It has been a rough week, first Eliza was sick, then I was, and still am. Unfortunately again that means no pictures. We had a great day Monday, accomplishing a ton. We did binders a few times this week and continued our study on Ancient Egypt. Since then we have been playing a lot of games, especially Qwirkle, a Mensa approved game introduced to us by some friends. If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest you check it out, it is fun for all of us.
Qwirkle
We have done some wonderful playtime with friends, and worked on sight words, as well as reading together daily. We have been watching Beakman's World and other educational television the past few days while I have been sick, and I can not feel bad about it. The kids still have been learning, doing puzzles, working with our magnet center, crafting, playing outside, and even building an intercom system with their Daddy. Now I just hit a buzzer and pick up a phone to talk to the kids while they are upstairs instead of yelling up the stairs. It is fun, and the kids were so proud of themselves for doing it. It was actually their idea, and CJ helped Rich draw the plans and buy the equipment.
It has been difficult this week to do lessons led by me between being sick and having the carpets cleaned. We had to move the furniture out of the school room and living room making it difficult to get to any of my materials. The kids have dealt with our changes well this week. They surprise me all the time with how much they have learned.
This coming month we will be visiting the CT Science Center a few times to see the Lost Egypt exhibit. We will be visiting a new exhibit at the Florence Griswold Museum, and making a few trips to the aquarium. Hopefully the weather will cooperate enough for a visit to the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center and the Roger Williams Park Zoo. We will finish our Egypt science kit this month and continue with our Human Body Magic School Bus science kit. I have looked at several opportunities for group learning, but all of them require an exorbitant amount of money, or are inappropriate for my kids. Our library used to have excellent offerings, but I have been unimpressed and even dissappointed in the library since they hired a new head librarian in the children's department. We might visit the Lyman Allyn Art Museum tomorrow, as first Saturdays are free between 10:30 and noon. But first we have to go to Home Depot as the kids look forward to their monthly kids' craft. They have been to more than 12 of them and love to use real tools to make something they use. Last month was a small desk size perpetual calendar which they use daily during school. We will continue to do crafts and finish off our kindergarten art curriculum this month. I am looking forward to starting some plants for the garden as well as doing some Valentine crafts. It will be a fun month.
My favorite thing that I am going to start this month is a weekly poem type. I am going to start with something simple like acrostic poems. I am going to show them examples, discuss the form, and then we will write them. We will do one type every week, or two depending on the month, going from really simple to more complex as we go. We will continue to write daily sentences and pretty soon we will start "writing" stories. They will write the first sentence, dictate to me, then write the last sentence. In addition we will continue to practice handwriting skills weekly with our tracing center as we have been doing. It is amazing to see how much progress they have made in so many areas. All of a sudden Eliza is reading so much more confidently and fluently than before. She has mastered her kindergarten and grade 1 sight words, and has begun working on grade 2. A couple of months ago it was pulling teeth to get her to read super simple age appropriate books and words. Now she is reading signs, boxes, leveled reading books, and her favorite, Dick and Jane and Vampires. She reads to her dolls and toys at quiet time, reads to us before bedtime, and reads to CJ every morning. It makes me deliriously happy, as she has never shown as much interest in reading as the rest of us. She has come a long way in a short time.
I have been making sure to take time to hug, kiss, and enjoy the kids every single day, being sure that they know how important they are to me, and how loved they are. I have found this extra effort is improving CJ's behaviour, and his outlook, as he tends to be quite melodramatic and negative in attitude. I am making a concerted effort to be more patient. My friend Megan at The Joyful Homemaker has been helping me a lot with this. While she tends toward the Joyful, I tend more towards the snarky. I am totally the Snarky Homemaker. She is teaching me how to be more joyful and grateful for every minute with my sweeties. What a journey towards this self awareness and improvement, it isn't easy, but I feel like this hard work is going to really enrich my children and their education.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Sunday, January 26, 2014
A Must Read
My cousin and friend Susie writes a wonderful blog, and is always doing such wonderful crafts and things with her kiddos, please visit and read her blog.
