Showing posts with label homeschooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homeschooling. Show all posts

Friday, May 19, 2017

Fly on the Wall-May 2017

Welcome to a Fly on the Wall group post. Today 9 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house.


Buzz around, see what you think, then click on these links for a peek into some other homes:

Baking In A Tornado                  
Menopausal Mother                     http://www.menopausalmom.com/
Searching for Sanity                 http://singlemumplusone.blogspot.com
Spatulas on Parade                    http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/
A Little Piece of Peace                 http://little-piece-of-peace.blogspot.com
Never Ever Give Up Hope                   http://batteredhope.blogspot.com
Bookworm in the Kitchen                http://www.bookwormkitchen.com/  
Not That Sarah Michelle                  http://notthatsarahmichelle.blogspot.com


I officially closed my homeschool this month. I took Boo to the college and she is now going through their High School Equivalency Program. Let me tell you, it is such a relief to be finished with the stress. I don't have any regrets, but I was just burned out by it all. I don't know how people with more than two kids keep doing it year after year. They should be awarded a medal!

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I called our insurance company to find out how much our insurance will go up when we add Clone of Bob so that he can get his license. I was so angry that I called another company for a second quote and their number was even higher than our current company! The rate is going to more than triple!!!! It's not quite as much as my car payment, but it's not far from it either!

We were given the advice by two different agents to buy a cheap car and add it to the insurance with liability only. Supposedly, this would bring our rates down because Clone of Bob would be "attached" to the liability-only car. Now we're pulling our hair out scrimping and saving and trying to find a decent, cheap, used car. Clone of Bob is saving, too, which will help, but it's still a very frustrating process. 

One thing about it...I won't have to take him to work anymore. I've been doing it for months and it would be nice if I didn't have to do it anymore. 

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I've got a new project...I have not decided exactly what I am going to do with it yet. I'd seriously love to restore it, but everyone that I've shown it to thinks I should just clean it up and leave it be. 



I plan to gently clean it up and see what happens...I'll be sure to post an update once I'm done. A tutorial if I end up redoing it. 

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I learned not to read a book while also watching the TV show based on said book. I got kinda frustrated the other night when I saw an ad for "James Patterson's Zoo" on CBS. I started whining to DH that I hadn't even had a chance to read the book yet! He pointed out that the upcoming season wasn't even the first one. This was news to me. Honestly. 

So, the next morning I found the book on my library's electronic app and borrowed it. I got 135 pages into it and decided to see if the show was on the CBS All Access app since the book was turning out to be pretty interesting. When I found that it wasn't there, I was then on a quest to find the series. I found it on Netflix and I was so excited that I watched the first episode and I hadn't even finished the book!

Needless to say, the TV series starts way different from the book and decided that I needed to finish the darn book before I watched any more episodes and got thoroughly ticked off. 

Does it drive you bonkers when they make major changes to a book for the movie? I can't count the number of times I was ready to tear my hair out after watching a movie based on a book. 

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Sometimes You Can't Be Cheap

Both of my kids are using the Currents in Literature curriculum this year. Boo is using the Genre Volume and Clone of Bob is using the American Volume.

Both of my kids got behind in their books this year...we're only 12 weeks into our school year!

A couple of weeks ago I figured out why. I was making them use the computer worksheets I made to put their answers in so that I could re-use or re-sell the books when they were done. So, they saw that as extra work and kept putting the work off. I finally asked them if I let them write in the books if they would be able to work faster and catch the work up...

It worked! They're both catching up the work like it was the easiest thing they've done in a while. It's amazing how a little shift in HOW something is done can make such a huge difference! So, I will not be posting "workbooks" for the next two books in the Currents in Literature series. I don't need them. Although, I will have to buy each book twice for my kids. I think it's worth it if they're learning and getting the work done!

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Free "Workbook"--Currents in Literature--American Volume



Last year I posted a "workbook" for Currents in Literature--Genre Volume. I still haven't finished the type in pages, mainly because the way I was doing it was way too time consuming. This year, I was smart and kept everything generic. No drop-down lists or anything like that. Clone of Bob was disappointed, but I informed him that he was plenty old enough to type in his answers. He was getting off easy as it was.

I did not make a printable copy. If there is interest, I'll make one. Right now, my kids plan to use the type-it-in forms, not the ones I have to print (I'm sure my printer is thanking us).

Anyhow, I got all of them done for this book...I still need to go back and finish the ones for the Genre Volume. Clone of Bob goofed off last year and didn't even finish the book...needless to say that his Literature "grade" is not impressive.

Again, this isn't a teachers guide or an answer key. These are type-it-in files so that your child does not write in the book. The ISBN# of the book I used is: 978-1-56765-144-7. I have not gotten an answer key yet, so I don't know the ISBN for that.

