Book Reviews . . .

Ky's Review:

May Bird Among the Stars
by Jodi Lynn Anderson

What I like about May Bird is that May Bird is braver than in the first book.
She gets to know her friends better. My favorite character is still Pumpkin.
In this book Somber Kitty and Pumpkin become good friends. I really love
this book and if you like adventures and spooks and scares
you'll love this book.



Bugaloo's Review:

Matilda
by Roald Dahl

Matilda is a great book. My favorite person is Matilda because she gets the Trunchbull out of her school. It is funny because the Trunchbull faints. He he! You will love this book. I loved it! The End.

New Puzzles . . .

What can I say? We LOVE puzzles at our house. All of the kids have loved to do puzzles and I try to keep that a part of learning and fun. On a recent shopping trip, we ran across these fun puzzles for $5 a box and immediately loved them.



There is a set for letters and a set for numbers. They are wooden and one of the things we like is that there is an individual puzzle for each letter and number. This makes it easy for JJ to put them together. He may not get the right letters or numbers with the correct picture, but I think it is perfect for his little hands to practice putting them together.

Peaches, on the other hand, is doing great with matching the correct information. There are a few different base colors, which I think makes learning a little easier. She sorts each of the pictures, letter, numbers, words by color and then matches them accordingly. This makes it nice so it doesn't seem like there are a 26 letters to choose from or 20 numbers to choose from, just a handful. We have only had these for a couple of weeks and we already love them. I love that they are learning something while they have fun.

I tried to look online for these, to give you a link, but could not find them. I bought them at Winco.

A little "real life" conversation . . .

I have mentioned before that our oldest two daughters attended public school for a few years. It was an interesting, learning experience, to say the least. One of the changes that I have seen, is the fact that they talk to us so much more. I don't know if this is because we are with them more, or not. I just know that I LOVE every minute of it. Sometimes the conversations are general, sometimes educational, and sometimes personal. Whatever they are, I love that I have these little conversations with them.

What I think is funny, is that before home educating, I would have told you that we had great conversations and that they talked to me about everything. They did, so I thought. I couldn't have been more wrong.

I especially like the "real life" conversations. Since they are home always, they get to see more the day to day things that I do. For example, the other day, Ky and I were running some errands and she asked me about debt and why it is not a good choice ( my husband and I have been watching Dave Ramsey DVD's with some other adults). So I took the opportunity to explain to her that when you borrow money you become indebted or even enslaved to the person you owe money to. You then can not spend money on what you want to because you owe someone else money. That you basically now have a master over your money until the debt is paid. She is almost ten and saw the value of not being in debt. What a great, real life lesson.

Would I be having these conversations with them if I didn't have them with me all day? Probably. Would they still have the opportunity to learn these life lessons otherwise? Maybe.

I think of home education as a type of osmosis. You have all heard the joke, "learning by osmosis" right? If only one could learn everything a book teaches, just by touching it. It is true that you can learn a lot from reading and studying, but to live and experience something is such a profound "teaching" tool.

Home Education . . .

Week of Jan 18th - 22nd:

Opening: Ether chapters 1-6, primary songs

Spelling: Ky just completed lesson 53 and Bugaloo just completed lesson 14 in Word Lessons.

Reading: Ky read through lessons 29,30, & 31. Bugaloo read through lessons 28, 29, & 30.

Ky is reading May Bird among the Stars and Bugaloo is reading Matilda.

Family Read: We are reading some stories from Sketchbook by Washington Irving. We listened to Rip Van Winkle.

Copy Work: They are continuing to copy the Articles of Faith with #12. Bugaloo has done a great job with her cursive practice. She continued with a, d, g, c, & q.

Math: Ky did some introductory pages on division and Bugaloo worked on her 4 times table.

History: We read more about different colonies in American History Stories, Vol 1.

Take Five: Take Five last week was How Author's Write Stories.
They learned about the different parts of a story; ie. characters, setting, problems, etc., and they were asked to write outlines and stories. They also listened to a couple of stories that I read to them, and then filled out outl9ines accordingly.

Music/Art Study: We took the week to study and appreciate art done by Sandro Boticelli. They liked his art and detail.

Detail from Primavera

Other: While the parents did Rave Ramsey's Financial Peace for FHE, Ky and Bugaloo took the lead and helped all the kids make puppets out of paper sacks and misc. paper pieces. They did a great job and are so great at helping their younger brother and sister and cousins.

