Fall is here!

Ahh, my favorite season has arrived.  Sunday was Mabon or the autumnal equinox.  It's when the days shorten and air gets crisp.  Food is harvested and leaves begin to fall.  I've always favored the quiet of the night vs. the loud, brightness of the day.  Maybe that's why I sit out on my deck during the evening and night time more. Of course I love Halloween/Samhain. It's our favorite holiday in this house.  I look forward to celebrating it with all the color and smells of the season.  I hope to post some pictures of our projects and celebrations. 

Free Homeschool Resources

As I read posts on Facebook and other homeschool forum I am amazed to find how many homeschoolers that do not utilize all the free resources out there.  I thought I might mention a few that we are using in this post and then write about others in the past in a later post.

Having a high schooler we have to of course use some lecture material.  This can be expensive to purchase.  I did purchase US History lectures from The Teaching Company this year for T, on sale of course.  But for chemistry, algebra II and literature I've found some great free lectures and helps.

For chemistry and some literature I use You Tube a lot.  There are tons of free lectures and virtual labs that are well done.  It does take some time to weed out the bad videos but for the most part I have been extremely happy with what we have used, and I am picky.

One of my favorite set of videos on You Tube for lit is 60 Second Recap.  They are fun, informative
and just right to grab the readers attention.

Khan Academy is also a great source for math and science.  I use it to expand or further explain a subject in algebra II and chemistry.  Sometimes the original lesson just doesn't hit home.  So using a different approach or view of the concept is great.

I am planning another post with free resources I use for Poogie. Until next time...

First week hits and misses

First week of school is complete and so far we've only hit a few little bumps.  Those were mostly felt on Monday with all of us trying to adjust to so much new curriculum.  It happens just about every year but it still makes the first few days trying. 

So here is a brief list of our hits and misses...

For T pretty much every thing is a hit except...

DIVE Chemistry. 

Now I won't say that we will quit using it, but it won't be our main source.  I will use the labs to supplement our keeper curriculum which is Apologia.  T is just an Apologia kid.

For Poogie so far NO misses, but a few hits with new curriculum.
Hit #1, for language arts we needed something new.  Something other than Easy Grammar.  Poogie just didn't retain anything from it.  So I found these from JacKris Publishing.  It's called Growing with Grammar.  I, not only purchased GWG, but Soaring with Spelling and Vocabulary, Winning with Writing and Digging up Diagramming.   We love it.  It's simple and easy to use.  I can supplement with lots of things and still not feel overwhelmed.

 

 

 

Hit #2 is science. We went with a new science with a base in classical education.  So far we love it.  It is challenging, but fun.  It's called Elemental Science.  We love it.  The lesson plans are so easy to use and flexible.

 

 

 

Finally, Hit #3 is great because it is secular and it covers history and literature.  I've been wanting to try it for two years but was afraid we wouldn't like it.  Well, so far it has been fun and not stressful at all.   We are using History Odyssey Middle Ages Level 2.  I love the check lists and flexibility of this curriculum so much. 

 

 

If you have any questions about any of these, click the links or ask me.  Lesson plans are already complete for next week, so we will see how it goes.  Here's hoping.