A Homeschooling Momma

Giving Thanks

2010-11-24T16:51:00.000-05:00

I am so far behind in posting about school! :) But I wanted to write today about this Thanksgiving. Today we have scrapped normal school and focused on Thanksgiving.

There are the traditional things to do, like making turkeys and whatnot (BrainPop Jr. has a fun Thanksgiving video and activities which are free even to non-subscribers this week.) But today I wanted to focus more on the actual history of Thanksgiving.

We watched this video this morning. It was perfect. :) Most of us have seen the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving video, but I doubt as many have seen the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving reenactment.

It is actually a great little video that shows a great deal of history. Afterward, we closed our eyes and imagined what it would have been like to be one of those 30 children. I gave them some writing prompts and they each pretended to be a child from the Mayflower. They wrote about their experiences and feelings during that time and during the first Thanksgiving.

I think it brought it to life for them a lot better than making turkeys did yesterday. :)

Field Trip: Denver, then and now

2010-11-08T18:42:00.000-05:00

I am so behind on our homeschooling blog that it isn't even funny. But I can't wait to blog about our most recent field trip to Denver.

We made the girls little booklets with questions and historical photos of Denver.

Then we walked around and answered questions, comparing the then and now. It was really fun. :)

It was really eye-opening for the girls.

Where Coor's Field is now:

Corner close to where Daddy works...now it's Dixon's.

Union Station in the background.

Fireworks for Veteran's Day topped it off!

Learning

2010-09-16T17:22:00.003-04:00

Our decision to homeschool often surprises people.

"Why?" I seem to hear, over and over.

Well, while they can think of a million reasons why I shouldn't, I have a million and one reasons why I do.

But it isn't easy or perfect most of the time. Lately, as I have been working so much on getting this event ready, I have struggled with a lot of inner frustration and guilt. Though I still do activities with the girls while they're awake, my mind has had a difficult time being fully engaged.

And, we haven't started school yet this year. GASP.

Don't worry, it's a conscious choice, but even though I really don't believe children need to be pounded so hard and for so long, I do get tempted to feel like perhaps I am not doing what I should be for them.

But today, I was reminded again of why we teach at home.

Today, instead of a regular school day, my girls helped me finish up with some things I've been working on for Yoga for Congo Women. As we worked, we talked, and they understood again why it is so important to us.

And then there was this clear, clear moment... I could see it in my daughter's eyes. It clicked. I could see it: the thought that "There's a problem, but I CAN do something about it. And I will."

To go beyond facts and figures to power and understanding: that's why I want to teach them at home. So that when they step out into the world, they are armed with the power, the knowledge, that they can change it, instead of sadly accepting it. And they'll know that we each enter the world in our own way, and that they'll be able to find theirs.

Somehow, I know they will.

PS - What's with the rice, you ask? Want to know what we were making? Come to Yoga for Congo Women on Saturday. :) You'll love it.

Creative play

2010-08-11T15:40:00.001-04:00

My favorite part of being a kid.

I think it's theirs, too. :)

Never underestimate the value of creative play time.

Fun cause and effect game

2010-07-27T19:21:00.000-04:00

I came across a fun and easy activity today (here) for practicing the concept of cause and effect. You put your kids in a circle, and one says something, the beginning of a sentence, that is the "cause." She then tosses the ball to someone in the circle, who answers with the "effect."

For example:
Child 1: "There was a huge blizzard..."
Child 2: "...so the power went out."

Child 1: "I ate too much candy..."
Child 2: "...so I got a stomachache."

Fun and easy, just like I like it. :)

At the end of the day

2010-07-22T14:42:00.003-04:00

A few days ago, an acquaintance of mine had "found out" I was homeschooling, and in her shock, she said, "Well that's crazy. It's just CRAZY." I smiled it off as I always do, knowing as I do that yes, it's crazy, wonderfully, wonderfully crazy to love every minute of being with my children all day. Visions of the grand things I dream of teaching them and doing for their lives flashed through my mind. I smiled a polite, yet self-confident smile.

Today, though, her words sting my ears. You see, today IS crazy. No matter what I clean, the kids are one step behind me (no wait, they're flanking me on every side!!) turning everything into an absolute disaster. One of them woke up literally screaming because she doesn't feel well. Her cries from the bathroom have pierced every moment of the day. Cereal was everywhere. A potty-training 2-year old wets everywhere just because she can today. The dishes are mounting and the laundry is multiplying like rabbits. And in between reading lessons and spelling time, constant (and I do mean constant) cries from the bathroom remind me to keep running back to my other child, trying to be patient and reassuring. In the meantime, I am trying to plan a large charity event in the fall that is taking an enormous amount of my time and thought (which I love), and trying to start a new venture in our lives at the same time (I'll tell you more about that at another time). But the new venture is incredibly time consuming, energy-draining, and demanding. I start piano lessons with the girls, and as I lead a lesson with doughy fingers (you see, I'm kneading pizza dough as we proceed), I mentally calculate all that is left to do as I finish preparing a dinner for 35 people by 5 pm. I think of the girls later sitting in a car for two hours with their daddy while I leave them to go to try to comfort and help women who are hurting. Meanwhile, I am trying to convince another child to make a decision that she has to make. Oh, how I would love to force her. But I can't. The wait time is agonizing on all of us, and is affecting us all negatively today.

I stop for one second and looked at the chaos around me. I had since stuck "sick" child in the bath and she keeps getting out and running naked and wet around the house. Helpful sisters dumped practically the entire toy box into the bath. Other children had transformed the school room into a type of camping ground with sheets and upended desks. I pass a mirror and see my wild hair and greasy face and wonder when the last time I had a shower was. And the baby wakes up...

I could go on. But really, I think you get the picture. Are you crying yet? I am. :)

As I paused, I wondered what in the world I am doing. What in the world I am teaching them. What they will have learned by the end of the day. I silently said what must have been the 50th prayer of the day.

And then, suddenly, a breakthrough. The child I was waiting on made a good choice. All by herself. Without me forcing her. And we celebrated. We danced and laughed in our messy house and cheered for a sister who did a good thing. We even broke out the otter pops.

As I ponder the rest of the day ahead of us, and the craziness it will probably (who I am kidding? I mean definitely) hold, and as the two-year-old drips colored sticky juice all over the floor, I think again about what they will have learned by the end of the day.

At the end of the day, I hope they learned to be strong women who make their own choices. I hope they learned that I do care, so much, about how they feel. I hope they learned to share what they have, no matter how little it is. I hope they learned to celebrate the little moments. I hope they learned to pray. I hope they learned that prayers are answered. I hope they learned to put their arms around someone who is hurting. I hope they learned to care about others and be compassionate. I hope they learned to try to help each other, and to use their imaginations. I hope they learned that life can be messy, and it's okay. I hope they learned to live.

I am crazy? Yep. But I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Reader's theater scripts

2010-06-29T17:50:00.000-04:00

This site has a lot of scripts for reader's theaters! Very fun! You could also use them for simple plays. The only challenge as far as homeschooling goes is that the little plays are created for a classroom full of students. However, this is often done with multiple narrators, and parts could be combined. Very fun!

Making life easier

2010-06-18T18:52:00.000-04:00

I think most of us have a subject we dread. Yes, even we homeschooling families.

I know I do. It's math.

Blah.

Saxon math has been good for us, but oy. I HATE the work of getting everything together for it. I'm too cheap to buy the whole kit year after year, so I have been scanning the whole workbook in and printing it out all over again each time a new child advances. That's a ton of paper, toner, etc. It's also a huge hassle to keep all of that paper in order and to keep it all printed out on time.

A friend of mine had a better idea. She used page protectors for her math sheets, and writes on top of them with dry erase markers.

(Heavenly choirs sing...)

It is a LIFESAVER. Yes, true, there is no way to really keep a copy of their work. But with five little ones, most of our work doesn't end up being kept anyway. (There, I said it out loud.)

I'm now doing the same with handwriting practice sheets for the preschool aged ones, and wow. I'm loving it. It's been such a time saver and a headache saver!

