Which Curriculum did NOT work for us

This Weeks' Link Up Topic on hsclassroom is "What curriculum or resource just didn't work for your family? When reading the topic I almost started laughing out hysterically. Why? Because I'm still trying to figure out what actually works for us !! Kindergarten came and went and was really neat to teach. Most of the Subjects came with unit studies where there was a booklet with worksheets, suggested activities related to the topic where it was so simple to just add whatever we felt like learning and however long we wanted to stick to that topic. We all enjoyed the time together, I loved getting to know my boys from another perspective, I started to really LOVE teaching, specially preparing fun lessons (which I had no idea I'd have within me) and it helped me big time to have more patience, tolerance with all my boys on a daily basis.

Our Weekly Wrap Up March #4

Another great week for us. Even though I wish I would've worked a bit more with Cheetah Racer and his "Hooked on Phonics" but other then that it was a good week. On Monday we finished our Rainforest Notebook.


For Social Studies this week we worked on Story of the World and learned about the Sumerians, Sumer and Sargon. We also started a timeline where Leap Creature chooses a picture that helps him remember each Section in the historic timeline and writes one sentence about it, this way I have a little proof that he did learn something.

I don't know where I was during my History class but everything I'm reading with Leap Creature in his History Lessons is new to me!

Rainforest Notebook

Leap Creature chose the Rainforest as our next theme. We read quiet a few books such as

• The Cat in the Hat: If I ran the Rainforest
• The Amazon River in a Rain Forest 
• The Rainforest Grew All Around
• The Great Kapok Tree
• One Day in the Tropical Rain Forest
• Rain Forests

We borrowed all of the books from the Library, the theme is great since there are tons of resources, books etc. I chose some for classes, some for language arts for Leap Creature to read, some for good night Stories and "the book Crafts for Kids who Are Wild About ... THE WILD" for Crafts. 

Where do you fit in?

At times I'm asking myself where I'd fit in if I'd categorize myself. Having a father from Algeria and a mother from Switzerland I already didn't really fit in. As I got older I learned about the oppression of the blacks and didn't like the whites, but wait a minute my one and only most precious mom in the world is exactly that.. hmm.. then I started practicing the religion I was given, Islam. Now I was a muslim. Then I married my husband who's job was the US Navy. So now I'm a muslim Navy Wife. I'd actually like to have a bit more contact with Women in the Navy just curious about how they do things when their husbands are gone, but I wonder would they like to have anything to do with me? ... I am not looking like the typical Navy Spouse. Oh did I mention that I'm homeschooling? That would make me a ... lets not even go there haha..


Seriously now do we really have to fit in? I never liked having to be a certain way so I "fit" in. I will always be different and special like everyone else is, in their own way. 

Myriam

Our Weekly Wrap Up

It's already Sunday afternoon and I'm mentally getting ready for another monday. It's safe to say that last week was very successful. Leap Creature (1st grade) was enjoying our 2nd week of the Rightstart Math and we pretty much caught up to the point where we were at with the old Curriculum, which was one of my goals. We wrapped up our Science Theme "Rainforest" and did some last glueing in his Notebook (which will be a separate post).

On thursday we had our monthly Teacher's Meeting which went so great that I gave all of us the rest of the day off and friday Leap Creature goes to School from 9- 2.30 which he's always looking forward to, because he gets to see his friends. During Arts classes they finished up their Project that's called Volcano-A-Go-Go which will be proudly presented at 

EXPO Day at the San Diego Science Festival on 3/24

It looks great and I'm so excited that all the kids from grade K up to 8th were able to participate and can you imagine how their faces will LIGHT UP when they'll see their project at the Science Festival? I SOO can't wait !!! 

How was your week? Come, share and link up with the Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and see what everyone else has to say. 

With that said, have a great week everyone

Myriam

Homeschool Online Resource List

This is something that is long due for I felt I'd like to give back something that I've been benefitted from for at least 1 1/2 years now. I was thankful and still am for every Worksheet, Lap Book Template, Scrap Book idea etc that I've used for our Homeschool Studies. So the credit should go to all the people who took their time to create or had anything to do with the links I'll post, just for anyone who stumbles upon the List I hope you can benefit from it. ( I will probably use it myself hehe ) My notes below every page is what I'm mostly using it for, they offer more than just that.. some links are mentioned double since I made a list of all the links and below I wrote some under a certain them that we've studied about.

