We've been off-line and out of school for a few weeks having an amazing vacation here in New Paltz. Our friends, R & her daughter A (L's "twin"), visited us for a month while the kids went to summer camp. Not only do we love R & A, they're the kind of people who are totally game for anything. So we've been hitting the neighborhood hot spots -- Lake Minnewaska, Split Rock Falls, Sliding Rock, Saugerties Light House, Freestyle Frolic dances, and finally today, the Trapeze School.
God, what an experience! You drive down this country road, and in the middle of a field is a huge trapeze set up. L, A & I took today's class: put on safety harnesses, crawled 30 or 40 feet in the air on a small ladder, leaned out over a long, long drop to grab a trapeze bar, and then......jumped. It was incredibly frightening, and (as soon as my feet hit the ground), exhilerating. Watching these little girls swinging in the air, eventually getting their courage up to hang upside down by their knees and do flips (which I did as well!!!) really made me feel so proud and happy. I'll put photos up as soon as I can.
But R & A's departure means we start school up again. I want to focus a little on France, since we're going to be going there in mid-August for 2 weeks. Maybe borrow some books from the library (Madeline? What else of French-themed?), and cook French food and try to learn some french phrases. It will be hard to get back into the swing of things (see, nothing but swinging on the brain today) after such a long and delectable break, but it was worth it.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Summer vacation & writing
In case you haven't noticed, dear Reader, we've been on a break. After all, even homeschoolers get to have vacation....whenever the hell we feel like it.
L has been going to a summer camp which I guess I would describe as "nature immersion", or at least as much immersion as a 5 year-old can handle. The kids spend all day out in the woods, rain or shine, learning about their environment in a very free-form playing sort of way. She's been climbing trees, wading in a stream, getting painted with mud, learning what plants taste good (and hopefully simultaneously learning which ones don't) and many other amazing things under the gentle guidance of camp counselors who don't boss her around as much as Mom does. Her best friend A is with her, and in fact A & her mom are staying with us for the month of July. T has also been in the same camp, but with me and only a couple of days a week. Not quite the dive-into-nature experience his sister is getting, but it's letting me spend quite a bit of time focussed exclusively on him, which is quite a treat for both of us. And I've learned how to build a shelter out of tree branches and leaves, so the next time you think you might need to fight for survival out in the wilderness of Central Park, invite me along.
So school has been shelved till the end of camp, and even then, while A is visiting I know it will be hard for L to really focus on anything (although maybe I could get A to "do school" with L....hmmmm, will have to think about that one). But I'm marking these three weeks down as Nature Study, so maybe it does count after all.
I had a conversation with one of the other parents in the Parent & Tot camp that I've been thinking about a lot. He is in the magazine business and I had been complaining to him about the difficulty of writing now that children absorb all my energy and focus. He commented on this blog, which he had found it by checking my email address (something I myself always do if I don't recognize the url), how great it was that I could write about a subject I was so deeply involved in and passionate about, i.e. homeschooling my kids. It's strange, but I had never thought about this blog as writing. It was just a place to unload all the things in my head at the end of the day which maybe a few of my friends would visit occasionally. I never wrote with the thought of anyone else reading it, which is totally insane, I know. I don't know how I feel about this idea. On one hand, it makes me feel better about not having published anything for past few years (I've been "collecting material"....yeah, that's the ticket!). On the other, it's not actually very well written. I don't think about the crafting of it, I don't check for cliches and run-on sentences, and half the time, I don't even know what I'm saying till I hit Publish and re-read it. Like this paragraph I've just written. It's crap, and that would be okay if I didn't think about it as anything else but an unloading of accumulated mind-crap. And why you're reading it, I really don't know.
So, do I start taking this more seriously and try to write as if I mean it? Or do I continue to take the satisfaction I get from banging this out whenever I can and simply focus on where I am right now, raising and teaching my kids? The age-old problem -- too busy worrying about tomorrow to enjoy today. Ah, shit, I should just shut up and go to bed already. Actually, I'm going to watch Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog online. Who needs sleep when you can watch Neil Patrick Harris in a musical?
