Adventures in Homeschooling

Our Oak Meadow Week 29

2011-04-12T11:14:00.000-04:00

Spring Break / Unschool Week

Lego Play
Netflix Watching (Jeremy Wade from River Monsters is their hero)
Phineus and Ferb
Trip to the Playground
Watercolor Pencils
Sidewalk Chalk
Homeschool Group

Art- Painting with Watercolors, discussion about Primary and Secondary Colors
Music- Names of the lines and spaces on the staff. Made up their own acrostics: Every Giant Bee Does Fly; Edge Getting Bigger Daily, Fish
Gym- Variation on Dodge Ball

Playdate with Good Friend
Map Drawing
Jungle Joe show

Animals and Conservation

Burger King Indoor Playground (I wish the weather would decide to finally be Spring for good)
Local Aviary

Observe and draw favorite bird- Great Horned Owl, Red Tailed Hawk

Visit From Pittsburgh Grandparents
Visit From local Nana
Relaxing
Being a Kid

Next Week:

New Reading Books
Money
Civics

In 3 Weeks: Trip to the Smoky Mountains and the Biltmore Homeschool Festival

We've Hit the Wall

2011-04-02T20:33:00.000-04:00

Our school year using Oak Meadow has been great. We've stayed on track through remodeling and moving, the kids like the curriculum, and they have learned things that I would not have thought to teach them. They were doing great, and there was no whining when I called "time for homeschool."

That was until 2 weeks ago. It was a crazy week that began with a night in Pittsburgh with my inlaws so that my MacBook could get fixed. (Macs are wonderful computers, but the fact that I have to travel at least an hour and a half to get mine fixed, after having traveled an hour and a half to get it diagnosed may factor into my next computer purchase.....) And it was out 10th wedding anniversary and at the end of the week we were going for a weekend getaway to the ocean without the kids. In the middle we were trying to get some homeschooling accomplished, and the boys were a bit out of sorts, but I expected that from the crazy week.

But this past week (Oak Meadow Week 28), the boys were unfocused. I would put math in front of them that they knew, and they couldn't get it. Division with remainders would be understood, and then completely forgotten. It would take forever to read a story because they were unfocused.

By Wednesday I knew it-- they had hit a wall.

I don't know if it the awful weather we are having, or Spring Fever, or what. There is a reason why so many schools have a Spring Break. And Easter is so late this year that if I put off Spring Break until then, nothing will really get accomplished for the next 3 weeks, except for all of us being frustrated.

So as we progressed through the stuff I had planned for Thursday and Friday (though admittedly a lighter load), I was planning for OM Week 29. In the week's schedule I had already factored in Homeschool Group and a trip to the local college with other homeschoolers to see a kid's show. I looked through the rest of the week and decided that Week 29 was going to be an Unschool week. Yay!!!!!

Our Oak Meadow Week 28

2011-04-02T13:25:00.000-04:00

Finished Mummies in the Morning Unit with 1st Grader

Not Oak Meadow, but it worked for my excellent 1st grade reader. For $1 on CurrClick, I downloaded a unit with comprehension questions. Every other day I either had him write a sentence or two in addition to the questions, or draw a picture of the day's chapter. I made him write on lined paper, so it improved his questionable handwriting skills (or at least show me that he could write well if he tried). I put it all in a folder together, so now I have an excellent example of handwriting, composition, comprehension, and art skills to show off at our June evaluation. And my son likes to show it off to people who come and visit.

3rd grader is reading book of choice- this week it was Mouse Tails. He would read a story each day, discuss it with me, then draw a picture and write a t least 2 sentences to go with the story. He is a late blooming reader (various issues including reversals and he should have never been taught to read phonetically) but it is really starting to click for him :)
4 Math Processes

1st grade division and multiplication
3rd grader division with remainders

Bird Watching
Trees
Biodiversity
Began Civics unit for both

rules and laws

Hiking (with Dad, as I am still a gimp)

Next Week:

Homeschool Group
Jungle Joe Show
Unschooling Week, 'cause they need a Spring Break

Our Oak Meadow Week 27

2011-04-02T12:51:00.000-04:00

Reading books, writing sentences and/or paragraphs

Mummies in the Morning Unit

VCCV words

4 Math Processes

Economics

Budgeting- Community needs vs wants

Trip to Pittsburgh

Grandparents, Mac fixed, playground

Independent Reading

Playdate

Phineas & Ferb

Our Oak Meadow Week 26

2011-04-02T12:43:00.000-04:00

Reading books, writing sentences and/or paragraphs

CurrClick reading comprehension worksheets for Magic Tree House Mummies in the Morning

Handwriting

4 processes in Math

Pond Life

Biomes

Independent Reading

River Monsters - Jeremy Wade is a new hero

Our Oak Meadow Week 25

2011-04-02T11:58:00.000-04:00

Our week 25 started out excitingly. If you look on week 24, you will see a fishing trip listed. That was a planned trip. I was blogging on Saturday morning, as we were collecting stuff to go on the fishing excursion. We were headed to the C&O Canal, and bringing our beagle with us. The boys were carrying their fishing rods, my husband the tackle, and I was walking the dog. Apparently he (the dog, not my husband) caught hold of a scent (probably a duck or goose, I swear Gatsby must come from a long line of bird dogs), and I sprained my ankle. It was a pretty good sprain (or bad, depending on your perspective), and I have been trying to nurture my ankle ever since. It is not really an excuse (as I have spent many hours sitting on the couch with my foot up), but I blame my ankle on why I am so behind in my blogging.

Anyway......

Reading books, writing sentences and/or paragraphs
4 Math Processes
Economics

George Washington-working together
Sarah Whitacre- sacrifice

Temperature
Water Cycle
Built terrarium
Lots of Independent Reading
Scratch
LEGO Pharaoh's Quest
River Monsters

Our Oak Meadow Week 24 - A Divergence

2011-03-05T12:02:00.000-05:00

With a nod to Oak Meadow, our week 24 took a bit of an unschooled turn this week. Oh, we finished (!) the word family book, and talked about and drew Clara Barton and Hopi Indians (not together) to stay mostly on track. But we had homeschool group this week, and a trip to Pittsburgh, and my husband who has been diligently working at growing his consulting business decided that he wanted to take some time off this week. So I embraced our unschool roots, and had a week with less structure that included LOTS of learning.

