Multiculturalism
Every morning as I'm serving breakfast, I hear the cheerful chorus of "Tauts meeywi, xie xie Eetsa!" I hear it from all the kids, including Sammy. And just what is this merry greeting?
Why it's good morning, thank you mother, in the original combination of Mandarin Chinese and Nez Perce Indian! But like you didn't know that. Of course that's what it is!
I speak Chinese, or used to any ways. The kids pick up random words here and there, hence the xie xie. And by the way, you haven't really lived till you've heard a very small boy who can't really speak English yet trying to speak Chinese. Priceless.
The girls are in a club based on the American Girls, and we're studying Kaya right now. She happens to be Nez Perce, so there you get the rest of the mouthful. They have cradleboards for their dolls that they wear all over the house, they love to wear headdresses, but they really really love the language. I think it's because the words are so dang fun to say--for example, they called themselves the Nimiipuu. See if you can say it without giggling!
I wonder how many families get to start their days with this extraordinary greeting! Not many, I'm guessing.
Labels: homeschool, Kids
Kids gone wild
In the aftermath of a party here, I found an admiral hat behind the couch and a pair of panties on the piano.
Exactly what kind of a frat party was this??
Homeschool science co-op. We're a wild and crazy bunch!
Labels: homeschool
A day in the life
We get up this morning. I'm not telling what time I actually hauled my very pregnant self out of the bed, nor divulging just how much Playhouse Disney my kids might have watched before I did. That's getting just a little
too personal.
We had breakfast of cornflakes with fresh strawberries sliced on top. Can you believe my kids have never had cornflakes before? Steve found some amazing deal on cereal for $.30/box. We stocked up, and now have around 30 boxes of cold cereal. Guess they'll get quite familiar with the taste of cornflakes before too long!
We do chores and I start some laundry. Hazel colors some pictures from the Felicity books, and announces that since two of the girls in the picture are from another country (England), they need different colored skin. Gold skin.
Scripture time goes well. We have a discussion about when Christ will come again, and why it's important to have our hearts continually prepared. Hazel asks if there are any 'clues' about when his coming will be, so we talk about some of the signs of his coming. We talked about the gospel being preached all over the world, but Chloe mentions, "not China or that place where Christ used to live." How do they know this stuff?
After discussing rudimentary Chinese politics, Hazel has the bright idea to stage a coup of the Chinese government man and his family. When I discourage this idea, the girls launch a half hour discussion of all the different ways a cook for the chinese government could insert lots of cayenne pepper and salt and lemons into jelly beans and cake, thus shocking their palates into allowing the gospel in. Chloe, in her list of horrible ingredients, included "10 cups of salt, 6 cups of pepper, and just 2 butters, because you know, their veins? We don't want to hurt their veins too much, huh Mom." Nice to know that the sabotage doesn't include any artery clogging!
Chloe read a couple of Bob books to me (my that kid is doing amazing with her reading! She's far more fluent than her older sister. In fact, her learning to read has been how I pictured the whole process--very organic and natural), and Hazel narrated a composition on the piano about elves and witches and birds. It was very dramatic. Chloe skipped off to do some math pages while I did reading with Hazel.
She called me to task for letting my eyes stray off her face while she was reading. Getting through two Bob books takes us a loooong time, and if my eyes are anywhere but on her she comes unglued. If there is another child in the room she melts. Distractions are not permitted, period. Good heavens!!!
Hazel does some math, then I look at the clock and realize we're late to pick up Steve from the airport. We pile in the car and listen to some music. They correctly identify violins, flutes, piano, trumpet, and cello. I tell them the story of Narcissus, prompted by Hazel's lovely behavior during school. Chloe actually knew the story far better than I, and filled in many details for me, including a description of the narcissus flower. Thank you,
Jim Weiss! I told them the story of the Mormon pioneers and the
seagulls and crickets, and they loved it.
While in the car, I realized that despite my innumerable deficiencies as a homeschooling mother, they are learning. Happy thought!!
Steve is home for 4 whole days!!!! We're so excited, so we go straight from the airport to the bowling alley. The cuteness of watching Calvin lift up his ball to bowl almost shreds my heart! Chloe bowls with flair--she has a special 'duck waddle bowl', and the super running start approach. Hazel gamely tries to bowl like a grown-up. So fun!
