Sam the Recruiter

Every once in a while you get a glance of the person that your child is becoming. I got such a glance last week during a Cub Scout Rally. I really didn't have a clue what I signed us up for but we headed to the school. Sam was the only Scout that showed up to help recruit 30 boys and entertain their siblings. He was amazing. Sam is strong in interpersonal skills there is little doubt about that- he can make a friend in any setting with ease. I just didn't realize how intuitive he was to other's needs. He automatically changed his emphasis on scouting to meet the desires of the different age and abilities of the boys that he spoke with. While talking to older boys he spoke of camping during the winter, shooting off rockets, and bb guns. When talking with the younger boys he emphasized the family aspect of scouting and how much fun it was do things with your dad. There were several special needs boys and he intuitively knew that they wanted to know that they were going to get to participate just like everybody else. Is is going to be such a joy to watch this young person grow to a man!

Little Hands & My Father's World.

I've had a couple of exciting finds this month!

For Charlotte I made a purchase of Little Hands to Heaven. She LOVES it. Adorable! Super easy to use, non-time consuming and keeps her happy.We are still reading selections from the AO year 0 booklist and working each day with Mighty Minds, pattern blocks, painting and Wedgits.

For Sam....and eventually Charlotte....I made the discovery of My Father's World. I haven't tried to think too far ahead with a plan for these younger two but I really didn't expect to be able to combine them. Using MFW....I can. That's exciting. MFW uses many of the books I already own. That's exciting! MFW combines classical , Charlotte Mason in a unit study approach for the whole family AND has a schedule with 1 easy day each week which makes it workable with my work schedule. Yikes...I'm overcome with joy! I am practically giddy with excitement if this works out and I don't have to come up with elaborate plans each year trying to mesh two kids who are 3 years apart in age! I just hope it works out. We shall see.... one day at a time...

We still need to work on phonics with Sam so I got my hands on a copy of MFW 1. MFW 1 claims to cover all needed phonics to create an independant reader and does cover more than 100 Easy lessons. We are starting from the beginning and so far it's a hit with him. I am continuing our other reading instruction during this review stage of MFW 1. This week we made a clay jar, started working on a scroll, did experiments with earthworms and ants, and did lots of work with blending ladders for reading. We are continuing our readings in history, etc so we have a nice full day. It has been an interesting and varied week with lots of fun stuff scheduled in. I do work best with a schedule!

Homeschooler's dog

Ranger's version of waiting for the school bus.

Winter Wonderland

Updated Year 1 Booklist

We started with a Year 1 list but have fine tuned it for a much better fit.

Language Arts
Handwriting without Tears -Printing practice
Our CM Reading Program
All About Spelling Book 1
First Language Lessons
Writing with Ease workbook 1
Explode the Code Online as wanted.

How I'm putting this all together....

-Oral narrations from various subjects.
-Daily reading instruction
-Daily copywork from HWT/ Writing with Ease 1
-Memory work from First Language Lessons.


Why I changed......
Sam wasn't challenged enough with the original plan.

Mathematics -Math-U-See Alpha

Foreign Language -Phrase-A-Day Spanish

Bible- Every Day with God

Poetry
A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
Now We Are Six/When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne

History
Story of the World Book 1 done at home.


Why I changed....

Co-op wasn't working out as well as I hoped. Sam gets so much more out of the reading when done at home and friends aren't competing for his attention. I restarted the series from the beginning because he is wanting to learn about Egyptians.

Fifty Famous Stories was so truncated that it was impossible for us to get a decent narration from this source.

American History Biography
Benjamin Franklin by Ingri D'Aulaire
George Washington by Ingri D'Aulaire
Buffalo Bill by Ingri D'Aulaire
Pocahontas by Ingri D'Aulaire


Geography
Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling
Geography from A to Z by Jack Knowlton

Natural History/Science
Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock
James Herriot's Treasury for Children by James Herriot
The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess
The Burgess Seashore Book for Children By Thornton Burgess
Christian Liberty Nature Reader book 1.
A Reason for Science A

We added Nature reader because he found it in our book closet and loves it. He gives great narrations from this book. We added A Reason for Science for the experiments which have been fun. It is a nice resource because everything is supplied.

