Week 8

This week I didn't open the curriculum. We schooled everyday, but the curriculum has been very repetitive for Ethan's level. Instead, I had him build a solar powered hoist for small objects, learn division, start reading the Twin Towers, and work in his workbook. I think the key to homeschooling is the balance of keeping growth and opportunity high while providing stability through familiarity. Ethan is a bright child, I want him to learn more of his passions, spend as much time reading as he wants to, yet to have good clear handwriting, and be able to understand the basics of working within structure, even if it's a limited experience.

We are all doing better this year than ever before. I modified our schedule to help reduce my stress and keep us happy.

Monday- Oak Meadow, nature studies, music
Tuesday- Guitar Lessons with me, Workbooks, exploring building/enginnering and other subjects like metaphysical studies, Art
Wednesday- Oak Meadow, Pioneer Studies, Baking
Thursday- Workbooks, Art, ASL or Spanish
Friday- Oak Meadow, Field Trip, Book Report

The areas I am still weak in are nature studies and book reports. I started this last year and never mastered it. Everything else comes easily. I love reading but loathe writing about it. I love nature but don't care to do much beyond walk and enjoy it. I need to find a meaningful way to connect us to these subjects.

And that's our update. We are in week 8 of the year. Things are going well and Ethan will test in January to asses and tweak what needs tweaking. We may move into another grade level if he does well enough. And then again we may not.

All areas of their skills are improving except Ethan's drawing skills. They still stink. But I love his little stick figures regardless. Avery's art is much more stylized and appealing. However, this is common between most girls and boys up to about 3rd grade.

And then Nahni just does what she does, read, follow us, sing and dance, and pout whenever she doesn't want to join in. She is a joy.

New Year, New Focus

We started our first week of fall schooling for our 2009-2010 school year. We battled a mild to moderate flu bug this week so lessons were at a gentle pace. Our schedule looks like this-
Monday- Oak Meadow Curriculum (OM), Nature Walk, and Music (songs and fingerplays)
Tuesday- Avery has School Readiness from 8:10-12:30, Ethan has workbooks and Guitar Lessons
Wednesday- OM, Field Trip (library), Art/Bake, Pioneer Studies
Thursday- Avery School Readiness, Ethan gets to have a morning off or catch up with lessons, ASL
Friday, OM, Muzzy (Spanish), Avery Workbook, Avery Music Lessons

Oak Meadow- second grade and kindergarten
Music- Fall will be Enki songs (very fun and easy fingerplays) (winter will be from Putumayo)
Music Lessons- Ethan will study the guitar, Avery Piano or lap harp

We'll have daily activities following the main lesson, and afternoon art time. We'll have more art and indoor fun in the winter. I'd prefer them to play outside right now and enjoy the beautiful fall weather. Our yard has a lot of chicken poop monsters leaving little poop piles everywhere but they're still fun to have and we love being out with them and the bunnies.

We're still using material from Enchantedlearning.com and I'm getting new storage furniture for them at Ikea this weekend to give them playing surfaces. We'll be creating needle felt dolls and landscapes this winter as well. I'm ordering more supplies from Etsy.com and atoygarden.com.
I also am creating a playroom for them in the basement. I reorganized my art space last week when I was feeling good, and next week we'll finish by installing a new sofa bed (essentially a futon), and organizing their toys into a rotational conditional use system. I just need the energy to finish it. They'll have a trapeze bar and I'd like to get them some pod chairs to give them privacy and a sacred place to enjoy (womb chairs I call them). I have 1 hanging chair that might work if we can get it installed.

Our schooling space upstairs works nicely- I might get a round table for schooling so Nahni can sit with us and move the 2 red tables down stairs and the current schooling table over at the window for a nature table. Nahni wants to join us and the current table only seats 2.

Nahni's schooling consists of ASL, colors, letter and number recognition, counting, creating, and playing playing playing.

Ethan's focus is whatever he's interested in (robotics is high on his list), music, creativity and understanding the world around him. He loves google earth and educational videos on youtube. He's fascinated by science and building. I'd love to get him a space set up outside with tools and machines so he can create and learn away.

