FPEA 2012 Lessons Learned

Here is a lengthy post, but worth it!

This is my fourth year attending the FPEA Convention, first year as an ambassador and first year attending workshops. It was always encouraging every other year, however this year was plagued with many doubts about myself in many areas of my life.

1) Am I doing anything right?
2) Will I be able to do this with my super disobedient child (Logan)?

God continues to affirm many aspects in our decision to homeschool our boys even when I allow my sinful nature attack me. So, I have to give a shout out to Christopher Hopper from Spearhead Books.

You know those moments when you say something to someone and it was exactly what they needed to hear. Well, that was Chris for me on Friday. God showed me grace in that moment through our meeting. It was clarity. Clarity in more than one area of things I was accomplishing, but I was not giving myself any slack.

Clarity given by complete strangers.

Clarity from brothers and sisters in Christ.

Things I Absorbed:

Workshop: Raise Them Up, Don't Crush Them Down" The Strong-Willed Parent with Mark Hamby
Lamplighter Publishing
*Stop trying to finish the curriculum but to teach Biblical Character. (read about my biggest challenge here)
*It's not about what you keep away from your child, but what you pour into them.
*You cannot lead your family from the rear. You must lead by example.
*"You cannot control anything when you have outstretched arms."  -the cross- with grace, you will get nailed. Grace given freely will cost you to give.

Books I purchased after this workshop:
- "Teddy's Button" (book only) - a character builder in self-control... what six year old doesn't have this problem.

- "Sir Malcolm and the Missing Prince" - this builds on combatting selfishness... what PERSON doesn't struggle with this?

-"Little Threads" - a lesson on disobedience and unwillingness... I'm not sure how this book was written in 1863. I am almost certain that this author is living in my home! I already started reading it because a helpful man by the name of Roger told me how encouraging it would be for me and my fight with my unruly two year old. NO JOKE! EXCELLENCE!

If you LOVE Classical Literature like this English major, you will eat these books up. It's beautiful! The icing on the cake? They are written by Christian authors always turning back to the Creator of all things.

Workshop: "Proverbs: God's Character Curriculum" with Rick Boyer
The Learning Parent
*Through King Solomon we learn that the wisest man knows things from Botany to Music to Government, yet his first words in his book of wisdom... "To know wisdom and instruction... righteous, justice, knowledge..."
*We learn to be more profitable servants when we put Christ as our front in character.
*An educated fool is more dangerous than an uneducated fool.
*Knowledge separated from wisdom is apart from God's will.
*If your child wants to learn something, you must learn it, too.

Keep reading for what I got from here.

Workshop: "Gotta Love Those Preschoolers" with Marilyn Boyer (wife of Rick)
The Learning Parent
*Savor the Season
-the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world
-look for the preciousness of the season
-a preschooler is a bundle of potential
-You are raising a child (generation) to follow Christ.
IF YOU'RE GOING TO HOMESCHOOL YOU NEED TO BE HOME!
*Nurturing a heart for the Lord
-Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
-"thou seest me..." Psalm 115:13
*Build a sense of destiny in your child
-"God made _____ in a special way, for a special purpose."
-instill a sense of vision in prayer
*Build a Foundation of Character
-Maximize your time... it could be short...
-systematic teaching of character qualities- character does matter- It's foundational to living a God-honoring life.
-teach the meaning of character qualities in simple language
-Character is the most important subject.
-Teach scripture where the negative character can be positive
GOD'S WORD IS WHAT WILL CHANGE NEGATIVE BEHAVIOR NOT YOU!
REMEMBER TO POINT TO SCRIPTURE AS  OUR AUTHORITY AND GUIDE.
*Teach Responsibility at an early age (chores, etc)
*Include your preschooler in teaching time
*What do I do with them while teaching?
-lace and trace
-paint
-pegs
-more on this with the next workshop
KEY- HAVE ALOT OF ACTIVITIES, CHANGE OFTEN
*Remember to have fun (give 15m sections of time to have mommy time of learning)
*Growing a Servant's Heart
-Those who learn to be servants will become leaders.
*Foster Patriotism
*DELIGHT IN YOUR KIDS
*How you manage them brings success to school

Logan is my disobedient child. He is the boy that laughs in your face when you do correction. Marilyn really put things into perspective for me in this session. As a result I bought two books. They are Character Builder books. You learn the character, it's definition, and the scripture of support. This is our CORE curriculum for my unwilling two (soon-to-be three) year old.

