LAST DAY ----

FOR A CHANCE TO WIN......

BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT

Final Push...

I tend to schedule the last few weeks of a session a bit lighter than the rest so that we can have time to make things up that may have gotten pushed to the side earlier on. This time however, we are right on track and I think that I have managed to convince KM to push a little bit harder to get some extra weeks off! I printed out all the assignments for the remainder of the session and she couldn't believe how little there was. If you don't hear much in the next week or so, please no we are still here, but are just finishing up to have a nice LONG break at HOME this time!!!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway, it will be closing out tomorrow!!!

Only 3 days left

...to get in on this giveaway!!!! Be sure to check it out ----

HERE!!!!

All my nieces together...

at the zoo and carousel village today was quite exhausting! Luckily I had extra parental help as I don't think it would have worked any other way. I didn't even get any pics of the kids at the zoo because I was trying to keep track of the two 3 year olds running here there and everywhere. I did however get some cute shots when they were strapped to the carousel -

GC and her dad only made it around once before they looked like they were going to be sick! SC on the other hand had 4 trips around and each time found another animal she HAD to ride next! OR was quite content to ride the horses, look at the lights and gaze at herself in the mirror as she made kooky faces!

It was a beautiful day and all the kids had peaceful naps on their way home!

Ko's Journey - Math Curriculum Supplement

REVIEW & GIVEAWAY!!!

Yes, you read that write I have an incredible giveaway for one lucky winner! The product that is up for grabs is a one year license to a fantastic new online program called - Ko's Journey 5th -8th grade Math Improvement with Story Playing. - Instructions for giveaway at the end of the review...

Ko’s Journey covers the core concepts in middle-school math, comprising about 20% of a comprehensive curriculum. By going deep into a set of approximately 10 main areas of learning, students gain a rich, contextual understanding of essential concepts including number lines, fractions with non-common denominators, multiplication, division, rounding, percentage of numbers, applying scales, graphing comprehension, linear equations, Cartesian coordinate mapping, area of a circle, ratios, determining unknown variables, volume, complementary/supplementary angles, slope, addition/subtraction of decimals, multi-step problems and conversion of units of measure.

This program is fantastic! It is super simple to setup an account, which they have at many different levels including individual for $39 or Intervention Homeschool (up to 3 players) for $59. To me this is an extremely reasonable price for this very unique and engaging supplement to your middle school math curriculum.

This program features -

• 15-hour curriculum of core middle school math embedded in rich story
• Easy on-line set-up and administration
• Automatically tracks student progress and assignments
• Aligned with NCTM standards
• Excellent preparation for state testing (includes pre and post tests)
• Interactive learning environment with peer teaching
• Creative tool aimed at addressing emotional resistance to math
• Empower students comprehension of fundamental concepts

Some of the reasons that KM says she has been enjoying are:

• "using math in a virtual real life simulation helps me to understand why it works"
• "the graphics are great!"
• "it is really easy to use"
• "it saves my progress and tracks my scores"
• "each new level brings some new challenge or puzzle to solve"

Some things that I have noticed - both good and bad -

• Pre-test and post-test features are great to really be able to tell if they have learned new concepts by using the product or if previously covered concepts have been reinforce.
• Entertaining storyline to help keeps the wanting to work with the program
• Set-up was super easy
• Tracking of grades and progress is done automatically so you can ask your student to work on it and will know how they did from your own log in screen.
• It is possible to change the student information so that if you have more than one child you could purchase the individual program and they could either work through it together or once one child has completed it - as it is only a 15 hour curriculum - another child could restart it, as you have access to the program for one full year
• When using it on different computers it takes a VERY long time to load. This is not a big deal when we are at home, but when we are out and about and she wants to play it on the laptop it can be a bit annoying

Here are some screen shots -

I am very excited about the direction of this program and am hopeful that we will see more things to come of this high quality!

Now for the giveaway! Imagine Education has been generous enough to offer one lucky reader a full year individual license for this incredible math game! All you have to do is post a comment and you will be entered! Please be sure to leave an email address or blog link for me to be able to connect you through.

Also if you have a blog, mention this giveaway, come back and submit a link to the mention you will have a second chance to win! This will be limited to two entries per email address or blog link.

All comments or posts must be submitted no later than 8pm EDT on Friday 5/21 - I will announce the winner on Monday May 24th!

More and More Color...

She wanted more colors....

so we got more colors....

This time they are however extensions! I will say we gave the director quite a fright when she saw her walk into rehearsal a few weeks ago with MANY shades just days before the performance. I decided to go with the extensions so that she can have more of a variety and LESS damage to her hair!

A Day with the Littles

Our plans got a bit tweaked today, but we got to spend some extra time with the Littles -

They played for a bit while KM finished her Algebra -

We baked for a bit -

And played outside for a while!

And Little GC showed off her newest talent.

Wrapping things up - SORT OF!

I have to say that I think we are really getting a handle on this "homeschooling" thing! The past few months have been going by so fast, so smoothly and SO productively ~ I am just amazed at how much we have gotten accomplished. Our homeschooling style has changed a lot over the last two and a half years, without a doubt we are much more relaxed and go with the flow so much more than we did at the beginning!

