11.12.2010

Another discombobulated week

All of these holidays in the month of November are throwing our routine off! We were off to a good start this week but Veteran's Day threw a wrench in the works. But that's ok - we're ahead in most subjects so it really doesn't bother me.


The Boy and The Girl were able to participate in the local Veteran's Day parade with The Boy's Cub Scout group. We discussed the difference between Veteran's Day and Memorial Day and the significance of each.


The 3 Rs continue to go pretty well. The Boy is about done with his spelling for the YEAR so we're going to pick up Wordly Wise and Explode the Code for him to start after the new year. I'm planning to add Wordly Wise in for The Girl as well. NOT that I think she needs ANY help in the vocabulary department...


Our time spent reading together/aloud has increased a bit which is good - we had been neglecting it. We are currently reading "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane", which we had started reading this past summer. I backtracked a few chapters to reacquaint us with the story and the kids are really enjoying it. I either read to them while we're eating lunch or after we are done with history. They seem to prefer that I read to them after history (which usually follows lunch) as they are a bit sluggish from lunch and their friends are not yet home from school so they have downtime. The first day, I read just two short chapters and then stopped and they clammored for more. So I kept reading until something stopped me. At that rate, we will be able to complete at least a book per week. I told them that I wanted to read through the books we have on our own shelf (mainly books that have been given to us or that I loved as a child and bought for them to read as they grew older) before we start looking into other books to check out from the library.


In the meantime, we are creating a list of books we want to read. Our library has some great lists - Caldecott Award winners, Newberry Award winners, Theodore Seuss Geisel award winners, etc. In order to teach them how to navigate the internet, I have them each choose 2 books to research and report back on (right now, we are sticking to the lists that the library has to make things easy. Once we exhaust those, we'll move on to letting them choose books on their own to investigate). They have to share with us the title, author, and a brief summary of the book. For now, I let them copy down what they find on line (we use either Wikipedia or Amazon for now) as they have not read the book yet and cannot give me a summary in their own words. We then choose one of the two that they researched and add it to our list. They've enjoyed learning about the different awards given to children's books and they've enjoyed learning about different types of books. And just because a book doesn't make it to our "Read Aloud" list doesn't mean THEY can't check it out from the library and read it on their own! And they have, which I love!


The other thing that I'm finding I love is that, when they come across a passage (say, for example, a passage in their Writing With Ease workbook) that they have to listen to/read and summarize and they find that they are intrigued by what they've read, they LOVE to go and find the actual text at the library (or, even better, in our reading room)! The first time it happened, it was a book that we have here at home but that they had not yet read. The Girl was so excited to run into the reading room and find it on the shelf. She spent the rest of the day reading the entire book and, for the first time, was EXCITED to do her Writing work the next day (she's not a fan of summaries but is starting to enjoy them more). I love watching their faces light up when they read a passage from a book they've already read and I love watching their faces light up when they read a passage from a book they have NOT read but now WANT to read.


Math is moving along well. The Boy is just 2 lessons (and a "final exam") away from being done with 1st grade math. He is thrilled that he gets to take a "final exam" like I did last year in my college classes. I told him he could wait until after Christmas to get started on his next math level but he told me that he wants to get started right away. "Wouldn't it be COOL if I made it to THIRD GRADE MATH before I move into second grade?!?" I told him it would be great but not to pressure himself too much. The fact that he's done with 1st grade math is AMAZING in and of itself.


The Girl hit a challenge this week in math. We're working on double digit multiplication (i.e. 23x41). The thing I really like about Math U See is that she was given two different ways of working the problem - procedural (multiply the 3x1, then the 3x4; use a zero to hold the unit's place in the second line, multiply the 2x1, then 2x4; then add) or expanded (3x1 + 3x40, 20x1 + 20x40; add like terms and condense into a 3-digit number). SHE gets to choose what works best for HER. I would have thought that the expanded method would have worked better for her but she prefers the procedural. The fact that SHE gets to choose is what I like. The schools here are very strict about "doing it their way" - not just in the lower elementary grades but all the way up into Algebra and beyond. I don't care HOW you get the answer as long as you can explain to me how you came up with it and it's not just a wild guess. I make sure she understands both approaches and can perform them adequately (I have her complete at least 1 problem using each approach) but, after that, she's free to do them any way she chooses.


History took a backseat this week so we're a wee bit behind. We read and did the map work but that's about it. I'm currently trying to wrap my brain around this post that I found on making geography come alive and I"m trying to figure out where to put maps up like this and if there's even a point to doing so if we wind up having to leave the island before the end of the school year. I need to get down to the education store downtown and see what size maps they have. I have already scoped out bulletin boards - I just need to know if I can get my hands on maps (world and US) that fit. Then I need to figure out if they'll fit on the wall I'd like to use. I think the kids would really enjoy it!


