Stampede Homeschool

$25 iTunes gift card giveaway

2011-12-31T08:32:00.005-06:00

Who couldn't use a $25 gift card for some educational apps. The contest is at Apps for Homeschooling here
Go to the link for entry details and good luck.

Spotted.TylerPaper.com: 11-30-11 TCTC Rehearsal For A Christmas Carol

2011-12-01T13:24:00.000-06:00

Spotted.TylerPaper.com: 11-30-11 TCTC Rehearsal For A Christmas Carol
This is a link to Tyler Paper.com. They took photos of the up coming Christmas show that our children are in.

Our class

2011-08-31T17:02:00.002-05:00

Some homeschoolers have been posting about their classrooms. We (like many others) do not have a spare room, basement or any kind of extra space for a "classroom" In our house school happens everywhere. So here is my little tour.

This first picture is the children's computer, in a corner of the livingroom. It has all the JumpStart Programs from PreK to 5th grade on it. It also has the Funnix reading program, that we got for free during their promotion, back in Jan 2011. Excellent reading program and well worth the new low price. On the screen now is the Free on-line typing program we are using @ typingweb.com It is a very good program and allows you to set up a teacher page for checking up on your kids work.

The entertainment center (also in the livingroom) is where we watch DVD, VHS, online and streaming educational videos. Netflix has a lot of National Geographic, PBS and Imax streaming content and we use that alot. The shelves to the left are our Encyclopedias and Dictionaries. The bottom cabinets is where I hide all the curriculum that is not in use and our games.

The dining table is where they sit for written work. Math, Spelling and Grammar. This is also where we do our lapbooks. I cleared the table just for the picture... LOL it is usually covered with school or a meal. Also notice our handy little white board. It doesn't get used as often as it use to, but my son loves to use his magnetic letters on it. So I keep it.

This is what I call the school shelf. Everything we are currently using is kept on this shelf. Bottom shelf has magazines (too many to name) and reference books. Second from the bottom is the Math, Spelling, Grammar, Lapbooks, Notebook Timeline and some drawing books. Oh and extra paper. The 3rd shelf up is 1st, 2nd and 3rd year readers of different kinds. I really need to update this row of stuff. The shelf with the storage bins has pencils, pens, glue, scissors, paint & brushes, crayons, makers, colored pencils, glitter pens and I think chalk. The next shelf has little kid magazines, flash cards, Webster's Pocket Set, glitter glue, Dot Art and View Master stuff. The top shelf is used mostly for dropping "stuff" as we come in the front door. But I also use it to display the cool stuff the kids have done.

This is the sewing machine that I use to teach my girls to sew. It is in my bedroom. I don't even have an extra room for sewing.

As for books to read...... The boys room has a book shelf full of books for ages up to 8. The girls room has two book shelves full of books for age 10 to adult. My room has one book shelf and two night stands full of books. Plus I have other books stuffed in a storage closet. I have a really hard time cleaning out reading books and getting rid of them. Too often we will re-read books that we like and every time I try to clean them out, I end up liking ALL of them. I am now getting books downloaded and put on my ipad and started thinking that maybe the girls should have an e-reader of some kind. That may help with culling out books.

Well, that is our school house...... Maybe next week, I'll post our schoolyard (grin)

All The Colors of the rainbow

2011-05-11T23:39:00.000-05:00

Here is Jesse's lapbook on colors. He really liked working on this one. He got to work with crayons, markers and paints. I liked it too, except the cleaning up part.

Notice that the folder is not plain manilla. We misted it with a can of brown spray paint.

We have over 100 used folders and I can not see any reason to spend money on new pretty ones. But they are so plain. In my husband's garage, there are about 20 cans of half used or mostly used spray paint. I will be decorating more folders with paint, that way we can use up TWO leftover items.

By the way, this is another Hands of a Child Lapbook

Lapbooks for 2011

2011-05-02T16:52:00.007-05:00

We love lapbooks. Not only can we learn from them, but we can be creative. I use lapbooks to teach both history and science. Some will be just for fun. Like the ones my 6 year old son will do. So far we are still using lapbooks that are pre-made by other publishers. It is less work for me. Still, the girls get to do the research and the decorating. Here are four that we did this year. They are all by Hands of a Child.

This first one is on Labor Day. It is made using just a single folder.

Here is the inside

This next one is on the United States Symbols. Again, just a single folder is used. The single folder lapbooks can be completed in one day.

Inside of US Symbols

This next one is a science lapbook on Butterflies and does include Moths. I do not know why this picture looks all stretched out, it is normal in my iPhoto, but got weird when I put it on blogger. You can still see how it looks.....

Here is the inside. This one is a two folder lapbook, which has more activities. We took a whole week to finish this one.

This one is a literature lapbook, but was on the American Girls book series. American Girls is a fun way to learn about American History and history was the reason we did this one. Plus my girls had already read the entire American Girl Series. This lapbook is a two set series. Each set covers 5 of the stories. We still have not done the second lapbook.

Because this lapbook covers 5 different books, it ends up being a large lapbook. We used 2 full folders and 2 extensions.

It is on the first five girls in history and took us over 2 weeks to complete.

Snow cream

2011-02-04T15:21:00.002-06:00

During our recent snow storm, I thought I would try to make snow icecream. I looked up a recipe online and found out that it is just snow, milk, vanilla and sugar. Mix in the mixer and eat it. Here is the finished product.

The kids really liked it and I let them finish it off after I got my serving out of it.

Homeschool and Cub Scouts

2011-01-15T21:34:00.004-06:00

The holidays are over and a new year has begun. We got a little side tracked just after Christmas with the arrival of our 5th grandchild... Jasmine Renee, born on Dec. 28th.

