Today C1 and I went to her preschool orientation. This will be her second year at the sweet little school down the road. She is so excited! We signed her up and the end of school in mid-May, before the idea of homeschooling seemed so real to me. Now that we have spent the summer test-driving homeschooling, I am sad to see her go off to school again. I have (mostly) enjoyed having her home every day, and learning all sorts of new things. I love digging in to the things that interest her and exposing her to so much that is new to her. I could obviously decide to keep her home starting this year, but it is just 7.5 hours/week, and she loves it.
We switched from T/TH mornings to M/W/F afternoons, so only one child from her class last year is in her class this year, but that doesn't seem to bother her. She was thrilled to see her music teacher, and learn that she would have her for music this year too. She got to see one of her teachers from last year, and I had to chuckle to myself as I filled out paperwork and heard C1 chattering away to her about our "school at home" and what we had been up to with Spelling and Five In A Row.
I wonder how my sweet girl will feel about "letter of the week" lessons when she not only knows all the letters and the sounds they make, but is an emergent reader. A little part of me hopes she will be bored, and ASK to stay home to work on studies with me! But lots of good stuff happens there, and she will have fun. When I tell her that I will miss doing our daily studies, she says, "Listen mom, it can be like a pattern - school at home one day, and school at school the next day, and then school at home again, over and over in a pattern! Just like that!"
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Riding the Dinosaur Train
C1 is obsessed with the PBS show Dinosaur Train. We don't have cable, so we stream it on NetFlix. There are only 24 episodes to choose from, and we have seen each one at least twice, and the favorites are in regular rotation. Our kids get roughly 30 minutes of "video" a day, so 2, 12-minute episodes of Dinosaur Train. If C1 watches much more than that, her behavior deteriorates. C2 doesn't pay much attention anyway, except to sing along with the theme song - anything that gets him using words is a win in my book. I usually use video time to do dishes and prepare dinner, so I haven't watched closely, but I like what I have overheard. I think the Pteranodons are an unschooling family! Buddy makes lots of hypotheses, and they travel a lot.
When C1 is not watching the Pteranodon family ride the train on TV, she is playing it. We hear a LOT of "RAAWRK!" around here. She insists that I call her "Shiny" and she calls me "Mrs. Pteranodon." I don't love that my 21-month old son can squawk like a pteranodon and say "flap, flap flap", but doesn't say "Mama." I don't love that C1 is jumping off the couch (and teaching her brother to do it!) as she flies and dives for fish. BUT, C2 is saying something. I can excuse the jumping on and off the furniture by telling myself that it is good gross motor skill exercise; I'll call it PE. And they are, after all, eating fish. ;o)
When C1 is not watching the Pteranodon family ride the train on TV, she is playing it. We hear a LOT of "RAAWRK!" around here. She insists that I call her "Shiny" and she calls me "Mrs. Pteranodon." I don't love that my 21-month old son can squawk like a pteranodon and say "flap, flap flap", but doesn't say "Mama." I don't love that C1 is jumping off the couch (and teaching her brother to do it!) as she flies and dives for fish. BUT, C2 is saying something. I can excuse the jumping on and off the furniture by telling myself that it is good gross motor skill exercise; I'll call it PE. And they are, after all, eating fish. ;o)
Friday, July 29, 2011
The Clown of God
The Clown Of God (6/13 - 6/16 and 6/20 - 6/24/2011)
We spent two leisurely weeks rowing this beautiful book. Again, I mixed the lessons/subjects over the days. This week I picked up a bunch of “go-along” books at the library to extend our learning. One of the things I picked up was a kids Italian language CD, with common kids’ songs and words. This was in pretty much daily rotation, all by C1’s choice. She can operate the CD player by herself, and chose to play it often enough that I can say “knees and toes” (from "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes") in Italian weeks later!
On Monday we did a bunch of Social Studies, covering geography, a few words in Italian, a bit of religion - learning about monks, orphans, and the elderly. We also talked about several new vocabulary words. I found a bunch of online resources through homeschooling blogs, to add a coloring map of Italy and Europe, a dot-to-dot of Italy, and copy work. So we did more geography on Tuesday. I also printed a simple stained-glass window design on watercolor paper, and colored it with watercolor pencils. I let C1 “paint” it with water. We also covered our first consonant blends in Progressive Phonics.
