Homeschooling through illness

When mom or one of the kids has a cold, it is a good idea to lighten the school schedule for a few days to give everyone a chance to rest. But when the illness takes days or weeks to diagnose and even longer to treat, it is impossible to stop schooling until we get well.

Last Thursday morning, we were working on a Spanish lesson and I began to feel sick in my stomach. I spent two hours in agony but then felt better. This has happened several times over the past few months and I was sure it wasn't food related so I decided to go to the doctor. I spent half of Friday at the doctors office and was exhausted that afternoon so still no school. Appointments for various scans filled the next week and I was feeling poorly so we didn't try to do any school work. A week and a half has passed with no school and now two more appointments will kick off our new week.

My kids have got to do some school so I am trying out some modifications to teach them with less stress. Here are some of my ideas and I would love some suggestions from you.

1) Workbooks: we occasionally use Explode the Code for reading and Kumon workbooks for math, so the kids are at least familiar with the format.
2) DVDs: Our Spanish lessons are on DVD. We are finishing up one and starting a new level which is hard but if the kids at least watch, they are getting good exposure if not really learning.
3) Experiments: We have several of the little Usbourne science books. I can mark a place in one and someone can read it to the kids and have them do the simple experiment.
4) Audio books: Our history program book is also available as an MP3. I'll burn that to a disc along with the activity page from the Story of the World book.
5) Classes: we attend a homeschool co-op one morning per week and the science museum homeschool science class one afternoon per week. We also have music class for an hour every Friday and visits to the YMCA for PE.

Now I just need to write down the assignments and have them ready to go in a box to take to the house of the kind person who is going to watch my kids on certain days.

Any other ideas to help keep up school work during this time?

Planner Section 5: School

Lesson Planning Diagram

As a homeschool family, this section is one of the most important to keeping my days running smoothly. The first page in the section is a weekly plan. I made a list of the subject we wanted to cover and the time needed to commit to each per lesson (usually 15-25 min.) Then I made a chart with five columns, one for each day of the week. I divided the columns into three rows: morning, afternoon, evening.

Morning activities tend to be done with all of the children, afternoon activities are done when the baby is asleep and evening activities are for the whole family.

Finally, I plugged the subject names from the first list into this chart. It became clear that I was trying to fit too much in, so I limited our morning activities to an hour and a half, the afternoon to two hours and the evening activities to an hour.

In the end, I had to prioritize the list of subjects* I was trying to study with the kids and eventually reduce the number of days we do art and history, the two lowest priorities right now. As the kids get older and more independent we'll make more time for these subjects. At this point I just want them to learn the basics and learn to love exploring my Father's world.

*My list of subjects for 1st grade is Bible, Reading, Math, Spanish, Science/Nature Study, Music, Cursive Handwriting, History.

Homeschool Lesson Planning: Long Term or Short Term?

I have tried a few ways to keep our homeschool lessons on track. I started out on paper, writing down what should be done in each subject on each day for the next month and I tried Homeschool Sked Track, a free online lesson planner and grade tracker that helps you plan the whole year at once and track grades. Neither worked for us at this stage in homeschooling.

Finally I combined the paper method with the organizational style of Sked Track to make my current planning program. We have been using it for seven months now and it has worked beautifully for our family and here is how you can do it.

Start by getting out all of the books you use for school. For us, this includes MFW 1st, MFW K, Right Start Math, Story of the World, etc. I also keep on hand my Planner turned to the weekly outline (Monday we do this this and this subject, etc.)

Then create a document in a word processor and enter these headings:
Week of: January 9-13 (this is at the top of the whole document)
Day: (this goes at the top of each page)
Morning: (these three go on every page)
Afternoon:
Evening:

Now you can plug in the subject names that you do each day, ours is from the weekly outline:
Morning:
-Bible
-Memory Work
-Spanish
-Housework

Afternoon:
-History
-MFW K
-MFW 1st
-Math

Evening:
-Kindermusik
-PE

Save this as a template so you only have to create it once and can copy and paste it as often as needed throughout the semester.

Long term planning is done by My Father's World and Right Start Math because we know we want to complete the entire books within a year. So I do the short term planning to determine which days of the week we will be completing lessons and working towards our goals.

Leaving it all behind: Making time for nature study

Piles of laundry and dirty dishes are like anchors that keep me inside when the weather is beautiful and my children are calling me to join them outside. I find Barb's Outdoor Hour Challenges truly challenging because I can't seem to find time to get outdoors with all the housework that remains unfinished.

