Balance Part Three...

A poster on the homeschooling board I frequent most often asked about living books for science, then another for history and math. As a result, I went through all my bookmarks, which are chock full of links to great book lists, lists that I daydream about but fail to really use. All of this naturally got me thinking about Charlotte Mason education again, and I remembered I had purchased and downloaded, but never actually read, the secular version of Penny Gardner's Charlotte Mason Study Guide. I would highly recommend this - it is only $5 and I wish I had read through it sooner!

Just some quick background as to what constitutes a living book: "...living books contain living ideas from great minds. Instead of presenting dry facts, these books are written in conversational, literary language." (Penny Gardner)

So, in seeking balance in my homeschooling efforts (see Balance and Balance Part Two), I thought I would look at science, history, and even some math from a living books point of view. And, because it is an approach that works with my children, a hands-on point of view. What does this change? Well, for example... science. Instead of spending $x on a "curriculum", I can put together a thoughtful list of books we will all enjoy together, and then compliment those books with hands-on experiments. Currently, we're interested in insects. This is what I have come up with so far:

Books:
Creepy Crawlies & the Scientific Method
Insect Life (an old classic)
The Insect Folk (another old classic)
The Snail's Spell
Where Butterflies Grow
A Girl of the Limberlost (one of my personal all-time favorites)
Simon and Schuster Children's Guide to Insects and Spiders
Peterson's First Field Guide to Insects (Cyrus loves field guides)
Insect Soup: Bug Poems

Hands-On:
LadyBug Land
Praying Mantis Pagoda
An ant farm
the compost heap (loads of worms)
How to Draw Insects
Insects: Make it Work
The kids have pet snails (apparently they are "racing" snails)
And of course, magnifying glasses and nature journals!

We also may watch (for the zillionth time) Microcosmos, which is an excellent film. I am also doing research on living books for chemistry and physics, to start reading aloud in the fall. Biographies will work, and I am reading through The Wonder Book of Chemistry over at the Baldwin Project to see if it might work. Any suggestions? I am also skimming through The Storybook of Science, also on the Baldwin Project, to see if it might work as general science for us.

So, back to the balance bit... I have catalogs from quite a few homeschool curriculum companies, and while I gather many ideas from these sources, I notice that they tend to fall into one of three categories: a) lots of reading and not much else, b) lots of hands-on, or c) more schoolish than not. I need something in between these, which is where Charlotte Mason comes into the picture. Good books, plenty of activity, handicrafts, outdoor time, nature studies... this all sounds pretty ideal to me.

It is funny - we have "officially" been homeschooling for 5 years now, and I still feel like I am just learning how to do it! I was talking to another mom at our Indian potluck yesterday, a mom who is newer to homeschooling, yet I find we have many of the same frustrations and feelings despite the amount of time put in so far. I think we're finding our own pace now that we're not associated with the charter school anymore. I find we're getting more work done on a more regular basis than we did when I had to report each month, and turn in work samples. I think this year so far has been a chance for us to find our footing and our learning path.

Now I want to do more research on living books for math and other approaches there. I am toying with the idea of having Wednesdays as free math days, with games and good books rather than math pages. And I think Life of Fred will fit the bill nicely when Cyrus is ready. I still really like Math Mammoth, and in fact just purchased the entire Blue series from the Homeschool Buyers Co-op, but I'd like that balanced (that magical word again) with more hands-on and varied approaches. In history, I plan to keep using Homeschool in the Wood's Time Travelers as the bare bones, but will shift our reading to more books and less of the text.

Balance is, according to dictionary dot com, "to arrange, adjust, or proportion the parts of symmetrically; composition or placement of elements [of design] in such a manner as to produce an aesthetically pleasing or harmoniously integrated whole." I love the idea of a "harmoniously integrated whole"!

Balance Part 4...

I am learning now how to balance my new job, homeschooling, housework, college, and other demands on my time. It isn't easy. Most days, we do get the basics done... I work and am learning the ins and outs of my new position, I get the dishes and laundry done (though not always put away), there is good food on the table, and we get through math, reading, and writing, and we do read bedtime stories most nights. However, we're barely touching on history and science, there is a lot more housework and yard work I would like to have done... I feel most days as if I am running from one thing to the next.

My solution? Scheduling. Yes, actually having and following a [loose] schedule. I need to make sure I set aside time for housework, for cooking, for homeschooling, for myself. That means I am not answering calls, or checking emails, or looking at facebook updates in the afternoons. Instead, after I get home with the kids, they can check on the pets and fill their food/water bowls. I can do a quick load of dishes and a half hour of cleaning. We can settle in and get more than the basics done. A break midway through homeschooling gives them time to stretch and get their blood moving, and me a chance to do another quick chore or two. Then back to homeschooling, finishing up in time for me to make dinner, and for them to do a few chores before having some play time. Sometime we have time to take a brisk walk, something I would do on a regular basis. They have a bedtime that is fairly early... I read to them, they brush their teeth, and head off to bed. Then I have time with M, and time to read - my time. This is how it needs to be if I am to actually get anything beyond the basics done.

We did figure out, more or less, science. Cyrus is very, very interested in human anatomy. Cassia is a little interested in that, but more in nature studies. So we will do both. Cassia can go along with Cyrus in anatomy studies, and Cyrus can listen in on The Burgess Bird Book for Children, but they don't have to as long as they are doing one or the other. I also changed up our history a little... we were reading each week from both A Little History of the World (ancient times) and A First Book in American History, but I have decided that for this year and the next few (I hope), we'll do American history up to winter (Christmas) break, and then world history the second part of the year. This allows for more rabbit trails along the way!

So what have we done this week so far? Cyrus is acing math. Parts of it challenge him... I can see him concentrating, though parts of it are easy. Cassia scored one low score in math, I think more from a lack of attention than anything else, so I had her go back and re-do everything she missed. Besides that, she is doing well. I put some living math books on hold at the library- Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland for Cassia, since she's learning about angles, along with Pigs in the Pantry for fun, and then The Grapes of Math along with Alexander Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday (which many people don't think of as a math book, but it can be!) for Cyrus. While Teaching Textbooks is working very well for us, I would like them to think about math in different ways!

