I’ve often said that The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is my favorite homeschooling magazine and the best homeschooling magazine I’ve ever seen. Even after reading issue after issue for five years now, I still devour each one that arrives in my mailbox. I read it from cover to cover and save every copy to refer to later. It’s that good!

TOS recently gave me a free copy of their 2009 Old Schoolhouse Planner to review. I was able to use the 2008 Planner last year and was excited to have the same opportunity this year. Not surprisingly, the Planner meets all of my expectations and provides even more than I had hoped for.

With 375 pages, the digital Schoolhouse Planner has virtually everything you could possibly want in a planner. (I only say ‘virtually’ because there’s always a chance someone will think of something else they’d like to see. For me, it really does have everything I could want plus much, much more.) The first part of the planner has calendars for the next four years – 2009-2012.

Following the calendars comes a section that I suppose you could call “Resources for Every Month.” Each of the 12 months (running from July 2009 to June 2010) has an education section, a Schoolhouse Store Resource List, and two recipes contributed by homeschooling families. (If you like fried chicken, you might want to try my healthier Oven Fried Chicken recipe which is included on page 78 of the Schoolhouse Planner.)

My personal favorites in this section are the educational pieces. Here is a run-down of the topics for each month:

• The Thirteen Colonies
• Ten Keys to Success Learning Math in the Decimal System and a Multiplication Table
• Weather and Cloud Types
• House Fires Happen and Emergency Preparedness
• American Government Basics and Branches of Federal, State, and Local Governments
• Learning to Spot the Planets
• Using Letter Writing to Connect the Generations and Letter Writing Tips & Samples
• The Miracles of Jesus and The Parables of Jesus
• Dead Languages, Common Latin Roots, and Common Greek Roots
• Lap Books
• Getting Into College
• Homeschooling Around the World and Landforms

The next section has more educational information/resources that I believe were also included in last year’s planner – but they’re still useful, of course. Just to name a few of the pieces:

• Timeline of Inventions
• Measurement Conversions
• Important U.S. Documents
• Famous Artists

The fourth section is likely the reason most people would buy the Schoolhouse Planner – the forms! Seventy-five homeschool forms and more than 40 household forms. The hardest part is deciding where to begin!

I started out by filling in the Year Goals form for my older two boys. It was hard – what do I want them to learn and accomplish over the next year? – but it will be very helpful for me to see these goals in black and white throughout the year. The Schoolhouse Planner contains useful forms for every style and method of homeschooling – from the strictest scheduled approach to the most relaxed unschooling style, the Schoolhouse Planner has forms to fit your needs. I can’t begin to go over everything you’ll be able to record with these forms, but I’ll name a few:

• Bible Memorization Record
• Daily Grade Recording (1 and 2)
• Audio/Video Log
• Books Read This Year
• Field Trip Planning
• Science Lab Sheet
• Co-op Information

All of the forms (and other pages) are printable and can easily be printed one-page-at-a-time as you need them. The forms can either be printed and filled out by hand or you can type information into the spaces provided and then print. You can save the Schoolhouse Planner under different names so that you’ll have a copy for each child.

The only thing I wish is that you could somehow save only a page or a set of pages. For example, I filled out the Yearly Goals form and would like to be able to save just that page – with a filename like Nick-YearlyGoals.pdf – to open at a later time. I don’t plan to print the pages because I’m cheap frugal and prefer to use my printer ink only when absolutely necessary. It would be much quicker to open the specific page/file I want instead of opening the 300+ page planner and having to scroll to the form I would like to see. Of course, this may be possible and I just haven’t discovered how to do it.

Just as TOS advertises, the Schoolhouse Planner is much more than just a planner. I don’t think any family could ever use every single form, recipe, and bit of educational information that is included. It’s just too much! But I know that every single family can glean many enjoyable and useful materials from within its pages.

The Old Schoolhouse Planner is available for $39.00.

We’ve had quite a week. Last Sunday afternoon, Nick left for camp – his second year to go. He came home Friday afternoon, and we were all so glad to have him back. It always feels better when the whole family is together.

While Nick was gone, James attended Vacation Bible School at a church across town – also his second year going to this VBS. On Thursday, however, he was playing on my bed while I got Robert to sleep for his nap. My back was to him, so I didn’t see exactly what happened – somehow his fingernail and eyeball made contact. He started to scream (James doesn’t cry, he screams) and went to get himself a wet washcloth to put on it. He and Nick both have an uncanny ability to poke themselves in the eye, and he knew just what to do to deal with it.

