Pearson Academy, Georgia

Feb. 14, 2008

A Cute Valentine Poem

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Valentine Food For Thought

Cabbage always has a heart; Green beans string along.
You're such a cute tomato, Will you peas to me belong?
You've been the apple of my eye, You know how much I care;
So lettuce get together, We'd make a perfect pear.

Now, something's sure to turnip to prove you can't be beet;
So, if you carrot all for me let's let our tulips meet.
Don't squash my hopes and dreams now, Bee my honey, dear;
Or tears will fill potato's eyes, While sweet corn lends an ear.

I'll cauliflower shop and say, Your dreams are parsley mine.
I'll work and share my celery, So be my valentine.

by Jeanne Losey

I was looking for information on the origin of Valentine's Day today and stumbled across this poem. I read it aloud twice to my kids before I got all the puns. We all enjoyed it so much.

The site where I found the poem also had quite a lot of other great information about Valentine's Day. Enjoy!

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Dec. 14, 2007

Learning about the national parks

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One thing my kids need to learn more about is the national parks. Today I discovered the National Park Service has a Webrangers site where kids can sign up, complete activities and become a Webranger. I think this will be right up my kids' alley to begin in January. I know some of the activities carry an evolutionary tone, so I will need to use them as an opportunity to teach what we know from the Bible, as opposed to what scientists are guessing based on what they believe.

In addition, several national parks have online Junior Ranger programs. To do these, you just need to print online articles and worksheets, then send in the completed worksheets to receive a Junior Ranger badge.

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Jan. 11, 2007

a new idea for the new year

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I really wasn't sure it would work, but I had to try something new this year since my time for teaching school is shrinking. Last week I did it. It worked. It went well. Wanna know what I did?

Last week we did a week's worth of history on Tuesday. Then a week's worth of science on Wednesday. A week's worth of math activities on Thursday. Watched a video on Friday afternoon, then read a week's worth of literature (related to the previous week's history) on Monday. This week we kept on going, but substituted our Community Bible Study for Wednesday, pushing science back to today. Still not sure whether we'll get to math this week or save it for Monday. Still working the bugs out, but it seems to be working well!

I like the fact that I don't have to try to divide up each subject to see how it will fit into the week...I don't have to guess how much we can get through in our half hour slot for each subject. And I end up with more time for hands on projects, experiments, games, etc.

I needed to make this change for my sanity's. The reason my teaching time for the bigger kids is dwindling is that my sister-in-law, who has been our nanny for the last 10 months, will be starting a new job in a couple weeks. Morning school time will be harder to manage, what with a 2 1/2 year old and 2 1-year-olds ...so Mom's afternoon break will give way to afternoon school time with the 7- and 8-year old. Keep us in your prayers as we adjust our schedule and our style a bit.

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Oct. 21, 2006

has it really been that long?

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Where to begin...we have blitzed through the last 2 1/2 months! We've done some traveling and field trips - visited my parents in Maryland for a week, took a hike at a nearby state park, visited Fernbank Museum, Weinmann Mineral Museum, and the Etowah Indian Mounds, and made our annual visit to Burt's Pumpkin Farm. I am loving the weather and have finally decided that fall is my favorite season - I love the smells, the temperature outside, the colors, the activities...definitely the best season!

Both big kids were in swimming lessons (separate classes) in September and my daughter, quite a good swimmer, could not seem to let go of the wall and swim for most of the session. My son was progressing so well that he was ready to move to the next level for October. We found a new class that could accomodate both kids at their current levels, and they are both swimming wonderfully now. My son, who was at a beginner level, can now swim several strokes without assistance, and my daughter has finally let go of the wall for good and is making great progress toward being the Olympic swimmer she dreams of becoming. I can't wait to see them swim again - the September class worked out so that I could watch them, but in October it's later, and I'm putting the little ones to bed while they swim.

In schooltime my oldest daughter (8 now) is nearing the end of her Shillermath Kit I, and my son (6.75) is 2/3 of the way through it - we've also decided to use our Miquon math for variety a couple times a week. My daughter is tackling Rod & Staff grammar, while my son is going through the R&S 2nd grade phonics book. We're using Ambleside Online as a resource for read-alouds and poetry, and we've wrapped up Story of the World, Volume 1, and started in on Volume 2, with some Ambleside history reading alongside it. For science, we're finishing up our unit on Rocks in considering God's creation and will study weather starting next week. One of the best finds this year is Rod & Staff's Health & Manners workbook for 2nd grade - I've been covering a lesson a week from it with my toddler along with the older kids, and they all seem to enjoy it and learn a lot from it.

As we move along, I'm considering whether to add in some music theory using Keyboard Capers, whether to insist on handwriting practice, and where to head for math for my oldest daughter when she finishes the Shillermath kit in 8 more lessons - I am thinking about buying the next kit.

My younger daughter (2.5) is enjoying doing "school" with me for a short time each day. Mostly we use the Sonlight PreK read-alouds and work with some math manipulatives (her favorite thing). I love the way she is absorbing information now - I know what influences her and what she thinks about now because she tells me! She loves to sing - real or made-up songs - and the songs she sings are often about Jesus or God or Heaven. Last week I prayed with her as she asked Jesus into her heart. At first I wasn't sure she fully understood what she was doing, but hearing her talk and sing for the last week, there's no doubt that God is working in her, and that she understands far more than I imagined. I'm just not sure whether she's been talking and singing like this before and I missed it, or if she just started last week.

The babies are now 10 months old. They are both saying "I love you" ...ok, it really sounds more like "I uh ooo" - but I am sure that's what they mean! One has been saying Mama since a couple days ago, and I'm sure the other will follow suit soon. Feeding time is interesting - they don't like to sit still for bottles but can't quite figure out the sippy cups either...high chair time is a messy time with a mix of baby food and table food.

