Homemaking Organized Blog

Posts Tagged ‘homeschool’

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine gone digital

The Old SchoolHouse Magazine for homeschoolers is now online and free. The digital magazine has all the same information as before but instead of being published quarterly it is now published monthly and is availabe online for free to everyone.

It’s interactive and snazzy and there are apps so you can read it on your mobile device.

You can read it online here.

The Sixth Annual Schoolhouse Store Black Friday Sale is now going on.
From Nov. 23-28, 2011 (Wednesday 12:00 a.m. EST through Monday 12 a.m. PST)Spend just $1 in the Homeschool store during Black Friday and get Heart and Soul Homeschool Mama ebook (featured in the video below) for free. 

Grab the latest FREE educational ebooks from Currclick…

Silent Night Sheet Music for Children

Sight Words in Sentences

5 Ginger Cookies Flannel board set

A Phonics Reader Level 1

and more

Currclick is your one stop shopping place for downloadable educational materials such as lapbooks, copywork, unit studies and novel studies.

With first grade well under way I had to come up with a homeschool schedule that would fit in all the new subjects (Science, Spelling, and Handwriting) while allowing Mommy (that’s me) time to breathe (Well that’s what it felt like.) and take care of regular household chores as well as whatever.

Back in the day (last year) the nice kindergarten homeschool schedule allowed me to get much done in the day along with kindergarten class and running an errand or two. Now I have to be smart about my time, organized and scheduled.

So I came up with a schedule (along with the help of Bob Jones) that seems to work well and allow for breaks.

So here is our 2011 First Grade Homeschool daily schedule…

9:00 – Breakfast (I’ve already been up and seen to a few things)

10:00 – Math

10:30 – Break

11:00 – English and Phonics

12:00 – Lunch / Break

1:00 -  Science

1:30 – Spelling

2:00 – School day ends

Free time, Outdoors, Gardening, errands etc.

Now I won’t say it works perfectly every day. Some days we get started late, there are worksheets to complete between each class and so forth but if I with the breaks and knowing that AT LEAST by 3pm we should be finished with the school day that keeps me happy.

Last Year (Kindergarten)

Our Schedule looked like this….

Wake up (you know pray, workout etc)

Dwadle (surf, blab on the phone, snuggle Peanut who was groggy)

Breakfast (pull something together)

Make beds

Start school (By the time school started we were actually organized believe it or not but we took so long to get there. School was only about an hour and 45 minutes too.)

Barrel through (it was three classes, Heritage Studies, Math, and English Skills) be done by the latest 1pm

Play time!

This year I knew I would have to be much more organized in work and in home. I take this homeschooling stuff seriously (now that they mailed some tests along with the package). Some steps I’ve been taking that help to keep things together.

Meal Planning – I waffle on this so bad because I really like to cook and experiment AND I like to do it at the drop of a hat. My experimenting now has to be planned. You can find out more about meal planning on the main site.

Work – Knowing that I don’t have all day to write and play around with new planner templates means stuff is getting done slower and in a time slot (like now). I have to make myself okay with that. Peanut’s education is first.

Me Time – I get up earlier and have added in a quick workout and some work time. I go to bed earlier and have some time with the Lord before heading for bed.

Housework -  Except for beds and laundry anything else I want to do has to be done after school.

Errands – Errands are run before school unless hubby is around and can take over the schooling (Wednesday). Trying to do them after means I’m rushing and I actually don’t like being out and about in high traffic. I prefer the lull of the morning. It means school on those days is moved down an hour or so. The beauty of homeschooling.

Friends – I’m so sorry but my friends like to call during the day so I haven’t been answering the phone and have been apologizing profusely. Hey there’s still evenings and weekends.

Do you have a homeschool schedule? Tell me about it.

Well it’s school time again. Actually we’re a week out. We like to lazy about in pjs a few days while the other kids go back to school…just kidding. We have various other reasons for starting so late. We use a DVD program (BJU Press) that is very organized, deeply thought out, and can seem daunting at first.

But I have to say, not to plug BJU Press or anything, that I love the Bob Jones homeschool programs. We’re on our third year with them and it’s been great. In the beginning of each year it seems like a lot of work. The expense. The preparation of lessons. The pulling together of supplies.  The looking over each school day. And so on. But as we go through the school year and our little peanut absorbs so much and has so much fun doing it I can see that the program works (and also the organizing is not as bad as I think at the beginning).

So as I’m deeply into the organizing of the homeschool room right now (I’ll try to get a pic in next week) I thought it only right to post links to some homeschool room design sources.

Homeschool Rooms: Pictures of various homeschool rooms here (and lovely background music of Pachelbel Canon in D ). And if you click the link at the bottom of the post you can see homeschool rooms from 2010.

