Curriculum Archives * Shannon's Grotto

25 Things On My Homeschool Wish List- 2017

Aug 1, 2017

As summer is coming to a close, it is time to gear up for a new school year. We are an eclectic homeschool family! We look for and use materials that fit into our schedule and what each person wants to learn! We already have a lot of materials and resources but these are the things I would like to add. My wish list for my teen homeschooler.

We take a break from school, so to speak, during the summer. Learning is ALWAYS ongoing but we don’t worry about lessons and assignments during the summer. We try and keep close to the school schedule, because it helps us stay on track and the kids can go do more with their public schooled friends when their breaks are around the same time.

A Few of Our Homeschool Favorites

All of our girls love to draw and so sketch books in several sizes are a must. We have a neighbor who is a very talented graphic artist and he has talked to my girls many times about their art. He told them to draw all the time. He said to find references and practice drawing what you see. All my girls do this and so sketch books in several sizes for each one are good to have around. They have a small book that they take to church (and everywhere for that matter) and bigger ones for more in depth projects at home. We like the spiral bound ones because the pages don’t come loose and it is easier to flip through and see past attempts, projects and how much they have improved!

My sister-in-law gave us this book, one year for Christmas and I love it! I wish we would have had it to read with our older girls! In fact, I loved it so much, I sent one to my daughter who is in college!

I love learning games and this is a fun one that is different, every time! This game teaches about economics (supply and demand), as well as strategy, the goal of the game changes each time you play. It took us a while to figure out the rules but it is quite fun to play.

Settlers has become a family favorite! We have used the robber in the game to talk about communism and how the robber can stop all progress. Rules have been made up, by our family, to make it even more like a communist ruler has taken over and how cards are or aren’t distributed when the robber is in play.

Did I mention I love games?! Boggle is a favorite and my girls are challenged to one day get more words than I do. This post is about other word games we enjoy and materials we use/have used for writing, grammar and reading.

My Homeschool Wish List

It can be expensive to homeschool! I have collected things over the years and every year we add more because each child has some different things they want to learn or learns in a different way.

Books

I also love parenting books! I have some other parenting favorites in this post. Unfortunately, parenting doesn’t come very easy and each kid is different and so books like this are really helpful. After all, we were all raised by first time parents who were going off of what they learned from their parents.

Getting help on how to better manage our family and work together.

This looks like a great book about how we see the world and what limitations we may be putting on ourselves and our kids. When we strive to self improve, our kids will too!

There are so many different ways of doing things and yet we get stuck in a rut and sometimes believe we have to do it the same way everyone else is or we and our kids will fail. I would like to help my daughter get a little further ahead during these high school years. This book is really high on my list, this year! I should just order it!!! (But I have already spent so much money today, I need to wait! Need to get it off of the back burner!)

Shortly after we began homeschooling I got really sick. I wish I would have had the capacity to do more with TJED! However, it is never too late and I believe things can be implemented in a way to work for us!

Ohhh! This would be another fabulous book to have! This youngest daughter of mine has always been a leader and has a take control kind of personality. However, as most teens grow they start to doubt themselves and be less sure of what they can do.

What we want is for our children to grow up and take responsibility for themselves. The teen years are a great time to give them practice in a controlled environment. Education is an individual activity. You can lead a child to the book but you can’t make them learn from it! This is a must have on my homeschool list for this year!

The teen years are a great time to learn time management. It is something I have worried about with some of my older kids as they have gone off to college. However, a resource like this could ease some of that worry.

I read “What Color is Your Parachute?” when I was in college and have talked about this and had some of my older kids read this book too. I am excited to find that there is one geared toward high school students!

Homeschool Writing

Writing is the struggle I am currently having with the youngest daughter! I’m hoping to light a fire under her, help her to see how writing can be an outlet, learn how to express herself and so much more!

One of the thinks I would love for my daughter to do is to start a blog! I think there are so many things she could write about! I have learned so much about my blog; it isn’t just about writing! There is the whole back end side of things with a blog.

Problem Solving, Math and Business

I want this book to see if the methods and tricks in this book would better help in understanding math. I wonder if this would bring a new element to our math studies and help put some perspective and fun into the subject?

I couldn’t find a picture ad to go with this book. It is very intriguing to me with all of the hacking and problems that accompany using the internet. Many companies and self employed opportunities are available online and it is good to know how to protect yourself against these modern day practices.

A Practical Guide to Teen Business and Cybersecurity – Volume 1: Cybersecurity and best practices, Great Leadership Qualities, How to Write a Press … Against Zero-Day Attacks, and much more.

Science

My daughter loves electronics! This has been on my list for a while and I just ordered it! I will do a review on it after we have used it a bit!

Tackling physics can be daunting. I am strongly considering this for one of our resources this year!

With the meteor showers in August and so many great celestial things to study, a telescope is an awesome tool for learning about the stars and night sky! Many telescopes can be hooked up to a computer or a camera to discover and photograph even more!

Foreign Language

Fun way to learn a new language. We also love using Dual lingo and You Tube!

