What’s in the Workbox

Trying to get back into our routine. It’s hard getting back on schedule after a break!

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
Morning Devotions	Morning Devotions	Morning Devotions	Morning Devotions
Drill and Recitation	Drill and Recitation	Drill and Recitation	Drill and Recitation
Writing	Writing	Writing	Writing
Math	Math	Math	Math
Free Play	Free Play	Free Play	Free Play
Spelling	Grammar	Spelling	Grammar
Reading Practice	Reading Practice	Reading Practice	Reading Practice
History	History	History	Science
Play with Dad	Play with Dad	Play with Dad	Play with Dad
Read Aloud	Read Aloud	Read Aloud	Read Aloud
Bible Study	Bible Study	Bible Study	Bible Study
Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
French	art project	French	silent reading
Crew review	Crew review	Crew review	/
silent reading	silent reading	silent reading	/

Morning Devotions: The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories, The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers

Drill and Recitation: Working through Unit 9 of Oral Language Lessons; working on the fifth and sixth verse of Psalm 23; poem - ‘Work’; days of the week and months of the year; Super Star Speech

Writing With Ease: Week 1

Spelling: All About Spelling, working on step 15; Spelling Workout 20

Grammar: First Language Lessons 1/2, lessons 20-21

Math: RightStart, lessons 22-25

Reading Practice: What Am I?, All About Reading level 2 reader

Bible Study: Grapevine Bible Study, Old Testament

French: Working on a lapbook, starting Mission ABC – lesson 1

History: Story of the World, volume 1 - Introduction

Science: Human Body Study – Heart and Blood

Crew Review: Right now we are using Time 4 Learning (and 2 other products that I’ve fit into other parts of the day – Super Star Speech and What Am I?)

Read Aloud: Picture books, More Stories from Grandma’s Attic, listening to Stuart Little on audio book

Math Galaxy

Math Galaxy, one of the latest products the Crew is reviewing, is a computer-based math program. With colorful graphics and concrete examples to present each topic and games to reinforce the information, it’s a unique way to supplement any K-12 math program. The creators of the program believe “skills develop along a concrete-to-abstract continuum, with advanced skills developed by generalizing from more concrete experiences.” Following this philosophy, they created programs that use a mastery-based approach to learning.

Math Galaxy starts from the beginning, with addition and multiplication tables and single-digit operations, but its main focus is on where children start having trouble with math: multi-step problem-solving. There are enough programs out there that teach number recognition and simple operations, with dancing bears and other frills, but stop short of where students start having trouble, making the leap from familiar and concrete experiences to abstract thinking.

We were given a choice about which programs to download so I chose Whole Numbers Fun. Whole Numbers Fun (grades 1-4) covers all number operations as well as topics such as probability, money, graphs, and time. For extra fun, Word Jumbles, Riddles, the Bridge the Swamp game, and Labyrinth mazes are also included on this CD-ROM (you can try out the games at the website). The program includes an added incentive to do the math drill portion of the program. As your child works through the various sections he earns robots to use in the games. It’s a good way to motivate a reluctant child to work on their math skills.

Other programs that are available include (each program is $29.95):

• Fractions Fun
• Decimals, Proportions, % Fun
• Word Problems Fun
• Pre-Algebra Fun
• Algebra Fundamentals
• Whole Numbers worksheet generator
• Fractions worksheet generator
• Decimals, Proportions, % worksheet generator
• Algebra worksheet generator

I love the idea of the program and the added incentives of special games to motivate the child to spend time on the drill portions, but I found the program hard to use. While very colorful, the graphics are very basic and I didn’t find it very appealing. The drill portion is cumbersome, having to wait for a ‘correct’ banner to flash a number of times before you can press a key to go on to the next question. I love the idea of the games and earning robots but it just isn’t something that works for our family.

The best way to decide if the program is appropriate for your family is to go to the Math Galaxy website and try out a few of the games. If you’re interested in reading what other families thought of Math Galaxy check out the Crew blog.

