Reading in a Tree

One day, it seemed like I had been gone a lot and then there was this gorgeously summer-like day and I was home. We just had to go to the park and spend some quality time together. Not on the playground, but have a picnic, hula hoop, or read our books in the fresh outdoors.  We found a nice accommodating evergreen. It was very much like the one just outside F. E. Warren's Base movie theater. I have very fond memories of playing in, around and on it as a child. Every child needs an evergreen fort. Something you can hide in, even while standing on the ground, under it's branches and something you can climb very easily because the branches start so low and are very numerous.  I was very surprised that my 4yo could climb the tree as easily as she did. And I even got up there just enough to take tree-loft pics on my phone.

We distracted each other to read much, but we tried. Then we all went to explore a set of storm drain tunnels. Running through them to the other side, exploring a bit, and then going back.  

It turned out to be a very nice day. 

And so, I did what I didn't want to do, post all at once. Well, I had the chance and that's just how it goes most of the time. ;)

RATS! I promised!

A Looong time ago, I promised more photos of our little caged puppies. er, rats.  . . The youngest named hers puppy and they are alot like little dogs.  They are social and friendly and pretty darn smart.  Ours are in a little bit of a slump right now as the humans dash about mostly ignoring them, but I think that will pass.  I wish I took more time to play with them and if I did, others would follow:

This is App, she is very curious. It was hard to take pictures because no one would keep still. They were too busy exploring the room. We frequently provide them with boxes, even cutting little holes or taping them together as mazes or tunnels, but this one just happened to be there. 

 They love fresh food. I believe they are eating snow peas here. We feed them fruit, veggies, store bought treats, and basic rat food.  They LOVE raw squash.  Occasionally, we give them a rare meat treat, but I don't think we've given them much sweats or grains.  This is Calmly and Puppy. Hermione is trying to squeeze in blurry. 

 Rats are good pets for young children. They are easy to hold, don't hurt easily and simply want to be near you! Our youngest is able to hold and carry her rats around. Supervised, of course. App just wants to get in her hair and whisper in her ear!

Because they are so tame it is not a problem to let them run around loose for a bit. They love to explore and hide. They will also hide food and chew on things- so watch your important papers or favorite blanket!.  When you are done, simply wait for them to run up to your lap or walk up to them, they don't really mind you, though they probably don't want to be locked up again. 

Afterward, you will want to sweep up after them. That's their only drawback. I've heard and seen the youtube video on 'potty training', but we don't have that skill here.

Ours are about 1.5 years old now.  My current teen did a research project on them for last year's homeschool science fair.

I have had their teeth trimmed it that vets. I need to check them again for that. Even though we give them things to chew, it's just not enough like the 'real world' to do the job right.

Unmet goals, growth and new paths

Okay Dad, so I didn't really meet my homeschool goals for this past year, but hopefully I've experienced a lot of growth for myself.  I spent a lot of time working for volunteer organizations and spending some mom time.  My new path or goal is to really push the SWR for April and May.  We had a few really good days recently and with other activities winding down* soon, I'm hopeful for a strong dash to the finish line. 

SWR List O-2, my homophone 'art'

For this list I worked with Cordell and Melodie separately. It worked out really well. I was really able to give them each the attention they needed. The drawback: I spent so much more time at it!  I think I will have to swap days- rather than try to do them both on the same day.  Right now though, I am trying to get as far in the Lists of spelling words as possible since we missed so many days this year.  It probably doesn't really matter, but I just want to be close to our end of the year goal. 

Lillian is now joining us sometimes when we review the phonogram cards. To ensure we cover 'hers' first, I marked them with a red dot, that way she can wander away later and not miss them. So far, I have only introduced about 9 cards, the ones in her name and the 'clock face' letters. 

I have cut a corner off each card so they are easy to assemble 'right side up' I marked the toddler's with red circle dot stickers across the cut corner.

This is a phonogram review activity for the 4 year old. She is to match her cursive cards to the pocket of the bookface counterpart.  I taped the file folders together so it folds up accordion style for storage and stands up on it's own when in use.  She decorated the file folders a little and helped me assemble it, so it was like a lapbook project.  

*winding down, doesn't really look like it or the next few weeks because we are getting ready for a dance recital, poetry presentation [multiple times], curriculum fair, and a big birthday party! How we will get consistent seat work in during all the prep time needed, I wouldn't know.  Dreaming of a beach. . .

Worthy to post?