FINISHED word family book (YAY!!)
Syllables- consonant-le words
A little math review
Economics

Clara Barton
Hopi Indians

Lots of Independent Reading
Scratch
LEGO Pharaoh's Quest
Homeschool Group

Art with Thumbprint drawings
Music with Pecos Bill "reader's theater"
Gym with a beanbag bowling/dodge ball game that my 8 yo LOVED
Dad got to come along :)

Playdate
Outside
Sidewalk Chalk
River Monsters
Trip to Pittsburgh

Grandparents
Apple Store
Books
Duncan Donuts - yummmmmm

Cold frame building
Garden planning
Fishing

Next Week:

Reading
Biomes
Temperature
Terrariums

Our Oak Meadow Week 23

2011-02-25T12:35:00.000-05:00

Vowel R Words
Syllables
Word Families
Reading
Math Review
>, <, =
Economics

need vs want with Johnny Appleseed
interdependance

Interdependence
Dolphins
ecology
Lots of Independant Reading
Scratch
Architecture
LEGO ships

Next Week:

Trip to Pittsburgh
Homeschool Group
Last Word Family Week!

Andy's Scratch "Art"

2011-02-23T23:43:00.001-05:00

I often mention that my sons like to program in Scratch. I have an earlier blog devoted to the wonderousness of Scratch. It is a visual programming language that they like to use to animate their ideas and drawings. You can download it yourself at: http://scratch.mit.edu/

But here is a recent animation that I particularly like. Note the new world order when the fish eats the "double nosatops" dinosaur, even the clouds change. The girl is sorta supposed to be me. And yeah, I don't know what fairage is either. :)

Learn more about this project

Our Oak Meadow Week 22

2011-02-20T20:48:00.000-05:00

Finished our First Main Lesson Books

2011-02-17T11:13:00.000-05:00

Folk Tale Illustration

I don't know how they did it, but somehow both of the boys have 1 page left in their Main Lesson Books. They boys are doing different grade levels, doing very different assignments, and are supplemented with different amounts of worksheets, but somehow they will both finish their books tomorrow.

To celebrate, I thought I'd show a few of my favorite pieces from each of their books.

Andy, 3rd Grade

1st entry- Favorite Thing about the Summer

Illustrating a frog story from the Oak Meadow Folk Tale Book

Magical Mr Mistoffelees "About on the Roof"

Giant Orange Cat Limerick

Snowball Battle in Ollie's new Skis

Jules, 1st Grade

F Story Painting

Parts of the face, his drawing seems to have a Dr Suess influence

Ollie's New Skis- GIANT snowball battle

_ AY Word Family

Illustration for Mr Putter and Tabby Feed the Fish

Our Oak Meadow Week 21

2011-02-11T10:53:00.000-05:00

Columbus Trade Pictures

Magic *E* words
Syllables
MORE Word Families (we're on the Os!)
Reading
Counting by 10s
Bar Graphs
Economics

Trade
Columbus
Kush

Plant root systems

Celery Experiment

Types of Matter

solid
liquid
gas

Playdate at Burger King
Tux Paint
Architecture
Titanic (we LOVE the Titanic)

Next Week:

Valentine's Day
Dolphins
Photosynthesis
Warmer Weather?!?!

Our Oak Meadow Week 20

2011-02-04T16:12:00.003-05:00

3 Homeschooled boys at a birthday party.
The least excited of the 3 (the one in grey) is the birthday boy.

Syllables
MORE Word Families
Magic Tree House Research Guide
Reading
Counting by 5s
Shapes-- Sides and angles
Economics

Algonquin
in Carthage
Natural / Human / Capital

Plant root systems
Nocturnal and diurnal
Scratch
Tux Paint
Architecture
Titanic
JULIAN'S 7th BIRTHDAY

Next Week:

Bar Graphs
Columbus
celery experiment

Cross Country Skiing

2011-01-30T21:09:00.001-05:00

New Germany State Park

January 29, 2011

MOM SOS-- A Great Idea from the Mind of My Husband

2011-01-28T15:29:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was one of those days where the kids were a bit whiny, and I was a bit irritated. My dear husband asked me what was on the day's homeschooling agenda, then sent me on my way for a Mom's Afternoon Off.

I had a great time. Went to the library, did a bit of shopping, went to the old house that hasn't sold and took a long bath.

While I was out my husband did the homeschool stuff, part of which was reading out loud. My older son has some reading issues that make him not like to read. While his reading skills are a work in progress, he IS progressing. It still is hard to get him to sit down and read, especially when his little brother is a better reader. So when we have read out loud time, he gets frustrated and wants to negotiate that pages get read by his parents. This can turn into a struggle, for "if you give an inch, he'll want a mile" and he NEEDS to practice.

So yesterday during reading time, my older son, Andy, picked Oh, the Places You'll Go! to read out loud. He has read this book several times, but it is still a challenge for him. But then Dr Suess can be a challenge to some adults. My husband told Andy at the start that he (my husband) would read 5 pages of the book, and that was all. It was up to Andy to decide what 5 pages it would be. Apparently this worked out quite well, and there was no complaining that Andy had to finish the rest of the book once the 5 pages were through.

When I got home, my husband told me of his method for reading with Andy. I thought this was a wonderful idea, and that it could be spread out to other parts of homeschool that the boys either have problems with or just don't like. So before this morning's homeschool, I made up 10 "parent help" tickets. I knew there was going to be a syllable worksheet (Oak Meadow said to talk about syllables, I printed a few non-Oak Meadow worksheets to help us) and that worksheets are not his thing. When I presented the work to him this morning, I also presented him with 4 Parent Help tickets to help with the 20 problems. He loved this idea, turning the tickets into MOM SOS tickets. He didn't need the help (he ended up using 3 of them in the last 4 problems), but I could tell that giving him the option of help from the outset made him feel better.

