Red Ranger's homeschool stuff organized and ready and the first thing is this great calendar/weather/daily skills practice notebook that I found to replace our board work. I'm not using all the pages in this lady's packet but choose what I wanted and I'm supplementing with other things to give the Red Ranger some busy work.
We are also starting the 1st book of Story of the World history series by Susan Wise Bauer. We've been using it when history dates come up but now we are going to start with Volume 1 - Ancient Times.

I am also starting him on All About Spelling, I got several great resources from some of the holiday sales that I'm really looking forward to adding to our homeschool journey. Two things that the Red Ranger got in his stocking this year from Santa were the next two sets of Rory's Story Cubes (Actions and Voyages). The other day I found that he had opened both sets and taken them into his room to make up stories. I never once told him to try them out but I love that he did!

And these were some of the other things under the tree that have a specific homeschool use.

I also have added a Facebook page for more daily postings. If you are on Facebook please join us over there - Braddock School Rooms

Here's the blog that I downloaded from and some pictures of what we are going to be using starting next week. http://www.ouraussiehomeschool.com/2012/03/calendar-notebook.html


Here's our Notebook pack....

Dry Erase Houses and McDonald's Happy Meal Boxes

A long time ago I started using Happy Meal boxes from McDonald's to store game pieces, themed games, card games, spelling and vocabulary index cards, story sequence cards, etc. They were cute most of the time because they were all from movies and all about kids, the lids even close up. What could be a better place to store extra's without them being in plain site if you are short on space.
The Night at the Museum ones worked for just about anything related to a museum and the Disney Pirate and Princess ones...well they were great for anything from fairy tales to anything to do with pirates. I usually just put a "post it" with whatever problem or task I wanted The Red Ranger to complete and he tossed the appropriate cards or game pieces inside the top.

Last week I was shopping the outlet section of Really Good Stuff's website and found a set of Word Family Houses with word cards and the houses each have a dry erase strip to write on with a dry erase marker or dry erase crayon with a slit to slide the cards through. I ordered the set and love it, it was only $6.99 to start with (at the time this post was written) and will go much further than just the word families because of the dry erase strip. 
Here's the link to the Word family houses product from Really Good Stuff .

Really Good Stuff Houses

Then I looked at my happy meal boxes -
As any thrifty homeschooling mom or teacher will tell you...one idea will get our minds to working on three other ideas!
Yep, I have re-purposed the happy meal boxes again - who knew they had such a long life....

First off, let me say that I love the ones I bought. I highly recommend them, but they are on clearance, so who knows how long they will be available.
Second, my husband is a manager at McDonald's - I get a lot of Happy Meal boxes...
Third, I have a lot of scrapbooking supplies....:-)

The HM boxes to use are the plain old red ones with the smile on them and of course have no food stains inside. They make it much easier because there are no designs or pictures to worry about but I'm happy with what I ended up with -
and so is Rexy the dinosaur, the card slot is right below his mouth....

1) I started with those "Hello, my name is" labels, I cut the red parts off so that I would only have the white sticky part left, you'll end up with a strip about 3 3/8" X 1 1/2".
2) Then I took page protectors (glossy matte) and cut one down the side so that it opened and then cut a long lengthwise strip that matched the 3 3/8". I then cut this down with the 1 1/2" measurement, this then gave me seven pieces to work with.

Step 1

Step 2

3) I ran the clear plastic strips through my little Xyron 150 sticker maker, I did have to cut the strip down a little lengthwise to fit in the top of my Xyron. Since it was a clear item that I was running through I had to pay close attention so I knew when to add the next piece in, you'll end up with a long strip.
4) Then I peeled the now sticky plastic strip off the paper and covered the white sticker strip (that was left over from the "Hello" tags).

Step 3

Step 4 - Part 1

Step 4 - Part 2

5) Then I just placed combined stickers on the boxes where I wanted to place them. Then cut a slit for the cards to go through with a utility knife. (I think I'll add a colored tape on the slits to make them more noticable.)
6) Using a dry erase marker write the facts/lesson that you want learned or reviewed. It easy wipes off using your fingers or tissue.

