Wordless Wednesday: Bumble Bee Before, After, and Transformed

For more Wordless Wednesday pics, click here:  http://www.wordlesswednesday.com/newhome/2012/05/29/may-30/.

Homeschool Graduation

A week or so ago, our local homeschool support group had a graduation program for all of the seniors who are finishing their homeschool years.  Many homeschool groups have graduation programs, and I think it is a wonderful thing!  I've been to so many public school graduation programs that really aren't particularly special or memorable, but that cannot be said about our homeschool graduation ceremony!  


One of my favorite things about the actual ceremony is that the parents are included.  At one point in the ceremony, the mothers and fathers of each graduate go onto the stage with their child to do the "Father's Address."  This is where the father speaks to the child briefly giving maybe a funny story or quick summary of the parents' homeschool experiences with that child.  Then he goes on to bless his child and tell a little about his hopes and dreams for him or her.  Of course the mom usually sheds a few tears, and the dads do sometimes too!  But it is such a special, wonderful part of the ceremony that I've never seen done anywhere else.


At another point the moms, dads, and graduates all stand together--each mom and dad standing with their graduate.  The father who is performing the ceremony then prays for not only the graduate but also the parents during this time of such a huge transition.  It is in a way a sad thing, but at the same time it's also a wonderful thing!  Both of these truths are acknowledged, but of course it is God's plan for our children to grow up, so we choose to dwell on the positives.


It will be at least 3 more years until I have a graduate, but as the years go by I pay more and more attention to each of our graduation programs.  I identify more and more with the parents of the graduates and what a big change they are going through at the same that their children are going through a life-change as well.  


What about you?  Have you had a child graduate from your homeschool yet?  Will you have a graduate soon?  How do you celebrate this important event?  With your local homeschool group?  With your family?  I would love to hear from you!


Graphic from www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Taking Time to Love My Kids

One of the things I love most about homeschooling is spending time with my children.  The older they get, the faster the days seem to go.  My oldest child will be 17 in a few weeks!  Unbelievable! Surely I'm not old enough to have a 17-year-old.  My middle child just turned 15 and will soon be getting his driver's permit.  My youngest child is 9 and is finishing 4th grade.

  


One of the most important things I think I've learned since I began homeschooling all those years ago is to enjoy my children now while they are still home.  Of course there are days that I don't enjoy them very much.  I'm learning to handle those days, though, and not to be stressed and angry.  (Yes, I'm a slow learner!!  But at least I'm getting there!)  


Years ago when we first began homeschooling, it really bothered me when our days didn't go as planned.  If we didn't finish everything I had planned to do that day, whether it was school work or house work or whatever else, it really made me feel cranky and out-of-sorts.  I let all of the things we didn't get done take away the joy of all the things we did get done!  


I look back now and regret all that time I spent worrying and unhappy.  Of course I didn't feel that way all the time, but it happened too often anyway.  I would like to go back and, instead of modeling impatience when things didn't go my way, I'd love the chance to model patience and peace instead.  


So how do you handle being home with your children and living the life of a homeschool family?  Do you treasure every moment?  Do you sometimes want to shove your kiddos on the next big yellow bus that drives by?  To tell the truth, it is tempting at times to flag down that bus and add 3 extra passengers!  


I try to allow God to work in me to teach and train my children and to love them and love the time we have together right now.  It's certainly challenging at times!  I'm not perfect and neither are my children.  As they grow up our relationship changes, I'm more and more thankful for the good days and less and less worried about the "bad" days.  I thank God for bringing me to this point while my children are still at home.


What about you?  

Heritage History: A Review

I love to read.  My children love to read.  If I had to choose one "hobby" and give up all others forever more, I'd have to choose to keep reading.  I come from a family of readers, my husband comes from a family of readers, and we now have our own family of readers.  I don't know if our children became readers simply because of our influence or if they would have loved to read anyway.  I do know, though, that we try to keep lots of good books around for them to read and for us to read to them as well.  (My children are 16, 15, and 9, and I still read aloud to them.  They love it, and so do I!)


I recently had the opportunity to choose a collection of books on CD from Heritage History and to review the collection for you.  There are several different collections of books that are offered on the Heritage History website.  The collection I received is the Young Readers Classical Curriculum.  They also offer Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, British Middle Ages, and the British Empire.  Each CD sells for $24.99, or you can buy the entire set for $99.99 to save about $25!  


