Our Scrapblog - Homeschool Blogger

Front Porch School

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:29:00 -0500

My daughter has a neighbor friend that rushes over to visit as soon as public school is over. After being in school all day, can you guess what the two of them want to play? School!! Our front porch is the shadiest place on our street in the afternoons. We have hedges that make it seem like a little room. My dad made a wooden crate to ship the dollhouse he made over the Summer. The crate becomes the teacher's desk and an old kids' table is the student's desk. I can peek through our front room window and check on the progress of school.

Our friend's version of school is sometimes pretty sad. The main focus is the behavior chart. There are different colors for different levels of misbehavior. She uses a really loud, angry voice when she is the teacher. Whether it is just the two girls or if they are joined by stuffed animal students, someone is always being chastised.

Today was my daughter's turn to teach. When I peeked out the window, I was pleased to hear her patiently explaining how to add three digit numbers. She just learned how last week, so she did a pretty good job of explaining. It is interesting to see how her lessons are different from her friend's. She brings out lots of books to read. No one is in time out when she is teacher, and I don't hear about anyone being on "green" or "blue" level. She never raises her voice, and she sounds so patient. (She might be a nicer teacher than I am!)

I am not sure if her friend learned how to add three digit numbers, but my daughter did learn one of the schoolyard classics today. She came rushing in to recite "Trick or treat, Smell my feet, give me something good to eat!" Oh well, at least she isn't missing out on all the great stuff she would be learning at the neighborhood school! Hopefully her friend will learn a few lessons as well.

Back to School Shopping

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:21:00 -0500

It's that time of year again. The papers are full of Back To School ads. All the local schools started last week or this week. The neighborhood kids proudly showed us their new shirts and shoes and discussed the merits of different backpacks. We have one more week until we'll start school. The weather here doesn't really change until October, so I don't buy new clothes until then. My daughter has gone through at least three different sizes of shoes over the summer, so I don't plan on buying any back-to-school shoes right now. I remember how fun it was to go pick out outfits with my mom and sisters before school started. I was feeling a little sad that my daughter won't have quite the same excitement of waiting to wear that special outfit to school.

We homeschool through a charter school. Over the summer I have been compiling a list of books we'll use. I was getting the list together over the weekend so I can put in my order next week and showed my kids some of the books we'll be using. They've been listening to Pippi Longstocking on cd's the past few weeks, so I thought maybe we would start out with some Pippi Longstocking for the first week or two. My daughter was so excited...she didn't even want me to order the book through school. She wants her very own copy, because "Pippi is just like Paddington Bear...she has so many great adventures, and I want the book for my very own." She discovered a Read Aloud book with excerpts from different books today and was excitedly showing it to her neighbor friend today at lunch. "Look! There is Charlotte's Web, and Dr. Dolittle and even Wizard of Oz!" Her friend looked blankly at the book until she heard "Wizard of Oz" and then said "Oh, like Wizards of Waverly Place?" My daughter tried a few more times to find stories her friend would recognize. "Don't you know Paddington Bear?!" but they had to settle for discussing TV shows her friend watches.

I think I've figured out what Back to School Shopping I'll do this year. I'll order that copy of Pippi Longstocking and my daughter can wait excitedly to read it for the first day of school.

Eco-Unconscious

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:35:00 -0500

In honor of Earth Day, here is a blog entry I started about a month ago...

I have been a parent for 11 years. I still feel like somewhere in the whole process I missed getting the manual, or the download of parental wisdom. Other parents seem to have it...I still call my mom and dad when the washer breaks, or my son injures himself in some new and unusual way. When I watch old episodes of “Little House and the Prairie”, I am amazed at the wise answers Ma and Pa always have.

I don't know if other adults really have it all figured out better than I do, or if they are just better at playing the part. Whatever the case, I seemed to be woefully inadequate at Park Day last month when it was my duty to dispense adult wisdom.

It started innocently enough. Some of the older boys approached me and another mom and announced “We found something you need to take a look at.” I immediately thought...”Is it a hypodermic needle, a used prophylactic, some drug paraphernalia I wouldn't even recognize”....I was so relieved when they held out a cigarette lighter.

