Posted in Homeschooling
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Wow! This week has flown by. With all of the distractions the house is presenting right now, plus a flood in the basement and dear Goldilocks having a major meltdown and needing to leave home for a two day respite with her one-on-one therapeutic worker, the week had its downs. Still, we got loads of living and learning done. So, here is some glimpses of our week, in no particular order.
Apple pie making and tasting...
A dreamed for and saved for first violin. Little Red Ridinghood saved up her allowance and bought it herself. This is the Strike a Chord violin, and it is much nicer than I expected. It plays 18 classical songs that the child can listen to and then play by rubbing the bow across the violin. It plays the song at the speed of the childs bowing. It also can be turned off for the child to just play the scales. Very cool! (Notice the paint in little ones hair)...
Writing on the wall, literally. This counts for handwriting and spelling, right?
A nature walk to see the latest flood. This park is less than a mile from our home. Our city is in the process of doing a wonderful job of turning much of the flood zone into wetland parks. There is a little bit of everything for everybody ~ playgrounds, picnic areas, hockey and volleyball courts, walking trails, dog park, nature trails, decks over the river to fish from and much more in the works. When the river leaves her banks, the park fills with water and there is minimal loss and damages.
Goldilocks returned home much happier and calmer ~ ready to be a family member once again.
Lunch out and play date with some friends ... and tea time, painting walls, chores, reading lessons, painting walls, furniture moving, movie watching and painting walls. Just a few more hours of painting and I should be in the clear. At least with painting the walls that is ~ lots of furniture to still refinish and paint for Little Red Ridinghood's Christmas gift . Blessings, Dawn |
The kids are working on creating an arctic book, using their Draw Write Now book #4.
Posted in Homeschooling
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We are at the point in construction where it is time for us to start contributing to the process (more than just financially) to keep costs down. I have three rooms to paint, numerous doors to paint, furniture to move, 5 or so pieces of furniture to refinish, shades/curtains to buy and hang, closets to build, oh and so much more! Then there is Thanksgivng and, dare I say, CHRISTMAS on the horizon! This is my favorite season, and I want to savor it somehow in the mist of all of this change. I want my children to remember Christmas season 2009 as a great year, not the year mom went crazy. LOL! So to create balance, this is officially our last day of highly structured and planned school for this season in our lives. We will still school, but in a lighter, less structured way. The plan is to do reading, math, and tea time each day and have two goals for the week. Notice ~ I can't help but have to have a plan. I really lack the unschooling bone, even though I wish I had it .... The rest of the time, the kids will be learning skills in painting, weeding out toys, cleaning, playing peacefully and independently (still a challenge around here for some), and continuing to practice flexibility. On top of the basics mentioned earlier, the two goals for next week are to make an Arctic mural and do another outdoor challenge. We will be studying the arctic and arctic life for the month of November.
I leave you with this picture of the kiddos! Our outdoor challenge last week was to find squirrels and study them. We could not find a single squirrel, but we did have fun climbing trees. Blessings, Dawn |
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We are working on learning to tell time this week. We are lucky to have a large clock floor game, and the kids are having so much fun learning with it. This game can be played in several ways. One way is to throw the big dice and then move the hands to the correct positions.
Here is my 5 year old learning with the game. She was very pleased with herself. I never imagined teaching kids to tell time would be so easy and fun. Another way this game can be played is using the kids as the hands of the clock.
This is such a great way for my hands-on and very physical child to learn. She had down the concept in less than 4 turns. It will be interesting to see if it sticks in her mind. We will be exploring lots of ways to learn time this week including good old worksheets. It sure is nice having this game to get them off on and learning with a light and fun attitude. It is called Time Mat by Learning Resources. Blessings, Dawn |
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We are doing Outdoor Nature Studies with Barb-Harmony Mom this year. This week we were supposed to go looking for cattails. We did not find any cattails because it has been raining here for a week and the river is flowing over its banks. For this reason, our nature study turned into learning about the flow of rivers and what it means when a river crests over its banks. We live very close to the river district and went to a park in it near our home. The park is separated by a road. One side was already closed, and the other side will probably be closed in a few hours, especially if it starts to rain again. The predictions are for 4 more days of rain and about 3 to 4 more inches of rain.
All of the area around this path is usually low lands that are sometimes muddy but not under water.
The spot with the bench is one of my kids favorite places to hang out at this park. As you can see the river has left the banks and is running through here. You can kind of see the speed of the water from the picture under the bridge. It is moving at a very good clip. Luckily, there is very little debris so far.
