Wonders of any moment

One thing, among many, that I am loving about homeschooling is having the flexibility to explore something as much as needed.  There have been a few days where we've only worked on 1 or 2 things, or none at all, yet it all seems to even out in the long run.  We are still getting everything done even if we are a few days ahead or behind what our 'schedule' says.  For example, in science we are currently learning about the human body.  Madeline has been very interested in this and we've spent more time on it than originally planned.  She has constructed a large skeleton and glued all of the bones where they ought to go.  I made the skull and rib cage with lift up flaps so we can add in pictures of the brain and lungs when we learn more about that.  Some of the printables were not in reverse, so the hands and feet are all rightys.  Both kids have been having fun coloring the skeleton.  Maddie even surprised me by coloring in the brain, heart, and lungs under the flaps all on her own, and said it was so I don't have to print anything out for later.  I love being able to cater to what she wants to learn instead of saying, "Well, we've covered what we should today, so let's learn more about that next week."  By then, although she may very well still be as enthusiastic, that moment of curiosity might be lost.

The other day Madeline and I had a wonderful moment during 'school'.  We were reviewing some of the phonogram cards in spelling that have more than 1 sound.  She got frustrated and started to cry because she couldn't remember one of the sounds.  I made her look at my face and told her that she is not expected to learn it all the very first time, or even the 20th time.... she will learn it when she's ready, and we are just practicing until then.  It's wonderful to reassure her when she needs it and further build her confidence in not only herself, but in learning in general.  When she understood that it's okay to not know and felt reassured, she went on and kicked those phonogram cards butts!  The school work we are doing does not feel much like work at all.

Another thing we've been enjoying is the beautiful weather.  It's great to be able to get some things done in the morning and be out the door by 10am to play.  I'm pretty sure we will be schooling year round, just doing a lighter load in the summer.  We'll probably do a break after every 6-8 weeks, but I suppose that will be figured out as we go along.

A friend recently lent me the book Montessori Madness, by Trevor Eissler, and I am so happy to have read it.  I really want to learn more about the Montessori methods and hope to utilize some of the skills at home.  I'm sure I'll post more on that subject.  In the meantime, I'm going to scour craigslist for a slim kitchen cart to be used as the kids' place.

Da Nile ain't just a river in Egypt..... completed and long post!

Last week was a really fun week.  We learned about the Nile river, how it floods every year, and why those floods are beneficial to farmers.  We also learned the Egyptian myth as to why it floods. Osirus, the great god who ruled over Egypt, was drowned by his brother Set so he could take over as king of the gods. Set tricked his brother by building a coffin to fit only him, then tossed them into the Nile.  When Isis, Osirus's wife, searched the Nile to find the coffin, she found that her husband was indeed drowned.  As she wept in grief, the Nile did too and the river ran dry.  Isis wrapped his body in linen, making him the first mummy, and he came back to life.  The Nile was overjoyed and overflowed its banks giving everyone water, and has done so every year thereafter. 

We made our own Nile to flood using a 9" x 13" aluminum pan, tinfoil, river rock, soil, and grass seed. Here the kids have added the soil to the pan.

After putting the entire bag of river rock in the tinfoil Nile River, it was time to add the grass seed.  Travis went a little overboard here.  Notice the bigger rocks?  Those are the mountains in Upper Egypt where the Nile begins, and then on the opposite side is the Nile Delta, where the river is (slightly) wider.

Now that everything is ready, it's time to flood it.  Madeline adds enough water in the river to overflow into the soil.

 Of course, the Nile wouldn't be complete without a crocodile.  Now we wait, and we'll flood it again in 1 week.  Hopefully the kids won't play in it too much!

Day 5 update:

Both kids have been super excited about checking the progress on their grass.  Here's what it looks like on day 5.  Madeline is really looking forward to flooding it again, and mentions it no less than 6 times a day.

Day 7 update:

Flood day!  Someone was very excited about today.  She couldn't believe how much the grass has grown in just 2 days, and even made a reference to the farmer's crops along the Nile. 

Madeline told me this morning that she LOVES history!  We'll watch our Nile for another week or so and see what happens.  In the meantime, we've learned about hieroglyphs and how they used to be written on stone tabs.  Madeline even got to decode her own special hieroglyph, and Travis colored in the symbols.

Day 15 update:

The grass is so tall now that it bends outward.   I think we'll paint a little pot and place the grass inside, so we can get the Nile off the kitchen counter!

