Space Activities Coming Up

Samantha,

We will be working on some more space activities soon.

We will be going over:

More about planets. (Hopefully, we will get around to making a planet mobile.)

More about the phases of the moon. (The Moon Isn't Made of Cheese Afterall-Oreo Activity)

The Life cycle of a star. (Links)

And we will continue to use your telescope.

I am trying to stray away from worksheets and pointless activities, so this is going to be harder to find activities. I want you to learn something you will remember.

Here are some reminders for me:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0By-8pEe8O7e5N2U2NjNhMGYtNTBiOS00ZmVhLTgwYzUtZWQ2ZjBmZmE2Yjc1/edit?authkey=CJD268kJ&pli=1

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0By-8pEe8O7e5ODU0NjcxMWYtZDZiOS00ZmY2LWJmODAtYTY1YjYzODRkYmQw/edit?authkey=CMzdxbML&pli=1

Open House For Brother/School Schedules For Brother

I went to my brother's open house at school the other day, and oh my, how hard it is for me to hold back from doing "school at home" with Sam, especially with this age. I just love how the environment looks, the colorful posters with letters and shapes on them. All the cute toys and manipulatives! The little reading areas and small tables for arts and crafts. And the cafeteria! Ah...Back before we decided to homeschool Samantha, I was so excited to volunteer at her school and do the fieldtrips and all. I feel like there are some things she may miss, but there are things that she would miss being in school instead of being homeschooled too, so it goes both ways. I just have to keep reminding myself that just because the classroom feel looks inviting to me, doesn't mean she will like it. She didn't go with me to his open house because I didn't want her asking to go to school. I have to take him to school in the morning though since my Mom just had a baby, and I am not finding a sitter for that, so I hope that goes well. 

Another thought I had yesterday, because he was going to go to school today, but we decided this morning to let him lay out so he could meet his new baby sister. Anyway, last night I took him and Sam out for dinner and ice cream and to the playground. We generally go out on weeknights as a family, Jessie, Sam, and I. We don't think anything about it. We never look at the time. We just do what we want to do. We follow a general schedule daily, but we don't have to watch the clock for the most part. But last night I kept having to look at the time to make sure that I got him home before it got too late. I had to rush to give bathes and put out school clothes and make sure everything was ready so that I could get him in bed and make sure to be able to wake up early in the morning, just to have to wake up in the morning and rush to dress him, feed him, and drive him to school. It's hard. I am really glad we won't be having to follow a school schedule. We are night owls. All of us. We stay up pretty late. Then in the morning I get up, get Jessie's lunch. Get him out the door. Then I have awhile to wake myself up, take a bath and read, clean up a little-piddle. Then finally, around 9, maybe later if she went to bed later than 1 o'clock, I wake her up and we slowly eat breakfast, make the bed, get dressed. We are totally going by about 10:00 generally, but on a normal day, not before that. Most everything we do during the week starts after 10:00 am, storytime, parent meetings, etc. The only thing I do that actually starts at 10 is go to the Women's Center on Thursdays, and I just cut out breakfast with her and MIL feeds her. And most of the time I am running late for that. I couldn't have a job. I would get fired. :)p

Space Studies

Well, Samantha has a new interest, and that is space. We have been adding a little space stuff to her room here and there and I have shown her some silly move clips about space and played some games about space, got her some books, and the more we do, the more excited she gets, so we decided to buy her a telescope. (Like with the butterfly garden, if she sticks to something at least a month and shows a growing interest, we will spend about $20.00 to $25.00 to get her something big to go with that particular interest. With the butterflies it was the butterfly pavilion and eggs. With this, we got her a kids  telescope.) Now, telescopes are expensive, so I have to say that in this case, Craigslist was my friend. We got it for $15.00. It came with two extra lenses, the tripod, and the telescope itself. We set it all up on Wednesday night and Jessie found the moon for her to look at, and she got to see a star up close. She was extremely excited, but I told Jessie next time we will let her play with it herself so she can use it how she wants and get familiar with it. Afterwards, in her journal, she drew a picture of what she saw. She drew the moon, stars, her telescope, Dad, Mom, and Sam. The description she had me write said, "I saw star and moon and love and a heart and the candle that I blowed out." (Not sure what the love and heart thing was about, but the candle was something from earlier that day.) Here are some pics. 

