Outside The Home {TOS Back to School Blog Hop}

Today we are blogging about what kinds of things homeschoolers do outside the home...  We do a lot!  I think it is a blessing for us to have the flexibility to go and do things while other kids are in school.  For us, we really LOVE a good field trip!  I think field trips are a fantastic way to bring learning alive!  We have enjoyed a variety of lessons through the zoo, museums, and more plus we having amazing neighbors that take the time to teach my girls things that I couldn't not teach.   I'm excited to share our Top 10 favorite ways to find learning opportunities outside of the home!

#1.  Swimming Lessons We have been taking swimming lessons at Diventures for 3 years now.  We usually only schedule swimming lessons for about one semester each school year.  Since we have to drive about 35 minutes one way, we get a little tired of all  the traveling, but we have found it to be worth it.   We count it as PE credit.  
#2.   Piano Lessons We have a next door neighbor who teaches piano!  It is wonderful to be able to send my kids next door on a bike or on foot to piano lessons.  I required 2 years of music and promised that, if they hated it, they could quit after the second year.  Well, this is their 3rd school year learning piano and I am so glad that they are enjoying it enough to continue.   
#3.  Handicrafts I outsource this kind of stuff all the time!  Kayley really wanted to learn how to sew and we were excited that a different neighbor offered to help Kayley learn how to make some Christmas gifts for her family!  She goes every other week to work on sewing projects for about 1.5 hours.  Maggie is also making Christmas gifts by completing some no-sew projects with Gramma.  We have enjoyed learning crochet with Aunt Becky in the past and plastic canvas boxes with an elderly sister from church... There are so many older sisters from church who would love to help the girls with projects.  
#4.  Zoo The zoo is such a great place to learn about animals.  (Of course!)  Animals are science...and science is cool!  Our zoo, The Dickerson Park Zoo, offers a homeschool class each semester called Zoo Keepers.  In Zoo Keepers the kids learn how a real zoo keeper works each day.  They clean out the enclosures, they brush the animals in the petting zoo, they prepare food, and make "enrichment materials" for the animals to play with.  The zoo also offers other classes during the year, but unfortunately, they fall on a Sunday and we have chosen not to attend.
#5.  Children's Museum Our local children's museum is called The Discovery Center.  They offer amazing classes each summer!  Everything from Nano Technology to Chemistry to Anatomy.  The classes are a little steep, price-wise, but they have a lot of take-home science projects and it can be logged for several hours of science.  Our museum also offers parent/child dissection labs about 4 times a year.  How cool is that?
#6.   Inflight Entertainment While traveling to and from many of these fun places, we enjoy squeezing in a little learning time by listening to audio books or having the girls watch the Inflight Entertainment.  We have a DVD system installed into our mini-van, which can be really handy for longer car trips!  Many times I do not offer choices for movies...sometimes you just have to tune-in to what is playing.  For instance, today we headed down to Branson...it is about a 1.5 hour drive and today's inflight entertainment will consist of  Getting to Know the World Greatest Artists: Rembrandt, NEST Entertainment's version of Pocahontas, and Torchlighter: The William Tyndale Story.  Art, History, and Church History!  Each compliments Week 3 of BiblioPlan Year 3.  Inflight Entertainment can also includes audio books and radio dramas.
#7.  Backyard Nature Study Sometimes getting out of the house is as simple as getting out into the yard.  We just got our Nature Journals from The Good & The Beautiful and can't wait to get started with them.  There is SO much to see and do and it is all right outside our door.
#8.  The Bucket List Many of the items on our bucket list are educational.  For example, Crater of Diamonds (geology), Fantastic Caverns (geology), The Magic House (science), Butterfly Palace (biology & botany), Crystal Bridges Art Museum (fine arts), Civil War Cave (history/science), and State Parks/National Parks.  National Parks are great because they offer the Junior Ranger Programs!
#9.  The Nature Center Our local nature center offers the Conservation Kids Club.  They hold classes a couple of times each quarter about various topics.  This month is Insect-O-Rama.  We will learn about bugs and even get a chance to "eat a worm."
#10.  The Library What more can be said about your local library?  Books, videos, games, and many other resources are found at your local library.  
And that is our Top 10 List of where we find learning outside of the home!
Thank you so much for Swinging By!
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Our Top Ten Favorite School Supplies {TOS Back to School Blog Hop}

Today we are blogging about school supplies!  I love back-to-school time when all the school supplies are cheap and in abundance.  I thought that I would share my top 10 favorite school supplies that I use all year round.  I only have a few things that I consider "must haves" but I am happy to share each one with you!  I'm sure my Type A personality is flashing with blinking lights during this post.  Haha!  Enjoy my list of Favorite "Must Have" School Supplies!

