Science Rules!!!!!!

I have loved Bill Nye, The Science Guy since the nineties when I was able to introduce a much older child to his science enthusiasm. I was so excited when I found his episodes on youtube! It was so much fun introducing him to my kiddos today. We had a great day in the homeschool life today. First we read about Chemical Reactions in our Science Curriculum. According to the kids, that was the boring part of today :) Then we watched Bill Nye's episode about Chemical reactions!!

 Here is a link to the episode of you would like to share it with your kids! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlwuxpMh8nk

Then we started the experiments from the Bill Nye episode.   First we donned our safety glasses, cause safety is always first.  Mommy likes her kids with all their eyeballs intact. 

Then we measured 1 Cup of vinegar into each jar and 1 Tablespoon of salt.  Well, most of us did...  the youngest is more of a free thinker, and a free pourer.

We put our dirty pennies in the jars and shook them up

Through the magic of science....... clean pennies!!!!!!!

Then I made everyone drink a bottle or water.  Which made sure the kiddos are getting enough water, and it gave us a handy receptacle for our next experiment..... blowing up a balloon with Chemistry!  We took our used vinegar and poured it into our water bottles in the sink (please excuse the sink... we live here, I want to tell you that it doesn't always look like that, but I would be lying :)

Then we put baking soda into balloons.....

And viola!!! 

We planned to also build a fire extinguisher from baking soda and vinegar, but it was raining out... and that made it impossible.  I mean, I don't mind messy, but doing that indoors just sounds crazy.  

Weekly Wrap up: The one where mama got her groove back....

We are having so much fun with Tapestry of Grace. Last week we had a field trip to the museum of fine art to look at all the Byzantine art. Then we chose a picture to sketch and we glued a foil halo on it. This required me smuggling in tin foil and scissors. I tried very hard not to flash my scissors around. Those docents are old, and probably don't need to be startled.

We crushed up chalk to make our own tempera paints. I recommend going one aisle over and picking up some earplugs when you are shopping for chalk. The racket is unbelievable! But so is the fun. Everyone practiced their calligraphy and pretended to be a monk. But that is not the most exciting news. The most exciting news is:

Its official, we are in fact on a schedule.

It only took five years to get one :). I know, ridiculous right? Strangely, it had nothing to do with the kids. The kids are always going to be just kids, and they are notoriously unreliable when it comes to chores and schedules. Also, it doesn't have much to do with the schedule I choose. I had spent a whole lot of time trying to find the "perfect" schedule. I think I can safely say that holy homeschooling grail doesn't exist.

Nope, the two things that make or break it: Managing social commitments and Mommy. No schedule can be successful unless I have managed our social commitments and not allowed them to overwhelm us. I learned that lesson last year and it has stuck with us. But I had neglected the other key part of scheduling..... Me.

The reason our schedule works this year is because my nutrition, exercise and health is working for the first time in a very long time. Getting this worked out meant doing things I never thought I would. We have gone about 60 percent raw. Over half our diet is raw fruits and veggies. We also became mostly vegan (except I allow fish) which is startling when you know I really loved meat and anything that remotely resembled a simple carbohydrate.

But the payoff has been amazing. Because I paid attention to my nutrition: I reliably wake up on time with energy to get the day started (before I wasn't completely awake until about 11am), I sleep well without any medication, most of my health concerns and immune issues have vanished, we aren't rushed or late everywhere. But the absolute defining development is that I have extra patience and emotional reserves for when things go wrong. If you have more than one child, things will always go wrong. It has to be a written law somewhere. Nothing else has changed, but I have. I am more flexible. Even though I miss eating whatever I want, I wouldn't trade what I have gotten in return. It was my Mount Everest, and I conquered it (five years later, but I am still counting it as a win)!

2011-2012 Curriculum

I am so excited about this coming school year. We began our school year last week. Last year was really quite difficult for us with an illness in the family. We are looking forward including all the extra hands on activities this year, instead of trying to get the minimum done.

We are using

• Tapestry of Grace Vol 2: The Middle Ages as the spine of our school year. This will encompass our history, geography, literature, art, and philosophy. I can't even tell you how excited I am about this. I go all nerdy when I start to talk about it. I love literature, so I had to pick a literature based curriculum. I LOVE love love love all of the hands on activities. When I imagine my perfect curriculum, this is what I imagine. I don't love how it is laid out and planned, but I can get around that easily enough.
• Math U See is what we are going to use for our math program. Up until now we had been using Singapore Math. I like Singapore Math, and was happy up until now. I noticed this past year (which would have been third grade for us) the tempo picked up. The lack of review became a problem for us. I started having to supplement our math with lots of visual representation of the problems in Singapore, and since that is the cornerstone of the Math U See program; I am hoping this will be an improvement.
• Rod and Staff is still our pick for Grammar and Spelling. I like the plain, simple, "let's just get this done" nature of it. Grammar is tedious, and I think maybe it is just the nature of the beast. So, at least this is short and sweet.
• Real Science 4 Kids: Chemistry is new for us this year. But the kids are excited about it. It seems to heavily lean toward a little learning and then an experiment to test the knowledge. The kids favorite part is the experiments, so they gave this curriculum their stamp of approval.

