Look! We're Learning!

Low-Country Cooking

2010-11-30T05:02:00.001-08:00

To those of you unfamiliar with the deep South, allow me to give a very short geography lesson. The part of the East Coast in the U.S. that includes the coast of Georgia and South Carolina (and maybe the extreme north Florida coast, depending on who you ask) is referred to as the "Low Country". I imagine it's because it's low to sea level and it's really, really country, but I actually have no idea. Major cities in the area include Savannah, Hilton Head Island and Charleston.

I'm from Florida originally, but I grew up near the Low Country. While I am glad to have left the area, the one thing I miss is the seafood. I have never had seafood like that anywhere else in my life. When I was growing up, my parents would steam live blue crabs and oysters in a giant stockpot and we would eat like kings. If we got enough people together, we'd have what we called a "Low Country Boil", which is usually shrimp, potatoes, corn on the cob and smoked sausage dumped into a stockpot and boiled over a mixture of water and Old Bay seasoning. (I have to been Low Country Boils that included crawfish, pork neckbones, snow crab legs and king crab legs as well.) Traditionally, the food is dumped onto a table spread with newspaper and everybody eats with their hands. Since the kids are getting a little older, I decided it was time for their first Low Country Boil.

So we all sat around the table and ate with our hands. Tigger ate almost everything she could find, but kept putting her eaten corn cobs back in the pile. Ick. Pooh only wanted to eat the "shrimps" and Roo seemed partial to the potatoes. Daddy got full the fastest and I dipped my food in a mixture of ketchup and hot sauce. (It's a Southern thing.) Apparently, it was a pretty big hit. There were only scraps left and everybody was still alive afterward. If nobody dies, it's a good cooking night in our house.

See the full gallery on posterous

Unschooling Week One

2010-10-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

So we're a week into this unschooling thing, and I love it already. No pressure about learning objectives, covering a specified number of pages or reviewing particular subjects. Instead, we've been spending more time together and talking more freely about a variety of things. In the last week, we've had the following educational opportunities:

* Discussing synonyms, antonyms, homonyms and homophones while shopping at the grocery store (really)

* How to play basketball - Roo spends his free time now throwing a rubber ball and shouting Bah-be-dall! We did the Chuck E. Cheese thing as a family last Thursday and Roo watched as Daddy, me, Tigger and Pooh played the Sure Shot game. I guess he picked up a few techniques from watching us.

* Leaves, acorns, trees and fall - We walked around our front yard and looked at the natural objects in it. We discovered that the garden rocks near the house were cold while the garden rocks in the yard were hot. Tigger asked why that was and Daddy told her it was because the rocks near the house were in the shade. That led to a discussion about how the sun keeps things warm. We also discovered that acorns ripen after they fall, starting out green and gradually turning black on in the outside and inside. After all, they are the fruit of an oak tree....

* Pooh asks us to "write" almost everyday. We spent a morning last week coloring a giant Tweety coloring book and he insisted that he was writing on his page. Interestingly, we had two sets of crayons and Roo spent his time matching up the similar colors. He would hold both yellows, then both blacks, then both reds, etc. He would even get fussy if we tried to take one away. Seems like he's understanding alike and different already.

* Park day with our homeschool group - That's not really unschooling, but the kids like it and they get to be around other littles, so that works for us.

We're considering enrolling Tigger in ballet and gymnastics in January. She sprained her ankle a couple of weeks ago and hopefully that will help her to learn movement and balance. But, in the meantime, we're taking it slow and easy and seeing where we end up.

An Epiphany...

2010-10-04T18:36:00.003-07:00

Have you ever had a sudden, liberating realization? Well, I had one over the course of last week. It started with the realization that something was wrong with the way my kids were learning. Tigger is able to understand concepts, but she hates sitting at the table doing work. And, of course, the boys are so little that it's difficult for them to sit still for more than a few minutes. So, I started taking them out of the house more often - the aquarium, the children's museum, park days, etc. And those are good too, but also difficult with 2 under 2 1/2. Needless to say, I was more than a little frustrated.

