Tears Happen

I really didn't think it could happen to me.  I've read that it happens to other moms.  I've heard rumors that it happens frequently when you homeschool. I really didn't think that I would actually break down and cry--especially in a public place.  But I did.

I think some days and weeks just make you cry.  It's easy to get overwhelmed.  You try to follow curriculum and realize that your child is on a different week's lesson (or year) for each subject.  It gets confusing. Then you realize that the assigned reading book is really boring.  Then you skip reading for a couple of days.  And then you start brainstorming who else is going to spend hours of their day listening to your kindergartner grader read these boring "classic" books. Seriously, I was thinking about taking my son to the retirement home by our house so that the older people could listen to him read! 

Then on Sunday during the sermon it occurred to me that I must be a horrible mom, a terrible teacher, and a lazy person.  The last few weeks I've felt that I live in a combat zone.  I might as well be throwing a mortar shell when I ask my son to complete his phonics pages.  The day that I had the audacity to request that my pupil take an afternoon nap, he literally started launching projectiles down the stairs.  I'm not kidding when I say that school has been nothing short of war.  So when the pastor starting preaching on Sunday about how a godly woman is a peaceful woman, I started to cry.  Is it possible to homeschool in peace?

After my sobbing episode on Sunday, someone offered to substitute for me on Monday.  This gave me time to reflect on my predicament and my lesson plans.  A wise person pointed out that my lesson plans have been pretty demanding for a kindergartner.  Since I'm not regularly around other kindergartners, it's easy to lose sight of how easy and breezy kindergarten can be!  Most kindergartners are not studying the Assyrian empire, fractions, and binomial nomenclature.  Yet, the fact that my son understands these concepts and can quote all of his weekly memory verses is a pretty good sign that I'm not failing as a teacher.  I just need to learn how to relax and enjoy the process and maybe not be quite so ambitious.

I obviously haven't gotten this whole homeschooling thing entirely figured out.  Truth is, with three kids who have three very different personalities, I may never figure out the magic formula for perfectly balancing my mommy and teacher roles.  In fact, there may be more tears in the future.   And it's okay. I just keep telling myself that sometimes God allows us to cry for tears to clear our eyes so that we can see the good things ahead (author unknown).

Teaching Music

Learning music is like learning a foreign language.  It stretches you.  It takes time.  You may never use it professionally later in life.  But it's worth the effort to not be illiterate in an international language that crosses cultures, continents, and classes.  It's worth opening your heart and mind to an art form that requires high levels of brain function and emotion at the same time.  Martin Luther (the theologian) once said, "Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world."  So why not share that treasure with our children?

The concept of teaching basic music is not new.  In fact, way back when I was in elementary school, basic music instruction was a part of the curriculum.  Every week, my class would head to the music hall where we would have a class in basic music theory.  Then, by the time we were in 3rd or 4th grade, we knew enough music to be able to play the recorder (this is an instrument).  It may have seemed like a waste of time to some, but having this hour of music each week made school more interesting and taught me musical concepts that I still use today.  If you don't get music instruction at school, where else are you going to get it?

Needless to say, our kindergarten curriculum involves learning music.  We decided to start music instruction with piano lessons.  Boy Wonder is a little young for piano lessons (when I taught piano lessons, I preferred having my students start in 1st or 2nd grade), but since he has a good grasp on math, I figured we might as well forge ahead into the world of music.  As expected, after only a few weeks, we're at the point where we can combine music with our math or spelling curriculum and create a hybrid lesson.

The best part about hybrid lessons is that it's not difficult to come up with these kind of problems if you know any musical theory.  If you don't know musical theory or are too busy to create your own worksheets like me, there are some great resources on the internet.  For example, I found this wonderful website, http://funandlearnmusic.com/ that has free downloadable music math pages which are way cuter than any I would create on my own.  This website has quite a few worksheets that address both basic and more advanced theory concepts in a fun way. 