L has been going to a summer camp which I guess I would describe as "nature immersion", or at least as much immersion as a 5 year-old can handle. The kids spend all day out in the woods, rain or shine, learning about their environment in a very free-form playing sort of way. She's been climbing trees, wading in a stream, getting painted with mud, learning what plants taste good (and hopefully simultaneously learning which ones don't) and many other amazing things under the gentle guidance of camp counselors who don't boss her around as much as Mom does. Her best friend A is with her, and in fact A & her mom are staying with us for the month of July. T has also been in the same camp, but with me and only a couple of days a week. Not quite the dive-into-nature experience his sister is getting, but it's letting me spend quite a bit of time focussed exclusively on him, which is quite a treat for both of us. And I've learned how to build a shelter out of tree branches and leaves, so the next time you think you might need to fight for survival out in the wilderness of Central Park, invite me along.
So school has been shelved till the end of camp, and even then, while A is visiting I know it will be hard for L to really focus on anything (although maybe I could get A to "do school" with L....hmmmm, will have to think about that one). But I'm marking these three weeks down as Nature Study, so maybe it does count after all.
I had a conversation with one of the other parents in the Parent & Tot camp that I've been thinking about a lot. He is in the magazine business and I had been complaining to him about the difficulty of writing now that children absorb all my energy and focus. He commented on this blog, which he had found it by checking my email address (something I myself always do if I don't recognize the url), how great it was that I could write about a subject I was so deeply involved in and passionate about, i.e. homeschooling my kids. It's strange, but I had never thought about this blog as writing. It was just a place to unload all the things in my head at the end of the day which maybe a few of my friends would visit occasionally. I never wrote with the thought of anyone else reading it, which is totally insane, I know. I don't know how I feel about this idea. On one hand, it makes me feel better about not having published anything for past few years (I've been "collecting material"....yeah, that's the ticket!). On the other, it's not actually very well written. I don't think about the crafting of it, I don't check for cliches and run-on sentences, and half the time, I don't even know what I'm saying till I hit Publish and re-read it. Like this paragraph I've just written. It's crap, and that would be okay if I didn't think about it as anything else but an unloading of accumulated mind-crap. And why you're reading it, I really don't know.
So, do I start taking this more seriously and try to write as if I mean it? Or do I continue to take the satisfaction I get from banging this out whenever I can and simply focus on where I am right now, raising and teaching my kids? The age-old problem -- too busy worrying about tomorrow to enjoy today. Ah, shit, I should just shut up and go to bed already. Actually, I'm going to watch Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog online. Who needs sleep when you can watch Neil Patrick Harris in a musical?
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Another lesson on letting go
After L's lame first day of school, I was determined to BE PREPARED for her second. I spent many hours after the kids were in bed, printing out worksheets, reading lesson plans, organizing projects. I decided that today we were going to be doing Math, Science, a read-aloud/narration session, Phonics, as well as our usual recitation of the poem of the week and reading.
We started the day downstairs in the den, where L & T cuddled up with me on the couch while I read a couple of Aesop's fables: The Wolf and the Kid, and The Tortoise and the Ducks. They were really interested and asked that I read each fable twice, though the moral lessons were as opaque to the kids as they were to me. But L got a kick out of the turtle hurtling to his death on trying to show off, so it was a good start to the day.
Bouyed by my first success, I turned to Science. After the fiasco with the Tanglewood nature study "curriculum", I had moved on to another free science course that seemed easier to prepare for: Math Science Nucleus. This curriculum was developed by a non-profit group of scientists & educators trying to bring science into classrooms. So there are detailed lesson plans, children's workbooks, basically everything you need to teach science. So I was psyched. Today's lesson was going to be on the different states of matter. I had the workbook, I'd read the lesson plan, I had rocks, water, balloons at my disposal...I was ready!
