Mom to 3 M's

Homeschool Expo

2009-06-27T16:31:00.000-07:00

The count down is on for the Georgia Homeschool Expo July 31-August 1, 2009. It is the plan to take the entire family. I really want the kids to experience this grand event. I had the opportunity to go several years ago with some other homeschool moms. This year, I want dad and the kids to come too; making this a great weekend for the entire family.

2009/2010 School Year

2009-05-06T06:48:00.000-07:00

After much prayer and research, I feel lead by the Lord to use the spine from Heart of Dakota for my older two "Preparing Hearts for His Glory" with the extensions. This is a curriculum that has the Charlotte Mason approach. I wanted to do world history especially for my eldest son because after this coming school year, he will enter the 9th grade. HOD allows you to use your own math, language arts. So here is what we have so far:

6th & 8th Grader(Using the appropriate grade level math and grammar)
Preparing Hearts for His Glory with extensions - History, Science, Bible, Art
Literature - Drawn into the Heart of Reading(HOD)
6th grader Math Singapore 6A & 6B
6th grader Math Life of Fred Decimals and Percentages
8th grader Math Life of Fred Beginning Algebra
Art - Draw and Write Through History
Grammar - Growing with Grammar
Handwriting - Can Do Cursive
Science - Maybe beef it up for 8th grader; have to wait and see

Big Man- Kindergarten
Kindergarten Math
Kindergarten Hooked on Phonics Pre-reading
Handwriting Without Tears
ABC Readiness Series
Leap Frog Letter Factory
Leap Frog Talking Word Factory
Leap Frog Code Word Caper
Roll A Dough Letters
Lots of Books
Melissa & Doug Learning Toys

School Year Coming To An End

2009-05-06T06:40:00.000-07:00

Ashamed to say that it has been almost 4 months since posting. With the official school year coming to an end, I must say how blessed we have been and how much the Lord has been our firm foundation. My dear friend Sheila(Encourager), loaned us her families copy of Tip Lewis and His Lamp. Wow! What a blessing that was to read. We used it as a read aloud for morning and evening devotions. This book is about a young boy who everyone considered a scamp; he is told a story of the conversion of a pastor, and the Holy Spirit begins to work on his heart. He has the desire to want to do better, and encounters many ups and downs. He is a witness to his family and friends and the story goes up from there. This is not a story to just allow your children to read, it is a great book for the entire family. I believe that it is available at Rod and Staff publications.

Tot School

2009-01-30T15:34:00.001-08:00

I made matching cards with the upper and lower case letters A - D. I had the "Big Man" turn them over and match the letters and say what letter he found a match to. I plan on adding on hopefully next week with the matching by adding correlating objects that begins with the letter, and have him match the letter with the object. Did lots of reading, playing with playdoh and putting together Melissa and Doug chunky puzzles. We had a great week. Sorry no pictures!

Weekly Report

2009-01-30T15:15:00.000-08:00

We had a very productive week even though all three children had colds. No pictures this week though.

Bible - continuing bible study on Plan of Salvation

Math - continuing on with fractions, reciprocals and multiplication & division

Spelling/Vocabulary - word look up, definitions and word recognition. Spelling & Vocabulary

test.

Grammar - review and test

Science - will catch up next week

Social Studies - continuing with Ancients

Reading - various reading books

Wordless Wednesday

2009-01-28T06:45:00.001-08:00

("I finally get it! Close one eye, leave the other one open, says "The Big Man")

Blog Challenged

2009-01-27T10:40:00.000-08:00

Ok, someone needs to help this sistah out with the blogging skills. I am pea green with envy(in a good way of course) at the following blogs Love's School , Joy's of Homeschooling , and Trivium Academy and there are others. I have got to give you ladies a shout out. Your blogs look absolutely fabulous. I know you are really busy taking care of business(i.e., family, homeschooling and blogging creations), but when you get a minute, give a sister a little help, would you please? I do know a little photoshop(smile).

Happy Monday

2009-01-26T12:19:00.000-08:00

We have started our week out pretty good. I have enjoyed not having to go out of the house on Monday's and Wednesday's since December. But unfortunately that has come to an end. My precious Big Man is taking some classes at the local university and we are on our way out today. My prayer is that everyone has a great week. Let's celebrate a new week.

Weekly Report

2009-01-23T10:37:00.000-08:00

We have pictures this week. I used my daughter's digital camera. This week, we had a rough time with Math. I seriously had to get over my perfection issues of wanting to be finished with a particular page and trying to move on to the next topic. After much prayer, the Lord has given me peace. The older kiddy's had to take their Math test twice before they could pass it. But the blessing is- they understood the next topic and really built on what we had previously studied. Spelling/Vocabulary - finished up definitions and games; both tested at 100%; Science - dissecting the eye(we are fearfully and wonderfully made). Grammar went well also, this was not my favorite subject in school, so this is like pulling teeth for me. Social Studies - Ancients and timelines. Reading - assorted books.

