2015-2016 Kidschool Schedule

Every year our routine changes a bit, and I like to record how it looks.  This year I felt impressed to give a little more structure to my older ones.  For kidschool we start with family devotional (prayer, scripture, song, article of faith, pledge of allegiance).  Then we have individual work followed by group activities and read aloud time.

For their individual work, I ask Logan and Annie to do some math and writing each day.  The math is their 5-A-Day, and they get to choose a writing activity.  They have a list of options (i.e. copy work, writing prompts, write a story, etc..) in the fronts of their writing notebooks.  They can earn up to three stars each day, and every time they earn ten stars they can skip one (math or writing) and choose a school closet activity instead.  For most things, I haven't needed to apply much pressure because they so naturally do them, but we were needing a little more practice in these two areas this year.  This has been a good compromise, and it also gives me time to work one on one with Alex since he wants to learn to read.  Alex doesn't have to do anything, but he can earn stars whenever he wants to sit down with me to do reading, writing, or math activities.  He basically begs for this time anyway, so it's a piece of cake with him.  Once a child is finished with these activities, he or she can move onto to other individual learning activities, including reading.  Most of the time they will choose to read, of course, but I do have a list of ideas for them if they want to do something else. 

Here's a look at a day.

Logan usually sprawls out on the floor to do his math and writing.

Annie usually prefers the couch, but she was on the floor this day as well.

Abby always asks for a 'huzzle' as soon as she realizes we're starting school.

Alex patiently waited for me while I took pictures of his siblings.

Ready to go!  It looks like he chose a dot-to-dot page for math that day.

Annie finished her work before Alex and I were done, so she moved onto a geography puzzle.

Logan also chose to work on some geography while waiting.

After individual work, we have group activities.  On Tuesday, Alex gets to pick the first activity, on Wednesday Annie picks, and Thursday Logan picks.  I reserve the right to choose the rest of them.  Some of these might include: cooking, crafts, science experiments, language arts games/ discussions, math games/ lessons, etc. 

On this day it appears that cooking was on the radar again.

For read aloud time we will read anything and everything.  We often choose science, social studies, history, and classic literature.  This is one of the great keys to our school time.  We read and discuss, and ideas are sparked.  We read and discuss more, and real knowledge is gained.  If we don't finish a book during read aloud time, the kids will usually finish it on their own as soon as I step away.  (Sometimes I hide these books, because I want to finish WITH them!!  Ha ha!)  The library is a great source for this part of our day.  During our last library visit, we came home with seven bags of books! 

Early Fall Activities

I was all ready to write about the beginning of our school year in September, but my computer crashed and then we had a big family emergency.  It's catch up time!  Here are some of the activities I caught on camera.

We had a combined devotional/ handwriting/ art activity one day.

Afterwards, we posted these all over the house.  Our family was needing the reminder. 

Another day, one of the kids chose cooking when it was their turn to select a learning activity.  I had a crazy moment and got creative.  (Not how I normally operate in the kitchen!)

Another day, Annie and Logan decided to learn some piano while I worked with Alex.

This is the coolest book!  'Mathemagic' from the Childcraft series is awesome.  I was so excited to finally get a copy, and the kids immediately devoured it.  It has tons of great math activities for us to explore.

Field Trips

Owing to a serious family emergency, we had a big three week break from everything this fall.  We were together as a family for that first week, but in Colorado.  The second two weeks the kids were with their grandma in one city, I was several states away with just the baby, and Jim was home alone.  Once I returned home we needed some serious family time.  So when we had the opportunity for several field trips that first week, I decided that would be school for us.  The first field trip was to the local university to see 'The Cat in the Hat'.  It was very fun, and Abby was so enthralled.  I loved watching her clap and smile at the whole performance.

The second field trip was to a pumpkin farm and corn maze.  This place is a pretty big deal around here, but we hadn't been before.  We were given a huge discount as a homeschool group, so we decided to try it out.  I went expecting to spend a couple of hours here, but we spent SIX!  The weather was perfect and it was an all around fabulous day.

This huge jumping pillow was our first stop.  I couldn't convince Abby to get on it, but the oldest three loved it.

We continued exploring and enjoyed pedal cars, tire swings, a cool slide built over a silo, and animals.

These goats were hilarious.  You could put food into a little bucket, and then turn the handle to send it up the conveyor belt.  The goats would walk up there and eagerly lean over to get the food.

Eventually, we sat down for lunch and then the kids played on an enormous tire playground/ obstacle course.  Next we went for a hayrack ride, and then had a crazy adventure in a maze.  This farm has a curtain maze and a haunted house; they are open during the day, but don't have people in them jumping out at you, so they aren't as scary (in theory). 

I decided that we could try the curtain maze.  BAD IDEA!  It was around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, so there weren't many people at the farm, and none in the maze.  I walked in with Laurel in one arm and was holding on to Abby with my other hand.  Pretty quickly we found ourselves in pitch darkness.  That should have been my first clue to turn around, but I figured it couldn't be very long and it probably wasn't dark the whole way.  WRONG!  Eventually, I had three crying/ screaming children (Abby, Alex, Annie) who were terrified.  Logan was leading the way and trying to shout directions, and I was pretending to be calm while blinding herding my terrified crew through this disaster.  I was completely worried on the inside.  It was so dark that I couldn't possibly set Laurel down for even a second and I couldn't let go of Abby.  If another child needed help or got lost in there I couldn't do anything.  With the way they were freaking out, I was seriously worried that one of them would get hurt or lost!  It felt like an eternity that we were in there, and of course, it was a maze, so we took some wrong turns.  To top if off, there was a lot of outside noise because a grain silo was being filled, so no one outside could hear us if we'd needed help.  Emerging from that thing was a huge relief! 

