Jun. 23, 2008 - That "S" word....
Well, if you've been homeschooling for any length of time (Say, longer than 24 hours) you know what the "S" word is...Socialization. It came up briefly during a family Christmas visit. In the spirit of the season, I didn't launch into a lecture, but you can bet I started composing a super blog in my head :) I got a set of Charlotte Mason's books for Christmas. She has some great things to say on the subject, so of course I was going to include those, too.
However, MBB put it all into one sentence for me one night as he headed off to bed. He was telling me about what he had been doing at our local Park Day. He said "It might look like we are just playing, but I am learning about life".
I started writing this blog entry at the beginning of the year. We got pretty busy with baseball and ballet after that. They were great experiences for both kids, but I am really enjoying not having someplace we have to be now that it is all over. I've realized that just being involved in activities with other kids isn't what they really needed Most organized activities don't give kids the chance to just be kids. I got so frustrated with the Team Mom for our baseball team shushing the kids and telling them they couldn't talk in the dugout during the games. My kid wasn't there to be a baseball star, he was there to be with the other kids! My prima ballerina was outraged that one of the other backstage moms "Wouldn't even let me talk to anyone that wasn't in my dance!" (Granted, both my kids can talk enough for the entire ball team or dance troupe, so I can sympathize with the other adults. It's just that if my reason for getting them invloved in community activities was for "socialization", then it is ironic that the little sweeties were in trouble for doing just that :) )
We are getting more than enough socialization right now, thank you very much. The neighbor kids are all out of school, so the doorbell rings frequently. They are all good kids, and I am so thankful for them all. After years of worrying about where to find friends for MBB and MRB, I am realizing we didn't really need to look that far. I made a choice not to sign up for a single activity this summer. (Which worked out great since we are down to just the van for awhile...) They don't need to be organized or told what or how to play, they just need the time to play! I like watching them all play and chase and pretend, and sometimes even be bored...knowing that yes, they are indeed "learning about life"
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Jan. 15, 2008 - Hunting of the Wii
Our family started looking for a Wii back in October. We knew we probably wouldn't find one for Christmas, so we told MBB that we would buy one as soon as we could. In the mall yesterday, he begged to go into a little computer shop to see if they had one. They had a big box on display, but sadly, it was empty. The clerk told MBB that they might get one in the next day if we called in early. Of course today was the first day of our new Bible study, so we couldn't call right away. Somehow I didn't figure that skipping Bible study to go get a WIi was setting the right example :) The Bible study is in a town about 8 miles from ours. Dutiful (crazed) mother that I am, I called the game store as soon as we got out of Bible study. The store had gotten one Wii in. MBB said "FLOOR IT, MOM!" I took all the back farm roads I know, to get there quickly, but that wasn't quick enough. "Can we just drive through the fields...I can see the mall!" I managed to convince my rabid son that we would get stuck in the mud and that county roads were probably the way to go.
I was almost afraid to ask if the store still had the Wii once we arrived. It was like walking into a saloon in an old western. All the gamers were leaning up against the glass counter like it was a bar. Their heads swiveled and all eyes were on us as we entered the store. "You don't happen to still have that Wii, do you ?" I squeaked, sure that if I said it too loud, an angry mob would come wrench it away from us. The clerk disappeared into the back room and came back with the sacred item. ..
So now it sits in the living room, awaiting my husband's arrival. Here are some things we wrote to keep us busy while we waited:
Pop and Sunny get a Weed
By MRB
(Pop is a balloon and Sunny is a flower..characters the kids made up)
A new Intendo Weed came out. Pop and Sunny wanted one. Their mom said it was a silly thing to get an Intendo Weed when you could lie down in the sun. But Pop and Sunny still wanted one. Their father wanted one too, so he said it wasn't a silly idea. Since there were two flower persons and one balloon person who wanted an Intendo Weed, one night they got a Intento Weed when their mom was asleep. (Pop was having a sleep-over with Sunny.) Then they got the Intendo Weed, and they were all happy. Then the mom was happy because her kids weren't sad anymore.
The Hunting of the Wii (with thanks to Lewis Carroll)
by Mom
You seek it on Ebay
You seek it online
You hunt it at Target and BestBuy
You threaten to buy a PS3
and charm shop clerks with tales of woe
("That's exactly the method," the websites bold
In a hasty parenthesis cried,
"That's exactly the way I have always been told
That the capture of a Wii should be tried!")
" 'But oh, beamish geek, beware of the day,
If your Wii be a Boojum! For then
You will softly and suddenly vanish away,
And never be met with again!'
They sought it in on Ebay,
They sought it online
They pursued it at Target and BestBuy
They threatened to buy a PS3
and charmed shop clerks with tales of woe
They shuddered to think that the chase might fail,
And the Boy, excited at last,
Went bounding along hot on the trail,
For the season was nearly past.
"There is MBB shouting!" the Mother said,
"He is shouting like mad, only see!
He is waving his hands, he is wagging his head,
He has certainly found a Wii!"
"It's a Wii" was the sound that first came to their ears,
And the box there it was, quite large.
Then followed a torrent of laughter and cheers:
Then the ominous words "Debit or Charge"
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Aug. 16, 2007 - Looking back, moving forward
One of my homeschool groups posted these questions recently...I thought I'd share my answers here to remind myself of where we've been....
