General update....

Things have been flowing rather nicely lately. We have found a very steady groove, but we are both getting at the point where we just want some down time and needing some time at home. This upcoming holiday week should be just the start that we need. We will be finishing up some lessons for the end of our fall session and will be beginning to work on our holiday gifts. KM will be making all her gifts again for her grandparents and aunts. One lucky relative will even be receiving her first attempt at knitting. Postings may be a bit slower than they have been lately, but I will try to stay steady over the holidays!

Volunteer Day - Cradles to Crayons

We volunteered, with some other local homeschoolers, at a fantastic organization this morning, Cradles to Crayons. 

Here is some info on the organization - 

Cradles to Crayons was founded in 2002, with the mission of providing to children ages 0 to 12 some of the most important basics of life—free of charge. These basics include clothing, school supplies, toys, and much more. In other words, we provide all the physical goods that children need to be safe, protected from the elements, and ready to learn. And by supplying them with high-quality used or new goods, we make children feel valued.

 Our job today was to sort clothes and put together outfit kits for little girls - this was the perfect job for my fashionista!

She was very particular about the outfits and had to make sure that they all coordinated and could be mixed and matched.

   The efforts of our small group alone helped 65 children in need today! This was a great way to start off a season of giving and to help us remember and be thankful for all that we are blessed to have! We hope to be able to go back the Giving Factory at least once a month to help out this incredibly worthwhile cause.

A FINAL realization on writing curriculums

I am once again having a difficult time with our writing curriculum and I feel that I am at the point of no return. KM is not complaining and does seem to be gaining a good deal of confidence, so those are pluses, but I just really feel like every single writing program out there is so unadaptable. They all teach the same sorts of writing, but in different orders and completly disconnected from any actual content areas. None of it truly makes sense to me, so how on earth am I suppose to help her understand it.

I had decided over the summer to pull back on any structured writing books, we would use the essay response questions in STOW and SOS, to do content directed writing work. However by the time the fall session rolled around I had caved in. KM had mentioned that she had taken a look at one of her friend's Spectrum Writing books and thought it might help her improve her skills. I went online, found it and ordered it. This was my first mistake. If I was going to not do a structured program, why on earth did I order another workbook? Well she had asked for it, it was inexpensive and I thought well she is thinking about it, so maybe I should be taking it more seriously. This then led me to the oh, I can supplement with this and maybe that will also help add to it, which in turn takes you down that slippery curriculum overload slope.

As I have been looking at the 6 different middle school program books that I still have in my house for writing ~ I say still because I don't even want to think about the number that I actually had last spring when I cleaned out the homeschooling book cupboard ~ I came to the aforementioned realization of: “They are all the same and NONE of them make sense.” I then really began to think about how I go about writing something, not that I am an expert in this area by any means, but I do feel that I can get my point across when I put my mind to it....I know, I know, there are some ramblings here and there, but let's just ignore those! I managed to achieve a perfect score on my essays for the GED, had two papers published and never got lower than a B+ on a research or term paper in college, despite NEVER having passed a high school English class.

When I have an idea for a blog entry, I just type. I don't systematically plan things out. When I was in college I did the same thing. When I had to answer an essay question or had to write a research paper, I would just start writing. I would get out as much as I possibly could and then I would edit, move things around, change things here and there, and make it better, clearer, and more concise. I didn't do venn diagrams, writing process trees, story webs, or anything of the like. I just researched and typed. As I sit here right now, I am just typing.....no preset direction, other than to get my point across.

So why do I feel the need to have my daughter do all of these ridiculous things that I DON'T GET?

It is another one of those tapes that blares in my head. You know the ones I mean. The ones that say things like - “all kids should be in school”, “Kids should be seen and not heard”, “What do you mean there is no oversight?”, “WHAT ABOUT SOCIALIZATION?” We all have them. They all say different things for various reasons, be it culture, background, religious beliefs, or some other random reason. While I have managed to destroy most of these wretched thought patterns, some still seem to creep back in and get their tape around the spindals causing a cacophony of negative statements and ideas flooding into my ears and causing anxiety to spread through my entire being!