We are using ULTRA-fine tip dry erase markers. They have erasers on the ends of them. They can be tricky to find, but I found mine on ebay. Good luck!

10...9...8...

2010-05-14T15:17:00.008-04:00

Today was a "blast!" The space shuttle Atlantis lifted off, and we had a great time watching it. While we were waiting, we learned about the shuttle and colored a fun coloring book that is found on Nasa's educators site.

Next came the actual lift-off, and that was wonderful to watch. The girls were riveted. This video cracks me up, because of their faces. I also love the funny things that they say. :)

After the liftoff, we made fun, easy little shuttles that can be found here, at Star-Brite. They've been running around with the shuttles and "blasting off" ever since. :)

Volcano

2010-04-15T17:14:00.000-04:00

Today, we were excitedly getting ready for some dear friends to visit who we haven't seen for a few months. They were going to stop by and play for a while on their way to the airport to pick up their dad, who's been out of the country for weeks.

Sadly, our friend let us know that her husband would not be flying in today, after all, as he is stuck in London because of the ash from the volcano, and there are no flights out of Europe right now. Bummer.

When I told my girls, they were disappointed. When I explained that it was due to the ash from the volcano, and we spent a minute looking at pictures of it, my five-year-old said, "I'm frustrated at that volcano. I hope that the volcano least killed a bad guy since we can't see Amalia." (She's my pithy one. :) Where do they come up with this stuff??)

So, to make a sad day better, and to take advantage of the news of the day, we scrapped the rest of school for the morning and made our own little volcano. Here's what we did, in case you'd like to do the same!

1. Get a plastic bottle, and build your volcano around it.

(You could use dirt, sand, clay, plaster, paper mache, whatever you want.

I'm a simple girl, so we dug a little hole and just piled rocks around the bottle.)

2. Pour about 1 cup of warm water into the bottle.

3. Add about a tablespoon of dish soap.

4. Add a few drops of red food coloring.

5. Add about 1/4 cup of baking soda.

6. Begin adding vinegar until you see it starting to foam up quickly.

7. Watch the fun!

Things I would do differently next time:
1. Mix the ingredients around a bit before the vinegar gets poured in. I didn't think of that when burying it in rocks.
2. Use white vinegar instead of apple cider. In past vinegar/baking soda projects I've done, it seems I get better reactions. But that's just me.

Have fun! :) We did!

Math Fact Sheet Generator

2010-03-10T17:17:00.002-05:00

Here is a link to a site with a great math fact sheet generator! Perfect for little quizzes, extra practice, or time that needs filling. :)

Book It!

2010-03-01T15:43:00.000-05:00

I'm a sucker for pizza. :) Who isn't? And I loved the Book It program when I was a kid! So imagine my delight when I learned that it is available for homeschoolers, too! Yippee! Enroll here, and do it quick, before enrollment fills up! Kids age 5-12 are eligible.

Thank you, Pizza Hut! Yum! :)

Fun verb practice

2010-02-23T20:15:00.003-05:00

Learning to distinguish between nouns, verbs, and adjectives can be tricky when kids are young. We've done lots of fun things to practice sorting them. One of my favorite activities, though, has been to practice thinking up verbs using a variation on a simple children's song, "Sing a Song."

We start by singing the regular words:

"Sing, sing, sing.
I love to sing!
I love to sing a song!
Sing, sing, sing."

Then, one of the children gets to pick a verb that we act out in place of the word "sing." One child may pick the word "jump," so the song instead becomes:

"Jump, jump, jump!
I love to jump!
I love to jump and jump!
Jump, jump, jump."

The kids love to act out the verb while they sing, and this song could go on for as long as you like. We love to jump, march, run, fly, skate...any number of things. It is a great way to get out wiggles, to practice verbs, to use our imaginations, etc! Have fun!

When I use it as a calm-down song, I let them each choose a verb, we act them all out, and then I end the song by "shhh"-ing, instead of a verb. It is a good way to quiet down after the fun. :)

Inspired by books

2010-02-08T16:42:00.003-05:00

I haven't been blogging about school much lately, I realize. :) But lately school has been so busy and so great, that I find it's much better to spend my time actually doing school than worrying too much about documenting it. :) I'm sure you feel the same.

Some of the moments I love the most in homeschooling come in the completely random moments, moments I didn't plan out beforehand. The best creativity and dreaming happens then.

For instance, one day, we were reading "Dreams," by Ezra Jack Keats. Don't you just love Ezra Jack Keats? You ought to. Sigh.

The girls were fascinated by the illustrations...that each window showed what each different child was dreaming. They were transfixed.

So, rather than shutting the book and plowing ahead with math, we instead got out some construction paper and crayons. I made a very crude and simple house, with a window for each girl. Then they excitedly went to their beds for a nap.

When they woke up, they each got a chance to draw that they had dreamed in their own window. It was a quiet, simple, lovely lesson. Did it meet any academic content standard? Probably not. :) I love it. :)

We've had so many fun times with books lately. Another happened one day at lunch, when I was reading them a simple story called "The Story Game," where a class is stuck inside because of the weather, and they make up a story together, by each taking turns and adding a new and small part of the story. The girls were so excited that we now play the story game often at meals and in the car and at other times. :)

Take time to be inspired. It's fun. Everything else will get done. :) But this is the best stuff.

Easy Comprehension Check

2010-02-08T16:40:00.005-05:00

Lately, we've been doing a really fun and easy way of checking comprehension and such. I divide a paper into four sections, then begin to read a story or non-fiction selection, without showing the girls any pictures. Every so often, I'll stop and ask them to draw me a picture about what just happened, or what I have been reading about.

It is SO fun to see how their little minds are working, and to see how they each imagine the story or characters just a little differently. It is also a fun and easy way to encourage them to listen closely, because they know that at any moment, I may ask them to draw or write something.

At the end of the story, we turn our papers over, and they can draw me a picture of anything they want to from the story. That gives them a moment of complete creative license, which some kids really need and love. :)

This book has questions written along the side that make good stopping points, but it's not hard to find them on your own. :)

The best kind of school day

2010-01-21T16:41:00.000-05:00

...may be when no "school" happens at all.

Today for school, we invited others from the community to come over and to help put together hygiene kits for the survivors in Haiti. It was simple and profound for the girls. Instead of focusing on their lives, it gave them a chance to look outward and to see that they can make a difference and to help others. It gave them a chance to consider what someone else may be feeling and going through.

The kits aren't hard to make, and neither is getting together with some friends to make some. It might be a worthwhile consideration for your family, too! :)

Red-Handed

2010-01-18T19:22:00.000-05:00

We did another fun experiment, courtesy of Bill Nye last week. It was fun, and involved having one child hold one arm up in the air and one down at her side for one minute, while her sister timed her. It was good practice at timing, and at attention.

The result was supposed to be that the hand in the air was paler than the one that hung down, because it was harder for the heart to pump blood up there. It worked on one of the girls, and either way, they had fun!! It was fun to talk about our bodies and help them to understand circulation better. :)

Excellent article

2010-01-14T16:31:00.000-05:00

This article by Big Journalism is fantastic. It's a bit of a shocker to hear some of the comments.

Oh wait. No, not really. It feels often that as soon as I mention that I'm homeschooling, people slyly begin looking for dandruff and head lice.

Hole-y Water

2010-01-06T15:20:00.000-05:00

This month has been really fun as we have been working on our thinking and reasoning skills with lots of fun science experiments!

This was an especially fun one that we did! (Idea: Bill Nye)

Start with a clear glass literally brimming full with very hot water.

Show your kids a bag of powdered sugar. Ask them what will happen to this full glass of water if you start to spoon the powdered sugar into the water. Listen and talk about their answers and the reasons behind them.

Begin slowly, carefully spooning the powdered sugar into the glass (be careful not to touch the water with the spoon). Do this with several spoonfuls. Observe what happens!

Amazing! No water spills out of the glass! Did they guess right?

Talk about the molecules of the water being spaced far apart, thus leaving room for the molecules of sugar. Have them record their observations.

