A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

VCF

The Fun Parts of Homeschooling

By 16 Comments

Welcome to, what I think, is the last week of the Virtual Homeschool Fair hosted by Susan. Last week I spelled out the curriculum that we use.   You may remember week one of Homeschool Reason: Bullies and More, and Week Two of Give Us... As I’ve finished this series I realize that I have forgotten two important parts of our schooling: Do it Differently Fridays, Cultural Events, Field Trips and the few odds and ends that pop up. 

The Fun of Homeschooling with the Virtual Homeschool Fair. Field trips, coop, sports and more.

Do it Differently Fridays:

Fridays we drop everything we’ve been doing and do things differently.  No Friday is ever the same.   Sometimes the lad uses the day to get caught up if it’s a been a crazy week, but most of the time he works on a research project (for example Caribou, CN Tower) or a Tinker Crate (for example 3d Viewer, DaVinci’s Clock).  Sometimes we’ll read tons of books as everyone needs a book reading day, or other times we’ll play around with our lego (Lego Pulleys and Castles).   The point is to learn and think differently. 

 

 

C0-op:

Coincidentally, Co-op Days always falls on Fridays.  So six weeks every spring and fall co-op days happen.   Days filled with art, phys ed, science, history and so much more.   The lad almost always has a great time and the learning mostly goes smoothly.  They also host other events such as Lego Nights, Teen Events, and Project Fairs.  

Field Trips:

We haven’t done as many of these lately as I would have liked to have done, but sometimes life intervenes with overall plans.   We still try to stay involved in learning about our world and the community, encouraging things like Culture, and Museum visits. 

Critters:

We have a fair host of critters running around our place.  They all provide ample opportunity to learn new skills like animal management, kindness and compassion, reading body behaviour, conduct research and so much more.  Currently we have ants in our cold storage hibernating, a new cat learning to mind her manners, rabbits earning us dollars, a snake that entertains and more.  Life is fun!  🙂

Art Lessons: 

A former member of our co-op group regularly teaches art classes. WaterColours, Acrylics and more.   It’s always fun and very interesting.

Outside of homeschooling my son picks up things like Karate classes, Archery and Cadets.   

And in the midst of it all..   I find a lad playing minecraft and making games to share with friends.   Time for snowball fights and sledding.  Walks and theatre and times to read and relax. It’s a good life this homeschooling life don’t you think?

 

This is the final week of the 7th Virtual Homeschool Fair. Our topic is:  Enriching Our Learning.

Note: All posts will be live after 8 am EST on Monday, Jan. 29th.

Celebrating 7 Years of Homeschool Support & Encouragement by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

All of the Extras by Christy Schaefer @ Unexpected Homeschool

How To Explore Special Interests In Your Homeschool by Jeniffer @ Thou Shall Not Whine

Learning outside of the box by Dana @ Life Led Homeschool

Putting the Heart Back into our Homeschool by Brittney @ Mom’s Heart

Adding in the Fun by Michele @Family, Faith and Fridays

The Electives We Use in Our Homeschool by Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool

The Fun Parts of Homeschooling by Annette @ A Net in Time

How we add in the fun stuff. by Kim @ Good Sweet Love

Running – for fitness & fun by Lizzy @ Peaches@Home

Adding in the Extras by Jen @ A Helping Hand Homeschool

What About the Fun Stuff? by Laura @ Four Little Penguins

And the Learning Goes On, And On, And On by Lori H @ At Home: where life happens

Let’s See What’s Out There! (Electives and Extras) by Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break

Homeschool Reasons: Bullies, Faith and More

By 23 Comments

The reasons people homeschool are as broad as the ocean you know?   Some to cover spiritual matters more easily, others to better meet the needs of their differently-abled offspring, and more.    This post isn’t about why others homeschool though, but why “I” homeschool.  What are my homeschool reasons?   Pre-determination, bullies, faith and lifestyle.

Let me share with you my thoughts.

Homeschool Reasons: A pre-determination

We knew (hubby and I) that we wanted to homeschool before my son was even born.   I knew I could do it, hubby was sure I could, so we were set long before we even needed to think about it.  We both knew homeschoolers in real-life as well which made it an easier decision.

Homeschool Reasons: Bullied!

