BookShark Ordered!

So, I've placed my order with BookShark(the new, secular version of Sonlight). Yay! I can't wait for it to get here! You wouldn't think someone could be as excited as I am about instructor's guides, but then you don't know me that well. I'm boring that way. Curriculum is my drug of choice.

We're taking a week off to wait for the first grade IG to get here. I sold my Sonlight Core B IG(the equivalent of BookShark's 1st grade). I thought about just slogging through the religious stuff for the rest of the year, and then buying BookShark for second grade, but since we started the core in March, we still have a ways to go. I've loved Sonlight, but I get seriously tired of having to skim over,what I believe to be, foolish ideas.

Here's what I bought: History 1 Instructor's Guide, Timeline Figures 1, 2nd Grade Intermediate Reader Schedule and Notes, Marco Polo, Encyclopedia Brown, and Lumber Camp Library. The last three were titles we didn't get with the Sonlight 2nd grade readers. The cores and readers are mostly the same(minus the religious stuff), but they have a few different titles, and some shifting of which cores some of the books are in.

FYI: If you sign up for an account right now,  BookShark will email you a $10 off of $100 purchase code.

BookShark's website isn't as user friendly as Sonlight's, especially if you're purchasing individual items, but I'm sure that will change soon. I also hope they eventually create a forum for BookShark. And I know my kids would love it if the cores came in a box they can make into a castle(one of their favorite things about getting a shipment from Sonlight).

I'll post my first impressions about BookShark when the package comes, just in case you're as boring as I am, and want to hear about it. Or you can just snicker derisively at my mundane life. My children do!
  
Until next time!
 

Archaeology, and the GFDF diet so far

We've been having a ball reading about and playing at archaeology this week. We read Archaeologists Dig for Clues and Tut's Mummy Lost and Found which both came with our Sonlight Core B materials, and supplemented with dig magazine and the Geosafari Egyptian Dig kit. The kit was fun, but not terribly educational. We found at least one inaccuracy in the history pamphlet which came with it. But Max and Bess had fun making a mess, and afterward they created their own dig in the backyard. They found lots of acorns and one rock which led to a half hour argument about who owned said rock, because apparently it's a valuable dinosaur bone the likes of which the paleontology community has never seen. Fortunately, they settled it out of court. The acorns were cataloged as proof of an ancient squirrel civilization.

Archaeologists at Work

A few weeks ago, we put Max on a gluten-free, dairy-free diet for his GI symptoms(chronic diarrhea accompanied by slow weight gain). Many children on the autism spectrum have issues with gluten and dairy. We've been pleasantly surprised by Max having fewer temper tantrums and being much more talkative since the change. I'm not saying it's a direct result of the diet, because I'm sort of a skeptic about anything that isn't proven in a controlled, clinical study. I'm just making an observation. It's possible the change in diet happened to coincide with a cognitive jump. It's not unusual for Max to be completely incapable of doing something one week, and then become a master of it the next. So I don't know. But here are the changes I think can definitely be attributed to the diet change: fewer GI problems, better sleep, and increased appetite.

I'm not a natural when it comes to gluten-free cooking, but I'm slowly learning. It feels odd to have eggs in the house again, as we've been vegan for years. But Max is very picky about the texture of the foods he eats, and vegan/gluten-free foods were not getting eaten. So we buy eggs now. I only purchase free-range from a nice,local farmer, but I'm not naive enough to think the hens are sent to a retirement community when they stop laying. We are choosing our son's health over our moral stance. Maybe, one day, we will be in a situation where we can raise our own chickens who will have full access to retirement benefits.

I've created a page here for gfdf recipes and product reviews which I will periodically update.

Until next time!
 

Lately

I haven't posted here in a while. We've had a hailstorm of changes over the past month or two, and I needed to concentrate on other things.

First, my mother was in the hospital for a short time.

Then, my oldest son quit college mid-semester because of some serious issues with anxiety. Thankfully he's doing better now. He's taking one class he really enjoys, and helping us at home. I think taking a break was a good idea.

And for two months, I've had a few minor multiple sclerosis flair ups which is normal for me in the year following a pregnancy, but annoying as hell. My symptoms usually get better about a year after giving birth. Rose is 9 months old now, so hopefully soon I'll start having fewer problems.

Also, we have my husband's upcoming graduation in May and ongoing job search.

We're gearing up for a move. Even if my husband gets a job in our city, we are going to need a new place.

And to top it all off we've started our youngest son on a gluten-free/dairy-free diet which is a big change for the main cook of the family(me).

But somehow we're still coasting along in our homeschool. It's been a good year for us. And next year should be even better, because I just found out my days of secularizing Sonlight are almost at an end. Whoohooo! Bookshark(formerly Brightflash) is up and ready. It's the new secular version of Sonlight. I'm really looking forward to not having to edit the IG every day. So yay for that!