I almost have to answer these in reverse order....When I was growing up, homeschoolers were the weird neighbors across the street that never came out to play. Another neighbor called CPS on the family out of spite. We lived in the neighborhood for over five years, and I saw the kids maybe once....Not a great impression.
When I was volunteering in the nursery for AWANAS, a woman would come in while her husband was teaching and talk with me while she waited. I couldn't ever understand why she didn't take the opportunity to run off and shop, but now I am glad she talked to me. She told me how much she enjoyed homeschooling her oldest daughter and described all the fun things they were learning together. I found out she was my neighbor, and that her husband had gone to college with my husband.
I never ever pictured myself homeschooling. However, God started changing "my" plans from the birth of my son. He got "kicked out" of daycare at 18 months ("We just can't keep up with him!"), which changed my plans from returning to full-time work as a speech-pathologist, to part-time work with my son coming along on home visits :) Because of my background as a speech therapist, I was always trying to figure out what was "wrong" with my son...why he had such a hard time in groups, why he was so active, why he was so noisy....I knew he was intelligent, but somehow that made his behavior even more unacceptable to teachers. By first grade, the ADHD label was looming, even though two psychologists could only say "maybe". The grade school principal still insisted he "looks like ADHD to me", even with a report clearing stating he didn't fit the criteria in front of her. I spent hours online reading about parents having to sue school districts to get their children's needs met in the classroom, I read about marriages breaking up....I didn't like how depressed and "witchy" I felt from trying to make the school district do what I knew they should be doing by law to meet my child's needs. I kept thinking about my neighbor and how much she was enjoying learning with her daughter.
One memorable day, his first grade teacher ignored our pleas for more challenging work, and told me instead, "My goal this year is to get him to stand in line". After school that day I sent my son inside, and I walked over to the homeschooling neighbor I met through AWANAs. "Please tell me how you are homeschooling! It sounded like so much fun" I said. She dropped everything and told me what curriculum she used and which charter school she was in. I had already been doing a little research on K12 online...it turned out she was the one person in our state at the time that I could order K12 materials through. She had me over another day to really look through all the materials. Within six weeks we took the plunge and started homeschooling. We haven't looked back since :) My husband and family have been incredibly supportive. My son is still "quirky", but he is able to learn at his pace now and is much happier as a result. He will tell anyone he meets how much he likes homeschooling.
My sister Jen and I used to joke "We wish God would just let us know what he wanted in big neon letters". Looking back, I think that at that time in my life he was letting me know in just about neon letters that homeschooling was his plan for our family right now. I have had to learn to "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding"
I am so thankful for the opportunity I've had to teach my son, and I'm looking forward to the blessing of teaching my daughter this year!
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Feb. 22, 2007 - Ucd bug museum
MBB's version of our field trip:
I went to a bug museum yesterday. I saw a lot of things, like edible cockroaches, Blue Morpho butterflies, and a 5 year old tarantula. My favorite part was the giant millipedes, because of the bumpy texture on their shells. I learned that a bug had it's digestive system inside it's abdomen, the Blue Morpho butterfly's bottom of it's wings are brown, and caterpillars are poisonous.
MRB's version of our field trip (transcribed by Mom)
I got to see a black widow and a stink bug, but it smelled horrible. We also got to see a nice tarantula. We got to see walking sticks.
Once I said, "Blue Morpho butterflies" and all this other stuff about Blue Morpho butterflies, he took out a drawer of Blue Morpho butterflies.
This other kind of bug, the girl had no bump and the boy had a bump on his back.
We learned about the black and orange butterflies. One had wings that looked like it was plastic. One was white and black because it didn't make its orange. Our teacher said the one that had wings that looked like plastic was dead. (old) A kid said "AAH , I'm dead" and fell down.
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Jan. 20, 2007 - Why I'd rather go to Speedy than the ER
Top Reasons I'd rather go to Speedy than the ER for my next kidney stone
1. At Speedy they recognize me, and know my car's model and make. I don't have to repeat this information half a dozen times after filling out forms with this same information several times
2. The waiting room is cleaner and larger
3. There aren't any people screaming obscenities
4. I can see the car while it is being worked on... (my family couldn't easily come back to see me in the ER)
5. They don't leave the car with the hood up and doors open out in the garage for five hours without looking at it
6. The technician at Speedy comes to tell me what is wrong with the car, and how much it will cost before they fix it
7. The diagnostic machines, mechanics, and parts are all in one place at Speedy. We don't have to wait for a technician in Australia to tell us what's wrong with the car
8. You'll never hear, "How about we just add some oil and antifreeze and see how long you can go before the engine really seizes up?" aka.."Let's just give you antibiotics and pain meds and see how you do"
9. If I tell them I think the oil is low, they don't scoff and try to sell me transmission fluid instead
10. At Speedy they know the difference between left and right (I went in with kidney stone pain on the left side and they told me it was my appendix)
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Jan. 11, 2007 - Taking Stock, Keeping Track, Making a List and checking it twice...
Here we are starting off a new semester already. I've got a cold for the New Year, so MBB has been getting a fairly easy week, but we did sit down yesterday and talk about what we want to get done by the end of the school year.
Math: Memorize times tables to 12 by February. The 8's and 12's won't "stick" for some reason.
