Seton's Third Grade Spelling, Hands on Style

Every family has one. You know? That child that isn't auditory, the child that isn't visual. They are the kinesthetic learner.  The hands on learner. The one thing I've found after twelve years of homeschooling and having four daughters is they all learn differently. They don't always learn in the way I wish they could. You know? My way. 

So when we got our Seton spelling book I found my youngest was having a very hard time with the third day activity when they had to put their words in ABC order.  I would write them down. we would talk about where to put what, but she just wasn't getting it. At all. 

So, in came index cards. Now before you say " Yawn, bore." They really do have their place in helping to teach spelling. 

The first thing I did was write all of her spelling words on the index cards. Thankfully these are so inexpensive.  I wrote them all down and then sat them all down , not it order of course.  We were able to sit on the floor ( you can sit where you are comfortable ) and we start going through the alphabet. We would start with A and work our way through. If she had words that started with A she would pull them out of the pile and we would figure which one would go first and she would add  them back into the pile, at the top and we would just shift the other cards over as we put them in order. This very act has really help solidify the concept and she no longer gets frustrated with it anymore. 

Maggie putting her cards in order

After we are finished putting them in order Maggie records them in her workbook. This has solved our issue of having to flip pages back and forth to see words.  No fuss , no muss. 

                                               Maggie writing her words in ABC order 

The next activity that has helped in learning to spell her words is Go Fishing.  Yes, we go fishing for our spelling words and spell them. This game is as easy as putting those index cards you wrote for the ABC Activity ( so keep those cards , don't throw them out! )  on the floor and using a 'fishing rod' which can consist of a wooden spoon, yarn at the end of it, and a magnet. Or  we used a play fishing rod that went to a game Maggie had gotten a long time ago for one of her birthdays.  Oh, yes, be sure to put paper clips on your 'fish' (index cards) so that they can catch them.  The rules of the game?  Catch the 'fish' (index card) with the rod, hand it over to the  parent or person they are playing with , and spell the word correctly. Spell it right, keep your 'fish' , spell it wrong and it goes back into the ' pond' (floor). They have to catch a different fish the next turn around if they miss it.  My daughter will usually play this game at least twice before she's done.  This is called sneaking in practice without them knowing it. 

                                                          Maggie 'catching her fish' 

The third activity that we do  is really fun too( remember keep those index cards you wrote up on the third day) . I had been Googling on the computer to find file folder games. When all else has usually failed I've found that file folder games usually save the day. So when I did. I found a really good website that had several file folder game boards you could print out for spelling from The Measured Mom  .We chose The Great Pumpkin Challenge to go along with our theme of November to use and my girls love using this file folder game to play.  They roll the dice, move their piece and spell the words. Can't get any easier than that. 

You can have your student spell them out loud

                                                  Or write the words on paper

                                                    The Great Pumpkin Challenge Game

                                                      Hey, one is fun, but two's a game! 

My last plan on action has been Colorful Words . This isn't so much as a game but just a hands on activity. It's almost like magic for words.  When we finally do Day 4, which is a pretest in the book , I have my daughter take her pretest and whatever words she missed we write them in colors. That's right. We have fun writing them in crayons. Each letter with a different color. I know when we did this particular lesson she had a very hard time remembering how to spell the word Catholic. By the time we were done doing this , she could easily spell the word with no problem. See?  Like Magic. 

 For younger children I write down the words , each in different colors. This was the first time my daughter did it so she just wrote them all in the same color the first time around. No big deal, it worked just fine.  Older children can do this activity on their own with minimal ( if they've never done it before) to no help at all. 

                                Amazingly enough she still remembers how to spell Catholic, 

So there you go. If you find that " just doing the workbook" isn't cutting it enough for your elementary aged hands on  child. These activities really have been helpful to use in getting them to remember how to spell their words.    Anyone out there with any more ideas? What has helped you with your hands on child with spelling? 

Our 2014-2015 School Year

We've finally been into our school year now since the end of August. So  I thought I would take some time to share with everyone what we decided to go ahead and use this year in our home school.
   First off, my children are growing up way to fast for my liking. My oldest daughter will be 17 years old in a few months and my youngest is 8 years old. Yikes!!!  Before I know it they will all be off to college!

