Teaching One - Homeschool Blogger

Creative Expression by William

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 18:43:00 -0500

Prompt: Suppose you owned an unusual pet. What would it be? What would you do with it? Ten sentences.

The oddest pet anyone has ever owned would be a bull shark. And the most strangest pet in the world would be a bull fish. They have horns. And the strangest pet in the world would be a big eared rabbit. The biggest pet I would get would be a bull shark, and they are cool. And you would have to feed it ten fish every day. And you would have to build an aquarium in your house. I would look at it. I would put it in the bathtub. I'd play with it--like dance with it.

The End

An Explanation by William

Wed, 7 Feb 2007 10:48:00 -0600

How to cook eggs:

1. Get the box of eggs out of the refrigerator.
2. Open the egg box and get some eggs out. Usually I like two.
3. Put the eggs you got out inside a pan with milk and water inside. I think?
4. And then crack the eggs.
5. And then pull them in half above the pan.
6. Then turn on the oven and put the pan on.
7. Then you eat it and enjoy it.

A Description by William

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 17:19:00 -0600

Assignment: Describe your house in eight sentences (from Sonlight LA 1).

My house is on the third floor of our apartment. My house is very messy, but my favorite toy is very, very easy to find. I have an elephant and a bear--well, I barely play with any of them. My house has a back porch. In the playroom we're going to make a castle--well, at least sometime. There's five lights in the playroom. My front hallway is a little bit sandy. My bathroom almost always has a light off.

An Explanation

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:36:00 -0600

How to reheat pizza:

1. Open the box.
2. Take the pizza out of the box.
3. Put it on a plate (how many pieces you want).
4. Put the plate in the microwave.
5. Microwave it for one minute.
6. Then you eat in and EN-joy!

This is part of Sonlight's LA. We've been practicing our "explanations" for over a month now, and he's getting really good at not leaving out any steps. But it is a sort of sad commentary on what we have for lunch after school. :)

Blahs? What blahs?

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 19:04:00 -0500

I keep forgetting to update this blog. I want to do it regularly, but I forget.

At any rate...the blahs are gone. We've really been cruising the past couple of weeks. Don't know for sure where the renewed motivation came from, but I'll take it.

William's seems to have hit another "growth spurt" academically. We've been finishing up in record time -- 2 to 2 1/2 hrs. His spelling and writing are coming a lot easier, which was our main time consumer. But his math has taken off too. He finished 4 days worth in 15 minutes one day last week!! So we'll be buying some new math supplies soon most likely. He claimed boredom more than once last week, so we're forging ahead as fast as he's willing to go.

I'm still loving Core K, but ready to move on to a more structured study of history because that's William's favorite topic. So we're forging ahead there too.

His reading is coming along great. He's becoming a more willing and enthusiastic reader too, even reading on his own time without prompting from me 2 or 3 times last week. This is rare. He'd rather be read to, or watch the history channel and try to build everything he sees with his legos. His current passion is the American Revolution, but I must say I am sick to death of the sounds of battle. He's too young to get what fighting really is, but I'm not. So I've put a moratorium on all playing or watching of anything having to do with fighting. My little lawyer has required me to tag on several addendums to that ("No fighting means no battles or forts or soldiers. Not even retired ones.") because he's in constant search of a loophole. If his math skills ever catch up with his loophole finding, I'll start letting him do the taxes.

I have plans to purchase a piano. But we know what happens to the best laid plans of mice and single moms, and this one hasn't happened yet.

The best part of the past couple of weeks has been William's sunny disposition. He's been at his cheerfullest and most obliging. I don't know why he's suddenly decided to be positive, but I'm loving and reinforcing it. He even didn't whine when I announced the "no fighting" rule! Anyone who knows him, knows this is amazing. My favorite moment from last week was when I was cuddling him at bedtime one night. I love the fact that at six, he still loves cuddles! I've been know to answer his whining about school with an explanation that "Everything I do is for you." Homeschool is the best option for him right now, and I try to open his eyes to appreciate that as a single mom, I'm making some sacrifices to provide this option to him, with God's help. Well, we're cuddling and he comes out with, "You remember how you told me everything you do is for me. That's true. And it's really nice. You're the best mommy in the whole universe." That makes it all worth it, doesn't it?

The blahs??? Already???

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 20:09:00 -0500

I didn't really do school with William at all this week. Unless you count letting him watch "Stanley" and "The Revolution," which sometimes I might.....but not for an entire week. I think it's way too early in the school year to have the blahs, but I've definitely got them. Just feeling overwhelmed with everything and school's taken a back seat to keeping my head above water in all of my non-school responsibilities. And technically I school year round, so the beginning of the year doesn't stand out so much.