Each CD comes with biographies, legends, hero stories, historical literature, and comprehensive histories.  There are also study aids including timelines, historical maps, and era summaries in printable format.  


The CD I received is an introduction to the history of Western Civilization.  It contains over 80 books which feature anecdotes from American, European, and Ancient history, legends, Bible stories, and adapted literature.  My younger daughter and I were particularly happy to receive this CD because it looked like it would be a good "fit" for her.  (She's 9.)  





Our CD includes lots of stories in quite a few different categories.  Some of the categories are American History, Colonial Children, Ancient History, Legends and Folklore, and several more!  Each CD also includes a section on "recommendations" as well as a "teacher's guide."  


My daughter is particularly interested in American History and Colonial Children.  She loves to read about this time period and think about how children her age lived so long ago and when America was so different than it is today.  I loved watching her read the stories, discuss them with me, and share them with her daddy in the evenings.


You might like to take a look at their website for yourself to see all of the many stories available for students of all ages!  And it's so very handy to have a whole collection of books on one little CD.  My daughter and I definitely recommend that you stop by their site and take a look!  


NOTE:  I received this Heritage History Young Readers CD for free in exchange for using the materials and writing this review.  The information and opinions in this post are mine alone.

CapJaxMathFax

When I was teaching my son (now age 15) his math facts, we did it the “old fashioned” way.  We got out notecards, wrote down the facts he needed to learn, and practiced them day after day.  Did he learn his math facts?  Yes, he did!  Did he enjoy it?  No, not one little bit!  So I am happy to say that I’ve been working on teaching my youngest child her math facts lately, and she gets to do it in a fun way!  (We’ve been trying to conceal this fact from her brother.  Please don’t tell him!)

The math program she’s using is called CapJaxMathFax.  Their website says that they “supercharge math fact memorization.”  You can take a look at their website here:  http://www.capjax.com. 

My daughter and I really like CapJaxMathFax!  She enjoys it because it's a fun way to learn her math facts.  I like that it teaches addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts.  You need to know, though, that this is not a stand-alone math program.  Their website clearly tells you that this should be used in addition to your regular math curriculum.

I also like that it allowed her to start with easier problems and then work her way up to more difficult ones.  Some children (like my daughter) need to take it pretty slowly and get frustrated easily.  It was great for her to be able to be successful at easier problems before moving on to more difficult ones.  That way, she was allowed to not only be successful, but she had a good time too, so she began enjoying the program instead of dreading having to practice her math facts.

You can take a look on the CapJaxMathFax website to find out why you should choose their program.  You can also see an overview of the program.  You can also read more information about specific features.

If you decide you’d like to try out the program before buying it, they even have a special evaluation program you can download.  Then, if you decide to buy your own license of the program for home use, you can do that for $29.95 here. 

One of the fun things about this program is the merit badges that the students can earn.  As she moves through the different levels, she earns merit badges.  These badges are available to buy on the site, too, if you have a child who would be motivated by having an in-real-life badge in her hand.  To me, this kind of makes it seem more like a game than work.

Of course, if you want to take a look at more reviews of this program, you can do that here:  http://homeschoolcrew.com/785179/.  

I received a free program to use and write this review.  I received no other compensation.  The opinions in the review are my own honest opinions.

Homeschooling and Scheduling: Should I or Shouldn't I?

Wow!  It's May already!  This homeschool year has gone by so very quickly.  It's hard for me to believe that I will have two 10th graders and a 5th grader when our new school year begins this summer!  It just doesn't seem possible.

This has been one of the least organized, wackiest school years we've had so far.  The truth is, though, that we've gotten a lot done.  It has always been very hard for me to be flexible and just "go with it" when there are interruptions to my schedule.  I think that's one of the reasons that, for my first few years of homeschooling, I really didn't make a schedule at all.  I kind of felt like it was better not to have a schedule than to have one and never stick to it!  I guess in some strange way that kind of relieved me of the pressure of feeling like I "had" to get certain things done each day or each week.  I suppose that may be a kind of crazy way to look at it, but that's ok.  It worked for me at the time.  :)

Now, though, since I've been homeschooling for about 15 years, my attitude about homeschooling has changed.  Looking back, I can see how I could have made those first few years so much more enjoyable than I did.  I was so stressed and worried about everything.  I thought everything had to be done perfectly.  I got very upset (not outwardly, but inwardly) if something came up and caused us to have to skip school for a day.  I really feel like I caused my children and myself a lot of needless worry.

