I can honestly say that I have learned a tremendous amount in the past four months of homeschooling, mostly on what works for us, or what doesn't. I stopped writing in a daily log in December to see what it felt like just to allow for flow, and I prefer the journal because I like the sense of accomplishment that comes upon reflection. I decided that the Enki curriculum isn't working for us, and will keep it to use should Avery want to home school. We're now going with Oak Meadow's first grade curriculum. Before Christmas break Ethan took reading and math placement tests and tested well unto first grade (and then some) and I feel he is ready for more than what the kindergarten curriculum offers. He knows his letters, can read, and does addition beautifully. He is also ready for more science and math than the Enki curriculum offers. I also need a daily/weekly format to the lessons, giving us more time to play than to create some sort of curriculum based off of Enki's open format, and then I can weave in my creative touches here and there to make it even more fun. This morning I ordered the first grade curriculum from Oak Meadow. It should come next week. I look forward to learning with him through this new curriculum and feel it fits our family lifestyle better, and personal needs. I need some structure that I don't have to provide. I like being able to flow and embellish.
To Ethan, I feel we did the best we could, or the best I could this first semester. I feel ready to take our homeschooling to a new level of learning, filled with fun, excitement, and challenge, because we're ready and we like to grow. I am so glad we're homeschooling and I look forward to starting the new year with a new grade and a new flow, in joy!
I feel quite good releasing the Enki curriculum. It just didn't work for us. It was too much material, too little organization, and just not my style of learning. I feel really good! And the great thing is that I can use the stories, songs, and fingerplays in addition to the OM curriculum.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
A Beautiful Day
We've had a good week so far. Monday was an adjustment day, letting the kids settle back into flow after a busy weekend abroad. I always find it best to begin a week with gentleness rather than force.
Tuesday we did three simple activities- Morning movement focusing on feeling the music and letting our bodies respond. We used three different music selections, classical, beatles, and sean paul. Quite different. Then we read a beautiful book written by a native american chief about thankfulness to the earth and all sources of abundance, and then we created an abundance basket on paper and filled with with fruit representing what we were thankful for. We don't do turkeys around here as the turkeys are really irritated by this holiday and are asking us to shift towards other foods, grains and legumes they say. That was it for the day, and the rest we played and sang and created whatever came to mind but nothing structured.
And today was beautiful. We did our morning yoga and flowed into storytime with our hand puppets and theater. We all took turns making up stories with our favorite hand puppets. The kids love eating their friend puppet and Ethan is dearly fond of the alligator puppet. I love the sheep. It's really silly looking. From there we played cagola, a balance game where you have a boat deck and with the roll of the die you place one or two items on the deck to keep it level, or in my case to shake it up! From there we went into re-reading the blessings book we read on Tuesday and painted pictures of abundance using tempera paints (lovely colors). Then we shifted into making words and I am quite impressed with Ethan. He's now able to hear what I'm asking him to spell and can make the letter sounds beautifully and he is reading, small words and in limited amounts of time. There is no rush to read for it seems to come naturally if the opportunity is there. We worked on _ot and _at word series. (hot pot cot dot....) I love watching him figure it out and get it and it's usually the first time now. Lunch happened with daddy and then we went back in and played with some of our new toys- I got avery a veggie set for her kitchen and these veggies can be cut in half (velcro attachments), so we made soup and smoothies and had a great time working with colors and ASL. Then we painted again, as I wanted to paint a picture to use up more paint (I was a little generous with the pouring). And we all are wearing silk capes because they came today too and somewhere in there we played with carded wool and yarn and talked about where wool comes from (I'm going to get a drop spindle to make our yarn). Now they are taking quiet time while I rest at the computer getting my emails and online stuff completed. I should be doing laundry but Nahni's asleep and computer time is better when she's napping.
