The January Blues

Well, with a break from science, geography, and special units during the month of December, January's return to a full school schedule was kind of a shock to our system. I'm not sure why it was such a hard month, but it probably had something to do with the fact that we were coming back after having such a lovely Christmas break, not to mention the fact that Mason dropped his morning naps this month, and that Spencer officially started his Kindergarten reading track. Up until now, Maddi and Spencer have done almost everything together. All of their math, science, geography, and special unit work has been combined. Even much of their penmanship work they have done together. Maddi has, however, been on a more advanced reading track then Spence. Where Spencer has still been doing a lot of review of reading and writing all of the letters, Maddi has been tackling weekly spelling words, sight words, writing assignments, and daily reading requirements. This month, however, it was finally time for me to take Spencer to the next level with his reading work. It was finally time to put him on my self-designed reading track and welcome him to the wonderful world of readers. While he has done exceptionally well this month, and proved to be every bit as bright and capable as his big sister, it has still been a very taxing task. After all, it means one big thing: more time spent schooling. In addition to our combined classes, I now have two children (if you don't count the little preschool exercises I do with Emmie) that need quite a bit of one-on-one time. And this will continue to be true as the gap in the reading ability widens, and as Maddi gets into math work that is more advanced than I want to go with Spence quite yet. In truth, this month I began really homeschooling two children, verses just homeschooling Madison and having Spencer and Emma participate on the side. It has been hard, and taken some adjusting to, but adjust to it I must. It is my current lot in life to home school, and hard as it is, it is an unavoidable fact of life. This month almost drove me to spend what little savings we have and actually hire some help; but, gratefully, after a lot of frustration and struggling, I think we've re-found our balance and we are going to push forward on our own. I did decide, however, that while we started school in June of last year, we will be having a true summer vacation this year. We will still raise our tadpoles and other fun science projects, but otherwise, it's going to be a break from school. Our vacation may only last a month, as I want to avoid the usual forgetting of information and necessary re-teaching that occurs every summer and fall, but still, a month is a month. And I can't wait.

Dinosaurs

Well, we weren't originally planning on doing a unit on dinosaurs until next year, but after we got knee-deep into preparations for Mason's dinosaur birthday party, I decided to declare a school mini-unit to indulge the kids growing interest. It was nothing too outlandish, but we did read quite a bit about dinosaurs during our two week unit. We also did some hands on activities associated with the party. First off, we needed dinosaur bones for our Dino dig activity at the party. As a result, one night we mixed up a play-dough-like concoction and Nick and the kids molded true to life dinosaur bones using books for models.



Then, at the party, the kids got to dig for bones in both the sandy Dino dig and do "actual" rock excavations from the Dino rock we purchased. (these photos are on the family blog) It was a super party, and it worked out to be an appropriate time to introduce my children to the world of dinosaurs. At some point I'm sure the school curriculum will require a more in-depth look at the prehistoric creatures, but this was a good start.

The Pilgrims and the Indians

Who can teach elementary school without a November unit on the Pilgrims and the Indians?? Not us, obviously. And we studied them in quite a bit of detail too, knowing that we will be enjoying Thanksgiving in Plymouth next November. Here are a few photos of us during the course of our study:









It was a pretty typical review of the Pilgrims and the Indians, with the typical crafts and activities, but I will never tire of teaching these stories and the wonderful legacy left to us by those special people and that special gathering.

Trees

After taking a lovely trip to Yellowstone, where we capped off our Church History and National Park units, we settled back into school with a much more practical agenda for the winter months. Our days of trips and outdoor adventures will be coming to a close with the onset of winter, and although the long hours spent at home during the winter will be less exciting, I think they will prove to be very necessary to our ultimate educational goals. In other words, I think it's time to get more serious with reading and math and stop having so much fun!! Well, not that reading and math can't be fun, but not in the same way that all of our science and geography units have been fun. Anyways, even though we are settling into a more rigorous math and reading routine, I did decide to take the kids on one more great outing before we entered our winter hibernation.