Our Oak Meadow Week 19

2011-01-28T14:55:00.003-05:00

Syllables
STILL Word Families
Andrew Lost
Reading
Poetry
Counting by 2s
Shapes-- Sides and angles
Economics
Trees
North and South Poles
Winchester Mystery House
Scratch
Tux Paint
Architecture
Titanic
Mom's Day Off
MOM SOS

Next Week:

More Economics
Nocturnal/Diurnal
Julian's 7th Birthday!!!

Our Oak Meadow Week 18

2011-01-21T23:01:00.000-05:00

Lowes Field Trip with Homeschool Group

Adverbs
Word Families
Andrew Lost
Reading
Poems Revisited
Ordinal Numbers
MORE Multiplication with Carrying
Maps
Family Tree
Real Trees
Stargazing (sorta, it was wicked cloudy this week)
Scratch
Tux Paint
Architecture
Titanic
Lowes field trip with homeschool group
Play time with Friend
Dad's Birthday

Next Week:

Economics
Seasons
North and South Poles

A Little Oak Meadow Love

2011-01-20T12:57:00.015-05:00

As I have mentioned in my recent posts, I am a fan of the Oak Meadow curriculum. We are in week 18, which is the half way point of the year and every day I find more ways that it works for our family.

That being said, I am not an Oak Meadow purist. We don't have circle time every morning. I use Internet produced printouts to help teach my sons concepts like ordinal numbers. And I didn't buy Oak Meadow Main Lesson Books. I went to Ollie's (one of my favorite stores) and purchased two 11"x14" sketch books. And it is these Oak Meadow inspired drawing books that I am currently in love with.

These sketch books contain all of their language arts work. I have different binders for social studies and science, so the sketch books contain story inspired drawings and poems with illustrations. Also stapled to the sheets are lined papers with sentences for spelling and parts of speech, and the occasional worksheet for a special event.

But the thing that makes me love these books so much is how much the BOYS love their books. They love to show their day's work to their dad in the the evening. They will get the book out and show visiting friends or grandparents all of their new drawings. Every so often they will take a look back at their work for the year. They talk about different drawings that they created, and remind each other of different stories that were read. Today my younger son was fascinated by a poem that my older son had written in November. He liked it so much that he was inspired to copy it into his own sketch book. And when I pointed out that they only had a few pages left in their books, both boys looked at me in a panic, and made sure that I was not going to throw them away.

So thank you, Oak Meadow for inspiring these lesson books. My boys and I love them now, and I know that we will love them even more in the future when we can look back and see the journey they have made in their work and art.

And here is the poem my sons love:
The Giant Orange Cat
by Andy

There once was a giant orange cat

Who saw a big purple bat

The bat flew away, the cat wanted to stay

Oh! That giant orange cat

We had a good day

2011-01-19T11:21:00.000-05:00

I don't want to brag or anything, but Monday we had a really good day. A great day, in fact. Not that we don't usually have good days, but this one stood out.

Books were read, discussed, and pictures were drawn based on the stories

Math was completed and understood.

Family trees were started

Martin Luther King was discussed, and for the first time, I think my 3rd grader paid attention to, and understood the power of the "I Have a Dream" speech.

I did all of my homeschool bookkeeping, and everything got put away, making it easier to eat dinner on the dining room table.

YAY!

There wasn't much different about Monday, except for my feeling going into and coming out of it. I entered the day with a sense of calm that I think spilled over on the boys. I didn't freak out if my son spent 5 minutes studying the pictures after he read a page of "Diary of a Worm". If a number was written the wrong way, I just pointed it out and let my son fix it. My husband was even able to work at the dining room table with us.

Yesterday went nearly as well, and I have high hopes, and calm feelings for today.

Things have been so stressful during the move and changes in our life that it felt so good to have a peaceful productive day. I hope that this is just the start, and that this new feeling can continue as we set off on this next adventurous phase of our lives.

Our Oak Meadow Week 17

2011-01-15T00:10:00.007-05:00

Adjectives
Word Families (the -ib word family?!?)
James and the Giant Peach
Reading
Evens and Odds
Multiplication with Carrying
Maps
Trees
Erosion
Secret Life of Machines
Perspective Drawing
Architecture
Map of Spyro's World
Piano at the New House

Plans For Next Week

Adverbs
Ordinal Numbers
Homeschool Group Field Trip to Lowes

Spin the Wheel: Unschool to a BOUGHT CURRICULUM?!?!?!?!?

2011-01-11T21:19:00.009-05:00

OK. So when I returned to blogging, and realized that last year's blog was about my journey from a traditional homeschool regimen to happily unschooling, I felt a little sheepish returning to the blog this year and having to admit that I bought a curriculum.

Let me begin by saying that I completely believe in unschooling. My boys learned so much last year that I would not have thought to teach them in a more conventional setting. And they didn't just learn the fluffy stuff. They know all about dinosaurs- continents, time periods, species, what is and was is not a true dinosaur. They have computer and library research skills that some college kids would be envious of. My (at the time) 5 year old son was very motivated to learn to read (yes, unschooled kids will still want to learn reading, writing, and 'rithmatic). And both boys were more complete people knowing that their daily schedule was going to be determined by them.

But last summer when it was time to start planning for the school year, we were facing a different situation. Our house was on the market, and my husband was looking for a new career path. We weren't sure what the next year was going to bring, but we did know that it was going to be different. We were considering moving to a different state with much more strict homeschool laws, and I was searching for a solution that would make it easier to homeschool in the new state, and yet stick to our more relaxed homeschool philosophy.

So in my research I came across Oak Meadow. It is Waldorf based, and wants to teach the whole child. There is a rhythm to the day, and they have their curriculum, but stresses that you should follow your child's lead on things like reading and math levels. Or maybe that is what I got out of their philosophy......

Anyway, we didn't change states (partially because I felt that the homeschool laws were too unbearable), but I decided to go ahead with using the Oak Meadow curriculum. We were still moving, and had an unpredictable year ahead. I was fitting in a bit of free lance graphic design stuff into my life as a homeschooling mom, and thought that having a curriculum to guide me through the homeschool year would take some of the stress off me. So I bought the 1st and 3rd grade curriculum books. Used. Thank goodness for Amazon and eBay.

