I am loving homeschool, even if I do feel like I am waaay behind on housework and not as organized as I would like to be. It just feels right, and it is very satisfying and fulfilling work. It is not perfect, by any means, but it feels better. I have no doubt it was the right choice for us.
I decided to buy the Five in a Row volumes 1 and 2 books because I really like them. I copied a couple of lesson from volume 2 from the Library and after we tested them out, we were sold. We will supplement with more math and phonics work. And writing. But overall, I am pleased with the Five in a Row and my kids seem to be too.
We have done the Mirette on the High Wire and Peter Rabbit lessons. And this week we will work with The Story of Ferdinand. :)
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Why and How I Homeschool too,
I enjoyed reading how Tara came to her decision to homeschool, and thought that I would share some of my reasons as well.
There were several factors that contributed to my decision to homeschool. The main one being that our school doesn't offer any half day kindergarten. So Lexi was spending more awake time (7 hours) at school than she was with me 5 days a week. And that just didn't sit right with me. We tried it out and stuck with it for 2 terms(?). At first she was loving it, then she wanted to be home. I am glad we tried it out for a good while to get a good feel for how it would be for all of us longer down the road. It reassures my indecisive mind in some way. Like I gave it a good chance before changing my mind, you know?
Another reason was that I felt like she could learn so much more at home with me. She loves to learn, and I didn't want that to be killed off by being bored at school. She is a really smart little thing, and I felt like her teacher, as good and nice as she was, didn't appreciate how smart Lexi was because she had 22 other students to worry about.
I didn't like all the competitiveness and comparison to others that public school, by it's very nature, promotes. I want to keep that way of thinking as low as possible for as long as possible.
One last reason to add was that I hated that they only had one good recess, and I thought it just a shame for young kids (especially) to be stuck indoors for 6+ hours a day when they could be taking part in creative play outside. It is so good for the body and the soul to be in the great outdoors.
So, how do I do this thing called homeschooling? Well, being the novice that I am, I can't tell you much. But from my research, I have decided upon the Five in a Row curriculum, supplemented with making up my own based on what I see needs work. We have a great workbook, and I asked her public school teacher, whom we still see from time to time, if I could have a copy the core skills paper so I could make sure Lexi ism't lacking in any of the skills kindergarteners are supposed to master. So far, I feel like things are going very well and everything feels right again. *sigh* And this is a very good thing . . .
There were several factors that contributed to my decision to homeschool. The main one being that our school doesn't offer any half day kindergarten. So Lexi was spending more awake time (7 hours) at school than she was with me 5 days a week. And that just didn't sit right with me. We tried it out and stuck with it for 2 terms(?). At first she was loving it, then she wanted to be home. I am glad we tried it out for a good while to get a good feel for how it would be for all of us longer down the road. It reassures my indecisive mind in some way. Like I gave it a good chance before changing my mind, you know?
Another reason was that I felt like she could learn so much more at home with me. She loves to learn, and I didn't want that to be killed off by being bored at school. She is a really smart little thing, and I felt like her teacher, as good and nice as she was, didn't appreciate how smart Lexi was because she had 22 other students to worry about.
I didn't like all the competitiveness and comparison to others that public school, by it's very nature, promotes. I want to keep that way of thinking as low as possible for as long as possible.
One last reason to add was that I hated that they only had one good recess, and I thought it just a shame for young kids (especially) to be stuck indoors for 6+ hours a day when they could be taking part in creative play outside. It is so good for the body and the soul to be in the great outdoors.
So, how do I do this thing called homeschooling? Well, being the novice that I am, I can't tell you much. But from my research, I have decided upon the Five in a Row curriculum, supplemented with making up my own based on what I see needs work. We have a great workbook, and I asked her public school teacher, whom we still see from time to time, if I could have a copy the core skills paper so I could make sure Lexi ism't lacking in any of the skills kindergarteners are supposed to master. So far, I feel like things are going very well and everything feels right again. *sigh* And this is a very good thing . . .
