Just stuff to tell you.

 

So after all my comments you probably have come to think that I am a stick in the mud and just trying to teach just like every other school.  Well, I decided to post this picture.  It is not actually typical but yet it does show the spontaneous flexibility we can have in the midst of our lessons.  I had to laugh as I felt that Faith's doll at least gave her more fingers and toes to count with.

 

At this time we are still working at our kitchen table. BUT the good news is that the schoolhouse can now be completed. I have had it filled to the brim with housing items as we have done a huge redo of our flooring and a little paint job as well.  Since my children have left I have been without extra beds as well so now we have a room just for grandkids and a triple decker bunk bed (bunk w/ trundle).

Here are a few pics of what we have done.

 

Hardwood floors in dining room, living room, hall and one bedroom

 

                                             Ceramic in laundry room, bathrooms and kitchen

                                                     Gabe liked the cool floor

My dream fridge!

 

I cannot seem to find the picture of the kids room but we put new carpet in that room and my bedroom.  Those are the cold rooms of the house and I wanted a warm floor to step on.

 

 

Now that my computer issues are resolved I can catch up a bit too.  I will talk about our vacation we had next time.  I hope to get the one room schoolhouse painted and floor done in the next few weeks.  I have all the items needed as well as new work tables for each child.  Last item needed as a heater for the room and hubby got that yesterday.

 

As far as school goes, all is well in the world.

Pet Peeves about HomeSchooling Families

This is a riot as I myself am a homeschool family.  I have met many people in my life and often they can be clumped into one or another subtitle. Such as, Generation Xers are a group of immediate gratification brats, or Baby Boomers are defiant to their hippie parents ideas and create corporate greed and of course the Hippie Generation full of ideas and no real follow through but cave into society demands eventually.  BUT you homeschool families run the gamut of ideas and lifestyles.

There are those who homeschool for their religious freedom. Great folks, I believe in that idea 100% but many focus so much on biblical memorization and studies that they do not approach the core subjects with enough vim and vigor. Their child cannot stand comfortable in a Spelling Bee .

There are those who homeschool because their child has specialized learning needs. This is by far one of the most important reasons to homeschool and you say what pet peeve could you possibly have about this group. Well, many that I have met (not all) never take the time to learn exactly what it is that delays their child's processing of information so they do not learn how deliver to them the tools they need to succeed as they are able to.  Speaking as a mother of a child with language skills deficit, related to an anoxic brain injury, I must applaud the teacher that taught me how to help my daughter and give her the tools to help herself.  The peeve in this group is the fact that I do not see progress in the children I have met, just parents that further delay development thinking that they will grow into it some day.

Homeschoolers are flexible.  You bet your bibby!  It is important to teach them to be to be flexible. Life will give you lots of unexpected surprises and knowing how to land on your feet comes with encouraging and supporting flexibility. BUT, once again I find many, actually very many, homeschool families so flexible that they drop everything rather than learning how to see a task through and have patience to tend to the  next task or situation at hand. An example of this is the "field trip" experience. OH yes, this is the most pet peeve issue I can think of.  No place in this life can you commit to something and then not follow through. I have seen seventeen families respond to a field trip that would be at a local small dairy. That would be 2-7 children in each family.  Only five families show up for the experience. This is not just the free opportunities, but those that would have a fee involved as well.  All of a sudden little Tommy got behind this week so we are not going to attend or we just did not sleep well so the rest of you can just forget we were going to come. UGH!!

Yes, that is my biggest homeschooler pet peeve.  I adore the flexibility but it seems to come at a cost to many.

Then the final one that just ticks me off in a big way would be those who find it acceptable to tell me what I am doing wrong or how I could do it better IF ONLY.... perhaps I am not their kind of Christian, or by taking on what God has asked me to do I am enabling my daughter and her husband, or instead of homeschooling I am schooling at home, or what ever they feel empowered to state.  You see, I would never say such a thing to you just to justify my views or homeschool style. But there are so many pompous, self-righteous, women that I come in contact with only to discover that generally, I do not like women much either. 

OK  I said it!
Now to focus on a review of lessons so that I am prepared for tomorrow.  That's right, tomorrow I am going into the day with a plan. Some days I fly by the seat of my pants and other days I am a different sort. I always have a goal and expected outcomes. Goals are something to reach for and an outcome is a way to measure the effectiveness of the goal. My nurse in me always has a way of showing up in my day.

Recommittment Is a Daily Need

I recall the day I committed to teaching Grace.  I recall the day that Faith began wanting to come to school too. I recall why I wanted to do this.  I also recall the day I understood what Jesus had done for me and that I wanted Him in my life every day. 

I quickly realized how difficult it is to face the world each day without keeping the commitment to learn, follow and exemplify the Lord.  It seemed that that I had to recommit to Him on a daily basis to keep the evils of this earthly world away.  Teaching your grandchildren/children is very much like that.