So we have modified Oak Meadow for our uses. We don't follow their rhythms exactly. For example, though they recommend doing math 3 or so days a week, we usually do it everyday because the timing of the math lessons makes the learning time needed different for each boy. For example, this week my 3rd grader is starting multiplication with carrying, and my 1st grader is doing odd and even numbers. My older son needs all 5 school days to practice and learn this task, while my 1st grader had odds and even mastered before we were to work on it this week. So I printed out a few odd and even "mazes" and he is happy. I enjoy the Oak Meadow Social Studies and Science. And the Language Arts is the perfect fit for my family.

So far I am very happy with the Oak Meadow curriculum. I plan on buying it again next year. But you know, I still have 6 months to figure it out.

You gotta have faith

2011-01-07T17:41:00.006-05:00

For homeschoolers in our area, the year starts out with the bi-annual review. It seems like such a harsh way to begin the new year. I know that in the 3 years I have been homeschooling, December is a month that we sorta slow down. We decorate, craft, sing carols, and read all sorts of Christmas books. And I know that the review is coming, but I still spend December enjoying the season. This year we had the added distraction of moving and rehabbing our 110 year old house. So this December we read and sang, but the boys also learned to plaster and paint, and had a crash course on budgeting and balancing what NEEDS to be done as opposed to what we WANT done. We snuck in a little bit of more traditional school-- our curriculum wanted one of the boys to map their rooms, their house, and their neighborhood-- a great way to get to know our new surroundings.

But I was distracted. Very little got logged, and I was a bit nervous going into the review. I knew that we had a new reviewer, as the wonderful woman who had always reviewed us passed away over the summer. I didn't know what the new reviewer was looking for. I knew that while we were doing wonderfully with reading, language arts, math, social studies and science, my boys' handwriting and spelling weren't necessarily what they could be looking for. My personal philosophy is that handwriting doesn't have to be perfect, just readable. And I personally use a google search to spell things. That didn't stop me from debating handwriting drills and spelling tests vs "by the time they are in college everything will be typed and you'll 'sign' your name with a thumb print or retinal scan."

In the end, common sense won out. I let them write in their normal way. There were no spelling tests, but we worked together to correct the spelling on the things they wrote.

We passed the review. The reviewer thought that our stuff was great, but she was really impressed with my older son's drawings and architecture knowledge. And the fact that my younger son was so interested in his brother's Roman numeral lesson that he decided to answer his division work in Roman numerals.

I found it interesting, that while I decided to go a more traditional route with a purchased curriculum, the things she liked best were things nurtured by our unschooling background.

Ahhh.... It's been a year

2011-01-05T23:36:00.005-05:00

Ok, so it has been a year since my last homeschool blog post. I fell off the wagon. Since then, we have put our old house on the market, bought a new house, rehabbed that house, and moved.

We are still homeschooling, but I bought a curriculum this year because there was an odd amount of stress involved in unschooling my boys. Sure, day to day things were fun and relaxed, but when it came to bi-yearly BOE evaluations, and planning for unschooling (yes, that does occur) I decided that with all the house stuff, my life would be a bunch easier if I bought a curriculum.

I did a bunch of research, and found the Oak Meadow curriculum. It is Waldorf based, and is intended to nurture the "whole" child. My family is on week 16, and it is working for us quite well. My 3rd grader is happy to write a paragraph if he gets to discuss and draw a picture first. I like its structured flexibility. The math is a problem for some families, but I just read what they recommend and make it work for my family. I also appreciate how the 1st and 3rd grades sorta line up so that both are covering things like maps at the same time. I can easily make the lesson adapt to both boys.

I have my BOE review tomorrow, and I am feeling pretty good about it. It feels oddly appropriate that my last blog post was right after last winter's evaluation. Perhaps I can start anew with this post and evaluation.

January Homeschool Review (or how I kinda, sorta fell off the Unschool wagon)

2010-01-18T13:03:00.005-05:00

In the midst of all the goings on with my husband's job, I got the letter from the Board of Education telling me when my first semester homeschool review would be. I pinned it to the cork board beside my desk and put it out of my mind while we were figuring out our lives and getting through the Christmas festivities. I picked up the letter on December 26, and saw the date of our meeting. January 6. 11 days. Isn't that earlier than last year? I realized then that I didn't have very many "tactile" things to show the nice lady at the BOE and prove what my boys had learned. And I panicked.

In my head I had lists of what we had talked about, where we had visited, things we had studied, read, and accomplished. But bringing in a photo album, and a list of books we had checked out of the library wasn't going to cut it. How was I going to convince the BOE that my boys were learning?

The first thing I did was write down the lists that were in my head. There. That looks like we've done something. Then I went to the container that has all of our projects stored in it. Ok, so it would be unwieldy to bring in the paper plate owls, but the owl acrostic poems and research drawings would be good. Darn it, I should have kept the placemat from the time we were learning about fractions and pie charts at a restaurant. That would prove some math..... I had the sheets with the "pay for play" problems (previous blog) on them. This was proof that they were doing "things," but it still didn't look like enough. So......

I broke out the worksheets. Yes, this woman who had embraced the concepts behind unschooling as being beneficial for her children and making her house a happier place, was photocopying worksheets on parts of speech and multiplication tables. And I made the boys complete several of these sheets everyday after breakfast and lunch. They didn't go over as badly as I thought, mostly because they hadn't really had to do any since September. But I made them do a lot of worksheets in language arts and math during those 11 days. I felt sheepish because I wasn't purely unschooling anymore, and because I felt as if I was trying to fool the BOE.

I went to the review, and I passed. I showed her the worksheets, and explained that we had a more child led curriculum especially in science and social studies. She said great, good job. We had a conversation about what she was looking for, and she briefly explained that to me. She also let it be known that the criteria get more strict as the children get older. I got the BOE list of curriculum guidelines that I can use as a checklist for the future.

Since this was review time, I went home and evaluated how I thought the first semester went. I was happy with our unschooled life and how people comment on how mellow and content my boys seem. I was glad that my kindergardener liked doing division problems, and made up his own sheets of problems if I didn't have any handy. My second grader's reading was greatly improving since he wasn't forced to read things that he wasn't interested in (the LEGO catalog was perfect for my reluctant reader). I even liked how easy it was to prove that my boys were learning with the worksheets that we did in the days after Christmas. I didn't like feeling rushed to prove that we were doing what we were supposed to do.

