Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Breaking up Boredom with Geoboards

I decided that we need to start out each day with some kind of engaging hands-on activity that both boys (ages 8 and almost 5) can participate in.  For the past couple of weeks, we've been using plastic Geoboards.  I got a smaller one and a larger one for each boy, along with a big bag of rubber bands.  I also purchased a couple of Geoboard books, for them to use to get ideas for designs.

We've been going over basic 2-dimensional shapes with the boards.  We started on perimeter for Bee, a concept he hasn't been exposed to yet.  Learning on the board will minimize the amount of paperwork I will ask him to do.  We can also use the boards to demonstrate area, the different types of trianges, and angle measurement. 

Bug loves making pictures from his book, Geoboard Pictures Flip and Draw, with the boards.  I have a harder book for Bee, but he prefers to come up with his own designs.  So far, he's made some cool faces on it, and today he made a tank, and actually wanted to record his by drawing it on a geobard paper.  He hopes to sell the copies for $1.99 each.  I love how visually creative and enterprising he can be.  When I get around to it, I'll post some pictures of the first face he made. 

I see there are a number of other books on Amazon related to math wih Geoboards.  I imagine we'll find many more uses for this nifty tool. 

Thursday, November 15, 2012

All About Spelling: A First Impression

After a little over a year of using a basic spelling list and online flashcards with Bee, I decided we needed a different approach.  He was getting frustrated sometimes, and there were words that he just kept missing, even though he had seen them over and over.

I decided to try All About Spelling, which is a spelling program that uses coloful note cards, letter tiles, a large dry erase board, utilizes audio, visual, and kinesthetic learning, and emphasizes the rules of English spelling.  Bee is very logical, and I think he will appreciate having a better understanding of why things are spelled the way they are.  As I understand it, English spelling does actually have rules, but most of us aren't aware of most of them.  I mostly learned how to spell by being an avid reader, and memorizing my spelling words each week as a child.

I ordered level 1, and although much of that level is going to be pretty easy for Bee, there are some new thinsg for him to learn, and there are even a few things that I have learned about English spelling!  I haven't learned to spell anything new, but I did learn how to tell when letter "c" is going to make the "s" sound instead of the "k" sound, and when to use the letter "k" in place of the letter "c."

It's not a material for independent work.  The parent sits with the child and gives a number of lessons that are carefully explained in the teacher book.  This is ideal for Bee, as he thrives on one-on-one interaction with an adult.

It took some time to tear out the cards, and I still have not finished putting all the magnets on the tiles.  Still, the teacher prep is easy work that requires no mental power.  I don't know about other homeschooling moms, but my brain is totally fried.  So, this is easy, and the only prep is a glance through the teacher manual, before giving the lesson. 

Another huge plus for this material is that it is worksheet free!   The emphasis is on learning the concepts, not filling out worksheets.  There is a card file to store the cards, so the parent knows what to review, and mastered cards go into their own divider.  It's a very well organized little system. 

I hope that we will work through level 1 relatively quickly.  I did the first lesson yesterday, and I hope to do 2 lessons a day a few times a week until we master level 1.  Then, we will move onto level 2, and maintain or slow down our pace depending on how challenging Bee finds the material.  It seems like a great material for homeschooling that can be used with both children who are natural spellers and those who struggle with it.

So, that was my first impression, at any rate.  I will write another review after I've been using the material for a few months.  (Here it is.





Monday, October 29, 2012

Learning Addition with a little Montessori

Bug, who is about to turn 5, has been learning addition this year.  My background is in Montessori, and we emphasize the concepts of the various operations when the children are 4 and 5, so that's what I've been trying to do with Bug.  Addition is putting together; subtraction is taking away; multiplication is putting together the same quantity; and division is sharing equally.  When children understand these concepts well, they have a great foundation for future mathematics study. 

I showed him addition with the Montessori Golden Bead material first.  The golden bead material contains thousand cubes, hundred squares, ten bars, and unit beads.  This allows the children to have a concrete impression of our base-10 number system.  We added some 4-digit quantities this way.  I'm not sure it quite clicked for Bug at that point, but it's hard to say, as so much goes on with him internally that I don't know about.  It's very different working with this material at home than it is in a classroom, where he would have been watching the older children work with this material. 

He's also done some addition on his fingers, and this week I had him do some addition problems using seashells as counters.  Both times he did this, I wrote five one-digit problems on a colorful piece of paper and had him answer them.  At this point, it was clear to me that he understands the concept of addition. 

He has been very enthusiastic.  He's a tad too perfectionist about getting his numbers to look just the way he wants them, but I can deal with that.  Today, I was so happy because he made worksheets for his brother and his dad (and himself!).  His brother and dad were happy to humor him by answering the problems. 

Later this week, I hope to show him addition with carrying on the golden bead material.  This is not for accuracy, it's just to give them impression of what happens when we carry, and how we can't go over 10 in each place value. 

