Wow, I have been posting like crazy lately. Hopefully everyone is keeping up with all of my blogging that I have been doing. I have to point out that I now have over 2000 hits on my blog!! I guess that is what keeps me writing. Thank you all who are interested in our life. :) LOL
Anyways, I was on one of my bulletin boards online tonight. It is 'Class of 2020' (that's when Brenna will be graduating) on Babycenter.com. Most of the moms there have kids going to public school (there are a couple homeschooling mom's there as well). There was a thread today about bed times. It had about 18 posts and as I was reading all of them I was just in awe about how early these kids who go to school have to wake up! All of these kids have to wake up anywhere between 6:15 - 7am ---- oh I could not even imagine having to wake my kid up that early. ESPECIALLY with as young as she is. Brenna gets as much sleep as she needs and for that I am sooooo thankful! Sleep is very important, for her development as well as her MOOD! LOL I was reading about how hard is it to wake them up and how grumpy they are all day (according to the teachers I guess??) and how unpleasant they are when they get home cuz they are just so TIRED. I just feel that my life is so much less stressful because we don't have a completely structured bedtime. Now don't get me wrong - Brenna DOES have a bedtime of about 9pm (weekends included) but it doesn't consume our evenings making sure that she gets to bed by 'this time' because she has to wake up at the crack of dawn to go to school. It's really not that big of a deal if she doesn't get to bed until almost 9:30 or 10. If she happens to fall asleep about 9pm then I know that she will be waking up at about 7:45 -- if she goes to bed closer to 10 then she will likely sleep until 8:30 or so.
I guess I just love the fact that, because I homeschool, my daughter gets all the sleep she needs and doesn't have to wake up at a ridiculous time to be sent off to school to be tired all day and made to do stuff that she really is not interested in at all.
Okay, so forgive me.... I have been on this "why I love to homeschool" kick all week - just ask Brendon (poor guy). I do this every now and again and I guess you all will just have to deal with it. HAHAHA!! :) I'm sure there will be more in the coming days. :) :) :)
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Nice Article
One of the Mom's in my homeschool group sent this out to everyone via email the other day. I thought it was worth posting on my blog. Kinda long but worth reading.
Knowing When to Back Off
By Barbara Frank
Sometimes new homeschooling moms ask me when they should teach their kids to read, or when to sign their children up for music lessons. New homeschooling moms naturally have a lot of questions, and some of them are "when" questions.
I think one of the most important questions a homeschooling mom can ask is when to back off, because sometimes we moms are so eager to do everything right that we overdo it.
For example, let's say your child is learning how to subtract fractions, and it's not going well. You can see that he's coming close to the point of losing it. You try to explain the concept in a different way but he's still not getting it. Instead, he's getting teary-eyed.
No matter what the "experts" say about what grade a child should be in when he learns how to subtract fractions, if you've got a child on the edge, you need to back off. He might not say so in words, but you know him well enough to see that he's hit the wall. Trust your knowledge of your child. Take a break from fractions for a while. You can always come back to it later.
Knowing when to back off doesn't just apply to the child who is overwhelmed by his schoolwork. Sometimes, we need to back off when our child is enthused about something. Years ago, I recall getting all excited over my kids' enthusiasm about frogs. It started when they found a frog in the basement window well and requested a container to put it in. I gave them an empty coffee can, and they caught the frog, named it, carried it around in the coffee can, and showed it to their friends. They gave it some grass and learned it wasn't interested in grass. They put a little water in the can in case it got thirsty. They were really into this frog.
Being a proactive mom who couldn't wait to capitalize on their newly discovered interest in frogs, I brought home a stack of library books about frogs, expecting them to pore over them in their excitement over their new pet. But they ignored the books. So I had them sit down with me so we could read about frogs. And you know what? That pretty much extinguished their interest in frogs. I didn't even get a chance to do the art project about frogs that I found in one of the books. In fact, I had to let the poor frog escape from his coffee can when his young owners forgot about him.
Over time I discovered that I had to let the kids learn freely instead of jumping in and turning an interest into a learning experience. This wasn't easy for me. My own reaction to something new that interests me is to investigate it by reading about it. But I needed to let my kids learn in their own way. I had to learn when to back off.
You can see where we often need to back off even though our intentions are good. But what if it's not a matter of intentions but instructions? For instance, the guide to the curriculum we're using has a timetable that's been tested by the experts. We won't complete the curriculum by the end of the year unless we stick to the timetable. And yet life keeps intervening, and we fall further and further behind, until it becomes obvious that we're never going to finish this curriculum in time.
What to do? We could:
institute seven-day-a-week school in order to catch up (that'll go over well, won't it?)
cut out something else that the kids are doing to leave more time for the curriculum.
just back off of the curriculum.
You knew I was going to pick #3, didn't you? Remember, curriculum is meant to serve you; you are not supposed to serve the curriculum. When you fall behind on a curriculum, something is wrong. The timetable might be too ambitious for your family. You might want to stretch the program over a longer time period, or combine lessons where possible. Or perhaps it's just not the right curriculum for you and your kids.
It's ok to admit that, by the way. Yes, I know you spent good money on it, but most of the time, you have no way of knowing how a curriculum will work for your family without actually trying it. Also, the curriculum might have been written for actual schools, which are very different from home schools. Such programs are more appropriate for captive audiences (i.e. schoolrooms) than people having a life.
Whatever the problem is, back off of the curriculum and come up with an alternate plan. Expect that this will often happen to you when you homeschool. If you're not already a flexible person, you will become one!
Of course, backing off is not something that comes naturally to most homeschooling moms. We're used to being proactive when it comes to our children's education. But if we can become aware of situations where backing off is the smart thing to do, we will see that homeschooling becomes easier for us. And that's always a good thing!
Copyright 2008 Barbara Frank/Cardamom Publishers
Knowing When to Back Off
By Barbara Frank
Sometimes new homeschooling moms ask me when they should teach their kids to read, or when to sign their children up for music lessons. New homeschooling moms naturally have a lot of questions, and some of them are "when" questions.
I think one of the most important questions a homeschooling mom can ask is when to back off, because sometimes we moms are so eager to do everything right that we overdo it.
