school days

i suppose the title of this post is a bit misleading.  with the exception of ty, there aren't really any school days for the rest of the kids.  but there are PLENTY of learning days (365 days a year of it, in fact).

we don't really do any "formal" schooling at home, except for those letter of the month activities (which i know has been non-existent for over 6 months...i blame the printer!).  and then there's the whole homeschool or traditional school decision to make for emma since she'll be turning 5 next year.  there are a lot of things to consider, but i will save that for another post.

but we have decided with certainty that we will not be enrolling emma (and most likely the rest of the kiddos) in preschool.  she seems to be thriving with her current learning environment at home, and for us, we feel preschool would not serve any additional educational "advantage" for her.  additionally, our little neck of the woods provides a lot of learning opportunities for the kids from the nature centers, the cleveland metroparks, museums, libraries, the city's learn through play programs, and local events around town (ingenuity fest, sparx city hop, etc.).

but what about the socialization aspect, you may ask.  ummm...have you met emma?  i don't think she is lacking in social skills.  whether it's library programs, the play ground, or a local event there are plenty of opportunities for her to socialize with other kids and make new friends.  and more often than not, she manages to strike up a conversation with somebody.

with that said, i have, however, started to establish a couple of "school-time" hours in the morning 3-4 days a week.  emma often talks about the day she will be "5 years old and then i will get to go to kindergarten."  we have tried to de-emphasize the kindergarten thing since we are undecided about her schooling method, but it seems that there have been a lot of well-meaning adults (and her big brother) who have brought up this idea since she's turned 4 (not to mention some of the books she reads).  so, the "school-time" hours help make school more official for her, and if we do decide to homeschool her then i think it will come in quite handy.

so what does she do during "school-time?"

reading

we make this a top priority and it is part of our daily activity, not just "school-time."  there is not one day where there is no reading involved.  some days we only read 3 or 4 times.  other days we read up to 6 maybe 7 times in a day.  reading is such a great springboard for teaching and learning about pretty much everything.  at this point reading material will range from gibson's-attention-span books, like the big red barn, to more-words-than-pictures books, like the chronicle of narnia series.  i also try to incorporate bible reading time from our family bible.  even gibson will sit through a section of that and is very familiar with the book, differentiating a regular book from the family bible.  i've also started emma on very simple reading exercises using the sight word booklets found here, and i plan on writing out each word of her monthly memory verse on little cards to see if she can put them in order (with a reference of the verse to go off of).

numbers

we do a variety of number recognition and counting activities.  baking and putting away clean silverware have been excellent opportunities for this, but in regards to "school-time" i've printed out and laminated number cards for her to put in order and sort the appropriate amount of shells.  she blazed through this activity the first time she did it so i only bring it out once in a while.  i think maybe i'll add on more numbers (maybe 5 at a time?) and see how it goes.

literacy introduction

although reading (not to be limited to books, but can include signs, labels, etc.) is probably the best way to introduce literacy, i have made a word match folder for emma to do during her designated "school-time."  she has really enjoyed this activity, and will often request it even if i had planned on skipping it for the day.  right now i have about 3.5 pages of words, but i'd like to add more once she really masters the current set of words.

then there's writing...i'm not a fan of worksheets, especially at such a young age, but apparently emma is.  i don't know if it makes her feel like her big brother doing "homework," but i'm going with it.  using a workbook i found on super clearance, she has been working on tracing a letter of the alphabet each day we have "school-time."  she has had enough familiarity with the letters that she even wrote a simple birthday message for sam on her own, with mommy spelling out each word of course.  we have 2 more letters left and after that i'll probably throw in some letter-writing practice a couple of days a week.

journaling

writing down thoughts and the events of the day has been a big part of my life.  although i don't keep a paper journal anymore, i have found that this blog has served as my own personal journal.  i remember even as young as 2nd grade, keeping a special diary, recording my thoughts and ideas as a way to process the events of the day.  i felt this was something special and important that i'd like to pass on to my own kids, so emma and i created a special journal for her to "record" some of her own ideas.  i picked up a simple composition notebook, which we personalized by decoupaging the cover with some of emma's drawings.  at this point, there is obviously no writing involved, just pictures.  sometimes i suggest a topic for her to draw about, though i leave it up to her to decide whether or not she'll use it (even though the control-freak part of me wants her to use the idea).  i'm sure that in the future there will be a transition point where writing will be involved in the journaling process, but right now my main goal is for her to enjoy the activity and provide her with a tool to express her thoughts, ideas and feelings.

topical study

i just started this and our current topic for the couple of weeks has been about farms and farm life (which intentionally coincided with our bob evans farm festival trip and our apple picking adventure).  activities that will help reinforce the current study will vary but might include "field trips," lapbooks, baking, reading (of course!), scavenger hunts, and various crafts.  topical studies will obviously not be limited to the designated "school-time," but some of the crafts, activities and/or lapbooks will be reserved for that time.  i'm not sure how long i want to stretch topical studies yet, though it will probably be a minimum of 2 weeks.  right now, our topic study has been stretched out a lot longer than i had anticipated since we don't have a working printer at home to complete some of the lessons and activities i had planned.

and perhaps you might be wondering what gibson does during emma's "school-time."  as you can see, he gets a little learning done too.

there are so many resources online and at the library available for teaching your kids about the world around them.  check out the homeschool and learning resources list on this blog, or even some of the bloggers on my blog-o-rama.  i draw a lot of inspiration and ideas from these sites...which makes me super thankful for mamas and educators who have graciously shared their ideas with the word wide web. 

