Kindle Fire Giveaway!

I have the third and fourth grade lessons purchased and plan to start using them next week.  So excited to have an interactive math program!  Here's your chance to win a Kindle and learn more about the company below...

A+ Interactive Math by TutorSoft Inc. is giving away a Kindle Fire to celebrate the launch of their brand new website.  The Kindle Fire will be loaded with 8 different A+ Interactive Math eBooks for a value of almost $300 total! Kindle Fire is also compatible with the hundreds of A+ worksheets, so you can take math on the go.

The new website, launching this week, promises a whole new look and feel offering a brand new A+ math experience. The site launch is only a portion of the exciting new changes coming from A+ Interactive Math. There are new programs, books, eBooks & more options coming to help every homeschool family afford a top-of-the-line math curriculum.

The A+ Homeschool blog has recently launched, and although A+ is a Math Curriculum company, the blog serves to support and inform homeschoolers with freebies, deals and news to make their homeschool journey a great one.

This giveaway promotion sponsored by A+ Interactive Math, will run from Aug. 12 – Aug. 16 ending with an incredible Facebook party on the A+ Facebook page. There will be exciting door prizes for everyone who attends, as well as over $1000 in fantastic homeschool giveaways.

Sponsors include: A+ , Master Books, EEME, Winter’s Promise, Founders Academy, How to be Homeschooled, Tangram Chess, Kathy Lee – Homegrown Preschooler, HEDUA, CurrClick, AJTL lapbooks, Family Time Fitness, Educents, Brimwood Press, Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett, Heritage History, Creating a Masterpiece, & Bright Ideas Press and more!

Please visit the new website A+ Interactive Math and leave a comment below sharing your thoughts on the new design, or about a product that interests you.

*the only product not included is the workbooks in printed format

Open to US and Canada only. A Canadian winner must agree to pay up to $35 in shipping or forfeit to another winner. Entering the giveaway is always free. Valued at almost $400!

Enter to win the Kindle Fire loaded with cool math eBooks through the following Rafflecopter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Where We Do Homeschool

I'm linking up with the iHomeschool network's School Room Week 2013, so click through to see what everyone else is doing!

Where do we "do" home school?

The short answer: it varies!  For a picture story, keep reading :)

Typically, it has been in the dining room, as it is with many other home educators.  In our open floor plan, the kitchen, dining room, living room and entryway are almost completely open to each other, with just one short wall between kitchen and living where the cabinets hang.  At the end of that wall is a low counter, which is my own office area.  (Warning: These pics are real.  I didn't clean or straighten *at all* before shooting them!)

My command center - Mac, student schedule hanging on left, tadpole tank on right, and my paper clutter :-/

Piano, chalkboard, picture study hanging, globe, and shelves for supplies and games

After giving our playroom its yearly end-of-summer overhaul, I set up a small foldable table that we haven't used in over a year.  This will allow for a better handwriting position for the student, and a change of scenery when needed.  Its not the most comfortable place for me to sit, though!  As a bonus, he can bop around on the exercise ball and still see the top of the table.

kid-sized table in playroom

slouching on the exercise ball, lol

In the play room, I have decided to leave the game table up at all times.  I used to have wide open spaces, but as he has gotten older, a permanent Lego location seems more necessary.  The picnic style table can be used for board games with the kids after school time.

Our Settlers of Catan game table (DH's pride and joy), taken over by Legos

Board game shelves, and books stored in banker's boxes

In addition to table space, we do readings on our couch or on the front porch swing when its not too humid outside.  Its a foggy mess out there today!  Here are other random learning spaces in our home.

Bible timeline in entryway (behind front door when opened)

Hallway between dining and play rooms with world map and hopefully a timeline again soon

Sometimes we are able to take field trips, and can listen to some of the AO readings in the car as audiobooks.  We have even been known to "do school" while waiting on appointments.  There is no learning experience so well remembered as real life!

Where do you teach your children?

Why I Home School

*Back when I was thinking about starting the homeschooling adventure, I said I would come back

and try to explain it more thoroughly, so here it goes.

It boils down to the fact that I hold a different philosophy of education than what the public education

system holds (thank you, John Taylor Gatto for opening my eyes).  I don't believe children are meant

to go through the educational machine and come out the other end molded for society.  I believe that

God created them each as whole, separate beings with great plans in store for their lives, just waiting

to be discovered (Jeremiah 29:11).  To this end, I have created a list of goals, one for "education"

and the other for "social" - so he can understand and function in this day and age, but not be

conformed to it (Romans 12:2).

Educational Goals

-to have a right relationship with God

-to love sincerely: love, respect, sensitivity

-to adopt a healthy lifestyle: mind and body

-to work responsibly: use time efficiently, appreciate productive labor

-to communicate clearly: listening, speaking, reading, writing

-to enjoy beauty: see and receive satisfaction from it, create it, share it

-to reason perceptively: clear understanding, good logic and creative application

-to conduct personal business prudently: earn responsibly, invest wisely, spend
effectively, plan carefully

-to relate intelligently to the environment: understanding natural resources

-to understand our country and how it relates to the rest of the world

-to love learning and possess intellectual curiosity: retain an eagerness for life-long learning

Social Development Goals

-Social graces – courtesy and good manners
-Ability to make and enjoy friends
-Respect for authority – parents, adults, government, Creator
-Sensitivity to needs and feelings of others
-Conversation and correspondence skills
-Ability to give and take in normal relationships; grace to cooperate when things don’t go one’s way
-Skill in defusing tense situations – with cheerfulness and sensitivity
-Prudence in developing relationships – avoiding misunderstanding and proper precautions

from dishonesty in business relationships
-Leadership development, including good follower-ship

These ideas were drawn (mostly) from The Home School Manual by Theodore E. Wade, Jr. 

(I did edit them and boil them down to what fits for my family.)  As you can see, only some

of these goals are covered in other schools, and much of that elusive love of learning is too

easily stamped out as the children try to fit into the cookie cutters like the system expects

them to do. 

I only have once chance to raise him "right", and I don't want to miss it!

*This was originally posted here, on my foster parenting blog.