For example, let's say your child is learning how to subtract fractions, and it's not going well. You can see that he's coming close to the point of losing it. You try to explain the concept in a different way but he's still not getting it. Instead, he's getting teary-eyed.
No matter what the "experts" say about what grade a child should be in when he learns how to subtract fractions, if you've got a child on the edge, you need to back off. He might not say so in words, but you know him well enough to see that he's hit the wall. Trust your knowledge of your child. Take a break from fractions for a while. You can always come back to it later.
Knowing when to back off doesn't just apply to the child who is overwhelmed by his schoolwork. Sometimes, we need to back off when our child is enthused about something. Years ago, I recall getting all excited over my kids' enthusiasm about frogs. It started when they found a frog in the basement window well and requested a container to put it in. I gave them an empty coffee can, and they caught the frog, named it, carried it around in the coffee can, and showed it to their friends. They gave it some grass and learned it wasn't interested in grass. They put a little water in the can in case it got thirsty. They were really into this frog.
Being a proactive mom who couldn't wait to capitalize on their newly discovered interest in frogs, I brought home a stack of library books about frogs, expecting them to pore over them in their excitement over their new pet. But they ignored the books. So I had them sit down with me so we could read about frogs. And you know what? That pretty much extinguished their interest in frogs. I didn't even get a chance to do the art project about frogs that I found in one of the books. In fact, I had to let the poor frog escape from his coffee can when his young owners forgot about him.
Over time I discovered that I had to let the kids learn freely instead of jumping in and turning an interest into a learning experience. This wasn't easy for me. My own reaction to something new that interests me is to investigate it by reading about it. But I needed to let my kids learn in their own way. I had to learn when to back off.
You can see where we often need to back off even though our intentions are good. But what if it's not a matter of intentions but instructions? For instance, the guide to the curriculum we're using has a timetable that's been tested by the experts. We won't complete the curriculum by the end of the year unless we stick to the timetable. And yet life keeps intervening, and we fall further and further behind, until it becomes obvious that we're never going to finish this curriculum in time.
What to do? We could:
institute seven-day-a-week school in order to catch up (that'll go over well, won't it?)
cut out something else that the kids are doing to leave more time for the curriculum.
just back off of the curriculum.
You knew I was going to pick #3, didn't you? Remember, curriculum is meant to serve you; you are not supposed to serve the curriculum. When you fall behind on a curriculum, something is wrong. The timetable might be too ambitious for your family. You might want to stretch the program over a longer time period, or combine lessons where possible. Or perhaps it's just not the right curriculum for you and your kids.
It's ok to admit that, by the way. Yes, I know you spent good money on it, but most of the time, you have no way of knowing how a curriculum will work for your family without actually trying it. Also, the curriculum might have been written for actual schools, which are very different from home schools. Such programs are more appropriate for captive audiences (i.e. schoolrooms) than people having a life.
Whatever the problem is, back off of the curriculum and come up with an alternate plan. Expect that this will often happen to you when you homeschool. If you're not already a flexible person, you will become one!
Of course, backing off is not something that comes naturally to most homeschooling moms. We're used to being proactive when it comes to our children's education. But if we can become aware of situations where backing off is the smart thing to do, we will see that homeschooling becomes easier for us. And that's always a good thing!
Copyright 2008 Barbara Frank/Cardamom Publishers
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
More Spelling....
Ok, yes, I have been posting a lot about Brenna's spelling that we have been doing. I guess, as a Mom, I just think it is so amazing what my little girl has been accomplishing and I just want to share it with everyone. She has been doing far more then I would have ever expected of her at this age and I am just in awe.
The first week and a half were a little rocky and she really fought me on it a lot - there were a lot of nerves tested and quite a few time-outs. LOL Most of you know my whole philosophy on homeschooling and learning (no force, make it fun, ect...) and this was really hard for me to deal with and I was extremely confused about what I was doing and what I should be doing. I really felt like I was going against everything that I believed and felt so strongly about. On one hand, I hated seeing her not like learning and just not having fun with it; but on the other hand I was thinking, "Okay kid - I am only asking about 15 minutes of your time. It's not like I am making you sit at the table and do hours and hours of work. Everyone has to do things that they don't like at SOME point." So after much debate with MYSELF I decided to just stick with it. Boy am I glad that I did! She has been doing fabulous and this week there has been no fighting or whining and she actually WANTS to do her spelling. We have been doing it the past two days at my Grandparent's house and they are both so proud of her and she is very eager to show them her work when she is finished.
Here was her spelling list from yesterday (the ones with an * are the one's that she really needed help with):
up
cup
pup
sup
good
wood
stood
could *
would
food
mood
brood
out *
shout
bout
lout
clout
flout
pout
spout
rout
grout
route *
should
eye
Today I gave her a 20 word test of random words from the first eight days and she did very well. She actually did better than I thought she would.
Now I think I need to have her start actually USING these words in sentences. Ooooo, maybe I will give her 10 spelling words and have her make a story using those 10 words?? She loves making books and drawing pictures and writing short little stories. We'll have to wait and see if she shoots my idea down - you never can tell with her. LOL
We also did some math tonight while I was cooking dinner. I had her do the review/test page from the latest lesson that we completely skipped and she got them all right. So tomorrow we will be on to the next lesson.
Another thing we did with math today was make hummingbird food. I love my hummingbirds and am always refilling my three feeders. I use one part sugar to four parts water and had Brenna figure it out for me. I gave her a 1/4 cup and asked her how many of them we needed to make a cup - she got it right. She then figured out the water and made it all by herself. Then I tested her knowledge and asked her how much sugar and water we would need to double it and she figured it out and got it right with no help!
I really am having such a great time with all this! It is so fun being a 'teacher' and seeing my daughter learn something new. It is very rewarding.
