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Learning to listen for HIS voice
Nov. 9, 2008
A Little bit about my "educational philosopy"
When I started out homeschooling in 1999 it was only Chelsea, she was six and after many problems in school we had decided to pull her out for a year. Christopher was in Pre-K at the base school and so far I was happy with him being there. Tristan was only two and I never even gave a thought into any sort of lessons for him. So for Chelsea it was easy. I bought a ton of computer programs, some workbooks from Sams Club, and was happy to spend the rest of our day outside playing with friends or curled up watching TV. I had always loved having my kids with me so to me just having her home was more than enough. Later that year a four year old boy brought a gun onto the school bus. That is when I first started thinking about homeschooling as more than a solution to a problem and more of a lifelong goal. So I started looking online and I joined a homeschool group and a homeschool prayer group and I found Charlotte Mason. Well she spoke to me in so many ways and I tried with all my heart to put her into action. I never quite got the hang of it and at the time there wasn't all the lesson plans and guidance that I am finding now so slowly we ended up back at workbooks, this time adding a lot more reading and hands on activities. We tried a few unit studies which were fun but felt so unnatural to me and with 5 kids two of them babies I just couldn't keep up. So eventually after seven years I gave up and bought a boxed computer based curriculum. My kids hated school on the computer and started to hate homeschooling. Match this with two devastating losses that shook my foundation to sand, an overseas move and a mountain of marriage problems we made the decision that rocked everything I believed in...we put them back in mainstream school.
Things are very different this time around. I have over eight years of experience under my belt and know exactly what I am looking for, what I believe, and what my boys like.
So here we go.
I still LOVE Charlotte Mason. Gentle learning, liberal arts education, nature studies, short lessons, narration, copywork, and emphasis on being outdoors. So we are following Ambleside online for Poetry, Literature, History, Artist Study, Composer Study, and Natural history. We are following "The Green Hour" for Nature Study. And will use Copywork for language arts and spelling etc. And "A Childs Geography" for well...Geography.
So...I liked reading the books on the Trivium and thought that TWTM made perfect sense for Science. Both my boys are very hands on and Phoenix LOVES experiments and inventing things so I feel a really good strong science rotation is extremely important. (The history rotation sounds good as well although I found that I prefer to start with learning about people as they do in Ambleside) So for science we are using an outline we found on a WTM board years ago using Kingfisher Encyclopedia, What a child needs to know 1st grade, and the library. We will be using a notebook and following the WTM four year rotation.
I could never be an unschooling purist but I do believe that kids given the best of materials (and removing the options of tv and other electronics) can sometimes give themselves an amazing education! Since my boys are very inquisitive, hands on and scientific I have decided to make one day a week an "unschooling day" (we will actually have nature studies on this day as well). I have created an inventors box filled with odd things from the hardware and craft store, have a basket of experiment books, science books, and downloaded "challenges". I also have made a huge craft box with everything from the fanciest of scrapbook stamps to cereal boxes. I am creating a peice of earth in the back yard that the boys can have full control of and have put in another basket some bulbs and seed packets along with books on how to make your own garden and the supplies for an indoor greenhouse. They don't have to choose from these but I thought they would help get them started and allow for their creativity. And to help to train them to find a worthwhile activity on these days I have created a jar of chores that the boys have to draw from each time they tell me they are bored or ask to watch tv or electronics instead of "playing".
Another philosophy that I don't think I could be a purist at but that I like some aspects of is Waldorf. Now I know this can definately set off some bells and alarms with people but all in all it really feels too pagan to me. But I do like the dreamy fairy tale aspects. The things that help a child to stay a child rather than all the violent and ridiculous creatures they see on tv and in video games. This is especially important to me with Gryphen who is still such a little boy at heart. So from Waldorf I am primarily taking their Math. I like their whole person approach and the beautiful gnome (and animal) stories and manipulatives used. We will be using their main lesson book concept that add such an artistic flair to the boringness of math. I have thought about using circle time as well to start the day gently, sing our hymn and folk songs from ambleside, light a candle and pray to GOD, and maybe read our poetry and Aesops. It's something I am still playing with.