I am done. I will not be doing any more writing curriculums. Though I will keep the few writing resource books that we have around the house, things that cover grammar and research paper guidelines, I will be getting rid of all the curriculum guides and workbooks. I will encourage my child to express herself on paper and assist her in improving answers to open ended and essay questions in a manner that is clear and concise, but that is IT!  

Making Turkeys and Candy Experiments with the Littles!

The Littles' day care was closed on Veteran's Day, which meant they got to spend the day with me!!!

We had lots of fun and used some of the resources that I had spotted earlier in the week from Scholastic's Thanksgiving Free Printables!


We had a great time creating these "3-D"ish Turkeys:

 





I decided to use some left over sparkly leafs - from who knows when - instead of the plain paper plate as recommended. We used all glue on SC's, and it took a long time to dry, so we decided to use staples for GC's and mine!  


When GC went down for her nap, KM, SC and I took advantage of that time to do some of the experiments that we had found over at Candy Experiments Blog!

For some EXTRA foaming and to make the 3 year old smile, we added vinegar to all the solutions once the foaming was finished so that they would burst out of the cup! She was quite pleased with that.

Then we moved onto MELTING candies to see which ones melted first and what sorts of reactions happened. 

We lined the tray with tin foil, set the toaster oven to Max Broil and...

They watched intently....

and took notes!

The results were rather interesting

Preparing for Braces

KM has ALWAYS - literally for as long as she has been going to the dentist's anyway - wanted braces. She used to press the gum across her teeth and pretend to have them. She asks the dental hygenist at every cleaning and picked out the colored bands that she would choose.

The day is finally arriving and she is bit more nervous than she thought she would be, so we looked up information so that she could be as informed as possible and here is some of what we found -

• Of Course BRAIN POP had a video!!!
• Kid's Health
• Medicine Net
• Kidzworld
• AAO - Braces Just for Kids
• Braces Brigade
• Style N Smile

We had the first appointment for the spacers to be put in and she goes to have the braces put on on Fri. The most difficult thing that she hadn't really thought about was the food restrictions. She is also pretty nervous about having the 4 teeth pulled. She has calmed herself a bit now that she knows it doesn't have to be done immediately, but I don't know how well it is going to go when the time actually comes. 

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

Another FABULOUS Video!

FREE - Plimoth Plantation Webcast and First Thanksgiving Resources

Scholastic always has fabulous resources and there First Thanksgiving section isn't any different. They use all the links and connections to Plimoth Plantation and includes the more accurate ~ and often less known ~ information from the Wampanoag Tribes.

They also have a webcast coming up next week that is FREE to all educational institutions. If you miss or can't make the live event, a replay will be available at that link starting Wed, Nov. 17th.

For more of how we have studied Thanksgiving in the past you can take a look at the links in this post.

National Geographic's - Great Migrations - FREE Educational Resources

We love the National Geographic channel and I am amazed that I how somehow missed this incredible series, but am very grateful that someone took the time to pass it on through a yahoo group!

This area of the site has some great extra resources to enhance the experience and may open up some rather interesting avenues of study.

How Do You Socialize Your Children?

Though this is not 100% secular it is 100% funny!

Just what we needed!

Sometimes when you send something out into the universe, the universe sends you back EXACTLY what you needed. We had planned on running a few errands and maybe getting some tennis in today, but the weather decided that we needed to stay inside....and I chose to listen! We got lots of lessons done, pumpkin cookies and pineapple upside down cake baked, laundry and cleaning down!

It was such a restful, relaxing day. KM had a friend over in the afternoon and they had a great time playing Wii Sports Resort and making a Reese's Cake! CJ had the day off and finished some random projects around the house. I even got some fabulous rain shots, you can check out on our 365 Photo Project and our Nature Photo Blog. I don't know what it is about rainy days that sets that nesting instinct in to gear and makes me feel revived, but I am sure glad that it did!