We veg all afternoon. Outside play, some computer time, and a quick nap. My mom and sister dropped by and were told by Hazel that "my mommy and daddy are in bed together, sleeping together so don't go in!" Unfortunately, not that kind of 'nap'. This was the real deal with drool and a sprawled out Calvin in between us. The other kind will just have to wait!
And now we're going for game night with my siblings. Such a fun, typical, crazy, day in the life kind of day!
Labels: homeschool, Kids
Little sponge
We've been listening to a classical CH for kids in the car lately, and I was playing a kind of 'name that tune' game with them. They had to guess the composer and the name of the piece. We've listened to it a bunch of times, so they're quite familiar with the pieces by now.
Hungarian Rhapsody came on, and I asked the girls who composed it. They thought and thought for a while, then I heard a tiny Calvin voice pipe up, "FranList, dat's Franlist!!"
Yes, my two year old can recognize Franz Liszt! I've been laughing all day about this. Of course, he calls Fur Elise and Beethoven's 5th both 'Baby Einstein', cause that's where he first heard them!
Labels: homeschool, Kids
Back to normal
Miraculously, this boy of mine is perfect. He woke up yesterday (after sleeping all night through, I might add) without any temperature and all smiles. He ate, ran around, jumped, danced, got into mischief, and was generally a normal baby. Incredible how resilient these little people can be!
We didn't get all the learning time in yesterday I would have liked--every other Tuesday we have a whole afternoon of outside activities. But we got in some good violin practice, both the girls read to me, and during our (3 minute) math time, Hazel had a major lightbulb moment.
She randomly asked me 9+9. I asked her what 10+10 is, and she quickly answered 20. Then she started thinking and announced the answer to be 19, and insisted I was wrong when I said it's actually 18. We grabbed the Math U See blocks and I used those to illustrated the difference between 9+9 and 10+10. The joy in her face was radiant when she 'got it.' I LOVE those moments of elucidation. Big reason I'm a homeschool mom.
My housecleaner took advantage of us being gone for the afternoon and did the carpets. So I have a sparkling clean house, well-rested, HEALTHY for the first time in weeks kids, and life is very very good.
Thanks to everyone for your concern for my sweet baby. Very traumatic for the day, but now you'd never know there'd been a problem!
Labels: homeschool
Breakthroughs
Something clicked today. Big time. Hazel read me 100!!! pages of this Dick and Jane book! On her own, bringing it to me at different times throughout the day. She set a goal of getting to page 100, and she did it. I am so completely proud of her.
Reading has been such a struggle, but she has pushed through whatever wall was holding her back, and she's full of joy today. Sure, most of the pages are of the 'look, look, see, see' variety, but she read them! And by page 100, the pages were much more complex: "Baby Sally said, "Oh, Mother. Sally is big. Sally wants to work. Sally wants to help." Mother said, "Run, Sally. Run to the car. Run to the car and help me. Big big Sally can help me."
I know it's not phonics, and it's a lot of word recognition, but I couldn't be more thrilled. She's actually reading. She can sound out the phonetic words, and she figured out words like 'little', 'down', and 'find' on her own. So dang exciting I can't stand it!!
Labels: homeschool
Super Tuesday
Guess what, guess what??? We had a great, no, a FABULOUS homeschool day today!!! One of those where you get to every single thing, they learn, cooperate, and are in bed by 7:15 so their mama can watch American Idol and knit. Did I just admit that?? Ummm, yeah. Guilty pleasures.
So here's the breakdown of the day. Baked oatmeal for breakfast. 20 minute clean up time accompanied by boisterous music--everyone worked hard and we actually got things looking sparkly before starting lessons. Scripture study this morning was a little giggly, but hey, I've got 6 and 4 year old little girls, and a 2 year old who loves to make them giggle. It's bound to happen sometimes. We're memorizing the 6th Article of Faith and John 3:16 and they've got both of them down pretty well.