Hybrid lessons work for just about every subject in school.  Music Math is kind of awesome. It forces the student to learn and memorize music concepts while allowing them to practice their math skills.
Similarly, Music Spelling with the A-G alphabet reinforces basic spelling with note recognition.  For kiddos who struggle to identify the lines and spaces on the grand staff, Music Spelling can help. Aside from musical theory, there are tons of opportunities to use music in our Bible, Social Studies, History and Science lessons as well.  In fact, I will never forget my pronouns or helping verbs because my middle school English teacher used music to help us memorize all kinds of concepts!  Who knew that music could be so educational?!

Music might be the best tool that I've got in my homeschool mommy shed.  It's a language that I know well and understand. It's a subject that lends itself to any situation or setting.  It's an avenue to praise our Heavenly Father.  And hopefully my children will come to discover that music is a friend for life.

The Spelling Test

It finally happened.  I went from being the cool mom to suddenly being the Wicked Witch of the West.  All because of a spelling test.  Apparently, only mean mommies expect perfection in spelling.

Since Boy Wonder isn't going off to a classroom where he is graded and ranked among his peers, it's been a little challenging to explain the concept of grades.  Other than the fact that he likes getting ice cream when he produces perfect math homework, he doesn't seem to understand the importance of not getting anything wrong.  Hence, it's been a challenge to get him to memorize his spelling words. 

I discovered that Boy Wonder enjoys "guessing" on his spelling tests, but it completely defeats the purpose of spelling if he's not going to learn the words.  As a problem-solving, game-loving person myself, I can understand why he enjoys the "guessing tests", but they are completely wasting our time.  They worked when we were spelling easy words with short vowel sounds, but they don't work anymore. I know he can memorize, because he memorizes his Bible verses every week in 1 or 2 days!  He just has no desire to memorize a list of words.

So I got creative.  I tried to incentivize him by telling him that we can stop the spelling tests as soon as he spells all of the words correctly (like when my teachers said that those who aced the Wednesday tests didn't have to take the Friday test), but he wasn't buying this tactic.  Thus, last week there were tears, heated mother-son conversations, and frustration on both sides.

Then Daddy stepped in.  Daddy explained to Boy Wonder that spelling is important.  He explained that just about every good job requires employees to be able to spell.  And there are expectations that employees will spell correctly.  He also explained that misspelling words in the documents that he drafts for clients could, and probably would, get him fired.  Daddy very cleverly demonstrated to Boy Wonder that we must all spell with perfection if we want to be successful in life. 

Voila! The next morning, Boy Wonder aced the test.  No problems. Not only did he ace the test, but he was able to spell similar words that followed the same phonetic rules.  And when retested later, he still spelled all the words correctly.

Grades don't have the same magical, motivating factor for homeschoolers that they do for many in the classroom setting.  Motivating a homeschooler to learn is different from engaging an entire classroom or creating a competitive atmosphere.  Thankfully, Mr. Wonderful is an amazing motivational speaker.  Plus, he's a daddy (and everyone who could care less about making mom happy always wants to please daddy, right?).  I can never underestimate the power of having Daddy involved in the homeschool process.  It's a secret weapon that most school teachers don't have.  It's the secret weapon that I discovered, all because of a lousy spelling test! 

The Vintage Book Baby Shower

I attended a true Southern baby shower last weekend hosted by some of my friends from Alabama.  The theme was "vintage books."  And it was adorable!  The hostesses had stacks of vintage books and toys on display, and they served soda in glass bottles, ice cream, and vintage snacks.  Plus, most of the guests showed up in their party dresses to fit the occasion.  I wore a sleeveless black lace dress and brought my best accessory--Princess G in a long sundress with a big bow in her hair. 

In hind sight, I should have taken pictures to share with you all.  But, since the shower wasn't for me, I felt like it was a slight invasion of privacy to take pictures of another person's party for my blog.  I can't take credit for any of the creativity at this party, so instead of showing and bragging, I will share in words. 

The vintage book baby shower was inspired by the expectant parent's love of books.  In order to help them build a book collection for their baby, the hostesses asked the attendees to forgo buying a card and to instead bring a book with a letter to the family written inside.  Since cards these days cost about $5 each, buying a book instead of card wasn't really that big of a deal.  The biggest challenge with this request was to make sure we all didn't duplicate books.  So, in my case, I found a book that included trains, cats, dogs, and a story of friendship--everything that a little boy could want in a book!  It wasn't a classic must-have for a baby book collection, but it was the kind of book that I know will be appreciated by a little boy.

