"Your toughness is made up of equal parts persistence and experience. You don't so much outrun your opponents as outlast and outsmart them, and the toughest opponent of all is the one inside your head." - Joe Henderson

Last month our homeschooling group had their annual track meet. It is open to anyone, of any age. We had my son, 3, (shown above) through age 80 participate.

That is one of the great things about homeschooling; we don't segregate according to age. Children, parents, and even grandparents all had a wonderful time. And to see everyone cheering each other on was incredible!

Pictured above is Quinn finishing his 400 meter run with the sports "coach" running behind him encouraging him the entire way. He ran with all of his might and aside from a quick detour to the sand in the long jump box (what three year old wouldn't want to dig in that?) he persevered. I am so proud of him.

Just goes to show us if we set our minds to something we CAN do it. Or maybe it simply says we need the energy of a three year old?

Seriously though, I was more captivated by the enthusiasm and support from his "coach". It was contagious. The more she ran and encouraged him, the more the rest of us got excited. As he approached the finish line everyone was cheering him on, telling him he could do this. And he did. He finished the 400 meter in 4:05 minutes.

Gift List

Every morning I head to the chore boards to put the magnets up for the kids. This is what I found this morning. On Olivia's board she left me a note. It reads, "#1 thing I would like for my birthday is Christian (spelling changed, lol) Light school books." What does this say about a child that is willing to put school books above gifts, gadgets, clothes, etc.?

So here is the full story on what brought this on. We used CLE language from first grade through the beginning of fourth grade. The lessons are long and vigorous so I thought we would change our approach and use Intermediate Language Lessons. We are 35 lessons into it and although she does it she thinks she isn't learning anything. She is tremendously concerned that she is falling behind in language and isn't learning enough.

I'm stuck. Do I change back to CLE since she likes it and I had no real issue with it? Do I continue with ILL since it is a wonderfully gentle approach to language that I believe would create great writing skills. Or do I use CLE for three days a week and ILL for the other two, or some other combination of the two?

ILL pros: Gentle approach with wonderful variations of dictation, narration, picture study, composition, and memorization. I think this is the language we truly use as adults to become efficient writers. I also like that it comes in one book for three grades. I don't feel the pressure to rush through the book to finish a set number of lessons in a year.

ILL cons: Not sure there is enough grammar taught. Or if there is it is delayed into older grades.

CLE pros: Very thorough. I rest easy knowing that everything she needs to know will be taught, reviewed, and mastered. It has quizzes and tests to assure me that the concepts are being taught. Easier to keep record of what has been learned.

CLE cons: The lessons are long and I'm not sure how much of what is taught will be pertinent in adult life. I feel like it teaches more for test taking. How many adults, not in writing professions, remember all of the parts of speech and can diagram sentences? And if you can remember all of them how often do you use them?

Okay, so there is my current dilemma. Any suggestions?

12 Dancing Princesses

Yesterday we spent the day experiencing the Grimm Brothers' play 12 Dancing Princesses. It was spectacular! This was the grand finale for the girls after studying the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales for a couple weeks.

The girls were brimming with anticipation as we approached the auditorium and were asked for our tickets. I think they thought they were going to the opera! They showed us to our seats, which were in a good location, but the most exciting part was that the theater seats folded up and down. Oh what fun you can have folding yourself into the seats and when they have a folding table attached to each seat (for note taking) the fun is doubled.

They closed the doors to the auditorium and dimmed the lights. The kids all sat on the edges of their seats anxiously awaiting what would happen next. When the lights slowly came back on sitting in front of us on the stage were several boys, surrounded by cows, sitting in a field. The girls seemed a little disappointed it wasn't the princesses. They got right into the story and before long the moment they had been waiting for happened, out danced 12 beautiful girls in the most gorgeous dresses my girls had ever seen(they told me so).

After the play the actors and actresses held a question and answer session for the kids. They learned how long it took to set up the stage and practice, they learned more about the origination of the story, and the girls' favorite part- where the kids went to school. The actors they liked best were homeschooled. My girls always enjoy hearing that other children homeschool too.

The play was terrific and well worth the trip to see it. The girls voted it right up there with vacations we have taken. After the day's excitement I am pretty sure my girls danced all night in their dreams wearing beautiful dresses.

A Lesson in Aging

A Lesson on Aging

We all age, it is a fact of life. Unfortunately in America aging adults are seen as more of a burden than as a precious asset to our communities. In some countries they cherish their aging members of the communities, treating them with the utmost respect they deserve. Not here in America, so I sought to ensure that my children won't add to this sad mentality.

