How my Adventure in Homeschooling Began

This month Little Man turned 10. This milestone has me reflecting a lot on how much I have changed over the past decade in how I think about the world. We decided shortly after he was born that we were going to homeschool him and any other kids God entrusted to us. That decision was a big one for us. Originally we were going to send our kids to private school After all; I worked at a private preschool that was attached to one of the best private schools where we live. However, God had different plans for us. God changed our minds and we kept Little Man, along with the rest of our kids, at home. We have never once second guessed our decision and everyday, our decision is confirmed in some way.
One of the first things that transformed was my thinking about exactly what “school” should look like. At first, I tried to make it look just like the preschool and “regular” school. I did circle time with him, read to him, sang with him, did crafts, and everything else I did when I taught preschool – all good things to do. I tried to make school last for three hours everyday and missed the mark completely. When Little Man got older, I tried to mimic a normal classroom school day. I realized he was not retaining much of what we were doing and he wasn’t really enjoying learning. Some kids love this structure but he was not one of them.
I learned quickly, that school is so much more than the daily activities done in school. Much of what is done in preschool is really designed to keep the kids occupied until they are picked up. Many kids are not ready to learn their letters and numbers formally until they are four or five and some really can’t grasp them until they are six. Our society has pushed for kids to start “learning” earlier and earlier. But most kids just are not ready and pushing them is not really helping them.
My mindset about school has changed dramatically since then. I still do formal school stuff with my littles but my picture of formal school has changed dramatically. Little G does school everyday. Most of what she learns is during normal everyday life stuff. She helps sort clothes, tells me the colors of toys while we clean up, counts (she knows 1,2 so far) the cups or spoons when we do dishes, and identifies the ingredients when cooking a meal. All of this is school. I also read to her and she reads to me. Books play a major role in our day. We read tons of books and always seem to check out our limit at the library. She also works with counting bears, pattern blocks, tangrams, and linking cubes at the table while the older kids are doing schoolwork. (These are manipulatives necessary for Saxon Math. You can get them at your local school supply store or you can get them online.) She also has done her first lapbook. I found a site that has tot-books that are lapbooks designed for toddlers. I also give her tons of color pages to do while we are at the table. She does those for school while the kids are working on their written work. She is starting to show an interest in her letters so I am going to start her with some color pages that have letters on them so she can begin recognizing them. She also loves folder games. She loves to match colors and shapes. If we don’t do the formal stuff during the day, I no longer think that I haven’t done school. Instead I look at all the learning opportunities she had throughout her day and I realize just how much she is learning.

Here are some of the amazing sites out there that are full of things to do with a toddler/preschooler.

DLTk's Printables - This site and all of her sister sites are so awesome! There are activities galore and they are all grouped by themes. She also has a coloring page site that is filled with all sorts of categories of color pages.

First-School Preschool - This site has letter activities and so many other worksheets and you can print out.

Kidzone - Fun Facts for Kids - This site is also a gold mine of traceables, counting pages and much more.

TLS Books - So many free printable worksheets for every age/ability level, I cannot even begin to list them.

Preschool Printables - Folder games. Toddlers/Preschoolers well even my 10 year old enjoy games. These games are affixed to a folder and provide a lot of fun while they are learning a concept. Just a little bit of assembly and if you want some clear contact paper for sturdiness provides hours of fun. For even more folder game sites you can click here and here for my other two posts of links to more free printable folder games.

Tot School - This site is newer to my bookmarks. She set up a site that gives tons of ideas for teaching a toddler. I found it while reading other blogs that talked about tot school. There is also her other site, Tot Books they are mini lapbooks perfect for toddlers. Little G just did her first one, and she is so proud of it. She carries it around and looks through it many times during the day.


Happy Homeschooling!!!

Artist Study - Da Vinci

This week we are doing a quick mini unit on Leonardo da Vinci. Princess K is fascinated with his paintings and Little Man is fascinated with his inventions/sketchings of things beyond Da Vinci’s time. This isn’t a planned artist study at all. We are studying Da Vinci because the kids are interested in him. This is why I love homeschool. If the kids were in any other school situation, they would have to learn about whomever is next on the list and most likely only remember what is needed for the test and quickly forgetting it after. However, because they are interested in him, they are retaining almost everything they are reading.
We started with a quick overview of his life on Monday and the kids did a modified notebooking page of it. (Not lapbooking this one, we are still working on 3 other lapbooks.) On Tuesday, the kids all did a color page of the Mona Lisa. It was so fun watching them all see the painting differently. Little G loved doing this assignment too.

