I thought I would share how our day looks at North Laurel Home & School. I won’t say that this is a typical day but I thought it would be fun to share anyway 
I wake up at 6:30 am each weekday morning (even Saturday!) and today was no different. Normally I make a pot of coffee first thing in the morning (right after feeding the cat and letting her loose from her ‘dungeon’) but there was leftover from yesterday. Day old coffee…? Doesn’t generally bother me
“Putting the story back into History”
“…the primary goal of Heritage History is not to reiterate a set of stories that "all students should know", but rather to engage students' genuine interest and instill a life-long passion for history.”
Hey, guys! Lee here! Haven’t posted in awhile, sorry! Anyways…
Mom got a book for review, and I snatched it up before she got to read any of it. I just got done reading it and Mom demands I do a review for her. Sheesh… Well, actually, I don’t mind too much, hehe. 
Ok, here goes…
Wonderland Creek, by Lynn Austin
Published by Bethany House
Paperback, 400 pages
ISBN: 978-0-7642-0498-2
Retail: $14.99 (can be purchased at the publisher’s website)
“I was perfectly content with my life--that is, until the pages of my story were ripped out before I had a chance to live happily ever after.
Alice Grace Ripley lives in a dream world, her nose stuck in a book. But the happily-ever-after life she's planned on suddenly falls apart when her boyfriend breaks up with her, accusing her of living in a world of fiction instead of the real one. To top it off, Alice loses her beloved library job because of cutbacks due to the Great Depression.
Longing to run from small-town gossip, Alice flees to the mountains of eastern Kentucky to deliver five boxes of donated books to the tiny coal-mining town of Acorn, a place with no running water, no electricity, and where the librarians ride ornery horses up steep mountain passes to deliver books. When Alice is forced to stay in Acorn far longer than she planned, she discovers that real-life adventure, mystery--and especially romance--may be far better than her humble dreams could have imagined.” (description from Bethany House)
I enjoyed this book a lot! Like the description says, it has adventure, mystery, and a little romance. There are hardly any slow parts in the book, and the plot makes you want to keep reading it and figure out the mystery! The characters are well-developed, and many you grow to admire and like. My favorite character is probably Miss Lillie, a 100-year-old Negro woman who’s mind is still very sharp.
There are some mature topics in the book, such as: death, murder, and depression.
***Disclaimer: This book was received from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for an honest review. See my Disclosure/Policies.***
In my life this week…
…absolutely nothing… really. I mean beside the usual every day –nothing much.
In our homeschool this week…
…we finished week 13. Friday was a very light day- so light it felt like we were slacking 
Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
…*cricket chirp*…sorry, I’ve got nothing.
I am inspired by…
…actually I feeling rather ‘un’inspired lately. Not that there is anything wrong there just is no passion about anything lately.
I’ve shared on my blog before what we do for planning but I get to share again as part of the TOS Blog Cruise.
The first year we homeschooled, we used Alpha Omega Publications LIFEPACS (AOP). The schedule for those was in each teacher’s manual. Pretty much it was set up the same as a traditional school. Also we did the same things every day. The planning that year was super simple.
The second year we switched to Ambleside Online (AO) and wow, that required much more planning on my part. I failed miserably at first (over planning, under planning, forget the planning!) but as we went on, I got the hang of it a little better.
This is our third year and thus far we have planned it well 
Towards the end of the second year I was given a chance to ‘test’ the TOS Homeschool Planner(not quite review but I checked to make sure all links worked, fields could be filled in, things worked as they were supposed to). That was the start of my planning..plan. The planner put out by The Old Schoolhouse is excellent, superb, amazing! The only problem was that I didn’t always have ink to print off the sheets when I needed. I chose to purchase a printed planner from The Well Planned Day.
You can see my ‘review’ of The Well Planned Day planner here. I’d not actually used it when I wrote that post. Here is another one that details more how I thought the planning would go from then on out.
I actually have a few subjects planned for the entire year. I don’t exactly recommend that but I have some things that I insist get done…if all else falls by the wayside, I really want these to be done. We also have a block schedule (I think that is what it’s called). We don’t do the same things every day (well, some are done every day, such as Bible reading, memory verses, math and writing).
Because we use AO the ‘lesson plans’ are somewhat done for us on the website. Of course we are free to modify it to fit our family and needs. At the end of each week, I write up the next week’s lesson plans based on what I want to have accomplished and what was accomplished. So if we are behind in one subject (as opposed to what I had planned- with all good intentions, you know lol), then I can adjust the plans.
