Where to find me now (this blog soon to be archived)

Hello dear old friends!
This is just a quick note to tell you where I can be found now. I am no longer keeping an exclusive homeschooling blog-life has developed into so much more, as it often does.

We are still homeschooling, #7 did arrive safe and sound-she is almost 2! Where does the time go to?

In the time I have been away lots has happened:

Now Open! 

Twisted & Plied- all about my fiber arts obsession. I have learned how to spin yarn! We are also raising these adorable fiber goats. Learn more about it at www.twistednplied.com

And Also:

The fun I had learning to spin, process raw fiber and developing my knitting talents for my new business, led to an opportunity for me to teach more than just in our homeschool! There is a growing desire for learning self-sufficient skills and God has called me to help educate those that seek it. So I have started a program that offers local (Idaho) workshops, and also online information, that is geared towards: "Preserving Traditional Skills in a Modern World".

Lylli drew this for me-isn't she talented?!

This site will be launched next week, and at that time this homeschooling blog will officially become archived. I will be using my posts from this site to aid in teaching about homeschooling and providing Ebook guides on the new site. I haven't completely abandoned writing about homeschooling! It is still a very much real and important part of our lifestyle!

The launch of this program will be announced on the Twisted & Plied website as well as my Facebook page. Please follow there so that you can join me again! 

Thanks so much for being my friend here and I hope that you will come with us on the new adventure!

A Special Invite:

Because you are following this blog, I want to give you the opportunity to be among the first to sign-up for the Newsletter and Raffle announcements. You can do that now:Receive the very first issue!

Thanks for following Happy Day Homeschooling!

Heidi

A Time and a Season

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven

-Ecclesiastes 3:1

Spring is in the air!  

It is another beautiful day at our house! 

I have been praying and seeking diligently for some time now, about our next year's course we should take. I have needed to take into consideration a few things:

• All of my kiddos are ready for me to encourage them to take on more challenging work
• We have embarked on our dream to have a small animal farm (we now have chickens, and plan on goats in the future). This means that we will have other projects to focus some of our time on. Including:
• 4-H....we have begun participating in 4-H projects and are very excited for all that this program has to offer us!
• Scouting- Ephraim has officially joined the Cub Scout program, so he (we) will have additional projects and meetings to attend.
• Gardening/Canning.....we WILL be doing our very first at our house this year.
• A possible addition to our family......yes we are beginning to think: baby

All of these things are going to require more TIME of one particular person in our family...can you guess who? ME 

So I have been desiring to find a curriculum guide that COMBINES as much as possible together, that gives me a lesson plan (that is easily adapted when wanted), and covers our age levels of at least 7 years to 11, with emphasis on being able to challenge the oldest to strive harder and higher. I wanted all of our reading, writing, vocabulary, spelling, to be inter-linked with our History lessons. I wanted it to follow our CM (Charolette Mason) style of doing things with living books and short lessons. I wanted more time to create fun games and projects to support our lessons and to be able to give some devoted time to preschoolers.

Is this even possible?

A couple weeks ago after putting the kids to bed. I was sitting on the computer doing internet searches for Literature-based curriculum. I found a lot of great things...but a lot of them required me to make the book list and plan out the unit studies. I would love to be able to sit down and do that...one of my favorite things is to come up with our lesson plans and find exciting new ways to learn. But based on my above list, I feel my time is better spent teaching and not planning. I want to be able to have fun with the kiddos, not spend hours on the computer researching or creating. 

And then I stumbled upon this:

I watched the several introductory videos on the site, and as I did a warm sensation spread throughout me. I thought: This is it! But then my brain said: Hold on...you need to research this more, there is nothing worse than getting something that doesn't work for you family. 

The hour was growing late and my eyes were bleary so I forced myself to pin it and wait for the next day to read more. When I got the chance the next day, I sat down and opened my homeschool pin board to find the link to the website. There I found someone had made a comment: We are in our 5 year of TOG and we love it!  I immediately replied asking her questions. She responded promptly telling me about the age range of her kids and that her 16 yo was graduating this year. That was all I needed to inspire me to dig deeper. 

