M's writing today

Today, M was supposed to write a sentence using words that end in "y".

This is what she wrote (dictated).

There was a bunny that lived in Daisy Valley. She never got bored. There was so many things to do. She had all the flowers to pick. She had all the animals to play with and talk to. There was busy, dizzy bee. There was dizzy, busy grizzly bear. There was Sammy the mouse. She had so much to do it made her cry.

Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books, by Mark B. Thogmartin

I found this book when my 12 year old was a baby, and loved it. I planned on using it to teach G, but the teaching style did not fit her learning style. Then I used it with L, who liked the reading part, but not the writing part.

Today I started using it with M and we are both excited. Here's the method in a nutshell. The parent picks at or above level reading books for the child to read. Then the parent picks a phonics pattern that is in the book to discuss with the child. The parent and the child list other words that have the same pattern. The child then writes a sentence using a word from the list.

There is a little bit of parent preparation, but I find it is worth it. The book includes easy-to-use record keeping and lesson plan forms. Also, there is a list of books arranged by reading level.

I only used it with L for about 3 months and he made tremendous progress. Then I just had him read books to me for his reading lesson.

We'll see how long I will use it with M. My next post will be her writing from the first lesson.

Mike Huckabee quote

I just saw this on the news. When Mike Huckabee was walking out of First Baptist Church of Orlando, as news reporter asked him, "What about support from mainstream America?"

Mike replied, "This is mainstream America."

Love it!!!!

My Grandma's birthplace

This is the house I wrote about earlier. The house where my Grandma was born, married, and had her first child. My Grandma is 90 years old and says she is happier than she has ever been. She gives all the glory to God and she is such an inspiration to me. In the picture, she is sitting in front of the original front door of the house. The front porch has been closed in so the door is inside now.
My girls are standing next to the child's drawing on the wall that the workers found when they tore off all the old wallpaper. It is a drawing of a house and some childish scribbling. The family thinks that my grandma may have been the artist since she is the youngest child.
My great grandfather owned the local newspaper and this small room was originally where the newspaper assistant slept. The bathroom was outside then, of course.

Later, all five children put their money together to buy their parents the sink. It was put in down low to accomadate the children of the family. The tub is low, too. Before the tub, all the girls took a shower under the back porch. The boys took a bath in the lake once a week on Sunday. The shower and the lake are still there.

Merry Christmas !!!!

The baby Santa is my precious nephew. We had fun dressing the cousins up as Santa. My nephew has a two year old brother who was supposed to be wearing the bigger Santa outfit, but we couldn't get him to cooperate for a photo.

The other picture is the one I wanted to send out for Christmas, but I had problems getting the picture to print correctly.

December Birthday Girl

My three girls celebrating M's 6th birthday.

Finding God at Sea World

1. Enjoying beautiful weather

2. Watching parents take care of their kids at the Happy Harbour

3. Seeing the leafy sea dragon

4. The Shamu show( If you changed the words Mother Nature to God)

5.The Shamu show (if you changed the idea of believing in yourself to believing in God)

6. My healthy two year old sleeping soundly in her stroller

Language is her playground.

Six year old M has always loved words. Rhyming words, rhythmic expressions, colorful word pictures all seem to just flow from her mouth. I've always said that she has no greater joy than to carry on a conversation.

So I was not surprised when...

In her kindergarten curriculum, she was supposed to read a list of words every lesson. As she read a word, I made a sentence with it. Well, she took over and started making sentences for the words as she read them. Then the sentences turned into pararaphs. The paragraphs turned into stories that incorporated more than one word in her list. The stories were usually funny or emotional.

At first, I was trying to hurry her to get through the list, but then I just sat back and let her enjoy herself. I ended up enjoying myself listening to her.

And guess what, we made it through the list in what seemed like no time. Time flies when your having fun!!!

Our favorite Christmas gifts

L- ( Besides the silly string in his stocking) The month subscription to Toontown that he bought with some Christmas money

G- Dream Life( a t. v.plug in game)

M- an art set


O- The toy shopping cart and the "pink" baby

Me- being the mom of kids that are content with what they got

You know you are a homeschool family when...

Your 2 year old looks at a picture of a sphinx and a pyramid and says, " That is from Egypt. And we didn't talk about that when we played that game last night."

She was right. We had played the Amazing Race the night before and Egypt was not one of the destinations.

I'm not sure how she knows about Egypt. We studied it a little last year. I'm guessing it must have been in a book we read recently. I'm not sure.


Life in a homeschool family. I guess next my six year old will be a surgeon!!