I do not think the Montessori materials are necessary for teaching children math at home.  I have them mainly because they have such sentimental value for me.  They are extremely helpful, but there are many good ways of showing math to young children.  I think the most important thing is that children have a solid understanding of how the operations work. 
He'll eventually move onto another Montessori material, called the Stamp Game, that allows children to work with 4-digit quantities in a concrete way.  We'll also be working over the coming months with memorizing his addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts, with a goal of finishing these by the time he finishes second grade.  I'm hoping that computer games will prove to be a good tool for him in the memorization process (as they were for me once upon at time), but these did not work for his brother. 

Hurray for math!  So far, it's been my favorite homeschool subject to facilitate.  I supposed that is odd, since I am a former English and Classics major.  My children's other parent is a mathematician; perhaps that motivates me. 

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Time4Learning: A Review

With Bug being homeschooled full time this year, along with his older brother, we've all had a lot of adjusting to do.  At first I thought that he would do things alongside his brother, doing something similar but age appropriate.  I am finding that it helps to use the computer to keep Bug busy at certain times, and everything goes a lot more smoothly if he can play on the computer.  PBSkids was an obvious choice.  Looking at Homeschool Reviews, I came upon a program called Time4Learning, which has many, many rave reviews.  I guess I'm going to have to be the oddball, because I didn't care for this program. 

I should have known that I would not like it.  It offers a lot of things like lesson planning and grades, which would be a big time saver for me if I made a lot of lesson plans or grades.  I don't, especially not for a 4-year-old.  Instead of lesson plans, I tend to provide options to him.  I've never understood how homeschoolers can do extensive lesson planning when it's impossible to predict how easy or how hard a concept might be, or how interested a child might be in it, or what else might come up that week.  And I never use grades.  If I feel they need correction, I will usually ask them to fix it.  Sometimes their answer is equally right or even better.  I always tell Bee that it's good if he's not understanding everything right away.  Otherwise, it would be pointless for him to be doing the work, if he's already mastered it! 

The other problem I saw was that, based on most of the concepts taught, Bug really needed to be in their 1st grade program (he knows his numbers to 100 well, and is becoming more proficient up to 1000).  However, he didn't quite have the reading skills to do the activities.  The lessons seemed boring to me, and there was constant multiple choice quizzing.  It observed that each activity consisted of a boring explanation, followed by a boring worksheet type activity, followed by a boring quiz.  For insteance, my son knows how to sort, but he had to sit through a lengthy explanation on the sorting process. 

Time4Learning is rather expensive, at $20/month/per child. Fortunately, they offer a free trial period of 14 days, and I was able to get my money back. The company seems to have good customer service, refunded my money hours after I had cancelled, and sent me an email asking for feedback.  They also offer monetary credit to those who leave reviews, which makes me think that the abundance of rave reviews are possibly not as genuine as they could be. 

I think it was mostly a philosophical problem that I had.   This is probably a good program for parents who value their children checking off objectives on state standards lists and want more test prep.
In our homeschool, we emphasize critical thinking, logic, following our intellectual passions, asking probing questions, and so on.  This program is just not a good fit for us. 

I'd rather my 4-year-old occupy himself happily with PBSKids.  We'll also be trying CBeebies, published by the BBC.  These sites won't help much with my lofty educational objectives for Bug, but they will keep him happy at no cost to me while I read to his brother from our history book, and Bug may learn a little something in the process.

Note to commenters:  I've noticed that several negative reviews of Time4Learning have the same people commenting on them, as if they are affiliated with the company in some way.  If I suspect you being compensated by the company, then I will not publish your comment if you have not disclosed your affiliation. 

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Our Worm Bin: An Update

I had a comment asking for an update on our worm bin.  We got a Worm Factory about three months ago and stocked it with 500 red wriggler worms.  We are not squeamish and keep it in oun den, next to a love seat.  I had a homemade bin in the past, so was not new to raising worms. 

The bin is doing great.  There are lots of worms of different sizes, so I assume they are reproducing well.  I added the second tray on a couple of weeks ago, and many of my worms have already moved up there.  My youngest child enjoys feeding his banana peels and apple cores to the worms.  I am putting more and more of our kitchen scraps in there, and I think eventually it will be able to absorb the majority of them.  Some kitchen waste will still need to go in the outdoor bin, such as garlic, onion, and citrus pellings.  I tear up lots of cereal box-type cardboard for the bedding.

There are structured "worm activities" out there, but I haven't looked into doing them. The children just know the worms exist, they eat are garbage, and produce castings that we can use in the garden.  Worms are a fun addition to any homeschool (or home). 

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Homeschool Day Book: A Review

Record keeping is not my strong suit.  As I've written before, I've been experimenting with Evernote to keep of a monthly list of our activities.  However, I was not completely satisfied with it because it took time to get the table formatted, and it couldn't be easily separated out into other types of reports.

Our school year "officially" started on Tuesday, and Monday night I stayed up getting things organized and planned for the week.  I decided to take a new look at homeschool record keeping software and printable planning pages.  

I came across a number of options, most of which I did not like. The programs I looked at had features that were not relevent to my family, such as grades and detailed lesson plans.  I am sure that these types of programs are invaluable to parents who make detailed plans well in advance and want to keep track of grades.  I looked at paper planners, but I was able neither to find or make something that looked like it would be easy to work in the moment and convenient to look back on at the end of the year. 