Cyrus has been writing dialog on a computer animation program, and has done some work in Intermediate Language Lessons. We need to fit spelling in on a regular basis, though he is asking me more and more how things are spelled. Cassia worked in Explode the Code a bit, and has been reading to me from her Nora Gaydos' books. Next week I plan to tackle Green Eggs and Ham with her. Cyrus in the meantime, is re-reading his Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and has started Children of Green Knowe, one of my favorite childhood books.

Besides that, Cassia has been helping me with cooking, and Cyrus has spent a lot of time drawing. He is learning about shading, both from a book and from me, and is doing beautifully with it. We're really enjoying the Nurse Matilda (aka Nanny McPhee) book at bedtime.

Back to balance, I think we are all still settling in the groove of our new schedule around my new job. Trying to achieve balance is a constant act... never really an accomplishment that one is done with. I wrote about balance before, and much of what I wrote then hold true now. I still love the idea of a "harmoniously integrated whole", and am determined that someday we shall live that at least a little at a time. I do think too that there is a balance between schooling and unschooling, hence the multiple sciences and the rabbit trails.

Some days, it is like being on a tightrope, others a walk in the park.

Balance...

I am looking for that magic balancing point between unschooling and schooling. My children delight so much in interest-led education, but at the same time there are things I want them to learn and to know. So how to balance the two when in so many ways they are opposite sides of the same coin?

This is something I struggle with on a regular basis. And something I wish I could just figure out and stop obsessing over. However, I am coming to realize that it is a journey, and as such is subject to change.

Right now my obsession lies with science. I bought and downloaded Nebel's first and second books on science. I made a handy-dandy flowchart for the first book. I came up with a list of possible additional reading and videos to go with it. A tremendous amount of work (well, about 2-3 hours!) I put books on hold at the library. And now? Now I'm not feeling it. The kids are once again fascinated with insects, and I have loads of resources on that topic. I keep reading on a homeschooling message board that grades K-8 are really the time to allow freedom in science (although I've noticed that same attitude doesn't seem to apply toward history or any other exploration/unit-study-friendly subject... odd) I read about children who grew up with freedom in science having careers in science, or at least doing extremely well in college. And so I have a personal dichotomy. Both Nebel's books are extremely well done, very thorough and very complete. But are they the right fit for us? I suppose I'll never know unless I try, now will I? But then, there are the insects, and birds, and a veggie garden to plant, and this great book I found for Cyrus.

At least they are enjoying history. Or, let me be absolutely honest, Cyrus is really enjoying history. Cassia just sort of tags along, which at her age is fine. I would like to find something she loves with which to beef up our studies. Maybe once we get there, the addition of the American Girls books will help.

Someday I will find that magic balance point, and when I do, I'll let you know!

Spring Cleaning & a Weekly Report...

I decided once again to tidy up the blog a bit, and to get it looking more like spring!

Now on to a weekly report. This week, we tried something new, as I am back in classes one morning and one longer day per week. The kids took their basics (math and language arts) materials with them to their Nonna's house, and she did homeschooling with them on those two days. Apparently, it went very well.

Cyrus
Worked through a few more lessons in Saxon Math 5/4. He worked on addition, subtraction, multiplication, carrying and borrowing, telling time, and reading gauges/charts.

In language arts, he's continued to plow through the second Percy Jackson book, although no progress has been made with The Whipping Boy. He worked in Writing Tales again, although I do want to try Intermediate Language Lessons with him. He is finally doing his own versions of the stories in WT without trouble. I haven't made him do a final draft of any of them... I just want him writing.

Cassia
She's making good progress - STEADY progress - in reading. She loves doing Explode the Code again, and I think it is helping, since she reads and writes the words, and has pictures to refer to. She, like her brother before her, loves the pages with silly sentences to choose from.

It works well as a complement to The Reading Lesson too, so much so that we've dropped any other supplements except Bob Books, which do give her a wonderful sense of accomplishment!

In math, she's just trucking along. Her number identification is really going well, and she's doing more and more of the work independantly, once I (or my mom) read her the instructions.

Both
History went well this week. We got through lessons two and three in Time Travelers New World Explorers. We ate dried fruit and beef jerky, much like the explorers. We still want to make some hardtack. Cyrus colored a picture of a sailing ship cross section, and we carefully cut the flaps outlined on it to show the names of all the ship parts on the contrasting papaer below. They colored Ptolemaic maps and the Royal Standard of Spain. We also learned to tie stopknots, boline knots, and a sheepshank knot. I asked Cyrus what he thinks of this program, and he is really enjoying the balance between hands-on and listening types of learning. Yaaay! Cassia enjoys it too, but participates at a different level... so far. I have a feeling when she sees Cyrus's finished lapbook, she'll want to finish her own.

Science
This was a free-for-all science week, since I just finished getting my flow for BFSU down on paper, and then figured out what books and videos I want to supplement with. So they watched documentaries, and Mythbusters, and Life After People. Next week we should be back into the swing of things!

Other
No piano lesson this week, but Cyrus is continuing to practice 4 out of 5 days. Cassia had ballet and was slightly disappointed that her new teacher was out sick, so her old teacher was there as a substitute. Not that she doesn't like her old teacher - she was just excited to work with the new one! Cassia also painted her first real still life this week - I'll have to scan it and get a picture of it up on here. I was amazed by it. Cyrus has been doing fine line ink work, with a quill, which I will also have to scan.

A good week, all in all. I am so glad my mom offered to help out.. it is making a world of difference. We haven't managed to stick to any particular schedule and I doubt we will, but we're still getting things done, and having time to tie knots, listen to stories, etc. I am trying now to find a balance between giving them a good education, and allowing for the freedom of hands-on, explorative learning.