This is what I found:

• The creator was a homeschool mom (and dad) of 6
• It was created because she wanted a way to spend more time teaching and less time planning, and she wanted her children to be instructed in the most important lessons of all...CHRIST.
• The company put 3 weeks of lesson plans and other resources on their site for FREE for us to explore and try out before purchase.
• The Core of the program is History taken from 4 divisions of World History. (The same way we already began doing it this year..with The story of the World history program.) Starting with Ancient Times. It also has a strong focus of tying history into events taken from the Bible.
• Each Year contains 4 units, which can be purchased separately, which makes it easy to start at anytime with in your other course of study. 
• There is a print, digital, or combination of program material.
• Each lesson plan contains lessons from elementary through Highschool levels, which are broke up into levels and not grades. They are: lower grammar, upper grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric
• There is great flexibility of levels being taught and it is supper easy to give a student a challenging assignment from a level above without changing their whole lesson level. And it works the same for giving an easier assignment to a student who is struggling in a certain area like writing or reading, without messing up the other lessons.
• The only areas of study it doesn't cover is Math, Science, and any specialties like foreign languages or Music studies. There is even play scripts so you can put on a play just as a family or in a co-op (oh yeah, it has lots of info on how to use it in a co-op).
• There are lots of hands on projects available to do.
• The book list consists of books that are easily found on the internet or at the library. They also have a book store where you can go to purchase the books on the list if you don't want to shop around or borrow.

Are you loving it yet?

I am!

This program is truly an answer to my prayers!

So I ordered a couple Units from Year 1 which fits in with our current study of Ancient Times for us to begin right away and test out to see if it works for us and if it will work for us for our whole year program.

I have received the package and poured over the material this week....so far I think it looks great! We will begin to implement the program next week.

If you would like more info go to their site: http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/explore/

I was not invited to give this review and I did not receive anything for it. I simply liked what I saw and wanted to share my opinion. If there was anything in my notes that was not accurate..I apologize and please let me know so that I can correct it. 

I will try to give an updated review after we have used the program for a week or two.

Happy Day!

BFB Blog Giveaway!

I just received an announcement from Beautiful Feet Books. They are having a GIVEAWAY on their blog. One person will win 2 FREE  downloads of their study guides PLUS 1 download for a FRIEND! Isn't that nice?

Don't know about BFB? Check them out HERE! I have downloaded a couple of guides from them. They are nice little guides with book lists and suggested activities. There are different levels for most of the subjects.

If you would like to enter the giveaway you can visit the BFB Blog.

Good luck!

Happy Day!

The sounds of C

My son has been struggling with the sounds of C. He has had a hard time remembering when to use the soft sound (s) and when to use the hard sound (k). So this morning I have put together a quick little game for him to practice with.

Download this game for FREE!http://www.hslaunch.com/mypage/file/4865

Please do not copy, sell, or host on your site. If you would like to share this file please be kind and link back to my blog....not the download page. Thanks!

Happy Day!

Spring Planning

These are books we bought at last years Scholastic Warehouse Sale!
I got a little excited.....

It is that time again. To gather resources and plan our next couple months of study in more detail. I have our year outlined, but every couple of months I sit down and look at what we will be doing so I can make book and supply lists and plan any other fun activities we might want to do as well. This way I can track with my Kiddos progress as we go, giving focus to their current needs. I also like to set any needed goals and evaluate ones we are already working on.

On my planning list:

Create a Science Unit about Weather with a background theme of Rainbows that spreads to other subjects such as Art, and giving a basis for some fun preschool activities fitting the theme.

Art: Explore the colors of the rainbow and experiment with mixing colors. For the younger ones learn names of colors if not already known and play matching games.

Literature: Read books about Rainbows, Weather, and current Ancient Times studies (Story of the World).

Grammy Award Winner!
I bought the MP3 Album from Deseret Book.
The link below will take you there

Music Study: Create a fun unit based on Jenny Oaks Baker's "When you Wish Upon a Star". I would like us to listen to selections, identify each song within the selections (if you haven't heard it before click on the album title link. She has done amazing mixes of Disney Melodies with her Violin.). I hope to have some copywork pages, and worksheets for filling out song titles, instruments heard, Movies they are in, and a place for writing (or drawing) how the songs make them feel. We will probably spend about a week on each song.

As I have been jotting down ideas for these upcoming Mini Units (I call them "mini" because we usually only spend  from one to six weeks on them and they don't cover every subject) I decided I needed a better planning worksheet than what I already have on hand.

