One thing I’ve found is that methods change very easily here at our house. What’s working today, may not work in a few weeks. With that said, these charts have been working for us as long as I guide the boys through their tasks. For now, this system is a keeper at our house .

Sticker Charts for Reading Goals & Assignments

Brendan is in 2nd Grade, Jack is in Kindergarten. Jack isn’t reading yet- just learning sight words and doing other “reading” prep activities. In the chart above I would let Brendan add one sticker to his chart for each book (at his reading level)  he read or after he read several “below his level” books.  Sometimes he also got to add a sticker for his bible reading that day too.

Jack does ClicknKids.com lessons and other reading prep assignments and he gets a sticker for each of those as a rule.

When their charts were filled to certain point they received a reward.

Then I took a different approach for Brendan’s reading goals.

After Brendan’s first chart was filled I changed the goals for his second chart. I want him to focus more on reading chapter books.

I’ve picked out a couple books and listed each on a separate line followed by a number for each chapter he had to read. He puts a sticker on that chapter number when the assignment is completed.

Having these charts will also serve as a record of  his reading and I’ll punch holes in it or put it in a page protector sleeve and stick it in his 2nd Grade notebook I’m building for his end of year assessment (which also becomes a keepsake of his 2nd grade year ).

 Our Morning Task Sticker Chart

Simply put, when the boys finish all 5 tasks (Jack just listens as Brendan reads the bible)  they get a sticker for that day.  Having these charts really helps me, sometimes more than it might help them I suppose. Now if I can just get the boys to do these things with my prodding .

I need to be looking ahead to find more chapter books at Brendan’s level. If you have any suggestions, he’s in 2nd grade, I’d love to read them. And I’d be interested in reading about your methods to getting your kids on any type of routine.

Leave a comment!

*Sharing this post at Women Living Well ,  Crystal & Company’s , Homeschooling on the Cheap & Raising Mighty Arrows link up parties.

Here’s a few ideas for using charts.

{On the side, thats my Missions Map from Voice of the Martyrs. I added some of our church’s missionaries to it as well. We haven’t really been using it in school yet, but I am planning to have the kids start writing/ drawing pictures to our missionaries soon.}

Our Daily Goal chart is simply cardstock that I’ve broken down into five days highlighting our “Subject of the Day”. The chart is slid into a sheet protector and I use a dry-erase marker to write down my goals for learning that day. That way I can erase it and write new goals later.

For “Part 2″ I’ll show you my Reading/ Reading Activity charts for the boys.

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*If you’d like to know where I got my FREE printable “Skip Counting” charts- they came from Jolanthe’s site: Homeschool Creations. She has other free printables there too.  You can search for the “Skip Counting”charts by visiting the blog part of her website here.

I love being able to multi-task our homeschooling and the boys enjoy my new mini-trampoline as much as I do as you’ll see in these videos. You don’t have to have a trampoline though, be creative!  These videos are less than one minute in length each and you’ll have to view them by clicking through to my blog or visit my channel on  Youtube.com/tzdelar .

Video #1:  Combining exercise and skip-counting practice for my kindergartner.

Video #2:  Combining science, music, exercise and art or illustration.

On this particular day we were learning about the planets with a very well done musical video. The boys illustrated what they were learning about by drawing and coloring the planets and the trampoline got used, of course.

Later that day we went to a nearby museum (McKinley Museum & Discovery World) to weigh ourselves on the different planetary scales. They have a few that tell you how much you’d weigh on certain planets- among other fun things to do there.

Monday, January 16th is a special day at the McKinley Museum in Canton for Martin Luther King Day and the Robot should be out for part of the day, starting at 11am I think. We might just be heading back over there to see that!

My educational resources used in this post/videos:

• Free printable skip-counting charts from Homeschool Creations

• “Planet” video: My Fantastic Field Trip to the Planets (a musical adventure!) by Wonderscape Entertainment (given to us from a former homeschooling mom)

• Gold’s Gym Mini-Trampoline bought at Walmart for about $30

• Here is the  museum/zoo reciprocal membership we own and I recommend.

•  Mckinley Museum & Discovery World in Canton, Ohio

These are just a couple of examples. Another idea is to combine history, geography, and social studies together by studying an event in history like World War I.  This type of lesson could cover who was president during that time, how people typically lived, which countries were involved in the war, where certain battles took place and what kind of terrain those countries had at the time.