Chloe's doing so great with her reading!! We're using Reading Reflex right now, and since the girls are at exactly the same spot, we do lessons together. I'm thinking that this might be a program that Hazel will do well with. After a year and a half of reading short vowel 3 letter words, I'm really suspecting some kind of dyslexia. She's obviously bright--her intelligence isn't the problem at all. It's such a blessing to be homeschooling where she can do this at her own pace, and in the way that will help her succeed.
We did history from Story of the World about Moses and the 10 plagues. The girls acted out Moses in the bulrushes for me. We read dozens of books about space and ants and wild horses, so I'm considering science to be covered.
Hazel did a couple of pages in her Math U See Alpha book. I filled out the certificate at the end of the Primer book, and at the bottom of it there's a line, 'you're becoming a math whiz!' Apparently that has had a big impression on Hazel, because every time she sits down to do her math she gives a little wriggle of pride and tells me what a whiz she is. She's doing a lot better with reversals when writing numbers.
After a quick lunch, Hazel went to Liberty Girls, which is a club based on the American Girls series. I took Chloe and Calvin to the library and we read dozens of books. The kids did some art projects with a new set of crayon/pastels/watercolors we got from Rainbow Resource today, then we headed to dance and gymnastics. It's one of those community ed classes that are really cheap and held in a middle school. Yeah. Just going into the middle school cafeteria reminds me of all the reasons that I'm homeschooling! But the kids have a blast and they get some great exercise.
Came home and put them straight into bed. Our current read aloud is Cynthia Rylant's
Gooseberry Park. Such a darling book!! The language is rich and detailed, and it pulls you right into the story. The girls beg me for more chapters every night, and it is truly one of the sweetest books I've ever read.
After all that running around, they were all asleep by 7:15! Such a perfect homeschool day.
Labels: Books, homeschool
An actual post
Oy vey. Why is it that the longer I wait to post, the more insurmountable it becomes? Seriously, it feels so overwhelming to write anything--how can I possibly catch up on everything--so why even bother? Dang perfectionism.
Life is good. Life isn't just good, it's GOOD. Thanksgiving was wonderful and perfect, and things just keep getting better and better. I guess a large part of my rosy outlook stems from the fact that my Steve is done traveling in just one more week. One more week of single-parenthood, then I get him home full-time for 2 beautiful months!!! And if that isn't enough to make anyone giddy, I don't know what is. It's been a long couple of months--lots of being really, really sick and just trying to get through the fog of first trimester yuckiness. Steve has worked so so hard and he desperately needs this break. Good times.
We put our tree up last night. I'm so regretting the purchase of the fake tree a few years back. At the time it seemed like my happiness would only be complete with a pre-lit tree, but now...eh. I'm missing the real one, the smell, the feel. But at the same time, is there anything more of a pain than trying to haul a tree home from the lot, set it up, saw off the bottom. Hmmmmm. Maybe this one isn't so bad after all!
We're starting to get into a routine with school again. I consider us 'off-track' for the last couple of months. Not so much schooling there. I could barely feed them, let alone teach them anything. PBS did most of that. But now, we're actually doing real math, regular reading and phonics, and lots and lots of read alouds. Hazel has been at the cat,sat,hat level of reading for about a year now. I can't seem to find the hook that will take her beyond that. I haven't known how hard to push, how much to require, how to inspire her. But she's finally finally breaking through, ever so slowly, but she's starting to get it. It's been interesting to realize that she doesn't learn exactly like I do, and that's ok.
Chloe, on the other hand, is reading little Bob books now, flawlessly. I worked with Hazel for so long, I kind of missed the signs of readiness with her. So when she started sounding out words on her own, it took me by surprise. Now she gets her own one-on-one school time and she's absolutely thriving. So fun.
Calvin recognizes about 12 letters and startles me when he identifies new ones correctly. He's learning so much just through osmosis--it's been so fun to watch. He likes a few of the letters far too much, I'm thinking, since he pried his favorite keys off my computer. My Y key is now permanently wonky, but the others recovered.
Anyway, kids are clamoring for breakfast, laundry needs to be transferred, Steve will be at the airport in a few hours, and there is much to do before he comes home! Mrs. D, thanks so much for the encouragement!! I appreciate it completely.