But we are now back in the routine of school and activities. Right now the girls are working hard in Math, Spelling and History. Trying to keep on track with those subjects, so we don't have to do them in the summer.

Jesse is reading by leaps and bounds. I am so proud of him. He is also working hard in Cub Scouts and has actually earned his Bobcat Badge, Tiger Cub badge and his outdoor award. Now he is still working on the Leave No Trace Award and two academic belt loops. While working on these badges he has gotten to take a couple great field trips with his dad.

The newly remodeled Brownsboro Police Station

Ranch 104.1 Radio Tour

Pretty cool tours that he and his Daddy went on, while the girls and I were stuck at home with regular school work.

Cub Scouts

2010-11-20T21:30:00.004-06:00

My Little man, Jesse, is a Cub Scout this year. He is starting in the youngest group as a Tiger Cub.

I found a T-shirt for my husband, Bobby to wear while they do Cub activities together. They're so cute.

Last few months have been busy

2010-11-20T18:16:00.004-06:00

I realize that I haven't posted in several months. Our life has been ultra busy since we came home from our vacation back in May. Bobby has been working really long hours and I have been busy with the kids school and extra curricular activities. We also have 4 extra people people living here since my son and his family moved back home.

I came on today, to post about the play the children just finished at the theatre. The name of the play was "The Happy Prince". It is a tragic tell about the suffering of the poor and how the statue, of the once happy prince, wanted to help the people. With the help of the sparrow he gives all his jewels and gold leaf to the poor. Later the sparrow dies and the statue is taken down and melted. This was a change in the happy and funny plays they normally do.

Here are some pictures of Jesse in this play. I'm posting just him because this is his first play at this theatre.

LAMDA AWARDS

2010-07-09T00:06:00.000-05:00

Tonight we went to the awards presentation for the children and adults that took the LAMDA examination in Dramatic Arts.

I mentioned, back in April that both girls would be taking this exam. Well.......

I am happy to announce they both passed the exam. Yeah! Really they had 3 different exams. The first one was a group exam and the piece they used was from the play they had just finished... "Charlotte's Web" and the group passed the exam with honors.

Then Timber and Linda did a duo exam and an individual piece. Timber passed and was just 3 points short of honors. Which is really good, since she is my REALLY shy child. Linda passed and earned...... Distinction! Talk about bursting with pride!

I am thrilled for the girls. This whole exam thing was really stepping out of their comfort zone and they did awesome.

Mitchell, SD 5/20/2010

2010-05-20T17:21:00.000-05:00

We spent two nights in Mitchell, SD. We needed a break from all the driving AND we had a really cool indoor water park in our hotel. This was also a good time to take care of our laundry issues.

We did spend one day over in DeSmet to see the Ingalls homestead, from the book "Little town on the Prairie" We got to see a replica of the sod house they had to live in.and the house that ma loved on the prairie.
Lots of hands on projects for the children. Here the kids were making rope. The boys at the "turning" end and the girls were at the holding end.
All the children got to take a turn at driving the wagon team. I tell ya, these people were brave. Some of those kids in the wagon were wild ones. I am happy to say that my boys could at least keep the team on the trail.... LOL
From here we relaxed another day in the hotel and then we headed back south to Hutchinson, KS

Rapid City, SD 5-19-2010

2010-05-19T16:48:00.000-05:00

Before we left Rapid City, we stopped by dinosaur park with its 100 mile observation. You really could see for 100 miles, if you managed to climb the 1000 steps up to the top. I did it with the rest of the family, sure was sore that night.

Then we started to head East. We stop at the SD air and space museum. Which was the history of the air force, along with visuals of under ground bunkers and missiles. In this picture my husband Bobby was turning the blade of an air force jet, while lifting up our 13 year old daughter. She loved it.

Once we left the space museum, we headed East again (this eastward drive was over 400 miles) on our way to Wall Drug. The only thing to see or do in Wall, SD was here at Wall Drug. But there was a lot to do. Absolutely no phone service from any cellular service.

Next post, we continue on the Mitchell SD

Keystone, SD May 17 & 18, 2010

2010-05-18T16:14:00.000-05:00

Our family vacation this year was to Keystone, SD to see Mt. Rushmore. We left TX on May 15 and drove 2 days. Woke up in Rapid City SD on the 17th and drove over to see Mt Rushmore. The scenery was beautiful. Lots of mountains and caves.

This is one of the tunnels over the freeway on the way up to the mountain. There was also a wooden bridge that crossed over too, but we missed that picture.

Here is an up close shot of Mt. Rushmore. We had a beautiful day. I was in awe of the land and of this landmark sight.

This area is called the avenue of flags. You walk through this on your way up to the observation deck. The avenue of flags is all 50 states flags with a plaque of when they entered the as part of the United States.

On the way back down the mountain we enjoyed some more of the scenery, finding this little river cutting down the mountain. We took pictures of everyone. This is one of my favorites of my husband Bobby.

Also in Keystone, we hiked in an under ground cave. I believe this cave was a mile long. Very interesting stalagmite color and information. Here is a picture of 3 of our kids.

Next post will be our trip from West SD over to East SD.

Backyard Explorer

2010-05-01T16:40:00.003-05:00

Bobby took the boys out to do some exploring. The boys had a great time with their daddy.

Charlotte's Web

2010-04-15T22:58:00.005-05:00

I can not believe it! The girls have completed another play. Theatre seems to be something the girls really enjoy. I am a little impressed with how much they have grown and matured on stage. Over the last 5 years they have done about 10 different plays.

This one was Charlotte's Web. Linda had the part of Wilbur (the pig) and Timber was Edith (the farmers wife). The rest of the cast are all homeschoolers too.

