And We're Back!

...What We've Been Up To...

Hikes with friends and family

Derby practice

Sorting through books and clothes we no longer need

Tutoring a friend's teen in math and writing (my job), and photography/camera use (The Boy's job)

Changing up our learning approach a little for the rest of our school year

Library visits, now that I finally paid off The Girl's overdue fines! And she discovered Charles de Lint, one of my all-time favorite authors, with The Cats of Tanglewood Forest!

Dying streaks of hair purple and then practicing selfies (please pardon the mess in the background!)

Celebrating spring with friends at the park

 The kids have been taking turns heading down to a local school playground for basketball with M

The Girl started exploring stop motion photography

Sculpting houses a la Dr. Suess!

I took up running... and love it, though I'm not very good at it yet!

Volunteer work (mine) at a teen crisis shelter

Celebrating the equinox with "Ostara" baskets

Fencing a sabre tournament (first attempt at sabre, he's on the right)

...Plans...

Math and writing every day (by which I mean at least 4 days a week)

Some fun reading aloud

And more reading aloud, hopefully to be followed by/interspersed with some field trips

Some physics, chemistry, and Henry Ford (The Boy)

Lots of frog studies and a bit about Catherine the Great (The Girl)

More volunteer work at the teen crisis shelter, and more tutoring

Perhaps an art project or two

Derby practice, fencing practice

More running, basketball, and hiking

Plenty of time to explore interests old and new!

Have a good week!

On a Break....

We're taking a break right now from most things homeschooling. And I am taking a blogging break too.

Don't worry (as if you are)... we'll

Monday Musings... Close Your Eyes...

Close your eyes. Relax. Breathe a bit. And think... what would your ideal homeschool situation look like? What do you see happening? How does it function? What does it include, and what does it leave out?

On the heels of my planning posts (High School and Seventh Grade), I find that I am asking myself these questions. And wondering what it would look like for each of my children. What do they think of when they imagine how they want homeschooling to be?

Is it really all just a mishmash of various books and curriculum plans, or is it more?

So when I close my eyes, what I see is...

Reading and sharing books

Active discussion

Watching videos that involve our minds and make us think

Seeing my children explore avenues and byways of interest

Creating art (and other) projects that explore what we have learned without busy work

Finding connections between subjects, not putting them into neat little boxes

Exploring the world around us, through actual interaction, or books, or movies, or however it can and needs to be done

I have a number of friends that have very successfully unschooled their children all the way through high school. And I have friends that are, like me, on the cusp of high school, and are suddenly worried that what they, what we, have done, isn't enough. That we are somehow failing our children. In my real life, I know no one that has made a plan and stuck to it for each year, though I am sure those people exist somewhere nearby, not just on the internet.

I've planned today to sit down with my children, and see what they want, what they see when they close their eyes, what they enjoy, and what they find tedious.

And Homeschool Seventh Grade...

One of the things I like best about homeschooling (at least as a private school) is that I don't have to follow guidelines unless otherwise desired. So we're definitely going a bit off the beaten path this year, for The Girl's seventh grade.

Writing:

I think I'm going to go with Jump In, combined with aspects of the Brave Writer Lifestyle.

Math:

She'll continue through the Life of Fred series, using Math Mammoth as a supplement when needed.

Science:

Two choices here... either her own choice of titles from the Prentice Hall Science Explorers Small Books, OR something more along the lines of The Magic of Reality, with some supplementation.

Other:

We're doing what I am calling The Big Fairy Tale Project (named after her brother's course of study, the Big History Project). I have The Classic Fairy Tales: Norton Critical Edition, which includes variations on several themes in fairy tales, as well as criticism, to use as a jumping off point in combination with this chart. The Norton book focuses on six different types of fairy tales, which I plan to approach as block studies, to which we can add in various versions, movies, etc., although we will likely work in books from the Shakespeare section of the chart in place of Norton's "Bluebeard" section. We can also look at folktales from various regions of the world that tie in with the fairy tales.

If she should decide she wants history too, I'll probably read aloud to her from the excellent World in Ancient Times series.

Electives:

She does a lot of art on her own. I'd really like to work through something like the Sculpture Technique books (Construct and Model) with her.  She may choose to study Spanish this year, using Rosetta Stone or ???. She'll keep cooking, learn more sewing, etc.

Physical Education:

And of course, she plans to continue with roller derby!

Home School High School...

I am getting prepared for teaching/leading my first year of high school in the fall! The Boy will be 14 by then, and says he is ready to step up his game a bit. He's decided he wants to at least meet, if not exceed, the general California standards for high school graduation (really he's looking at doing the UC requirements, "just in case") so we've worked together on designing a curriculum that will meet those expectations, while still being tailored to his interests. There are a couple of areas I am working on fine tuning/choosing final tools, but we'll get there. I have the basic overview here, but this post provides a little more detail!

So away we go!