Later in the week we did more with art, talking about symbolic detail, medium, and style. When her watercolor paints arrived, she did a lot of experimenting with those. We read some go-along stories, talked about repetition in stories, and story endings. We talked a lot about what keeps the ending of this particular story from being TOO sad. Especially since it took several readings for Mama to get through THIS story without tears!
The Washington Homeschool Organization’s convention was on June 17, so there was no rowing on Friday while I attended that.
The second week, we learned several things about the Renaissance, did some more vocabulary, reading comprehension, a bit more social studies, and C1 asked to watercolor many times. We watched some YouTube videos of juggling, and Mama tried a few times, but C1 was not interested in trying herself. We counted balls and vegetables, and did some grouping - figuring how many different groups of zucchini Giovanni could juggle if there were 21 squashes and he juggled 7 at a time, etc. (using manipulatives, of course).
I loved this story, and our pace was leisurely, but at the end of the second short week, C1 was ready to be done with it, and move on. She was very excited to get to “A Pair of Red Clogs.” It makes me wonder if stretching our row out is not such a good idea for her.
We spent two leisurely weeks rowing this beautiful book. Again, I mixed the lessons/subjects over the days. This week I picked up a bunch of “go-along” books at the library to extend our learning. One of the things I picked up was a kids Italian language CD, with common kids’ songs and words. This was in pretty much daily rotation, all by C1’s choice. She can operate the CD player by herself, and chose to play it often enough that I can say “knees and toes” (from "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes") in Italian weeks later!
On Monday we did a bunch of Social Studies, covering geography, a few words in Italian, a bit of religion - learning about monks, orphans, and the elderly. We also talked about several new vocabulary words. I found a bunch of online resources through homeschooling blogs, to add a coloring map of Italy and Europe, a dot-to-dot of Italy, and copy work. So we did more geography on Tuesday. I also printed a simple stained-glass window design on watercolor paper, and colored it with watercolor pencils. I let C1 “paint” it with water. We also covered our first consonant blends in Progressive Phonics.
The Washington Homeschool Organization’s convention was on June 17, so there was no rowing on Friday while I attended that.
The second week, we learned several things about the Renaissance, did some more vocabulary, reading comprehension, a bit more social studies, and C1 asked to watercolor many times. We watched some YouTube videos of juggling, and Mama tried a few times, but C1 was not interested in trying herself. We counted balls and vegetables, and did some grouping - figuring how many different groups of zucchini Giovanni could juggle if there were 21 squashes and he juggled 7 at a time, etc. (using manipulatives, of course).
I loved this story, and our pace was leisurely, but at the end of the second short week, C1 was ready to be done with it, and move on. She was very excited to get to “A Pair of Red Clogs.” It makes me wonder if stretching our row out is not such a good idea for her.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
The Story About Ping
The Story About Ping (6/6 - 6/10/2011)
This was our very first week of Five In A Row. I went through the lesson suggestions and marked the ideas that I thought were most appropriate for us, and then tried to balance them out over the course of the week. I ended up mixing Social Studies, Language and Art lessons around over several days (as opposed to covering one "subject" each day).
On Monday, we talked about Chinese culture and some of the differences compared to how we live. We talked about “classic” stories, and fiction vs. non-fiction. On Tuesday, we examined the illustrations and talked about what the artist used to draw them, and combining colors to make new ones. We talked about buoyancy and did sinking and floating experiments with a big bowl of water. (C2 especially enjoyed throwing the golf ball in to make a splash!) After we had that all cleaned up, C1 told me she wanted to draw pictures of each object we tested, and say whether it sank or floated. Brilliant! I helped her make a chart of her scientific observations. I was so proud of her for coming up with that on her own (and a little disappointed that I had not!)
On Wednesday, we talked more about the illustrations and viewpoint. We looked at a few things from different points of view to see how our perspective changed. She drew Daddy’s football from two different perspectives, and then practiced her hand at blending different colors of colored pencil to make new colors and give depth like we talked about the day before. Early in the week it occured to me to get a few other books from the library as go-alongs - about China and ducks, and to get a map or globe for geography, and by Wednesday afternoon we finally had a few more library books and my Amazon order for use on Thursday.
Daddy read to her about ducks on Thursday morning before work. We read Ping as usaul, and then looked for China and the Yangtze River on our new inflatable globe. We talked about the Yangtze and how big and sustaining it is. Then we went on a picnic with Pops and Sweetie to feed the ducks at the park. We saw and fed lots of ducks, including a mama and her young ones. We also saw some turtles. We played at the playground, and had a wonderful picnic. Great fun for all of us!