Okay, back to reality.  This year I decided to try something very different. In the 12 years I've been homeschooling we've tried  a lot of different curricula out there. Some worked well and others not so much.  We even tried cyber schooling and though most of the girls did well with it. Katie really struggled to keep up.  So back to traditional homeschooling and back we stay. Cyber schooling really wasn't the good option it used to be for our family.  I've decided the one tried and trued way that works for us is traditional homeschooling.  

So many have asked. What are you using this year? Well, I wanted something that will bring the love of our faith to our children. I wanted something that was heavy on the Language Arts because as we all know, there is a lot of writing when you go to college and I wanted something that has a proven track record in providing a solid Catholic education that will prepare my children not only for the academic world outside of the home, but for life with God in it. So drum roll , please,.... we chose Seton.  

This year I am teaching 10th, 8th 5th and 3rd grades.  Though we are not enrolled with Seton this year, due to tight finances. The medical travel we've had to do the past several years with our youngest child really left us with with tighter finances now, so don't have enough this year to enroll. 

What I will do here is start with the lowest grade I'm teaching and work my way up. 

What can I say about Seton's 3rd grade? So much actually.  Compared to last year when we were doing cyber school. This level has been a breath of fresh air.  Last year was full of tears from my youngest daughter. Everyday was a struggle to get the work done. With the advent of Common Core, the work was completely not at all age appropriate for the 2nd grade level we were using last year with the cyber.  The curriculum had children writing a 5 page report  at the end of the year for second grade.  T We had many days were my daughter said she was ' stupid' because the work was to hard. 
 Fast forward to today and my daughter gladly takes out her books.  Just the other day Maggie told me, " Mom, I love my books from Seton. Can you get me more? "  What a HUGE turn around from last year. Last year whenever I would get her school books out  she would just cry and cry, and try and run away.  That says volumes to me that's for certain.  Not to mention my other girls are not complaining either. 

Reading-  This is our Valley, The Story Tree and This is Our Town.  
These books are wonderful. Honestly, you can't get any more wholesome with  stories than with the Seton readers. These were stories that were written most likely back in the 50's and 60's . These are stories that actually have a plot that children can actually learn from. Characters in the stories display virtues that people should still have in this day and age.  We love, love , love these stories. The first book, This is Our Valley, follows a story line with families, neighbors and townspeople of  Timber Town. Everyday we love to listen to the next story to find out what is happening in Timber Town .   We both look forward to getting to read the other story books this year.   I will say if your using Seton, and are not enrolled  with this grade level,  the story books do not have questions at the end of the stories like most readers.  So if your the type of person that would like to have a list of questions to ask about the story on hand , you won't have that, but you can get that if you enroll in their program. I will say I'm kind of in that category where we're not enrolled , but in the same breath I really don't find it to difficult to come up with questions about the story as we read along . 

Next onto the Seton 3rd Grade English. This is Seton's updated version of their grade 3 English.  This by far as been the best English program I've used in a very long time.  Last year my daughter had very little English instruction with the cyber school. What we did get was far over her head that she retained nothing from it.  So this year having the Seton English  book , again was a breath of fresh air. My daughter is learning English and in a way that  is age appropriate. Meaning there was real instruction in the book that she could look at , we could read together, see examples,  and she could practice with. 
The content in Seton's English 3 is exactly what I think a 3rd grade English program should have. Not to mention it is challenging at the same time , adding in skills like sentence diagramming, and even important skills like writing a letter.  It also includes how to address an envelope. Believe it or not today this is  becoming a lost skill on how to do that since ,so many people do so much of their interaction by email  and pay bills online. Its almost becoming obsolete.   

Another nice thing I like about this book is you can pretty much go in any order you want with the book. No need to start with Chapter 1. The only chapters I would say that would need to be done together, and after learning some grammar before ,  are the two chapters  that introduce diagramming sentences. Since you really need to know what a noun, verb, adjective etc. are to be able to do that. Other then that the other lessons do not rely on the other. 

