Counter-cultural School

Cyber Monday

2011-11-25T23:50:00.001-05:00

My husband and older boys fought the crowds on Black Friday, and apparently won untold (until Christmas) shopping victories. Good for them! But that's not my style. I'd much rather stay home and do my Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday Christmas shopping from my own cozy home while the baby sleeps and the little ones play nearby.

Online Deals:

My own website, My Audio School, is offering a free download of Greg Howlett's beautiful instrumental Christmas album, Seasonal Spice, with any My Audio School subscription purchase between now and Christmas Eve. I really love piano music, and Seasonal Spice is just lovely. You can listen to some samples from Seasonal Spice here. Buy a subscription to My Audio School for your own family, or contact me at support@myaudioschool.com to give a gift subscription for Christmas. The Seasonal Spice download link will be sent to you after purchase.

Grace and Truth Books has lots of fantastic titles for sale through Thanksgiving weekend. Their own titles have been marked down as low as $2.95. I am purchasing some titles for my little girl from their website, as I seek to build up her library. She won't read some of these books for 15 or 20 years, but I trust their timeless wisdom will be an encouragement to me now and to her in years to come.

One of my favorite online destinations is Vision Forum. Their Black Friday weekend sale (buy any 2 items, get a third free) is a good deal, especially when you shop their clearance section, as I typically do. In addition to toys, we also buy several books, videos and audio products from them every year.

Here are some of my top picks from the Vision Forum shelves:

Must-Read Books for parents:

Voddie Baucham's Family Driven Faith and What He Must Be If He Wants to Marry My Daughter are both must-reads, in my opinion. First we read Family Driven Faith, which helped us solidify and intensify our commitment to intentionally discipling our children. What He Must Be helped put legs to that commitment, giving us a concrete vision of what we are striving to raise our boys to be.

Thoughts for Young Men by J. C. Ryle was a fantastic and challenging book for my husband and oldest son to read together. I can't recommend it more highly.

Vision Forum Toys:

We have accumulated a lot of Vision Forum toys over the years. My younger boys absolutely love their lego-compatible military building sets, and this year they have expressed hopes of getting lego-compatible knights and castles building sets.

If you have any wide open space to use it, their 3 man slingshot is awesome. We've had one for years and we love firing water balloons out of it. Highly recommended!

We also love their weapons. Whenever one of our sons turns 9 we hold a rite of passage ceremony as a family, and he receives a Vision Forum sword.

Our boys also like the high-impact training swords and daggers, which are sturdy and heavy enough to pack a wallop if you aren't careful.

I am excited this year to have a little girl to shop for!! I confess I may have gone a little overboard buying cableknit tights and ruffle socks for her today, but she's just so cute!

What are your favorite sites to visit on Cyber Monday?

Full Disclosure: I am a Vision Forum affiliate and I do make a small commission on products purchased through my Vision Forum links.

World War 1: Boys' Hands On Activities

2011-10-23T21:58:00.000-04:00

Our younger boys have been longing to dig a trench in the backyard so they can play World War 1. They had visions of digging at least 7 feet deep and lining their trench with boards to make it just like the trenches they saw in our WW 1 books. This weekend they got permission to start digging.

My husband didn't think they'd get more than about 1' deep in our Georgia clay before giving up. Never underestimate the will of a boy to carry out his plans! They have been digging all weekend and last night they hit the water table.

Their glorious trench is about 4' deep now, and filled with water which bubbled up from the ground. It is a muddy mess! But they are so proud. They are bummed about the water, because they had visions of sleeping out there. I'm glad nature spoiled that plan so I didn't have to!

It has been hard to find WW 1 replica costumes online. One of the boys took an old plastic army helmet and used cardboard to fashion a brim around it. He covered it all with silver duct tape and he is pleased with the result.

We bought this helmet at our local army store. It had originally been worn by the Italian Civil Air defense in WW 2, but its shape is reminiscent of the WW 1 style helmets, and our youngest son is thrilled with it.

Whenever the boys needed a break from digging their trench, they prowled around the yard fighting imaginary Germans. One of the boys pretends he is a British Tommy, one is an Anzak (Australian New Zealand Army Corp) and the third is an Italian. Occasionally I wandered out onto the deck shouting in German, and tossing imaginary grenades over the rail to keep things lively.

Jello spello

2011-09-25T16:57:00.000-04:00

My dyslexic son and my youngest son (who struggles with auditory perception) really need hands on, kinesthetic activities to help them cement spelling into their brains. If those activities can also be fun, then all the better!

Enter "Jello spello". Pour a package of jello powder into a bowl. Allow your child to trace his letters or spelling words into the powder.

I let my kids lick their finger after every correctly spelled word, but hey, I'm a softie for things like edible cookie dough maps and stuff of that nature. In fact, I told my boys that the more times they traced the words, the more times they could lick the jello powder off their finger. One boy only had 10 spelling words, but if he was willing to spell them each 5 times that meant 50 licks of jello powder. Guess what? He was more than willing.

There are only two problems with this activity. First, it can become mildly sickening, even for the kids...I didn't really enjoy watching it, and none of them finished their jello powder before they decided it was too sweet. But they had fun getting to that point. Second, the jello tends to stain...faces, hands, clothing. Next time I think I would use vanilla pudding powder!

Ultimate Special Needs Expo

2011-09-13T21:26:00.000-04:00

go to the chat room at 11 a.m. or call in with your phone: 347-205-9175.

I'll be giving away one free subscription to My Audio School---a fantastic educational resource for dyslexics and other struggling learners---as a door prize!

Ultimate Homeschool Expo free ticket give-away!

2011-04-25T22:48:00.002-04:00

I'm excited to be a part of the Ultimate Homeschool Expo again this year! The UHSE is a fantastic virtual homeschool conference. Your ticket gives you unlimited access to all of the messages, and you can listen at leisure whenever and wherever you want...whether in your jammies at home or on your ipod in the car!

I'll be sharing my messages about The Homeschooler's Library and my newly updated talk Cultivating Loyalty Between Siblings. Tickets to the Expo cost $24.95 and include over 100 audios, door prizes, e-books, and a Vendor hall. Or you can enter my contest and possibly win one for free!

Just leave a comment below about what topic you'd like to hear a message about. It could be anything related to homeschooling, motherhood, marriage, homemaking, etc. I'm curious to find out what's on your heart right now. I'll do a random drawing from those who have entered on April 29. Make sure to leave your email address or link to your blog so I can contact the winner! For additional entries, blog, Tweet or Facebook about the UHSE and my contest...leave me a separate comment (with a link to your blog, tweet or FB post) for each entry, up to four entries per person!

What message would you find helpful and interesting at this stage in your life? For me it would probably have to be something about transcripting. My oldest is finishing up his freshman year in high school right now and I am feeling a bit daunted by the process of writing up his transcript and gathering samples of his work. Or maybe a message about raising girls...I'd love to hear some wisdom about that as we embark on a new adventure with our first girl!

Teacher's Institute

2011-02-05T17:19:00.000-05:00

During the school year, public and private school teacher's take a few days of teacher's institute for encouragement, skill development and planning. Why shouldn't we do the same?

We recently took a few days off. Part of this time, for me, was spent evaluating our year. What is working for us this year? What needs to be changed? Which subjects are going well, and which need tweaking now so we can maximize the rest of the school year?

Mid-year Teachers Institute Days are also a good time to start organizing filed work so that assembling that end-of-the-year portfolio is not quite so daunting. Update your list of "books read this year". Order photos from first semester field trips or fun projects and slip them into an accordion file before you forget what you did first semester.

If you are planning to do standardized testing in the spring, go ahead and submit your testing application now so you'll be ready to go when the time comes.

The Value of Motherhood

2011-01-05T10:02:00.000-05:00

Moms often struggle with the question, "Who am I?" as they spend their days investing in everyone else. This 30 minute message will encourage you to see the true significance in a seemingly mundane job. Press play in the widget below to listen at your computer, or click "Visit my call" to download this podcast as an mp3.

Recommended Reading:
Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss (free audio book!)

Homeschool Blog Awards nominee

2010-11-09T19:33:00.000-05:00

Counter-Cultural School was nominated this year for Best Special Needs Blog in the Homeschool blog awards. I don't feel deserving of any mention in the blog awards this year, as I have been posting only sporadically since getting pregnant and having our baby. But I do thank you!

This blog covers a wide range of topics, but in the past year I have tried to focus special attention on homeschooling the dyslexic child.

If you are visiting from the HSBA Post blog awards, I hope you'll take time to read some of the articles about dyslexia, or to listen to my free podcast about our journey with dyslexia and what we are doing in our homeschool to help our dyslexic child. You can find the podcast and all the articles linked in the right sidebar under the title The Dyslexic Child.

Our family also created the website My Audio School to help accommodate our dyslexic child, who learns best by listening. If you have an auditory learner and you are looking for educational books and other audio resources, please check it out!

The Job Jar

2010-11-03T14:14:00.000-04:00

I got this great idea from my good friend and fellow blogger, Homeschool Dawn, who blogs at Olive Plants.

You can read all the details about this "chore time strategy" at the above link, but here's the idea in a nutshell: take index cards and write a job on each one. Assign each task an amount of money that the task is worth, if completed well. Put all the index cards in a jar and allow the kids to draw out the cards....once they finish one task, they can draw out another card. At the end of the allotted cleaning time, add up how much money each child earned doing their various jobs and give them their wages.

I love this idea, and it works great with my boys. I use different colored index cards for the various jobs so that each of my boys has their own color. This way I can make sure that no one gets a job that is too difficult for them. I don't want my Kindergartner getting a job meant for my high school aged son, and vice versa.

My boys know that some cards are only worth 3 cents, while others are worth 25 cents....and believe me, they want those 25 cent cards! No one is allowed to look at the job they are drawing out until the card is in their hand; once they've drawn it, they must complete it before moving on to another card.

There are a couple of ways I keep the boys motivated. They thrive on competition, and I take advantage of that whenever we do the Job Jar. First, I set a timer so the boys know how long we will be cleaning. The quicker they do their jobs, the more cards they can draw out of the job jar (and the more money they will be able to earn). I do check each job, however, to make sure it is also done well; if they have done a poor job, the job must be re-done before they can draw another card.

Since I am using different colored cards for each child, they are not really competing against each other to get the highest paying jobs. But they are competing against me! I do not have an assigned color, but can draw cards from any color. If I draw the card and do the job, I don't have to pay them to do it. I make sure to draw at least one higher-paying job from the jar sometime during the cleaning time (wink, wink), just about the time that energy is starting to flag. The reminder that mom might get some of their higher paying jobs is enough to light a fire under the little cleaners, giving them renewed zeal for their tasks.

Free Book from All About Spelling

2010-10-30T11:19:00.001-04:00

My favorite spelling curriculum, All About Spelling, is offering a free copy of their popular e-book All About Homophones this week! When you place any order, no matter how small, they'll include this downloadable book for free! This book usually sells for $27.95, so that's a great deal! Sale ends at midnight on November 1, 2010. Here are the details:

Here's how to claim your free book with any purchase:

Add any product(s) to your cart.
Do not add the All About Homophones e-book to your cart quite yet.
In the upper left corner of the cart, you'll see a box that says "Special Code." Type in these three letters, all in capital letters: AAH. Then click the "Apply" button.
The free All About Homophones ebook will appear just above where you enter your shipping information. Click the orange "Add to Cart" button.

Enjoy!

I am currently using All About Spelling with our dyslexic 5th grader and with our 3rd grader. For more about how we are using All About Spelling, read this post.

Disclosure: I am an All About Spelling affiliate and will receive a commission on any purchases that result from following the links to their site that I provided in this post or elsewhere on this blog.

Seasonal bargains

2010-10-29T23:17:00.000-04:00

My boys love costumes. They dress up all the time! My youngest one practically lives in costumes 7 days a week.

The day after Halloween many shops will mark costumes down as much as 75%! You can often find great deals. Last year after Halloween I picked up several inexpensive costumes for Christmas gifts. If you'll need costumes to go along with something you are studying this year (cowboys, kings and queens, knights....) this is the time to pick them up!

I also bought some Gingerbread "castles" last year...they were meant to be haunted houses or something, but we used them to make medieval gingerbread castles when we were studying the Middle Ages. Just don't use the orange and black frosting...make your own.

Family Devotions During the Christmas Season

2010-10-27T16:39:00.002-04:00

Do you have a desire to start family devotions? Are you looking for some ways to turn your childrens' hearts toward the Lord during the upcoming holiday season? The Advent season begins the Sunday after Thanksgiving!

In my podcast Preparing Hearts for Christmas, which I recently shared for the Ultimate Homeschool Expo, I share lots of encouragement and practical tips on implementing family worship during this special time of year.

It's not too early to start planning for a meaningful Christmas season!

Introducing.....

2010-09-05T22:11:00.000-04:00

Our precious baby girl is here! In case you don't follow my other blog, but would like to see a picture, here is the link:http://counterculturalmom.blogspot.com/2010/09/introducing.html

My Body

2010-08-11T11:14:00.001-04:00

To enhance our study of the human body last year we used an excellent, inexpensive resource from Teacher Created Materials. My Body is a book of reproducibles representing each of a child's body parts. You can also see the full table of contents and a product sample at the above link.

Before beginning the book, kids lay down on butcher paper and have their body traced and cut out. Then throughout the semester the child learns a few things about a particular body part, and then colors in and cuts out the body part. Each body part is fastened to the child's paper body.

In the end, they have a life size cut out of themselves with all their body parts attached. Of course, the boys couldn't resist getting a little bit creative with their body drawings!

I first used this book when my 14 year old was in Kindergarten and he loved it. In fact, we still have "his body" in storage and it was fun to pull it out as the other boys were working on their bodies last year. This activity was a hit with all of them. It could be a stand alone science activity for a preschooler or kindergartner, or part of another science program for an older child. We did not go in the order that the My Body book suggests, but instead we tied this in to the lessons we were doing in God's Design for the Human Body.

God's Design Science

2010-08-07T18:06:00.001-04:00

Last year we decided to take a break from our traditional Apologia Young Explorers science curriculum. I have used that program for years and absolutely love it! But after completing all but one of the books in the series I was ready for a change. I'm sure we'll go back to them in the future with the younger boys, but for now my grade school aged boys are using the new curriculum from Answers in Genesis, God's Design.

God's Design is set up with shorter books, and you are encouraged to try and complete 3 books per year. Each overarching topic (God's Design for the Physical World, for example) includes 3 books, but I chose to purchase the curriculum "piece meal" so I could customize our study with 3 topics we had not done yet. My boys were longing to study the weather and I felt they needed to study the human body, so this was a great option for us.

Making a simulation of homemade ""blood" with white blood cells, red blood cells and plasma

The three books we chose were The Human Body (from God's Design for Life series), Weather and Water and Our Planet Earth (both part of the God's Design for Heaven and Earth set). All three of my younger boys loved the chance to study some different topics, and I found it refreshing to try a new format for a change.

The lessons in God's Design are much shorter than in Apologia, allowing us to quickly and easily fit science in even on busy days. I did not find it to be as thorough as Apologia, but for my little boys I felt it was a fine introduction, and they were grateful for the shorter lessons. The books are designed for use by a wide variety of age groups; there is a very brief "beginners" lesson, followed by a more in depth reading. Some days we did just the beginner lesson, and other times I added to it with additional facts from the lesson for older children. This was a good fit for my preschooler, 2nd grader and 4th grader.

Transferring your fingerprints onto an outline of your hand is fun!

Some lessons had true "experiments" and hands on activities, while others had a worksheet for the kids to fill out. We liked this variety, though sometimes the worksheets were geared toward older children and then we didn't do anything to supplement the lesson at all.

It is very important to me that experiments be easy to carry out and that they teach scientific concepts. There are few things I hate more than "busy work" experiments which require a lot of time to plan and pull off and make more mess than they are worth. To me, this is one of the real strengths of both Apologia Young Explorers and God's Design Science: they both have fairly simple, useful experiments which reinforce major concepts. As usual, I gathered all science supplies in advance into our Science Box so that there would be no excuse for not doing experiments.

We had fun with the experiments, and the kids learned from the short, interesting lessons. The colorful pictures in the newer editions of God's Design were a must for us; you can get the older version a few dollars cheaper, but we loved the bright pictures and it was worth paying a little extra for the newest edition. We liked this series so much that we decided to spend another year using God's Design, this time doing the God's Design for Chemistry and Ecology series.

*UPDATE* APRIL 5, 2011* We have not enjoyed the God's Design Chemistry nearly as much as the other God's Design books. The content was too dry and technical for my young boys, and there weren't as many experiments as we were hoping to find. I prefer the chemistry book Adventures with Atoms and Molecules for this age group.

As I mentioned before, this series doesn't seem to me to be as thorough as the Apologia books are. My science lovers really enjoy Apologia and it has served us well for years. I definitely want to return to it as my little boys get bigger!

But we were having a hard time getting through an Apologia book in one year. We are still spending a lot of time on the 3 R's and history and literature also take their fair share of time, so this has been a great compromise for us. On days when we have more time we can do the longer lesson for older kids (which is still much shorter than a typical Apologia lesson). On days when time is short we can do a simple one page overview geared toward early elementary aged children. I felt the kids learned plenty, and that it held their interest well this year. If this sounds like it could be a good fit for you, I encourage you to click on the links above to view samples of the curriculum on the Answers in Genesis website.

Finding the Best Price

One drawback to this series (as opposed to Apologia) is that it is more expensive, costing almost 3 times as much as the elementary Apologia books. For example, Apologia's new Human Body book (not available last year when we started with God's Design) costs $28 at Rainbow Resource, and is meant to take an entire year to complete. The AiG Human Body book costs $19.75 but is only meant to last 1/3 of the school year. Each of the other two books needed to complete the year cost $19.75, as well. And you'll need the teacher manual with the supplemental CD of worksheets and quizzes, which costs $23.50 (one teacher manual is good for all three student books if you stick to books within one series). So the total cost for one year of the God's Design Science is over $80. Since I did it piece meal and needed two different teachers manuals, it cost me about $100 for the year.

So if price is a big factor, Apologia is the better choice.