From my favorite online store I got 6 play silks for creative play, luscious colors of greens, yellow, purple, and blue and all 100% silk. I can't get 100% silk anywhere in town so I went online and found a lovely store. I also got lots of other goodies there, like beeswax crayons that are so yummy smelling you want to eat them. Imagine crayons smelling that good! We also got watercolor paints for wet on wet watercolor painting, which we'll do tomorrow or Friday. (I won't take breaks like public school does because we don't school from 8-3). We also got the most beautiful unsealed (meaning yummy smelling) pine art caddy to hold our scissors, markers, pencils, pens, and glue sticks. I can smell it five feet away so I had to mention it. I've made some well-thought out purchases in the past few weeks for our homeschool supplies. I've looked at hundreds of items and made some careful selections for art supplies, dramatic play, games, and other tools. I got Ethan a marvelous tanagram set with magnetic shapes and pictures to inspire layouts and structure (Ethan does quite well without them).
We have such an abundance of books that I don't need to get much when it comes to most subjects. I did get a movie and book about faerie houses for the kids for Christmas. I have everything I want to really do a damned good job of educating my children combining modern and ancient wisdoms. I finally feel really settled into what was my vision for this year. I don't feel I could've done it without the accessories that I carefully selected. I have a vision for my children, for our lifestyle, and we are getting so much more into the flow of that vision, every day. It's thrilling! Truly, to live the way you want to live, to be the person you want to be. I am thankful to all the universe for the abundance of my life and for the gifts to make this possible.
So, this is my homeschool thanksgiving post. I am so thankful and honored to be homeschooling. I love working and playing with my children as we learn and grow together. They are awesome little ones, big ones, and I am so blessed to do this dance we do, every day. Namaste
Tuesday we did three simple activities- Morning movement focusing on feeling the music and letting our bodies respond. We used three different music selections, classical, beatles, and sean paul. Quite different. Then we read a beautiful book written by a native american chief about thankfulness to the earth and all sources of abundance, and then we created an abundance basket on paper and filled with with fruit representing what we were thankful for. We don't do turkeys around here as the turkeys are really irritated by this holiday and are asking us to shift towards other foods, grains and legumes they say. That was it for the day, and the rest we played and sang and created whatever came to mind but nothing structured.
And today was beautiful. We did our morning yoga and flowed into storytime with our hand puppets and theater. We all took turns making up stories with our favorite hand puppets. The kids love eating their friend puppet and Ethan is dearly fond of the alligator puppet. I love the sheep. It's really silly looking. From there we played cagola, a balance game where you have a boat deck and with the roll of the die you place one or two items on the deck to keep it level, or in my case to shake it up! From there we went into re-reading the blessings book we read on Tuesday and painted pictures of abundance using tempera paints (lovely colors). Then we shifted into making words and I am quite impressed with Ethan. He's now able to hear what I'm asking him to spell and can make the letter sounds beautifully and he is reading, small words and in limited amounts of time. There is no rush to read for it seems to come naturally if the opportunity is there. We worked on _ot and _at word series. (hot pot cot dot....) I love watching him figure it out and get it and it's usually the first time now. Lunch happened with daddy and then we went back in and played with some of our new toys- I got avery a veggie set for her kitchen and these veggies can be cut in half (velcro attachments), so we made soup and smoothies and had a great time working with colors and ASL. Then we painted again, as I wanted to paint a picture to use up more paint (I was a little generous with the pouring). And we all are wearing silk capes because they came today too and somewhere in there we played with carded wool and yarn and talked about where wool comes from (I'm going to get a drop spindle to make our yarn). Now they are taking quiet time while I rest at the computer getting my emails and online stuff completed. I should be doing laundry but Nahni's asleep and computer time is better when she's napping.
