Hill Country Classical Academy

Why I stopped posting

2011-12-15T21:31:00.000-06:00

I think it's a pretty good reason. Don't you?

After a hard pregnancy with Hyperemesis Gravidum, we welcomed Sweet Pea into our family this fall. Bean and Dozer are overjoyed with her arrival and dote on her constantly.

Now that I'm feeling better, I expect to start posting more often.

Wordless Wednesday: Chuckwagon Chili

2011-03-02T12:51:00.002-06:00

Wordless Wednesday: B-ball!

2011-02-23T08:00:00.001-06:00

No more (formal) reading!

2011-02-21T09:11:00.001-06:00

When I was college, my focus was on Psycholinguistics - the study of factors that enable humans to learn, use, and understand language. After I graduated, I pursued a Master's Degree in reading and I taught English as a Second Language, English, and Reading classes in the TX public school system for 5 years.

And yet, when it was time to teach Bean "reading" (the academic subject vs. "c-a-t spells cat") I was nervous. I wasn't sure that I trusted myself to cover all the bases that I needed to on my own. So I picked a canned reading program to do with her. I liked that was all set up so that I knew I was covering what I "should be." I liked that it matched our language arts program. I could even overlook the religious aspect of the stories.

There was just one problem with it: It was way too easy. The units looked more and more like busywork as we went through it. And since it was no where close to instruction at the level Bean was at, she was bored. Then, I realized she wasn't learning anything from it. All her jumps and leaps came from reading on her own or from reading that we did together. At some point, it became a box to check off each week...and staying away from doing things because we "have to" was part of the reason I decided to homeschool!

So I've decided to do something completely different. I've tossed aside CLE Reading 200, which we were supposed to start this week and I bought last year at the same time I bought CLE Reading 100. Instead of reading stories from a textbook, Bean is reading stories from real books. I'm working hard to correlate the books I assign her with our history from The Story of the World, much like Tapestry of Grace does.

Next week we're studying The Celts and the Barbarians so I found a children's version of Beowulf that she's going to read (in addition to what's in SOTW) and some books on Celtic fairy tales, as well as a selection of non-fiction books about the Celts. As she reads them, we talk about them and she gives me a short narration. For some books, I make a reader's guide for her to fill out while she reads them. The reinforcement of topics between history and reading will be a nice bonus. Even better is that she'll be reading versions of Chaucer's stories, Shakespeare's works, and Beowulf as we learn about them and the time periods they were written in.

In addition to assigned reading for school, I require that she read for 30 minutes a day for fun. She loves reading so this isn't really an issue with her. She can pick a picture book, a chapter book, whatever she wants. Currently, she's rereading the Pathway Readers and alternates between Magic Treehouse books so she can play on the Magic Treehouse website, Ramona books, Roald Dahl books, and the like. From talking to her about the books she learns for fun, I'm learning more about Ramona, Jack, and Annie than I ever knew!

I'm excited to see how this new plan is going to work for us!

Week 16 Check-In

2011-02-18T15:14:00.000-06:00

We finished CLE LA 100 in the middle of this week. I gave Bean a mini-break so we'll start LA 200 on Monday. I don't think I've mentioned it in a while, but we're still working our way through Sequential Spelling as well.

I introduced Bean to the Magic Treehouse website this week so she's been going back and rereading a bunch of Magic Treehouse books so that she can take the tests over them and earn medals. She's also rereading the Pathway Reader Days Go By because she wants to read the entire series from the beginning. To correlate with our history studies, she read Growing up in Ancient Rome this week, as well as Galen: My Life in Imperial Rome

We had a great week for math this week. Bean is rocking her way through her math book.

We started The Story of the World: The Middle Ages this week. Our last book ended with the fall of Rome and this book began with the fall of Rome so we've covered it twice. There were things in this book that weren't in the last though so it worked well. And Bean loves Rome so she was happy to do Rome for one more week.

We learned the Latin names for some animals this week, which Bean loved. We adopted a kitten 3 weeks ago so Bean was excited to find out how to say cat in Latin. We also have a black Lab and learned the word for dog in Latin too, which made Dozer quite happy as well.

Science this week focused on finding fossils. We looked through fossils that we've already collected in nature walks, talked about the dinosaur digs where we've gotten to dig for dinosaur fossils, and watched a documentary about paleontological dig, and read some books about fossils.

It was a good week!

Wordless Wednesday: Caught Reading

2011-02-16T01:27:00.000-06:00

A Day in Our Life

2011-02-15T11:33:00.005-06:00

I thought I'd share an average day at Hill Country Classical Academy. This was a day from last week, not actually today's day. I meant to post it last week and I just didn't get around to it!

The kids came into our bed before sunrise and fell asleep with us. Like most mornings, they went back to sleep and make a shambles of our bed after Tech Guy and I get out of bed.

Once I woke them up, Dozer requested dinosaur pancakes for breakfast. Blueberries are one of his favorite foods so I added those on the side, along with an egg for some protein.

Bean requested Minnie Mouse pancakes, along with blueberries and an egg.

After breakfast, Bean did school. She prefers doing her work curled up on the couch. She was finishing a math worksheet here. We do a file system so you can see her week's folder under her math paper.

At some point, Bean decided that she was cold and changed her shirt. When the natives became restless, we stopped to have lunch. Lunch today was a peanut butter and honey sandwich, along with a banana. Right after I took the picture, the kids reminded me that I forgot their milk and the carrots. Oops!

After we finish school, it was time for swim lessons! Bean's class swam in the big pool and her focus was on perfecting her technique and building endurance.

Dozer's class swam in a smaller pool. His class is focused on learning to swim.

We ate a quick dinner and I forgot to take pictures of it. Oops!

And then it was off to roller skate with Bean's Girl Scout troop. This particular skating rink has a big area where you can skate as well as a multiple-story playscape for little ones. Bean rollerbladed with her friends while Dozer played in the playscape.

Once we got home, it was time for showers and bed! And that's an average day around here!

Week 15 Check-In

2011-02-13T23:29:00.000-06:00

We started our new math book this week! Bean was really excited to be in the next book. We skipped the first 10 lessons because it's just repetition of last year. It was a good reminder to me of why I love doing school year-round; they plan for those first few lessons to be a refresher after having a summer off of school. No break = no time to forget what we've been learning!

We finished our study of the ancients with Story of the World: Ancient Times this week as well! Bean was sad to hear that the Roman empire ended and that they never again became a great empire. For some reason, she became really attached to them. We're beginning Story of the World: The Middle Ages next week so I ordered Draw and Write Through History for her since she loves drawing and art. I'm really excited to be starting this next time period, since it's my favorite!

We discussed telephone manners and reviewed what we've learned this year in language arts. Bean has her final exam this next week and then we'll move on to the next level of it. I'm anxious to see what the next year will cover after seeing what all was covered this year!

We finished our CLE Reading program and I've decided not to continue with it, which I'll explain in more detail in another post. I've decided our reading is going to focus on real stories from real books instead of doing a formal reading program so I'm going to assign Bean a book to read and then we'll discuss it, write about it, etc.

Our week in science expanded on last week's topics on fossils. Bean's favorite part was talking about how fossil fuels come from dinosaurs. We've discussed this before in passing, but there was a lightbulb moment where she realized that the stuff we put in cars actually comes from the dinosaurs that used to walk around.

We spent this week reviewing the last few chapters of Latin words. I love hearing Latin flittering around our house. On Tuesday, Bean bumped into Dozer and told him, "Ignosce mihi!" (Translation: Excuse me!)

We're still studying Monet and I have to admit that we might be taking extra time on this unit because Monet is my favorite. I don't feel too bad though because Bean loves it. Each time she tells me that her favorite artist is the one we're currently studying...so her current favorite is Monet too. We watched Linnea in Monet's Garden via Netflix Instant Streaming this week. I highly recommend it; not only were Bean and Dozer fascinated with it, but I was too!

I don't mention it every week since it would get repetitive, but also our week also included swim lessons, tap/ballet class, basketball, piano and voice lessons, and a whole bunch of playdates!

Wordless Wednesday: Mock Surgery

2011-02-09T09:03:00.002-06:00

Bean listening for bowel sounds on a training mannequin.

Dozer performing laparoscopic surgery to remove excess candy from a tummy.

Week 14 Check-In

2011-02-06T19:59:00.000-06:00

We're wrapping up first grade over the next couple of weeks and transitioning to 2nd grade! So watch out for some tweaking over the next few weeks.

We completed the last lesson in our Horizons 1 Math workbook this week. Bean got a 92 on her final exam. Her only issue was that she flipped all of the fractions on the test - 1/3 became 3/1 so she missed that entire section. I showed it to her afterward, she took one look at it and knew exactly what she'd done wrong so I'm not worried.

We're working our way through Two Plus Two is Not Five as well. We've finished Tiers 1 and 2 and I am really happy with how much Bean has memorized. I certainly wouldn't want it to be her only instruction for addition and subtraction facts, but it has been a great supplement.

The focus for this week in science has been fossils: what they are, how they're formed, etc. Bean loved learning that animals can be fossilized in amber as well and that lead to a fun Google image search to see lots of different insects that have been trapped in amber. We experimented with how animals become fossils by making pudding. We started with a layer of chocolate, dripped chocolate chips down for animals, covered that over with vanilla pudding, dropped marshmallows down for more animals, added more chocolate pudding for the next sedimentary level, and covered it in crushed graham crackers for dirt. We looked at the different layers and then ate it. It was great fun!

In language arts, we've focused on apostrophes that show ownership. A couple of days later, Bean was reading a book was really excited to show me that there was an example of an apostrophe showing ownership in her story! We also talked about when we should double the consonant before adding a suffix. This is one of the rules that I never explicitly knew before so it was neat to talk about it with her. (The rule, if you're curious is: Double the last consonant if the word has a short vowel, ends with one consonant, and you're adding a vowel suffix.)

We read and discussed the story Candy Pills for the Stomach this week. It's about a little girl who lies to get out of doing her chores, which happened to be great timing for us since Bean has been struggling with doing chores this week because they "aren't fun."

We started learning about Monet in our art class. Monet is my favorite artist so I'm having a great time with it! The focus for the Monet unit is on warm and cool colors. Bean has been pointing out warm and cool colors when we do math, when we color our maps for history, and when she's playing on her own. She's amazed that splotches of color can look so blobby and blurry up close, only to make a beautiful painting from far away.

Bean has been fascinated with Rome since we started learning about it weeks ago. This week we discussed the weakening of Rome's empire. She narrated the story of Diocletian splitting the empire into two pieces and how the Western Roman Empire that included Rome became weaker and weaker, while the Eastern Roman Empire that included Constantinople maintained its strength.

We learned basic manners in Latin this week. Bean was excited to find out that she can now put together the command "repeat" with our vocabulary word "please."

Wordless Wednesday: Best Friends.

2011-02-03T00:35:00.000-06:00

Budget cuts

2011-01-24T22:10:00.005-06:00

A recent article published in The Statesman, the local newspaper for the Texas Hill Country, lists some startling cuts that the Austin ISD is considering is considering to deal with the budget crisis for the 2011-2012 school year:

a $113 million shortfall in Austin ISD, $203 million to $348 million in Houston ISD, $37 to 61 million for San Antonio ISD, and up to $132 million in Dallas ISD
rescinding the law that limits elementary schools to 22 students per class (K-4)
increasing teacher workload so that teachers teach more classes
cutting art, music, and PE teachers...
dismissing 1/3 of the librarians in the district

As if that wasn't bleak enough, Austin ISD is looking at closing a number of "underused campuses" in the Austin area.

I don't envy the position that a lot of districts are finding themselves in, trying to meet their budget guidelines while also providing a quality education for the thousands of students who depend on them. And I am sympathetic to the tens of thousands of families in AISD alone who may find they no longer have access to art, music, or even a librarian to help them find the book to spark a love of reading that will last a lifetime.

But, most of all, I am just so very thankful for the opportunities that homeschooling provides. We can expose our children to the arts, music, sports, and such without worrying that a stranger in an office will decide that they're a luxury, rather than an integral and indispensable part of their education.

Fall Fieldtrip Recap

2011-01-19T22:35:00.000-06:00

One of the benefits of homeschooling is that we have the chance for many more field trips than students who go to public schools. I thought I would take a minute to revisit some of the field trips we've made this semester.

In September, we went to the Homeschool Day at Sea World San Antonio. We watched educational presentations about training killer whales and sea lions. Bean had the chance to touch and feed dolphins.

Dozer fed them, but absolutely refused to touch a dolphin. Dozer and Bean spent almost an hour watching different penguins. We saw flamingos, ducks, and alligators. And we got to meet some other homeschoolers!

At the end of September, we had a great time at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum for their Homeschool Day. We watched movies about Texas weather and the Hubble telescope. We toured their aviation exhibit, which Dozer loved. Here he's staring at a canon.

In October, we went to a Fall Festival at a pumpkin patch. Bean and Dozer got to paint pumpkins, pick out pumpkins to carve for Halloween, find their way out of a corn maze, and go on a hay ride.

We also attended the Austin Gem and Mineral Society's Gem Capers where we learned about different types of rocks. Bean and Dozer participated in geological digs to find gems. Bean got to dig in rocks.

Dozer got to dig for gems in sand since he's younger. Here he is learning the ropes from one of their volunteers.

We watched displays of a step-by-step rock polishing. We watched as a jewel was faceted. Since we're studying geology this year, the exhibits here were a great thing for us to get to see.

In November, we went to Plantersville for the Texas Renaissance Festival School Days. Bean was selected to be the helper with their Gutenberg Press so she got to help make an authentic parchment using medieval techniques. And then she got to take it home!

We also got to see how yarn is spun, how brooms were made, glass blowing, and a blacksmith. I was even able to request that he make an iron hook for me to use to pull the lid off of our cast iron dutch oven when we're camping!

In December, we took a trip to Dallas to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science. We walked through their Dinosaurs Unearthed exhibit, which was a huge hit of Dozer's since he adores dinosaurs.

Dozer liked playing with the bubble exhibit. Here he's trying to put his head inside of a bubble.

We've had a lot of fun so far this year!

Wordless Wednesday: Best. Birthday. Party. Ever.

2010-11-10T08:49:00.000-06:00

School happens when you least expect it

2010-10-28T15:07:00.000-05:00

Our dog had surgery a couple of weeks ago and we had a pre-op appointment a few days before the surgery. As any homeschooler knows, your kids come with you to appointments since you don't have that school-day span during which to run errands.

