An impromptu experiment

Today we went to the Grapevine Arboretum. It is fairly new and honestly doesn't have a lot to look at. (Nevermind that it is January and everything is dead!) The kids needed to burn off some pent up energy and Troy and I just needed a break with them! (I didn't take my camera).

While we were there and the kids were able to explore freely we found many things; fish, leaves, bird nests with babies, rocks, squirrels, hawks, and even horse apples! We found one rather large one and the girls and I decided to cut it open and see what was inside when we got home.

We started with a list of "Observations"

We wrote different things about our horse apple. What it looked like, how it felt, how much it weighed, etc.

We also decided to compare the size with other fruit in the house. Is it bigger than an apple? How about a small grapefruit?

I don't have a scale (shame on me!) so we decided to compare the weight with other items in the house. We determined that 4 lbs of sugar and a 2 lb can of beans was too heavy. But the 1 lb can was just right!

Then it was time to make a hypothesis! What does the inside look like? How does it feel and smell? Are there seeds?

The girls were almost dead on with their guesses! I was very proud. This was a lot of fun and we learned about weight, measurements, comparison, and nature in general. We even looked up if it was okay to eat one of these apples! We also looked up why we write "lb" for pound!

 
Our finished "Observation Sheets".

The girls loved this and so did I. Jackson wasn't interested which was fine. He and his Daddy are working on their own projects! This is just a small part of what we do in our unschooling day!

What we have done so far!

I have neglected this blog!  Not on purpose. Life has just been busy. The last time I posted it was about Unschooling. I would like to update you on that!

Since we have started school we have moved to the DFW area.  We are now living with my parents. I do not have as much control over when the TV is on or off anymore and because we are sharing a living space our day looks a lot different than what I had first hoped. The good news? We have adjusted well!

Our day starts with the kids playing outside, or legos, or some other fun playtime.  At this time I wake up!  The good thing about having grandparents in the house is that I can sleep in a bit! I wake up, check email, facebook and blogs. We start school about 9 am.

We always start with Bible (Sonlight). The kids and I enjoy memorizing Scripture, praying and talking about the story or lesson.  This Sonlight curriculum has a lot of read-alouds! So I have incorporated drawing or painting of the Bible lesson into our morning while I read the, sometimes endless, pages.

Then we go on to History, Geography (sonlight), and then science.  We started the year with Apologia but I quickly realized that this was not a good fit for our family.  So we are switching (as of January) to unit studies. We just read a fun story "Owls in the Family" and the kids wanted to learn more about owls so we are working on a lapbook about owls.

Then it is time for individual work. Ellie is still very dependent on me for most of her work. So Jackson usually starts with math. I only help when it is a new concept or if he is confused. This leaves me time to work with Ellie.  She is really not getting math.  I noticed recently that she is relying on me to tell her the answers. So we have started over.  We are taking it very slowly. Today was the first day I saw the light bulb turn on.  She is starting to understand the concept of adding.  We will most likely do Kindergarten math again later in the semester. For now we are sticking with some little books that are meant to reinforce addition and other basic concepts.

I also like to take this time to help Charlotte. She only gives me about 10 minutes max!  She loves to play Sound-o Bingo, which is bingo with only letters and their sounds.  She also loves playing cards. Ellie joins in too.

Ellie reads to me and works on other LA and is usually done well before lunch. Then she is off to play with her sister!

Jackson and I work on ELA together and then he is working on an additional geography program that is based on the US.

That is it!  Oh, we have just started Health too.  Like just started today! So I don't know how that will go yet,

The unschooling has not really happened like I wanted but I feel a lot less pressure this year than I have in years past. We have had a lot of big life changes since October including: a move, Troy out of work for 2 months, 2 deaths, and me having to be the full time caregiver for my father. I have learned to let a lot of things go. My kids are benefiting from that.

All-in-all, it has been a good year!

Learning to read..take 2!