Some refer to homeschooling as being flexible. Yes, that is right but if you are not careful and do not keep some kind of track about what you do, set goals with time frames and recommit daily then you will get lost.

I understand that a lot of things entered our lives and managed to distract us in the name of flexibility.  What if we were in public school when life happens?  Kids still have to go on and try the best they can to succeed. I do not think that would have happened for Grace.  I know she would have gotten lost. So, it seems we are back on track. Making daily progress and meeting goals.

Grace has made it to the third grade math book and doing very well. She continues to do fourth grade reading work, although she can read higher level. Still, she is nearly finished with her third grade language book, spelling is always a challenge to teach. I try to let her strong phonics skills guide her. 

Faith is making great progress in her first grade work. She is right on track with our goals and will likely finish things up in spring.

The house repairs are winding down and we will begin creating our new schoolhouse. It is way behind!  I hope to be in it in time from Christmas break.  Go figure!

Back to my original thought.  Commitment is a difficult thing.  I know I am not the "typical" homeschooler. I have some real pet peeves about the things fellow homeschoolers do. I am going to make a post about it next time, I think.  No offense intended but I am an older generation, the end of the baby boomers.  I have some very traditional thoughts in the midst of this nontraditional methodology.

Geography Lessons Begin

I am horrible at geography. Simply put, it was not taught to me in public schools decades ago. I do not want this for the children I teach. I watched the Geography Bee and noticed that few from my same culture participate in it and do not excel in the topic. I let the girls know today that much of the information I will teach them will be new material to me and if they have a question we will often have to seek the answers together. 

The first thing we did days ago was to identify the continents. Enchanted Learning had great color in activities to help learn the material. Today we began the download I got called Geography Through Art. I love this study as it explores more than just geography.  We took a moment to learn a bit about cultures as well. The project for today was Aboriginal Dot Art.  We have looked at the map overall and identified the region on the globe of Oceania and the the land located in the area. We touched on on the bodies of water a bit but have so much more to do on this topic. While doing this learning unit we will combine it with a Hands of a Child lapbook about the continent of Australia.

We have separated Grace and Faith in their history, science and health subjects as Faith just was not interested yet in the more detailed material so I am getting creative with her needs. I can't repeat the same book with her that we did together so we touch on review of that material of other printable worksheets and discussions.

Last day of gymnastics class. We are pleased that it is coming to an end. The home school coop, SCCCHE, that we belong to is just not the right fit for us after all. At first we were thrilled as we felt that there were resources that would enhance the experience for all of us. We read their statement of faith and it is in keeping with our belief structure but felt not hesitancy to sign it and join. We participate in the Master's Lyceum but are disappointed with the experience overall. This semester very little is offered that will enhance our semester. Sure they would be with others but the classes had little to offer them. I just do not see the benefit of a class that twist balloons or makes things with duct tape. Fun, sure but not educational. They can get better gymnastics than the ML offering.  I don't understand it as the classes I conducted were educational on many levels. Then there is the control issues that the "leadership team" has. I could go on and on but overall I thought a coop meant that we share ideas with each other but found out that any ideas I have or communication I offer must first go through a handful of people who are the coordinators of the group or else we undermine the effectiveness of the leadership team. WOW!  I thought a coordinator did just that while we are all self lead (with God's Hand).  I know that many feel the same way but are willing to take advantage of all the free work done by the handful so that they can benefit. We just feel it is a matter of principal and perhaps we should walk away. I know this does not make sense when spoken in the general terms but I have serious doubt about the direction of this group.

Well...off to class.....

A long, long time ago there was

blog that kept up with our progress and activities. Then an evil monster named Too Busy began to slowly make it disappear. One day in October, the teacher called Grandma stopped and watched the leaves fall and the branches blow. She realized that Too Busy had taken her away from the blog and was even halted some progress with regular educational needs. Grandma did some talking to God about this thing called Too Busy. She talked to Him for hours about it.

You see, Grandma was at the pool in the middle of October and was finally draining the water and pulling out the leaves that had already fallen into the waters. It seems Too Busy had kept her from doing this at the end of summer so she had to do it in the cold. She could not get the water as low as she wanted without standing for hours at the pool and holding the large flexible tubing that she had created a suction with to drain the waters. Each time she released the hose the end would float upward and she would loose suction. Grandma watched the tall, old trees and their branches blow in the wind the entire time. Each time the light would hit a red leaf or a golden glimmer would catch her eye she realized that this year she was even missing the beauty of her favorite season, Fall. 

