Homeschooling Jasmine

Pickled red onions

2011-10-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

For some reason I bought three red onions for making the pickled nectarines, I don't know why. I don't normally use red onions in my cooking, I prefer sweet onions. So, I had a lot of left over onion that I needed to do something with.

I found a recipe for pickling them (and if you haven't realized I really do love just about everything pickled) at Closet Cooking here.

Because I had sooo much onion I chopped them up and put them in a half-gallon jar (just like I did to the nectarines, I guess it is a lucky thing that I have so many empty kimchi jars) and I quadrupled the recipe.

Both jars are cooling down on my counter right now, waiting to go into the fridge.

Spicy pickled nectarines

2011-10-23T14:17:00.001-07:00

I found a recipe for pickling nectarines in the refrigerator by City Mama here and wanted to try it out.

The recipe calls for seven nectarines, but I could only fit four in a half-gallon jar as you can see in the picture.

I mostly just followed the directions, I used minced garlic I had frozen and I crushed the red peppers.

You can see the garlic floating at the bottom, and the onions are all on the top.

I haven't tried it yet, I just made it today.

Hello again.

2011-10-17T16:34:00.000-07:00

Been away for a long time again. Oops.

I am writing two different blog posts right now. One about Korean dramas and one about the Korean language.

Is there anything anyone would like to see about either topic?

Thanks!

A brief update.

2011-06-02T23:54:00.000-07:00

I lost all the pictures that I took of Jasmine since she was born. Luckily my husband has some of the pictures on his computer, but I am sad.

It is June, but our heater still comes on at night. >.<

This weekend we are going to go to the Valhalla Renaissance Faire.

I hate computers, especially mine

2011-05-30T23:32:00.000-07:00

So.... we upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7 and I think I lost everything. Pictures, essays, writing, work, bookmarks from the internet.

How to cook seaweed soup (miyeok guk 미역국) redux

2011-05-25T15:46:00.000-07:00

So, I went to the local Vietnamese store to look for the seaweed for miyeok guk 미역국, but I didn't find it there. Then last weekend I went to the Korean store in Sparks, NV, Yim's Asian Supermarket. I found the seaweed there and took some pictures with my cell phone, sorry, but they are low quality.

This is the seaweed in Korean, and written in Romanized from the Japanese pronunciation, ito-wakame.

And I believe the black writing here in the center is the Japanese name of the seaweed, I am not 100% sure, so if anyone can read it please let me know.

Updating the windows

2011-05-24T16:14:00.000-07:00

It may finally be spring here. I say may, because it hailed last Wednesday. :(

So here is what our first window used to look like.

There are snowflake clings from Wal-Mart, and kirigami leaf decorations. The idea for the leaves came from Zakka Life, I used origami paper.

Here is the second window.

On top we have shape and color clings from Dollar Tree. And on the bottom is an tree idea from Frugal Family Fun Blog that can be found here.

We are currently doing some crafts to update our windows, so hopefully I'll be posting some more pictures soon.

Tracing Lines

2011-05-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

I often get a lot of people finding my blog by searching for tracing lines.

So I will now redirect you to donnayoung.org, more specifically their handwriting section. They have a great beginning manuscript section.

I hope that helps everyone that needs trace lines.

EDIT: I found another great website for tracing lines, this one allows you to type in your own words, http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/ you can also type in words to be traced in cursive.

How to cook seaweed soup (miyeok guk 미역국)

2011-04-29T11:32:00.000-07:00

EDIT: 3/16/2011 My mother visited last week and it was during her birthday, so I made 미역국.

My poor, often neglected blog.

If you are using a Microsft OS and cannot see the Korean characters, but you want to be able to you need to download and install the East Asian Language pack.

미역(miyeok) means seaweed/seaplant/sea vegetable. 국(guk) means soup, a broth based soup, e.g. chicken noodle soup would be considered a 국, but cream of mushroom would not.

I got the basic recipe for this from Maangchi on her page for miyuk-guk, there are many ways to romanize 미역국. Wikipedia also has a brief article and very basic recipe on their site.

So, starting with Maangchi's recipe I modified it to suit my tastes.

I forgot to take a picture of the seaweed package so you would know what kind to buy, I will try to remember to do it next time and add the picture to this post.

EDIT:5/25/11 I have pictures of the packages of seaweed now. http://homeschoolingjasmine.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-cook-seaweed-soup-miyeok-guk.html

Okay, Maangchi's recipe starts will 1 cup of dried seaweed and has you soak it for an hour, well I just took it and put it in a jar with a lid and soaked it over night, so I could start cooking right away in the morning.

I drained the seaweed.

And placed it in a large pot with 16 cups of water, like the recipe says, but I placed it on low heat so I could get the rest of the ingredients ready.

Then I took an onion and halved it, then sliced it.

Then cut the slices in half.

If you are like me you can do the other half of the onion and add it to the soup also.

I couldn't find beef brisket at the store, so I bought lean stew meat.

As you can see it is still a little fatty, so I took the pieces trimmed them down and cut them into smaller pieces.

After that I turned the heat up to get the soup to start boiling. I add half a coup of frozen sliced garlic.

I cannot remember where I read about this, but if you use a lot of garlic and would rather not use the store bought preminced or crushed garlic, you can do it yourself at home and just freeze it. I grow garlic, but I use more than I can grow, so I will also buy it from the store and peel it, slice it and put the pieces in a old water bottle and freeze them.

You can also mince the garlic and put plastic wrap on a cookie sheet, spread the garlic out on the sheet, freeze the sheet and after it is frozen cut the garlic into about 1 inch squares, which is about 2 tablespoons and put the squares into a plastic zip-loc type bag in the freezer. I wish I remember where I learned this from to give proper credit, but oh well, probably some sort of bento site. You can also do this with green onions.

I also forgot to take a picture of the fish sauce and sesame oil, to show what brands I use and I am all out of them right now, hopefully I remember to take a picture of them later.

After everything boils for about 20 minutes you are done and have a batch of seaweed soup.

I normally make a double batch and freeze most of it. If you do plan on freezing it don't add tofu. I found out the hard way that tofu does not freeze well and had to throw out a lot of soup :(

If you are wondering how kids will like this, Jasmine is 4 years-old and eats it all the time.

Horribly behind on blogging, so sorry.

2011-02-21T12:25:00.000-08:00

12/24/2010
OMG. So much dust on this blog. Sorry.

So, the co-op finished a week before Thanksgiving. I think it went okay, not great, but not horrible.

2/21/2011
Eeek! I just found this post in my drafts section, of course not finished, and barely written so let me finish it.

Let's see. Okay, so the co-op classes from last semester that I taught were journalism and crafts, they went okay. This semester I am only teaching one class, cooking and I think it is going much better than the classes last semester. Jasmine is taking a preschool class both hours and really enjoys it.

