Back to School 2012

It is time to start school again and I have been earnestly praying, pondering and searching for how I should be doing education for my children in a way I can handle and they will love. I feel fairly confidant that the methods I am putting to the test this year will hold strong and true.

It all started with TJEd and Charlotte Mason. I found so many wonderful things in their philosophies that I had a hard time figuring out how to implement it all. I gave trial runs all through the summer with different parts of the philosophies and found out how most work and how some just don't for our family. After a summer full of trial and error, this is what I came up with as our curriculum for the year.

Our subjects for my two whom I am actively teaching this year are Scripture Study, Reading, Writing, Math, Science, History, Spanish, Health, Music, Art, and Physical Training. At first glance this seems like a ton of work for a 1st and a 3rd grader. However let me explain what we are doing with each subject.

I have decided to start with the self as much as possible in each subject. For Scripture Study we will be focusing on personal conduct, which is of course most of what God teaches us about, and so we will also explore why God focuses on personal growth so much. In Reading I will read to the kids The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain as it is written in first-person perspective. (I will go into detail about how I am teaching my boy to read further down.) Writing will be copywork. For my 1st grader he will only be copying letters and single words until his aptitude with fluently writing letters and numbers increases. My 3rd grader will be copying the Articles of Faith from our religion and when she is done with those (as we are already 1/2 way through) she will be doing scripture verses from our morning Scripture Study. Math will focus on fluency with addition, subtraction, multiplication and beginning division. We will also be doing classification via size, shape, color, weight, etc. and time. For Science we will be learning about the Human Body, inside and out. History is going to start with Personal History, then move into Parental History and the Histories of their grandparents etc until we get into Family History. By doing this I hope to give them a greater appreciation for how history affects them, thus making them more interested in it, (Inspire not Require!). For Spanish we will learn one phrase, one color and one number per week. Health will be about how what we eat and what we do physically affects our bodies. Music and Art will be tied in with one or more of the other subjects and Physical Training will be Kenpo, which my husband will teach them.  



I am using Charlotte Mason's idea that lessons should be ten minutes to a quarter-hour. So, if we spent the max of fifteen minutes on each lesson we would have lessons for three and three-quarters hours. That in and of its self is a reasonable goal in light of the amount of time spent in the public schools. However, I will also be combining subjects when appropriate.

For example: Science this season is going to be about the human dody and Health is about our lifestyle's affect on the human body, so these can be easily combined. There are also many songs about the human body and healthy habits, so music fits in there as well. Kenpo is an activity which is good for the body, so that fits also. Our religious scripture has what is known as the Word of Wisdom which talks about what things we should and should not eat, that slips in their too! So as you can see, I can quickly condense a lot of these subjects into a shorter amount of time. And that saved time can be spent on pursuing the children's interests and promoting our upstart home based business and teaching the kids work ethic, cleanliness, discipline, love of God, and charity through service. All of which are at least equally important as scholastic learning, if not more so.

As for teaching my 6-year-old boy to read, I am using Charlotte Mason's philosophy. I am not teaching him to read words by sounding them out as I did with my older daughter, because too often that doesn't work. This way of teaching was developed by Friedrich Frobel who is the inventor of Kindergarten. If you couldn't guess by his name or the name of his invention, he is German. Deutsch (German) is a phonetic language. English is not. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of words in English, that if spelled phonetically would look suspiciously like Deutsch. So instead I am teaching the words as a symbol for the sound of the word we say. I look at it as more akin to the Chinese writing or hieroglyphs. This collection of letters in this pattern means this word. It is a fairly simple concept as children have such wonderful visual memories. I take a phrase, either from a nursery rhyme, or children's song, or the scriptures and have the words individually separated and teach them one by one, making sure they simply aren't memorizing some unintentional pattern of how I am showing them. Then as they know each word individually, I put them together in the phrase or sentence and they can read it through without pause. This is an average of 10 words each day. This is so much easier on the children than trying to remember the "I before E except after C or when followed by a G" type of exceptions to phonetic rules that our language is crawling with.

Multiply by Love

19 March 2012

I was up most of the night with stomach cramps. Maybe that dinner wasn't as healthy as I thought! I still don't have any idea what it was that caused the cramping but it is miserable. I still can't move around much without the cramps coming on again. Unfortunately I did need to get out of the house and run a few errands today. Talk about miserable!

