What is “real” art?

One complaint about public school was the lack of “real” art.  I asked Keek to make some real art now that she had the time and this is her creation.  “Real” art by Keeker entitled “The Magic Forest.”

That’s a wrap.

It’s official, we are un enrolled! Kids are lighthearted and we can feel excitement crackling in the air. Maybe that’s the freezy breeze… lol I don’t know! But really we are all much happier already. I was expecting some teary goodbyes but they never happened. The smiles were ear to ear through every, “I’ll miss you!” Keek picked up a flurry of phone numbers and Fish passed out digits to a number of kids too. I imagine the phone lines will be busy this afternoon! Both kids were invited back to parties throughout the year. We’ll see!

Where to go from here

The kids will be homeschooled again.  They are not learning anything.  Keek misses, “new stuff, mom!  We’re still doing what we were doing when school started!  It’s so boring.”  Fish says, “The kids in my class are so annoying, mom.  They don’t even know how to listen.”

Fish has been straightforward with his dislike.  From day one he said he’d rather homeschool.  I made him go anyway.  He dealt with his boredom and frustration. He made a couple of new friends.  He misses his homeschooled friends.  He misses going to the library where he can pick out any book.  He’s been restricted to age appropriate material in the early reader section.  I said, “It can’t be all bad.”  and he told me it was.

Keek focused on the bright side.  Everything is so easy.  She made friends and has a best friend.  She loves Drama.  Only a couple of times did she have anything negative to say.  Yesterday the bottom fell out.  Through streaming tears she told me so much.  Everything is so boring.  I miss my real friends.  I hate “L” she’s so rude.  I hate stupid boys.  They act like babies.  I hate wasting time.  I hate waiting.  I wish people would stop talking so we could get the work done.  I miss science.  I miss art.  All we do is color.  I miss the library.  I hate doing the same thing over and over again.  I miss learning.

So ok.  They are coming out.  I told them we would make arrangements the next day.  But Keek stopped me.  She said she wanted to be in the play.  She said she’d deal with all the immature kids.  She’d handle the jealous girl.  She’d do the boring work.  And wait to learn for just one month more.  She really wants to be in the play.  So I agreed with her cool headed decision.

Fish said he really wants out.  “I thought school would be fun. I thought I would get to learn new stuff, ” he said, “I thought school was for learning.”      I asked him to try and tell me some good things about school.  He mentioned his BF and his girlfriend.  I asked if he would like to see them for a month more.  He said no.  He’d just call them and tell them goodbye.  I laughed.  Then he started negotiating with me.  He said if I promised to make his lunch whenever he asked and let him be a car rider more he would go to school for just one more month.  I conceded and that’s where we stand.

All in all I’m not surprised the way things turned out.  I will miss the alone time.  I will keep painting and trying to sell and I’ll study to be a Doula.

We all learned from this semester of school and have grown from it.  We like to get up early and go to bed earlier.  It seems like we get so much more done. The kids don’t wonder if school is some magical vacation place.  They are well above the educational requirements academically.   They are exposed to more stimuli and learn more because of it. We start homeschooling again with a renewed sense of purpose and faith in our abilities to work together, learn together and teach each other.

Opportunity for Education

Two or so years ago I had a conversation concerning the opportunity for education.  A family member was concerned that Homeschooling the kids would lessen their exposure to learning opportunities.  That the kids would live in a bubble and only be exposed to a limited view of the world.  I listened and understood her concern.  I don’t want my children’s exposure to be limited.  I want them to have a wide base of knowledge to draw upon.

In the past I have had conversations concerning the social aspects of Homeschooling.  People have been concerned that the children would have difficulty functioning in groups because of the lack of peer interaction.  I listened and shared this concern.  I don’t want the children to be socially inept.  I want the kids to grow into confident and well adjusted adults with great people skills.

The concern for proper accreditation has been raised as well.  The fear that homeschooling would prevent upward mobility in a highly competitive atmosphere was voiced.  I hear and share these concerns, too.  I don’t want the kids to be passed over because they lack the proof of their capabilities.  I want the kids to have detailed records of learning and exposure.

The fear that the children would be ‘missing out’ on the childhood experience of school has been emphasized.  That homeschooling would, in some way, rob the children of there right to experience the wonders of growing up.  I don’t understand this one.  I don’t want my children to be sequestered, labeled, categorized and given numbers to replace their names.    I don’t want them to become another statistic.  I want them to be free to grow and learn at there own pace.  To study the things which interest them.  To see the whole picture to understand the pieces.  To learn unhindered by the constraints of an outdated system.

Perhaps it is the district within which I live.  Maybe it’s only the teacher’s at this school.  I cannot speak with experience relevant to every teacher in every district. I know there are good teachers.  I’ve had some.  I know some!

I’ve learned from them and it’s helped me win a great reputation by subbing.  The kids love me!  The teachers are amazed.  Yes I’ll sub special ed and the kids will do the work for me.  I’ll sub KG and nap time will be a success!  Yes, I’ll sub fifth graders and they’ll pocket there attitudes for me.  What is most amazing is the way the light up when they see me in the hall.  I am not like the other teachers.  There are other teachers like me, we are homeschoolers.

