Week 3

We had a vacation!  We drove to Massachusetts, primarily for Thomas Land, which resides in Edaville USA.  After having a weekend of great fun there, we headed out to Plymouth for some of our nation's history.

1) The Plymouth Grist Mill, a brief tour of how everything works, then downstairs to a very kid-friendly area where you can grind corn, sift cornmeal, watch the gears, play with miniature watermills, and more.

2) Burial Hill wasn't exactly stroller-friendly, but we aren't exactly incapable, so we carried the stroller up the many, many old stairs.  

3) Plimoth Plantation - an amazing experience!  It's a living museum of life in the 17th century.  The plantation itself has actors and actresses who interact with the guests, and stay in character no matter what comes up!  I think even Roger and I learned more than we had ever learned in our dry, textbook schooling.  First was the Wanpanoag homesite, then the plantation.  There were also indoor areas with artifacts, videos and displays.  This is a 2-day ticket and experience.  We loved it! 

Canoeing

The fort

Sorting artifacts

Playing the part

Helping out

Stilts

My pilgrims

4) Back at home.  Morning math.  I gave the K kid 2 die to roll and add up... he asked me for the 3rd, so "it could be harder."

5) Tot loves markers.  Just gotta keep it on the paper.  Keep it on the paper!

6) 3rd grader reads Stuart Little in one sitting.  

7) This week's art included a nature walk to collect leaves. 

8) K kid asked to push the car up the hill, because "it will give me good input, Mom."  Hooray!  He's starting to self-regulate.  

9) We arrange and glue our leaves onto our Hedgehog cut-outs for art.  

10) While making the hedgehogs, Mom reads aloud some fall poems, and we sing a song called "Mr. Pumpkin."  Although our "official" school day is done by noon, the 3rd and K kids spend the rest of the afternoon creating paper and popsicle stick puppets, memorizing the song and practicing putting on the puppet show in the Little Theater downstairs.  Around 3PM, they call us down to watch their show.  

2017 - 2018 School Year Weeks 1 and 2

So I have this idea... that I'll blog what we do... every week, just some fun snippets or if we have any majorly fun things we've done.  We'll see if that comes to fruition.  Like I said, it's an idea!!

Here are some highlights of Weeks 1 and 2 of our happy homeschool this year.

WEEK 1

1) 3rd and K start off with a Plant Life Cycle unit for Science.  We did a lesson, colored a worksheet, labeled the parts of a plant and of a seed, read 3 library books on the topic, and germinated some seeds, which we then planted.  We also decorated our pots.  They have seed observation journals, and will then make observation notes when it becomes a plant.

2) This goofy guy does tricks with his swing on his breaks.

3) 6th grader does some math.  With a Harry Potter book by her side, always.  She loves them so much, she reads them again, and again, and again.  

4)  3rd grader used the giant white board that Dad brought home, which happens to be in our foyer for the moment, to do some math problems that came up while playing Prodigy math.  

5) High Schooler does his math online on his iPad.  He generally works in his room, alone and away from distraction, and with his music on.  He prefers to not be sitting at a desk.  

WEEK 2

1) 3rd and K begin their day with some math workbooks.  And oatmeal. Yum!  They generally work at the kitchen island so that I can be available when needed.  Mornings I don't really get out of the kitchen until 10 or after.  And the tot can play nearby.  

2) Tot does some painting outside with finger paints.  She paints the paper, herself, the wooden posts and benches, the chair.

3) And then she eats the paint, and comes in to tell me all about it.  Lesson learned.... hopefully.  

4) 9th and 6th graders have history and geography together downstairs.

5) Tot has "Tunes for Tots" at a local park, set up by a friend.  

6) K kid gets rolled up in his heavy blanket on a break for some much-needed sensory input.  Tot helps. 

7) We end our week watching the very cool show put on by the marching band and our favorite trombone player.  

Our 2017-2018 School Year

We logged our longest summer break ever, since starting homeschooling!!   We just had so much going on with friends that we pushed back our regular early-August start date and decided to match the local district this year.  I'm sure we'll still manage to get ahead at some point, as we don't take off the same days as they do.