This bench which water is almost touching is usually about 10 feet from the river.
After checking out the flooding, the kids sat down to journal about their findings. Happy outdoor adventuring! Blessings, Dawn |
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After very, very strict guidelines were given out about staying near mommy, we got out of the car and walked around a bit.
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We are doing a unit study on oceans. I noticed that unplug your kids is doing oceans this week. I thought I would join in with what we are doing now. We are enjoying the book, Pagoo. It is all about the life of a hermit crab and his travels. Since our beta fish passed away, we decided to replace it with three hermit crabs. They are loads of fun and easy to maintain. The kids watch them for long stretches of time.
The kids also really enjoyed making their first wall mural. We found our outline on www.Learningpages.com. The kids used watercolors to fill in the mural.
Lastly, we all enjoyed measuring the length of a Blue Whale out on the sidewalk. We measured out 82 feet and then measured the kids in comparison. It would take 23 Little Red Ridinghoods or 20 Tom Sawyers or 20 Goldilocks to be the same length as a blue whale. WOW! That puts your height in perspective!
See that black check mark in the photo pointing at the speck? That would be my dd holding the other end of the rope. That is one long whale!
Wow! Tom Sawyer, you don't even get past the tail fins! Well that's what we are up to with oceans. There is so much more fun things we want to learn about oceans Blessings, Dawn |
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This year for music we are concentrating on the sounds of the orchestra. We plan on studying Peter and the Wolf, as well as learning all of the instruments that are found in a symphony orchestra. Hopefully, we will also get to go to the local symphony orchestra's dress rehersal this year. They let homeschoolers in for just a few dollars each. I found this great book, Those Amazing Musical Instruments!, in the library to start off our studies.
Wow! This book is really great. It has an interactive CD that plays parts of over 100 famous selections. There were many selections that were recognizable to my children, which made it much more exciting to them. Each instrument in the orchestra is introduced, the history is given, how the person is to play the instrument, and then they may go to the CD and listen to several selections that highlight each instrument. Also, many well-known musicians are introduced on the CD. We made it through the book one time and would like to do more with it, but our time is up and it must go back to the library. I think I will check it out again mid-year. I could not have asked for a better introduction to our music lessons for the year. Blessings, Dawn |
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It is time for the last week of, the Not Back-to-School Blog Hop with 3boybarbarians. This week's theme is a Day-in-the-Life! I decided to record our Friday which was a typical Friday. None of our days are ever the same. Some days we get to stay home and others we have speech, doctor appointments, play therapy, dance class, horseback riding, or swimming. The list of possible schedule changes goes on and on. On this day, Timothy (19), who graduated last May, hung out with us. He even joined in on our history lessons. He is a real history buff and likes to put his two cents in on what I am teaching. This is our routine for today. I move around the cards and add in different ones, depending on what our plans are for the day. This form of a schedule is working well for us.
6:15 ~ Mom and Dad got up. 6:30 ~ Tom Sawyer (7) awoke and laid on sofa. 7:00 ~ Dad left for work and Mom and Tom Sawyer watched Good Morning America for a few minutes. 7:15 ~ Everyone else got up and did their chores ... I only got a photo of Timothy (19) doing his morning chores . He actually didn't do his until 9:15 so he wouldn't disturb the neighbors.
7:30 ~ We had breakfast. 8:00 to 10:30 ~ We did the main chunk of our schoolwork:
10:30 ~ We cleaned up from school and drove to Speech Therapy. 11:00 to 12:00 ~ Goldilocks (8) was in Speech while the rest of us did some shopping at Target and had lunch at Target. The kids had a special treat of Organic Mac and Cheese from Target's cafe. I really like how Target has some organic options, but my dear Tom Sawyer still had a reaction from the gluten in the Mac and Cheese.
12:00 to 1:00 ~ It was Tom Sawyer's turn for Speech Therapy while the rest of us ran through Walmart, gathering as many groceries as we could in a very short amount of time. 1:00 to 1:30 ~ I dropped off paperwork at the doctor's office and returned home. 1:30 to 2:00 ~ I put away groceries and tried in vain to get gum out of Little Red Ridinghood's (5) hair ~ finally had to cut it out.
2:00 to 3:00 ~ This was Goldilock's computer time (the littles get two times a week on the computer). The others have the choice of watching a video or watching the one child play on the computer. Today, they all watched Goldilocks play Dora games on Noggin. 3:00 to 3:30 ~ We had tea time ~ They have been listening to Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. The kids had their snack and then had a choice to color while listening or to just listen.
