Fighting. Again. And tests.

Writing words with blocks.

I thought we were doing well. I spent some money I really didn't want to so I could keep the little ones occupied while I was doing school with the big ones. I had given some free and alternative days to break up the monotony of writing work. And now we're back to having bad days.

I get distracted. They slink out of work.

I try and work with them they start crying and whining about how hard it is.

Then we get into a power struggle. Right now Olivia and I are butting heads. We were doing fine (doing the science work from yesterday that somehow we didn't get around to) and she started falling behind, so Cordi and I went ahead and I said (since the part of the work was a little difficult for them to grasp -reorganizing mixed up words to make a 8-10 word sentence) I said Olivia can just copy the sentences.

It's been an hour and fifteen minutes and she's still complaining around a flow of tears.

Everything is distracting her. It's too hard. She wants to write her own sentences (which would be wrong.) Her pencil fell. It's too hard. She can't do it.

Now, she wants me to take her to school.

She got all her work done. This is for fun.

So, I looked it up. Fine by me really, if she wants to see how they push them in schools and what the consequence of this kind of behaivor there would be then be my guest. Writing three sentences by copying is going to be the least of her problems as the school website's main focus is the Testing Schedule.

The kids in the school down the street get tested seven times a school year. Six tests are administered  practicaly monthly and the last (either the FCAT for 3rd and up or the SAT 10 for 1st and 2nd) are week long after a week of test prepping. They even test the kindergarteners multiple times a year. Schools last 10 months (roughly) and the kids are given 7 test through the course of 180 days. Between holidays, days off, half days and all the prepping and actual testing days, when is the learning being done? How can anything be learned in depth? What is retained if shortly after a lesson learning is stopped to work on how to take a test?

I wouldn't push her to write these simple things except that is how things get pushed aside here. They learn (they're smart kids) that if they complain long enough or just flat out silently refuse to do the work mommy will get distracted with something else -be it a baby or a phone call or making food- and forget they're supposed to do it. They move on in their day getting to do what they want to do instead of what they need to do. If I change what we're doing because they protest they'll use it every time to get me to change what they don't like to do. If I say to her now "Ok, lets take a break and go outside" the next day something will be just as hard and she'll look for that break every day. I know my kids, trust me on this.

How do I instill a sense of responsibility in them? I'm so weary of all the fighting.

Flat Marcus

My cousin's kid is reading Flat Stanley in their Kindy class and we are the lucky recipients of his self-portrait flat person, Flat Marcus. This is the first of this we have ever done before.

Now, the instructions said to take *a* photo of Flat Marcus and to write about our community. But I'm what they label an "over-achiever".

Here is Flat Marcus peeping from our mailbox.

We took him to many places but here are some highlights. Above: Raymond James Stadium home of the Bucs. Below: Flat Marcus tanning himself on Clearwater Beach. (note: I laminated him because I knew were were going to get him wet and I am supposed to send him back).

He visited University of Tampa and the Plant Museum which looks like a fairy tale castle.

It said sending a souviner was "optional" but we all know that to over-achievers optional means must. So, Flat Marcus will go back to three dimensional Marcus with some beach sand and rabbit wool.

And being that this is set for Kindy aged kids, I had the brilliant idea of creating a photo book instead of filling out a boring old survey. We included a map of where we live (printed off Google maps) along with dots to show the places Flat Marcus went. Each page opens like a book with one side the photo and the other descriptions of our lives, community and where we took Flat Marcus.

I tried to write it like a story book, making it easy for Kindy kids to understand with short sentences for each photo and still be somewhat exciting.

I mailed it out this morning and completely forgot to take a photo of the book before it got packed away with a small baggie of super soft white beach sand and super soft white bunny fur.

I hope I the kids get an opportunity to do this again soon!

When the Teacher becomes the Student

A new school year has started. This year my oldest would be entering third grade (where did the time go?) I say "would" because he's never been in public school and is not working at a fully third grade level, on a few things he's above. But I can't say he's a third/fouth/fifth grader, I would just confuse people. We have been doing this homeschool thing for four years now and I still have a hard time at times.

Am I doing things right?

Are they learning everything they need?

Will they grow up just as smart as the Valedictorian?