And then it hit me. Unschooling! Unschooling! Unschooling! Now before you say, "But, that's not REAL school!", let me explain how I came to this point of view. I've been planning to homeschool since we found out we were pregnant with Tigger. But, I kept envisioning a "school at home" method, with the desks and the blackboard and the school supplies. That's what we did in my school and I liked it, so I planned to recreate that at home to keep Tigger from missing out. After our preschool year, I found out that at home we need more flexibility than school-at-home offers, so I ditched it and became an eclectic homeschooler.

If you're not familiar with eclectic homeschooling, it's essentially a use-what-you-like approach. So, I liked aspects of school at home (worksheets, a chalkboard) and I liked aspects of Charlotte Mason (nature study, short lessons, copywork, narration) so I used it all and we started kindergarten. Kindergarten went better than pre-K but still had its ups and downs, particularly having a newborn in the house. But, I was still feeling frustrated with both the lack of flexibility with the methods and Tigger's growing resistance to schedules.

We embarked on first grade with a new approach - still eclectic, but far more relaxed. And it just has not worked for us. AT ALL. I've been frustrated, Tigger's been frustrated and Pooh and Roo have just been enduring. I've read a lot of books about unschooling and, from what I've read, almost every parent who has decided to unschool has done so after starting with school-at-home like me. But, when I read the books, I thought "I'd never do that. I need structure and I can do this in a way that will work for my kids." I never thought about whether my homeschooling method would work for me. Turns out that if it doesn't work for me (the teacher), it's not going to work for the kids.

I read an especially inspiring quote about unschooling from Kelly Lovejoy. I wrote it down to remember it. It says:

"If you knew you only had a year more with that child, what would you expose him to? Where would you go? What would you eat? What would you watch? What would you do?

If you had only ONE year—and then it was all over, what would you do? Four seasons. Twelve months. 365 days.

Do that THIS year. And the next.

That's how unschooling works. By living life as if it were an adventure. As if you only had a limited amount of time with that child. Because that's the way it IS."

Reading that almost made me cry. I want to enjoy my life with my children, not endure it as we try to get through each grade level. Things really can change in the blink of an eye and I would be so hurt if my proudest moments as a parent centered around my children's test scores or objectives. The core unschooling principle is that children learn all the time, no matter what they do. It's the job of a parent to "strew" things across their path to pique their interest, but instead of coercing them into learning, we create a learning environment by encouraging them to be curious about the world around them. Sandra Dodd has a great website about unschooling here.

Anyway, I'm still new to this way of doing things, but I'll be posting pics of us hopefully enjoying our learning experience!

Going Places....

2010-09-08T09:17:00.001-07:00

Okay....so after a slight hiccup in our schedule, we're finally into the school year and things are starting to settle into some kind of routine. I held off on the first day of school stuff until this past Monday. I wanted the hubby to be home so we could give Tigger her gift together. Yes, I consider new school supplies to be a gift. (Don't judge me.)

Tigger was pleasantly surprised by her new backpack. (I got the old one from the $2.50 rack at Jo-Ann's.)

We packed the bag with all kinds of awesomeness. Notebooks, twistable crayons, sketch pads, folders, erasers and pencils. If twistable crayons were available when I was a kid, I would probably have never stopped drawing. They're just incredible.

Tigger wanted to take a picture with the backpack on. She's a total ham for the camera and I admit that's probably my fault.

Daddy looks on as his daughter models her new gear. I see a mixture of happiness and wariness on his face. Yay, she likes her new backpack! Oh no, I hope she doesn't want to start modeling when she gets older.

Roo isn't too impressed. Just give him the gift paper to flail around and he's thrilled.

During this year, we're going to be starting basic geography - oceans, continents, countries, our city and state, etc. To help with this, we ordered the Rand McNally kids map from Amazon. This map is great and it was $10. Win.

In each section of the world, it shows icons that indicate the kind of animals that live there and symbols of the regional culture that kids should learn about. I need help like that. Otherwise, we'll just plod through what city and country is where and Tigger will die of boredom. I confess, geography was not one of my favorite subjects growing up, but I love learning about world cultures. I'm planning to integrate that as we go along and hopefully that will keep it interesting for student and teacher.