I was bullied in school.  Hated it.   Hubby had a bully for a teacher.  Almost turned him off the love of learning.  When we first got married I started a job at a local fast food joint.  Enjoyed the work for the most part.  BUT… was bullied by a gal who gave me the silent treatment and pushed me around whenever she could because.. I DIDN’T KNOW as a newcomer to this town that she and her family were part of the founding members of the town.  I asked her (after she revealed this information) why she would do that.  “Because it was fun”.  We worked past it, I told her it was unacceptable, and we managed to mostly get along after that.   This situation though, helped cement my desire to homeschool.  Why would I want to send my five year old to a school were people would bully him for something he couldn’t possibly have known?

Homeschool Reasons: Faith

As people of faith it matters to me what my boy learns about God.  On the playground we would meet a variety of children from all walks of life.  When talking with them I often heard “because teacher says so”.  I wanted more for my boy than that.  To not parrot what teacher says … to be able to say things like “the bible says” or “I learned this on youtube” or “my dad taught me this.”   I want him to have a good grounding in his faith so he can talk about it and share it with others.

Homeschool Reasons: Lifestyle

As much as these things things, a predetermination, bullying and faith were the founding reason why we chose to homeschool, now I simply wouldn’t do it any other way unless my son convincingly tells me why he wants to do it differently.  I love having him around (honestly… about 90% of the time).  We all have moments when we want to be alone to do our own thing, or we’re having a difficult day or….  you know.  🙂   But having him in the house all day, talking to me, coming to me with things he’s learned and what not.  I LOVE IT!  And I simply wouldn’t have it any other way.   He’s my boy…and a delightful one.

 

The Virtual Curriculum Fair is hosted by Susan.  You can find her here. 

Now, let’s see what my fellow homeschool bloggers have to say about The Reasons We Homeschool.

Note: all posts will be live after 8 am EST.

5 Reasons to Homeschool High School by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

Weird Homeschoolers by Kim R. @ Good Sweet Love

How We Make Homeschooling a Lifestyle by Jeniffer @ Thou Shall Not Whine

Our Ever Evolving Homeschool Story by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

5 Reasons You Will Want to Homeschool by Michele@ Family, Faith and Fridays

How Our Homeschool Came To Be (and why we continue) by Sabrina @ Kids, Crunch, and Christ

Home Education – 10 Reasons we keep going…even when it’s hard by Lizzy @ Peaches@Home

So… Tell Me Again Why You Homeschool? by Leah @ As We Walk Along the Road

Virtual Homeschool Fair 2018 – Week 1 – Why do I Homeschool  by Joelle@Homeschooling For His Glory

Homeschool Reasons: Bullies, Faith and More by Annette @ A Net In Time

In Pursuit of Purpose by Laura @ Four Little Penguins

A Long Time Ago . . . Why We Decided To Homeschool by Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break

The Why Behind Hopkins Homeschool by Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool

5 Reasons We Love Homeschooling by Brittney @ Mom’s Heart

Why We Homeschool – It’s What We Do by Kristen H @ Sunrise to Sunset

Why we Home Educate and Extra Benefits by Sarah@Delivering Grace

Homeschooling: The Big WHY? by Lisa @ True North Homeschool Academy at Golden Grasses

Regaining Your Homeschool Focus by Jen @ A Helping Hand Homeschool

Why do we homeschool? by Dana @ Life Led Homeschool

Our “Homeschool” Why by Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning

It’s Worth it! Why We Homeschool, Even After All These Years by Hillary @ Walking Fruitfully

Because Life is Precious by Lori H @ At Home: where life happens

1998 vs. 2018: Why We Homeschool by Debra @ Footprints in the Butter

 

 

 

 

Guess what is coming?

By 2 Comments

YES!  I’m just a little excited because….

This New Year will again kick off with the Virtual Homeschool Fair (used to be called Virtual Curriculum Fair).  Instead of just talking about homeschool curriculum  we are talking about homeschooling in general (you’ll find a list of topics below).   I think it will be fun, definitely spurred on my thoughts you know?   Anyways, come back every Monday to see where all our thoughts take us, as you know what?  There’s quite a group of us!  🙂

Learn more here:

Week 1 (Jan. 8th): The Reasons We Homeschool
Why do we homeschool?

Why did you start?  What was the impetus?   Has your reason changed?  An encouragement to the new homeschooler, a boost and reminder to the old. 🙂

Week 2 (Jan. 15th): Our Method of Homeschooling
How do we homeschool?

Are you an unschooler?  Follow Charlotte Mason? Eclectic? Classical?  or ????  Talk about your approach or educational philosophy, share a “day in the life”, talk about organization, independence or 

Week 3 (Jan. 22nd): Our Homeschool Curriculum
How do we cover it all?