A "Real Life Experience" about my favorite Curriculum Resource

I am a fairly new homeschooling Mom, this is my second year with my "official" Student in 1st grade followed by an almost kindergartener & a toddler. It doesn't feel that way at all though, I feel like I've learned SO much the last 1 1/2 years. Yesterday I stood in front of my bookshelf looking at our Study Books wanting to find my favorite one and that's when I realized.. there isn't any!! Okay we've recently changed our Math Curriculum from Houghton Mifflin to Rightstart Math which I wrote about in a previous post "re- thinking our Learning Styles". We haven't really worked with it long enough though for me to be able to say that's THE ONE .. I hope it is and so far it goes really great since Leap Creature is super excited every time I'd tell him to get out the "clever Math Box". My resources for Science and Social Studies are as mix matched as can be, we pick and choose whatever theme we like next, I'll do my research online, prepare the lessons and we're good to go. I'd have to say maybe right now my favorite Curriculum Source is online. Pages such as:

• http://www.homeschoolshare.com/
• http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/ 

(The list is way longer but I usually go to these two before going on and this will be further elaborated in another post. )
What I do know is that being a Homeschooling Parent is a way of life, it's a process and takes time to know how to do it, what to use, and how to find what works etc. I know I'll get there and I won't settle for anything less then what I think is best for my little men.


Do you have any favorite Curriculum Resources? Why not link up with "The homeschool Classroom", lets share our Ideas, our experiences and learn from one another. One good thing that is certain by now is that I'm not alone in this *grin*

Myriam

Part #2 of my initial Post "My first real Meltdown"

My first post on my blog was "My first real Meltdown" where I wrote about my first time wanting to give up homeschooling and why. I am not sure why I thought about this today but I realized that I forgot a part of what I did my research on, which was very tough on me, it took for ever to figure this one out but I'm still happy with my decision and I will try my best to explain it. If it happens to help someone else's decision it was well worth the time. 


As I said I've already filled out the boys application for two different charter schools and as I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to send them anywhere but to keep homeschooling them my next step was: Am I with the right program? I thought maybe to switch school would be the solution. Caracal Leaper is signed up for a homeschool program through a Charter School. Right away I thought ok K12 might be better and I was so close to switch until 2 sisters gave him some insight about how K12 works. There is lots of good pointers if that's what one likes. The pro's for me were:

Some daily Activities..

My little Monkey is almost 3 and his two older brothers were out the house with Daddy, so I kept him busy with sorting Counters. He did sort for about the first 7 min. and after that he filled and emptied the bowls as he pleased but hey.. it did keep him busy and I had a great break *smile*

What's for Dinner ?

Recently I called my friend asking how she was doing and she told me she was in the kitchen cooking up a storm.. and she usually cooks for about two days. Marinating, pre-cooking etc. to make the next few weeks easier on herself. She goes: You should try that you know !! Hmm .. Alright so last weekend we went to get meat. We usually make a trip every .. 2-3 Months and get a LOT of meat since the place where we get our meat from is a bit further away.                  

                                                        Picture from (http://www.featurepics.com/online/Vegetables-1070851.aspx)

Cooking up a storm is right:

Another day in Paradise

I am originally from Switzerland and yes I miss my family and friends but could it have been replaced with any better place then South California? I don't think so.. Even though the nights are still very cold, the temperatures are already up in the 70 and the sunny mornings definitely are a plus when it comes to motivation in getting up early and getting things done. Our trees around the house seem to enjoy the warmth as well, they're growing so fast, and a few already have lots of beautiful flowers and plenty of fruits. Of course they're all still in the beginning stages but the trees look lovely with all their new growth. Over the last couple of years we took a few trips up to our favorite nursery, the Bonita Creek Nursery, and here is what we have purchased:

Re- thinking our learning styles

Is it just me or is that a regular process for Homeschool Teachers to once in a while look back and feel that it's time for some changes. I've been going through some major adjustments which I wrote about in "my first real Melt Down" and I'm absolutely happy with the outcome.


Recently I've been feeling that we could make Mathematics more interesting then just me handing him 2 pages of Math a day and say, more or less anyway: There you go, let me know if you have any Questions..