WooHoo It's Summer Break

But What does that mean for us?

We home school year round, so what does Summer break look like for us? Pretty much the same as everyone elses, but in a smaller dose....wait what?

We have 3 weeks off for Summer Break. July 11th through the 29th. BUT for the past 6 weeks and for the 6 weeks following our break we only school 3 days a week. Also because we run on a 6 week on 1 week off schedule we get more free time during the "school year" that those in a traditional school setting don't get.

What can I say about our homeschool journey so far....it has been AMAZING!! For those just clicking in to this blog I pulled my 6 and 7 year old from public school at the Winter/Christmas break (semester end). So for the entire second semester we have been on our home school journey and we are all so much happier. Less fighting, less struggle, less attitude, more sleeping, more family time, more one on one individualized learning.

We are DEFINITELY moving forward with home school and it works well for us. We have had some strange looks, some lost acquaintances, some snooty comments, and blatant eye rolling lip curling attitude from people but you know what....even that is a good learning experience for us. I saw US because we are all learning together, moving forward together, growing together and I wouldn't have it any other way.

So what does Summer break have in store for us? A water park trip, our first professional ball game, a couple Fairs, camping, swimming, exploring....yep just like everyone else! 

What about vacation? We have a little something in the planning stage, BUT we are waiting until school gets back in session so we don't have to fight the crowds hehe! 

During this siesta for the kids the home school mom role isn't so much on break. Sometime within this 3 weeks off I need to write up our year end reports (for our own record keeping purposes). Do some more research and get a schedule lined up for how we will be starting back up and I plan to get some projects planned out. BUT I can do all that pool side with a nice cool drink in my hand because it's Summer Time Baby!

Loving this journey! Schooling As We Grow!

July 4th, 2016

A Great American Holiday. One known for playing outside, barbecues, fireworks, and fun. This year the 4th fell on a Monday so we did out big party and firework show on the Saturday before. When we woke up on Monday to a rainy dreary day I thought it was the perfect time for a school lesson.

WHAT?! School on a Holiday!
Yep! We did school on a holiday, because it was a good teaching moment.

It didn't take long. There is a plethora or information and ideas on the internet. YouTube video's galore and project out the wazoo.

Here is what I went with, but I tweaked it a little for our use: http://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2011/07/02/do_this_for_10_minutes_on_the_fourth_of_july

I set the kids up with a coloring sheet while I read and asked them questions.

Before America was a nation, it was a dream -- a dream shared by many people, from many nations, over many generations.

It began with the Pilgrims in 1620, who fled Europe so that they could be free to practice their religion. It continued through the 17th century, as more and more people arrived in a place that came to be known as the New World. In this new world, where you were from didn't matter; what mattered was where you were headed.

As more and more people settled, they started to see themselves as new people -- Americans.

They felt blessed: The land was spacious. The opportunities limitless.

By 1776, a century and a half after the first Pilgrims landed, this new liberty-loving people was ready to create a new nation.

And on July 4 of that year, they did just that. They pronounced themselves to be free of the rule of the English king. We know this statement as the Declaration of Independence.

Q: Why do we celebrate the Fourth of July?

A: Because the Fourth of July is the birthday of the American people -- the day we chose to become the United States of America, a free nation.

Q: Why was America different from all other countries?

A: Because in 1776, all countries were based on nationality, religion, ethnicity or geography. But America was created on the basis of a set of ideas. This is still true today.

Q: What are those ideas?

A: Three ideas summarize what America is all about. They are engraved on every American coin. They are "Liberty," "In God We Trust" and "E Pluribus Unum."

No. 1: "Liberty" means that we are free to pursue our dreams and to go as far in life as hard work and good luck will take us.

No. 2: "In God We Trust" means that America was founded on the belief that our rights and liberties have been granted to us by the Creator. Therefore they cannot be taken away by people.

No. 3: "E Pluribus Unum" is a Latin phrase meaning "From Many, One." Unlike other countries, America is composed of people of every religious, racial, ethnic, cultural and national origin -- and regards every one of them as equally American. Therefore, "out of many (people we become) one" -- Americans.

