A Homeschooler's Move

I unpacked the school things today. We have a ton of space (and old kitchen cabinets) in our big ol' laundry room. We can store EVERYTHING in there. And by everything I mean...

• 12 boxes of books and supplies that I unloaded into the existing cabinets as well as the craft cabinet and bookshelf I brought with me.
• 4 more boxes of books that we are not currently using... but S will.
• 12 boxes of completed work from the boys since we began (and we're only on year 7!)
• 2 boxes of homeschooling files.

So if we didn't homeschool we'd have 30 less boxes and two less pieces of furniture to cram into that UHaul.

Is it all worth it?

Yep.

On HOTM: Stopping Midstream

The lessons of life typically apply across the board. For instance, I learned this lesson in my creative writing classes in college: When you’re writing, don’t take a break at the end of a thought. Stop in the middle. Stop when you get your groove and you have a clue about where you’re headed. Then when you get back to it again you can slip right into the process and move ahead. ...

Read the rest of my post here.

Not Gonna Do It

This goes against my grain.

Today is Free Museum Day for Smithsonian linked institutions. And we're not going to go.

My homeschooling heart says,
"But it's free!"
"It's educational!"
"It counts as a day of school!"

But my body is tired. And even though hanging out in our pajamas also goes against my grain -- we are not one of those homeschool families :-) -- I think I'd much rather do that.

My Secret Weapon Against Burn Out

Listen up: A TWO WEEK SPRING BREAK.

C'mon we do it at Christmastime (some of you take even more than two weeks!). Why not do it in the spring?

I tell you, it's the best thing EVER. I stumbled upon the idea a couple years ago when I just couldn't get everything done in one week. ("get everything done" -- yeah, it's really only a break for the kids) And it has become the one break I really look forward to.

No Christmas presents to wrap or shopping to finish or things to print and fold and stamp and mail. BUT there's some serious cleaning going on and lots of planning for the rest of the year. And if the weather here hadn't turned sour, there would have been a daily nature walk with the boys.

Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter... nothing gets overlooked this way. In fact, this year we began our break last week and we're ending with Easter (as opposed to beginning with Holy Week) and I'm kind of likin' it. Lovin' it.

I took my older kids to see a theater production of "Go Dog, Go" today. It was seriously great. I had read that they didn't really add any words to the book (if you've read it you're scratching your head like I was). And they didn't! Lots of improvisational-type singing, purposeful movements, cool colorful costumes. A great way to show them the theater.

Off to see what all the noise is about downstairs...

Hello, Spring Break

It's spring break at our house! Of course, it's not spring break for anyone else, and my kids will be plugging away at schoolish things when the neighborhood kids are banging on the door in a couple weeks wanting to play. But it was a natural break in our curriculum. We always take two weeks off at Easter time it's just that we usually begin with Holy Week. However, this gives me time to figure out just what our family will finally do to celebrate and worship during Holy Week. I've been wanting to do something for years.

So, in your comment this week, tell me what your ideas are for Holy Week. I need something for each day...

Other than that, I think I'll post some musings about homeschooling philosophy in general. A couple ideas come to mind.

Off to tackle piles of school-work-past that needs a home. And I'm going to look for some field trips. I hear the zoo is doing something tomorrow...

Thanks for stopping by, Christmas Break.

Time goes waaay too fast. I'm not ready for the week quite yet. Was up until 1 a.m. getting my ducks in a row last night and will probably do the same tonight, though I hope not because a tired mama is not the best mama.

We'll be tackling How People Grow for the next four weeks.
The Bible Base for our unit is Luke 2:52

• We'll integrate all the gospels together, but for the most part we'll be dealing with Jesus' baptism, temptation, calling the disciples, early Judean ministry, the Samaritan woman, preaching in Galilee and Judea and cleansing the temple.
  

Science: Human body (skin, skeletal, muscular, digestive, respiratory, circulatory, urinary, endocrine, and nervous systems)

Social Studies: Decision making skills (lots of games we can play for this one), making friends, manners and customs.

Math: J- More multiplication with products up to 10,000. B- telling time to the quarter hour, adding and subtracting numbers up to 60, money and fraction reviews.

Language Arts: J - Responding to a scripture journal, using good reasoning, and writing a persuasive paragraph. B- grade 1 phonics activities, drawing pictures related to our study.

Reading: J - Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. B - Continue to work through Phonics for the New Reader by Harriet Fields and reading his phonics readers.

Vocab: J's words for the week -- physical, skeleton, muscle, breathe, nutrition, vitamin, protein, spiritual, mental, social. B's words for the week -- grow, skin, bone, food, lung, leg, arm, head, water, body.

Memory Verses (for the whole unit this time): 2 Peter 1: 3-8

Topical Studies: Nutrition, Meal planning and preparation, critical thinking puzzles, and something to do with friendship that I haven't fleshed out yet.

The boys are at each other today. They were supposed to play with a friend but one decided to tell an untruth about the fact that the other wasn't invited, etc. So, they are both home, and walking around bored as if they didn't just get the world on a stick for Christmas. As if I didn't just spend 5 hours yesterday cleaning and organizing their room so they can FIND all the pieces to all the things they already owned.

So, we will begin tomorrow a.m. -- ready or not. Because kids need structure and they need to sit and read together again, and they need to know what is going to happen next. At least mine do.