Saturday, June 28, 2008
Notebooking and a Great Site
One topic I have found while getting ready to start homeschooling is "notebooking". This is something that I think will be great fun for the girls. I originally thought about doing "lapbooking" because it is so similar to scrapbooking and I thought that I would like doing it, but then I admitted to myself that I have a tendency to want to have the girls projects look perfect and I try to take over and that is NOT what this is supposed to be about! SO...I decided to do notebooking instead because this is about their writing. The things THEY write about. PLUS I have a 1st grader who LOVES to write so I thought notebooking would be right up her alley. I stumbled upon this blog the other day: http://www.notebooklearning.com/ and I LOVE it. There are so many FREE pages that you can download and use at any time. I love all the resources I have found for free out there that help make homeschooling easier and this is one of those sites!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Fears....
Some days I am quite confident that this decision was the correct ones, then other days I am so fearful of hindering my kids. I've been working on lesson plans and I didn't pick the correct curriculum. The Portraits of American Girlhoood is proving to be a lot of work for me. I wanted something that would tell me what to do each day and was pretty self contained. This program is written like that but when I looked it over I felt it was seriously lacking in some areas - like Science and some aspects of Language Arts. So, I decided to mainly use this program as a history guide. But, that means I have to add in science, add in certain aspects of language arts, add in math, so I am now drawing up week by week/day by day lesson plans and it is over whelming because I sit and look at it and wonder if I am covering everything. I'm still struggling with believing that the exact things that the girls public school counterparts will be studying isn't necessarily what we HAVE to study. Yes, we need to do math, spelling, reading, science, language arts, handwriting, etc. but just because they are studying electricity in science doesn't mean we can't study the solar system. So..here I sit stressing! And chocolate hasn't helped!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
THEY ARE HOME!
Last day of school was 2 days ago! When our Kindergartner got off the bus at 11:30 I literally was jumping up and down and as she crossed the road and reached me I grabbed her and screamed, "It's your last day of school!!!" I proceeded to come inside and cry! I cried because another milestone has past. I cried because I am still fearful of our year to come. I cried because I was happy to have her home where she belongs. I am hoping to be relatively consistent with this blog as it is a journal of our journey and I don't want to forget any of it!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Last Day of Public School!
Tomorrow is the last day of public school for my girls. Will it be forever? I don't know..When I finally decided to home school I said that I would not predict that I will do this forever. What I will do is admit that I will continue to listen to God. I don't know the plans God has for our family. For the school year of 2008-2009 God has directed me to keep the girls home and begin home schooling. He may change our direction in the future. I'll wait on Him.
Meanwhile I am watching the days slip away and I am realizing that our voyage is about to begin....I'm nervous but excited at the same time!
Meanwhile I am watching the days slip away and I am realizing that our voyage is about to begin....I'm nervous but excited at the same time!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Curriculum Choices Abound!!
So, I decided to home school. Once I was able to put a few of my major fears aside it was a pretty easy decision to make. The next step for me has been to decide on a curriculum. WOW! Talk about OVERWHELMING! The choices are amazing. There are so many different educational theories and styles.
Originally I wanted something that told me exactly what to teach each day...for example:
On Monday have child read page. ** of *** book. As them this question....
I like the idea of unit studies...it seems like such a fun way to teach and to learn but I am scared of missing important educational milestones for my kids. What if God leads us to send them back to public school at some point and we have done unit studies and they are seriously lacking basic information because the unit study didn't cover it? So I started like this....
I looked at the My Father's World curriculum. http://www.mfwbooks.com/ This curriculum had everything except math, spelling and language arts. It looked great - it told me exactly what to do each day and all the books came with it. Plus you could buy it used lots of places and it was around $150 for the whole thing (used) But as I looked down the road at the topics to be covered the following year I didn't think it would be anything that would interest my girls at such a young age. (ie: studying Creation to the Greeks in 2nd and 5th grades).
Then I looked at Winter Promise. http://www.winterpromise.com/ I LOVE the look of this curriculum online but I want to actually view it in person..it is SO expensive and the prices are only for the history portion, or only for the science, or only for the language arts. We're talking like $300 just for history. YIKES! Plus, you can't buy it used. The publishers won't allow you to sell it used so that really hurts the pocket book! Of course it is pricey because the curriculum uses a TON of books...fun looking age appropriate books that kids would really like. But again...the price and I hate to spend that kind of money and then get it and start using it and have it not work. Then I couldn't even sell it! (If anyone has used this curriculum and has any cost saving measures to pass along please do!)
