Award

I just found this in my drafts. It is from a while ago. My TOS Mate and bloggie pal, Sheri from http://ideas4theworkbox.blogspot.com gave me an award - only thing is I have to answer the questions with only one word. Some of them I could not do one word so I "sorta" cheated... see #4 He is in Heaven #7 - should be McD's Sweet Tea, #35 5 Guys Burgers and Fries, and #15  dd Rachel's Pumpkin Cream Cheese muffins... mmm mmm good!

#1. Where is your cell phone? none
#2. Your hair? grey
#3. Your mother? Godly
#4. Your father? Miss him
#5. Your favorite food? pizza
#6. Your dream last night? none
#7. Your favorite drink? Tea
#8. Your dream/goal? business
#9. What room are you in? living
#10. Your hobby? scrapbooking
#11. Your fear? homelessness
#12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Grandmother
#13. Where were you last night? home
#14. Something you aren’t? skinny
#15. Muffins? pumpkin
#16. Wish list item? lots
#17. Where did you grow up? Wayne
#18. Last thing you did? Blogging
#19. What are you wearing? Jeans
#20. Your TV? On
#21. Your pets? none
#22. Your friends? few
#23. Your life? stressful
#24. Your mood? good
#25. Missing someone? yes
#26. Vehicle? running
#27. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
#28. Your favorite store? Dollar
#29. Your favorite color? Purple
#30. When was the last time you laughed? earlier
#31. Last time you cried? today
#32. Your best friend? Jesus
#33. One place that I go over and over? library
#34. One person who emails me regularly? Chris
#35. Favorite place to eat? 5Guys

Pals I am awarding -
dd Rachel at Young Homemakers
dd Jessica at  Young Homemakers  or  Literary Pursuits
Michele at The Silver Lining
Heidi at Review and Reflections

Love you guys,
Debbie

Boys and Organizing AHHHHHHH! Frustrations

I heard today that the greatest thing about social media is authenticity. That if you are your authentic self then you have no worries in the blogging world because there is only one you. Hear the interview at the 5 minutes for mom blog site here.

So there is only one me and I am going to authentic with you all today.

So, gave the boys a light day of school and asked them to catch up on anything they did not finish this week while I was out of commission with my sore tooth/extraction. They were also supposed to organize their papers. Because, in spite of the fact that I said I was not going to let paperwork get out of hand this year, it is! I know boys are not typically as organized as girls are but mine are driving me crazy.

I need chocolate!!! Lots of chocolate!!! Something soft and easy on my gums where my tooth was pulled... like chocolate ice cream... oooh I have some hot chocolate out in the kitchen. I think I will make some after I finish this post.

Back to the boys. So my 13 year old son, Christopher, hands me his notebook saying he is finished. He has his papers shoved in the front and back pockets of the notebooks. I give it back to him telling him that was not sufficient organizing and that I wanted him to hole punch his pages and put them in his notebook and put all lapbook pieces in a ziplock bag. He put the lapbook pieces in a ziplock and punched holes in the ziplock and put it in his notebook. The notebook pages he put in the punch, punched wholes in them and put them in his notebook. So he did what I said, right? Right... and wrong. He did not even make sure all the pages were right side up and one of them was folded over on the corner and so it did not get punched on that corner, he also did not put them in any kind of order. He just jammed them in the whole punch and put them in his notebook. Why does he think this is acceptable? I guess it is my fault because I did not spell out to him what I wanted done with enough detail. I thought he understood.

I do not now if Nathan has organized any of his yet. He is not done school and it is 4 pm. He says he cannot concentrate.

The boys have workboxes. We have been using them since late September or early October of '09. The workboxes were a review we did for the TOS crew. They have kept me more organized and prepared for school each week. We still have trouble with paper organization though. I could take over and keep the finished work myself but the boys need to learn to manage their own stuff.

First we had a box for papers that needed to be put away. I told the boys to put the papers in that box away each day. That did not work. We tried doing it once a week. That did not work. Why? because I did not enforce it. I did not check those boxes at the end of the day or week and make sure they did what they were supposed to before they went on to playing. My boys will not do anything that I do not check on and enforce.