The first week and a half were a little rocky and she really fought me on it a lot - there were a lot of nerves tested and quite a few time-outs. LOL Most of you know my whole philosophy on homeschooling and learning (no force, make it fun, ect...) and this was really hard for me to deal with and I was extremely confused about what I was doing and what I should be doing. I really felt like I was going against everything that I believed and felt so strongly about. On one hand, I hated seeing her not like learning and just not having fun with it; but on the other hand I was thinking, "Okay kid - I am only asking about 15 minutes of your time. It's not like I am making you sit at the table and do hours and hours of work. Everyone has to do things that they don't like at SOME point." So after much debate with MYSELF I decided to just stick with it. Boy am I glad that I did! She has been doing fabulous and this week there has been no fighting or whining and she actually WANTS to do her spelling. We have been doing it the past two days at my Grandparent's house and they are both so proud of her and she is very eager to show them her work when she is finished.
Here was her spelling list from yesterday (the ones with an * are the one's that she really needed help with):
up
cup
pup
sup
good
wood
stood
could *
would
food
mood
brood
out *
shout
bout
lout
clout
flout
pout
spout
rout
grout
route *
should
eye
Today I gave her a 20 word test of random words from the first eight days and she did very well. She actually did better than I thought she would.
Now I think I need to have her start actually USING these words in sentences. Ooooo, maybe I will give her 10 spelling words and have her make a story using those 10 words?? She loves making books and drawing pictures and writing short little stories. We'll have to wait and see if she shoots my idea down - you never can tell with her. LOL
We also did some math tonight while I was cooking dinner. I had her do the review/test page from the latest lesson that we completely skipped and she got them all right. So tomorrow we will be on to the next lesson.
Another thing we did with math today was make hummingbird food. I love my hummingbirds and am always refilling my three feeders. I use one part sugar to four parts water and had Brenna figure it out for me. I gave her a 1/4 cup and asked her how many of them we needed to make a cup - she got it right. She then figured out the water and made it all by herself. Then I tested her knowledge and asked her how much sugar and water we would need to double it and she figured it out and got it right with no help!
I really am having such a great time with all this! It is so fun being a 'teacher' and seeing my daughter learn something new. It is very rewarding.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Just found this....
Apparently there was a show on Fox News tonight about homeschooling. Since I don't watch Fox News I found this on their website pertaining to it. Thought it was interesting.
"Homeschooling is no longer just an offbeat trend or an avant-garde educational choice. It is growing exponentially and its proponents are fighting for new legal rights in the U.S.
With more than 2 million homeschooled students in the United States, parents' reasons for opting out of traditional public school are as varied as their demographics.
"It used to be that homeschooling was the domain of people on the two extremes of the political spectrum, and now you have families from every possible religious, political, philosophical, socio-economic position," said Celeste Land, chairwoman of the Government Affairs Committee for the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers. "You name it, we've got it."
Land says many parents who decide to take on home education come to the decision after realizing they want more for their children than school districts are required to provide by law.
It's also the law that presents some of the toughest challenges. States and school districts have a disjointed jumble of ordinances and measures that can make it tough for parents to know exactly what they are permitted to do as homeschoolers.
The situation has galvanized a nationwide movement. Legal fights to establish homeschooling rights have been launched from California to Pennsylvania. In most cases, Land says, parents are just looking for clarification.
"A family comes to us and says the school district is looking for more than the law requires or won't let them do something they want to do," she said.
Dawn Johnson, a mother of four, believes the challenges are well worth the payoff. "I don't think anything beats one-on-one tutoring, and I am allowed to talk and teach each of my children individually based on their strengths and weaknesses and learning styles," she said. "They're not held back by students in a classroom."
Her strategy appears to be working. According to Johnson, her children are now testing at two grade levels ahead of their age group. Socialization is also covered, with Johnson committing her children to activities from soccer to choir at least four days a week.
"They're probably more socialized than kids who go to school and see the same children every day because we're doing different things every day," she said.
As for financial considerations, many homeschooling parents believe the time and money they spend teaching from home is a bargain compared to private school tuition.
"You get to choose your own curriculum," said Johnson. "You can get everything free online if you want."
Some parents are also fighting for tax credits, since their tax dollars are paying for a system their children aren't using. Land says it's "very tempting" to look at education tax credits as an option for homeschoolers, but cautioned that the credits could come with strings attached, and could invite even more unwanted regulation."
I really don't like that homeschooling is coming more and more prevalent. I like being under the radar because then less people are pushing for the Goverment to step in. The more popular it is the more I fear that federal changes may come and I don't know that it will be for the better.
Just my thoughts....
"Homeschooling is no longer just an offbeat trend or an avant-garde educational choice. It is growing exponentially and its proponents are fighting for new legal rights in the U.S.
With more than 2 million homeschooled students in the United States, parents' reasons for opting out of traditional public school are as varied as their demographics.
"It used to be that homeschooling was the domain of people on the two extremes of the political spectrum, and now you have families from every possible religious, political, philosophical, socio-economic position," said Celeste Land, chairwoman of the Government Affairs Committee for the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers. "You name it, we've got it."
Land says many parents who decide to take on home education come to the decision after realizing they want more for their children than school districts are required to provide by law.
It's also the law that presents some of the toughest challenges. States and school districts have a disjointed jumble of ordinances and measures that can make it tough for parents to know exactly what they are permitted to do as homeschoolers.
The situation has galvanized a nationwide movement. Legal fights to establish homeschooling rights have been launched from California to Pennsylvania. In most cases, Land says, parents are just looking for clarification.
"A family comes to us and says the school district is looking for more than the law requires or won't let them do something they want to do," she said.
Dawn Johnson, a mother of four, believes the challenges are well worth the payoff. "I don't think anything beats one-on-one tutoring, and I am allowed to talk and teach each of my children individually based on their strengths and weaknesses and learning styles," she said. "They're not held back by students in a classroom."
Her strategy appears to be working. According to Johnson, her children are now testing at two grade levels ahead of their age group. Socialization is also covered, with Johnson committing her children to activities from soccer to choir at least four days a week.
"They're probably more socialized than kids who go to school and see the same children every day because we're doing different things every day," she said.
As for financial considerations, many homeschooling parents believe the time and money they spend teaching from home is a bargain compared to private school tuition.
"You get to choose your own curriculum," said Johnson. "You can get everything free online if you want."
Some parents are also fighting for tax credits, since their tax dollars are paying for a system their children aren't using. Land says it's "very tempting" to look at education tax credits as an option for homeschoolers, but cautioned that the credits could come with strings attached, and could invite even more unwanted regulation."