Home Crafts . . .

I have set some time aside everyday for what we call home crafts. This could be anything from cooking, baking, crafting, etc. I have tried to teach Ky and Bugaloo how to crochet, but it just seems that their little hands can't quite get the hang of it. They usually do a great chain, but anything beyond that has them a bit confused. I was trying to think of something fairly easy for them to begin with to get used to the feeling of working with yarn.

We were perusing through a thrift store the other day, and Ky glanced a book cover made of plastic canvas and expressed an interest in making one. So, we got online and looked for some ideas, picked up some canvas and blunt needles and with the help of the website, www.craftdesigns4you.com/learntostitchpc, they started on their first project, a small happy face.


It was a good design to start with, as it only uses a tent stitch for the whole thing. They LOVED it, and now they want to make all sorts of things. They even asked if I would print out all the instructions and information on all the different stitches for them to learn.

I found that this was a good place to start. They need to get used to the idea of keeping the yarn untangled and following very simple, basic patterns. They did a great job and had a fun time too. What kinds of home crafts do you do?

The finished product. Good job girls!!

Home Education

Week of Jan 11th - 15th:

Opening: Finished 4 Nephi and Mormon. Songs: Books of the Old Testament, fun songs for the little ones.

Spelling: Ky just completed lesson 52 and Bugaloo just completed lesson 13 in Word Lessons. If the lesson just contains spelling words, then they spend two days copying the words and two days writing sentences for each word. Day 5 is spent in review as needed.

Reading: We decided to do readers three times a week now on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. At least once a week, usually twice, they read out loud to me and we work on pronunciation and reading skills. Ky read through lessons 26,27, & 28. Bugaloo read through lessons 25, 26, & 27.

Ky and Bugaloo finished their books and you can read their reviews here. Ky is now reading, May Bird among the Stars and Bugaloo is reading Matilda.

Family Read: We are reading some stories from Sketchbook by Washington Irving. We listened to Rip Van Winkle.

Copy Work: They are continuing to copy the Articles of Faith with #10. Bugaloo has done a great job with her cursive practice. She continued with a, d, g, c, & q. She did a practice sheet for each and then did a couple of worksheets that incorporated all those letters.

Math: We have decided to work really hard on memorization of basic multiplication and so have been using flash cards, tables, tricks, and games. They have both really improved and taken hold of the methods.

History: We finished reading The Landing of the Pilgrims by James Daugherty. We started our History Scrapbook with pages about Pocahontas, John Smith, and the Jamestown Colony. We will work on this until we get caught up and then do the pages as we finish a topic or person.

Take Five: Take Five last week was about fables. How they are written and what the morals are. They were challenged to write their own fables and illustrate them. They were given the following line and asked to finish the fable.

The Elephant and the Giraffe

One day, the elephant saw his friend the giraffe eating a
bunch of plump,juicy leaves off the top of the tree.
He said to his friend, . . .

Ky:

"Can you get me an apple from the tree?"

"Only if you do something for me in return," the giraffe said.

The elephant said, "Ok." So the giraffe got him the biggest, juiciest apple on the tree and the elephant went home and had a delicious supper. The next day, giraffe was stuck in a hunter's net. Just when the elephant walked by, the giraffe said, "Remember your promise. Help me out of this net." But the elephant said, "No, I have to save myself."

While the elephant said this, a hunter shot him. Giraffe was set free.

Moral: Keep your promises.

Bugaloo:

"May I have some?" said the elephant.

"No, maybe another time. They are mine." said the giraffe.

So the elephant went home hungry. The next day giraffe asked elephant if he could have some fruit. Elephant said, "No, they are mine. Find some of your own." So the giraffe left hungry.

Moral: Treat others how you want to be treated.

Music/Art Study: We continued listening to music by Henry Purcell. They worked on their piano lessons and theory and played with a new keyboard that we got that connects to the computer.

Other: Bugaloo did our FHE for the week, worked on a topic in her Faith In God, for the new "Scripture Journal" task found in the Friend she taught her sister the 1st Article of Faith, and read in Book of Mormon scripture reader. Ky worked on a topic in her Faith in God, finished the Book of Mormon scripture reader, and helped teach her sister the 1st Article of Faith for the "Scripture Journal".

Book Review . . .

