Special Connection Homeschool

When I saw that I had the opportunity to review Ooka Island for the TOS Homeschool Crew , I was really excited. I actually love the concept of what they have done. They have taken a reading program called the OokaMethod and merged it into an 3D, interactive educational computer game. The game encompasses what they call Emergent level skills that begin in Kindergarten (though I would say some could start sooner) and go through about 2nd grade to a level they call Fluency reading. Because the program is designed around the OokaMethod each child must start at the beginning, regardless of their skill level, so it appears to be geared towards those students who have not yet began to learn to read or are struggling with their current method and need some review. Of course all that we accomplished this month was review for Gess and she seemed to enjoy it anyway. When you purchase the game you download it from the website and then you install it. All that seemed to go without a hitch,...

Gess turned 10 yesterday and I had hoped to have some pictures of her opening presents, eating pizza and roller skating but instead mommy and daddy were sick, so she opened presents without much fanfare at all. The sickness really began with her older brother having the bug last week and on Saturday Gess caught it. She got so dehydrated that we had to take her to the ER to get fluids. I am at least able to get up on my computer today, although I haven't eaten much and Gess' appetite still isn't what it used to be. I hope that continues to improve. On another note Gess did get new glasses a few days before all this sickness started. Here she is wearing her big girl glasses! We figured by 10 years old she was ready to outgrow the plastic ones, though they were a great solution at the time. She is really doing a great job taking care of them too. She likes to recall that "when the glasses are not on your face, they go in the case." I hope things will improve in...

I told you in my blog last year about a really neat present that Gess got for her birthday which was a book titled, 101 Things You Gotta Do Before You're 12 . Well we have been making some progress with this book and today I want to share how we completed challenge #95, "Save a part of one season into the next." We had a garden this year (which helped Gess complete #28 "plant something and watch it grow"), but it was a small one. In fact, it is only our second year to have a garden at all. Thankfully it turned out much better this year, but we didn't really have enough veggies to can or put back for next year. However, our basil plant really took off and as the season comes to a close we thought, what are we going to do with all that basil? Last year we made some pesto and it lasted quite awhile, but we didn't want to go that route again, so my husband looked up how to dry basil and that's what we did last weekend! How to dry basil 1. First yo...

I have an (almost) 10 year old daughter who has special needs and I really worry sometimes when she gets on the internet. I mean, come on, I can't sit next to her every hour of the day, and we have already had some issues with things she has found online. What's even more frightening is that she is getting to the age where she will begin interacting online with others in some of the "social network" kind of sites. What is a parent to do? Well, I now have a great suggestion for mothers of girls age 7-12. It's a site called Always Icecream that I had the privilege to review for the TOS Homeschool Crew , and I have to tell you I am definitely sold on the concept. At Always Icecream girls, and only girls, can log on, play educational games, take care of virtual pets, decorate their online space and interact with other girls in a safe and friendly environment! In fact, they advertise that they have been "certified by the Privo Privacy Assurance Program t...

As Gess is getting older we thought it was important to stress having some personal devotion time. I think she needs to know that she can pray and study God's Word anytime she chooses. We always begin her day learning something in the Bible together. Then I have her write and meditate on the portion of Scripture that was the focus for the day. Since she was doing some written work each day we thought it would be good to have a place to keep it all together so that could look it over later and remember what she has studied so far. So we made made her a notebook and titled it My Devotional and keep it with her bible. One of our early lessons this year was to memorize the 10 commandments. I recalled that Living Waters had a great resource for helping kids to memorize them so I went to their site and downloaded their 10 Commandments Learning Aids . They use these images to help tie the number to the actual commandment. They have a full presentation but here is the sheet with...

Not many towns and communities will have an entire afternoon set aside to celebrate the Bible, but a small town in Kansas does. Humboldt Kansas has been hosting Biblesta for over 50 years and this was our first opportunity to visit it. It was a lovely afternoon filled with Chrsitian music, good food, activities for the kids and a parade centered around themes from the Bible. Each church, civic group and/or business places a float in the parade that depicts a scene from the Bible and the floats are then placed in chronological order from Genesis to Revelation. My favorite float was the 10 Commandments. The Jonah float is another favorite and is one that is entered every year. It is mechanical and you can see the legs of Jonah as he is being swallowed and water even exits from the blow hole of the whale. Here is Gess with the "big fish" behind her. When we arrived on the scene there was a really good Southern gospel band performing called The Missourians . Gess was take...