Tot School

2009-01-23T10:29:00.000-08:00

The Big Man is at a real great pace, he is able to recognize letter A, B, C, & D; along with the numbers 1 & 2. He is so excited to be able to write the letter A, C and D. He is having difficulty with the letter B. Here is a sample of his letter A. I decided to use his etch a sketch that he received as a Christmas Gift. We also did lots of reading. He absolutely loves Dr. Seuss.

Good Ground Homeschool E-News

2009-01-21T17:24:00.000-08:00

My husband and I(mostly hubby) started a ministry over 13 years ago where we would create newsletters on the computer, print them and give them out for free. Things in our life started changing rather rapidly, and with much shame I must say that we stopped writing them. Well, fast forward 3 years from 1996, my husband meets someone that said that they had actually received one of the newsletters in the Bahamas and what a blessing it had been to them. God, was still talking to us, but we were not listening. We were really involved with my parents restaurant; making their ministry ours. Clearly not the way that God intended for us to go.

Fast forward to 2009, and here we are again. The Lord has placed it on our hearts again to start our newsletter, and by God's grace we will carry this through until God tells us otherwise. I am really excited about this. The launch issue will be entitled "2009 How to Homeschool on a Dime". The cover you see above, is a mock copy that my husband drafted for possibly a print magazine; but you get the gist of where it's going. The Lord has lead me to some women of God who have some powerful ministries themselves who will be writing for Good Ground. We are still in need of homeschool moms and dads to write articles. One section that is desperately needed is a Curriculum Review of the Month, Read A Loud Book Review (ages 0-4, 5-8, 10-12, highschool), as well as Parent Enrichment Book Review. If you or anyone you know is interested in contributing to either of these topics, please email me @ goodgroundmag@gmail.com. Most of all your prayers are needed as we work to get this newsletter out. Also, make sure you sign up and tell your friends on the other forums to sign up as well. Can't wait to hear from you.

God Bless,

Sonya

Tot School

2009-01-16T13:56:00.000-08:00

The Big Man did really well this week(remember no pictures, slummed in pj's). I was so proud of him. We have gone on to the letter B for recognition, still including the letter A recognition. He actually did some handwriting, he wrote the letter A all by himself. I will have to take pictures and upload, or maybe scan in what he wrote. He was so excited, he told his dad that he was really busy this week doing his homework. We will continue on next week with the letter C and the number 3.

Weekly Report

2009-01-16T13:48:00.000-08:00

This week, we kind of slummed it around the house, so no pictures for this week. It was so cold outside that we did hang around in pj's(clean of course) and did schooling. We had a pretty good week, it went kind of rough on the Math. We actually did some afterschooling to brush up on the math understanding.

Math - decimals, fractions, beginning Algebra

Spelling/Vocabulary - finished up lists, spelling and definition memory(test on Monday)

History - Ancients

Reading - assorted array of books

Grammar - proofreading skills, complete subjects and complete predicates

Science - combined with nature studies

It's Cold Enough To Snow

2009-01-15T13:27:00.001-08:00

Wow is it cold today. This is the coldest that I can remember it being here in the South in a long time. The high today is only going to be 27, but with the wind effect, it will feel like 6 (ouch). Can you say..."Staying in, absolutely not going anywhere today"?!!! Today is definately a day to thank the Lord for being able to homeschool.

It's Official

2009-01-13T05:02:00.000-08:00

Well, it's official; I am now the mother of a teenager. Where did the time go, it seems like only yesterday that my husband and I were bringing home our blessed child from the Lord. I am having a hard time wrapping around my mind that Matthew is now 13. Keep me in prayer, I am told that I am about to enter a new journey(smile).

Weekly Report

2009-01-09T06:19:00.001-08:00

It was a little hard getting back into the swing of things after the holidays; but we survived. Here we are in our new homeschool room finishing up Math. We added more vocabulary and dictionary skills. Our spelling and vocabulary usually goes for 2 weeks before we test. I will take the spelling words with the definitions and make a crossword puzzle and word finder. They will make flash cards for games so that they can drill themselves on the words and definitions. Then we will test on this. We used thank you cards for writing skills this week to thank the relatives for the gifts that were given for Christmas. History we are continuing with Ancients. We slacked on Science, the Science Teacher(Dad) had a couple of deadlines to finish, we will take this back up next week. We will have to make a trip to the library this week to replinish our books for reading. We will get back to our geography studies next week also. All in all a great week.

Tot School

2009-01-09T05:55:00.000-08:00

We are finally back in the swing of things. The big man was not quite ready to continue with letter and number recognition, so we scaled it back some and let him have a little more free time to play, build with blocks and color. Well, this new year has brought on the desire to learn(for this week at least). We started again with recognizing the capital letter A and the number 1. We read lots of books that he received for Christmas and also played with playdoh and shaped the number 1 and the letter A.

Here he is showing daddy all of the hard work he did this week. Can you tell he loves to take pictures?

