Seven Times the Fun

Homeschool Mother's Journal

Be sure to visit the Homeschool Mother's Journal link-up

In my life this week... Baseball. It's May, what more can I say? Monday was "school day pool day", the first day our subdivision's pool was open while all the other kids are at school! It was cold, but the kids had fun.  It was also the day of John's baseball banquet at the high school. We were disappointed that his head coach wasn't able to make it, but we were happy when he passed along John's stats via e-mail and let us know how much he thinks of our young man. Let's just say he had a very good season. Tuesday was an evening of games for both John and Drew; both teams won. John was hit by a pitch on his right forearm, which necessitated a trip to urgent care on Wednesday. He only suffered a deep tissue contusion (bruise), so that's good. Thursday was filled with preparing for the weekend's tournaments. Laundry, shopping, packing. On Friday Drew, Connor, and Matt head up to Columbus for the weekend while the other kids and I stay in town with John. It's supposed to be a hot weekend (perfect for pools and boats, not so much for watching back to back baseball games).

In our homeschool this week…The kids chose to work on some abandoned work. Connor is reading Story of the World, Vol. 1 for fun, Drew has been doing math and reading a baseball book, Lizzy cracked open some math, Cate read and did math, and Julia did her own thing...she has been busy making feather earrings. I've been working on Powerpoint, creating some presentations for assessment portfolios for the kids. So far I've finished portfolios for the two oldest girls. It has been fun to see all the learning put in one place. 

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…If you have multiple ages in your homeschool, try doing studies together as a family. Take a look at my posts on Multi-Level Homeschooling for a boost in how to teach multiple age/ability levels together:

The Multi-Level Homeschool

The Multi-Level Homeschool: General Resources

Multi-Level Learning: Part 1 (language arts) 2008

Multi-Level Learning: Part 2 (medieval history) 2008

There will be more posting on this topic, so be sure to check back! Feel free to ask questions too!
 

I am inspired by…some wonderful blogs that are new to me. Especially high on my reading list this week are Hodge Podge, Holy Spirit-Led Homeschooling, and Classroom Free. 

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…The pool. Baseball games. Tournaments in Columbus, OH and West Chester, OH. We'll be seeing lots of friends and family members. Hopefully we'll squeeze in some swimming during the hot days of the holiday weekend.

My favorite thing this week was…Working on the homeschool portfolio in Powerpoint. I've never used ppt before since I didn't have it on my ancient version of MS Office. But now I have a somewhat updated (5 years old) version. A local assessor discussed on her blog how some homeschoolers are doing ppt presentations for her, so I thought I'd give it a whirl! I also like how Cate cleaned out her work basket for the year, passing down an old workbook to her little brother, and adding in some new items (Berlitz Spanish and Math-U-See Skip Counting songs, both with cassettes--lol).

What’s working/not working for us… What's working is trusting in this process of very relaxed homeschooling. Working on the portfolios has been a real reassurance as has witnessing the kids picking through work they had dropped for a while. This can be a really hard thing for someone like me who likes to have everything all planned out way ahead of time!

Things I’m working on…I've been working on this blog in an effort to get more readers. Why? I'm not quite sure. I suppose I have a desire to connect with other home educating families. So, I've been working on posting more helpful home educating topics, figuring out how social networking can drive more traffic, posting with more regularity, and linking up! 

I’m reading…Science Matters by Hazen and Trefil as well as Salvation Is From the Jews by Shoeman. Both of them are tub reading.

I’m cooking…This super-simple chocolate cake

I’m grateful for…being able to be home with my kids and witness the spark of learning something new.

I'm praying for...all those who have died serving our country. 

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

School-Day Pool-Day

Have a blessed Memorial Day!

Happy Homeschooling!

The Multi-Level Homeschool: General Resources

by Valerie Malott

I mentioned some curricula which can be helpful when you have many age/ability levels learning at home in my first post in this series. This can be a great way for someone who is just starting out to break out of the mold of separate grade level curricula for each child.

While it's possible to create your own multi-level studies with books from the library and some help from the internet, there are a few resources I want to share that I have found helpful in my own home learning journey.

 

Design-a-Study

Kathryn Stout's books at Design-A-Study were incredibly helpful to me when I first considered designing my own multi-level learning units for our family.  The books I've used include:

• Natural Speller
• Comprehensive Composition
• Maximum Math

I've thought about purchasing Science Scope, since I have heard many good things about it, but I'm feeling more confident about my ability to design a plan that works for our family. It's nice that these resources are now available as eBooks (pdf).