Will not being Valedictoriain or Quarterback or Prom Queen or Class President make them feel like they were left behind? Left out? In any way deprived?

There are times when these questions -and a slew of others- don't even register in my brain. I just know its working out. I know they love their lives and are learning regardless of me drilling them with times tables (which we don't really do). I know it because they surprise me with their knowledge.

Imagine this, I am with them 24/7, I oversee everything they have exposure to and dole out what they require for learning on a daily basis and they astonish me with the words that come out of their mouthes.  They know things I didn't know they had a clue about.

I must be doing something right if they learn after the text books are put away for the day. That makes me proud, confident, happy.

But it's not always like that, it hasn't always been that way. I will admit that I am a perpetual planner. I plan, plan, plan and then plan some more. Make lists, do research, make a budget sheet but my fault comes with follow through. Life gets in the way. I have so many brilliant ideas for teaching, field trips to go on and assignments to work that I fall short of actually implementing many of these mind-blowing learning adventures. I'm disappointed in myself for this personal fault.

I'm not perfect, I get that. But I want to be for my kid's educational sake's. When I'm not, I pound hard blows to my own confidence in teaching.

It's a weakness I desperate to work through. I need to work on just getting up and going and seeing where we end up instead of working out how each step will be made to get there.

Teaching my children has opened up so much about my own experiences in public school. I remember my own reasons for being a "gifted" student and getting straight A's and it wasn't because I craved learning. It was to get the emotional pat on the back from those I felt were superior. Once I didn't desire that emotional bolstering learning fell away and I didn't want to be apart of the system anymore. So, at fifteen I dropped out. Learning left me for a long time.

The current educational system leads us to believe that after formal education is completed for the day, the year, at graduation, that learning is done. Our brains are "allowed" to turn off and tune out. Learning after regulated school days comes with stigmatisms of "overachiever" or "nerd". Learning has become a punishment for acedemic fulfillment.

I eventually went back to highschool and got my diploma but it was just a task to be completed. I was always good at workbook pages. Since teaching my own children I have re-learned learning though it has been a hard emotional process to endure. I am still finding out things about myself and my desires that I need to work through. I want to know things now. I want to engross myself in things that interest me. I get excited over things and love the ability to explore them in as much depth as I want. I find myself getting overly animated and unable to stop talking when someone tips the lid on something I'm learning about. I have the enthusiasm and drive that I see in my own children's eyes when they tell me about something they've uncovered.

I have become childish in my learning. And it's a very good thing. It's also opened my patience to listen whole heartedly when they come to me explaining at length their newest discovery in minute detail.

I never want my children to have to re-learn their love of exploration and education. Hindsight has allowed me the gift of understanding. Self-honesty has shown me my weaknesses and has given me an opportunity to work towards strengthing them. Homeschooling has blessed me with the gift of becoming the student.

Sewing with Kids

Sewing is a passion of mine. I love perusing stores, ogling beautiful fabric and imagining fantastic creations coming to life under the foot of my machine. I love making things for pennies what costs dollars in the stores. My kids watch me sew. Much of what I make is for them so they have a vested interest in my creations.

But they don't like to sit idly by while I get to play with all the cool fabrics and gadgets. They want to create, too. We've done one sewing lesson a few months back which was a huge success. The pillows are still in use. They ask me continuously when we're going to have another lesson but time just hasn't allowed for it.

When we went to the fair earlier in the year, the kids each won a fairly large stuffed toy. I hate these things. They're made of scratchy, cheap fabric filled with those little styrafoam balls. They take up about 6 square feet of my tiny house and make a terrible crunching sound when they're hugged. It makes my skin crawl like nails on a chalkboard.

So, when they ripped I left them on my sewing desk. I gave the kids excuses about how busy I am and how it prevents me from fixing these holes in their beloved toys. I had hopes that I could secretly toss them out when they weren't paying attention and they'd never realize it. Yes, sometimes I employ subterfuge. Unfortunately, I was thwarted. They incessantly asked me when I'd get to fixing their toys so they could resume loving them to tiny pieces. I finally got sick of it today.

I made up a little sewing kit for the kids that I had intended to introduce them to when they were "old enough". But with our new ideas of unschooling, their requests for repair turned into teaching.