I really don't like that homeschooling is coming more and more prevalent. I like being under the radar because then less people are pushing for the Goverment to step in. The more popular it is the more I fear that federal changes may come and I don't know that it will be for the better.
Just my thoughts....
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Good Week
Wow, did we have a GREAT week! First of all, the weather was so wonderful and it was in the low 80's just about everyday. No humidity and it was actually really pleasent to be outside - you didn't start to sweat after only five minutes. LOL It has warmed up quite a bit in the last couple days so that's kinda a bummer. Yes, we are getting extremely tired of the hot summer weather and we are ready for FALL! And we are ready for another camping trip too! Hopefully sometime next month we will be able to plan something (if's it cooler!) because all three of us are itching to go. My Mom and Dad might go with us - I actually talked my Mom into it! Her? Sleeping in a tent?! Yes, I think it might actually happen. :) (Love ya Mom!) Hunting season will be starting very soon so now I guess we'll have to see if we can drag my Dad away from the lease for a weekend. They have been going up a lot getting things prepared. Right now he is in Houston though helping restore the power from Hurricane Ike (he works for the electric company). He's been there for a week and should be home next Sunday.
So back to our fabulous week.... On Tuesday it was just way to beautiful to be inside for even a minute. Brenna spent most of the time in the backyard in her playhouse at my Grandma's while we were there. When we left there we went home, gathered her spelling curriculum, some snacks and drinks and headed to the park. We ended up staying at the park for three hours! We sat at the picnic table and did her spelling (which she did wonderful at!). I thought I'd make it a little fun and brought a candy bar with us, which she was able to take a bite of with every word she got correct. Well, with as good as she is spelling, the entire thing was gone after doing twenty words. My sister-in-law, Jenny and my cute little niece, Keira, met us there so it was nice because I actually got a picture with me in it. 
It was nice doing her school work at the park. What an advantage of homeschooling! I think we might do that a lot more once it starts to stay cool on a regular basis. Maybe next time we will even bring her math and a few books to read.
Speaking of math.... we have not really been doing it on a daily basis. I guess about three times a week has been the norm for us. I'm really not too worried about it because the stuff that we are doing right now is so easy for her and like I have said before, we are definitely not structured at all. We have actually skipped a lot of the worksheets and on a lot of the lessons I have just gone straight to the review/test page. She does it by herself, gets them all right and we are on to the next thing. No need spending a lot of time on "What's 7+0?" when she is already doing easy multiplication and adding bigger numbers. Now don't get me wrong, the entire curriculum is not going to be like this. After we get through a lot of the 'easy stuff' it will become a little more challenging for her. There are things like time and money that she has not mastered yet as wellas double digit addition, which we will be getting to very soon. In fact, I might just skip the next couple lessons completely because she is getting very bored with it already and she is just NOT having fun at all.
Here's a picture that I took a few weeks ago of her learning place value. She did have a blast with that and really seemed to enjoy it! It uses a big poster and it is called "Decimal Street". We played a few games and she picked it up very quickly.
So on Wednesday Brenna and I had a field trip with the homeschool group to the Arts and Heritage museum. It was pretty interesting and Brenna seemed to have a good time. I think her favorite part was getting to see her friends though. LOL At the museum they had the first house built in our city, along with the first post office, hospital and dentist. There were so many things from the 'oldin' days' (as Brenna calls it) and she got a kick out of seeing everything. Even though Brenna was very interested in certain things, I think it is a place that she would appreciate MORE if she were a little older.
Here's a couple pictures from the field trip....
Brenna's Map
Monday, September 15, 2008
New Stuff and One Proud Mama
Brenna and I have decided to start incorporating some geography into her home schooling and start learning about maps as well. I got on Amazon and ordered a few books about maps and simple geography stuff and figured we would start there. I've already received two of the three books and Brenna seems to like them a lot. One is about maps and globes and goes into detail about a lot of things, like making a map to scale and legends. The other book is called Geography From A to Z and has definitions along with pictures. Anyone know what a ford is? Well I will admit that I didn't. A ford is a shallow place in a stream where people and animals can safely wade from one bank to another. Please don't tell me that I am the only one who did not know that! LOL I think I will be learning a lot of cool stuff along with Brenna! :)
Anyway, I figured we would study a few definitions a week and do little art projects or find pictures on the Internet of the particular thing we are talking about. As far as the maps, I already have our world map up on the wall and she will be learning the seven continents and where they are located. We have a globe as well so I am sure that will come in handy. Maybe we'll even study a few little facts about some of the countries along the way.
The book from Amazon that I am waiting for is called Me On the Map. I remember my niece, Kastine, having that book and I thought it was really neat. It's about this kid and starts with a map of his room, then his house, then his street, city, state, ect... I think it does a good job at putting things in perspective for children.
In fact, today Brenna and I made a map of her room. We had the best time doing that and she did a great job. We worked on it for about an hour. It was a little difficult explaining to her how to look at her room from the top and just draw a rectangle for her bed instead of the actual bed with legs and everything (which she is so used to). She got it pretty quick though and did the whole room by herself. She made a legend and everything! I have some pictures on my camera that I took but I have to charge it before I can download them. I will try to remember to post them tomorrow.
Anyway, today was Brenna's fifth day for spelling and guess what word she spelled all by herself!!?? Beginning. Yep, that's right - my darling little 6 year old knows how to spell beginning. This curriculum is absolutely amazing. So how exactly did she get to spelling that word? It started with in, then be, then begin, then inning and before you know it we were at beginning today and she got it right! And it was so cool because on the very first day it has the student write the sentence, "We are all beginning to be good spellers" on a piece of paper. Now of course most of the words were not spelled right. Her sentence looked like this :
We r all begeney to bee good spelrs.
On the fifth day it says to show the student the paper again and show them how they spelled the word beginning. When Brenna saw that she actually spelled it right after only five days, she had the biggest and proudest smile on her face and I think it was right then and there that she realized what exactly she has been accomplishing. It was definitely one of those priceless moments that make me so grateful and happy to be my child's teacher.
