Geology/Archaeology: Dino Dig activity in the Workbox

Just a quick peek at a fun workbox we had today.  I found these little kits at the Dollar Tree (there was the dino and one with an Egyptian Sarcophagus) and bought them because I figured they would fit nicely into our geology and archaeology lessons.  I added a few of the tools he'd need [into the box] to bust up the cast as well.  Then whilst I read from his science lesson, he diligently chipped away at the mold to find the wee little dino.

Homeschool Room Tour 2015 Part 3:2 and 3:3 -finally done!

Well folks-after many, many retakes, stalls/stops and a kitty cat that just couldn't stop trying to be the star, I have uploaded the last two sections of the 3rd part of our tour.

Enjoy!

Homeschool Room Tour 2015 Part 3:2

and

Homeschool Room Tour 2015 Part 3:3

and in case you missed the first one:

Homeschool Room Tour 2015 Part 3:1

I have two other posts noting the geography wall and the basic pan around intro video too!

Homeschool Room Tour Part 3:1

OK right now I have the first part of the 3rd installment loaded.  This covers the area with the information center, nature study box and a few other things.  I had to split the video because it was too long.  I hope to get the second part loaded soon.

Homeschool Room Tour 2015 Part 3:1

Video Tour of our Classroom Part 1 and 2

I have been a bit MIA of late and I apologize for that.  Right now I am going to continue blogging on occasion and see where it takes me.  Part of my goal is to try to reclaim my fellow bloggie pals who came by frequently by adding in some new dynamics [meaning room tours/closer look videos] to help spice things up.

SO, I thought it would be fun to do a homeschool room video tour first (insert grimace-fun?  I do about a zillion takes before I can get one I have to be OK with-so I film like for three hours to get a measly 5 min. video!  LOL So please-be kind-I am trying here.  A videographer I am not)...anyhoo-I tried to do this last summer and it just got too busy and crazy to finish it.  I am back at it and so here you go...part 1 and 2.

Start with the basic overview then go to the second one for a closer look at our geography center. Since I have all these things detailed in posts on my two blogs, I chose to not go in depth about them.
Be sure to look on my Homeschooling on a Wing and a Prayer Blog for posts regarding the things I talk about because they are not all on this one. I'm working on the workbox video now, but of course right in the middle of filming it stopped because there was no more room (had to delete all those out takes)...so I am recharging my phone and will try to get that up soon tho.

Homeschool Room Tour 2015 Part 1

Part 2 of the Homeschool Tour 2015-Geography Center

Thoughts on Blogging-Part One

Here is a straight from my heart post. This is not a boo-hoo poor me thing, but a truly honest take on what has been stirring within me for a long time. I sense I am not alone.  I bet many bloggers out there feel exactly like I have/do/will. When do you call it quits? What's the point anyway?  I mean, really. 

Seriously. There are those shiny blogs out there that you know are very popular and they do offer oodles of ideas and resources.  Thank God for them.  I have gone there many a time to get new inspiration or ideas to help me carry on. But what about my blogs?  If I go by traffic (I am betting many hits are just spam) then I would have to say I am definitely not in that category.  The real kicker here is that I am not even sure I want to be.  It's work.  They must continually maintain and keep on top of it to be that successful. Do I even want that responsibility?  What about the posts I pen?  Are they just junk to the reader?  Useless? Are they even remotely helpful? 

Honestly-I can't answer that.  

I truly decided I was done blogging. It's true.  Done. I lost the love of it and I didn't see any reason to continue.  Hence the lack of postings over the last year or so.  It has been on my mind (letting it go) for a long time now. I felt like I put a lot of effort into what I was writing/creating and had very little response/traffic to justify the time involved.  Why write when no one is even reading it? So I did very little to maintain it and just let it sit there as it begged me to put it out of it's misery.  

I mean, did anyone really care?  Was I helping fellow moms/homeschoolers or was I just taking time away better spent with my family?  Frankly, it was the latter not the former of that question that hit me like a big pizza pie in the eye.  I was blogging for not.  Now, I know people have lives, so cruising the internet for this or that isn't always possible.  But I also know many gals do have successful blogs that truly are a help-that get readership and have loyal fans.  They exist and thrive. They are blessings.  

I didn't (and still am unclear here) feel mine were much help. And that is the cold hard truth that has literally kept me awake at times-pondering...

