These were a busy two weeks. Scooby-Doo went back to speech therapy and my mom came to visit for a week, plus we did Ostara (Easter) while she was here and I had to make homemade candy for that (Scooby-Doo has severe allergies and store bought candy is rarely safe).
So, what did we do?
Scooby-Doo was so happy to go back to speech therapy. During their spring break he was so grumpy and moody, and he kept trying to climb into the car and buckle himself into his car seat. We did some schoolwork, but not as much as the last two weeks. He also sang his abc's for his therapists which was a first.
Optimus Prime & Bumblebee were sad their fitness class was over with, but t-ball starts next week so they got over it pretty quick! Now I just need to figure out how to schedule that in everyday...
They are still doing just fine on their schoolwork, and they've been real good about doing extra pages. I fixed our schedule to reflect what it was initially supposed to be for the quarter, and by that schedule we are only two weeks behind. So, we'll keep squeezing in a little bit here and there and we should be completely caught up by the end of the quarter. Then I'll go back to updates about their regular schoolwork.
What did we (they) read?
A LOT!
Optimus Prime:
Fancy Nancy The Dazzling Book Report by Jane O'Connor
Brownie & Pearl Take a Dip by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Hit the Hay by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Go for a Spin by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Step Out by Cynthia Rylant
Handy Manny: Cookie Rescue
Handy Manny: Bunny Trouble
DK Readers: Homes Around the World
DK Readers: Ponies & Horses
Brownie & Pearl Get Dolled Up by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Grab a Bite by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Make Good by Cynthia Rylant
Reader's Clubhouse: Ted Saw an Egg
Step Into Reading: Barbie: Horse Show Champ
Curious George Race Day by H. A. Rey
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: Feline Felonies
Lego Reader: Help is on the Way
Mop Top by Sue Graves
Dad's Cake by Margaret Nash
Oh, Jet by Jillian Powell
Freddy's Teddy by Clare DeMarco
Alan and the Animals by Evelyn Foster
Harry and the Horse by Sue Graves
Station K.I.D.S. by Cindy Leaney
Rachel and the Shy Jellyfish by Cindy Leaney
I Can Read Phonics! The Berenstain Bears: It's Not a Frog
I Can Read Phonics! Superman: Bizarro
Bumblebee:
Fancy Nancy and the Boy From Paris by Jane O'Connor
Brownie & Pearl Make Good by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Get Dolled Up by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Go for a Spin by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Grab a Bite by Cynthia Rylant
Handy Manny: Bunny Trouble
Handy Manny: Cookie Rescue
DK Readers: Ponies & Horses
DK Readers: Homes Around the World
Brownie & Pearl Hit the Hay by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Step Out by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Take a Dip by Cynthia Rylant
Step Into Reading: Barbie: Horse Show Champ
Reader's Clubhouse: Ted Saw an Egg
Lego Reader: Help is on the Way
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: Toxic Terror
Curious George Race Day by H. A. Rey
Harry and the Horse by Sue Graves
Alan and the Animals by Evelyn Foster
Mop Top by Sue Graves
A Cake for Dinner by Sue Graves
Dad's Cake by Margaret Nash
Freddy's Teddy by Clare DeMarco
A Talking Telescope by Cindy Leaney
Super Sale by Cindy Leaney
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: Batman's Friends
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: Meet the Super Heroes
27 books each. That's more than double what they read for the previous two weeks. That's just short of 4 times what they read the two weeks before that.
Optimus Prime is doing great with his reading. I'm hoping it'll come together soon for him so I can stat focusing on Bumblebee. I always thought Bumblebee would get this reading thing down first. If they keep at this pace they're going to prove me wrong...
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Science Experiment #2: Can Flowers Change Colors? (Part 2)
I'm sure you've seen this picture kicking around facebook:
Well, I was curious whether or not it would work, so I figured it would be neat to try. However, we already had so many mugs of flowers going in the house so I decided to break our experiment up into two parts. So, we did this part the day after we were done with the first round of flowers.
Supplies:
Second, cut the stems if you need to shorten the flowers (also, leave the stem longer than what you will ultimately need for the ones going into more than one color - trust me on this). Then, for the flowers you are putting into more than one glass of water cut the stem like in the picture above. Now, I didn't buy roses because they are expensive, so I bought carnations. These stems were far too thin to cut into quarters, so I cut them in half and put each half into it's own cup. We only did this with 4 of the 10 flowers. The other 6 we just put into it's own cup (more on that in a minute).
I want to say, this was a MAJOR pain in the butt. The picture above shows the flower hanging out hovering above four different cups, completely happy and content with life. Yeah, not so much. The stems did NOT like being cut like this, and I had to paper clip them to the cups. And they didn't like that either.
So, after a couple of days the flowers were changing colors. It took a little longer for the ones sliced in half, but they changed too.
Now, for the flowers in just one color, after they changed colors we swapped them around so that they all ended up in another glass than the one they started out in. This has nothing to do with the facebook picture, I was just curious if they would turn into two different colors this way as well as the other.
Final results? Those placed into two glass DID turn into two colors, just not as vibrantly or strongly as those placed in one cup:
Now, why leave extra stem for the ones going into two glasses? Because this killed their stem and the dead part had to be cut off to try and prolong the life of the flower. The flowers only made it a couple of days before I had to pull them out because they were dying. The flowers in one color at a time were doing just fine and could of stayed in the cups for a few more days but I felt bad for the half-dead ones so I took them all out to clean up the mess.
Final opinion, though? I wouldn't go slicing up these flowers again. It almost killed them, and honestly, I felt really bad. Also, what's the point of doing this if the flowers won't survive the process?
However, overall these two projects showed my kids that yes you can change the color of flowers with food coloring and it also showed them just how water effects plant life.
Well, I was curious whether or not it would work, so I figured it would be neat to try. However, we already had so many mugs of flowers going in the house so I decided to break our experiment up into two parts. So, we did this part the day after we were done with the first round of flowers.
Supplies:
- some white flowers (we used carnations)
- knife to cut the flowers
- glasses/mugs
- assorted food coloring
- paper clips
Second, cut the stems if you need to shorten the flowers (also, leave the stem longer than what you will ultimately need for the ones going into more than one color - trust me on this). Then, for the flowers you are putting into more than one glass of water cut the stem like in the picture above. Now, I didn't buy roses because they are expensive, so I bought carnations. These stems were far too thin to cut into quarters, so I cut them in half and put each half into it's own cup. We only did this with 4 of the 10 flowers. The other 6 we just put into it's own cup (more on that in a minute).
I want to say, this was a MAJOR pain in the butt. The picture above shows the flower hanging out hovering above four different cups, completely happy and content with life. Yeah, not so much. The stems did NOT like being cut like this, and I had to paper clip them to the cups. And they didn't like that either.
So, after a couple of days the flowers were changing colors. It took a little longer for the ones sliced in half, but they changed too.
Now, for the flowers in just one color, after they changed colors we swapped them around so that they all ended up in another glass than the one they started out in. This has nothing to do with the facebook picture, I was just curious if they would turn into two different colors this way as well as the other.
Final results? Those placed into two glass DID turn into two colors, just not as vibrantly or strongly as those placed in one cup:
 |
| Green and yellow |
 |
| Blue and neon yellow |
And, the one's that were swapped around did get a tinge on the ends of their petals of the second color:
 |
| If you look closely, the green one here has a neon pink tinge at the end of the petals. |
 |
| The half dead flower that was cut in half. |
However, overall these two projects showed my kids that yes you can change the color of flowers with food coloring and it also showed them just how water effects plant life.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Science Project #2: Can Flowers Change Colors?
I remember buying green flowers for St. Patrick's Day at school when I was a teenager. (I went to a Catholic school, so of course we celebrated St. Patrick's Day by wearing green carnations and going to church.) I believe it was my dad who told me that they colored the carnations with green food coloring in the water. So, since my kids can't buy green carnations from a school (if they would even sell them anymore, they probably don't) I decided to turn this into a science experiment for March.
Supplies:
First, cut the flowers if needed. Your probably will, I have no idea who you would even buy short stemmed carnations from.
Green, yellow, and neon green did beautiful.
After a coupe of days, and doubling the food coloring twice purple and neon pink only tinted at the edges. Maybe the colors were too strong/deep to fully color the flowers? We have no idea.
In the end we gave up on the purple and neon pink and just put the flowers in a mug on the table. They lasted about a week, long after the bouquet said it would on the packaging.
Supplies:
- white carnations
- knife (if needed)
- glasses (mugs work just as well if your children have broken all of your glasses)
- assorted food coloring
First, cut the flowers if needed. Your probably will, I have no idea who you would even buy short stemmed carnations from.
