Yes You Can...

Recently, I lost track of what my heart was telling me to do. I thought that I was doing what it was leading me to, but I wasn't. It started with a very simple question. A simple question that went straight through my heart. It stripped me down, peeled back the layers and showed me where my heart truly is...homeschooling. I love every aspect of homeschooling. I love the late nights worrying about choosing the correct curriculum, they show me that I really care. I love the grey hairs from the struggles we have had, it allows me to help guide my children the way they need to go.  I even love those moments that I am completely frustrated with a million questions, they show me that I still have some learning to do. I love when my children question things, it shows their independence! I love Mondays, my co-op friends have become my second family. I love each one of the children like they are my own. I know that this is the single best thing for my family!

I also remembered my love for encouraging new homeschoolers. I understand that homeschooling is not the best fit for every family, but I want to help anyone who would like to try. I want to encourage them to blaze their own trail. I don't want them to be afraid to think outside of the box. It was not that long ago that I was the newbie. I was terrified, this was something new and strange. If I did not have two wonderful mentors, I am not sure I would still be doing this. I hope to be as encouraging, patient and knowledgeable just like they were.

Oh, the question? "Can I ask you a question about homeschooling?". "Yes, yes you can."

Homeschool Mom Panic Syndrome

I originally planned to talk about when homeschool moms & dads panic. This is the result of the rambling that transpired.....

I spent 5 weeks second guessing every decision that I had made regarding homeschooling. I spent weeks researching homeschooling methods, learning styles and different curriculum. It wasn't until I stopped and left the computer alone that I realized I had been going about this the wrong way. I was looking for answers in the wrong place. I should of spent that time getting to know my children a little bit better. I should of been listening and observing my children. I have spent the last few days doing this and I am glad that I did. I have learned so much about my children.

This is what I learned....

I need to come up with some sort of routine. Schedules are not flexible enough.

Tracker is devouring everything he can on reptiles, Maine, hunting, knot tying and surviving in the woods.

Squirrel is all about crafts, cooking, South Carolina and saving the environment.

Dragon has a thirst for knowledge that I cannot understand. I am in awe of him. His current reading list has everything from a French Bistro cookbook to the Illiad, to Kathy Reichs and Ancient China. He is currently teaching himself Gaelic.

The most important thing that I have learned? That my children need just a little bit of guidance. They need me to lay the foundation, but I should let them decide to build the house.

 

A Homeschooling Bucket List...

We have all read about "Bucket list" in the past year or so. Just the other day I saw that someone had a Homeschool Bucket List...I thought that it was another great idea!

My Homeschooling Bucket List...

1. go to the Grand Canyon
2. see The Nutcracker Ballet
3. visit The National Zoo
4. see the whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium
5. take on NYC
6. see a Broadway Show
7. watch a sea turtle release
8. visit the White House(I use to live outside DC and have never been inside the White House)

I am sure that I am forgetting somethings. I will be adding to this list.

Is it the end or the Beginning?

Here it is Memorial Day and we are starting school back up. This is comical to my neighbor, a high school english teacher. I then explained that my children just got off of 3 week break. We live in the south..it is HOT in the summer. We like to take time off in the spring and the fall. We enjoy that time outside. We use the time when it is miserable to do school. But don't feel sorry for my kids. When we get the urge to play hooky, we do. When we want to escape to the campground, we do. We take advantage full advantage of vacationing during the off season. Not only does it save us money, but the crowds are gone. This is good when you have family members who do not like crowds.

This summer my kids are going to taking part in a virtual summer camp. I cannot wait. My kids are even excited. They are also excited because summer means - free bowling, free movies at a local theater, free summer concerts and of course....the beach.

I have a question for you, are ending your school year or beginning it?

Enjoying the Process

I received a treat in the mail today, Homeschool Magazine. (I love to read homeschooling magazines). On the cover, they had an article title that caught attention, Mind the Gap - Watching for "Holes" in Your Child's Education. What a perfect time for this article to arrive in my mailbox! I have been struggling with this for the past month. I am not sure if I had been looking for these holes, or if I am just noticing them. I eagerly sat down to read what Dianne Flynn Keith had to say about gaps in education. In this article, Ms. Keith relieved me of my fears. She pointed out that there would be holes in a public school education. I just need to look back on my own to see that this is true. I have been so worried about what the public schools would be teaching, that I have forgotten why I homeschool.

There was another article that really struck a chord with me, Enjoying the Process by Mary Hood. This article made me realize that I have been concentrating on the product and not the process. I have forgotten the real reasons that I wanted to homeschool. I had forgotten to step back and let my children go through the process of learning. I always want to fix it for them, I need to stop that. When I think that they need help, I need to guide them, not fix it.

There are certain articles, books and even blog posts that make you stop and think. This magazine did that for me twice. I just love it.

You can read the e-magazine here.

