Spiral Goddess Home School

Week 01: Mostly Fail

2011-08-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

Monday: Homeschool FAIL. I forgot we planned to start school this day and ended up just putting on educational cartoons for a couple hours. All of our textbooks are in storage and there is such a large amount of boxes in there, we don't know where to begin. Spent the day watching educational cartoons on Nick, Jr and discussed the topics within the episodes.

Tuesday: For the time being, I went ot Target and grabbed some basic educational supplies, and then to Walmart to replace our dry erase and bulletin boards. I also bought basic school supplies that needed replenishing that had been, unfortunately, destroyed during the move thanks to the triple-digit weather the south is suffering through these past two months. The girls spent time going over the books (not doing work, just skimming through pages) and asking questions about the material provided.

Wednesday: Absolutely nothing. J was studying for his finals and I was sick. Girls had a free day but we talked about being a hero without super powers and how to measure.

Thursday: All the boards and supplies were still not situated, but that didn't stop me. We still did our foreign language with the month, day of the week, number of the day, and color (orange) of the day in English, Spanish, French, German, and (phonetic) Chinese. Lily worked on her cursive by writing letters A - H and the sentence "Amanda eats apples." For math, I gave her a pretend object that she had to pay for. She had to add pretend coins in the exact change to buy the product.

Iris refused to do any work whatsoever that morning and kept making up excuses, so since she didn't want to "go to school" she spent the entire time in her room and missed out on 1/2 an hour of TV. For math, Lily took over while I made lunch (I didn't ask her to, she just did it anyway) and helped Iris practice addition using Othello pieces.

Rose worked on identifying colors. She refused all colors except orange (ownj) and black (back) and then threw a fit because she wanted to "write," too. Lol.

The day's lesson was: "Try new things; you never know if you may like it."

After lunch we tried some reading and comprehension. Iris actually did it, but was terrible at it. :) Lily refused. Rose enjoyed the pictures. The book I was trying to have Lily read was at a higher level than she was used to and she didn't want to try. She just refused. I had to remind her about the day's lesson and told her to sit at her bed and think about the lesson for the day and how it pertained to her assignment. Eventually Lily caved after some time spent contemplating in her room and read her story wonderfully (with minimal help from me) and did great at her quiz afterward.

By then it was already 3pm (we start our lessons at 10am) and I was pooped from all the whining and excuses laid out that day as to why no one wanted to do anything. I called it a day and took a nap.

Friday: The girls had an uncle and aunt come to visit so they didn't get started until sometime after 1:30. We did our basic foreign language with Yellow as the color of the day, then proceeded to our new arrival. Last week, J sent out for the Team UmiZoomi math kits and we broke one of them in, partially anyway. This covered reading and comprehension, math and recognition, and all three of the children were able to participate.

Rose surprised me by being able to point out the shapes when asked. She can't say the names at all, but knew which ones to point to. Lily read the entire story by herself as well as did some of the activities. Iris did the activities requested, and all three of them had a great time. Even the older two girls excelled at the reading comprehension quiz I surprised them with at the end of the story. They then watched a DVD of TUZ and took turns filling out the pages of the corresponding workbook.

We finished everything up by 4, which was nice. Hitting so many subjects at the same time is pretty awesome.

I wonder what next week will bring...

Secular Thursday: Sometimes, They Want "Proof"...

2011-08-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

...even if it's not required.

So, to get welfare assistance where I am at, the application process is pretty extensive. One of the proofs needed is who is going to school, what school, and what are they learning. Since my husband and I both go to university, that's a bit easy. We can give them a partial transcript that has all of that information. There is the cumpolsory attendance here in Texas, but if you homeschool, according to state law, you don't need any paperwork. You don't even have to notify the school. However, the department of health and human services wants to make sure that your children are at least being taught the basics of every grade level. When I was told this by my caseworker at my interview yesterday, I almost threw a fit.

It is not mandatory to get this information unless requested. Most children go to public school, so they could always just check with the school, but it is still not a requirement for *me* to give them any sort of paperwork, and I told my caseworker that same thing. I understand she is trying to do her job, and this is apparently a first for her, so she just asked me to write her a letter saying that I am homeschooling so that no one gets up my ass about not sending my child to public school. Either way, no court could convict me. To be nice, however, I'm making a copy of what we plan to do this year, which is where I hit the roadblock.

I have absolutely no idea what we are doing this year. We've started taking an unschooling approach. We have a personal library full of non-fiction that the girls can peruse through. We like it when they pick a book and say "I want to learn that." They even have a set of encyclopedias for that purpose. We then take whatever information we can find on that topic and teach it to the girls. So I'm thinking I might as well just pull something out of my butt like I normally do. I didn't create the OMB curriculum last year just for S & Gs.

So this is what I'm planning...

Lily: age 5, grade 3

Reading: Short-story workbook for reading comprehension practice. Books to read (in no specific order) - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Veleveteen Rabbit, The Phantom Toll Booth. Reading comprehension tested.
Writing: Composition practice in manuscript - daily journal. Practice cursive.
Mathematics: Adding and Subtraction practice. Introduce multiplication
Social Studies: History Channel documentary - America: The Story of Us. in conjunction with The American Nation, Volume 1, John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes
Science: Introduce basic chemistry with toddler-safe expirements
Art: A World of Art by Henry M Sayre, third edition
Physical Education: 1/2 hour of Nick Jr. Wii Fit
Foreign language: Continued from last year - Bookwork: Using BBC's Muzzy series, draw picture, label picture in English, Spanish, French, German, and Chinese. Continue practice of these languages.
Theology: basic history and practices of holidays

Iris: age 3, grade 1

Reading: Phonics practice. Read level 1 books (with help when needed). Lapbook activities for reading comprehension
Writing: Practice manuscript. Daily journal - topic given, picture drawn with descriptive words below.
Mathematics: Practice addition
Science: Basic chemistry with toddler-friendly expirement
Physical Education: 1/2 hour of Nick Jr. Wii Fit
Foreign language: Continued from last year - Using BBC's Muzzy series, practice English, Spanish, French, German, and Chinese
Theology: basic history and practices of holidays.

Rose: age 2, grade PK

Continue to work with vocabulary, shapes, colors, and letters. Story and nap times included.

FIN. That looks presentable, right? It's nothing fancy, and I literally just made this up on the spot, but I think we can work with this and still be able to add on to it whenever the girls get a bug up their butt to learn something new. I have absolutely no intention to be super committed to this curriculum considering I'm 4 months pregnant and my body HATES it, but this will do and show anyone who wants to be a pain in the ass we *know* what we are doing.

Day 1: OOPS!

2011-08-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

Hi, Everyone! Summer vacation is over and it's time to get back in the groove!

So, we have finally settled into our new home. As many of you already know, due to the economy, we could not keep our beloved house. We moved from our small town in Iowa to our hometown back in Texas. It took us two weeks to pack all of our things, two days to move, and two more weeks to settle down and not be so stressed. We are currenlty staying at my mother-in-law's house and have 90% of our things in a storage unit not too far from us.

Today is the first day of school here. We try and keep our school year similar to that of the public school system. There are a few changes, such as the Pagan holidays we observe are days off from our studies and we focus only on the history and celebration of that day. Not completely a day off, but not a complete day, either. (Every day is a learning day!) BUT, I *just* realized today is supposed to be the first day of school. Guess who still has the textbooks in storage? Yeah, that would be me. *facepalm* HOWEVER, Rose has been practicing her words by rhyming, so it hasn't been a complete homeschool fail. ;)

We'll see what the week brings...

Summer Vacation

2011-05-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

This school year ended for us on Friday the 13th, where we left (after the girls were asleep) on a 14 hour road trip down to Texas to come and visit family. We are still here, and will be her until about the 29th. It feels like we don't have enough time to do every fun thing we want!! <3

I know how you feel, Calvin.

Move Brainstorm

2011-05-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

So it's official. We will be done with our lessons in May instead of in June like I'm going to wrap everything up on Wednesday, May 11, take a field trip to the train station that Thursday, and then start summer vacation a month early. We'll do the same with the lessons. Instead of starting in September, we'll start in August, after I leave for basic training. That way, we have the entire summer to pack and move peacefully, and then the girls will have lessons and expirements to distract them while I'm away.

I don't know if my husband will keep up with this blog while I'm away. I don't even know if the military will take me, but I have my hopes up. At least I won't have to worry about what the heck I'm going to do with my children while I pack.

From the 13th until about the 29th, we will be away on vacation visiting family. When we get back, I'll have a babysitter here and there to help watch the children while either my husband and I pack, or a few of my friends and I pack. Either way, I WILL be packing.

I'm packing the workbooks last, just so we can have them on hand if the children get bored during a summer storm. It wouldn't hurt for them to get a head start on next year's work. When it's time to move, I'll just give them each a backpack with their workbooks, coloring books, and utensils needed.

On a random note, Lily just accidently stepped on an ant, and is currently apologizing to it's corpse. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to squish you. I'm so sorry."