The next thing I looked at is a unit study. I am interested in the Little House on the Prairie unit study but with my middle child only being in 1st grade next year, it is a bit too old for her. However, both of the two oldest girls are currently interested in the American Girl books. We saw a movie about Samantha and they wanted me to do reading at night using those books. So I thought...hmmm, I wonder... and yup...they do: http://www.gatewaytoknowledge.com/us7.html. This is where we are at right now. I purchased the curriculum and am quite excited about getting started. It is more work that I wanted for myself but it is only March and I have now and all summer to prepare a fun year for us.
We will be adding on Math (Saxon Math), Spelling (Spelling Power), and more than likely some science (Apologia).
The choices are so overwhelming and it sure takes time deciding and researching things but it also feels really good to say - "this is what we are doing" and not feeling the stress and pressure of having to continue to research.
Originally I wanted something that told me exactly what to teach each day...for example:
On Monday have child read page. ** of *** book. As them this question....
I like the idea of unit studies...it seems like such a fun way to teach and to learn but I am scared of missing important educational milestones for my kids. What if God leads us to send them back to public school at some point and we have done unit studies and they are seriously lacking basic information because the unit study didn't cover it? So I started like this....
I looked at the My Father's World curriculum. http://www.mfwbooks.com/ This curriculum had everything except math, spelling and language arts. It looked great - it told me exactly what to do each day and all the books came with it. Plus you could buy it used lots of places and it was around $150 for the whole thing (used) But as I looked down the road at the topics to be covered the following year I didn't think it would be anything that would interest my girls at such a young age. (ie: studying Creation to the Greeks in 2nd and 5th grades).
Then I looked at Winter Promise. http://www.winterpromise.com/ I LOVE the look of this curriculum online but I want to actually view it in person..it is SO expensive and the prices are only for the history portion, or only for the science, or only for the language arts. We're talking like $300 just for history. YIKES! Plus, you can't buy it used. The publishers won't allow you to sell it used so that really hurts the pocket book! Of course it is pricey because the curriculum uses a TON of books...fun looking age appropriate books that kids would really like. But again...the price and I hate to spend that kind of money and then get it and start using it and have it not work. Then I couldn't even sell it! (If anyone has used this curriculum and has any cost saving measures to pass along please do!)
The next thing I looked at is a unit study. I am interested in the Little House on the Prairie unit study but with my middle child only being in 1st grade next year, it is a bit too old for her. However, both of the two oldest girls are currently interested in the American Girl books. We saw a movie about Samantha and they wanted me to do reading at night using those books. So I thought...hmmm, I wonder... and yup...they do: http://www.gatewaytoknowledge.com/us7.html. This is where we are at right now. I purchased the curriculum and am quite excited about getting started. It is more work that I wanted for myself but it is only March and I have now and all summer to prepare a fun year for us.
We will be adding on Math (Saxon Math), Spelling (Spelling Power), and more than likely some science (Apologia).
The choices are so overwhelming and it sure takes time deciding and researching things but it also feels really good to say - "this is what we are doing" and not feeling the stress and pressure of having to continue to research.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Socialization Issue
When I would hear about people having decided to home school their kids the thing I immediately thought about was socialization. "How are their children going to learn to get along with people?" "How are those kids going to make friends?" "Will those poor babies ever learn to carry on a conversation with anyone other than their parents?" "What about things like class parties and PROM?!?!" Well, now that I have heard God's call for our family and decided to give homeschooling a try, I have read SO much on the socialization issue and it all makes sense!!
First of all let me say that my oldest daughter has always been involved in different playgroups and the like and when it was time to send her to school in Kindergarten I thought she would be little social butterfly. But what I learned is that she is actually very shy when it comes to meeting new people when her mom isn't there. Even through 2nd grade when I would ask her who she played with on the play ground she would tell me that she often played alone. Now, do I believe that EVERY DAY she played alone? No, but in her mind she wasn't making friends. Then in KINDERGARTEN I got an idea of what it was like to have her "socializing" with other kids. Here's a story I think you will like:
There is a girl that lives down the street from us who happened to come over to play a couple times. She lives 13 houses down and around the corner and her mom NEVER came down to meet us but yet allowed her daughter to play down here. Whatever...I'm not a perfect mom but it seemed odd to me. I wouldn't even let my daughter walk down the street 3 doors down without standing at the end of the road and watching her get to the door and get inside before I went into my house. Anyway, this little girl ended up in Sissy's class. I thought that was a good thing so that she would get to know someone else in the neighborhood to play with. (We live in a predominately older sub with few children). Well, one day Sissy and I were walking together from the bus stop and she innocently asked, "Mom, do I have a p**nis?" I nearly choked in the road! Obviously we hadn't discussed "THEM" before if the poor girl didn't know if she had one! So I said, "No honey you don't. Where did you hear that word?" It turns out the girl who lives down the road was sharing it with her. So, I went down to the house later and wanted to let the mom know that her precious 5 year old was talking about this stuff. Mom wasn't home but step dad was. He wasn't interested and just said "I'll have her mom call you when she gets home." When mom did call I explained the situation and told her that I would want to know if my dd was talking about stuff like that and this is why I contacted her. She laughed and said "Oh yes, that sounds like my dd. The first day of school I got a call from the principal because she was talking about sex at the block table." All the while giggling. I was mortified that mom would think that was funny! So...in Kindergarten this was my first glimpse into what it meant to "socialize" with other kids. I later found out that this same child was talking about oral sex in 1st grade. Thankfully my requests to keep her and my dd out of the same class were heard during 1st and 2nd grade, unfortunately she is now in my dd class this year.
