Helpful Homeschooling Tools (a guest post by Clare E. Booth)

Homeschooling can be both wonderful as well as a challenge. You are working constantly to strike and maintain a careful balance between parent and teacher, while making every school day interesting and educational. What is most important is that you make sure you have the right tools to educate your children and help them be successful throughout their lives.

Zaner-Bloser is all about helping parents succeed when it comes to homeschooling their children. One subject that has lost classroom time in public schools today is handwriting practice. Many schools are opting to drop traditional handwriting instruction in lieu of teaching keyboarding and computer skills. While learning to type is important, many educators believe it is still important to teach classic handwriting. The motion of handwriting requires motor coordination of multiple joints in the hand, wrist, elbow, and shoulders in order to form letters and place them on the page. Beyond simple handwriting, motor coordination is an important skill for children to focus on in their formative years. Teaching handwriting, whether in public school or while homeschooling, is important and should remain part of everyone’s teaching plans. With Zaner-Bloser handwriting programs, students become more fluent at manuscript and cursive handwriting, providing them with ample activities to practice this skill.

Another subject that goes hand-in-hand with handwriting skills is spelling. For children this skill is hard to learn; and if that opportunity is missed, it can handicap their learning abilities for the rest of their lives. When a child needs to write out a word, it will help to reinforce the correct spelling, as well as the annunciation of a word. Solid spelling skills through the practice of spelling practice activities are critical to literacy success.

Zaner-Bloser is committed to helping you deliver quality education tools for your children, as well as see your child succeed in your homeschooling study. We want you to experience the Zaner-Bloser advantage. Enter the code "ZBFOP" at checkout to receive the premium version of ZB Fonts Online for only $14.99. This offer expires on 12/31/2013.

Harry Potter Party 2013!

We had our Harry Potter Party (YAY!). It was great, and I may need some time to recover. Here is our guest list and schedule...

We started friday night (as you can see), to split up the movies so that we wouldn't end up feeling so worn out afterwards.

In our house we do have everyone sorted into which ever Hogwarts house fits their personality (yes the cats too).




The menu was fun and mostly simple. In my last post there are 2 videos that show you how to make Cauldron cake pops, and chocolate frogs.

As far as the butter beer, I made up a recipe of my own...

I used two scoops of Ice cream, six cups of Cream soda, and three cups of Ginger ale. My only complaint was that it wasn't as carbonated as I would have liked, but I felt like I got the taste right.

Now are for the pretzel wands... I took the big pretzel sticks, and dipped them in melted chocolate (I took some chocolate chips, and melted them in the microwave), then rolled them in sprinkles and nerds candy. I set them on some wax paper, then put them in the freezer for about ten minutes. They were really good.

The cupcakes were not really anything special, I just put pointy ice cream cones on top of them, to make it look like they were wearing wizard hats...

The rice crispy treat were also nothing special, but they were of course really good.

The eggs, mac and cheese, and pizza were for meals, so that way we actually got some real food in us, and not just sweets.

Despite the fact that my kids can eat a lot of food, I still have left overs. I really liked the menu and enjoyed everything on it, so next year I don't think it will change much.

First Week of School, Congrats to Shelby, and School Pictures

Hey everyone! We are finished with our first week of school, and finally into the swing of things again.

This was how I did the white board on the first day of school (and actually to tell you the truth it still looks that way... oh well). The question of the day was "Who is your favorite fictional character of all time?" As you can see I also put on the board that they were not to answer it until the end of the day, because I really wanted them to think on it. Finally after much thought they all had an answer for me. Darien picked Severus Snape (from Harry Potter), Zachary picked Wreck-it Ralph (from the Disney movie Wreck-it Ralph), and Nathaniel picked Violet (from the Disney movie The Incredibles). Their assignment after that was to write a story about them, a new story. I'll let you guys know how that turned out.

I also mentioned in a previous post that we have new bedtime rules in regards to grades, and this is what I came up with...

The New Good Grades / Bad Grades Bedtime rules

You can now earn a later bedtime by getting good grades, but you can also be sent to bed early for bad grades. This will be counted weekly, so at the end of the week on Friday mom will grade all of your papers. Your grades will decide your bedtime for that upcoming week Monday - Friday (weekends you will always keep your 8pm bedtime).