Then I had them put their notebooks in their workboxes and told them to put the pages in as we went. I had them leave the page out of their notebook to make it easier for me to check them, then when I gave the workboxes back to them they were to put the pages in their notebooks. They still did not do it. I thought they were doing it. They were taking the pages and just adding them to a pile.

So this is what I am going to do. This weekend we will organize their notebooks... again. Then I am going to have the boys put their pages in their notebooks each day as they do them and I will check not only that the pages are done but that they are in the notebooks.

Mini books for lapbooks will have to be put in the workboxes separately and then added to their ziplock bags before they can be considered finished. I guess I will have to look at those workboxes twice, once to check the mini books and once to make sure they put them away.

Well, that is my new plan. What tips do you have for keeping your kids work organized. Maybe you have a great tip that would help me out. If you do leave me a comment with your idea or if you have a blog post about it leave the url of that post so I can read up.

How was your week?

Debbie

Update on my tooth situation

I had my tooth out on Wednesday instead of Thursday. Wednesday we were supposed to get more snow and my husband did not want me to be in pain all weekend and have to wait until Tuesday, I have Jury Duty Monday and so that day is out. So he had me scramble on Wed. morning and try and find a oral surgeon that could pull the tooth that day. I found one and had it pulled at 10:00 am. Court left work right after I called him and came home and took me. He is a great hubby. He was so supportive. The tooth came out in pieces since it was already broken and the cavity inside had evidently eaten away the tooth to nothing but a shell and the roots. It was a hard thing to go through. The dentist even had to drill a little to get one of the pieces out. 

After it was over I rested Wed. afternoon. Yesterday I felt better. I only took Ibuprofen twice after coming home on Wed. I took none yesterday. Today I felt a little more sore than yesterday, I guess that is the healing. I took some Ibuprofen again. I am feeling better now.

Debbie

TOS Homeschool Crew Review - All About Spelling - Beehive Reader

Today's review is a darling children's reading book...Beehive Reader book 1 by Marie Rippel with Renee LaTulippe! This book has ten sweet stories for your little one to read, all of which are very clean for young reader's. My favorite' stories were "Frank Shrank" and "At the Pond". The great thing about this book, is that is has sketches drawn on every page!  Your little one will not only be reading a great book, but will have such fun doing it! Watch as the little boy shrinks from drinking some pink milk (what fun!), and see the frog jump and the fox snatch a fish away! The illustrations are very well done and are quite enjoyable...for all ages, I might add.

These stories are so much fun! I have read books with my children when they were learning to read, and some of them, were not so very interesting. I noticed that if they were interested in reading the stories, they had a easier time of doing the assigned reading. With this book, reading will be a breeze. Your little one will not be able to stop reading after just one of these fun stories, but will want to be reading more and more! The words in this book are not too difficult for a little one to handle, most of them are very simple. So although they will be challenged in their reading, they will not become overly discouraged and want to give up (and of course, they'll definitely want to finish the story! There are so many animals in this little book, that your child won't be able to help but enjoy it, and have fun naming and pointing at all the cute drawings of the pets and animals in the process.

This sweet book would also be a good way to encourage your little reader to read to their younger (or older) siblings.
 

On the website you can get multiple samples from this reader. You can read portions of 6 of the stories as well as the table of contents and a close up of the front cover, shown above. You can also see other customer reviews. I definitely recommend this reading book and other readers from this company. They are great.

Out of five stars I give the Beehive Reader 1:

This hardback reader costs $19.95.

All About Spelling has many other products including uhhh.... Spelling... LOL. You can check out the reviews of the Spelling program at the TOS Crew Blog here.

 

Check out my Crew Mates reviews at the TOS Homeschool Crew Review Blog.

***All About Spelling provided me with the Beehive Reader 1 so that I could do my review. Though I received this product for free I have given an honest review of it here in this post.

