Psychology

We woke up & spent an HOUR on math this morning. It wasn't pretty, but we're needing to plow through this stuff. Turns out Mane KNOWS the material and wants to take the test rather than doing all the practice problems. I thought maybe that was the issue, but she wasn't getting that if she just took the test, I'd let her move on and we wouldn't be stuck practicing the same concepts over and over. I think I've communicated that ONE THOUSAND different ways this year. It finally sunk in this morning...after an hour. I wouldn't even make her take the test if she'd consistently demonstrate that she knows something, but she pretends to forget and need help every time we sit down to work on math. She's got some complicated psychology.

After the hour of math, she happily moved on to handwriting. Still loving handwriting.

Then we went outside and planted bushes with Grandma and watered the plants...talked about the water table and how dry it's been. It got so warm that Mane changed into her bathing suit and ran in the sprinkler. We've been hoping for some rain. None yet today.

We came back in and worked on the 100 Words book. Mane used the things she learned in handwriting practice this morning to write out her workbook answers. She's happily working through the 100 Words book right now, very pleased with herself. Seems like we can't be happy with both math and reading at the same time. Right now reading is more fun. Go figure.

I'm trying to reason out my own philosophy of learning. Ideally I'd like to see Mane learn math & reading in real life and have it not be a chore or even a workbook, sit-down activity. On the other hand, I feel like she needs some consistent practice in these areas. I'd like to be sure the practice is fun and practical, but I'm not sure how to make that work without making it WORK. I need some time this summer to really think out how I want to homeschool next year...philosophically and practically.

Oh, and we're still watching that caterpillar munch on leaves in the jar on the kitchen table. No signs of spinning a cocoon, but it's certainly getting fatter. ;)

Conversations

Mane & I walked to the light rail and back through downtown today to get a "Go To" card for her - a plastic re-loadable bus card. At the light rail station we watched some gophers chase each other up and down under and around the tracks. They stood up on their hind feet to stare at us when they noticed we were looking. What bold little creatures!

On our way to the light rail we talked about all the fruits and vegetable that grow in Minnesota and what we could grow in our yard if we wanted to feed our family. I'm not good at gardening, and my last garden was a gigantic failure, but I just read an article in Mother Earth News about a family that grows all their own food in their yard in the city, and I was inspired. So, Mane and I chatted about it on our way to downtown.

While downtown we visited a coffee shop and talked about God and life and being Pergrins/Pilgrims on a journey to learning and following God. We talked about what it means to serve God and each other, and I told Mane some of the things I especially like about her. She really needs words of affirmation, like Mango. That's a major "love language" for her.

We also had another conversation about DNA, since she has Celiac's disease and she likely gets it from me, though I don't follow a gluten-free diet. She'd really like someone to join her in being gluten free so she took this opportunity to tell me how much better she feels being gluten free.

AND we talked about where sugar comes from and why high fructose corn syrup isn't particularly good for you. I promised that we'd look up some videos on how sugar is made from sugar cane once we got home.

We walked from Nicollet Mall to Government Plaza and stuck our fingers in the fountains. We met a college-aged guy from Boston, who was carrying a huge backpack, and told us he was going to spend his summer working in Ely, MN and in the Boundary Waters. I told him I spent my honeymoon in Ely. He said he was looking for fun & adventure this summer. He seemed so young.

Mane drew faces on the edge of the fountain by dipping her fingers in the water. We talked about why fish wouldn't live in the fountain very well.

On the walk home we talked about how stomping our feet and being angry about loud traffic noises and other nuisances we can't control is a waste of energy, and how we can let things roll off our backs rather than getting all worked up. Mane came up with her own version of that & said she could wiggle it off her back...this she said while wiggling her way down the sidewalk. We both laughed and decided that was a great way to feel better when something is annoying or frustrating.

So, now we're home...contemplating going out in the yard to cut down stray elm trees that are popping up among the peonies.

