Physical Education

We live in a university town which is completely fabulous when it comes to home schooling. Our friends told us about a P.E. class that meets once a week for a semester at the university. Technically, they really want special needs children in their classes, but they've had enough open spots that they accepted my boys into their program. We've been going three semesters now. Some of the teachers are fabulous and really plan some games and teach some athletic skills and some just play with the boys for an hour. Either way, the boys have had a blast!

A couple of weeks ago, S started home school basketball. He thinks it's great and it is so cute how grateful he is that I signed him up. It's an hour, twice a week for six weeks and it was only $26 for the program and $8 for the t-shirt. Score!

No School Week

We've had no school here for the past week or so. It must be a "teacher workweek"! Between trying to figure out stuff for moving and trying to pack and clean--we've been slacking when it comes to school. Plus, I desperately need to get the next year in Saxon math and I keep putting it off, hoping to find it second-hand somewhere for a steal. That is one thing about home schooling: it can be as expensive or cheap as you make it. If you're cool with using toy soldiers or beans (that you already have) as manipulatives or finding your curriculum second-hand then home schooling isn't THAT pricey. But, if every educational book and toy entices you (as it does me) then home schooling can get expensive, QUICK! I've had to "just say no" to some books, especially if we can find them at the library. We'll get back on track today! Otherwise our no school week could turn into a no school month . . .

Tot School

It's late and I'll post on this tomorrow.

Tot School

Looks like some cute ideas for me to do with Jett baby!

The Dark Side to Home Schooling

Sometimes I feel like I glamorize home schooling in my own head and to other people. The truth is that like everything else some days are really hard. It takes a little more organization and a little more thought in a day. It takes a lot more patience than sometimes I have. To me it means letting some things go with an "oh well" which is hard.

We all know there are only so many hours in a day. So, if I am choosing to spend an hour or two with my kindergartner exclusively (usually means during nap time for my toddler) I have to give up my prime no interruptions time. When I do that things like mopping my floor get put off. I have come to miss my no interruptions time.

Also, because our schedule is so flexible, it leads to a hard time being consistent with lessons at a certain time each day (my fault). Then S thinks he can weasle his way out of lessons. "No, I don't want to do reading." or "After I finish this, Mom." It's really a work-in-progress. I'm learning more about how to keep my home running and take care of the schooling needs of my children. I'm tired of Babe coming home from work to a messy house and a tired wife who has no idea what she is going to make for dinner! Really, it could be resolved on my part with more planning, but the times that I used to plan menus and shopping lists (nap time) is now rerouted to schooling.

Then there's the fact that S begs to go to school. He actually told someone the other day that he was home schooling because his mom wasn't ready for him to leave the house. Some days that is completely true. I love seeing him play with his brothers and I love him being here with us during the day. Some days it's not true and I'm ready to ship him off to school for those seven hours a day, five days a week with a kiss, a lunchbox and a sigh of relief.

As I work out the kinks, I'll try to post about things that I'm doing to keep us on track. Like these:

• I try to clear the table from dinner and set his spelling book out ready for him to do a quick five or ten minutes of spelling before breakfast.
• Then at breakfast we work on our memorization. 
• In the car we count up to twenty and then count by tens to one-hundred. Now we are up to counting to one hundrend and counting by tens to two hundred.
• Sometimes before we start lessons requiring some sitting and focus, we do a child's exercise song to get us all moving. Their favorite is a dragon one that you shake your dragon tail, flap your dragon wings (jumping jacks), kick and roar like a dragon. They get a kick out of being silly and it's been a great way to spend a little time with ALL of them before I have to sit down with one and do a quick lesson.

Halloween Handwriting Printable

Check out the fun I found on Supermom Moments. The link should take you to the free printable. Side note: I'm adjusting to printing more than one copy of a handout. S and C could both use the practice forming letters and J would feel like such a big boy if I printed him something to do like his brothers. So number of copies= three. Number of happy coloring children = three! Am I the only one who sometimes forgets that the next oldest might now be tall enough to go down the big slide at the water park or might be old enough to start preschool? Or that the baby loves to color? (tear) They really do grow so quickly that it's hard for me sometimes to mentally keep up.