Then I came upon Homeschool Day Book.  I downloaded the free trial.   I think it's a keeper.  I like it much, much better than my own Evernote system, or any other system I've tried.  I've made a daily checklist to keep on a clipboard to check off through the day what the children do, and then I can quickly enter it into Homeschool Day Book at the end of the day, week, or month (yikes, hopefully not a whole month at once). 

Here are the pros for Homeschool Day Book:
  • It is extremely intuitive to use.  It didn't hurt my brain to figure out how to use it.   A person with basic computer literacy will figure out how to use all the features of the program within 5-10 minutes. 
  • It is easily customizable.  You can enter your own subjects and categories how you like. 
  • If you enter an activity for the day, then it automatically updates your "attendance" record, marking that child as present for the day.  
  • When you enter an activity, you can enter it for one or more children at the same time AND one or more subjects at the same time.  This is awesome, because we have so much overlap.  
  • To create a report, you select the time period that you want, select the child or children, and select all subjects or one particular subject. 
  • At first, I was sad that there was not a "book list" or "field trip" option because I wanted to keep track of  books I read outloud to the kids and print that out separately.  Then I realized that I can just call them subjects, so that I can print out separate reports for them.  Each time we finish a book, or go on a field trip, I can check that field.
  • You can also keep track of how much time is spent on a particular activity/subject, but I'm not interested in that.  It would be useful for states where parents are required to log the hours children spend in "school."  
Here are the cons:
  •  It's pretty bare bones with few frills. This is a good thing in some ways, but it also means that there just aren't that many features to figure out.  
  •  I am not crazy about the way the reports look.  If you create a report for both your kids, for instance, it doesn't indicade which kid particpated in which activity, nor does it indicate the subjects that you checked.  You can print out reports by kid and by subject, however.  Also, there is a lot of white space that shows up if you create the report with description.  
Overall, this program is fun and easy to use, very customizable, ideal for relaxed, eclectic, and/or unsnchoolers.  I think it would be invaluable to someone who needs to keep track of how much time their children are spending on "school" to meet state requirements.  It's definitely more fun, faster, and convenient to enter data into the program than it was to enter it into a homemade table or spreadsheet.  It costs $39, which is not cheap, but it is comparable or less than similar programs.  If I have the time, I will use the reports to create my own, prettier reports of our homeschool.  If I don't have time, the reports generated by Homeschool Day Book will suffice, printed by child and by subject.

I'm happy about this convenient way to keep track of what we do.  Like I always say, the children learn the same whether or not I write down what they do, but it certainly gives me a feeling of satisfaction to be able to look back and see all that they accomplished. 

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of Homeschool Day Book in exchange for writing a review (positive or negative) on my blog. 

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Evernote and Homeschooling: An Update

As it turns out, I'm increasingly finding Evernote to be a useful tool.  It's much more convenient than bookmarking a site.  It's nice that you don't have to worry about the site disappearing because you've saved the information on the Evernote.  All you do is highlight the information from a site that you want to save, click on the little Evernote button that gets added to your browser, and then tag the site.  I use tags such as homeschool, homeschool 2012-2013, Spanish vocabulary, science experiments, history, etc.  I learned today that you can nest your tags, so that pretty much all tags related to homeschooling are now a sub-tag of homeschooling. 

I always find cool crafts on the Internet, but then I have trouble finding them in my bookmarks.  Now, I have them saved in Evernote and categorized seasonally.  I'm making my plans for the year in Evernote.  I was making our weekly schedule in Open Office, but I may make that in Evernote too. 

As I wrote before, I'm also keeping a monthly record of our activities with a table in Evernote.  I admit that it's impossible to keep track of everything educational that the boys do, but it certainly does make me feel better to look back and see what we have done.  I tend to stay so focused in the present and the future that sometimes I look back on the blur that was my month and think, Did we do anything at all?  Jotting down what we did is really helpful to me.  The boys learn the same whether I write it down or not.
Although it's not directly related to homeschooling, I'm really happy with organizing recipes with Evernote.  I've even typed some in, and it's very convenient to me to just pull up the recipe on computer and consult it as needed.  If I get an iPod Touch, I'll be able to pull up the recipes right in the kitchen. 

I have my recipes tagged under both recipe, and under their main ingredients (which are now subtags of recipe.)  I'm planning to use Evernote to plan our monthly meals.  I am a big fan of freezer cooking.  I am lucky to be married to a man who enjoys cooking, so I only have to make four meals a week (Monday through Thursday).  That means I could cook 32 meals and have enough for 2 months! 

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Record Keeping: Simple Portfolios and Scrapbooks

One thing I've done for the past two years is put much of Bee's work in a 3-ring binder, for each school year.  I have it divided into three categories:  Math, Language, and Other.  For his first grade year, I put nearly all of his written work in there because we just didn't do a ton of written work.  For his second grade year, I've put all of his writing samples and the weekly math page that we did, but I had to thin out and just use what I thought were the best/most interesting/most representative samples.