But, for now, the weekend is upon us. As you can tell by my complete lack of photographic evidence, I have yet to pick up the slack in that area. We have BMX racing and the Awana Grand Prix coming up this weekend so hopefully we'll get some pictures in there somewhere!




Pau.




- hfs

10.31.2010

Treading water

I swear we're still here. And still homeschooling. And doing ok. I think we've found our groove for the most part. Now we're just treading water. I am a list-maker so here are my lists for this post:


THINGS THAT ARE GOING WELL:
- the three Rs
- the independent folders
- independent reading
- organization


THINGS THAT I NEED TO WORK ON:
- taking more pictures
- staying motivated THROUGH Thursday so that we can get to our special projects
- integrating music and art in to our day
- getting started no later than 9am


The three Rs are going pretty smoothly. Both The Boy and The Girl are on track to finish their current math levels by Christmas break. Maybe even sooner - their motivation and enthusiasm increases as we get closer to the end of the book! I've promised them that we will NOT start their new math levels until after Christmas break so that means that the sooner they get done with their current books, the sooner they have one less subject during the day.


Their independent folders are a part of the morning routine and I'm seeing the payoff in other areas of our lives. Their chores and morning tasks are incorporated into their folders so I have less reminding to do on a daily basis - the folder checklists do it for me! I do not like being a nag and prefer to let natural consequences teach the lesson (didn't do your chores? No money this week for you.) and the folder seems to help that.


Even though we've not been to the library for two weeks, both The Boy and The Girl have been good about reading independently during breaks from lessons. They both enjoy reading which really warms my heart and I love it when they find a book (either here at home or at the library) that ties in with their lessons and get excited. The local schools here "mandate" 20 minutes of independent reading per day and I'd say that The Boy and The Girl double that (The Girl probably quadruples it) on a daily basis.


While things are going well, I'm finding that I'm in the "treading water" mode right now. The newness of homeschooling has worn off and now we're down to the "what is the minimum we need to do to get through the day?" mode. Therefore things like taking pictures of day to day activities (and blogging!) have fallen by the wayside. Time to refocus on that. And, tied into that, I find our energy and enthusiasm fading by the time Thursday afternoon rolls around (our usual time to dive into whatever project we have planned for the week). It's easier to blow it off and go play outside.


And our art/music lessons were never fully integrated into our weekly routine so they, too, have fallen off. We're coming up on our fall break in two weeks and, during that time, I plan to have the kids do lots of art projects. And, as we get closer to the holidays, we need to decide on what to make for our neighbors and friend as gifts.


Lastly, because we have a tendency to finish our lessons pretty quickly, our start time has been pushed back a bit. MacGyver doesn't usually leave for work until 8:45am or so which is fine (we tend to wait until he heads to work to get started with school) but lately, I'm finding that it's 10am and we've not done a thing other than eat breakfast.


All in all, things are going well. I suppose this counts as our weekly update (times 4?) and hopefully I will be more consistent from here on out. Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!




Pau.




- hfs

10.12.2010

Still homeschooling

No, we have not been washed away by a tsunami. We're still here and still chugging along. I'm having a tough time believing that we're at week NINE of this adventure!


I know I haven't been on the ball with regard to our Week in Review - surprisingly, this homeschooling thing takes up a lot of my free time! I had to laugh - the other day, a friend of mine was lamenting on Facebook about the fact that, out of 84 waking hours in her week, she only had nine (9!) hours to herself. Once I stopped laughing, I had to restrain myself from making a snarky comment on her Facebook page. Her children are younger than mine and she's not been at this parent thing all that long. In addition, she works outside the home and so does her husband. I don't want to get into any kind of a pissing match as to who has it harder - stay-at-home-moms or working moms. I've been on both sides of that fence and whoever says the grass is greener on the otherside is fertilizing it with BS. Both are tough gigs.


But her post got me to thinking...how much "me" time to I have during a regular week? And I was surprised at what I came up with: counting bathroom breaks (assuming that The Boy or The Girl doesn't have a question that JUST.CAN'T.WAIT until I'm done in the bathroom...) it looks like I have a whopping two hours and 45 minutes. Here's what my week looks like, in case anyone is wondering where those 165 minutes come from:

Monday: school, teach sign language at church
Tuesday: school, art class (about 60 minutes on my own!), dinner, family time, etc.
Wednesday: school, BMX practice, Awana
Thursday: school, dinner, family time (soon: Bible study)
Friday: Co-Op, Ohana group at church
Saturday: BMX practice, Saturday Night Service at church
Sunday: church, BMX races, Ohana group


Somewhere in there are 15 minutes of bathroom breaks (my only other "me" time) each day which accounts for the remaining 105 minutes of "me" time each week. Huh. No wonder I find myself craving silence and blank walls on Sunday evenings. Interesting.