This time we took a trip to the local apple orchard. We've been here before to pick apples, but this trip to the orchard would be somewhat different. Pick apples we would, but we had much more to do there than just eat glorious honey crisps in the cool fall breezes. This time we would be holding class in the grassy orchard, spending time examining the trees, and the fruit, and the seeds. If you recall back to the beginning of our school year when I posted the different curriculum requirements, there was a science requirement that read:
Children should know that there are two kinds of plants: deciduous and evergreen.
And that was about all it said on the topic of trees and most plants. As always, however, this would not suffice for our home-school. As a result, we decided to kick off a full unit on trees, and one that would last over several months rather than beginning and ending in the apple orchard. As I mentioned before, this unit actually came into my mind when we were talking about the lodge pole pines of Yellowstone. The kids were so interested in the fires and how the pine cones "popped" in the heat that I thought it would be a good starting point to kick off a full unit on trees. So, that is just what we did. I found two diagrams, one of the lifecycle of a deciduous tree, most of which are angiosperms (i.e. and apple tree) and one of the lifecycle of an evergreen tree, most of which are gymnosperms (i.e. a lodge pole pine.) These diagrams were perfect because they focused on seed propagation, and let us return to a discussion of the lodge pole pine cones and how they burst and spread their seeds after the fires. We could then compare and contrast that with the seeds that grow on the angiosperms and eventually turn into the delicious fruit that we all love to eat. This led into a conversation about how those seeds were spread and on and on. The kids loved our tree lessons, and were so excited to go study the apple trees close up.
And wouldn't anyone be excited to have school in this quaint little setting?



It all started with the usual hay ride into the orchards...







followed by a few minutes enjoying the farm animals. Mason was a little timid at first, but not EmmaLee. In fact, some of the chicks got loose while we were there and Emma single-handedly rounded them up.







After playing with the farm animals, we walked through the corn maze,



and then proceeded with plenty of apple picking...





and then lots of apple eating and apple cider drinking.



Then we pulled out the tree books and read and read. It was homeschooling at its best.

While we did lots of tree crafts and tree lessons during this time period, our tree talks won't end here. We'll revisit trees again in December with our Christmas tree. Then we're going to do an honorary tree unit in February when we talk about family trees. And then we will be off to collect and boil down our own syrup in the March Maple Tree Festival up in St. Paul. Perhaps we will even go swinging on birches when we get to our poetry unit, or spend a day in the summer climbing trees just for good measure. Who knows, and who knew trees could be so wonderful!

Oh, and I almost forgot to include this picture of us truly enjoying the fruits of our labors in the orchard:

National Parks

After spending a week and a half saving the planet, we dove head-long into our next unit on national parks. We had no time to lose as our Yellowstone Trip was only about ten days away. Still, we had to be thorough. We started out by talking about national parks in general. We talked about what national parks are, how they came into being, and who is in charge of watching over and protecting them. (The Park Rangers) We actually took quite a bit of time looking up national parks in a national parks book we purchased, and the kids loved playing National Park Memory--a special version we picked up at the Science museum.



My favorite part; however, was when we moved into the discussion of the very first national park in the whole wide world: Yellowstone National Park. I just love Yellowstone, having gone there many many times as both a child and an adult. I was so excited to have this chance to teach my kids all about it, not to mention to take them there. I decided to break my Yellowstone Unit into two parts: 1)Geothermal Features and 2) Yellowstone Wildlife.

First, geothermal features. This section was a blast to teach--literally. First we reviewed the layers of the earth and everything the kids learned about fault lines in Summer Camp. Then we took a day to talk about volcanoes--Yellowstone is actually sitting on a large dormant one. During this discussion we of course had to construct our own volcano and cause it to erupt. The kids thought that was great. Unfortunately, Nick deleted the picture of our amazing handiwork! After talking about volcanoes, we went into a long section on the active geothermal features in the park, namely, geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles. I have been to the park many times and I never realized the difference between all of these things. It was fascinating, and the kiddos loved it. They were so excited to swim in a hot spring, smell a fumarole, and watch Old Faithful erupt!