Anyway, I figured we would study a few definitions a week and do little art projects or find pictures on the Internet of the particular thing we are talking about. As far as the maps, I already have our world map up on the wall and she will be learning the seven continents and where they are located. We have a globe as well so I am sure that will come in handy. Maybe we'll even study a few little facts about some of the countries along the way.
The book from Amazon that I am waiting for is called Me On the Map. I remember my niece, Kastine, having that book and I thought it was really neat. It's about this kid and starts with a map of his room, then his house, then his street, city, state, ect... I think it does a good job at putting things in perspective for children.
In fact, today Brenna and I made a map of her room. We had the best time doing that and she did a great job. We worked on it for about an hour. It was a little difficult explaining to her how to look at her room from the top and just draw a rectangle for her bed instead of the actual bed with legs and everything (which she is so used to). She got it pretty quick though and did the whole room by herself. She made a legend and everything! I have some pictures on my camera that I took but I have to charge it before I can download them. I will try to remember to post them tomorrow.
Anyway, today was Brenna's fifth day for spelling and guess what word she spelled all by herself!!?? Beginning. Yep, that's right - my darling little 6 year old knows how to spell beginning. This curriculum is absolutely amazing. So how exactly did she get to spelling that word? It started with in, then be, then begin, then inning and before you know it we were at beginning today and she got it right! And it was so cool because on the very first day it has the student write the sentence, "We are all beginning to be good spellers" on a piece of paper. Now of course most of the words were not spelled right. Her sentence looked like this :
We r all begeney to bee good spelrs.
On the fifth day it says to show the student the paper again and show them how they spelled the word beginning. When Brenna saw that she actually spelled it right after only five days, she had the biggest and proudest smile on her face and I think it was right then and there that she realized what exactly she has been accomplishing. It was definitely one of those priceless moments that make me so grateful and happy to be my child's teacher.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Getting Better
So our second week went much better then the first did. Brenna got her math and her spelling finished everyday with little protesting. She's been practicing writing her numbers everyday and there has been a drastic improvement in just five days. She no longer writes some numbers backwards and is forming them much better - I am very proud!
I have been really impressed with her spelling as well. I purchased this curriculum called Sequential Spelling and it basically just starts with small words and then they just build on each other. For example, the first day her words were in, pin, sin and spin. She does not study the list at all. Her spelling time basically just consists of a spelling test that she corrects as we go. I have a little white board that AFTER she spells the word on her own then we break it down together. That starts teaching her the patters in words (like the -in in sin, ect..). If she gets it incorrect then she erases it and fixes it. The second day the words were pins, sins, spins, kin, skin, win and twin. The third day introduced the word be. By the forth day she was spelling words like pinning, sinning, winning, begins and inner. She kinda had a hard time with the first -ing word but by the end she was doing great! A lot of women in my homeschool group have used this before and I heard nothing but good things about it. So far it has been wonderful!! We have been working on her writing as well, along with the spelling.
Brenna has also been practicing and perfecting her left from her right. Grandma Dawn bought her a video game for our Wii and it is a Hannah Montana dance moves game. And I tell you what - she has learned her right from her left much better THAT way then me trying to teach her! LOL
Anyways, here's a picture of Brenna's spelling test from her forth day. She wanted me to post it so everyone could see how well she did. :)
And here is a pictures of Brenna mastering her left and right. LOL
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Couldn't Resist
I found this site tonight that had t-shirts on sale. I ordered this one for me. LOL Couldn't pass it up!
Friday, September 05, 2008
Off To A (Somewhat) Great Start
So in my perfect little homeschooling world, my daughter would be the easiest child to ever teach. She would sit right down at the table (or wherever we decided to do our work) after being asked only one time, with a big 'teach-me-Mommy' smile on her face. She would listen very intently as I explained something and pay attention without interrupting twenty times and asking totally irrelevant questions. She would do her work like a good little student without complaining at all and we would be finished with everything we had to do in very little time. She would not scowl as I have her erase something that was not correct and would just happily do as I ask without making little huffy noises. Ahhhhh, sounds so tranquil and perfect, doesn't it?
So I'm assuming you have figured out that our first week has not gone quite like this. Ok, nothing like this, in fact. I happen to have a wonderful, but very opinionated and stubborn little girl. Oh how I love her!! :) Does she do all that I ask of her? Yes, she does (eventually) and for that I AM grateful - it could be worse I suppose.
As all of you who keep up with my blog know, I purchased our first formal curriculum for math. We have been doing it everyday this week and I am so proud of both of us. LOL We are actually going through it very quickly and skipping most of the repetitive stuff because it is just way too easy for her and she is very bored and says that it is "baby stuff". Next week we will be getting into more challenging things so I am hoping that might help a little bit with her attitude. Maybe it also has something to do with this just being the first week of school for us and getting into a routine. I guess we'll see.
I did get her spelling curriculum in the mail today and I was so excited! We will be adding that to the math starting next week. As for 'table work' that's all we will be doing this year.
Ok, so if anyone wants to send Brenna some encouraging words then by all means PLEASE DO! bmspear@sbcglobal.net
Hopefully it will be a better week next week. :)
So I'm assuming you have figured out that our first week has not gone quite like this. Ok, nothing like this, in fact. I happen to have a wonderful, but very opinionated and stubborn little girl. Oh how I love her!! :) Does she do all that I ask of her? Yes, she does (eventually) and for that I AM grateful - it could be worse I suppose.
As all of you who keep up with my blog know, I purchased our first formal curriculum for math. We have been doing it everyday this week and I am so proud of both of us. LOL We are actually going through it very quickly and skipping most of the repetitive stuff because it is just way too easy for her and she is very bored and says that it is "baby stuff". Next week we will be getting into more challenging things so I am hoping that might help a little bit with her attitude. Maybe it also has something to do with this just being the first week of school for us and getting into a routine. I guess we'll see.
I did get her spelling curriculum in the mail today and I was so excited! We will be adding that to the math starting next week. As for 'table work' that's all we will be doing this year.
