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!  

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. 

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! 

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.