Happy Holidays from My Family to yours !!

 

 We are still on Holiday break but plan to do a few writing activities this week along with some reading, but not too much.  I want the girls and us to enjoy the Holidays together and plan to do a few fun things. The city of Mobile is famous for it's annual Moon Pie drop at midnight on New Year's eve and even has National coverage. Can you believe that? So we may go watch the Moon Pie drop and the fireworks show this year, it all depends on the weather. En Vogue is also supposed to put on a concert as well.

As far as school goes,  I have been planning a bit for the upcoming month and looking for new curriculum for the girls in the way of Sciences, Math, Social Studies and Geography.  Learning is a never ending process and it's time to add a few new subjects, change a few things and try out  something different as well. I'm hoping to take this blog in a new direction in the coming month and possibly share a few product reviews with you. So check back soon. We plan to return back to our normal schedule on January 3rd, 2016. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that you have wonderful plans for the New Year. 

HomeSchooling Handbook for Moms and RoseArt Markers Review

Okay so the Roseart markers came from Amazon on the 10th and they are magnificent. I adore them. The colors are vibrant and yes, there are 100 different colors just as the box says. They color smoothly on the paper and are washable. But only one set back...they bleed through the paper. :(

Here is a coloring page that I started in my Homeschooling Handbook for Moms. The Pictures in the book are amazing and I love coloring. I am so glad that there are coloring pages mixed in the book so I can take some time to color with the girls when they are doing their school work and coloring too. :) 

And here is the backside of the page. I don't know if you can tell what the page is from the picture, but it's the Mom's Illustrated To-Do List that I just wrote my To-Do list in the frames .... And the markers bled through the page and on to the following page as well.... which is a Menu Planning page aka a recipe Page ...

So although the markers are fabulous and we will continue to utilize them, I think I will use them else where instead of our Journals and Handbooks unless it's absolutely necessary that we have to use the markers in our books :).

Enough about the Markers.... Let's get into the real nitty gritty, the Homeschooling Handbook for Moms. Oh My Goodness! What a fantastic book this is ! I do not know where to begin. First off, I need to check out my books from the library, which I have yet to do (I know, I am so bad and a procrastinator) but I have been so busy with the girls and feeling bad and other things that I have yet to have time to. But I have jumped right in and started with my book in other ways. :) This book is packed to the gills with all of us Mom's need to keep us on track in our daily lives...from planning meals, planning tasks with the kids, planning fun and educational ideas, daily journaling, prayers, ideas, thoughts....ugh, I could go on, but....then I'd spoil all the F-U-N for you. ;) You really just need to check this book out for yourself. I have written down recipes, planned meals, recorded ideas for Fun outings and websites and apps to check out, book lists the girls should read, colored pages in between and done exactly what the subtitle of the book suggests ... Taught By Example. My girls see me with my book and they pull out a book of theirs and sit with me, or they see me coloring and they come grab a coloring pencil and have a chat for a moment or two and help out :) I LOVE it. It's amazing. But don't just take my word for it, go grab one for your self and you will open a magic door or window of infinite possibilities in to your homeschooling world as well.  You can pick up a copy at Amazon here.

Eclectic and Creative Homeschooling

Wow, January 2014 was the last time I posted to this blog.... well let me catch you up a bit. We are still homeschooling the girls. And lots has been going on with me. My pain and migraines have continues to worsen. I have 2 bad disks in my neck that cause me great discomfort, numbness in my hands and pain in my shoulders, neck...and of course migraines. I also have pain in my hips and back. So I forget a lot of things and I guess this blog was one of them. Anyway, life moves on.

I wanted to get back to my blog and write a bit about a book I came across by accident . It's called :

Homeschooling for Girls - Winter Homeschooling Journal - Eclectic Curriculum for Artists and Writers: This 60 Day Homeschooling Workbook Covers Eight ... Ages 9 to 17 (Homeschooling Girls) (Volume 3) 

 

 

By the wonderful and talented author Sarah Janisse Brown. You can find her website here  and you will definitely want to check out her facebook page. She and her family are really active on the page and offer lots of great tips and giveaways. 

Anyway, the Winter Homeschooling Journal is totally awesome ! My girls get bored quite easily and so I came across a link some where to Sarah's books and did a bit of looking in to it and so I ordered the girl's each their own copy of the Winter Journal. I am so happy I did. The girls took to it right away. The book allows them the freedom to choose what they want to learn about by choosing 8 topics to start off with. Then you go to the library, choose books, videos, audio books, etc...all of the materials needed to get started and you are set. All you need to have your kids do is read a bit each day, complete 5-6 pages from the Journal a day, along with their other curriculum of course, and they are good to go. 

