Box Day and Science!

The day the school books come in the mail, Box Day, is better than Christmas.  And since Ian is a fellow book-lover and knows I didn't just buy workbooks, he was eager to help me celebrate.

Ian offered to open the boxes with his pocket knife.

He was quick to dig into his sisters' "living" science books.  Forgive me, the light was low and I didn't want to use a flash; the pictures are a little blurry... Living books are the opposite of textbooks and encyclopedias.  They are not boring or dry.  Of course, if you are Ian and Shane, encyclopedias are where it's at!  I wonder if  teaching with "Living Books" was created by a woman because they are all touchy-feely and men are all about cold, hard facts?  That's a joke only fellow homeschool enthusiasts will get. 

Evie and Fiona's science books

Our science this year will have the boys read a two page spread on a topic in the encyclopedia, define new words, draw a diagram or a picture and label it, and then write a short paragraph about the topic.  For example, we will read about cells.  They will look up things like endoplasmic reticulum in the science dictionary.  They will label a drawing of a cell.  The next science day they will do an experiment about cells-looking at onion skin under the microscope, drawing what the see, and writing up their findings-that kind of thing.

Ian and his three science encyclopedias

I've had a day with the science program and have decided the experiments are a bit weak.  The week they learn about the skeletal system in the human anatomy unit, they take three chicken bones, soak one in vinegar, roast one in the oven, and leave one plain.  They try to break each one with a hammer and record their observations.  They are supposed to see that roasting a bone will dry it out and make it break easier, a vinegar bone will be bendy and weak because the calcium is diminished from the acid, and the regular bone (which is cooked already because it is leftover from a chicken dinner) will be bendy but not break as easily. I'm not sure what the take-home lesson is supposed to be-don't roast your bones and hit them with a hammer-they might break? Try not to soak your bones in acidic liquids-they might get weak?  Some topics don't need experiments-a simple art project of labeling the bones will do.  And if your kids watched Curious George all summer with their two year old brother, they can skip the lesson altogether!

Living Book

I know, I know, I said I wanted this year to be simple.  But the same basic experiment is repeated two more times.  Once during the crustacean week-we are supposed to dissolve shrimp shells in vinegar-and once during the bird week-dissolving an egg shell with vinegar.  Okay, by the end of the year we will know that we can dissolve shells in vinegar.  I think if we dissolve anything, it will be baby teeth in vinegar.  In our house, if a child uses "potty talk", they get their mouth cleaned out the same way we clean out the toilet bowl-with vinegar.  If they see teeth dissolving, they won't use potty language!  Now, that's a relevant science experiment!  Too bad it's more chemistry than biology.

The Story of a Good Dog

*Scream*  "A rooster! Stay up here!"

"Grrr! Stay away from my kids!"

"You can come down now, you're safe."

"Anything else I can do for you, My Queen?"

Second Verse, Same as the First

We finished off our first day of school outside.  The sky was so blue!  We felt sorry for the kids who were stuck in their classrooms.

Ahhh...Togetherness!

We did history (what are historians and archaeologists?), writing or drawing their personal histories, PE, and reading out loud together.

Running laps around the pasture-yes, I am that mean!

The second day of school is going similarly to the first.  We've had our morning distractions-this time I shattered a hot baking dish when I set it down on the wet cutting board.

So much for breakfast!

We've had our morning funnies-Daniel streaking through the house after removing his diaper shouting, "I'm nay-ked, I'm nay-ked! Ha ha ha! I'm nay-ked!"

[no picture needed-see this post]

Fiona had a number day.  I wasn't sure what she knew about numbers.  She could barely count to five two months ago which really bothered me.  My other kids could all count very young! Was her inability to count due to her large number of siblings? Or was she just not good at numbers?  I should not have worried; she can now count past 20, all with no help.  This morning, I pointed to numbers on Lula's bottle and asked her what they were.  She can read numbers up to ten!

Big Round Baby Belly! Roly Poly Arms! Love!

And we STILL haven't received all our school books, so today is short: just math and reading.  I can't imagine what a public school teacher would do if she needed to run a classroom with no books.  She couldn't call a short day and send the kids outside to forage for berries.  Or have friends over to enjoy the sunshine.  But I can!

Fiona's First Day

I overslept, Lula had a busy morning, and I decided to feed the kids cereal and went easy on their chores.  Hooray for the first day of school!  The older kids slipped easily back into their routines.

Fiona is super-excited to join the big kids for school.  Never mind that she has been sitting at the table learning through osmosis since the day she was born.  I asked her yesterday if she wanted to start learning her letters or numbers first.  I told her they would take turns: letters, numbers, letters, numbers.  She said, "Oh, like a pattern?"  I don't think she'll have much to do in math!

