Choices Overload!

I love homeschool! I cherish being able to pick and chose from what I want them to learn and how we learn. I wouldn't give up us being able to read Bible stories in the morning and have Jesus incorporated into our English curriculum! I also love that my son gets to hold his new baby sister as he journeys though his school day. 

          Who wouldn't want to hold a baby and do spelling at the same time?

BUT... Here comes the big fat ugly -BUT- you know you were waiting for! 

When I look at what other homeschool moms are using for their children the same age as mine, it is so hard not to compare what I am teaching my kids to what others kids are doing. Then the thinking starts in and I ponder to myself, "Is their choice better, is mine keeping my kids on track or ahead?"  "Why isn't my child that far in math?" The list goes on and on inside my head. It is not pretty! I am positive the mind of a woman never stops! 

As I take a long hard deep breath and take a step back to look at what my long term goals are for my family, I realize we are doing just fine, better than fine honestly. My children are learning; they are happy, healthy and in a safe and loving environment. What more could I ask for? We get all the important subjects done every day and also have the freedom to take the afternoon off. To travel on adventures such as hiking the mountains near our house, or spend the day exploring butterflies up close on a field trip with our homeschool group. They participate in holiday parties, geography class and chess clubs and the list goes on and on.

In the end I think we all should remember that no matter what the path we have chosen for our children's education whether we choose homeschool, online courses, private school or public school, most parents want the ultimate best for their children. When we make choices based off their best interest we can’t go wrong, right?

Does anyone else do this very same thing? I would love to know I am not alone! Have a blessed week! I am praying for you!

Vanessa 

Class Store

I try to think of my kids as self motivators who get their work done without complaints, and it's correct the first time! Then I wake up and realize HA nice try lady!! Go back to bed for that one! So I came up with a little tool aka bribe! 30 points a day for completing all your school work without complaining or being to hard to teach for the day. Then I offer a 50 point bonus if they get it all day before lunchtime! So 80 points a day just for doing their schoolwork on task and before lunch. Score for them! Then, they also get extra points when we are doing our lessons for answering questions correctly, or remembering a long poem from last year. Things like that. On the flip side, if they are rude or they don't stay on task I take points away. So those 30 you just earned went bye bye, because you were rude to the good old teacher sitting here giving her life for you and You give her lip!! Oh no, Mr give me 10 points! That usually gets them back on track real quick.

Then, twice a month I pull out old trusty (the store bin) and set up my little shop and they get to go shopping! Plus, they have to do all the math themselves so it's a mini learning lesson in itself. I stock my store with things like candy, sticky hands, Lego sets, and fake lottery tickets I find. I try and keep cool new items in my store that they will want to earn their points for each week. Not the easiest task to do. Everything is priced fairly, and they may have to save up for the bigger priced items they want. Which I love because they are learning that sometimes you have to save for the things you want in life. A great lesson I want them to learn young. Life isn't always going to be fair, you may not get everything you want right away or ever for that matter. I want them to know hard work and failure, so they can go out into this world successful, yet have a realistic expectation.

If you want to create your own store you can use this template for ticket. I write 5, 10, 50, 100 on them and pass them out daily. I hope this helps you! I know it works for us! Just don't forget to give them their points like I do some days!

Writing with a Fifth Grader

This year so far has been a blast with my daughter’s fifth graders English and writing assignments. We went with Rod and Staff English 5 this year. You can find it Here. I honestly bought mine off eBay. I LOVE buying used curriculum, but that's another post for another day. I love it for a few reasons. It is Bible based but not overly done. Some of the sentences are bible verses or things about Jesus so Christ is in our are daily work. I want Christ to be in everything we do but not to where the kids get overwhelmed with it. A good balance is needed, in my opinion. Secondly, I love how it gets to the point. We don't have to spend all day on the lesson, but we do need to learn. So, we do an oral review; move onto the lesson, and she finished with independent work. This has a writing assignment along with a challenge exercise for her to complete if she wants to earn bonus points for our class store. So Rod and Staff has won me over. Not the most fun thing we do, but how much fun can grammar be most the time? School House Rock memories are coming back to me! Who remembers these?

We are now about half way through the year and we have added in a wonderful book my daughter loves to read called Spilling Ink. It is written to speak to kids about their writing style and characters, so its fun to read for my daughter, but also she is learning how to develop her characters and let them speak to her inside her writing. It has great creative ideas to help her dig deeper into her writing. 

