Half-baked Homeschool

Look at that, it's March. Mid-march. Another month to summarize and assess.

The highlight of February, academically, was the poetry recital at the children's hybrid humanities school. Both boys participated, and I was surprised by how excited they were to stand up and share their poems.

Shortbread recited, "A Boy and His Dog" by Edgar Albert Guest. There he is smiling way across the room as he waits for his turn (so sweet):


Bearclaw's class performed poems by Robert Frost, and Bearclaw offered his version of "Neither Out Far Nor In Deep". I told him I thought it was about television (hey, poetry speaks to each of us in different ways). I'm not sure he appreciated Mr. Frost as much after that.

He looked (and IS) so grown-up as he waits with his class (he's in the tie):


Prior to the official recital, both boys were able to accompany a group of students from their hybrid school to perform their poems for a local senior citizen center. Bearclaw and two other fourth-grades performed an opening musical number as well. I was able to catch Shortbread waiting to recite at the end of Bearclaw's "concert". The seniors were so sweet and appreciative of the kids' efforts.



BIBLE
In February, we focused on "commitment" as a character trait. This led to the realization that I need to commit to checking Bearclaw's assignment sheet more thoroughly, as we missed the entire commitment activity. It doesn't work to commit to something for a week and record your progress if you don't actually start until the day before it's due. Of course, Bearclaw also needs to follow through here, but I haven't set the best example.

The boys' memorized 1 Kings 8:61 and Psalm 37:5-6. Our evening devotion time is moving along SLOWLY. Evening activities tend to sideline this time, and we've had a lot of them lately.


HISTORY
As we saw World War I come to an end in our study of the modern age with Bearclaw, we spent some time focused on struggles around the post-war world, including Ireland, India, and Italy. (Yes, the "I"s have it, or had it, this month. Sorry.)

While studying Ireland's quest to be out from under British rule, we had to look back at the potato famine. This included some time with the book, Feed the Children First: Irish Memories of the Great Hunger. The artwork, photos and quotes found inside were simply heart-wrenching.

Shortbread focused on Alexander the Great and the growth of his empire. He's moving through the lessons ok, but I think I need to figure out how to engage him more. Bearclaw was always naturally drawn to history - he loves a good story, but Shortbread is less interested in "what happened next". I may have to employ more of those dreaded hands-on activities. Ugh.

LITERATURE

Both boys are in the middle of new books, so I can't some up our literature yet. Bearclaw is reading Number the Stars, and Shortbread began Romulus and Remus as his class embarks on their study of ancient Rome.


MATH
February was a relatively good math month for Bearclaw. He's moving steadily though Primary Mathematics 4A and I've seen some real improvement in his accuracy. I would imagine that has come from a greater focus on drills. I love the Arithmetic Developed Daily program we are using first thing in the morning for this.

Shortbread will finish his Level 1B book before the end of the year. I think we may take a break from the program then and concentrate on some games and hands-on activities. I'm still mulling that one over...


SCIENCE
I continue to discover how very little I know (despite majoring in and teaching science) about astronomy as we work our way through the Real Science 4 Kids program. Bearclaw already knew more than I did before we started; now Shortbread does too.

We had a great time last month as we measured and charted each planet's (in our solar system) orbit around the sun. I had no idea how far out the last four planet are compared to the first four. Amazing!

As the weather grows warmer here in Georgia, we'll have to figure out how to balance our last few astronomy lessons with our nature walks. It's time to get outside!

Hope March is moving along well for everyone...it's more than half over - Yikes!

January was the month in which all of my new schedule, reading, Bible study, and similar plans would come together, and new habits to enrich our lives and our homeschool would be firmly established.

I know, I know...but what with all my success in the dental hygiene arena (flossing every day without fail!), I thought maybe I'd get it ALL together.

Even if we don't have it all together, we did manage to cover a few things in Janurary:


BIBLE
Our character trait for January was contentment. No one needs more work on this than mommy. I have a flair for complaining and finding fault, which does not tend to enhance my contentment. Thankfully, this has been an area of growth in my life, and I would love for the boys to develop the habit of seeing God's grace wherever they are. Apparently, Bearclaw's teacher is also a fan of A Holy Experience, since this mini-journal for recording God's gifts came home with him.

The boys' memorized Philippians 4:11, Hebrews 13:5, and Psalm 103: 2 & 5 and we continued to use our devotional book, Long Story Short, in the evenings.


HISTORY
January saw us studying two very significant periods in both modern and ancients.