A Find to Learn From

I found a great resource for homeschooling at the library. I found a book called Homeschooling at the speed of life by Marilyn Rockett. In Home Schooling at the speed of life, Mrs. Rockett, helps you organize all parts of your life. She tackles clutter, paperwork, household routines and much more. At the end of each chapter there is a section called Stop, Look, Think. In the first part of this section, she has included questions and activities for you to do. In the second part there are devotionals for you to do. There is also a CD that contains forms to help you become better organized. Mrs. Rockett has included many inspirational quotes throughout the book. They are both religious and secular.

For my secular friends...this is a religious book. The most religious part is Chapter 1. There are also religious quotes throughout the book.

I would check and see if your library has this book.

A New Post

We are here, just struggling to get through the day. It is not the kids fault, it is mine. I am letting outside distractions interfere with school work. I just keep reminding myself that we can go day by day and that is OK.

We have started a couple of new things this month..

Dragon is writing a research report on Thanksgiving..then next month will be candy. His choice. He is also doing more independent work. He is taking charge and getting everything done by lunch time. He says that it is the only way to make sure he has his afternoons off. :)

Tracker is making progress with his reading, it is a slow road. But that is OK. He is writing more than I have ever seen him. I think that having a dyslexic pen pal helps. He is not afraid of making mistakes. He is at least sounding out the words. He has taken a new interest in drawing. He cannot get enough of it.

Squirrel is on fire with math. She has a love/ hate relationship with it. She cannot stand it when she cannot do it right away and then loves it once she figures it out. Squirrel has also taken an interest in drawing. She will go through an entire ream of paper if I let her.

We are enjoying our co-op. The kids look forward to it every week. They are also still participating in Homeschool PE at the local YMCA. It gives me a nice break. Today I am going to take my camera down to the ocean and take some pictures. I just wish that I could find the charger for my good camera.

Mandalas, Symmetry & The Noun Game

Today we started off focusing on life skills. The boys tag teamed the dishes and Squirrel learned how to properly fold clothes. Of course, she would not fold her brothers' clothing. She had a lot of fun. After we all did a little cleaning the kids jumped on the Wii and played for about an hour.

While I was cooking lunch, the children were coloring in mandalas. While Dragon was coloring his, we noticed that it wasn't symmetrical like the others. This lead to a conversation about what is and is not symmetrical. Dragon argued that there really is no such thing as a mirror image. He said that it cannot be the same because the mirror image is backwards and it is our eyes that fix it. I told him that I was proud of him speaking up. That he did a very good job of making his point. I honestly did not know what else to say. LOL.

After lunch, I read to the children from our current read aloud: The Seekers: The Quest Begins. The children are really enjoying this book. I am only reading one chapter a day. Today we talked about jealousy, compassion for those that are sick, and parental love. There is bear in the book that thinks he is a burden to his mother because he is healthy. I talked to the kids about how mothers never see their children as burdens. We see them as individuals and we love the fact that they are not alike.

After reading a chapter we moved onto math. The kids did their lessons. I have notived that Tracker & Dragon are really getting distracted during math. If I am not sitting at the table, they are goofing off. I have tried to talk with them. Nothing is working. Dragon is taking 45 minutes to do 3 problems. I know that this are a little bit more difficult, but he is spending most of the time staring into space. I am going to have to come up with something else, that or I cannot leave the table to go to the bathroom. LOL.

After math we took a break and watched an IMAX movie, Deep Sea. I get all of the IMAX movies from Netflix. We love them. This movie was no exception. We saw the Pacific Giant Octopus eat a crab. Talk about amazing. The kids favorite thing to watch was the sun star. This thing is HUGE and fast. I am going to try and find a way to make one. I am not quite sure how to do it. After the movie and a snack we moved onto grammar. We played the noun game. I asked Dragon if he wanted to play and he said No, but in the end he had just as much fun. What I did is label the board A-Z. We had to come up with three nouns for each letter. But they had to be different. They had to be a person, place or thing. The kids had a blast. After we played the game the kids then created their own Mad Libs. It was alot of fun.

The kids went out to play until they got hungry. All in all it was a good day.

The School Year is Back!!

We had the official launch to our homeschool year. We had the first ever NOT back to school picnic yesterday. My kiddos had a BLAST! They played for almost 4.5 hrs!! They were very excited to see their old friends and even made some new ones. It was a wonderful day to meet new people.

I am going to host a picnic at the local state park next month. I am hoping to get even more people to show up this time.

Right now we are just going to be a park day & field trip group. I do not think that we are going to start with co-ops yet. I want to make sure that everyone participates in a co-op instead of just one person.

What Will I Do Different This Year??

Someone asked this question on one of my yahoo groups a couple of weeks ago. I had to sit down and really think about this. I was not sure exactly what I would change. Last year was a whirlwind and I think that I overdid it.

