Circling Through This Life

I am always on the look out for educational activities that Supergirl can do independently.  Recently, through the TOS Review Crew, I was introduced to an online reading program called Reading Eggs. From the About Page : The Reading Eggs program is a unique online world where children learn to read. It offers individual, one-on-one lessons that allow children to progress at their own rate. Developed by a team of teachers, writers and developers, the Reading Eggs program focuses on a core reading curriculum of phonics and sight words using skills and strategies essential for sustained reading success. Because Supergirl has had some reading instruction, we started with the placement test/assessment.  She placed at the beginning of Map 6 (Lesson 51).   I was frustrated with the placement test.  With many of the questions she could figure out the answer without truly having to read.  I felt it was more of an assessment of test taking skills. There was one question that truly bothered

It’s that time of the week again!  It’s time for the TOS Blog Cruise, but this time, I’m not writing the post.  My girls are giving their responses to this question: “What is the best thing about homeschooling?”  In the interest of full disclosure, please note that my children have always been home schooled.  To quote Tailorbear “I don’t know anything else.  Home schooling is all I know.”  She struggled with coming up with something that she liked best.  “I just don’t know.  It’s all good, I guess.” Supergirl’s Response: “I like homeschooling. [mom asks, “why?”]”Because it’s so much fun!” [Mom: “But what do you like best?”] “Reading. I’m learning how to read. We play games with it and I get to use letter tiles.” Tailorbear’s Response: “The thing I like best about homeschooling is Sonlight because I get a lot of books to read.  Yes, they’re educational but they are a lot of fun to read.” Turtlegirl’s Response: “ Um, I’m not sure. There’s being able to set my own schedule, taking ti

Although Great Lent doesn’t begin until Monday (tomorrow), we’ve been in a pre-lenten mode.  Last Sunday was meatfare Sunday also known as the Sunday of Final Judgement.  The following day we began the meatfast or cheesefare week.  Orthodox Christians abstain from meat (except fish) during this but may partake of dairy, eggs and fish.  Lent is so much more than just a fast.  It is a spiritual journey: an opportunity for reflection and a time of renewal.  We all stray from the path.  We all get caught up in the daily cares of the world.  Lent provides the framework for re-training our flesh to seek first the Kingdom of God.  The fast isn’t just about abstaining from certain foods.  It’s a training ground for taking back control of our flesh.  Today is Forgiveness Sunday .  It is the day we remember Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden.  It is the day we stand before our brothers and sisters and ask for forgiveness. I would like to ask all my dear readers to forgive me for any o

Through a book, I can travel to places all around the world and through a book I can visit the past. When it comes to reading novels, I think the Regency Era ranks as one of my favorite time periods. Especially if it takes place in Great Britain or Ireland and even more so if the characters are nobility or have titles. I just finished reading The Guardian Duke, a regency era romance by Jamie Carie. About the Book: The Guardian Duke is award-winning novelist Jamie Carie’s most exciting story yet, a uniquely arranged Regency-era romantic adventure where hero and heroine know each other through written letters but have yet to meet. Gabriel, the Duke of St. Easton, is ordered by the King to take guardianship over Lady Alexandria Featherstone whose parents are presumed dead after failing to return from a high profile treasure hunt. But Alexandria ignores this royal reassignment, believing her parents are still alive and duly following clues that may lead to their whereabouts. Gabri

A friend of mine is starting a new meme this week called Blogging through the Alphabet. I make no promises or guarantees that I will post every week but this looks like a lot of fun so I wanted to make sure I jumped in this week. But A? I knew my friend Debra from Footprints in the Butter was going to use Ancients for her topic so I put that idea aside.  I pondered and polled my children.  “Annihilation,” a sleepy 16 year old stammered. (She was still in bed.  I woke her up. Oh not to get an idea.  Just it was time to get up and since I was there already I had to ask!). Annihilation? Nope that didn’t work for me.  Too negative for a first post about blogging through the alphabet. Lent is just around the corner (For Orthodox Christians Lent begins on Monday, though I know it has already begun for my Western friends.) Almsgiving! That’s an A word and it has to do with Lent! Almsgiving? That’s a pretty serious topic for a for a first post.  I put that idea aside as well. While looking

