Math in Focus

Well, after doing much researching on the internet, I decided to go with Math in Focus.  It's done by Houghton Mifflin but it is the Singapore Method. I really liked the look of the textbooks: very colorful, with lots of explanation and activities.  Each book has guided practice, practice, and tests.  Answers are in the back of the book.  I read that the teacher's manual isn't necessary.

The only catch is that it is quite expensive, but thanks to Ebay I got each book for around $10 to $15, which is great.  There are two textbooks per year and two workbooks per year, although I didn't see any workbooks for grades 6 and up.  There are extra practice books instead.  This curriculum is used in schools in the U.S. and it goes up to 8th grade.
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Another option I looked at was Primary Mathematics (Singapore Math) Standards edition.  The books have more practice and have a little more explanation than the U.S. edition.  It is slightly more expensive than the U.S. version but is less than Math in Focus.  However, it only goes to 6th grade, which is a disadvantage.

Bible Town Craft

My daughter loves to keep busy with projects and crafts.  When she saw this on pinterest, she told me she had to do it.  We probably won't make all the pieces or make them slowly.  Fun!

http://www.mylittlehouse.org/images/bible-paper-toys/bible-town

World War I and World War II lapbooks/notebooks

We finished studying about the industrial revolution.  We are studying about the progressive era now and are getting ready to study about world war 1 and 2.  I do like my children to write about what they learn instead of just reading to them. Lapbooks and notebooking are great for this.

Here were some websites that I found that have good lapbook/notebooking material.  I haven't printed out anything yet and I probably need to take some time to look through everything.  Since it was so hard to find these sites, I thought I would share the information with you.  The first website has a lot of resources as well.

Although we don't have a library here, you may be able to buy a few of the books on Kindle.

http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/history/americanhistory2/books_worldwar1.html

http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/free-pages/free-sonlight-world-history-pages/

This last page was intriguing.  The mom did a lapbook on the FBI during the 20th century.  I may not do the exact same thing, but I think I may copy off a few pages of it (i.e. the presidents, etc.)

http://www.dynamic2moms.com/fbi-american-history

I am learning that there are some moms out there with a lot of time.  I am thankful that they are so willing to share so that we don't have to put together things ourselves!  Check out their other ideas for lapbooks!

Christmas Ideas...Getting Kids Ready for It

I wanted to prepare my kids for Christmas and really have them meditate on the meaning of it.  I found this website:

http://www.biblestoryprintables.com/Pages/BibleCrafts/NamesofJesus.html

There is an advent activity to do with your kids every day for the month of December.  We started today.  Actually, we did not print out the Names of Jesus ornaments but rather we drew them and decorated themselves.  My kids like to be creative.  My son dislikes just coloring something.  He'd rather come up with things on his own.  :)  You can either hang these on your tree or my kids decided they wanted to string them along the wall.

We also are going to read through the following passages that deal with the coming and birth of Jesus.

Sun. Is. 40:1-5
Mon. Is. 52:7-10
Tue. Is. 40:9-11
Wed. Gen. 3:8-15
Thu. Gen. 15:1-6
Fri. Deut. 18:15-19
Sat. Ps. 89:1-4

Second Week

Sun. Is. 11:1-10
Mon. Zech. 6:12-13
Tue. Mic. 5:2-4
Wed. Mal. 3:1-6
Thu. John 1:1-8
Fri. John 1:9-18
Sat. Mark 1:1-3

Third Week

Sun. Luke 1:5-13
Mon. Luke 1:14-17
Tue. Luke 1:18-25
Wed. Luke 1:39-45
Thu. Luke 1:46-56
Fri. Luke 1:57-66
Sat. Luke 1:67-80

Fourth Week

Sun. Is. 7:10-14
Mon. Luke 1:26-35
Tue. Is. 9:2-7
Wed. Mt. 1:18-25
Thu. Luke 2:1-20
Fri. Mt. 2:1-2
Sat. Luke 2:21-35

Any traditions or crafts that you will do or have done with your kids that have been really meaningful?