This morning, I called her to the schoolroom.  She and Daniel both came running to the gate.  When they reached the gate, Fiona turned to her brother, kicked him in the leg, and shouted, "Get out! It's MY first day of school!"

Ian thinks I better go lie down because I laugh so hard I cry every time I think of Fiona's First Day.

Last Day of Summer Break

In exchange for my nice "back-to-school" pictures:

Evie (6 1/2)

Shane (9)

Ian (10)

Fiona (4)

2012

I had to let them wear their favorite dirty shirts they've been wearing for a few days and also take a few funny pictures:

"Give yourself bunny ears!"

 AND...a chicken picture.

I think I got the better end of the deal, don't you?  The kids are taking full advantage of their last day of summer break.  The math books are already lined up, waiting to greet their smiling faces at 8:30 tomorrow morning.  I don't have everything I need-my packages are still in transit-but I have enough to get a skeleton day done. 

And speaking of skeletons, Fiona told me as we were driving past the graveyard that "When people die, some of them go to heaven and the rest get buried in the ground."  I told her that souls go to heaven and the empty body is buried in the ground.  She sits in the far back of the van and we often mis-hear each other.  She needed to clarify that just their skulls go or do the rest of their bones go too...

And then we have the cranky two-year-old story.  Daniel did not have a nap yesterday.  By the time we had dinner, he was so hungry and so tired.  He was not happy that he was given a cheeseburger when he wanted chips.  We tried the usual techniques: "Okay, I'm going to give your burger to Fiona..." to which he usually screams, "NO!" and eats it himself.  Last night he screamed, "No, ducky eat it!" and plopped that ducky right down on his plate and pushed it away. 

I love these kids.

Rose Mountain

Evie has now joined the hiking club!  Yesterday, they hit Rose Mountain after they discovered Mount Ellinore was closed due to aggressive goats.

Bunny Ears

Yep, they never get old!

They are all showing signs of being tired today, but they had a great time and learned a lot from their dad!

Homeschool 2012-2013

One of the great things about our little homeschool is the constant change.  Each year I get to evaluate our goals and curriculum choices and makes changes if we need to.  Knowing that I'd have a new baby to juggle along with an active two year old, I tried to make this year simple with room to grow.  I kept it simple by using curriculum and methods (Well Trained Mind) I am familiar with and eliminating busy work.  My students this year are Fiona in Pre-Kindergarten, Evie in 1st grade, Shane in 3rd/4th grade (summer birthday thing), and Ian in 5th.

Fiona joins our school this year!

 In the spirit of keeping things simple, here is a list of what we are using this year:

Saxon Math

Story of the World, Ancients

Elemental Science, Biology

Classical House of Learning Literature

First Language Lessons

Writing With Skill/The Creative Writer

Sonlight Readers

We will be combining as much of our day as possible, with each kid working at their own level.  From Ian all the way down to Fiona, we will be focusing on Ancient history, literature, and culture.  Math and Language Arts is done independently at their own level. If needed, a brother will read out loud to a sister while I deal with toddler trouble or infant interruptions.

Daniel will be busy with a sibling or me

One of the biggest changes I've made besides the elimination of busy work is not worrying about whether an item is consumable or not.  In our program, consumed items like workbooks don't have to be sent back to the school district when we are finished using them.  Any item that can be used again, like an encyclopedia or globe, needs to be returned when we are either finished with the item or leave the program.  I never wanted to deal with the hassle of shipping books back, so I tried to only buy workbooks.  Well, the clutter of three years worth of used-up workbooks finally got to me.  Plus the fact they never really learned anything of value from the workbooks also got to me.  The workbooks served one purpose: keep the kids at the table.

Baby Lula will just be hanging out.

Seriously, anytime one of my kids spouts out something intelligent about something they learned, it never comes from a workbook page (you'll never read a post where I'm excited about Shane saying, "Remember the time I did a worksheet about the map of Arkansas?"). Their "homeschool moment" comes from an awesome book they read or an experience they had or linking a reading to a movie they are watching. So I used my school district money to buy books like Aesop's Fables, The Aeneid, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and The Odyssey-all versions for younger children.  We also have Bible Stories and ancient stories from Asia, India, and Africa.  All of their language arts will come from the books, so the spelling, dictionary skills, etc. will be highlighted in the text.  And when we are all done reading, we'll send the books back to the school and keep my school room clean and clutter free.  If there is a book we can't live without, we'll buy our own copy-all fresh without spelling and vocabulary words highlighted!  And...if the school district considers the highlighted books consumed...well, I guess we have a bunch of new awesome books to add to our library!