The Plans of Mice and Men (and moms)...

Once again, I spent some time this summer tweaking the school room and the basic plans for curriculum and schedule and such. I thought we were ready to move into the official school year. Apparently, Baker was not as ready as I though or maybe he is just being ornery. For the past two weeks, he has spent quite a bit of time on the laundry room stairs. The Lord really encouraged me the past few days with similar stories from other moms. I have spent quite a bit of time in prayer for me and for my son. As you can imagine, I have delayed getting this post up because I have been so worn out. All you mommas that school more than one child, my hat is off to you. To think about having a sibling around that Baker would feed off and vice versa, I'd probably throw in the towel. LOL!

Here are the pix of our spiffed up room. We found out that Baker is just slightly nearsighted so he now has a lamp on his desk since good lighting will help him see more clearly. I have built a break into the morning which seems to help us. We are continuing with the work box system. It has been such a tremendous blessing to us.

I am loving the "morning meeting" board that has his memory work, calendar, a critical thinking activity, visual art from our artist of the month and our We Choose Virtues card. It has made it easy for me to incorporate some of these things that I have and probably would continue to forget to do - namely, critical thinking and learning about the artist.

The art card that you see on the board is from the Usborne decks, "Famous Paintings" and "Impressionist Paintings". There is information about the artist and the style on the back of each card. It's a mini art course in a deck. Let me know if you want to order. We are loving them.

The We Choose Virtues card has been a great introduction to our curriculum. Right now we're doing one a week. The back of the card has a clear definition of the virtue and a verse. We review it every day. I downloaded the coloring book so we are making a book as we go. For every virtue, there is a color sheet followed by a page with the verse in cursive that he traces (I use abcteach.com to make those).  He even hugged his "book" to himself one day and said, "I love my virtues book!". Granted he was disobeying within a few minutes but now I know we are deliberately working towards better behavior. To purchase these materials for your family or church, use "AMY" at checkout to get $8 off the flash cards. The coloring book is $1. The teacher manual is now in a downloadable format for $4.99. The fridge poster is on sale and it's one our fridge so the material is in front of us all the time.

I love seeing your home school spots so please share!

School without Usborne books?!?!? NEVER!

(Yes, this will be a "shameless promotion". But, I can't help it.) 

I began using Usborne books for school before I became a consultant. I was trying desperately to keep up with our Classical Education group without Usborne books and realized quickly that I really did need the Ancient History Encyclopedia and some geography books. So, I ordered a few. Right after that, I saw a once-in-a-lifetime consultant sign up offer. I thought about it for a few days then jumped in with both feet and have never looked back.

So, you ask, how do I incorporate these books? I'll give you a few examples. The World History Encyclopedia is an absolute necessity. We are studying the Medieval / Early Renaissance time period this year and it is so much fun. The encyclopedia is not only gorgeous to look at, it is informative and easy to read in small bits. The internet links are the biggest time saver and homework helper. For example, last week, Baker wanted to report on Clovis. We read about him in Story of the World, Volume 2 and the encyclopedia. We then went on line to the encyclopedia-specific internet links and found some great pictures that we could print to go along with his oral report. He was so excited about it that he wasn't nervous at all about giving his report in class! I couldn't have done it without the Usborne encyclopedia.

We used the World History Sticker Atlas (also internet-linked) last year to help him connect the geography with the history. It was also a great way to sneak in some fine motor skill development. We still get to use that book this year since we didn't finish "stickering" last year (only because I held him back from doing it all at once).

I have Learning Palettes for Math and Reading. These are self-correcting, independent, non-consumable, skill reinforcement activities. (How's that for some teacher lingo?) He has reviewed number order, phonics, rhyming, graphs, ordinal numbers and many others using these. 

I truly could go on and on - Playtime Activities, Science Things to Make and Do, dot-to-dot books, phonics readers, abridged classics, etc. These materials have added so much FUN to our school days and beyond. Baker's been known to stretch out on the couch with an encyclopedia or atlas just because he wanted to look. Don't you remember how fascinating those types of books were when you were young? I certainly do. I love seeing him have the same experience. 

I can see that these resources are developing in him a love of learning and isn't that one of our ultimate goals as parents? If it isn't, it certainly should be. I would be honored to help you select some great things for your specific needs, hold a workshop/home show and even sign you on as a consultant if you so desire. 

Onward and upward, parents! Let's raise a generation of LEARNERS not test-takers.

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