This month we are reading The Boxcar Children books. We started with the first one and have moved on to the second in the series. Having not read these as a child, they have been extremely enjoyable for me as well.
My daughter has truly enjoyed them and even my little 2 year old asks for "the Box Children" before bed each night. Though he doesn't stay lying still and engaged for the entire chapter, he does seem to enjoy it for a while and certainly enjoys reading.
My daughter was enthralled with the first in the series. She enjoyed the thought of making a boxcar of her own, drawing pictures of the boxcar as the children had theirs as well as how she would like hers to be, and narrating the story back to me.
The questions accompanying this timeless piece has been great. Making a refrigerator in the stream, building a wagon, and picking berries have been thing that have continued conversations regarding this book.
We highly recommend the Boxcar Children series and hope your family will enjoy it as well. We are looking forward to moving through more of the adventures of the Boxcar Children.
The BoxCar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
How To Keep Learning in the Summer the FUN Way!
Many times moms say to me that they continue schooling over the summer because they are afraid their kids will "forget" over the summer. This is an excellent point and many teachers and learning specialists agree that there is some regression in learning over the summer months if you take the summer off from school.
Many homeschooling families continue schooling over the summer for this reason, though there are other reasons families homeschool year round. I have traditional school friends that agree and either do tutoring or their own type of summer homeschooling over the summer break.
But if continuing your normal school load over the summer does not seem to sound like too much fun, you will want to remember that you don't have to sit at the table for a regular school lesson to keep the learning alive over the summer months.
Though we have continued some of our regular schooling, we do "summer light" schedule, as we call it, and do a little of something most days but we don't get up and hit the books early like during the typical school year and we work around camps and vacations and outings and just having fun being together and enjoying the weather.
There are many ways to do continuing learning over the summer months, whether you are a homeschooler or just want your kids to keep up with their skills over the summer. There are many online subscriptions that you can use to have your children work on their basics over the summer. We use Time4Learning all year but we continue to use it in the summer to either review things we need to review or continue moving forward. They have a great subscription that you can stop and start as you want and you can use it all year or just for a month or two in the summer. It's great and moves along at your child's level. The reports are great for a parent to see how their children are doing and what needs to be worked on and is great for unsupervised learning for the most part. The way we do it is my daughter does the lessons by herself, unless she asks for help, and then calls me at quiz and test time and we do them together. She likes to take a break from "clicking" and I read the questions and she tells me the answer and I click the answer on the quizzes and tests. It's a nice way for me to see whta she's doing and how she is doing while getting some independent time for her as well.
Another way to keep learning in the summer months is to incorporate games and workbooks into your summer. My daughter loves the Math Made Easy workbooks for Math, mostly because she gets a sticker for each page she completes. We finished up the Kindergarten book, which we used for review, and started the 1st grade book this summer. She thinks its fun and is learning. I let her do as many or as few of the pages as she wants. We have some other workbooks that she has gotten from the Dollar Store that I wouldn't normally use for homeschooling but she thinks are fun and they are learning so I let her do them whenever she wants.
We also use games like Zingo to work on words, Sight Word Go Fish, and Addition and Subtraction Bingo to have fun. I also let her play her Explorer and online games occasionally to mix it up. But they are almost always learning games, she just doesn't always realize that they are. I love it when I can sneak in some learning.
And, of course, through reading programs at the library and online, we have been reading a lot of books. In the summer, she can pick whatever topics she wants. She picks one book to read to me for every 3 books I read to her - since she is a beginning reader. It keeps us reading and learning and the topics are sometimes very interesting and diverse.
But lastly, my favorite part of summer learning is taking our after dinner walks as a family and discovering what we will talk about and learn about. For instance, last night we took our walk - over 3.5 miles actually, longest walk this summer yet - and we talked about so many things. We found tree bark lying on the path that was rolled up off the tree and my daughter asked about why it was rolled up in a cylinder. We talked for some time about tree bark and how trees grow. It was great. Then we saw 3 raccoon racing around and then up a tree. We talked about raccoons for a while. We took a leaf and put it in the creek and watched it float and talked about that. It was a nice time and we talked about all kinds of things. We are always learning about something even we are having fun and spending quality family time.
So don't fret about summer learning, just open up the opportunity for your children to ask questions and learn about things they are interested in. Just making learning games, books, and opportunities available will keep learning alive whenever you take a break from your normal school schedule.