My children need a wide base of knowledge.  History is full of answers.  So why don’t they study history in school?  The kids need more exposure to learn more!  Not just in history but in science as well.  The science program at this school is severely lacking.  They have no funding.  No funding for music or foreign language either.

I should have been warned about the teachers but instead I was warned about 5th grade attitude.  I was warned about special ed.  I was warned about the KG class.  They could get out of hand.  I’d have to be very firm.  Poor Mrs. X, their teacher, has to yell all day.  They are difficult class.  But, I did not yell; I soothed.  I didn’t insist; I gave choices.  I didn’t demand; I cajoled.  We had a good day.  They are a good class.  The next day, in the lounge, teacher’s asked me how I managed to make such a difficult class behave so well.  I replied, “social skills” and they laughed.  They thought I was joking.  I don’t want my kids to have the social skills of Mrs. X.  Or the other teachers who so obviously want to be somewhere, anywhere, else!  I want them to be compassionate and understanding.  So I homeschool with compassion and understanding.

As homeschooling becomes more popular more and more colleges seek out those self starters.  Not one of the herd whose been pushed through the chute by many too busy, poorly paid, educators.  I want my kids to have a detailed history of their varied and interesting education.  I want them to stand out.  They are not a number.  They stand out because they are not like everybody else.

I, like every other parent, want the best for my kids!  Homeschooling is the best I can give.  Why wouldn’t I want to do it?

Doula think so?

A Doula is a defined by Webster’s as:  : a woman experienced in childbirth who provides advice, information, emotional support, and physical comfort to a mother before, during, and just after childbirth.

I can so do this.  I would love to do this!  So I’ve researched the suggested Doula must reads and have a list worked up to take with me to the library.

Besides being something I would just love to do… the pay would be great.  The only problem with this job choice is school.  The kids being in school means I cannot be a Doula.  Why?  Well if I’m not at the bus stop at said time then my child is taken back to the bus barn to await my arrival.  If I’m a Doula I might be in labor with someone when bus time rolls around.  What could I say, “Hold that thought.  I’ve gotta go pick up my kids.”  I don’t think so.  Grrrr!  I really miss homeschooling!

Keek’s lesson plan

Well… I’ve been working on Keeker’s lesson plan and I’ve decided not to be as specific as I was with Fishboy’s plan.  She’s really good with the library catalogs and with google so she can pick out her own books.  Besides, she may not have liked a book I picked out to go along with a subject.  This plan is like an outline, I have a week to week plan, too, but this one is easier to type up!.  We are going to cover these subjects this year and we’ll fill in the details as they happen.

Poetry:  Tennyson, Emily Dickinson, Wadsworth, 101 Famous poems.

History and Geography :  Review continents and oceans, review central and south American colonization and ancient civilizations, Medieval Europe and Africa, events leading up to the American Revolution, Constitution and Bill of Rights, war of 1812, Reformers and Humanitarians, American States and Capitals,  major mountain ranges, map skills

Math:  continue with arithmetic, introduction of fractions, decimals and percentages, geometry vocabulary, angles and degrees, perimeter, area, circumference and area, money matters

Spanish: Rosetta Stone

Penmanship:  copy work and journal keeping

Science:  review of past years, classification of plants, animals and minerals, plate tectonics including earthquakes, volcanoes, soil formation, inner structure of the earth, continental drift and the rock cycle, intro into chemistry, anatomy: respiration and circulation, meteorology, physics: properties of heat and light, environmental science: balance of nature, ecosystem, food webs, effect of pollution, magnetism, electricity, gardening

Music:  Orchestra introduction, music history and appreciation, use of reverb and echo, use of music in evolution and animal communication, beat music: Japan, African , Native American, 15th century music, Baroque styles, use and purpose of music in film, music of the 20th century by decade, current music, specific types of music: Jazz, blues, rock, new wave, electronica, classical, folk, country,a cappella and barbershop, funk and disco, homemade instruments, reading music

Handicrafts: brick and planter bird bath, clay, oatmeal soap, latch hook rug kit, bookmaking, sewing, paper cutting, digital card making, stamping, map making, crochet, gardening

Literature: The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford, Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith, Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, Half Magic by Edward Eager, Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks, The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleishman, Taste of Blackberries by Doris Buchanan Smith, When the Soldiers Were Gone by Vera W Propp, Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat, Lafcadio the Lion Who Shot Back by Shel Silverstein, Keeper of the Doves by Betsy Byars, The Half-a-moon Inn by Paul Flieschman, The Bear’s House + Fran Ellen’s House both by Marilyn Sachs, Skinnybones + Almost Starring Skinnybones by Barbara Park, Darby by Jonathon Scott Fuqua, I Was A Rat! by Philip Pullman, The Monster Garden by Vivien Alcock and Shakespear’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Grammar: Sentence structure, paragraph, pre writing, topic paragraphs, concluding paragraphs, central paragraphs  Hopefully we’ll get a three paragraph report or literary review.  Keek does love visual reports and always includes verbose and descriptive captions.  So we’re not too far off to begin with!