It used to stress me out (the end of the first year and into the second) when we were not on schedule. Finally I realized that I have to make exceptions at times. A topic may be particularly difficult for one of the kids and require more time. I have to allow for that. Or (as it has happened this year) we have to make an unplanned trip or take time off of school; I have to be flexible.
Here’s a snapshot of the planners we use and somewhat what they look like each week (taken from this post):
So what do you do for lesson planning? Is it contained in the curriculum you use or do you have to get creative?
This post contains an affiliate link for the TOS Store. Any purchase you make through that link may result in my receiving monetary compensation from the TOS Store. You are not charged any extra for this monetary compensation to me. It may benefit you as well by you finding something very useful for your homeschooling 
I thank you in advance for any purchase you make through the link(s). If you prefer to shop through a non affiliate link (sniffle) then you can follow this link instead.
Come on over and have a look at what budgeting looks like for homeschooling (or what it doesn’t look like 
)
Today Fox and I spent almost 2 hours on math. On 12 problems. Am I the only one (besides obviously Fox 
) who thinks that’s just wrong?? But what troubles me more than the length of time it took is that even at the end, Fox still did not understand the concepts. I’m seriously doing some rethinking for math! Lee is using Life of Fred Beginning Algebra and although there are sticky times, she is doing quite well. Fox finished Life of Fred PreAlgebra 2 with Economics but I am really thinking he did not retain what he learned.
What am I doing wrong!?
Here are the day’s doings:
Lee:
Bible: Reading (Acts 11); Verse (Colossians 3:1-2); Mark Commentary
Math: Life of Fred Beginning Algebra (Lessons 81)
History/Geography: A Man for All Seasons; Heritage History Classical Curriculum (reading Margaret Anjou)
Language Arts: Excellence in Literature (read The Ransom of Red Chief); Westward Ho!; How to Read a Book (we finally finished part 1 chapter 1)
Foreign Language: First Form Latin (grammar); Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek (Level 4)
Gov’t/Economics/Civics/Logic: Utopia
Science: Biology (chapter 6 vocab, review)
Composer Study/Hymn: Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
Fox:
Bible: Reading (Luke 9); Verse (Proverbs 6:16-21)
Math: Algebra the Easy Way (pages 56-57, assigned problems plus 2 from yesterday)
History/Geography: Heritage History Classical Curriculum (reading Cyrus the Great)
Language Arts: 30 minutes reading (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow); Hobbit (rest of chapter 13)
Foreign Language: First Form Latin (grammar)
Gov’t/Economics/Civics/Logic: Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? (rest of chapter 13); The Fallacy Detective (Lesson 3- opposing viewpoints)
Science: Murche’s (Lesson 25, vocab)
Composer Study/Hymn: Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
We received Artistic Pursuits in the mail today for review. Exciting! It will be for Lee. We will start it Monday And it is non-consumable which means it can be used later for Fox. Wonderful! I love being a part of the TOS Crew!
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We love our new house. Love it… one of the things we like so much is the classroom. It is so nice to have a room to put our school supplies and books when they aren’t being used.
Welcome to our new classroom:
Of course we still use the kitchen, dining room and living room for school. Sometimes the school desks aren’t comfortable. But at the end of the day, there is a nice place to put it all… and there are times when we do school in the classroom 
Thanks for visiting our classroom!
Aah…back to the composers. This week we are studying Handel. I found it interesting that his name is Georg Friedrich Handel in German and George Frideric Handel in English. They are basically the same but he had it changed for his naturalization papers. Just an interesting tidbit 
We enjoyed listening to Hallelujah (or really it is titled Messiah). Reading, it said that this is the piece that most often comes to mind when thinking of Handel. I, for one (and I know my kids fit in this category as well lol), had no idea who Handel was or the piece we listened to was not titled Hallelujah. But that is what ‘study’ is for; to learn.
Since a piece is not suggested for Water Music, we had to look for it. I personally was not looking forward to listening to an hour of this…but we did find a short, ten minute bit of it. Here is the youtube video:
Or here is one I just found that is only 3:26, by the four talented ladies of Vanilla Mood (who I’d never heard of):
Basically, as you might have guessed from our previous composer study link ups, we are using A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers from Bright Ideas Press (can be purchased from Timberdoodle). We don’t venture much past what is in the book…although we might 
I did wonder what a timpani is and looked it up. When we were listening to Music for the Royal Fireworks, we intently focused just so we could hear the ‘ba-bum’ of the drums! I could hear them before I realized what they were. Lee, of course, could hear the trumpets the best. She loves the trumpet
Here is a video of Music for the Royal Fireworks:
Have a look at the others on the same page.