Homeschool Room Ideas; This site is all about homeschooling. The article is about ideas for your homeschooling room. The chairs, organizing supplies and books. That kind of stuff. The gallery has pics from other homeschool rooms and if you have a pic of your homeschool room add it to the bunch. I may do that!

Let me know if the links have inspired your homeschool rooms in any way.

Now is the time to renew your Old Schoolhouse Magazine subscription. It’s time again for the 19 Free gifts and this year they’ve thrown in a bonus of $15 to spend in the Totally TOS section. Not to mention all of these other bonuses that come with your subscription.

• All our available digital back issues – TOTALLY free,
• Monthly Teacher’s Toolbox membership which includes:
  • Access to subscribers’ only Teacher’s Toolbox section on our website where you can read MANY articles available only to subscribers
  • A month’s worth of recipes – one for every day of the month (recipes change monthly)
  • A month’s worth of “This Day in History” lessons – one for every day of the month (activities change monthly with the calendar)
  • At least one free full length unit study or lapbook
  • And more!

You have to subscribe for 2 years AND you have to subscribe before they run out! May 1st is the deadline IF they don’t run out of subscription bonuses before then. Get it here => Old Schoolhouse Magazine 19 free gifts et al subscription

Giveaway has ended….AND NOBODY ENTERED!!! SHAAAAMMMMME!

Although scheduled to begin actively learning to read this year in Kindergarten my little Peanut has been chomping at the bit to get some reading fundamentals down.

In comes ClickN READ Phonics.

The ClickN READ Phonics is a scientific research based online reading curriculum program designed to provide an interactive learning experience in an individualized environment…. It’s been created based on research to provide a great reading program that works for kids in a nutshell.

I was given the chance to review this program for my little Peanut (at just the right time I might add) and offer a giveaway to YOU! There are two programs but I’m reviewing ClickN READ Phonics but you can win either ClickN READ Phonics or ClickN SPELL.

The Gist:

Click N READ Phonics is set up as interactive animated lessons with an outer-space type theme and character (dog) that guides your student to the various learning rooms and through the various lessons, such as letter sound chamber, and listening cube, to work on phonics lessons.

You start ClickN READ Phonics at a specific point in the lessons depending upon where your child is in the reading game. So say your child has already been learning to read and may have the letter sounds down (the case with my child) then you would start at a later lesson. If your child is just starting on the path to reading then you would start at the beginning. A child who may be having a bit of difficulty grasping reading would start at another spot. And so forth.

It’s internet based so to get to work you simply log on with a simple logon and password and then you can further customize it and lock that down with a password so your child can fiddle with it except to learn.

When you first start you enter you child (or children’s) name and what lesson they will be beginning on. They take it from there and follow the guided instruction through phonics reading lessons.

At the end of each lesson there is a read out of what was missed, how many times, and what could be worked on. The parent can view progress reports at any time. You can preview lessons, print out practice sentences and words for ongoing review and view samples of lessons to come.

Drawbacks:

No product is perfect for everyone.

If  your child needs more personal support in learning to read then this might not work for you.

It’s all online so if you’re on dialup or don’t have great computer access this probably would not work for you.

Your child will need to be slightly proficient on the computer (using the mouse and occasionally keyboard).

My Experience:

Since we have a few computers in the home and I do work on one I like to have a few educational programs for my Peanut to enjoy at times during the day.  Although she learned basic letter sounds at the end of preschool last year and is scheduled to actively learn to read (phonics) this year in Kindergarten I decided it would be a nice idea to supplement with some activities such as  ClickN READ Phonics until school starts in a few days.

I have to say I am impressed and had I known about ClickN READ Phonics before I probably would have started my daughter on it a year ago. Seriously. Sometimes a child wants to learn things faster than they are being taught in school and she has been chomping at the bit to read. We all know every child and their capabilities are different but I like what I’ve seen so far. I started her with the sample to see how I would like the interface and if she could do it by herself (I’m in the room).

Although it is animated I very much liked that it wasn’t rife with glitchy loud music and goofy antics that had no relation to what the goal is which is teaching your child to read. This was important to me as I have tried a few programs that think I want my child to learn through rap or rock. No thank you. The dog character has small interactions with the animated screen which are not over the top (in my opinion) or too distracting. It was just enough to make it fun for her.

BUT! Is she learning?! Yes! She’s been at it for a week and we (my husband, I and other family members) can see the progress. Of course she doesn’t read the daily paper to me each morning but she has been pointing out words here and there that she is reading. They are usually four to five letter words.

Don’t just take my word for it. Head on over to ClickN READ Phonics and sample the lessons for yourself.