Our schoolyear church activities have begun again as well. The kids join me Community Bible Study on Wednesday mornings, and the whole family goes to Awana on Wednesday, where Joe and I continue to help sign in the Cubbies (3-4 year olds) as they arrive. I'm actually finding the time to get out of the house a couple evenings a month to sing in the church choir - something that's been a real blessing for me and the others involved. I really didn't know how it would work out and didn't want to leave my husband alone with all 5 kids....but it worked out fine the first time. For the second rehearsal things were a bit more complicated because it was scheduled at the same time as the older kids' swim lesson, but a friend stepped in to babysit the younger 3 - and despite a car that didn't work a couple days before, God worked it out for her to come and have a good time with my little ones.

Our lives are busy this fall, but God is doing amazing things and revealing his love, truth, and faithfulness to our family.

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Aug. 6, 2006

Where we do school

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The kitchen is my main "classroom." We cover history, science, and language arts around the kitchen table. It is very convenient to be able to grab a glass of water or a snack without leaving the room, and we don't need to get another table or desks for them to do their work on in another room. (Where would we put a schoolroom anyway? Even our twin babies don't have their own room to share yet, one sleeps in our bedroom, the other in our son's.) We keep a shoebox of school supplies (scissors, tape, hole punch, stapler, pencils) on our kitchen counter, and the kids grab their own crayons from the bookshelf in the living room when we need them. Our school books are kept in a box by the computer, and I simply pull out the day's books and notebooks in the morning, then put them away before lunch.

After the other subjects have been covered, one of the kids joins me on the floor of our living room for math. We use lots of manipulatives, so the extra space is nice to have. I think the kids also like being able to get away from the table for some of their work.

Having school in the kitchen forces me to put things away in a timely manner--otherwise I'd be tempted to leave it all lay out in disarray. The kitchen table works well for us, and we are free to move to the sofa for a read-aloud whenever we want to.

We do have a secondary teaching area in our house. My sister-in-law teaches my 2-year-old Chinese and art in the morning, and my 2 older children in the afternoon - for that she uses our basement playroom. There is a small table there that the kids use to do artwork. She also teaches them Chinese, though I think they sit on the floor for most of that.

I'm so happy we don't have a "classroom" but can really be free to do school anywhere.

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May. 30, 2006

Progress report for 6-year-old son

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Progress Report for 6-year-old son

August 2005-May 2006

Language Arts

Reading – He has made tremendous progress in reading this year and is now able to read independently around the 3^rd grade level. He enjoys reading Magic Tree House, Ricky Ricotta, Franny K. Stein, and Berenstain Bears books. He read through all the 1^st grade advanced readers from Sonlight’s curriculum, and he has even read several books from The Chronicles of Narnia independently.

Writing – He has learned to print all of his letters properly using Handwriting without Tears My Printing Book.

Grammar – He has been learning the definition of a noun using First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind.

Spelling – He spells at the mid-2^nd grade level. We did not do a formal study of spelling this year.

Math

This year we used ShillerMath books 1 & 2, completing up to Activity 59 of book 2. He has made tremendous progress in learning basic addition and subtraction facts, and has even memorized several multiplication facts. He can add numbers to the thousands using manipulatives, even when exchange is required. He enjoys counting has counted up to 12,000 …so far. He has learned about multiples, expressing inequalities, even and odd numbers, groupings from solo to quintet, parallel lines and parallelograms, basic probability and estimation, Roman numerals to 10, triangular numbers, and counting money (pennies, dimes, nickels). He needs to continue to work on basic directionality, as he still sometimes confuses right and left. He has gone far beyond the math most children encounter in Kindergarten.

History

We studied history beginning with Ancient Greece using Story of the World, Volume 1. He demonstrates comprehension and retention of the subject matter and read some library books related to our history topics. He especially enjoyed our study of Roman gladiators.

Science

While we did not do a formal study of science this year, He is certainly very interested in science, and enjoys reading books about science, including the Magic School Bus series.

Bible

This year in Community Bible Study, he completed a survey course of the Bible. As part of our church’s Awana program, he also memorized verses and completed crafts to finish the Skipper Handbook. In the evenings, he enjoyed listening to missionary stories as part of our family devotions.

Foreign Language

In March he started learning Chinese and has mastered the Chinese alphabet (written and spoken), numbers, and tones. He is quickly developing an oral vocabulary and has learned 3 songs in Chinese. His reading ability is equivalent to that of a young first grader in Chinese school.

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May. 24, 2006

time travel?

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The kids this morning traveled back in time through a time tunnel (baby gate leaned up against the sofa), and brought the first man, Adam (a part my son played), forward in time. My daughter educated him on what books were, and told him Bible stories that hadn't yet occured in his time. He joined us for lunch, and we educated him about the kinds of food we eat, and even about how to use our modern...ahem.... facilities when he had need of them. Apparently, in the time the kids traveled to, Eve hadn't yet been created, though Adam had named all the animals. I'm sure it was a new experience for Adam to eat meat (a fishstick, and lobster spread), as he had only tasted fruit and the like before. He was desperate to try our strawberries, and told us the strawberries in Eden didn't taste as good as ours. I found that a little strange. He wasn't quite sure what we meant about brushing our teeth, as that's something he'd never even considered doing before. By the end of lunch, Eve had appeared at the table (my 2-year-old daughter played this part). They all really had quite a time using their imaginations, and I'm sure it was quite educational for my toddler.

The babies have had quite a time the last couple days. After "forgetting" how to roll over for more than a week, the younger one finally remembered and rolled over ...and hasn't stopped since. The older one was lying on the floor next to her yesterday when she rolled over, and she seed to notice....a little while later when I wasn't looking, she also rolled over onto her tummy. Both have now discovered their feet and are rolling over. They're both much more interested in the world around them and get distracted easily (from eating) by all the big kid action.