Wordless Wednesday: SIDEWALK CHALK

2011-04-27T17:03:00.001-07:00

I Spy and Phonics

2011-04-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

So, as an expirement, you have decided to work phonnics into "I Spy." Instead of describing something's color or shape, we say the sound it starts with and the letter that sound makes. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, it doesn't always work.

Lily: I spy with my little eye something that starts with juh
Iris: DRESS
Me: No. Duh-ress does not start with a juh sound
Iris: JACKET
J: Yes, but do you see a jacket?
Iris: No.
J: Then that doesn't ...
Iris: DRESS JACKET. Dress and Jacket RHYME!
*Here, J goes on to explain word families and that word families are words that rhyme, such as pain, stain, rain, etc.*
Iris: JACKET DON'T GOT A "Q"
*sigh and face-palm*

Homeschooling and Moving

2011-04-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

So, I'm sitting here making a list of all the things I need to get rid of and the things I should pack first when it occurs to me that we still have two months left of "school" that needs to be done. We have the materials and everything, but I'm not sure if we have the time.

If anyone out there who reads this has homeschooled their children as well as moved at the same time, how did you go about the lessons while packing and organizing? Did part of the lesson take part during packing? I could see how this could work with a kinetic learner. I could easily do drills with one of the girls while they occupied their time sticking things in boxes. But I don't have many ideas further than that. I'd like to continue with the lessons we already do. Iris has been picking up on phonics so well, I'd hate to break her stride. Even Rose has figured out greetings in all the languages. Say "Adios!" and she'll wave a goodbye.

If push comes to shove, I think instead of both parents doing the lessons at the same time, one parent packs, the other teaches, and then switch after an hour or so. The only problem I see with that is if one parent needs help, then the whole idea goes out the window.

I seriously need to figure something out.

Weekly Wrap-Up: The Universe

2011-04-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

So, for science, we decided to start astronomy. Rose is currently emphasising this by singing "Twinkle Twinkle" at the top of her little 20-month-old lungs. :) We don't have cable, so use Netflix a lot for our documentaries, and we came across The Universe. It's a TV show that was aired on the History channel until Septemeber of last year, and, if you are a secular homeschooler like us, IS AWESOME.

So far, we watched the following episodes. We only watch one each day of the week, and we started them last Saturday, which is why we've watched seven instead of five. :)

101 "Secrets of the Sun" May 29, 2007 (aired: 2007-05-29)

A look at how the sun was formed and how it could potentially die; its physical composition; how it makes energy; and the nature of solar eclipses, solar flares and sunspot activity.

102 "Mars: The Red Planet" June 5, 2007 (aired: 2007-06-05)
A look at the planet Mars, the planet most similar to Earth in our solar system; an examination of Olympus Mons the largest volcano in the solar system; how NASA probes search for evidence of past life on the red planet, and what that life might have looked like.

103 "End of the Earth" June 12, 2007 (aired: 2007-06-12)
A look at end of the world scenarios involving killer asteroid or comet impact events, solar flare and gamma-ray bursts, and the plans that scientists have to potentially save the Earth from an interstellar disaster.

104 "Jupiter: The Giant Planet" June 19, 2007 (aired: 2007-06-19)
A look at the solar system's largest planet, Jupiter; its formation and composition and its mini-solar system of over 60 moons – some of which may have the potential to support extraterrestrial life.

105 "The Moon" June 26, 2007 (aired: 2007-06-26)
A look at the formation of the Moon; how it played a role in the evolution of life on Earth; and the future plans of NASA to establish a permanent base on the surface.

106 "Spaceship Earth" July 10, 2007 (aired: 2007-07-10)
A look at the planet Earth; how it was born out of a chaotic shooting gallery during the formation of the solar system; how life could have begun here; and what could ultimately cause its destruction.

107 "Mercury & Venus: The Inner Planets" July 17, 2007 (aired: 2007-07-17)
A look at the two most hostile planets in the solar system – Mercury and Venus; one gouged with craters, the other a greenhouse cauldron of toxic gases and acid rain; both scorched by their close proximity to the sun. Scientists theorize about what sort of life could evolve on these alien worlds.

We continue our work with foreign language by using a dry erase board and a dry-erase calendar. We use a calendar similar to the one shown, with a space on the left hand side usually used for notes. What we do instead is write the day of the week in the different languages we are learning. For example, today is Friday. After writing "Friday" on the notes side, it is followed by Vendredi (French), viernes (Spanish), Freitag (German), and 星期五, writen both in simplified Chinese and phonetically as Xīngqí wǔ.

On the dry erase board we have the month in all four languages (April, Avril, abril, April, 四月[Sì yuè]), the number of the day (which is based on the date), and the color of the day. We've gotten into the habit of writing on the dry erase board with the same color as the color of the day.

Nothing was really planned for history this week. Lily has been keeping track of our paper calendar and asked about the holidays listed, so she learned about Easter, Passover, and the like, with my husband in the background making stuff up. He's an atheist, and, though open-minded, he doesn't really know much about the meanings of the holidays associated to a certain relgions. So when Lily asked the meaning behind Palm Sunday, the converstaion went a lot like this:

Lily: What's Palm Sunday?

Me: It's when Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem and...
J: Gave everybody high-fives. They were like, "Whassup, Jesus!" *gives self high-five*

Everyone seemed to like his explanation. He then added that Palm Sunday came after Thumbs Sunday and before Fingers Sunday. *facepalm*

Math, writing, and reading has been basic, using workbooks we bought at Target for $1 each last summer as well as our Brain Quest books and any other books we find in our personal library.

It's been a crazy week. The weather can't make up it's mind, but today was lovely, so we all went outside to play. :) Happy Earth Day! Rejoice in Nature! Hope everyone had a great week!

Secular Thursday: Sometimes, Life Just Sucks.

2011-04-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

So I've just realized how nonexistant we have been lately. The homeschooling is still going, with Lily now learning how to write in cursive, and Iris now actually writing. We are all learning Chinese, German, French and Spanish and I have an entire curriculim for both of the older children. Things have just been full of fail.

I can't remember if I mentioned this in earlier posts or not, but my husband was laid off of work in May of last year. Almost a year later, 11 months yesterday to be exact, and he still has not been able to acquire a job. Since then I worked two part-time jobs at a measley 7.25/hr as well as going to school full time on top of helping my husband with the girls' lessons. I crashed and burned miserably, failing two classes, missing a month of homeschooling, getting fired from one job and quitting the other. I have been so brain dead this past year that I surprised my husband when I told him the only connection Mexico and Puerto Rico had were the ones who came on a boat; the Spaniards and Africans, but that the natives were Taino in Puerto Rico and Maya and Aztec in Mexico.

Sometimes, life just really sucks, and homeschooling gets thrown in there. I feel sorry for the girls because I feel like I have failed them. My husband and I have been looking for work constantly and studying for our own classes that we haven't put much detail in our lessons. Experiments and themes that would originally only take a couple of days at most, take anywhere from a week to a month. The schedule that we had been following went right out the window. Everything is a mess and I am surprised 90% of the time when my children come out with something I actually taught them this year, like Iris properly writing her name in manuscript and Lily writing hers in cursive.

I am grateful that we are relaxed in our lesson plans enough to deal with what we have been hit with. Because of our losses, we've had to make a lot of changes, such as getting on welfare (booooo!), and getting ready to sell our house. (boo again!) Within the next couple of months we will be moving out of Iowa to live with my mother-in-law in Texas. Between packing up our things, teaching my children new languages, getting my youngest to talk, and going to school myself, it feels like things are on the brink of falling apart. Days have been stressfull and I long for the days when we could easily go through our lesson plans.....oh, wait. We never easily went through our lessons, but life seemed much simpler then.....

On the bright side, Texas homeschooling laws are the best!!! <3

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-02T10:25:00.001-08:00

2009-2010 In Review

2010-12-10T11:38:00.000-08:00

Made this video today to show the highlights of our 09-10 school year. :) Just our homeschool antics. Have any questions about what a certain picture is from, what we did, feel free to ask!

Hiatus from Blogging

2010-10-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

You were probably wondering if I was still here. I am. Don't worry. I haven't died.

Things have been super crazy here. Back in May we were hit with the downfall of the economy at home. There were budget cuts made and my husband was laid off from his job. I had to make ends meet by getting my own job. Sacrifices had to be made, homeschooling was put on the back burner. Lily returned to the private preschool she went to last year and Iris was getting taught little things here and there in passing. Rose was missing Mommy. I was working two minimum wage jobs, from 8-3 as a substitute teaching assistant, and from 4-11 as a hostess at a local restaurant. To top that off, I was still trying to do a little homeschooling on what little free time I had left as well as my own learnings as I am working on my double BA in History and English. Needless to say I was burning my candle on both ends and left my hostessing job yesterday. AMEN!

I hope to be back here in full swing soon. Though Lily is still at the preschool, we have been doing little things here and there. She only has class in the afternoon and it's mostly a social gathering than anything else. We live in a rural area with no homeschool group, unless you count the 30 minute drive to the nearest one and it is Christian based. So for now, with our ridiculous busy schedules as well as my husband and I going to job interviews since we seriously can not afford living on my minimum wage at the elementary school and his unemployment forever *deep breath*, I'm just going to count my losses and pick up where we left off.