As part of their pre-anesthesia workup, they drew some blood. The vet tech, Julie, asked if she should take Emma, our dog, into the back to do it. I told her, "You're welcome to take her back there if it makes it easier for you guys. But if you're doing because of the kids, they would love to get to watch." I mentioned that Bean is interested in becoming a doctor when she grows up and Julie said she'd be happy to let her watch.

She got everything she needed together, grabbed another tech to help hold Emma, and let the kids gather around. Bean asked what "the stuff" at the bottom of the Vacutainer tube was and she explained that it was to keep Emma's blood from coagulating before they did the test. This, of course, led to questioning how blood coagulates and what coagulating is. To show them, Julie squirted a spot of blood on the floor and let the kids watch while it coagulated on the floor. While we were waiting, she talked to them about blood safety. After seeing how the blood on the floor had coagulated, she showed them the blood in the tube and how it wasn't coagulated like the blood on the floor was.

Bean and Dozer were amazed.

Today we took Emma back to the vet for a follow-up visit. Bean told the vet that Emma really needed to get her blood drawn again. I asked her why and she told me, "So we can watch it coagulate again!"

Wordless Wednesday: Natural Disaster

2010-10-27T13:43:00.000-05:00

Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-20T13:48:00.000-05:00

Wordless Wednesday: When Can We Blow It Up?!?

2010-10-06T00:05:00.000-05:00

Two Plus Two is Not Five

2010-10-04T15:19:00.009-05:00

A few weeks ago, I bought Two Plus Two is Not Five by Susan Greenwald and I promised that I'd write a review of it after we'd used it for a couple of weeks.

There are 6 Tiers in the book and we are almost done with Tier 1. So far, most of the things we have covered are things that Bean already knew. We've learned x+0 and x+1, which Bean could already do without counting on her fingers. She has learned 5+5=10, 4+4=8, 3+3=6, 10-5=5, and 4-2=2 without counting on her fingers. Tier 1 also teaches x-(x-1), 8-4=4, 6-3=3, and x+2, but we haven't covered those lessons yet.

I love that the lessons are very gentle. I wanted Bean to learn her math facts, but I didn't want to make a huge deal out of it. So this has been perfect for us. You're not expected to learn all the doubles at one time, or even within a couple of days. Moreover, facts are continually reviewed as well so that they're not forgotten. Greenwald suggests that you work with flash cards each day to cement the facts, but we haven't because we haven't needed to. I do ask her the newest ones when we have a few down minutes, like when we're in the car going someplace or I'm making lunch.

As we were working with Horizons last week, Bean told me that she liked what she was learning in her "other math." I asked her why and she said what she was learning there was making her faster at solving her Horizons math problems. She loves showing me that she doesn't have to count something anymore.

Week 5 Check-In

2010-10-01T18:35:00.003-05:00

We had a great week around here! On Tuesday, we went to the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum for their Homeschool Day. We toured their exhibits and watched an IMAX movie on the Hubble telescope and space, which will tie in nicely with our study of outer space this spring. We also watched a movie on Wild Texas Weather, which fit perfectly with our readings over the last 2 weeks on floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes. I learned that Central Texas is the most flood prone area in the entire continent of North America. Bean decided tornadoes are scary. Dozer said that hurricanes are cool because they blow things around.

Bean
We have been learning measurements - ounce, cup, pint, quart, gallon. Bean has learned how to add any number + 9 on her own. Over lunch one day, she learned how to carry when she's adding, which has lead to adding lots and lots of big numbers. I'll be reviewing Two Plus Two is Not Five this next week so watch for our review of it!

We learned about earthquakes this week and created our own earthquake. Then we compared the damage done by small earthquakes and large earthquakes. We compared earthquakes on wet ground and dry ground. We investigated how the ground composition affects earthquake affects the amount of damage sustained.

This was the result of one of our trials. We were supposed to build a volcano this week, but we haven't emptied a bottle of soda yet. I expect we'll start building our volcano this weekend.

In Language Arts, we continued to learn about letter blends and the sounds that letter combinations make, like -are and -ere. We're still working our way through Sequential Spelling and I'm really happy to see Bean applying what we're learning outside of school. This week, she spelled "grandmother" after we'd talked about "an" during a spelling lesson. She started with "an," added the "r" for ran, the "g" for grand, and then added the "mother" to the end. It's so awesome to see her excited about spelling!

We've been learning about India in history this last week. We discussed the caste system in India and Bean decided she'd want to be a priest because they had the best lives. We also talked Hinduism and Buddhism and looked pictures of Shiva, Ganga, and Siddhartha after reading about them. My favorite part of the week was our Rakhi ceremony where Bean tied a Rakhi around Dozer's wrist. This ceremony celebrates the love and bond between a brother and sister and symbolizes the brother's vow to protect his sister and the sister's prayers for his health and well-being. Traditionally, it's done in July or August, but we did it as part of our study of India.

It was a huge hit and I have a feeling we're going to have to do a full-blown ceremony next year!

We learned the names of family members this week in Latin and Bean now insists that she needs to refer to Tech Guy and me by our Latin names. She loves singing the songs she's learned and even asks me to play them in the car!

We concluded our study of Mary Cassat this week. Bean invited a friend and her mom over to do the art project with us. I wish I'd gotten a picture of all of our finished projects. They were all so different and so cool! I did get a picture of Bean's art and mine.

Dozer
Dozer loves the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD. Between that and Starfall.com, he's getting a great foundation of letter sounds! He has spent a lot of time tagging along with us this week as we've learned things and built things. He also really likes his Kumon workbooks.

Wordless Wednesday: Field Trip

2010-09-29T20:25:00.000-05:00

Blogs and blogging

2010-09-19T18:23:00.001-05:00

I mentioned in my last post that Bean has her own blog. I wanted to talk a little more about that today.

Bean has seen me post on my blog and asked me for her own blog a few months ago. My initial response was, "Heck no!!" and that's what I told her. My knee-jerk reaction was because she's only 6 and I didn't want her to have a place on the Internet, but then I started thinking about it and, in the end, changed my mind.

My biggest concern was security so the first thing I did was to make myself the administrator on her blog, while making Bean an author. This way I have all of the privacy settings and can decide who is invited, but she can post under her own name. Then I made it completely private and accessible only to invited readers so that I don't have to worry who can reading what she's writing.

After those details were finalized, I was able to focus on the benefits of giving her a blog. By making distant friends and family readers on her blog, it gives her a way to share with them what she's thinking without having physically calling them. She gets to write about whatever she wants, whether it's what we did today or a story she's made up. And she loves seeing their comments about what she's written.

I also believe that the best way to encourage children to become good writers who enjoys writing is to give them multiple opportunities to write. Bean writes for school. She writes a lot on her own for fun and I view her blog as one more way to let her practice this craft she's learning. She enjoys writing on her blog and I've found she writes differently on her blog than she does otherwise.

Week 3 Check-In

2010-09-17T19:15:00.002-05:00

We were sick at the beginning of the week and went on a trip at the end of the week so not much school happened around these parts. One of the beauties of homeschooling year-round is that taking off a week isn't a big deal. Now that we're back and healthy (knock on wood!), I'm counting this as our third week of school.

Bean
I ordered two books this year to help us memorize our math facts: One Minute Math and Two Plus Two Does Not Equal Five. I also bought Zeus on the Loose for us to play since we're a game-loving family and math games are right up Bean's alley. I've waffled on whether we should push memorization or be happy that she can reliably and quickly figure them out. In the end I decided that we'd give memorizing them a try since she loves math so much, but I'm not going to stress over it - she's only 6, after all.

We didn't really learn anything new this week for math, but spent most of our time perfecting skills we already have covered - adding 3 digit numbers, subtracting, and identifying 3-D shapes. One of the things I like about Horizons is that it has a spiral approach and is constantly re-visiting skills that we've already taught to refresh those in your mind and to build upon them.

Zeus on the Loose has been a HUGE hit in our house. It came from Amazon this morning and we've played 4 rounds of it already. If you have a child who needs to work on adding, I can't recommend it highly enough! You basically add you way to 100 and whoever is holding Zeus when you get to 100 wins the game.

This week in science, we learned about the seasons and the water cycle. Bean drew an adorable book showing what the weather is like for each season. We also memorized the water cycle and built a rain gauge to measure the rainfall over the next month (or longer).

She was lucky because it rained this afternoon so she's already gotten to test it out!

We completed our study of Rome this week, learning about the war between Rome and Carthage. Bean, who loves elephants, particularly enjoyed the description of the war elephants that Hannibal used in the war.

We completed our unit on Van Gogh this week and finished a Van Gogh-inspired project. We used black construction paper and oil pastels. I was really impressed with how great it turned out!

We're continuing to learn suffixes in Language Arts. This week we added -ed to our list and learned the 3 sounds that it can make at the end of a word. Bean is busy finding root words and suffixes in everything she sees.

I was very hesitant how Sequential Spelling would work when we started it this year, but I was a bit desperate and figured it couldn't be any worse than All About Spelling was. Since school has started, Bean has learned -ould, -ood, how to spell beginning/beginner/begins, and is applying what she's learned there to figuring out words on her own. It's also reinforcing the work we're doing with suffixes in Language Arts. It's absolutely perfect for her and I can't wait to see what else she's going to learn!

Bean learned how to ask, "How are you?" in Latin this week and to answer when someone asks her. She loves the songs that come with Song School Latin and has asked to listen to them just for fun. In her own blog this week, she even wrote how much she loves learning Latin.

I started a Sign Language class this week and plan to teach Bean what I learn each week. She already knows some sign, but we've both learned a lot of new signs this week!

I won't mention it every week since I won't remember, but since we're always asked about socialization at this time of year, Bean had ballet class this week, swimming class twice this week, and her Girl Scout troop met this week as well. We also had 3 playdates this week with friends.

Dozer
Dozer has worked on recognizing and writing his alphabet and counting past 10. We're learning a few letters a week so I expect to be working on recognizing and writing letters for a while. He can count to 20 now as long as someone helps him remember 17. He wrote his name on his own for the first time this week.

He's absolutely awesome at figuring out mazes. After making him trace with his fingers before using the pencil, I've given up on that because he's always right the first time though.

Dozer joined us for making the rain gauge. He was just as excited to check out the rain gauge after it rained as Bean was!

He joined with us for art as well. He used black construction paper and crayons. He decided to make circles on his paper, which went well with the circles Bean was making. I was happy that he was making circles with us and he tried to make a landscape at the bottom.

Bean asked me do art with her so I thought I'd share my version of the art project for Van Gogh for anyone who is interested.

And since I mentioned it for Bean, Dozer had swimming twice this week and 4 playdates this week.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-09-15T20:22:00.001-05:00

It's not even a word we've talked about, but she's learned to look for patterns and words within words. Thank you, Sequential Spelling.

Wordless Wednesday: Good Kids Gone Bad

2010-09-08T16:12:00.000-05:00

Week 2 Check-in

2010-09-03T02:32:00.000-05:00

We had a great week! We signed up for Netflix this week after finding a compilation of documentaries and videos to correspond with each week of Story of the World. Had I known all the cool videos you can rent and/or stream instantly, I would have signed up for Netflix a long time ago!

Bean
In math, we began discussing volume and 3-D shapes: cylinders, cones, spheres, and cubes. I taught Bean how to draw them (to the best of my artistically-stunted ability). We practiced our addition and subtraction as well and Bean spent a while working with Dozer on counting - see my Wordless Wednesday post for this week.

We are loving Elemental Science. We studied the composition of the Earth and how its composition affects its rotation. We began working on a model of the planet Earth and watched When We Left the Earth about the beginning of the space program. We also watched this awesome YouTube video about solar eclipses after reading about them this week.

In history, we talked about ancient Rome and learned that the Greek gods and Roman gods are the same people with different names. Her favorite part was that we've named our planets after Roman Gods - we talked specifically about Jupiter, Mercury, and Neptune after studying Zeus, Hermes, and Poseidon. We also read the legend of Hades and Persephone.

Our art lessons this week focused on Van Gogh and texture. Bean was amazed to discover you can "feel" the texture of something with your eyes. We practice adding the texture to items, like a starfish and an angelfish. We looked through a book with Van Gogh's artwork and read a little about his life.

As an aside, I'm trying to teach how to get help at the library if she can't find a book so I had her ask the librarian for a book about Van Gogh. The librarian did a double-take and then looked at me because, "I don't think I heard her right." I guess 6-year olds don't ask for books about famous artists?

We learned about suffixes and root words this week in Language Arts and continued working on consonant blends and the sounds letter combinations can make, like er, ir, ur, and wor all make the schaw + r sound. Bean has also memorized the list of vowel sets: ai, ay, ea, ee, ie, oa, ou, ow, ue, and ui.

In Latin, we've learned how to introduce ourselves. She loves introducing herself to me in Latin and singing the songs on the Song School Latin CD. And, as I posted earlier this week, her Polly Pockets have begun conversing in Latin.

Dozer
It tickles me to see how seriously Dozer takes his studies. When we started last Monday, he could write an O (or 0, depending on how you look at it) and that was it. In the last 2 weeks, he's also learned to write L, T, J, A, H, and U.

He loves counting and has been working on learning 11-20 since he already knew 1-10. He loves to count things (like M&M's!) and work with Bean on subtracting numbers using counters. His favorite math game right now is to have her draw out her math problems and then let him count what's left.

He's continued working his way through the Kumon maze book and I've decided he needs his own file system so that he doesn't blow through entire books in a week. That's one of my goals for this weekend and then I'll post pictures of their boxes.

Dozer also watched Clash of the Dinosaurs and absolutely loved it. His favorite dinosaurs are any of the meat eaters.

Overheard

2010-09-02T20:42:00.002-05:00

Bean was playing with her Polly Pockets this week after school. We started Song School Latin this year and Bean, who loves languages, naturally loves it. As she played with her Polly Pockets, I overheard one Polly Pocket tell another, "Salve! Quid est tuum praenomen? Meum praenomen est ________!" (Translation: Hello! What's your name? My name is ______!)

I guess she's taking her Latin lessons to heart.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-09-01T15:57:00.000-05:00

Dozer "helping" Bean with her math worksheet. She draws cherries, apples, chocolate chip cookies, glasses of water, cupcakes, etc. She tells him how many to eat and he practices his own counting as he "eats" them by erasing them.