Many homeschooling families continue schooling over the summer for this reason, though there are other reasons families homeschool year round. I have traditional school friends that agree and either do tutoring or their own type of summer homeschooling over the summer break.
But if continuing your normal school load over the summer does not seem to sound like too much fun, you will want to remember that you don't have to sit at the table for a regular school lesson to keep the learning alive over the summer months.
Though we have continued some of our regular schooling, we do "summer light" schedule, as we call it, and do a little of something most days but we don't get up and hit the books early like during the typical school year and we work around camps and vacations and outings and just having fun being together and enjoying the weather.
There are many ways to do continuing learning over the summer months, whether you are a homeschooler or just want your kids to keep up with their skills over the summer. There are many online subscriptions that you can use to have your children work on their basics over the summer. We use Time4Learning all year but we continue to use it in the summer to either review things we need to review or continue moving forward. They have a great subscription that you can stop and start as you want and you can use it all year or just for a month or two in the summer. It's great and moves along at your child's level. The reports are great for a parent to see how their children are doing and what needs to be worked on and is great for unsupervised learning for the most part. The way we do it is my daughter does the lessons by herself, unless she asks for help, and then calls me at quiz and test time and we do them together. She likes to take a break from "clicking" and I read the questions and she tells me the answer and I click the answer on the quizzes and tests. It's a nice way for me to see whta she's doing and how she is doing while getting some independent time for her as well.
Another way to keep learning in the summer months is to incorporate games and workbooks into your summer. My daughter loves the Math Made Easy workbooks for Math, mostly because she gets a sticker for each page she completes. We finished up the Kindergarten book, which we used for review, and started the 1st grade book this summer. She thinks its fun and is learning. I let her do as many or as few of the pages as she wants. We have some other workbooks that she has gotten from the Dollar Store that I wouldn't normally use for homeschooling but she thinks are fun and they are learning so I let her do them whenever she wants.
We also use games like Zingo to work on words, Sight Word Go Fish, and Addition and Subtraction Bingo to have fun. I also let her play her Explorer and online games occasionally to mix it up. But they are almost always learning games, she just doesn't always realize that they are. I love it when I can sneak in some learning.
And, of course, through reading programs at the library and online, we have been reading a lot of books. In the summer, she can pick whatever topics she wants. She picks one book to read to me for every 3 books I read to her - since she is a beginning reader. It keeps us reading and learning and the topics are sometimes very interesting and diverse.
But lastly, my favorite part of summer learning is taking our after dinner walks as a family and discovering what we will talk about and learn about. For instance, last night we took our walk - over 3.5 miles actually, longest walk this summer yet - and we talked about so many things. We found tree bark lying on the path that was rolled up off the tree and my daughter asked about why it was rolled up in a cylinder. We talked for some time about tree bark and how trees grow. It was great. Then we saw 3 raccoon racing around and then up a tree. We talked about raccoons for a while. We took a leaf and put it in the creek and watched it float and talked about that. It was a nice time and we talked about all kinds of things. We are always learning about something even we are having fun and spending quality family time.
So don't fret about summer learning, just open up the opportunity for your children to ask questions and learn about things they are interested in. Just making learning games, books, and opportunities available will keep learning alive whenever you take a break from your normal school schedule.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Summer School
As we prepared for our move and our family vacation at the end of May, we took "summer vacation" early. My daughter was excited to have time off from school. Of course, that only meant from our traditional daily curriculum. Sometimes she doesn't even KNOW when she is learning! Don't you love that? When you sneak in the learning?
After a wonderful time on vacation and getting over some illness, we got back to work what I call "school lite." We subscribe to year-round school but a break now and then can be good. We ended our school break with attendance at the Indiana Homeschool Convention.
Then it was back to school time. This summer we have six weeks of drama camp, a literacy through theatre program, swim lessons, and traditional YMCA camp so we have definitely have our plate full this summer, but we still get in our learning time most days.
Each day we do at least the "three R's" and since we are participating in the our library's summer reading program, we usually use our library books for our reading time. Our rule is that Avarie reads one book to me and then I read one or two (or three or four) to her. She is doing so well with her reading so that has been great this summer.
Avarie enjoys the MATH MADE EASY books so we do a few pages in the book as our summer math. We will take back up our formal Math program after our summer schedule winds down. As long as we do some math most days, I know we aren't going backwards.