If they are older, there are all kinds of writing and reading you can do...just modify for your particular age group! Have fun!

My Christmas Wish

2009-12-23T12:40:00.001-05:00

(Re-posted from my personal blog.)

This Christmas season has been such a merry one for me. I have been at peace here, and we have been so blessed that I have just felt wrapped in love. My children are giggling and excited, and they have wonder and reverence for the little One Who came so long ago.

But in contrast, my heart is never far from the tremendous suffering in other parts of the world. Unlike many, I do believe, with everything I have, that we can change it, and I have begun my own work to try to change it, both by joining the efforts of others, and by trying to formulate my own inspirations into plans.

This Christmas, part of my heart is very heavy, as I ponder what last Christmas was like for these people, and what it may very well be like again this year. The LRA, or "Lord's Resistance Army," is a radical Ugandan sectarian militant group. "Between 24 December 2008 and 17 January, LRA rebels killed at least 865 people and abducted about 160 children in the northeastern Haut-Uélé localities of Niangara, Dungu, Faradje and Doruma, according to Human Rights Watch. At least 400 people were killed in a spate of attacks on 25 and 26 December alone, including about 100 killed in Faradje at a music concert"(source: irin news...the quote at the end would be laughable, were it not so appallingly pompous and ignorant). The murders and rapes were unspeakably brutal, and practically unimaginable to us, as we sit in our warm, safe homes half-way across the world. The LRA has made threats and circulated pamphlets that they will repeat what they did last year.

Is there anything that we can do?

Though there is much we can do for the Congo, no, there is not a lot we can do in this particular circumstance. And that infuriates and agonizes me.

So why do I bring it up? Why am I spoiling your Christmas cheer?

Because I am praying constantly for this to somehow not happen. I am praying with everything I have that somehow, the hearts of these evil, wicked men will be softened and turned away from this brutality.

Futile? Maybe. But if you read this, maybe you will take two minutes and pray, too.

Even in its seeming futility, I am reminded of another Christmas massacre that was avoided over 2,000 years ago, largely by prayer. Read about it here: 3 Nephi 1:4-21.

Maybe, in taking a minute to pause from the rush and stress of your holiday preparations to pray for genuine suffering, your own troubles will seem very light, and your own blessings much greater this Christmas.

----------------

Update: See my personal blog entry.

Culture Month: Italy!

2009-10-27T17:31:00.007-04:00

Culture month has continued, and has been a great deal of fun. I hope to get all of the cultures up here that we did, but moving is crazy!!!

Italy was a very fun country to study. We had a lot of fun studying their art, language (ciao!), transportation, music, dance, food, etc! It was a great week. We did many, many things, and here are just a few:

We looked at the Mona Lisa for a while, and then colored our own. As a side note, it was fascinating to listen to their unprompted observations about the Mona Lisa. They said things like:

"She kind of looks like a boy or a girl."
"She looks like she's being sneaky about something."
"She makes me feel a little bit confused."

(Interesting...I LOVE homeschooling, and hearing my children's thoughts!)

We listened to traditional Italian folk music, and I taught them (as best I could) to dance the Pizzica! It was a riot. :) I used this playlist to find some fun music to dance to.

We also made foccacia bread together, as well as homemade alfredo sauce. It was a delicious dinner!

When we studied transportation, we looked at images of Italy (particularly Venice) close-up from Google Earth, and saw the "water streets," as the girls called them. We learned about gondolas and made some of our own, like these.

Later, I discovered that my 4-year-old had decided that her Mona Lisa needed a ride in a gondola...ha ha!! :) I love the creativity.

Italy was very fun!!

Culture Month: Ireland!

2009-10-19T16:41:00.004-04:00

We've been having a blast with culture month again this year. The girls just love it! Unfortunately, our Ireland week is another one where I didn't take out the camera much, but we had a great time! We watched Irish dancing and tried our own twinkly toes at it. We colored Celtic designs and looked at Ireland on google earth (an excellent resource!! You can zoom way in and see what the roads and houses look like. The girls love that). We did a lot of fun things for our Irish week, but the funnest (and yummiest) was to make a traditional Irish dessert, Apple Cake. They have it often around harvest time, and it is heavenly.

2 cups self-rising flour (or 2 cups reg. flour, plus 3 teas. baking powder and 1 tsp. salt)
pinch salt
1 teaspoon ground cloves
8 tablespoons butter or margarine (use sticks at room temperature, not whipped)
3-4 cooking apples
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 to 3 tablespoons milk
1 to 3 tablespoons granulated sugar (for topping)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Grease an 8-inch springform pan. Cut wax paper to fit and line the bottom of the pan. Sift flour, salt, and ground cloves into a large bowl. Cut in the butter or margarine until the mixture has the consistency of fine crumbs. Peel, core, and slice the apples. Add the apples and sugar to the flour mixture. Stir in the eggs and enough milk to leave the dough stiff. Turn the dough into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Bake 45 minutes until crisp and golden in color. Yield: 1 8-inch cake

Past, Present, and Future

2009-10-14T00:21:00.004-04:00

We've been doing a lot of fun things with past, present, and future lately. So many, that I know I'll only remember a few to post up here, but I wanted to remember some of the fun things we've done.

Part of focusing on "past, present, and future" for me is helping them to understand the middle point...the present. We've talked a lot about our own lives, and also the lives of others, in the present. What kind of jobs do people have? What kind of clothes do we wear? What do people do every day?

I then apply the idea of "past, present, and future" to their individual lives. We make timelines of each child's life, with pictures, so they can remember big events and see how they have changed from their own unique past.

Then I love to compare our present lives to the past. If you are religious in any way, this is a great resource of endless stories and pictures of the past. I really like to do a lot of fun things with the 1800's, because that time period seems to spark their little imaginations, and we have a lot of fun family history stories from that time. One really fun thing to do is to compare jobs from the past and from the present, as well as roles of men and women. They've found that much has changed, but that also, many things, especially for our family, have remained the same.

Mom still loves to make bread for the family.

While comparing jobs from the past and present, I thought it would be fun to have them see what a typical job of a mother or child from the past would have been like. So one day, we bought butter at the store (present), and the next, we made butter. Too bad we didn't have a cow to actually milk, and actual raw milk to skim cream from, but we did the best we could. :) I had the girls make butter in a jar, in the absence of a butter churn.

First, they poured cream into a jar:

Then, they took turns kicking the jar around:

And when they tired of kicking, they shook the jar for a while:

And when that became tedious, they handed the jar to their baby sister:

Finally, we had butter!

They did get very bored after a short time, which I had expected. However, I gently but firmly had them keep at it. As they did, we talked about how much harder it was to get something in the past than it is now. We also compared their hard work with their Dad's. He is working hard every day, so that we can go to the store and buy the butter. Things are much the same, just in different ways of happening. I think that this activity helped that to become more clear.

The best part was enjoying the fruits (or butters!) of our labors that night at dinner!

Still to come, I am trying little ways to spark their imaginations...what will the world be like, what will their lives be like, in the future??

Can I just say something?

2009-10-06T17:22:00.002-04:00

People ask me all the time why I am homeschooling. They probably ask you, too. And if they really wanted to know, you could talk to them for the next week about all of the reasons why.

I have many reasons. Many, many, many. And all of them are good. But there are a lot, and that is why I haven't taken the time to put them all in a list on this blog. But today, I just want to take a minute and list just one.

The other day, though I do not watch television often, if at all, The Today Show was hosting a personal hero of mine, Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International. (Take a minute and just read a little bit about her here.) Truly, this woman has changed the lives of thousands of women across the world. She has suffered and toiled, and she has overcome and created an incredible life, one that has value and worth, and which exists to make other lives better and more whole. What an incredible person! She was more than worth watching a brief morning of television for.