Here are the things that I will change this year:

~ delegate household chores more. After all my kids are old enough to do more.
~ do more hands on activities
~ use more multimedia resources
~ make better use of the time that we are here.
~Stay home more. Last year I was running 5 or 6 days a week. I will save Tuesday afternoons for appointments, allergy shots, grocery runs. Thursdays will be for co-ops, park days and any outside activities. We will most likely go to the library on Tuesdays as well.
~I will take time out for myself everyday.
~The TV will be on less.
~daily walks or bike rides with the children. They loved this last year and it was a great way to start the day. It got their energy out and they were ready for school when we got back.

I think that is it. I know that there are more things to change, but this is enough to start out with.

What are you going to be doing differently this year?

Speechless....

For the first few years that we homeschooled, we were met with family resistance. My mil asked when we would test the children. I explained that we were not going to the test the children. She was concerned that the schools would not know what grade to put the children in when they went to school. I said that we were doing what we believed was the best for our children. Since that day, she has stood by us. I had sensed some doubts a few times, but she had never said anything. Tonight I called her and told her the results of Tracker's testing. She was very supportive, explaining that she believes that dh had dyslexia as a child. The only reason she is not positive is because when we went to school they didn't test for it. Before we got off the phone this is what I was told..

"I really believe that what you are doing for the kids is wonderful. I truly believe that they would of been really frustrated in schools."

I got very emotional. I have always looked up to my mil and this just meant the world to me.

I Need Your Help

What would you consider to be an essential homeschool book for the library? Maybe it is not an actual homeschool book, but something else. If your librarian asked you for a list of books that you would like as a homeschooler what books would be on your list?

Why do I ask? My librarian asked me yesterday after I asked for some updated books. My library is very homeschool friendly. They want homeschoolers to come in more and take advantage of them. Both the children's librarian and the head of the library are very homeschool friendly. When I have had ideas for classes or something along that line their only comment is when do you need me?

Please any suggestions would be great. Thank you.

Clip art courtesy of #1 Free Clip Art

Homeschool Helps

I thought that I would pass along some helpful things for the planning of next year.

Typical Course of Study

Various Reading Lists:
BookSpot
Reading Lists
Children's Book Central
Hoagies' Gifted

Planners:
Homeschool Planners and Organizers
Homeschool Lesson Planner Forms
Homeschool Planner Links

A Day Off, So They Think..

Today has been a mix of different things around here. I desperately needed to devote some time to my kitchen. It was lagging behind on the painting. I managed to paint my trim and move 2 pieces of furniture back into it. Now I just need to take care of the clutter.

While I was painting, the kids were entertaining themselves. They each played various games on POGO. They played Tumble Bees (spelling), Beaker Creatures (math, grouping), and Greenback Bayou(problem solving).

They watched Spiderwick Chronicles and compared it to the book. They kept telling me the 'background' of the characters. They just did not realize it.

Dragon played outside before the rain came. He is now in his room organizing his Pokemon cards. He also read 2 Magic School Bus books and is also reading Eat This! Not That! For Kids. He is very into this book. I think that we are going to have to buy him his own copy. He is now really reading labels and checking things out. He is now trying to create healthier snacks for the family. I just love seeing his enthusiasm.


Tracker & Squirrel have been playing in their fort all day. They were vets to their stuffed animals. One of the ducks had a broken wing. They used How To 101 Draw Animals for their craft time with their 'animals'. They are now having trail mix and juice boxes.

Tracker is also moving right along with his phonics. I am starting to think that it might be an attention thing. He just read me a story and actually stopped to sound out words. For him this is HUGE. He is normally in such a hurry that he does not try and sound out words.

I just heard Squirrel say "This has been the BEST day!". I could not of said it better myself.

Nutrition

Right now we are studying Nutrition. We are making a notebook/lapbook. I haven't decided exactly what to call it. The kids are enjoying this unit because it deals with something they love... FOOD. Yesterday we started a Healthy Food Journal and each of the kids tried to plan 3 balanced meals. They found it rather difficult.

Today we worked on vocabulary words. The kids also made a chart of healthy foods and unhealthy foods. They did a good job. They even debated on whether pickles are healthy or not. They decided that it was not healthy because of all the salt. We talked about Vitamins & Minerals and fats.

Once the children finished their charts, they worked on creating their own superhero and villain. The job of the villain will be to tempt children to eat bad foods. The good guy is going to help children make healthy choices. Once the kids design their characters they will create a story or comic strip. Dragon has decided that he will make a comic strip, Squirrel has not decided and I think that Tracker will write a story. I have never seen the kids attack an assignment with so much enthusiasm. I believe that they created their superhero today and will work on their bad guy tomorrow. Once they are done, I will post the pictures.

Have you ever invited a Dragon to dinner??