“What should we do with it?” they asked.

Now, my own mother would have said “Give it to me, I'll put it in my purse, and if we are stranded on a desert island we will use it to start a fire” My dad would have told them about how the lighter worked, the chemical composition of what was in the lighter, and then had some cool if slightly questionable use for the lighter...like teaching them all to breathe fire.

“Just throw it away.” I sagely answered.

Immediately, all eyes were on me. This was clearly NOT the right answer.

“We can't do that”

“Um, why not?!” BIG mistake on my part. Will I never learn?!

“Because, remember how the kids burned down the other park with a cigarette lighter! We don't want this park to get burned down.”

“It's probably still OK to throw it out..nobody is that likely to go fishing through the trash”

At this point, my opinion was clearly deemed worthless by the group. They could tell I didn't get the parental wisdom manual. They turned their attention to the other mom.

“Is there any fluid left in it?” she continued, quickly assuming the mantle of authority I had failed to uphold.

“Oh yes, we tested it!”

“Well, maybe just take it home and throw it out” she suggested.

This sounded like a good solution to me...but remember, I am wearing the parental dunce cap at this point.

“Oh no, we can't do that. It is hazardous waste!”

“Let's bury it!” one of the kids suggested, and they all ran off.

Fortunately, the other kids' mother showed up at this point. She is one of those moms who somehow got a copy of the parental wisdom manual. They all ran up to her and went through the whole litany of questions and possible solutions again. She sagely listened, the orchestra cued the music they always use on TV when sage parental advice is about to be dispensed, and she said “Well, just take it home and we'll put it in the hazardous waste disposal”

The kids were a little disappointed...”We really wanted to bury it!” but they handed her the lighter and went off, happy that finally they had found an adult who was worthy of the title.

Now I think part of my problem in the lighter disposal dilemma was that I am not a native of this fine state. Kids here think the 3R's are reduce, reuse, recycle. Where I grew up, we recycled bottles and cans, too. We shot them. I do recycle, but I also drink a flat of plastic water bottles a week. I haven't come around to the whole hazardous waste thing. I throw batteries in the trash (shhh!) If there was a Californian purgatory, I'm sure I'd be on the same level as people who eat spotted owl egg omelets

This is what it might have been like if Eve had been from California,

Devil: “Eat the fruit”

Eve: “No thanks, fruit has too many carbs”

Devil :“This fruit is special, no carbs”

Eve: “Well, is it organic?”

Devil: “Um, sure..You can see it is still on the tree”

Eve: “Has the dirt around here been free from commercial farming from the past three years?”

Devil: “Um DUH, the world was just created about a week ago”

Eve: “Were any pesticides used to treat the apple?”

Devil: “No, I used chickens for pest control”

Eve: “Were they free-range chickens?”

Devil:“Yes, you can ask Oprah herself”

Eve: “Did the chickens eat any endangered species of insects?!”

Devil:“I give up!”

Maybe in another eleven years I'll have it figured out a little better, but I doubt it. Guess my kids will have to make those difficult decisions on what to do with hazardous waste without any input from their environmentally unconscious mother. I won't ever give those meaningful speeches like Moms on TV or in books, but hopefully my kids will appreciate the many opportunities I give them to think for themselves.

What's a mother to do?

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 02:13:00 -0500

My little daughter is in first grade this year. She is very much a girlie girl. She wants everything to be pink...down to her shoes. I posted a few years back about how much fun it is to find clothes that fit her. Last year I let her outfit herself like a walking Disney Princess billboard because the pants fit. This year she picked out Hello Kitty pants and a pair of pants that said "Cheer Cutie" on the front,and worse.."CUTIE" spelled out across the backside. I was groaning inwardly...flashing forward ten years in the future to see my little daughter spelling out inane words for some sport I don't fully understand. Fortunately, the pants didn't fit. I gladly suckered for the overpriced Hello Kitty pants that did fit. Still, I worried on the way home about letting her dress in such commercial stuff. I mean, I grew up dressing like Holly Hobbie.. ..I always wore sensible shoes, never pink tennis shoes...