Two years ago I started teaching Jackson to read.  The experience was traumatic to say the least! There was a lot of crying and yelling.  From both of us.  So when Ellie started showing signs of readiness I was a little nervous.  Ellie's personality is nothing like Jackson's.  I knew that it would be different.  I was just worried that I might make the same mistakes as before. 

We have taken this whole entire process very slow.  She has finally started to express frustration because she cannot read.  One of her good friends is an excellent reader.  This frustrates her.  I have been preparing her for reading since June.  That is when I formally started teaching her letters and sounds.  The reason why I waited is because I wanted to make sure she got it.  A lot of times letters and numbers are taught at a very early age and I don't think kids really get them.  I think they memorize but then don't know how to apply them.  This is one of the problems that Jackson had.  Anyway, I started with just teaching her letters and sounds.  We worked and worked on them until I felt she was ready for the next step.  Last week we took the plunge.  We have officially started SSR&W.

It is not as easy as she had thought.  We are learning to blend letters like "b-a". Today she was very frustrated.  She really just wanted to read a book.  So today was not as easy as she had hoped.  I on the other hand knew it would not be so I was able to remain calm when she got upset.  I know she will get it.  Jackson did and he was hard for me!

Baby Steps

Jackson has really been struggling with ELA.  He hates grammar. He hates reading. He hates writing.  Now that he is in the third grade the curriculum expects him to be doing much more of ALL of these things.  Today we started out the day struggling.  We took a break at the bowling alley!  When we got home it was time to start up again.  He saved Friends and Heroes for the end today.  He had to write a mini-report.  He was able to choose from 3 different things and today he chose Nile Crocodiles.  We researched and then it was time to write.  He was upset.  But I decided to be merciful (something I couldn't do earlier) and told him as long as they were complete sentences written correctly he only had to write 3.  I figure since we are still getting used to all of this this would be a reasonable amount of work.  He was still a little discouraged until I told him I would not grade his spelling.  Amazingly out of 3 sentences only 3 words were misspelled! He was so proud of his report when he was done.

baby steps...

For reading today I told him he could pick any book.  He chose The Snake Dictionary. He has not been able to put it down. He is reading on his own without help.  This is monumental people!

It just goes to show that when you let go of what YOU want to do and allow what really needs to, happen.  Your day gets a whole lot better!!!!!!  I am so glad our day ended this way! :)

Something Different

Yesterday my sweet friend was sharing her struggles with homeschooling with me.  I encouraged her to try something a little different and today she said it worked! 

Taking my own advice we went outside and picked up leaves and pine cones.  The kids even picked little pink flowers off of my crepe myrtles (is that how you spell that?). Oh well!  Anyway we came in and painted with leaves and used tissue paper and crayons and even googly eyes to decorate all that we got.  It was great!  We had 3 extra kids over so you can imagine I did NOT get pictures! :(  But the kids made some really cool collages. I will post pics of the finished masterpieces soon!

What kind of fun things do you do to break up the monotony of the day? Ours was impromptu, what about you?

Get Set....DONE!!!

Ellie is blowing through ETC! Last week she finished book two of the "Before the Code series, Get Set for the Code".  If we hadn't had so many breaks over the last couple of weeks she would be even further along!  I am so proud of how hard she works and her WONDERFUL attitude toward learning. We have also been supplementing with Reading Eggs.  Not that we need to, it is just something fun!  We have already started Go For the Code!  When we are done with this book we will start Sing, Spell, Read and Write!

As always here is a picture of Ellie with her completed workbook!

Charlotte

Each day we start with breakfast and a few chores.  Then we go on to start our school day.  Charlotte is old enough to realize that she is missing out on something.  Lately she has been asking for her "school".  She has a few things that she just loves!  Some of them are independent play and others are with Mommy!

Matching these bears is always fun!  She is learning size and color with this activity.  As I type she and Ellie are pretend playing with them.  They have each grouped them by color making "families". 