I would like to take on a new challenge in 2012: to recognize that the housework will always be there but my children will not. It helps to also remember that being outdoors in nearly all weather conditions present in a temperate climate for just an hour is a boost to our health. As if I need more excuses to get outside for a little bit every day, my kids will not forget the efforts that I make to show that they are more important than the house. They make the house a home and I am happy to find ways to show it.

I have always enjoyed reading the Outdoor Hour Challenges and I think they are ideal for our family. Beginners are to start with the first five challenges and then visit the web site to join in the current challenge. I purchased the ebook with the first ten challenges to feel like I "own" this project. The book was only $8.95, a modest investment in what I hope will be a life changing activity.

Next, I created a section in our family planner for nature study. This is not just another subject in school. This is something that I hope will enrich relationships and strengthen our bodies.

Finally, I have to wait until Tuesday when we have time to start. This is a holiday weekend and we are far busier than I expected. The weather will be quite cold on Tuesday which will test my committment to this challenge :-)

The best laid plans: creating your own home planner

For years, I searched for a calendar/planner that would meet the needs of our busy homeschooling family. I even purchased a more expensive Day Timer brand product hoping the extra investment would get me a more useful tool. It just didn't work for us.

So, I decided to build my own home planner that would help our family run more smoothly. Here are the components that I used with links where you can print them out for your own use.

1) A sturdy 1.5 inch binder: I started with a cheap-o 1 inch binder from Dollar General and it broke within a couple of months. This planner will be carried, stacked, dropped, etc. so get something that will protect your investment.
2) Cover: This will distinguish your planner from other notebooks around the house. Use scrapbook papers and embellishments to make the cover a work of art that you will look forward to seeing every day. You can change it out mid year if you have a spare moment!
3) Page protectors: For pages that do not need to be modified on a regular basis, a page protector will keep them looking neat for frequent reference.
4) Adhesive tabs: Page protectors stick out further than regular paper so the usual binder dividers will not work. Make your own with adhesive tabs attached to the edge or a page protector.
5) Section 1: Calendar-- I modified the templates available on Wincalendar.com. I increased the size of the calendar cells and added a section for notes each month. You can download my modified version here.

I'll add more tips and downloads as I complete my 2012 home planner.

Learning on the go

Every Friday we attend a homeschool music class 30 minutes from home. The hour round trip drive plus any other running around we do throughout the week could take a chunk out of our learning time; but we don't like to waste time staring out the window!

I make a family learning CD to take in the van with us. The content changes monthly depending on what we have been studying at home. Most of these songs are available for download on Amazon.com or Songs for Teaching.com

1) Bible Verses (we like Steve Green's "Hide'em in Your Heart" album)
2) Science facts (especially Lyrical Learning)
3) Spanish (two tracks from La Clase Divertida and then one or two from Sara Jordan)
4) One hymn
5) One classical piece (or a single movement if the whole piece is too long for our drive)

We hear these over and over during the month and the kids love to sing the songs to themselves while playing in the afternoons.

We also keep other CDs on hand:
1) Story of the World (our favorite history book)
2) Audios book downloaded for free from Librivox.org
3) An audio Bible

I would eventually like to have an MP3 Player but for now, the we are happy burning one CD per month and saving a bit of money.

What do you like to listen to in the car with your children?

Learning Numbers and Math Facts in Spanish

My boys can count to 20 in Spanish, but I can tell it is more by rote memorization because they have difficulty naming individual numbers. When they were learning skip counting in English we listened to a LeapFrog song that I downloaded from Amazon.com. It really helped them to have the song's rhythm in their heads as they completed their math assignments. Now that I would like to teach them to be more fluent in Spanish, I am looking for Spanish songs similar to the ones by LeapFrog.

I found several available for free on YouTube (search for Boca Beth) as well as for purchase as MP3s on various websites. However, the sound quality seemed pretty poor which would be confusing for children who are still working on correct pronunciation.

Here are some products that I have found:
1) Spanish Random Number CD from Creative Mathematics-- A great idea, but it is $10 plus shipping for something I already do for free at home. I'll consider getting it in a couple of months if my home efforts don't pan out.
2) Sara Jordan Bilingual Songs-- these are available from the publisher's website along with lyrics or as MP3 downloads from Amazon.com. We have enjoyed Sara Jordan's bilingual songs about food, weather, etc. on Volume 1. Their songs about numbers are spread across several albums so I chose to purchase individual songs for $.99 each on Amazon. We now have Contando Hasta 30/ Counting to 30; Contando Por Decenas/ Counting by 10s; Formas y Tomaños/ Shapes and Sizes; and Contar regresivamente/ Count backwards, which is also about subtraction for numbers under 6.
3) Songs for Teaching-- MP3 albums and lyrics for songs on a variety of subjects. They don't have many Spanish math songs that go beyond basic counting, but I thought this one was a cute and easy to understand song about counting to 10's. I had to buy the entire $10 album but it had a few other songs that the kids will really like.