Math...Upper Elementary School

I have been using Singapore Math for a while.  3rd grade was fine.  4th grade was a little challenging.  5th grade is getting more challenging.

I think challenge is good, but there is very little explanation for how to teach concepts.  I have the instructor's guide and there is still very little help in there.

I actually have liked Singpore Math so far.  I think it is very strong on challenging word problems.  Now that the concepts are harder, I find my son is struggling more.  We just started learning about the area of triangles. We just started with right triangles and the book quickly jumped to finding the area of other types of triangles with little explanation.

I find that my son quickly forgets concepts we learned earlier.  I would like to find something with more practice.

What has been your experience?  Melissa said she chose to do Teaching Textbooks.  What are you all using?  What has helped?

Inventors and the Industrial Age

We are studying the Industrial Age right now.  Many inventors made inventions during that time period that changed the way we do things.  It would be interesting to make a notebook of those inventors.

My son just read a book on Thomas Edison the other day.  Here is a page that gives you notebook pages for various inventors that I found helpful:

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/inventor_notebooking_pages.php

I find notebook pages are helpful because it makes writing more interesting instead of writing on plain paper and we can clip them together with other sheets or hang them up on the wall.

Apologia...How it's Going

Well, thought you would like to know how it's going using Apologia Science for this year.  My kids love it.  I asked them if they liked this science or Sonlight better and both said they liked this one better.  They still loved the science books for Sonlight (My son especially loves books with lots of facts and information.).  The problem as I said earlier was the curriculum that went with it which consisted of random fill in the blank questions for each couple of pages or several pages.  We still enjoyed the Discover and Do videos and the science experiments.  The main problem I had was that it didn't seem to all connect together.

I think Sonlight's philosophy is to give a smorgasbord of books and information, hoping that children will catch something in the process.  I did enjoy reading and discussing the books but it was short on review and activities.

At least for the Apologia Botany book, there is reading, activities/experiments for you to explore what you learned, and various minibooks to create to review the concepts you learned.  There is a lot of scientific vocabulary to learn but I think the kids like the challenge and I don't expect them to remember everything. I am learning a lot myself! We have been going outside a lot to study the plants, which has been fun.  There is a little repetition when they ask you to review the concepts (answer questions, crossword, minibooks) but the kids don't seem to mind this since there is variety.  You get to study one subject in detail instead of various subjects that don't relate like in Sonlight.

I am also adding some Sonlight D curriculum that relates to botany. We will try to do the TOPS corn, beans, and lentils experiment.

I don't know how the other books are in Apologia but unfortunately, I had already bought Sonlight science books for next year so we will use them and maybe try to add some lapbooks to review some concepts or focus on a few concepts in more detail.  Then, maybe the following year, we will try to do Apologia Anatomy.

I would recommend Apologia for third grade and up, but I heard people use it for their young ones as well.  They have junior Apologia notebooks as well for younger children. The notebooks are expensive but the kids really like them and it saves me time.

Civil War, Abraham Lincoln websites, etc.

We are about to wrap up our unit on Civil War.  It has been very interesting to study and I learned a lot myself!

I thought I would post some helpful websites:

I thought this was a very interesting interactive website on the Civil War.

http://www.history.com/interactives/civil-war-150

History.com has interesting information for studying anything in history.  You do need to look at it with your children as it is also for adults as well.

We read the photobiography of Abraham Lincoln which was very good and then I asked the children to write about Abraham Lincoln, his importance, etc.

We used this notebooking page.
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/abraham-lincoln-notebooking-page

The Children's Encyclopedia of American History by DK publishers has been very helpful in our Civil War study and honestly I preferred it over the Landmark American History book.  If you haven't gotten it, it is a great book with lots of color pictures and photographs on each page.  We'll probably use parts of it for our later studies on American history.



Anyone else had good ideas for studying the Civil War?

Getting Ready to Study About Civil War

Summer's almost over and school is here.