Weekly Report: Finding Balance...

image courtesy of craftgawker

While this was a [purposely] light week, it was a good one. It gave us time to make goals for the rest of this school year, and to figure out where we're going down the road. And, I was able to let go of all the history and science plans that frankly drive me batty.

Following up on yesterday's post, I took the kids to the library, along with the new guidelines:
1 science book (per week)
1 biography/autobiography (per two weeks)
1 book of poetry (per week or two)

We'll add in history and music/art a little later on, since I have history all planned out for the rest of this year.

I expected maybe a little resistance on being told what to check out, but to my pleasant surprise, there was none! And actually, they seemed to enjoy finding books that fit these categories! A couple of the books we had to place on hold, namely the biographies... The Boy has chosen to learn about Henry Ford, and The Girl wants to know more about Amelia Earhart. We're using this fabulous list of "Messner Biographies" as a source for well-written, in-depth, but still fun to read biographies.

They also found poetry, The Girl discovered the Scientists in the Field series, and The Boy is going to continue reading through the Secrets of the Universe series.

image courtesy of thegospelcoalition

So I think, at long last, I have found balance, somewhere between schooling and unschooling!  Child-and-interest-led, within parameters. Besides this giving them freedom to explore their own interests, I think it builds responsibility--they are taking ownership of their own educations.

So, what did we do this week, besides figure some stuff out?

We read about early lawsuits surrounding the manufacture of cars. We enjoyed egg-laying. We traveled to Hogwarts with Harry Potter, and to Frankfurt with Heidi. We read about herons and egrets, after seeing some on Mother's Day. We watched a couple of episodes from season one of Downton Abbey (I've got the kids hooked at last!), and discussed civil rights and art during and after watching Pleasantville. The kids played a lot on their scooters, and did chalk paintings all over the driveway. We sprouted corn for our garden, and bell peppers.

Oh, and The Boy and I (maybe The Girl will tag along) signed up for The History of Rock Part I through Coursera. If you haven't looked at Coursera, you should! From their website: 
"Coursera is an education company that partners with the top universities and organizations in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free."

Since we're a week "behind" in signing up, we have a little catching up to do over the weekend, but we're pretty excited about this. We're looking at future courses on archaeology, Beethoven, from the Big Bang to Dark Matter, and so on.

Next week we dive back into the depths of homeschooling... six weeks to go, then we'll take somewhere between six and eight weeks off.

Hope you all had a good week!

Balance part two...

So, I think I have found my balance point, between schooling and unschooling. We are dropping formal history and science studies, and integrating more of the kids' own interests. Their paths are diverging - Cyrus is interested in Vikings, dragons, and the universe, while Cassia is fascinated by the Little House on the Prairie series, mermaids, and ladybugs. I remember posting in the fall how great it was to watch them expanding their own worlds, following their interests, and building upon them, and I would like to see more of that again. We'll stick with the three "R's" as I have them, and then everything is more free form. I do plan to sit down and watch an episode of The Story of US with them once a week for an American history overview, but it doesn't have to be the only focal point. I may show them Liberty's Kids as well, and read occasional good stories to further explore things, but a lot of what we'll be focusing on is what they are passionate about.

In place of formal geography studies, we're integrating social studies and geography. A fellow homeschooler has set up a once-a-month potluck which will be focused on various world cuisines. The first month, March, is focused on India. So we're reading some Indian fairy tales, watching the Story of India, and trying out various recipes, tonight's being butter chicken.

Speaking of cooking, Cyrus (who makes the best sloppy joes in the world) has decided he wants to expand his cooking repetoire, so I am giving him a cooking lesson once a week. This week, he learned to make beef stew from scratch. He did all the chopping, peeling, cutting and everything else himself, while I simply guided him through it. The results were delicious! He wants to learn to make omelets and chocolate chip cookies (from scratch) next. He's also got The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook from the library, and is trying to choose a recipe from that to test out. I plan to have him make his own grocery list for whichever recipe he tries, and shop for it himself. I also want to see how he does reading and following a recipe on his own! Of course, I'll be right there is he needs me.

And speaking of sloppy joes, that was Cassia's birthday dinner last week. Can you believe she's EIGHT already? Where is the time going? Since I was still in recovery from strep gone bad, we kept it very simple this year, with cupcakes at the park, her favorite dinner with extended family, and of course plenty of gifts!

Now, speaking of Cassia, I have some concerns. She still can't remember more than a handful of letters/letter sounds. I am thinking I may need to bite the bullet and have her tested for some sort of learning issue(s). I am giving it one more month, and then will make my decision. To me, it always seems like it is simply that she doesn't pay attention, but what if it is more than that? I keep reading all these unschooling books, blogs, etc., that talk about kids suddenly picking up reading, but I am not so sure that is going to happen. Have any of you, my readers, been down this road? I will admit, it scares me.

Well, we have a library trip in the works, a piano lesson later, and then a ballet lesson, so I must be off!

The day before yesterday, yesterday & today...

Monday: Day off from C.O.'s art class, so he spent the morning playing with Play-Doh. I've finally gotten the kids to stay at the kitchen table while playing with it. He flew through another math lesson when I got home from work, and then worked a bit on HM Phonics while C.J. colored a maze. After that, we went to C.O.'s first gymnastics class, which he loved! He had to climb a rope, do some work on bars, and some balance beam work. He said it's way more fun than soccer. Then C.J. had gymnastics, which she still adores. She did a lot of balance beam work. The other girls were goofing off and amazingly, C.J. behaved, so she got an extra couple of minutes on the trampoline! They couldn't wait to get home to show off to M. Now, as long as I can keep squeezing out the money for this!

Yesterday: We started working on housecleaning for Thanksgiving. The kids played with Play-Doh while I did dishes, scrubbed countertops and mopped the floor. There's still a few final things to be done, but at least I got a good start on it all! Then we read a Babar story, a Thanksgiving story, and talked about what we're thankful for. C.O. is thankful for HotWheels, RC airplanes, and Legos. C.J. is thankful for the color pink, cats, dirt/sand and stories. I'm glad my kids have their priorities straight! Then we did some math, and both kids practiced counting out loud to 100. We also worked on pictures for pen pals.

