Summer
has flown by and we are almost ready for a brand new school year. Tomorrow will
be our annual Homeschool Planning
Meeting. We have some pretty neat stuff to plan for. The Homeschooled Young Man has
some thinking to do, we ask that he bring his ideas to the table in writing (by doing this he gets to practice real life skills in handwriting, spelling, critical thinking, organization, time management, goal setting skills).
Things that I have on the agenda...of course they won't be hammered out in stone because it's just July and we don't follow the public school schedule, so we are good. But I like to get something penciled in, so I can be on the prowl for good deals on our homeschooling materials.
1. What will be our core courses?
2. What will we use for those core
courses?
3. What extras will we add in to
round it all out?
4. What will be done as full year
courses and what will be done as semester courses?
5. Field trip ideas?
6. Will we attend homeschool
convention next year?
7. What life/social skills
will we work on this year?
8. What volunteering will we be
involved in?
9. What career training/skills/shadowing will he be involved in?
10. Will he be a part of
TeenPact.org again this year?
11. What classes outside the home
will he take?
12. What are some things that he
would like to learn?
13. What sort of employment will he
take part in?
14. What 4-H projects will work together with our schooling this year? (the 4-H Health Sciences can be used for Health class, the Cooking 101 project can be used for Home Ec credit etc. Homeschoolers are always thinking outside the box with real life skills.
15. What scholarships will he
be applying for?
16. Will there be standardized
testing this year? Stanford 10? SAT? ACT? ASVAB?
17. What colleges will we visit?
18. What materials do we have on
hand that we can use instead of buying more stuff.
19. What church related activities
will we take part in?
20. What worked and did not work
last school year?
I am sure that more will come up as
we chat around the kitchen table. However, this is what homeschooling is all
about. Yes, some homeschoolers have a set of state standards that
they must abide by, but there is so much more to homeschooling that those
standards. We as homeschoolers can focus on so much more right alongside schoolwork.
So many more rich life changing experiences that we can afford our children.
I understand this day may be difficult for you, with not being able to be with family and friends. Make your focus today on Jesus and what He has done for you.
If you're not sure who Jesus is or what He's done that's so special, click this link to find out more about Him.
We plan to start our day out with fellow blogger Audrey Roberts receipe for Gluten Free Cinnamon Roll Cake (tastes just like cinnamon rolls, but without all the work!). Audrey blogs over at www.mamaknowsglutenfree.com/ and boy, oh boy, does she know gluten free cooking!
Easter lunch menu will...
Spiral Sliced Ham
Mashed Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Deviled Eggs
Lamb Cakes (Vanilla pound cake shaped like a lamb).
Still needs decorated, but too warm to frost yet.
Lamb cakes are a family tradition, my parents would always make a bunch of these lambs and bunny cakes. They would decorate them all up some in powder sugar, some with shredded coconut, all would have jelly beans, Easter grass and chocolate Easter eggs. They would give them all away to friends and family. Ours can't be given away now, since we ate the ears off of them already hahaha.
We probably would have a more exciting menu, however hubby is laid off due to the COVID-19 non-essential rules and so I am doing a pantry challenge to use up what we have on hand. I also really don't want to have to brave all the TP crazies at the store either LOL.
The homeschooled young man is away at college and probably eating a can of SPAM for his Easter meal unless the university is planning something special in the dinning hall.
This all puts life into perspective and helps us to focus on the real meaning of Easter, it's not the food or the family that is truly important. It's Jesus.
Do you have upcoming graduates looking towards college?
My friends Hal & Melanie Young of Raising Real Men (they have girls too) have some great podcasts on the subject. As a homeschool veteran Mom, I've started back to college myself and it's a lot to navigate. I have been listening to these on my way to/from class each day and they are such an encouragement. Check out this podcast: Choosing A College.
College will be here before you know it, so now is the time to start learning more and getting you and your child prepared for launching. I plan on featuring a series of podcasts about homeschooling and college prep. Come along with me on the journey.
Moe
This is right where we are, hard to believe that we are done homeschooling. I came across Lee Binz website Lee Binz: TheHomeScholar back around the 7th grade when I was looking into homeschooling high school and thinking it was NOT POSSIBLE!!! Lee has some great ideas and tips and her Webinars are totally incredible and so full of great information that even the Homeschooled Young Man could be caught listening in to them!
Once I catch my breath, maybe life will slow down a bit, it's been a wild ride and busy time with college visits, applications, essays and fun stuff like that! We enjoyed our last homeschool convention and were so blessed to spend that time learning from college guidance counselor talks that were given. It was also a melancholy time of reflecting on the years gone by and a sad, but inexpensive time of shopping the vendor hall. It was sad to look at all the new curriculum's out there, yet have no need to buy anything. Of course I bought myself some goodies...lol.
We are embarking on some exciting uncharted territory for us with some interesting twists and turns along the way. But as the Homeschooled Young Man always tells me "God's got this." or "The Lord always takes care of us, don't worry." Got to love that little guy (well a big guy now!), who is now taller than me. And it's become obvious...lol.
