Fire Station

We had a fun field trip to a fire station last week with some friends.  It's been several years since we visited a fire station, so it was quite the novelty for the kids.  Alex was super excited about the trucks.

Annie and Logan climbed in and through the fire truck twice.  Alex refused to get up there without me, and then he made me hold him the whole time.  Funny kid.

This fireman was really good with the kids.

As we were wrapping up, the ambulance pulled in, so they were able to check that out as well.

Yay for field trips!

Book It Rewards

We've redeemed the kids' Book It coupons twice in the last few weeks.  The first time we had the bonus of Jim meeting us there for his lunch break.  It was fun to go out as a family in the middle of the day.

Abby really enjoyed the pasta from the lunch buffet, and she had her first taste of pizza.

I love these silly kids.

This picture is actually from the second time, although it's hard to tell because Abby just so happens to be wearing almost the same thing.  She's so funny.

Speaking of books, check out the awesome haul we made at the bookstore last weekend.  Yes!  I can't recommend that 'My Book House' series highly enough.  They are wonderful!

Speaking of books a second time, we read the encyclopedia around here.  Ha ha!

Every Day Stuff

 Logan, "I don't ever want to go to school, cause that would take away from my reading time."

When Logan was a baby, we received an offer in the mail for a free 'Top Secret Adventure' from Highlights.  So we cashed in on it and set the adventure kit aside.  As I was FINALLY unpacking our school closet this week (it needed doors before I was willing to empty those boxes) I came across the kit and realized that the kids were finally old enough for it!  Woohoo!  They were quite excited.

The first part was an envelope containing a puzzle that revealed their 'mission'.

Then they were able to open the case file.  It included a world map, cards of the suspects, a guide to Greece, and a book of puzzles/ research questions that would help them solve the mystery.

They worked at it for hours, Annie on one page, Logan on another.  In this picture I think Annie was decoding something, and Logan was answering research questions.  I've decided that I'd be willing to have more of these kits, but I'd never pay full price for them.

One afternoon I realized I hadn't heard Alex in a while so I went looking for him.  He was in the bathtub!  Funny guy.  If it weren't for the fact that he constantly plays in water, I would have let him stay there with the books.  I didn't want to run that risk with our 'water boy'.  

I've already shared this picture on our other blog, but this beautiful baby has caught the book love disease.  She is constantly flipping through books (and occasionally tearing them too) and has a favorite shelf to unload.  We've moved the more sturdy books to that shelf now.

 

Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful

Homeschool Perk:  When the weather is miserable we don't have to go anywhere.  Hooray!  

Another Homeschool Perk:  When the weather is worse than miserable we don't have to deal with cancelled school days and then have make up days when the weather is nice.

This has been such a cold winter for everyone it seems.  We've had an amazing amount of negative temperatures, and few days that were 'warm' enough to play in the snow.  I really have been grateful that we've been able to stay in so much.  The kids have gone out to play whenever they could, and have especially enjoyed the snow pile that the snow plow has made at the top of our driveway.  They are out there at this very moment. 

Most of the time these kids have been reading.  Annie reads to Alex and Logan reads on his own.  I have to wait for the kids to finish a chapter or story before we can begin school each morning.  Actually, I have to wait for them to finish a chapter or story before we do ANYTHING.  It's glorious.

 Apparently science fun is the only thing we do that is picture worthy, so I have some more photos.  (I can only take so many pictures of us reading.)  One day we did some experimenting with magnets.  There is a magnet on the end of the ruler, and each of the 'boats' have a paper clip attached to them.  The challenge was to move the boats with the magnet.

We also built a magnetic car.  We put a magnet inside it, and experimented with pushing or pulling it based on which pole (negative or positive) was facing out.

In other happy homeschooling news we're now doing penpal letters with other kids from different places.  We set this up through an online group I'm part of.  Annie is writing a little girl in Arizona and Logan is writing two boys, one in Texas and one in Canada.  They are having so much fun with it. 

Science Fun

 We've had some fun with science this week.

One day we experimented with different ways to make invisible ink.  We tried milk, baking soda, and lemon juice.  The kids wrote on these papers with milk and lemon juice.

We warmed them in the oven to reveal their messages!

We decided that the milk worked best.  The baking soda worked really well, too, but you had to use grape juice to reveal the message.  That was too messy for my taste, so we only did that once.  It was probably the coolest one, though.

Yesterday we experimented with a candle.  In the first experiment we created CO2 (which suffocated the flame) by putting some baking soda in the cup with the candle and then adding vinegar.

The second experiment dealt with air pressure, temperature, and again oxygen (or the lack thereof).

