Reading at The Griffiths Academy

Reading, Literature and Poetry are all part of our homeschooling too. But I didn't really have a set curriculum for them.

I have found a ton of great books at thrift stores, Half Price books and have even bought some online. So for reading I have assigned reading, were I pick a book for him to read. Usually a chapter book that I know he will enjoy reading. He has read The Hardy Boys, Star Wars, The Bridge to Terabitha (although he really did not like it so we switched to something else) and he has free reading where he gets to pick out his own book to read. These have been Diary of a Wimpy kid, Lego stories etc. Right now he is reading a Biography on Albert Einstein for assigned reading and The Strange Case of Origami Yoda for his free read.

For Literature we read together. We have read Peter Pan, Swiss Family Robertson, A Christmas Carol, Chronicles of Narnia, Shakespeare and more. We are currently reading Little Pilgrims Progress. We enjoy our reading time together. And I plan on doing this until he no longer wants me to or he graduates.

For poetry we read poetry together and talk about it briefly.

We have recently started using Easy Peasy all in one Homeschool for extra reading and are enjoying it. So far we are reading through poetry and answering questions about it. We are using level 5 Reading. I don't know if we will use it all year but we just might!

http://allinonehomeschool.com/     - Easy Peasy

Sometimes things don't go as planned!

I had every intention of getting up this morning and getting a lot done. Little did I know I would wake up with a sinus headache. I was in so much pain that I thought I was going to lose my cookies!

This was my list for today that I had planned yesterday:

All my normal daily chores
A full day of school for Gamer along with games and fun crafts
Clean out litter boxes
Laundry
Clean turtle tank and fish tank
Start dinner
Wrap a couple presents

So far I have not got any of this done. It has took all morning just to get rid of my headache. And I just don't feel very good. It is 12pm here and I still don't even have my shower done! On the up side the animals are fed, Gamer has gotten Reading and music done ( and that is probably going to be all the school we do for today), Gamer is dressed and has his chores done. It is still early and that is one of the perks of homeschooling, you can have light days. Because on a normal day we do a lot of school work.

Here is my new revised plan for today:

Lunch
Shower
Litter boxes
Laundry
Dinner
And hopefully Turtles and fish


If I can accomplish this new list then great. If not then there is always tomorrow! Sometimes things just don't go as planned and that is ok. Just do what you can and don't beat yourself up over the rest.

 

Today I defiantly need his strength !!!!!

Our First Year with Rod and Staff (Grammar and Spelling)

This is our first year ever using Rod and Staff, and we are loving it.

Grammar- I like how it is set up. The lessons just seem to flow nicely. They are a bit much if you try to do a lesson a day so we break it up and do a lesson in two days. and this helps review what we are learning. I have heard a lot of people say Rod and Staff is to much or to hard, I think it is because they are trying to do too much at one time.
 We are also a little Charlotte Mason, meaning we like shorter lessons because we learn more from them. So we try to only work on grammar for around 30 minutes at a time.

This is us working on grammar together. The Teacher book is bigger and has the student book plus answers and lessons in it. I know exactly what we are doing for each lesson.

We like that it has us diagramming sentences. It really has helped us understand sentence structure.

 Spelling- We like that it has all kinds of activities to help with spelling. Gamer likes to do spelling, crazy kid! He is pretty good at spelling and enjoys it. Sometimes we have tests , and sometimes we don't.

Gamer is doing his written practice by himself.


The grammar has an oral portion which you do together, and then written practice for him to do himself. And sometimes it will have review and practice that he does by himself and sometimes we do it together. It also has writing lessons which have been wonderful for Gamer and has helped him greatly.


The spelling has three different parts A,B,C and then I also have him write his words in cursive and print in his spelling notebook.

That about sums it up we like it so far and I can see us using it for the rest of his school years.

You can get Rod and Staff curriculum at ( affiliate link)
http://www.milestonebooks.com/list/Rod_and_Staff_Curriculum/

Gearing up for Christmas

I love Christmas!!! It is truly a magical time of year. I love the lights smells and sounds of the season. But most importantly I love the spotlight being shined on our savoir Jesus. I love that people are thinking about Him. I love the feeling of giving and all the extra time spent with family. And yes I decorate my yard and house, yes I have The Nativity scene and Santa's , reindeer , and Frosty! I have lights everywhere. We make cookies, cakes and pies. We drive around to look at Christmas lights. We love to sing Christmas carols and watch all the Christmas movies as we can. We love to read about Jesus and his birth and other Christmas stories.

 

 

 

I have not gotten my shopping done yet and I am not sweating it! It will get done, before Christmas and it will be wrapped and under the tree in time. This year I am determined not to let people or things rob me of my joy for Christmas. Christ lives in my heart and that is where my joy for Christmas is also , in my HEART!

 

The joy of this season makes me happy, and in this dark world, I need the light of Jesus and seasons that just make me feel good. So here's to you. Wishing you a Merry Christmas I hope you can see the light of Jesus and fell the warmth of the season too!

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.


