Autumn

"Leaves are falling all around,

On the housetops, on the ground. 

Leaves are falling on my nose,

On my head and hands and toes."

The fall colors here have been gorgeous!  I promised the kids that we'd go back to the arboretum once the trees started changing, and we managed it on a perfect day.  The trees had so much color, and only a week later a lot of them had lost their leaves.

We were much more methodical on this trip.  I actually came prepared with paper, pen, and baggies, so we could label our samples.  Once at home, we laminated and labeled some of the leaves, and then hung all of them on our paper tree.

Check out these huge Catalpa leaves!  I thought it was interesting that this tree had the biggest leaves, but wasn't a very big tree!

We also collected a whole bunch of buckeyes, AKA horsechestnuts.  I was hoping we could eat them.  It turned out they are poisonous, though.  Bummer!

Here are some close ups of the colors we found.  The laminating was an experiment because I wanted to see if the leaves would stay nice longer.  I should have realized, though, that I was cutting off their oxygen.  Now, two weeks later, the laminated ones are all brown, but still nicely shaped.  The others are shriveled, but still have most of their color!

Today I hosted a little group with a few kids Annie's age, and we learned why leaves change color in the fall.  That really left an impression on Logan, and he was very creative with his art project to show just how that happens!  We also went outside and played in the leaves some.

We've been doing this little group for a few weeks now and it's going well I think.  At this point, I'm not sure how I feel about co-ops or what my plans are for the future with them; this fits with our goals for now, though.  It's mostly a play group with some fun learning activities.  There are four kids in it (except when it's my turn to host because my boys gets to join in those days) and we actually drop the kids off, so most of the moms get a break during that time.  I'm liking the chance to get to know other families better, one of which also homeschools, and it's always nice to see other ideas for inspiring learning!  

On to another topic.  This isn't autumn related, but we did do it during autumn!  :)  I found myself feeling very patient one day last week, so we finally made the sun.  It was very messy and big.  It's dry now, but I haven't been brave enough to try to remove it from the big ball we used to form it.  Maybe we should add another layer for strength first...

Here are some after pictures of my messy kiddos.

A Positive Learning Environment

As I looked through some newly uploaded photos today they made me think about what kind of learning environment we have in our home.  I hadn't intended on capturing it, but I did in a way.  I hope we have a positive learning environment, and I think we do most of the time.  Some of the important elements for us are: 

WORK
I think learning to work hard is invaluable and working as a family even more valuable.  We do a lot of housework together in our home.  Once a week, we have a cleaning race where rooms are scrubbed, polished, and vacuumed, and everyone pitches in.  It helps everyone take responsibility for our home, and we get the hard stuff done quickly!  The kids actually look forward to these races!  Most evenings we do the dinner dishes together, and when we fold laundry everyone helps.  The kids are happy helpers when we're in it together!  They also love it when we all work in the yard together.

PLAY
Play is very important, too.  Bear in mind that I was a recreational therapist before having kids, so I really believe this (even if no one believes me)!  :)  Even as adults we need time for leisure activities so we can have a healthy balance in our lives.  For kids, play is even more imperative because they learn so much from it.  Mine are all very young still so they have lots of play time every day, and we definitely incorporate play into kidschool.  Yesterday just before schooltime Annie was blowing bubbles in her milk.  Unexpected inspiration came.  So we made a bubble machine for our first learning activity!  (dish soap+water+a few holes in the lid+a straw)  Warning: When using a bubble machine, do NOT suck in!  Unfortunately, all three of them found this out the hard way! 

Alex was pretty covered in bubbles by the time we were done.

BOOKS
What can I say?  We love books and they love us.  I could really use more bookshelves.  A lot of our books are in random cupboards and one bookshelf is stacked three deep.  Anyway, I think this one is a no brainer.  If you want to learn, you need information.  Because we always have books around our kids have loved them from day one.  They always want to know what I'm reading too.  It cracks me up when they 'read' over my shoulder even though my book has no pictures. 

MOM and DAD
Perhaps this is the most important element?  I don't know.  I do know that my attitude and what I am doing greatly affects their attitude and what they choose to do.  I need to be there for them and with them when they are learning.  That's difficult and mundane sometimes, but oh what a difference it makes!  Yesterday after our bubble machine, we stayed outside and studied more on space, and then read for a long time.  It was such a simple school day, but an incredible one!  They had so many questions, and I was very focused on them; we really learned a lot together!  I enjoyed seeing the wheels turn and connections happening.  I would have totally missed out (and possibly they would have too) if I'd instead asked or assigned Logan to study his space cards and looks at books on his own.  I read this quote today:
"Give your children the gift of character-be someone they can admire."  Sandy Hotchkiss
I would love to be good enough to be my child's hero. 

