Homeschooling | Add a Pinch | Robyn Stone

Testing Time Flutters

Robyn — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:00:00 +0000

We’re gearing up for our annual standardized testing. Just the thought makes my stomach have a little fluttery feeling. It feels like when I was a teenager and my friends and I would drive our cars over “thrill hill” just fast enough for the flutters, but so fast we’d get in trouble with the neighbors.

It makes me want to go hide under my bed for the next few weeks until all of the testing has been done, submitted, and scores received. But then I have a feeling if I went to check under the bed, the dust bunnies would scare me even more than the standardized testing does.

So, instead, I’ll be a big girl and just dig in.

There always seems to be some drama during testing week.

Cranky mornings

Late evenings (even though we say we’re going early)

Broken pencils

Lost erasers

Never found patience

But, that’s just me. Little Buddy always seems to do just fine. Since standardized testing has been a regular occurrence for him, he just takes it all in stride.

Me on the other hand, I’m thinking those dust bunnies better watch out and I need to add another box of pencils to my shopping list.

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You are a genius.

Robyn — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 11:58:45 +0000

One of my biggest missions in life is to make sure that my son understands that he is a genius.

No, I don’t plan on shouting it as loudly as possible at every opportunity for the benefit of other parents. I plan on quietly whispering it to him as he creates a new Lego structure even better than the one he created yesterday. I plan of softly demonstrating it as he draws a cartoon of his favorite character of the week. I plan on positively reassuring him when he struggles in an area that is a current weakness.

You are a genius.

You are beautiful.

You have a gift.

You are a gift.

And maybe that is something that all parents actually do need the benefit of hearing, because every child is a genius.

Albert Einstein said so.

Happy Birthday, Albert.

Pin It

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Homeschooling Discussion :: How Do You Handle School When the Teacher is Sick?

Robyn — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 06:02:50 +0000

So, what started a couple of weeks ago as a little tickle in the back of my throat turned into a cute little heh – heh every once and again, then turned into a seemingly constant annoying cough that felt like razor blades in my throat, which then turned into to a full-blown case of bronchitis and another something or another that I can’t even pronounce, much less spell.

But, needless to say, after drinking everything I could think of that was warm and soothing for my throat from hot cocoa, to coffee, to tea, and simple warm honey and lemon water, I think I’m finally on the mend. Well, and I guess the medicine and shots my doctor gave me probably helped out some, too.

While I was out of commission running a fever and not really caring which way was up, much less actually trying to figure it out, I was thankful that I had written out my lesson plans and had prepared the associated materials to go along with them in advance.

I’d like to say that this is normally the case with me, but sometimes I have to admit I have our lesson plans sketched out but have not yet taken the time to pull materials for the next weeks’ lessons until the weekend prior.

It is definitely a habit that I need to improve.

But, luckily on this occasion, I had planned ahead.

With a little help from my husband and my mother {they were saints}, my son was able to keep on keeping on with our regularly scheduled schooling and I was able to fall into a fever-induced stupor in my bedroom.

As I recovered though, I started thinking.

Sick days aren’t normal for Moms, much less for homeschooling Moms.

Our stars were perfectly aligned to allow me to recover while our homeschool went right on.

But what if I hadn’t been that prepared?

As we get further into cold weather season, I’m sure more families will face illnesses. I thought it would be great for us to share our tips and tricks with one another for how we handle these days, and sometimes longer. I know y’all certainly have tried and true methods that work for your family that most likely would benefit another homeschooling family as well.

How do you handle sick days for yourself? Are your children able to work independently to allow you a day “off”? If so, how have you organized your daily routine to reach that point?

Please share.

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Daily Grams

Robyn — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 04:03:04 +0000

It is always refreshing to find homeschooling materials that your child looks forward to doing each morning. I remember talking with a “seasoned” homeschooler before we began homeschooling. I visited with her for an entire morning to watch her family in action as they did their school work that morning. It was like watching a well-oiled machine work as she methodically worked with each child, beginning with the youngest and ending with reviewing the work of the oldest. As for me, I was quickly taking notes as I watched. The type of book case, dry erase boards, organizational systems, book lists, and curriculum used by grade.

One thing stood out for each of her four children. She used Daily Grams with each of them and they all loved it!