I see no spelling

I'm really glad we didn't wait to start All About Spelling.  The first 8 lessons, out of 24 in Level 1, have gone by without a problem.  The first few lessons focused on spelling certain words using the letter tiles and tokens, included in the interactive kit, to segment the words to hear each letter sound.  She started writing the words a couple lessons ago.  I really thought this subject would be a struggle for some reason, but it's actually quite fun.  Maddie even brought me her box last Saturday and wanted to do another lesson.

Here she is proudly showing her spelling words.  The words that have a line through and written correctly next to it were self-corrected by her.

Then she wanted more words to write, and did it covering her eyes and giggling the whole time.  She got all the letters right, just in random places all over the page.  I love it when she gets in these silly, slap-happy moods.

She also really likes to color in the progress sheet after she completes a lesson, it really gives her a sense of accomplishment.  She is currently working on 3 letter words and will soon be on to more challenging words.

Yes, in case you were wondering, she is still in her pajamas.  What seems to work best for us is to get started right after breakfast, that way we can complete a few subjects and work in the others throughout the day.

Super Sweet

Most Adorable Moment of the Day (it's actually a tie):

1) Jake was in the office with Madeline and they were looking at a world map on the wall.  He told her China is so populated that people are allowed only 1 child.  Maddie's response: "Good thing we live in Kentucky so I can have my little brother."  Umm... ridiculously sweet.

2) Madeline's good friend, Gavin, came to pick her up for a "date" tonight and brought a bouquet of flowers.  They were so stinkin cute when they left.
***update: during their date, Gavin was running after Maddie and fell right into the corner of a metal handrail. He ended up getting stitches in his forehead!  Poor little guy, although he is a really tough kid.  A date to remember for sure, and possibly a scar to prove it.

I hope I'm not tooting my own horn here, but I am very happy, hopeful, and excited with how well our new organized schedule works.  I've been trying different things this past year, and I think I may have just found the winner!  These past 2 weeks have gone so smooth, and that's with adding in all of the extra subjects.  Even though it is a schedule, it doesn't feel like a strict and rigid schedule, maybe more of a guideline.  I love that it still allows us to have flexibility without me having to rewrite an entire week of planning.  I've also found a free online planner and tracker, Homeschool Skedtrack.  I just enter in what we've done and then can print it out at the end of the year to keep for computerized documentation. Love feeling so organized!

Avoid the cave bears in the closet

We've been learning about the Nomads in The Story of the World this week and how/why they had to continually relocate to find food.  Once they traveled upon the Fertile Crescent, they learned to plant and harvest grains instead of roaming to different areas eating what they could find.  The Nomads were learning how to farm and staying in one location for longer. 

This also lead to a discussion on cave drawings and how people would draw pictures of animals they were hoping to hunt on the sacred cave walls.  We read, You Wouldn't Want to be a Mammoth Hunter! by John Malam, and there was a page showing animals that were edible and animals that you'd want to avoid because they'd eat you instead.  Madeline's semi-walk in closet was turned into a cave for this activity.  I taped paper to her walls and we used a candle, for the oil lamps, to see deep into the cave.  The first animal that Madeline drew was a Travis puppy.  Then she decided she needed to draw a cave bear so she knows to avoid that one.  By looking at the picture, I'm pretty sure this was a female bear. lol!

She really seems to be enjoying history so far, and even wanted one of the reading sections to be read as her bedtime story.  I like how the sections are read just like a story and aren't too long for one sitting.  I love the handy list of additional books that go along with each chapter, as we are able to get quite a few from the library. Maddie was excited to tell her daddy about the Nomads from way back when, but pretty much summed it up as, "they're dead." 

In science we learned about cells and examined an egg as a cell.  She filled in and colored an egg diagram page. Today will be making animal and plant cells using gelatin in a circle bowl (animal) and gelatin with green grapes, for the chloroplasts, in a square bowl (plants).  We read through Greg's Microscope again and looked at the pages of the animal and plant cells.  Madeline liked how the plant cells look like a brick wall.  We'll be looking at our plant under the microscope to see if it looks the same.

Here she is examining the egg with her magnifying lens to find the blastodisc, the small white spot on the yolk.

I think she burnt herself out on geography last week.  She hasn't done anything with it this week.  lol.

Our 'Kindergarten' line-up

We just started working on our Kindergarten curriculum this past week.  I was going to wait until the fall to officially start, but Madeline got really excited about the new subjects we would soon learn about.  We are mainly following the classical style of education and will pick and choose curriculum based on which suits her learning style best. A valuable resource in learning more about the classical method, using the trivium, is the book, The Well Trained Mind.  I plan on reading this book each year, or whenever I feel I may need some inspiration and encouragement. This book is fantastic for homeschoolers and parents who'd like to supplement their child's schoolwork. 