i really like being able participate with my kids in the whole learning process, and i think that as long as it is an enjoyable experience for both parties i don't see any reason to stop doing what we're doing.

getting off the fence - part 2

we're in.  now what?

i posted this video a while back on facebook.  it made me laugh.  but really.  he does bring up some good points.

sometimes there are misconceptions about homeschooling.  and to be honest with you, before i did my research, i was guilty of having those same misconceptions.  the biggest one was socialization (isn't that the biggest question most people ask about homeschooling?).  they won't have any friends.  they'll be too isolated.  they'll be lonely.

once i did more research, i could see that many of the things i perceived about homeschooling (including the socialization "issue") were unfounded, and it helped solidify our decision to homeschool.

now, because i enjoy lists, instead of beautifully integrating our reasons to homeschool through out this post by way of eloquent sentences strung together seamlessly with transitional thoughts and word phrases, i will share with you our primary reasons why we're choosing the homeschool route.  in list form.  in no particular order.

1. flexibility.  that was probably the most alluring aspect of home education for me.  you are flexible in how you teach, when you teach, how long you teach, and what you teach.  each child is unique.  an individual.  and the beauty of homeschooling is that you can teach in a way that's best suited for your child so that he/she can thrive and reach her full potential.  is your child really flourishing or showing an interest in a particular area? then run with it!  instead of stifling an interest because it's not according to the current curriculum (or you're running out of time), you can re-work your lesson plans to help encourage and nurture that interest.  or maybe your child needs extra attention in a particular area.  then take the extra time needed to help the child.  there's no need to rush through, because you aren't bound to any particular deadlines.  need to get away?  plan a family vacation and take a break from school to get refreshed.  who cares if you take "summer vacation" in the fall?  perhaps a month long break taken 3 or 4 times through out the year may work better than taking a straight 3 month "summer" break.  it all depends on the family, and the flexibility that homeschooling offers allows for an educational experience that's best suited for that particular family.

2. spirit led. while i wouldn't say that we chose to homeschool solely for religious reasons, the decision to homeschool was made after prayerful consideration.  it wasn't something that we decided overnight, and we felt God really pulling us in this direction over time.  some people might think that families that choose to homeschool made the decision because of religion or to shelter our kids.  while those are important factors to consider, it was not the make or break reason for us to choose homeschooling.  God calls us to be a light in this world, and how that looks like for each individual (or families) will be different.  while i can see where homeschooling might prevent you from shining your light before others (families can be a light when kids are in traditional schools, allowing them to meet and come into contact with other families that come from many different backgrounds), there are many opportunities to be a light within the homeschool community as well.  there are homeschool groups you can be a part of (it doesn't always have to be a religious homeschool group).  the extra time you have left in the day "out of school" you can use to minister and reach out to the community around you.  while we strive to keep our kids from being exposed to things that they're not developmentally and/or emotionally ready for, it is impossible to keep them from all the "bad" things in this world (take them to a mall and you'll see pictures of scantily clad ladies, head to the playground and you might see some young adults involved in some intense tonsil hockey, you might even have loud neighbors who choose to drop the f-bomb and other profanities in every.single.sentence...).  i guess what i'm trying to say is that with any decision our family makes, we strive to make sure that it is the choice God wants us to make...and this includes how we educate our kids.

3. secure individuals/balanced socialization.  i admit that lack of socialization was a big misconception i had about homeschoolers.  i didn't understand how they were supposed to hang out with other kids their age when they're going to school at home.  isn't it important to hang out with other kids their age and not spend all.day.long with their parents?  after reading this book, my views on the socialization issue (if it's even an issue at all) within home education changed.  a lot of the misconceptions i had about socialization as it related to homeschooled kids were addressed and clarified.  while there is nothing wrong with hanging out with other kids your age, i think a more accurate representation of real world situations would be having friends of various ages.  aaron and i have friends who are younger than us, older than us, and the same age as us.  the beauty of intergenerational friendships is that it offers a variety of learning opportunities for each other.  the wisdom of older, trusted friends are invaluable to me, and the optimism and energy that often comes with youth provides me with encouragement and a reminder not to take everything so seriously.  the book states that perhaps spending more time around kids the same age for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week (which makes up the bulk of the week) with limited adult supervision (1 teacher per 20 or so students or 2-3 teachers per 2-3 grade levels during recess for example), as opposed to spending the bulk of your week with the parents (who are supposed to be the primary role models for the kids), kids will begin to depend and be shaped more and more to the views and opinions of their peers instead of their parents.  now, i'm not saying that parents should brainwash their kids so that their views are exactly like your own.  but the book observes that usually, the kids in the traditional school settings end up loosing more of their individuality and desire more to conform to the other kids in order to fit in and feel included.  they choose to listen and follow the "wisdom" offered by kids their own age.  they then tend not to take the guidance and wisdom offered by their parents as seriously for fear of being excluded among their circle of friends at school.  i can totally relate to this observation.  looking back, i can see where that has happened, especially through my middle and high school years.  and having an oldest child who has been (and still is) in the traditional school setting for 10 years, we can see that happening in him too.  we want our children to be secure and safe with who they are as individuals.  but when our children spend the majority of time around other kids their age it can be challenging to encourage them to maintain their sense of individuality.  obviously, every child is different.  some kids won't ever be phased by what other kid think of them.  but there are other children who are perhaps more sensitive or impressionable, and putting them in a traditional school setting may provide more of an emotional challenge for them.  within the homeschool setting, there is plenty of time to socialize with other kids.  but the kids will be of varying ages and parents are close by to help re-direct, offer assistance or counsel when there is a tough situation.  children don't have to feel alone when they're encountered with a problem, because the parent(s) are easily accessible for guidance if needed.  obviously, we can't always be there for our children when they encounter a conflict or difficult situation, especially when they become adults, and it is healthy for them to reconcile and solve problems on their own.  but only when they are developmentally and emotionally ready to do so.  that's why they're children and not adults.  we cannot expect children to handle adult type situations with the same wisdom.  there is so much more interesting points to discuss when it comes to the socialization aspect of homeschooling, but this post isn't really about that.  whether you homeschool or not (or even if you don't have kids of your own), i highly recommend reading "the well-adjusted child" to give you a different perspective on kids and socialization.