Literature & Composition ("English")

For literature, we have decided to adapt a "Roots of Steampunk" study that a friend put together. Think of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, even Sherlock Holmes, and you'll get the picture. I am in the midst of refining the reading list now, but will happily share it when I am done!

As for composition, he will move more toward writing across the curriculum, or, if he needs some additional instruction, he will work through Writing With A Thesis: A Rhetoric & Reader

{full credits in composition and literature}

Math

Two choices are on the table. He will either be completing Jacobs Elementary Algebra, which should finish out the year, or, he may switch things out and go for Life of Fred Beginning Algebra. Either way, ninth grade will be The Year of Algebra for him!

{full math credit}

Science and History Intertwined

I think this will be a very good fit for his inquiring mind. He has chosen to focus on The Big History Project, which integrates history with science, covering time from the Big Bang to the present, and science including biology and evolution, chemistry, astrophysics, and more. I do plan to add in additional reading and some projects to make it a full high school level history and science course, such as The Magic of Reality, Hakim's Story of Science, A Short History of Nearly Everything (or even the "Really Short" version), Science Matters, and there are a few other titles I am considering in addition or as replacements for the aforementioned.

{full credits on world history and non-lab science}

Foreign Language

He would like to learn more German, so we are researching possibilities for that. This is at this point optional.

{potential full foreign language credit}

Visual & Performing Arts

The Boy will be taking his first class in fall at the local junior/community college, probably in Drawing & Composition, as it is a prerequisite for other art classes down the line. He's talking about taking a sculpture class after that.

{Full fine arts credit}

and finally, Physical Education

For which he has fencing.

{full physical education credit}

So there we go! High school. Wow! If he wants, he may do some online/through book electives, such as computer science.

Camping...

We spent Friday afternoon through Sunday mid-day camping at a nearby park. It was absolutely just what I needed! Friday was spent in setting up camp, then wandering around the lake in the late afternoon sunshine. On Saturday, we hiked up to another lake and back, about an 8 mile round trip, then walked around the lake by the campsite after dark, amazed by how many stars we could see. And on Sunday, we packed up, sorry to go, before walking around the lake just one more time...

In between all the walking and hiking, there were a number of card games, time spent just watching the campfire, a little time for reading, hot tea and cold water to drink, marshmallows to toast, lots of laughter, and all the good things that go with camping!

Looking out over the horizon, as appropriately dressed as always

On their favorite rock

A swan on our first afternoon at camp

Ferns growing from a rock

The lake at the top of the mountain

Happiness

The trail to the top of the mountain

I'd like to know for sure what this flower is!

I get this look from her a lot these days.

Happy camper in the morning

A gazebo out in the middle of nowhere, for hikers to enjoy

Some beautiful fungi and lichen

Reminds me of bonsai

Sweet-smelling wild roses

Misty morning over the lake

I believe this one is an Arrowleaf Balsamroot

Now we are back to the real world, one in which the time even changed while we were away (which honestly I had forgotten about). Back to math, writing, reading, and organizing. It was a needed and much appreciated break!

Have a good week!

Another Week Down...

Another week has come and gone! We're getting ready today for two nights of camping, which we are all very much looking forward to. Here's a little glance of what we've been up to...

What We've Done This Week

The Boy

Worked on some review problems in Jacobs Elementary Algebra. He is doing quite well with this book, judging by the results of his efforts. Because we started this relatively late in the year, we won't get through the whole book by any means, and I think it will take him most, if not all, of ninth grade to complete it.

He completed some more work in his online course, on Scratch programming, and spent some time working with Blender on a new animation project.

Plenty of time was spent: drawing, reading, a little writing, playing some computer games, watching a little TV, helping in the yard, cleaning his room, and packing for camping.

The Girl

We took a math break this week, and will start fresh next week (see below), although she did play some Circles & Stars, and lots of dice/card games.

She wrote in her journal, thumbed through books she got for her birthday, worked a bit in Writing Skills on classifying nouns, read some of Shel Silverstein's A Light in the Attic, and a bunch of Mother Goose rhymes, helped cook, cleaned her room of her own accord, watched some TV, and helped pack fro camping.

And Plans for Next Week

Truthfully, I am a little disappointed in my own efforts in the homeschooling and housekeeping realms as of late. So I've come up with a plan of attack for the remaining weeks of March...

My plans for homeschooling will consist only of math, writing, and finishing The Hobbit as a read aloud. We're really enjoying the book (The Hobbit), but it keeps getting set aside! I am not going to worry about science, history, geography, etc., until April. The intent here is two-fold -- I need the extra time for the below, and I want to see what the kids manage to do with this, as they are certainly welcome to pursue their other interests on their own as desired.

The time we would have spent in homeschooling pursuits will be spent organizing our home. I again have a two-fold reason for this, one being the sleepover the kids want at the end of the month, the other being that it needs to be done. I do have a great plan for keeping it organized and tidy once we get there, but we have to get there first!