While I was gathering up the workbooks & everything I'd prepared the night before, L picked up a daddy-long-leg off the carpet and started playing with it.
"Is this a spider?" she asked.
"No honey, it's not," I answered, distracted because I'd misplaced something we needed.
"Is it related to a spider?"
"I don't really know."
"Can you look it up for me?"
I was about to tell her to put the bug down and listen to me while I lectured to her on solids, liquids, gasses and plasma, but then I realized that she was totally into this topic. She really wanted to know what it was. So I sat down at the computer and started researching daddy-long-legs and found a child-friendly site explaining what it was and how it is different from a spider. We watched the creature climb up and down her arm and she peered at it through a magnifying glass, enthralled. We ended up having her do a narration of what I had read to her about daddy-long-legs and draw a picture that she put in her nature journal.
What a wonderful surprise gift that daddy-long-leg turned out to be. It gave me the reminder that one of the beauties of homeschooling is the possibility and thrill of veering off course to discover something new. Serendipity should be a by-word here. All it takes is for me to let go. Not always easy to do, but worth it.
So the rest of the day went like that. Instead of finishing the day's program, we drove into town for lunch, then had ice cream, then went to Coxing Kills falls where the kids waded around trying to catch water bugs and fossil hunting. I consider it a day devoted to science.
We started the day downstairs in the den, where L & T cuddled up with me on the couch while I read a couple of Aesop's fables: The Wolf and the Kid, and The Tortoise and the Ducks. They were really interested and asked that I read each fable twice, though the moral lessons were as opaque to the kids as they were to me. But L got a kick out of the turtle hurtling to his death on trying to show off, so it was a good start to the day.
Bouyed by my first success, I turned to Science. After the fiasco with the Tanglewood nature study "curriculum", I had moved on to another free science course that seemed easier to prepare for: Math Science Nucleus. This curriculum was developed by a non-profit group of scientists & educators trying to bring science into classrooms. So there are detailed lesson plans, children's workbooks, basically everything you need to teach science. So I was psyched. Today's lesson was going to be on the different states of matter. I had the workbook, I'd read the lesson plan, I had rocks, water, balloons at my disposal...I was ready!
While I was gathering up the workbooks & everything I'd prepared the night before, L picked up a daddy-long-leg off the carpet and started playing with it.
"Is this a spider?" she asked.
"No honey, it's not," I answered, distracted because I'd misplaced something we needed.
"Is it related to a spider?"
"I don't really know."
"Can you look it up for me?"
I was about to tell her to put the bug down and listen to me while I lectured to her on solids, liquids, gasses and plasma, but then I realized that she was totally into this topic. She really wanted to know what it was. So I sat down at the computer and started researching daddy-long-legs and found a child-friendly site explaining what it was and how it is different from a spider. We watched the creature climb up and down her arm and she peered at it through a magnifying glass, enthralled. We ended up having her do a narration of what I had read to her about daddy-long-legs and draw a picture that she put in her nature journal.
What a wonderful surprise gift that daddy-long-leg turned out to be. It gave me the reminder that one of the beauties of homeschooling is the possibility and thrill of veering off course to discover something new. Serendipity should be a by-word here. All it takes is for me to let go. Not always easy to do, but worth it.
So the rest of the day went like that. Instead of finishing the day's program, we drove into town for lunch, then had ice cream, then went to Coxing Kills falls where the kids waded around trying to catch water bugs and fossil hunting. I consider it a day devoted to science.
Monday, June 2, 2008
The first day of first grade
Well, today is the first of our new 12-month school year, L's first grade. We had a graduation "ceremony" yesterday at L's insistence, where we all sang "Happy Graduation to You" and she passed out mini carrot cupcakes to our friends who were visiting us here in New Paltz.