I have always made sure my children are respectful to adults of all ages. I wanted to drive the lesson home to have patience with the elder because someday we will all be there. I seen a morning news show that gave me some ideas. I wish I could find a link to post but I can't.

We started off the day with some great discussions. We discussed what it feels like to be behind that elder person at the grocery store when they walk slowly and hunched over through the doors and you are stuck behind them. We talked about how it takes them a little longer to find their money or to sign their names on checks. About how their hearing isn't as good and sometimes they either don't hear us or they misunderstand what we said. How sometimes it takes them a little longer to process their thoughts. All these things are part of aging and we talked about the reasoning behind them. Sometimes discussions aren't enough. I want them to feel what it is like so it has a lasting effect on them. This is where our experiment came in.

I put cotton balls in their ears so they couldn't hear quite as well. I put rubber gloves on their fingers so that it made handling money and paper harder. I taped a few random knuckles to make them stiffer to use, simulating arthritis. I then put corn kernels inside their socks so it felt like they were walking bone-on-bone in their shoes, causing them to slow down and hunch over. I had them take turns wearing my reading glasses so it distorted their vision. Once they were all set in their elder digs we started our school day.

I had them write their names with their non-typical hand to show them how hard it is for elders to hold their pencil and keep control of it. We dealt out money and I had them try to hurry and hand me the correct amount with their gloves on and taped fingers. I then walked behind them and tried to hurry them with my words to show them what it must feel like to aging adults to be constantly told to hurry or to be passed repeatedly. The final thing was for them to try to do some school work with my glasses on.

They thought it was fun at first and then as the experiment progressed they started to see the reality and point behind it. It is hard and these people don't want to have the ailments of aging any more than anyone else. And this doesn't have to be all about aging. I explained to them that people with all different disabilities have struggles. It is important to be patient with ALL people. How quickly we could be one of those people that needs a little extra patience extended our way or some extra help with everyday things. I hope it sunk in and the next time they see someone struggling they have patience for them and remember what it was like to go through the day how they did today.

Next experiment will be with disabilities. Everyone should know what it is like to walk with crutches, be blind, deaf, etc. so that you have more of an understanding of how that would effect every aspect of your life. Stay tuned for that one!

Mummified

While I read to the girls from SOTW today they opted not to draw a picture or write a story like they usually do. Instead they prepared their own mummy, I mean sister, and boy were they proud of it!



I drew the line when they wanted to wrap her in toilet paper first. A mom has to have boundaries!

Postcards 1 and 2

Postcard Swap

I was exploring options for geography this year when I came across a postcard swap. This was exactly what I wanted only I didn't realize it until I seen it. I wanted something special that they would remember, unlike a textbook or workbook that they simply go through the motions in.

Geography is right up there with history and science. They are better taught, in my opinion, through hands on learning. What better way to learn about places than to receive postcards from them? So the great postcard swap began! Each week we send three postcards to families on the list and in return we receive three postcards from various states and countries. On the postcards are notes about things special to the families regarding their areas. They basically hit on key words and then me and the girls enjoy finding them on the map and researching them online and through books. This is their current favorite part of school. Each day they run to the mailbox hoping to find a postcard from some distant place.

This is our first postcard:

Lake Charles, Louisiana. It is a photo of a plantation. We enjoyed learning about the area and especially the hurricanes. We were told by the family that hurricane Gustav and Ike missed them, thankfully!

The second postcard we received was this one:
Kingston, New York: an Old Dutch Church. We were told by the family that they enjoyed the local homeschool orchestra playing inside this particular church and how they enjoyed picking apples in the fall in local orchards. We researched how close they are to the Hudson River and what benefits the Hudson River has to their area. We looked online and were able to find a lot of information about this area through the local visitors bureau, including some great pictures. We discovered that Kingston was New York's first state capitol, that it was known as the "breadbasket of the Revolution" because local farmers fed Washington's troops and betrayed King George III, and due to that it was burned to the ground and later rebuilt. It sounds like Kingston is rich with history and we are enjoying learning all about it.

As we continue to learn about these two states we are awaiting our next postcard arrival. I'll be sure to post so stay tuned for the next 61 postcards!

Harvest Party

Some of the local homeschoolers got together for a harvest party last week. We were fortunate enough to have nice weather so it was hosted at a local park. Everyone enjoyed a wonderful craft, some great games, excellent food, and lots of fun. Here are some photos from our day.

Grace making the pumpkin craft

One of the finished products

A twist on apple bobbing. They laid on their backs and bobbed for apples tied to a table top without using their hands.

Gourd Bowling. Had to make the wobbling gourds land inside the pumpkin.