We Then stood together and said the Pledge Of Allegiance to our flag: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

We then talked about or flag. What it looked like in the beginning and what it looks like now and looked at several pictures on-line.
 Its Symbols

The stripes represent the 13 original colonies.

The 50 stars represent the number of states.

The colors of the flag have meaning as well:

• Red symbolizes Hardiness and Valor.
• White symbolizes Purity and Innocence.
• Blue represents Vigilance, Perseverance and Justice.

They each finger painted their own flags and after they were dry we hung them on the wall in our dining room...and will stay there for a while.

They were so eager to learn and soaked up all the knowledge they could. After doing the flag project we listed to the Star Spangled Banner and God Bless America.

Then we went out to celebrate and play in our own ways Schooling As We Grow!

School is still "in" this Summer

Public School is out for the Summer, but we are still chugging along. Why? To prevent Summer learning loss, to continue to stimulate their ever learning brains, to have “stuff” to do, and a whole host of other reasons.

We just came off of a two week break…yes two weeks. I had us scheduled for one week off, but we were tired plus had things to do so we took two weeks off instead….benefit of making our own schedule at its best! For the next several weeks we will be doing three day school weeks (it is Summer and we need all the sun we can soak up).  So Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we will carve out a couple hours of time to sit and read, do math, writing, and whatever else we want to do.  At the end of this next 6 week stint we will have 3 weeks off before starting back up in new grades!

The plan for right now is to keep chugging along with reviewing, doing practice writing (I have one sloppy child that needs lots of practice), reading, reading comprehension, and did I say reading….there will be a lot of that. The kids are participating in a Library program for the Month of June and then a reading challenge through July.

On a personal note we now have a pool set up in our backyard, the kids have a makeshift pallet club house, the patio will be getting a chalk board for outside school time (and some play time I am sure) this week and the yard is nearly cleaned up for Summer enjoyment! I love watching the kids explore and use their imagination. They find toads daily, build habitats, plant apple seeds (or any seed they can find) daily in random places all over the yard, climb, jump, ride bikes and come up with clever ideas to make things. They play so well together, ages 6 and 7, I am so glad they have each other.

Enjoy Summer everyone! Don’t forget to keep giving kids things to do to exercise and expand their minds whether it be “school work” or free imagination time. They are learning as they grow!

Schooling on the Go. In the Real World. Doing Real Things. Socializing with Real People. 

We went on our first real "Field Trip" today. After I labelled it as "Field Trip" and told the kids we were going on a real field trip I had a brain bubble moment. What is a REAL field trip? What is a FIELD TRIP? Why am I calling our learning experiences by school associated names?

So what we actually did today was go out in the Real World and we learned Real Things with Real People. We also did it in an organized way. Our trip to the zoo was not a reward, free for all, hurry as fast as you can through the exhibits so you can chat with your friends on the playground and retain no useful information experience.

On a Facebook group I am a part of another parent was asking questions about creating worksheets for their child to do at the zoo. Another parent commented "why do you need to do anything? Just let them experience it!" I contemplated and read all the opinions and came to this conclusion: What is a school field trip for a Kindergarten/First Grader? It is an experience, a treat for a year well done, a light at then end of the year long tunnel...is it meant to be a unit study on the habitat and eating habits of the Ring Tailed Lemur? No. BUT why can't it be? For one- to organize and help each student learn about specific animals throughout the zoo would be a HUGE undertaking and quite frankly impossible with a group of 20 or more kids in this age group.

It's also one of the PROS of Homeschooling! We were not on any time table. We didn't have to worry about bus drivers and leaving at a certain time to make it back for school dismissal. We took our time, explored, read animal facts, while also partaking in all the activities and had ample playground time. The kids both said they had the BEST DAY EVER!

So what did I have them do? A scavenger hunt of sorts...