Then, fill the glasses/mugs up about half way with some water, and have your kids put in about 3-5 drops of food coloring. Enough to get a strong color. Then add the flowers, we put two in each cup (our colors were purple, neon pink, green, yellow, and neon yellow that looks like neon green but honestly it isn't).
Now it'll take a few days to fully happen but your flowers will start to change color. The green started after a couple of hours.
Green, yellow, and neon green did beautiful.
After a coupe of days, and doubling the food coloring twice purple and neon pink only tinted at the edges. Maybe the colors were too strong/deep to fully color the flowers? We have no idea.
In the end we gave up on the purple and neon pink and just put the flowers in a mug on the table. They lasted about a week, long after the bouquet said it would on the packaging.
A close up.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Concept Week #11: Norse Mythology
This concept week was a blast. My kids are obsessed with vikings (courtesy of the "How To Train Your Dragon" movie - I can't wait to read the books with them), so they got to learn about Leif Ericson discovering North America, the way vikings and their slaves lived, and about their gods too. We didn't have many worksheets. Education.com failed me, and I had a hard time finding age appropriate ones anywhere else online. Still, they learned a lot.
We covered the more famous myths as we worked on a scrapbook of the gods:
DEFINITELY, our most ambitious (and fun) project to date:
And for our book we read The Time Traveller Book of Viking Raiders. (Two l's, that's not a typo, the book is British.) It was a neat book where you go back in time and read about how a fictional group of vikings would have lived. You read about how they build their houses, who lives in the houses, how the slaves were treated, how their ships were built, how they went raiding, what they did when they weren't raiding, etc.
It was a really good book, and they have another one in the series called The Time Traveller Book of Knights and Castles that I think we'll pick up for our next Concept Week. We have leftover pages in the scrapbook, so I'm thinking we'll just keep adding other mythology groups to it. Maybe Celtic next? Not sure. All I know is if your kids are as crazy about vikings as mine, you should do something similar.
We covered the more famous myths as we worked on a scrapbook of the gods:
DEFINITELY, our most ambitious (and fun) project to date:
And for our book we read The Time Traveller Book of Viking Raiders. (Two l's, that's not a typo, the book is British.) It was a neat book where you go back in time and read about how a fictional group of vikings would have lived. You read about how they build their houses, who lives in the houses, how the slaves were treated, how their ships were built, how they went raiding, what they did when they weren't raiding, etc.
It was a really good book, and they have another one in the series called The Time Traveller Book of Knights and Castles that I think we'll pick up for our next Concept Week. We have leftover pages in the scrapbook, so I'm thinking we'll just keep adding other mythology groups to it. Maybe Celtic next? Not sure. All I know is if your kids are as crazy about vikings as mine, you should do something similar.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Two Week Review: March 2 - 15 2014
Scooby-Doo only had speech therapy for one week. The second week of March was the school district's Spring Break, so he had that off (and he was rather annoyed over that). We started doing his worksheets again, which made him very happy. He was so into it, actually, that we did three weeks worth in the two weeks. He also picked up a few new words, signs that his speech therapy is working. He's been singing the Alphabet Song like crazy (even if the ending does just come out as gibberish sung to the tune) and the other day I caught him trying to sing Ten In The Bed to himself. Hopefully he'll start saying the alphabet for his therapists now.
Optimus Prime & Bumblebee are doing just fine in their schoolwork. I've been sneaking in a few extra pages here & there to try and get more done. I REALLY don't like our current schedule (I know, I know, I've already said that about a half dozen times...) so I'm trying to have them do as much as possible without burning them out.
As far as reading goes Optimus Prime had a breakthrough moment, that really only lasted that moment. We were reading Fancy Nancy and he got an entire page almost on his own. There were just two words he needed prompting with and two more words that were really hard and he had no clue. Other than those four words he read the whole page by himself, correctly, without any guessing. The next page he immediately reverted back to his usual reading habits, which is to look at a word he knows and then start guessing what word it is instead of actually reading it. Frustrating, but at least I know it's sinking in and if he would just calm down and look at the words he'd be a much better reader. Bumblebee reads okay. he'll say the words he knows, but when he gets to a word he doesn't he just stops. I try to get him to sound them out but he doesn't seem to understand the concept. I'll start sounding out the word and he doesn't finish sounding it out. Optimus Prime will finish sounding it out and he usually gets it right. So, based on the last two weeks my guess is that Optimus Prime will be reading before Bumblebee, bu that's only if he starts paying better attention.
So, what did they (we) read?
Optimus Prime:
Colors in Nature: Blue
Colors in Nature: Purple
A Cake for Dinner by Sue Graves
Fancy Nancy The Show Must Go On by Jane O'Connor
Brownie & Pearl See the Sights by Cynthia Rylant
Colors in Nature: Green
Watching the Seasons: Fall
Watching the Seasons: Summer
Fancy Nancy and the Boy form Paris by Jane O'Connor
Watching the Seasons: Spring
Fancy Nancy Sees Stars by Jane O'Connor
Watching the Seasons: Winter
Bumblebee:
Colors in Nature: Red
Colors in Nature: Orange
Oh, Jet! by Jillian Powell
Fancy Nancy Pajama Day! by Jane O'Connor
Brownie & Pearl See the Sights by Cynthia Rylant
Colors in Nature: Blue
Watching the Seasons: Summer
Watching the Seasons: Fall
Fancy Nancy Poison Ivy Expert by Jane O'Connor
Watching the Seasons: Winter
Fancy Nancy at the Museum by Jane O'Connor
Watching the Seasons: Spring
Our reading list was almost double last time's! So, they are getting there, it's just slow going. Also, the "Watching the Seasons" series was from the library and is also done by Bullfrog.
Final note, since it was Spring Break for the school district the local gym/wellness center had a superhero themed fitness class for $15 a kid. So, even though I was looking forward to an entire week resting at home without driving anywhere I signed Optimus Prime & Bumblebee up and drove the 30 minutes there everyday, dropped them off for an hour, picked them up, and then drove the 30 minutes back home. It would of been nice not driving to the neighboring town for a whole week, but they loved the class and that's what is more important.
Optimus Prime & Bumblebee are doing just fine in their schoolwork. I've been sneaking in a few extra pages here & there to try and get more done. I REALLY don't like our current schedule (I know, I know, I've already said that about a half dozen times...) so I'm trying to have them do as much as possible without burning them out.
As far as reading goes Optimus Prime had a breakthrough moment, that really only lasted that moment. We were reading Fancy Nancy and he got an entire page almost on his own. There were just two words he needed prompting with and two more words that were really hard and he had no clue. Other than those four words he read the whole page by himself, correctly, without any guessing. The next page he immediately reverted back to his usual reading habits, which is to look at a word he knows and then start guessing what word it is instead of actually reading it. Frustrating, but at least I know it's sinking in and if he would just calm down and look at the words he'd be a much better reader. Bumblebee reads okay. he'll say the words he knows, but when he gets to a word he doesn't he just stops. I try to get him to sound them out but he doesn't seem to understand the concept. I'll start sounding out the word and he doesn't finish sounding it out. Optimus Prime will finish sounding it out and he usually gets it right. So, based on the last two weeks my guess is that Optimus Prime will be reading before Bumblebee, bu that's only if he starts paying better attention.
So, what did they (we) read?
Optimus Prime:
Colors in Nature: Blue
Colors in Nature: Purple
A Cake for Dinner by Sue Graves
Fancy Nancy The Show Must Go On by Jane O'Connor
Brownie & Pearl See the Sights by Cynthia Rylant
Colors in Nature: Green
Watching the Seasons: Fall
Watching the Seasons: Summer
Fancy Nancy and the Boy form Paris by Jane O'Connor
Watching the Seasons: Spring
Fancy Nancy Sees Stars by Jane O'Connor
Watching the Seasons: Winter
Bumblebee:
Colors in Nature: Red
Colors in Nature: Orange
Oh, Jet! by Jillian Powell
Fancy Nancy Pajama Day! by Jane O'Connor
Brownie & Pearl See the Sights by Cynthia Rylant
Colors in Nature: Blue
Watching the Seasons: Summer
Watching the Seasons: Fall
Fancy Nancy Poison Ivy Expert by Jane O'Connor
Watching the Seasons: Winter
Fancy Nancy at the Museum by Jane O'Connor
Watching the Seasons: Spring
Our reading list was almost double last time's! So, they are getting there, it's just slow going. Also, the "Watching the Seasons" series was from the library and is also done by Bullfrog.