I have looked in to other resources for helping children learn Spanish and will post about them later on. It basically comes down to time commitment and working with a parent; but these songs and other resources are a great way to reinforce the lessons we are already doing at home!

Is it still "homeschool" if you aren't at home?

My kids' learning is based at home. We do the 3R's, Reading, wRiting, and aRithmatic at home and at each child's own pace. We also learn Spanish, art, Bible, science and history at home but spend an equal amount of time out of the house studying those topics.

Weekly homeschool co-op:

Visit to a Dairy Farm

We really enjoy learning Spanish using La Clase Divertida. However, there is nothing like sitting in a small group of people and practicing those conversational skills. That is difficult to do at home where there are children of widely different ages and ability levels, so we attend a homeschool co-op one morning per week that includes conversational Spanish. The boys are in separate classes divided by maturity/academics rather than age group, so each child feels comfortable with material presented in class. 

One of the moms in the co-op has a real passion for science and does a good job of engaging the children in discussion about science topics. Each class has 8 students so when they do science experiments, each child can be active for all or part of the lesson.

Museums:

We live in a medium-size city that contains many museums and historical sites. A two hour drive in any direction takes us to larger cities with even more opportunities for my kids to see relics from the history book we usually study. School groups will usually visit one museum per school year but we can go several times per year depending on the topics we are studying at home.

It isn't easy to get "hands on" with the ancient history we are learning in Story of the World, Volume One; but there is a full scale model of the Parthenon nearby and one of our universities has a permanent collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts.

Our local art museum offers a monthly class to help homeschoolers get an in depth look at some of the pieces in the collection and a chance to use different media.

I want to give my children an education that is rooted in real life experience as much as in books. The term "homeschool" is too limited. The popular terms "life school" seems too broad and "unschool" describes what we aren't doing instead of what we are doing. Maybe we need a new word to explain what we are doing to help our kids learn about their world.

I would love any appropriate suggestions!

Language Arts in My Father's World

The study of Language Arts is a passion of mine. I am not the best communicator, being neither naturally endowed with that gift nor having the benefit of early lessons in the rules of self expression. However, I am looking forward to teaching my children to use language gracefully.

We will soon complete our 1st grade year in My Father's World. It did not include grammar or spelling lessons though it did include copywork which is a wonderful introduction to composition. We are going to use Adventures in My Father's World for 2nd grade history, geography, Bible, science, and drawing, but I am going to do something different for language arts.

MFW recommends Spelling by Sound and Structure, and Primary Language Lessons, and has them available for purchase on their website; but they are not included in the thematic units so we can easily choose another method.

While at a homeschool fair last summer, I picked up a copy of Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing, by Sonya Shafer at Simply Charlotte Mason. Shafer points out that in the early grades, children learn correct English grammar by listening to their parents. The formal study of rules are better left until they are a little older and can grasp the abstract concepts and logic involved. I plan to teach Turtle some basic parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, preposition) so that he will become aware that language has structure. From time to time we may use sentence from our read aloud books to talk about how the parts of speech are used; but that is all we will plan to do in 2nd grade.

Similarly, our spelling will be combined with copywork selections from the books we read together while using Adventures in My Father's World. Charlotte Mason says, "Transcription should be an introduction to spelling. Children should be encouraged to look at the word, see a picture of it with their eyes shut and then write from memory." I am looking forward to a more formal study of grammar and spelling with my sons in the future, but for now they are learning so much more effectively by careful observation of the world around them.

My Father's World Kindergarten

My 4 yr. old son "Diego" is working through MFW Kindergarten this year. He really enjoys it and would probably do it every day if I had time. His big brother's schooling takes a lot of my energy and his two year old little brother takes a the rest. School time with Diego is his chance to have one-on-one time with mama.

Diego listened in on MFW K when Turtle was in Kindergarten last year, so it isn't surprising that he already knows a lot of the information we are covering; but kids this age love repetition! For example, he already knows his letter names, sounds and how to write them. He can also blend letters into short words. MFW K gives him a chance to work on the fine motor skills required for writing well and for using scissors to cut shapes. The Cuisinaire Rods give him some work in following patterns and then being creative. Here is the barn he made to go with the letter "B".

