Letters From the Homefront

I have been patiently waiting to share my new venture in blogging with you, and the time is now! Al ong with  29 other wives and mothers, there is a new blog in town,born of the idea from Sarah Avila at  My Joy Filled Life . I can't tell you the honor it is for me to be a part of this blog, which focuses on large family living. Honestly, I never would have considered five children a 'large' family, although apparently it is to many others! I guess each child came one at a time, so it never felt 'large' to me. However, I am excited at the idea that maybe through the life we are blessed to have, with our family that God has given us, I might be used to be an encouragement to someone else. I would love to have you come look at the new blog, which is set to launch June 1! To find the blog, check out  Fruitful Families at www.fruitfulfamilies.com . To find Fruitful Families on facebook, go to  Fruitful Families on facebook . For a look at the Fruit...

Simplified, the kids and I learned about when energy makes a change from one form to the next.  As put in our BFSU book:  First, energy always remains a form of energy. It may be converted from one form to another; it may be stored in various ways and subsequently released.  Nebel, Bernard J. (2007-11-30). Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2 (p. 265). Outskirts Press, Inc.. Kindle Edition.  As I quickly read through this lesson, I wanted a visual way to show the kids about the relationship between the different forms of energy as certain circumstances bring about a change. I remembered this post from What Did We Do All Day , about making a quick 'on the fly' Venn Diagram, and was inspired.  (If it's hard to see, click the picture, and it should zoom in for you!) I wanted a way for them to connect the two energy forms that were changing, and this version of a Venn diagram worked well. Hoss ...

I had some fun with some 'real-life' grammar application a few days ago with one of the munchkins (and no, I don't mean this particular incident :) ) Miss Priss has been working on the noun family - Article, Adjective, Noun - and we played a little game the other day to get some practice seeing them in order, and concretely. I would write a 'secret message' on a slip of paper, fold it, and hand it to her. She had to read it quietly (or get help from a big brother or sister if it was a new word) and go find exactly what I wrote, and bring it back.  Then, she labeled the phrase with our printable grammar symbols.  We did this 8 or 9 times, and I tried to make sure that I reinforced the rules of singular/plural articles indirectly throughout our 'game', sometimes giving her nouns that I knew we only had one of in the house. I also was specific in the adjective, such as: RED plate, SMALL brush, PURPLE binder. (Please ignore ...

* WARNING - LENGTHY POST * A little peek at the odds and ends pictures taken over the last 3-4 weeks (has it really been a month since I've given a school days post? eek!) ~~~~~~ LM ~~~~~~ I don't always get a chance to get as many shots of LM working as I do with some of the others. I am usually working with some of the younger children, and she is working steady in some other part of the house (or reading, if she can sneak off and do that for a while!). A quick shot of Hoss and LM working together doing some *group work* in one of our BFSU science lessons. As I have read through CD's (Cultivating Dharma) Language Album, I try to catch any little gaps that maybe we haven't specifically covered in Language/Grammar and cover them. I have these singular/plural cards from Montessori Print Shop, separated by rule, and we reviewed each of the rules, one at a time.  We also used these for spelling words while reviewing them - she worked...

That pretty much says it all.......

It's giveaway time at Living Montessori Now! If you are anything like our family, you are always in need of something for your homeschool. Even if you don't homeschool, maybe you would just like more of an educational slant to toy options, or you have grandchildren who would love Montessori materials - or maybe you are even a Montessori teacher that could really use a replacement item (or two) in your classroom. If you are even more like me, you know that you are always working on a limited budget and could really use a great deal when you find one!  Right now, Living Montessori Now and Alisons Montessori have teamed up to offer you a great giveaway! Go to Living Montessori Now and enter to win one of 2, $100 gift certificates. The entry really is easy - it may seem overwhelming at first, but it only took me about 5 minutes, and gave me an excuse to sneak over to Alisons Montessori to drool over  look at their materials again.  So head over there now,...