In the springtime a lot of homeschoolers who follow the traditional "school year" start to look ahead for curriculum and programs for the next school year. As we school year round, things can get a bit fuzzy as to where one grade stops and another begins. For reporting purposes our "grades" go from July to June - so KM will begin her 8th grade school year this coming July. Since KM has a tendency to want to blow through some programs at the speed of light while she meanders and delves deeper into others we also tend to have books and programs on all different levels at one time. I have been getting many emails from interested readers about our picks for 8th grade and we are in the process of making the final decisions, but aren't quite done yet.

We began a good amount of new programs during this spring session - you can see the current things we are using in the right hand column near the top of the page - and many of these we will continue with throughout the summer. In the past we have done a substantially lighter workload during the summer, however this year we have cut back to 3 days of book work, so we will be staying with the same pace for the summer months. I am thinking about changing up our one a day plan though and trying something like focusing on one subject each week over the summer, but I am not sure if that would be too overwhelming or pushing too much at one time. This is something that I will have to discuss with KM and see how she feels before I make the final decision.

So as far as resources go, just check back and I will let everyone know when I have the final list together or something changes.

BRAVO - Young Shakespeare Players -

KM's drama group had their fundraising performances this weekend and they were INCREDIBLE!!! The director adapted the play to accommodate the talents of these fantastic actors and she did an unbelievable job! I feel so grateful that my daughter had the privilege to work with this group! Here are the pictures from the shows -

In the 1st performance KM was Lady Capulet -

In the 2nd performance KM was Juliet -

Busy, Busy, Busy

It has been quite hectic around here lately so I apologize for my lack of posting, but I assure it will pick up again soon.

Some notable events from the week -

• KM has been practicing, practicing and practicing her lines for Romeo & Juliet this weekend.
• Went to see DisneyNature Films Ocean - FANTASTIC movie!
• Got Guitar Hero 5 for the wii and I became the hero for the day!
• Baked, whipped, baked, cooked and grilled!
• Enjoyed a well overdue bowling date with some friends!
• Went shopping for some smaller sizes!
• Lessons went smoothly ~ as usual!
• I have CONQUERED our 8th grade curriculum plan!!!
• Celebrated a birthday with a dear friend!
• Surprise visit from the Littles!

SO as you can see it was quite busy and today is only Thurs! This week will be a whirlwind of rehearsals and performances, but I will be sure to post pics of all the excitement!

Hope you are all having a great week!

The Ocean Floor

KM has been awaiting the DisneyNature Film Ocean since she saw the trailer for it LAST YEAR at the DisneyNature Earth. We will be going to see it next week with some families from our homeschool group and she is VERY excited. When we started see the trailers again for it back in January KM decided that she wanted to do an elective study, so we have been doing a little here and a little there over the last few weeks.

This week we had a double whammy with it since she is study Earth Science and was on the unit that covers plate tectonics and how the ocean floor is created. This led her to wanting to try to make a model of different features of the ocean floor and I think she did a really good job on it using some recycled materials and model magic -

Also thought I would mention this is my 500th post!!! Pretty cool huh! I was poking around trying to find something unique to post about for it, but I thought no lets just post something that really shows what are homeschooling life is all about! Hope you liked it!!!

Strange Weather

In my 31 years I have never seen a day like today! Mind you I live in New England where the weather motto is "Don't like the weather? Wait a minute and it will change"....this was nothing like I have ever seen before!

It was gorgeous and in the 70s, the kids were all outside in shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops. It was the perfect spring day, until we heard some rumbling in the distance. I called the kids in because you never know when lightening will strike...and we had just watched a video last week about how dangerous spontaneous lightening can be....they were not very happy with me, but once the thundering got closer and the lights started flickering they were more than happy to hide under the table with cookies and blankets covering them. They were even happier when they heard this incredible binging sounds coming from the back deck and looked out to see -

HAIL, HAIL and MORE HAIL!!! I have never seen hail like this here! Just another wacky day in New England!

Meet the Masters - Joan Miro

KM was intrigued by this weeks artist Joan Miro and thinks that she may try some of the techniques at a later time, but right now our schedule is a bit PACKED, which has left little to no time for extra things like artwork at the moment. She did try a few sketches using the overlapping shapes and lines, but has become such a perfectionist that she only wants her pieces to be shown when she feels they are complete so I will be sure to post them if/when she decides it is okay to do so! I want to make sure she knows that I am respecting her privacy and only using things that she feels comfortable showing!

Beginning Middle Ages

We are getting into the Middle Ages in Volume 2 of Story of the World. I have heard a lot of people feel like they can't use this program with middle schoolers, but I think with a little tweaking and creativity it is totally possible! We are using the Activity Guide that goes along with it, as well as the student pages and quizzes, but I am beefing it up with lots of hands-on activities, more advanced work and lots of living books and historical fiction from the period.

We do more advanced map work simply by using blank maps printed from Owl & Mouse Educational Software and then giving her the same directions as in the activity pages. This way she has to know where things are instead of just circling the pre-printed words. I also have her show me different routes and such on the larger blank world wall map - that we printed from the same site - so that I know that she is aware of the perspective of location.

I also supplement using a lot of videos and classroom resources from sites like the History Channel Study Guides. Most of the videos can be found through your local libraries, ordered online and some are even available streaming online.

We tend to skip most of the "coloring pages", but every once in a while we will come across something that catches her eye. Like this illumination pattern that demonstrates the monks incredible labors to reproduce books -

Props, Costumes and Scenery...

is what are weekend consisted of! KM will be in Romeo & Juliet in two weeks so we have been busily constructing things for the show -

The kids have been working very hard and it is sure to be a FANTASTIC show!