Or Native Americans, whichever you prefer, is what we’ll be learning about this month. My mom was part Cherokee, so I’m going to tie it in with our roots just like I did with Irish and Italian heritage. Each month we’re picking something to focus on, I think I said this already! I post on so many things I can’t ever remember where I said what! But, I’m so excited! This Saturday we’re going to a powwow!! I’m reading a chapter book to him, a small chapter book in a series called Three Cousins Detectives  Club, called The Mystery of the Eagle Feather. It’s about a boy who makes friends with a child who lives on a reservation, and he learns all about their culture, while at the same time trying to solve a mystery with his cousins. It sparked Tim’s curiosity, and he wanted to go to a powwow. I got online, and there just happened to be one near us on Saturday, so we’re going! I’ve always wanted to go to one! I’ll take pictures and post them on here if they turn out.

Short post today, I have a lot to get done!

I’m looking for some ideas, maybe some good sites that are free, for this summer to just review what we’ve learned, so he doesn’t forget, but also have fun. He LOVES animals, so anything animal centered would be great.

I plan on doing a lot of baking with them since they both love to do that. I’m also wanting to do some simple experiments once a week, because Tim really loves science. We’re doing monthly studies on different cultures, and I think next month will be Native Americans, we’re just finishing up Italy.

If you haven’t tried it, we just adore youtube.com for videos that coincide with what we’re learning about. When we were learning about the Chinese New Year we watched their celebrations on there and were both mesmerized! I’m hoping to find some Native American dances on there, that would be great!

I am a homebody.  It is easier to be at home.  We get more done, school and otherwise, if we limit our time out of the house.

It helps that we only have one car.  

We do enjoy outside activities, but stick to ones right here in our small community, with occasional family and friend field trips. 

It works for us, but I still need a little support.  So, I have several forums I hang out on.

I have a couple homeschooling forums, a notebooking forum and T4L forums that I go to regularly.  I don’t always post on them, but I learn a lot from previous posts.

I have one homeschooling forum I have been a member of for 10 years.  This one is like family.  I post there daily.

I also have a couple of CHD heart mom support forums I am active on.  These are very important to me by keeping me informed and giving me a place to talk or vent with other heart moms.

I consider these forums, the ones I am actively posting on and the ones I am actively reading on, a big part of my overall support as a stay-at-homeschooling mom.

Do any of you have children who seem to struggle with the whole concept of Time4Learning?

My 10 year old loves what he’s learning, but he really dislikes to read.  We’ve tried Peedy, but while that was a big plus in the beginning, the novelty has worn off a bit.  The distortion of the voice is just too much for him to work around.

Lately, I’ve been sharing the reading with him.  He reads a paragraph, then I read one.

He is loving the History lessons and seems to get much more from it if I read along with him. 

I just thought I’d ask.  In some ways I feel he should be taking more responsibility, but I want him to love learning. 

Do any of you with kids in the lower grades test your kids? I wasn’t going to when I started, but I am testing Tim all week anyway. I wanted to have something besides his work, to have in one place, that gave a sample of all our state requires him to know. He took the language arts test today, he’s doing math tomorrow, science on Wednesday, and social studies on Thursday. He only missed two answers out of 77 on the language arts, I was so jazzed! That’s the subject that he’s come the farthest in this year. When we started he didn’t even know all the names of the letters, much less the sounds they made. I had planned on reviewing for the rest of the year, but he really can’t stand repeating things, and I knew he had retained most of what we taught, so why drag it out? This way, if there’s some things that he doesn’t really remember, we can work on those for the last few weeks.

I also revised our school calendar. I originally had his last day of school in the middle of July, with only about two weeks off before starting 1st grade. But I decided to end on May 30, and then we’ll just use T4L and some of the other online sites we like to keep him on a schedule. It just won’t be anything I have to record or worry about, which will give me time to write up the lesson plan for next year. If I have something down on paper, I am terrible about thinking that I have to stick to it. So, changing our last day of school will take pressure off of both of us!