Then at bedtime, she started worrying about what to be for Halloween. "I"ve been a princess twice, a fairy, a princess fairy...what is left, Mom?" I suggested some characters from favorite books, but she rejected those because Wal-mart doesn't have them and "That would be too hard for you to sew, Mom". She mused about being a vet...a dollar bill...then her little face lit up and she said "I know, Mom, I'll be a molecule! I'll be a water molecule with two hydrogens and an oxygen!"

Guess maybe I don't have to worry too much about her turning into a "Cheer Cutie" or if she does, at least she'll be a really smart one :)

Hunting of the Wii

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:41:00 -0600

Our family started looking for a Wii back in October. We knew we probably wouldn't find one for Christmas, so we told MBB that we would buy one as soon as we could. In the mall yesterday, he begged to go into a little computer shop to see if they had one. They had a big box on display, but sadly, it was empty. The clerk told MBB that they might get one in the next day if we called in early. Of course today was the first day of our new Bible study, so we couldn't call right away. Somehow I didn't figure that skipping Bible study to go get a WIi was setting the right example :) The Bible study is in a town about 8 miles from ours. Dutiful (crazed) mother that I am, I called the game store as soon as we got out of Bible study. The store had gotten one Wii in. MBB said "FLOOR IT, MOM!" I took all the back farm roads I know, to get there quickly, but that wasn't quick enough. "Can we just drive through the fields...I can see the mall!" I managed to convince my rabid son that we would get stuck in the mud and that county roads were probably the way to go.

I was almost afraid to ask if the store still had the Wii once we arrived. It was like walking into a saloon in an old western. All the gamers were leaning up against the glass counter like it was a bar. Their heads swiveled and all eyes were on us as we entered the store. "You don't happen to still have that Wii, do you ?" I squeaked, sure that if I said it too loud, an angry mob would come wrench it away from us. The clerk disappeared into the back room and came back with the sacred item. ..

So now it sits in the living room, awaiting my husband's arrival. Here are some things we wrote to keep us busy while we waited:

Pop and Sunny get a Weed
By MRB
(Pop is a balloon and Sunny is a flower..characters the kids made up)

A new Intendo Weed came out. Pop and Sunny wanted one. Their mom said it was a silly thing to get an Intendo Weed when you could lie down in the sun. But Pop and Sunny still wanted one. Their father wanted one too, so he said it wasn't a silly idea. Since there were two flower persons and one balloon person who wanted an Intendo Weed, one night they got a Intento Weed when their mom was asleep. (Pop was having a sleep-over with Sunny.) Then they got the Intendo Weed, and they were all happy. Then the mom was happy because her kids weren't sad anymore.

The Hunting of the Wii (with thanks to Lewis Carroll)
by Mom

You seek it on Ebay
You seek it online
You hunt it at Target and BestBuy
You threaten to buy a PS3
and charm shop clerks with tales of woe

("That's exactly the method," the websites bold
In a hasty parenthesis cried,
"That's exactly the way I have always been told
That the capture of a Wii should be tried!")

" 'But oh, beamish geek, beware of the day,
If your Wii be a Boojum! For then
You will softly and suddenly vanish away,
And never be met with again!'

They sought it in on Ebay,
They sought it online
They pursued it at Target and BestBuy
They threatened to buy a PS3
and charmed shop clerks with tales of woe

They shuddered to think that the chase might fail,
And the Boy, excited at last,
Went bounding along hot on the trail,
For the season was nearly past.

"There is MBB shouting!" the Mother said,
"He is shouting like mad, only see!
He is waving his hands, he is wagging his head,
He has certainly found a Wii!"

"It's a Wii" was the sound that first came to their ears,
And the box there it was, quite large.
Then followed a torrent of laughter and cheers:
Then the ominous words "Debit or Charge"

That "S" word....

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:48:00 -0500

Well, if you've been homeschooling for any length of time (Say, longer than 24 hours) you know what the "S" word is...Socialization. It came up briefly during a family Christmas visit. In the spirit of the season, I didn't launch into a lecture, but you can bet I started composing a super blog in my head :) I got a set of Charlotte Mason's books for Christmas. She has some great things to say on the subject, so of course I was going to include those, too.