I have to mention Fox’s coloring, uh, creation during this study. Lately, he and Lee have created Pokemon-like creatures…and he seems to be obsessed with them. While listening and answering questions about Handel, he drew creatures on his coloring page. I asked him to stop unless he could make them more fitting to the subject at hand. Of course…he did. They became instrument playing, singing creatures… lol. It made for an interesting picture
Have you done some composer study this week? Link up with us at …a teaching heart…
Our week off of school zoomed past! Here we are heading into the end of week #13 and I haven’t updated what we’ve done… eh, time flies! I fully intended to do it Monday and the other days.
We have done quite well. Some books were finished and we have started onto new ones. Some subjects we are a wee bit behind on, but we aren’t stressing (yet). I had to quickly fill in the kids’ schedules on Monday morning. I at least got that day done before they started school. I wrote up the rest throughout the day.
And you know what? We did nothing on our week off of school. Sigh. It was sad but at the same time it was still nice to not have school 
Although…I really like when they have school to do 
heehee. I worked on my school paper but it stressed me out terribly. I like their school better…Ah, and I read a good book.
I did a short post on our hymn for the month. You can read that here. Also, tomorrow you can see my composer study post. Link up if you would like Oh! and if you want to check out the review I did for Excellence in Literature, that is here. It is a great program. I am thinking we may continue with it next year. You may see a few items that aren’t usual to the schedule (lol if you pay that close attention to what they/we do 
): MIRL and Heritage History Classical Curriculum. These two items are being reviewed. You will see my post for MIRL (from Math Mammoth) around 11/11-11/18 and Heritage History should go live the end of next week. I’ve been fortunate to have HHCC for almost two months now. Watch for my review.
Enough chatter Here’s what’s been done:
Lee:
Bible: Reading (Deuteronomy 9 & 10, Acts 10); Verse (Colossians 3:1-2); Mere Christianity; Mark Commentary
Math: Life of Fred Beginning Algebra (Lessons 78-80); MIRL (Make It Real Learning) worksheets (one each day)
History/Geography: Western Civilization (pages 330-337; writing on education during the Renaissance); A Man for All Seasons; Heritage History Classical Curriculum (reading Margaret Anjou); Ohio Study (How to Draw Ohio’s Sights and Symbols and online research)
Language Arts: Excellence in Literature (read The Purloined Letter, wrote literature summary); History of English Literature (chapter 41); Everyman; NaNoWriMo; 30 minutes reading from “the list” [she rarely gets to this in a day]
Foreign Language: First Form Latin (Lesson 21 worksheets 4 & 5, quiz); Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek (started Level 4 again)
Gov’t/Economics/Civics/Logic: Whatever Happened to Justice? (chapter 25); Utopia
Science: Biology (pages 110-11 vocab, Lab #6 [enzymes])
Composer Study/Hymn: A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers (Handel [post tomorrow]); Dear Lord and Father of Mankind (each morning we listen and try to sing along)
Fox:
Bible: Reading (Numbers 34 & 35, Luke 8); Verse (Proverbs 6:16-21); Saints & Heroes (Hus)
Math: Algebra the Easy Way (pages 42-56, assigned problems [we had to stop short today- was taking too long and we were getting stressed]); MIRL (Make It Real Learning) worksheets (one each day)
History/Geography: Heritage History Classical Curriculum (reading Cyrus the Great); Ohio Study (How to Draw Ohio’s Sights and Symbols); Around the World in 180 Days (Asia, report on Dholes)
Language Arts: 30 minutes reading each day (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow); Hobbit (chapter 13); Carl Sandburg (we did some research); The Age of Fable (finished chapter 33)
Foreign Language: First Form Latin (Lesson 21, worksheets 4 & 5, quiz)
Gov’t/Economics/Civics/Logic: Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? (chapter 13); Young Marines
Science: The Sciences (Physics), Murche’s (Lesson 24, vocab); The Storybook of Science (chapter 21)
Composer Study/Hymn: A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers (Handel [post tomorrow]); Dear Lord and Father of Mankind (each morning we listen and try to sing along)
**GASP!**
And I just realized, NaNoWriMo starts in less than a week!!
Get ready all you NaNoWriMos!!
