Charlotte Mason In America

Birthday Tribute (We have 2 teenagers in the house now!)

2011-10-28T17:52:00.000-04:00

My precious daughter turned 13 today. It delights me to see her growing up knowing God the way she does. Although I have my days when I miss that baby I brought home from the hospital, she is maturing into such a beautiful young woman.

2000 - One of my favorite baby pictures of her. She fell asleep here and stayed there for quite some time.

2001 ~ Gotta love that Binky. Her shirt says "Warning: I am Two!"

2003 - Picture taken on a hay ride to go out an pick pumpkins.

2006 ~ Love that toothless smile.

2008 ~ Must ALWAYS dress for the occasion. We were hometown tourists in Gettysburg and she couldn't just wear a t-shirt.

2008 ~ A Pink .22 for Christmas. Notice the vintage-style nightgown. She is very feminine, yet can hold her own.

2010 ~ A Christmas Eve Tradition in our house is new PJ's. We call it the first present of Christmas.

Happy Birthday, Beautiful Girl!

Why I'm Beginning to Love Wednesdays

2011-10-16T08:27:00.002-04:00

Wednesdays are quickly becoming my favorite day of the week. It's the day after we go to Classical Conversations and the kids have all of their new assignments for the week.

My oldest two (ages 12 and 14), often get up early to get a quick start on their school work. They set up their assignment sheets the night before (something CC strongly encourages so the students can learn time management) and are ready to dive in when they arise. They work quietly and diligently on their assignments all morning. They do have questions and I help them through those. DD12 will often ask that I read with her, and I do. We read her assingments together and have some wonderful discussions about them. Sometimes their dad is in the room and will jump in on discussions.

At lunch time they break to eat, and are back at it for the afternoon. I love being in the other room when the girls are practicing their latin. Frequently, they break into a fake old-world accent and talk like that through the entire study time (sometimes the accent sticks around way into the evening). It's funny to listen to.

All this time, I am cleaning the house and preparing meals for the day.
DS7 will get up at some point during the morning and I will sit with him to review his CC lessons. I also give him a math lesson (Saxon 2) and a language lesson (First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind). My goal is to read a book with him in the afternoons and that doesn't happen as often as I would like.

Throughout the day, the girls will take 10 minute walks to stretch their legs and clear their minds. When they are finished with their assignements for the day, they will go outside with a camera and start snapping away.

Dinner time comes and we enjoy a meal together before we head off to church for the evening.

I wish everyday were like this. For now, I will savor every Wednesday as it rolls around. It's a beautiful thing.

Classical Conversations

2011-09-06T19:43:00.000-04:00

I have heard of Classical Conversations a few times over the last couple of years, but never really caught what it was about. Finally this past spring, I went to an information meeting. I was hooked within the first 10 minutes. What hooked me? The presenter hit on two of my primary reasons for choosing to educate my children at home.
1. Classical Conversations (CC) helps to nurture children's innate love of learning.
2. CC wants to nuture thinkers, not sheep.

Over the next couple of months, I researched and found that I really liked everything about CC. It is well organized, they use quality literature, real-life resources and they recognize the parent as the child's primary teacher.

Cost? Yes, it's a little more expensive than a regular co-op. However, I believe you are getting what you pay for. In my opinion, it is worth every penny.

My daughters are at Challenge level. I was a little nervous about placing them there since we had never done a curriculum like this before. We went to our first CC meeting last week and I am truly amazed at how well my girls have stepped up to the plate. Of course, I had to set a standard and explain that if school work for the day wasn't finished, we wouldn't leave the house for horse stables, ballet, 4-H or anything. Somehow that motivated them to get up at about 7:30 every morning over the last week to get their assignments for the day finished.

I hope to be able to continue posting out CC journey as we walk this new path over the next year.

Civil War Ball

2011-06-08T11:02:00.008-04:00

First of all, ignore the dates on these pictures. I put new batteries in the camera and it defaulted back to that date.

Our homeschool group has a spring formal each year. It is a family event that we say is like a wedding reception without the wedding. It's a chance for us to dress up in fancy clothes and come together to have a good time. This year we chose a Civil War theme and the event quickly turned into a Civil War Ball. We were able to find dance instructors who came and taught us not only the dances of the time period, but also spoke to us about ettiquette. We also had a professional photographer/decorator come in and transform the room on the lower level of our local Ag center. This was a social event, but something families could put into their homeschool portfolios as well.

I think pictures are worth a thousand words, so I have a few to share.

The woman to the far left is a mom in our group who volunteered to coordinate the spring formal. While she was taking care of the details for this event, she made the dress she is wearing.

Although period attire was not required, I had fun borrowing this dress complete with hoop from another homeschool mom.
Our dress code was simple enough. We asked everyone to dress modestly (no cleavage, skirts below the knee, etc.). Attendees did not have to wear formal attire either. They could come in their Sunday Best with men wearing ties and women wearing dresses, skirts or dress slacks. We specified no sneakers or flip flops (doesn't matter how fancy they are).

Me with my little southern belle. She found this dress last summer at a thrift store for $5 and she knit her shawl. We did go into Gettysburg to get accessories like gloves and jewelry.

DD13 having a great time.

Amongst the Civil War dances, we also squeezed in the chicken dance. It was rather interesting to see that dance being done in a hoop.

This is DS7 popping in on someone else's picture. We were able to outfit him in CSA gear. My husband is from Alabama and DS just had to be a confederate soldier.
This couple was very gracious in sharing this photo with me and not being upset with him for butting in.

At the end of the evening, all the decorations were taken down and the tables were put away, but several of our young people continued to dance.

Wrapping up

2011-04-27T15:24:00.002-04:00

Every year it is my goal to finish with our core subjects by the end of April. We are really close. At this stage in the game, I rely on my daughters ages 12 and 13 to be independent and complete their school work without a lot of prodding from me.

REALITY CHECK HERE---It actually takes lots of prodding. It amazes me how they don't forget that dance lessons are Tuesday night or that I need to drive someone to the stables at 3. Somehow, they often forget that they need to be finishing their lessons for the day.

I had a conversation with DD13 today and explained that when she is finished with her 8th grade work, she can start her "summer break". If it takes her to December, she won't get a summer break, but she won't be in 9th grade until her assignments for 8th grade are finished. Somehow this is a tough concept to grasp at 13.

Confirmation

2011-04-05T21:10:00.014-04:00

I feel the need to preface this post with the following: This is my experience and I am aware that my experience may be biased due to my beliefs. Others who might be in the same situation may see things entirely different. However, I feel it is important to share my experiences. Due to our financial situation, I have gone to the public schools in my area to substitute teach this spring. In this post, I am only discussing what I saw today in a 5th grade classroom. It seems that every day that I go in to sub, I start the day thinking, "I could do this. If something happened to my husband, I could really do this again." It's not unfamiliar territory to me because I've done it all before. I realize in a substitute position, I'm going to see the worst behaviors. The children's authority figure (a.k.a. the teacher) is not present and they don't know me from Adam. I get that. Today, when the children's assignments were finished, I tried to play a game with them. The kids were in groups of four. I gave one child in each group a sheet of lined paper. That child wrote an opening sentence to a story. After a period of time, the paper was passed to the next child to write the second sentence, and so on. In the meantime, a woman came into the room. I'm not sure who she was because she didn't introduce herself and there was nothing in the sub plans about anyone who was to come to the room. She stood silent on one side of the room. I believe she was there to assist kids who had mild special needs. So back to the writing activity - after the first round, I quickly realized I should have gone over more ground rules besides just using capital letters and punctuation. I should have included rules like "Let's not write a story about poop." and "If you must use a classmates name in the story, be sure it won't be embarassing or insulting to him." After listening to a couple of awful stories, I stopped and collected them. At that point I explained the additional ground rules and explained the "why" for each rule. Then, I asked if what they wrote before would be something they wanted their parents to read. I could see some remorse in the room and felt the offense would not be repeated. It was clearly time to move on. Then out of the blue, the silent woman in the room said, "Or worse yet, would you want the principal to read those stories?" (She did emphasize the principal's name.) That is all she said the entire class period. Yikes! I guess I'm coming from a perspective that children should have to answer to their parents. She totally wiped that out by throwing the principal comment out there. And I thought, "There it is!! The subliminal message that we owe more homage to the government than to our families." I hope my own children would know how to act appropriately when I'm not around. I hope they don't do things that would cause embarassment to themselves or to others. What I'm seeing in the public schools are a bunch of mean kids - especially the girls! They are just downright mean. I could see DD12 slipping into that meanness as a matter of survival. I could see DD13 just withdrawing from everyone. I don't want that for my kids. School is supposed to be an educational institution that is also a safe environment. It simply isn't safe on a number of levels. I feel that I have this unique front row seat to watch what's going on in the schools that even the parents of those kids don't get to see. I try to go in open minded and have a positive attitude. Not all days are like today. Nonetheless, I have a high number of days like this. Tomorrow, I will be happy to go see a stage production of Aladdin with my kids next to me. If inappropriate things come up, I (not other children) will have the opportunity to discuss it through. I'm thankful to our Sovereign Lord that I have the freedom to homeschool my kids.

Pieter Bruegel

2010-10-27T09:59:00.000-04:00

During the fall session of our mini co-op, we did picture studies of Pieter Bruegel the elder. This was something new we added to the co-op this year as we are trying to gear our co-op toward Charlotte Mason.

I feel that the picture study was good to have. We started each co-op meeting with opening exercises (prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, a song and announcements). The nursery was dismissed and we began our picture study.

Each child ages 4 and up was given a copy of the picture face down. When I gave the signal, everyone turned their picture over to study it in silence. No talking is allowed at this time. They get about 90 seconds to 2 minutes to carefully examine their picture. Then I asked them what they see in the picture. Hands shoot up as everyone is eager to share what they see. I will tell them what I know about the picture. For example, Pieter Bruegel painted a work entitled "Census at Bethlehem". Kids will see so many things going on in the picture, but when I tell them the picture depicts a Bible story, I can hear the ooo's and aahh's in the room.

When our discussion is over, I dismiss the 4 to 6 year olds to their class (only because this is a non-writing group) and I pass out a notebook page along with a smaller copy of the picture we are studying and ask the kids to write whatever they want about the picture. It can be a list of words or a paragraph or anything in between, but they must write something. When they ask, I (or another parent) helps with spelling.

Here are the 4 pictures we studied this fall.

Peasant Wedding

Census at Bethlehem

Haymaking

Children's Games

Canning Tomatoes

2010-10-04T21:00:00.002-04:00

As I sat down to enjoy lunch at church on Sunday, a dear friend sat next to me and asked if I had a need for tomatoes. Silly question. Due to our two moves in the last 6 months, we were not able to put a garden in and at the current time, our grocery envelope was empty with payday being 5 days away. So we were happy to take her surplus tomatoes.

I managed to get everything set up to can the tomatoes and noticed Dd(11) on the computer and Ds(6) watching mindless television. I announced that all screens needed to be shut off and much to my surprise, there was little resistance. Of course, the kids came into the kitchen where I was and became curious when they spotted the pots on the stove and the empty jars on the counter. After they asked, I invited them to join me.

DD(11) loves anything to do with homemaking. She mimics anything I do. If I get out a sewing project, she dives right in with a project of her own. So it didn't surprise me when she slipped right over to the stove to help.

However, DS(6) did surprise me. I often have this tendency to think "He's too young for this" and every time, I am wrong. He jumped right in and loved peeling the tomatoes.

We only canned 4 jars, but the experience is worth it. If nothing else, the kids need to see how to do this stuff.

I'm sure Charlotte Mason says something about kids in the kitchen, but I am unable to come up with anything at the moment. Even though I can't quote her, I still think she would approve.

Coal Mining Unit Study

2010-09-17T04:49:00.009-04:00

In the month of August, our family became familiar with the coal mining industry. I felt it was important for two reasons:

1. It is part of our family's heritage. My grandfather was a coal miner, as well as many of my mother's uncles and cousins.

2. It is a huge industry in Pennsylvania. Although coal was associated with the steel industry when I was growing up, it is now a major component in the manufacture of electricity now.

Subject areas covered through our study:

History - (specifically Pennsylvania history) From its beginnings in the 1800's to the present day, there have been many changes with technology and mine safety.

Science - Geology - a study of rock and rock layering; the differences between anthricite coal and bituminous coal

Science - Chemistry - Coal burns! So does methane gas which can be commonly found in coal mines.

Geography - We looked at maps of the United States that mark where coal deposits are

Language Arts - We read many books from the library on the topic.

Language Arts, Living History - We interviewed a family member who was a foreman in the coal mines in Greene County and retired within recent years from the coal mines.

Uncle David worked the coal mines since 1969 and said that he would still be in the mines if he could be. He retired a few years ago for medical reasons.

Show and tell - Here Uncle David is showing us his belt and all the gadgets on it and his lunch pail. I was surprised that they still use these types of pails today for their lunches. They seem so old-fashioned, but there is a purpose for their design.

Language Arts, Living History - We are still waiting to interview the pastor from our church who grew up in a coal mining camp.

Resources used:

Books - there are way more books out there than what I have listed here. These are just our 3 favorites.

This book is a favorite. It gives first hand accounts of miner's experiences in the mines.

Even though this is a Christmas book, it has lots of good information in it. Very Charlotte Mason.

Another living book as it is an account of everything that happened in the mine and is told by the miners themselves. Since it is told by the miners, I would advise parents to review the book first. There is some swearing in it. I read it out loud to my family and "edited" the swear words.

Field trips
Quecreek Mine, Somerset, Pa
In 2005, 9 miners were trapped underground for 77 hours. Miraculously, they all made it out alive. The site where the men were brought out of the earth has a monument of the event as well as a visitor's center with lots of information about the incident and the coal mining industry in general.

Tour Ed Mine, Tarentum, Pa
This was a great hands-on field trip that took us 1/2 mile underground into an old mine. Once inside, we walked through time as we explored coal mining in it's earliest days through the technological changes over about 100 years. Outside of the mine is a museum with artifacts from the company store and

King Coal Festival, Carmichaels, Pa
Here, we were able to see the Coal parade that included many floats about the history of coal as well as all the regular local marching bands. At the end of the parade was the Bitumonous Coal Queen and her court. Afterward, we went to the local firehall where there were displays of artifacts from the coal industry.

