Here's the Scoop

I want to share with everyone this Awesome  "FREE" website that I just love called, Spelling City.  In my oppion you can never do enough spelling practice with your children, as it really is helpful in the reading/writing process. So anyways with the school year back in full swing, I got on my favorite spelling site today and printed out the kids spelling list by grade <~ such a neat feature IMO ;)  I like that you can either get lists in perfect alphabetical order ( you could do "A" words then "B" etc ), themed or you can create  your own to meet your needs. So  like I was saying anyone who is home-schooling or just wants to have their kids practice their spelling more and likes freebies!!! ~> go check them out ;-)

Yep! another co-op post

So we had another homeschool co-op meeting this past  Thursday, this was our 2nd get together, but 1st time incorporating the learning games. The Woman who runs the co-op had the children do a " Syllables Challenge".  What she had the kids do was break  up into groups up two. It was really fun to watch,  each team had a their own bell and  after she would call out a word like Rab-bit, the first team to ring the bell and be able to tell you how many syllables the word had would get a point. The kids really got into this! So far this new added feature to our group is working out pretty good :)

Just another day at our co-op

Yesterday, I took my children to one of our local home-school co-op's. The group had taken a break during the summer and this was the first get together of the new school year. I always love getting back together with my home-school friends, My kids do too!  The kids of course spent most of their time playing with each other, I on the other hand enjoyed quite a bit of chit chat with all the other mamma's. I learned that  aapparently they are going to start incorporating some learning games at each meeting. We had not done this prior. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to have more homeschooling lessons added at these visits since this was mainly for play and socialisation in my mind. The gals eventually sold me on the idea after they told me about a few of the games: Compound words game- You have to take a list of different words and see how many "compound words" you can create, Skeleton puzzle- You take paper cut out of bones and tape them together in the right spots, etc. I think the kids are really going to enjoy this type of fun  learning, so I am super excited about changing the idea of our lil group. So I guess we will find out next week if the kids are excited too ;)

Secular home school curriculum vs. Christian home school curriculum

Secular home school curriculum VS. Christian home school curriculum? This a question that many home school mom's face. Do you go with a program just because it is faith based, or do you go with one that isn't ?

In the beginning, I struggled with this in my own curriculum decision. I soon learned that even thou in a perfect world, if you were Christian, that the school curriculum you provided for your children would incorporate one's faith in the learning. This is my advice as one Christian home school mom to another. If you find a curriculum that is secular, do not dismiss it, because you can provide the Christian influence in yourself. You can also buy just  the Bible curriculum itself from quite a few top brand Christian based curriculum's fairly cheap to add to any secular curriculum's out there. With the new home school year fast approaching I wish you all Good luck in finding that perfect Home school Curriculum for your children!