How We Homeschool-Bible Memory

Been 22 days since I blogged, told ya I'm only an occasional blogger! ;)

I am back today to share another snippet of our homeschool with you. If you missed our first post about how we even came to homeschool in the first place you can read that here.

I feel led to dedicate this post to my favorite area of our school, our Bible memory. Why is it my favorite? Well because although all of the other things that my children will learn are important, I know that nothing, nothing will impact them more than the Word of God. If they take only this one aspect of our schooling with them into their adulthood I will be happy. Happy because above all else, more than all of the grammar, math, reading, spelling and activities that we will absorb, only the Word of God is that which can transform them into the young ladies and young man that God wants them to be. That is what my husband and I want. Children that grow into adults that God desires.

So, how do we hide His Word in our hearts? Well about 3 years ago or so I came across the Simply Charlotte Mason blog. (Lots of great stuff there!) Somehow, I happened upon the post about their method of Bible Memory and became intrigued. An organized, purposeful way to memorize God's Word? We needed that. So, I read, learned and put the method into action. Can I tell you that this method works? It is systematic yet simple and effective. Our family has never memorized Scripture so effortlessly! And you don't just memorize and forget, you retain because...well, I'm babbling, let me just dive into it and you will see for yourself.

First you need to gather your supplies:

• Large index box (I guess you could use a smaller one until you outgrew it I have just always used a large one.)
• 41 tabbed divider cards (if they have numbers or letters on them that's okay, just buy some stickers to label your own. See my pic). OR get a free printable of these divider cards here.
• small labels for your dividers *optional
• blank or lined index cards

Next you will need to label your tabbed dividers (or stickers if you are using them) as follows:

• divider 1 - Daily
• divider 2 - Odd
• divider 3 - Even
• 7 dividers - Days of the week (Mon, Tues, etc.)
• 31 dividers - Numbers 1-31

Now you will need to put those dividers into your little box and get ready to fill 'er up! Decide which passage of Scripture or which verse you want to begin with. We started with Genesis 1:1-5 and are currently working on Philippians 2:1-8. We currently have 31 verses memorized...never counted until today. Wow.

You can choose any verse or passage that suits the needs of your family/studies. For example, we are memorizing the verses in Philippians because we have been studying humility as a family. We are doing this study. However, when we first began this system I also printed out this list of suggestions from Simply Charlotte Mason and keep it in my brain homeschool notebook for reference/ideas/inspiration. Alternatively, you can go here and download a 12 file pdf of the verses from their site. This is the first I've seen of that so yes, I downloaded it.

Next, you will write one verse on each card. Our current passage has 8 verses so we have eight cards. Put your first card behind the Daily tab and the rest in the front of that tab to be studied later.

Each day you will do the cards behind the Daily, Odd or Even, Day of the Week and Date of the Month tabs. Of course when you first begin you will only have the Daily card but you will acquire more and more as you go along.

For example, if today were Monday, the 7th, you would do the following dividers:

• Daily, 
• Odd (because 7 is odd),
• Monday 
• and 7. 

(If don't you have that many verses don't worry, just do what you have and your little box will grow.) 

The next day you would do 

• Daily, 
• Even (cause it would be the 8th), 
• Tuesday
•  and 8.

Is that clear as mud? I hope it's clearer.

Okay, final step. As you learn the verse behind the Daily divider, you will move it to either the Odd or Even depending on which divider is first for you. The card that was behind say, Even, will be moved to Odd and the card that was behind Odd would move to Monday and Monday's card goes behind Tuesday. You will just keep moving those cards back one divider as each new verse is memorized.

***This is where I do mine differently than what I learned on the Charlotte Mason site. If we are memorizing a passage of Scripture, I don't move those cards separately, I like to keep them all together. So yes, it takes longer for the cards to be moved around but doing it this way makes more sense to me. I like that we are always reciting entire passages together instead of splitting them up. Once we have them mastered, we will move all of the cards from the passage back one divider. I usually allot a week per verse unless they are short. If I have two short verses I will combine those onto one card.***

The genius in this system is that you are constantly reviewing the Word of God so you don't have time to forget any of it. I have changed a lot of things about our homeschool over the years but not this area. This has been the one constant in our lives. I am in love with this system of Bible memory! 

