Ocean Diorama

Wesley made this wonderful ocean diorama as a project for our church club. I think it turned out great! The photos don't do it justice, a few of the fish are actually hanging from blue thread so it looks like they are really swimming. 

Archery Lesson

Our Keepers and Contenders church club got together for an archery lesson at our neighbor's house. He is a champion archer and teaches lessons. It was quite a lesson! A friend of his, who also teaches lessons, brought several targets and bows. Each child got to shoot with a special sized bow. It was a great experience for all the kids!

Field Trip: Arizona State Capitol

We were invited to join a few other homeschool family's for a tour at the Arizona State Capitol Museum today. I was a bit nervous to drive to downtown Phoenix by myself (since it's not my normal stomping grounds), so I suggested we carpool. I still drove, but it wasn't too bad with a navigator who knew where she was going!

We met the other families at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza and had a quick picnic lunch before our tour. The weather couldn't have been more beautiful! There were a lot of memorials honoring Arizona's history. We didn't really spend too much time looking at them. Although, I did notice a big granite 10 commandments memorial. I was glad to see some kind of petition hasn't yet forced it's removal.

We started with a guided tour. We all thought it was pretty interesting. In a state where everything seems to have been built yesterday, it was nice to be in a building with some solid wood and real history. The original capitol was built in 1900, before Arizona was even a state.

We got to sit at the desks in the historic House Chamber.

Here are those same desks as viewed from the gallery one story up. Or as I like to call it the "peanut gallery".

After the Civil War battle at Picacho Pass here in Arizona, the Confederate States of America divided the territory. New Mexico (who sided with the North) was the northern part and Arizona (who sided with the south) was the southern part. I have to say I'm really glad they didn't leave it this way!

This is the actual flag that went into battle with the Rough Riders in Cuba. It was hand-sewn the night before battle.

The kids got a kick out of the "governor" sitting in his office. 

It was spelled wrong, but we found Justus' chamber!

Here is our whole group in front of an Arizona state flag made out of Legos!

Hayden and Wesley did a little campaigning while we were there. Hey, I'd vote for them over some of the other people who are currently running our government. 

We didn't go into the current capitol building. Maybe next time, I think it would be fun to see them in session.

When we first arrived there were all kinds of people in the courtyard area in front of the old capitol building. There were some protesters and some had name tags and seemed to be mingling and chatting. I'm not sure why, but there were even a few news crews there. It was all cleared out when we left so we were able to take one last picture in front of the building.

AZ State Fair: Free for Homeschoolers!

This deal is too good to pass up if you homeschool and are interested in going to the Arizona State Fair.

You can visit the State Fair field trip page here. Download the form for homeschoolers, fill it out, and mail it in by October 1st. Here's what you get… ALL children are admitted FREE. For every 5 students, 1 parent/teacher is also admitted FREE (additional adults must pre­pay $5 each). Even parking is free if you go on the homeschool days (October 15, 22, or 29th).

If none of those dates work for you, homeschoolers may attend on the regular school field trip days, but  you will have to pay for parking.

FREE tickets for the Hall of Heroes will also be included for each member of your group.

As an added bonus, if you want to ride a few rides your students can read three books, fill out the form, and earn three free carnival rides. Download the "Read & Ride" form here.

Jerry is going to take a day off and our whole family will be able to go for the $5 extra adult charge. That should leave plenty of money to buy fried food of some kind! If you are interested in meeting up with us when we go, let me know and we'll make arrangements!

*Special thanks to my friend Shannon for sending me the link to the homeschool field trip page!

Back to (Home)School Pictures 2014

Tomorrow we officially start our eighth year of homeschooling. Here are the back to school pictures of the boys for the 2014-2015 school year! We don't really worry about grade levels here… some are working ahead and some are working a bit slower and some are doing a bit of both… so when you see their "grade" below their picture just know that it isn't written in stone! Is it just me or are they looking old?

Wesley - 7th Grade

Eli - 5th Grade

Justus - 5th Grade

Hayden - 3rd Grade

JD - 2nd Grade

Our Volcano

We have spent the last two weeks studying volcanoes. The first week we made a classic baking soda and vinegar volcano. It was nothing fancy, only newspaper and duct tape with a water bottle "magma chamber", but the boys enjoyed it anyway! We made it a little more exciting with a few unsuspecting stick figure victims surrounding the volcano.

Before

After

Here is short video of the second explosion. We ended up making it "explode" twice because the first time wasn't as forceful as we had hoped and it didn't knock down that many of our stick figures. As you'll see, it was a bit more exciting the second time.

