An Unexpected Election Day Result

Madeline was working on her first assignment from this book...

and she said, "Oh, I'm going to fill this out like I'm voting."  I was not sure what she was talking about until she started drawing circles next to the answer choices and darkening the one next to the correct answer, just like she watched me do when I completed my ballot on Election Day.

Here is her completed "ballot"

A Schedule!?!

It has seemed that over the past few months it has been difficult to get done everything that I wanted to as far as homeschooling is concerned.  Madeline and Isabella do attend a French immersion program 3 hours a day during the week, and there has been some question about whether or not they would continue in it for the entire school year.  Madeline attended the program last year and despite some initial separation issues, really loved it and did quite well. Isabella was initially excited about going this year, but had some difficulties once the reality of it all set in.  It now looks as though the girls will remain in the program for the remainder of the year.  I think I was waiting for Isabella to start showing some excitement for what she was learning, which she is now beginning to do. Anyway, I think the uncertainty of whether or not they would stay in the program all year was preventing me from setting a schedule for homeschooling this year.    

Now that it looks as though they will remain in the program, I feel the need to think about setting a clear schedule.  I want to start out the morning with reading and writing.  I can alternate working with Madeline and Isabella on the ABeCeDarian Reading program.  While I work with one the other can be working on a computer reading program.  I still have Isabella working on the Headsprout Early Reading Program.  Madeline finished that program a while back, and has been working on the Clickn Read program.  I have found that the Clickn Read  program is a bit more rigorous.  It requires Madeline to actually recall the spelling of words and type them it. This has lead to better retention of of words.  

For writing, I was using Write Source with Madeline, and I think I will go back to that.  I also want to continue journal writing, and I picked up a book with lots of writing prompts in it. Actually, I picked up a couple of new resources for writing, I will post information about all of them in a separate post in the near future.   It is likely that I will actually have at least Madeline begin her day with journal writing and some independent language practice.

After reading and language I would like to work on math.  Madeline is still working on Singapore Math 1B and Isabella is working on the Early Bird Kindergarten Book A.  They are both doing well with these.  I do feel as though Isabella needs more one-on-one time in math.  I will try to get that in for her.  Hailey has begun working on the skills in the Early Bird Kindergarten book as well.  She is working on one-to-once correspondence as well as number recognition.

That will most likely take up our mornings.  Then Madeline and Isabella are at the French program in the afternoon.  After I pick them up seems to be a good time for science and social studies and/or the Moving Beyond the Page curriculum.  Also, Saturdays and Sundays seem to lend themselves well to these activities as well.  Saturday is a particularly good day for nature studies.  

More reading, both independent and read alouds are done after dinner and before bed. Directly after dinner also seems to be a good time for finishing up anything that was started in the afternoon but not finished.  

Hmmmm... writing it out seems to make it feel doable.  I think it is a plan.  Hopefully I am not forgetting anything!

Building Bridges

Well, our first K'Nex Education kit arrived today.  It was the Bridges kit, which is not really covered in the The New Way Things Work, so we decided to try it out.  There was lots of excitement about building our first bridge, a beam bridge.  The kit provides instructions and some information about each bridge type.  The instructions were not too difficult for me to follow, but I do not think that the girls would be able to follow them by themselves, at least not yet.  But, to be fair, the recommended age for the kit is 8+.  Madeline and Isabella were, for the most part, able to put the pieces together by themselves to construct the bridge, once I told them which pieces to connect next.  All in all, it was a success!  Madeline even added some embellishments once we finished the construction as described in the instructions.  I did neglect to take pictures of her additions, but I did get pictures of the process as well as the bridge completed as described by the kit.

This is the kit we used to build the beam bridge.

I was kind of surprised about how excited Isabella was to try this activity.  She really wanted to do parts herself, and was very proud of the finished product.

Madeline constructed one half of the bridge, and Isabella constructed the other half, and then the connected them in the middle.  It was a great cooperative effort.  Also, I continue to be convinced that Madeline is going to write a Broadway musical at some point.  She "wrote" a whole long, dramatic song about the bridge and its story while she was building.

When the bridge was finished, Madeline and Isabella decided to walk their fingers across it.