Thankfully, I have a husband who truly enjoys his children and is quite happy to hang with them if I need a break. And, over the past nine weeks, he's really stepped that up because he knows that the kids and I are together 24/7 otherwise. Which is fine - I love my children and they really are fun to be around. However, we all benefit with a little bit of time on our own.


If and when we get to our next duty station and he deploys again, I am going to really have to ensure that I have a little bit of "me" time carved out each week because I won't have his tangible support to rely upon for that year. Thankfully, the place it looks like we will be heading has wonderful homsechooling support so I don't think I'll have much trouble finding what I need. If anything, we might be overloaded with options!


I'll try to get a Week in Review post up this week. Last week was a little slow because the public school kids were off so we scaled back on our work. Which makes for a BORING post! So I skipped it.




Pau.




- hfs

10.08.2010

Bullies

If you are a parent, I would encourage you to read THIS.


If you are a teacher or work in a school, I would encourage you to read it. Same goes for anyone who has anything to do with children/youth. It is an incredible piece on what it is like to be bullied.


The Girl was bullied. Back in Kindergarten, there was a boy - we'll call him M - that was a troublemaker from the get-go. Literally, from the first day of school, this child was a problem for anyone around him. It was hard to believe but this Kindergartner was in the Principal's office just weeks into the start of the school year. And he was in The Girl's class.


Thankfully, at that age, they are relatively easy to control, distract, redirect, avoid, etc. and The Girl was able to keep her distance from this child. He was more of an annoyance at that point than any kind of serious trouble. And thankfully he was not in her class in 1st grade. He was still trouble but he was somebody else's trouble.


Second grade was different. He was back in her class in 2nd grade. And by that time, he wasn't easily controlled, distracted, or redirected. Nor was he easily avoided. He was persistent. And mean. He was quite good about seizing on any little flaw and teasing mercilessly. And he did. All of a sudden, my normally enthusiastic 2nd grader was complaining of tummy aches and not wanting to go to school. Thankfully, The Girl is not good about hiding anything (she will never make a good poker player, sadly) and I was able to ferret out the reason for the change in her demeanor.


Come to find out, this boy had been teasing her constantly for passing gas in class one day. He'd follow her around - just out of earshot of the teacher - and call her all sorts of horrible names. He'd make snide comments, corner her in the hallway or on the playground and say horrible things to her, and make her life miserable any chance he got. Other kids would join in, adding to it all.


She finally got tired of it and tried to stand up for herself and he proceeded to tell her, "I hope your dad dies." This was just months after her dad had returned from a 15-month deployment to the Middle East. She was devastated and it was then that the tummy aches began.


At the time, her regular classroom teacher - a very firm personality - was filling in as Vice Principal for the school and The Girl's classroom had a long-term substitute. The substitute was a nice person but not a strong personality and, when The Girl tried to tell him what was happening, he was not very firm in his response to the situation. M seized upon that as well and ramped up his efforts. By the time I found out what was going on and stepped in, this had been going on for about 6 weeks.


I called the substitute and requested a meeting with him the next day. We met and I explained to him that this needed to be stopped immediately and, if it wasn't, I'd be speaking to the administration. He agreed and informed me that the regular classroom teacher was due back in the classroom at the start of the next week - a blessing because the regular classroom teacher was the type not to tolerate crap from anyone.


At the same time, I found out that M and his mom went to a church in which I knew the pastor. I spoke with the pastor and he agreed to try to set up a meeting between myself and The Girl and M and his mom. The goal being to give The Girl a chance to face this boy and tell her side of the story, for M to tell his side, and hopefully for there to be some kind of truce/compromise reached. When the time came for the meeting, the mom showed up without her son. She claimed to have spoken with him and that he placed the blame of the situation upon The Girl (even though there were other children who had already corraborated her story). The mother, after listening to my (then) 7 year old child tell her side of things, called her a liar and accused my child of bullying her son.


I.Was.FLOORED.


I listened as this parent sat there and, with a perfectly straight face, explained how it was her son that was constantly being picked on by the kids at school, by the administration, and now by the pastor of her church. She refused to acknowledge that her son shouldered any responsibility and accused a 7 year old child of conning 4 of her classmates into lying about the things that were witnessed. It blew my mind.


I thanked the pastor for taking the time to meet with us but that the meeting was over and we were leaving. I explained to the mother that, should her son go anywhere near my child again, I would seek to employ a temporary restraining order...against her child. The next morning, I relayed the same to The Girl's teacher and to the administration. The school had two choices: either find a way to keep M away from my child - AT ALL TIMES - or move him to a different classroom (or school...I didn't care which). Otherwise, the problem would leave the school and move up to the district where lawyers would be getting involved over the fact that my child was being denied access to an education that is rightfully hers.