Keep in mind that this is a guideline.  These are the subjects I will strew all over the house and encourage her to take an interest in.  If she finds one that she absolutely loves she can stick with it for a month or more!  However long it takes  to sate her curiosity.  If she’s not interested in a subject we’ll cover it as quickly as possible and move on.  Keek learns best when things are moving quickly.  If we drag too slowly through a boring tedious subject she looses momentum with the subjects she enjoys.  It’s a delicate balance I tell ya!

Her Literature list is also her book list.  Most I have found at one or the other of the library systems we frequent.  If, however, you run across Shel Silverstein’s, Lafcadio please tell me where!  It’s not so well known and a bit harder to find.  I’ll request purchase of it to both systems and we’ll see if they’ll buy.

Update: Picasso, Moving, School and Books!

Picasso had a broken hip and has had a screw installed to hold the bones where they belong until he heals.  He’s just started to put a little weight on his leg and he’s only in pain when it gets cold.  Poor pup is old before his time. 

We haven’t moved yet… and the people who were purchasing our house have backed out.  So until further notice we will remain here.  The stress of it all is getting to me and has manifested itself as a cold… I lost my voice today so be glad I’m not telling you all this, in my froggy croaking voice, over the phone!    Ho hum…

Kids have been studying well.  Keek’s interest in cursive has resumed and she practices a little bit every day.  She has started drawing crazy scientist labs with intricate and detailed experiments and raging storms outside.  I suppose every good science lab needs a great storm to go with it!  She’s taken to the history channel’s “This Day In History.”  She’s bookmarked the page and comes to me with “Did you know” facts all day.  Today I learned ASPCA was founded on April 10th in 1866, who knew?!?  She’s reading, “How Rude!” Alex J Packer, Ph.D.  It is a book of manners and proper behavior.  I wonder why she is so interested in this area… maybe it comes from her Aunt H because I know it doesn’t come from either of her parents!!  Keek’s also been working with fractions as she cooks more.  She made rice for breakfast yesterday and had to figure how much water was needed for one and 2/3 cups rice.  She understood the addition, subtraction and reduction of fractions right off.  When I told her there were an infinite amount of numbers in between zero and one she replied in her most wide eyed voice, “I can’t believe it!  Well what do you know!”  

Fish is learning about T4, a unit of the Nazi army in WW2.  They were in place to dispatch the aged and disabled.  He is reading  “T4″ by Ann Clare LeZotte to me.  T4 tells the story of Paula, a deaf girl in small town Germany during WW2.  The short novel is written in free verse and the poems allow me to skip the areas that are too much for Fish.  He is outraged at the actions of T4 and wants to read more of the book every day.  We’re just over half way through the book and things are very bad for Paula and indeed all of Germany.  Soon we’ll be over the hump and Paula will be reunited with her family once again.  He’s drawn a series of signs for his new cafe, “Calypso” and some labs in addition to a smiling self portrait.  He’s practicing his printing when Keek works on her cursive.  And he’s memorized all the zeros, ones and twos multiplication facts up to 10.

Together we read, “The Tales Of Beedle the Bard” by JK Rowling and the kids just loved it.  Especially the notes by our dear departed Dumbledore.    The book contains five well known wizarding fairy tales that show the importance of moral responsibility.  Fun book!  We’re also reading the first book in another Emily Rodda series, “Rowan of Rin.”   It’s a fine book and we are enjoying it.  Rowan is a meek and fatherless boy in a village of warriors.  He must help save his village when the stream that feeds them suddenly dries up.  The book is full of action and peril but not as mezmorizing as the Deltora series.  I think this book series may lose out to “Fablehaven” by Brandon Mull; which we are also reading.

Fablehaven is the first in a series of books in which a brother/sister team discover and fight to protect their family, a forest full of magical creatures and possibly the world!  Orson Scott Card, author of Ender’s Game says, “Like ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Fablehaven’ looks like a book for kids, but, like ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Fablehaven’ can be read aloud in a family with as much pleasure for grown-ups as for children… Do yourself a favor, and don’t miss this first novel by a writer who is clearly going to be a major figure in popular fantasy.”  Full of detail,  imagery and depth this may be our new favorite series!

What we’re learning now…

Fish has found a book he loves.  “Tales of Deltora” by Emily Rodda is a fantasy book full of dragons and dangerous sea creatures in a time of violent earth growth and change.  He won’t read it to me but I think he’s been reading on the sly.  Only when I’m not looking.  He’s one of a kind that’s for sure!  He enjoys the quizzes in the ‘prepare you kid for standardized tests’ book he picked up at the library a week ago.  Keek enjoys it too as she gets to do the quizzing.    He read, read, and re-read, “The Mighty 12 Superheros of Greek Myth” by Charles R Smith Jr and P Craig Russell.  The prose is written like the “Iliad” and the illustrations are like comic books.  He really has enjoyed the book.  So much so, that I think a copy of it lies in our future.  Heeheehee…  He also buzzed through “Fred and Ted Go Camping” by Peter Eastman and “I want to Be Somebody New” by Robert Lopshire; the sequel to “Put me in the Zoo!”

