Homeschool Convention Time

If you find yourself asking "Is it Friday yet?" in your  homeschool, it may be time for a homeschool convention! Every state has a homeschool conference or sometimes called a convention. It is a time to go and refresh, learn new techniques, meet others just like you, meet others that are different than you are and to see what is new in the curriculum world. 

Homeschool conventions are AWESOME, we have been attending since 2008 and we love them. So much fun for Mom, Dad and the kids too. There are topics for all ages, the Homeschooled Young Man enjoyed attending sessions that were taught by his textbook authors. He got to meet the authors, talk shop with them and sometimes even get in on some freebies or new ideas that the authors are kicking around. 

Kids will get interested in their school work when they help pick it out. We started using IEW all because the Homeschooled Young Man sat through Andrew Pudewa's sessions. 

I learned about different teaching ideas, learning styles and methods. I learned how to use my specific name brand curriculum better, during vendor question/answer sessions. I got to touch and feel, look through and read the different textbooks to see if they were a good fit for my learner. I got discount codes for materials. I drooled over the Rainbow Resources booths, I got tons of cool stuff from that place. 

Homeschool conferences are also a great place to invite those interested in learning more about homeschooling, they offer sessions about homeschooling laws, getting started etc. 

The sessions range from any number of the following...

New homeschoolers

Homeschooling laws

Special needs homeschoolers

Keeping toddlers busy while homeschooling

Getting household chores done

High school

Transcipts

College

Non-college bound homeschoolers

Marriage

Meal Planning

Large families

Only children

Car schooling

RV Schooling

Finances

and more!

Start looking now for a homeschool conference near you, they are so worth it!

Moe

FREE Lego Printables

Come check out the free Lego printables over to Tracy's blog Hall of Fame Moms. She has a lot of fun things for Mom's and kids alike!

Take a snow day and drag out those Lego's to get rid of the winter time blah's!!!

READY OR NOT, HERE IT COMES!

THE TEEN YEARS ARE ALMOST HERE!

~11 more days until my baby boy turns 13~

 

~I am not exactly sure how this has transpired, but alas it has.~

 

~He is starting Freshman year, lol,
he wants to call it 9th grade.
Think back to your growing up years,
you wanted to be a FRESHMAN!! Right?I mean you had waited all those years
to get to high school and now
you had that COOL title.~

 ~Got to love our homeschooled kids, they don't
need a title, they don't care to keep up with the
Jones' (no offense to my readers or my family
member with the last name of Jones).~

~So what is it in your homeschool?9th grade or Freshman?~

~I plan to post some articles talking about homeschooling teens and high schoolers
 in the coming days.~
 

 

Who is eagerly awaiting the teen years, slightly fearful, a bit unsure, excited, thrilled and a lot of other things...lol. Earnestly praying for my future daughter-in-law, where ever she may be, as well as praying for her parents. I pray that they are raising her in "the fear and admonition of the Lord".

Christmas & Only Children part 3

In the coming days before Christmas you will see some posts on things that our family does to help in raising our only child to be a caring individual and ward off the evil selfish behavior that is so prevalent in our world today. This would fall under Character Training and is taught on a daily basis in our homeschool.

What are the hardest things to teach an only child?
*How not to be selfish
*How to be giving
*How to be thoughtful

What can you do to teach the above things?
*Teach them to think of others first
*Give them opportunities to serve others
*Teach them about taking care of others

How does our family teach these things?
*Make placemats for Meals On Wheels done
*Play the piano & sing Christmas carols at a nursing home
*Buy Christmas gifts for needy children done

Our son went shopping on Black Friday to pick out the following gifts for a needy boy and girl in our community.



He thought the Lego watch would be a big hit for a wide age range of boys.

He was thrilled to find this on sale (yes my son is frugal!) and he said "Every little girl needs a doll & stroller to play with."

We delivered these to the Mission in town and they will distribute the gifts before Christmas.

 

How can your only child (those with more than one are welcome to chime in too  :O)  bless others this Christmas season?