Making It Work Together
Making It Work Together
Friday, January 24, 2014
Week Recap
No pictures this post. This week has been rough. We have had winter storms, cranky kiddos, major meltdowns, and a lot of discussions. It has been a week to focus on character education for sure. We have been continuing our study of Egypt, reading lots of information and picture books about the topic. We have also just spent a lot of time reading to each other and talking about topics important to the kids. While in the car one day we were listening to Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants, and one of the songs is about making a test for a hypothesis, so I stopped the cd and asked the kids what they want to test. They decided they want to build a doorbell. Well they started it with Daddy, and it has morphed into them building an intercom so that I can call them down without having to yell upstairs. I am amazed by them every day, and frustrated by them, and frustrated by myself. Some days I just feel like I am failing in every possible way, and then they come up with something so amazing and I feel better. So recap of the week:
Monday: we had a playdate at the aquarium and celebrated Martin Luther King Jr Day, kids did their binder
Tuesday: we went swimming at a local pool, kids loved this, and so did we, we had a baking and cooking lesson with the kids, they worked in their brainquest workbooks and did some educational toys
Wednesday: they worked on their doorbell/intercom project, worked in our collection of dry erase books on handwriting math tracing mazes, they did their binder, pattern blocks, listening center, and pirate unit center, which is a collection of pirate themed age appropriate skills work like cutting pasting matching tracing reading etc.
Thursday: puzzles, crafting, lacing center, coloring, reading comprehension activities, character education, and center choice time, they have math magnet tracing and other centers to choose from, this was a jammie day, and much of the day was spent discussing consequences with CJ for his naughty behavior, and trying to figure out why this behavior was occurring, so a lot of time was spent just talking with him, and we never got out of our pajamas
Today: while there are several things on our "plans" I don't think much will happen today, we have to go grocery shopping and Eliza is spending the weekend at my parents' house as a reward for being so good this week, their idea not mine :) We may continue our Egypt unit and do some art, but we will see, it has been a rough week on all of us
Next week we will have another trip to the aquarium and maybe to the Florence Griswold Museum, as we didn't go to our scheduled art class this week due to weather. All of what I list here is what I consider to be activities that are our school time each day, but there are always many other educational opportunities and activities in our house each day. We try to have a home that encourages learning everywhere, and encourages creativity and question asking. Everyday I vow to do better and try to teach the kids the same, to always try their best, and be themselves. It is so important to remember that their love of learning is what will continue them on this journey, not what they know. So we try daily to foster their love of learning and their creative thinking more than their acquisition of specific knowledge. I do find though, that they acquire knowledge at a truly frightening rate. I can't keep up some days :) They are teaching me so much, and I am looking forward to the coming week, learning from what went wrong this week. And the journey continues.
Monday: we had a playdate at the aquarium and celebrated Martin Luther King Jr Day, kids did their binder
Tuesday: we went swimming at a local pool, kids loved this, and so did we, we had a baking and cooking lesson with the kids, they worked in their brainquest workbooks and did some educational toys
Wednesday: they worked on their doorbell/intercom project, worked in our collection of dry erase books on handwriting math tracing mazes, they did their binder, pattern blocks, listening center, and pirate unit center, which is a collection of pirate themed age appropriate skills work like cutting pasting matching tracing reading etc.
Thursday: puzzles, crafting, lacing center, coloring, reading comprehension activities, character education, and center choice time, they have math magnet tracing and other centers to choose from, this was a jammie day, and much of the day was spent discussing consequences with CJ for his naughty behavior, and trying to figure out why this behavior was occurring, so a lot of time was spent just talking with him, and we never got out of our pajamas
Today: while there are several things on our "plans" I don't think much will happen today, we have to go grocery shopping and Eliza is spending the weekend at my parents' house as a reward for being so good this week, their idea not mine :) We may continue our Egypt unit and do some art, but we will see, it has been a rough week on all of us
Next week we will have another trip to the aquarium and maybe to the Florence Griswold Museum, as we didn't go to our scheduled art class this week due to weather. All of what I list here is what I consider to be activities that are our school time each day, but there are always many other educational opportunities and activities in our house each day. We try to have a home that encourages learning everywhere, and encourages creativity and question asking. Everyday I vow to do better and try to teach the kids the same, to always try their best, and be themselves. It is so important to remember that their love of learning is what will continue them on this journey, not what they know. So we try daily to foster their love of learning and their creative thinking more than their acquisition of specific knowledge. I do find though, that they acquire knowledge at a truly frightening rate. I can't keep up some days :) They are teaching me so much, and I am looking forward to the coming week, learning from what went wrong this week. And the journey continues.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Review of the Past Week
This is what homeschooling looked like this week:
So is this:
We went to the New Britain Museum of American Art, and saw the current exhibit on Maurice Sendak. We spent 2 1/2 hours walking around and discussing the different types of art, and some of the artists Rich and I were familiar with. The kids looked at sculptures, portraits, collages, murals, and other types of art. They asked intelligent questions, made great observations, and learned a lot while there. They adored the Maurice Sendak exhibit, and noticed work from artists we had seen displayed at the Florence Griswold Museum. We talked about Andy Warhol, Mary Cassatt, and Georgia O'Keefe, as well as Maurice Sendak. It was a great day.
