tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212319602009-11-12T09:27:27.860-06:00We're officially a homeschooling family! We are in our third year in this adventure, but we feel this is where God led us and know that He will be with us through out it all! Whooda thunk it, really? Sometimes I look around and think, "Ummm...who gave me permission to impersonate a grown up?"Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.comBlogger204125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-70333834798182229912009-08-20T13:33:00.003-05:002009-08-20T13:47:05.403-05:00

OK, I'm not sure how many people even read anything over here anymore, but I'm finding it really, really hard to maintain even one blog, let alone two. I always thought it would be just fine to have a "personal" blog with all of my random things that go on and then a "homeschooling" blog with all the school stuff we're doing. That way the three people who read my "personal" blog don't have to

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-4984190099857179312009-03-20T09:33:00.002-05:002009-03-20T09:42:19.258-05:00

I am so frustrated right now that I want to scream at the top of my lungs and not stop for at least ten minutes. I want to go back to my room and beat the living crap out of my heavy bag, but I have the ending of a migraine, and I don't think that would make it feel any better.I have a child who cannot stand to have her work corrected. In. Any.Way. Regardless of if she has no understanding of

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-61010451136028398712009-03-18T10:08:00.005-05:002009-03-18T20:15:53.482-05:00

Well, we're reaching the end of the school year - can it be? How can that be? - and I'm beginning the search for curriculum for next year. I'm probably not going to change much of what we do because I really feel like we've found a great mix that works for our family. Here, in great bullet format, are my considerations for next year:Language Arts - do I continue to use both Learning Language Arts

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-66353753415399758642009-01-25T15:02:00.002-06:002009-01-25T15:16:20.915-06:00

No, nothing exciting to report, as the exclamation points in the title would lead you to believe. I just wanted to let you know that I'm updating, and I thought I'd fancy it up with some cute punctuation. Because I've always thought that exclamation points were kind of cute. Not as cute as semi colons, but much easier to figure out how to use.Last Tuesday, we schooled for a little while and then

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-18473847963846571182009-01-12T21:40:00.005-06:002009-01-14T10:14:58.948-06:00

One of the things that I struggle with the most as a parent is consistency with discipline. I think that I just heard a collective "AMEN, SISTAH!" from pretty much every parent reading this, because heaven knows that one of the hardest things to do is follow through with that threat that you just made to Boseephus, Jr. about how if he did XY or Z one more time you were going to ground him for an

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-21451325493740536062009-01-08T21:31:00.002-06:002009-01-08T22:31:23.367-06:00

No, we didn't blow anything up. I promise. Although, frankly, that might have been more interesting than the science experiment that we did on Tuesday...I jest, I jest! Actually, the experiments we're currently doing involve magnets and The Kids find that absolutely fascinating. It's just that this past Tuesday, we were supposed to cut a butterfly out of tissue paper and then attach a paperclip

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-81361007598773378872008-12-21T14:17:00.003-06:002008-12-21T14:22:50.369-06:00

I'm not dead. We've not fallen off the face of the earth. I'm just finding it very hard to update here. School is going well and we had a great time doing Christmas Around the World for the first part of December. I even took some great pictures of the crafts we made to represent the different countries we talked about.Honestly, I'm not sure I'll get around to posting them, but I'll try. I'm

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-48955377941122381822008-11-16T21:49:00.002-06:002008-11-16T21:53:36.579-06:00

I know it's been eons since I updated anything, but I promise that we have been having school! The past two weeks have been absolutely nuts though, because my purse got stolen and we got a new puppy (you can read about those two things over at The Karate Mom!) and it's just felt really nuts around here!I've taken some great pictures of our history co-op, though, and I'll try to get those posted

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-67289333928270840582008-10-22T11:29:00.002-05:002008-10-22T13:09:26.255-05:00

Well, today is Sansday (read: Wednesday for all the Real Folk out there that have a real weekend) so we're sitting on the sofas, watching Bee Movie and being lazy, which is, frankly, the best way to be on a rainy, cool day. There's not a whole lot to update as far as school goes, really, seeing as how I've actually been updating more than once a quarter. *pats self on back* Reilly is

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-65116816375611777172008-10-16T22:02:00.002-05:002008-10-16T22:25:10.664-05:00

Or, well, at least we like to THINK it does!I decided that I wanted to add grammar to our daily schedule and, after researching different options and talking to my friend Julie, Homeschooling Guru Extrordinaire...no, I'm just kidding, she's really just a completely normal homeschooling mom whose opinion I happen to value a lot... I decided on a curriculum called Shurley Grammar. (Or maybe it's

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-43951261642362807212008-10-06T21:15:00.007-05:002008-10-07T18:30:06.980-05:00

I'm not doing as well with keeping this blog updated as I would like to be doing! I take lots of pictures, and we're certainly not at a loss of things that I could share, but I somehow always put this blog off until last and then I get behind! Boo, hiss!But, I'm here now, so here's an update! I'll even divide it up by subject so that I can make sure that I don't miss anything important!SCIENCEWe

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-8332207264072872792008-09-19T21:39:00.007-05:002008-09-19T22:16:02.813-05:00

One thing I added this year was history, which has been a whole lot of fun so far. I'm using Story of the World - Ancients, which starts out with ancient nomads in the Fertile Crescent (6000 BC) and works its way up. I also use History Odyssey, which provides a "lesson plan" of sorts to go along with SOTW and we do these neat things called Hisory Pockets, which is all sorts of cutting out and

