So much for my "plans" for Friday

Baby has his first cold....There's another reason not to do a Parent Partnership Program I guess!! My poor wittle baby. And he was cranky.

But while bouncing him in my arms, I could still have the girls do their work and read certain things to me. They finished their Language Arts for the week, and we chose Story of the World for our unit study. But we weren't at the castles yet, I had forgotten we were supposed to review "The Rise of Islam". So we did that instead. We made review cards, The Five Pillars of Islam and ran out of time to recreate a little Hajj (Pilgrimage). I meant to do that in the afternoon after math but someone really wanted to do art and finish that Kadinsky inspired painting. So I let her. It took up all afternoon! Daddy came home late, and we still needed a few groceries (I wasn't taking cranky baby anywhere) so dinner didn't get put on the table until almost 9. Having just discussed Ramadan earlier in the day, about 8:00 I told the kids we were waiting for it to be dark so we could feast. So just drink water while you're waiting. They thought that was pretty funny. So we feasted at 9 and the kids told Daddy all about the Five Pillars and what they knew Ramadan. We took a few pictures for our Homeschool Scrapbook.
We had worked on this last year but instead used What In the World's Going On Here/Romans Reformers and Revolutionaries for the primary source and just used SOW as extra read-aloud. We didn't retain very much. We are so not auditory learners. As we went through the review cards I decided we needed to spend some time on a few key topics, so here we are. I think next week we review the Islamic Invasion, then Charlemagne, spend some time with our library books about castles and then maybe we'll be caught up to the Knights and Samurai chapter? We're going to take 3 weeks there. I bought the coolest Usborne books about knights and castles!! Look at this website to see what I mean: www.ubah.com/h2549. There's even a program called Ten Terrific Weeks that you could use as your curriculum for it. I might buy it for more in depth study- it's really inexpensive and it might give us a little more variety during those 3 weeks we have set aside. You can buy it with the books or without- I'll have to see which books I already have. I've thumbed through it and liked it, but then again I'm a curriculum junkie. We have way more options than I think we'll probably go through completely. It's kind of like having a bunch of cookbooks though....I'll have to ponder that and get back to you with those thoughts.

My Sweet Homeschooled Kids

This gorgeous afternoon we ditched math in favor of painting in the sunshine. It was so wonderful! So we learned about Kadinsky and abstract expressionism, and on her own volition my little cutie said, "Don't worry mom, I'll double up on my math tomorrow."

I'm about to hear a duet between piano and viola as a birthday gift from these girls. They've apparently been planning this as a very special secret but haven't had much time to practice without me around. So they're practicing on the other side of the house and I'm awaiting their call.

Tomorrow we're having Medieval History instead of Science for our unit study time because the book we want isn't here yet. We're in cue for it at the library. No one minds though- Medieval history is so much fun! I can't decide whether we'll work on the timeline, read Story of the World tomorrow and make castles, or if we'll listen to What In the World's Going On Here again and try to draw pictures or take notes so we'll actually "get it." We learned from that curriculum that we are SO not auditory learners. I love the ideas in the guide, and love the stories, but I really need to read along in order to absorb any of it. So anyway, I think we're making castles. Sounds much more appealing. But I'll look in the guide and see if I can find anything else more interesting.

Oooh goody! It's showtime!

To Parent Partnership or NOT

Does your school district have a parent partnership program? Ours does, and so does a neighboring one. Despite all the controversy from adament homeschoolers, we decided to try these out. A few years ago we went to the local one and enjoyed some things about it. This year we decided to try the neighboring one because it's set up a little different. You can choose which classes you want to take, and you can take just 1 class or you can take as many as you want! Like a co-op only free and you don't have to teach it, which is a plus when you have an infant or younger siblings.

There are many advantages to this program: my kids can have social time in a small classroom setting, learning specialized material such as robotics, algebra, or American Girl History. They really love the material taught in the classes we've chosen. I like it that they have the opportunity to be taught by someone with a different style than me but not in an everyday classroom setting.