Below, is just a few of the 40 plus pictures we took of this play. Some of the pictures were taken during dress rehearsal and some during the actual play. So, you may notice that some of the pictures the kids do not have full makeup and in some of them there is an audience.

This one is "Wilbur" (Linda) listening to her human friend "Fern"

Here is "Edith" (Timber) talking with "Homer" and "Lurvey"

Here is "Edith" & "Mrs. Arable" giving "Wilbur" his buttermilk bath

Again the bath close up of Timber and Linda.

Next week the girls are taking their very first LAMDA examination. Which is from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. At this time in the USA, if the student passes the exam, it only gives them recognition (a.k.a bragging rights). But, in London this exam would give them college credits at each level. So wish them luck.

Fort Worth Field Trips

2010-03-26T15:38:00.008-05:00

Our family took an educational field trip to Ft. Worth, TX on March 3rd. Our first stop on our trip was to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Yes, this is where they print the money used in the United States. After a Highly Secure entry into the main gate, we were bused over to the factory. The factory has a hands on museum and a gift shop. In the museum you can learn about how the new money is being made and why they have so many security steps in the printing of the money. While we were there, they were in the middle of printing the new $100 dollar bill. We did not get to see the new look (its a big secret) but it will be released later this year.

I would like to say that the staff and workers are the friendliest people I have seen in a long time. Those on the floor running the printing machines, seemed like they really enjoyed having the children there, learning! The tour guide was very informative and interacted well with all the kids and adults alike. This tour was free.

Later we went on over to The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame
The girls and I had just finished a study on Cowboys. Mostly American Cowboys with a little info on cowboys from other places. Our study only mentioned cowgirls. So a trip to this museum put the "Cowgirl" in a little more of importance.

I was surprised that this museum and so much for everyone. There was a hands on area for the wee ones and movies, video and other hands on activities for the older ones. Mom and Dad enjoyed the history of so many women that grew up as cowgirls. From movie stars to a Supreme Court Judge and even our First Lady Laura Bush. Wonderful place to visit and this one is not free, but worth the price.

Our last place to go was the Vetro Glassblowing Studio in Grapevine, TX. If you have an interest in glassblowing or sculpting this is the place to go. They have a wonderful gallery of art and then they have a studio that you can go in and watch them work up close and friendly. We did not visit during any of the festivals or special events that they have, so it was not too busy. As a matter of fact we were the only guest there at the time.
If this is something you would like to see, then visit their website and check out what they have to offer. Like Private events, Classes and tours. Our visit was during their regular work hours and was free.

That was our day in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. We also got the special privilege of leaving Dallas during rush hour traffic.

Dad's Idea of School

2010-02-20T18:52:00.007-06:00

This one is a little different. Dad and the boys went to the Car Show in a near by town. I guess the "guys" have their own idea on what an education is. Ok, I give them this one.
First, they had to see Fonzie's motorcycle from Happy Days.

Then they stopped to see both of the Herbie cars from "The love bug" & "Fully Loaded" movies

Then the Camaro Bubble Bee

Dad's favorite of course is the Jeep so they stopped for a photo opt there too.

From what I can tell the boys had a great time at the auto show. Dad talked about it for hours....... lol

Making School Fun

2010-02-18T22:53:00.004-06:00

When I started my homeschool journey, 10 years ago, my dream was to teach my children to love learning. I believed that if they loved to learn, that schooling would be easy. Being creative was easy when they were little, but keeping up with their growing needs soon put a stop to the fun and school, became...... just school.
I later started reading about lapbooking. I looked at all the lapbooks other people had done and posted out on the internet. I loved the idea. Getting the info together to put one together was a little overwhelming to me. I looked into lapbooking for almost a year when I suddenly got a free project pack to put together. I mentioned that one in an earlier post. We feel in love with them. We have since done a few more and are now getting the hang of making them. The kids are doing more of the creative part themselves and are really taking to learning this way. So I love them.

This is a mini lapbook that only uses one sheet of card stock. The little books are preprinted, so there is not much writing. I thought they would be great to do just before our vacation when we will travel across many states on our way to South Dakota. Kind of an introduction to each state.

This lapbook was a history study on Cowboys. Very informative about cowboy terms and their careers. The girls even picked up a few things they should know about their own horse care and taking care of their horses tack. This one took two weeks to complete, working a couple hours a day.

2010-02-11T12:17:00.002-06:00

My 5 year old, Jesse, loves the written word. He use to just pretend to write words, which was just scribbling. Now that he is a little older he has decided to copy words. Lots of words. He does this on his own, by picking up our spelling book or a cereal box and he just copies. I think he will be a writer, but I am not, so I don't know how to lead him to writing. For now I will provide him with plenty of notebooks and pencils.
If anyone has ideas of what I can do to help him along, feel free to let me know.

Mini-Family Vacation

2010-01-06T17:46:00.004-06:00

Back in the fall our family went on a weekend trip out of town for a family reunion. While we were on our way home we decided to stop at the Heritage Museum in Corsicana, TX. There they had many log cabins that were used for many different things. House, trading post, post office, stable and a shack. Also on display was a mobile prison, farm house and a music hall of fame. Very nice place to visit.

This statue was in Waco, TX. In front of the Waco Suspension Bridge

The Waco Suspension Bridge was built in 1870 and still in use for pedestrian crossing of Brazos River. This landmark bridge provided cattle and cowboys, who were following the Chisholm Trail, the only span across the Brazos River.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

2009-12-09T19:44:00.008-06:00

Almost finished with the shows. We only have four more to do with the last two being on Saturday. We are looking forward to having the time off from all of that traveling back and forth. Right now I am baking for the Auction at the Theatre. The auction is done at intermission and seems to bring in a lot of funds for the theatre to use for the following years programs. I will take pictures of my creations when I am done.

