So I logged in this morning to talk about Ancient Egypt and work on putting up our new schedule when I realized that I never put up a post about Seasons & Weather.
Whoops.
So, a quick post about this topic (since it's really rather self-explanatory).
Like I said before, this Concept Week was an extension of the previous one, Calendars.
I found a TON of worksheets at education.com talking about seasons, however they were mostly about the holidays that occur during the seasons. It worked out, though, since I was able to tie in what the holidays meant, and why they were celebrated when they were. They also had some weather worksheets, but most of them were above my boys or were supposed to be done over the course of a month, so I only printed up a few.
It wound up being a really easy unit, but truthfully that worked out perfectly for us since we had just recovered from falling behind and were looking at doing Ancient Egypt within a few days.
We had another jigsaw puzzle book (called "Wonderful Weather") for our project. For our story book we used Chip's Favorite Season by Scholastic. It's a short, rhyming book that talks about how all the seasons are Chip's (from Disney's Beauty and the Beast) favorite for different reasons. The book actually worked better than some of the worksheets, since the season's weather was fully described.
Even though the unit was real easy and didn't quite work out the way I was planning on I'm still glad we did it. My kids definitely needed a refresher on some things, and for other things they didn't realize or never made the connection before.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Two Week Review: September 27 - October 10
You know I completely forgot about this post. It's a good thing that I had most of it written up already and I only had to polish it up a bit, otherwise I would of had no clue what I was supposed to be talking about!
So, Scooby-Doo is completely caught up according to his "schedule." He's back to liking coloring books. He'll color in them, put stickers in them, give the pages polka dots instead of coloring them... whatever, at least he doesn't hate them anymore! I guess it was just that Batman coloring book that he didn't like.
I wrote up the new schedule and I've decided to start doing Alphabet workbooks with him next quarter, on top of his Colors & Shapes workbooks.
Lastly, Scooby-Doo has gone book crazy these past two weeks. Instead of one favorite book he now has a dozen. He follows me around the house carrying at least one of them, demanding that I read it to him no matter what I'm doing. So far the only place he hasn't ambushed me is the shower!
Optimus Prime and Bumblebee did their September Concept Week - we did Seasons & Weather. I'll work on getting the post up in the next couple of days here.
Nothing really new went on in the way of curriculum.
Handwriting is Handwriting. In Spanish we did Shapes (let me tell you that Colors unit was unbearably LONG!). Science we learned about Asian animals. We're onto landforms in Geography, which they are really excited about. They really love Geography. Logic and Art are the same - they love Logic and always want to do more, Art they are indifferent on.
We're almost done with our English book, which is nice because it means we can move onto something new. I was both glad and irritated that our current English book is the same as our last one. On one hand I'm like "That's sheer laziness on the publishing companies part" but on the other hand I'm like "Thank goodness we can go over these exact same pages again since only half of it sunk in the first time."
We started a new Math book and had nothing but easy review pages. It was a nice break, but next week starts with real Math pages and I'm cringing while looking at some of them. It's all stuff they know, and Bumblebee will do fine, but the pages have a lot of problems on them and I'm worried about Optimus Prime getting frustrated and just giving up. Math is not his strongest subject. There are pages in there that are nothing but 36 addition and/or subtraction problems with no pictures for help. Bumblebee will see it as a challenge to get through the whole page on his own, and he'll get at least 75% of them right. Optimus Prime will either be relieved that he's getting his brothers help or he'll panic. We'll see.
Spelling had a change. I decided to drop the Spelling quiz. I decided to try something different next quarter for Spelling, and that included dropping the quizzes, so I decided to take pity on them and figured their last four quizzes they don't have to do. We'll see how it works.
Big news in Reading/Reading Comprehension! Optimus Prime is starting to guess what sentences say based on the words he does know and the picture on the page! I'm excited. He might not be super good at Math, but he has other strengths - like Spanish and Reading.
So, Scooby-Doo is completely caught up according to his "schedule." He's back to liking coloring books. He'll color in them, put stickers in them, give the pages polka dots instead of coloring them... whatever, at least he doesn't hate them anymore! I guess it was just that Batman coloring book that he didn't like.
I wrote up the new schedule and I've decided to start doing Alphabet workbooks with him next quarter, on top of his Colors & Shapes workbooks.