Today: Other than story-time, we are taking the day off educationally speaking (well, except I have class tonight). We're going to bake the pies today (apple for tomorrow, pumpkin for Friday), finish folding the huge clean laundry pile, vacuum, etc.

 

  HAPPY THANKSGIVING TOMORROW!

Always something going on...

We’ve been busy, busy, busy, as usual. This week we had our 4-H meeting on Tuesday (C.O. is now officially a member), where we listened to reports and did a community service project (cookies for a soup kitchen). C.O was asked to go up in front of everyone to help give a report on the Lego Engineering project – poor boy couldn’t think of a thing to say! Nonetheless, I congratulated him for just going up there, as did some of the other moms. I know how hard it is to speak in front of people – I still have a hard time with it! He is now designing a poster for the upcoming 4-H fundraiser, and I think he stands a good chance of winning in his age division!

Wednesday was a little quieter – we spent a lot of the afternoon reading our library stash, going to the grocery store, and so forth.

Yesterday C.J. was invited to be a buddy at a gymnastics class, so off we went to that. The kids played all afternoon and had loads of fun – it is always hard separating them from their friends at the end of the afternoon! I had an upset stomach yesterday, and C.J. got carsick on the way there, but was fine after a few minutes at her friend’s house. Yesterday they also told me, for the first time, that they miss gymnastics, so I need to contact the place we go to get them back in. I think I’ll wait though until after C.J.’s birthday next month, because then she can go to a class at the same time as her brother, which will make things so much easier!

Strangest thing happened after picking up M and getting home – as I mentioned I had an unhappy tummy, so I didn’t eat anything at lunch, and otherwise felt pretty much okay. But, about an hour after getting home, I started shaking, and I got the chills really badly, an immense headache came on very, very rapidly, I got very queasy and felt in general like my skin was on fire! So M sent me to bed at about 6, and I slept all the way through until my alarm went off at 7 this morning. Now I feel fine! I’m glad it passed – we have more to do today, and I didn’t want to be passing something on to another family!

Today we have Lego Engineering. C.O. is going to build something at my mom’s house for show-and-tell before I pick him up after work. They get to see their friends again, which they are both very excited about (in fact, that was the only reason I didn't have more trouble getting them to leave yesterday!).

School-wise, we’ve been taking it a little slow this week. At most, we’ve done 2 lessons on any given day, such as a page of math and a page of reading exercises. I am still trying to find that magical balance point between too much school work and too little; hoping to get it right sometime this year so I am better prepared for next year!

Organized Unschooling (okay, interest-led schooling)...

image courtesy of ri-ir.org

I know, that sounds like a bit of a contradiction, doesn't it?

But, in thinking, and thinking, and thinking, about where I don't quite succeed in homeschooling (yes, I am admitting to some failure), I believe I have figured out where the problem lies, and that is in follow-through. Yes, I am very good at coming up with lists, and plans, and all kinds of grandiose ideas, some of which include unschooling, but then we tend to more or less skim by, getting just the basics done, and sometimes a little more.

image courtesy of eebrinker.wordpress.com

image courtesy of mewarnai.us

Not what I picture when I think about what I really want in homeschooling. I quoted Elizabeth Goudge once: "Education is a mosaic of beauty. The various colored fragments are interrelated" (Linnets & Valerians), and that's what I want... interconnectedness, the fragments coming together to make something more than the sum of the parts.

Now the remedy I plan to try is very simple... actually planning, and yes that includes the unschooling -- or more properly stated -- interest-led aspects. So yes, I will plan out math and language arts, because they need that strong foundation. And I will ask them to complete a certain amount of other studies... for example, half an hour daily of free reading, or choosing a documentary to watch, an online course to complete. They are already immersing themselves in some project-based learning. I will ask them to set goals with me in regards to history, music, art, science, and then we will work together to break those goals down into manageable chunks.



Mostly, I want these ideas they have, and I have, to go somewhere. If they lead to more rabbit trails, fine. If they peter out before we even get going, well... that's what I want to start avoiding. Too often, around my house, I hear "I want to learn this and this", but then in reality, that's pretty much as far as it goes. As if the road we're about to follow ends before we even really get started.

image courtesy of nalzgraphics

So for next week, and the four weeks after that (what's left in our school year), I plan to plan. I have old "assignment sheets" that I made ages ago and I am updating them (maybe I'll share them later!). I am asking The Boy to dedicate those few weeks to an actual science/computer science study (he likes the looks of this one, which yes, he started once and never finished...and this one), OR he can read a whole science-related book, start-to-finish. I want The Girl to finish her choice of Prentice Hall Science Explorer texts for the year (last chapter of Animals, and all of From Bacteria to Plants... it is pretty short, so that should be doable). I want them to each chose one novel to read start to finish. Together, we will finish our interesting study of California, and our read-alouds. And in exchange for asking them to do more, I will incorporate what they want... book choices, time periods, The Girl's unending requests to actually dissect our owl pellets and frog specimens, more art, some summer excursions/field trips.  And this whole thing will be a practice run for fall.

image courtesy of charide.wordpress.com

I think of this plan as steps up a mountain, each one leading to the next, until we find another trail to explore, or a vista to enjoy, before returning to the climb. I can't see the top yet, but I know we are heading somewhere!

Yes, I know it is not really unschooling, as I am setting boundaries and such. It is interest/child-led, and parent-led, which I think will prove a good balance.

Unconcerned...

I use to worry about gaps in my children's educations, as if they were somehow in danger of falling into the abyss if they weren't exposed to everything; as if they were dependent on a vast knowledge of every historical event, every scientific principle; as if without a certain kind of education, they would be in danger of losing their grip on the world.

image courtesy of sellinginteriordesign.com

Certainly I read comforting articles like this one, and this one. But still I worried. Was I failing the children because I didn't make them memorize the kings and queens of England? Or the weight of each element?