As I waited (...and waited) for her to come on, the morning wore on. The girls were tired. An hour went by. And another one. And do you know what took up most of that time? Michael Jackson. Story after story about poor Michael Jackson. Minute after "precious" minute of prime morning TV time taken up, trying to make a man who (in my fervent opinion) molested children and who became so drug-burned that he surrounded himself with mannequins for company sound good. I was stunned at the amount of time that was given to not only memorializing a monster, but in trying to make that monster beautiful and palatable. (Now, I feel just as sad that Jackson was abused as a child as anyone else does. The abuse of any child is evil and despicable. But others who have been abused as children have been able to rise and live in a moral society. And we spend no time aggrandizing those who did not.) So much time was spent, wasted, trying to make this man pitiable and palatable.

I never did see Zainab Salbi live. I finally had to move on with life. However, I did finally go back and find the clip of her online. After seeing Michael Jackson all morning, I was stunned to find just how much time they spent with Zainab, a woman who has changed lives, and the world, for good. Would you like to know how much?

4 minutes, 18 seconds. 4 minutes, after spending the better part of one or two hours on Michael Jackson. 4 minutes on the deadliest war since World War II. 4 minutes on women who are violently gang raped daily. 4 minutes on more suffering than any of us can imagine. 4 minutes, on a woman who has helped people, who has changed the lives of countless women, including mine.

4 minutes.

Well, we wouldn't want to spend too much time on that, would we? I mean, really.

Do you want to know one of the thousands of reasons I homeschool?

I want my children to have a grasp of truth, goodness, and reality. I want them to know what is actually real, what is actually important, and what is actually happening. And I want them to know that there are things that are worth paying attention to, and that they can make a difference and change the world. I want them to learn to sift through the pottage that the world spends so much time trying to desperately make palatable, and which so many of us so gladly eat right up, and to instead find the jewels and the meat and the goodness in life.

Moon Phases

2009-09-16T17:27:00.003-04:00

Not a lot to say about this activity, other than it was fun. :)

If you can learn it by seeing it and touching it and experiencing it, so much the better, I feel.

So you let one child be the sun, one be the earth, and one be the moon that gets to run circles around the earth. (It works well in a darker room, which we did later.)

BrainPOP Jr. has a nice little chart to keep track of what the moon looks like every night, too. :)

The first day of school: Field Trip!

2009-09-09T16:27:00.002-04:00

Well, the first day of school this year got us off to a great start! Our first day consisted of a field trip to the "big city" to learn all about goods and services. It was a great day as a family, and it was so great to actually see and interact while we learned. I think it was a hit!

I forgot my camera, so the only pictures are cell pics, but here is a cool fountain downtown that we played in:

Thank goodness for strollers!

We had a great time!

2nd Grade literacy activities

2009-09-02T17:04:00.002-04:00

I haven't had time yet to look through this entire packet, but this seems like a fun resource for fun and quick activities for working with 2nd graders on their literacy skills!

Terrific science experiments!

2009-08-27T17:02:00.005-04:00

Remember this guy?

Of course you do! It's Bill Nye, the Science Guy! Well, Billy boy may be gone, but luckily, the man o' science lives on.

If you visit the Nye Labs website, you can find many many fun and unique experiments for your little scientists of all ages! Click on "Home Demos." Enjoy!

The next person who asks me why I'm homeschooling...

2009-07-13T11:05:00.004-04:00

...gets directed to this:

It's unreal. Lately I feel like I'm watching unreal after unreal event unfold. It feels so strange and insane that it just can't be real in this country.

It's real, everyone.

(I learned of this from Krista.)

-----------
A later addition to this post...

I do feel the need, in fairness, to add and point out that this man represents the teacher's union, and not students. Do take his words with that perspective. However, my views on unions aside, I still believe what he said is appalling and wrong. But I did want to point that out.

Tangrams!

2009-07-10T13:54:00.005-04:00

Who didn't love tangrams as a kid? Okay, I didn't. But I'm learning to appreciate them as an adult. It's fun and neat to watch the kids try to figure out different ways to arrange the shapes.

I really like this tangram booklet that you can make. I got it from my mom, a 1st grade teacher. It's by copycat, I believe. We have had a lot of fun, having some patterns to go off of. It has helped them to copy the patterns in the book. That has given them the confidence to try new ones on their own.

5 senses!

2009-07-08T17:24:00.005-04:00

For our study of the five senses, I found these great masks! They worked perfect for teaching this concept and helping them to understand all of the senses and what they do.

(Why she colored hers to look like a little green alien, I do not know.) :)

After our lesson and making the masks, we then did a simple experiment with salt and boiling water (which also led to a great tie-in discussion of safety during experiments). So first, we discovered salt with our five senses:

What does salt smell like?

What does salt feel like?

What does salt look like?

What does salt sound like?

What does salt taste like?

(The experiment involved mixing salt and boiling water, watching the salt dissolve and disappear, but later seeing that it was really still there. Followed by a week of watching and observing as the water evaporated and the salt formed crystals.)

4-Way Countdown!

2009-07-08T17:12:00.002-04:00

We've been trying a new game lately, called 4-Way Countdown! It is a really fun math game that uses two dice. There can be up to 4 players. A child rolls the dice, and adds the number on the dice. They then flip up that number on their side, and the first to flip up all of the numbers wins! If they roll an 11, I think they can put at opponent's pieces down, and a 12 means they put all of theirs down (I think...I haven't played it for a few weeks). Anyway, it's something like that. :)

It's great for addition practice, and can also be used for subtraction, multiplication, and division. However, the subtraction, multiplication, and division take a lot more math skill and fanangaling(?). It isn't nearly so easy to use for those.

However, if you are looking for a good game to practice basic addition skills, I recommend it! The only drawbacks are:

1) As I already mentioned, it is much harder to make it work with subtraction, multiplication, and division.
2) What to do with the 11's and 12's is a little harder concept for younger children.
3) You have a limited set of math facts that you practice. Each die only goes up to 6. So you never practice 2 + 8, for example.

Overall, though, I recommend it! The kids really enjoy it!

Author Study: Ezra Jack Keats

2009-07-08T16:58:00.004-04:00

It's been a while since I first posted about our author study, but I wanted to finish it up here.

As I mentioned a while ago, we studied Ezra Jack Keats, who was perfect and fun, because his books are so great, and he both wrote and illustrated them. (As a side note, I plan to do Eric Carle next year, as he is fun in the same way.)

We read a lot of his books and looked at his illustrations and talked about how he might have done them and what he might have used. We made our own collages.

We went to Ezra Jack Keats.org and read about him (there is a nice biography on there, which is easy to understand). We also watch the BrainPOP Jr. video about him and did the accompanying activities. Then we went back and took notes on those two things. I had little note cards ready for her, so she could take notes on something more manageable, and put one thought per card.

Then we decided on a few categories that the notes fit into. I made a card for each category. We laid the categories out on the table, and then we went back and read each note card aloud and decided what it went under.

Then we ordered the cards under each category. This is good, because she is reading these cards over and over and getting familiar with the ideas on them, and it's good practice reading her own handwriting.

Next, she composed her rough draft by writing the notes from each card down in order. Each "category" was a new paragraph. We then went through the rough draft and decided better wording in a few places (very few at this age...you don't want to overwhelm them), and corrected spelling and capitalization errors.

It was then time to write the final draft! She then practiced the report about five times before she "presented" it to the family. It was fun!

Enough

2009-07-08T16:49:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I posted. I know. But I've been busy with lots of other things, much like these:

If you're new to homeschooling (heck, even if you're old to it) and you want some free advice, here's mine.

Quit worrying so much about where they're at, what level they're testing at, and how far ahead or behind they are of everyone else.

Let them breathe.

Let them discover.

Let them learn in their own way and their own time.

Take away the pressure, and let them breathe and be kids.

Let them wonder and discover.

"Praise each child individually
for what that child is,
and help him or her escape
our culture’s obsession
with comparing,
competing,
and never feeling
we are
'enough.'"

- Jeffery R. Holland

(PS - You'll be astonished at the results.)

Joyful Creating and an Author Study

2009-05-27T11:35:00.002-04:00

Lately, we've been studying Ezra Jack Keats. I just love his books, and Peter, his main character. I love how Keats so easily remembers how a child's mind works.