 
The Winter Journal has really changed our homeschooling experience. My girls were lacking that luster and desire for their lessons and when I gave them the Winter book it was like a light was turned on. They now complete their daily lessons, are more excited about learning and actually do more on their own than they were willing to do in the past.

My girls love their books. The pages are filled with areas to do their writing, be creative, doodle, and color.  I ordered the Spring Journal to give to the girls for Christmas gifts. And their Grandmother ordered one of the Math books for them for Christmas as well. Which I also won a copy from one of the Facebook giveaways (how awesome is that? now the girls will each have their own copy and not have to share).  I just gave the girls a nice set of coloring pencils and ordered an inexpensive set of markers from Amazon as well, by Rose Art (click on link to be redirected)

 I wanted an inexpensive set the girls could share that offered a large variety of colors and that we could try out on the pages in our Journals and in one of the Coloring books that we also own by Sarah as well, titled, A Tiny Treasury of Favorite Things: To Color When You Are Feeling Bad (Purse Sized Coloring Books - Therapeutic, Comforting & Inspirational for Ages 9 to Adult ) (Volume 1) that I received to review.  Once we receive the markers I will write a review on the blog about them and how well they hold up on the pages of the journals and coloring book and will take photos of the journals to share as well. First I need to find my camera battery ( I took it out to charge it but I can't find where I put it , LOL).

You can click on all of the hyperlinks throughout the blog to view more about Sarah, see her website, facebook page, view the books on Amazon and more. I am in no way affiliated with Amazon, or was paid to write a review . I purchased the Winter Journal myself and wanted to share my thoughts on the book with others and how it has helped my girls and our homeschooling experience to grow.

I hope this blog post has been helpful to you and that you will too find Sarah's books as delightful as we do. I hope you will give them a try and that you will also hop on over to her Facebook page and say HI. Tell her I sent you, Jennifer Fraunfelder.  

Many Blessings to you all and Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah !

Snow Day !! Tuesday AND Wednesday ?

It doesn't happen too often here on the Gulf Coast so when it does everything and I mean EVERYTHING  shuts down. Stores, roads, services, schools... you name it... it's closed. But when you home school, then that's a different story. LOL We just took a Snow Day on Friday I think it was. I let the girls have the day off. No snow though, only sleet, freezing rain and really cold temperatures. But close enough. So we spent the day in our PJ's, cuddled in our blankets, watching Netflix or playing Minecraft. 

Today, however, I have a few activities planned for the girls

1. Cave Art Paintings on Brown paper bags - an art activity to finish chapter 1 Story of the World
2. Read Chapter 2 Story of the World
3. Visit Discovery Kids - Play the Mummy Maker game
4. Wrap a Mummy Project
5. Work on Birthday gifts and for Papa
6. Math
7. Science-Cells
8. Geography
9. Art History

So school work will continue as planned except instead of extending the History lesson out throughout the week, I am going to utilize the 2 days that the girls will be stuck inside due to it being too cold to go out and play and let them do more hands on arts/crafts activities. They love it when we do the project portion of lessons and so it will give them lots to do, and break periods as well so they can do bits and pieces here and there , at their own pace.

I can't wait to see how all of these projects turn out. But we are also really excited to see if we actually get SNOW !! and how much we get when and if we do get it. So keeping our fingers crossed, wishing for a winter wonderland, at least for a moment.

Now go learn something and stay warm !
xxoo
Jennifer

Our Curriculum

Aside from the #1 question of "Why did you choose to home school? many home schooling parents often are faced with the question of "What home school curriculum do you use with your children?" So today I am going to share what we are using with our 2 geniuses: Emily and Ella .

Both girls use the same materials but I do supplement other materials as I see fit according to their strengths and weaknesses.

All Subjects

• Learning Aisle

www.learningaisle.com
Free Curriculum for all subjects. The girls enjoy going through the information and taking the quizzes. There are some errors with the quizzes but we manage to make it through them or skip over the issues. This website covers everything from Math, Social Studies, Science (all areas) and Language Arts. 

Math  (Supplemented with other work books and library books)

• Math Skills Grade 3

• Math Skills Grade 4

History : My girls LOVE Story of the World. The Stories are entertaining and easy to understand from a child's point of view. I wish History was this entertaining when I was in school. I probably would have enjoyed it more ... so it's a GREAT thing I am home schooling because I get to do it all over again, because I am enjoying it now ; with them and through them. The activities are fun and exciting and the girls can not wait to do the next lesson and hear and read the the next story.  And Yes, I do the lessons with them and Yes! I said HEAR ! We have 1 copy of the main text and I read the stories to the girls. They are old enough to read to themselves but I read the stories aloud to them, they read aloud, they read to themselves, but they love it when I read the stories to them. We all learn together. It's a super fun way to interact and we all get the History lessons , Together. Isn't that the main reason to home school in the first place? Family Education in a loving, wholesome, caring environment :) ?