Title: Introduction to Literature English I
By: Janice Campbell, Everyday Education, Excellence in Literature
Cost: $29.00 + 4.95 shipping for print, $27.00 for ebook download
Grades: 8-12
One of the greatest aspects of being a part of the TOS Homeschool Review Crew is that the products we receive are often right on for our family. This is one of those great products that clicks well for us.
We read a lot of the ‘classics’ in our homeschool but generally analyzing and writing about them haven’t been done. In college I did take a couple of literature classes but I still do not feel confident enough to rely on my own experiences to help my children when it comes to this in our homeschool. I am very thankful to have this product to review.
Due to my lack of confidence in guiding my students in this subject I was so glad to discover that this is a self-directed middle/high school course. The objectives of EIL are as follows:
The books that are incorporated in this course are ones that we either have already, can borrow from the library, or that can be found free online. You can read here how the literature is chosen for the course. This course is the first of five Excellence In Literature courses offered by Everyday Education (Janice Campbell). Here is a pdf of the books used in the five year series.
In the book the objectives are worded much the same as at the website but this one hits on what I really am striving for:
Prepare students for college classes by expecting carefully researched, well-thought-out material to be presented in standard format, with preliminary proofreading completed. (page 7, Excellence in Literature: Reading and Writing Through the Classics) emphasis mine
She also tells the student (because it is written to the student, not the teacher):
Rather than spoon-feeding you basic, easily-researched information (and having you zone out in the middle of paragraph two), I have provided resources and links that will enable you to perform the context research you’ll need in order to fully understand the novel, play, essay, or poem. This is the kind of research you’ll find yourself doing for college courses, so if you learn how to do it now, you should be quite good at it by the time you graduate! (page 8, Excellence in Literature: Reading and Writing Through the Classics) emphasis mine
The works that are read through are some of the best literary works. These are what I want my students to read!
I personally am enjoying the course (although *I* am not doing the work 
) because it has the same objectives that I have (even if I could not put them into words quite as well). There are rubrics included for both the student and the ‘writing mentor’ (that’s me) to help give feedback for each assignment. The assignments are a mixture of different writing styles: literature summary, approach paper, compare/contrast essay, author profile, essay from prompts, journal entry, historical approach paper.
It was pleasantly surprising that each reading is accompanied by various formats for learning more. Included are poetry, audio, video, art/illustrations, and/or music when appropriate. The clickable links in the ebook (sometimes you may need to highlight, copy and paste into the browser address bar) and have proven to be invaluable.
A note about scheduling: this course does not give a schedule like some curriculums do. It gives suggestions* for how to go about it. One of the reasons (other than the fact that all families are different, as are learners) is because time management is an objective as well. My daughter (a 9th grader) has been planning out her own schedule for quite a few subjects for two years already. She reads what is ‘planned’ for a Unit and then decides what needs to be done each week (daily if needed) in order to accomplish her assignments in a reasonable time frame. I am not concerned if she does not finish this course in a year.
There is an Honors track that the students can choose –we did not choose this:
In each unit, you will find additional reading suggestions under the “Honors” heading. If you would like to earn an honors-level grade (.5 weighted grade points), or take an AP or CLEP test at the end of the year, you need to read these extra books and do an approach paper on each. At the end of the school year, you will also write an additional research paper, which is assigned in the “Honors Unit.” This will complete the honors track. (page 10, Excellence in Literature: Reading and Writing Through the Classics)
The most difficult part of the course thus far with my daughter is learning to be more detailed in her writing. I do believe however that as she progresses in this course, she will improve. There are many samples at the end of the book for help with writing the papers/essays for assignments.
What does my daughter think of this?
In her own words… 
:
I enjoy it, even though there is a lot of work you have to do, lots of papers to write. But you also get to read a lot of interesting stories, and I enjoy the mental work. I think it is a good course.
Bottomline:
I would definitely recommend this product to other homeschoolers. This is very well done and well worth the cost!
Everyday Education offers a free sample unit at their website. They also have products pertaining to Transcripts, College Preparation, Spelling and Grammar.
* Our family is different—do we have to follow the schedule exactly as it’s written?
The schedule I’ve provided is the one my students followed when I taught these courses online…It works efficiently, and will help you cover a lot of material over the course of the school year…You may change the schedule, drop a unit, take two years to cover the book, or alter it in any way that will help it better serve your family. (page 18, Excellence in Literature: Reading and Writing Through the Classics)
See what other homeschoolers think of this product at the TOS Homeschool Crew blog.