Literature
The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter
The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
Among the .....People by by Clara Dillingham Pierson

We dropped Tales from Shakespeare until a future year.

Bedtime Reading
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
King of the Golden River by John Ruskin
Peter Pan by James M. Barrie
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
St. George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Fairy Books by Andrew Lang

Also Weekly
Art- Artistic Pursuits Book 1
Music appreciation-one composer per quarter
Handicrafts - to be determined by interest
Nature Study- follow Outdoor Hour challenges.

Post- Ike Life...

...is slowly returning to normal.

Before the storm......

The final decision was made to stay. We couldn't get east due to Gustav....nowhere West until we hit El Paso...ugh. Road North is blocked and detoured to Lufkin.....a shelter in Lufkin or home ....so we stay home. There are no hotel rooms available.....

So the morning before Ike comes to visit we head outside for some playtime. It was cool with a light breeze ....we watched the clouds spin counter clockwise above us.....

I bake and he mows.....an acre with a push mower! Everyone took a turn including the little kids!

John took Sam out when the tropical force winds started up.... Sam LOVED it! I think that was the reason he was able to sleep during the whole storm .....The sounds didn't scare him since he thought it was just like the winds he experienced in the afternoon..... The kids sleep soundly during the winds. Charlotte woke when the eye it...it was much to quiet for her and did not fall back to sleep until the winds picked backup an hour later...

After Ike....

The playground stands! We really thought we would lose it! This isn't storm surge just rain water.... We were incredibly lucky. We headed out the next day to visit a community a little farther north and the destruction was outstanding. We had NO damage ...just a few lost tree limbs.

Everyone gets involved with the clean up. I didn't get a picture of our neighborhood after all the limbs are on the curb. You could not see the houses ....just mounds of stuff on the curb.The levy system that we live behind saved us for the storm surge. Many communities farther inland were not so lucky....Oldtimers were amazed at how high the water line was on the levies....they have never seen it this high....

The dike was stripped bare of buildings and we were unable to drive down it on this day......But it did its job and protected our community!

Just a few miles from our home... The levy kept the debris on 1-45 and not in our backyard!

Our life is almost normal as long as we avoid a regular grocery store. Shelfs are semi-bare and folks are a little crazy because of it. I am the only adult in the family who is not able to return to work....Galveston is not open for business yet and the hospital flooded.

The kids missed their Wednesday break from school! Sam hasn't been able to keep the days of the week straight since I've been home all week...Soon things will return to normal....

Snow days

I thought we were off to a great start for the school year....until Ike took a turn. Tuesday I checked the my hospital's weather alert and Ike was no longer a concern. Wednesday at work by noon ....essential personal were being called in by Thursday pm... and by the time I left people were being asked if they felt like making a trip to Austin with the babies.....

I stopped on the way home and topped off my tank. So decisions needed to be made .... stay or go. We couldn't get to plan A due to Gustav and 2 members of the family were going to have to work Thursday so we stay. I did call my folks with a Plan B but it didn't go very far..... I woke at 3 am made a quick inventory of supplies needed( we were dangerously low on green tea and sodas.....we also stocked up on junk food. nothing makes the hours pass like chips and dip) and made a Walmart run. Great timing....shelfs were being restocked. The cashier mention that it just slowed down.....I just knew there was no way I was going to be in a store on Thursday day. Folks are CRAZY the day before a hurricane. Come on folks.....you live on the gulf coast prepare early. Why are you fighting over food and water when you should've had on your shelf 2 months ago.....

OK. I digress......Unloaded the car and it was already hot. Of course it is going to be the hottest day in weeks when we have work to do....so instead of going to sleep I start on the yard. The garage is a jig saw puzzle....how do I put all the yard stuff in it and still have room for a car. While working I think of Plan C and then my folks pull in the driveway... Plan C is shot down. Plan C was a GREAT plan......Little kids, Big Sis' and grandma head out of town.... The rest of us get the houses ready. Grandma refused to go to the location. BAH!