However, MBB put it all into one sentence for me one night as he headed off to bed. He was telling me about what he had been doing at our local Park Day. He said "It might look like we are just playing, but I am learning about life".

I started writing this blog entry at the beginning of the year. We got pretty busy with baseball and ballet after that. They were great experiences for both kids, but I am really enjoying not having someplace we have to be now that it is all over. I've realized that just being involved in activities with other kids isn't what they really needed Most organized activities don't give kids the chance to just be kids. I got so frustrated with the Team Mom for our baseball team shushing the kids and telling them they couldn't talk in the dugout during the games. My kid wasn't there to be a baseball star, he was there to be with the other kids! My prima ballerina was outraged that one of the other backstage moms "Wouldn't even let me talk to anyone that wasn't in my dance!" (Granted, both my kids can talk enough for the entire ball team or dance troupe, so I can sympathize with the other adults. It's just that if my reason for getting them invloved in community activities was for "socialization", then it is ironic that the little sweeties were in trouble for doing just that :) )

We are getting more than enough socialization right now, thank you very much. The neighbor kids are all out of school, so the doorbell rings frequently. They are all good kids, and I am so thankful for them all. After years of worrying about where to find friends for MBB and MRB, I am realizing we didn't really need to look that far. I made a choice not to sign up for a single activity this summer. (Which worked out great since we are down to just the van for awhile...) They don't need to be organized or told what or how to play, they just need the time to play! I like watching them all play and chase and pretend, and sometimes even be bored...knowing that yes, they are indeed "learning about life"

Looking back, moving forward

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 23:35:00 -0500

Why did you decide to homeschool?
When did you first learn about homeschooling?
What did you first think about homeschooling? Has your opinion about homeschooling changed since you first heard about it?

One of my homeschool groups posted these questions recently...I thought I'd share my answers here to remind myself of where we've been....

I almost have to answer these in reverse order....When I was growing up, homeschoolers were the weird neighbors across the street that never came out to play. Another neighbor called CPS on the family out of spite. We lived in the neighborhood for over five years, and I saw the kids maybe once....Not a great impression.

When I was volunteering in the nursery for AWANAS, a woman would come in while her husband was teaching and talk with me while she waited. I couldn't ever understand why she didn't take the opportunity to run off and shop, but now I am glad she talked to me. She told me how much she enjoyed homeschooling her oldest daughter and described all the fun things they were learning together. I found out she was my neighbor, and that her husband had gone to college with my husband.

I never ever pictured myself homeschooling. However, God started changing "my" plans from the birth of my son. He got "kicked out" of daycare at 18 months ("We just can't keep up with him!"), which changed my plans from returning to full-time work as a speech-pathologist, to part-time work with my son coming along on home visits :) Because of my background as a speech therapist, I was always trying to figure out what was "wrong" with my son...why he had such a hard time in groups, why he was so active, why he was so noisy....I knew he was intelligent, but somehow that made his behavior even more unacceptable to teachers. By first grade, the ADHD label was looming, even though two psychologists could only say "maybe". The grade school principal still insisted he "looks like ADHD to me", even with a report clearing stating he didn't fit the criteria in front of her. I spent hours online reading about parents having to sue school districts to get their children's needs met in the classroom, I read about marriages breaking up....I didn't like how depressed and "witchy" I felt from trying to make the school district do what I knew they should be doing by law to meet my child's needs. I kept thinking about my neighbor and how much she was enjoying learning with her daughter.

One memorable day, his first grade teacher ignored our pleas for more challenging work, and told me instead, "My goal this year is to get him to stand in line". After school that day I sent my son inside, and I walked over to the homeschooling neighbor I met through AWANAs. "Please tell me how you are homeschooling! It sounded like so much fun" I said. She dropped everything and told me what curriculum she used and which charter school she was in. I had already been doing a little research on K12 online...it turned out she was the one person in our state at the time that I could order K12 materials through. She had me over another day to really look through all the materials. Within six weeks we took the plunge and started homeschooling. We haven't looked back since :) My husband and family have been incredibly supportive. My son is still "quirky", but he is able to learn at his pace now and is much happier as a result. He will tell anyone he meets how much he likes homeschooling.