Little Man's

Princess K's

Miss H's

Little G's

Still to come this week are some of his sketches of his inventions and of course his fresco of the Last Supper. I am sure the kids will come up with more that they want to learn. We will also practice mirror writing. Da Vinci wrote backwards because then he could keep some secrecy in his notes and he was left handed so this kept the ink from smudging.

Here are some great sites that I found for our study that I thought I would share.
Leonardo da Vinci Biography.com
Da Vinci - The Genius
Enchanted Learning - Leonardo da Vinci

Coffee & a Doughnut

This weekend Little Man reached a milestone when he went to coffee with Daddy Reg.
He ordered his first Starbucks coffee and he paid for it himself. Normally he is a Kid’s Cocoa no whip type person but turning 10 means he can do more grown up things like order a Tall white mocha no whip and a glazed old-fashioned doughnut. Then he calculated how long he had to work in order to earn enough money to pay for it. He has been working for his Papa off and on for $3 an hour. (A huge pay increase compared to his dad who made $1 and hour at his age.)

 Enjoying his first expensive cup of coffee.

Have to have a doughnut with it.

On his birthday he tried a cup of regular joe and said it was okay. (Thanks son, glad your mom’s coffee is just okay.) He liked his white mocha, but only drank half. – A good thing because I forgot to tell him to order decaf and anyone who knows my son knows he needs nothing that boosts his energy.

They brought home a Venti Carmel Macchiato with an extra shot for me someday he’ll graduate to the hard stuff.

Rainy Day Fun

Heart of the Matter Online does a weekly Friday meme that I used to participate in but haven’t for a while. This week I thought it would be fun to take part in it. Here is this week’s topic:

April Showers: Rainy Day Ideas

I don’t know about you, but around here it’s been nothing but sunshine lately and we are enjoying it! The forecast is calling for rain in the near future and the kiddos will once again be climbing the walls until the sun shines again. What do you do when you’re stuck indoors all day? Share your great rainy day ideas!

What do we do on a rainy day?
At our house, the adventure doesn’t change much between the rainy and sunny days. For five years, we lived in an area where just sending the kids out to play was not really the safest thing to do. I learned a long time ago how to keep the kids occupied and happy indoors because there were many days when I could not stay outside to watch them and going to the park was not going to happen. These activities are also great for windy days and super high pollen days, which also force us to stay inside.

Hide and Seek – My kids love playing hide and seek in the house. There are many hiding places if you just use your imagination. They can play for about an hour before getting bored and even the littlest one can get involved.

How about under the bathroom sink?

Or maybe the top of the wardrobe?

Maybe under the kitchen table would be better.

Under the desk with Mommy at the computer is perfect!

On second thought I think I prefer under the laundry basket.

Stone Tag – My kids play a game sort of like Freeze Tag only it is Narnian style. We have this cloth rose that the kids use as a wand. If you are touched you are turned into stone; until someone comes and touches you to be "unstoned". This game can become so hilarious to watch. Little G loves to be the one with the rose and the kids love trying to escape her. Much laughter fills the house during this game.

Princess K had the rose at this moment and poor Little Man, that is not an easy position to be when you're turned into stone.

Puzzles - We have a special cover for the top of our table so we will put a puzzle on the actual table and just cover it with the topper when we need the table for something, like eating. There is often an unfinished puzzle just waiting for someone to work on hiding away under the topper.

Working away on the puzzle.

Now the puzzle is put away for the day.

Our house is always filled with activity everyday. From baking and cooking to puzzles and games, there is always an activity to be done. Almost always, our coffee table is covered in some coloring, cutting or origami type project. Or our kitchen table is covered with mini books that are being done for a lapbook. The fun here never ends, well... at least until bedtime. :)

Need more ideas, visit other moms for more ideas by visiting Heart of the Matter Online. What are some fun things you do on days when you are forced to stay indoors?

A Homeschool Weblink to Share

I ran across a new worksheet website the other day when I needed a worksheet for possessive pronouns. It is a gold mine! I have since used it several times.
It even had a printable pattern to make this tetrahedron.