3:30 to 4:00 ~ The children cleaned their assigned room ~ On Fridays, we clean all the bedrooms from top to bottom and change the sheets.
4:00 to 5:00 ~ We had Quiet time ~ formerly known as Arsenic Hour. I don't know why it took me so long to have quiet time be during this transitional hour when Daddy is coming home, the kids are worn out and I am trying to get dinner going. It has been such a blessing to us. The kids played in their rooms and I made dinner. 5:00 ~ It was dinner time ~ Today, we had an edible oasis made of blueberries, rice, chicken and broccoli. The kids learned what an oasis was in SOTW today and SOTW suggested a candy oasis. I adapted it to be a healthy dinner.
5:30 ~ We did our after dinner chores and had play time with Daddy. 6:00 to 7:00 ~ We went on a family bike ride. 7:00 ~ The kids had their baths and bedtime rituals. 8:00 ~ The kids were in bed, Timothy and Dad were watching a TV program and I was looking at blogs. Well, that's all folks! Blessings, Dawn |
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I thought I would join in to the Not Back-to-School Blog Hop this week. The topic is student photo week.
Goldilocks (8) is my energetic child. She never stops moving or talking. She is a super cleaner and organizer. She likes music, art and horseback riding. Her favorite time during lessons is copy work or doing art work (the messier the better). She suffers many learning challenges but keeps on improving.
Little Red Ridinghood (5) is my little mother's helper. She loves to play mommy with her dolls and learn how to care for the home. She is also my collector. Her most recent collection is sea shells (seen in photo). She is making great progress in reading and will soon be our newest independent reader. She loves science, sports (especially softball and ballet), and tea time (when we read chapter books and have snack -- yum). Our Not Back-to-School photos would not be complete without including our graduate.
Our son Timothy graduated from homeschool this past May. He is busy with his volunteer job at the local Nature Center and will be trying out college with two audited classes this fall. He was born with many learning challenges and medical conditions that prevent him from doing anything full-time right now. However, he is having a great time exploring his interests and finding ways to contribute to our community. Just this past Sunday, he joined other young adults to clean up the street in front of our church. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OK! In all honesty, those pictures were cute. But do they represent my children's true nature? Perhaps, these would be more appropriate Not Back- to-School pictures of my kiddos.
She looks innocent enough but what is she doing with that hose?
Perhaps Mad Scientest would be a more realistic name.
Good thing she likes to clean things!
This young man is much more likely to be found in a tree than wearing a tie!
Blessings, Dawn |
Tom Sawyer (7) is my artist and inventor. Sometimes, we think his code name on the blog should be Leonardo Da Vinci. He is a perfectionist and very bright. He loves all subjects (except handwriting) and thanks me constantly for giving him math pages. I am not kidding!! He is the most stubborn, yet charming child I have ever met. He amazes us constantly with his insight.
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I decided with our new school year we needed a new chore chart with a new focus. Last school year, I concentrated on the children having a good attitude while doing chores. We have a motto that we expect our children to follow: We want them to be respectful, reponsible, fun to be with and doing things fast and snappy, right the first time and the adult's way. Some of these areas are challenging for our little ones and doing chores fast and snappy with a happy heart took a lot of time to train in (and still is not perfect). For this reason, we did not do a lot of chores last year. However, the children have improved a great deal, and I feel that we can now focus on doing chores to keep a clean, well-organized house. I am always telling the children, as we declutter, that everything you own must be respected/maintained and that we want to have time/freedom to do other things and not maintain our belongings all of the time. Until last week, the kids did a morning chore and a 15 minute sweep with me in the afternoon. Now I am having them do a great deal more. We do not pay our children for chores. We feel that doing chores is simply part of being in a family. A family pulls together and does what needs to be done. We do give an allowance so that the kids will learn how to handle money. I will speak about that another day. Below is our new chore chart. So far, the kids are responding very well. There has been a bit of grumbling, but not as much as I expected. One of the first comments I heard was "Where is Dad's name?". That child was reminded that Dad was at work right then and goes to work 5 days a week, as well as handling all of the yard work. He also helps, when help is needed, inside the house.