Lastly, Scooby-Doo has gone book crazy these past two weeks. Instead of one favorite book he now has a dozen. He follows me around the house carrying at least one of them, demanding that I read it to him no matter what I'm doing. So far the only place he hasn't ambushed me is the shower!
Optimus Prime and Bumblebee did their September Concept Week - we did Seasons & Weather. I'll work on getting the post up in the next couple of days here.
Nothing really new went on in the way of curriculum.
Handwriting is Handwriting. In Spanish we did Shapes (let me tell you that Colors unit was unbearably LONG!). Science we learned about Asian animals. We're onto landforms in Geography, which they are really excited about. They really love Geography. Logic and Art are the same - they love Logic and always want to do more, Art they are indifferent on.
We're almost done with our English book, which is nice because it means we can move onto something new. I was both glad and irritated that our current English book is the same as our last one. On one hand I'm like "That's sheer laziness on the publishing companies part" but on the other hand I'm like "Thank goodness we can go over these exact same pages again since only half of it sunk in the first time."
We started a new Math book and had nothing but easy review pages. It was a nice break, but next week starts with real Math pages and I'm cringing while looking at some of them. It's all stuff they know, and Bumblebee will do fine, but the pages have a lot of problems on them and I'm worried about Optimus Prime getting frustrated and just giving up. Math is not his strongest subject. There are pages in there that are nothing but 36 addition and/or subtraction problems with no pictures for help. Bumblebee will see it as a challenge to get through the whole page on his own, and he'll get at least 75% of them right. Optimus Prime will either be relieved that he's getting his brothers help or he'll panic. We'll see.
Spelling had a change. I decided to drop the Spelling quiz. I decided to try something different next quarter for Spelling, and that included dropping the quizzes, so I decided to take pity on them and figured their last four quizzes they don't have to do. We'll see how it works.
Big news in Reading/Reading Comprehension! Optimus Prime is starting to guess what sentences say based on the words he does know and the picture on the page! I'm excited. He might not be super good at Math, but he has other strengths - like Spanish and Reading.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Thoughts On Unschooling
I just found this blog today, by following a link on facebook, and on it I found this very interesting post about unschooling and this (also interesting) post about unschooling (same blog, a very good blog too from my glance, I want to add). After reading these posts it got me thinking about the schedule that I just wrote up for next quarter (and haven't gotten around to posting yet because it's still a bit too early, start looking in a week) and some of the big changes I had made to it - and it also got me thinking about unschooling in general.
For those of you who don't know unschooling is one of the most controversial, misrepresented, and misunderstood (by both the pubic and, oddly, unschoolers) form of homeschooling that there is. Essentially what unschooling is, is homeschooling by following your child's interests. There really is no structure, you just let your child play, learn, and explore largely on their own but with you there every step of the way to guide them, support them, and nudge them if you have to. You don't force, you don't threaten, you don't write up lesson plans, and you don't quiz or test.
I say that it is misunderstood because a lot of people - unschoolers included - believe it means a completely hands-off approach to homeschooling your child. You don't do anything with them, they have to figure out everything on their own or you only teach them when they ask, you never check on their progress, you never make sure they are actually learning anything, etc. Some unschoolers don't even read books to their babies because they argue that they are waiting for their child to show an interest in reading and books.
This could not be further from the truth. True unschoolers may not buy textbooks and force their kids to sit at the table for six hours a day with a lunch and recess break, but they are VERY involved in their child's learning process. They go out of their way to provide their kids with the resources and tools that they need to learn, they step back and watch, and step in to help when needed.
With all that said, while we have a semi-structured schedule and workbooks I actually do consider myself an unschooler. Some unschoolers probably would not consider me one, and that's fine, everyone does have their own opinion about what unschooling is or means and even though I just wrote a couple of paragraphs about "real unschoolers" there are some unschoolers out there that stand by their refusal to read to their kids so that their kids can figure it out on their own.
Just like with everything else there is a right, a left, and a middle ground. There is no one right definition for every single person, and what it ultimately comes down to is unschooling is about doing what works best for you and your family even if it's the exact opposite of what other unschoolers do.
Which is why I consider myself an unschooler even though we have a schedule, workbooks, and quizzes.