The kids were good to me today and cleaned up the house a bit and attempted to load the dishwasher. Ra sat with me on the couch for a while and we did some oral quizzing on multiplication facts. Now mind you I have not done any formal teaching on multiplication, at least not in the same way I did with K12 and adding and subtracting.

We have gone over the basics of multiplication however. The fact that one number is how many are in a group and the other number is how many of those groups there are. I have previously explained to her that any number multiplied by zero is zero. After all if you have no groups of ten you have nothing and if you have ten groups of nothing you still have nothing.

I have also explained to her that knowing her skip counting will help her in all other areas of math. She requested that I begin asking her multiplication questions based in what she already knows of skip counting. She can skip count by 2's, 3's, 5's, 10's and 11's to 100.  I asked her multiplication questions that involve these increments. She did very well! I am so proud of her.

At bed time Ra read Fancy Nancy Pajama Day and I read Stinkers and Stingers.

Cribbage

18 March 2012

Today we attended church, (a little late I admit but we made it!) and spent some time relaxing at home. We had such a busy week last week that we decided to take it easy today. Around 1:00p.m. my mother called and asked her and my father could stop by for a visit. They were up in the area for a missionary farewell for one of my cousins.

The kids were extremely excited as usual when we have company. We live about an hour away from most of our family so we don't get visitors often. The kids had so much fun showing off all they have been doing and learning in our homeschool efforts and Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Mike enjoyed hearing all about it. Ra showed off her skip counting prowess, beautiful cursive and all of the fun crafts we did for the various holidays.

When we were in Hurricane Papa Glen and Nana Lori showed the hubby and I how to play cribbage. It is so chalk full of math that I decided to use it at home. I have heard that card games, dice games and board games are some of the best ways to learn math, so why not give it a try.

I asked my parents if they have ever played cribbage and they said no. So I decided to use that moment to not only show my parents how to play, but Ra as well. Ra loved it and though Grandpa Mike was a little distracted by Puss in Boots on the TV, I think my parents enjoyed it too. Grandpa Mike told me that he is really good at math, something I have probably always taken for granted in my father until now. He said that the only thing that messes him up in math is a calculator! Ha! See! That is how proficient I want my kids to be, and myself of course, because I am no where near that.

After a healthy dinner we read some of the Old Testament Stories before I shooed the kids off to bed.

Boo-Hoo's and Ahh-Haa's

23 February 2012

I slept in this morning. I have totally ignored my "schedule" for the week. I realized yesterday that I am not inspiring my kids. I also realized that I don't know how to inspire them. A very daunting thought when I am trying to live up to the mantra "Inspire not Require". Last night I sat bolt upright in bed after dozing for a little while and began sobbing I was so overwhelmed by my task and I felt prompted to pray. I prayed earnestly that God might help guide me in my search for knowledge and help me understand and apply what I have already learned.

This morning when I woke up I realized that the kids had not yet come down to bother me about typing the the passwords for the computers (being computer day and all) which made me very curious. I went upstairs and found the kids enthusiastically playing with some ball hoop and target sets we received from Grandma B(She is an adopter grandma! She has no kids of her own and is good friends with Grandma Jane). I hadn't pulled them out until last night for the first time after the kids were in bed. I left them out and apparently the kids loved them so much they forgot it was computer day for a little while.

 I spent some time talking to my sister (which if you haven't noticed by now is what I do when I'm stressed out because she helps bring me back down to reality) and I got to thinking about the interest the kids had this morning. I decided that the computers need to take a further back seat than they have been. I cut down from everyday to two days, now I'm considering ONLY using their computer time for typing exercises and educational studies. I will probably find a way to make free computer time a reward of some sort, but I am still thinking it all out.

I want to make our basement family room into more of an educational playland. Right now it has a bookshelf, a small chest of craft activities, a children's desk and the computer desk. If we took the computer desk out of there and just put one computer in my room and put the other one away for now or in my small craft room, there would be more space for the kids to set up and play. We could get more open-ended toys and manipulatives to have down there and hopefully encourage them to do more than complain about wanting to be playing computer games.

I also know that when the weather warms up the computers aren't as bad of a problem because it is easier for the kids to be able to play outside. I decided though, that cold weather is no excuse to be cooped up inside all day. I love being outside and Charlotte Mason is a big proponent of spending time out of doors as much as possible. So we bundled up while Em was taking her nap and I raked up leaves and twigs while the kids rode bikes, and dug in the dirt and tried to help me with the raking as well.