One advantage of working of working at the elementary school as a sub is that I get to see what is available for my children. In all honesty, my 4.5 year old is at first grade level, even second level in some areas. My just-turned-3 year old is in K in a lot. (As for my 1 year old, she'll cut ya.) I take sneak peeks on all the curricula they have and what the textbooks hold. It's like crack for me!

Anyway, today is Halloween, and for me, this is a very sacred holiday. It is a day when I honor those who have passed on and celebrate a new year in front of me. This is the last day of harvest and a night for me to dispose of old habits. (I celebrate a lot of the original Pagan traditions) I will be spending this night with my entire family. We will be lighting candles by the windows and burying apples as well as dressing up and going trick-or-treating. Everyone have a safe, fun, and wonderful night!

Week 0: The One that Got Away

2010-07-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

I was going to begin lessons this week, but was unable to. Iris and Rose (my youngest two) have a stomach flu that has kept them lethargic and, for the most part, miserable. Fevers have been up to a little over 103, and the amount of diaper changes due to loose stools should have been a contest. My husband has been Super-Dad for the past few weeks taking care of them while I at work. He should win a prize!

All lessons were few and scanty. We read phonic books for Iris, and Lily practiced some reading and copy work, but all together, nothing more than a subject a day for about 15 minutes. Our foreign languages are a constant thing, since we are learning 3 at the same time. Nothing new to report other than Iris and Rose seem to be doing better, and I hope to pick up our schooling next week.

Oh, and guess who now has the stomach flu as well as sinusitis & conjunctivitis? Yeah, that would be me. Oh, joy.

A Request

2010-06-19T09:32:00.000-07:00

For my English Comp class I am writing a compare or contrast essay on a topic of my choice. I would like to contrast homeschooling v. public education. I am asking if any of you know of any good sources that I could use for my research. All your help would be super appreciated. Pass along this request if you can. Thank you!

Wordless Wednesday: I turn 24 today. My 4.5yo is almost as big as me.

2010-06-02T20:14:00.001-07:00

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V is for Vaction: Summer Plans Revisited

2010-05-31T19:18:00.000-07:00

As you may have seen in my previous post, life has been pretty hectic. Thursday, May 20, my husband was laid off from his company. That same day I went and took my driving exam for the third time so I could (finally) get my driver's license. Both my husband and I are going to online universities, working on our BAs. The past couple of weeks we have just been trying to make ends meet, so I had to put the blog on hiatus until I had a little bit of time. I obviously now have a bit of time. :)

Since my husband is now unemployed, and I have been a SAHM for the past year and a half, we have a lot of free time. We decided to go on vacation. We currently live in Iowa, even though we are originally from Texas, so we are going to go visit our mommies, who still live in Texas, for a couple of weeks. My oldest is super excited. She loves seeing her grandmothers and spending time with them. "I get to go visit Gramma when the board says 'zero' and see my Abuela, who is my other gramma...." This has been going non-stop since I told her when we would leave. She asks me every day. EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. So after about 3 days of getting asked the same question every hour, we took one of our chalkboards and made a countdown. This way, when she asks when we leave, I point to the board and she knows how many days we have left. When the board reads "0" then she'll know (and probably damn-near pee herself with glee) when we leave. She is so excited, she still won't shut up about it, but at least she has stopped asking me and just looks at the board. All the questioning has been replaced with commentary, which I can tolerate a bit more. (I wrote the number and "days until we visit"; Lily wrote 'grama' since she can only spell phonetically right now.)

J and I decided to still do learnings while on summer vacation. Since he and I will still be doing our own schoolwork in our own classes, we figured it would be fun for the girls to "be like Mommy and Daddy" and still have a little bit to do. It will be a lot more laid back these couple of months, but at least their minds will still be challenged. On the trip we are taking two series of books that we ordered last year from Scholastic. The first set are Alpha-Tales which are a set of books designed to help with phonics. Each book is dedicated to a letter in the alphabet and is used to identify the shape of both the upper- and lower-case letter and the sound(s) that the letter makes. I will be using this set for Iris, who, even though she knows her alphabet by sight and many of their sounds, is still having a bit of difficulty identifying them in lower-case. The next series of books are Sight Word Stories. Now, I'll be honest, I am not a big fan of sight-reading unless it's musical. English was my second language and what helped me develop my skills was learning through phonics. If I came across a word I did not know, I would sound it out to the best of my ability. To this day I still come across words I have no idea how to pronounce, so with phonics, I can better hear the word and then ask my husband if I said it right. Don't get me wrong, sight reading does work in some cases, but it does not work here. So with Lily, who already knows how to use phonics to help her read, these incredibly short stories (6 sentences) are used to harness that ability without stressing her out with a large plot and complicated sentences. Even though the sight words have been printed in bold, it doesn't seem to hinder her in her reading. She takes the time to read each word slowly to herself until she figures out what the word is by smushing the sounds together. I signed them up for the summer reading program at the public library. Iris's goal is 20 books, Lily's is 40. Working with these books will definitely help them reach their goals.

Along with phonics and reading, Lily will be taking her journal where she will be writing about her day with her scribbly pictures, as well as doing a bit of copy work. I'm not quite sure what she will be copying yet, but I'm thinking of just picking sentences at random from the books she will be reading and then taking it from there. Iris will continue to practice tracing lines and doing simple mazes. For our foreign languages, I'll be taking our Muzzy DVDs. We probably won't use them much while on vacation, but we are working on our colors in Spanish, French, German, and Chinese. I'll probably do simple math problems on a sheet of paper with Lily and review a lot of the work that we all did this past year to keep everything fresh in the girls' memories.

That's about all for now. What are your summer plans?

BRB

2010-05-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

Life has thrown us a couple of curve balls. Until things settle down, this blog will be on hiatus. If you want to know how I am personally doing, you can go follow my blog, Vonnieness.

Have a great summer.

Wordless Wednesday: HELP!! baby complaints

2010-05-12T12:52:00.001-07:00

Weekly Wrap Up: PIRATES!!

2010-05-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

This week, we learned all about pirates and watched pirate-themed movies.

Movies:

Books:

For "bookwork" in this theme, I found a coloring book at the Family Dollar store for $1, and the girls worked on the activities and coloring pages. And so did their father, who decided to color a picture like a bunch of superheroes. He had the Human Torch and the Hulk as well as a werewolf and the pirate's chest was "the head of a sentinel." Sometimes I wonder if he is all there. LOL.

Secular Thursday: Summer Plans

2010-05-06T09:28:00.000-07:00

I'm doing two blog posts at once, again. This topic comes from Dana at Roscommon Acres, who asked what we were all doing for Summer.

School here ends on the 13th. we are going on a field trip with Lily's preschool to a large playground/park in the city. After that, we won't actually stop learning. All bookwork and such will be done, but we love doing projects, like science experiments and lapbooks, and will continue those on the weekends when my husband is home. At the end of July/beginning of August, we are hoping to take two weeks off to go to Camp Gramma. I am in serious need of a vacation, and I am quite sure that both grandmothers (who live on the same street--which is awesome) will have a great time having their crazy granddaughters over for the Summer.

Nothing big or spectacular, but still lots of fun. What are your plans for Summer?

Wordless Wednesday: (i almost wrote 'worldless')

2010-05-05T12:01:00.001-07:00

everyone is sick and tired.

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Unit Ideas for May

2010-05-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

May Day

Beltane

flowers
Cinco de Mayo
Mother's Day
Dinosaurs
Ocean Animals

squid/octopi
starfish

Spring fruit

strawberries
watermelon
pineapples

Weekly Wrap-Up: Bright and Sunshiney Days

2010-05-01T19:46:00.000-07:00

THIS WEEKS HOMESCHOOLING WAS CANCELED DUE TO AWESOME WEATHER!

No, seriously, when you have a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old, and they only have about a handful of pages to go in their workbooks, you NEED to go outside and play! Especially when the weather is awesome. Granted, we did have a couple of rainy days, but it never lasted long, and we went to the library instead of staying home and staring out the windows :) It was a GREAT week of sun and play-fun.

Child: "Look what I can do, Mommy!"
Mommy: "Hold on, honey, Mommy's gonna go down this slide real quick!"

Secular Thursday: Earth Day

2010-04-29T08:08:00.000-07:00

This post was meant to be posted last week, but I had a VERY busy day and the weekend got busier, so it sat in my drafts for the week until now...just pretend we stepped into our time machine and it's currently 4-22. :D

Happy Earth Day! Yay.

We don't actually do Earth day. We like to celebrate Earth month. I am Pagan and I view the Earth as my Mother, so I have a lot of respect for her. This month we dedicated to learning more about her and ways to take care of her. We learned about trees, flowers, and other plants. We learned about recycling and waste. Last week (4/14) we took a field trip to our county landfill.

