VocabularySpellingCity

I've been given a Premium Membership to VocabularySpellingCity.com for a candid, personal, online review.

VocabularySpellingCity helps students study word lists using 25 different learning activities such as Unscramble, Hangman, WordFind, and Crossword Puzzle. Parents can create their own spelling lists, find published lists already available on the site, or use any of dozens of free teaching resources on topics such as Multiple Meaning Words and Possessive Nouns . 

Be sure to come back in three weeks to read about my experience.

There might be more free memberships available for bloggers. If you're interested, find out how you can review VocabularySpellingCity.com. 

Hope you all are having a great Valentine's Day! :)

Review of Time 4 Learning

Time 4 Learning provides online language arts and math instruction to children in grades Pre K to 8, using a combination of animated lessons, interactive activities, online games and worksheets to reinforce the concepts learned. Families pay a monthly subscription fee for each child in the program. Science and social studies are included in most grades at no additional charge.


The program operates on the premise that kids love to use the computer. It seeks to allow children to learn important technological skills, while progressing through core subjects at their own pace. The company makes it easy to keep records because it tracks children’s progress. It has been used successfully by homeschooling families as either a main curriculum or as a to supplement to an existing program.


My boys loved using the Time 4 Learning program. It was easy for them to use on their own. It took us a bit to get our grade levels correct, but after that it was smooth sailing! I think it's a great program to use as a review of what they have already learned and it fills in those "gaps" that maybe we missed along the way in our homeschooling journey.


I also used it as a way to get them to do "school" on the weekends. If they wanted to play on the computer, well they had to do so many lessons on Time 4 Learning first. No complaints!!! : ) The boys really enjoy using the computer to complete lessons. 


I am seriously considering using Time 4 Learning as our main curriculum next year. This year ... since it's close to the end of our school year ... it's just something extra. If they would add in typing lessons it would be near perfect. 

Time 4 Learning Review

I've been invited to try Time4Learning's online education program for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience! Find out how to write your own curriculum review.

Angie

Getting Organized & Planning

So ... has everyone started back to homeschool??? We haven't. We are planning on starting back on January 9th.

I've spent the last part of last week and will use all of this week to get my act together. We are going to study the human body starting this month and I'm waiting for a book I ordered on Amazon.com (The Body Book) to get here for that. If it doesn't show I do have other things we can start with, but I'm looking forward to this book so that the boys can build a life size model of the body.

The local "school store" had a 50% off sale last week and I stopped by there and picked up some posters for the study and got them hung up today. Walter was already checking them out. : ) Plus a few other things ... if I just had all the money I wanted I could've bought the store out!!!

We'll also start units on George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and President's Day. We have a lapbook from Hands of a Child, pocket book from Evan Moor, and a couple of little units from School Express that we'll be using for that.

We'll also continue with our Expedition Earth: A Journey Through God's World for geography and getting into multiplication hot and heavy too. The boys finished the first Handwriting Without Tears Cursive book and they'll start the 2nd one. They'll also start the WriteShop Book B this month. We'll start with writing a friendly letter.  I don't know if any of you know who Dr. Octagonapus (spelling?) is, but Mike says Sammy's letter will be like this:

Dear Walter,

Blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Love,
Sammy

: )  You have to know who the doctor is to really get that. : )  They really enjoy running around saying "Dr. Octagonapus ... Blahhh" or "I'm a firing my laser! Blahhh" On the Youtube videos he opens his mouth and kinda shoots out a laser while saying "blahhhh". I tell them I can defeat Dr. Octagonapus with a Tic Tac ... cause it must be stinky breath that he's shooting out of his mouth and melting people with. So we "argue" about if Dr. Octagonapus had bad breath or not.

Anyhow ... I'll be able to update the studies the boys are doing after next week.

2012 ~ Happy New Year!

I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy New Year!!! I hope the new year will bring you all Health, Knowledge, Happiness, Love, Wealth, Success, Peace, Friendship, and Wisdom.

How did you bring in the New Year??? We, of course, stay up late. Everyone was up past 1 o'clock AM here. At midnight we watched the New York City show and the ball drop. Then went outside with our horns and made lots and lots of noise! Since my oldest 2 were younger we've gotten a pinata for them to break. We fill it with candy and a few little toys. They have a blast.

Last year we made one, but didn't get to it in time this year ... so it was off to Walmart to buy one. Here are a few pictures of the boys beating the pinata.

http://s1136.photobucket.com/albums/n485/OurLearningHome/New%20Year%202012/?albumview=slideshow

2011 Holiday Card Exchange

Each year Jen, from Projects by Jen, hosts a Holiday Card Exchange. This is our 3rd year participating in this project.

This project was open to all PreK-6th grade classes around the world. Classes were teamed with 29 other classes (we ended up with 31 altogether - 30 to mail out) to exchange cards.

Everyone was sent a document with all the names and addresses of the classes in their group and we had to mail one card to each one on our list. We have received 29 cards so far.

The theme this year was snowmen. The boys didn't care for the card templates so we ended up designing one of our own on the computer and added our school information right to the card. They then signed their name to each card. We made our own envelopes this year too. That's a bit more work than I want to get into next year! :) I addressed them and the boys put the stamps and return address labels on.

Here is a picture of the front of our card. The boys picked out what snowman we used.

Here is the school information that each card was to have in it ...

This was the message the boys picked out and where they signed their names. Since we just learned cursive writing I told them to write in cursive, but they started off with print and that happened to be the card I grabbed to take a picture of. :)

Here are some pictures of the cards we received ...

Last year we hung up a map of the United States and we took a piece of yarn and strung it from the card to the place it came from. This year we're doing world geography so they were just hung up on the same wall as that map. :)

Here are a few close ups of different cards.

All in all it was fun. The boys have been excited about all the mail they've been getting! :) They have to read them to me then find a place on the wall to hang them up. We'll certainly do it again next year.

Here is a list of schools we exchanged cards with this year:

1. Lincoln Elementary; Lincoln, AL
2. Senator Buchanan Elementary School; Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada - this is the only one we haven't received yet ... but I'm guessing that it takes longer to get here from Canada :)
3. Hampton Elementary; Hampton, AR
4. Legend Springs; Glendale, AZ
5. CCM; Murrieta, CA
6. San Lauren Elementary; Bakersfield, CA
7. Flagstaff Academy Charter School; Longmont, CO
8. The Independence School; Newark, DE
9. Wolf Lafe Elementary; Apopka, FL
10. Sweet Apple Elementary; Roswell, GA
11. Kula Elementary; Kula, HI
12. Cardinal Elementary; Eldon, IA
13. St. Joseph Wilmette; Wilmette, IL
14. South Adams; Berne, IN
15. Jefferson West Elementary; Meriden, KS
16. Walter Samuel Academy; Flatwoods, KY  -  this is us so we didn't send ourselves a card ;)
17. Estelle Elementary; Marrero, LA
18. West Elementary; Plymouth, MA
19. Lakeland; Baltimore, MD
20. James H. Bean; Sidney, ME
21. Michener Elementary; Adrian, MI
22. McKinley Elementary; Owatonna, MN
23. Branson Elementary; Branson, MO
24. Oak Grove Lower Elementary; Hattiesburg, MS
25. Highland Park; Havre, MT
26. Rutherfordton Elementary; Rutherfordton, NC
27. Isenberg Elementary; Salisbury, NC
28. Eustace Intermediate School; Eustace, TX
29. Tess Corners Elementary; Muskego, WI
30. Community Learning Center; Neenah, WI
31. Madison Elementary; Madison, SD

We have really enjoyed all the cards this year (and the ones from past years too). This is a super fun project to do with the kids!