Ok, so if anyone wants to send Brenna some encouraging words then by all means PLEASE DO! bmspear@sbcglobal.net
Hopefully it will be a better week next week. :)
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Homeschool Group
Next week our home school group that we are part of will be starting back up again after a summer that has seemed to last forever. I know Brenna is ready to get back to seeing her friends on a regular basis and I am ready to start back up with a schedule of things to do. Wednesday will be our first Report Day. Not sure if Brenna will be doing any kind of report, but it's fun seeing the other kids do theirs and then having pizza and playground time afterwards. The co-ops will start up again in October and it will be for 6 weeks. With the election going on this year all of the classes will be doing something related to Presidents, government, elections, etc... I will be in the Kinder/1st grade class again. Brenna is looking very forward to it - she had so much fun last year in the co-ops.
I've decided that we will be starting our math curriculum on Tuesday as well as working on writing and spelling. I have my shelf that I keep everything on all cleaned off and organized and ready to go. I also made a new board to put up Brenna's school work (good incentive because only her BEST work goes up there) and I also finally hung up our world map! I have been wanting to do that for so long but could not find a place for it. It will be used for our fruit and vegetable stickers - we'll start placing the stickers that come on the food to see where they are grown and where they come from. Hopefully that will escalate into her asking questions about the different countries and we'll do some geography things this year too. I really do wish I had an entire room just for home school stuff but oh well. Maybe one of these days. We have really been considering closing in our carport so maybe my existing computer room will become Brenna's school room eventually. I guess I'm not in too big of a hurry for that just yet. I'm sure it will be nice once she gets older though.
So pretty soon I will start posting pictures of our home school functions as well as writing more about what Brenna is doing and learning. I am also going to let her start writing more posts on here as well. She really, really wants her very own blog but I told her that she is going to have to learn how to spell before she can do that. Needless to say, she is very pumped up about her spelling lessons this year! LOL
I've decided that we will be starting our math curriculum on Tuesday as well as working on writing and spelling. I have my shelf that I keep everything on all cleaned off and organized and ready to go. I also made a new board to put up Brenna's school work (good incentive because only her BEST work goes up there) and I also finally hung up our world map! I have been wanting to do that for so long but could not find a place for it. It will be used for our fruit and vegetable stickers - we'll start placing the stickers that come on the food to see where they are grown and where they come from. Hopefully that will escalate into her asking questions about the different countries and we'll do some geography things this year too. I really do wish I had an entire room just for home school stuff but oh well. Maybe one of these days. We have really been considering closing in our carport so maybe my existing computer room will become Brenna's school room eventually. I guess I'm not in too big of a hurry for that just yet. I'm sure it will be nice once she gets older though.
So pretty soon I will start posting pictures of our home school functions as well as writing more about what Brenna is doing and learning. I am also going to let her start writing more posts on here as well. She really, really wants her very own blog but I told her that she is going to have to learn how to spell before she can do that. Needless to say, she is very pumped up about her spelling lessons this year! LOL
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
What If?
Ok, so I am totally obsessing about this stupid Hurricane Gustav that is out in the Caribbean right now - I know it's a little pre-mature and probably for no good reason. I guess since we got hit by Hurricane Dolly I have now realized that we are not immune to a Katrina-type storm and that it really could happen. I just looked at the doppler radar and they do have it going more towards Louisiana now and that makes me feel a little better about our safety BUT you never know what these things are going to do - especially since it is still a ways out there. We will know more in the next couple of days.
Since we went through Dolly though I guess we realize a little more now exactly what these stinkin' hurricanes can do. Dolly, as a category 2, was very powerful! I could not even fathom a 3 or higher like Gustav will be.
I am a total weather-freak though and you will find me on the doppler when I hear a little bit of thunder or see a dark cloud looming overhead. I used to not be like that until I married my wonderful, paranoid husband. :) I guess you can say he has rubbed off on me a bit. LOL
For those who don't know me too well, I am a total list-maker and am pretty much lost without them. Since this hurricane has been threatening us I have been creating my "head list" as to what we would take IF we were to evacuate. That is a scary thing - evacuating your home that you have everything that you own inside of it. What would you take from your entire house that would fit inside the back of your car?? Of course, there are the obvious things like pictures and house deeds and insurance stuff but if you were to think, "I might never see any of this stuff again..." what would you take?? I have so many things in my house that really mean a lot to me. There are my Precious Moments - I don't have many BUT they all were bought for me at a certain point in my life - they have meaning; there's my stained glass lamp that I want to eventually be a heirloom. Yes, those are just examples and things that COULD be replaced but they are mine and things that mean a lot to me. Some of you are probably saying that they are just materialistic things and you are right. But look around your house and notice all of the things that have some sort of sentimental value to you and tell me how many things that you could fit in the back of a car?
Since we went through Dolly though I guess we realize a little more now exactly what these stinkin' hurricanes can do. Dolly, as a category 2, was very powerful! I could not even fathom a 3 or higher like Gustav will be.
I am a total weather-freak though and you will find me on the doppler when I hear a little bit of thunder or see a dark cloud looming overhead. I used to not be like that until I married my wonderful, paranoid husband. :) I guess you can say he has rubbed off on me a bit. LOL
For those who don't know me too well, I am a total list-maker and am pretty much lost without them. Since this hurricane has been threatening us I have been creating my "head list" as to what we would take IF we were to evacuate. That is a scary thing - evacuating your home that you have everything that you own inside of it. What would you take from your entire house that would fit inside the back of your car?? Of course, there are the obvious things like pictures and house deeds and insurance stuff but if you were to think, "I might never see any of this stuff again..." what would you take?? I have so many things in my house that really mean a lot to me. There are my Precious Moments - I don't have many BUT they all were bought for me at a certain point in my life - they have meaning; there's my stained glass lamp that I want to eventually be a heirloom. Yes, those are just examples and things that COULD be replaced but they are mine and things that mean a lot to me. Some of you are probably saying that they are just materialistic things and you are right. But look around your house and notice all of the things that have some sort of sentimental value to you and tell me how many things that you could fit in the back of a car?
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Non-Sense Post...