 The first two chapters start with learning to write. I love the way Seton teaches writing and its been what I've been looking for all these years.  For years, writing has been such a difficult subject for me to teach. I'm a natural writer, and to think of the steps involved, had really been difficult for me , until now.  Seton's English 3  is very methodical and gives you what you need to do step by step. Starting with : 1st, Pick a topic. 2. Write down or make a chart of the things you know about that topic. Pick three of the things you listed in your list, then write them in the order you want to write it about. Then start with your beginning sentence. If your enrolled Seton has that provided for you to give your third grade student. If your not enrolled like we are , you can make two beginning sentences up yourself and have your student pick out the one they want. If you have a student that is a natural writer, challenge them with coming up with one of their own. Then, they go on to write three sentences with the three things they chose from their list and then end it all with an ending sentence. Then last but not least come up with a title for their paragraph. When I came across this , I thought, " Wow,this is genius!"  All these years I had used curricula that would tell me to: let them copy stuff down, do dictation, let them just write (regardless of mistakes), or it would teach you to chart ideas but never told you how many sentences really made up a paragraph , or that you needed to start with a good beginning sentence. I would get bits and pieces.  Seton truly put it altogether in a way that makes sense to me.   

I will say for Maggie that writing is a very difficult subject for her to do physically because of her hands , but we do a little at a time and break it down so its not so daunting for her. 

Next, is math. We chose to use Saxon math. This works well for Maggie. She needs the constant repetition that Saxon provides for her in math. Its not a subject that comes easy to her. Sadly, the math we used in the curriculum we used last year was so poorly put together I would have been better off going to Walmart and buying a cheap workbook . There had been no drill in the math book we had. It  was so all over the place with the  topics ,with no review that she learned almost nothing from it.  So we are using Saxon 2 right now.  Though she is actually getting close to completing it. We started working on it during the summer and I think she will be done with Saxon 2 at least by December. Then we'll move on to Saxon 3.    Seton does have their own math and it goes from K-4th grade. I'm not sure if Seton will be  going  any higher than that or not? So I figured since we will be switching to Saxon when she hits fifth grade I'm just going to stick with Saxon. Not to mention I may throw in Life of Fred for fun.  

My daughter is also enjoying spelling as well. We like how each day is separated on each page. Labeled with Day 1 , Day 2 , Day 3 and Day 4.  Day one has a short activity , it usually has them divide words into categories of some sort.  Activity two has fill in the sentence with the word, day three has them putting their list in ABC order.  With that activity I've had to get a bit hands on with that to help my daughter see what she is putting in order. 

I've  added in other activities to make learning to spell her words fun.  I'll share more about that in a different post, but it works for us. On Day 4 they have a pretest to get them ready for their Friday test, and this works really well. I keep our cards I make for our games and we review them often.  After each quarter( which is about 8 lessons in the book) there are two pages devoted to practicing all 8 lessons. They can write out their words, you can play games with them , or whatever you need to do to review those words. So its not taught and just forgotten.   

Seton handwriting is a beautiful book. For this grade level they have letters and words typed in with the light grey so that your student can trace the words. Of course there is plenty of room if they don't need that type of reinforcement but I think it really helps children to learn how to form those letters the proper way.  This book uses words that start with each letter of the alphabet and that includes Catholic words too. There are also some exercises in there like: match the manuscript letter to the cursive letter, copy a poem or a prayer, fill in the blank to put the days of the week or months of the year in order. It also has a manuscript practice at the end of the book for practice should they need it. I love this book as its something my daughter can pick up and needs no assistance from me to do. Of course I check in the book to make sure she is forming them right later on in the day. But this is something I can hand her when I'm working with one of her sisters on something. 

Though I have this listed as last , this by far is not at all the least in the Seton program. Actually this is one of the best parts of the Seton program. My daughter absolutely loves this book along with the First Communion Baltimore Catechism book that we have. This book follows the Catechism. Each day we start with Religion. Its the most important subject of the day.  This book is beautifully put together. I honestly can't say enough wonderful things about it. 