Avery loves art and is very adept at learning whatever she's presented with. She's into drama, dance, and wants to learn gymnastics and ballet. We'll see what brainerd has.

And so, long post but that's the start to our year. Things are looking good!

Back to Blogging

I needed to take a leave of absence from many things, including my sanity at times. It has been long winter, partially because of the layers of viruses that have come to reside in our lives.

I must admit, my schooling efforts have been incredibly paltry since mid-February. I have been sick and seasonally depressed. It makes for a very challenging approach to home schooling.

Today we are creating our March calendar. It's already the 10th. We are working on Reading, writing to uncle seth, and will make a mess shortly for our science project using H2O and corn starch. Eveyrone's favorite textured mess.

Our weekly calendar looks like this-
Monday- Music, Math, Muzzy (Spanish), Reading
Tuesday- Art, Workbooks, Book Report, Calendar, Reading
Wednesday- Science, Games, Letters to Seth, Reading
Thursday- Reading, Birds, Nature Walk/Journal, ASL, Reading
Friday- Baking, Reading, catch up

Science Subjects- Astronomy, Animals and Plants in Winter
Reading- Special Stories include Grandmother/Grandfather folk stories from around the world

We are still doing Tae Kwon Do, guitar lessons, and Ethan's been attending after school activities through comm ed- Club Invention, and one about birds, both very successful. Avery has started dance lessons through comm ed too, on Tuesdays.

I am anxious for winter to leave, this current cold bug to leave, and my happy sanity to return.

Florida was mostly successful. I'll write an update about it another time.

Badda Bing, Florida Here we Come!

We have been busy learning and preparing for our trip to Florida, which is in 2 days. We are learning about the ocean floor, sonar, marine life, land formations, and tomorrow we'll learn about currents. I want them to understand the bigger picture of water and see how connected water is to water and land, within ourselves let alone outside of us. We plan on visiting 2 beaches and will bring science journals with and we'll still have schooling during the week. I will pack our books and supplies in one of their luggage.

I didn't get as much as I wanted accomplished today. It was a busy busy day with piddly little things. I wanted to cover currents and watch some planet earth but we watched a sad little house on the prairie movie and I cleaned. It was a weird day.

Ethan's reading and writing skills are improving daily. Avery doesn't do squat when her blood sugar is off. Nahni shadows everything we do and loves to move and sing. She has a lot of her ABS sounds down. It's really cute to have her join us in our schooling.

Tomorrow we're talking about currents, marine life, and doing our Friday book report on The Snowman. I love that book and movie.

I look forward to christmas break. Well take off the week of Christmas and have a fun time doing little things such as baking and playing outside. Now that it's snowed Ethan wants to be outside a lot but he asks me to go out too and I haven't been outside much. I need to take the time and be with him. He's very sweet. He's getting better at his guitar and I can tell what he's playing, sometimes. He had his lesson today and it seemed to go well. I am happy to have him wanting to play. His Tae Kwon Do is going great and he's thriving alongside his friends. Ryan is as well in the adult class. I enjoy watching them both in their activities.

Avery is quite the little mama. Bossy at times, and very helpful in the kitchen and with decorating and accessorizing. I love watching her get dressed and dress up Nahni. Avery loves to bake and create with me. I find little bowls of flour, raisins, sugar, and spices or a blend of something, hidden in cupboards or niches here and there. She is curious and I like that.

Saturday we leave 8am for MSP and won't be home until next Saturday. Blessings to all!

Getting Ready for FL

We leave in less than one month for FL. I booked our van rental today, less than $220 for a week's rental, using two discount coupons. Nice. I've also checked out where the closest whole food's store is and it's very close by and open until 10pm so we can get our groceries before we settle into the hotel for the night. I am looking forward to having some r&r and seeing the kids play at the beach. I love watching the kids play in the surf and sand.