Homeschool Expo 2012

This year I was able to walk into the homeschool expo with a whole new view. I actually understood what was going on and what I was looking for.

I got Samantha some cool stuff too. There were a lot of used book stands there, so I got her Diary of a Worm- Cutest book ever. It is just what it sounds like, a diary of a worm. You learn some facts about it, but the other part is just silly. Sam Loves it though. There are also a few others, Diary of a Spider and Diary of a Fly. Samantha has been checking them out from the library constantly, so I figured it was time to buy it for her. And then I got her a Magic School Bus book about Space. (We also recently ordered her the entire series of Magic School Bus on DVD for her birthday off Amazon.) Then I got her a magnifying glass because she has been begging for one. And a plant root viewer. (We tried to do a homemade one where we planted a seed in a water bottle, but we got no results, so I am hoping that this will work better.)

I attended two seminars, both based on the Charlotte Mason method, called Learning Through Living Books, which basically explained the best ways to use detailed stories, fiction and non-fiction, to learn about History, Science, etc. instead of using textbooks. The other one was "Quiet Schooling of Nature" which explained in detail how to best use things like journaling and photography and such to help your child learn more about nature.

I also learned a lot today by talking to the HSLDA. I was asking about the legality of unschooling in Georgia. And he informed me what I could and couldn't do. And also told me that I don't have to enroll Sam with the county until she is 7, which means that is less time they will be over us. And I pick her grade when I turn her intent for in, so it isn't like we are holding her back. 

Her telescope also came in today, but unfortunately, they only sent one part of it, so now we are having to wait for them to send the other part. She says she can't wait to see the phases of the moon up close. It makes me so happy to see her get excited about that!

Sorry. Everywhere. Just...Excited.

Unschooling Thoughts

We are finally all moved into the new house, and able to relax. :) Ah...a very nice feeling. And I have realized how many new opportunities this house will give us for unschooling! All the extra space for projects and the area outside for exploration. She has more freedom to express herself without the landlord breathing down our necks. She can even be loud here! Which means we turn up the Dr. Jean CDs a LOT! Now that she is getting older, I have decided to put more learning opportunities in her reach, for her to initiate of course. So I am going to try to figure out a way to link different pages with references and information onto my blog for Samantha to look over if she chooses. 


*Side Note: We have decided to purchase the Magic School Bus series on DVD for Samantha. I am very excited! :p 


Now to do figure out how to link these things...

UN-Schooling

The more I read and learn about homeschooling, the more I lean toward doing something I said I would NEVER in a million years do. (Which I also said about homeschooling too, by the way.) And that is UNSCHOOLING. I used to think Unschooling was the Devil and it meant that you were failing your children and just being lazy, but that is not true. I have checked out some books at the library and did a little reading online too, and even talked to some unschoolers, and I think unschooling is an amazing idea, at least for the first few years. 


Unschooling is not a specific mold. It is learning through life experiences and using what works and chucking what doesn't. Basically, what we have been doing the last few years! And Samantha has learned so much! This girl could tell you where the Probiscus is on a butterfly. And where most of her bones are! Just through living life, telling me her interests, and allowing me to help facilitate! (Just like we did with her butterfly interest, which has now led to an interest in flowers.) 


We are still doing a lot of activities, just different types while we are staying with my grandparents. She is learning a lot about family togetherness. She gets a lot of time with my grandparents and Aunts and she Loves it. She is learning to tolerate the change. She has been so good! She is having to learn to get creative without a lot of toys. And it has been nice that we don't have a lot of chores and such to do around the house or many bills, except groceries while we are here, which means more family outings, especially to the beach, where she has learned a lot about constructing sand castles, mixing the water and sand, and experimenting with different stuff she finds there. Oh, and of course about swimming! On top of that, although she may or may not remember it, she has seen a lot of the home buying process! Whew. She has learned so much and had such rich experiences in the past few weeks. And here I was thinking it was just time wasted! 