- If you get all 100%

     *then you get to stay up until 9pm

- If your lowest grade is in the 90's

     *then you get to stay up until 8:30pm

- If your lowest grade is in the 80's

     *then your bedtime will stay the same at 8pm

- If you lowest grade is 79% or lower

     *then you are to go to bed at 7:30pm and take your notes with you

Keep up the good grades and you will be rewarded

- If you get 2 great weeks in a row (meaning 90% or higher on all or your test and quizzes), then you will be allowed to take your DS to bed with you.

I don't know about your kids, but mine love to stay up past bedtime, and now they can earn it. The Abeka curriculum is a tough one with studying, notes to take, and a lot of memorizing, but I want my kids to be challenged. With this rule in-place they want to study, and not just slide by.

Now if you guys are still wondering about those chickens well here they are

This is their new coop (you can see three of them in this picture). Yes they have gotten much bigger. The coop we got off of amazon, and it was actually a rabbit hutch, but it works as a coop as well. I love it, and it's super easy to clean. The roof opens up, and the upper floor slides out, so I can take it out and hose it down.

Something exciting happened this weekend...

MY LITTLE SISTER GOT MARRIED

Yeah wow!

I know, they make a really cute couple (picture by Jessica Ober). They had their wedding in my parents' back yard, and it was beautiful. I was able to be there via Skype. Yes I was carried around on a laptop, and it was awesome.   It almost felt like I was there. I'm really happy for them both, and I'm sure they will have a wonderful life together.

I got the kids school pictures done early this year. I really wanted to do something fun and different this year, since last year we did the whole sailor thing...

I wanted a way, not to top it, but to at the least be just as cool... cute... oh I'm not sure... I finally decided that I wanted to do hats and scarfs (you know since we live in the northwest and all), and to make it unique, they wore their Hogwarts' house hats, and I crocheted scarfs to match (because the scarfs were super expensive on amazon).

I took the pictures with my iPhone at Scenic Beach in Seabeck, WA. I love them! Okay so their not professional but their good enough for me, and they were cheaper this way. I got them printed at walgreens, and I had a coupon as well. I'm just really excited right now about all of the money I saved.

In other Harry Potter news, we are planning another Harry Potter party. It's going to be in October. We have one every year, it's where we watch the movies back to back (we have to start early), and eat yummy food, and just have a fun time and hang out as a family. This year I'm making...

Chocolate frogs

Cauldron cake pops

And that's just the desserts. I'm really excited and can't want, and yes I will tell you all about it. :)

Starting school again!

Hey everyone, I'm excited to announce that this is our first day of school! This will be my fourth year of homeschooling my wonderful children. Now I am a person who loves time off, and I really enjoy the days of summer, but I am so ready to start school again.

Last week was a week of fail, and not because anything bad happened to me, it was just because I have nothing to do, or well I should say that nothing was holding my interest. I was so happy at the beginning of last week, to have at least one week of freedom left. I told myself that I was going to enjoy it. I was going to do things that I found fun and relaxing like, read a few books, play the sims, and some warcraft, catch up on some laundry (I really don't enjoy that, but I did have time on my hands so whatever), watch some of my fav TV shows like Star Trek, Big Bang Theory, and Bones. You know... fun and relaxing. All of these sounded great until I started to do them. I just didn't want to. I would start to read, and get 15 mins into it, and get bored and give up. I would start to play the sims and on the sims start to build this exquisite house for mermaids, and then the game would freeze... ... yeah... (I didn't really have the patience to re-boot, and start all over again) So then off to laundry, but you can only do so much laundry before everything is clean including all of the sheets. Not to mention that during all of these activities I was getting interrupted by a three year old every 15 mins or so. I'm also sad to say that I just didn't enjoy watching Star Trek and Bones as much as I normally do. I know what you must be thinking "Oh poor Randi, she's bored and complaining about it. GET A LIFE." and you would so be right.

So yeah, that's why I'm happy that school is starting. Yes I know I'm crazy. It's just time for summer to be over (lets just face it) (and according to the northwest weather it was over two weeks ago), and it's time to start school. It's time to get the books out, and see our friends from co-op again (I'm really looking forward to that starting up again, yes says the person who was complaining about being bored).

