Yo! Yo! It's a Go?

Successes? Really? Hmmm, maybe I can drum some up. :) 

1. I was honest. I haven't been feeling well, and it has shown up at home. As a wife, mom, and homeschooler - it has shown. But, I've tried, and I admitted it, and honesty helps me. It's not a big deal, but I'm vain with myself. I love being there for others, but to be the person who needs the listening ear? HARD!

2. Lovely has been learning things in NEAT ways, and when it tumbles forth and I see WHAT she's learned or mastered, it is the greatest THRILL for me!!! Her success, but my joy!

3. I learning to embrace an educational mess. LOL! Our "classroom" does not look as "cute" as when I first started this blog. HAHA. Most days when we leave that room, things are everywhere. YES, Lovely puts things up, and yes, I do my part, but still books, or toys, or sketch books can end up out and about with the baby and the toddler to chase around. I'm accepting that learning in the home is REAL. We're really living....and that is ok.  (Shhh, don't tell Maria Montessori! I swear the educational stuff IS put back!! lol).

So....you out there, what's shaken bacon? 

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for...

1. better health.

2. my son's smiles.

3. Lovely's love of learning.

4. Lovely's ability to forgive me.

5. my husband.

6. the joy little Val bring the world.

7. the freedom to homeschool.

8. the voices in me to remember to think of how all children learn and how I still need to fight for changes for ALL kids. One step at a time....

Blessings!!

The Woesy

So, I promised I'd talk about the rosey and woesy (lol - yes, my own special spellings of those words, just run with it...) on this blog. Lately, I've been woesy. I've been under the weather. We've had to miss a field trip, a home school "day", and apparently, a day of co-op. It was a bummer. Lovely wasn't too bummed as she really didn't know when things would be happening (aside from co-op), but I was.

Being under the weather as the main home school parent is frustrating. Whatever bug or allergy I've had, I'm so tired - and it's been dragging on longer than a few days, so anything above and beyond glorified book work is not happening, and I feel like a loser. I feel I'm not doing what we wanted  - why we decided to home school in the first place. This has gone on about 2 weeks. Granted, I also have an infant, so that doesn't help the 'resting up'.

Lovely is a champ, and she IS learning - I just miss doing "more". Like baking flat bread to bring the Hebrew and other ancient Mesopotamian cultures to life (along with working with measurements and fractions in cooking, and life skills with the prep and clean up), or bringing some Feast days to life too. Sunday I spent ALL day in bed, which helped, so I've had more energy this week. I'm hoping to get to the baking tomorrow or Friday.

We HAVE had some magic moments. In her Ignatius Speaks and Writes, we've been studying different types of sentences - Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative, Exclamatory. We were doing something unrelated, maybe in science, and I asked her "Why do you think _____ would do this?". Before she answered the question, she just looked at me and said "Hey! Mommy! That is an interrogative sentence!"  AMEN!!! Just the perfect medicine for this tired momma. I certainly wasn't thinking that way! (Wow! Now I'm doing all exclamatory sentences lol!!)

Another boost (well, for ME, but not for area kids) today: we went to visit our neighborhood school. We went to return some things to Lovely's kindergarten teacher, and visit old friends from last year. It was SO nice to see her old teacher (she was the BEST). I noticed the room was totally different. I mentioned it, and she said her classroom needed the change as her #'s went up. When Lovely was in her class, there were 17 students. Now, her teacher has 24. I do believe they got rid of a kindergarten class - but our teacher was pretty honest about the change and how much she missed the past. Our county has also disbanded the class size quota - so classes can be larger than they used to be because of budget cuts and such. Our school also lost some major funding due to changing demographics. Also, they have had to limit use of the playground recently (which was already a rarity) because of a student fall and arm breakage - to protect the school. It's just a shame. It made me feel blessed we can do what we are doing, at home, but my heart aches for the other kids. My mind keeps coming back to Waiting for "Superman" and how can I be a source of change for our schools for ALL our kids, not just mine....

Anyways...woe, woe, woe...just wanted to be honest with some issues of late. But, I can see a bit of rose in my glasses from the last few days. It isn't all gray. I hope to report soon with some stuff that brings the mojo back!

Love, love love....

Let's Celebrate!!

Successes anyone??

1. I'm taking the time to enjoy my family. Baby Gift is just such a complete joy in our lives, and I want to savor his sweetness and pure deliciousness as long as I can (isn't he amazing? LOL). Plus, seeing him with his sisters makes my heart swoon. I love how home schooling is giving us such treasured time together.

2. We had a great teachable moment this week in our learning. I love those!!! I guess that isn't really my success...but I'm happy to mention it!! I loved how it tied into art, food, science, social studies, and fun!!