With that said, the best price I've found online is at Rainbow Resource, coming in at about $5 cheaper per book than the publisher, Answers in Genesis, for the individual student books. Rainbow doesn't appear to sell the student/teacher/CD Rom combo pack, though. So to truly maximize savings, you would need to purchase one student/teacher combo pack at Answers in Genesis (selling right now for $32.99) and the other two student books from Rainbow Resource ($19.75 apiece), bringing the total cost for a year of this curriculum to $73 plus shipping (the entire curriculum costs $89 at the Answers in Genesis site when purchased as a complete set, or $85 for everything when purchased from Rainbow Resource).

Keep in mind, too, that if you purchase the teacher set with the CD Rom you don't need the additional student or teacher test/quiz packets; the complete set comes with a disc of reproducibles which you can print off for multiple students, so you'll have all you need without purchasing those additional supplements.

One more note about price: Rainbow Resource does give free shipping if you spend $150 or more, and their price is typically the best on just about EVERYTHING. So you might just go ahead and buy the whole set there, along with whatever else you need, and get the shipping free.

Homeschooling the Dyslexic Child podcast

2010-07-28T10:04:00.002-04:00

Pregnancy has taken its toll and I haven't been posting much. But I finally found time and energy to record my talk from the Ultimate Homeschool Expo about Homeschooling the Dyslexic Child.

I divided the talk into 8 episodes, since it covers about 2
hours of material.

Topics include:
Could my child be dyslexic?
Making the decision whether or not to pursue formal testing
Coming to terms with the diagnosis
Finding more hours in the day
Managing my own emotions while teaching a child with special needs
Overcoming reading hurdles
Spelling, Writing, and Grammar
Yearly evaluations and other concerns

To listen to individual episodes, double click the arrow button where it says "select a past episode". Choose the episode you would like to hear and click on it. You can click play right on the player widget to stream from your computer, or click "visit my call" and follow the prompts by each episode title if you prefer to download the episodes to you iPod, iPhone, or Mp3 player. Each individual episode lasts from 10 to 20 minutes.

Alcatraz

2010-07-11T11:59:00.001-04:00

I love educational vacations! I wish I knew a good word for them. Veducations? Vay-keducations?

Anyway, we're having one right now, and it feels so good to be able to hatch two birds from one egg. (My bird loving kids don't like it when I say "kill two birds with one stone"). We are relaxing and rejuvenating, as well as doing school. You gotta love it!

Right now we are in San Francisco. Yesterday we went to Alcatraz, the famous inescapable prison on a large rock island in San Francisco Bay. We loved walking through the old prison and listening to the audio tour about famous inmates, prison life, and escape attempts.

We discovered something else new yesterday: the National Parks Junior Ranger program. The kids were each given a booklet to fill out while they were at Alcatraz. After answering all the questions, their booklets were stamped and they received a special Junior Ranger badge. Everyone was motivated to listen and learn on our tour, and they all felt very proud of their badges.

I had heard of the Junior Ranger program before, but we had never tried it. I guess it seemed to me like it would take too much time to fit in all that extra learning, LOL. But it really didn't take that much extra time and it was very worthwhile The kids were actively engaged learners, and their experience was enhanced by both the information gathering and the badges! Even our five year old was trying to learn all he could and answer every question in his booklet.

The entire area of Alcatraz island is also a bird rookery, and this is hatching season! So we also got to see some new birds, most notably the Western Gull. Our avid 10 year old birder thought he saw a Black Oystercatcher and was ecstatic....but excitement soon led to the teary eyed realization that it was just a Pigeon Guillemot (also a new bird for him, but apparently not as rare as the Oystercatcher, so it didn't hold the same cache for him). His disappointment abated when he learned that the Pigeon Guillemot is not some cross-breed pigeon, but actually a member of the Puffin family.

It has been a lot of walking, and San Francisco has more hills than I dared imagine. But so far this 7 months pregnant mama has been keeping up pretty well!

Today we plan to walk on the Golden Gate Bridge and to see the giant redwood trees at Muir Woods before heading to Yosemite National Park. The boys are very excited about earning some new junior ranger badges along the way! And I'm excited about another great "Veducation" Day!

Year-Round School

2010-06-02T22:49:00.001-04:00

The middle boy in the blue coat is my husband; the boy in red on the left is his twin brother.

One benefit to homeschooling is that we do not need to be bound by a traditional school schedule. Our family has been starting school in July for a few years now so that we can have longer breaks at Christmas and in the spring.

It has blessed our family in many ways to set aside the traditional school schedule and do what works for us. I have found over the years that my kids often do their best work during the summer. We live in the south, and it is too hot to play outside during the summer months. We do take a long lunch break almost every day to swim at a nearby pool. This motivates them to get up early and get their work done so they can have a nice "recess" at the pool.

We don’t have sports in the summer, either, which means we can come home from the pool and finish up anything we didn’t get to in the morning. With four boys active in sports, the school year schedule can be stressful at times…..but during “summer school”, we don’t have anything else we need to focus on, aside from school. It’s a very productive way to kick off the new year!

The holidays are often a stressful time for families, but that stress is minimized for us, since we take a full month off from early December through early January. The kids enjoy lots of special holiday activities, and I don’t feel too rushed to bake cookies or decorate Gingerbread houses. By late April or early May, we are usually done with school, just in time for the onset of spring fever! It feels wonderful to get outside and enjoy the nice weather without having to worry about finishing school work first.

This schedule has been great for our dyslexic son---really, for all our grade-school aged kids---as we do not have to waste much time reviewing, since we are taking frequent short breaks throughout the year instead of a 3 month long break in the summer. A shorter summer break means less time to forget what they learned during the year.

This year we are expecting a new baby in September. The traditional schedule certainly wouldn’t work for us this fall! If we lived by the public school schedule we would just be getting started when our baby is due. Instead, we'll be doing school all summer, beginning the second week in June and working until the baby arrives...then taking some "summer break" in the fall.

If you've never considered a non-traditional schedule, you may want to give it some thought and prayer. If the thought of starting school in June or July seems overwhelming, consider starting in early August. Just 2 or 3 weeks of school in the summer could give you some flexibility at the holidays, or an early "year end" next spring!

Bunker Hill Chess

2010-05-14T20:54:00.000-04:00

The boys have enjoyed many games of Bunker Hill Chess this spring. They enjoy pitting the Americans against the British and fighting it out.

You can almost hear the cannons booming!

Homeschooling with Heart interview

2010-05-07T14:01:00.001-04:00

You can find the archives for my Homeschooling with Heart interview here.

Resources for the Dyslexic Child

2010-04-18T20:28:00.012-04:00

This resource list has been prepared in conjunction with my talk Homeschooling the Dyslexic Child for the Ultimate Homeschool Expo.

Throughout the talk I refer to various programs we have used, books I've read, and resources I recommend. These links correspond to that talk.

Curriculum

We are using All About Spelling , which is an Orton Gillingham method designed specifically for dyslexics. My dyslexic son is doing great with this program, and so is his non-dyslexic younger brother.

As for us, we took our time with levels 1 and 2, making sure to build a solid foundation. My dyslexic son will be ready to start Level 3 during our next school year. Virtually all of Level 1 and much of Level 2 was review, and thus very easy for him. We could have possibly skipped book 1 or done the books more quickly. I wanted to make sure, however, that he had a good grasp on all the rules and how they apply, and I wanted him to take time to learn both the weekly words as well as the words for extra practice.

It has been worthwhile starting at the beginning again to make sure we laid a solid foundation. When he started learning to spell, much of it was confusing and he experienced weekly failure. Starting slightly below his level was a real confidence boost for him, allowing him to experience spelling success for the first time. He has shown good retention and understanding. His reading level is much higher than his spelling level at this point, but he is making steady progress, and I couldn't be happier about that!

My children were already familiar with the phonograms, having previously learned them in another spelling program. They really enjoy spelling new words with the colorful phonogram magnets, and I like the way the magnets are color coded to represent consonants, vowels, blends, etc.

The people behind All About Spelling (AAS) are releasing a new program called All About Reading (AAR). This program will be geared specifically toward teaching reading to the dyslexic student.

Oh, how I wish it had been available a few years ago when we were struggling! I can't wait to see it! One book in the series, Cobweb the Cat, has already been released. The pictures are lovely and the stories are engaging. Cobweb the Cat is Level 1 book 3 in the AAR series, and correlates with All About Spelling book 1. After completing various chapters in AAS book 1, the child should be able to read certain chapters in Cobweb the Cat. Click the link below to get an All About Reading activity book for free!

Level 2, volumes 1 and 2 are complete and were just released for sale this week. Level 2 volume 1 (What am I?)_correlates with AAS book 2, steps 1-14. Also on sale this week is Level 2 volume 2 (Queen Bee), which correlates with AAS book 2, steps 15-25. They are also working on a reading book just for preschoolers, to prepare them for reading and spelling. They plan to make that book available in October.

As I said before, my son's reading level is considerably higher than his spelling ability, but I still ordered Queen Bee for him, which is commensurate with the spelling level he just finished. I think it is good reinforcement for him to read stories using his spelling words, both as a visual reminder of how the words are spelled, and as a vocabulary builder (seeing his spelling words used in context). I hope in the future they will release some of the books before he completes the spelling level that they accompany, as this kind of reinforcement would be ideal to use while he is learning his new words.

We didn't have the benefit of a reading program tailor made to fit with our spelling program, so I've been using the Pathway Readers by Rod and Staff. We love this series, and I've been using them for over 10 years in my homeschool with all my children! Although I plan to start my preschooler with the All About Reading series, I won't be leaving Pathway Readers behind. My middle children love the books and I think they are a great fit for both our dyslexic son and our other children, too.

These graded readers worked great for my dyslexic son because they progress very gradually. His reading ability has grown as he moved from one reader to the next. Each reader introduces slightly more words per page, slightly smaller type, and new vocabulary. We have never used the workbooks that accompany this series, but I plan to next year. I was able to look at them recently and there are several activities for each chapter which check comprehension, reinforce grammar topics and teach vocabulary. I don't intend to have my son do every worksheet, but the workbooks are very inexpensive and they will be a good supplement to the grammar the children are already doing. After finishing the grade 3 Pathway reader, many children are ready to read a simple chapter book, such as something from the Childhood of Famous Americans series.

Dyslexic children often reverse letters, writing b instead of d and so forth. Our son did just that. We switched him to Cursive First and the problem was immediately eliminated. Cursive First is a handwriting program that teaches children how to write cursive. It is intended to be used before they learn to print.

We love the clock face stamp (click link and page down), which helped our dyslexic son learn to form letters properly. It is hard to write cursive backwards, and so it is a good choice for teaching dyslexics to write. We laminated the letter cards that came with the program and our son traced over them with a dry erase marker before he started writing letters free-hand. My 4th and 2nd graders have much better handwriting than our 8th grader, who learned to print before he learned cursive. I think teaching cursive first is a must, and all my children will be learning that long before they learn to print.

Cursive First can be used with other phonics and reading programs, but it goes hand in hand with Spell to Write and Read (SWR). SWR is not my favorite program, but it unlocked the door to reading for my dyslexic son. We are not using it anymore, as I personally prefer All About Spelling . SWR is not, in my opinion, the ideal spelling program for the dyslexic, though many dyslexics have successfully used it and it is better than some of the other programs out there. I found it difficult to teach, and the pace moved too quickly for my son to be successful with it as a long-term spelling program. The approach was successful in helping him learn to read, however, and for that I am very grateful. I think SWR has a lot of great things going for it, but AAS was written with the dyslexic in mind, and we have had much better success with it.

Most experts recommend teaching spelling to dyslexics using an Orton Gillingham method. Spell to Write and Read is based loosely on OG methodology, but it is not strictly an OG method. You can find helpful articles about teaching the dyslexic student, as well as information about OG, and links to some of OG methods, at Susan Barton's website Bright Solutions for Dyslexia, Inc.

We use All About Spelling for our daily dictation practice, but I also use Writing with Ease (WWE) for copywork and narration. WWE is written by Susan Wise Bauer (author of the popular Your Story of the World and The Well Trained Mind books). There are dictation sentences in the WWE book but many are too difficult, so we only do the other parts of the book. I love this series, as it incorporates grammar lessons into the copywork, and the stories for narration practice are well-chosen. We are almost done with Level 2. My children absolutely love listening to the narration stories, and always beg to hear them in their entirety. Many of these classic stories have been recorded as audio books, so we have found as many as are available for WWE 1 and WWE 2 and put them on our educational audio website My Audio School. We plan to add what we can for WWE Level 3 this summer. I have not found the teacher's manual necessary, so we have been using the workbooks only. Photocopying is allowed for personal use, so I copy the necessary pages or have my sons use notebook paper so that the book will be non-consumable.

We also use the grammar series from Peace Hill Press, written by Susan Wise Bauer and her mother Jessie Wise. When my dyslexic son was in 4th grade we did the book First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind (aimed at 1st and 2nd graders). This book is meant to take two years but we were easily able to do it in one year. Most of the lessons are oral, making it an ideal first grammar book for the dyslexic child. We skipped most of the narration, copywork and dictation sections since we were already doing that work in Writing with Ease. We could have done the copywork and dictation from this grammar book and skipped WWE, but I much prefer the copywork and narration selections in WWE. They aren't as juvenile as the ones in First Language Lessons.

Towards the end of this school year we were able to start Book 3 of this grammar series. There are too many worksheets in this book to make photocopying practical, so it is preferable for each child to have their own workbook. The teacher manual was recommended to me, as well, so I am using it for this grammar series. This book can also be used with an older student who has not done First Language Lessons 1 and 2. Be advised, levels 1 and 2 are combined within one volume.

All our children have used Math U See, so I've been with their program for the past 9 years. This has been a good fit for our dyslexic son, as the hands on, manipulative approach appeals to him. The curriculum includes a video for teachers, but my son watches it with me before we discuss the lesson. He learns a lot through listening and watching the video. There is an article on their website about using Math U See for students with special needs.

My son is not yet old enough for middle and high school science, but I definitely plan to use Apologia with him when he is. My oldest son has used this excellent Christian, college-preparatory science curriculum. It is great for dyslexics as they sell MP3 audio CDs for 6 of their courses so the child can listen to the textbook being read, or follow along as he reads.

Practical Helps

We purchase transparent reading overlays very inexpensively from Heads Up Now! These overlays help my dyslexic son with his reading, making the black letters stand out more clearly from the white page.They offer overlays which show just one line of text, such as those in the picture above, as well as overlays showing two lines of text, a large rectangle of text or an entire page of text.

Pencil grips help our children learn where to place their fingers. Stetro grips are the most recommended, and they are often used with older children who hold their pencils awkwardly. Heads up Now! sells Stetro grips for 50 cents apiece.

For spelling I purchased a very large magnetic dry-erase board at my local Wal-Mart for less than $10. It is big enough to hold our All About Spelling magnets, with room in the middle for writing words and dictation sentences.

We keep lots of mechanical pencils on hand, as well as refill leads. Mechanical pencils reinforce gentle pressure. If the child presses too hard, the lead breaks. It was hard to get used to these, but my childrens' writing has greatly improved. My favorites are the Papermate Sharpwriter disposable mechanical pencils with the twist up lead, and the refillable Paper Mate Mega Lead with its twist up eraser. Both of these pencils encourage gentle pressure without breaking SO often that the children (and mom!) become overly frustrated.

I really like the Peggy Kaye books, such as Games for Math and Games for Reading. Sometimes when we get into a rut it's good to pull out one of these books and use a game to help teach the concept. The photo above shows two of my boys playing Fast Track, one of their favorite games from Games for Math.

My son memorizes audio material easily. Although this is not a necessity, he has really enjoyed the classic songs on Schoolhouse Rock. This has been a worthwhile supplement for grammar. The 30th anniversary edition is available for sale. You can also watch some of the videos on You Tube for free. The lyrics for all songs can be found here.

I grew up on Schoolhouse Rock and still remember old favorites like Conjunction Junction to this day!

Online Resources:

Our son gets most of his history and literature content for both school and pleasure through audio books. I developed the website My Audio School specifically to meet his needs as a dyslexic student. One fourth of our content is unblocked for the public, or a subscription fee of $15 per year unlocks over 450 distinct audio resources. Although I developed it for our dyslexic son, all of our children are using it every week. I guess everyone loves a good audio book!

You can follow My Audio School as a fan on Facebook. Every week I try to share a link or two of audio content relating to an event from "This week in history".

Another source of audio material for children who have proper documentation proving they are dyslexic is Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic.

We use Spelling City every week for practicing spelling words. I can type my son’s spelling list into this free website and the program will read the words aloud to him and customize games and printable worksheets for that week’s list.

I've have posted several articles about dyslexia on this blog. Look in the sidebar under The Dyslexic Child for posts about hands on spelling techniques, such as file folder spelling (pictured above), what to do if you suspect your child is dyslexic, and more. In the days to come I plan to continue to add more posts to the list, including a recording of my talk Homeschooling the Dyslexic Child, so be watching for those.

You might also enjoy listening to my talk on The Homeschooler's Library, which details how I go about choosing books. You can also find this talk in the sidebar of the blog (in a purple widget box), followed by a lengthy list of recommended titles on a variety of subjects.

The All About Spelling website is a treasure trove of helpful articles. Here are a few good ones:

Resources for mom and dad:

Two books I have read which helped me understand more about dyslexia and how to work with my child are Ronald Davis' book The Gift of Dyslexia (read a short review of this book here) and Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz.

The Homeschool Legal Defense Association provides legal representation for homeschoolers. It is advisable to have such representation if you are homeschooling a child with special needs. They also provide many helps for parents who homeschool a special needs child. Members have access to trained specialists who can encourage and advise. Many resources have been made available to the public for free in the Homeschooling your Struggling Learner portion of the HSLDA website.

In addition to local homeschooling friends, it has been helpful to draw on the knowledge of others in similar situations. I've enjoyed being part of the online yahoo group Heart of Reading. This is a Christian group for homeschoolers of struggling students, specifically geared toward reading difficulties such as dyslexia, dysgraphia and auditory processing disorder.

We do standardized testing every year, even though it is not required by law in our state. It is a good benchmark for me, to see how my children are progressing. It is also a protection for us as we homeschool, as one more example that we are exercising due diligence as we educate our dyslexic son. We use the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, which can be administered at home by a parent if you have a college degree. I purchase them through BJU Press. Students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia are eligible to receive accommodations when they take their standardized tests. In a homeschool setting it is usually fairly easy to test your child in a room by himself. Our child has most portions of the test read aloud to him, and most sections are not timed. These two accommodations have made a world of difference in his scores.