Jasmine is still taking taekwondo (태권도) at Carson ATA. We stopped bowling, it was fine the first two weeks, but then I think Jasmine just got bored of it, she whined the whole time. We are fine with that, she isn't at a point yet were she gets the idea of scoring and improving the score, plus the lightest ball they had was six pounds which was still very heavy for her.

Last semester I took Drawing 1 and Survey Art History 1. The drawing class was really good and I am taking Drawing 2 this semester. The Survey Art History 1 I took online and it was horrible, there was zero feedback from the teacher, so I will take the second part at the school. I plan on getting my associates of fine arts here, at Western Nevada College, but I don't know if I will continue on, probably not until Jasmine is older.

Jasmine is still going to WNC's child development center while I am in classes, I think she likes it, mostly because she gets to play with other kids. There are only a few kids on the street that we live on and they are all older and in high school.

I started a book reviews page, hopefully you can see the tab up above. There isn't anything there right now, but I think that I really need to get back into the habit of writing, and hopefully this will help and maybe it will remind me to update the main blog more. I am planning to go back and do reviews for all the books previously listed here and more, especially since Jasmine loves books even more now. She will sit in her room and "read" her books, she makes up stories based on the pictures.

I think I might also add a tab for my crafts, so I can post pictures of the projects that I finish, but I need to find the cable for the digital camera first. Yes, I lost the special cable for the camera, and it is a new camera and will only take this one cable. Grrr. I hate when I do that, but I do it all the time. Oh, just found it, my husband had it by his computer.

I also think that I might add a tab for cooking, branch out the blog a little bit and maybe that will help with the updates and less digital dust.

Also, if anyone has any tips on how to get a finicky eater to eat in a daycare/school setting they would be much appreciated. Jasmine is like me and won't eat breakfast, I pack her lunch for the daycare. I thought I would finally get to do all the fun bento style lunches, but she won't eat lunch. She will eat the snack during snack time, but that is it. So, she doesn't eat her first real meal until we get home at 2:30pm. Obviously she isn't starving, she will eat the food, it is what she eats when she gets home, she just won't eat it at the daycare.

Hopefully this post makes sense to you all.

Update

2010-08-27T02:39:00.000-07:00

Oh, my goodness! It has been such a long time. I would like to tell you that I have been too busy to write, but that would be a lie. I really just took a long break. We took a break from homeschooling too.

A lot of things have happened this summer, I just don't write about any of it while it was happening.

My insurance covered my breast reduction surgery, and it has been awesome so far. I am still healing, so I don't know my size right now, but I was a 34G before surgery. Most of that I gained when I got pregnant with Jasmine. Unfortunately the neck and back pain was just killing me, every day was just a struggle. Right now somethings are still a struggle, I don't bend well yet, but my neck and upper back pain are gone. I still have some lower back pain, but I think it is because I am not used to sleeping on my back.

My mom visited before my surgery and my dad is going to visit mid-September with his brother.

A couple of days ago Jasmine came to me with this workbook...

and she did the first 20ish pages probably under 15 minutes. She has much better control now. We are using a triangle pencil like this...

but Jasmine's doesn't have an eraser. It was great that she has finally decided to write, but it did show me that she has problems with the half-circles for letters. We didn't continue on to the part of tracing the alphabet. Instead I bought some a writing tablet like this...

and made our own tracing lines. Like this...

Jasmine did pretty well with the straight lines in the workbook, but these are much smaller and will need more control, but if she does well with these too then I will just make the next page a workout of half-circles and circles for her to practice with.

I don't want to tire, bore or frustrate her (especially when she has finally shown interest!) so we'll probably only work on it every couple of days.

We are also working on numbers. Jasmine has 1-12 down solid, but when it comes to the 'teens she is very wobbly. She knows the names of the numbers, but not the order so she kind of mumbles and adds a 'teen at the end until she announces that it is suddenly 20. I got some flashcards and we have been playing games with beads. I hope that will help her out a bit.

The themed Muffin Tin Mondays started last Monday, but we missed it. Hopefully I will remember to do this coming Monday's theme.

Back from the beginning of the year, that Korean school I mentioned? Yeah, that didn't work out for us. It is intended for kids who already know and understand Korean, but are just learning to read and write Korean. I cannot teach Jasmine Korean, I do know how to read Korean, it is a phonetic language and very easy to learn to read, but I have no vocabulary at all. It is one of the few times that I wished my mom lived closer. There are a few other Korean churches that I will check out and see if they offer classes, but not right now.

I think there are going to be too many changes soon that adding another one right now would just be too much for Jasmine.

Jasmine will start going to a "child development center" aka daycare a couple of hours on Mondays and Wednesdays while I am in class. We think this will actually be a positive thing. All of the kids on our block are much older (middle school/high school age) so this will be a chance for her to make friends around her own age.

Faith co-op starts on the 9th and Jasmine will be in both hours of the preschool, but some times the kids are only in one of the hours of preschool (and it is only one day a week.) I think the kids in the daycare would be more stable. I really am hoping that she makes a good friend, 'cause she can be really shy some times.

This semester I am also teaching Journalism and crafts at the co-op. Should be fun.

Jasmine will start bowling on the 11th at Carson Lanes. We are having her birthday party there this Saturday. I'm really hoping that Jasmine will like it, it'll be another chance for her to socialize in her age group (3-6 year-olds is the bowling league she is in.)

We also have an appointment on Tuesday for Jasmine to observe a Tiny Tigers class. I'm not sure how well that will go, I think she might enjoy the class, but she doesn't follow directions well at all. So, we'll see.

I think that's all for now.

Update

2010-03-18T15:31:00.000-07:00

I realized that I haven't written in a while what is going on here. Jasmine and I have both been sick on and off for a while, so we really haven't gotten much done.

I'm sorry if anyone got caught up in the spam one of the widgets I added to the page was spewing. If you have a blogger blog don't add the random word of the day in several foreign languages widget.

We went to Alabama for a weekend to attend a wedding. I would not recommend the Birmingham Zoo, almost all of the information on their website is incorrect. And after we complained to the supervisor/manager (even explaining that we were not local) all we were offered were free tickets, even after repeatedly saying that we didn't live in the area (but they are good for a year!) grr.

Today was the last day of Faith Co-op for the semester. I may get roped in (okay, I volunteered) to teach a journalism class next semester, and maybe a sewing/craft class. It could be fun, but nerve wrecking. I haven't had anything to do with journalism in over six years.

I have been working more and more to get Jasmine to write. We have done some painting at Crescent Moon's suggestion. I also found these...

at our local education store, It's Educational. The pencil is a little too big for Jasmine's hand, but she already has the idea of how to hold it. I picked it out for Jasmine because both my husband and I hold our pencils incorrectly. I probably spent kindergarten to 5th or 6th grade with teachers trying to correct my grip, but it never worked out.