• Story of the World Volume 1

• Story of the World Volume 1 Activity Book

• Story of the World Volume 1 Tests Booklet (I use this more not for testing purposes but for review questions).

• Mobile Museum of History (Annual Members)

Science

• The Nature Connection: An Outdoor Family Workbook for Kids, Families, and Classrooms

• Hands on Ecology: Real-Life Activities for Kids

• www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/science/otters_science/science_human_body.html (supplemented with library reading materials and other resources per the internet, Netflix, etc to build a strong lesson plan and unit study)

I had so much saved on my hard drive that I need another hard drive or need to go through and weed out what I do not need to make room for more. LOL :)

But as i mentioned in my post yesterday, I am still searching for that perfect Science curriculum and I think I found what I am looking for but affordability keeps me from being able to be able to use it. So for now, this is what we are going to start using in our home.

But this is what I would really love to use for my girls, Real Science Odyssey. It has exactly what I am looking for in a Science curriculum for both girls and covers everything from Life Science through Space through Chemistry.  I contacted the Publisher or author over a week ago in hopes that they would perhaps donate a copy but I have yet to hear anything back from them. So if you are reading this RSO or you know RSO or Pandia Press :) check your email , I'm waiting.

Writing/Reading/Language Arts

• You Can Write a Story (I won this book from a huge giveaway from Knowledge Quest. Awesome book)

• Complete Year in Reading and Writing:Grade 3:Daily Lessons-Monthly Units-Yearlong Calender

Geography

• A Child's Geography: Explore the Classical World Volume 3 (I actually won this book from Knowledge Quest, so glad I did, it's amazing)

• www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/category/geography

• Workbooks, Maps, Encyclopedias, Currclick, Unit Studies, Puzzles, Games, Note booking

• World Geography

• USA Geography

• Winter Olympics Unit Study (Beginning Feb. 7, 2014)

Arts and Crafts/Music-Composers

• Craft-a-Day:365 Simple Handmade Projects by Sarah Goldschadt (Library book we absolutely LOVE this book. We check this book out regularly and have this on our Wishlist at Amazon.com to purchase soon)

• Mobile Museum of Art (Free Thursdays-Admission is Free on Thursday. We frequent our local Art museum regularly)

• Mobile Public Library and Centre for Living Arts (Monthly Art Project) - Art and artist study/book.

• Cave Paintings to Picasso: The Inside Scoop on 50 Art Masterpieces

• Pinterest, Currclick, Unit Studies, Library, Encyclopedia

Extracurricular/Health/Physical Education

• Family Time Fitness (curriculum/program)
• Leslie Sansone (walking in home)
• Minecraft Club
• Tween/Teen Girls Club
• American Girls Book Club
• Mother/Daughter Book Club
• 4H Junior Gardeners Club
• YMCA Home school Swimming

So there you have it. It may seem a bit disorganized. But This is what we use for the most part and the girls are happy with it. We visit our local History and Art museum on a regular basis. And take advantage of other educational programs around town that are Free and affordable.

This year we hope to be able to sign the girls up for more extracurricular activities and get them more involved in clubs.

This is only our 2nd year home schooling and as time goes by you learn what fits and what doesn't, who likes what, and so you just go with the flow. The excellent thing about home schooling though, is you can pick and choose what ever "flavor" of curriculum you like. Not everyone has to use the same old boring text book. But so far, we are using the same books with both girls and it is working out. Last year, our first year, we had different books for both girls.

Make your home school your home school . And make it a Happy one and a Happy Home.
Now go Learn something !

xxoo
Jennifer

Memory and Passwords ....

I can never remember my password to login once I can actually get in on this website. I have such a hard time finding my blog in the first place. I mean, I do have the link tucked away on my facebook page so I can easily access it and come back to it to update it ... but once I get back here I either can not access it for loss of password due to memorization of issues with this google + thing. Ugh ! It's so confusing.

 BUT !!!! I am here now... and that is what counts . :)

So lets see.... what have we been up to lately . The weather has been quite amazing. We go from one extreme to the next. Recently we literally had a 70 degree day and then the next day we were barely out of the 30s for the highs. Crazy huh?

The girls are doing great. I found these awesome Math Skills workbooks on Amazon.com that are easier than what we had been attempting to use. We had been stuck in our math work for a while and so we put it on the back burner for some time (too long I think) and now with these new work books that I found, we are moving right along. They are perfect. They are not filled with all the fluff and jumbled up with too much artwork and colorful graphics as some workbooks are. Nor are they overly written to the point that you become exhausted and confused . They are straight forward, to the point and basic. Just the way math should be taught. And the girls finally got it ! The lessons we were stuck on in the other texts and work books I had struggled with in teaching them , They Got ! It was one of those A Ha ! moments for both of the girls once we started using these work books. So I am completely satisfied. So far.