I'm also making a binder of the work that Bug brought home from preschool (drawings, letter and number tracing, Montessori metal insets, etc.).  I put little projects he's done around the house as well.  His stuff is kind of scattered, so I'm gradually collecting it.  Since he'll be only homeschooling next year, I'll start a new binder for him.

I'm going to a "crop" this weekend.  For those who don't know, that's where a bunch of scrapbookers get together in a big room and work on projects.  I'm hoping to make simple 8.5 x 11 pages of the field trips that Bee (and Bug to a lesser extent) went on the past two years.  I will then make a copy of them.  The originals will go in a special family homeschool scrapbook.  The copies will go in their binders for the year that they occurred.

I keep photo pages, certificates, and the most special projects in plastic sheet protectors in the notebok.  The protectors are especially good for little booklets.  Many pages just get 3-hole-punched and stuck in the binder.  I am probably saving too many things, but at least they are neatly put away in a binder, rather than scattered throughout the house. 

I start the school year the in June before the real school year starts.  So, most everything that happens in the summer before the school year goes in the binder for the upcoming school year.   Other families might find it makes more sense to start in the fall.  Or those who eschew the concept of the traditional school year might start in January.  And there's no rule that these binders need to be "one-year" binders.  Families who are better at throwing things out might have a binder that spans several years. 

This portfolio/scrapbook could also easily be put together by non-homeschooling parents who want to save momentos and work from each school year. 

List of Items I include (or plant to include) in portfolios: 
  • Photos of museums and cultural attractions we visited (we went many places locally, and Bee and his dad travelled to both NYC and DC this year!)
  • Photos of fun days (like when we went to theme parks during school hours)
  • Photos of them and their homeschool friends at park days
  • Photos of  extracurricular activities
  • Writing samples:  I treasure these; it is so special to look back on what children thought was interesting to write about.  I love to keep the scraps of paper I find lying around the house with things that they spontaneously created. 
  • Interesting workbook pages
  • Art work (larger pieces can be photographed, and the photograph included)
  • Projects made at camps and classes
  • Certificates/ribbons given upon completion of a program or winning a prize
  • Brochures of Places we Visited
  • This coming year, I hope to include in each binder a list of the things that we did each month, from my Evernote.  
They learn the same whether or not I keep records!  But it is nice for all of us to look back on what we've done to get a sense of accomplishment.  


Friday, June 29, 2012

Homeschool Record Keeping with Evernote

I am continuing to play around with Evernote.  I decided to use it to keep a list of the boy's activities.  We do a ton of stuff, but I forget everything we do.  Just because I didn't keep track of it doesn't mean we didn't do it, but I find it satisfying to look back and see all that we did.

The first year I homeschooled, I kept a list in paper planner of as much stuff related to education as possible.  I find it useful to start a new list each month.  Below is an example.  Our summer schedule is pretty laid back.  I know there are some things that I forgot to put on, and that's okay.  I can easily add to it as I remember things, such as looking at the dinosaur exhibit in the museum.  I won't update the table on this blog, because it's too dificult, though. 

Homeschool Record June 2012


DateBeeBugActivityDescriptionSubject
variousXXNeighborhood PoolSwimming!  Bug learned how to swim on his own.P.E.
6/23XXFossil Hunting
Outing: Park rangers gave a talk on the climate and history of the area; the boys got to collect fossils and bring some home.
science
6/25-6/29X
CampDinosaur Camp at children's museumscience
6/25-
6/29

XCamp Animal Habitat Camp at children's museumscience
variousXXGymnasticsThe boys finished their gymnastics classes at each performed in the recital.  P.E.
various
XBalletBug finished up his ballet class and performed in the dance recital.  P.E., Fine Arts
variousXXSpanishReview, musicSpanish
variousX
Math factsReviewMath
variousX
GermanReviewGerman
variousX
SpellingReviewLanguage
variousX
Watership Downlistening to me read bookLanguage
variousX
Band of Brothersfinished listening to dad read bookLanguage

I think Evernote is going to be a good organizational tool for me. I'll post an example of my record keeping for the regular school year in a few months. 

Sunday, June 17, 2012

K.I.S.S.

Keep It Simple, Stupid.  That's what I had to tell myself.  I'm supposed to be using the summer to organize, to gather and prepare materials, and to just generally get everything ready for the upcoming school year. 

ONE of the many things I'd like to do is make language cards.  These will be laminated photo cards that I can use with both children for auditory games to increase their Spanish vocabulary.  (I do not do reading or writing in Spanish with them and do not intend to until they are much older).  I can also make English labels for the cards, creating some Montessori-style reading activities for Bug, and he can use them when he's ready. 

I bought a beautiful book called Photos for Building Language Skills.  It has 900 color photos, divided by category.  The categories are actions/verbs, animals, bathroom, body, clothing, colors and shapes, emotions, food, furniture and household items, holidays and seasons, kitchen, money, music, nature and weather, opposites/adjectives, people and family, places, positional concepts, rooms at home, school tools, sign language, survival signs, time, toys, and transportation. 

Some of the cards I will not use.  We don't learn sign language, so I don't need sign language cards.  However, the vast majority of the cards I'll be able to put to great use. 

