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Mandi in Ohio

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Everything posted by Mandi in Ohio

  1. So we have our oldest reading 100 books this Summer for her Summer reading. Shes 8 so she's reading chapter books, like American Girl, Magic Tree House, as well as classics like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. How do you keep track of your children's reading lists? Do you just write them down, keep an excel? Do you track their reading year round, just for the Summer or start over each school year? I'd love to have a running record of all her readings for both her portfolio as well as to keep her from reading the same books over. Thanks!! Mandi
  2. We are going to be starting our second year of A Reason for Handwring. My 8 year old did the transition book last year from print to cursive. So what level would she be starting with this year for just cursive. Another note is that she did learn cursive first in kindergarten but for kindergarten and first grade she did both to keep her fresh...I know confusing! One thing you learn not to do after your first homeschooled kid. Also with kid #2 I started with print. Now that kid #3 is coming up to preschool age where we will be working on beginning letters, what does A Reason for Handwriting suggest to teach first? Print or Handwriting? Do they even offer beginning books in cursive? We did Abeka when we did cursive first with out oldest. Not sure where to start the 3rd child. Thanks!! Mandi
  3. Each of our kids had their own little baggie by their seats to collect their chips in. Before we left we explained the "game" as well as showed them a chart of the prizes they could earn and how many chips each prize was worth. Since we were traveling over a few weeks, some other prizes they spent chips on where picking what seat they were sitting in in the van and choosing where they wanted to sleep at the hotel that night since once child was on the floor in a sleeping bag each night. They also could cash in chips for real money to use at a tourist shop along the way. We actually adapted this to use at home where they can earn having a friend spend the night, tv time, chuckie cheese, one on one time with mom or dad, etc.
  4. Yep...I almost wonder should I pee on the stick or is the baby bump enough proof? LOL! Mandi
  5. I just told my children "Mommy is in a time out right now" after about the 30th question while I was trying to quickly eat my own lunch before running to the next lesson/chore. They laughed, but it worked and I ate my lunch in peace!
  6. When we drove from Ohio to Washington State on a 3 weeks family vacation/husband's work trip, we had a 6, 4, 2, and 5 month old. A big thing we did is we had a chip reward game. The kids did certian good behavior things and earned poker chips along the ride. Our 2 year old played but it was a bit harder for her to delay gratification. Through out the day they could cash in their chips for things like: dessert at dinner on the road, choosing form a prize bag filled with candy, lots of cheap toys/stickers/pencils/crayons/and such from the dollar tree, getting to watch a movie or listen to a kids cd, etc. The older kids loved this and our 2 year old played along with them. They also were able to lose chips for bad behaviour such as fighting with a sisiter, not sharing, being too loud while driving, not listening to parents, etc. Other trips with toddlers we've filled a bag with dollar tree toys and snacks (individulaly bagged in portion sizes) and pulled them out one at a time through out the tip. This way they don't get them all at once and get bored quickly with them. Here are some thigns I filled the bag with: matchbox cars, small pens with small notebook, silly putty, stretchy animals, stickers, sewing cards, notecards with once color of marker colored on it and then clothes pins that have a little strip of that same color of marker on it (clip the correct color of clothes pin on the correct card), paperclips to make a chain, magnadoodles, aquadoodle travel size (Target), dried fruit, peanuts, goldfish, gummies, etc. Check out the dollar tree, target dollar spot, and walmart's cheap toy section for ideas. Hope this helps some! Best of luck!!
  7. These are all wonderful tips! I need to write this stuff down...because in a house of 5 kids I'm sure we'll find a lose crayon before I know it! Thanks everyone! Mandi
  8. I have lots of homeschool books that I am looking at selling and I've never sold any online before. Is there a certain website that people go to look up current prices for their books? I know what the retail new values are for them but how do you know what they are worth used? Any help would be great!! Mandi