However, the disadvantages are creeping up on me again and I'm starting to feel the migraine....First of all, doing this with a baby in tow is a lot harder than I thought it would be. What happened to our quiet morning playtime? On parent partnership days we are rushed getting out the door, then feel stuck in a big noisy room with other parents that all seem to know eachother already. I hate being the newbie. There are administrative hoops that you have to go through of course, too. Not usually a problem, but again with baby and our other time commitments, it's a little bit of a hassle. The parking lot was a headache: not enough parking, one-way flow of traffic being disrupted by a backload of buses because it was an early release day for the public school next door.

I feel like such a whiner! I'm not trying to be. I've just really enjoyed what we're doing the other days of the week so I'm considering whether this program is actually worth the effort. You get a stipend for curriculum or tutoring (horse riding lessons??) so that could be a good thing, once I figure out how to access that....I'll wait for now and see how things look in a few weeks after trying to get a new routine established. It's only been a week.

In the meantime, today is an at-home day so I'm off to finish LLATL with Gracie. We're going to use our unit study time today to make mini blankies for baby! My friend made him the CUTEST flannel blankie, and I love it that it's big enough to snuggle with or keep on his bed when he's bigger. But he's so little right now that he can't really keep it with him in the carseat, so we're going to make mini versions of it in the same flannel. Just little 12 x 12 squares with satin binding around the edges. Grace will get to measure (I'll cut with the rotary blade) and sew. She's so excited! So....better get to it!! Baby's already waking up fussing so we'll have to do some problem solving if we want to do a big project like this today.

Let's get on task, people!!

Kids. I have the schedule posted. We've discussed it and agreed upon it. Yet today at 9:10 they're just sitting down to the table with their bowls of cereal. I was so perturbed. They woke up with plenty of time, and turned down my offer of a hot breakfast in favor of Crunchberries, so I had gone about my business with the baby. I expected them dressed, and getting started on schoolwork at 9:10, not just finally sitting down to a leisurely breakfast. So I told them they were taking advantage of my being busy with the baby and that made me mad. I took away recesses and gave them extra work instead. During the recess times we went over the schedule (made a posterboard) and agreed on three rules for our home school (which they copied down on 6x6 cardstock and put in their folders).

Rule 1: "Bee" FOCUSED. (time management)
Rule 2: "Bee" RESPECTFUL. (attitudes)
Rule 3: "Bee" RESPONSIBLE. (physical space)

They were focused, respectful and responsible the rest of the morning. At lunchtime for no reason the little one says: "I love you mommy. You're the best mommy in the whole world." What's the deal? Someone feeling bad about the way the morning went? Was I too hard on them? I don't know. I think I approached it with balance. A little overboard at first but in actuality their extra assignments were just catch up assignments they needed to do anyway. I hope this works. A couple years ago all they wanted to do was sleep in and work time just kept getting pushed further out (which took away afternoon free time), so this year we made the schedule because we wanted that afternoon free time. Otherwise, it's goodbye afternoon activities such as ballet and gymnastics.....

New School Schedule

This year we decided to make it easy:

9:00-9:45 Language Arts
(15 minute play outside time)
10:00-10:45 Language Arts II
(15 minute play outside time)
11:00-11:45 Unit Study
(Lunch Break and Free Time)
1:00-1:45 Math
???

After Math, we either do more unit study, read aloud, silent reading or computer time. Basically it's free choice as long as it's "educational".

Language Arts I means: Screenwriting Handbook reading and exercises for child A, and LLATL for child B.
Language Arts II means: Continue what you were working on earlier if you're on a roll, or choose something else. Child A might choose to work on the screenplay (not the exercises from the resource book) or maybe handwriting/calligraphy. Child B chooses from "Just Write book 1", Dr. Seuss's My Book About Me, or My New Baby and Me. Some day she may choose to write a story or I'll pull out the writing center materials, but these are enough options for now.