Back to the keep it simple part:  I had planned to pick out pretty scrapbooking paper for each category, mount the cards onto it, and then laminate them.  However, I realized that all the pages of the cards have a unique background color already on them.  Therefore, all I need to do is use my paper cutter to cut the cards out and then laminate.  That will save me a ton of time--cutting the backings and gluing the cards on them would have taken me many additional hours. 

I'm estimating that I'll be making at least 800 cards!  I do not actually know the Spanish words for all of the cards, although I know most, so I'll have to make myself a cheat sheet as well.  I think I'll cut and laminate my cards first, make cheat sheets that can be foled up, and store each set of cards and cheat sheets in slider sandwich baggies.  I also may need smaller ziplock sandwich baggies to separate the cards we've worked with from the new cards. 

And that's only one of the many things I want to do this summer.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Venus Transit: Ideal vs Real

I imagine the ideal family, homeschooling or not, preparing for the Venus transit, explaining in advance to their children what it means.  They would prepare for the event by figuring out the best and most enriching public viewing area to attend and RSVP early.  They would all go together, smiling and happy, possibly holding hands.  They might even set up a telescope in their yard.  Everyone would be thrilled by this rare astronomical phenomenon, and it would spark an interest in their children that would lead to a unit study in advanced astrophysics. 


Back to reality, our family observed the Venus Transit the other day.  My husband has a vague interest in astronomy and saw the last one back a few years ago.  The day before this year's transit, he began complaining about how he didn't RSVP in time at the university to see it there, how to see it at one of the local museums would cost $30 a person, and so on.  He complained that he did not have a tripod for his high powered binnoculars.  I mentioned snidely that he had many years to prepare for this moment, and it was too bad he chose to wait until the last minute. I, the homeschooling mom, had no interest in planning for this Venus transit thing.  I had better things to worry about, like fitting in enough theme park visits this summer. 


On the day of the transit, I assured my husband, still sulky about the Venus transit happening and not being able to see it, that it would be too cloudy to see anyway.  "Too bad for all the suckers who paid for the dinner!" I thought to myself.  "It's just a dot," I told him.  "It's not like anything's exploding.  Who cares?"  He went upstairs to tell Bee about it and received a similar (rude) response. 


Well, my mathematician/physicist husband used his cute head and ended up projecting the Venus transit onto a card by propping his binnoculars on a lawn chair.  Bug was out there with him and was happy to see it.  Bug (age 4) can identify all the planets and is very interested in them.  Then I came out and decided it was pretty cool after all, followed by Bee who thought the same thing.  He can also identify the planets by looking at pictures.  I thing planets are pretty, but I get confused sometimes trying to tell them apart.  Clearly, my children take after their dad in many ways. 


I was very impressed with my husband's makeshift projection system.  He's quite the homeschooler.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Homeschooling at a Theme Park: Maps



So, we went to our local theme park today.  We have season passes.  I absolutely love going there on weekdays, especially in the spring before school lets out and in the fall after school has started.  We miss having husband/daddy along, but it's great to be there and encounter no lines or crowds.

I would never assign a task at a theme park or try and make it be a learning experience; we just go to have fun.  However, the problem with homeschooling is that you just can't help but learn wherever you go, and it's often not in the so-called "educational" areas that our theme park offers.

What I am loving about theme parks for my kids is the map reading that it encourages.  Both Bee and Bug insist on having their own paper map.  I never get a map--I just borrow one of theirs if I need to look at something.

Bee, of course, reads the words on the map, and last year that was a really good activity for him.  Now, his reading level is much higher, and it's no longer a challenge.  But it's nice to see him looking at the map and orienting and figuring out which direction things are in.  He can also read the signs well.  I gave him the task of remembering our parking lot name and number, and he did, and he took great pride in directing us right to our car.

Bug, on the other hand, is just getting an introduction to maps.  He likes to look at it and find his favorite rides and point to them on the map.  He's just identifying landmarks and getting used to the idea of the map, and it makes him feel grownup and important to hold his own map.

The thing I love the most about this "map activity" is that I had nothing to do with it.  Bee started insisting on getting his own map at some point.  Of course, Bug wants to be big like his older brother and have a map too.  I did not sit down with them and point things out about the map that I think they should know--they just ask me questions about it.  This is an activity that came spontaneously from them, and I always think that's neat.  I don't think it's necessary at all for a good learning experience, but I love it when it happens that way. 

I am pretty sure, however, that the maps would not be nearly as fun if it had been my idea and I had given them each a map.  "Here you guys go!  Maps!  See what you can find on a map!  This is North!"  And so on.  It's much more fun for all of us when they take the initiative.

Our Worm Factory Arrives

Our Worm Factory came.  The worms haven't arrived yet, since I ordered them separately.  Bug and I set it up together.  It looks nice, and there is nothing about it that screams "worms live here."  Obviously, some people (like my parents) would freak out to know that worm composting was going on in my house.

I like it much, much better than my attempts at homemade bins.  One of the things that attracted me to it is that each tray weighs only 18 pounds when full--in other words, easily managable.  My homemade bins would get extremely heavy.