May Bird and the Ever After
by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Ky's thoughts:

" I think kids my age would really like this book and if you like
spooks and tricks, you will really like this book. My favorite
part was when Somber Kitty got back with May. I think the
writing was reallyinteresting. My favorite character is Pumpkin,
because he is funny and is always scared. I'm already starting
book 2, May Bird Among the Stars!"

Bugaloo's thoughts:

"It is hard to choose a favorite character. I liked May Bird because
she is adventurous, Somber Kitty because he is May Bird's
guardian, and Beogy because he is a scary villain. My favorite
part was when May first saw the Beogy. "

The Indian in the Cupboard
by Lynn Reid Banks

Bugaloo's Thoughts:

" My favorite character was the lady indian, Bright Stars because
Little Bear liked her and I like indians. I liked the book because
the story was magical and funny. My favorite part of the book was
when Little Bear says, "You touch, I kill." Because it was funny, he
is this little Indian and the boy is huge and his knife was a little pin.
Very funny! The author made me feel like I was there
watching it happen."

Organized Changes . . .

So I spent the day yesterday re-organizing all of our learning materials, changing some methods and adding to some. First, I got all of our binders, files, books, etc, re-organized in our file box and put in a convenient place. I have to store things in places that are temporary, until our basement gets finished and we can have a more permanent situation. Everything that we use for learning on a daily/weekly basis is found here:

It makes it really convenient to have everything in one place. I had files and extra paper in this box prior and kept the binders and books on a shelf, but after seeing this post, I decided to combine everything and I think it is going to work out nicely. We have our binders, extra worksheets, and all the books we are using.

I know I have talked about the Music/Picture study that we are doing and I finally decided to make a binder for all the info we are collecting. At first, I wasn't going to do this, we were just going to read any info online or in books from the library, but I think it is nice for the kids to have something concrete to read. So, we are now calling it Music & Art study. In our binder, we have a short bio of the composers or artists and a picture to go with it. We also have a short list of some of their works, whether they be musical or artistic. We will also accompany these with listening to the music and looking at the paintings, sculptures, etc. throughout the week.

Bio & works pages about Antonio Vivaldi.

Bio page about Botticelli.

History Scrapbook and Music & Art Study Binder

We have also started a History Scrapbook. I decided that this would be a great way to reinforce what they are learning about in History. They loved this project and look forward to doing it. I think that we will do pages at least once, if not twice a week.

Ky and Bugaloo are working on History pages.

Our first pages, Pocahontas and the Jamestown Colony.

Home Education . . .

Week of January 4th - 8th:

Opening: Finished 3 Nephi!! Songs: Books of the Old Testament

Spelling: Ky just completed lesson 51 and Bugaloo just completed lesson 12 in Word Lessons. If the lesson just contains spelling words, then they spend two days copying the words and two days writing sentences for each word. Day 5 is spent in review as needed.

Reading: We decided to do readers three times a week now on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. At least once a week, usually twice, they read out loud to me and we work on pronunciation and reading skills. Ky read through lessons 23,24, & 25. Bugaloo read through lessons 22, 23, & 24.

Ky finished Matilda, and here's what she thought:

" I thought that Matilda's parents were mean. Her power was pretty cool and
she was really smart. Her teacher, Miss Honey, was very kind to
Matilda and was amazed at her power. The head mistress, Miss Trunchbull,
is strong and tortured the kids. I thought the book was really fun to
read and I would suggest it to others to read."

Bugaloo is still reading The Indian in the Cupboard, but is almost finished. Ky is now finishing May Bird and the Ever After which she started a while ago.

Peaches is really doing great with her letters. We only have a couple more to work on. She loves to have book read to her, especially Dr. Seuss books. Right now we are reading Sneeches and Other Stories, My j Book, My v Book, Chickens to the Rescue, etc.

JJ loves to have books read to him. This week we read a book about kittens, we also got a fun book of opposites from the library that is football themed. He also loves any Dr. Seuss books and books about cars, trucks, and tractors.

Family Read: We finished A Christmas Carol before the holiday and everyone really liked the story. Ky's favorite part was how Scrooge helped Tiny Tim. Bugaloo liked how excited Scrooge was when he returned home after the third ghost and how silly he acted. Next, we are going to read some stories from Sketchbook by Washington Irving.

Copy Work: They are continuing to copy the Articles of Faith with #10. Bugaloo has started to work on writing in cursive and began with the letters A & D. She is off to a great start! Peaches has also been doing great copying circles and swirls, and loves to write her name and other letters she knows.