Unit Study rotates: Tuesday Oregon Trail, Thursday Story of the World, Friday Beautiful Feet History of Science. We feel free to mix that up if we still feel like doing Oregon Trail stuff, etc. Last week we got excited about italic handwriting and illuminated manuscripts when reviewing Story of the World. So after working on our timeline, we had a Monk's Supper and wrote with quill pens, and used colored pencils and gold metallic paint marker for the illuminated manuscripts. (I just found a really cool kit for illuminated lettering at Hearthsong.com so I hope we'll still be interested in it after I can order it.) We didn't do anything for Oregon Trail this week, but I'm not worried. It's not set in stone anywhere- we make the rules in this school!

Math I've found Singapore Math to be a good match for my visual learner. Last year's Making Math Meaningful was good for both kids and I've since learned that it's great for kinesthetic learners, which explains why it appealled to the older one. But it was a little labor intensive on the parents part so this year with the baby I thought Singapore Math would be easier for us to manage. It's working out splendidly. Very self-directed, interesting, and she's learning a lot. She can read the textbook, talk to me about it, and easily complete the work while I'm feeding the baby or changing a diaper, etc. When we need to I can pull out the manipulatives we made last year and explain things more concretely. So- highly recommend it.

The Christian school is using Saxon math. Please don't get me started on Saxon math. We hate it so much. At least we know why it's so ill-regarded in this household though. It's not appealing visually and I disagree with someone else's opinion about it being good for kinesthetic learners. The investigations are good but the rest is so boring. However, using the computer is fun and this student is enjoying being able to use the computer for her homework and not lug a book home every day. Other than that, the whole thing about Algebra 1/2 vs. Math Course 2 bugs me, too. (Homeschoolers have the Algebra 1/2 as an option for prealgebra, schools get to use Math Course 2. Why the double tier system? Some big conspiracy or just a way to get rid of their old product line they're not so fond of???)

I think that's all I have to say about that today. I like our schedule. We're going to throw in some fun afternoons for Scrapbooking For Homeschoolers scrapclub and 4-H meetings. That plus sports and church activities will keep us plenty busy (and the kids very well socialized I do believe!)

Homeschooling: An Evolutionary Process

So I've decided that homeschooling is evolutionary. It evolves into something different every year and with each stage of development the kids go through. So lots has changed since last year. That Roman Feast turned out to be really fun but the food tasted off because we soon discovered we were adding a new member to our family! So in May, baby Karson was born. Through some rough patches in the pregnancy it became clear that we needed to make some changes to our big routine. The kids went to school! One went to Christian school, the other to the public school down the street. It was a great experience for both of them and they were hoping to continue with that this year. However, we still want to homeschool. So we are compromising and letting the kids go to a Parent Partnership Program to take a few fun classes and have more social support that way. The older one is going to the Christian school in the afternoons for math and electives, so she's happy. She still gets a locker, sees her friends, and takes the classes she wants, so what's there to complain about? Especially since it leaves mornings open for the Parent Partnership classes and her big project: screenwriting.

SO, this really is an adventure- we never know what twists and turns may come up. Although to some people it may look like we can't make up our minds which educational path to choose, reality is that we are responding to what is going to be best for our children through a particular period of time. We're satisfied with that. The kids are happy, well adjusted, and doing great academically so...who cares what anyone else thinks. We're doing the best job we know how to do. No regrets! We don't want to be here 10 years from now, look back and say "jee I wish we would have tried homeschooling (or Christian school or public school)." Better to do our best interpreting of what's going to work. If our interpretation is wrong, at least we made our choices in all good conscience.

Anyone who rigidly says their educational path is the only way is sadly missing out. What dreams do you want to pursue? With our chosen lifestyle our kids have the freedom to pursue those dreams. That's why this works for us. Life is an adventure: we were meant to explore it and make the most of it.