Okay, well, that's it. I hope you have enjoyed reading about this and I really hope that sharing how we do Bible memory in our home has inspired you to look for ways to integrate Bible memory into yours as well.

If you already have a system in place feel free to share your ideas in the comment section below. By the way, one random statement, I am just loving this cooler fall weather. Hope it's cooler where you are too!

In my next post I hope to show you how our large family of 7 schools in a 1400 sq. ft double wide. Nothing spectacular but it works for us!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

My Semi-Organized Homeschool #1 - Mini Offices for Mini People

This is the first post of a little series that I plan on doing. I just want to share with you a few of the things that I have done in our homeschool to help things run a little smoother for us. I call it semi-organized because that is me. I am only semi-organized! Oh I am 100% organized on PAPER but paper isn't real life so I have to be honest.

First up: Mini Offices

Mini offices. Honestly this reminded me of the three years I spent in a Christian school. We had “offices” and although they are only vaguely similar I did have flashbacks. Not a bad thing, just flashbacks.

I have to say that I first made these last year but only used them for a little while before we pushed them to the side and forgot about them. This year however, they are getting quite a workout (albeit this is only Week 2!!)

The mini offices have been such a blessing to have! They really do allow my girls to focus on the task at hand. It’s amazing how much more a person can concentrate if only they do not SEE the distractions!!! Yes, they can still HEAR all the noise but not seeing it has made a difference for these two.

Many of the mini offices that I saw were made from file folders. I knew that since my children seem to destroy everything very quickly file folders wouldn’t have survived long here. So I kept looking. Somewhere in the blogosphere…remember this was last year…I saw that someone had used those tri-panel science project boards for theirs. I knew that I had found our future mini offices.

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I promptly had my hubby go out and buy me one along with some of that First-Aid fabric tape (that’s probably not the name but I can’t think of its proper name right now!) so that I could tape off the edges to make them neat. We got our boards from Wal-Mart last year for around $4.00 but now they have them-although not as tall-at Dollar Tree. I purchased a couple and they seem to be durable. I was going to use one for Brother but he isn’t satisfied with one smaller than the girls…I think it has something to do with it stepping on his manhood. A man isn’t to be outdone by the ladies now is he?!!

Once I got my hands on the board I decided what half-way would be and began

cutting. It didn’t come out totally even but the tape covered up most of my mistakes.

Yes, I know it's upside down. I did that on purpose. I didn't want the ugly, uneven side on top.

 I then printed, cut out and attached the printables that I wanted to use. Anything that we were working on for that particular child went into their mini office. This works out to be like a study aid of sorts.

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I have recently thought about removing items from one of the flaps so that the girls can use that space to put up any little pictures or decorations that they want. I haven’t done it yet but I am very tempted to. I also am wondering if the backsides couldn’t be spray painted so that they are prettier. Hmm…gotta experiment with that.

Another plus is that the storage space is very minimal! Can you spy the mini-office in this picture?

Anyway, that is the McMama version of mini offices. I hope that you find it useful! I’d be glad to answer any questions that you might have!!

Some great links for mini offices:

The Teaching Heart: Tons of great printouts for the younger set!! Their offices were made extra mini by using file folders!!!

Mrs. Meacham has some handy idea as well!!! LOVE her calendar stuff!! Look it up.

Lapbook Lessons: I got quite a few of my printables here!! I love this little place!! They have some wonderful printables for your mini office.

A fellow blogger and her oodles of  mini office offerings (links):

Honey-Sunflower Schoolhouse

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!! There’s a ton out there!!! Happy searching.

Lovin' Learnin'

Organizing the Art

My girls LOVE to draw. They really do! I have probably a good hundred or so papers tucked away for safe keeping of their drawings. They are just "draw-a-holics!"

I do have to say that they are quite good for their ages as well...note to self, pray harder about an art curriculum for them. And what makes these things so sweet is that there is always an "I love Mommy" or "Daddy is wonderful" somewhere on their artwork. How can I throw that stuff away?!! Needless to say the papers accumulate fast around here.

But beautiful and sweet or not I have really been burdened about taming the paper monster. I came up with an idea (or maybe I saw it somewhere and just don't remember) that I wanted to share with you.

This is what you will need:

• 1 large piece of poster board per little artist
• packing tape (clear or you can find colored tape)
• 2 pieces of Velcro per poster board

That's it. Now on to the project.