Whew! That is a long list of some of the curriculum, practical helps and resources for parents which we have found helpful as we homeschool our dyslexic son. If you have favorite resources that you use with a dyslexic child, please leave me a comment. I'd love to hear about it!

Disclosure: I am an All About Spelling affiliate and will receive a commission on any purchases that result from following the links to their site that I provided in this post or elsewhere on this blog.

Safety on the Internet

2010-04-13T23:23:00.002-04:00

Our family uses the internet a lot. We rely on it for our home-based business, for our oldest son's online classes, for homework and educational websites, and for games. Almost every member of our family uses the internet daily.

Although our computers are in a safe, public place, I began to worry last year about online safety. Statistics show that most kids are introduced to pornography for the first time while trying to do their homework. The average age of first exposure is 8 years old!

I spend a lot of time making my home safe for my children. But for a long time I hadn't even noticed the elephant in the room. Unrestricted internet access poses a dangerous threat to our kids, and the devil will take advantage of our lack of vigilance.

We've been using a Covenant Eyes filter for many months now. It has been a great blessing for our whole family. I hope you'll sign up for Covenant Eyes if you aren't already using an internet filter. If you sign up through a link on any of my websites or use my promo code CounterCultural you can get your first 30 days of accountability and filtering for free!

Disclosure: I am a Covenant Eyes affiliate and will receive a commission on any purchases that result from following the links to their site that I provided in this post or elsewhere on this blog.

Chincoteague and Assateague Islands, Virginia

2010-04-01T11:54:00.001-04:00

During the time we were preparing for our trip to Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown, we were also reading the book Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry.

Misty of Chincoteague, 60th Anniversary Edition

Misty is about a Chincoteague boy who participates in the annual wild pony roundup on Assateague. The wild ponies can still be found on Assateague and my boys were dying to see them.

The boys knew that Chincoteague and Assateague were both barrier islands just off the coast of Virginia, and they begged to add that as a stop on our trip. We were already 10 hours from home in Williamsburg; the trip to Chincoteague was just 3 hours further. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to take advantage of their excitement and create memories that would last a lifetime.

We had to cross the huge Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to get to Virginia's eastern shore. This bridge tunnel is known as one of the "seven engineering wonders of the modern world." Once across, we still had quite a ways to go to reach Chincoteague, which was accessible by crossing a small bridge.

All lodging and restaurants are on Chincoteague. We stayed at the Best Western, which is the hotel nearest Assateague Island National Seashore. It was reasonably priced and the rooms were very clean and nice. There was a free breakfast daily, with waffles, eggs, bacon, biscuits, cereal, pastries, yogurt, fruit, bagels, and juice. The hotel had bikes available for rent, though none were small enough for our preschooler, and other bike rental shops were closed since we went during the off season.

It was easy to drive around the refuge. Chincoteague and Assateague are both very small, with basically one main road through both.

I'm so glad I listened to the boys and took the time for this "side trip", which turned out to be a highlight of our vacation. We went to see the ponies, but ended up also seeing lots of shorebirds. For this birdwatching family, that was a huge plus.

It was fun to walk along the beach, climb the dunes and see the ocean.

There are two visitor centers on Assateague and both were very educational. We caught several glimpses of the ponies from the car, and even stumbled upon two wild ponies while walking along one of the trails. It was nerve wracking and a little too close for comfort for me, but the boys were enthralled. It was very special to be so close to them!

Having read all three books, it was also a highlight for us to sit in the hotel after a busy day and watch the movie Misty, which was filmed in Chincoteague and Assateague. There were copies of this re-released 1961 DVD for rent and for sale at a local video store.

If you head to Chincoteague, don't miss out on Famous Pizza or Island Creamery. The pizza at Famous Pizza was homemade and delicious, as well as very reasonably priced. Island Creamery had dozens of flavors of homemade ice cream. Our 7 year old is already planning to take his children to Island Creamery one day!

Many things were closed since we were there off-season, including the Beebe Ranch and Pony Farm. We weren't able to see the now-captive ponies, which are Misty's direct descendents. That was fine with us, though. Just as at Yorktown, we preferred seeing the "real thing", out in the wild.

If you're a fan of the Misty books, or heading to Chincoteague, the Misty of Chinoteague Foundation has a great educational website for kids.

These books are not available in the public domain, so I don't have them on My Audio School. Instead, we purchased these audiobooks from Audible.com. The boys listened to the first one before we left, and the two sequels filled the long hours on our drive to Virginia. Now they want to read everything by Marguerite Henry! I just brought her book Benjamin West and his Cat Grimalkin home from the library, and we have Justin Morgan had a Horse on CD. Both will undoubtedly be "devoured" soon!

Homeschool Days at Yorktown, Virginia

2010-03-30T22:00:00.001-04:00

Our day at Yorktown was slightly miserable because it had snowed in the night and, being Georgians, we didn't have any boots.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed Yorktown so much that our family went back for an extra day at the end of the week so that we could see things we had missed the first day.

Our ten-dollar Homeschool Days ticket from the Jamestown/Yorktown Foundation gave us 5 days of access to both Jamestown Settlement and to Yorktown Victory Center. The ticket price includes a 2 hour guided tour and a 1 hour grade-level classroom experience. These are musts, in my opinion, so register early enough to take part in the classroom experiences if you are thinking of going to Homeschool Days in the future.

We started our day with a walking tour around the Victory Center. There was a re-created 1780s farm, complete with a house, kitchen, tobacco barn, crop fields, and herb and vegetable garden. We enjoyed looking around the farm, especially warming ourselves by the indoor fires as we spoke to costumed interpreters about life on the farm.

The boys especially enjoyed the re-created Continental Army encampment, where we learned from historical interpreters what it was like to be an American soldier in the Revolutionary War.

The bitter cold, wet conditions gave me a new appreciation of what it must have been like to be a soldier (I thought of those who served at Valley Forge, with no shoes or appropriate clothing or housing). We were grateful that we could get a hot meal at lunch in a warm building. At the encampment we saw little tents meant to hold six soldiers, and a pot of beans (which would have been served 3 times a day).

The men that fought the war to gain our independence paid a high cost, with many privations. At least the nasty weather gave us a deeper appreciation of that.

There is also a beautiful museum with many displays about the Declaration of Independence, the Siege of Yorktown, and the impact of the war on the lives of several ordinary people.

In the afternoon, the children each attended another hands-on classroom experience, similar to what they were able to do at Jamestown Settlement.

The K-2nd grade class examined tools and materials that would have been used on a small Virginia farm to explore what life was like at that time. My youngest son absolutely loved grinding salt with a mortar and pestle and pretending to write with a quill pen. Costumes were brought out at the end of the class and he enjoyed dressing up in a colonial boys' outfit.

The 3rd-5th grade class had lots of fun solving a mystery by analyzing primary source documents and reproduction artifacts. In the process, they learned about the lives of ordinary 18th century Virginians.

The oldest group attended "Life of a Private". My teenager was selected as the "Private" in question, and he got to don all the clothing and gear of a Continental soldier, even holding a real musket.

We really enjoyed our day at Yorktown Victory Center, but I must say that the highlight for us was the end of the day, when we drove over to the Yorktown National Battlefield. There was only just enough time before dark to walk around the snowy battlefield, but the boys loved every minute of it. They ran the full length of the field, each one undoubtedly engaged in a battle in his own mind.

We knew that we had to go back, as we had only scratched the surface of what there was to do at the National Battlefield.

On the last day of our trip we had planned to get an early start for our last destination, Chincoteague Island (of Misty fame), but we decided to leave a little later so that we could head back to Yorktown National Battlefield.

There was no charge to walk around outside on the grounds, but the museum inside cost $10 for ages 15 and over. Again, just as at Historic Jamestowne, I was able to get this fee waived by filling out some paperwork about the educational purpose of our trip. Here is a link to the requirements for getting a fee waiver.

We explored the museum, which was small but very well done for children. There was a ship to walk through, a children's exhibit area, and several of George Washington's artifacts. There was also a movie, which we enjoyed.

My favorite part was touring the battlefield. We purchased a CD in the gift shop for $5 and set out in our car. The narrator on the CD and several well marked signs told us exactly where to go. At each stop, there was dramatic narration about what had occurred in that location.

A highlight for us was walking around Redoubts 9 and 10, which were seized from the British by the American and French infantry on October 14, 1781. We extended our driving tour beyond the main sites and took an alternate route which led us past fields that had housed equipment, a military hospital, the camps of various generals, and more. It was a very pleasant drive and led us to imagine what it must have been like to be on those very fields at that turning point in history.

We returned to the Visitor's Center and ran around the battlefield a bit more. The boys could have spent all day just doing that, but we had to hit the road for Chincoteague Island.

I think the reason this was our favorite place was because of the sense of history we felt, standing on ground that had played such an integral role in our nation's history. This was not a re-created village. This was actually the real deal. The Yorktown National Battlefield is less than 10 minutes from the Yorktown Victory Center, and should definitely not be missed.

Homeschool Days in Jamestown Virginia

2010-03-19T22:08:00.001-04:00

We went to Virginia for Williamsburg homeschool days. Of course we couldn't miss Jamestown or Yorktown while we were there. All three of these historic locations are within 10 to 30 minutes drive of one another.

The Jamestown and Yorktown Foundation held their homeschool days during the same time frame as Colonial Williamsburg, making the timing of this trip even more appealing. For $10.25 per person, we were able to get entrance to both locations for 5 days. Included in the price of admission was a 2 hour guided tour in each location and a one hour age-appropriate, hands on classroom experience. Children under 4 were admitted free.
Dates for fall homeschool days have already been published: September 11-26, 2010.

Our guide was excellent, and it was wonderful to start our trip with an overview of Jamestown, site of the first permanent English settlement in America. There are three important outdoor areas at Jamestown Settlement: a re-creation of the Powhatan Indian village, replica 1607 ships and the colonial fort. Costumed interpreters met us at each location to give us more information about how to burn out a log to make a canoe, how to navigate a ship and what life was like in the fort.

After our tour we thoroughly enjoyed walking through their fantastic museum.

The children each participated in grade-level hands on classroom experiences. These classroom experiences at Jamestown and Yorktown were one of the trip highlights for us.

Our preschooler did a program called Living with the Indians. He and his classmates were able to handle and analyze clothing, bone tools and pottery of the Powhatan Indian culture. He learned how to make rope out of marsh grass and each child was able to touch dozens of replica artifacts. Our preschooler gained more from these one hour hands on experiences than from almost anything else we did. He was thoroughly in his element, touching Indian bows and arrowheads, pots, tools and baskets. The museum educator was excellent with the children, really drawing them out with insightful questions.

I can honestly say that I felt refreshed as a teacher by my participation in these hands on classrooms. I realized anew how important it is to provide hands on experiences, particularly for young children and kinesthetic learners. I've often made use of hands on projects, but it is easy to let a commitment to them slip through the cracks, since they require so much effort and time.

I also liked the way the educator led the children to make deductions about what they were seeing and hearing. She asked lots of questions and the children were very engaged in the conversation. Many times I find myself telling my kids facts, "lecture style", rather than helping them deduce those facts through thinking about what they've already learned.

I came back with a renewed vision and commitment to hands on projects and discussion.

Our middle boys' class compared and contrasted the Powhatan Indian, English and African cultures that came into contact during the 17th century, while our oldest son learned more about the 1607 voyage to Virginia by exploring period navigational tools.

Some of my children felt Jamestown was the highlight of the trip.

After our time at Jamestown settlement, we went to the Historic Jamestowne national park. This is a separate area, run by the national park system, and requires a separate admission fee. If memory serves, it cost $10 for ages 15 and up, but we were able to get the fee waived by filling out some brief paperwork stating that we were homeschoolers and that we were using this trip in conjunction with our homeschool studies. We were able to fill out this paperwork on site, but you can also do it in advance and bring it with you. Here are the requirements for homeschool fee waivers.

We loved the Historic Jamestowne National Park. It was wonderful to stand on the shore and look upon the site of the first landing in 1607. The children loved the statues of Pocahontas and John Smith, and the park was a lovely place to walk around. We recently watched a program (through Colonial Williamsburg Electronic Field Trips) about archeology in Jamestowne, so it was fun to see the actual dig site and to walk through the museum and see all the artifacts they have unearthed. We are loving the electronic field trips, by the way, and for a few more weeks you can still purchase them at the substantially discounted price of $49. You can learn more in my post about the EFT's, or click on the link above to purchase a subscription through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op.

Homeschool Days at Colonial Williamsburg

2010-03-14T22:15:00.000-04:00

We just returned from a wonderfully educational week at Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. This was one of the best field trips we've ever taken, and I hope you'll consider going if it is ever within the realm of possibility. It was well worth the 10+ hour drive, and added a great deal to our studies this year.

In the stocks

Colonial Williamsburg holds their Homeschool Days twice a year, in spring and fall. Jamestown and Yorktown cooperated with them by holding their homeschool days at the same time. This meant we could get access to special programming for homeschoolers, as well as heavily discounted admission, at all three places.

Looking at weapons in the governor's palace

I've heard there is more to do at CW in the fall, but that the crowds during that time are a force to be reckoned with. Granted, there was a bit less going on during spring homeschool days, and the weather was pretty cold. But the crowds were low, we easily got in to everything we wanted to do, and the rates on condos simply could not be beat. I shared a 4 bedroom condo (designed to sleep 12) with two other homeschooling friends and our 9 children, and we were able to split the cost of $275 total for 5 nights between the three of us. Eating breakfast and dinner at the condo and packing lunches kept food costs economical, too.

There was so much to see and do that I'll publish separate posts about each location. I want to make sure you get all the links and information you need, should you decide to take this trip yourself. This post will cover Williamsburg, the next one will be Jamestown, then Yorktown, and finally Chincoteague Island, VA, home of the wild ponies and "Misty" fame.

The ironworker making hinges

Currently, this link for homeschool days at CW only has information about the spring program, which is already over. They should update this link with information for future dates, however, so you may want to bookmark it.

We spent two days at Colonial Williamsburg. It would have been wonderful to have a third day, but we were able to do much of what we wanted to, especially since the crowds were light. Spring homeschool days at CW are focused on the trades, whereas the fall homeschool days are more about politics and government.

Visiting the shops was a highlight (we especially liked the printer, the silversmith, the wig maker, and the gunsmith). The children had lots of questions to ask the interpreters, and they learned so much about a variety of trades.

Inking the printing press

The younger boys had the opportunity to drill with a soldier, learning how to load and hold a musket, stand in formation, and fire. Our oldest enjoyed listening to a special Q and A session with General Washington.

Learning to drill like a real soldier

Sitting in the courtroom and observing some colonial trials taught us a lot about the laws at that time, and was a highlight for everyone.

Holding a real musket at the gunsmith's shop

The boys loved the baker, too, especially their pretzel rolls and gingerbread. They also sold a refillable mug for $11, good for unlimited refills for one calendar year. We bought one mug early on the first day, and got our money's worth keeping it full of hot chocolate, cider, coffee and tea each day we were there. Usually our kids drink water whenever we go out, so this was definitely a highlight for them, even though we all had to share one mug...the bottomless hot chocolate will ne'er be forgotten.

One afternoon we stopped by The Cheese Shop for bread and some fresh cheese. Everyone had recommended this place and it did not disappoint. We managed to get a bag of bread ends, which we were told we had to try. At just $1 per bag, there were plenty of french bread ends for the 5 of us to snack on.

In the spinning and weaving shop

There were a few walking tours available for homeschoolers, but you had to sign up in advance for these. By the time we registered, two weeks before homeschool days, the extra tours were all booked. There would have also been an extra $5 per person fee for these tours. In this regard, Jamestown and Yorktown were both more homeschool friendly, with plenty of space on their walking tours as well as excellent hands-on, grade-appropriate classroom experiences at both places, all included in the cost of admission.

Learning how to make chocolate at the Governor's Palace kitchen

The tickets for Colonial Williamsburg homeschool days cost $8 per person for a 2 day pass or $11 per person for a 5 day pass. Children 5 and under were admitted free. This was a huge savings over their regular price: a two-day winter pass regularly sells for $38 for adults and $19 for youth. It was also very enjoyable to meet other homeschoolers from around the country while riding on the bus and participating in the programs.

We are currently studying colonial times in our homeschool. The timing of this trip couldn't have been better for us. The boys had read enough that they could really appreciate what we were seeing and doing. Now that we are home, they are making lots of connections in our current readings. For example, we just read D'aulaire's book about Benjamin Franklin and the younger boys all remembered seeing the printing press, talking to the printer, and touching the type. When we read about Franklin's printing career, they noticed things in the illustrations which they had seen in the printer's shop.

We've been home for a week now and the boys are still dressing up and playing Revolutionary War!

Spelling: The Value of the Whiteboard

2010-03-10T23:53:00.000-05:00

My childrens' attitudes toward spelling have dramatically improved since we began using whiteboards instead of writing all their spelling words on paper.

When they were learning to write we used white boards all the time, but once they learned how to write I transitioned them completely to paper.

Spelling became very tedious for them, however, as they hated having to erase words. Paper felt so permanent to them, and they began to dread ever making a mistake.

Once we switched back to the white board, their anxiety disappeared. They actually enjoy practicing their spelling words and writing out sentences on their large white boards. I was able to purchase giant, magnetic whiteboards for them at Walmart for less than $10 per board. The boards are perfect for holding all their spelling magnets, and there is plenty of room for them to write, as well.

This is not to say that we don't use paper anymore. We certainly do use it for things like copywork and for other school subjects. But most of their spelling is done on the white board now, at least while they are still learning the words.

Don't Knock It 'Till You've Tried It!

2010-02-27T08:48:00.000-05:00

Last week my preschool-aged son stayed all night with his grandma. She took him to one of their favorite places, Goodwill, and told him he could pick out a toy. Faced with an array of Hot Wheels cars and Lincoln Logs, he was inexplicably drawn to one particular toy: The Easy-Bake Oven.

The box was pink, with a girl on the front. He casually asked Grandma whether she thought a boy might be able to use such a toy. She assured him that his oldest brother likes to cook and bake, and that boys could use it, even though it was pink. He decided to buy it, as long as she carried it to the checkout.

Once in the car, he breathed a sigh of relief, exclaiming that they got out of the store and no one even KNEW that Easy Bake Oven was for him. Whew!

And then he spent a happy weekend baking cupcakes and cookies. This kid LOVES sweets, so why wouldn't he love a toy oven?

