Homeschooling At Thistle Hill Ranch

Homeschooling this year has changed a little... Not having our science group, piano teacher, and golf instructor etc. we needed to adjust accordingly.

They have been in horseback riding lessons for about 8 months, and that counts as their P.E. credit; not to mention, very appropriate for our new life at Thistle Hill Ranch. They have a fabulous math tutor, and luckily, science is a fantastic kit that one of my homeschooling mom friends found, Thank You Carrie!!!!

We are still working on finding a music teacher, but all in good time.

English, (writing, literature, vocabulary, grammar), Geography, History, and Art, are all up to me. Fortunately, for them and me, I love all those subjects and know them well.

 

The picture below, is what our classroom looks like most days. We use our dining room now, since we lost a true homeschool room. It really works quite well! They listen to their math lessons through headphones on the computer, and today, while eating popcorn. Geeez, rough life! Notice the hats??? They do their chores in the barn before school, and after working in freezing temperatures, I guess the hats stay on, HA!

{The math tutor comes to the house once a week to go over anything they are struggling with, or review anything they need help with.}

I thought I would share a few tools I use in our homeschool classroom~

 

Farm Anatomy, is what I'm using on Tuesday, {our flex day}, which is our extracurricular day.

{On this day we do our Math, Science, Vocabulary test, any subject reviews, Art, and recently, due to not yet finding a music teacher, I let them pick their own elective. Landen, my youngest is pursuing guitar from youtube how to videos, and Preston is attempting Russian. Through Pinterest, he has found the alphabet and worksheets for Russian.}

I added this cute, very lucid, informational book on farming. I actually bought this for fun, when we decided we wanted to start looking for a place in the country. It has everything from crop rotation, different types of barn construction, to livestock options. We are now reading this cover to cover. I thought this would be valuable information for them to have filed away, since we are now growing hay, breeding cows and horses too. Anything for them to have as a reference in helping them understand the farm and ranch lifestyle.

I picked it up at the Anthropologie store in Southlake Town Center.

I use this book when we are reading history and learning geography to see a large scale map, with colorful illustrations of flags, crops, and examples of each regions industry. I have large U.S. And Wold maps, but when we are group reading on the sofa, this is a much better option.

I found this online through Amazon.com.

I bought this 2 years ago at the homeschool book fair. They are tear off worksheets, for writing in the countries. I have one for the states too.

Both boys know their states and capitals, but it never hurts to review. We have flashcards wars. They love the competition and it helps them think fast! It also contains major countries and their capitals too. I've recently started focusing on other countries and their capitals.

I picked this up at a book store, it was either Barnes and Noble or Books-a-Million. But I'm sure Amazon.com has it too.

This is what I use for our vocabulary tests. It has work in them too, and I print them off for their vocabulary work. I found this in a used book store.

 

I display the new list at the beginning of each week, on the chalkboard I made, and we test at the end of the week. I also add bonus words from previous weeks.

I refer back to this often, for a variation in writing instruction. We write almost daily, short stories, paragraphs, or journaling, from writing prompts, etc.

This was found on a Amazon.com

This is what we are reading for literature. We read lots of different types of literature. I thought it would be fun for both boys to get into Greek mythology this year. It can be overwhelming, and really confusing, especially the family tree of the gods and goddesses. I started off with a historical background of both the Greeks and the Romans. We are making a list of the Gods and Goddesses for reference, (showing their Roman names too). I have also used these lessons to reference vocabulary and how Greek and Latin root words can be found with their origin in mythology.

I know this is probably the exact book most of us read in high school. But, I thought I would share which book we are tackling. This book I picked up at Barnes and Noble. I have a teacher's discount there...it helps!

This book I wanted to share, because it has many tips and tricks on learning everything from math to history! I have bookmarks all the way through it. I use it often when they need a trick on how to memorize something. It's a really neat teaching tool.

This was another Barnes and Noble purchase as well.

Whether you homeschool your children, they are in school, or you're a teacher reading my blog, I think some of these tools are really nice to have on hand for at home or in class reference tools.

Have a Great Weekend & Happy Learning!

 

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