Pumpkin Toss

And I couldn't resist adding a picture of Quinn. Next year he will enjoy participating in the festivities, this year he enjoyed watching.

I hope you are all enjoying Fall as much as we are! Have a great week.

Week 8 in Review (10/3/08)

We completed week 8 this week! It was a great success, although I can't say that any week thus far hasn't been. We are off to a great start of a year!


Bible Stories to Read and Pictures to Color- We did Genesis 22, Isaac is Offered
And 1 Samuel 1-7, Samuel Helps Eli
These weren't in the appropriate order but we got into a conversation that brought up the stories so we selected these to do this week. I am still thoroughly impressed with this program. It is well suited to all my children who enjoy coloring while I read the stories. Then we discuss the review questions and look up passages in the bible. They are doing quite well in retaining the stories this way.


Memorization- Our passage of the week is Psalm 101:1 "I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O Lord I will sing praise."

The children participate in Sunday Spectacular at church and they have a new passage each week to memorize. We continue that memorization in our schooling. Then on the following Sunday they recite it during church and receive a bible trading card (hand drawn by teen church members) that they can collect and later exchange for other items. This has been great motivation for the kids to learn their verses!

CLE Math 100 & 400-Grace(5) is mastering counting by 5's. 10's came easily, but 5's are proving to be a bit harder. She is also working on deciphering what type of math problem a story problem calls for, whether it is subtraction or addition.
Olivia (9) is working on adding fractions and place value beyond the decimal to the hundredths. She sailed right through these lessons.

SOTW vol. 1- We are doing Ancient Africa. The stories of Anansi were intriguing for the girls. They preferred the Ancient Chinese chapters over these but they were still enjoyable. We are not doing the activity guide so there might have been ideas in there to help this chapter along. They got the point of it and that was what mattered to me.


CKEB Science- We are studying plant reproduction and now trees. We went on some tree safaris looking for different types of trees. We are focusing specifically on coniferous and broad-leaved trees. The other three categories of trees are rare so we didn't spend much time on them. As long as they know they exist then we can move on to the types they are likely to encounter throughout their lives. Here is a depiction from Liv of the two types, followed by Grace's version (she was into circles that day).
CLE Language LTR and 400- Here is a sample from this week's spelling list for Olivia. We are adding extra emphasis on her spelling as that is an area she tends to not spend much time, and therefore struggle with. It must be working because the last two weeks her spelling scores have improved on the weekly tests.
Grace is trekking right along in Learning to Read. She can now read some of the directions and start parts of it on her own. She has memorized most of her sight words and is improving on her reading timed drills. If I can only get her to sound out words she doesn't know and not guess we will be doing even better!

McGraw Hill Health- We are working on the basics of the body. We used a different program that hit on this in second grade so we are now delving into it deeper. They are enjoying making life size diagrams of the bodies. I'll post those next week when we finish labeling them.
Spanish- We bi-passed Spanish this week. It got shuffled to the back of the list of to-do's. We will try harder to incorporate it next week.

Reading- We read about Parmele, a 100 year old town. It's a story about the importance of railroad lines. We also read about The Best Town in the World, another story set back a hundred years ago. It talks of how life was simpler and what made them think their town was simply the best. The girls really enjoyed both of these stories.

Geography- We are participating in a post card swap so we prepared an area on the wall to place our map. We should receive approximately 60 postcards from around the world over the course of the next several months, doing 3 a week. We got our postcards ready to be mailed and a system set up on how to track where we sent them to. I am super excited about this and can't wait to start researching all the wonderful places we get to see!

Extra Curricular- Tennis came to a close this week. Olivia enjoyed her brief introduction to it. Soccer starts next week and that is her favorite. Her sisters aren't old enough so they sit on the sidelines and make the best cheerleaders for her! Their time will come.

That wraps it up for us this week. Thanks for sticking with me through this long post (I got a little long winded). I hope your week was just as spectacular and you have a wonderful weekend!

Week in Review 9/19/08

We had a spectacular week number 6, full of learning and even a great field trip!

CLE Math: Grace (5) was introduced to subtraction. She loves school and I love that! Olivia (9) is adding fractions and doing great with it. Hanna (3) liked counting and grouping Lego's according to color.

Reading: We are loving CLE Learn to Read program. We are in the third book of it and Grace is moving right along. She can sound out most words at this point. Olivia is starting to enjoy chapter stories more and more. She prefers informational books over anything. She read some books on rabbits this week since she now has a pet rabbit.

SOTW History: The girls drew some amazing pictures of things from our stories. I wish I had taken a photo of them.