I did some late night preparation for the first day, but felt pretty prepared. Ummmmm....nope. Wasn't prepared at all, it turned out. L requested that we start the day with Science. I whipped out my science curriculum, which I had copied and pasted from the Tanglewood website nature study curriculum, and all it said was "Study the movement of sun and time." I drew a total blank. Though I had read that thing over and over again in all my prep work, I never noticed that it actually doesn't tell you how to study the sun and time. Woops. I did some lame scrambling, read out loud to her from some book I found on the sun and tried to pretend we were done. L was pretty unimpressed.
Things went a little better after that--we did the introduction to the Story of The World (luckily L is excited to do it again, though we've already gone through the first few chapters already) and did a fun game identifying the continents. Later I read aloud Kipling's How the Whale Got Its Throat from the Just So stories and we did a narration.
We broke for lunch out on our deck, enjoying the sun and breeze and yummy fruit salad, then started math lessons with one from the Center for Innovation in Mathematics. It's interesting, as it introduces from the beginning mathematical concepts that most math courses save till much later on, for example, this morning's lesson on using the notations for more than, >, and less than, <. We're skipping around with that because while it brings in advanced concepts early, it also takes a long time to get to higher numbers (it gets to the number 10 only several weeks in), so will use it in conjunction with Singapore Math.
Now we're taking another break, and still have reading to finish. It's turned out to be a much longer day than I expected, but I think it will go more smoothly as we get into a rhythm and I learn how to be prepared (!). And know what to skip.
I did some late night preparation for the first day, but felt pretty prepared. Ummmmm....nope. Wasn't prepared at all, it turned out. L requested that we start the day with Science. I whipped out my science curriculum, which I had copied and pasted from the Tanglewood website nature study curriculum, and all it said was "Study the movement of sun and time." I drew a total blank. Though I had read that thing over and over again in all my prep work, I never noticed that it actually doesn't tell you how to study the sun and time. Woops. I did some lame scrambling, read out loud to her from some book I found on the sun and tried to pretend we were done. L was pretty unimpressed.
Things went a little better after that--we did the introduction to the Story of The World (luckily L is excited to do it again, though we've already gone through the first few chapters already) and did a fun game identifying the continents. Later I read aloud Kipling's How the Whale Got Its Throat from the Just So stories and we did a narration.
We broke for lunch out on our deck, enjoying the sun and breeze and yummy fruit salad, then started math lessons with one from the Center for Innovation in Mathematics. It's interesting, as it introduces from the beginning mathematical concepts that most math courses save till much later on, for example, this morning's lesson on using the notations for more than, >, and less than, <. We're skipping around with that because while it brings in advanced concepts early, it also takes a long time to get to higher numbers (it gets to the number 10 only several weeks in), so will use it in conjunction with Singapore Math.
Now we're taking another break, and still have reading to finish. It's turned out to be a much longer day than I expected, but I think it will go more smoothly as we get into a rhythm and I learn how to be prepared (!). And know what to skip.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Wrapping up the year
Today was the last day of the Simple Machines class held at ROC, a homeschool community center in the basement of a church on the Upper East Side. I can't say we got a lot out of it, not because the class wasn't good but because we had missed so many after the car accident and getting sick and getting the New Paltz house ready. I think we ended up going to two or three. But we got to take the Lego educational kit home with us so we'll just do all the projects on our own, though Teacher Tom's talks on physics (for five-year-olds) will be missed.
There was one girl, about 8 or 9, who attached herself to L & me as we were doing our car-building project. I let her help because L didn't seem to mind, but found it incredibly annoying -- she wasn't signed up for the class, and was monopolizing what should have been L's project while her father sat about 6 feet away, totally ignoring what was going on. I had to jump in several times just to make sure L got a chance to put some pieces together herself. And she was wearing so much perfume that it made my eyes water to stand next to her! (meow) And all through my teeth-clenching, eye-rolling and barely restrained sighs of irritation, L let the girl build the car with her and complimented her on her pretty dress at the end. Now who is the child here?