So I am a little bored and just jumped right on my blog to write a post. Yes, I probably will ramble a bit but no better place to do that then here I guess. I'm actually pretty proud of myself to be posting as much as I have. I really enjoy it though - I love to write. I used to write poetry and short stories all the time but have not been able to do that for a while. I guess I could be a little more productive and do other things right now, rather than writing a bunch of non-sense on my blog but oh well. LOL I have a pile of laundry to do, could probably clean up the kitchen a bit and possibly clean my bedroom BUT it's not going anywhere - THAT'S for sure. I wish it would just sometimes 'disappear' or magically get done but it does a really good job at staying right in it's place until I get around to doing it. LOL I actually spent almost all afternoon cleaning my house so I don't feel too guilty. Brenna spent a couple of hours cleaning her room today. It would have probably only taken about 30 minutes but she gets side-tracked very easily and plays more than she cleans. Maybe Dea Jae can relate to that because Brendon says that she reminds him of himself when he was little. I used to help her clean her room but lately I have been leaving it up to her. I guess at some point you have to teach them some sort of responsibility and ownership. I have explained to her that that is HER space and HER things and she is responsible for taking care of it and cleaning it. She does a good job for the most part and I don't really have to help her much anymore. She can do a wonderful job at completely trashing her room so I am hoping that she will learn that if SHE has to clean it then maybe she won't make such a mess. So far it has not been working. I keep telling myself - consistency, consistency, consistency. It will eventually sink in (just like other things have after almost giving up). It seems like it takes forever but it does work. They do 'get it' eventually. Ok, so enough about cleaning. I do that enough, I shouldn't have to write about it. LOL
So tomorrow is the day that all of the public schools start class. I've been seeing everyone at the grocery store and Wal-Mart with school supply lists in hand and shopping carts full of notebooks, pencils, pens and folders. School clothes shopping has been going, I'm sure. My thought on that? Thank God I don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on supplies and clothes for my child right now!!! :)
I do remember the hard time that I had last year right about now. Brenna would have been starting Kindergarten and I was a complete mess. I cried for days before beforehand. Not because I was doubting my decision to home school (okay, maybe a TAD bit) - I guess I was feeling a little guilty because she was not going to experience the "first day of Kinder" thing. Yes, I am sooo over that now. LOL I guess that may be one of the things that you go through when you first decide to home school. It is a very emotional thing - at least for me it was. But I have learned that yes, my daughter will, in fact, play and interact with other kids; she will learn VERY much and yes, I AM a very wonderful teacher. I am much more educated on homeschooling now then I was at this time last year. We also have our wonderful home school group that we are very involved in and I am so thankful for that. There are over 100 people in our group now and she has many, many friends. Since she dropped out of karate I am going to get her into something else very soon. She has mentioned wanting to start karate again as well as gymnastics so I will have to discuss with her what she wants to do.
So I mentioned in my last post that we will be starting school tomorrow. Well I'm not sure that will happen as planned. I wanted to hype it up this past weekend and make a big deal out of the whole thing but I never got around to that. Yes, my mistake. I feel very strongly about making a big production out of it but had my doubts until my sister-in-law, Lisa, agreed with me and justified my feelings on that so we will probably wait until Wednesday (or maybe even next Monday) to start. We'll see what happens - like I have said before, we are going to be very relaxed in our home schooling again this year.
Ok, my laundry is calling my name and so is my bed. Maybe I can get one load done before hitting the sack.
Till fingers and keyboard meet again.......
So tomorrow is the day that all of the public schools start class. I've been seeing everyone at the grocery store and Wal-Mart with school supply lists in hand and shopping carts full of notebooks, pencils, pens and folders. School clothes shopping has been going, I'm sure. My thought on that? Thank God I don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on supplies and clothes for my child right now!!! :)
I do remember the hard time that I had last year right about now. Brenna would have been starting Kindergarten and I was a complete mess. I cried for days before beforehand. Not because I was doubting my decision to home school (okay, maybe a TAD bit) - I guess I was feeling a little guilty because she was not going to experience the "first day of Kinder" thing. Yes, I am sooo over that now. LOL I guess that may be one of the things that you go through when you first decide to home school. It is a very emotional thing - at least for me it was. But I have learned that yes, my daughter will, in fact, play and interact with other kids; she will learn VERY much and yes, I AM a very wonderful teacher. I am much more educated on homeschooling now then I was at this time last year. We also have our wonderful home school group that we are very involved in and I am so thankful for that. There are over 100 people in our group now and she has many, many friends. Since she dropped out of karate I am going to get her into something else very soon. She has mentioned wanting to start karate again as well as gymnastics so I will have to discuss with her what she wants to do.
So I mentioned in my last post that we will be starting school tomorrow. Well I'm not sure that will happen as planned. I wanted to hype it up this past weekend and make a big deal out of the whole thing but I never got around to that. Yes, my mistake. I feel very strongly about making a big production out of it but had my doubts until my sister-in-law, Lisa, agreed with me and justified my feelings on that so we will probably wait until Wednesday (or maybe even next Monday) to start. We'll see what happens - like I have said before, we are going to be very relaxed in our home schooling again this year.
Ok, my laundry is calling my name and so is my bed. Maybe I can get one load done before hitting the sack.
Till fingers and keyboard meet again.......
Thursday, August 21, 2008
1st Grade Already!
So our summer time is winding down a bit and we are going to officially start school next week. Brenna has been asking when we are going to start and she's pretty excited about it. She was hounding me today as I was cleaning off the shelf that I have all of the homeschool stuff stored on, so I handed her some worksheets so that she could practice writing her numbers. That seemed to satisfy her and she did really well. She told me that she is looking most forward to math. She LOVES math and talks (and learns) about it all the time. On our way back from camping we went to Burger King for lunch and she got these little math flash cards with a secret decoder thing - that kept her busy in the car for over an hour and she had lots of fun with it. I did purchase a math curriculum at the Homeschool Convention so we'll start that again on Monday. We did some at the beginning of the summer after I got it (she couldn't wait!) but then we just got so busy and it's been on the shelf. It seems fairly simple and a lot of it she knows already but that just means we'll fly right through it and it will also boost her confidence instead of starting with something hard. I don't want her to get frustrated at all at this age. I want her to keep the "learning is fun" mentality for as long as possible. I am a true believer in not tainting learning at an early age. I think that happens a lot in schools and that's why so many kids hate school and hate anything to do with any kind of formal learning. That's why I am putting off school-like, 'full blown' curriculum until Brenna is about eight. Yes, we will have our math and still practice writing and do fun science projects, but as for a sit-at-the-table-and-work-for-hours type thing, that will just have to come a little later. I am still going to be very laid-back this year and let Brenna do most of the leading when it comes to her school work. It's worked GREAT so far and she knows so much and has FUN learning new things. According to the book I have on what kids learn at each grade, she is still well beyond what she would be learning in public school this year. So I am going to take advantage of that and just have another fun year. Like I said, we will have certain things that we do but will we do them every day? Probably not. Will she still learn lots and lots of things this year? Of course!
