The past forever, everyone has asked us why we are choosing to homeschool our children. Like each of my pregnancies, this wasn't something I had originally planned. I had planned to work outside the home, have my children go to public school, until I actually had my children and watched them learn and grow.
My husband is a genius. While most people retain 50% of what is taught to them, he can retain 70-80%. I was a "gifted" student. Not anywhere near my husband (who graduated high school with academic honors without even trying) but still above the average. My children seem to have inherited our awesome. LOL
I have absolutely no problem with public school. Both my husband and I went to public school, and I know I have fond memories of my high school years. But academically, I was never challenged. I wasn't "smart enough" to skip a grade, but I was "smart-enough" to finish my tasks before all the other students and space out. When I was put in the Talented and Gifted program, the teachers expected us to already know everything; "You're a TAG student, you should know this". My education was stunted, I plateaued at an early age, and never felt motivated enough to challenge myself with other things.
Lily is currently going to a private preschool, and though the standards of that preschool are higher than the public school's she is STILL two years ahead of everyone in her class. Iris, who is two years younger then her older sister, is also two years ahead of most children her age. Because of their age, I cannot put them in a higher grade. Because I cannot put them in a higher grade, they are stuck with the children their age, who are at a different level, and get bored. Because they get bored, they end up being naughty. Lily has gotten into the habit of painting all over herself when she is done with an activity b/c everyone else is still busy with theirs. If she finishes early, which she usually does, she gets bored and then gets up and leaves the room. Sometimes, she just straight up refuses to participate.
What I've come to know about my children makes homeschooling the best opportunity for our children to learn. I know how Iris learns. I know how Lily learns. I know what works with what children and can adjust to better suit their learning abilities. In public school, the problems assessed would only be the majority. Unfortunately that would not work for my children, since they are not part of the majority. Also, I have more one-on-one time with each child, since I only have three children and not 16.
One thing that seems to go along with the "why homeschool" question is socialization. What irks me about those statements is do they honestly believe I'm going o keep my kids cooped up in the house all day every day? There are activities that they can be placed in with other children. Sports, of all shapes and sizes are incorporated AND we take them to areas where there will be children their age that they can interact with, such as the park, or the play area in our local malls. (By local, I mean 30 minutes away.) I am a social butterfly. I LOVE people. I cannot imagine not having my children out and about making new friends and acquaintances.
For now, with how "smart" our children are, homeschooling is the best option to better harness their awesome. And studies show that there is a direct correlation between my kids and awesome. :)
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
2010-2011 Curriculum
I can't afford it. No matter how cheap someone can find it, we just do not have the money to buy any sort of curriculum in any subject. So, what do I plan to do? Completely pull it out of my butt and do the lesson plans myself. I think my brain just imploded.
I am at a complete loss. OK, maybe not a complete loss, but I'm still at some sort of a loss. Lily is supposed to be in pre-K next year. She was going to go again to the preschool that she is going to now, but she's been deliberating because shes been bored out of her mind. We are almost completely done with her Kindergarten workbook. She's been retaining everything; I'm super proud of her. So for now, I will be "reviewing" most of what she's learned in pre-K and K, and starting 1st grade work with her next year. There are some things I want to make sure she understands and has in her head before "leaving" Kinder.
I have NO IDEA what 1st graders learn, so I'm pulling ideas out of thin air right now:
I am at a complete loss. OK, maybe not a complete loss, but I'm still at some sort of a loss. Lily is supposed to be in pre-K next year. She was going to go again to the preschool that she is going to now, but she's been deliberating because shes been bored out of her mind. We are almost completely done with her Kindergarten workbook. She's been retaining everything; I'm super proud of her. So for now, I will be "reviewing" most of what she's learned in pre-K and K, and starting 1st grade work with her next year. There are some things I want to make sure she understands and has in her head before "leaving" Kinder.
I have NO IDEA what 1st graders learn, so I'm pulling ideas out of thin air right now:
- I've planned time for Foreign Language (which will be Spanish, French, German, and Chinese)
- We will have time for Phonics/Reading, Writing & Spelling, sentence structure
- addition and subtraction as well as skip counting; sequencing and sorting
- I'm thinking of covering the Human Body for Science; muscles, digestive system, nervous system, skeletal system, endocrine system, the like. The weather and seasons, astronomy, states of matter.