Books I purchased after this workshop:
"Character Trails" and "Crossroads of Character"

Workshop: "Occupying Pre-Schoolers While Teaching Older Children" aka "Educating, Involving,  Occupying ONLY WHEN NECESSARY While Teaching Older Children" with Jami Phillips
My Father's World
*Is. 40:11 Anything worth doing is hard!
*Reading Levels: Pre-Reading ---> Learning to Read ---> Learning to "Love" to Read ---> Learn by Reading
*Learning to read is the most important phase that needs the most instruction.
*What every toddler and preschooler needs:
-meet emotional and social needs
-devote your first 10-15m of the day to schooling them
-have a flexible routine, prepare snacks and drinks before the start
-expect them to want to prepare for school like the others
*Involving little ones as much as possible, some ways this can done:
-unit studies
-Bible activities
-History
-Arts and Crafts
*Creative Scheduling
-schoolbox for school time (let them decorate)
-strategic naptime
-learning centers
-read aloud
-toy rotation
*Educating Little Ones
-shapes & color starter
-peg stacker
-numbers
-lace & link letters/shapers
-kids puzzles
-pattern blocks
-pipe cleaners
-legos
-play doh
*Pre-Reading: Stages of Learning to Build-On
-Ages 2-6
-Structure and security
-Educate and Involve
-15-30 minutes daily
-very concrete learners
-like repetition
-mimic oriented
-foundation oriented instruction (4-5 subjects)
-focus on obedience
*Set-Up a School Box
-Target Areas: pre-reading, pre-math, language development, large motor skills, fine motor skills
-new items
-used, but looking new items
-created, but simple (junk mail to open, photo book with magazine cut outs of a topic [animals, etc], pipe cleaners, magna-doodle, nuts & bolts, mat (toys must stay on there to play with)
*School Time
-worksheets that siblings have (maps, etc)
-EXPOSURE VS MASTERY
*Training Mentors for the Younger Ones- allows the older child to teach and learn about their sibling

I bought a foam ABC board lower and upper case, a lace board, and color & shape sorter.

Knowledge from the workshops. More to come in another post about what will come into play for our school year.

FPEA Ambassador & Why we love FPEA

This Thursday starts Florida's largest Homeschool Convention done by the FPEA. At the beginning of this year I became their ambassador for Twitter. If you live in Florida, you should consider joining us as we celebrate 25 years! If you can't...

There are a couple of things to check out. It is really what makes them an amazing part of our homeschooling journey.

FPEA Convention Mobile App

Getting Started Guide with 6 easy steps

Myth Busters in Homeschooling

Guide to Homeschooling (one of my personal favorites & free to download)

This is really just a small portion of what they offer homeschool families in Florida. Their website is full of knowledge to get you through your homeschool journey. Browse around even if you don't live in Florida you may find many of their things valuable to your schooling. You can learn more about our homeschool ride here. 

Here's what's coming in First Grade

We have had a great time in our first year of schooling at home, and now that first grade is coming this fall I have been planning away. In our Homeschool Co-op, many of the moms are doing FIAR for their core curriculum while matching it with Galloping the Globe.

Two years ago, my husband and I bought the Galloping the Globe bundle, and after seeing how our co-op was doing their program I realized very quickly how I was going to set up first to fourth grade for Luk. The beautiful thing about this is that Logan can tag along with the maps, books, and worksheets we are doing. 

I had to find something that included Logan into our day because right now he was a distraction wanting to sit on his brother's lap to do the work. Since he is two, I found it hard to fit him into what Luk and I were doing this year. I never imagined that he wanted to be so involved in the formal aspect of our day, but he does. So, here we go teaching a six year old and two year old with the same work. The expectation is for him to have fun doing what his brother is doing, and who knows maybe he will become a geography wiz! ;)

I haven't see many sites showing how they link FIAR with GTG, just that they do. Here is what our month-to-month looks like following the books from FIAR to the countries of GTG.

AUGUST 13-31:

Introduction to Geography

Bible Verse Copy work

"How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World" (week 1)

Prince Henry the Navigator (week 1)

Explode the Code

Writing Prompt: "If I were an Explorer"

Right Start

Considering God's Creation Lesson 2 (week 1)

Make a Paper Mache Globe (this will be labeled and pinned throughout the year)

Label Map

Bible Verse Copy work

"Katy and the Big Snow" (week 2)

Ponce De Leon (week 2)

ETC

Writing: Making a funny story

RS

Real Science for Kids "Butterflies" and Insects (week 2)

Butterfly Garden Kit/Make a Big Snow on the Map

Maps, Charts, and Graphs Book B

Bible Verse Copy work

"Miss Rumphius" (week 2)

Christopher Columbus (week 3)

ETC

Alphabetize the Explorers List

RS

Human Body

Field Trip- MOSI Mummies

Each Month we will do "Children Like Me," Finding Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives, Country Facts, Who's Famous, Vocabulary sheets, and Book It! Daily Reading (refrigerator reminder).

Also, during the countries we will cook recipes, reading about missionaries in the area with two books, looking at historical figures, Zoo and Aquarium Guide. 

Here is the World Map we use.

