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.