Day in the Life

Happy Wednesday Ya'll!!  How are ya?

We are just moving right along here. Flying through these weeks as usual. How about another "Day in the Life" of a homeschooler? I'm not really a fan of the word "homeschool" but it seems to be word most commonly used out there, so use it I must at times. I prefer "home education." The word "school" reminds me of a school of fish. What we do around here doesn't really look like a school of fish, maybe more like a three ring circus. With wild jungle animals. Hahaha!! Anyhow, I like to think that, as a family, we are educating ourselves and most it is done at home. So there you go.

In previous posts I've told you a bit about our story, what our mornings generally look like, and meal times. Next up would be afternoon lessons. First though I will have to jump back to mornings for a minute. Most of us home educators also have babies, toddlers, and pre-schoolers in the mix. Challenging? Um, yes. THE challenge. As a result, schedules and routines must be reconfigured on a regular basis.

This year we have come to find that the best routine seems to be to try and squeeze in the most brain-intensive subjects when Mr. Mace is napping in the morning. Oh God help me when he gives that up! Start praying now! I have no idea how I'll manage that one.  I suppose I'll just have to brainstorm something and then jump in two feet first again. For now though, we are doing okay with working super hard on our math and writing during that 10-12 am window.

Few other notes about our morning routine:

• checklists. This has been a small, yet effective addition to our day. Quite motivating for the eldest three. Each morning I write up a checklist for each child on our whiteboard easel. That way I don't need to give much direction when I am busy with some other task. I just tell them to start on their checklists. The checklists are varied from lesson assignments to "play outside for 30 minutes" to "fold your laundry."  It's a win-win situation because then we all understand the day's expectations.
• flashcards. These have become first on the checklists. In the past I have the kids do math facts on the computer, with apps on the iPad, worksheets, or pre-made ones from the store. I've never been completely satisfied with any of those options for a number of reasons. Now the boys make their own. Best system by far! They only make the ones we are studying at the moment. For example, we've just started multiplying and dividing by eight. The boys made flashcards for all the multiplication and division facts for the eight. Then, when they review their facts, they are only practicing 1 through 8. At the end of this week they'll be making cards with the facts for nine. 
  

Now here is an authentic look into a homeschoolers life. A little side lesson as we work through out long division. "Listen guys, three of my main goals for you are #1 that you will go to heaven #2 will become independent #3 will learn to focus on the task at hand. You have a chance to practice independence and focus right now. Give it whirl." (haha and for once the pep talk helped!)

• writing. This is our first year officially writing. *Gasp*  For Charlotte Masoners, this is common. I may talk more about that at a later time but for now, lunch is on the stove. It will have to wait. Anyhow, we are using the reputable program, "Institute for Excellence in Writing."  I purchased the instructor program, which is basically a DVD seminar. The boys are doing the "Student Writing Intensive A." We all watch the introductory lessons with Mr. Andrew Pudewa (who we love!) and then we follow-up with lessons already assembled in the binders that came with the program. The first main skill we worked through was writing "key word outlines." Basically the boys learned to read a short non-fiction articles, take notes, and rewrite the article. By the end of the unit, the boys were doing this process completely independently. Right now we are the middle of the "story sequence model" unit. They have been learning how stories are structured. We read a story together, they take notes using the "story sequence chart" and rewrite the story. They are allowed to change characters and setting if they would like. Along the way, Mr. Pudewa teaches the boys about "dress-up" or how to add style to their writing. Accompanying each assignment is a check-list of dress-ups they must add to their compositions. It has been working for us. We will probably continue with the same program next year. I have fumbled around a good bit but we've worked through it together. I love that about home education. None of us is perfect or has it all-together but we do have each other. We talk about our struggles, think about solutions, and work it together. Learning accompanies struggle, I believe, if approached with an open mind.
  

Well darn, I gotta go. We'll have to chat about our afternoon routine later. Our tummies are grumbling! Take care ya'll!!  I love you! Please, keep in touch! Drop me a line and tell me where you are at these days.