Debbie
 

Giveaway

 A fellow crew members is having this giveaway at her blog. Check it out and sign up if you want.

http://www.homeschoolreviewsandmore.com/2010/02/its-here-lego-star-wars-giveaway-goes.html

MIA

I am so sorry I have not been posting to my blog. I have a terrible tooth ache and we do not have any medical or dental coverage. I have an appointment on Thursday to have the tooth extracted. I am apprehensive and also ready to have it out. A day or two later I am sure I will be glad to have had it done. I am in a lot of pain and not sleeping well. School is sort of getting done. Monday next week I also have jury duty. Hopefully Tuesday things will get back to being more normal. I will catch up on posts and my photo challenge then. Keep me in your prayers.

TOS Homeschool Review Crew - Zeezok Publishing - Presidential Penmanship

I received the Presidential Penmanship Italic Style Complete Program CDPresidential Penmanship sets come in a number of handwriting styles to fit your family. This is not a set that teaches how to do the strokes of handwriting in the normal sense. It starts the 1st grade level by having the child write a short quote by writing between lines, it is hard to explain. It is like filling in the letters. Then they trace over the same quote, then they do it on their own. Here is a link to some samples from of the first grade level. It will help you to see what I am talking about. You can find samples for all the grade levels of all the styles of handwriting by going to the specific pages for each level and style. It progresses from their with each level getting a little more difficult. The Second grade level has tracing for 4 days a week then write it yourself for the 5th day of the week. The Third grade has one tracing copy of the quote and then room for the student to write it themselves. The third grade level also has the letters joined together in the way Italic Handwriting does it. From 4th grade up the there is only the write it yourselves part, no tracing. Then the lines get smaller and the portions to copy get longer. from Zeezok. The complete CD's have handwriting sheets for 1st- High School. The

It is nice to have something that gives your child great practice while having something worthwhile to copy. If you get the complete program then the pages you desire for your 1st through 12th graders are available to print from your computer (Windows and MAC compatible) whenever you need them.

		Presidential Penmanship Italic Style Complete Program CD Price $39.99 Click here for more details
		Presidential Penmanship Italic Style Complete Program eBook Price $39.99  Click here for more details

You can also buy each grade level separately for $9.99 each, but if you add up what you get with the complete CD you really get a savings. You can get the products as CD's or as downloads, too.

The boys enjoyed this product and so did I. They, being older 7th and 10th grade, have not done handwriting for a while. My son Nathan does not have good handwriting. Not that he cannot do it, but he does not choose to make it neat. He did great with the handwriting, but it did not transfer to his "normal" writing. I will be assigning more of these handwriting sheets when we get further along in our History studies. They are a great way to practice handwriting and be exposed to great words from our Presidents that inspire and challenge.

Out of five stars I give the Presidential Penmanship Italic Style Complete Program CDZeezok Publishing: from

Zeezok Publishing has many other products. Including the Great Musicians Series which Also, check out other TOS Crew members reviews and see what others have to say at the TOS Homeschool Crew Review Blog. some of my crew mates received and reviewed. They have other products too. Check out their website.

***Zeezok Publishing provided me with Presidential Penmanship Italic Style Complete Program CD so that I could do my review. Though I received this product for free I have given an honest review of it here in this post.

Debbie

365-*49

Emotions and Expressions by Jenn- this is about finding different people and capturing their emotions or expressions in at least one image that week.

Your assignment, if you so choose to play along is to find the emotion or expression of: Love

Talk about Love. This boy is cooking dinner and it is not his night to cook.

He was helping Jessica, it was her night to cook.

He sort of had ulterior motives though.

Jessica went with her dad to the store to get us some snacks to eat

while we watched the Olympics.

Still, it was a sacrifice of his time and he HATES cooking

so this is a real

Expression of Love!

Debbie

TOS Homeschool Review Crew - Apologia

Did you see the title of this review and expect to see Science products? Well you will not see any science books in this review! Apologia is branching out and printing many more products than just their science with their new branch Apologia Press. They sent us The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell. This is the 10th anniversary edition. New and Updated. This book covers... everything Homeschooling! 

