love to paint

Sometimes curriculum works and sometimes it doesn't.  I think it has to work for both the parents and the children. Here are the conclusions I've come to over the past thirteen years since I began teaching.   For the parent, it has to "make sense".  It has to be easy to follow and give the parent the information they need in order to teach the material.   For  the child, it has to "make sense".  They need to be able to understand the material, process, and remember it.   Learning is much easier when both parent and child also want to study the curriculum and enjoy it.  If this is missing, learning can turn into a long, grueling period of pulling teeth.  Not always, but it can happen.  Sometimes you just have to plug and chug away knowing that there is a subject that neither of you enjoy and you just make the best of it.   Yesterday in the car on the way home from art, my middle daughter said to me, "Mommy, I don't like our s...

In homeschooling, there are so many different ways to approach spelling.  Many people choose a line of yearly spelling workbooks that their children work through each year.  Others use Spelling Power as a guide. Last year, I wrote a post with my spelling plan.  I use Spelling Power as my foundation for my oldest daughter.  For the words that she misspells, I use a plan similar to what my students used when I taught in public school.  Spelling Power includes a long explanation of how to teach spelling in the beginning of the book (in very small font!).  This program has worked wonderfully for my oldest daughter who rarely gets a word wrong from the lists. My second daughter is a different speller and so she needs a different approach to spelling to help her.  I wrote this post   in August as I prepared to tackle spelling in a different way this year with her.  Much of it has been successful, but some of it has not.  I discovered as we...

Right now, my printer is working really hard.  It's printing off a bunch of phonics worksheets from one of my favorite sites that's of course--free :)  Yay!  The site is:  http://www.carlscorner.us.com/   I realized that I had good goals for my middle daughter's phonics instruction this fall, but it has fallen far short of what I'd hoped becuase I didn't have an assembled packet for each week.  My plans were good ones, but the execution needed help.   So, this morning I set to work to get things together.  I came across an older boxed set of Hooked on Phonics, levels 2-5 at a book sale last week.  I did use the newer version of Hooked on Phonics with her already, but I need to accompany the sounding out with writing out the sounds.  So, we're doing the reading form the older books (which she hasn't seen before) and then following it up with worksheets from carl's corner.   (There's also a link to little book lane on the site that...

A few years ago, I wrote a post about the different translations of the Bible.  In the process of reviewing many books over the past few years, I considered different translations and the importance of what Bible I choose to read.  I had read the NIV translation for years.  Then, the ESV was published.  The church we attended at the time switched over to the ESV .   When it was time to choose a Bible for my children, I was puzzled.  I ended up choosing a NIrV Discoverer's Bible for my oldest daughter's first Bible when she was seven.  Then, she grew into the Grow! Bible ESV translation.  A year or two later, that Bible became my younger daughter's Bible and my older daughter acquired the ESV Seek and Find Bible .  Both girls have enjoyed both.  And for their needs and ages, these have been great Bibles.  They're both the ESV translation that we read in church so they can follow along easily.  But, both have notes and ad...

Pierced ears... Going to church with a friend in someone else's car (non-family member)... going shopping for clothes... talking on the phone... Ah... Growing up.  My oldest daughter is growing up.  On Sunday, she had her ears pierced.  I was the same age she is when I had mine pierced.  We went shopping last week for the first time for clothes.  I explained to her that many moms and daughters do this a lot.  She looked at me incredulously, "Really?" she asked. And then added, "I don't think I'd want to do that."  She surprises me. Then, last night came the phone.  A friend of hers had asked her to call at a certain time, so she did.  Her friend asked if she could talk for half an hour.  My daughter replied that she didn't think so.  That would be too long.  But, then she proceeded to talk.  I overheard bits and pieces as the two of them figured out what to talk about.  My daughter asked about her friend's lizard ...