The two books we've read the most have been The Snowy Day and Whistle for Willie. I chose these books because these are a couple of the books that he both wrote and illustrated. We've been combining art time with the author study, and have been learning about collages.

The other day, I gathered as many materials as I could...paint, glue, pencils, pom poms, chalk, googly eyes, beads, sequins, yarn, pinecones...and I set them free. :) It was a delightful time creating collages together. I love watching their creativity come to life, and I love giving them chances to express it. It was a joyful afternoon!

I'll try to write more about our author study later. :)

Rocket Balloons!

2009-05-19T15:51:00.002-04:00

In science recently we did rocket balloons, which I found at this site. It was a blast (ha ha)!

It was a great chance to get my daughter thinking and asking questions. We experimented with different ideas and variations on the experiment...what happens if you don't blow the balloon up so high? What happens if the straw is bent? What happens if the string is longer/shorter?

Balloon races!

Reading with commotion

2009-05-19T15:48:00.003-04:00

Lately, as my 5-yr-old has been reading aloud, I've been trying to coach her on reading with emotion. Really getting into the story and conveying the meaning with her voice.

A few nights ago, while I was making dinner, she was reading to me and doing very well at both reading with emotion, and focusing on her reading as her wild little sisters were running around like banshees at the end of a long day.

When her dad came in, she said, "Look, daddy! I'm reading with commotion!"

Bless her heart, being the oldest of four kids under 5, I'd say if anyone can read with commotion, this girl can. :)

Experimenting with motion

2009-05-14T16:38:00.002-04:00

In many states, kindergartners are supposed to learn about and experiment with motion...the different directions and ways things can move. Up, down, zig zag, fast, slow, etc.

I cranked up some fun music, taped some ribbons to the end of pencils, and set them free.

They're still doing this, days later. :)

Puppets

2009-04-28T17:39:00.003-04:00

Here is a link to some fun, free puppet ideas!

Habitat Mural

2009-04-16T18:00:00.009-04:00

My kindergartner has been learning about habitats. We learned about farms, oceans, the desert, and the African savanna. It was a great way to emphasize the needs of living things. Each day was a new animal or plant, which she got to color, cut out, and put on the mural. We learned about each animal, and how they get their food, air, water, and shelter. It's been a lot of fun.

Web cams were a great tool during this time, because she could see the animals in action, instead of just on the coloring page. We tried to watch as many as we could.

Also learned was the sad but true lesson of the food chain, and that, as my girl is now quoting, "Everything has to eat something."

This picture cracks me up. Somehow, unbeknownst to me, Pupcake ended up in the desert and is about to meet his doom:

This also makes me laugh. She rearranged her ocean habitat to better resemble the fact that she absorbed: Lots of things eat fish.

Poor little fishies...just swimming by the seaweed. Little do they know that all the other animals are swarming around them! :)

Solar powered fun!

2009-04-11T13:25:00.008-04:00

We recently had a really fun time in science learning about solar power. To help the girls understand how solar cells work, I bought this solar powered grasshopper.

He was so much fun! You can see from the video that the girls got such a kick out of him:

He works great in full sun, not too well in clouds, and okay under a 100W light bulb. It's a great way to show kids how solar cells work.

Here I was thrilled, because the girls figured out all by themselves that a shadow will make him stop! What cool hands-on learning! :)

Colderness

2009-04-10T16:30:00.002-04:00

Today I overheard my 4-year-old talking with my 2-year-old. The older one was showing her little sister our globe ball. She was pointing out where we live, where she thinks Grandma and Grandpa live, etc. Then she pointed to the North Pole.

"And this is the Colderness. The Eskimos live way up there in the cold cold colderness."

Make sure you enunciate...

2009-04-09T23:58:00.003-04:00

I've been trying to teach my 5-year-old for a few weeks now about finding the main character in a story. Sometimes she gets it right, and other times, she has really been picking odd characters. She always seems to pick the "bad guy" of the story. It's puzzled me.

So I sat down with her today and talked about it.

"Remember, the main character is the person that the story is mostly about. Why do you think that guy is the main character?"

"Because he's not very nice."

"Okay, but why would that make him the main character?"

"Because, mom. He's mean! I'm looking for the mean character!"

Followed by a discussion on the difference between main and mean, starting with the spellings. :)

Culture Month: China!

2009-04-07T17:26:00.018-04:00

We had a grand old time for China week. :) It was a fun grand finale to our culture month in social studies. :)

We began by watching the BrainPop Jr. movie on Ancient China.

We colored Chinese flags and looked at pictures of how crowded China is. The girls were pretty stunned by that. We also made Chinese fans!

We made so many fans they were coming out our noses!

We made Chinese lanterns. It was a really good, simple activity to do for following directions, as well.

The fans made nice decor for China week!

We also read some Chinese fables on Starfall.com.

We learned about the Chinese language and practiced writing some Chinese characters!

We learned about the zodiak and made zodiak wreaths. As we did, we discussed the traits of each animal, and what the Chinese might believe if you were born in that animal's year. Their answers were pretty funny. :) For example:

Me: What might it mean if you were born in the year of the rat?
5-yr-old: It means you're furry and disgusting.

Me: What about the year of the dragon?
5-yr-old: You're just pretend.

And of course, what China week would be complete without chow mein and chopsticks?

Who invited those kids??

I was proud of them...they actually did pretty well. :)

This one liked the single chopstick approach...

And made it work.

Who is that kid? Didn't her mother ever teach her any manners??

And really, what China week would be complete without fortune cookies? I made them some with some more personal fortunes inside. They loved it. :) I used this recipe and it was great!

Call me horrible, but I couldn't go through a week focused around China without having a more serious talk with the girls about China's government and how blessed we are to have the freedoms that we do. Even with all of the frustrations in our country right now, and I'll admit I'm plenty frustrated, we are still far more blessed than any country in the world, and have much to be grateful for. I wanted them to understand that.

I showed them these Tibetan prayer flags, and talked about the Chinese government's cruel treatment to Tibet. It was a more sobering lesson for them, and it helped them to see 1) just how blessed they are, and 2) there are many people out there who need help.

The week concluded with making a Chinese dragon (from my subscription to BrainPop Jr.) and having our own little parade! Our 5-year-old requested fireworks, but those just didn't quite fit in the apartment lifestyle. :) Maybe next year. :)

It was a fun week, and a really fun month doing cultures!! We had such a great time, that I'm sad it's over! Next year, we might have to do a culture every month, and spread out the fun!! :)

Culture Month: Eskimos!

2009-03-30T16:49:00.008-04:00

This past week was a really fun continuation of our culture month. We studied about eskimos and their lives and culture. The girls loved it! Luckily, we had a blizzard this week, which for a minute or two we were even out in (ahhh!), so it brought it more home to their little minds.

A good start to the week was reading The Three Snow Bears, by Jan Brett. They love that story, so it was a good attention-getter. We focused our discussion less on the story and events (though we did use it during language arts to figure out characters and beginning, middle, and end), and focused on the little girl in the story, Alooki. We looked at her clothes and her surroundings, and talked about how cold it must be and what that would be like all of the time. I showed them on a globe the more northern areas of North America, where eskimos would be living.

On day two, we talked about eskimo homes, and talked about lots of different types of homes that they might have. Then we made igloos out of sugar cubes. They loved that!

(Just a little note: We used Elmer's glue, but it didn't stick really well and even started to dissolve the cubes just a bit. Next time, it would probably be best to use a mortar. There is a popular recipe out there with egg whites and powdered sugar. I didn't use that because I didn't want them to try to eat it...but it might hold the igloos better!)

Of course, many sugar cubes were snuck in the process!

On day three, I wanted to incorporate art into our culture lesson, so we talked about eskimos weaving baskets, and all of the different things that they might put in their baskets. The kids had some great ideas for things like fish and other food items. It also led to a great discussion on their culture, because my 5-year-old asked me why they made their baskets instead of buying them at walmart. :) It was great to open her eyes to the fact that many cultures do make most things by hand, and do not have stores nearby. She thought that was pretty neat. While we talked about it, we weaved little baskets out of construction paper.