I've found that telling a child they cannot touch something because it is dangerous only fuels curiosity. Not to say that certain dangers shouldn't be avoided but sometimes education when they are interested helps build respect. I've found this true with sewing. Telling my three and five year olds "NO!" that pins will hurt and poke them has tiny fingers itching to grasp those shiny little pearls that stick out of my stuffed pumpkin. Showing them what they are used for, giving them the opportunity to use them curbs desires and forms respect. Pins are tools, not toys.

We discussed the parts of a needle, how fabric was woven and the importance of working to fix things we own instead of wastefully discarding them.

They learned how thread and needle come together to mend and create.

They worked for what they wanted instead of pushing it off on me.

They grew in confidence while they concentrated.

And were delighted that their hands made results that impacted their own lives.

Cordelia's fair toy didn't have a seam to mend so I introduced her to a stitch ripper. She was so proud when she finished as she was aiding me with my projects. And I was proud of each of them.

Sometimes, I forget how talented and "old enough" my kids are. Sometimes, the easier way of doing it myself or not doing it at all takes away the opportunity to involve the kids in our whole lives.

Aztecs, Mayans and Incans...Oh, my!

Yesterday we finished up our unit study on Aztecs, Mayans and Incans. I used the thematic unit pictured below. I really enjoy these books. They use a mix of fiction and non-fiction books and incorporate many different types of topics for a well-rounded lesson on their own. Plus, they're reasonably priced!

Over the course of the past few weeks we've read a fiction book on the Mayans (The Corn Grows Ripe) and another on the Incans (Secrets of the Andes). We've watched short animated movies through Brain Pop and did vocabulary, geography and tests through there as well.

We watched Cracking the Mayan Code, a PBS movie through NetFlix streaming, last week. Then we read the DK Aztecs non-fiction book and discussed all the things we've learned about them and the Conquistadors. We also read Amazing Mayan Inventions and made drawings of our own inventions. I printed out things through Enchanted Learning for some Mexico worksheets including coloring the Mexico flag.

With our heads swimming with codices, step pyramids and gold we rounded out our studies with a hands-on project: Geosafari's Mayan Dig.

I found this on clearance at my local Lakeshore Learning. Even not on sale it's a fairly good price. It comes with a very comprehensive booklet with math problems and little worksheets for the artifacts you find. You could really do a fairly complete lesson just with this kit. There is a little scraper and paint brush and a clay brick. Alex has been anxious to do this for awhile.

It's a lot more work than you'd think, scraping away slivers of clay while trying to find the four artifacts hidden within. He held his own for a good bit.

But then his hands got tired so I took over. It would have been better if his sisters got into it more. Then they could have swapped scraping jobs. Apparently, being an archeologist isn't as much fun as Indy makes it look.

Finally we found something!

What is it?! What could it be!? The kids were delighted when we started pulling out items and it renewed their enthusiasm for the tedious task of scraping the clay. I think that euphoria is what archeologists live for. Maybe they just like getting dirty, too.

I was actually quite impressed with the size and quality of the "artifacts" in the kit. The three big kids are outside playing archeologist and curator as I type.

Now, on to Ancient Egypt. I have a Dig kit for that too!

Laundry Learning

*first published on Project Laundry List  http://www.laundrylist.org/en/blog2/laundry-learning.html 

"I hate laundry." I hear these harsh words a lot throughout my mom friends. And, truth be told, when there is a lot going on around here, laundry can feel that way. But recently I've been taking a new approach to Laundry Day. I call it Laundry Learning. As a homeschooling family five -three of which are school aged- I like to pull lessons from every day life. It makes things go smoother, lets me get more done and infuses boring lessons with necessary -and fun- life skills. Yes, I've turned laundry into a school lesson.

Not only do little helpers make the work lighter, they can also do some basic learning skills. The three year old can tell me the color of whatever she's hanging or attribute it to a certain member of the family. The kindergarteners can match, practice hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. We can make patterns with the clothes on the lines. Older kids can do fractions with folding, discuss global warming and energy reduction, solar energy use and track weather patterns. We can estimate and count the number of pins it takes to hang the clothes.


Learning is everywhere, even in the most mundane and disliked chores. Try out Laundry Learning and see how it can transform your lines.

