A Post from the Past

Annika's birthday is tomorrow so I decided to go through my family blog to see what I've written in the past about her. I don't like to repeat my birthday posts. Anyway, I found this post that I wrote in January 2007. At the time Annika was about 18 months, Sam 4 and Harry 6. I had just pulled Harry out of a really bad kindergarten situation. I thought it was kind of interesting to read 4 1/2 years later.

 a new old normal

I've been thinking lately about this whole homeschooling idea. It seems to me that we are in something of a good rhythm. Things aren't perfect--the kids still fight, lessons don't go as I'd like them to, and the house is something of a mess, but I like what is happening.

Before Harry went to preschool we did little lessons or crafts every day. They weren't necessarily fancy or elaborate, but we did something every single day. We also had time to go to the park and play with friends, even though we did go to the occasional baby class or had a doctor appointment that messed with the schedule. All in all we had a slow pace of life that allowed me to do what I dreamed of and wanted to do with our kids.

Then Harry started going to preschool and there was stress. And driving. First the stress--is this the right preschool, what should he be doing in preschool; all of those questions that I continually asked myself. Once I found a preschool that I loved, I had to volunteer twice a month and drive all of the way over to it. It was fine--I felt like I was doing the best thing for Harry and I really did love the preschool. I also don't regret taking him there, he made a good friend he still plays with and I think it was a lot of fun for him. I also loved his teacher.

I also don't regret that he didn't finish out the year. It was stressful to have Annika with me and try to find a place for Sam to go when I volunteered. So when he decided not to go anymore last January, that was fine.

We tried to get into a good rhythm last year when we were "homeschooling," but it never worked. We had a hard time getting back to the crafts and little lessons he and I used to like. I also felt like I was continually shoving Sam to the side. (I couldn't do the same with Annika since she was nursing still and demanded to be fed!) I kept trying to get Harry to sit down so he could learn something and keep up with this or that curriculum . Yes, I know he was barely 5 and if I could go back, that is something I would change.

So it was off to kindergarten for Harry. He loved parts of it, but was continually stressed. I kept trying to do little lessons with him when he got home or before he went in, but more often than not we concentrated on being on time! It just didn't work for all of the reasons I've already mentioned.

Now, we're back. We do little lessons on things he needs to know. We read a lot, we draw and paint and play outside. We play math games and occasionally do work in his math book. We pull Sam in and teach him the words we are reading. I still nurse Annika so she's right in the thick of things.

Mostly we live. We do all of the things that got lost and made me feel good about being with my children. I'm a much better Mom now. So when you visit, expect a mess, children everywhere (it's amazing how three can suddenly feel like 300), and a happy family. Back to what worked so well, just bigger.

Unexpected Curriculum Problem

Is it weird that I continually mix up Annika and Harry's math books?

The reason:

Sorry the picture is upside down but I only have a minute and can't figure out how to flip it.

Anyway, I get them mixed up because Harry's is purple and Annika's is yellow. My kids are color coded--Harry is green, Sam is yellow, Annika is purple and Emma is red. That's how it goes when I buy toothbrushes or print their daily sheets or anything that it will be helpful to tell who's it is at a glance. So to have the books the "wrong" colors is really throwing me off.

Of course, if this is my worst problem, I'm doing pretty well.

Whew...

One of my biggest ongoing worries has been Harry's writing. He reads a ton but has never been one to make up stories about his animals or anything that I would say is a precursor to writing. He's done narrations and we did most of Writing with Ease and all of Sentence Island, but it still was a nagging worry in the back of my head. The schools around here also do a lot of writing, starting in kindergarten. Seriously. One of Annika's prompts was "The cloud in the sky looks like.." and they had to write three sentences about it. It's a little ridiculous.

Anyway, we started Writing with Skill last week and we're planning to start Paragraph Town in a few weeks, so we aren't lacking in curriculum. But I was still worried. Harry hated the first couple of days of Writing with Skill and the work I saw didn't help. So yesterday I sat down next to him and went over exactly what I expect from him for his WWS assignments. I stayed next to him while he worked and didn't let his frequent sighs and moans distract him or make me feel like the ogre he sometimes thinks I am .

