Since we have been in Oklahoma City, I have been trying to cram all of the really neat and fun things around here into our schedule.  Initially, we were just randomly going to different places, but since my discovery of Homeschool Share and all of the wonderful units housed there, we have started studying about a topic, then visiting the appropriate museum.  So far, of the places we have visited around here, my favorite has been the science museum.

Originally the Onmiplex, the Science Museum Oklahoma changed it’s name a few months ago, but to my knowledge it is still the same on the inside.  I was really impressed by the size of the museum.  We went specifically for the Human Body traveling exhibit, but did spend some time looking around other areas too.

The human body was really cool.  You couldn’t take pictures inside, hence the reason I have none, but they were real human bodies dissected in different ways to highlight the body systems.  It was the perfect end to out unit study about the human body.  It was a little pricey, but definitely worth it!

One really cool thing (that I was not expecting) was the exhibit about the AWACS, which is the plane my husband flies on.  They had a section set up like the inside of the plane where he works and a video about all the training he has had to go through.  There were also some models of the plane set up.

Among other fun things?  A giant slide,

water stuff,

and face painting.

It a funny story about the face painting actually.  I did Madison and she did me.  So you can guess what mine looked like - a big blob.  After we left the museum, I completely forgot that I had it on and continued to do the rest of my errands - went out to lunch then went to the base, where the gate guard asked me “Got your war paint on today?”  It was pretty funny, after I got over my embarassment.

And last but not least, my favorite part of any museum:  the gift shop.  It was a pretty amazing shop, with lots of fun and educational souviener.  So what did my wonderful daughter choose to remember our trip (about the human body)?  A butterfly glittery snow globe ring.  Oh well.  It was only $2, right?  I also made her get a human body pencil (plus we bought a lollipop with a real bug in it - how cool is that??).

There was also a space exhibit and a planetarium that we skipped completely since we are planning to do a space unit in a few weeks and that will give us an excuse to go back

If you want to see the rest of the pictures from our trip, visit our album at Flickr.

This post is part of a meme at Heart of the Matter online.  If you want to read about more field trips, visit them!

Truthfully, I think you are going to be surprised and maybe a little disappointed. It’s really not some big fancy thing or magic formula.  I got the idea from Jessica over at Trivium Academy, although we use it a little differently than they did (which is to be expected, sing Madison is doing PreK and her daughter is doing 2nd). Our memory CD is a combination of songs, poems, and scriptures - mostly songs. It is not all “facts” that I want Madison to memorize; I also included some songs she likes just for fun. I want her to want to listen to it

How I made it: First, I picked out things that we are working on, like memorizing the books of the Bible, the sons of Jacob, counting by 10’s, some of our memory verses, state capitols (that’s really just for fun, since one of our family goals is to visit all the state capitols), alphabet sounds, the colors of the rainbow, etc. Then I tried to find songs for them. If I couldn’t find one on a CD or online, I made one up and recorded it using Audacity. Audacity is very easy to use and you can download it for free.

After Madison and I recorded the songs (I let her sing with me if she wanted) and the poems/verses, I imported them into iTunes with the other things I had found. All of that was less than 30 minutes play time, so I added in songs that we just like (although a lot of them came from her “learning” CD’s) to make the total playing time 30 minutes. Then I burned a CD and it was ready to use.

How we use it: Truthfully, we use it just for fun. Madison likes to listen to it, so whenever she wants to listen, I let her. When she has rest time, which has not been very often lately, I put the CD on and she listens to it. She has to stay in her room until it is over and then she can come out. It’s like a timer, and it gives me 30 minutes to do laundry and clean the bathrooms. But, during “rest time”, she also plays with her toys in her room. She rarely lays down and never goes to sleep…

She also listens to the CD at bedtime, sometimes. I let her choose what she wants to hear when she is falling asleep. Sometimes she chooses her memory CD, sometimes she listens to books on tape, sometimes other CD’s that are hers that she likes, sometimes Dave Matthews Band (no really, she likes the Dave Matthews Band…). I would say she chooses her memory CD once or twice a week, and she listens to it during rest time probably two or three times a week.

BUT… I really do think it works! When we started counting by 10’s in math, she had been listening to the memory CD for about 3 weeks, and within 3 days of introducing that topic, she already had it memorized. The same thing happened with counting by 5’s. It also seems to work with Bible verses we have done. I am interested to see whether it will work with poetry. The poems on the CD are the ones I plan to have here memorize when we start poetry memorization, but we haven’t really gotten to that yet.

I plan to make a new CD each quarter (although so far I have only made one and we have used it for about 3 months… so I guess it would be time for a new one). I want the CD to be relatively short and include things that are relevant to what we are studying. For example, Madison is really great at counting by 10’s, so I can take that song off and add a new one for counting by 2’s. Also, I would like to update the scriptures to ones that are relevant to what we are studying.