Instead of playing countless dumb party games, the hostesses asked the party goers to create a book for the new baby.  They passed out different sheets of paper that described events in a baby's life and asked the party goers to fill in blanks (mad lib style) on our sheet and then to illustrate our page. The end results were pretty hilarious.  There were stories that included everything from baby's first bath to baby's first trip to the zoo.  Even the baby's daddy and uncle wrote and illustrated a story about baby's first Alabama football game!

It's not very often that I attend a party where I think it was fabulous enough to write about. But this party was super creative and actually practical.  Not only did the parents not have 25 cards to trash or stick in a box in a closet somewhere, but they now have the beginnings of a wonderful library for their little boy.

I'm not sure everyone will take kindly to the idea of giving books in lieu of cards.  In fact, I'm sure the idea won't appeal to the old folks who must follow social decorum by purchasing cards.  And I doubt my techie friends, who shudder at the idea of holding an actual book, would adapt well to this concept either.  But if you want to stop buying me cards, I'll take a good book any day!

At Last: A Movie for Moms

Saturday night, after a long afternoon of football, I curled up in bed and ordered in a movie.  This was a big deal for me.  With all that I have going on in my life right now, I rarely have the time, or the desire to waste the time, that it takes to watch a movie.  A decade ago, my "hobby" was to check out new releases at the theater with my then boyfriend-now husband.  (We could probably win any movie trivia from the early 2000's!)  But when Boy Wonder came along in 2008, our world completely changed. Instead of having hours to devote to major Hollywood productions, we started watching seasons of old TV shows, because frankly, giving up an hour here or there is significantly easier to justify than the hours it takes to be a movie connoisseur.  Anyway, Saturday's movie night was kind of a one-off for me.

Because I had seen a preview during a football game that fascinated me, I ordered in Mom's Night Out.  This movie was absolutely hilarious, clean, a little over-the-top, and frighteningly relatable!  From the scribbling on the wall, to the screaming daughter in the car at church who messed up mom's mascara, to the best friend who looks amazingly similar to my friend at church, to the "my homeschooler is smarter than your honor student" bumper sticker, I feel like Allyson and I are soul mates.  (Okay, in all fairness, I don't have this bumper sticker, but I probably should.  Except that Mr. Wonderful thinks that bumper stickers are trashy, so I can't.  But, still...)

Any mother of young children who is trying to have it "all together" can totally relate to this movie.  Some might think that the scenes in the movie seem a little far-fetched, but you don't need a screenwriter to come up with any of these plots.  Our children frequently live them out for us!  Just last week, my friend's 2 year old climbed to the top of the McDonald's playground and refused to come down for an hour and a half  just to spite her.  (And although I know I shouldn't laugh about it, the fact that this adorable little boy would do such a thing to his beautiful mother, who just had baby #2, cracks me up!) 

If you've been having a lot of those mommy "moments" lately, you definitely need to take an hour and a half to watch this movie.  Or, if you've been extremely judgmental toward mothers whose children were having an all-out brawl at Hobby Lobby on Friday (yes, those were mine!), then watch the movie.  Give moms a break. And remember, you too were once a bratty two year old! 

The Truth About Leveled Readers

 

Boy Wonder is starting to read books.  I'm not sure how to explain it, but somehow he went from sounding out words in his phonics textbooks to reading sentences in real story books in a matter of weeks.  Hallelujah!  I just don't know if I could take another half hour of reading about AL and Tim from the Phonics readers.  The adventures of Little Bear and his conversations with Mother Bear are so much more enjoyable for everyone!

The Little Bear Level 1, I Can Read book is actually part of our reading curriculum.  Memoria Press uses a Charlotte Masonish approach to reading by using living books in place of reading textbooks for the curriculum.  Unlike Charlotte Mason, however, Memoria Press includes workbooks with questions and vocabulary review to aid in reading comprehension.  As a first time homeschooling mom, this is one workbook that I appreciate.  (A good CM homeschool mom wouldn't mess with workbooks but would ask the questions orally.)