The kids are up and ready to start school, so now I had better get all these books off the bookshelf and get started!

Homeschooling with a Chronically ill Child

Our family is emerging from a year of homeschooling with a chronically ill child. Our oldest, Emma, was eventually diagnosed with Menagerie's Disease (although we had a few red herrings). She had chronic dizziness every single day severe enough that she couldn't function and often it led to vomiting. The medications used to treat it would leave her so tired some days she spent all day in bed. We were housebound much of the time because any kind of travel made her condition so much worse. Right now she is feeling much better, and the symptoms have receded and seem to be in remission. I am not an expert, but these are the things I would tell anyone in my situation.

• being ill is isolating. The reality of our circumstances was we couldn't get out of the house with any reliability. No one wants to drag a sick, miserable child all over the city and goodness knows all the sick child wants is to relax and be still. My advice: stock up on board games, and even on video games. This is the perfect time to start a tradition of reading a book aloud as a family. During this time where your social circle is narrowed, use it as a chance for your family to draw closer together. Every cloud has a silver lining. We have come out of this season of our lives with even stronger bonds between us as a family.
• Your friends still care, even when you feel isolated. We live in a super busy society, people struggle to find the time for their own families. Our current way of life just isn't conducive to the challenges a chronic illness brings, because it is so different than just having the flu. Also remember that your schedule is now full of doctor visits, and has an inflexibility of its own. Sometimes you are just too tired to hold a great phone conversation. My advice: lean hard on extended family and on friends who have the flexibility to come and visit. Stay in touch with friends who don't have flexibility in their schedules through social media like facebook, message boards, and email.
• Your academic school year is going to look different than you expected for your ill child. It's okay, give yourself a break. Homeschooling with perfectly healthy children is challenging. If your daughter doesn't learn Latin this year, it will be okay. You have enough stress and pressure already, you don't need to add any more guilt or stress at this point. You may have to look at what you consider "learning", or "schooling" to be defined as. This is most definitely not the time to lean heavily on a workbook based curriculum. You would be surprised how much everyone in the family is learning through this process.
• Pare down your academic expectations to the "bare necessities". It is important for the ill child to be able to rest and focus much of their energy toward healing. We also had doctor appointments to juggle, and other health professionals to see. I found myself with much less time, a child who needed more time to recover, and I still had my household schedule to run and other siblings to maintain normalcy for. I decided that I was comfortable if Emma was only progressing in Math, and reading (or being read too). We saved everything else for days when things were going well.
• Anytime is a good time to do school. In past years our family had a pretty structured homeschool schedule. This past year, that was not true. We did school whenever Emma felt like it, even if that was 10pm.
  
• Be willing to use alternative media instead of textbooks. If you planned your academic year heavy on textbooks and workbooks, be willing to chuck that out the window. Most libraries have audio books and e-reader books available to loan. Be willing to switch over to a year that just includes reading, or hearing good books. If you have a Wii, or your child has a Nintendo DS, both offer educational games that teach foreign languages or challenge problem solving skills with puzzle oriented games.
• Try to reduce the impact on siblings where you can. When one member of the family gets chronically ill, the whole family experiences it. There really isn't any way to avoid that. But when you can, make sure that siblings are able to make their classes, or continue with events that are important to them.

The most important thing I can offer is be patient with yourself and your situation.

On the school front

How to make spelling fun? Let the kids squirt shaving cream all over the dining room table and trace their words in the foam. They had a BLAST :). Especially my very hands-on man-cub. I couldn't persuade a single one of them to break concentration and smile at the camera.

This was such a normal day for us. I have missed normal. Emma has struggled with vertigo since November. As you can imagine, reading and doing schoolwork while the room is spinning is pretty intense. But today it wasn't an issue, and I couldn't be more thankful. We played, all of us together, at the same time. All of my baby chicks in a clutch. It was peaceful, and we took total advantage of it. I can only hope it is a sign of things to come.

John's Pet Store

We have been studying domestic pets in school. The kids have learned all about their care, what the animals need, habitats and anatomy. John decided to open up his own pet store, and the girls thought that was an awesome idea too! I could not resist the chance to take pics of this. I think he chose to wear his glasses because it makes him look more trustworthy.

He also made sure to demonstrate for us how a snake would strangle a rat, or a boy.

Chloe put most of her faith in flashy signage. :)

Changes, Changes.....

So we have changed, or maybe change is too radical a word. What we are doing would probably be better described as "tweaking". I noticed at the end of last year/beginning of this school year that we were getting a little too wrapped up in worksheets, curriculum, activities, field trips and outside classes. This just wasn't working for any of us. Maybe we are just a family of wanna be hermits.

I think the only way to evaluate a curriculum or routine is based on how it fits in to my reasons for homeschooling. I also expect that as our circumstances change from year to year, what fits best into our lives will likewise change. Obviously, what we were doing was a square peg in a round hole.

