Adjusting to homeschooling with Chronic Migraines

It's been a bumpy week or so here.  Lots of sickness and not a lot of energy for school.  My migraines have been a real challenge.  Ya know as much as I prayed and thought I prepared for homeschooling my son while dealing with Chronic Migraines I am realizing that it will take a LOT of flexibility and patience before we find a good groove.  I will be trying a "new to me" Migraine treatment in the next week and am praying it is helpful!  I also just ordered a book that a friend recommended to me.  It's called The Mood Cure by Julia Ross.  I have been told it covers all sorts of things from depression, anxiety, ADHD, muscle issues, Fibromyalgia and more!  It just arrived today with my 2 day Free Amazon Prime shipping and I can't wait to get started!

We did manage get a few things done.....

We watched a great video on Humpback whales and the songs they sing.  Well, we learned in the video they don't sing as their mouths are closed so they are actually humming.  And their noises can reach across the ocean!  Notice below in the link before the words "youtube" it said quiet.

*****You can add the word quiet before whatever video you watch to remove ads in the video AND so you don't see those random videos displayed on the side panel!****  

http://www.quietyoutube.com/watch?v=-oYIK6Bg6co

What we've been reading lately:
DK Eyewitness book: Explorer
Farmer Boy
Spaghetti and Meatballs for All!  (a living math book)
Janice VanCleave's Oceans for Every Kid -Great activities to reinforce science


For now it's been necessary to cut way back and just focus on English & Math.  Turbo is doing a math facts app that I have on my Iphone called Math Magic.  I've tried LOTS of the free (popular) math practice websites and my kids thought they were kind of a drag!  Math Magic is fun and it's mobile so we can be sitting in a doctors office waiting room practicing math facts!  We are pushing hard to finish up Math Mammoth 3B.  I love the program.  So much that I bought the entire series!  However as we push through Turbo is kind of on the fence about it.  I love that it is a mastery program but I find that for us it requires some adjustments.  For example if we hit a concept Turbo already knows I will drastically reduce the number of problems he has to do. When we began this program I had Turbo working independently only coming to me if he had questions.  I got the idea to sit with him and do much more of the math orally.  It has CHANGED the way we do math!  Because I'm sitting in I can clearly and quickly identify things that Turbo has mastered and reduce the work if needed without him getting frustrated and going into mental overload.  He is also much happier to give an oral answer and math is getting done in about half the time it was taking before.  Rob (dad) has been helping to take over Math by teaching it in the evening since I'm having such a hard time getting through everything.  Thank God for my good husband!  I so appreciate his help but I hope & pray this is a temporary fix.  In my ideal world I'd be able to get all the instruction done during the day and we could enjoy evenings as a family. 

http://www.mathmammoth.com/

Product Review:  I can not tell you how much of a hit thinking putty is!  I only ordered one container of it and it was not enough since EVERYONE wants to use it.  Even the adults & teens who visit!  It can keep my little one occupied for quite some time.  It really gets his imagination going as he finds new ways to use it and incorporates his other toys into it.  I was even able to remove the entire ball of putty from our off white carpeting today!!  It gives the boys something quiet to do with their hands while I'm reading or going over lessons and it's so much fun!  No more play dough for us we are definitely picking up more thinking putty soon!

My next post I'm planning to explain in more detail what we are doing to keep up with homeschooling while having Chronic Migraines.  I'd love to hear what others are doing to manage health issues and still made home schooling a priority!

Blessings,

Melissa

Adventures in the Sea & Sky Week 2

Winters Promise Adventures in the Sea & Sky - Week 2

Fun things we learned: An Octopus has 3 hearts!  One on each side of it's gills and it's main heart!  We also made snow ice cream which was a big hit!

Hands on Learning:

We took a basketball and a LOT of blue painters tape (a specific amount) and covered the basketball.  Once we finished we had a small replica of what the Earth looks like and it's water to land ratio!  It was very interesting for the kids to do and of course afterwards they played monkey in the middle with the ball and had a blast.  This idea was taken from the book: Bill Nye the Science Guy's big Blue Ocean.  

We are lapbooking on Mollusks but it is slow going!  Typically Turbo enjoys lapbooking but he is not enjoying this one at all!  I don't think it's the project itself, I think he's just unmotivated to do much school these days.  The thing is he LOVES animals and oceans so this should be fun for him.  

    

We've watched Horrible Histories Highly Hawaiian Via: Discovery Education Streaming.

We also looked at the pictures from a variety of books I had pickup at at the Library on Sunday about Ships and Sea Life.  For Science we did a whale blubber experiment.  The first picture below is feeling how COLD the "ocean" is.  The second picture is feeling the difference if you have blubber insulation.  The boys all loved this experiment!

