Our Homeschool Experiences

The school update...

I am so far behind! I get so caught up in what needs done in a day that I sometimes forget I even have a blog. Oh, I suppose that computer problems help add to the delay in blogging. That would do it.

 I fear that life/school/blogging etc. will be more difficult once the baby is here, but hopefully not for long. Watch, this baby will be the most difficult of all. I still have hopes that she will be the most peaceful. :)

I just wanted to throw out this little update on Travis and how school is going. Its been amazing. He LOVES math. We are using Singapore Earlybird Math and Horizons Math K.  He enjoys both, but sometimes has some difficult writing in Horizons; he's learning how to write numbers. Singapore is going very well so far. I just like what he learns in both so we will continue to take them at his pace until we hit some kind of wall. I think the most difficult time he is having is taking his TIME when writing and tracing the numbers. He wants to rush through it so I have to slow him down. Otherwise, all is well on the math front. 

We have been using Handwriting Without Tears and going slowly. I think that his fine motor skills are still not quite ready and I have no intention of pushing him. His brain is ready to know everything though. Even if he is learning to write the letters at a slower pace, he is still storming through how to make the letters with the wooden pieces. It helps him to recognize each letter, learn the sounds they make, and also to write them, but the writing part comes a little slower. Yesterday he took out the wooden pieces and made the letters of the alphabet until he ran out of pieces; so that amounted to A thru F or G. It makes me want to order another set of wooden pieces. He likes to spell words out with the pieces too.  There aren't many words you can spell with only one box of wood pieces. (Ok...getting tired of saying wood pieces....) So my summary; HWT is working very well for us right now. We all love it, even Tara, who will sit in front of the little stereo and listen to the songs and try to sing along. They both love making letters with chalk on the chalk boards.  They both love making people and letters with the wooden pieces. I think what I love most about HWT is all of the extras--beyond just a workbook. I love that it has so many multi-sensory activities. Its working wonders for us! YAY!

Science; Travis devours it like an almost-dry sponge in water. We can't do enough science for him. I think that currently we are taking actual reading/phonics and handwriting slowly and making up for it by spending extra time doing science. We read the books from Science p4/5 and Science K and are about to do our first science 'experiment'.  Really, its not our first experiment though. We have been using Backyard Scientist and  reading nature books and 'studying' nature for several weeks now. I cannot believe that even our own small backyard has so much to see. In *one* day we found a bird's nest, a caterpillar, a toad and a giant worm. (we beat the robins to the worm so we were able to observe him for a while.). Of course Travis had millions of questions about all of them. We read the Usborne book about frogs from beginning to end because he didn't want to put it down after seeing the toad in the yard. We discussed how birds make nests, the differences between coloring on male and female birds, the color of robins eggs and more. He just always seems so fascinated and eager to know more.

History; we started with a Playmobile catalog. Travis has looked through it so many times its literally falling apart. What does Playmobile have to do with history? Well, there are Romans and Egyptians in there. That was just the beginning. He kept asking to know more, so I dug out several older usborne books that I had from when Thomas and Tyler were home schooled and he listened and looked through those for days. I guarantee he knows more about Egyptians and Romans than I did at 4-almost-5  years old. I think that some of it is over his head and perhaps too graphic to explain in any detail, but there are some general things that he has learned about pyramids and the sphinx etc.  Did I already mention that he's a sponge?

So after all of this babble, I conclude that all is going very well with home school so far. We are all enjoying it so much. I love being there and being part of all that they learn. I love watching it and guiding it. Its sometimes challenging, but its always rewarding!

BOX DAY, at last!!!!!