Grade Level Resources

While I'm not a huge fan of grade levels when it comes to what a child should be learning at a certain age, they can be helpful in guiding you towards other resources that would be suitable  for a certain range of ages.  One book I refer to on occasion is Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School by Rebecca Rupp. For the lower grades, the book seems to be a blend of the suggestions made in E.D. Hirsch's Core Knowledge series and Susan Wise Bauer's The Well-Trained Mind (at least the world history rotation). In the high school years, the book's suggestions follow the more typical public school rotations for the four main subjects (Language Arts, History, Math, and Science).  Still, it's jam-packed with enough information to help you to design your own curriculum.

Speaking of The Well-Trained Mind, the four-year history and science rotations yield themselves nicely to designing your own multi-level plans. The resource suggestions don't have to be used for a particular grade level, but instead could be used as a guide for elementary, middle, and high school ages. This article explains how to do Classical Schooling With Multiple Children.

Helpful Websites

Below are some of the websites that have helped me in my pursuit of designing a learning plan tailored to my family.

• Multi-Level Teaching by Cindy Downes. Cindy explains what multi-level teaching is and provides a wealth of resources to help plan unit studies
• Managing a Multi-Grade Homeschool
• Unit Studies with Multiple Ages from Hodge Podge
• 10 Days of Lasagna Learning: Teaching Multiple Ages the whole series from Hodge Podge

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Be sure to check my other posts related to this topic:

• The Multi-Level Homeschool
• Multi-Level Learning: Part 1 (language arts) 2008
• Multi-Level Learning: Part 2 (medieval history) 2008
• Ancient Celts Multi-Level Unit Study

 

"Am I Qualified to Teach My Children?"

One of the first questions we homeschoolers often get is whether we're qualified to teach our children. You can go to a number of websites which will point you towards quotes from the Bible stating that God qualifies parents to instruct their children at home, so I won't bother to post those here.

I could also state my own qualifications and experiences in the world of academia and education, but I really don't think they are relavent to the question, especially when that question comes from a prospective home educating parent inquiring about their own capabilities.

I'm reminded of the movie Parenthood (hence the lil' buckethead photo). The message that movie left me with was, although we might try to learn ahead of time and prepare for what it is to raise a child, we really don't know what we're doing and have to learn how to parent in the midst of parenting. We are thrown into that world and it's sink or swim. Somehow, most of us learn how to swim...it may be a gasping bob of the head just above water or perhaps a little doggy paddle at first, but as the years go by, we learn the different strokes and how to tread water when things get too tiring. Some of us even dare to take a plunge in the deep end!

I think teaching works the same way. Yes, the professional educator benefits from years of educational classes, geared more towards classroom management and the nitpicky details of educating a large number of kids at the same time. However, they all have that moment when they learn to teach by teaching. As student teachers, they are thrown into the educational waters of the classroom and it's sink or swim. This is before they graduate, before they are certified, before they land a job and have a classroom of their own. And they do it...they teach, they learn, they move on, they improve.

The same is true for the parent educating a child at home. You learn to teach by teaching. Consider this: you were there when your child was learning to walk and learning to talk, and you didn't need a special education to help them in these endeavors, just loving guidance, patience, and a willingness to learn alongside your child. And if your child grew up and went to school, chances are pretty good you helped that child with his homework, again without special knowledge, but with loving guidance and the ability to seek out answers you didn't already know.

Homeschooling is no different from what you've been doing from the start; it is enhanced parenting. There are plenty of books and websites that will assure you that you can do this; that you are qualified. There is a variety of curricula and teaching resources to help you take those first steps, life preservers, if you will, for those who are a bit timid of the water. And before you know it, you'll be swimming in the deep end, jumping off the diving board, and having the time of your life!

Happy Homeschooling!

 

7 Snippets From Unschooling: Butterflies, artistic pursuits, and money

I thought I'd join in on another blog hop which might be more up our alley. So, here goes...

#1 First Communion

Cate, our 7 year old, had her First Holy Communion on Saturday, which is a big deal in the Catholic Church.

She has been attending religious ed classes at our church since preschool, mostly because she enjoys being around the other children and learning about our faith.

Her older brother, who went through the whole thing last year, assured her that she was going to hate the required retreat and rehearsal prior to First Communion. He told her how boring and dumb they were.

She thoroughly enjoyed both the retreat and rehearsal and was so excited when the BIG DAY finally rolled around.  We were excited for her and are so proud at her taking this next big step in her faith journey.

#2 Butterflies

 

On Monday of this week, we went to the butterfly show at Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park in Cincinnati. In true relaxed homeschooling fashion, only three of the children went along: my oldest (17) and two youngest (7 and 4). The 13, 11, and 9 year olds opted to stay home to do their thing (dad works from home). I couldn't believe this is the first time we've been to the show since our first or second year of homeschooling! Julia (17) and I would've liked to have stayed longer, but AJ (4) was starting to get freaked out by the butterflies trying to land on him, which spurred a little fear in Cate as well.

We probably stayed in the butterfly room for about 15 minutes and then moved on into the rest of the conservatory to look at the tropical plants, the koi pond, and the indoor waterfall.