What we are currently reading:
Jasmine's selection: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

I am reading this to Jasmine at night. A friend of mine is a huge Oz fan, so we are planning to dress up as the witches and have the kids dress up as characters, I'll probably do movie Dorothy for Jasmine as I don't think most people know that the shoes are supposed to be silver.

My selection: The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

I am rereading the Percy Jackson series. We went and saw the movie on opening weekend. It was really good, Jasmine didn't like a few bits with the monsters, but she is 3 years-old, it would probably be fine with an older child.

Muffin Tin Monday - late

2010-02-17T14:49:00.000-08:00

I've been sick the last couple of days, so our muffin tin is late.

The theme for this Monday was red. This is a small one, Jasmine ran off with the red cup that had orange juice in it, so I have a replacement cup in this picture. I cut cherry tomatoes into hearts, and idea that I found here at Eye Candy. I was going to try and carve a heart into the apple, an idea I found on another blog, but I just wasn't feeling up to the challenge.

Hopefully I will be feeling better for next week's theme, orange. Oh, and if anyone wants to join MTM, you don't have to make the tins on Monday, you are just supposed to post them on Monday.

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-01-25T11:32:00.000-08:00

This week's theme is ABC/123. Jasmine has one slice of 배 (Asian Pear), two chunks of banana, and three carrots, three slices of cucumber resting on a bed of corn. The numbers were written with Wilton Sparkle Gel in Black. I love that stuff, it is very easy to use.

In other news, Jasmine is back at the preschool co-op this year. It started on the 14th. She is taking both hours this time, although she missed an hour last week. We left early because it was snowing so much, I was worried about getting back up the hill to Carson. When we left I noticed that the chains and snow tires sign was flashing, most of the drive was done at 25 mph and took a lot longer than it should have.

EDIT: Who knew that sparkle gel would be so popular. I got mine at the local Wal-Mart. It is normally in the aisle with the cake mixes, but some times it is in the aisle with the cake pans. I've also seen it in several grocery stores.

Slowly losing my mind

2010-01-05T00:07:00.000-08:00

So, once a year for about three years, my dad has driven from Oklahoma to Carson City, NV. He piles his car full of boxes of my junk. This last July he brought the last of the boxes. Well, when I moved from Oklahoma to Los Angeles I took my sewing machine with me, but for some reason I didn't pack the peddle/power cord in the box with the sewing machine. I thought that it had to still be in Oklahoma. Well, today I went and opened the last two boxes (unless there is a box heading some where.) No power cord. I don't know what to do. I've been telling my husband to not buy me another sewing machine because I was sure that it would get here eventually. Now I have no idea what happened to it. Well, (un)fortunately I have rejoined the SCA and I want to make some things for myself and Jasmine, but I have no power to my sewing machine. I don't really want to buy another one, but I really want one. I might see if any second-hand stores have a decent one, eh... but I am so picky. This sucks. I want to make things. Now!

Bye-bye crib

2010-01-04T23:40:00.000-08:00

So, for almost three and a half years Jasmine has slept in a crib. She has never tried to climb out. I don't know why. Today I finally converted her crib into a toddler bed. I figured I might have an easier time if I did it while my husband was away, I don't know why and can't even follow my own logic.

Here's a picture of her crib:

There's a stuffed Max and Stitch in there.

And here is the bed now:

I put her old crib bumper back up. There is supposed to be a wooden board that runs in front of the mattress, so it won't slide off onto the floor, but for some reason there are no holes drilled in the left post, so I couldn't put it up.

EDIT: I checked on Jasmine earlier, she was awake, but in bed! I just checked on her now and she is asleep, but still in bed! Most of her toys are in my closet right now (time to go through them and give away the ones she doesn't play with), but there are several piles of stuffed animals she could have gotten up and played with. She went to sleep with her door closed, but I opened it, so if I am not awake by the time she wakes up in the morning she can come into my room and either wake me up, or make a mess (I still haven't finished sorting through all of my craft supplies and they are in a ring around my bed.) I'm excited. I'm not sure for how long she'll stay in bed before she realizes that she can just get out, but I am hoping for a long, long time. I also hope she doesn't fall out of bed tonight.

Resolutions

2010-01-04T00:28:00.001-08:00

So, when my husband asked I told him that I didn't have any resolutions and I guess that is a lie.

One of my resolutions is to write more. More journaling in my book to Jasmine, more posting on this blog and more creative writing. The last part is going to have to happen, I signed up to take a class at the local college and if I ever want to finish my Masters I will have to finish writing a book.

My second resolution is to finish more craft projects this year (and to remember to take photographs!) My husband said that I needed to finish some, but I really did finish quite a few last year. I know he was teasing, but really, grrrr. There are a few things that have been sitting around for a while (years) that are close to being finished, so hopefully they'll get done. For some reason thought I am already planning next Christmas' presents.

My third resolution is to take more pictures! We are so bad about taking pictures, it doesn't matter where we go or what we are doing, there is rarely a picture of it. I don't even have a Halloween picture of Jasmine for 2008. So, here are some for now.

This is my bed right now, luckily my husband is in Little Rock, AR, or else he wouldn't have a place to sleep tonight:

I am trying to organize my craft stuff, I know where everything is and what needs to be finished.

And here are two paintings Jasmine did while I started the great sorting:

Done in water paint.

and:

Done in paint dot markers, basically bingo markers.

Finally home - from 12/29/09

2010-01-01T12:54:00.000-08:00

I can't even begin to explain how relived I am to finally be home.

The end of the year always seems difficult for me, but this year (2009) seemed worse than normal. Our funds are running low, we did some home maintenance and unfortunately a lot of travelling this year (2009). I'm not sure if 2010 is going to be any kinder to us, my husband is already going to be gone for half of January. So we are going to try and budget our spending, we would like to take Jasmine to Disneyland, Sea World and the San Diego Zoo after Labour Day, which is about two weeks after her birthday.

Plus there is a Korean school in Sparks that I would like to enroll Jasmine in. It is $100 for the first 3-4 months, and then after summer break it is $80. I know that is a lot of money, but my mom didn't start me in Korean school until I was 14 and it was really embarrassing sitting with a bunch of preschoolers going over the same work every week. I didn't learn anything. And since I'm not fluent in Korean myself, and my pronunciation is atrocious I can't teach Jasmine myself.

But, I know the things we have to worry about are minor, I just wished we didn't have to worry about them at all.