1. Fold the bottom end of the poster board up until you are about 4 inches from the top of the top end. You will have what looks like a very large envelope.
2. At this time you can take your packing tape and tape both sides closed leaving the top 4 inches of the poster board free of tape.
3. Measure out the poster board from left end to right end and find the center. Mark the center on both the flap and the top front of the poster board.
4. Cut a piece of Velcro about 1-2 inches in length and center the soft portion on your center mark from step 3.
5. Place the rough part of the velcro on the center mark of the top front portion.
6. Have your little artist decorate her folder as she wishes.
7. Enjoy having a place to collect all of those precious drawings!!

I told my girls that once their folder is full (and it's big so it will take a little bit of time) that we would have to go through it and save what we really like but throw out the rest.

I hope that you find this useful! If you have any ideas to make this better or adaptations let me know!!
Lovin' Learnin'

Art Carousel

Crayons, color pencils, scissors, glue, tape, paints, paper. The list of art supplies is endless isn’t it? With four kids in the house I am always, always, always searching for a way to organize something. And because we homeschool our need for organization seems to grow almost daily! It’s a never ending task.

A few weeks ago I came across a wonderful idea from Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations. She blogged about the art carousel idea that she had read from another homeschooling Mom. (Don’t you just love how these ideas just keep getting passed around?! Don’t want to know where I’d be without them!) Anyway you can see her version here. Today however I am going to share with you my version which isn't near as pretty as hers but I'm okay with it. :)

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As this is the “back to school” season most of my extra cash has gone to purchase what I need to get for the up coming school year and this carousel idea although a great one was not something that was high on my list of spending priorities. So I sat and thought about how I could make this cost as inexpensive as possible.

1. Well yesterday I was able to make it up to my favorite local second hand shop and was blessed enough to come upon two lazy Susans that they were selling for a buck each. I tested them both to make sure that they would turn well and they passed the test.
2. I brought them home and began thinking about what to use in place of the buckets that the other ladies had used. I turned to my stash of plastic containers. I have all kinds stashed away for a just in case moment such as this one! I picked out three containers that were the same size and thought a little more. How to make this look “pretty.”
3. I thought of painting the lazy Susan's.I didn’t want to spend any more than I had to so I looked through the spray paints that we already had on hand. I had a choice of gold, dark green, burgundy or brown. Although I would’ve loved a more child friendly color I went ahead and chose the brown. I sprayed the Susan and waited for it to dry.
4. Once dried I looked for my stash of Velcro. (I did have magnets around but just couldn’t find them.) I cut a piece to fit across the  bottoms of each container and cut some the same size to go on the Susan.
5. I then set out to make labels. Probably the hardest job of all because the containers I chose were not perfect in circumference. After making my pattern ( I just wrapped a plain piece of paper around the containers, traced the shape and cut it out. I then cut three labels for the containers and added the words.
6. I affixed them to the containers, covered them with clear tape, attached them to the lazy Susan and viola! I now have an Art Carousel that cost me $1.00!!!

Now I decided to keep my carousel to holding just colored pencils because Littlest is still too young to have access to glue, scissors and markers. But I might do that at a later date!

I still have an extra lazy Susan to utilize in whatever way I want so I really could make another one and keep the non-toddler approved stuff in there.

Well, what do you think? Can you spare a buck to make one for your family? Look how they’re lovin’ it!

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I tell you what, they’ve been pumpin’ out a lot of art today!!! They do that on a regular basis but this has been a lot even for them!!!

Lovin' Learnin'

Work Boxes

With many of us preparing for our new school year I know that a major concern is organization. Workboxes have been all the rave in the homeschooling community for quite some time and for good reason. It is a great organizational/accountability tool. As go most things with us homeschoolers there are many ways that workboxes have been "tweaked"-albiet all are great ideas not all work for every family.

About a year ago I posted about how we used workboxes in our home. I thought that since it was "that time of year again" I would repost what I wrote about workboxes in our home. Now, this is just another idea in an ever growing pool of workbox ideas but hopefully more of you will find our ideas useful.

Although we didn't stick with workboxing all year last year I do plan to do better at it this year but we are definetly going to stick to the plan laid out here.

