IDEAS. . .

I haven't posted in a long time, I don't think I even posted the last school year at all.  It's just about finding your own groove.  The last year was good, it seemed more mellow, I wasn't trying as hard to make tons of projects.  We focused on writing and Will blogged a few of his stories and he progressed through math.  We did a lot in our area in terms of field trips to learn about our state.  This year will be far different.  Ian starts Kindergarten this year, so I will feel that pressure for him to be on target now.  I don't know why I worry he is already reading and is picking up on math super quick.  Writing (forming letters and words through print) will be a focus I want him to grow in his ability to write down things he wants to express.  Also, I am keeping Viv home this year (my 8 year old daughter that happens to have Down Syndrome) so that will be a new and um, exciting challenge (I am trying to be really positive!!!).  I just can't send her to school knowing I can give her more as well as just the fact I don't want her separate from the rest of us.  She is about on the same level as Cadence in a lot of ways right now.  She has more sight word knowledge and is a bit ahead in reading in general, but last year is when Ian took off and I imagine Cadey will be surpassing Viv quick.  It's a challenge just that I will have a variety of abilities and trying to manage that fluctuation.  Anyway, that is kind of where we are.  I have decided I am going to try to keep track of ideas and projects here.  I think it will help me dump my brain and have a place to reference if I need it.  So here that goes for the time being:
WILL (age 10):

Civil War this year!!! YAY!  I'm super excited for this!

I have several historical fiction novels at his reading level starting with a Harriet Tubman biography.
The plan is to have Will read the books and while he reads, have him keep notes tracking North and South uniforms, battles, people and events.  I have a sheet created that is a "T" chart to compare both sides.  He will also add things to a time line as he finds them in the novels.   I also want him to keep a journal as he reads reflecting on what he thinks about as he reads such as the effects of war, how he would feel, what side would he take, why wars in general are fought, could it have been different and how? 
After he reads these novels, I will give him access to three different books to do a further study of:
Excerpts from "What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know" series.
Evan-Moore's Civil War Pocket Book
and Civil War For Kids activity book


From these I am going to let Will choose what he wants to do to create 5-10 projects that will deepen his knowledge and how he wants to direct it. Maybe he wants to learn more about uniforms or a certain battle, this will be where he can direct his interests and the above books, will hopefully be good resources that he can find projects and such to do that he will find interesting and fun.

ALL KIDS (ages 4-10):  THE 50 STATES!!!  Also very excited for this pocket of learning!

For the whole group we will learn about 2 states per week.  For each state we will color a state shape, color and locate it on a US map, identify the flag, a land mark and/or state flower.  I also got a cookbook for the states that gives a recipe or two for each state off of popular foods and abundant resources from that state.  So we will make a recipe from each state.  Finally, I have poem book that has a poem for each state as well, so we will read a state poem.    


For Will and the states:
He has to choose 5 states to learn more about.  I am giving him options such as:


Write a basic report
Create a state stamp
Create a poster
Make an advertisement for the state
Plan a trip to the state
Write a journal response (a couple days worth) as if he had been visiting that state
Write a poem about the state
Make a state float (what I did in 5th grade-New Mexico, thank you very much!!)


He can do any of these to show what he learns about the states he chooses.  He can do them all the same or do something different for each one, the point is letting him choose.

My reading approach:

1) Learn the sounds of the letters and identify the letters.  I have used part of zoophonics for this.  It's the animal flash cards, kids say sound and do an action to learn letter sounds.
We play go fish alphabet and alphabet bingo as fun things to reinforce this as well.

2) Learn sight words.  I have used Teddy Bear Press to do this.  I like the little books and kids feel like they are READING as they memorize basic sight words.

3) Hooked on phonics.  Once kids have the basic sounds down and a good amount of sight words under their belt, I start them on basic phonics.  I like hooked on phonics and Ian especially gets motivated as he gets stickers along the path and works towards his reading parties.  As we finish levels we do some kind of fun thing like bake a cake and celebrate how much he is learning!!!  Ian was my one that wouldn't even pick up a book, so it is exciting that he is loving reading now.