So now I am trying to balance the different approaches to homeschooling to make it work well for my family and the powers that be. Most mornings each son will do a worksheet or two, sometimes more, depending on their interest and patience that day. They have the rest of the day to unschool. They still have to do the pay for play sheets to play video games. I also bought a diary to write down everything that we do that shows they are learning. I write down what worksheets we do as well as when we play Cadoo or watch an episode of The Secret Life of Machines as a family.

So today we did two worksheets on Martin Luther King Jr. and read a book on Rosa Parks. I feel that these are important things to learn about, and I can mentally check some things off the "things they HAVE to learn" list (reading comprehension, check; social studies, check). They then played chess against each other (critical thinking, check), and designed a Scratch game (art, science, reading-- check, check, check). Tomorrow we'll do some math worksheets, or maybe we won't. Perhaps instead we'll play LIFE, and one of the boys can be the banker. Then, I can give a big check for math, too.

What a Crazy Month

2010-01-12T13:22:00.004-05:00

I haven't blogged in a while, and I thought I'd write a post to explain.

The first week of December my husband found out that the company he had built and worked at for ten years would be sold in two weeks. Questions quickly flashed threw our heads: will he get a new job quickly? will we have to move? are we going to have to sell the house just to get by? am I going to have to get a job? will we have to stop homeschooling?

Through the 2 weeks, we thought through a lot of plans, and alternative plans, and alternatives to the alternative plans. My husband got a job with the company that bought his original company. This brought about a new set of plans, as we were sure we would have to move. I was thankful for the plethora of internet homeschool resources. I looked into the HS laws of the state where the new job's main offices are and found that the laws there are quite a bit more strict than my current state's laws. But I also found a great online group that is full of successful unschoolers in that state.

Add into all this, the usual stress of the holidays, and it made for a crazy, crazy December.

As it turns out, we don't have to move. The new company made an office for my husband at the local branch of the company (we weren't crazy to think we would have to move, NO ONE else at the office have the same type of job). And I remain subscribed to the unschool site (PA Unschoolers Yahoo! group, check it out, lots of great conversations on there). And I hope to slowly adjust to my husband's new schedule and get back to our normal school life.

Pay for Play

2009-11-30T13:00:00.001-05:00

As SagePixie commented on one of my posts, kids can "learn a lot through TV and video games." I realize this when my son's reading abilities continue to grow if the only things he reads for 3 days are the names of the power ups earned while playing LEGO Star Wars. Hand/Eye coordination is developed. Memory is tested. Cooperative play skills are built as he usually plays these games with his little brother.

I know that there is a large variance in the way that people homeschool their children. Even in the unschool community, people's philosophies vary greatly. Some welcome different technologies into their "school day," while others shun video game systems and television that is not PBS. In our house, we tend to straddle the middle line. I did turn off the cable, but I bought the Penguins of Madagascar Christmas DVD. My Netflix queue has both Birds, Birds, Birds! and Santa Buddies. Watching the movie Up began a new obsession for my 7 year old that includes searching for blimp videos on You Tube, and looking in Venezuela for Paradise Falls. (It isn't real, but check out some of the landscape that inspired the movie The Real World Behind Up's Paradise Falls)

I also know that in January, I am going to have to sit down and talk to a nice lady at the board of education and show her what I've done to teach my boys. Lists of activities are all well and good, but she is going to want some "proof." And this makes me nervous. So a month or so ago, I instated a "pay for play" rule. If you want to play video game, you have to perform an activity on the cork board in the living room. There are math sheets with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. There are lists to record books read and Weekly Readers (subscribed to before unschooling).

Surprisingly, this idea has gone over quite well. I don't have to remind the boys to do their math or reading before playing games. Some days, they choose not to do any, and instead choose to draw, play with LEGO or work on the laptop. There are never complaints when it comes to doing the activities. My 5 year old searches out the division problems because he likes to manipulate the counting bears that way. New books are being read, and critical thinking activities are being performed. They like the Weekly Readers.

We don't stop this rule because it is the weekend or a holiday. They read on Thanksgiving so that they could play Wii. However, if on Christmas they get a new game, they won't have to do an activity to dive into it.

So now my boys are doing activites that would have began crying battles of will before taking on a less traditional approach to schooling. The kids are happy and I'm less nervous. And we'll see how the BOE likes it in the new year.

Unschooling: A working dad's perspective

2009-11-10T22:28:00.000-05:00

With traditional school and homeschooling I missed out my children's education. When I got done working and made it home, with a traditional 8am-3pm school day, I missed it all. The math. The reading. The geography. The philosophy. The science. The robotics. The computer programming. The carpentry. The human performance studies. Oh they don't do all that stuff in public school do they? Anyway, I missed out on the "golden opportunity" to participate in my kids education.

That's when you school children -- when parents are at work; right? If the kids have been completing worksheets all day, being handed work to do and told what is of interest, they will be more than ready to stop listening to me, and anything I tried to teach, by the time I get home from work. Last year, when we were more traditional homeschoolers, the kids were not as eager to listen to one of my heartfelt explanations of nuclear fission.

Stop the press! With unschooling kids aren't overloaded all day. They are trusted with being inquisitive humans who will stop at nothing to understand the world in which they live. With that schooling pattern our kids seem to stay open to learning and asking questions all day. They don't say "No. I really don't want you to explain that now." Instead they approach me with questions like "How do you spell screech owl?" or "How can Betelgeuse be as large as our entire solar system!?"

What's most important?

The kids are happier (fewer arguments with parents over what to focus on)
We're happier (fewer arguments with kids over what to focus on)
They're interested and engaged in what they're learning (their interests, us showing our excitement in helping them when they can use it)

Am I sold on unschooling? Not completely. We both have our eyes on wether our kids will be able to happen upon an interest in all the things they need to know to succeed in the 21st century. So far I'm optimistic. I'm happy with the changes we've experienced so far.

5 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me When I Started Homeschooling

2009-11-03T12:00:00.003-05:00

Recent events have inspired me to blog more. Blogging about my October experiment was an excellent way to reflect on how I really felt about unschooling. Now, with a good friend starting to homeschool, I have been thinking about my own beginnings with HS, and what I wish someone had told me as I was starting out.

