Week 16 1/2 Report

For the last week and a half, we have been studying the human body – I waited to post this weekly report because I wanted to include all the human body stuff in one big post, plus we are leaving tomorrow for a week in New Mexico with my grandparts, so today is the end of our week 17.  Well, we are taking a little bit of stuff to do in the airport, but we are pretty much done.

We had a really great week!  We used a unit that I am creating for the HSS Blast contest, and I really enjoyed it.  We used the books Inside Your Outside, by Tish Rabe, The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body, by Joanna Cole, plus about 20 other books that were about the body system.  Some of the fun stuff we did was 1) Make a brain, 2) Draw a human body outline and fill in the major parts – we did this with chalk since I didn’t have any butcher paper, 3) Make a plaster mold of our hands, and 4) A trip to the human body exhibit at our science museum.  I don’t know if you have head of this exhibit, but it is actual human bodies dissected, and it was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life.  Madison thought it was a little gross, and I guess I did too, but it was also really cool.  I have pictures of all this stuff, but I forgot my computer at my parents house this weekend and my husband is out of town for work (and had the nerve to take his computer with him!!), so I am at the library typing this before we leave town tomorrow.  Anyway, to read more about our unit, you will have to wait until it is published at HSS.

The rest of our week was regular, although I am contemplating a few changes to our curriculum, mainly math…  I am thinking about switching to Right Start.  Some other things I wanted to blog about:  how we use our memory CD (since I was asked ),  our upcoming unit studies, our current progess with Headsprout, and much much more… but all that will have to wait until we return from New Mexico.

We also went to the circus with Grandma Sandy on Friday night.  That was definitely an experience, and again, I will post some pictures when we return home.  We;ll be back next Tuesday, so until then, have a great week!

 

The things my child taught me…

(This is part of the Friday meme at the Heart of the Matter – to read more responses, click here…)

We have not been homeschooling for very long, so I am sure this is a list that will get longer in coming years.  For now, I would say the most important thing I am learning is that it’s not about me.  I have all these great ideas and long term plans, but sometimes I need to just take a step back a realize that Madison and I are not the same person.  Things that work for me don’t always work for her.  So learning to be flexible and work with Madison’s learning style is probably one of the hardest things I am having to do, but is also probably so important for the future success of our homeschool.

Mother’s Day Giveaway

Do you know who you’re nominating?

I do!

My Favorite Billboard

Sorry it’s a little blurry – I took this from the car and from quite a distance, but the first time I saw this sign, I thought it was really funny and wanted to share my amusement.  Matt and I still play the billboard alphabet game and even Madison is starting to play with us

Red Rock Canyon State Park

Yesterday, my DH had the day off. Our original plan was to head to Frontier City since they opened up a few weeks ago, but when I went online to see what time they opened, I realized that they had opened for weekends only. Bummer. They don’t open on week days until after public school lets out, which completely foils my great plan to go during the week before school lets out.

Instead, my wonderful DH suggested a trip to Red Rocks Canyon State Park. He had been out there before with his dad, and I have been nagging politely requesting that he accompany Madison and I out there. It is about a 50 minute drive from downtown OKC, but I really think it was worth it. We had an absolutely fantastic day.

After a stop at Bass Pro to pick up the required fishing equipment, we headed west. Once there, we did some rock climbing, fished for a while (we only caught two), hiked up to the top of the canyon and looked out, and took the nature trail. We also searched for butterflies and inspected different kinds of trees. I think I probably saw at least six different kinds of butterflies, but I didn’t really get a good picture of any of them – primarily because we took Spencer (our dog) with us, and he really enjoyed chasing them away before I could turn the camera back on. On the way home, we stopped at the Cherokee Trading Post, where Madison picked out a copper/turquoise bracelet and I got a fantastic pair of turquoise earrings. They had a really nice selection of turquoise jewelry there.

So, for those of you in the OKC area, I would definitely recommend a trip to Red Rocks for a great nature filled day. You could:

• Try some rock climbing
• Go fishing
• Camp overnight
• Eat a picnic lunch
• Bring your pet (as long as he stays on a leash)
• Rappel
• Take a nature walk
• Hike
• Chase butterflies
• Stop at the Indian Trading Post on your way home for a great souvenir!

