Week 17

Another week of not quite back to schedule.  It wasn’t due to sickness this time though, praise the Lord!  We had some wintry weather that caused schedule cancellations which in turn allowed us to catch up even more on the school work we were behind on.  Yay, us!!

Our schedule is working great and really keeps me focused on what needs to be done next. And for some strange reason – we are getting it all done!

Bible – in Daniel and talked about Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar and the writing on the wall and currently at King Darius taking over.

Math – Stephen and Jonathan have been using Ten Marks and really like it.  They are also still doing drills with Math Facts Now! and Times Alive.  Sarah is also using Math Facts Now! and Times Alive and loving it!  She said to me yesterday, “I can tell you what 8x8=” and sure enough she could!

Grammar – Complex sentences, Indirect objects and diagramming them.

Spelling – We were using All About Spelling but it’s just not working for our family.  I’m having a hard time finding a good fit with spelling.  We tried Abeka, Sequential Spelling, and All About Spelling.  For now, we are just going to do spelling with our IEW vocabulary words.

Writing – IEW’s Medieval History book and still loving that too.  This week, they are writing stories using pictures as their source text.

History and Science – Classical Conversations snippets and memory work.

Read Alone – Jonathan – Dr. DooLittle, Stephen – Abeka Liberty Tree, Sarah – Bible

Read Aloud – Trouble River – loving this book!  The grandma uses the phrase, “Don’t upset me boy” often so that’s my new phrase for the week,lol.

 CC Memory Work – weeks 1-13 – I’m still blown away here!  We need to work on Ephesians 6 a little more but most other areas they know so well!  We are memorizing KJV so the thees and thous and mayest are a little confusing them.


Foreign Language- CC Memory work, Latin's Not So Tough, and Speekee.


That's a wrap on our week!

For more weekly wrap-ups visit Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

TOS Review: Easy Classical

This year in our homeschool we switched over to a classical homeschool after I read The Well Trained Mind by Susan Bauer.  I knew this was the education I wanted for my children but of course with our own twists. So, this is a product that I actually looked at before we started our school year!


Do you like the idea of Classical Education, but find it hard to implement? For me, just starting out – the answer was yes, oh yes!  Easy Classical provides a variety of resources for teachers and homeschool mothers who desire to teach within the classical framework. They provide schedules, writing guides, copybooks, and geography curriculum all integrated for ease of use and increased retention.


My review product was The Early Modern History Schedule.  It includes 36 week-long schedules plus 45+ pages of charts, sheets, and helps that will enhance your child's learning. Each week's lesson has review questions with answers, and quizzes included with each lesson. This schedule also includes a shopping list for the next day, as well as detailed instructions on how to use the schedules and the books you purchase. This is a complete schedule for a year and you can download it digitally for $29.95 or purchase it in a 3 ring binder for $35.95.  This is only the schedule!  You will need to purchase or pick up from the library the curriculum books.  But, oh how wonderful to have your lesson plans already done for you!  Included in the lesson plans are lots of material so you can tweak it to suite your family.  YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO IT ALL!  That line is written as a reminder to me .  You can see sample lesson pages, sample introduction pages, sample history schedule pages, and a complete list of the curriculum choices with links to purchase them or find them at the library.


Would our family purchase The Early Modern History Schedule?  Absolutely!  I love it!  I’m already looking into to purchasing the complete curriculum schedules as well!

Don't forget to check out what my fellow crewmates thought of Easy Classical's Early Modern History Schedule


**Disclaimer:  I received a digital download of this schedule free of charge in exchange for my review.  The opinions here are my honest and true evaluation!

Our School Schedule

This is an older post but the schedule is still working out great for us!  I'm going to link up to Joyful Mothering's Homemaker's Challenge for motivation and inspiration!


Trying to Tell My Time what to do!

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
7:00	Quiet time Morning txt	Quiet time Morning txt	Quiet time Morning txt	Quiet time Morning txt	Quiet time Morning txt
7:30	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast
8:00	Morning chores	Morning chores	Morning chores	Morning chores	Morning chores
8:30	School – Bible	Classical Conversations	School – Bible	School – Bible	School – Bible
9:00	School – CC rv		School – CC rv	School – CC rv	School – CC rv
9:30					School - Math
10:00	School - Math		School - Math	School - Math	School - writing
10:30	School - writing		School - writing	School - writing	School – grammar/spelling
11:00	School – grammar/spelling		School – grammar/spelling	School – grammar/spelling	School – reading
11:30	School – reading		School – reading	School – reading	Catch up
12:00	School		School	School	Lunch
12:30	Lunch		Lunch	Lunch
1:00					Errands/library
1:30	Afternoon chores		Afternoon chores	Afternoon chores
2:00	Read aloud		Read aloud	Read aloud
2:30	Quiet time		Quiet time	Quiet time
3:00	yearly goal		yearly goal	yearly goal
3:30	Room inspections		Room inspections	Room inspections	Room inspections