Little Bear has turned out to be a wonderful experience both for my reader and for me.  My son actually understands what he's reading and is able to laugh throughout the stories.  Plus, he has managed the "new" non-phonetic words pretty well because he can put them in the context of what he is reading.  So reading is actually becoming a fun activity.  So much so, that I decided to invest in some more Level 1 readers that I hope we can appreciate reading together. 

When I went to Amazon, however, I noticed that other parents had written some very negative reviews next to some I Can Read books.  These reviews seemed to be a little nonsensical since they were about books like Curious George and The Berestein Bears.  These are wonderful early reader books!  Unfortunately, parents seem to think that Level 1 readers are going to be books where all the words follow easy phonetic rules.  These parents are wrong.


Leveled readers are wonderful tools for parents or teachers who are actively trying to help a child master reading.  These books are not so useful for teaching basic phonics sounds to preschoolers.  Just consider the titles of Little Bear or Curious George.  In the titles of these books alone, you have rules about silent vowels, long vowels, "ou" sounds, soft g sounds, etc. You can bet that these books include a lot of these rules, in addition to a set of sight words that are often identified for the reader on the front or back page of the book.

Parents need to understand that just because their 2 year old can identify the word c-a-t, doesn't mean that they are ready to read about Amelia Bedelia. Don't blame the leveled readers!  Level 1 is for beginning readers, not early preschoolers.  Even the I Can Read people say that Level 1 "books have short sentences, familiar words, and simple concepts for children eager to read on their own."  If you want simpler books, try out the Introduction to Reading Books from the I Can Read folks.  These are more appropriate for the preschool crowd.

Teaching somebody to read the English language is not the simplest task in the world.  It can be done through a systematic and patient approach.  And when it all starts to click and fall into place, your reader can enjoy simple Level 1 books.  If you try too early, everyone gets discouraged.  But if you're patient, these can be loads of fun!  Leveled readers are great teaching tools if they are used appropriately.

Take a Moment

Happy Friday! I hope you get to take a moment to enjoy the beauty around you today.  I hope you have a chance to Be Still before your Maker. 

Today, I'm thanking God for my sweet Baby G who has grown into a beautify Princess G.  She's certainly a Southern belle, but she's got a streak of her mommy in her as well!  There's nothing like a go-getter who wears lace and tulle and cowgirl boots. 

The Pitfalls of the Already Written Curriculum Lesson Plans

Since this is my first rodeo when it comes to homeschooling, I have experienced some unexpected occurrences when dealing with pre-done lesson plans.  It's really nice to have a guide to use all year to indicate to me where my child should be.  But realistically, on week 2 of our kindergarten school year, we're at week 13 for math, week 4+ for phonics, and we're not even using the plans for science, English, and history.  So I'm basically just using the lesson plans to boost my confidence and to guide me through the madness of phonics. 

Pre-designed lesson plans seem like the perfect solution for a parent who wants to teach a child at home.  That said, once you dive into the lessons, you start to see that these lessons were designed for the classroom setting. Thus, there are review activities, review worksheets, and review games scattered throughout the school year.  And there are weeks and weeks devoted to review at the beginning of the school year. These just aren't practical in the one-on-one setting. 

For example, Boy Wonder flew through kindergarten math last year during preschool.  Without missing a beat, he was able to pick up 1st grade math and handle 2 lessons a day when we started kindergarten last week.  According to his curriculum, we should be reviewing kindergarten math for 7 weeks.  But at the rate he's going, we'll be almost done with the book by the 7 week mark.  If I actually followed the curriculum manual, he would be bored to tears or we just wouldn't mess with much math for 7 weeks.  What a waste that would be!

The constant review that is built into the curriculum is absolutely necessary in the classroom setting--especially since kindergarten is not a mandatory requirement for first grade in some states, including Texas.  It just makes sense that a class with 20 children is going to need to review lessons before the entire class is ready to move on to new and harder concepts.  This situation, however, does not necessarily apply in the homeschool setting.

I've always heard stories about homeschoolers who were "ahead" in school.  I used to think that it was because parents who homeschool are more inclined to push their kids.  But the truth of the matter is that if you start a school year without wasting 2-3 months reviewing the previous school year, it's pretty easy to get ahead.  Or, if you do school year-round where you cut your workload in half but don't take 3 months off every summer, you still don't need the intensive review. 