When Em woke up I put her in her stroller and Ra, El, and Ca rode their bikes and we walked to the park where there was another little boy El's age playing with his dad and their two schnauzers. I let the kids play until Em started getting red cheeked from cold then we went home, had dinner and the kids had a bit more time on the computers before storytime.

We finished reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and read a chapter in Genesis of the KJV Bible. Tomorrow I will ask Ra if she wants to listen to a book about George Washington next or the book she picked from the library (as I offered to read it to her because she wanted it so bad but it is not an easy read for her yet).

I looked up some fun activities to do with the kids in honor of President's Day and George Washington's birthday ( I know we are late) and I am sure they will have fun tomorrow helping me in the yard again and doing these crafts. I will take pictures of them when they are completed and post them tomorrow!

Valentine's Day Driving

14 February 2012

Happy Valentine's Day! It was computer day today so I let the kids play for a couple hours after breakfast while I prepared to be driving around all day. I made lunches and snacks, collected all of the cards we would be delivering and phoning relatives for address to mail some of the Valentine's cards to.

From 11:00 am until 4:00 pm we were out delivering cards and spending some time with the cousins. After 4 I took the kids to Denny's as their Valentine's treat. Unfortunately that meant we drove the normally one hour drive home in peak traffic time so it took us nearly twice as long to get there. While in the car we have been listening to the audio recording of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Ra absolutely loves it and has insisted on listening to it instead of music.

Once at home we read from Genesis in the KJV Bible and a few chapters of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I read more of The Original Homeschooling Series Volume 1 - Home Education by Charlotte Mason. It is one of those books that hits you over the head with the "Ah ha!" bat just about every other paragraph. It is going to take me quite some time to get through this book and the other five in the series, but it will definitely be worth it.

Happy Housework

6 February 2012

My husband, Chris had a day off work today so we spent it doing errands, much to the dismay of our children. They really don't like being in the car all day long and who can blame them? We managed to keep the house clean and keep up with laundry (While on errands I bought more hangers. I found that when I keep all of the clothes cleaned, I can't use the dirty laundry pile as clothing storage, lol).

I decided I needed to keep my house in order about a week ago. It has always been one of those, "but it always just gets dirty right after I clean it so why bother" things for me. I wouldn't do laundry until someone ran out of socks or underwear or pants. I wouldn't wash dishes until we were out of cups or forks or spoons. I wouldn't make the kids clean their rooms unless someone was coming over to visit and I would never make them make their beds. I used to tell my husband "Why make your bed in the morning? I straighten it out at night right before I climb in, that's when it's important."

For anyone familiar with Dave Ramsey, this idea of perpetual housework to me was like the idea of the perpetual car payment. "You will always have a car payment (housework), that's just the way it is (why worry about doing it)." 

Well, obviously I have been extremely stressed about housework just about every day of my life because of this attitude. When I read Charlotte Mason stress the importance of teaching our kids these good habits, it finally clicked. My poor husband has been patient with me for eight years while he tried to get me to do more housework and not let if pile up till I was so stressed about it I didn't want to do any of it. But the light finally turned on. My kids learn the most from me. If I want them to clean their rooms, I have to clean mine as well. I need to take charge and lead. I need to make sure they do the things that will help them be successful adults with healthy habits. If they grow up to be slobs or brats, it's MY FAULT. I guess that sorta scared me into straightening up.

I have been so much happier since I have been keeping my house clean. I don't do all the work myself, actually the kids do at least as much if not more than I do now. They clean the front room and their bedrooms, they make their beds, put away their laundry (all except what needs to be hung in the closet), put away dishes from the dishwasher, load the dishwasher, bring all the dirty laundry to the laundry room, and watch Em when I need them too. I basically keep my own room cleaned, sweep, mop, vacuum, wash the laundry, fold and hang up clothes and make meals. With the chores not completely on my shoulders anymore we have a lot more family time and the kids have a greater respect for the cleanliness of the house and aren't so quick to dirty it constantly.

We went out to Antelope Island again today to show Chris some of the trails we hiked around. We didn't stay long because it was close to supper time when we were done with our errands and the kids began whining about being hungry. After supper Chris let me read more of Little Britches by Ralph Moody while he played XBOX with the kids.  At 8:00 p m I read Hansel and Grethel from the Grimm Fairy Tales to Ra, since El and Ca were still playing games with Chris.