What do you use?  Curricula, what subjects you do, how to do something… skies the limit. 

Week 4 (Jan. 29th): Enriching Our Learning
What do we do for enrichment?

All the great extra stuff we do as home learners, whether it’s pursuing your children’s special interests, creative arts, field trips, volunteer opportunities, mission trips, whatever.

Here’s a list of everyone participating (at least so far). 🙂

Visit the bloggers participating in the Virtual Homeschool Fair:

Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

Laura @ Four Little Penguins

Dana @ Life Led Homeschool

Jenn K. @ A Peace of Mind

Kristen H. @ Sunrise to Sunset

Kim @ Good Sweet Love

Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

Jen Duncan @ A Helping Hand Homeschool

Lori @ At Home: where life happens

Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning

Amanda H @ Hopkins Homeschool

Annette @ A Net In Time

Lizzy @ Peaches@Home

Sabrina @ Kids, Crunch, and Christ

Michele Pleasants @ Family, Faith and Fridays

Brittney @ Mom’s Heart

Sarah @ Delivering Grace

Reluctant Artist?? What do you do?

By 22 Comments

It’s week five of the Virtual Curriculum Fair.   This week.. it’s all about art and beauty.  See in artistic forms of music, art, dance and whatever form that takes in your household.  
The VCF is hosted by Susan. 

Week One: A Time to be Encouraged.
Week Two: Language Arts: Our Style.
Week Three: Practical math.
Week Four: Exploring the World Starting with Canada.

Today my topic is: What to do with the reluctant artist?

I would never say that I am an artist, but I have birthed a lad who has creativity tied into his bones.   I’ve worked to bring that creativity into our schooling…and this year and finding myself tying it in however I can.

BUT in all his creativity he’s a rather deliberate lad.  He hates, absolutely HATES to waste his time.   Despises it with a passion… which sometimes creates a reluctant artist.. What’s a teacher to do?

Talk
1. Talk to your student.   You are looking for what is causing the reluctance. 
 a). The Style – realism vs abstract, 3-D vs 2-D etc.
 b). The Medium – painting vs drawing, colouring vs pastels, oils vs acrylics etc
 c).  The Topic – A river vs. mountains, a building vs a landscape etc

Discover
2. Discover what about the reluctance causes concern.
 a). Lack of confidence – has never used this medium/style/topic before and has no idea about how to use, approach or even if likes the idea.
 b). Medium not correct for the type of project – topic of discussion sometimes the student is correct!  And then changes can be made.   Or change the topic or style and suddenly the medium isn’t so bad.
 c). Fear of wasting time – This one is hard to get past, but I have a method that is proving to at least raise more curiousity and help!
 d). Dislike of style and not seeing the point of it – often a matter of showing the student a wide variety in the style until something appeals.   I saw this recently in my class on cubism… one student could not get a handle on it until he thought about doing shades of black!  It worked and turned out well.  
 e). Wants a different topic – Let them choose the topic if possible, it’s their art.  You can set the parameters and then let them choose what they can fit within that.
 f). Page size – could be too small, large, wide, narrow etc.   This is so easy to change, some students do their best work in miniature and other need to express themselves in wide open spaces.   It’s relative.

Action
3. Take Action.  
  a). Remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder
  b). Learning new things is sometimes difficult.
  c). Sometimes helping someone with a new form of art takes away the pressure of wasting one’s time if it doesn’t work out.

Let me expand on the latter idea.
My son and I were going to create an abstract mountain art work but okay… it was MY idea to do an abstract mountain art work and my son stopped dead in his tracks.  All he could see was the potential of failure.

So after talking with him through all the different steps, it’s still all he could see was “it’s not going to turn out and I’ll have wasted all my time.”.

We decided that he could do his own thing (he wanted very much to do a pencil sketch with shading) and that I could do the abstract art.  We work side by side so he can see me work and I can see him.  It’s a great time to chat, provide encouragement and ask questions.  

So I sit beside him and I modge-podgy tissue paper to my page and I talk about how I am not sure if this colour goes there, or what do you think if I do this for the mountains, do you think making sticky-up flowers will work?  He starts off very hesitant at first, so I show him how to make flowers that can stick up off the page and how if I crinkle the tissue paper I give it more texture, and he watches and thinks.. and the next time I come back and talk he tears off a piece and says, “I think this colour would work there mom”.   

