I was looking around today for free piano lessons for our children. Hubby knows how to play, but doesn't always have time to work with them. So I thought if I could find an easy to use program I would teach them the basics (and reteach myself!), if we get stuck dh can help out.
I found a wonderful series of free piano lessons online. Each week they post a new video tutorial, dd9 has already mastered the first lesson. She's thrilled!
Also available are lesson workbooks for a very small fee. If you'd like to start learning piano for free check out Free Piano Lessons 4 Kids!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Scavenger Hunt & Sale at CurrClick!
CurrClick is having a Back To The Beach Sale and Scavenger Hunt! Hidden on their website are 8 free gifts, look for the sea animals as you explore! Hint check out the side bars and your account areas!
Also they are offering up to 40% of hundreds of great titles. CurrClick has been one of my favorite places to buy curriculum over the years. I've found the price and quality to be great!
Friday, June 17, 2011
A Change Of Plans For Next Year
I've been going back and forth for days on whether to put each child in a different year of AO, or to start us all in Year 1. There are pros and cons of each.
Today I picked out some history and lit readings from year 2 and year 1 for dd9 to read to me. She had enough trouble with the year 2 readings that I knew she would need to much help with them. The year 1 readings were perfect for her. So for now we will continue to do our history and lit together as a family study.
Dd9 and dd7 will work in year 1 together and dd5 will work in year 0, and sit in on any year 1 readings she likes.
It feels great to have finally made a decision! Now I'm busy putting together our reading book for next year. The AO year 1 yahoo group has a wonderful collection of formatted text, separated by term and week. That is for all the books that are in the public domain.
I will need to pick up a few books for AO year 1, but many I already own. :-)
Today I picked out some history and lit readings from year 2 and year 1 for dd9 to read to me. She had enough trouble with the year 2 readings that I knew she would need to much help with them. The year 1 readings were perfect for her. So for now we will continue to do our history and lit together as a family study.
Dd9 and dd7 will work in year 1 together and dd5 will work in year 0, and sit in on any year 1 readings she likes.
It feels great to have finally made a decision! Now I'm busy putting together our reading book for next year. The AO year 1 yahoo group has a wonderful collection of formatted text, separated by term and week. That is for all the books that are in the public domain.
I will need to pick up a few books for AO year 1, but many I already own. :-)
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Thinking About Next Year & Ambleside Online
I've been spending quite a bit of time thinking about our lesson plans for next year. It is always a hard choice to pick what curriculum your going to use, there are so many wonderful choices! I would like to add in more classic literature and history readings.
I've looked at Ambleside Online on and off for years, I think this will be the year we finally start using it. :-)
I would love to hear from anyone who has used AO and your thoughts on it.
When trying to decided where to place our children in it, the AO group suggested going 1 to 2 levels below what their grade level is. AO year levels do NOT line up with our grade levels, they run about 2 years advanced.
Because of this they suggested starting dd9 in Year 2, dd7 in Year 1 and dd5 in Year 0.
This will be the first year that we will not be doing history together as a family. Each child will be doing their own history as outlined in each AO year. Hopefully we can keep up with that, as I do see some advantages to doing it that way. If not, then I will have to come up with our own schedule.
Year 2 just happens to be the Middle Ages in history. This is a perfect fit for dd9 as we have slowly been working through SOTW 1, ancient history.
Year 1 covers some biography's, I might switch some of these USA ones out for Canadian. This year also covers many historical stories and some English history.
Year 0 doesn't cover history, not that I've noticed so far. But is a collection of great books to read. Many of these books are also FIAR books!
The overlap with the Year 0 and FIAR works out great for us. I'm planning to keep doing FIAR with our kids together, then the older two will have their own AO readings.
I've looked at Ambleside Online on and off for years, I think this will be the year we finally start using it. :-)
I would love to hear from anyone who has used AO and your thoughts on it.
When trying to decided where to place our children in it, the AO group suggested going 1 to 2 levels below what their grade level is. AO year levels do NOT line up with our grade levels, they run about 2 years advanced.
Because of this they suggested starting dd9 in Year 2, dd7 in Year 1 and dd5 in Year 0.
This will be the first year that we will not be doing history together as a family. Each child will be doing their own history as outlined in each AO year. Hopefully we can keep up with that, as I do see some advantages to doing it that way. If not, then I will have to come up with our own schedule.
Year 2 just happens to be the Middle Ages in history. This is a perfect fit for dd9 as we have slowly been working through SOTW 1, ancient history.
Year 1 covers some biography's, I might switch some of these USA ones out for Canadian. This year also covers many historical stories and some English history.
Year 0 doesn't cover history, not that I've noticed so far. But is a collection of great books to read. Many of these books are also FIAR books!