After the kids were in bed I finished reading Little Britches and I was very satisfied with the book. It was different from most every book that I have read because their was no defined "antagonist." It is written as a memoir and perhaps that is what I liked so much about it. When I read it again I want to write down all of the advice Ralph received from his pa. They were so brief, to the point and yet thought provoking. I loved the book.

Now to move on to book number three. The Chosen by Chaim Potok. But it is late and that will have to wait until tomorrow.

p.s. I don't know why all the pictures I chose for this post ended up being B&W, oh well!

Rocky Ledges

31 January 2012

We cleaned the house today, every last nook and craney. I even managed to get all the laundry put away and hung up and my room cleaned and Ember's room cleaned and cleared of the boxes that had been abandoned there. I am so proud of my kids (and myself!). It was a big task, but it needed doing and now that it is all clean it will be easier to keep it that way if I can just stay on top of it.

I finished The Lonesome Gods by Louis L'amour. Very excellent book. If you haven't read it, do so. I spent more time reading Charlotte Mason and reviewing some of the TJ Ed stuff. I am going to give myself a day before I start reading the next book, Little Britches by Ralph Moody. I am so glad I am doing this. Reading brings a whole new level of understanding and judgement to my daily interactions with my children, husband and others.

We drove out to Antelope Island again after lunch, I packed us a dinner this time. We drove to one of the beach locations and walked out on the half frozen sand for quite a distance before we were stopped by the water. The kids played there for a little bit then we drove around and read some of the plaques around the island and hiked up a trail to an overlook. It was fun, if not a bit nerve wracking having my kids up on the tops of rocks like that so close to an unforgiving drop. I just had to keep telling myself that the best way for them to learn safety was to experience places where caution was required. I knew they wouldn't fall, and if they did it wouldn't have been very far, most likely slip a few feet is all, but it was still nerve wracking.

Everyone made it back to the car safely and after taking a picture for a couple who had apparently been waiting for us to come back down the trail for just such a purpose, we climbed into the car and ate dinner. I gave the kids their journals again and they made their entries for the day.

At home we settled down on the couch and I read them stories, first from the Bible and then a few of their picture books. What a pleasant way to end the day!

Where the Buffalo Roam

30 January 2012

I feel like Charlotte Mason and Oliver DeMille hit me over the head with a frying pan of inspiration. I took the kids to Walmart today and we bought a bunch of craft items. Quiet activities they can do while I read to them at night so they don't bother each other and I can get through more than a few minutes of reading. The things I bought are as follows:

Popsicle Sticks
Lanyard (boondoggle depending on where you are from)
Friendship Bracelet Thread
Yarn
Knitting Needles
Crochet Hooks
Colored Pencils
Crayons
Watercolor
Paper (white and construction)
Drawing/Writing Journals
Pencils
Beads
Pipe Cleaners
Glue
Scissors

I am sure I forgot something(s) on that list, but that gives you a good idea. We also bought fruits and vegetables we could eat without having to prep (apples, oranges, celery etc) and drove out to Antelope Island which is only a five minute drive from where I live. I had never been there before. Don't get me wrong here, I have only lived here since November, so it's not like I have had a ton of opportunities to go there. Anyways, I decided to pay for the annual pass since I plan on going there often since it is so close and it lets me into all of the other state parks in Utah.

We went to Lady Finger Point and walked/climbed up Lady Finger Trail. The kids had a blast running through the brush and climbing up the rocks. We looked out to Egg Island were the seagulls go to roost. We got a pretty good look at just how big the island is from that vantage point. After we had our fun there we drove up to the Visitors Center and had a look around. Ra was a bit disappointed that it wasn't more extravagant than it was. Ah well.

We saw our first bison sitting around outside the Visitors Center, just south of the parking lot. We got back in the car and had something to eat then drove the 11 miles to the Garr Ranch on suggestion from the folks at the Visitors Center. It was really cold and I had only had the kids bring sweatshirts so by the time we got there and had a potty break the kids were ready to call it a day.

On our way back to the causeway I saw a lookout point we could drive to so I took a small detour there and had the kids pull out their journals we just bought and draw a picture about the island and write something about it as well. All three of them did a wonderful job. Ra drew the landscape scene from where we were parked, looking out over the Great Salt Lake. El drew the causeway leading up to the island and our car on it. Ca drew . . . well I couldn't make it out but he explained it to me and said it was dead fish that the animals killed. Ahhh boys.

I think we should spend the rest of the week at Antelope Island, at least a few hours a day. What a great experience and there is still so much to do and see there.