Final note, since it was Spring Break for the school district the local gym/wellness center had a superhero themed fitness class for $15 a kid. So, even though I was looking forward to an entire week resting at home without driving anywhere I signed Optimus Prime & Bumblebee up and drove the 30 minutes there everyday, dropped them off for an hour, picked them up, and then drove the 30 minutes back home. It would of been nice not driving to the neighboring town for a whole week, but they loved the class and that's what is more important.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Holiday Traditions
It's a bit late, okay it's VERY late, but here it is, my post about some of our holiday traditions. You might not remember, but way back in November I said we were going to try out some new traditions this year and I'd let you know how they worked out.
Now, I forgot to take pictures for the post, so you'll have to make do with the measly one I have up, but maybe I'll do better this year. Or maybe not. I still haven't mailed last year's Christmas cards so no one hold their breath over anything. Especially anything involving me & holidays.
So, there was one tradition my kids wanted to do, one tradition that happened kind of accidentally, and one tradition that I wanted to do.
First, when we were reading about Christmas we learned that in Russia they make 12 dishes for the 12 Apostles. My kids wanted to do something similar, and since we are not Christian I had to do a bit of thinking to figure out how we wanted to do this. So, we made 8 dishes for the gods Odin, Frigga, Freyja, Od, Thor, Sif, Freyr, & Idunn. It was WAY more cooking than I was used to. Also, we did this for Thanksgiving, not Yule. I had intended to do it again for Yule but then we went out of town for Christmas day and I didn't want a lot of leftovers sitting in the refrigerator rotting away. (It was also the first Thanksgiving meal I had ever cooked, when they were really little I never bothered and as they got older we went to my sister-in-law's for it.)
This was followed by the "accidental" tradition. Optimus Prime wanted to go on a picnic. I explained to him that people don't go on picnics in autumn/winter, and he'd have to wait until next year for us to go on one. He was pretty bummed out over this and then an idea struck me. We could have an indoor picnic the day after Thanksgiving while we put up the tree. So we did. The kids were thrilled and loved every minute of it. I also made an apple pie (my first!) and saved it for the day after so we could have it with our picnic.
So, we had our picnic, put up our tree and decorated it, and then I had my kids go get their helmets. We don't do stockings, we do viking helmets. No, this is not a pagan tradition, this was me and my husband being funny the previous Yule. You see, both Odin & Santa leave presents in our house, so of course we needed viking helmets. When we had bought the helmets for them we had intended for them to replace stockings. However, this past year my kids realized that they were missing out on stockings (even though they have helmets) so plans had to be tweaked a bit. This brings us to the final tradition we started this year. We put the helmets under the tree the day after Thanksgiving and Odin comes and leaves them a few things. This year he gave them each a new stuffed dog dressed as Santa (getting a new stuffed animal each Christmas was a tradition in my family when I was a little girl, so this is a crossover of that), a few chapter books for each of them, and a stack of books all wrapped up. The stack of books was a new book for each night, to count down the days until Santa came.
So, three new traditions spread out over 2 holidays. We haven't started any new traditions this year yet (actually, we kind of skipped over our first holiday of the year because I was so worried about Valentine's day), but we're planning on.
Now, I forgot to take pictures for the post, so you'll have to make do with the measly one I have up, but maybe I'll do better this year. Or maybe not. I still haven't mailed last year's Christmas cards so no one hold their breath over anything. Especially anything involving me & holidays.
So, there was one tradition my kids wanted to do, one tradition that happened kind of accidentally, and one tradition that I wanted to do.
First, when we were reading about Christmas we learned that in Russia they make 12 dishes for the 12 Apostles. My kids wanted to do something similar, and since we are not Christian I had to do a bit of thinking to figure out how we wanted to do this. So, we made 8 dishes for the gods Odin, Frigga, Freyja, Od, Thor, Sif, Freyr, & Idunn. It was WAY more cooking than I was used to. Also, we did this for Thanksgiving, not Yule. I had intended to do it again for Yule but then we went out of town for Christmas day and I didn't want a lot of leftovers sitting in the refrigerator rotting away. (It was also the first Thanksgiving meal I had ever cooked, when they were really little I never bothered and as they got older we went to my sister-in-law's for it.)
This was followed by the "accidental" tradition. Optimus Prime wanted to go on a picnic. I explained to him that people don't go on picnics in autumn/winter, and he'd have to wait until next year for us to go on one. He was pretty bummed out over this and then an idea struck me. We could have an indoor picnic the day after Thanksgiving while we put up the tree. So we did. The kids were thrilled and loved every minute of it. I also made an apple pie (my first!) and saved it for the day after so we could have it with our picnic.
So, we had our picnic, put up our tree and decorated it, and then I had my kids go get their helmets. We don't do stockings, we do viking helmets. No, this is not a pagan tradition, this was me and my husband being funny the previous Yule. You see, both Odin & Santa leave presents in our house, so of course we needed viking helmets. When we had bought the helmets for them we had intended for them to replace stockings. However, this past year my kids realized that they were missing out on stockings (even though they have helmets) so plans had to be tweaked a bit. This brings us to the final tradition we started this year. We put the helmets under the tree the day after Thanksgiving and Odin comes and leaves them a few things. This year he gave them each a new stuffed dog dressed as Santa (getting a new stuffed animal each Christmas was a tradition in my family when I was a little girl, so this is a crossover of that), a few chapter books for each of them, and a stack of books all wrapped up. The stack of books was a new book for each night, to count down the days until Santa came.
 |
| We even have an Odin tree topper. It's a Santa in a white suit, but we call him Odin. |
So, three new traditions spread out over 2 holidays. We haven't started any new traditions this year yet (actually, we kind of skipped over our first holiday of the year because I was so worried about Valentine's day), but we're planning on.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Questions: Homeschooling & Scheduling
Okay, as promised here is a "Part 2" to yesterday's post. Yesterday I talked about time - making time for homeschooling, how much time we homeschool, etc. Today I'm going to talk about scheduling. These two topics always seem to go hand-in-hand so I hope this helps any questions you have. Any more, feel free to ask.
Do you have a set schedule?
Yes... and no. We have a set schedule for the six subjects a day that Optimus Prime & Bumblebee do, but that's it. Scooby-Doo is isn't even preschool age yet, if he doesn't want to do his worksheets he doesn't have to. We don't have a set "story time" or anything like that. We read what we want, when we want.
What is your schedule?
(You can always find Optimus Prime & Bumblebee's current schedule on their page and Scooby-Doo's current schedule on his.)
We have two schedules, the morning schedule and the afternoon/evening schedule.
In the morning we do all of our schoolwork and chores. We have breakfast and get dressed, then Optimus Prime & Bumblebee will do three subjects, usually followed by Scooby-Doo doing his schoolwork, followed by most of our chores for the day, followed by Optimus Prime & Bumblebee's other three subjects, followed by lunch, followed by cleaning up all the schoolwork supplies and dishes.
In the afternoon we read books, play games, do puzzles, watch a documentary, practice reading with Optimus Prime & Bumblebee, Scooby-Doo will sometimes takes a nap, things like that. The morning rush is followed by an easy day with a lot of relaxing, goofing off, and very few chores.
Right now our morning schedule is abridged because Scooby-Doo's speech therapy was more than we though it was going to be, and our afternoon schedule does not have any tv right now and not as much playtime, but it's still essentially the same.
Do you have to write up a schedule?
This really depends on the state where you live. We live in Texas, so the answer is no. If you live in New York, then the answer is yes, you legally have to have a schedule in case the state decides to stop by your house to make sure you're actually homeschooling your kids.
Now, if we take the legality aspect of the answer away (because it varies state-by-state) then my answer to you would be do what works best for you & your family. In the case of my family, my kids like a set schedule in the morning for their schoolwork and chores, followed by an unstructured day of playing and reading with very few chores. In the afternoon if I need their help with a chore, or decide it's time to read a book then I'll give them a 5 or 10 minute warning so there are no meltdowns or freakouts when they have to stop and come over to do something else.
Do you have a set schedule?
Yes... and no. We have a set schedule for the six subjects a day that Optimus Prime & Bumblebee do, but that's it. Scooby-Doo is isn't even preschool age yet, if he doesn't want to do his worksheets he doesn't have to. We don't have a set "story time" or anything like that. We read what we want, when we want.
What is your schedule?
(You can always find Optimus Prime & Bumblebee's current schedule on their page and Scooby-Doo's current schedule on his.)
We have two schedules, the morning schedule and the afternoon/evening schedule.
In the morning we do all of our schoolwork and chores. We have breakfast and get dressed, then Optimus Prime & Bumblebee will do three subjects, usually followed by Scooby-Doo doing his schoolwork, followed by most of our chores for the day, followed by Optimus Prime & Bumblebee's other three subjects, followed by lunch, followed by cleaning up all the schoolwork supplies and dishes.
In the afternoon we read books, play games, do puzzles, watch a documentary, practice reading with Optimus Prime & Bumblebee, Scooby-Doo will sometimes takes a nap, things like that. The morning rush is followed by an easy day with a lot of relaxing, goofing off, and very few chores.