At the King Coal Festival, we had the opportunity to talk with old coal miners. The man in the blue shirt started in the coal mine when he was 12 years old back in 1939. He was full of information and took the time to explain the artifacts and share his experiences with us.

Online resources

Oracle Thinkquest - Mining Fun: This website is loaded with coloring pages, games and activities that went well with our study.

American Coal Foundation - This resource helped us to get into the science of coal.

Visit to Quecreek Mine

2010-08-25T20:32:00.001-04:00

On July 28, 2002, 9 miners were lifted out of the earth where they were trapped for 77 hours. It is an incredible story of how they all made it out alive.

On our way to Pittsburgh to visit my mom, we stopped at the Quecreek Mine rescue site in Somerset, Pa for a few moments.

If you have the opportunity to study this story, I encourage you to research it and share it with your children. It is a story of how these men came together and survived. It is also a story about the sanctity of life. There are a few books written and the book I appreciate the most is Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith as told to Jeff Goodell (see link below). I will warn you that there is some swearing in the book because it is a book of first-hand accounts of what happened.

This goes along with our study of the coal industry, the history of coal mining, and the science of coal. In the next couple of days, I plan to create a post of the resources I have found on this topic.

For now, here are some pictures from our visit.

This is the actual shaft that the miners were brought back to the surface through.

The shuttle.

The inscription on the book reads:
"They who work the mines
And they who read great books
Are but one, their name is human...
By the labor of their hands,
through the exercise of their minds
And in the strength of their spirit,
They will prevail."
7 May 2002

Quilting Handicrafts

2010-08-18T22:30:00.003-04:00

I first fell in love with quilting when I was pregnant with my first. I had borrowed some Quilt in a Day videos from the library and was hooked. As with any other skill, I made some mistakes in the beginning, but quickly learned that anything worthwhile doesn't include shortcuts. So even with the Quilt in a Day, it takes me several so that I am sure to do it right. This particular quilt requires 4 different square patterns and I want the quilt to be large enough to cover my king-sized bed when it's finished.

Recently, I have been itching to make a quilt. I had this project in a drawer that I started about 5 years ago, but didn't get past the first stages. I was thrilled to find out that through both of our recent moves, the quilt pieces still lay in a bag in a bottom drawer of an old dresser. It was like finding an old friend.

So I picked up right where I left off. The beautiful part of it is that DD11 sits in the room with me and knits while I quilt. She often reminds me of the book by Beverly Lewis "Just Like Mama" and I love it, savor it, and pray these days last a long, long time.

I also believe this is what Charlotte Mason meant by "masterly inactivity". It's a time during the day that is not structured, but something worthwhile is going on.

Once all the squares are done and put together, I will begin hand quilting the entire project. Yes, it takes a long time, but there is something theraputic about stitching each quilt. It's a time to reflect and a time to pray and a time to be still and know He is God. All the while, we are making useful things - handicrafts - that will become a part of our home.

What Grade Are You In?

2010-08-14T08:49:00.001-04:00

My youngest is now 6. I guess that means he's not in Kindergarten any more. He's had it in his mind that he has been in 1st grade since about April.

My oldest is 13. I guess that means she's entering 8th grade.

My "middlest" is nearly 12 and that would mean she is entering 7th grade.

All along, grade level really meant nothing to me. Once the children reached a certain age, people began to ask them, "What grade are you in?" At first the girls would give me a bewildered look. I would then have to calculate on my fingers - "Okay, subtract 5 from their age and that gives you grade level. 7 minus 5 is 2. So I guess that means you're in Second Grade."

Does it matter? Really? When registering for VBS (or any of the other multitude of activities we register for), why can't they go by age?

At various times we would have a scenario like this - 9 year old in Math-U-See Gamma level (What's Gamma????? It's the third book so is that 3rd grade?????), while completing Language Lessons for Intermediate grades, while reading Ivanhoe (unabridged). So just looking at curriculum, what grade would that be?

Again I ask, does it matter? Really?

High school is a whole different ball game and the grade level needs to be more defined. At that point we are creating transcripts that will be necessary for post-secondary education and/or employment*. So that starts at about age 14. In the meantime, according to Pa homeschool law, grade level is determined by the home educating parent. If it doesn't matter to the parent, then what?

*I am not saying here that the law requires transcripts. However, I do highly recommend creating transcripts for your child during the high school years for reasons I mentioned in this post.

Even Though Life is Happening, Learning Continues

2010-07-27T07:57:00.006-04:00

My daughters' standardized test scores came in the mail yesterday.

Let me back up for a moment here.

The last 12 months have not been the greatest. Due to many things going on in our personal lives, "school" was shoved to the side many times. About 2 months ago, I began fretting over it and was talking to a dear friend. She set me straight by asking me, "What would you tell another mom who called you and was fretting like this?" She stopped me in my tracks. I do evaluations for homeschoolers in Pennsylvania and I see many parents who are worried to death. Typically, I encourage them because I know that not all learning comes from textbooks. So my response to her was "I'd tell them to relax." She then informed me that I need to take my own advice and she was right.

The scores came today and it looks like we didn't miss a beat. Both of my girls scored right where they should. I say this because their scores are consistent with previous years' scores. So now DD13 is definitley ready for 8th grade and DD11 is ready for 7th. I didn't test DS6 yet because I truly don't think it's necessary.

So all of this to say that I think a Charlotte Mason Edcuation works! On the days we don't do "school", we are still learning and thinking.

Geography Club

2010-07-20T09:47:00.003-04:00

Our first Geography Club meeting for the year will be this Friday. Geography Club meetings will be 3 hours long with a short break in the middle. Each month we will have a different focus based on the 5 themes of geography and activities are found through the National Council for Geographic Education.

This Friday we will be looking at state quarters and license plates. Once we take a close look at them, we will then divide the quarters into regions to see if there are any similiarities. During the meeting we will also do a scrap map activity and at this moment I am trying to decide if I should have the kids identify the 50 states on a blank outline map. We did that two years ago. Each meeting started with that and each month they could see how many more they knew. It was an activity that was well recieved which is why I'm considering it again this year.

And Now We Are 6

2010-06-14T08:47:00.005-04:00

Happy Birthday

January 19, 2004

Fall 2004

May 2005

Christmas 2006

Christmas Program 2007

May 2009 with his best buddy

First summer on the dirt bike!!! He has waited FOREVER for this moment!

June 2010

Yesterday, he made his birthday cake. It was from a mix, but he cracked the eggs and put in the water and oil. After it cooled, he iced it as well. Today, he will place a Transformer on top of it with the candles. He is such a big boy.

Another Way We Are Saving Money

2010-06-13T15:26:00.005-04:00

This is a neat little gadget that my mother gave my husband for Christmas. Since he is the only coffee drinker in our house, it was the perfect gift. Until the K Cups ran out. We went to purchase more and cannot find them for less than 50 cents per cup. That seems expensive to us since you can brew a whole pot of coffee for less than that. So for a while we used the coffee "tea bags" with it. That worked, but was still a little pricey.

When we are out and about, we will often stop to get a cold drink at some point. It became cost prohibitive when our financial crisis hit at the end of last summer. So we stopped doing that as much. We still did it though (every time we were looking over our shoulders for Dave Ramsey - eek!).

Earlier this spring I found a little cooler at a church rummage sale. Perfect! I started taking drinks with us when we went out. Usually bottled water, but sometimes tea or other drinks that I purchased at the store. It was cheaper than going to a convenience store, but still not cheap.

Then one day, I was looking at my husband's Christmas gift and I thought I'd try to brew iced tea with it. At that moment, I started a new trend in our house.

Now I am brewing the tea we take with us when we go out and about. There are many benefits here. #1 being cost. A tea bag costs pennies compared to the $1.50 to $2 we were spending on drinks at convenience stores.
The side benefit is that I know what is in that bottle now. I don't use corn syrup or artificial sweetners or chemical preservatives. I use tea and honey or raw sugar and sometimes I squeeze lemon juice in. Labeling the bottles is very important. When I brew fruit teas for the kids, it can sometimes be a hard sell if the children don't know what's in the bottle.

I haven't calculated costs, yet. However, I know this is just better.

I brew the tea right in the bottle with the water from our Kreurig machine. When it's finished brewing, I add water to fill the bottle and stick it in the refrigerator. Hubby likes having the individual servings in bottles to grab and go.

Laundry Soap update

2010-06-13T15:22:00.003-04:00

The laundry soap that Lucy and I made is working out great. Our clothes are clean and we are paying a fraction of the cost of commercial laundry detergent. I'm thrilled with it.

Our Property

2010-05-24T07:39:00.001-04:00

Through the unfolding of events over the last year, we have found ourselves on a piece of property that is about 12 acres and wooded. Some think we are doing well because we got this big house on this big piece of property when in reality we are renting. The rent is less than half of what our mortgage was in our previous house. Despite several efforts over the last 4 or 5 years, our house didn't sell. It has come to a point where the house is in foreclosure. I won't go into great detail here, but let's just say we are feeling the economic crunch with many others right now. I publish these things so the truth will be out there.

Nonetheless, we are making the best of our current situation. Through the woods we have cut a walking trail. The trail is rough right now, but walkable. It has been a wonderful bonding experience for our family to have a project such as this in front of us. The nice part is that it really didn't cost us much money. My husband had to purchase a new chainsaw blade. Other than that, we have a lot of "sweat equity" in it.

We are estimating that the trail is about 1/3 to 1/2 mile long. It starts near the house and ends near the house. Every day we find footprints left by the wildlife that wanders the woods at night. Talk about an excellent opportunity for nature study!

We are looking forward to many, many adventures on a trail that we can call our own.

Laundry Soap

2010-05-12T20:20:00.004-04:00

While at the Tractor Supply Store purchasing pullets this spring, I noticed this issue of Mary Janes Farm magazine on the rack near the check out. It caught my attention and I thought "What the heck". (Truth be known, I'm a sucker for magazines. Don't know why. I just love them.)

I found a recipe for laundry soap and was intrigued. After doing more research, I found that making your own laundry detergent is economical. Hmmmmmm....

So tonight, we made laundry detergent. I haven't done the calculations yet and I'm waiting to see if this actually works. In the meantime, I'll share pictures.

These are the ingredients. I found these items at the grocery store in the laundry aisle. (Confession: As much as I hate that place, I checked "Wally World" first. They did not have all of these items. So much for one-stop shopping.)

My husband even got in on the action. He likes the saving money part.

Homeschool Convention and Where Did My Babies Go?

2010-05-08T07:17:00.004-04:00

Had an amazing day at the CHAP Convention yesterday and am gearing up to go again today.

When I go, I have my list of books I must purchase to get ready for next year. My first stop is usually at the Queen Homeschool booth to purchase our Math U See books for next year.

So yesterday, I went up to them and said, "I need a complete set of Alpha, a student book for Epsilon and a complete set of whatever comes after Zeta." The very courteous young man helping me said, "Oh, that would be Pre-Algebra".

(Imagine here the scene from Christmas Story where Ralphie's mom called Schwart's mom and told her that Ralphie heard a bad word from Schwartz. ~ What?! What!? WHAAAAT?!?!?!? That's a little glimpse inside my mind at that moment.)

I was shocked! Pre-Algebra!!! I mean, I should have known because I am familiar with Math U See as we have been using it for a few years now. I started thinking in my mind, "Okay, DD12 will be 13 this summer and she will be 8th grade in the fall, so I guess that's right." All of this happened in about a milli-second. I tried to keep it together and not let this guy know what was going through my head - I wanted to know where in the heck my baby went and that I wanted to leap over the table at him for telling me my firstborn is growing up so fast. But, hey, can't shoot the messenger.

After a quick moment, all I could do was look at this poor young man and say, "I'm not emotionally prepared to make that purchase right now. Give me the Alpha and Epsilon books, but I need time to digest 'Pre-Algebra'."

Whew! They grow up right before your eyes, don't they?

Our First Spring Nature Study of the Year

2010-03-16T20:14:00.001-04:00

“Let [children] once get touch (sic) with nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through his life.” --Charlotte Mason; Home Education, pg. 61

Over the winter, we had a tremendous amount of snow in this area. In two snowfalls, within a week, we recieved nearly 5 feet of snow. That is out of the ordinary for our area.
Another two weeks while there was still snow on the ground, we had a tremendous rainfall. Of course, we noticed all the little creeks and streams in our area were over their banks. We decided to take a morning and go to Caledonia State Park to observe the many streams that wind through the park.

Here, DD11 is making a nature entry in her Commonplace Book.

She came prepared with mud boots so she could wade in the small currents and stay dry. She also brought along a bag of pretzels for a snack.

DD12 found the most interesting rocks. They looked like obsideon with streaks of marble through them. We are not sure if the rocks are native to the area or if they were brought in.

DS5 did what any reasonable boy his age would do ~ threw multitudes of rocks into the water. I'm especially excited to see the I caught the "splash" in this photo.

We walked by some favorite picnic spots to see how close the water came to them. We could see that the water was higher before we got there because of how the grass bent near the banks and the debris was piled up at the bottom of the trees and around picnic tables. It will be fun to take the many pictures we took today along with some new pictures we take over the upcoming summer to observe the differences in water levels.

Phonics anyone?

2010-03-07T08:33:00.004-05:00

When I taught in public schools in the early to mid 90's, my favorite year was the year I taught 3rd grade. Those kids were great. They were already readers, but they were still young enough to be excited about activities I had planned.
The most frustrating grade level was 2nd grade. Half of the kids were readers and half were nonreaders.
At the end of every school year, we received our teaching assignments for the following year. The school where I taught thought it was healthy to move teachers from one grade to another every year.
One year, I suspected that my new teaching assignment would be in 1st grade. I went to the principal and begged him to not put me in a 1st grade classroom. Why? I did not want to teach phonics. I loathe phonics. The word phonics is not spelled phonetically. What's up with that?
This morning I came across two YouTube videos with possible explanations as to why I have such a dislike for the subject.

Enjoy!

Found this one at A Peaceful Day this morning. I think it really drives home the need to teach a love of books. When children love books, they will have a desire to learn to read. I love this stuff.

Chocolate Class #4 & #5

2010-03-05T08:18:00.002-05:00

Due to illness traveling through our homeschool group, we canceled Chocolate Class #4 and did a double class today.

Day 4

February 26, 2010 (Canceled and moved to March 5)

Identify chocolate bars - What you see in the picture above is what I had on a table for the kids to look at when they walked in. They had to try to guess what each candy bar was.