Puzzles are always fun.  She has actually begun to do more difficult puzzles.  She is learning how to look at the colors on the pieces of a traditional puzzle and is able to match them up.  She still can't quite finish one but she is getting really close!  Luckily, Ellie is a puzzle whiz and is very patient and loves to teach her sister!

She also LOVES to color!  You can see that she is a lefty! She has excellent fine motor skills and has been holding a pencil/crayon correctly for about 9 months now.  Recently I noticed that she was starting to color in the lines really well.  Occasionally she will scribble on the paper, mostly when she is being silly.  She is also starting to "write letters" with a pencil or pen.  She already recognizes what writing looks like and is very intentional with the lines and curves that she makes on a piece of paper.

We also LOVE to read together.  Each morning when the big kids are done Charlotte and I pick 3 or 4 books and read them together.  I have started asking her context clue questions and have even asked her to read to me.  I love the stories she makes up just by looking at the pictures.  She even does the voices! :)

We also have started going to PBSKIDS.org.  She does not use the mouse but I let her point to the place she wants me to pick.  She really enjoys that!

All in all she is doing really well.  She is very bright.  I don't want to push her.  I want this to be as organic as it can be.  I am going to continue to put things in front of her that interest her.  After all she did JUST turn 3!!!!!

Counting and Patterns

When I pulled Jackson out of first grade he could not count past 20.  We worked tirelessly but he finally got it.  Now with Ellie in Kindergarten we are working on numbers.  She is adding already!  But I noticed that she is having difficulty with numbers 11-30 and for the life of me I can't remember what I did with Jackson!  So I put out a cry for help today on facebook.  And I got some wonderful ideas.  But one stuck out and we tried it.

I was really wanting Ellie to realize that counting is just a pattern of 0-9 repeated over and over.  So this is what I did.  I took note cards and wrote 0-29 on them.  I also used different colors for 0-9, 10-19 and 20-29.  I then had her lay out each group of numbers in order.  She has 0-9 down!  So we went to the next set.  She couldn't figure out what came after 11.  She knew it was 12 but wanted to lay down 15.  I asked her to look and see if there was a pattern.  Her little eyes lit up!  "Look!  0 and 0 and 1 and 1!!".  She quickly laid out the rest of the cards!  She was so excited.  We counted each one aloud.  We will keep practicing and eventually I will time her.  Here are some pics!

Sorry the last one is crooked...

Friends and Heroes: A science experiment

We LOVE our Friends and Heroes curriculum!  Today we did science.  In the story, the boy Macky helps his father sell items like silver.  We learned how valuable it was all of those years ago.  We also learned about things like; luster, malleable, conductor and tarnish.  We then did a really cool experiment.  In the past our experiments have not been very successful but today it was!!!

We started with some very tarnished silver.  I had two rings that I have been meaning to take to get cleaned.

Then we put them into a pan lined with aluminum foil.

We brought water to a boil. (This is the mom part!).

Then we measured the baking soda.  It takes 1/4 cup per liter of water.  We talked about the different ways to measure and how each went together.  We also went over fractions again.

Then we added the boiling water and the baking soda to the pan.  The frothing was very quick!  And the tarnish came off just as quickly!

We used tongs to get the hot rings out and study them better!  We had a lot of fun today!

It doesn't seem like it could even be possible that we are struggling ALREADY this year, but we are.  For the most part we are getting our assignments done.  It just seems that the overall moral is a little down.  I think part of that is the fact that I have been in a little funk lately. 

Here are some things we are working on:

Hearts: I truly believe I have great kids.  For the most part they are well-mannered and obedient.  But we have been struggling lately with bad attitudes and disobedience.  There are many different opinions from the masses on what I should be doing to correct these things.  There are several different approaches that I have been trying.  Some are working and some are not.  What I do know is that I am starting to see a slight shift in their behavior which means it is all downhill from there...right?

