It's A Homeschool Life #1

While driving home in the car-

Kaleb (age 6) : Mom.... Mom, Mom...MOM!
Ian (age 9): She can't hear you she is driving.
Kaleb: Why do we have thumbs?
Ian: She can't hear you!
Kaleb chants: Why do we have thumbs? Why do we have thumbs? What do we have thumbs for?
Me the Mom: Ignoring him and driving
Josef tired of the chanting (age 11): SO WE CAN GRAB THINGS!
Kaleb: Oh...
Kaleb: I could grab something without my thumbs.
Josef exasperated: No you couldn't.Thumbs are special. Humans are the only ones that have them. Animals don't have thumbs to grab things like cups. We need our thumbs to hold onto things and type and stuff. Otherwise...we'd be like animals. (He continues to rattle on for 2 minutes about how we are better than animals because we have thumbs.)
Kaleb: Gorillas have thumbs.
Josef: Whatever.

Infestation

So I've noticed we have some sort of pest living at our house, eating our food. It's been stealing grapes out of the fridge. There was a whole bag of red grapes in the fridge this morning and now they are almost gone.



I even got a look at the bug as it was breaking into the fridge.

The Last Days of Summer

School starts back for us officially on the 7th. So this is our last week of Summer. Here are the boys at the Back to School Picnic for IDEA and at the pool.

The Cats Out of the Bag

Levi's brother Jassen and his wife have 3 cat children that they adore. They have grown and stock pilled fresh dried catnip in large bags and store them at Levi's parent house. I took a small baggie home for Chubs thinking it would be a nice treat for him. I took the little bag out of my purse and sat it on the kitchen counter and got busy. I made dinner, fed the kids, and then took them to the pool (without waiting an hr after eating). When we got back, we opened the front door and saw this flash of orange dart across and down the hallway. When I went in the kitchen this is what I found:

The bag was shredded and cat nip was scattered all over the floor. Chubs was very energetic...to say the least.

It's a Homeschool Life #1

While driving home in the car-

Kaleb: Mom.... Mom, Mom...MOM!
Ian: She can't hear you she is driving.
Kaleb: Why do we have thumbs?
Ian: She can't hear you!
Kaleb chants: Why do we have thumbs? Why do we have thumbs? What do we have thumbs for?
Me: Ignoring him and driving
Josef tired of the chanting: SO WE CAN GRAB THINGS!
Kaleb: Oh...
Kaleb: I could grab something without my thumbs.
Josef exasperated: No you couldn't.Thumbs are special. Humans are the only ones that have them. Animals don't have thumbs to grab things like cups. We need our thumbs to hold onto things and type and stuff. Otherwise...we'd be like animals. (He continues to rattle on for 2 minutes about how we are better than animals because we have thumbs.)
Kaleb: Gorillas have thumbs.
Josef: Whatever.

Homeschool Lesson Planning Resources

“It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.”

Depending on the sort of homeschooling method you use, most of us need to plan...at least a little. Planning often makes our job easier as homeschooling parents. We can use planning processes to determine; what we want to teach, when we want to teach it, for how long, on what days, and what materials we will need to gather ahead of time.

Probably, the single most common tool for planning for your homeschool would have to be the Teachers Lesson Planner. If you haven't looked at Lesson Planners in a while, I suggest you take a new look. They have come along way! There are of course the traditional paper planners, then the printable versions from online, internet based planning programs and also software based planners. Below are my favorites in each category. I was not paid to endorse any of the products below. I have done my own research over the last 5 years, in search of the perfect planner.


Paper Based Lesson Planner: 

This is by far my favorite paper based planner. Click here to view sample pages.   This handy and sturdy spiral bound planner has amazing versatility and is easily customized to your needs. It includes yearly and monthly calenders. The weekly planning pages cover a two page spread with enough pages to make 40 weeks of plans. The columns are easily customized. The pages are large and lined so you can easily and neatly add plans. This planner is prices at around $15. There are cheaper planners out there, but I ranked this one as my favorite based on customization and sturdiness.
The Ultimate Teacher's Plan Book



Printable Lesson Planner:

Donna Young has the best printable homeschool planning pages on the net. Her site ranks highest because of the ease of use, variety, and customization. She's got a forms any homeschool can use.
Check out her great printable planning pages here:

Internet-based Lesson Planner:

There are a few of these on the net now. These are great because of there extreme accessibility. You can access them from the internet wherever you may be. Great for families that travel, are on the go, or so you can share what your doing with other family members. My favorite is the Homeschool Skedtrack, because it's free, easy to use, and created by a homeschool family. It's simple, but extremely flexible. Changes are as simple as typing into a form box. Assignments not completed are automatically bumped up to the next day.   They even have video tutorials to help you learn how to use it! Its an amazing value for....FREE!
Homeschool Skedtrack


Lesson Planning Software:

Lesson planning software varies in price, versatility, and ease of use. A majority of the lesson planning software available are specifically designed to meet the needs of classroom teachers, so adapting them to meet the needs of your homeschool can be tricky. There are a handful that ARE specifically designed (or adapted) to meet the needs of homeschoolers. After downloading and trying out many trial versions, my favorite was Homeschool Tracker. Although none of the programs tried were easy to use, Homeschool Tracker had the best tech support for learning the program. It came in at a great value also, Free for the Basic Version and $50 for the Plus Edition, with free lifetime updates. After learning how the software works and how to input the data you want, it can be customized to meet your needs in a variety of ways. If the $50 cost is too much for your wallet, try out the free version, you can aways upgrade without losing all your information.  Homeschool Tracker

 

I hope you found this post helpful. 

Got a favorite Lesson Planning resource? Share it in the comments!

Happy Planning!

10 Year High School Reunion

My 10 Year High School Reunion was Friday night. I say 'my' lightly as I technically did not graduate with my class, I graduated early and was already attending college my senior year. If you know me...you know my sorted past as a pregnant teen, turned Happily Ever After...or maybe you don't because I don't like to talk about it really. Long story short, Levi and I started dating the Summer of my Freshman year in Highschool, I gave birth to Josef-October of my Junior year and I cashed in my credits and moved on to college by Senior year. 15 months later we got married and lived Happily Ever After...for 10 years at least. Anyway, so the class I would have graduated in had their 10 year class reunion.

I wasn't gonna go, but Sara my friend from High School talked me into it. I'm glad I went, it was interesting.

So I was envisioning Romie and Michelle's High School Reunion, or maybe something like Peggy Sue Gotarried...but alas, it was just like high school just 10 years later. And THANK HEAVENS! I did not faint and wake up 16 again (like in Peggy Sue).



I'm embarrassed to say I didn't even remember most of the people though. And there were a ton of people I WANTED to see that didn't show, so that was disappointing.
I think I'll have my own personal 10 year reunion and invite those people and the ones I knew from other schools,etc. I'll call it April's Blast From the Past Extravaganza.

It was fun to see the people I had once known and the ones I spent 3 years of my life attending classes with and just say "Hey, I'm still around 10 years later. A few pounds heavier and a little dented from the real world...but still here!"

I also enjoyed the reflection the anniversary brought on. The thoughts of what I've done with my life in the last 10 years. So much has changed in my life and I've grown so much in so many ways. I'd like to think that last night everyone else was reflecting on that too...and also on how much more we need to grow and just LIVE!

Although it was nice to look back, I was SO glad to come home to my real life. My awesome boys (who loved seeing Mommy dress up a bit and stepping out) are what I've done the last 10 years, having them, nursing them, raising them...I'd do it all over again-just to see their sweet faces every day.