Saturday, January 30, 2010

Our "Current" Homeschool Schedule

Here is an example of our "current" schedule since we started adding history and science and art back into our curriculum.  We had for a while took time off of those subjects to concentrate on the other subjects and organize the house, do Christmas projects, etc.  This schedule will most likely change often as we are adding some new things in the next few months.

We start our day whenever we feel like it - that is what I love about homeschooling!  Some days we even do it in the evening and sometimes my daughter wants to do a lesson at night before bed.  We had been doing Mon-Thur (1 1/2 hours) with Friday for just homeschool group, outings, errands and crafts but now we are going to do more on Fridays and weekends since I'm getting a better hold on my homekeeping schedule! ; )

If you count the hour of reading, she does "school" about 3 1/2 hours a day but the actual time in the homeschool room is about 2 1/2 hours on weekdays.  Times are estimates and sometimes we finish sooner or later than the allotted time below. 

Basics - 1hr 50m daily
Bible - 20
Phonics - 30
Writing - 10
Grammar - 10
Math - 40

Other - 40-60m
History, Geography & Social Studies - 60; Mon, Wed & Fri
Science - 40; Tues & Thur
Art, Music & Home Economics - 20 each; 1 day; usually weekends

Starting Soon
Spelling - will begin once phonics instruction is on 2nd grade level

For reading, she reads orally for 30 minutes everyday and then we read to her 30 minutes a day from books above her reading level.

Evenings are usually spent listening to audiobooks, doing chores, computer games and videos.  I keep a stack of audiobooks from the library for her to use when she plays in her room, colors, etc.

Art - Lesson 2; Artists Imagine

Lesson 2 of our art curriculum was "Artists Imagine" and after reading the lesson and studying Marc Chagall's painting we did the project.  The project was to use your imagination to draw your picture, then use watercolor crayons to color it and then use the watercolor brush to magically change the "crayon" look into watercolor  paint! She loved it and it was her first time using watercolor crayons.

She drew herself with her friend ice skating on the ice and then me and her friend's mom watching them:





The watercolor crayons we use are the quality ones from the art store.  The brand we use is Staedtler's Karat Aquarell watercolor crayons.  For drawing, K uses drawing pencils with a vinyl artist eraser.

Image credit: Staedtler

Cuneiform and Hieroglyphics Writing

Below are photos of K's name in cuneiform and hieroglyphics. She couldn't wait to do this project and had already practiced writing in hieroglyphics throughout the week. She loves drawing the bird, it is her favorite.


Here are some great online resources for ancient writing:

Hieroglyphics
Hieroglyphic Name Translator
Hieroglyphics Fun - more than enough here!
Ancient Egyptian Writing

Cuneiform
Cuneiform for Kids
Kidipede cuneiform
Cuneiform Digital Library

Friday, January 29, 2010

Ancient Egypt Index

Here is an index of websites, videos, etc pertaining to the study of Ancient Egypt that we are learning in "The Story of the World" history.  There are so many children's resources online for Ancient Egypt and the list would be so great that I just included some of them - most of these websites within themselves contain many, many links!  There are activities, games, pictures and videos! 

AE stands for Ancient Egypt

PBS Egypt
AE Homeschool helps Index
AE Kid Connection
AE for Kids
Let's Explore Egypt
AE Kids Connect
Homeschool Share Egypt
Egyptology
Virtual Egypt
AtoZ Egypt
AE Education
HSW Ancient Egypt
AE School Learning
AE Kidipede
Color Me Egypt
AE Primary Kids
National Geographic AE 
KingTutOne Kids
AE Activites
Cleveland Museum AE
BMAG Kids (choose AE on sidebar)
AE Cybersleuth Kids
AE Social Studies for Kids
AE Creative Kids
AtoZ Kids Stuff AE
AE Yahoo Kids Directory
AE Crafts and Projects
Discovery Kids Tutenstein
Discovery Kids AE
Teacher Oz AE
AtoZ Homeschool AE
AE Interactive Story

Senet Game Online
2 players

Ancient Egypt Coloring Book
Downloadable zip file
Egyptomania Coloring book

Videos
AE NeoK12
How Stuff Works

Thursday, January 28, 2010

End of January - History Update

We are loving "The Story of the World" for our history.  We had taken time off of science and history and returned to them the past 2 weeks.  I have to say that I absolutely love history!  What better way to learn history than in chronological order and with fun hands-on activities. 