Sunday, February 26, 2012
How/Why I homeschool
Hi! I am a contributor that doesn't contribute, so now I'm hoping to change that. =)
Anyway, probably nobody knows me, except Courtnie, so let me give you a bit about us:
I am a mom of 3 girls and I homeschool my oldest, Kenadi, for kindergarten. I also do a bit of preschool with our 3 year old, Emma. Mya, the baby, likes to "be involved" too. We decided to homeschool Kenadi after putting her in public school for 2 weeks. I had already been debating it because our school gave us no option for 1/2 day kindergarten. It was only all-day kindergarten, and I already felt like that was way too long to send my 5-year-old to school for. However, I grew up going to public school, and I loved it. There were so many fun things that we did in school. So many friends to make! I didn't want to "deprive" Kenadi of that, so we sent her for those 2 weeks. In those 2 weeks, Kenadi cried at school almost every day for the first week. The second week, she did't cry, but didn't want to go, and when she came home she was so tired, and a little reclusive. She didn't have energy to play with Emma, and so they never played anymore. I saw Kenadi adapting to school, and handling it better every day, and I'm sure she would have adapted and not been so tired after going a while, but I don't think that my 5-year old should be adapting to being away from her family for 7 hours a day. I just think that's too young, and so she is home schooled. I think we made the best decision. I do enjoy us being together as a family. I think we will decide year by year, child by child, what is best for them- public, or home. Or, private if we ever have enough money to consider that.
When I pulled her out, I enrolled her into a charter school. We also got into a homeschool co-op that meets on Mondays, which Kenadi and Emma love, and Courtnie and I switch off teaching a subject on Fridays. Kendai loves this too. The charter school takes Kenadi's tax dollars that would have went to her public school, and we have it to use for her curriculum. I chose to use Calvert Curriculum, and I got this for free, with a teacher from the charter school to check in on us once a month or as needed to see if we need any help from them. I decided to do the charter school and the Calvert Curriculum because I am new to this, and thought that I needed something to tell me what Kenadi should be learning, and maybe someone to check in on us and keep me accountable- just in case. ;) The curriculum is very easy. The first 4 months were mostly review for Kenadi, and this was so annoying and boring for her. We added in her own reading assignments and some of our own topics once in a while so that she would stay challenged and grow. However, I didn't feel like I had tons of time to do more things that I would want to do at Kenadi's level because we had to do the Calvert curriculum to do the tests that showed that we did school for the day. It has been good in a way, because it came with tons of books, and lots of ideas of things to talk about and explore, but I think I've been more disappointed with it than not. Here's the problem with getting a curriculum: It is just like public school in the way that it is not tailored to your kid. It is a basic curriculum, so if it is too easy for your kid, too bad. If it is too hard for your kid, too bad. Work harder, I guess. Now that I've been doing it for a while, I kind of wish we would have got the assessment tests from the public school so that we could have used that as a check-point, and explored things that we are interested in and that I think she needs to learn.
Whew! This is a long one, thanks for making it through my rant! =)
Anyway, probably nobody knows me, except Courtnie, so let me give you a bit about us:
I am a mom of 3 girls and I homeschool my oldest, Kenadi, for kindergarten. I also do a bit of preschool with our 3 year old, Emma. Mya, the baby, likes to "be involved" too. We decided to homeschool Kenadi after putting her in public school for 2 weeks. I had already been debating it because our school gave us no option for 1/2 day kindergarten. It was only all-day kindergarten, and I already felt like that was way too long to send my 5-year-old to school for. However, I grew up going to public school, and I loved it. There were so many fun things that we did in school. So many friends to make! I didn't want to "deprive" Kenadi of that, so we sent her for those 2 weeks. In those 2 weeks, Kenadi cried at school almost every day for the first week. The second week, she did't cry, but didn't want to go, and when she came home she was so tired, and a little reclusive. She didn't have energy to play with Emma, and so they never played anymore. I saw Kenadi adapting to school, and handling it better every day, and I'm sure she would have adapted and not been so tired after going a while, but I don't think that my 5-year old should be adapting to being away from her family for 7 hours a day. I just think that's too young, and so she is home schooled. I think we made the best decision. I do enjoy us being together as a family. I think we will decide year by year, child by child, what is best for them- public, or home. Or, private if we ever have enough money to consider that.