I read one book, Christian Unschooling, actually started it yesterday and I am about to finish it today, and it challenges you to write down all that you do in a day that has some sort of educational value. it really made me feel good once I thought about it. Now obviously our activities are limited without all the art materials and such that I usually have, which are temporarily packed up, but we have managed to stay fairly busy and continue our learning. So, as of 3 o'clock today, we have: 


1. Painted an art t-shirt. Mixed colors and talked about how two colors together makes a different color. (Art)


2. Played Starfall.com She worked on some reading and math games and also completed an "About Me" section, where she thought about how she looked and the things she liked. (Reading and Language Arts and Math)


3. Played in the swimming pool and she initiated an experiment with the toys in there to see which ones float and which ones sink. (Physical Education and Physical Science)


4. Talked about the parts of a flower. Started a flower book with pressed flowers. Started a Plant Experiment-Collected Soil and Planted a Seed in a Plastic Bottle-so we can see the root system (Life Science)


5. Drew pictures of the family. (Art and Social Studies)


5. Read books. Some of the books were flip books for younger children, so I modified them by working on addition and subtraction in the numbers section. (Reading and Math) 


6. Looked up Dr. Jean songs on You Tube (Music and Technology)


7. "Fished" in the bathtub with a homemade rod. (Imaginative Play)


Then, if you want to get technical, we worked on Home Economics when we cooked and did a few household chores, like laundry and making the bed. Pretty much everything we have done has been educational, aside from having my Nana cut her hair, watching the movie Tangled, eating, and now she is napping. :) 


Tonight, I know she will have some free play, maybe draw some more, read a Bible story, talk about that, read some more books, take a bath, and maybe watch an educational show. I would say she is learning a lot through life. And pretty soon she will have her own backyard to make discoveries in, and even a stream on our land! And hopefully, fingers crossed, she will be learning about the pregnancy and fetal development in the next few months! 


UPDATE: And to top the evening off, after noon we treked to the local Battlefield where we took a walk, collected things from nature, observed the deer, and looked at some historic monuments and read stories about the battles that took place there. (Physical Education, Earth Science, Life Science, and History)

Starting Kindergarten Too Early

With the new school year coming up, I have been busy getting in some studying for the next school year, as in 2013. I have another year or so to get all my reading in, pick the final curriculum supplements, and go through and find the gaps in the Kindergarten standards and fill them in, elarn the laws...I have been planning to attend conferences and fairs and have been telling Jessie all about what I have learned and what I have planned. He has been so supportive, more than I expected him to be, and it makes me feel so good that, while he leaves the final decision making up to me, he listens well and gives his input. 


But now he is pushing for Samantha to start Kindergarten THIS YEAR! He wanted her to start in August. I told him the same thing I told the lady at the co-op. SHE'LL STILL BE 3! To me, that is just insane and ridiculous and it's pushing them. I think starting her at 4, almost 5 is just fine. She does so much learning without "school." But he says that if I don't start her in Kindergarten then I am holding her back because she wants to start Kindergarten and she is ready for it. I am looking at the long term. Yah, she may be ready or Kindergarten, but will she be ready for 1st grade right when she is turning 5. 


We are considering compromising. I said we would start on the Kindergarten curriculum, beginning in September, after she turns four, since there seems to be such a change in maturity once they hit 4 years old, working much in the same way we have been. (We have covered over half the Kindergarten curriculum and didn't even know it, mostly Reading and Science, a little math-through activities like games and our nature collection, outside exploration, butterfly garden, and general question/answer sessions and reading/research.) Anyway, I told him we would keep doing it the way we are, but make sure that we are covering the necessary requirements for the grade. I told him that the max. amount of instruction would be 1 to 2 hours a day, 3 days a week, and then we would go from there. But the more I think about it, the more I don't like that either. I just don't know what to do. I don't want to burn her out, but I don't want to put a general label and/or age on education either. 


Sorry for the rambling, I am just trying to sort out all my thoughts here. This is something I really need to pray about. And give some real thought before I just jump in. Any advice or insight would help.