homeschooling

Homeschool Prep

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I’m sure you know by now that I homeschool my boys. I don’t really keep that a secret. I’ve been doing it since they were small, but never very well, I don’t think. Now, I know they’ve learned stuff; I just have some major improvement to do.

In the early years, we did the “all workbook, all the time” approach simply because I didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t want to miss anything. We had workbooks for math, reading, language arts, spelling, and writing. We did a lesson from each one every day.

The boys hated it.

And if I’m being perfectly honest, while I was comfortable in knowing I wasn’t lacking as a teacher, I didn’t love it either. It wasn’t what “home school” was supposed to be. I’m not of the unschool philosophy; that’s taking it too far. But learning should be fun. If all I was going to do was have them fill out worksheets all day, they could do that in public school and at least have a park (playground) to play at during specified times.

Last year, we just did the workbook for math. We did unit studies for everything else. There were some successes, but by and large, I don’t think it was enough.

So I’m going to try yet another approach this year. I came across Ambleside Online a few weeks ago. They offer completely free curriculum from Kindergarten through high school, in the Charlotte Mason style. For those of you who don’t know, Charlotte Mason was a British woman who lived from 1842-1923 and spent her life developing a teaching method for children using “living books” (real books by people who care about their topic rather than textbooks). She believed that children are not blank slates, but small people and should be treated as such. She had three main mottoes regarding education.

“Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.”

“Education is the science of relations.”

“I am, I can, I ought, I will.”

I like these phrases. I like the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education. So I’m going to try it with my boys this year. For the first time in our homeschooling career together, I’m excited for the school year to start.

Here’s what we’ll be studying in our first term (we’re going to do three, 12-week terms):

Bible:
Old Testament: Genesis 1-15
New Testament: Matthew 1-10

History:
We’ll be using mostly books that are available for free online, through the library, or inexpensive through the Kindle store.
A Child’s History of the World by V.M. Hillyer (this is available in volumes through our library. You can also get the book as a single volume from Amazon)
An Island Story by H.E. Marshall (this is available for free online and is a history of England)
This Country of Ours by H.E. Marshall (available free online; a history of America)
Trial and Triumph by Richard Hannula (available free online; a series of biographies)
Little Duke by Charlotte Mary Yonge (available free from Amazon for the Kindle version; historical fiction)

Natural History/Science:
The Burgess Animal Book for Children by Thornton Burgess (free online)
Tree in the Trail by Holling Clancy Holling (available in my library; the story of a cottonwood tree growing in the Great Plains and its contribution to the history of the southwest)

Literature:
Shakespeare: We will be reading Gentlemen of Verona and Romeo and Juliet this term.
Parables of Nature by Margaret Gatty (available online)
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (available online)

Poetry:
We will be reading one poem a day by Walter de la Mare. There’s a collection available online.

We will also be reading 800 words a week of Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan.

We will be studying Johannes Brahms and Vincent van Gogh for our music and art lessons. I have curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler for those.

We will be doing daily lessons of math, copywork (handwriting), reading (silent reading of the kids’ choice), and foreign language (Spanish, because we attend an English/Spanish bilingual church). Math will be a workbook simply because that’s the most cost-effective way to do it. For Spanish, I’m going to start us with an app on my phone. Eventually, I’ll probably ask one of the Hispanic members of our church if they would be willing to give us lessons once a week or so, with assigned homework.

I think that about covers us for the first 12 weeks. 🙂

–Wendy

P.S. Wherever I say “available online” and don’t provide a link, those are on the Ambleside site. I would’ve provided specific links, but I’m short on computer time and don’t want to make this post from my phone ;).

A Trip to Fort Vancouver

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We didn’t really know what we wanted to do on Saturday other than have a Family Day. So we got in the car and hubby started driving. We ended up in Fort Vancouver. Neither hubby nor I had been there in years, so it was a fun experience for all of us.

The day we were there was a great day to have gone; almost all of the attractions were open and staffed by volunteers in period clothing from the 1840s.

The kids loved seeing real (though no longer functional) cannons. We studied the Revolutionary War earlier this school year and are studying the Civil War now – plus they’re boys – so cannons are fascinating to them.

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Both Seahawk and Munchkin reminded me as I was taking their pictures, “Don’t ever do this!”

Munchkin was fascinated by the old-fashioned wheelbarrow.

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At one point in history, John McLoughlin lived at the fort. His house has been recreated for people to look at. The dishes behind the rope (so the ones in the photograph) are the real ones from the time; the ones the volunteers use (not pictured) are replicas.

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Here’s the bastion. This is what I always picture when I think of an old military fort, but I now know there’s much more to it than this! We were actually able to go inside the bastion. It’s a 3-story building that’s empty except for the top floor, which you can tell from picture is much bigger than the bottom floors – the top houses several cannons.

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I didn’t take pictures inside the two main “lessons” we had, but we learned all about 1840s medicine and the fur trade in the area at the time. The military fort was actually built to protect the assets – the furs. It turns out it was never needed; they were never challenged.

Just outside the fort was an amazing garden. They had loads of flowers, vegetables, and herbs growing. These are used for a summer camp they host: for a fee, people (kids and adults) can come to the fort and learn about the time, eat period food, wear period costumes, and stay the night.

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Outside, there was a huge anchor that was drawn out of the Columbia River. They don’t know much about it except that it was made sometime between 1815 & 1850 and it is so huge it was from a ship likely weighing around 1,000 tons. What they don’t know was whether this ship was a freighter, a passenger liner, or something else.