There are definitely some perks to letting someone else plan out your school year by having pre-written lesson plans.  Yet there are also some pitfalls to not proactively planning your own year.  Now I'm beginning to understand why experienced homeschool parents create and plan out their own curriculum.   Those parents are able to give their child a custom education that can't be found in a classroom-focused curriculum manual.

Week 1 Down. 13 Years to Go.

 

We're one week into "real" kindergarten.  So far so good.  I say "real" kindergarten, because when we started our homeschooling trial run in January I used kindergarten curriculum.  Over the course of the last 9 months, Boy Wonder has flown through kindergarten and is now working through 1st and 2nd grade curriculum.  That said, for all other intents and purposes, he is in kindergarten.  He may be ahead, but we're planning on having him graduate at the age of 18.  We just hope that when he graduates, he will have been exposed to far more educational subjects than is required by the State of Texas.  If, at that point, he has also acquired some college credits, then yay for him.  That's not our purpose for homeschooling.

I'm having a hard time communicating to people that we homeschool because this is something that we want to do and feel called by God to do.  Plus, we're finding that it works for us.  I'm not a militant parent.  I don't believe that there is one way to raise a child that is going to work for every child and every family.  And I've met enough school-age parents to know that homeschooling is not a good option for the general population.  But I do believe that if we want to homeschool our child, then it's nobody else's business. 

It's ironic to me that the State of Texas has allowed us to create our own private school where we can educate our children as we see fit but that other parents think that we need some sort of supervision or help.  I can't tell you how many times other (probably well-meaning) lay people try to convince me that I should join a co-op, a university model school, a private school homeschool program, or a 1/2 day something-or-other.   It's driving me nuts! 

For the record, my professional educator friends and my relatives have been nothing but supportive of our decision to teach our children at home.  I can't tell you how much it means to me that my children's grandparents, my educator friends, and my church group friends have supported our decision to home educate.  Without the encouragement from these people, I probably would have been in tears this week.  And it's only week 1! 

Choosing to educate our child at home was one of the most difficult decisions that we've had to make as parents.  I'm well aware that this decision is not without controversy.  I'm well aware that I will be stigmatized and that my children will get to wear the "homeschooler" badge during their school years. I'm well aware that there will be tears and topics that we will struggle through.  I'm well aware that I don't have a PhD in every school subject.  I'm well aware that I will be teaching subjects that I never even studied in school.  But I know this: God has called us to homeschool, and we're going to obey.

So, for all of you homeschool parents out there, remember to honor God with your calling.  And to all of you who know homeschool families or families who are thinking about it, please be encouraging and don't harass them with your concerns.  Trust me, they share your concerns.  But when God calls them to do something, your opinion really doesn't matter.

We're Going on a Bug, Bird, Squirrel, Turtle, Hunt...

What does a really cool mommy do for the 2nd day of school?  She takes the kiddos on a field trip! 

So the timing may not have been ideal, but the field trip fit perfectly with my introduction to Zoology: Flying Creatures of the 5th Day.  The Fort Worth Botanic Gardens hosted a family discovery class for homeschool children yesterday.  The topic yesterday was to explore the creatures that live in the garden, which meant that we got to go on an animal safari.  This turned out to be super cool since most of the visible animals were winged creatures that we will be studying this school year!  And since next month's class is about monarchs, monarch migration, and monarch tagging, it should coordinate well with our studies as well. 

At first, I felt guilty about disrupting our "regular" schedule to go on a field trip.  But then it occurred to me that the beauty of homeschooling is being able to do this.  I've read posts, articles and books by other homeschool parents who recommend never missing out on a real-world opportunity to learn.   They say that if your child can experience something for themselves rather than have to learn it from a book or video, you should go for the experience every time.  This actually makes sense.  Don't most of us remember more from our experiences than our textbooks? 

So anyway, at the moment I'm the cool mom who took the kids on an animal safari yesterday where they got to use binoculars to see animals, bugs, water creatures, and flowers.  It was probably the hottest day of the month for the activity.  I totally forgot to take pictures with my phone.  And I should have brought water for the boys to drink on the hike.  But at the moment, they think I'm cool. We'll see how long that lasts.