And we're adding in/changing a couple of things when we start back up with our very minimalistic plans: The Boy will go ahead and start The Lively Art of Writing, which I was originally saving for "high school", and The Girl will be working through the Life of Fred elementary books at a much accelerated rate, probably 3-4 lessons daily until it gets more challenging. If she needs anything extra, I have Math Mammoth readily at hand.

And Now

A weekend out in nature! No computers, no cell phones (except for picture taking, and if there should be an emergency, knock on wood). The Boy and I are taking sketching materials. We're bringing two decks of cards, binoculars, and not much else, unless I can locate The Hobbit!

Have a good weekend!

Twelve...

12 times around the sun 

So this is what twelve years with The Girl looks like! I feel humbled that I get to be a mom to both my kids, and I wish time would slow down a little.

To my sweet and fierce girl, I love you so much!

Hello March! Monday Musings....

...Celebrating!!!...

This week we are celebrating The Girl's TWELFTH birthday! She's asked for a special dinner, time at the local mini-golf/family fun center, and to get her ears (re) pierced. I thought we might also go out and get her a couple of new tops, etc. at a lovely little thrift store. She also wants a couple of books, but overall, she's not asking for much. I have a hard time grasping that my "baby" is turning 12!

 ...Outside My Window...

The weather is all over the place! On Saturday, we had a brief though intense rain-thunder-lightning storm. Then it was sunny and almost warm again! This morning is cold, overcast, and a bit dreary, with a drizzle, or another possible thunderstorm, on the way, though the rest of the week is supposed to be "pleasant and sunny".

We are getting some awesome clouds though!

...In My House & Kitchen...

Tonight I am making Veracruz-Style "Red Snapper", but with swai, because that it what I have on hand (I might leave out the jalapeno). Last night was spaghetti and meatballs, always a hit, and a couple of the other meals for the week include a chicken enchilada casserole, and my turkey 3-bean chili (a special request for The Girl's birthday).

...In Our Garden...

We're getting the raised beds built! My mom gave us a bunch of old lumber, so we are re-purposing it. I can't wait to have actual soil for my veggies to grow in, rather than the hard-as-stone stuff our yard is made of. The cherry and apple trees are leafing out, and the chickens have finally started laying eggs again -- we got three yesterday! We adopted four rabbits recently that are settling in nicely.

...In Our Homeschooling...

We're shaking things up a bit, and The Girl will be spending some time with Fred... we're lucky enough to have a friend that owns the whole series up through Beginning Algebra, so we can borrow books as needed. The Girl's really frustrated with Saxon lately, and I hate to see her starting to dislike math. She'll also be starting her online dinosaur paleobiology course this week (do note -- she's just watching the videos, etc., not really "doing" the class). The Boy is about midway through his online course in Scratch programming, and is already looking ahead at other courses he can take. He might "take a look at" LoF Beginning Algebra this week too, but will likely stick with Jacobs. He's also starting a foray into chemistry, so I've been gathering books, online resources, ACS's free middle school program, and he's going to check out some Crash Course Chemistry videos. This will be instead of physics for the time being.

...Reading & Watching...

The Girl and I are starting The Dragon in the Cliff today. On her own, she's got a stack of books she's picking and choosing from, including Beezus & Ramona, Little House in the Big Woods, A Mother Goose Treasury, A Light in the Attic (she's discovered she really enjoys poetry!), and several non-fiction titles too. We've gone from not reading, to having to check on her late at night to make sure she's not still up reading! [enter mock exasperation]

The Boy also has a stack of books going, ranging from Chemistry for Dummies to a re-reading of The Kane Chronicles. Of course, he's stuck on the computer a lot lately, which I need to curb, so he has more time for all those books!

Together, we are still reading about northern California, and The Hobbit. I am about to start Quartet for the End of Time, which looks intriguing. I'm always on the hunt for good new (at least new to me!) novels. We finished season 5 of Downton Abbey last night, and though I am truly sorry it is over already, I loved, loved, loved the last episode! So we are back to Lost. And of course Big History, Walking with Dinosaurs (Cassia), and various other science documentaries, etc.

...Doing & Making...

The Girl is still sculpting.

Rollin' the Dice

 The Boy is combing through The Art of Tinkering and The Art of the Catapult for fun projects. I'm still working on finishing up a scarf, and I've got another batch of cat toys to sew.

...What We've Been Up To & What We're Doing...

 We were lucky enough last Thursday to get to see The Mayhem Poets perform in a "school" show. The kids had never seen poetry performed before, and it was a fantastic experience, and probably is part of the fuel behind The Girl's current poetry adoration. And of course, we went to park day with friends, had fencing and derby practice, though The Boy missed one fencing session due to allergies.

And then, to be done: The birthday. Fencing. Derby practice. Taking my dad shopping for The Girl's birthday. Maybe meeting with a friend that wants me to tutor her 8th grade, 13 year old daughter in algebra. Park day. More exercise (me). And we're planning a two-night camping trip for next weekend at a local campground!

Have a good week! And enjoy some tree pictures from our last park day...