On Friday, we dumped a bunch of coins from Daddy’s jar to count up all the members of Ping’s duck family. We read some more about China, and used a color sheet I found on the internet to color all 68 ducks. She could count them all with just a little help at 40 and 50. We watched some YouTube clips of Chinese music and dance, and when Daddy got off work we went out for Chinese dinner. I wish I knew of a really good Chinese restaurant in our area, as F3 and I were pretty disappointed. I didn’t expect C1 to love much of it, but I was proud of her for trying everything. Her favorites were the tea and the wonton soup. The BBQ pork was okay too.
On Saturday she wanted to do more “studies.” She really enjoyed the week of FIAR. I had one last activity in mind, so I cut out a couple duck shapes from a paper sack, and brushed one with oil, so she could see the paper soak up the water, and then roll off the oiled one. It wasn’t as successful as I had hoped, but it was still fun for her, and that is what is most important right now. We also did a little Explode The Code and Progressive Phonics over the course of the week. I'm feeling pretty good about how things went.
This was our very first week of Five In A Row. I went through the lesson suggestions and marked the ideas that I thought were most appropriate for us, and then tried to balance them out over the course of the week. I ended up mixing Social Studies, Language and Art lessons around over several days (as opposed to covering one "subject" each day).
On Monday, we talked about Chinese culture and some of the differences compared to how we live. We talked about “classic” stories, and fiction vs. non-fiction. On Tuesday, we examined the illustrations and talked about what the artist used to draw them, and combining colors to make new ones. We talked about buoyancy and did sinking and floating experiments with a big bowl of water. (C2 especially enjoyed throwing the golf ball in to make a splash!) After we had that all cleaned up, C1 told me she wanted to draw pictures of each object we tested, and say whether it sank or floated. Brilliant! I helped her make a chart of her scientific observations. I was so proud of her for coming up with that on her own (and a little disappointed that I had not!)On Wednesday, we talked more about the illustrations and viewpoint. We looked at a few things from different points of view to see how our perspective changed. She drew Daddy’s football from two different perspectives, and then practiced her hand at blending different colors of colored pencil to make new colors and give depth like we talked about the day before. Early in the week it occured to me to get a few other books from the library as go-alongs - about China and ducks, and to get a map or globe for geography, and by Wednesday afternoon we finally had a few more library books and my Amazon order for use on Thursday.
Daddy read to her about ducks on Thursday morning before work. We read Ping as usaul, and then looked for China and the Yangtze River on our new inflatable globe. We talked about the Yangtze and how big and sustaining it is. Then we went on a picnic with Pops and Sweetie to feed the ducks at the park. We saw and fed lots of ducks, including a mama and her young ones. We also saw some turtles. We played at the playground, and had a wonderful picnic. Great fun for all of us!On Friday, we dumped a bunch of coins from Daddy’s jar to count up all the members of Ping’s duck family. We read some more about China, and used a color sheet I found on the internet to color all 68 ducks. She could count them all with just a little help at 40 and 50. We watched some YouTube clips of Chinese music and dance, and when Daddy got off work we went out for Chinese dinner. I wish I knew of a really good Chinese restaurant in our area, as F3 and I were pretty disappointed. I didn’t expect C1 to love much of it, but I was proud of her for trying everything. Her favorites were the tea and the wonton soup. The BBQ pork was okay too.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
My First Homeschool Convention
I went to the Washington Homeschool Organization homeschooling convention on June 17. I would have gone alone, but was very thankful that my good friend K, who has been homeschooling for years, went with me. I loved having her (and another friend of hers) as a sounding board. I really did my research ahead of time. I checked out all of the workshops/seminars, and made choices about which ones I wanted to attend, and which ones I definitely wanted to miss. I looked up Web sites for every vendor I could on the exhibitor list. Again, marking the list for who to skip and who I thought were must-sees. I had done a lot of curriculum research too, so I had a list of stuff I definitely wanted to try to get. I am glad I was so well prepared.
I was pretty surprised at how many of the vendors were selling Christian faith-based curricula. I knew that MANY homeschoolers choose this alternative for religious reasons, but I still figured the WHO convention in the liberal Pacific Northwest would have a roughly equal representation of more secular wares. I would say it was more like 30-35% secular or Christian companies selling merchandise that was not faith based.