Other important socialization issue: In "real life" will we work only with people who are our same age? Before staying home to raise my kids I worked with people who were teenagers to near retirement age. What a blessing that was! In class rooms kids are placed with 29 other kids based solely on their age and nothing else is taken into account.
For my kids, we attend our church every Sunday and most Wednesdays. On Sunday they are in 2 different classrooms with kids their age and a year older (or younger depending on my kids grade in school) and the same is true on Wednesday. They get plenty of time to work in groups and meet other kids. In addition to that, there are AMAZING home school groups out there that afford your kids experiences they couldn't get in traditional school and they are with other kids their age. It is the best of both worlds! And did you know that some of these groups (specifically one near me) gives their high school students a commencement ceremony and a PROM!!!
First of all let me say that my oldest daughter has always been involved in different playgroups and the like and when it was time to send her to school in Kindergarten I thought she would be little social butterfly. But what I learned is that she is actually very shy when it comes to meeting new people when her mom isn't there. Even through 2nd grade when I would ask her who she played with on the play ground she would tell me that she often played alone. Now, do I believe that EVERY DAY she played alone? No, but in her mind she wasn't making friends. Then in KINDERGARTEN I got an idea of what it was like to have her "socializing" with other kids. Here's a story I think you will like:
There is a girl that lives down the street from us who happened to come over to play a couple times. She lives 13 houses down and around the corner and her mom NEVER came down to meet us but yet allowed her daughter to play down here. Whatever...I'm not a perfect mom but it seemed odd to me. I wouldn't even let my daughter walk down the street 3 doors down without standing at the end of the road and watching her get to the door and get inside before I went into my house. Anyway, this little girl ended up in Sissy's class. I thought that was a good thing so that she would get to know someone else in the neighborhood to play with. (We live in a predominately older sub with few children). Well, one day Sissy and I were walking together from the bus stop and she innocently asked, "Mom, do I have a p**nis?" I nearly choked in the road! Obviously we hadn't discussed "THEM" before if the poor girl didn't know if she had one! So I said, "No honey you don't. Where did you hear that word?" It turns out the girl who lives down the road was sharing it with her. So, I went down to the house later and wanted to let the mom know that her precious 5 year old was talking about this stuff. Mom wasn't home but step dad was. He wasn't interested and just said "I'll have her mom call you when she gets home." When mom did call I explained the situation and told her that I would want to know if my dd was talking about stuff like that and this is why I contacted her. She laughed and said "Oh yes, that sounds like my dd. The first day of school I got a call from the principal because she was talking about sex at the block table." All the while giggling. I was mortified that mom would think that was funny! So...in Kindergarten this was my first glimpse into what it meant to "socialize" with other kids. I later found out that this same child was talking about oral sex in 1st grade. Thankfully my requests to keep her and my dd out of the same class were heard during 1st and 2nd grade, unfortunately she is now in my dd class this year.
Other important socialization issue: In "real life" will we work only with people who are our same age? Before staying home to raise my kids I worked with people who were teenagers to near retirement age. What a blessing that was! In class rooms kids are placed with 29 other kids based solely on their age and nothing else is taken into account.
For my kids, we attend our church every Sunday and most Wednesdays. On Sunday they are in 2 different classrooms with kids their age and a year older (or younger depending on my kids grade in school) and the same is true on Wednesday. They get plenty of time to work in groups and meet other kids. In addition to that, there are AMAZING home school groups out there that afford your kids experiences they couldn't get in traditional school and they are with other kids their age. It is the best of both worlds! And did you know that some of these groups (specifically one near me) gives their high school students a commencement ceremony and a PROM!!!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Continued...