School is boring: I had all of these ideas about school this year.  I had planned out the curriculum and thought "okay this is going to be good".  Well, it's not!  The kids are bored.  Yesterday after Ellie was finished with her assignments she asked if she could play a game.  I pulled out the pack of Crazy Eight's cards that we got from the Dollar Store and she and I played.  It was her first time and she WON!  As we were playing I realized that we were practicing shapes, numbers and colors.  She didn't even know that she was learning.  Afterwards we put on some dance music and I let the kids get up on their desks and dance.  We had so much fun!  So I want to start doing more things like this.  I don't want it to be monotonous for them. I want them to be glad they are homeschooled because of all of the fun things they get to do!  I mean what kid in public school can say I played cards today for math and that was it!? 

As you can see this is all a process.  If you are willing and able to look at the big picture then it can become really fun.  Making adjustments to your schedule and your lessons can lead to a whole lot more exciting times for you and your kids!

Two new fun links!

Let me start by telling you that I am not getting anything for endorsing these two sites.  But I do like them!

The first is Reading Eggs.  My friend Mindy told me about this one and we started playing it yesterday.  Ellie LOVES it!  We are just starting to learn letters.  She knows 85% of them.  We have been using ETC but I noticed that she was having some difficulty recalling some of the letters.  I wanted something that would help reinforce what we are already learning.  (ETC does have an online program too).  When we started Reading Eggs I thought, "Wow this is really going to be fun". And it is! We were able to get a discounted rate at Homeschool Buyers Co-op.

The next site is a FREE site! Sheppard Software has free math games for all ages.  Ellie and Jackson are using this site to reinforce what they are learning.  So far it has been a hit!

Do any of you have a site that you love to use?  Let me know!

Day 3

Just want to let you know that as I type this post my 3 year old is having one of the biggest meltdowns I have ever seen! I just had to scream at her to get her to stay in her room.  Motherhood.

I wanted to post some pictures of what we have been doing.  It is only day 3 but the kids are really enjoying our new schedule.  So here it goes.

In Friends and Heroes, we are learning about keeping a diary/journal.  We researched Samuel Pepys and read some entries of his.  Then Jackson had to pretend he was in a loft of a barn like Macky from F&H.  He was to wrap up in his blanket and write about his adventures that day.  The lesson suggested that we do it by candle light but I used my own discretion. This was out of Jackson's comfort zone.  He is still not a very good speller and lacks confidence.  But after writing a bit I caught him writing notes by himself.  I LOVE when he realizes he CAN do something!

Charlotte received excellent presents for her birthday!  One of them was this sorting activity.  She still doesn't quite understand patterns but she does understand different colors and sizes.  She really enjoyed this activity today.

Ellie is really doing very well with ETC!

We also played UNO Moo!  The kids really like this game!  Thank you Mrs. Mindy!

Look who is learning how learning how to ride a bike!  Go Ellie T!

Our First Day 2011-2012

As I am starting this post Jackson is still working on math but he is almost done! Today was a good day!

Today we started our official school year!  I decided to do it today (even though we have been schooling throughout the summer) because it was Ellie's first year of Kindergarten and she was a bit sad about missing the whole "first day of public school". So I decided to make our first day a big deal for her sake.  Plus it is a great way to start the year!

We started our day with a great and favorite breakfast, pancakes and bacon! Char helped me mix the pancakes!

While I was getting breakfast ready Jackson and Ellie sparred in the backyard!

During breakfast we read from the book of Acts. In our Friends and Heroes curriculum we are learning about the early church so I thought it would be good to go through the entire book of Acts with the kids.  We talked this morning about the ultimate demise of Judas and the appointing of Matthias to take his place with the other Apostles.

Then it was time for "First Day of School' pictures!  Ellie had to have her bacon in hand..whatever!  They all dressed themselves and for that I am happy so all of you that have really cute pictures of kids in their brand new outfits..don't hate! :)

For whatever reason the two other individual pics are not loading...I will try again later.

