Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers: Making Curriculum Work for You

Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers: Making Curriculum Work for You: "It can be easy to allow yourself to become a slave to your homeschool curriculum or to waste time and money trying to find the perfect curri..."

Regency Dresses

Starting in August, a few of Scottlyn's and Shalyn's friend came over to sew Regency Dresses together. They finished them last week and went to a local tea house for lunch in them. Here are a few pictures:

It was a joy to help guide them as they learned to sew.

Growing in Christ,

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13

The Mystery of HIStory Vol. II

This year we are continuing on with The Mystery Of HIStory in Vol. II.

You can read about Vol. I, the beginning of the year here and the end of the year here.

We are continuing using the audio CD's, that make is so much easier on me. Why? you may ask, I have a hard time pronouncing words. I can get so stressed out about it.

This year a I went ahead and printted out all the timeline figures from Homeschool in the Woods.

We are using them for:

1. School Room Time Line
2. Personal Time Line book from Sunlight
3. Timeline 3x5 cards

Also printed out and in a 3 ring binder is all the worksheets/ maps.

Having all of that printed out ahead of time, will bless our school year.

For our classroom timeline board, we used an Elmer's 40x60 Foam Board. Colored duck tape is used for the timeline line's.

Words can not express what a blessing our History time has become by using The Mystery of HIStory. If you haven't picked out your history program yet , I encourage you to give this a try. Thanks so much for visiting.

Growing in Christ,

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13

Not Back to School Blog Hop: Student Photo Week

Welcome to our "Not Back to School Blog Hop: Student Photo Week"

It was FUN to take some quick snap shots during the first week of school. Below are a few pictures together and them of the girls by themselves.

Well, I guess we need to get back to school (wink,wink).

Thanks for visiting us!!!!

In HIS Mighty LOVE,

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13

Not Back to School Blog Hop: School Room Week

Last weeks Blog Hop was educational . . . I want to tweak a few things we have planned.

A few years ago over here I updated our school room. It works so well for us. The BRIGHT LIGHTS and HUGE work space lets us spread out and dig into what ever we are studding. Below is a picture of what our school table looks like in the school room this year.

One NEW thing we started at the end of last year is a binder for each subject. Each girl has their own shelf and their own color notebooks.

Not pictures is the area when you first walk into the room. Last school year we had a piano in the space. We have moved the piano into the next room and now have a sewing work station set up. Both girls are spending time learning how to sew.
A BIG thank you to everyone over at Heart of the Matter for hosting this event. You can visit more school room tours this week here.

In HIS Mighty LOVE,

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13

Back to School . . .

It's CRAZY I know . . . . We were all EXCITED to get back to school. The first day of school is always special for our family. For the past two years the girls had wanted Homeschool T-shirts to wear on field trips and other places we may go during any given school week. Vista print let me design our very own. They were having buy 1 get 1 FREE a few weeks back. On the front it said: Homeschool Princess! and on the back it has our school bible verse: All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13 Plus in the flowers, they are just about every color there is . . . so it can go just about anything.

Here are the girls in them:

I always try to find surprises for them to make their school year FUN. Last year it was a simple thing as paper clips in FUN shapes. This year it was new containers to put their school supplies in. To dress them up I found some adorable puppy dog stickers.

Here is Shalyn's:

Here is Scottlyn's:

In HIS Mighty Love,

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13

Not Back to School Blog Hop: Curriculum Week

WOW . . . last year was so much FUN!!! Looking forward to the next four weeks of the Not Back to School Blog Hop. Our topic this week is Curriculum.

What Works for us:

For bible, I take each girl out weekly for one on one bible study with Mommy. We spend a little over a hour studying God's word together over a cup of tea.