To say I was angry would be putting it mildly.


The child was moved and has since moved on to bullying other children. Supposedly the school is still "working with him on his behavior issues" but I don't buy that for a minute. A few weeks back, there was a dad that bullied a bunch of kids on a bus for having bullied his child. I don't condone his behavior but I most definitely understand where he was coming from. I have never wanted to hurt a child - ever, in my life - until M bullied my daughter. And I was shocked at my response - this was CHILD. But he hurt my daughter with his words and his actions and I was seeing red. I still do and this situation was a small part of the reason we chose to homeschool our children. Not simply because there are bullies in public schools - there are bullies everywhere and my children must learn to deal with them in appropriate ways - but because the schools themselves fail to hold firm to the policies already in place that are supposed to address situations like this one (see "Chapter 19" with regard to the Hawaii Department of Education).


The post by Single Dad Laughing was spot on and I encourage you to read it in its entirety.




Pau.



- hfs

9.26.2010

The Public School Parents' Guide to Homeschool Parents

Kris over at weird, unsocialized homeschoolers put up a post back in April of this year addressing a lot of the more common misconceptions surrounding homeschooling. Being somewhat new to the whole homeschooling thing, it took me a while to stumble across this post (thanks Michelle!).


I am glad that I did because she *nailed* it.


And the last one that she addressed - #11: The fact that I happen to have a teaching license that doesn't make me a better homeschooling parent - is the one I want to focus on for the moment.


I am a certified K-12 educator. My degree is in Exercise Science and my endorsements are in Physical Education and Health though I also have enough credits to add in Science and Math if I wanted to. I have taught in Colorado, California, Alaska, and Hawaii - mostly at the high school and middle school levels.


What I have found over the course of the past 6 weeks of homeschooling is that I am having to unlearn a lot of my teacher education in order to properly educate my children. First, let me say this...my college education did not properly prepare me to teach. Not even close. EVERYTHING that I have learned about how to teach has been learned either in the classroom or at my dining table (or in other settings in which I work with children such as church). Today's "teacher education programs" do not teach people HOW to teach. They teach you how to manage a classroom, how to write out a lesson plan, how to develop scope and sequence within a curriculum, how to protect yourself from liability. But they do not teach you HOW to teach. And I don't think they have for decades.


I love math. LOVE it. I have math workbooks on my nightstand instead of trashy novels. I love to do math problems. But, as much as I love to *do* math problems, I am not particularly skilled at teaching others how to do them. I am learning and plan to use my love of math and science (combined with improved teaching skills) as a tutor once we find out where we're going next but those teaching skills are something I'm having to teach myself because it was never really taught to me in college.


So the fact that I am a certified teacher really does not equip me any more than simply being able to read and understand the directions in the teacher's manual that came with the curriculum I chose for my children. Like Kris said in her post, you're going to have to come up with a better excuse than that if you want to tell me why you can't homeschool your own children!


It's a great post and Kris does an excellent job of articulating a lot of the thoughts that run through my mind when I hear my friends discussing our decision to homeschool our children.


Our Week-In-Review is going to be late this time around - we have QUITE the full weekend going on! I managed to get next week's lesson plans laid out early but I had to sacrifice the WIR in order to do so. And our week wasn't all that interesting anyway!




Pau.




- hfs

9.18.2010

Trekking down the Nile - Our Week in Review

This week was all about the Nile. If you have not had a chance to read about our LEGO interpretation of "Mystery of the Nile", I'd encourage you to do so - it will give you a pretty good idea of what we were up to this week.


We studied the Nile: where it comes from, the countries it passes through, who has tried to navigate it from beginning to end (and failed), where it ends up...you name it and we've studied it. We watched the movie, we checked the book from the library, we've Googled it, we've looked at it on satellite imagery. We are continuing to "flood" our Nile models as well.


Lots of Nile Love going on here, in addition to the "Three Rs", that is!


I sat down and looked at where we stand with regard to math and it looks like both The Boy and The Girl are on track to wrap up their current math curricula right around Christmas break. PERFECT! So I'll be ordering the next level for each of them in the next few weeks. They are both excited to be moving so quickly. I am amazed.


One of my goals with regard to homeschooling is to foster as much independence within my children as possible when it comes to their educations. One way I am doing this is with their "Daily Folder" - a notebook with their chores, copywork, memory work, Daily Geography, and other small assignments that they are quite capable of accomplishing on their own, with little parental oversight. They are both enjoying the folder and have even taken to working ahead in them - doing all of their copywork and Daily Geography in one sitting or during their free time. It's great to see them take responsibility for their work rather than waiting for me to dish it out.


Chemistry this week wrapped up the first chapter and now we move into molecules and bonds. The Co-op that we are a part of will be taking a break this coming week so the kids and I are going to put together a few of our own experiments from a book we picked up at the library titled Fizz, Bubble, & Flash. They are excited and, if the experiments go as well as I think they will, I'll be running them again at Co-op in a few weeks!