And after some time we get this:

It’s not done yet, the lad and I are currently discussing if I should cut out a picture of a canoe for the lake or do abstract drops of colour.   We’ve talked about the pros and cons off adding birds, or how to add texture to a tree trunk and how to make clouds seem more real.  And through it all we look at pictures of the Canadian Rockies and see what they are like and the animals that live on them and what not.  We learn, we talk and we complete “what might be a waste of time”.    Over time you see, tissue paper art, of an abstract nature is not as weird or unknown and just maybe someday a lad might take a chance on doing something different with his art that’s a bit out of his way of thinking… and that’s a good thing.  For now.. he’s helping, he’s talking art and helping me see what works and what doesn’t.   The fluffy clouds…. I started…he finished.  The tree trunk I did.. but he made the branches.  We discussed how to give the tree trunk texture and depth…our first method didn’t work, so we tried another.

Is it great, out of this world art?   I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter.  What matters is this… it’s fun, and we’re both learning a ton!  🙂

If you need inspiration to do art with your students, check out my art series that you can find here and here. 

Now I invite you to visit my fellow homeschool bloggers who are talking about seeking beauty in their homeschools:

Links will all be live by Monday at 12 noon EST.

Exploring the World Starting with Canada.

By 5 Comments

Week Four of the Virtual Curriculum Fair which is hosted by Susan.  This week is all about exploring the world, history, geography, and science.

This year we are making a focus of using Canada to study
geography, art and history.

We have a spine that we are using for the history portion, and around it we are doing art, watching videos, reading books, and learning geographic terms for the various sites we see along the way.   Science in learning about animals, rocks, minerals etc (like the beaver we’ll be studying this coming Tuesday).

I still have a goal of traveling across Canada with him, going east one year and then west the next. But until we can do that… we’ll visit our fine country through books, video and study.

How about you?   What do you want to see with your children?

To that end I have found some excellent resources for broadening our study on Canada.

Mrs. Nelson’s Study on Canada.   Make a tour guide and vacation your way through Canada.  🙂

About Education will walk you through how to do a unit study on Canada.

ABC Teach has a variety of free and pay worksheets for learning about Canada.

The Eric Institute of Education Services is a government site that is searchable for documents related to a wide variety of information.  I found a ton of documents on First Nations people.

EdHelper.com has small unit studies on six of the Canadian Provinces.

I am looking forward to showing him the beauty of Canada’s National Parks.

Link to Learning helps grade six students understand more about Canada’s Trading Partners.

If you haven’t discovered it yet, the Canadian Geographic Resource Centre is a really great resource.

I’ll be using these Interesting Courses from SchoolhouseTeachers as well.

You might find some help here about understanding the Canadian Electoral System.

If you come to visit you might see some of the amazing animals that call Canada home.

And if you want to see more of Ontario, Check out the field trips we have gone on.  HERE and HERE.   It’s good to learn about Canada in a variety of ways you know?  🙂

Let’s keep the history, science and geography alive with our children eh?  

Please visit my fellow homeschool bloggers who are talking about Exploring Our World this week:

Note: all links will be LIVE by Monday 1/23 at noon EST.
Notebooking Our Way through History by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds
Studying the Where and How by Michele@Family, Faith and Fridays
The History of Our Mysterious Struggle With History by Laura @ Four Little Penguins
Social Science, Science and Exploring our World – Our Path by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
Learning History Through Fiction by Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset

History in Our Homeschool by Amanda H @ Hopkins Homeschool
Exploring Our World Through History And Science by Laura @ Day by Day in Our World

Bringing History to Life! by Yvie @ Gypsy Road
History, Living Books and the Imagination by Sarah @ Delivering Grace
Exploring our world comes in many different forms. by Kim @ Good Sweet Love
Bible, History and Geography by Lizzy @ Peaches At Home
Beyond the Books – Social Studies and Science by Shecki @ Greatly Blessed
Exploring the World with Living Books by Brittney @ Mom’s Heart
High School History & Science without Textbooks by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool
Exploring the World Starting with Canada by Annette @ A Net in Time
Visit The World Through Video by Lori H @ At Home: where life happens
Nature Study is Our Favorite Way to Do Science by HillaryM @ Walking Fruitfully
What A Wonderful World by Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break
The Time we got Lost in the Woods by Dana Hanley @ Roscommon Acres

Practical Math

By 17 Comments

My son and I have … A struggle with math and I have to admit that I am not always sure what to do with it.   He’s been getting a bit weary with the struggle (as am I). 

We had picked up a math program last year that I thought would work well for him but it has proven, over time, to be far too easy for him, yet I know he has gaps in his learning (as evidenced today when, to my surprise, I learned that he doesn’t really get what fractions are)…yet he has done lots of fraction work and done it well!   So… I’m currently feeling a bit floored and flummoxed.