Just turned 16 years old and graduating high school...WOW!
Graduation Day was a wonderful experience. One of our graduation requirements was that a speech had to be presented, no perimeters given, just a speech. I was totally not expecting what our son said during the speech, he left me speechless which is pretty hard to do! The Homeschooled Young Man spoke of many things, including the sacrifice that his Mom and Dad made to live on one income, to sacrifice the years of earning potential that I had, he mentioned some of the shenanigans that he pulled as a homeschooled student and recounted some of this favorite times. All the while his Momma shook and quaked with tears streaming. His first grade teacher was in the audience (now a homeschool Mom of 3 boys) had lost it right about the time that I did, she understood exactly what our son was saying from his heart.
The true blessing was that the Homeschooled Young Man spoke all of this from the heart, with no notes (which drives Homeschool Momma crazy because you must write notes for a speech in a rough draft form and then write the final draft notes on lined index cards!!!). There were not many dry eyes in the room, most of whom knew us from the very beginning before he was even born. They had wondered how this whole homeschooling thing worked and now they were enjoying the fruit of our efforts and the wisdom that the Lord had imparted upon us early on to homeschool.
Wow, what an exciting day, Homeschooled Young Man's birthfamily was with us for the day to celebrate (along with some of their friends), sadly without his birthmother who was killed by a drunk driver over Thanksgiving break in 2006 as she was driving home from grad school. But her memory is still with us and alive. For without her, we would not be parents. God is good, all the time, in the good and in the bad, God is good all the time.
Of course we have to have a graduation cake with our homeschool theme verse Matthew 4:19 "And He Saith unto them...follow me and I will make your fishers of men. And the favorite school subject...Chemistry!
Enjoy these new times and find the blessings while grabbing those last few fleeting hugs along the way.
I came across this really cool website while the homeschooled young man was listing to a podcast on the Leah4Sci.com blog, she had this cool post about flashcards.
I'm always looking for something fun and interesting to do in our homeschool. I tended to think of flashcards as a way to learn math facts (addition, multiplication) and not as just another way to study. Well Leah has opened up my eyes to a whole new world!
Head on over to her blog and see what she has to offer.
So the homeschooled young man would
like to start a blog about Lego, teens, homeschooling, civil war re-enacting, college, medical school
and general chit chat. This would be a nice clean place for kids to hang out and
shoot the breeze over things that matter in life.
His blog needs a name? Got any ideas? We came up
with Homeschool2MedSchool, but it seems kind of long. He wants to somehow incorporate homeschooling and medical school in the title. You could be the one that
has the most awesome blog name idea for us! So come on and offer up your help.
Let us see what we come up with.
Remember my Facebook Fast post? Well I made it to about last weekend. I did sneak on a few times for about 5 min or less, I had to PM a few people that I don't have RL (real life) info for.
I actually found it pretty hard to not use FB, because it's really become a part of our lifestyles. I needed to reach someone, I needed info about our homeschool group, I needed to check on some FB freebies from a homeschooling site.
Now what I did get away from was the mindless hitting of the page down button to see what all my 'friends' were doing. That seems to be a real time eater.
Today I popped on to find that a college buddy of mine was down about something. So I put a smile face on his post and picked up the phone and put feet to my Christianity and spent some real phone time with him.
My friend that did the FB fast with me ran into a trouble spot too. Her father became ill and she needed to let several family members know and ask friends to pray, but no time to call everyone. What is the quickest way to get the word out (advertisers know it!) FACEBOOK!
One thing that has made FB faster for me is that I get email updates and if it's something that I need to see, I click on it, if not I delete it. This way I am not trying to page down through all the game requests, video's, and junk that I don't need/want to see.
Then I look at the media foot print that our kids are suppose to have for college interviews and workplace tech. How on earth do we do that and monitor all of it?
Facebook is starting to become like cell phones, how did we EVER live without it?
We received the StudentKeys Student Binder Package from PeopleKeys which included a 3 ring binder to keep everything together and the following assessment workbooks geared towards ages 13-adult and or students in high school through college.
Values Style Workbook-Helps the student identify Values Styles such as "loyalty, equality, personal freedom and justice."
Career Choice Workbook-This workbook helps to match students with career fields that match their styles.
Goal Setting Workbook- Helps students set goals regarding "education, career and personal development."
All this for just $49.00 complete. Below is a YouTube video for you to get more information.
I was a little concerned at the start of this review, because I thought this might be a bit above the thinking skills for my 13 year old son. But he jumped right in and started filling in the ovals with his personality traits in his DISC Personality Style Workbook. Sometimes stopping to look up a word in the dictionary such as pioneering, we knew what the word meant, but not how it related to personality style. He has some lofty career goals and the StudentKeys Student Binder Package was an AWESOME tool for him.
