Hear ye, Hear ye: 20 Questions & The Homeschool Planning Meeting.

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.

Home School In The Woods Lap-Pak Review

Please note that prices and offers may change after this blog post has been published.
We are SUPER CHARGED with excitement to share with you The 20th Century in America Lap-Pak for grades 3rd-8th from Home School In The Woods.

Hard at work? Or hardly working because this is so much FUN?

 We received a download version to review for The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew. Home School In The Woods also offers a CD versions too. You can find it here at 20th Century in America Lap-Pak.
　

Completed Home School In The Woods Lap-Pak for ages 3rd-8th grade is seen above and below is a list of what is included.

The 20th Century in America Lap-Pak comes with the following areas of study:

Newspapers & TV Media
Sports
Persons of importance
Conflicts around the world
Politics
Medical
Space travel
Art history
Architecture
Writers & books
Musical movements
Transportation
Historical events
Missionaries
Disasters
The Stock Market Crash
Science and Inventions
Food Trends of the 20^th Century
Clothing styles
Jargon of the 20^th Century
Timeline
WarsThe 20th Century in America Lap-Pak also comes with a booklet to make that contains more information about the history of the 20^th Century.





What this homeschool Momma did not like:

I failed to read the TEXT ASSIGNMENTS & PROJECT DIRECTIONS SHEET. I just jumped in and started printing everything off. Big goof! Some pages needed to be printed on colored paper and some needed to be printed back to back. My goof, but I think for us rushed home schooled Momma’s it would be great if on the main page we were told to read the TEXT ASSIGNMENTS & PROJECT DIRECTIONS SHEET. LOL...chalk this up to operator error and nothing against Home School In The Woods. I'm must showing that I am a real life person and do goof up!

I think this would be hard for younger kids to follow all the detailed instructions by themselves, so younger kids would need a lot of supervision with this, BUT I think it would be a great learning experience and lots of fun to work on together.

What this homeschool Momma liked:

I found that this Lap-Pak contained projects that work on the following skill sets including art, drawing and creative writing. This Lap-Pak allows the student to delve into fun topics all the while learning historical facts. Use of research skills and math skills (using measurements to make sure that the pieces went together correctly) were also used.

Our student got totally lost in this Lap-Pak, he would spent hours working on it. He was coloring, cutting, gluing, taping and putting brads on. I was so impressed by the work that he was doing. Following each direction to a T.

This was so cool! We used overhead projector transparencies to make windows for these.

 Our 12 year old 7^th grade student was able to work totally on his own with this.

Our student was thrilled with this Lap-Pak and wants to tackle The Civil War one next.

Our student did have some difficulty figuring out the photocopying of the back to back/back to front of pages, but I am putting that down under the “What I liked” section, because he learned how to use the copier and flip the pages over to photocopy on the backside. So I was very pleased that he learned some real life skills through this review. How many of us homeschool moms struggle with “which side do I put up in the paper tray, when we are making photo copies. (waving hand in the air)

This record player is the neatest thing! It spins and has different saying that show up.

What this homeschool student liked:"It was really a fun project.” “I liked the section on “Dining Through The Decades“, the recipes were fun and I liked learning about the different foods such as the Dagwood Sandwich.

Instructions were very detailed and easy to follow. I was able to complete the Lap-Pak during the review. Everything was explained step-by-step.

I really liked how the project shapes for each area corresponded with each area I was studying. For example, the “Medical Advances” used a syringe that you cut out and put together. You then pull the plunger up and a new medical advancement shows up in the window.

Fun way to learn history.

“I liked the fact that there was more to do than in an ordinary lap-book. I think that this Lap-Pak was made for older kids and was a lot of fun to do.

I want to review the Civil War Lap Pak next!

I plan to use this with my 4-H project this year too.

LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT!

What this homeschool student did not likeI wish that there was an easier way to figure out how to photo copy the pages from front to back, I goofed several times and ran out of colored paper. I started to get frustrated and then finally figured it out. YEAH!



The Home School In The Woods Lap-Paks are fun and a great learning tool for your homeschool. There are several to choose from and lots of fun learning to be had by all ages. We are thankful to Home School In The Woods for allowing us this great learning opportunity to review The 20th Century in America Lap-Pak.