Day in the Life {Homeschool Meals}

Hello There!

How are you friends? Thinking about turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce? I've just started thinking of all that myself.

Time to tell you more about our lifestyle around these parts. This wild adventure in educating at home. We "talked" a little about our morning routine and now our "talk" takes us to lunch time. Lunch time. This one is a challenge, I think, for many home educators. Mama and kids are immersed in math and writing and reading and . . . then its time to break away from it all for lunch. It can feel like such a break in the routine. It would be nice if there was a magic lunch fairy. We move aside our books and POOF, a healthy hot lunch appears on the table. We enjoy our repast and then POOF, the lunch fairy does the dishes. Aaah. . . sounds nice.

Well, ahem, I can't use a magic daily lunch as one of my three free wishes I suppose. So this is my reality. . .

Maybe you know that I LOVE food. I like a tasty variety of wholesome, nutritious foods. Granted, I often don't hold to high ideals because of time constraints. But I just find that I get bored quickly with the same old thing. Variety floats my boat! So when I began preparing for this school year, I knew I would have to vamp up my organization in every way, including meals. I have planned our dinners in advance for years now but I finally came to the conclusion that I needed to do some of that for breakfast and lunch as well. It seemed over-the-top organization but I knew if I was going to do this home educating well, I needed better organization to make it work.

For the past several months I have been planning out most of our breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Breakfast and lunch are more loosely planned but overall the new routine has been quite helpful. No more racking my brain, "What shall I make today?" No more thinking in the grocery aisles, "What shall I buy for lunches?" I plan the meals, I write the lists, I buy. During the week when I wake up I ask myself,  "Which one of the lunches shall I make today?" If its rice and beans, then I get the rice and beans cooking early while we are still studying. Making the weekly menus is a chore but hey, its a chore anyway you look at it, right? Better done ahead of time than on the fly.

I think I've previously shared my affinity for Pinterest. Pinterest is my main go-to for meal planning. I have boards labeled "Breakfast" and "Lunch." I write down a few ideas from there and plan away. I also have a master list of ideas for both meals on my iPad.

Here is a list of a some of the things I might choose from:

Breakfast:
Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal
Waffles
Eggs: boiled, scrambled, Egg McMuffin, breakfast burritos
Steel Cut Oats or Oatmeal (we have a whole assortment of ways to dress this up, quite versatile)
-a few:
http://blog.williams-sonoma.com/steel-cut-oats-with-honeyed-pears-and-glazed-pecans/
http://inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com/2012/11/day-one.html
Bagels with nut butter and banana
Smoothies and toast
Cereal
Yogurt and granola
Muffins (a number of various recipes, mostly made on the weekend)
-these are wonderful. http://www.farmgirlfare.com/2008/01/100-whole-grain-ginger-pear-bran.html
Banana Split: banana, granola, yogurt
Pancakes (blueberry, pumpkin, zucchini, lemon poppy seed, apple, etc)
Cereal

Lunch:
Simple tacos (with meat or just beans)
Simple Spaghetti
Nachos (loaded with beans)
Hummus Veggie Wraps
Black Bean Soup
Pasta Salad
Irish Nachos
Loaded Baked Potatoes
Pizza on French bread
Tuna melt
Crackers with meat and cheese
Mac n Cheese with Hebrews Franks
Falafel
Simple Stir Fry
Layered Tostadas
Rice and Beans
Bean burritos

We often use the lunch hour to learn a little something. Not always but it can  be a special treat if I am able to do so. A couple months back I noticed that we really had a problem with poor manners at the table. We needed so much more than a constant barrage of "stop that" or "use your napkin!"  The kids and I have found a number of table manners for kids videos on youtube.com. We'll watch one of those and the kids will practice what they have seen. The past couple of weeks during lunch we have been slowly reading through "Emily Post's Table Manners for Kids." Now learning and practicing table manners has become a special interest for the kids. It is no longer just mom harping on them but a real idea worthy of time and energy to learn. Oh goodness, we still are far from being able to eat with dignity at a nice restaurant but hopefully we'll get there one day.

