Getting to Know All About You

 

Week 1 of homeschooling is finished!  I learned so much this week about my son--his strengths, his weaknesses, and his familial tendencies.

This week I learned that Boy Wonder is a perfectionist.  If he can't do something perfectly, he doesn't want to do it at all.  I've always considered myself to be a perfectionist, but  I'm the kind of person who will practice until I get something perfect.  But not Boy Wonder--he's like his daddy.  Doing things well comes naturally to him and when they don't, he goes into avoidance mode.  This makes handwriting/copybook time rather stressful for both mommy and child.  I explained to him that refusal to "practice" his letters would result in more work.  I told him that my curriculum came with pages for slower kids who don't get concepts as quickly as he does.  Failure to do the assignments I give will result in getting extra slow-kid pages.  Okay, I know this sounds horrible, but appealing to his ego certainly worked!

I also learned that while neat handwriting skills are taking longer to achieve, I seriously underestimated Boy Wonder's ability to do math.  For a few months now, we've been practicing math skills while watching ballgames on TV.  Boy Wonder has this amazing gift of being able to add and subtract multiple digit numbers in his head in order to calculate point differentials during ballgames.  Silly me didn't realize that this gift was legitimate, and that first grade math would be well below my not-yet-kindergartner's ability.  (Seriously?)  Needless to say, when we got to day two of studying the number "0" he was completely bored.  By Wednesday, I picked up our pace in our math book and my son has opted to get ahead by doing math on the weekends as well.  His choice.  And how is this a bad plan?

I also accidentally discovered that my son not only listens to what I teach, but he comprehends it as well.  One afternoon he decided he wanted to play tsunamis with his brother.  In order to do that, he had to successfully teach my 3 year old what he had learned about tsunamis.  It was amazing how accurate and simple his explanation of a tsunamis was!  On another day, my boys decided to act out their history lesson together (my 3 year old had been listening too).  In chapter 1 of The Story of the World, volume 1, the main character was living as a nomad and searching for food.  She found a lizard, which her mother was going to cook into a stew for dinner.  Sure enough, that afternoon, my little Texans found a gecko in our backyard that they corned and attempted to capture for dinner.  (I'm pretty sure he lost a tail in the debacle.)  And no, I did not make lizard stew for dinner.

This week has been loads of fun.  I'm thinking about allowing Mr. Wonderful to substitute teach on his day off next Monday just so that he can appreciate the experience as well.  I had no idea that homeschooling would be such an interesting way to get to know my children better.  In the process, I'm finding that I'm getting to know myself better as well.

Footnote: The Story of the World series is pretty great.  It was designed for older elementary and Jr. High students, but it is so well written that my 5 year old is hooked!  You can order the audio version or the books online at Amazon.

My New Obsession is a Blessing

Find more at www.thehairbowcompany.com

Somehow, I think I finally nipped my obsession with headbands and hair bows in the bud.  Of course, my daughter MUST still wear her adorable hair accessories.  Hence my motto, "No bow, no go."  But  my obsession with searching for the perfect bow has finally been replaced by a new obsession. 

They say that certain personalities get on these "kicks" where the person dives head first into something new until they find something else to attract their attention.  I think I have those tendencies.  I seem to get a little carried away with things at first, and in time realize that I can take a chill pill and still perform well without being obsessive compulsive.  I'm the perfect person to bring on if you want some energy infused into a project.  But be prepared, because I don't do things 50%.  Thus, the fact that Baby G was probably the best dressed baby of 2013.   She's still well-dressed, but over the last 12+ months I've figured out how to keep her well-dressed without draining my budget.  It just took me a 18 months and a lot of money to get to this point.  Thank goodness Mr. Wonderful understands my psychological issues.

These days I seem to have moved on from hair bows to teacher things.  I've transformed from crazy girl-mom to enthusiastic teacher.  Although I never wanted to be a teacher, somewhere in my DNA, my mother must have passed on her teacher tendencies to me.  And now instead of drooling over $50 headbands, I get goose bumps from National Geographic readers and laminators.  Yes, I bought a laminator!  (Surely it will come in handy at some point, right?)  I've been told that I will have completely lost my sanity when I find myself frequenting Teacher's Tools.  I haven't been there yet, but at the rate I'm going it won't be long. 

All I can say is that God is good in making me this way.  When we first decided to homeschool I wasn't sure I was ready to join the world of denim-jumper-wearing mothers who believe that a woman's culinary skills are more critical than her choice of make-up.  At the time, I felt so disconnected with this new community!  All I could do at the time was pray that God would open my heart to this new adventure and get me excited about it.  And He did. 