It's hard to believe we are already 6 weeks into our homeschool year. I am enjoying it so far and I think the kids are as well. This week, we stopped by their former public school to say hi to some friends and their old teachers and, while they both enjoyed seeing everyone, neither of them expressed much in the way of sadness or longing to be back there. And now that soccer is over, they will be able to spend more time during the weekday afternoons and evenings playing with their friends in the neighborhood, which will be good for them!


This weekend is nuts - two final soccer games, two end-of-the-year soccer parties, a birthday sleepover with NINE (9!) nine-year-olds, church, BMX state finals, and Ohana group all mixed in. I might need the next week to recover from my weekend!




Pau.




- hfs

9.15.2010

Mystery of the Nile - LEGO interpretation

Earlier this week, as part of our study of the ancient Egyptians, we watched the movie "Mystery of the Nile". What an incredible adventure of a movie! The Boy and The Girl were as enthralled as I was! And when we found out that there is a book to go along with the movie, we hit the library's website to request it immediately. It came in shortly after we requested it and it's sitting in our library basket, waiting to be read.


After we were done watching the movie, The Boy had some free time while I worked with The Girl on her math and he set to work with his Legos. Here's how I know he enjoyed the movie:


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One of the rafts that the film makers used to travel the 4,000 miles of the Nile River.


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Another angle of the raft.


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Gordon Brown's kayak.


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The expedition crew.


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The expedition crew going under one of the bridges along the Nile in Ethiopia.


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Another view.


The Boy then proceeded to retell me the story of the expedition, almost point by point, using his Lego creations to illustrate. I told him he should go get the Duplo alligator out to add to the scene, which he did, but my camera battery died before I had a chance to take a picture.


The Girl now wants to take kayaking lessons so she can learn to kayak like Mr. Brown did in the movie. Thankfully we're in the right place for her to learn. Time to talk to some people and see what I can set up for her!


If you've not had a chance to watch the movie, I would definitely recommend it. It's an amazing production and, while watching it, you feel as though you are THERE on the Nile with them.




Pau.




- hfs

9.10.2010

Well, that was quick! Our Week-in-Review

I swear, I blinked and the week is over! How did that happen? Oh that's right...mix in a holiday, visiting grandparents, and a tummy bug and things tend to blur together.


This week was a "survival week". Just survive the week and it will all be good. Because we took Monday off, I decided to smush Monday's work into the rest of the week - not too difficult, given the fact that our days tend to end early. I cut out a few things - handwriting, primarily - but overall we hit everything we needed to hit. And the reward was sugar cubes and pyramids! More on that in a minute.


LANGUAGE ARTS:

Both The Boy and The Girl flew through their language arts work this week. Spelling continues to be pretty easy for both of them. So much so that I'm basically just giving them the pretests at the beginning of the week and that's about it. Though The Girl is in a higher level of spelling curriculum, she's still doing quite well. They both have review lessons coming up and we're going to do a bit of a Spelling Bee - with M&Ms for each word spelled correctly. They should love that!


Now that we have The Girl's language/grammar curriculum in hand, she's really taking off on it as well. She rips through 3-4 lessons per week and seems to be enjoying it which is good to see. And I see her making strides in her narration/summarizing abilities...something in which she lacks confidence. Dictation is coming along as well. I explained to her the point of dictation - to train her mind to be able to hold a picture of the sentence inside and then be able to transfer that picture (with correct grammar, spelling, etc.) on to paper. Once I explained that to her, she began to understand the point behind the dictation exercises. Having never done this before, she's only able to handle one sentence at a time (the exercises usually have 2 fairly long sentences in them) which is fine. I'll take accuracy over speed/completion with inaccuracy any day! The speed and ability to handle two long sentences will come with practice.


MATH:

The Girl panicked a bit this week as it dawned on her that multiplication is a third grade skill. She asked if she was "behind" and I answered her honestly - she is at this point. I chose to reteach her multiplication from beginning because she never really grasped it last year. With 30+ kids in a class and a district/state so focused on the end product ("Did we teach the third graders how to multiply?" "Yes. Check the box.") as opposed to mastery, many children do not properly grasp the subject. The Girl was one of them. And, because there is so much crammed into a day/week/month/semester/school year, there really isn't time for practice. And it's great to think that parents can have their children practice at home but the reality is that The Girl was bringing home, on average, 1-2 hours of homework per day. To add to that for an 8 year old is ridiculous.