Abeka Arithmetic 4th grade for Shalyn

Wordly Wise 3000 worked so well for Scottlyn that both girls will be using it this year

Spelling Work Out (this is our 3rd year using it :)

The Mystery of HIStory Volume II – The Early Church and the Middle Ages

Whats NEW:

Learning Language Arts Through Literature: The Orange Book & The Green Book

G.U.M. Drops for 4th & 7th grade

Trail Guide to World Geography , Geography Through Art & Eat Your Way Around the World

IEW: Student Writing Intensive Level B

IEW: Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons, 2nd Edition (Teacher/Student Combo) †

Shalyn:

Zoology 1

ART 1 hour a day

Scottlyn:

Apologia General Science

Saxon Algebra 1/2, 3rd Edition w/DIVE

Fundamentals of Piano Theory

Piano 2 hours a day

One day a week as a mother helper for 3 hours

My prayer for this school year:

Lord,

Thank you for this blessing to teach my children at home. I know that you have in trusted me with them. May I honor you in all that I do. Please guide me through this year. Help me to better understand my girls so that I can meet their needs in all areas: spiritually, physical, mental and emotional. Lord, I believe that you have a purpose for them, may this year draw them closer to you. I rest my hopes for them in Your hands and ask that You continue to keep my family humble, growing stronger daily in our love for You.

In HIS Mighty Love,

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13

The Mystery of History Vol.1 end of year timeline.

Well we did it . . . we finished history for the school year a few weeks ago. Let me just brag about how wonderful the curriculum for The Mystery of History is. Easy to use, FUN and exciting.It retold major stories from the Bible in the order that they happened alongside significant world history events and figures. Here are links to back when we started last fall and then when we got Mummified. I wanted to share with you our end of the year time line. The read string is the genealogy of Jesus. Cool stuff:

Have a blessed day,

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13

A Lady in the making . . .

In our family all birthday's start off when you first wake up to the family singing "Happy Birthday" to you in bed. Our oldest daughter Scottlyn tuned 11 this month.

She has turned into a wonderful pianist this year and asked for a piano cake . .

We were down at my parents home for the weekend and took her to her favorite Mexican restaurant . . she got the hat there.

Here she is blowing out the candles . . . .

What a pretty smile she has . . .

She was blessed with an iTouch from her Maw Maw and Paw Paw. Her Grammie and Papa gave her the purse with her initial on it. Plus it was filled with some CA$H in it. She will spend some of it one books from her favorite book store.

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13

Art: Spring 2010

Back in January the girls started taking weekly Art Classes every Tuesday afternoon. Their teacher was a retired High School Art Teacher. Mrs. Mendyk is very gifted . . . a blessing to us all. Shalyn and her had a special bond this season with their love of Art. Below are two slide shows of the girls art work:

Photo album personalized with Smilebox

Personalize a photo album

Mrs. Mendyk hosted an Art show at her home where all her students were able to exhibit their work they have done over the past several months. Here is a picture of her and all her students.

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13

Scottlyn's piano concert . . .

Just wanted to share Scottlyn playing at the mall this past Saturday . . . hope you enjoy it.

Have a bless day!!

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13

Christmas Gifts from the Kitchen

Here is an idea that has been tossing around in my head that I wanted to share with you.

Every CHRISTmas the girls and I bake cookies for my husband to take to his work. We make little cookie bags, filled with a dozen for each one of his employees. Along with a sample tray to go onto the break room table. We do one main cookie and then on the sample tray we put that cookie along with cheese straws & fudge. This year I am thinking about making mini bunt cakes instead of cookies. Doing 3 min cakes per bag/box. Then for the tray do mini cupcake's of the same three mini bunt cakes, along with the cheese straws and fudge. So here are the the recipes we are leaning towards:

Chocolate Velvet "Pound Cake"

Zesty Lemon Pound Cake

Mini Raspberry Snow Cakes

I should also add that we make enough for the mail women, piano teacher, and a few of our neighbors. So tell me what you will be baking this coming CHRISTmas, or if you have a recipe: PLEASE share.

Blessings,

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13