Top Ten Bits of Advice for New Homeschoolers

And none if it is about curriculum!


1.  Have a deschooling period.  The most valueable thing you can do to start off on the 'right foot' to to allow your child a period of time to decompress.  Trying to jump right into a full schedule right away can backfire into burn-out and frustration.

2.  Learn your teaching style.  Pick up this book from your bookstore or local library:

Cathy Duffy gives numerous check lists to help you evaluate what your teaching style is and what knowledge and skills.you want your student to walk away with.

3.  Learn your student's learning style.  Believe me, nothing is worse than investing in curriculum that is pure torture for your child to comprehend or one they simply do not enjoy.  It's a proven fact that kids retain more of what they learn if they are engaged in what they are studying. 

4.  DO NOT think you have to subscribe to every club, method, curriculum, field trip, group, activity!  Again...take it slowly. Maybe pick one extra-curricular activity and allow plenty of breathing room.  Nothing is more defeating than taking on too much and realizing you can't (or don't want to) keep it up.  Believe me, even in the homeschooling world there are pressures abound...to join this group or that class.  Learn to say 'no' to the good stuff so you can save time for the BEST stuff!

5.  Find a homeschool group or co-op.  I know, I just contradicted #4. But a homeschool group, even if it is just a group of homeschooling moms that casually meet once a month at the park, is a great resource.  They are a wonderful place to air out your doubts, fears, concerns, successes.

6.  This is something I do all the time...ASK your child what they enjoy about school and what they hate about school. Now, if they hate math, well, there's nothing you can do about that. We all have to learn math! BUT if you can find a program or teaching method they prefer...why not? 

7.  If something isn't working...dump it.  That goes for curriculum, activities, etc. 

8.  Allow time for your child to pursue their interests.  One big mistake I have made is packing our schedule too much and not allowing for 'down time' for my children to explore new things. 

9.  A bad day doesn't make a bad homeschool!  We all have days that are less than perfect.  Don't let that stop you.  There are days that will knock your socks off. Just have faith!

10.  Don't worry about what the kids in public school are doing. As long as they have what they need at the end of 12 years, who cares when they learn it? It's the end result that matters!

Don't forget to enjoy this very special time with your children. It will pass by too soon. 

 

 

Doing Hard Things With Dracula

Have any of you ever taken a look at readers or school books that were used back at the turn of the century?  OOPS...I mean the end of the 1800's and beginning of the 1900's. (NOT the y2K...although that will apply later in this post.)

Children were assigned classics...Robinson Crusoe, Around the World in Eighty Days, Treasure Island.  The original versions.  Nowadays kids are handed the same stories, but in an overly simplified version.  It's the literary version of the mother gull pre-digesting the fish for the young.  Sure, the young get fed, but it's no substitute for flying out over open waters and diving for a fresh, wiggling fish of your own.

The whole thing is a pet peeve of mine.  When you lower your expectations, you are lowering the bar.

Now, I am all for building confidence in struggling readers.  Let them read what they want to and what they are comfortable with.  But don't be complacent in the safety of the shallow waters...

Dive in to the deeper realms. 

We are studying the 1800's in history and around mid-October I thought we should all sit down and read Dracula.  Round robin style, as we do when books are long or somewhat difficult in nature to comprehend or with vocabulary words that may need clarification.

So we started reading one chapter a day. 

The language is a little archaic at times.  It took us up until today to read through the entire thing.

But, oh, did we enjoy it.

We spent a lot of time with these characters...Van Helsing, Mina Harker, the curious Renfield, and of course, the Count. 

Reading Van Helsing out loud is somewhat akin to speaking like Yoda. But we pressed on.

My son loved everything about it.  My daughter, who is ten years old, had only one complaint: it was too long she says.  But we became very engrossed in the story, despite looking up words and having to discuss what was happening and why at certain points.

Sure, I could have handed them the Great Illustrated Classics version, condensed and pre-digested.

But I don't think we would have enjoyed it quite as much.

And a little lesson within the lesson...every once in a while, do the hard things. See it through to the end.  Battle the demons of self-doubt and claim your victory.

It's all the sweeter that way.