Labels: homeschool, Kids
Dreams of crustaceans
This morning Hazel came to me with the problem that every homeschooling mom hates to hear. "Mom, I just want to go to real school." Emphatically.
So I started to get to the root of the problem. What exactly was she looking for that she wasn't getting at home?
"Well, at school they get to choose their own lunches, like pizza...or shrimp salad."
Hmmmmm. Shrimp salad?? Not at any elementary cafeteria I've ever seen! Come to think of it, this kid of mine has never even tasted shrimp salad! Their brains are really odd sometimes.
But seriously, we had a great conversation about what things she'd like to do more of (cooking and hiking) and how we can make homeschool more fulfilling for her. Things have been pretty haphazard around here for the last little while. Poor kids are still kind of fending for themselves most of the time.
Whenever my beloved mother feeds us (often) my kids get so excited to see real vegetables on the table. Calvin just claps for the broccoli. Talk about guilt!!
I told the kids that when I throw up it means that the baby is healthy and strong, so now they watch expectantly for the tell-tale look, then cheer heartily for me. Great.
Labels: homeschool, Kids
Quote of the day
We went to a big American Heritage activity today, with mountain man, pioneer, and native american reenactments. Tons to do and learn about--very fun. Anyway, the coordinator was pointing out some of the different activities to our little homeschool group and told us that we didn't have to do things on a schedule like the ps groups that go through.
"After all," she said, "you're homeschoolers and will ask lots more questions than the other groups."
How cool is that?
Labels: homeschool
Some days are jewels
Every now and then, things click and a day is elevated from plain good to pure magic. There are
days, and then there are the days that shine in your memory as perfect. Yesterday was one of those days.
We went to
Sarah's for our biweekly history project. We made a model of the Nile, sculpted crocodiles and pyramids, flooded it and planted crops in the silt. The kids loved the project, and it was the picture perfect homeschool moment for me. I'm so glad we get to do these projects together--it makes everything so much more fun for the kids, and me, too. We planned out the next couple of months, but decided that we're going to hold off on mummifying a chicken until our boys are 11, 10 and 9.
After the project, we drove up the canyon--it was such a stunning fall day. Leaves turning, deep blue sky, warm but not hot...perfect. We hiked a ways then came to a gorgeous grotto, where we had lunch. Sarah's got more pictures of the grotto (I forgot my camera!!) The big girls sketched while the little boys played. Calvin mostly fussed, but there's gotta be a bit of reality someplace, right?
Amazing day. Once we came home, the littles napped, then the girls painted pictures with our new watercolor crayons. Meanwhile, I made a big batch of applesauce and started salsa.
Happy sigh. These days don't come along often, but when they do they give me faith that this path that we're taking is actually working. When I commented to my girls on what a great day, Hazel could only find Disneyland days to compare it to. And when you're 5, that's saying a lot!
Labels: adventures, homeschool
Word 'families'
Everything in our house gets anthropomorphized. Whether it's
cars and cheese sticks,
candy, or
cosmetics, everything gets turned into a family.
So why should phonics be any different? My tactic this last week was Word Families. And by families I mean the absolutely mommy-daddy-baby sense. So for example, I introduced the -
old family. A family complete with mommy, daddy, and baby of course, but they have lots of extended family. Chilly cousin C, noisy aunty B, cuddly cousin H, blustering uncle T who always tells people what to do, and stinky, festering uncle M.
Hazel laughed and laughed, got the concept, and asked to play it again and again. So I'd do my best voices, we'd put the appropriate letter in front of the -old family, and act it out. We did the same thing with the -ilds and the -alls. Man, there are a lot of stories that happen with the -alls. So much fodder for a good game of house.
But if turning phonics into a nurturing story game is humanizing it for her and making it fun, well, I have lots more ideas in my head!!
Labels: homeschool, phonics
So which one is it?
A homeschooler's day, from two different perspectives.
We snuggle for a while in the morning, have breakfast and do our usual morning chores, dressed, etc.
We sing a hymn, read scriptures, and recite a memory verse.