As far as what I put on the CD, I have several resources that I really enjoy. One is “Sounds Like Fun,” which I bought from Discovery Toys. I had that CD cassette tape when I was little, and after I bought it for Madison, I realized that I still knew all the songs, so I guess I listened to it a lot. Madison really likes it and it is what she listened to most nights before we started the memory CD. Another is “Children’s Songs,” by the Bible Study Guide for All Ages. They have songs for every Bible thing I want Madison to memorize, except for the books of the Bible (I downloaded the Old Testament Books online and the New Testament Books I sang). And I just purchased a skip counting CD from Math-U-See which has not been included on the memory CD yet, but I plan to add it when I finally update. Madison has listened to that some nights as well and really enjoys it.

(As a side note, we also really enjoy music by Joe Scruggs. If you have never listened to him, I really recommend you check it out!)

Here is a screen shot of our memory CD playlist. You should be able to click on it and make it large enough to read.

So, in a nutshell, that is everything I can think of to share about our memory CD - and probably more that you wanted to know! If you have more creative ways to use your memory CD, please share them with me!

I was able to purchase Headsprout for 50% off during a special offer a few months and I have not regretted it at all. Madison is at Lesson 66 and she is really turning into a great reader - I would highly recommend it to anyone teaching their children to read.

If you are interested, for a limited time, you can visit the Homeschool Buyers Co-op for a chance to purchase it at up to 50% off! If you have been thinking about the program, now is the time to try it out! If you have any questions about it, please ask and I will share my experience with you

I am not an affiliate of Headsprout or the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op - I just think Headsprout is a great program and wanted to share the opportunity to purchase it for a great price!

I really thought I was going to do a better job with these weekly reports!  I’d say I’m turning a new leaf over now, but I can’t promise that, so you’ll just have to take what you can get…

Week 18

On our way home from New Mexico, we were scheduled for a 40 minute layover in Dallas.  Well, coincidentally, my brother was on his way to Basic Training in San Antonio (he just joined the Air Force), and he also had a layover in Dallas.  I was going to miss him, since my layover was so short, so I talked to the flight attendants, and they not only rescheduled me for a later flight, but also told me what flight my brother was coming in on.  Wow!  I had read some negative reviews about American, but I had an extremely positive experience with them.  So, that being said, we ended up in the airport for 6 hours.  Good thing I brought extra school work!

I scheduled a unit study on planes, which worked out really well with the above.  We read a lot of books and made paper airplanes.  We also did several reading lessons with Headsprout, finished the letter o in ETC, did math, bible, and a little art.

Week 19

Another normal week.  We didn’t have a unit study this week because I just didn’t make it to the library (imagine a sheepish look on my face right now).  I had planned to do cowboys, but we are doing that this week instead.  It worked out well actually because my little sister who is still in high school had a choir concert on Thursday, so we drove up to Wichita for it (about two hours), then drove back home on Friday.  We also got back on the Green Hour Challenges, which I plan to post more about later, and finished ETC Book 1.

This week, we will finish up the first half of Horizons Math, and hopefully we will get the Right Start program I ordered from the homeschool convention so we can switch over to that…

Have a good week!

Two of my blogosphere friends, Lisa and Brittney, tagged me with this meme…

Here are the rules:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player tags 5 people and posts their name, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

What was I doing 10 years ago:
I was finishing my freshman year in high school - I had just moved to Kansas and was having a hard time adjusting to life in a very small town after coming from Houston, TX. I had just met my husband but I didn’t know it then! We started dating that August.

Five Snacks I enjoy:
1. Garden Salsa Sun Chips
2. Peanut Butter and Snickers Ice Cream
3. Cheese and Crackers
4. Grilled Peanut Butter with Chocolate Chips
5. Sweet Potato Rolls

In the real world:
1. I love to read, but refuse to read in airports (or any public places) because I zone out so much I am afraid I’ll lose my daughter.
2. I love school! No really, I love school… I long to go back and get my PhD, but probably won’t be able to do that until my husband is out of the military because we move so much…  sigh…
3. I love being a mom, but sometimes I miss having a job.
4. I am extremely shy.  You know the quote “It’s better to keep quiet and appear a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt?”  That’s me.  Afraid to speak. It is something I am still trying to change, and it’s one reason I like the blogging world. I have time to think about what I am going to say, and to edit it :)  That’s a luxury you don’t get when you speak.
5. I’m getting ready to move to Japan - and I am super excited about the traveling we hope to do while we are over there!

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Be debt free - a goal I am already working toward and have almost accomplished
2. Travel, Travel, and Travel some more!
3. Set aside money for Madison and any of our future children
4. Donate to the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research
5. Set up a scholarship fund at my alma mater

Five jobs that I have had:
1. Reference Librarian
2. Elementary School Teacher
3. Curriculum Development Intern for PBS
4. Graduate Assistant / Lab Supervisor
5. Bank Teller

Three of my habits:
1. Checking my email as soon as I roll out of bed
2. Grey’s Anatomy (please don’t judge me!)
3. Starbucks Vanilla Frappachino (and can I just say one more time how glad I am that there are Starbucks in Japan!!)

