We are a new home schooling family with 4 beautiful little learners - Peter (8), Jillian (4), Miranda (3), and Isabella (3). Although we just started our home schooling journey last September, we have had an amazing first year and are so grateful for this opportunity! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/verity/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Fri, 20 Apr 2007 21:03:00 -0500 Fri, 20 Apr 2007 21:03:00 -0500 Some time ago my dh and I decided that we would send our next child, Jillian age 4 1/2, to public school Kindergarten for a year.  There were many reasons for this decision, but the main ones were (1) we're moving into a new neighborhood and wanted her to make friends with the other kids her age in our neighborhood (she's a very, very social child), (2) there is a possibility that she may have some minor learning differences and I wanted to have a teacher's opinion on this.  So today was Kindergarten Orientation day at her new school, where the kids could meet the Kindergarten teachers and parents could tour the school with the principal and ask questions. We've only been home schooing for a year now, but I could not believe what a different attitude I had toward public education.  At the end of our tour (during which we were told lots about the special deaf & hard of hearing program the school has, but very little about the regular Kindergarten classes for some reason), we had a chance to ask questions.  Here is a condensed version of how it went: Me:  How long is their school day? Teacher:  8:50am-3:05pm.  Seven hours. Me:  When do the Kindergarteners have rest time? Teacher:  They don't. Me:  Do they have snack time? Teacher:  No. Me: P.E.? Teacher:  Yes!  Once a week. Me:  How many times do they go outside for recess every day? Teacher:  Just once, right after lunch. Me:  So, they're 5 years old, they're here for 7 hours every day with no rest time, no snack time and only one recess.  They must be learning a lot!  Can you tell me about your reading curriculum - is it whole words or phonics based? Teacher:  Ummm....well, you can go online and look at the state curriculum guidelines and it will tell you. Me (thinking it's strange that the teacher couldn't answer this simple question):  OK, I'll do that, because I plan to be very involved in what she's learning here. Teacher:  Great!  Well, you'll love helping her with her homework in that case! Me (ready to laugh or cry, hard to tell which one):  HOMEWORK?!  She's going to be here for 7 hours every day, with no rest time, or snack time, and only one recess.  What on earth is it that you can't finish with these kids in all that time? Teacher (laughing):  Well, there are a lot of kids in the class, so there are a lot of birthday parties which take up time! And this was all perfectly ok with all of the other parents standing there.  In fact, many of them were quite happy with these answers.  I never thought I would be a person who would be critical in any way of school, but after discovering home schooling this year it's amazing how much my perspective has changed!  So, we'll give Kindergarten a try because Jillian is very excited about the social part of it.  Luckily, I'm not going into it with any academic expectations whatsoever.  As far as I'm concerned, this is still "preschool" for her and she'll start a real curriculum when she comes home after Kindergarten.  But I won't hesitate to pull her out of school next year if I don't feel like it's working for her. Lord, I am so thankful we discovered home schooling!!! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/verity/317537/ Fri, 20 Apr 2007 21:03:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/verity/317537/ Happy Easter!  We had a wonderful Easter celebration with our family yesterday -- attended church in the morning, then went to an Easter brunch at our country club.  That evening, my parents came over and we cooked a simple but elegant dinner.  By bedtime, the kids were so jacked up on Easter candy that getting them to sleep was a bit of a struggle, but we were able to get them down before we both crashed. Today, I am enjoying my first ever actual day off.  DH took the day off work and today he is in charge of school work, grocery shopping, housekeeping, laundry, and dinner.  And I get to do absolutely whatever I want (what a treat!).  Truth is, I've spent most of the day just catching up on things that I've been putting off, like organizing my photos on my computer.  Still, it will feel good to cross off all those things from my to-do list.  I've checked in with DH several times today and he seems to have things well under control - what an amazing man I married! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/verity/311642/ Mon, 9 Apr 2007 14:09:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/verity/311642/ Today, my 2nd grader and I worked on one of the best projects we've tackled all year.  He's always asking me why he needs to learn math.  Like most parents, I have tried to explain all the usual reasons - everyone uses math on some level every day and most of the careers he is interested in use higher math on a daily basis.  It never really sunk in.  Until today.  The last time we were at the library, I checked out a short book called "Using Math to Solve a Crime" by Clemson, et al.  The book is only about 30 pages long and the idea is that the child is a detective at the scene of a burglary and has to use math to solve the crime.  It seems appropriate for 2nd-5th graders.  We worked on it all afternoon (about 2.5 hours) and got about half-way through.  This is more math than my son normally does in an entire week (he was even learning new concepts) and HE DIDN'T WANT TO STOP!!  It was amazing.  The math problems we worked on today include: identifying geometric shapes, adding (4 digit numbers), multiplication (3 digit numbers), 12's times tables, multiple-step problems, map reading, division (3 digit round numbers), measurement, conversion (feet to inches and vice versa), reading data tables, following directions, and logic.  