Halls Book List

Bugs, Lizards, and Weeds Oh My

2011-09-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

This has been a fantastic week of school. The kids have all worked diligently to get their work done, and we celebrated the end of this week with a family sleepover.

We also received a fabulous new toy in the mail, which after I get some time on it, I'll share a little bit about it. Let's just say Kara and Lydia have not stopped working on math for the past two days :)

We had art class this week with their friend Hannah. We read the book Best Friends for Francis, and then the girls made friendship collages by cutting out pictures of friends. Like Francis discovered a best friend in her sister, I pray my girls will someday learn that they too can be each other's best friend.

Not only have we had a lot to do with school this week, but we have also spent a great amount of time outside working and playing. The kids have continued to collect bugs for their Uncle Timmy - we are now up to about ten baby food jars of bugs. We began by weeding the garden and pulling up all the onions so I can put them up in the freezer for winter. Kara spent a lot of time with me the other day as I weeded the green beans. She was talking about it being hot, so she invented the idea of an ice fire. She collected all the weeds I was pulling up and deposited them under a tree in the shade (it was kind of like a cave). Then she started telling me about this "ice fire" she was building so that when I got to hot I could come sit by the "ice fire" and cool off.

My biggest regret for this week is that I didn't take five minutes to crawl under the brush with Kara and enjoy her "ice fire." Looking back I think this would have been a wonderful opportunity for me to connect with her and hear what was on her heart (or at least get a glimpse of it).

Between last night and this morning we introduced our kids to the "Sound of Music." We watched the first half last night, and then this morning the kids wanted to finish it BEFORE we ate breakfast -- a huge shock since eating is one of the things they love best.

Week 4 of School is complete (oh, I forgot to tell you we had a lizard in the garage this week!).

What fun thing did you do at school this week?

Sugar Beets.

2011-08-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

The time has come to begin clearing out my garden. This is a great lesson for the girls in beginning homemaking. Thursday Lydia helped me harvest the beets. We kept the taproot attached and then cut the stems to about two inches. We brought them into the house where Kara washed the beets and placed them in the blancher.

We then boiled the beets until the skins were able to be rubbed off. Both Kara and Lydia helped me skin the beets and then I chopped them and placed them in the pint jars. Adding a 1/2 tsp of canning salt to each pint then sealing it with a lid and ring. This is all the girls were able to help me with. I am always a bit nervous about using the pressure canner, so no kids are allowed in the kitchen when the pressure canner is building pressure up.

This was the first time I've used the pressure canner this year, so I had to do a quick review of what I was doing (by calling my very experienced gardening/coupon friend!). I processed the pints for 30 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure (or 11 pounds on my canner since the extension office told me my gauge is off by one pound when pressure gets to 10 pounds).

After all the beets were processed we have 20 lovely pints of beets. Now, hopefully the kids will enjoy eating them :) I don't think I've ever fed them beets before - Total cost $1.40 for 20 canning lids (I already had the jars and rings, and the lids were purchased using $1 off coupons for .$69 each).

Unplanned learning

2011-08-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

Do you know how many opportunities we have each day to teach and instruct our children? Countless! Yesterday I had a great opportunity for science learning. Outside weeding the garden we found a number of insects that we had never seen before.

We identified the typical army cutworm, and a Golden Tortoise Beetle. Other insects we identified was a pupa (red in color) probably from an army cutworm. We also found a yellow grasshopper, and an orange beetle with a black spot I was unable to identify.

We saw a long black milipeade run across the dirt and burrow itself, as well as the common house fly, cicada shells, and many others.

This impromptu science lesson became a lot of fun for the kids and for myself as they raced around the yard with baby food jars trying to catch and collect as many different types of insects they can. I guess it's a good thing their Uncle Tim has to create a bug collection this year as we will probably have plenty to offer him.

What types of bugs have you discovered in your yard lately?

First month of school!

2011-08-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

Wow, this summer went by fast. I have concluded that I need to make changes to our summer plan before next summer comes - namely giving each child a specific task that he/she is responsible for daily. Also, a plan for maintaining the garden - and a schedule for working on school work for those hot summer days when I can't keep the kids outside - things get wild in the house when they are inside all day!

However, this post isn't about what I plan to do next summer, but what we are doing NOW!

My first task of this school year was to make some awesome discovery bottles. The kids enjoy playing with them, and I have a few more to make.