We do this because, as I've explained to my kids before, I want them to have a good foundation for when they play, learn, and explore. When we did our Dinosaur Concept Week Bumblebee learned even more about dinosaurs then he already knew. Optimus Prime is always picking up new Spanish words and he uses them around the house in place of the English ones. We just finished up our Seasons Concept Week and my kids learned about Kwanzaa and Hanukkah because of it, holidays that I didn't even think to mention to them because we know no one who celebrates them. As a matter of fact, they decided to make Hanukkah cards to mail to Santa! In our Science book we learn about animals from all over the world, animals that I had never even heard of before we started. Geography taught them how to read maps, something that they had asked me multiple times to show them how to do.
All of their structured schoolwork is based on their desire to learn these topics - even the dreaded Spelling lessons! They might hate Spelling, but they are desperate to learn how to read, they are so eager and impatient, so while they might hate writing out their spelling words they are so proud of themselves when they get them down and are able to pick the word out of a book all on their own.
My kids LOVE workbooks. They love getting reward stickers on the pages they do really good on. They love when I ask them questions about what we just learned and they get to show off how smart they are. They love discussing a topic (sometimes to death!) after we've just learned about it. They love debating, forming opinions, thinking things through that weren't mentioned in the books, and making (quasi-educated) guesses.
One day we will drop the workbooks because we won't need them anymore. One day they will be able to completely read on their own, figure out math problems on their own, etc and sitting at the table to fill in workbook pages about addition, handwriting, dinosaurs or lemurs will just seem silly. Yes, we'll still have some sort of basic structure to our homeschooling, but they will have the basic foundation that they need to go new places without me holding their hand anymore. Workbooks? Nope. Quizzes? Nope. Book goals? Maybe. Book reports? Maybe. Zoo and museum trips? Yes. Discussing and debating books we have read? Yes. Discussing and debating current news stories? Yes. Discussing and debating every other new thing we learned? Yes!
So while we can debate til the cows come home just how far you should take unschooling one way or the other, what it is really about is teaching your child all of the topics that they yearn to learn in the way that works best for you and your child.
For those of you who don't know unschooling is one of the most controversial, misrepresented, and misunderstood (by both the pubic and, oddly, unschoolers) form of homeschooling that there is. Essentially what unschooling is, is homeschooling by following your child's interests. There really is no structure, you just let your child play, learn, and explore largely on their own but with you there every step of the way to guide them, support them, and nudge them if you have to. You don't force, you don't threaten, you don't write up lesson plans, and you don't quiz or test.
I say that it is misunderstood because a lot of people - unschoolers included - believe it means a completely hands-off approach to homeschooling your child. You don't do anything with them, they have to figure out everything on their own or you only teach them when they ask, you never check on their progress, you never make sure they are actually learning anything, etc. Some unschoolers don't even read books to their babies because they argue that they are waiting for their child to show an interest in reading and books.
This could not be further from the truth. True unschoolers may not buy textbooks and force their kids to sit at the table for six hours a day with a lunch and recess break, but they are VERY involved in their child's learning process. They go out of their way to provide their kids with the resources and tools that they need to learn, they step back and watch, and step in to help when needed.
With all that said, while we have a semi-structured schedule and workbooks I actually do consider myself an unschooler. Some unschoolers probably would not consider me one, and that's fine, everyone does have their own opinion about what unschooling is or means and even though I just wrote a couple of paragraphs about "real unschoolers" there are some unschoolers out there that stand by their refusal to read to their kids so that their kids can figure it out on their own.
Just like with everything else there is a right, a left, and a middle ground. There is no one right definition for every single person, and what it ultimately comes down to is unschooling is about doing what works best for you and your family even if it's the exact opposite of what other unschoolers do.
Which is why I consider myself an unschooler even though we have a schedule, workbooks, and quizzes.
We do this because, as I've explained to my kids before, I want them to have a good foundation for when they play, learn, and explore. When we did our Dinosaur Concept Week Bumblebee learned even more about dinosaurs then he already knew. Optimus Prime is always picking up new Spanish words and he uses them around the house in place of the English ones. We just finished up our Seasons Concept Week and my kids learned about Kwanzaa and Hanukkah because of it, holidays that I didn't even think to mention to them because we know no one who celebrates them. As a matter of fact, they decided to make Hanukkah cards to mail to Santa! In our Science book we learn about animals from all over the world, animals that I had never even heard of before we started. Geography taught them how to read maps, something that they had asked me multiple times to show them how to do.
All of their structured schoolwork is based on their desire to learn these topics - even the dreaded Spelling lessons! They might hate Spelling, but they are desperate to learn how to read, they are so eager and impatient, so while they might hate writing out their spelling words they are so proud of themselves when they get them down and are able to pick the word out of a book all on their own.
