Mom Is Teaching

Halloween, photos, kids, fun, wordless wednesday

Some people remember things visually best. They cannot recall the name of the road but can see the houses on it, or they cannot remember the name of a singer but can remember his face perfectly. When trying to remember important appointments for those who are more visual having a planner that they can look at and see their appointments helps them to remember.

But some need more visual clues, an image that they can recall in their mind later. Creating a visual calender is the perfect way to help them remember what they are scheduled to do. I have a very basic one for my oldest son. Though I am not the best at art, I drew images of what he has scheduled for every day. The image of the paint brush helps him to recall that we will be painting later, the image of the library reminds him what day we go to get books.

Even older children can be helped with recalling details if there is a visual image they can associate with it. Use photos, magazine cut outs, or hand drawings to stick on a blank calender. You can even use a plain white board to write and errase around the images. Or use smaller images tucked inside a blank book or journal for visual clues.

You can find other great tips at Works For Me Wednesday. And don’t forget to enter in my giveaway for some great homeschooling books.

reminders, calender, Works For Me Wednesday

I read an interesting article last night on America’s Most Sedentary Cities. The article talks about the top 20 cities in the US where people weigh the most, exercise the least, and spend their free time staring at the boob tube. In a culture that obsesses over every pound celebrities weigh it is odd to think about how little we care about our own weight. If we do care it seems we are not doing much to better ourselves. And yes, I’ll add myself to that group. I’ve still got the post-quitting smoking and post-baby jiggle in my middle.

We know that exercise is good for us. Not only does it keep us physically fit it also keeps blood pumping oxygen to our brains and helps us think. Even jsut a short 6 minute workout can make all the difference. And it certainly helps our kids. Getting them up and moving keeps them calmer and more alert, and is certainly better than watching TV all day.

So what can you do to keep your kids moving? Letting them get physical while they are learning is one easy way. Who needs to sit at the table to do their work? Have them run around the couch, jump up the stairs, or skip rope while working. Include lots of breaks where they can run and play and crawl and anything else they want to do. And even better, be their role model. Get your butt out of the chair (I’m talking to myself here) and get moving with them.

exercise, weight, parents, kids

I am pretty excited to be taking part in Shannon’s Fall, Y’all! giveaway. Her summer givaway was huge, and I think I ran myself ragged entering as many giveaways as I could. There were just so many great things up for grabs. Sow ehn she announced the fall one I knew I had to join. I think I went through a few hundred ideas of what to give away to one lucky person before I had the perfect one. Pulled straight from my personal collection I am giving away 3 great homeschooling books. These are perfect for a beginner homeschooler, or just someone thinking about it.

The titles are: Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School by Rebecca Rupp, The Homeschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith, and Homeschool Your Child for Free: More Than 1,200 Smart, Effective, and Practical Resources for Home Education on the Internet and Beyond by LauraMaery Gold. These are great resources for any homeschooler to have on hand. And I’m giving them away to one lucky person!

All you have to do is leave me a comment right here telling me that you want these books. You have from now until November 1 to get your comment in. Then on November 2nd I will choose one random comment to win.

And while you’re here check out my other giveaway at Creative Mom Cafe. I have some great crafty books up for grabs.

Fall, Y’all! Giveaway, giveaway, contest, books, homeschool

I’m a planner by nature, but loose enough not to want a strict schedule. My plans are usually more like themes that I can build on as I go. I write down the general idea, any important parts I want to focus on, and a few ideas that are already brewing. The rest I create as I go. Doing things this way keeps our days free to enjoy what may come up. Though we do stick with somewhat of a schedule it is still fairly free. For instance Mondays we read a new story based on the week’s theme, Tuesday is fun project day, Wednesday we paint, and so on.

This week we are going to read Little Red Hen and bake some homemade bread of our own. I’ve also got an idea for a lapbook I want to make, but it seems my printer has died. I am hoping that when we take recycling in we can run by the library and print off the couple pages I have put together for it. Since we also are learning ASL our words this week will be “bread“, “help“, “friend” and “cook“. We may also add in some animal names as we already have “red” and “eat” in our vocabulary.

Of course with this week having Halloween we’ll also be doing lots of fun Halloween stuff. Ghosts and pumpkins will fill our house for certain. But I wanted to focus on the autumn harvest aspects a bit more, like harvesting wheat to make into bread.

Does anyone else have any fun plans for this week?

homeschooling, Little Red Hen, bread, homemade bread

It’s another Friday installment of Questions for Homeschoolers! Where you ask the questions and other people answer them.

That was my game show announcer voice. What do you think?

OK, on to the question. The question this week is one that I am sure many homeschoolers have faced at least once. And it has to do with money. Isn’t the universal issue we all face, money? We all want what is bet for our kids, but sometimes that seems to come with a hefty price tag.

How to choose the right curriculum with out costing a fortune?