Don't even ask how many takes we had of trying to get a half-decent picture!  

The little one proved incapable of managing her own sign.

This year required a bit more planning with our 1st time homeschooling a high schooler.  Me + the internet had a lot of late-night dates figuring what, why, and how.  I'm still a newbie, but I know how to calculate credits, keep a transcript, plan for college, and keep sane!

9th Grade

Our 9th grader toured the high school as an option, and even looked into virtual charter, but ultimately decided to remain a homeschooler.  His year is filled with independence, as it should be.  He's got a planner, where he not only plans out his upcoming week but records daily what he has accomplished.  His math is an online program, complete with grading and tests (whew - less work for me!), and his Literature is an Honors level course that dives into the classics with all of the footwork, planning and finishing (and LOTS of writing) on him.  Many of his other courses are lectures in video form, some that are college-level, accessible from sources like www.edx.org, www.udemy.com, www.study.com and www.saylor.org and more.  Video lectures have a notebooking component, and often require lots of research and some have the option of purchasing a certificate of completion or even earning college credit.  His electives include computer programming, Intro to Engineering, and he is continuing with a more intense Spanish course.  He goes to the community center to work out on his own, and is in the district's marching band.  His first week went well, he'd already checked out all of his online sources and had his logins and passwords down pat, and actually thoroughly enjoyed his Literature assignment, which he turns into me through google docs (weird!).

He's a jokester....

Programming class... off and running!

6th Grade

Our 6th grader needed more independence as well.  She does best when she is in involved start to finish, so we gave that to her this year.  She has the same planner (might as well knock that concept out all at once, right?) and so far loves to work with it.  This is our first repeat homeschool year!  Meaning, we've already homeschooled 6th grade, so we have most of the parts and pieces.  A new student workbook for the middle school math book cost less than $20.  She has a Grammar text and workbook, which also includes instructions for dictation, spelling, vocabulary and writing prompts.  She's continuing in Spanish as well, and has art and Science with big brother.  World History is from a bunch of different sources this year, her music takes up a good chunk of the week as she has band, percussion lessons, orchestra, violin lessons, piano lessons and of course, practice time.  New to us is something we're trying out, and it has impressed me so far.  It's an online Minecraft homeschool course.  There are many sources for this, and we have another child taking one from another source, but Indy's is from here.  She's taking the Periodic Elements course, and not only does it have her researching the first element in all sorts of ways, but she then had to build the table of elements within the private minecraft server.  On top of that, she will be labeling each element as she goes along and recording in paragraph form the information she learns in the quill book (or whatever that thing is within minecraft).  It's a 15-week program that spells out each assignment, provides links to relevant info, and grades assignments.  The level of engagement is what impresses me, and while we still are using real books for many of our subjects and all of our reading (we don't use kindles or other screens to read books for the most part), I have to say the minecraft class is great.   

Practice, practice!

3rd Grade

Technically 2nd grade by age, but all over the place in material and curriculum, we're just calling our 3rd child a 3rd grader this year.  Every time we'd say 2nd grader, it just didn't sound right, so we'll see how using the 3rd grade label goes this year.  We still have her with her same-aged peers for her church group and other similar things.  So, our 3rd grader is having a bit of a different kind of year.  We are backing off workbooks and regular curriculum, and allowing her to follow her interests, and then aligning her interests with the main subjects of school.  Since she's so far ahead in knowledge for her age, and learns fast, she isn't at risk of falling behind or missing out on anything.  She'll have some days where her work will be sit-down, and she'll have review days where the basic concepts will be worked on, but other than that, she's got some freedom in what to choose to study.  She also has a Minecraft class which uses the Magic School Bus as a platform to teach science, which she really enjoys.  Hers is from here.  She uses the free game of Prodigy for her math practice, and since she quickly leveled up and hit new concepts, when playing she's constantly coming to find me so I can teach her how to do it.  History remains a favorite topic, and we have a bunch of sources available for when she feels like diving in.  Science we are doing in units, and she chose All About Plants for the first unit.  Her Kindergarten brother is doing this along with her, with less writing and recording, and we are having a lot of fun.  Our resources include the free section of www.teacherspayteachers.com, some Evan Moor science books, some STEM Lab books, and other various internet materials.  This year's science will involve a lot of nature walks, notebooking, and labs.  She is dabbling with the violin, in preparation for joining the elementary strings program next year.  

