Mitchell Home School

2012-11-06T11:12:00.003-06:00

Rhymes to Remember and build Vocabulary

Hush little baby,
don't you cry,
mamma's gonna bake you,
a pumpkin pie.

Hush little baby,
don't make a noise,
mamma's gonna buy you,
some brand new toys.

Hush little baby,
don't make a peep,
mamma's gonna sing you,
all the way to sleep.

Hush little baby,
don't make a sound.
Mamma's gonna sing you,
another round.

*My children made this song this morning.

Kids can make beautiful songs if given the time to create. Also rhymes can help children learn new concepts. In the above we have been studying poetry for some time. It seems my children have finally internalized the idea of rhyme and meter. In the future I can use this to help them memorize their school work.

2012-10-23T20:35:00.001-05:00

More Children, Means More fun

Alright, I am first to admit that the idea of adding more children to my already huge crew, seemed scary. Over the past 8 weeks my family has had the pleasure of playing host to a family of four. Our two families have been home schooling our children, sharing chores and teaching loads, and enjoying one another's company. I admit, at first, it was a bit frightening. I didn't know how well we would be able to cooperate. I am delighted by the results.

Sometimes, opportunities present themselves that can be mistaken for burdens. For example, most people would assume having more people in the home is a huge burden. Truly it is not! Thanks to our visitors, my daughter that is a struggling learner, is soaring in ways previously unthought of. Sometimes children need variety in their life. Our home was becoming predictable for some of my children. This new approach to learning stimulated my struggling learner Now that she has a classmate to gauge herself by, she knows that she needs to work harder to do well. As a result of her hard work, I can say with all confidence, she is finally reading at grade level.

What a sweet victory it is for her, when she reads the signs around town. It is sweeter still when she can read the instructions for her work, or her new toys. She loves being helpful and now that she can read, she can help a lot more around the home. I have never seen her so happy and fulfilled. It is as if she has found purpose.

High Interest Activities- Field Trips!

2012-08-05T19:57:00.003-05:00

I'm a big believer in making sure kids have a lot of high interest activities to cement ideas and knowledge. Our eldest went to a girls camp through the church recently. The other kids felt a tad bit jealous of her adventures so we took a small "mini" vacation to Cape Girardeau, MO. While there we visited the Lazy L Safari Park. For the other kids this was a very good learning experience.

Lucy in the parakeet jungle.

Field trips like this help children to connect to the things around them. Experience based educational activities increase interest in the subject they are studying. Being homeschoolers we have the freedom to do these types of activities without the regulations, red tape, and general hassle that a public school teacher would face.

Someone is hiding in the corner.

Our homeschool in particular has been studying the animal kingdom for sometime. For the past six months the children have been learning about various animals, their habitats, their eating habits, and where they usually live. We have done this through readings, videos, experiments in the field, trapping local animals for a short period to study them and releasing them after study, internet searches, and writing. Our trip to Lazy L Safari was just one more thing to help the children learn about animals. Of course, when we arrived we expected a normal zoo. We were very surprised that the children could pet most of the animals there. They were able to feed deer, goats, donkeys, and more. They scratched a kangaroo;s nose, a camel's nose, and a yak's nose. They had a chance to walk with peacocks. They watched the emu's dance. It was a delightful afternoon.

The ostrich was checking us out.

Going on field trips are not just "nice" to do. They are essential to the learning process. Isn't it wonderful we have the freedom to do this? A few pictures of our trip.

The birds loved the food we gave them.

Summer Homeschool?

2012-07-15T12:43:00.000-05:00

First an update: the seeds we planted last week have really responded to the rain we've had. They are growing great! I'm sure Lucy will snap a pic as soon as she finds her little camera.

Anyway, we do homeschool activities through the summer. That means, at a minimum our kids do structured reading and math activities most days of the week even during summer. A lot of times our kids say it's unfair. (We don't get summer vacation!) They never have, but each year is an excuse to whine for when they see public school children do get one. Then I remind them of the advantages they have that public school kids don't. We all know what those advantages are, but for the sake of inclusiveness I will list them here briefly.

