Thousand Word Thursday - Friend Groups

Who says homeschoolers are unsocialized?! Mane is part of both of these groups on a weekly basis. Such fabulous kids!

Homeschool Group

Swim Team

Thousand Word Thursday - Formal Day at the Homeschool Co-op

Hair Braiding Practice

Vespera worked on Mane's hair while Mane worked on mine...

Vespera & Mane

All Dressed Up...no shoes for this wood elf!

Corn Maze Field Trip

Earlier this week we took a field trip to the Waldoch Farm corn maze. Mane had five straight hours to run with her friend. They raced pedal cars, ran obstacle courses, got lost in the maze, jumped hay bales, and swam in the corn pit! Nothing beats homeschooling in the autumn in MN. This is the time of year when everyone should be outside!

 

Corn Pits are for big kids, too!

Pedal Cars at the finish line!

Um...big blue feet?

Power of Play

I recently finished reading Free to Learn by Peter Gray. The book's subtitle says it all: "Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life." The book has a very unschool-y bent, as it features the democratic school of Sudbury Valley. I don't "buy in" to unschooling, as it has been presented to me, though I've had a couple of other people state that they view us as unschooling. I don't see it that way, since we use curriculum, and I have certain expectations for covering material each week. On the other hand, I work for Mane's "buy-in" with the curriculum. I try something else if the thing we're doing is making her hate the subject matter.

But I do "buy in" to the power of play. Mane has clearly had artistic potential from a very young age. I've signed her up for art classes from time to time, and she's enjoyed them. BUT, she hasn't taken time with her artwork. She hasn't focused on creating a finished product that is truly the best she can do. She simply hasn't been interested. She wants to have fun and didn't see a lot of point in doing a great deal of work to turn out a masterpiece. Until Recently. Recently, she and her friends have developed a fantasy play game that they play regularly when they get together, and they needed a "blueprint" for a bronze dragon. Mane spent the better part of a day drawing a dragon blueprint, using the book cover of one of the Percy Jackson books and several images off the internet. I was totally impressed by what she turned out. I honestly didn't know she had THAT kind of potential. Once it fell into the category of fun, she far exceeded what I even thought was possible. I've also been seeing her read...and read...and read because she wants fodder for the same play mentioned in the above paragraph. Play is fueling her "work."

Tour De Nature Centers - Eastman

Today's nature center visit was to Eastman, within the Elm Creek Park Reserve in Dayton, MN.

We LOVED everything about this place, from the kids play area:

To the quiet observation room where Mane could paint:

The binoculars and books provided for bird-watching:

The library with bird, wildflower and butterfly books:

 

The pond surrounded by all kinds of chipmunks, squirrels, and birds:

The rocking chairs overlooking the pond and birdfeeders:

And ledges where we can all sit in a row for lunch! LOL!

Homeschool Co-op

This year Mane has been part of a homeschooling co-op that has turned out to be a fantastic addition to our homeschooling life! Our co-op meets one full day a week and offers 4 class hours with multiple classes to choose from each hour. In the fall, Mane took Guitar, Ballroom Dance, Wacky Inventions, and Magical Worlds. This spring she took History Through Art and Stories. Next year we're looking forward to a continuation of the history class and a literature class on The Hobbit!

Mane came out of classes with all kinds of projects, including a jiggle-bot, spinning CD top, secret codes, and paintings of flags and constellations! And she came out of this year with a cohort of peers that have been through several classes together and that she'll continue to take classes with next year. We like the steady predictability of this group of people, and the students are the most creative, brilliant, accepting and generous bunch I've met yet.

This is what our co-op's high school film-making class produced this year:

Little Kitchen Food Shelf from IFP Minnesota on Vimeo.

The film was screened as part of an event at the History Center this year!

I also thought I'd share this great little presentation by one of the students in this year's biology class:

Homework in the...

Gryffindor Common Room, anyone?

