Brain Building Resources

One of the goals for this year was to add some brain building activities into our week. Brain building exercises are activities that help to increase our short-term memory or our thinking skills. (That is just my definition.)

A number of these are things that I have picked up over the years.

Daily Warm-Ups Logic -- Daily Warms-ups has books for a variety of subjects. I added the Logic book this year. There are 180 short exercises in this book.

                                "When you find something that you have lost,
                                 why is it that you always find it in the last place
                                 that you look?"

Another book that I have is Chinese Brain Twisters. These are activities involve toothpicks and making different shapes.

I have some Brain Puzzles from Usborne. Some of these are challenging for Miss K.

Another thing that I have are digit span cards. Each card has a number of digits. You show the card to the student for three seconds, put the card away and then ask the student to repeat the number back. I purchased these cards from Little Giant Steps. You can purchase sets of various numbers of digits. These can be done as either visual or audio.

Sometimes for Miss K I just give her some of the sequence strips and have her tell me what is hiding.

A few years ago I bought these books from someone. There are three books in this set.

These books are great for short term memory building activities. There are flaps and you cover the right page showing the left page. Then you cover the left page and reveal the right side. Then ask the student what was hidden.

ThinkFun has a number of games like Shape by Shape and Rush Hour. We have a few of these and have found some in thrift shops. Even playing memory can be a brain building activity.

I have also set up an account on Lumosity. Those are good activities for J and myself as well.

We have fun doing these together. I do think it helps in building short term memory and thinking skills. We usually try to do these on Wednesdays.

What are your favourite brain building resources?

Beth

A Day at the Museums

One of the places on my list of places to visit was Hull. There are a number of museums there and I think that was what caused that to be on my list of places I want to visit. A few weeks ago we read about William Wilberforce in Mystery of History Vol. 4. We talked about the slave trade and made interactive maps. I love the Scholastic Interactive 3-D Maps. I just wish they had it for more things.

Here are the Slave Trade Maps we made a few weeks ago.

J could not understand why they call it a triangle of trade when it is more like a square.

Well, after studying William Wilberforce, I decided it is time to go to Hull and to the William Wilberforce House Museum. Thursday is one day that we have nothing. Thursday we have no activities at church, clubs, football, nothing. Did you hear that nothing. Oh, my husband has small group but that it not until 8pm. Thursday is our day for outings.

We took the train. We are able to get a direct train with minimum stops and be there in 1 hour and 20 minutes. For many places the train really is the best way to go. We get our money's worth out of Family and friends card. We arrived in Hull. My husband went with us and he figured there was a but that would take us close to the William Wilberforce House. I was just going to walk the 30 minutes. We found a bus and my husband asked if that was going to Guild Hall. It was. He went to pay and they said no need. I think it was because they thought we were getting off at City Hall which was the next stop. We were on for two more stops.

As we walked to the museum we saw this monument.

The museum is free. It is in the house where William Wilberforce was born. It begins telling bits of Wilberforce's story. Then you go to the 2nd floor and there are bits of Africa and then the slave ships.

I have to say that it was very sobering to be there. To read some stories and see some of what it was like.

William Wilberforce was not a very big man but he has a passion and he worked hard for that passion. It was good and right to do.

We probably spent about an hour there. It was very informative but like I said, it was also sobering.

Next door is the Streetlife Museum. Since all the museums are free we decided to go there.

Here is a street car. It reminded me of the ding dings in Hong Kong Island. There they were called ding dings because of the sound of the bells that rang as they went down the street.

There were trains and also some shops as if you were walking along the streets of Hull.

I had packed a lunch. I am usually so impressed with the fact that most places have a place for lunch that I was surprised that all three museums we visited did not have a place for us to sit and eat. We ended up sitting on a bench in a shopping centre. It was just a bit cold to be outside.

The last museums we went was the Maritime Museum which is located in the Victorian Dock Offices. The building has a view of the docks. I imagine that at one time you could see all the ships arriving with cargo from all over the world.

