Our Weekly Lesson Plans

I always love seeing how other homeschool moms organize and plan out their lessons, so, I thought I'd share with you what has worked for our family for the past few years.  Maybe something here will spark an idea for you that will help you just as reading about others helped me develop the best plan for our family.

First of all, I'm not going to lie and tell you that this way is neccesarily quick.  I do have to put some time into it each week.  But compared to the years I tried to get by without having a plan down for the week, the time invested in laying out our weekly plans is SO worth it!

When sitting down to plan out this school year the very first thing I did was take each subject and see where I wanted us to be by the end of the year then backtracked to see what we needed to cover each month in order to reach that goal.  Each month was then broken down into what needed to be covered each week.

The result is what I have sitting before me each school day:

I made this form myself using Mircrosoft Word, tweaking it here and there until I felt it was what would work best for me and our schooling.  Each subject we cover through the week is listed down the left side with the days of the week going across the top.  I have a section on the right side to list what books the kids are currently reading along with a place to write down about our week, a sort of easy-access journal of our school days.

Once I have this filled out for the week I transfer the kid's assignments to their own weekly checklists that they keep in their box with all their curriculum books.

I fill in as much as I can before the beginning of the week, but there are some things I have to fill in as the week goes on depending on what they do each day.  For example, how they do on their daily typing determines what they will do the next day.  Also, if more practice or help is needed in math, that also determines what the next day's assignment will be.  Again, like my planner, subjects are listed down the left side with the days of the week going across the top.  Each box has a place for them to check off each assignment as they complete it.  I also put their weekly scripture verse they are to memorize at the bottom so they have a visual reminder several times throughout the day and week.  (This has worked wonders in the success of them memorizing them!)

Having their own personal checklist has brought so much peace to our days and took so much frustration off of me.  No longer do I have to continuously hear, "What else do I need to do mom?" or "What's next mom?".  Along with having all of their books in their own boxes so they can find what they need at any time, these weekly assignment sheets have allowed my children to take some control of their own education, which is the ultimate goal as they grow into responsible young men and women.

So, there ya' go.  That's how our homeschool weeks are planned.  Hope this may help inspire someone to come up with a planner that fits their family.  As my very wise hubby always says, "Proper prior planning prevents poor performance." 

(Pssst... there are tons of planning forms here!  This is where I get most of the ones I use.)

One Busy Momma

Has it REALLY been nearly four months since I promised to give you all my best Disney tips!  Wow!  Time sure does fly when you're a busy momma. 

I truly am so sorry.  I do still intend to type up everything I can to help you have a wonderful Disney vacation.  When we got back from Florida I had two weeks as the VBS Director at our church to finalize everything for this summer's VBS fun.  Then it was on to getting our home back in order (because as anyone who has ever directed a VBS knows, it's either VBS or a clean house, but it's impossible to have both at the same time!), buying and setting up a new swimming pool, planning for a yard sale, and all the million other things summertime brings.  Thus, the Disney blog posts got put on the back burner.

However!  With one of our dear friends planning a trip for her family in November and excitedly telling me all about it, I am really, REALLY wanting to start planning our next trip as well!  So all the pictures and memories are flooding back into my mind lately and I desperately want to document everything, so I promise, it's coming.

Walt Disney World!

Our family recently returned from a long-overdue vacation.  I'm talking EIGHT LONG YEARS overdue!  And our vacation destination was the same place we went eight years ago... Walt Disney World!  It's our absolute favorite place on earth to go.  At least, it is right now, since we've not been anywhere else as a family!  LOL!  (We plan on taking them to Washington D.C. and New York over the next few years as those are my other favorite places to visit!)

If you have never been to Disney World I encourage you with all my heart to try to go, whether you have small children, older children, or no children at home at all.  It's such a magical place and everyone becomes a kid again when visiting the Magic Kingdom!  Or at least, they should.  But sadly, while there I saw far too many tired, whiney kids getting on the nerves of their tired, grouchy parents, and that is no fun for anyone.  Why get all the way to Disney World only to ruin everyone's vacation by not being prepared BEFORE you arrive?!