Put Chocolate words in alphabetical order

Read Lesson 4 – How chocolate is made. Have students label the pictures taken from chocolate manufacturing.

Language Arts – Write a poem using words that are on the Sensory Chart that kids filled out in Class #3. Write the final draft of the poem on a Hershey Kiss shape cut out of brown consrtuction paper. Then use aluminum foil to but around the "kiss" and mount on a sheet of colored paper. (See my daughter above completing her page)
Reading Comprehension - Have students read independently (non readers pair up with readers), then give a narration (written or oral) about Milton Hershey.

Geography – Locate the town of Hershey on a map of Pa and mark it by drawing a Hershey Kiss shape in the appropriate location.

Day 5

March 5, 2010

1.Language Arts – Chocolate Similes

2.Art – Revisit picture study from Day 3. Using watercolors, create a picture similar to Tiebaud’s.

3.Hot Chocolate Testing – Do a blind taste test of three types of hot chocolate. Determine which the children like best then reveal the brand/type of hot chocolate.

4.Health – Compare and contrast the nutrition labels from three types of hot chocolate.

Language Arts – Is chocolate healthy?

Art – design a chocolate bar wrapper

Commonplace Books

2010-03-02T11:23:00.006-05:00

Upon doing some research, I found that Commomplace Books were common in the Middle Ages and up to the 19th century.

People like Thomas Jefferson and Ralph Waldo Emerson kept these treasures and in the 1600's, compiling Commonplace Books was formally taught to college students at Oxford.

I guess commonplacing is the same as journaling, scrapbooking or blogging. Perhaps some would view this practice as "old-fashioned". No matter, the idea appeals to me and will easily be incorporated into our homeschool.

Inspired by Harmony Art Mom and her use of Commomplace Books, I went out and purchased the supplies for each of my children to start their own.

When I started telling my children about them, my oldest said that she knew what they were. She said they are mentioned frequently in the Series of Unfortunate Events. Go figure!

The part that intrigues me the most is the organization of information that is kept in these books. Although I think it will be challenging, we will work on keeping an index for their books so they can easily find past entries.

Here is how we are starting:

We each have a small 3-ring binder (7 X 9 inches).
I cut 8.5 X 11 inch paper in half and punched holes in it.

What will we put in them? Poetry, quotes, narrations, picture studies, newspaper clippings, nature sketches, etc.

The book should be personal so there is no right or wrong way to put them together.

My research on this project will continue.

In the meantime, I had the kids each decorate the covers of their books however they wanted and I have the paper that goes inside ready to go.

I like this idea so much that I made a Commonplace Book for myself.

These two were eager to get their first entries into their books.

2010 Chocolate Class #3

2010-02-05T20:22:00.000-05:00

Chocolate Class #3

1. Observe pictures of cacao pods in books. Dicsuss the coloration of the pods. Color a cacao pod.
2. Science - Identify the four things a cacao tree needs (Hands of a Child project pack #1221; Sweet Chocolate)
3. Math - M&M Graphing. Chart from Homeschool Share; M&M chart
4. Art - Picture study; Wayne Tiebaud's "Cakes"
5. Language Arts - Hershey Kiss Sensory Chart from Homeschool Share
6. Game - Hide the Hershey Kiss - one child hides a Hershey Kiss somewhere in the room while the other children cover their eyes. The kiss must be someplace where everyone can see it from where they sit. Once hidden, the children uncover their eyes and look for the kiss while staying in their seat. The first person to find it gets to be "it" and is the next to hide the kiss.

2010 Chocolate Class #2

2010-01-29T19:59:00.001-05:00

Chocolate Class #2

1. Language Arts - Chocolate bunny word bubbles. Fill in what you think the bunnies are saying to each other.
2. Review Day #1

In what part of the world were the first cacao trees found?
Who first used cacao beans?
What were the beans used for?

3. History - The Story of Chocolate; DK Reader; pages 16-19; Columbus and Cortez; Write a narration about what these two explorers' experiences were with chocolate.

4. Make Indoor S'mores

5. Language Arts - The Story of Chocolate; DK Reader; pages 20-22; Read and narrate

6. Problem Solving - Build a chocolate tower bridge using Hershey Miniatures (Teacher Created Materials; Chocolate Thematic Unit; page 44)

2010 Chocolate Class #1

2010-01-15T20:23:00.000-05:00

Chocolate Class #1

Activities

1. How many words can you make from the letters in the word "chocolate"?

2. History - The Story of Chocolate; DK Readers; pages 10-15; Read about the Mayans, Aztecs and the Olmecs. Have children narrate/discuss this history.

3. Geography - On a map of Central America, color code the areas where the Mayans, Aztecs and Olmecs inhabited.

4. Math / Science - Barge Building - Make a barge out of aluminum foil to hold the most M & M's without sinking in water. (Chocolate Thematic Unit; Teacher Created Materials; page 44)

5. Art - Collage; Make a collage using pictures found in magazines of chocolate and things with chocolate in them.

Snowshoeing

2010-01-09T21:50:00.000-05:00

It was a great day to get outside and move around. Ski Liberty had their Winter Trails event today. It was free (I like that). They had tents set up where we learned about our health and safety while we enjoy winter sporting events. The very last station was snowshoeing. This was a worthwhile event that we will look forward to again next year.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-26T18:26:00.011-05:00

The month of December is just a blur. It was one of those months when I wonder why we call it homeschooling because we were hardly home.
I believe that each of the following pictures could be a post by themselves, but really, who has the time?

So here is a glimpse of our month.

After watching a Christmas Carol, DS5 dressed up as Jacob Marley.

Visiting the annual Wreath Festival in Westminster, Md. While there, we got to see a free screening of the foreign film Joyuex Noel - a movie about the World War I Christmas Eve truce in 1914.

DD12 and two friends serving lunch at an area soup kitchen.

DD11 Singing a solo at our homeschool group's Christmas Pageant.

Making Addy's mini- sweet potato pies during the week-long American Girl Christmas class I taught from my home.

Receiving a box of fruit from my aunt in Florida.

DD12 and friend at the Christmas pageant. They were also the narrators reading the story of Christ's birth from scripture.

Our homeschool group's Christmas party. I got tons of pictures, but not a single picture of anyone in my family.

We had to go to Wal Mart to get needed groceries the day before a blizzard dumped 18 inches of snow on us. When we went to check out, the lines seemed to go half way to the back of the store. My husband started asking people in line if this was the bread line or the toilet paper line. We were in line to check out for over 45 minutes. (Glad that day is over with.)

Passing the Christmas star to put on top of the tree. I have had this star since 1972.

Hymn sing and dinner at the church we attend. Another event where I got lots of pictures of other people, but none of my family.

DD11 and her good friend making cookies at the Baking Book Club.

In between all of these events, we baked and baked and baked. I baked so many cookies this year it's unbelievable. The house smelled great and it was fun making plates of cookies to give away to friends as gifts.

I am looking forward to having a quiet New Year's.

Hannukah Party

2009-12-17T10:03:00.004-05:00

We were unvited to our first Hannukah party ever.

Our host read the story of Hannukah to us, taught us the symbolism of the menorah, and taught us some traditional songs. It was fun and we learned so much.
From a homeschooling perspective, we covered history, literature, world cultures, music, fine arts and math. Yes - math! The kids were asked to figure out how many candles were needed total for the 8 nights of Hannukah.

Traditional latkes were prepared by our hostess and served with sour cream and applesauce. One of the guests asked about the significance of the sour cream and applesause and was told that they have no signigicance except as toppings for the latkes. By the way - the food was delicious!

Our hostess also made sure there were enough menorahs so that each guest had an opportunity to light a candle or two. As we lit the candles, her daughter recited a blessing in Hebrew then in English. It was the 6th night of Hannukah.

Learning the dreidle game.

An American Girl Christmas - Day #4

2009-12-10T21:22:00.001-05:00

An American Girl Christmas
based on the books from Pleasant Company Publications.

This past week (Monday to Thursday), I taught a class called "An American Girl Christmas". The plan was to focus on a different American Girl each day. We learned a little about the time period, did writing activities, studied paintings from the time period, sang a couple of songs, and completed some handicrafts. The youngest girl in my class was 7 years old, while the oldest was 12.

Most of the activities that I used were from books published by Pleasant Company. I was able to find some at my local library and others were found at Amazon. At the bottom of this post I will put links for all of the books I used.

Here is a summary for today.

Thursday - Molly 1944

Copywork

"They had their traditional Christmas Eve supper of scrambled eggs, bacon, hot chocolate, and cinnamon toast before they hung their stockings on the mantle. Mom read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" just as Dad read it every year."

Music Study

I'll Be Home for Christmas

Picture Study

Christmas Homecoming by Norman Rockwell 1948

Snack

Popcorn (made the old fashioned way on top of the stove - not in a microwave)

Movie

We watched "Molly- An American Girl on the Homefront"

We talked about what a big deal it was for a girl like Molly to go to the movies.

Although we didn't watch the whole movie, my goal was for the girls to see the Christmas section of the movie. They did get to see part of the movie, but we ran out of time.

An American Girl Christmas - Day #3

2009-12-09T20:49:00.000-05:00

An American Girl Christmas
based on the books from Pleasant Company Publications.

This past week (Monday to Thursday), I taught a class called "An American Girl Christmas". The plan was to focus on a different American Girl each day. We learned a little about the time period, did writing activities, studied paintings from the time period, sang a couple of songs, and completed some handicrafts. The youngest girl in my class was 7 years old, while the oldest was 12.

Here is a summary of today.

Wednesday - Addy 1874

Copywork

"When it was time to go back for dessert, Addy ignored all the cakes and pies and headed straight for Momma's sweet-potato pudding in the shining black skillet. As she savored each smooth sweet bite, she thought about Poppa, Sam and Esther."

Picture Study

The Underground Railroad by Charles T Webber; 1893

Craft - Picture Quilt

We looked at picture a picture quilt made by Harriet Powers in 1886. We discussed who she was and tried to identify as many Bible stories as we could from her quilt. Then the girls designed a quilt block using construction paper. The older girls did a great job with this, but I think the younger girls had a hard time understanding what to do. I should have finished one myself so they could see what the assingment was.

Cooking activity

Addy's Mini Sweet Potato Pies

Taken from the American Girls Party Book

Music study
Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow

One of the advantages of homeschooling is that all ages can participate. My son who is 5 came into the room off and on to see what we were doing. Sometimes he would sit and do the activity with us. The nice part is that he was invited in - not by me, but by the girls who were participating. They pulled up a chair and asked him to be a part of what we were doing.

An American Girl Christmas - Day #2

2009-12-08T23:24:00.000-05:00

An American Girl Christmas
based on the books from Pleasant Company Publications.

Here is a summary of today.

Tuesday - Josefina 1824

Copywork - "Christmas Eve was called "la Noche buena" - the good night. And this Christmas Eve felt like a very good night to Josefina. Nina was hers to love and care for at last."

Picture Study -Las Posadas 2000 by Carmen Lomas Garza

We discussed Las Posadas and what happens. This picture was especially nice because it is so colorful and is modern.

Craft

Decorated a hair comb with rinestone jewels. This idea came from Just Call Me Jammin. She has some great ideas of activities to do with the American Girls books.

Made a memory book as explained in the American Girls Club Handbook.

Music Study

We listened to the songs from Josefina's time from the American Girls Christmas CD.

Snack

Hot chocolate and cookies

An American Girl Christmas - Day #1

2009-12-07T10:29:00.001-05:00

An American Girl Christmas
based on the books from Pleasant Company Publications.

Here is a summary of today.

Monday Feliticy - 1774

Copywork - "Felicity stood on a stool to lift the ark down from its high shelf. The ark was a special toy they brougnt down only at Christmastide. All three children loved to play with the wooden boat and the small painted animals that went inside. Now they sat at mother's feet, happily lining the animals up in pairs."

Picture Study

Sewing project - Pincusion (Found in Felicity's Craft Book)

This was a worthwhile project. It took a long time to finish, but the pincusions came out beautifully and the girls really enjoyed working on them.

Music Study

Deck the Halls

Snack

I made a pound cake ahead of time and called it a Twelfth Night Cake. I did bake a bean into it and we had a girl who was "Queen of the Day".

Resources for today:

Serving Others

2009-12-01T17:38:00.007-05:00

Through love, serve one another. Galatians 5:13

Something I have wanted to do for years was to serve at a soup kitchen.
Last night, I told the kids we would be going to serve others in the morning. At that time, I couldn't tell how they felt about it.

This morning when it was time to go, they all seemed eager.

I did prep them on the way there about the type of people they might see and that we are to serve everyone there with love - no matter what. They seemed to understand.

There was something for all of us to do. (Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures until close to the end.)

I served soup. (My basic life philosophy is that food equals love. What better way to show love than through a hot bowl of soup on a chilly day.)
DD12 served sandwiches and applesauce, and she dried dishes and wiped down tables and chairs.
DD11 mainly helped with dishes.
DS5 stacked crackers for me. It surprises me sometimes how someone so young is so eager and willing to serve. The task I gave him was to count out 4 crackers to a stack and set them on the table next to me so all I had to do was to reach over and grab a stack to set on people's trays. He was attentive to the task and stuck with me the entire 45 minutes. After lunch was served and everyone left, he helped to wipe down tables and chairs and he squeegied the dish washing area.

It was a joy to me to have the opportunity to serve others and to give the opportunity to my children.

Later this afternoon, DD11 told me that she can't wait to go back and do it again.

I encourage others to seek out such opportunities for their families. The rewards are great.

According to Pennsylvania homeschool law, we are required to cover civics. Part of civics is volunteerism. A side benefit of an activity like this is that you can place it in your portfolio under civics. We aren't just learning about what a volunteer is, we are actually doing it. What could be better?

Thanksgiving Travels to Tennessee

2009-11-25T16:28:00.009-05:00

We have arrived in Tennessee to spend time with my husband's family this Thanksgiving. We are having a great time going out and exploring the surrounding area near Fayetteville, Tennessee. Fayetteville itself is a great little town. There are no metered parking spaces and when you step into the shops you are usually greeted by a very friendly shop owner with a charming southern drawl.

Although the girls forgot to bring along their math and language arts books like I requested, learning continues. (It never really stops as far as I'm concerned.)

The same old stories that are told to the children about their parents are a vital part of history that will stick with them for years to come.

Part of the family bonding includes an eccentric aunt recording a video of all the cousins to be sent to The Kalembo Mission in Africa. (Talk about a geography lesson!)