4) Read, read, read!!!!  The more you read the better you read.  I read to the kids, they read to me and my husband and every time there is an opportunity I have them read to friends and relatives and to each other.

Well, that's all for now.  I will continue to brain dump so to speak and hopefully I will be able to organize this info. in a better way soon.

Personal Felt Boards

These were really easy and fun to make. I got the idea from the Martha Stewart site and made mini ones instead of one big one. This could be a fun thing for your home school closet (it's where I put mine) to practice ABC's, tell stories, talk about colors, shapes, really anything!

Just get masonite board and cut into 8x10 pieces (my husband did this for me, I'm totally a girl when it comes to that stuff). Spray adhesive spray and cover with felt. I used foam letters and kid creations from the craft store and glued them to felt pieces and cut out felt shapes. You can also cut out pictures from coloring books, magazines or whatever and either stick a sticky backed velcro piece to it or laminate it and glue it to felt to have pieces to tell stories or whatever great things you can think to do with them.

I put mine in a photo frame that I just took the glass out of but you could just leave them plain as well. Very fun.

Science Fair Ala Home School

This year Will got to participate in his first ever science fair. He chose to create a model of the solar system for his project. I was really impressed with how well he did. I got library books for him and read those and studied some Internet sites and then we made a list of what he wanted to include. He then wrote a little bit about what he learned and was excited about each object included. I thought he did a great job and all I had to do what remind him to include topic sentences. We found objects and made paper mache ones to show the relative scale size of the planets in relation to each other and I thought it turned out pretty well.

At the fair, we had a great time in a fellow home schooler's backyard (complete with chickens, ducks, goats, etc.). The kids set up projects, played, ate and played some more and then settled down to present their projects. Will was so cute, he was so confident and such the little teacher I was beaming!! He was the only kid that changed his voice to that teacher mode and asked the kids questions as he presented his material. For example, "Can anyone find the red spot on Jupiter?" Then going on to explain what it was. Very cute!! We all had a great time.

Ancient Rome

The last few weeks Will has been studying Ancient Rome in Mom Share. I got a book called "History Pockets" that guide you through information on topics while compiling a little pocket book. Combined with that, resources from friends, the Internet and library books we have had a pretty intense look at Ancient Rome. Here are a few things we have done so far:

Model of Ancient Roman kitchen

Clothing





A Bulla

Feasting

Roman numerals and ancient Roman writing tablet.

A real mosaic

Roman Soldiers

Why I Love Mom Shares

Today we did a mom share on famous explorers. I just read a little passage from What Your Third Grader Needs to Know and then we talked about why explorers explore, some of the character traits they had, etc.. We talked about places we would like to explore, what we would like to learn about the new places, challenges of being explorers, etc. Another avenue this could have lead to was space but we didn't even get that far. Will started talking about wanting to get books about Cortez and making a compass so he could explore. I didn't have to do anything but present a topic and from there Will has already given me plenty to go on to create some supplemental activities and more Mom Share topics! For me Mom Shares are about sparking kids interest, introducing them to the world, where it is, where it's going and where it has been. From there the kid can decide yep I am totally interested in that, or yeah not so much but at least they know it's out there and naturally the true human nature of curiosity kicks in. Any education class will tell you that when kids decide for themselves they will be more invested and more willing to learn. Mom Shares allow for that and days like today remind me of why it is I am home schooling and how great it is. YAY FOR HOME SCHOOLING!!!

Busy and Productive Week at Home School!

This week Will has been a whirl wind of projects and fun. I have been doing a simple mom share and then Will makes a list of things he wants to work on. I've helped him gather materials but mostly he has just worked out of "how to" type books and created some fun things. Boba Fett Sculpture

Will's Museum: Many of the things Will creates he puts on this little shelf in his room and calls it his museum. He makes little name plates and everything. I think it's a great way to display the things he has worked on.