Right now our morning schedule is abridged because Scooby-Doo's speech therapy was more than we though it was going to be, and our afternoon schedule does not have any tv right now and not as much playtime, but it's still essentially the same.
Do you have to write up a schedule?
This really depends on the state where you live. We live in Texas, so the answer is no. If you live in New York, then the answer is yes, you legally have to have a schedule in case the state decides to stop by your house to make sure you're actually homeschooling your kids.
Now, if we take the legality aspect of the answer away (because it varies state-by-state) then my answer to you would be do what works best for you & your family. In the case of my family, my kids like a set schedule in the morning for their schoolwork and chores, followed by an unstructured day of playing and reading with very few chores. In the afternoon if I need their help with a chore, or decide it's time to read a book then I'll give them a 5 or 10 minute warning so there are no meltdowns or freakouts when they have to stop and come over to do something else.
Do you recommend writing a schedule?
Yes, yes I do. Even if it is just a rough out line for the day/week/month you want to make sure you are covering your bases and not shortchanging your kids. Your kid needs to learn addition, subtraction, how to read, etc. and personally I really think you should have a plan to meet those goals. Now, do you need to write up a super detailed lesson plan for the day/week/month? No. Unless, of course, you want to. A rough outline will work beautifully, trust me. Just so long as you know your goals and can see them on paper it will help you to meet your goals.
Do you like having a set schedule?
No, I actually hate it. I'm lazy and just want to lay in bed all day and read books (by myself or with my kids). But life doesn't work that way, and stuff needs to get done. Everyone likes the morning schedule routine, and everyone likes like afternoon free-for-all, so we go with that.
Do you ever change your schedule?
Dear god, yes! Every three months. We don't want things to get boring here! I change what subjects we cover, the order we cover them in, the number of pages we do, the number of subjects a day, etc. By the time we get halfway through month three of our schedule everyone's ready for a change. So I change it. Homeschooling shouldn't be monotonous.
Also, sometimes plans change and schedules need to be adjusted. It's all swell and fine to write up an entire school years schedule (and in some states you legally have to) but if you plan for one month of number order in September, followed by one month of addition in October, followed by one month of subtraction in November, followed by one month of fractions in December, followed by one month of counting by fives in January, followed by one month of counting by tens in February, followed by one month of telling time in March, followed by a month of money in April, what happens when it's week three of March and you never want to look at a clock again in your life and you start getting bitchy during math lessons? Or your kid still needs help with subtraction in January?
It's currently March. Optimus Prime still needs to draw circles and x them out when doing subtraction problems, and half the time he still gets the answers wrong. If I had a schedule like the one I just mentioned I'd be pulling my hair out right now. I'd be freaking out saying, "How can he still not get it?!? We're supposed to be on telling time right now!" Instead I'm not worried about it. Our current schedule just says "4 pages of math." Right now we are reviewing number order, to make sure they still have it down. We'll come back to subtraction after we've all had a nice break from it.
What do you do when your schedule changes/is disrupted?
Okay, I hope you have a couple of hours to read about my personal life.
Kids get sick, you get sick, relatives from across the country come to visit, you relocate to a new town halfway across the country, your youngest has to go to speech therapy, your oldest two have to play t-ball, etc. These are all scenarios that we have faced, and I've probably left out a few. When Optimus Prime & Bumblebee were in kindergarten the whole family was so sick for two months straight we didn't do a single bit of schoolwork. We got the worst flu I've ever seen. Everyone was piled in bed watching movies on the computer or sleeping because there was nothing else we could do. Except for my poor husband, who actually went to work each day. We made up all that schoolwork over the next month. Everyday we did three day's worth of schoolwork, so we didn't fall behind. I was determined, and they were good sports about it. I think they were just relieved to be better again and back onto our regular schedule.
When they were in pre-k Scooby-Doo was so sick for four months straight that we just stopped homeschooling. This was also coupled with a move from Alaska to Texas. I was running on less than four hours of sleep a day, worried sick about my newborn. I was in no position to homeschool anyone. It was no big deal because they were in pre-k, and had been doing pre-k since they were 3. If it was another grade we would of made up the schoolwork, but at that time we weren't doing a set schedule. Everyday for pre-k we were just doing whatever we wanted, so we shelved the workbooks until Scooby-Doo got better.
These were major disruptions, and we bounced back. And it made us love homeschooling even more. Could you imagine pulling your kids out of school for two months straight because they couldn't seen to stop catching the flu? The back log of homework would of been hell, and my kids would of been so far behind. Instead, there was no stress, no worry. We caught up, we moved on.
If you can get over a major disruption like that, then small ones are no biggie. We have shitty days. Days when the kids are sick, days when they can't seem to focus, days when they just need a day off. I just swap our schedules a bit. Take off an extra day and make it up later on in the week. Do a little extra work each day or skip one of our normal days off. Just this week, actually, I let my kids take Thursday off and we did Thursday's schoolwork on Saturday. They were feeling burned out and wanted a day off so I let them.
Now, if a planned short-term disruption is coming up than you can just adjust your schedule accordingly. My grandmother is coming to visit in April. Every time she comes, no matter how hard I try, we do not stay on schedule. So, the week before she comes we always double up on our schoolwork. If we do schoolwork when she's here then we are doing it ahead of schedule. If we do none, then we're just fine when she leaves and my kids just got a week off. It's win-win as far as I'm concerned.
If a planned long-term disruption is coming up then just fix your schedule. Our schedule is not set in stone. Once I write it I try to do everything in my power to stick to it for the next three months but sometimes it just doesn't work and you have to start from scratch. Take this quarter. I knew Scooby-Doo had to do speech therapy, but I thought it was just going to be for two days a week, half an hour a day. "No biggie," I thought. "We can keep our schedule and just tweak it a bit. We can still do our six subjects a day for Optimus Prime & Bumblebee. We'll play Scooby-Doo's schoolwork by ear. Yes it will suck for those two days that we have to be out of town for 1 1/2 hours, but I can just make those our days off, or make one of them our day off to help lighten the load."
Then came the reality check. It was speech therapy everyday for two hours a day (plus an hour in the car). Our schedule lasted one week, and let me tell you it was a stressful week. So I tossed it and wrote a new one. I'm not happy with our current schedule, but it'll have to do for something written on the spur of the moment, and we're committed by this point in time.
The good thing about homeschooling is your ability to adapt to any situation and still come out ahead. I wish our current schedule looks different, but the major focus on reading has helped Optimus Prime & Bumblebee make huge leaps in that area in just the past few weeks. The other day Optimus Prime read a page in Fancy Nancy almost completely by himself. He didn't know two of the words (and they were big words) and he needed prompting with two other words. It was a huge breakthrough moment for him that made him (and me) realize that all his hard work was starting to pay off.
Sometimes our schedule gets disrupted beyond repair, but we just bounce back with a new set of goals, and we meet them.
I hope all of this helps!
Yes, yes I do. Even if it is just a rough out line for the day/week/month you want to make sure you are covering your bases and not shortchanging your kids. Your kid needs to learn addition, subtraction, how to read, etc. and personally I really think you should have a plan to meet those goals. Now, do you need to write up a super detailed lesson plan for the day/week/month? No. Unless, of course, you want to. A rough outline will work beautifully, trust me. Just so long as you know your goals and can see them on paper it will help you to meet your goals.
Do you like having a set schedule?
No, I actually hate it. I'm lazy and just want to lay in bed all day and read books (by myself or with my kids). But life doesn't work that way, and stuff needs to get done. Everyone likes the morning schedule routine, and everyone likes like afternoon free-for-all, so we go with that.
Do you ever change your schedule?
Dear god, yes! Every three months. We don't want things to get boring here! I change what subjects we cover, the order we cover them in, the number of pages we do, the number of subjects a day, etc. By the time we get halfway through month three of our schedule everyone's ready for a change. So I change it. Homeschooling shouldn't be monotonous.
Also, sometimes plans change and schedules need to be adjusted. It's all swell and fine to write up an entire school years schedule (and in some states you legally have to) but if you plan for one month of number order in September, followed by one month of addition in October, followed by one month of subtraction in November, followed by one month of fractions in December, followed by one month of counting by fives in January, followed by one month of counting by tens in February, followed by one month of telling time in March, followed by a month of money in April, what happens when it's week three of March and you never want to look at a clock again in your life and you start getting bitchy during math lessons? Or your kid still needs help with subtraction in January?