Playing Prodigy

Kindergarten

Our kindy kid is always full of surprises for us!  He is a brand-new 5 yr old, so we've always questioned what mindful parents of August boys question - will he be ready for Kindergarten?!?  While I'm sure he would have a set of struggles if tossed into the mix of a public school kinder classroom (that range of 5 to 6 years is SO vast and large for little boys!), he's so far thriving with the material I've put down for him, and then some!  Being homeschooled allows for that extra year of his therapies, and after private testing, we have a whittled down a list of things to work hard on this year.  It also allows him to work on K-level stuff, or as he is proving to me this week, 1st -grade level stuff.  I've had to shelve many of the resources I had chosen carefully for him, and pull out things to provide some challenge.  He loves mapwork, and is thriving in a 3rd grade level book, even apparently doing some mysterious reading of the instructions.  He will not read aloud if asked, but is completing the activities per the written instructions, without anyone reading it to him.  His answer to me is, "the words are just what they are, Mom."  For math, we began with an actual open-and-go kindergarten program, which is now packed away.  He HATED it, and now I know why.  On day last week while big sister was getting frustrated with being asked to write out HOW she got the answer to her 2nd grade review of 2-step word problems, our little Kinder came over, put his arm around her, and gave detailed instructions on how to do it.  With math skills (and math vocabulary) I didn't know he had.  Big sis and I both nearly fell out of our chairs.  So, I'm scrambling to get the right resources in place for him, ones that, like his other gifted siblings before him, can challenge his brain without taxing his attention span or physical abilities.  He continues with OT, and is now in a pilot group program with 3 other boys that will address all of his IEP goals in one session, with homework to do each week as well.  

Looking at the camera straight on and smiling is still hard!

But I got one!

Working on the Life Cycle of Plants

Toddlerhood

 We can't leave the little one out... but we don't technically do "Toddler School" or any of that other insanity that the blog world is full of.  Our youngest will learn by existing and playing alongside her older siblings, by attending our events and excursions with others, and by being given opportunities that can't be had in structured, always baby-safe environments like day care or preschool.  We let her play with tiny things (smaller than a toilet paper tube - oh my!) like LEGOS, dried noodles, Squinkies, and more.  The fine motor it affords is so necessary for her development!  We let her explore almost everything.  Small messes can be cleaned up and the experience as a whole is so valuable for her.  She has access to pretty much the whole house, supervised, of course.  In the absence of all the baby-safe items and barriers, she has had to learn what is acceptable for her to have, and what she has to ask for.  Even while words are still forming, and months ago before she could verbally ask, she would stand at the bottom or top of the stairs and make a noise to get our attention so that she could use the stairs with us.  It's amazing what little ones can do when you let them.  But the consumer-driven world of baby retail has fantastically changed that (see a former post on my other blog which sarcastically covers this concept), and the social-media-driven share-the-most-horrible-things-that-you-have-ever-heard-of mania instills and fuels irrational fears in new parents of really rare things that might injure their tiny precious human.  So, in not falling into the retail or social media traps, we let little Shelby play, engage with the rest of us, explore, and help us all day long.  Like most littles in homeschool families, she will probably just naturally end up calling it school like her big sibs.  Since she was trying to eat her 1st Day sign, and she also doesn't stay still for photos, I don't have any of her standing pretty on the hill holding her sign.  But here are a few of her having fun.

Ice cubes and food coloring in a curb-find water table

Scooping and dumping... scooping and dumping... 

She loves putting Mickey and Minnie on their chairs.