Disclaimer: I was given this product free of charge to review as a member of the Homeschool Crew. I received no other compensation for my review. All views expressed are my opinions only.

Weekly Report

TJ and I are still trying to get over these colds so not much got finished this week. It was very light school work all week – I was happy to complete most of the basics I had on the schedule.

Monday: TJ finished half of step 15 in All About Spelling, did a session on Time 4 Learning, read a chapter from What Am I? (the soon-to-be-released new book from All About Spelling), worked on some logic problems, and did an experiment with a Magic School Bus science kit.

Tuesday: Another light day – 1/2 a math lesson, a grammar lesson, some dictation for spelling, an experiment from a Magic School Bus science kit, geography, a bit of time on Time 4 Learning, and one chapter of reading.

Wednesday: Still another light day - 2 pages of spelling (TJ wanted to do Spelling Workout) and Geography (our last country!)

Thursday: Well, at least we accomplished a bit more than yesterday! TJ did a grammar lesson, 1/2 a math lesson, dictation for spelling, and we learned about muscles in our study of the human body.

Friday: Shopping and errands – so no school today.

One of those weeks

We’re having one of those weeks. You know – where everyone has the sniffles and isn’t feeling very great and no one feels like doing much of anything. I’m blaming our last trip – too many late nights and early mornings, too much junk food, not enough fresh fruits and veggies. And Nick has been called in to work days all week plus overtime each evening and then he had to leave early for an interview this morning which is far enough away that it doesn’t make sense to come home between that and his regular work shift. I miss having him home. We haven’t seen much of him all week and when he is here he’s dozing off because he’s so tired. Tomorrow is another busy and we’ve got plans for Saturday morning but after that I’m locking the door and making everyone stay home so we can actually spend some time together.

I’m done complaining now. :) Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

What’s in the Workbox

We’re back from our trip and getting ready for another week. We didn’t get much accomplished the week before we left so we’ll be spending this week getting those things finished up. TJ and I are recovering from colds so I’m not sure how much we’ll stick to our schedule.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
Morning Devotions	Morning Devotions	Morning Devotions	Morning Devotions
Drill and Recitation	Drill and Recitation	Drill and Recitation	Drill and Recitation
Copywork	Copywork	Copywork	Copywork
Spelling	Grammar	Spelling	Grammar
Free Play	Free Play	Free Play	Free Play
Math	Math	Math	Math
Reading Practice	Reading Practice	Reading Practice	Reading Practice
French	Geography	Science	Geography
Play with Dad	Play with Dad	Play with Dad	Play with Dad
Read Aloud	Read Aloud	Read Aloud	Read Aloud
Bible Study	Bible Study	Bible Study	Bible Study
Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
crew review	art project	crew review	silent reading
silent reading	silent reading	silent reading	/

Morning Devotions: The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories, The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers

Drill and Recitation: Working through Unit 9 of Oral Language Lessons; working on the fifth verse of Psalm 23; poem - ‘Work’; days of the week and months of the year; Super Star Speech

Copywork: Copywork from Beatrix Potter books and dictation from All About Spelling

Spelling: All About Spelling, working on step 15

Grammar: First Language Lessons 1/2, lessons 18-19

Math: RightStart, lessons 21-22

Reading Practice: What Am I?, All About Reading level 2 reader

Bible Study: Grapevine Bible Study, Old Testament

French: Working on a lapbook

Geography: Netherlands and UK

Science: Human Body Study – Muscles

Crew Review: Right now we are using Math Galaxy and Time 4 Learning (and 2 other products that I’ve fit into other parts of the day – Super Star Speech and What Am I?)

Read Aloud: Picture books, More Stories from Grandma’s Attic, listening to Stuart Little on audio book

Just a Reminder – Homeschool Expo!

I just wanted to post a reminder – if you’ve been thinking about attending The Old Schoolhouse Expo be sure to pre-register before the end of the month to save $5 and get a special e-book (along with a goodie bag full of other great e-books)!