Youtube.com  Is youtube a regular part of your self-education as well? I know my hubby gets quite a bit of his know-how around the house from youtube. Youtube is definitely a source of entertaining education around here. Like I said, I don't show them videos during lunch often but it is so much fun when we do treat ourselves. It is a fabulous addition to the topics we are studying. One example is music. We are learning about the orchestra this semester. We've read some good books and listened to some good CDs in the car about the orchestra. We have found a number of videos on youtube about the orchestra.

Like this one with the Muppets:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12d1CiTRwJw
Or this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_ipa4JzNNc
Or this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8XepozFRbQ

Anyhow, time to go. Naptime for Mace and Math for the boys!! We love you!!

Day in the Life (Part III)

So . . . where was I?  Telling you about a "normal" day in these parts. . .

After Morning Time we usually have two chunks of time before lunch. We would normally have the first chunk of time during the ten o' clock hour and the second during the eleven o' clock hour. These chunks are interchangeable. If I am ready to give the boys my full, undivided attention (breakfast is mostly cleaned up and Mace is down for nap), then we dig into either math or writing. If I am not quite ready, then they do "table work." They have become mostly independent when it comes to this table work time.

We are doing Singapore Math for our fourth year in a row. It's been a successful program for our family. 

Table work for us consists of grammar, a handwriting/spelling passage for the week, a Latin workbook, and journaling. Usually I will check over their grammar page and talk through any mistakes with them. I will also glance at their handwriting and talk with them about what might need work. 

We have used Easy Grammar for the past two years and have been sufficiently satisfied. It does the job. It's short and sweet. For my boys and perhaps many boys, concise is key. They don't often need fancy, multi-colored program with bells and whistles. "Show me how its done, so I can get on with life."  

Instead of using a regular curriculum for spelling and handwriting, this year I have opted to follow the Charlotte Mason method. I wasn't excited about including more workbooks. I am okay with of bit of that but education shouldn't be all about the workbooks. It should be more integrated. I am so glad I went with my gut on this one. It has been splendid! We haven't been busy with spelling rules (they do get some of that with the reading program though) and non-integrated spelling lists. Each week I pick a text from something we have been reading or studying: our read aloud, the Bible verse of the week, a memory passage (poetry or Shakespeare), a recent passage from our history book or science book, etc. They spend the week neatly copying the passage and studying the words all the while. On Friday I will dictate the passage to them. They listen to the passage and write it down. If they spell any words incorrectly, they copy the words several times. 

This is our first year studying Latin. I was frightened to even begin but here we are, eight lessons in and doing just fine. We are beginning with Prima Latina through Memoria Press. I looked at both Classical Academic Press and Memoria Press for our Latin studies. Memoria Press has been around longer and is a straight-forward program. The reviewers for Classical Academic Press say that their children love their programs! Students seem to find it enjoyable. In the end, I chose Memoria Press because it teaches ecclesiastical Latin. What could be a better way to integrate Latin into our lives than learning the old prayers in Latin! 

morning break!

We watch our Latin lesson on DVD in the beginning of the week as a family. Either Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday night. The boys complete their workbooks during the week and I quiz them on vocabulary randomly. We write the prayers on the chalkboard in the kitchen and often say them before meals a prayer. Our family often enjoys playing charades in the evening. A while back Doug had the idea to play Latin charades. It's been quite fun! Even Nutmeg can join in! Here's a little article on the benefits of Latin. 

http://classicalsubjects.com/resources/why_latin.pdf

Speaking of Nutmeg. . . What does she do during this time? This is the challenge, I suppose, for many of us. The younger ones. Before the year started, I prepared for this as much as I was able to at the time. I could definitely improve in this area: how to balance my time between the children and how to keep Nutmeg engaged in nourishing activities. 