Division..two digits into three digits by June
ALEKS.com...complete two pieces of pie on MWF in order to complete by the end of the year
Online Math League.com contests
Handwriting/Typing: Finish the cursive lower case letters in HWOT by March 1
Use Sponge Bob typing tutor 2x week
Start 2-3 line dictation in March in cursive, using either memory verses or stuff from Guttenburg site
Writing: This continues to be a challenging area, but it is getting to be less of a chore. We started a "Picture a Week" story, where we will use famous paintings/pictures to start a story. We'll try to do some kind of writing, at least five sentences on MWF, choosing from the following: Picture a Week, Never-ending Tale website or our own notebook version, write a postcard, send e-mail, post to Bionicle.com, write captions in photo album, Reading Rainbow story contest
Reading: I really don't keep track of what MBB reads...we head to the library once a week and he has everything read within a day or two. Neither of us are good at maintaining lists, so as long as he is reading one "Real" (non-comic book or magazine) book a week for fun I'll be happy. For "school" reading we still have two of the Childhood of Famous Americans to finish, and we'll pick one other fiction book to really focus on by the end of the year. He isn't pushing himself very much in terms of what level he chooses to read, but I think I missed out as a kid because I was a book "snob" and wouldn't read "easy" books. In some ways I am glad he chooses the easier books, since the subject matter is more appropriate that way.
One resource I did NOT end up using in this area....Reading Strands (you can read my scathing review on Amazon) I guess I am lucky if this is the only homeschool book I've purchased and just hated. Bleah...enough said.
Language/Grammar: I didn't use K12 this year, because I thought it focused on too much grammar, etc. last year, but I am regretting that decision a little now. MBB is enjoying the Punctuation Puzzler workbooks...they really make you pay close attention to how a few commas can change a sentence. Our goal is to complete both workbooks by June. I would like to see him consistently use capitals correctly in his own writing. He can spot the errors once he has written something, but sometimes it seems like he just throws capitals in at random when he writes.
I'd also like to do a little study on prefixes/suffixes with him. I don't know what resources we'll use yet...I think I'd like to have him make up his own list or book of prefixes/suffixes
History Our charter school and K12 are still fighting it out about whether we can order just the history course. It is very frustrating, and if K12 wasn't so good, I'd have chosen something else by now. If it drags on past Feb. I will start looking at Susan Wise Bauer's stuff.
In order to have something to do on History days, we have been using the Living Books for the Ears site. Both kids enjoy listening to the old radio broadcasts while working on some sort of related art project. The books that one of the moms in our homeschool group donated earlier in the school year have fit in really well with the broadcasts. When they had a great Story of the Pilgrims broadcast, we just happened to have a book called The Stories of the Pilgrims that went with it...then a field trip opportunity to sail on a tall ship came along that same week, so maybe God is just taking care of this subject for us.
I have started Tivo'ing Drive Thru History, so we may use that as well. There is a website called Awesome Stories that has good historical stuff...I thought it was a little boring, but MBB likes finding the "source documents..." Tickets for the Hindenburg, video of Einstein, etc. (Einstein sounds just like the scientist duck from the old Disney films)
Science: We slowed down a little in this area, but plan to finish the EE unit on chemistry by February and then move on to Space and a Human Body unit.
The science museum in a nearby town puts on some great classes. MBB got to attend one during December. He was pleased that "I wasn't the only one that knew the answers!" We are considering getting a membership to the museum so we can go geek out whenever we want. I will try to get him into classes over Spring Break at the very least. One of our homeschool groups put on a science day...so hopefully that will happen again.
P.E. MBB ended up going enrolling in the homeschool gymnastics class this year. I thought he was making good progress, and staying with the class much better than in the past. Unfortunately, some of the kids were really good gymnasts, and he felt like he couldn't keep up. They weren't the friendliest bunch of kids either, so he decided to quit in December. He really wants to try rock climbing, but the timing just isn't working out. Baseball starts soon, so we'll try that again this year.
Bible: This is a hard area for me...I had no idea where to even start, so I bought the Explorer's Bible Study. It has been good at making sure we at least do something, but I can tell the kids aren't all that thrilled with it. The only way they'll sit still for it is if I let one of them read the story, and the other one read the questions. I'll try it for another few weeks, but I am thinking of going with some little devotionals we got at the dollar store. I guess my goal is to do something, anything, every day after lunch, even if it is just playing a hymn on some instruments. This is the first subject to go when the schedule gets tight!
Music: Well, I still don't have any great piano or dulcimer virtuosos :( We did get a lap harp at Christmas from Santa for MBB. It didn't work quite right, so I sent in a complaint to the company, and a brand new lap harp arrived last week. The kids decided Santa must have made his elves work overtime to get a new harp made! Since I had managed to get the orginal instrument tuned except for one string, we now have two. MRB is actually very good at plucking out little tunes, so MBB will try a few just so his little sister doesn't steal the spotlight.
What to pray for: That we will be more inspired, our at least more diligent in our Bible study, that MBB will have a more teachable spirit so he can learn more easily from others, that I will stay healthy
What I'm thankful for: All the amazing resources, people, and field trips that God has brought our way, A supportive husband and family, and kids that love to learn
OK...back to our regularly scheduled life...MRB need lunch or she is going to eat a whole box of Ritz Bits.