Phonics - we are still using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.  As stated in the previous post, this is a no-frills approach to phonics.  There are no funny little cartoon pictures to color, or pictures of cute birds sitting next to the letter 'b'.  This is black text on white paper...... and it works amazingly well for Madeline.  We are on lesson 125 out of 231.  I plan on doing this 4-5x/week.

Math - We will start Singapore Math 1A tomorrow as we just finished up Earlybird Math B today. (4-5x/week)

Handwriting - Handwriting Without Tears, My Printing Book .  We are taking a break from writing in the book and just practicing for now.  Madeline still likes to write with some capital letters and some lowercase letters, with no rhyme or reason to which she uses. This book is designed to focus on lowercase writing and while she does know how to write her lowercase letters, she just chooses not to.  I'd like her to be more comfortable with lowercase before fully continuing in the workbook.

Writing/Grammar -  Winning With Writing and First Language Lessons.  We will be starting these soon.

Spelling - All About Spelling Level 1.  We have completed the first 4 lessons.  I'm very pleased with what I've seen so far. (3x/week)

Science - R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey: Life Level 1.  This program has received some amazing reviews and we are so excited to begin!  I love the layout of the program and really feel this will be an awesome science curriculum. We completed the first unit last week, which was signs of life.  We also read, What's Alive by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld and compared a plant, rock, Travis, and Maddie's new bike with each other to see what was living. Most units consist of 2 labs and an easy to understand approach to learning.  There is also an additional resources page where we can reinforce and learn more about each unit.  This week we will be learning about cells.  We've already read Greg's Microscope and will be having fun experimenting with salt and water, as they do in the book, while looking through our microscope. (2x/wk)

History - The Story of the World; Vol 1 - Ancient Times.  I also purchased the activity guide, which not only includes coloring pages and various activity pages for the child, but also a list of additional resources and activities to do.  The Story of the World is a 4 year cycle covering: The Ancient Times-vol. 1, Middle Ages-vol.2, Early Modern Times-vol.3, and The Modern Age-vol.4.  Anyway, we completed Chapter 0, The Introduction, last week and the focus was on history.  We also read Me and My Family Tree by Joan Sweeney, and constructed a diagram of our immediate family tree.  We also did an archeological dig right before taking shelter from the tornado warnings. I have found a ton of resources that tie along with this series.   (3x/wk)

Geography - Oh. My. Goodness.  Madeline is a little geography nut!  I purchased Beginning Geography K-2 and planned to do some lessons 1 day each week since she is also taking a geography class in her co-op on another day during the week.  Last Monday I planned on her doing pages 5-6, and then pages 7-8 today (Monday).  Well..... tomorrow she will be on pg 33 (!) and who knows how many she will go through. She practically begs to do geography.  I pretty much had to use it as 'bribery' last week...."You can do more geography as soon as we finish either math or writing."  Worked like a charm!  She is almost finished with learning about map skills in this book and will soon be on to learning about landforms and body of waters.  I need to start looking into what we will use next, because there are only 97 lessons in the book.  Considering we've gone through 1/3 of the book in 1 week, that doesn't give me a whole lot of time......

Art - Artistic Pursuits.  This book will be a great asset with The Story of the World.  We will be starting this week, and do 1x/week, along with various other crafts.

It seems like a lot, but I have it scheduled out each week where we are spending about 1.5-2 hours each day on curriculum.  This past week was our first attempt at a "schedule" and it went very smoothly.

To catch you up til now

We started in the fall 2011 with the basic core curriculum.  We were mainly focusing on reading, math, and handwriting, and including a number of random crafts.  Our reading/phonics curriculum that we've been using is 'The Ordinary Parent's Guide To Teaching Reading'.  Madeline has totally taken off with it!  She started reading shortly after her 4th birthday, and soon after that we started on this book.  It is a simple design that focuses on phonics and should have the child reading at a 4th grade level when completed.  We are more than half-way through, doing 1-2 lessons, 3-5x a week.  She will even read through the instructors directions!  I cannot say enough good things about this book. 

 For math, we used Singapore Early Bird Book 2, which is designed for the second half of Kindergarten, and actually completed it today.  Tomorrow we will begin Singapore Math 1A, which is a 2-part design (1A and 1B) for first grade.  I'm a bit nervous since this is at first grade level, but I suppose part of the beauty of homeschooling is adjusting the curriculum for the child's needs.  It just sounds weird to me that she is doing some first grade work since she is technically not even of Kindergarten age.  Whatever... as long as she understands it.  We can always take as much time as we need in a certain area if it is a bit too complex or speed through another area that she has mastered.

