June Reading Winners

As I mentioned before, the kids did several summer reading programs during the month of June.  I continued logging their minutes even after they'd met each program's goals because I thought it would be neat to have a record of their reading, and a bookstore was having a contest for most minutes read.  Since they were in different age groups, I thought both Annie and Logan had a good chance in the contest, so I was careful to underestimate their minutes each day.  I wanted to be sure we'd been honest if they won.  Much to my surprise, they BOTH won!  Logan's age group was 6-10 years and he read 120.5 hours.  Annie's age group was 3-5 years and she read 76 hours.  The best part is that they only read because they wanted to; they weren't even aware I was keeping track.  The numbers seemed pretty big once I totaled them, but it really only averages to 4 hours a day for Logan, and 2.5 hours a day for Annie.  A lot of kids probably spend that much time watching tv or playing video games each day.  I figure that since we don't have that option, my kids are just using books as their natural default instead.  They each received a $20 gift card.  Considering this is a discount bookstore, that will purchase several books!  They were pretty excited when they found out they won.

The letter says:

July 8, 2013

Dear Annie and Logan,

Congratulations!  With 4,560 and 7,230 total minutes read in June, you are our top readers in the 0-5 and 6-10 year-old age groups.

Enclosed please find your $20 gift cards to Half Price Books.  They have no expiration date, and can be used in part or all at once.

Enjoy!

Inspiration From Mike Teavee

This little gem was brought to my attention today.  Roald Dahl is hilarious, and I was rather surprised at the truth in this bit of his writing.  Enjoy! 

 

Mike Teavee...

The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something good to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did. 

Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

Summer Writing

Logan was feeling inspired to write the other night.  We'd been playing the story game (where you take turns creating a silly story) and he was disappointed when I told him I was done playing.  So he pulled out some paper and started writing his own story.  He says he's making a book.  These are what he did the first night.  He has since added another page and I'm loving it.

 

"I can reed.  The Alien That Liv'd On Venes.  By Logan"  This is his title page and also the only page with an "illustration" as he so informed me using that exact word.

"Once there wos one alien thate live'd on venes.  Even tho venes is fol of volkainos.  Thise alien wos lovo (AKA lava).  His home wos a volkaino."

I love that he did this without any help, and I especially love his use of apostrophes on the word lived.  :)

Summer Schedule

Oh what do you do in the summertime when all the world is green???

 

The answer to that for us is get out of the house hopefully.  I feel like I've had my kids cooped up for almost a year and I'm finally energetic enough to get out.  My goal for the month of June is to catch up with friends and have lots of outings.  We started that this week and it felt good.  Then for month of July we are going to enjoy our family that is coming to visit.  I honestly feel like we all need that kind of a change.  As for work and school, we aren't totally going to neglect those.  We had a family discussion about that today actually.  I was upfront with the kids about my desire to socialize and have outings, but then we talked about how it's still important to work hard every day.  We also won't take the summer off from school entirely because learning keeps us happy.  That means our schedule is up in the air...sort of.

 

One thing that will remain consistent is their reading time.  Annie very suddenly became a fluent reader sometime during April or May and Logan's response to me anytime I want him to do something is, "Can I finish my page first?"  We've signed up for 5 summer reading programs, so I'm now attempting to track how much they read each day.  Before I started tracking it, I knew they were reading a lot.  I thought it was something like two or three hours a day.  I was wrong!  In this busier than usual week (because we went places a lot), I've recorded 36 hours for Logan and 23 for Annie.  I have to wonder how many hours they were reading during our previous not so busy weeks!  To add further to my amazement, I know that those numbers are low because whenever I've needed to estimate (which has been frequent) I've been careful to underestimate!  So if I think Logan has read for four hours, I'll record three.  I don't know if I'll continue to track minutes past the end of June, but I'm finding it fascinating to see how much they are reading.  I want to have a whole month's worth.  The best part is that they aren't reading for the prizes they will earn.  Only once this week have they said anything to me about the reading programs; they don't even think about it (which is why I'm tracking their minutes).   

Dear Brand New Homeschool Parent

Now that school is out for the summer, some families are considering what they want for next year.  This is for those of you who have decided to embark on the unknown.

Dear Brand New Homeschool Parent,

As you get started with homeschool you are going to hear a lot of opinions and advice from so called 'experts' and other homeschoolers.  The most important thing to remember is that YOU are the expert on your child(ren) and YOU are the one Heavenly Father sent your child(ren) to.  That entitles YOU to make decisions and receive inspiration for their education.  As one of those homeschoolers I'll gladly share what has worked for us and what I think may be helpful to you in starting. 