Back to school!

2010-08-28T19:09:00.000-05:00

Bean and Dozer with their Schultüten. Everything, down to the backpacks, is a surprise.

Here are some of the highlights of their Schultüten.

Dozer loved his glue sticks!

Dozer and Bean chew gum like it's going out of style. So they were excited to find gum in their bags.

Bean showing off her markers. You can see some of their other treats on the ground: crayons, pencil boxes, Skittles, dry erase boards...

We had pictures taken with the kids in their back to school outfits. Here's Bean's 2010-2011 picture.

Here's Dozer's Preschool picture.

We'll call this a class picture.

Week 1 Check-in

2010-08-27T17:43:00.000-05:00

This was our first week back at our full schedule of school. It was also Dozer's first week of preschool. On Monday, they got their Schultueten (which I'll recap in a separate post). They were a huge hit! On Tuesday, we took their official school pictures.

Bean
In math, we discussed estimation. This wasn't a new concept to Bean, but it was the first time we've talked about it during school. We're working on memorizing math facts as well.

In science, we learned about the atmosphere and solar system. We conducted an experiment to see simulate the protective effects of the atmosphere; we put a thermometer in a bag, blew it up, closed it, and put it in another bag that we also blew up and closed. We placed it and another thermometer outside and recorded the temperature after 30 minutes. Then we brought them in and put them in a closet for 30 minutes. Bean was amazed to see that the thermometer in the bag reached and maintained a higher temperature than the loose thermometer. She decided this is why the Earth stays warm at night.

For history, we learned about Rome. We talked about the legend of Remus and Romulus. We discussed how the Etruscans and Greeks influenced the Romans. Bean told me she'd rather be a Greek living in Athens than a Roman because she wants to vote for her leaders.

We're doing two different spelling programs: Sequential Spelling and R&S Spelling. I showed them to Bean and asked which she wanted to do. She picked SS, but asked if she could do R&S because "it looks like fun too." It's too early to know if either is making a difference, but she's having fun doing both!

Bean loves Draw, Write, Now and has been so happy to show me all the animals that she can draw now. She's also practicing her manuscript writing so it's a win-win. She's also decided she wants to learn cursive. I wrote out the cursive alphabet and showed her how to write her name in cursive. She's been spending a lot of her own time writing words in cursive.

We started learning Latin and Bean refuses to use the words "Hello" and "Goodbye" now and insists that we need to say "Salve" and "Vale" instead. In art, we discussed how artists show texture and warmth in paintings.

Dozer
Dozer has been working on recognizing his letters on starfall.com. He's learned how to write the letter H all on his own. We have been working on L and T. He asked to learn J as well. He can write L, T, and J on his own if he has an example to look at.

He can identify squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles and we started working on tracing them. He can draw circles on his own, but we're working on making the other shapes without help.

I learned that he loves mazes this week! We have a Kumon maze book and he has loved solving the mazes. He's really good at it too!!

Feedback

2010-08-25T20:56:00.028-05:00

I used a workbox system last year with Bean. If you're not familiar with this organizational method, there was a box for each subject and we worked our way through the boxes each day last year. This method really appealed to me because it was very neat and organized. Each subject had its spot and everything was together.

As we neared the beginning of school this year, I sat down with Bean and asked her for some feedback on what she liked and what she didn't about school last year. Honestly, I asked her to let her feel like she has a say in what's going on without planning on getting anything of importance out of her. I was really impressed with what she said.

First, she told me she didn't like the workboxes. What was neat and organized to me was overwhelming to her. She said when she saw all the boxes stacked up she felt like we'd never be able to finish all that work. It makes much more sense why there were days last year when pulling teeth would have been easier than just getting started. Strangely though, she was always happy once we got over that initial hump and actually started.

In response to this, I've totally revamped my organizational style for school based on a thread I saw on WTM Forums. I got rid of all of the workboxes. I got a hanging file box and a bunch of hanging file folders, which I labeled "Week 1" to "Week 36." I ripped apart all of her workbooks and filed everything by weeks. Want to know what we're studying during Week 28? I can grab the folder and show you all of our work for every subject for that week. She still has the exact same amount of work, but she says she no longer feels overwhelmed with everything we're doing. In fact, she can't wait to get started now!!

It took some mental discussions with myself to pull the pages out of workbooks; I had problems highlighting books in college...ripping out a page - even when it's meant to come out - is a whole other ballgame. I kept thinking, "What if she doesn't like this? I can't put them back!!" I'm so glad I did it though! She loves it and I love that the whole next 36 weeks is sitting in files just waiting for us to get there. This will make me much more organized during bleak February days where I wish I were on auto-pilot.

Second, she told me she needed a scheduled snack time. We have 2 snack boxes in our house. One is in the pantry, stocked with healthy snacks like granola bars, trail mix, and dried fruit. The other is in the fridge and is stocked with yogurt, string cheese, and fruit. Our house rule is that the kids can get something out as long as they ask first and we're not eating a meal within the next 30 minutes. And Bean would usually grab a snack at some point during school time every day last year so this one blew me away since I had no idea there was an issue with snack time. I'm still not sure why it's an issue, but I wasn't as concerned with that as I was about finding a solution that made her feel better.

In response to this, we sat down and made an official school schedule. We agreed to do school for 3.5 hours and then stop, no matter where we are and what we have/haven't done. (This also helps with her not feeling overwhelmed I would imagine, but my main purpose was to talk through how long the day was and when the break would be.) We're almost always done in approximately 3 hours so I'm not really worried about this. We set a timer at the beginning of school for 1h40m and work till the break. We have our snack time and then work for another 1h40m or till we are done, whichever comes first. Different days this week we've popped popcorn, had a granola bar, and a container of yogurt. Bean has been much happier knowing exactly when snack time is than having to ask to stop.

Bean has told me every day this week how much happier she is with the changes we've made. I just wish I'd known there was an issue so I could have fixed it sooner! And now I know: Six is not too young to have an opinion on how you want to learn.

How do they do it?

2010-08-11T14:20:00.000-05:00

For the last two weeks, my kids have been doing camps. Last week was Soccer Camp for Bean. This week both Bean and Dozer are in Vacation Bible School. In both cases, they had to be there by 9:00 a.m. and they were done around noon. This didn't sound all that early, until I factored in getting up at 7:45 a.m. so that they could get everything done in time to get there.

A typical camp day looks like this: We'd get up by 7:45 and get ready for camp. Then we'd fight rush hour traffic in order to get to camp by 9:00 a.m. The kids (who are not breakfast-right-when-they-get-up people) eat breakfast in the car because they've just finally been awake long enough for them to be willing to eat something. By the time I was ready to leave, it was 9:10 a.m. and I would get home about 20 minutes later. In order to be back to pick them up in time, I'd leave the house by 11:30 a.m., which means that I'd have approximately 2 hours of time without kids. I would pick up two kids who were strung-out, exhausted, and cranky and try to hurry home so I could get food in their tummies.

Contrast this to a recent typical school day, which looks like this: We'd get up around 9:00 a.m. We have a leisurely breakfast and do school until lunch. Whenever the kids get hungry, we stop for a mid-morning snack and/or lunch. Then we go back to work till lunchtime.

I've heard a lot of moms recently say they can't wait for their kids to get back to school because they'll have so much more time. After getting a glimpse in what a school schedule would be like, it seems like it takes so much more time and effort to have your kids in school that I don't understand why someone would make the choice to put their kids in school.

But, as my friend Faith reminded me yesterday, they're probably just as curious to know how I manage to have kids home all day!

Bean-ism

2010-08-09T18:42:00.001-05:00

This situation was posed on my favorite homeschool board:

Two people meet. One has a pizza. The other is carrying a stack of books. Who has the biggest treasure?

I was curious what Bean's response would be so I asked her. Her reply:

The person with the books because they can take you different places.

-----
Two weekends ago, Bean read all. weekend. long. Every time I turned around, her nose was in a book someplace in the house. At the end of the weekend, she had finished 3 books and started a 4th. I added up the pages of the first 3 books because I was curious. Between the 3 books, she read 225 pages. Maybe I should change her moniker to BookWorm...

Offering preschool, beginning Fall 2010

2010-08-05T19:31:00.000-05:00

I've talked a lot about Bean and what she's doing this next year, but I've sort of glossed over Dozer. So I thought I'd donate this post to Dozer.

Dozer is 3.5 and told me this spring that he wanted to go to start school this fall. He's always tagged along with Bean so I figured he'd be happy with tagging along. When summer came around and he was still talking about starting school, I started thinking he might be serious. As the return of the school year approached and he was still talking about starting school, I began a scramble to figure out what to use with him this year.

I began by asking Dozer what he wants to learn this next year. Being 3.5, I didn't expect any huge revelations so I wars really surprised by his answer. He told me that he wants to learn to write his name so he can get a library card. (Our house rule is that you can have a library card as soon as you can write your first name on the application. So Bean has a library card, but Dozer doesn't.) I'm going to work my hardest to help him accomplish his goal.

The first things I purchased for him were some Kumon workbooks. Cutting, pasting, tracing, gluing...all beneficial things for him to practice and I like the "open and go" approach. I've used Kumon books in the past with Bean so I'm familiar with their style.

Then I kept hearing people talking about Rod and Staff's preschool books. I looked through their samples online and thought they looked pretty good. I liked their Preschool Activity Books, designed for 3-4 year olds and purchased it. I also purchased their ABC series to use with him after we're done with the Preschool Activity Books. It's definitely not secular and there will be parts that we will skip, but I liked the look of the program overall and I don't feel the same secular push with Dozer at this point.

My plan at this point is that we're going to start with the tracing, cutting, pasting workbooks. Over the winter we're going to start the Preschool Activity Books. Once we finish them, we'll start the ABC series. At some point this next year we'll probably start either Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons or The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. I have both. I used the first one with Bean. I plan to see which one works better for him and go with that one.

Next to writing his name, Dozer is most excited about is being able to start soccer, t-ball, baseball, and kickball classes. To participate in sports at our local YMCA, you have to be 4, which Dozer will be in a few months. Because of the way the seasons run, soccer should be the first sport he can participate in. Soccer is also his favorite sport so that works well.

Cinquain

2010-07-20T23:52:00.000-05:00

I'll admit a dirty little secret for an ex-English teacher. I strongly dislike poetry. I didn't like teaching it and I don't like reading 99.9% of it. (Shel Silverstein is one exception to this rule.) While I have hopes to light a love of poetry in my kids, I'm dreading teaching it.

Anyway, Bean is reading Junie B., First Grader: Cheater Pants right now for some summer reading fun. In the story, there is a lesson on cinquains. After reading the description of what should be on each line, she wrote these two cinquains on her own.

(typed as written)

love
caring, sharing
cudling, reading, huging
makes me feel happy
_________ [she put the name of her best friend, which I've omitted]

emma
black, furry
licks, kisis, sleeps
makes me feel good
dog

I guess she had her first gentle introduction to writing poetry today. And I didn't even have to do it.

Using religious materials secularly

2010-07-03T11:44:00.001-05:00

I wrote before about using CLE Reading and LA even though we're secular homeschoolers because I'm impressed with the quality of the program. Ever wondered how we do it?

The stories in CLE Reading are mostly simply wholesome stories. Some do include references to God, but they are spread out to an extent that I don't feel like I'm beating my kids over the head about it. Most stories in CLE Reading 1 don't include any religious references at all so it's not an issue.

One story we read was about a little girl who wanted to do something for her mom's birthday. She decided to make a birthday cake for her mom "all by myself." This ended up not being so much by herself because her older brother and sister bought candles (since she didn't have the money to), took it out of the oven (because she forgot), iced the cake (because she didn't know how to), and cleaned up the kitchen (because there wasn't time for her to) and yet they didn't correct her when she told her mom that she made the cake "all by myself." There's nothing religious in the story, but it's a nice story about helping your siblings.

The most common place you'll find religious references in CLE Reading 1 is the "Story Verse" to accompany each story, which is a Bible verse that relates to the story. The Story Verse at the end of the story comes from Ephesians, "Do ye kind, one to another." There are plans in the Teacher's Guide to memorize the Story Verse, but we skip it. On Self-Checks and tests, I mark out any sections that relate to the Story Verse. On stories that include religious references, I just mention them and don't emphasize them. It hasn't been a problem so far.

I can't remember any references I've come across to religion in CLE Language Arts 1.

I can say that I love CLE Reading and LA so far. She really likes the stories; her favorite so far was about a little boy who gives another boy in his class his lunch because his family is poor and he's hungry. Bean's spelling has drastically improved, which I credit to their explicit phonics instruction. She no longer hesitates when she spells "kit" or "buzz" since we've learned the "c or k rule" and the "double f, l, s, and z rule." Best of all, she's able to apply the rules when she writes on her own.

My favorite math tool

2010-07-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

I wanted to share one of my favorite math manipulatives - the abacus.

I couldn't find one I liked online so Tech Guy (who moonlights as Woodworking Guy) made me one. It's 100% wood, which I love. Bean picked the colors we used to stain the beads. There are 10 beads per row, organized in groups of 5. It also switches colors after 5 rows so you can tell 1-50 from 51-100 at a glance.

I'll admit I had to ask a friend to teach me how to use it because I'd never held an abacus, let alone used one. Now I wish I'd learned math using one and think every child should own an abacus. It has definitely helped strengthen Bean's math skills. She absolutely loves it!

Bean has gotten a lot faster at adding and subtracting since we started using it, although she doesn't use it all the time anymore. A lot of times she'll tell me, "I didn't use that abacus. I used the abacus in my head."

The end is not the end

2010-06-16T17:33:00.000-05:00

We've reached what most people consider the end of the school year. We loosely follow the school calendar for the largest school in our area during the school year because that's where most of Bean's friends go to school and it's always nice if you're out of school when your friends are.

Unlike the public school, we'll continue doing school all summer. I do this for a few reasons. My biggest motivation is so that Bean doesn't forget what we've learned this year. We took a break last year for the summer and she forgot a lot of basic things. I saw that happen to so many kids when I was teaching I know it's not a fluke.

On top of that, I love being able to take a break whenever we want. When we went to Disney in September, we took a break. We took off a few days because we felt like it this year and we took off nearly every Friday to go visit family who live an hour away from us. In May, we took off a week to go hang out at the beach. I wouldn't feel comfortable with doing things like this if we took off all summer too.

