Fast Transcripts (high school transcript program) Review

As a homeschool parent with a child in 9th grade, I'm already feeling a lot of pressure to get these last few years right! Whether or not he chooses to attend collage, I want to be sure that that I'm doing all I can to have everything in place to make sure his transition is smooth. Who knows? He may postpone collage for a while after he graduates only to change his mind a year or so later. Whatever he decides, as his teacher it's my responsibility to keep accurate records including professional high school transcripts. I was clueless about how to do this until I was introduced to Fast Transcripts.

Fast Transcripts is an online program that keeps record of your child's high school courses and helps you produce an official transcript. Signing up was simple and the program is easy to use. I just entered Ethan's academic information for this year including, course title, grade (when a course is completed), and credits. Fast Transcripts will automatically calculate the yearly and cumulative GPAs and gives you the option of printing the final transcript on watermark protected, academic record stock.

I love that with Fast Transcripts I'm able to update and store Ethan's transcripts without the worry of misplacing anything (I may have done that before with other homeschool paperwork) and their FAQ section was very helpful with the couple of questions that came up.

Right now they are offering a 30 day free trial (no credit card info is required) of Fast Transcripts so you can try it before you subscribe. If you decide to subscribe the cost is only $16 ($12 for HSLDA members).

*Although this review was sponsored by Fast Transcripts, this is an honest review and I plan on using their services in my own homeschooling journey.

2014 Winter Olympic Craft Ideas

I love when the Olympics come around and the winter Olympics are my favorite! When it comes to homeschool, there are endless things to teach the kids about. The history of the games, the countries participating, the sports, and maybe I can even go over the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding drama!...No? Yeah. I guess It's probably a little too much for my 5 and 8 year olds ;)

So now I'm on the look out for some good crafts that we can do along with the lessons. Here's what we made during the 2012 summer Olympics.

Olympic Ring Cupcakes

Olympic Ring Cupcakes.

Olympic Medals

Look how little they all were!

Directions:

-Use a round cookie cutter to shape your favorite cookies.

-Wrap the cookies in foil

-Trace your round cookie cutter onto the back of gold and silver card stock. 2 circles for each medal. *I bought my paper from Michaels

- Tape Olympic themed ribbon to one side of the wrapped cookie than tape 1 card stock circle over it. Tape the other circle to the other side of the cookie.

Although, I like to use any excuse to make cupcakes, I don't really want to do the same crafts for this Olympics. I'm thinking something winter themed...and edible ;)

Are you doing anything fun with your kids to celebrate the Olympics?

Creator of Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool: Guest Blog

As most of you know, I homeschool my 4 kids and have from the beginning. Homeschooling is hard. It really is. There are many days that I'm tempted to give up and send the kids to public school. Sometimes I'm filled with doubt and frustration and I cry. Sometimes they cry. But then I think about all the good things about homeschool and how much I LOVE being able to spend the day with with kids. Yes, homeschooling is hard. But for our family, the benefits make it worth it all!

I'm always on the look out  for things that will make our homeschooling days easier and more efficient . One of the most difficult things about homeschool for me is being sure that I'm covering enough information. I'm not one of those moms that can create her own curriculum. I have to have a plan to follow. But with all the free information out there I can't justify spending big money on school books! That's why I love Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool. This website has a complete, free online homeschool curriculum that covers everything!

I've asked Lee who is the creator of Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool to explain how Easy Peasy came about and how it works.

Take it away, Lee :)
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Did you ever think homeschooling could be easy peasy? Do you ever get to dinner without even finishing the day’s work? Are you on the go with lessons, co-ops and activities, trying to make sure your kids don’t miss out and are sufficiently socialized?

I used to always say that we did school easy. My kids would do math and then they would read from our bookshelf, something related to a history or science topic. I made up English assignments on the fly, using the reading for a lesson on grammar, vocabulary or writing. Once my oldest became of age, turning eight, I started adding more subjects and more written work. I started using websites for additional learning on our history and science topics.