Math: We have decided to work really hard on memorization of basic multiplication and so have been using flash cards, tables, tricks, and games. They have both really improved and taken hold of the methods.

History: We read the book The Story of the Mayflower Compact by Norman Richards. We are now reading The Landing of the Pilgrims by James Daugherty.

Take Five: Take Five last week was all about dictionary skills. Ky and Bugaloo really did great at this and it was a great reminder for them.

Music/Art Study: We listened to music by Henry Purcell last week and learned a bit about him.

Henry Purcell

Other: Ky did our FHE for the week, worked on a topic in her Faith In God, read the scripture for the new "Scripture Journal" task found in the Friend, and read in Book of Mormon scripture reader. Bugaloo worked on a topic in her Faith in God, finished the Old Testament scripture reader, and read the scripture for the "Scripture Journal".

They have been working hard on their piano lessons and doing a great job!

Nature Study . . .

Just a quick note about our Nature Study. I have decided to put a hold on it until the spring. The weather here has been extremely cold and I can only bundle kids up so much, so we will take a break from it and work more on our Music/Picture study. Thanks!

So Much to be Grateful For . . .

We had a great two weeks of holiday and were able to spend a lot of time with family and celebrating our Savior, Jesus Christ. We are so grateful for all that He has done for us and are glad that we have the opportunity to share with our children, many times throughout the day, His message of love and compassion. We took a little break from most of our "learning" and tried to concentrate on doing extra things as a family like play games, watch movies, visit others, make goodies, look at lights, etc. We will be getting back into the swing this week with a few changes.

The first part of our first ever home's school went really well and after reading through the older posts and looking over my notes and journal, there are many things that I think worked great for us, but also many things that need a little change. The first is that I think that referring to the children in the posts as C9, C8, C4, C1 makes them seem almost like an experiment and does not let the reader feel the love that I have for my children. I still tho, insist on not using first names, so I am going to refer to them with their nicknames. This makes it a little more personal for those that are familiar with our family and for those that are not, I hope it makes you feel a little more welcome. So, I would like to give a little update for each of the children so far.

Ky (C9)- She has really enjoyed being home and has been such a help to me with great opinions and information as to her own vision of our home learning. She says that her favorite part of home learning has been the weekly Nature Study. She likes nature and getting outside to see all the different types of nature from animals to plants. She has done great with math and learning the methods for multi-digit and decimal multiplication and also did a great job starting division. She gets really excited for math and I am so glad for that. She has also taken a huge interest in History, something she was hesitant about in the beginning. She is learning a lot in piano and has been able to share that publicly in Church. She has also shown a great potential for planning and organizing. She is excited to do more with cooking, baking, and sewing. She is such a joy for us!

Bogaloo (C8) - I have really loved seeing her take hold of her creative side and just GO! She has done great with her math and is excited to be doing multiplication. She loves reading and always shares a picture or two or three or four . . . that has to do with what she is reading or studying. Her favorite part so far has been the "take five" series because she has gotten to learn about many different things. She says that learning about the solar system has been her favorite so far. She is really making strides in piano, playing beautifully. She recently got to work on public speaking by giving a talk about her baptism at a stake church meeting. She did an amazing job on both the talk and presentation. I am so glad that she can express herself artistically, the way she loves to.

Peaches (C4) - She has done an amazing job learning the sounds for the alphabet. She knows every sound for each letter and can identify them using the sound they make. She is now working on recognizing the letters by their names and is about half way through the alphabet. I think the benefit of doing the sounds first, is that she has already started sounding out words. She has also done great learning to write the letters. She said that her favorite part has been learning her ABC's. She has also worked hard on learning to recognize her numbers by name and can count to 20. She brings a fun atmosphere to our home and always keeps me on my toes.

JJ (C1) - He has been such a fun part of our days. It has been nice for the older kids to be so amazed and excited to teach and show him new things. The older girls love reading to him, building block creations, and just playing with him. Peaches and JJ have a typical love/hate relationship were either life is the best or the worst. He evens things out a bit.

This has been an amazing, gratifying, and eyeopening experience for me. I think it has changed things in me for the better and I just don't remember how I even dealt with my kids being away. I know that I could not have it any other way and that we are building such a tight family because of it. Look to our future posts for any changes that will be made. They will be few, but there, nonetheless. I hope that things are going well for all of you and that the Lord will bless your lives.