I didn't realize this picture was blurry until now.  Oh well.  The change in air pressure when the candle went out and the air cooled sucked the water into the cup.  The kids loved this one.  We did it over and over.

Today we made 'gak' with glue and borax.  The kids have been playing with it all day.

So Happy Together

We are having a fantastic week.  I took this picture yesterday because I was just feeling so happy while we were doing school.  It's seriously such a joyful time.  I love that Annie seems to have a smile on her face (she didn't know I was taking a picture) while she's doing her math review.

 Even this crazy three year old makes school time fun.  He bounces back and forth between us and his own play.

Yesterday we had such an interesting time learning about the Revolutionary War.  The kids were hanging on the edge of their seats as we read for an hour about it.  They were following the different armies in their minds, always tracking George Washington in particular, and cheering for the Continental Army.  It was awesome.  They had so many questions and were so enthralled.  Then today we read a biography about Anne Frank, and ended up tying the two subjects together (i.e. war, freedom, governmental oppression, etc.), and also had a wonderfully meaningful discussion. 

Yesterday, we also did a super fun activity that was a total stroke of inspiration thanks to the Dollar Tree.  When I took Alex Christmas shopping for his siblings, we found a book of 'Zany Tales'.  It's the equivalent to a 'Mad Libs' book.  I knew Logan and Annie would love it, so I convinced Alex to get it for Logan.  I also realized at the time that it was the perfect way to teach the parts of speech, and it was!  We had a fabulous time creating silly stories in it yesterday.  The kids couldn't get enough, and afterwards they could explain nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and plurals.  It also worked out to be unintended writing and spelling practice while they filled in the blanks.  Triple score!

Today I was pleased to observe how great our math curriculum is working.  I was excited when I bought it last March, but was a little nervous about how it would pan out for us.  It's a great system for our family!  I feel like it really makes math time fun and easy for us.  This morning I had the following conversation with the kids:

Annie, "I want HARDER math!"
Logan, "Me too!  I want the HARDEST math!"
Annie, "Yeah!  This is easy!"

This is awesome because we took quite a long break from math during our move and holiday time, but they didn't forget anything and are totally ready to pick up where we left off.

I took a picture of their 5-a-day reviews today so I can remember where they were at when I publish my blog book.  The first one is Annie's.  They are working the same concepts which is really nice for me.  Logan is just a little quicker at some of it.  Annie is more careful, though.  Concepts reviewed for the day: addition with carrying, use of $ sign and decimals, subtraction with borrowing, changing between vertical and horizontal formats, solving for 'x', multiplication facts, basic fractions, and telling time.  

They do a 5-a-day review at the beginning of each day.  It gives them a daily review of the concepts they've learned.  When a new concept covers an old one (i.e. long multiplication will cover addition), the old one no longer needs to be on the review.  There is also a simple system for rotating needed concepts when one doesn't need to be reinforced daily or when there are too many to include each day.  It's working beautifully!  My favorite part is that we don't need to hammer any concepts because they review everything frequently.  They usually don't mind doing the 5 problems each day.  After the review we have a lesson or activity where we can learn a new concept or reinforce an old one.  We generally have a lot of fun with that part; it also serves as a motivator to finish their 5-a-day.

Logan's math notebook has a lot of space ship and rocket pictures.  :)

My favorite thing today were our oral reports.  They chose to do these as part of their 'Book It!' goals this month.  Nothing beats cuddling with a five year old with the most expressive face and voice as she gives a report on 'Amelia Bedelia'.  She was hilarious and so very excited.  I loved it!  Logan has been after me to listen to his oral reports for a couple of days too.  He was incredibly thoughtful about it.

Another Look at the Socialization Question

The socialization question is an interesting one, and one that comes up in almost every conversation I've ever had when discussing the pros and cons for homeschooling.  I believed the stereotypes before I started homeschooling.  Since then I've learned a few things. 

1. I now know a LOT of other homeschoolers (whereas I only knew maybe a dozen families before) and I've learned that socialization has more to do with who your parents are than how you were schooled. 

2. Homeschool's best kept secret are the normal kids.  As human beings we tend to notice extreme examples.  I've now met so many homeschoolers that I never would have guessed were homeschooled based on social stereotypes.  The fact is, most homeschoolers come out to be very normal human beings.  Everyone remembers the homeschooled girl who couldn't make friends or work with other people when she finally entered the world as an adult, but no one noticed the masses of others who were just fine.  Chances are, no one knew they were homeschooled.  Everyone also remembers the strange guy who couldn't carry a conversation or pull his weight on a team, but because he was public schooled they just called him an introvert from a weird family.