One last thing, for each country we will be visiting Compassion International's website to pray for some of the children in that country that will find sponsors. If you don't know Compassion, you must! It is an amazing organization with a sponsorship program. Luk will get to meet one of our sponsor children, Smith in October. Peru with my son, husband, and church! We can't wait! 

More to come...

"A Jesus Advent Celebration" by Ann Voskamp

At the Homeschool Convention this past May, I bought Binding Books Beautifully Kit. I had seen the kit the year before, and I had talked to my husband about it. So, we bought it this year. I have yet to make a book yet, however when I came across this Jesse Tree Advent Devotional "A Jesus Advent Celebration" by Ann Voskamp I knew I need to bound this thing. It is free with subscribing to her updates (which is free, too). Here blog, A Holy Experience is one of wonderful experiences shared, and how she and her family celebration their traditions. The other beauty to this book is the pages that talks about Compassion, and the gift of giver verses receiving. The devotional is 80 pages long with eight pages that have the ornaments you need for your Jesse Tree.  What I love most about this project was that I can see it being something that my boys will want to continue with their families as they become adults.

Binding Kit

The Pages

Pages are divided into equal parts. The pages are put into the BBB wooden binder tool. 

The directions in certain areas are a bit ambiguous, but like I told my husband, "They expect us to be smart with this!" =D We started by only doing every other nail because the space is just close enough to make it difficult to hammer it straight.

The pages need to be clip on the other side for the process after this.

Once it is all nailed. The nails need to come up, and the holes will be perfect to sew.

Reson did the first half while I began sewing the bottom half of the pages.

Here is where the directions are quite ambiguous again. You need to savvy in reading/looking at picture to figure out the sewing pattern. I used a crochet thread for this because I knew that it was going to be a big book. When doing a smaller book you can use dental floss or thread doubled.

Another area that seemed vague was the book cover. I recommend you doing AFTER you have sewn the pieces together. We did it before and it was too big even though we measured it. So, do it afterward, and you will get better results.

Book Board (not card board) with a spine.

This was the most time consuming part. If you look closely you will see next to the white paper that there is masking tape. that space is where the needle goes through to connect the pages to the cover. It was very tedious and time consuming being it such a large book. Reson and I joked that the directions say to do your first book small, but why do that when you can do it BIG! LOL.

Here she is all done:

The beauty of this book is how you learn that the story of Christmas came from the very beginning when there was a universe of nothingness. It is beautifully written and deserved to bound. I hope that this will be a wonderful keepsake for our family. I want it to be a tradition that my boys will grow to cherish doing year after year. Here is our Jesse Tree with the ornaments that we have done so far. Today we went over December 3.

The Story of Christmas

We don't do Santa at our house, and guess what it doesn't ruin Christmas! Amazing! Luk knows the story of St. Nicholas, why there are Santas in malls, etc. We still enjoy the Santa movies and the spirit that the Santa story brings. We just have chosen not to do the pretend thing. We are open and honest with Luk about everything else, why would we start "lying" now with something so big that could last years. Yes, "lying" is a harsh word, but in truth that is the correct word. I was told about Santa. I have no problem with those that do. I respect that decision, and we tell Luk regularly not to share this fact with others especially when there are children around.

With that, I get daily newsletter from a wonderful website called iMOM. It gives some great insight to situations, resources, and tools to dealing with being a Christian mom. This is mom site to Tony Dungy's All Pro Dad, Family Minute, and Family First. Today, they gave resources to The Story of Christmas, and I was on top of it. The figures are playful and professional looking. The story is straight from scripture. The best part is it's free.

 Speaking of telling Luk all about truth... I will have to post later today what happened when we discussed that women need men to have babies. Yep, that one was fun. =) This is were I have to make it very clear that truth in moderation and age oriented is very important. LOL

Lapbooks

I had a friend ask me what sites I use for Lapbooking, and the truth is there are many, however I figured I would post the direct Lapbook sites. I do use some other educational sites and my own thoughts when I don't find exactly what I am looking for.

These are the free sites:
http://www.lapbooklessons.com/FreeLapbooks.html

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/alphabet_notebook.php

http://www.squidoo.com/lapbook-resources

http://www.filefolderfun.com/index.html

http://www.lynns.lapbooklessons.com/

http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks.htm

http://www.thehomeschoollounge.com/

http://dynamic2moms.webs.com/

Pay for packages with a whole lapbook kit:

http://www.tobinslab.com/lapbookspage

http://www.handsofachild.com/shop/


The following are two blogs that I love looking at, and they both have lapbooks for good examples of what to put in yours.


Mama Jenn

Confessions of a Homeschooler

Review and Giveaway by Heidi

Review and Cart Giveaway
 Check out this site where you can enter in to win this...

Free Phonics and Handwriting Books

Here is a great site that is free. You have to register, but then you download the books and print. I am going to be trying these with Luk. I think that he will enjoy them. Great for all ages. Take a look...

Progressive Phonics

Tell me what you think...