Just a note about Isabella's hair... she has a babysitter this morning who French  braided it.  It did not stay very well, but she did not want to take it out, or add barrettes to keep it it of her eyes, thus it covers her face... oh well. 

Science

So, we have done LOTS with biological science recently, but the others have kind of been neglected.  I have been looking for a good way to get in some physical science, which I know will also be covered in the "Moving Beyond the Page" curriculum that we are using, but I like to supplement.  I have located another homeschool blog,   http://tkrhomeschool.blogspot.com/, that I have found has some great ideas, some of which I have already used, such as the nature study.  They are using a book by David Macaulay, The New Way Things Work, paired with some K'Nex Education sets.  The book has some videos that go along with it, which are available at our library.  I have decided to give it a shot.  I have purchased the book and reserved the videos at the library.  I will let you know what we think.

Election Day!

Madeline has been seriously following the Presidential election this year.  She is aware of the candidates platforms (on a 5 year old level), has watched debates and new stories about the election and the candidates, she has taken part in and listened to several discussions about the election, had the map of red and blue states explained to her, and even attended an Obama rally. It seemed fitting that she get to go to the polling location to witness voting (of course, she has been with us for every other vote we have cast since she was born).  In fact, all 3 of the girls went with me today when I voted.  Madeline was particularly excited and interested in the voting process.  She got to see the ballot and how it was filled in, and she asked lots of questions.  Now, she is proudly wearing her "I VOTED" sticker!   It was the perfect way to celebrate this historic day!  Now we will spend the evening watching election returns and seeing how that blue and red map turns out when all of the votes have been counted.

Woolly Bear Update...

After many searches for woolly bears around our neighborhood, Madeline found one in our driveway.  Good thing she found it before I backed the car over it!  So, now we have one woolly bear caterpillar hanging out in a cozy container to wait for spring.  Then, hopefully, the girls will be able to witness its transformation into an Isabella tiger moth.

Social Studies

What better way to learn about history and social studies than to participate in it!  We took Madeline to the "Change We Need" Rally for Barack Obama last night here in Columbia.  She not only got a glimpse of an incredible presidential candidate (who will hopefully be President), and several other Democratic candidates, but she also got to see thousands of people who were excited about participating in the political process and making their voices heard.  What a wonderful lesson for her in citizenship!

Email

Madeline is now emailing!  I figure that it gives her practice in reading as well as writing.  And she is excited about doing it.

Ladybugs

So, I did forget to take my camera to Madeline's dance class today.  I will have to remember next week!  I did, however, get some pictures of the girls doing the nature study today on ladybugs.  They were really interested in watching the ladybugs walk, and studying them.  Some of the ladybugs were very anxious to fly away, while others were very content to stay and let the girls pick them up and observe them.  When I was first considering adding nature studies to our curriculum I really though Madeline would be the most fascinated by them.  It has been Isabella, however, who has shown the most interest during the two nature studies we have done thus far.  She has even really wanted to extend them further.  They really have been a hit with all of the girls, however!

Here is Madeline drawing in her nature study journal.  She must include the sky, sun, and grass in all of her pictures.

Isabella really got into the nature study!

Even Hailey wanted to participate in the activities.

This is Isabella's finished journal entry.  I was impressed that she accurately had 6 legs and showed wings.  She had to follow Madeline's lead on the sky, sun, and grass.  

As you can see, we did not get to add any words to our work today as I had planned.  We just ran out of time.  Maybe next time!

Dance Class

Madeline and Isabella take dance classes that they really enjoy.  The classes are both tap and ballet.  Here are some pictures from Isabella's class today.  I will probably post some tomorrow of Madeline's class.

Learning Together!

It is always so nice to see the girls working, learning, and playing together.  Today Madeline and Isabella spent time working together on the computer.  I think that they both got a lot out of this very positive interaction with each other!

This Week's Nature Study

I really did plan to follow the Outdoor Hour Challenges for our nature study, however it seems that the girls have other ideas.  This week they have been fascinated with all of the ladybugs (ladybird beetles) that they have found outside, as well as inside, our house.  So, I have decided that our nature study this week will be on ladybird beetles.  We will gather some information from Anna Botsford Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study, pages 364-366, and maybe some other sources, and we will go out in search of ladybird beetles. Although it should be rather easy to find them (unlike those woolly bears that we have yet to find).   I do think, however, that we will include the assignment from Outdoor Hour Challenge #2: Using Your Words while we do this.  I am looking forward to it!