4. natural. the homeschooling choice fits into the other pieces of our lives so effortlessly (like i said in no. 2...we felt God pulling us in this direction and he had prepared the way for us to homeschool years before we made the decision).  we have a flow in our home.  a rhythm.  a balance.  choosing to homeschool for us did not disrupt that already established balance.  while there are days when i feel a little overwhelmed, or unmotivated, or both (i think that's normal for anyone to feel), homeschooling fits very well into the ebb and flow of our home, and the kids are happy (and i'm not pulling out my hair) and thriving.

5. no standards.  the topic of standards, or more specifically standardized testings in schools has been a sore spot for me for many years.  i have seen first-hand how standardized testings can negatively affect students, teachers and schools as a whole.  i have seen how the results of standardized tests have affected the amount of funding a school receives so that the teachers there are struggling to find a balance in helping their kids succeed without compromising the quality of education they provide.  i've seen some teachers give up and just teach to the test.  i've seen schools cut arts programs in order to allow more time to teach the "more important" academics.  now, mind you, i'm not against taking tests, and i understand that a test can be a way to assess where a student is at in their studies.  but tests should be used as a tool, not the deciding factor on how a student ranks compared to other students or how a school ranks compared to other schools.  you can present "tests" in many different ways.  it doesn't always have to be the traditional-sit quietly-eyes on your own paper-timed kind of tests.  children are unique individuals.  not all kids are going to be successful in taking a seated, written-type of test.  if the dmv can test your driving skills by actually having you drive your car instead of merely testing your knowledge of driving through questions on a piece of paper, then why can't students in schools be offered those same options when it comes to getting "tested" on things that they've learned.  i could probably say more about my beef with standardized testings, but i'll stop myself there.  i'm thankful that when you choose to home educate you do have the option to by-pass the standardized testings and submit a portfolio for each of your homeschooled children.  less stressful for the child.  and less stressful for me.

6. real life.  this point kind of goes back to no. 3.  if they're not spending 5 days a week for 6 hours a day at school, then they have that time at home to interact with each other.  that might sound like a time bomb waiting to explode, but from my personal observation i think the little ones are really getting to know each other.  going back to that ebb and flow in our home...i see that during the day.  they are starting to figure each other out and they're starting to figure out how to balance things out with each other.  yes, i might be home with them all day, but i don't jump in and intervene each time i have a conflict (isn't that like real life?).  i think those are valuable interpersonal skills they're developing.  not only that, but i think they're also developing their sense of personal space and knowing when and how to communicate their needs for time alone or time with others.  as they get older (and if we homeschool all the way up to high school), they will have more time to experience real living since their school time isn't going to take up the whole day.  the flexibility homeschooling offers can allow them to gain work experience (paid or unpaid), and really being out there in the community to see practically how things work without over-filling their schedules.  i also think they will really have a handle on the home management aspect of living (such as personal finance/money management, laundry, home maintenance, food and nutrition, etc.), since they will have had the chance to develop and master that fully at home without the additional burden of making sure school work is done (since home-related work/chores can count as schooling).

i have to mention that my intent in writing this post is not to make anyone who sends their kids to traditional/conventional schools feel bad or guilty.  your child's education is your choice to make.  it's no different than if one family chooses to send their kids to a private school while another chooses to send their kids to public school.  we are choosing to send our kids home for school.  the big thing is being informed before making your decision.  the choice you make about your child's education should be one that best fits your family's lifestyle.  God designed and created each of us as unique individuals, and as a family no two are going to be the same.  likewise your choices as a family in matters of education, parenting style, nutrition, activities, etc. may look different from other families. and that's ok.

the greatest thing we strive for as a family is to serve and glorify God with all that we do.  our choice to home educate is simply a practical way we can do that as a family.

learning together: a new school year (AOY3 and AOY0)

so i've done a horrible job following through on my plan of posting a weekly school recap this past school year.  yes, there was that whole moving across the country thing, but really, that's not an excuse.

with a new school year starting this week, i think it's a good time to reattempt that plan.  the recap's mostly for me.  if i do this consistently, i'm hoping to have a nice record of what we've done for the year.  we'll, though.  we'll see.

we're still following the charlotte mason method (please look here if you're curious about what that is), and will be using the ambleside online curriculum again.  emma will be in year 3, and i'm planning on introducing gibson to year 0 (which he'll be in through part of age 6, or maybe longer if needed).  as a side note, each year doesn't necessarily correspond to grade levels.  if i recall correctly, completing year 10 (the curriculum goes up to year 12) is actually sufficient for high school graduation.

okay, here's a review of what we did for the first week of school...