Armed with a Steno Pad

I realize that in many places school is wrapping up for the summer break season. Many kids are already out, while others have just a few short days left, if that. One thing that is very, very different in our homeschool is that we don't take a summer break.

Gasp! NO summer break? Are you mad, woman??

Probably, but that will have to be covered in a different post. My reason is very simple; they just don't need one. There really isn't any very good reason to take a months long break over the summer. The break was initially instituted so that additional hands would be available to help on family farms. We don't have one. Not yet anyway.

Homeschooling means a flexibility in our schedule that isn't attainable with institutionalized learning. We take breaks whenever we feel like it. Last year we took off almost a month in October when Rob came home from Iraq. Then we went to Disney for a week in the begining of December. We'll be taking another two weeks this October to drive up to New Hampshire and visit my family. Those kinds of things would be hard to do if we didn't school in the summertime.

But there are things we need to do now that correlate to the public school calendar. Homeschool fairs will be starting up next month, school supply sales will start then, too. In order to reap the benefits of sales and demonstrations I have to start my school year planning now, six months before our new school year starts.

Armed with a Steno pad, the Rainbow Resource online catalog and the heaps of school books in the homeschool room, I've started making the list of materials we will be using or need to buy. This year I'm homeschooling four kids. Alex is 3/4th grade, Olivia and Cordelia are in First and Amelia is Pre-k/Kindy. It might sound confusing -and sometimes it is- having one kid in multiple grade levels for different subjects but that is one of the reasons we chose to homeschool. It's also why organization is so crucial.

Each child has a list of subjects under their name tabs in the Steno book. Under each subject will be written the book(s) that we will be using. I have a plastic tote that I'm housing the books we'll utilize, sorting them out of the general boxes of material. There is a tab for things we own and another for things we need to buy with item numbers and prices. Yet another tab holds the website logins we have and the last will be a schedule of who does what on which days.

The book is small enough for me to carry easily and add to when I'm out shopping or at the conventions I plan to attend. Having the prices listed will tell me if I'm finding a good deal. I'm sure things will flex and change throughout next year, we like to take a Montessori/Unschooling approach with some things, letting the kids dictate what we'll be learning. But the book will help me see gaps in learning and give me a structure on which to build their education.

For those of you that are starting your breaks, have fun! For my homeschooling friends, I'd love to hear what you have planned for the upcoming year, and have fun too!

A New Adventure

I'm mapping out our homeschool for next year. With year round school, I have to get a jump start on the learning plan or December will run past and I won't know what I'm doing come January.

We work our school year by the actual calendar year, starting in January after the holiday's cease and ending in December before Solstice. This gives us flexibility in our year to take time off for other things that don't coincide with the public school system calendar. As long as we get in the 180 days of school for the year, I feel we've met Florida's (very relaxed) standards.

Next year I think I want to try something different than what we've been doing. For once in my parenting life I'm not pregnant or with a newborn. And there's no chance I will be. Max will be two come the start of our next homeschool year. Powered by his own feet and needing only limited "baby" supplies, I think we'll be able to do a lot of trips and outings that just aren't possible with a new baby. I'm excited about that.

With our quest to become self-sufficient homesteaders I think we've neglected one vital aspect of the journey; the kids. They've overheard our talking and share our goals insomuch as a kid can. They like the idea of having goats, chickens and horses, but they don't really understand what a dramatic change this will be in our lives. I want to rectify that.

So, this next school year, starting in 2011, I am going to change up our regular school goals of working to advance to the next grade level. I got a wonderful book from MOSI called The young naturalist's guide to Florida. by Lantz and Hale. The book is great, starting with information on the state and advancing through 32 lessons on the various ecosystems, envionmental careers, recycling, watershed and more. I plan do to one lesson a week, taking the kids to explore each of the areas the book discusses. I'd like to get them involved in 4H so they can learn more about the animals we want to raise. I want them to get dirty (which isn't really a hard task to complete) and dig into the Earth around them to understand why what we want to do is so vitally important.

We will still do math and reading and all the other lessons needed to raise intelligent and educated kids, but I want to change our homeschool ideals to match the ones in our lives. It's a new adventure and I'm exicited to start it.

