Wow! Let's just say I absolutely loved reading this book. There was enough intrigue, action, romance, suspense, and fantasy to keep me engaged. I read this in a weekend, and now can't wait to read the next book in the series. (Yes, another fantasy series! There are too many out there to ignore them!) In this book, there are wizards, warriors, enchanters, sorcerers, soothslayers, etc. But, the plot of this book is based solely around a Warrior who was supposed to be a Wizard. When Jack was born, he was missing his Wizard crystal, so his Enchanter aunt called a Wizard heart surgeon to come and save his life. Only, the surgeon places a Warrior stone behind his heart instead of a Wizard stone. His aunt is devastated because that basically guarantees his death: he has become Weirlind. In the Weir world, the Wizards are the magical beings with the most magical power. And, they are continually fighting political wars amid themselve...
Posts
I thought I'd post a blog entry about our homeschool schedule ... for those who may be interested. All of us have our own binders. The above photo shows what the first page in our binders looks like. I've broken down our subjects and scheduled them on different days if we don't study them everyday of the week. This just basically helps me to keep track of what we study each day. And, by now, I have it all memorized. So, really it just helped me in the first few weeks when everything was still so new. This is the second page in each of my children's binders. On the right page is the current week, and the on the left page is the week after. These schedules let them know exactly what they are studying each day of the week in each subject. So, this is their plan. These are my pages in my binder of my "master" plan. I have everyone's assignments in here ... color coded, of course. One week spans two pages because I am speci...
Jon has been having some tooth pain recently. He went in to the dentist's office yesterday to see what could be causing the problem. Leaving with a prescription for an antibiotic and Vicatin, he came home with the understanding that he needs to get a second opinion form an endodontist. Not reassuring. But, the pain killer has only been taking the edge off ... that's how painful it is. Anyway, this morning he took the Vicatin on a completely empty stomach (he's supposed to take it either 2 hours before eating, or 2 hours after eating) and promptly started to feel dizzy. Not the best thing to feel when you have to present a webinar to over 40 people. So, he asked me to come check on him in 30 minutes to see if he was saying some really loopy things during his meeting. This is a precarious situation for us all because I DO NOT have the most quietest children in the world. I knew I needed to give them something to do in the school room so they w...
My children have opportunities to take a break during our school day. Today, Kate took a break and decided to use the activity that I'd pulled out to accompany Andrew's spelling lesson. For his lesson, I ask him to write the letter associated with the sounds I say (so when the letter is "a", I ask him to write the letter that says "a, ay, and ah"). Then he writes the letter with his forefinger in rice on the cookie sheet. I'd actually pulled out three cookie sheets and filled them with some rice and gave one to Andrew, Adam, and Maryanne. The younger two needed something to do while I was helping Andrew with his lesson. When they were finished, Kate took over and started to draw in the rice. I love how something so simple can be so creative.
As I mentioned last week, every day after lunch we have reading time. Usually, this means I read aloud (on this day it was Ella Enchanted ), then the children read for 20-25 minutes on their own, and following that, I read our lesson from science or history. So, our afternoons are all filled up with reading. And, of course, I love it. And, my children do too, sometimes. But, their hands get bored and they start to lose interest after a while when I am reading aloud. So, I let them play with quiet toys while I read. Keeps them in one place while I am reading, and I don't have to worry about fighting, or children running around or begging me to stop. Some days it is the geometric shapes I got for math manipulatives, other days it is legos. On this specific day, it was the RoseArt version of Wikki Stix . My children love these! And, they have just become even more creative with them than they were years ago when I first got som...
I didn't quite finish this book. The way my electronic library works doesn't allow me to renew any of the books that I am borrowing. And, I didn't get the book completely finished before I had to "return" the book. (Really, all I had to do was delete it from my computer and iPhone.) At any rate, by the time I had to return the book, I was done reading the book. I'd gotten to the part of Abraham and Sarah's life when she gives birth to Isaac. And, there was so much "fluff" getting to that point that I was filled to the brim with the story. Really. Orson Scott Card can tell a fantastic story. Only, I didn't like how much artistic license he took with this biblical story. He gets all the major parts of the story right, but then embellishes them. I understand what he was doing ... trying to fill in any gaps in our knowledge based on the Bible (and Book of Abraham), and coming up with his own viewpoint on the story, but there were a...
When Jon and I went to the Homeschool Convention in July, I attended a workshop entitled "Smart Kids Who Hate to Write." It was quite an informative class. I learned the following: Left brain = Thinking
Right brain = Doing
When an activity transfers from the left brain (thinking) to the right brain (doing), you no longer have to expend energy thinking about what you are doing. (Example: driving. When you first learn you are constantly thinking about how far to press down on the pedals, checking your mirrors, paying attention to your speed, staying between the lines, etc. After you pass your course and get your license, you can drive and think about other things, not how you are driving.)
For children who hate to write, the activity of writing hasn't fully moved over to the right brain. So they expend more energy on writing because they have to think about how to form each letter much more than those who have had the act of writing move over to...