1) You don't need to school 7 hours a day just because that is how long they would be in public school. Seven hours of one on one (or two on one, or even three on one) time is a lot. If you have a really large family, perhaps as a teacher you would be spending 7 hours homeschooling, but not each child. My kids were young, but I found that most days I was finished with our school day by lunch time. After lunch we might do a project or experiment, but some days I let them watch SpongeBob. So much time in school is spent waiting: for other kids to finish; for the teacher to answer your question; in line for lunch. With homeschool, we cut the wait, and get down to the "nitty-gritty."

2) Workbooks are only so good. When I started homeschooling, I bought LOTS of workbooks that were going to help me teach my son everything first graders need to know. Now the problem was, I was homeschooling my son because he was an outside the box thinker would would not be a good fit for public school. Why in the world did I think he would want to do worksheets? Work sheets are helpful in that they give you "proof" when you meet with the board of education, if like me, you are in an area that makes you check in. But if your son doesn't want to do them, they're not going to help.

3) Just because you are a teacher, doesn't mean your child will listen to you. These people you are homeschooling are still your children. You will still have good days and bad days. Some days they will just want to ignore you. You will have clashes of will. And sometimes no matter how hard you've planned for a topic or a day, they will not listen. Which leads to......

4) Things will go wrong. The lesson won't always go like you planned. You thought they would really enjoy a certain story, then take an hour to think and draw a picture to go with the story, and that you would share and talk about the drawings and ceremoniously hang them on the refrigerator..... But instead, the kids got bored halfway through and now while you are trying to read they are chasing the cat around the room with light sabers. There will be days like this. If you are lucky, only one or two. But I can assure you that it will happen. And when it does......

5) It's OK to take a "personal business day." If you or the kids are burnt out, take a day (or two) off. Find someway to change the sceanery. Take the kids to the zoo, a movie, a Burger King with an indoor playground. Stay home and read while the kids play LEGO Star Wars all day. It's OK. "Real" teachers get PBDs, why not you? If you are lucky enough to have a supportive significant other, go to the zoo, movies, or bookstore (Borders is my equivalent of a BK with indoor playground) by yourself. Just because you signed on to be a parent and to homeschool doesn't mean you have to be there every moment of every day.

Of course, with unschooling, some of these things are less likely to go wrong. Your children still might not listen to everything you want them to, but you'll be "teaching" them a lot less, so they most likely will listen to a larger percentage. And even for unschoolers it's OK to take a personal business day, but you won't need so many, because you will be giving your kids, and yourself more freedom everyday.

The End of Unschool October

2009-11-02T09:18:00.005-05:00

The trees on our mountain have passed their peak, and dried brown oak leaves fill our yard. My mom's birthday has been celebrated. Halloween has come and gone. My little owl and the "cuter bird" went trick or treating and acquired their fill of candy. All of these events herald the end of October, and for me, the end of our trial unschool period. I have to say, that life is better with unschooling. No more crying because we have to do things. No more whining, no more frustration.

I went into the month with the vague notion that unschooling would work for my family. My boys are "do-ers." They want to experience life, not just have it taught to them. October was filled with Scratch programming, trips to aviaries, reading books, and conversations about everything. As I said before, this is what our life is like on the weekends, during breaks, in the summer. It was a change in my perception that led me to understand that my boys are always learning, and now they are enjoying life-- even during school times.

Unschooling seems to be a benefit for the entire family. I am no longer as stressed and grumpy. Instead of planning for the formal schooling and teaching while trying to get some time in for me and work around the house completed, I work the kids into the things I need to do. They help make lunch and have taken on the tasks such as feeding and watering the cats. While they are schooling themselves, I can read or work on a sewing project. I'm less stressed about their schooling, so my husband has a bit less stress as well.

That isn't to say that our first month of unschooling went perfectly. I was happy that I followed through with my plan to cancel the cable (thank goodness Project Runway is on the 'net). I also took away the Wii and Playstation. The change is not necessarily permanent, but the games are away while the boys break their addiction cycle and remember how to play with other things. I am happy to add that when they discovered that the game systems were gone, they merely started playing LEGO and reading a book. No one complained.

I still worry about how I'm going to prove to the BOE that I am teaching them. My portfolio last year was large and filled with "things." This year I think it will have more pictures-- more of a scrapbook feel-- along with samples of work they have wanted to pursue on their own.

Now I plan to unschool for the entire school year, and then reevaluate it. I know that for now it is the plan for us, and I beleive that we will remain unschoolers until the boys go off on their own.

Hmmmm...... I think this could lead them to their Mamma's alma mater. COA, here they come.

New Recruit

2009-11-01T13:29:00.000-05:00

I spent the first day of November with a good friend who has decided to homeschool her older son. Her family had considered homeschooling starting with first grade, but her son wanted to remain with his friends, so they decided that the best thing would be to follow his lead. He is now leading them to homeschool, and we spent some time at the not-so-local Barnes and Noble while she picked out books to help her on their journey.

They will not be unschooling, as every family is different, and the style does not feel right for them. I look forward to meeting with them for crafts, science experiments, and other fun things. Good Luck!

(I do feel a bit like I recruited them. Where's my toaster oven?)

Scratch

2009-10-30T00:02:00.002-04:00

My boys favorite activity is programming in Scratch. It is a programing environment that is made of "puzzle pieces" that are easily put together to make the icons on the screen move or whatever else you might want them to do. My 7 year old started programming in Scratch almost two years ago. He started with simple movements-- the Scratch cat just moving back and forth across the screen. He added different elements and started drawing his own sprites to animate. He can also download pictures that he finds on the internet and add them to the scenes he creates. My 5 year old is quickly becoming as proficient as his big brother. Together they make scenes and games. It is great fun, and they will spend the entire day working on a project.

Some of my family's projects:
http://scratch.mit.edu/users/raeleo

A Link to get scratch for yourself:
scratch.mit.edu

Favorite time of day

2009-10-28T23:02:00.007-04:00

I never thought I would say this, but because of unschooling, mornings are now my favorite part of the day.

