love to paint

This week I realized that Autumn needed a literature guide/book report to go with the book she's about to read.  I looked around the web to see if I could find a free one, but I couldn't.  So, I decided to make one.  I've been working on it the past two days and I'm very excited.  Here's the contents of what will be in her lit guide (that can be used with any fiction book).  I've included links below. Fiction Literature Guide/Book Report: (for realistic or historical fiction, myths/legends/folktales, humor, legend, science fiction, fantasy, fairy tale, fable, or mystery) File #1:  http://lovetopaint.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/book-report-part-1.pdf File #2:  http://lovetopaint.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/book-report-part-2.pdf 1: Title Page  (included in my file) 2: Book Info (included in my file) On this page, include the title, author, illustrator, copyright date, publisher, number of pages, and genre. 3:  Prediction...

A friend of mine gave me a book to read yesterday because she wanted to know my opinion of it.  I knew she had some concerns, but I wanted to try and read it without any bias.  So, I sat down and began to read.  I read some and skimmed some.  I started to notice some commonalities in the way the author wrote about different topics.  I found that I had some concerns, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what they were.  I read a passage to my husband and he thought it was fine.  Still, something didn't seem quite right.  So, this morning I called my mother in law and explained that I wanted to talk through something with her.  I apologized beforehand and explained that it might not all make sense the first time it came out of my mouth.  She was fine with this.  Then, I told her what the book was about.  It was about teenage girls and inward beauty.  She said she really wanted to talk through this with me.  So, we bega...

Yesterday, Sami was working on syllabication.  I have my children go through all 8 books of Explode the Code and the 1/2 books as well.  In many ways, Autumn is a very easy student to teach.  But, some of her strengths lead to weaknesses in me.  She needs very little correction on her assignments, especially Explode the Code.  It clicks for her.  So, I never went over the instruction from the book on all of the syllibication rules. Sami is a different learner.  She is a kinesthetic learner, so although she does well when learning visually and auditorily, what she's learning doesn't click as quickly as it does for Autumn in the Explode the Code books. Sami is at the end of book 4 and I sat down with her to make a chart of the syllabication rules so we could both figure out together how to divide the words at the end of her book.  I have to admit that I never memorized the rules of syllabication, though I don't have any difficulty reading. ...

I am very thankful for the way that God weaves books into my life.  Back in January, I was blessed to read Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp.  God used that book to heal a wound in my heart that was there because of a hard experience we'd had with a church we'd once attended.  I realized that my wound was not a failing in me, but came because of a pitfall our pastor at the time had fallen into.  That book gave me compassion for that man and has helped me to remember to pray for him and other pastors in their weaknesses.  Pastors are human, just like everyone else, and they make mistakes that affect others.  They have a difficult job. This weekend I was blessed to read a second book that I know will have a huge impact on my heart and life over time.  I described this book as "an awesome book about PTSD" (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) to my Bible study on Sunday night.  The looks on the faces of the other people in the room told me they wer...

What I hadn't realized at the beginning of the year is that I am a classroom teacher who homeschools.  What I usually hear when I tell someone I have my master's degree in education and that I homeschool is "it must be easier for you."   It actually isn't.  It's just different.  In some ways, I think it does make it easier, but in many ways it also makes it harder.  I've learned more from homeschooling my children about how children learn and how to teach than I did when I was a classroom teacher.   How is it harder?  Well, homeschooling isn't classroom teaching.  You don't have the positive peer pressure of twenty or thirty students doing the same assignment at the same time and staying on task (hopefully).  You don't have daily, studentless planning time (even a little), because your kids are always there.  You have to juggle the needs of your home, friends, family, and homeschooling at the same time.  There's always something...

When I started looking for some math facts music, it was easy to find lots of multiplication music, but it wasn't as easy to find an addition cd that I liked.  A lot of the music either super "pop" py or is rap.  I did finally come across an addition album that my family likes.  The group who published it also published a multiplication album.   Jandie Jams/Kid Clever has two great albums.  The first is Listen in Addition .  There's a cute little board book that comes with the album.  One page is for each song.  The first ten songs cover zero to nine.  The next song is all the numbers that add up to ten.  This is a helpful song, because kids really need to have these facts down pat as they add double digits.  The next song is adding doubles and the last song wraps things up.   Amazon doesn't have any samples of the songs, but the Kid Clever site does.  You can find it HERE .  There's a spot where you can hear sam...

One thing I hate is getting rejected.  I really hate it.  Really, really hate it.  My husband actually says that when I fear rejection or think it's going to happen, I start to act like a porcupine.  I bristle and start walking in the other direction. When people reject me, my inward response is to tell myself to walk away.  Walk away FAST.  In the other direction. But, there's another part of me.  This super, duper strong willed part that won't give up.  It's that part of me that doesn't want people to think things of me that aren't true.  I don't want to be criticized for things I've done right, but that they think I've done wrong!  It's a horrible feeling to realize that sometimes you won't be able to help someone understand that you didn't do anything wrong.  Does that mean they're wrong?  Why does it have to be me to take the criticism that I don't deserve? That strong will also makes me persist even when I know peop...

We've been pressing on with our memorization of math facts.  Autumn just finished up her addition facts on XtraMath.com  and was excited to begin her subtraction facts. A month ago, I posted a review of a skip-counting cd, 100 Sheep and Counting , that my family has loved.  Today I want to post a review of a second cd:   Multiplication Mountain by Hap Palmer. Hap Palmer has been making educational kids' albums for many years.   Multiplication Mountain was published in 2009.  Many of his cds are a mixture of different concepts, but this one focuses solely on multiplication.  The cd has two tracks for every number.  The first fills in the answers for each multiplication fact.  The second song leaves a blank for children to fill in the answer to the multiplication facts.  My daughter likes this a lot.  Each song is a different tune--which I think matters.  A child is trying to remember the facts and the tune will run th...

My last post was about critical thinking and I realized that I forgot to mention why I began integrating logic into our curriculum.  What prompted me? I have three children who are extremely creative.  My oldest is compliant and my second and third are extremely strong willed.  Yet, I realized early on with all three that one of the most difficult skills for children to acquire is the desire to not give up!  To try, try again, and then try again.  They need to learn to keep trying. I remember watching my oldest daughter learn to ride a bike.   I went about it all wrong.  I didn't recognize the disadvantage she was at.  We lived in a neighborhood with sidewalks and because of how cars drove down the streets, she had to learn on the sidewalks--narrow sidewalks.  It was hard.  My second daughter and son learned in a wide driveway and then a large parking lot.  They learned more quickly and easily.  But, for all three, they str...