It's "Back to School" time! Actually, we have been back to school for several weeks now, but I have quite frankly been way too busy to sit down and blog about it! But today thought I would grab a few minutes and at least post about a few things we are doing with our little one this year. Tune in later and we just may have a "Day in the life of a Homeschool Teen" for you to read about!
One of the things I had on my heart for this year is to increase our Bible memory. So after much prayer, thought, and searching of the internet I came across several things we are trying out this school year. So far, I'm pretty happy with our results--now to just keep them up! Above you will see a picture of one of my brainstorms--our "Vitamin B" jar. As you can see, it is simply a container (bought at the Dollar Tree last Valentine's Day!) that is filled with different scripture verses. I found some verses all made up on business card size on a web site, and also will type up some of my own verses (printed out on cardstock) to go along with things we are working on in our home. These verses are drawn one a day, at breakfast time. Just for fun I have Alison close her eyes--and I pick one as well. This is just a little "start your day with Bible" kind of thing. I do not necessarily make her memorize every single verse she ends up drawing. But we read it, talk about it, and then will post it in a chart to look at throughout that day. Some of these verses MAY be chosen to be worked on specifically as memory verses--but not all of them.
Here is our pocket chart, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE! It is useful for so many different things! I found the pocket chart itself at Target in the "Dollar Spot" (are you seeing a price theme here? I like things cheap!) and then I made the stand out of some PVC pieces we had leftover from an old puppet theater we had taken down. I like recycling as well--it feels like free, since you already paid for it before! I have since replaced these rings (found at Walmart) with really large ones from our local college bookstore--only .58 cents each! The picture of the pocket chart here shows several of our "Vitamin B's" up in the top pocket, then following is a little Bible verse puzzle, where the words to a verse are printed out on cardstock and then cut apart and mixed up. I store these in an envelope that has the verse written out in order on the front of it. I have four of these verses made up so far, and plan to make more.
The picture I should have taken to include here is our Bible memory box. Any verses that we are specifically working on memorizing are put into our Bible memory box. Some are written on 3x5 cards, some verses are just the smaller size "Vitamin B's", but if we are trying to remember them, they end up in this box. We also use this box at breakfast, with the first divider labeled "New" and we always review these verses. Then the next dividers are labeled for the days of the week, and once we have really learned a verse in the "New" spot, I move that verse into one of the week spots. Today was Tuesday, so we practiced all the verses under "New" plus the verses under the "Tuesday" spot. Later, when we have LOTS of verses memorized, we will spread some of them out behind labels for the days of the month--#1-31. But it will be a while before we are at that point!
This is a picture of our first "Mission Project" for the year. We have some friends who are missionaries in Africa, and they started up an elementary school last year. We found out last week that they would be flying out a mission plane to our town, and would be staying with us over the weekend! I asked Carol if there was any school materials we could help her with, that she could use for her school. She told me that what she had REALLY wanted to do while they were back this summer was to make some small bean bags for her to use in games in her classroom, and she just had not had time to make them. So I told her "we can do that!", and off we went. We had three days from the time we found out they were coming, to the time they needed to be done. She specifically did not want them stuffed yet, as they will fit a smaller space in her suitcase flying over there unstuffed. So here they are, in process, like little flags on my sewing machine.
Alison is too little to use my sewing machine, but she was the "Chief Turner"!
The finished stack! Twenty colorful 4"x4" bean bag "pillows" on their way to Africa! Actually, they may truthfully be called "Pebble bags" instead, because Carol told me she is not sure what she will stuff them with--she can get dried beans there, but because most of the people are so poor, she thinks it would not go over well to stuff the bags with something that is a food item, like beans or rice. She said the people over there just would not understand how someone could use food for something that wasn't eating! So they may be stuffed with small pebbles, or something else that she finds.
Carol, the mission teacher, and Steve the mission pilot, along with my wonderful teen-ager!
Here is our organizational tool--our school workboxes. I read about this idea on the internet, only they used clear plastic shoe boxes. I kind of liked the idea, but wanted something large enough to hold the large size workbooks and such that elementary kids are so often using. I also wanted something large enough to hold assorted other "stuff" for a class, like videos, tapes, crayon boxes, flashcards, math blocks, etc. Walking around Walmart looking for "something" but not quite knowing what that "something" would be, I stumbled across these little drawers. I liked the colors, most of all. I admit--plain white would not have been as attractive to me.The way the workboxes work, is the parent sets them up ahead of time, and all supplies needed for completing the assignment are in the box. Also, the numbers on the outside of the boxes tell the child what order to work in. This is a good way to really get a good look at what types of activities your child is doing--is it all reading? Then better spread some more active activities inbetween some of that reading. Also, it's nice to put some little fun project somewhere towards the end, as an incentive for finishing other not-so-fun work. It works all the better that the child can SEE what the fun thing is that they are working their way to. Obviously, this is not the most space-saving type of thing to use, and if I was doing it for four children I would definately be using something smaller. I have read about people recycling empty cereal boxes, and cutting them partway open like magazine holders are. Then you can fit more boxes on a regular bookshelf, and take up way less room than my system takes. But since I was only doing this for ONE child, it works for me. My older son is old enough he keeps all his books in his own room, and works independantly from there.
In the above picture, my daughter had already finished drawer one, and was currently working on math that was what drawer two held.
The outline of the little girl was my own idea--and I admit I think it was a good one! The cutout has velcro on the back of it, and all drawers have three velcro dots on the outside. When the boxes are all set up, they all have a number on them. Whatever drawer my daughter is currently working on, she will move her cutout to that drawer. That way I can tell at a glance where she is working at. When she finishes a drawer, she will pull the number off, toss it inside the drawer, and move her cutout on to the next drawer.
Ah, don't you just LOVE my wonderful "Mommy" figure? Don't I look slim and trim?? (He, he!) I put a "Mommy" on any drawer that I want her to come get me for. This will be if it is something I want to read to her, etc. The first drawer that shows empty in the main photo used to have her Bible in it and a "Mommy", as we started this school day with a Bible study on a paticular subject. Oh, and don't think that we do all filling out workbooks. I actually have very little textbook type materials that I use with her at this age. But these drawers are great for holding Scripture tapes, Your Story Hours, craft projects, books for reading, etc. And if you want to, the drawers can be taken out and carried over to the table. I like this system because it helps keep me organized in making sure she has a good variety of activities, and it helps teach her some independance as well.
That's about it for this little smattering of homeschool ideas! Hope you enjoyed this peek into our little "One House School Room"!