Lo and behold, his assignment yesterday was better. I was really impressed. He didn't like actually doing the work, but hey, he's ten, he doesn't have to. But the writing he gave me was good. I know that WWS and the fact that it takes you through exactly how to do the assignment helped, but I liked how Harry used words.

Today I wasn't able to sit next to him, so again I was concerned. And again, he impressed me. This was a longer assignment and he did really, really well. There were seven well-formed sentences waiting for me.

So, in short (haha), I think Harry's problem is with the actual writing, not writing. I'll have him try typing the next assignment out, instead of hand writing it. And maybe we can turn something that makes both of us scream into something tolerable.

I Will Survive!

Well, it took us two weeks to finish a week's worth of work, but that's kind of how it goes sometimes, especially in the beginning. I'm not going to go through everything we did because I think that would be the world's most boring post. Here are some snapshots and thoughts about the first bit of school:

• My biggest challenge this year? Figuring out how to organize my days. I have the work figured out, the papers are all in folders, and the books are checked out and ordered. Those are variables I can control. What I can't control are the people. The best laid plans are still at the mercy of Emma wanting to sit on my lap, Annika not understanding 3+5, Sam forgetting he just read, or Harry freaking out about writing a sentence. Or me losing it because all of these things happen at once. I need to make sure I can keep my calm and project it to those around me. Much easier said than done.

Annika's first science page.

• Harry hates writing. I do mean hate. With the passion of a thousand fiery suns. Which kind of makes me hate writing. He started Writing with Skill this week. That seems to be going fine, probably because the book is telling him what he has to do. The real problem is the written narrations he has to do. He looks at me like he's never heard of something so cruel and promptly forgets what he's just read. I'm mean enough to tell him to sit still and think. I think he's old enough to write on his own five sentences about a book he's read. Otherwise he's doing pretty well. His work is basically a continuation of what he's been doing for the past few years.

This is how we are keeping track of books or chapters read. Annika gets a bead for each chapter she reads, the boys for each book. Emma pretty much if she asks. (What can I say, she's really cute.)

• It's fun to teach Annika. She really likes to figure things out. She can whip through the work I give her in just about an hour which means she spends the rest of the time that I'm working with her brothers asking me for more. Thankfully we have a bunch of cheap workbooks. Her reading is taking off and I'm having a blast starting First Language Lessons and Writing with Ease with her. It's a lot of fun to do the same things with her than I did with the boys. And to find new things just for her. She's starting Singapore Math from the beginning instead of Math U See. She's also reading different little stories than the boys did. I'm trying to make sure I spend time actually with her on my lap, reading. It's something that gets lost easily in the chaos.

From a Classical House of Learning project. They made people out of beans. Emma just used the glue. 

•  Sam does everything quickly and perfectly. My challenge with him is to keep him challenged. For now I've added Latin to his studies and he's reading a lot. He has a tendency to "shut down" if challenged to much, so I often feel like I'm walking a tightrope between what I know he can do if he tries and what he's willing to try to do. I've added Latin for Children to his work this year and he's doing a bit of Singapore Math with his Math U See. MUS is going well, I just want to make sure his whole brain is working. I'm also trying hard to keep him in books. Some kids outgrow their clothes all of the time, Sam outgrows his books. I'd say it's annoying but it's really pretty cool.

Our archeological dig.

I'm always more interested in projects at the beginning of the year. By the end I just want to get through things.

I wonder what a car, baby, dress, money, gun, Cub Scout belt loop, Pokemon, and stick can tell us about the civilization that went before?

