End of the Road

For quite some time now, I've been rethinking the purpose of this blog. I had intended to use it to chronicle our homeschool experiences which I've done on a very small scale. I have found that so much of our daily lives intertwines with school that I don't want to have separate blogs for "regular" life and "homeschool" life. This is the end of the road for Schooling Mancubs.

Even though this is my last post on this blog, you can still read about our lives, homeschool and otherwise, at my main blog Always Come Home. I would love to merge Schooling Mancubs with Always Come Home, but I'm not sure if that's a possibility. If anyone knows, please let me know.

Thanks to those who've been reading about my little world. Hope you'll still follow me and share your comments, too!

Summer Addition

We love math at our house! But we especially love this kind of addition...

5 anxious, impatient people + 1 baby girl = 6 blessed family members

Sadie Kathryn joined our family on July 16th, 2009. To read more about her and our family, click on the link to my family blog "Always Come Home."

Grass Head

My friend, Jill and I, taught a preschool class at our local homeschool co-op this spring using everyday things you'd have around your house. Our last project was making grass heads. We used a knee-high stocking, potting soil, grass seed, google eyes and hot glue to assemble this funny project. Isaac has really enjoyed watching the "hair" sprout on his grass head. Our intention was for the grass to only sprout on the top like a mohawk, but since Isaac thinks he is David (as in David and Goliath) the filled knee-high made a perfectly weighted sling shot therefore mixing the grass seed throughout the sock growing whiskers and back hair, too! I was able to make grass heads with my older boys as well and we're just beginning to see the grass sprout...a great hands-on activity to go with our plant and seed studies for science.

Herkimer Diamond Mines

Mike took Elijah and Luke to the Herkimer Diamond Mines to experience the fun of rock collecting. Mike's brother, Kris, an avid rock collector, met them at the mines to search with them for the day. The boys have a great rock collection consisting of random rocks they've found around our yard, people's driveways, etc. Uncle Kris would likely call most of their collection "leaverights" as in "Leave 'er right there." But to young boys sometimes it's not the quality, but the quantity, color and shape that matter most. After getting the hang of spotting the "diamonds" (actually, they are quartz crystals), the boys were on a roll, working very hard all day long. In fact, after spending 6 hours of searching, pounding, climbing and retrieving, they did not want to leave for home.

Daddy and the boys on the rock pile where they searched all day...with blue Gatorade stains around their mouths!

A diamond still intact in the rock

The diamonds they were able to free from the rocks. A valuable and treasured addition to their rock collection! This trip was a great way to whet their appetites for our study of Earth Science planned for the fall.

Dairy Farm Trip

We took a field trip with our homeschool group to a dairy farm with over 2,000 cows. I was fascinated with learning some of the details about running a farm this size while my boys were fascinated with seeing cows up close. This is a strange twist in our boys current suburbanite upbringing compared to my country "surrounded-by-dairy-farms-and-my-grandpa-was-a-farmer" upbringing...cows to my boys are like elephants to me. We visit our local zoo quite frequently and so it's "no big deal" to my boys to see the elephants or rhinos. But show them a cow, deer or pig and there are ooh's and aah's all over the place. The smell of the farm was like "coming home" while my boys were practically gagging and begging to leave the barn. Oh my! No wonder my "still-live-in-the-country" family think we're turning into city folk...and that's why were are constantly searching current homes sales to find our "perfect" mini-farm. We want our children to have the kind of country life we had growing up. Not that I want to own cows though...

Ollie's Bargains

A trip to Ollie's yielded a $40 cartload of bargains...most to keep and some for gifts. Our favorites so far are the giant U.S. Map puzzle (the boys favorite) and the Janette Oke Animal Friends series (my favorite). The Animal Friends series is great for Elijah's reading level right now with short, simple chapters and colorful illustrations throughout. Each book is approximately 60 pgs. long and recommended for ages 7-10. Each story teaches a different character trait with an animal being the main character/narrator. These books were $1.99 each at Ollie's while CBD sells them for $5.99 each. WOW!!! I love a good bargain!!!