Nutmeg is often content with drawing, coloring, writing at the counter on her own. I think she likes to listen in on what is going on at the table beside her. We also have a cabinet set up with activities to work on during "school" time and I have a list of ideas specifically for her on my iPad. Nutmeg is working through the alphabet, so I often have a little project for her to work that is related to her letter of the week. 

After these two blocks of time in the morning we are off to lunch . . . .

Some things Nutmeg does to keep busy . . .

our own set modeled after some "Handwriting Without Tears" materials 

  

Day in the Life . . . {Morning Time}

Can I just say I'm giddy? Giddy as a school girl. Or giddy as a homeschool mom can be some days (or lots of days as the case is right now). Seriously! Can I just shout it from the rooftops? This home education gig rocks my world!

These last fifteen minutes I've been cleaning up the lunch dishes while the three oldest kiddos have been immersed in an educational task. And they are EATING IT UP! And I'm eating it up just listening to them. Really, I'd love to just forget the dishes and join them. Not this time but we'll do it again sometime when the dishes are done.

What is this task you ask? I'll tell you soon but for now, I must go in order of this little series.  I left off telling you that you are invited to be a fly on our wall for a bit. We left off with "Morning Time."

Morning Time. 

Now to be honest, "Morning Time" has been sporadic since we've had the leg breakages. Our schedule has been thrown off in a number of ways but I'm not stressing over it. We adapt it to the given day and I'm confident we'll get back on the horse. When Nutmeg gets her cast off, that will help tremendously. Still, our schedule will be flexing to meet Mace's new rising time. But yeah, that's homeschooling life. The needs and situation is always in a state of flex, so one has to access the changes and adapt routines accordingly. For now though, we seem to be doing fine.

Morning Time. We basically are working on a number of items from varying academic disciplines that we are committing to memory. Here's the general order:


The week's verse. I usually pull this from the Sunday's readings. That way I feel they are better prepared (and anticipatory) when they listen to the Scripture readings on Sunday. More importantly, I hope this practice will eventually help them internalize what they learn in church and bring into their everyday lives (and mine as well!).

Books of the Bible. Right now the boys (and Nutmeg is she desires) are memorizing the books of the Bible. They are just about finished with the Old Testament books. At this point they might mess up once or need help once. We decided that we'll continue with the OT books for another week or so until it is completely cemented in our minds. Then we'll move onto the New Testament books.

Shakespeare. We work on whatever play and passage we happen to be on. So far we've memorized one longer passage and two smaller ones from A Midsummer's Night Dream. More on Shakespeare in a moment.

After these three items we choose from either: math fact flash cards, Latin flashcards, or counting (for example: 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, etc.)

These next two don't tend to happen every single day due to baby needs: Mace!

Geography. We head to the kitchen table for a little map work. The three children take out their geography binders which have a blank copy of a map of the United States and each continent of the world on separate pages. We color in one state and then the boys and I write in the name of the state and the name of the capital. We also choose a country of the world to color and label. On days that we don't do our geography notebooks, we quiz Nutmeg on the countries of the world. The kids all say the states and capitals together.

My hope has been to check out some picture books from the library about the states and countries we memorize but I have to say we haven't done a great job in this yet. Working on it! Always something to work on!

Read Aloud. I have a list of classic books I'd like to read aloud this year. If we don't get to this time at the end of Morning Time, I try to find time to read it at breakfast, lunch, or in the afternoon. Admittedly, this is the one item that I find extremely important but is often difficult to squeeze in. If it is an easier book like "Winnie-the-Pooh" that we are reading (for Nutmeg's benefit) it is no problem to fit but if it is a little more difficult book like "The Moffats," which we are reading now, I find it more difficult to find a good time to read aloud.

After we memorize some of these selections, I'll reevaluate what items we should be memorizing and move on to something else. I will move the items we have already learned after a tab in my Morning Time binder called "Review" and we'll pick something to review every day. I'm thinking that after we finish "A Midsummer Night's Dream" we will move onto some poetry for a while.