By the time I got Robert to sleep, James was still crying and saying his eye hurt. I looked at his eye and could actually see a scratch on it. I’ve scratched my cornea before but never so bad that the scratch was visible. He fell asleep at one point but woke up about 20 minutes later screaming that his eye hurt. I ended up taking him to the doctor, and it turns out that the scratch was twice as long as what I had been able to see. She gave him a prescription for some antibiotic ointment to place in it. By the next morning, he said it didn’t hurt at all and, amazingly, I could no longer see the scratch.

On Friday evening, we went to the VBS parent night. James did so well singing with his class and doing the hand motions for the songs – Zaccheus, B-I-B-L-E, and Jesus Loves Me. Last year, he did not sing and actually frowned the entire time he class was up front. He has changed so much from last year!

Saturday was Jon’s birthday, and we had two parties at a nearby state park – one for each of the boy’s baseball teams. I told Jon it was the only birthday he would probably ever have where he got two cakes and a batch of cupcakes. It was a great day with beautiful weather, and we enjoyed spending the day with our new friends. The kids played in a rocky creek at the park – even Robert splashed in it.

I read a nice article this morning titled Why We Love Our Babies. It was a great reminder to stop and take stock about what I love about each of my children individually. I thought you might enjoy reading it too.

Guess what my boys did last week – they played a song on the piano! A real song! A song with note changes and everything. After we watched the introduction for week 16, I said, “Hey, Boys, you’re going to play a real song today!”

James said, “A real song? On the piano? Will it have different keys I can press?”

I told him, “Yes, different keys,” and he asked with wonder, “It’s a real song?”

He and Nicholas were thrilled – as any little boy would be! – at the idea of playing a real song for the first time. The title was Lonely Dodi, and they got to play Dodi’s house, Dodi’s key, and Carla’s key.

We had the pages of “sheet music” printed and I played the song for them first so they could SEE the change in which piano keys to play. After they had watched me play it twice, I figured they ready to give it a try. They both “took their places” with fingers poised over the keys, and I started the video. I must say that they did very well on their first attempt. James was a little slower to change keys, but I think that’s to be expected at his age (and attention level!). I backed up the video and let them play the song a second time, and I’d venture to say that they both did close to perfectly.

Since this is summer break, we’ve slowed down on how often we’re watching our Kinderbach weekly lessons. We went out of town at the end of May and missed two straight weeks of music lessons. Even though I hope to continue with at least two weekly lessons each month through the summer, the warm weather calls these boys into the outdoors.

It’s just one more reason I’m so glad Kinderbach is set up in the format that it is. I imagine – though I have no way of actually knowing – that some private teachers don’t hold lessons through the summer months. Group classes probably don’t either. Personally, I think children would benefit more from continuing lessons, at least occasionally, through the summer. With Kinderbach, we can miss a class when vacation or outdoor play calls to us – and we can make up that class whenever it’s convenient for US. I love that! The boys never fall behind or get confused because the teacher is talking about something they didn’t learn. No, we just keep plugging along at our own pace. It’s a great set-up for us.

We have ants. Lots and lots of ants. Ants in my kitchen – in my pantry, on my counters, on my floor. Ants in my laundry area – on the dryer, in the floor, on the shelves, in the dirty towel basket. Ants in my living room – near the front door, on the desk, on the carpet, occasionally on the couches. Ants in the hallway. Ants in the bedrooms. Ants in the bathrooms. You get the picture.

Now they’re not swarming. I can’t see a single one from where I sit right now. But they’re around. Too many places. Too many ants.

We’ve dealt with them since moving into this house. Not the first summer – I guess since we moved in here in July and maybe the landlord had an exterminator come in beforehand. Of course we don’t have them in the winter thankfully. The first winter we lived here, they actually started showing up in limited quantities in February. I told the landlord about it, and he replied, “Yeah, everybody on this road has them. It’s the shallow soil. Just put out some Terro.” He’s a good landlord, don’t get me wrong. He’s just not keen on paying for an exterminator I guess. I’ve never mentioned it to him again.

Anyway, we have tried so many things. Terro did no good at all. They love to eat it, but it doesn’t kill them for some reason. They just keep coming and coming and coming. Last summer, we tried ant foggers and they worked quite well. We wouldn’t see a single ant for about two months after setting off the foggers. We figured the same thing would work this year.