Do I just let it go?  

I have prayed about it.  I have even shed a tear or two about it. 

I have let it sit so as not to make any rash decisions. 

Then I had a talk with myself.

I have been a mom now for almost 27 years, have cared for children since before I was 13, I have an Early Childhood Development degree, have worked at a Montessori school, had home day cares, taught Sunday School, researched the snot out of different homeschool methods, curriculum and so forth, wrote reviews on curriculum for four years, helped with homeschool groups, ran a homeschool co-op for a time, plus I have done home preschool through high school graduation with my children for over 25 years. Surely I have some insight, some useful nugget of hope or help that can inspire or encourage someone out there.  I know I have, I have comments attesting to it.  But is that enough?

Our lives are different now from whence I started blogging. Three of our children have graduated. Two have earned college degrees, moved out and gone on to be successfully employed adults. So yes,  to all those doubters, they are able to live -no thrive- in the real world.  One is currently working (while still living at home to save for future expenses) and will be attending college down the road. The baby of the family is our lone student. The dynamics are different. Homeschooling one vs four is a big change.  It's definitely a "horse of a different color" from our humble beginnings. Do I have anything new, update and hip to offer?  Or is it all the same regurgitated stuff penned on a different day?  Is there enough in me to want to continue? Want to keep coming up with different ideas or projects? 

For five people to read in five minutes? I don't know-I truly don't. And here I am-standing in some vast wasteland of doubt with discouragement bombs raining down with hurricane force. Do I truly want to make that [dedicated, intense and committed] walk across this land to save my blogs or grab a shovel and bury it quickly.  Very, very quickly and move on along down the road?

Right now, I have decided to wait it out. I will continue to pray to see what comes about. I guess, all five of you out there who may read this-you too will have to wait too to see what becomes of this. The 'to save or not to save my blogging career' will not be made lightly-but it's become abundantly clear I need to get off the fence and go in one direction.    

Continent Box: Asia link

Another continent (Asia) post is up on my main blog:  Homeschooling on a Wing and a Prayer.  You can read about the goodies we have in our box and I have also included some links to other resources for you.  Again-putting a "Continent Box" card in the workbox with a timer is a great way to implement the two.

It's been a very rough beginning to the new year

Right now, I can barely pen this.  I am doing my best to keep sane, not break down or forgo everything.  That said, I am trying to regain some sense of 'normal' around here, and one of those is to write a blog post or two.  I am working on our Asia Continent Box and the Van Gogh artist study one now, but need a few things to finish it before I can publish it.  Hopefully, I can get those done soonish. It will be posted on my main blog-Homeschooling on a Wing and a Prayer but I wanted to come here and let you all know what's been going on.

For those who do not follow me on FB-earlier in Jan. my dear brother passed away. He was only 46.   If it weren't for the strength of the Lord and all the prayer warriors out there, I doubt I would have been able to get through it.  It has been very hard for my parents, and especially for his two boys who are only 17 and 7.  This is going to be a very long road for all of us. And if that was not enough to blow our lives out of the water, my husband's mother fell prior to our going out of the country in November (still want to blog about that) so since then we have been trying to help care for her as well.  Since she is 81, her recovery has been slow.  Even though (thankfully) she didn't break anything (her should took the brunt of it) she did damage the ligaments, and it took a huge emotional toll on her. She is looking into assisted living nearby but until then my hubby and his sisters have been sharing the responsibility to make sure she is OK.  So then imagine being jet lagged and 6 hours off on time and being home only a few days prior to Thanksgiving.  We saw my brother then, and knew it wasn't good.  He was admitted to the hospital two weeks later.  Then three terrible weeks crawled by, and let me tell you there was not much Christmas spirit around here. Then on Jan. 8th he passed away. It was the longest stretch of hell I have ever experienced.  To add to this-a week prior to that, my friend's mother died.  Then just as we were starting to regain some footing a local family lost their 4 yr old son suddenly (he had special needs but this was unexpected) just a day later, my husband's good friend's dad suddenly died.  I say-ENOUGH!  This is just too much.  The sadness and loss is immense around here.  I forgot to add that my husband had some suspicious skin lesions removed.  During all of this chaos.  We found out just a week after the funeral that one was basal cell carcinoma.  So that means he will need to see a surgeon to get it completely removed, thankfully-the type of surgery he will receive is usually 99% successful in removing it.  That is coming up in March.
**I came back to add that ditty on my hubby-and while I type this, I am nursing a lovely mini-sprain I got today while leaving the library. I was just walking normal like and because the parking lot had grooves/crevices from age, it caught my left ankle...the very one I broke just a couple years ago.  I am praying it is just a few days of minor swelling and pain.  I can only laugh because otherwise I do believe I would start crying and never stop.  So much for a great beginning to the new year.  I pray the middle and end of it is awesome instead of crappy like these past few weeks.