I'm writing and posting this early, because it's going to be a big day. I always feel really tired after the first day of school (it usually takes me a week to get into the swing of things). This year I have a new rewards system in place for getting good grades, and the kids are super excited about it. I'll have to tell you guys about it in a later post. We have also moved the chickens outside in their coop, and I'll have more on that later as well. I need to get off of here and start my day.

Thanks for reading :)

Using Fanfiction to Engage Students (guest post by : Nikolas Baron)

I love to see students express their imagination through their words. I think that often, children of all ages have something they want to say but struggle with how to say it. Often, they have no idea how to begin, and as their educators, we're at as much of a loss as they are. It's easy to tell them to just sit down and write a story, but if they aren't natural writers, or even worse, they aren't natural readers, this is much easier said than done. In my work with Grammarly, I study how people write and the tools they use to become better writers, and I think encouraging students to write “fanfiction” can be a great way to spark a desire to write more and, possibly, read a bit more as well.

Simply put, “fanfiction” is an original story based on another work, usually a TV show or movie, though there are plenty of examples of fanfiction that are based on books and video games. Fanfiction has a long history in pop culture, dating back centuries, but it didn't quite take off until the 1960s, when many science-fiction magazines started publishing original stories by subscribers. Since then, the Internet has given fanfiction writers a limitless venue through which they can display their works.

The idea behind fanfiction is that you love these works so much, when they're over, you want the adventure to continue, and in order for that to happen, you're going to be the one to write it. You are literally writing an original story based within the universe of a work that you've read and enjoyed.

So, how does this concept translate into helping students learn to enjoy writing? Well, who wouldn't want to go to Hogwarts with Harry Potter? Or fight the empire alongside Luke Skywalker? With fanfiction, you can do this, and it can be fun. We gravitate toward these stories because we often identify with the characters and situations within them, and our students are no different. Encouraging them to write their own stories set within universes they love will hopefully build a desire within them to figure out why they love those stories and use those elements to tell their own stories. You can also encourage them to put themselves into the stories and see what happens. What happens when your student becomes an ensign in Starfleet or comes into the possession of the One Ring? Or both at the same time? Fanfiction is limitless, and because of this, students can be free to express themselves however they want.

Of course, it's important that you spend time reading over their work with them, so that you can help foster their writing abilities. You can support them, while guiding them to becoming better writers. And, hopefully, when they see how they can express themselves through their words, and how they have an audience that cares about what they have to say, they'll have that desire to become better writers.

When they finally find that desire, it will hopefully lead to further polishing their work. In doing so, they might want to fine-tune their grammar. After all, it's frustrating to have a great story hurt by technical mistakes. At Grammarly, we have one of the best grammar checks on the Internet. It will scan their text for over 250 grammar errors and help them learn how to fix them. When they're telling great stories, coupled with excellent grammar, their writing will be unstoppable.

By Nikolas Baron 

Mermaid Pants

My daughter Olivia had a green pair of pants that she never wore. There were a hand-me-down from our neighbor in Jackson Park. I always wondered what I could do with them, because we didn't have anything to match them because they were just a strange color.

 Yup that's them! I had a weird dream one night about wearing mermaid pants, I awoke thinking "I'm sure Olivia would love to wear mermaid pants," and that's where I got the idea to turn these green pants into mermaid pants

 I started off by measuring around the bottom of the pants. So yeah 7 inches. I decided that I wanted the first strips of fabric to start and stop about half an inch form the inseam (I was making this all up as I went, so bear with me).

I cut 4 strips of fabric measuring 12 inches by 3 inches.

Then I rounded the top corners,

and I sewed them together making them 2 strips.

Time for pinning!

I pinned an inch of fabric, then an inch of folded over fabric, to make a ruffled effect.

Then I sewed all the way around.

Next was triangles. Since the pants were 7 inches at the bottom, I measured 8 inched of fabric for the bottom of the triangle.

I marked the beginning, the end, and half way.

From the half way mark, I measured up 6 inches, and from there drew a line from that mark to both of the ends, this make up the other sides of the triangle.

I maked 4 triangles

then sewed them together to make 2 (yes this does look like a bikini top).