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Nov. 15, 2006 - Nimbus Fish Hachery
Hi, it's MBB. I went to the Nimbus Fish Hachery today, and it was fun. I'd like to 
, but I'll make the story shorter. First, I went to the salmon feeding area, and spent 10-15 minutes feeding them food that looked like brown BB's. They fought over the food like it was gold!
Then, I went into their building, and learned what they do with adult salmon. Here's what they do with male fish: they hit them with a hammer, and cut them open, and sperm comes out, and they mix the sperm with a female's eggs. But where do they get the eggs? They cut open female fish, then about 2 million bright orange, perfectly round, eggs come out.
They have other things in the building, like talking fish heads, models of fish eggs, and a light-up map.
After going here, who says science is boring?
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Nov. 9, 2006 - You can just tell they are homeschoolers...
I witnessed my first negative reaction to homeschooling yesterday. I am actually surprised that it is the only one I have seen in our three years of homeschooling...
We were at the weekly park day for our Christian homeschool group. It was a beautiful afternoon, and we had a big turn-out: 18 kids! One family brought along some plastic shovels and some food containers to use as buckets. There was another group of moms sitting about 30 feet from us. Within about ten minutes, I could tell we were making them uneasy. They kept looking at us, looking at the kids, and casting meaningful glances at one another. The wind must have been just right, so I caught several snippets of their conversation:
First mom: They must be a homeschool group
Second mom: How can you tell?
First Mom: There are so many of them and they are all different ages playing together. And look at their sand toys...I mean, who else would use cottage cheese containers for buckets...
(laughter)
Third mom: I've thought about homeschooling my kids...but I don't think I could do it
Second Mom: I couldn't stand to be around my kids that long!
(more laughter)
I made a conscious effort NOT to listen to any more, and just smiled when they looked over at us. I don't think I have been stared at that much since I was in highschool. Their children didn't have any problems playing with those ruffian homeschoolers and their cottage cheese container buckets, thankfully. They all cried when their new friends and their "trashy toys" had to leave :)
What's funny to me, is the very thing that "tipped them off" that we were homeschoolers is one of the very things that I have come to love about homeschooling: different ages of kids all playing together.
I really remember in school how each grade postively hated the other grades. You never ever played with anyone in another grade. I had good neighborhood friends that were younger than me, but we didn't ever play together at school. My sister is six years younger than me, and I actually got shooed away by a teacher when I tried to talk to her at recess! The separation continued in high school. It was a huge scandal if a senior dared associate with the "lower" classes.
The "rules" are so different in the homeschooling community. It isn't uncommon to see older grade school or junior high kids pushing younger kids on the swings or organizing games for the younger kids. For the most part, my children play the most with other children that are within about two years of their age. The group does tend to break off into "older" and "younger" kids based on their interests. Still, a younger kid can easily join in a game of tag with the older children. The older kids often help make sand castles with the younger kids when they are too tired to do any more chasing. At park days, the teen-age girls do go off to talk by themselves. On most field trips and in the art co-op we had last year, though, the teen agers are a huge help. They have dusted off my daughter and carried her to me when she scraped her knee, helped younger kids with art projects, helped move furniture, and volunteered to help clean up!
Where else would my kids have 18 kind, friendly children to play with for two hours at a time? Recess at school is never that long, and they certainly wouldn't be playing tag!
So I'm glad that "you can just tell" that our loud, active, HAPPY kids are homeschoolers.
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Oct. 24, 2006 - New Toy
My grandma used to say " The only difference between men and boys is
the price of their toys..." . He has wanted a GPS since we rented a
car with one several years ago. He has really enjoyed teasing me about
how I won't "let" him get one. He finally wore me down, and his new
toy arrived last week.
I had read an article on geocaching in a homeschool magazine, and
thought it sounded like something we would enjoy. Geocaching is almost
like going on a scavenger hunt, or an easter egg hunt using a GPS.
People hide little boxes with a log and sometimes trinkets and then put
the co-ordinates on a website so other pepople can go find the "cache".
The GPS model BRB bought is really intended for driving, not hiking,
but he found a way to download co-ordinates of some local geo-caches
into his toy. We were amazed at the number of caches in our area. One
was in the park we go to all the time, so we set out on our first
adventure. We must have looked pretty strange peering into bushes and
looking around light posts at the park. We never did find the cache we
were looking for, but we did meet another family looking for the same
"cache". We had a great time talking with them and our kids had fun
playing and running around. They were "pros", with over 1500 finds
logged. They had looking for a cache down to an art form, and were
very happy to show us some of their tricks. I was amazed by the tool
kit they had devised: a pole with a magnet to find "microcaches",
surgical scissors, film canisters....They had traveled about an hour
from their home to our town to look for caches. They knew the
different personalities of people that had hid the caches, and warned
us about some of the trickier caches.
We left on a search for another cache, and had better success there.
Once we found the first little box, MBB was hooked. He can't wait to
make his own cache and hide it. MRB wasn't so sure until we found a
cache the next day that had little trinkets in it. She has enjoyed
getting to see different animals at the places we have stopped. I get
to take pictures, and BRB gets to use his toy. BRB is even planning
on taking his toy with him to a class out of state so he can look for
caches there.