Today was a read aloud day. I read a book on Benjamin Franklin during lunch. I also read some poems from I Invited a Dragon to Dinner. The kiddos were laughing hysterically at the poems. I just love seeing their faces light up while I read the poems.

I am starting a short series on Irish folktales. I am doing this in part because my family is Irish. I will continue to read from a couple of different books for the next few weeks.

Today we also watched a short video clip on the Boston Tea Party. The kids have really enjoy the You are There history dvds.

Tracker & Squirrel have both officially finished their current math books. Tracker has already moved onto the next grade. Squirrel is working in AEP's Time & Money book. She is really enjoying this book.

This weekend we will be finishing the prep work for the bathroom. I cannot wait. I have been waiting to get this room painted for 3 years now. Next will be the kitchen. I will at least get the kitchen patched and some what prepped. It will most likely take me an entire day to remove the kitchen cabinets and clean them. I am not looking forward to all the work but I cannot wait for the finished result!!!

Grammar on the Door

Yesterday we did grammar on the door. I have converted my sliding glass door into a giant dry erase board. My kids love it! It is not very often that you hear a child beg to do grammar or math.

We are using Igniting Your Writing. It is a little bit above Tracker & Squirrel, but they are learning while doing it in a group. They will only being doing "group lesson" once a week. I will do the other grammar lesson on a one to one basis.

I also learned that my children must do math more regularly. They had a hard time 'refreshing' their minds as they put it. But that is ok it will make me more accountable.

Yesterday was the day to make appointments. I talked with a dyslexia tutor about getting Tracker tested. She will be able to do the test in 3 weeks. Tracker will also be going for his speech evaluation on March 4. I am nervous about both of the sessions, but I know that I am doing the right thing. I was told that the dyslexia tutoring could take up to 24months. That is a little daunting, but hey as long as he is making progress it is well worth it.

What Happens When a Homeschool Mom ...

has too much time on her hands? She starts thinking of school. She thinks of all the bad things and not the good things. She tends to second guess herself and everything that they have been doing. She also tries to completely redo the schedule. She suffers from Homeschool Mom Panic.

I have been suffering from HMP. I have rethought everything at least 10 times. I worry that I Tracker isn't reading. But I also wonder if he just doesn't like to read. I worry that I am holding Squirrel back because of her brother. I know that Tracker will get better with some tutoring and that is my first priority in the new year.

I am also considering dropping their art lessons. They love them. I love the 2hrs a month that I get to myself. However, they are not really doing anything but drawing. They might paint and they might use markers, but other than that nothing. They don't explore other forms of art. I am going to have to talk with their teacher to see what she has planned. I am debating on letting them still do it, but supplement it with ARTistic Pursuits. My kids love art and they are very creative. I have been told that the crafts I give them are a little too easy for Dragon and they all want something to challenge them.

I want to start incorporating more challenging books into the mix with Dragon. I love the fact that he has found a genre that he enjoys, but he needs to broaden his horizons a little bit. I want to find read alouds that we would also all enjoy. I personally cannot stand reading aloud. I am not sure what it is. I think that it might have to do with the fact that I am horrible with phonics. I am embarrassed by my reading ability.

I am also looking for something new for grammar. I just haven't found it yet. I am also thinking about completely redoing our schedule. I want to add more field trips, hands-on activities and more free time for them.

A New Plan

After my rambling last night I had an idea. I am going to let Dragon create a meal. I am going to sit down with dh and figure out what kind of budget we can give him. I am thinking $10. We will let him look through the grocery ads and plan according to what is on sale. We will discuss his ideas and help if needed. I am going to do my best to step back and let him do this. I will also let him know that if he wants to create something of his creation he must have a shopping list and plan ahead(ie not tell me after we have gone grocery shopping). But I am also going to make sure that he understands that if you want to cook and create in the kitchen you must be help clean it.

Thank you for listening to me ramble last night.

I Need some Advice

I need some help. I don't know what to do about the following situation.

Dragon wants to create his own recipes. I say great! He wants to create them. I say great, but he needs to learn the basics first. You can't make your own bread recipe if you have never tried to make bread to begin with. I have tried to explain this, but he just gets mad that he can't create what he wants. Money is very tight right now, I can't afford to go get these expensive ingredients that he wants to us. He gets mad. He will also plan these days where he gets to make meals, but doesn't tell us until the night before and then gets upset that we don't have the groceries. I have tried to get him in the kitchen more to help me and he will say no. Sometimes he will but he only wants to do one or two things in a recipe then he leaves for me to finish. He will just walk off. Let's not even talk about what happens if you ask him to help with the dishes or take out the trash. He gets very upset. We have tried to explain that if you talked to alot of the tv chefs they would tell you that they got started as a dishwasher. He wants to cook, but he does not want to clean up after himself. To be honest he has gotten a little bit better.

Does anyone have any ideas?