Weekend Rearrangement

28 & 29 January 2012

The weekend was fun. I spent a lot of time with the kids and hubby. We kept the house clean and rearranged our basement so that we could bring in our giant bookshelf from the shed. We finally took down our Christmas tree (we're lazy, I know) and moved our television back upstairs. The computers were rearranged on the wall opposite the bookshelf. Our book collection may be pitifully small right now but it wont stay that way for long. I found a great used bookstore called The ReAd Cat and I bought seven books while I was there. I would have bought a good deal more, but even at $3 a piece I have to keep an eye on my budget.

I have been reading a good deal and am just about 3/4 through my book. I should be able to finish it by Tuesday or Wednesday. I also read some more Charlotte Mason this weekend and I feel utterly reprimanded for my lack of structure in the dealings of my household. My husband has pestered me about keeping the house cleaner for as long as we have had kids, but I have always thought his request unreasonable. Charlotte makes it quite clear that my children will learn my bad habits (which of course I have always known) and will carry them with them throughout their lives. This thought in pertaining to housework and such has never interlocked until reading last night. I fear I have done a wretched job as a mother in regards to housework and responsibilities. This is what I will work on with the kids while I complete my 2 month self education primer with TJ Ed. I will work on being a better mother while I prepare myself to be their scholastic teacher as well.

I just need to follow Cinderella's lead and do my work cheerfully and not grudgingly. It will be easier that way, I am sure of it.

Inspiration

27 January 2012

Reading, reading and more reading. I have been reading The Lonesome Gods by Louis L'amour as well as Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series Volume 1 Home Education. I have to admit I am making much better headway on Louis L'amour's book than on Charlotte Mason's. Most likely because I am taking notes on the Charlotte Mason book. It is filled with very truthful and valuable information. I fear I will never be able to get through all six books in the series. Ah well, for now I need to focus on reading the books on my assigned reading list from TJ Ed, I have six books I need to read for that alone and hopefully do so in a 2 month time frame.

I also read a little bit more of Dracula by Bram Stoker to the kids today. We came across another food "Robber Steak" and decided to make it for dinner tomorrow night because we would have to go grocery shopping to get the ingredients and I wasn't in the mood to pack up the kids to go to the grocery store that late in the day.

Four years ago my husband and I were introduced to The Dave Ramsey Show on the radio and we soon bought his book. It was so full of common sense ah-ha's for us that it changed our lives forever and we spent the next thirty months getting out of debt living as God would have us live. When I read A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille and as I read Charlotte Mason's book(s) I have the same feelings. Charlotte Mason has so much information in her book it sends my mind reeling but gets me excited. This is down to earth, practical information that makes an enormous change in our well being, mentally, physically, and spiritually. I feel like I want to shout it out to the world from the tops of the highest peaks. My soul weeps knowing that an overwhelming majority of people will not accept such knowledge when it is presented to them and even more will not seek for it.

Whether or not people accept the knowledge is not up to me, however I can do my best to be an example and mentor to others so that they might see the fruits of my labors and want it for themselves. The old saying "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." has a whole new meaning to me now. I may not be able to make him drink, but I can inspire him and let him choose of his own accord what he will do.

Booklist

25 January 2012

Today I read the appendixes in the book A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille and have found that I really need to take two months to prepare myself to teach my kids with this method. We went to the library and I let each of the kids pick out 2 books and I checked out my person list of assigned reading. The books I checked out are as follows;

The Lonesome Gods by Louis L'amour
Little Britches, Father and I Were Ranchers by Ralph Moody
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Laddie, A True Blue Story by Gene Stratton Porter
Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery
The Black Stallion by Walter Farley

I started reading The Lonesome Gods first because several of my immediate family members love Louis L'amour and I had never read his work before. When I looked at the list of titles of 200 of the suggested classics I recognized most of them, though I am ashamed to say I had only read two of them and both of them before the age of ten! I have a lot to learn, but I am excited about it now. I have a reason to read these books. I will learn from them, they will be my mentors.

On a side note, at church on Sunday I was asked to be the coordinator for the 8-11 year old girls Activity Day once a week. I am excited for this opportunity to serve my community and to get to know the young girls in the neighborhood. Ra will be eight this summer and it will be a great opportunity for her to make new friends and for me to be able to get to know her friends as well. I hope to be able to use some of what I have learned from the TJ Ed and Charlotte Mason in these activities.