#1.  D-ring binders

Nope!  Not just any old binder will do in this house.  They absolutely must be D-ring.  They keep your pages neat and tidy and the pages turn so easily in a D-ring.  They also must have a clear plastic sleeve in the front so that I can insert a binder cover.  I require D-ring binders in various widths and colors...because I color coordinate whenever possible.  It's all about organization and looking pretty.

#2.  Bic Xtra Strong, Break-resistant lead pencils

The 0.9 mm lead is what makes this pencil so awesome.  I have 2 girls who push HARD on their papers when they are writing and we often end up with broken lead.  (And I'm always afraid that the little lead piece is going to poke someones eye out!)  Tracking down a pencil sharpener is frustrating too and they only sharpen so-so, soooo clickable pencils are great!  Plus these particular pencils erase cleanly!  We buy these pencils in bulk!

#3.  Time-Timer

We received this as a review product over 5 years ago and we STILL use it nearly every day in our homeschool!  Time-Timer has come a long way since then and is now available in more sizes and even in "fashion colors!"  It is pricey, but I cannot believe how much we have used this awesome little timer!  It is quiet so it works so perfectly for reading time and math timed worksheets and so forth.

#4.   Reading Window

(I suppose this is technically not a "school supply")  I know, most people have a reading basket or bin but we have taken advantage of this window that looks out onto our screened in porch.  This year it is decorated as Hogwarts library!  I put library books on display in the window that I hope the girls will pick up and read out of interest.  I have found that having living books on "display" makes it more likely that one will catch their eye!

#5.  Double-sided Tape

I can't believe I didn't start using double sided tape sooner.  It works great for nearly everything that kids would normally glue...only there is no goopy, sticky, white, slimy mess!  We have used our double sided tape from everything to sticking little paper thingys on worksheets to assembling entire lap books.  Loooooove double-sided tape!

#6.  White Board

Why, yes, I do have a big white board hanging in my kitchen!  Doesn't everyone?  LOL!  We use this board for everything.  Diagramming sentences?  Spelling practice?  To-do Lists?  Menu planning?  Yep, pretty much everything.

#7.  Student Planner

Our favorite is the God's Word in Time Student planner.  I got mine from Christian Book Distribution.   They are inexpensive and sturdy.  I do end up writing things in duplicate because I write one for each girl every week, but they really seem to encourage independence.  A plus: they file away neatly with each child's schoolwork giving a record of our accomplishments for the year and checking the box needed for our state's homeschool requirements.

#8.  Colored & White Index Cards

We use these for everything.  Spelling lists, flash cards, spines in a 3 ring binder, little stand ups for reminders on the table...  We like the color index cards because, well, YOU know!

#9.  Headphones

For math videos, for piano, for audio books...  Ahhhh...  blessed peace and quiet.

#10.  A good printer and printer paper

I print a lot.  And I mean, a lot a lot!  I love PDF downloadable curriculum that allows me to print something, throw it in a binder or have it spiral or comb bound.  Then I can change my mind and re-print, print more copies, or scratch the whole thing and start over if needed.  I always feel that I have to keep hard copies neat and clean, but with PDF downloads I can write all over them, file them away...and print them again later!

I look forward to seeing what the favorite school supplies of my fellow crew mates might be!  I will enjoy hopping through all the blogs to find out!  Thank you so much for swinging by at Swinging On Small Hinges!

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Our Favorite Curriculum {TOS Back to School Blog Hop}

Hello!  Welcome to Swinging On Small Hinges!  

If you are visiting for the first time from The Old Schoolhouse blog I am so grateful that you took the time to swing by Swinging On Small Hinges.  I hope you enjoy your visit!

When I first started homeschooling I was SO nervous that I immediately jumped into an all-in-one video based curriculum.  I was so scared that I would mess up.  While we still have fond memories of that first year of homeschooling kindergarten I have since, over the last 7 years of homeschooling, loosened up a bit and have felt confident enough to branch out and try many new things.   And when I say many...I mean many.  Flexibility is one of the blessings of homeschooling!  Thank goodness for that because we have already made a couple of changes this year!

