Category:

Essentials in Schooling at Home, Day Two -- The P's

8/12/2014

I was thinking off and on today about some of the ... not sure how to put it.. the less obvious essentials in schooling at home.

I thought of persistence and time and long-term views.

Then I had a phone call tonight from a friend who has been fretting over a perceived "being behind" in her son. And I asked her does fretting help? Honestly, if she looks at the long term view does fretting help? If her son is behind.. does taking an extra year hurt anything? Does the fretting HELP her son now?

And so I thought.. that's what I want to write about..it's the not so obvious things of Parenting, Persnickityness and Patience...

You know what parenting is right?   It's folks who given birth to, adopted in, foster over.. children. That's what parents do. We have children under our care that we are mindful of. We strive to teach and train and assist them in love throughout life. And sometimes, when we teach, we got so caught up in we need to make sure they have these facts that we forget what is most important... the raising and training of our children to be functional people in society. That's our job too.   And as believing parents we have that added responsibility to train up our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord God as well. It's a heavy burden,.. no.. not always a burden it's a strong calling.   Sometimes it is a burden though, despite the calling that it is. Parenting is NOT easy. It takes thought and action and a whole whack of love.

This is what lies behind the homeschooling movement you know. The need that parents have to mindful of their children.   Not only in their becoming people of God but also being mindful of what they are learning and how they are learning it.

Folk who do home education want to provide some guidance that may be lacking in other schooling venues. We can't forget this. We are parents first.

So as we parent, we also teach.   We teach knowing that we can't teach it all. Did you know that?   We can't. NO school system, not matter how well meaning, can teach it all. They can try. They can push. BUT they can't. It's impossible there is SO much information out there that you MUST pick and choose what you teach.    I honestly believe it matters NOT what you teach so long as you teach something. It doesn't matter how quickly you teach.. as long as you teach.   Patience matters in in this game of teaching you know.. patience to know that God will move hearts. God will develop minds and abilities.

My son.. a slow reader (worried me some until it was pointed out that he is learning.). I see his books and learning coming out in his play. I hear him asking questions.   It's just a matter of patience and it will come. AND.. so it comes. Same with holding a pencil the right way.. it didn't happen for a VERY long time (so it seemed to me) ... but research tells me that some children take time to develop those muscles. And.. so it came. Patience... not worry, not concern, just determined patience to trust God as he leads me. THIS is what he calls me too.

Persnickety as well. YES I can be persnickety. And that's not a bad thing. You know what it is to be persnickety right?   That means details matter. They do.    When you make a bed, you fold the sheets just so. When you do math.. 2 + 2 ALWAYS equals four.   When you start a sentence the first letter is ALWAYS capitalized.   So persnicketyness does matter. :)   We can and should teach facts!   But in that persnicketyness (and yes I have learned it can go too far) we can make the one way too important. For instance does it seriously does it matter which medium my son prefers to do his art in?   No it doesn't. I might prefer one way but does it really matter?   Does it REALLY matter if he learns his math facts sitting down on a chair or jumping around a yard? NO.   Sometimes we need to get over our preconceived ways of doing and see that it doesn't matter as long as the learning is happening.

Fast or slow. frontwards or backwards (my son often does math in what I think is a backwards fashion but he comes up with the right answer every time so does it matter?) At this point NO. I just find it fascinating.

Oh friends, oh readers.... Do you hear what I am saying?
I do hope so... sometimes we forget the student in our aim for the future and we need to see the student we have in front of us.
Bright and eager, stubborn and fighting, slow or smart.. they are children under our care and does our fretting truly help them? Don't teach them to fret, teach them to learn at the pace that suits them, in the manner that works for parent and student.
Does it matter really how fast or slow they learn something?
It's all just learning. Let them love you, let them love God, let them love to learn and fast or slow.... You'll get there .. HONEST. :)

This is some of what I think is essential to schooling at home?
What things are essential to you?

Other folks from the TOS review crew are talking about essentials and methods and what not this week. Won't you come join the party? Visit us, leave a comment or two, we'd all love to encourage you and to be encouraged.

Here are some to get you started.