You could essentially make your own Unit Study by combining. Here’s a post I wrote about 3 easy tips to teach the Unit Study way. I use a lot of free resources like free printables and the local libraries for videos and books.

Do you have any great ideas for combining subjects? Feel free to share them in the comment section!

If you enjoy homeschooling tips and other miscellaneous postings I’d love to invite you to subscribe. That simply means you’ll get an email once per day if/when I have posted something new to the blog. If you’d like an idea of what I am posting on what days you can view my  blog schedule at this link.

*Disclosure: I linked the planet video to my Amazon affiliate link. You aren’t charged any extra if you buy anything by clicking my link, but I will earn a little money.

**Linking up at the following linky parties Crystal & Comp., Raising Homemakers , Women Living Well , 3 Boys & a Dog , HipHomeschoolingMoms and TeachMeTuesdays.

I’m just into our second year of homeschooling my 7 yr old second-grader and 5 yr old kindergartner so I’m still learning how to make homeschooling and everything else work for our family.

……………………………………………

Going on Field Trips

We’ve done a few things with our local homeschool group like tour the Jackson Twp Fire/Police Safety center, fill shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, and a day of experimenting with art.

Sign Language and Swimming

In addition to the basics my boys are learning sign language with some great videos from the library I’ll share below.  When I was young I received a sign language book from my mom and taught myself the alphabet and then in college I took a class in sign language. However, I didn’t have much use for it but I can remember coming into contact with the deaf and it was wonderful to be able to at least spell my way through a conversation with them. I enjoy learning the signs along with my boys. I guess this could count as a “foreign” language, right?

The boys are also into their second round of swimming lessons too. My 7 yr old graduated to Level 2. My youngest is taking Level 1 again.

We are very fortunate to have a wonderful recreation center nearby that only charges $23 per child for 6 weeks of homeschool swimming lessons and they have a great waterpark-like swim area for the kids to play in for FREE between 10am-1pm during swim class days.

Library dvd’s I’m using &  recommend.

I pick up lots of dvds from the library on educational themes and that’s where I found the sign language series Signing Time with Rachel Coleman. You can find out more about her Signing Time Volume 1 dvd here on Amazon.  We listen to books on cd too such as Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder in the car. Even though this is written from a girl’s point of view its got boy stuff in there like wild animals, living in the woods and the roughing-life.

I also came across Beyond Phonics at the library. The dvd comes with an extra cd to print off work sheets that go along with the video. I printed off the sheets and we can work on them as part of my second grader’s grammar.

Notebooking & the Basics

If you’ve been reading for awhile you may remember my plan mentioned here to homeschool according to the 7 continents. For example, if we’re studying about ancient Egyptians, mummies and all that- those projects, worksheets, etc would go into the “Africa” section. Likewise if we are studying about famous artists from Italy that would go into the Europe section.

Lately, most of what we’ve been working on are the basics…math, reading, grammar, spelling, and phonics. I’ll have separate sections in their notebooks for that kind of stuff that doesn’t really fit into a “continent” theme.

When I speak of “their notebook” understand that this becomes my record of what they’ve done for the year and its the tool I hand over to a Certified Teacher to use to assess the boys’ progress. The Certified Teacher then signs a form saying my child is working to his ability or something like that.

In Ohio I have the freedom to choose to not grade my kids and to not test them. I have the freedom to just have their work assessed. In my opinion grades and tests are over-rated. Since I only have two students and I can give each of them my undivided attention, I can expect them to “learn” and “know” their lessons.

We’ve been using Natural Speller by Kathryn Stout (it covers 1st-8th grade) for my 2nd grader’s spelling and ClicknKids online program for my kindergartner’s phonics andwe are listening to Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times audios.

Homeschooling is not without its challenges and sacrifices.

I shared a few of those sacrifices in Part 1 of my post here at the Prime Parent’s Club.

*I did share my Amazon affiliate links in this post. I do buy homeschooling resources on Amazon – especially when I have earned Amazon gift cards for free by using Swagbucks, which is free to sign up for. And that is also an affiliate link

**Linking up at Women Living Well , Raising Homemakers and Deep Roots at Home.

I recently became a Mom’s Master Books Reviewer. And this month I received the Big Book of History to review!

This is simply a 15 foot time-line of events dating from Creation to Modern Computers. I did a short video to show you how long a 15 foot fold out time-line looks like   Please ignore the dirty carpet that is overdue for a cleaning. And the crayon marks on the lego box lid… And the noisy boy(s). But, this IS real life!