A close up of a continent to see the icons.

So, that's where we are for now - well, this and daily math and reading. We'll see how this goes, but as of today, it seems to be working. Tomorrow we'll add in history (a classical approach) and then art and science on Friday. (Yikes!)

The School Year Approaches...

2010-08-22T16:46:00.000-07:00

So, we're almost to September 1. I've set that as our official start date for the year, since we're required to enroll annually in September anyway. I have big plans for the "first day of school" events, but I'm better off not talking about them. For some reason, as soon as I say I'm going to do something, I don't follow through. It's like my brain thinks I've already done it somehow. Anywho, now that we're starting first grade, we'll be a tad more structured with Tigger and I'll be (hopefully) keeping this blog more updated as we go. Stay tuned!

Lesson Planning for the Lazy

2010-07-11T19:06:00.001-07:00

If you're anything like me, you are a procrastinator to the max. The max, I say. I tend to buy tons of resources for school and then I place them in the school closet neatly arranged by grade level where they sit for months because I completely forgot what I bought.

Well, not this year, sister. I am going to tame the lesson planning beast once and for all. But I have to start small, because I'm lazy. So here's what I have so far:

1st Grade Course Outline:

November - April: Math, Copywork, Bible Study, History/Geography or Science (depending on the day), Art, Music and Language

May: OFF

June: OFF

July - August: Math, Copywork, Foreign Language

September: OFF

October: OFF

Legally, we don't have to register Tigger until November this year, because our state doesn't require it before a child turns 6. So we'll be doing that for the first time this year. The goal here is to do the full class days during the winter (because I hate the cold), do short class days in summer (because it's so terribly hot here) and be out in spring and fall when the weather is glorious. Sounds good in theory, right? Whether it will work in practice, though, is another issue. I'll add more details as I go along. Still taking baby steps here...

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Looking for Free Homeschool Worksheets?

2010-06-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

I am a worksheet junkie. I love them. I loved them in school and I still love them today. As much as I would love to just unschool, I can't break my worksheet addiction. I've passed it on to my daughter too. She asks to do them everyday. The good thing is that I don't have to pay for them, since there are free worksheets available all over the Internet.

Find some great online worksheet resources here: Free Printable Homeschool Worksheets

Georgia Virtual Academy

2010-06-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

My good friend Lavette just signed up for the Georgia Virtual Academy. She's homeschooling her two daughters and her oldest was accepted for the Kindergarten program this fall! Yay!

The good thing about GVA is that it's completely virtual. The children are able to follow the program outlined by their local school district and they also get to go to regular events and meet-ups with other students. So, they're being homeschooled but still staying along with their peers and getting interaction. Best of all, the books and materials are free! Yes, free, as in no cost, nothing out of pocket, free.

If you are nervous about homeschooling your children or are considering removing them from public school, you may want to look into the virtual academy in your state.

Warning! Bookworm Lust!

2010-04-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

If you are a bookworm, like me, you will appreciate this. I can't believe somebody actually made this, but if I had a larger house, I would probably be lobbying my husband for one of these.

Yes, that's a circular bookcase for you to walk around your house in. I know it looks like a hamster wheel, but it's still pretty cool. Okay, back to real life where the things I buy need to be practical.

Yes, I'm Still Alive

2010-04-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

Judging by the date of my last post, it's been 4 1/2 months since my last entry. That is probably a record for the worst case of blog negligence ever. I hereby plead guilty and I throw myself at the mercy of the online community. But, I'm back and I'm expanding my interests a bit.