Once we were back in daylight I decided that we'd better not have a repeat experience, so I said 'no' to the haunted house.  Logan was the only one who wanted to go in there anyway, but was really disappointed.  As the kids were playing later, I noticed that a bunch of people (including lots of boys Logan's age) were going in and out of the haunted house.  I decided to let him go by himself since there were so many people around, figuring that if he needed help (which I doubted anyway) there would be someone in there to assist him.  About a minute after he entered the haunted house, ALL of the people who'd been in there exited and walked away.  Ah!  I was a little worried, but at the same time knew he'd probably be fine.  After much longer than it should have taken, he finally appeared at the exit.  He said that it wasn't dark like the maze, and wanted us all to go through with him.  So we did.  It was a really well done haunted house, actually made up like a house, but spooky.  None of us were scared, even though this was the one that was supposed to be scary.  The dark is so much scarier!  It only took us a few minutes to walk through, and after questioning Logan I learned that he'd taken so long the first time because he was thoroughly checking out all the details as he walked through.  That's my boy for sure!

Laurel was a champ in the stroller.

 The corn maze was super fun.  The kids were able to guide us through by following the maps.

My naughty boys. ;)

This corn bin was a favorite activity.

Later in the week we visited a local dairy farm.  We rode behind a tractor while they showed us around the farm.  Then we were able to see the cows, where they milk them, and how they make the various dairy products.  They even had kangaroos.  At the end, they gave us ice cream and showed us a video about how they make things.

This was a different week, but a good experience.  Logan's Lego League team was presenting at a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) festival.  While he was presenting, we were able to get close up with some animals.  There were snakes, frogs, lizards, and an enormous tortoise.  Alex is my big animal lover.  He was so excited to hold and touch all of them.

Annie was nervous, but she did eventually hold the snake and other creatures as well.

Gearing Up

A couple of weeks ago, Alex (age 5) brought a textbook into the living room and sat down on the couch to look at it.  Alex, "I was hoping this was it!!"  Me, "What book is that?"  He show me that it was Jim's college engineering book, Statics and Dynamics.  Alex, "I love these books!"  As he looked through it he started asking me questions about the concepts that were diagrammed.  Thankfully, Jim came home at that point, so I was able to refer him to someone who had answers.  :)  They spent the next hour or so discussing engineering concepts, and Alex even insisted that Jim solve several problems in the book.  This funny kid loves to look through technical books.  He can't read yet, and these books don't have much in the way of illustrations, so I really wonder what is going through his mind while he peruses them. 

This morning I told the kids we weren't going anywhere today, and added, "So we should be able to do some things at home today."  Alex excitedly asked, "Like school??!!"  This kid has been asking for school all summer...sad...I really needed the break, though.  We didn't have school today, BUT we did start prepping for a new school year.  We cleaned the school closet!  So our physical materials are ready now.  I need to spend a little more time wrapping my mind around some ideas I have for this year, and then we will truly be ready to start.

Summer Reading

We visited our library for one of their summer reading activities, and ended up finding books to keep from the book nook.  Yay!  We love finding great books to keep.

Logan was giving Abby an astronomy lesson one day.  :)

Although we visited our library for one of their activities, we didn't participate in their summer reading program (because it doesn't require any reading).  Instead we participated in multiple programs from our old city and redeemed our prizes last week.  Our favorites are the Half Price Books program and the minor league baseball program.  The kids earned $30 worth of coupons for the store, and they have tickets and bounce house passes for a baseball game (which we'll make another excursion for).  We brought home another good haul from Half Price Books that day.  :)

Summer Not-schooling

Not long ago, I had this vision of continuing our school routine until our new baby makes her appearance, and then taking an official break for a while.  Realistically, my motivation experienced a steady and painful death during the month of May.  I also know that I function better AFTER my babies are born than during my pregnancies.  So, I called an official summer break at the end of May.  What a relief!  I love our school time, BUT it does takes energy and effort.  Right now I'm focused on just the essentials, and the kids are enjoying tons of free time.  I can't feel guilty about that because that means they bounce between active play and reading all day long!

One picture from just before I called it quits in May:  Annie decided to write the lyrics for the song I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus for her writing one day.  She worked so diligently on this, all while singing it over and over.  It was very sweet.

And one summer picture, just for fun.  :)  Nothing beats a sprinkler under the trampoline on a hot day!

Happy Summer!

Alphabet and Cooking

I have a few pictures from recent school days to share.

Alex wanted to write the alphabet one day, so he traced the whole thing.  He was pretty pleased with himself.

 I've been giving the kids cooking lessons again (finally!) much to everyone's delight.  Also, check out my kids' clothing in this picture.  They intentionally rebelled against our rule of getting dressed without actually breaking the rule.  Annie and Logan decided to mismatch with their rattiest clothes (Alex just can't match and wears whatever he likes best that day).  Annie doesn't even like the things she's wearing!  Silly kids.

Alex learned how to make smoothies in a dying blender.

Annie and Logan simultaneously made their own batches of whole wheat biscuits.  

Afterwards, Logan told me that he never wanted to make biscuits again (my feelings exactly...except that goes for any cooking in my case...LOL).  I was surprised by this because he has always loved cooking, so I questioned him.  It turned out that he just didn't like kneading the dough because it was so messy.  He enjoyed everything else.  We now have a deal that I will happily knead the dough for him anytime he wants to do the rest.  It's a great compromise.

Abby loves to copy everything we do, so she wanted to show off a biscuit as well.