Over the next few weeks I'll be blogging all about our trip and sharing all the best tips I learned to help make anyone's trip to Disney World the best it possibly can be.  Please trust me when I say Disney World is NOT a trip you can just take with no prior planning.  For some, a trip to Walt Disney World is a once in a lifetime vacation.  For others, it's simply too magical of a place to only visit once.  Regardless, if you will take the time to plan and organize your Disney vacation you will come home with a lifetime of wonderful memories, and hopefully lots and lots of pictures to help preserve those memories!

Amanda, Light of My Life

When I was a little girl my stepdad was in a couple different country music bands.  That's all I knew growing up, hearing him singing and playing with his band buddies.  One song I remember fondly was 'Amanda' by Waylon Jennings.  I always loved that song becuase of the way the end of the word 'Amanda' ( followed by 'light of my life') was sung higher and higher and higher.  I loved singing those notes along with the drummer! 

When I was nine my mom and I moved from Illinois to Kentucky with my stepdad.  Being so young and moving from an hour south of Chicago to a small town in Kentucky was not easy for me.  I was very sad about leaving my friends.  I felt lost.  This was a whole different way of life for me.  I was used to neighbors being just a few feet away.  Now they were quite a walk away, if not a good DRIVE away.  A new school, a new home, a whole new way of life.  With no siblings to commiserate with I was really lost.

But God saw my little broken heart and sent me an angel, my new Aunt Mandy.  We moved in with Mandy, my stepdad's sister, while our house was being built.  Aunt Mandy took me right in and treated me like one of her own.  She loved on me and cooked for me and talked with me, she even tried to snatch my birthday present while I was opening it once (picture above)!  She always had a hug ready and waiting for everyone, whether she hadn't seen them in a while or if she had just seen them the day before.  It didn't matter to Mandy.  She loved everyone.

During this time of living with her I began transforming from a little girl into a young woman, if you know what I mean.  I was quite young for this and I was freaked out.  But I remember Aunt Mandy coming into my room, sitting down beside me on my bed, and talking to me about 'things'.  Her words comforted me and I was so thankful for her.

Once, I woke her up while I was sleepwalking.  She heard me and came to see what I was doing.  She caught me at the front door putting on my coat and asked me where I was going.  "I'm going home", I told her.  "Ok, here, let me help you".  She took my coat off and led me back to bed and tucked me in.  Thank God, literally, for her!  Who knows where I may have ended up!

Once our new home was built I still saw Mandy every day since we lived right across the road from her.  Even after I was married and had children of my own one of my favorite things to do was to go to Mandy's and just sit outside with her, enjoying the breeze and talking about whatever was going on at the time.  Just look at all that family sitting out under Mandy's carport and in the yard enjoying family time and some good music!

We weren't the only ones Mandy opened her home up to.  After we moved out and into our own home Mandy took in an older gentleman named Norwood.  I'm not even sure who exactly he was but I believe he was some relation to her late husband.  I'm sure this wasn't always an easy task.  The one thing I remember about Norwood is that he DRANK linament!  Oh, and smelled like it as well.  LOL!  But Mandy opened her heart and home and took care of him until his death.  What an amazing woman.

And oh what a cook she was!  I loved Mandy's potato salad.  To this day I can't stand to eat any other potato salad, except Mandy's.  She knew this and any time we had a family reunion she was sure to make some.  I think it made her feel good to know that hers was the only one I would eat.  Oh, and her potato cakes!  Oh my goodness.  Those were heavenly, and she used to make them often for me.  I'm going to have to make sure to get those recipes now I guess.  I didn't want them before because those foods were special any time I had them because that meant that Aunt Mandy had made them for me.  I'm crying, again, knowing I'll never again taste the love that went into everything Mandy made.

Due to other's situations and allowing life to get in the way I hadn't seen or talked to Mandy in a couple years, although we lived only 15 minutes apart.  It broke my heart and I thought of her often, missing her hugs and our talks and of course, her yummy food.  The saddest part for me, the thing that has my heart hurting more than anything, is that for the past few months I have had Mandy on my mind and wanted to call her just to hear her voice again.  I missed her.  I missed her laugh, her hugs.  She truly, genuinely cared about others and I missed her greatly.  But I would call, soon.  Aunt Mandy would always be there.  She was the rock of the family.  She was hardly sick.  She was the youngest of her siblings.  I never dreamed I would never get the chance to talk to her again.