Anyway, Crystal did Monday and Thursday school this week, and took the boys swimming multiple times. I really need to make sure I don't start to lean on her too much, and also that I let her know how much I appreciate her help. So I've pretty much resigned myself to this week's being a complete wash. We'll try again next week...maybe without the blahs.

Tue, 8 Aug 2006 17:17:00 -0500

Yesterday, we had our first official Contenders for the Faith meeting. Jarek did a presentation on the parts of an arrow, as the pin he's going for is Archery. William's pin is for Wildlife, and he gave a presentation on our visit to the Wildlife Ranch. I think the public speaking experiences are going to be very valuable for the boys, and I'm thinking it would be a lot of fun to use Thursday school, or at least part of it, to write a play for the boys and me to perform for Crystal and Jonathan as a surprise.

I went through the CAT-5 with William and the little stinker only missed 2 on the whole thing. Apparently, he just got bored with it while we were taking it. I guess I should have broken it up more. That seems really obvious now that I look back on it. It did take almost 2 1/2 hours. I gave them little breaks in between sections, but not nearly enough. Probably just enough for William to get distracted....yeah...I feel like a genius now. I am relieved that he did understand it. We sat on the couch together and went through the whole thing in 30 minutes. I feel much better prepared to work on his attention span than I do to work on test-taking skills. And he feels better knowing that he can do the tests, he just has to pay attention!

I haven't done a "full" day of school in ages, but I really want to try to tomorrow. Of course, that is one of my nanny days, so we'll see what kind of luck I have. I need to be thinking about source material for a play...I really like that idea. William and Jarek are always role-playing when they play together, so it would be really fun to have them put on a production.

Ouch!

Fri, 4 Aug 2006 08:15:00 -0500

So testing went somewhat like I thought it would. Jarek whizzes right through it, William doesn't get it. Seriously. I mean, I know that he sees the world in a different perspective, but times like these it hits home to me how differently he sees it. I really need to get that book on visual-spatial learners because I don't know what to do with him half the time. How do I get him to look at standardized tests in the standard way?

He did really well on the objective parts of the test--word analysis and vocabulary. But he bombed the comprehension part, which makes no sense. I do comprehension questions with him all the time. He comprehends! We have great discussions with our read-alouds. But the answers were very objective. And they were in picture form. He very seldom interprets a picture like I do.

There are those "which picture comes first" problems in the DEL series.....he never put them in the same order I would. But his story behind why he did it always made sense. Like there was one picture with 3 candles--one not yet lit, and 2 in various stages of burning down. He picked the smallest one as the 1st one, then the unlit one, then the slightly melted one. His reasoning...I had a candle burning, but then it all melted, so I got a new one and lighted it and it started to melt.

Anyway...I'm feeling a little overwhelmed about the whole thing right now. I want to make sure that I don't try to force him into my way of seeing things, but I do want him to be able to do well on tests! For school this morning, we're going to go back over the test so he can explain his thinking to me.

An interesting field trip

Wed, 2 Aug 2006 21:25:00 -0500

So this Monday school was field trip Monday. I don't do the scheduling, I just follow Crystal's instructions :)

We went to <a href="http://wildliferanchtexas.com/home.html"> Natural Bridge Wildlife Park </a>. William is working on the wildlife pin for Contenders for the Faith, and this was intended to fulfill part of the requirement. The highlight of the day for him was seeing the rhinos. The kid loves rhinos, and he's never seen one before. He was sooooo excited. The highlight of the day for me was sneaking a stuffed rhino out of the gift shop. I paid for it first. But I want to surprise William with it. He's gonna love it.

Another highlight was feeding the zebra that tried to eat my watch. The lowlight was when the big elk thing slobbered all over my hand then wouldn't come close enough for me to wipe it off on him. That and the car overheating so that we had to blast the heat on an already not cold day.

So next Monday, William is going to give a presentation on the park at our Contenders meeting. I hope to get video. It should be pretty cute.

Tomorrow for Thursday school I'm administering the CAT-5 K level to both boys. I'm really interested in seeing the results.

Thursday School

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 14:17:00 -0500

So today was our first try at Thursday school, and despite my slumping enthusiasm last night, it went well this morning. It was definitely "school lite" by my usual standards, but it was fun. We did spelling, some LA1 activities, reading, Saxon Math and wrapped things up with Science and Core. The boys were so cute. My two favorites were when I asked Jarek to define a yam and he said "Yams. There's two kinds of yams I think. Yam chop....is that one?" And then there was our indepth discussion, sparked by our read aloud ("Family Under the Bridge") on how money affects people. I concluded our discussion with "So see, money can't make you nice or mean or happy or..." At this point William interjects "Yeah...it can only make you rich."