There is also a pool, which I assume is available in the summer, group shelters areas, and RV hookups. If we go back, I think we will bring a picnic lunch and spend a little more time there.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

To see all the pictures from our trip, visit Flickr

Week 15 and 16 Report

Week 15:

This was a great week! We used The Art Lesson, by Tomie DePaola and these lessons from Homeschool Share to learn more about art in addition to our regular schoolwork. Madison loved it! I have long known that art is her favorite part of school, but she really really loved this. Now she is excited because she thinks that adding fun back into homeschooling means doing art every day, so we’ll see how it goes this week…

Some of the fun things we did:

• Made sugar cookies and painted them with edible paint (egg yolks and food coloring)
• Made our own paints with food coloring and water
• Made our own chalk
• Used puff paints
• Played grocery store
• Read about famous artists
• Sculpted with model magic

UPDATED – Here are the pictures

We also went to the Oklahoma City Art Museum - we live across the street from it, so I was glad we made the trip before we moved. It would be kind of sad to live so close and never make it over there. Madison loved the museum, especially the interactive art that made noise and stuff. We also have a great blown glass exhibit by Dale Chihuly – it is amazing. I think glass blowing is going to be one of our unit study because Madison loved it so much. She tells me she is going to be an artist or a photographer when she grows up, and I believe it.

This picture is from the art museum, and the multicolored glass thing in the background is by Chihuly. It is 4 stories high!

The rest of our days were the same old, same old. I’m planning on a Headsprout update later in the week, so stay tuned for that…

Week 16:

I actually planned to have a little bit of school this week, so I am still counting it as a week, even though we did absolutely nothing. Literally. She stayed the week with my mother in law and Kansas and had a great time.

I also had a great time, although I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish and I accomplished very little. That’s ok. My DH did not have to work very much, so we enjoyed have time together with out being interrupted every other breath. We went to the movies (Leatherheads… I liked it, he didn’t), and slept in quite a bit. I went grocery shopping by myself. It is amazing the things you appreciate. But I did miss her a lot, and was very glad when she decided to come home on Friday instead of Sunday

I had planned to make several blog posts (including this one), make a new memory CD, finish up the human body unit we are doing this week, along with some deep cleaning. I did manage to clean the homeschool shelf, and I also made amazing progress on my reading list – and those of you who know me now understand why nothing else got done…

Today:

We skipped school again and went to Red Rocks Canyon State Park with DH, who had the day off – more on that tomorrow.

Have a great night!

WW: Our Easter Pics

Green Hour Challenge #1

We literally just walked in from our nature study and I am so pumped!!  I am not at all a nature girl.  At all.  I have kind of been putting this off, partly because of our traveling, and partly because we live in downtown OKC and we really would have to drive somewhere to find some nature.

So today we drove up to my parents house.  They live in the country in Kansas.  It is a beautiful day and when we got here, no one was home.  I thought it would be a great opportunity to get started on our nature study.

I realize we are going to be behind pretty much everyone, but I am ok with that.

So anyway, our walk today went great.  We have been talking a lot about trees at home since they have been blooming outside and look beautiful, so right off I led her to the pine trees in my parents yard.  Madison found a pinecone, then we walked a bit more and saw a butterfly.  We couldn’t get really close, but I did get a picture of it – we will have to zoom way in though.  I think it might have been a monarch, but once I get my pictures online, I will give it a closer look.

Then we saw holes in the ground and I asked Madison what she thought might have made them – I was thinking snake, but first she said crab, which actually makes since because when we lived in Florida, we saw the holes fiddler crabs make in the sand on the beach.  Then she said “No wait, my dad told me about this – they are homes for Wolf Spiders.”  Wow.  I guess she has already been getting some nature study and I didn’t know it!

On the way back, we saw tons of dandelions and I was trying to explain that these yellow flowers are the same ones that turn white-ish and you can blow on them and make wishes.  We found a root system (?) that had a yellow one attached, and one that was turning white, so that was nice to be able to show her.