This girl cracks me up...she thinks the construction paper smells "interesting." So she kept sniffing her basket. :)

Our 2-year-old asked me if eskimos put their barbies in their baskets. :)

On day four, we talked about the eskimo language. At one time, long ago, it was pictoral. We talked about that and had a lot of fun learning and thinking and imagining how you might tell a story with pictures for your words. The I turned her loose to write her own little story with pictures. This is what she came up with (with my little notes written in, so I can remember what she said.):

On day five, we combined language arts with social studies again. My 5-year-old wrote her first "real" story (more than just a sentence or two). This is what she came up with! (Alooki is the name of the girl from The Three Snow Bears, but the story is her own.)

It was lots of fun! One more culture to go for our culture month!

Culture Month: Mexico!

2009-03-24T17:22:00.014-04:00

Ah, Mexico. Land of delicious food!

We had a great time studying Mexico this month! What made it even greater was that we were able to have some cousins to have a Mexico party with us at the end of Mexico week.

We of course learned about Mexico's location and flag. (And coloring in the lines.)

We learned about Mexico's delicious food and had a great time making tortillas together!

We made them into quesadillas, and what a hit they were!

We made paper-mache maracas, and that was a really fun time!

First came the beans, balloons, tp rolls, and paper mache!

Days later, after they had dried, came the painting!

We learned about traditional Mexican clothing and made some sombreros! What fun! :)

We learned to count in Spanish! Here is a video of our 5-year-old counting (very nervously) to 5. We later went up to 10 (which, for this Spanish-challenged linguist, was feat enough!)

Then came the real fun! Time for our Mexico party!! We even had Grandma Richmond and aunt Jessica and some cousins to join in the fun! We made more maracas, which I never got a picture of, but they were made from paper plates and were darling.

What Mexico party would be complete without the Mexican Hat Dance?

Here I am, ever the graceful one, trying to teach my version of the dance. :)

Ole!

The Dancing Amigos.

And certainly no Mexico week would be complete without the pinata!!

Smashing Dory.

Candy!! Manna from heaven!

Mexico week was a blast! See you next week when we do our next culture!

Please call/write your senator

2009-03-13T18:00:00.001-04:00

http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/200903090.asp

Please take a minute to call or write your senator today!

Culture Month: India!

2009-03-11T16:30:00.006-04:00

Well, this month is culture month for my first grader, and the first culture we focused on was India! We had a terrific time!

Day one was learning about where India is and a little bit about what it's like. We colored the map of India and we looked at where it is on Google Earth. We looked at pictures of the people (a lot of pictures of people on bikes). We also ate a semi-Indian lunch of couscous, which the girls loved!

Day two was making Rangoli designs. (Go here for some good templates.) We first colored some rice to use:

Then, after the rice had dried, we glued it onto our templates. The girls LOVED it. They also loved learning about Rangoli designs, and thought it was cool that some Indian women believe that they will bring them luck in finding a good husband. My girls couldn't stop talking about getting married while we glued. :)

The finished products were as varied as my girls:

On day three, we did yoga, and focused on the Indian folk tale of Hanuman, the monkey god. They loved his courage, kindness, and friendship. They loved that he "saves the girl." We did a yoga practice while I told the story, all based around monkey-god-pose. We did yoga to Alanna Kaivalya's Hanuman Chalisa. (You can download it for free from Yoga Journal's Multimedia page.)

On day four, we learned about traditional Indian clothing, and made our own little versions of saris with blankets. We also learned about the Hindi greeting "namaste." We learned what it means, which they loved from yoga. "I salute the light of life within you!"

On day five, we made diwali diyas. We talked about New Year's and how these little lights are lit in India around that time. Needless to say, with little hands, these little pots didn't turn out quite so "pottish." But I don't care. :) They loved it anyway.

We had a great week studying India! Can't wait for our next culture!

Word Families

2009-03-11T15:51:00.004-04:00

Word families are an excellent way to work on reading, spelling, rhyming, etc. My first grader loves working on them. To help her remember and practice, I print out a picture of something from a word family, and then we use an alphabet list to go through and find the other words in the word family. My daughter then writes them out on the picture, and when she's done, she cuts it out and we hang it up on our "word family wall." It's a fun way to remember our word families!

For a great word family list for 1st graders, see Mrs. Alphabet's site.

Finding similarities and differences

2009-03-04T16:27:00.003-05:00

A couple of great books we have used lately to discuss similarities and differences are these:

The Three Snow Bears is a fun adaptation of a classic story. It's so perfect for younger students, who will not only love the stories and pictures, but will be able to easily discuss how these two books are similar and different.

The Mitten and The Hat have enough similarities in their settings to get kids talking, but enough differences that they will love telling you about them! Both books are delightful to children!

For a little more advanced discussion among first-graders, we like to compare Henry and Mudge with Nate the Great.

Jan Brett

2009-03-04T16:24:00.003-05:00

My girls adore Jan Brett books. Jan Brett has a terrific website with lots of great ideas!! Here is a picture of one of them:

This could go great with "The Hat" or "The Mitten." There are tons of great ideas at her site!

Flags of the world

2009-03-03T14:22:00.002-05:00

Right now my first grader is studying some of the various cultures of the world, and I have found this page helpful. It is a page where you can find black and white coloring pages of the flags of the world.

Making Marbled Paper

2009-02-27T19:35:00.004-05:00

We had a great deal of fun today during art time making marbled paper! The girls loved it. It was a great time to talk about some of the properties of water, as well.

Here are a few pictures:

Showing them how oil and water don't mix:

A lot of stirring is involved. :)

Look at the color spreading!

Eager anticipation!

Our result:

What I would recommend now that I have done this once:

1. Smocks are a must!! So is a plastic tablecloth.
2. Have paper towels handy.
3. I used plain white paper because I was out of construction paper. I would not recommend this...our paper didn't absorb as much and turned out very oily. I think actual construction paper would yield a better result. (However, the color does stain the paper enough that I used paper towels to wipe off the excess oil without ruining their pictures!)

The real key was HAVING FUN!! And we did!! The girls LOVED this! I am sure we will do it again soon!

Marbled Paper

2009-02-23T13:00:00.001-05:00

Here is a great link that I got from my sister for Marbled Paper. Pictures soon, when we actually do this project! It sounds easy and fun!

Signing Time

2009-02-10T17:04:00.006-05:00

I know American Sign Language quite well, and one of the many many reasons I wanted to homeschool was so that I could incorporate ASL into my children's early education. Being a Linguistics major in college, I understand completely how miraculous a child's brain is, and what they can learn so easily at a young age.

I'll admit, however, that I have struggled to find the time to incorporate it into our school day. It has frustrated me. But it just hasn't seemed to fit very well. I've been praying for help and have been so blessed to figure out the perfect way to blend it in.

Instead of using a formal instruction time with the language, I have been combining it with something else we already do each day. Every day has its' own ASL activity, but it is always something we would have done anyway. We have ASL at lunch one day, ASL during baking the next, ASL outside, ASL during a craft, and ASL during a chore. These could be adapted to anything to suit your own purposes, but having ASL time during these varied activities gives the girls exposure to the language in a variety of settings, thus exposing them to more than just a basic, conversational vocabulary. It is amazing what you can find to talk about, in any situation.

My rules are, that once we start, we do not use our voices. We use sign to figure out what we want to say. A lot of what you need to do when teaching a foreign language in this way to a child is to "put the words in their mouths," so to speak, or their hands, in this case. :) For example, during lunch, I might sign, "I'm thirsty," and repeat it a few times, then get myself a drink. The girls then pick up on that, and can then tell me "I'm thirsty." It's much more effective, in my view, than a formal setting, where you say, "And this is how you say ...." Also, we're not having to find new time to teach ASL in. It goes right along with something we would have done anyway.

It has been incredible how fast they have adapted to our signing time and have picked it up with ease. They have about 60 seconds of panic and confusion, and then they settle right into it. They are doing wonderfully and learning a tremendous amount.