Bearclaw spent most of the month on World War I. He really enjoyed our discussion periods during these weeks, as did I, since he was able to teach me quite a bit. His thoughts are becoming more analytical regarding history - I suppose we're moving into the logic stage. So he discusses, and I sit in awe but a little sad. Those grammar years - where did they go?

We've also covered Russia extensively during January. It will be a big player in the rest of our modern studies, so the curriculum we're following, Biblioplan, wants the students to have a strong understanding of it's history. As we've progressed through our readings, I've become increasingly amazed at how popular history (and my personal history education) has covered the evil of Hitler extensively (as it should), while ignoring Stalin. His atrocities merit attention.

Shortbread spent January on ancient Greece, including the gods, goddesses and myths. These were not his favorite, just as they weren't well-loved by Bradley. He did get to make a paper Parthenon, though, so the study of ancient Greece was not a total loss for him.


LITERATURE
Another novel with a girl in the lead made it on the docket in January. The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz did not appeal to Bearclaw, though we've enjoyed many of Fritz's other books. Perhaps the subject matter seemed too familiar; he's read several works that provide a young female's perspective on frontier life, and we're currently listening to all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder novels on audio. I suppose I'll forget about giving him The Courage of Sarah Noble for extension reading.

Part of his final project involved designing a "movie poster" for a film version of the book. Since Bearclaw does not particularly enjoy drawing or painting, we were very grateful for Google images and our printer.

Shortbread studied King Midas and the Golden Touch in January, which I just realized was deliberately chosen to complement the character trait for January, contentment. Wow. I wish I would have realized that last month. Still, we did enjoy Charlotte Craft's version of the story; the illustrations are rich (ha ha) and wonderful.


MATH
If there were a math celebration dance, I'd have done it in January when Bearclaw finished Primary Mathematics 3B from Singapore Math. Never have I been so happy to see a book finished. I'm hopeful 4A will sprial around and give Bearclaw a chance to practice some skills in which he already has confidence.

I actually think Shortbread is bored with math, but I'm letting it go, since I need the extra time to focus on Bearclaw's math right now. Perhaps I'll speed him up a bit.


SCIENCE
With the cold (actually it's been pretty mild) weather upon us, we suspended our nature walks for a bit and are covering astronomy with Real Science 4 Kids over the next couple of months. Our nature walking buddies have joined us.

Because the boys are at two different comprehension and learning stages, I ordered both the Level 1 and the "pre"Level texts. Bearclaw reads the Level 1 lesson on his own, and then I read the pre-Level aloud to everyone. The next day, we do an activity based on the lesson. What I didn't count on was the fact that our first activity, to locate Ursa Major and Ursa Minor (the Big and Little Dippers to the non-astronomy types - like me), would not be possible in the evenings. Apparently, in winter, the hours before sunrise are when these are most visible here. I could have gotten the boys up at 5 AM to stargaze, but I didn't. They'll still be out there in the summer.


So that was January. I think it took longer to write about it than to do it.

A new year, an new opportunity to stay on track with this blog. I've managed to stick with my flossing resolution for 6 days now, so maybe I'm ready to add something else.

I've been told that I might just want to start here, in January, and not get bogged down with playing catch up from the last 3 months. That's wise advice, I believe, but I just can't do it. As the girl who always knew the first 3 measures of every piano piece by heart due to a return there with each missed note, I must try to make it all connect with no gaps.

Still, I can't possibly do 18 Weekly Wrap-Ups today so I'll just cover the semester highlights. (I didn't even know we were on semesters.)

BIBLE
We've memorized plenty of Bible verses, and the monthly character traits have included orderliness, thankfulness and generosity. Long Story Short is still serving us well for evening devotions, but we took a break over Advent to use Ann VosKamp's Jesse Tree Advent Celebration.

HISTORY
Bearclaw has made it almost to WWI in history. We've left the 19th century behind and entered into what seems like a much less romantic period. I guess it's the proximity of the 20th century that makes it's horrors seem so much more horrible. It does give me reason to pause, though. I mean, we just loved waving our cardboard battle axes around when we studied the Celts, but I can't see us making faux mustard gas and snapping a few pics of a make-believe exposure. Not so fun.

Shortbread has finished what I refer to as the "really ancient" ancients and has just started looking at Greece. Below are some of his projects from the last couple of months.