In the time since my last post, I've been working online and getting a crash course in social networking, which is really a world into itself. The wonderful thing about home schooling is that you can adapt your schedule to whatever you need it to be. In our situation, we got an early start, since we're not legally required to submit records until November, so we went very loose for the last few months until I got some work done. Now, that I can exhale a little, we'll gradually start adding back structure. Instead of just posting our weekly school work, I'll be adding in other school blogs and links that I find amusing or helpful. Hopefully, this will be a kind of forum where others can find out things or post things that they found helpful. So, feel free to buzz me with something you like anytime. Here's to the future! (or at least the next few days before something else comes up)

Moving All My Writing Stuff

2010-01-12T05:18:00.000-08:00

To those of you who occasionally check out my writing, head on over to my new writing blog: Read Some, Write More. I've been saying an awful lot lately and I didn't want it to clog up the hs-related posts here.

Got some great new books at Borders and I *think* a rough outline of how I want to go about things, this year at least. More on that later... =D

The Best Laid Plans...

2010-01-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

In case you're counting, this is reason number 2,943,727 why you should never make a resolution for a new year: Life happens. I set a number of goals for myself, including writing more (doing that one), organizing our home (doing that one), and continuing to get in shape (doing that one). But the "we're going to homeschool every week" one went out the window when everyone (except hubby) got sick this past week.

Of course, I, being the mother of the year that I am, gave it to every one of my children. The biggest indicator of a good mother is that she infects her adoring offspring with disease, right? So, the homeschooling goal is being postponed until next week, when hopefully, everyone will be feeling better.

Hope the sickies spare all of you!!!

A Visit to the Interactive Neighborhood for Kids (INK)

2009-12-04T03:53:00.000-08:00

Long time, no post. Sorry everybody! Things have been a little hectic around here. And I've learned first hand that trying to start homeschooling full steam with a new baby is...an insane proposition. Anyhoo...Roo is almost four months old and basically sleeping through the night, so hopefully our schedule will be a lot more stable from here on out.

A couple of weeks ago, we got the chance to visit the Interactive Neighborhood for Kids (www.inkfun.org). It's a child's pretend town where kids can engage in all sorts of grown-up professions.

As you can tell from the first pic, one of the biggest draws is the indoor playground. We literally spent the first hour just sitting there watching Tigger play and, naturally, bounce around. =) After dragging her away, we started actually seeing some of the exhibits.

Here's the fam on the fire truck. Hubby seems to be having the most fun, huh? Then it was on the doctor's office...

Tigger gives Daddy a checkup.

Pooh was taken with the medicine bottles. A future pharmacist, perhaps? After getting checked out, we stopped at my favorite place, the restaurant.

Tigger served up what she said was a hamburger (it was really pretend baked beans, but we didn't want to spoil it for her).

I don't know what she put on that pizza, but it was delicious!

Pooh makes a selection at the jukebox. Afterward, we had some letters to mail, so we went to the post office.

Tigger waits on Daddy behind the counter.

Pooh delivers some high-priority mail. We needed to do grocery shopping, but of course, we had to go to the bank to get our spending money.

Tigger went to work on our account.

Daddy celebrates our newfound riches. It's probably the most money we'll ever see. =D

The bank just didn't seem to do it for Pooh and Roo. So we went to every child's favorite place, the dentist's office.

Tigger worked on a stuffed lion. He had really big teeth for some reason. It was actually a little creepy....We hurried off to take x-rays.

Tigger donned a lead apron and went to work.

After reviewing the x-rays, Tigger understood why his teeth were so big. Turns out he wasn't a real lion. Mystery solved! We went shopping.

Items galore and no prices! Why don't they have stores like this for adults?

Tigger filled her basket with enough food to make dinner. So we headed home to eat. Overall, we had a great time! I definitely recommend INK as a low-tech, family-friendly attraction. It's a nice change to go to a place that inspires imaginative play instead of stifling it.

Recession Era Homeschooling

2009-10-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

Times are tough...for everyone. I've had to take a little part time job, since they're cutting hubby's hours at work. So, we're all pitching in to help make ends meet. If you're a homeschooler looking for ways to stay motivated while pinching pennies, head over to the Homeschooling Zone at Helium.com for a few suggestions!

Homeschooling-A Learning Adventure!- http://www.helium.com/zone/966-homeschooling

Feet of Strength....