Anyway.  After pictures we came in and started our day.  We started with a video from our Friends and Heroes study.  The video is 30 minutes long so I used this time to clean up the kitchen (which was nice!). When the video was over I sent the girls to work on chores. (Originally I had wanted the kids to do their chores before school but today worked out much better).  While the girls cleaned their room Jackson and I learned about the Roman soldiers.  We talked about what an Empire was and he had a great modern day example.  I was really impressed.  He remembered seeing on a TV show where a bee hive had been taken over by wasps.  Great job, J Hunter!

After he was done with that, I sent him to clean his room and then he was allowed a break.  Meanwhile Ellie came back to the table to work on her assignments.  She chose Explode the Code first.  When she was done Charlotte wanted her time.  So I allowed her to color in a workbook we got at the dollar store.  The big kids played outside for a while.  Then it was time for Jackson to read and Ellie worked on her math.  When they were both done we all played a game of "Old Maid".  They all thought it was a lot of fun. 

So here I am now.  Jackson is working on finishing his math and I just got done reading to the girls. After lunch I am going to read "Tom Sawyer" to them and then it will be nap time for Char and play/TV time for Jackson and Ellie. 

So how was your day?

Gearing up for 2011-2012

Hello friends!

It has been a very fast summer! We have had a pretty uneventful one as far as vacations go.  But this summer Troy was able to find a job and that was the most important thing.  We only have one car so we were stuck at home for the most part (with the exception of a few great friends that didn't mind picking us up every once in a while). We didn't get to swim like I had hoped.  But what I had planned even before Troy went back to work was schooling all summer.  I knew that it would not be as formal because, well, let's face it I am really bad at the follow through.  There. I said it.  I put it out there!

So we have had school this summer.  We actually did really well sticking with it.  The big's went to Mom and Dad's for a week and that was a week off, and there were a couple of days in there that I decided we needed a break.  Last week we were at Mom and Dad's again.  We did assignments while we were there and this week we are home and we have not done anything.  I have been getting things all set up for the new school year. 

There will not be any new books or curriculum.  It is all the same as we have been working on this summer but come Monday morning there will be: an extra special breakfast, pictures in front of the tree out front (it is Ellie's first day of Kindergarten!), brand new crayons, markers, map colors and pencils, and maybe even a extra special snack for our first day. 

I am hoping that the kids and I will be able to do some trips to the library and the park this year.  It all depends on whether or not we get another car.  I know the Lord already knows what kind and where it is.  I am just patiently waiting for Him to show us the way. 

So how are you all getting ready for this school year.  Whether you homeschool or not...we all have fun traditions!

Following Through

Okay so I am just going to put it out there....most days we sit in front of the TV all day and do nothing.  This has become a reality that I am ashamed of.  I could blame it on the heat or not having a car, but in all actuality it is because it is so much easier to let the kids be occupied by the big box that makes noise! As you know we are schooling through the summer and the last two weeks have SUCKED!  We have not gotten anything done. 

Se la vi (is that how you spell it?).

So this week I decided we are going to start over.  No more kicking myself or boo-hooing.  We are going to start.  The first day, Monday, we had 3 different visitors stop by.  This put a wrench in my plans but I stuck with it and made the kids stick with it too.  While I prepared dinner, Ellie sat at the island and did her ETC while Jackson sat at the table and worked on his math.  Jackson did not finish until 9pm.  He is a trooper!

*Before you get all judgmental on me for making my kid work into the night... let tell you that it took him about 6 hours to do 2 pages of work.  He chose not to get it done! Today he finished a much larger amount of work in about 45 minutes!

Anyway. Today was much better.  We started the day off without TV and the kids ate and played outside first thing.  Really, we have to go out before 9 am to keep cool (or cooler!).  After playing we started school.  Ellie is always faster because she has less work.  She finished with a great attitude and then worked on her chores.  Jackson also had a great attitude and finished all subjects by 10:30!!  Only an hour and 45 min!  I was so proud!  Char watched PBS.  I know I just said no TV but she woke up on the wrong side of the bed and I didn't want to fight her while I was helping Ellie.  And if  I am following my lesson plans, 30 minutes of TV is allotted for Char! The kids ALL did had their chores done by 11 and we were able to go next door to play with our friends.