For now I want to post a few pictures of the performance. So here they are: Little man as "Baby Angel Carl"

Linda as "Allison a Student & Angel Choir"

And Timber as " Rachel a student & Angel Choir"

Back in the Theatre

2009-11-19T22:51:00.002-06:00

Our family has been very busy with the usual school work and farm chores, but we are also back at the Theatre. So, four times a week we are traveling over to the theatre for practice. Both girls and our little man are all in this play, with a number of our homeschool friends. This time we are in the Henderson County Performing Arts Center (HCPAC) which is in Athens, about 30 miles from us.

The play is called "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever". The performance will be in Dec. from the 3rd to the 12th. Lots of practice and lots of shows. The best part is spending this kind of time with all our friends.

2009-11-14T12:07:00.000-06:00

In a previous post I wrote about a lapbook packet that I purchased for the Chronicles of Narnia. Like I said before, it was a huge packet with a ton of information in it. When finished it turned into a large lapbook. I finally got around to taking pictures of our finished lapbook and I am posting them now.

Knowledge Box Central

2009-11-12T22:50:00.002-06:00

I found another website with lapbooks. I have really enjoyed looking for all these lapbook sites. This one is called Knowledge Box Central. They have many downloadable items such as books, planners, notebooking, lapbooks, copywork and even audio stuff.

More pre made lapbooks

2009-11-12T11:29:00.002-06:00

I have found many sites that offer project packets to create lapbooks.

A Journey Through Learning is another site I really like. We have not started the project pack that we have but have printed it out and are looking it over. This pack is full of information to create the lapbook, so I won't have too much to put together. That helps me. Go to A journey Through Learning and check out all they have to offer.

Hands of a Child Project Packs

2009-11-03T14:50:00.004-06:00

We just finished a project pack from Hands of a Child. The one we did was the Chronicles of Narnia The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
I am thrilled to write a review about this project pack. The girls and I have worked on this pack for 2 weeks. It is filled with great information. Starts off with the bio of CS Lewis and gets the kids really involved in research. I printed all of it out (86 pages by the way) on white plain paper. We are decorating and coloring as we go to make it look nice. The booklets that the kids create are, as my girls would say "really cool" and we have made an awesome lapbook. We will certainly be getting the rest of the Narnia series of project packs that Hands of a Child have already created. You will not be disappointed in this pack.

Homeschool Library Builder

2009-10-17T15:04:00.003-05:00

I recently got a gift certificate to Homeschool Library Builder. I have never used this site before, but since I had the gift certificate I went and ordered some books. My experience made me want to post about it.

I ordered fifty dollars worth of books. Since it was a Texas based company, I also paid tax, then of course I paid shipping. My gift certificate paid for most of it and I only had a small amount to pay.

I placed the order and began to wait. It didn't take long (5 days) for the box of books to arrive. I was shocked because the charge to my card had not even shown up yet. I also got the email notice that my order was complete on the same day I got my books. They were very fast in getting that order together. So I would like to recommend Homeschool Library Builder for used & new books for your home use.

American Girl Book Club

2009-10-17T12:25:00.002-05:00

Returning to the American Girl book club after the summer break was a lot of fun and very informative.

Special Guest were ladies from the Mary Tyler Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. They were in period costume and told stories from their own history.

I feel like we had a real peek into the past.

Baking is school too... Right?

2009-10-12T13:16:00.000-05:00

HOMEMADE BREAD
Here is a bread recipe that I just love. I don't have a bread machine, so I have to do the mix it, time it to let it rise and then use bread pans and time it baking in the oven. This recipe is simple which makes the rest of the work not seem so bad. Anyway this is the recipe and directions......
1/2 cup milk, 3 TBSP Sugar, 2 tsp salt, 3 TBSP butter. Heat first 4 ingredients in pan to dissolve sugar. 1-1/2 cups warm water, 4-1/2 tsp yeast. Dissolve yeast in water. Mix water/yeast with the milk mix and add 4 cups flour. Start mixing with your mixer using dough hooks. Add 1/2 cup flour at a time (up to 2 cups) until dough starts to ball and look a little elastic. Put dough in greased bowl and let rise to double in size (about 1 hour) punch down and divid dough into two greased bread pans and let rise until dough reaches top of pan (30m to 1 hour) Bake @ 400 degrees for 30 mins. remove from pans and cool on wire rack. Time from start to finish 2-1/2 to 3 hours.

I have not messed this up yet. Sometimes the dough looks sticky, but bakes fine. Sometimes it looks dry, but still bakes fine. So to me, its a no fail recipe. LOL!

Mini Office

2009-09-09T15:40:00.004-05:00

Yesterday and today the kids and I have been working on what is called a "Mini Office". Its simple. Just a piece of cardboard folded in 3rds with some helpful information attached to it. They will have these mini offices with them at the table while they are working on school work. Things like a school year calendar, maps, hard to spell words and math helps. Jesse has one too. I thought they would be handy, to help reduce the number of times they get up from the table to "find" stuff. Also, it will give them private space while they work. Kinda like a cubicle. Ha, Ha! Jesse has one too (He has to be just like his sisters) but his Mini Office has things on it for a kindergartner. Check out the pictures below.

Our Curriculum

2009-09-01T14:53:00.008-05:00

Here we are in September. School will start next week for us. I don't think we are ready, but then again, can you ever really be ready? I said I would post what we are using this year for curriculum, so here it is.

The girls will continue with Saxon Math. We like Saxon because the books give a very good foundation in math. Linda is using Saxon 6/5 and Timber is using Saxon 7/6

For spelling, Sequential Spelling book 2. We like this system for spelling. It does work and there is not really any prep work for me to do.