#1 The freedom to sleep in past 6:00 am
#2 The freedom to choose which subjects you do first
#3 The freedom to choose when to take a break
#4 The freedom to choose when you start school work
#5 The freedom to do hands on school work, book work, or computer work
#6 The freedom to go on many field trips a week
#7 The freedom to stay up late on a "school" night because there are no extra early mornings
#8 The freedom to go to the doctor without needing to get permission first
#9 The freedom to get a sick day and not have to worry about "catching up"
#10 The freedom to study as long as you want
#11 The freedom to do things you like without interruption for the next class.

You get the idea. However, with all this freedom comes one draw back. The kids must go to school year round. That means a school year isn't 180 days, it's 289 days. All of those days are at least 4 hours long. All of those 4 hours are spent studying, not at lunch, not at recess, not walking between classes, nada...but studying. People often criticize our family when we say we only have 4 hours a day for school, but they don't look to see how many hours of actual instruction occurs in a public school. Plus, how much of that instruction is spent one on one? When you see that we spend most of those 4 hours doing one on one instruction only, compared to public school it's easy to see why the children do so well.

Then there are those that suggest we drop summer homeschool and "give the poor kids a break already". (Usually grandma or grandpa) The thing is, most children lose a lot of what they have learned over the summer. My eldest was the only child to ever have a summer break. In 1999, she was just learning to read in May. We took the summer off and by September she lost all of that learning! I was devastated. I felt like I had worked so hard to help her just to destroy all that work.

I don't believe children should spend 8 hours in a building all day with hundreds of other children listening to a teacher talk about things they may not find interesting. Especially when most of that time isn't spent on actual one on one learning. Children need high interest activities to retain information. Children can become burnt out from learning a lot of information at once, hence why we have 4 hour school days. However, children can lose previously obtained information over the summer, hence the year round homeschooling. It may not be the perfect solution for every child, but it is the perfect solution for us.

In addition to this, we don't "grade" a child and then move on. Grading and moving on to the next subject is a system made for introducing concepts to the masses. Our children move onto another subject once they have mastered a concept. That means on a lot of things they will be in a lower grade level than other children. They move to another grade level once they obtain 90 percent or better. I know of no public school that does this. We don't berate children that learn certain concepts slower than others, we just keep helping them learn to move on to the next concept. If schools operated in this fashion, I guarantee 47% of Detroit wouldn't be illiterate.

So we homeschool over the summer to help the children retain what they learned. We have short school days so the children do not get burnt out. We teach our children the concept until mastery and then allow the child to move onto a higher level. This has produced a 16 year old girl (so far) that is looking into Freshman college courses. I don't think we've done too bad so far.

Planted the first of the Fall Garden

2012-07-08T10:13:00.000-05:00

Fall is coming up! Public school parents are already shopping for school clothes and talking about what junior will need. This isn't what we do in our family, because we home school. There are certain things we do try to do before fall and one of them is to get in the last bit of harvest possible. Since our summer garden died, we decided to plant a fall one.

We planted;
40 Christmas Lima Pole Beans
40 Scarlet Runner Beans
50 Rattlesnake green Beans
400 Rutabagas (I expect a 50% failure rate on these)
24 Lemon Cucumbers seeds
20 Lemon Summer Squash seeds
18 Jerusalem Artichokes (this was planted in May)

Living in the south gives us extra growing time, so we can plant this late and still get some beautiful crops. The last frost date is 10/14 in my area. This gives 90 days easily for our plants above to grow. All of these are either great for fall or fast growers. The scarlet runner in particular only puts beans on in the cool weather.

We plan to plant yet;
50 Parisian Carrots
400 Purple Top Turnips
50 Kale plants
50 Oak Leaf Lettuce plants
50 Amish Deer Tongue Lettuce
100 Saxa Radishes
25 Chuffa

Other Plants We have considered;
Arugula
Corn Salad
Bunching Onions
Potatoes
Ground Nuts

Each plant is decided on based on use of water, fertilizer needs, time to maturity, space, and whether the kids like the food. (I planted dill for pickling, I hope it grows in time.)

We all had to wake up at 5 am and work the ground. We worked until the sun was half way up the sky and started to fell hot on us. It was about 10 am when we finally stopped. The only time we can work in the field with this heat is in the very early morning or late at night.

2012-07-03T19:01:00.000-05:00

So much to update on: The little garden that could finally went kaput in the heat. We will be replanting a fall garden, but for now we are enjoying the weather and getting some home schooling done even over the summer.