Yesterday we visited the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. The tour included a lot of information that helps us to cover American history - America in the 1800's to prohibition and beyond.

The distillery itself provides an excellent example of work ethic and not taking shortcuts to manufacture your product.

Some pictures:

A quote from Mr. Jack Daniels.

Picture taken outside the cave that contains the natural spring that Jack Daniels used to make his product. The picture doesn't do justice to the beauty that surrounded us.

Visiting the souvenier shops in Lynchburg.

Reason I Home Educate My Children #1

2009-10-28T10:57:00.007-04:00

I am always telling my children to think. When they hear something, no matter what it is, they should always question, "Does that make sense?" Even if it makes sense, it's not necessarily right.

DD12 just did a science experiment from Jay Wile's Exploring Creation with General Science. In the experiment she proves that heavier objects drop faster than lighter objects. She dropped a sheet of paper and a book. Of course, the book hit the ground first.
In the very next experiment, she found that the conculsion of the first experiment wasn't correct by dropping several other items from a flat sheet of paper, to a paper clip, to a rock, to a book to a crumpled up sheet of paper.

These two experiments are just one example of what I am talking about. There are so many issues in the world today that "prove" themselves to be true at face value. Many members of our society will accept a given "fact", not question further and just go with the crowd.

I want my children to grow up to be thinkers. They may not know everything there is to know (Who can know everything?), but thinkers have the ability to seek information about what they need to know.

Middle Ages - The Four "Alls"

2009-10-26T11:04:00.000-04:00

There were:
"the peasants who worked for all,
priests who prayed for all,
knights who fought for all,
and kings who ruled all."

The above quote and following activity can be found in Knights & Castles: 50 Hands-on Activities to Experience the Middle Ages by Avery Hart & Paul Mantell.

We are enjoying our studies of the Middle Ages.

As we are working through the curriculum from Winter Promise called Quest for the Middle Ages, we found this activity that took about a week to complete. Each day we read about one of the "four alls" and completed a section of a shadow box of it. DD10 is really into this project and DS5 was only interested in making a knight scene that you see above. The book suggests using shoe boxes, but I felt a shadow box would be easier to display for a longer time.

DD10 made all of her figures out of clay except for some pigs in her peasant scene.

The peasant who worked for all.

Priests who prayed for all.

Knights who fought for all. (The background is a stone picture she printed from the computer.)

The king who ruled all. (This section is incomplete as DD10 is having difficulty in making a person kneeling to be knighted.)

DS 5's completed project can be seen at the beginning of this post.

Pet Memorial

2009-10-23T11:57:00.000-04:00

Our beloved guinea pig died last night. It has been especially hard on DD10.

She loved the little piggy way before she ever got her.

DD10 wanted a guinea pig. I am not a pet person. I have a hard enough time taking care of my husband and three children, I am not interested in adding the responsibility of a pet to my daily tasks.

I told DD10 that if this is what she wanted, she had to do the research by getting a notebook and answering the following questions:

How much do they cost?

What do they eat and how much does that cost?

What kind of living arrangements to they need?

Do they require supplements?

I also made it clear to her that she had to use her money to pay for this thing and to buy it's bedding and food for the entirety of it's stay with us.

There were many more questions, but DD10 did her research and filled her notebook. Once the notebook was filled, I told her that if we were patient, we could probably get a free guinea pig from somewhere. Sure enough, one came available in the local paper. We also got a free cage.

So we brought Mina home. My daughter took care of that piggy like it were her child. She scrubbed the cage once (sometimes twice) a week, fed her, cared for her, geave her treats at Christmas, and so on.

She even kept Psalm 36:6 printed on her cage.

We woke up this morning to find that Mina went to be with God. It was heartbreaking to tell her that the guinea pig was gone. She sobbed all day and there was nothing I could do to take the pain away.

Encouragement in Tough Times

2009-10-19T08:34:00.002-04:00

So many things going on in our little lives right now. With the financial distruption to our lives in the beginning of August, things are finally starting to smooth out. By that I mean that hubby and I are at peace with it all. It is far from over, but we are at peace knowing God is in control and only has our ultimate best interest in mind.

Things I have found to be an encouragement at this time:

Books
The Bible - I am reading the book of James and it starts out "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverance. Perserverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper
Our Daily Bread for Persoanl and Family Devotions

Songs
Praise You in This Storm by Casting Crowns
Revelation Song by Philips, Craig & Dean
Our Great God by Todd Agnew

Friends - For the first time in my life, I feel I have people around me who aren't quick to judge, but will instead pray with me and for me despite their own struggles at this time. I pray for them, too as the act of praying for others invokes hope.

Apple Picking

2009-09-18T21:02:00.009-04:00

Personal note: In our household we are facing a financial crisis. I hear that many others are facing these tough economic times and that we are not alone. That's little consolation when faced with a stack of bills and a paycheck that falls short every other week leaving many bills unpaid and not knowing what will happen in the next couple of months.
In the midst of this, I feel so blessed. Blessed to have opportunities like we had today to be able to go and be with friends and forget our troubles for a little while. God is good. He tells us not to worry and that He has everything under control.
Today's entry is about blessing. The blessing of friends, the blessing of educational experiences, and the blessing of fresh food. (Apples taste so good when just picked!)
I probably should have made the kids bring their nature notebooks or art journals and had them sketch some apples or an apple tree. However, that wasn't in the forefront of my mind. My goal was just to get there. Thank God I did.

We went on a field trip with our homeschool group to pick apples at a local orchard. It is good for our kids' souls to get out in the sunshine and fresh air. Even more important sometimes is how good it is for the moms to get together. We were there for 3 hours today and I didn't want to leave. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by the moms who are in our group and today I was really feeling it. I just didn't want to leave.

Our visit started with a wagon ride from the market to the orchard.

Each row of trees was a different type of apple. DS5 really loves Granny Smiths and we were able to find some.

His friend joined us and we had a great time exploring the orchard for the perfect apple.

Somehow DS5 and two of his best friends ended up with Star Wars figurines. I'm not exactly sure how to tie that in with apple picking. The picture was cute, so I included it here anyway.

I told these two to act like they like each other for the picture. This was the best I could get out of them.

We all enjoyed our bag lunches then headed to the petting zoo.

I thought this was a neat picture of my dear friend getting pictures of her kids.

And another dear friend trying to get coordinated to get on the wagon to go back.

I wish I could convey to all of those who were there today how much I love them and feel blessed by them - even if we talked for only a few seconds.

It was probably more that God knew just what I needed today and put me right there.

Jean Piaget

2009-09-06T19:36:00.002-04:00

"The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done."

-Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Swiss cognitive psychologist.

Kindergarten Nature Journal

2009-09-04T11:34:00.005-04:00

For nature journaling this year, I am having each child pick a tree in our yard. On our 1/5th of an acre we actually have 6 trees to study - one of which is just a baby that popped up this summer.

At least once a month, I will have them observe and sketch their tree in their nature notebooks.

One of our trees appeared about the time DS5 was born so we have always called it his tree. Of course that is the tree he wanted to journal this morning. Even though I have studied this stuff and seen it a million times, it amazes me when a child of 5 years produces something like this. It's amazing what they can do if we let them.

DS5's tree and sketch

DD10's tree and sketch

I couldn't help myself

2009-09-02T19:34:00.001-04:00

Book Review - Can You Find It Outside

2009-08-26T21:33:00.005-04:00

Two book reviews in one day. I wasn't planning to do this, but I had to plug this book I found at the library. Can You Find It Outside? from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While at the library I also noticed another book called "Can You Find It Inside?"

This book has 13 works of art in which the reader is asked to find various objects. It's a type of "I Spy" book, but it contains fine art. This is a great way to expose young children to art and get them to really look at it.

My 5 year old son and I had a great time reading this book today.

One of the pieces contained in the book is "Peaceable Kingdom" by American artist, Edward Hicks.

When looking at this piece, the child is asked to find the lion and the leopard and the lamb. Then he is asked to find a hole in the tree and two bare feet.
My son studied the picture for a long time and said he couldn't find the bare feet. At first, I thought he was kidding. Then I realized he was completely serious. After giving him some clues, he said there simply is no bear in the picture.
Oh the innocence of it all. I love moments like these.

I can't wait to go back to the library to check out "Can You Find It Inside?"

Book Review - Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?

2009-08-26T15:24:00.002-04:00

Quote from the beginning of the book:
"...All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from the defects in their constitution or confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation..." John Quincy Adams, 1829

WOW!
This is a great book. It is on Ambleside Online's book list for Year 7. DD12 and her dad are reading it together and they are loving it. It is a course in economics that is very easy to understand. Each chapter is only 2 pages long and her assignment is to read only one chapter a week, digest it and discuss it.

Chapter titles include (These are my favorites):
Inflation
Revolutions, Elections and Printing Presses
Fast Money
How Much is a Trillion
What's So Bad About the Federal Debt?

I like to recommend books that gets our family as a whole talking and this is one of those books. DD12 will read something and come running to us to share what she just learned. My hubby does that, too. We then talk about the ideas presented and figure out how they apply to our lives today. We are all talking about it.

As we work through the upcoming year, I hope to post other Charlotte Mason friendly books.

The "S" Word

2009-08-25T11:15:00.000-04:00

I thought this was interesting. I looked up "socialization" and found "socialize". #1 is a little scary. Then out of curiosity I looked up "socialism". I found #3 most interesting on that one.
I wonder if these words are on any vocabulary list in the public schools. Hmmmm.

Here is what I found:

so·cial·ize (sō'shə-līz') v. so·cial·ized, so·cial·iz·ing, so·cial·iz·esv. tr.
1. To place under government or group ownership or control.
2. To make fit for companionship with others; make sociable.
3. To convert or adapt to the needs of society.v. intr.To take part in social activities.so'cial·i·za'tion (-shə-lĭ-zā'shən) n., so'cial·iz'er n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth EditionCopyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Cite This Source

so⋅cial⋅ism /ˈsoʊʃəˌlɪzəm/ Show Spelled [soh-shuh-liz-uhm] Show IPA –noun
1..a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.
2..procedure or practice in accordance with this theory.
3..(in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles.

Compare utopian socialism.
Origin: 1830–40; social + -ism
Dictionary.com UnabridgedBased on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009. Cite This Source

South Mountain Fair

2009-08-24T07:50:00.005-04:00

DD12 worked desparately to finish two projects to be entered in our local fair. She did both projects through 4-H. There were other homeschoolers locally who entered the fair and it was fun seeing their projects there as well.

Due to a financial crunch in our family, we are being forced to really cut back on recreational spending. We had to pay an admission to the fair ($4 per adult and kids were free), but it was well worth it since we warned the children ahead of time that we would not be riding anything. We were there to see the exhibits. DS5 really wanted to ride something, but I think he is adjusting to our budget. He only asked once, we said "no" and miraculously, there was no whining.

We first saw a man with a monkey. I had a couple of quarters and gave them to the kids. The monkey came and took the money out of their hands and kissed them each on the nose. It was sweet.

Anyway, walking through and taking the time to really look at the exhibits was a lot like visiting a muesum. We really appreciated what went into each project and that made the day very enjoyable. We also visited the commercial exhibits which weren't quite as much fun, but we got some free post-it notes, pens and rulers. We were also able to talk politics with the political candidates who were there. After that, we visited the livestock. It was a little smelly, but fun seeing the various animals. By that time we had plastic bags with our freebies and I had to tell the children to keep the bags away from the goats because they would try to eat them. And they did.

The highlight of the whole event was seeing the second place ribbons on both of DD12's projects. This being her first year, having little guidance, and not knowing what the judges might be looking for, we were all surprised (and very proud) she did so well.

The bonus was that when we went to pick up her projects on Sunday, she recieved a check for $4! She won a money prize of $2 each for the 2nd place winnings. She was beaming.

As we left the grounds, all three of my kids were thinking of projects they could enter next year.

As a mom, this made my heart sing.

Summer Journaling

2009-08-15T08:40:00.001-04:00

We started our summer journals on Memorial Day and it has become part of our evening routine that I think may go on indefinitely.

We get PJ's on, brush teeth and cozy in to write a couple of words about our days. Each of my children has their own "style" for journaling.

DD12 is writing a story in the 3rd person, often writes poetry and enjoys making lists.

DD10 writes a sentence or two and draws a picture

At the beginning of the summer, DS5 drew pictures and dictated several sentences to me. More recently, he enjoys doing copywork. Usually he copies the titles of his favorite books. He seems to be enjoying writing his own letters in his journal rather than having me write words for him.

DH also seems to be enjoying this activity. It is a real bonding time for our family because we get to hear what happened during the day that is important to each of us.

The cat wishing he had opposable thumbs so he could write about his napping adventures in a journal. Instead, he enjoys listening to us read our journals each night.

Each person may write what he or she wishes.

What we include in our journals:

A narrative about the day

A list of favorite things

Poetry (either original or copied with appropriate credit given)

Bible verses

This list could go on and on.

Once everyone is finished writing, we will share what we have written.

We've started

2009-08-12T08:18:00.004-04:00

On Monday, we started a light schedule.

But before that, we had to go out for ice cream on Sunday night. Growing up, it was a tradition in my family to go out for ice cream the night before the first day of school. It was fun and when it comes to family tradition, I figure the calories just don't count.

We are reading The Door in the Wall (Books for Young Readers) by Marguerite de Angeli and Short Stories from English History as suggested by Queen Homeschool. Since our summer activities are not over yet, we are going on a light schedule (which we should have been doing all summer).
So, on Monday we read chapter 1 and discussed it. We then read the suggested chapters from Short Stories from English History and had an amazing discussion with dad in the room. It was wonderful and I kept thinking "This is what I have been striving for!"
Isn't it wonderful when a plan comes together?

I realize this is just after one day, but I am hopeful. The curriculum I have chosen this year seems to really fit. DD12 will be doing Year 7 Lite in Ambleside Online and DD10 will be doing Quest for the Middle Ages from Winter Promise. Our plans this year include a field trip to Medieval Times in Maryland.

DS5 will just be along for the ride. He did request a math book - I think because his sisters each have one. So I went to Staples and got the Kindergarten math book for him and a workbook to practice writing which we are calling his copywork book.