I made it available for Free here if you would like to see the entire thing or use it yourself:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Zoo-Field-Trip-2554514

When we arrived at the zoo there were 6 buses there...all filled with kids that ranged in age from 4 to 8 years old I would guess. When we entered I asked if there was a combined or group ticket that would purchase the admission fee plus the additional activities inside the Zoo. The lady asked if we were part of one of the field trips, to which I answered that we were homeschoolers. To my surprise she said "Oh that is great, I will just let you guys in at the field trip rate." SAY WHAT!! 2 adults, 2 kids (the little was free) admission, train, carousal, animal feed, and a snowcone for each of us for a TOTAL of $26!! I love the small benefits and acts of support we get from certain places!

We all had a blast meeting new people and they each made a friend they hung around with for a while on the playground. We actually learned about some of the animals instead of rushing through with a slight glance into cages. The kids enjoyed filling out their worksheets, using team work to find answers. They constantly asked questions like what a certain animal ate and I feel like it was a great learning experience for them. 

We will definitely be doing more of these hands on, go out in the world and learn, activities. If I can give any advice it's to not over plan. There is a small museum next to the zoo that I thought we might have time for today, but we didn't and that is okay. We arrived at the zoo about 10:30 (after waking up, getting ready, packing a picnic lunch, and driving an hour to get there) and left just before 3 (I wanted to be out of town before the local factories shift was over at 3). We did not have to rush, we let the kids explore at their pace, and they had lots of free play time at the playground as well. 

Slow down, have fun and don't be afraid to make a learning moment out of mundane things. Schooling as We Grow...It's a Way of Life...not a race to the finish.

This will be a long post sorry….I have to play catch-up! I set my alarm for early this morning so I could get up and do some stuff that has been slipping. I literally just went through and deleted over 1,000 e-mails. I feel horrible that my e-mail account has seriously been neglected. I get so many unimportant e-mails so I turned off notifications to my phone-it was dinging all the time and driving me nuts, but they aren’t necessarily spam either. I can tell you one thing I probably will not be winning Publishers Clearing House anytime soon with as far behind as I am doing their e-mails…bummer! Seriously there is not enough time in a day to keep everything in our lives perfect all the time. Food, cleaning, laundry, schooling, activities, grocery shopping, and just the everyday hum drum definitely keeps me busy. My e-mail account, laundry, and the perpetual clutter is what seems to take the back row in our theater of life though.

Mother’s Day was awesome and my kids made me an array of things (some of which I helped with because, let’s face it, if I didn’t do crafts with them who would). I love all of the things they made, but I especially love the little questionnaire that I have made a yearly tradition. I have a feeling that when my children are all grown I will LOVE to look back at these little questionnaires and see how their perception of me changes through the years.

  

 

The other night I had a rare opportunity to have a couple hours of alone time (DH took the kids to his parent’s house to visit and I just wasn’t up for a visit). So 2 glasses of wine and about 45 minutes of youtube videos later and I was pondering the home school life. I came across several video’s that just got to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnC6IABJXOI&feature=youtu.be

Seriously our education system pretty well sucks! I love watching videos and reading articles that solidify our decision to homeschool. I like to know that other people have similar thought patterns. I am not alone in my thinking that there should be a better option. Well that video lead to several others, and then to this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxyKNMrhEvY&sns=fb

Seriously guys! Why are we continuing on a path that just isn’t working? Why are we "judging the fish on how they climb trees!" Why are we continuing to force kids to learn things we know (from experiencing it ourselves) that they will never remember, retain, or use in real life? Why are we forcing our children into a box that is considered “normal” or “the right thing to do.” When our children are little why do we strive for them to be doctors or lawyers and then feel it is our parenting duty to force them to learn on that path? What if they want to create video games, or be a tattoo artist, work in retail, or heaven forbid be a stay at home parent? What if those are the paths our children want to take….is that so bad? I think our society is flawed in that we strive for being the best of the best instead of striving to contribute our specific skills, and most importantly striving to be HAPPY in our life.

Do I want my kids to be doctors or lawyers? Not particularly. Does that make me a weirdo? Probably. Does that make me a bad parent? No.  I want my children to be HAPPY with their life. I want them to feel fulfilled with their life choices, whatever they may be.

