Learning vocabulary through cartoons.

Let me tell you an amazing way to expand you or your child’s vocabulary.  A fun book; Vocabulary Cartoons. 
  Each page has a word, pronunciation, definition, part of speech, and a word that sounds similar.   Then a picture with a caption that uses the word.  And 3 additional sentences that use the word in various forms.  Every 10 words is a review where you match each word with it’s definition and then where you fill in the blank with a word.
 
Here is one of my favorite examples.

Inhabit

The rabbit inhabits the hole.  With a picture of a rabbit living in a hole.  Because inhabit means to live or dwell in. 

Along with the definition, a picture and 3 additional sentences. 

Check out inside the book on Amazon. 

This book has been so fun.  The way I incorporated it into our homeschool has been each day Monday thru Thursday the kids read 10 of the words (in order) and on Friday we do the reviews, they kind of act as a test.  This book has been good for us, because it doesn’t take any prep time, and it teaches itself, and the kids actually love it!

The kids have been loving this book they find it fun to learn new words, they love using the words they learned in our daily life. 

Overall, I would recommend this book to upper elementary or even secondary age students, they also have SAT word power books,  for older, or more advanced students and a picture speller game for younger students that looks fun!

These books sell for the very reasonable price of $12.95.  The game is $19.95. 


To see what other crewmates thought see our crew blog here. 


{Disclamer: I received this book for free for review purposes as my part of The Old Schoolhouse Crew.  These experiences were mine, and all opinions expressed are my own.}

Homeschooling others.

We have had a house guest this past week.  I decided to have her do workboxes with us.  She loved them.  In fact we don’t normally do workboxes on Wednesdays.  That is our errand day. (Library, etc) She was sad, and asked to do schoolwork.  She said it was so much fun. 


Some of the things I put in her workboxes were, Animal Classification, a ' target=_blank>First grade workbook,  an alphabet lapbook that I got from Teacher File Box, even a game of Uno.  She also got computer time, some coloring books, and arts and crafts.  (one day we painted rocks) and she did our Botany and Geography studies with us.  She really enjoyed homeschooling with us, and we really enjoyed having her.

One heck of a Monday.

Here I am thinking nothing is standing in my way this week.  I will get everything done and more.  We will surpass our expectations in school work.  And did I mention how clean my house will stay. 



Then I went to bed late on Sunday, emotionally and physically drained.  Woke up way to early on Monday.  Did not have the kids' workboxes set up.  I had to clean the kitchen before I could make breakfast.  I forgot to buy jars to can peaches, when I finally made it to the store they were out of quarts, so I had to buy pints.  I forgot my drivers license when I went to the bank, so they would not give me any information on my account.  I had come back home and get my license to make my withdrawl.  By now I had whiney hungry kids, and nothing planned for lunch.  Hot Pockets it is.  Then we settled in for a movie day.  We did schoolwork in the afternoon.  Then I took a nap, and ran more errands and went out to a very fun dinner.  Now I am tired, and blogging. 


After all that griping I really realize how lucky I am to have my children.  I love that I know we are learning enough that I don't have to fight my way through the bad days.  I love that my children have learned the flexibility of homeschooling. 


I hope that I got a months worth of problems out of my way.  However, I do realize that most of the things were my fault from not planning ahead. 




Well, I am off to bed and hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Day at the Zoo!

 

We took our trip to the zoo.  We loved it, we had a great day. The weather was perfect.  It was not to crowded.  Absolutely  perfect!  We saw many of the animals.  I even decided it was worth it to buy the yearly membership pass.  So expect to see alot more zoo trips.  This was I figure we can just go for 1/2 days too, and I won’t feel I have to get my moneys worth and stay for the whole day.   We also took a friend.

The children have been very interested in animals recently and I thought this would be a great learning opportunity. 

 

We stayed for the bird show.   Although it was very hard to take pictures, I tried. 

We got to touch a real live snake!

We stuck our heads in a lions mouth!  YIKES!

We saw a vulture.

 

 

We just had so much fun!  Can’t wait to go back!

Schleich Action Figures

A while ago I took my youngest to a children’s museum near us.  She played with these great toys, and I really wish I could find the pictures of her playing with them, but alas…….  They were really quality figures.  There was a castle, along with other buildings and many knights. They also had fantasy toys.  It was set up on a table and it was definitely Katey’s favorite toy there.  I thought to myself, I would love to own these toys.  I also thought, they were museum quality and I could never afford them.  So I left it at that.  