The room concentration column explains the room on any given day that we will clean from top to bottom. The night time sweep column is meant to keep the rooms on the level during the week. So far, I see that the bedrooms need more than 5 minutes at night. I have a feeling cleaning them up tomorrow is going to be a big undertaking. Hopefully, as the weeks wear on, the kids will do a better job of putting things away when they are done playing with them. Hmmm...I think we've been working on putting things away when you are done since they could walk! I might have ambitious ideas. Following this chore chart will not keep the home perfect, but it will keep things running smoother and we will be ready for guests at any moment. Please go visit Thirsty Thursday to get more great ideas. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Homeschooling
  Check out the great homeschool open house at The Homeschool Lounge! There are lots of families already signed up! We are a homeschool family with 4 kiddos. Our oldest graduated this past May and our three youngest are in the primary grades. Goldilocks (8) is adopted and has RAD/FASD. She has many learning challenges and keeps me challenged trying to teach her the same thing over and over again without boring her to tears. Tom Sawyer (7) is also adopted and has loads of Sensory and OT issues. We are very busy taking him to different therapies. He is also very bright and demands that "school" be done constantly. He is very eager to know everything! Little Red Ridinghood (5) is our youngest! She is a good little learner. However, she would rather be playing with her dolls and practicing being a mommy! We are back to full-time school and all is going well so far. I am hoping that this year will be more smooth and fun than last year. It feels strange to have a graduate and only have the primary grades to teach. This year I am teaching "only" two grades. Yippie!!! Goldilocks (8) and Little Red Ridinghood (5) will be doing first grade math and language arts and Tom Sawyer (7) will be doing second grade math and language arts. The rest of the subjects will be done with all of them. Also, Tom Sawyer will be doing Latin and cursive on his own, unless anyone else wants to join in. I want to add in two more Charlotte Mason lessons this year. We will start Nature Journals and studying Shakespeare. We do have a lot of plans and books for this year, but we will not being doing them all at once. As I explained in this entry, we homeschool every day of the year. So it really is not that overwhelming spread out over an entire year. Here is our school plan. Language Arts -
Math -
Literature - For literature we will be using FIAR books with our support group, chapter books at tea time, and two Shakespeare plays. Here is our list of chapter books so far.
History -
Nature Study We will be using the Handbook of Nature Study by Comstock and The Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady by Holden to assist us with our Nature journals. We will also be using the Draw Write Now series.
Science - Following a classical education rotation, we are on Earth Science this year. There will be a bit more biology added in as well. We will be doing unit studies that last about two months each.
Art - We will do art similar to science with unit studies. However, we will follow the time periods of our SOTW studies. We will use books for each time period and artist, picture study, and the Draw Write Now series. We will also be doing art classes once a month at the local art museum.
Music - We will be listening to period music to go along with SOTW. We will also be studying the composition of orchestras and a mini unit study on Peter and the Wolf. Geography - We will be using the book series Legends and Leagues and Holling Clancy Holling books. I talked about how I was going to use them here. Foreign Language -
P.E. -
Character Training - Of course, character training is going on all the time, and you do not need a book to do it. However, I have found these books to be useful read alouds and reference material:
Sensory/OT/Speech therapies -
WOW! If you are still with me, you are a real trooper. Well that is the general plan. I hope you all have a blessed week. Blessings, Dawn
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Posted in Homeschooling
It is time for another Thirsty Thursday! Ahoy there, Matey! We had lots of fun with our pirate unit study.
My children wanted to learn about pirates for all the normal reasons that little kids want to play pirates. I wanted them to learn the reality of pirates, why they are still found in modern times and, having been a sociology major in college, the sociological reasons behind it all. I did my best to create a balance of both our ideas. We got a stack of pirate books out of the library and the kids enjoyed listening to story after story while they colored lots of pirate pictures for their lapbook. We also discussed all that was not good about pirates and why they are so dangerous today. They moved on to several crafts. They sewed a pirate foam doll (which someone snuck off with before I got a picture), created a foam mosaic pirate ship and a modeling clay ship.
In almost every book we read, the author mentioned the horrible condition of the pirates' teeth. I decided we should study proper hygiene of teeth. I have a little pirate boy who hates brushing his teeth. We reviewed how to brush our teeth and then brushed them. Then I pulled out some little purple dye pills the orthodonist had given us to make sure Goldilocks was brushing well enough with her braces. Everyone chewed them up to see who won pirate status. (I should say everyone BUT Little Red Ridinghood~when she saw everyone's teeth turning purple, she hid under the bed and would not come out!)
Not too bad!! Just a little purple in the back that the picture does not show.