3. Personal paradigms make all the difference.  I might be bothered by how a kid interacts socially, but if he's not bothered by it, chances are there is nothing wrong with it.  It's okay to be different.  Being happy is what matters, not being accepted. 

4.  There are just as many socially backward public schooled kids as homeschooled kids.  The difference is that when a homeschooled kid is backwards it's ALWAYS blamed on homeschool.  When a public schooled kid is backwards it's blamed on personality or family.  There's something hypocritical about that.  It's true that some parents who are over protective choose to homeschool AND prevent their kids from being around others, but it's important not to confuse the two.  Homeschool does not automatically equate to limited social interaction.  On the contrary, homeschooled children have a tendency to have better manners and greater respect for other people because they are learning how to behave from their parents vs. other children all day long.  They aren't necessarily limited in their opportunity to learn how to be around people, work as a team, problem solve, etc.  Quite frankly, that's even better learned when around siblings all day in a less controlled environment.  Also, I've said it before, but there are limitless opportunities for kids to be around people outside of the home.

Interestingly, when public schools were created in England it was to educate the lowest class in order to give them some basic skills so they could be contributors to society.  The upper class mainly had private tutors in the home (AKA homeschool), and the middle class hired tutors when they could afford it or else sent their children to good private schools.  They didn't want their children socialized in the public setting because those children were viewed as crude and rude.  They sought to socialize their children in the home because that was how they created respectful, moral adults.  

5. The way society dictates we need to be 'socialized' is not necessarily right or best for everyone.  There's this idea that we should all fit a certain general mold or we won't be happy or successful in life.  A lot of homeschoolers are tagged as 'weird' because of their personal appearance.  Is there anything truly wrong with dressing differently?  It means that they were raised without the worry of how to look cool to fit in with the crowd, and it also means that they will be less likely to judge based on personal appearance.  That sounds freeing to me.  Yes, a homeschooler is likely to be unaware of certain social stigmas.  My 7 year old son has no idea that girls have 'cooties' (or whatever today's equivalent is) or that it's not cool to play with kids who aren't his same age (especially his sister).  He has no idea that it's nerdy to pull his pants up to his rib cage or that he's too old to wear Thomas the Train underwear.  He has no idea that there's a 'crowd' to fit into.  He hasn't been trained to talk and walk like the other cool kids, and some will look at him strangely for that.  Is there anything wrong with that?   He's learning how to work with others, solve social dilemmas (I don't want to share my LEGOs!), be respectful, make friends, and be a friend.  He has a mom who likes people who is most likely going to pass that on to him.

My number one reason for homeschooling is because I DON'T want the kind of socialization that happens in public schools.  I DON'T want my kids being trained that it's important to comply with the masses.  I DON'T want my impressionable children to mainly be taught by other immature impressionable children 8 hours a day, 5 days a week because, quite frankly, that's most of what goes on in public school.  Sure they learn academics from their teachers, but mostly they learn the sociality of other kids.  I don't believe that's the best way to raise responsible, respectful adults.  How does a child learn to be an adult from other children?

6. Something that concerns me about the socialization question is that it appears to be the biggest reason people advocate public school over homeschool.  That worries me because it's essentially saying it's the government's job to teach our children how to behave, that parents aren't capable.  Families are the most fundamental unit of society; they are the only place that is set up to PROPERLY train children.  

7. Finally, there isn't a perfect system.  Public, private, charter, homeschool, online school, and combinations have their strengths and weaknesses.  There are sacrifices to be made for each path.  We are on earth to learn, and are imperfect adults who are still learning while trying to give our children the best start in life they can have.  We can't do it perfectly.  You can't cram EVERY advantage, EVERY area of learning, and EVERY skill into a childhood.  So it should be expected that children grow up with different abilities and knowledge.  Maybe homeschoolers stand out more because they aren't part of the regular mold, but it doesn't mean there is anything wrong with their mold.  The trick as a parent is to weigh your options with as much accurate information as possible and choose the path that best fits your goals, and, of course, to approach it prayerfully.  I know for a fact that homeschool is the best option for my family because it was a spiritual decision in the first place.  As I've pursued it, I've found that logic agrees with my decision because it meets my goals for my family. 

Maybe this was redundant.  I've tried before to address this question and haven't been completely satisfied with my output.  I'm not sure if I'm satisfied this time to be honest.  We'll see.  I keep trying because I firmly believe it's misunderstood, and that there are a lot of parents scared off of homeschooling (who honestly want to try) because of the socialization scare.