So anyways, the point of this post is about math.. practical math as you can see from my post title, and how needful taking a day away can be.  Susan from Homeschooling Hearts and Minds is hosting the Virtual Curriculum Fair this month and math is the focus this week.

Recently I had to bring a bunny to London, a person from Toronto was planning to come by to get the rabbit, but we live in South-western Ontario where we are prone to winter storms, so bunny needed to travel in something that would hold for a few days, if their person couldn’t make it.

ERGO enters a practical math problem.

Our issues:

  • Normal rabbit carrier is frozen solid from an unexpected leak
  • Bunny will be staying at gramma’s so tidyness is very important (measuring lower side height)
  • bunny needs sufficient room to move around for health and mental outlook (area)
  • Needs to hold food and water dishes for continuity of care (perimeter)
  • needs to open and close easily to avoid confusing gramma.

 I’d heard about rabbit carriers being made out of rubbermaid containers so thought that might be the route to go.

Canadian Tire had a sale on containers so off I set.

We came home with two containers (in case we made an oops).

 What we needed:

  • a drill with two different sized bits
  • jigsaw
  • wire for the side
  • wire cutters
  • zipties
  • rubbermaid container
  • very sharp knife
  • markers
  • straight edge

My son asked me “How is this practical math if we aren’t actually doing measuring mom?”

I said “Math is more than measuring, it’s doing estimation and lines, learning how to use a straight edge and stuff like that”.     So we used line of sight, hand measurements, estimation and approximation, and so forth.

He was happy.. he got to use a drill once I showed him how to do a quick up and down with the bit.  He learned how slippery plastic was to cut and so learned to slow down so he wouldn’t take mom’s fingers with it.

I have to admit, that even though my lad is very good with knives I didn’t allow him to do any cutting.   Cutting plastic can be temperamental and using a really sharp knife is a must.  As it was I got nicks taken out of my fingers.

First up.   Taking one piece of wire (taken from an old bird cage) and eye ball it to see what we have to cut back.  It was too wide and a touch too long.

We needed to consider having room to connect it, maintain the stability of the container, and not waste the wire we had.

Using the wire cutters with the wire was pretty easy though dad had to lend his strength to cut through the thick wires.

Cutting through the plastic had dad helping with drilling holes into the corners.  We learned quickly that regardless of what markers I used they didn’t hold well on the plastic making it difficult to see the lines, so after helping cut one line with the jigsaw and not being able to see the lines he left me to cut the rest with my sharp blade.

We needed to put two holes close together to hold the wire onto the sides.

We discussed if it was better to put the wire on the outside or inside and had differing opinions until Dad called from across the room.. put in on the inside…keep the rabbit from nibbling on the plastic.  That cemented the decision-making for us.  🙂

It proved to be a two person job to attach the wire.   Working from opposite corners we managed to get the job done.

The lad completed the job by trimming off the excess ziptie (to keep bunny from thinking…ooh.. free nibbles here!)   Yes, bunnies can be silly.

This took us about a half hour from start to finish, including installing bunny in her temporary home.

Does she look content?   Hay given, water and pellets when she gets to gramma’s.   She should do well eh?   Opens from the top as well as the sides for ease of access.  Turned out to be a good thing as gramma couldn’t figure out the side panels at all.

The bedding for those curious, is a mixed shaving and straw bedding.  Safe to use with small animals.

My math weary child was so delighted to use this project for his math work, it inspired him back to doing “regular” math… even though fractions proved more problematic than we thought they would.  🙂   go figure.   Sometimes taking a day to do practical math.. even without actual numbers .. is just what a lad needs.

This post is part of the Virtual Curriculum Fair, it’s math week .. having fun with numbers.

Please visit my fellow homeschool bloggers who are talking about
Discovering Patterns: Math and the Mathematical Sciences this week:

Finding Our Math Equilibrium: Our Plan for 11th, 7th, 5th, and 2nd Grades + Free Printables! by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds
Math Resources and Programs for All Ages by Amanda H @ Hopkins Homeschool
Math (doesn’t) Stink! by Jennifer King @A Peace of Mind
When Math is NOT Your Thing by Michele@Family, Faith and Fridays
Math U See and All the Supplements by Laura H @ Four Little Penguins
Discovering Patterns in Our World: STEM Studies by Laura @ Day by Day in Our World
Junior High Math by Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life
Science & Math for Struggling Learners by Yvie @ Gypsy Road
Maths: a subject in progress by Sarah @ Delivering Grace
Taking Mathematics out of the Textbook by Dana Hanley @ Roscommon Acre
Maths for a Very Maths-y Boy by Lizzy @ Peaches At Home
Practical Math by Annette @ A Net in Time
One of the greatest benefits of homeschooling by Kim @ Good Sweet Love
Math, How I Loathe Thee by Shecki @ Greatly Blessed
Math and Logic in Early Elementary and Preschool {virtual curriculum fair 2017} by Meghan W @ Quiet In The Chaos
Low Stress High School Science and Math by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool
Are these toys or manipulatives? This is math? by HillaryM @ Walking Fruitfully
When You Don’t Have a Math Plan by Brittney @ Mom’s Heart
Clear Horizons by Lori H @ At Home: where life happens
A Few Thoughts on Teacher Math by Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset

An InLinkz Link-up

This post will also be linked up on January 25 with the Canadian Homeschooler. 

Language Arts: Our Style

By 8 Comments

Welcome to the Virtual Curriculum Fair 2017 week two.  This week we talk all about language arts, how one plays around with words.   Our host is the lovely Susan.  You can learn more about the VFCF2017 right here.

I have to admit, it took a while to figure out a system to study Language Arts in our home.
Knowing that my boy (like his mother) tells stories as easily as breathing I thought, why not use that.

So I grabbed this freebie book from the library discard pile and off we set.

First he needs to draw a picture of the story he wants to write.  He spent days at this, getting all the details right and NO, I’m not allowed to show you.  🙂

 Then you develop your main character.  This was harder than the lad anticipated.  He thought he could just do yellow, pointed ears character.   Then I asked : so how tall is he?   Does he eat meat or vegetables?   What makes him laugh?   Does he ever cry?   Does he have friends or is he a loner?

Once he had the character nailed down a bit better he moved on to writing his story.  Bit by bit he adds to it.  And bit by bit he learns.  Every day a 1/2 hour of work is required.

Each time he gets a chapter done, we sit down and we edit it together.  We make the changes right in his story, discussing spelling errors, word usage, sentence structure and all that fun stuff.

And you know what?   He’s learning.  It’s not a battle.  It’s a sitting down and talking and learning together.  Sometimes I’ll read a sentence and not know what it wrong with it, so I’ll ask other folks and they’ll show me what’s wrong and then the lad and I both learn something new.

It’s good to do this.  🙂

I have to admit, I getting curious about what treasure his character is going to discover…

Anyways, this book has a variety of stories one can write out, from adventures to mysteries.
Draw it out, write it out chapter by chapter and just work your way through it.   We’ll be working our way through it for a good time to come yet.  🙂

I admit that we are taking our time with it, and we did get side-tracked when I was ill so are rather behind, but a new week is dawning and a lad will learn and grow, and I’ll be there with him.

This post is part of the Virtual Curriculum Fair.   I do hope that you’ll join us in reading through what some of us have put together.   Here’s the list of the gang.  🙂

Please visit my fellow homeschool bloggers who are writing about Playing with Words this week:

All posts will be live by Monday, January 9th at noon EST.

Delight Directed High School English by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

Act Your Part Well- 2017 VCF by Lisa @ Golden Grasses

The Search For Language by Michele@Family, Faith and Fridays

Our Top Picks for Language Arts by Amanda H @ Hopkins Homeschool

Multiple Approaches to Language Arts in 2017 by Laura @ Day by Day in Our World

How We Cover the Language Arts in Our Homeschool by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Use Your Words by Laura @ Four Little Penguins

The Art of Perfecting Macarons by Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life

Loving Languages Every Day by Jen K @ A Peace of Mind

Speech Therapy & Elementary Latin by Yvie @ Gypsy Road

The Readin’ and Writin’ Part of Homeschool by Shecki @ Greatly Blessed

Children Who Love Books by Lizzy @ Peaches At Home

Customizing High School Language Credits by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

A Poetry Feast by Sarah @ Delivering Grace

Teaching Language Arts without Curriculum by Brittney @ Mom’s Heart

I know your pain and it is worth it! by Kim @ Good Sweet Love

Language Arts: Our Style by Annette @ A Net in Time

Words! Words! Words! by Lisa M @McClanahan 7

10 Wonderful Word Games (+1) by Lori @ At Home: where life happens

What About Reading Comprehension? by Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset

Teaching Grammar and Writing Through Discussion by Chelli @ The Planted Trees