I am not anti workbook. Obviously because I used them for so many years. But I don't believe they are the best way to teach the whole child. My boys LOVE to do worksheets. I have created, downloaded, and purchased several workbooks. Mosty math practice. But also some for Science to help enforce some ideas. I know on days when we just don't feel like school, or when we have a lot to do outside of school my boys will be more than happy to have these workbooks to do.
Lapbooking, Scrapbooking and Notebooking. As I have said before my boys are VERY hands on. They love to do projects and create things. I am not a fan of unit studies but have found lapbooks a nice way to stay hands on without going overboard. I joined Hands of a Child, and found an awesome site with lots of animal lapbooks to use for science. I love the Hands of a Child Bible lapbooks and we are starting our year with "Who is Jesus" and "Symbols of Christmas". I have found some amazing extra helps for this in the membership section (these helps made the membership worthwhile for me). We will also be doing notebooking especially in science and I hope to be able to create a nature study book like the one found on this amazing blog!
Bible and Literature. I believe their is room for Bible and Literature in every subject and we will be using both as liberally as humanly possible!
I am sure there is more...but for this morning my goal is really just to put down in writing what I believe in and what I am trying to use. Something to help me and remind me on the way. |
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Nov. 3, 2008
Confessions
It seems like I am getting more and more nervous about homeschooling. I know it makes no sense as I am an experienced homeschool mom but the truth, the scary I don't want to share with anyone truth is I failed at homeschooling the first time around. Now don't get me wrong the kids were academically ahead when they started their schools last year, and socially they have had no problems fitting in but both Chris and Chelsea hate homeschooling. Instead of raising future homeschooling parents I taught them to hate the very thought of schooling at home. They feel about homeschool the way I felt about traditional school.
The first few years of homeschool were all trial and error. We didn't have the money for the fancy packaged curriculums so we tried unit studies and Charlotte Mason but ended up really just being workbook/unschoolers and eventually went to SOS which they truly hated. We started out being very involved with homeschool groups but in later years I felt the need to go back to work and we barely left out house for school events. Basically I flaked horribly on them. Now I have my excuses. I dealt badly with my mothers death, worse with my sons death and I sought solace in work instead of God and my family. But that reason, that excuse just makes it worse!
Well I have decided to homeschool again. Not Chris and Chelsea who look at me in terror, and not Tristan who I don't feel capable of handling at this point but Phoenix and Gryphen. I think it is the right thing to do for my two small sons who are so quickly becoming men of the worse sort in the hands of the local Church run school. So I am terrified. I don't want to drop the ball again. I want to make these boys love homeschool and to have the desire to homeschool their own children!
I think I have a good plan. I have chosen curriculums and activities to their interests and abilities. I am getting it all laid out and organized ahead of time. I am afraid of going to far in either direction though. I mean overplanning and overscheduling can be just as bad as neglecting things as I ended up doing with Chris and Chelsea.
Anyways. I just needed to get it out. Let my fears go so I can embrace our homeschooling challenges.
I am waiting for a new printer and the rest of our schoolbooks to arrive so I can put together our notebooks. I am deciding if we should have desks or just use the bar or craft table in our craft room (soon to be school room). I am choosing all the visuals to use in our minioffices (we are going to use these instead of bulletin boards all over the room). And I am trying to find just the right layout for our days. Mostly I have to keep the fear at bay and pull my shoulders back and smile as I put the boys on their bus to school tomorrow and know it won't be much longer til we are home together again. |
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Nov. 1, 2008
Getting Set up...
So I sat down to order my boys curriculum today and I couldn't do it.. the cost of some of my choices just overwhelmed me too much so here is what I ended up with.
Bible- "Who is Jesus?" from Hands of a child along with our Bible
Spelling- Spelling Wisdom from Simply Charlotte Mason
Math- Complete Book of Math 1-2 (we used this with my older children and they loved it)
Shoebox learning centers
Marvelous Math: A book of poems
Sir Cumference books
There are such great choices of Math Literature out there so I am sure we will be adding to this!
Science- I ended up finding a free science outline online and decided it was almost perfect for what we needed. We will be studying animals using Kingfisher Animal encyclopedia, What your first grader needs to know, The everything book of nature, The everything kid's science experiment book, The everything kids book of bugs, Stanley's great big book of everything, Pets in a jar and nature study
using The handbook of nature study. (we had most of this already). We will be raising several species of creatures as well.