This year I am doing a hodgepodge of curriculum. I have started Andy on kindergarten with our reading lessons coming from Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. He is also doing handwriting and Bob Jones Spelling 1 (because Lydia is also doing spelling 1).

Lydia has begun first grade, and she is performing far better than I expected her to do. After three weeks, she has received a 100 % on two of the three spelling tests, she's catching onto math (Christian Light), she's enjoying reading (Bob Jones), and English (Shurley) - I told you I was using a hodgepodge of curriculum. She's also doing handwriting, and of my three kids Lydia has the best handwriting - probably because she actually cares about doing a job well. The others tend to rush through things so they can go on to the next.

Kara has started second grade, and this school year is going far smoother than every other year of school. Kara is also doing BJU spelling, Shurley English, Christian Light Math, BJU Reading, and handwriting (I can't tell if I've left any subjects out or not).

Together we are doing Bible, Science (Answers in Genesis), and History (Mystery of History). The kids have really seemed to enjoy learning, and our school time has already fallen into a normal routine.

I have to admit I was a bit nervous about homeschooling this year as I would be schooling three kids in several subjects (+Ezekiel and Gabriel). However, the day has not dragged on as I thought it would, and typically we are still finished with school by lunch time (last year it would drag on all day with Kara because she would refuse to work). We have music practice in the afternoons - which with both Kara and Lydia taking both piano and violin will mean we will have plenty of music around the house :) Hopefully naps will continue on through the beautiful melody of children playing instruments!

Well, that's it for the start of our semester. We are hoping to do some more enjoyable school activities in the next couple of weeks, so I will try to update as we get past the boring book work :)

What curriculum are you using this year?

August Already?

2011-08-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

Oh no, I can't believe it's August already! I haven't even begun to plan out our school year for the kids. This week is VBS, next week we are going to create a giant closet for the kids -- I get tired of washing the same clean clothes every week :)

So, I guess sometime between VBS and the start of school I will be spending a lot of time planning (not to mention all the time teaching the kids to help me can food for the winter).

Well, I guess I'll update this blog again when we get to the first day of school.

Studying the Minoans

2011-03-29T05:05:00.000-07:00

Kara making and painting bull leapers

Andy painting ships to get to and from the Island of Crete

Ezekiel painting his fresco

Lydia also painted a fresco

Mummified

2011-02-19T16:42:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love our history program. Three times a week either after breakfast, lunch, or dinner (depending on Daddy's schedule), we read a lesson from The Mysteries of History. Thursday night our lesson was on Egypt. We discussed the mummies, pyramids, and hieroglyphics.

Finally Organized

2011-01-29T06:47:00.000-08:00

Wow, after homeschooling for two years now, I finally have found a method and a schedule that works for our family. Part of my absence on this blog is because I have struggled with keeping up with homeschooling. In fact for the 2009-2010 school year, we ended up doing two semesters of work in the spring semester because I was not disciplined to have school every day. Even in the fall of 2010 I struggled with a system, and while we did complete the fall semester, we were often doubling and tripling up days to get the work done. Needless to say homeschooling by this method was miserable for everyone.

So, over Christmas break (while I waited for my fifth child to be born), I sat down with my lesson plan book and i wrote out each lesson/assignment for each of my three kids who are being schooled right now. My lesson plan book is similar to the teachers lesson plan books where it has the days listed across the top of the page and a place for each subject down the side. Instead of the subjects down the side, I listed each child's name. And in the box for the day I wrote down each of the lessons and music practice that they needed to accomplish that day. Since I have written out the lesson plans for the entire semester, I am forced to stay on top of things or I ruin my system :)

Another key thing that has helped is I have finally figured out how to have two kids working on different things at once. While I do reading with Lydia and Andy, Kara does her piano and violin practice. If she finishes those while I am still working with the other two, I can have her work on either her spelling assignment or her reading lesson. We have also switched our History curriculum to the Mysteries of History. I have handed over history to Daddy, and we do a lesson in the Mystery of History book three times a week in conjunction with our family devotions. I am so excited about our new schedule because it has allowed me to finish schooling in 2-3 hours every day.

