Winner!

-By Michelle

 Things have been a little quiet around here. Winter is definitely wearing us all down and all I can think about are my Spring and Summer activities.

Today has been a normal day in some respects, but it feels a bit more special because it's my birthday! I have always loved having a February 12th birthday. It has always felt like a better than average day to have a birthday. First of all my favorite president was born on this day, Abraham Lincoln. And, I have my very own personal holiday just 2 days away on Valentines Day.

It just makes my birthday feel more festive. What is also festive, is this opportunity to announce the winner of the Memoria Press 1st Grade Enrichment Guide. I had a lot of fun running this giveaway and plan to do more very soon! Congratulations to our winner!!!

Memoria Press Giveaway!!!

Last school year (2012-2013) I was looking for a literature rich curriculum for my Kindergarten age son. I wanted something "like" Five in a Row but something that was more laid out for me and not quite so open ended. After looking at every literature based Kindergarten program and not being satisfied with any of them, I found just what I was looking for in an unlikely place.

I had always thought of Memoria Press as a schoolish classical curriculum that certainly didn't line up with my Charlotte Mason tendencies. But they had just come out with a new Kindergarten program and it had a very intriguing Enrichment portion written into the Teacher's Guide. It scheduled tons of beautiful, engaging picture books like Five in a Row.

They used their main book for the week as their theme to teach History, Science, Art, Literature, Poetry and Music. Sometimes their were additional books scheduled or I could add my own since the schedule was so doable.

At that time, in order to get the Enrichment schedule, you had to purchase their Teacher's Guide which included all their subjects including Math, Memory Work, Reading Lessons, etc... It was a great deal at only $30. I purchased it and rewrote it in my lesson planner, only copying the parts I wanted to teach and adding in anything additional I wanted. Here is what their planner looks like:

It worked out beautifully for the first year. I had Art Prints made by finding their images online and printing them as photographs at Walgreens. Each week I would introduce the new print to my son and he would keep them in a photo album. He loved to look over all the ones he had already learned and recite each one by name and artist. I was amazed how he learned them all.

I was excited to start the new school year using Memoria Press' again, but them MP went and upped their game coming out with new Enrichment Guides that take all that wonderful information and expand it with even more wonderful information.

Now each weeks lessons include:

• Read-Aloud Book overview which gives you a heads up what the story will be about. 
• Information about the Author & Illustrator
• Discussion ideas before you read. 
• Vocabulary to use as you see fit.
• Picture Reviews and Comprehension questions. 
• After you read questions. 

Just like Five in a Row, you'll read your story book each day so you can spread these activities out over the week. Here are scan's of this Part 1 of the guide using the book Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. 

On the next two page spread, you have Social Study & Science Readings and hands on activity suggestions. Sometimes their are additional book selections. I often like to get additional books for these categories. I have no trouble finding them by looking on Amazon.com for suggestions and then requesting them from my library. 

You'll also find the art section here and it has been greatly expanded. Each week has always had an Art Print to study, but now they also include detailed information about the artist and discussion notes about the print. On top of that, they also sell beautiful, high quality Art Cards now for $9.95! I like to hang mine up on a string for display. I still get the photo cards from Walgreens for my son's photo album. 

Next up is music. Each week has a wonderful selection of classical or patriotic music for the children to listen to. What I have been doing since last year, is looking on YouTube for the weeks selection. I am often able to find wonderful videos that showcase an actual orchestra playing the piece in which I am able to also discuss with my son the different instruments and parts of the orchestra. Here is an example:

Here is a little tip I learned recently. If you want to protect your children's eyes from the additional videos that pop up before and after the video your trying to watch, just put the word "quiet" in front of youtube.com. So the address for this video would be: http://www.quietyoutube.com/watch?v=gElTKhbnQxU Check it out to see what I mean. 

Finally, their is poetry. The guide schedules poems from Eric Carle's Animals, Animals:

or A Child's Book of Poem's by Gyo Fujikawa

This is a precious time and the Teacher's Guide includes discussion questions to ponder. Here is what Part 2 looks like of Week 1 that uses the book Mrs. Spider's Tea Party.

So today I am so excited to say that I am teaming up with Memoria Press to giveaway a brand new copy of their 1st Grade Enrichment Guide! I hope you are excited to give the wonderful program a whirl. As of right now, Memoria has published these guides for grades K & 1st but I wouldn't be surprised if more were in the works. This giveaway ends on February 12th, my birthday! Enter today and please share this with all your homeschool friends!

