teaching

Printable Character Chart

March 27, 2013 By Valerie Mcclintick 15 Comments

Character.It is sooooooo hard to teach.

Harder then math. Harder then science.
Definitely harder then P.E.

Character is on my TOP list of reasons why I homeschool.
Character is a teach by example sort of subject.

(ouch)

Can I just say without any reserve that the Character has been lacking around here lately.

(yes….I do realize what I’m admitting to here.)

And more honestly,
our house has turned upside down with more Negative then Positive reinforcement lately.

Obviously, that is not going to work for very long.

So in an effort to turn things on the positive,
I made these little Character Charts:

I put the children’s names on them, and then surrounded them with positive behaviors
and virtues that (I’m hoping) we will see through out the week.

HOW IT WORKS:
The charts will hang up in the classroom where everyone has access to them.
They are meant to be colored in, one letter at a time,
when the child displays that positive character trait.

So anytime anyone sees Charlie being peaceful they would color
in one letter of the word peaceful.
Make sense?

RULES:
You can’t fill in your own letters
You can’t persuade anyone to fill in a letter for you.
Try your best to SECRETLY fill in a letter for others, don’t let them see you!

Younger Siblings Rule:
When you catch the babies/tot doing good, PRAISE, PRAISE, PRAISE them by naming the character trait and walking them over to fill in the letter.

I’m hoping my children will get excited to see the new colored in letters each day.
Maybe discussions of, “Hmmm, I wonder what I got that being peaceful letter for?”
or “Boy, I don’t have any helpful letters….”

I’m sure by the end of the month we will all know what character traits we are struggling with.

Even Mommy.

Yup. Giving myself the letter “b” for that move.

Wish me luck!

Click Here If you want to make your own Character Chart
The font I used is called Flick Bold Hollow

Our Homeschool Classroom

August 12, 2012 By Valerie Mcclintick 14 Comments

It’s week 2 of the Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop,
and that means Homeschool Classroom photos!

Yippy!

I love going through all the different posts for new ideas,
but if I’m not careful sometimes I get Homeschool Classroom envy.

(it’s a real disease)

For me, it’s easy to go from inspired to discouraged if my ideas
don’t pan out the way I had them figured out in my head.

To add to the matter,
We don’t exactly have a separate classroom.
We school out of our dining room,
which means I have to be creative about decorating.

Currently our “classroom” is a work in progress.
I’m starting with a very blank slate and slowly adding too it.

So here are the bones we’re working with:

We’ve got our dining table which serves as our main teaching area.

It’s hard to see, but in the back I have a small white board.
I’d like something larger, but again I don’t want my dining area too “cubicle”
Maybe I’ll get lucky and be chosen to review a Hidden Whiteboard
HINT HINT

*ahem*

A desk area for computer time and for educational videos.

I’ve got a world map, and a U.S. map on either side of the window.
I love having these maps on the wall,
but I’m thinking of getting something a bit more “old world” looking and then framing them.
I will totally share if I ever get around to doing this…

A corner cabinet to store our Notebooking binders.

Storage Drawers in what is supposed to be a pantry.
These drawers are just around the corner and hold the children’s textbooks and everything else.
I have a few drawers to myself to store teaching workbooks and supplies.
(You can tell it’s REALLY organized….. *snicker*)

My favorite part of our classroom are these shadow box displays.
These turned out to be a great way to showcase my children’s artwork
(keeping it OFF my fridge)
and they look wonderful in the dining area.

So there it is! That’s where you’ll find us all year long :)
It will NEVER be as clean as it is now
until it’s time for next year’s post ;)

I’m hoping that by next year I’ll have some really cool “Dining/Classroom” decorations up!

And to ensure I haven’t elicited any feelings of homeschool envy,

Here is a shot from the other side of the room…
where you can see that my couch is loaded with laundry.
Clean laundry….but nevertheless…

This is essentially how it stays year round.
If you ever came to my house and my couch wasn’t covered in laundry,
DO NOT BE DECEIVED!

I have either moved it all to my bed,
or payed the children a ridiculous amount of money to make it disappear.

Such is the life of a blogging homeschooler.

Read about our 2012 Homeschool Curriculum Here.

Teaching Children to Follow Directions

July 19, 2012 By Valerie Mcclintick 2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago we got a Super Duper package in the mail!

It contained something I was really looking forward to,
somthing that could only come from a Super Duper Store.

Isn’t is marvelous?

HearBuilder Following Directions CD ROM
Created by by Susie S Loraine, M.A., CCC-SLP and
Mark Strait, M.Ed., CCC-SLP

This fun and intereactive software will teach your child to
follow increasingly difficult directions using 40 basic concepts in five areas:

Basic Directions
Sequential Directions
Quantitative & Spatial Directions
Temporal Directions
Conditional Directions

Before recieveing this product to review,
I had never heard of such a product!
(You can be sure that I would have ordered it much sooner if I had)

You see I have one particular child who can really take advantage of this program.

Getting real for a moment here:
I have a boy that struggles so badly with listening
that I literally had his hearing checked.

Long story short:

He hears fine.

He just listens poorly.

You can imagine the problems this creates with three other children and a homeschool agenda.

So, I was almost giddy tearing open the package, and loading up the game.

This little child also LOVES his computer time,
so this was akin to giving him candy and ice cream for breakfast.

He kept saying, “Thanks Mom!” over and over through out the lesson.
(yes, he was talking during his lesson….hence the need for the software)

The main goal of the game is to build toys.

But you can’t build toys without tools.

And you have to earn your tools baby.

You earn a tool by listening to the directions and acting them out correctly.

Directions are based on the five concept areas I listed above.

To begin with he was told, “Click on the small boat under the car”
As the game progressed, the directions became increasingly harder;

“First, set the size to small. Second, set the temperature to hot.
Third, set the shape to square. Then, set the color to blue, and press start.”