Schooling has been minimal but I have managed to get a few subjects taught per day.  I have difficulty keeping thoughts in my head longer than a few minutes, so even the idea of workboxing (which I am sure would make my life easier in the long run) have fallen to the wayside.  Since the boy is a teen, I don't have to be so concerned since he can follow verbal instructions-well when I can get him to sit still long enough.  Did I mention that I really don't have a human child but an overgrown hummingbird for a kid?  He is a tough one to pin down.  Anyway-that is where we are at.

Please keep us, my parents/2 other brothers, my nephews, my mother in law (Lu), my friend and her family (Nancy), the Kroll family (adopted, they are a Reece's Rainbow family) and our friend John and his family in your prayers.  We all desperately need them.  Thanks

Continent Boxes: Australia and Antarctica

I have a few new posts up on my main blog regarding our Continent Boxes for Australia and Antarctica.  Meant to provide a fun, hands-on way to explore different cultures, these boxes hold a variety of goodies that reflect the animals, food, currency and items one could find there.

To use the workbox for this, simply place a card in the box instructing the student to go through it.  Oh, and possibly a timer because we all know how a child can get lost in an activity like this.  If you have a worksheet that may go along with it, then you could toss that into it as well. I made the card to the left here, but have not uploaded it anywhere so my readers can print it.  I haven't done that in a while, so once I have time to dust off the cobwebs of my mind-I will do that. More than likely I won't be able to get to that until sometime in December tho.  I have a lot of stuff coming up and very little time.  Anyhoo- you can visit my blog to read up on what I have in ours, and take a look at the Aboriginal painting project we did.  It was simple, not too spency and fun!

 Australia/Oceania Continent Box

 Antarctica Continent Box

Aboriginal Painting Project

New posts about our Geography Center/Shelf and mapping supplies

To save myself some time, I simply linking some new posts here. I have a couple new ones up on my main blog about our Geography Shelf (puzzle box holder) and on some of the materials we are using to cover our World Geography mapping, etc.

The Mapping the World by Heart folder, along with everything he needs to complete his current work goes into his workbox.  I simply fill it with the supplies as needed.  He is older so I don't need to write too many lengthy notes, he pretty much knows that is what he will have to do until the current continent is completed.  A  'go to the geo shelf'  or  'work on....'  note can also be placed in the workbox to add in hands-on activities as well. We've assigned box #3 for the Geo study for the year. Usually I rotate subjects in the boxes but have found that having him do the map/geo work earlier is better.  He gets too distracted as the day goes on so it is staying in box 3 for this year.

Anyhoo-here are the links.  

 Geography Unit: Mapping the World by Heart

Geography Shelf: Ikea Puzzle Box

Working on classroom area and projects

I have not been posting much mainly because I haven't done anything earth shattering.  But I have been working behind the scenes on rearranging our classroom area, reorganizing/setting up the workboxes a tad differently, as well as the usual decluttering/cleaning out the area purge.  

I needed to get our classroom area under control and I am almost there.  I hope to be done in time to post for the Not-Back-To-School blog hop and I also want to do a video tour of our room/stuff for those who enjoy a more realistic peek into homeschool rooms.  Hopefully, I will have that done soon.  But with all the summer activities and such-I dunno.  I am trying tho.

I did find a scrapbook page that I liked enough to put onto our Geography Box so that is just about complete (outside of new hinges and velcro dots for the maps to adhere to) so I am totally geeked about that.  I am working to put together continent boxes which has been a lot of research and looking for goodies to go in them.  I will be working on Australia first since that ties into our SL history this coming fall.  I have a lot to do still but hope to get a lot done when I am up north with my pal during our annual scrapbooking/crafting weekend getaway.

That is about all that is new around here.  Look for new posts coming in August.  Til then, enjoy your summer!