In case you are curious about our current curriculum, it is as follows:

Andy and Lydia (Kindergarten) - How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons, Mysteries of History
Kara (1st/2nd grade) - 2nd Grade Bob Jones Spelling, Handwriting, and Science. Christian Light Publications 1st Grade Math. Shurley English 1st Grade, Mysteries of History. Suzuki Violin, and Piano lessons.

Even with a new baby born on December 29, we have already successfully completed four weeks of school. They say it takes a month to set a habit, so I'm hoping that since we've been able to keep this schedule for a month that it wills stick.

To Be Educated

2009-05-10T20:39:00.001-07:00

To Be Educated
By Carolyn Caines, Supervisor
Columbia Heights Christian Academy - Longview, Washington

If I learn my ABCs, can read 600 words per minute, and can write with perfect penmanship, but have not been shown how to communicate with the Designer of all language, I have not been educated.

If I can deliver an eloquent speech and persuade you with my stunning logic, but have not been instructed in God’s wisdom, I have not been educated.

If I have read Shakespeare and John Locke and can discuss their writings with keen insight, but have not read the greatest of all books-the Bible-and have no knowledge of its personal importance, I have not been educated.

If I have memorized addition facts, multiplication tables, and chemical formulas, but have never been disciplined to hide God’s Word in my heart, I have not been educated.

If I can explain the law of gravity and Einstein’s theory of relativity, but have never been instructed in the unchangeable laws of the One Who orders our universe, I have not been educated.

If I can classify animals by their family, genus and species, and can write a lengthy scientific paper that wins an award, but have not been introduced to the Maker’s purpose for all creation, I have not been educated.

If I can recite the Gettysburg Address and the Preamble to the Constitution, but have not been informed of the hand of God in the history of our country, I have not been educated.

If I can play the piano, the violin, six other instruments, and can write music that moves men to tears, but have not been taught to listen to the Director of the universe and worship Him, I have not been educated.

If I can run cross-country races, star in basketball and do 100 push-ups without stopping, but have never been shown how to bend my spirit to do God’s will, I have not been educated.

If I can identify a Picasso, describe the style of a da Vinci and even paint a portrait that earns an A+, but have not learned that all harmony and beauty comes from a relationship with God, I have not been educated.

If I graduate with a perfect 4.0 and am accepted at the best university with a full scholarship, but have not been guided into a career of God’s choosing for me, I have not been educated.

If I become a good citizen, voting at each election and fighting for what is moral and right, but have not been told of the sinfulness of man and his hopelessness without Christ, I have not been educated.

However, if one day I see the world as God sees it,and come to know Him, Whom to know is life eternal, and glorify God by fulfilling His purpose for me, then, I have been educated!

September Update

2008-09-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

We ended up not having school for the first two weeks of September. The first week because of schedule, and the second week because the kids were sick.

Last weeks our theme was apples, apples and more apples. On Monday we took the kids to the apple orchard to pick apples. Tuesday I taught the girls how to make applesauce.
Wednesday we learned how to make apple butter. Thursday and Friday we enjoyed drawing pictures of our trip to the apple orchard. To See Pictures click here

This week because both Kara and Lydia had dentist appointments (click here for pictures), our theme for the week was Visiting the Dentist. We started by going to the Library on Monday. We checked out three books about going to the dentist -- My First Dentist Visit, Show Me Your Smile (a Dora the Explorer Book), and At the Dentist. Of the three books, both girls seemed to respond best to the Dora Explorer book. Kara also had her violin lesson with Miss Abigayel on Monday. She did a fantastic job reading her music and getting her fingering correct. Now we need to work on her bowing on the correct string.

Tuesday we started school with the usual violin practice. Kara did lessons 12 and 13 in Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons. Tuesday began working on actually reading sentences and picture comprehension -- being able to relate the picture with the words she read. We also had art class on Tuesday with their friend Noah. They each had to cut out a picture of a sheep, and then they glued cotton balls to the sheep body. Again we read the dentist books and talked about what the dentist was going to do.

Wednesday was our trip to the dentist. So once again we read the dentist books, and both girls did amazingly with the dentist.

Thursday and Friday were typical school days Kara completed lessons 15 - 18 in Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons. We have been doing two lessons a day since Kara has been catching on so quickly. This week Kara was learning to write the letters /d/ and /i/. She has also been reviewing writing the letters /a/, /s/, /e/, /r/, and /t/

I have also come to the conclusion that Lydia is not quite ready to begin reading lessons, so I have discontinued working on reading with Lydia and will probably wait until next January to try again. Instead, I have Lydia working on tracing circles and lines, coloring in the lines, and learning how to cut with scissors. I am also working on basic counting and number identification.

