Toddlers growing up, and a bit of American history

It is becoming SO much easier to accomplish school tasks around and other things around the house now that BabyZ is finally growing up.

It's bitter sweet-- she is no longer small enough for me to zip her around in my sling, but also no longer crying all day long, can communicate (she talks up a storm!), and is now interested in her own little things - like drawing with crayons and markers.

So-- *sigh* (of both a bit of sadness for seeing most of babyhood beginning to disappear and also of relief as I embrace this new stage!)...it is liberating.

Although I cannot make any claims to our home school being toddler-interruption-free (is there any such thing?), I can definitely say we've come a long way.

Sitting at our kitchen table sometimes for school now-- WOW.  That is all I can say.  We couldn't do this for nearly two years.  Any kind of resemblance of formal schooling (chalk/marker boards, sitting at tables), all went out the window shortly after BabyZ was born.  Now, we are finally able to find ourselves doing these things...these small, simple things...and we are amazed.  Funny how you miss the simple things of life when they are difficult to access for a while.  When you are finally able to do them again, it almost becomes fun in a strange kind of way.

We still don't prefer all the formalities so often, (I'd much rather the kids get out and learn), but we do like a healthy balance of seatwork and outside activity.  So we did all of our "seatwork" early this morning and had a blast learning about Congress.

Yeah...Congress. And the House of Representatives, and Senate, and the three branches of government (things I haven't studies since high school!) I really like the way our curriculum brings it out:

We are only on lesson 3, but so far enjoying it.  I will have to sit down soon and write up a curriculum review for it, after a few more lessons.

Here is an example of a letter writing activity where the lesson suggested that my daughter pretend she were one of the delegates at the meeting (Articles of Confederation), and write a letter to his 4 year old daughter describing what happened at the meeting.


Considering we were having a hard time with creative writing up until now, I would say these types of writing exercises have been helping her.  We went from a typical two sentence answer to a whole page!  Whoo-hoo!!  I like that the curriculum has a writing exercise like this for most of the lessons I have seen so far.  I have to double check to be sure they are included all the way through.

So, in Lesson 3, we also photocopied the song "America The Beautiful".

Nice.

Story of the World curriculum review

We began our 2nd semester kindergarten with Story of the World, Volume 1.  We were attempting our lifestyle at a classical education that year, and this curriculum pick for history seemed a good fit at the time.  We got midway through the curriculum and enjoyed many of the hands-on activities.  They were all read-alouds, and since my child enjoyed that kind of thing, it went well (me reading out loud to her each story).  We did the accompanying activity pages and coloring sheets, and the fun projects.  For example when we studied ancient Africa, we dressed up in African clothing that day and cooked a traditional African meal.  Fun :-)  By the middle of the book, though, the chapters began to address the Greeks and their culture of pagan god worship.  This is where we ended our studies in this book, since I was not interested in introducing Zeus, Venus and the rest to my child.  We have moved on since to enjoy Robin Sampson's history materials as well as Christian Liberty Press and Bob Jones University.

Math U See Primer Curriculum Review

We used the Math U See Primer during our kindergarten year.  I was pregnant, tired, and a wee bit loopy, so I needed a good math program that was easy for my 5 year old, yet challenging enough to keep her up/ahead of grade level.  I also needed for it to be ALMOST teacher-free. 

This curriculum answered my prayers.  I remember lying on the couch at 81/2 months pregnant while Mr. Demme taught my daughter math!  It was great to have a math curriculum which came with an instructional DVD (where someone ELSE was the instructor), at least for that season of my life.  NyGirl learned a lot in math that year - counting by 1's, 5's, 10's, telling time, basic addition and subtraction, skip counting, etc.

Another easy lunch- quick and healthy chicken salad sandwhiches

Okay, you gotta know our family loves chicken! :-)

And since we always have leftover (as is typical for us)...I thought...why not create yet ANOTHER YouTube video about using leftovers for kids' lunches?  Plus, it was a healthy meal.

So...here is a video I made today right before our lunchtime to show you how I make a QUICK and HEALTHY chicken sandwhich (or chicken salad) for my kids' lunch during a busy day at home with them.

Mini Pizzas – A Kid Friendly Homeschooling Lunch

Here is a quick and easy lunch I like to make in the middle of homeschooling during the days when I'm running low on ingredients.  In between grocery shopping I like to make our food pantry s-t-r-e-t-c-h...so here's something your kids might like...enjoy the video (pls. rate and comment!!  I LOVE comments!)

Learning from my past homeschooling mistakes

I've been thinking back on how we did school in our home these past few years and realized something: the reason it sometimes felt awkward, or even difficult at times, was all due to scheduling.

And the real crux of the matter is - I overscheduled my kids on activities and subjects.

In case it doesn't quite seem like it, I really am quite a structured gal. Possibly the big reason for burnout during our 1st grade year with NyGirl was attempting to create a rigid schedule (that seemed all too wonderful on paper), and attempting to bring it to reality-- when all along, we just wanted to be free to enjoy the path that learning took.