I'm planning on starting 1st grade in June, and run a 12-month year so that we can get away with doing only 4 days a week and have wiggle room for slotting in other fun things. Like going to France this summer for 2 weeks and maybe London. Because we had to cancel our London trip due to the scarlet fever episode last month we still have those tickets that have to be used. That would be a hell of a field trip.
There was one girl, about 8 or 9, who attached herself to L & me as we were doing our car-building project. I let her help because L didn't seem to mind, but found it incredibly annoying -- she wasn't signed up for the class, and was monopolizing what should have been L's project while her father sat about 6 feet away, totally ignoring what was going on. I had to jump in several times just to make sure L got a chance to put some pieces together herself. And she was wearing so much perfume that it made my eyes water to stand next to her! (meow) And all through my teeth-clenching, eye-rolling and barely restrained sighs of irritation, L let the girl build the car with her and complimented her on her pretty dress at the end. Now who is the child here?
I'm planning on starting 1st grade in June, and run a 12-month year so that we can get away with doing only 4 days a week and have wiggle room for slotting in other fun things. Like going to France this summer for 2 weeks and maybe London. Because we had to cancel our London trip due to the scarlet fever episode last month we still have those tickets that have to be used. That would be a hell of a field trip.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Nature study and curriculum decisions
We've been spending a lot of time up here in New Paltz. The house is so surrounded by trees and other plants that sometimes the green light sifting through makes me feel like I'm underwater.
We've started incorporating a lot more nature study into the day simply because it's such a large part of our lives here. Yesterday, L, T & I went for a walk to find a tree to "adopt". We found it on what L calls her island, a little bump in the course of the stream. I don't know what kind of tree it is yet, just that it's a bit bigger than a sapling, but not quite a mature tree, and L says it speaks to her. Through the year we'll research what species it is, look at how it appears in all the seasons, measure the trunk circumference and just generally visit it regularly and keep a record in our nature book.
The really good news of the week is that I think I'm settling into a curriculum, at least for this year. Charlotte Mason (CM) is one of the major types of homeschooling philosophies, not quite as strict and full-on as Classical Education but with more structure than unschooling. It's named for a British educator who created a philosophy around the education of children that incorporated a lot of nature study, short lessons, and learning through the reading of classic "living" books. I'm still educating myself on exactly what all this entails but what I see of it so far I'm really attracted to. (You can find out more about this philosophy here). What I like about it is that it is flexible, doesn't require us to follow a rigid schedule of courses, and incorporates much of what we already do--read classic children's literature, use narration for example.
So CM is going to be the driving philosophy behind my choices for what and how to study & teach. I'm still going to use Starfall for phonics, Singapore Math (though I'm really intrigued by this free math curriculum which I might incorporate), do nature study ála Tanglewood for science, and follow Ambleside Online's art & music schedule. For the history/geography core, I'm going to use this online curriculum, Mosaic Introduction to World History, which, on top of being free, uses Story of the World which L loves.
So now I just need to file my paperwork with the Board of Ed, figure out the bones of a schedule, and get started!
We've started incorporating a lot more nature study into the day simply because it's such a large part of our lives here. Yesterday, L, T & I went for a walk to find a tree to "adopt". We found it on what L calls her island, a little bump in the course of the stream. I don't know what kind of tree it is yet, just that it's a bit bigger than a sapling, but not quite a mature tree, and L says it speaks to her. Through the year we'll research what species it is, look at how it appears in all the seasons, measure the trunk circumference and just generally visit it regularly and keep a record in our nature book.