It was a very cloudy and windy day, on the brink of raining, when we arrived at the landfill. Because of the weather, we were able to see first hand what the wind likes to do with all the garbage. We already knew there would be a giant pile of mess, but the wind had made a lovely giant scattered pile of mess. The bulldozers and trucks were busy scooping up dirt and dumping it on the piles of garbage to keep them from flying away. We were unable to watch the machine turn the garbage into bales because of this. What we did get to see was, of course, the lovely mess, and a pond at the bottom of the hill where all the rainwater collected. We were pointed out the recycling bins; mixed paper, cardboard, newspaper, aluminum, tins, and glass. --Did you know that the most expensive thing to recycle is glass? They have to pay about a third more to recycle glass than they do with any other material. We also got to see where they kept thrown-out appliances (a bunch of broken fridges, water heaters, and stoves), electronics (computers and the like), and toxic wastes. --Did you know that most household cleaners are not considered toxic waste? You can ask your local landfill how to properly dispose of them if you are unsure.

After the initial tour, we went and saw the original landfill. Lo and behold it is the giant hill right next to the current landfill. Who would have known that the previous landfill would be so beautiful? They lay a filter on the ground before placing the trash. Once the garbage is this incredible hill, they lay the filter on top of the garbage, add six feet of dirt, pack it down, add six more feet of soil, this time loose, add grass seed, and monitor water and methane for the next 30 years. THEY MONITOR FOR THIRTY YEARS. They have this little pond at the bottom of the landfill where all the rain collects so as not to get mixed into the Boyer river or any of the surrounding farm land. They get check these little yellow posts that are sticking out of the ground for any water contamination and a white post at the top of the hill for the methane. Apparently our landfill hasn't been creating any methane. After the thirty years are through, the landfill is considered safe and can be sold off for other purposes.

I think I was the one who learned the most and was the most excited. My girls were just happy to be in some random person's pick up truck looking at garbage and out of the house on a craptastic day. He gave us a video (which I have yet to sit down and watch) about what they do, how they do it, and how they are being earth-conscious, as well as a few pamphlets on recycling and how this particular landfill has helped be a little more greener.

So now, you should go check out your landfill and give Ma Nature some love.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-28T10:01:00.001-07:00

You can tell they are sister. There is not much variety between them.

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Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down

2010-04-26T18:54:00.000-07:00

So today, considering it is both Monday AND raining, I would have liked to have stayed in bed. Instead, I auditioned for Glee on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/gleeauditions?link=381318096

I have been such a bad blogger, but this past week has been CRAZY! Thursday seemed to have been all over the place. My schedule was full to the gills, so much so that stuff was overlapping. Then, that night, we had a fellow homeschool family come over from Ohio for the weekend. Much fun was had. We had a great time with them here. My house felt so quiet Sunday morning after they had left.

Anyway, I know a few of my readers (*snort* here I go sounding like I have more than 10 followers) are new to the homeschooling, so I want to share a resource that I absolutely love but had forgotten about.

Some time last week, Lesa from Free K-12 Education had posted about donnayoung.org, which made me *facepalm* because I had completely forgotten about that resource. It's a great place to find templates of paperwork or activities you need.

I started using it last year, when the school year first started, for handwriting. My children are only 2 and 4. I needed something for readiness and one for Kindergarten and they were both available for each skill level. The great thing is that it wasn't just different kinds of lines and letters, but pictures as well. Sort of like dot-to-dot, just without the numbers. There is even a box of suggestions on how you should space the worksheets out and work with them.

When the girls become compulsory age, which isn't for another two years, I plan to use the portfolio set that is provided on the site. I currently use a regular notebook, and if I hadn't already set up one for next year, I'd have started this sooner. It has everything you need to write in. I like this idea because that way you only have the paper you need right when you need it. No extra sheets, or, what usually happens, not enough paper.

That's just my babbling two cents on the site. You should go and check it out. I have liked everything available. I'd keep babbling, but I'm so tired right now, I can barely see straight.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-21T18:44:00.001-07:00

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Homeschooling Blog Carnival

2010-04-20T06:58:00.000-07:00

This week's Homeschool Blog Carnival is being hosted at Home Spun Juggling.
Go check out all the awesome blogs (myself included) at http://jugglingpaynes.blogspot.com/2010/04/carnival-of-homeschooling-cartoonists.html!!
Do it, 'cuz I said it.
DO IT!!

No, seriously, you totally should.

Secular Thursday: Preschool-Kindergarten Curricula

2010-04-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I was on Twitter in homeschool chat and the topic of the chat was Curriculum. I currently use what I so fondly call the Outta Ma Butt curriculum. This curriculum is based solely on making it up as you go and running by the seat of your pants. When I mentioned this to my husband he fired me from ever naming anything again. However, Peggy from PeggySue'sBlog suggested that I could just abbreviate it and so now I will forever call it OMB Curriculum.

I am currently rockin' OMB, but not so many people can. Some prefer school-at-home, like an online academy, or a boxed curriculum. I can't afford any of these. The state of Iowa doesn't cover it. I am POOR. But to be honest, I don't really need a curriculum of any sort right now. My oldest is now just finishing up Kindergarten and starting 1st grade next year. Her sister will bunker down with preK, and to continue this honesty, I will say that YOU don't need any curriculum for these grade levels. I found a lot of fun activities and ideas that I either used, or reworked to better suit my needs online. I will now share with you a handful of these links (because if I shared all we'd be here until Tuesday) that I found useful in teaching my girls.

Homeschool Share
Preschool Printables
Alphabet Worsheets
Color Recognition
DLTKs Teach
ABCTeach
Learning Treasures
File Folder Heaven
Printables for your Classroom
Brightly Beaming resources
KidSparkz
Free K-12 Education
Lesson Pathways

Hopefully, if you're considering homeschooling preschool and kindergarten, these resources will help you and get you stepping in the right direction. And even if you don't do a lot of "sit-down" work, they at least give you ideas on what you should be working on with your child.

Secular Thursday: How We Do It All...

2010-04-08T15:01:00.000-07:00

or, in reality, how we don't. :)

I'm going to burst into song right now: "Time, time, time, see what's become of me!! While I looked around/For my possibilities !!!!" And you're probably thinking 'why is this crazy woman singing Simon & Garfunkle's A Hazy Shade of Winter?" And I respond with, "but it's covered by the Bangles!" Also. that bit of lyric is suitable for today's post.

Now, a lot of my friends wonder how I have time to do all that I do. I homeschool my girls, I go to school online, I try and make sure the house stays in one piece... Usually my default answer is "MAGIC!" But that's just my catch-all response for anything I don't really have an answer to. In all honesty, I DON'T do it all. Ninety-eight point twenty-three percent of the time, my house is in total chaos. My cats have gotten into something, my children are running rampant through the house, and my dog is old and hiding upstairs from all of the crazy. Most days I have a headache, I keep tripping on my animals/children/toys, I haven't washed my dishes in the past week or two, I don't know where I put something vitally important, I have misplaced my glasses, and I have forgotten to do my homework that is due that very night. By 3pm *I* want to take a nap. My husband is a blessing. If it weren't for him I would have already done murders and arson. On Fridays, he's in charge, and in the evenings he's the one who cooks dinner. He works nights, so we don't get to be with him often, but when we do, I can take a break. I love my kids, I love being with them, and I love teaching them, but sometimes I need a vacation.

So you see, I don't actually do it all. I just try and get SOMETHING done. My goal for every day is to have my daughters learn something new or acquire a new skill. Everything else can just wait. And that's guaranteed to work most of the time, every time.

I was actually going to add to this, but I can't see straight. It's been "one of those days" where you do wish you had magic.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-07T18:36:00.001-07:00

built the girls' school desks.

Unit Ideas for April

2010-04-05T20:13:00.000-07:00

Amphibians

frogs

Reptiles

snakes

Insects

butterflies and moths
bees
ladybugs

Farm

farm animals
dairy farms and cows
chickens and eggs

Earth Day
Arbor Day

The History of Easter

2010-04-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

Most people today believe that the practices of Easter *begin* with the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the son of Jehovah God, but are incorrect in thinking so. The word Easter is derived from the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility and Spring, Eostre, whose symbol was the hare (fertility). Eggs were exchanged at this time to symbolize rebirth and were painted to show the coming of the sun and the growth of a new and fertile land. There are several different variations of this goddess such as Ostra (Scandinavian), Ostara (Celtic), Ostern, and Eastre (Teutonic). Her festival was celebrated on the vernal (spring) equinox, or what we now know as the first day of Spring.

Early Christian missionaries wishing to convert the pagan tribes adopted the festival as their own. Since it fell around the time of the memorial of Jesus Christ's death (Passover), the church simply replaced one celebration with another, changing the meaning of the festival and making an easier transition into Christianity for the pagan tribes.

Have a very blessed day today, whether you celebrate Easter for its religious aspects, both Pagan and Christian, or are secular and just love getting chocolate in your plastic egg ;) Today we are dressed in pretty spring-colored dresses, watching secularly-easter-themed movies, going to play outside in the dirt and eating eggs and pancakes for breakfast. How do you celebrate Easter?

Weekly Wrap-Up

2010-04-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

We did stuff with things this week. :) The weather was so lovely the entire week that we spent most of it outside.