We also used Handwriting Without Tears.  She zoomed through the Kindergarten book, Letters and Numbers for Me, and we are now working on My Printing Book.  I do like the books, it just seems there needs to be more practice space.  She could easily do a few pages at a time and I would not like to move through the book so quickly.  We haven't used the workbook in about a month now.  Even though her handwriting has improved greatly, I feel she needs more practice with lowercase letters before continuing on in the first grade level.  She is currently writing thank you notes from her recent  birthday.  

We have been pretty lax and unstructured in homeschooling so far.  I've been doing my best to make it fun and not feel like a chore.  Madeline gets very excited about school and I want to keep that upbeat vibe as long as possible.  I frequently had to remind myself that she was only 4 and shouldn't be pushed into any subject, even though she seemed capable of handling more.  There were a few challenging days in which we'd be doing a reading lesson, for example, and she'd start on with a big attitude if there was a word she didn't want to sound out.  I would tell her that we'd finish the lesson later when we can have more fun with it, and she always came around. I've noticed her stubborn side and determination blossom since starting our adventure, and I like them both.

I had recently ordered our Kindergarten curriculum, intending to start in the fall of 2012.  She got so excited about Science and the other subjects that we started last week.  I'll make another post as to what our K curriculum is currently.

That leads me to one thing that really does confuse me about homeschooling..... what grade is she in?  Did we just start Kindergarten in February.... or is she considered 1st grade based on material content?  She is academically ready for 1st grade, but if she were in the school system, she would not be socially ready. Should I wait until fall to declare her as a kindergartener so she'll be even with other kids her age?  Or do we just have an off scheduling of grade level beginning each Feb/March?  I guess we'll figure that out as we go along.

How did we get here?

I'd like to start off by saying that I never imagined myself as a homeschooling mom.  I didn't even think I'd be a stay at home mom, even though I really wanted to be one.  It wasn't until after #2 was born, and after a move that basically cut our income by less than half of what we were making, that we realized we could get by on 1 income.  And so our story begins....

I always assumed my kids would go off to school like all of the other kids, like we did, like our parents did, and pretty much like everyone else I had ever known did.  The only other type of schooling besides public school that I was aware of was private school and Montessori school (which I love), but both were out of our budget, especially with 2 kids.  Madeline was 3 years old when my husband and I first started talking about homeschooling.  My husband was more gung-ho about it than me, basically because I would be the one mainly in charge of our kid's education, and that thought freaked me out.  All of a sudden I had visions of wearing ankle length, ill-fitting dark dresses, snapping a ruler on the kitchen table in front of our dusty kitchen chalkboard, all while reciting Bible verses to the ever-obedient children. What exactly is homeschooling?  Could I really do this?  Am I qualified?  What about socialization?  Would they grow up to be normal people capable of functioning in the 'real world'? Would I ever have time for myself with my kids ALWAYS around?  I started obsessing about it.... checking books out from the library, googling homeschooling pros and cons, reading up on homeschooling blogs.... collecting any sort of unbiased information I could find to come to a decision.  What I ended up finding out is how beneficial homeschooling can be, not only for the child, but for the entire family.  My pros list was much longer than the cons list (and yes, I really did make a list).  Fortunately for us, we live in a wonderful area for homeschooling.  There is a lot of community support and 2 co-ops to choose from.  Many communities don't even have 1 co-op. As soon as this new option became a serious consideration, it seemed homeschooling was everywhere I looked.  Kind of like when you are thinking of getting a new car, and then you see that type of car all over the place.

This year, although Madeline is preK 4/5 age, we have been basically working on Kindergarten stuff.  We thought this would be a perfect time to see how homeschooling works for our family.  I figure, what do we have to lose?  If it doesn't work out, she'll be off to Kindergarten in the fall of 2012 anyway.   So far, we are having a blast and seeing that it is really a great fit for us at this time. Kindergarten registration for public school came and went, yet we were out playing at the park with friends instead.

I'm really looking forward to see what's to come in our homeschool.  Not only is it exciting to aide in their learning and watching that little spark in their eyes when they finally understand or learn something new,  but there are even a few facts I've picked up so far as well  :)  Little brother Travis enjoys "school time", too.

One article I read that seems imbedded in my mind is about how people don't know how to talk to kids whom are homeschooled.  The most popular question asked to grade schoolers from adults is, "How is school?"  Apparently, people feel weird about asking kids who don't go to school that question.  I'm hoping to be able to keep up with this blog to let family members and friends see what's going on with the kids in a different way than facebook allows. 

I hope you enjoy reading about our learning and life adventures!