Keek has just finished up “How to be A Princess in 7 Days or Less” by Lesley Rees and “Egyptian Princess” by Jacqueline Morley.  She’s more than half way through,  “Excuse Me, But I was Next…” by Peggy Post and has just started reading a big fiction book, ” The Summer King” by OR Melling.  It involves twin sisters, one of whom is dead and spooky happenings in Ireland.  Although Keek isn’t usually into such spookiness she is enjoying this book very much!  She also has “First Aid For Wildlife” by Irene Ruth on her list… but I’m not sure she’ll get to it before it’s time to take it back!

We’ve been neglecting Fish’ math pages in favor of spelling puzzles.  He does one a day and sometimes two… depending.  They have been playing store where they trade items of similar value using the trunk as a store counter.  It’s been a big hit!   Fish has been playing online with his Webkinz and at Club Penguin.  He noticed the return of Rockhopper (the penguin pirate) a couple of days ago and when he finally arrived both kids went to collect their treasure!  Each kid got a red cap and a ringing bell from Rockhoppers treasure trove.  What a fun game! He’s been watching pink panther (free DVD from the local movie store) and old Garfield episodes on YouTube.  He made his stocking this weekend with the help of Grandma.  It has a wonderful underwater scene and is covered in fish and bubbles.  He also put six snowflakes in the water “…because that’s how old I am.”

Keek has been doing her math faithfully.  She’s decided which multiplication tables she likes and which she doesn’t.  The fours, sevens, eights and twelves are “really hard” and the rest are easy.  I wish I could say the same!  She’s used her skip counting sheet so much it’s practically toilet paper but she refuses to let it go.  She did get busted the other day for cheating and then lying about it but she apologized, did the work (on her own this time) and promised not to cheat again because, “… it makes things easier now and harder later.”  I think it’ll stick.  Her OCD came out of the closet the other day, too.  She took the advent calender and started putting the numbers in counting order.  She was doing quite well when I informed her the picture wouldn’t look right if the numbers were in order and that they were out of order on purpose.  She looked at me like I was crazy and I couldn’t help but laugh.  Once she understood that I hadn’t lost all my marbles we put the boxes back in all the right places.  With the numbers all back in the wrong order… advent chocolates were served this morning on schedule.  lol

Fish went to the dentist on Monday and had 9! cavities! Eeee Gads.  We got four filled today, three this upcoming Friday and the other two are just under observation.  The dentist thought one would have to be a crown but it wasn’t as bad as it looked so all is well.  The others are tiny surface cavities and filled easily.  Keeker has an appointment lined up for Friday as well.  She is really nervous about it and asks Fish lots of questions.  He loves being the expert and handing out his vast knowledge.     Teeheehee

I have taken an interest in regional lore and am studying up.  I have a book that focuses on Ozark lore.  It’s really interesting and many of the phrases are familiar to me already.  For example, “Rain before 7, Dry by 11.”  Really a neat book, but I’m only one chapter in.

Alas the dryer buzzes and I must go!

More Reading and boring math worksheets!

As the fist cold of the season (and hopefully the last) holds us captive in the house we have all been reading… a lot!!! In addition to math wkst’s and “The Giant Book of Cool Stuff” Keek has delved into more arts and crafts.

Fish is working on linear addition and subtraction as opposed to vertical and visiting favorite old books all on his own.  We cleared a shelf in the living room for some of the kids books.  It has really increased their reading.  I am still pleasantly surprised!

I’ve been reading too, but nothing of childhood educational interest!   Ohhhhh, I can’t wait until we feel better.  blehhhhh…

Until then I don’t think I’ll blog.  We don’t expect to be under the weather for more than a week but you know how that goes.  Fish has been teatering on the edge of an asthma attack and even Keek has been heezy wheezy a couple of nights.  We’ve been eating lots of soup and drinking lots of hot chocolate plus a daily dose of lemon tea.  Hopefully it’ll do the trick!  Fish is looking better four days after the initial onset.  Keek is a day behind him, I’m a day behind her and DH is a day behind me.  So in three or four more days we should all be back on top of things!  Until then… TTFN!

Two more weeks of School…almost

Wow!  Halloween has taken hold, and how!

We’ve been working on our math daily, and I have seen marked improvement with Keeker.  Occasionally she hits a brick wall but she can usually find her way around it without too much trouble.  We got her an additional workbook called, “Multiplication Made Easy.”  She does 2 pages a day for now.  Once they get past the easy ones we’ll probably slow back down to a page a day.  She’s plugging away and staying relatively motivated.