My kids LOVE workbooks. They love getting reward stickers on the pages they do really good on. They love when I ask them questions about what we just learned and they get to show off how smart they are. They love discussing a topic (sometimes to death!) after we've just learned about it. They love debating, forming opinions, thinking things through that weren't mentioned in the books, and making (quasi-educated) guesses.
One day we will drop the workbooks because we won't need them anymore. One day they will be able to completely read on their own, figure out math problems on their own, etc and sitting at the table to fill in workbook pages about addition, handwriting, dinosaurs or lemurs will just seem silly. Yes, we'll still have some sort of basic structure to our homeschooling, but they will have the basic foundation that they need to go new places without me holding their hand anymore. Workbooks? Nope. Quizzes? Nope. Book goals? Maybe. Book reports? Maybe. Zoo and museum trips? Yes. Discussing and debating books we have read? Yes. Discussing and debating current news stories? Yes. Discussing and debating every other new thing we learned? Yes!
So while we can debate til the cows come home just how far you should take unschooling one way or the other, what it is really about is teaching your child all of the topics that they yearn to learn in the way that works best for you and your child.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Two Week Review: September 13 - 26
Some how I missed putting up this post even though I wrote it almost a week ago... Oops!
A lot has happened since our last two week review, with some exciting Scooby-Doo news!
So first, Scooby-Doo.
He's still a little behind, but like I said before his schoolwork schedule is really more of a guideline then anything else. But, for some exciting news for him I think he might be getting his shapes down. He's not saying the name of the shapes, but his Minnie Mouse workbook covers each shape on a two page spread. So we practice the shape (with me holding his hand and guiding him) on the first page and then the second page has a mixture of shapes and you are only supposed to color in the shape you just reviewed. Well, he'll put his finger on the shape on the first page and use that too help him color in about half the correct shapes on the second page. He'll then stop checking back and forth between the pages and proceeds to color in ALL the remaining shapes, but hey, it's a step in the right direction! Trying to get him to color in a coloring book was like getting your teeth pulled. He wanted nothing to do with it, even though it was a Batman coloring book and he loves Batman. Optimus Prime and Bumblebee actually colored in the whole thing with Scooby-Doo gracing each page with one minuscule scribble...
Soon I have to start planning out next quarter. He loves doing his Color & Shapes workbooks, so I won't stop those, but I'm thinking that I do need to start adding onto what he does. Especially if he is going to start doing his Color & Shapes workbooks correctly.
Optimus Prime & Bumblebee are completely caught up. We had quite a few days of major cramming going on, days where there were fights because they were kept at the table longer than usual, but in the end we got it all done by the 25th. Let me just say that I hope we never get three days behind again!
Also, we did not do the September Concept Week. We had so much extra work to do trying to cram in the three missing days that it never got done. We will start it next week so all's well that end's well, I guess.
No exciting news here, but, oddly, a lot of endings.
Handwriting is the same as always. Sigh.
In Spanish we finally (thankfully) finished the Colors Unit. Next week we'll move onto shapes.
In Science we finished our North America Unit and start Asia next week. They're excited about that.
Our current English book is actually has the exact same pages as our previous English book. It also has new pages and everything is all mixed up. So even though the pages are largely review that's working out okay. They missed a lot of concepts the first time we went over them and they are now starting to sink in the second time around.
Math is going pretty good. We finished up the first half of our current book and start a new book next week. The second half of our book is all adding and subtracting double digits. Bumblebee might be ready for that but Optimus Prime definitely is not. So we'll save it for another quarter.
We finished our first Unit in Geography. We are done with maps & compasses and move onto land forms next week.
Reading is also the same as always. One change is that I decided to drop the Reading Quiz. Now that they realize they can read a bit on their own I don't think we need me to print up sentences for them to read anymore. Hopefully instead they'll start picking up on sentences in their books. We still have the Book Reports, but I'm thinking that we'll do them differently next quarter... I'm also thinking that we might need to start tackling some sight words worksheets to go along with our reading...
For old Spelling words that they just could not get down I made up a bunch of worksheets for them as extra work. They grumbled, but they did them and I dropped those words from their quizzes. They did pretty good on their new spelling units.
Logic and Art are the same as always. They also finished both of those books and start new ones next week.