Steps 5 & 6

After your child is done with the activity or center you can have them move onto something else while you check to see what ended up in the boxes. Better yet have them check how many they got right with a master sheet.

I see these being used a lot because they'll be adaptable for any subject. In fact after I was done making them and organizing the draft for this blog post The Red Ranger was already into them!
I can't ask for more than that....

Check out other blogs on No Ordinary Blog Hop

New Homeschooling Pages on blog...

After my judging gig I decided to start revamping my blog pages for easier navigation, something I learned while visiting other blogs. I'll be adding dedicated homeschooling pages to the menu bars above, I've already added two - Homeschooling Tips and Curricula - hopefully this will clean up the blog. Both of the new pages came from recent conversations with new homeschoolers looking for advice, I thought that it would be easier to say, "I have a post on my blog about this with lots of information and links to other homeschooling blogs".
I'll be going more in depth with certain pages and posts and others will just be a collection resource landing page with links. I hope this helps and hopefully some of the ideas I've had, those that I've found out about or have been shared with me by other homeschoolers will be passed on to others.
I've also added a "search" box function, "pinterest" link and a "labels" box to help with navigation.

End of a school year - Well, yes and no...

No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher's dirty looks
Out for summer
Out till fall
We might not go back at all.....

Summer Vacation -

Remember that little ditty?
Did you sing it?

As homeschooler's summer vacation is not exactly the same as it was for my husband and I when we were kids going to a traditional brick and mortar school. We don't have the testing now for our 9 year-old son that we had to gear up for, we don't have that longing for summer and no school that the months of May and June brought to us as kids.
Our son, The Red Ranger, has a totally different outlook - May and June are time to take off a little more time for family summer activities before everyone else has off and does them. He gets to enjoy the days without the crowds that will eventually come. We take breaks a bit more often and spend more time on history as Memorial Day and the historical events that early June bring - Midway and D-Day.
We homeschool year-round now, it just seemed to happen that way over time. We transition into the next grade over the summer months giving extra time to maybe subjects that were a little harder this year or might need a little extra practice. We move ahead in subjects where The Red Ranger excels so that he doesn't get bored. We tend to hit the books harder in July and August when being outside is harder for me with my asthma or just too hot for being outside. It's easy to adjust with a year-round schedule, at least for us, to still enjoy the summer but get that learning in when we can or need to depending on the day. We take a break at the beginning of the brick and mortar school year in September to again enjoy less crowds and shorter lines during the weekdays.

It all just seems easier in this fast paced society we all find ourselves in, the rush here and there, the demands everywhere from countless people. It just seems to work for us this way, to enjoy that time together as a family when the moments appear rather than wait for the weekend or summer vacation. I'm sure it would be different if my husband had weekends off instead, but he's schedule varies and more often than not he's off one or two weekdays and so we adjusted.
We adjusted when we began to homeschool and its been adjusting ever since to a point where its more comfortable and it works well...for now...will we need to adjust again?
Probably - most likely.
Most definately when we finally buy our house at the end of summer, early September.

So, here we will still have pencils and erasable pens (The Red Rangers fav!) and books....
but we'll also have...airplane carriers and battleships, fighters and subs as we learn more this year about World War II and Midway and then that will transition into America's fight for independence for July and so on....its like that mouse and its cookie and milk isn't it?
.....Then in September when its all about back to school.....
we'll be at the zoo or shore, something like that....maybe just maybe we'll make up our own little ditty -

Homeschooling is.....
math in your pj's,
science in the fridge, (Oh, I hope not!)
history at a battlefield or on the history channel,
poetry in the park or writing in the sand by the ocean...

:-)

If you are gearing up for end of the year - have fun!
If you are schooling year round, clink the lemonade glass with us!

Story Cubes and Math Dice

For Christmas, The Red Ranger, received two presents that we had placed on our Amazon Wish List with the intent of using them for lessons. Oddly enough, since opening them yesterday for our homeschool, he has continued to play with them - last night and into today, one of our days off.

I consider this a BONUS! 

