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Our Homeschooling Who, What, When, Where, Why and How
Who: I am the primary teacher, curriculum planner, etc. M is the hands-on project guy and general support. Elf is my 8 year old, train-car-plane-space-robot-Lego loving 3rd grader, and Fairy is my 6 year old, fairy-music-dancing-dirt-worshipping 1st grader.
What: We use what is called an "eclectic" approach. I take bits and pieces from various disciplines - Charlotte Mason, classical education via The Well Trained Mind, and the more Waldorf-inspired Oak Meadow. I use Oak Meadow as a base curriculum, Charlotte Mason for the nature-friendly, short lesson approach, and classical ed in that we are doing a modified version of the history/science rotation, alongside Oak Meadow & the state's history/science focuses. We did meander away from it, but are meandering back. They'll study history and science together for at least the next few years, though I think I may split them when Elf reaches 6th grade. For more on our history and science rotations, go here.
My kids follow a lot of their own interests too. Elf is interested in dragons, robotics and tap right now, while Fairy is all about cooking, dancing, and Olivia at the moment.
When: All along so far. My kids have never really been to school, though they do attend some classes at a charter school through which we are enrolled as a Home Study family. We decided on homeschooling before we even had kids. M had poor experiences in school, and I wasn't too fond of it either. Plus with budget cuts, large class sizes, a lack of focus on arts and sciences... the list could go on and on. Homeschooling is just where it is at for us.
Why: To allow a very individualized education for both our children. To allow them to move at their own rates, spend more time on something they love, and less on things that they don't. Plus, I love being the one that gets to see the moment when they realize something, or figure it out.
How: Well, we sit down and do lessons! Seriously - we spend some time at the kitchen table, some on the couch, some in the chair-and-a-half. We read aloud, do hands-on projects, do copywork, work through math lessons... I try to do as much as I can with both kids at the same time, in the interest of saving time, but I split them up for language arts (though I found yesterday that having Elf so math at the same table Fairy and I are doing language arts at worked well).
And there you have it!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Weekly report for Sept. 14-18... week 3...
It hasn't been the most productive week ever, but we did hit the books a few times!
Elf
We're behind in Writing Tales, already. But, since we have a 36 week academic year, and there are only 30 weeks of lessons, I figure we'll catch up fairly easily. Other than that, he's been reading like mad, both from The Mouse & the Motorcycle, and his beloved Calvin & Hobbes. He also gets Odyssey magazine, and since it arrived a couple of days ago, he's been deeply into reading that as well.
In math, he's continuing the review work present in the first 20 or so lessons of Saxon Math 3. So far, he hasn't dawdled or given me trouble with this - he does one worksheet side and a drill or other supplementary page each day.
Other than that, I am going to start using the Mouse & the Motorcyle for an Oak Meadow style blank book - he'll write a (brief) summary of what he has read and draw a picture related to the summary. I picked up a bunch of blank books this week for this, and other (see below) purposes. He is really enjoying art and tap classes - his tap teacher says he is doing a fantastic job, and he practices nearly every day. He's also having fun planting a garden bed at the charter school with his new buddy R, and his "old" buddy A.
Fairy
Change of plans/approach here - we missed Oak Meadow! So I picked it up at the charter school at the same time I picked up all the blank books. We're three weeks late starting, but since the first 12 weeks of first grade in OM are alphabet review, I figure we'll just do 3 letters a week instead of 2, having done A and B already this week. Then, when we hit word families, etc., I'll add our other resources back in as supplements.
In math, she is continuing Saxon 1 with no problems. Her drawings for the word problems are less involved than Elf's were at that age, but simple is fine, and faster! She loves to do math verbally as well, and is frequently coming up to me to say things like "4 + 6 is 10, Mommy".
She loves her combo dance class - she and Elf were practicing tap moves in the kitchen last night, although she's been talking about going back to straight ballet (maybe in January?). She also loves her charter school classes where she has plenty of friends.
Both
We're thinking of switching things up, and trying ice skating next week, rather than roller skating. This would leave Mondays completely free until Fairy's dance class later in the afternoon. Plus, the ice rink is closer to home, and cheaper! We can even stop at our favorite library branch just down the street afterwards.
History... well, we're a little behind where I hoped to be. This is entirely my fault, as I keep putting off reading about the early Greeks until we have the supplies for our chosen craft project, and I can never seem to remember to pick up balloons at work! We'll be making paper-mache Greek vases. Still, we're continuing with The One Eyed Giant, and enjoying that. I got blank books for drawings and notes about our history studies. I also want to start county history with Elf (another blank book), so I plan to read the first chapter of a small, locally published book to him, and then have him draw, and label, a county map.