Amy @ Counting Change... Again (our decision)
Shawna @ Tenacity Divine
Adena @ AdenaF (the four year plan)
Jenn @ Simblissity Cottage (school days)
Emilee @ Pea of Sweetness (keeping children on task)
Kathy @ Kathys Cluttered Mind
Sara @ Embracing Destiny

This post will also go with letter P of Blogging through the alphabet which is hosted by Marcy over at Ben and Me.

Others in this series.

BOOKS.

Essentials in Schooling at Home:Books

8/10/2014

Hello! Welcome to my blog this fine day. :) We are starting a week of blogging, a whole group of us over at the TOS crew are taking part. We get to talk about whatever we want, isn't that cool?

I thought this year I'd talk about essentials. And I know that EVERYONE has their own essentials. It's a given. Every family will have their priorities and that's a good thing. :)

One of the priorities in this household is books.

We LOVE books. :)

And since for the past two days I've been sorting through our book collection and oh gasp... putting some in my "to be sold or given away" bins I thought I'd talk of some of our favourites.

Leo the Lop. I have to tell you, when I saw this book, I almost didn't put it in the bin. I so remember the chuckles and storylines this book produced for us. The lad enjoyed this book so much. Poor Leo and those ears of his.

Snore! Is another book that my lad loved at one time. The sheer number of times we needed to read through this book. Still makes my hearts smile at the enjoyment we had. Those little pigs and their Heeheehee. :)

Learn to read with Elephant and Piggie. These CANADIAN books were a huge hit in our household. ESPECIALLY the "Should I share my ice cream?" Poor elephant.... We have six of the series. These are the ones that made a lad chuckle and try hard with his reading the most. Well done books. You really should check them out if you can.

More recently my son has become enamored of two series.
One: I am Canada. We are borrowing these from the library and THOROUGHLY enjoying them. They are written with boys in mind. They have another series called Canada diaries (I think) It is written for girls. We are trying one out as we wait for an interlibrary loan to bring us Graves of Ice. Excellent books on the history of Canada.

Second: Erin Hunter: Warriors. Ever since we discovered this series of the clan of cats my son has been TOTALLY hooked. One or two chapters a day depending on how busy we are in life we are pouring through these books. We've written poems based on them, played out story scenarios, drawn pictures and just really had a good time with these books. BE WARNED.. it's a lengthy series. :)

I almost forget to mention,A Nest for Celeste. OH my.. such a lovely book with line drawings, a great story of a boy with his mouse. A really nice book to read that captured my son's heart and imagination. :) It's the story about the boy who helped Audobon with his bird drawings.

We read a lot of books in this house, and as my son matures I'm reading more non-fiction to him. I am finding he likes to know the whys and hows of things all the more as he grows up. It's a normal boy thing...so I'm thrilled we are enjoyed the Warriors together,... he hasn't left the fantasy world completely behind. :)

Anyways, I hope I've introduced you to a few new books. If I had time I'd add a whole bunch more but these will do for now.

NOW.. below the banner is a list of some of the other TOS crew taking part in the blog hop. Do go on over and see what they are talking about as well won't you? Thanks a heap! Have a lovely book reading day.

Amy @ Counting Change... Again
Shawna @ Tenacity Divine
Adena @ AdenaF
Jenn @ Simblissity Cottage (the hardest part)
Emilee @ Pea of Sweetness
Kathy @ Kathys Cluttered Mind (let your children express themselves)
Sara @ Embracing Destiny

Tell me.. .. what's on your shelf lately?

Five days of Doing Science: Day Five: Looking with a science eye.

4/11/2014

You know how sometimes people find certain subjects easy and other subjects hard?

Science is one of those "easy" subjects for me. And sometimes I struggle with understanding why others find it hard. I have to remind myself that I find teaching certain things more problematic and it's just the same for others.

Part of my doing this five days of science was hopefully to show others that doing science needn't be a stressful thing. (just as I've had people show that me that teaching geography need not to be stressful) :)

I hope I've achieved that (at least a little bit).

So today I thought I'd talk abit about having an eye for science.