He was nervous about what his brothers would think when he brought it home, but unwilling to part with it. He needn't have worried. When he came home, laden with a box of yummy cupcakes, everyone was instantly intrigued. His 9 year old and 7 year old brothers love cupcakes just as much as he does, and they could hardly wait to start baking up their own treats. They diligently finished their schoolwork early so they could get to the good stuff!

Incidentally, the refill mixes for the Easy Bake Oven are rather expensive. I found a recipe online for converting a traditional cake mix. It worked great for us:

3 tablespoons cake mix
1 tablespoon milk

I even used a mix that called for additional oil and eggs, but it worked out fine with just the milk. Have the kids stir it up, spray the little pan with Pam, and you'll be eating cupcakes in no time!

Don't fill up on Dessert

2010-02-25T21:59:00.023-05:00

My oldest was a natural born student. When I started homeschooling him for Kindergarten, he was already reading well. I had just one other child at the time, a baby. The meat and potatoes of our school day were easily and quickly accomplished, leaving lots of time for dessert: history, science and enrichment.

Things have been different this time around. My second-born, now 9 years old, has dyslexia. He wasn't reading when he started Kindergarten. Not even when he started first grade. And only painstakingly by the end of second grade.

His younger brother is bright and lively, full of the energy that characterizes little boys. He started doing in preschool what his dyslexic brother was doing, and they've basically kept a close pace with each other ever since, despite their two year difference in age.

Today, the dyslexic fourth grader is FINALLY, ACTUALLY reading on grade level!! He isn't spelling on grade level yet, but he is definitely achieving spelling success. He is learning rules and words, and doing way better on dictation exercises than ever before. My second grader is slightly above grade level, and learning to write and spell with more ease.

How did we get here? Little by little.

I'll be honest: history, science, literature, art, and music are my favorite things to teach. With my oldest, it was a virtual buffet of enrichment. But these younger boys have needed a LOT more time dedicated to just getting down the basics. They needed more time to build the foundation upon which all these other exciting subjects could rest.

It hasn't been easy for me to back off on enrichment topics and spend much of our day on the 3 R's. But it is yielding incredible results. I've never given up on history or science altogether...it is important for kids to have those subjects as a regular part of their school week. But I've learned to treat it as the dessert, to be enjoyed in moderation after the meat and potatoes have been eaten.

And now we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I am confident that by the time we begin our next school year, both of these boys will be "reading to learn". In other words, they'll be able to sit down with an age-appropriate book on a history or science topic and read it to themselves. This will open a whole new world for them, and more opportunities to delve into the dessert. Also on the horizon is the ability to write a few original sentences about a given topic. This was something my dyslexic son was completely incapable of doing 2 years ago when he was tested. But little by little, we are getting there!

In addition to math, our morning "meat and potatoes" includes:

Spelling: We are using All About Spelling. This has been a fantastic program for both boys, helping them learn spelling rules as well as how to apply them. The magnets appeal to my kinesthetic, busy 2nd grader. The rules have helped my dyslexic son make sense of spelling, giving him some mental pegs to hang things on.

Writing: We put creative writing on hold for the time being. Instead, we are doing Writing with Ease by Susan Wise Bauer. It dovetails well with her grammar program, which we are also using. Doing both programs means that common grammar and writing themes are regularly reinforced.

Writing with Ease (we're in book 2 currently) gives sentences for the children to copy, and then to write from dictation. They are also being taught how to summarize a passage of literature. The combination of summarization and dictation are preparing them for the next step: original writing. I've heard book 3 is overly challenging, with very long dictation passages. We are enjoying book 2, though, and it is helping the boys with handwriting, grammar, narration skills and learning the mechanics of writing sentences. Dictation teaches them to form a picture in their minds of a sentence and then transfer that onto paper, strengthening their visual memory. For more about this series, read my review on Curriculum Choice.

Reading: For more detail on how I approach reading, please read my article about the four types of reading for emerging readers. My boys each use a graded reader currently (Pathway readers are wonderful, gradually increasing a child's skill without him even realizing it from level to level). Until recently, the boys would always read these books aloud to me. Now they are getting to a level that I can trust they understand what they are reading, so they are beginning to read these books silently to themselves. This is a good transition for a child to make, as he will spend most of his school career reading silently. We also read faster and often understand more when we read silently.

One concern, particularly with dyslexics, is that they will probably skip words. I've made my peace with this. The main point is whether he understands what he read. I sit down regularly with each boy and ask several detailed questions about their reading to check comprehension. We began doing this daily and now I check a couple times a week, as their reading ability and comprehension have improved dramatically.

We also do choral reading of chapter books: the two boys and I sit down together daily and each of us take turns reading the pages. This is really building confidence, as they are easily making it through chapter books working together in this fashion. The next step is sitting down with a chapter book alone. Truth be told, both of them could do it already if they just had that confidence in themselves! They'll get there soon, though. I always choose chapter books that are about history topics. This is an important way to kill two birds with one stone: we are getting some enrichment time while practicing reading at the same time. Most importantly, it is teaching the boys that they can read to learn, not just for fun.

Learning by listening:
We also do a lot of read-alouds and, of course, My Audio School books daily. This strengthens the boys' vocabulary, increases comprehension, and stretches their ability to read new words which they've heard during their listening time. They also love it. I can honestly say that the introduction of audio books has caused my dyslexic child to enjoy school for the first time. It's his favorite part of the day.

There have been many, many days over the years when this steady diet of meat and potatoes has become bland, for me as well as for them! Sometimes I have felt guilty that their school experience hasn't had all the bells and whistles that my oldest son got to enjoy. But perseverance has truly begun to yield its fruits. I try to keep all lessons fairly brief, Charlotte Mason style, making sure to cover each subject every day. We can fit all of this in before lunch, and still have some time left in the day's schedule for dessert.

This is the second post in the series The Dyslexic Child. Click here to read Could My Child Be Dyslexic?

I also have two posts about spelling for dyslexics: Spelling with Clay and File Folder Spelling.

Pressing On

2010-01-24T22:20:00.002-05:00

It's January. At this time of year I find my energy seems to wane. But I don't want our homeschool to suffer from the winter blahs! Here are some tips which help to keep me going during the winter months:

I start every week with a "must do" list. I write out a sheet which tells me exactly what we need to read for the week, which activities we'll do, and what I want to accomplish for the week. I do my planning in advance, so this is just a "short list" to remind me of what we have lined up for the week. I check each item off, one by one, as they are completed. This helps me to stay on track for the week, and gives me a motivational boost as assignments are checked off the to-do list. I also jot down doctor appointments or other "interruptions" on this list, so I can be aware of anything we'll need to compensate for.

I have a to-do list for each day, as well. My younger kids use charts which tell them exactly what they need to do each day. Their motivation to complete their chart is contagious, and the accountability of having it all laid out for everyone to see means that nothing gets skipped.

I have a chart, too, which tells me exactly who I need to be with and what each of my younger children should be doing at any given time of day. I have "office hours" each day for my oldest, when I have time set aside to work one-on-one with him. He is free to schedule the rest of his day in whatever order he wants, as long as he gets all his work done. But for the younger children, I need a fairly rigid schedule to ensure that I get an equal amount of time with each one, and that no one is wasting time while I'm working with a sibling.

I reward my children for a good attitude and a job well done. I'll write more about our system soon, but for now, suffice it to say that there's a pat on the back for getting ready on time, being cheerful about getting school work done, and for saying, "What's next?".

I start early. This winter we've been doing some of our reading at the breakfast table. It feels great to have one thing done before we've even cleared the breakfast dishes!

We start on the right foot with devotions, immediately after breakfast. If we don't, this most important part of the day will easily be squeezed out. For us it works best to do fairly brief devotions twice a day (morning and evening). Bottom line: we are more faithful to our morning devotions when they are scheduled to last about 20 minutes than if they last an hour. A little, done faithfully, has produced more fruit than a lot, done unfaithfully.

I divide the day. We get all our "hard work" done in the morning....phonics/reading lessons, spelling, dictation, and math. This is the meat of our day. After a brief recess and lunch, we get to the "cake": history, science, and enrichment subjects. These are the most enjoyable subjects for us, and it works well for us to save them as a reward for a productive morning.

I add in a mid-morning "snack break". I've put an electric kettle in our schoolroom this winter and it has really raised everyone's morale! About 10 a.m. I make a cup of decaf coffee for myself and a cup of tea (or occasionally, hot chocolate!) for the boys. Our basement schoolroom is a bit chilly at times, and we enjoy this pick-me-up. I keep it very brief (no more than 10 minutes) so it doesn't derail the whole morning! If we're eating a late lunch I'll add fruit, crackers or a granola bar to the hot beverage.

I look ahead. I add up how many days we need to complete to finish our school year, and set a target date for completion. Unforeseen events (hospitalizations, out of town guests, and can't-miss-opportunities) have to be factored in, as they may occur, but this gives me something to aim for. I always take stock, every month, to make sure we are on track to finish our coursework by the end of the school year.

I incorporate some basic daily chores into the day. Nothing saps my motivation faster than a messy house. The childrens' schedules include a few minutes after meals to unload the dishwasher, sweep, take out trash, and straighten up the public areas. I keep the laundry going in between subjects.

I limit time on the computer during school hours! This is key for me. I used to just "check mail" constantly and found that frequently, an email would need an "immediate response". My home-based business cannot be allowed to encroach on school, so I've had to set a schedule for my computer time. I check email in the morning before school, during recess, and in the afternoon once school is finished. I'm not perfect about this, and find it very tempting to check any time I am near the computer!! Sometimes I yield to this temptation, but I find that I am far more productive--and motivated--when I focus on the task at hand and forget about checking email!

How do you stay motivated during the blah days of winter? I'd love to read your comments! We can all use a little inspiration this month!

Eastern Europe feast

2010-01-19T22:11:00.000-05:00

Cabbage rolls in tomato juice

My husband and I lived in Eastern Europe for several years when we were newly married. Although we weren't huge fans of cabbage rolls at the time, I got a yen for them last week and decided we would have an Eastern European feast.

I didn't know that my hankering for purple sauerkraut and stuffed cabbage rolls was pregnancy-induced, but my husband recognized it as a tell-tale sign. You can read all about our exciting news on my Countercultural mom blog!

This would be a good feast to have if you are studying any area in Eastern Europe. We were served cabbage rolls in Romania and in the Czech Republic, in Germany and in Hungary. Most Eastern European countries have their own version of the dish.

Stuffed cabbage rolls with purple cabbage, 5 grain bread and baked apple

Menu:
For our Eastern European feast I served stuffed cabbage rolls, baked apples, purple sauerkraut and five grain bread.

Baked apples:
Cut apples in half and remove seeds. Lay apples skin side down in a casserole dish and put a dab of butter in the center of each apple. Sprinkle apples with cinnamon-sugar. Fill the dish half way full with water and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
1 head of green cabbage
1 large onion, chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup uncooked brown rice
1 pound ground beef
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 cups tomato juice

Remove about 10 or 12 large outer leaves and 6 small leaves of cabbage. Cook the leaves in boiling water 5 to 8 minutes or until just tender. Drain and set aside.

Saute onion in oil until crisp tender. Add the brown rice and cook 3 to 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cool rice mixture slightly.

Combine the rice mixture, the ground beef, salt and pepper. Spoon about 1/4 cup mixture in the center of each large cabbage leaf; reserve the smaller leaves. Fold left and right sides of large leaf over; roll up, beginning at the bottom.

Repeat with the rest of the large leaves. You can cook this dish immediately, or chill it overnight in a sealed tupperware container, as I did.

When you are ready to cook the rolls, arrange the reserved small leaves in the bottom of a large Dutch oven or stockpot. Spoon the brown sugar over the leaves. Top with the cabbage rolls, seam side down.

Pour tomato juice over assembled layers; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 2 hours or until rice is done.

Purple cabbage

Braised Red Cabbage
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon caraway seeds
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 qts. water
1 cup red wine vinegar
*1/4 cup salt
1 small head red cabbage, thinly sliced
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup chicken broth

Cook first 8 ingredients in hot oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until onion is tender.

Combine water, 1 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup salt in a large Dutch oven. bring to a boil. *One-fourth cup of salt is correct for this dish. Most of the salt is drained away after cooking.

Add cabbage to the boiling mixture and cook 10 seconds, stirring constantly. Drain.

Add the cabbage, 2 tbsp vinegar, and chicken broth to onion mixture; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes or until cabbage is crisp-tender. Discard bay leaves.

*My mother-in-law and I enjoyed making a kind of soup out of the leftovers by combining the stuffed cabbage rolls, the purple cabbage and the tomato juice. Yummy!

Write Guide writing course

2010-01-06T17:33:00.000-05:00

We're finally getting back in the swing of school after the holidays. Time to start posting again!

I love writing, and I am the happy beneficiary of several excellent writing courses taken in high school and college. Unfortunately, this has not translated very well when it comes to teaching my own children to write well, especially for my oldest, whose writing skills are advanced.

About 18 months ago we found Write Guide, an online course which pairs students with experienced, highly qualified writing teachers. It has been a fantastic fit for our family, and my son’s writing has improved by leaps and bounds through Write Guide.

You can read my complete review of Write Guide on The Curriculum Choice.

Edublog Awards

2009-12-16T15:59:00.000-05:00

One of my other websites, My Audio School, has been nominated for Best Educational Use of Audio in the Edublog awards! Voting ends TONIGHT, December 16th. If you haven't voted yet, please take a second to click the badge and cast a vote for My Audio School!

Melting Snowman

2009-12-12T13:52:00.000-05:00

When I saw this adorable Melted Snowman project on The Devine Home, I knew this would be perfect for our Georgia home. My four year old and I had lots of fun making it!

First, pour a couple cups of sugar onto a domed cake platter. Then pick out 5 black and 1 orange button for the eyes, nose and mouth. Add twigs for arms, and pop on the dome. For a hat, we used an old Christmas tree ornament from Texas. A camouflage scarf tied around the cake stand base completes the look!

I purchased some snowy window clings for this project, as you see in the original (at the link above), but of course I lost them (and the matching buttons!) somewhere in our Christmas shuffle. We were able to find enough buttons in our button box, but the window clings will have to wait for another day. Maybe when I start wrapping gifts I'll stumble across them!

Home-Spun Holiday Traditions

2009-12-05T22:54:00.001-05:00

This post is part of the Home-Spun Holidays blog carnival, which is being held at Mentoring Moments for Christian Women. The theme of the carnival is to share the simple, inexpensive things you do at home to make the Christmas season memorable. On my Counter-cultural Mom blog, I've shared some of the ways we celebrate Christ's birth during this season. This post is about some of the things we do just for fun.

There are lots of things we do for fun during the holiday season right here at home. I do a lot of my shopping online, and once the holiday packages start arriving, the kids enjoy making box robots. They have lots of fun constructing the robots and then playing with each other in their new costumes.

Every year my husband sets up a little Christmas village and a train around the base of the tree. We all love to turn the lights out and light up the tree and the village, and watch the train chug around the track. It's so relaxing and fun. The boys can often be found sitting by the tree watching the train. This is one of our favorite traditions.

Our boys love to drag their bedding out by the Christmas tree and have a "sleepover" together. They put Christmas music on and fall asleep to the sounds of the season and the twinkling of the tree lights. I sneak in once they are asleep and turn off the music and the lights. I snapped this picture last weekend.

It seems almost too silly to mention, but one of the kid's favorite things is to hide army men in the Christmas tree! They love to pretend these army men are spying on me during the Christmas season, and they take it on as a challenge to hide them so well that I can't find them. When I pull the tree out every year I find army men that have spent the winter in the tree, never having been found. The boys love that, because it means they did their job right.

Making Gingerbread houses is another beloved tradition. I'll be writing more about that later this month.

My younger boys still enjoy setting up the Nativity set. We have 4 different sets and two stables, and I put them all out at once. When I am reading aloud to them, they like to play with the little figures and set up the scene.

What do you do to celebrate the Christmas season? If you blog about it, please link your post to the Mentoring Moments blog carnival. It will run from December 6-12th.

Art: Studying the Masters

2009-12-04T21:13:00.000-05:00

Pieter Bruegel's painting The Land of Cockaigne depicts a legendary place, where food and drink could be found in abundance.

As we read about an artist, I like to have the children work on a project which helps them gain some insight into his work. Often they do a work of art using the style or technique of the artist we are studying, such as a watercolor painting or a plaster of paris fresco. Sometimes, though, I like them to do a work of art based on the subject of a chosen painting. We did this recently with Pieter Bruegel's painting The Land of Cockaigne.

First we read the beautiful book The Fantastic Journey of Pieter Bruegel.

This book is written like a diary account, imagining what may have happened on Bruegel's real-life two year journey through France and Italy during the 16th century.

We gathered a little more information about this particular painting in the book What Makes a Bruegel a Bruegel? before the boys began their own drawing of "The Land of Cockaigne".

They enjoyed imagining what foods they would place in their own legendary worlds, where cotton candy clouds rained M & Ms and slices of pizza grew up out of the ground. When they were done drawing, they labeled their work "The Land of Cockaigne". This fun activity is a simple way to help children remember an artist and one of their famous works of art.

Twelve Days of Christmas 2009

2009-12-01T10:41:00.003-05:00

December brings big changes to our schedule. And it is finally here! I'm so excited.

We'll be working hard to finish up any outstanding work from this semester so that we can phase in our favorite Christmas-related projects. This year, instead of making our traditional Gingerbread Houses we plan to do Gingerbread Castles (we are studying the Middle Ages, after all!) Copywork will take on a Christmas theme. I'm looking forward to baking, decorating and reading by the fire. Advent starts in full swing tonight, too.

Plans for this Christmas season have been in the works around here since October! That's when work began on the annual Mentoring Moments 12 Days of Christmas articles. I put this year's content together, so I got a sneak peak at everything our writers submitted. It is going to be a wonderful series, so I encourage you to head over there and subscribe so you don't miss a thing! Christmas party ideas, thoughtful devotions, crafts for kids, recipes, decorating tips and much more round out this series. We'll be posting several new articles daily for the first 12 days, and one more article daily for the rest of the month.

Today's content includes my article about holding a Gingerbread House party for kids, a yummy punch recipe , a wonderful idea for creating a Goody Basket for each day's Christmas-related activities courtesy of Brenda (from The Tie that Binds and Joyful Holidays) and my devotional thoughts about finding spiritual refreshment during this hectic season.