LITERATURE
After the Abraham Lincoln biography, Bearclaw read two historical fiction books he enjoyed more: Turn Homeward, Hannalee and Sarah, Plain and Tall. Although he enjoys adventure books geared toward boys, he seems fine with these books based on fictional females (and who can blame him?- they're great reads!).

During the study of the Hannalee book, we were able to take a walking tour of the town in which Hannalee lived (and worked in a textile mill) at the beginning of the book. Although the book is a work of fiction, it is based on actual events that occurred in the mill town of Roswell, Georgia.

In Roswell, we were able to tour the area where the founders, owners, and well-to-do lived as well as the ruins of the old mill (where Hannalee would have worked) and mill housing.

This is the home of Roswell King, the city's founder and owner of the mill:


Though the mill itself was destroyed by Union forces (who then deported the workers, including women and children like our fictional Hannalee, to the north), the creek and a dam that fed it open for exploration:

After reading Sarah, Plain and Tall, Bearclaw made a diorama of the scene in which Sarah slides down a "hay dune". It didn't spark quite the enthusiasm from him that the field trip did, but it turned out to be a fun activity.




Together with mom, Shortbread read Anansi and the Magic Stick and made his own model of the stick. (He loves projects, so I just get the materials he needs, and he disappeears. I have almost no input into them, so I love to see his final product - it's always a surprise!)


Later in the semester, we read Temple Cat, which is quite a short picture book, but it's message is vitally imporant and well-expressed. It's definitely a favorite of mine now.


LANGUAGE ARTS

Bearclaw continues with Spelling Workout E, Wordly Wise, Shurley English and Easy Grammar.

The writing instruction at the humanities hybrid school he attends continues to focus on various types of writing, but they keep the length of each paper to one paragraph, which keeps Bearclaw from feeling overwhelmed. I really enjoy working with him on this as he struggles to best convey his ideas on paper.

Shortbread's reading has picked up, and he says he will no longer read any books without chapters, so that sent me scrambling to find more books for beginning readers that are longer than most of what we have in our home library. I have always wondered if Shortbread will be interested in reading the way Bearclaw is. I suppose it remains to be seen, but he's off to a great start!


MATH
This has been an emotional struggle for quite a while, and I was about ready to throw in the towel and sign Bearclaw up for an outside class or switch to a different curriculum.

Our combination of me fussing over his lack of focus and care in his math work and his frutration over mistakes and self-defeating attitude was exhausting both of us.

A change in approach has helped tremendously. I've really worked to convince him that he should not know how to do the lesson before we've gone over it, and I've allowed him to lean on me for those topics that he's struggling with. Scooting him off to "try it" was only upsetting him and getting us nowhere. At this point, he would even say, perhaps, that he is "good at math."

Shortbread and math get along wonderfully, so he's moved on to the "B" level for first grade.

SCIENCE
We've continued our nature walks, and although the boys don't journal as I'd like, we have enjoyed spending time with our friends and exploring some local park gems.



So that's it...our whole semester squished into one post. We started back to school this week, so I'll have material for more wrap-ups soon. Too soon, maybe.

I really need to come up with some better titles for my wrap-ups. They're easy to keep track of this way, though.

As we're closing in on our first month of schooling, I think I have a pretty good idea as to how our schedule is working for us (and how it's not).

Since I don't have a whole lot of highlights from this weeks studies, I think I'll concentrate on the changes we're making.

1. Bible - I want to sing hymns every morning, I really do, but my stress level actually goes down more when I use part of breakfast to get ready for the day's lessons. We can sing hymns in the car.

2. P.E. - OK, so I know I haven't mentioned this. It's a little embarrassing. I mean, really, isn't "no P.E." one of the reasons TO homeschool? Perhaps I can elaborate on another post, but lets just say I thought it would be a good way for all of us who could use a little morning exercise to get some in. What better way to exercise, too, than as a family? Can't you just hear the laughter (it's probably just a suppressed memory of the laughter that my gym uniform evoked)?

On the positive side, the kids are using this time to ride their bikes in the driveway. (I guess you know who's not getting their exercise, now.)

3. Nature Study - I put 3 nature walks a week on our schedule. I know. I'm laughing looking at it now, too. I have to re-type the schedules. One will be all we can manage.

As I look back over these items, they all represent images of how I think our homeschool is supposed to look. That's always gets me in trouble.

Thankfully, I have friends like Ellen who caution me against things like paying up front for the entire year's P.E. curriculum.

BIBLE
Our morning Bible time is working well, now that we've moved our devotion to dinnertime. We practice reciting our memory verses and character traits and then read some related Bible passages. I'm finding that it's better to do just a little bit everyday, rather than skip it completely because time is too short to finish everything.