I tell them a story about nomads learning to farm. We go grind wheat in the gorgeous early fall weather using a mortar and pestle. All the kids take turns grinding it and we discuss what it must have been like.
We listen to Snoopy and laugh about the Edgar Allen Poe song and the Clouds song.
While the younger kids nap, Hazel reads me half of Hop on Pop and does a fabulous job. We get some dice and play a probability game where we graph the results. Chloe joins us for this. They learn how to make tally marks.
I draw clock faces and they add the hands to the correct time. Hazel draws an adorable little alarm clock, complete with a mustache and jaunty little bells on top.
We read piles of library books.
Homeschool park day for 2 hours. The kids run and play the entire time.
We pick bowls of tomatoes together, eat dinner, and the kids have a bath.
Bedtime. An hour after I put them down, Hazel comes dancing out and narrates to me the story of Hercules and Perseus and Medusa. They listened to Jim Weiss' Greek Myths while going to bed and she was so enthralled she couldn't sleep. Gives her daddy a kiss and goes peacefully to sleep.
Great day, no? One any homeschooling mama could feel pretty decent about, right? Well, here's the other side of the story.
They watched cartoons in my bed until they clamored so loudly for food that I finally got up to feed them. Scripture reading was a fiasco. Hazel had a little fit and I banished her and read scriptures to just Chloe. I was sulking, also. That'll teach her the right way to have the spirit!! No scriptures for you!!
Chores are a constant battle. There is fighting everywhere I turn.
They didn't listen to a word of the nomad story. And the whole grinding wheat episode lasted all of 3 minutes. Calvin got into the wheat and scattered it all over the patio, where it remains still.
I snapped at them to turn the dang music down, it was annoying me.
Hazel rolled around on the floor for a while before deciding to even sit with me for Learning Time. The girls fought over who's number was winning during the probability game. They fought over which library books to read and where everyone got to sit. They fought while playing outside. Calvin hits both his sisters and everyone cries.
I yelled (lots) trying to get in the car to go to Park Days. When we got there, I was the only mom who didn't bring water bottles--all I had were juice boxes. My kids cried for water after playing hard and didn't want juice. "Why can't we have any water, Mama??"
I stuck em in front of the tv when we got home and I played on the computer for a few (ok, more than a few) minutes.
And when Hazel was so excited about Greek Myths, that was truly wonderful. Except for the voice in the back of my head that stressed over her not sleeping, how tired she was, how grumpy she'll be in the morning, etc.
It's so easy to read the first account and think that everything was just roses. But oh boy, it wasn't. I'm all confused now, also. Was it a good day or not? I guess some of both. So from now on, whenever I post my list of hs accomplishments for the day, know that it's most likely accompanied by a similar list of shameful moments, too.
Labels: homeschool, Kids
Good UPS day, and good blog day
This is a really really happy blog day. Look--I'm
famous!! I kinda feel like a pathetic ninth grade geek who's just been invited to a party with the senior cheerleaders. It's like that, but in a homeschool-mommy-blogger way, not a ps way. Bad analogy, but there you have it! My stats went through the roof today, and I smiled for a lot of hours.
My husband doesn't quite understand--he still maintains that the majority of the people I call my friends online are surely nasty old men in wifebeaters who are just
posing as homeschool mamas and posting curriculum and fieldtrip ideas and such. I say there are much easier ways to be predatory online than get into the hs mommy blog circuit!
We had our 'Not Back to School' party the other day with our co-op. So much fun!! Sarah posted a cute picture from the party over
here. I should caption this photo "Patience." Look at the longing on their little faces...but they didn't touch the cupcakes until we gave the word. Good kids!
Today the Rainbow Resource box arrived!! Plus a Montessori box and an Amazon box!!! The UPS guy is one of my favorite people this time of year. Finally finally I can get everything feeling settled in. All three kids played delightedly with the new Wikki stix (neon colored, no less) while I planned and sorted and arranged all the new fun things. We'll start with our Handwriting without Tears and Story of the World on Monday. But since the reading thing is
finally clicking with Hazel, we're not changing a thing there.