I'm going to pass off the math homework to Mango tonight while I go with Vespera to an award's banquet. Maybe a fresh face with make the work more fun for Mane.

All in all, the day has already been full with conversation and learning. It's only 2:45pm. Just think what could happen before we get to bed!

We love to walk!

Lately...since the weather has been more cooperative...we find ourselves walking everywhere. Last week we walked to & from the light rail and all over downtown. Yesterday we took ourselves to the Greenway and over the Martin Sabo bridge. Today we walked to Franklin library & home again. It's SO nice to GET OUT!!

Yesterday Mane and I had a long conversation about puppies and DNA while we were out walking. I find that if I pay attention, every second is a learning opportunity. We also gabbed about all the flowers and bushes we passed along the way. Today we talked about camping, hiking, and getting ourselves in shape for all the climbing we want to do at Whitewater this year...which fits perfectly into our current studies of the heart and lungs.

...yep, we've been checking out the human body some more...namely the heart. Today we checked out a few more books about the heart & some DVDs about the body.

Mane is 1.5 lessons away from completing her math book and totally dragging her feet. We'll get it done.

We're also picking up momentum again in the 100 Words book we've been using for reading. Mane is interested and gaining some fluency. I'm talking with some people about whole word approaches to reading, and I'm implementing some of the strategies. I'm also using the words that Mane is learning in the 100 Words book for her handwriting practice.

Oh, and we're keeping a caterpillar in a jar on the kitchen table in hopes that we'll get to watch it build a cocoon and turn into a butterfly.

We're still reading Ballet Shoes, and I promised Mane that we'd watch the movie once we've finished it. Every time we're out walking I remind her of how Nana took the children out for a walk every morning in the Ballet Shoes book and how good and healthy it is to walk. It's fun to pretend we're children living in England going out for our daily "constitutional."

Mane spent Saturday night at the Farm with her grandparents and our neighbors. She ran around outside and slept like a baby. I'm so glad she has places like that where she can spend time with nature.

Oh, one more thing...We're still reading Story of the World, and we began our studies of ancient India yesterday. Mane is still so in love with Egypt that it's going to be tough to transition her to something else, but I am excited. We looked at India on the map and traced the waterways that connect India to Mesopotamia. We also spent considerable time talking about how traveling by water was the easiest & fastest way to travel with large quantities of goods in the ancient world.

The end.

I want to know everything!

Mane asked me the other day to tell her "what all the parts of the body do." I guess we're going to be busy for a while.

Seriously, though, this child has been interested in the human body her whole life long. Skeletons don't scare her, and childbirth movies are popcorn-worthy. Recently we were playing at a park with some other homeschool families. It happened to be a vacation day for school children, also. So, the playground was busy. One little boy there had a hooded sweatshirt that zips up over the head & down the face with eye holes in the front, and it was printed with a skeleton. The mom I was with shook her head and commented on how gross that was. She muttered something about how she hoped her daughter wouldn't run into the kid because she'd be terrified. Guess who Mane thought was the coolest kid on the playground? Yup. You guess it. Skeleton-boy. She LOVES this stuff. Sooooo, we're going to run with it right now and see where we end up.

Yesterday we found pictures of the human heart for her school notebook. We read some about how the heart works, and she watched some youtube videos on the heart. Youtube is so fun!

Aside from that, Mane took MUS test 28 yesterday. She has the concepts down for the rest of MUS Alpha. Now it's just a matter of practice.

Mane sat on the floor and painted with Vespera & Novio yesterday afternoon while I read Story of the World (SOTW) chapter 8 to her (them?). I'm not as impressed with SOTW as I was to begin with, but it works well as a basic framework. It starts out reading like a story, but it quickly turns into a regular history book. It's a good framework, though, and I have a very poor foundation in history. So, I need this...a jumping off point.

The painting was a good lesson by itself, though. Mane learns quite a lot from watching the older two paint. She copied some of the work Novio was doing and compared the work of all three of them. She went around giving complements and making observations. It does wonders for her social development to spend some time participating in their activities, and it strengthens the relationships between them.