I must make a confession. I have been waiting for something worthy to post. While it's true the holidays are always busy and I've had a whirlwind first couple of months in the new year- those aren't the only reasons I have not posted since November. . . Because of my busyness and going and going. . . the 'homeschool' that's been going on has not been easily recognizable and has certainly not been impressive. I kept thinking, 'I won't post yet, maybe tomorrow, or next tuesday we will do some awesome school thing and then I can blog about it!' I can't believe I've already fallen into that kind of thinking, but then again, yes I can believe it. Don't we worry about our portfolios*? Don't we only want to show the 'good stuff?' Don't we generally want to impress? And really, there's nothing wrong with that to a point; certainly we should put our best foot forward. You don't normally answer the door in pjs and bedhead hair; and you'd especially not want to answer the door that way when Publisher's Clearing House is bringing you a check. And I do believe in a certain level of privacy, I won't share every homeschool detail here, and I don't recommend it. But that's not what was in my head. What was in my head was thinking I needed something super fantastic to share or it wasn't worth blogging at all. [and I do think those little chick hatchings are hard to beat] But for a blog? . . this is different. This is suppose to be real-or at least more realistic. Blogging, is suppose to be a snapshot of daily life; More specifically, this blog is suppose to be a snapshot of day to day homeschooling.

*in our state, we must show 'thorough and regular instruction' through a portfolio review each year, usually its done simply in a 3 ring binder with subject tabs.

Book Review, "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.*"

Take Back the Land, by Rick Boyer

Inspiring a new generation to lead America

Written to the youth of America, homeschoolers in particular. I am glad it is written directly to the audience and not to their parents. I agree with Rick, that we need to treat this age group as adults - or at least as much as adults as they demonstrate they are. We were all there once, screaming, ‘I’m not a child anymore.’ So, okay, you’re not a child - if that’s the case, act like it. Age is not the determiner of adulthood- maturity is. And with his definition I agree.

Mr. Boyer defines adulthood as:

Ownership of faith

Ownership for one’s actions

Is a giver and not a taker

Has a proper sense of duty

He gives a brief history of childification in America - in which compulsory education is a major part. John Gatto also discusses this phenomenon in his writings. It seems that this process is extending later and later and that we cannot take much more. Something must change. Homeschooling is the start of a revival but it is not complete. Rick Boyer asks the ‘new generation’ to complete the revival.

The homeschool parents of the first/second generation are like Moses, we took our kids out of government education and as much as possible out of this childification process. The current and soon to be graduates of homeschooling are Like Joshua - they’ve been led out of government education and are on the bank of the promised land - but will they cross the river? Will they go one step further and reign in government control for everyone or will they return to Egypt?

Rick rightly points out that compulsory education is imprisonment for the innocent. Think about that. When did we find it acceptable to incarcerate those who’ve committed no crime? Truancy was not a big problem before compulsory laws- so for fear of a nonexistent problem, all parents and children are controlled as criminals.

The battlefield for the ‘joshuas’ of today are family, church and government. Not everyone will be called to every battlefield or even have the same role in the three arenas. The point is to seek and discover your role- and then fill it now, not waiting for some future day when you are ‘old enough’.

Rick Boyer states “I say this without apology and without hesitation. It’s no exaggeration.

The current crop of new adults [around age 12- the 20s] needs to get involved and make changes now, not later or we’ll loose the little freedoms we have left. America as we know it is on the verge of disappearing completely. We need new leadership- and homeschoolers are poised to provide it.”

In reality we have a 2 class educational system: The leaders and the rest of us. Yes, where do today’s leaders come from? Not usually ‘public school.‘ They attend a handful of elite private schools and as Mr. Boyer states: “. . . every American president and almost every candidate for president of the last 20 years attended either Harvard or Yale. With the confirmation of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court in 2010, every member of the present Supreme Court also attended Harvard or Yale.” Doesn’t this make you mad? Doesn’t this scare you? Doesn’t this seem wrong? If ‘public education’ is suppose to be the great equalizer and field leveler- then why are our leaders not coming out of it? Why do they come from a completely different educational track? And a small one at that. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to see this system is not equitable and not working for most of us. And you can see, that as the education system goes, so goes the nation.

The biggest impact on my reading this book and of what’s most significant to me is that Rick Boyer is not the only voice with the same message. Generation Joshua, Vision Forum, The Harris brothers, ICCinc, Debra Bell and many others are all delivering a similar message. Even at TED Talks there are some good speakers expounding on how the current educational system should not be reformed but scrapped for a totally new one. So because of the wide consensus, this is a truly timely book. And while it might not be the end of the world or even the end of America- certainly change is coming and it will need leaders and those leaders will be the homeschoolers. [or the perceptive] I hope they read it and act on it.