Our school has gone well this week, though we had a slow Monday and had to do some of Monday's work yesterday. The kids listened well to the story of Rome's war with Carthage, in which they learned all about Hannibal and his elephants. I'm getting quite an education from Story of the World myself - I'm a little jealous that they get to learn all this stuff so young, when I'm not sure I ever learned it before. We started on Considering God's Creation for science, and I decided we don't need to rush - I'll take it slow from now on and just do one component of a lesson each time we have school - I was trying to do 2 or 3 parts at a time. A big hit has been the Kay Arthur Bible study we're doing, though I think I'll do most of the writing for the kids as they discover for themselves what God's Word says. My daughter even joined me at the table today as I was doing my own study and wanted to mark her Bible up right alongside me, starting with Genesis 1. Now she wants a notebook like mine where she can record what she discovers. Life is good. God is great. We're all learning so much, even though it's not "official" school time. We've fulfilled our 180 required days already.

One new discovery I made - when my oldest daughter is reluctant to do something, I can call on one of her imaginary "Girl Troop" friends to do the task. Batgirl loves to clean up her room. Morgan is good at math. Who knows what else I will discover about them?

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May. 17, 2006

learning Chinese by osmosis

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My 2 big kids are really coming along with their Chinese lessons. Tomorrow they will learn the final character of the Chinese alpabet. My son counted all the way up to 200 in Chinese a couple days ago. He's fixated on numbers and counting, having counted up to 12,000 in English (so far). As a matter of course, I'm picking up certain words and phrases to add to the few I already knew - like "Thank you, teacher", vase, aunt, window. Someday in the midst of my decluttering of the house I will come across more than just tape 15 (which turned up yesterday) of my Learnables Chinese course and pick that back up. Until then, it's exciting to learn words and phrases that my kids now know - that their nanny, their aunt who was born and raised in Taiwan, has taught them.

Yesterday we took a break from normal school for an outing to Chuck E Cheese. The biggest hit with everyone was the machine that takes your picture and prints out a sketch from it. My toddler also really enjoyed the bus, returning to that ride again and again. On the way home, she had her Chinese lesson in the car - going over numbers 1-10, colors, and some of the alphabet. It's amazing what a 2-year-old can learn, even in the few short months she's been learning Chinese.

Lots of other things are happening too. On Saturday we got together with 2 of my husband's college friends and their kids and went for a ride on their boat. The babies were good, our kids had a great time, their kids (who wanted to go faster and go tubing or waterskiing) were bored, and the adults all had a great time catching up with each other in person for the first time in nearly 3 years. I discovered that it's possible to feed a baby a bottle while she's wearing a life vest, and it's also possible to carry twin babies and 2-year-old all at once - though not advisable. It's also a creative way to elicit assistance from bystanders who would otherwise be happy to let your toddler wander into the middle of a parking lot! I developed strong arm muscles on our trip from carrying 2 babies to the playground, but strangely my arms were not the most sore part of my body - I suppose I must have worked the muscles in my back since that's the only part giving me any difficulty at all.

This week our science curriculum arrived, as well as Kay Arthur Bible studies for the kids and me. I'll be taking a look at them tomorrow and deciding whether or not to incorporate them in next week's schedule. We also received a coloring book of Ancient Rome, which I noticed my daughter make off with awhile ago - not to color, but to read, of course! The kids are really enjoying our study of ancient Rome, and my son, much to my older daughter's chagrin, outanswered him in the review questions on Monday. She's sure to be back on top tomorrow though!

The babies are keeping me busy. One is on my lap now, and the other is wishing she was. A couple weeks ago, the older one found her feet, but now the younger one has also discovered hers and plays with them periodically. The younger one learned how to make razzing sounds first, but the older one is catching up with her there, although she still has not rolled over, something else the younger one beat her at. It's exciting to see how differently even identical twins develop and discover their world.

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May. 10, 2006

kids are begging for grammar lessons!

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Our "official" school year is over, as we've reached and surpassed the required 180 days. We're on homeschool "lite" for the summer, just doing fun things like Ancient History (yes, the kids like it!), Shiller Math, reading about missionaries, and perhaps starting science.

Yesterday the kids dutifully practiced their writing - something I am still requiring until they complete their books - my son actually did a whole bunch so he could be done. When I thought we were done for the day, my daugher begged to study verbs - apparently she enjoyed the lessons I was haphazardly throwing together as I attempted to sneak some First Language Lessons in. I had to let the secret out, and she still wanted to study verbs, so out came the book. My son is also enjoying the lessons, though he has only just started the book - he asked for his Language lesson a couple days ago as well. It looks like I'm going to have to teach Language over the summer, at least as often as they request it! LOL!

Honestly, I'm so pleased we have found curriculum that's easy for me to use and fun for the kids. I am hoping that Considering God's Creation will be that way for science. I have an older teacher's guide which doesn't include the student pages or music CD. After looking through it and the publisher's website, I decided it was worth it to purchase the updated curriculum package and use this curriculum over the next year...or 3, depending on how fast we move through the material. I was pleased to see it's designed for 2nd - 7th grade, as my daughter is 3rd grade age (but works above grade level), and my son, although only 6, can work at least at a 2nd grade level. Both love science - I'm the one who is "science-challenged." It's not that I don't enjoy it or know a lot about it, but it's hard to pull together the materials for experiments and actually take the time to do them, especially while taking care of a toddler and 2 babies. Of course, now that we have a nanny, that shouldn't be so challenging either.

There's been a question in the back of my mind of when to start schooling my 2-year-old, and how much...but I think I'm going to let her continue to learn what she wants to on her own with my encouragement and direction. And then when she turns 3 we'll probably start working on learning to read using short lessons - one of the several programs I have on hand. She has amazed me by knowing how to count at least to 20 (very seldom skipping a number), counting to 10 in Chinese, recognizing all her colors and most of her shapes, and even recognizing some letters/sounds and numbers. For now I'll continue reading to her and folowing her interests.

And what about my 4-month-old twins? Well, I figure I'll give them at least a year before we do anything formal! LOL!