Projects

I just might have to get this for my husband’s birthday! He and my daughter are always looking for projects to do together. They are currently planning an animatronic project for Halloween.

Games

Fun way to learn about the Constitution of the United States of America.

Great for all ages! Dice can also be used for other activities and games!

Just for fun!

This shirt is awesome!!!!

Candy Vase- Estimation Activity for Valentine’s Day

Feb 2, 2017

This is a favorite activity we do every year for Valentine’s Day! Anyone and everyone that comes to our house throughout February is welcome to make a guess.

Candy vase instructions:

2 vases. One should be able to fit inside the other one. Mine are about the same size but the center one could be shorter, if that’s what you can find. You would just give it a taller foundation because you want the inside vase to be a little taller than the candy in the outer vase.

Put some candy on the bottom of the big vase. You are making a foundation for the smaller vase. You want it to be a little taller than the big vase. Most likely your smaller vase won’t fit standing well without having some candy on the bottom anyway.

You want it to sit well on the layer/s of candy and fairly centered, so you have room to put candy down each side.

Put Saran Wrap or some Press and Seal around the top of the middle vase. Be careful to not put it too far down the side of the vase or it will be hard to remove when the outer vase is full of candy. The Saran Wrap or Press and Seal keeps candy out of the center vase. This is especially helpful when you have little ones helping to fill the outer vase.

Be careful, the middle vase will sneak to one side more than the other if you aren’t careful and then candy won’t fit down the side. Put candy down each side working toward the top so you keep it as centered as possible.

Candy Vase You don't want candy dropping into the smaller vase. Little helpers aren't always very careful.

Press and seal on middle vase. It comes down a little too far and we had to be careful to pull the edges of the Press and Seal up as we finished filling the outer vase.

Remove the plastic wrap. Arrange flowers in the middle vase. A watering can is very helpful in being able to put water in for the flowers without getting the candy wet.

This is a fun decoration for the table. Anyone who comes to our house can make a guess on how many candies are in the vase. I have had people want to guess when I have posted pics of our vase on Facebook, too. It’s a fun activity. After Valentines Day, we pour all the candy into a big bowl and then wear some gloves to count all the candy. (No one wants to eat candy that everyone keeps touching. LOL) You can do a prize for the one who is closest to the amount of candy in the vase.

This post contains affiliate links. I include these links for your convenience to be able to find similar items to what I am using. I earn a small commission for the referral, but your price remains the same.

Lesson ideas and skills:
- Time management: big candies are like “big rocks” the things we have to get done. Small candies are those things that are nice to get in but aren’t as important important as the “big rocks” (We just read about this principle in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens”, by Sean Covey)
- Organization
- Spacial skills
- Artistic expression
- Estimation
- Sorting
- Counting

FYI: Our final count for this year’s vase was 1,065.

This is our 2018 Candy vase

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Grammar Used As A Weapon. . . or is that just our house?!

Dec 7, 2016

Over Thanksgiving we were doing some reminiscing

*Remember that time “C” cried and was so upset because “A” and “B” were teasing her? Mom asked what the problem was and “C” cried, “They are using bad grammar and they won’t stop!”

The sisters were using all the wrong tenses and misusing verb forms.

Then “C” says, “Now, it’s everyday in college and no one knows they are doing it wrong!”

I still laugh that my girls tortured one another by speaking incorrectly!

Now, I would never say we (me) are perfect. I’m sure there are plenty of sentence structures throughout this blog that could be re-worked to be better. I have a tendency to over use my “,” and misplace my “;”, but I am pretty good with: your, and you’re; to, too, and two; through, threw, thorough and thru (and that last one started with drive thru’s in the 1970’s!), quit, quite, and quiet; and there, their, and they’re.

Our homeschool has been eclectic. I wasn’t interested in a curriculum when we started; there wasn’t anything that felt like our perfect fit. The following are the things we have done over the years of homeschooling.

READING

My girls have always read a lot! In fact, most of them devour books and it’s hard to keep a book in their hands because they go through them so quickly. Some books are read multiple times! Then there are others that they collect themselves. For example, my oldest started collecting Romeo and Juliet when she was in high school and continues to collect Shakespeare. Currently Hamlet is her favorite.

Not all of my girls were strong readers and I worried about “B” because she didn’t read much. It was hard to get her into a book. Some of it I blame on the time she was in public school. We knew she could read well. She read and did a good job during family scriptures. However, at school they felt she wasn’t up to the reading level and would make her leave the classroom to read with a volunteer. She hated that and felt singled out! It also made her feel stupid. I couldn’t understand why they were doing that when she can read big words. I think the real problem was that she was quiet and more on the shy side and didn’t like to read with the class.

It was nice to realize, one day, that “B” was a good reader and she read more than I thought she did. She has a very analytical mind and she likes to move a lot! She doesn’t like to watch a lot of movies either because she likes doing things, not watching. She reads a lot especially when it is something of interest to her. “B” is now 21 and she loves to collect language books and studies other languages and cultures. She has said that learning books are the best. She doesn’t particularly like reading stories. It’s too much entertainment and feels like a waste of time to her.