As I am playing catch up this morning with some adulating my kids are playing legos and barbies. They are HAPPY! I want that for them above all else. So what if they aren’t interested in being able to break down a sentence into the parts of speech or aren’t the best spellers….have you seen the way people spell things now-a-days anyway? By the time they are adults no one will know what the correct spelling is for anything. I am not saying I will not teach my kids! I am saying why not let them lead the teaching a bit to be subjects they are interested in. Teaching them HOW to learn is more import than pounding information into them at an early age that they will not grasp because honestly they don’t care.

Enough rambling, so an update on our home school…the kiddos are doing well! They’re pretty much done with their respective grades. As I have mentioned before I have a list of what they should be learning at each grade level. We are going through that list, reviewing, filling in gaps, and doing a lot of reading and comprehension activities. I want to make sure they have a solid foundation before we move on to learning new material. We planted our garden and the kids each got to plant something for them to take care of all by themselves. Seriously every day there is something to learn!

Happy Learning and Thank You for Reading!

Making the decision to home school is the hard part. Deciding to withdrawal your child from public school and following through in the middle of the year is the hard part. The looks, the accusations, the silent judgement (and sometimes not so silent) is the hard part. The actual schooling of your kids at home is not hard.

The first step is research. SERIOUS RESEARCH. Join a couple facebook groups about homeschooling and sit back and observe. Save links, take notes; ask questions from people at all stages of their homeschool journey. Find out if there are activities available for homeschool families locally. Think about your family dynamic and your house. Will you be able to set up a separate area in your house that is “school” specific or will you have a cabinet next to the dining room table? Do you want your child to work mostly on-line, all book/workbook with little to no screen time, or a combination of both? Research will help you make all of these decisions.

Don’t think you can afford to homeschool? There are on-line curriculum options that are completely free. There is a GREAT website that lists virtually every home school resource available and it also lists each resource’s stance on common core. Don’t like common core- then don’t use the websites and resources that are explicitly aligned. There is a plethora of worksheets available to print for FREE! You can get workbooks CHEAP all over from the Dollar Tree, to Walmart, to the Five Below store. Places like Goodwill, garage sales, and some on-line groups have GREAT homeschool resources for cheap or in some cases FREE. If you join a group or have a group of friends that homeschool sharing home school materials is a great way to save money too.

There WILL BE trial and error. I started using a few websites and then completely dropped them because my kids didn’t like it. I had a certain idea in my head of the way we were going to do things and it just didn’t pan out. My kids either didn’t respond well or my expectations were a little too high so we scaled back. Trial and error is normal, expected even, and necessary to build a home school routine and lifestyle that works for your whole family.

What homeschool looks like for my family may not, and probably will not, work for your family. Illinois has a very relaxed view or homeschool in terms of keeping records and evaluations (there are none). It is at your discretion to keep records and make sure your child is progressing. BUT if for any reason you are turned in to DCFS you must be able to prove that you are in fact homeschooling your child.

First….do not let the term DCFS scare you! Unless you plan to withdrawal your child from school and let them play zombie video games for 12 hours a day and learn nothing else, but how to defeat whatever monster in whatever the popular game is, then you shouldn’t have a problem. What if you child responds so well to video games? There is a whole Facebook group and lesson plan set up for schooling with Minecraft! Seriously there are so many options to best fit your child’s personality and learning style…which you will find through trial and error.

So what do I do? I keep a home school journal every day. It helps me stay on track and progress. I can look back easily at what we have accomplished day to day. We follow a 6 weeks on 1 week off calendar and at the end of that 6 week stint I write up a one page “report” or summary about what was accomplished in that 6 weeks.

Here is what yesterday looked like for us:

It is not always this long. Tumbling is only one day a week and we also have Piano lessons for both kids one day a week. They practice Piano 2-3 times a week. We watch American Sign Language video’s a couple times a week. There are soooo many video’s on Netflix and Youtube for everything!

Our day usually starts out with a leisure wake up, no dragging the kids out of bed and rushing them out the door. Breakfast, morning chores, and some free time (cartoons/video games) depending on what time they way up. My oldest wakes up before 7 most days and my other 2 sometimes closer to 8.