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Mar. 10, 2006

Discoveries in our first week back to "school"

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I suppose this was our first week of school in which I actively taught the kids since fall. During my pregnancy I had little energy, and it was difficult to teach with a toddler distracting everyone. The kids did plenty of reading though, and I did not worry much because they're ahead of most of their peers and did a great job of learning independently. A few weeks ago, though, we realized that I would need to get back to teaching them...and that may require us to find someone to help with the other kids. My husband started exploring options for nannies, and when we mentioned this to his sister, she jumped at the opportunity to quit her fast-food job and start a job she knew she'd love. On Monday she came to work for us as our nanny, and she shared in the teaching responsibilities with the big kids - I did the basic academics in the mornings, and she taught Chinese, art, and PE in the afternoons (while my toddler had her nap) 3 days a week.

During this week there have been times this week when I wondered how I ever managed without her. I suppose I managed without her ok, but half the things I wanted to get done didn't. It's been very freeing having her around to help. We have now made it out of survival mode, and as we eased back into school, I made a lot of discoveries.

I love to plan...so much so that when planning what to cover with the kids I planned a little too much; I've scaled it down quite a bit for next week.
My kids love using Story of the World (SOTW) for Ancient History; my son especially loves it if we play the cd on the computer and he watches the visualizations while it plays; I'll be putting some pertinent chapters on their mp3 players so they can listen as many times as they want to!
Neither kid likes to color the coloring sheets from the activity book. Oh well. The map was a hit this week though!
Adding in the Usborne and/or Kingfisher history books we have is just too overwhelming for me ("let's read this too...and this..."); SOTW will have to be enough, and they can explore the other resources as they have the desire.
I don't have to do the projects with the kids - they have a crafty aunt (our nanny) who is having fun picking and choosing, gathering the materials, guiding them through it, etc.
My 6-year-old son enjoys First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind. My 7.5-year-old daughter can't stand it - she was about halfway through the book when we stopped last year, so I'll be pulling out certain "language activities" to do with her and see how that goes. Next week I have her writing a letter to a friend (or a missionary, and she can pass an Awana section at the same time), writing (more likely dictating) a story about what she likes to do in different seasons (this could turn into a book for her younger sister), and memorizing a poem
Both kids enjoy Shillermath but are ready to settle down to doing just 2-3 activities at a time
Oops, I forgot to teach science, aside from reading Click magazine with the kids
My older daughter doesn't like read-alouds, but my son does. I have a hard time coordinating these, so I'll probably do them as requested but spend more time reading to my younger daughter who turns 2 this month.
Both kids love learning Chinese. Our nanny grew up in Taiwan and is teaching them the Chinese ABC's and numbers...as well as words and phrases. My son even told me he loves his homework - copying Chinese characters.
I don't need to micromanage everything in the house - even with a nanny, it's tempting for me still to want to do everything (i.e. laundry, dishes, fixing lunch) and feel guilty if I don't; I need to get over that!
Our nanny has discovered that my younger gets tired of art fast so I'll pull out some extra resources like Slow and Steady Get Me Ready and Where is Thumbkin to help give her guidance in what to do with her while I do school with the big kids
I need to have a better plan of what should get done around the house and when. Our nanny keeps asking me what needs to be done around the house, and I don't know what to tell her.

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Dec. 19, 2005

School? What's that?

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Sometime in the last 3 weeks I seem to have forgotten what "school" is. I think my kids have too. Let me see... is it when my almost-6-year-old son watches the man who's putting up drywall in the basement - watches him hammer the nails in, and put "mud" on the wall and sand it down once it's dry? Is he also doing "school" when for the fun of it he counts up 2000 numbers higher each night with the goal of reaching 10,000 by the end of the week?

Or is it when I come home from an appointment with the midwife and give the kids a play-by-play of what happened while they were busy doing arts and crafts with their aunt? Is it when we talk about what a Cesarean section is and why I might need one for their baby sisters to come out? Maybe it's when we all go to the chiropractor for initial exams and then find out what subluxations are and where we have them, as we did tonight.

Perhaps it's the weekly trips to the library to find Nancy Drew and American Girls mystery books for my 7-year-old daughter, and Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robots books for my son, among many others, of course. Are nightly devotions part of school? Or maybe it's watching the packages from Grandma being delivered for Christmas...and seeing the volume shrink as I've unpacked and wrapped many of the items to free up space in our house! Some of those presents hold academic treasures, as Grandma was given my "wish list" of homeschool books for the kids, and seems to have done a good job shopping for them.

Is it "school" when the kids learn how to play with their 21-month-old sister without making her cry? When they read (and memorize) Mother Goose rhymes or sing Christmas songs to her?

Maybe we "rediscovered" school tonight as Joe and I each sat down with a kid to go over Awana sections for Wednesday. Our son has been progressing quite steadily through his book, while our daughter seems to have lost motivation - my husband has a wonderful way of helping her build her confidence, and just from tonight's work, she already has a section ready to say in 2 days.

I guess none of this is "school", and yet, in a way, all of it is school. I like the fact that the kids can direct their own learning to a large degree and work at getting along with each other too. Even more, I like the fact that they are learning so much with very little direction from me...and that so much of their learning at the moment is practical - they're sure to remember it far better than the academic things I try so hard to teach them when I focus on doing "school" with them. What's more difficult is that their learning can't be quantified or measured by some kind of exam. Yet I know there will be plenty of time for tests some other time, when the needs of the family aren't so pressing. And besides, I know my kids are ahead in the basic academics and are growing in ways that are much more valuable than anything "school" can teach them.