BJU Heritage Studies 4. I like Heritage Studies because the books start out in chronological order from the time of finding America. We are on book 4, even though it is below grade level, I wanted to stick to it for chronological order of American History. We are also using lapbooks, from Hands of a Child, for in depth study on any part of history. The black notebook in the picture is our homemade history time line. We add to it all year long..... every year.

For other Language Art: we are continuing with copy work in a spril notebook.

Science/Nature Study: Again we will be using Lapbooks from Hands of a child for our science and nature studies. Because they are fun. We will use other resources off the internet too.

Reading: They can read anything for bed time reading (as long as they read) For family reading I plan to use a couple classics, coupled with movies based on the books we read.

Jesse turns 5 this month, so we will officially start school for him. He will continue to use the Jump Start computer programs. He also has other ones like Study Dog and Timez Attack.

Most of the curriculum I have on hand for Jesse is to teach reading. I use a number of resources all of which I have from teaching the girls to read. We have Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We also have word family books, sight words list, BoB Books, McGuffey Reader and Starfall curriculum. All of these work well together. His math will come from the internet for free and everything else will come from his Brighter Vision learning kits that we have on hand.

New Nationwide Study

2009-08-19T15:02:00.002-05:00

New Nationwide Study Confirms Homeschool Academic Achievement

Ian Slatter
Director of Media Relations
August 10, 2009
Full story here: http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/200908100.asp
The Results
Overall the study showed significant advances in homeschool academic achievement as well as revealing that issues such as student gender, parents’ education level, and family income had little bearing on the results of homeschooled students.
National Average Percentile Scores
Subtest Homeschool Public School
Reading 89 50
Language 84 50
Math 84 50
Science 86 50
Social Studies 84 50
Core^a 88 50
Composite^b 86 50
a. Core is a combination of Reading, Language, and Math.
b. Composite is a combination of all subtests that the student took on the test.
There was little difference between the results of homeschooled boys and girls on core scores.
Boys—87th percentile
Girls—88th percentile
Household income had little impact on the results of homeschooled students.
$34,999 or less—85th percentile
$35,000–$49,999—86th percentile
$50,000–$69,999—86th percentile
$70,000 or more—89th percentile
The education level of the parents made a noticeable difference, but the homeschooled children of non-college educated parents still scored in the 83rd percentile, which is well above the national average.
Neither parent has a college degree—83rd percentile
One parent has a college degree—86th percentile
Both parents have a college degree—90th percentile
Whether either parent was a certified teacher did not matter.
Certified (i.e., either parent ever certified)—87th percentile
Not certified (i.e., neither parent ever certified)—88th percentile
Parental spending on home education made little difference.
Spent $600 or more on the student—89th percentile
Spent under $600 on the student—86th percentile
The extent of government regulation on homeschoolers did not affect the results.
Low state regulation—87th percentile
Medium state regulation—88th percentile
High state regulation—87th percentile

Our Blog Made The List

2009-08-18T02:19:00.002-05:00

Hi,

We posted an article, "100 Best Blogs for Homeschooling Moms" (http://www.onlineeducation.net/2009/08/16/100-best-blogs-for-homeschooling-moms/).

I am happy to let you know that your site has been included in this list.

Thanks for time!

Amber Johnson

This is pretty cool. I never thought of our blog as anything but my random thoughts. It would be great if somehow my blog about homeschooling actually helped another homeschool mom.

The End of Summer Vacation

2009-08-16T20:02:00.001-05:00

Summer Vacation is coming to a close soon and our family is working to get ready for a new school year.
In the last couple of weeks we have worked to clean and organize our home. We worked one room at a time and each room took a couple of days. We would empty every closet and drawer too. As we did this we took out the things we never use or will never use and just got it out of the house. This wasn't so bad until we got the the family room and the kitchen. In the kitchen we also have a wash room that doubled as storage for everything. The family room ended up taking about 4 days to clean. The kitchen was worse at about 10 days to clean. Part of the reason this took so long was that we were in the middle of canning season too. So I was working on two major projects at the same time.
This week I will be working on some freezer meals and making up some of our own ready to use foods. After which I will put together a one month meal plan. This helps me a lot when we start schooling at home.

I still need to fill out my calendars for the up coming school year with all of our appointments, family reunions, birthdays, holidays, anniversary, vacations and field trips. Then check to make sure I have all our school supplies ready. Which I am pretty sure that is done. But I have to double check it.

Since we have a family reunion for the Saturday before Labor Day, we will start school after Labor Day. Our first lesson will be a lapbook on the history of Labor Day .

My next post will be about the curriculum we are using this year.

Summer Camp

2009-07-13T10:52:00.003-05:00

My little girl is going to summer camp. Well, I guess she is not a little girl anymore, she just turned 12 on Friday. Here she is with her best friend. But, she and I are very nervous. We both had upset tummys this morning. I'm sure we will both be fine, but this is so hard to do.

I just had to talk about this today or I was going to bust.

2008 - 2009 School has ended

2009-06-12T21:59:00.002-05:00

We went ahead and wrapped up our school year at the end of May. I took a look at next years books and can see that there is plenty of review of this years stuff that they won't be missing anything. Its June and we are spending time with our animals and chores, which include the garden and other little projects we have been working on. I am also going to spend this month teaching the girls some new housekeeping chores that they will now be doing themselves.

Other than that we will spend time in pool

Notebooking Journal Giveaway!

2009-05-20T13:30:00.001-05:00

Apologia is now producing notebooking journals that accompany each of the elementary science books. Both Botany and Astronomy are now available. You can see samples on the Apologia website here:

These journals are beautiful spiral bound notebooks that will save you time and money. You won't have to print and keep up with your child's notebook pages, buy and maintain page protectors, or purchase and compile binders...everything that makes notebooking time-consuming and labor intensive for mom. Also, your child will adore having their own notebooking journal.