2009-10-10T01:32:00.000-07:00

so before jumping in the dino-stuff, i thought i'd finish up what we had left of me and myself (remember that way back when in september?).

recognize this book?

a classic, right?

we decided to check out our feet, so we did the most natural thing, which is, of course, tracing around our feet with markers. doesn't everybody do that?!?

here are tigger's:

here are mine: (don't laugh)

after some beautifying, we ended up with these:

after supplying tigger with a brown crayon for her left foot, i asked her what color she wanted for her right foot. she replied, "green". when i asked why, she answered, "i like green feet". ...um, okay....

we cut them out and were prepared to finish, when hubby suggested the great idea of tracing pooh's feet. here they are in all their adorableness:

so teeny! i mentioned doing roo's feet, but we didn't think he would hold his toes out long enough... =)

all together now...

anyone care for a waltz?

Newly Posted Homeschooling Articles

2009-10-02T00:53:00.000-07:00

now that i'm slowly getting back into writing online (thanks again to lavette!), i'm including a few links to homeschooling-related content i've posted recently...as i write new hs articles, i'll be sure to post links here. hopefully, some of this information will be useful to you all. please let me know what you think!

Great Homeschooling Books for Beginners

A Look at Homeschooling Laws in Georgia

How to Save Money on Homeschooling Supplies

Is Homeschooling Really For You?

Okay....Our Library Officially Rocks!

2009-10-01T04:42:00.000-07:00

so, we headed to the library on tuesday to begin our dino-quest. for the last year and a half, our local library has been going through a renovation. in the meantime, we've only had access to about half the space as before and about half of the circulation materials have been unavailable (due to space restrictions). honestly, i had gotten so used to our mini-library, i forgot that they would be unveiling the finished product soon. anyway, i was astonished at how much they've done! check out the pics below to see our new, way way way better library!

this is a view of the audiovisual department from the entrance. i like the layout much better, because you can actually see all the videos and cds! before, they were stacked on top of each other and it was hard to know what was available. and look at how bright it is! it was very dark in there before....

here's the same department from the other end of the room....

here's a peek back into the nonfiction and reference section. for now, all the computer stations are stashed behind that wall to the left, but i'm told that the downstairs is now being renovated and eventually, all the computers will go down there along with a special area for teens! (i think that's pretty cool....maybe it'll get teens interested in reading more, right?) now, for the fun part....the children's section!

here's a view of the entrance to the children's section. to the left of this pic is the information desk and the computer stations for the kiddies. i like how the books are arranged in a way that gets the children's attention...

one extra special part of the new children's area is the seating....there are comfy chairs everywhere! and they're all next to the newly added picture windows....there are even outdoor seating options for when the weather's nice!

as you can see, tigger took to the caterpillar seat right away! if i hadn't been taking the pictures, i would have wanted to sit on it too...(head in bag)

this is the story room....the staff is offering several story programs for children this fall. we'll be doing preschool storytime (3-5 year olds) on monday afternoons and baby time (0-18 month olds) on thursday mornings. it'll be a nice intro to outside socialization, which homeschoolers definitely need. we'll also be doing some park days, but more on that later....

and last, but certainly not least, the toddler and prek section.....see how height-friendly the bookshelves are! and the little tree table and chair sets are too cute! we'll probably be spending the majority of our library time here.

so, i've decided that we will have days when we will spend the bulk of the day at the library. i don't think i'll schedule particular days for that, but i'll probably use it when we need a change of pace or when i need to regroup. i'm very impressed by the new selection of educational materials. just browsing through the biography section in the children's area made me feel a lot more confident about covering the topics we need to consider.....this unschooling thing might just work!

Dipping a Tentative Toe in the Unschooling Pool...