Some children need little to no reading instruction and just seem to teach themselves to read. Other children, when developmentally ready, only need a little instruction and they take off with reading.  And yet other children struggle. Some struggle for a short period of time; maybe they just weren’t ready. Others have learning difficulties or even learning disorders. I have four daughters. My oldest struggled.My next two readers basically taught themselves how to read. Supergirl, my developmentally youngest, has special needs and cognitive impairments. I often worried about whether she would ever be able to read. She requires a multi-sensory, multi-style approach to learning. We’ve been using All About Reading Level 1 from All About Learning Press. This has been an amazing and wonderful fit for her.  But before I get into how great this has been for her (for us really!) let me tell you a bit about the program. Written by Marie Rippel, All About Reading is a complete comprehensive

I haven’t done a Goal Planning Monday post in several weeks (month? months?) Right now I have to say my primary goal this week is survival.  We all started to feel like we were coming down with something so I made “virus killing soup”.  That was over a week ago.  I think all I did was push off the illness. One by one, yes, like dominos, the members of my family fell.  All sick of us are fighting this cold/virus thing but the stage varies from person to person.  Turtlegirl was hit first closely followed by her father.  Next Supergirl went down followed by her mother (that would be me!).  Tailorbear fell hard today and close on her heels is her sister BooBear. So this week is survival.  We’ll get done what we get done.  A serious goal is to not get too far behind where we want to be for school but as Great Lent approaches I would rather we spend the week taking it easy and getting our strength back so that we can participate right away in the extra church services.  I especially do n

While making the grocery list and discussing how many cans of tuna we want, I suddenly burst into song “no tuna..” and before I could finish my 12 year old jumps in with “no jack” My husband looks at us oddly and then says “oh the song”.  Not A song but THE song.  My favorite song from my favorite resource for teaching skip counting.  This particular song teaches skip counting by 7’s  (The Fisher of Men catches a Fisherman)and is based on the gospel story from Luke 5:4-11. Peter has been fishing all night but has caught nothing.  He hears a voice from shore that tells him to “throw once more on the other side.” “And because it was the Lord, Peter said ok.” In the 7’s song, Peter is counting the fish that he caught after he threw the net again.   My husband’s favorite song is the 6’s (Martha Martha)which is based on Luke 10:38-42.  It starts out “Martha in the kitchen starin’ at the dishes, starin’ at the bones of the picked over fishes.”  She’s disgruntled and the song counts the dish

Well not really.  George does really like meat.  But he doesn’t discriminate.  Sometimes we eat in the family room and Supergirl has her little “table” (it’s a footstool).  If we don’t pick her plate up right away and if we’ve been eating green beans it is not unusual to find the cat eating her vegetables.  (Doesn’t touch her meat though just her veggies!) A few Bountiful Baskets ago we found George trying to nibble on some lettuce.  Since then we’ve tried to be careful not to leave our baskets where he would be inclined to snack. This morning we left the basket unguarded and we found him nibbling away at some lettuce. Here is photographic evidence of his nibbles.  It shouldn’t surprise me that he likes lettuce because he likes green beans.  But it is a tad bit disconcerting to find the kitty eating a salad! A full, satisfied, contented kitty who now needs a nap!

I love math.  I don’t, however, love teaching it.  I feel as though I’ve been on a quest to find a math program that meets the needs of my students and does the teaching for me.  It’s possible I have found the answer: ALEKS. What is ALEKS? A ssessment and LE arning in K nowledge S paces is an online mathematics program that provides personalized learning and assessment tailored to a student's individual needs. Using artificial intelligence and adaptive, open-response questioning, ALEKS quickly and accurately determines what a student knows and is most ready to learn within a course. This online math course offers courses from 3rd grade through post high school. I was provided a two month free trial for each of my children who could use ALEKS, along with a master account.  They even encouraged me to create a student account for myself so I did!  I’ve been working my way through the Algebra II course while BooBear age 16 (11th grade) has focused on Mastery of SAT Math.  Turtleg

I do ok with spelling.  Most of my mistakes are typos and not true misspellings.  My oldest daughter though has always struggled with spelling.  Even now, in high school, it is her weakest area.  I have another daughter who is a natural speller .  Spelling comes very easy for her.  She is our walking dictionary.  This type of conversation happens frequently at my house: “Hey, how do you spell  <a difficult word>?” With a heavy sigh, “Look it up.  I’m not a dictionary.” “I can’t look them up because I can’t spell them enough to find them in the dictionary.” So you can imagine how excited I was to read this description: “Easily find the correct spelling of 300+ commonly used American English words just by knowing the sound of the first letter or first few letters.” I eagerly expressed interest in the See-N-Spell Spelling and Vocabulary Quick Reference Guide from CadenaSmith Enterprises.  Recommended for Grade 4 through adult this booklet is described as “Easy-to-Use, Fas