Rosetta Stone Give Away

Want a chance to win a Rosetta Stone Language program? Here are the details from http://jeneralities.com


Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update.

This is a $259 program. This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

Isaac "Reads"

Not one to be left in the background, Isaac typically declares, "Me turn now" at some point during the day so he can do "me (school) work wike me big brudders, Ewi and Wukey!" Usually I spent some time reading books, counting fingers and toes, naming body parts, etc. with him during his "school time." After seeing Luke read a book today, Isaac wanted to have his turn to "read" as well.

"The Bus" read by Isaac...

Luke Reads "The Bus"

Luke, mainly because of his persistence at this point, is eagerly jumping into Kindergarten type work though he doesn't technically need to start until the fall of 2009 or 2010. He's just weeks shy of 5 years old. Math is his favorite. He joins in most days with Elijah's first grade math work. He loves learning to read and has made good progress especially in the past few weeks. He chose a book titled "The Bus" this morning and I recorded his second read through. He is proving that his Kindergarten year will be much "easier" than my initial year of homeschooling. He is farther ahead than I anticipated and I am more confident in my ability to teach my children.

Enjoy...

Budding Musicians

The boys have been taking piano lessons this year and really seem to enjoy it. Our teacher, Miss June, is a pleasure to work with and she makes learning the piano fun. We had been using a large keyboard, but decided it was time to find a piano. We found this one on Craig's List at a reasonable price. The body is a little scratched up, but that works for our lively household and all the active play that takes place in our livingroom. All we need to do now is get it tuned and keep practicing!!!

Counting to 100

We play lots of math learning games with Luke. He participates with Elijah on a lot of his Saxon 1 lessons, but I know he has gaps in some of his math skills due to jumping ahead with Elijah. I've been trying to fill those gaps and one approach that I take with him (and with all the boys for that matter) is to challenge them to "beat" mom or steal all my pieces, cards, etc. away from me by getting the correct answer.

On this particular day, I was using our Abeka Numbers Flashcards (0-200). I gave Luke the cards in sets of 10 and scrambled them to see if he could place them back in the correct order. Then we recited the numbers together as we gathered them up to put away. At first he was reluctant, but after the first few sets and my overly dramatic response to him correctly ordering the numbers, he was hooked. I very much enjoyed his somewhat fake sounding, loud laughter as he watched me check his work with disbelief and shock on my face. I also love the fact that he covers his mouth and starts giggling as I started heading toward him. What a sweet (and very smart) boy!!!

Dog House

The boys had the opportunity to paint bobble head dogs at their Keepers of the Faith program at church this past Sunday (yesterday). Their fascination with the dogs has lead to dreams of dog houses, dog names, dog toys, dog house accessories, etc. I decided to help them create a dog house and count this as our art project for the week. We used a cardboard box and cut and taped to the shape we wanted, then set up for painting. If you look closely, you can see their dogs sitting at the table patiently waiting for their new home to be created and decorated.

We created a removable portion of the roof so they could add more toys and "food" for the dogs as needed without reach into the doorway. They decided that the removable roof was also a great idea for sunny days so the dogs would not have to sit in the dark but could still be protected from the rain on wet days.

Luke's dog is named Spot.

Elijah's dog is named Jeffrey Digger.

Here's the finished dog house with Isaac and his special Ruff-ruff (aka dirty dog - he was seriously chewed on and loved and has turned a lovely shade of browny grey instead of the shiny grey of his original coat). Maybe we'll have to do a little unit on dogs or atleast read some great doggie stories!