 We ordered both the 3rd and the 4th grade work books and both of the girls are working out of the 3rd grade work books for now but at different sections for now.
This company also carries other subjects such as Language Arts and Reading Comprehension and a Complete Comprehensive Curriculum workbook up to the 6th grade level. I plan on picking up the single subject workbooks as well as the comprehensive work books for next school year.

I have still been searching for a Science curriculum for the girls. Yes, still. (if you are reading this and you can recommend one or are a publisher and would like to send yours for a review, email me ) . I some how came across a blog post regarding a book by Colleen Kessler titled

Hands-On Ecology: Real-Life Activities for Kids

 

So I picked this book up from Amazon.com and in 2 days time it arrived. I just received it last night so today I plan to start reading through it and building a few unit studies and lesson plans for the girls around this book. The girls love hands on activities and so this will be right up their alley and combined with the 4H Junior Gardeners Club that they will start going to next week (meeting was cancelled this week, today due to the cold weather), I figure I have enough material to build a nice little Science curriculum.  So I will report back once we get started. 

I hope that your New Years holiday and Christmas were both filled with lots of love and happiness. I know ours here were just that. Aside from catching a cold and spending New Year's in bed for the most part, I did win a 1 Night's stay to a local Hotel (the Holiday Inn down town) for the Moon Pie drop and festivities ... which I will tell you more about that in an upcoming post and share photos. :) So until next time.... 

Happy Home Schooling !

Now Go Learn Something,

xxoo

Jennifer

Home School Giveaways I have won....(yes a few, 5 to be exact !) Part 1

     Fall is here... well almost. And Living here on the Gulf Coast as soon as the temps get below the 85 mark fall is finally here ! And this past week the weather has been marvelous. So lots has been going on lately. We have had lots and lots of activities on our calender and I have yet again avoided blogging. (so hard to keep up with, I have no idea how some of you do it, I commend you all for your many, many blog posts). We have been to the museum repeatedly, the library, joined the home school girls only tween/teen club, joined the home school mine craft club, attended the home school board game club, won a few home school giveaways (yes a few, 5 to be exact !) and joined in with the recent Family Time Fitness 90 Day Family Weight Loss Challenge. So Lots on our plates along with our daily lives, home schooling and what ever else we have to add to our calenders. :) So I have lots and lots of photos happenings to share so where do I start ??? I know... Let's start with the giveaways... that's always exciting.

Giveaways I have won

 

     I do not consider myself a lucky person when it comes to winning anything, if I did, I would drive across the state line over to Pensacola, FL.,  it's about an hour's drive East from here, and purchase a lottery ticket and then we would be living the high life. Or in the words of the great George Jefferson we'd be "moving on up... to the East side". LOL.

     First up, (In August) I won a cute fold-able lap desk from HearthSong Foldable Lap Desks sponsored by Becky over at This Reading Mama  .The girls love it and have gotten so much use out of it. Especially Ella. She loves to use it when she's drawing. She likes to watch You Tube cartoons and sketch them. And Emily likes to put the lap top on it, on the bed and multitask. So it has come in pretty handy. It's super light weight, opens up with a compartment to store supplies and perhaps a few small texts/workbooks and papers. And it's portable, so you can take it along with you . We have yet to take it with us any where, but I am sure we will one of these days.

 

 



     Next up (September 3), I was reading through my emails and and I come across my email from The Homemaker's Mentor asking for short testimonial on what you think of The Homemaker's Mentor lessons you've received from them so far and how a collection of Homemaker's Mentor lessons like this would
be an encouragement to you. So in celebration of their upcoming new release of their Limited Edition CD , they decided to give FIVE copies of their CD away. So I was one of those lucky 5 !

     The CD just arrived last week and it has tons of lessons on it. You can take a peak of what's on the CD here
It will surely come in handy for home-ec lessons and just basic recipe needs and everyday household tips. I simply love it.



    3 more to go.... I will make this a 2 part post... so yep, there's 3 more to go. 2 that are really big ones.
So stay tuned....

     Now go learn something ... unless you are up late like I am.... Go to bed sleepy head.
Jennifer

(I am in no way affiliated with HearthSong, The Homemaker's Mentor or This Reading Mama. I am just blogging and keeping record of my homeschooling adventures with my 2 daughters as we go through our daily lives and wanted to share our recent and very exciting homeschool giveaway winnings all while giving credit where credit is due)