That is what I truly love about homeschooling. The force and the monotony is taken out of learning and you end up with a child who craves knowledge.
That is what I truly love about homeschooling. The force and the monotony is taken out of learning and you end up with a child who craves knowledge.
Field Trip to a Farm
Yesterday the homeschool group had a field trip to one of our member's farm. We had such a great time and saw lots of animals. They had a baby llama running around, lots of goats, chickens and a milking cow. The kids got to milk a goat, feed the chickens, gather fresh eggs and shell corn using an old John Deere corn sheller. They fed their very own shelled corn to the chickens.
We even got to taste fresh cows milk (cold, not warm) and it was so, so delicious! Kim (the lady who owns the farm) gives milk to some of the homeschool Moms (she gets 2 gallons a day from her cow!) so I might ask her about it.
Here's a few pictures I took - Brenna next to a chicken (very nervous I might add LOL), Brenna shelling corn and then with an egg she found.
We even got to taste fresh cows milk (cold, not warm) and it was so, so delicious! Kim (the lady who owns the farm) gives milk to some of the homeschool Moms (she gets 2 gallons a day from her cow!) so I might ask her about it.
Here's a few pictures I took - Brenna next to a chicken (very nervous I might add LOL), Brenna shelling corn and then with an egg she found.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Swimming and Hiking and Tents.... OH MY!!
We had such a wonderful time on our camping trip! We went swimming in the river everyday and went hiking a couple times as well. We never did get to go tubing down the river because it was very low this year. It would have included LOTS of walking so it wouldn't have been much fun. I took a lot more pictures this time and will post a link at the end of the post.When we got there on Monday it was so hot and humid and we were sweating non-stop. It didn't really get any cooler when the sun went down so we were pretty bummed out, thinking that it was going to be miserably hot the entire time. Last year it was really nice and cool. Well Tuesday morning it rained a bunch and after that the weather was sooo much better and we actually used blankets at night because it got chilly.
We had a great time with Dea Jae and Dave and it was nice spending so much time with them. They left Wednesday and it was sad to see them go. We really missed them that last day. We are hoping that they will go with us again.
So we hiked up Old Baldy again this year! I was a little more nervous about it then last year because I knew what I was getting myself into. It's NOT easy. Brendon and Brenna were very excited and talked a reluctant mommy into going. It was fun though and very rewarding when we finally made it to the top. I timed it this time and it took us a little over an hour to reach the top. Brenna did much better this year and did most of the climbing by herself this time. There are lots of pictures in the slideshow at the end of our hike up Old Baldy.
We were definitely not ready to leave Thursday morning but all good things must come to an end. We are already talking about our next camping trip though. We'd like to go back to Lake Corpus Christi in the fall when it is nice and cool. So we'll be looking for that first cool front very carefully! :)
(Here is the link for the slideshow of our pictures)
Videos from Garner
Dea Jae took a few videos while we were at Garner. Thought I would post a couple to see if it worked.... (they might take a little while to load up)
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
We're Going Camping!!
We are so very excited about another camping trip to Garner State Park next week! We had such a GREAT time last year and from the minute we got home, we couldn't wait to go back.Our yearly trip in finally almost here and it can't come soon enough. :) Brenna is really pumped up about going and can't wait to sleep outside in the tent, cook s'mores on the fire, go swimming and hike up the huge hill again. It's going to be so cool for her this year since she knows how to swim now. She can actually go underwater this
time with her goggles and see all the huge riverbed rocks and fish swimming (very!) near by. I will have to buy her a water proof camera - I think she'll like that because she LOVES to take pictures. We don't have any pictures of us from last year tubing and playing in the river either, so that will be nice.Dea Jae and Dave (Brendon's Mom and Step-Dad) are going with us this time and we are looking so forward to spending some good quality "camping time" with them. It will be so much fun! I'm telling you - there's nothing quite like being outdoors and 'roughing it' for a few days with the people you love. No tv, no electricity, no housework or errands to run - just you and nature. Okay, now I'm getting a little cheesy. LOL :)
I've been getting things ready all week and have a lot of stuff together already. I am a very organized person (at least I like think so) and it takes me about a week to get things ready and make my lists. I created a camping list on the computer from our previous trips and that makes it a lot easier this time then coming up with one from scratch. There's a lot involved with getting ready for a four day trip. It's not like you can just run up to the store and buy something that you forgot - well you probably could but it would be a real pain. It is nice this time too because I don't have to spend nearly as much money since we have accumulated so many things from our other trips. We now have a Rubbermaid box in the shed that has all of our kitchen/cooking stuff, as well as another box that has other camping necessities. So pretty much half of my list is already packed in boxes that we just have to pull out and load up.
So we are leaving on Sunday and will be driving up to San Antonio and staying at Dea Jae's that night. We'll do all of the grocery shopping up there and get some of the food prepared the night before. I like to pre-make eggsalad and tuna salad for lunch, as well as cut up some of the things we use (onions, peppers, meat for 'kabobs) and freeze all the meat so it stays longer in the ice chests.
On Monday morning we will leave S.A. and go to Garner, which isn't too far away. Dea Jae and Dave are going to stay until Wednesday and Brendon, Brenna and I will go home on Thursday. I would just absolutely love to stay for an entire week but Brendon can't take that much time off work. I told him that next year I would like to stay for about four or five nights - but we'll see.
Anyways, I probably will not post again until we get home next week. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures to share and I know I will have a few funny stories to tell as well. Wish us luck and GOOD WEATHER! :)
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