Postcardsd from around the world

Since we are studying world geography this year, I thought it would be fun to get postcards from around the world. I asked friends to talk to their friends and family and we were off and running. It's been very fun. I have recently found two yahoo groups that have really boosted our ability to get postcards from everywhere! You should see the excitement of running to the mailbox to see where our card comes from this time! Check it out! Then drop us a postcard. Www will send one back to you!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canadianpostcards2010/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/postcardkids/

All About Spelling

Daniel Boone has had the hardest time learning to spell and write. We have tried learning the CM way but it just doesn't stick. Dictation was fun and gave him confidence but days later, all the words would be lost again. I found All About Spelling and I am veery excited about the prospects. It is very similar to the way Rgith Start Math works. There is cry little prep work involved. Just pick up the book, look over the materials needed, and get started. It starts out very basic but I think it will make very good strides in then long run. He finds it boring because we are using small, easy words but I believe we need to start there. We are even using the principles already when writing bigger words during his normal writing.

If you have a child who is frustrated with spelling, I recommend trying All About Spelling. Check it out.

Strugglin' with teaching grammar?

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This is too funny!!!

School's starting

Though the summer heat is not over yet, it is finally time to start the new year. Our family has had a very trying summer and I am now working full time with our family business. My wonderful friend has offered to help me out during this season and will be schooling my kiddos on Tuesday and Thursday. What a blessing this is. I have most of my curriculum ready and hope to post it soon. Because of my friend's wonderful offer, I have switched years this year. Rather than moving on to year 4, we are doing year 5. My friend uses My Father's World and she is studying countries and cultures. It was just easier to switch years and study countries along with her than to try to do my year 4 three days a week. Our first week went well. The kids like getting up to go to their friend's house. I like having those days to really focus on work uninterupted. I am able to focus on their education on my schooling days. I am still going to try to keep up with our math at night. We may have some school to do on Saturday which will be new to us but I think it will work out in the long run.

Worm update

So, it's been 2 weeks and all my worms are alive!! They are getting a little hot in the summer heat so I may need to put more holes in the box. I'm amazed at how fast they eat all the food I put in there. Ok, I do go a little crazy sometimes and blend up the food to make it easier and faster for them to eat. But I need those castings! My garden isn't looking so good. I have BIG hopes for next year's garden though!!

WORMS!

Each year I try to add something new to our little homestead. Today it was worms!!

I learned how to set up my worm bin from Wormbincomposting.com.

I went to a local worm composting class. Then with some other families, we order 5,000 worms. I got them in the mail today and thought something was wrong. The bag was filled with a peat moss type filling and when I poured it out I found a few worms. They didn't look too healthy. I was a bit discouraged. I kept poking around until I found them. And let me tell you, I'm not afraid of much when it comes to nature. I am a science teacher and I've held a lot of creatures including snakes. But when I found this massive pile of knotted up worms I got a bit creeped out. It looked like a big pile of maggots. They worms are not that large, not like night crawlers. Well, I've put them in their new home and they are getting acquainted now.  I have high hopes that they will live, grow, multiply, and provide me with lots of good worm castings for my garden. The kids are even talking about starting a business selling worms if they multiply like they say they are supposed to.

If you want to learn about Vermicomposting, that's was worm composting is called, www.instructables.com has great instructions that will get you started.

Free audio books today

Thanks to Raising Future Leaders for posting this great freebie today!!

BlueBehmoth.com is offering 2 free audio books:

Providential Battles I: Twenty Battles that Changed the World by William Potter

and 

Jonathan Park Volume V: The Explorer's Society by Vision Forum Radio

We're very excited about this last one. I've been waiting for my boys to be older before buying this set. I had to miss our local homeschool conference where I was planning on buying one of these sets and here is one for free!! Go God and thank you for this gift!! And thank you BlueBehmoth too!