bad day gotcha down?

Reading this and knowing that she wrote a whole BOOK on homeschooling makes me feel like we are probably doing okay. :o)

grammar worksheets

For grammar, we use the text First Language Lessons, but occasionally it is nice to have a worksheet for a little extra review. Here are two good worksheet sources:

Worksheet Works

Scott Foresman Reading Teacher Resources

good intentions...

I keep WANTING to post to this blog. We are having school! It's going well. The first week back after the break was a bit rough, but not too bad. Two more weeks until the end of our 3rd term, which means we are half way through our year! Whoo hoo!

Last week I hosted a homeschooling moms support group. We had a really good turn out, and I think that the women found it useful and enjoyable. I am planning on meeting every other month.

I've also been doing some intensive clutter-reduction and such, which is what has taken most of my free time. So I don't know that I'll get the updates done for the past two weeks. We have been learning more about the Greek gods & goddesses, and I have to recommend this great book by Aliki. Nice pictures, good information. I learned (maybe relearned) a lot, and Noodle really enjoyed it as well. We also watched Jim Henson's The Storyteller about Greek Myths. That was fun, too.

We are wrapping up our Earth Science study (soon moving on to space) and I am trying to figure out some activities for us to do as earth-saving folks. I got a book that has a bunch of ideas for kids to do, and we already do a lot of them. But there is always room for improvement. I do know that I want to start a regular habit of taking a grocery bag with us when we go on walks or to parks so we can pick up litter. I hate seeing trash in beautiful places (or anywhere, really).

So yeah, there's the two minute update. Better than nothing!

good ideas!

Articles at Magical Childhood

I came across this page and skimmed a few articles. Some great ideas, both schooling related and some just general mothering/parenting stuff. For example, in the "article" Simple ways to make tonight special, it says "Go outside and teach your toddler (or older!) to howl at the moon," also, "Serve some chocolate milk or juice in fancy goblets and sit and talk for a few minutes at the table as you sip from them."

I don't know if you've ever heard of Sark, but I own a lot of her books. (You've probably seen her posters, titled such things as "How to Be An Artist" and such.) Anyways, I used to feel so creative and alive, and I loved her books and ideas on how to "live juicy". I feel like I totally suck at this now that I'm a mom. I don't want to feel like a stick in the mud. I want to feel ALIVE!! Every once in a while I capture it, and I have some sense of really living, but it's hard. I'm working steadily to get rid of STUFF. I feel like if I have less stuff to take care of, I can spend more time on what I want to do. It's a hard process for me, though. Baby steps, I suppose.

Anyways, one of my goals this year is to be more ALIVE and have more fun with the kids. I don't want to wait until I'm a grandma to be able to enjoy kids more. I want to do it more now.