I hope you'll check it out! I also wanted to give a heads up to you fellow bloggers! Mentoring Moments will be hosting a blog carnival which begins December 6th, titled Homespun Holiday Traditions. To participate, please write a post on your blog this week about something simple and inexpensive you do at home to make the season special. Head on over to Mentoring Moments on the 6th and add your post URL to the MckLinky at the bottom of the post.

Spelling with Clay

2009-11-25T23:09:00.001-05:00

Kinesthetic spelling activities are helpful for my dyslexic son. In this exercise, he formed each letter in the spelling word out of clay. He likes using a different color for each letter. He also formed a representation of the word's meaning out of clay. This is an important step for dyslexics, who think in pictures.

When he was done spelling this word and making a little fire to go with it, he took a picture of it in his mind. He likes to actually put his hand up near his face and make a clicking sound, as if he had a real camera. Later, when he needs to spell the word, he can recall the picture he took in his mind.

This method has been helpful for him, particularly with those little amorphous words that are difficult to attach a meaning to. Dyslexics often struggle with words like "the", "a", "of", "and", and a host of others. The very act of spelling out those little words in clay, and building something to represent them, has been of great value.

For example, to represent the word "and" he might build two people. It doesn't really matter what he chooses to create to go along with the word, as long as it represents the word to him in a picture form. This technique has been effective in helping him with both reading and spelling those troublesome little words.

My preschooler and emerging reader love this activity, too, by the way! My 7 year old absolutely loves making alphabets and words out of clay. He enjoys this spelling exercise just as much as his brother does. He is not dyslexic, but it is a fun hands-on activity for him. And my preschooler?? Well, he just loves mashing it around.

I came across this idea in the wonderful book The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald Davis. If you have a dyslexic in your family (or suspect you might), I highly recommend this book.

Joyful Holidays

2009-11-23T00:01:00.001-05:00

I'm inspired! I just saw my friend Brenda's new makeover on her Joyful Holidays blog and it has put me in such a festive spirit! Head on over and check it out. She's already got some great Thanksgiving things posted...I'm dying to try out the Thanksgiving fortune cookies, they look so cute! She'll continue posting all kinds of inspiration throughout the entire holiday season.

She's also planning a give-away from her favorite etsy sellers to celebrate her new blog makeover. Check it out this week for fun, and then stop by again December 1st to find out how to enter.

Secrets to Contentment

2009-11-21T23:33:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Do you struggle with gratitude? Sometimes life is hard.

And sometimes we just see the glass half empty, even when things are actually going pretty well. I know I can certainly be that way.

I'm a perfectionist. A frustrated perfectionist, that is. In this podcast I share about my journey to contentment. Topics include marriage, children, homemaking, body image and finances.

Medieval Castle Siege Game

2009-11-20T13:39:00.001-05:00

Finished castle with "King Toucan"

I got this idea from someone else's blog, but unfortunately I can't remember where I saw it! We had lots of fun with this one.

First, we printed out castle templates so that the kids could assemble their own castle. I printed out the black and white ones, and the kids colored them creatively. This was a simple activity, that required a few printouts, some colored pencils, cardboard (we used old cereal boxes), toilet paper tubes and glue. The castles did not take long to assemble...maybe an hour to make 3 castles (from start to finish, with most of the time spent coloring.)

Next, the kids placed their castles on a large sheet of butcher paper. I wish I had had poster board on hand, but I didn't....so the paper had to do.

I read a book about castles to them, pausing at the end of each page so that they could decide if they wanted to "add" anything from the reading to their own castle. I had to do the writing for the youngest ones. They made little drawings on the paper to indicate buildings, weapons, and supplies, and then whispered to me what each drawing meant.

I helped them to label their drawings, and then read the next page. We went back and forth like this, pausing after each page, so they could decide what their castle would need to withstand a siege.

After we were done, I used a printout from this Castle Siege game which prompted them to tell what people would be present in their castle. Those names were written down (king, blacksmith, peasants, etc.). They had one last opportunity to mention any supplies, animals, food items, people, buildings, etc. that they needed before the game began. Once the game started, no one could add anything to their castle.

The Castle Siege game has a bunch of cards that you print and cut out. Each player draws a card and adds or subtracts points from their total score, based on how well they outfitted their castle. For example, they add two points if they remembered to include a dungeon, and subtract two points if they forgot. Once they've gone through all the cards, the game ends and the player with the highest point total wins.

I wanted a chance to play, too, but it didn't seem very fair, because I knew exactly what everyone else had put in their castle, and what the cards called for. We agreed that I would use our Fairy Tale Castle puzzle, receiving or losing points for whatever the puzzle creators remembered to put into the puzzle. Let's just say that the Fairy Tale Castle wasn't designed very well for a siege, but it was fun anyway.

This puzzle, by the way, is a remnant from the days when I believed that all boys should have gender-inclusive toys. No one plays with it in this house now-a-days. For more on that, please read my post about Boys and Weapons!

This game was fun, and didn't take very long to play. The longest part of this entire exercise was reading about the castle and getting the boys to label it. But they absolutely loved doing that part, and they remembered so much more than if we had only read it. Thinking about what they would need, labeling and listing everything, and then finding out through the game what was missing was very instructive to them, and they won't soon forget this material.

I'm so happy we took the time to do this! It was well worth it.

Could my child be dyslexic?

2009-11-18T22:51:00.004-05:00

I always knew one of my children was a little different. At age two, he could quickly complete complicated puzzles that his six year old brother struggled to put together. His mind just saw the way it had to be! He was incredibly smart and continually amazed us with his mechanical mind and ingenuity.

When I began teaching him to read, though, he struggled. He changed b's into d's and 9's into 6's. More telling, though, was the fact that he couldn't remember little words. If he was reading "Tim and Tom and Mary and Jan" he would have to sound out the word "and" every single time. He could not remember it from one second to the next. I had him informally tested, and he "passed". We were told he was not dyslexic. That put my mind at ease for a short while, but not for long. Signs which could not be explained any other way continued to crop up.

He skipped words or even lines while reading, as if they weren't there. He read words backwards. He added letters that weren't there, or deleted ones that were. He ignored punctuation marks. Reading and spelling became a horrible chore. We had him tested again by a trained psychiatrist and found out that he was, indeed, dyslexic.

At first I was stunned. I had feared this was true. I had known it somehow, deep down. Yet the truth still felt like a punch in the gut. How would this affect him? What would this mean for his long-term future? Could we handle this?

Although it did not feel like it at the time, receiving that diagnosis was a blessing. We could finally begin to understand what we were dealing with and address it in ways that are making a difference. My patience increased exponentially overnight, as I realized that he really was doing his very best, and as I began to see school through my son's eyes.

I am grateful that I found some excellent programs for him, even before I knew for sure that he was dyslexic. The psychiatrist was shocked that our son was less than a full grade level behind in his reading and spelling, and he attributed that to the strength of the programs we were using.

Dyslexia is not diagnosed only by a child being behind...it has to do with the discrepancy between the level he is working at when reading and writing versus the level he is able to work at when those components are removed and he is listening and speaking. There were 8 grade levels of discrepancy between those two points for our son....so although he wasn't very far behind his grade level, he was miles away from living up to his potential academically.

It has been a year since he was diagnosed. We've kept the good, and improved on the rest and this school year has been our best year by far. Our son is thriving, and is actually up to grade level now in his reading. His spelling is coming right along, and he is achieving spelling success every week rather than constant failure. We are using things like My Audio School to address his core content needs, and Writing with Ease to help him learn how to communicate on paper.

I thought there might be a post in here somewhere, but I can tell already that there is a series here. I'll look forward to sharing more soon about what we've been doing with him to achieve encouraging results academically as well as a much happier school day for both mom and son.

In the meantime, if any of this rings a bell for you, check out this post on Symptoms of Dyslexia
on the All About Spelling website. Perhaps that nagging feeling in the pit of your stomach is a wake-up call. I didn't want to face the truth, but it has truly set us free. Now we are working with our son's strengths and helping him learn how to accommodate for his weaknesses.

Disclosure: I am an All About Spelling affiliate and will receive a commission on any purchases that result from following the links to their site that I provided in this post or elsewhere on this blog.

Another way to narrate...

2009-11-13T07:44:00.001-05:00

The Bath house of Mohenjo Daro

Charlotte Mason teaches that a child should tell what he has learned after reading a book. This narration is meant to be done in his own words, rather than in the Classical style's question and answer format. We use both methods in our homeschool.

Sometimes it is hard to get my little boys to narrate to me. The idea is that they would tell about the things that they felt were interesting or important, but sometimes they get self-conscious and don't know where to start or what they should say.

Enter the Hands-On Narration Activity.

This is a re-creation of the ancient Indus Valley city Mohenjo Daro, within its city walls. I couldn't tell you at this moment what each lego represented, but he certainly could! And that's the point...

If I ask my boys to "set up a scene" depicting what they learned, they are overjoyed and race off to comply. When they tell me about their scenes, I find out quickly how very well they have been listening. No detail is too minute to share, as they have been careful to incorporate everything they remember into their scene.

Here, they used blocks and plastic dogs and cats to set up a scene from our reading about the Mayans.

They love these opportunities, and I love seeing their creativity and hearing them tell me in detail about what they have learned.

Everyone wants in on the action!

The Multiple Personality Mom

2009-11-12T00:50:00.001-05:00

As women, we often experience a wide range of emotions on any given day. To our husbands and children--and even to ourselves--these mood changes can seem like multiple personalities. You may meet some of your "other selves" in this encouraging, allegorical podcast.

This podcast (written for The Ultimate Homeschool Expo) is 19 minutes long. To listen, press play in the widget box, or click "visit my call" to download to Mp3.

Homeschool Apple Awards

2009-11-10T22:44:00.000-05:00

I feel so blessed to be nominated again this year for the Homeschool Blog Awards. Thank you! In honor of the awards we decided to hold our own little awards ceremony today: The Homeschool Apple Awards.

Four distinctive apples were chosen: Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Gala and Honey Crisp. Slices of each were sampled and a vote was taken. Which apple would win?

Granny Smith and Golden Delicious tied. Gala and Honey Crisp were eliminated, having garnered only one vote each. A re-vote was taken.

Golden Delicious won, hands down! Only Grandma voted for Granny Smith.

"My favorite apple won!!! Mwaaa haaa haaa haaa haaaa.........."

Yes, this is just a bit of silliness. But you should try it! Our lunch conversation was lively and now I know what kind of apples to buy next time at the store!

File Folder Spelling

2009-11-10T00:25:00.001-05:00

My nine year old dyslexic son has been making great strides in his spelling. I like to use hands-on, kinesthetic methods as he works to learn his spelling words. One of his favorite activities is File Folder Spelling.

He is given a stack of different colored alphabets, a file folder, his spelling list and some thumbnail pictures printed from a clipart program or *Google Images (one per spelling word).

First, he cuts out the letters he needs to spell the first word on the list. Next, he glues them down. He then finds the appropriate picture that goes with the spelling word, and he glues the picture down beside the spelled word. This helps him to visualize both the spelling of the word and its meaning, which is very helpful for him. Last, he writes the word out in his own hand.

You'll notice that the last word on this list is "the". Words like these are the most difficult for children with dyslexia, who think in pictures. This word no longer gives him trouble in reading or spelling, and I truly think it is because of exercises like this one, which help him to visualize a definition for this little word. For this file folder, he had a picture of a group of stick people, and he circled one of them to represent "the".

*I always search for images myself. It is incredible what a benign search of google images can pull up, so you would NEVER want to allow a child to search for images himself, even when your computer is set to "safe search".

Preparing Hearts for Christmas

2009-11-09T00:11:00.003-05:00

Do you have a desire to start family devotions? Are you looking for some ways to turn your childrens' hearts toward the Lord during the upcoming holiday season? Please join me for a time of encouragement and practical tips on implementing family worship during this special time of year.

It's not too early to start planning for a meaningful Christmas season. In this podcast I share about what our family does during our Advent season devotions, with some encouragement for you and lots of practical ideas!

If you want to download this talk to Mp3 or burn it to CD, click "visit my call". That will take you to the site which hosts the call. To stream this call from your computer, just click the play button in the red widget box.

Latin in the Christian Trivium

2009-11-07T10:24:00.000-05:00

Our oldest son is in his 6th year of Latin this year. He began with Prima Latina in 3rd grade, followed by Latina Christiana 1 and 2. These programs were great for a young Latin student, but it was hard to find a good option that would take him to the next level.

Enter Latin in the Christian Trivium. I can’t remember how we found this program, but I am so thankful that we did. It is systematic and thorough, rigorous but not overwhelming.

To read about the strengths of this excellent program, and information about the online class option, please see my review at The Curriculum Choice.

Educational Games Online

2009-11-04T23:48:00.001-05:00

My children really enjoy it when I can find a great game online to supplement our history studies. Here are a few we like:

We learned how to play Senet when we studied Ancient Egypt. This online version teaches the rules of this ancient board game and lets you play against the computer.

Hounds and Jackals is another favorite board game from our Ancient Egypt studies. My boys love this game.

Even though we are long done with the Ancients, we come back to Senet and Hounds and Jackals occasionally just for fun.

Egyptian Tomb is more involved than the previous two games. Kids get clues to solve a mystery by answering questions, doing simple map work, deciphering hieroglyphs and other exercises. There is some teaching about Egyptian gods and beliefs on this site. This site requires some reading ability. It's not too hard as the answers to most questions are provided somewhere on the site. It's a fun way to reinforce what you may already be learning about Ancient Egypt.

Last year when we studied the Mayans we played this online Mayan Ball game. It was also neat to watch this brief video re-enactment of a Mayan Ball game.

Jacobites the 1745 Rebellion begins with a very brief video, and poses the question, "Could you have done a better job if you were the leader of the Jacobites?" As kids read information and learn more about the people involved they are asked to make decisions. Some responses prompt video clips of battle re-enactments. Definitely click the "funky" button to view this in flash. It's much more interactive than the simple site.

Scottish Wars of Independence is an online board game. Kids spin and move around the board. Every square they land on opens up a fact file about this time period. Kids choose the 6 events they feel to be the most important and add them to a list. At the end of the game they find out whether they chose wisely or not.

Vikings in Scotland gives kids opportunities to answer questions to complete game tasks in "Build a longship" and "Build a longhouse". Some answers are provided on video clips (at least in the Flash site) for kids to watch after they answer. The more kids know, the faster their boat/longhouse is built. There is also another game on the site, where kids try and sail their longboat around a map, accomplishing various tasks along the way.

We really enjoy the viking board game Hnefetafl. This site provides English rules partway down the page, or click here to read the rules I wrote out (which may be easier to understand!) To play this game online, click on one of the boards displayed. Each one yields a slightly different variation of the game. Don't forget to click English on the board game page or you'll be playing in Danish.

BBC Schools has lots of games, including some games for Modern Times.

I like Scotland During the Second World War. My 2nd grader has played this and he enjoyed it. Kids pretend to be a spy, gathering information to help them progress through the game.

My kids have not played their WW1 game Trench Warfare yet, but I suspect they will like it. It does require quite a lot of reading, but you are able to choose which weapons you want to fight with and then see a cartoon video of the chosen weapon in action. Then you are briefed as to how well you did and why. This game doesn't teach much, other than the pros and cons of various battle tactics in WW1, but it will probably be a hit with boys.

I've heard great things about the BBC's Dance Mat Typing but my kids have not used this yet, either. Nevertheless, I wanted to try it out. And it's great! Seeing is believing. We will definitely be using this game.

My Audio School subscription give-away

2009-11-03T18:43:00.000-05:00

Brenda at The Tie that Binds is holding a contest on her blog right now for a free one-year subscription to My Audio School. Check it out to see how you can enter for a chance to win!

The Value of Copywork

2009-11-03T00:24:00.000-05:00

Copywork is an important part of our school day. My 2nd grade son is showing real improvement in his handwriting through the regular use of this tried and true method. He is also starting to feel more comfortable writing sentences on his own.

I have found it to be an excellent method for our dyslexic son, too. He doesn't have to think about how to spell a word or where a comma goes when he is doing copywork. He can just carefully follow the model sentence provided. His understanding of sentence mechanics and his spelling show dramatic improvement since I added copywork to his schedule. Best of all, it gives him the opportunity to succeed on a language arts activity. Copywork has not replaced our spelling program, but it gives me an additional opportunity each day to incorporate spelling work.

We do grammar lessons immediately following copywork. First Language Lessons by Susan Wise Bauer is user-friendly and effective without being burdensome to my little guys. We do a lot of the exercises orally, and incorporate some of the lessons into our copywork time by looking over the copied sentences to locate proper nouns, verbs, and other grammatical elements. Since our copywork book was also written by Bauer, the two books fit seamlessly together. One is great, but doing both at the same time is even more effective. In about 20 minutes a day my boys are getting a grammar lesson, practicing their handwriting and sentence mechanics, and gaining facility with the English language. Soon we'll finish book one and move from copywork into dictation. I think the boys will be ready for it. I can't wait!

To read more specifics about the materials we are using, Susan Wise Bauer's Writing with Ease, read my review on The Curriculum Choice.

Make Your Own Coat of Arms

2009-11-02T00:27:00.005-05:00

We really enjoyed the book Make Your Own Coat of Arms by Catherine Daly-Weir.

The boys enjoyed using the enclosed stencil to make their own personal, realistic coat of arms.

Our preschooler thought this was so much fun, though he got as much marker on his arms and on the table as he did on his paper!

The book includes a lot of information about the meaning of various symbols, designs and colors. Each boy was able to choose something that he felt represented him to personalize his shield.

The stencils enabled everyone to feel pleased with the quality of their work!

Highly Recommended!!

Bird Garden wins at State!

2009-10-30T11:18:00.000-04:00

Here are our two birding boys, with some of their favorite plush birds. They use these birds to memorize field marks and bird calls.

I just have to share our exciting news! Our boys spent several months installing a Bird Garden in our side-yard. We were thrilled last spring when the project won first place in the Keep Our County Beautiful competition. That was quite an honor.

But we just heard that the county-wide organization submitted our project to the state level, and it won Second Place in the Keep Georgia Beautiful competition! We were shocked.

Thanks for letting me share our joy! You can read more about our Bird Garden project here. You can also find out more about how we got started with youth birding, including some of the techniques that Dawn (from Olive Plants blog) and I used to teach our boys, by reading this article about us on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.