That 13 Letter Word

Do you ever have those moments when you feel God is trying to tell you something..and you kind of keep wanting to push it down because it is NOT what 'many people' would accept?  And so you go on tying yourself up in knots because, even though deep down in your heart, you know what God is telling you but the pressure...OH the pressure from all sides around you, just wants to tell you that little voice is wrong?

Next year my son will be in the 9th grade.  (Hold me.)

And of course instead of worrying about what we are doing THIS year...my thoughts fly to next year and I just get overwhelmed.

And it's all because of one word...one 13 letter word... ACCREDIDATION.

I've looked at online schools.  They are wonderful...but not feeling it.

I've looked at 'boxed' curriculum that is accredited...still not feeling it.

It's not what we love, what has 'worked' for us in the past. 

So of course I want to ignore that little voice that says "Follow your heart.  YOU know your children best."

Which is then followed by that voice that says "What if you screw up your kids?? What then?"

Sigh.

SO all the thoughts of just doing our 'thing' right on through high school are daunted.

Until I had a conversation with a fellow homeschooling mom who was homeschooled her self.

Guess what? When your homeschooled high schooler applies for college...they don't necessarily care about accredidation.  They care about grades, transcripts, entrance exams...and if your high schooler completes college courses while still in high school, it proves they are capable of doing college level work. What accredidation *is* useful for is getting the HOPE grant..which, if you do not have the accredited curriculum, you wind up getting the HOPE as a refund at the end of your college term anyway.

Accreditation is only important to those who stand to make money off of convincing us that we NEED to have it.

Can I tell you that conversation has been like lifting a weight off of my shoulders?

I know my point of view is not shared by many moms in the homeschooling community.  It's okay.  I'm doing what I know to be best for the education of MY kids.

Ahhh...the luxury of educational freedom.

Does Curriculum Really Matter?

I think I have been a homeschooler long enough to answer this confidently:

Not really.

In the past, every Spring brought out anxiety over which curriculum to use, which was better than the next, etc.  I've done everything from Google-schooling (finding random activities and free downloads online) and spending hundreds of dollars on 'top-notch' curriculum.

My verdict is....none of it is any good if you don't enjoy it.

Take for example my science curriculum.

Not cheap.  Lots of great books and activity sets though.  A teachers manual with every day of every week planned out for me.

*Yawn*

My science loving kids just weren't lovin it.

Yesterday I just 'went rogue', and did things the way I always do...spend a little time on Google, found activities that corresponded with our science topic, and meshed the two together.

The kids had a wonderful time.  After reading our lesson about buoyancy and density, we did several experiments including building a aluminum foil boat and seeing how many pennies we could add to it before it sank, used a potato chip bag, 100 pennies and a margarine tub lid to see how we could make something that would float and carry all the pennies, watched a video demonstration of the Archimedes Principle (which also taught us the formula of measuring the displaced water to find the weight of the object floating), as well as a Mythbusters episode on our very topic.  We added salt to water to see if we could 'float' an egg after we studied the Dead Sea and learned why it is so easy to float in.  We floated an ice cube in a glass of water and then discussed why the same ice cube would *not* float in a cup of rubbing alcohol.

It was engaging, and it was fun.

I know moms that stress about getting the perfect curriculum.  I hate to tell them this, but it doesn't exist.

What makes a curriculum 'perfect' is the passion of the teacher teaching and of the students learning, and you can't find that for sale anywhere.

Field Trippin'....Mountain Style!

Welcome on our field trip to the North Georgia mountains!  In history we are studying the Gold Rush...did you know Georgia had it's own gold rush, only ten years prior to California?  In Dahlonega, we toured a gold mine.  NOT for the claustrophobic!

There were bats in there as well.  Not flying around, thank goodness!

Then we tried our hand at panning for gold.  We all wound up with a vial of little gold pieces and a few small gemstones- amethyst as well as peridot.

Then we had a picnic lunch at Amicolola Falls!  The weather was wonderful...in the mid-60's and very Fallish!  This picture was taken from the top of the falls...I love the view.

You can walk down the steps to view the falls....many, many steps! 

Ain't it purty?

20 minutes or so up the road is Ellijay, Georgia.  We stopped at an apple orchard to pick some apples.
And sampled one or three during picking...