I actually had a great conversation with her yesterday about goal setting. We were talking about the possibility of a Liberty Girls club for her in January, but that she should probably know how to read a little before she can go. I explained the concept of small, daily choices that lead to a bigger goal, and
she was the one to make the connection to how she needs to practice reading everyday. And she has done so, cheerfully and on her own. I really am not trying to push her, honestly. But I know that she is ready, able, and is lacking everything but a deep down desire. I'm trying to live by the principle of 'inspire, not require.' Very hard to do sometimes!
Labels: homeschool
Games, peaches and chickens
The decision to scrap the whole phonics curriculum was definitely the correct one for now. We play one or two word games, do a little journal writing, and maybe read a story together alternating pages, as in I read one and Hazel reads one. Seems to be less intimidating for her that way.
Yesterday's reading game was a huge hit. Instead of having objects and corresponding word slips, I made verb word slips. Run, jump, sit, sleep, eat, swim, skip, hop were the words. The girls had to draw a slip and then do (or pantomime) whatever it said. HUGE hit around here. Even Calvin delighted in drawing the papers and then hamming it up for his sisters.
Today I played a game with just Hazel during Chloe and Calvin's naps. I put vowel tiles in one pile, then made a pile with consonants (s,c,t,r,b,p,d,n,m,h). We took turns drawing 2 consonants and 1 vowel, then had to make a word with them. Amazingly, almost every time we were able to do it. We did amend the rules so we could add one supplemental letter if we needed it. Hazel ate this game up and we had a great time with it.
I have a friend who's father recently passed away. He was an avid gardener, and has a huuuuuuge garden and orchard. Her poor mother can't keep up on all of it, so they invited us over today to pick peaches and apples and raspberries and squash. They had 30 fruit trees! In the middle of a suburban neighborhood, no less. I got 2 big boxes of peaches and one of apples, then I picked a couple bowls of raspberries for the mother. I gave Hazel a sun-warmed, freshly picked, beautiful peach. She took one bite, and her eyes grew wide with delight. Pure joy, right there, with juice dripping down the chin.
There were about 18 chickens milling about. My girls got to actually collect fresh brown eggs from the laying boxes, and weren't they absolutely thrilled???!!
Funny aside about chickens--I was saying bedtime prayers with Calvin. You know how when they're just starting to talk they just parrot back the last word you've said? Well in the prayer I said, "We're thankful for the chickens," and he thought for a moment. He couldn't quite wrap his mouth around the word 'chicken', so he circomlocuted with " 'ank you bock bock bocks." I think God both understands and smiles!
Labels: homeschool, Kids
Our unschooly day
I was late this year in planning and ordering, so all my new fun school stuff hasn't arrived yet. So the formal, planned lesson stuff isn't happening for a little while longer. Things are pretty informal around here, but I want to assure myself that learning is actually happening. So I'm going to periodically jot down the more 'learning' type things that take place around here.
*We went and cleaned our church house this morning. The girls worked dusting woodwork and emptying trash cans. They worked diligently and cooperated.
*I read out loud from
Little House in the Highlands while the girls worked with some Montessori sewing kits (embroidery and button sewing). Calvin did some water play while we read.
*Hazel and I played a reading game. I grabbed a bunch of articles (glass, spoon, lid, ring, rake, brush, cup, book) and made labels for each on strips of paper. We put the items in one bowl and the labels in another and she matched the words to the item. This is a Montessori idea that I got from
Barbara Curtis' Mommy Teach Me to Read. Chloe joined us after her nap and needed some help on some of the words, which Hazel proudly offered.
*After they tired of doing the word game, they used my set of 6 nesting mixing bowls to stack and compare sizes, then they got out many many many pieces of kitchen stuff to bake me some 'goodies.' That's got to be at least mildly educational, right? I made them clean it all up afterwards, so they got another lesson--consequences and responsibility.
*While driving we played an animal classification game where they had to tell me if something was a mammal, bird, reptile or amphibian. We talked about the qualities of each class, and did a little with some of the different orders--mostly primate and marsupial. The girls loved this one. We'll have to make this a car time staple. One of our other favorite car games is shamelessly stolen from
Melissa at Here in the Bonny Glen. It's her version of
Mad Libs; my kids call it the 'Miss Verb' game and they love it.