What is box day? Well, if you are asking, you are not a Sonlighter are you?! Just the same as if you have to ask what it means to ROW a book, you must not be a FIARer. (wink) 

So, box day is just the happy day when your 'long awaited' box of Sonlight books arrives. For us, box day was yesterday! It was an exciting time, especially for Travis, and somewhat for Tara. Travis had been anticipating his books arriving for days, so he was especially excited.  They could hardly wait for me to pull the box into the house after Fedex dropped it off. Before I could even get a knife to cut open the packing tape they were trying to pull and rip. It reminded me of a puppy trying to get into the bacon treats. So we finally got the box cut open, and packing paper was flying and then the books started coming out, along with shouts of "this one is mine!," "this one is yours!" and so on. I had to grab my instructor guides before they started claiming them for themselves.  So they sat going through all of the books, flipping through pages and stacking them in different piles, organized in some way that only they understand, while I organized my IG (instructor guide). I really wish I had grabbed my camera, because it really felt like a celebration, and I should have captured it. I am actually somewhat sad that I never got one click of a picture in all of it. In the end, Tara claimed the little box of Fun Tales and the "God Book" as she calls it; otherwise known as The Family Time Bible. They debated over who was the rightful owner of the P4/5 Science books, and Travis claimed Things People Do, The Berenstain Bears Big Book of Science and Nature,  Brer Rabbit and The Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book.

Immediately after they had the books "organized" how they wanted, Travis asked me "when are we going to do school?" So we sat down and started reading and we literally read nearly a week's worth of the schedule. Then we did a few pages in Developing the Early Learner, and a few more in Singapore Early Bird Math, and Get Ready to Explode the Code book A. He didn't want to quit, but I finally had to tell him that he needed a break, mostly because *I* needed one!  So we packed it up, and asked me "when will I get to do school again?" I wonder how long he'll love to learn like this?  It was very enjoyable. We have read many books, and we have used Sonlight P3/4 too, but this was just a little bit more. I like that its scheduled for me, so I have an IDEA of how much to read, though I have to say that we just took it at our own pace. We read above and beyond a week in The Big Book of Science and Nature, and we only read about half of what was scheduled in Uncle Wiggily's Story Book, it seemed to be something he would enjoy more at bedtime. So we saved that and the Lion Storyteller Bedtime book for bedtime. All and all, we had a wonderful first day. It was fantastic! 

One last thing I have to add. I ordered the Sonlight tote bag to keep some of our school books in, and its a GREAT bag. It seems so durable and BIG! It probably holds half or more of the entire set of books included with P4/5. I also received the Blue Opal Jerusalem Cross as my free gift from Sonlight. It is absolutely beautiful. No offense to the photographer who took the pictures, but they pictures just don't do it justice. Its far more beautiful in real life. If you can't decide which gift to choose, you won't regret the blue opal Jerusalem cross. Its gorgeous! 

We ordered! We ordered! Now we're doing the happy dance!

 I am so thrilled! We finally ordered Sonlight P4/5 for Travis--for Kindergarten.  I have been waiting for months to order. It has been over 18 months since I ordered our very first full Core Curriculum package from Sonlight. We enjoyed it tremendously, and I did not hesitate at all when ordering again. I think the most difficult part of my decision was deciding which free gift to choose. Is that ridiculous?  Well, if you know what I am talking about, then you know its NOT!  In 2007, when I ordered P3/4 I received a Widow's Mite pendant as my "free gift" from Sonlight. And it was exactly that....a beautiful gift. So this year, being a repeat core customer, I was able to choose my gift and I got to choose from, among other things, a Sonlight tote bag (and let me tell you what, I am a tote bag hoarding fool), another widow's mite pendant or a Jerusalem Cross pendant. No kidding, I had to wait an extra day just to decide which gift to get. Fortunately for me, they sell the tote bags separately, so I put one into my cart before I even put that curriculum package in there.