Doesn’t this question come up often? Money always seems to be a huge deciding factor for new homeschoolers, ones who see the packages costing hundreds of dollars and immediately fall over. I’ve talked before about homeschooling not being expensive and I’m sure I’ll talk about it again and again. Mostly because it seems to be one of the first questions nw to homeschooling families ask. It also is one of the issues people against homeschooling have, that they feel a single family cannot afford all the things that a typical school has.

So please share your thoughts and ideas on educating kids without spending a small fortune. I know we all have tips on this one!

And if you have a question that you would like to see posted feel free to ask! You can either leave a comment or send it to me in the contact form. I hope to hear from you soon!

Back in September I wrote about why I love homeschooling. It was a fun list that inspired a few others to share their own joyous homeschooling reaons. Recently Jo decided to share her 8 reasons because of that post. And picking up on the bandwagon (no, you’re not a lemming) Eden shared her 8 reasons And last Thursday Melissa asked people to share their reasons for homeschooling.

I smell a trend coming on. Is anyone else going to jump onboard? I always love reading why other familes choose to homschool and what parts of it are their favorites. So if anyone lse decides to share let me know. I’d love to come read it!

homeschooling, kids, fun, life

13 Things You Didn’t Know Were Educational I think we’ve all been there. Doing something mundane and ordinary when suddenly it becomes a teaching moment for our kids. Who knew that every moment of your day is an opportunity for kids to learn? When you break free from the “learning only happens from 8-3″ mindset the number of moments that we see as educational blossoms. Here are a few of the fun ones we’ve had lately. 1. Watching the moss grow. I know, it’s moss. But the green stuff fasinates my boys. Pull some up from the sidewalk, pull out the magnifying glass, and fire up Google. 2. Pouring a bowl of cereal. “Where does creal come from? Who makes it? Why? Why? Why?” This is why mommy needs coffee in the morning. He’s ready to learn before I’m out of my jammies and fuzzy slippers. 3. Doing the laundry. “Mommy why is your silver shirt so soft? What’s silk? Let’s go find silk worms in the back yard! What do you mean they aren’t out there?” 4. Going to the post office. We’ve got math (paying for postage), history (Why does this building look so old?), and that socializing everyone keeps talking about (Honey, the nice woman needs to get back to work now. You can stop talking anytime now…) 5. Taking a picture. Especially when I go old school and pull out the polaroid. 6. Driving. Anywhere. Especially if you’re packed right. 7. Paying bills. There’s more of the socialization and a chance to be questioned fifty million times if the electric company will really turn off the power if I buy the boys toys instead of paying the bills. 8. Looking through old photo albums. I think explaining why mommy used to dress so funny is a lesson in history, culture, and society that no child should be without. 9. Finding a dead bird on the front porch. Next to a very content cat. That was difficult to explain without tears. My own included. 10. Checking my email. With a pre/early reader in the house I can’t get on for 5 minutes without “What does that spell? What does that say? That’s an E! And there’s a D! And…” 11. Going to the park. Sure it seems like just a bunch of fun, but there are also some great educational moments. Like if you spin mommy too fast on the merry-go-round she will need to lay very still in the grass for at least 15 minutes. 12. Having a baby. Ask anyone with more than 1 child how much their older kids learned by having a sibling. Just changing diapers alone is a learning experience for everyone. 13. Visiting the grandparents. What can’t you learn when sitting on Papa’s lap?

Thursday Thirteen, homeschooling, education, kids, fun

I’m finishing up a fun Jack-O-Lantern flag to hang up on the front door. I’m hoping to get it finished this week, though it seems that something is always getting in the way. One thing that I let stop me is the chance to gt crafty with my kids. I love doing crafty art projects, so getting to sit down with my sons and do some is loads of fun.

One great project we have done is a hanging pumpkin. It hangs up in my oldest son’s room where he can admire his handy work. It was so easy to make too. A circle cut out of orange paper, with black jack-o-lantern face pieces glued on. I used a hole punch to put even holes along and he got some sewing practice in sewing it shut. We filled it out with strips of newspaper to give it a fat pumpkin look.

Another thing they enjoyed doing was kleenex ghosts. We took a kleenex nd folded it over a small rubber ball (trust me, they have tons of those). Then tied a bit of string under the ball to hold it in place. The string was also used to hang them on the walls.

If you are looking for more fun Halloween craft ideas there is a ton listed here. You can also head over to Scribbit and check out what others have posted to the Winter Bazaar.

Halloween, fun, crafts, kids

I know it is one of the stereotypes, that all homeschoolers are super fundamentalists who keep their children home to hide them form the evil liberals of the world. Like most stereotypes there is an ounce of truth in there. Some of the loudest and well known homeschoolers are deeply religious, and by fact that Christianity is one of the largest religions in America it stands to reason that homeschoolers would also have that large percentage as so. However when you begin to all that “all (fill in blank) are (fill in blank)” you stop seeing much farther than the nearest stereotype. And that leaves a lot out.

