Your Business Math Series

We recently came across this cute little math program called Your Business Math Series. It's not a complete math program, but my daughter loves it so much and is learning so much from it, so I knew I had to blog about it.. You can choose either a pet store, book store, or sports store.. Your child actually runs an imaginary store with ledgers, paying bills, filling orders, etc. etc.. It's awesome!! Check it out!!

Spelling Bee winner!

Monday was an exciting day for my 12yr old daughter! She won the school spelling bee ("school" refers to our homeschool group) and will now be moving on to the regional competition. If she wins that, she will advance to the state competition, and if she wins THAT, then she will go to the final competition.. The Scripps' National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C.!! She is VERY excited and we are VERY proud of her!!

Best Deal Ever!!

Look what I found on Craig's List!!!!



This is a conference table in perfect condition along with four chairs that were barely used! I got it all for $50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited! This set is actually worth nearly $1000! I just happened to get on Craig's List to look for a table right when this was posted. So weird because I never visit that site, but here was the exact table and chairs of my dreams, like it had just been posted just for me! I almost fell over when I read the price!

It fits so nicely in my school room....



I think I'm in love... *sigh*

Creating with Adobe Premier Pro

So I made this video last year for a Christmas gift for some family members and thought I would finally get around to sharing it here. It took many weeks to make. I first had to find a song, gather and capture all the right video clips. Edit the clips' speed and duration, remove sound, and then decide where each clip should go in the song. It was trial and error from start to finish. But it was fun and I plan to do more soon.

Proud parents of a new baby....

Ferret!!! Yes, apparently, Daddy thought we didn't have enough ferrets. He got me a new little baby girl for my birthday. Her name is Pepper and she is a doll at 9 weeks old! Just a little baby and so energetic and playful. LOVE HER!!

More on workboxes....

I thought I needed to show some better close-up shots, so I'm posting about workboxes again! I have rearranged the schoolroom and the workboxes are now under the whiteboard...





Here is a close-up of my 3-year-old son's workboxes...



Examples of what would go in a 3-year-old boy's workboxes???
Legos
A book to read with mom
Playdough
Color Wonder
Scissors and paper with curvy lines to cut
Lacing beads
Stickers and paper and a couple of crayons
Math manipulatives
Blocks and a small toy dog with instructions to build the dog a house
Magnetic letters (only the ones that are in his name) and a magnetic tray with instructions to spell his name
Pom poms and tweezers and cups
A bowl of dry beans with funnels and spoons
Moon Sand
Toy cars and empty paper towel tubes
An easy puzzle
An old workbook and a pencil for him to doodle in and feel like he's doing school
Cup of water and paintbrush and a wall
Magnets with paperclips, nuts, bolts, and some non-magnetic things to get him thinking
An educational computer CD

Plenty of stuff to keep him busy from day to day while big sisters get their work done. And by the way, they are REALLY getting their work done these days! The 8yo has told me repeatedly how much she LOVES this system over any other system I've ever implemented. I think they will probably take their workboxes with them to college, hee hee!

Moving on....

This is a close-up of my 6-year-old daughter's schedule strip..



I have made many, many activity cards to go on the strips... Here they are in disarray... There are velcro dots on the back of these. They stick right onto the schedule strip...



And here are my "Note from Mom" cards. These are laminated so I can write on them with a dry erase marker and reuse again and again. When I need to give specific page numbers or other input, I just use one of these and it greatly eliminates the extra questioning while I try to work with other children.



This is what the children do with their finished numbers and activity cards. When they finish a workbox or activity, they remove that card from their schedule strip and put it on this number grid..



And finally...

Here is where their completed work goes. If it's too big to fit in these drawers, then it goes in a large bin sitting next to the drawers..



Many of these ideas and resources came from the workbox yahoo group. If you are interested in setting up workboxes in your homeschool, I highly recommend joining the workbox yahoo group! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/workboxes/

That's it! That's our workbox system in more detail. And have I said how much I LOVE how it's going?? Tune in next week when I'll blog about our portable workbox system. We take our portable system to the library three days a week while we wait for daughter #3 at her Autism school. It's too far away for us to drive back home, so we take school to the library! FUN!!! The kids LOVE doing school at the library!

The Birthday Boy!

My only boy is now 3 years old! Look what he got for his birthday....



It's just a small battery-powered bike, but his sisters are certainly learning to stay out of his way!



And just a little interesting FYI... This is the first time I have EVER had a 3-year-old and not either been pregnant again or had a newborn! Wow!!!