Many times I use or re-purpose games for use in our homeschool, make stuff up as we go and every now and then I find perfect games to fit in with what we are doing.

The first gift were Rory's Story Cubes from GameWright.
There are 9 six-sided cubes each with a different picture on each side. There are several ways to play but basically the idea is throw "X" number of cubes and use those images as a story starter. Great for creative writing, oral storytime, party games.

We had a ton of fun playing with these and they will work great for The Red Ranger's writing.
They say ages 8+ but I don't see why younger children couldn't use 1-3 or 4 dice to tell stories. Since there are several ways to play with them all ages should benefit from them.
There is also a set of Action/Verb - Story Cubes....which just so happens to be next on our list of purchases when my Amazon Gift Cards start piling up again from my SwagBucks!
They do have a website, although ours were purchased through Amazon, in fact we haven't even checked out the website...we are simply having too much fun playing with them.
The Website is: www.storycubes.com

The other gift was Math Dice from Thinkfun.

You roll the two 12-sided dice first add or multiply the numbers and that becomes your "target number", then roll the three blue 6-sided dice - combine those numbers and see whose roll comes closet to the "target number".
They can be used for addition/subtraction/multiplication/division/powers/roots and more.
Ages 8-Adult (again I'm sure they can be used for younger children), all ages and math levels and multiple players.
We haven't checked out their website either but here's the web address for it - www.thinkfun.com/mathdice

We are loving both of these and can't wait to get the other Verb Story Cubes, I've also added them to the new Amazon Store here on the blog, I've added a tab for the Store at the top of the blog. Its one way of showing you the items we use in our homeschool and in general in one spot in case you are interested in getting them for yourself. Sometimes the things we use are out of print or discontinued, in fact quite a few were purchased through Amazon Associates and through Ebay used.
So far through Amazon Associates I've made a whopping .71 cents in a year and a half...good thing I'm not doing this for money...LOL!
I remember starting out homeschooling and being completely lost, we were accidental homeschoolers, I hadn't planned on it at all. Finding the tools, curriculum, everything was very hard and from time to time I found blogs and other homeschoolers that had paved the way for me - it didn't mean that what worked in their homeschools or homes would work for us but a lot of times it did and I was always very grateful - still am.......so if I can add things from time to time to help out - I will....



Check out what others are blogging about at....

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School starts back up on Monday!

I can't wait! The Red Ranger I'm sure can...too bad...its back to schoolwork we go.

We have a new tablet now to start using with our schoolwork and we've just lined up a history Skype-ing series with friends of ours for probably March on the Oregon Trail.
Lots of new stuff from Christmas to add to our homeschool, some that The Red Ranger doesn't even realize are school things.....shhhhhhh, don't you dare tell him!
This weekend I'm working on getting things ready for Monday morning...its my New Year's thing to do instead of drinking....I'm such a party animal.....:-)

Hope everyone is well, have a safe and Happy New Year!

Trying to get back on track since the rollercoaster slipped the tracks...

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Trying to get back on track since the rollercoaster slipped the tracks...

I'm trying to clean up the blog and get back to posting after a hectic, trying couple of months.
I'm hoping that the new year will bring some peace, tranquilty, stability, sanity to us.

We hope that your Christmas and New Year's were wonderful and magical, we did manage to have quite a bit of fun finally! I've got the contests to work on and reviews as well...here's hoping 2012 is less hectic and less drama-filled!
I've added to the "Reading" page already and will get the other updates done this week.

Have a wonderful, wonderful 2012!!!

MathBlaster Review and Giveaway!!

Its September and I have a few giveaways lined up this month while doing some reviews!
Feel free to spread the word about any or all of them as they come along!
First up has been a long time coming.....life kept getting in the way of doing this review but here it finally is:

MathBlaster, from the makers of JumpStart!!