Today however, we are in pajamas, doing tracing and handwriting practice, using pattern and shape blocks, and learning about Egypt. We were supposed to have a playdate, but alas, sickness is making the rounds. We have been reading all about Egypt, doing science experiments, and chronicling them in our science notebooks, playing with playdough, playing outside, doing puzzles, building legos and tinkertoys, reviewing map skills from a workbook, watching educational tv, using the computer to practice skills and use starfall.com, playing first grade games on the kindle, putting on pretend plays and circuses, observing the seasonal changes, charting the weather, doing cutting and pasting practice, and playing lots of board games. We watch Rube Goldberg machines on youtube. We play addition games, and read words all over, wherever we go. Most importantly we ask and answer questions, and talk to and with the kids all the time. Even when we are busy, and we are not the parents we want to be our kids are still learning, and we learn what works and what doesn't. One day last week we did nothing but snuggle under blankets and read books together. Some days we do a ton of "school" and other days we just don't. But when I watch them play I see and hear all that they are learning, and how inquisitive and interested and wonderful they are. It makes this journey joyful and special and amazingly worthwhile.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Not to be outdone by his sister . . .
This is what I found when I opened the bathroom door after my bath.
Opened it up and saw. . .
When I thanked him for it he told me that he wanted me to know that he loved snuggling and reading books today even though he knew I had work to do. Also he was glad that I helped him have fun in the snow outside when we were playing together. He was so sweet, and I gave him a huge hug and a thank you, and taped his note on the wall above my homeschool desk. Love my kids, I am a lucky woman.
Pictures of Aforementioned Gifts
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Gifts from my Daughter
Eliza is on a huge handcrafting kick. She makes bookmarks with popsicle sticks, colors and draws pictures for everyone she knows, and sculpts with pipe cleaners. Last week she used her little plastic loom to make me a potholder that I use everyday. Today she made me a sparkly ring with a pipe cleaner and a giant glittery pompom, and a necklace with big wooden beads on a long string of blue yarn. I very proudly wore them today, and could not have been more grateful. Maybe tomorrow I will add a picture of these sweet and thoughtful gifts from my baby girl. Not only did she give me a physical gift, but the joy in her face in that she was able to make something for me with her two hands was the most precious gift, and the love shown in these simple gifts is something I will treasure always. What a lucky mother I am :)
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Pictures of the New School Room
My husband and I realized a few months ago that the kids had really outgrown their cool desk we made from Eliza's old drop side crib. Thank you pinterest. They loved it but were getting too big to use it. They were in each other's way, and their legs no longer fit underneath. In addition there was no room for them to do centers on the floor. Simultaneously we realized that they no longer used the train table downstairs and that the play room, used to be my dining room, which housed the chinchilla was not working and needed an overhaul. It finally occurred to us to make the upstairs the play room, and the downstairs the school room. We moved some of the cabinets from upstairs down and Rich made a desk top across them. We painted it with a pretty tan colored chalkboard paint and voila, school room with room on the floor, room for a desk for me, and room for their lego table. Well, there was room for that only after we decided to give the chinchilla to our next door neighbors. Silly but just taking care of that sweet rodent gave me so much stress and the inability to keep that area clean that I just couldn't do it. She is well taken care of and we get to visit her often, but I don't have to sweep up poop on a daily basis. Without further ado, pictures of our much used and enjoyed new school room.
The lego/building table. The kids play with tinker toys, mega blocks, legos, marble runs, and other building/creating toys here. There are supplies underneath, and empty bins to house current creations. We have some books with ideas and lego machine making directions here. Shown on top is CJ's two new sets from Christmas, the World of Warcraft set that he plays with daily and the Cars huge building set which is in progress.
Next to that we have the bins of building toys, play food, Mr. Potato Head, trains, blocks, puzzles, cars and trucks and other toys. Then a sling bookshelf full of leveled readers, different from the larger sling bookshelf full of picture books in our living room, and the giant basket of little golden books in the upstairs playroom, and the large shelf of childrens' books in the playroom and each of the kids' rooms. Needless to say, we LOVE books in our house. Next to the books is Eliza's dolly carriage.