Ok we stay...

Rita we left. Charlotte was a newborn it was a no brainer. I was in a maternity fog and wasn't aware of such mundane things as hurricanes( I kinda missed the Katrina ordeal ) until we recieved the call that we are going to be under a mandatory evacuation order starting 12 noon tomorrow. I don't even think we boarded up the house. We received the call at 7pm and we were on the road by 4am. We also didn't have family members that had responsibilities. We missed all the humanity that was the Rita evacuation.

Yesterday... DH and oldest son headed off to work. I fielded phone calls and did all I could without them. Dh came up and we pulled up boards and started putting them up. It is hot.....steamy.....red in the face hot.

Surreal moment number #1 - We are struggling with a board and about to throw in the towel and wait for the young male in the family to come home to help us when they evacuate the nursing home down the street. A fleet of ambulance and buses file down our street. THEN we see the helicopters that are evacuating the hospital that I work at..... We laugh and get our game faces on.

Surreal moment number #2- Oldest son returns home. He spent the day boarding up 4 buildings for his employer. He has obviously done a man's work today and he is visibly glad that he isn't boarding up the house tonight. He does inspect our job to make sure it is done properly.

Surreal moment number #3- Dinner was a M. Night Shyamalan SIGNS dinner. What do you want that's in the freezer and cannot be cooked on the grill. Guess what.....that's what we are having for breakfast and lunch today as well......

So now 7 am. All day yesterday we received numerous calls....advise to shelter in place....actually I think the term they used might of been hunker down. Only in Texas. I just received a call today with the advise to follow your family plan. Apparently we are getting the direct hit.

Gotta go bake.....I am my mother's daughter. She bakes in the hours before a storm comes a shore.....

Summer schedules.....

....are always a bit of a mess. Routines are chaotic at times....It is our indoor season due to heat and mosquitoes.

We stick indoors in the mornings unless we head to the pool. Our nature study is very, very lax due to Charlotte's lack of ability to tolerate the heat. The pool area that we visit does have wetlands visible and native plants so our nature study is done walking to each attraction. We are looking forward to cold-front day!

I have split our daily school schedule because it is easier to keep Sam engaged and participating with a short break. Charlotte is in the mix at all times so I had to get creative with keeping her engaged and happy while Sam works.

Our daily school schedule looks something like this...

Charlotte and I "work" for about 10-15 min. either coloring books, drawing, reading stories, etc. Each week I try to pick an area to focus on during this time such as colors, shapes, counting, etc.

While she continues, Sam joins us and we work through..

Math
Poetry
Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 1* with narration
Copybook
Speech work
Bible with narration

30 min break for Sam while I get Charlotte working on something that will keep her busy while Sam finishes up....watercolor painting has been a favorite. This is the time we listen to our composer for this quarter.

Spelling* (a new spelling program)
AO readings with narration
Handwriting without tears
Reading
Artistic Pursuits Book 1*/ A Reason for Science Level A*


* Nature Reader Book 1 was a book Sam added and it is a favorite and will stay.
*We are giving All About Spelling book 1 a trial and I think it might answer my quest for a individualised spelling program that is easy to implement and not overwhelming.

*Artistic Pursuits has been a big hit. Sam absolutely LOVES picture study but I've had a hard time implementing it due to my own laziness in acquiring prints. This is a keeper.

*A Reason for Science was on sale. I like it because it is organized, the supplies are all available and it fits nicely with our nature study. We'll see how this works out this year.

We have not started Spanish.... holding off until our next break in August. Memoria Press Copybook Book 1 does not have writing for everyday so we have been doing handwriting practice with HWT. We were alternating Aesop and Bible readings but Sam disliked Aesop and would request to continue the Bible stories because they were the "best". I couldn't argue with that reasoning so Aesop is currently dropped from our schedule.