Last, it's easier if we maintain our routine. After having the whole summer off last year, Bean had a hard time this year with the idea that school was something she had to do now even though she loves school. The way we do school is an option, but going to school is not an option. It took her a while to get used to that and I don't want to have to go through that adjustment again. At this point, Bean would riot if we stopped school for three whole months and I want to keep it that way.

I'm happy Dozer is following in her footsteps. After hearing Lauren and me talk about plans for the fall, he informed me, "I go to school this fall too, Mama. I want to go to preschool!!"

9 months later

2010-06-14T17:43:00.002-05:00

I shared this picture of Bean and this picture of Dozer at the beginning of the school year. I wanted to share our "end of year" pictures.

Bean is now 6. Bean loves math, science, and crafts. She's a voracious reader. She is learning to crochet and knit. She has learned to latch hook. This summer she wants to learn to embroider. She learned how to swing this year and to ride her bike. She's often found on the swingset in our backyard and is on her bike every second that she can get Tech Guy or me to come watch her.

Dozer is now 3.5. He loves dragons, dinosaurs, firemen and firetrucks, bugs, cars, and dirt. He's quick to run to the rescue when someone needs help or there's a bug to relocate. He will drop whatever he's doing to run over during Bean's science lessons and can tell you almost as much about organs and bodies as she can.

We are very fortunate that Bean and Dozer adore each other and I count this as one of my biggest blessings in homeschooling. A few weeks ago, Bean was swinging and Dozer was sitting still on his swing, looking forlorn. Bean stopped her swing, brainstormed, and figured out how to tie their swings together so she could swing for both of them. It was so sweet and a perfect example of how things work between them.

I know, you're amazed that they're related since there's absolutely no family resemblance at all.

Projects

2010-06-11T17:33:00.000-05:00

Time has gotten away from me in sharing pictures of some of our projects so I'd share a few of our favorites from this year.

We studied Egypt this year and the process of making a mummy. A friend decided to mummify a bird and let us tag along for the ride. After weeks and weeks of drying, she brought the bird over and we rubbed it with oil and wrapped it up. Here's a before/after picture of the birds.

Bean definitely understands mummification better than she did before doing this project and I have a much better appreciation for the time and dedication it would have taken to mummify a person, but I have to admit I was a little grossed out by it.

During our study of Egypt, we also built a pyramid. My original plan was to make it out of sugar cubes, but I had no idea how impossible they are to find these days!! After much searching, we decided to build our pyramid out of LEGOs instead.

We studied Egyptian hieroglyphics, clay tablets, and Cuneiform on clay tablets this year too and discussed the benefits of each. As part of our study, Bean wrote a hieroglyphic message on our papyrus (water color paper) and a message in Cuneiform on a clay tablet.

She broke the clay tablet picking it up to take it outside, which is why it's in four pieces. We left it outside for a week to be rained on, have the sun shine on it, etc. and then we compared them. The paper had disintegrated (we had a hard rain storm while it was outside), but parts of the clay tablet were still legible!

When we studied the Indus Valley, we made a Mohenjo-Daro dwelling. Bean really enjoyed this project. Making the dough, rolling it out, stacking it...she loved every bit of it.

We've done quite a few field trips this year, but this was one of my favorites. We studied the Phoenicians this spring and their ability to blow glass so found a local glass blower at Austin Art Glass who was more than happy to let Bean, Dozer, and their friend come watch for a free demonstration.

They sat there in awe for the entire demonstration and the guys at the shop were awesome with them!

Ashurbanipal

2010-04-19T20:52:00.001-05:00

We talked about Ashurbanipal and the Assyrians last week. Bean was not impressed with Ashurbanipal - killing lions for fun, taking slaves, and the like made her decide that he's a "very bad man." She admitted that he was a great military leader, able to lead his soldier to victory after victory.

When we were done reading about his conquests, I gave Bean and Dozer a mission. I told Bean to take things in our house - whatever she wanted - and make a siege tower like the Assyrians used in battle. I told Dozer to make a city for the Assyrians to overtake. That was all the direction I gave them and I was really impressed with what they came up with!!

Dozer's city was made from some Sterlite boxes that we keep our schoolwork in. He stacked some of them up and then took Legos to make the strong walls around the city. He even grabbed some of Bean's Polly Pockets to put in the city for townspeople. Brilliant thinking from a 3-year old who is just tagging along!

Bean took some magnetic squares that she got for Christmas and stacked them on top of one another to make a tower. The squares snap magnetically onto a base with wheels since a siege tower could be pushed on wheels. Then she took a pencil and taped it to the top for a battering ram.

We read that the Assyrians pushed mounds of dirt up against the strong walls of a city and then pushed the siege tower up the mounds of dirt. Bean asked what she could use for dirt and I told her to think up something. Dozer was the one who came up with the idea to use a sheet that could be bunched up. I found it rather amusing that Dozer was giving Bean ideas for destroying his stronghold, but I loved the cooperation between them.

Bean pushed the sheet up against the walls of his stronghold, pushed her siege tower up the top, and decimated his city. It was all over in a matter of seconds.

I can only wonder if it happened so quickly and worked so well when the Assyrians attacked their enemies.

Shadows

2010-04-15T18:28:00.006-05:00

To go along with our study of the human body this semester, we're making a model of Bean's body. We've been working on this for a couple of weeks, but I never got around to posting the pictures before. Since he tags along with Bean, Dozer is participating as well. We began by tracing their bodies on IKEA art paper. Then we cut them out and stapled them into the wall. When Bean saw hers cut out, she said it reminded her of Peter Pan's shadow when he loses it and that's sort of stuck for their name.

A friend showed me her copy of My Body by Patty Carratello and I knew I had to have it for this unit. It is a book of blacklines that includes the major body systems, as well as muscles and bones. They are in approximate scale to a child's body we study a body system and then add it to our shadow. So far, we've added the brain, the face (after studying the 5 senses), pieces of the skeleton, and some muscles. I think it's definitely helping Bean to visualize where part are and how they all fit together. It's definitely the first thing she asks to do each day when we start school.

Dozer has had a lot of fun adding parts to his shadow as well. It made me really happy to hear Dozer explain to Tech Guy the other day, "This is my brain! And here is my spinal cord!" I love seeing what he retains.

I'll post an updated picture of our shadows next week so you can see what they look like partially completed.

The Well-Adjusted Child: The Social Benefits of Homeschooling

2010-04-08T00:48:00.003-05:00

For another blog, I read and posted a review of The Well-Adjusted Child: The Social Benefits of Homeschooling by Rachel Gathercole. I thought I'd share that post here, since it relates to my last post. I read this book almost exactly 2 years ago when we were just beginning our homeschool journey. At the time, I thought it brought up a lot of great points...some of which I'd already thought of (but it was nice to see them in print, so to speak) and some that I hadn't. I have added in a few points here and there, but the majority of my review appears as it was written originally.

Gathercole defines homeschooling by two things: family-centered living and real-world community-based learning. This being a book on the social aspects of homeschooling, she also describes what she sees as three types of socialization: school (which she says is the only type that is benefited by public schooling), family, and community. Her main point is that kids don't need to be in school in order to gain socialization skills because they're around their family, people they meet at the park, and friends outside of school. I can definitely see her point; as I discussed yesterday, Bean has multiple opportunities for social interaction without having attended a day of school.

She also points out that it was practically yesterday in this nation's history that we switched from homeschooling to public schooling. Grouping kids by age in one place to learn was done by necessity and convenience so that "material could be taught in a standardized rather than an individualized manner." In just this short amount of time, we've suddenly come to hold schools as the gold standard and to think that anything different is bad. Gathercole's believes that school has become so important that people school is synonymous with childhood and any differences in school are seen as detrimental and missing - even if they don't matter for socialization.

She also describes the typical family where adults go to work and lead their own social life...kids go to school and have their own friends and social life. The parents don't know their children's friends' parents so they're all living their own lives under one roof. As such, family time is time away from your life and that makes little wonder why kids don't want to spend time with their family! Gathercole also describes Dr. Sears' "detachment snowball" that occurs where "the more time parents and kids spend apart, the less parents know and understand their kids; the less responsive, respectful, and communicative both parents and kids become; and the more time both need away from each other." I definitely don't want this to happen to us (what parent would?). I relish the arrangement that we have now; Bean has become friends with the kids of my friends and I have become friends with the parents of her friends. I don't expect it to remain that way forever, but I plan to stay open to the new experiences I'm afforded because of our decision to homeschool. For example, one of my closest friends is a woman who I would have never gotten to know if Bean attended public school.

Gathercole points out that most public school kids end up hiding parts of themselves, pretending to be what they aren't, so they can fit in. I remember doing this myself as a child - pretending not to like reading, laughing along as classmates made fun of teachers I secretly liked/respected, - but it never dawned on me that there was, could be, or should be something else to the school experience. Likewise, she points out that adults are allowed to choose and pursue jobs based on their own temperaments. Homeschooling allows kids focus on their needs and discover what they want and need to be happy and successful. This is the type of learning experience I want for my children; I want them to be challenged and to grow as their own person and to feel comfortable in their own skin...not to learn that you have to hide parts of yourself in order to fit in.

Homeschooling families learn to get along because they have to and, in the process, hopefully learn to enjoy each other's company instead of awaiting escape from their family. It also gives ample opportunity to fit quality family time in without having to cram it into pre-scheduled intervals - weekends, family vacations, or dinnertime. I've seen this with our own family. In the past, Tech Guy has worked some late schedules. If Bean was in school, there would be literally months where she would have to be in bed before he would get home! Getting up to rush off to school, there's no time to catch up over breakfast when the tardy bell rings at 7:55a.m. Fortunately, Tech Guy's schedule is 8a-5p these days, but we still have the advantage that the kids can stay up later and spend time with him since they don't have to get up early in the morning. I honestly can't imagine trying to schedule in family time and father-child time into a schedule where kids have to go to bed early enough to go to school.

Gathercole points out that kids are born social - from birth, babies smile when talked to and they cry when they're left alone. This is certainly true for Bean. It's not possible for me to take her to the park without meeting a new friend. Kids who are homeschooled are only "separate" during school hours. Outside of school hours, kids all have the same social opportunities through extra-curricular activities, trips to the park, etc. Part of the mystery (and therefore problem) with homeschooling is that kids aren't with everyone else during school hours. Adults don't expect to see a 10-year old at Target or the park at 1:30 p.m. They imagine them sitting at their house, alone, working on schoolwork all. day. long. It's hard for them to imagine how it's possible to finish in 2-3 hours what it takes a school full of teachers 7 hours to finish.

Kids who are homeschooled also have the opportunity to learn socialization skills from their parents and other multi-age role models, rather than just from other novices (their age-group peers). I can see so many benefits to this that I can't even count them! Also, she points out that parents get to spend more "good hours" with their kids instead of the before-school rush/grumpiness and after-school de-stressing. I remember being stressed about tests or tired in the morning so I would be grumpy or coming home from a bad day and I would be grumpy. I'm totally selfish and I'll admit it. I want to see my kids during their best times, not send them off and then deal with the repercussions of tiredness/excitement/stress.

Our social calendar

2010-04-06T23:02:00.005-05:00

One of the biggest comments I get from people when they hear that we homeschool is, "What about socialization? Do you let her interact with other kids? Does she have any friends who aren't homeschoolers?" I thought I'd give you a glimpse into our week this week so you can see what we do in an average week.

Sunday: (I'm talking about an average Sunday here since this week was Easter.) We attend Sunday School and church. After church, there are cookies and fellowship time at church and she can play with a friend or two. Bean also participates in the Children's Choir at her church, which involves a return trip to our church later that afternoon. We pick up a friend on the way and the two of them play for an hour or so after choir practice each week.

Monday: This is our one day of the week that I try to stay at home, unless it's Girl Scout meeting day or Girl Scout Troop Park Day. This week we stayed at home.

Tuesday: Both Bean and Dozer take swimming lessons at our local YMCA. She takes swimming with a good friend, who attends public school. We also had a playdate today with an old friend from college and her two sons, who are also homeschooled.

Wednesday: We have a weekly playdate with a girl who is homeschooled every Wednesday. They have a great time playing together and do a great job of including Dozer in their play as well. Bean has dance in the afternoon on Wednesdays with 3 very good friends and her best friend. All 4 attend public/private school. After dance, we stay and she plays with them.

Thursday: Bean and Dozer take swimming lessons again on Thursdays. Most weeks, we have a playdate at the park on Thursdays as well.

Friday: We don't do school on Fridays, but spend the time visiting with family. We range from staying home and playing with their cousins to going to the park, the Children's Museum, or a bouncy place.

Saturday: We spend time together as a family. Sometimes Bean and/or Dozer have a sleepover, to to a Parents' Night Out, birthday party, or spend the weekend with their grandparents. We do a lot of Girl Scout field trips on weekends, as well.

So that's our week at a glance. This doesn't even count the random calls we get during the week that go something like this:

Caller: We're going to the park/bouncy place/museum/zoo/etc. Want to join us?

Me: Sure!

Between scheduled activities and miscellaneous playdates, I don't think anyone needs to worry about their chances for socialization; we have a busier social calendar than most people I know!!

Math is cool!

2010-04-05T19:30:00.004-05:00

From page 1, Singapore presents things different than anything else I've seen. And it CLICKS with Bean...I can see the gears turning in her head. After doing Lesson 5 a couple of weeks ago, she took the number 6 and broke it down to find out all the number bonds that make up the number 6.

She came up with (with the lines connecting the number bonds, which are similar to a factor tree):

6 = 2 + 4.
2 = 1 + 1.
4 = 2 + 2.
2 = 1 + 1.
2 = 1 + 1.

Bean showed it to me and says, "THAT is why 4 + 2 = 6. Because 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 +1 = 6!" She GETS it instead of just memorizing 2 + 4 = 6. And I can see that she's starting to get how numbers relate to each other in a way that has been missing before.

I have no plans to quit using Horizons. Because of it, she thinks math is fun and easy...meanwhile, she's adding 2-digit numbers, adding 3 numbers, working with fractions, measurement, etc. But I'm really enjoying how well these two programs seem to complement each other.