Signing Time

We just found "Signing Time" at the library a couple of weeks ago. It is completely genius! All three boys sit there mesmerized and the older two are trying signs in sign language. I only wish it weren't so expensive so I could have a home collection (I hate checking out DVDs at the library because I live in constant fear I'll turn them in late). The link is to the actual, official "Signing Time" website, but shhh I think the DVDs are less expensive on Amazon. Even less expensive when you check them out at your library--that is unless you accrue a massive fine!

The Story of the World

The way The Well-Trained Mind sets up the study of history makes so much sense. The study is broken up by into four periods of time:

1. Ancient Times--from the earliest nomads to the Last Roman Emperor
2. The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance
3. Early Modern Times
4. The Modern Age: From Victoria's Empire to the End of the USSR

These books are written by Susan Wise Bauer, co-author of The Well-Trained Mind, and are what they say they are: stories of history.

The Well-Trained Mind suggests studying Ancient Times in first grade, again in fifth grade but more in depth and then again in ninth grade, but by then mostly by writing papers and essays. So under that same idea, the middle ages would be grades 2,6 and 10. Early Modern Times would be 3rd, 7th, 11th. Then the modern age would be 4th, 8th, 12th.

This just makes sense in my brain. Especially because we did units all over the place in time frames when I was in school. We'd go from ancient Greece to the Holocaust to Texas history to the middle ages. I think that's about all we learned in history.

First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind

We are using First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, by Jessie Wise, for our English and Grammar curriculum. These are simple lessons that teach a lot in a few minutes. This book is for first and second grade study. I just cannot gush enough about how much I love The Well-Trained Mind method.

The Periodic Table: Elements with Style!

Basher's, The Periodic Table: Elements with Style! is great fun. I heard about it from a friend and bought it for Sterling for a Christmas present last year. This would be a great coffee table book! If I had a coffee table. We got rid of ours when Sterling was a baby because we were worried about corners and bumps. In  the book, each element has it's own avatar and has a blurp about the element.  along with facts like color, density, place on the periodic table, etc. It's fun and it's chemistry.

The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home

This book, The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, is a giant resource book for the classical education home schooling approach. I LOVE it. It's support, it's smart, it has guidelines for curriculum, it has lists of recommended methods and books. It was written by a woman and her grown daughter (whom she home schooled) and both (I believe) are qualified educators. It talks methods first, amazing, and then it is broken into three sections: Grades 1-4, Grades 5-8, and Grades 9-12. They also go over some things to do pre-grade 1. It's been a couple of months since I looked through it. Maybe I need to revisit that section because Carter is there:) Seriously, WOW, if you are thinking about home schooling, you like the classical approach and you want a find-it-all resource book this is it!

So the highlighted text is linked to the book's website if you want to find out more.

Why do I home school?

Most people think you are crazy when you mention home schooling. Some are excited for you, but it's very few. Bless the few! So when we have hard home schooling days I have to remind myself why I'm doing this and of course, everyone wants to know why you chose to go against the mainstream and be the oddball out. I still like to hear what brought parents to choose home schooling for their children. So, like yesterday when I my brother, in a comment under his breath (have I mentioned how much I LOVE teenagers) say something like, "You need to put these kids in real school." I remind myself why I like home schooling. Here are some of my top reasons:

1. I do not have to adhere to any schedule. I don't have to get my children up and off to school. I don't have to be home from anywhere by 3 pm or sit in a pick up line at the school for a half-hour and then, of course, there's the drive there time and the drive home time. Nope, we are as free as birds. We take a field trip to the science museum or the lake or the park and stay until we are ready to come home!
2. I love teaching my children! I love seeing the spark in their eyes as they grasp new concepts. 
3. My children's time is their own. They are not tortured with sitting through classes all day only to come home to an hour of homework and dinner and a little playtime and bed. They get to play, explore, relax and be children (and still learn).They have more than a fifteen minute recess in a day and they can talk in the hallways!