We have some great posters on the wall. The human body came in a Magic School Bus Human Body kit that we are working through. We have a poster on the Water Cycle I stole from a school I worked at somewhere, and a great poster on pollinators from a friend. We also have artwork from the kids' Home Art Studio lessons DVD showcased on the walls.
Here is the desk Rich made. It stretches from one wall to the other under the window. It has a space for each kid's stool, and the computer tower. We have a swing out arm for the monitor. There is more artwork from the classes they took at Florence Griswold Art museum shown, a winter landscape painting and an abstract style sculpture. Plus an abacus that CJ got for Christmas.
Over here is my desk, with the radio/cd player/ record player/ computer speaker thing. I keep my homeschooling binder here with lesson plans, and a notebook where I keep track of what we have done. I store our science kits and upcoming materials under the desk. I love finally having a space to work on things while the kids do their independent school work.
We also have a chalkboard for lessons and playing, and there are writing utensils, chalk, crayons, etc in pretty much every room of the house. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!! I am getting a little tired of stepping on crayons, but it is hard to complain when Eliza is writing a book as a companion to Harold and the Purple Crayon titled Harold's Best Friend.
We are loving this new set up, it makes it easy for me to be accessible to the kids and productive at the same time. I can be making lunch and only be a few steps away if they need me, which makes it much easier to fit lessons in whenever we want to. The organization makes it easier for me to plan and not forget about materials. Plus it is still a fun play room full of educational opportunities for play.
We often congregate in the evenings when the kids are in their jammies to have them read to us and read our night time books. We build together in this room. We build legos, tinker toys, and most importantly we build a love of learning, a sense of togetherness, and special family memories. What a great place to rest on our homeschooling journey.
The lego/building table. The kids play with tinker toys, mega blocks, legos, marble runs, and other building/creating toys here. There are supplies underneath, and empty bins to house current creations. We have some books with ideas and lego machine making directions here. Shown on top is CJ's two new sets from Christmas, the World of Warcraft set that he plays with daily and the Cars huge building set which is in progress.
Next to that we have the bins of building toys, play food, Mr. Potato Head, trains, blocks, puzzles, cars and trucks and other toys. Then a sling bookshelf full of leveled readers, different from the larger sling bookshelf full of picture books in our living room, and the giant basket of little golden books in the upstairs playroom, and the large shelf of childrens' books in the playroom and each of the kids' rooms. Needless to say, we LOVE books in our house. Next to the books is Eliza's dolly carriage.
We have some great posters on the wall. The human body came in a Magic School Bus Human Body kit that we are working through. We have a poster on the Water Cycle I stole from a school I worked at somewhere, and a great poster on pollinators from a friend. We also have artwork from the kids' Home Art Studio lessons DVD showcased on the walls.
We are loving this new set up, it makes it easy for me to be accessible to the kids and productive at the same time. I can be making lunch and only be a few steps away if they need me, which makes it much easier to fit lessons in whenever we want to. The organization makes it easier for me to plan and not forget about materials. Plus it is still a fun play room full of educational opportunities for play.
Friday, January 3, 2014
New Year's Resolutions:
This has been a rough year. Money issues, health issues that kind of took over my life, and a plethora of other garbage began to run the show. Not any more, I am not letting all the junk take over. In this spirit I have made resolutions that will improve my life overall, and the lives of those who are important to me.
1) Practice yoga weekly
2) Spend time outside with the kiddos every day it is not dangerous to do so. Was doing well with this until the negative wind chill today
3) Spend more active time with the kids
4) Pay closer attention to my own health
5) Be more intentional with lesson planning and lesson implementation
6) Continue to organize and simplify our home
7) Blog weekly here and in Peace, Love, Laundry and Food!
First let me start off with last year. I didn't know how sick I was and how it impacted my daily life till it hit crisis stage in August. While I still don't have a clear diagnosis I have shed almost 50 pounds, lost the pain that had been plaguing me, and in general feel so much better. Blogging seemed like an unattainable goal last year, this year I am excited about it! In addition, now that the kids are a little older I can have them read quietly or play a game, allowing me time to blog. I love that they are grown up enough for that, but I also hate it. I miss my toddlers, my babies. Now Eliza is so tall I have trouble picking her up!