There are lots of exciting things happening at The Old Schoolhouse! They are offering a huge March Madness sale with over 240 items 10-40% off. Also, if you’re customer 139,000,  139,500,  or 140,000, you’ll win over $348 in prizes. A few of the prizes include a 5 year subscription to The Old Schoolhouse magazine (U.S. only), Scripture Sleuth literature series, and guitar lessons on CD.

In even bigger news, The Schoolhouse Expo (a 3-day online conference) is coming in May! If you pre-register this month there is a $5 discount so you’ll only pay $19.99. You’ll also receive over $300 in free gifts when you register. All you need is a high-speed internet connection and speakers!

Here are just a few of the speakers that will be at this event:

• Susan Wise Bauer
• Diana Waring
• Andrew Pudewa
• Sue Patrick
• Amanda Bennett

Check out The Schoolhouse Expo page for more information about this event!

Short Blogging Break!

I won't be posting for a few days - leaving to visit family tomorrow! See you in a week!

Homeschool Expo & March Madness Sale!

There are lots of exciting things happening at The Old Schoolhouse! They are offering a huge March Madness sale with over 240 items 10-40% off. Also, if you’re customer 139,000,  139,500,  or 140,000, you’ll win over $348 in prizes. A few of the prizes include a 5 year subscription to The Old Schoolhouse magazine (U.S. only), Scripture Sleuth literature series, and guitar lessons on CD.

In even bigger news, The Schoolhouse Expo (a 3-day online conference) is coming in May! If you pre-register this month there is a $5 discount so you’ll only pay $19.99. You’ll also receive over $300 in free gifts when you register. All you need is a high-speed internet connection and speakers!

Here are just a few of the speakers that will be at this event:

• Susan Wise Bauer
• Diana Waring
• Andrew Pudewa
• Sue Patrick
• Amanda Bennett

Check out The Schoolhouse Expo page for more information about this event!

Studying the Human Body: Bones & Joints

Last week TJ learned abut bones and joints. We started by reading a few pages from The First Encyclopedia of the Human Body. TJ has started reading the first little ‘blurb’ aloud to me and then I read the captions and other information while we look at the pictures. We finished with a narration and then TJ cut out the bones to add to her body poster.

After she finished adding the bones to the poster I helped her make an arm (from The Usborne Book of Science Activities) and we discussed bones and joints. We filled out an experiment form and then she made a moveable skeleton (from The Giant Science Resource Book) which she’s been carrying around now for a few days. She even took it to church – the boys in her class were suitably impressed - “Cool! A skeleton!” :)

We finished the lesson by reading a few library books – What’s Inside Me? My Bones and Muscles, Dem Bones, and Bones (Seymour Simon book – LOVE these books – the pictures are always amazing).

This week we’ll be learning about muscles.

What’s in the Workbox

Here’s the plan for the week:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
Morning Devotions	Morning Devotions	Morning Devotions	Morning Devotions
Drill and Recitation	Drill and Recitation	Drill and Recitation	Drill and Recitation
Copywork	Copywork	Copywork	Copywork
Spelling	Grammar	Spelling	Grammar
Free Play	Free Play	Free Play	Free Play
Math	Math	Math	Math
Reading Practice	Reading Practice	Reading Practice	Reading Practice
French	Geography	Science	Geography
Play with Dad	Play with Dad	Play with Dad	Play with Dad
Read Aloud	Read Aloud	Read Aloud	Read Aloud
Bible Study	Bible Study	Bible Study	Bible Study
Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
crew review	art project	crew review	silent reading
silent reading	silent reading	silent reading	/

Morning Devotions: The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories, The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers

Drill and Recitation: Working through Unit 9 of Oral Language Lessons; working on the fifth verse of Psalm 23; poem - ‘Work’; days of the week and months of the year; Super Star Speech

Copywork: Copywork from Beatrix Potter books and dictation from All About Spelling