MathBlaster launched this past winter 2011 and we have been enjoying it since spring.
Basically, your child/children become cadets in a space station training, rescuing and saving little critters and the station itself. All while reinforcing their math skills in fast-paced games that require fast answers in order to achieve scores and win races.
Here are some of The Red Rangers favorites - in order:
1) Monster Morph Lab - Excellent for measuring and completing tasks with checklist. Reinforces memory skills. Once you collect the ingredients around the station you make a morph which you then use on your fellow cadets while running around the station, basically "tag, your it" but you don't actually have to chase after them. The Red Ranger just loves changing, sorry morphing, the other players!

The music even reminds me of "Munsters" tv show......lol.

2) Galaxy Grand Prix - A race course where you play, build and run races against fellow cadets.
He loves it because its so fast....mom can barely move on the track without crashing into a wall!

3) Zapper Turret Training - Finally...Math Problems!
The training pod will remind you of Millennium Falcon. You or your child chooses adding/subtraction/combo of +/-, multiplication, division, or a combo of both. Then you choose easy/medium/hard and there are five choices for sums. The math problem is displayed and your student must shoot the correct answer. What's great about it, as with several of the other games, is that it tests your child quickly in the facts in order to progress through the game.

4) B-Force Blaster - Target Practice for points. The Red Ranger loves it because it gives high scores.

He also loves the "Red Alert" siren that goes off where cadets race to one of the turrets to save the station from enemy spacecraft.

There are three other areas that we use for our math studies.
* Hyperblast Training - Cadets race through space tunnels in a vehicle shooting for points, then at certain intervals (I believe there are three creatures) they come upon a many tentacled creature with math problems, you have to solve the problems in order to proceed speeding through the space tube tunnels. This game has the same math choices as the above mentioned Zapper Turret Training.

* Alien Wrangler - Is an Alien Bronco. Your cadet must rapidly answer math problems to stay on the creatures back. It offers the same math choices as Zapper Turret Training and Hyperblast Training.

* The Job Board - Is in the first area cadets enter. It offers many choices in math such as place value, money, fractions and geometric shapes on a conveyor belt, an ooze pit with platforms, rollerball alley and other tasks all while solving the math problems.

There are training areas and they even have to capture little critters (they truly remind me of Tribbles from Star Trek!) that are around the station and place them back into their container.
There's also parental controls for talking with other players with pre-determined phrases.

We have discovered its nice option to our math studies.
We orginally started with the free version after reading about and seeing commercials for the product. Then we were contacted by MathBlaster to do a review of the membership level. Membership not only gives you access to all the cool features above but also gives you secondary membership to the JumpStart Website. You also can have up to 6 children in your home under the one membership, which is a huge plus and each child gets to create their own avatar. The age level is 6-12 years of age.

Now, here's the membership info:
For up to 6 children its either $7.99 monthly, $74.99 Annually or for Lifetime membership $149.99.

However, MathBlaster has given me the chance to giveaway to one of my readers a FREE 3 month full membership!
Here's how you can enter: (For each one please come back and comment so that you can be credited)
1) 1 entry by following my blog.
2) 1 entry by reposting or Tweeting this post.
3) 1 entry per friend if they "follow" me, be sure they mention your name!

Entries close on Saturday, September 17, 2011 and a winner will be chosen by Random.org on Sunday, September 18, 2011.
(Please note that the ending date for this giveaway has been extended 9/17/2011)

Meanwhile you can try the FREE version here: MathBlaster.com 

**DISCLAIMER** ~ I was provided with a membership good for Math Blaster and Knowledge Adventure at no cost by Knowledge Adventure in order to test the products’ abilities and give my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.


We've linked up with other Hip Homeschool Moms, they too are hosting give-aways.
Go check them out!! Hip Homeschool Moms

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Vocabulary/Spelling City...

One of my favorite sites asked for reviewers of their premium membership for my honest review of their site. Hopefully, I won't be too biased about it, you see we've used the free membership for about two years now when it was just Spelling City...I still have a hard time calling it Vocabulary/Spelling City!! In fact this is the same company that sent me 5 vendor hall passes for the ISTE this past July in Philadelphia and I was quite happy to forward two of those passes onto a fellow homeschooler.