From my favorite online store I got 6 play silks for creative play, luscious colors of greens, yellow, purple, and blue and all 100% silk. I can't get 100% silk anywhere in town so I went online and found a lovely store. I also got lots of other goodies there, like beeswax crayons that are so yummy smelling you want to eat them. Imagine crayons smelling that good! We also got watercolor paints for wet on wet watercolor painting, which we'll do tomorrow or Friday. (I won't take breaks like public school does because we don't school from 8-3). We also got the most beautiful unsealed (meaning yummy smelling) pine art caddy to hold our scissors, markers, pencils, pens, and glue sticks. I can smell it five feet away so I had to mention it. I've made some well-thought out purchases in the past few weeks for our homeschool supplies. I've looked at hundreds of items and made some careful selections for art supplies, dramatic play, games, and other tools. I got Ethan a marvelous tanagram set with magnetic shapes and pictures to inspire layouts and structure (Ethan does quite well without them).
We have such an abundance of books that I don't need to get much when it comes to most subjects. I did get a movie and book about faerie houses for the kids for Christmas. I have everything I want to really do a damned good job of educating my children combining modern and ancient wisdoms. I finally feel really settled into what was my vision for this year. I don't feel I could've done it without the accessories that I carefully selected. I have a vision for my children, for our lifestyle, and we are getting so much more into the flow of that vision, every day. It's thrilling! Truly, to live the way you want to live, to be the person you want to be. I am thankful to all the universe for the abundance of my life and for the gifts to make this possible.
So, this is my homeschool thanksgiving post. I am so thankful and honored to be homeschooling. I love working and playing with my children as we learn and grow together. They are awesome little ones, big ones, and I am so blessed to do this dance we do, every day. Namaste
Monday, November 5, 2007
Ethan's Birthday and Letter A
It's Ethan's 6th birthday today! We're having a great morning of schooling. We celebrated Ethan's birthday by morning movement and story time, focusing on Ethan's favorite songs and showing him the scrapbook I made when he as a wee bairn. He really liked the pictures of him as a baby, as well as the ones of Avery, for she made the cheesiest faces. After story time Ethan and Avery wrote and drew pictures in their "About Me" books, to commemorate Ethan's birthday and their overall development and interests. I just whipped one out using MSWord this morning and they seemed to enjoy drawing pictures of people. We took a break and danced out in the snow, for it's the first snowfall today. Ethan's been playing with his new birthday toy, a large bionicle, and Avery's been playing with her kitchen. They also decorated more of the kitchen today with the red and blue streamers that we used yesterday for Ethan's family party. Lots of streamers everywhere now.
And then we regrouped and did more desk work with 6 pages in his workbook- finding shapes hidden in similar shapes and then the letter A. We're starting our letter set as well. It's also letter writing day and we'll be making thank-yous for the birthday gifts.
We're resting now and it feels good to rest. Nahni is resting. Ethan is resting. Avery is coloring. She just finished resting. We had a very busy weekend, with three visits to Brainerd Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Lots of driving. I'm not going to do more schooling after we make the thankyous because Ethan has cousins coming over. We'll have a ceremony tonight honoring the Spirit of Ethan's birth and my becoming a mom. I like to always keep a spiritual influence in their world, as it's a huge part of mine.
And then we regrouped and did more desk work with 6 pages in his workbook- finding shapes hidden in similar shapes and then the letter A. We're starting our letter set as well. It's also letter writing day and we'll be making thank-yous for the birthday gifts.
We're resting now and it feels good to rest. Nahni is resting. Ethan is resting. Avery is coloring. She just finished resting. We had a very busy weekend, with three visits to Brainerd Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Lots of driving. I'm not going to do more schooling after we make the thankyous because Ethan has cousins coming over. We'll have a ceremony tonight honoring the Spirit of Ethan's birth and my becoming a mom. I like to always keep a spiritual influence in their world, as it's a huge part of mine.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Remembering
I've misplaced my daily teacher's log so I'm making my entries here for this week.