The Big Book of History is geared for ages 7-12. Contributing editors are Laura Welch, Bodie Hodge, and Ken Ham. If you can’t find this NEW historical resource supporting the biblical perspective in your local library you can request your library to purchase it!

On the side: I just want to say, if you are a Christian and haven’t heard or read anything by Ken Ham I highly recommend you do! I had to request my local library to search for and have sent to me locally, some of Ken Ham’s videos (Answer in Genesis). Your library is a wonderful resource, use it!

Breaking down the time-line.

Through out the time-line are four high-lighted sections shown through-out time. Orange highlights “World Events”, Yellow for “Biblical/Christianity, Red for “Civilizations/Empires”, and Green for “Inventions/Technology”. You can download a study guide to use with this too.

I think this is a great tool to help your children- even older than 12 in my opinion- to learn history while presenting a biblical perspective. If  you’re kids go to public school but you want them to have a biblical perspective I recommend getting the Big Book of History. I homeschool and definitely plan to use this. And its not just biblical history that presented here, like I said above… there are 4 different “themes” to the history of  the world presented  by 4 different color highlights.

This 15 foot book comes folded in a plastic pouch/sleeve. I show that as well in the video.

So, check out the Big Book of History below in my less than one and a half minute video.

If you can’t see the video on my blog, try here.

*I received a free copy of this book to complete my review from Master Books, A Division of New Leaf Publishing Group.

**Linking up with Women Living Well and Raising Homemakers.

It looked like this about a week ago (see below): here’s the end of the small room where my desk sits…

And here’s the other end of the room…

Scary!

Then, not knowing what to do to make it functional and less burdensome because, lets face it, this is depressing – and there is only so much you can do with a room thats about 9′ x 16′ in size…

I prayed…

I started moving things around…

I threw things out…

I  reorganized…

I multi-tasked, moving things while talking on the phone to my friend Patty She was “there” when I tried to take a shortcut by moving a shelf with things still on it- those things fell off - So much for the “short-cut”.

And within a couple days or so, this is the result.

Here’s by the my desk, which is near the kitchen…

And the other end of the room . . .

But to really appreciate the strange arrangement, you should view my short video tour below. If you’re reading this in email you will need to click through to the blog. I love this set up, for now at least! Time will tell how functional it will be, but it feels great right now.

I love it!

…for now anyways

Do you like being surprised day to day by what a blogger shares? I’d love to have you subscribe to get my posts delivered to you.  I might just surprise ya!

*Linking up at Women Living Well and Raising Homemakers and Homeschooling on the Cheap.

LeapFrog has some pretty incredible products out. I recently received the LeapFrog’s Tag System including the Interactive World Map and the  LeapPad Explorer Learning Tablet to review and host a party around. Before the party ever happened, it was very clear which item was the biggest hit with my boys. Can you guess? If you guessed the LeapPad Explorer, you’d be correct!

Now, we aren’t really a techy kind of family so other than the computer and internet our boys don’t get exposure to much else unless its playing the Wii or something at friends or at Giant Eagle’s Little Eagle’s Nest. That sure didn’t hinder them from figuring things out on their own with the LeapPad Explorer. My 7 yr old was taking pictures and videos and playing games on his own. My 5 yr old played with it too but I don’t think as much as the oldest.

The Tag System (see the green “pen” in the picture and the books?)- the “pen” will “read” the words to the child when the child mouses the “pen” over the word. The Interactive World Map also reads words to you as you touch places on it. We haven’t used those items much yet but I plan to use them to help Jack learn to read and to teach the boys more about the world in our homeschooling the continents.  The Map is “Jumbo” sized at 35″ x 20″ , 2-sided and has over 30 activities!

“99% of teachers recommend Tag!  Based on a 2010 survey conducted by LeapFrog of U.S. teachers participating in its Tag Kindergarten Program who received Tag Reading Systems from LeapFrog for use in their classrooms.”

Some of the key skills the LeapFrog TAG Reading System helps develop are vocabulary, phonic skills, word recognition, book and print basics and phonological awareness. You can find LeapFrog products at LeapFrog.com, Target, Walmart, Amazon.com, Kmart, Barnes and Noble, Toys R Us and Best Buy.

LeapFrog’s Interactive World Map is geared for ages 4-8 years, the Tag Reading System is for prek-kindergarten and the LeapPad Explorer for ages 4-9.