Fish is back in Story Problem mode.  I switched him because the words didn’t match the pictures.  His reading wasn’t going to be able to pick up the slack quite yet.  Now his reading has improved so we switched back.  But it was like I was playing a cruel joke or something.  He skimmed the word problems for key words like, “all together” or “left” and decided to add or subtract the numbers based on those words alone.  Well, it turns out the pictures didn’t give him the right numbers to add and subtract.  Just because the picture was of three hats and two scarves didn’t mean he was too subtract one from the other.  The question was:

There are seven scarves and four hats in the closet.  How many more scarves are in the closet than hats?

Because of the picture presented and the word “more” in the word problem Fish answered 3 + 2 = 5.  Yes his arithmetic was correct but the problem was all wrong!  It took us a couple of days to get past that hurdle but I think it’ll really improve his reading comprehension.

Keek has been re-reading her fairy tales and looking for others online.  I think she’s ready for the rainbow of fairy tale books in the “grown up” section of the library.  Thing is we don’t have those classics at our library.  Grrr… we’ll have to make a trip to the big town for that!  Fish has been avoiding reading all together.  I can’t say that I blame him… I wasn’t a reader as a child either.  He likes to be read to so I guess I’ll just back off and give him some more time to come to it on his own.  I am comfortable in his ability to read enough to get by.  If he were of age I’m sure he could fill out a job app and probably even vote.  He just doesn’t like to read! At six I give the kids there email addresses but Fish has no interest.  He said, “Eh, I’ll just call somebody if I want to talk to them.”  Shocker!

The kids have both been active on clubpenguin.com; which has cool new Halloween decorum by the way. Fish just got a Webkinz!  YAY!  He loves it, of course and has been even more of a computer junkie lately!  Keeker has been playing around at pbskids.org/zoom again and really enjoys the “did you know?” section.

We finally finished decorating the house, it was spooktacular!  Fish helped Dad lay tiles in the back area and Keek helped with more spooky spiderwebs festooning the living room.  The costumes were ready and the invites were out.  The Big Birthday Bash was looming large on the calender and excitement sizzled in the air!

The night before the party a whole group of us went downtown to our little village celebration where Dh and I won the costume contest.  The kids got plenty of candy and the grown ups got plenty of pictures.  Talk about fun!

When the big day arrived we could hardly contain ourselves!  The party started at just the right time and lasted much longer than was anticipated… but with wonderful results!  The food everyone brought was delicious.  The cousins came over and all kids had a blast!  The presents were all big hits.  Fish plays with the awesome shotgun and kooky alien creating machine every day!  They’ve watched Scooby Doo 2 I don’t know how many times and *ahem* Fish’s aim with the bow and arrow set has greatly improved. teeheehee

Another Week of School!

More reading!  More math!  More learning!  We had a busy week.  We went to visit our ‘long lost’ friends and really enjoyed their company on Friday.  Had a blast, as usual. Went to the eye Dr. and even went camping!

Keek has been reading scary spooky Halloween stories to fish all week.  So far they’ve finished one (Spooky America by Lori Haskins) and started another (Ghost Town by Joan Lowery Nixon).  It’s the Halloween spirit… bites us all!

Keek has also been reading the American Girl series.  At the moment she’s quite taken with Felicity, a girl from 1774.

The books include art projects at the end.  Keek has made a pair of Lorgnettes now and loves to look through them when she plays dress up! She’s also been playing more with her math flash cards and is progressing steadily.

Fish is reading daily but doesn’t look forward to it.  I think we’ll try the, “Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons.” book again.  He was so opposed to it last time we tried… but now I think he’ll find it much easier.  He checked out two Dr. Seuss books from the library and a Naruto comic book.  He was tickled with the reverse fomat and enjoyed starting, ‘in the end!’  He had been using addition flash cards when Keek uses her multiplication set.  He enjoys doing the same kind of work as she is.  I suppose it makes him feel like a bigger boy.

We’ve picked up interest in health and the food pyramid… especially caloric consumption.  Keek read the book, “The Monster Health Book” by Edward Miller and was shocked that she and Fish should be consuming about the same calories daily, being that she is, “so much,” older than him.  Her questions led to an explanation of metabolic rate.  Which made Fishee’s day because men (and boys) typically have a faster rate than women (and girls).  We three also discussed bone and muscle density which led to evolution and early human life.  With a discussion of gender roles both then and now.  What wonderful connections they make!

School update

Keek’s continued with the workbooks but switched to multiplication review.  She’s started flash card games, too.  She lays them out like a multiplication chart and reads through them every couple of days or so. She also practiced cursive today. Letter S. She’s started listening to, “The Graveyard Story” by Dave McKean.  Pretty cool!  The author read a chapter at a time and the recorded readings are on all together on the blog.  Good Stuff!

Fish is still adding and subtracting in his math wkbk.  He’s continued with the phonics and reading wkbs too, but they are getting boring. He’s just not a reader!  He can read and comprehend but doesn’t enjoy it. So much energy in that busy boy!