There was a display on the boat Truelove. Truelove was built in Philadelphia and was captured during the American Revolution and became a fishing boat. Because of the name there were all kinds of souvenir type things created.

To keep themselves busy on the whaling boats. The men where encouraged to decorate whale teeth. Some were very details and some were excellent artists.

There were models of ships and artwork of various boats throughout the museum.

The museum covered the two floors. The building itself was impressive.

The museum is located in Queen Victoria Square and so there is a monument there of Queen Victoria.

We spent about 5 hours there. We found a yummy milkshake shop. The shop just sells milkshakes more kinds than you can think of. We took the train back and arrived home before dinner.

It was a fun day. I am glad that we were able to do it. Now to plan our next outing.

Beth

Super Teacher Worksheets - TOS Review

Some days I do not feel like a super teacher. Some days I sit with my coffee and wonder how I will make the day interesting. Some days I wish I had some worksheets to give the kids to supplement what we are learning but just do not have the time to create a worksheet. Super Teacher Worksheets to the rescue! I was excited to have the opportunity to review Super Teacher Worksheets. I was given an individual membership for this review.


Super Teacher Worksheets is a website with worksheets on numerous subjects. Some of the subjects include:

• Math
• Reading and Writing
• Phonics and Early Literacy
• Handwriting
• Grammar
• Spelling Lists
• Science
• Social Studies
• Holidays
• Puzzles & Brain Teasers
• Teacher Helpers
• Pre-K and Kindergarten
• Worksheet Generator Tools

Within each category there are numerous worksheets that can be printed. I think most of these worksheets are good for pre-K to middle school through some of the maps can be used with all ages. The website is easy to use. Find the category of worksheet you want and then look at the options. You can view the worksheet then save it to your file cabinet to print it. You print the worksheets directly from the website so you don't have to download and then print. Each worksheet includes an answer key, which will print when the worksheet is printed. I did try to remember to just print the worksheet as the worksheets I used with Miss K I do not need the answer key. The answer key is nice for some of the more difficult worksheets.

Super Teacher Worksheets did rescue my days by adding some variety to the learning, giving easy worksheets for me to give, and providing additional practice. There is so much that Super Teacher Worksheets can help with.

Some of the worksheets that we used were skip counting. I have been working on skip counting with Miss K so it was nice to have some worksheets for her to practice. I have used counting by twos and counting by fives. We have used some of the time worksheets.

As we prepare our memory work for this year, I have been working to put worksheets that reinforce the learning. I have used the butterfly life cycle, frog life cycle, and the solar system. I was impressed with the science worksheets and thankful to find those in one place.

Geography is a subject that we enjoy learning. I have used the Europe map and also the United Kingdom map. Both of those will be a super resource as we work on learning about Europe and the United Kingdom.

There is also a worksheet generator. I used this for creating some math worksheets just for Miss K. It was so easy to just enter the range of numbers for the addends, how many problems and then you have a worksheet.


I will also add that Super Teacher Worksheets is very fast to send the password when you forget it.

An individual membership to Super Teacher Worksheets is just $19.95 for a year.




Beth

Memory Work Resources

Memory work is an important part of our learning. This year we are doing some memory work with our co-op. I was busy in August putting things together for us to memorise.

I thought I would share some of the resources that were helpful as I sorted and decided what we wanted to memorise this year. This is not poetry but facts, dates, and other bits of information.

Living Memory by Andrew Campbell is a comprehensive K-12 resource for memorisation, copywork, and dictation can be used with any classical curriculum or as a handy reference for home or school. I found this to be a great resource as it has all the subjects and covers so much.

English Grammar Recitation is published by my favourite publisher, Memoria Press. I would love to have one of everything they publish on my shelves. This book just is a comprehensive book of grammar to memorise.

English from the Roots Up has been sitting on my shelves for a long time. I decided to do some root word memorisation this year. We have been doing Latin but not everyone in our group doing that but roots are just some fun things to memorise. This book has both Latin and Greek roots.

Foundations is a good resource if you want something already put together. I used it for inspiration as I was preparing things this year.

DK's Math Dictionary - I thought of a few of the things that we seem to forget and have to look up often and included those in our memory work for this year.