First, the children go swimming about twice a week. We started this little tradition about 2 years ago. As such, we have some of the finest swimmers in our area. My daughter, age 16, saved 2 people from drowning this past week. I could not be prouder. I am finally seeing my commitment pay off a little bit. Of course, she is very happy. However, the one thing I didn't teach her was how to over come the panic of watching a friend drowning and how to act. That was learned on her own. I have to give the kid a high five on this!

Second, our family cooks in a solar oven. This we treat as a learning experience too. It helps to teach about science, especially how hot temperatures can get in a car, etc... However, it is a fun and tasty way to bring a lesson home. We were using the solar oven for home economics recently, showing how to safely cook food and how to actually cook in a solar oven. During the lesson, my daughter Lucy took a few pictures. (She has a lego camera) I was explaining that as long as the food reaches 180 and stays there until it is cooked, the solar oven will cook food and it is safe to eat.

Here is a picture of our solar oven sitting on the freezer. Aluciana took this picture.

Here is a picture of the BBQ chicken we cooked. It was frozen when they went in there. The sun cooked them perfectly and I can assure you they tasted delicious.

Here is the other pot that was cooked from frozen until hot. Yes, also delicious. As you can see, doing stuff is so much more fun...and more delicious than learning from only a book.

Finally, I just found the comments that have been awaiting moderation. Sorry... didn't even know anyone was looking at my lil ole blog. I will look for more comments in the future :) Also, great suggestions. You can expect more pictures in the future.

Celebrations are important Social Lessons

2012-06-18T01:00:00.000-05:00

My household doesn't celebrate much. We make sure to celebrate all the major holidays to some degree, but things like Memorial Day, Saint Patricks Day, Valentines Day, etc.. are usually ignored. This year, we had the great fortune of being with friends on Memorial day. The children enjoyed the day at the park and the cook out. However, it wasn't really a big to do.

There are celebrations which are very important to society. I would call them the glue that holds our society together and when I was a child they were something that the whole town would turn out for (or almost). These are private celebrations that you don't celebrate nationwide. What am I talking about? Birth, Becoming an Adult, Marriage, Retirement, and Death. These are all important milestones for any one person and we all used to share these with our friends and neighbors when I was a kid.

By the time I was an adult, the world no longer celebrated these milestones as reliably. When my daughter was Christened, only a handful of people besides family came to her ceremony. For my marriage, not even most of my family showed up although I had worked hard to make sure they could. I became an adult without any celebration or fanfare. I know that my life may not be a reliable indicator, but I have heard many others complain of the same problems.

It is truly a shame when we pass up such opportunities as these. These hallmarks are what make all of us human. They are what binds us to the human family. To deny or ignore such important social customs is to deny the humanity in another human. Some would even say it snubs the beauty that God placed inside of that person, the uniqueness.

My younger children were fortunate enough to be invited to see their first wedding. It was a delightful event. My daughter even took pictures. Then as a thank you for inviting us, we sent them the pictures that she took. It was a beautiful celebration of life and love. There were a lot of guests. It was the first time since I was a child that I had seen a perfect traditional wedding. I am so glad that my children got to see it.

Look at that smile. We should all remember how important social events are for teaching our children about the beauty of being together.

Soft Teaching

2012-06-05T21:14:00.000-05:00

Our family has been steered towards a soft approach of teaching. Some people would call our manner "unschooling", but I confess it is not completely "unschooling". Our softer manner of teaching is such that our children do not realize they are being instructed. I can give you an example.

My daughter needed a new skirt for church. She also needs a new shirt, but I don't have a pattern for her size just yet. She feels awkward in old and stained clothing and so tries to keep a very neat appearance, especially outside of the house. She is 16 and that age is always difficult to navigate. When she started to complain about the condition of her clothing, I took notice. She does not complain about small things like style. Usually something doesn't fit or the garment is so shabby, using it for work clothes isn't an option. She told me she had nothing decent for church.

Together we went through her wardrobe. Sure enough, she had either outgrown her most beautiful clothes or they were no longer good enough for church. So I suggested she go to yard sales to find something that would work as church clothing. Together, we combed through the city wide yard sales and found very little. There were, however plenty of clothing I would consider inappropriate for her age. She found only one black skirt which needed to be dyed back to black. We purchased that skirt and a bottle of dye.