In science, we're just enjoying our local habitats. We have blank books for nature journaling now, and we chceked out a couple of books on creatures the kids are interested in - crickets and ants. We're also learning about blue jays, after seeing a few in our yard earlier this week. Perhaps we'll make some peanut-butter-birdseed-pinecones to hang outside and see what birds we attract! A friend has generously offered to get us a few owl pellets from her brother-in-law, so when we get to Woods, we'll study owls as well. I am trying to be a little more organized in our nature studies, but not to much avail, yet.
In other outside activities, we had our first Engineering project, through the homeschool 4H (not animals, just projects). we made a few paper planes of various types, and balsa wood models, to test flight, aerodynamics, etc. The leader's father was there, and as an engineer, was able to explain a lot about wind resistance, Bernoulli's Principle, and more, to the kids (well, the adults too). I had a hard time dragging the kids away afterwards, as the boy of the leader has TONS of Legos, and really cool puppets - all different animals. My kids wanted to stay and play forever!
Now I am off to plan lessons for next week. I find planning ahead really does help!
Elf
We're behind in Writing Tales, already. But, since we have a 36 week academic year, and there are only 30 weeks of lessons, I figure we'll catch up fairly easily. Other than that, he's been reading like mad, both from The Mouse & the Motorcycle, and his beloved Calvin & Hobbes. He also gets Odyssey magazine, and since it arrived a couple of days ago, he's been deeply into reading that as well.
In math, he's continuing the review work present in the first 20 or so lessons of Saxon Math 3. So far, he hasn't dawdled or given me trouble with this - he does one worksheet side and a drill or other supplementary page each day.
Other than that, I am going to start using the Mouse & the Motorcyle for an Oak Meadow style blank book - he'll write a (brief) summary of what he has read and draw a picture related to the summary. I picked up a bunch of blank books this week for this, and other (see below) purposes. He is really enjoying art and tap classes - his tap teacher says he is doing a fantastic job, and he practices nearly every day. He's also having fun planting a garden bed at the charter school with his new buddy R, and his "old" buddy A.
Fairy
Change of plans/approach here - we missed Oak Meadow! So I picked it up at the charter school at the same time I picked up all the blank books. We're three weeks late starting, but since the first 12 weeks of first grade in OM are alphabet review, I figure we'll just do 3 letters a week instead of 2, having done A and B already this week. Then, when we hit word families, etc., I'll add our other resources back in as supplements.
In math, she is continuing Saxon 1 with no problems. Her drawings for the word problems are less involved than Elf's were at that age, but simple is fine, and faster! She loves to do math verbally as well, and is frequently coming up to me to say things like "4 + 6 is 10, Mommy".
She loves her combo dance class - she and Elf were practicing tap moves in the kitchen last night, although she's been talking about going back to straight ballet (maybe in January?). She also loves her charter school classes where she has plenty of friends.
Both
We're thinking of switching things up, and trying ice skating next week, rather than roller skating. This would leave Mondays completely free until Fairy's dance class later in the afternoon. Plus, the ice rink is closer to home, and cheaper! We can even stop at our favorite library branch just down the street afterwards.
History... well, we're a little behind where I hoped to be. This is entirely my fault, as I keep putting off reading about the early Greeks until we have the supplies for our chosen craft project, and I can never seem to remember to pick up balloons at work! We'll be making paper-mache Greek vases. Still, we're continuing with The One Eyed Giant, and enjoying that. I got blank books for drawings and notes about our history studies. I also want to start county history with Elf (another blank book), so I plan to read the first chapter of a small, locally published book to him, and then have him draw, and label, a county map.
In science, we're just enjoying our local habitats. We have blank books for nature journaling now, and we chceked out a couple of books on creatures the kids are interested in - crickets and ants. We're also learning about blue jays, after seeing a few in our yard earlier this week. Perhaps we'll make some peanut-butter-birdseed-pinecones to hang outside and see what birds we attract! A friend has generously offered to get us a few owl pellets from her brother-in-law, so when we get to Woods, we'll study owls as well. I am trying to be a little more organized in our nature studies, but not to much avail, yet.
In other outside activities, we had our first Engineering project, through the homeschool 4H (not animals, just projects). we made a few paper planes of various types, and balsa wood models, to test flight, aerodynamics, etc. The leader's father was there, and as an engineer, was able to explain a lot about wind resistance, Bernoulli's Principle, and more, to the kids (well, the adults too). I had a hard time dragging the kids away afterwards, as the boy of the leader has TONS of Legos, and really cool puppets - all different animals. My kids wanted to stay and play forever!
Now I am off to plan lessons for next week. I find planning ahead really does help!
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