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Showing posts from February, 2016

The Language Arts in Our Homeschool and Everything Relating to it

It is time for the annual Virtual Curriculum Fair. It is two month later than usual, but it is here. I hope you will enjoy the posts this year and glean some helpful tips and help as you read about what we all are using. Our hosts this year are Day by Day in our World , Sunrise to Sunset and Every bed of Roses. This week, as usual, we are exploring the world of Words. Language Arts is a very important and foundational element of any education. Without words one cannot express himself. Moreover, one does not only need words he also needs to know how to use them well, in a manner that he can be understood and make a point. Language Arts has always been a big part of our homeschool routine. Now that the boys are in grade 7 and 5, though it is still a big part of it, I have changed the focus for it. After having a light grammar year last year, I have finally started Zach on Analytical Grammar as a review and enforcement of what he has learned so far. I am planning

HelpTeaching.com - TOS Review

Here we are, first review of the year. I am really happy to share this great product with you, as a first for this year:  HelpTeaching.com . HelpTeaching.com is a website that offers you an array of printable and online activities that you can use in your homeschool or even as after-school activities. We received the  Pro Plan  which gave us access to everything on the website. What do you get with HelpTeaching.com? Online lessons Online games Printable and online tests and worksheets The site contains material for kindergarten to grade 12 students. Most of the material though is for Middle and High school students. Let me walk you through each components. The lessons The site offers you a large selections of videos and written lessons in Science, Math and Language Arts. The videos are either straight from HelpTeaching.com itself, or from an outside website such as Khan Academy or others. The games On HelpTeaching.com, you can also print lo

A Homeschool Day in the Life - What Classical Homeschooling Looks Like in our Home

We have been homeschooling for about 6 years. From the start, our goal has been to give our kids a solid education. We wanted to raise kids that knew how to think, and had a solid base of knowledge of the world around them that would allow them to be equipped to judge philosophies out there. Our search led us to Classical Education and since then have been following that path. That said, Classical Education can look different from one homeschool home to another. Today I will walk you through our classical homeschooling typical day. I like to classify our way of schooling as 'relaxed homeschooling' and you will see why. Morning: We all wake up anytime between 7-8:30 sometimes 9 or 9:30 for the boys (especially since puberty hit), each day varies. We almost always eat breakfast as a family, which ends anytime between 9:30-10:30 depending on the day. That time is concluded with our aloud Bible reading time. After breakfast the boys tend to go and do their own leisu

Middle School Junction - Our Schedule

Last week I started joining in Lisa's weekly Junior High/Middle School Junction blog hop . I told you then about what we are using for my oldest 7th grade year. This week I will share with you how we work these curriculum in our daily/weekly schedule. During the Middle School year, my goal is to build up and strengthen my son's independence and responsibility. From grade 5 and 6 I started to make him be independent with his work. Very few subjects are taught by me. I try to pick challenging curriculum that he can do on his own. I also started to make him responsible on how he schedules his time. We are still in the process of teaching it to him. My son is very easily distracted and has always been. His mind/brain is filled with all sort of things and projects. He is my creative one. His nickname is "space cadet".  So it has been a challenge and long road to teach him to own his time and learning. He loves learning, but has a hard time staying on task for long perio

Middle School Junction - Our Curriculum Choices

So my oldest has been in middle school for over a year now. I have been meaning to write more about the middle school years, and time seems to always evades me. Another reason for my not writing so much about the Middle School years is that, my son is very independent so it feels like I would not have much to share. That said, it would seems that there is not that much out there written about the Middle School years, so I will endeavor to join  Megan over at My Full Heart to bring you a weekly post on our Middle School Homeschool journey. To start things off this week let me share with you what we are using  for his 7th grade year. Last summer I wrote a plan of what I was hoping to use this year , so you can refer to it and compare to see what we dropped and what we kept. Math: Unlock Math. Zach really likes working with Unlock Math. It is an online program with a live teacher, lots of exercises and test. You can check my review from last year . Worksheets from the pre-al