So I created these:

The above worksheets are for the initial brainstorming and gathering of ideas and resources. I may use several drafts of these until I get it right!

The worksheets below are for pulling it all together and planning when to implement all of the fun! I made two different kinds. One is just a general by week planning guide. I would use this one for lessons planned for the whole family, or if you are planning for only one child. The other worksheet is if you want to only view one week at a time and what each individual student will be working on. There are spots for up to 5 students ( because that's how many I have) but you could make extra copies for however many you needed. This one is good if you have many age ranges  and levels of study, so you can give individual assignments and projects required for each. Maybe you will use both...I probably will!

scroll down for the link!

Download it here for FREE!

Happy Planning!

What are you planning for Spring?

Preschool Phonics

Animal Talk:

A way to learn letter sounds.

The following activities are meant to be a fun way to learn letter sounds. From birth our children are subjected to the sounds that animals make. From their little stuffed animals to adults pointing at pictures or real -life animals and imitating the sounds they make.  Animal sounds are among the first "words" that a baby speaks.
Learning that letters make sounds is hard to grasp when you can't "hear" the letters speak.  That is why I created these cards and the following activities . These activities should help  beginning readers to understand letters have sounds like animals have sounds.  The child does not need to know the names of the letters to play these games, so you could do these activities with the very young. It is not important at this stage of learning to have a goal of mastery, Only a basic understanding, preparatory to beginning reading skills (although, these could also be used as a review game for children who have already begun other phonic and beginning reading programs or lessons). I recommend using only one or two letter cards in the activities at a time until the child can handle more. A good place to start is the letters in their name.

Download the Activity ideas HERE!

Next you will want to get these adorable Animal Talk cards:

Download for FREE!

If you don't have lower-case alphabet cards, or you are like me and like things to match, you will want to get these next:

Lower-case alphabet cards

\Download for FREE!

Aren't you glad I learned how to share files? 

Happy Day!

Wildlife Word Work & More!

Here I am again.....it is "quiet time" at my house. I have a few promised uninterrupted moments, where I get to do what I want....and my only response to interruptions is: "It is quiet time", translation: go back to your quiet area. I used be really good about having the Kiddos all have this time everyday, it has been harder as they get older and I have less that nap no more nappers. (sigh) But I have recently been trying to take back that quiet time. We all need it.

So without further ramblings here is what I am going to share with you today:

I created these Wildlife themed worksheets for my 5th grader.

Download the Cover for FREE!

This is the Vocabulary Worksheet:

These are story map worksheets:

I printed these front to back....

Get all 3 of these here for FREE!

Next up...........

Blank cards for word wall or games and punctuation helpers!

Get all 3 of these here for FREE!

The 

Bonus

for today:

This is a list of vocabulary helpers. Words that give movement and direction to sentences.

Download Transition Words for FREE!

Get wild about Words!

That concludes my Word Work series for now. I am sure there is more to come in the future!

Happy Day!

Word Work Freebies

Okay...I have about 20 minutes. So I can sit here and post the next round of worksheets I told you about it my post yesterday.

I created these worksheets for my first grader, but they could easily be used from kindergarten to third grade.

I got the idea to have a space for a drawing on their vocabulary sheets from some other worksheets I saw on pinterest. I am glad I was finally able to implement at least one of the great ideas I have pinned!

Download it for FREE

Here are the blank word wall or flash cards to go along with this theme:

We use these on our Word Worm Wall and as flashcards or game cards.

Download for FREE!

Enjoy swimming with words Under the Sea!

*Bonus*

The first set of vocabulary worksheets I made were the Pirate themed Word Work pages. That was before I planned on making something for all of my kiddos to have a Word Work workbook. Originally it was just going to be a worksheet on it's own and used when needed. Now I have turned it all into a weekly program that we are going to use (more on that in the future). So here is the Cover for the Pirate themed pages.

Download it for FREE

Next up will be the pages I made for my oldest who is 10. I have included a few extra things in hers to help with her grammar lessons.

(If you don't want to wait....look for me at hslaunch.....I have already shared the files there.....the link is on my left side bar)

Happy Day!

My BIG word PROJECT

Our Word Wall

Whew! I feel like I have been working on this project for months when in reality it has only been a couple of weeks, but it was in my thoughts some time before I actually began.