He also enjoys the thematic units and making connections to the rest of the world. Last week we talked about Cows (lesson 13 of 26). We read The Story of Ferdinand which lined up well with our Spanish lesson which included information about "toros," bulls. I have to admit that when I read that book to my 5 yr. old last year, I wasn't a excited about introducing the concept of bull fighting; but it fits well with our Spanish curriculum which explains the culture in which the story takes place.

Another project that MFW K provides is a daily number activity. Diego likes connecting a quantity with a number and learning to write the number, the bigger the number the better as far as he is concerned! We use that time in the lesson to practice skip counting and grouping items. His favorite was the day we used jelly beans to see what the quantity 28 looked like!

Mexican Flower Craft

We finished Lesson 11 in our Spanish curriculum, La Clase Divertida. We spend about two weeks per lesson and at the end of each is either a cooking activity, a puppet show with history lesson,  or a craft. This lesson contained a Mexican Flower craft which was both beautiful and simple. Señor Gamache shows the kids how to make the craft on the DVD so when they get the materials out they can follow the instructions more easily. I have never made a paper flower before, so I was pleased that Turtle could teach me based on his careful viewing of the DVD. Here is the finished product.

The theme of Level 1 is “Mexico,” with Mexican history, food, and crafts. La Clase Divertida is currently having a sale so I purchased both Levels 2 and received Level 3 for 50%. We should wrap up Lesson 15 of Level 1 in January and start Level 2 which studies Spanish culture in Europe. I visited Spain for a month while in college and look forward to pulling out my photo album to show the boys.

Off to an excellent start in math!

We chose Right Start Math, Level B for our 1st grade math curriculum. It was first recommended to me when we were considering a Montessori approach to early elementary learning. Our oldest son, "Turtle's" personality fit with Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education and we found that Right Start was recommended on the Simply Charlotte Mason website.

Both of my children love Right Start Math even though they have different learning styles-- the oldest is very hands on while the younger is more traditional.

Right now we are playing a game similar to Go Fish. The math curriculum came with a set of plain number cards for games. Each player starts with five cards and lays down pairs of cards that equal 10 (or higher numbers when they get more advanced). It is fun and great challenge!

Back to school-- again!

After a week of vacation and then a week of caring for sick children, we are back to school. Both boys were excited to pull out their books and learn more. What a blessing!

I have a light school schedule planned for the Christmas season, with reading and math every day along with just one or two other subjects and lots of field trips and holiday activities.

My six year old son, we often call him "Turtle", is taking a break from My Father's World 1st grade. It has taught him all of the basics of reading but he needs more practice, so we are switching to Delightful Reading by Simply Charlotte Mason. It meets his needs perfectly-- he knows most of the words very well but it helps him apply some of the new concepts from MFW 1st (like -ight and -tion words).

We also got an excellent deal on La Clase Divertida Levels 2 and 3. We are almost finished with level 1 now and the kids just L-O-V-E it! It is one of two subjects that I never need to fuss/cajole/threaten them to work on. Even my one year old has learned a lot of Spanish by watching most episodes with his big brothers.

The other subject my oldest son can not get enough of is history. We use The Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Times. We started with the text book and eventually purchased the MP3 version as well. I read him the chapter once and then he listens to current and past chapters as he likes, learning more each time. Next year we will use My Father's World 2nd grade which includes American History, so The Story of the World will be for fun reading, whenever he wants to pull out his CDs and activity book.

Plan B-- homeschool supplements

We have chosen a wonderful homeschool curriculum and a few extra subjects which the kids love. But today has been one of those days and I was too sick to pull out the usual school materials. On days like today we use our supplemental books. The boys can look at the pages and figure out how to do it on their own. They get in some fun learning time and I can work on my own problem areas (health, house work, a fussy baby, etc.)

Kumon Math-- We finished the Telling Time book and have moved on to Counting Coins. The workbooks go really slow which is a great way to build a child's confidence. We often skip pages to avoid boredom and by the time my dear son has finish one of these workbooks he is very familiar with the material and ready to use it in every day life. This isn't a good primary curriculum because it takes several weeks to finish a workbook and the books only cover a single topic rather than a variety of math skills like our regular math book.

Usborne sticker books-- I picked up a couple of these on sale at a curriculum fair back in the summer. Today my oldest son chose the one about soldiers and learned a little history along with practice placing the small stickers carefully on the page.

Explode the Code-- This can be a stand alone reading curriculum but we use it to reinforce skills already learned in our regular book.

This adds up to about an hour of school that he would not have had today when I am too sick to talk (but obviously not too sick to type!)