I want a 2ftX3ft magnetic whiteboard! I'd like to have it so I can write our verse from Memoria Press and keep our letter tiles on it for spelling and reading practice. I'm just not sure where I would put it though. Ideally upstairs in the room that functioned as the older kids' schoolroom but it is currently the domain of the teens. The younger kids have been doing schoolwork in the dining room but I'm not sure I want it as a permanent feature in that room.I have seen smaller table top versions that I could use for our verse and just find another solution for the letter tiles.It's a dilemma.

My new toy

This year my husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I gave him my stock answer "Nothing, dear, I have everything I need right here."

He didn't listen to me and bought me an awesome present. I was a bit upset that he did this because we are wanting to remodel the bathroom and this gadget wasn't exactly cheap. That was until I got my hands on it. Every homeschool mom is going to want one of these. Every bookaholic is going to want one of these. Gosh, I should get a commission from Amazon just from the number of these I have "sold" at work this past week!

The best analogy I've heard it called is an IPOD for books. I absolutely LOVE this gadget.

I can download books from resources like the Gutenberg project or feedbooks.com. I now carry Jane Austins' entire collection everywhere I go. I can pre-read my younger kids books and with the flick of a button start reading the older kids' books anywhere I want.

Best purchase made in years.

Birthday Boy!

Charlotte's Bad Grade

Sam gets out the attribute blocks and calls for his sister, " Charlotte, it is time for Shape School . Please come to the table."

Charlotte says, " OK."

Sam pulls out a block and says, " Charlotte, say blue circle."

Charlotte says, " No."

Sam pulls out another block and says, " OK, Charlotte, then say yellow triangle."

Charlotte says, " No."

Sam sighs heavily, pulls out another block and say, " Can you say red rectangle?"

Charlotte giggles and says, "No." She leaves to play kitchen.

Sam gets a piece of paper and a pencil. He writes a giant F on it and gives it to Charlotte and says, " You get a F in Shape School for today."

What every homeschool mama needs.

Homeschool teens are a wonderful thing to have in your family-they are chefs, mom's helpers, child-sitters, curriculum reviewers, teachers,and above all friends.

Last week I needed to take a trip to the clinic with a sick kiddo and while rushing home I was stressed out over what to fix the rest of the family for dinner. Big Sis' not only babysat Charlotte....she also picked up the house AND cooked dinner!

Thank you my darling daughter!

What's in a name?

The diploma came in the mail today and it is official- the name has been gold embossed- we are Mainland High School. It is beautiful and a work of art- very worthy of our son.

It does seem a tad bizarre to have a name for what we do around here.

It never occurred to me to name our homeschool. Even using the term our homeschool seems a bit strange. Sure the kids are educated at home and according to the state of Texas we are a private school but it seems weird to let it have it's own separate identity. So much of what we do is just part of life as a family....there aren't many clear demarcations between "school" and just hanging out with the kids. After all, our kitchen isn't " The Family Diner"- it's just our kitchen. Why should our homeschool be any different?

High school proved to be a bit different. I got more organized with record keeping ( not that anybody cared to look at any of that information) and we got more organized with our studies ( not that, that proved to be necessary) and we created a transcript ( that wasn't as important as I thought). The diploma represents all the extra work that we did these past 4 years in regards to paperwork and it satisifies a need for closure for family. I'm not sure if it really means anything else..... Are the kids going to stop learning just because they graduated? Of course not. Even if they were to never step foot in a college or any type of school they won't stop learning. It something we just do....like breathing.... like living.

So we shall remain unnamed until the diploma arrives for each child.

Grade levels?

Another of our nuances. We never keep track of grade levels. Since the older kids were just 15 months apart we combined just about every subject and we never classified them as 1st grade or 6th grade or whatever. When they were asked what grade they were in.....they would get the deer in the headlight stare. Maybe that's why grandparents thought we weren't really educating them because they didn't know what grade they were in? hmmmmm....something to think about.

Even now the whole " what grade are you in " is elusive to them. It is less of a graduation and more of a transition to them.