The ants didn’t show up until early May this year, which seems strange considering how early they arrived last year. Our weather hasn’t been particularly different this year either. Anyway, I found boxes of ant fogger in a clearance rack at Kroger and bought three boxes (with three fogger-bottles in each box).

We set off the first foggers about mid-May. To our disillusionment, the ants were back less than a week later. We lived with it for a while – killing the ones we saw and trying to find a convenient time to set off another batch of foggers. I did just that on Monday when I took the boys to the park.

That was day before yesterday.

Forty-eight hours ago.

The ants are back en masse in my pantry today.

*big deep sigh*

I had called an exterminator last year, and the initial visit was quoted at $70. That’s verrrrry steep. I also question the safety with my kids playing in the floor and eating dirt outside. I’m not sure what else to do.

Have any of you had a bad ant problem? Were you ever able to solve it? Share your knowledge with me! I’m feeling desperate.

PS: We’ve tried chalk lines and grits. They don’t work.

I’ve been totally MIA from my blog the last few weeks. Things have been especially hectic around my house, and blogging fits at the bottom of the to-do pile.

After breaking down in North Carolina three weeks ago, our van is finally running again – praise God! I took the boys to a city playground today.

Meet our park captain – Cap’n Nick.

We have a couple mountain climbers in the family:

Everyone loves a slide, including my three stair-step boys.

Up first – James!

On your mark…

…get ready, get set, go!

Going, going…

…gone!

Our KinderBach lessons are beginning to get more ‘in depth’ with the musical concepts being taught. We’ve now added “Stepping Down” to the “Stepping Up” patterns we’ve been learning for a few weeks. Of course, the pitch goes down on “Stepping Down.” The boys caught onto it right away since it’s a pretty straightforward and simple idea.

I must admit that I had trouble distinguishing between a rising pitch and a lowering pitch during one of the exercises we did. My older son, Nicholas, missed a couple too but James seemed to get them right every time. Maybe I’m just hard of hearing.

In another lesson, we practiced recognizing Stepping Up patterns in low, middle, and high pitches. These are the kinds of lessons that make me glad we can replay the lesson portion as often as we need to. We don’t ever get left behind by a teacher who is moving on with the rest of the class while my family is having trouble understanding.

Most of the time, we all knew the pitch right away (a low pitch is pretty easy to recognize!), but sometimes we wanted to back up the video and listen again…just to be sure.

After getting to know Frisco and Dodi over the last few months, we got to meet another Piano Pals friend last week – Carla the Caterpillar. Carla lives on the key right next to Dodi. She lives on the C key just like Dodi lives on the D key. What a wonderful way to help kids (and grown ups!) remember the letter designations for each key.

I can vividly remember being taught Every Good Boy Does Fine and FACE to remember the notes on the music staff in junior high music class. I vaguely remember hearing something about “middle C,” but I haven’t the foggiest recollection about how to find it on a piano today.

Dodi’s house between the two black keys, Dodi’s key of D, and Carla’s key of C right beside Dodi’s? Now THOSE are memories I know my children and I will keep for the rest of our lives. We’ll never have to worry about remembering how to find middle C. Just find Dodi’s house!

If you’ve visited my blog for very long, you know that I was a member of The Old Schoolhouse Crew for the 2008-09 year. The Crew, sponsored and coordinated by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, is a group of 100 bloggers who received homeschool and family-related products throughout the year and wrote reviews of each item.

You can read all of my reviews by clicking here. (You’ll see only the first few lines of each review and will need to click on the title of any review that you want to review in its entirety.) You can also look at this post which contains a list of every item that I reviewed and has links to each review. (A little easier to navigate, perhaps, than the other link…)

Several of the 2008-09 Crew Mates have made Top Ten lists of their favorite or most-used products. I’ve been wanting to do the same and am finally taking the time to do it!

Cindy’s Top Ten Most Used
(These are items that we’ve continued to use even after the reviews were completed. We’ve continued to use others as well, but I’m limiting the list to ten. It’s impossible to put them in a 1 – 10 order, so I’ll just alphabetize them.)

• All About Spelling
• Beyond Five in a Row
• Crayola Art Studio
• Critical Thinking Math and Logic
• Kinderbach Online Piano Lessons
• Peterson Directed Handwriting
• Prima Latina I
• Rime to Read
• Spears Art Studio
• SpellQuizzer

It doesn’t really fit my list since we aren’t still using the review products, per se, but I want to mention Salem Ridge Press. I loved the books they sent to us, and I plan to order more books from them in the future. It’s so hard to find high quality literature that makes a great family read-aloud – but Salem Ridge Press is the place to look!