She was still upset about the lack of proper attire. Honestly, I understand, but I tried to explain she only needed one good church skirt to survive. She wore that one skirt to church every Sunday for a while. Then she stopped wanting to go to church. She made excuses not to go. At first, I accepted them. Then, I finally confronted her. She said she didn't feel she had proper clothing still. She also expressed embarrassment at always wearing the same outfit.

I offered a solution. I have a lot of fabric in the home. I sew and always buy much too much for my projects. I offered her some of my fabric if she would make herself a skirt, without a pattern. I promised to guide her through each step. She had seen me working on her sisters skirts for the past two weeks so she had a pretty good idea of the process. She began afraid of the sewing machine. In the end she conquered and killed it, with her skirt half finished. She was so upset. How would she finish her skirt? I gave her a hand needle and some thread. I taught her a basic stitch. Then I told her to get to work.

The frustration magnified, but she persevered. It took her three days, but she finished her skirt. It is beautiful with straight hand-stitched hems and seams. You can tell it was hand made when you look at the stitches, but otherwise no one would know. The total cost was four dollars in today's dollars, though I am certain I bought all of the items for cheaper than that years ago.

How is this "soft learning"? She obviously had to work hard at what she learned! It is, because I took a moment that could have been a 15 minute shopping trip and turned it into a home economics lesson that lasted a few weeks. This isn't "academic" you may protest. I'm a very educated woman. I went to college and passed with very high marks. I am the first to say that education is very important. However, the one thing I needed to go to college and to get those high marks, was to apply that which I found in books. That means reading and then doing things.

However, that isn't the heart of my argument. The heart is this, the skill set taught in academia is too narrow. It is too separated from daily life. It is also useless in the higher education courses to daily life. In fact, I could argue that a lot of higher education serves only to build on the tiny foundations we started as children and can be done at any stage in one's life. However, my daughter learned a brand new skill all together. That skill she can spend the rest of her life building and perfecting if she so chooses. Our jobs as educators in the home, should not be perfecting our children in only academic subjects. We should teach them the skills they will need to survive.

A very long time ago my home economics teacher was explaining why they didn't teach sewing in our class anymore. She told us that anyone could pick up a nice pair of pants for less than an hour's wages, so why would anyone ever want to sew. That was true back then. Now though, picking up anything that is worth buying costs up to a days wages. When a person has a large family it isn't always practical or possible to give up a day's wages for clothing. Sewing still provides a cheaper manner to acquire clothing than buying them at Walmart. (Have you seen any skirts for $4 at Walmart lately, that weren't snagged or stained already?) I don't anticipate any of my children will win the great brain race that is today's academic atmosphere, if only because I don't steer them in that direction. Why not prepare them for the life that they are more likely to live and teach them skills that will help them survive?

Gardening Starting Off dismally

2011-04-08T19:10:00.000-05:00

Well the kids and I have planted all of the seeds, only to have Mother Nature over turn them in the little green house with the first strong wind. We found all the dirt in one big pile, so we scooped the dirt up and put it in a broken drawer in the window to our house. What do you know, little shoots started coming up all over.
Danilla and Aukxsona transplanted these little seedling into individual peat pots, which sit on plates in the window. They all seem to be doing very well now.

We also created two raised beds outside, and littered them with turnips, lettuce, carrot, and radish seed. Nothing is coming up yet, but may be in a few days. This weekend, I hope to get 1 to 2 more raised beds completed. My husband cleared about one acre for planting corn this year. If we're lucky, there will be plenty of corn to grind into cornmeal this fall.

The home school year is closing up for us. We will test in May and then start on home school light for the summer. I always get excited at test time each year, because it shows what progress we have made without a formalized school year. We are required by law to test annually. We choose to pay for the tests for our children, even though the state of Arkansas offers to pay for the testing. We feel it isn't the state's responsibility, because we chose to home school.

Around testing time, we will have a REAL (TM) vacation. I am looking at taking the kids camping at Blanchard Springs. It will tie in nicely with our geology in science. They even have education packs, to teach about the caverns. Of course there are also, awesome tours...and a store. The camp site is $10 a day for 5 days. Once on site and registered, there are free hot showers and toilets. There is swimming for the kids, hiking for me, and mountain biking for Tony. My son mentioned he wants to do a little fishing too...he's only 5. I think he takes after his uncle Jeremiah. The really cool thing, is that the caverns have a whole curriculum to go with them. I think it will really make their trip all that much more enriching.