Aunt Mandy went to be with the Lord yesterday after successfully coming through a heart cath where three stints were placed to open up blockages.  I was so very thankful to hear she would be coming home today.  No more putting off seeing or talking to her.  I was going to visit her this week!  I couldn't wait!  Sadly, God had other plans and He is now the One that gets to receive those hugs of hers, the One that gets to sit and talk with her and laugh with her.  What a glorious reunion they are having right now, with all her siblings that have gone on before her, her parents, and her beloved husband she has been without for so very, very long.  I'm so happy for her, but so very sad for those of us who are left behind to miss her every single day for the rest of our lives. 

Yet, I find comfort in knowing that one day I will see her again.  I can't wait to get to Heaven and feel those arms around me one more time, to hear her precious laugh, and just to sit and enjoy the breeze and talk about everything that's been going on.

I love you Aunt Mandy and I truly thank God for sending you into my life when I needed you the most.  Thank you for always loving me, as well as my own little family, no matter what.  Thank you for the hugs, the talks, the smiles, the home when we didn't have one, the potato salad, the potato cakes, the apple crisp recipe you gave me a few years ago, all the sweet corn, for letting my kids come pick apples out of your trees.  Thank you for the memories, and thank you for giving your life to the Lord so those of us left here mourning your passing can have the hope and the comfort of knowing that we can indeed see you again if we simply make the same decision you did to give our hearts over to the Lord and serve Him.

Thank you Aunt Mandy.  I miss you greatly, and I will see you soon.  I promise!

Review: Institute for Excellence in Writing

As a member of the TOS Crew my children and I were given the opportunity to review the Student Writing Intensive, Level C from the Institute for Excellence in Writing.

I had heard about IEW many times over our nine years of homeschooling, but I had assumed it was simply too intensive for our style of learning as well as being too expensive.  Granted, I never took the time to thoroughly research it.  I simply passed it off as 'not for us'.  Boy was I wrong!  Having a freshman in high school with no thorough, formal writing instruction up to this point, the opportunity to review this curriculum was most definitely a blessing.

First of all, the creator of the Institute for Excellence in Writing, Andrew Pudewa, is a homeschooling father of seven, a grandfather of three, and a teacher.  His primary profession is teaching music.  However, he was put into the position of being a history and an english teacher without any previous experience at either.  He was encouraged by another teacher to attend a teacher-training course on 'structure and style in composition' by a gentleman named Dr. James Webster.  Mr Pudewa was so impressed and learned so much and saw such amazing results in his students that he returned to the training course for the next two years!  Mr. Pudewa continued teaching what he learned to children which led to the opportunity to do some seminars and classes.  The interest from parents and other teachers was so great that those seminars and classes eventually evolved into writing the curriculum and doing the videos that became the Institute for Excellence in Writing.

IEW has products for every age level, beginning with the Primary Arts of Language for K-2 and continuing on with their Student Writing Intensives, Level A for grades 3-5, Level B for grades 6-8, and Level C (which is what we reviewed) for grades 9-12.  Each of these 'Intensives' cost $99.00 and come with a binder with dividers, a packet with teacher's notes, student handouts, and checklists, as well as the writing sessions recorded live on four DVDs.  Extra binders can also be purchased for $18.00 if you're working with more than one student on the same level.  However, when that becomes the case for me I plan on simply making multiple copies of the handouts that come with the Intensive and putting them in a binder myself.  One more thing that's important to know is that once your student has completed all the lessons in their Intensive it is possible to continue on through the rest of the writing units with an additional 32 lessons if you so choose, however, this is optional.  By using the Continuation Course you can use this writing curriculum for 1-2 years of writing instruction per Intensive.

Another IEW product I plan on using next year is Fix It! Grmmar and Editing Made Easy With the Classics.  While learning how to write is of upmost importance I also don't want to let my daughter's grammar fall by the way-side while she's learning to write and this looks like just the right fit for us.  Not too much, not too little.  Hopefully it will help her learn to critique her own writing even better!