Crystal is now downstairs swimming with the boys. I went for a while too, but now I'm "working." (oops). And so apparently just minutes after I left, William decided he could swim and he swam half way across the deep end to Crystal. So that was pretty cool. I mean it was cool when he reenacted it for me. So fun times in Thursday school today. :)

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 21:15:00 -0500

Way too much time has passed for me to even attempt to catch up, so I'm going to follow Flylady's advice and just jump in where we are.

I've graduated William to first grade, although we haven't finished Core K yet. I'm not sure when we will. I'm not sure what we'll do when we do. My sister has a bunch of the Well-Trained Mind materials that she's offering to give me in the fall when she finishes, and free sounds lovely. I like Well-Trained Mind's approach too. But I also really like Sonlight. I'm torn. If only I had twins and could do WTM with one and SL with the other. Or maybe I just need a split personality. Or I could just choose one. It's probably going to be WTM 'cause money and homeschool supplies don't grow on trees. Free is too good to pass up.

In other news, our first 6 weeks of the new school year went really well. And in this 2nd 6 week period we're adding in a few things. On Monday we're combining with Crystal and Jarek to have "Monday School"--Crystal's creative name. :) We meet them at the park and I do a PE with the boys. We're starting with golf. Last week was the first time and it went really well. Then we go to their house and do an activity--art project, board games, sports, and Contenders for the Faith. These are rotated each week, so we only do one each month and if there's a fifth Monday, we do a field trip. Crystal is taking the lead in this one.

Another innovation is "Thursday School"--again Crystal's creation. :) This is where Jarek comes over here and just sits in on a regular school day with us. It's kind of a trial run to see if it would be feasible for Crystal and I to split the schooling of Jarek. She doesn't feel like she's doing enough with him or that she has a teaching style that he enjoys. She thinks he'd enjoy doing school with us. I think William would enjoy having a schoolmate. We're probably both crazy. Right now...I feel like it's not going to work...but that's because it's late and I'm tired. I'm sure I'll feel better in the morning. Jarek's really a cool kid and the boys feed off each other in such a cute way, that I am really looking forward to it...in my mind. In my body, I'm exhausted from a full day of nannying and 5 hours of computer work on top of that. Plus I ran 3 miles this morning...go me! So that's my cue to go get some sleep so I can be a bright, shiny, fun teacher in the morning.

Well, back in the saddle didn't exactly work out.

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 18:21:00 -0600

But I think we're on a roll now. I've added part-time nannying to my list of at-home employment. I love it! But, it's been yet another challenge to my already finely-balanced schedule (finely balanced as in, make the most infinitesmal change and my whole day is suddenly out of whack). This week has gone well though. I'm even finding time to read and blog!

So...where we are in school:

Just finished the Bible story book that came with Pre-K.
Working on addition with a number line in Horizons Math.
Working on subtraction in MCP math. Four lessons from finishing the book.
Working on tens and ones in Singapore math.
Working on time, ordinal numbers, and more counting in Saxon math.
Half-way through 2nd Pathway Reader.
Just started week 9 of Core K.
Just finished week 31 of LA K.
Just started week 9 of Science K.

Still plugging along. Some days are more difficult then others, but the recent consistency has really helped. William just does better when we do the same basic thing each day.

Back in the saddle again

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 18:35:00 -0600

So last week got eaten up by moving and unpacking and mommy can't function on chaos. This week, mommy has moved all of the chaos into the bedroom, out of sight, so we're back in the saddle again. Except we haven't done Language Arts or Science this week. But that's ok because William can completely handle doing a weeks worth of Sonlight Science in one sitting. He loves it! And Language Arts K we've been doing 1 week's worth every day, so we're kind of ahead on that one. The important thing is we're marching through math and the Core and his reading.

We finished Earlybird 1B yesterday (THANK YOU!), which was such a relief to me because I hadn't done ANY math with him when I ordered and I didn't want him to miss anything and we were both horribly bored with 1A and 1B. But I spent the money, so we WILL write on all of the pages. So there! Of course 2A is not significantly harder, but we should finish it in 3 or 4 weeks time, then 2B in the same time frame then we can get into the good stuff. (Hopefully.) We're also doing Horizons Math K and MCP Math (K I think?) so he's getting other more challenging math. Oh and Saxon K which is such fluff. But once again, I spent the money, so... And Miquon, which is by far the hardest and by far his favorite. We were doing grids this week that I can't begin to describe in words and have no clue how to draw. But he loves them. And I was all prepared to explain to him how to look for patterns in the numbers, but before I could open my mouth, he'd already figured it out. He's really wired that way--the seeing patterns way, that is.