Schoolhouse Teachers Homeschool

http://schoolhouseteachers.com/dap/a/?a=1054&p=https://schoolhouseteachers.com/member-resources/all-courses/ (The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, owner). Yet another useful home education tool provided by http://thehomeschoolmagazine.com/.  SchoolhouseTeachers.com is set up by graded sections, pre/K & elementary, middle school and high school with drop down menus for all. You will find everything for homeschooling with topics such as logic, math, science, history, fine arts, Bible and many more electives as well as helps for the homeschool mom.

http://schoolhouseteachers.com/dap/a/?a=1054&p=https://schoolhouseteachers.com/member-resources/all-courses/ is a must for all homeschoolers, whether you are a boxed curriculum homeschooler, eclectic or unschooler this site has something for your student with 400+ classses. Our homeschool has tended towards the boxed curriculum (we have started branching out in recent years though) but it was always missing something. I’ve found what was missing and it was SchoolhouseTeachers.com, there are all sort of goodies to find on this site. 

It just so happens that my son was given an acoustic guitar as a gift and he has been getting library books on how to play the guitar, but they have been either way over his head or contained music that does not fit our family values. As we are reviewing the Old Schoolhouse magazines website SchoolhouseTeachers.com we came across the guitar lessons.

Mom & Dad have no trouble with reminding our son to practice his guitar because SchoolhouseTeachers.com is so much fun to use!

Our son has only been using the guitar lessons from Schoolhouseteachers.com for about a week and a half and by no means is he jammin’ out on the guitar, but he is making music and not just noise anymore. LOL! 

The videos are AWESOME! It's great to go back and watch them again to get the finger movements down pat.

A great feature of SchoolhouseTeachers.com site has unit for parents, it has a monthly menu feature.

Another area that I liked was the logic section. We have always struggled with teaching logic in our homeschool, so I was thrilled to see Logic on the drop down menu under middle school. I like how the lessons are set up so that my son can just go right in and get started. It has helped foster independence on his part. I know that we have a few years to go before college, but when I look at the SchoolhouseTeachers.com website, I’m thinking about how using this site will help our son out in the long run. Online college classes are the future for many of our children and what better way for them to be prepared than by teaching them in pre/k & elementary, middle school and high school with methods that they will continue to use down the road.

We plan to continue searching through all the goodies over the next year that SchoolhouseTeachers.com offers. Post and let me know what you think of the site and how it's enhanced your homeschool.
Have a great day!

FREE Gift for Mother's Day! 5/11/14 only

In The Hands Of A Child lapbooks & notebooks project pack Famous Mommies and/or project pack Amazing Women in American History-a glimpse at the lives of Amazing American Woman.

Check it out from In The Hands Of A Child.

Happy Mother's Day!!
Moe

Back to school funny & our homeschool tradition

So glad that we homeschool and don't have to spend much on supplies. We just use the same stuff from last year. No one breaks our Crayons or steals our pencils in homeschool...lol
We have a tradition of buy something fun and new for the school year though. For me I usually pick out a cute pack of sticky notes (you know I have a passion for STICKY NOTES!) I blogged about my overstock of sticky notes. This year I got some Post-It Notes with a cute Pug dog on the front.
The teenager decided on a folder/notebook with a Pug on the front.

You would think that we have a thing for Pugs at our house  :O)

Moe

Memoria Press Review

As reviewers for The Old Schoolhouse Magazines Review Crew we were fortunate to receive the Geogoraphy I set set from Memoria Press. My son was very excited when the box arrived, geography is his thing! Here is what we got in our box.
Geography I: Middle East, North Africa, and Europe $14.95
Geography I: Middle East, North Africa, and Europe Student Workbook $11.95
Geography I: Middle East, North Africa, and Europe Teacher Guide $12.95
United States Student Workbook $5.00
United States Teacher Key, Quizzes, and Tests $7.95
You can purchase these as a set for just $48.00.
Here are some sample pages from the Geography I lesson materials that are geared towards 4th-8th grade students.

What this homeschool Momma liked about the Memoria Press Geography I.

1. I like the full size maps to write on for easy labeling of counties, states, capitals, and other areas.
2. Nice thick workbook pages, these are great for boys that have to erase a lot...lol...keeps paper from tearing.
3. Nice sturdy book covers that don't seem to rip easily.
4. Nice large spaces to write information in, boys don't much like to try to write answers on short lines.
5. Material was VERY easy to move through.
6.The teacher answer key was VERY easy to read, no small print and the maps were easy to read too. With homeschool Momma eyes (you tend to get these after your first few years in home education...lol) I like to be able to see just exactly where that dot is on the map for Brussels while making sure that my student is not pointing towards Antwerp or the Scheide River...lol.
7. Love how the student pages remind the student to practice good spelling habits. Sometimes it's hard to get it across to our children that spelling is one of those subjects that needs to be worked on across the entire curriculum and not just in "spelling class."
8. I like how the United States & Capitals Review teaches the states by regions, it makes a lot of sense to teach them this way. I have seen other curriculum teach states in alphabetical order.