Five places I have lived:
1. Panama City, Florida
2. Knob Noster, Missouri
3. Houston, Texas
4. Kent, Washington
5. Lancaster, California… and many more…

What do you want others to get from your blog:

My main goal was to keep in touch with my family and friends after we go to Japan.  I have started several other blogs before for that same purpose (keeping in touch) and I have never followed through with it, so this time, I started the blog and didn’t tell anyone about it.  In fact, I still haven’t told some people because I wanted to make sure I would update.  I guess I can probably tell people now.

After I started blogging and discovered the community of homeschool bloggers, I hope that some of the homeschool moms who read my blog find some useful information here, as I have with so many others.

And I am going to tag…

Stephanie

Rachel

Celly

Tonia

Kelly

Or “Our trip to New Mexico, with captions…”

Standing in front of the Rio Grande.

Playing with blocks.

At White Sands National Monument.

Feeding/Petting the chickens with Grams.

Running through Papa’s pecan orchard.

Playing in the tree house.

At the Las Cruces Railroad Depot/Museum.

Helping in the garden.

The only thing that would have made this trip better for Madison is if some of her cousins had been there to play with her!  Still, she told me that she wants to go back and visit again, by herself

A little bit early

Tonight, my husband was trying to get Madison to try green beans. We do not cater to her pickiness, but we can’t seem to cure it. Anyway, he said “If you eat all those green beans, you can help Mom open her Mother’s Day present tonight,” never thinking that she would actually try them, let alone eat them all. Well, she did, so I got my presents early - a mother and daughter Willow Tree figurine and a box of Godiva chocolates. Lucky me! I have already made a pretty good dent in the chocolates… I’m trying to savor them, but I just can’t help it. Godiva is my one of my weaknesses. And typing this post has made me crave them again. I’m not sure if I will have any left tomorrow…

I read several articles about being prepared for your first homeschool convention, but I ignored them.  I’ve been to conventions before, so I thought I knew what to expect.  Not so.  I printed out the convention schedule, circled the classes I thought sounded good, grabbed a book to read in case I had free time (yeah right!) and walked over to the convention center.  As soon as I walked into the exhibit area, I was overwhelmed.  I really underestimated the amount of shopping that was going to be available…

I have already picked out my curriculum for next year, but I wasn’t planning to buy it since we are supposed to be moving to Japan sometime soon (the date is still up in the air).  Well, actually I was planning to buy Right Start Math after becoming frustrated with Horizons and hearing so many good things about RS, but I wanted to wait for the convention and see it first, and I did end up buying that.  I also bought ETC, Book 2, since we are about to finish Book 1.  We are moving along with that faster than I expected.

I also bought some Handwriting without Tears stuff, which was a change from my original plan of using Horizons handwriting.  I was able to look at that and decided against it.  There was a very large Rainbow Resource booth where I was able to see HWOT, along with almost all the other handwriting programs I had considered, and decided to buy HWOT.  I didn’t need to buy it now because I don’t plan to start it till fall, but I got caught up in buying stuff.  That’s ok.  I might decide to start it sooner.  We are on a little different school schedule than most other families right now because we started preschool in December, and I haven’t really decided when we are going to transition to Kindergarten.  I am waiting to see how the Japan situation will pan out.

Some other stuff I bought that I did not plan to - a skip counting CD from Math-U-See, which I plan to incorporate in Madison’s memory CD when I update it (hopefully soon), a Kumon cutting book (just for fun), and (my favorite purchase), a poster with the genealogy of Christ.  It is one of the coolest posters I have ever seen - I am excited about it for myself, not just for school.  Here is a link - check it out - really!

There were a lot of classes available too - some were just ok, but one I really enjoyed was about Classical Conversations.  I would really like to find out some more information about this program - from what I can tell, it is like a homeschool support group for classical home educators. They have a free 3 day program that I am going to attend in June, and they have them in several states, so if you are interested in classical education, I would recommend checking out the website and seeing if they offer the free classes in your area.

Matt came with me on Saturday, but we only made it till lunchtime when we met up with some friends and went to lunch with them.  That was the end of his time at the convention, but he was good company.  It’s probably good that he didn’t come with me on Friday.  We have a tendency to make each other spend more money when we are together.

Unfortunately, I think this is the only convention I am going to get to go to for several years - unless there are conventions on Okinawa I don’t know about!

We are safely home from New Mexico and settling back into our routine…

Tomorrow and Saturday is the Oklahoma City homeschool convention! I am super excited about this since it will be my first one and I have even convinced Matt to go with me on Saturday!

Another update soon. In the meantime, here is a link to pictures from our trip on Flickr.