Geography- A child's Geography
Habit- Dude Thats Rude and Manners Made Easy
Language Arts- We won't be using anything formal this year for Phoenix just have him read aloud to me
practicing narration and expressiveness along with his spelling and copywork.
For Gryphen we will be using Sonlights "I can read it" (already had this) and will teach
Handwriting with sheets I make online using the same copywork Phoenix does.
History, Literature and Poetry- Ambleside year 1. We are skipping American History and Paddle to the Sea
and want to bring in more UK history in it's place but am still looking for the perfect match.
I feel a certain relief now that everything has been ordered. Once it is all here I plan to set up a notebook for the first 12 weeks with weekly lesson plans and a checklist of what I would like to accomplish that week. Also I will start adding in field trips and science experiments etc so I can make sure we are prepared for these and they don't sneak up on me. I have basically six weeks to get set up before the kids are home for Christmas break and I hope to be able to set up everything so they can start playing with the centers and games during break and maybe do a small Christmas unit to get us all motivated...
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Oct. 29, 2008
Curriculum Choices??
So I think I am done choosing curriculum for the boys although I am honestly a little unsure about one or two items. I am starting ordering things this week and hope to have everything set up into 12 week increments before we officially start school. So here is what I think we have decided.
Bible- Balancing the Sword
History and Literature- Ambleside Online Year 1 (minus the American history and adding more UK history as it will be fun to take the field trips and take advantage of our time here)
Geography- A Child's Geography: Explore HIS Earth
Science- Noeo Biology, and Nature Studies
Math- Math on the Level (thinking of adding Living Math to this)
Language Arts-
Gryphen- Sonlight "I can read it", explode the code 1 & 2, and copywork for Little Boys
Phoenix- Language Lessons for the very young and copywork for little boys
I am also making an "Inventors Box" for my extremely creative Phoenix. It will have all sorts of craft and building items so he can create things. I will put two sheet protectors in it one to hold challenges and the other ideas to get him started.
We will be using Notebooking and Lapbooking to make sure my artistic Gryphen's needs are met.
So that is all for now...I am still nervous about my decisions...like should I add story of the world...will i be happy with math on the level, is this geography curriculum the right learning style for my boys....AUUUUUGGGGHHHH....so many choices!
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Oct. 29, 2008
Playing School
Here in England each school term students get a week (or more) off for a term break. Well this week is term break for all five of my children and I thought it would be a great opportunity to show the boys what homeschool was and to basically "play school" with them. I pulled out all the old curriculum and workbooks from my older kids and have been doing reading exercises and worksheets with Gryphen while Phoenix is making books out of chipboard with word lists and doing workbook pages. Now I am not now and never have been a workbook mom but we always seem to have tons of them on our shelves so I figure now was as good a time as any to go ahead and try it out.
Gryphen loves it! He loves to sit and do the Sonlight Learn to Read program and then copy the stories into his notebook and illustrate the way he thinks they should have been illustrated. He loves the worksheets on phonics and handwriting. He loves the library and crafts.
Phoenix is his usual unsure self he wants to be a part of it but only doing things he knows he is good at. Since he is the main reason I decided to bring the boys back home this was a really good and informative lesson for me.
My DH is on a plane as I write going to Morocco for a month so yesterday I took the boys to the library to get books on Morocco and Africa in general so we could do a mini unit. Gryphen loved the library, was happy to sit and read the books we found and excited to take them home, Phoenix on the other hand was loud, didn't want to read about Africa and wouldn't sit still and kept telling the poor librarian he didn't care what she said...this is not the little boy I sent to school last year!!!
Anyways, today we are going to sit down with all the resources, coloring sheets, stories etc and make lapbooks about Morocco to be honest I am really looking forward to doing this with Gryphen but with Phoenix I kind of want to hide under a bed. I am lucky to have my older kids home this week because Chelsea will sit with us to do these lapbooks and make everything go so much smoother but when the boys start homeschool on January 5th it will be just me and the boys. How could someone with 8 years experience in homeschooling five kids at once all of a sudden be afraid of homeschooling 2 little boys????