My sister Jen and I used to joke "We wish God would just let us know what he wanted in big neon letters". Looking back, I think that at that time in my life he was letting me know in just about neon letters that homeschooling was his plan for our family right now. I have had to learn to "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding"

I am so thankful for the opportunity I've had to teach my son, and I'm looking forward to the blessing of teaching my daughter this year!

Ucd bug museum

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 17:25:00 -0600

MBB's version of our field trip:
I went to a bug museum yesterday. I saw a lot of things, like edible cockroaches, Blue Morpho butterflies, and a 5 year old tarantula. My favorite part was the giant millipedes, because of the bumpy texture on their shells. I learned that a bug had it's digestive system inside it's abdomen, the Blue Morpho butterfly's bottom of it's wings are brown, and caterpillars are poisonous.

MRB's version of our field trip (transcribed by Mom)

I got to see a black widow and a stink bug, but it smelled horrible. We also got to see a nice tarantula. We got to see walking sticks.

Once I said, "Blue Morpho butterflies" and all this other stuff about Blue Morpho butterflies, he took out a drawer of Blue Morpho butterflies.

This other kind of bug, the girl had no bump and the boy had a bump on his back.

We learned about the black and orange butterflies. One had wings that looked like it was plastic. One was white and black because it didn't make its orange. Our teacher said the one that had wings that looked like plastic was dead. (old) A kid said "AAH , I'm dead" and fell down.

Why I'd rather go to Speedy than the ER

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 15:11:00 -0600

Top Reasons I'd rather go to Speedy than the ER for my next kidney stone

1. At Speedy they recognize me, and know my car's model and make. I don't have to repeat this information half a dozen times after filling out forms with this same information several times

2. The waiting room is cleaner and larger

3. There aren't any people screaming obscenities

4. I can see the car while it is being worked on... (my family couldn't easily come back to see me in the ER)

5. They don't leave the car with the hood up and doors open out in the garage for five hours without looking at it

6. The technician at Speedy comes to tell me what is wrong with the car, and how much it will cost before they fix it

7. The diagnostic machines, mechanics, and parts are all in one place at Speedy. We don't have to wait for a technician in Australia to tell us what's wrong with the car

8. You'll never hear, "How about we just add some oil and antifreeze and see how long you can go before the engine really seizes up?" aka.."Let's just give you antibiotics and pain meds and see how you do"

9. If I tell them I think the oil is low, they don't scoff and try to sell me transmission fluid instead

10. At Speedy they know the difference between left and right (I went in with kidney stone pain on the left side and they told me it was my appendix)

Taking Stock, Keeping Track, Making a List and checking it twice...

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:53:00 -0600

Here we are starting off a new semester already. I've got a cold for the New Year, so MBB has been getting a fairly easy week, but we did sit down yesterday and talk about what we want to get done by the end of the school year.

Math: Memorize times tables to 12 by February. The 8's and 12's won't "stick" for some reason.
Division..two digits into three digits by June
ALEKS.com...complete two pieces of pie on MWF in order to complete by the end of the year
Online Math League.com contests

Handwriting/Typing: Finish the cursive lower case letters in HWOT by March 1
Use Sponge Bob typing tutor 2x week
Start 2-3 line dictation in March in cursive, using either memory verses or stuff from Guttenburg site

Writing: This continues to be a challenging area, but it is getting to be less of a chore. We started a "Picture a Week" story, where we will use famous paintings/pictures to start a story.   We'll try to do some kind of writing, at least five sentences on MWF, choosing from the following: Picture a Week, Never-ending Tale website or our own notebook version, write a postcard, send e-mail, post to Bionicle.com, write captions in photo album, Reading Rainbow story contest

Reading: I really don't keep track of what MBB reads...we head to the library once a week and he has everything read within a day or two. Neither of us are good at maintaining lists, so as long as he is reading one "Real" (non-comic book or magazine) book a week for fun I'll be happy. For "school" reading we still have two of the Childhood of Famous Americans to finish, and we'll pick one other fiction book to really focus on by the end of the year. He isn't pushing himself very much in terms of what level he chooses to read, but I think I missed out as a kid because I was a book "snob" and wouldn't read "easy" books. In some ways I am glad he chooses the easier books, since the subject matter is more appropriate that way.

