Electrical Gardens

25 February 2012

This morning we had breakfast then went (with the keys this time!) to get my husbands paycheck and we ran a few other errands on the way home. Ra listened to and read along with the read-along books we checked out from the library. I went over some of the facts of George Washington's life while we were in the car as well. I read them a few poems about George Washington that I had found online as well. I also started introducing the kids the the colors in German. Rot, orange, gelb, grun, blau, lila, schwarz, weiss, braun, silbern, and golden. (Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white, brown, silver, and gold.) Time in the car has been greatly under-utilized by me and I hope to remedy that with exciting discussions and topics and books to listen to and memorization drills.

We had lunch and cleaned house a bit when we arrived home and after lunch the hubby pulled out an electricity science project kit we had bought for our kids a while ago but had not opened yet. I thoroughly enjoyed myself as I sat back and listened to the hubby explain what a "circuit" was to the kids and how electricity works. I put in my two cents now and again when I felt I had an insight I could share or another way of explaining something that the kids might be able to understand easier. We all had a good time with it.

I spent much of the rest of the afternoon planning my garden and doing research on how much to grow and where to grow certain plants in relation to other plants. I decided which plants I want to start with this year, instead of jumping headlong into a large variety garden my first year doing one on my own. While graphing out my garden on graph paper I explained to Ra what a Ratio was. I told her that for every two squares on my graph paper that showed one foot in actual garden. I told her we do this most often to scale down things into workable sizes. I couldn't very well draw out the garden on a piece of paper as big as the garden because then I may as well just do it in the garden itself. I still have a lot of planning to do, but this is a good start.

After a very good dinner the kids played around and Ra helped tend Em while the hubby and I set up my computer with Call of Duty 4 so that I could play it with him for a bit. It was fun to just chill and take a bit of time to relax from the studies I have been involving myself in during my spare time. Unfortunately the play time ran over and we didn't have time to read our kids a story before bedtime. But I was able to get in some valuable leisure time which I have been needing, but having been allowing myself. 

The kids and I also finished the Log Cabin out of twigs we started yesterday. I will post pictures of it soon. I absolutely love how it turned out.

Grandma Jane and Inspiration

21 February 2012

Computer day. Ah... the day I get to sleep in and recover from staying up until 1:00 a.m. every night and waking up at 7:30 a.m. every morning.  I set up the computers for the kids and went back to bed until about 9:00 a.m. when Em woke up and I laid down on the floor while she played on and around me and I dozed. I made breakfast for myself around 9:45 a.m.

I didn't even look at my planner today because as I was finishing breakfast Grandma Jane called and asked if we could come over for a visit today. It was a nice break as she let me leave the kids with her for an hour or so while I ran some errands. Bliss. The kids helped Grandma Jane bake cupcakes and painted pictures, played Candyland and a Fishing (a board game). They played with wooden blocks and had all sorts of fun.

At home the kids went right back onto the computers and I replaced the tail light blinker in the car (the things us women have to do when the hubby works out of town!) and looked for some of my art supplies because I was asked if I would be interested in illustrating a cover for a client of a friend of mine. Of course by the time I actually found my art supplies it was time to get ready for bed.

We read four chapters in Genesis of the KJV Bible and three chapters in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Just three more chapters and we are done with this book. I am going to set up a Skype conversation with Grandma Lori who lives five hours away so Raven can discuss the book with her! It will be fun.

After the kids were in bed I did my usual research on homeschooling. I am still trying to figure this all out and find out what works and what I could be doing better etc. In my research I found a few things I am going to try.

First, when Ra gets up in the morning I am going to ask her "What do you want to learn today?" and "How long would you like your lessons to be? One hour? Two hours? or Three hours?) instead of trying to fit in what I want to teach that day. I will give myself an hour or so to prepare (if needed) to teach what she is interested in. I realize that this is practically throwing out the planning I spent so much time on preparing for this week, but if this works better I definitely wont complain about loosing the time this week to gain it from here on out!

If Ra does not want to have her lessons be an hour or more than I know that I have not sufficiently "inspired" her yet. Which I am bracing myself for because it is entirely possible since "inspiring" isn't something that comes naturally for me. This thought led me to more research of course.

I came up with a basic starting point for "inspiring". The guidelines where not meant for homeschooling application, but I figure if I can apply these principles to each subject to be taught then I will be set. I found that I have already started doing this with learning German.