 As you can see we have some challenges ahead, but that's always true. It wouldn't be homeschooling if I were completely confident about everything I'm doing. Oh, one thing that's going well is our memory work. I put it in their Fancy Folders (Annika named them) and we pull it out first thing every morning. It's been a great thing in a lot of ways. The obvious one--they are memorizing and using their brains. But I didn't expect the kids to become closer because of it. Some of what they are memorizing is the same for each child, so they kind of compete on that (not cool, they are different ages) but most of it's different. But because Harry can see Annika and Sam working hard to memorize something and actually get it, he cheers them on. And it's the same for the other kids. Totally unexpected benefit, but absolutely worth it.

The First Day...

So...today we started school today. Fifth, third, and first grades, plus preschool.

It went fine. We all survived and did everything on my list. Emma was very excited to be called a preschooler and I absolutely used that to my advantage all day long. (Preschoolers are good listeners, preschoolers eat all of their dinner, that kind of thing. It worked pretty well.)

Annika was beside herself to start first grade. I planned for her to do just a little bit today--some math, OPGTR, read alouds and a craft. Everything she does is pretty teacher intensive so I knew I couldn't really leave her alone, so I thought I'd let her play if she needed to wait for me to finish with the boys. She would have none of that. If she finished something she immediately wanted something else to do. It didn't matter if it was a worksheet or a read aloud, but it had to be some kind of work. Reading to her didn't count as school, which I think it a lingering effect of kindergarten. In kindergarten they were busy all of the time...if she finished gluing at one station she immediately went to the next where she would write her name five or six times. Their teacher read one or two stories throughout the day, but it was just for fun, not learning. Anyway...she'll get used to being home pretty soon.

Sam and Harry weren't quite so excited to start. They have been through my lessons and are pretty used to how things work around here. They grabbed their notebooks and just started working. It was pretty light for them too. We're taking about two weeks to do one week's worth of work. (Alliteration, cool.) I did find out that I don't have the correct edition of Grammar Town and I didn't get Sam's copy of Writing with Ease 3 because the charter we use can't get it together. (Yes, we use one of those evil public charters. No, I don't feel bad.)

Anyway, as far as first days go, it was pretty good. We're taking tomorrow off (I know, it's weird) because the kids are hanging out with their Uncle before he moves to Stanford on Friday. It also gives me time to go over some things that I want to tweak for Thursday.

Butterflies in my Stomach

We're starting tomorrow. Why do I suddenly feel like I am nowhere near ready when all I've done for the last month is plan for tomorrow?

Eek.

The Method Behind the Madness

I love looking at how people have their homeschool stuff organized. Someday (maybe even this week) I'll paint the room we use for homeschooling and then show you the entire room, but until then, I'll let you see some bits and pieces. All of these ideas are things that I've thought of or that I've cobbled together from other people's ideas. What works for people is so individual that I haven't ever been able to take someone's whole idea and just implement it. I always have to tweak things first.

So, each child has a notebook:

Harry and Sam's are recycled from last year, Annika and Emma's are new this year. Emma doesn't really need one because she's only three but she really wants one. So for peace in my little corner of the world, she gets one.

I love scrapbooking supplies, but don't actually scrapbook, so this is my chance to buy the stuff and not feel guilty. The paper is new each year. At the end of the year, I rubber band their old work with the paper on top. That way when they are 30-something their kids can look at the old work they did and mock them. (Not that that's happened to me and if it did, I'm not bitter at all.)

That's all well and good (and a little bit fancy), but how do I use the notebooks?

Let's look inside:

This is the inside of Harry's notebook. He has tabs labeled for each book he uses (not each subject) and one labeled "Today." That will hold the work he is to complete each day. On top of the "today" tab, there will be an assignment sheet each day. This is the link to Harry's sheet. I plan to print these onto different color paper for each child. (Except Emma, she doesn't get one.) I also pretty the pages up with silly clip art and never fill in every single square. For a visual kid to see my writing in all of those square is death. That's why there are so many.

As far as my organization goes, I use something like this. This one is from Sam's third term of last year. I don't have this year's finished yet. Very basic, but they keep me on track plus it's easy for me to draw arrows if we didn't finished something during the week it was scheduled. Not pretty, but it works for me.