The other day I was out with my boy and he asked me what time it was. I (aghast) didn't have my cell phone with me so I looked up at the sky and said "oh, it's about 4 o'clock". He was "MOM, how do you do know that? You can't know that!". So I popped into a store and asked the clerk "Know what time it is"... oh "4:15".... This surprised the lad and he asked how I knew that.

I told him that if you live in a certain area long enough and get to know where the sun is in the sky you get to know about what time of day it is. That way you aren't surprised when it's 6 o'clock and time to be at home, or if you are out for a walk with your friends and your mom says "be home at ____ time, she'll expect you to be home because you can look at the sun and see what time it is.

That gave us opportunity to talk about earth rotation and constants in speed and a whack of other things, that just happened in a conversational tone and therefore the lad still remembers it (and dreads when I'll start asking him what time he thinks it is) right now it's just...so do you think it's closer to lunch or to supper?

Baking, cooking, perserving are all excellent ways to approach science. To think that pumpkin seeds are a natural anti-coccidiant for rabbits. AND they are good for people to eat and that same seed can grow new plants.. it's three - five lessons just using one simple plant. (this doesn't include the whole lets go out and plant some pumpkins and other seeds in the spring).

You have to admit...it's rather fascinating how baking soda can raise bread, that yeast produces gas, that dry ingredients mixed with wet ingredients plus heat equals food.   That's chemistry and is a good building ground for later chemistry type work/learning.

Letting your children explore what they can do with a simple ice cube (or with an icicle if you live in colder climes)... you can learn about states of matter, density, changes of form, temperature and so much more.

It's really just a matter of keeping your eyes open.
Stopping to examine the geometric designs in a spiders web and then asking...why do you think this type of web works for that spider?   Do you think all spiders make webs like that?
You see those bugs in the grass there?   Do you think a crawling bug would go to this kind of web? Oh no?   Well what kind of web do you think might work.. shall we see if we can find one?
You don't have to get close if bugs and critters give you the heebie-jeebies.. you really don't. But you can watch and learn along with your children and then get some books to support that learning.

Doing arts and crafts can be science as well.   Just how do you think this glue works? Do you think we can make a homemade glue?   What kind of things do you think this glue can stand up to? Heat? Water? Pressure? Different surfaces?   Let's examine it and find out.. and perhaps we can create something neat while we are at it.

Watch and see, you'll be amazed at how science opportunities can leap right out at you if you just keep your eyes open.

There are a whole bunch of us writing for this blog hop and I invite you to check them out. Here are 8 to get you started. :)
Nicole @ Journey to Excellence ~ Missouri
Dusty @ To the Moon and Back ~ Babywearing
Kristi @ The Potter's Hand Academy ~ Spring Studies
Jennifer @ Royal Little Lambs ~ Essential Oils
Jen @ Happy Little Homemaker ~ Frugal Fitness
Meg @ Adventures with Jude ~ Homeschooling from the Kitchen
Lori @ At Home: where life happens ~ Favorite Books
Tauna @ Proverbial Homemaker ~ A Christ-Centered Home

Please CLICK HERE for the whole list! :)

Five days of Science: Science On-line (day four)

4/10/2014

The internet is a great place to go for science materials.

From youtube, to informational sites, to places were you can play games and learn. You do need to pick through them a bit as some folks aren't as good at doing research as others, but you have that with written books as well. :) I thought I'd point your way to a few sites, and perhaps in return you'll point me to some that I may not have yet discovered. :)

YouTube

You can find all types of science experiments on YouTube. From the professional such as Steve Spangler to Educational shows such as National Geographic to just plugging in whatever you are looking for in the search bar and finding new and interesting things. Here's one I found on whales. :)

Science Resources

There's S cience Jim.    Where folks are encouarged to wonder about things.

When we studied the human body we used some of the experiments fromNeuroscience for kids to help solidify some of our learning.

Digital Bits Science Lab has a number of easy to challenging science experiments.

The Why Files. I find this site fascinating.   It's not a site for young children, geared toward teenagers/adults.   But it gives facts behind the news that might intrigue or explain things a bit more.