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Wordless Wednesday: Impromptu Playdate

2010-03-31T12:25:00.001-07:00

today's wordless wednesday brought to you by 80 degree weather.

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Secular Thursday: Iowa HomeSchooling Laws

2010-03-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

I know this is late in the day, but with three small children and my own schooling to do, this is the only free time I get! So, tonight I will kill two birds with one stone. Bird #1 is SecThurs; Bird #2 is my first ever Blog Hop!

This Blog Hop Hosted by Kylie @ OurWorldwideClassroom.blogspot.com and the theme is to tell or show the things we are all required to do to meet our state requirements.

In the state of Iowa, compulsory age starts at the age of 6 through 16 before September 15. If the kid turns 16 on or after that date, they have to stay enrolled for that school year. Schooling is a total of 148 days, with 37 days (though not really defined) per quarter.

Every year parents must file a CPI (Competent Private Instruction) form to the school board secretary by August 26 of that school year. This form is 2 pages long and asks the questions of how long you will homeschool, what you will be teaching, the name of the books you will use, some lesson plans, etc. It also asks for vacc records, or a medical/religious exemption for vaccs.

Then, the form asks the parent to choose a schooling option, whether it will be a Supervising Teacher, or an annual assessment. If the teacher, you have to give their name and "folder number" (what they use to identify teachers). All the STs that I know of have a fee. If you choose the annual assessment option, you will have to turn in a report card from any correspondence school you may be using. It HAS TO BE ACCREDITED BY THE STATE for it to be legit. If you are not using a correspondence school you can create a portfolio. The portfolio must be evaluated by a licensed teacher (also for a fee, a I've been told. I am currently working on my degree so that I can be qualified to be a licensed teacher to use this option for FREE!). The teacher's evaluation (not the portfolio) is then sent to the school system. The teacher MUST BE LICENSED FOR THE SPECIFIC GRADE YOU ARE TEACHING. If you do not wish to use the portfolio option, there is the option to do a standardized test at the end of every year. They have a list of tests that are allowed to be used for this option. I do not know what they are.

And there you have it. I believe that is all that is required to legally homeschool in the state of Iowa here in the United States. It's an unwanted amount of paperwork and tape, but it can be done. I currently do not have to worry about it for another two years. Lily will not be cumpolsory age until then.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-24T10:15:00.001-07:00

This wordless Wednesday brought to you by PBS Kids

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Weekly Wrap-Up: SPRING BREAK!!!

2010-03-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

School was out for the week, here in this house anyway. In my small town, they really don't have a Spring Break as I know it. They [students] end up with a 4 or 5 day weekend. So while my kids took this entire week as a vacation, everyone else had to go to school through Wednesday. Homeschool WIN!

And since we did very little this week, I will just share photos from this week. :)
(those viewing this through my LJ, the original post is at http://spiral-goddess.blogspot.com/)

Monday: We did some Read It-Write It-Draw It books for kicks. Then we headed out to the store so I could make mental notes of things I would like to have to make storing homeschooling supplies easier. As well as stuff and things.

Tuesday: Absolutely not a thing.

Wednesday: Happy St. Patrick's Day! We were set to have a play-date, but our friends were sick. :( However, they did drop off some tasty treats for us that EVERYONE enjoyed.

Thursday: It totally felt like SPRING today. All of the snow was gone and the temp rose up to 60 degrees F!! So we walked to ou rpublic library, then walked to our public playground/park, then walked back home. On the way home we greeted wild-life, such as two garter snakes and some bugs. :)
`

Friday: We got 4 inches of snow and spent the entire day in the house incredibly annoyed with Mother Nature.

Minority

2010-03-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

Being a minority within a minority WITHIN A MINORITY sometimes makes me want to punch people in the face if they make one of those kinds of comments.

First, ethnically, I'm a minority. I am Hispanic, and in this incredibly small town in Iowa, there are like 3 of us. Two living on the same street (me and my neighbor). LOL. Normally this doesn't bother me. Even though English was my second language, I've mastered it to a point where I sound like the average American. Hell, I have better enunciation, spelling and grammar skills than most Americans I have met that are my age. But if I'm in a store, talking to my mother in Spanish when I'm on the phone with her, people start to stare. The customers stare, and then the clerk(s) look at me like I'm about to shoplift or something. (Yes, because a woman arguing with her mother on the phone while trying to keep her 3 small children from hiding in the racks and making it a jungle safari is there to shoplift.) I've even been FOLLOWED.

Second, I homeschool. Fifty percent of the people here are farmers, 40% are corporate workers in one thing or another, and the other 10% work here in town. Most parents send their kids to public or private school because they cannot make the time to homeschool, or just don't have an interest in doing so, and that's cool. I was a public school kid growing up. I was a LATCH-KEY kid because both of my parents were working, and my older siblings had their own lives going on. To each their own. But not many people homeschool. It's difficult. AND you don't get paid for it. PLUS you're stuck with your kids all day. :) I don't know many parents who find that appealing in the least. People keep thinking I'm SuperMom or something because I *want* to be with my kids all the time. (Though sometimes I would like a vacation)

Third, I am Pagan. When most people accept you homeschool, they think you do it for religious reasons, which is fine. But they automatically assume it's Christian based. But if I say no, I am not a follower of Christianity, a whole new stream of negativity is thrown at me, which is also accompanied by the last minority in this "list"--I'm a SECULAR homeschooler.

Religion is not frowned upon here. On the contrary, it's discussed quite frequently. My mother is a Christian pastor. She created her church, does her own thing, and we discuss the teachings of Christ, the older scriptures, and how it can easily meld with Science frequently. (I lucked out. My mom's not a crazy, she knows Science is fact built by many theories that were proven through extensive research and experimentation. But she also finds [and I agree with her] that it is overseen by Divinity [though we don't agree on who].) I study religion as a hobby and my husband and I both collect religious texts for educational purposes. I believe that you better understand people if you can better understand their beliefs, their faith system. My husband is an atheist. His only religion revolves around his nerd, lol, but he knows that if it is a healthy way of life, something that helps you be a better person, there is no reason to bring it down or "ban" it from the house. Everyone has the right to believe the way they are most comfortable as long as that way is not harmful to them or those around them. And though we do discuss openly about beliefs and the mythology surrounding those beliefs, it is never set as truth, because we have no proof. So I try and keep my religious views out of our schooling. I want my children to decide what they believe on their own terms. If my children ask me a question that's religion-based, I have no problem answering, but I always emphasize that it is what *I* believe, and that it is ok if they believe something differently because there is nothing to prove any of us wrong, so no one can be right or wrong.

But I digress...

I've learned that sometimes it's easier to just keep my big mouth (and I mean that in a literal sense) shut. It's not that I'm not happy being this or that, or being a "minority" six different ways from Sunday, but it seems that people just keep getting dumber. So when anyone finds out that I'm a Hispanic secular homeschooling Pagan mom and they feel like adding their negative two cents, I just want to slap them. Slap them in their pretty mouths. But instead I have to do it the easy way and just ignore them. Violence only ever teaches that it hurts to get hit, even if you are wishing you could smack them smarter.

Lapbook Giveaway

2010-03-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

Tristan over at Our Busy Homeschool is doing a lapbook giveaway. She bought a lifetime membership after already paying for one year, so now Hands of a Child is giving the rest of her membership (seven months!) FREE to one lucky person!

Truthfully, I'm hoping it's me. :D But, you should go and try a chance at winning it, too! Go click the above linked text!

Secular Thursday: Why Homeschool?

2010-03-11T10:21:00.000-08:00

The past forever, everyone has asked us why we are choosing to homeschool our children. Like each of my pregnancies, this wasn't something I had originally planned. I had planned to work outside the home, have my children go to public school, until I actually had my children and watched them learn and grow.

My husband is a genius. While most people retain 50% of what is taught to them, he can retain 70-80%. I was a "gifted" student. Not anywhere near my husband (who graduated high school with academic honors without even trying) but still above the average. My children seem to have inherited our awesome. LOL

I have absolutely no problem with public school. Both my husband and I went to public school, and I know I have fond memories of my high school years. But academically, I was never challenged. I wasn't "smart enough" to skip a grade, but I was "smart-enough" to finish my tasks before all the other students and space out. When I was put in the Talented and Gifted program, the teachers expected us to already know everything; "You're a TAG student, you should know this". My education was stunted, I plateaued at an early age, and never felt motivated enough to challenge myself with other things.

Lily is currently going to a private preschool, and though the standards of that preschool are higher than the public school's she is STILL two years ahead of everyone in her class. Iris, who is two years younger then her older sister, is also two years ahead of most children her age. Because of their age, I cannot put them in a higher grade. Because I cannot put them in a higher grade, they are stuck with the children their age, who are at a different level, and get bored. Because they get bored, they end up being naughty. Lily has gotten into the habit of painting all over herself when she is done with an activity b/c everyone else is still busy with theirs. If she finishes early, which she usually does, she gets bored and then gets up and leaves the room. Sometimes, she just straight up refuses to participate.