It’s been a while since I’ve written so I’d like to give some recommendations of things that have been helpful to my kids in our homeschooling.

Books

I’m always on the look-out for wholesome books.  We bought Katie Sue Goes West by Eleanor Clark recently for our Kindle and were pleasantly surprised. 

Katie Sue Goes West is very well written and is a story within a story about a girl who has to move west.  There are a lot of historical facts and background sprinkled throughout the story.  There are some bible verses as well but it is done in a very natural way that is not too preachy. My daughter really enjoyed this and I really enjoyed reading this book as well.  This would be a good book to read if you are studying about pioneers.  I would recommend it for ages 10 and under. 

I haven’t read the other books in this series but I know there is another book dealing with World War II.

William Wilberforce
We studied about slavery leading up to the Civil War.  One very influential person in the abolitionist cause was William Wilberforce.  We read the biography which was very good.  Then, we watched the "Amazing Grace" movie which was very well done.  I was surprised that my kids enjoyed it so much and wanted to watch it again.  There are a couple of intense moments but I recommend it highly.



Civil War
We are getting ready to study the Civil War, which I very much look forward to doing. Here are some lapbook resources I am using in addition to the Sonlight curriculum :

Websites for Lapbooks
http://dynamic2moms.webs.com/War Between the States page
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/civil_war_lapbook_templates.php

I also just bought this History Pockets since my kids like to make lapbooks and do activities.  There are also other History Pocket books for Ancient Civilizations, Revolutionary War, etc.



Anyone have any other ideas for studying the Civil War?

Summer Reading List

I am always on the lookout for quality books for my kids to read.  Now that it's summer they have even more time to read.  I thought I would post this question:  What good books have your kids read lately that you recommend?

I'll start off with some books that my kids read recently that they really liked (Most of these books are on Kindle but many I borrowed from Plano's ebook library) Most books here are 3rd grade level and up:

Zucchini by Barbara Dana
This book is about a ferret who runs away from the zoo.

Born to Trot by Marguerite Henry
This one is about a boy who has a horse that can run very fast.

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (Newberry Award)
This is about a gorilla who remained in captivity in a cage in a mall for years who later discovers he has some special gifts.

Neversink by Barry Wolverton
This book is an animal version of America's breakaway from England.  My son enjoyed reading about the details of this fantasy world in Antartica.

Crunch by Leslie Connor
A boy's parents get stuck because they don't have any gas to fill up their tanker.  He tries to take responsibility for parents' farm/bike shop.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again

Summer Ideas?

 Summer's here!  I'm proud of my kids for finishing their homeschooling well.  We finished last Thursday.  Now what?  We have to be creative when we are overseas and there are few activities for children here.  I plan to go and visit our local friends here more this month before Ramadan.  Besides that, I am trying to brainstorm ideas for what my kids could do:

• Swim. We got a metal frame pool from a friend who had to go back to the U.S.  The kids love it.  Our roof is too rough so we have put it in our shower room where it just fits.  It's a good thing we have two shower rooms.  It's big enough that our kids can swim back and forth a little.
• Do arts and crafts.  I bought some of Klutz books for the kids to do.  They love them.  In another post, I would like to post some good websites for art/craft projects.  Does anyone know of any good websites?
• Play piano.  I never got to teaching my kids piano during the school year.  I have been trying to teach them a little.  
• Summer reading.  Maybe we can start a book club!  If anyone knows of any good books, we can make a summer reading list.  Those available on Kindle are especially helpful.
• Teach the kids how to type.  I saw some websites for learning how to type which seem ok.  I may just decide to buy some software if that is not enough.
• Read through the Kurdish reading books.  I got these from the public school nearby but I never got around to having the kids read these.  I want the kids to keep up with the language.
• Maybe get kids together and play organized sports or do exercise together?

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Hope you all have a great summer!