As the mother of 4 girls-3 of whom are in or near dating age-, I want a resource I can use to discuss dating and courtship.  I jumped at the chance to request I kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris. From the Publisher: Joshua Harris's first book, written when he was only 21, turned the Christian singles scene upside down...and people are still talking. More than 800,000 copies later, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, with its inspiring call to sincere love, real purity, and purposeful singleness, remains the benchmark for books on Christian dating. Now, for the first time since its release, the national #1 bestseller has been expanded with new content and updated for new readers. Honest and practical, it challenges cultural assumptions about relationships and provides solid, biblical alternatives to society's norm. From the Back Cover: Tired of the game? Kiss dating goodbye. Going out? Been dumped? Waiting for a call that doesn’t come? Have you tasted pain in dating, drifted thr

Now that we’re into February and I’ve had several (4!!!) days in a row of sunshine, I’m ready to share about the week of um, interesting, winter weather.  Unusual weather and “historic” amounts of snow. The first round.  This what fell Saturday.  I had a Sisterhood meeting at church but even though I wanted to go we thought it best for me to just stay home. On Tuesday night we got another 6 1/2 inches.  We declared it a snow day!  Snowball fights! Snow shoveling! And a Snow Sphinx named Edward! The next day brought yet another storm. This one ICE!  It was too much for our little tree.  I can’t say that I’m sorry to see that week end.  I learned I really like my heat and electricity.

I love astronomy.  I especially love looking at the stars and learning about the constellations.  I confess that, though I am fascinated by the concept of astrophysics, the math is beyond me but I can still appreciate the stars and how constellations have been used to track and mark seasons for centuries. I remember being so excited to take my first astronomy class in college.  The prereqs clearly stated that I did NOT need to know physics.  Somebody forgot to tell the professor who took over the class.  I think he thought it was the astrophysics class.  I just wanted to study the movement of the stars and planets and be able to recognize what I saw in the sky. When ever I gaze up at the night sky, I am in awe of the Creator.  The heaves declare the glory of God; the firmament shows the creation of His hands. (Psalm 19:1) Jay Ryan, of Classical Astronomy , has started a monthly almanac for novice stargazers.  The Classical Astronomy Celestial Almanack a Visual Representation of t

Thank you to all who entered my giveaway for A Mile in His Shoes. I had 18 entries.  I used Random.org to choose a winning entry and random.org picked: Number 18 is PK!   Congratulations PK! I’ve received her mailing information and passed it on to the people at Propeller (who provided this giveaway opportunity). PK, congratulations!  I hope you enjoy the movie!

It’s been a long while since I’ve participated in a TOS Blog Cruise. This week Marcy asks “How do you measure success in your homeschool?” At first I thought, “I have nothing to say.”  Measure success? Many days just getting school work done is a mark of success. Seriously, a successful day, a day I feel really good about, (which happens every now and again but not nearly often enough) is a day where I feel I have accomplished something.   All four girls getting 90 % or more of their assignment sheets complete, a couple loads of laundry done, and dinner actually made.  That’s a successful day in my life. But how to measure achievement in my homeschool?  How do I know that my efforts in providing an education for my children is successful?  Is it all about grades?  Nope.  As I type this I realize it is very much NOT about grades.  It’s about learning.  It’s about growing.  It’s about building character.  So how do you measure those things?  Can those things be measured? For me, th

First I need to share that I am writing this review because I love this product.  I volunteered to write this review; I was not required to provide one. About a year ago I did a TOS Review of this music program for young students and we loved it so much that I purchased a one year subscription! So what makes this such and incredibly wonderful program? Let me list some reasons: The Lessons are fun ! Karri enjoys what she does and this enjoyment spills out into the lessons.  She’s having fun and that means my daughter has fun. The Lessons (Sessions) are short.  Each “week” is divided into 4 sessions.  These are very short which means my daughter, who can be easily distracted, doesn’t lose focus.  Also because the video clips are short, she doesn’t mind re-watching several at one sitting. Covers six areas of music development. 1)Ear or Listening Skills, 2) Sight or Note reading, 3) Rhythm, 4)Hand position or Technique, 5) Singing,  6)Composition Does not require a piano.   Yo