I also don't know where I want to go with Jasmine's homeschooling, she knows most of her ABCs, she has a little trouble with "i", "j", "m", and "n" but for the most part has everything down. She has mastered 1-13 and is working on 14-20. She knows her colors and shapes. So, I don't know if I want to continue with Letter of the Week. We haven't even gotten very far on it, just to letter "E." So I might find some harder things. Maybe we'll work on muscle control for writing, she is getting better, but still kind of wild with a crayon.

No news is good news?

2009-12-16T21:38:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry I haven't been updating, but we have been travelling and internet service has been spotty. Our co-op finished on the 19th of November and won't start again until the 14th of January. Jasmine will be taking two classes of preschool next year since she did so well last semester. We have a bunch of plans for next year, I don't know how they are going to work out. I'll try to remember to write more about the plans after we get home.

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-11-09T11:10:00.000-08:00

There's no theme for this week.

Jasmine had orange juice, bean sprouts, grapes on leaf picks, a triple berry muffin, baked salmon and strawberries.

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-11-02T11:02:00.000-08:00

This week's theme is Outer Space.

This week from top to bottom, left to right:
1. We have orange juice, Minute Maid has a kids juice with vitamins A, B1, C, D, E, and calcium. The great thing about this is it is pulp free, so sippy cups and straw cups with valves (like the one in this picture) won't get clogged by the pulp. We were getting the orange juice with the added calcium, because Jasmine doesn't drink milk and will only eat a few dark green veggies, and the straws were always getting clogged even though that juice is supposed to be low pulp.
2. Mini-cucumber stars made with the recipe by M3 of Do They Have Salsa in China?. Jasmine loves cucumbers, so I figured we'd give this a try. I put them in a yellow muffin liner.
3. Next is multi-colored toothpicks with grapes. I glued a star onto the orange pick.
4. Corn in another yellow muffin liner. Jasmine knew the picture on top was supposed to be the sun right away. I cannot draw a straight line, so if my pictures ever look strangely slanted, its probably because I put things together crooked and took the picture crooked.
5. Originally I was going to try and draw the earth from space... luckily I gave up on that idea fast. It is supposed to be a picture of a planet with rings in space. Like I said, I cannot draw. Underneath the icing is Kozy Shack's Simplywell pudding in Green Tea Chai. I got these for myself, but Jasmine wanted one a few days ago and actually ate it. Its odd she will eat gelatin, but puddings or custard until she ate this. She still will not eat regular pudding, like vanilla.
6. And last we have apple asteroids covered in cinnamon.

Week Four

2009-11-01T14:18:00.000-08:00

This weeks theme is Eyes and the vocabulary word is iris. I got the picture from an article on Discover Magazine about the genetics of eye color. The vocabulary word spot on our poster is blank because I put it with the image of the eye.

We started the week off slow, there was a lot of wind last weekend, so for Monday and Tuesday Jasmine and I were sneezing a lot.

Monday: We went over the letter "D" and did a capital "D" worksheet from School Express found here. I also printed the lowercase "d," but we did not go over it.

Tuesday: Jasmine colored the diamond from last week with blue glitter. I defrosted some frozen blueberries, I couldn't find any fresh ones. I hung up our blue window cling.

And our blue ice cream scoop.

Wednesday: was the letter "D" craft. Jasmine made an Duck C using the letter "D" and some feathers from No Time For Flash Cards.

We also colored a "D" worksheet that had an upper and lower case "d" with pictures of things that started with "D" from Mommy Nature.com. Here is the worksheet.

Thursday: was number four. We added another fish to the fish bowl. We got ready for Halloween by making a ghost found on The Artful Crafter here. Instead of a CD we used a paper plate and I let Jasmine paint one side white.

Friday: the nursery rhyme for Friday was Lavender's Blue. I got the full rhyme from Wikipedia. I didn't save where I got the image of the lavender from, but a easy search on Google Images will bring something usable up.

Friday was also Halloween Day for us. Nevada Day is also October 31st, but is celebrated on the last Saturday of October, which happened to be Halloween this year. We went trick-or-treating, Jasmine was a pirate. Saturday we went and watched the Nevada Day parade downtown.

Here is a view of our Learning Poster.

For November we have lots of leaves on our calendar.

What we are currently reading:
Jasmine's selection: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

I got this for Jasmine after we did the "C" caterpillar from last week and she seems to really enjoy the book.

My selection: The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer

I borrowed this from the library and have only just started reading it, so I don't have an opinion on it yet.

Week Three

2009-10-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

I know now if we are going to order printer ink online to do it when the printer first starts protesting that it is running out of ink. It took a lot longer to get than I thought it would, about a week and a half. And with my mother visiting we hardly had time to get anything done.

Our travel plans for Thanksgiving got pushed back until the first week of December, and as far as I know we don't have any other plans so hopefully for a few weeks at least we can get back on track.

This weeks theme is Kittens and the vocabulary word is claws, but I changed the theme and the vocabulary work to "Cat," because I think that cat is a reasonably easy three-letter word to spell. I got the picture of the cats from http://a2.vox.com/6a00e398f645e4000500f48d1521a20001-320pi through Google images.

Monday: We went over the letter "C" and did a capital "C" worksheet from School Express found here.

Tuesday: I could not find a diamond activity, so I ended up printing a diamond outline. Later I found shapes and colors window clings at Dollar Tree.

So we will be using those to help Jasmine learn the shapes and colors. They also had a border trim for the shapes with the same pictures as the clings and I cut up one of the trims to use on the Learning Poster.

I also printed out some different colored ice cream scoops from here, and will be using them as we follow the Letter of the Week curriculum.

Wednesday: was the letter "C." Jasmine made an Caterpillar C using the letter "C" and some sparkly pom-poms. I got the idea from No Time For Flash Cards.

We also made a cat with "C"s for its legs and tail, but unfortunately I cannot remember where I found the template for it. I did learn that if a craft needs to be colored and cut that it should be done on separate days.

EDIT: I found the webpage, it is from First-School. And can be found here.

We also colored a "C" worksheet that had an upper and lower case "C" with pictures of things that started with "C" from Mommy Nature.com. Here is the worksheet.

Thursday: was number three. Jasmine can already count to three (and beyond, although she always forgets eight, I don't know why.) So, we continued to count to ten using the number strip. I placed it lower so she can easily reach it.

Friday: the nursery rhyme for Friday was Pussycat, Pussycat. I got the image and rhyme from Mama Lisa, again.

Here is a view of our Learning Poster.

For October we had tons of pumpkins on our calendar.

I also got an alphabet wall border from It's Educational, our local teacher supply store.

I liked how this border had pictures to go along with the letters. It also came with a mini alphabet that I could hang at Jasmine's height.

What we are currently reading:
Jasmine's selection: Where the Wild Things are by Maurice Sendak

Jasmine loves this book. One night during bath time my husband read this to her and it has been non-stop ever since.