Now I need to order Five in a Row (FIAR) volume 2. We never found our missing copy, and I let FIAR slide while we worked on SOTW after Christmas. Now I miss it, and I want to go back, especially for the summer.

Astronomy

This week we started out by watching the youtube videos from this blog post: How Great IS Our God. This post is over at If Life is a Highway, where I also write occasionally. Mane has always been super interested in astronomy. So, this was a chance to talk about how big the universe is, how far away the stars are, how BIG God is, AND ALSO how intricately complicated the human body is...how the God who made the whole big universe also looked into the itty bitty details that make people. They're good videos, good science, good theology. I'd recommend them.

I love it when homeschooling is a conversation. When Mane is still asking questions hours and days later. When whatever we've studied comes up in every day life. I love it when learning just happens out of our natural curiosity. This is the way we learn best. What we learned about stars yesterday came up again today, and we spent another long time discussing astronomy.

We also spent some time last week and this week putting together a dollhouse and some dollhouse furniture that Mane got for her birthday. Her ability to identify pieces and put them together is really quite remarkable. I could see her doing really well with geometry. I guess I better start studying now!

I can feel the year winding down. We've been spending way more time outside, and I'm pushing "academic" work less. I'm guessing we'll pick up some of that work again when it's too hot outside to play this summer. We'll have two weeks when Mango is gone to Baltimore this summer, too, and I'll plan some Five in a Row for those weeks to keep us busy. I"m enjoying the flexibility to enjoy the weather, and Mane's been enjoying bug collecting. She even found a bunch of SNAILS by the garage in the yard out back. Who would have thought. Next time I'll take pictures. ;)

Albert and other things...

We've been rowing Albert by Donna Jo Napoli. In the story, Albert is an eccentric young guy who puts his hand out the window each morning to check the weather and see if it's a good day for a walk. Each day something just isn't quite right, and Albert decides to stay inside, not to mention that he finds some of the noises outside (garbage trucks and people arguing) quite disturbing. Then one day a cardinal builds a nest in his outstretched hand. Albert is forced to live for some days with his hand out the window. He learns to manage his fear of the frightening outside sounds and helps the last baby bird overcome its fear of flying.

This book is so rich with possible study topics that we've been totally absorbed for the last few weeks. We read a book about wings, and Mane drew this picture of an animal, other than a bird, with wings:



Because Albert was especially observant of sounds, we learn about ears. We used to subject of ears as a jumping off point for taking a look at all of the five senses, and we connected that to our previous studies of the nervous system and nerve cells:



One day we sat at Starbucks and wrote a list of all the sounds we heard. Then we wrote onomatopoeia for all the sounds:


Mane has continued to read "incidentally" all over the place. I looked over a book of what's on the standardized reading test for 1st graders and realized that she already meets 1st grade "standards." So, I'm letting the reading rest a bit...again. Ever since I let go of more formal reading lessons, she's been reading more on her own. I was prompted to relax a little but some reading I did about how pushing a child to read before their eyes are developed enough for reading can create dyslexia and a need for glasses. So, while I do some research on that, I'm going to stop pushing.

Yesterday Mane took test 27 in Math U See...just 3 more lessons to go, and we'll be done with Alpha! I'm learning some things about how to make learning more relaxed for Mane. I really don't want her to lose her love of math, but she's getting more and more resistant to workbooks. So, I read the math questions to her. She did the math in her head and gave me the answer. I wrote the answers down. Somehow this made her entirely happy to do the math test. Later I told her story problems, and she worked them out either in her head or with the math blocks. Story problems are really the only math problems worth doing according to Mane. So, I'm creating more story problems. I create story problems around the math problems in her book, and she happily supplies me with the answers.

I've been making observations lately of Mane's ability to tell time and count money. Interestingly, we've done very little formal work on those two things, but Mane has learned all the basics this year. One word for that: unschool. It's amazing what kids are learning when we aren't formally teaching.