On this page describing The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling you can see a sample chapter and a complete list of chapters in the table of contents. Since you can see the complete table of contents on the site I will not copy it all here and bore you. I have been reading this book and enjoying it very much. I cannot tell you if I read the original, I think I did, but if I did it was when it first came out, 9 or 10 years ago. I did not own my own copy, that I know. Now I own my own and my daughter is waiting for me to finish it so she can read it. She will have to wait awhile though as this book is 506 pages.

I love the format of this. Besides the content of the topics in each chapter, there are a number of features. The features are marked by Icons throughout the book. There is Suggested Reading (other books to read on the same topic), Websites, From the Bell Files (stories about her family), Voices of Experience (friends and acquaintances experiences in homeschooling), and Buying and Resource Information.

There is something here for everyone. I will tell you some of the chapters that look especially good to me. They all look good, but here are a few highlights:

• Chapter 15 - Burnout Buster #1: Raise an Independent Learner (I really need this chapter, I am too controlling and do not give my boys enough choices)
• Chapter 21 - Subject-by-Subject Guidelines: Wow this section is huge from pg. 234-303. It is what the title says, guide to teaching math, language arts, history, science and art and music.
• Chapter 25 - College at Home: Can't wait to dig into this chapter.
• Chapter 31 - Motivating the Reluctant Learner

I am looking forward to reading more of this book. It is great for new homeschoolers and veterans alike. It will give you a great pick-me-up for the winter blah's or buy it and read it this summer to get more prepared for your next year of school.

The cost of this book is $20.00. This is a great value for the amount of information in, and quality of, the book and so I give this my good value icon.

Out of five stars I give the The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling book from Apologia Press:

Also, check out other TOS Crew members reviews and see what others have to say at the TOS Homeschool Crew Review Blog.

***Apologia Press provided me with The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling book so that I could do my review. Though I received this product for free I have given an honest review of it here in this post.

Debbie

365-48 Love Letters and Notes

I hope my photo mates at the 365 Project will forgive me.
I could not do just one photo.
None of the valentine cards are from this year.
I put this year's card somewhere and can't find it right now.

These are some of the letters and notes my husband has written to me over the years.

I just got the heart tin with chocolates in it this year for Valentines day,

along with a card, and dinner out and we went to a movie.

 

I decided to put some of the smaller notes and cards my husband has given me into the heart tin.

In there I have the first note my husband gave me. 

That was when I was Miss Weaver, a new teacher in the school run by the church he attended.

We had not even had a date yet.

I am not sure why I kept it at the time, but it is precious to me now.

  

You have to click on this picture to see what my funny honey did on this envelope.

One of my treasures.

  

On these two cards my husband did the artwork and created the whole card and sentiment himself.

Special, special treasures.

Do you have a collection?

I took these today thinking this would fulfill the assignment for the week.

Then I went to check and the assignment is to capture a person in an expression of love 

or showing the emotion of love, not just things that show love. 

So I thought I would post them anyway.

Debbie

365-43-47 Living room favorites

This piano is very old.

All the children of my family played some on this piano growing up.

I had years of lessons.

Unfortunately, I never really progressed.

We hope to some day have it fixed and tuned.

For now it waits and holds my pictures,
and some dust,
don't look at the dust.

365-44

From left to right is: 

A picture from my Mom and Dad's Wedding,

A picture of my dad and his brothers,

A cross stitch picture my daughter Rachel did for me,

(A snow globe in the center),

Another cross stitch picture my daughter Rachel did for me,

A picture from a Mother/Daughter Banquet (of my mom, my two daughters, and I),

and A picture of my Maternal Grandparents

365-45

Some of the bears in my collection.

The 4 on the left are Anne Geddes Bears.

I also have two smaller bears but they disappeared when we put the Christmas stuff up,

maybe we will find them next year when we put the Christmas stuff back up.

365-46

 

My Anne Geddes Hedgehog baby

 365-47

 

A Loon

I got this in Minnesota when I visited a friend,

it makes the sound of a loon when you squeeze it.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some pictures other than snow

LOL

And I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my treasures

I hope to keep more caught up on my photo taking.

I like doing it daily better then putting them all in at once.

I need to get working on my weekly and monthly projects, too.

Debbie