My mom sent me this little quiz on email, and I thought it was cute and wanted to share it with you all. Not sure I believe the “team of researchers” part…unless, of course, that refers to a group of bored housewives, lol. If you decide to take it, leave me a comment with your result.

Here’s some fun just for us girls… DON’T read ahead, please, or it’ll spoil the fun.

Ladies Only …. Which Movie Star Are You? This is kind of fun!

Ever wonder which movie star you are most like? Well, a team of researchers got together and analyzed the personalities of movie stars. The gathered info has been incorporate into this quiz. There are only 10 questions so it doesn’t take long.

Number your paper from 1 to 10, then answer each question with the choice that most describes you at this point in your life, and then add up the points that correspond with your answers.

Don’t look ahead or you will ruin the fun!

1. Which describes your perfect date?

a) Candlelight dinner for two
b) Amusement Park
c) Rollerblading in the park
d) Rock Concert
e) Have dinner and see a movie
f) Dinner at home with a loved one

2. What is your favorite type of music?

a) Rock and Roll
b) Alternative
c) Soft Rock
d) Classical
e) Christian
f) Jazz

3. What is your favorite type of movie?

a) Comedy
b) Horror
c) Musical
d) Romance
e) Documentary
f) Mystery

4. Which of the following jobs would you choose if you were given only these choices?

a) Waiter/Waitress
b) Sports Player
c) Teacher
d) Policeman
e) Bartender
f) Business person

5. Which would you rather do if you had an hour to waste?

a) Work out
b) Make out
c) Watch TV
d) Listen to the radio
e) Sleep
f) Read

6. Of the following colors, which do you like best?

a) Yellow
b) White
c) Sky blue
d) Teal
e) Gold
f) Red

7. Which one of the following would you like to eat right now?

a) Ice cream
b) Pizza
c) Sushi
d) Pasta
e) Salad
f) Lobster Tail

8. Which is your favorite holiday?

a) Halloween
b) Christmas
c) New Year’s
d) Valentine’s Day
e) Thanksgiving
f) Fourth of July

9. If you could go to any of the following places, which would it be?

a) Reno
b) Spain
c) Las Vegas
d) Hawaii
e) Hollywood
f) British Columbia

10. Of the following, who would you rather spend time with?

a) Someone who is smart
b) Someone with good looks
c) Someone who is a party animal
d) Someone who has fun all the time
e) Someone who is very emotional
f) Someone who is fun to be with

Now total up your points on each question:

1. a-4; b-2; c-5; d-1; e-3; f-6

2. a-2; b-1; c-4; d-5; e-3; f-6

3. a-2; b-1; c-3; d-4; e-5; f-6

4. a-4; b-5; c-3; d-2; e-1; f-6

5. a-5; b-4; c-2; d-1; e-3; f-6

6. a-1; b-5; c-3; d-2; e-4; f-6

7. a-3; b-2; c-1; d-4; e-5; f-6

8. a-1; b-3; c-2; d-4; e-5; f -6

9. a-4; b-5; c-1; d-4; e-3; f-6

10. a-5; b-2; c-1; d-3; e-4; f-6

NOW, take your total and find out which Movie Star you are:

(10-17 points) You are MADONNA:
You are wild and crazy and you know it. You know how to have fun, but you may take it to extremes. You know what you are doing though, and are much in control of your own life . People don’t always see things your way, but that doesn’t mean that you should do away with your beliefs. Try to remember that your wild spirit can lead to hurting yourself and others.

(18-26 points) You are DORIS DAY:
You are fun, friendly, and popular! You are a real crowd pleaser. You have probably been out on the town your share of times, yet you come home with the values that your mother taught you. Marriage and children are very important to you, but only after you have fun. Don’t let the people you please influence you to stray.

(27-34 points) You are DEBBIE REYNOLDS:
You are cute, and everyone loves you. You are a best friend that no one takes the chance of losing. You never hurt feelings and seldom have your own feelings hurt. Life is a breeze. You are witty, and calm most of the time. Just keep clear of back stabbers, and you are worry-free.

(35-42 points) You are GRACE KELLY:
You are a lover. Romance, flowers, and wine are all you need to enjoy yourself. You are serious about all commitments and are a family person. You call your Mom every Sunday, and never forget a Birthday. Don’t let your passion for romance get confused with the real thing.