That's morning time. It has been a fruitful addition to our academic routine this year. Let me expound for a minute our what we have been doing for our Shakespeare studies.  What a unexpected thrill this year!!

More about Shakespeare . . . 

A couple of various methods of education highly recommend Shakespeare as a separate academic area. I do wish I had time to share why this is so but unfortunately I don't have the time to at the moment. Do "google it" if you find it interesting.

Sarah from "Amongst Lovely Things" turned me on to this book called How to Teach your Children Shakespeare. Basically I just bought the book and the book walks me, as the parent(or teacher),through a simple process of learning Latin together as a family. Mr. Ken Ludwig begins the book telling us why learning Shakespeare is such a valuable area of education. In the next short section he shows us how. The best way, he says, to learn Shakespeare is to memorize it. The language is difficult. When you memorize a passage of Shakespeare you must learn it word by word, line by line. One has to understand each word and phrase. When we learn it, we own it.



That is what is happening to our family. We are engaging Shakespeare. It rocks!  We are memorizing it and it is thrilling! I see that we are becoming more at ease with the language. Granted, we probably won't be reading the entire play for several years now but it will be much easier, I think, when we do, to appreciate it so much more. In addition, at this point I am not talking about the deeper meanings of Shakespeare's play. We are simply becoming familiar with the plot, characters, and some specific passages. In time, God willing, we will read entire plays and talk through deeper meanings.

To begin this year we checked out and read several picture books about Shakespeare and the Globe theatre from our library system. I read the first chapters from Mr. Ludwig's book about the first couple passages we were to memorize from A Midsummer Night's Dream. I printed off the passage pages from Mr. Ludwig's website and put them in my "Morning Time" binder. Each morning, the kids and I talk through a line of the passage. We talk about what it means and then we practice it. Easy peasy. Even for a regular mom like myself.

We have found this splendid picture book rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It seems to be an excellent retelling of the play. It has helped us tremendously understand and enjoy the plot. So much so that fairies and certain passages of Shakespeare are entering the playtime hours!



I searched youtube for what I considered to be a good version of the played onstage. I have yet to find one I like (not that I am some sort of an expert) but I am pleased with the 1935 film version. Actually, youtube had a snippet of the very first passage that we memorized! Oh, how excited the kids were to watch it! I told them we would watch the whole movie after we memorized all our passages (five, a few are shorter).  Oh man, I am WEAK! Today I started playing it at lunchtime and just couldn't push stop!! They watched 45 minutes of it before we turned it off. And that is what they were relishing while I washed dishes.

I just can't wait until we watch the entire thing as a family. The next passage we'll memorize is by Nick Bottom after he wakes up from having a "dream" about having his head turn into an ass's head and being pursued by a lovesick fairy! Fun times!!

Day in the Life (part I) . . . a wordy one

Back when the boys were three or four I wanted so much to be a fly on the wall in a home-educating family. When the boys were two years old I had started reading up on education in general and then about homeschooling in particular . I was sold! I was excited about the possibilities of learning together as a family! I had a great start in what direction we would like to go with our learning.  My main problem was that I felt I needed to see examples of how it would all play out in real life.  I scoured the internet but didn't find much. At last I did stumble upon a few entries in Sarah's blog that gave the run-down on a few sample days. That was something to work with. At some point, I started reading Elizabeth's blog and then went on to read her book. Those were quite helpful. She pointed out that the  varieties of home-educating families are limitless. The variety coming from the obvious fact that each family is so different from the next. Different children, different kinds of parents, different backgrounds, different talents and capacities, etc. Goodness, even in the life of one family each year will be different. Circumstances change as the family grows and changes. The important thing is to look at where your family is at, your particular needs and interests, etc. Then considering all those things go to the Lord in prayer. Ask him to show you HIS vision for your family. Ask HIM to guide you.

The kids and I have our own learning baskets. 