-deborah

* Gandalf, Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

Scheduling oh my!

Since I love homeschool planning more than actually implementing them or most any other household chore, I tend to force myself to wait until the very end to make my plan or schedule for the next year. I must resist the urge to plan all year for future years. I typically want to scrap the current year in January in order to start day dreaming about next September. But I resist. I hide catalogs that come in the mail and determine not to buy things at conferences unless already on my decided list.

I agree with other advisors that you really owe it to yourself to take some time off- either go away, or have the kids go away for the day or hire a mom's helper for the day? Anything, so you can really concentrate on the job, look through all those great resources, and search the house for those books you know you bought at last year's conference. . . It is also a good idea to discuss with dh [dear husband] each child's details and how you want to meet them.

After discussing the kids w/ their Dad, The first thing I do is determine my dates. I get a calendar and decide when I'm going to start, stop and take vacation. I try to have a couple of extra floater weeks for unexpected things. I pencil in all those weekly commitments; TKD, dance, soccer, piano, Speech, Bible Study, etc etc. . . Then I count up what's left and start slotting my resources in them. I mostly just concentrate on the weekly schedule and a loose idea of what the daily schedule will be like- [Latin on Monday, piano on Tuesday etc] Since each day is different It's unrealistic to think I can do the same 'school schedule' each day of the week.

Another thing not to forget in this planning is the household chores and meals. While not perfect in this, I do recognize that stopping more often during the day to pick up makes it much easier to maintain the house overall, rather than trying to save it up for one big mega clean up. This is a good thing to do for 'transitions' in your day [after breakfast, before lunch, afternoons before Dad arrives, just before leaving, bedtime, etc. ] set a timer for 10 minutes and have everyone help pick up the main areas of trouble. Whatever gets done in that time is better than nothing. You might schedule in starting a load of laundry in the morning, and swapping it at lunch time. I am going to attempt, yet again, to schedule children for various meals- 1) so they can learn/practice to cook, 2) to learn to serve their family, and 3) to take some of the load off of me. Even the younger ones can make eggs or sandwiches so why not make them for everybody?

As for school. I'm going to try something different this year. I seem to always be struggling to get in my 'favorite subjects' of history and science because I spend so much time doing the 'have tos' When I do school that is. . . Sometimes it's just a struggle period. but also things like teaching someone to read and do math. I've found that I just can't do every single subject each day anyway- and alternating days wasn't working too well either- unless I was in a co-op. So this year, I am doing units. First a 3 week science unit, and then a 5 week history unit. then back to science. there's a little tweaking to fit in the calendar parameters decided on above, but mostly it fits into the time slots I've made. I am very excited to try it this way and see how it works out. . . I've also determined NOT to try to do the whole book, but just pick a handful of related topics for each 'unit.' More details to come, I hope. We start on Tuesday with piano, TKD and possibly Speech Chapter. . .

School's Out, sorta

Just posting like crazy today. Lots to catch up on. . .

The kids and I were very excited to finish our SWR for the year. I had hoped to get through list O for this year, but we DID make it through list N instead. Pretty darn close and M and N lists had all the review words, yay!! And not only that, we were able to do 40 words a week [ OR more, shsh, don't tell] AND do a couple of enrichments for each list. The kids have progressed so much in their reading ability and in their stamina that it is just easier to do the assignments. I feel like next year the 2 of them doing SWR will need to be done separately. They have different needs to work on and I found they either distracted or held up one another. I also need to see if the little one could do some things. I am never real consistent with having older kids teach younger ones, so here's my chance to try again. The next 2 could easily play phonogram games, read pre-school books, and stuff with the youngest. I will have to remember to plan that in- maybe while I do SWR with one and they can switch off. Lots of time to think about it. . .

At the end of our year we did a final spelling diagnostic. I don't do them every month, because one just doesn't test well, yet. . . If I don't count the obvious letters he confused the sound for [f for v, r for w etc] then he spells fairly well. They are both solid second graders in reading and spelling, and this is with one that seemed would NEVER learn to read. So it is a great big HUGE accomplishment. We will start back again at the end of August. For now, we will just enjoy reading, work on some vision therapy for one and handwriting review for the other.

I would still like to finish up some of the history we didn't get to, some of the science and continue to work on the math until done, but in reality, this is purely optional and probably not likely. . . but you never know. . .