When to start

2009-08-03T07:56:00.004-04:00

When I first entered the homeschooling community, I found the idea odd that there was a beginning and an end to a school year. Although I am a former public school teacher and worked on a 190 day schedule every year (180 with students and 10 without), I still found it odd that families who educate at home were compelled to mark a beginning and end. I guess part of it is what we have learned from society. Most of us went to school 180 days a year (barring sick days and family trips) and there has always been a definite beginning and end of the school year.

When we have our children at home, we have the luxury of making that beginning and end a little fuzzier and should embrace that.

With that said, I made the mistake last year of counting days and letting the children know what number day we were on. This mainly evolved out of the fact that I homeschooled two other students with my family*. To meet state requirements and to come up with an agreement with their parents, the days had to be calculated.
This year, I am not tutoring, but the effects of last year are still being felt.

As I come to my computer and try to plan for the upcoming year, I am sure about what we will be doing. We are going to study the middle ages and possibly go into the renaissance by spring.

The difficulty I am having right now is figuring out when to start what I am calling our regular schedule. We have had so much activity this summer, that we do not have a regular schedule and as much fun as it is, it also creates a lot of stress with fluctuating bedtimes and being in different places each day and each week.

For now, it looks like we will be able to get into our regular schedule at the end of August. In the meantime, I am hoping to read "The Door in the Wall" with the kids and do some activities with it. We'll see.

* Yes, in Pennsylvania it's legal. It falls under the Private Tutoring Provision of the Pennsylvania School Code. Although, some argued with me that I could only take one student from another family, I read the law differently. My argument was that my Pennsylvania teaching certificate enabled me to teach in a classroom with children from 30+ different families at one time. Why then in my home could I only teach children from one family? Once again, I think the law is poorly written.

Completed Sewing Projects

2009-07-30T13:12:00.004-04:00

DD12's dress is finally finished. I had ambitions of her helping with it, but the dress pattern was so complicated, there was never really a spot where she could help considering she has no sewing experience. At any rate, she picked out the pattern and the fabric. She loves horses so this one-of-a-kind dress is perfect for her. She found fabric with wild horses that we used for the waist and trim on the skirt.

As we were working on the sisters' dresses, my little man (age 5) said he wanted me to make something for him. So we went to the fabric store and he picked out fabric he liked. One was Transformers that I used to make him a pair of shorts and the other was the Chinese dragon fabric that I made a vest of. He liked the vest so much that he thought his best buddy should have one, too. So I made two at once. He especially likes the secret pocket I sewed on the inside of the vest.

Birthdays

2009-07-13T18:23:00.001-04:00

My sweet baby girl is 12 years old today. I can hardly believe it. Is it just me or do other moms go through what I go through. Every year on her birthday, I think about the day of her birth and every last detail of the two days (my water broke at 9am and she was actually born at 4:30 the next morning) and will often cry because her childhood is going by so quickly.

Here are a few pictures I would like to share as I remember her birth and celebrate how much she has grown. Digital photography didn't become common until she was about 3 years old, so I don't have a digitized baby picture of her. So I tried to take photos of some scrapbook pictures.

About 5 months old in 1997

1998

1999

2000

2004

2005

2008

In 2009 with her sister.

To my dear daughter - My life is blessed because of you. I'm so glad God has given me a front row seat to watch you grow and mature over the last 12 years. Happy Birthday, Honey. I love you!

Enjoying the Free Stuff

2009-07-12T08:32:00.006-04:00

Sometimes the free stuff can be worthwhile.

For example, at Lowe's twice a month they have a Build and Grow Clinic. The kids are given a kit and tools to build a little project to take home. Today the project was a treasure chest. I feel these projects are good practice with a real hammer in a safe environment. It is also good for the older kids for practice in following directions.

Home Depot also holds Kids Workshops that we have enjoyed.

We pick and choose projects that are items that we could actually use and not feed the clutter monster in our home. For Father's Day they made a very nice box with dividers in it for nails and screws.

Once they complete these projects, they get a certificate and a patch or a pin. The certificates go into their portfolios with a picture of them holding their finished project.

Note: I recommend reserving your spot at Lowe's. Often times, they do not have extras so if you just show up, they may not have a kit for you.

On to the next freebie of the day -

We had coupons for free Roastburgers at Arby's. My two youngest don't like this sort of thing, so my oldest daughter and I each got a lunch that filled us for about $3.50 total! The sandwiches were free, but we had to buy a drink.

After that, we stopped by 7-11. They were giving away free Slurpees. They were only 7oz each, but that's really all a kids needs so far as sugar and calories go. They were completely happy with this.

My final freebie for the day was a deal at CVS for cereal. I was able to combine coupons and a $4 ECB to get 3 boxes of Trail Mix Crunch for free. I walked out with my cereal and a new ECB worth $5.

So for all of this, I spent a grand total of $3.50 for the day.

Completed Sewing Project

2009-07-09T08:26:00.000-04:00

Lucy's first official sewing project is complete. She did a lot of the sewing on it. I put in the zipper, sewed on the ric rac and sewed the hem. Other than that she did the rest. She wore this dress to her first day of 4-H sewing camp yesterday. At sewing camp she is making many more projects and we have started a sewing notebook. I will post on that in the near future.

Sewing projects

2009-06-30T13:19:00.003-04:00

I'm no expert seamstress. As a matter of fact, all I know about sewing, I taught myself - which isn't much. So most of the time, I feel as though I am just feeling my way through. I can put a buttonhole or a zipper on a dress, but I'm really not very good at it.

With that said, I really enjoy sewing clothes. When my girls were little, I made dresses for them all the time. Dresses are easy and I loved finding fabrics that matched an occasion or their personality.

At my daughters' requests, here are my latest projects. This time, they will make as much of the dresses as possible. I believe Charlotte Mason would consider sewing a handicraft. It's certainly a skill in which they are making something useful.

Here are the fabrics and patterns they have chosen. It's wonderful how we can still find fabrics to match their personalities. I've always told them that when I make them a dress, it's a "One-of-Kind". When these dresses are complete, I believe we will not find other dresses just like them either.

This is for my 10 year old girly-girl.

This is for my soon to be 12 year old tomboy who LOVES horses.

Summer Blast

2009-06-28T08:25:00.001-04:00

I like "festivals". You know what I'm talking about - The Strawberry Festival, The Apple Blossom Festival, the Maple Syrup Festival, Dutch Days Festival, and so on and so on. My husband teases me and says they are all the same. They all have funnel cakes and Italian sausage and booths with games and vendors. Okay, I like the funnel cakes and Italian sausage - so shoot me! I also like to find the festivals that stick to their theme. Those are the kind that hold some educational value. With that said, I feel that these festivals are part of the American experience. It's part of our culture.

Our local state park, Codourus, hosted their annual Summer Blast Event this weekend. It could also be called a "Summer Festival". It's an event our family looks forward to each year. The rangers at the park set up a tent with all sorts of native live animals and display animals that can be observed and touched. Other highlights include Dock Dogs, Civil War encampment, live music, crafters, vendors and food (Italian sausages and funnel cakes - my favorite). This year, they added carnival rides. The weather was perfect and as I watched the fireworks, I just had a deep appreciation for the opportunity to do this with my kids. The pictures here only scratch the surface of all we did and saw at this event. In my opinion, it was a good homeschool day.

Raymond had a chance to "shoot" a canon.

Funnel Cakes!!!!!!

Lucy looking for the Chicken BBQ.

Yard Sale Finds

2009-06-26T19:58:00.006-04:00

I was able to get up bright and early this morning and hit the local yard sales. I am thrilled with what I found and must share it.

First, I had this ugly file cabinet in my dining room that I have been wanting to replace for a while. It doesn't hold files for whatever reason. The files just fall down and lay in the back of the drawers. When I went to move it, I notice the whole back side was dented in. I'm not sure how that happened. Oh, and the rust. I went to clear the pile of books off this cabinet once recently and the top is rusty. I decided the look of the books on top of the cabinet was better. The way the light is reflecting, it's hard to see the lovely rust in this picture. Notice it's in the back of hubby's pick up truck to go in the dumpster tomorrow.

I found this cabinet for $10 this morning. Much prettier in my opinion and it has the rods for hanging files so nothing will fall down.

I found these books for a quarter a piece...

this cutting board for $2...

(Yes! It's VanGogh's Starry Night. I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!)

and this computer game for $2.

When I found the computer game, I asked if it used batteries or if it plugged in. The lady gave me a universal adapter for it. I saw that it had a calculator function on it and thought DD10 would love to play with it. Turns out, it has typing exercises on it and lots of games. She has been playing with it all day.

Total spent this morning = $15!!!! I am soooo happy because I found things that we can use, are pretty and it totaled less than a new file cabinet!

VBS

2009-06-20T21:46:00.009-04:00

Well, another year of VBS is over and it was so much fun. The title was Truth Trek and it was great because they showed a quick video each night and all the videos were actually filmed in the holy lands. So each segment focused on a different geographic site. There was the Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Masada, and the Tomb of Jesus (or at least what they believe to be the tomb).

It's also fun to see the kids getting excited about Jesus. The songs are very cool and the kids continue to sing them when they come home.

In my opinion, these days can be counted toward the 180 that the state of Pennsylvania requires. They will definitely remember the stuff they learned and subject areas include (but are not limited to) geography, history, art, language arts, and music & movement.

DD11 felt she was too old to participate. I kind of agreed because I could see her getting bored with the activities last year. So this year she went as a helper. She seems to be well liked by the kids for her ability to give piggy-back rides.

Little man had his 5th birthday on the first day of VBS. He received a Spiderman costume that he didn't want to part with that day, so he wore it to VBS. I figure these people deal with kids and they understand.

DD10 in the striped shirt putting her all into the motions of the song. She is a performer.

Different day - DD10 is in the brown skirt. These are two of her best friends.

Cowan's Gap 2009

2009-06-06T08:46:00.002-04:00

Our annual trip to Cowan's Gap is never dissappointing. Every year has been different, but each has been so much fun. This year the swimming was okay for the first couple of days, but then it got cold and rainy and we actually came home one day early. Some friends came to visit us one day while we were there. I'm just glad they came before the rain did.

It is so nice to be out there with no cell phone signal and no computer.

This is a prime location for nature study. Let's start with the dead fish.

I love how children are so unihibited.

Then there was the trail around the lake that showcased a variety of trees. Each section of the trail seemed like a different "room".

These two pictures were taken about 200 yards away from each other on the same trail.

Then DD11, my nature photographer, delighted with all the flowers she found.

Of course, we engaged ourselves in typical camping activities.

I am also relieved that we were well protected on this trip.

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T20:51:00.004-04:00

Memorial Day for us was pretty quiet. We did get up a little earlier than usual to get to the parade in the next town over. I'm so glad we did because it was a very nice parade. After the parade, we went to the store to pick up a couple of things then came home.

We cooked some hamburgers on the grill and the kids blew some bubbles and that's about it.

This evening at bedtime, we will begin writing in our summer journals. They are poised and ready in a little basket in the living room. Each evening from now to Labor Day, we will write in the journals about the day's activities. We did this in 2005 and really enjoyed it. The last couple of years, we tried, but somehow didn't follow through the whole summer. This year feels different and I look forward to seeing what the kids will be writing about.

Thankful Thursday

2009-05-21T17:59:00.011-04:00

Today, I am thankful for the freedom to homeschool, that I get a front row seat to my children's learning and that my children are growing up knowing God.

I'm also thankful to the military who ensures these freedoms for us day in and day out.

Jeannie Fulbright Giveaway

2009-05-20T12:34:00.002-04:00

Apologia is now producing notebooking journals that accompany each of the elementary science books. Both Botany and Astronomy are now available. You can see samples on the Apologia website here:

Jeannie Fulbright's Apologia Series

These journals are beautiful spiral bound notebooks that will save you time and money. You won't have to print and keep up with your child's notebook pages, buy and maintain page protectors, or purchase and compile binders...everything that makes notebooking time-consuming and labor intensive for mom. Also, your child will adore having their own notebooking journal.

Each of the notebooking journals include:
A daily schedule for those who like to have a plan or would like their children to complete the book on their own
Templates for written narrations, the notebooking activities and experiments
Review Questions
Scripture Copywork, with both print and cursive practice
Reading lists and additional activities, projects, experiments for each lesson
An appendix with beautiful, full-color, lapbook-style Miniature Books
Field Trip Sheets to keep a record field trips
A Final Review with fifty questions the students can answer either orally or in writing to show off all they remember and know at the end of the course.

See the sample pages here:
Botany

Astronomy

Jeannie is giving away four Astronomy Notebooking Journals and four Botany Notebooking Journals to bloggers who post about this on their site. Visit her blog to learn more about this contest: www.jeanniesjournal.com

Our Big, Fat, Greek Field Trip

2009-05-15T19:00:00.004-04:00

We attended the Greek Festival in Camp Hill, Pa today. This is a field trip that is well worth the drive. We get a peek into Greek culture from Greeks. I love field trips that cover several subject areas and this one is no exception.

Subjects covered:

Art and Bible - Take a closer look at the icons and mosaics. This is a picture of a mosaic over the doorway to go inside. Can you tell the story this picture tells?

Music - Greek music was playing throughout the festival; Observe the folk dancers

Mathematics - Calculating costs of foods before going and be sure to take enough money for everything you want to eat. We could also calculate the calories, but who really wants to go there? I mean, how many calories could possibly be in those pastries?

This is the most delicious moussaka. The ladies who serve it are also kind enough to talk to you about the food they are serving if you ask.

Language Arts - Write a letter to Grandma to tell her about the festival. Create a journal entry about the trip.

Social Studies - Learning about Greek-American Foods and Culture

After going last year, we really looked forward to returning this year. The dancers were impressive and I love looking at the icons inside the church. The moussaka and baklava alone were worth the drive.

During the next academic year, I am planning for us to learn a little about Greek language using Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! from Greek n' Stuff. Perhaps what we learn will be reinforced next year when we return.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-05-13T08:57:00.002-04:00

Tis the Season...

2009-05-13T07:21:00.000-04:00

Listen.......Can you hear it?............It's a convoy of mini vans.............As each van parks, moms jump out and start suiting up with backpacks, baby carriers, strollers, empty luggage, and pocketbooks.

It's spring and the beginning of the Homeschool-Convention-and-Curriculum-Buying season.

As one browses through a homeschool magazine, one of the first things that pops out is an ad. In this ad is a child that is well-groomed, in an orderly home, is smiling (mom is usually looking on and smiling as well) and doing her school work with a joyful heart.