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Chicken Coop Plans

By Michelle

I can't even begin to express how completely satisfied and excited I am about finding the perfect chicken coop for my flock size and budget. I found it over on Fresh Eggs Daily blog. I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted but for one reason or another, every coop I saw was a no-go. This one costs about $250 to build, has plans so I don't have to guess the dimensions, has plenty of ventilation, holds up to 12 chickens (I'm only getting 6) and has tons of charm.  I am looking forward to decorating it with my own color scheme and signage. I posted a link below where you can get your own plans should you want to build one too!

Chicken Coop Plans

Don't worry I didn't forget about the giveaway. I am still working on the post and you should expect to see it later today!

Cluck Cluck & an Announcement

By Michelle


As I said in my last post, I am finding myself thinking more and more about homesteading. That old dream has resurfaced out of the back of my heart and has got me making plans for this summer… Big plans.

Besides having another garden, I have decided to try out something that I started but was unable to complete a few years ago. CHICKENS! I have started back to researching all things chicken and I really think I'll be much more successful this second time around.

First off, I plan on building a really nice coop with the help of my power tools and oldest daughters boyfriend. Also at this point, their are even more books on the subject of Urban Chickens than their were a few years ago when I gave it my first shot. Something else that is available now is Pinterest, which opens up a whole new world of ideas.

I am debating on if I'll recycle a piece of furniture to build my coop or build it from scratch. I am also trying to decide if I'll put the coop in my garage with the run outside or if all of it will be outside. With the Ohio winter we are currently having, I would be very worried about the birds surviving if I had them this year.

I will be ordering 5-6 hens from Murray McMurray Hatchery, probably in April, and I might just drive down and pick them up myself. It is only a few hours from where I live and it could be a fun outing. I am still trying to decide which kind of hens I'll get so I'll show you some of my favorites.
 

Black Australorps

Golden Laced Wyandottes

Silver Laced Wyandottes

Buff Rocks

Light Brahmas

Barred Rocks

Rhode Island Red

Aracanas / Ameraucanas (Easter Eggers) Blue Eggs

Next time I'll give you some of my favorite books on Urban Chickens and some of my ideas for our backyard coop. In the meantime, I wanted to share with you a blog I stumbled across that I love! It is Ohio Thoughts and if you are at all interested in homesteading, you'll love it too. 

OK Announcement time! 

Tomorrow we are launching our very 1st Giveaway here on BarnWood Girls! It is something all the homeschool mama's will want. Don't forget to check back as we give away this Awesome GIFT!!!

Order Your Seeds

It's almost time to order your garden seeds!

A few years back I was on a huge "Back to Basics" kick and I whipped out all the goodies…

• I bought a wheat mill and started grinding my own wheat flour & baking bread.
• I dug out the entire area behind my garage and planted a full on garden.
• I bought chicks and attempted to build a coop. 
• I started woodworking and bought a whole slew of tools. 
• I began sewing more clothes. 
• I tried to buy a portion of a cow. 

I had my ups and downs with all these and I am still very drawn to each and everyone of these activities, but life changed and they all fell away. However, I learned a lot and I continue to learn more.

One day I hope to live on a small piece of land and have a much more sustainable lifestyle, but for now I'll just have to continue to learn on my little city plot, adding in the different activities slowly as I have time.

This year I am planning on trying gardening again. So today I have a bunch of great resources to share with you that may help you on your own journey. I would love to hear about your favorite books, video's and catalogs so please leave me a comment below!

Teach Children to Love the Garden is the blog of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. You'll want to request their free catalog. If you're not familiar with GMO's, you'll want to do an Internet search on that topic. This catalog is committed to providing you with traditional, God designed Heirloom seeds, not FrankenSeeds. So ORDER this catalog!

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills is an old book, but updated Reader's Digest book. 

The Encyclopedia of Country Living is a classic and in it's 40th Anniversary Edition. It is one of those authentic books written from true experiences. It is so huge, you'll likely read a bit here and there and never get through the whole thing. 

All-New Square Foot Gardening is an alternative form of gardening that is a really easy and successful method. 

Starter Vegetable Gardens: 24 No-Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens is a new book for me but seems to hold loads of potential. It is one I'll be checking out of my library soon. 