I found some time tonight so I thought I would continue with my thoughts from earlier:
When my oldest started kindergarten I found myself wanting to go to the school and peek in the windows to see what she did all day, if she was making friends, if the teacher was nice to her. At the time I felt that was crazy! "Let her go," I remember telling myself! "She has to grow up" But it continued through 1st grade too! This year she is in 3rd grade and at the beginning of this year I didn't have these feelings any longer but I do remember feeling like I was losing touch with her a bit. We also sent our middle daughter to kindergarten this year. She is in school for just 1/2 a day so my feelings of losing touch with her aren't as strong.
This year our oldest (Sissy) has been having some trouble in her class. She says the class is very loud and the kids don't follow directions and it is very distracting. She also doesn't like that the entire class gets punished for the behavior of a few kids (who can blame her?) I have also noticed that she has been struggling with spelling this year. In December I called the principal about the behavior in class and the fact that Sissy was asking me to not make her go to school anymore because she was angry that they were missing subjects (like computer lab being cut short because of bad behavior, or missing Social Studies for the same reason). The principal informed me that she would take care of things but nothing changed. At this point in time I was feeling a leaning toward learning about home schooling. A friend of mine home schools so I knew I could ask questions but I honestly was fighting it! I don't WANT to home school. I want all my girls to grow up a bit and start school and then I can get a job during the day and make some money and get my life back. But I began realizing that the kids are my life and maybe that role isn't supposed to change already.
In Jan. I called the principal back and told her that Sissy was still saying, "Don't make me go back to school mom! I can't even think in that class!" So, I sat down with the principal, teacher and school counselor. They were all very attentive but I left realizing that no matter what the adults tell a class, you can never make them all behave and you can never gear learning toward all 30 kids and have them all succeed. I started checking books out from the library on home schooling to become educated about it and I was praying like mad! I promised God and my dh that whatever God prompted me to do, I would listen. Even if I don't want to!
So, the day of that last meeting I told my husband that his wish will come true! We'll begin home schooling our soon to be 4th grader and 1st grader in the fall! Sissy knows and is excited! I haven't told the kindergartner because she can't grasp it anyway. I'd rather wait till school is over to this year to explain it to her. I'm actually excited now and can't wait to see how our family grows and changes as we continue to listen to the Lord.
When my oldest started kindergarten I found myself wanting to go to the school and peek in the windows to see what she did all day, if she was making friends, if the teacher was nice to her. At the time I felt that was crazy! "Let her go," I remember telling myself! "She has to grow up" But it continued through 1st grade too! This year she is in 3rd grade and at the beginning of this year I didn't have these feelings any longer but I do remember feeling like I was losing touch with her a bit. We also sent our middle daughter to kindergarten this year. She is in school for just 1/2 a day so my feelings of losing touch with her aren't as strong.
This year our oldest (Sissy) has been having some trouble in her class. She says the class is very loud and the kids don't follow directions and it is very distracting. She also doesn't like that the entire class gets punished for the behavior of a few kids (who can blame her?) I have also noticed that she has been struggling with spelling this year. In December I called the principal about the behavior in class and the fact that Sissy was asking me to not make her go to school anymore because she was angry that they were missing subjects (like computer lab being cut short because of bad behavior, or missing Social Studies for the same reason). The principal informed me that she would take care of things but nothing changed. At this point in time I was feeling a leaning toward learning about home schooling. A friend of mine home schools so I knew I could ask questions but I honestly was fighting it! I don't WANT to home school. I want all my girls to grow up a bit and start school and then I can get a job during the day and make some money and get my life back. But I began realizing that the kids are my life and maybe that role isn't supposed to change already.
In Jan. I called the principal back and told her that Sissy was still saying, "Don't make me go back to school mom! I can't even think in that class!" So, I sat down with the principal, teacher and school counselor. They were all very attentive but I left realizing that no matter what the adults tell a class, you can never make them all behave and you can never gear learning toward all 30 kids and have them all succeed. I started checking books out from the library on home schooling to become educated about it and I was praying like mad! I promised God and my dh that whatever God prompted me to do, I would listen. Even if I don't want to!
So, the day of that last meeting I told my husband that his wish will come true! We'll begin home schooling our soon to be 4th grader and 1st grader in the fall! Sissy knows and is excited! I haven't told the kindergartner because she can't grasp it anyway. I'd rather wait till school is over to this year to explain it to her. I'm actually excited now and can't wait to see how our family grows and changes as we continue to listen to the Lord.
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