It's currently March. Optimus Prime still needs to draw circles and x them out when doing subtraction problems, and half the time he still gets the answers wrong. If I had a schedule like the one I just mentioned I'd be pulling my hair out right now. I'd be freaking out saying, "How can he still not get it?!? We're supposed to be on telling time right now!" Instead I'm not worried about it. Our current schedule just says "4 pages of math." Right now we are reviewing number order, to make sure they still have it down. We'll come back to subtraction after we've all had a nice break from it.
What do you do when your schedule changes/is disrupted?
Okay, I hope you have a couple of hours to read about my personal life.
Kids get sick, you get sick, relatives from across the country come to visit, you relocate to a new town halfway across the country, your youngest has to go to speech therapy, your oldest two have to play t-ball, etc. These are all scenarios that we have faced, and I've probably left out a few. When Optimus Prime & Bumblebee were in kindergarten the whole family was so sick for two months straight we didn't do a single bit of schoolwork. We got the worst flu I've ever seen. Everyone was piled in bed watching movies on the computer or sleeping because there was nothing else we could do. Except for my poor husband, who actually went to work each day. We made up all that schoolwork over the next month. Everyday we did three day's worth of schoolwork, so we didn't fall behind. I was determined, and they were good sports about it. I think they were just relieved to be better again and back onto our regular schedule.
When they were in pre-k Scooby-Doo was so sick for four months straight that we just stopped homeschooling. This was also coupled with a move from Alaska to Texas. I was running on less than four hours of sleep a day, worried sick about my newborn. I was in no position to homeschool anyone. It was no big deal because they were in pre-k, and had been doing pre-k since they were 3. If it was another grade we would of made up the schoolwork, but at that time we weren't doing a set schedule. Everyday for pre-k we were just doing whatever we wanted, so we shelved the workbooks until Scooby-Doo got better.
These were major disruptions, and we bounced back. And it made us love homeschooling even more. Could you imagine pulling your kids out of school for two months straight because they couldn't seen to stop catching the flu? The back log of homework would of been hell, and my kids would of been so far behind. Instead, there was no stress, no worry. We caught up, we moved on.
If you can get over a major disruption like that, then small ones are no biggie. We have shitty days. Days when the kids are sick, days when they can't seem to focus, days when they just need a day off. I just swap our schedules a bit. Take off an extra day and make it up later on in the week. Do a little extra work each day or skip one of our normal days off. Just this week, actually, I let my kids take Thursday off and we did Thursday's schoolwork on Saturday. They were feeling burned out and wanted a day off so I let them.
Now, if a planned short-term disruption is coming up than you can just adjust your schedule accordingly. My grandmother is coming to visit in April. Every time she comes, no matter how hard I try, we do not stay on schedule. So, the week before she comes we always double up on our schoolwork. If we do schoolwork when she's here then we are doing it ahead of schedule. If we do none, then we're just fine when she leaves and my kids just got a week off. It's win-win as far as I'm concerned.
If a planned long-term disruption is coming up then just fix your schedule. Our schedule is not set in stone. Once I write it I try to do everything in my power to stick to it for the next three months but sometimes it just doesn't work and you have to start from scratch. Take this quarter. I knew Scooby-Doo had to do speech therapy, but I thought it was just going to be for two days a week, half an hour a day. "No biggie," I thought. "We can keep our schedule and just tweak it a bit. We can still do our six subjects a day for Optimus Prime & Bumblebee. We'll play Scooby-Doo's schoolwork by ear. Yes it will suck for those two days that we have to be out of town for 1 1/2 hours, but I can just make those our days off, or make one of them our day off to help lighten the load."
Then came the reality check. It was speech therapy everyday for two hours a day (plus an hour in the car). Our schedule lasted one week, and let me tell you it was a stressful week. So I tossed it and wrote a new one. I'm not happy with our current schedule, but it'll have to do for something written on the spur of the moment, and we're committed by this point in time.
The good thing about homeschooling is your ability to adapt to any situation and still come out ahead. I wish our current schedule looks different, but the major focus on reading has helped Optimus Prime & Bumblebee make huge leaps in that area in just the past few weeks. The other day Optimus Prime read a page in Fancy Nancy almost completely by himself. He didn't know two of the words (and they were big words) and he needed prompting with two other words. It was a huge breakthrough moment for him that made him (and me) realize that all his hard work was starting to pay off.
Sometimes our schedule gets disrupted beyond repair, but we just bounce back with a new set of goals, and we meet them.
I hope all of this helps!
Monday, March 10, 2014
Questions: Homeschooling & Time
People ask me a lot of questions about homeschooling, and you know what? That's fine. I homeschool, I love homeschooling, and I love talking about homeschooling. A lot.
Seriously, I could talk about it all day, and some days I do.
I get asked so many questions about it that I decided I need to start writing posts about them to help everyone out. So here's my first one.
The biggest one (at least lately) is the time factor question, and the questions that always seem to overlap with it. So, here are the questions I've been asked (and asked, and asked) along with my responses. Hopefully they will help. Tomorrow I'll put a sort of "Part 2" of this post that tackles the question of scheduling, since those two questions always seem to go hand and hand.
Also, please don't think that just because I wrote this post I don't want people asking me about homeschooling. I don't mind getting asked questions about it. Seriously, I don't. This post is more for people who haven't emailed me yet, or who are too afraid to. Any questions you have just ask away and I will gladly answer.
How many hours a day do you homeschool?
It varies day by day. By our old/usual schedule we spend at least 1 1/2 hours and at most 3 hours. It depends on everyone's mood, how well everyone is able to focus, and what our workload looks like. On a perfect day, Optimus Prime & Bumblebee do three subjects in the morning for 30 minutes, 3 subjects right before lunch for 30 minutes, and Scooby-Doo does his schoolwork for 30 minutes somewhere in there. Spread throughout the day we read board books, storybooks, and chapter books. Optimus Prime & Bumblebee will practice their reading, or counting by 5's or 10's, or work on puzzles. Some days they play school with their dinosaurs or stuffed animals teaching them the same things they or their baby brother are learning.
Right now our schedule is a bit disrupted because Scooby-Doo goes to speech therapy everyday for 2 hours, and we have an hour round trip to get him to and from there. So, right now we only do schoolwork for about 1-1 1/2 hours each day. Optimus Prime & Bumblebee, on a perfect day, will do 3 subjects for 30 minutes in the morning followed immediately by Scooby-Doo doing his for 30 minutes. We then clean up, have lunch, load up the car, and take Scooby-Doo to speech therapy. While he's there we go off to the library to practice their reading and I'll read them some storybooks or a chapter book. We do this for about 1 1/2 hours everyday.
Is homeschooling your kids hard to do/lots of work?
Ummmm, no. Actually, it's really easy and loads of fun. Like I said, we don't have to spend much time on it each day so it's easy in that sense. Also, it's fun to plan schoolwork lessons around things like Batman. Or Halloween. Or Vikings. Or whatever strikes your (and your kids) fancy.
As far as lots of work, it can feel that way when you start out and you're a bit lost and confused and you're worried about doing it wrong, but give it a couple of weeks (or even months) and you'll find your stride and the work will just kind of disappear. It's only as hard and complex as you make it.
Where do you find the time?
We have a set schedule in the morning and that really helps (more on that tomorrow). Otherwise it only takes a few minutes here, a few minutes there. Plus, you can incorporate homeschooling into any activity. Baking a cake uses fractions & math, if you have dvd's some movies have a Spanish (or French) language option, you can read signs as you walk your kids to the park or have them read labels in the grocery store. These are just a few ideas. You don't have to sit at the table and do worksheet after worksheet and lesson plan after lesson plan. You can use anything to homeschool your kids (especially with the internet at your fingertips).
Why do you spend so little time on homeschooling each day? If your kids were in school then they would be learning for six hours or so, not the little time you say.
Every time I get asked this I get amused. Don't get me wrong, it's a legitimate question, but stop and think back to your days in school. High school was almost 15 years ago for me, but I can still remember it, and how some days it would take teachers 15 minutes to get the class to settle down and pay attention. I also remember starting to pack my bag 10 minutes before the bell rang because I just wanted to get away from whatever boring class I was in and go hang out in the hallways with my friends. I also remember substitute teachers, and how no one would listen to them and just spend the whole class acting like it was a free period.
Elementary school (where we are at right now) is no different. Scooby-Doo does his speech therapy at the elementary school in our area, so I'm there everyday, and honestly teachers only spend about 15 minutes or so on their lessons for each subject. A lot of time is spent trying to get hyper kids to settle down and stop talking. Kids ask for bathroom breaks or disrupt the class in other unintentional ways. It must be frustrating to try and get 20-30 kids who have a short attention span to settle down and pay attention for a few minutes.