So yeah...that's my update. Now that life is calming down somewhat, I'm going to try to post more frequently. These moments are so precious, I want to preserve and share them!

Light bulbs

Wed, 7 Dec 2005 21:23:00 -0600

William has had a few light bulb moments this week in spite of my lack of time/motivation to do structured school with him. The concepts of 10s and 1s has really clicked. I was working and he was playing "Master and Commander" (he loves ships) and narrating constantly like he always does. I was tuning him out like I usually do, when I caught "So how many ships is that?"
"How many ships is what?" I asked.
"10 ships plus 11 ships."
"Well, how many tens in 11?"
"One ten and 1 extra....oh...wait I know...it's 21."
"Right! Good job!" Then I went back to work and he went back to playing and talking (he's started trying to use a British accent when talking for the sailors...it's really cute) until I heard "So how many does that make?"
"What?"
"10 + 10 + 11"
"Well..."
He interrupts and says, "Nevermind. I know. It's 31."

It's so fun to watch them really make a concept their own.

The life

Wed, 7 Dec 2005 08:24:00 -0600

On Sunday we were able to drive to the land my dad grew up on. Now that he's living close to it again, he has big plans for it. My aunt and her grown daughter and her husband live own half of the 80 acres and my dad has 20 and plans to acquire the rest from other siblings. Then he wants to put some animals in there...horses, cows, goats...whatever. I personally would LOVE to live there and have a farm! William would thrive on a farm. As it was he got to see my cousin's 6 horses and he got to feed my uncles goats. We also saw my uncle's cattle. It was just a really enjoyable day.

This part of the country hasn't changed much in the last 50 years. It's like stepping back in tim when we make the turn onto that red dirt road. I've been visiting this parcel of land for all of my life. Because we moved around so much growing up, my parents purposely took us to "the home place" as often as they could so we could have a place to put down some roots. I'm so thankful that I now live close enough to do the same with my son! The poor kid will be moving into his tenth home on Monday. He's 5. That's just wrong. Hopefully he and I won't be moving again for a while, but an 3rd floor apartment is not an ideal place for an active little boy. It would be great to spend weekends in Pleasant Grove. Get him a calf to raise, maybe a pony. He'd be in little boy heaven!

I'm ashamed to say we haven't done any school this week. Well, maybe not ashamed. On Monday my throat was really sore...not at all up to all the reading required my Sonlight. And yesterday I was being deposed and listening to deposition of my ex in my custody circus all morning. Thankfully it went really well. On Sunday we'll be heading south again in preparation for moving in on Monday!! I can't wait to get my homeschool area set up in our new place. But homeschool area or no, I have to go do school today. Now.

Tempus fugit

Fri, 2 Dec 2005 15:59:00 -0600

Wow. Where has November gone?? For that matter, where has 2005 gone?? Life is so busy right now. I'm sure I'm not the only single mom out there who in addition to trying to pay the bills and be a mommy has to deal with legal issues as well. Aargh. I really do not like lawyers and courts and the way the whole system works (or doesn't as the case may be). <sigh> But soon soon soon, it will all be over and William and I will finally be able to leave that distasteful bit of history in the past.

In the meantime, I'm so excited, joyful, thankful for how school is working out this year!! Last year was so hectic...getting William up at 6:30 and feeding him, getting him dressed, then just trying to cram in as much education as possible before bustling him out the door to "preschool" where he received a valuable (hah!!) education in various terms used to describe your posterior. He was well and thoroughly "socialized" and I spent most evenings trying to explain that it didn't matter if his teacher said "ain't", it's very poor English and......wow! I'm getting stressed out just remembering it!

This year is so different. I think I was a little mental to be so committed to homeschooling even when I was working full-time out of the home. But I'm really glad I did, for many reasons:

1. This year seems so EASY by comparison.
2. In this our first "real" year of homeschooling, I feel like an old pro.
3. I believe that God was testing my commitment last year, and this year He's really just blessing us so much! It is such an exciting feeling to feel like you're really walking in God's Will for you!
4. I really appreciate the time with my son so much more, and vice versa.

Yeah....I think I'll stop the list there. I could keep going on and on. It was only this year that I really felt like I'd made the right decision. It's such a huge relief to have that confidence. Now if it will just carry me through my stay here with my parents!