You cannot start following the directions until all of the directions have been said.

The boy HAD TO STOP TALKING in order to get them correct.

He struggled at this point. He was not happy to get the questions wrong.
But instead of reverting to frustration, he became all the more determined
to earn his tool.

He went silent and really focused.
(I knew he had it in him)
The incentive to listen was great enough to override all the other
distractions going through his 6 year old ADHD brain.

And I hovered over him the entire time, congratulating him with each success.

After his lesson time was over he literally beamed with pride
at accomplishing something he knew was difficult for him.

And also, because his worn out mother has so often ~~yelled~~ said,
“You need to listen dear boy” and here he was being rewarded for such
a good job listening.

Pros:

-My favorite part about his program is that the directions are auditory.
I feel my son needs the most work in this area and that progress will help our homeschool experience immensely.
-Can be used with multiple children, up to four and game progress is saved.
-Classroom size program is also available. (also compatible with SMARTBoard)
-No subscription, you get an actual CD-Rom that you can keep forever.

Here are some other features that you as the parent can set:
-Set levels of difficulty for each activity
-Identify and print learning objectives for all levels
-Add background noise at any level (obviously unneeded in our house…snicker)
-Monitor progress and track data for an unlimited number of students
-Track all relevant data
-Customize and print reports

Here is a wonderful video
that explains the software in much more detail.

HearBuilder Following Directions Home Edition retails for $69.95
You can purchase this software from Super Duper Publications You can save 30% by using the code BLGFD30 before August 31st.

Super Duper Publications has HUGE selection of educational resources,
if you’re shopping for next year you want to check them out!
They offer free shipping to USA and Canada on $20+ orders
Be sure to check them out on Facebook for exclusive deals and coupons!

Disclaimer: As a member of TOS Crew I received free product in return for an honest review.
Read what other TOS Crew Members thought of HearBuilder here.

CurrClick Giveaway!

January 30, 2011 By Valerie Mcclintick 206 Comments

This Giveaway is Now Closed

We Have a winner!

Comment #198: Canaan Herkamp who said, “My 2011 resolution for homeschooling is to be more consistent.”

Congratulations Cannan!

And Don’t forget
You can use your CurrClick Coupon Codes until April 30th, so write them down!

40% off ABC Fun & 1-2-3 by Shirley’s Preschool Activities
using the code ccblogspa.

25% off any product by The SMARTSeeds Company
using the code ccblogsmartseeds.

Original Post follows:

We are officially ending the first month of the new year!

You know what that means right?

It means that we’ve all had at least 30 days to test out our New Years Resolutions!

So how’s it going for you?

Are you cruising along a steady pace?

Are you slowly puttering out?

Or are you starting to realize your headed in the wrong direction?

Me?

Hmmmm…

Well more on that later….

But lets just say that we took a big “Homeschool Step”

At this point it is still undetermined whether this was

A Forward step,

Or a Backward step,

Or perhaps even a Side~~ways~~ step.

But undoubtedly a Step was made.

And we’re rolling with it.

I will say that Part of that step involves the choosing of new curriculum.

(I can hear your shock through the speakers on my computer)

Shhhh….Calm down. I know you think I’ve got it all figured out.

But I don’t. Not even close.

Because seriously?

What kind of a teacher changes their entire way of homeschooling in the middle of the year?

Especially without a new way of homeschooling to replace the old one.

Perhaps, when something isn’t working you just have to throw it out before you contaminate the baby with
the dirty bath water.

Or something like that? Hmmm.

You’ll have to forgive me, I’m a bit sleep deprived.

(nursing will do that to you)

(So will nursing while shopping for homeschool curriculum.)

Lately because of said STEP, I’ve been spending the wee hours of the night over here. And here and here.

But mostly my time has been spent HERE:

Why?

Because I love INSTANT gratification.

Yup. I’m American, what can I say.

I love that I can click “Buy” and I have my children’s lessons printed up and in my hand within the hour. I love that I can print multiple copies for both my children, and that I can save the downloads for my two babies should I still have my wits about me and decide to homeschool them too.

The only bad thing that I could ever say about this site is that some materials are so colorful that it would be easier for me to just go purchase a full color workbook from the nearest teacher store instead.

Well, apparently I’m not the only one ~~in the world~~….Ahem… who thought that
because CurrClick is now in the process of adding PRINTED materials to their website

Really Cool right?

I think this idea ranks right up there with their earlier addition of Live Classes!

CurrClick just keeps getting better and better!

And this week it’s better for you!

Because after reading that enormously long introduction,
You are now at the part where you get to win something!

Yeah!

Just look at all the goodies that we get to give away:

Currclick has graciously offered to give away some really neat products!

Simply Music Live Class Camp by Natural Notes

My ABC Scrapbook by 212 Mom

Fuzzle Family Felt by Gentle Shepherd

Winner’s Choice of any product by Brandenburg Studies

On top of that here are some fantastic discounts on some of your favorite publishers:

40% off ABC Fun & 1-2-3 by Shirley’s Preschool Activities
using the code ccblogspa.

25% off any product by The SMARTSeeds Company
using the code ccblogsmartseeds.

To use the special discount codes:
During the checkout process, select your payment method and enter the code into the section titled “Enter Coupon/Gift Certificate Code”. Please note that the codes are case sensitive and are valid until April 30, 2011.

So Ready to Win? Here’s how to enter:

1. Leave me a comment below with your 2011 Homeschool Resolution!
2. Like The Crafty Classroom on Facebook.
3. Follow The Crafty Classroom on Twitter.

Leave a separate comment for each entry, winner will be chosen at random!

The giveaway will be open until Friday February 4, 2010.