Lastly we finished up Dinosaur Cove.
Like I said, a week of endings for Optimus Prime and Bumblebee - we finished three units, two books, and a book series!
Hopefully next week things will get back on track.
A lot has happened since our last two week review, with some exciting Scooby-Doo news!
So first, Scooby-Doo.
He's still a little behind, but like I said before his schoolwork schedule is really more of a guideline then anything else. But, for some exciting news for him I think he might be getting his shapes down. He's not saying the name of the shapes, but his Minnie Mouse workbook covers each shape on a two page spread. So we practice the shape (with me holding his hand and guiding him) on the first page and then the second page has a mixture of shapes and you are only supposed to color in the shape you just reviewed. Well, he'll put his finger on the shape on the first page and use that too help him color in about half the correct shapes on the second page. He'll then stop checking back and forth between the pages and proceeds to color in ALL the remaining shapes, but hey, it's a step in the right direction! Trying to get him to color in a coloring book was like getting your teeth pulled. He wanted nothing to do with it, even though it was a Batman coloring book and he loves Batman. Optimus Prime and Bumblebee actually colored in the whole thing with Scooby-Doo gracing each page with one minuscule scribble...
Soon I have to start planning out next quarter. He loves doing his Color & Shapes workbooks, so I won't stop those, but I'm thinking that I do need to start adding onto what he does. Especially if he is going to start doing his Color & Shapes workbooks correctly.
Optimus Prime & Bumblebee are completely caught up. We had quite a few days of major cramming going on, days where there were fights because they were kept at the table longer than usual, but in the end we got it all done by the 25th. Let me just say that I hope we never get three days behind again!
Also, we did not do the September Concept Week. We had so much extra work to do trying to cram in the three missing days that it never got done. We will start it next week so all's well that end's well, I guess.
No exciting news here, but, oddly, a lot of endings.
Handwriting is the same as always. Sigh.
In Spanish we finally (thankfully) finished the Colors Unit. Next week we'll move onto shapes.
In Science we finished our North America Unit and start Asia next week. They're excited about that.
Our current English book is actually has the exact same pages as our previous English book. It also has new pages and everything is all mixed up. So even though the pages are largely review that's working out okay. They missed a lot of concepts the first time we went over them and they are now starting to sink in the second time around.
Math is going pretty good. We finished up the first half of our current book and start a new book next week. The second half of our book is all adding and subtracting double digits. Bumblebee might be ready for that but Optimus Prime definitely is not. So we'll save it for another quarter.
We finished our first Unit in Geography. We are done with maps & compasses and move onto land forms next week.
Reading is also the same as always. One change is that I decided to drop the Reading Quiz. Now that they realize they can read a bit on their own I don't think we need me to print up sentences for them to read anymore. Hopefully instead they'll start picking up on sentences in their books. We still have the Book Reports, but I'm thinking that we'll do them differently next quarter... I'm also thinking that we might need to start tackling some sight words worksheets to go along with our reading...
For old Spelling words that they just could not get down I made up a bunch of worksheets for them as extra work. They grumbled, but they did them and I dropped those words from their quizzes. They did pretty good on their new spelling units.
Logic and Art are the same as always. They also finished both of those books and start new ones next week.
Lastly we finished up Dinosaur Cove.
Like I said, a week of endings for Optimus Prime and Bumblebee - we finished three units, two books, and a book series!
Hopefully next week things will get back on track.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Dinosaur Cove
We have (finally) finished the Dinosaur Cove books! I am a bit sad to see them go since Bumblebee really liked them...
Synopsis - Dinosaur Cove follows the adventures of best friends Jamie & Tom and their dinosaur friend Wanna. Jamie & Tom find a hidden tunnel that leads to the past where they can visit real dinosaurs. While there they meet a Wannanosaurus and become friends with him. Together they travel around and observe dinosaurs first hand.
(Note - This series has quite a few books spanning over four series with a few extra double length books as well. However, only the six books of the first series (the Cretaceous Adventures) and the first three books of the second series (the Jurassic Adventures) have been published in the U.S., and they have been published as one series - not two. None of the other books or series have been. You can get them used online however at this time we are not doing that for two reasons. #1 is that they only came out a few years ago and I want to see if they will change their minds and release the rest since there is customer demand. #2 is I figured we could use a break from Dinosaur Cove for a bit and focus on the stack of books that we currently have sitting on our bookcase waiting for us to read - including more Scooby-Doo books, more Pokemon books, and some Magic Tree House books. We will eventually get around to buying them and once we do and read them I'll put up a new, revised, posts - one for each series. So for now, this post is only about the books released in the U.S.)