How I teach it is, we read the chapter from the book and then do a narration, questions and the color page or activity provided for that lesson in our SOTW activity book.  The next day, my daughter listens to Jim Weiss read the chapter and she pays close attention because right after she listens to the audio, we have the test.  Then, we do the hands-on crafts the next few days pertaining to that chapter. 

We have been learning about Ancient Egypt and are planning an "Egypt party" next week - were we will dress up like an Egyptian, eat ancient Egyptian food and do a fun craft. 

My daughter has been loving writing in hieroglyphics and tomorrow she will be writing cuneiform on a clay tablet that we will bake.  Then we are going to make a hieroglyphics scroll.  Next week will be the making of the mummy, senet game, and a pyramid.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Astronomy Links Index

Here are links that you can use in your homeschool astronomy studies.  For each lesson in Apologia Astronomy we do, I hope to give you links specific to that lesson, this is just a general index of astronomy. There are so many links for astronomy, so I just gave a few and some of the links contain many other links within their website - especially the education programs.

Teach Space Science
Astronomy Resource Links 
StarChild - Young Astronomers
Astronomy.com
Kids Astronomy
Exploring the Planets
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Nine Planets
Kids Nine Planets
NASA
NASA Kids Space Place 
NASA Kids Club
Star Gazers
Space Themes
Usborne Astronomy Links
HubbleSite
Astronomy and Space
Solar System Homeschool Tools
Kids Space Sites
Arty the Astronaunt
Solar Views
Astronomy Now Online
Astronomy Pic of the Day
NSTA
Astronomy Resources
Night Sky Live
Goddard Science
Goddard Space Flight
NASA Education
NASA Space Kids
NASA Students

Space Suits Interactive Flash

Printable Cards
Solar System Trading Cards
Galaxy Trading Cards

Other
Pacific Science Center
Space Camp
Starry Night Education Software

Astronomy - The Sun; Part 1

Lesson 2 of Apologia's Astronomy is about the sun.  We divided the material into two sections - and this post covers mostly the first section (sun facts, solar flares, sunspots, auroras).  We use the Apologia Astronomy notebooking to supplement our lessons and below is a short video clip of what we have done so far in our notebooking.


Other activities that go along with this lesson:
  1. Sun booklet -awesome online book with links to pictures at the end for auroras, solar flares, etc.
  2. Various links on the sun
  3. How the Sun Works articles, pics, etc.
  4. All about the Sun for kids - has photos, vids, etc

Why Does the Sun Shine - Song
You can get the lyrics and music here or sing along with the video below:



Videos that can go with this lesson:

- Hundreds of videos HERE

- We watched "Bill Nye the Science Guy - The Sun"

Other Links:
National Solar Observatory
Stanford Solar Center
Sun and Solar Physics
Big Bear Solar Observatory
SOHO
Solar Science
Sun-Earth Day

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The Continuing Collapse; January 2010

2010 is now upon us. Will this be the year that Christians begin to stop offering up their children as living sacrifices to the Moloch of government schools.........

Read more here.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Email Subscriptions

I've added a new feature on my sidebar - email subscriptions.  If you enter your email address and follow the instructions to sign up, you will get an email updating you as to when I post next. 

Monday, January 18, 2010

Free Handbook of Nature Study

The first 2 parts of the large e-book "Handbook of Nature Study" are free online today!  Download the pdf's below:

Part 1 - Teacher's Manual
Part 2 - Birds and Fish

Every day this week will be freebies for the other parts of the book here, so make sure to bookmark the site and check back everyday.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Homeschooling Saves States Money

I found a wonderful article today from another blogger and below are some quotes:

"...home-schoolers save the state of Nevada between $24 million and $34 million per year, decreasing schools' expenses far more than the decrease in revenues, thus creating a net gain for the school districts."

"...studies by other researchers that show the value of home-schooling in other areas: home-schoolers have higher self-esteem, fewer behavior disorders, better academic performance, and more college attendance than their peers in public and private schools."

"...students educated at home or in private schools saved North Carolina taxpayers $1.3 billion in 2006-2007. Private school students there numbered 98,000, but home-schoolers were a healthy 70,000 — about 42 percent of the students not in public school. The savings created by North Carolina home-schoolers alone totals about $546 million in a school year."


You can read the full story here.