The one thing I would like to include, though, is prayer at the end. As we wrap up Bible and breakfast together, everything has been a little chaotic, and we (I) frequently let myself get carried to the next thing without stopping to pray.

We are all still enjoying our evening devotion time using Long Story Short. The short passages and simple but thoughtful questions have really stirred some great discussions around the dinner table.

HISTORY
Bearclaw's class covered India, Afghanistan and Africa in the late 19th century over the last two weeks. The section on Africa focused on David Livingstone's work, about which I was fairly ignorant (save all but the Stanley quote).

Shortbread began his study of ancient Egypt with looking at the significance of the Nile river to that culture. I'm sure he's having a bit a deja vu , as I know he remembers quite a bit from when Bearclaw studied the ancient period.

LITERATURE
While Bearclaw finds Abraham Lincoln an interesting study, he is not thrilled with reading a biography. He's slightly more excited about this one than the Paul Revere biography that they read last year, but he's still rather read historical fiction or fantasy.

Shortbread is enjoying The Real Story of Creation, which accompanies the first weeks of digging into the ancient time period in history. The illustrations are lovely, and it covers the creation story from Genesis in a way that could work with almost any Christian viewpoint.

LANGUAGE ARTS
If review is helpful in grammar, then Bearclaw should be gaining a lot right now, since his class has been in review mode for all of these first weeks.

Spelling presents the opposite situation, since the class has skipped from Spelling Workout C to Spelling Workout E. It's been challenging!

Shortbread has also been reviewing, using Saxon Phonics. So far, it's not my favorite, but then, I didn't do a great job of giving Bearclaw a solid foundation in phonics, so I'll wait and see.


MATH
More of the same: review. But next week, Bearclaw starts measurement (length, weight, etc).

SCIENCE
We're continuing to use The Handbook of Nature Study blog (by Barb) for our nature study. Last week, we took a trip to a local park for some hiking/walking and found some items of interest to log as the first entries in our nature journals.

I was pleased with both boys willingness to take a break from their digging, wandering, wading, etc. to focus on sketching. Bradley focused on acorns (which he needs find "further evidence" about). Shortbread zeroed in on the Common Pawpaw tree, which has huge leaves and looks as if it belongs in a prehistoric tropical forest somewhere.



I'm so far behind on Wrap-ups (crud, it's only September), that I can't even link to the other Wrap-Ups.

Yeah! We all lived through our first week of school. There were a few scrapes, bumps and bruises, but nothing permanent.

The boys had a great first day at their one-day-a-week program (the dog didn't go):




As for the school work - it went something like this:

BIBLE:
We finally have a plan that I hope will work. We will continue to memorize the verses that our hybrid program sends home, as well as study the Christian character trait they assign each month, but we're moving our daily devotion/study to dinner time. Dh has agreed to lead; he's doing a fabulous job (he's much funnier than I am). We're using a new book called Long Story Short, and it goes through the Old Testament in very short, manageable pieces, while showing how each weekly topic points to Jesus. I was skeptical of it's claim that it only takes 10 minutes a day, but it's true. All of us are loving it!

HISTORY:
The year I've dreaded has arrived: the boys are studying completely different time periods for history. It IS more work for me, as I predicted, but it's also proving to be easier in some respects, because the discussions are a little smoother one-on-one. I guess it's like many things, and much of the outcome will depend upon my attitude.

4th grade - Bearclaw is starting the "modern" time period, from 1850 to the present. This week we looked at the huge British Empire during Queen Victoria's reign and also discussed the increasing tension over slavery in the U.S.

I began reading Courage to Run as a family read-aloud, which is based on Harriet Tubman's early years. We also listened to the beginning of Oliver Twist on audio, read by Dick Cavet. Unfortunately, he read so fast, even I had trouble following it, so we never finished it. We'll try again in a few years.

Finally, we discussed the work of George Mueller in England on behalf of poor orphans. We listened to and audio recording about him from Your Story Hour, which the children enjoyed.

1st grade - This is Shortbread's first year of narrating for history. In the past, he has followed along with our history using coloring pages, maps, and projects, but now he has his own history narration book and he'll be doing the same things he saw his brother doing over the last few years.