Today we had baking time, and we made granola bars. (Which are wonderful...it's a variation on Martha's recipe, which I got from my dear friend Nicole.) It was a lot of fun, and not only did we learn the signs for each of the ingredients, but we talked about their colors, their textures, whether they were hot or cold, etc. A tremendous amount can be learned from each experience. My girls love to do it, and are asking me more and more, "Can we do sign language while we do this?"

The method I am using is based very very loosely on a method I learned while at BYU developed by the late Dr. McKee, Duolingual Education. Though the method is brilliant, I felt I didn't have three hours a day to devote to ASL right now. However, the methodology is much the same as I am doing. In this method, language is learned hands on...while doing something else. The language is learned so much faster, and so much better. However, don't expect your child to be able to just spit something out at you if you ask her, "How do you say...?" It isn't stored in their minds that way. It's not crammed in as facts with this method. It becomes a natural ability. It's beautiful!

We also have singing every day, and I plan to begin to sign while we sing. I've learned that singing while learning something helps cement it there for me. :)

Good luck with your own second language endeavors!

Ordinal number practice

2009-02-06T14:29:00.002-05:00

This site has a fun little practice game for ordinals.

Which is the tenth object?

first

last

pair of jeans

stuffed bear

watermelon

basketball

fork

Fun magnet kites!

2009-01-28T18:22:00.003-05:00

I posted previously about an idea for little indoor kites with magnets, and today we finally had a chance to do it. It was a big hit! :)

Bear Squeeze

2009-01-27T15:55:00.003-05:00

Every day we do a "bear squeeze" to work on number sense. We have a number line from 1-100, with 2 little bears facing each other. Every day, I pick a "secret number," and I place the bears in two places somewhere along the number line. We then count forward and backward between the two bears. Then the kids take turns asking me questions, to try to get closer to/figure out the secret number, such as "Is it greater than 35?" or "Is it less than 12?" I then move the bears accordingly, in response to their questions, until we find the secret number.

They love it! This idea comes from the Core Academy, 2008.

Inauguration Day Party

2009-01-20T20:01:00.002-05:00

Even if I may not agree with our new President's political views, this is a truly historical day and I wanted my girls to really remember it. Nothing says "remember" to my kids like a party! We colored pictures and hung foil stars. We made star cookies (using the opportunity as a science lesson to point out the changing states of matter as we made the cookies) and watched the inauguration. It was great to be able to share it with my girls. They were fascinated by President Obama and it was neat to see what struck them about his speech...

"He said 'school!'"

"He said 'peas!'" (peace)

We also watched a BrainPop video about Martin Luther King, Jr., and about the President. It was a fun party! :)

A late Santa Lucia Day and why I LOVE homeschooling

2009-01-14T17:20:00.004-05:00

As part of a study of other cultures and how they celebrate, I had planned to do a day on Sweden and Santa Lucia day in December, but I never got the chance. We did it yesterday, though, and they loved it. I got the pattern for the wreaths from the Core Academy.

But I loved it, because while we made the little wreaths, I quietly told them the sad story of Lucia, who was killed because she would not renounce Christianity, according to many legends. It opened up an incredible conversation about standing up for your beliefs, having courage, being strong and confident, and all sorts of other things that they could never have talked about in a formal school setting. I LOVE homeschooling and opening up their minds to more light, truth, and you know...just MORE.

Thoughts on Socialization

2009-01-12T17:01:00.003-05:00

Okay, it's probably because of the giveaway I mentioned in the previous post, but the socialization question has been running through my mind for the past couple hours.

People ask me this constantly. "But how will they socialize???" "Don't they have any friends?" "You're just sheltering them from people."

Yes, you're right. I lock them in their rooms and don't allow them the knowledge that other human beings exist. For Pete's sake! What course did you take in public school that taught you how to socialize? What is it about public school that makes you automatically socially healthy?

Oh wait...public school doesn't teach that? You mean you're not guaranteed 12 friends just by enrolling in public school? I attended public school my entire life, and though I am not saying anything is wrong with that, I will tell you that I was incredibly shy...painfully shy, and though considered "a nice girl," didn't have an abundance of friends. I didn't learn how to be "social" until adulthood, when I finally gained some confidence.

Hmmm.

So what is it that promotes social health? Because it certainly isn't participation in a public school. Nor am I saying it's participation in a homeschool.

I think it boils down to one thing: self-esteem. If you are centering your child's education (public, private, or home) on their confidence and self-esteem, then I believe they will be healthy children with a voice of their own. Social ability comes more from believing in themselves than it does from how many play dates they have had.

I have been stunned to watch these children of mine, bred of a shy mother, brimming with social ability and natural ease at making friends. And as I have studied them, I have realized that it is because they are self-assured. They have that safe base inside, knowing that they are someone special, and so it is not hard for them to smile and become acquainted with or interact with a new person.

Centering education around confidence rather than social agendas will provide much healthier results, in my opinion. :)

Fun giveaway

2009-01-12T16:18:00.001-05:00

There is a fun giveaway and discussion on the socialization factor here. Hurry, ends on the 16th! :)

In case you wonder if they're actually listening...

2009-01-09T16:47:00.002-05:00

...they are.

I really needed this today! I got up this morning and felt a bit overwhelmed by the day ahead. Another school day with so many things trying to cut into it, and tired kids. The same thoughts pass through the mind of every parent, homeschooling or not: "Are they actually getting any of what I'm trying to teach them???" I was tempted to think, "Nope."

This morning while I was making breakfast, I heard some quiet, calm talking coming from our usually energetic 4-year-old. I peered over the counter into the living room to see her instructing her sisters in a yoga lesson! I couldn't believe it. There are times in teaching her things that I have struggled to feel like she was really getting what I was trying to do. She is very smart and quick, but she is so much like her mother...INDEPENDENT. :) So I have worried that she really wasn't learning anything from me. But I was stunned to watch her teaching her sisters very clearly, even instructing them to change what they were doing here and there!

So let's keep going! Keep teaching, keep trying, keep setting an example. They really ARE paying attention!! And they really do learn from everything you do. :)

PS - I just had to grab the camera to document for myself that I really am doing something good. :) But my 4-year-old turned to me and patiently said, "Mommy, could you please stop taking pictures of our yoga lesson? We're trying to focus." :D

Base 10 worksheets

2008-12-23T14:17:00.001-05:00

Here is a link to some good base ten worksheets, for free.

Fun 10-base game!

2008-12-23T14:14:00.002-05:00

Here is a link to a fun game with Base 10 blocks. It is such fun practice and we are really loving it! The only thing is, I would recommend for beginners refreshing it after each problem, because it gives you a new one without removing the blocks you already put in there. That could be good practice for a more advanced learner, but when you are just starting to learn 10 base stuff and place value, I would refresh each time.

What do noses do?

2008-12-12T13:23:00.004-05:00

My first-grader has been learning in science about how the different body parts of humans and animals help them to find, obtain, and consume food.

Today we were learning about polar bears...the web cam watching, talking about how they live, what they eat, and then, what their different body parts do to help them find and consume their food. The conversation went like this:

Me: So what do their eyes do?
1st grader: They can see the seals a long ways away.
Me: Good. What do their claws do?
1st grader: Helps them hold onto the ice.
Me: And what else?
1st grader: They grab the food and tear it up.
Me: Yep. Their teeth?
1st grader: Chomp the food.
Me: And their noses?
1st grader: Make boogers.

Word Wall Lists

2008-12-04T17:10:00.001-05:00

Here is one good site from the Kankakee school district with word wall lists broken down by week for K-3.

Great Spelling Worksheets!!

2008-12-04T16:58:00.004-05:00

Super Teacher has marvelous spelling worksheets and activities for grade levels 1-4! Check them out here! There are also math, handwriting, grammar, etc!

Word Walls

2008-12-04T16:50:00.002-05:00

Here are a few really cute ideas for reviewing word wall words and sight words. I really love these fun ideas!