It has every subject imaginable (Including some really fun math puzzles that Little Man has really enjoyed.) and you can create your own worksheets by just clicking the parameters you want it to use. It is a bit different than other worksheet generating websites. I found it is so much easier than many others I have used.
It is called Worksheet Works and I just had to share it. :)

The Tree in my Yard

I have this beautiful tree in my backyard that I absolutely hate this week.

It was great on Easter and I loved it then. I hid countless eggs in it.

Then... it blossomed.

Isn't it beautiful?

The problem is that I am so totally allergic to it and am completely miserable right now.

And to top things off it is currently filled with an insane amount of bees.

So many that you can actually hear the tree.

Okay, maybe not the tree itself -
but it is buzzing and sounds like a motor humming away.
I know there has to be a hive close by, I am just hoping it isn't in the tree.

Some Recent Sewing Adventures

I love to sew, a lot. I learned how to sew when I was about 7 and fell in love with the whole process. I love sewing things for mommys more than probably anything. I had the pleasure of sewing some stuff for my sister-in-law who was blessed with an amazing little boy. I thought I would share with anyone interested. :)

This is the changing table cover I made for her. The colors in the baby's room are chocolate brown, beige, light blue and white with a splash of orange for a pop of color. I thought it would be fun to make it a solid strip with the chocolate and the light blue. Then edged it with a light blue stitch. This was a lot of fun to make.

Here are some burp cloths I made. The front is a flannel print and the bottom is a terry. I love these so much! When I had Miss H, A friend of mine gave me a couple like this and I used them all the time. They are big enough to cover and absorbent. I have made tons of these over the past few years. Even with Little G being two, I still use them. They are soft and perfect for wiping a runny nose.

Here are a few smaller ones I made. My sister-in-law uses the small ones a lot for drool and while feeding the baby. They are just two pieces of flannel swen together but I have found these to be very useful. :)

 

Then I made one of my favorite things of all time. The changing tote. I designed this about two years ago and love it. It is a changing pad and diaper tote rolled into one. The outside gets dirty while the inside is the part that the baby comes in contact with. The inside has four pockets. I keep my wipes in one, two diapers in another, and I keep little ziplocs in another for easy disposal when a garbage can isn't near by. And if I am going to be gone all day, I can add two more diapers in the fourth pocket and everything will still fit. I cannot tell you how much I love this creation of mine. :) I even used it today changing Little G in the car.

Hope you enjoyed my little show and tell. :)

Ressurection Weekend - Lots of Pictures.

We were super busy for Resurrection weekend this year. On Friday, our church held a Passover dinner. This was slightly different than a traditional Passover – aside from the fact that Passover started on the 8th. It was presented in a way that showed how Christ is in the elements of the Passover. It was awesome to see how the Passover was a foretelling of the Messiah. The middle Matzo is broken in half (this is the bread that Jesus broke.) wrapped in a white linen and hidden until it is found at the end of the meal. It is called the Afikoman that means “I arrive” or “I come” in both the Greek and Hebrew. The third (There are four total.) cup of wine (grape juice in our case) is the Cup of Redemption. That is the cup that Jesus said is his blood. I know that I will never look at Communion the same again. If you ever have the opportunity to go to a Passover where Christ is presented, you must really go. The kids were responsible for part of the food. They made a Matzo Apple Kugel for the dinner. It is sort of like a casserole of Matzo, apples and cranberries. The kids had tons of fun.

Saturday we dyed eggs as is a tradition in our house. Little G dyed eggs for the first time this year and she did so great! She didn’t spill the cups of dye, or break the eggs.

Sunday, we of course went to church. We picked up where we left off on Friday night and service was awesome. I have no doubt that from the beginning of time, Jesus was plan A and not a backup plan because of Adam's sin. God's love for us is so vast and immeasurable that no one can comprehend fully what he did for us.

The Sprouting Tomato

Tonight while making dinner, I cut into a tomato and discovered the most interesting thing I think I have ever seen inside a tomato. The tomato was spouting inside! The seeds had started germinating inside the tomato.

So of course we wondered if a tomato plant would grow from this and we dug a hole outside in our meager little garden plot, put the tomato in the hole and covered it with dirt. Dinner turned into a science experiment. We have no idea what will happen but we will be monitoring it and charting what happens if anything does.
Another example of how the learning never stops in our house.