- Start off with US history in the fall, starting with the States, and then Iowa and Nebraska and working from there. Later doing Britain, medieval times, Ancient Greece and Rome.
- I want to make time for art, music, and physical play.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Lesson Plans for the week of 8 Mar thru 12 Mar 2010
note: Along with English, we are currently learning Spanish, French, German and Chinese. Spanish is my first and native tongue, and my husband already knows French. We are having a lot of fun learning these languages with the girls. When I post "Foreign Language" I am only writing about which topic we are going to do. We are learning all of these languages AT THE SAME TIME.
Monday: bookwork: Hh, is, counting up to 12, shapes, sorting, nickels, our home address and telephone number, living things; foreign language: yellow and body arts; bookwork: Gg, review Aa-Gg, stop/go, yellow, sort 'same', the kitchen, habitats, trace lines, patterns; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: nursery rhymes
Tuesday: bookwork: Ii, are, count to 12, shapes, the arts, dimes, clean community, mammals; foreign language: green, body parts; bookwork: Hh, stop/go, green, same/different, what does not belong in a house, habitats, trace lines, patterns; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: colors
Wednesday bookwork foreign language: blue, body parts; bookwork ; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: nursery rhymes
Thursday bookwork foreign language: purple, body parts; library; bookwork ; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: colors
Friday bookwork foreign language: white, body parts; parents as teachers; bookwork ; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: animals
Note: if you have noticed from my weekly wrap-up posts, I don't always stick to my "lessons". most of the time I just wing it and do something they suggest or I'll end up with a headache, but I find that writing these down and at least having some form of idea what I'm going to do that day helps me acquire less stress.
Monday: bookwork: Hh, is, counting up to 12, shapes, sorting, nickels, our home address and telephone number, living things; foreign language: yellow and body arts; bookwork: Gg, review Aa-Gg, stop/go, yellow, sort 'same', the kitchen, habitats, trace lines, patterns; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: nursery rhymes
Tuesday: bookwork: Ii, are, count to 12, shapes, the arts, dimes, clean community, mammals; foreign language: green, body parts; bookwork: Hh, stop/go, green, same/different, what does not belong in a house, habitats, trace lines, patterns; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: colors
Wednesday bookwork foreign language: blue, body parts; bookwork ; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: nursery rhymes
Thursday bookwork foreign language: purple, body parts; library; bookwork ; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: colors
Friday bookwork foreign language: white, body parts; parents as teachers; bookwork ; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: animals
Note: if you have noticed from my weekly wrap-up posts, I don't always stick to my "lessons". most of the time I just wing it and do something they suggest or I'll end up with a headache, but I find that writing these down and at least having some form of idea what I'm going to do that day helps me acquire less stress.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Weekly Wrap-Up
QUICK NOTE: I am currently in a hurry as we are about to have lunch and then head to the Henry Doorly Zoo, but I have tons of pictures and videos to add to this post. Check back later tonight to view them!
Monday: Iris finally traced curved lines! It was our first day doing bookwork, straight out of the book, and she did such a great job I was in a great mood all day. Lily did her workbook review and journal and we worked on shapes and colors in Spanish.
Tuesday: It was Dr. Seuss's birthday! We had a pretty lazy day at first, just reading a bunch of his books. Then, after reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck, we made our own oobleck. Iris pretty much painted herself with the non-newtonian fluid while Lily decided to play in the cornstarch. Rose was our supervisor.
Wednesday: more bookwork and workbook review. Nothing too exciting.
Thursday: We did the color of the day, Green, in French (vert), Spanish (verde), and German (grun), and they hollered it every time. They even said it in Chinese (lyu). After that I decided I REALLY needed to clean my house because it was a wreck, so they helped me out in that department. Note to self: they are terrible sweepers. So after I fired them from using the brooms, they sat down and played video games on their computer and their Leapster2.
Friday: We did not a damn thing. I was horribly ill and stayed in bed all day. My husband stayed up and watched the kids for me and they horse-played.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Secular Thursday: Patience is a Virtue...
...especially if you're a homeschooler.