EMMA

if you're curious to see what year 3 will hold, you can go here and check out the booklist. i tried to keep it a little lighter for the first week back to our school schedule, so we skipped spelling, and only did 2 days worth of copywork (as opposed to 4 days).

history (books in brackets):

she was introduced to henry VIII [our island story], some of the post columbus explorers, including magellan [child's history of the world], martin luther [trial and triumph], and john cabot [this country of ours]. she will also be learning about leonardo da vinci, but i haven't gotten the book yet. we also traced the journey of the ship victoria (the only one of magellan's ships, and the first ship ever, to sail around the world) on our wall map, and found the location of where john cabot possibly landed in north america (either cape breton or the coast of labrador in canada, if you were wondering).  she chose to do oral narrations for all the readings, and was pretty thorough with all of them.

i also did a complete overhaul of her timeline binder.  i was doing terrible at helping her keep up with it, partly because it was so time consuming for me to prepare all the things necessary for her weekly timeline updates. as it turns out, i was making things way more complicated than they needed to be. ha! after doing some research on how charlotte mason actually had her students complete their timeline, i decided to start over.  there will be some catch-up involved, but since the timeline is actually quite simple, i don't think it will be long until we're up to speed.

geography:

she began reading the book marco polo by george makepeace towle, which took her to the city of venice.  again, she chose to do an oral narration of her reading.  we also watched the travel with kids: venice episode, to give her more of an idea what the city was like.  side note: we LOVE the travel with kids show!  it gets us all (as a family) excited to travel and explore the world.  it's aired on some pbs stations, but you can also find episodes on hulu and amazon prime.  sadly, our local pbs stations don't air travel with kids so we often use hulu and amazon to watch them.

natural history/science:

much of the nature study stuff will be covered a little bit further down, since we often do nature studies as a family. she also has the book pagoo to read for the next 2 terms, but i haven't gotten the book yet.  emma is a voracious reader, so i'm not too worried about being behind on some of the reading.  many of holling c. holling's books have short chapters, so i'm pretty sure she can catch up quite easily.

copywork:

i probably won't include updates for copywork every week, since it's pretty straight forward.  i'm trying something different this year, and giving her a comp notebook which will have all her copywork in it.  this week's copywork were excerpts from one of her literature books and a poem from her poetry schedule.

math:

she did 2 days of math this week, and it was a review of telling time. i'll be doing 1 more week of review, and then she'll be starting the next life of fred book.

poetry:

for term 1 (12 weeks), she will be reading poems by william blake once a day.  she only did one poem this week, which was untitled, but about the pied piper.  poetry is pretty straightforward as well. just read one a day!

literature:

she read part 1 from the heroes by charles kingsley, and chapters 1-6 from the princess and the goblin.  for the heroes' narration, i had her write out 5 questions she would ask on a test about this part of the book.  for the princess and the goblin, she verbally narrated chapters 1-5 (narration after every chapter...this wasn't done all in one day, by the way), and sketched out a scene from chapter 6.  she is totally loving this book, and asked to read more. this week's schedule only has her reading chapters 1-3, but if she's asking for more, why not?  and it always feels good to be ahead of schedule.

GIBSON

you can go here and check out what year 0 looks like.  it's actually pretty low-key. in these early years, and there is more focus on helping the child discover the world around him naturally. i think by providing many opportunities for kids to this, especially in their early years, helps prepare them for more formal learning in year 1.  what this looks like for gibs: plenty of time for play, but providing opportunities for more formal learning (i like using the term table work), when i see him express an interest. compared to last year, he has shown an increased desire in doing more formal learning, though i still try to keep it short.

we're continuing our letter of the week theme, and adding pages to his alphabet binder.  i use the alphabet lapbook print outs from here.  they're pretty simple, and only take one up one page.  this week's letter is the letter "G."  he was totally stoked, because (obviously) his name starts with a "G."  he completed his G notebook page to add to his alphabet binder, and practiced writing his upper and lower case Gs.

i didn't plan much for him this week (and i may not need to for the rest of the month), since he's been happy to work out of some workbooks i got him a while ago.  there have been many mornings where i've seen him working out of one of his workbooks (i got him 3) without any prompting.  it's pretty neat to see his interest in them naturally develop.  not that all kids will develop a natural interest in doing workbooks for fun.  i personally think it's genetic...i was that kid who really enjoyed doing workbooks.

CASH and LANI

these two love to be a part of "doing school." while lani is happy to have markers and a sheet of paper to draw on, cash sometimes will insist on getting his own worksheet.  much like last year, i used a "worksheet" from here, and i corresponded the print out to the letter gibson was learning for the week.  cash also enjoys cutting and gluing things, and both cash and lani like to use stickers.  LOTS of stickers.  they're definitely working those fine motor skills.  i have a feeling that i'll probably end up having these two start school at the same time, since they're so close in age.