#3 Lapbooking?

I decided to strew some butterfly things in case any interest had been sparked by our visit to the show. I've had a basket of butterfly stuff out for a while. It contains our butterfly house from when we raised painted lady butterflies last year, a butterfly net, a variety of butterfly books, and a butterfly lifecycle activity from a friend's blog. I also poked around on pinterest for some ideas on crafts and lapbooks. We've done one other lapbook on apples and Cate enjoyed it, so I printed up some activities from Homeschool Share.  I also printed out a butterfly math  coloring activity from Enchanted Learning. I used to hate doing these things in school, mostly because it was done as busy work and I just wanted to get it done. She completely immersed herself in doing the addition problems and coloring in the picture. We put it on the back of the lapbook. 

#4 Artistic Pursuits

No, not the art curriculum, though I've been tempted for many years to check it out! No, no, no! Julia (17) is our resident artist and spends a good deal of time throughout the day working on her manga-style illustrations. We got her some awesome illustrating markers for Christmas and they really make her artwork look very professional. Photos don't really do it justice. She has also started some nature sketching, inspired by her frequent walks in our woods. She did a lovely copy of a Tiger Lily from our Peterson's Wildflowers Field Guide. She has identified a good number of the wildflowers growing on our woods, which makes me proud. This has been a goal of mine for my children for some years and I'm glad she's finally showing an interest in her surroundings.  Aside from that, she has also been making a lot of jewelry. She was commissioned to make a custom necklace and earrings set for her cousin to wear to the prom, a project which she threw herself into completely, making sure it was absolutely perfect. She won an award at a local farmer's institute show for some of her jewelry and she blessed me with one of her creations on Mother's Day (see, I managed to get that holiday in there without it being a focal point!).

#5 Money

A birthday, First Communion, and the need for some summer clothes have led to discussions about money, banking, and budgeting. Both Connor and Cate have planned for and made purchases with money received from relatives. And last night's run to Target with cash in hand to spend on some summer clothing made us watch our spending very carefully. I was happy not to have to use the debit/credit card or the checkbook!

#6 Projects

In lieu of coming along with the girls to shop last night, I allowed Connor to peruse my seed stash. He decided to plant some watermelon seeds in the "soil" he harvested from the woods.  Apparently there is a tree back there with a hollow by the ground and some good humus-y type stuff there. Hope it works. He has the planter box by the window in his room, but I don't think it will get enough sun. We'll see how long it takes to figure that out.  The other project that is going in the boys' room is the turtles, which is starting to smell kind of icky. They got some green goo from the pond up the street for the turtles to muck about in. The turtles probably love it; mom, not so much. I'm not sure how much longer I can let this project run. It has been good learning, though between the research and the field experience.

#7 Schoolishness (aka Chosen work)

Aside from the strewn butterfly stuff, there has actually been chosen work happening this week. I've seen Connor's math workbook on the end table in the living room, The Story of the World: Volume 1 on the kitchen table, and this morning Drew has been working on math worksheets from The Math Worksheet Site. This week we've covered science (butterflies, turtles, gardening, cooking), social studies (geography, time zones, history, world cultures), math (money, time, gas mileage, cooking, worksheets), language arts (writing, reading, spelling on the fly, grammar on the fly), fine arts (music appreciation, drawing, coloring, painting), phys ed (wiffle ball, bike riding, walking, hiking, baseball, basketball), health/first aid (discussing poor food choices, caring for your teeth, caring for blisters). We might throw in a little US and Ohio history if we get over to the American Heritage Days they are having at the Waldschmidt Homestead.

Happy Homeschooling!

New Amazon aStore!

I have had an Amazon affiliate for a long, long time...since before we started homeschooling! I have never made much money from it, but at one time I did get enough referrals that I could sometimes support my longtime book habit and pay for a book here an there. Over the years, I let the affiliate slide as I couldn't be bothered to link to books within the blog. Now, though, I thought it would be a nice thing to have an aStore to link to with books we've used as a part of our homeschooling over the years as well as books I've seen on various lists.

So please, pay a visit!

I will keep this post featured at the top of the blog for a while. Also notice there is a link to the store at the top of the page.

Happy homeschooling!

Happy Mother's Day!

I love this photo of my mom and our youngest child (AJ) taken at Lake Erie back in 2009. While she might look at it critically, seeing a wrinkle or windswept hair, I see a face full of love and joy as she holds her youngest grandchild, enjoying the late summer sunset over the lake.

Naturally, my mother has been a positive influence in my life. I was very shy as a child, but I don't remember her ever forcing me into a situation that made me feel uncomfortable. Instead, she gently encouraged and supported me. Through that gentle encouragement, she enabled me to gradually break out of my shell. I'm sure there were times when I angered, frustrated, and disappointed her, but I don't have memories of her losing control of her temper. I can only hope I can be as even-tempered, encouraging, and supportive with my own children.