And we finished off our week making a Valentines Minecraft Box for Zman to bring into school.  As well as making Minecraft Valentines which we had gotten an AWESOME free printable for!  I know it's a little late to be sharing but heres the link: http://www.meetpenny.com/2014/02/free-printable-minecraft-valentines-day-cards/

We also worked on FLL3 & WWE3.  I am really trying to work these two things in as I LOVE them and Turbo has commented that he really enjoys the lessons.  Math has suffered this week but we will be working on getting caught up!  It's been a rough week with my migraines so we are behind the schedule I had set but I am learning I have to be flexible!

I hope you've enjoyed your week!

Blessings,

Melissa

Week 1 Winters Promise Adventures in the Sea & Sky

Guide:  Week 1

• We read from Sailing the Seas Through History and from Sailors, Whalers & Fantastic Sea Voyages.
• We totally did not have time for the reading for Science scheduled this week.  It was only because of me being sick and doctors appointments so we'll catch up soon!
• We worked on tying different types of knots.  We utilized our Cubscout book as well as the following website for instructions on the knots.  http://www.boatsafe.com/kids/knots.htm
• We watched 20,000 Leagues under the Sea with Amazon Instant Video. (We watched the Disney Version-link at the bottom of the page)  As always you may want to prescreen :-)
• I am using the Book 20,000 Leagues under the Sea as a read aloud. We read Chapters 1-4
• For Art we did Pastel Sea Creatures using the 1-2-3 Draw Ocean Life by Freddie Levin.  We each just picked out one sea creature.
• Runner did the drawing from 1-2-3 Draw Ocean Life.  All my boys painted Sea creatures with Water Colors and my youngest Bear made a Jellyfish craft.  (See my Pinterest for Ideas!)
• We also watched several Youtube videos on Jelly fish (prescreen as you feel necessary!)

I have a Pinterest Board that I'm trying to keep track of all my *Extras* so feel free to take a look.  Many of the ideas are geared towards my younger guys so I can include them.

http://www.pinterest.com/rmtzkreplin1/winter-promise-sea-sky/

Curriculum 2014!

Wow!!  It's taken me much longer than I expected to feel like I found a good fit for our family.  I'm not only thinking about Runner but also about my other two guys that I'm praying will start homeschooling in the Fall!
First I want to tell you what I've chosen because I am SOOOO thrilled to have stumbled upon it!

Winters Promise Adventures in the Sea & Sky is our main curriculum for Runner who is 10.  Adventures in the Sea & Sky is written for the 4th-6th but see below because it is so flexible!
http://winterpromise.com/

So far we are loving every minute of it!!  Runner who is easily dis-tractable (ADHD) and has only a tiny amount of interest in learning much is having tons of fun!  I'll tell you some of the things I just love about this curriculum below.

• It could easily be adapted to older or younger children.  Winter Promise even sells a separate learners guide for older children or another one for the younger group.  I feel like there is lots of meat in the regular Curricula that for our family the older guide wasn't necessary.  
• Lots of options to enhance the study are provided in your guide book!  Video selections, online options for further exploration, and art projects for your family to enjoy.
• THE CAPTAINS LOG!!! Oh what fun this Log is and I know it is something that we will keep and treasure for years to come!  This Log is a super fun way to keep my son engaged and to see that he is learning.
• It's a year long study (could easily go longer depending on the ages and the depth you want to explore)
• Great Literature!
• Everything is laid out for me in the guidebook!  Super easy for me to take a glance at the week ahead and then utilize my Amazon Prime to get small supplies I may need.  Note:  most supplies are things you will have around the house!!
• This curriculum covers History & Science.  Though not official I say it covers Art as well.  Anything else that you'd like to add you should supplement.

So here is just a brief list of some things we are learning about:
Characteristics of a ship
People of the Sea (ancient sailors, expert shipbuilders, trade in the East-just to name a few!)
The Renaissance
Industrial Age Ship Building
20th Century Ships
Aviation & Important people who were involved
Adventures in Space
Oceans & Seas
Weather
Astronomy

So my list above is a skim of all the AWESOMENESS that Winter Promise has to offer.  Please go check them out, you wont be disappointed. I'll be blogging about our adventures on this fun journey and hope to spread the word about this great curriculum that we love so much.

I reviewed and tried several options before I really felt like we found a good fit for us.  I'll admit I went for things I felt like *everyone* seemed to be using.  I found a couple things that were a great fit for ME....not for Runner.  Some of the options I tried were Mystery of History I and Story of the World I.

I will be blogging as we plug away with what our weeks look like as we plug ahead.  Please join us!