2009-09-29T04:15:00.000-07:00

so, i'm still up in the air about our permanent teaching style. i am slowly becoming more interested in the unschooling philosophy, thanks to the input of my fellow hsing mompal, lavette. (thanks girl!) for those of you who may be unfamiliar with unschooling, basically you follow the child's interests and shape your teaching tools around what they're interested in at the moment.

i've been reticent about it, because i'm not thrilled with turning over complete control of my child's education to my child, which some radical unschoolers do. while that may work for them, i know tigger needs at least some structure. so i think we'll be trying out lavette's method for a little bit, which is to have structure work for math, reading, etc, but to follow an unschooling method for science, history, etc.....i had to wait to hear what tigger would show interest in and lo and behold! our unschooling journey began last night!

tigger asked me "did dinosaurs have ears?" (so so cute, right?) i had to answer "i don't know, but we can look it up if you want". tigger replied "online?" and i am a relic of the past, because i don't like her being on the computer often (i know, i know, eventually she will need to learn it, but just not right now), so i told her we'd go to the library and get some books about dinosaurs this week.
i'm excited to see what we find out and i'll be sure to post details later on!

It's About Time!

2009-09-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

to get on with reaching our "educational objectives", we started learning about telling time last week. it seems a little outdated now, since most clocks are digital, but i still feel tigger should learn it. (we'll figure out why she needs to learn it later on...)

our old buddy the chalkboard came in handy again....

after day 2, tigger started catching on somewhat. telling the hours was easy for her, the minutes? not so much. to be honest, it is confusing for the hand to point to 6, but that 6 really means 30. on the positive side, we got a head start on skip counting by 5! (2 educational objectives in one week! whoo-hoo!)

i also have a lapbook made up for the subject. a lapbook is part of the unit studies method. the templates came from here: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php. i got the actual printed pages from various sites, including PBSKids and SchoolExpress.

here's the front. not too pretty, but at least you know what the topic is, right?

here's an overview of the inside. colorful, huh?

closeups of each section follow:

here is an exercise for tigger to look at the blank clock and then write on hour/minute hands that depict the time shown

this is a section for tigger to look at and tell which analog clock matches to the digital time shown

here she can flip up a tab to read the digital time or to draw the analog time that matches

here's a spin wheel for tigger to play with and to draw up analog clocks that match the analog times here.

tigger has a thing for curious george, so i included this play clock with movable hands

and last, but not least, clock puzzles that only fit together when tigger has the right analog and digital clock matched up

basically, it's a review of everything we learned about time this week, only arranged in a way that engages kinetics and visual learning together. and it's a pretty cheap and safe toy, to boot!

Epiphany....

2009-09-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

after spending last weekend doing a homeschool method book read-a-thon, i got a better idea of what i like and don't like from all the methods. if you would like a summary of the main methods of homeschooling, check out this link: http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/homeschooling-methods.html. it summarizes them nicely and explains pros and cons of each one.

i'll be trying out different methods during this year, so you'll get to see different aspects of each one as we go. you could probably describe us best as relaxed/eclectic, because that way, i don't have to commit to any particular style and we have flexibility to change when we need to.

to start out, we're going with school at home. that is usually what hsing parents, esp. parents who remove their kids from school, start with. basically, it's exactly like school, just....at home. (hence the clever name) we've decided on a list of things we would like tigger to learn by the end of kindergarten. (or educational objectives, if we're getting technical) she already reads well, so we're focusing on math, handwriting, art.

- to count to 100

- to skip count by 2, 5, 10

- to cut paper on a straight line

- to improve handwriting, esp. writing on the lines (ha!)

- to tell time/count money

- to identify lines (straight, curved, wavy)

- to perform basic addition/subtraction

so, to get started, we spent last week working on writing the alphabet and numbers 0-9. in true school at home fashion, i made extensive use of the chalkboard.

i also made use of a charlotte mason technique: copywork to teach penmanship AND spelling. so, when we got to writing number words, i asked tigger how to spell the word and had her sound it out to try to figure it out herself. most of the times she could spell just by using phonics; other times, words like eight confused her. (why is eight spelled like that anyway?) but, she grasped the concept well and liked it! i think the chalkboard is a keeper....

What in the world am I doing?