New Semester/New Look

2009-01-06T06:10:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted a room specifically devoted to homeschool ever since the beginning, but simply did not have the space to do it. We have done school in the living room, and kitchen in our previous house. But we can now say that we have been blessed after our recent move into a home where we can have a room specifically for homeschool (YA!!!). Here are a few pictures of one side of the room, the other side still has a little clutter(still unpacking). There is also a sofa in the room, with an end table, I plan on puting a lamp over there and making it more of a reading nook. There are throw blankets to cover up with, I have a goose neck floor lamp packed somewhere that I will add over there for addtional lighting. We do have two windows also, so this gives great sunlight. Will post those pics once we get some of that stuff on that side of the room a new home(either in the garbage or give away). Hope you enjoy...

Here are different angles of the room, my lens is not wide enough to show the entire room. As you can see, we have two bookcases, one for assorted reading books and another for curriculum books. Also, a cabinet dedicated to notebooks, loose leaf paper and other supplies. I don't know if your house is like mine, but we have a pencil gremlin that seems to take pencils and such, so when school starts we are always looking for pencils. On top of each bookcase, there are small buckets dedicated to everything that we need, so we can easily put our hands on them...pencils, pens, crayons, markers, glue and even a bucket for nothing but erasers; on the other side of the buckets, where we can easily find them...3 hole punch, stapler and tape dispenser that holds regular scotch tape as well as double sided tape. This way the supplies are in plain view, and when they are getting low, I can simply refill them. Now excuses!

I am really thankful, this alone gives me a feeling a calm. God is so good, when I look at all of the things that we have accumulated, and still putting away in the house that we are currently in, I often wonder how on earth did we pack all of this stuff in the other house we lived in. I really do miss the quiet and out door space that we had in our country home, but where we are currently living my husband is able to have an office/studio, each child has their own room, we have a homeschool room as well; so God has truly blessed us this year.

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-01T21:25:00.001-08:00

The Lord has blessed, and we have made it to 2009. I am so grateful for the 3 blessings that have been given to me and my husband. It is our heartfelt prayer to draw closer to God and continue to lead our children by example into a closer personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Thank the Lord for our three blessings.

Were Expecting Snow

2008-12-11T15:50:00.000-08:00

I have not blogged in a long time, but what better way to get started again, than to add snow to my blog. How wonderful it will be for the kids tomorrow morning to see snow.

Tot School

2008-09-08T08:52:00.000-07:00

The big man(4 yr old) has gotten tired of the weekly letters, so we have changed things around and he is learning the letters a little more informally. He did a lot of coloring and playing with his army men(which he loves); also we added some sorting skills by letting him separate the different colors of army men. I found a great book that has puzzles in it, and he also does the puzzle that I found in the dollar section at Target. Also enjoyed lots of reading time.

Weekly Report

2008-09-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

Did not take any photos this week; in addition to the many hats I already wear, I added nurse last week due to hubby not feeling well. We had a great week, even though hubby was sick, we continued schooling. All the subjects went great. The schedule is working out great; separating the older two for math is working out fabulously. Completed timelines, science and geography, grammar, spelling and vocabulary. I had been purchasing separate vocabulary, but I happened upon a FREE crossword maker, word jumbler and more to enhance our spelling called Word Learner. It is really great, all I do is plug in the words along with the definitions in Word, then copy/past in the program and it creates the crossword puzzle and more(have to save money where I can).

Back on Track

2008-09-08T05:27:00.001-07:00

Well, I am back on track. I haven't posted in two weeks. Sweet hubby(child #4 he, he) has been very sick, so we have been schooling, but I haven't had much time to post what we have been doing.

Speaking of back on track... I have started walking again. I have decided, that it is a must that excerising is part of my "me time". I have some baby weight to lose(the baby is now 4 :-)). I must get more heart healthier. So I am going to post here every Monday to check in, and let this be my accountability for my "heart healthy progress".

Tot School

2008-08-13T14:49:00.000-07:00

Here is the big man learning the letter A. He finished out the day by going outside to help do a little collard green prep work.

New Beginnings

2008-08-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

I feel so blessed this school year. We are going into our seventh year of homeschooling, and I can say with a grateful, and thankful heart how God is leading us this year. God lead me back to Charlotte Mason this year through reading Cindy Rushton. In

times past I always picked the textbooks to use and the methods to incorporate and then ask God to bless my decisions. It is with great embarassment I must admitt that it never occurred to me to lay out my plans before God and ask Him if this is the direction He would have me to go. But praise the Lord, as I have been lead to many blogs through a dear southern sister Kysha at Love's School. God is leading and we have started our 2008-2009 school year with Jesus Christ first and foremost.

Here are my three M's. MacKenzie(grade 5), Matthew(grade 7), and Mason(pre-k). We actually started schooling again on Tuesday, but I am just figuring out my laptop, trying to do things without the dear hubby having to show me and take away from his work. And let's not forget the principal.