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-35273452257888907942008-09-19T21:25:00.003-05:002008-09-19T21:39:34.459-05:00

Periodically, at the homeschooling message board I go to, we get new homeschoolers who ask questions about what its like to homeschool, and we're always willing to chime in with our answers and share what we know about this thing that we love. I wrote the following as part of a response to one girl today, and I wanted to come here and post it, not because I think I'm some sort of genuis, but so

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-24083760329120746842008-09-15T22:58:00.002-05:002008-09-15T23:12:34.793-05:00

Just a quick update before I go and collapse myself into bed:We started back to our homeschooling co-op last Friday, which was very exciting for all of us. It's such fun, and such a blessing to have a change of scenery and friends each week. This year I'm going to be in Reilly's class of 1st through 3rd graders for the first semester, and then I'm the Preschool Director (notice the Big Fancy

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-50245118574840574752008-09-09T11:33:00.004-05:002008-09-09T12:15:22.056-05:00

Interesting title, huh? I'm sure it just makes you want to jump in with both eyes and read away!Today is Declan's first sick day! Poor guy woke up this morning with a bit of a fever and said he had a sore throat. Actually what he said was, "Mom? Can I have something soft for breakfast because my throat is sore?" and while I assurred him that I would make some Malt O Meal for him, he told me all

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-34565298733605970112008-09-03T22:59:00.007-05:002008-09-04T11:24:51.252-05:00

Science experiments are more fun if you don't watch how they're done on a DVD first and then try to go and replicate them. Somehow the magic is lost if you know that the top of water is going to stay level when you tip the bottle on its side and it makes doing the experiment yourself a little redundant. The smart thing to do is to do the experiments yourself, then watch the video to make sure

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-61703829997584142392008-09-01T21:24:00.004-05:002008-09-01T21:45:26.231-05:00

OK, I have a gajillion pictures of our first day of school (two weeks ago, on August 18th which was my 33rd birthday, and which was a full week earlier than I expected simply because The Kids ASKED me if we could! Silly kids!) and of our first round of science experiments that we did last week and of all Declan practicing his handwriting and stuff like that, but I have NONE of them loaded on my

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-75280354185362317692008-06-17T06:56:00.000-05:002008-06-17T06:57:21.920-05:00

...I just had to share this part of an email that my Momb sent to me. (No, that's not a typo. She's my mom, and I like to call her Momb...I don't know why!)"Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-32784193578981428342008-06-05T08:05:00.001-05:002008-06-05T08:06:44.193-05:00

Back in April, out homeschooling co-op offered IOWA testing for those who wanted to participate. Although our state doesn't require any standardized testing at any grade level, I decided to have Reilly take them just so I could get an "indifferent" opinion of how she's doing. Long story short, I was amazed when I got the test results! In the reading area (comprehension, usage, etc.), she's at a

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-67924803217392898222008-05-01T10:21:00.004-05:002008-05-01T10:36:54.731-05:00

Sometimes I swear that I'm going to pull my hair out by the ROOTS!!!! I think that oftentimes, Reilly sets out to simply be as stubborn as she possibly can. To look at things in the most obtuse manner available. We had a very simple exericise the other day: look at the picture and put an X next to the sentence that best describes the picture. The picture was of a child in a bed with a mom

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-83870566305643678242008-04-16T15:37:00.002-05:002008-04-16T16:04:13.651-05:00

We're kind of winding down things here at Morning Star, actually. Reilly is still (yes, I know...still!) trucking along with Red Book and I'm so proud of her. Yesterday, I realized that she would need to do an average of three "lessons" a day instead of two in order to completely finish the curriculum by the end of the year...otherwise, we were going to have to go into the first week of June. So,

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-33202023868658662902008-04-09T12:03:00.003-05:002008-04-09T12:24:22.831-05:00

I don't know why I feel like I need to title each post, even though the posts are about...school...seeing as this is my homeschooling blog!Nothing really fantastic is going on right now. (Other than the fact that I'm apparantly choking on a pretzel!) How's that for an update? Ha ha, just kidding. Sorry, this has become less of a post and more of a stream of consciousness....Anyway, Reilly is

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-58815590938060606182008-04-03T15:18:00.003-05:002008-04-03T23:34:31.805-05:00

...we had a good, if short-ish day. I had to go to a store meeting this morning, which means we were all up and out of the house by 6:15. Once we got home, at about 8:30, it was a little bit hard for me to get up the gumption to start school. It's kind of cloudy and misty here today, and I would much rather have stayed in my jammies. But that wouldn't have gone over well at the store meeting.But,

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-17850087691027239092008-03-26T23:30:00.002-05:002008-03-26T23:54:40.225-05:00

I don't know why I've found it so hard to post lately! Maybe it's because I continue to feel like we're not doing anything worth blogging about. No big projects, no exciting unit studies, nothing. It's just sort of...school. BUT, in a continuing effort to keep all three of you updated, I'm going to try to do better.So here goes.In a handy list format.Reilly is chugging along in Learning Language

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21231960.post-4447625165216279372008-03-11T22:17:00.007-05:002008-03-12T07:35:51.154-05:00

Well, Troy has been on vacation for two weeks, so we didn't have "official" school. The great thing, however, is that we did do enough educational things that we aren't losing any days! Yippee! We went to the zoo, we went to a children's museum, and we did Reilly's science project for the homeschooling co-op science fair that was last Thursday. She did an experiment that we got out of a book,

Karate Momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18304194227534026530karatemomblog@yahoo.com1