2009-09-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

so week 3 is coming up and i feel more confused than ever about what learning philosophy to use. should we be unschooling? should i do school at home? should we be child-led? should i enroll tigger in an enrichment class? should i stop everything and wait until age 6? aaaggghhh!!! (that was a moment of panic screech, in case you were wondering....)

we have some great workbooks and storybooks, puzzles, charts, activities, art materials, manipulatives and all the crafting supplies anybody should ever need, but i'm still unsure how to go about using them. (or at least using them in the best way for tigger's learning style, which i'm also still unsure of; she seems like a mix of all three of them) i keep waiting for the a-ha! moment, when i suddenly realize which method is best suited for our family, but i have yet to experience it. then i remember that, even if i find a perfectly matched teaching style for tigger, i will have to go through this all over again with pooh and roo. looks like it's time to get out all of my hsing books and reread them to find which style (or combination thereof) we'll institute for this week. maybe i'll try a different style every 2 weeks or every month and see which one she responds to best.....yeah, that sounds like a good idea. if i go through with that, i'll blog about each one and our experiences so that anyone reading this will hopefully be able to avoid the total meltdown i'm suffering right now....off to decide which method to use this week!

Look! Mommy Has a Lot to Learn!

2009-09-08T19:17:00.000-07:00

so i'm finally posting again after 2 weeks...(head in bag). hubby went back to work last week for the first time since roo's birth and i was completely thrown off guard by the logistics of caring for 3 children under 5! i had no idea that it literally takes an entire morning to run one errand! so school was completely forsaken last week. now that i have a better idea of what day to day is like, we started back with school again today; but a modified version of what i originally intended.

for one thing, i had to completely throw out the schedule. now that everything takes longer than before, it's difficult to know ahead of time how much can be planned for each day. so i'm going with broad goals for the week instead.

Teach Me Mommy Unit (spread out over 5 days instead of just 3)
Daily Text (every morning)
Bible Story (every morning)
Scripture Copywork (every morning)
As for Reading and Math, i'm far less concerned with reading. tigger is reading on a 2nd grade level already, so i'm going to focus instead on math. she needs to brush up on counting and skip counting and possibly simple addition/subtraction.

her main area of concern is her attitude toward learning. she doesn't like to be "taught" per se; she would rather just watch and take things on herself. while that can be good, because it means she's self motivated, it can also be bad because it can cause her to think more of herself than she should (because she'll think she learned things on her own). so hubby and i are spending more time working with her on that. personally, i'll be having her join me in doing more household tasks so she can learn as she goes and so she can get used to following directions. anyhoo, i'll keep posting our progress and pics here. in the meantime, i would love to hear your schedules or suggestions as well!

Me, Myself and Tigger

2009-08-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

so our first unit from Teach Me Mommy is "Me and Myself" and it teaches kids all about, naturally, themselves. day 1 was about learning the day of our birth and our vital stats. we started with tigger detailing things she likes to do. running around and playing made the top of the list and i am quite proud to say that watching tv was far far down the list. then we made a growth chart to measure her height. i spent the greater part of an hour carefully taping together cardstock and measuring the correct height off the floor for the chart to be perfectly correct and then, of course, trimming the edges as evenly as humanly possible. (did i mention i'm still doing the type A rehab?) after copious effort, i anxiously taped the chart to the wall to measure tigger and what happened was this....

the child is already almost at the top of this thing! lesson of the day for mommy: "it does not have to look perfect, especially if it turns out you can only use it for a few months". on to the next activity:

we baked cookies in the shape of tigger's initials. and i'm not ashamed to say i used the store bought ready to bake cookies to do it, so there! prebaking the cookies looked like this:

okay, it's officially time for a new cookie sheet....and yes, tigger's initials spell the word "sir".

after baking, we had the joy of feasting our eyes on this culinary creation:

say it with me, my fellow type A's: "it doesn't have to look perfect, since you're going to eat it anyway". besides, tigger seemed quite pleased with the result.

she was even happier after the initial tasting....

can't argue with that face! and now, if you'll excuse me, i'm going to put the R cookie out of its misery. (gruesome, i know)

Our Newest Family Portrait

2009-08-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

tigger had an assignment during her schoolwork earlier this week to draw a picture of her family. after much creative brainstorming, she produced this masterpiece....

apparently hubby is the biggest, because tigger said "he's the tallest". then comes me, roo, pooh, and finally tigger herself. you may be wondering why the drawing of me is so little. well, tigger forgot me at first, then squeezed me in next to hubby. (i think little children look at mammas more as home furnishings than people) looks like we need to move up art appreciation, huh?