I think we're hooked. So if you see a family creeping around a parking
lot, feeling under tables at a park, or clustered around a light pole
or street sign...Say "HI!", it might be us :)
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Sep. 27, 2006 - Growing Pains
It is getting close to the change of seasons. We have a hot, dry season, and a cool, wet season. I dread the change of seasons because that means I have to go shop for kids' clothes. I somehow got a recessive clothes shopping gene. This works well with
my Scottish reluctance to spend money (except on books, quilt fabric,
or photo stuff). When I do finally get up the fortitude to go clothes
shopping, anything that is the right length for either of them quickly
falls down around their ankles.
My kids must just not be the same shape as the kids they base clothings sizes on. I read a sci-fi story once where space aliens sent their comrades back in time disguised as humans. They would base the females' body shape on the clothing of the time period, reasoning that the fashion reflected what the ideal body shape was for that time period. This worked really well until they sent someone back to the 1880's or the era of the corset and big bustles. The unsuspecting human fainted when he saw the strangely shaped lady alien.
At any rate, I would love to see what the kids who actually fit clothes in stores look like. I think they must be little cubes that grow exactly the same amount in each dimension. So if they gain two inches in height, their waist gets two inches bigger. Unfortunately, my kids don't grow that way. I think their bodies don't change much, but their legs grow every time I turn my back. I know MRB's dresses were all OK just last month, but now her hemlines seem to be receding faster than the glaciers. She can still wear shorts that fit when she was two..but last season's pants are three inches above her ankles. MBB seems to have grown in a similar fashion. He can still wear shirts from kindergarten, and he is in the third grade. Unfortunately, his pants all make him look like Erkel's best friend.
I found a great outfit for MRB this weekend, but I am going to have to take the waist in several inches somehow. I like to sew, but I hate paying for clothes and then having to basically remake them to get them to fit. My mom was an expert at putting in little tucks at the waist of pants, taking up the shoulders, re-seaming shirts at the sides for me and my sisters. I guess I'll have to re-learn all of her tricks. I had a few memorable outfits growing up...plaid boy's bell-bottom denim pants...that I hadn't really forgiven my mom for yet. Now, I think she just was desparate to find something, anything that fit me. My grandma used to make us dresses with these huge "drop-hems" so you could let them out a few times. I always thought she did it because she grew up during the Depression and didn't want to waste fabric. Now, I suspect her kids must have grown only in the vertical direction, too :) If I could only find pants that had a "drop-hem"...
Keep a look-out for those well dressed cube shaped kids that must be out there somewhere. I'll be to busy trying to clothe my little rectangular prisms before the rain starts :)
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Sep. 22, 2006 - Look at these great books!
Our library has a little shelf right by the checkout desk in the children's section where the librarian usually puts books that fit a certain theme, like holidays, sports, etc. This week as we were checking out books, both my son and I noticed several books on the little shelf that we really liked...I pointed out several I thought were really good, and he grabbed Anastasia Krupnik (He already read another book about Anastasia's little brother, Sam) We were at the library with a friend from church, and she pointed out James and the Giant Peach, one of her favorites. As we happily chatted about our favorite books, I noticed the "theme"...Banned Books! OOPS! All the books on the shelf had been challenged or banned!
I let MBB check the book out anyway, since I don't remember anything in it that was too terrible. Guess we'll have some interesting discussions on why some books get banned (Some of the books on the list are no brainers....I'd never let MBB read them ....but many of them are my old favorites...Wrinkle In Time, Bridge to Terebithia, Huck Finn....)
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Sep. 19, 2006 - More groaners and a serious question
MBB keeps coming up with more "groaners" I should make him type them, but I'll pass along a few before we forget.
What is a tree's favorite drink?
Root Beer
What was the artist's job at the theatre?
He drew the curtains
We had a very serious homeschool meeting last night. The speaker asked us to think for 10 seconds and then come up with what our goal for our children/homeschool was...Fortunately we didnt' have to say anything. I always get floored by questions like that. They make me feel a little guilty, because I never have a nice pat answer. I'm sure she didn't have "I want my kid to be able to tell really bad jokes and behave like a vaudville star" in mind :) But I'm sure God has a plan for those jokes, or he wouldn't have made MBB so good at telling them, or made me enjoy hearing them so much...
MRB tries really hard to tell jokes, too. She has learned two good jokes lately...
Why couldn't the daisy ride it's bike?
Because it lost its petals.
What kind of food do race car drivers eat?
Fast food.
So what do I want for my little goofballs?
I want them to never be too old to tell dumb jokes, or sing silly songs, read the comics, or laugh
I want them to know their family...I want them to know all the silly stories about their mom and dad and aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpas. They come from a long line of goofballs!
I want them to view learning as part of life...something you never stop doing, something you can't stop doing
I want them to be friends with each other always
I want them to be filled with wonder at all God has made..to look at sunsets, and the stars, and changing leaves, and butterflies and think "How Great Thou Art"...
I want them to love the Lord their God with all their heart and mind and soul...not just parrot back what they've learned, or follow a set of rules they've been taught...but to truly understand what a gift they have been given.
There's lots more I hope and want for them, but it can't be thought of in 10 seconds, and probably shouldn't be.
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Sep. 9, 2006 - When Ads invade...