Chocolate Covered Homeschool

There are a few lessons we do in homeschooling where I think to myself "I wish school was like this all the time." This week was like that.

This week was chocolate week.

It started a few weeks ago with Alex reading Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" aloud to me. It's thirty chapters and took us about 2 weeks on and off reading two to four chapters a day depending on length. He's seven, so I try not to push too hard. We pulled out words we didn't know and looked them up. (vocabulary). We talked about behaivors and following rules. (character development). We finished up the book earlier this week. (literature, phonics and reading comprehension)

Then we got to watch Gene Wilder's magnificent performance as Willy Wonka (sorry Johnny, he's just such a better Wonka). (art, music and theater plus a discussion on book adaptations)

Then we read DK's "The Story of Chocolate" which was really quite informative, even for me. (reading, history and science!) Though I have to admit a serious contemplation of growing our own cacao trees occured while reading this book. We also read Curious George and a lighter science based book to the smaller kids to get them in on the action.

Then the most wonderful thing happened. We made chocolates. (science and cooking) But not just any chocolates, no! We made them from cocao butter, cocoa powder and powdered sugar. We got to feel, taste and smell real beans. The kids had to read an analog thermometer for correct termperance (science and math).

And then, we ate a bunch of chocolate.

Homeschool never tasted so good. Well, those cupcakes were pretty tasty too.

My relatives must have been Irish

Ever since forever I've had a lusting for Ireland. The accent, traditional clothes, food, sheep, rolling hills, thick wool sweaters, dimly lit pubs and rainy days. When I was a tween I had a crush on an Irish boy named Billy, he didn't have an accent though. I even thought myself a sports fan* of who else but Notre Dame.  I can't watch an Irish movie (OMG! I love "Once") without wanting to hop on a plane. I think sometimes my relatives must be Irish. At least one had to be for me to have this odd craving for a land I've never seen. If someone came up to me and said "Hey, here's a house and a job but you have to move to the Emerald Isle." I'd be packing boxes before the words left that strangers lips. Yeah, it's a little odd.

So, I tend to get all excited when St. Patrick's Day rolls around. Up until now I've hidden it really well.

Yesterday morning I woke up to the wafting smell of corned beef, potatoes and cabbage slow cooking their way to dinnertime. (I had the foresight to make the meal the night before, go me!) I made the kids dress in green. Then had the inspiration of making green chocolate chip waffles.

At lunch we headed outside with our St. Patrick's printed worksheets (again, thanks to Enchanted Learning) after reading St. Patrick's Day book (isbn 0-8234-1173-7 $6.95). The book has a Legends about St. Patrick section where the kids read about different things. One being St. Patrick and the Poision. The legend states, in a very simplified way, that a wizard tried to kill St. Patrick by putting poison in his drink. St. Patrick turned it to ice and dumped it out. Here's an excerpt from the following conversation:

Me- Do you think legends are real?

Alex - Probably not. People like to make up stories about stuff that isn't true.

Me - Do you think St. Patrick could have turned the poison into ice?

Alex- Well, the wizard could have.

So, there you have it. The legends about St. Patrick aren't real but wizards are. Oh, I love my kids.

We talked more, we colored some, we ate sammies of green bread, almond butter and honey.

We hunted for shamrocks in the yard, of which we have an alarming amount.



Then the healthy (well, except for the green food coloring) lunch was topped off with green frosted cupcakes. The "frosted" and "cupcakes" are two separate links to the BEST EVER recipes for chocolate sheet cake and frosting made with flour. Yes, you heard right, flour. And regular granulated sugar, not powdered. It's magnificent and I ate four too many of them yesterday.

I imagine everywhere on St. Patrick's day, in color-coordinated Ireland, everyone busts out the green food coloring, creating food that might look a little "off" (see green pancakes above) and it's not just a silly thing that American's have done to sterotype an entire island nation. Though if you're Irish and completely apalled by my celebratory actions, please feel free to *gently* enlighten me in the comments section. And if you could somehow do it in an Irish accent, all the better.

*I am not and will never be "a sports fan" of really anything, ever. Except maybe sheep shearing or pie eating. Those are sports, right?