So we backtracked. I took a look at the placement tests that Math-U-See has online in order for parents to assess their child's ability before ordering curriculum and it was very clear to me that The Girl would struggle with division unless her multiplication skills were solidified. I'm a math nerd and I know that math builds upon itself and if she does not have a firm foundation, the rest of her math experiences will be a struggle. I don't want that for her. Challenging is fine. Struggling is not. My goal is to be through this level (Gamma) and on to the 4th grade curriculum (Delta) after the holidays.


And it's working. The first day of our school year, she was in tears because, as she told me, "I'm not good at math." Yet, by the end of the day - after just one lesson and 3 relatively simple worksheets - she told her grandmother that she "loves math" and is "good at multiplication!". Perfect!


HISTORY:

This week, it was all about Egypt. We read about the Old Kingdom of Egypt. We read about mummies. We wrapped dolls and stuffed animals in linen cloths to make our own mummies. We read about Cheops, the Great Pyramid, The Sphinx, and the weighing of the heart by Osiris. Is your heart light or heavy? If it is heavy, the monster will eat it!


And then it was on to the pyramids! All week long, the goal was to complete our studies so that we could build our pyramids out of sugar cubes. And, of course, there had to be the ceremonial eating of a sugar cube in order to verify that it was, in fact, sugar (it was!).


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We picked up some "stone" colored spray paint and got them to look like "real" pyramids. Though The Boy was disappointed that we didn't get to construct any of the rooms inside or bury treasure in them. I told him to construct one out of Legos instead. He's working on it.


ART & MUSIC:

Aside from listening to Beethoven's music during lunch and reading time, we didn't really get to much in the way of art or music due to the short week. Next week, we are going to dive into DaVinci's most famous work, the Mona Lisa. I have a few CDs on request from the local library that I need to pick up as well - specifically Beethoven Lives Upstairs (upon Carrie's recommendation over at Live, Learn, and Love Together). We are all looking forward to listening.




The local art class that we go to each week was off this week as well so it was a rather artless week. Hopefully next week will be more colorful!


I did get a shipment from Amazon (I LOVE Amazon!!!) this week that included a new typing program/game for The Girl - Typing Instructor for Kids - which she's having fun with. Any time she gets to get on the computer during the week (no video games during the week and no TV until the school day is done) so this is fun for her, which works for me. She gets to type her assignments for the writing workshop she's doing in Co-Op so this should help her typing abilities as well.


Speaking of Co-Op, Friday was a Co-Op day: PE, science, writing workshop for The Girl. It all went pretty smoothly and they are looking forward to next week. In science (Chemistry), they explored "Matterville" and learned about protons, neutrons, and electrons and their assignment for the week is to create what amounts to a Pokemon card for an element of their choosing. They are quite excited about this and have already set to work deciding which is the more interesting element and sketching out their rough drafts of their cards.


Lastly, I am looking into starting up a Junior First Lego League team with The Boy and several of his friends. It's a robotics program using Legos and the Junior FLL is aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 9. This is definitely something that The Boy could sink his teeth into and I'm wondering if it might be a good thing for some of the other boys in the neighborhood...some of which are a little rough around the edges. We will see. Right now, it's just The Boy and one of his friends...I'm not sure who else will join us. Looks interesting though!


And, now that it is MONDAY of the next week (where DID the weekend go?!?) I should get this up. Better late than never, right?




Pau.




- hfs

9.05.2010

A low-key week

One of the message boards I visit has a thread for people to post their "Week in Review" posts so this is my first attempt, even though it was the end of week 3 for us. Baby steps!


We had a relatively low-key week. MacGyver's parents came to the island in the middle of the week which threw things out of kilter a bit and Friday was our first day of Co-Op so that added to the wonkiness (yes, that is a word!) of the week.


The "three Rs" moved along smoothly. The Girl's language curriculum finally arrived and (verbal thing that she is) she's ripping through the lessons. After previewing the curriculum, I find myself probably more excited than she is about what she'll be learning. I *finally* get to learn how to diagram sentences! She enjoys the curriculum because it's all about words - something she is quite good at. My only qualm with this curriculum is that there is nothing beyond the 4th grade so I'll have to figure out where to go from here.


Spelling is going well for both The Boy and The Girl. I give them a pre-test at the beginning of the week and, if they spell them all correctly, we are done with spelling for the week (or they can choose to move on to the next lesson). They are both ahead in this though The Girl is actually working on a 5th grade curriculum because the 4th grade level was too easy.


Their handwriting is coming along as well and I'm already seeing significant improvement in The Boy's handwriting - something his kindergarten teacher struggled with all year long. A lot of it is getting him to slow down and form his letters properly - he's quite adept at whipping out a sentence with sloppy, rushed writing so that he can move on to more interesting subjects and activities.