Anyway all that to say I am going to really try to follow through with the kids this year.  It is so easy to stop doing our work when it gets hard or we get a better offer.  I think it is a good lesson to teach them too!  I am not worried about how they will turn out in the academically, I am more worried about how they will turn out spiritually.  And following through is a lesson that needs to be learned!

Schooling Char-"I want to do my maff"

Today when we started school Char quickly exclaimed that she "wanted to do my maff". So we got out the spoons.  We got this idea from a preschool swap and it has been fun.  The spoons are different colors and have letters on them.  I turned them over for her so that the letters did not through her off.  Right now we are just working on colors.

Then I put one of each color in a cup so that she could match them/

Then she matched them!'

She did this several times.  She had a lot of fun.  I tried making a simple pattern.  She recognized that it was a pattern but had a difficult time continuing the pattern.  That is something we will work on in the future.  But for now this is her "Maff". 

By the way..there are no pictures of her because she was completely naked and refused to get dressed for pictures.  So you will just have to look at her little hand! :)

A small milestone

Ellie has finished her first book in the Explode the Code series, Get Ready for the Code.  She did really well with it and by the end she was able to work independently.  I love this curriculum because the format never changes (not even in the books for the big kids). It is also very thorough and I truly believe she gets it and is ready to move on to the next book.  She was so excited and we got a great picture of her showing off her completed book!

PICTURES!!!

The kids painted the other day.  They needed something fun to do and what is more fun than painting?  The did great and I think I am going to frame them and decorate the school room with them! Hope you enjoy them! :)

Spring Lapbook

My kids have been asking a lot of questions about Spring.  They are excited that it is getting warmer and they are ready for Spring to get here.  Today I realized we are only 5 days away from Spring! So I surfed the web and found a Spring Unit Study.  We are going to make a lapbook.  I am also excited because there is a lot of information about weather and I also purchased a weather unit study!  So we are starting tomorrow and I will post pics and let you know how it all goes!

Homeschool-Update

Just thought I would post an update on what we have been doing for school.  This is more for me than anyone else reading this.  I like to look back and see what we were doing.

I recently went to the Dollar Tree and bought a few things for Ellie and Char.  Ellie really has been showing an interest in reading and writing and I have been a bad mom and have not let her do it!  I know that is horrible but I know that once she starts I am COMMITTED!!!!  So I have waited on the intensness of it all and have done just some surface stuff like abc's, and 123's.  She has been doing really well with it.

So I bought her a Cinderella Alphabet book at Dollar Tree so that she can continue to practice writing her letters.  She still needs to work on some fine motor skills.  We also have a puzzle that has 2 pieces per letter that makes a picture. So Aa-put together makes a basket of apples, and so on.  We are really concentrating on A-E.  We are working on the sounds and letter recognition. 

For Char I bought her some books about animals and colors and shapes at the Dollar Tree.  She loved reading them with me and when I finished she "read" them to me.  She basically would tell me the animals name and then ask me "Sheepy say?" Wanting me to make the sound of the sheep.  These are all really good early learning concepts that I enjoy doing with her.  She is also working on wooden puzzles that are animals and even plays with them as thought they are figurines.  I love it!

Jackson is rolling right along in Math and Reading.  He is on grade level now and I am sincerely impressed with his reading skills!  It is like a whole other child here.  Because he has improved so well we are going to start introducing so other things.  I had thought about Science but he is taking a course about space in Friday School.  We may work on some History. We have also started a new Bible study called "Devotionals for Boys".  He craves the Word and that sparks a fire in me! 

I would have loved to post pictures of the girls working on their newest things or Jackson reading his Bible but alas my camera is still broken!  Hopefully I will get a new one soon! :)