In our home we have more beginning readers than advanced readers. Actually we only have one advanced reader, and that is my oldest kiddo: Lyllian. She doesn't even need to be told to read during the day, because she always picks up a book at some point. Since I have so many in the beginning stages I have been trying to come up with a way to display the words they are working on, but still be able to separate their reading levels. After some internet searching I finally came up with our customized version of a word wall (pictured above). I have labeled it "The Word Worm Wall", and used several cute worms/bookworm clipart to decorate it. I was going to try to make it fancier (i.e. magnetic, velcro...something) but ended up going for simple: a poster paper glued to a piece of cardboard box (we have plenty of those around). Then I decided on the categories I wanted to display for them, and how I could also put something up for my advanced reader so that she wouldn't feel left out. I decided on these: (from left to right) Sight Words, Build a Sentence (tips for checking: capitals, spacing, punctuation and also commonly misspelled words), Letter Sounds (for phonics lessons), New Words to learn (Vocabulary), and Parts of Speech (yes... I spelled "speech" wrong on my poster. Everybody makes mistakes I will change it before they notice I promise! ).

This was being created at the same time that I created the Pirate Word Work activities and word cards for my son. Boy O Boy did that open up a flood! It inspired me to create similar activities for my girls...each with a different theme (of course) and make it into our own tailored Word Work curriculum. This also allows each to know which "word cards" belong to them on The Word Worm Wall. 

When God sends me blessings in the form of inspiration on how to teach my Kiddos....I just can't stop until I get it done! I spent many late nights either working or laying awake thinking about working!

Now I get to share these blessings with you!

I don't think I will be able to get it all in this one post. But I will begin now and hopefully post the rest throughout the week. 

(If you don't want to wait you can go to hslaunch, the link is on my left side bar, and find my freebies there!)


Warning: I am not perfect (as seen above with my spelling errors). I try to proof read and give correct information, but sometimes I get it wrong. So if you find mistakes...just ignore it  or send me a kind note so I can fix it. Also, I am no perfectionist and there are a lot of crooked and uneven things in my work. There comes a point when I say "That's good enough". If it will get the point across and looks appealing, I call it good. After-all, I have made these primarily for my family, but choose to share them. If you do like what you see-EXCELLENT- save it or print it for use in your home or classroom!


First up is.....(drum roll please)......................


The cutest preschool worksheets EVER! (okay, I have seen many cute things out there....probably on your blog.)

My little preschool girl is the girliest of girls if you have one of these then I am sure they would love for you to make them a workbook with these pages.  

I have printed off several of these pages (front to back) that she will use each week to practice the letter we are on. Currently I am starting with only the letters in her name. She is so excited to be learning to write her name! I am focused more on letter recognition and being able to write it. We are going over the letter sounds too, but not too focused. I just want her to begin to understand the importance of letters. Once she has that we will be moving into our phonics program. 

Since she is learning her name I made this page to go in the workbook as well:

Download these worksheets here for FREE!

For extra practice and games I made these little blank cards to match:

Download these blank cards here  for FREE!

These are for writing letters, words, or numbers on as needed for flashcards and learning games. So far I have just made some with the letters of her name on them. Since there are two of each picture card I made two of each letter in her name (she has 6 letters in her name so it worked perfectly). We laminated them and she cut them apart. Now she can play: 

Memory Match- turn over one card at a time to find all the matches

Letter Search #1- Scramble up the cards face up. I ask her to find a letter.

or

Letter Search #2 - Use an alphabet strip or poster (we used our strips that came with Happy Phonics)

Mix up the cards and place them face down. Have her draw a card, identify the letter, find it on the strip (or poster), and then place a marker to cover it up (we were using some little Easter erasers). I had all of her card in the pile so there were of each letter. She had to find the matching lower-case letter when it was drawn the first time, and then when the same letter was drawn she had to find the matching capital letter.

I would love to hear about what kinds of "name games' you play with your girly girl!

Bonus

To help us remember what she needs to practice everyday I created this Daily worksheet to put in her work binder. I have just slipped it into a page protector so that I can write the letter of the week in the box. I wrote her name at the top so she can see it everyday, and use it as a model to spell it with her letter cards.

You can get it here for FREE!

And that's all Folks!