That is what I've done these four years. Each year has been different. This year was the first year I was very much shaking in my books boots at the start of the year. I was feeling uncertain about how this would all pan out. I knew lots of families do it every year but I scared to actually try it myself. Four kids, one baby, one pre-school age, and two third graders. Third grade in my mind is the big jump. From early elementary to being a "big kid." Correct or not, that is how I tend to view things. Third grade for our family is when our kiddos make some big steps towards a more classical education. How the heck was I going to juggle all that and do it joyfully? Again I knew it was possible. People successfully do it every day. I believe in this venture with all my heart. I never even considered the possibility of "giving up." Where there is a will, there is a way! The one thing I've learned in this home educating journey is to educate myself first, research, prepare and plan and then . . . . . JUMP IN.

Before we left for Alaska I was busy planning our Alaska trip and also busy visualizing what our days could possibly look like this academic year. I knew we'd have to step it up and get creative. I prepared about fifteen lists of things to consider for the next year and worked on checking off as many "to do's" as possible. We had a great time in Alaska and when I came back I worked on finishing off the list the very next week. The next week I plugged my nose and JUMPED.

I took this picture on the way back from Alaska. I felt it captured just what I was
feeling. A "And Abraham went out" moment. Time to take the leap!

We survived. Wahoo! Life is't perfect. We could never pretend that. No family ever has it all together, right? But you know, its a darn good start to research, prepare, gather excellent resources, love your kids, and keep flexibility in mind. I am overwhelmed at some point pretty much every day but when I stop to breathe and look around, I am thankful. Life is good. I have a super husband and four awesome kids. We still have the freedom in this country to educate our kids at home. After that, the sky is the limit! We get to choose from this big world and from all of history what we'd like to explore. Isn't it wonderful?! So we are. In our non-perfect but growing way, we are exploring life together and loving almost every minute.

Anyhow . . . . . . all that to say . . . . I wanted to let you be a fly on the wall in our home. I can't possibly share everything but I thought it might be fun/interesting to give you in a glimpse into our day. I'll attempt to share with you our routine that is working for the most part. We have a basic schedule that we shoot for  most every day. The basic schedule has to be shifted and amended on a frequent basis but it still has worked as a starting point.  I'll show you our resources and maybe even why we use them. Perhaps you'll find it interesting or goodness, even helpful in some small way. Anyway, this is our life.

6:30-7:00 Physical Exercise
*That is, IF I get a good nights sleep. Now, I think even this will have to be shifted to a little earlier because just this week Mr. Mace has decided to start getting up earlier.
7:00-7:30 Spiritual Exercise
*Prayer, reading, etc.
7:30-8:00ish Few Household chores, make breakfast, read/quality time with Nutmeg
8:30-9:00  Breakfast together 
*During breakfast we read a Bible story, we might talk about our upcoming day,and we might read from our read aloud book

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After breakfast, we do chores. This year we've finally found a great chore routine for our family. We are doing it this way. We have three meal jobs.

Job 1: clear table and wipe down table
Job 2: clean floor and push in chairs
Job 3: help mom with whatever tasks she assigns

Each child is assigned one of the mealtime jobs for the entire week. Each week we rotate jobs. As they are working on each job, I am either working in the kitchen or showing each child how to do their job. This is also an instructive time.

Jobs 1 and 2

After breakfast we all go to the living room for "Morning Time." Again, I got this idea from Sarah and some other moms in the blogosphere. This is a time set apart first thing for the important things that could easily be pushed aside later in the day. This time sets the tone for the rest of the day. "Morning Time" is primarily memorization time, memorization being a huge piece of a classical education. I have a morning time binder. In in the binder I have written out the schedule of what we will be covering during this time and also the pieces that we are memorizing.

"Morning Time" has turned out to be fantastic for our family. I love it because it a key learning time during the day when Nutmeg is able to participate as much as she would like. I don't push her but she is allowed to jump in with the big kids if she desires.

My time draws to a close . . . I'll show you another time what we do during Morning Time and then continue on with our day.