First of all, I think a really good first step is to ask yourself what your goals are with homeschooling.  What are your reasons and what do you hope to accomplish?  Knowing your end goal will keep you heading in the right direction when you're sorting through ideas.  The way I approach our school time is a result from asking myself this question.  My personal goals in homeschooling are in this order:

1. Raise children who have testimonies of the Gospel and live it.
2. Raise children who have strong family relationships.
3. Raise children who know how to work.
4. Raise children who love learning.

You'll notice that my LAST goal addresses academics and it isn't to see my kids get good grades or become math wizards.  I was always a good student as far as grades went, but never loved learning until I was in college and consequently never learned much until then.  So when we get to the academic part I focus on keeping it inspired for all of us.  I want them to love it from the start.

These goals manage how I approach each day.  First of all, we have a family devotional.  If nothing else gets done, that should in my mind.  If we are not getting along, being kind, etc. that is addressed before we move into our academic time, and we will stop those activities to readdress family relationships as needed.  I also place snuggle time higher on my priority list than academics.  When life gets hectic and we haven't been feeling very harmonious, we will have snuggle days instead of school days.  Work gets placed before academics as needed.   Mostly the kids have regular chores that they do after school time each day, but I would rather see them learn to work hard than spell correctly so it comes first as needed especially when we have family work projects.  This is a glimpse of how I prioritize that list.  It keeps us on track.

Second, I think creating a simple schedule is the next most helpful thing.  Set aside a few hours at the same time each day that you are going to give your child(ren) your undivided attention.  Then choose a few things to work on each day.  Keep it VERY simple.  This year our schedule was:

-Family Devotional
-Learning to Read time (as long as their attention spans held out)
-Math time (no set time, just a simple lesson)
-Learning Activity time (this was whatever I felt like each day and usually just one: a craft, science experiment, penpal letters, cooking together, etc.)
-Read Out Loud time (again no set time, but this is when I would read out loud to the kids)

When we first started homeschooling we only had family devotional, a learning activity, and read out loud time.  It was enough to get us started and once I was comfortable with it, it was easy to add in things.  Next year our schedule will be very similar to this year except we won't have learning to read time anymore because my oldest two are now fluent readers and the next two aren't old enough yet.

Here I'll point out that you don't have to do everything the public school does.  You don't have to have all the subjects and busywork that they have.  You have the advantage of working one on one with your child(ren) and going at their speed and their attention span.  Most worksheets are just busy work and a waste of time.  If they aren't really learning from something, it isn't worth forcing them to do it.

Third, once you have goals and a simple schedule, focus on keeping it inspiring.  If they're giving a lot of push back they probably aren't learning much.  If you're hating it, there is something that can change.  Intelligence comes from God as the scriptures say and as such brings happiness.  There is a certain amount of pressure that is right for each kid, so I'm not saying don't apply pressure.  I am saying keep it at the right level.  Learn about things they are interested in.  Learn about things you are interested in because your enthusiasm will be contagious.  Be willing to go slower than the world says is necessary if that is what really works.  Be willing to skip assignments that really won't be beneficial or jump around in the textbook (if you're using a textbook...we aren't).    Don't turn school into a checklist, and it will be much more enjoyable and they'll learn so much more. 

Again, remember that you are the expert on your child.  One of the hardest things about homeschooling is worrying if your child is measuring up and if you're doing enough.  However, the world really has no idea what your child needs and it's important to tell yourself that all the time.  Ignore the pressures around you so you can receive the inspiration that is sure to come.  When we started homeschooling, I had no idea what to teach, but I knew what my goals were and we were sticking to our simple schedule.  I was diligent with giving the kids that much of my undivided attention and that was what opened the way for inspiration.  I simply knew when it was time to add things in and when the kids were ready for new things because the Lord was helping me.  It continues to be that way. 

Fourth, be choosy about curriculum and possibly wait to buy any.  It can be very expensive and then if it doesn't fit your style and their needs, it can be a frustrating waste of money.  Every homeschooler I know has stories of jumping around between curriculums.  Right now, I only use curriculum for math, and I waited until just a few months ago to purchase it when I was sure I knew what I wanted.  I'm so glad I waited because I would have ended up with something totally unsuited to my kids' needs and my teaching style.  As for other subject areas I'm finding we can learn without curriculum.  I taught the kids to reading by simply sounding things out phonetically, and they are learning to write through penpal letters, art projects, and games.  They are learning spelling and grammar through reading.  We learn science and history by choosing library books on those topics that interest us.  I wrote a blog post on this very thing recently:

http://1-2-3-school.blogspot.com/2013/03/doing-it-without-curriculum.html

If you're interested in looking at our math curriculum, I'm happy to recommend it.  I did find it difficult to teach math without a curriculum, not because I don't understand math, but because there are so many different concepts that I didn't know what I was missing without some guidance.  My curriculum is very different than most because it isn't organized by grade level.  Rather there are only four books that teach all the way to pre-algebra.  One book is on money and decimals, another on geometry, another on fractions, and another on operations (addition, subtraction, etc.).   I love it because once my kids understand a concept they can move right onto the next without having to wade through hundreds of problems on the same thing.  On the inverse, if a concept is difficult they can spend as much time on it as they need to while still progressing in the other areas.  My kids aren't at just one grade level for math; Logan is way ahead for operations, possibly behind in geometry, and probably right at grade level for the other concepts.  I love that he can work on things as he understands them without worrying about if he's getting it all done.  You can look at it online here:

http://www.mathonthelevel.com/

Last, if anything I've said here has resonated with you, I HIGHLY recommend reading A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille.  (I get nothing from recommended this; I just think it's worthwhile.)  We stumbled on this when Logan was preschool age and it completely changed the way I looked at homeschool.  It was a LIFESAVER because it showed me how we could homeschool without the battles a lot of homeschool parents have.  It's not a homeschool how-to book, but rather a method that helps parents see how they can do this in a more natural way than forced task managing.  It also seeks to help parents give their children the kind of quality education our founding fathers had, hence the title.  It is the reason I have so much fun doing school with my kids and why I think they've been able to learn in such leaps and bounds.  I consider myself lucky because I think I have a much easier and enjoyable time schooling my children than just about anybody I know.  It's a really short easy read and is available at some libraries.  It's inexpensive to purchase online as well.

Also, here are the links to a couple of other blog posts I wrote that may be helpful.  The first is another I wrote specifically to anyone who was thinking about homeschooling for the first time; I said some of the same things, but mostly it's different.  The second is just a description of what a typical day looked like for us last fall.

http://1-2-3-school.blogspot.com/2013/01/tackling-fears-and-dispelling-myths.html

http://1-2-3-school.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-day-looks-like.html

Sincerely,
A Homeschool Mom Who Loves It

 

 

Our New Normal

I think I'm getting the hang of our 'new normal'.  It's definitely a lot busier than our 'old normal'.  I knew that was the calm before the storm, though.  Things were way too easy for a few months there.  This 'new normal' means doing school while nursing a baby and getting everything else done when she's asleep.  School is about the only thing I can do when she's awake right now because she doesn't like to be put down yet (imagine that!).  She also likes to nurse constantly when she's awake, more than any of my other babies.  Come to think of it, she also likes to be held and talked to more as well.  So we do our family work while she naps and when she wakes up we sit down to read and learn.  The funny thing is that she seems to like school time too.  She's never more content (during waking hours) than when I'm reading out loud.

 

I was pretty pleased with this week.  For the first time in several weeks we had an almost full school week: four out of five days!  That fifth day was awesome, too, because we went to the circus instead.  :)

The Baby is the Lesson

In some ways I feel like I've been slacking with school this month.  I felt terrible for the first two weeks because I was so big and pregnant, so school time was getting shorter and shorter.  Then we've been adjusting to our first two weeks with a newborn, so again school time hasn't been complete.  (I also felt terrible with an infection.)  So I am grateful for the wisdom of women who have been here before me. 

 

At the beginning of my pregnancy, there was a discussion on my TJED MUSE group (see top right link) about homeschooling while pregnant/ with a newborn.  Several women who have older children chimed in to point out that it's okay to slow down the pace during this time.  One said that 'the baby is the lesson', and it stuck with me and comforted me these several months.  It's true.  My kids have benefitted from the lesson this baby has already been to us.  While I was pregnant they helped extra with the housework and helping me in general because I wasn't feeling good.  Contributing to our family in that way was good for them even if it meant our school lessons weren't as regular during certain parts of my pregnancy.  Now that the baby is here they are helping with her.  They have spent a lot of time holding her, and are still helping me in extra ways because I need to spend so much time nursing and holding her.

 

We've been averaging school time about every other day these two weeks, which I think is pretty good considering everything.

 

This picture is from the first few days after the baby and I came home.  We actually had a full school day!  The kids were writing letters here.  (Actually, Annie was illustrating her already finished letter.) 

Alex was playing at the other side of the table.

When we were hoping to conceive another child, I thought it would be really helpful if Logan learned to read by the end of my pregnancy.  I never thought that both Logan and Annie would learn to read!  It has been incredibly helpful.  This is mostly what these two do during the main part of the day.  Logan is reading the encyclopedia in this picture.  Hehe...

Annie has been diligently plowing through book after book after book.  She's not fast yet, but she's fairly steady. 

Here is our littlest, but most important lesson right now.  We love our little Abigail!