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Dec. 6, 2005

schooling and unschooling an independent 7-year-old

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I had a difficult time filling out the November attendance form for my 7-year-old.  Really we didn't do ANY formal homeschool, though I know she was learning along the way anyway.  Here's what she's done in November (that I can remember):  read several Asterix comics (historical, about the Roman Empire, lots of Latin references), read lots of library books (Nancy Drew, Beverly Cleary, American Girls, and way too many others to list, about 5 chapter books/week), learned how to measure the perimeter of our living room using non-standard units of measure (i.e. how many kids long and wide?), read several Thanksgiving books independently and listened to me read a couple, did several Thanksgiving worksheets, daily Community Bible Study homework and weekly CBS and Awana club meetings, swimming lessons 2x/week, lots of independent arts/crafts.  

She tends to resist formal school, and I haven't taken the time and energy to pull together much of anything for her recently.  It was clear she needed a break from Switched-on-Schoolhouse, so I gave in and let her unschool for November.  But it left me wondering if this was enough.  I feel like I've done next to nothing to contribute to her intellectual development in the past month, and I'm at a loss as to what I should do for her this month or after the new babies arrive.

Deep down, I guess I know she's learning plenty, but I feel like I'm not doing a whole lot to contribute, not that she wants much in the way of my contribution. On the other hand, when we worked through some Christmas word problems today, I realized that she has complete mastery of all the addition and subtraction facts (which we haven't worked on in forever), and that she has a great understanding of how multiplication works (she even remembered some of the multiplication facts she's learned months ago). We started with the 3rd grade problems, which seemed perfect for her. With guidance she was able to figure out some more complex problems. The 2nd grade and 1st grade ones were quite easy. She was quite interested in the link between the 12 days of Christmas and Pascal's triangle as well.

I also discovered today that she thinks worksheets are for little kids - she's beyond them! She didn't mind doing these "fun activities" with me at the computer, utilizing the calculator when necessary for some of the harder problems. I guess that's just part of her learning style.

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Nov. 21, 2005

a moment of our lives

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Our Thanksgiving week is off to a relatively peaceful start.

My 7-year-old is quietly dressing baby dolls. I guess she's getting into practice for when her twin sisters arrive sometime next month!

My almost 6-year-old son is twisting a chocolate-scented bear wearing a baby dress on the wheel of my toddler's tricycle, which is lying on its side. Then off he rushes to help his older sister dress dolls and stuffed animals.

My 20-month-old daughter is seated at the table, with a Thanksgiving coloring page in front of her. Only one crayon (of the 8 she started with) remains, as the others have fallen to the floor - wait, it's gone now too, and she's on the floor. The table is still littered with crayon wrappers she's practiced peeling off the crayons. I've watched her trying to put the crayons into her ears and nose so far - thankfully they're the "so big" ones and won't fit into those places. Unfortunately they do still fit in her mouth (ick!), but at least they're non-toxic, and she readily complies when Mommy tells her not to put them there.

My two unborn little girls are due to come out in 3-6 weeks, depending on how they grow. The smaller one is lying crossways down low and "thumping" me with her legs periodically. The slightly larger one (both are about 4 lbs) lies atop her sister and is moving a bit as well, as we all listen to Phil Collins music from the computer.

I'm looking forward to (and praying silently for) a relatively peaceful day here, as I consider all the things that need to get done and gaze at the steadily falling rain on this cool Georgia morning.

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Nov. 17, 2005

continually changing direction

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Does anyone else ever feel like they're constantly tweaking to figure out what works? It's so rare that any curriculum "fits" my kids. Of course they love the Usborne books in Sonlight Science, and they'd love to do science experiments every day if their mother could even manage to handle the mess of one such experiment! If they could play outside all day every day and explore nature, picking berries as they are right now - probably dissecting them (maybe running over them with bike tires to see what will happen), they'd probably learn plenty just from that experience. However, I hesitate to send them out to play in freezing temperatures or sweltering weather, or even in rain, and they balk at playing outside when spiderwebs abound. And what then would I do about the other subject areas we need to cover - Language Arts, math, social studies?

The great news is that I know my kids are ahead of their peers in most, if not all of these areas. I don't know exactly how it happened. The bulk of our "Language Arts" is spent in reading, and I don't just mean me reading to them, though my nearly-6-year-old son is certainly picking up on tons of new vocabulary as I read novels like Emily's Runaway Imagination to him. My 7-year-old daughter has decided she does not enjoy being read to very much anymore, but she has recently started telling me bits and pieces of what she's read, including most of the Sonlight 2nd grade advanced readers. My son has read all of Sonlight's 2nd grade regular readers, and is constantly begging me for new reading material, and he doesn't mean library books - he wants books he can read and then deposit on his shelf of books to keep rereading. I'm tempted to pull out some of the Pre-K and Kindergarten read-alouds and let him start reading independently through those. Even more than my daughter, he excitedly shares with me whole stories that he read, showing me that he is comprehending the stories quite well. Last week he even begged to read me one of these books, Wagon Wheels, which he read expressively with few mistakes. Options abound for reading material - I could pull out our Robinson Curriculum CDs and print off some books, scour the library for the books on Sonlight's 2nd grade intermediate list of readers (or wait and see if he gets some as Christmas presents), pull out books from previous years... He's become a fluent reader, and I now have the challenge of trying to keep up with my newest bookworm!

I've dropped phonics for him, knowing that he's way ahead of his age-mates in this area, and he's likely to pick up the rest of the phonics rules on his own through reading anyway. We tried spelling for a short time, but he's testing into mid-2nd grade in that area, and I think I'll wait to do anything else formal with him, just as I have with his older sister, who's now testing into 11th grade in that area. He does need to practice handwriting so he'll be completely comfortable using lower-case letters consistently, but his handwriting is actually quite good, much better than that of most 6-year-old boys I've seen.

My daughter has taken the last couple weeks off from all of her Switched-on-schoolhouse. I don't know if it's just not a good fit for her curriculum-wise, if we should just wait a year until she's actually 3rd grade age, or what. Just because she can do 3rd grade work, do I push her ahead, or do I let her follow her interests and learn at her own pace, knowing she'll master parts of speech in her own good time now that she's had a good solid introduction? The one thing I do want is for her to write more - stories, letters, journals, and I need to find ways to quietly encourage her to do so, in a way that doesn't seem like I'm pushing her to do "schoolwork".