Each page is divided into days just like the spelling book. In this book lessons are about a page long for each day. We sit together , and either she or I read the pages and we discuss the questions at the end of the lessons together. We are only on week two and she has learned more than she has had having three years of Religious Education class.  I also bought some of the St. Joseph picture books that go along with some of the topics to reinforce what she is learning and she absolutely loves them. So much so, I plan on getting her some more for Christmas.  If you are Catholic and you use anything out of Seton , I highly recommend their Religion books. 

We also have the History book for 3rd grade. It's small enough that we can go over it about once a week or so. This makes me feel like if we don't get to it , its no biggie because we have plenty of time in the year to finish it. As well we are using Apologia Elementary science. This year we are finishing Astronomy. This was a shorter book and we also worked through some of it through the summer so we are actually close to being done with it. 

Now there are some books I don't have at the moment. Like the Vocabulary book, or the Reading Comprehension book and Art book. We're  getting there in our collection of school books though. But this has really kept us busy that its very easy to get them when we need it and just add it in. 

Grade 5 

Here H is working on her Vocabulary 5 book 

I'll go ahead and spare you pictures of all of the books for 5th grade. There are just so many of them.  

Of course we love the Readers. The nice thing about the 5th grade readers is they actually start to have questions at the end of the story to reinforce what they've read.  There are two readers : These are our People and Book of Gratitude. The first book has those wonderful wholesome stories that I mention just like in the 3rd grade reader. Stories that children this age level can relate to . along with stories about Saints as well. The Book of Gratitude is a book full of poems about Saints and barefoot summer days. Makes an excellent study of poetry for this grade level. This book does not contain a questions and answers. I imagine lessons for this book are in the Seton lesson plans. 

 The English is a little different than the third grade in the fact you do have to go in order. It expands on learning how to write and teaches a lot more diagramming. Its a large book with about 212 lessons. It provides plenty of practice for kids who need it, and parents can skip things that children know and move on. 

  The history is very interesting and even I've learned a thing or two about American History. Though I do need to find a way to make history a bit more interesting for my 5th grader as its not her favorite subject. 

The handwriting book for 5th  has them writing in smaller spaces and they get to write facts and Catholic facts about each state in our glorious United States. I've even learned a few things just by sifting through the pages of the book. 

 The Vocabulary book has been a bit of a challenge. Its not quite set up like the 3rd grade vocabulary from what I can compare online ( since I don't have the 3rd grade vocab yet).

 The book is divided by days so the child does one page per day. The first exercise has them looking up definitions of words in a dictionary, but they don't exactly match up the same as the rest of the exercises. So to remedy that I'm going to pull out the middle page and have them match up the definitions from the crossword page that way they can do the day two lesson.  Its just a little backwards in that way. If I had my own way I would have them match up the word to the definition given by the book as not to confuse them. Not to mention we're still working on the exercise C that seems to be trumping my 5th and 8th grader up a bit. They'll get it, it will take time. Its something new to them so they'll get it. 

The Spelling is set up the same as 3rd in the way its divided up by having one exercise to do a day. Instead of having a pretest like third grade does at the end. It concludes each lesson with a story about a Saint  using the words with the same spelling rule.  

 As always the Religion book is beautiful. Each lesson is about 2 to 3 pages long with a few questions or crossword puzzles to go along with it. Again its something we sit and do together. I'll admit being a convert to the Catholic faith, and having had grown up in Catholic schools , I've learned more about the Catholic faith in these books then I have in quite some time. Even grown ups need to learn the basics and this truly sets a very good foundation for children in their Catholic faith. I've also found that the 5th grade expands even more on what is learned in the 3rd grade. So my 8 year old will try and gladly answer some of the questions she already knows as she is a little bit more ahead in her book than her 11 year old sister is in her book.  Call it a little bit of girl  competitiveness if you will, but it also shows me , when they answer each other's questions that they actually have been listening even when I think they haven't at all.   We also have the Concise Bible History which we read. Its a short book about the stories in the Bible and we use the Baltimore Catechism to go along with it. This makes an excellent religious education program. 