I don't want to be rushed running from class or activity to activity and neither do the kids. We need the slower pace of life. Natural learning is the type that engages my children the best. Especially because both of my girls are "think outside the box" girls. Natural learning is what happens when I set up a learning center and they are able to use their natural curiosity to explore in depth, probe an idea and to ask questions. This requires more time from me as the teacher than cracking open a book and we need long periods of time without a bunch of activities breathing down our neck to allow the kids to relax and explore.

Another huge plus to homeschooling is the opportunity for a "whole" education. One that involves life skills and critical thinking. I didn't want anyone taking my children and "standardizing" them. Maintaining the closeness of our family, respecting the unique individual each child is, and deepening our family bond is probably my most important goal. None of the jives with a "go-go" lifestyle. It just isn't us.

I realized that I was potentially squandering an opportunity. During these elementary years I have the opportunity to do more child-led learning. We aren't in the high stakes game of high school. We don't have children with jobs, and college prep classes, volunteer work, etc. those things that come with young adulthood. All of that will come in time, I probably can't fight it off even if I wanted to (and I don't). So there is no sense in squandering this opportunity I have now. For now, I can watch the wonder, have the family meals every night, jump on every opportunity to chatter aimlessly with my babies while they are still all mine. Because soon enough they will be young adults with their own lives.

So we have embraced KONOS curriculum again. It has a unit study approach and we move through it at our own pace. If the kids want to linger on a topic, we linger. If they want to move on, we move through it. What I once found overwhelming, is a blessing now. Maybe it is because our house is stocked with more craft goods than an entire preschool could burn through in a year. Or it might be the dynamic of having three children to homeschool instead of just one. Either way, it seems to be the perfect fit for us right now. The kids are having a BALL.

The first "official" week: Rome

Our first week is off to a great start. We are finishing up Rome before we start the Middle Ages. Today we learned about the rise of Christianity in Rome. The kids drew some pictures of the nativity on the glass of the backdoor with Dry Erase markers. Thankfully, no painted surfaces were harmed during this craft activity.

For a snack, Chloe wanted to make snow cones with a nostalgic Snoopy Hand crank I got at a resale shop. I love it because I had one just like it as a kid. it took them about an hour to come up with three tablespoons of "snow". Eventually I had pity on them and broke out the blender.

We ended the day creating some mosaics with dried beans. This was not our most popular activity. The glue gets on your hands, then the beans stick to your hands. Everyone got frustrated halfway through so we scrapped the activity.

John is lobbying pretty hard to include Super Mario as part of his kindergarten curricula. He has made some persuasive arguments for how it would improve his hand eye coordination. Couldn't we count it as P.E.? But I have a suspicion that a certain sister is coaching him.

It has been so nice to be back into our usual routine. Everyone is happier over here!

Curriculum plan for 2010-2011

Here is our plan for homeschooling this year. For the Most part, we have stayed with the same curriculum we used last year. I am writing our Literature program again, but this time I wanted it to correspond to our History (Story of the World). The more our subjects relate, the smoother it all seems to flow. I included links over to my homeschool planning blog where I am putting it all for now.

• History: Story of the World Vol 2 (the middle ages)
  
• Math: Singapore Math/Horizon Math
• Science: Apologia Astronomy, The kids are participating in the nature classes at the local arboretum, Study Scientists and discoveries that relate to the middle ages and we are going to add in Magic School Bus Lapbooks and unit studies
  
• Literature: My Own that corresponds to our history.
• Phonics for John: Hooked on Phonics
• Grammar: First Language Lessons
• Penmanship: Handwriting without Tears
• Latin: Prima Latina
• Fine Art: Artsonia

I am so excited to get started, and so are the kidlets!

Art Class: Stellaluna

This is my all time favorite book ever! I think maybe because in my life I have found myself feeling like a bat who is lost in a world of birds, I identify with little Stellaluna and its just the sweetest story ever! Okay so I was more than happy to do a little themed activity with this book.

The purpose of the exercise is to use warm fall colors on a cool background, and to start to distinguish how trees have branches, leaves...

1. Read Stellaluna, you will LOVE it!!! It opens up discussion about all kinds of things like what fruit bats eat, nocturnal animals, echolocation, etc.

2. Have kids draw a tree trunk and tree branches and try to encourage them to make the branches "realistic"

3. Then have kids take a white crayon, or white pencil and draw stars for the night sky

4. cut out a moon from yellow construction paper and glue it onto the paper.

5. Have child take qtips and dip it into yellow, red, and orange paint and dot it onto the paper on the branches of the tree

6. Cut a fruit bat out of construction paper out of brown construction paper with longish wings, then fold the wings, draw details onto the fruit bat and then glue onto paper.

Below are more examples from the kids in our art class.....

Art Class: My Favorite Palette

This is another lesson we did at our Co-op. The point of this lesson was to have the kids practice using the different types of lines: straight lines, curvy lines, wavy lines etc; And also, to have them practice blending colors and choosing colors.

1. Have the children draw intersecting lines all across the page. It is important that the lines meet so that they will form little pockets for the color later.

2. Go over all of the lines with black paint. Let Dry.

3. Have kids choose a color palette they want to use, mix up those colors, and paint them on the different parts of the picture!


Below are several examples from the students in our co-op.