3. We have also been keeping up with schedules, co-op, and learning topics. I really love how things come together, and every additional day that goes well for homeschooling is a blessing to me giving me more confidence that we can do this.

How is your week?

Thankful Thursday
This week I am most thankful for...

1. YOU. You who read and comment and give ideas. Thank you.
2. my husband - a great supporter, teacher (music!!) and substitute teacher for when I'm sick...like this week....
3. Lovely - for her spirit, love of learning, and patience with me.
4. Val - for her smiles and hugs, and love of color!
5.  God, good health, and inspiration!

Drawing Class

Let's talk about art. At home we do a lot of coloring/sketching. We use crayons, markers, pencils - but I have yet to paint. We have also created and molded. We also do art study through Serendipity (a home Waldorf site). I want to get my act together and do more painting and such. I got the itch again just seeing an update from Otherwise Educating and all she and her "things" do. Great job (look at her post)!

Also, sometimes it takes others looking at your child's loves and talents to help a parent see them too. Lovely's teacher last year (even before she knew of our homeschooling plans) begged me to get Lovely into a drawing class. She felt Lovely had a brewing talent deep down and needed some guidance in a way a school art class doesn't have time for, OR gets cut before they can teach their students (another reason I wanted to homeschool). I appreciated this insight very much, as I had no idea looking at her work - I just thought things were cute and basic. They still are - but I am starting to see how Lovely focuses on detail and facial expressions. I know for sure Lovely did NOT get that from Me, so I wanted to help that grow and me not get in her way - thus - a class just for her outside homeschooling.

I was almost able to host a class in my home with another homeschooling mom who is a professional art teacher. But, we could not get the number of kids she wanted (even though it was a small group). That class would have been drawing and painting and other mediums with art history too. Alas. But, I did find a local studio that does a drawing class. The price for the class was also doable (we take classes out of our rec center, or local businesses to cut costs WAY down - like with Taekwondo and Gymnastics for exercise and focus. The sessions go 6 weeks and then one resigns up as they want).

So, we started this class two weeks ago, and Lovely enjoys it. I caught the tail end of the lesson this week and can tell they really are teaching the kids and training their eyes step by step. I couldn't even re-explain what I saw, and I did not get a picture of what shapes were inside the apple on the board to help give its shape.

You can tell she had JUST washed out the interior shapes (?)

But the two teachers are great, give personal attention, and the class is small. So far, we like it. I hope to broaden into other mediums (hopefully at home like the link above at Otherwise Educating) but for now, I'll watch Lovely take some steps there and learn from her.

Are you a Worker or a Queen?

LOL - if I had to answer this, I'd say I know what my daughter THINKS she is...haha!

One thing I love about homeschooling, and the age Lovely is, is that lessons can just pop up and we can toss the lesson plan aside and jump into the teachable moment. Last week, on a day that science wasn't "scheduled" and the topic something totally different than planned, we had a moment pop up.

We had decided to do our learning outside on the patio and when she had settled down, she found a dead bee floating in some water. She used her bug tweezers to handle it, and we just dove in to study.

As she peered at the bee, I thumbed through her science book and found a section on bees and I read to her as she looked at the bee and sketched the bee and what she was hearing me read. I loved how she turned the "B" of "Bee" into a bee. I think we spent over a hour talking Bees. She was delighted. We talked about plants, pollen, royal jelly, behaviors, seasons, etc. (Today that was repeated, as we found another bee this morning, so we reviewed what we had learned and studied the wings on this bee. I have a neighbor who tends bees, so I'm going to see about visiting them for a little tour of their hives).We then had lunch, and Lovely of COURSE wanted Honey on her sandwich.

Hey there Bee!

The start of her sketching

Honey!

making her sandwich

YUM!! "Beeeee-licious!" haha!

So...are you a worker, or a queen.....BEE? :)

And, here are a couple of captures of little Val enjoying a day at home with us. She enjoys her toddler kits (and her pink tutu bathing suit) and we also are working on her colors too.

Teachable moments? Bring. Them. ON!!

Waiting for Superman

To clarify why I home school -I have to give credit to another. I LOVED this post by Danielle Bean about schooling, all types, and homeschooling. (Click to read)

In my need to tell others why my family felt called to homeschooling I hope I never made people think I did not love our local school, or support teachers and education. In fact, we helped fight to keep it open this past Spring, even though we knew we wanted to home school. Sure, there were things like art, recess, and class size I worried about and I love our new home school schedule, but I worry I didn't seem respectful or as clear in my defense of our choice. In my personal life I did, and still do, have to defend it. I'm still a former teacher myself who taught in public and Catholic high schools and LOVED doing so.