What we're reading : Where the Sidewalk Ends
                                 Half Magic
                                 Bedtime Math

What I'm reading: Raising Girls
                           Mortal Instruments: City of Bones(guilty pleasure book)

What We're Watching: Lionel Nation

What I'm watching: Korean Dramas--The Great Doctor and Pasta(These are both on Netflix right now. I highly recommend both series.)

In our kitchen:  Gluten-Free Banana Muffins(with Earth Balance replacing the butter to make it dairy-free)

Crafting: Crayon Resist Paper Easter Egg

And that's about it for now. Lately, I'm just trying to keep everything running as smoothly as it can through all of our changes. Just when I think it's all too much to handle, I find some hidden pocket of strength. There is something to be said for getting older. If all this had been happening in my 20s, I would be drowning in a pool of my tears right now. At 42, I'm doing okay.
 

Year-Round Homeschooling

For the past few years, we've dumped our old summers-off school schedule for year-round schooling. At first, I was a little worried about the change. I have wonderful memories from childhood of lazy summer days spent reading and goofing off, and I wanted my children to also experience those long, lovely months of freedom. But as a homeschool teacher I dreaded each year having to spend most of the first month of school reviewing what the kids had forgotten over the summer. Math, in particular, was jettisoned from their minds at an alarming rate. I'd get a lot of blank looks and huh?s at the beginning of September. Then we'd have to spend a whole lot of time relearning the material. Public schools have the same problem. If you've ever used a math program which is also used in schools, you know that usually the first 20 or so lessons are review.
With summers off, we also had the problem of getting into the routine of school. Our good study habits vanished when we had too much down time. When we're in a constant routine with a week off here and there, my kids seem to have fewer problems concentrating on our lessons.
So, year-round schooling it is for us, and we like it much better. Every month, we get a week off and 3 weeks off in August. We plan for 189 days of school so we have those extra 9 days for sick days. We take the weeks of Halloween and Thanksgiving off, and two weeks for Christmas and New Years.
I don't get burnout as much as I used to. That one week each month is great for school planning, organizing the house, reading, playing games, watching movies, and relaxing. I have time to get the house really clean and organized which makes it easier to keep up with the housework during school weeks.
At the end of our vacation weeks I feel recharged and ready to get back to school. And when the kids know they have mini-vacations planned year round, school doesn't seem like such a burden.

I use DonnaYoung for our school calendar. That site is a treasure trove of helpful, free resources for just about anything you would need to organize and plan your homeschool.

I use a highlighter to mark our vacation so the kids don't have to ask when the next one is. They can just look at the calendar. Since our state requires us to keep track of school days, I use the calendar to mark off time in school. It's really simplified my record keeping.
So there you have it. Our school schedule in a nutshell.

Until next time!

This Week

We've spent the last few days dealing with This. We live near the path of the chemical plume, and so our water was affected. We've had to use bottled water for everything. All our washing, cooking, and drinking water had to be bought. We haven't been able to wash clothes or take much of a bath.We should be free to use our taps by tonight, and I am looking forward to a hot shower. One positive to come from all this is we've essentially been doing a dry run of our emergency plan, and I realize we've way underestimated how much water we need to store. So we'll have to reevaluate what we have on hand for disasters.

This Week

I am grateful: for clean water.

We are reading: Stories from Nature

I am reading: The Illustrated Man

We are cooking: Comfort food!  Veg News Vegan Macaroni and Cheese(so good!) and Chloe's Vegan Spiced Applesauce Cake(Wonderful!)

 Creating and Organizing: My kids bought me a Taste Book a couple of birthdays ago and after  trying in vain to find my favorite soup recipe, digging through the messy drawer I keep my recipes in, I thought it was time to put my gift to use. So hopefully I'll soon have all my recipes organized, and I can find another purpose for the hell drawer.

In our homeschool: We've been reading Pasteur's Fight Against Microbes and working on bacteria and fungi experiments. It's part of Noeo Biology I. Right now we have two experiments in progress. 1: We collected bacteria from a doorknob and spread it in an agar filled petri dish, and on one half spread anti-bacterial cream. 2: We took saliva samples from our dog and our baby, Rose, and spread each on a half of an agar filled petri dish. Bess had to write out hypotheses for what would happen in each experiment, and then keep notes on the growth of the bacterial colonies. So far, the dog spit has more bacterial growth.

Bess and Bacteria

So that's it for our rather slow, shower-free week. I wish you a great week, and clean water!
Until next time!

