Something New from The Old Schoolhouse - Schoolhouse Library

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is offering a wonderful new deal for their new product, "Schoolhouse Library". Spend $25.00 and receive over 175 Ebooks touching on all kinds of subjects. There are over 25 topics to chose from. Follow the link to Schoolhouse Library and check out all the wonderful Ebooks you can get for just $25.00. 

 

This is one of those deals you don't want to pass up. Be sure to go and check it out ASAP.

Herb Fairies Update - The Study of Plantain

The month of May is devoted to the herb Plantain. Yesterday Grace read the first two chapters of the book and we started right in on one of the recipes. This is a butter spread to use on bread. I was missing one ingredient. It is supposed to be orange mint butter but no mint could be found. 

Final product tastes good with a heavy citrus taste. Of course if you make a butter you also need to make fresh bread. Hubby loves bread and fresh baked bread just makes his day. Plantain was very easy to find in a field off of our main road. We are looking into drying it and using at a later date since it is in such abundance.

Creating Your Own Science Curriculum

The past few years have seen many changes in our thoughts and actions with home educating. Because of these different thoughts, etc. we have moved away from thinking we need to use a textbook for each subject or even the same type of classes that everyone else studies. I have mentioned it many times before, but at this point Grace is not interested in attending college. Her exact words are if she does go anywhere it will be an art school. We are not science lovers. All of the above factors have played into what Grace will study for science in her high school years. One thing that Grace does love is animals. This gave us a base to work off of in planning a year long study of animals. Grace's next year of school is actually a gap year in between 8th and 9th grade and it will be a trial run on how we want to do it. I let Grace choose her subject matter for science next year and she decided it would be a in depth study of birds - ornithology. At some point in time I found a list of items you could use to make up a year long class that would count as a credit in any subject. Below you will find the items we have chosen for her Ornithology Science class for next year.

Read 5 - 10 non-fiction books on selected topics.

Watch 5 - 10 documentaries on selected topics.

Design one or two creative projects, each with a 10-15 minute presentation.

Write 7 - 10 reports on topics related to subject.

Visit 2 - 3 exhibitions on related topics.

Subscribe to a monthly magazine related to the topic and read entire magazine each month.

Field work will be counted as lab work.

Some choices that other families might like would be: read two-thirds of a selected textbook, read the majority of content of 5-10 websites on the chosen topic, Design 2-3 triptych displays on related topics, create maps or timelines of course content, write three analytical papers on the topic, write one research paper of 2500 words or more, with a bibliography, and give a speech on a topic related to the subject studied. I wish for the life of me I could remember where I got this information so I could give proper credit. I have been sitting on this list for a couple of year and now I feel we are ready to take the plunge. Grace seems excited about studying birds. If all goes well the following year will find her in the same set up studying Zoology. Then we may move on to Biology and Chemistry but if she isn't interested we may change it up and do Astronomy and Herbal Medicine. The sky is the limit.

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  Photo Credit - www.public-domain-photos.co

TOS Review - Joyce Herzog - Luke's Life List and Luke's School List

Joyce Herzog is a well known name in the homeschooling community. She is associated most with Scaredy Cat Reading System, but has a slew of other available products. We were asked to use and review Luke's Life List and Luke's School List through the TOS Review Crew.

Let's start off with learning a little about Dr. Herzog. As I mentioned above she is the author of many educational products, teacher of students with learning disabilities, counselor, and speaker at many conferences and conventions. Dr. Herzog has many credentials including  earning her a doctorate in 1995 and has spoken to audiences throughout North America since 1992.

The two books we were asked to use and review are Luke's Life List and Luke's School List. They are companion books that complement one another. The premise and names of the books were inspired from Luke 2:52, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." Both books are considered a daily planner, IEP, Scope and Sequence, and lesson planner. If you are anything like me you will really like this set of books. I am a type A personality that loves making lists and checking the items off as they are accomplished. Imagine the largest list you could think of - that is Luke's Lists. Life skills, growth ( Biblically and physically), social skills, hygiene, vocation skills, government, economics, and all academic subjects. That is just naming a few.