Math is her biggest challenge. Yes, I know she's ahead. She's mastered most, if not all, 2nd grade material, though maybe she should drill basic math facts, as if that's any fun! Shiller math was fun for her in the short run, but we've taken a break from it for awhile now. Maybe we'll be able to head back into it after Thanksgiving - I know things will be increasingly hectic after our new babies arrive at the end of the year. My son, on the other hand, loves math and would sit and do 1st grade math worksheets for an hour. Shiller is still fun for him, though we've temporarily set it aside for him as well. Knowing they're ahead in math is comforting, but I'd certainly like for them to be able to maintain and improve their skills.

Social studies is a fun area for the kids. They both love ancient history, and I'm planning to start Story of the World with my son relatively soon, hoping that my daughter will join us for these lessons. She, at the moment, is fascinated with my husband's Asterix comics which all take place at the time of the Roman Empire. She's getting all of her history from these at the moment and keeps begging for more. I'm so glad that my husband was able to find something to sustain her interest in this area.

The one area that is completely covered, though we should be more consistent in keeping up with, is Bible. The kids are both involved in Awana clubs and Community Bible Study. They study the Bible on a daily basis as part of family devotions, and keep up with Bible Study homework and learn verses for Awana when I remember to suggest it (and they choose to comply). The awards in Awana are a strong motivator for my son.

Given all these factors, I've come up with a new plan for the new year, though I'm not sure exactly when I will implement this plan.

For my son (1st grade, part 1):

Language Arts - practice handwriting, read read read!
Math - ShillerMath, Bob Jones Math 1, Miquon Orange
Science - Sonlight Science K
Social Studies - Story of the World
Bible - Community Bible Study. Awana

For my daughter (2nd grade, part 2):

Language Arts - read, write stories, letters, journals
Math - Shiller, Silver Burdett, Bob Jones Math 2; practice basic math facts
Science - read science books from library
Social Studies - Story of the World
Bible - Community Bible Study, Awana

I'm sure these plans will change at least 10 times before the year is out, but hopefully they'll help us find direction and reach modified goals for each child.

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Oct. 28, 2005

And now, a complete change of direction

Posted in School

I've changed my homeschool focus from my 7-year-old daughter to my almost 6-year-old son. My daughter is doing most of her schoolwork on the computer with Switched-on-Schoolhouse at the moment, and that seems to work most of the time. My son, however, is too young for the program (starts at 3rd grade) and craves one-on-one time with me anyway.

We made a tremendous language arts discovery with him last week - he's spelling at about a mid-2nd grade level. His reading seems to correlate quite nicely with his spelling level. While he enjoyed doing a little Spelling Power for a few days, I think he's already tired of it, and I'm considering letting him drop it for a bit since he's so far ahead in this area. (My daughter has essentially tested out of spelling, having passed the 11th grade test in Spelling Power - I've eliminated her spelling lessons from her computer Language Arts curriculum.)

My son finished the first ShillerMath activity book a couple weeks ago and started in on the 2nd one, but without much gusto. Instead he began begging for his Bob Jones Math 1 workbook, in which he whizzed through pages of basic addition quite quickly and with great enthusiasm. After a day or two of that, followed by a day or two of working all the rest of the math pages in his Jump Start Kindergarten workbook, he lost interest in doing any math. Again, I'm considering letting him take a week or so off from formally studying math, knowing that he's also ahead in this area.

Yesterday we started reading through the geography section of What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know. He has especially enjoyed learning about the continents and loves to trace them from the book onto blank paper.

He let me know that he wanted to do some formal science study as well, by pulling one of our Sonlight science books off the shelf. I was hesitant to let him start with the Sonlight 1 science, knowing that it had been 2 years since I did the Kindergarten Science program with him and his older sister, so I suggested we go find the K science books from the basement and work through those first. He readily agreed, and though I was going to be content with just reading the pages together with him, he told me he wanted to do the activity sheets as well. I am not following the Sonlight lesson plan but have decided to simply go through one book at a time with him, starting with the Usborne First Children's Encyclopedia, most of which we never even did with his big sister, since we followed the 4-day schedule, and most of it is only included in the 5-day schedule. He has been learning a lot, and it's been great to confront the evolutionary viewpoint of the book head-on with him. Today his older sister snuggled up next to us on the sofa, begging to see the book while I read. I kind of like teaching to my younger son.

He also mentioned he'd like to do Story of the World, so I may also be pulling that down for him. In addition, we're throwing in a few Five in a Row books and activities, all of which have been met with great enthusiasm so far.

Our homeschool time is limited, since we use only the first hour of my toddler's naptime for Mom-led education. Mom needs to have some rest after that, or no one's happy. Hopefully after these 2 baby girls are born (in 2 months) and we all get used to them (another 2-3 months), I'll be able to devote more of that "naptime" to school with the older two.

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Oct. 11, 2005

the power of butterscotch chips!

Posted in School

Am I an awful mom for bribing my daughter to do her math? Or for bribing my son to sit down to Language Arts with me? I've discovered they'll do just about anything for butterscotch chips.

Yesterday my 7-year-old daughter decided she'd rather read than do her math after lunch. So my 5-year-old son gladly did his math while she read. After dinner, when my husband sidetracked our toddler, I treated my daughter to her dessert over math, reminding her that she needed to be "deserving" to get dessert. Then my son gladly sat down to have his turn with a Language Arts pretest where his reward was also butterscotch chips. He did quite well, by the way, only having real difficulty with forming plurals of words ending in "y" and adding endings like "ed" and "ing" to short vowel words. (He's working through the Alpha Omega placement tests a couple at a time to reveal what he's mastered or needs to learn before he can start Switched-on-Schoolhouse like his big sister uses.)