I don't think well in grades. I think more in ages and stages. We don't start a "new" year every September. We start and finish subjects at all times of the year. Some subjects were more " fluid" for us. History/Math were continuous subjects never really having an ending point. We go through the year taking breaks when we needed them, when family came to visit, and for holidays.

Our favorite break of the year was the week of the first cold front. We love to catch the first cold front after a long hot summer. We head to the park get all hot and sweaty and just wait for that first blast of cold air to hit us! We usually made it back home layered with sweats over our shorts. We have the fondest family memories catching the cold front. We then spend the next week hitting every park and trail that we haven't visited since July because of the triple digit heat index.

It felt a little strange to think of this year being "kindergarten" for Sam. I'm not sure why the change in my mindset or maybe it was just a way for me to signal the change from young adults' to young children's education. I always kept a notebook going called the "game plan" that I kept a running tally of what we have done, what we could do and what we should do. I couldn't fit Sam's plan into the older kids' path so I had to start a new one . I had to call it something so I reverted back to the traditional terminology and called it his Kindergarten plan. I'm curious to see if I continue and call it 1st grade next year.

Why CM ?

With my older kids I always considered us to be ecletic homeschoolers with a strong CM influence. We used many different styles and were willing to drop and change resources and game plans yearly. I prefered living books over textbooks and narration over tests but if they wanted to use a textbook and take tests I allowed it. My oldest son quickly learned that textbooks were the easy way to quickly earn a highschool credit and he knocked them out quite rapidly when he started the highschool years.

They are nearing the end to our adventure together. I get an opportunity to look and evaluate the older 2 kids' education before embarking on the younger 2. As I look at our choices that had the biggest impact it is clearly the CM imfluences. They made the most improvement in their writing skills the years we relied the most heavily on a CM styled LA program and less in the years we used a traditional writing program. They retained far more history when using a CM styled history program then using a textbook.

Most telling is when they find a subject they want to learn more about. They will employ a CM styled approach to learning it. They don't seek out textbooks to learn a subject of interest. They find real books and real resources. They tell me or anyone who will listen all about it ( oral narration) and they write about the subject ( written narration). CM really did influence them on how to become independent in their learning and gave them the basic framework to learn any subject.

Round 2 of homeschooling will be a CM style with an eclectic influence.

Learning to read

A brief history of learning to read in our family...

17ds. Finished 100 EZ lessons at age 5. He has read all assigned books but not much else. Prefers non fiction. He is currently on a self-imposed, self-designed book a week program that is mainly composed of nonfiction choices. High ability- medium to low interest for reading.

16 dd. Non reader at 7. Never finished 100 EZ lessons made it to about lesson 80 or so. She went from non reader to reading chapter books in a span of 6-9 months. She has not had a book out of hand since. High ability-High interest in reading.

Simple goal....I rather have children who love to read than have them be early readers! Also, I know that late readers can be great readers. Lesson learned.

Sam started asking to read at age 4. At age 5 we started 100 EZ lessons but we stopped at lesson 10 because it was interfering with speech therapy. During the "say it fast" portion he would use the speech patterns that we were trying to overcome. We tried to work with Learning Language Arts Through Literature -blue thinking to spread it out over 1 1/2-2 years. I have been spoilt by teaching 2 kids to read without a bunch of "extras" and trying to keep the cards in one place with a 2 year old running aroung was difficult. Sam enjoyed it but it drove me nuts. We put it up around Thanksgiving. I wanted a break from it for awhile.

This month we restarted 100 EZ lessons backtracking to lesson 6. He is currently working through 2 lessons per week. At this pace and allowing for vacations and any Sam-imposed breaks we should finish between ages 6 1/2-7. I'm enjoying using it. He is enjoying using it and it is not causing any conflict with Speech Therapy. We had our perfect fit but just needed time and maturity to work out the speech issue. Lesson learned .....again.

A New Season

Ahhh winter...

Not my usual sentiment. It's cold and rainy. The little kids and I haven't been out in the back yard in over a week since it is a mushy muddy mess.