What we must remember is - this is an advertisement that highly paid marketers put together so we will buy their product. I'm not saying the product isn't good. It might be great for your family, but how many used curriculum sales have you gone to where there is curriculum that has the first few pages used or it's not been used at all? Sometimes we get sucked in to thinking that this book, unit study, curriculum, etc. is all we need and things will be sunshine and roses for next school year.

I really think the advertisements of this sort are just as dangerous to homeschool moms as the advertisements we try to protect our teens from. You know the ones with the beautifully, perfect, air-brushed models. When our teens are exposed to that, they think that is how they must look to be happy. The bar is set to an unreachable height.

A good friend of mine started homeschooling her girls just this past January. It is exciting to see her go through this transition with her girls. She has been attending the Charlotte Mason discussion groups and has embraced her philosophy full force. Her observations at a recent used curriculum sale are very insightful and I wanted to share them here.

Thoughts on Homeschool Curriculum

Another friend advises to pray about your homeschool before, during and after purchasing curriculum. I think this is very sound advice.

Finally, I just came across this blog post and wanted to share it as well.

Homeschool Utopia

Don't we all go through this at some point in our homeschooling lives?

Planning for a new academic year can be exciting. You have a clean slate and a fresh start for things hoped for. Do your research and keep in mind that every family is different. For that matter every child is different. Find what fits your situation best and keep in mind that because something works for someone elses family doesn't mean that it will work for yours.

2009 CHAP Convention

2009-05-12T10:10:00.001-04:00

The CHAP convention is over - for this year. I look forward to it every year. It's nice to be in a building full of somewhat like-minded people.

Some of my favorite finds at the convention include:
Apologia's Exploring Creation with General Science from My Father's World
Apologia's Exploring Creation through Astronomy Notebooking Journal
Science Experiments in a Tube by Amazing Toys found at Nature's Workshop Plus
Queen Homeschool's Copywork for Girls and The Door in the Wall study guide
Chalcedon Foundation - I met Bruce N Shortt and bought his book The Harsh Truth About Public Schools

I purposefully don't take the kids to the convention with me. I need to be able to think and sometimes it's hard with them there. I see many families at the convention with well-behaved, tidy children and think, "I should have brought my kids". Then I snap back into reality. I know my limitations. Since they don't go with me, I always bring them back a little something.
The Science Experiments in a Tube were fun because the kids could do them right away. Along with these nifty little tubes, I also brought home new T-shirts from Homeschool Mania.

The convention is a time for renewal for me. Going to hear the speakers is both encouraging and inspiring. God always leadd me to just what I need to hear and I love that. I thank God for the freedom to homeschool without fear of persecution. I also thank Him for this opportunity to a front row seat to my children's learning. There is so much I would miss out on if they went to school all day. My prayer is that we are able to keep this freedom for generations to come.

Winner Announced!

2009-05-11T22:36:00.004-04:00

The correct answer for the Giveaway is John Holt. He was a strong advocate for school reform in the 60's and 70's. I wonder what his thoughts would be on the school systems today. Hmmm.

The winner of the $10 Staples gift card has been notified.

Congratulations!

Thanks to all who participated.

Geography Club

2009-05-07T19:53:00.005-04:00

Last Tuesday was our group's last Geography Club meeting for the year. For the last 4 months, each of the kids have been working on their End-of-the-Year Projects at home. The projects focused on some country other than the United States. All of the projects were well done and a couple of the kids even gave oral presentations.

We concluded the afternoon with the breaking of a pinata that was made by the child whose project was on Mexico.

The countries represented were:

Panama

South Korea

Greece

Uzbekistan

Egypt

Russia

Brazil

Hong Kong

Ireland
New Zealand

Kenya

Nigeria

Mexico

South Korea

Russia

The Pinata

Giveaway!

2009-05-02T14:12:00.004-04:00

Can you identify this person?

Quote:
“Education – compulsory schooling, compulsory learning – is a tyranny and a crime against the human mind and spirit. Let all those escape it who can, any way they can.”

Hint:

Born in New York in 1923 and died in 1985

Another Hint:

He bacame an advocate for school reform and was a visiting teacher for the education departments at Harvard and University of California, Berkley.

Yet Another Hint:

Wrote a book in 1981 for homeschoolers called Teach Your Own.

If you can identify this person, submit his name by leaving a comment or sending an email to homeschoolmarm@yahoo.com along with your name on or before May 9, 2009. You will be entered for a drawing for a $10 Staples gift card. Winner will be announced on Monday, May 11, 2009.

Good luck!

Charlotte Mason Discussion Group

2009-04-29T12:40:00.001-04:00

The Importance of Eating Outdoors

Considering the wonderful weather we were having, I thought it would be a nice experience to have this discussion group outside. I live in a quiet neighborhood in a small town and had images of birds chirping in the background with a nice fire going in my chimenia while we nibbled on little "finger food" type snacks that would be perfect for any picnic.

Despite my best laid plans, my neighbors who live on both sides of me decided that would be a good night to cut the grass. So much for a peaceful evening.

Chapter 37 in Karen Andreola's book A Charlotte Mason Companion was a short one, but one worth discussing.

Eating outdoors is probably one of the easiest things to do to get you started on a Charlotte Mason lifestyle. If you don't regularly eat outside, purpose to take your lunch outside to your yard (or porch or balcony) to eat once a week. Any lunch, whether you heat it up in the microwave or eat sandwiches - take them outside.
While eating outside, you will be forced to slow down a bit. Observe what is around you. Birds chirping, leaves blowing in the wind, lawn mowers next door (lol). As you observe, discuss your observations and encourage your kids to do the same. This will cause you to eat slower which is a healthful habit.

You can take a picnic anywhere. Your back yard or a park are the first places that come to mind. If you have a busy day and you must eat lunch away from home, pack it in a cooler and find a shady spot in which to eat. It may be on a bench on a busy sidewalk or on a curb in a quiet parking lot.

Once in a while, my kids and I will have an impromtu picnic. We run to the grocery store in between stops (because we have to stop and get lunch anyway) and get a bag of cheese cubes, some fruit like apples or grapes, a jar of pickles, some multi-grain rolls and some bottled water. Sometimes I will let them get the salad bar at the grocery store. Still cheaper and healthier than eating at the golden arches. We take that to a local park to eat before we are off to the next activity or errand. They love it.

The less messy the food, the more enjoyable the picnic. Our family prefers finger foods so we don't have to worry about silverware. However, picnics are the best places to eat crusty bread and have little to clean up. Just brush the crumbs onto the ground and you're good to go.

If you plan a picnic, you may take along some poetry or drawing paper and some pencils. Taking a nature journal wouldn't hurt either.

Eating outdoors is good for you. You eat more slowly and fresh air and sunshine are good for our souls. I hear that all of these things are good for our physical bodies as well. Being together in such a way is also a bonding experience with our children.

Spring Formal

2009-04-27T08:37:00.008-04:00

Our homeschool group sponsored a spring formal this year. Actually, it's the 2nd year in a row. I am posting this draft in case anyone else out there is considering doing such a thing. It is well worth it. The original vision was to make it like a wedding reception without the wedding.

The focus of the event was to be an inexpensive evening out for families where we could put on our best clothes and have a great time. Tickets were only $1 each with a $5 cap per family for members and $3 each with a $15 cap per family for nonmembers.
This was a family event. No child could be dropped off. All kids had to be with a parent or legal guardian.

There was a dress code that nobody seemed to have a problem with. Most of the girls wore gowns this year and they looked beautiful. One girl even made her own gown as a homeschool project. No strapless gowns, or gowns that revealed bra straps. Dress length had to be below the knee. No clevage showing. No sneakers or flip flops (doesn't matter how fancy they are) Only one dad wore a tux (that would be my dear husband), but all the other dads wore jacket and tie.

Members of the homeschool group brought finger foods. We didn't have to deal with silverware and since everyone was dressed up we wanted food that wasn't so messy. This was perfect. We just had a couple of dietary needs in the group. We asked for nothing with nuts and gluten-free foods were labeled.

The parent advisor of the spring formal comittee went through great pains to listen to all the music and research lyrics to be sure nothing inappropriate was present. Music was a mix of contemporary Christian, big band era, and old country. Of course we also had the Chicken Dance, Cha-Cha Slide, Hokey-Pokey, etc. There was also a father-daughter dance and a couple of mommy-daddy dances.

DD11 and Hubby - Father/daughter dance

Some moms dressed up for the evening.

No caption is good enough for this picture. I just love it!

CHICKEN DANCE!!!!

One of the many things I love about homeschooling is the way the children learn to be with one another and it's not painful for them. This 18 year old girl had no problem dancing with these younger children at the dance. Of course, she also mingled with her teen friends during the dance, but there was no attitude of "what are those little kids doing here?" These kids all grow up together and bond in a way that is just beautiful.

Dancing the Macarena.
Note: The girl in the green dress made that dress for a homeschool project. We were all very impressed and it gave us some ideas for next year.

We did have a spring formal committee that put the whole thing together - ideas for music, deocrations, theme, etc. The committee consisted of a parent advisor, teens and preteens. They each enjoyed being a part of the event in this special way.

Homeschool Share Blast!

2009-04-27T08:17:00.003-04:00

Homeschool Share is a website I use frequently to find unit studies and lapbook resources. The best part is that the resources on their site are FREE! (I love freebies!)

Homeschool Share is having their 2009 Blast. Check out the rules HERE to submit items in categories from Workboxes, to animal studies, lapbooks, all things preschool, the Skeleton Closet, and more! Homeschool Share is a huge site full of free resources and this is one way they add material to their site - by the efforts of creative homeschool moms who share their gifts. Of course there are also prizes as an added incentive!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-04-22T22:41:00.004-04:00

Just another day in paradise.....

2009-04-22T15:41:00.003-04:00

Feeding a turtle at the Shell Factory in Fort Myers.

There is no shortage of nature preserves in this area of the country. We have seen so much in our few days here. It's interesting when we come upon a raccoon or oppossum, the kids skip over them and usually say something like "We have those in Pennsylvania." The alligators are especially interesting to us. Today we had an opportunity to feed alligators.

Enjoying Florida oranges and orange ice cream.

This is our last day here and tonight we are hoping to get one more chance to see a sunset on the Gulf of Mexico.

Beach Day!

2009-04-20T21:49:00.004-04:00

Here are some random pictures of us at the beach today. Just for fun.

Learning how to use a boogie board.

A little alcove on the beach with picnic tables where we set up and had lunch.

Too cool for words.

Aaaaah! She's turned into a mermaid!

Visiting Florida

2009-04-19T21:15:00.005-04:00

Just another reason to love homeschooling. We are visiting family and have the opportunity to see, touch, taste, smell and hear what life is like in Florida.

We got to touch alligators.

My aunt has citrus trees growing in her yard. (This is a lime tree)

She also has tiny lizards running around her yard. Can you see the one in this picture?

We saw the sun set on the Gulf of Mexico last night. Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera were dead last night and this was the best picture I could get tonight.

We are here for a few more days. The kids can't wait to see what we will experience tomorrow. This is homeschooling at its finest. Once again, they are learning so much - where Florida is on the map, what the state capital is, and how the flora and fauna are different from what we have at home in Pennsylvania. I could have handed them a book on Florida and asked them to learn the contents, instead this is a learning experience they will remember for many years to come. I realize not everyone has the resources to have experiences like this for their kids. However, I encourage anyone who is presented with an experience opportunity to embrace it and enjoy witnessing the learning that happens.

Encouragement

2009-04-15T00:15:00.001-04:00

What brought you to homeschooling? I love asking this question. The answers are as diverse as the families I meet. There was a time when families homeschooled for religious reasons only. Today, that's not true.

The reason I educate my children at home is multifaceted. It began with my experiences as a public school teacher. There are many reasons based on that experience alone that I homeschool. I can honestly say that I am guilty of some of the wrongs that happen in a classroom, but I was able to escape the system and use those experiences to encourage others on their home educating paths.

So what are your reasons for choosing to educate your children at home? Do you realize that when you answer this question, you are encouraging others? When you ask others, you are opening dialog for encouragement that we home educating mamas desperately need.

If you have a minute, leave a comment for me and let me know what led you to home educate your children.

Egg Dying and Trail Walk

2009-04-08T08:50:00.009-04:00

To find Strawberry Hill click here

We are getting our share of nature study lately. On Sunday, there was a Nature Center nearby that hosted an egg dying and egg hunt event. They had egg dying the "modern" way using fizzy tablets and vinegar and the "natural" way using cherries, tumeric, onion skins and blueberries. After dying eggs, we received a clue to find an egg on the nature trail. Each egg had another clue to the next egg. The clues took you on the entire trail for a very nice walk. Although, dying eggs the modern way was quicker, my kids all chose to color using natural means and the eggs turned out beautifully.

I found this website that explains just how we dyed the eggs at the nature center. This is a very worthwhile project.

"Modern" Egg Dying

Wrapping her egg in an onion peel

Finding plastic eggs with clues in them made for a very nice nature hike. Can you see the beautiful shelf-mushroom over this hidden egg?

The clue to find this egg included the fact that a root of a tree split this rock. It's amazing to see nature in action. This picture doesn't do it justice.

C is for Collage

2009-04-05T08:56:00.005-04:00

This was a "project" for my 4 year old son. I gave him a Sports Illustrated magazine that I bought from the library for a quarter and told him he could cut out all the Steelers he could find. He then glued them all on a sheet of yellow construction paper to make his first collage.

Here are the rules… be sure to post them when you join!

1. Post a photo for each letter of the alphabet of anything that starts with that letter.
2. Write a few short explanatory, quirky, or witty sentences about each photo you post.
3. Only post one photo at a time (the meme can take as long as you want - a month, three months, whatever… you aren’t being graded). You can link them later in a blog post so they are listed in order if you are the list-making type.
4. If you want to join the meme, sign the Mr. Linky and use the “A B See Photo-Meme” graphic in your sidebar. Link your graphic to this post and announce that you will be joining us.
5. When you post a photo, come by and add it to the weekly A B See linky that we’ll be posting on Foto Fridays for those who have some alphabetical photo to share. You can sign it each week as many times as you have posted photos - one time for each photo linked post. Make sure you link back to the HSBA on your posts, too - so others can come and join the linky.