How the chips fell

2010-03-30T22:30:00.002-05:00

I'm (almost) done buying things for school next year. I still need 2 books that we'll use in the spring for science, but I think I'm close enough to call it done. So here's what we ended up with.

For Reading/LA, we're going to switch to CLE. I've actually purchased both CLE 1 and 2 and we've started CLE 1 already. Bean really enjoys it and I am quite happy with its depth. We're still in Unit 1, and we've discussed the schwa, breve, and phonics rules - none of which had been covered in anything else we've used. Despite the religious overtones, I can already see that the explicit teaching of phonics is helping Bean with spelling more than All About Spelling has in the last 6 months. We're going to continue with Writing with Ease as well because I think Bean can use the practice in narrations as well.

For math, we're going to Horizons and Singapore. I've printed out the materials for MEP, but we haven't started it yet. I think I'm going to let her use it on "her time" when she wants something math-related to do.

For science, we're switching from Sonlight to Elemental Science. I've gotten most of the books as well as the instructional guide and it looks really interesting! Bean is excited to start learning about the planets.

For history, we're continuing with Story of the World. I've ordered and received all the materials for it. Bean hasn't commented on it (she hasn't really seen it), but I'm excited to move into the Middle Ages since it's a much more interesting period than where we are now. Considering how she's made Ancient Times really interesting, I can't wait to see what she'll do with the Middle Ages.

Last, we've decided to start over with our Bible curriculum and use it as a family. Tech Guy, having not grown up with a strong religious background, thought he'd like to learn along with the kids. Dozer is the one who has surprised me most with his understanding though. He can relate the story of Adam and Eve and tell what God made on half of the days of creation. I'm not stressing it with him so I was impressed that he's learned that much of it!

Bean meets the Pathway Readers

2010-03-09T22:30:00.001-06:00

Like I mentioned before, Bean has been obsessed with the Rainbow Magic Fairy books. While I don't want to discourage her from reading, I couldn't take hearing the same story repeated with different names any longer. A very good friend (repeatedly) recommended the Pathway Readers and said I should introduce Bean to them. Eventually I gave in and bought the 2nd grade readers used for her to try.

Tonight they came and Bean is enthralled with Busy Times. We read the first couple of pages together and I asked her questions to make sure she was comprehending what she was reading. Then I let her read a couple more pages on her own and quizzed her on them. When she got all those questions right, I turned her loose and told her to come back when she'd finished the first chapter. I asked her questions about them and didn't even hesitate to answer them. Even when I tried to ask the pickiest questions I could come up with, she could answer them. So I turned her loose and told her I'd be checking in to see how she's doing. She loves the characters and has been recounting each of the chapters to me.

I'm loving the fact that I don't have to pre-read them before letting her have them to screen for objectionable material. The hardest thing about having an advanced reader is finding things on her reading level without introducing her to topics that she's not emotionally ready for yet. It's a relief to be able to hand her a book and not have to worry about what she'll be exposed to...or hear about fairies for a little while.

She's now almost 50 pages into Busy Times. The third grade set is already on its way to us. Hopefully the 2nd grade ones will keep her entertained till they can get here!

(After all the grief I've given the Rainbow Magic series, I feel I should mention that Bean is concurrently reading Abagail: The Breeze Fairy. I haven't refused to let her read them, but am aiming to broaden her horizons.)

Next year: History and Bible

2010-03-08T20:07:00.001-06:00

Again, this one is easy because I've already decided what we're using.

History

Story of the World: The Middle Ages - We're using the first volume of this series this year and we both love it! It has made history come alive for both of us and I actually look forward to pulling it out every day.

Bible

Through the Bible With My Child - While I lean towards secular materials, I do want the kids to have a foundation in religion. I really like this program, which I found part-way through this school year, because it has a 4-year cycle for reading through the Bible and memory work. I plan to continue our way through this series next year.

Next year: Math and Science

2010-03-05T21:49:00.002-06:00

These are the two easiest subjects for me to talk about since I've already decided what we're using!

Math

Horizons, Grade 2 - We started with Horizons 2 years ago and it's a perfect fit for Bean so we'll definitely stick with it. I love their spiral approach, continual review, and challenging curriculum. Bean is already adding 3 numbers together, 2-digit numbers, and working with fractions. And she loves doing it.
Singapore 1B - 2B - Bean asked for "more math!" so we began Singapore 1A this spring. She absolutely loves it and I plan to continue working our way through it next year. It's so great to watch her excitement as she sees a different way of thinking about and of doing things - especially when it just seems to make sense to her!
MEP - I've been looking at this program lately and am thinking about adding it into the mix for next year as well. Since it's free, my plan is to print off the first few lessons (which I'll probably do this spring, actually) and see what Bean thinks of them. If she likes it, we'll continue with it next year. If not, we'll toss it.

Science

Elemental Science: Earth Science - This program looks very similar to Sonlight Science, except it's secular. We're using Sonlight this year, which I love...except for the religious references. It hasn't been a problem this year, but it would be next year as we're learning about dinosaurs and the creation of the earth.

Next year: Language Arts and Reading

2010-03-04T20:30:00.001-06:00

I've been working on next year's curriculum and thought I'd share it. I haven't made any final decisions yet, but here's what I'm looking at for Language Arts, Reading, and Spelling:

Writing With Ease, Level 2: We're using the 1st level of WWE this year so this would be a continuation of this year's work. Bean likes what we're using and I like the exposure to great children's literature that I otherwise might not think of.
First Language Lessons (year 2): Again, we're using the 1st year of FLL this year so this would be a continuation of this year's work. I like what a gentle introduction FLL has to grammar and it's stress on memorization of poems.

Then I'm also looking at these, either in addition to what's above or instead of what's listed above. CLE appeals to me because it's a complete spelling, penmanship, grammar, and writing program. Looking through the samples, I'm really impressed with the depth they cover at 1st and 2nd grade; however, I am a little hesitant to use something quite so religious. I keep telling myself, it's just as bad to discriminate against a good program because it is religious than it is to discriminate against a program because it's not.

CLE Language Arts 1: I'm actually thinking of starting this now, continuing it over the summer, and finishing it whenever we would this fall and then starting CLE Language Arts 2.
CLE Reading 1 or CLE Reading 2: Bean is reading on a 3rd grade level right now and when I asked Bean to read the samples from Reading 2, she did without any problem. But I've had a couple of people tell me that the literary analysis is hard enough that I'm wondering how well she'll do with grade 2.

I've purchased CLE Reading 1 used and I'm excited to take a look at it when it arrives. I also purchased the teacher's guides to CLE Reading 2. I'm waiting on the student books for it and then I hope I can make a better decision about which level will fit best for Bean.

Spelling is the one subject I'm completely undecided. If I use CLE, it's covered and I don't need to worry about it. If I don't (or decide I want to supplement), I'm looking at:

All About Spelling, Level 2: This is what we're using this year so I'd continue with the next level. Bean seems to do OK with this program (as long as I don't make her use the tiles), but I don't like it.
Sequential Spelling: This is the program I hear recommended most often for people who don't like AAS.
Something else that I haven't found yet.

I'm also working my way through purchasing the set of Pathways Readers for Bean. I hesitated about purchasing these because they're written for Amish kids and often described as "wholesome" (which sounds to me like when your friend tells you a blind date is....nice), but enough people have continued to recommend them that I finally decided I was being stubborn. I've purchased the 2nd 1st grade reader, both 2nd grade readers, and the first 3rd grade reader. I hope that will keep her entertained for a while. And I have to admit that I'm looking forward to a break from the Rainbow Magic Fairies; Bean is 9 books in (out of 70+ books) and I'm ready to help Jack Frost off the rest of the fairies just to get a break from them!

Fresh air

2010-03-03T19:50:00.003-06:00

The weather has finally warmed up where we live and it was in the 60's today. We've been stuck inside a lot lately because of the weather so I sent the kids outside after breakfast this morning and told them to go play. I was curious to see how long they could entertain themselves and how long they'd stay out there if I let them. Three hours later, they came inside and asked for food.

Bean takes dance on Wednesdays and there's a playground near her dance school. One of her friends from dance called this afternoon and asked if we'd like to get together before class for a little while and play. We were done with school at that point so we did and the girls had a blast playing until it was time to go to dance class.

My favorite memory from today has to be watching Bean, Dozer, and Bean's friend throwing leaves at one another, jumping in piles of leaves, and burying one another under handfuls of leaves. I can't imagine a better way to spend an afternoon!

After dinner, Bean wanted to go back outside to show Tech Guy how well she can swing on her own - she finally figured out how to swing all on her own this morning. He took them both back out and they all played out there for an hour and a half until Dozer got cold and asked to come inside....at which point Bean asked if she could stay out until Dozer got out of his bath. Surprisingly, she came in without complaint when he was done.

I think they would say we had a good day. I know I did.

What's for dinner?

2010-03-01T23:03:00.000-06:00

We just finished Chapter 11 - Ancient Africa - in Story of the World. One of the suggested activities in the Activity Guide is to make an African feast so that's what we did today. I knew Bean would like this since she loves anything where she can help in the kitchen, but she has never done anything by herself on this large of a scale so I was curious how it would go.

The Menu
- Chicken with Figs
- Papaya Stir Fried Rice
- Injera
- Date and Banana Bars
- Fried Plaintains

To start, I handed her the Activity Guide and the grocery list and told her to add the things we'd need to the list. She read things off and I told her where she could find them in our kitchen so she could check to see if we had them. At one point she asked me, "Do we have water? Oh, WATER! We don't buy water at the store!" So it was cute to see her thinking like that.

When we went to the store to get our weekly groceries, she had the responsibility of checking the list to make sure we had everything we needed for her meal. We couldn't find dried figs for the chicken, canned papaya for the rice, or teff flour for the Injera. I didn't realize how hard those would be to find, but I gave up after the third store we went to. I have since found out where to get teff flour so I want to try making Injera now.

Since we were short some ingredients, Bean and I put our heads together and tried to come up with things we could substitute. We needed dates for the date and banana bars and Bean asked if we could use them for the chicken as well. With some help from Google, we learned that dates are often substituted for figs. We decided to make the rice without papaya. We've made Naan, an Indian bread, before and I suggested that we have that instead of the Injera. And the Plantains weren't ripe so they weren't ready to be fried. Needless to say, we decided on a modified menu.

Bean followed the directions to make each part of dinner. She has read directions to me for a while and helped me cook, but this was her first time to be the chef. She did a great job and told me afterward, "That was really fun!" I'm just kicking myself because I forgot to get a picture of her meal before we ate it. The chicken wasn't bad, but I don't think it's a recipe we'll be making again. The big hit of the evening was the dessert. The date and banana bars were awesome and we'll definitely make them again!

She has plans for us to have a themed meal every time we finish a unit now. I'm not sure if I'm quite that brave, but we'll give it a try!

History of the Medieval World

2010-02-28T13:43:00.006-06:00

Bean and I are using volume 1 of Story of the World series by Susan Wise Bauer for history and I'm amazed at how much I've learned from it, not to mention how much Bean has learned.

When I heard Bauer was also writing a series for older children and adults, I thought I might have found a history book that would hold my interest - I am not a history buff. I bought the first book in the series, The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome, with great excitement and was not disappointed. When Bauer asked for people to pre-read and review* her second book in the series, The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade, I jumped on it.

The History of the Medieval World is designed for use by high-school students, but one of the things I like most about Bauer's writing is that it doesn't talk down to her target audience, which makes this book as intriguing and interesting to an adult as it would be to a 15-year old. Bauer presents history in a way I (in my limited reading about history) have never seen done anywhere else - she begins with a time period and then details what was happening in different areas during that time period. This presentation helped me because it's hard for me to read 300 years of one area, switch to another, and then correlate time periods in my heads. There are frequent maps to help you visualize where she's discussing (which is a huge help to those of us who are geographically challenged) as well as a timeline at the end of each chapter.

Likewise, I don't remember learning anything about this time period when I was in school that didn't center around Europe so I really appreciated her inclusion of information from around the world. In this volume, she'll take you to Asia, the Far East, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas and you'll see how events in one area impacted others.

Bauer is a master at taking complex events and explaining them in simple terms that make the time period accessible even without a breadth and depth of prior knowledge. She explains the reasons surrounding the impetus of wars and why kings rose (and fell) when they did - and does so in an engaging way that left me on the edge of my seat more than once wondering how a particular event would end. After reading her book, I walked away with a much better understanding of people and places than I had before.

I can't wait to see what she does with her next book!

You can order a copy of The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade from amazon.com.

* The only "compensation" I've received for this review was the chance to read Bauer's new book in an electronic format before it was published.

1+1 ≠ 2

2010-02-24T22:39:00.005-06:00

I think we've all heard of the "new" math that's being taught in public schools these days. I know I have, but I've never explicitly seen the difference between new and old math - until now.

A friend sent me this link and I thought it was interesting enough that I wanted to share it here. A number of area schools use TERC Math Investigations, including Austin ISD, Pflugerville ISD, and Round Rock ISD. I'm sure there are others, but I didn't feel like looking at any more district websites since these are the big districts in the Greater Austin area. Additionally, Austin ISD requires PK-2 students to use calculators in the classroom.

One of the things that really upset me about this video is the direct quote from an Everyday Mathematics where they state that it's pointless to teach kids their math facts. They justify this because, they say, that it is an unattainable goal now for many students. Unfortunately, this idea has been around for a while and I have seen it happening in our classrooms personally.

When I was teaching, my 8th graders were taking a practice TAKS test. I saw most of my students making a multiplication chart on the inside of their test and thought it was a little strange. When the test was over, I asked them why they were taking 30 minutes to do that before even starting the test. They all told me that their math teachers had told them to. I asked them, "Why don't you just do it in your head?" and was shocked to find out that they couldn't! Their teachers told them to take the time to write out the chart at the beginning of the test so they could go look at the chart when they came to a question that required multiplication.

Given how popular it is in our area, our chances are pretty good that Bean would be using it if she were attending public school. This disturbs me greatly. Bean loves (LOVES!) math. She is the kid who makes up math worksheets on her own time to do for fun. Unlike her mom (who is not especially mathematical), Bean sees math everywhere she looks and tries to find math in everything she does, even something simple like sharing a snack with Dozer. I can't imagine putting her in a situation where she was exposed to such low expectations...where she's expected to fail before she's even tried. And I am sad for the teachers who have given up, the students who aren't given the chance to soar, and the system that tells us that it's a waste of time.