CKEB Science: We took our studies outside this week. We found a plant to be our specimen and we drew it. Then we labeled the parts to a flower. This was the school highlight of the week for them.

Thursday we took a field trip to a grass seed plant. They taught us how the grass goes from being harvested, to cleaned, to packaged. It was a terrific field trip. They even let the kids make their own mixture of grass seed to take home. They must have known that we had bare spots in the lawn!

The second part of the field trip was to a frozen food processing plant. They were processing carrots and lima beans. It is an amazing process how they prep it for selling and make sure that all waste is usable in some manner. The kids' favorite part of this field trip was the hair nets!

Today we are off to park day with our friends. Hope you all had a wonderful week full of great learning!

Home Educators and Certification

I recently read a poll question that asked if home educators should be required to be certified. Here is the article if you would like to read it and/or vote. You will need to click on the September edition and go to page 14 for their debate section.

I agree with everything that Michael Smith, from HSLDA, said and I voted no, home educators should not be required to be certified. There are a multitude of state and national tests out there that prove home education far exceeds public school education. Why then would they suggest trying to conform home school to public school?

Teachers receive training to be a public school educator. My questions would be three things.

The first is, do they receive ample training in each individual subject or do they not use curricula and teacher guides just as home educators do?

Secondly, how much of their training is spent on classroom management? They are trained to control a large group of students from vastly different backgrounds and upbringings. A home educator needs only know how to handle their own children. Something that doesn't require training since they do this 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Home educators also have the ability to use discipline however fits their family values, something public school teachers can not do.

And lastly, does having credentials guarantee a passion for educating? Home educators have a large personal investment in their children that is voluntary and natural. They do it out of love and a passion for their children's future success. Clearly they are not being paid to educate their children, and in fact home educators pay taxes to local public school systems withough requiring anything in return. They make financial sacrifices and educate their children, in most cases, on one income and still produce higher educated children than the public school's do.

With all this being said then why would we want to reinvent the wheel? If something is working then let it be. There are ample state and college testing results that confirm the success of home education. Let those speak for themselves.

Quote of the day

"I have seen the village....and I don't want them raising my children." Said by one very smart mom about why she chooses to home educate her children.

Week in Review Aug. 15th

We have successfully completed our second week of our fourth school year! We celebrated with a class photo. It is minus one student that was down for a nap during picture time. Somehow he always misses out.

We are using Christian Kids Explore Biology and so far we are very excited about it. This week we learned about plant and animal cells. Our project was to make a Jello replica of an animal cell. So we took Jello and added fruit pieces in the shapes of the parts of the cell to it. We did this in three layers so that it created depth. We were able to cut the Jello in half and identify our pieces before we got to enjoy eating it. The peach nucleus was the best part!

My poor photography skills are truly shining through on this one. I apologize but here is a basic idea of what it looked like.

Olivia (9) is thoroughly enjoying Spanish this year. We are using Spanish in 10 Min. a Day along with numerous online videos, particularly from Youtube. Here is the one she liked the most to learn the alphabet. After hearing this song a few times on the first day she had it mastered. She has also mastered the colors, numbers, and some basic objects this week. This is when it becomes oh so clear that with a little bit of enthusiasm they can learn anything quickly.

We got the pleasure of taking care of some pygmy goats and chickens while my parents were on vacation this week. We got up early and drove to their place to feed and water them. The girls like checking for eggs the most. They love to pet the goats but the goats see them as playmates their size and tend to want to butt them around. We also thought we would be bludgeoned by a chicken at one point. Then we realized it was our bright toe nail polish that was attracting them to our feet. We made a mental note not to wear flip flops to feed the animals and all was well from then on.

This pretty much sums up our week. I hope that the rest of the year is comparable to how our first two weeks were. Isn't that wishful thinking? I need to bottle up some of this enthusiasm for January!

School Photos

We started school last week. For our first day of school we took photos to send to relatives. We have a tradition of taking them in front of the same arbor each year. With a constant for a background it is easier for the kids to see how much they have changed in a year's time. They get a kick out of it and the relatives feel like we are more official if we have school photos like the "other kids". So here is to pleasing them all, lol.

Note: Quinn was taking a nap during picture time so he doesn't have one yet. I'll have to set his bouncy chair up in front of the arbor so he has his first ever school photo.

June 6th Week in Review

What a busy week it has been!

We received testing results! Our oldest passed her third grade state mandated testing with flying colors. We are so proud of her! That means we are ready to move on to fourth grade :o)



DD2 is fully potty trained and a big girl now. It is amazing how different children are. I have been lucky enough to have two easy potty trainers and one that I wasn't sure would ever be in panties. Whew...three down and one to go in this area!