The overlap with the Year 0 and FIAR works out great for us. I'm planning to keep doing FIAR with our kids together, then the older two will have their own AO readings.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Planning Next Years Studies & SwagBucks
Lately I've been thinking a head to next year. What do we want to study? What changes do I want to make? Right now I'm focusing on planning social studies. This past year we have been studying countries and cultures around the world. We will keep up with this over the summer, I think this has been one of the most enjoyable studies we've ever done!
Next year I would like to focus on Canada. I'm planning to spend part of the year on Canadian geography using the book Canada My Country as our spine. As we travel across Canada we will also learn about each province, what makes it special and unique. I'm also tying in nature studies and great Canadian stories.
Our children already know all the provinces and territories as well as many bodies of water and islands in Canada. But we are looking forward to really diving in to more!
I've started planning out what books we will use and I'm waiting on my first Amazon order to arrive. I'm also really happy that so far the books for this unit have cost me NOTHING. If your wondering how I could order from Amazon and not pay anything, it's because I use SwagBucks.
I've been saving up the points I get by searching the web with their search bar. Then I trade these in for Amazon gift cards. It's amazing how fast they add up! With prices of everything from gas to grocery's going up every little bit helps.
If you'd like to try out SwagBucks, joining with my link above will also give me some extra points. :-)
Have you started planning your next school year yet? Are you making any changes?
Next year I would like to focus on Canada. I'm planning to spend part of the year on Canadian geography using the book Canada My Country as our spine. As we travel across Canada we will also learn about each province, what makes it special and unique. I'm also tying in nature studies and great Canadian stories.
Our children already know all the provinces and territories as well as many bodies of water and islands in Canada. But we are looking forward to really diving in to more!
I've started planning out what books we will use and I'm waiting on my first Amazon order to arrive. I'm also really happy that so far the books for this unit have cost me NOTHING. If your wondering how I could order from Amazon and not pay anything, it's because I use SwagBucks.
I've been saving up the points I get by searching the web with their search bar. Then I trade these in for Amazon gift cards. It's amazing how fast they add up! With prices of everything from gas to grocery's going up every little bit helps.
If you'd like to try out SwagBucks, joining with my link above will also give me some extra points. :-)
Have you started planning your next school year yet? Are you making any changes?
Free Learning About Bugs Book
I'm finally getting a chance to check out CurrClick's freebie this week, Learning About Bugs and I'm very impressed! This weeks give away is a 291 page lesson book on insects. As I've been flipping through the sections it seems to cover grades K through 3, but many of the units could be used for slightly higher grades.
Each section has a nice write up about the insect, drawings or photos included. Then activity pages, copy work, and other interesting ideas.
This volume includes studies on, Ants, Aphids, Apple Worm, Beetles, Bees, Black fly, Butterfly, Cockroach, Crane Fly, Cricket, Cicada, as well as an overview of insects in general.
I will be using this unit over the summer!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Looking at Writing Programs
Well I went and moved all my homeschooling post to this blog with the intent of posting often. But this has been a busy winter! Our family has been down with one virus after another and I have spent more time trying to get caught up then posting. I'm hoping to be a more regular around here. :-)
This time of year I start to think about what curriculum to use for next year. I'm especially interested in writing programs right now. We do a lot of copy work already and it works great. But I'm looking for something with a bit more structure to add in.
A few years ago I bought Write Shop A and we did a little of it. We really did like it, but my younger 2 children weren't ready for it yet and at that time oldest dd was getting enough out of copy work. So I set it aside for a while. I've been looking at different writing programs this past week. I was afraid to keep going with Write Shop, because they only had 3 primary books, then nothing until the child was older. However I found out today that they will soon be releasing more elementary books. So I think we will work though book A and if everyone still likes it keep going with it.
Other writing programs I've been looking at are Writing Strands and Write Source. Has anyone used these? I would really love to have some feed back on these writing programs.
This time of year I start to think about what curriculum to use for next year. I'm especially interested in writing programs right now. We do a lot of copy work already and it works great. But I'm looking for something with a bit more structure to add in.
A few years ago I bought Write Shop A and we did a little of it. We really did like it, but my younger 2 children weren't ready for it yet and at that time oldest dd was getting enough out of copy work. So I set it aside for a while. I've been looking at different writing programs this past week. I was afraid to keep going with Write Shop, because they only had 3 primary books, then nothing until the child was older. However I found out today that they will soon be releasing more elementary books. So I think we will work though book A and if everyone still likes it keep going with it.
Other writing programs I've been looking at are Writing Strands and Write Source. Has anyone used these? I would really love to have some feed back on these writing programs.
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