I received my Sonlight catalog today and was hoping that the catalog would help me understand the curriculum a little better. For some reason I find it confusing to figure out what I'm gettting for what amount of money. I guess I'm looking for pictures beside the items so I know what's what. So many of you think this is a really great curriculum but I need some help understanding it. If anyone has the reader's digest version or the paint by number version I need it!!!!!!!! HELP….
Julie
As a fairly unseasoned homeschool mom I’m still so excited when school just happens. Since I don’t like planning and schedules freak me out I do better taking advantage of all that life presents us to teach our children. I definitely look at homeschooling as a way of life instead of something we do for a certain period of time each day.
I wondered how the food would stay frozen and found out they ship with dry ice. I didn’t think about what cool stuff we could do with the ice until my 4 year old kept asking what it was made of. I knew it wasn’t water but didn’t know exactly what it was so I pulled it up on the internet.
What fun we had “doing science” that day. I learned all kind of cool stuff too. Dry ice is 110 BELOW freezing and is made of C2O. (Carbon dioxide) The website we used was www.dryice.com. Check it out.
We put the ice in water and made clouds (or smoke as my kids called it).
Then we put it in a balloon and watched the gas expand and blow up the balloon. I’ve included photos of our balloon and it’s expanding size.
Then we played with the ice on a plate with a fork. When the fork touches the ice it will vibrate and sing because the ice is so cold. It’s really more like a squealing sound. So cool.
Then we put the ice in a Tupperware container and watched it blow off the lid. Since I didn’t have a film canister around (which is what the website recommends) we had to improvise.
What a blast we had. I felt like a real teacher. I know I teach my kids every day but this was so much fun and I was learning too. Is homeschool always so adventurous? We are planning on putting the photos in our notebook so the kids can journal about the day and what each experiment showed us. And I get to tell you guys about it.
Do I sound excited? I am.
Well, that’s our supreme homeschooling moment of the week. Thanks for letting me share. Oh, and please read my next blog entry. I have some homeschool questions I need answered.
IN HIM,
Julie
Did anyone see 20/20's STUPID IN AMERICA….How We Cheat Our Kids tonight??? It was all about how our public school system is failing our kids! Yea ABC for showing something worthwhile while NBC was showing that HORRIBLE show The Book of Daniel. Shame on you NBC!!!!!
Julie
Two blogs in one day. Yes I'm sick and in the bed. And I just CAN NOT watch Little House on the PrairIe. Talk about being sick to my stomach.
SEE jen's post
Okay, so I just realized there's a contest and I might need to write something because I love free stuff and never get any of it so here goes. (Be kind)
1. Because everyone in our family thinks we're nuts and ruining our kids.
2. Because my crazy neighbors across the street did it.
3. Because I will not buy the same tennis shoes little Johnny has on.
4. Because after choosing to have 4 kids and then not to immunize we figured this would drive our parents COMPLETELY nuts.
5. Because we get really dumb questions like “Aren't you scared homeBOUNDING will ruin them socially?”
6. We needed just ONE MORE thing to do with 4 kids under the age of five.
7. Well, you see, I'm so organized and proficient at EVERYTHING I figured I better do this too.
8. I have a college education and have to do something with it or my old professors would just DIE!
9. No one really knows how horrible my children can act on a really bad day….No Principle's office for this family!!
10. So I can drive myself nuts 
choosing a curriculum each year.
We just needed some humor in all this contesting!!! NOW GO AND VOTE OR WHATEVER IT IS WE DO TO NOMINATE SOMEONE…..JUST CLICK HERE
OR READ HERE AND EMAIL TO THE BELOW ADDRESS
(submissions are due to: cate3@panix.com by 6:00 PM (PST) on January 16th. It will be greatly appreciated if the submissions come in earlier. Please send the following information:
Title of Post
URL of Post
Name of Blog
URL of Blog
Brief summary of the post
Love you all,
Julie
Well, we've started the New Year off right and it isn't even here yet. My husband and I have a renewed desire to pray with each other at night. God has been so faithful to show us Satan's sneaky attacks on our family, our friends and our church. He is SO faithful to reveal the plots of the enemy. I praise Him for his faithfulness and love for His children.
My oldest son starts school again on Tuesday and we've begun to pray about whether or not to homeschool him this next year. I've loved some of what he's learned at Montessori school and know it's where God would have him this year. But I'm also not so crazy about some of the other things he's learned. So, again we seek God's will for him in the next school year. I do know that if we homeschool him I'm going to have to get better organized.
We are possibly looking at a move midyear. We're praying about God's will for us and where we should live. Do we choose to raise our family in one place and face the consequences of possibly losing a job OR do we feel following the employment is what is most important for our family now. I mean, we gotta eat!! Either way, we most desire God's will for our lives.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend and a happy New Year. I'm planning a surprise for my husband tomorrow night since his birthday is New Years Day. I'll let you know how it goes!!!
Julie
We recently purchased the PEGS system from Family Tools.com. Might I say it’s fabulous!!! 
It’s a wonderful way to help your children not only build character but also get their chores done each day. My husband and I saw their advertisement in the Spring Issue of This Old Schoolhouse magazine and just got around to spending the 80.00 to buy it. You can buy a less expensive one for smaller families but we needed the large one with 6 in our family, not counting pets.
We used it for the first day on Friday. My children raced off to do their chores so that they could flip their disks over indicating the task was completed. Then it was tons of good manners, good communication and good behavior which awards them BONUS or green disks. We alot one point per disk per day and keep track of them. If we have a day with no fighting and everyone has an “all done” day then we get a small reward at the end of the day. 
The children may use their accumulated points for things like sleepovers, going for ice cream, a pack of sugarless gum, a night out at the local high school football game etc. It’s a wonderful way to really see what is important to our children as well as allowing them to choose within boundaries we have set as parents.
I highly recommend the PEGS system. We use it M-F, taking a break over the weekend. That way it tends to stay fresh and new. We change weekly tasks each week, each child being responsible for a different task. My 5 year old told me on Friday that the Penalty disks (given for bad behavior,
attitude or manners AND can be worked off by apologizing, correcting the behavior or attitude) were worse than spankings. YEA HA!!!
If you would like to check out the PEGS system you can do so at www.familytools.com.
We’ll keep you posted on our progress. So far it’s changing our household. The kids actually try to work together to earn more points for bigger rewards at the end of the week. I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.
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