Homeschool Agenda

This week's Homeschool Memoirs theme is Homeschool Agendas. I find it fascinating to learn about what other people are using to homeschool their children. Maybe it is just my curiositity, my father wrongly claims it is called being nosey, call it what you will, but I love finding out about curriculum!

Right now, I am using lots of different stuff for the kids;

• Sonlight 2-Intro to World History for Reading and History for both kids (advanced readers for G and regular for C)


• Wordly Wise 2nd Edition Book (book 5 for G and Book 2 for C)


• A Reason for Spelling (Level E for G and Level B for C)


• SOS math (Gabriella)


• Abeka arithmetic (Chase)


• Explode the Code (Chase)


• Handwriting without Tears (Chase)


• First Language Lessons (Chase)


• Grammar Ace and Schoolhouse Rock (supposed to be for G, but Chase, and Ava especially, love Schoolhouse Rock!)

My favorite item that we are using so far is a book that is used with Sonlight called Windows on the World.

Windows on the World is a beautiful book that contains information about featured countries and the people that live there. The neatest thing about Windows is that each 2 page layout of the specific area lists things that we can thank God for that are occurring in those places and it also lists what we can pray about. I can't stop looking at this book myself!

The Bible verse that keeps coming up to me through some tough times lately is Pslam 30:11

"You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, "

Tropical Storm Fay

Tropical Storm Fay brought us tons of rain last week. After being cooped up in the house, we decided to join Paul outside when he had to change one of the tires on the van in the pouring rain. I put on Ava's very cute raincoat and we headed outside. The expedition did not last long since Paul gave up on the tire change ;)

My Girl

I am so proud of my girl. We had a field trip to Bruster's today. There were quite a few children and many of them were closer to preschool age. Gabriella was such a help to the younger children. One little guy was new to the group and a little shy, so G helped him out and had him stay with her in line to assist in the ice cream making. At the end of the trip, another little guy was crying that he wanted more ice cream, but each child was only allowed one sample. Of her very own accord, she went over and offered him her only sample. The momma was quite impressed and came and told me about it. What a sweet and thoughtful girl!

Schoolhouse Rock

I never watched Schoolhouse Rock growing up...I think it preceeded my time ;) I bought the Schoolhouse RockDVD set off of Homeschool Classifieds for the kids since it goes along with Gabriella's grammar curriculum. I have been showing some of the clips to the kids on YouTube to help them learn some of the stuff until we get the set in the mail. The one who seems to really enjoy those wonderful classic clips is AVA! She wants me to continually play it for her, lol! Today, I taught Chase about nouns so I showed him the noun song and Ava could not get enough of it!

It Worked!

Did you see the last post? It worked, I made a signature! I was looking at someone else's blog and they posted some info on making a signature. I checked it out myself and messed around on the site and made one. As if I have nothing better to do, lol!

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

Teaching at Co-op

Chase belongs to a group called the Seminole Learning Community. It is a group of families who homeschool their children. They go on field trips and have co-op classes etc. I don't just want to be a user of the system and have been considering teaching a class. The problem is, I don't like to teach. I enjoy teaching my children and all, of course, but I really don't like having to talk in front of a room of people, even if they are little people ;) I was taking a gander around the Internet trying to find something that would be fun to teach. Since hurricane season is beginning to heat up, I thought the kids might enjoy learning about them. I don't want to get too technical as I will definitely lose the majority of the kids who are part of SLC as I am sure none of them are desiring to be hurricane experts at this time in their lives ;) I found this book and thought it might be fun to use.

I also found a little lesson plan on homeschoolshare.com that gives you different ideas to teach the material and some ideas for a lapbook. Now, I just have to work up the nerve to actually do this ;)