I don't want you to think that I have it all together now--even after 15 years of homeschooling--because I don't!  What has gotten better, though, is my attitude toward not only homeschooling, but also toward those days when we experience interruptions.  Now, I simply try to remember that my kids are learning to live "real life."  They are learning that sometimes things don't go as planned, but we still have to deal with it and get things done.  They are learning to help when someone is sick or needs help moving or needs us to babysit.  They are learning that, while school is important, people are even more important.

I do want my children to be well-educated.  But I also want them to love God and to love and serve others. Yes, we get our school work done most days.  But we always try to be flexible enough to lend a hand when someone else needs us.  It does make for a somewhat crazy schedule at times, but that's real life.

Am I saying that I'm against having a schedule?  Not at all!  I know homeschooling moms who have a very strict schedule and stick to that schedule as closely as possible.  I know others who, more like myself, try to have a general idea of what needs to be done but who don't really keep a schedule.  Whatever works for you is fine.  It is important, though, for people in both situations to be willing to put aside the schedule when folks need us.

How about you?  Do you have a schedule that stick to very closely?  How do you handle interruptions?  Has your attitude toward getting school done and/or your attitude toward interruptions changed over time?  I'd love to hear from you!

Build Your Homeschool Library!

It is a well-known fact that most homeschooling families love books.  We love all kinds of books.  We love books that are science-related; we love books that are history-related; we love fiction and nonfiction books; we love action/adventure books; we love the classics.  We read books to go along with what we are studying.  We read books to supplement our unit studies or our textbooks.  We read books just for fun.  See what I mean?  I've often said that my idea of the perfect day is a day on which I receive a huge box of books and can spend hours looking at each one, thumbing through the pages, and reading bits and pieces.  (Put me on the beach under an umbrella beside the ocean with the box of books, and that's really a perfect day!!)


There is one problem, though, that many homeschooling families face because of our love for books.  Money.  We spend waaaay too much of it on books.  I was introduced to Homeschool Library Builder and asked to review it for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's Homeschool Crew.  Membership is free, and I'm not receiving any kind of payment or other compensation for writing this review.  I want to share it with you, though, because they really do provide an opportunity for homeschooling families to build their libraries without spending so much doing it!


You can find them at www.hslibrarybuilder.com.  Here is a little bit of information about how the site works.  First of all, I already mentioned that membership is free.  As a member, you can receive their monthly newsletter which has information about sales, promotions (like 25% off books or free shipping), special events, and seasonal promotions.  You can also ask them for help with finding a particular book that you haven't been able to locate.  Of course they can't guarantee that they will find the book for you, but they'll do their best!  They also have an HSLB Marketplace.  If you qualify, your business's information is added to their page at no charge.


The books at HSLB are rated by condition and priced accordingly.  They are also organized by categories and age level as a guide in helping you choose books that are right for your family.  Another little perk is that, for every dollar you spend, you earn one Book Point.  Every 15 points gives you $1 in your account to use on a future purchase.  And I'd also like to mention that money they receive from books purchased from the "Helping Hand" category goes toward supporting Homeschool Library Builder's child adopted through Compassion International.  


It's definitely worth checking out!  If you're going to buy books anyway (and you know you are!), you might as well get the maximum number of books for the minimum price, right?  


And just for fun, I'd love to hear what kind(s) of books you and your children particularly like.  I love children's books--particularly the ones that are meant for older children or teens.  Of course I read plenty of "grown-up" books too, but I've always especially loved children's literature.  My son prefers books with lots of action and/or adventure.  My daughters both love historical fiction.  My younger daughter loves Amish books and books set during the pioneer days.  My husband likes Christian books and/or books related to politics.  He also reads just-for-fun books too.  What about you?  Do you have one particular favorite book or a certain kind of book you really love?  Share it with the rest of us so we can enjoy it too!


Happy reading!

Wordless Wednesday: Why I Can't Do Laundry Today