Oregon Trail Lapbook

I have been supplementing my American history with lapbooks this year.  We are currently doing a great lapbook that is on the following website:  http://www.lapbooklessons.com/OregonTrailLapbook.html

It's been fun and they include links for information.  I recommend finding other websites as well for information and bookmarking them for the kids to put on the lapbooks instead of just letting them surf the internet for information.  Otherwise, this will be too time consuming.

Question about Teaching Science to Two Kids

Right now, I am in the middle of Sonlight Science D (Biology). We are a little behind because of our year in K public school last year.  We’ve enjoyed this science the most so far.  Now I’m trying to decide if I should finish it this summer and then start Sonlight science E (Electricity, Magnetism, and Astronomy) next school year.  The other option is to finish the second half of Sonlight D Biology next school year and do Apologia Botany or Zoology the second half of the year.

I looked at the Sonlight Science E books for next year and went into a bit of a shock!  Noah loves science and he loves a challenge but I am concerned that it would be too abstract/complex for Hannah.  I have been teaching my kids science together but now I wondering if I should teach them separately.  Do you have any advice for me?  How did your kids like the Science E Sonlight?  Should I teach Hannah something else?  I have a friend who has some Apologia science books that she is not using.  Has anyone had experience with Apologia and what do you think about it? The only thing is that I do not want to have to do separate experiments for both of my kids.  I wonder if I would be able to teach them well if I do completely different things.  Noah is in fourth grade right now and Hannah is in second grade right now.

Any advice would be great!  :)

Borrowing Ebooks

I am so excited that I found out that the Plano library in Texas is now doing ebook lending for Kindle!  My kids were so happy!  I think they are going to allow more books to be lent on Kindle.  Most books are available on Kindle.  Some are in epub format which you need to upload and convert so that you can read it on Kindle.  The website for that is epub2mobi.com.

I think they will have this available in more cities in the U.S.  This should happen in other countries as well.

Teaching Two or More Children

I thought I would post this question.  How do you teach two or more children?

I started homeschooling an hour or two hours a day when Noah was 4  and Hannah was 2 out of necessity.  We were living in a tiny apartment with my mother in law and we had to do something structured since we only sent Noah twice a week to a mother's day out preschool. I wasn't going to teach Hannah but then she wanted to learn and join in.  So, I got her her own easier workbooks so she could something similar to what Noah was doing.  

They seem to enjoy learning together so I continued on like this and eventually we went overseas.  

Now I teach Bible, science, and history with the kids together. We usually do those subjects first and then do independent work last.  Sometimes we switch for a change.  I teach the level between them for those subjects.  Then, I teach the other subjects spelling, math, grammar/writing, and reading separately according to their level.  I usually give one independent work and then teach the other a subject that needs teaching a new concept.

What do you all do with your children?  How do you teach multiple children?  How is your day structured?  Or has anyone had a better experience teaching their children on different levels for all subjects?

When the children get older, do you teach the children history and science separately?  I would like to hear people's experiences.  :) I think it's helpful to hear from those homeschooling for a while especially! 

 If anyone has any other questions to post, please feel free to do so since maybe you have a question that someone else has as well.  
  

Welcome!

Welcome!  I got this idea after seeing a lot of blogs on the internet.  There's so much information on the internet about homeschooling.  So, how is this different?  Well, I thought I would create this webpage specifically for the region we are in so that we homeschoolers could help each other.  We have our unique challenges being overseas with limited resources but what we do have is each other!

 I thought that wouldn't it be great if we could dialogue with all the homeschoolers in this region about ideas that have worked for them.  We are separated by distance but thank God for the internet.

So, what I would like to do is to invite people I know who are homeschooling to post ideas to this blog for others.  I would be very happy to invite others to this blog, so please email me at expressgrace@gmail.com if you would like to add someone to this blog.  Please look at all the tabs (organized by subject) and add any comments or ideas you have.  I have written down what things I am using for each subject.  What will make this blog successful is people posting often.  So, if you have any ideas or even any questions for people, please post or make comments on this blog.

So, I hope this idea would take off and that we could help each other to thrive in homeschooling!

May this blog be a blessing to people!