Finally, we saw fruit trees that were flowering.  I am sad to say I don’t know what kind of trees they are, but I guess I will ask my parents when they get home.

When we got inside, I asked Madison what her favorite part was, and she said the butterfly.  I asked if there were two things she wanted to find out more about and she said “Wait, can I pick 3?”  So she picked dandelions, wolf spiders, and trees.  I am surprised she did not pick butterflies over spiders, but that is ok with me.

I’m surprised to say it, but I am looking forward to next week.  I will be in Kansas till Tuesday, and then Madison is staying the rest of the week with her grandparents, so I think we will try to take another walk on Monday.

I am planning to add pictures to this, but I forgot my camera cord and I wanted to write this out pretty quick so I wouldn’t forget this feeling of excitement.  Once my brother gets home and I coerce him to give me the password to his computer, I will add pictures some using his memory card reader.  It pays to be in a family of dorks ☺

Madison’s attitude

Hiding under the table at Uncle Don’s house because she woke up grumpy (and probably a little confused…)

She does NOT want her picture taken. That’s what she’s telling me, in case you were wondering.

And one where Madison is being sweet. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea – she’s not full of attitude all the time…

Maybe in a few days I’ll get the Easter pics up, now that they are all on my computer. Maybe.

Some things are changing around here…

When we were thinking about homeschooling, I started reading books about, well, homeschooling. First in general, then more specific books about different types of homeschooling. When I read The Well Trained Mind, that was it for me. I felt like it was exactly what I want to do. Mostly. Actually, part of me said “I love this!” and the other part said “It doesn’t really sound fun…” but my DH pushed my doubts away: school doesn’t have to be fun, right?

I don’t think I agree. Over the last few weeks, our schedule has been so busy, we have only been doing “core” subjects – reading, math, bible. And we have been finishing everything I felt “needed” to be finished. I feel like Madison is learning SO much, and even though it doesn’t really matter what other people think, I have gotten so many compliments on how smart Madison is. I like that. It makes me feel successful.

So what’s the problem? The problem is we are no longer having fun. Madison does what I ask her, but doesn’t like it. That is NOT how I want school to be. It is definitely not the precedent I want to set in preschool. Preschool is SUPPOSED to be fun…

What’s the solution? I’m not 100% sure, because most of what we have been doing is what I think is important for her to learn. And while I loved school as a kid, most kids don’t think school is fun. I know there are going to be things she needs to learn that she may not like learning. I am okay with that. But I also want her to have things she looks forward to as part of homeschool, you know?

Enter Homeschool Share. Thanks to Rachel from Keep the Way for sharing this website with me a few months ago. In the fall, when we technically start kindergarten (another think I am struggling with – look for a post about this in the future…), we are planning to use FIAR, which I am really excited about. Homeschool Share also has many units based on great books, the same concept as FIAR, so I thought why not start early with some of the units offered by HSS? Hopefully this will be a way I can add in some fun without taking away what I think is important.

For this week, I chose the unit based on the book “The Art Lesson” by Tomie dePaola. Madison loves art, and so far, she has loved the unit. We are painting, making cookies, making our own chalk, using oil pastels, and we are planning to go to the art museum on Thursday (believe it or not, she loves the art museum). I think this is going to be the start of a great improvement in our homeschool. I already picked out other units for the rest of the year and I am really excited about them.

Another great thing about Homeschool Share is the contest they have going on right now. When you create your own unit studies and share them at HSS, you can be entered to win great prizes! I am so excited about this. Creating curriculum, especially over literature (I was an English minor) was my very favorite part of teaching. I already signed up to make two unit studies, and when I finish those I might sign up to make more. If you are interested, click on the button below for more info:

I am also making a few other subtle changes to our day: adding coloring to our reading lessons, playing more games before math, actually doing science rather than just planning on it, etc. Even with those little changes, I have seen a big change in Madison’s attitude. Or maybe it is a change in my own attitude – I have to keep telling myself to lighten up. She is only four. Nothing I am doing right now is going to scar her for life, right? Someone tell me I’m right…