 

 

 

I love living in Georgia!  In just a matter of hours you can be at the beach, in the mountains, in a busy, bustling city or in a tiny, rural farming community.

And I love being able to reinforce our lessons with hands-on field trips like this!

Welcome To My World

Hello there! Welcome to my little corner of the world....in particular, my dining room.  You know you are a homeschooling family when your dining room table looks like this....

 Let me guide you through this mess. Algebra and math books, and a physics workshop....

Oh, and Legos.  Bags of Legos, along with the instruction manual.  And tires from some vehicle....not sure where the rest of it is.

 One armed wrestling dude, shaking his one good fist angrily at the ladybug habitat, complete with ladybug that was rescued from a puddle in one of my Crocs this morning.  The other wrestling dude is doing his yoga moves for the ladybug. 

Algebra should be taken with a 'grain of salt'....Hahahahaa!  Oh man, am I funny.

How about you? Is your table this crazy? Or is it immaculate?

One More Reason I Love Homeschooling

I love homeschooling mostly because of those "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" moments.

Yesterday we had a lesson on scientists and inventors of the past and their contributions to physical science...Isaac Newton, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Otto Lilienthal, Robbert Goddard, Neil Armstrong.

Which lead to us YouTube-ing footage of Armstrong's first steps on the moon. 

Which lead to us finding videos of astronauts playing around in weightlessness.  Which prompted great questions such as "If there is no gravity, how do you go to the bathroom?" And "Why do they have to workout while in zero-gravity for an extended period of time?"

Which lead us to videos of pilots in a zero-gravity plane popping water balloons.

Which lead to conversations of how an airplane can simulate the weightlessness of outer space by flying in a parabola.

Which lead my son to dig out a 'Magic of Flight' dvd that was purchased years ago at a Pensacola museum of aviation.

Which lead to discussions of how a planes wing is modeled after a birds wing and how wind speed differences create lift.

Those are the moments when I sit back and think, if this took place in a classroom, the lesson would have ended with Newton, the Wright Brothers, and Armstrong. 

Yes, It Is.

Yesterday my son checked out a book about weather and wanted to perform an activity in the book.  It required drilling a hole in the caps of two bottles, gluing them together by the caps (after having filled one with water) and when you turn it over and the water runs from one bottle to another...voila!  A vortex!

In theory that is.

My son got a lesson in drilling holes.  Fabulous.

Then came the 'gluing together' part...guess what?  No super glue.  Not even duct tape.

So I used masking tape out of desperation.  I KNOW.

Then the big reveal....which didn't work because the holes he drilled were slightly too small and the water dripped pitifully through.

So we discussed air pressure instead and showed how when you squeezed one bottle, the compression forced the water into the other bottle.

As we were cleaning up, hubby expressed his disappointment in the failure of our experiment.

"I think it went okay," I said. "He learned how to use a drill! Besides, we watched the Decorah Eagle Cam this afternoon and saw a chick hatch, so we have science covered anyway."

"Everything is a lesson with you, isn't it?" hubby muttered on his way out to the trash can.

Yes. Yes, its is.

Budget Friendly

Like everyone else we are feeling the 'pinch' when it comes to our pocketbooks.  Higher gas prices, higher grocery prices, and saving for bigger goals leaves us very little money to 'play' with.

Can I just confess that can be down right depressing?

I cruise the Internet for field trip ideas.  I hear about wonderful homeschooling classes that are offered.  There are private schools that offer classes for homeschoolers.  There is curriculum that I drool over. But it all comes at a price, and that price ain't cheap. 

There are so many opportunities that I have to say 'no' to because of money.  I hate that.  Some days I feel like my kids might be missing out...that maybe when they grow up they will regret not having had those opportunities.

This morning I had a short conversation with a friend, and she changed my view on the whole situation.  She stated that, by being frugal, her children are learning about choices and managing money.

Yeah!

Having to budget your money teaches your children responsibility.  It forces them to prioritize and determine how to make wise choices concerning how and where their money (OUR money) is spent.  And when they grow up, hopefully they will continue making wise money decisions and be financially stable, responsible adults.

It's not about looking at what you don't have...it's about being smart about what you DO have.  And appreciating what you have.

Those are the lessons I will gladly teach.