A Lesson in Ladybirds

One of the things I'm still learning, four years into homeschooling, is how to take life and make a lesson out of it. You would think that merging home and school would be easy, it's called homeschool isn't it? But detaching from traditional teaching methods imbued into my soul as a young child is not. I'm slowly relearning while I teach.

A few posts ago I wrote about our aphid issue in the garden. I had the epiphany, while searching for live ladybugs on Amazon, to go ahead and order a few early elementary level science books to go along with them. Then I went to Enchanted Learning -the best site for printables- and printed out coloring pages on a ladybugs lifecycle.

I'd like to think that these past four years that is how I've done things; relating learning and projects to real life situations. Unfortunately, this has been a hard lesson for me to learn. I struggled for years trying to fit in what was on the list for a particular grade/age of a particular child based on public school requirements* and still be able to bake, change diapers, play with the kids, clean, grocery shop, get oil changes, do laundry, garden, drop off donations and the million other things that make up my day while still wedging in a slice of time for personal goals, college and projects. And maybe even get in a shower. School isn't about what you do in life, it's what you learn in books, right?

Throwing a stick in the cog of my mental processes, I headed outside. Crayons, printables, books and ladybugs in hand. We sat, we read, we colored and we learned. We released our ladybirds and watched excitedly as they explored the garden.

Then we sat at our gorgeous new picnic table. In the beautiful cool morning breeze we colored our books and learned about how ladybugs live.

I even learned some things I hadn't known about these marvelous benefactors to my garden. While we were doing this, Max was doing this...

We were careful not to squish any as we watched them run around, fly away and um...feverously mate all over my vegetables. They crawled all over as Emmy squealed in delight when one got up the gumption to crawled all over her. Fifteen hundred ladybugs is A LOT. They were everywhere in a few hours and even places we didn't necessarily want them.

The ceiling in the house.

I think the kids had a better time learning about them hands-on, seeing how they related to our lives and were important to us. I didn't have to fight to get them to sit and listen or read. I got to tend the garden while they were participating instead of being frustrated I couldn't get out to do what I needed to. I hope that I can learn -and remember- to incorporate more of these life-school lessons as we go on.

*These requirements are guided to meet a test called the FCAT here in Florida. A test that is in our top three reasons why we DO NOT send our kids to public school. Is administered every three years and directly relates to the monies the schools -and teachers- recieve from the gov't.

Eat Right Cards - Product Review

I placed a fairly large homeschool supply order when we got our tax return this past February. I love going to Rainbow Resource for my school supplies. They have a great, enormous selection and free shipping with a $150 order (or sometimes less when they have a sale). I can get just about everything the local Lakeshore Learning store sells but at discounted prices. They even have bargain books, slightly damaged -usually it's just the cover that's a bit messed up, sometimes I can't even tell- for even less than the normal low price.

When I order from them it takes me at least a few days of perusing the store to find when I ultimately end up buying. I've been trying to get things that I can do with all the kids for science, history, geography, foreign language, social studies and the like so I just have to individualize math and language arts. Looking for stuff to suppliment our Health Science box I came across these Eat Right Cards.

Yesterday I pulled them out and we played two raucous games together. The kids loved seeing who's snack had the most "nutrition points" or "junk factor". They built meals in a go-fish-like game. And after, they played grocery store and restaraunt with them on their own.

From a parental point of view, they are a decent set of cards. I'm pleased with the kids enthusiasm over the game and also their ability to know what a healthy choice is. The meal building is a great way to teach balance considering my kids think eating all their peas at dinner is "enough" to earn a snack. These cards show in vivid color why it's not. I'd have liked to see a bit more variety and instructions on using them for vegetarian meals and more variety for the "meat" like legumes. They have complex instructions for "advanced" meal building with calorie counting and food measurements but are easily adaptable to younger kids.

Checking out the site http://www.eatrightcards.com/ they do have additional instructions and also a board game which looks like fun. Even for the suggested retail price of $5 (less than $4 on RR) this is a good addition to a health science curriculum that spans multiple grade levels.

A Fair Grade

Part of homeschooling is grading your child. Whether your state requires actual letter or percent grades will vary. In Florida, we only have to show progress throughout the year. We can decide to hold back or move forward as we see fit and the state need never know. Problem is, as a parent, I don't want to fail my kid.