So, when classes are only 45-60 minutes long and half of that is spent on settling down the class, how much are your kids really getting out of school? I'm not saying don't send your kids to school, I'm just saying be practical here. In elementary school you are there for 6 hours. Two hours of that (at least) are lunch, recess, and gym class (need to burn off all that extra energy!) each day. That leaves 4 hours for class, half of which is spent on bathroom breaks, settling kids down, and shuffling them room to room. That leaves 2 hours for class, which is pretty much how much time we spend.
Now, my kids don't have extra homework to take home, but they do have unlimited one-on-one time with me to help them get a concept down, no matter how long it takes. Kids don't get that in school.
I remember 5th grade, and learning about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. I also remember the unit test and how I was supposed to underline the verbs, circle the nouns, etc. in each sentence. I remember looking down at that page and not having a clue, so I just started circling random stuff. I remember handing in my test, and the teacher calling me back to her desk five minutes later. I remember her saying "I won't accept this. Take it back and redo it. Did you even try to answer the questions?" I remember feeling so embarrassed and humiliated as I walked back to my desk with my test. I remember moving around some of my circles and lines, and handing the test back in at the last minute so I didn't get called out again. I don't remember what my grade was, but do you know what else I do remember? I remember that unit was over, and we never went over it again even though I clearly did not understand it. My teacher couldn't hold up the whole class because of one kid. And I also remember not understanding those concepts until high school, when I had to teach them to myself because no one ever took the time to make sure I knew.
Again, I'm not saying you shouldn't send your kids to school. But while my kids might only spend a couple of hours each day on actual work, we work on something until they understand it. We don't just wash our hands of the unit and say, "Too bad, he/she had his/her chance and they missed it."
How do you know what your child's time limits are?
Trust me, they'll tell you. My kids can only sit still for three subjects at once. Any more than that and I'm pushing it and they are tuning me out.
Seriously, I could talk about it all day, and some days I do.
I get asked so many questions about it that I decided I need to start writing posts about them to help everyone out. So here's my first one.
The biggest one (at least lately) is the time factor question, and the questions that always seem to overlap with it. So, here are the questions I've been asked (and asked, and asked) along with my responses. Hopefully they will help. Tomorrow I'll put a sort of "Part 2" of this post that tackles the question of scheduling, since those two questions always seem to go hand and hand.
Also, please don't think that just because I wrote this post I don't want people asking me about homeschooling. I don't mind getting asked questions about it. Seriously, I don't. This post is more for people who haven't emailed me yet, or who are too afraid to. Any questions you have just ask away and I will gladly answer.
How many hours a day do you homeschool?
It varies day by day. By our old/usual schedule we spend at least 1 1/2 hours and at most 3 hours. It depends on everyone's mood, how well everyone is able to focus, and what our workload looks like. On a perfect day, Optimus Prime & Bumblebee do three subjects in the morning for 30 minutes, 3 subjects right before lunch for 30 minutes, and Scooby-Doo does his schoolwork for 30 minutes somewhere in there. Spread throughout the day we read board books, storybooks, and chapter books. Optimus Prime & Bumblebee will practice their reading, or counting by 5's or 10's, or work on puzzles. Some days they play school with their dinosaurs or stuffed animals teaching them the same things they or their baby brother are learning.
Right now our schedule is a bit disrupted because Scooby-Doo goes to speech therapy everyday for 2 hours, and we have an hour round trip to get him to and from there. So, right now we only do schoolwork for about 1-1 1/2 hours each day. Optimus Prime & Bumblebee, on a perfect day, will do 3 subjects for 30 minutes in the morning followed immediately by Scooby-Doo doing his for 30 minutes. We then clean up, have lunch, load up the car, and take Scooby-Doo to speech therapy. While he's there we go off to the library to practice their reading and I'll read them some storybooks or a chapter book. We do this for about 1 1/2 hours everyday.
Is homeschooling your kids hard to do/lots of work?
Ummmm, no. Actually, it's really easy and loads of fun. Like I said, we don't have to spend much time on it each day so it's easy in that sense. Also, it's fun to plan schoolwork lessons around things like Batman. Or Halloween. Or Vikings. Or whatever strikes your (and your kids) fancy.
As far as lots of work, it can feel that way when you start out and you're a bit lost and confused and you're worried about doing it wrong, but give it a couple of weeks (or even months) and you'll find your stride and the work will just kind of disappear. It's only as hard and complex as you make it.
Where do you find the time?
We have a set schedule in the morning and that really helps (more on that tomorrow). Otherwise it only takes a few minutes here, a few minutes there. Plus, you can incorporate homeschooling into any activity. Baking a cake uses fractions & math, if you have dvd's some movies have a Spanish (or French) language option, you can read signs as you walk your kids to the park or have them read labels in the grocery store. These are just a few ideas. You don't have to sit at the table and do worksheet after worksheet and lesson plan after lesson plan. You can use anything to homeschool your kids (especially with the internet at your fingertips).
Why do you spend so little time on homeschooling each day? If your kids were in school then they would be learning for six hours or so, not the little time you say.
Every time I get asked this I get amused. Don't get me wrong, it's a legitimate question, but stop and think back to your days in school. High school was almost 15 years ago for me, but I can still remember it, and how some days it would take teachers 15 minutes to get the class to settle down and pay attention. I also remember starting to pack my bag 10 minutes before the bell rang because I just wanted to get away from whatever boring class I was in and go hang out in the hallways with my friends. I also remember substitute teachers, and how no one would listen to them and just spend the whole class acting like it was a free period.
Elementary school (where we are at right now) is no different. Scooby-Doo does his speech therapy at the elementary school in our area, so I'm there everyday, and honestly teachers only spend about 15 minutes or so on their lessons for each subject. A lot of time is spent trying to get hyper kids to settle down and stop talking. Kids ask for bathroom breaks or disrupt the class in other unintentional ways. It must be frustrating to try and get 20-30 kids who have a short attention span to settle down and pay attention for a few minutes.
So, when classes are only 45-60 minutes long and half of that is spent on settling down the class, how much are your kids really getting out of school? I'm not saying don't send your kids to school, I'm just saying be practical here. In elementary school you are there for 6 hours. Two hours of that (at least) are lunch, recess, and gym class (need to burn off all that extra energy!) each day. That leaves 4 hours for class, half of which is spent on bathroom breaks, settling kids down, and shuffling them room to room. That leaves 2 hours for class, which is pretty much how much time we spend.
Now, my kids don't have extra homework to take home, but they do have unlimited one-on-one time with me to help them get a concept down, no matter how long it takes. Kids don't get that in school.
I remember 5th grade, and learning about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. I also remember the unit test and how I was supposed to underline the verbs, circle the nouns, etc. in each sentence. I remember looking down at that page and not having a clue, so I just started circling random stuff. I remember handing in my test, and the teacher calling me back to her desk five minutes later. I remember her saying "I won't accept this. Take it back and redo it. Did you even try to answer the questions?" I remember feeling so embarrassed and humiliated as I walked back to my desk with my test. I remember moving around some of my circles and lines, and handing the test back in at the last minute so I didn't get called out again. I don't remember what my grade was, but do you know what else I do remember? I remember that unit was over, and we never went over it again even though I clearly did not understand it. My teacher couldn't hold up the whole class because of one kid. And I also remember not understanding those concepts until high school, when I had to teach them to myself because no one ever took the time to make sure I knew.
Again, I'm not saying you shouldn't send your kids to school. But while my kids might only spend a couple of hours each day on actual work, we work on something until they understand it. We don't just wash our hands of the unit and say, "Too bad, he/she had his/her chance and they missed it."
How do you know what your child's time limits are?
Trust me, they'll tell you. My kids can only sit still for three subjects at once. Any more than that and I'm pushing it and they are tuning me out.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Concept Week #10: Pirates
Pirates was lots of fun. My kids are crazy about pirates - actually, show me a kid who isn't. They love Captain Jack Sparrow, they love the Disney movie "Treasure Planet" (based on the book Treasure Island), they love the Muppet movie "Treasure Island," they love Scooby-Doo episodes that involve pirates (especially the Globetrotters one), they love the Scooby-Doo movie "Pirates Ahoy!"... I'm sure you are getting the picture here. We even have pirate lego sets. My kids love pirates, and they love playing pirates.
So doing a unit about pirates was both a piece of cake and a blast. Now, I went to education.com where I got some pirate dot-to-dots, word searches, math problems, coloring sheets, etc. but they were really rather light on actual schoolwork. It was all fun stuff, which was a bit disappointing, but not the end of the world. They did have a pages about famous pirates (real and fictional) including Blackbeard, Captain William Kidd, and Captain Hook. So we did get to read a bit about them. They also had an abridged version of Treasure Island up so we printed that and I read it to them. The unit was very light on worksheets, but truthfully it was a nice break with how hectic our schedule was while the unit was going on.