Each of the notebooking journals include:

-A daily schedule for those who like to have a plan or would like their children to complete the book on their own

-Templates for written narrations, the notebooking activities and experiment

-Review Questions

-Scripture Copywork, with both print and cursive practice

-Reading lists and additional activities, projects, experiments for each lesson

-An appendix with beautiful, full-color, lapbook-style Miniature Books

-Field Trip Sheets to keep a record field trips

-A Final Review with fifty questions the students can answer either orally or in writing to show off all they remember and know at the end of the course.

See the sample pages here:

Botany:

and

Astronomy :

Jeannie is giving away four Astronomy Notebooking Journals and four Botany Notebooking Journals to bloggers who post about this on their site. Visit her blog to learn more about this contest: www.jeanniesjournal.com

Camera Lessons

2009-05-13T22:27:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite things to do is take pictures. I will take a picture of anything just to see how it turns out. When I was little, my mother gave me a camera that she got from mailing in proofs of purchase on paper towel packages. It was a little 110 Kodak camera. Back then you had to take the film in and leave it for a week before you could get your pictures, only to find out that half the pictures were bad.
Anyway, I was 10 years old at that time and I have had a love for pictures ever since.
I gave both my girls an old digital a few years back and they could take any pictures they wanted (no film to develop)Since then they have gotten MP3's w/camera. They take a lot of pictures and some of them are really different.

This is one that Linda took of the evening sky from laying in the middle of our yard. I really liked this one because it reminded me of myself. Looks like the girls are taking lessons from me.

Still working on it

2009-05-02T16:03:00.001-05:00

We are a little behind on the 3 R's and have been working double time to catch up. I really want to be done with this years lessons, by the end of May. Take a complete break from school (I think) for the whole summer. Usually we do lessons off and on all year round, but "I" am getting burn out. So "I" need to have a refreshing time. Just gardening, swimming and playing with the kids and animals. I'll post more on how we do with catching up.

Hands on Math lesson

2009-03-28T19:18:00.005-05:00

Today, my son wanted to open his piggy bank to see how much money he had "saved". Not that he had much of a choice to save. The piggy bank was a glass pig with a slot on top and NO opening to get the money back out. Not even for me to "borrow" some now and then. So, the money that was put in could not be taken out.

Anyway, I made him a new bank out of a Hersey cocoa box and gave him his old bank and a hammer. A few taps and it was open. He was very proud of himself. I won't tell how much he had, because it was more than I ever have for myself.

Learning on the Computer

2009-01-24T19:16:00.018-06:00

Here is Little Man working on one of his computer programs. He loves these games and he really learns from them. As a matter of fact, we have had the Jump Start learning series for about nine years now and all of the children have been using them for years and each one of them enjoyed them. In our set we have 9 different ones, starting with Jump Start Baby, then Toddler , Preschool, Kindergarten and then 1st - 5th grade. I think it was our best buy ever, since we got these so long ago and are still able to keep using them. He is already working on 1st grade and he is only 4. I love seeing him sitting there learning and he doesn't even know it.

Kit Kittredge

2009-01-18T14:45:00.010-06:00

The girls and I are reading the American Girl Series. Right now we are reading
Kit an American Girl (6 Book Set)
a girl from the Great Depression. We started with this one because, 1: the new movie was coming out and 2: I found a great lapbooking set that we are using while reading the books. We don't actually make lapbooks, we do notebooking (which is kinda like scrapbooking). Its just a fun way to record what we are learning from the books. Part of it comes across like a book report and part of it is a history report. It ends up being something they can look back on and remember the fun part of learning. Since, notebooking involves art type work, the girls love doing it. I even use it as a way to get them to finish their other lessons in a timely manner.
The American Girl book series is a great homeschool resource. In the back of each book is a section called "Looking Back". In this section is the real history of the time period. In this case 1934. Here's a link to the lapbooking set....

http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=26391&it=1&affiliate_id=16684

Christmas 2008

2008-12-30T17:09:00.001-06:00

I just had to post this picture from Christmas. The excitement she has for this unexpected gift was priceless. At first she thought it was a camera, which it is, but it is actually an mp3 with a camera feature. We could not decide between getting the girls a camera or a music player. Then, during my shopping I found this one that could do both. Perfect! Each girl got one and that was their "big deal" gift for this year.

Family Read aloud

2008-12-19T20:09:00.004-06:00

We just finished reading Prince Caspian Read-Aloud Edition. We did our reading in our spare time, which wasn't much time. It took us a whole month. I wanted to finish this book in time for Christmas, at which time the kids will receive the movie by the same name. I am happy to say "we managed to get it done." Now to tell you about the book I chose to read. I have been purchasing the Special Read-Aloud Editions for the Chronicles. I like this set because the book is large and so is the print, which helps when you and four kids are trying to sit on one sofa and read together. The chapters are still pretty long, but the illustrations and the story keep everyone interested and reading goes by pretty fast.

My goal this year is to read several classic books, do some notebooking on them and watch a movie to go with them. So far this school year we have managed 3 books, about one a month. I kept my expectations low on this, because of all the ages of the kids, but one a month is pretty good I think.

ACTS Holiday Party

2008-12-09T17:00:00.000-06:00

Today was the ACTS homeschool party. There was a ton of different crafts for the children to do, like; sticker pictures, ornaments, bookmarks and wall art projects. Plenty of food (Jesse's favorite thing, is to eat) They also had a gift exchange, which all the children passed around the gifts while listening to a story. When the story ended the gift in your hand was yours to take home. It was a lot of fun to watch them do that. Then the kids all got stockings with little prizes in side. We really enjoyed the whole party.