But, Danielle wrote it all perfectly, and I wanted to share it as wording how I feel. Thank you so much Danielle.

When I did post about my desire to try homeschooling, a teacher friend (and I should says MASTER teacher...incredible educator and one who is making positive changes) commented that she supported me, but felt defeated that parents are too quick to not fight to change the system if they find it broken. This has always stayed with me (Hi Tess!). I thought about it during our spring fight to keep our school open. I thought about it again watching Oprah yesterday. She profiled the upcoming docu-movie "Waiting for Superman".  I thought of her when watching Oprah about this movie. The filmmaker and Bill Gates were challenging all adults on her show, no matter what school we pay for our kids to attend, or how we educate them, to come together to change the model on which we teach our kids ("a 1954 model in 2010"). I can tell much blame is put on an old system, and teachers who don't care (they make strong effort to say this is not about ALL teachers....but the ones who either don't care, or don't get the help to become great and WANT to be great - one quote from the movie was said "seeing a great teacher in action is like seeing a great piece of art!" or "like seeing a sports star" or other person we look up to).


So yes, while this film has its own bias I'm sure, its own sensationalism, I'm sure it can possibly miss the mark at times, but I think it has a message we all need to ponder. I want to see this movie. Click on any of the above links to see the trailer, or click here to read about the show yesterday.  It is true food for thought. 
It doesn't answer the problems, nor is it the cure - but it can start the discussion among more and more of us.
I also home school  to include family values and faith, as well as supporting our family unit, but I also home school because of what I desire education to be and many times I find that only in a private school, charter school, method school, or Catholic school. But, not everyone can pay the tuition. Not everyone is chosen in the lottery. I school as Danielle schools - but I too think of the challenge my friend gave me, and the issues raised yesterday, and every day - what can I do to make things better for other children, not just my own. As an educator - I feel so strongly about this. It takes a village!

** Oh - this link shows a story (you can look at all the kids) of one girl whose story hit close to home. It's about a smart girl in a GREAT district with a GREAT high school, but she wants to attend a charter school because she doesn't test well, so her test scores don't reflect her strengths.

** This story shows how education is still not equal. Tax dollars at work also can mean some areas get better funds than others. It isn't equal to me. This little boy and family again depend on a lottery to change the outcome. I just wish we could all work together to make things more equal.

What we've been up to :)

Things have really fallen into a pattern around here. I wrote a few weeks back about some concerns I had about how long some of our book work was taking us. I can happily report we have cut that time in half! I really appreciate the book work in a classical education and Lovely enjoys seeing what she knows, but Lovely and I both really love diving into other ways of learning - and I felt we were not getting time to do that - even fun reading time! Things have greatly improved, and our learning has gone into other directions as well. I don't feel I have to bribe Lovely (for now) to write or do phonics, etc. as I once had to. She is getting more and more independent with her work and I can check in with her as well. It is wonderful.

Co-op (Totus Tuus) has started. Lovely really enjoyed meeting new friends and her new 1st-3rd grade class of students.

Lovely in her classroom with her small group working on science

I don't have pictures yet of Lovely's Montessori Good Shepherd class, but that has started as well. Lovely really enjoys that class! I'm thrilled both co-op and Good Shepherd afford her time in a mixed age group. It is really wonderful.

Preschool has also started a few days a week for Val. It has been so nice to have a couple of ours to focus just on Lovely and the baby. When Val is with us, she plays, or joins us with her toddler kit I have, or I try to do some Waldor-ify (lol!) things with her and we all read together. Here she is on her first day:

I really admire you homeschoolers who have all your kids at home. Val is great, and as I said - we include her a lot and she does well MOST of the time, but then there are times she just wants me, or gets frustrated, causes noise,  etc and the balancing act for me can be hard with a newborn and a student. Preschool has been such a help. If you don't do something like this for the little ones - what do you do to keep the flow of learning in your home for the older ones?

The weather here (especially in the mornings) is starting to hint of fall, so Lovely has taken full advantage of the great outdoors:

Working on contractions. She erases the extra letters and adds an apostrophe on the words.

Doing copy work from a reading on Pinocchio

Doing some review Math work on bar graphs.

Lovely also recently celebrated her 7th birthday. Her Godparents gave her a lap desk! She has really enjoyed it.

Drawing a picture after reading about mummification.

Her drawing of a woman wrapping a mummy after reading our history section. I promise, there is a covering on her, but the pink is hard to see - lol!

I also meant to share this sweet picture from our first week. She colored a page from a faith assignment. She was asked to draw herself in God's hands. :)

I'm loving time with my angel. So far, this has been a great family decision!!