 

Moe

Christmas & Only Children part 2

In the coming days before Christmas you will see some posts on things that our family does to help in raising our only child to be a caring individual and ward off the evil selfish behavior that is so prevalent in our world today. This would fall under Character Training and is taught on a daily basis in our homeschool.

What are the hardest things to teach an only child?
*How not to be selfish
*How to be giving
*How to be thoughtful

What can you do to teach the above things?
*Teach them to think of others first
*Give them opportunities to serve others
*Teach them about taking care of others

How does our family teach these things?
*Make placemats for Meals On Wheels
*Play the piano & sing Christmas carols at a nursing home
*Buy Christmas gifts for needy children

Here are some pictures of the placemats that we made.

 

They are simple to make, we just used construction paper, markers and scrapbooking stickers. We decorated them up and we will delivery them to the local Meal On Wheels to put out as tray favors.

We have also done this at other times of the year and they are very receptive to it. You could also use  old Christmas cards by cutting out the pictures and gluing them on, scrapbook paper scraps, use punches, Cricut machine, die cuts, rubber stamps or have the kids draw a picture on them.

 

Check back in the coming days for more festive ideas for you and your only child :O)

Moe

Christmas & Only Children part 1

In the coming days before Christmas you will see some posts on things that our family does to help in raising our only child to be a caring individual and ward off the evil selfish behavior that is so prevalent in our world today. This would fall under Character Training and is taught on a daily basis in our homeschool.

I came across this article from Family Life Today's blog 20 Ideas For Serving Others as a Family This Christmas.

Let us know how your family serves others.

Moe

Thanksgiving FREEBIE!!

Click here for a Thanksgiving freebie from TheLearningParent.com thanksgiving in our home. You will find a great article and a downloadable story for your family to enjoy. You can also sign up for their blog while you are over there. The Boyer family is such an encouragement to our family, even though we have an only child, we have learned so much from them.

Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, I'm searching through my recipes to find some yummy gluten free, dairy free and corn free recipes for our holiday dinner. I'll share some this week with you.
Moe

LEGOS, LEGOS, LEGOS!!!

Can any child have TOO many Legos? Well with having an only child, I'm thinking that we have too many here! lol.
This week was the 'cleaning of the Legos' here. They were all dusty and really needed cleaned up. Our son likes to keep his Lego creations out on display, well guess what? Dust loves Legos and we have dust mite allergies around here.

So into the bathtub went the Legos.

 Now they are all drying, this is just one small batch......LOL.

Through all this we learned about buoyancy and how things float or sink. We learned just how much dust can accumulate and how dust ends up acting like mud in water.

There are some great learning opportunities for our only children that we homeschool, in regards to Lego products. There are Lego 4-H groups, Lego Robotics 4-H groups, Lego Library Clubs,  and so much more!  There are also some cute builds to make over at Lego.com. Join the mailing list and they will send you a monthly item to build: make sure you print out the instructions when you get them, since the build will become locked after that month and you can't print it out after that. And of course there is the field trip of a life time LegoLand!!!  We have been to one of the LegoLands and had a lot of fun.

How have you incorporated Legos in to your homeschooling? One thing that we have done is purchase one of the Lego Sticker books such as Lego Minifigure Ultimate Sticker Collection.

We then take a notebook and our son puts stickers on the notebook paper and then writes a Lego story about the Mini-figures. It's been a lot of fun for us. And it helps with spelling, handwriting, creative writing and grammar  :O)       All in an easy fun format, it does not even feel like school. Yes, hahaha, it's that sneaky homeschool learning that our kids get in and don't even know it. Sometimes I will just have him grab the notebook and put a few stickers in and take off in the car on a busy day. I don't grade for penmanship on the days he is writing in the car though, as it's hard to write neatly in a moving car. Sometimes the stories conclude that day and other times the stories continue on. Why not write out a Lego lesson plan today! Surprise your child with some Lego fun.

  

Now for the million dollar question, how do yo organize all your child's Legos? We have been just dumping them into Rough Tote containers. But we are looking for something new and different. Our son wants those Lego drawers, but I refuse to pay $40 for them!

I can't wait to hear from you and get some organizing ideas.

Have a great week!

Moe