LITERATURE:
Bearclaw is reading a biography of Abraham Lincoln. He made the classic "milk carton log cabin" by attaching pretzels to a sawed-off half-n-half container (no school cafeteria to provide the 8-ounce milk carton) with royal icing:



1st grade -
Shortbread's first literature book is The Real Story of Creation. I do most of the reading to him, and then he narrates to me and works on the literature assignments.

LANGUAGE ARTS:
4th grade - Bearclaw is feeling pretty comfortable with language arts this year, as his spelling, vocabulary, grammar and writing curricula haven't changed since last year. He's humming right along with much less dawdling. Halleluhia!

1st grade - Shortbread has not yet started spelling, but for handwriting and phonics, his class is using Saxon Phonics. The jury is still out, I guess, but the work seems rather dry to me. Conversely, I'm a big fan of the grammar curriculum, First Language Lessons. Bearclaw and I used this in first grade, and we both enjoyed most of the lessons.

MATH:
4th grade -
Yeah! Bearclaw has moved on to Primary Mathematics 3B, which is from Singapore Math. So far, so good. Of course, it 's mostly review now. He did manage to figure out one of their methods for mental calculation that I just couldn't get. You know, old dog and all.

1st grade -
Shortbread is zipping along in Primary Mathematics 1A. He is definitely a math guy.

SCIENCE:
With Bearclaw in 4th grade and Shortbread in 1st, I'm beginning to see this year as the last year I'll have "young" children. Because of this neurosis, I have decided to chuck formal, classical science and cling to what's left of their childhoods with nature study.

We're using the "Handbook of Nature Study" blog, by Barb, who is also the Harmony Arts gal, I found out. We purchase her "getting started" packet, with the first 10 lessons and some sketch
pages. I'll try to post pics of our adventures.

Here's our first nature "walk" with some local friends:




It evolved into a sand/dirt castle building session, but we did see a black rat snake slither down the opposite bank of this creek, and then two frogs jumped into the water from the area where the snake was. Later, another snake swam down the creek a little ways from us.

We fear slightly that the next trek might be a bit of a let down. At least for them.

That's it for this week one! Only 35 left...

This post marks the kick-off of our first full homeschool week. I've been wildly preparing over the last month, and I think we're kinda, sorta prepared. Did I finish all the tasks I laid out accomplish last month? Well, no...but the filing has already waited 3 or 4 years, so what's one more?

We always gain energy from fresh starts, so I revamped the kids' schedules, my schedule, our curriculum, the school room, and, hey, even the menu. I stayed away from the dog's schedule. He only has three activities anyway.

Schedules:

You can take a look at our new schedules here.

Don't be dismayed that every 30 minutes of our lives seem to be planned out. We don't really live that way, but it does help keep the kids from lying around complaining of boredom or asking for screen time. Put a schedule in front of them that appears to lack adequate free time, and suddenly they're riding bikes in the driveway, running through the woods behind the house, or picking up a book that isn't assigned reading. They are bound and determined to squeeze in as many unstructured minutes into their structure as they can.

Aside from having so many planned "activities" (is having tea an activity for kids?), our schedules contain a lot of detail this year in terms of what subjects we work on when. I did this to avoid the end-of-the-week discovery that we'd forgotten 2 or 3 assignments that week. Unfortunately, we haven't become accustomed to the schedule, so we're still forgetting things. Sigh.

I used a free five-day schedule Excel template from PEAH's (Parents Educating at Home) website to create our schedules. It's completely editable, I've used it ffor several years in different ways.


School room:

When we decided to homeschool, I thought we'd just work at the kitchen table, on the sofa, on the floor - wherever. My mom asked me if I didn't need a dedicated room for schooling. I thought she was just stuck in her "school" mindset. Until I started reading and checking. Turned out most folks had some sort of "school room".

Now, of course, I realize that most of us (me) need a school room to keep the school stuff in. School work is fine for the kitchen table, but school books/supplies/projects/etc. are not. Especially during dinner. We spill.

I do enjoy having a school room, and I found a ton of fantastic ideas on various blogs that inspired me. Over the past 4 years, the converted bedroom has gone through a few reorganizations, but I think we're set for this year:





When I'm working with the one or both boys, we generally sit at the table in the middle of the room (which is getting a bit cramped for my big guy). During their independent work, I really "encourage" them to go somewhere else (upstairs, kitchen, neighbor's house), so that I can work with the other child uninterrupted.

Needless to say, their work areas in the school room don't see much action, but they are great places to keep more stuff and hang schedules!:




So with all of the planning and preparation out of the way, we started school! How did it go? Read my weekly wrap-up to find out...