Awww! My little pirate boy! I told you that you need to brush longer and keep the tooth brush inside your mouth while brushing! Timothy and I did it, as well. Tim had some issues in the back, and I had one tooth near the front that had some purple. Hmmm! Interesting. We finished off with a treasure hunt. We made a map by pouring tea on paper and baking it in the oven at 200 degrees for about 15 minutes. Oh, we balled it up first and then flattened it back out so it would be wrinkled before we put the tea on it and baked it. Then I made a map and sent them out on their treasure hunt. It did not take them long! If I had only had the video camera instead of the camera when Tom Sawyer found the treasure box. He yelled gold over and over again at the top of his lungs. Even the neighbors had to come see what those crazy homeschoolers were up to now.
Of course, after eating all of the chocolate coins we had to go brush our teeth again. Awww! I love forming better habits and calling it school. Blessings, Dawn |
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I had to laugh when I saw that the topic was Socialization at Thirsty Thursdays. I am trying to set the schedule for next year right now and am struggling to find a balance between being home enough to keep the house running, child training and completing our schoolwork and getting out to socialize with others. I think it is important to say that many people think socialization is the act of hanging out with other people. This is true in part, but not the whole picture. I have four children and three of them have special needs. One of my children has severe sensory problems to the point of appearing at times to have Asberger's Syndrome. I have another child (adopted) with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. My oldest son has a damaged brain (Dandy Walker Cyst Syndrome) and severe shyness and anxiety (mostly from his years in public school!). All of these children, because of their special needs, struggle with social skills. We spend loads of time working on social skills in our home. So, while I think it is important to go out into the world and meet with other human beings, I also need time at home to teach again and again proper behavior. In other words, my children are socialized at home, practice their skills at home and then practice their skills in public. My oldest son, who graduated from homeschooling this past May, is a great example of a homeschooled kid. He was homeschooled for 10 years. Even with his special needs, he is adored at the nature center where he has volunteered for the past seven years. His boss and other staffers have used the following words to describe him: invaluable, team worker, good with the public, eager to help, delightful, knowledgeable, and someone they really enjoy being around. He took a few homeschool history classes with a retired college professor his last two years of homeschooling. She said he is funny, knowledgeable, always contributes in class and is fun to be around. We have heard the same from church, fencing and drama classes in the last few years. People often say that my little ones play well together, are conversational with others, and share well with strangers (toys in doctor offices, etc). With all that said, I am very careful about what activities we do outside the home. My kiddos can't just go into any situation and be successful. They need lots of prep work for simple things like the library or standing in lines. Boy, do they have a hard time standing in lines! I try to find classes that are small, calm, with good role models. This is our current plan for the next school year.
I am also starting a FIAR field trip club for special needs kids. It will be held on the 2nd Wednesday of the month. We are going to try the local art museum's art class for the littles on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. We also have Tomatis (sensory integration/occupational therapy) in Sept. and Dec. for 8 day loops. I am also trying to figure out if theraputic horseback riding lessons will work out for Goldilocks or if she will take dancing. That is more than enough socialization for us! Blessings, Dawn |
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This week the theme at Thirsty Thursday is where/how do you gather your school books cheaply. I buy some books brand new and some books used. I did buy a stack of brand new books this year from the state's homeschool convention. Most of the books are workbooks, math curriculum, and a few FIAR books that I wanted as keepers. When I am buying brand new books, I also use Amazon.com ($25 or more orders ship for free) and Rainbow Resource. Rainbow Resource is very helpful on the phone. I have been very pleased with their services over the last 11 years, and they have competitive prices.
We use history as our spine in our homeschool. All of our subjects (except language arts and math) build off of what is going on in the period of time that is being studied in history. For example we study the artists, scientists, musicians, and mathematicians from that time period as well. This makes my job very easy in the respects of knowing what is coming next. I can then start gathering materials that will help us in future studies. I watch for items at yard sales, used book sales, consignment shops, clearance areas in art stores, etc. If it will fit, I put every thing in a large, 2 gallon Ziplock bag. If I have large/bulky items, they go into my closet of future supplies. By using this system, I can gather items very cheaply months or even years before I need them. Here is an example of a few bags ~
This bag is incomplete because we are currently using it. This is our July/August unit study on Earthquakes and Volcanoes. We are reading stories about Mt. Vesuvius and its effect on Pompeii. Also, in the next week I will be gathering the books for the unit studies (free at homeschoolshare ) from the library. The science experiement materials will be gathered and placed in the bag as well.