It has been so long since we have taken a vacation. The last one we were on was under sad circumstances and rushed to all get out. We traveled the eastern seaboard and back in 5 days. I don't want to do that again. In fact next time, I'll just fly or take greyhound. Between the gas, fast food, and motel stays... it was about the same.

This vacation will be about an hour from where we live. It will be educational and fun. The coolest thing? (Besides, cheap, educational fun.) The camp ground is very near the Ozark Folk Center, where the kids can learn a ton of old fashioned skills. They can learn to use an old fashioned spring pole lathe. They can watch fiddlers on stage. They can eat old fashioned corn bread and beans. (The last time they went this was all free. It will be free April 15th -17th here soon) It is so rare we actually get to go out and enjoy the places around us. This time, I want to make sure it is perfect.

However, I am getting the cart before the horse. Before we can do any of these wonderful things, we have to test and find someone to watch our chickens and Spotsy the dog. On top of that, we will have to get some camping gear. That's right, we only have one tent. We bought the tent ages ago, so I don't even know how well it will work. It only holds 3. Originally we set it up in the back yard for the girls each summer. They would "camp" out there. It is so tiny though, it would only fit our tiniest children. I don't feel safe having the tiniest camp away from us, when there is black bear warnings at this site. I hope by the time we reach the site, the warning will have expired.

Well that's our progress and plans, what is everyone else up to?

Lots of News and updates

2011-02-16T04:31:00.000-06:00

Our home school has been humming along nicely, with daily work and the occasional day out. However, I had to give credit to a wonderful man on youtube for helping with this years science lessons. I know, this will seem odd, but it is a gardening channel. We always do plant life, every year, since we live in an agricultural community.

Most years we participate in 4 H, but due to the insistence that the children be taught "industry standards", instead of organic standards, this year we are opting out. In case no one understands what I mean by this, let me explain. 4 H suggests that children NOT let their birds eat natural bugs, or simple grains. 4 H also teaches children they must fertilize with chemical fertilizer. They also told the children to never put the three sisters, corn, squash, and beans together. Anyone that knows anything about sustainable agriculture, knows that this is contrary to every blooming thing that is taught. This is BIG agriculture they teach, for wanna be farmers with 1000 acres and a fleet of tractors to plow it. That is not what I want to teach my children. I want them to learn about organic, healthy, sustained, community agriculture. That being said, we had to find a way to get seeds since we would not be participating in the 4 H garden project this year. This is where our youtube hero comes in.

This is his youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/Praxxus55712 He had a little contest where he asked people to help him build revenue and support his project. Well, it turned out to be a lot bigger than I or he apparently expected. He managed to get enough revenue to buy seeds, envelopes, and stamps for 500 viewers to receive a small packet of free seeds. I followed the directions and hoped I would be selected. I was surprised to find a letter in the mail about 2 weeks later with a ton of little baggies filled with different seeds and a name tag. I would like to go through what this kind gentleman sent my children to grow as a part of their home school program.

California wonder peppers about 20 seeds
Cucumber straight 8 about 15 seeds
Beefsteak tomatoes about 20 seeds
Imperartor Carrot about 100 seeds
Jalapeño peppers about 30 seeds
Polish Linguisa Tomato about 10 seeds
Pickling Cucumber about 10 seeds
Butter crunch lettuce about 50 seeds
Cubanelle pepper about 15 seeds
Cherry tomato about 15 seeds

These all had germination rates, maturity rates, and their proper gardening names on them. They also are all heirloom varieties that we can save seeds form year after year. If you notice he provided enough seeds in each one to be considered a regular seed packet one would buy in the store. I compared a lot of the seed to Bakerscreek seed and found he sent about 45 dollars worth of seeds, if you include shipping. I know the kids are looking forward to planting these and I am extremely grateful for the gift.

Also, we received information on testing our children this year per required by Arkansas state. I tried to register them online for private testing, like we do every year. However, in the process, something messed up. I called the Arkansas testing office, but no one was in. We received a voice mail today, so I will have to call them back tomorrow morning.