I was writing out assignments for my two oldest every weekend for the coming week. I would bookmark websites, tagging them with the day they were to use them. At the end of the week, the bookmarks were deleted and the assignment sheets thrown away. I knew I would just have to do it over again for the next child, and the next, and the next.

I started writing out their assignments online so that they would be saved. I made the decision to write it not to my children, but so that anyone could use it. It took some figuring, but I managed to order the assignments so that English and math were progressive for each grade level while all the children could study history and science topics together. Because I was making the assignments for anyone to use, I made another decision to only use free materials that were available to everyone.

I’ve continued putting their assignments online. I now have four children using the Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool and two others who will use it in the future. I put up assignments for every subject required by our state, so PE and health, music and art are covered. I’ve added in computer, logic and Bible as well. These extra courses, except for Bible, are just once a week, so it’s never overwhelming trying to get it all done. Bible doesn’t require work, just a daily reading with some questions to answer. It takes children through the entire Bible every four years.

Easy Peasy now goes from preschool through high school. Preschoolers learn to read with just five to ten minutes of fun a day. It’s always been my strategy to teach my kids to read before I start “school” with them. It makes learning a lot easier once they know how to read. I’ve taught four different children to read with the method I use on EP. I love getting letters from people saying that their struggling readers are now confident, excited readers after using this learning-to-read program.  

High school courses are still in the works, but a full year’s worth of courses is already available. All high school courses offer grading guidelines. Many offer midterms and finals as well as quizzes and rubrics for grading papers or projects.

This is what my children do for school. I don’t enroll them in outside classes. We don’t go to Latin or chess club. This is what we do. School lasts from 5 minutes to 3 hours or so depending on the grade level and day’s assignments. Then my kids are free to do whatever it is they love to do. One loves art, one music, one computers. They are becoming excellent at the things they love because they have the time to spend at it. They do school easy but can still solve functions and write effective essays. How are your school days? Are they Easy Peasy?

Lee

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Thanks you so much, Lee! Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool has helped me so much with homeschooling my kids and I encourage any fellow homeschooling families to go check it out!

Corning Museum Of Glass

This trip to Corning Museum Of Glass was sponsored by TravelingMom.com but the opinions I'm sharing of our trip are my own.

I was honestly a little nervous about taking my four kids to a glass museum. I wondered about how many things they would break before we left and if they would even enjoy themselves. The Corning Museum Of Glass was a pleasant surprise.

The drive to Corning from Rochester is about an hour and a half but the scenery is so beautiful that it goes by pretty quickly. Parking is free and located right by a welcome center. Perfect for a bathroom break for the little ones before starting our visit to the museum.

Entry into the museum is free for kids and teens 19 and younger. I love this! As a homeschooling mom I appreciate the not-for-profit museum's obvious focus on educating and not on money making.

Right after checking in we headed to the studio for our scheduled Make Your Own Glass sessions. To get to the studio we had to walk through the gift shop. That was the only place where I really was concerned that my kids would break something. There are so many beautiful things just begging to be touched! I took away their temptation by telling them to put their hands into their pockets and walking through the shop fast. Very fast.

We all agreed that one of the highlights of our visit was making our own glass projects. When your're only paying for the adults to get into the museum, paying the reasonable fee to make a glass project that you can have forever is a definite must!

I loved that kids of all ages can participate! Staff members told me that if the child can blow out a candle they can do glassblowing. So no one feels left out.

Glassblowing

Making my glass flower

After we finished at the studio we headed back to the museum to explore, starting with the Innovation Center. This is one of those places where kids may think they're playing but their actually learning something. The periscope and the Glass Chemistry Game were a couple of our favorites.

During our visit we made sure to catch a few of the free demos going on including Glass Breaking, Flameworking, and the Hot Glass Show. Our favorite was the glass breaking demo. My boys are already pretty good at breaking glass but in this demo we leaned about how and why glass breaks.