Not long ago I was completely overwhelmed by the idea of teaching handwriting and phonics.  Yet now, I get all giddy when I head upstairs to my classroom in the mornings.  Only God could do that. 

Don't Homeschool in a Bubble

"You can't homeschool in a bubble."  I've heard that phrase quite a lot.  Typically, this is what people say when they are trying to get you to join a homeschool support group or a co-op.  They say that you do yourself a disservice (and unknowingly do your child a disservice) if you don't surround yourself with other homeschoolers. 

While I agree that you shouldn't homeschool in a bubble, I disagree with the concept that you must surround yourself with other homeschoolers.  Too often, when homeschoolers do this, they stay in a bubble.  There's just more people in their bubble. 

Okay, so how do you homeschool without getting stuck in the homeschooler bubble (this is the bubble that encompasses not only one family, but the like-minded and homeschool exclusive families as well.)?  Obviously, I don't have a lot of experience with homeschooling and probably can't provide the most educated answer to this question.  But the one thing I do know is that every homeschool mom needs an expert to go to--a teacher with real classroom experience who can guide them through the teaching process.  They need someone who can kick them in the pants when they start turning into homeschool zombies (yes, we all know these people), and someone who can pull them out of a hole when the lesson plans aren't working.  They need someone who can offer creative solutions when the going gets tough or the lessons get boring.

I have been blessed with two relatives who are elementary teachers.  For years, my mom taught in Christian schools, and for the past 5 years, my sister-in-law has been teaching in public schools.  Both teachers have been excellent about answering my questions, looking over curriculum, offering advice on how to plan and evaluate my son's progress, and recommending books or tools that have worked in their own classrooms.  Having real-world experience for me to rely on has been invaluable.  Personally, I prefer having these teachers guide me (and provide constant reassurance) as a teacher rather than relying on other parents to teach my kids in a co-op.  I am aware of my deficiencies, and I love being able learn from "experts" in the educational field. 

Other homeschool parents are a great source of information too.  But I'm slightly tortured by the idea of listening to other parents share their ignorance about education with each other.  Maybe some of the people are super great and know what they're talking about.  And maybe some are not.  How do you sort through the world of homeschoolers to get unbiased information?  Maybe finding someone outside the bubble really is the solution-- someone who doesn't have a stake in the game; someone who can objectively tell you the differences in what various curricula offer; someone who can tell you what they've seen as opposed to what they are doing.

I guess I'm afraid of jumping into a bubble and getting sucked in.  I don't want to turn into a homeschool zombie mom.  And I don't want to drink the juice and lose my creative mojo.  Maybe in time I'll be mature enough to join a group and discern smart from stupid.  But for now, I'm going to have to rely on my "outside sources" to keep me grounded and outside of the bubble.

Chasing Rabbit Trails

We're two days into our home education experience and so far all parties seem happy, satisfied, and are cooperative--which is miraculous in and of itself considering that my son and I both share the same strong personalities.  Somehow, I think learning together is actually good for us.  Because he's so much like me, I "get" him.  What interests me, appears to be interesting to him as well.  For maybe the first time ever, we're actually bonding over shared interests and I couldn't be more relieved.  Keeping Boy Wonder's attention might not be as hard as I thought. 

Yesterday I noted that it can be quite easy to breeze through curriculum with one student if the teacher and student are literally and figuratively on the same page.  Today, I discovered that it's also easy to chase a rabbit trail with one child.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you never know where a lesson is going to end up if you take trails. For example, our enrichment study of the Radetzky March, by Johann Strauss, turned into a 30 minutes discussion of the 2004 and 2011 Tsunamis. 

How did we get from Vienna's favorite New Year's tune (in which the audience actually claps) to watching YouTube videos of Tsunamis waves in Thailand and Japan?  It's Wikipedia's fault.  And mommy's fault for not editing Wikipedia.  So, my son might not remember too much about Field Marshall Radetzsky, but he now knows the warning signs that a tsunamis is coming (and hey, according to Nat Geo, a girl from Britain saved her vacationing family in 2004 when she remembered geology class's reference to receding waves!)

Oh well. The point of studying music is for enrichment.  And we were certainly enriched today as we talked about water displacement, earthquakes, and 130 foot waves!  For your own personal enrichment, check out the YouTube video below of the Radetzky March.  My son might not have understood the significance of the audience's clapping, but it's pretty cool to see the audience participation in what has become the traditional last song of every New Year's concert in Vienna--except for 2005, as they were showing respect to those lost in the Tsunamis (hence the rabbit trail).  And just so you know, I personally enjoyed this video, because attending a concert at the Musikverein in Vienna is on my bucket list!  What a fun way this would be to start a new year.

