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I Want to be a Veterinarian

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Weekly Wrap-Up/Homeschool Mother's Journal

This week went by too fast! That's because I was trying to plan out a birthday party for Miss M6 M7!! Yes, my baby girl is 7 now. I am still in denial from last year when she turned 6. I went all year still saying that she was 5.  

We had a Doctor Who themed party for her. I wasn't able to go all out like I wanted but we did have Dalek cupcakes & a *very* quick, last-minute-planned T.A.R.D.I.S cake. Apparently, I didn't think that 24 cupcakes were enough so I threw another box of cake mix in the oven & decorated it with leftover frosting. (Don't judge!) The cake wasn't even touched so we are saving that for tomorrow when it's her "real" birthday. Here's M7 with her new scooter from Grandma.

My father-in-law bought us a Nuwave Oven! It is so cool! We cooked chicken with potatoes & carrots in it last night & it was soooo delicious! I think we will be using this a lot!

• The week didn't start out all that great though. I had a lot of things on my mind & heart. You can read all about that here. 

• I wrote up my review of Keyboard Classroom. You can read about that here.

This is the last week of the Victorian Unit for J12. She will present her presentation to me by Friday. I cannot wait to see what she has come up with! That child is so creative. She wants to start on the Holocaust next so I need to start getting that ready.  

Hope you had a great week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Until Next Time,

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Keyboard Classroom {Review}

   We never really had a formal typing program for the kids. It was always just a free online game of some sort that they would play around with a few times. I remember taking a keyboarding class in high school & loved it so I wanted to find a way for my kids to have that same experience. That's when I found out about Keyboard Classroom.

    When the package came in we were all excited. J12 opened it & when they saw the finger guides they had a confused look on their faces! They wondered why we were sent disposable razors! The finger guides are neat because it helps them place (& keep!) their fingers on the correct keys. They are held in place on the keyboard by Velcro tabs so they can be removed when you're not playing doing a lesson.

 
    Now the funny thing is that L8 was the one who was most interested in using it! I was sent the single user license for the review, which normally sells for $39.95. You can buy multiple user licenses  - a dual license for $75, a 3-user license for $114.95, and a 5-user license for $199.75. All of these include the finger guides for FREE. If you would like to purchase the guides separate they are $15.

*Pricing Update - Due to reviews & customer feedback, Keyboard Classroom has changed their prices to be much more affordable to homeschool families! You can now purchase a Family Lcense for up to 5 users for only $49.95!

 
  After setting him up, he played a few lessons...I was shocked! Usually he only wants to get away with the bare minimum for school. Apparently someone has done something right with this program! He started out needing to type the alphabet to help get familiar with where they were on the keyboard.

 

There are a series of exercises that the student goes through to practice:

Typing Words

• Students practice typing a series of words, only passing that level by typing a set number of words correctly in each timed fluency session. As the levels increase, more difficult finger stretches are introduced. There are 30 levels of difficulty.

Typing Sentences

• Students type simple sentences designed to reinforce various finger stretch exercises. Each level of difficulty introduces one or more stretches and students cannot pass a level until typing a sentence accurately at target speed. There are 20 levels of difficulty.

Home Stretch

• These activities are designed to always bring the fingers back to the home keys, building the habit of maintaining the home position on the keyboard. There are 25 levels of difficulty.

Capital Stretch 

• Once a student masters several levels of Typing Sentences, they are ready to learn the use of the capital letter key. Capital Stretch helps to build the habit of using their pinkie finger on their right hand for capital letters.

    A fun thing that they did was to award the students with tokens that they can exchange for game time. Of course that was a hit with L8!! This makes him want to improve on his typing so that he will gain enough tokens to play a game. Also, Keyboard Classroom has a ranking system where the student starts out as a Cadet & then work up to a General. 

    My only complaint would be the price for more than one student. Since I have 3 children, I would want all of them to benefit from this program but I am not willing to pay $115! So in the meantime, only one can use it at a time & then we will start over with the next child. I also felt that M6's little fingers weren't ready for this so we will wait until next year for her. This gives plenty of time for L8 to finish his lessons & J12 time to start & finish hers. 

   Overall, I believe that we have found the right keyboarding program for all of us that we will continue to use!

Make sure to check out Keyboard Classroom's website for more info!

I Was Ready To Throw In the Towel! Then I Found This.....