Then we made our way through the galleries. I really enjoyed the the contemporary glass. We were all amazed at the things that the artists made with glass. If you visit, make sure you look closely at Family Matter and keep an eye out for what my kids thought looked like a giant Swedish Fish!

Next, we went into the Glass Collection Galleries. Right next to the entrance to the galleries we found booklets that had kids act as glass detectives and search for animals in the galleries.

These booklets were perfect! The search kept my kids attention while we walked through the galleries and had them really looking at the glass. I was able to enjoy myself and not feel rushed with bored kids.






Just a couple of days after our visit our glass projects came in the mail. The kids were so excited to see their final products! Someone may have said that the flower I made was hideous. I think they were just jealous of my awesome glassmaking skills!

Look at that beautiful flower!

The Corning Museum Of Glass is a place that people of all ages can enjoy and afford. We spent over five hours exploring and there was still things we didn't get to see. I would suggest you plan on making a day of your visit. Take a break for some lunch in the cafe where you can purchase pizza slices and gigantic brownies!

My kids said they liked it better there than at our local children's museum so we'll being visiting again for sure!

Confessions Of A Mother

I confess...

That I hide food in the cupboard that I don't want to share with my kids. At any given time you may find chocolate, candy, and other snacks hidden high and safe. I tell myself it's to help keep them healthy.

I'm not as interested as I look when they tell me all about what's happening in their video games or books. I love that they're excited though so I smile and and nod in all the right places so they'll keep talking.

I've gone to the store to buy the kids clean socks because all of there socks are dirty. I've heard I'm not the only mom who's done that.

I don't share my drinks with my kids. I know how much they backwash.

I don't really want any more gifts of candles, picture frames, or lotion. But I keep every little card that they make me in a box by my bed.

I go to bed every night worrying if I'm doing a good job raising them.

I go to bed every night vowing to do even better the next day.

Every time one of my kids has a birthday I feel sad. Sad because I know I'm closer to having to let them go.

There are some days when I dream about getting away for a while. But just driving to the store with out my kids makes me feel incomplete.

It annoys me when people refer to motherhood as a "job". It's a blessing and a gift.

Most of the time I don't like to homeschool but I love having my kids home with me everyday.

I confess that being their mom is my highest honor.

I could never do this without the help of God.

Easy Peasy Homeschool Help

I don't think I'll ever reach the point where I feel like I have this whole homeschooling thing down. I'm always trying to be a better teacher for my kids and always looking for resources to help me with that. Here are a few free sites I've found that I hope can help some of my fellow homeschoolers.

2 different people sent this picture to me this week.  

Remember Bill Nye The Science Guy? I came across a link on Pinterest this week with 5 seasons of his show. I can't wait to watch...I mean for my kids to watch all the episodes! I'm going to try and incorporate it into our science lessons.

*Does anyone remember another science show where the guy walked around in a costume that looked like the inside of his body? What was up with that!?

Here's the link: Bill Nye The Science Guy

Then my friend shared a link to another site that I've already used to help with our homeschool this week. This lady is amazing! She has every grade (including preschool) and every subject laid out in day by day lessons. FOR FREE! There are links to educational games, videos, printables, online books, pretty much a homeschooling gold mine! We already have curriculum that is working well for us but I've been using this site for extra math and history help. I can't even begin to imagine how much work it took for her to put this all together!