Spelling: All About Spelling, working on step 15

Grammar: First Language Lessons 1/2, lessons 18-19

Math: RightStart, lessons 21-22

Reading Practice: Various readers

Bible Study: Grapevine Bible Study, Old Testament

French: Working on a lapbook

Geography: Netherlands and UK

Science: Human Body Study – Muscles

Read Aloud: Picture books, More Stories from Grandma’s Attic, listening to Stuart Little on audio book

Crew Review: Graphics-Toolbox

Graphics-Toolbox is a software program that allows you to create or enhance any kind of image. With over 20 years of experience, a team of graphics programmers wanted to create a program that was easy to use and understand. The product they designed can be used by a wide range of individuals – homeschoolers, students, teachers, or business people. There are lots of ways to use the software – scrapbooking, blog graphics, card making, and enhancing or editing photos are just a few ideas. The best way to understand how the program works is to download the 30-day free trial, watch the tutorials, and read through the Users’ Manual.

I was very excited to try out this program so I could update my blog a bit, but sadly it caused problems with my computer. After downloading the program my computer started acting weird (nice technical computer term, huh?) and I had to do a system restore. I can’t say for sure that this program was the thing that caused my computer to go whacko but if there was another reason I haven’t figured out what it was. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to give this product a thorough review.

Graphics-Toolbox is $149 (you can also try it out with a 30-day free trial). My crew mates used this program to create lots of neat things - be sure to check out the crew blog.

Disclaimer: I was given this product free of charge to review as a member of the Homeschool Crew. I received no other compensation for my review. All views expressed are my opinions only.

Weekly Report

We had a pretty good week. One day was a bit of a struggle but we managed to work through it. TJ completed her first lapbook and we started a new French lapbook. I wasn’t too excited about these but thought I’d give it a try. Well, TJ just loves it. She’s been showing off her Olympics lapbook all week and is already asking when we get to do another.

Monday: Very productive day. After TJ finished her morning routine and devotions with Nick we watched some of the Olympics closing ceremony and she completed her Olympics poster. After that she worked through her recitation exercises, did a copywork sentence and we worked on spelling. She had some free time before she read aloud, worked on a math lesson, and learned about Italy. Then she played for awhile before she and Nick did a lesson in their Bible Study program. After lunch we read some books, painted some rocks, and had quiet reading time before quiet time.

Tuesday: Didn’t start out very well. TJ wasn’t attentive and couldn’t seem to answer simple questions. I was getting frustrated so called for a time-out and let her run around for a bit. After that things seemed to go much better. We finished up everything I had on the schedule and she completed her Olympics lapbook – her first lapbook! She was very proud of her work and took it to the grandparent’s house to show them her hard work.

Wednesday:  Great day! We had to change some things around since Nick had to leave early but we got so much finished. After TJ completed her morning routine we did devotions and recitation. I let her pick the order of subjects today and she decided to do math first. She learned more about odd and even numbers before we did a bit of dictation in lieu of copywork. Instead of free play time she wanted to watch a 30 minute video so that’s what she did. After her free time was over we did spelling, reading, and then she and Nick did Bible study before another break time. After a quick lunch Nick headed out and TJ and I finished up with science and read aloud time.

Thursday:   Another good day. Nick had another early appointment so our schedule had to change a little, but we still got so much accomplished. We finished a math lesson, some dictation practice, and grammar. In between breaks we studied Spain and practiced some French. I also started some simple speech therapy exercises with TJ using Super Star Speech.

Friday: Errands and shopping day!

Well-Educated Mind: Still working through Don Quixote

I’ve finally reached the end of book 1 (the sort-of half-way point)! Yay! I took a few days to really think about whether I want to move on to the next book on the list or continue plugging away through this one. I hate to leave a book unfinished so I’m giving myself two more months to work through the second half of Don Quixote.

I am enjoying it (some parts are even laugh-out-loud funny) but some of these speeches and longer passages are really tedious. I’ll be glad to finish this one.

My goals for the next month:

1. Continue reading Don Quixote four times a week
2. Try to read half of book 2 (36 chapters)

Family Mint

 

Family Mint is a FREE online money management program especially geared to kids. It’s “a mixture between a personal money management tool (such as Quicken) and an online bank.” It provides a basic introduction to managing money and learning to budget using practical applications.