***Disclaimer: I received this ebook from Everyday Education as part of the TOS Homeschool Review Crew for no charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own and/or those of my child(ren). I was not required to write a positive review and I only recommend products that I feel would be useful to other families. See Disclosure/Policies.***
How Do I Love Thee? by Nancy Moser
ISBN: 978-0-7642-0501-9
Paperback, 365 pages
Publisher: Bethany House
Retail: $13.99
Elizabeth Barrett- an ill, reclusive poet convinced that she is never to love (and will die at any moment), writes of it and dreams of it for others. She lives her life in her room and shuns visits from but a few close friends until her fortieth year, when she becomes smitten with a fellow poet; Robert Browning. Here is an historical fiction novel that gives us a look into their life together.
I really enjoyed this book! I love Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43, “How Do I Love Thee?”, as it has always been known by me. I really do not know much about her life though, nor about Robert Browning. This book gives a glimpse into both of their lives. At the end of the book are notes from each chapter that give the actual details about “Ba’s” life (as she was known to family and friends) and how the author changed them up to make it fit into the story.
Her father was a tyrannical, unloving (although he said that all he did for his children was out of love), and in the end, unforgiving. His influence on her probably played a huge role on who she was and they way that she wrote. In the end (and if you already know her story it won’t be a surprise), she is able to free herself from his tyranny but at a price. I think that what she gained was worth the cost. I had no idea that she had a child. I had long thought she married but was still ‘unhappy’ and died without children. Shows what I don’t know…
Speaking of her father, in the back of the book the author points out that Elizabeth’s father, who had always joined her for evening prayers, stopped coming. It shows a bit what kind of person he truly was.
Something I really enjoyed about the book is that it highlights E.B.B.’s reliance on God (even before her earthly father). In every day living, she praises Him for the smallest things in her life and has conversations with Him. Also, it seems so coincidental that circumstances led up to her and Browning’s marriage. They called it Providence- I call it God.
I really like this book and would recommend it to others. Some of the facts are skewed to make it mesh better but I appreciate the author’s honesty about that in the notes on each chapter. I will also admit that I found many parts of the book boring. I am not entirely sure why- but possibly because they are mundane, every day details. I forced myself to stop skimming over those parts and enjoy the ‘every day’ details and I discovered it makes the story more enjoyable because then it is more personable. (but some may already have realized that 
)
***Disclaimer: I checked this book out from the library and this is a review that I decided to write on my own. Just because!***
It has been a full 12 weeks of year 3 of homeschooling for us…and this is the 2nd year using Ambleside Online. Finally, I have integrated Hymns into our schedule. (Now I just need to get busy on Artist Study)
I know this is almost the end of October and if we follow the AO Hymn rotation, we would be moving on to the November selection of “He Hideth My Soul” but we are behind 
I thought about just waiting until November to start it but when I listened to “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind” it just is so beautiful that I didn’t want to wait. I found a youtube version that we have been listening to all morning.
I found the hymnal sheet at hymnwiki.org (using the tune Repton, Eb) and printed it out for each of us to have while we listen. I tried to sing along with it and of course, never having heard it before, didn’t quite have success 
I think that we will start our day with the hymn.
Here is the youtube version- enjoy :
What to make for dinner? I like to plan my meals but haven’t done so in um, well, it has definitely been too long.
What to make when you have V8 juice, a can of diced tomatoes and chicken breast? Unfortunately, we aren’t big on the tomato base but eh, what if that’s all you have? I did scrounge up (lol it sounds like I scraped it off of something…I had some left in a jar in the fridge) some chicken broth (made it myself) and a can or two of veggies.
I just thought this was interesting; all different brands lol.
Here is what I did with my findings:
In a large pot poured in V8 juice (should have used two- but that means taking from dh’s stash *wink*), chicken broth (from a can and my leftovers), dumped in diced tomatoes, cut green beans and carrots. The chicken I had to thaw and then I cut it into strips. Cooked in a little oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder (my three most favorite ‘spices’) I cut them into chunks and added it to the soup.
I started the soup at about 3pm and we usually eat by 6:30pm. I figured that 3+ hours would be good to get the chicken flavored. The only thing I didn’t count on (and yet I knew better) was that the canned veggies are already soft and giving them a bath in soup only makes them soggy.
I like rice so I might cook up a little rice to toss in with my soup.
What’s your favorite ‘toss together’ meal?