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Oct. 24, 2008
New Beginnings
As you can see I gave up on this blog for a long time. Well that isn't all I gave up on. So much has changed. Just over a year ago our family received orders back to the UK. We happily took our orders and moved our family across the big pond just to have life fall apart all over again. My husband and I started having marital problems and he wanted a divorce. My job fell apart and we were left on one income again. And I finally lost it and put the kids into school. Now for Chris and Chelsea it didn't turn out so bad as they are in a really nice private prep school and doing wonderfully, but for the boys it is horrible. They have lost all the sweetness, losing their creativity, and my time with them is all misery and fighting. So after a long battle with myself and with God who so clearly is speaking to me on this matter we are pulling the boys back out and bringing them back home where we know they belong. This is such a hard decision for me because I have become selfish and am used to the time to myself, also because I am in constant fear of what will happen with Brandon and I and our marriage but I am listening to God's voice and trying to put all my Faith in HIM.
So here I am trying to get back on the blog front, looking for friends and encouragement, ideas and guidance and mostly ways to hear HIS voice.
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May. 5, 2006
my family
May. 5, 2006
Liam's things
Today has been a particularly rough day, I am feeling very moody and it isn't taking much to set me off, I have been trying to keep the kids busy with their own activities to let me keep to myself but it isn't going so well. Then I up and decided to pack up the baby things we had purchased, since we thought Liam was a girl we didn't have too many things that would actually have been his, so packing up wasn't as hard as I expected, packing up the diapers and blankets and the few unisex things we had bought about broke me though. I didn't really put them away, I just folded them and put them into those new ziploc storage bags, and then put the diapers, sling and other supplies into a box and put them all under the butcher block table that was going to be Liam's changing table....I am not ready to put them away away but I had to stop running into them everywhere.
Right now the older boys are fighting, and my daughter is quietly helping me to put the hand-me-downs that my sister gave me into containers, she is now 14 weeks pregnant and will need them, that is also hard to handle. Phoenix asked me again where his baby sister was, I calmly explained that he had a baby brother in Heaven...he doesn't understand.
I didn't intend for this blog to be like this, it was supposed to be about our homeschool world but right now our world is just sitting... |
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May. 4, 2006
staying busy
I wrote my first blog and then didn't come back for a while, it's really been a trying month and I forgot all about blogging. I came back today to see all these supportive comments and messages, especially about Liam. I have been dreaming more and more about him lately. I guess it's because an order I had placed for diapers came in, I opened them and just sat and held them.
The kids are doing ok, they are super hyper today, Chelsea and Chris are practicing for a homeschool talent show that they are going to put on, Its cute but loud. My husband took away the younger boys nintendo and so they have been digging out toys that we haven't seen in forever! It's nice to see them using their imagination although I wish they weren't acting out scenes from their video games all the time.
Some other news, that i think is good is that I think I am going to be working for hsn soon, they have a work at home program as a customer service agent and it looks like i will start training in June, it's five weeks of training where i will be out of the house six hours a day, it's at night so the kids will be with my husband, but everyone seems to think the five weeks will be really good for me at this point. I am also trying to get the kids extra curriculars lined up for next year so I am really just staying busy.
Anyway, I hear screaming so I guess I need to go break up a war. |
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Apr. 22, 2006
Finally
Well I have been trying to sign up for Homeschoolblogger for months I am so happy to finally get my account! My name is Denita and I am wife to Brandon and mommy to Chelsea 13, Christopher 11, Tristan 8, Phoenix 4, Gryphen 3 and Liam who visited us for a day and waits for us in Heaven.
We have been homeschooling since 1999 and have used mostly Charlotte Mason and relaxed schooling methods. This year is the second year of homeschooling where I also work outside the home. We have started using SOS as a foundation for my older three children who supplement with alot of literature and nature study. With my youngest two we are using FIAR and 100 easy lessons. We have fun learning geography with extra story discs we have made with pictures of friends and family around the world.
These days are much more difficult than when I was home full time, and these past few weeks since losing Liam have been completely unbearable. I am happy to be able to have this blog as a way to express what's going on in our life and hopefully to make some new friends. |
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