Jim already is.  :)

A New Challenge and a Project

This school year I have a new challenge to deal with.  Here he is:

Last year he was always napping during school time, but he doesn't take two naps anymore.  If the rest of us didn't benefit so much from quiet/nap time I'd think about moving school to then.  I don't think it's worth it though.  I have found that I either have to involve him somehow, or I have to distract him some other way.  Otherwise, he is on top of everything we are doing.  I've definitely had some moments of frustration with this little guy who wants to do everything his brother and sister do.  We're all getting used to it, though, and it's definitely getting better.  For example, I've put my foot down about having him on my lap during story time because he always pulls at the book we're reading.  So now he's getting used to sitting next to us during story time.  He did do well with this project, though.  I put an art shirt on him just in case, but he obeyed about keeping his hands out of it.  

This project was/is a solar system.  Logan is particularly fascinated with space, so we've started making our own model.  So far we've created all eight planets, plus Pluto and our moon.  I'm waiting for a day where I'm in a really patient mood to create the sun which will be the size of a large bouncy ball.  Maybe that will be this week.  Then I'll need some more very patient days to pull out the paint.  This has been a fun project so far, and the kids are really excited about it.  We're constantly reading books about space, and I'm excited to have a model that we can manipulate. 

As I typed this, Logan was actually making a solar system out of balloons and balls, and orbiting them along with his space shuttle.  He makes me smile.  Since the camera was handy, here's a picture.

Treasure Hunt: A Reading Activity

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted, but we were on vacation once again.  There'll be no more breaks for a while.  :)

Anyway, I love the inspiration I get while we're having school.  I always have new ideas when we're reading and learning together.  This idea popped into my head one day before our trip, and I've been excited to do it with the kids.  So, today being the first day we're back into our normal routines, I did it.  It was simple.  I made a few short clues, put a treat in a box, and hid it all.  The catch was that Logan had to read all of the clues.  Annie was very attentive while he sounded out the words, and she even got mad at one point because she wanted to be the reader!  I made an attempt with her, but it was really too difficult.  Poor girl, she really wanted to read the clues!  She was consoled whenever Logan finally read the clue and she could go hunting again.  This was really fun and Logan was excited to work on his reading.  We'll definitely do it again! 

TV and Blessings

Those who know our family probably know that we don't watch television.  In fact we don't even have a tv.  We made this decision long before we had children because we were concerned about several things.  Most of our reasons are probably obvious, but they include concern over wasting time, addiction, and moral value.  As a teenager I found that I had better things to do with my time, and gradually stopped watching tv altogether.  It had nothing to do with those concerns back then.  I simply had more fun that way.  

Over the last few years, I've been pleasantly surprised at the good things that have come to our family because of that decision.  We eliminated tv because we were concerned about keeping certain things out of our lives, but hadn't anticipated the good things that would enter.  When we are home as a family, we automatically spend time together.  When my children have down time, they either play or look at books.  Even as babies, they would all spend hours looking at books on their own.  I've always received comments about what long attention spans my children have and how they are so good at entertaining themselves.  I've heard/ read several studies that indicate a correlation between attention span and tv time, and I'm convinced it's true.  For a few weeks, we were going to a YMCA that always had a tv on in the child care area.  When I asked them to turn it off they said they would, but never did.  It was incredibly frustrating because when we returned home each day, Logan and Annie were whiny and couldn't focus as well.  There was a very marked difference in their behavior and their attention spans.  So we started using a different Y and their behavior and attention spans immediately improved.

In recent experience, I've become very grateful that I don't have a daily battle with my kids over how much screen time is okay.  In fact, although we watch movies sometimes, they rarely ask to watch one.  I have seen what a big battle that can be and I don't envy those parents in those moments.  When we do watch a movie, we really enjoy ourselves.  I've noticed in myself as I've watched less and less over the years, that movies become more fun; they are more of a treat I suppose.  Interestingly enough, I'm also a lot more sensitive to anything degrading or inapproprate in them.  Perhaps being desensitized was bliss, but I wouldn't change that now. 

Another huge blessing is one that we hadn't anticipated at all, and why this appears on our school blog.  Lack of tv has made homeschool a lot easier!  We don't have that distraction in our home making it difficult to keep their attention.  I also wonder if they enjoy school so much because they are so able to focus.  I'm really grateful for that, and anticipate it will become a bigger deal when they are older.  I'm actually realizing that we had unknowingly prepared ourselves for homeschool six years ago when we got rid of the little, three channel tv that we had.