A lot has changed in our homeschool journey. We spend a lot of time at museums, the library, nature center, and aquarium. We have a new school room downstairs that I will post pictures of next week. I know I have said that before, but I really mean it this time! We use our binder and I have a homeschooling binder to help me. I also have a great spreadsheet of goals for the year. If anyone know how to post a link to an Excel spreadsheet I would love to share it with you! We have been really just flying by the seat of our pants with learning in 2013. The kids learned so much, and so did I, but this year I want more of a plan, not more structure, just more organization of thought. I want to study Egypt. There is going to be an exhibit at the CT Science Center next month called Lost Egypt, and I am so excited. First let me tell you how much use we get out of that membership. The kids LOVE the place and so do Rich and I. We go at least once a month, and our membership this year also got us free into Old Sturbridge Village twice and enabled us to bring a few friends to the aquarium for free. Great investment in our education. Anyway, Egypt, a topic that has interested me since I was Eliza's age. The kids are looking forward to it. I am going to integrate map skills, pyramid science (we have a kit), art and crafts, we will sculpt canopic jars and build pyramids, read books, learn about pharoahs, mummies, mythology, religion, and we will do it all together. I am giddy just thinking about it!
We always have a huge emphasis on science. Yesterday we did several activities, all of which the kids journaled in their science notebooks. They write and draw a hypothesis and results. We did the mentos in soda in the snow, a kit a friend sent with polymer spheres, and acid base chemical reactions. This sounds more complicated than it actually was, it was simple and fun, and they learned a ton!
My goal with this blog this year is to chronicle what we do a little more, get some new ideas and share our love of learning. I will be diligent about posting more pictures and step by steps, and really share what our homeschool journey is about! Thanks for reading :) Next week a peek inside our "new classroom" and some of what we have done so far this year.
This has been a rough year. Money issues, health issues that kind of took over my life, and a plethora of other garbage began to run the show. Not any more, I am not letting all the junk take over. In this spirit I have made resolutions that will improve my life overall, and the lives of those who are important to me.
1) Practice yoga weekly
2) Spend time outside with the kiddos every day it is not dangerous to do so. Was doing well with this until the negative wind chill today
3) Spend more active time with the kids
4) Pay closer attention to my own health
5) Be more intentional with lesson planning and lesson implementation
6) Continue to organize and simplify our home
7) Blog weekly here and in Peace, Love, Laundry and Food!
First let me start off with last year. I didn't know how sick I was and how it impacted my daily life till it hit crisis stage in August. While I still don't have a clear diagnosis I have shed almost 50 pounds, lost the pain that had been plaguing me, and in general feel so much better. Blogging seemed like an unattainable goal last year, this year I am excited about it! In addition, now that the kids are a little older I can have them read quietly or play a game, allowing me time to blog. I love that they are grown up enough for that, but I also hate it. I miss my toddlers, my babies. Now Eliza is so tall I have trouble picking her up!
A lot has changed in our homeschool journey. We spend a lot of time at museums, the library, nature center, and aquarium. We have a new school room downstairs that I will post pictures of next week. I know I have said that before, but I really mean it this time! We use our binder and I have a homeschooling binder to help me. I also have a great spreadsheet of goals for the year. If anyone know how to post a link to an Excel spreadsheet I would love to share it with you! We have been really just flying by the seat of our pants with learning in 2013. The kids learned so much, and so did I, but this year I want more of a plan, not more structure, just more organization of thought. I want to study Egypt. There is going to be an exhibit at the CT Science Center next month called Lost Egypt, and I am so excited. First let me tell you how much use we get out of that membership. The kids LOVE the place and so do Rich and I. We go at least once a month, and our membership this year also got us free into Old Sturbridge Village twice and enabled us to bring a few friends to the aquarium for free. Great investment in our education. Anyway, Egypt, a topic that has interested me since I was Eliza's age. The kids are looking forward to it. I am going to integrate map skills, pyramid science (we have a kit), art and crafts, we will sculpt canopic jars and build pyramids, read books, learn about pharoahs, mummies, mythology, religion, and we will do it all together. I am giddy just thinking about it!
We always have a huge emphasis on science. Yesterday we did several activities, all of which the kids journaled in their science notebooks. They write and draw a hypothesis and results. We did the mentos in soda in the snow, a kit a friend sent with polymer spheres, and acid base chemical reactions. This sounds more complicated than it actually was, it was simple and fun, and they learned a ton!
My goal with this blog this year is to chronicle what we do a little more, get some new ideas and share our love of learning. I will be diligent about posting more pictures and step by steps, and really share what our homeschool journey is about! Thanks for reading :) Next week a peek inside our "new classroom" and some of what we have done so far this year.
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