  9. These are great! Makes me feel like my kids are "normal! HA! Thanks for the smiles!
  10. Sometimes it's just that kinda day where it's worth the overload of candy for a minute of peace! ;)
  11. We are still getting our homschool room situated before we start our school year next week. This will be our first year of SOTW and I'd like to put a large World map or several smaller maps on our wall in the school room. Does anyone know if there are any wall maps suggested by SOTW or if you use soem that work nicely? I found some on Office Max's website, but I'm not sure if I want a pysical map or a political map? Thanks! Mandi
  12. We celebrated our NOT Back to School Day with my girls this year. We headed out for lunch, just the 4 of us without Dad or a baby brother, then saw Bezus and Ramona, and then to Barnes and Noble. It was a really fun day and a great way for my girls (7, 5, 3) to realized that they are special by not starting school with their friends and that BECAUSE we homeschool we have the freedom to have fun days like that. Mandi
  13. Thanks so much! I hadn't seen these samples before. That helped alot! Mandi
  14. We are starting FLL with our 2nd Grader this year and I'm not sure which level she should start on? I saw that the FLL 1 & 2 is sold out on TWTM website so I was hunting online for a used one. I see most of them are the older editions which are either level 1 or level 2 and I'm not sure which one she would need? She has had Abeka k5 and 1st before so if that helps figure out what level she would need? Thanks! Mandi
  15. We are just beginning our classical journey this year and I am still trying to get things together (we start after Labor Day). Our oldest will be entering 2nd grade this year and after her state requited testing we found out she is reading on a 4th grade level. So with all that said I'm looking at the McGruffey Ecletic Readers (as mentiond in TWTM) but I also saw that some people use just passages in your regualr text as well as poetry? So my questions are, What do you use for oral reading? Do you just pick 2 paragraph/poem/whatever per week and re-read it each day to practive fluency? If I use the McGuffey Readers which one do we start with for her level? Thanks!!! Mandi
  16. We are just starting our classical journey with our kids and will be doing biology/life science with our 2nd grader this year for science. I've been looking over what is suggested for science in TWTM and think that we probably need a more structured approach to science...especially for this Type A Momma! :D So what science curriculum are you using or have used with your lower grammar kids? What do you like or not like about what you've used? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Mandi
  17. We are in the middle of deciding on a math curriculum for our family and could use some input. We have a 2nd grader and a kinder that we will be schooling this year and have it narrowed down to pretty much Saxon or Abeka for math. We started our new 2nd grader on Abeka across the board when she started school and were really pleased with it. This will be our first year taking a more classical approach to their lessons and so we are looking at new curriculum across the board. I have heard great things about both and actually I had Saxon at the private Christian school I attended in middle school growing up. I do remember it was pretty driven and there was a lot of problems to complete each day but that is about it...of course I was looking at it as a student and not a teacher then too. I've heard both programs are pretty similar with a spiral approach but that's about it? Our main thing to think about when choosing a program are 2 things: 1. We have several more kids coming up behind her so we need something that we're going to stick with and be able to use again and again, hopefully through high school. 2. My daughter is much stronger in language arts and does ok with math now but I don't want her to get to a place in that program where it gets tough and she gets frustrated and then doesn't like math anymore. That is what I did in school and I still am not fond of math today. So in short I need something we'll stick with and something that she will feel like she can acomplish. I hope that makes sense? One more thing to consider, our kinder girl is much more hands on and visual. I'm not sure if that makes any difference in either program or not? I'd love to hear why you do or do NOT like either of these programs! Thanks!! Mandi
  18. Thanks so much everyone! We are really excited to start this Fall. We broke out the AAS when I purchased it at the Homeschool Convention here in Ohio last year but only did a tiny bit. I realized it wasn't worth starting the whole thing since we were breaking for Summer and just put it back for the Fall. What we've done of it already I really liked., It was amazing that even though my daughter had already had 2 years of phonics she still didn't know all the sounds for each letter. I was very impressed with what little we've done already. Can't wait to start both girls on the program next year.
  19. Thanks so much everyone! I'm still looking around the web for more reviews on AAS. If anyone else has any input I'd love to hear it! Mandi
  20. We are new to Classical Ed and I'm in the middle of ordering all our curriculum for next year. Last Spring I purchased All About Spelling for our 7 1/2 year old (starting 2nd) and our 5 1/2 year old (starting kindergarten). So with that said is AAS going to be enough for my 2nd grader's phonics and spelling? We are doing Abeka Grammar but do I need to order the phonics curriculum too? For our kinder child do I need a separate phonics program like Abeka? I've also head that might confuse her but I really want to make sure she gets a good hold on reading this year. Anyone have experience with AAS and a beginning reader?
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