Ash Falcon - "These books were amusing and a very light read. They were pretty ridiculous, though, so if you are reading them to your kids prepare for some eye-rolling on your part. Let's just say that you have to suspend your disbelief (in regards to dinosaur reality) a bit while reading them. I'd say a 4/5."
Optimus Prime - "The books were good, but #8 was scary! Remember the monster [plesiosaur] was biting holes in the board?"
Bumblebee - "They were really, really nice and all of them were good! #8 was my favorite."
Synopsis - Dinosaur Cove follows the adventures of best friends Jamie & Tom and their dinosaur friend Wanna. Jamie & Tom find a hidden tunnel that leads to the past where they can visit real dinosaurs. While there they meet a Wannanosaurus and become friends with him. Together they travel around and observe dinosaurs first hand.
(Note - This series has quite a few books spanning over four series with a few extra double length books as well. However, only the six books of the first series (the Cretaceous Adventures) and the first three books of the second series (the Jurassic Adventures) have been published in the U.S., and they have been published as one series - not two. None of the other books or series have been. You can get them used online however at this time we are not doing that for two reasons. #1 is that they only came out a few years ago and I want to see if they will change their minds and release the rest since there is customer demand. #2 is I figured we could use a break from Dinosaur Cove for a bit and focus on the stack of books that we currently have sitting on our bookcase waiting for us to read - including more Scooby-Doo books, more Pokemon books, and some Magic Tree House books. We will eventually get around to buying them and once we do and read them I'll put up a new, revised, posts - one for each series. So for now, this post is only about the books released in the U.S.)
Ash Falcon - "These books were amusing and a very light read. They were pretty ridiculous, though, so if you are reading them to your kids prepare for some eye-rolling on your part. Let's just say that you have to suspend your disbelief (in regards to dinosaur reality) a bit while reading them. I'd say a 4/5."
Optimus Prime - "The books were good, but #8 was scary! Remember the monster [plesiosaur] was biting holes in the board?"
Bumblebee - "They were really, really nice and all of them were good! #8 was my favorite."
Dinosaur Cove by Rex Stone
- Attack of the Tyrannosaurus
- Charge of the Triceratops
- March of the Ankylosaurus
- Flight of the Quetzalcoatlus
- Catching the Velociraptor
- Stampede of the Edmontosaurus
- Saving the Stegosaurus
- Swimming with the Plesiosaur
- Tracking the Diplodocus
Sunday, September 22, 2013
The Chores Dilema
So I've been mulling this post over in my head for the past week or so and I've decided to give it a go even though it's not exactly about homeschooling. Chores, though, can be a bit like Home Economics. I never had Home Ec. when I went to school - as a matter of fact I don't even know if it's taught anymore - and while I was glad when I was in high school once I moved out of my parents house I was a bit sorry that it was never an option. I still remember the look on my future husband's face when I told him I had no clue how to work a washing machine. The shock and disbelief on his face would of been hilarious if I had been joking, but I wasn't so instead it was just plain embarrassing. Same with the time I had to tell him that the toilet wouldn't flush and could he come and fix it, please? The problem? The chain fell off of the handle. I had no clue that the handle was even attached to a chain. And while "How To Fix A Toilet" or "How To Operate A Washing Machine" were probably not topics covered in Home Ec., the class would of (ideally) taught me some of the things you need to know to function as an adult in the world.
Before that moment with the washing machine I was rather proud of my lack of skills. I looked down on women who cooked homemade meals, who sewed, who stayed home and took care of their families, etc. I mean, the 1950's were over with! Feminism had happened! Didn't women realize that they could be anything that they wanted to be?!? Why on earth would you cook a homemade meal when you can eat food out of a box or a can? Who would want to sew their own clothes when they could just go buy some from the store? Who would deliberately chose to be stuck home all day caring for their family? Not me! No thank you! Work a washing machine? Why would I need to know how to do that - oh, wait, that's right. To have clean clothes. Huh. I don't think I thought this feminism thing through that well...
Yeah. It was an eye opener all right.