Monday 10-15-07
Movement- new cd
Round and Round, Winds of October, My Little Pony, The Mill, Sailor Boy, Recorder Song Autumn, Wild Goose Flight, Trip Trip Trap, My Little Pony, The Cool of Autumn
Story Time- On The Farm by Kathryn Smith, The Wild Little Horse by Rita Gray, The Farm Book by Jan Pfloog
Many Paths Home School outing to Meadow Farms to learn about natural horsemanship. Ethan rode but Avery didn't. Ethan liked the horses and the ride but wasn't as interested in what the trainer was saying. Avery wants a baby horse and liked the horses but grew tired quickly. I would recommend a trail ride next summer for Ethan and I if possible. I enjoyed everything.
Art- Puff Ponies- We came home and settled in before making puff ponies- a 3-d stuffed horse out of paper. Ethan and Avery decorated, stuffed and Ethan stapled his while I did Avery's. They were very keen on the idea of a puff-person and played with their puff ponies that evening.
ECFE- Avery and Ethan attended and made faces with hats as well as painted and had daddy time.
Tuesday 10-16-07
Movement- Adaptation of The Wild Little Horse into an adventure using the puff ponies as visuals and recalling the movement patterns of the trot and gallop from Monday's field trip. A trot has 4 beats and gallop 3. Ethan trotted and galloped around the sofa and participated in the entire adventure of Little Horse with his puff pony. It took a while to get into our groove.
Storytime- A book about farm animals playing and I don't have it anymore because it was an ECFE book and Winter on the Farm adapted from the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Ethan and Avery both want to take care of animals and would like to have a farm.
Art- We took out our big drawing tablets and Ethan drew a big barn and horses. Avery drew a cat. We then created a barn on drawing paper using glue and craft sticks. Before Ethan created the barn he made a landscape for the barn, grass, corn and a blue sky. He then made his own barn after I demonstrated two styles of barns with the sticks. He wanted to make his own style. At first he put the glue on the sticks and then he put the glue on the paper and the stick on the glue. He drew the outline of the stick with glue before placing it. Following the completion of the barn he colored and cut out a horse. He colored the horse blue. The horse was pasted on the paper next to the barn. I only guided the overall project steps but not any of the placing of items nor color choices. Once the barn dried Ethan colored it red and blue.
Letters- While I made lunch Ethan made words using the word whammer. He found the letters for LOG, TAX, DOG, CAT, ARM, and his own word- DIE, which thrilled him. He sorted the vowels from the consonants.
Avery went to ECFE from 1-4pm.
During her absence, Ethan sorted three decks of flash cards into four categories-colors, shapes, objects (with the object word rather than the object color or shape), and numbers. From there we made our own sorting game using colors, letters, and purpose. He also learned about pent-hex-oct shapes, cones, cylinders, and cubes.
Ethan also took out the addition flash cards and worked on that while I started the stick ponies project.
The stick ponies were made out of one of my dad's sweatshirts with yard for hair. After picking up Avery from ECFE we ran our errands to the bakery, the hardware store for the dowel, and silbaugh's for the fluffing (stuffing). After we came home we stuffed the ponies and added the dowel. While Ethan was at Tae Kwon Do I glued the dowels in and tied them shut. We'll add ears and eyes tomorrow using felt and glue.
Ethan attended Tae Kwon Do and learned round house kicks. He will get a white belt in November. He likes the class and does well. Ryan says the class is a good class overall, ages 4-6.
We didn't go to the library but we ran errands. Tomorrow is storytelling day and tea time with Marcia. We'll add features to our horses, bake and create stories about our horses using farm and landscape pictures.
Monday 10-15-07
Movement- new cd
Round and Round, Winds of October, My Little Pony, The Mill, Sailor Boy, Recorder Song Autumn, Wild Goose Flight, Trip Trip Trap, My Little Pony, The Cool of Autumn
Story Time- On The Farm by Kathryn Smith, The Wild Little Horse by Rita Gray, The Farm Book by Jan Pfloog
Many Paths Home School outing to Meadow Farms to learn about natural horsemanship. Ethan rode but Avery didn't. Ethan liked the horses and the ride but wasn't as interested in what the trainer was saying. Avery wants a baby horse and liked the horses but grew tired quickly. I would recommend a trail ride next summer for Ethan and I if possible. I enjoyed everything.
