Easy Grammar

Easy Grammar is very deserving of it's name. The child starts off memorizing the list of prepositions. He goes on to identify the prepositional phrases and crosses them out of sentences. Then, finding the subjects, verbs, etc. are a piece of cake.

We reinforce this with Daily Grams. This gives them practice in capitalization, punctuation, parts of speech, and sentence combining. They are quick and easy lessons.

Currently I am teaching Joshua and Ishmael from the 5th grade book. I write grammar exercises on the small board.



I write the Daily Grams on the big board that fits over top of the small board.

(My big board has certainly earned it's keep.)

They copy it into their folder. Then we make the corrections together. This saves me so much time.


Kelsea is taking Easy Grammar Plus and Daily Grams (Junior High/Senior High). I really like that Daily Grams has the same pattern in every book. It makes it easy to do this as a class at different levels. Kelsea simply does the pages in her book that coordinate with the 5th grade book. So we are all working on prepositions, capitalization, etc together.

Saxon Math

This is our fourth year using Saxon for math. It's an incremental program that works well for my kids. The older kids start their day with a lesson on the computer with the D.I.V.E cd's. Then they do a few practice problems followed by about 25-30 review problems. Actually Ishmael and Joshua only do odd or even problems.

Jeremiah gets a weeks worth of lessons on Monday and a "math packet" for the week. This is simply 5 days worth of math worksheets that he turns in on Friday when he takes a written assessment. So far this method works well for him.

I haven't been very strong with the flash cards. I know the kids would do better with them, so using them daily is my new goal this year.

First Day of School

Today is the first day of our ninth year of homeschooling. I am in awe to have come so far. Homeschooling started out as a temporary answer to my disappointment in our local school system. Now it is our way of life. It is who we are and what we do. We love being a part of the local homeschool community. We love the freedom and opportunities it has given us. It has truly been a blessing to our family.

I like to set up the table the night before with their new school supplies. I love school supplies. It's a sickness really.


My students woke up at 7:00 am and had our chocolate breakfast. Fresh made warm ooey gooey chewy brownies and chocolate milk. I also fried a few eggs to round it out.


Normally we don't start school until 9:00 but my students were eager. So at around 8:00 am, we started reading Misty of Chincoteague. The boys take turns reading out loud. Joshua is working hard and has come so very far. I'm very proud of him. We usually get comfortable in the living room to read. This is also how we do our history lessons.



When we are done with reading, we move on to spelling and grammar. The kids copy their grammar from our dry erase board, then we go over it together.



After lunch break, we work on our math and finish up any projects that we've got going. There are other subjects we cover but not on a daily basis. I haven't started science yet. I need to make up my mind about what we'll learn.





In honor of starting a new school year I'm going to post a review of our curriculum and favorite resources each day.