(43-50 points) You are KATHERINE HEPBURN:
You are smart, a real thinker. Every situation is approached with a plan. You are very healthy in mind and body. You don’t take crap from anyone. You have only a couple of individuals that you consider ‘real friends’. You teach strong family values. Keep your feet planted in them, but don’t overlook a bad situation when it does happen.

(51-60 points) You are ELIZABETH TAYLOR:
Everyone is in awe of you. You know what you want and how to get it. You have more friends than you know what to do with. Your word is your bond. Everyone knows when you say something it is money in the bank. You attract the opposite sex. Your intelligence overwhelms most. Your memory is the next thing to photographic. Everyone admires you because you are so considerate and lovable. You know how to enjoy life and treat people right.

If you’re a homeschooler, you may have heard of Sue Patrick’s Workboxes – the phrase seems to be all over the place lately. If you’re not a homeschooler, you may not get much out of this post but feel free to read on anyway.

After hearing glowing things about Sue Patrick’s Workboxes over the last month, I decided to take advantage of hearing her speak at a session during the North Carolina Home Educator’s Conference that we went to over Memorial Day Weekend. I won’t go into a lot of detail, but I wasn’t at all pleased with what I heard. She presented the system as very rigid and, in my opinion, stifling to the child. (I’ve since found out that she first designed the workbox system for her autistic son, and children with autism apparently thrive on rigid structure.)

When I came home and was still hearing people rave about workboxes, I had to ask, “What is so great about Sue Patrick’s workboxes?” My friends from the TOS Crew, especially Sheri and Candace, gave me lots of reasons why workboxes are fantastic. I won’t try to tell you why – you can read their blog posts about the system yourself if you’re interested. Even though the idea itself has sounded great to me, I couldn’t figure out how to make 24 boxes fit in our house. We barely fit the furniture we must have. Why do the kids think they need beds anyway? (Just kidding!)

I looked at various boxes at the dollar store Monday but couldn’t find anything that seemed like it would work for us. As I was lying in bed yesterday morning before getting up, I had a flash of brilliance and thought of “posters with work pockets” to replace the workboxes. It will probably be easiest to just show you what I came up with.

As you can see, I made two posters – one for Nick and one for James. The posters themselves are actually four sheets of construction paper ‘laminated’ with clear contact paper. I had to trim the construction paper by about 3/4″ in order to make the contact paper fit over it in one solid sheet. I wrote each boy’s name at the top of their posters and then drew lines to divide the rest of the poster into 12 roughly equal squares.

I cut 24 pieces of construction paper to approximately 5″ wide by 4″ tall to make the pockets. I wrote a number on each one and then laminated them with the contact paper. I then used the contact paper to attach the pockets to the poster. I’m not 100% pleased with how that turned out – they look a little funky and some of the adhesive keeps coming loose, but it’s okay. I don’t really have any ideas about how to attach them more successfully.

Obviously, I can’t put the boys’ books into these pockets the way people using actual boxes can. We already have a clear plastic tote for each boy where we keep all their books, notebooks, and any other needed items. We keep those boxes in the coat closet in the living room, which keeps them out of sight when we’re not having school. If I keep on them, the boys will actually put their books away into the boxes – haha!

I decided to improvise again by writing what I want them to do on a paper and placing it in the pocket. They can then go get any books and paper that they need.

I made cards for tasks/assignments that we’ll repeat often – for example Bible time, math, read to Mom, etc. I laminated those too and made a “drop box” for each boy. I’ll keep the cards that we’re not using that day in the drop box, and I told the boys that after they remove a card to see what task they need to do, they can drop it in their drop box.

I haven’t yet made cards for everything, of course – partly because I couldn’t think of everything at once.

Part of the appeal of the workbox system is that the kids can easily see how much work they have left to do and how much they have already completely. It’s a wonderful motivator for them to keep plugging along. My improvised method is this:

I made 24 small cards with a smiley face on each. With sticky tacky, I attached a smiley card to each pocket that has a task in it. (We’re using just nine pockets on each poster today.) Each poster has a blank space about an inch high at the bottom. I told the boys that after they complete a pocket, they can take the smiley off of it and place it in the row at the bottom. This will help them see how much they’ve done and how much is left to do.

We’re on pocket #3 now today, and so far things are going pretty good. I don’t know how the system will continue to work for us since I tend to be…uh…a quitter…but so many people are saying that this method keeps Mom motivated and on track as well as the kids that I’m hoping it will do the same for me.