So, yes......I (we) love Spelling City but I.....errrrrr....my son, yeah my son....hasn't had the chance yet to use the vocabulary part of the site. I'm.....ahhhhhh.....HE's quite anxious to try it out since playing a bit with it at the ISTE convention.
We, yes we, can't wait to try everything out now. My disclosure is below and this review will be coming up in three weeks.
Meanwhile, you can try the Spelling City functions for free to see if you might be interested in winning a Premium Membership later.
Oh....and its not just for homeschoolers by the way. There are a lot of school spelling lists and you can easily add your child's spelling list from your homeschool or public school to give the kids a different and fun way of learning and testing themselves. The link for their site is below the disclosure information.

Disclosure:

I've been given a premium membership to VocabularySpellingCity.com for  a candid, personal, online review.

VocabularySpellingCity.com helps students study word lists using 25  different learning activities such as MatchIt Sentences, HangMouse,  and Word-O-Rama.  Parents can create their own spelling lists, find published lists already available on the  site, or use any of dozens of  free  teaching resources on topics such as analogies and compound words.  Be sure to come back in three weeks to  read about my experience.
There might be more  free memberships available for bloggers.  If you're interested, find out  how you can review  VocabularySpellingCity.com.

http://www.spellingcity.com/

Best laid plans.....HAH!

Life is what happens when you are busy making plans....

Oh, so true!
Today was going to be all about telling and sharing pictures of our first two days of 3rd grade with you...Ahem, WAS going to be...
Instead, a virus wiped out my laptop - along with ALL of the lessons I JUST got organized -

We do have the next two days off, because DH is off from work and we will pick things back up on Friday. By then I hope to have some of the stuff back that I need and I'll share the next installment of the "Not Back to School Hop", which is a peek inside our classroom. I can however still do the MathBlaster review and giveaway because I need DH computer anyway for that. So, check back tomorrow or Thursday for that.

Right  now, I'm going to go kick "Life" in the butt.....

Curriculum Week 2011 - Not Back To School Blog Hop

Its time for a new homeschool year, we are actually starting this coming Monday, August 8th. Its also time for the Not Back To School Blog Hop from Heart of the Matter Online.

Week 1 is Curriculum week and here is what we've chosen this year for third grade for our son.

Base Comprehensive Curriculum - Learn at Home, grade 3 and Flashkids grade 3 (from B&N).
Math - Math U See Foundations (finishing up) into Gamma series. And MathBlaster Website.
Grammar - Finishing Easy Grammar Daily Guided for 2nd/3rd Grades, then starting Easy Grammar and Daily Grams 3rd and 4th Grade.
History - Story of the World - all volumes with Activity Guides, calendar/holiday led and Historical Timeline.
Reading - Finishing McGuffey's 1st Reader to be followed with McGuffey's 2nd Reader. Also, Thomas Jefferson Education Classics (TJED) and Learn at Home weekly curriculum reading (LAH).
Spelling - McGuffey's Reader's and Vocabulary/Spelling City Website.
Vocabulary - Seasonal/Monthly and LAH.
Geography - USA and World/Country studies through various sources. 
 Science - LAH and Supercharged Science website.

**For some FREE online science lessons you can use this link:
401 Science Activity Manual and Video Collection ($30 value)
http://www.sciencelearningspace.com/members/go.php?r=5556&i=l23

***Or you can order the whole thing from this link:

Try e-Science - 30-day money-back guarantee

We started both Math U See and Easy Grammar programs recently and found that they really work beautifully with the LAH and Flashkids base curriculum's. The Red Ranger also wants to learn cursive writing so we have a couple of books to start using to see how it all goes. We also have lots of supplemental materials to work with but that's for another week's blog.
I'll also be adding more on both the Mathblaster website, including a giveaway and Vocabulary/Spelling City.
Both sites offer free content for you and your children to try out. If you are interested then I'll be having that giveaway for Mathblaster, which is a full 3 month subscription coming up soon.

Next week is School Room Week in the blog hop. Have a look and join in.

I have a few pictures to share but we still are waiting on a couple of books to be delivered so here is what we have so far.

Learn At Home Series Week 1 - All Subjects

   

Join the blog hop!