Solar System Project & Self-Motivation

This is Mane's "model" of the solar system this year. When Mango saw this he asked if I'd helped. The truth is, I didn't really even pay attention until it was all done. Here's what happened:

I had to rush out the door to work one night, and I knew Mane needed to be working on something while I was gone. I was out of projects, but I knew I had pinned some solar system ideas on pinterest. So, I called her on my way to work. I directed her to my pinterest board called "For The Love of Science," and I told her to look around and find a project relating to the solar system. She dug out some books, buttons, plastic canvas, embroidery floss and needles. I saw her working on this for the next few days. And then, TA-DA!! Here is the final product!

Self-direction has been a major area of growth for Mane this year. The other day, in fact, I was lamenting how little time I have to "do school" with her on days that I work. Mane was the one who pointed out that if I left her things to do, she could get her work done on her own. Of course! This year she's done a number of completely self-directed "educational" things, too. She made her own blog on blogger. She's posting famous poems and projects like her solar system (above). She was learning about the Civil War at her homeschool co-op. So, she checked out books from the library and took notes on the Civil War and put them in her history binder. She learned how to cross-stitch. She drew a diagram of the layers of the atmosphere after we spent some time talking and reading about the atmosphere. (I didn't ask her to. She just did!) She enters her own projects on ravelry. And she posted Bible verses on her door frame just because she wanted to post them (reading AND writing practice + memory work).

I can't begin to tell you how HUGE this is at our house. I never know what to say about homeschooled kids who read voraciously and learn everything on their own. Mane has never been a reader. Reading is her main struggle. BUT, since we have worked very hard together to overcome the reading struggles, she consistently tells me that reading is her favorite "subject." I am so proud of that. So, anyway, she hasn't been much of an independent learner. I've attributed this to reading struggles somewhat, but I also know she'd just rather play. She's been more inclined to complain when I ask her to work (and we're not talking about "school at home" worksheets and busy work, either). So, it's been a pleasant and unexpected surprise to find her motivated to DO and LEARN things on her own this year. I feel like we must have finally hit our stride. Yes, it took this long. But, yes, I'm glad we took the time to allow it to happen slowly. I think traditional school would have burned her out a long time ago.

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:

Bags, Books, Bulletin Board, & Binders - A Word on Organization

When the library books come home to our house from the library...they live in a huge tote bag, either in the entry way or the living room. This is our work bag. A huge chunk of our "curriculum" is library books - picture books, novels, historical fiction, audio books, music cd's, and documentaries. The library is our lifeline. It's what makes homeschooling possible! 

The books from the library are often reference material for projects, drawings, and diagrams. These almost always go straight to the bulletin board when they're finished. (Because once you've finished something like this, you want to show it off...AND you don't have the energy left to put it away!)

These are earth science papers. We keep them in a science binder once they come down from the board, along with notes from books and documentaries and lab reports. We don't start a new science portfolio every year, either. We just keep adding. The binder is divided into the major branches of science (earth & space, biology, physics, chemistry, technology).  When Mane graduates she'll have this huge science portfolio!

Mane also has a history binder (with a pocket in the back for the timeline that we can unfold & lay out on the floor). The history binder is divided into eras of history and includes things like maps, coloring pages, drawings, and print-outs of architecture and art.

This system didn't happen all at once. It emerged over time as we figured out what works for us. We used to keep a school notebook, and Mane did most of her work in the notebook for that year. As Mane has gotten older, she's become more able to categorize and organize, and this is the system that has developed. This helps us reference things we've done in other years by subject matter, rather than digging through entire notebooks. And Mane has a huge sense of pride an accomplishment seeing her binders fill out!

Wind Chimes ~ Just in time for spring!

As part of a little spring cleaning, we cleaned out the box of keys in our house. Are we the only people with keys to nowhere? Keys to locks that have been changed? Keys to cars that we don't have?  Well, it's somehow hard for me to throw those away. So, I squirreled them away in a jar. And here's what Mane made last week:

They're wind chimes! And they make a wonderful chime-y sound in the wind!

I realized later that, with the first one, we should have flipped the lid over so that the shiny gold side was facing down. This was a lid that we'd previously used over the top of a jar for a caterpillar. So, it already had a bunch of holes in it.

With the second one we used a dab of super glue on the top of the ring to keep the strings from sliding. We want them to stay spaced where we put them!