Methods and Curriculum and Grading, Oh My!

2009-08-23T13:44:00.000-07:00

for those of you considering homeschooling, if you look for information online, be prepared to be completely inundated with information about what methods are best, what curriculum you should use, and how you should grade your child's progress. i was homeschooled from middle grades to graduation and my mom used a boxed curriculum. it worked well for me, because i was an older child starting out and i didn't mind doing my schoolwork myself. i wasn't really aware of any other way of schooling, until i started looking around online and i found way, way, way more resources than i needed.

one i took to right away is the charlotte mason method. it revolves around short lessons, narration, living books (literature instead of textbooks), copywork (to learn penmanship, spelling and grammar), nature study and art appreciation. i like the idea of structure, but also the idea of relaxed learning and this method incorporates both. however, i also feel a need to keep up with what children tigger's age are learning in public school (which is totally against the method i just described; sorry, ms. mason!). so for this year, which is technically kindergarten, we'll be having a couple of charlotte mason days a week, but also a couple of unit studies days a week and adding in lapbooks and basic math/reading for good measure.

as far as curriculum goes, i'm a total junkie. i tend to overbuy in the hopes of being prepared for whatever may come up. of course, i'm then overwhelmed by all the material and refuse to start anything because i don't think i can cover it all. (i actually have 3rd grade materials already and tigger's only 4.) hubby is trying to help me get out of this vicious cycle by starting with what tigger knows and slowly introducing other materials as we go.

grades will probably have no place in our homeschool until we need to take our state standards tests (which don't start until 3rd grade here). i don't see the point of instituting an A/B/C/D/F policy when tigger will not be competing with any other children for any kind of award. when she does well, she'll get commended and when she struggles, she'll get help. as a recovering type A personality, i can personally testify why standardized grading is not necessarily good for children.

our schedule as it is now will consist of the following:

Monday/Wednesday (our CM days): Read-Aloud (using the booklist from Ambleside Online Year 0), Copywork, Reading, Math, Lapbook, Crafts

Tuesday/Thursday/Friday: Unit Studies based on the book Teach Me Mommy

Everyday: Daily Text from Examining the Scriptures Daily and a Bible Story from My Book of Bible Stories (both published by Jehovah's Witnesses)

Links:
Charlotte Mason - http://amblesideonline.org/index.shtml Ambleside Online provides a free online Charlotte Mason curriculum for elementary through high school students. It also gives a comprehensive description of the CM method along with Mason's original writings on her education method.

Lapbooks - http://www.homeschoolshare.com/Lapbooks_at_HSS.php Homeschool Helper has a lot of lapbooks and templates for homeschoolers - absolutely free!!! Many of them are literature based and the site also provides a loose curriculum for each that will include most, if not, all of the basic subjects your child needs to cover.

Teach Me Mommy - http://www.teachmemommy.com/ The author of this book describes the program as a home preschool, but many of the topics are ones kindergartens cover, such as seasons, community helpers, the human body and animals. You can download the book or buy a hard copy version through the site.

Jehovah's Witnesses - http://www.watchtower.org/ Our family are Jehovah's Witnesses and while this blog will not highlight our religious beliefs, we warmly encourage everyone who's interested to find out more about us and the Bible based hope we hold dear.

Look! We're Homeschooling!

2009-08-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

after years of consideration and months of planning, it's finally time to start homeschooling! we decided on this years ago after having our daughter, but i never thought about what it would be like to actually carry it through.....until now. i have to admit, i'm a little nervous. will i be a good teacher? will i stick with our schedule? how will our children respond? but, with persistence, flexibility, and humility, hopefully we'll settle into a nice rhythm soon. in any case, we'll be posting our progress here and would love any input we can get!