Busy STILL

I really don't know how this keeps happening, we have been so BUSY lately! What have we been doing you may ask? Well there has been lots of fun stuff, lessons, tennis, hiking, web classes, parties, field trips, birthdays, fall activities, theater, volunteering, errands, and the list goes on....who has time to be home when you are "homeschooling"?

I am trying to slow things down, but it looks like at least the next two weeks are going to be the same. Once Thanksgiving week rolls on through, we should be good to be SLOOOOOWWW!

I just have to keep my fingers crossed, there has to be end somewhere....Right?

What do you do when things seem to be getting too overscheduled?

Rather Unique Experiences - PART 2

Today we got to be part of another rather interesting and unique experience at the Museum of Science. We were lucky enough to attend their Space Day program where they had two incredible astronauts discussing what it takes to become a NASA employ, as well as the many people in varying positions that are needed to get the astronauts into space! Astronaut Nicholas Patrick did an incredible job explaining all aspects of space flight and had some incredible pics and video from his recent trips to the International Space Station.

We also heard from Retired Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, who is now a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, about the ZERO robotics program - a close relative of the FIRST Lego League programs.

Hearing from these two gentlemen about the incredible opportunities available, now and in the future, in these programs and with NASA was fantastic.

As always, we had a great time during the rest of our visit...

Rather Unique Experiences - PART 1

KM was rather excited when she learned that she would be able to be part of a live webcast event with one of her FAVORITE artists - 

Although this is something that is open to all classrooms across the country and worldwide, you have to wonder how many teachers actually have the time to allow their students to enjoy a presentation like this.

We used SnapIt! to grab some great pics of the program!

Replays of this program will be available HERE.

For more information about other scholastic programs check out - 

 

This is a week of unique experiences...check back tomorrow to see what else we have been up to!

Pumpkin Carving Day

Yesterday was pumpkin carving day at our house! We like to do it a week before Halloween so that we can enjoy them, but they don't get too rotten before hand.

 
 
 

Some things we have been thinking about lately...

So you might remember the post from just a week or so ago about KM wanting to be more independent and schedule her own week, well she has decided that she doesn't want that responsibility any longer. Personally, I thought she was doing a decent job, but she was feeling a bit overwhelmed by it and really didn't like that she was doing lessons 6 days a week instead of 4. She has asked if we can go back to the previous setup ~ me giving her the weekly list, which is broken up into four days for her ~ but instead of her doing things right off the bat in the morning, she can do them whenever she wants throughout the day. This is TOTALLY fine with me. However she wants to get her lessons done is up to her. She is starting to really understand that she is in charge of her learning.

A few days ago I was asked by a friend what I would do if KM didn't want to do "lessons" anymore and I was a bit taken aback by this one, as I had no idea what I would do and honestly had never thought of it. There have been programs that she has decided that she doesn't want to complete for whatever reason and that is totally fine. However I don't know, for sure, what I would do if she just flat out didn't want to do any of it.

I think that if she really and truly didn't want to do any lesson work, then I would talk to her and see why she felt that way and/or what her plan would be moving forward. As I also mentioned in previous posts, I truly don't feel like you can force anyone to "learn" anything. You might be able to get them to memorize something or test through something, but in order for them to truly absorb, understand and retain it, they have to be invested and interested. I don't think that my feelings on this will ever change.

Having gone to school and having always done work with me over summers and during vacations, it has just always been the norm for her to do academic studies. She really enjoys the programs that we use. She has a huge hand in the decision making process and makes the final picks on what she will be using, as she is the one that has to do it and why would I want to waste money on something that I would have to fight with her to get done. She is even liking the writing workbook that she has been doing - Spectrum Writing, Grade 8 - which is a huge find! She has goals that she has set for herself and now it is my job to help her get to reach those goals. If for some reason she has a change of heart, I will keep an open-mind and work with her in whatever manner she needs me to.