| The Magic School House |
Out of Season?We built some new bookshelves this week! Hooray for girl power! I thought it was high-time that Beautiful learned to use a hammer. Anyway. We had new bookshelves so we needed bookends so we could rearrange the books. You would think this would be easy. Go to Target and get some bookends. Well, actually NO. Apparently, bookends are a SEASONAL item. Yes. They are SEASONAL.. As in there is a specific season for bookends just like there is for Easter bunnies and Christmas trees. So now I am off to Amazon to find out-of-season bookends. I wonder if they will be on sale since its not bookend season. 12:37 AM - Sunday, June 10 - comments {0} - post commentThinking of Cultural Geography for First GradeI have a plan for next year. I really do. Its right here for Beautiful who will be in First Grade. Handsome will be in Twelfth Grade and taking more cc classes and doing Literature and some SAT prep at home. Of course SweetPea will be 3. Now somebody tell my why I am planning next year. I think I just like to plan. Maybe I would be better off writing detailed lesson plans. That would be cool, but I would never follow them. I like to learn about different topics and write lists, but I don't like to follow directions - even my own. I think I want to do a Cultural Geography class next year with Beautiful. We will be doing earth science so this would be great. I like the idea of studying a different country each week. Beautiful loves to plan parties. We could spend two weeks on each country. One week we could learn what I want her to know about the country and the next week she could research on her own and plan a party for that country. I was inspired by the Children Around the World from Winterpromise, but after looking at the books for that program I decided that the themes were just too much for my sensitive little girl. We will look at the conditions of children and families in each country, but I don't want to focus so much on the hardships of people. Here are some of the books I am looking at for this. I think I will check them out from the library and go through them. I'll buy the ones I like them plan out which countries to use. Once I plan the countries, I will make a list of fiction stories for each of these countries that I can get from the library.  Hungry Planet: What the World Eats How People Live  Kids Around the World Celebrate!: The Best Feasts and Festivals from Many Lands (Kids Around the World) The Usborne Little Round The World Cookbook: Internet Linked (Children's Cooking)  Children Just Like Me A Life Like Mine  Stories from Around the World 10:46 PM - Sunday, April 29 - comments {0} - post commentShakespeareOldest and I have been reading Hamlet together. We have actually been enjoying it - after we got over the initial resistence of course. Shakespeare can be intimidating. I even find myself looking at the footnotes for word explanations. Yesterday after Kinder's math, we sat on the living room floor and read a scene while the girls played with the math blocks. It was fun. We kept laughing at some of the phrases and stopping to note the numerous familiar sayings that came from the scene we were reading. At some point, Kinder had stopped playing and begun to just listen to us. Later in the day, she repeated one of the lines that we had enjoyed. Oldest and I both said to her, "Are you quoting Shakespeare?" She replied "Pooh!" Which was also part of a line from one of the speeches. We all had a good laugh. It is hard to explain, but it was one of those moments that reinforces my belief that homeschool id a great choice for us. How many people can laugh about Shakespeare with thier kindergartener and highschooler? 12:04 PM - Thursday, March 15 - comments {0} - post commentMy plans for First GradeMy plans change frequently and I am sure that this plan will change too. Math - I am either going to switch back to Right Start and do level C or continue on with Math-U-See. If I do MUS, then I will hopefully be on level Gamma by fall. I plan to not take a summer break from math. Latin - Either Minimus or Prima Latina Science - Either R.E.A.L. Science Earth and Space or a homegrown earth and space science program. History - Continue on with Story of the World vol 1 then volume 2 or switch to Winterpromise and do American Story 1 or do BOTH  or do something else. Okay, I will try to stick with what is working and not change just because there is something I haven't tried yet.Phonics - continue with Phonics Pathways. Maybe start Spell to Write and Read after we finish. Poetry - continue the Linguistic development Through Poetry Memorization Copywork. I feel that it is important, I am just not sure what we will do with this. Maybe just start with passages from our literature. Literature - Will continue to use books that go along with our history and science. I might start using Five in a Row or the Junior Great Books read Aloud Program. I am looking into both of these. We love FIAR, maybe we can do this with our co-op. The PLAN will be to do math and reading everyday. I would like to say I will do Latin everyday, but I'll have to wait till we get there to see if that will work. I would do science and history each a couple of times a week. Do read alouds everyday but rotate the focus - Literature, Science, History nonfiction and history fiction. Hopefully I can teach the science at the co-op - that has been working very well this year. I'd do earth science in the fall and space science in the spring. We do poetry memorization several times a week - kinder loves to recite. We don't do handwriting. It just hasn't worked. Kinder has really nice handwriting, and I am not going to try to force a formal program at this point. This concludes my first written version of the first grade plan. 5:44 PM - Saturday, March 10 - comments {0} - post commentSchool is happening todayI am at work today, but my poor kids are having school. Yes, school on a Saturday without mom. How is this possible you ask? Well, hubby is taking them to the aquarium. Yep, he packed them in the van and drove them an hour away to the aquarium. They'll see fish and sharks and a tiger and a coral reef and perhaps even touch rays. That is so cool. Oh sorry, poor kids. Except for me having to work, this looks like it is going to be a perfect homeschool day. This morning I read a book to kinder during breakfast. Then she read to me. Later she played a computer game with her sister and older brother. I heard discussions like "You have 40 points and each pet costs 20 points, how many pets can you get?" My kids must feel terrible having to spend thier whole day Saturday schooling. 