I plan nine weeks at a time. Any fewer than that and it feels like I'm doing major planning too often. And more than that never goes well. I don't pull things apart because then I'd be completely drowning in paper, but anything I have that's printed I put in a file box, like this:

I don't know how well you can see, but the tabs are labeled Harry-1, Harry-2 etc and repeating also for Sam and Annika. I also have folders labeled Harry, Sam, Annika future. That's for stuff beyond the nine weeks I'm thinking of.

This is what's in Harry's week two folder:

This is his map activity for Sumer I think and his Classical House of Learning assignment sheets. Some weeks have a lot in them, some weeks hardly anything. There will also be more later once I get all of their books and everything completely scheduled.

Once Harry actually does his work he'll put it behind the labeled tab and I'll check it over . If we need to talk about anything, we will, if not, hey, cool!

Hope you enjoyed the quick tour through my organization system. And I hope it continues to work this year too!

Fifth Grade History

My college degree is in International Relations, focusing on the European Union and my graduate is in Education, specifically Middle and High School History. So, to say that I have been waiting for this day is a serious understatement. I have notebook upon notebook of history info and worksheets that have just been sitting around waiting for someone to get old enough to use them. Poor Harry, though...I did try to use a few of my resources way back when he was in first grade. Ah, the plight of the first child. But I digress.

Right now my plan is for Harry to read SOTW 1 with Annika and Sam. That will start off his week and give him an idea of what he's studying. Then he'll go over to the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia and outline from that. Initially I'll be doing a lot of that for/with him since it's a brand new skill. (I expect tears and am getting a large bag of m&ms just in case.) One of the things I brought with me from teaching is a book of reproducible map worksheets, so he'll do the worksheet pertaining to the week. If there isn't one he'll just follow along with everyone else. Because his brother and sister are also doing SOTW, we'll do a project together and he'll do anything else that I find interesting for him. Oh, yeah, I plan to have Harry use the review cards that come in the Activity Book for his timeline. If they will fit I want him to just glue it into the appropriate time period.

One thing I haven't scheduled is his reading. I'm using the Classical House of Learning Literature's Logic stage Ancients, so he'll read what's scheduled through that. I will also check out a bunch of other books from the time period for him to peruse at his leisure. I'm sure at some point he'll pick one or two of them up and educate himself.

But overall it seems like quite a bit of work for my ten-and-a-half-year-old to complete each week and I'm looking forward to helping him through it.

If you have a great desire to see how I've planned it all out, go here. Please remember that there might be mistakes in it and that it's really for me to know what's going on. Harry won't ever see it and if things aren't going well, assignments can be shifted and projects skipped. I'm hoping that won't happen, but I'm also pretty realistic. I have four kids, three of whom I'm teaching this year, so I'm just hoping for the best.

Only Three More Weeks

School officially starts for my kids on August 24th. We're actually going to start some things on the 16th (shh, don't tell Harry) because we have a quick vacation to meet my newest niece the first week of September. So I've been spending the last week planning and organizing for Harry's fifth grade, Sam's third, and Annika's first. I've done this before a few times, plus I was a teacher, so you wouldn't think this would be so stressful. But it is. I want to get as much organized before I start teaching as I can so that things will go smoothly. I try to plan nine weeks at a time. That way if things don't go quite as planned I can adjust without having to go back and change everything around. And if they do, I just have to plan the next nine weeks sometime during the first. It sounds more complicated than it really is, I swear.

Anyway, I've been more stressed this year because Harry is going into fifth grade and that's the Beginning of the Logic Stage (cue the anticipatory music). Starting homeschooling was pretty scary at first, but I could always remind myself that it was first (or second or third) grade and I couldn't do too much damage. Now things seem to be more important. If I mess up now it could actually affect his life (cue Jaws music). Anyway, I'm probably taking this way too seriously, but I've spent the last week living, eating and breathing reading lists and logic and biology. I keep hoping I'll have something to show for it soon, but for now, it's just a really messy desk.

Hey, kid, get out of the pool. Don't you know you're in 5th grade now and you should be all stressed out about it?