As I often do I was scanning blogs of other homeschooling moms and came across this idea that struck me as a must try!! Yes, I am guilty of trying out too many things and not sticking with them but...well...ok so I really have no excuse!! That's just me.

So anyway...the idea I saw was awesome so I'll explain it here and let you decide if this is one more idea you want to try or not! :) So this is what you need:

A clear plastic tote like the kind that you can put the hanging folders in. I purcahsed two from Wal-Mart (blue box) and two from Target (green box). I sent hubby on an errand for one more box from Target but he came home with two instead that's why we have so many. But can you really have too many containers? My son has already claimed the extra one for his toys!! Wal-Mart's were $4 and Target's were $5. The only difference is that Target's are a little cuter. I know, it's a plastic box, but it really is cuter!!

Okay, back to the list. You'll need cardstock in any color you'd like or maybe in your child's favorite color. Clear laminate, less than $6 at Wal-Mart. I did purchase the more expensive kind of laminate because the cheaper one is always kind of cloudy and that bothers me. Velcro (I purchased the dots, less than $3 for a box of 20) and some numbers. I printed mine off the computer but you can use whatever you have. Next you will need something to put each assignment in. I already had some hanging folders so it was easier for me to use hanging folders but you can use whatever you want or have on hand. I've seen someone use those big yellow mailing envelopes. I'll try to put the link up here so that you can see how others fashioned this for their own families. You will also need scissors, an empty cereal box, glue and paper clips.

You will need to get on a word prossesing program and make up a simple table of 3 rows of 4 so that you will end up with something like this:

You can adjust your grid according to the number of assignments that your child may have. I made mine with "room to grow!" Print it out, laminate it and place a velcro dot in the middle of each of the squares.

Then using clipart from the same program print out the numbers 1-12. Make them fun if you can. Print them onto either regular paper or cardstock. I printed mine onto regular paper and then glued them onto cereal boxes that I have saved. I have plenty of cardstock but it's expensive so I use it sparingly!! You can then cover those with clear laminate and place a sticky velcro dot on the back. You will end up with something like this:
Next tape the grid that you made onto the front of the plastic tote. Now like I said before I used the hanging folders because I already had them but you can use large envelopes, plastic ziplock bags with a piece of cardstock or cereal box added inside to help the bag stand up. You could even use manilla folders if you like. Be creative!! Put those inside your box and now your box will look like this:

What I've done to save on velcro dots is to take my number cards and paper clip each of them to a hanging folder. Like this:

Inside each of the folders I place one of my daughters assignments for the day. For example in number one I placed her reading book because that's what we do first thing in the morning.

Once she reads to me she returns the book to the folder because she'll need it the following day and removes the number card from the folder and places it on the appropriate grid on the front of the box like this:

She then reaches in the next folder for her next assignment. That's it!!! Done!! Easy huh?! At the end of the school day hopefully her box will look like this:

When I explained this to her she was so excited and really does like using the box. My daughter is what Debra Bell labels as a routine learner. She needs structure and routine. She thrives best in situations where she knows what to expect and what is expected of her. Well, unfortunatley she has a Mama that isn't very good at doing things consistently but this is helpful in keeping us both on track. This is also helpful because she can see how much work she has left to do so I don't hear (hopefully), "Are we almost done yet?" I like that I'm even able to schedule in "fun" things for her that I otherwise wouldn't be organized enough to do.

Now if you're like me and have more than one child you can work it so that if you're working with one child on their first assignment then the first assignment for your other child could be something that they can do on their own. I was even organized enough to give my younger daughter a learning puzzle and a finger painting assignment. YAY!!

So, go ahead and think about whether or not this would work in your life. I know that for us any thing to help organize a little more is always a breath of fresh air. This is a relatively inexpensive project as well so maybe that will help you decide.;) If you decide to do this please let me know how it goes. Or if you have other ideas to make this even more awesome please let me know!!!

PS!!
Here is a picture of a game I made that I put into a ziplock baggie. You can see how you can utilize this method for your box instead of the hanging folders if you'd like. The added cereal box or cardstock allows the bag to stand upright a little better. If you look in the above picture you can see how the baggie is set inside the hanging folder but it might be okay without a hanging folder to sit in.

Well, that's it! Now hurry along and get your items together and plan a workbox making evening. I hope that this blesses you~

Lovin' Learnin'