It's all gouda: Seasons Greetings!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Seasons Greetings!

Seasons Greetings!

I'm taking some time off to enjoy my family during the holiday season. I bid you the most wonderful, heart felt seasons greetings from my house to yours. See you after the New Year! xoxo, Paula

PS: You can always email me at: goudapaula at gmail dot com.

13 comments:

Throwback at Trapper Creek said...: Just checked to see how you were doing and here is a post :)

Have a great holiday season with your family - "see" you soon!; December 15, 2009 at 8:09 PM
Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...: Have a wonderful holiday season with friends and family. See you in 2010!!; December 16, 2009 at 1:26 AM
Jennifer said...: Enjoy your time with your family! See ya soon!; December 16, 2009 at 8:02 AM
DayPhoto said...: Merry Christmas, Paula!

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.om; December 16, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Robynn's Ravings said...: Hope you have a blessed and lovely Christmas and good for you for taking time off!; December 17, 2009 at 2:19 AM
Marjie said...: Merry Christmas, Paula! I'm glad to see you're taking pictures. Talk to you soon.

Hugs from NEPA!; December 17, 2009 at 1:54 PM
Deborah said...: I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!!; December 20, 2009 at 9:51 PM
Cathy said...: Hi Paula - Just wanted to stop by to say hello and wish you and your family and very happy Christmas and joyous New Year. I'll be happy to see you back blogging again. We miss you.; December 24, 2009 at 7:55 AM
Maria Verivaki said...: merry christmas from hania!; December 25, 2009 at 9:01 AM
Lisa said...: Such pretty decorations. Hope your holiday break was wonderful. Happy New Year!; January 6, 2010 at 8:10 AM
La Bella Cooks said...: Wishing you and your family the best in 2010. I hope all is well with you.; January 6, 2010 at 8:36 PM
Lo said...: Took some time off myself! Hope you enjoyed the holidays and that the new year is treating you well.

Happy 2010! Looking forward to spending time with you in the new year.; January 7, 2010 at 3:01 PM
Manggy said...: Happy new year Paula! I hope you had a great holiday :); January 7, 2010 at 9:58 PM

Homeschool Tips and Tools: 2010

Bananagrams! Not too long ago, my kids and I discovered a great new game called Bananagrams. Far more fast paced and loads easier to play than Scrabble, this game requires only a table top and kids to get the fun underway. Better yet, adults and kids of all ages can play together. The playing pieces come packaged in a delightful, banana colored and shaped, zippered cloth pouch. It's free formed fun, and great entertainment for the entire family.

From a homeschooling perspective, it's a great tool to segue into creative writing or story telling. My kids create their own Bananagram "puzzle" and then use the words they created to write or tell an impromptu story. Silly or serious, all type of stories are encouraged!

The book titled English from the Roots Up by Joegil K. Kundquist has rapidly become one of my favorite resources for building a strong vocabulary base for my children. This spiral bound book provides both Latin and Greek word roots that provides students with tools to help them determine word meanings. I absolutely love it, and the rapid results that I see in my children are amazing. This is way better than a spelling program; by studying word roots, my children are gaining a much broader understanding of language and the power of words. The lessons are very easy to administer, short in duration, and my kids enjoyed them.

On the writing frontier, there is a book called Story Starters, Helping Children Write Like They've Never Written Before by Karen Andreola that provides writing prompts in the form of partially written stories for children to complete. While I found the book to be just ok, my children love it. I read the partially written story aloud, and they write the rest. The kids really enjoyed doing this as each of them looked forward to hearing the other's completed versions. This ended up being a great experience as the kids really wanted to impress their siblings with their version, and thus put more effort into their writing.

And for the grammar enthusiast lurking inside your student, here's a great book that explains how to diagram sentences. Diagraming Sentences by Deborah White Broadwater is a 46 page workbook complete with an answer key, and is perfect for your middle schooler.

Does your student embrace Science? Do you need quality supplies to conduct more in depth experiments at home? Check out Home Science Tools. I'm very impressed with the quality of the products we just ordered. Beakers, flasks, stirring rods, thermometers, chemicals, safety equipment, and so much more can be found and ordered on their website. www.homesciencetools.com . The items we received were top quality, the customer service rep was super, and the items were extremely well packed and delivered as promised. Look out Bill Nye ... future scientists in the house!

Lapbooking and Notebooking are buzz words in the homeschool community. Here are two great resources for incorporating those strategies into your learning curriculum. Big Book of Books by Dinah Zike and The Ultimate Lap Book Handbook by Tammy Duby and Cyndy Regeling helped me enhance our homeschooling experience using lapbooks. The content found in these books enabled me to teach a group of homeschool mom's how to incorporate lapbooking into their curriculums. You'll want to laminate your copies as they will get pulled off the shelf over and over again.