Oh, and that teacher-training I mentioned above that Mr. Pudewa learned so much from?  Well he has kindly put together our own teacher-training seminar!  Now, I only have experience with the Structure and Style Overview DVD so I can't speak on the other teaching DVD's but I was very impressed with what I watched on the S&SO DVD.  Mr. Pudewa's voice is very enjoyable to listen to and he's very easy to understand as well as being funny.  I felt like I was right there in the room with him.  Here's what the website has to say about this DVD:

"In this 2 hour and 20 minute DVD and accompanying handouts, Andrew Pudewa introduces you to the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style method of teaching writing. Briefly covering the nine units of structure and introducing several stylistic techniques, Andrew gives the audience insight into why this method is so effective in teaching even the most reluctant writer."

Of course, if you'd simply like to purchase the whole kit and kaboodle for a certain level you can do so in one easy click here.

We were also sent a portable wall which is "a single-pocket folder with an extra page, creating a tri-fold wall packed with all the Unit Models, several word lists including prepositions, substitutes for "said," and more."  I really appreciate whoever came up with this idea as we are one family that has absolutely no room to hang posters, at least not anywhere where my daughter could actually see it easily in order to help her.  With the portable wall she can simply keep it in her binder and pull it out any time she needs to.  Two big mom thumbs up for this one! 

As I've said before, writing is one of the most dificult things to evaluate.  You want to teach and encourage the student in their writing yet receiving a paper back full of red marks is not going to help your child want to write very much.  But when they have complete, thorough, easy-to-understand instructions it is so much easier, on the student as well as the mom/teacher!

Overall I am VERY pleased with the products we reviewed and plan on continuing to use them throughout our homeschooling years.  To watch your child go from not understanding that there is a right and a wrong way to write to someone who is developing into a wonderful writer of beautiful papers is such a thrill!  And it's all thanks to IEW and Mr. Pudewa's teaching that our daughter now enjoys writing and actually looks forward to it each day!  All this mom can say is thank you, thank you, thank you.  We are now life-long IEW users!

*As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew I received this product free of charge in exchange for my review and honest opinion of it. As a believer and follower of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I promise you that all my reviews contain only my own honest opinions...'cause He told me to not lie!

Review: Latin's Not So Tough

As a reviewer for The Old Shoolhouse I was given the opportunity to review Latin's Not So Tough! by Greek 'N' Stuff.  Now, you may be asking yourself, "Latin?  From GREEK 'N' Stuff?"  Well, yes.  LOL.  I couldn't find it anywhere on their website but I'm guessing that their curriculum Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! was written first, before their other 'stuff', hence the name Greek 'N' Stuff.

Ok ok, on to the important stuff.

Latin's Not So Tough!, as a whole, is intended for use with young children.  With six levels currently available it would have been nice to be able to start with Level One (which can be completed in less than one year) with my children when they were much younger than what they are now.  I would be interested to see how going through all six levels would help them in their early study of Latin.

However, while Level One concentrates on the alphabet, diphthongs, and special consonant sounds, older elementary students (and beyond) can start with Level Three, which is the level we received to review. (You can go here and scroll down just a little to find Placement Quizzes to see which level your student needs to start with.  Personally, I found I would need to start somewhere LOWER than Level One!  LOL!)

Level Three covers the following:

*Alphabet and vocabulary review

*Latin grammar:
   ~First declension nouns
   ~Second declension (-us and -ius) nouns
   ~Three special case uses
   ~First conjugation verbs, present active indicative

*Read and write simple Latin sentences

*Matching, fill in the blank, fun activities, puzzles

Also, each level includes flashcard pages at the back of the workbook.  These need to be cut out and I highly recommend using poster board-type paper and/or laminating them so they will last longer.

Level Three is for students who have completed Level Two, or older students.  Regardless of which level you start with, each one has the following available (along with a few other things you can find here):

~Student Workbook (21.95)
~"Answers Only" Answer Key (4.00)
~"Full Text Answer Key" (21.95)
~Quizzes/Exams (5.50)
~Pronounciation CD (for Levels 1-3) (10.00)

Latin's Not So Tough! teaches classical pronunciation and is written to be very student-friendly.  The workbooks are designed in such a way that the student simply progresses through each level on a page-by-page basis, rather than on a weekly lesson structure.  The first three levels are laid out as such:
   ~Level One: 104 student pages; 28 lessons
   ~Level Two: 144 student pages; 30 lessons
   ~Level Three and above: 170 student pages; 36 lessons

The Student Workbook is laid out in such a way that they can pretty much pick it up and work through it at their own pace with little teacher involvement.  Depending on what day it is around here, that can be a very good thing but sometimes it also makes me a little sad.  However, independent learning has always been one of my goals for my children in homeschooling them so it actually works out very well.  Seeing as how I have NO knowledge of Latin, it's probably better this way anyway.  LOL! 