I am honored to get to know many homeschoolers online. Like birds of a feather homeschoolers tend to group together, to give each other support and encouragement. And when you spend enough time together talking about life you see just how diverse the homeschooling world really is. You see through the stereotypes and see the real people out there choosing it for their families.

I’ve met homeschoolers who are deeply religious, like my good friend Christinewho is both the daughter and the wife of a pastor. And probably one of the funkiest women I have the honor of knowing! But some would take one look at her religious background and label her before letting a single word come out. I’ve also met homeschoolers who are atheists, pagans, Buddhists, undecided, and so on. (more…)

We live in a fairly small town. So we often find that we need to drive out of town to do our shopping. Often it is just to the next town which is only 20-30 minutes away. But sometimes we find ourselves stuck in the car for an hour or more at a time to find what we need. The long car trips do not always go over so well with my two. I bring along my knitting or a good book for myself to enjoy, but for my kids I need to be proactive in planning fun for them to get through the car rides whine free.

Here is the list of things that go in my travel bag.

• Blank paper and crayons/markers
• 1 or 2 books to read
• A magnetic puzzle toy (right now we have magnetic travel bingo and they love it)
• Imaginative toys (puppets, figurines, etc…)
• Music that I know they love
• And for me Carschooling: Over 350 Entertaining Games & Activities to Turn Travel Time into Learning Time

Of course trips are probably much easier since we have a travel tray. It is a sturdy yet saf tray that kids can use on their laps for writing, playing, or whatver they want. Easy to clean and easy to store. I absolutely love having it!

Enjoyed my suggestion? This is part of the huge Works For Me Wednesday fun hosted every week at Rocks In My Dryer. Head over there and see what other tips are being shared.

travel, kids, trips, fun

There are some great blog carnivals going on this week. I hope you will take the time to go check them all out.

• Carnival of Family Life
• Carnival of Homeschooling
• Carnival of Natural Family Living
• Festival of Frugality
• Thomas Jefferson Carnival
• Carnival of Education
• Organize Your Life
• Make It From Scratch
• Etsy Bloggers
• Work At Home Carnival

If you know of any other great blog carnivals please leave a comment and let me know.

blogs, blogging, blog carnivals

My post this morning reminded me that I wanted to mention the Blogger’s Choice Awards. You’ve probably seen the little badge on the right side there. If not, it looks like this:

Right now I am in 2nd place for Best Educational Blogs. That’s a pretty high spot to begin with. But darn it, I want to win! So if you haven’t voted yet I hop you will click over and send another vote my way. Voting was supposed to end October 19th with the winners to be announced on November 10th. However, the site still seems to be letting last minute votes get in. I am not sure if the votes are still be counted, but if they are I hope to get mine up a little more.

And a huge thanks to everyone who has already voted for me.

blogger’s choice awards, blogging

I’ve been cool enough to get a few bloggy awards in my day. It is always fun to be noticed and to get a little recognition. It can sometimes feel like we are talking to ourselves when blogging, so knowing that someone out there is reading and enjoying brings a smile to my face.

So I decided I was going to pass on my own little love to the homeschool blogs out there. A way to say “You’re awesome!” to the homeschooling moms that I love to read. Now, you have to notice that this is the Weird and Wacky award. This isn’t for those too good to be true homeschooling blogs, the ones where the kids are always up and dressed by 6AM, do their chores without a fuss, and act like perfect little angels. Oh no, this award is for the other kind of homeschoolers. The ones who can have you rolling with laughter and realizing that your kids aen’t so messed up after all.

I hope everyone will take this and run with it. Even if you haven’t been tagged, if you know a blogger who deserves it then pass it on. And if you are lucky enough to be given this award wear it with pride. Put it up on your blog and let everyone know that you’re a Weird and Wacky Homeschooler.

The first ever recipients are:

• I Think Therefore I Blog
• Relaxed Homeskool
• Homeschool Is Love
• Sona Creidhe
• Welcome to my brain

homeschool, homeschool blog, weird and wacky homeschool blog award

I don’t watch Reality TVso it doesn’t surprise me that I haven’t heard of E!’s new show Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Another thing that did not shock me? The 9 year old girl working the stripper pole like a pro. Is it sad that I’ve become accustomed to little girls dressing and acting like hookers? It seems to be the American way: sexualize them young before they have a chance to know what hit them. Sure dad came in and carried her off the pole and stated that it was inappropriate. But the pole is in his room to begin with. And I doubt she bought those sexy high heels she was wearing with her own credit card.

It reminds me of a post that Lee from Absolutelee wrote a while back. How To Turn Your Daughter Into A Whore In Two Easy Steps. The first step is “Enroll your daughter in public school.” While I doubt the girls in this show are enrolled in a public school, the fact is they have been more than assaulted by the over sexualization of girls and women in our culture. When a school teacher can fondle a 5th grader’s breast (does she have breasts at that age???) and keep his job for 40 more years the sexualization of America’s girls is certainly floating around in the mainstream of our schools as much as it is in Hollywood.
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