What We're Reading This Week

With the snowstorm and record low temperatures on the way, we made a trip to the library today to stock up on the essentials. No bread and milk run for us. We get the important stuff first! So here's what we'll be reading this week as Mother Nature tries to freeze us.

For Bess and Max:

Beezus and Ramona

How the Meteorite Got to the Museum

Surprise Island(Boxcar Children #2)

On a Beam of Light:A Story of Albert Einstein

The World According to Humphrey

Henry and Mudge In the Sparkle Days

A Bear Called Paddington

Poppleton in Winter

For me:

Happier at Home

Momo(a favorite book from my childhood)

Our Mutual Friend

Rose:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

And there you have it, our plan to beat cabin fever. I hope to finally finish the scarf I've been knitting since god knows when, play some board games, and make vegan cinnamon rolls.

I wish you warmth and time with family. Until next time!

Sonlight for the Secular Homeschool

We're almost four months into our homeschool year and I have to say it has been one of my favorites. This is in no small part due to Sonlight. For years I pieced together a curriculum which focused heavily on history, geography, and literature. And while I'm pleased with the outcome (my two oldest, Peter and Ethan, graduated with a much fuller knowledge of those three subjects than I did), I have come to a point where I just don't have the energy to do it all over again. Maybe if I'd been taking copious notes during those twelve years on everything we ever read, discussed, and studied, I'd have an open and go curriculum ready and waiting for me. Unfortunately, I was under the impression our family was complete. I figured at this point I would be through having to use any curriculum at all. But by the time Peter and Ethan were teenagers, it was clear we were ready for our family to grow. Along came Bess, Max, and Rose, and while I'm so, so happy they did, I find myself at the beginning again. I'm sixteen years older than I was when we first homeschooled, and man, I feel those years. The energy I had then for planning our days has evaporated. I'm just too darned tired to sweat the small stuff. You want to eat candy before dinner? Well, that's not an argument I want to have, so go ahead. You refuse to put on pants for breakfast? Well, pants probably aren't that important in the grand scheme of things, so yeah. You want to skip science to watch Dora the Explorer for the freaking one thousandth time? Well, Dora did teach you the Spanish word for chocolate, so I'll take a nap while a talking map and a monkey make you bilingual.
These aren't the decisions of a woman who is pumped and motivated to spend her evenings choosing books, writing discussion questions, and creating fun, imaginative crafts.

I really love homeschooling. I do. I'm just at a point where I want a little help. And that's where Sonlight comes in.  Sonlight has saved me countless hours of research to find just the right books for our history studies. It's literature-based with living books teaching history, rather than dry textbooks. My kids love it and so do I. Our days are much more relaxed, because I'm more relaxed. I don't have to worry about whether I've planned enough or too much. The instructors guide lays out everything we need to do with notes for discussions, timeline activities, and mapping. Sonlight plans everything, as I did through all those years of teaching Peter and Ethan, but without the headache.

So can Sonlight be used by secular homeschoolers? Yes. Easily. The majority of the religious material is in the IG which only I read. I skip anything I don't feel we need. The handful of books which are religious can be replaced with similar secular titles from the library. If, for instance, the missionary story for the day focuses on India with mapping and timeline activities, I just replace it with a secular story about India and do the activities. Sometimes if I feel it's of no educational value, I just eliminate a book or story without replacing it.

The IG is so easy to use. I open to the week for a quick glance at what we're reading, and then turn to the following pages for a more in-depth look at the history and literature selections. A map with all the locations from the readings is there, and so are instructions for what dates and figures to enter on the timeline. Everything is already done for me. I don't have to schedule anything. It's very easy to tweak, and even though it's all planned out for me, the schedule isn't burdensome. We can use two days to complete a day of work or, when we're motivated, finish a week of readings in a day. The cores are easy to tailor to more than one age level. We have an advanced 6 year old and a not-quite-as-advanced 5 year old using the same core.
Yes, Sonlight is an evangelical company, and yes, they do believe in a young earth. And shockingly, yes, there is a paragraph at the back of the IG on how to talk with children about homosexuality with a short script on how to explain to your children why gay marriage is wrong.(As the mom of a bisexual son, this made me grind my teeth in frustration.) However, all of these issues are in the IG which my children don't see, and I can ignore.(The script on how to make your child into a future bigot made a swift trip to our garbage can.)

So that's a quick look at Sonlight. I hope it's helpful. I remember, when I was first considering Sonlight, searching a long time online to find any real information on how Sonlight could be used by secular homeschoolers and not finding much. So here are a couple of helpful resources on how to secularize the cores:

SonlightSecular Yahoo Group

Our Enchanted Place Blog: Sonlight Cores

For a three week sample of any core:

IG samples

My next post will be on secularizing Core A.

Until next time!