We always do our annual testing through Seton Home. They supply a CAT test for each grade and process them for about 25 dollars per child. Most other "approved" places require 50 or more for each student that is tested. We have 3 children that must be tested by law, and we will have more as time goes on. Arkansas requires all children grades 3-9 to be tested via a CAT, IOWA, or Standford exam. Arkansas state does provide the test free of charge, but it must be at their time and place. Also, parents may not be in the same building with the children during testing. Furthermore, parents must provide testing to the facilities where the tests are being taken, no matter how far.

Arkansas gets to review all tests, although they say they don't look at a child's individual data, there is nothing to stop them. Furthermore, the tests are only required to prove a child is attending school. Arkansas requires just 4 hours of instruction per week. Although, I am glad for the lenience, I don't understand the need for testing conducted by the state. I tested Precious long before I was aware of the law requiring it, for my own guidance. I don't understand why other parents wouldn't as well.

Until next time...

Owl Pellet Activity

2011-01-04T21:28:00.000-06:00

You may recall we have been doing an Owl Unit Study for the month of December. Due to the holidays it has been carried over into January. The children are almost finished. We dissected owl pellets tonight. The children were ages 5 to 10 in the Owl Pellet Activity. They thoroughly enjoyed the process.

I was surprised to find the younger children not minding their less than prestigious roles as flash light holder, magnifying glass holder, or documenter so long as they had gloves too. (Like real scientists!) The children soaked the owl pellets in individual disposable plastic bowls, with one bowl for each pair of children. Team A was comprised of a 7 year old and a 5 year old. Team B was comprised of a 9 year old and a 10 year old.

To my surprise Team A was very diligent and engaged in the activity. They never bored or tired of the tedious work that included picking through a mass of fur and bones tangled together. They made objective observations and compared their findings with Team B (the older group) frequently. The only concern was the youngest member of Team A seemed to disregard any sense of personal hygiene seeking to fling his hands full of owl pellet every time he found a bone in excitement. (Yay! I found a bone! While clapping, waving his hands, and hopping) He also had difficulty keeping his hands only on the owl pellets. Otherwise, he did lovely for being so small.

Team B on the other hand plowed through most of the hard de-tangling much quicker than Team A. They found it boring to pick the tiny bones out after an hour and frequently complained that there were too many bones. Team B made very good observations and also compared their findings with Team A. They were much neater and more concerned about "germs" and the "ick factor" of owl pellets. They squabbled amongst themselves frequently and asked me to intercede in their arguments frequently.

On clean up the eldest member of both teams did much of it. The leaders of Team A (7 yr old) and Team B (10 yr old) both had to clean up their place mats, bowls, gloves, tweezers, and partners gloves. The 10 yr old had to vacuum the experiment area after due to the 5 yr olds excited flinging of the owl pellets. She did it without complaint.

The owl pellet bowls were placed in a secluded place with a bleach/water solution to further clean them. Tomorrow Team A and Team B must identify they types of bones they have from their owl pellet and from which animal it came. Tomorrow they must fill out a lab report and rebuild the skeleton(s) of the animal(s) they found if it is at all possible. I expect Team A to find the lab reports difficult as both are emergent readers and I expect Team B to find the rebuilding of the skeleton boring or tedious.

Both Teams are expected to complete both tasks regardless of their perceived abilities. I do not allow younger children slack even when the material is miles above them. I will allow cooperative learning, where in Team A and Team B can share and help one another complete their tasks due to the recent studies that suggest that this learning model is best for retention. I would like to update with pictures when all is done.

Happy Yule!

2010-12-21T01:30:00.000-06:00

We are taking a hiatus from home schooling for the rest of December now. However, I must relay the wonderful things we have done so far. Thanks to the kind and generous gift of a keyboard, and not just a tiny one either, Lucy has learned to play "Mary had a little lamb" on piano. She is very proud of herself. She wants to learn "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" next. I am searching for online sheet music for her. This is so exciting for all of my children though.

Alestria plinked around on the keyboard all afternoon. Although he never played a verifiable song, he made some good music. He even had the beats going and everything. The baby certainly liked his music. He was bee-bopping in the playpen having a good old time. Everyone told Alestria how good it was, and being he is just 5 I don't expect much more than that.