Interestingly, I purchased Singapore's Primary Mathematics a few days before I saw this video. I can't make any claims about it at this point, but it's always nice to hear something recommended when you've decided to use it.

Let's try this again

2010-02-22T13:54:00.002-06:00

I have done a horrible job posting about what we're learning this year! We do school every day, but I can't seem to then find the time to sit down and blog about it. To catch up, consider this a mid-year check-in.

In science, we've completed our trip around the world studying different animals and their habitats. Bean has learned all of the continents and can find them on a globe. She can list attributes of mammals and reptiles, she can explain the difference between warm- and cold-blooded animals and give examples of each, and she can explain how animals are adapted for their environments. She can tell you what continent you're likely to find an animal in the wild, like giraffes and penguins. We've also studied magnets. We have learned about their poles, measured their strength, made a solenoid and an electromagnet.

In math, Bean is doing two-digit addition now. We've covered counting by 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, and 6's. She can tell time on the clock and count any combination of pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, and half-dollars. She has become a whiz at measuring things. She loves math and makes up math problems on her own to do.

At her request, I just ordered Singapore Math and we're going to start supplementing with it because Bean wants to do "More math!!" during school. I have heard great reviews about Singapore for kids who love math and she definitely fits the bill for that.

English is going well. She's memorized four poems and loves to tell them back to anyone who will listen. We have studied nouns, pronouns, and are studying verbs right now. She can define common and proper nouns, as well as give examples of them. Along with that, we have studied capitalization rules and She can list of pronouns and replace a noun with a correct pronoun in a sentence. Her handwriting has improved greatly, although she tends to push a little too hard with her pencil.

I waffle back and forth with how content I feel about our spelling program. Bean hates the tiles that go with AAS so we don't use them. She writes them on paper, in our carpet, on her Aquadoodle, in the air...or her favorite, she makes each letter out of her body. She has had a big problem understanding the difference between the sounds E and I. We've been working on it since September and I think she has it about 90% of the time now. Spelling is her weakest subject, but she's getting there!

I don't especially like her spelling program because some of the words are overly confusing. For example, it mixes g- and j-sounding words without explaining when g can say j's sound (think giant). The further we are getting into the program, the more I think it might be beneficial and we might stick with it next year. But I'm not committing myself yet.

We've learned so much about ancient history so far. We started with Egypt, pharaohs, and mummies and have worked our way up through Africa. Bean has built a pyramid, made a model to flood of the Nile River and Delta, painted Joseph's coat of many colors, inscribed clay tablets and written hieroglyphic scrolls, made a Mohenjo-Daro dwelling, crafted a clay bowl...and I'm sure a few other things I've forgotten. Bean adores our history curriculum and can't wait to find out what's going to be next.

We are beginning a new Bible curriculum that is similar to the history program we're using. I'll post in more detail about it later, but it is based on a 4-year cycle of reading through the Bible. I'm excited about starting this since the Alpha Omega bible class we were doing was not working for us.

Bean also goes to swimming classes twice a week. She loves swimming and would love to live in the water if she could. She also takes a ballet/tap/jazz class once a week. She had a winter recital in December and is gearing up for her spring recital in June. I have been teaching her the piano, which she enjoys and she participates in the children's choir at our church as well. They say music and math go together....maybe that's true for Bean since she loves anything musical and she loves math.

Role models

2009-12-02T22:24:00.003-06:00

Today's post isn't about homeschooling, but about other lessons we teach our children.

When I was a child, my parents didn't take me to swim lessons. After an especially scary experience as a child involving a slide, some "friends" who thought it would be fun to watch me flounder, and a 6-foot section of the pool I couldn't stand up in if I tried, I lost interest in learning how to swim.

But I didn't want my kids growing up like I did. I signed Bean up for swim classes when she was 3. At 5.5, she can swim the full length of an Olympic-size pool. She can do the breaststroke, the butterfly, and other strokes I don't even know the name for. She can do flips and somersaults under the water, as well as cartwheels. Given the choice, she wouldn't ever get out of the pool.

We have a YMCA membership and Dozer has been counting down the minutes until he could start taking classes as well. He's finally old enough (their rule is they can start the month they turn 3 and he'll be 3 in a couple of weeks) so he's starting class tomorrow. I don't think it would be possible for him to be anymore excited about it.

As an adult, the idea of being in water I can't stand in is frightening. I've come close to signing up for swim lessons before, but have always chickened out when it actually came down to it. I didn't have the time...I wasn't worth it...I couldn't justify spending the money on myself...there was always something.

One of the lessons I've learned since having children is how much kids learn from watching us. Even when we don't think we're teaching them or sending out messages about something. I don't want them to be afraid of the water, which is why I've signed them up for classes early in childhood. Moreover, I don't want them thinking that there's anything in their life that they can't accomplish. I don't want to let them see giving up on myself and think that they can give up on them.

So today I did something I never thought I'd do - I took my first swim class. At one point during the class I thought I was going to puke. But I didn't. It's going to be a long road, but it's one that I am going to walk so Bean and Dozer can know that they can do anything they put their minds to.

Memorizing

2009-11-28T23:13:00.007-06:00

At the beginning of the year, I wasn't sure if I was going to have Bean memorize anything. I didn't understand why she needed to memorize poems, verses, and the like. And, let's be honest, does anyone have good memories of memorizing things in school?

I have since become a believer in memory work, which you can read about here. The first thing she memorized for school was the poem The Caterpillar by Christina G. Rossetti because it was part of a lesson in First Language Lessons. She had it memorized in less than 3 days - before I did. Next we memorized the poem Work. It took her even less time.One of the things that's surprised me is the feeling she uses. When she first memorized both of those poems for First Language Lessons, she said them without emotion. Over time, the more she's repeated them and "owned" them, the more animated her voice and face are when she recites them.

She's also memorized Genesis 1:1 -

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth.

And Ephesians 6:1 -

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Lately she's been asking for more things to memorize. For Thanksgiving she memorized the first stanza of the Johnny Appleseed Grace. She has enjoyed saying it before dinner many times lately, which is good with me!

Tomorrow she's going to start learning Luke 2:10-12 (or maybe 14) -

But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.' Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.'

Depending on how comfortable she is with it, she's going to recite it at Christmas dinner for her grandparents, cousins, brother, and parents. She's also going to learn a Christmas poem, which I haven't decided upon yet.

I also want to start making a memory book to hold all of Bean's memory work. My plan is for us to start it this next week and then we'll add to it throughout the year. I haven't decided if I want her to copy each poem for the book and then illustrate it...or if I want to type it out and just let her do the illustrating. Either way, at the end of the year she'll have a book she can look back through with everything she's memorized.

Flooding the Nile

2009-11-18T22:55:00.000-06:00

As part of our study of Egypt, we made a model of the Nile River. First we got some dirt from one of our vegetable beds to fill our pans. Bean was very excited about getting to do this project!

Then Bean drew how she wanted the Nile to flow. I helped her make the riverbed and I lined it with the aluminum foil. The purpose of the foil is to keep the water from immediately flowing into the surrounding dirt. On the left-hand side you can see the beginning of the Nile Delta.

Bean and Dozer decided we needed some rocks along the sides of the Nile in addition to the ones we put in the Nile to hold the lining of the riverbed down. After sprinkling grass seed all along the edges of the river and in the Delta, we flooded the river! Then we waited. And waited. And (as Bean reminded me) waited.

Four dates later, we had grass! A few days after that, I snapped this picture. Bean was amazed with how fast her crops grew. I like that we had a weed grow as well so we could see how the growth rate changes, depending on plant type. After 1 week, that one little weed was already twice the height of all the grass. We flooded the Nile weekly for a few weeks to watch the crops grow. Bean even "harvested" her crops by cutting the grass!

I think this project really help Bean understand how the Nile's yearly flooding helped Egyptians grow their crops.

Is this thing still on?

2009-11-17T20:43:00.003-06:00

I haven't forgotten about my blog, we just haven't been around much! Since my last post, we have gone on our church retreat, driven to Florida for 2 weeks, had the Swine Flu, and entertained company for 5 days.

Our church retreat was as awesome as it is every year. Imagine driving to the middle of nowhere - where cell phones don't even work - and checking into a bed-and-breakfast. That's what a visit to Mo Ranch is like. There's not a phone (except in the office) anywhere, no clocks, no cell phone reception. We had a chance to fellowship with people we don't normally. We had a chance to explore and commune with nature. It is one of the highlights of my year and I'm already eagerly anticipating next year's retreat.

A week after we got back from the retreat, we left for Florida. We drove (19 hours) to Disney World. It was a long drive, but I enjoyed getting to see states that I haven't seen before. I didn't think there were many states that take as long as Texas to get through. I have since learned that Florida is one of those states. We had an awesome trip! After leaving Disney World, we spent a few days at the beach because driving an extra hour to get to the ocean is nothing after driving 19 hours. Tech Guy and I have seen the Atlantic from an airplane, but none of us had actually touched it. Moreover, Bean, Dozer, and Tech Guy had never touched any ocean. So seeing and touching the ocean was huge for us.

I don't want to give the impression that we haven't had any schooling going on during the break since my last post. Just that I haven't had the time to sit down and write about it! Now that our schedule has gone back to normal and we're back in our school groove, look forward to (much) more frequent posts from me!

Retooling

2009-09-09T15:05:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks into our school year, I've already found some hits and misses. I'm happy to say there are more hits this year than misses!

Hits

Writing With Ease - Bean always asks to do both writing assignments. And the selections have opened up some doors to literature we haven't discussed before. We'd never read Pinocchio, but Bean is interested in reading it after this week's copywork.
Story of the World - I'm not a history buff, so I was dreading this subject more than any other. But we both really like it! Bean has already learned a lot and it's always one of the first things she wants to do.
Horizons Math - Bean has always loved math and, as I've said before, I give as much credit to the curriculum as I do to my teaching.

Dozer would consider a hit our science class. He usually plays for the first half of school and then naps during the second half of school. He adores our science text though and will drop whatever he's doing to pull up a chair and listen while we talk about it. When we're done with science, he wanders off again.

Misses

Alpha Omega History and Geography - As neat as it looked to begin with, I feel like I'm spending all my time with busywork. There are so many worksheet pages to fill out and so much little else to do that it reminds me of why I didn't want Bean in public school. After 2 weeks where I can't say that we've learned anything, I'm scrapping it.

There are still some other topics I'd like to cover with social studies so I think I'm going to come up with my own lesson plans. I'd like to give her some exposure to things like: holidays and why we celebrate them, maps and how to read them, and to other countries, their locations, and their cultures. Either I'll come across a curriculum that does this in the next few weeks, or I'll create my own.

We haven't started Latin or Spanish yet - I plan to start them in October, but I'm OK we don't start them until next year too. I recently ordered Alfred's Piano lessons and we're going to start that in October as well.

Homeschooling: A Family's Journey

2009-08-29T18:15:00.004-05:00

I don't remember where I saw a blurb about this book, but I added it to my (huge) to-read list. A couple of weeks ago I was looking for some new reading material and Homeschooling: A Family's Journey by Martine and Gregory Millman. I requested it from my library and was really excited about getting to read it.

I appreciated that they began homeschooling back in a time when it was not a common and when the stakes were higher. I tried to like it. But it just doesn't speak to me. I hate giving negative reviews of books, but I walked away from this book with the impression that their main point was to say, "Hey, look how awesome we are!" combined with "Your kids will be irreparably damaged if you don't quit your job and homeschool them."

The Millman's call themselves eclectic homeschoolers. After reading the book, I would personally consider them unschoolers, which may have been part of the problem I had with the book since I have problems relating to this homeschooling philosophy.

I can't say that I would recommend it to a friend who was asking about a homeschooling book, but it's certainly not the worst book about homeschooling I've ever read!

Digging around

2009-08-28T22:51:00.012-05:00

We have been studying history and archeology this week in Bean's ancient history class. Today's activity built on what we've been studying and let her walk in the shoes of an archaeologist. Last night Tech Guy and I buried some items in a storage box. Today Bean and I walked through the steps we would take if we were on a real archaeological dig.

This was our site. We pretended that were walking through a dessert area and saw part of a bug sticking up from the sand.

Upon further investigation, we realized that it wasn't a real bug and decided to investigate further. So we marked our grid. Bean was very excited to get started.

Here she is brushing dirt from an artifact.

With one of her artifacts.

Upon finding a spoon.

For each artifact we found, we bagged it and labeled it.

We placed each item on our grid to show where we found it.

And we wrote a description of the item. Bean dictated, I wrote.

At the bottom we made a list of things that we think we know about this society. Bean came up with them on her own and I have to say I was pretty impressed with some of them - like realizing that they don't have to depend on the sun for light since they had a battery and a flashlight.

The first thing Bean asked when we were done was if I would bury some more things and let her do it again. I have a feeling today's activity was a huge hit. And I bet it will help her remember what an archaeologist is!

Getting in the grind

2009-08-27T18:54:00.003-05:00

It has been an awesome week around here so far! Bean adores school and begs for more. Dozer has been happily playing with us for a while and then going off to take a nap for the remainder of our school time.

After 3 days of classes, Bean can:

define history, historian, archeology, archaeologist, noun, and perimeter.
figure the perimeter of a rectangle.
count to 100 without a single help or hint. This one is sort of a cheat since she's been able to do that for a while. But I'm counting it because she did it today at my request.
count combinations of nickels, dimes, and pennies.
list 4 characteristics of mammals, 3 characteristics of reptiles, 2 of birds, and 1 for bugs.
tell (with help) the story of creation through when Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden.
recite her Bible verse - Genesis 1:1. This one is sort of a cheat since she learned it earlier this summer. But it is hopefully an easy introduction to having a weekly Bible verse to learn.

Tomorrow we'll begin memorizing her first poem of the year. She is so good at memorizing things (and it makes her so happy) that I'm guessing she'll have it memorized by Monday.

For Story of the World, she is working on a family history book where she is interviewing her mom, dad, grandmother, grandfather, and cousin. She had so much fun interview me and finding out where I was born, when I got married, and where I grew up.

Today she made a collage about herself from pictures she cut from magazines. The instructions I gave her were to make a collage showing things that she loved and things she felt described her. My favorite thing she included was fingernail polish "because I love it so much!" Most touching was the picture that she clipped from a magazine of a boy and a sister kissing "because it reminds me of Dozer and me!" I also loved that she included a page number "because I love numbers!"

