Thursday, September 11, 2008

homeschooling favorites

Not sure why the 2 scans are different sizes.
I wanted to share some more homeschooling favorites. I have been meaning to do these posts for about a month and somehow my life just seems busy and crazy (not how I like it). I have finally made my record log for the year. Instead of buying one, I have always made my own (I keep these in an opened binder on the shelf for each of the kids). This year, however, we are "stepping it up" with our school and I needed more boxes to record our work. So I had to adjust it.
Some of the books we have used with Noeo Physics ~ Zip, Zap, Zing, Zoom
We are finishing up our Noeo science program from last year (Noeo site HERE). My kids just love it and I hate that I often put it on the bottom of the list of things to get done. I am trying to make science, SS, and math a larger priority this year. We are learning about sound and movement right now and we are studying string and wind instruments. I love how this program tells me what pages to read and then it gives us the supplies for the experiments. The kids want to do every experiment that is offered. Sometimes my kitchen turns into a science lab.


We are also finishing up our Beautiful Feet geography program (HERE) from last year. Again, the girls enjoy it so much and they love making the maps.
This program has you read these books (also includes the book Paddle to the Sea ~I just couldn't find mine for the pic) by Holling and color and label maps and keep logs of what the kids learn (vocabulary words and such). The idea is to use living books to learn from.
Just a few of some of my homeschooling favorites. More to come on another post. Hope this is a resource for any of you out there.

12 comments:

steffany said...

Thanks for sharing this. I loved your chart. Great idea. I'm slacking on my recording.

Sean and Lisa said...

That's how we have always done school...learning thru living books. It makes it so much more interesting and easy to retain the facts (in my humble opinion :) )
Love the Holling Books! Absolutely wonderful. Great memories for us with those books. Thanks for sharing!
Off to soak up girl time at Women of Faith! :)

Cheryl said...

I love these posts... my 3 are in high school but I still love seeing all these choices for the younger kids.

Anonymous said...

Your Beautiful Feet program interests me, but we are using Story of the World right now. That's mainly history though, with geography built in. I am looking for a way to teach my boys the 50 states. Do you recommend the program you use for that? That one map in your post seems to delineate some of the New England states. Have you taught your girls the state names and locations? What did you use? Thanks!

Leisa said...

I love living books, we are Sonlighters from the very beginning. And what's not to love about Beautiful Feet. I love their selections.

Don't you love a personalized planner.

crispy said...

Hey, KMoon, the map that I posted is the one that goes with Paddle to the Sea book. The story follows a little hand carved boat that is put in a little lake up in Canada and travels all the way through the Great Lakes and makes it out to the sea. Each of the maps that goes with the different story focus on a different area. Right now we are doing Minn of the Mississippi and we are learning all about the Mississippi river and the states that are near it. The program does have you label the states and the capitals (at least the ones that are on the map). It hasn't really taught them the states though.

To learn the states we have a few state puzzles, and the hot dots with the states and capitals. I also have "Don't know much about the 50 states" book. That is a great book, funny and interesting. I have heard about the 50 states song, which you could google. I know that helps teach the states.

I have always been interested in the games that are about the states. I love fun ed. games. But I don't have one.

Cindy said...

I don't homeschool but as a mother to a 6 yo who prefers to watch Discovery, History, and National Geographic channels when he watches TV, I try to find the most interesting non-fiction books to read with him. He's really excited by learning new things and I always try to encourage that!

mommy g said...

We loved Beautiful Feet Geography! Your maps are way more beautiful that our were......
My favorite way to teach the 50 states was the States/Regions section in KONOS Vol. 3. You might be able to buy just the section now instead of investing in the entire volume...

crispy said...

Hey mommy g, I haven't seen you on here in a long time. Glad that you are here. It was you who first introduced me to many of my homeschooling favorites. I heard about BF and Pathway readers from you. You have inspired me and I thank you for that.

Miss you my dear friend.

mommy g said...

oh, yes, I am still here....just too busy to even breathe, let alone post! But I watch your blog to make sure you are all right! Keep up the fantastic work! When I grow up, I want to be just like you!

Ginny said...

Seth loved the Holling Clancy Holling books, but all we did was read right through them. When he is a bit older I will have to go through and reread and actually do the geography program along with them.

Tim and Susan said...

Looks like lots of fun and interesting curriculum for school. Good for you Cris!!