I put in some "ads" in the sidebar. The homeschool e-store one earns us credit if anyone follows it and buys something. The site has free book downloads each week. You get the entire book, ad free in PDF format.
Our other "ad" is for a really cool free multiplication game we found last week. It looks like a real video game. MBB was almost afraid of the monster you have to fight at first, but now he enjoys zapping it by typing in his answers. It is way cooler than flash cards.
I promise not to go crazy with the ads...I know that I have found out about some great sites from other mom's blogs, so I thought we'd pass along some of our favorite finds.
And now we resume normally scheduled blogging....
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Sep. 4, 2006 - They (jokes) just keep coming
MBB told two good jokes yesterday that got us laughing really hard. Warning: They are MBB style "groaners".
"Why won't seagulls fly out over the bay?"
Because then they'd be "bagels"
What is the mini-van's closest friend?
The Mickey-van.
He told us "They just keep coming..." He sounded just like his grandad. I'm so proud :)
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Aug. 15, 2006 - Back to School?!!
School officially starts next Monday. I think we will take it pretty easy for awhile, since we all got cheated out of a lot of summer by my kidney stone. Before things get moving at light speed again, I want to jot down ideas I want to try this year... This is gonna be kinda boring reading, but I need to get the ideas out of my head where they'll get lost...Plus, I never get to talk to my husband in complete sentences, so this is one way for him to know what I've been thinking :)
Copywork/memorization: I always think it is a cool idea and it goes out the window in about a week, but I'll try again. There is an old old book of bible verses arranged by ABC order that I think would be fun to use with both kids. MBB could copy the verse, MRB could learn the verse and practice writing the letter. MRB could cut up a print out of the verse and hide the pieces, MBB could find pieces and assemble them. The book is available free at http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/ssb/display.cfm?TitleID=500 (thanks to other bloggers for link to this)
Never ending story: There is a website that lets kids add to a never ending story. http://www.coder.com/creations/tale/ I think this might get MBB to willingly write more often.
Reading out-loud: This is another idea that usually lasts a couple days, but I'd like to make part of every day. MRB is starting to read all by herself, and really deserves more of my attention. I want to try a "Five in a Row" activities with her. I could have MBB read her the book and then we could come up with an activity that was approrpriate for both of them...Art, Geography, cooking based on the book
Schedule: The block schedule worked great last year, so we'll stick with it again.
Outside activities: I think MBB has decided no more gymnastics, but MRB still is interested. Maybe I'll wait and sign her to start in October instead of trying to start up in September. I don't think I'll sign MBB up for any outside classes until next semester. There is a drop-in homeschool rock climbing place in D--- we might try. MBB really wants to start a Lego club...so I'll opt out of organizing the Art Co-op. We'll stick with park day and story time at the library. Add in a couple of play dates and I'm already tired! I keep going back and forth on AWANAs...MRB would probably love it...it's too loud and disorganized for MBB.
Curriculum: OK, if you got this far and haven't dozed off, this will do it for you:
Language: Writing Strands, Reading Strands using Childhood of Famous Americans books (Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein...), "Language Detective" books(I can't remember the exact name right now)
and MadLibs for grammar. Vocab and spelling will come from the books he is reading. I think I'll have him keep a notebook of unfamiliar words and then pick one word a week to turn in to a short story with a picture.
Math: ALEKS.com, with McRel for some variety. He probably needs a little more arithmetic practice. I might break down and give him some worksheets (gasp!) for homework as we get into the year a ways.
Science: Good ol' Exploration Education for the physical science stuff. We'll do a unit on the human body, build an "Invisible Man". We'll also have a "Space" unit.
History: K12. I think it covers the Renaissance and Exploration of America this year
Music: I really really want both kids to play the piano, the dulcimer, the harp... something! MBB keeps saying he wants to learn the recorder, which is great, but the closest thing to a recorder I ever played was the bagpipes, and they didn't require a great deal of subtlety in breath control....He loves Sousa marches, so maybe he just isn't going to be a stringed instrument kinda kid. I wish I had my Uncle Robby (trumpet player) close by to help him out.
MRB would probably let me teach her, and MBB seems to try it out just so she doesn't get better than him at something....Guess I'll be sneaky and start teaching MRB piano and hope MBB follows along :) I will try to play the harp and dulcimer more often to hopefully get them to want to try them more.
Art: Both kids love arts and crafts. The library just got a new series of kids' videos on artists, so we might check those out. I'd like to use the FIAR idea of imitating the artists' techniques from the picture book we are reading for the week for MRB.
Well, there you have it...all the ideas that have been ping ponging around in my head. Check in a few months from now and we'll see how its going :)
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Jun. 23, 2006 - Miracle Sprinkler
I never thought I would be so thankful for a working sprinkler head, but we just had something happen that makes me feel like I witnessed a miracle...Whatever the case, I guess we learned you can pray about anything..even sprinklers :)
A few months ago, one of the sprinkler heads out front broke off. We don't know if it got old and split, or if someone kicked it. Because it wasn't a "clean" break, we called in someone to repair it. We ended up needing several other heads and valves replaced. The repairs were costly, and we just got everything resolved yesterday. Imagine my horror today when I went outside and found yet another broken off sprinkler head in our yard!. The street was flooded with dirt, which meant that the city must have flushed the water lines again..I thought maybe that somehow broke one of the few older heads we didn't have replaced. I wanted to cry and cry...instead the kids and I prayed. I joked that "Maybe God wants me to learn sprinkler repair". MRB said simply, "God doesn't want you to cry". I ate lunch and then went out to see which head had been broken. Imagine my surprise and delight when all the sprinkler heads popped up undamaged. I checked and double checked them...all of them are fine! I still have the broken sprinkler head on my kitchen counter. I don't know where the broken sprinkler head came from, but I feel like we certainly had an answer to prayer! (Whew, I was really hoping God didn't have a great plan for me to learn to repair sprinklers..... :) )
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Jun. 5, 2006 - School's Out!