My worry has definitely faded over the years as I have watched my children become capable of finding needed information themselves, of supporting their own interests. For example, The Girl loves animals. She searched out David Attenborough documentaries, found books at the library, delved into all of it and taught herself more about mammals, dinosaurs, and sea creatures, by the age of 13, than even I know at the advanced age of 43. The Boy knows cars from a distance—old and new—just from their silhouette. As for history and science, we have watched documentaries, read books, talked through the scientific method. We've studied art casually hung on the door of the fridge, listened to music that spans centuries, and enjoyed many period films.

I've seen over the years that if you teach a child to read [and do math] and you model for them how to find information, they become capable of doing just that, finding the information they need.

As for knowing every detail, I can honestly say that never in my life, since childhood, has anyone quizzed me about which president served when, or the order of the the periodic table of elements. To function, as a teacher at the college level mind you, I don't need to know who Marie Antoinette's sisters and brothers were, or in what year a specific battle took place.

I do think children, and adults, should be aware of the general flow of history and the basic tenets of science. They should have a basic familiarity with names, countries, events, and such. They should know who Napoleon was, or Hitler, and why we celebrate every July 4th. They should know where major countries are, how weather and seasons work, the basics of physics, and how plants grow. 

There are so many things overlooked when we focus on strictly an academic approach. As well as being able to write a decent essay and understand geometric proofs, they should be able to balance a checkbook, change a tire, cook a meal, sew on a button, do their own laundry. They should be able to follow their interests, and above all, learn how to find information. I'm not advocating a hands-off approach with learning, rather that perhaps priorities need to be reviewed and shifted on an occasional basis.

If my children graduate able to communicate easily both verbally and in writing, able to understand higher math (at least to a certain point, that being whatever level it is they need), can generally take care of themselves (life skills), and are able to search out the next pieces they need, I think I'll be comfortable. Learning doesn't stop when I stop explicitly teaching them. They will continue learning throughout their lifetimes, and surely that will allow them to fill in some "gaps". They'll leap, with my support and the support of others, across any abyss, or chasm.

image courtesy of apsalar.com

Weekly Wrap-Up... Rain, Gardening, Books, & More!

It is pouring outside! And we might have a thunderstorm mid-day! Since we seem to be living in a "state" (pun intended) of perpetual drought these days, I don't mind the rain. And that means we have an afternoon at home, rather than the park, to play a little catch-up!

From one of my morning walks this week

...Homeschooling This Week...

The Boy is making progress with one and two step equations in algebra, while The Girl and I played Totally Tut yesterday. I think we may play it again today, and I want her to work on multiplication and division facts with Circles & Stars (up to four dice). Remedial work, yes, but once she's really got this stuff down, I know (from experience teaching her addition and subtraction) that she'll make a big leap, mathematically speaking. And I found something that looks awesome for a little later on... the Interactive Mathematics Program (samples here). In the meantime, I think she might try Prodigy (online free math-wizarding game).

The Girl is making great progress through her spelling book too.

We did some reading from Outbreak! Plagues That Changed History, learning about the Black Death, and how it shifted the balance of power in feudal society. I'd definitely recommend this book for a different view of world history—lots of interesting tidbits, and a good, conversational writing tone.

And of course we watched some Downton Abbey, which led to a discussion on mourning practices. 

The Boy has been reading lots of recent articles on Hawking Radiation, Planet X, and other space phenomena. He keeps me up to date on what he's learned! The Girl has cycled back to her sea creature fascination, and at the same time, very sadly pointed out to  me this week that she does not remember ever visiting a zoo. I plan to remedy that in a couple of weeks, when M's day off cycles back to a Saturday.

Today's agenda includes math, spelling, nailing down The Boy's essay topic, A Wind in the Door, and the first chapter of DNA. And possibly an early evening trip to the indoor trampoline park! The Boy and I are also planning on watching Contact tonight, while The Girl and M watch Drop Dead Fred. We'll do a family movie tomorrow!

...Everything Else This Week...

The Boy misplaced The Martian, so he's working on finishing Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, book 1. The Girl is deep in Harry Potter. I am reading The Longest Night, a novel centered around the 1961 nuclear disaster in Idaho Falls, and The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family, which is just fascinating!

The Boy had parkour last night, and has decided he needs to strength train more at home. The Girl had derby practice, and said it was really tough, as they were (finally) learning some new skills this week. I tried out kickboxing, did a HIIT workout, and worked on my running.

My plantings/transplantings from last Sunday seem to be doing well, and I am sure the rain will help! Tomorrow, we're picking up a few tomato plants, herbs, and pepper plants... at last. It turns out it is just as well that we did not get them sooner, as we had a freak late frost last week that killed a lot of people's veggie starts. We're not doing a big veggie garden right off the bat. Instead, we're starting slowly and adding things in over time. I'm hoping to get a lot more done in the front yard too!


...Goals for Next Week...

Math, of course. And spelling for The Girl, and some writing/grammar for her. Some light essay work for The Boy, and I think I'll have him try out Excavating English with the two-week free sample, as I bet he'd really enjoy it. I'm hoping during our Sunday lessons, that we can either finally watch another episode of Human Planet, or work in Mapping the World with Art (or both?!?). And we need to get going next week with The Private Eye! All this means a trip to the store for spiral bound sketchbooks.

My other goal: more of our Afternoon Basket read-alouds!

Hope you all had a good week, and that you have a great weekend!

linked up over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

On our reading list right now...

While we're not sitting down for "school" each day, we are learning about American history through cuddled-up reading time, which seems to be the way in which my children learn the most, more than worksheets, or paper crafts, and so forth. Some of our current books include:

The Look-It-Up Book of Explorers
Leif the Lucky
The D'Aulaires Book of Norse Myths
Pedro's Journal
Columbus

After we get through exploration, we'll move on to the colonists. A Book in Time has lots of good suggestions for books about that time period. We also watched This is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers last night, which finally got Cassia interested in Pilgrims, etc. Cyrus watched the video tour of the first Thanksgiving a few days ago and got very interested then - he's been coming up with random facts for the last couple of days!

