Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Finally, time to sit down

Oh my goodness Christmas time is SO super busy. I have been wanting to share some of our fun activities we have been doing with our "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" Theme. It has been the perfect theme for this time of year.

First we read the book and discussed the different domino affects and IF they would have given the mouse all of those things.
Second the kids set up dominoes, knocked down dominoes, set up dominoes, knocked down dominoes.....
Third they each picked a cookie recipe and got to work baking. YUMMY!!
Fourth we pulled out our "If You Give A Pig A Pancake" and "If You Give A Moose A Muffin" books and read them. Once again we discussed the domino affects and the kids each took turns telling which book was their favorite and why.
Lastly the kids are working on their own If You Give a ______________ a _____________ stories. I am hoping to find time to have them share their stories on our blog. They are so creative and their illustrations are fabulous (of course I am the mom).

A Christmas Story...
Each year Grandma and Grandpa ask for a service project for their Christmas gift. This year we decided to take the yummy cookies the kids baked along with a Book of Mormon with their testimonies and deliver them to friends. I love that nothing holds the kids back from sharing the gospel. It comes so easily for them and they are so excited to do it. My husband and I also shared our testimonies and we were a bit nervous, another testimony of the importance of being like little children.


Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Big News...

I can't believe how nervous I am about this. Today I withdrew my oldest son from school, YIKES. I have enrolled him in AZVA public school. It is a very exciting thing for both of us. I have struggled for so long to get him the gifted learning he needs that I knew it is was time for a change. My husband and I both agree that because he learns differently then other children he should be taught differently. This has been a struggle for us as parents from very early on and is now affecting our relationship with our son. As well as affecting his confidence and self esteem.
It will be another new adventure to post about. I love adventures it 's just that first step into the unknown that is a bit frightening. I will keep you posted with our progress.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Math

I want to start with math and explain what I have chosen to do for math and why. First off this was one of the hardest areas for me to find peace with. This is an area that both of my boys excel in and I knew they weren't being challenged at school. I went through many forum discussions on the topic and looked into two of the most frequently used math programs for Homeschoolers; Singapore and Saxon. Both definitely worth looking into.

I decided on Saxon math and printed the placement tests for my boys and prepared to purchase the materials at the grade level they tested into. However I started to wonder about adding to or teaching different concepts on top of the math load they already received at school. I decided to check out the Kumon learning center close to our home to see what they offered for math. I was so impressed that if I had the money I would have enrolled all of my children in math and reading that very day. Unfortunately I did not have the means to do so. Instead I took with me the knowledge and realization of the importance of mastering their math basics.

I gave this a lot of thought and realized that at school they cruise through things so quickly that they lose the basics. This helped guide me in the direction that I wanted to go with math for Afterschooling in our home.

Math
Each day when they finish their homework they work on mastering their basic math skills. For instance; Matthew my fourth grader has been working on mastering his multiplication and division in the form of Internet games, worksheets, flash cards and a multiplication music CD. It is also not uncommon for me to give him some addition and subtraction worksheets or flashcards, moan. Spencer my second grader is working on mastering double digit addition and subtraction. Of course at some point they master the skill and move on to the next. I was lucky enough to attend the Kumon parent meeting and receive an outline of math masteries so I use that as a guide as well as my must have grade level Core Knowledge books.

Some days they have a little amount of homework giving them a good amount of time for math and other days they end up with no time for math. Homework comes first.

Honestly trying to find a math program to challenge my boys was becoming a life journey for me. I was so focused on two things; finding the perfect math curriculum and getting them working at the level they should be and not the pace of the school. Because of this Afterschooling was becoming frustrating and didn't feel beneficial to the kids. Once I decided that mastering the basics was the direction I wanted to go everything fell into place. And guess what, it is free and less time consuming for me. Leaving me time to plan for more of the FUN stuff.

Oh yeah, did I tell you we played with dominoes today? It is all part of our "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" unit study we are working on. Chain reactions, the kids had a blast! Winter break is coming soon and this unit study combined with an upcoming service project is sure to make it a fun break for the kiddos.

Any who, whatever you decide to do with math just remember what I almost forgot, Afterschooling should be fun, enhancing and not stressful for anyone. Good luck and I would love to hear about what you have found for math.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Last of the Continents

Matthew studied South America. He started getting story of choice for homework each week instead of the easy mundane spelling that he had been doing. I think you call it busy work. So we have been combining Afterschooling with his homework and it has been very successful. He wrote a story about his trip to South America and included, foods he enjoyed, politics he learned about and the animals he encountered. He has an amazing way with words and the story was very entertaining.

South America

Wow do they ever use a lot of fattening ingredients. Matthew found a recipe that we like to call "churros on steroids". Oh yummy, yummy, yum!



Always a grand finale!

Now we are going to begin a fun Cookies unit study that I found here: home school helper. A great way to bring in the Christmas Season.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

It's actually happening

Don't be to surprised now. I finally got the ball rolling on my blog and I hope you like it. There are many more things I want to add. And of course I want your input, if you know of forums, learning game sites, awesome curriculum sites or anything else helpful I could add please share. Just leave me a comment with details and your email address if you want a great big thank you.

I really want to turn my blog into a one stop Afterschooling info land. I learned about Afterschooling on accident and I have researched, web surfed, trialed and errored into what I hope is a successful program for our family. So my mission is to make this process easier and help bring the fun and learning of Afterschooling into as many homes as I can.

So spread the word and I promise to keep posting and to keep the ideas coming to make my blog as helpful as possible.

As always thanks for checking us out!