The other week we had some family visiting and decided to take the week off from school. The weather was beautiful and we spent time outside playing and enjoying life. Spring is almost here and we have garden preparations in full swing. A few more weeks and we'll get to start planting seeds and working all of that into homeschooling.
I foolishly went to the Ancestry.com website. I will never be able to get out. I thought I would just add a little information from a small book my mother wrote. It turns out to be full of pics and little bits of info. So now I am slowly adding each picture and bit of info to the right person. Eventually we hope it will lead us to some present day relatives. Mr. Father swears we were related to some Lord Baltimore down the line. Of course I say we are connected to Jane Seymour the wife of King Henry VIII. It's sort of like playing ancestry poker.
Now we are back to school. The break was worth it. Beauty was able to jump right in and start subtraction. I can almost see the lightbulbs going on over her head.
We're planning to attend a book fair warehouse sale. I don't know how good the prices will be. I'm interested in finding another handwriting book, some more phonics drill work, and math drill work.
I'm feeling more confident with tweaking her curriculum and using things like Netflix for educational videos. I could stand to bend more in the artistic department.
Overall I think we're doing good.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Ended the Week Both Up and Down
We've come to the end of week 9. I've seen some recent attitude changes in Beauty. They aren't good changes. It's nothing terrible. I think we are going through some boundary testing. I believe it came from the break the public school had and a brief 2 week change in my work schedule.
I still like our schooling. I feel I have lots of choices about how the day goes and where it will take us. The amount of time Beauty is spending is 2-3 hours per day on her work. She typically is most comfortable starting at exactly noon. I like this, too. I'm not an early riser with an intent to start working. I like to get up around 8:00 and have my coffee, work on some housework and then feel like I can relax and work with her on schoolwork. After schoolwork we're heading towards dinner plans and some play time outside. After dinner we are usually taking care of the nighttime routine and picking out books to read. After bedtime Mr. Father and I party like it's 1899. Or at least that is what Beauty is sure we are up to.
My only down moment this week was during the homeschool playgroup. Pretty much all the moms in this group are in the same program. They are using Classical Conversations. The way I understand it is they meet every Monday and pretty much all the homeschoolers in this little town are in it. I know this isn't true because we aren't in it and I know one other mom who isn't. Anyway, they meet on Mondays and work on the Classical Conversations curriculum all day. The parents are also required to be a teacher at some point. The rest of the week the kids work on things at home that relate to the curriculum. It seems like the bridge program between homeschool and a regular school. They also work along a timeline. So whatever period of the timeline they are on they are studying the various history, composers, artists, etc. of that time. I like that part about it. However, it is one the one day Mr. Father and Mrs. Mother both work. Plus, I'm not too keen on teaching other kids.
Somethings else they all have their kids in is violin lessons. With the same teacher. It's starting to feel a little Stepford here. I thought homeschooling was more about doing your own thing, not the same thing everyone else is doing. I honestly don't think I could stay in the house if I had to listen to Beauty learning the violin. I know what it sounds like when someone is trying to learn and practicing a lot. It sounds awful. Pretty much like you're killing a cat. I wouldn't last 10 minutes listening to it. I guess we will have to relegate ourselves to feeling a little left out of this group.
The good thing that happened this week was bowling. I took Beauty bowling again to see if she still likes it. She actually got better. Friday morning is the little old lady league day. Beauty enjoyed being the center of attention while lobbing her ball and hearing all the little old ladies giggle and say how cute she is. I guess we will stick with bowling for now.
One other good thing for this week. The lady at work who was thinking about homeschooling her two kids decided to go for it. The kids are enjoying it and dad is loving being the primary teacher.
Next week: We are starting subtraction. I should probably buy beer.
I still like our schooling. I feel I have lots of choices about how the day goes and where it will take us. The amount of time Beauty is spending is 2-3 hours per day on her work. She typically is most comfortable starting at exactly noon. I like this, too. I'm not an early riser with an intent to start working. I like to get up around 8:00 and have my coffee, work on some housework and then feel like I can relax and work with her on schoolwork. After schoolwork we're heading towards dinner plans and some play time outside. After dinner we are usually taking care of the nighttime routine and picking out books to read. After bedtime Mr. Father and I party like it's 1899. Or at least that is what Beauty is sure we are up to.
My only down moment this week was during the homeschool playgroup. Pretty much all the moms in this group are in the same program. They are using Classical Conversations. The way I understand it is they meet every Monday and pretty much all the homeschoolers in this little town are in it. I know this isn't true because we aren't in it and I know one other mom who isn't. Anyway, they meet on Mondays and work on the Classical Conversations curriculum all day. The parents are also required to be a teacher at some point. The rest of the week the kids work on things at home that relate to the curriculum. It seems like the bridge program between homeschool and a regular school. They also work along a timeline. So whatever period of the timeline they are on they are studying the various history, composers, artists, etc. of that time. I like that part about it. However, it is one the one day Mr. Father and Mrs. Mother both work. Plus, I'm not too keen on teaching other kids.
Somethings else they all have their kids in is violin lessons. With the same teacher. It's starting to feel a little Stepford here. I thought homeschooling was more about doing your own thing, not the same thing everyone else is doing. I honestly don't think I could stay in the house if I had to listen to Beauty learning the violin. I know what it sounds like when someone is trying to learn and practicing a lot. It sounds awful. Pretty much like you're killing a cat. I wouldn't last 10 minutes listening to it. I guess we will have to relegate ourselves to feeling a little left out of this group.