What I've come to know about my children makes homeschooling the best opportunity for our children to learn. I know how Iris learns. I know how Lily learns. I know what works with what children and can adjust to better suit their learning abilities. In public school, the problems assessed would only be the majority. Unfortunately that would not work for my children, since they are not part of the majority. Also, I have more one-on-one time with each child, since I only have three children and not 16.

One thing that seems to go along with the "why homeschool" question is socialization. What irks me about those statements is do they honestly believe I'm going o keep my kids cooped up in the house all day every day? There are activities that they can be placed in with other children. Sports, of all shapes and sizes are incorporated AND we take them to areas where there will be children their age that they can interact with, such as the park, or the play area in our local malls. (By local, I mean 30 minutes away.) I am a social butterfly. I LOVE people. I cannot imagine not having my children out and about making new friends and acquaintances.

For now, with how "smart" our children are, homeschooling is the best option to better harness their awesome. And studies show that there is a direct correlation between my kids and awesome. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Rearranging the Playroom/Classroom

2010-03-10T17:08:00.000-08:00

2010-2011 Curriculum

2010-03-09T19:16:00.001-08:00

I can't afford it. No matter how cheap someone can find it, we just do not have the money to buy any sort of curriculum in any subject. So, what do I plan to do? Completely pull it out of my butt and do the lesson plans myself. I think my brain just imploded.

I am at a complete loss. OK, maybe not a complete loss, but I'm still at some sort of a loss. Lily is supposed to be in pre-K next year. She was going to go again to the preschool that she is going to now, but she's been deliberating because shes been bored out of her mind. We are almost completely done with her Kindergarten workbook. She's been retaining everything; I'm super proud of her. So for now, I will be "reviewing" most of what she's learned in pre-K and K, and starting 1st grade work with her next year. There are some things I want to make sure she understands and has in her head before "leaving" Kinder.

I have NO IDEA what 1st graders learn, so I'm pulling ideas out of thin air right now:

I've planned time for Foreign Language (which will be Spanish, French, German, and Chinese)
We will have time for Phonics/Reading, Writing & Spelling, sentence structure
addition and subtraction as well as skip counting; sequencing and sorting
I'm thinking of covering the Human Body for Science; muscles, digestive system, nervous system, skeletal system, endocrine system, the like. The weather and seasons, astronomy, states of matter.
Start off with US history in the fall, starting with the States, and then Iowa and Nebraska and working from there. Later doing Britain, medieval times, Ancient Greece and Rome.
I want to make time for art, music, and physical play.

Once I have a schedule set out for when to do what and for how long (like Foreign Language will be an hour long: 15 minutes per language) I'm hoping to be able to plan out the ENTIRE year. If any of you readers out there do, or have done 1st grade, what have you done and do you have any advice? All comments are welcome!

Lesson Plans for the week of 8 Mar thru 12 Mar 2010

2010-03-07T13:42:00.000-08:00

note: Along with English, we are currently learning Spanish, French, German and Chinese. Spanish is my first and native tongue, and my husband already knows French. We are having a lot of fun learning these languages with the girls. When I post "Foreign Language" I am only writing about which topic we are going to do. We are learning all of these languages AT THE SAME TIME.

Monday: bookwork: Hh, is, counting up to 12, shapes, sorting, nickels, our home address and telephone number, living things; foreign language: yellow and body arts; bookwork: Gg, review Aa-Gg, stop/go, yellow, sort 'same', the kitchen, habitats, trace lines, patterns; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: nursery rhymes

Tuesday: bookwork: Ii, are, count to 12, shapes, the arts, dimes, clean community, mammals; foreign language: green, body parts; bookwork: Hh, stop/go, green, same/different, what does not belong in a house, habitats, trace lines, patterns; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: colors

Wednesday bookwork foreign language: blue, body parts; bookwork ; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: nursery rhymes

Thursday bookwork foreign language: purple, body parts; library; bookwork ; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: colors

Friday bookwork foreign language: white, body parts; parents as teachers; bookwork ; tummy and standing time, play with different textures, read: animals

Note: if you have noticed from my weekly wrap-up posts, I don't always stick to my "lessons". most of the time I just wing it and do something they suggest or I'll end up with a headache, but I find that writing these down and at least having some form of idea what I'm going to do that day helps me acquire less stress.

Weekly-Wrap up

2010-03-06T09:30:00.000-08:00

QUICK NOTE: I am currently in a hurry as we are about to have lunch and then head to the Henry Doorly Zoo, but I have tons of pictures and videos to add to this post. Check back later tonight to view them!

Monday: Iris finally traced curved lines! It was our first day doing bookwork, straight out of the book, and she did such a great job I was in a great mood all day. Lily did her workbook review and journal and we worked on shapes and colors in Spanish.

Tuesday: It was Dr. Seuss's birthday! We had a pretty lazy day at first, just reading a bunch of his books. Then, after reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck, we made our own oobleck. Iris pretty much painted herself with the non-newtonian fluid while Lily decided to play in the cornstarch. Rose was our supervisor.

Wednesday: more bookwork and workbook review. Nothing too exciting.

Thursday: We did the color of the day, Green, in French (vert), Spanish (verde), and German (grun), and they hollered it every time. They even said it in Chinese (lyu). After that I decided I REALLY needed to clean my house because it was a wreck, so they helped me out in that department. Note to self: they are terrible sweepers. So after I fired them from using the brooms, they sat down and played video games on their computer and their Leapster2.

Friday: We did not a damn thing. I was horribly ill and stayed in bed all day. My husband stayed up and watched the kids for me and they horse-played.

Secular Thursday: Patience is a Virtue...

2010-03-04T09:19:00.000-08:00

...especially if you're a homeschooler.

Last week, my husband made a chart of colors with all the colors written in different languages. After the girls sat down on the couch, he pulled out the color blue and said the colors to them in English, French, Spanish, and German. Rose is 7 months old. She didn't care. Iris, who is two, had gotten up in the middle, gone to the toy box, and had begun to play with something random. Lily, being four, had stayed put, but had totally spaced out. So when their dad repeats the color and then asks them what that certain color is in a specific language, Iris isn't paying attention and Lily's automatic response is "I don't know." My husband: "Did anyone else just get a sudden headache?" I snorted at that moment, trying to supress my laughter. He then goes on to say, "You know, each day I keep getting more turned off on the idea of homeschooling." "Why? Because how frustrating it is that they don't want to pay attention?" "Exactly."

Like I said, I could only laugh. I deal with this every day. Every day, when we sit down for an activity, Lily spaces out in the middle of doing bookwork. You can ask her to draw a rectangle, and it will seem like she's doing just that, until, halfway through the rectangle, she's doodling. You ask her what she's doing and she stops and stares at her doodle and responds with her usual "I don't know." *head-desk* Iris gets distracted almost immediately after given an instruction. A simple "can you draw a circle for me, please?" and as soon as she picks up her crayon she's completely forgotten what you just asked her. Most of the time they sit down to do a certain activity that involves their undivided attention, like writing or math, I have to snap my fingers in front of their eyes and go "FOCUS!" or it will never get done. I've learned to be patient.

I am a very impatient person. I was kind of spoiled as a child. Materially, I wasn't given everything I wanted, but my emotions were always tended to immediately. If I was angry, you had to console me, NOW. If I was hungry, you had to feed me, NOW. If you had upset me, you had to apologize, NOW. So when I work with my girls and they don't do it NOW, it can get quite frustrating, especially when it's not just spacing out but downright defiance. There have been days when I just want to pull a Homer Simpson and throttle them, but I always try and leave a room when I get too irritated.

Patience was something I had to learn when I began staying with my children full time. If I got too angry or frustrated with them, I usually had to put my own self in time out. I'm not saying I don't get angry now or that I'm anywhere near perfect where patience is concerned, but I do my best, and I have gotten better over the past couple of years. It's not easy and a constant work in progress, but every homeschooler knows how much patience is needed.

Wordless Wednesday: Burger King Night

2010-03-03T19:30:00.000-08:00

Unit Ideas for March

2010-02-28T23:32:00.000-08:00

St. Patrick's Day
Dr. Seuss's Birthday
Spring
Ostara/Easter

bunny and Easter eggs

Forest Animals

bears
deer
raccoons
wolves, foxes, coyotes

Simple Machines

pulleys
wheels
ramps
lever

Lesson Plans for the week of Mar 01- Mar 05

2010-02-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

Monday: trace lines; workbook exercises: letters A-C, Big/Small, color red, sorting same, things to do at home, alive/not alive; music: quarter note; Spanish: colors; write in journal; workbook review: draw shapes

Tuesday: DR SEUSS'S BIRTHDAY!! spend day reading books by author and playing with ooblech! (non-newtonian fluid)

Wednesday: trace lines; workbook exercises: letters E-f, open/shut, color orange, sorting same, things at dinner, plants; music: quarter note, half note; Spanish: colors; write in journal; workbook review: hours

Thursday: trace lines; workbook exercises: letter G, review upper- and lowercase letters A-G, stop/go, color yellow, sorting same, things in the kitchen, habitats; music: quarter note, half note; Spanish: body parts; write in journal; workbook review: pennies

Friday: trace lines; Spanish: colors & body parts; write in journal (haven't thought up of what else to do today, thinking simple machines for the both of them)

Weekly Wrap-Up

2010-02-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

This is my first "wrap-up" post so bear with me. :D

Monday: Lily has gone through most of her Bran Quest Kindergarten workbook. So to make sure she was retaining information, I decided to do "workbook review" with her the entire week. We back-tracked and did everything she had done in the book by memory this week. On Monday she worked on writing the letters A through G in both upper- and lowercase. She also wrote number 1 through 12. Afterward we took some time out and wrote in her journal.