1:33 PM - Saturday, March 10 - comments {0} - post commentWhat is it about math?Why does the subject of math cause so much angst among homeschool parents? I think I have seen more second-guessing and pogram changing with math than with any other subject. I am not immune to this - I think I am in fact a good example of math anxiety. Lets review.... For my ds - the really tall one - so far we have tried 6 different math programs and thats just from Algebra 1 - PreCalc. He is pretty funny about his math learning. He can do quadratic equations, but has trouble factoring. He can do logs but has trouble figuring out congruent angles. I really blame myself. He smiles and tells me that I am a terrible math teacher. Which of course has me running to the computer to find a new math program for him that will overcome my short comings. My little kinder is already on her fifth math program. Yes, that is 5 so far and she is just in kindergarten. We started the first lesson of our newest math program today, and I was just looking at samples of another math program. I read some really good advice about math programs - "Pick one and stick with it. If after a while if tears are produced everytime you bring it out, then try a different one." I think that someone that really loves math and is good at explaining wouldn't need a math book at all. I always enjoyed math and was always good at it. However, I just can't confidently teach my kids math. When I am faced with a blank stare after I explain a concept, I am lost. I plan to give this newest program a good honest try before I dismiss it. I really want the "perfect" program that will teach MY kids everything they need to know and do it in a way that intrigues them. I also understand that no program will replace the need for me to do my job and teach my kids. I don't have this much trouble with history or science. I don't even have this much trouble with reading. Why math? 2:35 PM - Thursday, March 8 - comments {0} - post commentA good school daySomedays I wonder if my plan for school will ever work. Other days, it works perfectly. Today was a good day. I want to write down what it looks like so that next time I wonder, I can look back and say, "Yes, it does work sometimes." After morning snuggles, I took a shower while the girls ate breakfast. We did math (first day of MUS Alpha) Kinder played with the math blocks for a while after the math lesson. Kinder and littlest then played with magnets together - this is science. Kinder worked on making a graph of her friends - handwriting and math. Kinder did a reading lesson with me before lunch. Then she recited her poetry and learned another stanza of the long poem we are working on. That covers everything for today. We'll do some read alouds later in the day and hubby will read to them tonight too. And kinder told me over lunch that she thinks she could read the Oddessy herself - she said she knows all of the words that are in it.  Oldest was at the cc for Japanese while this was happening. This is what a successful day looks like in my house. What does success look like for you? 12:22 PM - Thursday, March 8 - comments {1} - post commentOther people's kidsWow. I have taught classes to adults in a professional setting and I have taught my children. Last week was the first time I taught other people's children.I was my first time teaching co-op. I think I did pretty well. I think that most of the kids enjoyed the classes. However, I am now certain that I cannot change careers and start making my living by teaching or tutoring other people's kids. At the end of the day, I was exhausted. By the next day, I was certain that I should really put my kids back in school, because there was NO WAY I can do this. I am all better now. However, after spending several hours with kids educated under different philosophies, I am starting to rethink my educational style. My oldest daughter just lost her first tooth, which by Waldorf standards means that she is getting ready for more formal academics, but "first grade" still needs to wait until next fall. By CM standards, she should wait till Easter to start more formal academics. I think that I am going to have more structure to my school days than I had originally planned. I am still planning to do AO year 1 with her. I am also going to look into The Latin Centered Curriculum and Veritas Press. 9:18 PM - Friday, January 26 - comments {1} - post commentFree TimeI read an interesting article by the Headmistress at the Commonroom blog. She said more eloquently than I could that kids need space and time to explore and really learn. I think it is very important that kids experience real things before they try to learn from books. I think a well developed imagination will serve my children better than doing endless workbooks and drills. That article recomfirmed my school philosophy. My highschool son still needs time to develop his imagination as well as his vocabulary and math skills. My kindergarten daughter that reads wonderfully well for her age is better served by making plans to build elaborate traps for her sister and her stuffed animals than by being told to practice her handwriting. My 2 year old daughter that wants to read and can count to 15 won't be doing any "enrichment" activities. She will continue to learn by being with her family and playing. I think that this philisophy is what draws me to the Charolette Mason approach to homeschooling. I love that she taught that young children should spend lots of time out doors and that learning should not be a burden on children. I also love that she believed that children should have their own relationship to what they are learning. The should draw for themselves what is important from the material. She is not light on academics by any measure, but I think that she put them in the proper perpective. I searched a long time for an educational philosophy that really reflected how I want to teach my children and gave me the tools to do it. I am very happy with where I am now with education. I wish my highschooler could have benefited more, but as always, I did the best that I could at the time. 8:00 PM - Friday, December 1 - comments {0} - post commentThe Cat's Cradle and the Polar bearI was just finishing up my order at Amazon tonight when the irony of my shopping cart struck me. So what do Kurt Vonnegut 's Cat's Cradle and Eric Carle's Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear have to do with each other besides both having animals in thier names? Throw in Popular Mechanics for Kids and a book on the Arab- Isreali war and you have a picture of my homeschool. 11:10 PM - Sunday, November 12 - comments {0} - post comment
|
Description A homeschool and life blog about the adventures of one mom and three kids (my ds Handsome who is 17, my dd Beautiful who is 6, and my dd SweetPea who is 2) and a wonderful husband (known here as hubby). I work full-time three days a week. Hubby works 5 days a week. I am a relaxed classical homeschooler that is making it all up as I go along. Home User Profile Archives
Curriculum Choices
|