American Girl Tea

2008-12-07T19:06:00.000-06:00

The girls are members of our local American Girl book club and this month, instead of a meeting we had a tea party.
The girls enjoyed tea, punch and many different treats to eat. The girls were able to display their dolls at the display table and they walked the runway with their dolls. We also got to meet and learn the life of an American Girl..... Joan Hallmark! She is a local TV personality. Ms. Hallmark had many stories about being a reporter and the people she has met and places she has been.
We all had a great time.... looking forward to next months meeting and next years "tea".

Edom Community

2008-12-07T00:00:00.000-06:00

Tonight was our towns Christmas Stroll and Tree lighting. The town businesses stay open late and some of them having special activities for the children.

Visit www.moblyng.com to make your own!

Then the children sing Christmas carols. The Community Christmas tree is turned on and while the children sing the last song, Santa arrives on a fire engine. Later there is a hay ride down to the Market Place which is a wonderful hometown restaurant.
Jesse, Linda and Timber were all part of the children's chorus and even though it was cold Avery had a wonderful time.

What happened to school

2008-12-02T19:10:00.004-06:00

This time of year gets very busy, with redecorating the house for the winter season, baking and homemade gifts. School gets reduced to reading. Lots of reading and as many educational shows as I can find. Every now and then we fit in some math. But, I have been trying to keep up with little mans lessons. That way most of his routine stays the same. So here I have a couple of pictures of his crafts that he got to do with his lessons. All my kids like the crafts the best.

Kite Flying

2008-11-30T18:58:00.001-06:00

Today was a very windy day and the children remembered that they all had kites. So they went in and found them. I love these little kites. All you do is unroll it and open it up and your ready to go. No assembly.... at all. We picked them up at the store last spring for $4. What a deal.
Anyways, once I realized that they were actually getting them up in the sky I grabbed the camera and got pictures. Just something fun!

Visit www.moblyng.com to make your own!

Lion & Mouse Stories

2008-11-15T14:00:00.000-06:00

Today was the play. We invited all our friends and family to come and see the performance. This was one part of the Lion and Mouse Stories. We had nine children in this play and each one of them had to play several parts. What a joy it was to watch them "change" into each of their characters using only props and their personality. At the end of the play each child recited their chosen poems. This class of home school children really did improve a lot, in stage and speech skills. Now we can't wait until next semester.

Poem

2008-11-07T22:36:00.000-06:00

The girls are taking a class at the local theatre. Coming soon they will be putting on their play with the other classmates. This play is for friends and family. The point of the class is for the children to learn the fine points of stage acting. So in addition to the play, each child will recite a poem that they picked out and have been practicing. My daughter Linda, wanted to write her own poem for the show and this is what she came up with.........

"My Horse"

Charlie is a chestnut bay

He turns red in the summer rays

In the shade he likes to graze

and that is where he likes to stay

When I walk by he will nay

For me to have a wonderful day

Misty

2008-11-07T18:16:00.000-06:00

Misty of Chincoteague Marguerite Henry

This is the most recent book that we have finished as a family read aloud.

I love that it is a true story and that it is based on events that still happen to this day. I happened to have the 1961 movie too (something I picked up in the $5 bin) so after we finished reading we watched the movie. I also found a number of websites with more information, so I am planning on having the girls do some notebooking on this.

The vote

2008-11-04T15:41:00.000-06:00

Today was the day to vote. I figured the girls needed to see this process yet again. So I made them get up and we all had breakfast. We waited until Bobby got done voting (he did it on his way home from work) and came home. We then hopped in the truck and went to the community center. I was a bit shocked to see a line, after all this town is a population of 322. How many voters can there really be? Well, we were in line maybe 10 minutes, so it wasn't that bad. The girls got to see me sign in, get my ballot and fill in the bubbles (in our town we still get paper ballots) we then put it in the box and left. Thats when the girls started asking questions. We have done this before, but it has never been important to them. This time they seemed to know that it was important. We talked about it on the short trip home. Then it was over! They were no longer interested and we got on with our day.
Not sure how much "education" I can calm with that, but the way I see it.. life is an education and voting is part of our life here in America.

Morton Salt

2008-10-10T17:54:00.000-05:00

The Salt Palace Museum in Grand Saline, TX

Bobby had an unexpected trip to his place of work and since it was his day off

we made a family trip out of it. While in Grand Saline, we made a visit over to the Salt Palace. Very interesting! Inside, you will find memorabilia of times gone by. Tons of Morton Salt and Grand Saline history and even gifts to buy. The kids were interested in the building itself (the building is made of salt blocks) We also viewed a video, of the mine and the mill plant. Which helped the kids and myself see what daddy does for work. As small as the museum is, it held our interest for over an hour. I guess I will mark this one as career day.

http://www.mortonsalt.com/heritage/index.html

http://www.grandsaline.com/edb/salt01.htm

Field Trip

2008-09-03T13:48:00.000-05:00

Today we went to the Brookshires Wildlife Musuem. I didn't know that Bobby had never been. Its a neat little place. Full of stuffed wild trophy animals from all over the world and ocean too.
This museum also has a little replica of an old fashion grocery store. Its like a step back into time. Jesse and the girls loved it. They also had an old fire engine from 1952 that was actually used at the Mortin Salt Mine (where Bobby works) in Grand Saline.

Back to school time

2008-09-02T13:46:00.000-05:00

Its back to school time. Adding lessons back to our calendar seems impossible, but must be done. I have spent the last month de-cluttering and cleaning the house. I have also made ready to eat meals and put them in the freezer for the hectic days. The girls have been working on some schooling for the last week trying to get a refresher to the schedule. They have also started back in theatre today. Our endless summer vacation is over............