Maybe I'll have to add the things I'm struggling with home schooling next . . . 

Learn With Me

I have this eery feeling that I'm ripping off someone's blog or book with the title "Learn With Me" but I hope not. I decided when I created the blog that it made sense to me. As I have taken on home schooling, I feel like I am learning right along with my children. Yesterday, Sterling and I were reading about Alkali Metals and Lithium was the first in the series. In just emphasizing three facts about lithium and what it is used in I think I have a better idea of one more element on the periodic table, albeit a common one. Chemistry always seemed so out there to me. I loved the math parts of chemistry, but all the memorizing of the elements was overwhelming because I was memorizing names and places and symbols and electrons and neutrons and protons without the practical uses. I was trying to figure out what lost an electron in a compound. I missed a lot. Hopefully, by taking it slow and enjoying the Basher book about the elements and the periodic table (LOVE it) and by introducing my children to the elements a little at a time--they'll have a better base on chemistry when they study it more in depth at a later point.

In the meantime, I'll be better versed in those foundations that somehow I skipped over. I thought I was well-read until I saw the list of one-hundred classics that The Thomas Jefferson Education put together. I thought I knew a little something about history until I read the guidelines of important people your child should learn about in certain periods of history--and I knew maybe half of the names (and that's being somewhat generous for my pride's sake).

Humbled, I realized when embarking on my children's education I have so much still to learn. Hence, the "Learn With Me" title of this blog.

Poetry

Can I just say, without being judged, that I'm not a huge fan of poetry? I feel very uncultured saying such an indecent thing. I like poetry that is children's poetry, like the funny book of poems that I enjoyed reading as a child. And I like the poetry that is readily understandable. You know, "Two roads divulging . . . . I take the road less traveled by" kind of poetry. But any abstract poetry, not such a fan.

But, at our co-op last week, my friend did a quick explanation of poetry for the children and let them create their own poem (sometimes with a little help from mom for the younger ones) and the children just ate it up. They came up with some very unique poems! It was great. Maybe I'll read my children some more poetry and as they learn to accept poetry, maybe I will learn to like it a little bit more myself. That's part of my goal to be continuously learning myself to be an example to my children and a better person overall.

Science project

Yesterday, we had a science project playdate at our house. I've been wanting to get such a group together for a while now, but all our friends are so busy. We had fun with a short experiment and then the boys got to play with their friends. I got the experiment from a book that I think is completely awesome: Mudpies to Magnets.

Actually, I think our particular experiment yesterday was from its sequel MORE Mudpies to Magnets, but whatever, both are great. They have short science experiments that use mostly household items.

Like yesterday, we did a little experiment that involved water, cooking oil and food coloring. Of course I didn't take pictures because that would mean that I was actually on top of everything. But, maybe we'll do it again and I'll take some pictures. Who am I kidding? That's not me . . . . but it is the me that I dream of being. Doing things and documenting them.

PBS Kids

Can I just say, "Thank you PBS kids!!!"

Is it pathetic to admit that S learned his alphabet and was singing it by the time he was 15 months from Sesame Street? C also learned his alphabet and sounds from Sesame Street and Super Why. J doesn't get as much time watching PBS kids because TV time is usually older kids shows and I'm wondering if that's why he's two and so far behind his brothers. Poor third child. Completely loved and completely a little "big kid"!!

Anyway, I woke up with a mild migraine and lay on the couch with the boys this morning after breakfast and enjoyed some cuddle time. Then, my head feeling a little better, I moved to the computer to do a little "research" for our school day and got side-tracked on a craft blog (no, I'm not crafty, but I day-dream that I was) and the boys are still watching PBS kids.

I hear Carter yelling out letters, like "S" or "K". So he's learning, right? Someday I'm actually going to have to make a donation to PBS kids because really, they've taught my kids so much and . Completely embarrassing to admit--that my kids learned so much from television. 

Thank you, PBS Kids!