Homeschooling has been a little slow this month. I have a harder time being indoors with the colder weather and it affects my thoughts heavily. We are making progress in reading and writing with Ethan, and most things for Avery that will help her start to read. They have both enjoyed many hours of coloring and drawing and creating in general. New songs are added every week, ones that are connected to the weather and seasons. We are starting our bird focus for the winter nature aspect of our education. Last we we learned about the american crow and how many caws is a hello and how long they usually are and where they live and what they eat. We went on an outside trek to see the crows and only saw one and heard another.

We are also getting ready for the yule season and will decorate outside with special lights and lawn decorations, much easier to do before any deep snow comes.

Ethan's guitar lessons are going quite well. He is enjoying his practicing and lessons. His TKD is going really well, and he has improved greatly in balance, coordination, and confidence. I enjoy watching him and Ryan.

Avery would like to take dance lessons and if they offer any in the winter comm ed we'll take them. I'm hoping to get her into more comm ed classes so we can do something during the winter together, just she and I. Ethan too of course but she and I could use some alone time. She is the middle child after all and I am aware of her needs and she does get very needy at times, who doesn't.

We are not doing anything with the many paths homeschool co-op this fall. Maybe over the winter. I will have an 8 week yoga class set for january into march at the studio for kids. I hope we get someone coming. Fridays at 10am starting mid-January.

We are reading about beaches and aquatic life this month in science. We are learning all about what we might see and enjoy in FL. I am quite excited for our upcoming vacation.

Orlando Thoughts

Our Orlando trip is coming up. We are staying at our timeshare in Orlando and are NOT going anywhere near Disney World...blech.

We would like to visit-
The Orlando Science Center
The Atlantic Ocean
The Gulf Coast

We are interested in doing a tour on either coast and will look into chartered tours with an eco-minded focus.

We are staying in a fully equipped hotel/apartment that will have wonderful accommodations for the week, including a bed for each of the older kids, a full kitchen, a generous soaking tub and laundry. We can pack light because we will be staying at one location, rather than 3 as was the case in TX.

Bye Bye October

Our October was filled with coughs, sore throats, headaches, and less productivity that I would have liked.

We are making progress with our reading. Ethan enjoyed reading to himself and I often find him reading during a quiet moment or to Avery.

Avery enjoys making books by stapling together a bunch of paper and writing on each page. She insisted that we add her latest book to our bookshelf. I greatly agree.

We have our flights booked for Orlando as well as our hotel. We will be leaving for Orlando in December. Now we need to start learning about the beaches and continue learning about aquatic life in our science kits.

Thursday and Friday of the past week we had a rummage sale at the studio, and my kids joined me for the better part of each day. During that time we got interviewed by lakeland TV about the presidential cookie poll happening at our bakery. We also drew on the sidewalk in front of my studio, and earned a little money. Ethan was very excited about earning money and made a money cup in which he asked people to put their payment into for the sale items. It was cute but annoying. Avery did the same. They liked to see people coming in and talk to them. By the second day they were tired, out of sorts, but more able to focus on their drawings and sidewalk art. Nahni didn't want to be there at all. I consider it a good experience in salesmanship and am glad we were able to have the sale.

Last week we learned about timelines in math. We learned how to create a timeline to show what we did for schooling and how long each subject took to learn. Ethan caught on immediately and Avery did her best.

I intend to get back on track in Novemeber. No more colds, sore throats, injuries, or rummage sales.

When we homeschool, our routine is something like this-
Circle Song- Round and Round (everyone participates in it)
Morning Movement- Yoga, dancing, a walk outside, whatever we feel like
Monday- Send a letter to Seth, Reading, Nature Walk and Journal, Music (we learn at least one new song weekly and repeat all our whole list of songs we've learned), Avery ECFE
Tuesday- Math, Reading, Art, Weekly Outing, Ethan Tae Kwon Do
Wednesday- Science, Reading, American Sign Language (we watch our video and learn a few new signs in our signing book (sentences like "My name is...") Ethan Music Lesson, Workbooks.
Thursday- Social Studies, Geography, Calendars when we change them, History, Reading, Avery ECFE, Ethan Tae Kwon Do
Friday- Reading, Art, Spanish, Book Journal

We read every day as a group and Ethan reads individually. We do art most days. We have workbooks to use and we often do them more than once a week.