Avery's 1st B-day

2008-08-11T13:44:00.000-05:00

August 11........ One year ago today, Avery was born @ 31 weeks gestation. He weighted only 3lbs 11oz. and was so tiny, he looked just like a doll. Today, he is one year old. He is everything any other one year old is. He walks.......NO... he runs, he climbs.. even to the point of moving toys or books to give himself a leg up. He sits at the table and eats meals with us and he finally sleeps thru the night. This last year has been a roller coaster ride. With doctors appointments, illness and the endless amounts of time (and $$) it takes to care for a premee. His first birthday is a blessing. I am looking forward to this next year, with maybe a little less stress. We'll see how it goes.

Happy Birthday Avery

Switched at the Crossroads

2008-05-08T10:07:00.000-05:00

Recently, Linda was invited to do a play with another theatre group. She was a fill in for this play and had only 3 practices in less than three weeks to have her lines memorized. She did a great job. As a matter of fact all the kids did a great job. This play was a melodrama called "Switched at the Crossroads" it was very funny and the kids did a good job bringing out the humor of the play. This is a picture with Linda and 3 of the other girls in the play. The children had to come up with their own costumes and props for this production, but that was part of the fun.

Update on Avery

2008-04-25T13:40:00.000-05:00

I have some new updates about Avery. But first this is a recent picture of him with my friend Sheri. He was sleepy in this picture, but didn't want to lay down.
Just wanted to let everyone know how he is doing. We went for his Cardio check up in Dallas with the specialist and we have a good report. His Aorta valve is fine. The hole in his heart is getting smaller and the doctor believes it will close in time. She says he is good to go and do "whatever he wants". But he is only 8 months old, he doesn't really want to do much. The other good news is that he does not need another follow up appointment for 2 years.
Now for his new stuff. He is eating baby food daily now and no more mess either. He also has two brand new teeth. So he gives us this funny grin (like he is trying to show us his teeth) He is getting around the house pretty good. I wouldn't call it crawling, but it does kinda look like that and he is really fast. He is sitting up better and he loves to pull himself up to his feet. A little while ago he crawled back into his bouncy chair all by himself. So I think he will be a climber. He disappears on us a lot and we have gotten use to finding him in his brothers room, playing with Jesse's toys. So he may get moved into the boys room soon. Which means mom and dad will have our room back.

Depot Museum

2008-04-18T13:39:00.000-05:00

Today we had a field trip to the Depot Museum in Henderson Texas. We were all up EARLY and after a few morning mishaps we were on our way. The drive took about an hour and a half. Which was making me wish that I hadn't spilled my coffee before leaving. But once we were there we enjoyed the tour.
Here I have posted the pictures of Jesse's two favorite things on the tour. He said he liked the tools and later when he saw the shop that the brooms were made in, then he said that was his favorite.

I don't have any pictures of the girls on this trip. They found their friends and I didn't see them again until the end of the tour. I did have to drag them away to get them loaded into the truck to head back home. It was a long drive and the boys took a nap on the way home. We love field trips. Education without books. What could be more fun!

Show time

2008-04-05T13:36:00.000-05:00

Today the girls performed their play "The Shoemaker and the Elves" They did a good show. Timber played the Shoemakers wife and Linda was one of the Elves. These are all homeschooled children taking a class from the Rogers Children Theatre in Tyler. They have fall semester and spring semester classes every year. The girls have been doing this for 3 years now. It always surprises me that shy Timber can actually do this in front of people, but she does.

Soccer

2008-03-26T13:35:00.000-05:00

Soccer season has begun. Oh JOY! Just kidding. The kids love soccer. Our homeschool group, ACTS, has a lot of kids. Enough to make up 6 different teams. Anyway, the girls love playing the game and being with their friends. Jesse just likes to get out of the house with something new to do and seeing his friend Hopie.

Soccer season ends at the end of May. Which is a good time for summer vacation to start for us. Spring is barely here but we are all looking forward to summer.

A little history never hurt

2008-03-17T13:33:00.000-05:00

Saturday, we went to the Four Winds Faire. It is a Renaissance fair. We also went because this is where my daughter (Linola) is working for the next few weekends. We had a great time seeing some of the shows and playing the games. My favorite of course was the Joust. But I had a lot of other favorites too. The kids had a great time too and learned a few things, I think! It was too far of a drive and cost way too much, once you are inside the fair.

This is Timber at the Ax throwing. She actually stuck it to the target.

Growing Up & moving

2008-02-23T13:32:00.000-06:00

My son, Jaymon, came to visit me for a week. He is moving to Colorado and wanted to spend some time with us before he moved. He will be turning 19 years old tomorrow (Feb. 24). It is amazing how time goes by without you even being aware of it. I still have a hard time realizing that he and his older sister are adults.

We took a lot of pictures and saying goodbye was very hard for Timber, Linda and myself. He did finally load his things in the car, climbed in and drove away, but he will be missed very much. This picture is of Jaymon and his girl friend Allison (very sweet girl). Maybe we will get to make a trip to Colorado, after all we will at least have a place to stay now.

Family visit

2008-01-21T13:24:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a day of visiting with family. My dad and step mom invited us over for some dinner. Our family, plus my sister-in-law with niece and nephew and my oldest daughter with her boyfriend and family. All tucked in to my dads little house. Then Timber, Linda, Sarah and Sean stayed over night with Poppy (my dad). Here is a picture of my daughter, Linola with Blake (her boyfriend) Faith and Avery.

National Average Percentile Scores
Subtest	Homeschool	Public School
Reading	89	50
Language	84	50
Math	84	50
Science	86	50
Social Studies	84	50
Core^a	88	50
Composite^b	86	50
a. Core is a combination of Reading, Language, and Math. b. Composite is a combination of all subtests that the student took on the test.