This week we have been reading about Native Americans and some of his projects have reflected that. This is his Kachia Doll.

This is actually from last week. We have been working out of a body activity book and learning about the human body. It's pretty fun. First he traced his body and then he would read a page or two on a body part and then color and cut out that part and attach it to where it really fits in his body. This was the completed project.

Dream Catcher

This was one of my favorite things Will worked on this week. We have a bucket of random recycling stuff and every once in awhile Will will ask for it and just create something. This week he made a food dispensing hat. I had a big smile on my face as he demonstrated and then offered to me as a gift for myself! Kids seriously are so hilarious!

We also had a lot of painting going on this week. Will created a Pinewood Derby car with his dad and his school task was to get it painted. He added fire flames, very cool! Ian wanted to participate as well and painted one of the train cars while Cadey made a traditional painting.

Another mom share was on the brain, nerves and neurons. Will made a model of a neuron out of pipe cleaners and added it to his museum.

Overall a great and productive week! We are looking forward to Light and Vision, Explorers and Constellations next week!!

Homework Assignment

(Notice the "caution work zone" sign, so funny, what a kid!)

I have a Home Schooling Mentor that checks in on me close to daily. Here and there I give a happy report and this was one of those days. She gave me a homework assignment to write the experience of today so that when I was having a bad day and wondering why in the world I was home schooling I could look back on days like this and remember why it is I home school.

One of my biggest challenges is that my kids are on different levels and I haven't felt comfortable with doing projects together, they either feel too hard for one level or too easy for the other. Today though Viv had some homework (she is still in public school) for writing her name. This was one activity they could all do together. Will worked on his signature, Ian his first name in print, Viv her whole name in print and Cadey worked on her name but focused just on the C. The kids did really well and I was praising them and they looked up with beautiful beaming smiles of pride. Will started in as well looking at all the little kids papers and exclaiming what a great job they were doing, then they all started in telling each other how good they were doing. I thought to myself, "I would never see such a thing in a public classroom!!"

We read poems today and Will and I wrote another poem together. I felt a little frustrated at this point because pulling words from Wills head are like pulling teeth but somehow we got through it. We also read Ali Baba and the 40 thieves and discussed loyalty and thinking of others. When Dennis got home I had Will retell the story to his dad to check for comprehension. He needed a few reminders that Dennis hadn't read the story and he needed to explain some details but he did a great job retelling the story. Then, it was time for him to choose what to work on. He chose to build a robot from his writing book (this book has you create some concrete object and then uses it to spur on writing topics). He spent two hours collecting materials and creating his master piece he is calling Mr. Zap and having conversations with (pretty funny). Again, I thought, when would you see this happen in a classroom. He would never be allowed 2 hours to work on a project! We also did a family cleaning project of cleaning the car which was filthy. Everyone pitched in throwing out trash, wiping windows, vacuuming and cleaning dashes. The music played and kids danced and laughed as we all worked together. Again, I thought how happy I was to have these experiences. I am grateful to be the one to teach my children not just academics but values and habits that will make them confident, hard working and capable people. It's hard to home school and sometimes I want to pull my hair out, but I have a day like today and it seems clear and sure that it is right for us.

One other change we have made lately is we added an ingredient from the Thomas Jefferson Model. We added evenings. This means we do not watch TV with the kids at night (except Sunday PCandA) or let them play randomly. This is family time. We read scriptures, write in our journals and then do a family activity (mostly reading together, but could be a game or bike ride, anything that we do together). So far this has been a lot of fun. I have enjoyed having Dennis be in charge of scriptures and taking that out of the A.M. routine which leaves me more time to read aloud from picture and story books as well as Viv's homework time. I guess the main idea is that things are good today, I am grateful for the inspiration to home school and I can see glimmers of truth through my faith that it the right thing for our family.