Even the baby loves these toys!

Then as being part of TOS Crew.  I received some toys to review from Schleich, at this time I had no idea who they were.  When the package arrived we opened it and the kids were so excited they immediately began to play with the variety of animals that came.  Then they told me that they already had some of these.  They went and got 3 horses that they had received for Christmas from my Sister in-law.
I remember thinking that when they got those they were high quality as well.  I knew she got them at Target, but I never thought anything more.  (those horse figures were also on the top of the “played with” list for those days following Christmas, and even now)  It turns out both the figures from the museum and the figures from Christmas are both from Schleich.  A great company that sells their figurines online, or at Target and Toys R Us, or even Name Your Link' target=_blank>Amazon.  They are very affordable.  You can start out small with just a few and over time add to your collection.  These will last for years to come.  These figures are museum quality, at my local children’s museum, where hundreds of children play with them every day!



You can buy Schleich Action Figures online at Amazon.com or at your local Target or Toys R Us.  They also have a store finder here.

I highly recommend these toys.  They are high quality, hand painted, sturdy, life like, and your child still needs to use their imagination to play.  I will definitely be purchasing more of these.

To see how others are loving these check out our crew reviews here. 

{I received a few Schleich toys for free for review purposes, these experiences were mine, and yours may differ.}

Why I began homeschooling.

 

I decided that I needed to focus on my relationship with my children more. 

 

Here is all it all began:

 

  I was beginning to lose my oldest two children.  I didn’t even know who they were.  I got a phone call from my primary president at church wanting to spotlight my children on Sunday.  She had a list of questions for me to answer, such as favorite color, favorite hobby, favorite food, etc.  I could not go ask my children, since it was to be a surprise for them.  But what if I got the answers wrong.  How embarrassing.  I answered my best, and got everything close to right.  But that really made me think.  How could I not know my children.  I mean I live with them.  I spend time with them.   I then started looking at how we spent our time together.  Sure I volunteered in their classes and on the PTA while they were in public school.  Then after school they would have homework.  I would help them with that.  Then I would have to go cook dinner.  After dinner we headed out to extra curricular activities.   Once a week we have Family Home Evening.  Twice a week the girls had Ice Skating. Once a week Tommy has Scouts.  Tommy and Emily both have one basketball practice and one basketball game each week.  Emily has activity days twice a month, and Girl Scouts twice a month.  It was just hectic. In the Summer, all they would want to do was be outside riding bikes, or playing with friends.  I then realized something had to change.  I had to decide what activities to take the kids out of.  After talking with my husband about homeschooling and everything, we decided that we wanted to hear the kids opinions.  We had a family meeting.  The kids were beyond excited to homeschool.  We also decided to let them finish out the season of Basketball, and Ice Skating.  And take a season off.  Now as we begin our second year, we have found that we do have more time for the kids to do activities they love.   They have now discovered BMX racing, and I have rediscovered who my kids are!

 

I have also had to start working a few nights a week.  I would miss my children immensely if I didn’t see them during the days.  I love knowing what they are learning, and what they are NOT learning. 

 

I began looking around on the internet for help, and found a local homeschool group.  I joined right away, and then I discovered homeschooling blogs.  I decided to start my own, since it is a wonderful way to  document the journey.

 

I know I don’t update it as often as I would like, but I am trying to get better at that.  I really enjoy taking  pictures of the kids, and hope to make my blog a memory book someday soon. 

 

Another thing we do to help strengthen our relationships is we have date nights, about once a month, where one child (in a rotation) gets to pick a date to go on without any other kids.  We feel that special time with them is very important. 

Emily turns 10!

 

We celebrated Emily’s 10th birthday this weekend.  She had a small family party.  (She chose to get a more expensive gift, rather than have a friends party.)

 

She chose salmon and steak as her special meal. 

 

She had a white cake with chocolate frosting!  YUMM

She got some really great gifts, and money too!

 

We had a Jello eating contest for the game.   

The rules were hands behind your back, and your plate had to be cleaned!

 

Uncle Matt won!  In this picture he is clearly the first one to stand up with a clean plate!

 

That was alot of fun, and all you could hear was slurp, slurp, slurp.  Gross!

 

She did also get a Kohls giftcard and an American Girl Doll Petite Boutique, where you can make some cute accessories for an American Girl Doll.   Which she also got!  Molly! 

 

She was very excited, and for some reason my camera would not work when she was opening Molly.