NatureWorks.    Learn about North American nature.      Discover the natural world and the connections that make nature work in this 16-part series for students in grades 3-6. Student host Patrice Forrester and Senior Naturalist Dave Erler of the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center, explore the ways living things interact with the environment.

MiddleSchool Chemistry helps you explore the world of molecules and atoms.

Games, activities and what not

BB C science. Various activities divided up into age groups.

Shephard Software has ananimal classification game.

Wart Games has a variety of activities for children to do.

Check out this flight simulator game.

Wanna build a rocket?   Learn how to here.

Anyways, that's just a short list, I've lots more that can be found on my science pages (see the left hand sidebar).   Let me know if you have some that I don't have eh? :)

Cheers!

Five days of Doing Science: Day Three - Field Trips

4/8/2014

A good way to do science is by doing field trips. These can be as simple as a guided nature tour through the local park, learning about rocks/rock formations as you learn to climb a rock face, or going to the zoo. I've done a variety of science/nature based field trips with my son.

Today I am going to talk about one we did recently at Ripley's Aquarium in Toronto.

Boy did we have fun.

We saw all kinds of interesting critters that live in the waters around Canada.

Do you see the baby shark developing in the egg sac? Pretty cool eh? we got to see them wiggling around at various stages of growth. Sharks will lay eggs even if they are not fertilized.

It took me a long time to get a picture of this bonnet head shark. It kept swimming away at the last moment. Sharks are in CONSTANT motion and they are much faster than you'd think they would be.

This puffer fish made me laugh he kept "photo bombing" me. I was trying to take a pic of my lad inside the aquarium and he kept getting in the way. We learned that he was intrigued by the camera cap. He was quite a determined little fellow.

They had a variety of aquariums set up all over the place, just massive tanks of water. Seeing the seaweed exhibit and the movement of the waves made me laugh with how the fish didn't move and yet they would go up and down with the movement of the waves. One fish was quite determined to borrow into the seaweed to little avail.

check out this massive saw fish. I never knew the "teeth" on it would break off. Neat to see one up close. One of the smaller sharks in the tank had teeth marks on him... .made us wonder if he got in a fight with one of the bigger sharks.

One part of the tunnel they keep dark for the night fish. I thought this orange one just beautiful. They list the different types of fish on the side of the walk way but I can't recall what this one was.

Of course going on field trips is much more fun when you go with friends. :) One of my son's friends pretending he is drowning......

two boys being silly.... clowning around for the camera

can we get it to work? Hey! This is fun discovering how canals work and the lad remembered this was an incline plain. :)

The horseshoe crabs grabbed the interest of N and A here. The little ones are males and they follow the females around in the hopes they will crawl on a beach and start laying eggs....

Here's a bit of a slide show of some of the things we saw.

All in all it was an excellent day out. I'm so glad we could go as part of a group. Makes it quite affordable then for us to get in.

My son got to experience sleeping in a hotel as well as riding the subway. Both new experiences for him. He loved being able to swim in the pool with his dad.

I kinda wonder.... where will we go next????

Five Days of Science: Day One: Nature Study

4/7/2014

So today we start the five days of pick your own topic Blog Hop. The crew is going to talk about all kinds of different topics, it'll be interesting and fascinating to see what we all come up with don't you think?

Anyways, I'm going to talk about science.

Exactly what about science I dunno, but we'll work it through as the week goes along.

I've recently started a series on Doing a Nature Study over atLittle Learning Lovies. You can findthat post here. Kinda neat to write for someone else once in a while. :)

Doing this has gotten me think about doing more nature study myself.

Today for instance I was doing some work in the backyard and my lad was out there with me, I moved a rabbit cage and under it I saw a vole.. YO LAD... I found a vole! A VOLE was the excited yell.... so he came barreling over to check it out. :)

Then we spotted three voles inside the rabbit cage, and try as he might the lad couldn't catch them. He did set out the live trap under the rabbit cage though, in the hopes that tomorrow he'll find voles.