Grade 8 

Grade 8 is pretty similar to grade 5 with the books. Many of them are set up the same way.  

Though the English is broken up into 2 Semesters. With the first focusing on English skills and the 2nd on Writing.  

The  American History book for grade 8 is more than excellent. I've found myself picking it up and just reading it the book is that good. 

Spelling is set up pretty much the same as 5th grade , but the words are far more challenging. I even bought my 10th grader the same spelling book to do her spelling along with her 8th grade sister as the words are very challenging and I KNOW she doesn't know how to spell them. 

 We use Saxon for math, Apologia Biology for 8th and the Vocab is set up the same as 5th but of course with harder words.

 The Religion course for 8th is Witness of the Faith and is the  history of the Catholic church from the beginning of Jesus Christ to modern times. Its a good book but packed full of information that can sometimes be hard to absorb at times. We are working through this very slowly. 

 Reading is the same , set up just like the 5th. With wonderful stories with moral values, and Catholic stories spread throughout ending with questions for each story. 

Grade 10 

If you've managed to make it this far we are also using parts of their 10th  grade. This year my oldest is taking a few classes at our local high school ( Health Tech course, and Algebra 1 and Geometry). We are using Christ the King Lord of History, we are also using the High School Grammar book, which is a nice review of the stuff that was taught in the 8th grade book. And the literature from Seton as well. Right now we are getting ready to read Animal Farm. I haven't decided what to use for Religion as Seton's religion seems to be a bit dull for the High School  levels. I do have the Understanding the Mass book. I may go ahead and get the Seton books but the Didache series seems far more appealing than the Fr. John Laux books they use. 

All in all I am extremely happy with Seton. So much so I plan on using nothing else now. I will admit I wish we could have enrolled with the school. I believe it would make my life much easier as far as that is concerned having four children.Its very difficult to keep on top of everything without lesson plans.  Especially with Writing, Reading and Religion. I wish I had the lesson plans and guidance for some of that. Hopefully ,with more praying, God will provide in that area.  I believe I have finally found my happy place with Seton after all these years. I will admit that I wish I would have known about Seton sooner because I like the fact that the curriculum focuses first on Christ. They also focus a lot on the importance of language arts as well and that will take them far into future as far as college goes. Honestly though, you can't get any better with a curriculum that was created to prepare children not just for the things of this world ,but for life in the next world with God.   

So if you use Seton, what do you all like about the curriculum?  Post in the comments below. 

Another wonderful summer (2014)

Oh my goodness, where did the summer go? The girls' summer this year was full of fun and activity. They've enjoyed everything from going to camp, to visiting with family , to just some down days thrown in between with cooking smores and hot dogs over the open fire. 
I definitely can say I don't regret having such a busy summer. Though sometimes its just nice to rest and relax before jumping into a new school year. 

Marilyn started off her summer with going to her Aunt Erica's house in the city. There she spent one week taking the YMCA Lifeguard course that they hold each summer for the kids that are 16 and up. There, Marilyn learned how to become a lifeguard and got her license to become a lifeguard. We were very proud of her and she starts her new job here pretty soon. 

Shortly after this Marilyn went off to do the Catholic Hearts Workcamp. Is a very nice church camp activity for the kids in high school. They go to an area and help families who are in need to fix their homes. Marilyn had a wonderful time and she made life long friends , even though they live very far away.  
In the meanwhile, we decided to buy a slip and slide. For a short time we had a warm summer so we enjoyed it while it had lasted. 

Thankfully a little bit in between Marilyn had some time to rest and relax. Then before we knew it my sister came to visit us with the kids. At one point we had  10 children in the house. It was fun of life and fun and the girls really enjoyed having tons of fun. 

                                                  Maggie and Nay, Nay  both age 7 

                                          Having a picnic outside on our brand new picnic table

                                    Little Banana  enjoying being a country girl (age 11months) 
Then before the kids new it they were off to Miracle Mountain Camp for another year of camp. This was their 4th year of going and they've always enjoyed going and learning new things, making new friends.  They usually would go earlier in the summer but for the first time all of the camps were full and they had to go on a different time.  It was nice because not only did the girls go but they had their cousins with them at camp this time too. 