They are both enjoying math which is a blessing. The Boy is several lessons ahead in his math simply because some of the concepts covered in this curriculum were ones that he covered in Kindergarten. So we've been able to skip ahead. This week was the +9 lesson and, after completing 1/2 of the first worksheet, you could see the concept click (the 9 "steals" 1 from the units to make 10 and then you add the remaining units to the 10 to come up with the answer) and he just took off. No blocks or fingers necessary for him to come up with the answers. After completing that worksheet, he asked to take the lesson test and he aced it!


I had bumped The Girl back to the 3rd grade curriculum (multiplication) because her multiplication skills were weak, at best. Thankfully, with the program we're using (Math-U-See), she's really able to understand it and we're moving through it pretty quickly. Ideally I'd like to be done with this level by Christmas and ready to move up into the 4th grade curriculum (division) after the Christmas break. But, if she's not ready for that, we'll spend more time on multiplication until she gets it.


This week in history was all about the first forms of writing: hieroglyphics and cuneiform. They both had a great time writing their names and other phrases in both hieroglyphics and cuneiform! Because the grandparents were in town, we did not do any major projects this week other than hit the library and come home with a stack of books about the ancient Egyptians! Which reminds me, I need to add those to the sidebar.


We have added in a quarterly study on artists and composers. I compiled a list of 10 top artists and composers and let The Boy and The Girl each choose 2 from each list. This quarter, we are studying Ludwig van Beethoven and Leonardo da Vinci. My goal with this subject is simply that my children (and myself) would be able to identify Beethoven's music and da Vinci's art, that they would be able to discuss each of their histories, and point out a few interesting points of fact about their work. I am still compiling resources for this subject and cannot wait until we are somewhere with museums that have pieces for us to look at. For now, we're relying upon books (yay for public libraries!) and the Internet. Though I am somewhat disappointed in The Lourve's website when it comes to information for children.


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And then finally, Co-Op began on Friday. This is a group I've been involved with for several years - teaching different classes for them and hanging out with them all so this wasn't anything too new. Our Co-Op covers PE (we're currently doing soccer), art/crafts, science (Chemistry), and a class through the Institute for Excellence in Writing for The Girl. The kids were each able to choose 3 different art/craft classes so they'll be participating in cupcake decorating, cooking, and glass painting. Surprisingly, they each chose the same classes even though I spoke with them at different times. The art/crafts will alternate with PE throughout the year with PE.


PE will cover soccer, track and field (one of the dads is a t&f coach for one of the local private schools here on island), training for the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, broom hockey, jump rope, self-defense (a Sensei that teaches a free karate class at our church will be teaching this unit), and we will also add days in to play Steal the Bacon, Dodgeball, and lawn games. It's nice to be able to do PE with a group (there are about 50 kids in the PE class for Co-Op). Otherwise, it would just be the three of us which would force us to do primarily fitness-related activities as opposed to learning any team sports.


Even though I've written a lot, we really didn't DO a lot this week. Next week promises to be busier, not only because Monday is a holiday! Have a great week!




Pau.




- hfs

8.31.2010

Common nouns, proper nouns, and the United States of America

The Boy is reviewing the differences between common nouns and proper nouns and one of his lessons centers on the state he lives in.


"I live in ___________."
"____________ is a proper noun."


Then we discussed the fact that Hawaii is a state and that there are 50 states. We discussed the fact that the word "state" is a common noun and that "Hawaii" is a proper noun because it is the name of a state.


We have a floor map puzzle of the United States so we brought it out and put it together and talked about the states where friends and family members live.


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Which led into a game of "Guess which state is missing."


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Which led into a nice discussion about where we'd all like to live next. Short day today and we are now off to the library and Jamba Juice! Yay for Tuesdays!





Pau.





- hfs

8.30.2010

Building the Nile

Currently, we are in the midst of ancient history - working our way from the earliest nomads to the last Roman Emperor. One of our lessons in our history text, Story of the World, was on the Nile river. There are a variety of activities to be had at the end of each lesson and we chose to build a model of the Nile river.


Here is The Girl with her river. We will "flood" them once a week and watch in hopes that the grass grows along its "banks".
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This is The Boy and his Nile river. I"m not sure if they had more fun collecting the rocks and pebbles to line the model or "flooding" the river!
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This week, we are making our own cuneiform tablets and learning about the first forms of writing. Next week we will move on to PYRAMIDS!!!


I also stumbled across a wonderful blog by another homeschooling mom named Carrie. Her blog, "Live, Learn, and Love Together" is an incredible resource of homeschooling ideas and insight. So I did what any creatively-challenged homeschooling mom would do and "borrowed" some of her great ideas! Her idea for an Independent Notebook/Folder was perfectly timed - we were having trouble making the transition from waking up/breakfast to school and the notebook idea fit right in! And her pictures of the projects that her children did when working through Story of the World, Volume 1 help me think beyond just the basics (compare her pictures of their Nile rivers to the pictures of OUR Nile rivers and you'll see what I'm talking about! She's much more creative than I am.).