Next I pinned and sewed them onto the bottom of the pants, under the previous strip of fabric.

All done! I would have taken more photos of after, but she run off after that. :)

Great Wolf / Spartan weekend

This was our second visit to the Great Wolf Lodge, and I enjoyed myself more this time. Here is the post about last year's visit.

We left Friday the second. The drive is about an hour and a half.

Now just a warning to everyone, this place can get expensive, so to help save some money try to eat in-town and not at the places in the hotel, because they are very over priced. The first night for dinner we had domino's. They were about ten minutes down the road, and a lot cheaper than the pizza place in the hotel.

We stayed in the Kid cabin room again

The water park is great and has a lot to do in a small space. We let the older two go off together while Jeremy and I switched off on watching the younger two, so we both were able to go on the water slides.

We arrived at 2:30pm, and immediately went to the water park, and stayed there until about 6pm, that was when we were all feeling cold and hungry. After dinner we did an hour of Magic quest and we played in the arcade. Yes the kids love this place, and Zachary said that he would love to live there.

Saturday was the Spartan Race. We drove another hour and a half to get to Washougal, WA. Jeremy's race was at 8:30am and the boys' race wasn't until 12:05pm, but hanging out there all day wasn't that bad.

This is Jeremy's after picture. I regret not getting a before pictures because this outfit use to be completely white.

This is the boys' before picture.

The boys are waiting to start.

...during...

...

...

This is after. They actually don't look to bad until you notice the feet. :)

Even though I didn't race I still felt pretty dirty by the end of the day. It was really dusty there, and even my shoes looked awful and smelled unwearable. :P

When got back to the lodge around 3:30pm and once again went to the water park. That night we hang out in the arcade for quite a long time, and the next day we played magic quest for a few hours before leaving.

I meant to take more pictures, but I just forgot... oh well. :)

After years of being stubborn...

I finally got a smart phone. Okay I guess it seems silly, but I've always insisted on just sticking with my flip phone.

I had it on the t-mobile pay-as-you-go plan. I would pay $50 for 400 minutes and that would last me 3 months or more (yeah I'm not kidding). My husband (who already has an iPhone) had been trying for years to get me to conform, but I am just too fugal. Last week though, my husband's service provider sent him an ad saying he could add a line for just $10 more a month. Well if you put it that way, it would actually be cheaper to switch.

I really didn't want to though... and told him I really wanted to keep my number, so everyone could still reach me... but Jeremy got them to transfer the number too. So yeah here I am, against my will, being forced to use this...

Okay no it's not as bad as I make it sound, and I actually like it, but don't tell Jeremy. ;)

New working animals

We got chickens!

A few of my friends have gotten chickens over the past few months, and even though I don't like to be a copy cat, I do like saving money, and I have always liked the idea of having them, and I guess I finally live in a place (besides home on the the eastern shore of Maryland) that allows such animals.

Meet Yolkie, Omelet

Sunny, and Scrambles

(sorry the picture is pink?) (and yes we can tell them apart)

We got them from farmland pets in Silverdale. The staff was really helpful and set us up with everything we needed, and it was less expensive than buying a hamster. We ordered a chicken coop on Amazon (that was about $200), and now I am really excited. Soon I won't have to buy eggs ever again.

The kids love these little guys and can't get enough of them (I'm glad we have 4). We keep them in a box under a heat lamp, in Darien's room (away from the cats). They will stay there for about 8 weeks, and then they should be ready to go outside.

I'll keep you updated as they get older, and when the coop comes in, I'll post a picture.

11 years and counting

What do I say to the man who is my best friend?
To the man who I share all of my secrets with?
To the man who makes me feel beautiful and important?
What do I say to the man who gave me my 4 beautiful children?
To the man that makes my life complete?
To the man who brought me along on this incredible journey?
What do I say to the man who makes me feel unique?
To the man who shares my love for Star Trek and video games?
To the man who understands me like no other?


I guess the only thing I can say is that I love him with all of my heart, and that I am proud of him, and that I am thankful for every second that we have spent together. I can tell him that no one else could make me happier, and that if I had to I would marry him all over again.

I love you Jeremy!
Happy 11 year anniversary