We ended the second week of our volcano study with an interview. We video chatted with a survivor of the Mount Saint Helen's blast - our very own Grandma Linda. My family lived in northern Idaho in May of 1980 when Mt. St. Helen's blew. We weren't in any major danger, but it did affect us. Grandma showed us a jar of ash she kept and lots of newspaper/magazine clippings. My personal favorite was a brochure sent by the government (after the fact, of course!) telling residents how to prepare for falling volcanic ash.

Hayden must have had volcanoes on his mind because a few days later he was playing around on the iPad and created this "virtual" artwork:

Butterfly Life Cycle

Hayden and JD are in Cloverbuds for 4-H. Some weeks they get to visit 4-H project groups to see which ones they might want to try when they "graduate". Some weeks they just get together and do a learning project.

This week they learned about the life cycle of a butterfly. They read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and watched a short video about monarch butterflies. When the group leader asked why the caterpillar was so hungry when he came out of the egg JD answered: "Because he's in a book called The Very Hungry Caterpillar!" He is so funny!

They also had a coloring page contest (JD won a prize for that!) and a fun activity where they wrapped a partner into a toilet paper chrysalis (JD's team won a prize for this too!).

After finishing the other fun activities, they made these cool projects to help them remember the butterfly's life cycle:

Back to (Home)School Pics 2013

We started school a few weeks ago, but I just around to taking "school" pictures today. I am not too happy with the way they turned out. Not because of the kids - they did great - but my camera has been giving me trouble. Sometimes it won't focus and sometimes the colors are off. Well, until I can retake them here are this year's photos:

Wesley - 6th grade

Eli - 4th grade

Justus - 4th grade

Hayden - 2nd grade

J.D.   K/1st grade

I gave up on getting one of Annabeth. She was not cooperating! :)

The School Room

I guess you could consider this School Planning: Part 3!

In preparation for the new academic year, I updated some of our school room decor. I took down our old science posters and ordered new ones. I also put up several free printables I found on Pinterest. I usually find a few new decor items at the dollar store each year too.

Here is what our school room looks like:

The new science posters will go on either side of the window.

I cleaned out and reorganized the cabinet and closet too.

Below are a couple of the Pinterest finds. The top one was a free printable. I had seen the idea for the bottom one, but it wasn't a printable so I made one of my own. If you want a copy let me know and I'll email you the pdf.

I had hoped to work on cleaning up the filing cabinet as a summer project. I made progress, but didn't get it all done. I did clean out and organize my school file crate though...

If you want to know more about this, you can read this (old) blog post.

I think we're as ready as we'll ever be to start on Monday!

It's That Time Again: School Planning (Part 2)

I planned on cramming all my school planning stuff into one post, but it got too long so I split it into multiple posts. This is part 2, if you haven't already, go read part 1.

Master Schedule
I have made a schedule every year since we started homeschooling. If you want to see old examples here are links to Wesley's first grade schedule and our schedule for 2009/2010. I am pretty confident this year's schedule will work pretty well because that is what we were doing when we finished up in June.

Overall, the schedule is just an ideal we are aiming for. Do we follow it to the minute every day? Definitely not! But it is nice to know what we should be doing and when. If you are interested in learning more about scheduling I recommend the Maxwell's book called Managers of Their Homes.

Chores

At our house, a new school year means new chores. I decide who will be doing what chores and then make up checklists (for older kids) and chore packs (for younger kids).

This is what Wesley's chore checklist looks like.

J.D. gets chore cards. One card for each chore. He carries them with him as he does his chores in a clear name badge that he clips to his shirt. As he does each chore he moves that card to the back. This is what his cards look like:

These are our chore packs. They clip to boy's shirts so they can carry them with them as they do their chores. That way the don't have to run back and forth checking what to do next, the list is right there with them. I know they are done with their chores when I see the chore packs back in the drawer.

Breakfast and Lunch Menu

This year I decided to go all out and make a monthly menu for breakfasts and lunches. We used to use a two week rotating menu but the kids got bored with it. We'll see if I can keep up with this new menu. It's a bit more challenging. I went ahead and make a little shopping list to go with each week too.

Color Coding

For the past couple years I color coded our history literature type books so I can find them quickly on the book shelf. Last year they were all marked with orange, this year it's blue.

Start!

Next Monday is the big day! We started our new chores this Monday so everyone gets the hang of their new jobs and can concentrate on school work next week. I still have a few loose ends to finish up, but nothing too serious... sharpen some pencils, make some copies, and take the annual "Back to (Home) School" pictures of the kids. It's going to be a great year!