We finished our second year of homeschooling Friday! We joked about not being able to sing "No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks" because MBB is stuck with his teacher full time. I joked that he got an "A" in everything but "pencil keeping". We could never find a pencil, no matter how many I got out, and no matter what organizing schemes we tried.
It has been a good school year. We had a "block" schedule that we stuck to all year that worked very well for us. We all knew when we woke up on MWF that it was a math/language day, Tuesday was history day, and Thursday was science day. Even when real life got busy, we would do some piece of that days' subject. I didn't find myself rushing MBB through his work to get to the next subject the way I did last year. I tried not to have too many outside activities, but somehow we still ended up with too many...I was looking forward to the end of the year because I was tired of driving to gymnastics and ceramics and park day and the library and....I am glad there are so many fun things we can be a part of, but I may try to make it so only one or two days a week are "outside" days. One of my favorite days this year was last week when we didn't have ANYWHERE to go and stayed home. We worked on a science kit that we had neglected all year, painted flower pots for G'ma, and planted some flowers for the front porch.
MBB has really grown as a student this year. By the end of the school year, I didn't have to stand over him to make sure work got done. He could go in and do his math on ALEKS most of the time by himself. I would check in to make sure he understood, or to show him little "tricks", but he was mostly independent. At the beginning of the year he would argue and argue with me if he thought he had the right answer to a problem. He can't argue with ALEKS, so I loved it. It seems to work best to let him get in to the problems before I offer help. If I try to lecture first before he tries the problems, it doesn't work. He liked being able to read the history lessons online himself. I had him tell me what he learned and wrote it in his History Record Book, or he answered the canned questions at the end of the lesson out loud. One day he deliberately started adding "extra" information..."When they ran out of things to throw at invaders, the people in castles started throwing out servants..." just to see if I had read the lesson! We only tried writing them out once. It took forever and I got one word answers. For each block of history lessons he would come up with his own project related to the lessons. His ideas were much more creative than what K12 suggested! Science (We used Exlporation Education) required more supervision for the projects, but he could read the lessons and answer the questions better than I could most of the time. We both learned a lot from EE. I started to wonder if I was asleep all through high school physics....
Language was his least favorite subject. I tried to really cut down the number of worksheets. We did much of it outloud or on the whiteboard. Once State testing was over I have to confess we shelved the grammar stuff and didn't look back. He has a good grasp of the rules anyway...As I looked at Scopes and Sequences for the next few years it looks like things get repeated year after year anyway no matter what curriculum you use. How many times do we really need to learn what an adjective is?! Madlibs were much more fun. MBB reads so much on his own I let literature slide a little too by Spring. He already summarizes plots and discusses stories anyway. He compares stories to one another, or brings up fables and stories that relate to real life situations. He incorporates bits of books when he plays, so I know he understands and remembers what he reads. He has had kids play Encylcopedia Brown and the Boxcar Children with him at the park, He has invented new adventures for Paddington Bear. I think next year I may try having him come up with vocabulary words from the books he is reading, since the vocabulary workbook went by the wayside very early in the year (Hm....looks like workbooks are not for us!)
We ordered Sponge Bob Typing Tutor about halfway through the year. He has worked on his own through many of the lessons. He got on to a Lego Message Board the other day and typed his own posts. All the words were spelled correctly, the sentences were all punctuated properly...who needs worksheets? :) He is writing more on his own, and his handwriting is fairly neat. It is still much larger than I would expect, and not fast enough to keep up with his thoughts. Even when I wrote out what he said and just had him copy it, it was a slow process. MRB has started writing letters on her own, and I think MBB is now motivated to make sure his handwriting looks at least as good as hers! He got out the Handwriting Without Tears workbook on the last day of school and wanted to work on his cursive!
At any rate, this entry is mostly for me, so I won't forget all I've learned this year about teaching MBB. We plan to have a school free summer...though MBB said "I can't help learning!"
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May. 1, 2006 - Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover
There is one book in particular that I seriously judged by its cover. The picture on the front of The Light in the Attic has always bothered me so much that I had never even opened up a copy. We were at Sam's Club yesterday and MBB picked the book up and started to read...and wouldn't put it down. He decided to spend his Easter money on it instead of the usual Bionicle. He read us some of the poems on the way home and at dinner...I found myself laughing outloud. One of the poems, "Ladies First" was one I remember really liking, but I had no idea it came from that book. The sense of humor in the poems is just like MBB's. I am glad that I finally got to take a look inside that book! (I still don't like the cover)
I am learning that I can't get stuck with my view of "how things are supposed to be"....