Bug is very excited--he was worried that our dog might eat our new worms, but I assured him we will keep an eye on the dog and make sure he doesn't do that.  I think this is going to be a fun, low maintenance project.  And, if we do have any problems with univited bugs to our bin, I can always move it outside as a last resort.  I think it would be fine on our shady back deck in the summer and in the garage in the winter.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

By Example

Both of my boys are rather contrarian.  If I try to get them to something, they automatically resist.  I find it's often better just to go along my merry way and enjoy the things I do rather than make an effort to involve them in it.  For instance, if I go out happily to my garden and start working, one of them frequently wants to join me.  The more begrudgingly I accept, the more enthusiastic they are.  If I make a big announcement about what I'm going to do and invite them to go with me, they tend to want to stay inside and do other things.  This is especially true for Bee.  Bug will actually accept my invitations sometimes. 

For nearly Bee's entire life, I have tried to get him interested in jigsaw puzzles.  I think they are a good activity that promotes concentration, and I love to do jigsaw puzzles.  Bug has always liked puzzles, but not his brother.  When I have attempted to get Bee to do a puzzle, he tends to react with disdain.  He, do a puzzle?  Never!  How boring!  Inconceivable!  Well, my husband and I put together a 1000 piece puzzle on our vacation and brought it home with us.  When Bee saw it, he wanted to do a 1000 piece puzzle too and is now very enthusiastic about puzzles.  I got him a 250 pice puzzle (that he finished with help), and we're going to work up to 1000 piece. 

Friday, June 1, 2012

Raising Critters

We released 4 of our butterflies yesterday.  The boys loved watching the caterpillars and then the butterflies.  The 5th butterfly was still in its chrysalis, but it came out overnight (I wasn't sure it would come out at all).  I suggested releasing it today, but Bee thought we should keep it for a few days, like we had the others.

We kept the little guys on our kitchen table.  Clearly, we are not a family who is squeamish about insects. 

I have ordered Ladybug Land as well as larvae, also from Insect Lore, as well as one of their praying mantis egg sacs.  I tried the egg sac once, and nothing happened, but that may have been because a certain toddler named Bug picked up the little jar with the egg sac and shook it like a maraca.

Also, on impulse today, I'm afraid I ordered a worm bin.  I've kept composting worms before, but I had homemade bins, and didn't really like them.  I'm hopeful that the Worm Factory will be easier to use.  I know that both boys will enjoy feeding and observing the process of composting.  We have a backyard composter as well.

For the winter, we plan to have an ant farm.  I'm open to any kind of thing like that, as long as the animals can be released at some point (in the case of the ants, they will die).  I don't want any additional permanent pets.  Two cats, a dog, and a few fish are more than enough.  Although I plan to keep our worms, it's nice to know that if I tire of them, I can dump them in the garden without killing them or disrupting the ecosystem.

I'll update on how all of our experiments with critters goes!  

Friday, May 25, 2012

Will Evernote Change My Life?

I just downloaded Evernote, a program that promises to "remember everything, capture anything, access anywhere," and "find things fast."  I'm interested in how it can help me in my homeschool and other aspects of life.  I dabbled with a very basic program called Keynote for a while at one time and liked it (before I started homeschooling), but it's no longer supported and probably pretty out of date. 

I'm especially hoping that Evernote will help me keep track of recipes I find online.  I'll update this blog if I find it useful or not.  Right now, it's Friday, and I think I've got to get out of this house for a while and go get a nice cold sugar-free coffee smoothie.  Going pick up a couple of important things (we're out of Coke Zero!) at the store, and take my Kindle, my planner, and a crochet project.  Not coming home until after the children's bedtime. 

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Wrapping up the Year

Locally, the school year begins after Labor Day and goes until the middle of June!  I've decided this is far too long.  Bee and I are both a little burnt out.  He did awesome on his standardized test, and, well, we're just ready to take a new direction. So, we are officially ending Bee's 2nd grade on May 31 and starting our pre-3rd grade summer on June 1. 

We are not really stopping school (really, "school" is going on at all times), but we are taking a break from workbooks and structured learning.  He'll be doing the library's summer reading program.  We're going to work through a bunch of science experiements.  And he is signed up for several camps. 

The summer is going to be a nice time for me to re-evaluate our approach, decide what's important, and to get things ready for the next "school year," which can start right after Labor Day.  I also hope to get the house in better shape, all the closets and drawers and cabinets organized, all the work that seemed  nearly impossible to get down when I still had a toddler in the house! 

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Exposing Homeschooled Children to Classical Music

Since we spend so much time driving around, many homeschool families use the car to squeeze in learning.   Sometimes Bee reads in the car, and we also listen to Spanish music in the car.  I've also been using to to expose my children to classical music. 

I grew up playing the cello, and music was a big part of my life.  I know a fair bit about music history and kept thinking and worrying about how I was going to make it a part of my children's lives too.  They don't have to love classical music, but I'd like them to be literate in classical music.  By the time they "graduate" from home school, I'd like them to be familiar with the different periods in Western music and the major composers and pieces. 

