Our school week begins to pile up quickly. Julia is at her Montessori class three mornings a week. We spend Monday's at Explora where the kids can do Science of all kinds all day. We pack a lunch and play on the playground at noon. Then back inside for more hands-on stuff! I never have to say "don't touch!" or "get down!" or "don't break that!". It's very refreshing. It is also a very worthwhile day spent for their education.
On Thursday's we are trying out a new thing; volunteering at Wildlife West, a last line of defense between animals who cannot be released into the wild and death. Today I brought the boys, and it was very amazing and creepy the way the two cougars watched Aidan. They couldn't take their eyes off of him! And they'd follow him around as much as they could with a fence between us. We are learning (and it will take awhile!) how to feed the animals. We go with two other senior feeders and learn the ropes. It takes a year of consistent following to become a feeder yourself. The non-contact animals go into an "air-lock" while the feeders clean their cages and put out the proper diet. We got to go into the bear cage and look for scat. Yay! =) Also, javelinas, bobcats, and cougars. Some of the contact animals are racoons and wolves. Yes, WOLVES!!
But the thing that is giving me the most joy is that when we are just at home doing the "regular thing", we are having fun! We will add more but for now we are working on language arts, writing, reading, math and sign language. Each one is a small segment packed with pith, interest and work. Once, Lucas began to express weariness with writing, but only had two more words to finish! As I pointed this out, he quickly got back to work and finished up. I love to see the effectiveness of small, packed lessons. While I collect the materials and prepare for the next lesson, they get a small break to play or snack or whatever. Then back to something fun. The math is very cool, very hands on, very reasoning and concept oriented. All my kids like it when it's math time; therefore I do as well.
Chores have suffered, I must admit. But I spent four or five weeks getting a good chore system going and I don't mind if it slacks off for a while as we get a good school rhythm down. I am keeping the kitchen clean, this is a miracle and causes my husband to caress me more often. Kitchens are my weakness, as my family and friends know all too well. I hate doing dishes! But I love a clean kitchen, so what can I do?
All in all, I'm happy about school, I'm happy about feeling more competent, more motivated and more successful! It is hard to justify homeschooling when you aren't sure what in the world you are doing!
The curriculum I'm using right now is:
Math: Making Math Meaningful, by David Quine
Reading: my own "expertise" with Guided Reading + Phonics
Lang.A and Writing: Susan Wise Bauer of The Well Trained Mind fame
Sign Language: American Sign Language DeMYSTiFieD, by Kristin Mulrooney, Ph.D.
Science is Explora, of course, and for Geography, I'm just starting with map and globe basics for now. We'll delve into history a little more fully in a few months.
Julia has been dazzling us with her Montessori prowess with the binomial cube and now the trinomial cube which her teacher says she's close to mastery with! Today she copied a complete sentence of her own narration, which was more than I expected of her. I was so proud! She told me tonight that she wants to go to school forever at Miss Beths. =) I was happy to hear that! All in all, things are coming together in a way that leaves my doubts behind and that is a very nice place to be at.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Sounds wonderful Melita. Your kids are so lucky to have a talented, good teacher. It is so neat to see kids love school, isn't it? Makes it worth all the effort. When I was homeschooling, there were some neat magazines we used to get, "Calliope" being one of them. I can't remember the name of the other, but one was world history, made simple for children, and the other was US history. I loved reading them myself... since I am a poky reader who doesn't have the best reading skills. Nice to see Julia being excited about her school too. You are fortunate to have such a neat science museum nearby. Now... I think I have some dishes that are piling up, LOL. Can't wait to see you all... hopefully before the year is out.
ReplyDeleteAs always, you amaze me. Normally teachers have one subject they have to plan for, work out, tackle. Not you, man. You have to tackle them ALL. Where do you find the time?! Glad you feel on top of it. Now have fun this weekend:)
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