ALL THE KIDS

bible:

this week we read from exodus chapter 1, and did a short discussion on the reading.  sometimes, i'll have emma do a worksheet to go along with the reading, but since she's already familiar with the chapter, i didn't think it was necessary.

memory verse:

this week's memory verse is genesis 1:1.  i'm trying something new with verse memorization this year, and implementing this system.  we have been fairly inconsistent the past few years in verse memorization, and that's really my fault.  i don't think i had a good system, and i was inconsistent in having us review the verse every day (probably because i didn't have a good system!).

nature study/walk:

we are going to try and follow ambleside online's nature study schedule, plus a weekly, weather permitting, nature walk.  for the fall, AO has cultivated crops on their nature study schedule, and this week's crop was the green bean.  emma did a lovely sketch and watercolor of some the handful of green beans we harvested from the garden.  and then that night, we cooked them for dinner! we'll probably focus on as many crops from our garden first, and then continue to things we find at the grocery store.

we went to seahurst park for our nature walk this week.  heading to the beach is one of our kids' favorite things to do, and thanks to some amazing weather, we were able to do a pleasant stroll along the water.

french:

we're using the pimsleur language program to learn conversational french, and a free, online language course through our public library called muzzy.  like last year, we listen to the pimsleur cds in our car when we're running errands, and watch a few video lessons from muzzy on our home days (a.k.a. the days we don't need to use the car in the morning).  this week, was review since i did not do any french lessons over the summer.

composer study:

for term 1, we will be listening to music by hildegard von bingen.  this week and the next, we're listening to antiphon, o quam mirabilis.  this music sounded much different from the music we studied last year.  emma observed that there were no instruments, just a voice singing, but it didn't feel like you were just listening to a singing voice.

aaaannnd...that's a wrap! thanks for hanging out until the end!

happy new year! {oh, wait...}

when did it become 2015, and where have i been?  i'm not sure how i missed posting ANY updates since october of LAST year (not that you really care, right?).  what?!?

well, in true holiday fashion, as soon as halloween hits, we kind of get a little crazy busy.  aaron's work schedule gets ramped up, and we "say good-bye" to him until christmas.  meanwhile, i frantically try to finish up all my handmade gifts in time for christmas, which i've obviously failed at doing since i still have some to finish - 2 months later! fortunately, we break for school in december, otherwise i would be probably be curled up in a corner crying.

so, here's some highlights of the last 3 months. they were full but fun-filled (for the most part), and i don't think i'd have it any other way.

WARNING: this may be deemed as a lengthy post, so continue at your own risk!  at least there are photos...

we didn't return to KEXP for their halloween trick-or-treating event like they had last year, because they didn't have it at all.  but it worked out great, because we spent an awesome evening with friends trick-or-treating door to door.  i spent a lot of time on emma's costume this year, which i'm pretty sure attributed to my lack of blogging, and set me back on my holiday crafting.  but it was totally worth it, after seeing how happy she was with the result.

i spent much of november wrapping up term 1 with emma, and working on handmade goodies to send out to salty not sweet. i really need to do better with making things a little at a time each day, instead of waiting until the last minute to get a bunch of inventory done.  i guess i haven't changed much in the procrastination department!

we had a lovely thanksgiving at home with some friends.  the food was tasty, and the company was pretty great.  i'm so thankful for the relationships we are building here, and love that friends can be family, and family can be friends, and we're all mushed up and sharing life together.  it's a sweet thing.

december was spent in anticipation (advent) and in celebration (12 days of christmas).  oh, and more crafting...and baking. i have to be honest here for a minute and say that it's often hard for me to be joyful during the christmas season, because i don't really see it as a time to be together like how many people and the media make it out to be.  the kids and i probably see aaron the least during christmas time, because that's when he's the most busy (seriously...sometimes the kids won't see him for days, and i can count on one hand the number of nights we all get to share a meal together as a family in the days leading up to christmas).  but that's where i think carrying out a lot of our annual christmas traditions have helped me not be such a christmas grinch.  i do find joy when i'm reminded, thanks to our jesse tree, why christmas is worth rejoicing about.  i do find joy and re-focus on what's important, thanks to our st. nicholas day celebration. i do find joy, even when i'm up to my eyeballs in cookies and dirty laundry (not in the same place), and realize that it's more than just about me.

sorry.  i didn't mean to get sidetracked there.  and now, back to that baking thing...one of our annual christmas traditions is to make personalized name cookies (and additional treats) for the people at aaron's work.  we started this tradition back in cleveland, maybe 7 years ago, so this one's been going strong.  while i'm not sure how excited people get over getting personalized name cookies, i know i have fun decorating them!

a couple of our favorite pre-christmas activities included our 2nd annual visit to winterfest at the seattle center, and new this year (well, i guess it would be last year) was an evening spent downtown experiencing the holiday hustle and bustle.  and let me tell ya, it was hustling and bustling!  but i do love being in the city.  i just love the energy, liveliness and being in close proximity to so many cool things.

winterfest goes on for pretty much the whole month of december, and we go the first saturday in december, since that usually ends up being the last saturday aaron doesn't have to work until after christmas. they have performances scheduled at the seattle center armory, ice skating, and other winter-centric activities, but the highlight for our kids is always the winter village-complete with trains. we even did a short impromptu visit to the science center afterwards (perks of being a member).

and then the night downtown...that was totally last minute, and i'm so glad we decided to go! at first, i was a little worried that it was just going to be too busy, but it really wasn't that bad.  i mean, it was busier than normal (which is to be expected), but things were so festive!  plus it wasn't raining, so that definitely made the experience a little bit more enjoyable.  i think we're going to try to add this on to our annual christmas tradition.  the kids were in love with the winter village, and could have stayed there the whole time (thanks to coloring sheets and books).  we missed the snow inside pacific place, but managed to stop in the sheraton for their annual gingerbread display.  they were all very impressive!

we had a most wonderful, low-key christmas.  it was nice to be able to stay home, re-connect with each other, and really savor the day.