Today I was bold with my expectations of my daughter's math work - I printed out a review/diagnostic test, which she normally doesn't enjoy one bit. Butterscotch chips work wonders. Only once did I catch her doodling on her paper instead of doing the math - I can't say I blame her since the problems she was doodling around were simple addition and subtraction problems I know she could do in her sleep. She didn't quite ace the test, but came very close. I didn't even score it, since any score other than a perfect one sends her crying off to her room.

Butterscotch chips can work miracles. Well, maybe not quite, but they sure make some of the more mundane schoolwork easier to "swallow".

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Sep. 26, 2005

18-month-old accomplishments

Posted in School

Our toddler, who is 18 months old today, keeps on amazing us with the things she does. She's a super imitator, has a large (for her age) vocabulary of words and signs that she'll string together in groups of 2-3 to express her thoughts. She's constantly adding new words and sounds to her vocabulary - the latest was "Ding-dong" which she heard and mastered immediately and repeatedly in the car yesterday.

She loves putting puzzles together and can figure out where pieces go, though she has difficulty rotating them to fit properly most of the time. She has a renewed interest in her ring stacker - which revealed that though she doesn't know her colors yet, she can follow verbal directions to put the rings on in the proper order without getting frustrated. She can point to items for us to count - like the two ears of a doggie, her favorite animal and toy. And she knows all the main parts of the body, even transferring that knowledge to find body parts of toy animals like horses or bears. She even says "mouth, eye, and nose" fairly intelligibly.

She has a Little-Touch LeapPad and has mastered putting the cartridge in or out, turning it on or off, and pressing the "Green Go Circle" when turning the page (or when prompted). She understands how to turn most of her toys (that have switches) on or off, and she even turned off our musical keyboard the other day when I asked her to.

She has become an expert climber, even climbing into or out of her crib when the side is down. She walks up and down the stairs (2 feet to a step, of course). Now that we've pulled her highchair up the table without the tray at mealtime, she's much happier about climbing into it, though her appetite is often quite small, and she refuses to even taste most vegetables (aside from potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn). She loves eating from a bowl with a spoon, and does a pretty good job of it, staying neat most of the time. And she often alerts us when her diaper is uncomfortable, a sure sign that potty-training is just around the corner.

I am surprised at some things she does since my older two never did them at her age, but then again they didn't have older siblings to mimic as she does. One of her favorite activities this month is bringing me a songbook to sing from - her favorites are "If You're Happy and You Know It" (for which she'll clap, nod, or say "Amen"), and "This Little Light of Mine" (she holds her finger up throughout the song to represent the light). She also enjoys bringing me little books of prayers to read to her, and even folds her hands when I start reading and says "Amen" at the end of each one.

My little baby is growing up so fast. In some ways I'm so thankful because her blossoming independence and obedient (for the most part) attitude will be so helpful when her twin sisters arrive in about 3 months. At the same time I wish I could give her more time to be a baby and lavish the attention on her that I was able to give her older siblings when they were around that age, before I had 3 kids soon to be 5 kids. The older kids are such a help though and really do teach her so much - I'm glad to have somehow raised such eager learners ... and teachers. God has been so good to bless me with these terrific kids.

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Sep. 26, 2005

Catching up after a busy week

Posted in School

We've had such a busy week that I am just now updating my blog at my husband's suggestion. One of the best things I did this week was to add in some projects to my daughter's Switched-on-Schoolhouse (SOS) Language Arts curriculum. I didn't realize there were extra projects to assign until I was eliminating her spelling quiz assignments (she is a natural speller but detests those quizzes). There were 4 projects I could assign for unit 3 - one of which I could design myself. She has almost completed the first one, and she has really enjoyed it for the most part - making up a 10-word dictionary. She was given a list of words in a made-up language and had the job of alphabetizing them and defining them however she liked. She even went so far as to include which part of speech each word was - something the assignment did not require. The other two projects I assigned were a book report about a folk tale of her choice, and a creative writing assignment about pets, for which I thought she could talk about her Nintendogs if she'd like. Last night I finally got around to ordering the Science and History SOS curriculum - she'll start the science as soon as it arrives, and we'll ease into the history after she's done a unit of 2 of the science.

Shiller Math has been a delight for all of us. My daughter skipped math one day last week but then zoomed through a number of math lessons the next day - completely enjoying learning new geometry concepts like parallel lines and parallelograms, as well as learning about probability with coin tossing and rolls of a die. Her lesson today was way easy for her, as she's already understood and applied the concepts taught - addition with carrying.

My 5 1/2 year-old son, however, watched very attentively as we used the manipulatives to complete the problem and then was quite anxious to try it himself with numbers of his choice. I was happy to allow him the opportunity after going over his scheduled lesson for today - a review of rows, columns, and tables.... one of the items he needed more practice on according to last week's review test. He actually did quite well on the test, only missing about 3 items - though missing them pretty completely. The other concepts we'll be working on again are giving rules for number patterns, and determining which item in a group does not belong. Overall, I'm pleased with each child's progress in math - they're both learning new things and reviewing material they're somewhat familiar with, though I skip lessons I know would bore them to tears because they could do them in their sleep.

Over the last couple weeks we've also been reading Understood Betsy, one of our Sonlight read-alouds that we didn't get to last year. The kids are both enjoying it, but it's been especially good for my son, who got to learn about sundials today and consider what the world was like before we had all our modern conveniences such as microwaves and electric stoves. Once last week, he even insisted on reading several sentences from the story aloud by himself instead of just listening to me read. He has made such wonderful progress with his reading.

Today I noticed he was reading quite quickly through the McGuffey Eclectic Primer we have, completing it in a very short time. I had been thinking that it was time he had his own big kid Bible (not just a Bible storybook) - and I found out the kids were both supposed to be taking their Bibles to Awanas anyway. So tonight I sent him out with my husband to choose his Bible at the Christian Bookstore. He was so anxious to read tonight's passage from the Bible during family devotions, even though he had to ask how to pronounce several of the words and needed some of them defined in order to understand what he was reading (he has a NKJV version).