Creek Edge Press has Recitation and Enrichment Series which has 32 weeks worth of memory work. This is another great resource as it has everything you need all in one book.

I finished creating 24 weeks of memory work. I am pleased with what has been put together.

What resources have you used for memory work?

Beth

A Day in our School

In my perfect world we would start on time in the morning and quickly, diligently work through our learning. Pause mid-morning for hot drinks -- coffee, tea, or hot chocolate depending on what you prefer. Then finish and move on to quiet play, some chores, and just enjoy our day. Well, that perfect world does not exist but the world that does exist is the one I am trying to live in. A day in that world looks a bit like.

Miss K is an early riser so she is up when the sun comes up. I am thankful that the sun no longer comes up at 5:00. She is happy to play in her room. J is a teenager and would sleep until noon if allowed which he is not.

After breakfast and clean-up, we begin out time together. We do art today. One of the reasons for doing art first is that it gives the kids something to do while I read. Then on we read Bible and History together. I have Miss K listen in to both of these. It is interesting the things that she remembers. I have lowered her requirement. While J write a history sentence, she just writes the lesson title and something she remembers.

Usually by the time we are done with that Miss K is ready for a break. I pushed her a bit long the other day and she was falling apart and needed that break. I am learning that she needs breaks. So I am trying to plan breaks. Breaks could be something physical like jumping or stretching or just some time to work on a game or puzzle or just allow her to go on her own.

J keeps busy working on his things and often during Miss K's break he and I are reviewing things.

Maths is very hands on -- using coins, cubes, bears or treats. I have a variety of math manipulative and try to vary them to keep her interested. Maths is her struggle and so anything that I can do to help her learn maths is worth it.

Often after maths she is ready for another break. I wish we could just push through and be done but that doesn't work with her.

After that break, we work on reading, spelling, handwriting, and then finally science. Reading is a strong subject for her.

That about ends her learning time. I try to do some sort of therapy or art with her.

I have learned that working with her special needs, I need to be flexible, adaptable, give her lots of breaks, and have lots of variety. It does sometimes make it difficult for me and a long day but I love seeing her learn.

Beth

Educational Trips - Learning while Travelling

We enjoy travelling whether it is a day trip, an afternoon out, or a big family excursion. I love how the world is our classroom whether is a walk to deliver newspapers and seeing various slugs along the way or a climb along the Great Wall or a stroll through the alleys of Venice. So many places to visit and so many things to learn along the way.

Here are some ways that we have made the most from our learning.

1. Learning before the trip - Learning before the trip can be a detailed as a unit study or as simple as reading a book based on that location. In 2010 we took a big family trip to China. So before our trip we spent some time studying China. I remember reading Little Pear to J and then the fun that he had eating a tang hulu just like Little Pear enjoyed.

I am glad that we took some time to study a bit about ancient Rome before our trip this summer. Miss K was able to recognise a "water duck". Of course, it took us a bit of time to realise that it was an aqueduct that she saw.

So read a book, do a unit study, watch some videos, look at maps be ready to learn while you travel.

Sometimes learning just doesn't happen before a trip. It could be that there isn't much information about the destination or there just isn't much time. Don't worry learning can still happen. Sometimes you have no idea what you will find on the outing until you are there. I had no idea that we would see the house that inspired Jane Erye when we went on our walk the other week.

2. Learning during the trip - Tour guides can help you learning through my son really doesn't like joining Chinese tour groups and I don't blame him that much. We have used tour guides at other times and that has been helpful in learning about what we are seeing. We took a free walking tour of York and learned so much about the city so not all tours have to cost money.

Take lots of photos. We took over 2,000 photos while we were in Italy. I have deleted the blurry ones as well as redundant.

Take about what you are seeing. We talked about tides as we were at Lindisfarne. If you have questions, look up information or ask a local.

Buy a book as a souvenir. We received a free book at Lindisfarne when we were.

