Letters From the Homefront

School's out for the summer!!!! Or is it??? Actually, school is NOT out for the summer! After watching what happens when we do take a full summer break, I realized that it is just too much time off. I do like giving them a break - and let's all be honest, as much as I love teaching them and get great joy watching them learn, I enjoy a break now and then as well. So what I have decided is that we will be learning this summer, but at an even more relaxed pace than we are at. I tend to be a relaxed homeschool mama to a point anyway - somedays, we are just busy trying to get everything done that needs attention, and sometimes we just have 'one of those days' where we don't get to the classroom. And I think that's A-Ok! I don't try to make a habit of it, mind you, and I am always trying to be a little bit better about getting a good routine in, but life just happens whether you plan it or not, and you have to learn to roll with the punches. So that is what I

I have been wanting to write a post for a while on why we chose to homeschool. I decided now is as good a time as ever, since we have been very busy with school the last couple of weeks, and yet my camera has not made an appearance to show what we've been doing.  Let me start out by saying that I am a public school graduate, as is my husband. I went through all 12 years in a public school, save Kindergarden - I attended a private school for that one year. I had some AMAZING teachers, and some that just didn't cut it. I had wonderful elementary teachers that I still remember by name and occasionally see them around town - it's always nice to see them and get to say hello, even introduce my children if they are with me. I had some very effective, great teachers throughout junior high and high school, and then there were some that you could tell only taught because that was the simplest degree that they could get through college with - the easiest decision, or some (like my

                        This is a giveaway you won't want to miss! Over at What Did We Do All Day , My boys Teacher is giving away a great bundle, thanks to the combined efforts of John Bowman (author of the Montessori at Home E-Book) and  Montessori Print Shop . The  Montessori at Home  eBook and Materials Bundle  contains the newly published 3rd edition of  John Bowman's Montessori at Home:  A Complete Guide to Doing Montessori Early Learning Activities at Home with 3-6 year Old Children  and 21 printable Montessori Print Shop materials t hat are recommended in the eBook! I had no idea such a thing existed when I started looking in to Montessori almost a year ago. Originally, in fact, my thought plan was just to implement the Montessori method a little bit to help keep my younger two busy, so I could traditionally homeschool the rest. That, of course, quickly changed when I fell in love with the Montessori method of teaching. This e-book would be a wond

We have had an extended 'Weather theme' in our house the last few weeks. I thought we would be finished by now, and already moved on, but we are just now moving through the different types of weather-related emergencies - tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.  One thing I wanted to share, just for fun, was a little game we played outside   about a week ago. It was such a nice day, and I just couldn't see not going out to enjoy the weather. So we got a quilt and headed out right after breakfast.     I tried to take a few pictures, hoping for one good one. You can see the results of THAT project at my Spring pictures post .  I was going to read them a couple books about the wind and talk some about that, but jets and helicopters flying overhead, and a construction crew across the street, kept that from happening. So after a slight diversion of watching the skies, and some running around from the kids, we settled back in. I decided just to show them a little something a

I know it seems like :everyone: has a 'School Days' post somewhere on their blog, but there was just no better way to title this, unless you want to call it a mish-mash-of-photos post!  My last post was about the weather theme that we have been working through in our homeschool, and I like to have a 'point' to my posts when I can, but I always have so many miscellaneous pictures that are still good :) So I figured it was time to have a post about them.  I found these cards at Dollar Tree months ago, and snatched them up before I could think twice about it. I am very glad I did. We use these for word studies, mostly for Little Mama and Hoss, since they are the readers and the others really don't need them yet. The set you see below are Homonyms, but I also have Synonyms, Antonyms, and Compound words. The first 'presentation' (if you want to call it that) consists of us going over each pair of words and talking about them. For example, with the h

I tried to get a good Spring picture of the kids together today, sitting outside while we did our group lesson. After 20 shots, I finally gave up. This settles it - I may never have one great, completely normal looking photo again! :) Somehow, I still love the story these pictures tell! (It wasn't until later that I realized someone must have grabbed my camera and left a nice little smudge on the lens)  I hope you are enjoying your Spring!