How is everyone doing? As swamped as we are? I knew this would be a lot of work...but wow - it is SO much work, time, love, and energy. My hat is off to you all!

Blessings!

PE Fun

Our local classes have started and Lovely signed up for two activities that are great for physical education.

Taekwondo

Gymnastics

She LOVES both activities!

Field Trip - Ancient Egypt, Nubia and Mesopotamia

We've been so busy over here, I have not been recording some of our adventures - but we've been enjoying the last few weeks for sure!

Lovely is currently studying a bit of a social studies fusion. Our home school goals in Social Studies are to start with ancient times and move forward year to to year - cycling back through again in middle school so things she is exposed to now can give her a foundation and feel familiar to her later when she's older and things are re introduced. We are using "Story of the World" and really love it. It blends reading and history as well as living books and hands on activities. It is great. We also take a look here and there at the state standards and its small checklist and talk about important facts stateside as well. Many of our field trips expose Lovely and our family to both. This post records our trip to an ancient history museum to cover our "Story of the World" chapters. This Sunday will find us doing some early US as well. Hopefully I'll blog that later...hehe!

Here are some pictures from our trip into the past. It was very enjoyable! We focused in the part of the museum on Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. They had so many impressive artifacts:

Ancient Egypt

Here Lovely sketches artifacts in her sketch book.

Lovely by a cabinet of mummified animals

Mummified kitten

Mummifed baby crocodile

Beautiful Hieroglyphs

Mesopotamia

Artifacts from Mesopotamia

Daily life of Sumerian women

Sumerian Cuneiform

It was a GREAT experience. Lovely could not stop looking at everything, made some great sketches (I need to scan them), and asked a lot of questions. We took my dad, so it was also a nice family trip for us as well. We'll definitely go back when we hit Greece, Rome, and the Americas. They are enlarging their African exhibit to include more cultures than just Egypt and Nubia.

It was a great day!

Go Us!

Danielle Bean and Faith and Family Live gives us permission to celebrate the little things in our lives today!!

1. Though, once again, I'm not getting tons of things done in our home currently (thus, I'm posting this here on my home school blog vs my main blog) because of the wee ones and making homeschooling our focus, I did manage to start work on a photo wall I've been wanting to do for some time. I never have really had pics of my kids up on my walls...WOW! So now I have this by our den stairs:

2.  We've had a great week of homeschooling after a more challenging one. I know it takes time to get one's groove, and we had one week where Lovely was not protesting, but she was over working. Things felt more like college than homeschooled 1st Grade, and I was worried Lovely would start to get upset. I opened up here and to friends, and got some great ideas. This past week has been a 180 degree turn!  The tips are working, and this past week was renewing and a big success! I'm always looking for more tips on making our days better, a good routine (how do you all start the day?), and motivating our kids to stay on track but enjoy as well.

3. Scrolling down below, I've posted some of our fun lesson successes, but one lesson in particular has ended up saving our yard lol! While getting outside, enjoying nature, studying insects up close, and learning all at once was a huge plus this week over last week, we discovered some of our specimens were part of an invading "army". This army sometimes never gets caught because they are more active at night and their damage blamed on the heat or dry weather. So, our whole family has learned something new. I do admit to feeling a bit grossed out - I feel watched by millions of hidden eyes!!

Laundry? What's that? Cooking meals? Huh? Not many successes this week, but I'll take what I can get above! I love what we've been able to do!

How is your week?!!

Thankful Thursday
This week I'm thankful for...

1. The support of my husband.
2. my children...such joy!
3. my incredible friend and neighbor.
4. time with family.
5.  prayer.
6. A God who is there for me even when I'm not always there for Him.

Much love!!

Life Skills

One needs to know how to clean. Usually (and still, lol) I have to ASK or remind Lovely to do her part, but I caught her in the act of being good in this moment! Mommy has to remember to share the cleaning duties...I find myself wanting to do everything for my kids, and honestly one of the best gifts I can give them is the ability to do things themselves and take pride in it, and give up some of my control issues.

This is part of learning too - for the child AND the mother!

Just More Visual Evidence on Why I Adore Homeschooling!!

Today, after reading about the invention of writing, the girls made their own clay tablets (or simply played) with cuneiform (early Sumerian writing) with play-doh. It was just a fun enrichment activity that allowed fun, hands on learning, creativity, library books, and mommy/daughter learning conversation on the topic. It also was something both girls could do together.

I LOVE homeschooling!

Army "worms" ARE intersting to study though....

(see post below for info on our Army Worm Moth caterpillars)

We spent more time outside today interacting with and studying our invading horde of army worms (moth caterpillars). Army Worms love apples, drink dew off grass, and love to munch and poop. LOL!