3. Learning after the trip - I have found that often the trip can pique our curiosity and so we go home and learn a bit more. We have read books when we returned. After Florence and Rome, I read Michelanglo by Diane Stanley. That was a simple book to read but helped to fill in so many bit of knowledge.

Organise your photos so you can pull them out when you study a place later. As we have studied Justinian, I pulled photos from our time in Istanbul for reference.

Not everything has to involve long travel times. We have learned from things locally as well.

A day at Valley Forge

I realise that we are blessed in being able to travel. I know that not everyone is able to do so. I trust that you find ways to learn in the area where you live.


Beth

I Corinthians 13 for Homeschool Moms

As we begin our school year, I was thinking about love and how important that is in all aspects of our school days. I pondered that thinking about I Corinthians 13. Here is my own version of I Corinthians 13 just for homeschool moms.

I Corinthians 13 for Homeschool Moms

If teach French in kindergarten and Greek in first grade and my children speak Latin fluently but have not love, I am a linguistic genius.

And if I have each day perfectly scheduled and art planned for each day, and time to read the classics, listen to classical music, but have not love, I am wasting my day.

If I create worksheets and schedules to share on my blog, and if I sacrifice my free time to take the children to music lessons, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient even when you have taught the same lesson for five days because the child still does understand and kind even when the science DVD is lost for the third day in a row; love does not envy the school room of another or boast of the accomplishments of her children; it is not arrogant but understands that each has unique abilities or rude in responses to children when for the hundredth time she is telling them to focus on their work.

It does not insist on its own way but understands that children have different learning styles; it is not irritable when the schedule gets changed or resentful that math is taking four hours; it does not rejoice at wrongdoings like the child having to redo the whole lesson, but rejoices with the character qualities developed and godly truth instilled.

Love bears all things -- long days, messy dining room table, scattered books, and more, believes all things can be done with God's help as you can homeschool your children, hopes all things knowing that this is good and right to do, and endures all things so that God can be glorified.

Love never ends. As for homeschooling, it will end someday; as for grammar and reading it will be no more; as for knowledge it will pass away but when eternity comes, the learning from homeschool will end. When I was a homeschool mom, I spoke like one, thought like ones, reasoned and planned like one. But in eternity what will matter is love.

So now faith that you are doing the right thing, that you are following God' leading for this time of your life, hope that comes knowing that God is with you each day, and love for God and all he has done for you abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.

Fill your days with love. Love your children. Remember that God loves you.

Beth

2015-2016 Learning Space

We don't have a dedicated classroom. We share our learning space with the dining room though I think sometimes it looks more like we eat in the dining than we do school in the dining room.

As I got the learning area ready, I gather and dumped all the school supplies that we had on a table. I wanted to sort through what we had. I organised it and decided all we need are some more index cards. Can you have too many index cards?

I also pulled out all the manipulatives and games. I found a number of them that we are just beyond or don't use so it is time to get rid of them.

This is my cabinet. I did organise what is behind the doors. It has some notebooks, baskets with therapy items, all the Super Duper cards, some puzzles, and a few other things. The basket on the top is my morning basket. That is something new that I am trying this year. I still need to work out the details of what that will look like. I want to have a theme for each day so history review on Mondays and poetry on Wednesdays.

Last year I had a bunting made from a book hanging on this wall. I tried to hang these with clothespins but they were just too heavy. I ended up using Blu-tac which we use quite a bit in our learning space.

This is the shelf of books that make us look like real homeschoolers. It is an Ikea Expedit. I wonder what percent of homeschoolers own this bookshelf in one of it various sizes?

My husband found two of these cabinets at the used furniture store this past year. I decided this year to give each of the kids one as their primary place for books. J's books are on the top shelf. I need to sort and find places for things on the other two shelves.

This is Miss K's shelf. The pink index box should be a clue that it is her shelf.

I did a quick sort and get rid of books but I think I could do a more extensive sort and try to get rid of more books but just didn't have the time right now.

We have a large world map on our big wall. It is fun to see Miss K climb up on her chair and point to the various countries that she knows.

My desire is to continue sorting through my shelves and to have things neat so our learning space stays neat so we can also have a dining room.


Beth