Some of my readers know that I posted our curriculum choices for our 2017-2018 Hogwart's Themed school year not too long ago but, believe it or not, we have already made a couple of changes.  (I bet you do believe it!)  The problem we ran into within the first week was that I once again have tried to do too much...  Does this happen to you too?  We barely started and I realized that our lives are just too busy to try to do the amount of work I had scheduled in a week.  Oops.  Somehow it didn't cross my mind that with piano, swimming & sewing lessons, doctor appointments, and a lot of service through our church...we would not be able to do that without stress and frustration.  I guess Mom is just a little too ambitious...  I streamlined almost immediately and had to put aside my pre-done, home made schedules in favor of a week-by-week schedule.  It just works better for our family...

Either way, without further ado, this blog post marks an "update" to our curriculum choices for 2017-2018.  I would love to share what has been working great so far...and what we have tweaked (or completely changed) this school year.

History!

Click Here to share BiblioPlan! Thank You!
BiblioPlan History remains a favorite.  We have been using BiblioPlan in our family integrated history studies for 6 years now.  We love the flexibility, the readers, Remember the Days, the Maps, the Timeline...pretty much everything about it, but especially the flexibility!  BiblioPlan's family guide makes planning history so easy for all grades.  We love having both girls in the same time period at their own level and we appreciate that you can substitute books and it does not affect the schedule or literature.  I use it as a guideline and I flesh it out as I see fit each year.  This year we are studying Early Modern History, BiblioPlan Year 3.

Science! We were all set to pounce on Guest Hollow for the first time this year with Kayley enjoying Knowledge of Nature and Maggie enjoying Little Otter's Anatomy.  Unfortunately that has pretty much fallen apart due to the sheer volume of living books we were trying to read for both history and science.  We were forced to streamline this almost immediately.  This is totally my fault...self-professed overachiever here!   What we are doing instead to streamline science: Kayley is still using Apologia's Exploring Creation with Chemistry & Physics Text and Notebook for her own personal study as scheduled in Guest Hollow (without the extra worksheets)...but she is also tagging along with Maggie in something we are trying that is NEW! Maggie is using The Good & The Beautiful Arthropods Science Unit by Jenny Phillips (Kayley is tagging along because she just loves science)  If you haven't explored The Good & The Beautiful curriculum yet, I highly recommend it!  It accounts for the other changes we have made this school year.... (I wish I had found this earlier!)

Language Arts! We were WAY too ambitious as far as Language Arts goes and within the 1st week I was already regretting my attempts at creating "rigor" in my homeschool....again...(Did I mention I am an over achiever?  I'm sooooo sorry girls).  Anyway.  I convinced everyone to scrap our over-kill Language Arts plans and try The Good & The Beautiful for Language Arts.   Oh. My. Goodness.  It IS both good AND beautiful.  Not kidding.  It is advanced without being painfully rigorous.  What is amazing is that levels 1-5 are FREE.  Go, check it out!   (You won't be sorry.) Now, not only is it both good and beautiful but it really takes all of our different language arts books and complies it into one (or two) neat and tidy lessons!  Reading, Grammar, Spelling, Geography and Fine Arts are all rolled into The Good & The Beautiful.  It has really eliminated some stress for me and the girls. Maggie is in LOVE with The Good & The Beautiful.  She placed into Level 1. Kayley is still unsure about The Good & The Beautiful but wants to try "another week or two" before she makes a decision on what she thinks of it.  She placed into Level 5.   Both girls are also using the handwriting portion of the program too... Mom (me!) really likes The Good & The Beautiful.   (I think I will write a review about it one day soon).

Math! We are still loving Math-U-See!  Kayley has used MUS since the beginning.  She thrives under the mastery approach and really enjoys the videos with Mr. Demme.   Maggie started with MUS as well, completing Primer, Alpha and 1/2 of Beta, but just hasn't flourished with it as well as I was hoping...so this year we are taking a break from MUS and using Christian Light Education Math 2 and so far (2 weeks in) it is wonderful!  Maggie seems to respond well to the flashcards, math drills and other tasks as assigned in the light unit.  My hope is that the more "spiral" approach to math will resonate with her and help her build confidence in math!

Foreign Language! If you remember, we had big plans to do Prima Latina (Kayley) and Salsa Spanish (Maggie) and we haven't managed to get either of those programs going yet...  But, we are just our first month into this school year so there is still hope!  Right?  Riiiiiiight....  ;) That's about it for our curriculum this year.  I wonder what everyone else is using?  I can't wait to read through all the Blog Hop link ups to find out!!!  


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