DD5 has her first loose tooth and can't quit wiggling it. She is sure the tooth fairy will make her rich! Although she is also expressing concerns over losing it at night and eating it without knowing. I should be checking into current tooth fairy rates in preparation for it, just in case she doesn't swallow it.



DS sleeps through the night consistently. It feels great to get more than two hours sleep! He is smiling, laughing, and cooing. This is when the fun stages begin!



DH is off to Engineering school. I miss him terribly but keep reminding myself that this should be the last of the out-of-state schooling that he has to do. And the pay off to this will be big.

On another note I planted some more flowers. My yard is starting to feel more like home, finally. I am tired of the weather being rainy but it is a benefit to newly transplanted flowers so I am bearing with it.

I was blessed with dinner with a friend this week. We had some great food and wonderful conversation. Close friendships really are something to be treasured.

I think that sums up our happenings of the week. Sorry no great pictures for my week in review. May be next week.

Tropical End of Year Party

We officially ended our 07'-08' school year. Liv did her state testing and that was reason to celebrate, thus the tropical themed party!

We started with some great Hawaiin outfits complete with hula skirts, flower tops and necklaces, and we couldn't resist the straw hats!

Then we invited some good company. Here are the girls with their grandpa. We also had a couple grandma's, great grandma's, and an uncle.

We had some fancy punch to drink along with bbq chicken kabobs, salads, chips, and fruit.

And ended with some good music to dance to!

Homeschool Orders

I placed my 2008-2009 school orders! Now the part of waiting for my mail man to deliver the goodies, lol.

Amazon:
R&S Preschool ABC Books
Bible Pictures to Color
Fraction Tiles with Tray
Bingo game (dry erase format so I can use it for any subject)
Vocabulary Vine and games to accompany it
Bob Books
Math Manipulatives (base ten set)
Math Descovery Kit for Pre-K and K

Anabaptist Bookstore:
Math 400
Language 400
Math 100
Color Picture Flash Cards for LTR
Sound Slider for LTR

Ebay and other used curriculum sites:
Life Skills for Kids: Equipping Your Child for the Real World
Spanish in 10 minutes a Day
Christian Kids Explore Biology

I think these paired with what I already have make me ready for next year. So now to wait patiently, or let's just say wait ;o) Then I get to mull them over before starting school back up in July!

Week in Review

Here is our week at a glance. I used to be good about posting these and I want to get back into the habit of doing it again. So here we go:

Monday: Did two lessons in math and language. Had a great history lesson on mummies and studied worms in science. After school we worked on the porch.

Tuesday: We headed out of town to find a new-to-us vehicle. I loved our truck but even with four doors we had outgrown it. So we lasted a whopping nine months without a suburban and now we are back in one. I am thankful to have the much needed room.

I had some stick family decals on the truck and they couldn't be salvaged so I ordered some new ones. I can't wait for them to come in! I can't get the image to come through on here but will copy and paste one as soon as they come in. I'm excited!

Wednesday: We did school. Only two weeks to go!

Thursday: School and worked on the porch. We got the decking done and the posts up. Now it will be the railing and then the roof!

Friday: Family day with a bbq. My husband is such a great bbq'er! We played games and ate good. Oh and I received a package in the mail. I LOVE box day! I got my first order from Anabaptist Bookstore. It has Grace's Math, Reading, and a couple of supplements in it. She was so excited that she wanted to do extra school.

Saturday: We headed to a local nursery to pick out some new flowers for the yard. The girls found a dead bird and if it wasn't for the other people I am thinking they would have brought it home to dissect and properly bury it. That's how enthused they were with it!

Olivia came down with the flu, poor thing. Oh and Grace still wants to do more school today, lol. We have to love the enthusiasm of a young learner.

So there is our week in review and I will leave you with a picture of our little guy.

The Well Trained Mind

I recently finished this book and can't say enough good about it. I have been considering moving our homeschooling style to more of a classical education so I went looking for some great books on the subject. I ran across this at the library and it was everything I needed. I am now planning on ordering it so that I have my own copy at home. It was extremely hard not to pick up a pen and highlighter and start marking all over in this book!

The whole book was impressive, IMO, but I really liked that it has everything mapped out for you clear through highschool. It describes each aspect of homeschooling using the classical approach from the actual school subjects, to organizing your year's schedule, to balancing multiple children, and running your household. It includes great reading lists, resource references, state laws, record keeping tools, and so much more. I really think this has been the most thorough book I have read regarding homeschooling in a couple of years. It is one of those that I wish I would have found sooner!

I can't wait for my own copy to arrive so I can get highlighter happy with it!