New Year – 1st Week of school

I had homeschool tracker ready.  I made our 2011 goals.  I made our monthly goals.  I planned our week out.  And then, life said, “ha ha ha”!  On Sunday night, Jonathan started running a fever after being gone all weekend with the youth group.  I really thought he was just exhausted because they of course get no sleep.  Well, ends up he had the flu and my plans – well, I did get to some of them and we did start our school week back.  I did give Jonathan off since he had the flu but let him know that he would have a lot to catch up on as we were already behind!!
It feels good to get back into some routine even if it isn’t full fledged.  Sometimes, I think God hits the pause button for us so we can turn back to Him in all things!
A few things that we are really enjoying are Ten Marks, Math Facts Now! Facts Now and Speekee.  All of these are review items that you will see coming up soon!
We are still playing catch up with our Classical Conversations memory work but it just amazes me how much the kids remember even when your schedule doesn’t go as planned!
So, here’s to a brand new beginning next week =)
And here are a few pictures from our Christmas break vacation!  SNOW!!


For more weekly wrap-ups visit Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

TOS Review: See-N-Read Reading Tools

Today’s review comes from SEE-N-READ Reading Tools.  I have 3 products to review for you. 


First up is SEE-N-READ.  It is an awesome little tool to aid students in seeing, focusing, and remembering what they read.

• SEE: SEE-N-READ helps readers to concentrate on and track text with their eyes and smoothly move between the words being read even when changing lines.  This is turn, aids readers to increase their fluency (the ability to read text accurately and quickly), and comprehension (understanding of meaning). 
• FOCUS:  Effective readers see groups of words (chunks) at one time.  SEE-N-READ’s clear reading window helps readers to focus on manageable “chunks” of information in each line of test.  The non-glare tinted transparent finish around the clear window allows readers to “see what’s coming” and move smoothly to the next line without stopping their eyes.
• REMEMBER:  SEE-N-READ helps readers control their eye movements across the text on a page.  This helps readers concentrate on content instead of keeping their location on the page, thus improving reading and comprehension. 

People who may need SEE-N-READ are :

• Readers who skip words or lines while reading or have trouble focusing their eyes (they may say “The words move on the page”).
• Readers identified as having reading performance or skill deficiencies.
• Readers who read large amounts of detailed material requiring concentration.
• Teachers who need to highlight specific items on overhead projectors without hiding all of the remaining material.

SEE-N-READ is once again such a simple tool but so powerful!  I have 2 struggling readers and have already seen great improvement in their skipping lines and words while reading!  It comes in two sizes:  Book (5 1/2” x 3”) and Document (8 1/2” x 3”).
You can purchase SEE-N-READ individually or in packs.  The cost for one product book size is $2.99 and one product document size is $3.49.  To see other pack sizes and to purchase your own SEE-N-READ product visit their store.


The next product is MemoryMark.  It is the exact same thing as SEE-N-READ but the clear reading window is cut out to enable readers to write notes, underline, and highlight!  Wonderful, wonderful tool to use while studying your bible!!  The cost and sizes available are also the same as the original SEE-N-READ.


Next up is eSEE-N-READ.  A handy dandy SEE-N-READ tool for your computer!!  Research from Wayne State University shows that people read 30% slower on screen than on paper!  I did not realize that!  The price for the eSEE-N-READ is $29.99 and can be purchased at the store.  System Requirements are:

• For use with Windows Vista, Vista 64, Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 2000 systems (version for Mac OSX coming soon!)
  
• Minimum recommended processor: Pentium or AMD 300 MHz.
  
• Minimum recommended memory: 128 MB
  
• At least 4MB hard disk space
  
• Minimum recommended display colors: 16-bit color display (high-color; 24-bit color (true color) or better recommended)

Would our family purchase these products?  YES to SEE-N-READ and MemoryMark!!  I think the price is wonderful for such a little powerful tools.  The eSEE-N-READ is not something that I would purchase at this time for our family.
A few pictures of SEE-N-READ in action.

Don't forget to check out what my fellow crewmates thought of SEE-N-READ Tools.





**Disclaimer:  I received all three of these products free of charge in exchange for my review.  The opinions here are my honest and true evaluation!