Actually, NONE of us have any prior Latin knowledge and this made it near impossible for us to just pick up and start learning with Latin's Not So Tough.  Right from the very first page it instructed the student to do things that we had no clue about!  They couldn't do it and I couldn't help them.  There is no instruction, just an expectation that you know what you're doing for both the student and the teacher. 

Maybe I just don't understand how to use it the right way, but my frustration eventually won out and I hate to say that we did not use this curriculum.  Maybe starting at a lower level would have helped us?  I just don't know.

However, if this is something you are interested in, let's move on to pricing.  Considering the prices are different depending on what Level you are purchasing I will simply refer you to this page to see all of Level Three's prices.

Along with Latin and Greek curriculums, a few Bible Studies are also offered by this same company.

*As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew I received this product free of charge in exchange for my review and honest opinion of it. As a believer and follower of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I promise you that all my reviews contain only my own honest opinions...'cause He told me to not lie!


Sample pages.

Review: Zeezok Guide to the Movies

Finally, someone has come up with our family's kind of curriculum!  Watch a movie, learn from it.  How much better could it get?

Zeezok Publishing has created these wonderful little things called "Z-Guides to the Movies" to go along with select movies that are full of wonderful learning opportunities.  When presented with the opportunity to review the guide that corresponds to the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington I jumped at the chance!  Mr. Smith... is one of our 14-year-old daughter's favorite movies so I knew this review would be a perfect fit for us.

We received the e-book, however you may also purchase the guide on CD if you wish.  This CD contains a printable pdf file of the complete study guide.  Regardless of which option you choose, each cost $12.99.  If you don't already own the movie for which you are studying you may also purchase them on DVD from Zeezok, rent them, purchase them from the store, borrow them from the library, or, my very favorite, get them through Netflix.

The study guide starts out with a Topic Overview.  In this particular guide a brief explanation of Congress, Senators, and filibusters as they pertain to the movie.  Next comes a movie synopsis giving a brief description of the movie for those who may not have already seen the movie.

Following this are ten different activities to help study different aspects of the movie more in depth.  For this particular title we started with 25 movie review questions.  Even though we had already seen the movie, a few times in fact, we still chose to watch it again so it would be fresh in our minds.  But before watching the movie for this study my daughter and I read over the review questions first so we would be aware of what to listen and watch for.  I had her answer the questions as she recognized them while watching the movie.  Gotta love that Pause button!

Then we moved on to learning all about the filibuster.  Having never had the opportunity to take a US Governement class in school and having been busy raising kiddo's the past 15 years, this study was as much for me as it was my daughter!  American history is FASCINATING to me and I thoroughly enjoyed working on this and look forward to more of these studies.

Some of the other activities we worked on were learning how a bill becomes a law, comparing our views on our US Senators (are they representatives, trustees, or both?), becoming a reporter as well as an interveiwer covering this story, trying to get inside the mind of the director of the movie, as well as several other fun and thought-provoking activities.

Both my daughter and I learned so much through the guidance of this study and we look forward to using more z-guides to dig further into other movies.  What an awesome and fun way to study history!  Even my younger kids joined in watching the movie (again) as well as some of the activities.  That's what I love so much about homeschooling.  Even though this study is labeled as being for high school students, younger children can learn so much just by joining in on the fun!

There are 28 different Z-Guides to the Movies, all of which look to be just as fun and interesting as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and each costing just $12.99.  Each title focuses on a specific time in history and in my honest opinion is just simply a fun way to help understand what life was like during a specific historical period of time.  History shouldn't be dry and boring, but exciting and interesting and if possible, fun!  With these Z-guides from Zeezok Publishing I really do think we're going to enjoy our history time a whole lot more.

*As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew I received this product free of charge in exchange for my review and honest opinion of it. As a believer and follower of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I promise you that all my reviews contain only my own honest opinions...'cause He told me to not lie!