We're also learning about the human body. And we've watched a lot of MythBusters. Cyrus and I also watched Punkin' Chunkin'. We really wish they had shown more of the kids' division on the show, but it was still pretty interesting, though we were sorry our favorite contraption did not win. Anything named The Launchness Monster is pretty cool!

Cassia is showing more and more interest in reading. She asks to do reading lessons on the computer, and has me read pages of her favorite books over and over until she can "read" it back to me. I am so relieved... I read early, Cyrus read early, and it has been difficult waiting until she was ready... I can be very impatient!

Other than that, we're just puttering along. We read, we watch movies, we play games, the kids build contraptions out of anything they can get their hands on. I did ask them to start math back up soon, just a few lessons a week. They both opted for Saxon math again for now... we'll see how long it lasts! I'm still searching for the perfect science balance for them. We started to look at Aristotle Leads the Way but decided that would be better in another year or so. I'll figure it out eventually. What I need is a website like A Book in Time that has living science books rather than history. While they're not living books, I am considering ordering the e-book versions of Real Science 4 Kids pre-level and level 1 Chemistry, then Biology. The e-books are quite affordable, and I don't need the student lab book or teacher guide since I have a gazillion experiment books that I could easily correlate to the topics covered. I could read the pre-level to Cassia and Cyrus could read level 1, or I could read it with him.

Today we have Second Thanksgiving at my mom's house (we had ours here yesterday, and she had hers at her church). And I work for a few hours tonight. Tomorrow we're off to see the local junior college production of Willy Wonka, and are very much looking forward to it.

A Very Wordy Wednesday...

Another beautiful sunrise on my way to work

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
Lao Tzu

A couple of things with our new plans are not working out as well as I'd like. But, you know what? That's okay, because I have back-up plans too! And some things are better than I had hoped, so it's not all bad!

The Misses

Our science program ... :( I wanted it to work. I really did, but it just isn't resonating with my kids, and when they don't match up well with a learning tool, they don't learn. So, we're back to BFSU, with topical books from the library, and The Boy's beloved Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia (oh, and Janice VanCleave books plus all our various project books for the hands-on aspect). More documentaries too, since we love those! I took some time yesterday during The Boy's fencing class to check off all the lessons we have done and to put the rest in the order I'd like to do them, planning to finish up volume 1 this year so we can start volume 2 this fall. We're starting off with some energy studies, and I was lucky enough to find a few library books right off the bat, no holds! I think a big part of the issue here is that the kids don't want to wait another year or so before getting into physics, or even another half year before learning about geology. BFSU intertwines topics, since all of science is really related, so we get to explore all four major branches throughout the year.

Story of Ancient Greece... hmmm. Can I just say it didn't harmonize with what we want? Don't get me wrong--it is a lovely book, but something about it just doesn't appeal that much to my kids.

The Big Hits

K12's Human Odyssey... WOW! We've read just a few chapters, since I only read aloud from it once a week. It is well-written, enjoyable, easy to read aloud, and we're learning a lot about ancient Mesopotamia!

The National Art Gallery's Activity Book -- True, we've only done one activity from it so far, but it was so much fun! (I wish I had made one too... I should do that!) I personally like the balance of information and hands-on.

Brave Writer Lifestyle... I think the key here is that we do a variety of writing projects, not just pages x-x of a pre-written program every day. We've done grammar this week, and read poetry as well as some reading about poetry, done some copywork, and The Boy is scheduled to do some free-writing this week as well.

The Shoes Books... a bigger hit even than the American Girls books for The Girl! We just finished up Ballet Shoes, and we're going to get going with Dancing Shoes. I loved, loved, loved these books myself between the ages of 9-11'ish, so I am not surprised she's enjoying them too. If you haven't already, you can read her review of Ballet Shoes here.

And Truckin' Along

Explode The Code and Beyond the Code... The Girl is making real, tangible, good progress in reading! She's doing ETC by herself and then having me check the answers. She reads aloud to me every day, and she's remembering words she had trouble with before, like "the" and short words with long vowel sounds, etc. I didn't put this under Big Hits only because while she does the work willingly, it is not like she totally looks forward to it.

Soaring with Spelling...  I like this program because with the pre-tests each week, I can see where exactly he is struggling, and then we can work on that. I like that it has review units built in. Between this and Word Roots, The Boy is finally spelling a bit better!

Coming Up

And we're officially studying for the National Mythology Exam. I am only hoping that the registration paperwork made it in before the deadline--I do wish they had online registration... I almost missed the deadline, and am crossing my fingers that the snail mail form made it in on time!

Oh, and The Boy decided he needs to read through the entire set of A Series of Unfortunate Events! Thankfully I have the first several books on hand already!

And it is back to school for me! Tonight I head off for a new semester, with...

I'm taking the "advanced" Shakespeare class, with a professor whose specialty is indeed the Bard. I'm halfway really looking forward to this class, and I am halfway nervous, since I have no idea how advanced it is, or what the workload will be like. We're reading 4 of his plays over the semester-- Pericles, Coriolanus, Hamlet, and The Tempest. Out of that list, I have previously read only the last two.

I'm also nervous about my directed writing units. I meet with the professor for that class just once a month, and I have to write ten pages of nonfiction each month. What to write about first?

Anyhow, enough rambling for the moment. Hope you're having a good week!

It's That Time of Year...

Homeschool forums are humming with posts on "what we'll use next year", and yes, I am guilty of thinking ahead (code for over-planning once again). I am trying to shift away from this frantic, must-have-everything-in-place mentality, and so I am reading new blog posts, and revisiting others, that help me calm down and focus on what really matters, my kids.

First, one that is new to me...

Paradigm shift: Curriculum is not something you buy

A few comments I have read about this particular article slant toward the author advocating ditching school at the drop of a hat. I didn't get that message. Instead I got the idea that there needs to be a balance between academic and non-academic learning, and that the books we buy shouldn't be the master of our homeschooling.