*We went to my own personal version of hell--Chuck E. Cheese. *Shudder* The kids picked it for our family fun day. ICK!!!! But they had to figure out what they could 'buy' based on the number of tickets. Needed some help on this one, but at least it was math of a sort, right? Total aside on the topic of that blighted chain--on the drive home Hazel dreamily speculated that the kind person who built C.E.C. must have loved children a lot and wanted them to be happy. I kinda think that sadistic person just hated parents a lot.
So in looking back over our day, there was some learning going on. I guess I had to assure myself of that. You know how there are those panicky moments where you feel so overwhelmed by this task we've undertaken? Had a big one today. But deep breath, I can do this. They can do this. They WILL learn, one way or another.
Labels: homeschool, service
School plans
So many things to blog!!! Like most everyone else, I've had homeschooling on the brain, big time. I've found it (for some crazy reason) difficult to plan with my children all around, and by the end of the day my brain is shot and I just want to veg. So I told Steve that I needed a day off, all to myself to plan.
Bliss!!!
I packed up my laptop, my
Rainbow Resource catalog, all the random books I've been gleaning from, and headed to the library. By myself. For hours.
It really shouldn't be so difficult. The planning. After all, my oldest is
all of 5 years old. I have to keep reminding myself that the choices I make now are really not going to effect her homeschooling success for the rest of her life, but still. Lots of choices out there. I focused on each child, and myself, for about 1/2 hour each. I wrote and wrote and wrote all the ideas and inspiration about each person so I could come up with some kind of map for the next six months or so. Calvin was the easiest, and they got progressively harder. The list for myself is formidable. Basically mine comes down to discipline. In fact, all this scheduling and chore charts and master plans stuff doesn't mean a thing if
I am not doing my part.
For me, it all boils down to one thing: stop
reading about homeschooling/mothering/craft projects/fun things to do with kids and actually
DO THEM!!! I was just talking about this with
Sarah--the whole "I can't come play with you, honey, I'm learning how to be a good mother" thing. I surely hope I'm not the only one who falls into this trap.
So anyway. Here's the unveiling of the new and improved, 2007 official Together We're Learning Family Plan!!!
Morning Devotionals, consisting of a song, scripture reading, a memorization verse, and a quick, inspirational story of some kind (still looking for the perfect book here).
15 minutes wiggle time, whether a quick run outside or dancing to music. We're following the composer and artist studies from
Ambleside Online. Right now is Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky, both of whom my children love (No, not because they're extra cool or anything, but Pictures at an Exhibition was the piece we saw at the Chicago Symphony where they did a huge puppet show, and Rimsky-Korsakov composed Flight of the Bumblebee. I make 'em work to that one!!) and the artist is Da Vinci.
Journal entries--just a sentence or two for Hazel and a picture for Chloe.
Handwriting Without Tears. I'm going to be doing this with both girls. Hazel needs a crash course in decent handwriting, and Chloe's ready to start.
Story of the World I for history. We'll read it out loud and do projects on Fridays, alternating science and history.
We'll continue with
Math U See. It's working, so why mess with a decent thing?
Phonics I'm pulling waaaay back on the formal stuff. She
will learn how to read eventually, right? It's not worth a fight, and I don't want to make her hate it. She loves me to read to her, she'll pretend to read books to Calvin, and she'll play word games with me in moderation. That's going to have to be enough for now. I have tons of curriculum, should this decision change. But for right now it's going to take a backseat.
Chloe is actually starting to sound out words on her own, so I'll just play games with both of them and see where it takes us. Expect more on this topic--it's an ongoing battle in my mind!!
We're going to be doing lots of Montessori activities. The kinds that encourage careful, deliberate movements and fine motor skills. There are some great ideas in
Mommy Teach Me by Barbara Curtis. (all her stuff is
fabulous, by the way)
And then of course, the read alouds. We just started the Martha books--read 50 pages straight, until Calvin smashed a full bottle of hot pepper infused olive oil on the floor. The 45 minute clean up of that pretty much stopped any reading for the rest of the night.