The really good news of the week is that I think I'm settling into a curriculum, at least for this year. Charlotte Mason (CM) is one of the major types of homeschooling philosophies, not quite as strict and full-on as Classical Education but with more structure than unschooling. It's named for a British educator who created a philosophy around the education of children that incorporated a lot of nature study, short lessons, and learning through the reading of classic "living" books. I'm still educating myself on exactly what all this entails but what I see of it so far I'm really attracted to. (You can find out more about this philosophy here). What I like about it is that it is flexible, doesn't require us to follow a rigid schedule of courses, and incorporates much of what we already do--read classic children's literature, use narration for example.
So CM is going to be the driving philosophy behind my choices for what and how to study & teach. I'm still going to use Starfall for phonics, Singapore Math (though I'm really intrigued by this free math curriculum which I might incorporate), do nature study ála Tanglewood for science, and follow Ambleside Online's art & music schedule. For the history/geography core, I'm going to use this online curriculum, Mosaic Introduction to World History, which, on top of being free, uses Story of the World which L loves.
So now I just need to file my paperwork with the Board of Ed, figure out the bones of a schedule, and get started!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
L's blog
>>Little Flower Journal<<
I know a lot of people would react to a five-year-old with her own blog in the same way I do to a five-year-old with a cell phone: hunh? How absolutely ridiculous and indulgent and really... ostentatious on the parent's part -- hey, look how cool we are. Our kid has a blog.
So I sort of cringed when I first saw an example of a kid's school blog at The Amazing Discoveries of Dash. But then the idea sort of grew on me. What a great way to create a portfolio of a child's work, and let him or her see it published. And it can be used as tool for all sorts of things, like doing narrations (which I was writing by hand in a notebook, which had the disadvantage of keeping her dictation slow enough for me to write down, and if you know L, you know the lightening speed at which her tongue runs), dictating a journal, teaching her the technology, and another use for the computer beyond games and watching dvds.
We've only been doing it for three days, and so far it's been great. She finds it thrilling to see her words appear on the computer screen; for her it's almost as good as appearing on tv, I think. She's a little more cooperative doing narrations since I can almost keep up with her thoughts, and best of all, she gets to ramble on about her webkinz for as long as my fingers can stand it.
I expect that the novelty will wear off soon, and then the real test of this as an educational tool will begin. I also confess that I'm a little hesitant about how much information will go out about her and her life. I had a photo of her up there at first, but then took it down, though since I have loads of photos of her on this blog, I'm not sure why I'm being so delicate about that, but there it is. Too many television shows about crazy pedophiles stalking the internet, I guess.
In any event, so far, so good. Pretty much all of it is.
I know a lot of people would react to a five-year-old with her own blog in the same way I do to a five-year-old with a cell phone: hunh? How absolutely ridiculous and indulgent and really... ostentatious on the parent's part -- hey, look how cool we are. Our kid has a blog.
So I sort of cringed when I first saw an example of a kid's school blog at The Amazing Discoveries of Dash. But then the idea sort of grew on me. What a great way to create a portfolio of a child's work, and let him or her see it published. And it can be used as tool for all sorts of things, like doing narrations (which I was writing by hand in a notebook, which had the disadvantage of keeping her dictation slow enough for me to write down, and if you know L, you know the lightening speed at which her tongue runs), dictating a journal, teaching her the technology, and another use for the computer beyond games and watching dvds.
We've only been doing it for three days, and so far it's been great. She finds it thrilling to see her words appear on the computer screen; for her it's almost as good as appearing on tv, I think. She's a little more cooperative doing narrations since I can almost keep up with her thoughts, and best of all, she gets to ramble on about her webkinz for as long as my fingers can stand it.
I expect that the novelty will wear off soon, and then the real test of this as an educational tool will begin. I also confess that I'm a little hesitant about how much information will go out about her and her life. I had a photo of her up there at first, but then took it down, though since I have loads of photos of her on this blog, I'm not sure why I'm being so delicate about that, but there it is. Too many television shows about crazy pedophiles stalking the internet, I guess.
In any event, so far, so good. Pretty much all of it is.
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