We also do writing most days. We do this either through copywork, creative writing or our handwriting program. I usually let Avarie decide which she wants to do. She usually pick Handwriting, which I find interested.
We have supplemented our summer learning with an Explode the Code book, Speekee TV trial run of a Spanish program, and the review section of our All About Spelling book. As I am finalizing our fall curriculum, we are trying a few things and making decisions on courses and subjects. It has been fun.
And since Avarie has started piano lessons, she gets some time to practice most days. It's a full summer but not terribly stringent. She is doing well and we are having fun. And there has been plenty of time for walks and bike rides to the park (I even got a bike wtih a baby seat for this year) and nature walks, which Avarie loves. What a great time!
After a wonderful time on vacation and getting over some illness, we got back to work what I call "school lite." We subscribe to year-round school but a break now and then can be good. We ended our school break with attendance at the Indiana Homeschool Convention.
Then it was back to school time. This summer we have six weeks of drama camp, a literacy through theatre program, swim lessons, and traditional YMCA camp so we have definitely have our plate full this summer, but we still get in our learning time most days.
Each day we do at least the "three R's" and since we are participating in the our library's summer reading program, we usually use our library books for our reading time. Our rule is that Avarie reads one book to me and then I read one or two (or three or four) to her. She is doing so well with her reading so that has been great this summer.
Avarie enjoys the MATH MADE EASY books so we do a few pages in the book as our summer math. We will take back up our formal Math program after our summer schedule winds down. As long as we do some math most days, I know we aren't going backwards.
We also do writing most days. We do this either through copywork, creative writing or our handwriting program. I usually let Avarie decide which she wants to do. She usually pick Handwriting, which I find interested.
We have supplemented our summer learning with an Explode the Code book, Speekee TV trial run of a Spanish program, and the review section of our All About Spelling book. As I am finalizing our fall curriculum, we are trying a few things and making decisions on courses and subjects. It has been fun.
And since Avarie has started piano lessons, she gets some time to practice most days. It's a full summer but not terribly stringent. She is doing well and we are having fun. And there has been plenty of time for walks and bike rides to the park (I even got a bike wtih a baby seat for this year) and nature walks, which Avarie loves. What a great time!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Our First Homeschooling Year
I have always known that I wanted to homeschool. After we did not think that this would be possible financially, we enrolled our first daughter in our church’s school for preschool and pre-Kindergarten. They were very good and we had no issues with the school or what was being taught. But I continued to want to homeschool. After the birth of our second child, I realized that I wanted to be home with the children, teaching them myself, more than ever. In March 2010 we made the move to my quitting my job and coming home with the children and we began our homeschooling adventure with our 5 year old.
I immersed myself in curriculum and books. I studied types of homeschooling, unit studies, all in one programs, lapbooks, notebooking, online curriculums, and coops. I couldn’t believe how much information was out there and began to ready everything I could and try to decide what we wanted our approach to homeschooling to be.
Though we are Christian and knew that homeschooling would include studying our faith, we also believe in the importance of a well-rounded education. I went to my first homeschool convention about a minute after we decided I would be coming home. Me, with a background in upper level education and curriculum development, and my mother, a school teacher of almost 20 years, were just amazed at what was out there.
We settled on an all-in-one Christian based unit study curriculum for Kindergarten. I have to say that it was an excellent way to get my feet wet and give me a place to start but I found that I wanted and needed more out of our school days. But having a place to start was great and I have no regrets from starting out our homeschooling adventure the way we did.
After having progressed through Kindergarten in less than a year and reading everything I could about homeschooling, I found that I didn’t want to continue with the same curriculum for 1st grade. So I began to do more research and make decisions. We have moved onto a more classical approach to education utilizing a wide variety of programs and resources. We love computer based programs but do not want them to be the sole way of getting an education.
I’m not saying that we don’t have frustrating days. But I would not change for one minute our decision to homeschool. It has brought my children and me closer and my daughter has thrived as we explore information she is interested in. Though we have a schedule and set things to cover, to me, the joy of homeschooling is the flexibility to let my children learn about something they are interested in. If they love something, we keep learning about it and dig deeper. It is amazing what kids are capable of. Being able to homeschool means that I get to participate in this beautiful process of watching my children’s eyes light up as they discover new things and learn about the world for the first time.
Homeschooling may take time, commitment and patience, but in the end, homeschooling is a true blessing. I wouldn’t want it any other way for my family.
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