And then a few "oldies but goodies"...

About Those Dreaded Gaps, What You "Should" Know, and Tidal Homeschooling.

I need to remember, especially when all the "planning" comes up, to remember to focus instead on goals, and then on what tools we will use to get there, instead of the other way around.

Weekly Report... Busy, Busy...

...What Kept Us Busy...

Schoolwork!

Writing Skills is working well for The Girl. She enjoys the simplicity of it, and says "Well, now that I can read, I should learn to write better."

And The Boy edited, proofread, and finished up his complaint letter (model car he was given to assemble, poorly fitting parts). I used WriteSource 2000 to show him what a business letter looked like, and he did a fine job on it!

Math was good for both. The Boy did fine with the accelerated approach I gave him this week in algebra (details about halfway down the post I linked), and The Girl is quite content to be back on the world of Saxon. She reviewed missing addends and subtrahends, as well as multiplication as repeated addition, number lines, etc., and told me that she likes having different kinds of problems to figure out!

I also found a complete set of My Book House at the library, while looking for something else. So I picked up volume 6 for The Girl, and volume 8 for The Boy. Cassia and I read a poem about fairies, and the story of Sleeping Beauty. I hope, over the upcoming weeks, to read aloud to each child from their "own" book, and sometimes have them do the reading, etc.

Life!

I headed back to an on-campus class this week as well (psychology, with a focus on community mental health) and I think I will really like it! Then there was... 

tutoring (one hour this week)

my online class to keep up with (juvenile justice)

a meeting with a friend

fencing practice

an aborted attempt at derby boot camp 

M suddenly nearly doubling his work hours (which is a good thing!)

plenty of self-assigned artwork on the parts of both kids, and M, who has started painting again

The Girl's first, and successful, attempt at making a dessert all on her own (caramelized bananas with crispy spiced tortilla strips and a dollop of creme fraiche)

And volunteer work

Pupping petting is such hard work, right?

...To Work on For Next Week...

There is always room for improvement!

Schoolwork!

Science needs to be brought back to our daily studies. And we need to get another episode of Big History under our belts. Then there's geography.... and read alouds (i.e. The Afternoon Basket).

Life!

I need to work on better menu planning, so I can be more efficient, and save money, at the grocery store. And I need to get back into my housework groove!

I also need to make time to get to the sewing machine repair shop for a small part, so I can sew cat toys at home rather than having to load everything up and head over to my mom's.

It's all about balance, right?

image courtesy of kinesiology-hypnotherapy.com.au

Happy weekend!

{linked up over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers}

Hmmmm....

Truthfully, I've been feeling a bit blah about homeschooling lately, not looking forward to fall nearly as much as I have in the past, hence all my flip-flopping and indecision.

I think a big part of it is that I allowed my "oh my god, The Boy hits high school in two years and I'm worried about being behind" fears to overwhelm me. I forgot about enjoying the journey, and focused only on the potential goals. For a few minutes, I even considered going all textbook-y! Which, by the way, is the exact opposite of how my kids enjoy learning.

I read this bit on Kim's Our Enchanted Place blog not long ago, and it really struck a chord with me: "I always get a little worked up at the beginning of our year and think I need to get everything done by some certain time. Well, you know what? I really don't! Our focus is math, and then doing whatever we can get to from the Sonlight cores. After all, it really does not matter if we finish a Core in a year or two years! We are still learning a ton. I am also realizing that I need to be careful about adding too much to the Cores." Of course, I'm not using Sonlight, but the gist of this really applies. We are still learning a ton, even when we slow down to enjoy what we're learning!

Then I worried myself that using vintage books, and living books, wouldn't be "enough", even though we love the language of older books (like Builders of the Old World versus some of the newer texts). I'm still wrestling a little with history for next year, but I'm starting to look at it from a different angle. What would we enjoy and learn from? I also need to think, instead of "oh my god, The Boy hits high school in two years and I'm worried about being behind" that I have SIX more years to give The Boy the education he needs and EIGHT more for The Girl. Isn't that enough time to fill in some gaps without getting so worried? Plus, since both my kids plan on transitioning through the local junior/community college, not going straight off to a four year college, I can ease up on those graduation requirements... a little.

So now, I am looking at adding more beauty and enjoyment to our schooling in the fall. I'm researching a lot of Waldorf stuff, and a little more Charlotte Mason. I'm thinking about a lovely progression of [vintage] history (Read up through the Romans in Builders of the Old World, and then read Our Island Story alongside bits of Builders, and then, when we finish Builders, we could read through Makers of the Americas) rather than a more "structured" approach. Still not absolutely sure, but I feel like I am getting somewhere!

In the meantime, I would like to highly recommend this book...

I really like the balance in it between stories and (environmental) activities. I think today we might try one where we go out into a wild place and each child finds a special spot to simply sit, be quiet, and really appreciate nature.

And The Boy is really enjoying this Steampunk-inspired book...

The Girl and I are having fun reading The Garden Princess together (a strange tale), and we're hooked on Downton Abbey. I am anxiously awaiting Below Stairs at the library, and The Girl is really into fashion from the 1910's-1920's. And we're all loving Cheaper by the Dozen, one of my favorite childhood books! We finally finished the third Percy Jackson audio book, and will be listening to The Peculiar next, before returning to Percy Jackson.

Hope you've all had a good week!

Off to a good start....

School-wise that is. Today Elf did math (word problems, money, measuring, temperature, and "playing teacher", where he had to correct "mistakes"), then he did 4 pages of phonics/spelling - three from ETC and one from HM Spelling & Vocabulary. We are in the second workbook of Saxon Math now, and the second to last lesson in ETC 2, after which we're jumping to 3, since 2 1/2 is review. We finished off with Elf reading another Level 1 reader to me, and he did it pretty well. He also picked up a Bob book, and was surprised at how simple it seems now!