My dad keeps slipping in things about the local school and...oh just little things. I love my dad. Honestly, he is the greatest man I have ever know personally. He's just really not very comfortable with homeschooling. <sigh> He likes everything I mention to him as far as curriculum and philosphy go, but he is really an advocate of public schools for some reason. Hehe...it's actually kind of funny because he doesn't get homeschooling and I don't get public school at all. I mean, really what is the point?? I did public school. I remember how much time was wasted. And as far as socialization goes, I didn't really do much of that. I remember in high school being just disgusted with the "honors" students and their deplorable lack of self-motivation or interest in ANYthing. Drove me nuts.

Goodness.....I need to stop before I crash the server with this monstrous post.

Of playgroups and co-ops

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 10:29:00 -0600

I've been thinking about how I can provide William with opportunities to be around someone other than me. With that in mind, I've been looking at some local co-ops. I've found one that I like, but I just don't feel like a classroom setting is what he needs right now. He just needs to play with other kids. And so yesterday we joined a homeschool playgroup. I think this is going to be perfect. They had a park day yesterday, with about 20 kids from ages 2-13 in attendance. William had a blast. And got a lot of exercise, too. I enjoyed talking to grown-up women who, like me, love to talk about homeschool.

My sister-in-law and her son, who's 2 months older than mine, are members. We've been staying with them for 2 months now, and while I love her and her son, and I think the feeling's mutual, we drive each other crazy sometimes. I'm so thankful we'll be moving into our place next month. We've been getting along much better since we stopped trying to school our kids together. She doesn't see it, but she's definitely a school-at-home person. I didn't fully realize it until now, but I'm definitely NOT. In fact, I like to do the entirety of school on the couch with William using a big book as his desk for the writing parts. I really do love Crystal, and I think I'll just appreciate her more when I'm not being annoyed by her at odd moments of the day.

So I'm glad I found a group where William can play with some other kids besides Jarek, and I can interact with adults other than Crystal.

Early reading

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 10:29:00 -0600

A homeschool mailing list that I belong to has had a recent flurry of comments about young readers. I posted a comment this morning, but didn't go into a lot of detail because I didn't want to come across as bragging. I was an early reader. I was my parents 5th child and the closest in age to me when I was born was 5. My mom says she wanted to give me something to do when I couldn't play with them, so she started teaching me to read. At 9 months old. I couldn't even say all the words, so she would just have me point. She used flash cards exclusively...no phonics at all.

I have no memory of any of this. I have no memory of learning to read at all. The only memory I have of using flash cards is trying to teach one of my friends to read with them at about age 4. What I remember is teaching myself to fingerspell from the back cover of the Annie Sullivan biography I read at about age 4. And teaching myself to play the clarinet at around the same time by sneaking my brother's clarinet and band book down to the basement steps. (It was too heavy for me to hold so I sat on the steps so I could prop it up on the steps below me.) I remember my parents giving me my first Bible at age 5. I immediately curled up in my favorite chair and started reading it. I remember when we did family Bible study, I loved reading the crazy names.

Parents wonder when to start teaching their kids and worry if they aren't reading by a certain age. I have to say that reading early was a tremendous advantage for me. But I not only learned to read, I learned to love reading. I read voraciously and I don't think you can do that without learning at least a little. In my case, I made the connection early that books contain the information you need to learn something you want to learn. I followed up clarinet with teaching myself flute and French at age 6. I've been teaching myself things from books all my life. My younger brother was not an early reader. I tried to teach him at 9 months too, but he couldn't be bothered. However, he's now (at age 24) the Director of Web Operations for the world's largest managed hosting company. He taught himself to program out of books, so his reading skills are just fine. I don't think that when you learn to read is nearly as important as having intellectual curiosity and learning that books are a place you can go to get the answers to your questions.

I think the miraculous thing that my mom did was not to teach me to read at such a young age. I think it was to teach me to make the connection between reading and knowledge at such a young age. I still have an insatiable desire to know, so maybe that's an inherent trait of mine. But how did she get me to research my own interests at 3 and 4 years old? I think that's the most valuable lesson I've ever learned (academically speaking), and what a blessing it was to learn it so early.

Hello World!

Sat, 12 Nov 2005 12:40:00 -0600

I've been homeschooling my son...well, since he was born really. But I bought my first curriculum in 2004. So I consider this my second year of homeschool with him. We just completed the first week of Sonlight's K program and absolutely love it so far! My son is a challenging student in some ways, but an absolute joy to teach in many other ways.

I am so blessed to be able to work from home this year. Last year I was working in an office 40 hours a week and homeschooling for 1 1/2 hrs every morning. That went well as long as I took it easy on myself and didn't give in to the perfectionism bugabear. Being home is so much easier after that trial by fire.

So that's where we are right now! More about how we got here and where we're going in subsequent posts.