looking ahead...homeschool conference

It's that time of year again...school's out!!  (Actually for us it's not - we go year around).

But most people are out for the summer.  Now I realize that some homeschool moms are glad to see the last of books until fall.  But some of you I know are crazy about anything school.  I've got the solution...the Appalachian Home Educators Conference! 

If  you look to your right you'll find a link to take you to the website.  I encourage you to check it out.  Not only is it taking place in my town (yay!!!), it just happens to be Pigeon Forge (can you say vacation?!) with tons of fun things to do (plus discounts if you are attending the conference!), and they have something that sounds like fun right at the conference - an outdoor adventure tent (find it under the activities tab)!  I know my kids will be going. 

So how about it?  Start your summer off by vacationing in one of the funnest places in the eastern U.S - PLUS - get your curriculum for next year and you don't have to even think about it all summer long.



Until next time...


JenT

Lego learning

Honestly, I can't take credit for this idea.  My creative husband came up with it.  May be a guy thing? 
A way to learn reading using Mega Bloks (or big legos as I call them).  You may have seen the thing using legos to teach fractions in math.  A great idea, I had just never thought of using them for reading. 

The individual blocks are the letters. 

The doubles are blends.  (sorry it's blurry; it's qu)

Use triples and quads to put the letter on to make up words. 

You would have to combine some to make words of five or more letters. 

Until next time...

JenT

early mornings, earth's rotation, and easy fun

*whispering* Shhhh...you know what time it is? 6:45 a.m. That's pretty early in the morning, people. I have been up for one hour. Yep...that means I got up at 5:45 this morning. This is the second morning in a row that I have been up before the sun.

Hey (normal voice now) that reminds me. A few days ago one of my boys said something about the sun going down in the earth at night. Soooooo...I had to get the flashlight, the globe, and take ourselves in to the kids' bathroom that has no window, and do a little homeschool lesson. (I love homeschool). Hopefully, now, he understands how it works. If not, I'll be glad to review. It's fun! Of course a few others had to come in a watch too.

Speaking of dark rooms and other light sources. My mom had a yard sale a couple of weeks ago. (She's moving and was getting rid of a LOT of stuff). My brother had left stuff there for her to sell for him. One item was a strobe light. Remember those things? No one bought it. Can you see where this is going? Guess who got to bring it home with them. Yep. Us. Now that is some serious fun. We waited until dark. Everyone went into my bedroom. Turned out the lights. On with the strobe light. Whew! We had a blast! Even my hubby got in to it. Wait - actually HE started the whole thing! I sat off to the side for most of it, laughing and laughing. It was so much fun. We're easily entertained, folks.

Hey, does anyone live in or around Roanoke, VA? We might be visiting this weekend and wondered if there were any must-see places. We're thinking of going to the Mill Mountain Zoo and possibly Natural Bridges. Someone told me about an animal park? Somewhere you drive through and feed the animals? Or just look at them? I can't remember right now (it's so early ya know). I've looked at VA's website, but sometimes there's those hidden, out-of-the-way places that are so cool, but not really well-known. Any ideas? Anyone? Bueller? (ok...I"ve never actually seen the movie...I've just heard that quoted so much).

So, what's on your agenda for today? I've got normal, everyday stuff to do. And it's raining here so I'll be using the dryer instead of hanging clothes on the line.

Come back in a few for my next picture of me.


Until next time...

Homeschooling article

Here's an interesting article on homeschooling.

http://www.djournal.com/pages/archive.asp?ID=274594

I only posted this because I thought it was interesting. I'm not intending to offend anyone that send their children to public school. This is my blog and I support homeschools. If you don't agree please don't flame. You don't even have to read it.


Until next time...