Art- Puff Ponies- We came home and settled in before making puff ponies- a 3-d stuffed horse out of paper. Ethan and Avery decorated, stuffed and Ethan stapled his while I did Avery's. They were very keen on the idea of a puff-person and played with their puff ponies that evening.
ECFE- Avery and Ethan attended and made faces with hats as well as painted and had daddy time.
Tuesday 10-16-07
Movement- Adaptation of The Wild Little Horse into an adventure using the puff ponies as visuals and recalling the movement patterns of the trot and gallop from Monday's field trip. A trot has 4 beats and gallop 3. Ethan trotted and galloped around the sofa and participated in the entire adventure of Little Horse with his puff pony. It took a while to get into our groove.
Storytime- A book about farm animals playing and I don't have it anymore because it was an ECFE book and Winter on the Farm adapted from the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Ethan and Avery both want to take care of animals and would like to have a farm.
Art- We took out our big drawing tablets and Ethan drew a big barn and horses. Avery drew a cat. We then created a barn on drawing paper using glue and craft sticks. Before Ethan created the barn he made a landscape for the barn, grass, corn and a blue sky. He then made his own barn after I demonstrated two styles of barns with the sticks. He wanted to make his own style. At first he put the glue on the sticks and then he put the glue on the paper and the stick on the glue. He drew the outline of the stick with glue before placing it. Following the completion of the barn he colored and cut out a horse. He colored the horse blue. The horse was pasted on the paper next to the barn. I only guided the overall project steps but not any of the placing of items nor color choices. Once the barn dried Ethan colored it red and blue.
Letters- While I made lunch Ethan made words using the word whammer. He found the letters for LOG, TAX, DOG, CAT, ARM, and his own word- DIE, which thrilled him. He sorted the vowels from the consonants.
Avery went to ECFE from 1-4pm.
During her absence, Ethan sorted three decks of flash cards into four categories-colors, shapes, objects (with the object word rather than the object color or shape), and numbers. From there we made our own sorting game using colors, letters, and purpose. He also learned about pent-hex-oct shapes, cones, cylinders, and cubes.
Ethan also took out the addition flash cards and worked on that while I started the stick ponies project.
The stick ponies were made out of one of my dad's sweatshirts with yard for hair. After picking up Avery from ECFE we ran our errands to the bakery, the hardware store for the dowel, and silbaugh's for the fluffing (stuffing). After we came home we stuffed the ponies and added the dowel. While Ethan was at Tae Kwon Do I glued the dowels in and tied them shut. We'll add ears and eyes tomorrow using felt and glue.
Ethan attended Tae Kwon Do and learned round house kicks. He will get a white belt in November. He likes the class and does well. Ryan says the class is a good class overall, ages 4-6.
We didn't go to the library but we ran errands. Tomorrow is storytelling day and tea time with Marcia. We'll add features to our horses, bake and create stories about our horses using farm and landscape pictures.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Still Here, Still Having FUN
We are having very good days and learning is fun. This week and possibly the next one or two we are weaving our days around the concept of midieval times. On Monday we learned about catapults, knights, castles and the organization of land surround castles. Yesterday we learned about dragons and caves. Today we're still working with Dragons and will make handpuppets and because it's story day we'll make story books by drawing the story about a dragon, whatever comes to their minds. We'll also make caves again and play with popcorn and make a popcorn dragon, on paper. (but a 3-d one would be cool)
I keep a daily log that I enter all of our progress in, what songs we do (which all have moment patterns), workbook pages, story books, and all activities.