Here are my boys and Dawn's boys at the Georgia Youth Birding Competition last spring.

Dawn has some excellent posts in her Birding 101 series, including Introduction to Birding, Know your Bird Parts, and Using a Field Guide.

Costumes for the Medieval Feast

2009-10-16T15:36:00.000-04:00

It took a bit of doing to pull the costumes for this feast together. But it really wasn't too hard. My boys already had a good bit of what they needed in their costume bin.

Our oldest son has a Scottish William Wallace Claymore sword from Vision Forum that he wanted to wear to the feast. I give him a lot of credit, as he really got into his part. He wore a kilt and spoke in a Scottish accent all night.

Two of the boys needed pants for their knight outfits. I was able to find a pair of footless, gray woolen leggings at Goodwill for one of them, and the other boy wore a pair of gray baseball pants. I cut off all the beltloops and the pocket on the back. It looked a bit rough, but his tunic hung down over the top, so it didn't matter. Their hoods and shirts were things we've collected over the years. If your boys don't have a knight costume, put one on your shopping list this Christmas. These costumes are worn constantly, not only when we are studying the Middle Ages.

Our youngest son dressed as a squire. We had a perfect costume for it but he lost it a day or two before the feast. You know he had to wear it every day for a week, leading up to the feast! So when the time came, we had to grab something on the fly for his squire robe. He wasn't in it long...at the beginning of the feast, he was knighted and did a quick costume change. We pretended that the feast and the jousting tournament were in celebration of his knighting.

I was able to find a dress for myself in the prom section at Goodwill...for $5 I found a perfect Queen dress. The Lord must have put it there just for me. I was so excited when I found it! A long wig that I braided finished the look. The veil I was wearing was just a lace curtain valance that I tied around my pony tail in the back to conceal my own hair.

My husband was the hardest to costume. At 6'4" tall, it's hard enough to find clothes for him anyway! Goodwill to the rescue again. I bought a set of purple twin sized satin sheets that I adapted as a King costume. The flat sheet made a wonderful King's cape for him.

And I found a way to create some makeshift pantaloons by folding the fitted sheet in half lengthwise and wrapping it around his waist. I pinned it in the back like a skirt, with the elastic (fitted part) down near his knees. The loose fabric was then gathered at the knees and pinned again to make a kind of pantaloon. It wasn't ideal because it looked a little skirt-like (I did use extra pins to try and gather it in the middle to minimize this effect)...but it took just 5 minutes and he was a good sport about it. He wore shorts underneath (for comfort and modesty) and I think it fit the bill.

His sword was also from Vision Forum. They have many beautiful swords for sale. Each of our boys receives one as a special gift sometime during their 9th year, to commemorate the fact that he is half way grown.

Yet another use for my wig! I've worn it for Japanese Tea Party, 60s day (unbraided) and now Medieval Feast.

We could not find crowns, though! I went to several stores and no one had them. I'm so glad they didn't! One of the girls from the family who joined us figured out a way to create the crowns from scratch using beads and copper wire. I think they were beautiful, and her creativity was one of my favorite parts of the feast.

Recipes for the Medieval Feast

2009-10-16T15:29:00.001-04:00

Menu:

Wassail
Selection of Cheeses
Bread
Potato and Leek Soup
Pheasant from the King's Forest (aka Roasted Chicken Legs)
Wild Boar (aka Ham)
apple tarts
gingerbread

Recipes:

For the wassail, we just used warmed apple cider. You could put some mulling spices in it if you want to.

Leek and Potato Soup

One bundle of leeks (about 1 cup diced)
One 16 oz. box of chicken broth
2 cups shredded hash brown potatoes or peeled, cubed potatoes
1/2 cup butter
one large onion, diced
1/2 cup flour
2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste,
chives to garnish (optional)

Wash the leeks thoroughly. Cut off the green part of the leeks as well as the root end. Remove the outer layer. Dice the white part that remains. You are going to put it in a blender after it is cooked, so the leeks can just be rough chopped.

Boil the potatoes and leeks in the chicken broth until soft and tender. In a separate pan, melt the butter. Saute the onions in the butter until golden. Stir the flour into the onions and cook until bubbly, stirring constantly. Slowly add the milk to the flour and onion mixture, stirring to combine. Now add the onion mixture to the vegetables and broth, stirring well.

Pour contents of the pan into a blender and puree. You may need to work in batches. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add additional broth if the soup seems too thick or starchy.

Variation: This is my go-to cream of vegetable soup recipe. You can substitute broccoli, cauliflower, or other vegetables for the potatoes and leeks. I love this recipe!

Apple tarts

This recipe was a bit of a flop...I tried to make little apple tarts by cutting pie crust into rounds with a biscuit cutter and making tiny, hand-held pies. There was just too much crust for the amount of filling that could fit on a little round. If you want to make tarts, I suggest using a flakier pastry, such as puff pastry. Alternatively, use your favorite apple pie recipe, making it one day ahead of time so that it has time to firm up. If you aren't using plates or forks, you do NOT want an overly juicy pie!

Roasted Chicken Legs

Brush chicken legs with Olive Oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast on a baking pan in the oven at 400 F for 30 minutes. Before removing from the oven, broil for 2 minutes to brown the chicken legs. I found a wonderful roasted chicken leg recipe here.

Decorating for the Medieval Feast

2009-10-16T15:17:00.001-04:00

We celebrated our Medieval Feast last night! Usually our feasts only involve our family, but we did something on a slightly larger scale this time. Another family joined in, as well as my dad.

The children from both families met earlier this week and prepared a program to present during the feast. It was wonderfully entertaining! A squire was knighted, and some of the guests shared news about Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales, the Battle of Crecy, and other "current events". There was even a tournament involving archery, sword play and jousting.

To start the evening off, we set out some medieval games. Although chess and checkers were available, the young lords preferred our homemade version of the Viking game Hnefetafl. The boys didn't play for long, though. They were too enamored with their costumes, swords and shields to sit still playing games.

The children had the wonderful idea of using shields from the Dollar Tree to decorate the feasting hall. I used a strip of painters tape on the handle of each shield to attach them to the wall. It wasn't that strong, and a few of the shields did fall, but it was quick and easy and most of them stayed put.

In some cases it was easy to wrap the tape around the handle of the shield and a knob on the hutch or a hanging sconce, and this worked quite well. The painters tape was easily removed afterward with no marks. The shields were very lightweight and only cost $1 apiece. My boys will have fun playing with them now that our feast is over, and everyone loved our beautiful feasting hall!

I also took some battle axes that we had in our weapon bin and hung them, crossed, on a plate hanger that normally adorns our dining room wall.

My husband had a linen cloth with a knight on it, which he has been saving since he was a child. This was easily hung with more painters tape. I cut the strips to form a frame for the cloth, and we fancied it to be a medieval tapestry.

It is almost Halloween, so the Dollar Tree had some other decorations that were meant to be spooky but which I felt could double for this occasion. I bought one package of old, creepy bottle labels and applied one titled Ye Olde Spider Venom to a bottle of Barq's Root beer. Our Viking guest brought this with him to the feast. The boys thought someone should be sentenced to death-by-spider venom, but instead, we let the official cup bearer taste it for purity. It passed muster, so it was served.

When the cup bearer felt sick later that night (ostensibly from overindulging in Wild Boar), the King was quick to blame the spider venom. He immediately began searching for a replacement cup bearer in case the first one didn't pull through!

I also set some candles and a simple vining floral decoration on the head table as a centerpiece. The King sat in a very throne-like chair at the head of the table.

We used individual type-writer key letters to make the placecards. Part of the program was a brief discussion about Johann Gutenberg's wonderful "new" invention, the printing press, and a bit of bragging about how the King purchased a set of printed placecards just for this occasion.

I'll explain more about the menu in my next post, but for plates we purchased flat sandwich wraps to use as trenchers. Everyone got a knife and a spoon, and we assembled a collection of chunky mugs for our glassware.

To be authentic, we ate with our fingers and did not use napkins. I did put a dark-colored tablecloth on the table, and I confess to using it a few times to wipe my fingers.

I've got lots more to share about this wonderful feast which will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of our school year! Upcoming posts will include our recipes and how we pulled the costumes together.

The Blind Leading the Blind: a tutorial

2009-10-12T09:25:00.000-04:00

Technology comes easy for some people. But not for me. Everything I know how to do on the computer has been hard fought and hard won, usually learned one baby step at a time.

That's why I am so excited--so ECSTATIC--that I learned how to make a linked thumbnail image for my blogs, and how to get the HTML code to appear below the image in a scroll box!! Ladies, I can't even figure out how to work the remote controls to turn my television on by myself. This is HUGE!

I've been searching for this very information for at least a year. I've tried to follow different people's instructions, but to no avail. So now that I have finally figured it out, I want to explain how I did it.

If nothing else, I can refer to this post next week when I want to do this again but can't remember what steps I took! Maybe some of you have been wondering how to do the same thing with your blogs. Believe me, if I learned how to do this, you can learn, too! My way is probably not the best way....any technical guru will most likely tell you that. But I don't know any technical gurus, and this is the way that worked for me.

By the way, I owe it all to two excellent tutorials I found. Smilemonsters actually convinced me that I could do this, and showed me how to build the linked image. Blogging Basics 101 taught me how to get the HTML code into a scroll box and how to fool the computer into not reading the code.

I'm still learning how to take an image and put text and graphics onto it. I've learned how to use photoshop just a bit, but I can't figure out how to download my doctored image to my computer. As I said, I'm learning by baby steps. So we'll save that lesson for another tutorial down the road.

Let's assume you've already got an image. In my case, a couple sweet friends each made me an image for two of my sites. I'm now trying to learn to make one myself for this blog.

Resizing the image to a thumbnail
If you are working in Photoshop, you can resize your image right there. Most thumbnail images should be around 125 x 125, give or take. Just upload your photo, click edit, then click resize, then click custom, and type your desired size into the boxes provided. When I do this, I can set one number and the other automatically re-adjusts. My image isn't a perfect square, so it doesn't come out a perfect 125 x 125. Again, I'm still learning here.

If you already have an image and you aren't using photoshop, you can resize your image right on your browser at Pixer.us. Just upload your image, click the resize button and drag the button to the size you want, then save the image to your computer.

Generating HTML code for your button
Now you need to generate HTML code for your image. You can do this at Photobucket. You'll need to upload the newly resized thumbnail. Then hover over the image, and you'll see a drop down menu appear below your image. One of the items will say "HTML". You want to copy that HTML code.

Getting the code onto your website
Next, go to the website where you want to put the image. If you are working in blogger, click on your layout, then Get a gadget, then HTML code. If you are on Wordpress, go into your Widgets and drag a text/HTML box over to the sidebar.

Here's where it gets messy. There is a way to put an example of this code right into this post, in such a way that you can read it but the computer ignores it. I can't figure that out. Here is a step by step of what to put in your widget box or gadget box. If you want something simple you can copy and paste, go to Heather's post at Smilebox and copy her code from there. If you do that, you can skip to the part where it says "Cleaning up the code".

Here are my instruction, though, in case you don't want to merely copy and paste, you want to BUILD it YOURSELF!

At the top of the HTML box, type this:

a href="Enter Website Here"

and enclose that phrase with a carat on either end so that you see < before the letter a and > after the second quotation mark.

Enter your web address where it says enter website here, making sure you put the complete http:// address, not just the name of your site.

The next part of your code begins with another < sign, placed immediately following your last > sign. After the < sign, write the letters img src="Enter photo HTML code here"

Put the HTML code for the image (which you generated at Photobucket) where it says Enter photo HTML code here.

To finish out this strand of code you'll need a backslash after the last quotation mark /

Then a double carat, backslash, letter a, end carat. The symbols look like this, but with no spaces in between
>

<

/

a

>

Cleaning up the code
All you techies, look away now (or laugh, whichever you prefer). Whenever I click "save" my code somehow morphs. If I go to my website, I see my beautiful, linked button image, but there is extra code beneath it. Code I did not build myself. And what's worse, my readers can see it, too! That's OK. You can fix it.

Once you've done the above step and clicked save, go to your website and check out your new badge. Is there an extra http:// address below your badge, or a repeat of some of the symbols you just typed? If there is, go back to the window where you just placed the code. You should be able to see at a glance where your "good" code ends and where the extra code (which the computer generated, but you didn't build) begins. Just delete that extra part. Save again and go back to your site. Check your button: does it look perfect? Click it, does it lead where it should? Great job!!

Get that code into a scroll box so people can grab your button
You want your friends to be able to easily put your button on their site, right? Up until now, I've been doing this the old fashioned way. I download the button image to my computer, then upload it again in Wordpress or Blogger as a linked image, typing in the web address myself. You can use this technique any time you want to put an image on your blog when the HTML code is not provided.

But you want to make it easy for your friends, right? It is so simple.

Just copy the code you used to make the image in the first place (after you've saved and cleaned up that extra http:// information). Paste it below the original code. If you publish it like this, it will just show up as two linked images. You want a way to make the second set of code appear as code, so someone can copy it. You just need to put something before and after that code so that the computer doesn't "read" the code and turn it into an image. I got this to work in my sidebar, but can't figure out how to make it work in a post.

So although I wish I could show you an exact example, I am not good enough for that yet. What you want to do is write the word textarea and enclose it in carats <> and put that at the beginning of your code. Then you'll want to write /textarea and enclose that in carats <> and put that at the end of your code.

Notice the part that goes after your code has a backslash in it...very important. When I put this before and after my code, it automatically created a scroll box for the code. What a bonus!

Don't forget to save what you've just done. Then go to your site and grab your new code. Test it out to make sure it works before you assume that it does. One time I forgot to add that all-important backslash and my HTML code box contained everything from my site's home page!

Happy Blogging!

Writing with Ease

2009-10-03T09:40:00.000-04:00

This year we are using Susan Wise Bauer’s wonderful new program, The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease. This curriculum teaches the elementary-aged writer (or struggling older child) how to express themselves on paper.

I find this program simple to implement and enjoyable to teach. My children look forward to their daily copywork lesson, and they are thriving on the step by step approach. Easily accomplished in just 10 minutes a day, Writing with Ease lives up to its name!

Want to know more? You can read the rest of my review at The Curriculum Choice.

Carnival of Homeschooling #196

2009-09-29T10:17:00.000-04:00

This edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling is being hosted at Heart of the Matter. Perhaps the venue got everyone excited, as there are dozens of posts in this edition! Check it out here.

Don't despise the small things

2009-09-26T22:43:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks because I haven't had much to post about. It isn't all hands on fun around here. Far from it! The last two weeks have been all about the same 'ol stuff.

Reading. Writing. Arithmetic. More Reading.

The children sometimes find this work tedious, and wonder why we have to do it. But this is the foundation that will enable them to achieve their goals later on. And it is good for them to learn to persevere cheerfully with work that must be done, even though it isn't always enjoyable.

Some weeks it feels like we're just spinning our wheels. Will we ever get off of this plateau and reach new heights? I have to remind myself that we've been in this situation before, and we did see progress. But rarely was it by leaps and bounds. Usually it was the result of faithfulness in the little things, over time.

When I get discouraged, I remember other times in our homeschooling career when I despaired of ever making progress. I think of all the days spent teaching phonics to a child I was convinced would never learn to read, or the years spent coaxing a fearful child to learn to ride a bike. Often I felt discouraged, yet in both cases--and in many others--I eventually saw the fruit of my labors.

That's why we keep on doing the same 'ol, same 'ol. Reading. Writing. Arithmetic. More Reading.

"The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you. Who despises the day of small things? Men will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel." Zechariah 4: 9-10

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9

Viking Feast

2009-09-09T23:50:00.001-04:00

Beef stew, rye bread with butter, non-alcoholic mead, and soft cheese.

No feast has been more highly anticipated in our home than the Viking Feast. My husband can trace his Norwegian heritage all the way back to Harald Hardrade, the Norwegian King who was killed in 1066 in the Battle of Stamford Bridge....and beyond. My sons take great pride in their Viking blood.

My mother-in-law makes a pilgrimage to Wisconsin every year to eat Lutefisk. In olden-times, Norwegians ate a fish that was so hard and bony, they had to use Lye to soften it. I'm not sure how they make it now, but everyone says it is an acquired taste (i.e. it tastes horrible). Needless to say, we didn't have that on the menu.

We do eat Lefse every Christmas, which is a tortilla-like Norwegian flat bread spread with butter and brown sugar. I didn't have that on hand for this feast, and I doubt it was around in Viking times anyway.

We did not have costumes for this feast, either. Sorry! The white sheets used in our Egyptian Feast, Greek Feast and Roman Feast could not be adapted for the purpose, and we didn't have time to pull anything else together.

My Vikings enjoyed this feast. We used or Hnefetafl Board as a centerpiece.

Want to know what we did have? Keep reading for the menu and recipes. I relied heavily on The Viking Answer Lady and on a PDF file from Tjurslakter titled Viking and Anglo-Saxon Recipes for my information about what people ate during Viking Times, as well as for some of these recipes.

We learned that Vikings typically only ate twice a day, morning and evening, and their fare was simple.

The Menu:
non-alcoholic, homemade Mead
Rye bread with salted butter
soft cheese
Stewed beef
Norwegian pancake with berry sauce
Stewed fruits with yogurt

The children wanted to taste Mead, so I searched the internet for a non-alcoholic version. I found a few. Here's the recipe I used, taken from the Group Recipes site:

Soft Mead
4 cups water
1 cup honey
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 lemon

The instructions said to boil this but I was in a rush, so I did it in the microwave. It turned out fine. I put the water, honey and spices into a dish and heated it until it boiled. Stir in the honey until it dissolves, and squeeze the lemon into it. The instructions I found said you can also use orange slices, and that the drink should be cooled and strained. We did not strain it, and we drank it warm. It was yummy!

Easier Mead alternatives

Another recipe that sounds even simpler called for 2 parts apple juice, 4 parts honey and 6 parts water. Mix in a pan, bring to a boil and let simmer for half an hour, then cool and strain.

Research indicated that the Vikings also drank herbal concoctions. Chamomile or Rose hip tea might be a good choice.

Stewed Beef

For the stewed beef, I simply put chunks of stew meat into my crock pot, along with some root vegetables and onions. My kids like carrots, but turnips or parsnips would also do. I added a bit of water and a couple packages of stew flavoring, and set it on low for several hours.