The Ultimate Step-by-Step Kids' First Gardening Book can help you make this a learning experience for the kids as well. What better way to spend a summer?

How about a few more fun ideas?

Happy Gardening! Hopefully I'll be sharing chickens and coops with you in the near future!

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Choosing the Perfect Curriculum for your Homeschool

-By Michelle

Last September you were probably all excited about the start of the new school year with the new curriculum that you had searched for since February. You did your research by visiting message boards and yahoo groups and talked to the actual users who loved the program. You were convinced that you had finally found the program that you were going to use for the rest of your homeschool years and if you had the money, you would buy the entire remaining years of curriculum they offered and be done with it. You were that sure.

The first few weeks had its issues, but there is always a learning curve with new programs right? But, by Christmas you are thrilled for the break and by January you are dreading starting back to school, so the search begins all over again. 

This time you are not going to leave anything to chance so you do a search to determine what your teaching philosophy is, whether it be classical, traditional, or possibly Charlotte Mason to name a few.  In my case, I lean towards Charlotte Mason. So you go to the all the message boards and you ask for all the Charlotte Mason curricula that is out there and you learn about…

• Charlotte Mason Help
• Ambleside Online
• Living Books Curriculum
• Heart of Dakota
• My Father's World
• etc…

So you begin researching, and one strikes you a little better than the others. Then you begin researching, asking questions and you feel like you have asked a lot of good questions. You've looked over the samples extensively and you feel confident that this is the program for you. 

Now since you are changing programs, you'll probably have some overlap or gaps from the previous program to the current one because you need to start at the beginning. Everyone says, "Oh, don't miss that! It is worth it. It is such a rich program." You might even try combining your kids into a program when previously they have worked separately from one another or vise versa. Now you have a whole new dynamic which you have just introduced into your children's lives. 

This is a cycle that tends to happen year after year after year until…

A.) You end up giving up and sending your children to school.

B.) You hand your kids their curriculum and watch from the sidelines.

The reason that this keeps happening is because…

Moms get bored, frustrated and overwhelmed. Let's face it, if you had stuck with a lot of these programs, they would have educated your children just fine and the they would have gotten out of it what needed to be gotten out it. They might not have enjoyed it every second, but they would have been able to learn from it. When we went to school, we weren't given choices about what textbooks and materials we were going to use and I would venture to say that if your reading this you are a reasonably educated person. The school system didn't tailor a fantastic individualized education for you. 

But see as moms, we are participating in this day after day, often with multiple children, and we find ourselves bored or the concepts seem to be taking too long for our children to grasp. We begin to think, "Hey, there has to be a better method out there."Or perhaps a project your child is working on takes 10 random items to create a really useless project that you may find a complete waste of time. Even if the kids enjoy it, you may not always feel you have time to dedicate to it. Let me assure you, there is no guilt in that. I am a busy mom, full time college student and I get it. I need to make the best use of time for my family. So that leads me to a really obvious thought...

There is no perfect curriculum - But I have a slightly different take. 

I am really drawn to the beauty of a Charlotte Mason curriculum but I am not 100% CM. I am unique as are you. The only person a program is perfect for is the person who wrote it. That is because they wrote it with all their favorite methods, and ideas. So if you find something that is just perfect for you, then you would probably get a long really well with the author who wrote it. 

There is nothing wrong with declaring your teaching style, but don't feel bad if you also find things appealing in other styles. Maybe something about Classical memorization, or history cycle appeals to you. Maybe the traditional workbooks seem really appealing for Grammar instead of narrating and dictation. You may not be one style so why should should your curriculum be one style?

How to choose then?

If you decide to go with an All-in-One program…

• Don't be afraid to adjust the lesson plans to fit your teaching style. Maybe the program wants your child to narrate after every history reading but you want to add lap booking. Go for it! You're the boss, not the curriculum. 
• Don't be afraid to only use part of the program that is working and supplement with something else in another area. If you really can't stand the science, use your library to supplement or possibly add some hands on projects if that is what is missing. 

If you decide to pick and choose among suppliers…

• Keep your lesson planning simple. Watch my video at the end of this post to see how to make a simple one page lesson plan for 12 weeks worth of school. 
• Don't spend so much money that you can't make adjustments later in the year. If the program you want to purchase is going to wipe you out till next year, maybe you need to reevaluate if it is really the right program for you. At least choose one that has a high resale value should you decide it isn't working. 
• If you don't have the time and energy to use all you purchased, don't feel guilty, have a summer learning workshop. For instance, I have IEW that I am planning to have a writing workshop for a few weeks this summer. I will be able to be really focused on what I am teaching and have a lot more time to dedicate to it. 