A Little Help With Math

Math is one of those subjects that I am always trying to make more 'fun'.  Perhaps it stems from my deep, abiding hatred of math.  Okay, maybe not hatred.  Loathing? Anyway, as  kid I had terrible math anxiety. 

Here are some links I have come across that have made math a little more fun.


https://www.xtramath.org/

Xtra Math is a free website that aids in mathmatical fluency.  My daughter is in the 4th grade and honestly needs a little extra practice where math is concerned.  My son grasps math well, but improving speed is always a good thing...right?  Both children have enjoyed to speed drills and the 'race the teacher' games on this site.

MathMagician (  http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Mathmagician/mathsmulti.html ) helps with multiplication tables.

Math Playground (  http://www.mathplayground.com/  ) has games that extend into middle school.  It includes logic problems and word problems and algebra, oh my!

Edheads ( http://edheads.org/index.shtml )  focuses on science, math and logic.  Good stuff.

Manga High ( http://www.mangahigh.com/en_us/games/ )
Number Nut  (  http://www.numbernut.com/  )
Arcademics  ( http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/  )

These 'round out' the list.

How about you?  Are there any cool online math sites that you use for your students?

Homeschooled Girl Requirement #1

Homeschooled girl requirement #1 has been fulfilled....she has sewn her very own dress!  Well, I helped.  It was a 60-40 deal...I handled 60 % and she handled 40%.

She sure is loving her sewing class at co-op.  And I am loving that she has learned a very valuable skill.  (I mean, where would Scarlett O'Hara be if she had never learned to sew a dress out of velvet drapes? I shudder to think.)

Comprehension Booster: "ABC Books"

I know what you are thinking...

"REALLY? ABC books?  And how old are your children?"

Just listen before you judge me.

We are making ABC books about George Washington this week, as we just studied the French-Indian War.

Divide several sheets of paper across the middle with a red line.  Or purple.  Or green.

Each section will be represented by one letter only.

The kids have to start with the letter 'A' and think of a word that starts with 'A' and relates to George Washington.  Then they have to write a few sentences about why they chose the word they chose.

Sounds simple, but wait till you get to 'E'.   Can you think of a word that relates to  George Washington that starts with 'E' off the top of your head?  I didn't think so.  If you did, post it in my comments. :D

We are working through the whole alphabet (yes, even X, Y and Z!) and making an illustrated cover.

Simple, yes.  Easy...not really!  It really had them searching through several history books and encyclopedias for a while and the information they encountered was just a bonus.

Chinese New Year Unit Study

I don't know about you, but I love when there is a holiday!  So many ways to make school fun and interesting when there is a special day of celebration.  Monday will be Chinese New Year and we have a few fun activities planned. 

Reading this book will be a great starting point:

 It has so many interesting bits of information about the holiday and explanations of each custom.

Then, because it is also Math Fun Monday, we will read this:

Yes, it is actually set in India, but it is all about rice.  We will use a graph to graph the amounts of rice the main character accumulates throughout the story, and then predict how much will be accumulated at the end. 

There are some fun Chinese New Year lesson plans here:
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/activity/china-global-trek-activity

We will study all things China- pandas, art and architecture, government and more.

Making Chinese yo-yo's from here:
http://www.makingfriends.com/yoyo.htm

And if I am feeling froggy...we will attempt a dragon puppet from here: http://www.thatartistwoman.org/2009/01/how-to-make-chinese-dragon-puppet.html

And of course we will feast on some Chinese food courtesy of our favorite local Chinese restaurant.

What about you?  Any special plans for Chinese New Year?

Inspiration- A Homeschooling Mom's Sanity Saver

Nothing feels worse than being uninspired when teaching your kids.  Well...stepping on that tack strip on the floor with bare feet last night came close...but it's a terrible feeling to know that my kids need me to be the responsible adult and provide a quality education and all I want to do is just sit on the couch and sigh because the thought of doing one more workbook page is enough to make me want to scream.

Thankfully I am friends with a passel of the most creative and innovative homeschooling moms around.

My friend Sherrie over at http://childresshousehold.blogspot.com/  (check out her blog!)  has inspired me with her ideas of Fun School.  She has assigned a 'focus topic' for each day of the week to allow for self-directed learning.