Now, I'm the exact thing that I scorned at when I was 18. I stay home, take care of my family, cook homemade meals, and even know how to work a sewing machine - and I love all of those things. Life's funny like that, I guess.
So, when my kids grow up and move out I want them to know how to work a washing machine and how to cook something that doesn't come out of a can. They don't have to learn how to work a sewing machine if they don't want to, but they do need to know some basic skills and chores are the perfect place to start at.
Until this week Optimus Prime and Bumblebee's chores were pretty basic. Clean their bedroom, pick up their mess in the living room, feed the dogs, wipe up their bathroom sink with a washcloth at least twice a week, put away their laundry and rinse dishes for me when I wash them.
(Yes, I hand wash dishes. Don't hate.)
This past week I decided to shake up their chores for two reasons:
Before that moment with the washing machine I was rather proud of my lack of skills. I looked down on women who cooked homemade meals, who sewed, who stayed home and took care of their families, etc. I mean, the 1950's were over with! Feminism had happened! Didn't women realize that they could be anything that they wanted to be?!? Why on earth would you cook a homemade meal when you can eat food out of a box or a can? Who would want to sew their own clothes when they could just go buy some from the store? Who would deliberately chose to be stuck home all day caring for their family? Not me! No thank you! Work a washing machine? Why would I need to know how to do that - oh, wait, that's right. To have clean clothes. Huh. I don't think I thought this feminism thing through that well...
Yeah. It was an eye opener all right.
Now, I'm the exact thing that I scorned at when I was 18. I stay home, take care of my family, cook homemade meals, and even know how to work a sewing machine - and I love all of those things. Life's funny like that, I guess.
So, when my kids grow up and move out I want them to know how to work a washing machine and how to cook something that doesn't come out of a can. They don't have to learn how to work a sewing machine if they don't want to, but they do need to know some basic skills and chores are the perfect place to start at.
Until this week Optimus Prime and Bumblebee's chores were pretty basic. Clean their bedroom, pick up their mess in the living room, feed the dogs, wipe up their bathroom sink with a washcloth at least twice a week, put away their laundry and rinse dishes for me when I wash them.
(Yes, I hand wash dishes. Don't hate.)
This past week I decided to shake up their chores for two reasons:
- They are getting so bored doing the same chores over and over again that they are starting to complain. This does not help me out at all and turns a five minute chore into an hour long stressful event.
- They need to learn different skills.
So they still have to clean their bedroom, pick up their mess in the living room, feed the dogs, put away their laundry and wipe down their bathroom sink. But now they also have to sweep the kitchen floor and help me make lunch and dinner.
It's still all pretty basic. Nothing crazy. But all of it is building blocks to bigger chores and functioning on their own one day when they are an adult. Cleaning their room turns into making their bed which turns into changing the sheets on their bed. Cleaning up the living room turns into vacuuming the living room. Rinsing dishes turns into washing dishes. Feeding the dogs turns into walking the dogs. Cleaning up dirty laundry turns into washing laundry. Putting away clean clothes turns into folding clothes. Helping to make dinner turns into cooking dinner on your own. Or, at least it does if you provide your kids with the tools to build upon and learn those skills.
Chores are important. I used to think that they were a huge burden that the parents were supposed to do while you were busy hanging out with your friends, and my parents never really did anything to make me see them in any other light. Yes, I had chores growing up but I really resented them. To my teenager mind the only chore I should of been in charge of doing was cleaning my own room (which, truthfully, was usually pretty clean). My parents never took the time to sit me down and explain how unfair my expectations or beliefs were. Now I see that not only does everyone need to pull their own weight but that if they never strive to do more then the bare minimum they are setting themselves up for failure. Like my lack of washing machine and toilet skills.
So what do they get for doing chores? Aside from living in a clean house that runs somewhat smoothly?
They make $3 a week (each) that they can spend on any toy, movie, or book that they please. If they refuse to do their chores there is a penalty of 30 cents for the first chore and 10 cents for every chore after that. Also, as an added incentive to not waste their money on toys and movies (not that I have any problem with toys and movies they just have so many already that I cringe every time they buy more) if they buy a book their dad an I go halves with them. Just the other day Bumblebee wanted to spend his money on the last Dinosaur Cove book. The book cost $4, he spent $2 and I spent $2. It was a win-win as far as I was concerned. He only had to spend one weeks money on it and he had change leftover, and there was one less toy in the house for me to trip over.
Like I said - win-win.