We try to start “school” about 9a.m. From 9-11am is our sit down worksheet, workbook, pencil to paper school time. They can seriously accomplish A LOT in a solid 2 hour span of time.

I will make note here that we do have a tiny “classroom” set up in our basement, but in the past month or so we have found it easier to bring all pencil boxes and all the sit down work up to the dining room table. My 18 month old has the run of the house right now and it is much easier to keep him entertained if we are in the main part of the house while the kids are doing sit down schooling. He does not bother the kids too much and he feels better being “included” and not separated from us during the sit down time.

After lunch the kids usually have free art time and/or they do their daily journal entry while I am putting the little down for his nap. If we have to drive for afternoon activities (tumbling/piano) or errands then the kids each take turns reading to us on the commute.

Other activities sneak in, but for the most part we are done for the day and the kids have free time and chores to do.

We can rearrange and add to our schedule as needed. If we have doctor appointments and will be in the van for an hour or two; the kids will bring workbooks and learning wrap ups along with their books to read.

I think the biggest thing to remember is it is OUR home school. If something doesn’t work we change it. If the schedule or location needs switched up we do it. If the kids hear or see something they are curious about we can literally drop everything and look it up.

Let the kids explore. Let them learn in ways that are conducive to them. Guide their learning, but don’t dictate too much. Kids are naturally curious and natural learners. My favorite thing about home schooling is that we aren’t governed by benchmarks, tests, and comparisons. We can master one thing before moving on to the next, gently challenge, but not pushing them to move forward before their individual brain is ready. Putting all the kids at the same age in the same box doesn’t work. Yes, some kids thrive with that push, I have a child that does, but I also have a child that doesn’t. That sometimes needs a little extra time on one thing to build a solid confidence level before moving on.

I am no expert, but my main piece of advice is that YOU WILL LEARN! You, as the home school parent will learn as you go. You will learn about your child. You will learn what they need to learn. You will learn how to help your child learn. It’s not hard to home school. Get creative and learn together. Grow together. 

A Little Organization can Save Your Sanity and Time OFF is a Must!

This week is our scheduled week off on our 6 weeks on 1 week off home school plan. It is now Friday and we have spent the entire week decluttering, rearranging, and catching up on house work. Unfortunately it is proving to be a bigger task than I originally planned. I have 3 rooms done (the biggest 3 challenges thankfully), but I now have a HUGE pile in the middle of our play/office room to sort, price, and get ready for a garage sale.

On this Friday morning I have a really long to do list so I can get the rest of the tasks done I had planned for this week. We organized and did a bedroom switch this week by moving my almost 18 month old out of the nursery (tiny room) and into the room with my oldest son. Then we moved all my daughters’ things into the tiny room. Separating them now seemed like the thing to do as privacy is becoming an issue. The task of moving bedrooms took nearly 3 days though, more time than I intended. The kids have been troopers, helping every day, and getting excited about their “new” spaces. I still have a couple more rooms to tackle, including our school room that needs some TLC.

Do you see where I am going with this…..we have worked hard our entire week off!! I still need at least an entire day to organize school work for the next 6 weeks, write my assessment for their progress the last 6 weeks, and get in a good place for kicking off our next sprint. I am hoping my husband can take the kids somewhere Sunday so I can have quiet time for getting all that accomplished! That still does not take care of our “break” problem, so I am having an idea that I need to take a look at our school calendar and schedule a little more time off (a day or two) for this break. Early Spring is when I really get in the mood to Spring Clean anyway so scheduling a little more time off this time of year (now and the future) will be beneficial for us all I think.

Guess What?! Because we home school I can make this split second decision without feeling guilty!! We are chugging along a little ahead of schedule for one kid and right no schedule for another so there is no reason we can’t take an extra day or two when we need it!

We aren’t in a race! I have recently read an article titled “The Secret of Year-Round Homeschooling” (http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/year-round-homeschooling) that aligns with my thoughts exactly. This is our first year so there is undoubtedly a learning curve. It is our test year. I am learning as I go and the kids are Learning As They Grow!