But everything is just going so well I can't complain about the weather.

My oldest is off of mama's school radar. He is finishing up an outside class this spring and then he will be transitioning into the great big world. I just need to plan his graduation.

My darling 16 daughter is really coming into her own person. Self-education at its best! She is what we all want our homeschooled kids to be. Diligent, lively, fun, joyful.....at least most of the time!

Sam. I had a plan for a CM styled Kindergarten for this year for him and scrapped it. Instead I started the year with a packaged K complete with daily lessons that I planned to do while 2yo Charlotte took her nap. I just really don't know what I was thinking......OK I do know what I was thinking. The prospect of 2 highschool age kids , a 5yo and a 2 yo filled me with uncertainty and I thought this packaged curriculum would help me make sure that Sam didn't fall through the cracks. First thing to go "wrong", Charlotte quit taking naps. The second was he found it boring. Third, I always felt like I was behind because I had to double up Tuesday's lessons on Monday since Tuesday is dominated with outside classes. I work Wednesday......well you get the idea. I also found the reading portion to be a bit cumbersome. So I gave it 4 months and the packages curriculum is boxed up ready for ebay.

We are back to plan A and it has been wonderful! Sam is working through 100 Easy lesson for reading at about 2 lessons per week. If he continues at this pace he will finish next December. We switched back to Math-U-See....found our old blocks and books in the garage ...gave the blocks a quick rinse and now math is a highlight of his day. I enhance our daily story with a resource that I've never used before called "Five in a Row". Such a gem that I have passed up in the past.

The rest of our day is spent trying to meet these goals.....

"A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six", a reprint
of a curriculum outline from a CM school in the 1890's.

from Summer 93 Parents Review pub by Karen Andreola


1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns
2. to recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm

Speech- Sam does have ongoing speech therapy so we are really concentrating on getting over that hurdle. We'll start working on this when he is 6 and hopefully done with Speech therapy.

3. to add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters

MUS will meet this goal.

4. to read--what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child

100 Easy lesson will meet this goal

5. to copy in print-hand from a book

Sam's fine moter skills aren't the strongest.This is related to his speech motor issue but also the fact that he broke his dominant arm last spring. Handwriting without Tears will meet this goal.

6. to know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows
7. to describe the boundries of their own home
8. to describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach

We work on these during a weekly nature walks while the teens are in their various classes.

9. to tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English, and 3 from early Roman history (my note here, we may want to substitute early American for early English!)

He can retell the stories that we are using as the literature part of our day. We will meet this goal as we switch over to Ambleside year 1 next fall.

10. to be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views
11. to mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
12. to do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees
13. to know 6 birds by song, colour and shape

We haven't started doing these yet but will as soon as we get back outside. We will do this informally until age 6 then start his nature notebook.

14. to send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed
15. to tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.

He can do this.

16. to name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences

Spanish for us. I need to get a bit more focus and planned on this..

17. to sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song

Sam loves to sing. Haven't done a hymn or a Spanish song. Maybe we can ask Aunt Sanjie to suggest a good spanish song for us?

18. to keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.

We have been so blessed to get to observe Monarch butterflies at the butterfly garden in town. This goal has been met.

It's important to note this is a list of attainments for a child of SIX. and Sam is a child of FIVE. So we are doing rather well I believe. We will work on this list for the next year.



I didn't even mention Charlotte except that she quit taking naps! The big news for this big girl is that she has transitioned to a big girl bed. The crib is gone until the grandbabies start to come. Sad, Sad day for mama...all her babies are grown up.

Me....blogging

My dad calls and asks, " what are you doing?"


This blog is going to be my attempt to answer that question. I won't write daily or even weekly but I hope to give a clear picture of what we do all day and our goals.

My ultimate goal for the kids is that they love to learn.


My daily goal is borrowed from Charlotte Mason...

Each day give a child something to love, something to do, and something to think about.


How I attempt to meet those goals will be the focus of this blog.