A 4 Year Old's Nature Notebook

2009-03-31T08:38:00.003-04:00

One of the advantages of homeschooling is that there are few boundaries for learning. We aren't stuck in a certain grade level curriculum and our 4 year old can participate in most things we do (at his own level of course). He, too, has created a nature notebook. Not because I told him he had to, but because he saw his sisters working on theirs and he wanted one, too. He has an interest in learning and I'm letting him go with it. (I LOVE this stuff!!!) Here are a couple of photographs of his nature notebook.

A leaf that he found and wanted to keep. I probably should have dated this page for him, but it was from sometime last summer AND before I realized he was calling this his nature notebook.

His pictures of the hailstorm the other day.

He dictated the following for me to write on his page:

"God showed His power with the lightning and thunder. God shows steep power with lightning and the thunder is loud."

I have to admit that I don't understand what "steep" power is, but somehow it makes sense to him.

This is just the front cover of his notebook.

Speaking of Nature Study.....

2009-03-29T15:51:00.011-04:00

Speaking of Nature Study, take a look at the current national weather map. We are located in south central Pennsylvania. Whew! Just a short while ago, the sun was out and we had blue sky with big puffy clouds, then we could see the black clouds rolling in.

The rain started and we all sat on the front porch. The thunder and lightning got closer. Like any other child, DS4 startled at some thunder that was close. Very calmly, I explained that the thunder is just one of God's ways of reminding us of how powerful He is. You can see the look of awe cross his face.

The rain started and soon began coming down in sheets. Then we noticed the hail. Both of my girls grabbed their cameras to take pictures.

This was a flash flood right next to our front porch that we watched appear before our eyes.

These nature journal entries include photographs with captions and narrations of the event.

DD11

DD10

This was also a great opportunity for DS4 to participate in "school". He has a notebook that he "writes" in. I gave him a couple of pictures to tape in his book and he dictated the captions to me.

Side note:

When I was little, I remember sitting on a neighbors front porch during thunderstorms with my mom. Sweet, sweet memories for me.

Charlotte Mason Discussion Group - Nature Study

2009-03-21T17:30:00.020-04:00

"...special Nature Study lessons aren't always necessary. As you know, young children will discover toads, butterflies, beetles, earthworms, robins, thistles, squirrels, mushrooms, berries, and run into thorn bushes on their own, without any prodding from us."

- Karen Andreola on Nature Study in A Charlotte Mason Companion (page 253)

I find the above quote to be most appropriate. We don't need any special expensive curriculum or textbooks in order for our children to learn about nature. They are naturally curious and if we were to force them indoors with a textbook to learn about such things, they would resist.

A nature notebook can be any kind of notebook. A book with blank pages (either lined or unlined) is great or if you prefer, your child can take a clipboard with some loose paper on it to record observations and put into a 3-ring binder.

How to Start

Take your children outside and tell them that they will sit still for 10 minutes (or 15 or 20 minutes - you decide what they can handle) and see what it is that God wants to show them. It could be a blade of grass or a cloud formation or a bird. Perhaps God is reminding them of a Bible verse or giving them a new poem to write. They should record this on their paper. They can draw pictures or write words. It should remain open ended to see what God has in mind for them during that time.

This could be done once or twice a week - again depending on what your kids can handle.

As your child creates new entries in his journal, he is creating a keepsake. Something that he should be able to look back through for years to come.

Got Nature?

Nature study can be done in the city as well. There are parks and zoos to visit. You could have a pet such as a cat or fish. Sowing potted plants is also another way to observe God's handiwork.

Finally, your own back yard can lend itself to the study of nature. Currently, our family lives in a neighborhood where we have 1/5 of an acre and we find plenty to observe here. We have a bird box attached to our deck that is visited by birds each year. We are able to lift the lid to look in at the eggs and watch as the birds hatch and grow. In the past, I have taken pictures of the birds in the nest every couple of days. We took the pictures and lined them up to see the changes that happened in such a short period of time. We also have tulip bulbs in our yard as well as Black-Eyed Suzies and maple trees.

Indoor Nature Study

What about those days when it is just no fun to go outside? Can we still do nature study?

Absolutely!

One of my daughter's favorite things to do each month is a page on the Flower and Gem of the Month. A quick web search will help you to find this month's flower and gem. Try to find interesting information on each for the children to add to their pages. For example: February's gem of the month is the amethyst. We found out that Nubian Queens were fond of amethysts and legend has it that men gave women heart-shaped amethysts as a sign of affection in the Middle Ages. We were also able to go to Potomac Bead Company and buy a small amethyst for less than $1. We put it in a little plastic baggie and taped that to the page. Along with public domain pictures printed from the internet, you can find catalogs at jewelry stores in the mall that highlight the gem of the month to cut out and paste on a page. I like to find pictures of the gem before and after cutting and polishing.

For your flower of the month, it may be possible to find seeds of the flower to put in a baggie to tape on your page.

Other indoor nature studies could include animal studies.

This past year we have been learning about all sorts of owls. We have the common name and find the scientific name, the range, diet, and any other interesting facts and make a page with that information. After studying a few owls, we had the opportunity to go to our local state park to dissect owl pellets. Photographs from that experience can be included in a nature journal.

You don't have to study owls. You can study just about any animal you wish.

Books I recommend:

Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Comstock
The Beginning Naturalist by Gale Lawrence
The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thorton Burgess (free download)
Parables from Nature by Margaret Gatty (free download)

Sample Nature Notebook Pages

These are flowers from our yard...

...and flowers found on a trail at the local community park.

Notice the little baggie of REAL Amethysts on the February page. This was my daughter's favorite part because they are the REAL THING!!!

This is a page I created for our owl studies. If you would like a blank copy, make your request by leaving a comment on this entry that includes your email address or you can email your request to homeschoolmarm@yahoo.com

Other resources for nature study:

Check out Harmony Art Mom's Outdoor Hour Challenges.
Tanglewood Curriculum has a very inexpensive Nature Notebook download that I have used for years.
Check your local state parks for summer classes. In Pennsylvania, your local park may develop a class if you call and request one. Codorus State Park has done this for us in the past.

History Fair

2009-03-14T18:33:00.008-04:00

Our homeschool group sponsored our first ever History Fair today. I think it's safe to say that it was a success and we will look forward to it again next year.

When I first mentioned "History Fair" to my kids, DD11 began right away with what she would do on the Underground Railroad. DD10 completed a project on the History of Ballet and DS4 did a project on Army Guys.

For DS4, all I really wanted to do was keep him busy one morning. I gave him a Military History magazine and told him to cut out all the army guys he could find. So he did and wanted to glue them on a backboard (like his sisters). Thus his project for the History Fair was born.

I planned and organized the event and right now am totally tired, but it was worth it. Here is the list of projects:

Pangea
Fossils
Renaissance Medicine
Colonial America
George Washington
The Oregon Trail
The Chisolm Trail
The Underground Railroad
Abraham Lincoln
Civil War
History of Recorded Music
History of Ballet
Army Guys

I think this list is pretty impressive for our first year!

Each project had a sheet where visitors could sign their name and write a comment. That part was a lot of fun for the kids to see how many signatures they could get. Members of our homeschool group donated baked goods and hot dogs for a bake sale. Each child who participated got a coupon for a free hot dog, bag of chips, drink and dessert. They loved it. The bake sale didn't earn a lot of money, we probably broke even, but again, that was worth it. Each child will also receive a certificate of participation (I forgot to bring them along with me) over the next week or so.

DD11 with her project on the Underground Railroad. She also wrote a short story that was a first person narrative for Harriet Tubman and she read that out loud.

DD10 and her History of Ballet display. What else would this child do?

DS4 sharing his Army Guy display with the girls who come to babysit him. (He adores them!)

Although I didn't get pictures of everyone, here are some that I did get.

The Oregon Trail

The Chisolm Trail

The History of Recorded Music

Abraham Lincoln

Colonial America

Pangea

Civil War - How to load a weapon

Civil War - Flag Signals

Civil War - Bandaging with a corn husk demonstration

A dad taking a closer look.

Iditarod in the 21st Century

2009-03-12T08:25:00.004-04:00

The Iditarod is well under way and we are having a blast with it as we watch our mushers and cheer for them and pray for them. Dee Dee Jonrowe and Jessie Royer are our favorites and we rejoice with each checkpoint they come to.
I had to pay for the subscription to the Iditarod Insider, but it is so worth it. We get to see new videos each day (usually there is at least one video of our chosen mushers). The video also gives us a chance to see the Alaskan wilderness. It is so vast and when the camera is zoomed in on a musher then pans out to a mountain range, I think it gives us a good feeling for how big it all is.

My girls each made a poster for their musher - totally unprompted. I noticed last night that dd11 had checkpoints written on her poster. When I asked her about it, she told me that she writes the checkpoints as Jessie Royer comes to each one.

This is Dee Dee Jonrowe with her team.

These pictures are from Sunday during the restart. It seemed like we waited for hours to get a glimpse of our mushers as they headed out on their journey.

Iditarod Begins Today

2009-03-07T08:50:00.004-05:00

The Iditarod starts today!!!! We are so excited that some of our favorite mushers will be back again this year - Dee Dee Jonrowe (DD10 likes her because her dogs have pink harnesses) and Jessie Royer and Lance Mackey. These are becoming household names here.

We find the Iditarod fascinating each year as we always learn something new. We choose mushers to follow through the race. We log in to Iditarod.com and find out where they are and plot it on a map. We have a chart to write down the times they come to each checkpoint. Most importantly, we pray for our mushers.

There are lots of lesson and activities on the internet in relation to this race. You can find free materials on the offical Iditarod website as well as at about.com.

Over the next couple of days, I hope to post activities that we are completing concerning this race. In the meantime, you can check out my previous posts on this topic.

February 19, 2007 Iditarod

February 21, 2007 Connection

March 1, 2008 Iditarod

Bee Hive

2009-03-04T15:45:00.000-05:00

A dear friend of mine who recently pulled her children out of private school to homeschool, called me and invited us over to see a be hive in her back yard. I was thrilled to have the opportunity for a nature walk like this. There was a huge tree that was loaded with honeycomb and we found bees in it! We surmised that the bees were "sleeping" as we didn't see any movement from them and it was COLD!!! There were layers of honeycomb inside this tree that had been cut open.

As an added bonus, we were able to observe several tracks in the snow. Most were rabbit, but we also found birds, chipmunks, and dog.

Another added bonus is that last January, we went out searching for shelf mushrooms. All we found were itty bitty shelves. Today we found fantastic shelf mushrooms. The kids actually spotted them. We broke one off to bring home so we could take a closer look at it.

Note: The mushroom study came from the Outdoor Hour Challenge at Handbook of Nature Study, another excellent Charlotte Mason Resource.

Here are some pictures from our nature walk.

"Sleeping Bees"

Making entries into nature notebooks.

Taking a closer look

Rabbit

Karate Kid

2009-02-28T09:10:00.006-05:00

Four years ago, my cousin (who is like a brother to me and my kids call Uncle Mark), came to visit us and brought a copy of the Karate Kid. DD11 really enjoyed it. Soon after, she started begging me for karate lessons. As much as I tried to tell her taking karate would not be like getting lessons from Mr. Miagi, she persisted. I found a studio less than a mile from our home that offered two weeks free. I told her she could try it out for 2 weeks and then we would make a decision. I thought for sure she would hate it, but she went every day that two weeks.

About one year later, she had the option to commit to earning her black belt. In parent terms, this meant a 2-year contract with the studio and $$$$$. We talked it over with her and the seriousness of such a commitment. At the time, she was 8 years old. We explained that she would have to follow through, but after the 2 years, she could go on and try something else. So last year she earned her black belt. Family drove in from out of town and we had a big party with her friends to celebrate her accomplishment.

At that point, her commitment was fulfilled and she could go on and try something else if she wanted. She wouldn't hear of it. I really couldn't argue because I felt what she was learning at the studio coincided nicely with our family values and it is great exercise that counts as PE for us.

Fast forward one year -

Last night, she had another belt test. It's a black belt with a green stripe. I thought it was her 2nd degree black belt, but she has another year before she earns that.

As I watched her kicking, blocking, rolling and sparring I was in awe of how much she had grown. She was so coordinated and her movements were smooth and direct.

Here are some pictures from her test last night.

In this picture, she has to use techniques she's learned to fight off two "opponents". Her daddy especially liked this part.

I thought this was just a good action shot.

CM Discussion Group: History

2009-02-23T08:32:00.016-05:00

Our discussion group was small this month, but very dynamic. We discussed Chapter 32: History from Karen Andreola's book, A Charlotte Mason Companion.
These are my notes from the evening.

Imagination is so important to children, young and old. The power of imagination is a "delight in one's childhood and remains a pleasure in adulthood." When a child uses his imagination, it helps to build the brain to become stronger in all areas.

When teaching history, it is not beneficial to teach just facts. At a young age, history should be presented in literary language to help secure the child's interest in the topic. He will use his imagination and start acting out scenes that he has read (or has been read to him). This is what helps him to remember what was learned.
As he grows older (about 7th grade up) and starts thinking about social and political issues, then history may be studied at a different level. Then discussions can take place about political views and why a group of people may have a certain viewpoint.

According to Andreola, it's a mistake to make children learn an overview of history. It is better to focus on one person or one small period of time and become intimate with it. The goal is for the child to know the thoughts of the person or to be at home in the ways of the period. In learning these small pieces, the child is actually learning about the entire scope of events around that person.

Biographies are good for this. In learning about George Washington, the child will learn all about the beginnings of our country. Or in learning about Harriet Tubman, the entire Underground Railroad will unfold.

For young children (kindergarten - 2nd grade level), you may wish to start with 50 Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin. This is an excellent resource that tells stories about historical figures. The Baldwin Online Children's Literature Project offers many more books that can be downloaded for free.

Having a timeline somewhere in your home is a good idea, but not always practical. A timeline book is a good alternative since it's also portable. Keeping a Book of Centuries in addition to a timeline is good. In the Book of Centuries, you will keep written narrations and drawings or pictures of people and events the child has learned about.

You can get a downloadable Book of Centuries from Tanglewood School Curriculum, Inc. for only $2.25. This provides a good outline and once you purchase it, you can print out all the pages you need as often as you need for your family.

You can also find pages to use in your Book of Centuries from NotebookingPages.com. She has several free pages that you can print out and use.

To get this type of learning into your portfolio is easy. If you keep a Book of Centuries, make photocopies and place the pages in the portfolio.

Be sure to take photographs when learning spills over into play. Those photos can be put on a sheet of paper and the child can write a caption or quick paragraph to be put in the portfolio.