   Do you see that image above? Yep, that was actually me a year & a half ago sitting in the ER because I swore I was developing asthma & having asthma attacks. The dr actually looked at me after asking about my home life, to which I simply replied, "I homeschool my 3 kids", & he gave me *that* look.  That "dingdingding...we have a winner!" look. Really? Seriously? Well...it looks like I'm on that same road again. :/

   I'm burnt out, done, throwing in the towel, & ready to walk out the door, down the road, & just. keep. going. Now, of course, I don't really mean that. But, with all of the stress of homeschooling, chores/cooking, bills, blogging, & just..LIFE...it's hard to not  feel this way.
     Now with this being my 8th year homeschooling, you would think I have all the answers & know exactly what I am doing. I don't & I don't think I, we, ever really will. Truth is, I feel like every year is the 1st year. Each year changes, each child grows older, & in turn, their learning styles seem to change. Don't get me wrong....I love homeschooling my kids but even if you absolutely love something, it doesn't mean that it will all be sparkles & rainbows.

    So, this morning I woke up, laid in the bed, & sighed. I didn't want to get up. I didn't want to start the day.   I. am. exhausted. I would lay in bed all day, forget about school, let the kids fend for themselves, forget about planning & blogging & printing, forget about cleaning & laundry.....

  

   So I pulled myself out of bed, made my coffee (which luckily I actually remembered to set up before bed last night!), opened my emails, & sitting right there in front of my face on my screen was exactly what I needed...an email from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine  with an article by Deborah Wuehler, TOS Senior Editor called,"I Quit!".

   I could not believe how perfectly timed this email was. I read the article with tears in my eyes feeling like this was written for ME. I know I have felt like this before & I have gotten through it & this was what I needed. Oh God, did I need this!

   We all need to know that how we are feeling is "normal". Even though it doesn't sound very nice, we also like to see that others feel the same way & go/have gone through the same things. There are so many types of families & situations BUT we all have stress. We all worry that what we are doing isn't enough for our family & for ourselves. We put ourselves last until we get to this point where we are ready to explode. BUT WE GET THROUGH IT.  Look for others for help, they won't know unless you tell them. Reach out to other homeschoolers even if it's just over the internet. We don't have to be face to face to feel the power of words of encouragement! And when you get out of this feeling of defeat, give those words of encouragement to those other moms, dads, grandparents, & caregivers who are struggling. Be their light in the darkness. 

    We can do this. We are strong. We were meant for this. 

   

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Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett - Travel the World for Less + Giveaway

Passport Geography on Sale and More!

It's the cheapest way to "travel" Europe with your family - and learn more about the home countries of many Olympic athletes too! Passport Geography studies are ALL on sale this week! Scout (Grades K-6) or Explorer (Grades 7-12) studies for France, Germany, Italy and the UK are just $5 each or buy a Combo (Grades K-12) for just $10. Sale runs through Saturday, 1/25/14, at midnight MST.

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Planning My Next Mini-Unit Study - Animals!

   So here I am, another week, another mini-unit. Last week was about the life-cycle of plants. This time, the next chapter in our Science book is about Types of Animals. Now since I am doing this unit with M6 & L8 I can just go with the basics for now & do a more in-depth unit with them at a later time. 

Some of the things covered in this section are:

• What is an animal?
• What are mammals & birds?
• What are amphibians, fish, & reptiles?

    This unit may take more than a week since I am going to get more in-depth with their history studies this week. We will be alternating each week between science & history so we (*I*) don't get burned out!

   My 1st step is to look through the chapter & see what each section will cover. Then I go to HomeschoolShare.com to see if there are any lapbooks covering any of these. Usually, I don't find one specific lapbook that covers all of the sections so I will then pull pieces I need from different ones. Also, some great places to look that have decent priced ones are AJourneyThroughLearning.com, Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett, & Knowledge Box Central. 

• WOW...my 1st search resulted in a ton of great lapbooks! Now to sift through them all!

   Doing a search for the specific subject & adding "unit study" or "lapbook" along with it works great. I use my Swagbucks search bar so I can get points for planning my unit studies!! woop woop!  You can find activities, crafts, books, videos, & tons of great ideas to go along with it!

Here is what I've found so far:

Animal Needs

• I just found this cute game to go along with the habitats lesson! 
• What Animals Need Graphic Organizer
• Exploring the Basic Needs Unit Study
• Animal Needs pdf (This one has a few lapbook pieces with it)

Mammals

• Mammals resources
• free Mammals lapbook!

Birds

• Birds resources
• Bird Characteristics

Amphibians & Reptiles

• Amphibians Unit
• Label Reptiles & Amphibians worksheet 
• Amphibians resources
• Reptiles resources
• Frog Life-Cycle printout & Label Me worksheet 
• Virtual Frog Dissection

Fish

• Free Fish Lapbook! 
• Fish resources

   Now it's time to collect & print all of these great finds that I want to use. I usually store them in a file folder that I will end up using for our lapbook. Each day, I will do a read-aloud from our book & then do a lapbook piece or activity that corresponds with that section!

Happy Planning!