Check it out: All In One Homeschool    

I have a confession...I can't type. Right now I am writing this using my pointer and middle fingers :/ I'm super fast though! I can peck these keys like nobody's business! Fo real!... The last time I went for a full body massage, the lady told me that the only knots or tightness that she found was under my right wrist. AKA, typing with that middle finger is giving me a real workout! It's either from that or from me flipping the bird all the time. jk ;)

When I was in school they didn't teach us to type and I never really saw the need to learn to do it the "correct" way. I realize that computers and typing will most likely be big part of my kid's futures so I've made typing lessons a part of their school. Here is the FREE site we use. Yes I wrote "we". I've been doing a little learning my self. Now if I'm actually using it is another story :)

Typing Lessons

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If you have any online resources that you've found helpful I'd love if you would share :)

Mom Has A New Trick Up Her Sleeve

Because of the holidays and a death in the family, today is our first day doing homeschool in about 3 weeks. While we were getting ready to start, Logan said that he was actually excited and Ethan said he couldn't remember why he used to not like school. I guess a break did us all some good :)

...

And then reality hit! 

After writing those words I had to stop to break up a couple of arguments and a temper tantrum. You would probably guess that it was my 4 year-old that had the tantrum.  You would be wrong. After I asked my 9 year-old to "add just a couple more sentences" to the book report he was writing, he lost it. He went up to his room, laid in his bed, and acted like a 2 year old who dropped his ice cream cone! Complete with crying, screaming, and pounding his fists! 

After a few minuets I went up stairs and told him that his behavior was not acceptable. Crying when you're upset is one thing, but acting the way he did was not! He seemed to understand.

Then it was back down the stairs to find another child playing instead of doing math.

Three weeks is too long to be away from our routine. The kids need some re-adjustment and I need some new tricks.

                                                                  Good Behavior Jar

I saw an idea like this on Pinterest and thought I'd try it. It's a little old school but sometimes that's the best stuff!

I made it by putting some stickers that say "you rock" on a small vase and using decorative rocks to keep track of  the good behavior.

I told them that when the jar is full I will give them a surprise. I'm thinking something like a trip to Chuck E Cheese

I want it to be all positive so I won't be removing rocks for bad behavior. Rocks will be added when I catch them doing things like:

• Being kind to someone
• Being helpful
• Saying nice things to their siblings
• Doing things without being told 

etc.

When I explained the rules they asked if they could have a smaller reward if they just fill it half way...Doesn't sound like they're too optimistic :/

I'll keep you updated.

First Day of Homeschool

On Tuesday we started school again and I can already tell things are going to be a lot better this year! Last year my heart wasn't really into homeschooling. I felt frustrated and unqualified. I thought for sure that I had failed them but I was pleasantly surprised when, at the end of the school year, both the boys did amazingly well on their tests!

After talking to some public school teachers and some fellow homeschoolers I was really encouraged! I'm more sure than ever that homeschool is the right choice for our family and I feel challenged to be a better teacher.

I also have met some other moms who are starting to homeschool for the first time this school year. Some of them are looking to me for advice but I've found myself feeding off their excitement and ideas!

This year my goals are:

• To be more sensitive to my kid's different learning styles.
• Make school as fun as possible
• Take the kids to some new field trip locations
• Be successful in teaching science and history without a curriculum (for the first time)
• Most importantly I want to be more positive.

When I got frustrated last year I think I let my negative attitude affect my entire view of homeschool. Somehow I've gotten back to the way I felt when we first decided that homeschool was right for us.

I love being able to choose what my kids learn and when they learn it.

I love that they don't have to be exposed to the things that are happening in the public schools.

And I LOVE being able to have my gang at home with me during the day.

Ethan (10) 6th grade

Logan (9) 4th grade

Evelyn (6) 1st grade

Houston (3) Likes to play with toys :)

I love homeschool.

Blogging Runs in the Family

My 11 year old son reads like a crazy man! Every Tuesday he comes home from the library with a bunch of books that he finishes in a matter of days. He reads allllll day long. As soon as he wakes up in the morning he reaches for a book. I've made him stop reading before and go outside to play only to look out the window and see him sitting at the picnic table...with a book. Sometimes I'll even catch him trying to read by the light of his lava lamp when he's supposed to be in bed sleeping.