Can I get am Amen!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-sugar-cookies/ - Sugar Cookie recipe

Updates :) And Thankgiving !

Ok so I forgot my password and was to lazy to look for it or reset it so yes its been awhile since I have posted. Sorry. I totally have a vision for this blog its just taking me awhile to get it going! Enough with the excuses already, right! Get on with the post! :)

We are doing great, Gamers leg is healing well, I have been doing fine, Have not heard from Jag for while he has been really busy, Trucker got a new job, Yeah! And so did Sweetie, Yeah again! So life is continuing. Husband is wonderful as always (most of the time (wink, wink).

We are currently on Thanksgiving Break, and getting ready for dinner with the family. This year Jag will not be able to make it home for the holidays. This is killing me! I have always wanted my kids home on the Holidays. But I am proud that he is selflessly serving his country.

Our Thanksgiving Menu:

Turkey (of course)
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes and gravy
Greenbean Cassarole
Rolls
Corn
Deviled eggs
Sweet Potatoes
Mac& Cheese
Cheese Ball and Crackers
Peanut Butter Pie
Pumpkin Pie

And what ever everyone else brings :)

This is our normal Thanksgiving dinner, would love to hear what you all make.

My Boys about 6 Thanksgivings ago One of my Favorite pictures of them <3

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Yummy-Sweet-Potato-Casserole/



I made this last year and it was awesome!

Psalm 9:1 I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

We have had a couple of Storms Blow In!

God never promised that it would always be easy or that it would always be stormy. What he did promise is to always love you and be there with you.










As you may already know  my son Jag broke his hand while he was in Texas (Army Man) he had to have surgery and we could no go to him and make sure he was ok.(AHHHH). But he was fine made it through surgery and has almost full control of his hand again. On July 5th my youngest son Gamer broke his leg trying to rollerblade, and our summer was pretty much over! Poor guy! But again he is doing fine. The bone is healing wonderfully ( God is amazing!!!)  he is learning to walk on it again and trying to build up his leg muscles ( he didn't use them for 9 weeks). And in the middle of all this the people leasing our house stopped paying and we had to make them leave. But yet again God will provide away! My oldest son Trucker got in to a small ( thank you Jesus!) accident in his semi (nobody was hurt, again thank you Jesus!)  and lost his job. You know us Mama's never stop worrying about their babies no matter how big they get or how far away they go.


 In the middle of all of this I got really, really sick. Like I couldn't get out of bed sick. I could do nothing kind of sick! I am going to spare you all the gory details (trust me it is embarrassing for me and you really don't want to know). I ended up in the ER and was admitted for 5 long days. Thankfully though the hospital was what I needed to get better.



Isaiah 40:29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak


I thank the Lord that he pushed my husband to get me to the hospital. I had lost a lot of body fluids and was not doing so well. They replaced my fluids and I had lots of tests done. To find out I have an autoimmune disease called Ulcerative Colitis. For some reason my body is attacking my large intestine. There is no cure, you take medicine to try and go into remission so you can live a normal life. There is also surgery to take out the area under attack but that is really a last resort. There is very little known on this disease. Doctors have no clue as to why it happens and really just guess at the medicine they give you.


Right now I am on steroids (yuck!) but I feel a whole lot better, it has taken a long time to get to this point and I am happy to be here. UC is something that really you don't want to talk about, and not a lot of people know what it really is, it is debilitating your life revolves around your symptoms when you have a flare up. I am putting my trust in the Lord, because I know he has this. And I am a firm believer in everything happens for a reason. I also believe that something good to glorify God will come of this. Do I know what that is ? No and I am ok with it.


    

Math

We use Alpha Omega's Lifepacs for math. We have used 2nd, 4th, Algebra 1, Algebra 2 (Trucker) and Geometry. We are currently using 5th this year. We used MPC for 3rd and Teaching Textbooks for Algebra 2(Jag).
We really like Lifepacs. Gamer really responds well to them. I did switch for 3rd and he did fine, but asked to comeback to Lifepacs. Now remember when I said that every child, family and situation is different, well this comes into play here. While this works great for my child it could very well for yours too, or it could not. I just want you to keep that in mind. (this post has affiliate links)












I am not getting paid by these publishers or have I been asked to review these for them. This is just one homeschooling mommas opinion about what we have used and what works for us. Lifepac is an independent learning curriculum. It is made for your child to be able to do with minimal help from parents. Now does that mean you hand it to your child and walk away? No not in the early grades. I would say Kn-3rd they need lots of interaction from parents, they have lots of questions and need lots of guidance.











 In 4th Gamer did a lot more on his own, but he still needed my help some. Now he is in 5th and is pretty much picking up his worktext and doing it. If he needs help or has questions of course I am there for him, but it is nice that it has trained him to get going by himself.

I am always amazed from one year to the next how much he learned and retained. So what do I like about Lifepac? I love the portability, the fact that he loves to pick it up and do it, the amount of information he retains.

How did I find it? I prayed about it and God lead me to it! Really ask and you shall receive!

Were can you find it? https://www.aophomeschooling.com/