My niece turned nine last week. And, as always, it was an excuse for me to make her something! I debated between a buttercup bag and an apron. So glad I made the apron. Her mom does a lot of baking, and she includes her children all the time. When my niece opened the present, she was thrilled! And, so was I. There's nothing so satisfying as knowing that you've used your talents to brighten another person's day (especially someone you love)!
Our first science experiment last week was about camouflage, specifically why animals have/use camouflage and how it keeps them alive. In our science book there is this experiment that my children really enjoyed. In fact, they asked if they could do it for our next Family Home Evening activity when we invite another family to participate with us. Step One: Dump out some M&Ms onto a paper towel and sort them into groups by color. Count the smallest group and then take away as many as you need from the other colors to make them all equal. (So, most of my children had groups of 9.) Step Two: Pick three colors of construction paper that match three of the colors of M&Ms. Take seven papers from each of the three colors and tear them into six pieces. Crumple those pieces and throw them into a laundry basket. Line the sides of the laundry basket with six pieces of construction paper, two of each of the three colors. Step Three: Dump all ...
One of the things I love about homeschooling is that I still get to read! When my children take their 20-30 minutes of reading, so do I. And, I really enjoyed reading this last book: The Thief. Again, it is fantasy. Again, it is in a series. It is the first book in a series. What I liked the most was the surprise ending. I had all of these ideas about what would happen in the book and how it would end, but each time something happened I was mildly surprised. Which was so refreshing. The book is about a thief who starts out in the king's dungeon. He is brought out of the dungeon to perform a task for the king. The king tells him that he must go and retrieve something for him, and if he does not return, he will not return. The price on his head will be so great that anyone would have to be crazy to help him escape. His only available choices are to go on the king's quest, or go back to the dungeon. And, he's ...
I know that not everyone has a school room, or a room that is solely dedicated to their homeschool. And, I feel so fortunate that Jon is willing to work in one of our large closets in our bedroom so that we can have a room for school. Especially this year, which is our "transition" year. This is our den that is right off the front door of our house. It used to be Jon's office, but he has since moved up to our closet for the last three months or so. When he started recording presentations, he found that the room echoed a lot. So, he moved part of his desk into one of our spacious closets in our room ... and because it is a much smaller space his echoes in his recordings are almost non-existent. Which means that we get to use the den for school! He left his "big" portion of his desk in here for us to use as a table. And, I put our "little" computer desk in the corner for Kaladin and all of my stuff for teaching. Behind Kaladin is o...
I finally bought some Red Letter Day fabric! I've been eyeing it for months now, just waiting for the right time to buy some ... and the right project. A couple of week ago, one of the quilt stores around here was having their "Christmas in July" sale ... 30% off the entire store. I figured it was the right time to get some Red Letter Day. And, who better to use the fabric on, than my little miss? I just love the patterns for this dress and pants outfit. So easy, and usually so quick to make ... that is, if you buy enough fabric. I didn't realize how much I would need, so I spent a lot of time measuring and doing mental math to make sure I cut it just right. And, I literally do not have a scrap left over! Oh well, she looks adorable, and I'll get to see her wear this for a few months. I can't wait to make her another outfit like this one ... maybe for Christmas this time. I took her outside to take her pictures. ...
School started on Monday. We've had officially three days of school ... and I am IN LOVE WITH HOMESCHOOLING! Our homeschool journey already has been a long story with many, many pitfalls, mishaps, and mistakes. But, it has also been the best learning experience ... for me. I don't think I'd change it ... except to say that I wish I could go back seven years ago and really be committed to homeschooling my children. I've posted many entries about our adventures at school last year ... so many that I don't think I need to rehash it all. Needless to say, we found the public school wanting. So, we are trying to fill in the gaps this year, in the hopes that our children will actually learn to love learning; give them a good base to continue their education (at home). Without further ado, for those of you who are interested, here is a list of our curriculum for the year: 2011-2012 Curriculum LANGUAGE ARTS Grammar: Easy Grammar 2, 4, and 6 Vocabulary: Worldly ...
School starts tomorrow! I'll say that again: SCHOOL STARTS TOMORROW!!!!! Where did the summer go? Technically, we are homeschooling so we can start whenever we want. But, the school down the street starts tomorrow, so we are going to start tomorrow (helps with the transition). I have not read as many books as I thought I'd be able to read this summer. However, I have read quite a few. So, here's a list and my rating for the books I have read. (One of my friends gives out Oreo ratings ... I decided to follow suit, but I'm not that fond of Oreos ... however, I love Haagan Daas Dulce de Leche ice cream. So, my ratings are in scoops of Dulce de Leche ice cream.) You'll find that most of these are fantasy, Amish romances, or books in a series (or both!). I think I'm stuck! But, I keep going back to the Amish books because their way of life intrigues me for some reason. Maybe it's nice to escape into their simplistic wor...