My selection: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart

I got the first book because it sounded interesting, and when I finished that one I had to get this one, the second book, right away. I don't know how I'm going to be able to wait for the third book to come out in paperback.

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-10-26T13:51:00.001-07:00

We missed the last two Muffin Tin Mondays, my mother was visiting and we just got so busy that I couldn't really plan anything out.

This weeks theme is Fall Harvest/Halloween. So I used pumpkin muffin liners and pumpkin picks that I got a year ago. Today I just made a snack tray and we have clockwise, apple pieces, cucumber slices, pieces of bread (Jasmine asked for them), and corn.

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-10-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

Today's theme is "All about me."

Top, left to right: Jasmine took her orange juice, vitamins (vitamin C, mulit-vitamin, calcium and Omega-3), olives for her Italian side.
Bottom, left to right: Jell-O, cheese sticks (it is the only cheese like thing I can get her to eat after 3 years of not being able to eat cheese,) and seaweed wrapped rice for her Korean side.

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-09-28T13:53:00.000-07:00

I've joined Muffing Tin Monday.

This week didn't have a theme, so I just put a snack tin together for Jasmine so she could snack throughout the day. I swear I'm not feeding her rabbit food, she actually likes these foods.

We have from left to right on the top row: Orange juice (really half orange juice, half water), goldfish crackers, cucumber spears. Bottom row: carrot sticks (this is a second refill, Jasmine ate them all while I finished putting the rest of the tin together), celery sticks, beans sprouts.

Oops!

2009-09-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

Week 3 will be late, not because we didn't finish, but because I ran out of ink for our printer for one project. The ink is the only think holding us back, we also can't start week 4 because I can't print out the activities.

Our homeschool setup

2009-09-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

I asked some fellow homeschoolers, and did some searches to see how people organize their classrooms and supplies. I thought I would share what I've done for our stuff.

Starting on the left side of our dining area (we have an open floor plan for the kitchen/dining room/living room.)

Here is Jasmine's easel with her project "Caterpillar C," from No Time for Flashcards.

Here are the new days of the week and weather for our calendar.

I put them on the wall between our two windows to keep them out of the way and so Jasmine wouldn't mess them up.

Here is our right-side window. I added some Autumn leaves that I got from Michael's craft store for about $1.49 (I think, I'm not positive on the price,) they have little bits of gold glitter on them.

I ordered some Autumn/Halloween/Christmas crafts from Oriental Trading Company so we will be adding to this window and maybe the left-side window. I maybe rearrange this window because Jasmine's easel sits in front of the left-side window, making it impossible to see the window.

I lowered Jasmine's Learning Poster so I could fit this number poster where she could reach it. For some reason Jasmine has decided to skip 3 and 8 in her counting, even though she previously counted 3, but never 8.

I got this five drawer unit from Wal-Mart. I wish one of the two bottom draws had been file folder size, that would have made it perfect.

In the bottom drawer I put our large packages of craft supplies, crinkle grass and multi-color feathers.

In the second large drawer I put our paint supplies and glue.

There should be some dot-to-dot paint dabbers, but they were on the easel to use on the caterpillar.

In the bottom small drawer I put all of our scrapes, paper and felt.

The middle small drawer holds my glue gun, glitter glue, paint wheel and paints that Jasmine isn't ready to use.

The top small drawer has triangle crayons, jumbo crayons and word strips that I use for Jasmine's Learning Poster.

Underneath that is two packages of pipe cleaners (one white and the other multi-colored,) glue gel pens, goggly eyes, more word strips and some cheap paint brushes.

I got this file folder crate from Wal-Mart.

It holds 26 pocket folders, in rainbow colors also from Wal-Mart, for Jasmine's Letter of the Week work.

I keep the print-outs and instructions on one side, and finished crafts on the other.

I also made seasonal folders.

Most of the crafts I ordered from Oriental Trading came in sets of 12. I figured we could do 6 this year and I will put the extras in the folders to save for next year. I also plan on making folders for holidays (e.g. Halloween) since I did get separate crafts for Autumn and Halloween, Winter and Christmas.

Ballet update

2009-09-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

So, this weeks ballet class was bad. Not as bad as the first week, but Jasmine was totally not interested. I am going to admit defeat. We are pulling her out of the class and will try again in a year.

Swim class is starting next week and that class is easier if she isn't interested, she can walk the ledge in the water if she doesn't want to participate in the class. Working against the water is good exercise for her legs.

Back home

2009-09-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

Well, we didn't get any school work done. I'm not surprised, and I know you aren't either. We got to Kentucky late Monday night, and I was sick all of Tuesday. I slept all day. We were busy the other days and didn't get any school work done, so we are doing it this week and I'll try to get the post up this weekend.

Taking a small vacation

2009-09-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

This week dance went better. I told the teacher about Jasmine's hypotonia, so the teacher understands why Jasmine can't hop (Jasmine only just learned how to jump in July.) I think the homeschool co-op's preschool has also helped Jasmine pay attention better and to follow directions better. Unfortunately we are leaving tomorrow, Monday, to visit family in Kentucky, so Jasmine will miss next week's ballet and preschool class. Hopefully, when we get back she will remember though and not have a disastrous week at ballet again.

I am going to take our Letter of the Week things with us, and hopefully (I use that word a lot) we will have finished week three by the time we get back and I'll have a new post for it.

What we are currently reading:
Jasmine's selection: Hippos go Berserk by Sandra Boynton

This is one of the few books that Jasmine will actually let me read to her. Her other books she will flip through the pages, but she wants to turn the pages, and normally in the wrong order, without any time for me to read the words.

My selection: What Happens in London by Julia Quinn

I don't normally read romance novels, but my husband left for Nashville, TN on the 10th and I have had trouble sleeping. Reading a chapter or two of a romance novel helps so down my brain so I can get to sleep more easily.

Week Two

2009-09-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

This weeks theme is Jungle, but I changed it to Monkey because I don't think Jasmine would have grasped the concept.

Monday: I tried to get Jasmine to pretend to be a monkey, but it ended up being a tickle fest. That's okay. I unfortunately do not remember where I got the image of the monkeys from for this week.

Tuesday: we took the square from last week and covered it with two different green glitter glues. Jasmine already know the word "green" from her green foam soap that we use at bath time.

Wednesday: was the letter "B." Jasmine made an Bee B using the letter "B" and some glitter glue. I got the idea from No Time For Flash Cards.

We also colored a "B" worksheet that had an upper and lower case "B" with pictures of things that started with "B" from Mommy Nature.com. Here is the worksheet.

Thursday: was number two. We added another fish to our fish bowl and counted out our food.

Friday: the nursery rhyme for Friday was I Had a Little Nut Tree. I printed out a picture and rhyme from Mama Lisa, but I also added A Little Nut-Tree by Roald Dahl.