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Sep. 17, 2005

trying to cover it all...

Posted in School

After Wednesday, things got a bit crazy around here, and my energy level plummetted. Thankfully the kids have been really good about doing their schoolwork. My 7-year-old finished her second unit (of 10) of Language Arts yesterday, and is holding an A average on those lessons. Today she surprised me by pulling out her Cursive Handwriting book and completing 2 pages with absolutely no prompting at all, though my husband and I praised her every effort - it had been over a month since she expressed any interest in handwriting or since I even asked her to practice her writing, so I was delighted that she took the initiative today. I have done a horrible job of seeing that she gets her Bible Study lessons finished - my husband came to the rescue last night, reading her "day 1" passage and helping guide her through the two questions in her lesson for that day. She has balked at the diagnostic/placement tests for math, so we've settled into the 2nd Shiller Math activity book, and it seems to be a good fit for her. Yesterday we did a couple activities, but she was more interested in counting money, so we spent some time practicing the best way to count coins. She also made up her own game, trying to roll half-dollars across the activity mat. I am grateful for books like the American Girls series that give her exposure to American History without me having to do lots of extra teaching on the topic. She enjoys those books so much and is learning history effortlessly. I'm still contemplating a science curriculum purchase for her - either Switched-on-Schoolhouse or Real Science 4 Kids.

My 5 1/2-year-old son has a habit of giving silly answers (I know he knows the right ones!) when we do math, so yesterday we put aside the materials and he went upstairs early for quiet time while I worked with his older sister. Then in the evening, he wanted to work on math problems, so I wrote some on his magna-doodle at first, and then we did addition flashcards as well - he can add even the 9's quite well! Earlier this week while my older daughter was at swimming lessons and my toddler had gone to bed already, I started reading through What Your First Gradet Needs to Know along with him, discovering that he really enjoys tongue twisters and riddles. We also touched on a little bit in the history section of the book, where we read about the Ice Age. We've settled into Modern Curriculum Press Plaid Phonics B, progressing at one side of a page per day, reviewing long vowels. I am now requiring him to do the majority of the writing, using lower-case letters, and supplementing with the Handwriting Without Tears Printing Book when his phonics page has no writing. This is all very easy for him. He's reading books to both of his sisters now, in addition to reading for fun. Last I checked, he was almost at the very end of Little Pilgrim's Progress, though I'm sure his understanding of the book is very limited, and I know he's made up alternate names for some of the characters (Obstinate and Pliable, for example) since they're so hard for him to pronounce. Last night he was curious about cursive handwriting and asked me to show him some cursive letters, including his name in cursive. Then I introduced him to the game "Hangman", which he played with me, while my daughter played with my husband, all of us using the kids' Magnadoodles.

My toddler is now almost 18-months old, and she is so much fun! My husband was remarking yesterday about how intentionally she's learning to speak our language. She points to objects she wants to know the name of, we tell her, and she repeats the word. I'm sure the fact that there are so many of us around who are constantly talking only encourages her efforts and communicating. In addition, the big kids are constantly encouraging her to say things, usually out of the blue, and my husband and I are also encouraging her to name objects. She did have a wonderful breakthrough this week in naming the contents of her diaper (though poopoo can mean either #1 or #2). When I started to buckle her into her highchair yesterday, she made a fuss, refused to be buckled, and said "poopoo". Sure enough, she had left a "deposit" in her diaper, and she was more than happy to sit in her highchair once the mess was cleaned up. I am delighted at her understanding not just of the world around her, but also her awareness of how her body functions. While I dream of her being potty-trained before the twins arrive in about 3 months, I am not going to push it, but continue to follow her cues and hope that big sister will be a big help in that department if she's not ready until we have a couple extra babies in the house. I suppose that's something I'll have to discuss with my older daughter in the coming months.

Today has been a relaxing day for me - I needed the rest, as my energy level has been very low lately. Carrying twins is a challenge - I have some great days when I'm full of energy and experience little pain. Other days I'm low on energy and have pain - lower back, groin, belly, feet... I'm grateful for the easy days, though they seem to be few and far between. In the meantime, we have a relaxed atmosphere in which the kids do a lot of "unschooling" - something they thoroughly enjoy.

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Sep. 14, 2005

CBS begins a productive day

Posted in School

I am so happy we were able to make it to Community Bible Study today - what a nice break for me, and for the kids, I'm sure. All 3 seemed to adjust to their classes there quite well, so I'm quite pleased. My friends noticed my super-pregnant belly with great surprise, especially when I told them I wasn't expecting a baby...but twins! I was confused with a mom who's due in 2 weeks - we were both dressed alike. Amazingly, she has twins who are 17 months old, just like my youngest is. I'm shocked that she's pregnant again, as this will be her 6th child.

After lunch, my husband had the opportunity to observe the kids doing their math, since he's working from home today. I hope we didn't disturb him too much. My 7-year-old aced her diagnostic/review test (well she did overlook 1 item, but I'm not concerned about it). She spent her "free time" playing with coins. My son did work with volume and was delighted to play with different sized measuring cups and water.

After quiet time, my daughter was still sleeping, so I had some one-on-one time with my 5-year-old son. We looked over his sections for Awana tonight, and he surprised me by having not just 2 ready, but 4! He completed one side of a phonics page independently and then worked on his handwriting with his Handwriting Without Tears book. Afterwards he made a bank out of a toilet paper roll.

I coaxed my 7-year-old out of her blanket and down the stairs, and she's busily working on her Language Arts at the moment. She aced a grammar review quiz and practiced spelling and vocabulary. It has been really freeing to have her do the Switched-on-Schoolhouse Curriculum for 3rd grade Language Arts, even though she's only 7, since she reads so well and understands many of the 3rd grade concepts already. She seems to enjoy it, and the lessons are relatively easy.

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