Homeschooling begins

2008-08-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

Monday began our first day of school. While I had endeavored to begin homeschooling Kara last year, I was neither disciplined enough to continue or motivated to begin teaching her academics. This past May, JA and I both attended the state homeschool convention where we purchased both preschool and kindergarten materials from My Father's World. I am combining the preschool and kindergarten curriculum's so that I can teach both Kara and Lydia at their appropriate levels.

Here is what we are working on this week:

We begin each day with the daily lessons from "Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." So this week we have been working on perfecting /s/,/m/,/a/. Kara is working on writing "s," "m," and "a;"Kara has also enjoyed lacing shapes (a skill she has already mastered but still enjoys doing); she really enjoys learning to cut following the lines -- especially working on cutting out circles. Kara has been begging me to let her cut with scissors so now she is thrilled.We are integrating classical music into our lessons, so Kara is listening to Debussy's "Clair de Lune" while she works on coloring in the lines. Kara has never really enjoyed coloring, so this is a hard lesson for her to stick with because she wants to quit and go on to whatever is next. For math we have been working on number identification and association.Kara's memory verse for the week is Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it shall be given you, Seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you."

Lydia's schooling is very similar to Kara's as we are doing the same subject as Kara at the same time. However, my expectations are very different.

Lydia's memory verse is also Matthew 7:7 , but I have shortened it so we can also work on enunciation and order. "Ask and it shall be given you, Seek, and ye shall find."

Like Kara, Lydia is also learning to read (she has been able to identify her letters and sounds since she was 2, so I know she is ready to put them together into words). So Lydia is also doing the lessons from "Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." But Lydia's writing lessons are very different from Kara. I am having Lydia work on tracing lines and circles and drawing her own lines and circles. Lydia is also learning to lace shapes, but we are having to focus her on lacing each hole in the order that it is placed around the shape.(sorry the picture is sideways, I couldn't get it to turn)

In order to teach Lydia how to hold the scissors properly I placed a sticker on the side of the scissors that should be facing up. Now she knows that she always needs to keep the sticker facing the ceiling as she cuts the paper.Lydia is also listening to the classical music, and learning to color in the lines. For Math, Lydia is learning to count from 1-10.

More Great Giveaways

2008-07-23T20:31:00.001-07:00

Win a Bum Genius 3.0 Starter Kit from Nature's Child - Wholesome Goods for Mothers and Babies

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Pregnancy Update Week 35

2008-07-23T12:09:00.000-07:00

Well, we are almost there. Today I went in for my Week 35 appointment. The results came back on my Group B Strep test -- Negative (no doubt for me). Currently the baby appears to be in the posterier position (head down). Baby's heart beat is once again 150. My weight stayed the same (amazing since I've been eating a chocolate bar every day), and my blood pressure is still great.

I am having some difficulty staying hydrated in this heat. So, I have resigned myself to staying inside with the air conditioning during majority of the day. Right now my doctor seems to believe this baby is going to come early. If baby follows the same pattern as the other three we will get to meet him/her on August 15 (exactly 10 days early -- just like Kara, Lydia, and Andy). However, I think the odds of having four children in five years all come exactly 10 days early is rather unlikely. Of course I thought the same thing when Andy was born.

I would love to get your opinions on when you think Baby Hall will decide to join us on the outside world. Please share with me when you think Baby Hall will come by leaving a comment in the comment box. I will tell you both JA and my dad are saying sometime next week. But we still have four weeks until Baby's due date (August 25)

Fantastic Giveaway

2008-07-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

Are you interested in cloth diapering? Sign up for this fantastic giveaway of 12 Free Bum-Genius Diapers. These are fantastic diapers!

Homeschooling Hump Day

2007-09-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, I had intended to post this last week, but never got around to typing it up. My friend Carrie is posting about Homeschooling every Wednesday. Since Kara is only three, we are only beginning to enter the realm of Homeschooling. Here are a couple of my favorite resources.

The Well-Trained Mind is a book that can give every parent the confidence to know he/she is capable of homeschooling. This book also gives you many (and I mean many) tips and resources to begin using.