I do need to tell you that he has some voles in an aquarium in the basement. it's an excellent way to study them. We read on-line about how they like to dig tunnels and boy oh boy do they like to dig tunnels. :) It's so funny watching them, they just automatically plunk their heads under the hay/sawdust and tunnel their way through.

The other day we had some melon for supper and I gave the lad some to feed his crickets and said.. why don't you see if the voles like it?

He rushed downstairs, and then quickly sped upstairs yelling MOM, We need more!!!! They love it mom!!!!

I told him we'll get them more melon next week again and he was so disappointed.

It's a grand way to do nature study and causes no long term harm to anything. Once we're done watching them, most of the voles will go to become part of a breeding colony for the raptor rescue. :) They will survive and their offspring will be put to good use helping train healing raptors how to hunt for their natural prey.

Now granted, you don't have to bring nature indoors in order to study it.. you can go outside and draw something you see, pick up a stick and see what it looks like with and without the bark on it, you can study the wind and see how it affects the objects around you... there is SO MUCH you can do with nature study.

Perhaps these sites might inspire you:

Five tips
Suggestions from Ambleside.
Simply Charlotte Mason.
Happily Occupied Homebodies.

Just Go out and study the world around you. Check it out.. whether it bugs, bees, birds, nest built, tunnels dug, snow falling or rivers rising... just get on out and just look at what's out there and do some thinking on it while you're there. :)

Day Five: Homeschooling a Singleton

8/9/2013

So what other things do people need to consider when schooling a singleton.

1. socialization: covered that. :)
2. joys and challenges
3. Ease of Homeschooling.
4. teaching how to sharing/differences.
which leads me to today. What else might one want to consider when homeschooling a singleton.

here we had success. Did you lad that if you put plastic down it will hold water? It will Mom? OH... I can use that to make a swimming pool for the minions.

1. cost of curriculum.   Curriculum isn't cheap. I can't reuse it with another child.   I can't try one thing, then switch to another knowing that I might be able to use the first thing that didn't work with THIS child with another child.   So I need to focus on knowing my child and getting materials what will work for him.
Part of how I deal with that is I review materials for TOS and elsewhere.    This gives me the opportunity to review materials and see what works for my son before going out to purchase something costing $100 or more.

I also do free things - a free education is the way to go in my book.   If you notice I maintain a large list of freebies. They aren't organized in a great manner and I want to change how I've done things, I just don't know HOW right now and it's just too much work to do at the moment.

2. chores: who does 'em?   You can't expect a single child to do all the chores.   So we have tasks that he is responsible for: feeding the cats, putting away cups and silverware and other such things.   He's an easy helpful child so it's not hard to get him to complete various tasks.

3. how to "spur one another on". Having siblings or other children being schooled with you can help "spur one another one"...whether it's the "can I do it better than" or "how can I help".....a singleton doesn't have that built in rivalry.

4. Self-sufficiency. My lad is often encouraged to figure things out, learning to ask for help or to accept outside help is a challenge for him. SHSHT is often heard here as he struggles to figure out how to do it himself, and offering to help is met with outbursts of anger as he's SO Focused on doing it himself that accepting assistance is hard for him. We'll continue to encourage the self-sufficiency AS we also teach him that asking for help or ideas is a good thing to do as well.

Day Four - Homeschooling a Singleton

8/8/2013

One advantage to having a singleton is that threes are easy.

They are. I get one, dad gets one, child gets one. If mom or dad gets a bigger piece....well...we're bigger!

Sure cuts down on the "BUT YOU GOT A BIGGER PIECE" hollerings that children can have.

But it also means it easy to teach sharing, and being kind to each other.

For instance, Hubby and I love to go for walks. It's just one of "our" things. We drag the boy along...it is NOT one of his things, but he does it because... well, Mom and Dad will go to the park with you, or Mom and Dad will play "minions" with you. So.... you will do this because it's something that you can do with us. It's only fair right? We do make a point of finding ways to make meandering walks fun for the lad though. :)

Threes is also a good way to help him recognize differences in people.   A recurring theme lately is.. but mom.. why are people like that?   I"m not like that, so why are they?