We were inspired by this post at Inner Child Giving: DIY Key Wind Chime.

Robotics - Our Favorite Field Trip Every Year

This year's FIRST Robotics Competition involved throwing frisbees & climbing towers! We always have so much fun visiting the tournament every year. It's one of those events that the whole family gets into. There's so much positive energy at the competition, too, that it's hard not to get swept up in the excitement. When Mane came home she went straight to making a robot mascot...

Homeschool Spaces

I hesitate every single time I use the word "homeschool," lest people believe somehow that we never leave home. I am on a constant search for a better word. And, yet, homeschool is the word commonly understood by the general public to mean that I don't send my child to traditional school...that I am educating her myself (though this isn't strictly true, as she attends classes and also does much to promote her own education).

In any case, although I'm often casting around for another word, when push comes to shove, our home is our school...home.school. To that end, we have several spaces where the bulk of our schooling takes place.

I think Mane's favorite place is the big green chair in front of the fireplace.

This chair has a long legacy, as it used to reside 2 floors above us in my husband's old attic bedroom in his parents house. The chair was purchased at Gabberts. Does Gabberts still exist anymore? My in-laws believe in buying things that will last forever. This chair certainly looks like it will. We used to always keep it covered with throw blankets to protect it from the sun. Since Mane was born and many children make their way through our house on a regular basis, straightening the throw constantly became too much of a hassle.

This chair saw all the years of Mango's late night homework...and then Vespera...and then Niteo. Now Mane moves into it every chance she gets. (Though the arms are too big to make playing guitar comfortable!) It's also the chair I use when I teach childbirth classes in the living room. It's a thinking chair. A reading chair. A sleeping chair. A homework chair. The big green chair.

Then there's the sunroom off the living room. This was the room that made me agree to move to this house, and right now it's where we have Mane's desk. She doesn't keep it nearly as neat as I would like, but this is her space for doing work that needs a desk.

 

When I need to work with her in the sunroom, that rocking chair is all mine - within arm's reach of all the books!The rocking chair goes back a long way, too. It used to be in my parent's house, and it moved with me when I got married!

And then there's the back porch - 3 season, not insulated, full of all the extra things that need to be stored somewhere. (I carefully avoided taking photos of the mess!) When weather permits, this is our very favorite place to study, read, do crafts, picnic, etc, etc...

Of course, we use the kitchen, too, and Mane writes anything she's currently memorizing on the window in the kitchen with window crayons. This is her washing the window, getting ready to write 1 Peter 2:22 on it:

And one can never underestimate the power of sitting almost IN the fireplace for getting work done in the winter:

Makes me so grateful for this house, for the opportunity to homeschool, and for all the great memories we've created right here in our very own home - learning, reading, growing, changing, and working together.

Peace!

For our little friends ~ Preschool Activities

This year, with the help of pinterest, Mane & I found some learning activities that she could make for her little friends & cousins. Win-Win: Craft project for Mane, learning activity for the little friends...and a positive, structured activity for them to work together! Here are a couple of the things we came up with:

This is paint in a bag! We put duct tape around the edges to strengthen them & keep the bag from bursting. Use a q-tip or a finger to practice letters or words!  If I ever did this again, I'd do something to make the paint thicker. It tends to run back into the spaces too quickly. This is a great kinesthetic, tactile pre-reading/reading/spelling activity!

I think this one is my favorite because it's SO PRETTY! Paint samples from the hardware store make an excellent color matching game!

Match up clothespin letters to spell words! This helps kids practice the scanning skills necessary for reading - scanning over the clothespins to find the matching letter. The clothespins also make it a great fine motor & finger strengthening activity (pre-writing skills).

Bows & Arrows

We've been studying the Middle Ages this year with Story of the World. Mane spent some time listening to the stories of Robin Hood, and we decided to make some bows and arrows when we had a friend over one afternoon!

 

  

We followed a combination of instructions. If you're interested, check out these links:

ikatbag

The Stuff of Success 

Skip to My Lou

GAMES!

We've been enjoying so many games this year. Thought we'd share a few:

 

 

 

 And we seem to always have a puzzle going lately, too. Whenever Grandma walks into the house, she can't help but sit down & work on the puzzle for a while. This is our newest 1000 piece puzzle with all wooden pieces. The board stows nicely under the couch when we aren't working on it:

Homework in the...

Gryffindor Common Room, anyone?