This would not do!  Grandma looked at what had been accomplished in school so far as well. Although the girls were learning she found that the progress that she wanted to see and that the girls needed to make was shamefully slow. Others comment all the time about the flexibility of home school. They talk, write, and post about it as if to give permission to shift focus each day. Agreeably there is some value to that idea but flexibility can not be the excuse every time one turns around. The world itself is structured and the whole purpose of raising a child is to mold an independent, effective adult. It seems that the flexibility also leads to something that others either deny or do not see for themselves. It creates children who can manipulate the situation as well. Grandma, being an insightful soul, adjusted her mindset a bit and took inventory of what all has been taking place.

As it turns out, the house has been under remodel for way too long. The deck work is complete but the floor layer, as talented as he is, is a bit lazy. The floor layer always finds a reason that he cannot finish up something today, just yesterday he ran out of nails for the nail gun. Really?!  How does a person run out of something as critical as nails when laying a hardwood floor or placing floor molding?  Lesson learned here as the carpet still needs to be purchased but if the house is to be put together anytime soon it will be necessary to find a way to have a "real" company lay the floor. The mess that the house has been in has truly been a distraction to the learning process. Not to mention that the floor layer does not respect the lesson time and is constantly interfering and causing girls to get goofey and distracted.

It seems as we go through life everybody finds Too Busy wanting to ride along. Too Busy can be a real distraction to a person's thoughts. The day flies by and because we invited Too Busy along with us for the day we do not get to lessons that need to take place so some degree after a trip away.  On Monday the crew will go to the Missouri History Museum for a "Who Was the Real George Washington" theme. Now, the MHM is a welcome distraction to the day as it is honestly a valuable learning experience but it will be necessary to keep Too Busy away when we are finished. We can pack a lunch and eat it in the car on the way home. In the reflection of events it is clear that lunch break after field trips is a huge time eater and next thing you know Too Busy has hitched a ride. 

There is not Master's Lyceum this semester and to be honest it is not missed at all. We have all been too busy with Too Busy to miss one more event.  One may wonder what we have done since the last post. Well, the answer to that is that we have been to Disney World, corn mazes, zoo classes, Magic House, wildlife education centers several times, MHM, Girl Scout office, doctors offices, birthday parties, swim lessons, gymnastic classes and so many other things that one brain cannot remember it all. 

Just a final note, today was a pretty good lesson day. Distracted by floor layer who only works 5 hours or less each day.  Big excitement today was Grace's start of a new health lesson that began teaching about the human body. When she learned there were 206 bones in the body she was amazed.

I have decided that I was wrong about school into the summer months

This teaching through the summer really stinks. I dislike it immensely. I had thought last fall how much I wanted my fall time weather but it is just to difficult to me to do this in the summer. Heat drags me down. I want to be in the pool. I can't sit out on the deck to teach anymore. Now, if we only went until the first two weeks of June I would be fine so the idea of beginning at the end of Sept. would still work.

With that said, we are making progress toward the end of the school year for Grace. For both but again I do not plan to get Faith to the next grade level. Grace is so on the edge that I intend to see her over the wall.  I have done math test every day this week and they are doing well. Faith is getting it all correct and Grace is scoring 94-100%.  Her two mistakes today that she added instead of subtracted. Had it been an addition problem she would have gotten it correct. 

As I type they are participating in the local library summer program. They did the one in their community and now doing the one in my community.

On another note: only 24 more days before we all go to Disney World!

Day 1 of Completion Study

So today I began completing the school year.
It was time for Grace to take a Language test on plurals. I offered her the ability to review in her book but she felt sure she could do it. Later it turned into an open book test. I was not thrilled but overall she understood the material and an open book test encourages independent research and work.  She did well.  Then I gave her a math test right off the bat and she got a 97%.  She still stresses and hates math but she knows the material we expect her to know. I will spend all week giving her math testing that is long overdue and see how well she retained the material. When she struggles I will resume there and not where we left off in the book.  I expect to reach the same level however, she really knows this better than she thinks.

Faith did so well today. Her written work was very neatly completed. I also will test her along in math. I did two test and two time test with her today and of course she did not miss a single problem. We talked about our goal for her grade and she is in full agreement that she wants to still be in first grade so she is about the same as her girl scout and other friends her age. I looked at the book and calendar and she will be in second grade near Christmas. She is fine with that. Faith still seeks attention so it is getting bad when I am teaching Grace something while I expect her to finish her work quietly as she says everything she is doing step by step and it gets real annoying.

Their bloodhound is about to give birth so the house is preparing for that.

I am still in remodel nightmare. I have the new doors in and the new deck and porch but waiting for floors to be laid. Once they are laid I will we will begin in completing our "one room schoolhouse". We have tons of ideas and I am eager to have them here full time for school. We had been doing class outside on the deck but now it is too hot so today I went to their house again. My house is just to torn up to do anything.

So that is it for now, we are once again off and moving. Let us hope I can complete this school year sometime before the next one is suppose to begin.