Today I took the kids on a bike trial ride as I am sure our warm days are coming to an end soon.
I hope to enjoy every drop of sunshine we can get 🙂 🌞
It was an absolutely magical day in the woods 🌳 🌲
As for what we covered today: We discussed plants and nature. Found a beautiful acorn. Saw a snake. And got lots of exercise.
~Lisa
We got a hand me down free piano given to us from my in-laws.
I have a lot of mixed emotions about this piano as it is huge and takes up a whole wall 
and the minimalist in me desperately likes space and likes to move furniture around regularly which is really hard when a piano is this big 😬🤷🏽♀️
But my piano kid is happy 😊 so I will try to stay calm and enjoy the sound of music 🎶
~Lisa
We cleaned up the homeschool today!!!
Partly due to the fact that we always do this around this time of the year…
And partly due to the fact that we are getting a hand me down piano this week and I really needed to get the space organized.
What do you think ? Looks clean ? And organized ?
And I love our reading corner with our hammock hang out 🙂
I should be getting text books by the end of the week.
And I chatted with my board today and discussed how my oldest can get his high school diploma.
I still can’t believe he is in grade 10 😳😬😲
~Lisa
So as September closes in I have decided to start up this blog again and share our homeschooling journey; mostly so that I can keep track of what my kids are doing.
For those of you new here; I am a long time homeschooler.
By longtime; I decided I was going to homeschool when I was pregnant with my first and I dove right in! My oldest is now in grade 10! 😬😲 I have no idea where the years have gone.
It has not always been easy but I can say it has been an amazing journey.
So welcome to my homeschooling space.
~Lisa
The nicest beach we saw in southern Spain!
The sand was so clean and soft and my boys loved playing in the waves.
Watching the wind surfers was so nice and relaxing.
And there is a cool sand dune nearby to see.
A really chill place and a great vibe!
I think it is known as the windy capitol of Europe… hence all the wind power generators!
As a family we voted that this was our favourite spot in Andalucía Spain.
~Lisa
We took a day trip to Gibraltar and it was amazing.
One of our highlights of our trip to Spain. ( although Gibraltar is not in Spain)
We went on a boat ride to see wild and free dolphins. Most amazing experience! It was so amazing there were so many of them and they all looked so happy. They surrounded the boat and followed us out to open sea. Apparently they love doing this , it is fun and it is a lazy way for them to get around as they catch the current of the boat. It was a very choppy day so hard to get good pictures but I was so emotional seeing so many of them … and so many babies with their moms… the males apparently stay out in open waters more. We tried looking for whales but we were not that lucky that day. Maybe next time!
We drove all the way to the tip of Gibraltar and had an outstanding view!
So strange how this cloud is almost always looming over the rock … a local told me that it is a good thing as it keeps the toxic crap from the refineries in Algeciras away.
Also kids got a kick out of the fact that we drove across a airport runway to drive into Gibraltar.
If you are in southern Spain I highly recommend a day trip here! Kids will love it!
~Lisa
How do I teach my kids to spell ?
Honestly, I haven’t really put much effort or thought into this … I have let this kind of happen on it’s own.
I had started trying to do spelling drills with my oldest a few years back ; where I would ask my oldest to spell out a word on our chalk board , but this only worked out for a few days as he quickly said he disliked it .
I have a great board with letters on it and they sometimes like to play with them and make words.
I have found the best way is just through play. We borrow games from the library that help to teach to spelling; like boggle and scrabble. And they sound out words with the letters and sometimes they get them wrong but most of the time they get them right.
Another advantage of homeschooling today as opposed to decades ago is technology. There are many apps that can help. My son likes playing one called word scramble; where he has to find all the words with the letters in the circle.
I also feel that many apps even if not spelling related directly help to show spelling indirectly.
I feel that spelling is easier just learnt through life rather then as a subject itself; also my feeling is not to push a child to learn to spell. I vividly recall being forced to learn to spell and the anxiety it gave me. I think each child learns different things at a different pace and personally I see how my boys are very different here. My 9 year old loves writing and spelling; whereas my 11 year old not so much yet. But he is starting to show interest and is getting there slowly , whereas he is an amazing reader and reads faster and better then I do, so I am really not concerned 🙂
Do you have any neat spelling games or tricks ?
Go see my fellow Canadian homeschooler blogger team to see what they say about Spelling here ?
~Lisa
One of the most asked questions I get about homeschooling is “What do you use for math”?
Well to start off with … I try to make learning to count fun and we don’t use a book, but objects. Anything from toys, to food, even when are about and about we use the world around us. I try to do this also with learning to add and subtract.
Then we chose to go with the Math Mammoth program and I bought the complete set and my oldest has completed all of it and it went very well. My oldest literally flew through it, averaging 2 grades a year.
So I can tell you that math mammoth is a great program that really worked well for us and I really like the way Maria designed it; UP to grade 7. Then I found my son struggled as she stopped giving the explanation at that point … I have wished many times that she would extend her program to cover all of high school.
As her grades 1-6 are really well designed and she gives a great explanation on each topic; the few times my son needed a little extra help we googled a few sites and videos to get a better grasp of the concept.
Now that he has finished all math mammoth levels, he has started Teaching Textbooks (pre algebra), So far he loves it and finds it very fun and interactive (as we bought the CD version of the program ) but he has also said that he is finding it somewhat boring as it is covering a lot of stuff he has already done. But I am certain it will soon start to get more interesting as he will start to cover new topics. I think becuase Math Mammoth covered pre algebra a little, he is excited to move on to more challenging material.
What do you use for math?
Go see my fellow Canadian homeschooler blogger team to see what they say about Math here 🙂
~Lisa
(please note I was not paid or asked to review any of these items. This is my own personal review after purchasing the items)
I wish you all a wonderful holiday season!
My wish for 2017 is peace, love and happiness for all !
~Lisa
Sweet Bella Vita 