I am usually the first one out of bed (on weekdays my husband is technically the first one up, but he gets up at 6, and leaves around 7, and the boys and I are not early risers). I get up and get a glass of diet pepsi ( I am not a coffee drinker but an influx of caffeine is good) and sit on the living room couch and open up the laptop. This is the time of day that I have to read emails, check on facebook and twitter and just enjoy my own thoughts for the day.

Slowly, the rest of the family starts to stir. And they join me on the couch.

First they just snuggle in. They hide behind the throw or the couch pillows so that they can stay warm and in that wondrous sleep state just a bit longer. Then as they really awaken, we begin to talk to one another. Sometimes it is about things as banal as the placement of my sheep in farmtown. Other times we discuss the least ferocious of the wild cats, or where a certain bird might live. Since I have my laptop, information is at my fingertips and we can use the internet to answer questions. Sometimes the kids will get their laptops and program in Scratch or draw. Always we will figure out what animal we are that day.

All too soon the boys start to get hungry and it is time to get breakfast. Then we all go about our own tasks, coming together during other times of the day, and perhaps we will all sit on the couch again. But it is never as peaceful as it was first thing in the morning.

Before unschooling, we had too many "things to do" to take the time to enjoy each others' company in the morning. I am thankful that I took the time for my Unschool October experiment.

Never too Old to be Unschooled, Or My Iowan Adventure

2009-10-24T10:36:00.007-04:00

My good friend Jen's parents are moving to Maryland from Iowa. Jen was going to aid the move by flying to Iowa, then driving one of their cars back home. Her parents did not want her driving the 900 or so miles by herself, so I was invited to come along. After a bit of deliberation, and figuring out who would watch the kids the two weekdays I would be gone, I decided to accept her invitation.

I was excited by the invitation until a day or two before I was to leave. I think that because I am an at-home mom who homeschools, I have a bit of an attachment issue with the boys. My sons and I are usually together. They LOVE their dad and crazy things he does, but I feel guilty when I leave for more than the evening. To make me feel better, my husband pointed out that the trip was an adventure, and that I needed to remember to look at it as such. I realized that this was an oportunity to go somewhere new and experience new people and places by doing.

Hey, this was like I was unschooling ME!

So I headed out and flew from Baltimore to Atlanta, then onto Moline, Illinois. We went to her parents house, then Jen gave me a tour of Davenport. We then went to her brother's farm and enjoyed a lovely evening with her family. The next day we traveled through Illinois, Indiana, and part of Ohio. We stayed the night there and traveled the rest of the way through Ohio and into West Virgina, Pennsylvania, and then back into West Virgina before we returned to Maryland.

And I learned some interesting things this trip.

*I still set off metal detectors in airports.
*The Atlanta airport is huge, but the people who work there are quite friendly.
*Davenport, Iowa is part of The Quad City Area that spans both sides of the Mississippi River.
*Iowa (Illinois, Indiana, and much of Ohio) is very flat, as least compared to my home in Western Maryland.
*The first chiropractic adjustment took place in Davenport. Daniel Palmer was the person who performed the first adjustment, and he started the Palmer College of Chiropractic, which is also in Davenport.
*There are hundreds of miles of corn and soy bean fields across the Midwest. For miles and miles, corn is all that can be seen.
*I have mixed feelings about Cabelas stores. There are too many dead things, but goodness, it is interesting.

I met some great people, visited a family owned farm, chased barn cats, and pet a wonderful horse. With my trusty iPhone, I was able to research anything that caught my eye during the trip. I could take things in and process them for myself instead of always looking at them from a child's perspective. I had a great time, and was full of stories to tell my family when I got home.

I highly recommend that all homeschool "teachers" take the time for a family free adventure if they can. It was great fun, and really helped me put the unschooling idea into perspective. Thanks to Jen and her family for inviting me. And thanks to Leo for making it possible for me to go.

Unschool or Living Life?

2009-10-15T23:27:00.004-04:00

So here we are, continuing unschool October. And here I am, still missing the "H" key on my keyboard, but unwilling to give up my pink Dell laptop. I tend to buy lots of pink things because I am the only girl in the house surrounded by 4 boys. Pink says that things are mine. And I love my pink laptop. I can type an H, but it is easy to miss the hole where the key should be. So, please bear with me if I don't pick up on a spelling error caused by my missing "H."

Anyway..... Unschool October is going well. There isn't any daily crying. Kids are reading on their own. Math sneaks into our daily lives. Interesting scientific conversations are held around the dinner table.

Life is good. The kids are happy. I'm happy. So why can't I get over the fact that I feel like a slacker?

Last year, our homeschool life was filled with worksheets, and book lists, and a HUGE portfolio. I was able to track Andy's progress by the amount of "stuff" I had to prove we did work. Unschooling feels like we are just living life. We talk about science at dinner, program in scratch, and spontaneously read books all the time. Weekends. Christmas break. Even in the summer.

Why do I fall back on making our homeschool life so much like traditional school without the PTA meetings? We decided to school Andy at home because we knew that he wouldn't thrive in that environment. Why am I trying to emulate it, and feeling bad because I'm not?

I think mostly I have to get over myself and go with what is working for our family. Live our lives to the fullest. Explore our world-- be it a trip to the aviary or through cyberspace.

Day of Unschooling

2009-10-07T15:47:00.007-04:00

One Unschooled Day

*Wake up at 8:30

*Get kids to make own breakfast (cereal)

*Convince them to comeback and clean up breakfast mess

*Kids use Scratch to construct computer games, read bird books.
I start sewing bag for mother in law's birthday present.

*Leave for lunch. Kids choose to eat at Subway. Andy gets more diverse vegetables on his sub than I do. Jules just gets shredded cheese.

*Andy asks about the effects of catnip on cats. Asks if we can experiment on our own cats.

*Drive to local state park to visit the aviary. Park away from the aviary so that the kids (and mom) can get some exercise.

*Kids enjoy walk to birds: throw rocks in lake, identify leaves, marvel over the changing colors.

*Make it to the aviary, renew our acquaintances with the birds there. My boys LOVE owls. At the aviary there are 3 screech owls, 2 barn owls, 2 barred owls, and a great horned owl. There are also 2 red tailed hawks and a black vulture with only one wing. We get to see the vulture eat (not everyone would consider this a treat). I quiz my boys on owl and raptor facts, but they have committed owl books to memory and know more than I do.