While the girls were at camp their cousins from their dad's side came to visit for a little bit. So Maggie had some time to spend with them doing Vacation Bible School and taking a visit to the Audubon Society.

                                                      Kora ,Collin and Maggs

Say hello to Liberty the Eagle. She was rescued when she had an infected wing and has to live at the sanctuary because she cannot fly long distances anymore because of it. She is a beautiful bird. 

A very pretty butterfly that flew by us and landed on the ground. 

Quick strike a pose! 

                                          Bet you thought that turtle was real! Ha, ha.  Actually it was part of the                                           pretend fishing pond inside the Audubon Center. 
After the week was over , we went to pick the girls up from camp, and they got to show off some of what they did.  Its always nice because they have a fun family picnic for everyone and the kids who take horse camps get to show off some of their skills. 

                                           Marilyn surprised us in taking vaulting this year. It was her first time 
                                       and she wished she would have done it sooner. 

                                                Hannah's 4th year doing Horse Vaulting 

                                             Maggie  the little country girl at camp. She saved enough money to buy                                   a cowgirl hat and canteen. 

                                         One of the many things the girls enjoy doing at camp,,, Trailrides. 

Now that we are done with all the camp and activities we are now settling down and enjoying the rest of the dog days of summer. 

Hannah and Daddy cooking some hot dogs over a fire. 

                                     Marilyn and Maggie spending some time with each other

                                        Of course we can't forget the ice cream truck. They've been enjoying that all summer. Thankfully our ice cream truck guy doesn't charge you out of existence for ice cream. 


I can definitely say we've had a great summer this year.  Now that we're winding down we're also starting to prepare for school.  I am still in the midst of figuring out what we plan on using with each of the girls, yet. Usually I'm very on top of what we plan on using before the new school year starts. What we do know is we'll be using Saxon Math with the girls. Other then that I'm leaning towards piecing things together.    The one thing we are sure of is that we are done with cyberschooling  as they are going Common Core now. So back to traditional homeschooling we will stay.   
                                              So here is to another wonderful summer! 

The End of the School Year and Happy Father's Day!

This week has been a wonderful week to start our summer out. First off we have our very first official lifeguard in the Reed Family. We are so proud of M. Not only did she go and stay at her aunt's house in the city for a week without us, she passed her lifeguard test. Now she can work for our local Y for the summer and finally earn some money that she will faithfully start saving for college.  I will say even though she was gone for a week we missed her very much. I am not looking forward to the day she moves away.  I definitely don't feel ready for that, but its going to come whether I like it or not.  So , yes, I am a mother to a lifeguard.  I can't wait for that first picture too.

                                  Marilyn packed up and ready to go for lifeguard class 
While Marilyn was gone we finished up the rest of our school year. We were so glad to be done. This year we had thought going the cyber school route would make life easier for us since Maggie had to have surgery in September. Sadly, it made it far more stressful.  We felt trapped this year, like prisoners in our home because we were beholden to the computer schedules for their classes. The first child started at 8 am for classes and we would go down the chain , with the next child at 9 am , and the next at 10 am and school would not end until 3. That did not include the home work and so most days school did not end until after 5 pm or even later some days. This is how I felt about our year: 
  Mare:   was bogged down with so much work there was just no time for extra stuff and the very little extra stuff she did have, like band felt more like work to her than something to be enjoyed because she had so much home work to do for the classes.   Mare's math teacher was 100% awful as in most everything she learned in class we had to turn around and relearn somewhere else because she taught over their heads and never did any practice with the kids in the class. It was a total joke.   She barely passed the class. I was not happy because it truly was the first time she's done poorly with a math class. 
For Language arts again I was disappointed. No grammar was taught at all. None. It was read, and do a bunch of Power point assignments where some made very little sense at all. Marilyn did a very good job with them but the teacher knit picked everything so much that she lost all want to ever write again. Sigh.  Marilyn did enjoy her Chemistry class, which actually she did very well in and her History were she took a 1960's History class and World Religion that she really enjoyed. 