So thanks, Carrie, for the incredible resource that is your blog!


For now, it's quiet time here in our house so I'm off to read a book!




Pau.




- hfs

8.28.2010

Curricula

Rather than delve into the reasons why we've chosen to homeschool, I'd much rather discuss what curricula we are using - it's just much more interesting and muce less stressful. For as different as The Boy and The Girl can be, their learning styles are similar which is a blessing. It's made it pretty easy to choose curriculum and kept me from having to buy different ones for each of them in each subject.


Keep in mind, we're only 2 weeks into the year (our first) so I don't have a lot to say about most of our choices at this point. We are what you would call an "eclectic classical homeschooling family" meaning we are implementing a classical education but we're not using an "out of the box" curriculum. In case you're wondering what a "classical education" is, it is based on a three-part process of training the mind called the trivium. The trivium involves three stages: the grammar stage (K-5), the logic stage (6-8), and the rhetoric stage (9-12). According to the website, The Well-Trained Mind,
Classical education is language-focused; learning is accomplished through words, written and spoken, rather than through images (pictures, videos, and television).



With that in mind, and my well-worn copy of "The Well-Trained Mind" in hand, here are the choices I made for curricula:


LANGUAGE:
Writing: The Complete Writer/Writing with Ease (1 & 4)
Grammar: First Language Lessons (1 & 4)
Spelling: Spelling Workout (A & E)*

MATH:
Math-U-See (Alpha and Gamma)**

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY:
The Story of the World: Volume 1 - Ancient Times

SCIENCE:
Real Science 4 Kids - Chemistry (Pre-Level 1 & Level 1)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE:
Latin for Children (Song School & Level A)***


* ~ The Girl is quite good with words - in any format. Spelling has never been a challenge for her and, in looking at the 4th grade spelling book, I knew she'd get bored with it. So I bumped her up to the 5th grade book and she's enjoying the more difficult words. The Boy was also bored with the "easy words" that he was dealing with in Kindergarten so I didn't hesitate to jump ahead several lessons in his book to words that were more challenging. For both of them, I let them take a pretest at the beginning of the week (without having looked at the book). If they spell all of the words correctly, they do not have to do the spelling lesson and are free to either use that time to read or they can move on to the next lesson - it's their choice.


** ~ Though The Girl is good with words, her math skills are shaky. I'd get into the reasons why but that is another post/rant for another day. Suffice it to say, she needed more work on multiplication so I ordered the Gamma curriculum from Math-U-See, even though that is *technically* a 3rd grade level of math. They take a pretest at the beginning of the lesson and if they score 90% or higher on the pretest, they are free to move on to the next lesson. Each lesson comes with 6 worksheets - 3 that are nothing but problems from the lesson and 3 that have problems from the lesson AND review problems from previous lessons. The first 3 worksheets are required (assuming they don't test out of the lesson). The remaining 3 worksheets are optional. A score of 90% or higher on the lesson test is required before we move on to the next lesson. The nice thing about Math-U-See is that I can go to the website and generate more worksheets if either of them needs the additional practice.


*** ~ I have not yet decided whether we are going to dive into a foreign language this year or not. I don't want to overwhelm either my children or myself. We're all of two weeks into this school year and, while the days have been short and relatively easy thus far, I know we haven't really gotten into the meat of it all just yet. Nor have we started Co-Op yet so that will be another factor to consider before we try to tackle yet another subject. We'll see.


So those are our curriculum choices for the year. We are also a part of a local homeschool cooperative (henceforth known as "The Co-Op") that I've actually been involved with for a few years. While my children were in public school, I taught PE and facilitated a high school Anatomy class for The Co-Op which is made up of many of my friends from church. This year, we'll be doing PE, Chemistry, art/crafts, and a writing workshop (Institute for Excellence in Writing). That should round out our year!




Pau.




- hfs

8.27.2010

The adventure begins

In for a penny, in for a pound I suppose. When you've already created 9 different blogs, what's one more, right? I figured I needed a way to chronicle our homeschooling adventures and what better way to do so than in front of God and the rest of the world via the internet?


So here we are. MacGyver and I decided to homeschool The Girl and The Boy this year for reasons that I will delve into in a later post. We've committed (yes, I think that word might have more than one meaning for us in the coming months) to doing so for one school year. After that, we'll re-evaluate where we stand (literally, figuratively, etc.) and decide whether we want to continue homeschooling or put The Boy and The Girl back into a "regular" school setting.


Some of the topics I want to cover on this blog are our reasons for deciding to homeschool, the different curricula that we have chosen to use, different books that I have read or am reading that have played a part in this decision, and some of the topics that are often debated when it comes to homeschooling.


For now, I'll wrap this up because there is a model of the Nile River that needs to be created.




Pau.




- hfs