of course december would not be complete without our 2nd annual 12 days of christmas activities/celebration.  this year, i was a little more intentional about having something for each of the 12 days. not each day was necessarily carved in stone, but i did have a general idea of things we could do.  some days were simple, like lunch with friends, a playground visit, or making gingerbread houses.  other days, took a little more planning, like our annual trip to the bellevue botanical garden's light display, the monorail ride, aquarium day, and the pierogi party.  but it was so fun to be able to extend the christmas celebration to 11 more days, and have the opportunity to learn more about what the 12 days of christmas was all about.

and now we are almost caught up!  school started back up january, and we are getting into a pretty good groove.  gibson learned to read (yeah, yeah!), and it is opening up a whole new world for him.  much like his sister, we didn't really do much in the way pre-reading practice.  once he figured out the sound(s) each letter makes, and that different letter sounds put together make words, it was like watching a lightbulb turn on over his head. such a sweet reward for this mama to see his face light up with excitement when he reads through his BOB books all by himself!

emma is still in ballet, and she just added a drama class for this quarter through a local homeschool group/co-op.  wednesdays are now usually spent at the rec center, where emma takes her drama class, and the kids (and mama) get the opportunity to connect with other homeschoolers, play, craft, read...pretty much do a whole lot of stuff.  it's a pretty sweet community, and we really look forward to it every week.

other january highlights: 1. we finally made it to snoqualmie falls. it was grey. it was kinda cold. but it was amazing!  i will have to share details about that trip in another post.  lots of fun that day (and yes, there is slight sarcasm involved in the word fun). 2. we visited the science center for the 41st annual model train show event.  cash was in train heaven.  there were model trains, a little thomas train you can control yourself, playmobil display, and LEGOS.  oh, and i forgot to mention the people. so. many. people.  i am so thankful for a membership on days like these.  we got to skip the loooooong ticket line, and we could leave as soon as we were done with the train show without feeling bad that we didn't get our money's worth.

so that's been our sweet, magical life for the past 3 months, in a nutshell.  i thought i would spare you the details about our week with the stomach bug, or the random fevers, coughs, boogers, meltdowns (not just kids), and all that stuff that no one really wants to read about.  my goal is to post a little more often on here this year, but i don't know what "often" will look like as the year progresses.  

if you've gotten this far, you deserve a treat! thanks for taking this quick little trip back in time with me. wishing you a new year filled with joy, laughter, love and new adventures!

learning together: AOY3 // AOY0 {week 4}

ok, i know i just got started posting these weekly school roundups and i already skipped one week.  i have no good excuse except that life happens.  on the plus side, there's not really a whole lot you'd miss in one week.  we try to stick to a routine, and these weekly roundups are really for my records so i know these posts aren't very exciting to read.  

maybe one of these days i'll write a nice narrative about our typical week of learning.  one of these days...

EMMA

history (books in brackets):

emma read about france explorers who sailed to the new world, and settled for a little while in florida [this country of ours].  this was an interesting read, particularly because the topic of cannibalism came up at the end of the reading (don't worry, it wasn't graphic).  the french explorers who had settled in florida pretty much didn't want to hang out there anymore (because their captain never returned as he had promised), so they decided to build their own boat to sail back to france.  you can guess how well that turned out...and out of desperation they drew straws to see who would be, umm, dinner.

and then there was king henry and his 6 wives [our island story].  she did very well on her narration, and we had some good discussions on king henry's character. emma was not overly impressed by king henry's choices from this section of reading, and thought he was kind of a selfish guy.

natural history/science:

emma read chapter 4 in Pagoo, and i had her list 4 facts about a hermit crab that she learned from her reading.  she loves that book, so that comprehension activity was pretty easy for her.  but i love that she's excited about her school books, and that she's read the whole thing through already yet is willing to re-read it a little bit at a time for school.

language arts:

i ordered a print practice and cursive practice book for emma through handwriting without tears.  i decided to order the 2nd grade print book for her as a quick refresher course on print writing.  we're breezing through it (she even likes to do extra pages), so we'll be starting cursive soon enough!

emma's been alternating between doing the HWT print book and copywork from her copywork notebook.  her print writing has actually improved just from a few weeks of doing the HWT book.

this year, i doubled the number of spelling words emma has each week.  we are on the second week of spelling, and still using mcguffey's eclectic spelling book to source the weekly word list.  this weeks words are belt, deer, dear, whine, wine, quite, quiet, bear, bare, beer.  we discussed the "qu" sounds, letters that make the long e and the long i sounds, and rule-breaker words for the long e sounds (a.k.a. jail words). 

math:

emma did a couple more chapters from her life of fred book, and i two worksheets from homeschoolmath.net focusing on solving for missing addends and place values (larger numbers).

poetry and literature:

we have been lagging in our daily poem readings.  i suppose i can just have emma read one to herself, but i do enjoy reading it to her.  plus, they're pretty short, and reading them together gives us an opportunity to discuss the poem together afterwards.

she read about pecos bill from her american tall tales book.  i had her tell me 5 questions she would ask pecos bill if she were to interview him.  i wish i had written down the questions, because they were pretty creative, and showed that she understood the reading well.  she also went on and narrated many parts of the story...i think she enjoyed learning about pecos bill.

she read chapters 10 and 11 for the week in The Princess And The Goblin.  she was looking forward to reading more, but we had a pretty busy week so there didn't end up being enough time to read ahead.

she read the mechant of venice from the book Tales From Shakespeare.  she narrated pretty well, but had difficulty remembering everything that happened.  the story was pretty long, and i should have had her spread it out over a few days.  that would have made more sense, and she would have retained more of the reading that way.  oh well.  next time!

ballet (p.e./performing arts):

things are going well, from what emma has told me, and she's halfway done with her 7 week session.  the studio is on the upper level, so there isn't really any space for parents to watch, and i don't think they really like parents peeking either.  i don't blame them.  i usually didn't care for having parents watch during class time, because it can get distracting for the students.  according to emma's latest class update, they practiced tendus, and "ballet" skips (a.k.a. skipping with pointed feet).  she has made a sweet little friend in class, and i'm hoping that they can stay in the same class for the new session.  