-Stick with what you love about the subject. (if you don't love it, work on that first!)
-Think Big and Noble. (aim to be the best and know the most)
-Be Expressive with your students/children. (share with them your findings and excitements)
-Practice What You Preach. (don't ask them to do anything you aren't willing to do yourself)
-Keep an Open Door. (be willing to stop what you are doing to assist them with questions and concerns)
-Offer a Guiding Hand. (when they show interest offer to help them progress and give guidance)
-Be Consistent. (if it isn't important to you why should it be for them?)
-Stay Positive. (don't criticize your kids for shortcomings or inhibitions they have in achieving goals)

I know these things have been explained in the TJEd books and websites, but it is nice to step back and get a different wording and view of the same concept to make the puzzle fit together a little bit better. All in all, I need to focus on educating myself and by putting myself in that mindset I will better see the opportunities I have to share that knowledge with my children.

As for learning to reading, writing and arithmetic for the boys, I need to pay more attention to the things they do on their own and look for learning opportunities there instead of requiring them to sit down and do math with me or writing etc. If I implement more activities where these things are present as well, like writing letters to people, they will learn to do them in a natural setting. 

P.S. I also did some more German lessons of LiveMocha. I am getting better than my husband, granted he only took two years of German in high school and doesn't remember a whole lot because he hasn't used it.

Schedules, Hats, and German

20 February 2012

I managed to get my week planned out at about 1:30 a.m. last night/this morning. It includes basic ideas and guidelines for each of my three older kids in each subject, (reading, history, math, writing, science, art/music, German). This was no small task. I hope this gets easier as time goes on because it took me nearly all day yesterday to get this figured out and written up. It is well worth the effort, but I just hope it isn't always going to be such an enormous task.

Our day today was planned as such:

Ra-
Reading- A book of choice (read by self or by momma)
Writing- Notebook entry; penmanship
Arithmetic- Principles of Numeration #2
History- Ask Ra what history she wants to know.
Science- Review the Scientific Method.
Art/Music- Drawing with momma.
German- Review "nein, ja, bitte, etc."

El-
Reading- I See Sam book 9
Writing- Notebook entry
Arithmetic- Count to 100. Principles of Numeration #2 (with Ra)
History- Ask El what history he wants to know.

Science- Introduce the Scientific Method.
Art/Music- There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
German- Review "nein, ja"

Ca-
Reading- "A, a"
Writing-Learn to hold a pencil; write name in capitals
Arithmetic- Counting to 10.
Art/Music- There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

This morning we ran out the door at 9:00 a.m. thinking we had some things to take care of at the bank this morning and as we pulled up we had to bury our faces in our hands and say "What is all our planning worth if we don't remember holidays!?" Being Presidents Day the bank was of course, closed.

We had another errand to run which required us to drive an hour to get there and an hour to get back. Ra had brought a book with her that she had started reading while we were getting ready to leave. The book was Do You Have a Hat? by Eileen Spinelli. She almost finished it but had to stop because she was getting motion sick.

 I did not ask her to read a book and so this is a new development for her. I have only been reading to her and haven't been asking her to read anything. The reason for this is that she had been told too often that she is a slow reader in public school and so she hates reading. I have been reading stories to her though, and not just simple kids books.I read her chapter books so she can understand why a person would want to read such a long book by experiencing it without having to go through the effort herself. This will hopefully spark that desire to know what is on the next page. I believe the fruits of this effort are beginning to show forth by this act of reading a book on her own today. I am so excited!

While Ra was recovering from her motion sickness I used the time to ask her and El if there is anything in history that they are interested in or want to know more about. El isn't familiar with most any history at the moment but Ra said she wants to learn about the Statue of Liberty, Abraham Lincoln, Johnny Appleseed, and China. Since Ra is getting into the Love of Learning phase I think I will just have El listen in on our discussion and what not so that he can start to pick up on things he will be interested in pursuing in a couple years.

We reviewed skip counting by 5's and 10's while in the car as well, but mostly my husband and I talked while the boys teased each other in the back seat and Ra kept asking us to turn up the German music we had in the CD player.

After we returned home not much was done by way of the kids education until my husband left at 3:30 p.m. But while he was there I introduced him to LiveMocha, a language learning website that I found. I am going to use it as a primary resource for learning German. We told the kids that when they learn German well enough to hold a conversation we would take them to Germany. Of course, that means we need to learn it too! I think this is an excellent example for the kids of self driven learning. If you want to know something, search it out, don't wait for a teacher to hand it to you covered in worksheets and quizzes. 

For about an hour after the hubby left I let the kids watch some of the learning song/videos from Have Fun Teaching. They spent the rest of the day as they liked while I made dinner and took care of Em until 7:00p.m. when we read in Genesis of the KJV Bible and we read 3 chapters in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. We are 6 chapters from the end and have made a goal to read 3 chapters a night so we can be finished in 2 days to be able to have a discussion about the book with Nana Lori via Skype.

So I didn't get to everything on my schedule today, but tomorrow is another day and hopefully with less distractions. It is computer day, and I have at least planned for that and planned my "lessons" around this event!