Katie just didn't do well over all at all period. Whether we tried self paced or online classes the curriculum just didn't make sense to her and to be honest neither to us because her grade level was phasing in Common Core. Or should I say Common Crap?  It was horrible , her math made no sense at all and we all struggled to help her.  The only teacher she liked was her social studies teacher. Her science teacher believed in learning through osmosis pretty much giving them assignments where the work wasn't taught to them in the books or through lecture. 

Hannah did well with virtual class , though I was very disappointed in how the math was being taught. She passed all of her classes but hated it. Hannah is my child that wants to learn and move on. She hated waiting for everyone to finish up on the computer. Some days I found her playing with her Nintendo 3DS or crocheting while waiting. 

Maggie did well but she absolutely hated her work. There was far to much writing for 2nd graders , and was not age appropriate at all.  To me 2nd graders should be learning how to write sentences properly. Not worrying about writing persuasive essays  and 5 page research papers at the end of the school year. The math was so horrible that I had to pull out the Saxon math to finally get her to remember her math facts and actually learn math.  Everything , even the reading , was just boring and we had no time at all to veer off and just learn more if something caught our interest. Which was extremely rare. 

We just found ourselves just wanted to get work done. There was no enjoyment in it at all for us. I know cyber schooling can work for some families. It just did not for us at all.  Not to mention doing this with four children was just very tough. I found myself shifting from helping a 9th grader, then helping the 2nd grader, and helping the 4th grader and then the 7th grader. I was constantly shifting gears, reteaching things that were taught during the day.  Just , not for us.  

                                          Our end of the year school pictures. Yay! 
With all of that said we are just so glad that its summer time. We are spending this summer on doing some lite homeschooling. Meaning remediation in subjects that were totally wasted this summer not learning from , like math , science and writing.  I guess after this, you live and you learn and move on. 

So right now I'm in the process of trying to figure out what we'll be using for this upcoming school year. I'm not 100% sure yet but we do know we'll be using Apologia for science like we always have and Saxon for math. 

So far we've started off this summer on a great start. The weather has been less than great though but its just the start of summer so I'm hoping it will improve.  We've had a lot of rain and I'm hoping my garden doesn't die on me here because of it.  
While Mare was gone we had a few things go on. First, was their end of the year Girl Scout banquet. We had a nice little get together. The group was very small this year so it went very quickly. The girls received their awards and I accepted Mare's. 

After that a few days later we celebrated Hannie's birthday. She is 11 now!  Wow, has time flown by.  My girls are growing up to be such beautiful young ladies, and may I add, crazy funny too. 

Yesterday we had a parade for our festival here where we live. Everyone but Katie was in it this year.  After being gone over a week Mare fell into step in the parade with the flag. She was so happy that they had gotten done one day early as well as I.

Fest parade 2014 

Of course the weather was very cold. I almost had to wonder if it was summer or fall. So they were pretty cold marching especially Maggie. We made sure we dressed her the warmest we could. Hannie, well we're convinced she had no nerve endings because she said she was just fine. 

Last but not least we don't want to forget to say Happy Father's Day to all those dads out there who make life crazy and fun for our children. To all those dads out there that help with homeschooling and are just all around great guys.   To all of you , thank you for all you do to help shape our children into what they will be someday. Along with all the goofiness. 

Pennsylvania dialect.. or poor grammar? You decide

Okay, so today I came across a post on Facebook on a Catholic homeschooling blog. It was of course one I had to join in.  The question of the post was .... "  Question time! Consider this an opportunity to vent. Whether you have lived in an area all your life, are new to an area or are still seething from an area you once lived, we ALL know colloquialisms in use in particular areas that drive us insane (grammatically speaking). What bothers ME the most locally is the use of the word "left" in place of the word "let" as in, "She left it go." What is yours? Go!!"

Of course I had to jump in on that because , face it, people from Pennsylvania have a talk all of their own.  No where else can you go and hear the words yins, yinz, youns and you'uns. No where, because  from Pittsburgh up to the Northwest we speak Pittsburghese, or otherwise known as " Steeler Talk".   Though the dialect isn't as strong here as it is in Pittsburgh .It has somehow managed   to travel up our way.