We’ve been making more Halloween decorations.  Keek made a heart with a spiderweb and a bloody hand.  Fish put up more spiderwebs and window clings.  Kids took Dad down the Halloween Isle and the store and picked out a deviil costume and more face makeup than we’ll ever use!  Fun stuff!

I read on my friends blog about a weekly challange that sent me to this blog.  I think we’ll try to make plastic bag clothing:  New! Ongoing challenge three!  Sounds fun and we’ve got the bags to do it!

Photo upload YAY!

Rock Garden inspired by Webkins, “Daily Activity” and made by Keek and Fish.  They used Keek’s rock collection and built it in a corner of the front garden.  So Pretty!

These are the signs the kids made for their beverage stands… (complete post)

Keek and Fish paintings… (complete post)

week 5

Another week of school under our belt and all is well!  We did the usual worksheets and read numerous books.

Keek and Fish have been asking for a lemonade stand all summer and finally we started working on it.  I gave each of them a sticky board measuring 20 x 16 and instructed them to make signs.  Keek told Fish, “Advertising is an important part of running a business.”

“I know, I know.  If we make lots of signs we’ll have lots of customers,”  he replied, “and then we’ll make lots of money!”

Both kids decided to use the computer to make their signs.  Fish searched, using Google, to find his perfect sign. While searching he found a curvy bottle with the word, “soda” on it.   He asked for help to make it four different colors.  I showed him how to use the hue adjustment in our paint program.  He thought that was pretty cool!   He also decided to accept donations, instead of setting a price.  He said, “that way anybody can have lemonade or soda even if they are poor… and rich people will pay me more than fifty cents a cup…”

Keek thought it was too cold for lemonade, instead, she would sell warm beverages.  She chose hot chocolate, apple cider and hot tea.  She decided on a set price of fifty cents a cup with refills available for twenty five cents.  Both kids chose their fonts and colors then printed the words to put on the sticky boards.   Keek wanted a business name and decided on, “Warm & Cozy.”  She also Googled images for her sign.

We decided to cover the rest of the sticky board with something so it wouldn’t get dirty:  torn construction paper was perfect for the job!  The kids chose their colors and set to work.  An hour later we three were still sticking… eventually the signs were complete.  Will upload pics asap… my phone is broken and dh is not here with his so that scratches any pic taking for now.  boo-hoo!

Early Bird and Night Owl

I had always read that children are most attentive and sharpest in morning hours.  I also believed that the more mundane subjects (math) should be tackled during these peak hours.  I was taught to do the most difficult tasks first, “when you’re fresh.”  So I’ve been teaching my children the same thing.  When we wake up we eat, then attack out math worksheets.

Just to insure a smooth transition I put the math books on the table before breakfast is finished, except for yesterday.  Yesterday the math books stayed hidden in the hallway on the shelf.  I was reading email (or something) and not paying attention.  Breakfast was eaten in record time and both kids vacated the premises as quickly as possible.  I’m not one to interrupt quiet play so I let them be.

Lunch came and went.

About four in the afternoon I said, “Hey we haven’t done any math today.  Let’s do it now.”  Keek and Fish went to the bookshelf and grabbed their books, sat down and set to work.  5 minutes later Fish was tapping his pen on the side of his head.  I asked if he would mind finishing his math instead of playing pen-head.  He laughed.  2 minutes later Keek said, “DONE!” and brought me her math before skittering outside to jump on the trampoline.  She was finished and did them all in record time!  I checked her work and she had completed all the problems correctly.

Fish, however,  was laying on his chair with his feet in the air, using pens like drumsticks on his feet. He spent three hours, poor dear, in that chair playing and trying to focus on the work at hand.  At seven I said, “I think you’re done for today.”

***Then It Hit Me***

Fish is an early bird as Keek is a night owl.

Those of you familiar with with Keek’s math woes know how she had labored over the pages and crumpled under the thought of math.  If only I had thought to apply common sense to the issue.  Keek wasn’t having problems with the math… she was having problems with the time of day.

As a parent I knew she was never a morning person.  Since her birth she’s slept in until at least 10:00.  As a colicky baby she cried non-stop from 11pm to 3am.  As a toddler, with a new baby brother, she would be cranky when he startled in the morning but fine anytime during the night.

Fish is the flip side of the coin.  In utero he would wake me up at 6am like clockwork.  I would be starving if I slept in until 7:00.  As a toddler he would wake up, at the slightest noise and be wide awake any time after 4am.  Up ’till four months (or so) ago he’s always woken at seven (or earlier) and come to our room to cuddle.  Now he gets up early and turns on the computer or plays a dvd quietly until the rest of us are out of bed.  By ten pm he’s wound down and, although he’s never sleepy *wink-wink* he’s ready to cuddle again.

Homeschooling allows my children to be their best.  Keek is not bound to struggle with math every morning because she can do it in the afternoon.  Fish is not stuck with afternoon assignments because he can always do his work in the morning.  If only I had realized this earlier!  Instead I listened to society… a society that doesn’t know my kids at all!  Another reason, I’m so glad, I homeschool!