A good thing about homeschooling is that you have a first row seat to the intent of the child. Seeing my kid try and still not quite make it perfect does sway my grading. Will I give an "A" when every problem is wrong? Not likely. But I would give a second chance to correct it before marking it in the grade book. I might go on and take a week or a month to repeat the lessons, this time more indepth, until we retake the failed work and permanently add it to the average.

Doing school at the Zoo.

Then there are the times when my kid does not try. When he puts things off, procrastinates, rushes and distracts himself. I see him doing it. I try and get him back on track. He'd rather play. He'd rather melt his brain with crappy TV shows and idiotic games on the internet  do a lot of other things than the small amount of work I ask of him each day. If we sat down and did school for a set amount of time, it'd probably take us two to three hours out of the day. For a kid that's awake for twelve, that's not asking a whole lot. When schooltime is on, I expect him to work and get it done. If he could get a grade in Lazy he would probably moan and complain about that too.

I don't get it, really. He's super smart. He can read something and retain it like a little sponge. He rarely needs direction on his work that's two grade levels ahead of where he is supposed to be. I try and make school fun, fairly easy and interesting. But even then I find myself with the threatening words "Do you want to go to public school?" teetering on the tip of my tongue.

There are good things about public school. I don't knock it all. In school he'd have competition. He'd have a larger field of recognition. He'd have much, much fewer distractions (like 4 little kids running around that have little to no school work to do). But for us the negative outweight the positive. Other than becoming a dictator, weilding a ruler to thwack nuckles and converting a room in our house to a sound proof cave, distractions will happen. He's got to learn how to deal with it.

But while he's learning that on top of school work, dishing out a fair grade continues to be a challenge.

We Love TMBG

They Might Be Giants has released some very cool, very educational videos and CD's over the past few years. I've been gobbling them up as soon as a new release comes out. I loved TMBG like a birdhouse in my soul since I was a teen. I'm so happy I don't have to wait so long to introduce my kids to these guys since some of their pre-Disney collaborated* music isn't completely suitable for kids.

It's funny, quirky, catchy and smart. And best of all, reasonably priced and available at Target. I just can't say enough about these guys and their place in our homeschool. The kids ask for it and never even realize they're learning. I realize it when Olivia (she's six) informs me that Everything is made up of mostly four Elements, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon, and Hydrogen. Even Elephants. 

That's all on TMBG. Thanks guys, you've made me a happy homeschoolin' mama.

I've gotta go now, I've a date in Constantinople. I mean, Istanbul.

*FYI I have no idea who they did or did not collaborate with to come up with kids stuff. It's just the first time I knew they did other music was when I learned they did the theme for Higglytown Heros.

FREE HOMESCHOOLING 101: REDUCING THE PAIN OF SPELLING CLASS

http://solidityofrainbows.blogspot.com/2010/02/hands-on-spelling.html

To go in conjunction with my earlier post this week on spelling...here's a great resource for lots of FREE spelling stuff.

Hands-on Spelling

Homeschool doesn't have to be the rigid desk work I was used to when I attended public school. I was good at it, it was easy. It's been hard to realize that learning can happen lots of ways and scoop up opportunities when they arise. Wednesday we did hands-on spelling. Chaos and messiness ensued. I think they loved it.

It started out innocently enough. I put the magnetic letters box on the floor to keep Max occupied.

Next thing I knew the kids were diving in.

Being the awesome homeschool mom I am, I immediately picked up the Spelling lists and started calling out words to be spelled. If by "immediately" you mean after 5 minutes of yelling at them to not make a mess.

They got a little silly with the words though. Like Livi's "Dr. Cat".

It took longer than a normal lesson since everyone had to find letters scurrying around like little...

We also didn't have quite enough letters so people stole from other peoples words.

Which made it look like they were spelling jibberish in the photos. Man, they were quick.

But they were happy when they got their word done.

They even let Max help out.

It took a long time to find all the letters needed, so we only did the small words from our list. They had a good time, they worked together, and they spelled a lot of words (right even). Now, if I can just get them to clean up the mess...

Here's a link to more Spelling resources http://www.freehomeschooling101.com/2010/02/reducing-pain-of-spelling-class.html