Slow Blog

It's a bit difficult to stay on top of the blog these days. Mane & I have been busy, and I seldom keep track of every little thing we do anymore. We've been reading about and watching the Olympics, reading more of The Hobbit, and continuing to plod along in math and reading (finishing lesson 22 of MUS this week & beginning the Blue Book in 2nd grade Hooked on Phonics).

On the subject of the Olympics, we've been reading athlete profiles from Great Skates by Laura Hilgers, and we've been closely following the snowboard halfpipe competitions and the pairs figure skating.

Mane has been having regular playdates on Fridays with another girl close to her age, who is also homeschooled, we've been attending a homeschool group twice a month and Bible Study once a week. We've also been getting back into weekly visits to the library. On the weekends we attend Vespera's soccer games, where Mane has gotten to know several other children. This has been serving as both social time and phy. ed.! Our lives are once again feeling rhythmic and settled...thanks be to God.

I'm also proud that Mane has finished memorizing The Lord's Prayer! I'm trying to settle on what to have her memorize next. It has worked well to find scripture for which we also have music. She listened to Psalm 23 by Temple & Brent and to As It Is in Heaven by Michael W. Smith, as she was learning the corresponding passages of scripture.

Well Socialized

No worries about an unsocialized homeschooler here in the last week...

Swim lesson last Thursday,
Playdate on Friday,
Played with friends at Vespera's soccer games Saturday & Sunday,
Homeschool group on Tuesday,
Bible Study on Wednesday,
Playdate today...

New Friends!

I'm very hopeful about the new homeschool group we visited Tuesday! Mane had a blast, and I really enjoyed hanging out with the other parents. There weren't any girls Mane's age, but there were a few older and a few younger, which is just fine with me and a whole lot more like real life.

Today Mane finished lesson 17 in math with plans to take the test tomorrow. Friday will be a math facts practice day. She has been reading words incidentally all over the place, but she *has* announced that the book we've been using is boring. I told her we need to stick with it, though, and I think we will to a certain extent, but I also plan to do a better job creating variety in her reading experience.

We also read a couple of light books yesterday about the solar system & stars. I wasn't too impressed with them. So, I won't list them here. The plan is to do some drawing tomorrow demonstrating the progression from neighborhood to city, state, country, continent, planet, Milky Way, and UNIVERSE!

We will also be visiting the MN Orchestra tomorrow for "Bach to the Future," and we were excited to learn that some of our new homeschooling friends will be there!

Fractions & Friends

This week we rowed Harold and the Purple Crayon and cut out pictures of food for Mane's notebook (like Harold's pie picnic in the book). Then we divided the food into fractions and talked about...well...fractions. Mane was pretty proud. She also got to watch some of her favorite Harold movies this week, and we checked out the Spanish version of the book from the library.

Today we played with magnetic letters & practiced some of the letter blends Mane has been learning in her reading book (shr-, squ-, -ank, -ink, -onk, -unk, -ang, -ing, -ong, ung...). And Mane read me a book at the library. She was quite successful and proud of herself. That's twice in the very recent past. I'm glad to see her feeling so successful!

Now it's time to find some friends... Seriously. So, I contacted a homeschool group leader in our area, and we plan to visit the group next week. Hoorah for us! Last year we tried unsuccessfully to find a group that fits for us. I'll spare you the details. It just didn't work. This group is a 45 minute bus-ride from our house, but it's on our bus line - meaning we don't have to transfer buses and stand out in the cold anywhere waiting for the next bus. I'm totally willing to do that, as it gives us time to read books, talk, look out the windows... It's good. For those of you who don't know, Mane and I are without a car during the weekdays as Mango needs the car for work.

Before anybody jumps all over the socialization question, I will say that what Mane needs is simply friends, not socialization. She is being socialized just fine at home, but she's getting lonely. She wants some kids, especially girls, close to her own age to play with. I'm hoping this group fits the bill for us. Right now she hangs out a lot with littler people, and though she loves that, she could use some plain ole friendship.

I'll keep ya'll posted on how it goes.