That narrowed it down to only two gifts to choose from; another widow's mite pendant or a Jerusalem Cross pendant. Why would I need another widow's mite if I already have one? Oh, just in case I lose it, or break it....or if I feel really generous and want to give one as a gift. On the other hand,  why not just get the Jerusalem cross?  Well, what if something ever happens to my widow's mite?  I finally decided; I selected the Jerusalem cross, after much debate. The main reason is that there is not one person that I could pick to be the lucky person to get a widow's mite from me. If I gave one, I would need to give at least 3-4 of them. So perhaps for Christmas this year I will look into giving them as gifts (from another source), but for now, I decided, FINALLY, to choose the Jerusalem Cross pendant.

Yesterday Travis and I were looking at what books he can expect to be arriving in the 'mail' and he's so excited. He wanted to know "WHEN will it be here!?" He is anxious to begin! He's not really aware that the books we have been reading from Five In A Row is 'school'. He thinks those books are just for fun. Science....just for fun. I think that he'll think Sonlight P4/5 is fun too....I think it looks fun. 

 

I can tell that he's learning!

Oh, I suppose that I should not find it so surprising, should I? Since most children do eventually learn. But I could hardly contain my excitement when Travis was watching Special Agent Oso on the Disney channel....and of course they are talking about the main character, Oso and he said to me, "Oso sounds like o---s----o". (he spelled it out.)  I told him that is how its spelled! He had a proud moment too. So it wasn't just me.  Ok, its incredilby simple, I know it. But he's not even five yet. He's been very curious about words, letters and sounds lately. He just suddenly realized that THIS is the information that he needs to read, and he's been trying to grasp it on his own. Its not that I am not helping, its just that I am not pushing. I am trying to take things slowly. We watch Leap Frog Letter Factory--well, we've watched it about 3 times now, but I hope to continue because its a cute, fun way to learn letter sounds. I have even heard Tara going around singing songs from the show. 

The other day I finally looked into those online phonics/reading programs and we are doing our test run of Reading Eggs. So far, Tara finds it entertaining, but Travis gets bored with it after a while--a short while. He really enjoyed dressing up his 'egg' avatar though. For some reason he didn't find that part boring. We will test it out for a while longer during the free trial and see what we think. 

Handwriting, again.

I have been giving a lot of thought to handwriting lately, simply because Travis keeps asking me how to do it. How do you make this letter?  How do you WRITE it? He is insistent on it. I would love to put it off because I feel that he may not be quite ready or maybe his fine motor skills need a little honing. Either way I have been reading quite a bit lately, and much of what I have read actually recommends teaching them the proper way to grip a pencil from the beginning. Catch them and correct errors before they have developed habits. It makes sense...but is it just nonsense?  Handwriting Without Tears even says that at three, a child could be ready to learn proper grip. So what is this about grip? I have never been concerned with grip before. Should I just not worry about it? Most people just say that each individual will learn what is comfortable for them....that's true, right?  

Well, I recall being young, having just learned how to write, and I burned my pointer finger. I had to re-learn how to hold a pencil so that I didn't have to hold it with a blistered finger. Years later, I realized that my hand hurt and that I could not write as fast as other people in my class. However hard I tried, I could not keep up and it drove me nuts. I wanted to write legibly, but also quickly, but I had to choose one or the other it seemed. Sometime later I decided on my own that I needed to quit holding the pencil the way I learned when I burned my finger. At first I even forgot why I was holding it like that in the first place. So after my transformation, I did improve somewhat. I wasn't in as much pain when I was writing for long periods of time, and I did speed up somewhat, but who's to say that I wouldn't have done that anyhow?

In comes my 'research'. Travis is a lefty and I worried that I could not teach him how to write. I thought that lefties had to write differently. I remember having to tilt my paper when I learned.  So which way would he need to tilt his paper? I am a compulsive worrier so I wanted to know everything that I should know. Well, I have relaxed a little bit, finally. Turns out he doesn't have to tilt his paper, actually no one does. Handwriting doesn't require that you slant. I think it looks nicer if its not slanted anyhow. So I have been reading the manual for Handwriting Without Tears and  the only thing that I am still somewhat concerned with is that grip thing. I keep finding things online about the tripod grip. Everyone is talking about it, handwriting curriculum, drawing books, even occupational therapists. 