As we talked about all of the geothermal features, as well as the Yellowstone volcano and earthquakes, somewhere along the way we got side tracked on the Yellowstone fires. We got so side-tracked, in fact, that I decided to make a third section simply on the fires. Spence was especiallly taken with them-watching online video after video of the great forests burning. Then of course we had to talk about how they fought the fires and watch video after video of the airplanes dumping water and chemicals on the fires in an attempt to put them out. The kids were mesmorized. They were also devestated thinking that the whole park was still burned down. Fortuntely, we learned that the park was not entirely burned down, and that the fire actually did much good for the park. This lead into a discussion of the famous lodge-pole pines that dot the park. We learned all about their life span and how important fires can actually be to their growth. I even learned something as we discussed the logde-pole pine cones that contain the seedlings for new trees. Only under extreme heat can the cones pop and release their seeds. And only with adequate light (i.e. not being blocked by too many big trees) can the seeds take root and grow. It was an interesting tangent, and one that gave me an idea for another special unit when we get home from our trip.

Because we got side-tracked, we didn't get to our wildlife segment before leaving on our trip. I did; however, teach them all about the wildlife while we were in the park. We talked about the deer, elk, moose, and bison. We talked about black and grizzly bears, including what to do if you were ever to meet a real bear in the wild. We read about eagles and trumpeter swans. We studied marmots and chipmunks and beavers. And of course, we traced the history of the gray wolf and it's significance in the park. All the while we munched on special Yellowstone Animal Crackers and marked off the animals on our Yellowstone Bingo Cards as we came across them. It was awesome! A school special unit and a family vacation we will all never forget. (For all the pictures check out the Yellowstone Post on our family blog.)

The First Day of School

Well, today is the first day of school. Public school that is. It is the real day of truth. I awoke early this morning with such mixed feelings. I know we are supposed to home school, but there is still this strange feeling of being left out. I can't help but look at Maddi and feel kind of sad. She has no idea what today is, but I do. I know the Lord has a purpose for all things, and he can give us so much more than the world. I know for myself that we don't need the experiences of the world to be fulfilled and to grow into His people. Still, my heart feels heavy as I know that Nick and I have chosen to deprive Maddi of this life experience. She can never have another first day of Kindergarten again. Today will come and go, and with it, that opportunity. From here on out, if we ever put her back into school, she will be different. All of the other kids will have already started. They shared that experience all together. They all walked through the door of the school together. They kissed their mothers good-bye, met their teacher, played on their first recess--everything you do on the first day of kindergarten. All except my Maddi. I love her so much, as I do all my kids. I don't want her to miss out on anything in life. I don't want her to be strange, or different. But, then again, I guess I do. I guess that is what this all boils down to for us. We will have to be strange and different--peculiar--if that's what He requires. I feel intensely sad today, but intensely grateful as well. I pray that my children will be grateful for this decision too, and not look back with anger or resentment. Who knew being a parent was going to be so complicated! Heaven help us as we try to negotiate this monumental task! Or should I say, keep helping us, as He always does.

Music Makers

I wanted to include a brief post here about an extra-curricular school project that I have decided to take on again this year. This project is a once-a-week, two hour musical class I refer to as Music Makers. It is much like the Kinder Music programs available in many states, but differs in that I have no certification to run it, and so, I run it free of charge. It is quite a time-consuming program, both in prep time and in running time, but I decided to run it again this year to meet two of our family's home schooling needs. First off, it gives us a formal music curriculum to teach not only actual musical education (i.e. notes, rhythm, instruments, etc.), but to also teach topical items through music. And second, it gives my children some classmates other than each other. They love the company, and I hold music makers parties at each holiday to help enhance their home-schooling experience. While there are times when I wonder why I give myself the extra work, for the most part I love hosting the class. If I was really ambitious I would start a music makers blog to follow all of the crazy stuff we do in class, but lets be honest, I've got to sleep sometime!