For example: let's say I scheduled for Day 1:

• Mathematics (1 hour- which, by the way, sometimes took us 2 hours during 2nd grade when we used Saxon 3!!!)
• Grammar (Shurley Grammar)- 30-45 minutes
• Geography  & History lesson (Story of the World)- 1 hour
• Bible - 1 hour (ideally)
• Handwriting - 15 minutes
• Spelling - another 15-20 minutes
• French - 30 minutes
• Piano- 30 minutes
• Science--well...gotta wait til Day #2...day is crowded already
• Ballet lessons - out for 2 hours in the evening (counts partly as P.E.)

Okay...this was a snippet of our school day back in 2008-2009.  I had a toddling 1 year old to keep up with and a massive cleaning and organizing rehaul to launch for our home since the re-carpeting (and EVERYTHING was out of place).  My hands were full.

By that April, I considered private school.

And you must know why already.  Our schedule was CROWDED.

Never again, never again, never again, I tell you.

Okay, and it's a nice looking "school day", I suppose...unless you are a free spirit like me  attempting to box your educational experiences into 5 hour school days, straight from the curriculum.

The worst part about this schedule-- it left absolutely NO ROOM for us to ENJOY learning.

From time to time, I would stumble upon a wonderful educational resource I really liked, but felt I could not "fit it in" to our already pressure packed schedule.

It was stifling, to the say the least.

Call it baby brain fog, or whatever it is...I just wasn't thinking clearly that year.  At least for our kindergarten year, I had enough sense to relax and let learning take its own beautiful shape in NyGirl's life.

So...I say all that to say this: don't make my mistakes!!! :-)  Save yourself the trouble, and just enjoy learning together.

What I do suggest:

• Gather together your materials, your resources, curriculum, etc., and use them as TOOLS for learning.
• Make out a sketch of your learning goals for the year, break it down into bit-size goals, and try to reach those goals in reasonably portions (like, don't even assume that you are going to tackle 8 different subjects in one semester - especially for a young child...UNLESS...you just really want to!)
• Sketch out a semi schedule (rough draft) for how your school days will look one week in advance (I do that once a week, because each of our weeks look different)
• Leave room -- LOTS of room- for explored learning.  Be adaptable.  If in the middle of showing your child about amphibians from a science text, you suddenly think of a website that might be of interest...go GET on the COMPUTER, and have fun!  (I'm telling you - I had some real issues, b/c I would have 2 years ago skipped any and all ideas that sounded fun in favor of sticking to the curriculum.  Not good for my fam.  Not good.)

Now...with all this said, I want to remain balanced here.

I am still a stickler for routine and some sort of schedule.  Don't get me wrong, our school days have a structure to some degree, though it's not set in stone.  But I always know what my kids are going to be learning about each day (and if we deviate from it a bit, I am perfectly open to that).  But it is still important to me that younger kids have a routine to follow so they know what to expect.  And somehow, in the middle of my routine, I still wish to be creative.

Does that make sense?

And if it doesn't get any more confusing...I am all about "cutting the twaddle", as Mary Pride  (author of The Complete Guide to getting Started in Homeschooling) would say.  You can't cut twaddle (or senseless activities /time waster, whatever you want to call them), if you don't know what your SPECIFIC educational goals for your child are in each subject. So...while I am open to creativity and freedom to explore topics, I don't necessarily want to repeat activities or try our hands at projects that I don't feel would help strengthen my child's learning about the topic.  That would be on her free time.

Example: if we are learning about science- say butterflies.

If Day 1, we read a few stories about butterflies, then that's great.

If Day 2, we watch a DVD on butterflies, even better.  (I might have her narrate what she learned in a notebook).

If Day 3, she wants to color a picture of a butterfly...fine.  It doesn't help reinforce her learning of butterflies, (except maybe if she is able to tell me what kind of butterfly she is coloring, or we look it up).  Just the act of coloring the butterfly MIGHT be considered twaddle in Mary Pride's book...not sure about that...but I would be open to a coloring page for a 3rd grader.

If Day 4, she wants to color yet another coloring page on butterflies, I would let her (OF COURSE!!)  But, is she learning anything of value at this point, or is she simply enjoying the art of coloring a beautiful butterfly?  So, at this point, I would say, we probably aren't still learning our topic or subject matter, but enjoying a nice art class :-)  And if she kept wanting to just color day after day for her butterfly topic, I would opt to say that we aren't really fulfilling our educational goals for her at this point.

This is where many public schools get stuck (and I am NOT bashing public schools, for all of my friends out there who have chosen public education!!!)  I'm just saying.

I remember doing coloring sheets in the 10th grade when our history teacher had nothing more to give us.  I am not talking about anything intricate (like color coding the different parts of the human body in science, for example). But I mean, like during the Christmas holidays, we colored Santa Clause.  In 10th grade.  I am serious.  Fun...but funny too.

So...I'm just saying.

Anyhoo.

That's my take on past learning mistakes and what I keep learning.

A bit about relaxed homeschooling

For me, it is important to relax this year. Really.
I have done education the hard way for too many years to count, when all along my child could have done just fine without all of my 'interventions'.
Check out my YouTube video to hear some of my tips on relaxed homeschooling:

Don't forget to rate and comment in YouTube too! :-)

Thanks...oh, and let me know if there are any additional video topics you would like for me to cover.