Here are a few interesting articles that I have found on the tripod grip and purpose:

Draw Your World--books on drawing (Draw Write Now)

Occupational Therapy Teacher Tips (this is a pdf file--I downloaded it and saved it).

http://www.ergonomics.ucla.edu/handwriting.pdf

Handling Horrible Handwriting (scholastic) 

Skill Builders Pediatric Occupational Therapy

(this last link somewhat limited unless you want to pay, which I don't. It still has some information and gave me a place to begin and ideas of what to search for when I looked for more information. Worth checking out! HERE is a link to the free pages on their site.)

The Dynamic Tripod Grasp (this site is great because it describes OTHER efficient grasps, as well as immature and inefficient grasps!)

And lastly, a site with pictures of the different grasps; efficient, immature, & inefficient.

So, I have decided I am not going to rush him, if anything I will try my best to slow him down. I do feel that his fine motor skills are not ready. As he wants to learn, I will still try to encourage proper form. Its actually not too difficult. TRIANGULAR shaped pencils are the answer--for us, anyhow. 

Caterpillars and Butterflies--our 'unit' study

Tara has been particularly interested in butterflies and Travis in caterpillars lately, so we have read a few books about them and we are working on a Hands of a Child lapbook called IN THE GARDEN--which isn't so much about butterflies as it is flowers, but we are doing both together anyhow. :) We daily go out into the yard and let Tara pick a tulip. She knows her daffodils, tulips and of course, dandelions! She also knows about nectar and that butterflies 'eat' nectar. She brings dandelions over to me and asks me if the butterflies had the nectar out of them yet. Travis is more concerned with finding fuzzy dandelions and blowing on them. That is sure to make our neighbors happy. ;)

We have been enjoying these books: 

Fun With Nature by Mel Boring

Usborne First Book of Nature

Usborne First Picture Nature

From Caterpillar to Butterfly

My, Oh MY--A Butterfly!

Are You a Butterfly?

Where Butterflies Grow

A Monarch Butterfly's Life

I am expecting that we will spend another week or two learning about flowers and butterflies --at least until we receive our Milkweed plants and Monarch caterpillars and get to release butterflies! When Thomas and Tyler were home schooled we did this and it was such fun. I am not sure that Travis and Tara will get as much out of it as if they were older, but I am sure that it will be fascinating for them. I also have to mention that Tara knows the word chrysalis. :) I know that I did not know that term when I was 3. 

We did the ol' 'egg carton caterpillar' craft, but we didn't have the cardboard egg cartons so that we could paint them; we only had styrofoam. Well.... we had to make due with what we had. So we used pipe-cleaners for the antennae, beady eyes (yep--for the eyes!) and sequins for spots to decorate them.   Tara also drew a mouth on hers and used flower shaped sequins on hers, travis didn't bother drawing a mouth until he saw Tara's and he just used big round sequins. I am actually amazed at the fact that she was the one who realized that they 'need' mouths. Oh, they aren't spectacular by any stretch but they took us only a few minutes and they were so proud! I will add pics soon. As soon as I can bear to show our yellow styrofoam egg carton caterpillars. 

In the mean time, I have to say that I personally have already learned a lot about butterflies and moths. (one of the perks to home schooling!) One of the most interesting things that I just recently learned is that the Monarch butterflies have four generations in one year, beginning in February. None of the generations live for very long; they usually die two to six weeks after becoming butterflies. However the fourth generation, born in September or October, do not die in 2-6 weeks, they instead migrate for the winter and actually live for 6-8 months! Now isn't that interesting? You can find some interesting information about monarch butterflies here.  I almost wish we had waited until later in the year to do our butterfly study so that we could visit Cox Arboretum when they have their butterfly exhibit, but we will have to wait until June. I am anxious!