Now I'm not saying that tv is a bad thing or it's bad to own one.  This was the best decision for our family, and it has blessed our lives immensely.  It probably wouldn't  hurt me to watch a show every now and then if I really wanted to.  However, I don't actually want to now that I've spent so many years away from it.  I know that it is possible to limit screen time and to filter shows if that is important to a family.

So why did I post this?  Because it really is an important element in our home education, and it's been so incredibly positive for us.  That's all.            

Field Trip!

Everyday when I go to the Y, I pass a sign for a county park, and everyday I've been wanting to take that road to check it out.  So yesterday as we were heading home I took the detour.  The weather was perfect and I discovered an arboretum at this particular county park.  I wasn't much in the mood to be indoors on such a nice day, so we had a spontaneous field trip.  IT WAS AWESOME.  I was very surprised at how much fun and learning took place.  The kids ran from tree to tree wanting to know what kind each was. They hunted for seeds and fruit underneath each.  I was fascinated.  And I've finally determined that Jim was right; the tree in our backyard is an oak.

Today we dug through our finds (not enough time yesterday) and the kids organized them into categories.

Here we have a walnut from a black walnut tree, a chestnut, and three other walnuts.  The tree had a different name (which I forget) but it was in the walnut family, and if you open the fruit you find a walnut in the middle!

The top two leaves are from an oak tree; I now want to find out what is growing on each leaf.  The red ones were really beautiful yesterday although I don't remember what they came from.  I think we definitely need to go back in the fall to see the colors!  The little seeds were found under some willow trees.

A fresh and a dry seed from one tree.  I forget the type again...

Acorns!  The kids loved hunting for acorns under the oak trees.

Pine cones!  I was impressed with how many different types of pine cones they found. 

Finally, we have crab apples.  During our whole walk they were wondering if we'd find any fruit trees because I'd read on the county park rules that you were allowed to pick fruit as long as you didn't harm the mother plant.  There were lots of crab apple trees and they took samplings from several types.  One tree had lots of ripe fruit, so they even ate one while we were there.  We brought home a few of those ripe ones to enjoy for later too.  I'm thinking that I'd like to go back sometime to pick a lot of the ripe crab apples, so we can have crab apple jelly...yum! 

Here they are with their display!

Feeling Good

Three years ago, I noticed I was feeling grumpy in general, and didn't like what I saw in the mirror (I wish I saw that now in the mirror...).  So I started exercising again.  I'd been in an inactive slump since Logan was born, and my emotions were definitely feeling it.  After a few months of struggling to exercise in our little apartment with two small ones wanting my attention, we signed up for the YMCA.  That was much better; I had more exercise options, my kids were safely playing while I worked out, and I felt better in so many ways.  I loved going to the Y, and we went several mornings every week.  I even went all the way through my pregnancy with Alex.  Awesome.  It was probably the only time I really felt good during that pregnancy. 

Then we started kidschool and I wasn't sure how to fit everything in.  My kids all still take daily naps, so school or going somewhere generally doesn't happen in the afternoons.  Initially I wasn't exercising at all because I couldn't seem to make time, plus we'd moved to a different state.  Then I realized just how badly I needed my workouts.  Without them I'm grumpy, unenergetic, and less clear headed.  So we signed up for the Y here in Iowa.  It took me a while to realize that I couldn't count on myself to go in the evenings; that's our family time, I'm tired, and we have often have other activities.  I decided that I was allowed to go a few days a week in the morning and bump kidschool to the late morning/ early afternoon.  I felt like I'd be shortchanging my kids if I did that every day, though, and that I'd wear myself out.  We did that for a few months and it went pretty well. 

During our eight weeks of moving, vacation, visiting family, and family emergency I didn't find any time to exercise and I suffered the consequences.  I was feeling really grouchy, lazy, and fuzzy headed.  Jim was complaining that he wanted his wife back.  I started back at the Y last week and made it twice.  Of the seven days last week, two were excellent and consequently our best kidschool days.  Those were the days I exercised.  I realized something towards the end of the week.  Kidschool is usually better on the days I work out!  The other thing I realized is that I usually get more done on those days even though I have less time.  It was true in previous months, although I hadn't realized it.  I have so much more energy when I exercise.  I feel positive, refreshed, and creative.  I want to do things.  When I look in the mirror, I don't care about what I see because I feel good.  All of these things translate into better time with my kiddos (and of course Jim).  I'm much more inclined to get hands on and excited about our learning activities when I feel good.  The kids, although they enjoy everything in kidschool, like those days the best and learn the most.  Even though it means school gets bumped to a later time it really works out better for us.  So now I think I'll start going to the Y five days a week (when possible)!