Here is a view of our Learning Poster.

I had to recreate this, we went on vacation to Las Vegas for 4th of July weekend and while we were gone the paper fell off the wall. I didn't pick it up quickly enough when we got back home and Jasmine drew all over it. Right now it is a bit wonky, the words are all crooked, but I think I'm going to leave it that away until I need to do it over again. If you look really really hard you will see Jasmine has already drawn over a bit of it.

I also recently got new items for our calendar. We now have a section that tells us what today is, and what day it will be tomorrow, and what the weather is like. There is also new months that have photos instead of cartoons. Also there are holiday dates now that are photos (e.g. Labor Day is a construction worker with an American Flag background.) I don't know why, but I like photos better than cartoons, I think some times cartoons are still too abstract for Jasmine to understand.

Week One

2009-09-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this post has been sitting in saved drafts since May 15th! I am so bad. :(

So, we've just finished our first "week" of scheduled homeschooling. Why is "week" in quotes? Well, it took us longer than a week to finish. Jasmine got sick towards the beginning of the week, Monday night, so we didn't finish until this week (that would be the week of May 15th.)

A couple of weeks ago I discovered Brightly Beaming Resources. I can't remember how I found it, but it took me a couple of days to look through the website. I wish I had discovered it before. It is great! And I'm not saying that lightly. I have been looking for some sort of guide to use with homeschooling before Jasmine was born.

The curriculum starts at three months old and goes up to eleven years of age. For those of you that are secular homeschooling, like we are, the infant and toddler sections have bible verses, but they are very easy to leave out and don't interfere with other things being taught.

There are also sections that are not complete, weeks 22-36 under Sound of the Week, Story of the Week only has one lesson, Science of the Week only has plans for 7 of the 80 books listed, (but it gives good ideas what to do when you get to that stage), only 3 of the Country of the Week (which can be used with the letter of the week) are done.

So, we started with "Steps to Reading" for ages 2-7 years old. We did week one of the "Preparatory Curriculum," (found here.)

Each week has a theme, week one's theme is cows and here is an example of the "Learning Poster" that you can build for/with your child covering the weeks ideas and activities.

Monday: I showed Jasmine pictures of cows and we practiced a bit of mooing. We read few board books that had cows in them. I printed out this image of a cow and calf for our poster.

Tuesday: the shape was square, and we ate a few square foods, like crackers and cookies.

Wednesday: was the letter "A." Jasmine made an Alien A using the letter "A" and some water colors. I got the idea from No Time For Flash Cards.

We also colored an "A" worksheet that had an upper and lower case "A" with pictures of things that started with "A" from Mommy Nature.com. Here is the worksheet.

Thursday: was number one. I found Five Fish in a Fishbowl from First-School. I colored it with crayons, and we will add a fish a week.

Friday: the nursery rhyme for Friday was Hey Diddle Diddle. I printed out a .pdf from Laura B. Smolkin, found here.

Here is a view of our Learning Poster, sorry it is so blurry.

And a picture of our bulletin board,

I do think this is a good series, but I think if we do it again I will change the themes to fit the letter we are studying that week (i.e. A is for Astronaut or something like that.)

We did week two in early July, hopefully I will post it quicker than it took me to do week one.

Doing better

2009-09-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a much better day. I was so worried about the co-op since ballet didn't go well yesterday, but Jasmine had a good time today and followed some directions. I left her in the class alone, but I peeked in the room a few times. And no one asked or talked about religion, which was a relief to me. We were supposed to go to a lunch gathering for the co-op, but I had to call out of it. Maybe with the preschool Jasmine will calm down a little for ballet.

Ballet update

2009-09-02T18:32:00.000-07:00

So, ballet wasn't a complete disaster, but it was close. When I called to register I made sure to ask the teacher if 3 years-old was okay and she assured me that it was. Jasmine was the youngest in the class by a year, and the other girls had all taken classes before. Jasmine just wanted to dance, get up, run, jump and move around. She wouldn't sit or follow directions, she was too excited. We are paid up for the month (and they owe me money, as I over paid), so we'll give it a few more tries, but I don't think she'll be continuing, she just isn't ready to stay still for that long.

I admit I'm kind of disappointed, but I'm really trying not to be. I don't want to be the crazy dance/cheerleader/pageant mom. I really think that Jasmine will like ballet, or some other formal form of dance, eventually. She loves to dance around the living room all the time.

I guess part of me is disappointed, because I took ballet and I wanted Jasmine to like ballet.

So, trying not to be disappointed, but I'm stressed out. I was already stressed out about the co-op tomorrow, but I am even more so now, because what if Jasmine has to sit down there too, and what if she doesn't follow directions?

Time yet again for another brief update

2009-08-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

I have three posts waiting to be finished, but for some reason I can't seem to get motivated.

9/1/09 I knew I should have posted this right away. :\

We had to quit the art class because they changed the day it was on from Monday to Thursday and we already have some planned for Thursdays. Jasmine starts pre-ballet class tomorrow. I hope that she likes it, she really likes dancing around the house.

Our big news for Thursday is that Jasmine will be attending a one hour co-op preschool class. I'm really nervous about this because the co-op is named "Faith Co-op." It is very Christian, and we are not. I don't want to lie and say that we are Christian, but I also don't want to be preached at. I'm there to see if Jasmine will make any friends mainly, if she does that's good, but if she doesn't that's okay too.

I little later in the month we will be continuing with story time at the library and swim lessons at the community center.

I read this quote, hilarious, but I don't know where it is from, hence the lack of source:

“When my wife and I mention we are strongly considering homeschooling our children, we are without fail asked, ‘But what about socialization?’ Fortunately, we found a way our kids can receive the same socialization that government schools provide. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I will personally corner my son in the bathroom, give him a wedgie and take his lunch money. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, my wife will make sure to tease our children for not being in the ‘in’ crowd, taking special care to poke fun at any physical abnormalities. Fridays will be ‘Fad and Peer Pressure Day.’ We will all compete to see who has the coolest toys, the most expensive clothes, and the loudest, fastest, and most dangerous car. Every day, my wife and I will adhere to a routine of cursing and swearing in the hall and mentioning our weekend exploits with alcohol and immorality…. And we have asked them to report us to the authorities in the event we mention faith, religion, or try to bring up morals and values.”

What we are currently reading:
Jasmine's selection: We Love Ballet by Jane Feldman

I realized I never wrote any reviews for any of the books we are reading. I've been reading this book to Jasmine because she is starting class tomorrow. I'm not quite sure that she understands, plus she likes grabbing books away from me and flipping through the book herself.

My selection: The Silver Needle Murder by Laura Childs

I think I read this series mostly for the description of the teas and foods. Plus, there are recipes for the foods in the back!

What would you do?