Okay, with four children of various ages, that sounded like a winner to me.

I knew I needed to be sure to include that on my curriculum list for Little Buddy.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take my own advice that first year. I didn’t begin using Daily Grams until last year and wish that I could go back in time to have used them for our second grade year. They are fabulous!

Each day before as we begin our language arts lessons, we start out with Daily Grams. It is a wonderful way to get the grammar juices flowing and allows my son to work independently for grammar review on a daily basis.

I appreciate the reinforcement to our English and Grammar lessons and will definitely continue to include Daily Grams in our curriculum for the future.

Daily Grams Guided Review Aiding Mastery Skills Grd 5: Grade 5” target=”_blank”>Daily Grams Guided Review Aiding Mastery Skills by Wanda C. Phillips

180 Daily Reviews of:

Punctuation

Capitalization

Grammar and Other Concepts

Daily Sentence Combining

Do you have a Grammar tool that you love for your homeschool? Please share!

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Lessons in the Air

Robyn — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:01:48 +0000

A few weeks ago we took a field trip to visit my friend Amy in South Carolina to work on a project. My husband loved the idea of taking a day off to go flying and my son was all for having a day out of our normal homeschool routine. For me though, it was a little bit like Christmas morning waking up knowing that in just a little bit I was going to get to see my friend! We talk nearly everyday, but aren’t able to see each other as often as I would like.

I knew I didn’t want the day to be a complete “off” day for my son from homeschooling, so I decided we’d have a little bit of a lesson on our trip. We’d have a few hours in the plane and if you’ve ever been flying in a small plane, you can just imagine all of the possible lessons!

Since we’d been studying atmosphere and clouds, I knew it would be a perfect real-life lesson and I was right!

Our morning began early, just as the sun was rising.

I brought along a printed and laminated copy of NASA’s Sky Watch Chart that we’d been using as part of our lessons on clouds. Armed with a dry erase marker, Little Buddy marked the clouds he found during our flight. I loved the discussion he and my husband had about watching the clouds build throughout the day and why they do.

Their discussions included which clouds you want to steer away from when flying and how to spot them on with your eyes as well as on the radar in the plane.

We had the added bonus of lessons in navigation, air speed, currents, and winds and wind speed.

And were able to enjoy seeing a sunrise and a sunset the same day as a family.

I think we may take more of these field trips. We learned a whole lot more than I ever imagined.

Additional Resources on Cloud Study:

NASA and NOAA Cloud Chart

Unscramble the Clouds Game

National Weather SkyWatcher Chart

NASA Virtual Skies

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Do you celebrate Columbus Day in your homeschool?

Robyn — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 21:01:44 +0000

In elementary school, I learned a little poem that I’ve remembered since.

In August 1492,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

October 12th they sighted land,
And set their feet upon new sand.

There were lots of other facts regarding Christopher Columbus’ adventures and questions raised throughout my school years about whether Columbus thought the world was flat or round, thoughtful discussion over how Columbus was credited with discovering land that had really already been inhabited, and about the politics involved in his voyages.

One thing that always stood out to me in studying Christopher Columbus was his drive. He was a mighty determined explorer to sail west on a voyage for the east in search of a new route for Europeans to the land of gold and spices. That’s always something that fascinates me about explorers. They certainly seem passionate about their beliefs and risk so much to pursue them.

As we study the significance of Christopher Columbus’ voyages in our homeschool, we concentrate on the geography of his explorations, about the ships used, and a little more about the man and his legacy. Each year, we dig a little deeper into this study which leads to all sorts of great discussion.

How do you share the history of Christopher Columbus? Do you take Columbus Day as a holiday in your homeschool?

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Constitution Day

Robyn — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 22:40:01 +0000

September 17th marks the date thirty-nine delegates to the Constitutional Convention held their final meeting and signed our Constitution.

It’s certainly a date worth celebrating.

It’s definitely a date worth understanding what led to it, as well as what followed.

image credit: archives.gov

Ideas for Constitution Day Lessons

Read the Constitution

Show your children images of the four pages of the written Constitution. Read the Preamble as well as the full Constitution with your children and discuss the importance of this document.

You may also want to study the history of the Constitution.

And you know what? There’s also an “App for That,” too!