GIBSON

so, our printer head for the black ink is a little mucked up, and i couldn't print out the sheets to make his letter of the week notebook page.  booo.

fortunately, that didn't hold us back.  gibson continued a few more pages in his HWT print book.  like emma, he is really enjoying doing his handwriting practice.  the HWT books are different from the typical handwriting books i've seen, and the kids love it.

we also did a little math.  nothing big, just adding some numbers with 10 as the highest sum.  gibson started adding numbers before he could write them, and i came across the best idea online (i wish i could remember which blog it was i saw it on) to encourage kids who can add, but haven't quite mastered writing them yet.  i use little round stickers with the answer to individual addition problems written in each sticker.  all gibson has to do is find the correct number that matches the answer to the addition problem and stick in the blank.  that way, they're not slowed down (or discouraged) by their lack of mastery in writing the numbers.  it's a pretty brilliant idea.

CASH and LANI

these two babies are going to end up starting school at the same time.  they do well playing on their own most days, and sometimes they'll want to join in with big brother and sister so they'll pull out some papers to draw or a coloring book to color in.

lani thinks she can use scissors, so she sneaks in my room and digs around in the school supply box until she can find the scissors to cut things.  so far, she's been trying to cut just paper.  i'm hoping that's as far as she goes right now, and doesn't move on to cutting hair!

ALL KIDS

bible:

this week, we read from Luke 2:1-40, Exodus 2:11-16, Acts 7:23-34, and Hebrews 11:24-28.

our memory verse for the week was Genesis 2:7, and since we're using this system for scripture memorization we also review memory verses from previous weeks.

french:

i've been trying to make sure we do french at least 3 times a week, and we managed to fit a french lesson 4 times this week (we were out and about more than usual this week, and that pimsleur audio cd really came in handy).  some new and old words/phrases that stood out this week include j'e vais bien, comment allez-vous?, tres bien, chaud, merci, bonjour, quest-ce que c'est?

nature walk:

i kept lessons short on thursday, and we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon exploring volunteer park.  there was some drizzling involved in our stroll, but the kids were totally excited about it because they got to use their umbrellas (which the boys sometimes turned into weapons *ahem*).  the park is quite big, with plenty of places to explore.  i will have to save a more detailed post about volunteer park for next time.

we also took some time to check out the park's conservatory, modeled after a victorian area glass greenhouse.  the building reminded us of the book misss rumphius, which is currently one of the children's favorite books (it was one of mine when i was a kid).  it was actually really neat to come home and look at the illustration of the conservatory in miss rumphius, after experiencing a real-life conservatory.

inside the conservatory, we had the opportunity to observe plants that aren't commonly seen here in the PNW - many unique, tropical plants that thrive best on year-round warm, humid conditions.

it was an excellent nature day.  sometimes, all we need to refresh us is some good, quality time outside, with freedom to explore, run, and experience at your own pace.  i'm glad we played hookie that day!

learning together: school round up

it's been 7 weeks since we started with ambleside's year 1 curriculum.  i have been meaning to post weekly summaries of what we've covered, but here we are in week 8 with no school updates until now.

better late than never, right?

the ambleside curriculum is divided into three 12 week terms.  obviously, we're in term 1 right now. we operate on a four day school schedule using this curriculum.  i had planned the 12 weeks to go through the second week of december, but it looks like we'll be done by mid-november.  sweet!

i try to limit the structured school stuff to about 2 hours max monday-thursday, with friday left a bit more "unplanned."  any daily table work that emma has to do is limited to 30-35 minutes.  that would include any copywork, spelling, oral reading, journaling, bible study, french and math.  of course we don't do all of that each day, with the exception of copywork.  we also have daily readings from the year 1 book list.  that's usually something all the kids like to do together.

realistically, any of our structured school stuff (including the readings) takes only about an hour.  but if you count some of the little "breaks" we have in between (like changing a diaper, putting dishes away, getting a snack, tending to the wee babe, etc.), some days the school stuff end up taking about 2 hours.  if it's nice outside, we usually end up doing some of the readings during lunch or as the "bedtime" story before naps so that we can enjoy some precious outside time.  then there are those "off" days where we just bag the day's plan and go with what works.

so to re-cap the past 7 weeks...

history:
we've learned a bit of early british history and ancient greece and rome through the books Our Island Story, Fifty Famous Stories Retold, and Trial and Triumph.  some of the people we've read about include cornelia, horatius the cocles, blandina, and leonidas and the 300.  the short stories presented in these books have been a great way to teach history.  next week, we'll be learning about benjamin franklin through the book benjamin franklin by ingri d'aulaire (i still need to buy this...it's a hot commodity at the library with 2 holds on this one particular book).

emma keeps a timeline folder which we fill with some information and a picture of each person we've read about thus far.  it has been a great way for her (and me) to visualize the order in which all these events have occurred in time.