GIVEAWAY:

Okay I probably should have had a separate post for this but here are the giveaway details for ClickN READ Phonics

One winner will recieve a free account for either ClickN READ and ClickN SPELL for their child.
#1 visit the ClickN KIDS site
#2 try the ClickN READ and ClickN SPELL FREE lessons on the homepage (on the right hand side)
#3 Come back here and leave a comment about the programs
#4 Extra entry for doing that twitter thing where you put @momtools in the post (you can follow me too but that’s not necessary nor will it earn an extra entry)
#5 Extra entry for writing a post on your own blog and tracking back to this post.

Giveaway ends Wednesday September 22nd at Midnight

Winner will be picked via Random.org. I’m taking my lovely assistant off duty since she will be in school and needs her sleep. I’ll contact the winner via email (so please leave a valid one).

{Although I am an affiliate for this product the above review and links are without an affiliate code. I did recieve an account to try with my child. If you do decide you would like to purchase an account after reading my lovely review and want to use my affiliate link here it is: ClickN KIDS }

Thank you those who took the time to enter my teeny tiny giveaway. It has ended and Random.org has picked a winner.

Clever Colleen has been picked by Random.org to receive her free online pass to Cindy Rushton’s 2010 Homeschool Expo Giveaway. So I’ll be contacting her with details.

Thank you!

Need some help gearing up for the new school year? Wish you had a friend to take you by the hand and help you plan your year?

For homeschoolers or those thinking about homeschooling this is the time of year to review what worked, what didn’t work, and what you would like to try for the coming school year. And Cindy Rushton’s Ultimate Homeschool Expo kicking off May 3-7th 2010 is a great place to start.

One of the great things about the Ultimate Homeschool Expo is that everything is ONLINE as more than a convention–it is the ULTIMATE homeschool resource library.

Just like a convention you attend in person (and I have definitely been to my share of those) you have…

• Over 30 speakers giving you workshops on their homeschooling specialty.
• Vendor booths where you can get freebies and  sample the best of homeschooling companies
• And finally the Mommy Grab Bag which includes thousands of dollars in free ebooks, audios, lesson plans, and more.

But unlike a conventions you attend in person you don’t have…

• To book a flight
• spend money on hotel, car rental, and food
• Put up with workshop scheduling conflicts. While it is wonderful if you can tune into workshops as they are happening you can also access recorded workshops in your membership only area for years to come.

With every online event that Cindy plans, she builds a private, exclusive Membership Site that includes everything from the Ultimate Homeschool Expo in one place–it has audios (from all of the sessions and from the bonus gifts from her speakers), ebooks, complete unit study guides, articles, printable notebooking pages, cookbooks, on and on. I can’t believe all of the things that we receive for only $39.95. It is a lot!

(CLOSED) GIVEAWAY DETAILS: So I’m giving a giveaway for one membership to the Ultimate Homeschool Expo.

• Contest Ends Wednesday April 28th which will hopefully give us enough time to get the winner their access code in time for the conference.
• Leave me a comment about your homeschooling journey. I like one entry person please. Keeps me less confused that way.  A simple comment is nice.
• Winner usually chosen by my lovely assistant (my five year old from a bucket of numbers) but if she is otherwise engaged then Random.org will do the honors.
• Um no country origin restrictions as this is an online event.

Want to see what theUltimate Homeschool Expo is about?

Well here is a sampler of one of Cindy’s free gifts that is included on the Membership Site. It is a audio and ebook set that she actually sells on her website, but she is giving away on the Membership Site. Here are your links…

Download Part 1

Download Part 2

Download mP3 Audio : Let’s Get Ready for a New School Year

I’ve been waiting for a deal like this. Since I’m officially going to start ‘real’ homeschool (kindergarten) this fall I’ve been doing my best to be prepared. Reading too much and relaxing too little. The Peanut is very excited and has been ‘organizing’ her pens and crayons and such.

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is having a subscription sale. For just 48 hours, a one-year print subscription is only $15! Plus, as a bonus,new subscribers get 5 FREE We E-books of their choice. It’s the TOS Take/Get 5 subscription sale and it’s only good until midnight on May 26.

The Old Schoolhouse magazine CAN help you with homeschooling and is packed with well written, interesting tidbits for the homeschooling family.

Articles on how to start homeschooling, support for the homeschooler, tips for keeping it together while homeschooling, reviews on various curriculum, homeschooling products, homemaking tips (yes homemaking tips by resident Home Ec Columnist Molly Green), the latest news in the homeschooling world, and even short stories to entertain.

Starting as a small ebay business The Old SchoolHouse magazine has grown to be THE place for homeschool information.

If you’re nervous about homeschooling, or looking for good articles, tips, and stories to keep you motivate as you take on this wonderful position of teaching your own children then The Old SchoolHouse Magazine is the source to turn to.

It’s a beautiful full color, glossy magazine that is worth every penny. Christian parents with a heart for homeschooling will truly enjoy this magazine and what it has to offer.

I had been picking it up at the local bookstore but this beats the cover price anyday.

The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Magazine