Friday, October 24, 2014

We're not cut-out for public school...

I had a dream last night...

There was some special event at the local public school so I sent Primus.  She had a wonderful time so I got to thinking, "Hey, maybe public school is a good option for us afterall."  So for the next 3 days I sent both her and Secundus and they liked it ok.  On the fourth day I slept through my alarm, woke up more than an hour after school started, noticed that none of the kids had woken up yet either.  I lay in my bed for a few moments, deciding if I should jump up and rush them all awake and out the door.  Then I decided that we're apparently not cut out for public school, rolled over, and went back to sleep.  

When I eventually woke up in real life, I noticed that I had in fact overslept my alarm and was up almost an hour later than I intended.  I love homeschool!  :)

Monday, October 6, 2014

Conference Reflection, 300th Post, and GIVEAWAY!

I started this blog at the start of my family's homeschooling journey when Primus began Kindergarten.  But it's about so much more than education.  This has also been my place to share craft and recipe ideas, talk about the Gospel, muse about beauty standards, and other randomness.  I hope you've found something to interest you!  I don't claim or aspire to be a good writer.  But I have enjoyed having a space to document my family's school life and share ideas that I hope can be of help to others.

Actually, my first step into the blogging world was in 2008.  At that time, all of a sudden a lot of my friends and siblings were signing up on Blogspot.  I jumped on that bandwagon right away and have actually outlasted most of them. And now I have two!

My original family blog is my journal, family scrapbook, and the kids' baby books all rolled into one and stored in a place where it can't get lost or damaged.  Isn't the internet wonderful?

Did you know that blogging can also be a way to do family history?

This weekend members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints watched General Conference. It's a time where we get to hear words of inspiration, council, and guidance from Heavenly Father through His servants the Prophet, Apostles, and other Church leaders.

One of the last talks of the last session was about family history and genealogy.  Mormons think that doing family history research is incredibly important for various reasons.  And in the past it was revealed to me personally that I needed to be engaged in this work.  But I haven't done much.  I kind of figured that's something I'll do in the Grandmother phase of my life.  But still, I sometimes feel guilty for putting off something so important.

During the aforementioned talk, Elder Packer mentioned that genealogy isn't just compiling names and dates.  "It also includes the present, as we create our own history."  He said that when a mother shares family stories and pictures, she is doing family history work.

When I heard that, I suddenly and unexpectedly felt the Holy Spirit strongly and tears came to my eyes.  It was revealed to me then that blogging is the way I'm doing family history work.  And it's important for my family.


I immediately ran to my bedroom, opened up my personal journal, and wrote it down before I could forget that feeling.  Then I read the words I wrote back to myself.  Again I was overcome with a warm, tingly, peaceful feeling that I know to be the Holy Ghost bearing witness of truth.

I am so thankful for the knowledge that my Heavenly Father knows me, loves me, and knows what I need to hear. I am grateful that the Heavens are not closed and that Heavenly Father has called prophets and apostles in our day to lead, guide, and inspire us!

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This is my 300th post here on the Homeschool Is Not a Typo blog!  300 posts in just over 3 years.  In celebration, I want to give one lucky reader a special prize.

Because I love getting kids interested in reading, and this is primarily an education blog, of course the prize is a book.  The Reading Race by Abby Klein- a Ready, Freddy! story.  

http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Freddy-27-Reading-Race-ebook/dp/B00CFT8CYA/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411408594&sr=1-6&keywords=ready+freddy


You have several chances to enter to win.  Six, to be precise.  This is my first time using Rafflecopter, aside from entering contests with it on other pages, so I'm excited!

The giveaway closes 2 weeks from now and is open only to residents of the United States.

Even if you don't have young children at home, you should still enter to win.  Surely you know someone who'd love to be surprised with it.  Books make great gifts!

Good Luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Math Fact Day

Getting the girls to memorize math facts is important to me.  So one day last week we set aside all of our normal work and just had a Math Facts Day.  (Actually, it was more like a math fact morning because the afternoon was filled with a visit from our ES.)

Each girl had a list like the following so they knew what their options were.  Primus focused on multiplication, and Secundus did addition and subtraction.  Each activity was only done for 5 minutes at a time.  I wanted to keep them moving quickly from task to task so they would have fun and not get bored.


Wraps is referring to these math wrap-ups.  It's basically a classic matching game where you draw a line from a number in one column to a number in the second column.  But you "draw" it by wrapping a string around a key shape.  And when you're all done, you turn over the key and see if you got all the answers right based on if the string is covering all the raised bumps.

The triangle game is called Minute Math Electronic Flash Card.  It's tricky to get used to, but it's really good to help you understand the connection between addition and subtraction.

Machine means this Subtraction Machine.  When you push the little buttons, they pop up and tell you the answer to the problem.  I don't know if playing with this actually helps them remember the facts or not, but they sure think it's fun to click all the buttons. 

Xtra Math is a great free website.  It helps the kids master the math facts at their own pace and tracks their progress.

The Computer Games were definitely the favorite from the list.  These three websites have some fun ones.

Flashcards.  Boring, old flashcards. :)  I made my own with index cards.

I gave the girls a blank Hundreds Chart to fill in.   They had to work on it, though, by counting by 2s, and then counting by 3s, and then counting by 5s, and so on until it was all filled up.  While not math-fact-specific, skip counting is a great skill to work on.

Speed Tests were something I remember really enjoying in school. In the back of their math books I found a page of fact review and I timed them to see how fast they could complete a section of it.  Did not work.  The timer did not motivate them at all.

This website has a good explanation of how to use an Addition Grid.  I handed the girls a blank 11X11 grid and had them make their own.


Our Math Fact Day was a hit! We'll definitely be doing it again next week.