We had another jigsaw book for our project, this one obviously about pirates. It was a neat book. You followed Captain Lotsaloot around as he and his crew pillaged ships on the sea, while reading about real pirates and how they actually lived. So not only was it full of pirate puzzles (a win as far as my boys were concerned) but it was also full of pirate facts (a win as far as I'm concerned).
For our book we read a Serendipity book called Cap'n Smudge by Stephen Cosgrove. Now, the book was about a fisherman and not a pirate, but he did have a bird and a wooden leg. Also, we don't have any kids pirate story books, just books about the way pirates lived and survived. Since we had already covered that with their pirate jigsaw book I didn't see the need to tackle it again. So we read a story book about a mean fisherman who ran around polluting the water where everyone fishes because they made fun of him for having a wooden leg. The story ended with a moral, like all Serendipity books do.
So doing a unit about pirates was both a piece of cake and a blast. Now, I went to education.com where I got some pirate dot-to-dots, word searches, math problems, coloring sheets, etc. but they were really rather light on actual schoolwork. It was all fun stuff, which was a bit disappointing, but not the end of the world. They did have a pages about famous pirates (real and fictional) including Blackbeard, Captain William Kidd, and Captain Hook. So we did get to read a bit about them. They also had an abridged version of Treasure Island up so we printed that and I read it to them. The unit was very light on worksheets, but truthfully it was a nice break with how hectic our schedule was while the unit was going on.
We had another jigsaw book for our project, this one obviously about pirates. It was a neat book. You followed Captain Lotsaloot around as he and his crew pillaged ships on the sea, while reading about real pirates and how they actually lived. So not only was it full of pirate puzzles (a win as far as my boys were concerned) but it was also full of pirate facts (a win as far as I'm concerned).
For our book we read a Serendipity book called Cap'n Smudge by Stephen Cosgrove. Now, the book was about a fisherman and not a pirate, but he did have a bird and a wooden leg. Also, we don't have any kids pirate story books, just books about the way pirates lived and survived. Since we had already covered that with their pirate jigsaw book I didn't see the need to tackle it again. So we read a story book about a mean fisherman who ran around polluting the water where everyone fishes because they made fun of him for having a wooden leg. The story ended with a moral, like all Serendipity books do.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Science Project #1: Do Oil & Water Mix?
So, I think I mentioned this in a previous post (yes, I did), but we've decided to start doing a monthly science project.
Now, I never worried about this before because this is what the Concept Weeks are for. It's a combination of reading, math, history, science, geography, cooking, mythology, logic, etc. We do some worksheets, we read a book, we do a project - all of which pertain to the same topic. Sure, science isn't always covered, but neither are any of the other subjects listed. It's a unit that blends all of those things together.
However, we saw a science experiment in one of their magazines, and it looked really cool, so we gave it a go. And it was really cool so you should do it as well.
Supplies:
Now, we did one color the first time (no photos, sorry) so the second time we did two colors and it looked a lot cooler. Your choice.
First, put a couple tablespoons of oil in the mug, then add about five drops of food coloring. If you are doing two colors instead of one you might want to use a little less food coloring (or a bigger glass).
With your spoons stir the food coloring & oil mixture until the food coloring breaks up into lots of small balls.
Add water to your glass, and pour in your oil mixture.
Sit back and watch as the colored water separates from the oil (side note - for some reason our Neon Pink fell a lot slower than our Neon Yellow).
Now, I never worried about this before because this is what the Concept Weeks are for. It's a combination of reading, math, history, science, geography, cooking, mythology, logic, etc. We do some worksheets, we read a book, we do a project - all of which pertain to the same topic. Sure, science isn't always covered, but neither are any of the other subjects listed. It's a unit that blends all of those things together.
However, we saw a science experiment in one of their magazines, and it looked really cool, so we gave it a go. And it was really cool so you should do it as well.
Supplies:
- 1 clear glass half filled with water
- 1-2 mugs with a couple of tablespoons of vegetable/canola oil in them
- 1-2 food coloring colors
- 1-2 spoons
 |
| Star Wars not mugs optional. |
First, put a couple tablespoons of oil in the mug, then add about five drops of food coloring. If you are doing two colors instead of one you might want to use a little less food coloring (or a bigger glass).
With your spoons stir the food coloring & oil mixture until the food coloring breaks up into lots of small balls.
Add water to your glass, and pour in your oil mixture.
Sit back and watch as the colored water separates from the oil (side note - for some reason our Neon Pink fell a lot slower than our Neon Yellow).
 |
| A close up of the glass, taken by Optimus Prime. |
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Concept Week #9: Outer Space
(To be completely honest, I'm not sure how this post never made it up.)
This week we tackled Outer Space. Our poor Outer Space unit... We've been sitting on it for months and months now, and I still wasn't even 100% sure that we'd get to it this month. But, here we are!
I printed up a ton of worksheets from education.com - all about astronauts, the planets, some of the space missions, space suits, the moons, the sun, etc. Plus, there were some math worksheets, some alphabet worksheets, some mazes, and other fun stuff. All related to outer space.
I was torn over what to do for our project. We have a neat model kit of the solar system that has been kicking around for years, since before we ever had kids even (if you want the back story it's the exact same one as in our Ancient Egypt unit, only this time it was me who bought the kit and not my mom). So I was torn between doing that (even though I wasn't sure my kids would be up to it, it looked pretty hard and we have no real place to put it) and another jigsaw puzzle book. The jigsaw puzzle book won. Which was fine in the end because they loved it (they always do).
And for our book we read "The Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon" by Mary Pope Osborne. We've never done a chapter book before for our book. First time for everything, I guess. Of course, we still haven't read Ancient Greece's chapter book, but that's another story...
Anyway, not much to say except they LOVED the unit. Also, it led to us talking about how people are currently trying to colonize Mars. Which led to me telling them that it was a one-way ticket for whoever was picked. Which led to tears, especially from Bumblebee, because they don't want to move to Mars away from their family, friends, books, movies, toys, etc. I had to reassure them MULTIPLE times that we weren't going to Mars, and that no one we know is going either.
MULTIPLE times.
So no one had better be going to Mars.
This week we tackled Outer Space. Our poor Outer Space unit... We've been sitting on it for months and months now, and I still wasn't even 100% sure that we'd get to it this month. But, here we are!
I printed up a ton of worksheets from education.com - all about astronauts, the planets, some of the space missions, space suits, the moons, the sun, etc. Plus, there were some math worksheets, some alphabet worksheets, some mazes, and other fun stuff. All related to outer space.
I was torn over what to do for our project. We have a neat model kit of the solar system that has been kicking around for years, since before we ever had kids even (if you want the back story it's the exact same one as in our Ancient Egypt unit, only this time it was me who bought the kit and not my mom). So I was torn between doing that (even though I wasn't sure my kids would be up to it, it looked pretty hard and we have no real place to put it) and another jigsaw puzzle book. The jigsaw puzzle book won. Which was fine in the end because they loved it (they always do).
And for our book we read "The Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon" by Mary Pope Osborne. We've never done a chapter book before for our book. First time for everything, I guess. Of course, we still haven't read Ancient Greece's chapter book, but that's another story...
Anyway, not much to say except they LOVED the unit. Also, it led to us talking about how people are currently trying to colonize Mars. Which led to me telling them that it was a one-way ticket for whoever was picked. Which led to tears, especially from Bumblebee, because they don't want to move to Mars away from their family, friends, books, movies, toys, etc. I had to reassure them MULTIPLE times that we weren't going to Mars, and that no one we know is going either.
MULTIPLE times.
So no one had better be going to Mars.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Two Week Review: February 16 - March 1
I spent the last few days debating about the longevity and practicality of the "Two Week Review" posts. I thought about stopping them, I thought about making them monthly, I thought about making them quarterly, and I thought about continuing them. Which is the most practical? Which is the most informative? Which is the most helpful to me and my audience? Does anyone actually read these posts? Do I really need to rehash what we did (especially since it's currently a rather pitiful line-up)?
Long story short, in the end I decided that they need to stay, but for the whole of this quarter I'm not going to get into specific details about what we are doing in our "classes." Why? Because we really don't have any consistent classes this quarter. Yes, I could talk about what we did in Math the four times we did it over the last two weeks, but it's not the same level of information as when we did five times a week for two weeks. W're only doing subjects like Geography and Spanish once a week here. They're not really getting much out of these subjects right now. It's more like touching base than learning something new. How can they learn something new when the next time we'll talk about it could be an entire week away? What's the point, their chances of retaining it are non-existent.
For now the focus is on teaching Optimus Prime and Bumblebee how to read, and Scooby-Doo how to speak. So, if something relevant comes up in a class (like a major break through) then yes, I'll post about it. Otherwise these posts (for now) will just be about the level of reading Optimus Prime & Bumblebee are at and updates on Scooby-Doo's speech therapy.