2009-05-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

AH! I've had this post sitting in draft for about a month now, but when I came back to finish it I see that almost half of what I wrote is gone. I've recreated part of the post, but I know that I can't remember a lot of it, so if it seems jumbled I am sorry.

There is something that I have been mulling over in my head for a while and I just need to write it down and think about it some more.

Around the middle of February Impact co-op was registering children for their Spring classes. I saw that they have a Nursery class, infants to 2 years-old the preschool class doesn't start until 3 years-old. This class doesn't cost any money, unlike the preschool class. I volunteered to help in this class, to watch and make sure Jasmine was okay with the class, but to also meet other parents who were going to/are homeschooling there children. I got this e-mail in reply...

"You signed up Jasmine for the nursery on Wednesdays at the co-op. I am sorry to tell you that we do not open nursery up for families that do not have other children taking classes at the co-op. This is available strictly as a convenience for our families while their older children are in classes.

However, we will be more than happy to see you in a couple of years when Jasmine reaches preschool/kindergarten age."

The wording of this sentence really bothers me, "This is available strictly as a convenience for our families while their older children are in classes."

It bothers me because it implies that we, me, Jasmine and my husband, are not a homeschooling family because Jasmine is not old enough to go to the co-op's preschool. I hate that. I hate that I am dismissed from homeschooling in this woman's mind as a homeschooler because Jasmine is not old enough for me to have to worry about filling out a letter of intent to homeschool.

Honestly? It makes me not want to spend any money at Impact co-op. Eagle co-op is closer to us and so far, has been much more friendly to us. I hope someone who does attend Impact co-op sees this and mentions it to the woman who wrote the e-mail. If she sees it, I hope that she actually thinks about what she is writing.

The wording really irritates me, but am I putting way too much thought into this? What are your honest opinions please?

Just a note, your opinions won't change what I do, my thinking maybe, and I have been reading a lot of articles on discrimination, which may be effecting my thinking.

We were in Virgina

2009-04-25T14:52:00.000-07:00

There are tons of things that I need to write about, and hopefully I will remember them all. (It was April 18th when I started writing this post, but the internet at the hotel we were staying at kept dropping out, so I wasn't able to post until now.)

Jasmine and I have been in Virgina since the 9th of this month. We joined my husband in Hopewell, VA. My husband is going to a school at Fort Lee and we thought that we'd have time to see the area and explore, but it has not been so. Until today I have been taking 24-hour Claritin twice a day and Benadryl-D every four hours. It has not been fun and poor Jasmine has been mostly stuck inside watching T.V.

Today we went to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens in Richmond, VA. (http://www.lewisginter.org/) It was very lovely. We spent most of our time in the Children's Garden. I had heard on an advert that there was a butterfly exhibit, Jasmine really likes butterflies right now, but unfortunately that doesn't start until May 22nd and we leave this Wednesday.

Tomorrow we are going to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA. (http://www.buschgardens.com) We will probably spend a lot of time in the Sesame Street area, hopefully Jasmine will like it, although even if she doesn't it is a one-time free deal (http://www.herossalute.com) And hopefully the weather will cooperate and be nice too.
EDIT: Jasmine loved the water park at the Sesame Street area, and about $25 later we now have a new swimsuit and towel (we had both before, we just have more now.) If I had known they had this kind of area I would have just brought her swimsuit (it was in our suitcase) and a towel from the hotel with us. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day and the water wasn't warm, so she mostly stood with her hands in the water and shivered. She was pretty good about leaving the water, even though she didn't want to. We were kind of worried about if she would have a good time, we started out later than we should have and she was getting cranky about such a long car ride (over an hour), but refused to go to sleep. We thought we might have to just turn around a leave, but she pulled through. She rode with her daddy on Oscar's Whirly Worms and really seemed to enjoy it swinging back and forth and spinning. She was a real trooper about walking through a lot of the park and fell asleep as soon as we got into the car.

Tuesday Jasmine and I met a friend and his wife for lunch at Weezie's Kitchen for lunch. (http://www.weezieskitchen.com/) I don't think we ordered anything crazy, but the wait for our food was long, and the resturant wasn't crowded. I had the Portabella Melt, it was very good, but I would hate to see the wait for food when the place is busy.

Afterward we went to Maymont Park. They had tanks of fish, turtles and otters. I think some of the fish scared Jasmine, there were at least 2 that were as big as her. Then we walked some of the trails and saw loads of wildflowers, a Scottish bull, Gray Foxes, hawks, Bald Eagles and a bear. Jasmine did really good with the walking again, but got tired and had to be carried most of the way back and we didn't really see that much of the park, maybe an eighth of it.

So the best part of our trip was at the end of it. Oh, yeah I got to drive in a thunderstorm with hail while a tornado waring was going off. Good times (that's sarcasm in case you don't know.

I signed Jasmine up for some art classes at VSA arts of Nevada. (http://www.vsanevada.org) She will be attending both summer sessions of Start with the Arts. It is on Mondays from 9-10AM, which means my husband will be able to take her some times (he has every other Monday off, but he isn't an early riser, if given the opportunity he'd stay in bed until evening.) I wish I would have known about theses classes a long time ago. The Start with the Arts class is for 18 months to 3 years and Jasmine will be 3 years-old at the end of August. I was able to find an art smock for Jasmine while we were in Richmond, I was looking for one because I didn't see any of the children on the website wearing any and Jasmine has grown recently so none of her clothes are old or stained yet.

Jasmine should be starting pre-ballet dance classes this fall at Western Nevada Performing Arts Center. (http://www.westernnevadaperformingarts.com) This is supposed to be the best dance studio in our area. She really loves to dance when music is playing on the television or radio, so I am really hoping that she will like this class, but I am kind of worried because she tends to be shy around new people and new situations. Which unfortunately means that it will take her a few minutes (about 10-20 minutes) each week to warm up to the people in the class as it would be a new situation to her each time we go. But hopefully with starting the art class first the dance class won't seem so intimidating. Another reason I like this studio is they have this statement on their rules page,

"This studio does not agree with young children performing in mature dance routines. We want strong technique first and foremost.
There are plenty of dance studios around that will put your young child in routines that we believe are too mature in nature and content. You are welcome to take your child somewhere else if you do not agree with our philosophies."

As a mother to a daughter I really appreciate this philosophy. There is too much sexualization of young girls in the media as it is. I'm sure that Jasmine will see it eventually, on television, in a movie, in cartoons, in an advert, whatever, but she doesn't need it in her dance class.

What we are currently reading:
Jasmine's selection: Meet Blueberry Muffin by Silje Swendsen

My selection: Pandora gets Jealous by Carolyn Hennesy

Hello again.