Teaching Young Writers

2008-12-03T17:56:00.005-05:00

This book is incredible! I can't recommend it enough. I have found that the ideas that are presented in this book make so much sense to me. Everything is based off of modeling for children what they should do, so that they can build the strong foundation for writing. It then moves into strong independent writing.

I highly recommend this book as a resource for your homeschool! This has been an excellent source for me.

Here is the amazon link.

Core Academy

2008-12-03T17:41:00.002-05:00

My mom, who is a teacher, just introduced me to Core Academy, where she gets a lot of her ideas. It is AMAZING! There are years worth of ideas on this site! It is done by USU and there are ideas for presenting all different subjects for grades K-6. Click on "Participant Handbooks" under each year and start reading. I can't wait till I have time to wade through it all...there are so many truly great ideas here!

Here is the site.

Yoga Time

2008-11-18T15:54:00.003-05:00

If your little homeschool is anything like mine, attention does start to wander and the wiggles set in. Covering three different grade levels this year, that started to be a problem for me. So about a week ago I started yoga time in the middle of our morning. Everyone has their own little "mat," be it a blanket or a towel or an actual yoga mat, and we turn on some quiet music. I do my yoga (and WOW! how exciting for me to have a chance to exercise and do school at the same time) and gently instruct them on the poses I am doing, and what "strong muscles" that particular pose builds. We also focus on calming down with our breathing. The girls are loving it and it is turning into the favorite part of school. Sometimes they stay right with me, sometimes they do their own stuff, but the point is that we are stretching, breathing, and refocusing our energy.

As a yoga instructor, I would recommend giving your kids a big drink of milk or water right before yoga time. Their little bodies (and yours!) need that fluid for the workout and for refocusing their energy. :)

I'll post more little yoga and breathing tips later when I have a little more time, but in the mean time, if you are not as familiar with yoga but still want to try this, there are some terrific yoga videos for kids out there, that we also really enjoy. Here is the link to those.

Have fun!

Really great ocean life coloring pages

2008-10-13T14:20:00.001-04:00

The coloring spot has some really incredible coloring pages for units on ocean life. They have lots of others, too, I just haven't looked through them yet. But I really recommend it!

Rocket balloons

2008-10-07T10:15:00.006-04:00

Here is a fun and simple science project, or just a rainy day activity.

Solar energy coloring book

2008-10-06T16:03:00.003-04:00

Here is a coloring book that worked well for a lesson we were having on solar heat and energy.

Kaleidescopes

2008-10-06T15:07:00.003-04:00

Here's a fun link for kids to make their own kaleidescopes.

Kaleidescopes

2008-10-06T15:07:00.000-04:00

Here's a fun link for kids to make their own kaleidescopes.

National Geographic coloring pages

2008-10-06T13:57:00.004-04:00

Really great coloring pages from National Geographic can be found here.

Magnet kites

2008-10-06T12:33:00.005-04:00

Here are some kites for a rainy day, or a fun science activity on magnets. Have fun! :)

Cute little lesson plan on where food comes from

2008-10-04T13:18:00.002-04:00

Here is a cute little lesson on "where food comes from."

Includes a little worksheet and story.

Fun Mexican sombrero

2008-10-02T15:17:00.002-04:00

For one of our cultures that we are learning about in 1st grade, we are learning about Mexico! I came across this little sombrero craft and it is so easy and cute!

Very good website on economics for K-5

2008-10-01T15:50:00.004-04:00

Here is a great website with some fun economics lessons for kids in k-5. Great stuff for teachers and kids!

Really cool lesson on bartering

2008-10-01T15:07:00.001-04:00

Here is a great lesson for younger students on bartering and trading. I have adapted something like it for my 1st grader.

Terrific customizable math worksheets!

2008-10-01T14:19:00.002-04:00

Wow! Lots of different math topics, with worksheets you can build yourself per your own specifications. Very cool. :) Go here.

Customizable number charts

2008-10-01T12:27:00.001-04:00

Here is a link to number charts that you can customize. You can use these for lots of things like skip counting, etc.

Fun web site

2008-09-27T16:12:00.001-04:00

Lots of Dr. Seuss fun with matching and other things at suessville.com!

The rhyming Rhino

2008-09-27T16:07:00.002-04:00

Kind of a fun and cute little rhyming game for kids at Scholastic. :)

A wealth of resources

2008-09-25T17:26:00.001-04:00

There is an amazing wealth of resources available on all subjects at internet4classrooms.com!

Great resources for teaching the arts

2008-09-02T18:47:00.001-04:00

I got this from the ODE. It is a great list of lots of resources, most on the web, for teaching the arts (dance, art, music, theater, etc.). I thought it was good so I wanted to post it so I would have it handy. It has all sorts of different resources listed on it, and I found it helpful:

Go here and click "fine arts resources"

Excellent reading resource

2008-08-21T01:01:00.002-04:00

Wow, I'm impressed with the department of education today. Here is a link to some great resources, for K-3, which are designed to be used at home to help teach reading. 100s of printable worksheets to help you assist them in learning to read.

Teach your child math

2008-08-21T00:48:00.001-04:00

This is a link to a great pamphlet put out by the dept. of education, full of ideas, tips, and really fun activities for kids of various ages to help them learn math.

US Department of Education resources!

2008-08-21T00:38:00.003-04:00

Wow! What cool resources!

This site provides links to hundreds of free, cool resources for teachers. Resources on every topic...music, pe, literature, you name it. Very very nice way to put our tax dollars to work. :)

Nate the Great activities

2008-08-11T20:54:00.001-04:00

Okay, I guess I'm on a Nate the Great kick today. :) But I saw this today and thought it was great...some fun critical thinking and other activities for kids who like Nate the Great! :)

http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/natethegreat/activities.html

Crossing subjects

2008-08-11T20:44:00.002-04:00

One of my absolute favorite things about homeschooling is that you can combine subjects, and apply what you learn from one area in another one. I love how easy it is to learn this way when in a homeschooling environment.

Today, during reading time, we were reading Nate the Great. I love that book, and so did they. :) It was lots of fun to use thinking and reasoning to try to guess how he will solve the case, to guess what he will eat for lunch, to guess what color or animal a certain character liked.

After we got done reading, we had art time, and used finger paints to see for ourselves just how Harry changed Annie's picture from a yellow dog to an orange monster. It was lots of fun, and I LOVE the hands-on learning.

Kites!!

2008-08-01T17:10:00.006-04:00

I have been on the look out for great kite patterns, easy for kids to do. Our kids love kites. Today for "Friday Fun Day" our fun thing to do was kite-making. I think I have stumbled on the easiest kite idea so far!! :) All it takes is a couple pieces of paper, some string, and a skewer or straw!

Here is the link. The instructions aren't the greatest, but it's not too complicated. I used a straw instead of a BBQ skewer and it worked fine. I also used a piece of paper cut in a spiral for the tail instead of flagging tape. I had everything in my house, and it is SO fun!! :)

Here is another great one, probably for older kids. It is a sled kite with kinko's bags. We made them for a church activity I did a couple years ago and it was SUCH a hit!

Have fun! :)

Peel and stick whiteboard!

2008-07-30T00:41:00.003-04:00

Wow! I'm looking into a lot of these ideas that are a little less impactful and permanent on your walls, and I like this idea, too! It's a white board you can peel and stick, safe for walls. (So it says anyway, lol! ) :)

Free Math worksheets...and they're great!

2008-07-30T00:37:00.002-04:00

This site has wonderful free math worksheets that you can create to supplement the curriculum you are using! It's wonderful!

Good site for homeschooling resources

2008-07-30T00:32:00.004-04:00

The Prudent Homemaker has lots of great things, including homeschooling curriculum ideas. It also has yummy recipes, sewing tips, and other things.

Here is the link to the homeschooling section. It has things for 1st-4th grade.

Street sign safety

2008-07-28T20:05:00.002-04:00

Part of Kindergarten ed. requirements is knowing street signs and their meanings. Here is a good site to help teach it to your kids.

Great Kindergarten level ideas

2008-07-28T19:36:00.002-04:00

This site has some great lesson plans in all subjects for kindergarten. I really like it.