School week 4

Keek and Fish both did their five pages of math and read daily.  Keek continued with Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.  She also read, “Zzz…” by Trudee Romanek.  Fish read “Mr. Brown Can Moo.  Can You?” three days in a row!  On Thursday and Friday he switched and read Richard Scarry’s “The Best Mistake Ever and Other Stories.” Fish also completed five spelling worksheets and five more word puzzle worksheets.

Both kids started a painting after we looked through a stack of old Smithsonian magazines.  They identified three main differences between realistic and abstract paintings.  We discussed the difference between foreground and background and spoke briefly about composition.  They caught on quickly and could identify the triangle compositions in many paintings.  They each made their own paintings and have finished the background and blocking for the foreground.  When they’ve completed their pictures I’ll scan them in and post!

Keek and I went bikeriding in the cemetery every other day and then we all went to the bike trail.

I think I could remove the training wheels, what do you think?          ♥

Week 3

This week has flown by!  I’m in a hurry so this will be a quick post…

Keek:  five pages math… multiplication and early division… but I’ll tell you what, the division is not going smoothly so we’re going to stick with multiplication for a while… probably until Feburary…

Reading:  Spiderwick five… almost finished!

Computer learning skills:  I’ve noticed, as I peek over her shoulder, that she now types with four fingers… index and middle fingers, on both hands.  She is one step closer to “traditional placement” and all this, on her own!  We had to purchase a USB keyboard for the laptop (I’ll come back to this) so we went with the split keyboard.  It’s not two seperate sections but a curvy setup with elongated T,Y,G,H,B and N keys.  The setup lends itself to “proper placement” typing.

Science:  Keek has been really interested in the molecular structure of everyday items.  She watched atomic videos and looked at molecular models online.  When she’s studying the building blocks I can see the gears turning.

Fish: 5 pages math, word problems… addition and subtraction

Reading: lots of Little Golden Books… plus 5 pages (level one) spelling and 5 pages word puzzles.  He hasn’t complained about the word puzzles once this week… must have just been that specific page last week.

History: Enjoys history stories on the History Channel and any eye witness accounts of the past.  With special interest to wars and battles.

Computer skills:  Broke the laptop while playing a firing game.  The space bar was the fire button and in his over eagerness he broke it.  So we had to buy a new laptop and all, space bar firing games are against the rules.    He is now an official spy on club penguin and loves to solve the mystery’s… over…and…over…again…

Science:  Fish has been pondering life.  He is formulating his opinions of it.  Is a tree alive?  Is a blade of grass alive?  Can they feel?  What it means to be alive… and other such questions have been mine to field.  We’ve had some interesting discussion!

So that’s all for this installment!  More later!

Week 2

Another week of school and all is well!

Keek has been reading book 5 in the Spiderwick Chronicles and truly loves the series.  (Just imagine her excitement about the movies!) She is plugging away at math and made the connection between multiplication and division.  Her math book had missing number problems and that helped her on the path to discovery. Instead of 24 / 4 = ?  Some were written 24 / ? = 6.  At first this change in format confused and frustrated her.  We made a skip counting sheet that helped tremendously.  She caught on quickly and solved the remaining problems: no muss, no fuss.

On Thursday Keek was bored with work and she asked if she could do her math in her room.  I am in no way opposed to independent study but something was questionable in the way she asked.  Then it hit me!  Just the other day she had discovered the answer section located in the back of her workbook.  She had been using it to check her own work.  I put two and two together then said it would be fine.  She could finish the math in her room but I needed to see her workbook first.  She brought me the workbook, positively beaming at her cleverness.  I turned to the back of the book and gently tore the perforated answer pages out.  Then handed the workbook back to her.  She was so mad she turned purple.  So not to give herself away she turned and stomped off to her room.  OH I was in so much trouble!!

Fish continued on his reading and math path.  He buzzes through the math but, on Wednesday, voiced his first complaint.  He was finished with his spelling page, math page and about to start his word puzzles page when he heaved a heavy sigh and sat flatly, “I hate word puzzles.”

“You do?”  I asked

“Yeah…”  He responded.  Then he opened the book and did the page without another word.  When he was finished he went about his business and said nothing more.  On Thursday he did his pages and seemed to be enjoying himself… he was rhyming and drumming his fingers and shaking his hair, back and forth, the way a puppy would shake himself dry.

Today Fish “missed” school.  He threw up three times this morning but seems fine tonight… weird!  Keek went on in her books but Fish sat, half dozing on the chaise, hugging a bowl.  Poor baby.  This afternoon, when he felt better, I suggested he do his school pages but he said he didn’t want to.  He suggested doing them tomorrow… so tomorrow it is!

We’ve read the story of Joseph and the coat of many colors a thousand times and this week we watched the Disney version 1000 more times.  It’s a good story but if I have to listen to it agin I’m going to lose my marbles!  The kids also watched a movie based on Anne of Green Gables and loved it, especially Keek.