We are having a successful fall. I look forward to every day and what might come by letting my heart and my kids guide the process.
I keep a daily log that I enter all of our progress in, what songs we do (which all have moment patterns), workbook pages, story books, and all activities.
We are having a successful fall. I look forward to every day and what might come by letting my heart and my kids guide the process.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Today's Adventure
We began later in the morning because of the great storm that rolled through about 3am and woke up all up.
Our day always begins with song and movement. I burned a new cd and our songs we did today were Round and Round, Sailor Boy, My Little Pony, Trip Trip Trap, Wild Goose, Autumn Recorder Song, The Mill (new), The Apple (new/fingerplay) and Come Celebrate and The Cool of Autumn. (celebrating the equinox)
We read about the loons migration and breeding and will hopefully go to Sand Lake tomorrow to see the loons close up.
We set up three new bird feeders, two window ones and one for thistle. The birds took two days to find the seeds in the old feeders. We filled them on Wednesday. We took a lot of pictures of the leaves and the birds with our digital camera. I'll post some later tomorrow or next week.
We watched an Eyewitness video about birds. For our afternoon we played outside, drew birds in our daily journals, and played more. We've all got colds and took it easier today. Ethan didn't feel he could concentrate on his workbooks so we left that for another day.
And now I'm off to teach yoga.
Our day always begins with song and movement. I burned a new cd and our songs we did today were Round and Round, Sailor Boy, My Little Pony, Trip Trip Trap, Wild Goose, Autumn Recorder Song, The Mill (new), The Apple (new/fingerplay) and Come Celebrate and The Cool of Autumn. (celebrating the equinox)
We read about the loons migration and breeding and will hopefully go to Sand Lake tomorrow to see the loons close up.
We set up three new bird feeders, two window ones and one for thistle. The birds took two days to find the seeds in the old feeders. We filled them on Wednesday. We took a lot of pictures of the leaves and the birds with our digital camera. I'll post some later tomorrow or next week.
We watched an Eyewitness video about birds. For our afternoon we played outside, drew birds in our daily journals, and played more. We've all got colds and took it easier today. Ethan didn't feel he could concentrate on his workbooks so we left that for another day.
And now I'm off to teach yoga.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Today's Efforts
If I do what feels right for the day, we have such fun days. If I do what thinks right, I break down quite early on and nothing flows well. Go with feeling.
And today was a feeling day. I woke up feeling good. We started our day when it felt good. We moved in a way that felt good. We danced to songs, tramped around the couch and played ponies and sang our fingerplay songs. We read about geese flying south for story time and drew a picture in our daily journals. We took a break outside before lunch. After lunch we went outside and put birdseed in the feeders to attract the birds for our bird themed week and came in for afternoon focus. We did five pages in Ethan's math workbook, made a chain garland out of five fall colors and made a color tapestry by weaving strips of paper together. We hung the garland in our livingroom. We cleaned up and ate a snack and are back outside watching for birds.
Avery and Ethan want to catch one.
I think we had a really good day. It felt good. It felt like flow. I can do these kinds of days. Do what feels right and things go really well.
And tonight we go into brainerd to run errands.
And today was a feeling day. I woke up feeling good. We started our day when it felt good. We moved in a way that felt good. We danced to songs, tramped around the couch and played ponies and sang our fingerplay songs. We read about geese flying south for story time and drew a picture in our daily journals. We took a break outside before lunch. After lunch we went outside and put birdseed in the feeders to attract the birds for our bird themed week and came in for afternoon focus. We did five pages in Ethan's math workbook, made a chain garland out of five fall colors and made a color tapestry by weaving strips of paper together. We hung the garland in our livingroom. We cleaned up and ate a snack and are back outside watching for birds.
Avery and Ethan want to catch one.
I think we had a really good day. It felt good. It felt like flow. I can do these kinds of days. Do what feels right and things go really well.
And tonight we go into brainerd to run errands.
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