I still have one I am homeschooling and we keep on doing what we did with the other 3. We read the classics, together! They can read what they want on their own, but together we read classics. Costco has done a fabulous job carrying the classics and we have collected some wonderful books! We love Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Jane Eyre, The Invisible Man, Mark Twain, and Shakespeare! Just to name a few. We are almost done reading “The Mysterious Island of Dr. Moreau”. The classics always provoke interesting discussions. So, currently our discussions have been about science and just because you can do something, should you? I have been able to share with them some other stories that I have loved like: “To Kill a Mocking Bird” and “The Pearl”, for example.

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission for the referral, but your price remains the same.

I made my oldest read “The Pearl”, by John Steinbeck, when she was in high school. She wasn’t very happy I was making her read a book. When she asked why I was making her read it I told her, “Because, you will love it and you will hate it.” So, she read it and when she was done, she told me “I loved that book, and I hate it! You were right. I’m glad I read it.”

* Read together

* Let them read what they enjoy on their own

* Have discussions both while reading and afterwards.

* Talk about the morals and the rights and wrongs. Most of the classics have definite rights and wrongs.

Vocabulary

When my girls are about high school age they pick their own spelling/vocabulary words from an ACT word book we have. They study those words and learn the definitions. They even have favorite words. Between their reading and the words they study they all have quite extensive vocabularies.

When my oldest came out of public school, she was in 5^th grade. It drove me crazy that she still had a hard time with the following words: wuz (was) and vary (very). It seems like there were a couple more but those were the worst, for the longest. When she was in Kindergarten and first grade it drove me crazy that her teachers would never correct her spelling except for spelling tests. They were just glad she was writing and chalked it up to “creative spelling”. They told me it would come over time. I didn’t believe them. I felt that every time she misspelled these simple words in her writing, it was being reinforced. I hate it when I am right on things like this. She was in high school before this bad spelling was corrected. I gave them to her in spelling and vocabulary often, but she would get writing quickly and it would end up being misspelled, the way she learned in Kindergarten!

Let older kids pick their own words from a list, book or other resource.
Correct spelling on other work, so it isn’t reinforced wrong. They don’t know they are doing something wrong if they aren’t told.
Reading a lot helps to build vocabulary as well as knowledge.
Play word games! Some of our favorites are Scrabble, Up Words, and Boggle.

Grammar and WRITING

I always worry that my girls aren’t writing enough. Some of them have really worried me because it is so hard to get them to write. However, the 3 that have gone to college do remarkably well in English and have often been singled out for having wonderful writing styles! My oldest took a creative writing class in college. Almost every thing she wrote was used in class as an example of good writing.

For English and Grammar we have really liked using Easy Grammar by Wanda C Phillips

My one that wasn’t a strong reader discovered that she loved writing. She loved to express herself through words on paper. It wasn’t always easy to get her to write but I had her write at least one paragraph daily. (She started homeschooling the beginning of her 3^rd grade year.) I don’t know how soon, (it may have taken a couple of years) but eventually she was writing several pages on her own! She loved the poetry units we did and still writes beautiful poems. She did mostly public high school and her high school teacher encouraged the class to join writer sites and upload their writing. This was really good for her! She uploaded to a poetry site and became a “preferred author” on the site. She had a girl from Pakistan comment on a poem she wrote about being yourself.

Reading helps build writing skills
Encourage writing
Help them see it’s usefulness in expression: poetry, how to’s, expression of thoughts, and letters. Some of my girls have seen the usefulness in being able to write a good letter to send to politicians or a company. They need writing confidence to reach out to the world so their voices are heard.

DUMBING IT DOWN

Unfortunately, my girls have found that there are difficulties in having a verbose vocabulary. Their peers don’t understand many of the words they use, especially, those who are going or have gone to public school. My girls often get tired of telling them the meanings to the words they use. Instead of having a conversation, they spend a lot of time discussing vocabulary. They often dumb down their language because it is just easier. This makes me sad, but I can’t blame them.

One of the family’s favorite movie lines is from “Pirates of the Caribbean” because of the verboseness of the line: “I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request.”

Have you read early writings? Have you seen the incredible vocabulary they had for only having an 8^th grade education?! Have you seen what texting is doing to the language and writing skills of the up and coming generations?! Doesn’t it appear that text talk is ruining proper grammar? (Why is this graphic misspelled?! Disclaimer: not made by me.)

You Are Doing Great!

No matter whether you are following a particular curriculum or not, you are making a difference in your child’s life. They are getting far more attention than they would get in public school, by someone who truly loves and cares about them! No one cares more about your child than you do.

I used to get really anxious and worried that I was messing my kids up. We haven’t followed a specific curriculum. We have been very eclectic in what we learn and how I teach. It’s easier now, looking back and I’m glad we have done it the way we have. I hope this helps, especially if you haven’t found a curriculum that excites you or you keep changing things up.

The only thing I wish, is that I would have incorporated a little more of the TJED into our schooling when our kids were younger. TJED is the reason we focused so much on the classics and made reading an important and essential part of our school.

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Curriculum

25 Things On My Homeschool Wish List- 2017

A Few of Our Homeschool Favorites