Handwriting

 Poor Travis. He wanted to learn how to write and began asking every day, "how do you write?" beginning a few weeks ago. So, after dragging my feet, trying to make sure I ordered the best handwriting choice for him, I finally ordered Handwriting Without Tears. He's left handed and I have read many wonderful things about how it works well with lefties and I really liked all of the supplements that use his different senses. We ordered one of the two cds, Get Set for School, the Wooden Pieces for Capital Letters, the mat to use them on, (which also doubles as the body for Mat Man), the chalk board and the laminated letter cards, and of course the student book and teacher manual. 

So far it seems wonderful. He loves the different ways of learning each letter--it doesn't get boring. We start out talking about the letter we are going to learn and I show him the card that has the image of the wood pieces on it, so he matches the wood pieces to the card. Then we look at the laminated card with the letter on it, and we look at the back and discuss the pictures that begin with that letter.  He draws with chalk on the cute little chalk board which has a smiley face in the top left corner to reinforce that you begin your capital letters at the TOP! And of course there is a catchy little song about beginning your letters at the top. All of this is before he even begins trying to write it with the pencil.

The big problem we are having is that he doesn't get how to hold a pencil. We started with the preschool book which starts out using crayons, but he does not hold a crayon the way you hold a pencil. He doesn't even seem to comprehend how to hold a pencil. Well, Ferby Lyra colored pencils-to the rescue!!! Their triangular shape works wonders for him. He could immediately hold the pencils correctly when I handed him one of those. Thank goodness!!!!!

So he's finally off and rolling with handwriting but its a slow start. I almost feel like a failure. Ok, reminder to self: take it one day at a time.

Update in progress...

I am trying to update this blog. It is taking forever importing all of my homeschool posts from my "family" blog, but I would like to have them all in one place so that my homeschool book lists and links aren't overwhemling my other blog!

Spring has sprung....FINALLY!

It felt like winter was never going to leave and we would never see green trees, grass and colorful flowers! I think I can finally say that spring has come! Thank goodness!  I am ready to have the windows open and let in fresh air without needing the furnace on! I cannot wait for things to stop looking so brown...and gray...and dreary.

There is one teeny, little down side though. The little ones  (I might need to stop calling Travis little, even though he IS only four.) are so excited to go outside and play that they are not nearly as interested in books and hearing me read to them as they were this winter when they were stuck inside and it was dark by dinner time. In a way its disappointing, because we were reading so much on a daily basis, but on the other hand, I want them to hear the birds and see the bugs (I cannot believe that I just said that....) and smell the spring air. I want them to look for the flowers and observe the buds on the trees  as they turn into leaves. I want them to appreciate it, and love it, and look forward to it each year. So I think we will be slowing down on our Sonlight books and our Before Five in a Row books to spend more time outside. 

Its a beautiful time of year but it almost feels like an ending as much as a new beginning.

Our homeschool....

Is not a classroom nor does it even have a room we turned into a classroom. Maybe in part because my little ones are so young right now (3 and 19mo) but even when Thomas and Tyler were home for school, our house was our school. We had a world map for a shower curtain, large laminated maps hung on walls and on the blinds, so they rolled up when we rolled up the blinds. (just in case we wanted to get them out of the way.) We literally have bookshelves in every room of the house except for the bathroom.  We had posters and school work hanging on bedroom doors and on the refrigerator.... well we still do actually. Only now the artwork is often finger painting or crayon drawings.  All of the boys have desks in their rooms, but they still often did their handwriting and other work at the kitchen table. My kitchen is more like the 'living' room. It is where we live. I can sit the little ones down to finger paint or play with dough while I bake or do dishes. The older boys can sit at the table to get help (or supervision) while I make dinner or clean up. We have discussed turning our family room into a classroom looking room, but I think I am actually content with it as it is. Maybe its because I actually enjoy being surrounded by books. ;)

So no pictures here of our "classroom" here..... The world is our classroom, and our house is "home room".