The chicken above...that's a ME thing. I love chickens. My kitchen is chicken themed...it is SO not my hubby or son's thing. They just don't get it, but.. it makes me smile, so it makes them smile. My son was VERY sad for me this spring when my garden chicken "footpecker" was damaged beyond repair in a fall.   MOM! YOU LIKE FOOTPECKER!!!!   I know lad, but we'll keep our eyes open for a different chicken...you never know... another Footpecker might show up again.   (why footpecker?   first time I got the chicken from my mom for a birthday, he fell over and "pecked" my foot.)   The lad and I had a lot of fun with the plastic bird.

So threes are good.    The lad likes minions, mom likes chickens and dad like working out.   It's all good.   They are all teachable moments that flow naturally in our family.   and I LIKE IT. :)

click image to find other five day bloggers. :)

Homeschooling a Singleton Day Three :)

8/7/2013

One of the things I enjoy most about homeschooling a singleton is the ease at which we can do so. Since I only have one, I can fit schooling in around the various things that happen in life fairly easily.

For instance... while on vacation on a rainy day... we can work on a lapbook

We can do math at the park or in the store or driving down the road. We can take the time to examine each and every bug we meet and then scurry over to the computer to learn more about them. This morning we learned more about the Luna Moth. We were talking with our international student about one of the caterpillars we saw, so we looked up what it will look like when it matures.

My "it has to be just so" boy doesn't have to fuss with other peoples expectations when he does things like build frog habitats. He can put the water puddle just where it should be and then add tree areas, and branches for the frogs to hide under and make it exactly the way he wants without it becoming a battle of wills (which would stress me out). :)

And so life as a singleton being homeschooled works well in our household and I love it. :)

Click the image to go visit others that are part of the five days blog hop. :)

Homeschooling a Singleton Day Two

8/6/2013

Having one child has its joys and challenges as a homeschooling parent.

There was a time that I strained against what God had planned for my life. Once I decided that having a child would be a good thing and not a potentially alarming/scary thing I wanted to have a bundle of them running around. Miscarriages kinda took that idea away from me rather slowly and painfully. This has left me with one child.... and he is, in my personal opinion, a rather delightful lad. :)

He's eight years old now and I've only in the past year really come to understand that God really did have my best interests at heart when he gave me one child.

I watch my homeschooling friends raise their youngsters. ... most with at least two children and I, time and again, wonder how they manage. I find my time quite taken up just managing my hubby and one child. I just don't really understand how they cope with the noise and bustle of all those children, meeting the various needs of the family, get meals on the tables and such like. I am very frequently amazed by them.

One child is enough for me. :)

tailored learning is great, and quite easy with one child.

One of my biggest pros of having one child to rear and educate means that I can gear my homeschooling around him and my style of doing things quite easily. I don't have to accommodate a variety of learning styles, a variety of interests, and such like. I have one boy....who likes all things buggy, loves to listen to me read stories to him, likes to tell me things he knows, who is a careful cautious lad (and to think I used to find the daredevil children so much fun), and just plain fun to hang around with.

Mind having one child can also be a challenge....he doesn't have siblings to keep him busy or to teach him more easily the fine art of sharing, many curriculi are based on group learning, I have to be deliberate about having social interaction times, and when it is just him and me, the difficult days can't be made easier by saying ... go play outside all of you children NOW! It is just sometimes more difficult. But......those difficulties are quite manage-able in the long-term.

I don't need to deal with sibling rivalry, or with the two needy children on the same day, or the need to say no to some field trips because it would get too costly to take all the children.... I simply don't have to deal with that. It's a worry I don't need to deal with.

The joy of taking an interest the lad had in birds from reading through the burgess book of birds. We could make bird feeders in a variety of styles and see what worked best.

One of my unexpected benefits of only having one child is that if I plan an event to do with my lad, I have room in the car to invite other children to come with us. I can plan out a group learning time because I have the room to pick children up and take them with us.

learning with friends is a great thing to do. :)

Please go to my Pinterest board to see blogs families that are homeschooling onlies. :) You'll find the link here.

please click on the image above to be taken to the master list of all the other bloggers that are part of this endeavor. There are some excellent reads out there. :)