Iris worked on tracing. She did vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines. When i got to curves, she wasn't feeling it and decided to play with blocks. So with the blocks we worked on creating patterns. I was trying to show her to just put it next to mine in a new line, but she wanted to continue the pattern adjacent to the line I had created. Worked either way. At least she was understanding the pattern concept. We then spent a half hour coloring in books. :D (me included)

We've been trying to introduce musical rhythm, and today was the day we did the most work. Unfortunately even though we worked with only a quater note, Iris just had fun saying "ta" and Lily retained 0. After 15 minutes of trying, I gave up for the day and moved on to basic Spanish--which thankfully they took on with no problems.

Tuesday: We had a playdate over at a friend's house today! We were there for three hours just having a good ol' time. We didn't get much done but had a lot of fun.

Iris worked some more on writing lines. Again, she refused to even TRY writing curves. Lily wrote some vocabulary from memory. I, my, you, a, the. When we got home, we did some basic Spanish.

Wednesday: We had an appointment with the Early Learning Center here in town for the Child Fair. The Child Fair is actually held for vision, hearing, dental, and speech/language screenings. They all passed with flying colors. Lily and Iris are 'ahead' by two years, each. Rose is only 6 months, so as long as she's squealy and healthy and happy, I'm not worried about her. Having three kids, we were there for at least an hour, maybe two. So again, we didn't get much done. Iris worked on body parts. Lily practiced basic adding/subtracting skills with a game of Monopoly, Jr.

Thursday: I had a whole big day planned that was put on the back burner because my husband had forgotten to print out all of the lapbook activities. (I would really like a printer that isn't taking up space as a paperweight like our current one) So instead, we hung out in our pajamas ALL DAY. I took the girls to the library where I printed out our activities (and it cost me 2.40$), played outside in the snow, and practiced some basic Chinese.

Friday: We had a visit from our "teacher" through the Learning for Life program provided by our Department of Public Health. So the girls got to play and interact with Carla by having a picnic, reading some stories, and playing with some random toys. Afterward we did our If You Give a Mouse a Cookie lapbook that I had gotten from homeschoolshare.com. It took the ENTIRE DAY. :) Iris did the shadow matching game (she got all of them right on the first try!) and the mouse paper craft (building a mouse). Lily did the 'bookwork' by writing all the circles she found in the story and telling me what we knew about mice. Both girls did the cookie-match and math mat activities. We shared some mouse-themed songs and poems and then we sat down and baked cookies. We had a LOT of fun doing this. I loved that it covered math, science, art, and language arts. Not to mention we ate some delicious cookies.

It was a crazy week. We kept getting visitors, AND it decided to snow again. Thankfully this weekend has been very nice and we've been able to leave the house without slipping on ice every five seconds. We actually left the house today in tennis shoes instead of snow boots. Tomorrow I'll be posting my ideas for the upcoming week's lessons.

Secular Thursday: Science is Real

2010-02-25T11:45:00.000-08:00

First off, I may be a secular homeschooler, but that does not mean that I'm an atheist. It's a common misconception that secular=atheist. I just feel that religion is something you learn about and all religious beliefs are open for discussion. There are times when I may add something from the Bible, Torah, or a Buddhist quote depending on relevence to the topic.

Anyway, my kids are only 4 and 2, so they don't really care. Regardless, we are trying to do a simple Science program that is fun for toddlers. They Might be Giants teamed up with Disney and made three DVD/CD combo packs titled, Here Come the ABCs, Here Come the 123s, and Here Comes Science. It's a DVD full of fun educational music videos, all animated, or, in the case of the 123/ABC, animated and puppeteered.

Now I'm not against Creationism. But Evolution is fact. It's been proven; you can see it in action. I'm one of the rare outspoken few who believe that Evolution is overseen by a higher power. I don't believe in JUST one or the other. I find that they each have their place and combined, they make perfect sense. What I like about Here Comes Science is that it talks about Evolution and how each living organism is connected to the next, biologically speaking. We may differ in many ways, but all creatures are combined by 4 common elements and have all evolved to better suit and adapt to their surroundings. WHat's the most awesome part? This is taught IN SONG! It's a musical of awesomeness. My toddlers have NO IDEA they are learning and I love it.

The pictures I provided are the CD cover (which are all the tracks sung on the DVD) and a photo that I took with my phone of a clip from the Speed & Velocity video.

Go check it out.

Monthly Themes Ideas

2010-02-22T18:14:00.000-08:00

I keep forgetting to post these. I'm going to do this the first of every month from now on. (So for March, next week).
These are unit theme ideas for future reference.

January:
Seasonal changes
-rain
-snow
Animals in winter
-hibernation
Penguins
-polar animals
warmth and coziness
Martin LK, Jr.

February:
Groundhog Day
Candlemas/Imbolg
Chinese New Year
Valentine's Day
-communication/correspondence
transportation
-road
-trains
-water
-air
-space

Lesson Plans for the Week

2010-02-21T23:01:00.000-08:00

The children are coded as follows: Lily-orange, Iris-purple, Rose-pink; any activity where all children involved will be green.

Monday: socialization at preschool; letter tracing (cards w/ string); patterns (foam blocks); line tracing; coloring time; workbook review; write in journal; spanish; musical notes and rythm

Tuesday: socialization at preschool; patterns; tracing; workbook review; music & rythm; spanish; write in journal

Wednesday: vision, hearing, dental and developmental screenings held at early learning center; body parts; spanish or chinese; workbook review; write in journal

Thursday: Lapbook: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie; patterns; bake cookies

Friday: Parents as Teachers program; board games (candyland & monopoly, jr.)

Life in a Nutshell

2010-02-18T20:41:00.000-08:00

Man, we have been MIA for a while. It's been a crazy couple of months...
Back in December, we did a lot of lapbooking. So much so, we actually needed a break from it. :) For our Language Arts lapbook we did A Pocket for Corduroy. Both girls did this. You can actually tell who did which lapbook just by the skills on the pasting part. Lily took her time, while Iris was just like 'this goes here, it doesn't need to be perfect.' We then mixed language with history by doing the history of Santa Claus (which I pulled out of my butt, and took 2 hours to make) and The Night Before Christmas. We then did the history of Hannukah and had a blast! I found a project on making a dreidel out of cardstock, which we jumped at. We even did a "lighting" activity where we lit the menorah for the whole holiday. We were going to do Yule and Kawanzaa, but that month was crazy and we were visiting family, so we decided to just take a vacation instead. :)

About a month ago, my husband and I went to Barnes and Noble and Border's and found a wonderful array of homeschool curriculum and workbooks in their education section. We bought three Brain Quest books for the girls to do as supplement to their every day activities. They were out of PreK, so we only brought home K, 1st, and 2nd grade. Lily is almost done with the Kindergarten book, and Iris has done a couple of the activities in it as well. Lily and Iris were also given workbooks as gifts for the holidays/birthday.

I have this old notebook that I've had for ages. I decided to make it into a planner. When I ended up finding a nice leather-bound one on sale at Borders, I ended up taking this planner/notebook that I had made into a lesson planner. It was a notebook from high school that I never used, hence the ridiculous stickers, but I found a nice fabric book-cover and added post-it tabs to make it more professional. I use it for book work, activities, and other mundane things, like doctor appointments and play-dates.

We've kept busy doing bookwork and other activities with open-ended toys. Right now I'm just trying to figure out what to do and how to do. I am the epitome of winging-it.

Quick Note

2010-02-02T17:00:00.000-08:00

Rant of frustration:
Why are all nearby conferences and conventions Christian-based? I am Pagan, and either way, I am a secular homeschooler. Religion will be kept out of our teaching until my children are old enough to understand and choose their own faith. As many religious paths will be discussed when they are older as possible. I just wish there was just ONE conference/convention that wasnt centered around their Lord, Jesus Christ. I have no problem with Christianity, it is just not the sole basis part for my curriculum.

/rant

Kitchens, and Paints, and Maps, Oh MY!

2009-12-16T19:59:00.000-08:00

Have I mentioned that I want to turn my playroom into a classroom? Well, I do.

I'm starting to hunker down on home-schooling the girls and getting as much information as possible before "formal" teaching begins. J and I have been searching through catalogs and online to find the things we would like to get for the girls here at home. I remembered we had been given a catalog for school equipment and supplies by a friend in the Department of Public Health. So after running through the catalog I signed up for one online at DiscountSchoolSupply.com and found this cute kitchen play set that I would LOVE to get the girls. Cooking and tea parties are their favorite.