Geography

As part of our weekly lessons, I have the boys engage in geography studies. With our history curriculum The Story of the World, we are learning ancient geography, but I wanted to add continents, US geography, and current world geography. I use a variety of learning tools - a laminated place mat with continents on one side and a US map on the opposite side, state flashcards, a world geography flip chart, a US floor puzzle and our globe. We recently ordered two books by Rand McNally that the boys really enjoy looking through. Some of the information is above their grade level and reading ability, but the simple facts are listed on each page about that state or country - pictures of the flag, bird, flower, tree, etc. as well as a listing of the capital, population, highest points, area, etc. I can always read the other information to them and the boys will not outgrow these atlas' for quite a while.

Looking through the Rand McNally Children's Illustrated Atlas of the United States. Elijah typically reads (or tries to read) the state's name and they look at the state flag, bird, tree and flower, then move on to the next page.

Here is the globe that we own. It is a GeoSafari Talking Globe Jr. that gives facts and information. The boys can then play games quizzing their memory and knowledge of facts just learned. I found it for a steal a few years back at almost half price...it is pricey. But, my boys really enjoy it.

How Your Body Works

In our science studies, we've been using Christian Kids Explore Biology by Stephanie Redmond. I appreciate how the author weaves our Christian faith into every lesson. As a Christian, is there really any other way to talk about the awesome creation around us without talking about God, our creator??? We've just begun our study of the human body. Of course, we have our Human Body Flip Chart mentioned in a previous post that will be a favorite around here for years.

Two books we've found useful and right on my boy's level are The Busy Body Book: A Kid's Guide to Fitness by Lizzy Rockwell






The Best Book of the Human Body by Barbara Taylor. I delight in seeing my boy's faces as they discover new things about how our bodies are made...206 bones???!!! They just couldn't get over it...so we had to count to 206!





I came across a website the boys loved playing around with called How The Body Works. There are movies to view about each body system and body parts/organs, where each part is located in the body, activities, quizzes and articles to read among other helpful information related to health. After showing the boys how to maneuver the site, they mostly watched videos as some of the information was above their grade level.

The timing is great for this topic in our house as the boys are questioning more about our baby due in July. Luke was surprised to know that the baby is "naked" right now and will NOT be born fully dressed. Ha, ha! What a neat way to bring real life to school studies!

King Tut

In our Story of the World studies, we're reading about King Tut and the discovery of his mummy and treasures. I found this chapter book about the life of Howard Carter and the team that discovered King Tut's tomb. It's an easy read and presents our topic in story form instead of fact laden pages in picture books. Don't get me wrong, it's essential that we use the non-fiction picture books, but this is a nice change of pace. And it works as our Read-Aloud this week!

The Uterus

This flip chart has been a favorite the last few weeks upon rediscovery of the page on Reproduction and Pregnancy. I've begun telling the boys more specific details about the baby and my body in response to their questions. The best question so far, because we say that Mama has a baby in her tummy, is about whether the baby is mixed in my tummy with all the food I eat. I explained that the baby is actually in my uterus or womb separate from my stomach and food. Now, every few days, particularly when I'm wearing a snug shirt, Elijah comes up to me and puts his hand on my growing tummy and says, "I know our baby is growing because I can see your uterus." Ha!


I'm just waiting for the BIG question that I know will come..."How does the baby get out???" In the past, I've answered that there is a special opening on a Mama's body for their babies to be born. I think they'll want a more specific location this time...and if Elijah can read the chart he may figure it out on his own!

Set

The boys received a new game for Christmas - Set: The Family Game of Visual Perception. The object of the game is to identify a "set" of 3 cards from 12 cards laid out on the table. Each card has four features which vary as follows:

(A) Symbols: ovals, squiggles, diamonds
(B) Colors: red, green, purple
(C) Number: one, two or three symbols
(D) Shading: filled in, outlined, striped

A "set" consists of 3 cards in which each of the card's features, looked at one-by-one, are the same on each card, or, are different on each card. All of the features must separately satisfy this rule. In other words, shape must be either the same on the 3 cards, or different on each of the 3; color must be either the same on the 3 cards, or different on each of the 3; etc. (game explanation taken from instruction guide)

Do you spot any sets???

Elijah LOVES this game!