So, I'm using his love for reading to try to get him to write more.

Lava Lamp Book Reviews

Ethan will be writing reviews of books that he has recently read. I'm sure he would be thrilled if you and your kids would stop by and leave him some feedback!

And I'll be thrilled that by doing this he'll be practicing writing, spelling, grammar, and typing skills ;)

Thanks for showing my baby some love.

Summer vacation started in the hospital

This past week I gave the kids their end of the year tests. They were just about finished with all of their books, and I was just about finished with homeschool this year :/ Thankfully they both did great! I think that the math curriculum that we used is at least a year ahead because after solving square roots and dividing fractions, one of the questions on the test asked, "Which of these is an even number?" 

Both of the boys finished in less then half the time they were given and both only got 2 out of 40 questions wrong. Yay! I'm not failing my children after all!

So since we finished our testing, our summer vacation has officially started!

On Friday I got a call from my dad saying that my mom was in the hospital with stomach issues and they wanted to keep her over night. He asked if I could come and stay the night with her so he could have a break. Of course I said I would but I needed to run to the church to set up for Sunday School and then I'd be right over.

Half way through setting up I checked my phone to make sure there wasn't any new updates with my mom and saw that I had a few missed calls from my husband. He left a message saying that Evelyn had fallen of the top of the slide (8 feet high) onto her head/neck and that he was taking her (and the three other kids) to the ER.

I quickly got in my car to meet him at the hospital.

I think my husband was going for the homeless child look when he brought her to the park looking like this.

While the doctor was checking her out she was asking her questions like what month it is and who the president is. She was not answering these questions. Not because she had some sort of serious head injury. But because apparently she just doesn't know.

Doc: What is the president's name?

Evelyn: I don't know...

Me: COME ON! You know what it is. Tell the doctor his name.

Evelyn: *Blank stare*

Doc: Are they teaching you anything in school!?

Me: *Crawling under the hospital gurney* Uh yeah...I homeschool them.

Fail

Evelyn was fine. She chipped her tooth but the only other thing that was hurt was my pride.

After leaving that hospital I drove across town to the hospital that my mom was staying in.

She stayed with me after all 4 of my kids were born, the least that I could do was stay with her while I read and watched a million episodes of Storage Wars.

My mom kept trying to get me to lay in bed and cuddle with her. I think it was the drugs ;)

So after this weekend summer vacation has officially been canceled. Instead, I will be spending the next 3 months teaching Evelyn who the president of the United States is and other important things ;)

My goal is that next time (God forbid) she's in the hospital I can tell them that the only way we can be sure she's OK, if she can still quote the Lord's Prayer... in Latin.

Egg-ucational eggs

Here are some educational ideas for recycling those plastic eggs. These would be great to use for homeschool.

Letter match eggs

 Source

I love this idea! I did this with my gang today and even the older kids enjoyed it.

Addition family eggs

 Source

Synonyms and Antonyms 


 
 Source

These are just a few of the ideas that I came across on Pinterset. After seeing all these egg-celent ideas (see what I did there?) I think I may go buy some more plastic eggs just so I can try them all.

Linking up here:

Pigs at the aquarium

On Tuesday I took the kids on a field trip to the Niagara Falls Aquarium with the homeschool group from church. It was almost a 2 hour drive so I wanted to leave the house at 8am to make sure we could meet everyone there by 10am.

I planned to get everyone up at 7 but I didn't set an alarm. I never do though. I'm one of those people that if you tell me to make sure I wake up at 3:33am, I'll do it. I think I was born with an internal clock or something. An internal clock that was broken on Tuesday... I woke up at 7:30 which means I only had a half hour to get 5 people fed and ready for the day! I went into crazy mom mode! I gave the gang 10 minutes to eat their breakfast then sent them upstairs to get dressed. As I was running around like crazy packing what we would need, Evelyn came down in the clothes she picked out, stood in front of me, and asked "How do you like me now, sucker!" I should have let that be a warning on how the rest of the day would go.