Well, at least for today. I have two more Word Work themes to share with you. One is geared toward 1-2 grade and the other toward 5-6 grade. Plus a few extras. I already shared the 2-3 grade level with the Pirate Word Work in an earlier post (go here to read about it in the posting and get the links for downloading). One of the extras is a cover page for the Pirate Word Work!

Have you created something super special for your preschool girly girl? Leave me a comment and tell me about it or give share the link!

Happy Day!

Ahoy Matey!

Who doesn't love pretending to be a Pirate?

My Kiddos are always having fun with it. Especially when we go down to our park that has a ship themed playground!

My son struggles with spelling and phonics. I have been working on making some activities to enrich his spelling and phonics programs so he can get more exposure. My grand plan is to make a fabulous word wall (or something like) so I can post up the words he is struggling with.

I was inspired when I came across some other freebies themed with pirates, to make a little something of our own to add.

Pirate Phonics (Long A sounds)

Pirate Vocabulary Worksheet and Sight Words

I am so happy that I have finally taken the time to learn how to share some of our creations with you! I hope you enjoy them. Please remember that these are for your personal and classroom use only. Thank You!

Here are some links to some other great pirate themed freebies!

Pirate Word Wall

Read, Build, Write (lots of themes!)

For this one, I have just linked to her blog. You might have to do some searching to find it. She has just recently moved over to members only website....but membership is free and the printables are still free! Lots of great finds from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom!

Lego Pirates of the Carribean  Activity book and Compound Word Worksheet

The Following are NOT free, but still very affordable!

Talk Like a Pirate 

($1.00 download at Currclick)

Punctuation Pirates

($1.99 download at Currclick)

Happy Day Matey!

Valentine Activity

I created this little activity for my Kiddos today. Thought I would share.

Valentine Shake and Find

There are lots of little hands around here that need to be kept busy. I am always saving containers and trying to find a use for them. Today it was a peanut butter jar that inspired me. Enjoy!

Print two of the Valentine Shake and Find game board. Cut apart the pictures of one and place in a clear lidded container. I taped some pennies to the backs of some of my pictures to add weight because they were all wanting to stay in the same place. Then fill the container with rice, beans, sand or whatever else you can think of. I used rice for this one, and we even colored it by mixing in a couple of drops of red food coloring! Now we have fun red and pink rice!

Have student Shake the container and Find the pictures. When they find a match, have them put something on the game board. Tomorrow I am going to set out a bowl of heart candies for them to use. How ever many pictures they find is how many they will get to eat! 

If you would like further instruction and ideas go here for my Shake and Find Instructions.

Happy Day!

p.s. I am new at sharing documents....so please tell me if my method did not work out! I will try and get it to you another way if it doesn't! Also please respect that I have made this for personal or classroom use only. Thank You!

Ready, Set, PRINT!

A note to fellow homeschool and teacher blogs:

Please stop giving me so many great ideas! I have file after file of free downloads (thanks to you). So many things to print and create fun for my Kiddos! Do you not realize that my printer is on the edge of being worn out?? It is so frustrating to have so many great things that I want to print, but can't because my printer has brain damage!


This winter has created blogging monsters setting traps wherever I go to ensnare me into their net of creative goodies.....I just can't stop myself. I am addicted to finding free printables and fabulous ideas! Each time I read someone's blog I have to click on a great link they have, then I find another great link, and it is never ending! 


I don't even have time to share all of my great finds. Watch out because one of these days I will catch up and I will get these activities printed and get pictures of us using them and then I will write a a post full of creative goodies for you to be trapped in with the never ending clicking, downloading, printing tunnel vision. Mwwuuhahahaha!


But until then keep a close eye on my Button Collection.......it seems to be growing almost daily (along with my pinterest boards).




Happy Day!

New Friends!

I was happy to stumble upon a new blog to lend me support today. I was searching for other LDS homeschooling moms that blog. I came across this blog that is authored by many, sharing their insights and ideas. They also have a blog roll of other blogs to check out. I am excited to share with them and hope to find some new friends as we help one another. We have been so blessed to have this technology in these Latter-Days, for us to be able to connect with one another no matter the distance between our homes. I have posted their "button" on the right under "Sites that make us smile".
You can connect with this blog at:     latter-dayhomeschooling.com

Happy Day!