literature:
we've got some great books we've been reading for literature.  literature reading is done almost daily and there's usually at least one reading a week from The Aesop for Children.  Other books we've used so far this term include Just So Stories (which was Aaron's book from when he was a kid), The Blue Fairy Book, Parables from Nature, Tales From Shakespeare and A Child's Garden of Verses.  one of emma's favorites is an Aesop story called The Boy And His Filberts, and all the kids like the Aesop stories so much that we've re-read some of the stories quite a few times.

geography:
we do a geography reading once a week from the book Paddle-To-The-Sea.  coincidentally, this book is about the geography of the great lakes, and we live right by one of them.  so cool!  a few field trips to lake erie are in order!

when we first got the book, the kids wanted to read it so we've already read through the whole thing.  but it's nice to go back and re-read it at a slower pace.  i've been meaning to do a big map of the great lakes region so we can map out Paddle's course, but i haven't quite found what i'm looking for.  i kind of want to just make my own...

reading, writing and arithmetic:
we use mcguffey's readers for her oral reading practice (upon a recommendation from my dad), although she can read quite well independently.  the "problem" (but i guess it's not really a problem) is that now she reads so fast that she'll skip words.  so the short, little lessons in the mcguffey reader is perfect to "slow" her down a bit.

we also use mcguffey's for her spelling words.  i just pick out five words on the list (e.g. went, sent, spent, felt, melt) and we do a quick daily run through of them on paper.

other writing stuff include her daily copywork and not-so-weekly-but-should-be journal writing.  but she writes enough in her free time that i'm not too worried about it.

math has been great with the life of fred series.  she LOVES it and has devoured these books in her free time.  the stories are funny and the practice exercises are short and sweet.  we do a fred reading once a week, and if needed i'll find activities during the rest of the week to reinforce some of the things she learned from the fred book.  i think after this term, we'll start reading fred twice a week.  although that means we'll blow through the rest of the book very quickly, but that's okay.  we'll just get the next one.

lapbooking:
my original plan was to do 3 lapbooks each term, but i think i was a bit ambitious in thinking we can complete 3 lapbooks in addition to our other school stuff.  and there's that whole just had a baby thing...yeah...

so, we've completed one and will most likely do one more before term 1 ends.  we FINALLY did a spider lapbook, which emma had been asking about doing since the beginning of summer.  and for gibson, we did a mini one for him since he seems to enjoy the whole lapbooking idea as well.

everything else:
i try to stick to charlotte mason's approach so "everything else" would include narration, art study, music study, language (french is what we're doing for now), scripture reading, nature study, handiwork and habit "training."

additionally, the kids have plenty of free time which has been used up with paper crafts, painting, drawing, dancing, clay art, making blanket forts, playing outside or going on walks (that counts as exercise time) and the occasional field trips here and there.

while i would love to expand on all these other topics, this post would end up very, very long if i continue. so hopefully by the end of this week i can post our week 8 school round up, which will be shorter but with a bit more detail.

wondering why we're on the road that we're on?  here's some background...

::part 1::      ::part 2::      ::part 3::

school days: a break for the holidays

december (until the 25th) has been busy.  busy with gifts for christmas.  busy because aaron's work takes up most of his time during the holiday (which equals double duty at home for me).  it's the same every year, so instead i made the executive decision to break from "school" stuff (this really just means less structured days) and just go with what works for the day.

i had a few holiday activities/crafts planned for emma and miraculously did all of them (of course it helps that i didn't aim too high.  ha!).

1. gingerbread house.

i'm glad we did this one earlier in the month, because i had this grand idea that i was going to make my own gingerbread to build the house.  especially after we went to see those gingerbread houses downtown.  it turned out okay...definitely no match for the ones that we saw.  but emma was quite pleased with the result (and really that's all that matters), and gibson managed to snag one of the trees before it was time to eat them.  i'll have to say, midway through the building process those gingerbread house kits began sounding much more appealing than my lame DIY gingerbread walls and roof.

2. st. nicholas.

we missed st. nicholas day (december 6) by the time we got around to learning about him, but we did manage to do a couple of simple crafts.  the first was downloaded from here.  emma colored the picture (she thought green would be lovely), cut it out and then wrapped it around a toilet paper roll (sorry no finished product photo).  i suggested we turn it into an ornament, but she wanted to use it as a hand puppet...works for me!

the second craft was to make a st. nicholas day promise card, which i got here (scroll down a bit).  on the inside, i wrote out "justice", "charity", and "love of God" in pencil and had emma trace it in a color of her choice.  then we talked about how we could do those things in our life and picked 1 to write down for each section.  i also included one of her old memory verses, which seemed appropriate for this activity.  after everything was complete, emma found a special spot for it on our tree.

we didn't have time to find library books on st. nicholas, but i did read a couple of stories about him to emma from this site.  afterward, we talked about how stockings and stories of santa claus coming to bring gifts were connected to what we had learned about nicholas.

3.  books on christmas.

we read many, many books on christmas.  we found a great variety at the library and from our own collection.  gibson really liked finding the baby jesus in some of the books we checked out.  he also managed to tear out a few pages too...yikes!

4. building a snow lantern.

we got this idea from one of the library books we checked out: christmas in noisy village.  i wasn't sure if we were going to get around to doing this one since not all snow is created equal when it comes to making snowballs.  but it worked out and voila! a snow lantern 2 days before christmas.  after putting it all together, emma wanted to sing a few christmas carols by the lantern (like in the book) so that's what we did.

i think when there's more snow (which i know there will be plenty more to come) we might have to make more snow lanterns.  one was just not enough for the front of the house.