One resource I did NOT end up using in this area....Reading Strands (you can read my scathing review on Amazon) I guess I am lucky if this is the only homeschool book I've purchased and just hated. Bleah...enough said.

Language/Grammar:   I didn't use K12 this year, because I thought it focused on too much grammar, etc. last year, but I am regretting that decision a little now. MBB is enjoying the Punctuation Puzzler workbooks...they really make you pay close attention to how a few commas can change a sentence. Our goal is to complete both workbooks by June. I would like to see him consistently use capitals correctly in his own writing. He can spot the errors once he has written something, but sometimes it seems like he just throws capitals in at random when he writes.

I'd also like to do a little study on prefixes/suffixes with him. I don't know what resources we'll use yet...I think I'd like to have him make up his own list or book of prefixes/suffixes

History Our charter school and K12 are still fighting it out about whether we can order just the history course. It is very frustrating, and if K12 wasn't so good, I'd have chosen something else by now. If it drags on past Feb. I will start looking at Susan Wise Bauer's stuff.

In order to have something to do on History days, we have been using the Living Books for the Ears site. Both kids enjoy listening to the old radio broadcasts while working on some sort of related art project. The books that one of the moms in our homeschool group donated earlier in the school year have fit in really well with the broadcasts. When they had a great Story of the Pilgrims broadcast, we just happened to have a book called The Stories of the Pilgrims that went with it...then a field trip opportunity to sail on a tall ship came along that same week, so maybe God is just taking care of this subject for us.

I have started Tivo'ing Drive Thru History, so we may use that as well. There is a website called Awesome Stories that has good historical stuff...I thought it was a little boring, but MBB likes finding the "source documents..." Tickets for the Hindenburg, video of Einstein, etc. (Einstein sounds just like the scientist duck from the old Disney films)

Science:   We slowed down a little in this area, but plan to finish the EE unit on chemistry by February and then move on to Space and a Human Body unit.

The science museum in a nearby town puts on some great classes. MBB got to attend one during December. He was pleased that "I wasn't the only one that knew the answers!" We are considering getting a membership to the museum so we can go geek out whenever we want. I will try to get him into classes over Spring Break at the very least. One of our homeschool groups put on a science day...so hopefully that will happen again.

P.E. MBB ended up going enrolling in the homeschool gymnastics class this year. I thought he was making good progress, and staying with the class much better than in the past. Unfortunately, some of the kids were really good gymnasts, and he felt like he couldn't keep up. They weren't the friendliest bunch of kids either, so he decided to quit in December. He really wants to try rock climbing, but the timing just isn't working out. Baseball starts soon, so we'll try that again this year.

Bible: This is a hard area for me...I had no idea where to even start, so I bought the Explorer's Bible Study. It has been good at making sure we at least do something, but I can tell the kids aren't all that thrilled with it. The only way they'll sit still for it is if I let one of them read the story, and the other one read the questions. I'll try it for another few weeks, but I am thinking of going with some little devotionals we got at the dollar store.   I guess my goal is to do something, anything, every day after lunch, even if it is just playing a hymn on some instruments.    This is the first subject to go when the schedule gets tight!

Music: Well, I still don't have any great piano or dulcimer virtuosos :( We did get a lap harp at Christmas from Santa for MBB. It didn't work quite right, so I sent in a complaint to the company, and a brand new lap harp arrived last week. The kids decided Santa must have made his elves work overtime to get a new harp made! Since I had managed to get the orginal instrument tuned except for one string, we now have two. MRB is actually very good at plucking out little tunes, so MBB will try a few just so his little sister doesn't steal the spotlight.

What to pray for: That we will be more inspired, our at least more diligent in our Bible study, that MBB will have a more teachable spirit so he can learn more easily from others, that I will stay healthy

What I'm thankful for: All the amazing resources, people, and field trips that God has brought our way, A supportive husband and family, and kids that love to learn

OK...back to our regularly scheduled life...MRB need lunch or she is going to eat a whole box of Ritz Bits.