Fairy decided not to do school today, which was fine because her Uncle E read her Amelia Bedelia stories while I worked one-on-one with Elf, a nice change from trying to balance two kids needing help right now (M loves reading to her, but he's busy building a secondary loft in our garage for storage).

Both kids are slooooowwwwwlyyyy getting past their colds, especially Fairy, who still sounds like a barking seal when she coughs. I hate relying on medicine, but I don't think she'd get much sleep at night without it. She's always been a tosser-turner-kicker-Mommy's-head-hugger at night anyhow, and when she's sick, it's even more so (so guess who else isn't getting much sleep?). She also gets oddly affectionate when sick, and will spend hours draped over the closest person, saying "I loooove you, I loooooove you". Strange child, very, very strange.

And in my education news, I got to draw a rotifer in my biology lab tonight. Pretty cool stuff!

Our week in review....

It has been a good week, although I must say my idea of having a "school time" hasn't been so successful, which does not mean I'm giving up on it! However, we did homeschool FOUR days this week, which to me is pretty impressive! We generally aim for a 4 day workweek anyhow, so I am happy with this.

Math
Both the kids are moving along in Saxon. I moved each of them forward another 5 lessons with no trouble. Since we did so little the first half of the year, we are "behind" as to where I intended to be by now, but that's okay, since we're making such good progress. I introduced Cyrus to the concept of negative numbers this week, which he thinks is the strangest idea. How can you have less than nothing? I gave him the concrete idea of bank accounts being overdrafted (not that I ever have had any personal experience with that), that when a bank covers a payment you made without there being enough money, you owe them money... you have a negative balance. He seems to get it. We also worked on more regrouping, and a review of borrowing in subtraction.

Cassia is getting better with number identification. I give large credit for this to her Nonna (my mom) who has recently spent patient hours playing Uno with Cassia (and occasionally Cyrus, and sometimes myself). Cassia also loves coloring odds/evens, rows and columns in 100 number charts in different colors, patterns, etc., which I think is good for developing an awareness of the numbers. She is doing well with Saxon, and for some reason I can't quite fathom loves the 5 minute addition/subtraction challenge pages!

Language Arts
Cyrus is continuing to read through the Percy Jackson series... he is on book two now. He skipped his "assigned" reading this week - The Whipping Boy - but we'll get back to that next week. He did some work in Writing Tales, mostly grammar review, and most of that was nouns. I am planning to try him out on Intermediate Language Lessons next week instead, as I think the greater variety of the assignments will be beneficial. I have been struggling lately, planning out his writing path for next year, and looking through ILL, I think I will likely go that route. I like that there are three levels, for fourth through sixth grades, so if it works well with him I don't have to change again for a while! I'll put up a review next week on this and let you know what I think of the change!

Cassia continues to work in Explode the Code and The Reading Lesson. She is doing so well! I dug out our Bob Books from when Cyrus was littler, and she read through the first three with no trouble in under 10 minutes. She getting faster in building comprehension and I think we're ready to move to a whole lesson (from The Reading Lesson) a week, meaning she'll be reading, theoretically, at a second grade level by June! She is even trying to find and put together words she knows in her Ramona books, on street signs, and so forth. I am so excited to see this after all the trouble we have had with reading!!!

History
We reviewed lesson 1 in New World Explorers, and continued to read through Norse mythology. We didn't do as much as I hoped, in part because we had a lot of other activities this week. I do plan to be more disciplined in this next week. We are planning to bake spice cookies today, as some of the explorers were looking for routes to the Far East for exotic spices.

Science
On Tuesday, I taught my monthly science class through 4H. This month we studied light, color and sound. I explained how sounds travels as vibrations, and how white light is made up of all the colors. I showed them, with a flashlight and the reverse side of a cd, how light is made of the entire rainbow. We made plastic cup phones and straw horns, spinning color wheels, and we found out how many colors there are in washable markers. In addition, the kids watched a couple of hours of Mythbusters, and played physics games on the computer.

Since the second level has been released, I am seriously reconsidering Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, which I started to use and then abandoned. I went ahead and bought the ebook. I plan to start this in the fall, and between now and then, we'll do the threads from the first book that the author says are basically "prerequisites" for the second volume. I think this will build a more cohesive understanding of science than jumping around in unit studies, although the kids are still welcome to pursue their own scientific interests as well. I think Catherine Levison wrote something about that... that in a Charlotte Mason education, since the lessons are short, there is plenty of outside time for the children to follow their own interests.

Other
We also had an art project this week, making the main portion of some placemats. The kids did wet-on-wet watercolor paintings. During the next two months, we'll gather and press some leaves and wildflowers, which will then be laminated onto the paintings, and presto! Placemats! The kids also got to explore a creekbed, a culvert, a fairy house made of interwoven branches, and a treehouse out back while the paintings started to dry (enough so we could take them home and store them away safely). They had a blast! Unfortunately for Cyrus, the boy he really hit it off with is moving away in a couple of months. I suggested that Cyrus ask him if he would like a penpal (a very practical way to work on writing).

Cyrus had his second piano lesson. He is doing quite well and has moved on to slightly harder songs for next week. He really likes his teacher and is happy to be learning to read music as well as play it. He is really good about practicing.

Cassia moved to a different ballet class this week, as it is easier for my schedule. Her new teacher is seemingly more patient, and is teaching them more advanced work. Cassia seemed able to keep up for the most part and I am sure she'll do better once she settles into the new class. While both classes she's gone to have been for 7-8 year olds, this one seems to have more of the latter and to be more demanding. She really liked her new teacher. as did I (from watching through the big windows and listening).

M is back in school, taking the first part of his paramedic classes. He was really, really nervous the first night, but found he loves it! The class is very hands-on which is a strong point for him, much like his son. I arranged my work schedule so that I could be home with the kids while he is in class, and I am enjoying the once weekly evening to ourselves.

Next week I start back to school. I am nervous about math (statistics) but hopefully I will get through it and then have my bachelor's degree in May, at long looooooong last!

On the whole, it has been a good week. We got most of the work I had planned done, although I would like a better history focus next week, and maybe more science.