Day 1

I almost feel like I should be singing It's the End of the World as We Know It.  I mean it is, right?  Once your child starts school it's not like they ever stop the educational process until they're old enough to be out of the house.  Thus, family life as we know it now involves school!

That's right--school has begun.  Okay, I admit that we almost chickened out this morning, but we did have our official first day of school.  My son was a little leery at first, so I went through our schedule backwards and started with the history story.  That was the hook.  My son enjoyed our history lesson so much that he was almost begging to start phonics, math, and everything else on our agenda.  Woohoo!  I think the mom-the-teacher and son-the-student thing is going to work.   And as an added bonus, my nosy little three year old sat in on half of our lessons and enjoyed them about as much as his brother.

What surprised me the most about our classroom time was how quickly my son whipped through our schedule.  The classroom setup is not completely foreign to me.  I have substitute taught in an actual classroom and I am a teacher's kid, so I have some frame of reference for how to plan a day.  But I had no idea that the one-on-one schedule was so different. 

For example, I was expecting our recitation portion of the day to take about 30 minutes.  We were supposed to have our opening prayer, recitation of the alphabet, and discussion of the letters in the alphabet.  When we actually did our recitation this morning, it only took us 3-5 minutes.  In a real classroom it would have taken that long to get everyone to stand up together and get quiet.  This extra time allotment is so exciting.  It just means more time to learn!

The best part of our day was the fact that my son is already excited about tomorrow and can't figure out why I'm going to make him wait until Friday to do our tree discovery walk.  Now I'm just hoping and praying that I can keep up his enthusiasm until he's in college.  And for that matter, I'm hoping that I will be enjoying my days with him as much then as I am now.

Quote of the Week

I'm not a D-I-Y girl.  I'm a B-U-Y girl!

~Courtney Kerr on Courtney Loves Dallas

 

Thanks for this awesome quote Courtney!!  So nice to be reminded that there are other girls out there who love pretty things that they didn't make themselves! I guess some of us were just born to shop.  Thank goodness for the rest of the girls who were born to create.  They give us shoppers something to appreciate.



Who's Nervous?

I had an interesting conversation with my oldest son today.  We're scheduled to start kindergarten on Monday, and I though I should see how he feels about school.  When I asked him about school, he informed me that HE was nervous.  Of course I would never admit it to him, but I'M the one who should be nervous, right? 

My son told me that he was a little afraid that when we started school that he would have too much work.  Apparently, he was under the impression that I am expecting him to read ALL of the books that I have collected over the past months.  I had to explain to him that at some point he would probably read all the books, but until he learns to read, I'll be reading the books to him.  I also told him that we would have a new topic each week based around one book.  Plus, I explained that homeschooled kids don't really have homework since all their work can be done during school time. This seemed to make him feel a little bit better.

It's funny that I've spent months praying and doing whatever I could to prepare and psych myself up for the homeschooling process. It never occurred to me that my son might need the same amount of psyching up (although this shouldn't be a shocker since he's so much like his mother!).

It looks like the fun is going to begin on Monday morning.  I know it's not the traditional time of year to start school.  I know that it's not the norm to be educating my child at home.  And I know that I've taken on an enormously huge task.  But that's the beauty of being able to do school at home.  I'm not bound by institutional norms or political agendas.  Instead, I can do what works for me and for my family.  And legally speaking, I'm doing what is in the best interest of my child.  Also, I'm discovering, that the possibilities are endless...

Not Quite the Week I Had Planned

How has it been a week since my last blog post?  I really wanted to do a better job keeping up-to-date with my posting.  Although this was not a resolution, I was hoping that as we started the homeschool process that I could document as I went.  But then life happened.

I should have known that I was in trouble when Boy 1 and Baby G both had fevers on New Year's Eve.  They seemed perfectly fine on New Years' Day, but by last Thursday I could tell that something was wrong--at least with the boy who was running a temp of 103.  So I took Boy 1 to the pediatric urgent care and discovered that he had strep and walking pneumonia.  This discovery prompted Mr. Wonderful to pick up the other two kiddos from Grandma's in order to get strep tests.  Sure enough, despite the fact that Boy 2 didn't even have a fever, all 3 tested positive for strep.  So Thursday, I spent about 6 hours dealing with doctors and pharmacists and fevers.  That was only the beginning of things...