I did find everything on my list though. In the end I couldn’t commit on a math curriculum, so I just got the abacus and the little preschool intro song book from RightStart. I made one relative “impulse” purchase from a vendor I had on my list to check out (and go to their workshop). I liked what I saw from WriteShop, and I like the idea of starting that so young, even if it means the kids just dictate their writing to me. I came home with WriteShop Primary A. The items from my list that I purchased include Five In A Row (vol. 2), a world map, All About Spelling Level 1, Developing the Early Learner, and Artistic Pursuits.
I also picked up a couple inexpensive, fun science books. C1 loves science, but I haven’t found anything structured that trips my trigger. I figure between what we cover in FIAR and all the Magic School Bus books we read, even a little more is much more science than the average preschooler or Kindergartner gets.
Now I just need to figure out how to “schedule” it all into our weeks without feeling overwhelmed and overworked. I want this to be fun, and I want to make sure that C2 is getting everything he needs too. Wish us luck!
I was pretty surprised at how many of the vendors were selling Christian faith-based curricula. I knew that MANY homeschoolers choose this alternative for religious reasons, but I still figured the WHO convention in the liberal Pacific Northwest would have a roughly equal representation of more secular wares. I would say it was more like 30-35% secular or Christian companies selling merchandise that was not faith based.
I did find everything on my list though. In the end I couldn’t commit on a math curriculum, so I just got the abacus and the little preschool intro song book from RightStart. I made one relative “impulse” purchase from a vendor I had on my list to check out (and go to their workshop). I liked what I saw from WriteShop, and I like the idea of starting that so young, even if it means the kids just dictate their writing to me. I came home with WriteShop Primary A. The items from my list that I purchased include Five In A Row (vol. 2), a world map, All About Spelling Level 1, Developing the Early Learner, and Artistic Pursuits.
I also picked up a couple inexpensive, fun science books. C1 loves science, but I haven’t found anything structured that trips my trigger. I figure between what we cover in FIAR and all the Magic School Bus books we read, even a little more is much more science than the average preschooler or Kindergartner gets.
Now I just need to figure out how to “schedule” it all into our weeks without feeling overwhelmed and overworked. I want this to be fun, and I want to make sure that C2 is getting everything he needs too. Wish us luck!
Rediscovering the Library
In my research, I have found so many books and resources that I want to peruse to try to get a handle on this homeschooling idea. I started filling my cart at Amazon, but then recalled my library card. Now when I come across something I want to take a look at, I go to KCLS.org and see if I can put it on hold first. Some may find their way onto my bookshelves eventually, but this is a much cheaper alternative to buying every single one.
The big bonus is that I was able to get my hands on a couple “teacher manuals” for curriculum I was interested in. I am very interested in Moving Beyond the Page, but at barely 4, I think C1 is a little young for their first (5-7) level. The “preschool” Peak With Books was available through the library. I really wanted to love it, but it seemed like it was geared more toward a class than one-on-one to me. I haven’t ruled out MBTP for later, but I didn’t want Peak With Books for our initial foray. I also got Volume 1 of Five In a Row. That looked like a much more suitable choice for us, so I reserved a couple of the book choices at the library as well, and decided to give it a go. If we liked it, I thought, I could purchase the manual at the convention before the borrowed one was due back at the library, and we could just keep going.
I also checked out a bunch of first-year, and homeschooling for dummies type books. I read a few, some I dismissed as not my style, and some I made note that I wanted to look into again at some future date. (Because I can’t get through an armful of books in my allotted lending time!) It is working out great - especially since I can check the database and reserve them online, and just go pick them up when they are ready. (C2 is not yet at library-browsing age!)
The big bonus is that I was able to get my hands on a couple “teacher manuals” for curriculum I was interested in. I am very interested in Moving Beyond the Page, but at barely 4, I think C1 is a little young for their first (5-7) level. The “preschool” Peak With Books was available through the library. I really wanted to love it, but it seemed like it was geared more toward a class than one-on-one to me. I haven’t ruled out MBTP for later, but I didn’t want Peak With Books for our initial foray. I also got Volume 1 of Five In a Row. That looked like a much more suitable choice for us, so I reserved a couple of the book choices at the library as well, and decided to give it a go. If we liked it, I thought, I could purchase the manual at the convention before the borrowed one was due back at the library, and we could just keep going.
I also checked out a bunch of first-year, and homeschooling for dummies type books. I read a few, some I dismissed as not my style, and some I made note that I wanted to look into again at some future date. (Because I can’t get through an armful of books in my allotted lending time!) It is working out great - especially since I can check the database and reserve them online, and just go pick them up when they are ready. (C2 is not yet at library-browsing age!)
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