Homeschool Blog Awards Meme - Something New

Well, this should be an easy post. This week's meme from The Homeschool Blog Awards is called something new. We are to share what new product we are using in our homeschools this year (and where to get it and why we chose it and how we are liking it so far, etc.). My challenge will be to share WHICH new thing!

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The most obvious new thing in our school this year is Exploring Countries and Cultures from My Father's World. And in summary...we love it! I chose it out of a desire for a little more structure, a little more of a Biblical emphasis, the desire to teach Rachel and Mary Evelyn together, everything is included in the schedule, and the history is taught chronologically. I like that My Father's World combines the best of Charlotte Mason's methods with the best of what classical education offers. I have already said a lot about MFW in previous posts, so if you are interested in it for yourself you can go here.

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I am going to also mention our new co-op. It is called Enrich and it is for users of the My Father's World curriculum. We met yesterday for the first time and my kids had a ball! I was the teacher for Betsie's class and as I type she is eating breakfast holding the crafts we made. Rachel and Mary Evelyn had a great time too. Not something you can buy, but new for us and I think a wonderful addition to our school. Plus it only meets once a month, which means we'll still be enjoying it 8 or 9 months from now! LOL!

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I won't go into tons of details but I will also say that I am glad we made the switch to Teaching Textbooks math for Rachel and Right Start math for Mary Evelyn. Math is not the evil around here that it once was. Yay!

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One last thing: we will start using The Learnables very soon for Spanish. We just got this in the mail last week. I haven't had a chance to even look at it, but that will be another new addition to our school. I have always wanted to add foreign language and The Learnables was much cheaper than my first choice and can be done independently on the computer. I'll let you know how it goes and if they learn anything or not!

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Let me know of you do this meme so I can see what's new with you!

Heart of the Matter Friday Meme: Your Children's Learning Styles

You may (or most likely may not!) have noticed that I added a new picture to my sidebar: Heart of the Matter online homeschooling magazine. I just discovered this magazine a couple of weeks ago and have enjoyed browsing their articles and features. Each Friday they do a meme (don't ask me to define that.) for us homeschoolers so we can share with each other concerning all sorts of schooling/parenting/homemaking issues. Today's meme is about our children's learning styles.

I hesitated doing this meme because I have never really been able to figure out learning styles! With me, it's more of a , "hmmmm....that didn't work!" process. One of our children had some occupational therapy done last year and the OT told us her learning style seemed to be auditory...I still don't see it.

So everything from here forward about my kids is speculation. Does it count that I am not totally satisfied with being unsure? I have reserved a few good books by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias from my library. (I think I have read one of these before or at least a part of it.) The first book is called The Way They Learn. If I finish the book this time, I'll be sure and review it later.

Most people agree that the main learning styles are visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic. Since I have never been certain which category most describes my girls, I try to hit them all. Here are a few examples:

Auditory: We read book to the girls and they listen to lots of books on CD. We also use songs to learn things. It was a song that taught my girls the continents and Mary Evelyn some basic math facts. And of course, every kid learns the alphabet with a song!

Visual: Visual learners remember what they see. We learn a Bible verse each week. We do say it often (auditory) but we also look at it a lot too. Our map work is visual as well.

Kinesthetic: Kinesthetic/tactile learners need to DO something or TOUCH something to learn. Mary Evelyn's math curriculum is a very hands on program with a lot of manipulatives and games. I have seen her grasp the concepts MUCH better with this curriculum versus our former program (which was a traditional workbook program).

Hopefully I will learn more about my own kids by reading the book I mentioned. Here is an article that some might find helpful as well. So while I could not give definitive answers about my own children's learning styles, I am thankful that the meme sent me researching a little more. If you would like to see what others are saying about learning styles, go here for links to the others who have blogged about it.

Please Enlighten Me

I feel like this might be a dumb question, but someone tell me anyway.

What does this mean in the internet world?

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I see it on facebook and blogs and all over the place and I am just clueless. Looks like less than 3 to me, but then I guess I am not as cool as I thought! LOL! (I do know what LOL means at least.)