Viking fun without the fuss!

I know it would have been more authentic in a giant kettle over the fire, but I try to keep most of our "feasts" something that is reasonably done on a regular school night, in the same time I might normally spend making dinner. The main point to keep in mind about Viking stew is that they did not have potatoes or tomatoes, so your stew shouldn't have them either!

We purchased the rye bread and cheese. We used Brie, as our whole family loves it. We learned during our studies that the Vikings conquered quite a bit of territory, including part of France, so we felt fine about our choice.

I had told my husband to get Brie at the store, but the children wanted to buy Jarlsberg, which is a Norwegian cheese. Hubby bought the Brie anyway, certain that he should get "whatever mom wants"!

When they got home and told me about their shopping trip, I knew that the kids were right. To be more authentic, we should have had Jarlsberg. Those boys certainly do know their cheeses!

Dessert: Norwegian Pancake with Berries, and Summer Fruit, Honey and Hazelnut crumble with yogurt

Pancake with Berries (this recipe came from The Viking Answer Lady and is for four servings).

2/3 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup lingonberries (we used raspberries)

Turn the oven to 425F. Whisk the batter together without the butter and stir in the berries. Melt the butter in a heat resistant baking pan or oven proof skillet, and pour in the batter. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes or until the pancake has a nice color. Cut into pieces and serve with jam.

I doubled this recipe, and there was a lot left over. It took 45 minutes for the larger pancake to set. I didn't think the kids would like it, as you could clearly taste the whole wheat flour, and there was no sugar in the recipe. I melted the jam in the microwave so it would pour onto the pancake like syrup. The kids loved it, though. So did my husband! Everyone wanted the leftovers the next day, and asked if I would make it again in the future.

Vikings in Anglo-Saxon Britain: Summer Fruit, Honey and Hazelnut Crumble Recipe from Viking and Anglo-Saxon recipes.

2 pounds mixed soft summer fruits (raspberries, lingonberries, strawberries, currants, cherries or similar)
honey or brown sugar (to taste)
3 oz. toasted hazelnuts
3 oz. whole wheat brown breadcrumbs

Put the fruits in a pan or in a microwave dish with about 1" watr in the bottom. Cook gently for 10 to 15 minutes (microwave for 4 to 6 minutes on high), or until the fruits are soft without being totally mushy. Sweeten to taste with the honey or brown sugar.

Drain off the extra juice and save it to serve with the pudding. Chop the hazelnuts in a food processor, then mix them with the breadcrumbs. Pour the fruit into an over-safe dish and cover it with a thick layer of the nut mixture. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until top is lightly browned. Serve with cream or plain yogurt and the warmed fruit juices.

We enjoyed this. I serve plain yogurt very often, flavored with a bit of brown sugar or honey and some fresh fruit, so this was not too unusual for us. I liked the way it tasted with the warm fruit. The kids enjoy it more without the nuts and crumbs.

Viking Hnefetafl

2009-09-07T23:45:00.001-04:00

One of our favorite activities while studying the Vikings was playing the game of Hnefetafl (pronounced Nef-uh-tah-full). Hnefetafl is a strategy game like chess, though much simpler to play. It simulates a Viking raid, with attackers trying to capture the King and defenders trying to protect him.

We made the game board years ago, using instructions from a previous curriculum. I tried in vain to find a board online that you could print...so I'm including instructions in this post about making your own. Don't worry, it won't be difficult!

Online Hnefetafl:

I've found a site where you can play online. Click on one of the game boards to play. This site is great, as it allows you to play against the computer, as either the attacker (black) or the defender (white), and it also allows you to do a two player game and play both sides. You can choose from an 11 x 11 board or a 9 x 9 board. Click on one of the boards to begin playing. Make sure that you click the word "English", which you'll see beside the board on the next screen, if you want the computer to prompt you in English instead of the default Danish!

They have the rules printed on their site, or you can read the rules I've written below.

Make your own Hnefetafl Board

It's worth it to take 15 minutes to make your own board, because Hnefetafl is just that fun! My kids have gone back to it again and again. Games are over quickly and it's a little bit addictive!

If you are great on the computer, you can design your own game board that way....otherwise, you'll have to do it the old fashioned way.

You'll need a square piece of posterboard, a ruler and some markers. The board is laid out similar to a checker or chess board, but with 121 squares (11 rows and 11 columns). Smaller and larger versions have been found in ruins, but 11 x 11 seems to be the most common. Use your ruler to mark off equal sized squares, 11 rows and 11 columns.

You'll need 3 different colored markers to designate where the attackers, the defenders and the King call home.

Each of the four corners and the very center square should be colored the same (with a matching color or pattern, we'll say blue for our purposes). These squares belong to the King. The center square is his throne and the 4 corner squares are his exit points to escape from the attackers.

Every square touching the center square, as well as the squares that are two squares away from the center in a straight line, should be colored identically (we'll say yellow). That gives you 5 blue squares (the corners and the middle) and 12 yellow squares (a kind of compass, surrounding the middle blue square).

The final pattern and color is for the sides.

As you look at the perimeter of the board, you'll see the 4 blue squares in the 4 corners. Each blue corner should have two empty (uncolored) squares beside it in each direction. The middle squares along the perimeter will be colored identically, let's say in green. There are 5 middle squares on each side, plus four empty squares and two blue corners per side, for a total of 11 squares per side.

Finally, the square that touches the middle square on each side will also be green.

Do the same on all four sides. When you are done it will look like this!

The Rules

The rules are fairly simple. You'll need 3 different colors of glass beads (or some other marker) to represent the players (24 beads in one color for the attackers, 12 beads in another color for defenders, as well as one glass bead in a third color for the King). You can substitute something else for the markers (24 pennies, 12 dimes and one nickel).

The King sits on his throne, which is the center blue square, and he is surrounded by his men on the yellow squares (the 12 defenders). The rest of the beads are the attackers, and they are set up around the board on the green squares.

It is hard to differentiate the King from the defenders in this picture, but you get the idea. The light blue beads are attackers, the green beads are defenders and the center, turquoise bead on the throne is the King. Also, we colored this board a bit differently than our instructions, but just disregard these differences.

Objective:

The four sides represent four ships. The middle represents the King on his throne, surrounded by his loyal defenders. The defenders try to help the King escape by enabling him to get to one of the four corners. The attackers win if they can capture the King before he reaches one of the corners and escapes. Typically the attackers have the upper hand, so good manners dictate playing twice and switching sides so that each person has a chance to play both roles. If you want to keep score, count how many of the opponent's pieces are captured in both games, and add up the total to determine the final winner.

Here are the rules:

1) Pieces can move as far as they want to in a single turn, but only in a straight line right to left or up and down. No diagonal moves are allowed. Think of how the Rook moves in chess; Hnefetafl pieces move the same way.

2) The throne and the four corners may only be occupied by the King. Another piece can pass through the throne if the King is not sitting on it, but no piece may land on the throne or corners except the King.

3) The attackers are allowed to move first. Turns alternate between the two players. Pieces are not allowed to jump over each other.

4) Pieces are captured in one of two ways: either they are trapped between two enemy pieces, or between an enemy piece and one of the King's squares (the center square or the corner squares). The two enemy pieces must be directly beside the captured piece (left to right or top to bottom), not diagonal.

Also, the trap must be closed by the move of the opponent. In other words, if a defender sneaks in between two attackers which are already in position, the defender is not captured. Captured pieces are removed from game play for the rest of the game.

Since corner squares can be used to help capture an opponent's piece in an attack, it isn't wise to stay adjacent to one.

5) The King can be captured just like any other piece unless he is sitting on his throne or on one of the four squares directly adjacent to his throne. If he is on this throne, the attackers have to surround him in all four cardinal directions.

If he is on any of the four squares directly adjacent to his throne, the attackers have to surround him on the four points of the compass.

6) If the King is in danger of being captured on the next move, the attacker must say, "Watch your King".

That's it! The King is wise to sacrifice a few of his defenders in the early rounds, as often they end up getting in his way as he tries to escape. The attackers do well to set up a blockade around all four corners, but this requires fast action from the outset of the game.

Cookie Dough Maps, Take Two

2009-09-07T14:26:00.000-04:00

Can you find the marshmallow glacier in this picture?

Ever since we started school a few weeks ago the kids have been asking about when we'll make Cookie Dough Maps. I tried this last year when we studied ancient Egypt, as an alternative to the "Let's-keep-it-forever-mom!" salt dough maps. Little did I know I was starting a tradition.

A tradition that is not, let's be honest, for the health-conscious mom.

Oh, well, I'd like to be remembered as "cool mom" instead. This project qualifies!

In order to get a platform large enough to do anything, I had to make what was supposed to be 48 cookies. Each child got almost 1/4 of the recipe (with a little bit cut off the sides for mom and dad!). This was math they enjoyed doing....how many cookies will you get if you eat 1/4 of 48? Suffice it to say, they weren't allowed to eat it all in one sitting!

Last year we tried making a country-specific map of Egypt. This year we've been reviewing geography terms, so I told them that their map could be whatever they wanted it to be (a real place or make-believe) but that it had to show several geographical features, such as rivers, oceans, mountains, etc. My 9 year old enjoyed making several "knobs" out of mini marshmallows (a knob is bigger than a knoll, by the way, but smaller than a hill, which is smaller than a mountain...)

To keep it simple, I purchased ready-made chocolate chip cookie dough at the store (2 packages) and pressed it out into a large square baking dish. When the cookie bars were finished, I cut out large squares and carefully gave one to each child on a plate. They were also given bowls of colored frosting (yellow for sand, blue for water, green for grass) and a couple of squirt bottles of frosting.

We used M&M's, mini marshmallows, and chocolate chips for land features. One child used frosting to stack marshmallows into a large mountain, while another heaped up candy underneath blue frosting to simulate water running down both sides of a mountain.

These maps may not look too realistic, but they served their purpose. We tossed around a lot of geographical terms, and the kids were motivated to incorporate as many geographical elements as possible into their maps, if only to get more candy on there. A mere island wouldn't do when an archipelago requires so much more candy!

This project is a bit like a three-year-old's drawing: you probably won't be able to tell what anything represents, but the child will know it exactly! My children were required to point out every geographical feature on their map, by name, to prove that they weren't just putting candy onto cookies. Is this how cartographers get started?

7 year old's comment: "This is 3,000 calories worth of map".

Electronic Field trips at Colonial Williamsburg

2009-09-04T09:06:00.001-04:00

My friend Laurie had an excellent experience with the Electronic Field Trips at Colonial Williamsburg last year. You can read more about what's slated for this year, as well as posts about all the electronic field trips she attended last year at her blog Teacups in the Garden.

I was excited that the Homeschool Buyers co op was offering discounted rates to these again for 2009/2010, as we'll be studying Colonial America and the Revolutionary War later this year.

If you are studying these topics this year, and if your child is a visual or auditory learner, you might want to take advantage of this! This package usually costs about $500 but through HSBC you can get it for just $49!

Click here for more information about signing up.

Roman Mosaic Stepping Stones

2009-08-25T23:26:00.000-04:00

We have been wanting to make stepping stones for our bird garden all summer! As we finish up our study of the Romans, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to "kill two birds with one stone" (shh! Don't tell my bird-loving boys that I used that phrase! They prefer to say "hatch two birds from one egg"!)

Roman mosaic in Italica, Spain

We had so much fun with this project! It definitely gave us a greater appreciation for Roman mosaic art, as it is so much harder than it looks!

We purchased our mosaic glass from Rainbow Resource (one pack of primary colors and one pack of earth tones), and we used ready-to-mix stepping stone kits from Walmart. I had originally planned to purchase concrete, but when a friend gave the boys these kits as a birthday gift, I knew this would be perfect for our project!

Here is what we did:

1) Since these stones were for our bird garden, the boys' vision was that each stone would represent a different bird. I printed off simple images of our chosen birds online. You do NOT want detailed drawings for this project. Instead, choose simple line drawings. I found most of what I needed at Enchanted Learning. I printed the images on cardstock instead of paper, to give a little more weight to the paper for the later steps in this process.

2) Lay out the mosaic glass on top of the coloring page, following the pattern as best you can. This was delicate work that called for patience and a steady hand. My 7 year old was able to do it, though it took him longer than the older boys. Our four year old had no patience for this process, so he just made a free-form snake.

3) Once you have laid out your pattern and you are satisfied with it, carefully take masking tape or painters tape and lay it gently over the top of the glass, overlapping the strips of tape until every part of the pattern is covered. Once you have the tape in place, press down firmly to make sure it sticks to the glass, trying to avoid sticking it to the coloring sheet underneath.

If you printed your images on cardstock instead of printer paper, it will be easier to peel the tape away from the paper later should it stick. Also, you will definitely need a not-so-sticky tape for this, so don't try it with Scotch tape!

4) Take a few more strips of tape and layer them on top of the first pieces, going in the opposite direction. This will help ensure that your image does not separate into two or three pieces when you try to transfer it.

5) Once your mosaic image is well taped, gently turn it over onto your hand or onto another piece of cardstock. Now the tape will be on the bottom and you will be able to see the glass tile again. Set the mosaic tile image aside while you mix up your stepping stones.

6) Follow the directions on your stone kit (or find directions online if you are doing this the "old fashioned way", from scratch!).

7) Once you've mixed up your plaster of paris or concrete mixture and formed it into a stone, it is time to transfer the mosaic pattern onto your stone. Carefully turn it over and use the tape to gently press the glass into the soft concrete. Once the mosaic image is stuck to the stepping stone, carefully peel away the tape. Check the mosaic glass carefully to make sure each piece was pressed firmly into the stone so that nothing will fall off when the stone hardens. You'll only have a few minutes for this process, so work quickly! We found that pressing on the mosaic glass with our fingers transferred some cement to the top side of the glass....trial and error taught us to use a thin instrument like the end of a paintbrush or a pencil to gently work the glass into place.

8) Set your stones aside overnight to dry and enjoy your new mosaics!

We made eight different stones in this fashion and it was really very easy and quite fun!

Roman Feast

2009-08-12T22:11:00.000-04:00

We kicked off our back-to-school hands on projects with a Roman Feast this week. We ended the school year studying Ancient Rome and picked up where we left off with a look at how the Roman Empire fell.

Things are crazy busy right now, so I wanted to keep this feast simple. I managed to pull it off without much planning at all, using ingredients I already had in the house. Of course, we recycled the sheets used in our Egyptian Feast and our Greek Feast to make Roman tunics. I simply cut some sheets from Goodwill in half and cut a hole for their head and two holes for arms...voila, instant (if not perfectly authentic) Greek chitons. These also served as our Roman tunics. If you start with the Egyptian Feast you can use the same sheets for all 3 costumes, and I found that a couple of large sheets were enough to serve the entire family with some judicious cutting.

I used tablecloths, sheets and (for my little guy) a table runner to make the togas that drape over their shoulders. I wore a tablecloth also, as a simple cloak.

Click here to watch a brief video that shows how to put on an authentic Roman toga.

We set up our Triclinium table again using the leaves from our dining room and kitchen tables and surrounding them with couch cushions. I learned a lesson during our Greek Feast and covered the cushions with bedsheets this time, in case of spills!

For dinner, I decided to serve a mix of some traditional foods of Ancient Rome that we still eat today, as well as some fun "make-believe" dishes which the Romans ate but we would never touch. We pretended to be wealthy so that we could enjoy several different dishes.

The boys thought it was pretty fun to eat Roasted Doormice (chicken legs) and Peacock Nuggets (Anytizers cordon blue nuggets). We learned that the Ancient Romans liked Omelets with honey, so we tried that, too. Side dishes included bread, grapes, olives, nuts, apples and salad. I did not make a dessert for this meal, though the Romans did eat desserts at their feasts.

I recommend waiting until near the end of the feast to inform boys that belching was considered polite at Roman feasts.

This meal did not take any more time than a normal dinner would have, aside from the few minutes spent setting up the Triclinium table and getting the costumes together. The side dishes were very fast and simple, and I made the omelet quickly on the stovetop as the chicken legs finished cooking.

I found some interesting notes about Roman cooking, including this chicken recipe, here. The people who wrote this site took their recipes from an old Roman cookbook, which was written by a Roman gourmet named Apicius in the 1st century and added to over time. Eventually an editor published this cookbook in the 4th century and titled it after Apicius. Much of what we know about Roman cooking seems to be taken from this record.

Here are the recipes I used:

Roasted Doormice (aka Baked Chicken Legs)

Put the following ingredients in a large ziploc bag:

1 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp sweet paprika
2 tsp caraway seed

Dredge the chicken legs in a dish of milk and then shake in the flour mixture. Double quantities if you are using a large number of chicken legs. Place on a baking pan and brush with olive oil. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until done.

My family did like this recipe, but felt it could have used more spices. This is just a guideline, as no measurements were given and I just "eyeballed" the quantities.

I used Anytizer chicken nuggets and called them Peacock nuggets. You could make similar substitutions for exotic foods like ostrich and flamingo.

Green Salad

For our simple salad I tore Romaine lettuce leaves and topped them with black olives, red onion and some feta cheese. Romans did NOT use tomatoes, so neither did we. I like to top a simple salad like this one with some dry Good Seasons Italian dressing, just sprinkled over the top, and then drizzle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. For other occasions, add red or yellow pepper strips, tomatoes, and sundried-tomato flavored feta cheese. Everyone seems to love this simple, delicious salad.

Omelet with Black Pepper and Honey

The Roman omelet recipe I used called for adding both milk and a bit of olive oil to the eggs before cooking the omelet. I don't usually add oil to omelets, but "when in Rome!" When the omelet was finished I topped it with some fresh ground black pepper, as the recipe instructed. Mushrooms were also called for, but my family hates them so I left those out. The recipe said to serve the omelet with honey. Our four year old was the first to taste it and he loved it! I tried it, too, and it reminded me of egg custard...not unpleasant at all!

Slushies

I was keeping things simple so I did not make slushies, but you could. I read that sometimes slaves were sent into the mountains to bring back fresh snow for slushies. If you have a snowcone maker this would be a fun addition to your feast!

You Know You're a Homeschooler When....

2009-08-09T20:37:00.000-04:00

Your kids and their friends try to light sparklers from flint and steel....

and eventually they succeed!

Getting Organized for a New Year

2009-08-09T20:05:00.000-04:00

It's that time again! We've started back to school. Have you? We've left the Ancients behind, and have moved on to the Middle Ages. New books, new projects, new feasts await.