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To end the day, I bought a triangle that was actually made on the grounds by a real blacksmith (as opposed to a fictional one :p). I love that it’s made from completely natural materials – cast iron with a leather strap – and not plastic. I plan to use it to call the kids in from outside when they’re playing, like a dinner bell. It’ll be a real voice saver!

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–Wendy

May Goals

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Finish 2nd grade math with Munchkin.

Make sure Seahawk is prepared for his 3rd grade standardized test.

Schedule said test.

Work hard to limit our waste output by shopping in bulk using cloth bags or jars in lieu of the plastic baggies the stores provide.

Finish weeding the flower beds (they’re pretty bad…) and plant flowers and/or vegetables there.

Repair or replace sewing machine (it won’t turn on anymore :() and continue work on my “Sunbonnet Sue Through the Year” quilt.

Take the kids out for a walk at least once per day.

Lose 5 pounds (gotta start somewhere…)

That should do :). Do you have any goals for the month? Share them here! Accountability is a big motivator, and at the end of the month, we can chat about how we did.

Club Mud

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Every Tuesday, my kids go to a pottery class that the local community center hosts. It’s a great way for them to learn a skill and have some fun at the same time.

So far, they’ve made a bell, a plate, a cup, and a glazed picture apiece. Yesterday, they were making turtles.

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The first step is to slam the clay against the table a few times to get rid of the air bubbles before you start working it.

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Then she (the instructor) had the kids take a piece of their clay and roll it into a snake…

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… and then coil the snake into a bowl shape.

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At this point, hubby and I left the boys in the capable hands of the pottery teacher. But when we came back, we got to see their sculpted turtles.

Seahawk’s:

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Munchkin’s (he apparently was having difficulty, so his turtle is in its shell; he’s nothing if not creative!):

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The teacher will have them fired, glazed, and ready to bring home in a week or two.

Homeschool: Hand Art Illusion

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When I saw this idea, I knew it was the art project for us. Easy, creative, and used only supplies we already had on hand (namely plain paper and colored pencils). While the original used only circles for the concentric shapes, I let the kids use any shape they wanted.

Seahawk used rectangles:

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Munchkin used hearts:

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And I used circles and Small Fry’s hand:

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If you think it’s easy outlining an 8-month-old’s hands, think again, lol. But it wasn’t the hardest thing in the world, either.

The black outlines is one way we deviated from the original post on this art project, but I found ours were too muddy to tell what they were without them. So if you try this with your kids, feel free to leave them off if you want :).

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Homeschool: Human Body

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For our homeschool science right now, we’re working our way through the major organs in the human body. I found this site that has some pretty good information on each one, as well as games if you can access it from a computer (which I never can, so we just use the information).

I bought a roll of brown shipping paper from the Dollar Tree and traced each kid life-size. The first day, I just did that and had them draw their face in. Starting on Tuesday, we’ve been adding 3 organs a day. As of today, we’ve got the voice box, lungs, heart, liver, stomach, spleen, kidneys, gallbladder, and pancreas done. With each one, they draw in the organ and then I read the information to them. I quiz them as we go to make sure they’re retaining the information – at least a little. I’m sure we’ll have to go over the topic again during their school career, but we’re at least building a foundation here.

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Homeschool: State Study of Washington

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Inspired by Confessions of a Homeschooler, I’ve been working through the 50 states with my kids. First up, we did Hawaii. We had dinner with my brother and sister-in-law that week, and the kids looked at all of their pictures from the three times they’ve been. The next week was Alaska (I’m going basically west to east with a few variations when needed). There is a couple from our church who live in Alaska about half the year, so we picked their brains on what life is like up there. The thing that stuck with all 4 of us the most? The fact that there are virtually no roads; you have to fly to get from city to city.

Our third state was the wonderful state of Washington. We started the week, as we always do, by having the kids trace the outline of the state from our huge wall map. We don’t have a wall big enough to display it (there are 2 that would work in the school room except for the fact that one has the windows and the other was painted to be a chalkboard wall by the previous tenants – and I’m not complaining! That wall is pretty awesome!), so we keep it rolled up and bring it out once a week for this activity. Once the state is pencilled, the kids go over their lines in ink and then bring it to me, where I write in the basic facts that I want to teach them within the outline of the state. They’re basically the same from state to state (except for Hawaii, because that was our first one and I didn’t really have a plan yet when we did it): Nickname (The Evergreen State), Motto (Alki), Capital (Olympia), Largest City (Seattle), Area (71,300 sq mi), Population (6,897,012), Highest Point (Mount Rainier), Lowest Point (The Pacific Ocean), and its Admission to the Union (November 11, 1889). Additionally, we put in the location of the capital, largest city, and highest point. In Washington’s case, we also included Mount Saint Helens.

Here’s Seahawk’s map:

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And Munchkin’s:

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I still owe them a baking soda and vinegar volcano to represent Mount Saint Helens. That’ll happen probably next week :).

We also worked on our “Fifty Nifty United States” song. Only three states in and they can already sing the whole thing start to finish! Since they mastered that so quickly, we’re going to work on the Presidents song that Confessions recommends starting next week.

I also plan to make a printout of the “Lower 48” and laminate it for each kid, cut the states apart, and attach magnetic tape to the back of each one to have them use as a geography puzzle. I haven’t been able to make it to Staples yet to get that done, though…

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