Currents in Literature: American Volume (Microsoft Word files)

Currents_Literature_AmericanCH1

Currents_Literature_AmericanCH2

Currents_Literature_AmericanCH3

Currents_Literature_AmericanCH4

Currents_Literature_AmericanCH5

Currents_Literature_AmericanCH6

Currents_Literature_AmericanCH7

Currents_Literature_AmericanCH8

Currents_Literature_AmericanCH9

Currents_Literature_AmericanCH10

Currents_Literature_AmericanCH11

Currents_Literature_AmericanCH12

Currents_Literature_AmericanU1

Currents_Literature_AmericanU2

Currents_Literature_AmericanU3

Currents_Literature_AmericanU4



I'm going to play with these and see if I can convert them to PDF, but still maintain the type-it-in aspect.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Free Printable "Workbook"-Currents in Literature- Genre Volume

I decided to give this literature curriculum a try this year for Clone of Bob; he'll be in 9th grade. He's ADHD and just plain lazy sometimes. I needed something that he could teach himself, and I can give it to him in bite-sized pieces. This series covers all aspects of language arts: reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar & spelling. After looking over the spelling, I've decided to keep using the spelling curriculum we have.



This is a consumable book, but I want to be able to reuse the book for Boo, so I made a 'workbook' to accompany it. I am making it available for others to download and use.

THIS IS NOT A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK ITSELF. YOU WILL NEED YOUR OWN COPY OF Currents in Literature: Genre Volume (ISBN: 9781567651478). THIS IS ONLY WORKSHEETS FOR YOU TO PRINT OUT SO YOU CAN REUSE OR RESELL THE BOOK.

This book does not include the answers, and I had to do a search to find the teacher's guide: I'm pretty sure this is it, I haven't ordered my copy yet.

If this book works out for us this year, we'll move on to the next books. And when we do, I'll make new workbooks for those as well.

Below you will find a file for each chapter, and a file for each unit review. These are all Adobe (PDF) files:

Currents-Genre-Chap1

Currents-Genre-Chap2

Currents-Genre-Chap3

Currents-Genre-Chap4

Currents-Genre-Chap5

Currents-Genre-Chap6

Currents-Genre-Chap7

Currents-Genre-Chap8

Currents-Genre-Chap9

Currents-Genre-Chap10

Currents-Genre-Chap11

Currents-Genre-Chap12

Currents-Genre-Unit1

Currents-Genre-Unit2

Currents-Genre-Unit3

Currents-Genre-Unit4

The formatting for each one is not exactly the same. I worked on this project over a period of weeks...
*UPDATE*

Clone of Bob was complaining about all of the physical writing he had to do in this book (what a whiner), so I made some that were fill-in pages. All I had to do was email the files to his computer and he could type his answers in. As I finish chapters (I'm doing them as needed) I'll post them here.

*UPDATE 5/8/2014*

I have re-done some of the files and re-uploaded them. Mainly, this is for uniformity. I know one of the chapters had a mistake, which I fixed, but I don't remember which one it was.

Currents-Genre-Chap1

Currents-Genre-Chap2

Currents-Genre-Chap3

Currents-Genre-Chap4

Currents-Genre-Chap5

Currents-Genre-Chap6

Currents-Genre-Chap7

Currents-Genre-Chap8

Currents-Genre-Chap9

Currents-Genre-Unit1

Currents-Genre-Unit2

Currents-Genre-Unit3
I am currently working on the rest. Please feel free to comment if you find any mistakes!

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Africa's Rift Valley Unit Study

I haven't posted much on homeschooling, if anything, and I saw a picture from the Rift Valley in Africa yesterday that blew me away. I'll admit that I had never heard of Africa's Rift Valley. I decided to put together a small unit study for my kids and found some great resources!



I found some websites I'll have my kids visit:

Geology.com

Exploring the Environment- if you play around with this site, there are numerous resources, including modules and teacher resources.

National Geographic

Kidcyber

There were also numerous videos:

Great Rift Valley ~ Africa - YouTube

Life Force: Africa's Rift Valley - YouTube

Mutant Planet: African Rift Valley Lakes : Videos : Science Channel- This is an episode, I don't know how long it will be available. You can also watch it on Amazon if you have Prime membership.

Geography Lesson: East African Rift Valley - YouTube

Other resources:

How The World Goes Round: The Great African Rift Valley A2 Unit Four Case Study - blog

Geolor's Earth Science Issues

I think my kids will have fun with this!!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

About Me and My Blog

I've been married for 18 years and am homeschooling two children. We'll call the hubby Bob and the children Clone of Bob and Boo (no, those aren't their real names).

Clone of Bob is 13 years old, currently, and he's in 8th grade... I'm not looking forward to starting high school with him next school year.

Boo is almost 12 years old and in 6th grade, technically, but I know she's ahead of her grade in some things.

I am going into my 4th of 6 semesters in college, working towards my degree in Medical Office Administration. I do hope to be able to work from home as a coding specialist or maybe as a  medical transcriptionist.

I love to crochet, and do that while watching TV. I also love to read, although I haven't been doing as much of that since starting college. I read for enjoyment, mostly fiction... it's my getaway.

I'm sure there's more about me I could add, but you'll have plenty of time to get to know me, later.

My friend Stacy from ( http://stacysewsandschools.wordpress.com/ ) Stacy Sews and Schools convinced me that I needed to do this, so if I bore you to death on occasion, you can blame her :)

I will talk about many things... school, homeschooling, housekeeping, crafts, crocheting, and maybe even knitting (even if it's just to vent my frustrations as I teach myself how to knit). I might also include couponing from time to time.