Most worrisome was that she included money. I'm hoping it's because we've been studying it and not because she loves it too (or we may be in trouble in a few years!)

Today we got Bean's materials for piano classes today from Amazon. I've heard rave reviews of Alfred's music theory and lesson books, both from another homeschooling friend as well as from an on-line group that I'm part of. We decided that I would teach her piano for this semester and see if she has any interest in it. If she does, we'll sign her up for lessons in January. I want to at least give her an introduction to music so that she'll be better prepared for other instruments later.

I have all of my lesson plans done for the year and I'm working on my supplemental materials list. I also finished making labels for each of her subject boxes. Bean requested labels so she can easily tell which box has the materials for what subject. Once I get the labels on, I'll post pictures of our "workbox" system. I have to say I'm loving it so far!

Schultüten

2009-08-24T22:33:00.010-05:00

Today was our official first day of school and it was an auspicious beginning! I have to say it was awesome to wake up at 9:00 this morning, instead of rushing Bean to get up and get dressed in time for school at 7:45 this morning. Instead we spent the morning at a local park with some homeschooling friends, celebrating that we're not going back to (public) school today. The kids had a blast and I enjoyed getting to talk with some friends who are following the same life path we are. And, we met a family at the park who is planning to homeschool their kids when they start school! Homeschoolers are everywhere, I tell you!

We have a few back-to-school traditions around our house. Each year the kids get a new backpack. They don't need them to drag books back and forth from school (obviously), but we use them for our library books and if we decide to have school at the park or somewhere else. The kids love to see how many books they can fill their backpack with and, in the past, Dozer has shared with Bean, which she has been willing to do and he hasn't minded.

I thought it might be nice for him to have his own backpack this next year and back-to-school time is the time to buy backpacks. I found his backpack at the Disney Store and knew he'd adore it because it's Lightning McQueen. Bean had a backpack she really wanted to use this next year. She got it for Christmas last year from a friend, but already had a backpack so we put it away for this fall. Her backpack has Ariel on it.

They also get a new back-to-school outfit to start off the year. I'm normally quite the bargain shopper (and take pride in that), but this is one of the few times of the year that I don't blink over buying something at full-price if I love it. I found Bean's shirt a few weeks ago and found her jeans this weekend. I found Dozer's shirt a couple of weeks ago and his slacks this weekend. They also each got a "fun" shirt - Bean got a Tinkerbelle shirt that she has been asking if I would get her for months. Dozer got a space shirt that made me think of him.

When we got back, the kids were very excited to open their Schultüten. For those who don't know, Schultüten are a German tradition...going back over 200 years. They're given to children going into first grade and are filled with school supplies and candy. The kids then take their Schultüten to school with them and pose for pictures with them. Given that I lived in Germany for a while, have a minor in German, and am generally interested in all things German, I decided I wanted to adapt this idea for our use. Instead of cones, I decided to use their backpacks.

This year I decided to put their First Day outfits and their "fun" shirts in their Schultüten. I also got them each a bag of popcorn, an apple, a roll of Rolos, paints, crayons (64-count for Bean, 8-count washable big for Dozer), and socks. Bean also got a butterfly necklace.

Bean discovering her paints.

Dozer showing off his crayons.

This afternoon I took Bean to get her official school picture taken. We started this tradition last year and I wanted to continue it this year. She took an awesome picture, but it's really scary to think how fast she's growing up! I tend to miss these changes until I see a picture of her or catch a glimpse of her out of my eye...and then I get a shock! Here she is in her First Day outfit.

This may be one of my all-time favorite pictures of her.

And here's Dozer, because he had to sneak in on the action. He is wearing his First Day shirt, but he was too hot to put in jeans (unlike his sister who runs cold-natured even in the summer).

I think the pictures will make a perfect pair on my wall.

Distraction

2009-08-18T20:20:00.002-05:00

A couple of days after my last post, a close family member of ours was killed. We have been dealing with the fallout from that and I haven't been posting because of that. The dust has settled a bit now and I am looking forward to getting back into posting and gearing up for the start of our school year!

I have ideas for a couple of posts that I'm going to try to get out this week. Our official start date for the school year is Monday, August 24th - following along with our local school's calendar. From all indications, it's going to be a great year!!

Paper trail

2009-07-27T22:22:00.006-05:00

I've been spending every free moment I've had lately burying myself in paper. In the last week or so, I've made enough copies of activity pages to use over 3 reams of paper - and I'm still not done. I took the Story of the World Activity Guide and the Writing With Ease workbook to Kinko's and had them cut the perfect binding off of the books so that I could separate them into teacher's guides and student guides. I got them spiral-bound, which led to Kinko's ruining one of the books in the process so now I'm in the process of filing a complaint with them. A bunch of other books that were already spiral-bound, like the Horizons 1 math books, I've taken the spiral binding off, copied the worksheet/activity pages at the back, and replaced the spiral binding. Now I just need to take all the copies and get them spiral bound so they're not loose-leaf and easy to lose.

I've also been writing out lesson plans in Excel. Call it a remnant of my teacher training, but I can't function without lesson plans. I have no problems changing them, adapting them, revising them, and so forth...but I don't feel calm and centered without an idea of where we're starting and where we're ending. And, it has given me some notice of some changes I definitely want to make. For example, our History and Geography LIFEPAC covers Thanksgiving, Columbus, and the Indians - in Unit 8, which we'll be likely to cover in March. So I moved Unit 8 to the end of the first semester and we're now learning about them at a more sensible time. Had I not sat down to look through it and make out plans, I wouldn't have discovered that until 5 months after the time I'd like to cover those topics.

My next step is going to be to sit down again with each subject and look over the lessons day-by-day to make a weekly list of what materials I'll need for each subject. That will hopefully give me the ability to "one-stop shop" to see what out-of-the-ordinary things I'll need for history, science, art, or anything else. I haven't done this before and I fully expect it to be a pain, but I also expect it to pay for itself over the next few months. It will be much less of a pain to do this now than scramble to the store with 2 kids to get something that we need that day or coming back to a project later because I'm not prepared.

Along the same vein, I've been looking for a planner that I love and have been coming up short. So I'm making my own. So far in there I have a calendar that goes through December 2010 and a copy of my lesson plans. I'm going to add my weekly Need List to it as well. That's all I have planned for now, but think it will grow over the next few months and I'm excited to see the end result!

The downside to buying used

2009-07-09T18:07:00.003-05:00

I've purchased a couple of things lately used. I like to purchase used because it saves money, supports another homeschooling mom or Mom & Pop-type shop, and saves the energy and resources used for making it new. (Like most people around Austin, we are definitely into conserving resources and taking care of our planet.)

I received the two Draw Write Now books that I ordered from Amazon's Marketplace on Tuesday. The seller promised that the items were in like-new condition free of markings. Book 1 had marks throughout the book and the front cover wasn't even attached to the spine of the book anymore! Book 2 (from the same seller) was covered in brown stains and was also had markings throughout. After contacting the seller, who didn't reply, I filed through Amazon's A-Z Guarantee today. Hopefully they'll refund my money soon. Either way I'm planning to buy them again since they look like awesome books - hopefully from a reputable seller next time.

The other thing I purchased used was the teacher's manuals for Horizons Math 1. I bought them on a homeschool resale board from a woman in Canada. They were supposed to be in excellent used condition, again free of writing. The seller warned me they were the previous printing, but assured me they would still work with the current workbooks. I confirmed this with Alpha Omega, the publisher of Horizons, at the curriculum fair I went to a couple of weeks ago. So imagine my disappointment when I got the books and they didn't match up with the workbooks as I expected. The topics matched, but the teaching tips of what was being taught on a particular day did not. The previous edition, turned out to be a 2001 edition, rather than the way I read it - the previous edition, as in the 2006 edition. More irritating was when I looked through the teacher's manual and discovered a lot of the supplemental worksheets at the back were written in and/or already colored! Since I purchased it from a seller in Canada, international shipping back to her makes it so not worth it to ship them back to her.

To top it off, the book I purchased from Rainbow Resource came the same day these other two shipments came. They sent me the wrong book. I ordered the student edition and they shipped me the teacher's edition! After two long talks with them that I won't bore anyone with the details about, they have shipped out the correct book and are sending UPS to come pick up the wrong one.

Tuesday was a bad day when it came to getting books. I know it's about time that I had a bad experience since I have had nothing but good luck consistently over the last few years buying used. But man, it stinks to have to have to start all over when I thought I was done buying curriculum for the year. And it definitely makes me hesitant to buy used in the future.

Last night I purchased the Horizons teacher's manuals (used again) from Ebay. They had pictures attached and are going to be covered under Paypal's protection plan, which hopefully I won't have to use. I'm going to try to resell them (with full disclosure) to try to recoup some of my cost and hopefully I'll be able to bring the price back down so that I've saved money buying used instead of spending more!

I haven't decided what to do about the Draw Write Now books. I think I will probably end up buying them new from Amazon. Between the shipping costs for the two books plus the purchase price for them, I saved less than $5 over buying them new. $5 is $5, but it's not worth it compared to the extra hassle and stress now.

Boxing things up

2009-07-03T20:49:00.008-05:00

I'm always looking for new organizational tricks and tips for maximizing space in our little house. I recent came across the idea of organizing schoolwork using workboxes, which you can read about here and here. I started thinking of how I might implement this so that it would work for our family because I didn't want to feel pressured to feel 12 boxes each day (which I've read can be a problem) and I didn't want to have to scramble to make room for 12 boxes (which eventually would become 24...and then 36 if we had a third child).

As I started thinking about it, I realized what attracted me to this idea was having everything for a subject in one place. Currently, I've been using magazine files from IKEA to hold our stuff, but I can't put all of our math stuff in one magazine file so it is sort of piled around the magazine file. And it doesn't have a lid, which has lead to things getting dumped accidentally. I've stuck with it because I haven't been sure what I would use instead.

After reading about the workbox system, thinking about it, and sleeping on it, I came up with a system that I think will work for our family. Rather than having one box per activity, I decided we're going to have one box per subject. Another trip to IKEA led me to these, which are the perfect size to hold our notebooks, papers, and so forth. And you can buy a lid for them, which makes them stackable and keeps everything in one box in the event of a dump off a table (not that that ever happened with our magazine files or anything...).

So I have a box each for:

Language Arts
History
Science
Math
Foreign Languages
Bible

Each box is big enough to hold Bean's workbooks, textbooks, materials, and my Teacher's Manuals. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of having everything in one box where it would be easily accessible. I am going to keep her idea of the Velcro numbers on the front of the boxes because I think the visual progress chart will help Bean see what is finished and what still needs to be done each day.

Then during Bean's swimming practice this week, an answer to a question dawned on me that I've been wondering about in the back of my mind. Currently, Bean has a fairly busy schedule with swimming, gymnastics, and dance. Once Dozer turns 3, we plan to enroll him in some activities like his sister, but I've been trying to figure out how to squeeze Bean's activities, Dozer's activities, and school all into one day. I've seen a few of our friends carting along their homeschooling things for one child to work on while another child was in an activity, but I hadn't figured a way that would work for us. But this would actually make it very easy to take our schoolwork along to fit in with the rest of our schedule.

When I started to think of it in that light, I decided to take things one step further. In addition to including all of the texts that we need, I decided to include pencils, crayons, a ruler, blank paper, and an eraser in each box so it truly could be grab-and-go. Once I have everything that I'm waiting on from the curriculum fair and get it into the boxes, I'll post a picture of how it looks. But I'm already excited about how much easier this will make it for us to access what we need easily.

Connections

2009-07-01T20:32:00.000-05:00

One of the things that I've never understood is why things are taught in isolation. For example, Horizons K teaches money and who is on the coins/bills, but don't learn why they are on there. I saw this when I was teaching too - kids would learn about something in one class that wouldn't be connected to any other subject for months.

Bean was quick to memorize that Abraham Lincoln is on the penny, Franklin D. Roosevelt is on the dime, and George Washington is on the dollar bill. I could have left it at that and given her a generic answer ("Because they were great/famous/influential men.") when she asked why they are on our money. Instead, we took a trip to the library, which has Early Reader books on all three historical figures and loaded up our backpack.

Now Bean can not only tell you that Abraham Lincoln is on the penny, but she can tell you that

he became our president.
he got married.
he had 4 kids.
there was a big war because some people wanted to have slaves and some people didn't.
he didn't think people should be slaves.
he freed the slaves.
he was shot at a theater by a man who didn't like him.
people put him on a train when he died and sent him around.
the train took his body to Springfield, IL.

One of the things I enjoy most about homeschooling is the ability to take the time to make these sorts of connections. Hopefully whenever she sees a penny now, Bean will not only remember how much a penny is worth, but think about the man behind the penny who changed our nation.

Why I believe in memory work

2009-06-29T23:33:00.003-05:00

I have to admit that I was a little hesitant about all the memory work that a classical education involves. After all, Bean is only 5 and 5 (or even 6 or 7) seems awfully young to be demanding the memorization of poems, Bible verses, historical figures/dates, etc.

Some of our neighbors are starting a neighborhood children's Bible club and Bean was interested in going. At the first meeting last week, the leader taught the kids Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." And it took all of 5 minutes. I honestly figured that Bean would have forgotten it by the next morning, so you can imagine my surprise the next afternoon when she said:

Bean: Mom, guess what?
Me: What?
Bean: 'In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.' Genesis 1:1.

Over the last week, she's randomly rattled off her new knowledge, each time as obviously proud of herself for remembering it as the time before. And it dawned on me that I've been viewing memory work from an adult's perspective...a chore to be completed...an assignment to quickly finish so we can get move on to something more fun...while Bean views it with the same enthusiasm as she views everything.

And then today I was reading a discussion about memory work where someone commented that our kids are memorizing things every day - silly songs and commercial jingles, for example. We can allow mass media and pop culture to fill their minds. Or they can memorize poetry, which increases vocabulary, helps to teach complex language patterns, fills the mind with beautiful language, and helps to create mental pegs upon which new information can be added to later.

Given those choices, I know which I'll pick for my kids.