Phonics Pathways This is the book I am using to teach Kara to read. This book includes games and ideas to use to help teach your child to read. It is geared towards helping older children learn how to read, but since Kara already knows her letters and sounds (thanks to Leap Frogs Letter Factory DVD), she is ready to begin learning to read.

Here is our typical 1 Hour of preschool each day -- we have "school" after lunch when Andy and Lydia are down for their naps.

1:00 -- practice her violin -- Kara is beginning Suzuki Violin 1 -- a teenager in the church is giving her lessons. Right now until we officially start lessons, Kara is naming the parts of the violin and listening to the Suzuki 1 CD

1:20 -- we play reading games and work on the lesson in Phonics Pathways.

1:40 -- We read a Bible Story together and I ask her questions about previous stories and the current story for the day.

After the Bible story I'll read her a book of her choice.

Occasionally we work on writing, but I'm not pushing her very much in this area because I don't want to spend more than 1 hour a day on school. When she works on writing though, I write out all of the vowels several times on writing paper. Then, I give her a gel pen (there is something special about being able to use a pen to trace b/c she's usually not allowed to touch pens) and she can trace the vowels.

Hope this gives you some good ideas! If anyone else has good ideas on how to teach preschoolers to use scissors, or other things we should be working on, please let me know.

For today, I wanted to tell everyone about a homeschooling giveaway that's going on over at HsKubes' Haven at Home blog .

Books we would like for Homeschooling our Children

2007-09-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

Below is a list of books and music we would like to own for the purpose of homeschooling our children.

Toddlers
Handa's Surprise
The Edible Pyramid
The Lunch Box Surprise
We're Making Breakfast for Mother
Feast for Ten
Yoko
Too Many Tamales
Oh, the Things You Can Do That are Good for You

Preschool/Kindergarten
Books
The Boy Who Loved to Draw: Benjamin West by Barbara Brenner
Famous Children: Michelangelo by Tony Hart
Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors
Leonardo and the Flying Boy by Laurence Aholt

Music
Wee Sing by Beal/Nipp CD and Songbook
Math Memory Songs: Addition Songs CD by Kathy Troxel
Math Memory Songs: Subtraction Songs CD by Kathy Troxel

First Grade

Books
Discovering Great Artistsby MaryAnn F. Kohl and Kim Solga
The Lightlings by RC Sproul
Legends & Leagues or, Mr. Tardy Goes From Here to There by Ned Bustard
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban
Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
The Biggest Bear by Lynd Kendall Ward
Billy and Blaze by CW Anderson
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
Cecily G. and the 9 Monkeys by H.A. Rey (This is the original Curious George book)
A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams
Corduroy by Don Freeman
Curious George by H.A> Rey
The Egg by M.P. Robertson
The Emperor's New CLothes by Ned Bustard
Floss by Kim Lewis
Gregory's Shadow by Don Freeman
Harry and the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
Henry and Mudge: The First Book by Cynthia Rylant
How I Became a Pirateby Melinda Long
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie by Peter Roup
Little Bearby Else Homelund Minarik
Little Bear's Friends by Else Homelund Minarik
The Little Engine that Couldby Watty Piper
The Little Houseby Virginia Lee Burton
The Lonely Dollby Dare Wright
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
The Magic Fish by Freya Littledale
Miss Nelson is Missing! by Harry Allard
Mr. Putter & Tabby Pour the Teaby Cynthia Rylant
Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
A New Coat for Annaby Harriet Ziefert
Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall
A Puppy for Annieby Kim Lewis
The Rooster Crows: A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles by Maud and Miska Petersham
Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese
The Velveteen Rabbitby Marjery Williams
The Canada Geese Quilt
The Courage of Sarah Noble
Gold Rush Winter
Hannah
Next Spring an Oriole
Pioneer Cat
Balto and the Great Race
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain
The Case of Hermie the Missing Hamster
Ice Wreck
Tall Tales: Wingin' It with the Wright Brothers
A Taste of Blackberries
Bach's Goldberg Variationsby Anna Harwell Celenza
Bellerophon Music Coloring Books
Meet the Orchestra by Ann Hayes
The Heroic Symphony and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, and The Farewell Symphony by Anna Harwell Celenza

Music
Geography Songs: Sing Around the World CD and Songbook
States & Capitals Songs and Maps CD
Classical Kids