But first, I always have to get organized. One of the most important things, for me, is to get my history and science boxes set up. I hate it when we have to skip experiments or projects because we were out of vinegar, or I didn't have Epsom salts on hand!

Here's a picture of what my younger boys have in their science box. My oldest son gets his own box of supplies, since he is using a different curriculum than the younger boys are.

Sure, it takes a few hours at the store to pull all this stuff together. I guess I could let the boys use tinfoil, salt and baking soda from the pantry. But would you trust your kids to search here on their own?

You can read more about how I set up these boxes in my post Gathering Supplies in Advance.

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival

2009-08-03T22:23:00.000-04:00

I'm so thrilled to be hosting the latest edition of the Charlotte Mason blog carnival! We are beginning our 10th year of homeschooling this fall. The very first book I ever read about homeschooling was The Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola. I was captivated by Miss Mason's ideas and knew that I wanted to bless my children with that kind of education.

Inspiration for a New Year

Barb at Harmony Art Mom explains how families can still use Charlotte Mason principles during High School in her post High School Planning: Reminders from Charlotte Mason.
She shares some quotes from CM Volume 6, which are "a breath of fresh air". Charlotte wrote, "If we can only allow ourselves to believe it, we really don't have to manipulate children to learn their lessons. Nature has already taken care of that. If the lessons are the right kind, children will enjoy learning them." Barb's encouraging post about atmosphere and establishing habits put me in the mood to get back to school!

I needed those reminders! As I wrote in my post New Year, New Books, I sometimes find it hard to leave summer behind and begin a new school year. My recipe for end-of-summer-blues calls for setting up our new school year bookshelf. An hour or two spent looking at all the great books waiting for us quickly turns my heart toward the joys that lay in store for us. In this post on Countercultural School, I share my audio podcast series The Homeschooler's Library, which is full of practical ideas and inspiration for choosing living books.

I am looking forward to making audio books a daily part of our curriculum this year. We are currently enjoying the living history books Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall and The Story of the Middle Ages by Samuel B. Harding, which can both be streamed at my new blog My Audio School.

Charlotte Mason's volume 6 was a popular read this summer! Keri from Sunny Scholars also read it, and she distills Charlotte's philosophy clearly and succinctly in her post Charlotte Mason in a Box? Using ideas from C.M. Volume 6, Keri shares insight into choosing a course of study the Charlotte Mason way.

Nature Study

I wondered if Heather of Maple Hill Academy might be suffering from end-of-summer-blues, too, when I first read her post about nature study, Winter Fun. As she notes, it may seem odd to mention this topic in the summer, but I found many of her thoughts to be applicable here in Georgia, where the heat threatens to keep us indoors all summer. You'll want to check out her post for ideas of how to do nature study--both indoors and out--even when the weather is not ideal.

Tammy from Adventures on Beck's Bounty lets us take a peek at what they've been finding on summer nature walks. Take a look at her posts, Nature Walk Discoveries and More Nature Walk Photos. The photos in Tammy's posts are worth a thousand words. They inspired me to take my own children outside to observe and photograph the flowers and wildlife in our yard.

Jimmie has been using photo-sensitive paper for nature studies. Her fun post Nature Print Paper can be found on her blog Jimmie's Collage. I know we have some of this paper in our school closet, but we haven't used it for a couple years. Thanks for the reminder, Jimmie!

Using Living Books for Science and Math

Jimmie also provides some reviews from the wonderful new website The Curriculum Choice. Who would have thought one could study chemistry with living books? Jimmie shares about her wonderful find in the post The Mystery of the Periodic Table. In her Living Math Curriculum Review, Jimmie shares about a math supplement which is "a historical tour through time, looking at the mathematical developments of each period."

Poetry and Memorization

Jeanne at A Peaceful Day shares about her new experiment with poetry memorization the Charlotte Mason way in her post Memorization and the Man. The quote she shares is well worth reading, and Jeanne is finding Charlotte's method is working wonderfully in their homeschool. A lovely video clip, along with the text of their chosen poem, The Man from Snowy River, can be found in her post.

Incorporating Notebooking and Lapbooking

Katie from Katie's Homeschool Cottage shares how her family struggled to implement lapbooking, but eventually found success Combining Notebooking and Lapbooking. You'll find great tips, lots of photos and tons of great notebooking and lapbooking links in Katie's helpful post.

Applying Charlotte Mason's ideas beyond the classroom

Anna from French Kids Don't Get Fat shares How to Use Masterly Inactivity to Win Your Child to Healthy Eating for Life. I had never imagined applying Charlotte Mason's ideas at the dinner table before, but Anna gave me lots of "food for thought"!

Click here to view past editions of the Charlotte Mason blog carnival. If you are using Charlotte Mason's methods in your homeschool, we'd love to read about it in the next blog carnival! Click here to submit a post.

New Year, New Books

2009-08-03T21:37:00.003-04:00

It has been harder than usual for me to gear up for school this year. The summer flew by so quickly!! I don't feel quite ready for Medieval feasts and learning to make mosaics.

Ready or not, here we go! It's school time again. We're leaving the Ancients behind and moving on to The Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Reformation.

Although I feel like I'm still recovering from a whirlwind summer, there is one thing that always gets me excited about school: the books! Charlotte Mason believed that living books whet a child's appetite to learn. I find they do the same for me!

I love deciding what we are going to read each year, and arranging all our school books front and center in our reading nook. The old favorites nestle up alongside shiny new books, just waiting for someone to crack open their covers.

Oh, to be a child again and have time to read every one of those wonderful, living books! I feel blessed that as a homeschooling mom, I'll get to share a great number of them with the people I love most.

Are you ready to start back to school? Do you need some inspiration? You might enjoy listening to an episode or two of my series The Homeschooler's Library. There are 7 episodes, covering topics such as Choosing Books for Voracious Readers, Books for Art, Music, Poetry and Nature Study, Mommy's Reading Time, and Building Character through Books.

To listen, double click on the arrow by "Select a past episode" and then choose your episode and click play. The bottom episode is actually #1, the top episode is #7. Or, to download these talks to Mp3, click "Visit My Call". Each episode lasts about 15 minutes.

My Audio School, new and improved

2009-07-18T11:53:00.000-04:00

I've been very, very silent this summer...there is a reason!

Our family has spent most of the summer completely revamping My Audio School, transforming it from a blog into a website and adding content from all the major time periods in history.

I hope you'll go on and check out what we've been up to! Our previous site had about 50 items on it, but our new site has over 350. You can access about 25% of the content for free, or for a modest annual fee of $14.99 for a family subscription you can unlock all the content.

I've hated that my other blogs have been neglected! But I think when you check out My Audio School you'll understand why. This has been our family's true labor of love for the homeschool community, and for all children who need easy, child-friendly access to audio materials for school.

For more about the motivation behind My Audio School, you can read these pages in the sidebar of the site: About The Creator of My Audio School, About My Audio School, and Dyslexics and Self-Accommodation.

Jonathan Park: The Journey Never Taken

2009-06-18T22:42:00.000-04:00

Vision Forum has just completed volume 6 in their excellent Jonathan Park audio drama. My children love this series and listen to it again and again. They've learned so much about creation science along the way, and the exciting storyline and suspenseful cliffhanger endings keep them coming back for more. I can't recommend this series highly enough. There are some sample tracks on the Vision Forum website if you want to check it out. Just click on one of the banners in this email or in the sidebar of the blog.

Here's a brief synopsis of the new series:

In Jonathan Park and The Journey Never Taken, the Polar Star Medallion arrives at the Brenan Museum of Creation, throwing the Creation Response Team into a scavenger hunt the world will never forget. “Live the adventure” with Jonathan and the Creation Response Team as they uncover the true history of Charles Darwin and his cronies, all the while pursuing cryptic clues around the globe in search of a promised treasure. It’s another non-stop, faith-building, God-glorifying adventure with Jonathan Park!

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday, so the release of this new series is perfectly timed, as the media has been giving Darwin and his theory of evolution more coverage than ever this year. If you haven't listened to the series, why not take advantage of one of Vision Forum's Jonathan Park bundle sales? The largest savings offer is $50 off if you purchase the complete Jonathan Park Creation Adventure Audio Library. This set contains all six exciting volumes, and will give you lots of inspirational and educational listening all summer long.

They are also offering the New Release Bundle: Purchase The Jonathan Park Animal Guide Set (containing Jonathan Park Goes to the Aquarium and Jonathan Park Goes to the Zoo) and receive the brand new Album VI Jonathan Park: The Journey Never Taken, absolutely free!

We enjoy listening to Jonathan Park Goes to the Zoo when we are on nature outings. If we're headed to the zoo, we listen to the tracks relating to animals we expect to see there. If we are headed out birdwatching, we choose tracks about birds. Last year we got to see a reptile demonstration at a local state park and we listened to several tracks about reptiles in preparation for that. The Animal Guide set is a little different than the Adventure series, but very interesting and informative.

If I had to choose one, I would pick the Creation Adventure series, but at this price, perhaps you'll want to get both and tuck a set away for Christmas or birthday gifts.

More free Ultimate Homeschool Expo chats

2009-06-03T09:15:00.000-04:00

The Ultimate Homeschool Expo is in full swing!

I had the chance to listen to Maridel Willer's talk yesterday on The Three R's for mom. She really encouraged us with an excellent message about the 3 basics for the homeschool mom. We need to be confident of the reasons why we are homeschooling, to be always working on our relationships, and once those are in place, to draw on resources that will help us as we disciple our children.

If you want to buy a ticket, you can grab one here. There is a discount if you purchase with a friend! And don't forget to enter my drawing for a free ticket! The contest ends tomorrow night at 9 pm EST. Someone is going to be blessed with a free ticket, a $40 value!

You can always listen to the preview chats for free if you are available to listen in live. The first preview chat today is with another speaker I really enjoy. Cindy Carrier of Values Driven Family will be speaking on "Simplified Biblical Instruction and Character Training for Your Young Children". Cindy is easy to listen to and I've appreciated her insights when I've heard her speak in the past. You can hear her session this morning if you log in to Blog Talk Radio at 11 a.m. EST. Or you can call in and listen on your phone.
Call-in Number: (347) 205-9175

Yesterday I had a really hard time logging in to the website, but had no trouble at all listening in by phone. Cindy said Blog Talk Radio has been a bit overwhelmed with all the UHSE's traffic. If you find you can't log in, try calling in.

You can also hear Terri Johnson from Knowledge Quest Maps today at 3 pm EST, on the topic "Seven essential ingredients to homeschooling success". Terri is another speaker that I've really benefited from in the past.

I rarely am available to listen live. Yesterday was such a blessing! But I normally stream Expo sessions at night when the kids are in bed, or download them to MP3 to listen to while running errands. If you purchase a ticket, you don't have to listen today, or even this week! This ticket never expires, so you can listen to these talks a year from now if you want to. The price of the Expo will go up, however, once all the recordings are finished and edited, so if you plan to purchase a ticket, I'd recommend doing it soon.

If you don't have time to log in to hear these speakers, but still want to check out the Expo, there are some on demand sessions on the Expo's Blog Talk radio site. At the moment, you can download or play the following episodes any time you want:

The Language of Leadership with JoJo Tabares
UHSE 2009 Kickoff
When Mom Hurts with Cindy Rushton
Disciple Like Jesus for Dads with Alan Melton
Saving Money with Coupons with Sharon Yarbrough
What About Socialization with Israel Wayne
Homeschooling on a Shoestring with Cindy Rushton

I don't know how long these episodes will be posted, so listen soon if one of these topics grabs you. One of my UHSE talks, The Homeschooler's Library, is available for free in the sidebar of this blog. I've taken this 2 hour session and broken it down into 7 episodes, each about 15 minutes long. If you have a few minutes, click on the purple widget, scroll through the past episodes and choose a topic you'd like to hear and click play. Or, to download to MP3, you can click "visit my call", and that link will take you to this page where you can download whichever episodes you want. Don't forget to look at the blog posts, too, which are posted below the widget. Each post has lists of books with enabled links so you can check out some specific titles to go along with my general recommendations in the broadcast. You can find more of my podcasts on my Countercultural Mom blog, and they are all free, all the time.

I wish so much that I could hear both Cindy Carrier and Terri Johnson when they speak live today, but we've got a busy day of swimming and geocaching planned. It's lots of fun to listen live and be part of the chat room. If you want to be able to text chat with other moms, log in a few minutes early so you can get a log in ID from Blog Talk Radio. If you log in and then refresh the page, you'll be enabled to chat with the other moms...it's a fun way to have some mommy fellowship in the middle of the day, and you can also ask questions. At the end of each session, there is a Q and A time with the speaker...you can either type your questions in to the text chat box, or call in and press #1 to ask your question on the air. Enjoy!!

Free ticket for the Ultimate Homeschool Expo

2009-06-01T23:42:00.000-04:00

The Ultimate Homeschool Expo opened today! This is one homeschool convention you won't want to miss! And one of you is going to get a free ticket! Click here to read my post about how one session from last year's UHSE changed our homeschool forever. Also, in honor of UHSE starting this week, I'm doing two give aways this week! I'll be giving away a free Nathan Clark George CD on Countercultural Mom blog.

There are lots of great speakers at this year's Expo. I always enjoy Cindy Carrier, who is speaking this year about balancing home management and home ministry, as well as biblical and character training for your young children. Terri Johnson of Knowledge Quest maps has two sessions, as well, about teaching the multi-grade homeschool, and 7 steps to homeschooling success. There are even several sessions for kids this year, covering topics like notebooking, writing, geology, and the Civil War.

I have two sessions on the UHSE this year, as well. The Homeschooler's Library is also available here, but part 2 (questions and answers about choosing books) is only available at UHSE. I'm also writing a new series, Temptation and the Married Woman. The first talk in this series is only available at UHSE at the moment. I hope to get it recorded soon and posted on Countercultural Mom, so if you don't make it to the Expo, check there for it in the coming weeks.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what is available at the Ultimate Homeschool Expo! To see a partial list of the speakers and their topics, click here.

That's not all the Expo offers, though. There are also free gifts in the mommy grab bag, and a virtual vendor hall where you can peruse books and resources, all from the comfort of home. This homeschool convention doesn't have an ending date, either. Your ticket gives you access to everything it offers, and there is no expiration date. I am still going back and listening to some of last year's workshops now! And this year's content is all fresh, so even if you attended last year, it's a new convention.

To enter the give-away for a free ticket, leave me a comment on this post. Tell me about one thing that is going great in your homeschool, or one thing you plan to change! Extra entries in this contest if you tweet about it, post the URL on your blog, or post the URL on Facebook. Please write a separate comment for each, though, so I can keep it all straight! The contest will close at 9 pm EST on Thursday night.

All work and no play....

2009-05-31T21:40:00.000-04:00

We've been on our "summer break" for 6 weeks now. How the time flies! I've had so much on my to do list that it seems that a year-long summer break wouldn't be time enough to get it all done.

I've been working on my children's year-end evaluations, purchasing books for next year, writing plans for history and filling our science experiment boxes. This is my once-a-year opportunity to clean--I mean really clean. If junk drawers and closets aren't organized now, they probably won't be set right until next summer. Everything must be wrapped up from this year and then prepped for the new year before we start back to school in a few short weeks.

My kids had a different idea about summer break. They came to me the other night, in the tearful realization that our break will soon be over. "Mommy!" they cried. "We haven't done all the things we said we'd do!"

The things they were thinking about were things like geocaching excursions and Wii bowling tournaments. And the reason we haven't done these things is because mommy has been so busy working that she forgot to take time to play. What a dull mommy, indeed!

The very next day all work was set aside. We did our geocaching excursion, and found 3 caches! We were so proud that one was a microcache (very tiny) and one had a trackable device, which means that someone is following its progress as it is moved from cache to cache around the country.

Every cache had little trinkets in it, and the boys had fun choosing items to take and replacing them with things we had brought. I admit that on at least one occasion they took what I had brought instead of getting something from the cache...I guess the stuff I brought was pretty cool! They each came home with baseball cards, flashlights, cross necklaces, rubber bracelets and a marble.

While we were out geocaching we found time and opportunity to take a little train ride! We also got out on the water and did some paddleboating. We finished off the afternoon with a stop at our favorite pizza place. What a refreshing day!

It is easy to get so busy doing things "for our kids" that we forget to take time to do things "with them", especially when our homeschool is not in session. I'm glad I remembered what summer is supposed to be about, before it was too late. This week has been completely different, full of swimming, watching movies, reading The Hobbit together, dominoes, playing "puppies" with my preschooler, and making snowcones.

The work still gets done, albeit at a slower pace. It will always be there tomorrow, you know. But these opportunities to make memories with the children need to be seized now, while the getting is good. Don't let your summer fly by without stopping to enjoy the little things!

Free Tapestry of Grace Webinars

2009-05-30T17:35:00.000-04:00

Lampstand Press is holding a "virtual conference" this year, complete with free speakers, free samples, and conference specials. There are workshops in writing instruction (beginner and advanced), personal devotions (including how help kids grow in their own spritual life), and "Teaching with Tapestry of Grace." Click here for info (click the tabs to see all the worskhop topics and specials).

I'm signed up for both of the writing workshops...I think they will be a wonderful encouragement, with practical ideas to help me as I plan writing goals for my kids next year. If you are considering using Tapestry of Grace, or aren't sure whether to get a paper version or the new Digital Edition, there are seminars designed to help with that decision, too!

These webinars are free, but space is limited. Sign up soon!

Beginner's Spanish lessons

2009-05-27T20:13:00.001-04:00

This free beginner's Spanish course from the BBC looks wonderful. I haven't previewed all the lessons...just the first one. I love the way it incorporates excellent videography, a great story line, immersion approach to the language, interactive web tools, ways to expand your vocabulary and learn some grammar, printable transcripts of all the material, opportunities for review, a mystery...I could go on and on. Take 30 seconds and view the trailer, then go to Mi Vida Loca and see for yourself.

I had planned for my oldest son to use this course, but I can tell already that I'm going to want to learn Spanish now, too!

Go to the Mi Vida Loca homepage here and watch a few moments of the first lesson to see just how accessible this program is for true beginnners. As with anything, use your judgment. As I said before, I've only seen the first lesson, so I can't vouch for the content of the rest of the program. I did see that this BBC program is getting really excellent reviews, and I'm not surprised. I'll enjoy using this tool.