The next morning, I noticed a text from my mom that had been sent around midnight.  Apparently, my grandma, who was visiting from out of state, had to be taken to the ER due to shortness of breath.  As it turned out, she ended up having a heart attack.  This prompted a trip to the cath lab.  And the heart cath prompted the doctor to schedule her for an open-heart bypass on Monday morning. 

As all these events were underway, our relatives in Indy were getting snowed-in, church activities and meetings were getting set, work picked up, and somehow I'm supposed to start homeschooling on Monday!!!  I'm actually considering taking Excedrin just thinking about my January calendar.  Thank goodness I didn't make any resolutions, because I would have already failed.

What an interesting year this may be!

Relinquish

Happy 2014! I've decided this year to NOT do the typical routine.  I'm not making resolutions.  I'm also not going to make any earth-shattering goals for this year.  And I'm not going to make any predictions.  Instead, I'm going to take this year a day at a time.  If you could see my calendar for the month of January, you might understand.  There's no point in trying to guilt myself into adding more "routines" into my life. 

I have a full plate already.  We've got tennis lessons, museum school, t-ball, Mission Friends, Sunday School, Small Group, Kindergarten, Worship Team, church committees, litigation meetings, lots of upcoming discovery and trial settings, and all of the unexpected future activities in addition to everyday life with a family of five.  (And did I mention that my children are all under the age of 6!)

Instead of resolving to be a better person this year, I've decided to relinquish control and to trust that by the grace of God, we will have a beautiful 2014.  That's really all I can do.  I can't be the perfect wife, mother, musician, church committee leader, lawyer, kindergarten teacher, and friend.  But I trust that God will allow me to fulfill my roles as best I can in such a matter as to be sufficient for the situation.  If there's one thing I've learned over the past couple of decades, it's that my resolutions are pretty meaningless.  I can rarely fulfill what I want to fulfill on my own.  But I can accomplish what God wants me to accomplish if I let Him take control. 

And with that, I would like to wish you all a bright New Year!

Learning All the Time

After reading magazines and books on homeschooling, I realized that I'm going to have to make some behavioral changes in order to get the most benefit from teaching my children at home.  I'm going to have to create an educational atmosphere for my kids.  This means that I'm going to have to start taking advantage of those "educational opportunities" that happen in every day life--in addition to following a structured curriculum.  What seems like a long wait at a restaurant needs to be a chance to discuss foods and culture.  Or what seems to be a simple trip to the pharmacy can turn into an interesting discussion of diseases and treatments.  Or what starts out as a mundane weekly trip to the grocery store can be a chance to practice using a calculator.  Or what is a simple walk to the park can be a chance to learn about leaves and trees (or to find snakes which is way easier to do than I thought!).  Basically, anything can be tweaked to become an educational experience.  I just have to find a way to make experiences count. 

Last week we had the perfect opportunity to focus on a specific subject: snow and sleet.  It occurred to me that I had purchased and received some winter-related books for my new homeschool book collection (which has grown exponentially in the last month).  So last Friday when we were completely iced into our house, I pulled out It's Snowing by Gail Gibbons with the intent to teach the boys about snow. 

I was blown away by how Ms. Gibbons managed to compile so much science and simplicity in one little book. We learned how snow, sleet, and freezing rain are formed.  We learned that Antarctica gets the least amount of snowfall yearly as compared to the other continents (weird huh?).  We learned that it actually snows in the desert sometimes.  And we learned why snow causes power outages.  The book also referenced a guy named Frederick Bentley who was the first person to photograph snowflakes. 

When I read about Mr. Bentley and his snowflakes, I got all excited.  As it turns out, I also have another book in my homeschool collection entitled, Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin.  Upon this realization, I HAD to read this to my son too.  Although I definitely wasn't expecting this book to be a biography, it turned out to be a beautiful book about the life and science behind Frederick Bentley's work.  Amazing! 

Of course, reading this book led to more discussions about freezing points, photography, and proper winter attire.  What a week of science we have had around here!  A week that we would not have enjoyed had I not considered pulling a snow book off of our bookshelf.  

I don't know why it has taken me this long to realize that sometimes the best learning happens OUTSIDE of the classroom setting.  For whatever reason, my institution-trained self forgets that my most memorable educational experiences happened apart from a textbook.  In spite of my dullness, Mr. Wonderful has a knack for "teaching" while playing (as a result of playing X-box with his daddy, my son can tell you all about the Battle of Midway).  Now Mommy needs to find ways to enrich our everyday lives with learning opportunities too.  I'm sure it can be done, but it's going to require some work on my part.  Thank goodness for writers like Gail Gibbons who have created wonderful books to help mommies out! Check out more books by Gail Gibbons at Amazon.  You can also find Snowflake Bentley there as well.