MBB (8) does not normally like to write. For most of our lessons, I have him tell me the answers outloud, draw pictures, or build models. When I do have him write, I usually have him dictate to me first, write it out for him, and have him copy it. He is learning to type, since it is easier for him to get his ideas down that way. When I heard about Reading Rainbow's young author and illustrator's contest, it didn't even cross my mind that MBB would be interested. A few weeks later he came running to me, "MOM, MOM, I can write a story and get Levar Burton to read it on TV!" We looked up the contest rules, and he started typing..the story grew and grew. I helped him brainstorm the sequence of the story, and he was able to write the rest. The story could only have 350 words....his rough draft had over 600. This is from a kid who wouldn't ever write more than a few sentences on pain of death. He worked with me to mercilessly hack his story down to 330 words. I was amazed at how well he could decide what he needed and what he could cut. We probably did a years worth of composition lessons (word choice, punctuation, verb tense, how to use a dictionary) over the few days we worked on it (Right before the deadline of course) He drew some really cool illustrations, and we mailed it in. He wants to add the words back now and make a book.
So here is "Paragraphs from the Western News" by MBB:
Fifty Men Disappear
On October 7, 50 men were working at McRae's Soda Works, when 20 disappeared.
After lunch, the remaining 30 vanished!
Math Test Clue to
Missing Men Mystery
On October 8, a semester math test was given out everywhere. The number 511345 appeared several times in the test, along with a map of an area (see below)
My reporter friends brought me these articles, since I am the best detective in town. I work next door to the newspaper and have lunch with guys from McRae's. I noticed when the number 511345 is typed into a calculator and turned upside-down, it spells SHELLS.
While searching maps of the Pacific, I found exactly what we were looking for: Shell Island!
Since the island is all mountains, with only a small beach, we couldn't go by plane. The reporters owned a boat, so we sailed out into the Pacific. A line of storm clouds was directly in our course. Lightning struck our boat.
Fortunately, Shell Island was directly in front of us so we could swim ashore.
We found Sal E. Sells' Seashell Shop. Sal would only tell the reporters where the missing men were.
We made a new boat from leaves and were on our way to the missing men. We saw a banana shaped rock covered with giant spider babies. Since we couldn't' sail around this rock, we had to carry the boat over. To distract the spider babies, one of us hopped on the island. When the spiders gathered around her, we threw the boat at them. CRUNCH! We picked the boat up and carried it over the rock. I wished they would tell me where we were going!
Now we're back HOME? I shouted. Sal told the reporters the missing men were just next door! We opened the door to the newspaper and "SURPRISE!" It was my birthday! They all disappeared just to prepare for my party.
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Apr. 5, 2006 - Comebacks I'll never get to use
My husband says that I don't harbor grudges...I "tend them, nurture them..." I have a hard time with "keeping no record of wrongs" and "not being easily angered". People say some of the stupidest things, and I wish I could just let it all roll of my back...but sometimes it gets to be too much. So here are some of those comebacks I'll never get to use:
"Yes, my daughter is short. I feed her all the wrong things and put lead weights on her head so she'll stay small."
"Yes, my son is loud. We are outside, and I'm pretty sure he is within noise abatement levels"
"My kids are getting dirty in the sandbox? There ought to be some law about dirt being outside!"
"My kids are talkative? You mean that's what that noise has been all these years?!"
"My kids are active? Yes, sadly, they failed Couch Potato 101."
"Yes, my son is bright. I purposely make him stay up at night and study so he can annoy everyone by knowing too much."
"Yes, I'm aware my daughter is wearing rain boots and it isn't raining...she has psychic abilities to predict the weather...you'd better go get your umbrella"
"Yes, my son isn't wearing a coat and it is 65 degrees out. He gave his coat to some unfortunate soul who thought it was cold."
OK, I feel better now.
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Apr. 4, 2006 - Prince and the Ball Glove
We are NOT an athletic family. I am a complete klutz and lived in fear of PE. Fortunately, both kids seem more coordinated than I am, but we still have avoided organized sports like the plague. Until now. In January, my son and I were in the mall while they were having sign-ups for Cal Ripken baseball. He announced he wanted to go sign up. I told him we could go check things out, but didn't plan on actually signing him up. He very politely asked questions about the different leagues and took a sign up form home. I figured that was the end of it. He kept hounding me and hounding me until we finally agreed to sign him up. His grand total of baseball experience amounts to an evening with my dad a few years ago, a few times playing with me in the back yard, and watching Sandlot with his cousin. I planned on trying to practice with him before practices started, but it has rained and rained this spring.
His first practice is Thursday, the first game is Saturday. It is a "farm league" team, so he will get to go to base even if he doesn't hit the ball. The field is right across the street from us, so it will be easy to get back and forth to practice. The season is only eight weeks long, so it should be a little less stressful for this non-sports family.
BRB took him to get a glove last night. The manager of the store told them that it helps to break a glove in if you sleep with it under your matress. BRB joked with him a little about the Princess and the Pea. My little guy faithfully brought the glove home and put it under his mattress. He has complete faith that he is going to be a great ball player, especially if he sleeps with that glove. He has his doubts about Santa, the tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny...but that glove is a different story. I don't know why it makes me want to cry, but it does. I hope he does well, I hope he has fun.. I am praying hard he will be able to listen to his coach and not try to manage the team himself.... :) We'll be there cheering for him no matter what.
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