Here is a FIAR bag based on Owl Moon. I have been gathering the materials for this bag for about 6 months. It has lots of clock work materials, index cards with lessons I want to do, a library list, Lapbook pages, dried owl vomit to dissect, workbook pages, recipes to make owl nests and owl face cupcakes. We will be doing this literature unit study in September with our FIAR support group which will include a field trip to the local nature center for an owl show.
Here is a unit study that we are starting in two weeks. Pirates ~ urrr! I was going to hold off on pirates until we made it to their heyday in history, but I have some very anxious little ones that want to start it sooner. Since, we learned last week that Julius Caesar was kidnapped by pirates for a few months and there has been so much talk about modern pirates, we decided to do it now. As you can see, we have lots of crafts and more unit studies from Homeschool Share. However, there is a lack of books. Since pirates is not my thing, we have very few books on them. I will be getting a big stack of pirate books from the library this week. As a side note ~ Another way I save money is to check out lots of books from the library on subjects that are coming up in the next year during the summer. I can preread them and decide if I "need" them as keepers or can put them on the library list of books for when we come to that topic. Hop on over to Thirsty Thursdays to see more great ideas. Blessings, Dawn |
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I have seen lots of entries around blogdom lately on whether or not to homeschool year round. I thought I would weigh in with my opinion on the matter. For us, homeschooling year round in just natural, like breathing and sleeping. In our home, homeschooling is a lifestyle in which learning takes place all the time. However, it looks different from year to year and season to season. If you pop into my home in late Summer to early Fall, you will find us hard at work cracking the books. We will be in full swing with all of the fresh and new curriculum. I will be covering all of the subjects we will be learning that year. There will be stacks of books everywhere. I will be busy getting everyone out the door to our out-of-the-home classes and field trips. We will look almost frantic in our quest for learning and exploring new subjects. But, if you arrive in the heart of Winter, you will find that not all of the classes will still be in full swing. Something will be put aside, or wintered over until Spring ~ my guess ~ it will be Latin and or Music this year. We will be slipping deeper and longer into chapter books, arts and crafts and history projects. We will be baking and doing unit studies about Christmas. We will be picking and choosing our out-of-the-home activities based on how much sickness is going around our community. With our son Timothy, who is a high-end, medically-fragile person, keeping illness out and away from us is important. (Not easy when your dh works in a hospital!) If you roll through our home in the Spring, you will find us wrapping up SOTW and FIAR for the year. We will be busy with nature studies, playing outside, preparing for end-of-the-year dance recitals and end-of-year testing. You will probably hear some whining over math and copywork. Depending on their progress, those books will probably be shelved for a few weeks while we do outdoor math games and dabble more in living math books (a bit of a stuggle for me, but I respect the idea a great deal). Assuming that no crisis strikes this year, we will be well done with our required 180 days of recorded school. But that does not mean the learning stops. With the arrival of Summer, you will find that we are still at the books. However, it will be different, lighter, and more limited in scope. We will be covering the 3 R's in a gentle way for a little while each day (30 to 45 minutes). There will be no formal curriculum being used, much more of an unschooling style. The teacher will no longer be me, but the children will step in and take the lead on what we want to be learning. There will be hours of water fun outdoors, playdates with friends, messy arts and crafts, crazy science experiments that should only be done outdoors, lost mini-unit studies that sat around on dusty shelves all year because they didn't fit in, many caught and gently released critters, gardening and lots of So do we homeschool year round? You bet! But that is because learning can not be boxed into just sitting at a desk studying a textbook. There is a place and time far that, but it is far too limiting to say that education happens in one particular way. Learning goes on every second of everyday. It is constant! So we have our structured times of years and our relaxed time of year. By the way, I did not address the changes in life: new baby, job change, house move, surgery, other health issues, aging parents and all else that life throws at us. All of these also offer many opportunities for learning. Check out more Thirsty Thursdays here. Blessings, Dawn |
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We are back from the homeschool convention in Winston-Salem. I have so much to tell and even more that I need to process in my thinking. What a unique weekend. I spent half of my time moving my teen through another step toward adulthood by way of the ritual of high school graduation and the other part of the weekend So for today's entry, I am focusing on books. In many ways, books explain the huge change that is taking place in my life. There will be no high school books next year! WOW! WOW!!! wow.... A new chapter in our life with books that is a great relief and a bit of a shock. Next year all of my homeschooled kids will be within a grade level or two of each other. Next year there will only be one severely delayed child to teach .... Is this stack of crisp books not one of the most exciting things you have ever seen? LOL! So filled with promise .... My head is thinking, "This year I made all the right choices.... There will be no tears over this or that. School is going to be GREAT!" Oh, how the mind plays tricks. I know there will be tears and that these books do not hold all the answers. However, I do think I have some great finds here! There are some oldies but goodies, some changes and some additions.