Like I mentioned before, I do want to get them a wall map, but J came up with the idea of the pull-down maps we had in public school. That way we can have multiple maps without minimizing space in the room. I found a website that sells ceiling mounts for these kinds of maps. I was thinking the easel kind (like the one posted) would work, too, but I think the ceiling set of 11 maps would work best so I can use them all as they grow.

Then a friend of mine pointed me to Lakeside.com for cute storage units. I want to get rid of all these toy boxes to better optimize space for their toys. Making the storage go UP instead of out and around would help with that. The ones on the website were only 20 each.

I am so excited to be looking through all of this now so that when I plan out for the next school year, I'll be able to make this into a "private school" and file all of this stuff in our taxes. I have so many ideas and so little money, it's a bit disheartening, but it will be done! I'm compiling a list of things that I would like to get for our classroom so that way when friends and family ask what they should get the girls, I have a list of supplies and equipment they can look at and buy. I'm tired of having to get rid of multiple toys they don't care for or play with. This way I don't have to keep getting rid of toys, and they benefit from learning with what they are given. AND we won't have to buy everything. :)

I'm so excited I can't even type anymore. My mind is racing.

All I Want for Christmas...

2009-12-15T00:38:00.000-08:00

Is an awesome wall map for my girls' Social Studies projects. I have a wall poster of the planets somewhere in my things...BUT I CAN'T FIND IT and it's driving me nuts. I find this one (picture) at the office depot website for $15 and it's LAMINATED so I want it. The world map would be awesome. But I also want one of just the United States. I have so many ideas. I HATE BEING BROKE. A globe would be nice, too. WHY ARE THEY SO EXPENSIVE.

We're currently doing a bunch of holiday lapbooks that I've either found or created myself using bits and peices of information I found online. We did one on Santa, and are currently on Hanukkah. We'll then being doing Muharram (Islam New Year), Yule (Winter Solstice), Christmas around the World, and Kwanzaa. And THAT is just this month. We also did A Pocket for Corduroy for our Reading study. Have I mentioned how much I am LOVING lapbooking? Lily loves it too. Pictures will soon follow.

I will have an all picture post of all of the recent lapbooks we've finished as well as her journal. I've been trying to keep it a daily journal (Monday through Friday) But I keep forgetting to sit down with her and do it. Juggling three kids AND homeschooling is hard work. But I'm starting to get the hang of it. I'm going to talk with the state some time after the holidays are through to see if they would reimburse us on a kindergarten curriculum even though Lily is not of compulsory age for another two and a half years. The kid is just so smart, I'm the one who is keeping up with her.

Also, I'm trying to post daily, but I get distracted easily. I sign online and then totally forget what I came here for. LOL. But everyone will be seeing more posts from me. I'm not gone yet.

Tracing and School Projects

2009-12-02T15:27:00.000-08:00

When Lily was 2, we started working on writing. Well, Iris turned 2 at the end of October and we are currently working on tracing lines. The main problem that I am having is having her hold the marker or crayon correctly. We had this same problem with her spoon and fork. Thankfully, it's not a very big deal and she's doing quite well if you ask me.

As I've mentioned before, as well as homeschooling, Lily is going to a private preschool here in town. I wanted to post all of her art projects that she does throughout the school year. She goes to a Lutheran school and for September the theme of the month was being "Fishers of Men." I don't remember the whole parable and whatnot that goes with that, but she did have a lot of fun. One thing that I forgot to add to the photo was this little water bottle that she had filled with sand, little plastic fish and blue water. It's super cute and up still as a decoration.

In October they did fall and Halloween themes as well as transportation. They worked on fire safety as well and Lily came home reminding me to stop, drop and roll if my clothes ever caught fire. Last month was Thanksgiving themed and they worked a lot on turkeys. The black feather used to have a little red headband to go with it but the girls fought over it and it fell off.

I have a bunch of other things she has worked on at school as well as the activities she brings for home, such as her Weekly Reader. I'm looking into seeing if I can acquire the WR after she's down with preschool for our homeschool sessions.

Corduroy Lapbook

2009-12-01T19:48:00.000-08:00

Today was our first attempt at lap-booking. Until about last week when I joined a yahoo homeschoolers' group, I had no clue there was even anything called a lapbook. And only a couple of days ago did I actually *know* what it was. So, thanks to the lovely help from the HomeschoolShare website, we were able to try out their activities and try our first lapbook exercise.

This assignment was on the book Corduroy by Don Freeman (one of my favorites from childhood!) Lily had a lot of fun working on it, and it took a great deal of time for all the gluing and coloring and cutting. We enjoyed ourselves very much. Though we are a pretty secular bunch (mixed religions) I really enjoyed the Bible verse that was added to this activity and shared it with Lily, who agreed that it was a very wise proverb.

The mystery toy game was played by not only writing words for the clues but pictures. We had a fun time with that, and lily was super excited that she found the right toy with all the clues given. We actually did this a couple of times with different clues and toys than the one posted.

All in all, we had a fun time doing this and I am very much going to continue using lapbooks as a teaching and learning tool.

About Us

2009-12-01T19:20:00.000-08:00

*waves* Hi there! For the sake of anonymity, I'm Luna! I am 23 years old and I have three beautiful daughters between the ages of 4 months and 4 years that I have been teaching since birth. My husband and I first came to the decision of homeschooling when Lily, my oldest who will be 4 on December 26th, showed signs of brilliance. She was very ahead in many areas academically and was easily bored with the activities of other children her age. As she got older, we encouraged learning with fun activities and she has mastered a lot of things that most children her age have not.

My husband is incredibly intelligent, and I, though not as bright as my husband, was also a "gifted" student. Academically we were miserable in school. We did not feel challenged and learned very little through the public school system. Most of what we know now we taught ourselves growing up out of boredom. We were very hands-on kids who needed to have fun in learning to continue to excel. We did not get that at all from our experiences in public school.

Currently, Lily is attending a private preschool. She enjoys it very much, but for her, it's more of a social gathering than anything else. The things that are being taught in class for the three-year-olds are colors, and shapes, and the basics, which Lily was taught at least a year ago. Iris, my 2 year old, already knows what they are teaching in her sister's preschool. Though Lily is attending a class three days a week, we supplement her with other activities using worksheets and workbooks, and different forms of play. She works with the basics; reading, writing, and arithmetic, and we also add in secondary languages (Spanish and American Sign Language) and music. Whatever she brings home from school we use together to help her younger sister learn, too. Until I can find a good support group so that she can still have a bit of socializing with children her age, we are currently just winging it and letting her enjoy her preschool.

This blog was created to post pictures and progress of all the things we do. I'm trying different things until next year when I start a formal program with her since she is getting closer to compulsory school age.

I have another daughter, Rose, who is currently 4 months old.

Spiral Goddess Home School

Week 01: Mostly Fail

Secular Thursday: Sometimes, They Want "Proof"...

Day 1: OOPS!

Summer Vacation

Move Brainstorm

Wordless Wednesday: SIDEWALK CHALK

I Spy and Phonics

Homeschooling and Moving

Weekly Wrap-Up: The Universe

Secular Thursday: Sometimes, Life Just Sucks.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-2010 In Review

Hiatus from Blogging

Week 0: The One that Got Away

A Request

Wordless Wednesday: I turn 24 today. My 4.5yo is almost as big as me.

V is for Vaction: Summer Plans Revisited

BRB

Wordless Wednesday: HELP!! *baby complaints*

Weekly Wrap Up: PIRATES!!

Secular Thursday: Summer Plans

Wordless Wednesday: (i almost wrote 'worldless')

Unit Ideas for May

Weekly Wrap-Up: Bright and Sunshiney Days

Secular Thursday: Earth Day

Wordless Wednesday

Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down

Wordless Wednesday

Homeschooling Blog Carnival

Secular Thursday: Preschool-Kindergarten Curricula

Secular Thursday: How We Do It All...

Wordless Wednesday

Unit Ideas for April

The History of Easter

Weekly Wrap-Up

Wordless Wednesday: Impromptu Playdate

Secular Thursday: Iowa HomeSchooling Laws

Wordless Wednesday

Weekly Wrap-Up: SPRING BREAK!!!

Minority

Lapbook Giveaway

Secular Thursday: Why Homeschool?

Wordless Wednesday: Rearranging the Playroom/Classroom

2010-2011 Curriculum

Lesson Plans for the week of 8 Mar thru 12 Mar 2010

Weekly-Wrap up

Secular Thursday: Patience is a Virtue...

Wordless Wednesday: Burger King Night

Unit Ideas for March

Lesson Plans for the week of Mar 01- Mar 05

Weekly Wrap-Up

Secular Thursday: Science is Real

Monthly Themes Ideas

Lesson Plans for the Week

Life in a Nutshell

Quick Note

Kitchens, and Paints, and Maps, Oh MY!

All I Want for Christmas...

Tracing and School Projects

Corduroy Lapbook

About Us

Wordless Wednesday: HELP!! baby complaints