Getting Geared up for School

7/27/12


Hi folks, how is every one's summer so far?? Mine is going by too fast, as usual. I have been working on so many things, well that is between spending time at the Dr's office.
I found out I need yet another surgery(#12) I need my gallbladder out. After the last few surgeries I endured this will be a piece of cake. 
    Gidget was practicing for an upcoming Feis in Savannah,Ga and twisted her ankle. Luckily it was mild and she was off her crutches in a week and is back to dancing. 

Then both my feet swelled out of nowhere and I was scared half to death. Luckily nothing major there either. Slightly anemic was all they found in my blood work. So why my feet swelled is a mystery. Being a nurse for 22 years I know what normally can be the cause of things such as swollen feet, and the reasons are pretty frightening. They say knowledge is power, I say knowledge can be over-rated and cause unsubstantiated and unnecessary fear. 
   I have also been working on getting all my ducks in a row for the quickly approaching school year. My goal has been to keep it cheap as possible. We love notebooking/lapbooking and wanted to find a curriculum that would support these methods. I also wanted to incorporate more of my Catholic upbringing and beliefs into our curriculum. Lastly, I want a strong and visual style Math program and a good Vocabulary program. I also want a strong bible teaching program. For that I bought The Child Training bible from http://www.childtrainingbible.com/, which I am really excited about. Growing up as a Catholic, bible study wasn't something that was taught. I really want my daughter to learn the bible, but how can I teach her something I don't know?? This was an answer to my prayers. The program is inexpensive, $9.00. Mindy,(along with her husband), is the women who developed this program to teach her own children on applying everyday issues such as anger, jealousy, disobedience, etc and tells you exactly what bible passages to read that apply to any given issue or problem. They took all the hard work out of it and made it easy for us to in turn teach our children. Everything is color coded on laminated east to read and follow cards. I have listed the link, but also have the blog button on my sidebar.I have to say this is one of the things I'll be most excited to teach(and learn) in the upcoming school year. 
   For Math we will be using ALEKS, though not really that cheap, is definitely condusive to the visual learner. I love that this program focuses on what the child doen't yet grasp so as to close the gaps in thei concepts. I posted a huge article on ALEKS under my curriculum tab. Check it out. 
    For vocabulary will use Worldly Wise 3000. With thanks to Jolanth from Homeschool Creations, http://www.homeschoolcreations.net/ I won a $50.00 gift certificate toward curriculum at https://heartsathomestore.com/. I bought Worldly Wise 3000 for Gidget. I actually bought 2 grades ahead for her. She is starting 7th grade, the 6th grade WW wasn't challenging enough for her, so we are going to use WW 9th grade to challenge her. Gidget loves this program and has already started the books, so far so good. We will also be doing Reading 7, Art 7, English 7, and History 7 For Young Catholics all purchased on Cath Swap for under $50.00. I also found some great books on Saints, St.Joseph's Catechism, an a new bible at our local Habitat for Humanities Re-Store. 
     I am going follow Mater Amabilis scope & sequence this year @ http://materamabilis.org/ma/, which is strongly routed in Charlotte Mason style methods. Though we take a very relaxed, layed back approach to school,I definitely challenge Gidget to think outside the box and challenge herself as much as possible. I want her to have fun in whatever she learns, this way she always wants to learn even more.I am just not one for following a strictly scheduled day. On Sunday evenings we plan out the week and as long as the list is complete by that Friday, I try and give Gidget as much independence as possible. I am however there to help her with any of her needs, to help her understand the more difficult material, etc. I am very excited to give the Charlotte Mason method a try this year, and will be posting regularly on how it is working. 
    I think one of the newest things we will be doing that we are most excited about is we will be doing weekly Nature Studies. We will actually take school outside for a few hours. God gave us this beautiful world to enjoy, so we will be slowing down this year to smell his scent through the flowers, listen to his songs through the birds and other animals, feel God's breath through the wind in the trees, and documenting everything about it through pictures, drawings and actually pressing flowers, leaves and yes even weeds. We are even making our own Nature Study journal kit from odds and ends we find around the house. Making our own Nature Journal Kit was inspired by Jenniebellie an artist whose blog I follow and have mentioned on my blog before. You can check out her tutorial on making a travel journal kit which is so much fun to watch. This is what we will be using to make our own nature journals. I strongly recommend checking out this tutorial. Jenniebellie will have you wanting to create one for yourself and your children.
http://jennibelliestudio.blogspot.com/2012/07/homemade-all-in-one-journal-travel-kit.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JennibellieStudio+%28Jennibellie+Studio%29.
Lastly, I am still working on my quest for "ALL THINGS AMERICAN". I just purchased a book off Amazon called "A Year without "Made In China" by Sara Bongiorni. She went on the ultimate quest and she and her family embarked on a yearlong boycott of any product made in China.  I plan on a 30 day challenge in August for changing my family's way of life and spending and to be more conscious of where the products they buy come from. I'll be boycotting all non USA made products. I will also pose a challenge to my readers, however many that be, (Being a very young blog I'm working on my numbers), and besides the challenge I will be having a contest that will have some prizes for some lucky readers. Look for the details to be posted on August 1st, the first day of the challenge. I an also still working on starting my own craft blog. I think of all the projects I have going this is my most challenging of all. I am excited and terrified all at the same time at the prospect of the whole thing. I am however determined to make it work.With all that said I will say farewell for the time being. Hoping this finds you and yours well.


God Bless,
Kimmie