E is for EXCITED!

It's been a super awesome week here at my house!

A few updates for you.  We named our school!  We are now The Halls of Learning.  Seems appropriate since our last name is Hall.  I even made the kids their own ID cards - complete with school logo.  Laminated them and everything.  That actually happened a couple weeks back but I'm just now getting around to writing about it here.  It's much more fun to order things for our "school" now that it's named.  LOL.

So, this week I went to the local Classical Conversations parent practicum.  In the spring, I ordered the Foundations guide, the History Cards and the Cycle 1 items that compliment the curriculum.  We enjoyed it but we were doing it on our own without participating in the local co-op.  We visited the co-op one day and decided it would likely be a good fit for our family.  To be honest, in order for me to be able to afford the fee I needed to sign up to tutor.  Luckily for me, they had a space for me. 

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I went to the parent practicum in the morning and tutor training in the afternoon.  I'm even more excited about the program now than I was before!  I have some new tools to help drill my children on the information and I have a new desire to give my children a classical education.  Frankly, I think I'm going to finally get an education too.  I was schooled before but now I'm going to get educated.  There is so much to learn and my feeble old brain is pretty excited to tackle it all. 

While I was in all this training, my kids were all in camps.  They did educational things in the camps but they had a LOT of fun.  All three of my kids came home talking about new friends and fun projects.  It was $33 per kid to participate in the camps for 3 days.  Eleven bucks a day.  Wow.  I couldn't have hired a sitter for all that - much less expected the level of education and entertainment that they got. 

Now - another fun thing I've heard about but recently started to explore...  WORKBOXES!  I know, they are all the rage and you've already heard about them, haven't you.  Well, I've been up LATE these last two nights searching the internet about this.  I won't do a big write up about them because there is so much else out there that is far better to explain the process.  But - in all your workbox searching - make sure you check out this list.

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/workbox.php

Many ideas of things to put in your workboxes.  Mostly for early elementary ages. 

I'm really looking forward to seeing the lady who started the whole phenomenon talk about it at the homeschool convention that is coming to my area in two weeks.  Wanna join me? 

The lady who started it all is Sue Patrick.  And the convention where I will be attending and she will be speaking is the Northern Virginia Home Education Conference that will take place in Chantilly Virginia on July 9-10.  I can't wait!

Personally, I'm going to start saving my pennies to buy some workboxes from Joann's with my coupouns.  I intend to buy these because I think they will serve my space and my needs best.

http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/productdetail.jsp?pageName=search&flag=true&PRODID=zprd_02348241a

I'm super excited about this method of planning my school day and helping my kid(s) get the most bang for their school day buck. 

My intention is to start our school day with bible reading, family story time, and Classical Conversations drill/review before sending the children to their boxes for the remainder of the day. 

I'm super charged about the opportunity to sit down (in two weeks) to plan our our next six week cycle.  I've decided to plan our school year to be year round in six week cycles.  Six real weeks on and one light week while Mom plans the next six weeks.  That's how I'm tackling it right now.  As with all homeschool planning, plan for change too!  LOL.  Anyway, we're getting into our groove still as we're so new to this adventure.  But I'm totally excited!!

Cheers!

Egg-cellent experiments

Looking for some fun science to share with your kiddos this summer? Try this site to see what you can find. I heard about it from my friend Anna-Marie. I'm going to try some with my crew!

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000023

She suggested "go under the section related experiments to find the egg in the bottle trick."

Will do! Thanks!

Peace

It's been a rough day here at my house. Eventually, after the morning bickering died down, I got some workbooks out for Ashlee and Mason while Case was at kindergarten. That helped. Then I got out the Crayola Crayon Maker. That helped a LOT. After the bus came, we all went outside where it went back down hill for awhile. What can I say, it's been a rough day. I think they didn't get enough sleep over the big weekend and they still haven't caught up.

But then, God decided to smile on me for a few minutes. And he gave me this. This scene above. Ahhh....

Now, if you'll excuse me... I'm going to put my children in bed.

Home manager

I don't know about you but I really need to get a handle on this job of mine. I went to Costco on Saturday and spent $236. Doesn't sound so bad to some people I know but I went over the budget my husband sent me with.

Yes, I bought a rice cooker that I could have done without. However, I've been talking about a rice cooker for ages and I decided that was the day to get it. (Along with 25 lbs. of rice.) In addition I bought a shelter umbrella thing (http://sklz.com/umbrella/sport-brella?gclid=CInarbHJ2aECFY9M5QodjzQgIg) which is something I tried to buy last year but they were sold out. (PS - they are $40 at Costco versus $60 that I've seen everywhere else.)

SO, yes... I could have saved $70 from that purchase total but I don't think I was extravagant in my purchases. Everything else was food and household management. Now that I've gone over budget, I don't have any cash for the regular old grocery run that I might need to make.

It is time for me to figure out how to build up a pantry (in the basement) for a longer term supply of items than just one week's worth. Buying groceries at Giant one week at a time is expensive. We went on Friday and bought about two days worth of food and spend over $100! That's crazy.

Soo... on my hunt for ideas I've found The Frugal Girl's blog. (http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/) She seems to have some good ideas that I'm going to try. But if you have any other sites or ideas about helping me get our food budget under control and how to manage my home more effectively, PLEASE SHARE! I need to know.

Wordly Wise 3000

Before our homeschool adventure began, I'd purchased a comprehensive 3rd grade curriculum to "try out" homeschooling my daughter over the summer between second and third grade. Turns out, I began using it sooner than I'd originally thought.

I can't really complain about the curriculum I purchased but when it came to the spelling/vocabulary words it provided as a comprehensive list for my child, it was *way* too easy for her. Even half way through second grade, it did nothing to challenge her.

Last night I was reading through another homeschool blog (http://www.fivejs.com/) where she mentioned using Wordly Wise 3000. I went off to check it out and discovered it might be a good fit for my child. I ordered the third grade workbook, key and test booklets on ebay for about $25 including shipping.

You can find out more about this program at http://intervention.schoolspecialty.com/products/details.cfm?series=2818M

I guess the parent company who makes this curriculum also makes Explode the Code. I've heard good things about that too - although I haven't investigated that yet. One thing I really like is that on the page I listed above, under downloads, you can find a word list by level of each word used in the program. In addition to that, you can visit http://www.wordlywise3000.com/ where you can go through each lesson with your child and then play games. Both of these options are free! Gotta love that.

Ashlee and I sat through the lesson on line for Book 2 lesson 1 today. It was short enough to hold her attention but long enough to go over 9 or 10 vocabulary words while requiring the child to repeat the word aloud and then answer a yes/no, true/false, a) or b) style question about each word covered. My four year old was also interested in the lesson which I thought was pretty cool.

I think I'm going to make some 3x5 cards with all the words from Book 2 and their definitions and play with that until my Book 3 gets here.

I love finding new quality material out there! I hope you find it useful too - even if you don't end up buying the books.

Cheers!

Bippity Boppity Boutique

While at Disney last month, I'd hoped to take my daughter to the Bippity Boppity Boutique. It never worked out but while at Downtown Disney she became a princess anyway. We stood just outside the boutique and Alessandra sprinkled my girl with fairy dust and said the magic words and she became a princess right before my eyes! It was one of those moments that I'll treasure when I remember the trip. Thank you Alessandra - wherever you are.

Break Free

Don't be afraid to be among the first to break free. Raise your head and stand apart from the crowd.