This set of books is recommended for parents of children from birth - 8th grade, although Luke's Life List could be used up to young adulthood. Many parents, especially homeschooling parents, worry about missing gaps in their children's educational path. Using both of the Luke's list books should set their minds at ease. Of course even the author states it is impossible to have a master list of everything a child should know.

Each book begins with a section about how to use the books, develop IEPs, and how to teach anything. Luke's School List will come as a spiral bound soft cover book including 160 pages. Luke's Life List will come the same with 134 pages. Each book retails for $30.00.

How We Used This Product and What We Thought

When I first started reading through the books I was overwhelmed. So much material. Also in Luke's School List, I thought, "Man, we haven't covered half of this stuff." Then I took a deep breath and dove in. I decided to go through each book thoroughly and wrote down the page numbers of all the sections we needed to concentrate on. We went over many pages in Luke's Life List that pertained to learning and deciphering Wisdom, as well as the history of the Bible. With Grace finishing up 8th grade this year I feel we will get more use out of the Luke's Life List. Both books would be best to start from an early age even birth but not necessary. A lot of the information in the beginning of both books we had passed many years ago.  On that same note I really liked the lists of subject areas for history, science, and cultural skills in Luke's School List. I do plan to continue to refer back to both books when needed to refresh our minds on some of the materials out there we should be learning.

Sample of Luke's Life List

Sample of Luke's School List

Please be sure to visit Joyce Herzog and see all the wonderful products and services she has available. Also be sure to check out Luke's Life List and Luke's School List.

Go to TOS Review Crew to see what other families reviewed and what they thought.

Preparations

Yesterday afternoon we visited the local office shop and printed all of Grace's materials on glossy card stock to get prepared for the art festival next weekend. Once we started printing Grace started getting really excited about it. Not much "school" happened yesterday. I counted yesterday as life learning. We attended a funeral in the morning for a beloved church member who went to be with the Lord on Sunday. After the funeral we ate lunch out . Next the print shop where she learned how to run the color copier and how to shrink her images for another art project. The remainder of the afternoon and evening she spent drawing.

Chicken Updates

Well, first things first, the babies came out of the nursery today with their first taste of freedom. They loved every minute of it. Three nights ago they started roosting like proper grown up chickens. I have lost track of time but I think we are at 16 - 18 weeks old. We will be away from the home over the next three days a lot so they will need to be content in the nursery and on Sunday I will start letting them out on a daily basis.

Today also found Scott tearing down the old nursery. He had much help from the flock. The base of the nursery was built with many rocks. There favorite past time is having Scott turn over the rocks so they can search for bugs and worms.

One of the Buffs has gone broody, now I must decide if she gets to sit on eggs or not. The main problem is that the other birds will jump right into the nest with her and lay their eggs. I would need to mark all of the sitting eggs with a sharpie and check really well every day, otherwise more eggs will be added all the time.

Blogging Through the Alphabet - I is for Ink

We use a lot of ink around this house. All types of ink. I print all kinds of books, pdfs, etc. with ink in our printer. Luckily we were blessed with a huge printer and loads of toner cartridge refills about a year ago. Each toner cartridge will print close to 15,000 pages. With all the materials I need to print for the TOS Review Crew it has truly been a blessing. 

As many of my readers know, we have two artists in the family. My husband is a man of many talents. Pen and ink is his first true love in art. The rocks in the above picture is one of the main stays of his work, along with mixed media sculpture and collage work. Here recently he has added another ink to his portfolio. The intricate detailed work that he can do with pen and ink has led him to begin apprenticing to become a tattoo artist. Scott has always been interested in seeing where he can take his art to impact other people. Especially those that do not have faith. Many times you will find scripture or scriptural meanings in his work and he wishes to transfer that to tattoo work as well.

Last but not least is Grace. She also uses a lot of ink on a daily basis. Her choice if ink is copic markers and black pens of all sorts. We only have 1 1/2 more weeks before her for art festival. Next week will be taken up with preparing for the festival.

I am linking up with Ben and Me for Blogging Through the Alphabet.