Don't be afraid to write your own program that includes all the elements you love. 

• You don't have to do this from scratch. Use the table of contents from a book or curriculum as a guide what to teach. 
• Don't try to pack too many books into one week. Take your time and spread it out to start. If it is too light you can always add more, but if you burn yourself out, you'll likely give up. 
• Use free online programs like Charlotte Mason Help to give you some ideas. Only take what you love and leave the rest. 
• Don't try to write it all. Use some pre made programs if you prefer. I wrote my own for my youngest, but I still have a Math and Language Arts programs that are already written. 

And finally, Don't be afraid to not choose a curriculum at all. 

• Sometimes it is good to take a step back and let your children explore and learn on their own for awhile while you reevaluate what is working and what isn't. 
• Interest-led schooling is a very good choice for many families. You may find that you do much better following your children's leads rather than trying to anticipate them. So keep your $'s in the bank and buy your books and materials as interests arise. 

 

Do you remember this? Blast from the Past...

- By Michelle

So while I generally like to make it known how "YOUNG" I still am, I can't help but think about the many changes that have occurred in my very short lifetime thus far.

This morning while driving around my my 16 year old daughter, I was telling her about my personal history with audio equipment. "I remember sitting in my mom's car when I was a little munchkin and watching her insert and 8-Track into her 8-Track player! Do you know what one of those are?" I asked her. Of course she had no idea. She's only been around since 1997. So I go on to explain how they were about the size of VHS tape and were so hip at the time since your only other option was to listen to music on the radio or a record player. 

Of course I also had a record player growing up. Those beautiful black vinyls seem to have had a much longer lifespan than the ill fated 8-Tracks. I remember fondly listening to my Rumpelstiltskin record fairly regularly. It scarred the ba-jee-bees out of me, which was delightfully delicious fun to an 8 year old. 

As I grew older, I picked up a number of additional records including the country diva Tonya Tucker from a neighbors garage sale with the $20 I found in the dryer. My mom wondered how I acquired those and oh yeah… "Has anyone seen $20 laying around the house?!" Not me… Our dryer was in our unit's storage chamber down the road.

In the 1980's things started really kicking up with the introduction of the cassette tape. Now we could really be portable with our tunes and "Say Anything" that came to our totally rad minds. 

I remember endless sessions of trying to find the right song on my Cindy Lauper tape, (forward button…. Stop… play… middle of wrong song…. forward button…. Stop…. play…. right song, too far…. rewind… stop…. forward… just right, hit play. Next song, forward to the end of the tape, flip over…. press forward… and so on.) It was worth it to hear She Bop while I Bee Bopped around the room and when I needed a karaoke break, Time After Time. 

Cassette Tapes were so ingrained in my life that I really distrusted the shiny new rainbow reflective devise that showed up next, the CD (aka Compact Disk). I mean, sure I could listen effortlessly to any song just by pushing the track number, but as soon as you got one little scratch on that baby you were all done. 

But when it seemed as if we were at the top of the food chain with all this, then we get the MP3 players. I seemed to skip right over those, at least the early versions of them and went straight to iPods. Gone were the days of selecting which music to take with me, I just take it all. Now I can listen to one album, or shuffle to hear a selection from any number of favorite tunes. But what is so strange about this progression is that we went from these items to play our music from…

… to absolutely nothing. I mean, yes we have our iPod's to listen to our music on, but there is no actual album device like an 8-Track, Record, Cassette Tape or Compact Disk that you purchase and carry home in a bag. It all just floats in from the mystical place called iTunes right into our pods and down that long white cord into our ears. Convenient, yes! A bit scary… Absolutely!! I imagine in the future you'll simply have to think of a song, just to have it downloaded directly into your head. ;)

Finding Beauty

-Post by Michelle

The 2013-2014 school year is at about that mid-way point. The craziness of the holidays are over and you may or may not have gotten back into the swing of things. My plan was to start back to school on Monday, January 6th. In fact I had typed up my next 12 weeks worth of goals and printed them off. I had tidied up the school room, sweeping under the bookshelves and tossing old papers. But then we had a big snow storm on the way and I started spending a lot of time indoors. A perfect time to get going with school you say? Well see, there is the problem. I didn't want to do school, and if "I" didn't want to do school, what is that saying about the kids? 