We worked on this together, he would fill in the ovals and then ask me what I thought of his answer. Most often we answered the same, so I feel that this StudentKeys Student Binder Package is pretty accurate in gauging where the student is in different areas of life. We had fun coming up with stories of how/why he does the things that he does, some of which drive this Homeschool Momma BANANAS!! So if your children have a tendency to drive you a bit batty on certain things, I highly suggest ordering the StudentKeys Student Binder Package, it showed me how some of my son's quirkiness could work for him on the job and in relationships.
1. Easy to use!
2. Fun!
3. Learned some interesting things about myself (I went through the booklets orally and learned a lot about myself that way)
4. Extra learning, by having to look up words in the dictionary to get their full meaning, we knew all the words, but were not sure exactly how to define them in terms that the workbook was looking for.
5. Not boring at all!
6. Learned some life skills.
7. Learned some new vocabulary.
8. Very nice customer service, I had a question and they were very helpful.
9. My favorite workbook of all was the Goal Setting Workbook, as I don't think many young people today have any idea how to set goals for themselves.
1. I would have liked to have a bit more instructions. Starting on page 8 of the DISC Personality Style Workbook there were really no instructions besides to place a check mark if you agree that characteristic describes your personality, then really nothing more to go by. I was at a loss at to what to do after that in that book.
2. You all know I like color and flare! These books are all black and white, but work well. Just a personal dislike of mine :O)
3. The assessments are timed and I know some people don't much care for that, but they were pretty simple to get done in the allotted time. Though as I said, we had to look up a few words in the dictionary to find out the meaning that went along with the assessment we were working on.
1) I liked how it was so true.
2) I learned a lot about myself.
3) It was easy to do.
4) It was a lot of fun to learn more about myself.
5) My favorite workbook was the Perceptual Learning Style Workbook, because it helped explain to my mom the way I learn.
6) I learned some better study habits that fit my learning style, like listening and repeating information to myself.
7) My Mom figured out why I like to touch and handle things while I am learning.
1) There could have been more instructions.
2) I had to look up several words in the dictionary such as systematic, analytical, methodical and experiential thinker.
3) Taking the assessments was fun but made my brain tired. So I would have your student take these assessments when they are fresh and well rested.
4) In the Learning Style Workbook on page 16, there is a grammar mistake in the last paragraph (the question reads) "Was it a quiet or did you have music?" I'm a stickler for grammar errors!
This review was a real life changer for us, I was surprised by a few things and not surprised by some. Using the StudentKeys Student Binder Package helped us both learn some new ideas for the school year. Please click the bottom box below to see what other great products the TOS Review Crew got to try out from PeopleKeys.
Khan Academy has some new updates and a new dashboard! Sign up today and check them out. Khan Academy has TONS of subject areas, videos, worktext problems, solutions and much more! I do know that the science is NOT Bible based, but there is still some decent info that can be gleaned from Khan Academy.
Sal is an AWESOME teacher and I just love how he goes about teaching, he is also very funny. I have to laugh he sounds exactly like a guy that I use to DJ with back in the 80's. One of those weird kinda things that when you close your eyes you can picture that person....lol. I do that every time I hear Sal's voice.
Our Homeschool young man enjoyed watching the medical video's that are on Khan Academy. Lots of pretty cool stuff on there. I remember back in the first years of Khan Academy, there were just lists of videos to watch. With the NEW and improved Khan Academy there are parent/student accounts, a dashboard, a reminder system, points system and suggestions of materials to look at and learn.
Thinking of homeschooling your only child? Or many you have more than 1 and you worry about socialization, read on.... When we first started home educating 6 years ago (has it REALLY been that long?) I worried and worried about socialization. Now as my dear homeschooling friend Christine says "My kids don't know a stranger!" I would totally agree. Even with our son being an only child, he is chatty, bubbly and full of all sorts of chatter. He is able to converse with toddlers, little kids, elementary & junior high kids, high school & college students, grown adults, the elderly and so many more types of people. His pediatrician and him discuss gardening and their love of sauteed zucchini, garlic and olive oil...lol. Yes, my son and his doctor sit around and discuss the finer things in life during his well checkups. He gets lot of comments on his phone etiquette and how he handles himself in various social situations. I think that comes from him being in many different situations throughout the day.
He does struggle to understand how other kids around him that are in the "school" setting are embarrassed to answer questions, say "I don't know" & "I dunno" all the time, are embarrassed to get up and speak or afraid to speak up about things. So he does see a difference in himself and other kids, but is this really a bad thing? Our son has been interviewed on radio & TV, he has written newspaper articles as well as being interviewed by newspapers. He has given many different types of speeches to a variety of audience ages, he has done piano recitals and played piano at church. Yes he has flopped at times, but has used those as learning experiences. He figures that he is young and learning. What a blessing to not be bummed out, but to think on "How can I do this better next time, what would I change or how can I use this experience to further my learning?" HipHomeSchoolMoms has a pretty HIP article on socialization and the only child. Check it out before the new school year starts.