  The Urban Dictionary defines Pittsburgese as :

The Pittsburgh English dialect, or "Pittsburghese," derives from influences from the Scotch-Irish, German, Central European and Eastern European immigrants. The dialect is somewhat similar in tone to other nearby regional dialects (ie, Philadelphia, Baltimore), but is noted for its somewhat staccato rhythms (a result of the Eastern European influence). The lexicon itself contains notable cognates borrowing from Croatian and other Slavic and European languages. Examples include babushka, pierogi, and halushky.

Emblematic of Pittsburghese is "yinz" as the plural of "you", with "yunz" as a variant. Locals who speak the Pittsburgh dialect are often referred to as "yinzers".

Speakers of the dialect also often compress the pronunciation of words and phrases. For example, "up there" becomes "up er." Speakers also often end a sentence with "and that", pronounced as, "n'at." For example, a local "yinzer" might say, "We went dahntahn to go get some beer n'at."

 Though we are not total yinzers we do use many of the words ,and little did we realize until today how many we do use in our daily language. Words that no one else really uses or very few ever do if you move outside of Pennsylvania. 

So let me know hit you in the head with some ( not all mind you) of the Pittsburghese we speak here.    I know my daughters got a kick out of hearing what I wrote (before I typed it on the blog here) and realized that we actually talk this way.  Here goes :

 We drink pop (soda). I didn't realize that was different until we were in Cincinnati , Ohio.  When I asked my daughter if she wanted some pop , someone said " I love it when I hear that."
  My girls own doll babies ( baby dolls ) that they love to walk around with in their buggies ( baby carriages) , we have dunky eggs( eggs over easy) in the morning , We love kelbassi , ( you'd better love kelbassa if your Polish like we are) with pierogi ( a large noodle stuffed with potato filling)  , and dippy( anything you can dip into) sauce to go along with it . Hoagies ( submarine subs) are a must in the summer time when its so muggy outside. Also nothing better than city chicken ( pork on a skewer and fried) when your funds are low . If you go on picnics don't forget the chipped chopped ham ( thin slices of ham). If its cold outside then don't forget to wear your babushka ( head scarf). If you decide to travel to the 'Burgh' ( Pittsburgh) you may encounter yous, yins, yinz , youns , you'uns ( which really can mean a whole lot of things) . When you get back from your trip and get home you may want to wash your car so you need to turn on the spicket ( outside faucet to the hose) and then go inside and yinz better redd up ( clean up) the room. If you send your child out to school , you are sending them to the el-e-men-tar-y  ( elementary)school. Which that is more of a dialect in our area rather than Pittsburgese.  We also worsh (wash) our clothes, and hopefully you get along with your neighbor because if he's not so nice he just maybe a jagg off.


 We are very guilty of using, whenever to much in our sentences 

 My sister, whenever she gets here, will come over soon.

And we use, anymore, way more than whenever. 
 It seems like I don't understand her anymore.
"I don't get my neighbor, to much , anymore.

 We're also guilty of taking the the g's off of INGs in our area. 
Ex: Talkin, Jumpin, Walkin .

 We have a tendency to forget to add the words such as , to be, and just use :  need , want and like ,
 The car needs washed,
The cat wants petted, babies liked cuddled" , yeah and we're also guilty of " the room needs vacuumed.

We also have different intonations to vowel sounds too. Its no wonder we all learn to read and speak up here. Of course you might not hear some of the other words used in Pittsburgese here like jimmies , gumband, jumbo and the other ( check this website out for more: http://pittsburghspeech.pitt.edu/PittsburghSpeech_PgheseOverview.html) So as you can see. After typing this all out , honestly we Pennsylvanians have a funny way of talking. 

If you want to know what word drives me totally nuts that people say? Ax, like in for instance " Can I ax (ask) you something?"   Drives me batty.. 
So what are some words that drive you batty or are part of your everyday speaking in your area?