I realized that as the school year progressed I had gotten more and more streamlined until all I was doing were the bare essentials. Gone were the enchanted tales from my living library, daily time with the great artists and composers, gone were the trips to the park to study the birds, flora and fauna. All that remained were the math worksheets, spelling lists and reading programs to plow through. 

So, I began an evaluation. I looked over my lesson plans, and while they were solid in the 3R's, they need some tweaking. To start the process, I revisited some old favorites on the web and in my books. I read, and read and took notes to re-inspire myself and our homeschool to find the missing factor. I realized, we needed to find the beauty. 

As humans, we were created to live in a beautiful world, that was perfect and without flaw. Just because we no longer live in that perfection does not mean that beauty is no longer out there or that we no longer need it. In fact, I would be so bold as to say we not only need beauty to thrive, we need it to live. 

Vegetables are good for you, but rotten, ugly vegetables will make you sick. Step outside, surround yourself with automobiles and gas fumes, noise pollution, and littered streets and you'll find yourself stressed and maybe a little nauseous. Now walk with me to the local public gardens. Sit down by the running brook while the children run in and out of the weeping willow branches. Hear the squawk of the canadian geese and smell the scent of flowers carried by the wind. 

For our children... find the beauty. 

For me that beauty exists in the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling, for you it may be something else. It doesn't matter, as long as it brings the beauty of learning back into your home. What is it that will bring life to the precious time you have with your children each day? Whatever that is, find it and do it!

The Practical 

Now I am going to share a few resources that I am working through to add the beauty back into my homeschool. 

Nature Study

As I said before, we are in the midst of a major snow storm and extreme cold streak, but that hasn't stopped my children from doing their own form of nature study... play. Since I had no requirements to do school, they have been exploring the nature of snow and enjoying every minute of it. Nature study is not something that needs planning. It is often something that children do with or without us... as long as we don't hinder their them from doing so. Give them the time to enjoy what God has given us and be amazed what they learn! 

On the other hand, there is no harm in having some sort of plan or guide to keep the learning alive and kicking. For moments like that you may enjoy using The Nature Connection by Clare Walker Leslie. I am working through this gorgeous book right now and I am excited to share with you any plans I end up writing to go along with it. There are actual journal pages on Storey's website that you can print off and use along with the book. 

History & Literature 

We had started off the year using Beautiful Feet's History of the Horse study and while it was good, I overestimated my daughters love of horses. I also miss the fine mix of history and literature we are used to. So I began reading through the history plans over at CharlotteMasonHelp.com . I choose the 3rd year plans because the books most appealed to me. I will be reading these to my 7 year old son and 10 year old daughter. The books I am starting with are: 

• This Country of Ours - (Reading about the Presidents)
• Carry On Mr. Bowditch
• Caddie Woodlawn
• The Lewis and Clark Expedition
• Seabird - Geography

My 12 Week Plan

History Spine This Country of Ours	Ch. 64 Washington	Ch. 65 Adams	Ch. 66 Jefferson	Ch. 67 Jefferson	Ch. 68 Jefferson	Ch. 69 Madison	Ch. 70 War of 1812	Ch. 71 Monroe	Ch. 72 Adams	Ch. 73a Jackson	Ch. 73b Van Buren	Ch. 74 Harrison
Carry on Mr. Bowditch	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Lewis and Clark Expedition	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11, 12	13, 14
Caddie Woodlawn	1, 2	3, 4	5, 6	7, 8	9, 10	11, 12	13, 14	15, 16	17, 18	19, 20	21, 22	23, 24
Geography Circle Louisiana Purchase; Draw L&C route	Seabird ch 1, 2	Seabird ch 3, 4	Seabird ch 5, 6	Seabird ch 7, 8	Seabird ch 9,10	Seabird ch 11,12	Seabird ch 13,14	Seabird ch 15,16	Seabird ch 17,18	Seabird Ch 19, 20, 21	Seabird 22, 23, 24	Seabird Finish book

I expect we will be working through narrations, making homemade books, maps, coloring the presidents, singing the Presidents Song, watching documentaries, and working through a few activity books on the these topics. 

And finally I will be adding in the picture study and music study that has been so successful for us in the past. I will share more on that in a future post. For now, may you find the beauty.