We still have our owl theme to finish. We have owl pellets to dissect and a few owl pages left. We will finish these in January. The kids need a break anyway. They have almost finished a year worth of geography and math in half a year. Their reading is right on task, so not too worried about that. We may focus on science when we get back. Spring is a great time to do that. Until now, we were watching a lot of science shows, but I feel some experiments may be in order. Anyway, the best to you and yours :)

Thematic Units

2010-12-03T20:28:00.001-06:00

  We have discovered the joy of thematic units recently. On a whim, I picked up a book on owls this September. I made an "activity book" from a lot of the activity pages inside this October. At first I thought it would be a fun little coloring project for the kids. However, as I delved into each and every page, while deciding which pages to include in our little activity booklet, I found that there was a little of everything in there. It seemed to me this was the perfect opportunity to give a more structured school setting, without the oppressive feel most school has.

  At first I let the kids discover what to do for themselves. I was surprised to find, even my emergent readers, were actually completing the work with some level of success. This I attribute to my elder children actively guiding them based on what they could gather. I went over the work they felt confident enough to accomplish. I was pleasantly surprised, but I noticed they skipped many sections I thought were easy. Then I asked them why. This is when I found the older children didn't know exactly what they were supposed to do to complete the work.

  This is when I actively began to teach the children based on their interest. I found they wanted to know things about the songs, the poems, the stories, and the plays that I had included just for fun. I was pleasantly surprised by this, because I was certain with out pictures this would be the most boring part to them. I explained what each was and began "actively teaching" which is different than just asking questions and providing material they can use to self teach. The kids really enjoyed the process of me actively teaching, so long as I keep it to a minimum. I noticed after about an hour, they were ready to go back to coloring and playing with each other while doing their work books. I don't take this as a bad thing, just means they know enough to build on the knowledge by themselves again now.

  How do you teach?

Hello and Welcome!

2010-11-29T19:01:00.000-06:00

  Hello and Welcome to everyone of you. Many of you will know our little home school and it's students personally, either by meeting them in passing, or as a friend. Some of you have been acquainted with us for years, and a select few are family. I want you all to feel comfortable here. This is not a typical family blog where in one shows the kids off to grandma, since most of the grandmas have passed on. Nor is this intended to be public display off sorts really. I sincerely hope to document my children's progress through the years and give a lasting testimony to their development. I also sincerely wish to engage in public debate about school in general and home schooling.

  Home schooling is deeply personal, and certainly is not for every parent. I found it to be a natural extension of my parenting, and sort of took to it like a duck to water. I was young, idealistic, ambitious, and full of sky high dreams of what she could accomplish by the time my eldest was 14. Many of those things have come true and some of them did not. That isn't to say I have always been happy with home schooling my children or that I have never considered public schooling.

  In fact the public vs. home school debate comes up once a year in the household, usually around fall. That is why I would like to open with which schooling option seems best to you, the reader. To engage in a deeper conversation, and perhaps bring a fuller understanding of other's view points into my life.

  We home school for quite a few reasons; flexible schedule, more one on one instruction, diverse availability to curriculum, and the ability to tailor the curriculum to the child's needs. We do not follow the Prussian model of schooling, nor rely heavily on rote learning except in a couple core subjects. Also, we try to make our learning focused on what we actually do everyday. This engages the children in a manner where they are learning without trying. Much of what we do is hands on, and books are used as a back up to flesh out our lessons.

  For example; In cooking math is involved when doubling or tripling batches for our large family. Some of my smaller children that help with these tasks have mental math abilities on par with children far older than they are. The same is true for sewing I might add. When my husband built the children a new bed, they got to be involved with the whole process, right down to assembly. This helped them with math, but also to see what math can do for them. It made their lessons come to life!

  However, we aren't building beds everyday or sewing clothes. In the days between to keep the children sharp, we do drills of one or two minutes based on basic math skills. Math and basic reading are one of the few things we do actually drill on. However, most reading is whole language based where in the children are given books to read, for fun, and after we simply discuss them.

  How do you get children to read for fun? You turn off the tv, the Xbox, the computer and you read as a family. Will they whine and cry it's boring? Oh you bet, until they get the hang of it. But it's not a crime to insist a child read for a certain part of the day, for fun. The fun part is they get to choose the book they wish to read so long as it is grade level and has been approved.

  We also play games with the children, like scrabble. We play hang man. We play tag. We allow them to put on "Fork Theater" at the dinner table most nights. Which is a more rustic version of "Barbie's" using forks and spaghetti for hair. That's the thing, children are naturally curious, and if you allow them the proper space to learn, they do so on their own in abundance.

  What are your reasons for your views on home schooling?