Oh and as for the party, well, between families canceling due to illness and the date not working for others it was just me and my friend Allie (and my kids). But it was still good

I look forward to having all of these products to use for homeschooling  my boys!

*I received all my LeapFrog  products plus coupons for free in order to host a Learn, Create, and Share Party. All opinions are my own!

I had the opportunity to receive and review this beautifully made 2 disk set of The Tuneables containing the I love Music, 30 minute animated interactive DVD designed to teach kids music fundamentals. The set also contains The Music Box: I love Music! companion cd which reinforces the curriculum in the DVD.  I figured this set would help me cover music in my homeschool teaching which is  I why I wanted it, but you don’t have to be a homeschooling family to enjoy or learn from The Tuneables.

“With The Tuneables, adults don’t need special knowledge about music in order to teach it to their children. Parents and educators can download free companion guides that provide in-depth information about  their child’s learning and how to expand the musical experiences provided in the DVD.”

The Tuneables set is geared for children ages 3-8 and is priced at $29.99. Downloadable versions, including HD are also available.  A Music Box CD can be purchased separately  for $14.99 and is available for download as well.

My boys have enjoyed it and I’ve even caught one or both singing the parts they’ve memorized. I look forward to using it more with them. Enjoy the short video of one of the songs. You can review more clips on Youtube or visit The Tuneables website here and meet the characters.

The Tuneables is created by the Music Intelligence Project (MIP) which promotes the best approaches to music education for children and “is grounded in years of teaching experience, proven techniques and materials, insights gained from research on music teaching and learning, and recent advances in the understanding of brain development as a function of music learning.”

*I received my Tuneables set for free to do this review. Opinions are my own.

My big homeschooling  plan of attack this year is  to teach my boys from a “world-wide” perspective.

I plan to cover Geography, History, Government, some Art, some Science, some Handwriting/copywork (and whatever else) within these 7 continental themes: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antartica.

As we do worksheets such as coloring animal pages, handwriting on relevant content, maps, flags and other things I will stick them in the appropriate continent section. Having these maps of the world hanging on the living room wall (bought at the dollar store) is a big help too.

Each boy has/will have a notebook divided into seven sections (one for each continent) with additional dividers for math, art, bible, etc at my choosing.

How I’m making this work as a Unit Study.

This week we’ve been focusing on Mammals & India (in the continent of Asia). We’ve watched a couple dvd videos I borrowed from the library: Jeff Corwin: Tigers & Lions in India and the video Mammals by EyeWitness. (Below are some other videos we are going to use in this study over the next few days).

Tip #1 – Use the library, alot!

To go with the dvd topics I’ve  printed off coloring/labeling pages of some Mammals from Currclick on Natural Study of Mammals. {Earlier this week we did a short lesson on Peacocks, also from Asia.}

Tip #2 – Use awesome, affordable resources created by others!

I believe everything Currclick sells (product-wise) is in digital format meaning you download it to your computer and print off  for use at your convenience.

The Currclick set I’m using to teach on Mammals has 583 notebooking pages covering 67 different mammals from around the world! This is a great set to have as you have a wide variety of coloring pages of Mammals, pages with lines both for younger and older student handwriting needs.

As of today, I saw the price was only $1.99 (on sale from $15.00)! Awesome deal!

You can learn more about or buy this set of Natural Study of  Mammals here.

Currclick also has a FREE section. You’ll see the big FREE in the left sidebar. Grab what you want and download it to your computer.

Tip #3 – Do your homework. Use the internet!

So to find information to work with in my Unit Study I turn to books or I search the internet. Today I chose the following links to check out more information on Mammals. Plus, of course, the dvds will help here too.

That wasn’t so hard, was it?

*Note: We are a Christian family who believes that God created everything the bible says he did during six literal 24 hour days.  Most of what I find at the library is evolutionary in teaching. However, I don’t shy away from exposing my kids to some of what the world teaches because they need to know there are two sides to the story and which one is true (God created) and which one is false (evolution).  For the record, evolution requires faith to believe because it is not proven, nor can it be. We put our faith in God and His word.

Our local librarian located Ken Ham’s 2 part dvd set for kids: Dinosaur’s, Genesis and the Gospel from another library and had it delivered to them so I could borrow it. Use that inter-library loan system, folks! Your local librarians can get you things from places you probably never thought they could.

*Linking this post over at Women Living Well , Raising Homemakers and this Homeschoolin’ Blogfest , TeachMeTuesdays , & HipHomeschoolMoms .