What this homeschool Momma did not like about the Memoria Press Geography I.

1. I did not see a daily guide and I like things totally laid out for me, but it does say in the teacher information section that you will do 2-3 countries each week as you study each section for 8 weeks at a time.
2. I also did not see a grading scale for quizzes or tests. I like to know what each is worth for giving grades.
3. The books do not have colored pages in them, I like my textbooks/workbooks to have color and flair. If I had just picked up the Geography I set at a curriculum fair or convention table and just flipped through it, I probably would have put it back since I did not see color in the book. I will note that on the Memoria Press Geography I set webpage there are links to click on that show the color pictures that are in the student textbook. I don't think I would want to rabbit trail over to the computer to find color pictures each day.

What this homeschool student liked about the Memoria Press Geography I.

1. I like how it gave the meanings of the flags for each country.
2. I really like the Fast Facts, history and geography are my two favorite subjects.
3. I liked how you got to color in the flags with the outline instead of drawing them. I don't much care to draw unless it's Star Wars or something ;-)
4. I liked how the states and capitals were a review to go along with the geography.
5. I liked how it reminds me to watch for spelling, it's easy to forget this when you are not in "spelling class."
6. I liked how the activities built on each other such as match the states and capitals, then identifying them.

What this homeschool student did not like about the Memoria Press Geography I.

1. Wished that I did not have to go to the website to see the pictures in color.

This was a fun review to do since it was my students favorite subject. Memoria Press also offers subject matter in the following areas they are not just about geography. They also offer Latin, Classical Studies, Christian Studies, Logic & Rhetoric, Phonics & Early Reading, Penmanship, Literature & Poetry, American & Modern Studies, Writing & English Grammar, Science, Greek, Modern Languages, Educational Resources, eBooks, and Special-Needs links on their website.



Changes for next school year?

We finished school back in April, so we are looking forward to next year. What things worked for you this year and what things would you change for next year?

We school year round and really enjoy it. We get nice breaks in October, December, February, April and May. We do the easy subjects in the summer like history and science, when we can lay under the shade trees and read. And get messy outside with science experiments!

We are working on Latin and think we might try a different program, we are using Prima Latina. Also looking at some items from the Critical Thinking Company, but not sure how to add those things in just yet. Still in the planning stages. For Bible we have switched from BJU to RBP (Regular Baptist Press)and are using the adult Sunday School materials, have been very impressed with the quality of their materials. We are also working through the book of Proverbs with several different materials (all seem to compliment each other) from www.thelearningparent.com/products.asp?pagecontrol=1&cat=29&product=21 , http://generationswithvision.com/Store/2011/06/proverbs-collection-12/ and Picture Proverbs Deluxe DVD Set from SolveFamilyProblems.com. The Picture Proverbs is a bit expensive, we got a discount on it since we saw S.M. Davis speak at a conference, but it's well worth the $$ spent and I would pay full price for it. There is nothing like hearing father/son say lets go watch a DVD and they are watching Picture Proverbs for an hour! As a family we have gotten so much out of these 3 resources.

We went through the Focus On The Family series called The Truth Project and got so much out of that, we may attend it again if it's offered, there was so much to glean from in that. Our son was only 11 when we went through the series and he was interacting with the adults during discussion time, so please don't think that our kids don't have a clue about what it going on. Treat your children knowing that they will rise to the occasion, instead of dumbing them down with little Bible stories, many kids no longer need the milk and honey, they are ready for solid Biblical food.

Do you have any curriculum items that you are interested in sharing about?

Moe

Teaching History in the Homeschool 10% off

We are in the process of enjoying the book For You They Signed by Marilyn Boyer from TheLearningParent.com.
Today we learned about Josiah Bartlett, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence that had a poem written about him called "One Of The Signers" by John Greenleaf Whittier. Click on the poem name to read it. You might also want to check out http://www.foryoutheysigned.com/ for more details on the book and save 10% when you order, use discount code DHTEN.

Our son says today "I love homeschooling, it's so fun to do school anywhere and any place." and as for the lesson we did today he says "It was cool!"

Enjoy the time you have with your students, let them learn to love learning.

Moe