We watched Mythbusters, Man vs. Wild and a National Geographic special about the Amazon this week.  The Amazonian animals were of much interest to Keek.  She enjoyed the funny dolphins and shiny piranha in the murky water.  She was surprised by the contrast of murky rapid water and clear slow water tributaries that ran into the Amazon. Fish liked the baby alligators and the way they rode in their mother’s mouth.  He also liked the manatees and the dance they did under the water.  We all love Man VS Wild and were most shocked, surprised and grossed out when Bear peed on his cut hand. Bear explained that the ammonia in the urine would prevent infection.  Keek and I were expressing our opinions of general disgust (“EEEWWWWW!”) while Charles and Fish laughed out loud.  The Mythbusters were debunking conspiracy theorists claims that the lunar landing never took place.  The most interesting tidbit of this episode was how topography affected the shadows cast in the photographs.  Pretty cool stuff!

So that’s my summation of the weeks scholarly events.  Hope you enjoyed it!

Week 1

One week of recorded schooling under our belt and no complaining to speak of!  Yay!!!

After five days of ’school’ I consider myself (and the kids) back in the swing of things.  I’m really glad I decided to go with the weekly piece of mind sheets and printed the first semester’s pages ahead of  time.  The daily block size is perfect for recording their activities.  It seems (so far) that I have more time for myself this year.  They are recording the weather daily and studying soil samples under the heading of Science.  We haven’t done any History anything so far!  Maybe next week.

Keek has really benefited from the math worbook.  She is in the middle of a third grade book and just starting simple division.  Her multiplication tables are not memorized (mine either, for that matter) but her figuring skills have gotten quicker.  She freezes up when asked an unexpected math question but how often does that happen in the real world?!

Fish learned more about reading this summer than I could have imagined. He can read most of the little kid books in his room, unassisted, on the first try.  He is eager to move on to the bigger books but gets easily frustrated by longer, compound, contraction or non-phonetic words. Beyond all that I am so impressed how much he picked up on his own.   That’s when kids really learn… when no one is watching!

Both of the kids have frequented brain pop dot com and enjoy the easy learning they do there. Keek was sucked into the land of atomic particles and Fish revisited Olympic history.  Both wanted to take the following quizzes, which surprised me.  I suppose when one hasn’t been exposed to the stigma of test taking the stigma doesn’t exist!  Keek opted for a graded test and Fish chose to take the review.  Both had fun and that’s the most important requirement for long term recall of information.

Keek read, “The Hundred Penny Box” by Sharon Bell Mathis then wrote her own book report.  She prefers to write on copy paper then transcribe over to lined paper.  She did great!

Fish and I read, “A Kitchen Knight” by Barbara Schiller together.  By far, his favorite place was, the Castle Dangerous! He also read a (PD Eastman or Dr Seuss) book to me daily.  His favorite book at the moment is, “I Stink!” by Kate McMullan.  It’s an energetic story of a New York City dump truck told in first person narrative with one nasty alphabet soup recipe!

Hopefully the other 35 weeks will be just as fun and easy going as this one was!

School time Peace of Mind

School time is around the corner so I’ve printed off my “peace of mind” sheets! On this pile of paper I write what the kids do and learn daily. I’ll start recording information on August 18th and keep 180 days of records. I do this, totally, for my own comfort as my state doesn’t require records. Like the boy scouts say, “Always Be Prepared”!

I have been using Donna Young dot org printouts for the past three years. I have waffled back and forth on what is the most convenient way for me to record the days activities. I keep returning to the same four rows and five columns. This year (because I found the time) I added a pretty little picture and inspirational quote to the bottom of each page. Each page equates to a week of time and each kiddo gets two columns.

We are doing mandatory math. Mandatory meaning I really want them to do a page every day. Actually, I don’t so much care about a page a day… as long as they finish these little workbooks and understand the basic of math with which to build on. So I guess I’m aiming at a page a day! These are good little workbooks with color illustrations and enough but not too many problems per page. Keek has a minimum of 4 word problems to, at most, 36 memory (classic 2×2, 2×3, 2×4, 2×5…) problems a page. Fish has a story problem book (trying to tie in reading) with roughly 5 problems per page.

Also… I got my hands on a great reading list (by age- not grade) and have picked some books to plant around the house and at least, expose, the children too. I picked one a week all the way to Winter Break! When I start recording our activities I’ll post the books, too!

As far as science goes we have the “What Your 4th Grader Need To Know” and “What your 1st Grader Needs To Know” books by E.D. Hirsch. Keek has been carrying around the fourth grader book for a month now and keeps coming up with kooky science experiments. I’m not sure if she’s gathering them from the pbskids.org/zoom website, the mythbusters website, some other website or her 4th grader book! At any rate she’s excited to be the mad kitchen scientist once again!

Fish seems most interested in the History of Piracy. We’ve been watching pirate movies this summer and I have a sneaking suspicion that his love of pirates will continue into the fall. Perhaps it will segway into the Spanish Conquistadors and right into the 1st grader history section!

When school starts I’ll post the science and history discoveries and any other cool stuff we’ve found along the way!