Imagination is key. If they can imagine it, that means they have learned it.

Here are some samples of our timeline book and Book of Centuries.

Timeline book page 1850AD to 1899AD

Front cover of Book of Centuries

218 BC - Hannibal used elephants to attack Rome.

1894 AD Hershey's Chocolate Company is founded.

Lessons That Stick

2009-02-16T13:08:00.005-05:00

Confession: I love magazines. Weird, I know, but I really like them. Maybe because they are very light reading and I can actually get through an article before someone discovers I am reading and decides that they need my attention right at that moment. (Breathe)

The latest issue of Woman's Day magazine has an article that I found to be very interesting and am glad that it is out there in the mainstream instead of a homeschool-specific magazine. The article is called "Lessons that Stick with a Child" and it is written by Paula Spencer. I'll stop writing about it here and give you the link so you can read it yourself. It's a great article to keep in mind as you beging curriculum shopping for next year.

Lessons That Stick With a Child by Paula Spencer

I wonder if any of the educators in our schools will pick this one up and read it.

Chocolate Poetry and S'mores

2009-02-10T11:57:00.010-05:00

One of the advantages to home education is that you are not bound to a curriculum. Education is a way of life and being able to adapt academics to your family is wonderful.

Right now we are doing activities based on chocolate. I was going to teach a class from my home for other homeschoolers to join us, but our schedule didn't work out. Since we have a flexible schedule within our own family, we can make it work for us.

Today we wrote chocolate poetry. After they wrote their draft and I checked for any spelling mistakes (grammar is a little more difficult with poetry since there really are no rules), they copy them onto a brown paper cut out in the shape of a Herhsey Kiss. Then we use aluminum foil to make a wrapper. Here are my daughters works:

DD10
Haiku

I love chocolate
Chocolate is very sweet
And it's good for you!

DD11

Lost in dreamy world of thought,
I look at the candy bar I have bought.
Dark and tarry wrapped so slenderly,
Unworthy I hold it ever so tenderly.
Hearts in my eyes, they bulge ecstatically;
For it just sits there so erratically.
But I close my eyes to the health benefits
I must eat it beore the apocalypse!
I look down and try to comprehend its power
I look down and it's been devoured.

After the poetry, we made S'mores in the microwave. I also made a notebook page to go with it.

The notebook page contains the recipe, two places in which you can place photographs or the child can draw a picture and lines for notes at the bottom. I told them the notes could be anything they want relating to making the s'mores in the microwave. Besides eating the s'mores, I think their favorite part was watching the marshmallow expand in the microwave.

I love this job!

Chocolate!!

2009-02-07T00:26:00.005-05:00

For some reason, this time of year, I just get a craving to teach about chocolate. It's a very interesting topic and there are many resources availble out there. Over the next couple of weeks, I plan to do activities and lessons based on this irresistable treat.

Pennsylvania home school law requires us to cover certain subject areas. I think they can all be covered under our chocolate topic.

English to include spelling, reading and writing

I feel that spelling and writing can be covered with copywork. Have the child copy an excerpt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.
Your child could also write poetry about chocolate. I've had my kids write a poem. When they had it perfect, they copied it on a Hershey Kiss cut out.
This topic is rich with vocabulary.
Your local library probably has both fiction and nonfiction books on chocolate.

Arithmetic

Use a Hershey Bar to work on fractions.
Find out the price of a Hershey bar at the local grocery store and have the child figure out how much 3 candy bars would cost. If they paid with a $10.00 how much change should they get back? Did you figure sales tax?
Make a recipe using chocolate.
Buy a small bag of M & M's and make a bar graph showing how many of each color are in the bag.
Think of 3 (or possibly more) chocolate bars and ask everyone you know, which is his or her favorite. Use tally marks to keep track and make a bar graph to organize the results.

Science
Lay out the process of taking a cacao bean and making it into sweet chocolate.
Find out what kind of environment a cacao tree needs to grow.

Geography
On a map of Pennsylvania, locate Hershey, Pa.
On a world map, mark where cocoa beans are grown.
On a world map (or on a map of Central America), color the areas where the first tribes lived who discovered the cacao bean.

History of the US and Pennsylvania
When did chocolate first come to the United States?
Where did Milton Hershey make his chocolate? Why did he choose that area? What else did Milton Hersehy do?

Civics
Milton Hershey was a philanthropist. Research the school he built and other ways he was a good citizen.

Safety Ed
Discuss what to do when you get a bag of candy wrapper is off of a piece.
Discuss why pets should not have chocolate.

Health and Physiology
Compare and contrast the nutritional values of different types of chocolate (eg hot chocolate, candy bars, raw cacao beans, etc.)

PE
This one has me stumped, too.

Music
Write a song about your favorite form of chocolate.
Listen to music from the Mayan and Aztec people.
Listen to jingles from advertisements for chocolate.

Art
Create your own chocolate bar. Design a wrapper for the bar.

Field trip

Hershey's Chocolate World - this trip is free and you get to take a ride through the chocolate making process. Hershey now has a new museum with classes for school students. The Chocolate World tour is free, but the classes at the museum come with a fee.

The following resources contain many more ideas.
Homeschool Share Free Unit on Chocolate
Currclick resources
Chocolate Theme Page
Exploratorium Magazine: Chocolate

Information on the Hershey Company

Feel free to post any additional ideas in my comments.

B is for Brain

2009-01-26T12:42:00.004-05:00

My daughter made a model of a human brain at a co-op class last year. As we were leaving the co-op, she yelled, "I forgot my brain!!!", hopped out of the van and ran back into the building to get it. I'm glad that doesn't happen too often.

Vocabulary, Spelling and Grammar

2009-01-22T07:52:00.006-05:00

During this school year, I have been hosting Charlotte Mason Discussion Groups at my home once a month. The discussions are based on Karen Andreola's book A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on The Gentle Art of Learning.
Our discussion this month was about Vocabulary, Spelling and Grammar.

I started with a quote from Karen Andreola:
"The Maker of Heaven and Earth chose words to make himself known to us. When a believer is 'in the Word' we are closer to Him (I John 1). We worship Him with our actions, our intenetions, aour hears, and with words. Words are wonderful!"

This tells us how important words are to God. Our discussion lasted almost two hours (as usual) and I can't get every detail here in this post, but here are some of my thoughts after the discussion was over.

Vocabulary development starts from birth. How we talk to our children is reflected when they begin to speak. Karen Andreola suggests that we "talk up not down to children". I take this to mean that we should expose children to language that is not dumbed down. We can do this by speaking to a child like he is a person (no baby talk) and by exposing him to quality literature.

What is meant by quality literature?
Junie B Jones, although funny, is what Charlotte Mason would consider "twaddle". The back of the book indicates that it is written for a 2nd grade level. On the other hand, Ambleside Online suggests reading books like The King of the Golden River to children who are about 2nd grade level.
Here are a couple of quotes from these books:
Junie B Jones: "After school was over, me and my bestest friend named Grace walked to the bus together."
The King of the Golden River: "Gluck was so perfectly paralyzed by the singular appearance of his visitor, that he remained fixed without uttering a word, until the gentleman, having performed another, and more energetic concerto on the knocker, turned round to look afer his fly-away cloak."
No matter how cute she is, do we really want our children talking like Junie B? These two examples are on opposite sides of the spectrum, but given a choice, I would rather hear "he remained fixed without uttering a word," from my children rather than "me and my bestest friend."

Karen Andreola suggests in her book to not introduce formal grammar lessons until about age 9 or 10. (4th or 5th grade). I couldn't agree more.

Exposing young children to good literature and speaking properly to them will increase their vocabulary and their use of the English language better than any language arts textbook will.

Without a textbook or a workbook, how will we get these subjects into our Pennsylvania mandated portfolios?

Pennsylvania Law states:
"At the elementary school level, the
following courses shall be taught: English, to include
spelling, reading and writing..."

As you can see, once again, the law allows for a great deal of flexibility. In the "English" section of your portfolio, you can include copywork. This covers the spelling and writing (it doesn't specify handwriting or compostion). The reading part is covered by the book list you keep.

If you do not have it, I strongly encourage you to pick up a copy of Karen Andreola's book. You can skip around it and read just a chapter or paragraph at a time to be inspired. It's a book I refer back to often.

A is for Autumn Tea

2009-01-15T07:31:00.008-05:00

A is for Autumn Tea

One of my goals this year was to have one tea each season. This was our autumn tea. During our week of preparation for the tea, the kids made the centerpieces using real pumpkins and silk flowers. They also hand-sewed a hot pad to be placed on the table under hot pots, made a banner that said "Autumn Joy" out of paper and ribbon, and they learned to embroider by tracing the outline of a leaf onto a piece of muslin and backstitching their way around it. The autumn-themed week culminated with the tea.

My resources for this week:

Seasonal Delights Magazine Autumn 2007

Hearts and Trees Fall Kit 2008

Here are the rules… be sure to post them when you join!

1. Post a photo for each letter of the alphabet of anything that starts with that letter.

2. Write a few short explanatory, quirky, or witty sentences about each photo you post.

3. Only post one photo at a time (the meme can take as long as you want - a month, three months, whatever… you aren’t being graded). You can link them later in a blog post so they are listed in order if you are the list-making type.

4. If you want to join the meme, sign the Mr. Linky and use the “A B See Photo-Meme” graphic in your sidebar. Link your graphic to this post and announce that you will be joining us.

5. When you post a photo, come by and add it to the weekly A B See linky that we’ll be posting on Foto Fridays for those who have some alphabetical photo to share. You can sign it each week as many times as you have posted photos - one time for each photo linked post. Make sure you link back to the HSBA on your posts, too - so others can come and join the linky.

These are the moments I wait for

2009-01-10T16:35:00.004-05:00

Little tiny ice pellets are falling from the sky. We have been waiting for the horrific weather that has been forcasted for the last couple of days now. Even though the weather was supposed to start last night, it finally did start around 3 this afternoon. We'll see if we get the 2 to 3 inches of snow they were predicting. Right now, it doesn't look likely.

My plan today was to make homemade playdough. This activity was especially geared toward my 4 year old in an attempt to keep him off "screens" today. (Screens = anything with a screen, TV, computer, video games, etc.)

I knew DD10 would want to make playdough because she very much wants to be 4 again. Much to my surprise, DD11 wanted to make playdough, too. I really wasn't expecting that. To make playdough for all three of them, I had to make one and a half batches. So I made the first batch for the two younger kids and DD11 insisted on making her own. I told her she only should make a half batch, and she simply said, "Yes, mom. I know how to multiply the fractions by 1/2." (Great big cheer inside.) This is the child who has cried more over math than I can even tell you and she has this very matter-of-fact attitude about it today. I guess (in her mind) since it wasn't in a math book, it wasn't anything she needed to cry over. I won't pop her bubble by telling her any different.

And here she is just going to town working with fractions.

Always with a flair for the dramatic - I don't know why this child had to flour her face.

This one is busy working with his "recipe". It smells so good that he had to taste it. Well, it's made with salt and doesn't taste like it smells. Perhaps if we used sugar instead of salt...

We made Kool Aid playdough. It smells so good and requires boiling water. The kids knead it after it cools a bit and they love feeling the warmth on a cold day like today.

Clove Apples

2009-01-09T09:13:00.006-05:00

Aunt Eliza had brought Ma a large red apple stuck full of cloves. How good it smelled! And it would not spoil, for so many cloves would keep it sound and sweet.

-Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Today we made clove apples. When I went on the search for cloves for 5 children*, I had no idea how expensive this could be. One little bottle of whole cloves was $10.50. Yikes! So I got one bottle and told the kids they could make a design like a heart or something like that. I just wanted them to have the experience of putting the cloves in and smelling the spice. Their apples actually turned out beautifully. The other nice part about this "project" is that all ages could do it.

*3 of the children are my own while the other two are students I tutor.

Here are some pictures:

DS4's apple

DD10 tried to clove a lemon. She drew a heart on it as a pattern for her cloves. This is all the further she got because it was very hard to get the cloves in. She even used a knife to poke little holes. The apples were much easier.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-01-07T14:48:00.005-05:00

Hog Bladders and Butter

2009-01-06T12:10:00.005-05:00

We started back into our routine this week and we are having a blast. We are reading a chapter a day from the Laura Ingalls Wilder series. We started yesterday with Little House in the Big Woods and today we made hog bladder balloons and butter. I would have rather made the balloons yesterday since they are mentioned in chapter 1, but the local meat store didn't have them available until late yesterday.

As we did each of the activities, we were able to discuss toys back in Laura's time. There was no mass market toy superstore back then. That is why Laura and Mary were thrilled to have a hog bladder to bat around. My plan was for the girls to take the balloons out in the yard to kick them around a little, but we are getting snow/rain /ice today and it's just not a good day to do that.

The bladders did have a little bit of a "smell" to them. I told them that the smell probably didn't bother Laura and Mary when you consider how often they bathed and the lack of things like deodorant.

Starting to get a little tired of shaking the jars.

We were also able to discuss all the work that went into making butter. I poured about 3/4 cup of heavy cream into a jelly jar and let the girls shake until we had butter. It took about 20 minutes and the girls were able to see the physical changes happening with the cream. After about 10 minutes they said they were getting tired. It was a lot of work to go through just for some butter. I explained that is why they didn't have exercise gyms back then either. They got exercise by default and probably didn't have to worry about diets to loose weight.

Mmmmmm...fresh creamy butter!

I hope the rest of the week is as fun as today was.

Happy New Year

2009-01-04T17:35:00.004-05:00

Isn't it wonderful to have new beginnings? The holidays are definitely a time for me to regroup.

I am looking forward to tomorrow and the beginning of our study on Laura Ingalls Wilder. Our study will be based on The Prairie Primer by Margie Gray. I attempted to use The Prairie Primer two and a half years ago and I burned out very quickly. I tried to do every activity, every day. I spent hours gathering materials for an activity that would last 15 to 30 minutes then we would never go back to it.

This time, I am using The Prairie Primer, but am only doing selected activities. I plan to read a chapter a day with the kids. They will continue to do their Math U See books and Primary Language Lessons each day. At times we may take out Ray's Arthmetic and the McGuffey Readers so we can do lessons like Laura did.

This next week will be full with making butter, corn cob dolls, hog bladder balloons, cloved apples and oranges, and drawing Jack Frost. I am really looking forward to it and hope to post pictures as we go.