We are sticking with the next year of SOTW. We all loved it last year, and we are looking forward to the Middle Ages. (However, I do need to reopen school to complete the Romans for one week before we can crack the new books.)
I love this series of books! They will make a great additon to SOTW. I have a few more to buy to cover some of the great people of this time period.
I am really excited about this little book. My ds has been demanding that I teach him Latin for the last few months. He got this notion from playing with other homeschool kids while waiting at his sister's ballet class. That's what I get for letting him hang out with homeschooled children. LOL! Anyhoo, I found this gentle program that just teaches some words and connections of Latin without getting into the grammar. Hopefully, this will satisfy him for another year while he gets older and I get braver.
Next, we have these lovely copywork books from Queens homeschool supply. I love Charlotte Mason's veiw on copywork but had trouble sticking with it last year. I am hoping that the easy layout of these books will keep us on task. Also, copying down proper manners can't hurt any either!
We are switching to Horizon Math from Miquon Math. I am really looking forward to the switch. The kids for the most part tested in the middle of grades. I like the way Horizon breaks their workbooks into semesters so you can start in the middle if you wish.
We are sticking with Explode the Code. These books are very popular in my home.
We also will be moving from Spellingcity.com to A Reason for Spelling .... I really enjoyed this series with my big teen and will be returning to it for the littles. I just can't keep focused on sending them to the computer. A little plug for Rainbow Resource. I have loved this company for the past 10 years. They are always so helpful and cheap. Most recently, they saved me lots of money by figuring out that my teaching manuals from the big teen were not outdated and could be reused with new spelling workbooks. They were more than happy to call over to the warehouse and compare copyright dates and pages. We also intend to keep up with FIAR this year. I am planning to start a FIAR field trip group in the fall. This should provide some socialization that my Tom Sawyer craves and be a safe, low key environment for my two special needs kiddos (in which Tom Sawyer is one). Now to think about those Workboxes! Hmmmm!! Do I want to add that into my homeschool? I do want my Tom Sawyer to become indepedent as soon as he can because I know that he is going to need to separate much of his studies from his slower sisters in the near future. However, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I like most of the way we homeschool now. Hmmmm. I also shy away from trends .... Is this a trendy new way of teaching or the answer to my prayer? Much to ponder ... Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Homeschooling
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For homeschool open house this time, I am going to talk about one of our favorite times during the day that used to be a real problem area. This school year we added in a special time we call tea time. We get out the teapot, a variety of tea, and a good book to read aloud at snack time. I wanted to start reading all of the great literature that was out there but was having trouble keeping my 5, 6 and very special needs 8 year old engaged with chapter books that had no or few pictures. I decided that if their mouths were full they would not interupt me as often. Once everyone has selected their tea and snack is served, I read to them while they eat. It has become a time that they really look forward to, and we manage to do it about 3 to 4 times a week. We only read for about 15 minutes a day (we read a lot more during the day but only 15 minutes during tea time), but it is a time when I want them to give me their full attention and enjoy themselves. When I am done, they narrate back or are asked questions. So far this year, we have enjoyed the following books. What Would Jesus Do? Jeremy The Honest Bunny Farmer Boy Sarah Plain and Tall The Gift of the Magi Little Women (about 4 chapters relating to Christmas and winter activities) Currently we are reading Skylark
To see more homeschool open houses go see Lattes and Lollipops. Blessings, Dawn |
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The last day before Election Day! Yeah!! I really am tired of this stage of the process. My kids are really obsessed with following the news and campaign. I don't know if it is because my oldest is voting this time or because this campaign has been so historic, but my kids are really interested -- from the five year old on up. When I saw that unplug your kids was doing a flag theme this week, I knew my kids would love to do a flag craft. First we used star cookie cutters in tempera paint to make star pictures.
To see more great unplugged projects go here. Blessings, Dawn |
Then we made folk art torn paper American Flags. The kids liked tearing the paper instead of using scissors. 