I kept thinking about how I might do it.  Should we devote a month to each musical period?  Do a unit on one composer at a time?  Wouldn't it be interesting to incorporate art as we study the different periods of music, since they tend to parallel each other?  I have a pretty good collection of classical CD's, and I thought I might make a playlist.  But how would I decide what to include? 

All of this thinking resulted in my doing nothing.  Finally, I decided just to buy a greatest hits album on the Internet and put it on my mp3 player.  Then, we would just listen to it in the car once or twice a week.  Maybe we would talk about it, maybe not, but they children would be getting familiarity with many of the most famous works of Western literature. 

After a little bit of searching, I settled on The Fifty Greatest Pieces of Classical Music by the London Philharmonic.  I will probably add some pieces to my playlist and remove some. For instance, Spring from Vivaldi's Four Seasons is so overused in our culture that I can hardly bear to listen to it.  I'd like to add a piano concerto by Rachmanninov, Dvorak's cello concerto, amongst other things.  

The great thing is that it's a good start, and the boys are really interested in it.  I don't tell them anything unless they ask.  Bee likes March of the Valkyries, a piece he had already heard.  They both really liked Holst's Jupiter and want me to put the other planets on my mp3 player.  Bug got very angry when Jupiter ended, and a nocturne by Chopin started.  They definitely are paying attention to the different sounds and melodies they are hearing. 

I do want to sign them each up for private music lessons, and I think I will start that for Bug this coming fall.   I think it's great to know how to read music and to understand how music works, and the best way to do that is to sing or play an instrument.  At the same time, I don't want it to be a high pressure situation. 

I think that this coming school year, we will get tickets to children's concerts put on by the local symphony.  It really is fun to have 2 children that are old enough to do such things. 

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Technorati Claim

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caterpillars

We have some little Painted Lady caterpillars to observe as they grow, spin cocoons, and turn into butterflies.  I know homeschoolers who go out and get the proper plants and catch their own caterpillars, but, I'm afraid, this year, I decided just to go with what I knew: the caterpillars from Insect Lore.  The boys were thrilled when they arrived in the mail!  Next year, maybe I'll use dill and get swallowtail caterpillars from my garden. 

Keeping and releasing caterpillars was something I had planned to do every year with my children, and I did it once when Bee was about 2 haven't gotten around to it for the past 6 years.  But the great thing is that, in my now toddler-free home, I do not have to worry about anyone grabbing the container and shaking it (as happened to my praying mantis egg sac one year, thanks Bug). 

Friday, May 11, 2012

Bee learns Danish

I have to say, we seem to be leaning more and more towards unschooling.  Friday is "games day," where we only do flash card reviews (takes about 20 minutes maximum), and the rest of the day is for playing games, field trips, or free play. 

Today, Bee chose to study Danish on his own initiative with his father's Pimsleur Danish Compact cassette tapes.  He did the entire unit 1 and learned several words and  phrases!  I had thought Pimsleur would be too boring for him.  I never would have dreamed that he would have done that all on his own.  He keeps saying that he wants to learn "all the languages in the world."  I am so happy that he is enthusiastic about his language learning. 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

More Parent Well Being

Christine, of the Welcome to my Brain blog, has a great post today called Permission to Like Yourself.  As a nerdy homeschooling parent of 2 brilliant little boys, I find that academics are always the easiest part of our day.  I love to learn.  They love to learn.  I'm good at helping them learn mostly because they effortlessly.  It's the other parts of parenting that scare me, the parts that every parent, home schooling or not has to do, raising a child of good character.  Accepting, liking, and loving ourselves seem to me to be the basis of all of that.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Sleep, sweet sleep

I've never been a good sleeper.  I love to stay up late and sleep late.  If I have to get up early, I've always liked to have a nap in the middle of the day.  This worked well at certain times in my life.  As a homeschooling mom, however, I don't have much time for naps.  My children are too young for me to really feel comfortable shutting the door to my room and having a real nap.  The best I get is a light doze in the living room, where I can hear them playing and know if they open the front or back doors.

I went on vacation with my husband.  We had a cabin with east-facing windows (no curtain) that streamed bright light into our bed early every morning.  We hiked all day.  We went to bed early.  I felt awesome.

I came home and didn't want to go back to my old schedule of staying up late every night, dragging myself out of bed each morning, and dragging myself around all day, drinking coffee and diet soda continuously.

So, I haven't.  After the children go to bed, I get in bed with my Kindle, and I'm asleep before 11 PM.  I realize that isn't early to some people, but it sure is to me.  And then I get out of bed at around 7.  I  find I'm needing to set my alarm for 6:45 to do this because I just don't wake up well.  (Probably may be an ADHD-type thing.)

The word on sleep deprivation and metabolism is pretty bleak.  I've been reading about it for years.  So what if I leave emails unanswered or chores undone?  So what if I have to make activities while the children watch and help, rather than having them all ready?  It'll be a lot easier to do anything the next day if I get enough sleep.  Also, chores can be caught up on, but sleep is extremely difficult to catch up on.  When sleep deprived, I am so much more snappy and grumpy. 