A Walk

We had a nice walk at Rock Bridge State Park.  The girls had a great time exploring, and were fascinated by the stream.  Actually, I think they found the water interesting because I told them that it was too cold to get into it and explore.  Hailey was also fascinated by all of the leaves that have now fallen off of the trees.  I was hoping to do a project with leaves this year, like waxing leaves to make decorations, but it seems that the leaves here do not really change to pretty colors.  They just turn brown and fall off.  Anyway, there were lots of things to explore, like a hollow stump, a fallen tree, and some interesting rocks.  

Here are Madeline and Isabella gathering information about the cave.  

Hailey liked playing with all of the leaves.  I think she liked uncovering things to see what was under the leaves!
Madeline checked out some of the rocks.  She said that she found some fossils, after we got home.  Maybe next time she will share them with us!
This old tree was of great interest to Madeline and Isabella.  I just kept hoping it was not home to anyone.
Madeline found this old hollow stump and could not resist climbing inside.  Again, I was hoping it was not someone's home!
Here are the girls checking out the stream.  Madeline tried pouring water into the stream to see what would happen.

Madeline and Isabella could not resist the "balance beam"!

Singapore Math 1A Complete!

Well, it certainly took longer than I expected for Madeline to complete 1A, but she has done it.  I kind of think there were parts that I should have skipped because it was almost "busy work" for her, but I did not want to find later that she had "gaps" in her skills, so we did it all. She was so excited to finish, and then she enjoyed going back through the book and looking at all that she has accomplished.   And now it is on to 1B!

Here is Madeline showing off the last page in her book... complete!

Finished Weaving Project

Here are pictures of Madeline's weaving project from art class.  It is a bowl.  She is so proud of it, and keeps coming up with new uses for it!  I am so glad we found this class!

Nature Study

I have decided to add a weekly nature study to our homeschool curriculum. The girls really enjoy exploring outside and finding treasure, and I wanted to find a way to let them develop that. I found information on nature studies based on the book "Handbook of Nature Study" by Anna Botsford Comstock. 

I was a bit concerned about using the book since its copyright is 1939, but as I read it, I found that it to provide a great background for nature studies. I also found a website that provides weekly challenges based on the book and only take 20 minutes or so. It is located here .

So, I intended to just start with the first five challenges, as the website suggests, and then move to whatever the current challenge was. However, as I read the book I came across information on the woolly bear caterpillar, which becomes the Isabella tiger moth in the spring. Well, I know the woolly bear caterpillars are around now, and how could we pass up exploring something that has Isabella in its name. So, today we set off to find some woolly bear caterpillars. Well, we did not find any (yet), but we did find some great spider webs.

This one was on our swings. It was interesting because it had one part that was quite thick.

This one was on the corner of our monkey bars. It was difficult to get a good picture of it, though.

Isabella was very excited to start drawing in her journal. She drew both of the spider webs as well as a squirrel and butterfly that she saw while we were outside. She even "wrote"about them.
After drawing and writing a bit, we thought we would go check the woods behind out home for woolly bears. We did not find any, but the girls did build some homes for some fairies while we were out there using sticks, nuts, bark, flowers, a feather and leaves that they found. Isabella used an old log as the base of hers.
Madeline included "beds" for eight fairies in hers.
And she made a roof and a slide from bark.
While they were collecting items for building the homes, Madeline found this garden snail. We brought it back, added drawings of it to our journals, and learned lots about snails.

Did you know garden snails actually have mouths with teeth and a tongue? Or that the ate apples? Or that those long "antennae" actually have eyes on them? Or that they fold up and go back into their shells head-first?

There is just so much to learn!

Art Class

I really love all of the resources available to us here in Columbia!  Madeline has been taking an art class from the Columbia Art League.  She is really enjoying it and is very proud of the work she has been doing.  Here are a few examples of what she has done so far.

They learned about still-life and Cezanne.  This is Madeline's still-life.

This is her current work-in-progress, a weaving project.  She has really spent quite a lot of time on this one.  It was amazing to see her really focus on this!