Last week, my husband made a chart of colors with all the colors written in different languages. After the girls sat down on the couch, he pulled out the color blue and said the colors to them in English, French, Spanish, and German. Rose is 7 months old. She didn't care. Iris, who is two, had gotten up in the middle, gone to the toy box, and had begun to play with something random. Lily, being four, had stayed put, but had totally spaced out. So when their dad repeats the color and then asks them what that certain color is in a specific language, Iris isn't paying attention and Lily's automatic response is "I don't know." My husband: "Did anyone else just get a sudden headache?" I snorted at that moment, trying to supress my laughter. He then goes on to say, "You know, each day I keep getting more turned off on the idea of homeschooling." "Why? Because how frustrating it is that they don't want to pay attention?" "Exactly."
Like I said, I could only laugh. I deal with this every day. Every day, when we sit down for an activity, Lily spaces out in the middle of doing bookwork. You can ask her to draw a rectangle, and it will seem like she's doing just that, until, halfway through the rectangle, she's doodling. You ask her what she's doing and she stops and stares at her doodle and responds with her usual "I don't know." *head-desk* Iris gets distracted almost immediately after given an instruction. A simple "can you draw a circle for me, please?" and as soon as she picks up her crayon she's completely forgotten what you just asked her. Most of the time they sit down to do a certain activity that involves their undivided attention, like writing or math, I have to snap my fingers in front of their eyes and go "FOCUS!" or it will never get done. I've learned to be patient.
I am a very impatient person. I was kind of spoiled as a child. Materially, I wasn't given everything I wanted, but my emotions were always tended to immediately. If I was angry, you had to console me, NOW. If I was hungry, you had to feed me, NOW. If you had upset me, you had to apologize, NOW. So when I work with my girls and they don't do it NOW, it can get quite frustrating, especially when it's not just spacing out but downright defiance. There have been days when I just want to pull a Homer Simpson and throttle them, but I always try and leave a room when I get too irritated.
Patience was something I had to learn when I began staying with my children full time. If I got too angry or frustrated with them, I usually had to put my own self in time out. I'm not saying I don't get angry now or that I'm anywhere near perfect where patience is concerned, but I do my best, and I have gotten better over the past couple of years. It's not easy and a constant work in progress, but every homeschooler knows how much patience is needed.
Last week, my husband made a chart of colors with all the colors written in different languages. After the girls sat down on the couch, he pulled out the color blue and said the colors to them in English, French, Spanish, and German. Rose is 7 months old. She didn't care. Iris, who is two, had gotten up in the middle, gone to the toy box, and had begun to play with something random. Lily, being four, had stayed put, but had totally spaced out. So when their dad repeats the color and then asks them what that certain color is in a specific language, Iris isn't paying attention and Lily's automatic response is "I don't know." My husband: "Did anyone else just get a sudden headache?" I snorted at that moment, trying to supress my laughter. He then goes on to say, "You know, each day I keep getting more turned off on the idea of homeschooling." "Why? Because how frustrating it is that they don't want to pay attention?" "Exactly."
Like I said, I could only laugh. I deal with this every day. Every day, when we sit down for an activity, Lily spaces out in the middle of doing bookwork. You can ask her to draw a rectangle, and it will seem like she's doing just that, until, halfway through the rectangle, she's doodling. You ask her what she's doing and she stops and stares at her doodle and responds with her usual "I don't know." *head-desk* Iris gets distracted almost immediately after given an instruction. A simple "can you draw a circle for me, please?" and as soon as she picks up her crayon she's completely forgotten what you just asked her. Most of the time they sit down to do a certain activity that involves their undivided attention, like writing or math, I have to snap my fingers in front of their eyes and go "FOCUS!" or it will never get done. I've learned to be patient.
I am a very impatient person. I was kind of spoiled as a child. Materially, I wasn't given everything I wanted, but my emotions were always tended to immediately. If I was angry, you had to console me, NOW. If I was hungry, you had to feed me, NOW. If you had upset me, you had to apologize, NOW. So when I work with my girls and they don't do it NOW, it can get quite frustrating, especially when it's not just spacing out but downright defiance. There have been days when I just want to pull a Homer Simpson and throttle them, but I always try and leave a room when I get too irritated.
Patience was something I had to learn when I began staying with my children full time. If I got too angry or frustrated with them, I usually had to put my own self in time out. I'm not saying I don't get angry now or that I'm anywhere near perfect where patience is concerned, but I do my best, and I have gotten better over the past couple of years. It's not easy and a constant work in progress, but every homeschooler knows how much patience is needed.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
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