I've been feeling that my sleep deprivation has been holding me back with my weight loss, as I've really struggled to see any changes on the scale these past few months, despite modest eating and exercise changes.  I know I've built up muscle, and my clothes fit better, but it hasn't translated into any weight loss.  I did see a slight loss about a pound, coming back from vacation, which I think was due to lack of stress, increased exercise, and better sleep.  I ate plenty, including dessert (homemade cookies or brownies and S'more's trail mix!) twice a day. 

Anyway, there is no other way that I know of to help myself lose weight while remaining completely imobile, other than getting enough sleep.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Pick Your Own

It's springtime and strawberry season here!  Several local farms offer strawberry picking--what a perfect homeschool field trip, both for a single family or for a group.  For some reason, I hadn't gotten around to doing it in years past!  I took my older son, Bee, yesterday.  We picked 2 pounds of strawberries, and I made 18 cups of freezer jam from them.  I hope my family likes the jam!  I'd love to make more and have our own homemade jam year round.  I used Splenda, since my family watches our sugar intake (I'm probably prediabetic.)  I love the freezer jam. 

My boys are pretty familiar with the life cycle of plants.  They have planted many a seed and harvested many a vegetable, but it's always good to get out and see things growing.  I did talk with my son about how the strawberries in grocery stores are shipped 3000 miles from California, even though we have strawberries growing right here. 

A fun and educational experience.  I love anything that gets my indoor boy outside.  The same farm offers peaches each year, and they also sell seasonal vegetables.  I am going to shop there more now that my boys are a little older and easier to cart around. 



Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Unit Study: War

Well, Bee has been obsessed with war and weapons for some time.  He only wears camo shirts, which I think it cute, and it makes clothes shopping for him very simple.

I've never been extremely interested in war myself, but I am trying to support his interest.  The cool thing with learning about war is that there is ton of other history that goes with it.  He's going to a war reinactment summer camp(!) for child his age.  Also, his dad has been reading him Band of Brothers before bedtime.  I assume that my sweet husband is editing any inappropriate parts, but I don't know for sure.

He's obsessed with the documentary America: The Story of Us.  He's allowed to watch TV (especially documentaries) when he gets up before everyone else, and he's been watching this over and over.  We're also starting Ken Burn's The Civil War, which I find fascinating, but so far, he thinks it's boring.  I'm hoping he'll start to like it, because my husband would like to take him to some nearby battlefield sites, and the background would really enhance the experience.

But frequently with Bee what I think will be great isn't, and he tends to find his own way, which is often much more interesting than anything I ever would have thought up.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

January Homeschool

Maybe I'll try updating this blog monthly with items of interest. We'll see how that goes.

We have 2 days a week where we have no activities scheduled, and 2 days a week with afternoon activities. And Friday is our free day, as long as we've been working well all week. We either play games or go somewhere special. This serves as a great motivator for Bee to do his work.

Anyway, I decided to try making one of our long homeschool days a "language day," where nearly everything we do is reading/writing related and the other day a "math day," where everything is math except for Bee's 15 minutes (or chapter) of silent reading a day. This seems to be working out beautifully. I was feeling that our days were too crammed, and I'd rather spend a long time on each assignment and let Bee get as much out of it as he wants than chop things up and have to finish the next day.

On the math front, the program TOPScience: Get a Grip, for grades K-6 program is still really enjoyable. We use it once a week. If we do anything too much, Bee tends to get bored. I need to add some different containers for Bug to play with. I've also had to buy more lentils, since Bug makes such a mess with them. In fact, the floor in the computer room has a lot of lentils on it right now.

Bee hadn't worked much with the concept of rounding/estimating before, but it's something that kids his age are expected to learn. For some reason, we struggled with it a bit (probably because it's boring). This online game has helped a lot:
Round Off.

I bought the book Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye, and I've started using some of the ideas. The main difference is that I'm encouraging Bee to dictate writing to me, rather than trying to make him write so much. This way, he puts his very creative ideas into words, and I get them on paper for him. His thinking is so much more advanced than his ability to write. He's been writing more too. He likes to write me emails on the iPad, mostly about products he wants to buy. The important thing is that he's writing! We do one collaborative creative writing a week, at least one writing a week where he writes pretty much whatever he wants (he can choose a prompt or make up his own), and we do spelling and/or dictation sentences once a week, where we focus on spelling, handwriting, and basic punctuation. It seems to be working.

Materials we are using for wrting:

1) I'm a Writer! (And I Didn't Even Know It), Grade 2 by Teresa Domnauer
2) Rory's Story Cubes

I also signed Bee up for Explode the Code Online, to help him with phonics. It's a bit repetitive for him, but I'm seeing some good results in his spelling. It's good for 15 minutes once a week.

Also once a week, I give him a word ladder to do from the book Daily Word Ladders: Grades 2-3 by Timothy V. Rasinski. I think these are good for problem solving and cementing in Bee's brain how each letter functions.

We started our "History of the Universe" unit (history and science in one). We read Born with a Bang by Jennifer Morgan and have been watching How the Universe Works on Netflix Instant. I've certainly learned a lot!