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

Date	Bee	Bug	Activity	Description	Subject
various	X	X	Neighborhood Pool	Swimming!  Bug learned how to swim on his own.	P.E.
6/23	X	X	Fossil 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
6/25-6/29	X		Camp	Dinosaur Camp at children's museum	science
6/25- 6/29		X	Camp	Animal Habitat Camp at children's museum	science
various	X	X	Gymnastics	The boys finished their gymnastics classes at each performed in the recital.	P.E.
various		X	Ballet	Bug finished up his ballet class and performed in the dance recital.	P.E., Fine Arts
various	X	X	Spanish	Review, music	Spanish
various	X		Math facts	Review	Math
various	X		German	Review	German
various	X		Spelling	Review	Language
various	X		Watership Down	listening to me read book	Language
various	X		Band of Brothers	finished listening to dad read book	Language

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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!