Using the Family Mint software, you and your kids will learn about budgeting and setting goals. You aren’t actually sending your money to an online account – you act as “the bank” for your kids. When they hand over their money (make a deposit) they can track this in their Family Mint account and allocate it to certain accounts. Family Mint acts as a tracking system, helping them learn how to budget and set goals. You still hold the actual cash and the authority for deposits and withdrawals.

Once you set up an account with Family Mint it is very easy to get started. There is a short video you can watch and then you’ll need to create a profile for each child. After that, it’s a simple matter to show your children how to set their goals (savings for college or a special toy, charitable giving, etc.) and how to use the program. Each child will have their own login and password so they can set and track their individual goals. From their login page they will be able to make deposits, withdrawals, and transfers to any specific savings accounts.

Parents also have a special login page that can be used to track all their children’s accounts. From this page you can view transactions, set allowances, and even set interest rates (which would be a great way to encourage children to save money). 

I think Family Mint is a great tool and a nice way to introduce kids to money management. TJ is still fairly young for something like this but I’m looking forward to introducing it in the future. Did I mention that Family Mint is FREE? You can’t lose anything but a few minutes by giving it a try. While the basic version will remain free there will be a ‘Pro’ version released later this year that will have a fee attached. Check out the Homeschool Crew blog to see how other families used this program.

Disclaimer: I was asked to review this product as a member of the Homeschool Crew. I received no compensation for my review. All views expressed are my opinions only.

Studying the Human Body: Touch

This was our last week to study the senses. We finished up by learning about our sense of touch. After reading a few pages from The First Encyclopedia of the Human Body and completing a narration we did a few simple experiments.

She tested three different round objects to see if  she could tell them apart by using her elbows (the dog was trying to help).  She learned that it was much easier to tell things apart with your hands! :)

After completing an experiment page we read a few pages from the encyclopedia about skin. Using the Usborne Science Activities book, she tried a few simple activities then I helped her make copies of our fingerprints to look at. I wanted to let her get a close look at them but couldn’t find the magnifying glass (it’s so annoying to find that I’m missing something I need!).  We finished up our session by looking at a few books about skin and the sense of touch – I can tell by Touching, Your Skin and Mine, and First Facts: Touching.

She’s looking forward to our next science lesson because she gets to add a new piece to her human body poster.

What’s in the Workbox

Here’s the plan for the week:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Morning Devotions	Morning Devotions	Morning Devotions	Morning Devotions	Morning Devotions
Drill and Recitation	Drill and Recitation	Drill and Recitation	Math Game	Drill and Recitation
Copywork	Copywork	Copywork	Read Aloud	Copywork
Spelling	Grammar	Spelling	/	Grammar
Free Play	Free Play	Free Play	/	Free Play
Math	Math	Math	/	Math
Reading Practice	Reading Practice	Reading Practice	/	Reading Practice
French	Geography	Science	/	Geography
Play with Dad	Play with Dad	Play with Dad	/	Play with Dad
Read Aloud	Read Aloud	Read Aloud	/	Read Aloud
Bible Study	Bible Study	Bible Study	/	Bible Study
Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	/	Lunch
crew review	art project	crew review	/	silent reading
silent reading	silent reading	silent reading	/	/

Morning Devotions: The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories, The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers

Drill and Recitation: Working through Unit 8 of Oral Language Lessons; working on the fourth verse of Psalm 23; poem - ‘Work’ and ‘Celery’; days of the week and months of the year

Copywork: Copywork from Beatrix Potter books

Spelling: All About Spelling, working on step 14

Grammar: First Language Lessons 1/2, lessons 16-17

Math: RightStart, lessons 17-20

Reading Practice: Various readers

Bible Study: Grapevine Bible Study, Old Testament

French: Working on a lapbook

Geography: Italy and Netherlands

Science: Human Body Study – Bones and joints

Read Aloud: Picture books, In Grandma’s Attic, listening to Stuart Little on audio book