This book really makes you THINK! This is such a great resource, and I'm so thankful I had the courage to set aside the usual curriculum today to let him work on it.  He's excited about getting up and starting work on the rest of the book tomorrow morning! Sounds like an ideal day, right?  Well it might have been except that toward the end of the afternoon, my ds's brain departed his body and he couldn't seem to recall how to set up even basic math problems.  My 3 dh's were pushing my buttons and I was overwhelmed with frustration.  Lots of excuses, but none of them good ones.  I hate it when I yell at my kids.  Luckily, my ds has a very forgiving nature and once I had apologized for yelling, things are back to being good this evening.  I'm letting him stay up to watch American Idol (I know, I know, bad mom, he should be in bed - but, hey, it's not like he has to get up for school in the morning!).   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/verity/309555/ Wed, 4 Apr 2007 19:49:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/verity/309555/ One of the most exciting adventures of this year has been the construction of our new house in Rockville.  It started out as a small, old home originally built in the 1940's.  Most of the original structure was in good shape (except for the electrical!), so we were able the retain almost the entire original home and simply expand it to fit our family.  Since the kids are always asking me if our new house is ready yet, I thought that making a paper chain would be a good way to help them see how much time is left.  We will remove one link each day as we count down the days to the big move (about 90 days from now, give or take). The kids had a lot of fun making this project, which took us about an hour to complete.  Jillian (age 4 1/2) was meticulous in her cutting, and opted mainly for pink and purple paper.  Peter (age 7 9/10) sped through his part of the project and used a palate of mostly red, blue and yellow.  I was very surprised by Miranda (age 3) who was amazingly dexterous with her scissors and learned to cut straight lines very quickly.  They also all enjoyed using the stapler (with some help, of course) to make their paper strips into circles.  Isabella (age 3) wanted nothing to do with this craft (as usual), so he just sat at the table with us cutting colored paper into confetti sized pieces while consuming large quantities of Trix yogurt (a product which I am beginning to suspect is not actually yogurt, but simply moist, pink sugar).  Even so, she shared her siblings' pride in the end result.  It was a fun project to start this rainy day with! So now it's nearly 10:30 and I suppose it's time for me to change out of my pajamas and do some "real" school work.  Or not.  I'm seriously contemplating scrapping the regular curriculum for today and seeing what else we can do that is educational.  I picked up a great book from the library that leads kids through solving a crime by using math (since my son is always asking me why he needs to know math).  It appears to be at about the 2nd-6th grade level, but they give you help with the harder math questions at the end of the book.  Decisions, decisions.... http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/verity/309253/ Wed, 4 Apr 2007 09:02:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/verity/309253/ Hello! I'm so excited to have found this site.  I've tried my hand at blogging before on other sites, but I love it that there is one dedicated exclusively to home schoolers.  On previous blog sites, I always found it to be a tough balance between entering updates about my personal life vs. updates about our home schooling life.  I am a hs'ing mother of 4 beautiful children (Peter - age 7 9/10, Jillian - age 4 1/2, Miranda - age 3, and Isabella - age 3).  We live in Rockville, Maryland (near Washington D.C. and all of the wonderful Smithsonian museums).  This is our first year of hs'ing and so far it has completely exceeded all of my expectations.  My son was in a private Christian school for K & 1st, and we had a good experience, but we just weren't sure that we wanted to pay private school tuition for all 4 children when our girls got older.  Luckily, we had some friends who were home schoolers and they spent many patient hours answering all of our stupid questions (like "what about socialization?").  Now, as our first home schooling year comes to a close, I can proudly say that not only are my kids getting a better education, but we have reclaimed our family life, destressed, and grown closer.  We've been using the Classical approach, espcially The Well Trained Mind, which I am particularly fond of.  Being an English major, and a lawyer, writing well is very important to me, so I found I really connected with the Classical emphasis on humanities in general and writing in particular.  Here's what we're using this year: History - Story of the World I Spelling - A Beka Spelling 2 Grammar - First Language Lessons Math - Singapore Math (2A, 2B & 3A) Science - no set curriculum, we having mainly just been reading whatever books from the library's science section interest my son, plus field trips to science museums.  We have done some focused work on anatomy too. Writing - no set curriculum.  My son was a very reluctant writer at the beginning of the school year, so I took it easy for most of the year, just focusing on teaching the mechanics of writing and penmanship, basic grammar, copy work and dictation, etc.  And now, miraculously, he loves to write!  He picked up a journal last week and has been writing in it non stop!  Hooray! My son is standing next to me now, which means he has finished his History coloring page (I told him he was allowed to make the gladiators in the picture all bloody, which he was happy with).   So we're off to continue our school work before karate class. *** http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/verity/308843/ Tue, 3 Apr 2007 13:30:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/verity/308843/