New Year - Let's Get Organized!

I will be blogging this year about getting organized in 2012. I decided to post my plan in order to make me stick to it. If I know that other's are reading and working this plan along with me, I will be more dedicated to keep it up. If you'd like to join me and my friends who have already signed up, just read this blog each Monday for your weekly assignment.

HOW THIS GOT STARTED:

Years ago, I read FlyLady's website non-stop. I put most of her ideas into practice and I LOVED it! It worked great and after lots of reading (and I mean addicted reading) I made my plan, worked it, and kept it up. I loved it. After several years, life took over, our business took off, and I wasn't home to work the plan anymore. I had learned a lot from her and I thank her with all my heart! But this time I decided to go even slower and easier. I spent WAY too much time reading that website and neglecting my family last time. I want to be that Proverbs 31 woman but it's very hard. I once saw a speaker at a church who talked on her book which was about the Proverbs 31 woman. She said we don't have to HATE the Proverbs 31 woman. The chapter on her is short but it covers all the stages in her life. What an eye opener that was for me!! Now, I don't HATE her, I just have to read it and see which stage I'm in right now. I can't always be everything but I can always work towards her as my goal. I don't remember this author's name or the name of her book. If I come across it during our book cleaning day, I'll post it then.

I will post short and easy assignments to do each week. We have 52 weeks. There is no need to get in a hurry. After the year is over, we should have a great game plan in action to keep us going in the years to come. We'll see where that leads but for now, it's ORGANIZING our home, family, and life for 2012.

LET'S GET STARTED!

ASSIGNMENT #1 - WEEK 1

Our first project for this new year, to get us organized by the end of the year, is to take a clean sheet of paper to a different room each day of the week. Divide that paper into 3 sections. Section 1 - weekly cleaning, Section 2 - Yearly cleaning, Section 3 - projects for that room, goals for that room, or long term ideas for it.

By the end of the week, we should have a good plan to work with for the year. We'll start putting it together next week. This month will be organizing our ideas and making a plan.

Good luck!

Calling all Families! Calling all Moms! Calling all Homeschoolers!

Join thousands of families nationwide to see the movie Dolphin Tale on September 23 together. It makes a statement to Hollywood to rally behind movies that “get it right” and tell great stories without all the junk, twaddle, and moral compromise! This movie has all the good stuff we want more of and is truly entertaining and inspiring from ages 5-95!!!
It’s time the conservative Christian Family and Homeschool community shows Hollywood we have a voice. But how? We need a story we can support and get behind, a story that affirms who we are and what we stand for.

Dear Friends, Dolphin Tale is such a story!

This is a family movie that will inspire, instruct, and bring you to tears because of the great story line. This movie even has two homeschool kids who play the main roles! (The casting agents went to a local support group in California and found them!)
The bottom line is that the Homeschool Movie Club wants to show Hollywood that the those of us with Christian and strong family values are a big enough market to support other great movies with traditional, conservative family values. I am hoping you will be a part of this great opportunity with me!

Free book on fractions & decimals

Thanks to Lisa at http://homeschoolliberalarts.com/ for posting this link for a free book on fractions & decimals. How did she know this will be my math focus this year?! Enjoy!

Gotta love those freebies! Scroll down almost halfway where it says "DOWNLOAD" http://www.schoodoodle.com/weblog/2010/08/10/free-ebook-of-the-month-fractured-fairy-tales-fractions-and-decimals/

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.