If you've come here from my regular blog,
The Farmhouse Adventures, then you already know us, and you already know that we homeschool, and that the 2015-2016 school year is our 2nd full year of doing so. My kids are my goobers, I've called them that as long as I've had some, and it most likely came from the reference in "The Goonies." If you've never seen "The Goonies," stop right where you are, and go watch it!! Seriously. It's completely awesome.
Essentially, I got tired of trying to jam all my updates for the fam, homeschool, the actual farmhouse renovations, our own house renovations, and things I like to rant about into one blog space, particularly since I wasn't getting the opportunity to update often. So here it is, The Homeschooled Goobers blog, so my parents can see what we're up to and of course open to whomever else comes floating in.
I have files and folders of our homeschool stuff on the computer, but going through it takes time. I make an end of the year photo book (from shutterfly.com) but it can only hold so much. Since there are a range of ages that I'm homeschooling now, and more up and coming, having pictures and paragraphs about what we're doing will be helpful to me down the road so I can look back and see what we've accomplished.
And perhaps, I'll even get to update this internet space more often!
November 2015 was a month that we got up and moving. I was (finally) coming out of feeling crappy daily from being pregnant with Baby 5 (as we call her), and my list of Cool Things To Do For School had grown during that time, but had not been acted upon. Here are some of the things we did:
1) Riley planted carrot seeds in cut-in-half empty water bottles, and watched them sprout and grow as part of her 1st Grade Science.
Yes, it was unseasonably warm this November here in the Northeast!
2) Even though RJ (3) goes to part-time preschool twice a week, he is joining our homeschool time more and more.
3) We organized! This is a necessity every few weeks or so to keep everything flowing and up to date. Each kid has a portfolio binder that includes the stuff that our state requires, like attendance, in addition to tabs for papers to be sorted by subject for things they do individually. Mom has a "Sanity Binder" of things like Writing Prompts, log-ins and passwords for websites, etc. Geography and History are combined with Story of The World as a base and a geography and art program that correlates to what we're learning in SOTW, so that has its own binder, too, with each of the 3 older kid's work in those subjects kept together. Besides tracking our daily attendance, I find it annoying to have to hole-punch everything and file it every day in the binders. So we use a hanging wall pocket folder thingie from IKEA to stash completed work in throughout the week, and then when we have an organization day, it all gets sorted by subject, hole-punched and filed.
Pajamas and cowboy hats. That's how we do.
Mom's taking up too much table space...
Independent work in a Reading Comprehension book.
Story of the World stuff comes out, complete with a whiteboard, we spend about an hour and half reading the chapter, doing the coorelated work, taking notes (Riley, too, in her own 1st Grade-modified kinda way) and discussing. Then, there is usually a coloring page (which really seems to ground all the kids back in, I love this) and then sometimes a project.
Riley's note-taking composition book.
4) As part of Story of the World, we made the Nile!
Shaping the river.
Adding tinfoil and some pebbles to the bottom.
He got his own "Nile" so he could mix the rocks and dirt and not piss off the other kids.
Flooding the Nile. We added SEEDS, but I think what has grown (in the 7 weeks it has existed in the bay window) is just WEEDS.
5) We participated in a Kids Potluck with our Homeschool Group. So much fun!
Post-grocery store. Each kid used the Internet to find a recipe, wrote out an ingredients list, and shopped for their list.
Riley has cake, and hers takes the longest, so she's up first. Good thing this 5 year old is a fantastic reader, Mom can just sit back and watch.
She's a Master Egg-Cracker.
Eye level measuring for the Vanilla.
Pouring the batter into pans.
Indy picked caramel-filled apple-halves. Here she is making the caramel.
Filling the apple halves.
Chase picked Banana Pudding with Nilla Wafers. No instant pudding being made here!
RJ didn't really give a crap, so we included him by having him unwrap Hershey's Kisses, and, several prompts later, he stopped putting them in his mouth and started following directions and placing one on each pretzel. Too bad Mom didn't believe the directions about cook time, and ended up burning them all!
Eating extra apples and caramel is a rich reward for hard workers.
Chase mixes his pudding.
They made signs and off we went to the Potluck!
Enjoying the goods.
6) RJ dressed up nice for his Preschool Thanksgiving celebration. Really, we just included this picture because he is darn cute. And I tricked him into laughing, so he is not making the 3-yr-old squished-up-smiley-face.
7) We continue to read, often. Sometimes sideways and upside down. And sometimes we just copy what big brothers are doing.
This chick is deep into chapter books and has finished everything we own in the house (that is appropriate for her, seriously, we have to hide stuff!). Time to pay that library fine, go to the library and get some new books to read.
8) We created, together, a new and realistic Chore Chart. It's copied off classroom job charts, using library pockets and popsicle sticks with colored buttons hot-glued on top to identify who has what job. It gets switched out every Sunday night, and takes the "It's Not Fair" out of chore assignments. The big kids (5 and up) all get 3 chores each week, with dishes and taking out the trash rotating back and forth between the big two. RJ gets something small and 3-yr-old appropriate, and there's even a Parent stick in there to show that Parents have to help out, too.
Of course, there's always other stuff to accomplish, like vacuuming the couches and things like that.
And that's our November in a nutshell. Soon I'll post December, but I can tell you there ain't all that much, with hospital happenings and the Holidays in there. January and the New Year brought some changes to programs and the such, so eventually that'll get up here, too!