So, based on her ideas, I have come up with our self-directed schedule:

Mondays will be Math Fun Mondays.  We will study a famous mathematician, or play math board games.  We will do hands on math projects from my Family Math book. 

Tuesdays will be Tell Me About....Tuesdays.  They can pick any topic they want and prepare a short presentation.  They can make a poster or craft project, write a paper or poem....but they have to present their findings to the family Tuesday evening.  Great public speaking practice!

Wednesdays will be Where in the World Wednesdays.  Grab an atlas, find a country or state, read up on it (National Geographic Kids is an awesome safe website for this!) and make a craft or project related to what you learned.

Thursdays will be Techie Thursdays.  I will prepare  a folder in my 'Favorites' column on the computer of approved websites and game sites.  They can spend an allotted amount of time on the computer learning.

Fridays will be Fine Arts Fridays.  This will be the day we learn about an artist or composer and study music and art.

What about you?  Where do you find your inspiration?

I Love When Stuff Like This Happens

If you happen to have a copy of this book in your homeschool library, your daughter might pick it up and start reading it:

She might become inspired. 

She might come across the section on Georgia O'Keeffe. 

She might learn about the life of the artist and her inspirations.

She might dig out the watercolors and watercolor paper.

She might attempt her very own O'Keeffe-esque painting.

I love when stuff like that happens.

The Classroom of Life

We've been studying simple machines lately in science.  What better time to employ Daddy in the homeschooling process than invade the man-cave while he is rotating the tires and changing the oil?

We saw first hand how a car jack is a lever.  How when you try to jack it close to the fulcrum, it is much harder than if you use the very end of the bar.  (Mechanical Advantage anyone?)  And of course we saw how the lever makes lifting the van so much easier.

We took the wheels off the van and had them identify the axle.  We talked about how the steering wheel has a different axle that is controlled by the steering wheel, and how the van wheels are controlled by their axle.

What better way to learn such things than with your own hands and with your Daddy on his day off work?

Homeschooling a Middle Schooler

Almost every homeschooling family I know sends their kids to public school in middle school.  Some wait until high school.  I'm assuming much if the decision is based on social reasons, or the parents are afraid they don't know how to teach the higher level math and science subjects.  Either the parents feel the kids need to branch out, or the kids are ready to branch out.  Either way, if it works for them, I am for it. 

I, however, have a middle schooler who most emphatically says he never wants to go to school again.

He had some really great experiences in public school, but he also had a few really horrible experiences.   And I am here to tell you, even those few bad ones have left their mark.

What drives me nuts is when people assume I am holding on to him, pulling him back by the tail-feathers and forcing him to be homeschooled.  I promise, I'm not.

What is it that is so strange about a middle school aged kid being homeschooled and LIKING it?  Why do people think that I should be shoving him off to public school just because he is a pre-teen?   If you ask me, middle school was pretty crummy in and of itself.  If I had known about homeschooling when I was a middle schooler, I would have begged my mom to homeschool me.  As for higher level classes..there are so many options out there-tutors, co-op classes, online tutorials....it's not rocket science.

I get the questions like "How long do you plan on doing this?"  "How do you teach him math?"  "Does he ever get to be with his friends?"  I have to fight the urge to roll my eyes at each one.

Truthfully, my son is not an excessively social person.  He has friends he loves.  He enjoys going to his Bible study group with his age group, he loves going to tae kwon do.  He has a great time at co-op and at other functions with the homeschool group.   He is my kid who goes into a room full of people confidently, speaks to anyone (adult or child) and initiates conversation.  But he is not obsessed with 'hanging out' with his friends, texting all day/night, etc.  He enjoys spending time with friends...but then he is happy to come home and hang out with his family.

Yes...I admit, that is not how most middle school aged kids act.  But if he's happy, who am I to say he's wrong?   Part of my whole reason for homeschooling was that I wanted my kids to be themselves.  Not to feel that ones' self worth lies in what party you get invited to or how many kids call you 'friend'.  Not to fall into the 'group think' trap of feeling like you have to be like 'this' or act like 'that' or have 'those' to be worthy of belonging to a group of friends.

I'm proud to have a son who doesn't NEED fifty friends to feel good about himself.  He realizes he is pretty awesome no matter what.