*At a picnic table near the aviary, the boys draw owl pictures, making a find the mouse game (sometimes the tail is sticking out of the owl's mouth; sometimes it is in the owl pellet lying on the ground; sometimes, just to trick you, it is in the belly of the owl).
While they are drawing, I ask questions to help devise a scientific method-based experiment to test the effects of catnip on cats.

*Collect stuff and walk back to car, stop on the way home to buy sizable bag of catnip

*Go home and have dinner with dad and older brother. Kids play and talk to dad while I read and make bag to contain catnip for the next day's catnip experiment.

My boys engaged in reading, math, science, phys ed, home-ec and art activities. And no one cried. At least not because of school.

Unschool October

2009-10-06T13:54:00.004-04:00

Ok, so it has been a month since my last blog post. I had such high hopes. You can tell that I was the little girl who HAD to have the new diary with the lock and the picture of the kitty on it, and then after less than a week never wrote in it again. But I am going to try to blog more often. Not that I have any followers. So it really doesn't matter, but I will feel better about myself.

Anyway... Our school year started just fine. Both boys worked on work assigned to him-- the traditional math worksheets, reading books I picked, and writing/spelling practice. But it quickly returned to last year's dynamic: Andy crying in frustration over everything that I assigned him. He was especially frustrated when asked to read. His frustration was perhaps made worse by the fact that his little brother was quickly catching on to reading, and it has always been a struggle for Andy.

So there we were, Andy frustrated, Jules frustrated, me frustrated.... I decided to take the week off, and regroup. During his time, I was looking for ideas from homeschool books, and noticing that while we were having a week off, the boys were filling their time by doing just what they wanted to do. Sure, they played wii and watched some dvds, but they also read about owls, illustrated stories that had written, and designed computer programs.

Hey, I thought, I am reading about this. They are UNSCHOOLING!

So after talking to my husband and reading more on the subject, we decided that unschooling might just be the answer for us. I have some conflicting thoughts on the subject (how do I know what they are learning? what will my public school teacher mother think?) so I have dubbed the month "Unschool October," and we will be trying unschooling for the month. Then I will reevaluate my thoughts on the subject. But one week into it and so far, so good.

First Day of School

2009-09-01T14:42:00.003-04:00

This is the first day of our 2009-2010 school year. It could be said that one never stops homeschooling (including most families that send their kids "out" to school), so for me, today is the day that I start chronicling the things that we do to make the powers that be happy. I chose this day because their older brother started public school today. I think that if he had been at his mom's house this week, I would have waited until after labor day.

Today actually started last night when the kids would not go to sleep. I think they were a bit worked up over school starting. They are the best of friends and share a bedroom so it is always a bit of a task to get them to sleep, but last night seemed a little harder. I reminded them that they would be very grumpy when they had to get up at 7:30, and they were indeed.

We began the school day with a walk around the neighborhood. This is a new idea. I was not sure that they would take it well, but surprisingly they did. It was a beautiful morning with a touch of fall chill in the air. The boys spent the walk talking to me, and racing from sunny spot to sunny spot on the street. We talked to some neighbors, and it was a good time. They are excited to do it again, and I am, too. I think it is a great way to let them talk and get some of their ideas out before having to buckle down and work.

When we got back, I explained our new sticker reward system. In this system, the boys earn stickers which will accumulate and garner rewards at certain levels (20 stickers equals a Dairy Queen snack, 80 gets a trip to Chuck E Cheese). I debated a school=reward system before deciding that it was worth a try. Last year I had some difficulties getting my son to sit down and do things I needed him to do. He is still learning the basics, and there are things he needs to learn. With the sticker program they can earn a sticker for an overall good day, and for doing things especially well. Both boys are excited for this program, but my older son "gets it," and I am not sure that my younger one does entirely.

The public schools had a half day today, so I figured that we would have a light day as well. Their first task was to make a cover for their portfolio binders. Jules, my 5 year old, was finished quickly, while Andy (7) took over an hour --and several sheets of paper-- to tell the tale of a woman who had too many cats. And owls. With lots of owl pellets.

Jules read two early reader books, and got a sticker after a LOT of coaxing. This is his first year of formal homeschooling, and this summer he decided that it would be good to utilize his free will. I have a feeling things will be bumpy with Jules this fall.

Andy read a Magic School Bus phonics book and did a fantastic job. He doesn't like to read, because unlike everything else, reading doesn't come easy. He was taught phonics in kindergarten, and I think that he would have managed better with a whole word approach, as he still thinks he needs to sound EVERYTHING out. Including his name. And is it interesting, as he will sound out a word like climb, making the sound for every letter ( C-LIM-B), then know that it says climb. Last year we had a rough time, but I am happy to report that he read his book beautifully today. No complaints. I was very proud.

That was all for today. Andy got 2 stickers, Jules, 1. Tomorrow is a full day for public school and a longer day for us. Both boys are into owls this summer, so we are devoting the remainder of our abbreviated week to owls and birds. Books and crafts and bird watching. It should be fun.

I wish all of you a fantastic beginning to your school year.

New School Year

2009-08-31T21:38:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow is the beginning of a new school year in the raeleo home. My (almost) 15 year old stepson will begin his sophomore year of high school, and my two younger sons and I will be starting our homeschool year.

My son Andy, 7, was homeschooled last year, for first grade. Before that he had attended a Montessori school, and was very successful there. He had a wonderful teacher who worked hard with my bright, outside the box thinker. My husband and I were worried when we were faced with the prospect of sending our son to public school. We did not want to stiffle his creativity, or make him miserable (the teachers would drive him crazy, he would drive them crazy...) in the school options in our area. So we decided that the best option for him (and us) was to homeschool.

Our first year went well, though there were a few bumps in the road that come with one person being mother and teacher. But I think in the end, we were all happy with our choice.

This year Julian, 5, will be beginning kindergarten, and homeschooled. I have some trepidation when I think of teaching two boys with different learning styles and in different grades. My plan is to teach each on their own level for math, reading, and language arts. We will combine social studies, science and art.

This blog will follow the ups and downs of our school year. Hopefully there will be a lot more ups.