When I pulled her out, I enrolled her into a charter school. We also got into a homeschool co-op that meets on Mondays, which Kenadi and Emma love, and Courtnie and I switch off teaching a subject on Fridays. Kendai loves this too. The charter school takes Kenadi's tax dollars that would have went to her public school, and we have it to use for her curriculum. I chose to use Calvert Curriculum, and I got this for free, with a teacher from the charter school to check in on us once a month or as needed to see if we need any help from them. I decided to do the charter school and the Calvert Curriculum because I am new to this, and thought that I needed something to tell me what Kenadi should be learning, and maybe someone to check in on us and keep me accountable- just in case. ;) The curriculum is very easy. The first 4 months were mostly review for Kenadi, and this was so annoying and boring for her. We added in her own reading assignments and some of our own topics once in a while so that she would stay challenged and grow. However, I didn't feel like I had tons of time to do more things that I would want to do at Kenadi's level because we had to do the Calvert curriculum to do the tests that showed that we did school for the day. It has been good in a way, because it came with tons of books, and lots of ideas of things to talk about and explore, but I think I've been more disappointed with it than not. Here's the problem with getting a curriculum: It is just like public school in the way that it is not tailored to your kid. It is a basic curriculum, so if it is too easy for your kid, too bad. If it is too hard for your kid, too bad. Work harder, I guess. Now that I've been doing it for a while, I kind of wish we would have got the assessment tests from the public school so that we could have used that as a check-point, and explored things that we are interested in and that I think she needs to learn.
Whew! This is a long one, thanks for making it through my rant! =)
Friday, February 17, 2012
Bees
Kenny's bee tongue (their tongue is like a straw).
Our "beehive"
We played bees. The cards are the honeycomb cells, the wooden blocks are nectar-->honey, the yellow blocks are pollen, and all the blue green and red blocks are eggs-->larva.
The turned over/empty cards are sealed over cells where larva are undergoing metamorphosis. We all took turns and played the Queen, a Worker, a Guard and a Nurse. We also had yellow and wooden blocks spread out in a different section of the living room as a flower garden where we foraged for them. The kids really enjoyed this part.
We played bees. The cards are the honeycomb cells, the wooden blocks are nectar-->honey, the yellow blocks are pollen, and all the blue green and red blocks are eggs-->larva.
The turned over/empty cards are sealed over cells where larva are undergoing metamorphosis. We all took turns and played the Queen, a Worker, a Guard and a Nurse. We also had yellow and wooden blocks spread out in a different section of the living room as a flower garden where we foraged for them. The kids really enjoyed this part.
Lexi showing her bee tongue
Hey . . .uh. . . (I want to say "all", but I know this blog doesn't get many views.) heh :) So I suppose I should say:
Hey few!
We have been learning about Bees (honeybees, to be exact) this week, and I really enjoyed it. Maybe ever more than the kids! Bees are fascinating creatures. I never knew that the wax they made their honeycomb of came from glands in their abdomen. And I find it rather amazing! We did the bee dance, which I sadly did not get a picture of. It was really cute when the kids did their turns and waggled their bottoms in the direction of where the honey was. (We all took turns hiding a jar of honey and then had to tell everyone where it was via the bee dance!) We read several good books on bees and learned about Killer (Africanized) Bees vs. Normal (European) Bees. I still need to get more organized, but we are starting to come into our rhythm. Or homeschooling groove. Whatever you want to call it. We are almost there!
Up next? Five in a Row curriculum with the Mirette on the High Wire lesson plan.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Solar System and Chemical Reactions
Lexi's Solar System diagram
Exploding baggies
"Look at that! It popped!!"
Planet cupcakes
We have been learning lots of fascinating things. For the past two weeks we have been doing a little solar system study. We also did a science class with a little friend on chemical reactions. Today we are going to finish up the solar system study with the moon. We will make a poster of the phases of the moon! It should be fun!!!
I am really loving homeschooling so far, but I wasn't prepared for how mentally exhausting it would be. It really takes a lot out of me. I find I just don't have the energy to do a lot of activities I used to do more often before. But, we are still in the adjustment phase. Also, since undertaking the homeschooling job, I have a greater appreciation for what public school teachers do. They have a hard job, and I am grateful to them for all their work!
Friday, January 13, 2012
Our Homeschool Room
We converted the craft/creating room into the new Schoolroom. And it is working out very very well. Lexi and Kenny both love to do their school work in our special learning place. And there is so much light! I love the big window and how bright and beautiful it is in there. It is very conducive to learning. I think, anyway.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Post Number One
Well, today is day number four of homeschooling. And so far, so good! I am enjoying teaching me eager and very intelligent student! And she is soaking it all up.
I am going to order curriculum soon, but right now we are just winging it. With a couple of work books and the internet. I think she is learning a lot! We both are, actually.
I am going to order curriculum soon, but right now we are just winging it. With a couple of work books and the internet. I think she is learning a lot! We both are, actually.
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