Moving Beyond The Page Update

Madeline has been working on the "Moving Beyond the Page" curriculum this year.  We have been progressing slower than the curriculum lay out, mostly because Madeline wants to spend more time on the lessons.  The curriculum lends itself well to discussion, and we tend to spend time expanding on the topics in the curriculum.  We were recently talking about needs and wants. One of the "needs" Madeline listed was, of course, a home.  This lead to a discussion about different kinds of houses and shelters people live in around the world.  We ended up searching the internet for pictures of homes around the world.  Here are a couple of the websites that we found that were interesting:

http://www.shelterpub.com/_wonderful_houses/wh-book.html

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

Headsprout Complete!

Madeline completed the last lesson of the Headsprout Reading Program, episode 80.  She was very pleased with herself, and is now happy to read aloud to anyone who will listen!

What is Homeschooling?

There are so many different ways people homeschool. Some people are unschoolers, some do a more traditional school-at-home type of program, some use pre-packaged programs from an accredited school, some use online schools, and some are eclectic. Within these groups, there are those who focus on classical education, some who provide education with a religious focus, some who use a Montessori approach, and others who prefer a Waldorf approach. And, there are several others that I have not listed here. It is difficult to define exactly what homeschooling is. I think that most of the people we come across, who do not homeschool, have the view of a school-at-home approach. They imagine homeschoolers sitting down each day and conducting the exact lessons that woud take place in a traditional school, only at home.

The reality is that homeschooling allows a freedom in learning that is not available in the traditional classroom setting. We are free to learn what we want, when we want. We are free to explore dinosaurs, if we so choose, for as long as we are interested. We are free to take field trips when we want, where we want. Learning is a journey, not a task to get finished so that we can go out to recess. Homeschool allows us to draw on the interests of the girls to help them develop a love of learning - actually, I think children are born with a love of learning, we just have to nurture it and watch it grow. While we do have probably a more school-at-home approach, and we do pay attention to the state and national education standards, we also enjoy the freedom that homeschooling allows so that we can explore everything we want to.

Homeschooling is also a way for us to ensure that our children learn through an instructional approach and at a level of that is appropriate for each of them.  We are able to tailor the instruction and the instructional speed to each child. While traditional schools are forced to use one curriculum and attempt to differentiate it for individual students, we can use different curriculums for each child, and even change curriculums within the course of a school year if one approach is not working well (which we have already done, a couple of times).

Instead of going away to school all day, sitting at a desk, returning home (exhausted), eating dinner, doing homework, going to bed, then getting up and doing it all over again, learning is a much more continuous process and a much less exhausting process. There is no start and no end to learning. We can learn about deserts at 7 am or 7 pm, depending on when the mood strikes us.

Homeschooling Comic

I just found this website, which contains a homeschooling comic as well as a blog to go along with it.  Just for fun!

Schools Are For Fish

"It Must be One of Ours!" - A Monarch Update

Since we released our first Monarchs, the girls have been on the lookout for more.  We have had several Monarchs come and lay eggs in our milkweed plants.  Some have even made their way into our house so that the girls could watch more develop and change into butterflies.  Our milkweed plants have now been eaten bare and grown back several times, and our garden has hosted several chrysalides.  

The girls have developed a real interest in and concern for these small creatures.  Madeline even points them south now that it is getting cooler when she releases them so that they know where to go on their long migration.   Whenever we see a Monarch outside the girls inevitably yell, "It must be one of ours!"  Learning about Monarchs has definitely caused the girls to take a great interest in them, and has hopefully inspired them to have a greater respect for all living things and take ownership in caring for their environment and the people and things that live there.

Building a Community

Madeline is truly enjoying the Moving Beyond the Page curriculum!  She was so excited about working on this project, and was so proud when it was finished!  This curriculum is certainly holding her interest.  I am so pleased that she does not have to sacrifice her creativity.   She is engaged and learning!

Fort McHenry

Okay, to be truthful we really only went to Fort McHenry because Bill really wanted to go.  In the end, however, we all found it fascinating (except for Hailey who slept through it).  The girls were so curious about where the soldiers slept and ate, and what all of the areas were used for.  The size of the cannons and cannon balls was amazing!  Despite the modernization of the harbor, it was easy to picture the history that occurred there!