The kids loved the aquarium despite getting there 20 min. late and missing the penguin feeding :/ They said their favorite part was the Sea Lion show.

We watched it twice.

 But the best part for me was the touch tank. Unlike the other touch tanks we've been to, we got to touch everything! And not just touch, we were encouraged to pick all the animals up and learned a lot of cool things like how like Star Fish eat. 

Ethan with a Horse Shoe Crab...I think

I snuck back in when all the kids were gone

Around lunch time we all gathered in a community room to eat. We decided before we left that our family would just bring snacks then eat lunch somewhere near the falls. As the kids left me (snacks in hand) to go sit with their friends, I reminded them NOT to beg people for food, and that we would leave soon to get our own lunches. Not 5 minutes later I look over to see them with random cookies, chips, drinks, and rice cakes (Evelyn's score) that they all swore people just gave them. It was pretty embarrassing. I felt like people were thinking I was a bad mother. Maybe it was because I was like the ONLY parent who didn't pack their kids a frickin gourmet lunch! Whatever...

I don't usually like Evelyn to be so far from me that I can't hear the crazy things that are coming out of her mouth.... and then do the needed damage control. But against my better judgment I let her sit on the other side of the room with her friends. So as I was trying to stop Houston from eating the tuna fish sandwich that magically appeared in front of him, I heard a sound from across the room that I knew could only be coming from MY daughter.

It was a SNORT! A very loud SNORT! Followed by many, many more SNORTS! Apparently, Evelyn was showing her friends how she can make sounds just like a pig. Red faced, I quickly walked over to quiet her down but by this time most of the room was watching and laughing. Before I made it to the table I noticed something... Evelyn wasn't just sitting with her friends, but was also sitting right across the table from one of our pastors!! 

Only Evelyn would be sitting at a lunch table full of church friends and A PASTOR, and literally be snorting like a dang pig!

It's no surprise that soon after I did some Evie damage control, we left the aquarium and made our way over to the falls. *And yes I did feed my poor children there*

I took this awesome picture!

No really! They were having fun!

We really did have a good time that day! Besides Evelyn's pig impressions *and maybe when she was sticking her tongue out at a little elderly couple* the kids were really well behaved. And for taking my kids to an aquarium and Niagara Falls by myself, without a stroller? I pretty much rocked the house too!

We all felt like this at the end of our trip.

And the award for the best homeschooling mom goes to...Me!

So yesterday was a balmy 41 degrees here. So I decided to celebrate by taking the gang on a field trip...To Hobby Lobby.
That is why I win the award for the best homeschooling mom ever!

It's my mother's fault! When I was in public school the teacher would take me aside and tell me that there was a family emergency of some kind, and that my mom was there to pick me up. By the time I walked down to the office  I would have worked myself up to tears wondering what bad thing could have happened. Then my mother would gently wrap her arms around me and whisper in my ear "Shh don't cry. We're going to the beach!"  My mom would always say she missed us while we were at school and looked for any excuse to keep my brother and I home. Those were some of the best times!

You can learn a lot at the beach though.
Health: How to properly apply sunscreen.
Art: How to build a lasting sand castle.
Social Studies?: Remembering to say that "we are sick" when a stranger asks why we weren't in school that day.

There are also a TON of things to be learned at Hobby Lobby.
Math: Comparing prices at HL, to those at Joannes.
Science: Picking out our next science project from their big selection.
Reading: Lots of reading opportunities every where they looked.
Social Studies: Watching the reactions of the employees when we returned the merchandise that one of the gang "accidently" stole.

On your death bed will you be thanking your family for the great education you received? Or will you be thankful for the TIME you were able to spend with the people you love? There are some things in life..No. Lots of  things in life, more important then education. Sometimes we need to show our kids that it's OK to have a little fun. And maybe even break the rules now and then.