Study our Founding Fathers

Note the brave men who signed the Constitution and select one or more of them to read more about their lives. If you live in one of the states which was one of the 13 colonies, study and learn the names of the signers from your state, maybe include a little research on each of them.

Here’s a link to the delegates to the Constitutional Convention from Georgia. The others can be found on this site as well.

Have a Little Fun

Make studying about our Constitution fun! Take a little quiz and see which of the founding fathers you would be.

Read one of the many books by Name Your Link” target=”_blank”>Jean Fritz. My favorite is Shh! We’re Writing the Constitution.

How will you celebrate Constitution Day? Share your resources or posts in the comments.

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Georgia Homeschool Compliance Reporting

Robyn — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:08:20 +0000

A few friends in my local homeschool group told me about an e-filing service available to 121 districts in Georgia for homeschoolers to electronically file their compliance documents such as declaration of intent and monthly attendance reporting.

While I’ve been going the traditional paper, pen, and snail mail way of filing our paperwork since we began homeschooling, I was intrigued by the idea of filing all of our required paperwork in about less than a minute each month.

Having friends who used it for their entire school year last year and give it glowing reviews definitely caught my attention, too.

Thankfully, this service allows you to have a three month free trial without having to provide your credit card information. Another major plus for them in my book!

Within minutes, I had viewed their instructional video, read through their FAQs, and had enrolled for a free trial. Our declaration of intent and latest monthly attendance reports were filed electronically and a copy of each was in my email for my records.

No more printing, filling out, scanning or copying, and then putting in the mail.

Now, that’s definitely worth a dollar a month to me.

How do you file your paperwork?

Disclosure: I am in no way affiliated with Georgia Homeschool Compliance other than being a happy user. I’m just sharing a service that I love with other homeschooling families. If you are in Georgia, this service may be of interest to you.

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Lessons with Legos

Robyn — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:49:13 +0000

Whenever Little Buddy gets a dollar, it is immediately burning a hole in his pocket to go buy the latest Lego he’s been eying. From the boxes full of 100s of bricks to the Star Wars sets with more bricks than I could ever imagine and his Mindstorms, he loves them all.

He loves them so much that I’m actually beginning to use them more in some of our lessons to keep his interest and help make things fun for him, too.

For instance, I’ve been using them in math by giving him a worksheet with math problems asking him to build a Lego to answer the problem. Square roots and division became a lot easier when he was encouraged to build his answers rather than just telling me or writing it down. I sure wish someone had thought of a cool way to teach me those things when I was his age!

When he was able to complete his science project on velocity with a Lego car with a balloon, he was more than eager to dive right in. His excitement at creating the design that performed the best was amazing. I have to admit, it was more fun for both of us.

I do believe he’s loved making stop motion movies with his Legos the most though. Who knows what they’ll lead to in the future. I just love his passion for them.

This next year, we’ll be diving into more STEM based lessons with his Mindstorms and I’m thinking of attending the upcoming Robotics Symposium provided by Lego. Do you think they’ll notice that my son is the one teaching me about them?

Do you use Legos in your homeschool? Please share some ways you use them. I’d love to know.

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Summer Schedules

Robyn — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:04:19 +0000

Last summer, we took about two or three weeks off as our summer break as we finished second grade and went into third. That gave me time to finalize all of the reports for our permanent records, clear away items that we wouldn’t be using for our third grade year and getting all of our third grade materials prepared for the first day of school.

This year, things are going to be just a wee bit different.

We’re taking a longer break.

We both need it.

We need lazy mornings of sleeping late, days spent just hanging out, and playing with cousins by the pool.

But today I started thinking I should open the door to the school room and start getting it ready for fourth grade. The closets need clearing out and curriculum needs to be planned and organized.

Instead, thanks to Talysa’s post she shared in our Mingle Monday a few week’s ago, I decided I should start a list of all the things we want to do this summer.

Make a volcano that erupts
Spend as much time as possible reading good books together
Run through the sprinklers
Make homemade bubbles
Watch movies on the porch
Spend time in the garden
Go exploring in the woods
Make slime
Play with Mindstorms
Make our own movies
Eat as many watermelon as possible
Build a fort in the playing room
Enjoy every single moment

What are you doing this summer?

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