Journey to Excellence

On my personal blog I have been posting about the changes we have been making to our eating habits. (If you are visiting from there today, welcome!) Changes were definitely needed, but especially for Brynne. All of the members of our family are tall, thin and lanky. We have never had to watch what we eat. We've tried to keep it on the healthy(er) side, but it was a no-stress situation. But Brynne is built different than the other kids in that she is shorter, stockier, and more broad across her chest. Over the past couple of years she has gained weight consistently and especially in her stomach and chest. Part of the problem is a lactose intolerance. She has also shown some signs of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I did a lot of research and made some slight changes. Two big ones were putting her back on her lactose free dairy products and eliminating IBS trigger foods (minimal red meats, no artificial sweeteners, very limited insoluble fiber). I could see some changes, especially wit...

The moment I had dreaded since I started homeschooling Brynne (and then Eli) had arrived ... it's was time to teach multiplication!  I don't know why this has been such an area of stress for me, but it has! We have been using a Hungarian model of mathematics for the past three years. Brynne calls it "paper math". So I was very interested to review an online math program! A+ Tutorsoft, Inc.  has an interactive program called A+ Interactive MATH  that can either be utilized online or by use of cd. We chose to review the 2nd grade Homeschool Edition - Multi-sensory Interactive MATH Online program, because it was the first program that introduced multiplication. My children are actually third graders, but I just researched the program's website and determined that the introductory multiplication lessons would work best for us. It was a good match. There are also FREE placement tests available. The approach of A+ Interactive MATH. is unique in that it is a...

What in the heck did we do this week? I am sitting here starting this post and, for the life of me, it seems as though we have done nothing! In our regular life this week… Well one reason it has felt like we have done nothing is because these last two days we haven't! We got several inches of snow yesterday so, of course, we had to declare a couple of snow days. Thursday was spent indoors all day because it was snowing and blowing and even thundering in the middle of a snow storm! Today, however, there was much playing outside and we even ventured a walk to grandma's for lunch. Yes, I was there, too! In our homeschool this week… So let's break it down. I guess we did get some schoolwork accomplished, but I will admit, we were not very motivated all week. I guess we have the mid-February slumps that homeschoolers get. Bible ~ On Monday we watched "The Prince of Egypt" to give the kids a visualization of the deliverance, plagues, and exodus. ...

Although I am late getting this up and won't be able to participate in the Linky, I still wanted to post our activities surrounding the book Edward and the Pirates by David McPhail. We had never read anything by David McPhail, so we checked out a couple of his books and read them. McPhail is an author we really enjoyed. His illustrations were brilliant, too. What I really loved about the books was his obvious love of reading. In fact, reading is a main theme in all of the Edward books. We happened to be doing a unit study on Maps, so reading a book about pirates and a treasure map was extra fun. Here are a couple of the activities we did: A math grid assignment helping us find the treasure. Fun! Peripheral vision activity. Depth perception activity. I had planned to make a treasure map and send the kids on a scavenger hunt to find a hidden treasure. But, we never got around to it. We got deep into our Maps study and just never fo...

Today marked our 100th day of school for the year! It is President's Day, and the public schools are out today (including Dawson's school), but I wanted us to celebrate our accomplishment anyway. We slept in a bit and then spent the morning watching "The Prince of Egypt". We are studying Moses and the deliverance and exodus of the Israelites, so I thought the movie would be a great way to end that study. I had forgotten what a good movie it was. The kids really enjoyed it! (Eli may or may not have cried a couple of times.) For our 100th Day celebration, I shamelessly copied all of Heidi's ideas: The kids were greeted with whiteboard welcome sign in the dining room. I prepared a "100" worksheet with questions for them to answer. Then I cut out "100" on cardstock and had them get creative using the numbers to make a picture. Eli made a mine cart and Brynne made a catapult. We did 100 exercises, put together a 100 piece puzzl...

Hola. Yo me llamo la maestra Nicole. ?Como te llamas? These are just some of the phrases we are now able to put together thanks to Classical Academic Press' wonderful product Song School Spanish . My kids have been wanting to learn Spanish so the opportunity to review this product came at the perfect time. The review products we received included the paperback Teacher's Edition and Student Text , as well as a CD adhered to the back jacket of the Student Text containing 42 catchy songs and chants that are a capstone of the lessons. Song School Spanish is intended to be an introductory Spanish course for children grades K-3 and includes vocabulary, handwriting, games and activities. Completing the 31 lessons prepares the student for Classical Academic Press' product, Spanish for Children . How We Used the Curriculum Including the short daily lessons of Song School Spanish into our day was an easy transition. The text has a recommended schedule, and w...

In our regular life this week… I am going through a little period of discouragement right now which, unfortunately, leaks into everything I do. My walks have been really great. The exercise and fresh air helps a lot. I've just spent a lot of time in my Bible, praying, listening to worship music, and trying to look at the positive sides of everything, while giving it all I've got in every area. Still .... Dawson is working hard at his new job. I heard (via my sister who read it on Facebook .. I hate that) that Kyndal will be running track at her school this year. She has never run track before, so I am glad to see her try something new. A very exciting thing happened for Brynne while eating lunch at Co-op on Thursday ... her other front tooth fell out! I have officially lost my last baby. Once they lose their two front teeth, it's all over. In our homeschool this week… This was another great week with lots accomplished! Bible ~ We moved from the n...