Also, I found a writing contest for her to enter in, first prize get a $50.00 gift card to Amazon! Along with other prizes like the Creative writer you can buy on Amazon. That motivated her to write a story 1,000 words or less and it had a writing prompt for her to start the story out with. I can't wait to hear back the winner!! So whether you are digging into grammar or trying to find great writing lessons out there, follow what your heart and your child tells you are right. I have really been enjoying my writing with a fifth grader! How about you? Anything you love about your child's english?

Turkey's Coming Out My Ears

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I am not overwhelmed with family or cooking or cleaning my house! I am being bombarded with Turkey Crafts!! From Pinterest to my home school group we have Turkey Projects running out of the faucets in this house!! So I thought I would share a few with you in case you are in need of some fun Turkey Project this coming week. 

First off we have this cute little Leaf Turkey's. You can find the directions here if you want them. http://blogs.babycenter.com/life_and_home/leaf-feather-turkeys-for-thanksgiving/

 Mine came out a little different. We live in Arizona and we don't have the option of going on a walk and finding beautiful fall leaves on the group. Could I interest you in a cactus thorn turkey??

This was simple and fun and I will be making Turkey Kits for all the kids in our home school group for our Thanksgiving Feast we will participate in on Monday. I hope the kids enjoy it as much as I did! 

Next we have Turkey Paint Rockets!! These look so amazing and I wish I had empty film canisters laying around but I don't and need to try and find some....maybe Hobby Lobby the Queen Mother of craft stores! Head over to here for a full tutorial on them! Super fun Turkey Art for the kids! 

http://www.growingajeweledrose.com/2013/11/turkey-paint-rockets.html 

Onto the Naked Turkey! This is one of my favorites! The kids get a Naked Turkey printed out on card stock and get to dress up their Naked Turkey however they want to, from a ballerina to a football player. Elvis to a farmer, the sky is the limits! So get out the craft supplies and Dress that Turkey! The Google document for the template for the Naked Turkey is on the blog link below. Have fun with it! 

http://www.tipsfromatypicalmomblog.com/2012/11/thanksgiving-craft-turkeys-with.html

Last but not least is the Thumbprint Turkey Craft!! This craft is easy and fun for all ages. My 10 year old and 8 year old love getting their fingers dirty!! They never get to put ink of their fingers on purpose! So they loved this! Here is the link I found to this super fun craft.

http://thecharmedmom.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-craft-fingerprint-turkey-cards.html

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share some Turkey Mania with you! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!! Enjoy your day, I know I will! Pecan pie here I come! 

Starting Out

I am starting this blog for a few reasons.....to keep my journey documented. Also, for my kids to look back and remember the journey we took throughout our home schooling journey. The Lord has led us down this path for a reason and I think we need to have an outlet to look back upon. Lastly, I wanted to share all the cool things we do and find with others that home school, are thinking about home schooling or just want to see what us crazy home schoolers really do all day!! No we do NOT do school in our pajamas everyday! Even though my kids would love it! 

Throw Back Thursday!! Is my now 8 year old!! How time flies when they are so darn cute and fun! Good thing I have a 4 month old to keep a baby face in the house. 

So as a welcome I thought I would let you all in on my classroom. My husband has been so wonderful with all the changes I have made to our home as we go down this home schooling road. I could not do this without his love and support! Thanks for saying YES to this crazy, wonderful, adventure babe!! Ok, here we go!

These are my kid's desks, that my husband made for them. The desk opens and has sections for them to hold notebooks, papers, folders, pens and rulers! I love these so much! 

This shelf holds all my goodies from art supplies to my stapler, it's all here for the most part, again crafted by my wonderful husband for me! 

My newest addition is this table!! Not made by my husband!! But this has been such a great addition to my room. We learn so much better when I can stand on the side to help with handwriting or math problems! I love this table!

This is my little whiteboard, a little small but it does the job! Behind me is our bookshelf, the last thing in my classroom that was handmade by my husband! He really does play a great roll in our school. 

Our school pets! Well some of them, we also have a snake and two turtles that are on my son's room. The fish are a nice calming addition to our classroom!

Add that's my classroom. It has a rug in the middle for the kids to sit on if they want to be right in front of the chalkboard, but they can see from my new awesome table!  I can not wait to share much more. My brain is turning with ideas!! Thanks for stopping by, I would love to see your school room too!! 

Vanessa