I'm going to try to loosely follow the book list from
Real Learning for our picture book readings. Oh, and a question for people--I'm looking for books where the characters make proactive, non-victim like choices. (This is a completely different post, but this is what my #2 daughter is needing now) So any advice would be fabulous!
So there you have it! If we can stick to this, we should have a great couple of months ahead. We're doing some wildly fun things in my homeschool co-op, but that's another post. This one is merciless, and I promise not to inflict one like this on people again for a while.
Labels: Books, homeschool
Check that one off the list, finally
We took Steve to the airport this morning at 6 am. That means that Calvin was up and raring to go at about 5:15. MUCH too early for crazy toddler things to be up and about. He crashed big time at 8:30, and Hazel and Chloe had a little neighborhood playgroup this morning. So I had the house to myself, all the chores and laundry were caught up (minor miracle in and of itself), and I actually had
free time.I used this time to .....drumroll please.....
CLEAN OUT MY PANTRY!!!!!
Now this may not seem like any kind of an accomplishment until I say that this onerous task has been on my to-do list for a year. No, I'm not exaggerating. But I finally took every last thing out, scrubbed the shelves, organized the food, and arranged it in pristine organization. BLISS!!
Sure, it did take quite a chunk of the day. But it was doable! Why do I procrasinate things so much? Once you get in the middle of them, they're not nearly as bad as I think they'll be, and the feeling of satisfaction at the end is so wonderful.
We went to the library this afternoon and got piles and oodles of books. I realized that my kids had never read Where the Wild Things Are, so we rectified that this afternoon. Calvin spotted a book about basketball, and called out 'ball, ball' until I got it for him. He is so boy!! Hazel has developed a new obsession with space, so we got a stack of books on the space program and planets. I must say that I'm thrilled to be moving off the makeup obsession! I just can't read books about how to make yourself beautiful to her. You know??? It is just not the message I want her to be absorbing right now.
The girls had a princess party for a cousin this evening. It was at some store where they have a child-size salon, all the employees wear boas, and they dressed the girls in princess outfits and did fancy up-dos in their hair. I wish I had my camera!!! Of course, my little girly-girls were in heaven.
Long day. Tired day. Lots of running around, not so much school, but that's ok. Good heavens, she's 5. We can skip a few days and it's still ok. Getting up at 4:45 is not so good for me, so i think I'll go to bed!!
Labels: homeschool, Kids
Plans for the week
I have spent waaaaay to much time in the last two days reading
this gorgeous blog. She moved from California to a 280 acre farm in Missouri where she raises sheep and farms organically. And oh, the recipes!!! I'm swooning over things like
Savory tomato pesto pie. Incredible. Go check it out, but only when you have hour upon hour to get lost in the writing and pictures and GARDENS!!!
Can you tell I'm anxious for spring? It hit 50 degrees today, and the soft breeze was so welcome after our weeks of snowstorms. We're going to be doing some serious nature walks this week.
Since both
Sarah and
Nina are doing the upcoming week's school plans, I thought I'd play along, also.
Math we'll keep working on place value with 10's and units. If she really gets it, we'll start the next MUS lesson and go on to hundreds. We'll do lots of Math Bingo and play some counting games so she can remember the number 15. He gets shafted every single time.
Reading...we'll do more Bob books with each of us alternating reading pages. Happy Phonics games (scrambled sentences, word families) and a nursery rhyme reading game.
For Chloe, upper and lower case matching. Both girls can practice writing in cornmeal and rice. They love that.
Hazel copywork as usual. I give her two sentences a day for her to copy. Chloe has a new workbook that she absolutely delights in.
Read about the water cycle. Evaporation experiment, nature walks observing water melting, stream, etc.
Paint sculpey creations. Art project having something to do with water. I'll have to think on that one.
Continue reading Betsy Tacy, and read piles and piles of library books.
That sounds like plenty!! I'll add to that keeping Calvin from 'discovering' too much, get the kids fed and dressed, maybe do a bit of laundry, and we should be set for the week.
Labels: homeschool, Kids
Did that really happen?
I feel so magnanimous this morning. I actually
said this:
"All right, after we do all our family work, you may do some math."
I love homeschooling!
Labels: homeschool, Kids