2009-02-18T14:56:00.000-08:00

Well, we have and haven't been busy. The Carson City Moms Club that Jasmine and I were attending seems to have taken a mid-winter hiatus (something that I am not happy with,) but, we have started swim lesssons again on Wednesday nights.

I also discovered that NNHS runs Eagle co-op, and that they have a one hour preschool class on Thursdays in Reno. Here is the description...

"This class will have a relaxed schedule of art activities, stories, outdoor and indoor free play and snack time."

I'm kind of excited to discover it, but also kind of wary. 1.) it is held in a church. 2.) there are bible quotes on the Eagle co-op website.

We missed the deadline to sign-up for this session any way and the next session doesn't start until the end of May, so I joined the NNHS's e-mail list. I think that will help relieve some of my worry about religion being stressed at the preschool level.

My husband and I have always wanted to allow Jasmine, and any other kids we may have, the opportunity to explore religion on their own, without forcing any doctrine on them previously. Because we have so many different religions, philosophies and ideas about spirituality in our family it just seems like it would be easier to wait until Jasmine understands the ideas before encouraging her to choose something herself. This doesn't mean that we won't be teaching to be respectful of all faiths, so if her preschool class, as an example, has prayer before the class starts I want her to be respectful and stay quite during the prayer, I don't however want her to participate in the prayer. Of course we are getting a head of ourselves and I just need to wait and see.

Impact co-op also has a preschool class, on Wednesdays, but it doesn't start until age 3. So, I might use the Eagle co-op to see how Jasmine does, and then add the Impact co-op if she does well. The only problem with the Impact one is that it is in Sparks, even farther than Reno, and I already consider Reno far to drive.

Eh, I think I'm just rambling at this point.

What we are currently reading:
Jasmine's selection: Strawberry Shortcake's World of Friends by Megan E. Bryant

My selection: May Bird and the Ever After by Jodi Lynn Anderson

We are still here.

2009-01-06T14:57:00.000-08:00

I know, I know. I had hoped to post here more often, but I am failing. I have been working on the webpage listing some fantastic links I have collected for home schooling, but yesterday I discovered that my computer (not the one I am working on right how, had at least 10 viruses! Which may explain some of the problems I have been having.

I have updated the layout of this blog, as you will see on the sidebar, to include fact and word of the day calendars, and a useless knowledge bit.

What we are currently reading:
Jasmine's selection: Baby Einstein: Dogs by Julie Aigner-Clark

My selection: Empire from the Ashes by David Weber

After a long absence

2008-10-13T18:19:00.000-07:00

This blog has been neglected, and I'm sorry for that.

Jasmine is two years-old now. She is starting to learn her shapes, she is obsessed with the shape star. She is starting to recognize letters and numbers. Her colors are off and on, she will match the same colors together, but getting her to say and remember colors is kind of off.

I'm planning on putting a guide together of homeschool links that I have collected. And as you can see I've added some homeschooling blogs to the links, and I've added what we are reading. Of course Jasmine isn't reading yet, this is what I'm reading to her.

I also might try my hand at redesigning this blog.

What we are currently reading:
Jasmine's selection: Tara the Tuesday Fairy by Daisy Meadows

My selection: Undead and Unpopular by Mary Janice Davidson

Homeschool links for Northern Nevada

2007-10-15T18:15:00.000-07:00

In Nevada compulsory school is between the ages of 7 to 18 years-old.

Some helpful links about homeschooling...

Nevada Homeschool Network
http://www.nevadahomeschoolnetwork.com/
This website has a lot of useful information about how to start homeschooling in Nevada.

Nevada's Department of Education website on Homeschooling
http://www.nde.state.nv.us/schools/homeschooling.html
This website includes the letter of intent that you need to send to the school district, and the form for if you want your homeschool child to participate in certain programs and activites.

Homeschool World
http://www.home-school.com/groups/NV.html
This particular page on this website lists homeschool groups for Nevada.

Reno Homeschooling
http://www.renohomeschooling.com/
This homeschool group helps support people in Lyon, Douglas, Churchill, Storey, Carson City, and part of Washoe Counties. Their calendar hasn't been updated in years, but their main page was just updated today.

Northern Nevada Homeschools
http://www.nnhs.org/
I cannot tell if this website is related to the Reno Homeschooling website. They both cover the same area and list some of the same activites. There is a $20 fee to join this group, but they seem to offer a lot. Theme kits are available to borrow, programs they run, a newsletter and tips.

Of course we don't homeschool yet, Jasmine is only 13 months-old. So, as I find information I will add more links.

Nevada students test poorly

2007-10-12T18:13:00.000-07:00

News stories like this make me glad that we decided to homeschool our daughter, even though she is only 13 months-old at this time.

Nevada students remain among nation's poorest performers on test
Associated Press
Nevada fourth- and eighth-grade students showed modest improvements overall on a national standardized test, but still lagged behind their peers in other states.

The 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress results, released Tuesday, showed Nevada students remained among the nation's five poorest-performing states.

Nevada fourth-graders showed slight increases in math, receiving an average score of 232, up from 230 in 2005. That was well below the national average of 239. A perfect score is 500 points.

The largest gains were in reading by the state's fourth-graders, who improved the state's average score to 211 from 207. The national average was 220.

The reading scores of Nevada's eighth-graders dipped slightly, from 253 to 252.

About 12,000 students statewide took the exam between January and March.

The exam, also known as the nation's report card, compares student scores from those grades in math and reading with their peers nationwide.

Nevada Schools Superintendent Keith Rheault focused on improvements and said Nevada has challenging student demographics.

"Not all student populations are the same for every state," he said.

Rheault said 23 percent of Nevada's students who took the exam in 2007 were considered deficient in English, up from 17 percent in 2005 and second only to California nationally.

Lower scores are to be expected of Nevada students who are not proficient in English, Rheault said.

Charles Smith, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees NAEP, said the exam lets federal and state officials gauge student achievement.

But the exam does not explain why student scores increase or decrease, Smith said.

Federal officials chose students to take the test based on information provided by the Nevada Department of Education. The sample of students chosen must proportionally represent the demographics of a state.

National scores mirrored Nevada's performance. Elementary and middle school students nationally posted solid improvements in math and modest gains in reading.

The test scores bolstered calls in Congress for renewal of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act with minimal changes.

The 2002 law requires schools to test students annually in math and reading. Schools that miss benchmarks face increasingly tough measures, such as having to replace their curriculum, teachers or principals.

The federal law requires students in all states to participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress. But states use other standardized test results to determine whether schools are failing or passing.

In the beginning...

2007-06-01T18:11:00.000-07:00

Before my daughter, Jasmine, was born my husband and I decided that we would homeschool her, at least until middle school.

Jasmine is nine months old now, so not yet ready for school. But I want to be able to gather information so I can teach her the best way.