The good thing that happened this week was bowling. I took Beauty bowling again to see if she still likes it. She actually got better. Friday morning is the little old lady league day. Beauty enjoyed being the center of attention while lobbing her ball and hearing all the little old ladies giggle and say how cute she is. I guess we will stick with bowling for now.
One other good thing for this week. The lady at work who was thinking about homeschooling her two kids decided to go for it. The kids are enjoying it and dad is loving being the primary teacher.
Next week: We are starting subtraction. I should probably buy beer.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Bowling for Exercise
During the cold winter months we're having a hard time finding physical activities that we like and don't cost an arm and a leg. It doesn't snow here otherwise we would happily be outside every day. Nope, it rains here. It is dreary. It is cold. It is damp. Exercise usually consists of one of us walking across the room and looking out the window then walking back to our couch/bed/chair. On tolerable or short chore days we will work in the garden for an hour. I don't like to ride bikes in the winter.
As for classes we have to pay for such as dance, gymnastics, horse riding, we will have to wait. We've been hit with the new taxes and healthcare bug and so far estimate losing around $300 per month. So paying for classes is out of the question for now.
We stumbled on an alternative. Bowling. I love bowling. I've bowled for years, though not seriously. I played on a league once because I got a free ball at the end. I also took a semester of bowling in college because it seemed more fun than running around a track.
Anyway. Once a year Mr. Father will take me bowling as he says, "to give me an ego boost." This is because Mr. Father sucks at bowling. In fact, this is the only game I can beat him at. This time we found out that Beauty likes bowling, too. A lot. And it's cheap. Like $2 a game cheap.
It also takes a long time. Child bowlers are notorious for rolling the ball very slowly, almost painfully, to the pins. The pins aren't so much knocked down as laid down, like they're taking a nap. Kids tend to look funny bowling. They have trouble walking and trying to wield their 5 pound cannon ball.
Here are our scores at the end. Beauty is asking when we can go bowling again. I think we'll be able to do this once a week. Part of our exercise problem solved!
As for classes we have to pay for such as dance, gymnastics, horse riding, we will have to wait. We've been hit with the new taxes and healthcare bug and so far estimate losing around $300 per month. So paying for classes is out of the question for now.
We stumbled on an alternative. Bowling. I love bowling. I've bowled for years, though not seriously. I played on a league once because I got a free ball at the end. I also took a semester of bowling in college because it seemed more fun than running around a track.
Anyway. Once a year Mr. Father will take me bowling as he says, "to give me an ego boost." This is because Mr. Father sucks at bowling. In fact, this is the only game I can beat him at. This time we found out that Beauty likes bowling, too. A lot. And it's cheap. Like $2 a game cheap.
It also takes a long time. Child bowlers are notorious for rolling the ball very slowly, almost painfully, to the pins. The pins aren't so much knocked down as laid down, like they're taking a nap. Kids tend to look funny bowling. They have trouble walking and trying to wield their 5 pound cannon ball.
Here are our scores at the end. Beauty is asking when we can go bowling again. I think we'll be able to do this once a week. Part of our exercise problem solved!
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Week 8 With A Sleepover
Coming into week 8 and things are a little off. This is completely due to my work schedule being altered by one day. I need to remember this in the future. Although I say homeschool really frees up my schedule and I have no time constraints, that is not completely true. Beauty needs order. She needs a schedule. She needs to know that Mr. Father will teach her on Mondays and I will teach her on Tuesdays. Not the reverse.
Beauty is also old enough to piece together that public school kids are out of school right now. This has made her more resistant to doing school work. I'm not letting it slide. Especially with her reading. This is definitely an area of practice-makes-perfect for her. No practice makes her illiterate.
A fun thing happened yesterday. Beauty got invited to a sleepover. In the middle of the week! Mr. Father and Mrs. Mother went to a grownup restaurant and celebrated. In fact, Beauty gets invited to a lot of places. I think people are thinking, "well, it's not like you're doing anything else."
But we are. In fact we did our rocket experiment. It didn't shoot way up into the sky like we had planned. It had more of a horizontal trajectory. This led to Mr. Father running wildly across the yard to chase after it. There's also a funny video that I've carefully hidden for all eternity of me being scared out of my mind when the rocket takes off and the camera going all wiggly. That's why we bought the box with 3 rockets...
Beauty is also old enough to piece together that public school kids are out of school right now. This has made her more resistant to doing school work. I'm not letting it slide. Especially with her reading. This is definitely an area of practice-makes-perfect for her. No practice makes her illiterate.
A fun thing happened yesterday. Beauty got invited to a sleepover. In the middle of the week! Mr. Father and Mrs. Mother went to a grownup restaurant and celebrated. In fact, Beauty gets invited to a lot of places. I think people are thinking, "well, it's not like you're doing anything else."
But we are. In fact we did our rocket experiment. It didn't shoot way up into the sky like we had planned. It had more of a horizontal trajectory. This led to Mr. Father running wildly across the yard to chase after it. There's also a funny video that I've carefully hidden for all eternity of me being scared out of my mind when the rocket takes off and the camera going all wiggly. That's why we bought the box with 3 rockets...
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