Posted in Homeschooling
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Here is an outline of our September school plans. It is time to get ready for our homeschool support group's Geography night. It is at the end of September. My kids love doing this each year and it is really a fun event. We have decided to do Italy this year since my father and step-mother went there this summer. The littles have a list of things they will present. First, our Flat Stanley Project has returned from Italy safe and sound. He had an exciting journey and the kids are looking forward to making a display about his adventures. They will map out his journey and make a scrapbook of his adventures. The littles will also be studying Leonardo Da Vinci and doing a report on him. We have several kid friendly books that are great on this artist. Additionally, they will be making a flag, diorama of Venice and Italian finger food. Lastly, they will narrate book reports from Papa Piccolo and The Clown of God. Both of these FIAR books were studied by the littles last year and are set in Italy. They will be a nice review. The big teen's contribution to the project will be a report on an Italian artist and a general report on art in Italy. He will also hopefully make an example of Fresco artwork. This will count toward his Art History course. He will also be doing a report on Religion in Italy for his World Religion course. In addition, he will do an essay on The Prince by Machiavelli which he is reading for World Literature. All of the reports will count for Creative Writing. Now I just have to figure out the kids' costumes and what food we will be taking. I think I am as excited about this study as the kids are. LOL! The big teen will continue his usual lessons. I am putting FIAR and SOTW on the back burner for the little ones this month. We will have our hands full with circle time, tea time stories, reading and math lessons on top of our unit study of Italy. We also have another Tomatis loop that starts on September 8 so we will be super busy. Blessings, Dawn |
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For more schedules go here. During my reflection time on how last school year went, one thing stood out as the problem area. Last year our out-of-the- home schedule was out of control. We were at one appointment or another every day of the week. So after much prayer and thinking, I decided that we had to be home as many days as possible this year. That is not to say that we are not going to continue to take classes and do doctor/therapy appointments. However, I am hoping to find a balance this year. Here is what is important to me...
So this is what I have so far.... Monday~
Tuesday~
W/Th/Fri.~
Saturday~
Sunday~
So what is left ~ not much thankfully... I still have to set up Tom Sawyer's private swimming lessons. He really likes his current teacher and we are waiting to hear her new schedule. It looks like it will be at night but that is ok since my dh will be able to take him. Also, I will be signing us up for a theater production or two with our homeschool support group for the group discount. Secondly, I belong to 5 support groups in the area. Each meets once a month at night. I am considering taking a break from our main homeschool group, since I get lots of support online and from our homeschool group for special needs kids. We will continue on with our homeschool special needs support group, FASD support group and RAD support group. We also will continue with our adoption play group. Lastly, I am trying to start up a homeschool special needs co-op with my special needs support group. If I have to do it all by myself, we will only get together once every other month; but hopefully, I will get some volunteers that will help so that we can get together every month. I am thinking of doing a FIAR book, activity, social time and potluck. I see a real need for a co-op that would be a "safe haven" of sorts for those with special needs. This is not to say that local homeschoolers and co-ops have been unwelcoming. However, our special kids are sometimes disruptive with their behaviors and often aren't able to do the level of academics that is expected in normal co-ops. Sheesh, this post got much longer that I thought. Thanks for hanging in there. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Homeschooling
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I hope I don't come off too public school like, but I decided to add in circle time this year. I felt like there were so many subjects that I was not hitting regularly last year. However, they were subjects that I did not want to create 20 to 40 minutes of space for everyday. So I decided that circle time was the way to get all the little things squeezed in. Everyday circle time consists of family prayer, saying what we are thankful for, calendar skills, the Spanish word of the day and an Occupational Therapy (OT) project. I also add in something else such as music, character training, math game, reading game, or cooperative game. This way I can touch on a lot of subjects in 40 minutes or less. So far this week, our circle time is looking like this~ Monday~ After opening prayer and saying what we were thankful for, we learned our Spanish word of the day (El Globo~balloon). Then we did our calendar skills. We then moved on to a money matching game, Don't Break the Ice game (OT and cooperation), and two songs from the kindergarten song cd's I have.
Today~ We opened with prayer and gratitude. We then reviewed our Spanish words so far and added in El libro (book). The kids loved doing the mazes and did several before I could get them to do the dot to dots (OT). We finished with more Kindergarten songs.
Blessings, Dawn |
Tuesday~ We did calendar skills, Spanish word~La flor~Flower, Cutting skills (OT) and more Kindergarten songs and reviewed the Brother Offended chart (character training).
Little Red Ridinghood loved cutting time! She is really concentrating in this picture. I think she cut out about 5 patterns and asked to do more later in the day.
I think this is going to prove to be a great way to get in the extras and wake up the kids brains at the same time. Now I just have to figure out a way they can exercise so that I can exercise. They walk so slowwwwly!