Change of Scenery

I have been sick. *We* have been sick.  My house is in complete disorder. 

Weeks like this make homeschooling a very, very difficult thing.

I don't want to.  They don't want to.  And when we do get the get up and go to do it...finding what we need in the piles of stuff has been almost impossible.

Thank you, Co-op.  You taught my children about electricity, foreign language, basketball, sewing and drama.

Thank you, Library.  Your free homeschool class taught my children about the Egyptian gods and goddesses.  And we checked out some drawing books to learn how to draw animals and planes.

Thank you, Internetz.  You reinforced math skills and with my Usbourne Internet-Linked Science Encyclopedia, you reinforced concepts of conservation of momentum and velocity.

So I actually only had to teach language arts, Bible and math.

I hate not feeling like 'doing school'.  It makes me feel like a slouch and selfish that I am not forcing myself and my kids to 'push through' and do it anyway.  Yes, in the Real World, when they have a job, they will have to work when they don't feel like it.  Of course the arguement to that is the concept of sick days in the work place.  But I digress...

 I think they have learned so much more than information during this week.  They learned that they don't have to 'do school' to learn...they can go online and use games to learn.  That opportunities in the community educate them.  That they can select library books that interest them and that learning about something you enjoy is, well...enjoyable.  And the biggie...they learned that THEY are more than capable of teaching themselves at times by expressing an interest and gathering the materials needed to follow through.  LIFE alone is a constant learning experience. 

When you are actually participating in "Real LIFE" and not in a brick and mortar classroom for 7 hours a day..."Real LIFE" will teach you in multifaceted ways.  It teaches you to adapt to situations and to be flexible, because, as we all know, "Real LIFE" doesn't always begin at 8:30 with the Pledge of Allegiance and end at 3:30 with the ring of a bell. 

That all being said, of course I am still going to be 'doing school' when all is back in order.  But it sure is nice when 'Real LIFE' derails the Same-Old Same-Old Train and forces it to go down another track. 

It's a nice change of scenery.

Randomness of January

Here in the South, we may not get a White Christmas...but we get something even better.

75 degree days in January! Which, I might add, is very helpful when one is studying wheels and axles for science class and one needs to build a water wheel for school.

Which actually worked!  Not that you can tell from this photo.

So, what to blog about?  Not much has been going on here. 

We removed the old carpet from all of the bedrooms to prepare for the installation of the new carpet at the end of this week..which means all of the contents of all the bedrooms and the classroom are placed all throughout the house.  Which means we are living like hoarders right now, running through the little paths between the stuff. Ugh.  My feng shui has taken a beating.  And can I just say that, next to unclogging a hairball out of a drain, that pulling up old carpet is highly disgusting?

The kids and I have been sick with some sort of allergy-sinus infection-cough crud.  All I can say is yuck.  I'm sure all of the mystery dust from under the carpet played  a huge role in our condition. 

Good news though!  Yesterday was the first day back to co-op!  The kids really seemed to enjoy their classes, and I enjoyed helping out in an art class and my daughters sewing class. 

What about you all?  What's new in your neck of the woods?

Quitting Can Be A 'Good' Thing

Daughter Dear has decided she wants to quit piano lessons.

At first I tried to resist.  "How about keeping it up for the rest of the year?" I pleaded.

Nope.

She's burned out she says.  And I understand.

I am of the 'school' of "No one in this family is a quitter."  And as far as team sports are concerned, we are still in that school....because lets face it. Sports usually last for a few months and even if you hate it, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Piano can go on forever and ever, no end in sight.

As much as I hate to let her quit...I'm letting her quit. The more I think on it, one can learn a lot from quitting something.  What if you are in a job you hate?  Or a toxic relationship?  Quitting something requires inward thought and soul searching, evaluating priorities and coming to realizations that not everything should be 'forever'.  Everything has a season, so the Good Book says. 

So, despite her obvious musical talent, we are on a sabbatical from piano.  I'd rather her quit now and then, later on if she decides she misses it, go back.  I would really hate for her to grow to despise it.

And frankly...it works out in my favor to only have to carve out *one* hour of our school day for my Dear Son's lessons. 

Can anyone say "Win-Win Situation"?