CHEACT Conference 2009

2009-06-26T15:46:00.010-05:00

I've been to a lot of conferences as a teacher. They are, frankly, a good way to get a break from the day-to-day grind of the school year (read: students). They usually involve some workshops, book reps who are open-handed with their freebies in an effort to convince you that your school needs to buy whatever they are selling, a sit-down meal at a nice restaurant with fellow teachers where you don't have to speed eat before the next bell rings, and an early out for the day.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect at today's conference, but I had an inkling that it wouldn't much resemble conferences I've gone to in the past - there would be no early out for today since I was taking Bean and Dozer with me and there would be no nice leisurely and quiet meal, free of children's interruptions.

My plan was to arrive at the conference around 9:30 a.m. We got a late start and arrived shortly after 11:30 a.m. after 40 minutes of driving there and then driving around to figure out exactly where it was (downtown Austin is so confusing!). Because I refuse to pay for parking garages when there is any other option, we parked a couple of blocks away and walked. It's Texas and it's summer so it was well over 100 degrees outside, but 99% of our walk was down a shaded sidewalk so it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. As we walked to the conference, this was our conversation:

Bean: Why aren't we parking there instead?
Me: We're saving our $7 parking fee to use to buy other things...like going out to lunch afterward if you all are good.
Bean: No, you have to spend that money to buy books in there!

One of the things that surprised me most was how many children were there. I'd been hoping that bringing my two wouldn't raise eyebrows or earn sideways glances/comments about it being an adult conference. I should have known better, given that it is a homeschooling conference and where else would all of our kids be on a Friday morning except with us! I also have to say that I was impressed with how well the kids acted! I'm used to kids in public (restaurants, parks, etc.) running around and being generally disruptive. These kids weren't quiet statues by any means, but they were very well behaved. Mine included.

We visited with Rainbow Resource where Bean conned me out of not only My Printing Book (Handwriting Without Tears grade 1), but also convinced me that she must have Printing Power (Handwriting Without Tears grade 2). I have to say it wasn't hard since I love the improvement HWT has made in her handwriting. I also ordered Song School Latin, which I anxious to get my hands on since I ordered it sight unseen. If it's too hard, I'll save it for a year or two...if it's just not as good as the reviews, I'm sure I can resell it. I adore Rainbow Resource for offering free shipping on any size order at conferences!

We also visited with Alpha Omega. The first memory work Bean has done from the Bible was Genesis 1:1 ("In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."). When I opened the first LIFEPAC to make sure I wanted it before ordering it, the first words on page 1 are from Genesis 1:1. As soon as Bean saw it, she was sold. And I have to say I was too. Now ask me what I think about it in 9 months! I also ordered her math books. I can't wait to see what she'll be able to do by the end of next school year!

Last on my list was to visit Sonlight. I'd planned to order our Science 1 curriculum, but they don't take orders at conferences - who knew? So I ordered it this afternoon instead from their website. Maybe it's me, but I have to say I'm annoyed at them for not taking orders there - or at least stating so on their website (their website merely states that they don't offer a discount on orders at conferences).

Bean saw an exhibit on worm composting and wanted to go visit the worms so we did. She got to hold wriggly little worms and was beyond excited about it. I had to pry her away from the table!

After we were done, I treated Bean and Dozer to lunch at our favorite Chinese food restaurant. It was a small price to pay for 2 hours of their patience and Bean's expertise at picking out appealing curriculum.

1st grade

2009-06-24T14:42:00.002-05:00

Language Arts

First Language Lessons, level 1 - I liked this program among other reasons because it begins teaching the parts of speech in 1st grade. It's also a gentle introduction and teaches things incrementally so the student isn't overwhelmed.
Writing With Ease, level 1 - this program breaks down writing into two parts. First it teaches copywork (getting words onto the page) by exposure to great (age-appropriate) literature. Then it teaches narration (holding a thought in your head long enough to express it). WWE believes both of these are essential elements to becoming a proficient writer. Once those have been mastered, WWE then teaches the student how to put their own original thoughts onto paper. This program attracted me because I have seen so many students when I was teaching who can't write because this 3-step process failed somewhere along the way.
Handwriting Without Tears: My Printing Book - this program isn't needed in addition to WWE, but we are using it because Bean loves the HWT program and asked to continue on to the next level with it. She thinks it's fun so I'm happy to oblige her.
All About Spelling, level 1 - Bean learns things visually and this program looked great to me because it is multi-sensory. I have a few friends who use this program with their children and have seen the results with them so I'm excited to start using it with Bean!

Math

Horizons 1 - We used Horizons K this year and it was a perfect match for Bean so this was a no-brainer. I credit this program with making math one of Bean's favorite subjects.

Science

Sonlight 1 - This book is published by a Christian publisher, but I was impressed with both the breadth and depth that are covered in this course. Evolution is covered in here (although there are notations to omit it if it's not your thing). We will learn about animals, the human body, and outer space (among other things) this year.

History/Social Studies

Story of the World: The Ancients -This book begins with the earliest nomads and ends with the fall of Rome. We're going to study the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians just to name a few. The book comes with a student's activity guide that has some amazing hands-on activities that I can't wait to do with Bean!!
Alpha Omega LIFEPAC History and Geography 1 - I decided to do this program in addition to Story of the World because I wanted a chance to explore "this is me and this is how I fit into my world." This program does exactly that. We'll learn about different cultures and their practices as well as learning about where we've come from as a country and why we do some of the things we do.

Art

Draw Write Now1 and Draw Write Now 2 - I'm not sure how far we'll get through these books and I highly doubt we'll finish book 2 (we may not even begin book 2), but I have both of them to start working through this year. I was really impressed with this program because it breaks down whole pictures into their components in a way that even someone who isn't artistic can understand.

Bible

Alpha Omega LIFEPAC Bible 1 - we've spent the last year reading through a book of Bible stories and I think Bean is ready for a more formal program. We'll learn about creation, God's promises to us, and following God's path for us.

Foreign Languages

Hooked on Spanish - I bought this as an impulse. Bean has picked up a few Spanish phrases here and there - what do you expect from a kid who grows up in Texas? She's expressed an interest in learning more so when I saw this I decided to get it and try it with her because of the company's reputation for good products. Hopefully Hooked on Spanish will live up to that reputation!
Song School Latin - this beginner's latin program, designed for children K-3, teaches 110 latin words over the course of the program. It's aim is not mastery, but to lay a firm foundation for future learning. It uses catchy songs to teach vocabulary, which makes them much easier to remember and fun for a Bean who loves music and loves to sing.

Miscellaneous

Bean takes a ballet/tap/jazz class once a week at a dance school she loves.
She takes swimming year-round.
She asked to drop gymnastics in favor of beginning piano lessons so we're working toward that goal right now. (Although given the chance she would choose to stay in gymnastics and take piano too!)
She is joining Girl Scouts this fall.
She participates in a couple of homeschool groups for field-trips and play time.

If you have any questions about something we use, please feel free to ask!

Kindergarten

2009-06-23T22:04:00.000-05:00

Bean started Kindergarten this year and it was my first time to look for curriculum so we both had a learning curve. We had some winners this year and some losers, but what I've learned from picking last year's curricula has been invaluable when it has come to picking this year's curricula.

For reading, we started off with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and then progressed through reading the books it suggests at the end of the book. After completing those books, Bean is reading on a 2nd grade level. She devours books. This book was a huge hit in our house, although I will admit that I was a complete skeptic when we started. I had learned about this book when I was working on my Master's and just filed it in the back of my head although with other useless bits of info until Bean started to ask about learning to read.

A friend loaned us a copy of Handwriting Without Tears and Bean loved it enough that we decided to use it as well. It helped her writing immensely and she loves doing it! This program also taught me how to check that she is holding a pencil correctly, a skill I missed before since I taught middle school. She loves doing her "perfect pencil flip."

Another winner for us was Horizons K Math. This program uses a spiral approach, which has been perfect for Bean. Concepts are introduced slowly and built upon over several lessons, which also review previously mastered concepts. Part of what makes this program such a good fit for us is that each lesson has 4-6 parts to it where the student does something different. So the same lesson might include sections on sequencing, counting money, telling time, and adding. This approach keeps Bean from getting bored, reinforces concepts so she doesn't forget about them, and slowly builds on new concepts so that they aren't too challenging or scary initially.

For science, we used McRuffy K Science. I supplemented it with additional experiments because it was, in my opinion, a little weak with hands-on activities. The experiments were her favorite part and I'd hazard a guess that her favorite experiment was one when we made it rain the living room. We did that experiment last fall and she's still talking about it 9 months later. It was a supplemental experiment and not included with the program. Overall, I wasn't that impressed with the quality of this program and we are not continuing on with them this year.

At this point I honestly can't tell you what I purchased for Social Studies. It was a public school textbook that I found and thought would be decent. I can tell you it was so awful that we'd stopped using it before Halloween and I started with a hodge-podge of materials and lessons I created on my own.

I teach a weekly art and craft class that Bean has participated in with a couple of her friends. I counted this for her art credit, although it was certainly not the only arts and craft exposure she got this year. I purchased The Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas last fall as well and we love it. It is filled with ideas that show you a technique, how to do it, and give and example of what it could look like at the end. Bean also participated in gymnastics, dance, and swimming this year.

The questions you're just too afraid to ask

2009-06-22T17:47:00.000-05:00

Tell me about your kids? and How is your 5-year old in 1st grade?

Bean is 5. She completed Kindergarten at home. I never planned for her to start so early, but she begged and pleaded to "start school" just after her 4th birthday. She wanted a library card and I told her she couldn't get one till she could write her name on the small line on the application. In less than a week, she was writing her name. Now she writes "stories," which more often than not, I can read without her translating them. She also really wanted to learn to read so we started with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (a book I'd heard of when I was working on my Master's). She's currently reading on an early 2nd grade level. She can count (and will as long as you're willing to listen), skip count, add/subtract, etc. Every day she tells me (multiple times) "Teach me something else!" I saw it doing more damage to her to put her off than to just give in and meet her needs. And she's thriving so we must be doing something right. She'll start 1st grade this fall.

Dozer is 2.5 and (obviously) hasn't started school yet. I have no plans to start him a year ahead unless he follows in his sister's footsteps.

What do you do with Dozer while you do school?

He either naps or he joins in with us. He loves coloring, scribbling, playing with Play-Doh, etc. Bean loves to show him the newest thing she's figured out. And it's amazing how much he's already picked up on from just "tagging along."

What about socialization?

I always laugh when I hear this question, even though it's one of the most common ones I hear. For some reason people think homeschoolers stay holed up in their houses with the curtains drawn. (As it turns out, our blinds are usually drawn. But that's for energy conservation, not seclusion.) Bean has a busier social calendar than me or most people I know. This last school year (08-09), she attended gymnastics, dance, an art/craft class, and a twice weekly swimming class. This fall, she will be taking dance, swimming, and piano lessons as well as joining a local Girl Scout troop. And she wants to take soccer, but I'm curious what she'll think after the soccer camp she's going to in July. Last, Bean joins in our local YMCA's Kid Fit program where she gets to play sports with other kids. Just as most public schoolers wonder how we manage to find time to socialize, I wonder how public schoolers find the time for anything extra-curricular.

Likewise, we are planning for Dozer to start an art class and a science class this fall.

Are your materials secular or religious?

Both. For the record, we're Presbyterian and are active in our congregation. For the vast majority of subjects, I use secular materials. On the other hand, we are religious and I want our kids to grow up knowing about our faith because it's important to Tech Guy and me and so they can decide on their own what they think of religion. I believe you need to learn about a topic before you can make an educated decision so I do include Bible as a subject. But I do not teach Creationism/Young World theories because I don't believe religion and evolution/science to be mutually exclusive.

Where did you come up with the name? and Why did you name it?

We live in the Texas Hill Country. I knew I wanted to name our school ______ Classical Academy, but couldn't figure out what to name it. We thought of naming iAfter a lot of debates and lists, Tech Guy threw out Hill Country and it clicked with me so Hill Country Classical Academy was born. As for why we named it, why not? In a few states (not Texas), homeschoolers are required to name their school. I'd heard about this and liked that it makes us sound more official so there you go.

Why do you make a point of calling your school a "Classical Academy?"

When Tech Guy and I came up with our school name, I really wanted to acknowledge that we're following a classical method of education based upon the Trivium. A couple of years ago I stumbled across The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise-Bauer and it clicked with me. As I read it, I felt like someone had actually written a book with all of the pieces I had floating around in my head. Just as there are teachers who consider themselves "phonics teachers" or "whole-language," this method fit my philosophy so well that I wanted to include it in our identity.

Where do you get your materials from?

I will go into the details of what we use in a separate post since it is whole topic to itself, but the short version is that we use some materials that are made specifically for homeschoolers by homeschool publishers, we use some materials that public/private schools use, and some of our materials come from third-party sites such as Amazon.com and Rainbow Resource. Not to mention we love local Half-Price Books.

If there's something else you'd like to know, just ask!

What in the world was I thinking?

2009-06-21T23:14:00.000-05:00

I'm the last person you'd expect to homeschool. I graduated from a public high school, went to college to become a teacher, and was a firm believer in public education and public schools. Once I began teaching, I began to question the system I had worked so hard to become a part of. Why were students only exposed to abridged and often simplified versions of books that fit neatly into a textbook, rather than the original version? Why did we spend so much time "teaching to the test" only to see TAKS scores continue to plateau (or plummet)? How did students get to middle school without being able to form a cohesive argument, lacking basic math skills, and without a foundation of where our country has been or why we celebrate certain holidays?

My last year teaching - the year before NCLB went into effect - the middle school I taught at lost 76 instructional days to benchmarks and practice TAKS tests. 76 out of 180 days. When Bean was born, I started thinking of her in the places and situations that I witnessed. I thought about her being unable to take elective classes because they were cut due to budget cuts. I saw her studying Chemistry without touching chemicals, Biology without dissections, and learning about the Alamo without being able to touch it because the money just wasn't there. I imagined her being punished for questioning. I saw her being given extra worksheets as a way of serving her if she qualified for a gifted program. And I saw her falling through the cracks if she needed Special Education services, lost in a system that has too few resources for too many kids. I started thinking there had to be a different path, a different way of doing things, and a different way of thinking.

What I see from this blog is a place to keep track of all stuff homeschool related - what curricula we're using, what we are doing from day-to-day, homeschooling articles/information that strike my fancy, and so forth. Feel free to come along for the ride, but please try not to have too much fun...remember, this is supposed to be educational!