So, Scooby-Doo started going to speech therapy consistently. We now no longer go with him. There were tears at first when we dropped him off, but he's warmed up to the staff. There are four different people he works with: two developmental specialists (they are who he regularly sees), the speech therapist (who visits him sometimes), and a preschool teacher (who also visits him sometimes). We did nothing at home in regards to schoolwork, however he counts for his therapists all the time (he refuses to admit he knows some of his alphabet) and they say that he talks a lot (even if they can't understand a word of it).
Lets see, now onto Optimus Prime and Bumblebee... We did nothing for these two weeks other than read books. I read to them, they tried to read to me, they did read to me (sometimes) - that sums it up. So, what did we read? A lot. The "Reading List"/"Book Series We Have Read" pages have exploded. The number of books we read in one month is pretty similar to the number of books we generally read in three months. And this doesn't count all of the non-chapter books we read and the number of books they have read to me. So what did they read to me? We've been working our way through "Fancy Nancy" (which is the only level one books I could find at our library) and Bullfrog's "Colors in Nature" series (also from the library). The list follows.
Optimus Prime:
Big Bear, Small Bear by Stan & Jan Berenstain
Fancy Nancy at the Museum by Jane O'Connor
I Spy a Skeleton
Fancy Nancy Poison Ivy Expert by Jane O'Connor
Colors in Nature: Red
Colors in Nature: Orange
Colors in Nature: Yellow
Bumblebee:
Big Bear, Small Bear by Stan & Jan Berenstain
Fancy Nancy Sees Stars by Jane O'Connor
I Spy a Skeleton
Fancy Nancy The Dazzling Book Report by Jane O'Connor
Colors in Nature: Green
Colors in Nature: Yellow
Colors in Nature: Purple
We tackled 3-5 pages in one sitting depending on how hard the book was. The exceptions to this were "Big Bear, Small Bear" which we did in one sitting since they have most of it memorized and "I Spy a Skeleton" since the book had picture sentences. We read so much that they did an entire month's work in two weeks. So, I think we did okay. Hopefully they'll get this whole reading thing down soon.
Long story short, in the end I decided that they need to stay, but for the whole of this quarter I'm not going to get into specific details about what we are doing in our "classes." Why? Because we really don't have any consistent classes this quarter. Yes, I could talk about what we did in Math the four times we did it over the last two weeks, but it's not the same level of information as when we did five times a week for two weeks. W're only doing subjects like Geography and Spanish once a week here. They're not really getting much out of these subjects right now. It's more like touching base than learning something new. How can they learn something new when the next time we'll talk about it could be an entire week away? What's the point, their chances of retaining it are non-existent.
For now the focus is on teaching Optimus Prime and Bumblebee how to read, and Scooby-Doo how to speak. So, if something relevant comes up in a class (like a major break through) then yes, I'll post about it. Otherwise these posts (for now) will just be about the level of reading Optimus Prime & Bumblebee are at and updates on Scooby-Doo's speech therapy.
So, Scooby-Doo started going to speech therapy consistently. We now no longer go with him. There were tears at first when we dropped him off, but he's warmed up to the staff. There are four different people he works with: two developmental specialists (they are who he regularly sees), the speech therapist (who visits him sometimes), and a preschool teacher (who also visits him sometimes). We did nothing at home in regards to schoolwork, however he counts for his therapists all the time (he refuses to admit he knows some of his alphabet) and they say that he talks a lot (even if they can't understand a word of it).
Lets see, now onto Optimus Prime and Bumblebee... We did nothing for these two weeks other than read books. I read to them, they tried to read to me, they did read to me (sometimes) - that sums it up. So, what did we read? A lot. The "Reading List"/"Book Series We Have Read" pages have exploded. The number of books we read in one month is pretty similar to the number of books we generally read in three months. And this doesn't count all of the non-chapter books we read and the number of books they have read to me. So what did they read to me? We've been working our way through "Fancy Nancy" (which is the only level one books I could find at our library) and Bullfrog's "Colors in Nature" series (also from the library). The list follows.
Optimus Prime:
Big Bear, Small Bear by Stan & Jan Berenstain
Fancy Nancy at the Museum by Jane O'Connor
I Spy a Skeleton
Fancy Nancy Poison Ivy Expert by Jane O'Connor
Colors in Nature: Red
Colors in Nature: Orange
Colors in Nature: Yellow
Bumblebee:
Big Bear, Small Bear by Stan & Jan Berenstain
Fancy Nancy Sees Stars by Jane O'Connor
I Spy a Skeleton
Fancy Nancy The Dazzling Book Report by Jane O'Connor
Colors in Nature: Green
Colors in Nature: Yellow
Colors in Nature: Purple
We tackled 3-5 pages in one sitting depending on how hard the book was. The exceptions to this were "Big Bear, Small Bear" which we did in one sitting since they have most of it memorized and "I Spy a Skeleton" since the book had picture sentences. We read so much that they did an entire month's work in two weeks. So, I think we did okay. Hopefully they'll get this whole reading thing down soon.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
A Note on February
February was crazy.
My husband was switched from the day shift at his job to the swing shift. Everyone in the house came down with a nasty cold. Twice. Optimus Prime got a fever. Scooby-Doo started speech therapy which meant a three hour trip everyday, Monday thru Friday. House work started sliding. Schoolwork started sliding. Dinner started to become pizza from the pizza place on the way home. Lunch was the leftover pizza from the night before. My workout schedule was thrown out. The dogs got sick. The eczema on my hands blew up big time, making what little housework I was doing excruciating painful. My husband was too busy with his online college classes and his full time job to help me out at all. And I didn't read a single book, except for one about how to set up a schedule when cleaning your house.
Yes, I actually bought a book about how to clean your house. I was starting to get desperate.
However, out of all of that chaos we started to find our rhythm the last week of February and now everything is (more or less) okay. We have a new cleaning schedule that is working rather well. We now just do three subjects in the morning for our schoolwork. I sometimes feel guilty about this, but we spend Monday thru Friday afternoons at our local library trying to teach Optimus Prime and Bumblebee how to read. And, we bring lots of books (read: three per kid usually) home so we can do the same over the weekend. No rest for the weary! They will learn how to read since we can't really do anything else in regards to schoolwork. Scooby-Doo is now starting to enjoy his speech therapy and actually looks forward to it everyday. I know he's ready to go when he ambushes me first thing in the morning naked, holding his Disney Cars crocs saying "Kaa Sho! Kaa Sho!" Yeah kid, you need clothes on first before your "Cars Shoes." My eczema is getting better but I think I'm going to have to suck it up and go to the doctor's for a refill on my medication. And lastly, we also decided to start doing a Science experiment each month. We did one in February, we're doing our March one today, and I'll start posting again tomorrow.
It was a nice month off from blogging, and I really needed it, but like I said, no rest for the weary - my kids need an education!
My husband was switched from the day shift at his job to the swing shift. Everyone in the house came down with a nasty cold. Twice. Optimus Prime got a fever. Scooby-Doo started speech therapy which meant a three hour trip everyday, Monday thru Friday. House work started sliding. Schoolwork started sliding. Dinner started to become pizza from the pizza place on the way home. Lunch was the leftover pizza from the night before. My workout schedule was thrown out. The dogs got sick. The eczema on my hands blew up big time, making what little housework I was doing excruciating painful. My husband was too busy with his online college classes and his full time job to help me out at all. And I didn't read a single book, except for one about how to set up a schedule when cleaning your house.
Yes, I actually bought a book about how to clean your house. I was starting to get desperate.
However, out of all of that chaos we started to find our rhythm the last week of February and now everything is (more or less) okay. We have a new cleaning schedule that is working rather well. We now just do three subjects in the morning for our schoolwork. I sometimes feel guilty about this, but we spend Monday thru Friday afternoons at our local library trying to teach Optimus Prime and Bumblebee how to read. And, we bring lots of books (read: three per kid usually) home so we can do the same over the weekend. No rest for the weary! They will learn how to read since we can't really do anything else in regards to schoolwork. Scooby-Doo is now starting to enjoy his speech therapy and actually looks forward to it everyday. I know he's ready to go when he ambushes me first thing in the morning naked, holding his Disney Cars crocs saying "Kaa Sho! Kaa Sho!" Yeah kid, you need clothes on first before your "Cars Shoes." My eczema is getting better but I think I'm going to have to suck it up and go to the doctor's for a refill on my medication. And lastly, we also decided to start doing a Science experiment each month. We did one in February, we're doing our March one today, and I'll start posting again tomorrow.
It was a nice month off from blogging, and I really needed it, but like I said, no rest for the weary - my kids need an education!
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