It's That Time Again: School Planning (Part 1)

I've been in full school planning mode the past few weeks. I have my own way of doing things when it comes to planning for our learning year. I don't know how my planning compares to that of other homeschoolers... I've often wanted to be a "fly on the wall" and see how others do it. This is what works for me:

Choosing What to Buy and Purchasing

Before I can do too much planning I have to decide what books we are going to use for each subject. We don't use a package curriculum so it's up to me to choose something for each subject. (I like to use this form when planning.) There is plenty to consider. We usually discover some things we tried last year just don't work for us or sometimes we decide to try something new for a child who has a different learning style. So, basically, each year I reinvent the wheel; maybe not the whole wheel, but for sure a few spokes! This is a good thing though because it means each child is being given just what they need to learn!

Once I've decided what I want to order, I usually check the prices on several websites. In the past, we found some of our curriculum used from the homeschool group used book sale, but I didn't get to one this year. I also like to check to see if Paperback Swap has any of the books I need. It's a long shot, but I have gotten several books that way in the past. While I'm there, I put books for next year on a wishlist which increases my chances of getting them before I need them. Once the research part is done, I get out the credit card and place my orders. I hate seeing the totals, but I love getting those packages! 

Thankfully, I have such a huge supply of the usual school supplies (pencils, paper, rulers, crayons, etc.) that I didn't really need to buy anything except some dry erase markers. Although, I might take advantage of a few sales just for fun! 

Binders and Boxes

I clean out last years binders and file their contents away. Neither AZ or WI requires you to keep any work, but I always do. Just in case I ever have to prove that we don't sit around and watch soap operas all day.

Then I prepare binders (each child has one) for next year. Each binder has tabs for every subject. These binders are where I store finished work I want to keep. I keep almost all writing, history, and science. I just keep examples of the other subjects. I print out new attendance sheets, reading logs, and extracurricular sheets. We use these to keep track of the days we do school, what each child has read, and any extras we do (4-H, field trips, classes).

I also got the boxes ready to go. The boxes are where we keep the things we are currently working on. Each child has a box and they know to return their books to this box when they are done.

I keep the teacher's manuals and other books we use frequently on the shelf below the boxes. Next to the boxes you see "Mom's Book". That has all my planning pages and record keeping items.

Calendars and Planners
I print off a new school year calendar and decide what days we are going to be doing school. This is my favorite printable calendar.

I prepare a weekly assignment sheet for each child. I print off a bunch and fill one out each week. The child marks off the items as they are done. I use the last page from this set of homeschool planning pages.  I love that it is a typable pdf. I could laminate it and use a wet erase marker but I like to keep them so I know who did what when.

Here is an example:

I also use a monthly planner for myself. The weekly planners are for the kids. I created the monthly planner last year when I found I had too many students for my old one. I updated it a little bit for this year. This is what it looks like:

I plan out each month using my yearly planner (see below) on the monthly sheets and then just transfer the assignments to each child's weekly assignment sheet on Sunday evenings before each new school week.

The Yearly Plan

I plan out as much of the year as I can ahead of time. Sometimes we get off track as we go but overall I like to know how many lessons I have to teach in each subject to get through a book. For example, our history book has 42 chapters but we are only going to do 38 weeks of school, so I chose four chapters that we will skip.

Some kids will be continuing on in books they didn't finish last year, so I write down where they were so I know where they need to start. As we move through the year, if I come across a lesson that I think won't work for some reason, I skip it. For some reason it took me several years to figure out I don't have to do every single lesson in a book. Now I have no problem skipping lessons! For example, Hayden doesn't need all the review that his Math book will start out with so I am going to have him take the first three tests and start around lesson 25.

For the yearly plan, I also choose what character qualities we will work on, what song/hymn we'll sing during Bible time, and what Bible verses we want to memorize. This year was are going to do one verse per week and a bigger memorization project a month.

I am still working on the yearly plan, but this is what it looks like right now:

One thing missing from this year's yearly plan is our "Letter of the Week". We have done that every year since we started homeschooling, but this year JD is a bit too old and Annabeth is a bit too young to use it. It left a gaping hole in my usual planning sheet so I had to make a new one!

[In case you are wondering, I make all these planning sheets on Google Drive. If you want copies of any of them let me know and I'll send them to you. Most of the images of the planning pages in this post are just screen shots not the actual files.]

Well, this is getting a bit long, and I have more to say, so I'm going to finish this up in another post...