Like I said - win-win.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Concept Week #4: Calendars
Ugh, I have to say that as glad as I am that we did this for a Concept Week it was painful. Part of the problem was settling into a new schoolwork schedule. Another problem was all the house work going on at the same time. Plus everyone started to get sick right towards the end. But the biggest problem of all was I made too many worksheets. After day two (both day one and two we only did half of the calendar schoolwork for each day) Optimus Prime fully understood the calendar and was officially bored. After day three, where we tried to catch up but didn't really succeed, Bumblebee pretty much had it down. Then I was stuck with three and a half days of calendar sheets that they didn't want to do and I didn't want to just throw out. So we did them anyway, which meant a lot of whining, which meant we only did a few sheets at a time, which meant it got dragged out longer than it should have, which meant even more whining...
You can see how this is shaping up, right?
However, we survived, and they now fully understand calendars. They also never want to look at another one again, but they understand them.
I'll consider it a win.
The sheets were pretty cool, actually, and for right now you can find them here. This link might not be good forever, though, so I will tell you that they came from education.com - if you go there and search for calendar worksheets CURRENT ones will pop up. They only keep them up for two years, then they pull them down and put up new ones. So as of this exact moment you can only get September 2011 - September 2013. Next month September 2011 will be pulled down and October 2013 will go up. The link is for all the 2012 calendars, so like I said it might not be good forever.
For our project I printed up a calendar for October and November, also from education.com. They have a neat set called "Create a Calendar" where you print up blank calendars for the year and fill them in. I had them each take a month and fill in our schedule for the month with pictures. So we now have football practice, holidays, and other events mapped out for the next two months.
For a book I had to get creative. I could not seem to find a kids book that dealt with calendars. I found seasons books, but that did me no good, especially since we already own one of those and I'm using it for our next Concept Week. I did find a book on amazon.com called "The Berenstain Bears The Whole Year Through: With Earth Saver Tips and Things to Do for Each and Every Month of the Year." I was intrigued, however there was no photo up to show me what the product looked like, and no reviews or descriptions up either. And for a price tag of $20-689 (yes, you read that right) I wasn't even remotely interested in finding out how the book was. So I had to order "The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Pressure" by Stan and Jan Berenstain and hope it was good enough. Since the book did kind of deal with calendars it worked out okay. The plot was the Bear Family was trying to cram too much stuff into their schedule, which was causing them stress. I was able to tie the book into our lesson by pointing out how we use calendars to properly schedule our time so we can make sure we have the time to do the things we need to do (like schoolwork) and the things we like doing (like football).
So it worked out in the end.
You can see how this is shaping up, right?
However, we survived, and they now fully understand calendars. They also never want to look at another one again, but they understand them.
I'll consider it a win.
The sheets were pretty cool, actually, and for right now you can find them here. This link might not be good forever, though, so I will tell you that they came from education.com - if you go there and search for calendar worksheets CURRENT ones will pop up. They only keep them up for two years, then they pull them down and put up new ones. So as of this exact moment you can only get September 2011 - September 2013. Next month September 2011 will be pulled down and October 2013 will go up. The link is for all the 2012 calendars, so like I said it might not be good forever.
For our project I printed up a calendar for October and November, also from education.com. They have a neat set called "Create a Calendar" where you print up blank calendars for the year and fill them in. I had them each take a month and fill in our schedule for the month with pictures. So we now have football practice, holidays, and other events mapped out for the next two months.
For a book I had to get creative. I could not seem to find a kids book that dealt with calendars. I found seasons books, but that did me no good, especially since we already own one of those and I'm using it for our next Concept Week. I did find a book on amazon.com called "The Berenstain Bears The Whole Year Through: With Earth Saver Tips and Things to Do for Each and Every Month of the Year." I was intrigued, however there was no photo up to show me what the product looked like, and no reviews or descriptions up either. And for a price tag of $20-689 (yes, you read that right) I wasn't even remotely interested in finding out how the book was. So I had to order "The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Pressure" by Stan and Jan Berenstain and hope it was good enough. Since the book did kind of deal with calendars it worked out okay. The plot was the Bear Family was trying to cram too much stuff into their schedule, which was causing them stress. I was able to tie the book into our lesson by pointing out how we use calendars to properly schedule our time so we can make sure we have the time to do the things we need to do (like schoolwork) and the things we like doing (like football).
So it worked out in the end.
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