Back on Track

I can hardly believe I'm going to say this, but we had a great week. We started using Spelling Wisdom found on http://www.simplycharlottemason.com/ and Greek and Latin Roots found on http://www.homeschoolestore.com/ .
The copywork is definitely something we needed instead of a text book. The Spelling Wisdom helped to walk me through how to do copywork appropriately. I mean, I knew how to do it before, but this really simplified it for me.
So far as the Latin and Greek goes, my kids love it. It is set up so you have a different root each week. Each day you do a different activity with that root and vocabulary words that use that root. On Thursday, when I started taking out the activity for Latin, both of my daughters lit up and said they couldn't wait.
We also went back to Ambleside Online and I am sooooo glad. I am doing Year 5 with dd(10). Dd(9) had to finish up a Guinea Pig unit (also found on http://www.homeschoolestore.com/) this week and next week she will start Year 3. I am so relieved that we went back to this.
Maybe next week, I'll be pulling my hair out again. For today, all seems right. Praise God!

Beatrix Potter

This is a quote from Beatrix Potter -
Thank goodness I was never sent to school, it would have rubbed off some of the originality.
~Beatrix Potter
I LOVE THIS!!!!!!

Living My Dream

All my growing up, all I wanted to be was a teacher. I went to college, got my degree and teaching certificate and my first "real" teaching job in 1991. I found the love of my life in that same year and married in 1992. For 5 years, I struggled with teaching in the public schools. After that, I thought the private arena may be a better option for me. It was worse. The school I taught at was trying to get accredidation. I started to dream about opening my own school and following my philosophies in education. My sis-in-law homeschooled her kids. At first, I thought she was nuts. Then, I was inspired. I knew before I even conceived that I wanted to homeschool my kids.
Then I had kids. 2 beautiful girls 15 months apart.
And it was so.
Now my children are 10, 9, and 3. (The three year old was a surprise, but beautiful just the same.) My children are homeschooled and I am teaching them in ways that I have always dreamed of. I don't know of too many people who can say they are living their dream, but I am!!! I'm teaching in a more natural way not worrying about national standards or writing out lesson plans or being observed by the district administration or going to endless hours of in-service or keeping 30+ kids under control and entertained. This is what I've dreamed of. Just teaching and learning along with them. Talking with them about books we read and getting to experience their "aha" moments.
I am blessed.

Mir Bojzi

Mir Bojzi!!!
or
Merry Christmas!!!
Today, my mother's side of the family celebrates Christmas in the Serbian Orthodox Church. My family is about 4 hours away from us in McKeesport, Pa and this year we won't be able to make the trip. I'm a little sad about that, but am hopeful that next year we will be able to go.
I am not an expert on the Serbian Orthodox religion, but here I will attempt to put down in words my understanding and experiences of this blessed event.
Orthodox Christmas is celebrated according to the Julian calendar on January 7. It starts on January 6, Christmas Eve, with a yule log burning ceremony. During the procession, walnuts and coins are scattered on the ground for children to pick up. The badnjak, or yule log, is from a young oak tree representing the Christ Child. The log is sprinkled with red wine representing Christ's blood and burned representing his crucifixion. The smoke rising reminds us of Jesus' ressurection.
On Christmas Day, the family gathers. There is a fire burning in the fireplace and a table spread with many meat dishes because this is the end of a 6 week fast from meat. The main dish is lamb. Under the table is straw representing the manger and on the table is wheat growing in a vase representing Christ, the bread of life.
My daughters' favorite part of the meal is the Chesnica, or Christmas Bread. This is a mildly sweet, yeast bread with a coin baked inside. Whoever gets the coin will have good luck for the upcoming year.
This celebration is dear to me and I am glad that I am able to share it with my children. Last year, my 9yo dd made a notebook and my 8yo dd made a lapbook on this event. This year, we will take them out and look through them and be with our family in McKeesport in spirit.

Holiday Road

We felt like the Griswold's trekking cross country in the family truckster to visit family on both sides of the Mason Dixon Line in August. We started our trip visiting as many Pittsburgh sites as we could including Kennywood where our family fun day was threatened and cut short due to tornado warnings. After that, we headed for Tennessee - not an easy task with a potty training three year old in the van. During one "Raymond Rest Stop" along side the road, the police arrived (probably to make sure we didn't have a dog tied to the bumper.) After Tennessee, we journeyed to Altoona, Pa where we wanted to visit DelGrosso's Amusement Park. Alas, the parking lot was empty and visions of John Candy continually reeled through our heads.

Early Childhood Education - up to grade 3

I came across this article this morning and hope you have time to read it. Print it out and sit down with a cup of tea, or soda, or kool aid - whatever your preference, and read it.

Every year, people come to me asking what curriculum/workbooks their Kindergarteners or even 1st graders should be in. Others stress over the fact that their child is 8 and can't read yet. I am a strong advocate for early education (up to 3rd grade) being a time when the child explores and discovers his world. I don't think kindergarteners should be working out of workbooks - unless they want to. That means, they genuinely have a desire to sit down with a workbook and do the pages in it without mommy standing over them to be sure everything is right. For these early learners, get out the play dough. Better yet, let them help you make playdough. Take them on a nature walk. In this area, Codorus State Park is a wonderful place to go. For that matter, the Littlestown Community park is well suited for a nature walk. Give them wooden building blocks and see what they come up with. Be sure to take pictures along the way and put them in one of those little photo albums you can get at a local craft store for a dollar. Then have them go back and tell you about the pictures without a lot of prompting. They will get so much more out of these kinds of experiences than working on a workbook because this is real life happening. I believe that workbooks at an early age can zap the love of learning from them. (That is actually my primary reason for wanting to homeschool - so they don't loose their love of learning.)

With all that said, here is the website for the article that I hope everyone can read.
http://www.squidoo. com/learningsyst em/

There is a video on this website that I don't quite get, but the article is awesome. If any of you want to discuss the article, let me know. I love talking about stuff like this.

Iditarod Ends

Whew! The last musher rolled into Nome yesterday morning at 2:56am. This has been such a rewarding unit for us to do. I plan to do it next year for our co-op group. There are so many activities that can be done with this theme that we were only able to scratch the surface this year and all subject areas can be included.