Happy Mother's Day, mom. I love you!

The Multi-Level Homeschool

In an effort to get back to blogging more regularly (what? you mean you blogged regularly?), I've decided to be a bit more thematic with my blogging days. Ultimately, I'm striving to blog 5 days a week. My last post was a sort of link round-up post, collecting my surfing on Montessori-Inspired Catechesis. Today's post is a how-to of sorts, touching on homeschooling with children of various age and ability levels.

I had to look through my own archives to see if I had touched on the multi-level learning topic before, which I had. So take a look at Multi-level Learning, part 1 and Multi-level Learning, part 2, where I discuss plans for multi-level teaching for English and Medieval history (which has a link to a file download for history spines of various levels aligned by topic. You might also be interested in this multi-level unit on Ancient Celts).

But I'm jumping ahead of myself a bit here. Let's examine what multi-level learning is.

If you are educating more than one child, chances are good that you are working with multiple levels of learning. Parents who choose a traditional boxed curriculum often complain of difficulties and burnout when working with a variety of age/grade/ability levels. For example, the oldest child might be working on chemistry and studying American literature, while the middle schooler is learning about plants and reading Lord of the Rings, and the youngest begs to do a naked egg experiment  and is working his way through a primer. It's easy to see how this can lead to frustration and burnout!

It is possible, though, to work in a family-centered way, to work with multiple levels in a more organic way. There are some pre-packaged curricula that have it all lined up for parents, such as Tapestry of Grace (TOG). It does a fantastic job of laying out history, literature, religious studies, government, art, and music as well as language arts (English) for various levels of school-aged students. It is primarily a history-centered curriculum, meaning that the literature selections, art, music, etc. are all based on the history theme of the week. The english assignments work from basic to detailed over the course of the year and the whole curricula works on a four-year cycle that is popular in many classical homeschool circles. The drawbacks are that it is a pricey curriculum (though cheaper than some full curriculum providers), it lacks a science and math component, and there is so much information contained within the quarterly binders that a parent might feel compelled to do it all in order to get their money's worth (which could lead to burnout).

A similar multi-level history-centered curricula that is Catholic is Connecting With History (CWH). Unlike TOG, CWH does not have a detailed english program for the various levels, though it does have writing suggestions for various age levels based on the theme for the unit being studied. This curricula does occasionally integrate some science readings and topics, but not enough to be considered a full unit of science for older students. It is also considerably less expensive (and less detailed) than TOG, which is a nice option for those of us on a budget (I personally love this curricula).

The way I do multi-level learning is to choose a theme and then work out what materials to use for each of the levels I have. You can see this is easily done with subjects like english and history, as explained in the multi-level learning posts parts 1 and 2 that I linked above. I prefer a history-centered approach and linking nearly everything back to the historical time period (e.g. studying the music of Mozart during the American Revolution). For young children who are still learning the basics, I give one-on-one attention outside of the family learning time. If I plan a family read-aloud, then the younger ones join in on that; otherwise, I am sure to plan some enjoyable picture books that are related to the theme of the moment.

It's also possible to do this with other subjects, such as science. Since I don't have personal experience using a multi-level science curriculum, I won't post any links. However, if you plug that phrase into a search engine, it will lead you to some pre-planned curricula (off the top of my head I'm thinking of the series by Dinah Zike and Considering God's Creation, two which I looked into but didn't purchase, in an effort to curb my curriculum junkie tendencies). But again, it works the same way as history: choose the "spines" for either a family read-aloud or the various levels and then plan a hands-on activity/experiment. The oldest children can lead the experiment (while a parent supervises) and write up lab reports in a notebook, while younger children can watch and either write a "what we did" page or color (depending on interest/ability). Here is an example of one plan for science I created:

Download Earth science

I am currently working on a multi-level general science plan for next year which will integrate the various branches of science using the Usborne IL Science Encyclopedia as our spine. Check back for the file toward the end of summer.

Just about any subject can be grouped together at the various levels for a family-centered learning experience. Math is a little trickier, though still manageable for those wanting to think outside the box and take a Living Math approach. Looking at the cycle 1 outline on the Living Math site, it looks like this approach might be an appealing supplement for those using a 4-year history cycle.

So, here's the summary for making multi-level learning work in your homeschool:

• focus on the basics for the youngest children in the family, but let them join in for family read-alouds
• group the children together for as many subjects as you can, allowing each to work at his own ability level
• search the internet for pre-planned multi-level curricula, either free or for purchase
• try a sample lesson/unit first to see if it "fits" your family before you buy
• don't be afraid to make your own plans and to think outside the box!

Next week I will be posting about some general resources that are helpful in creating your own multi-level learning plans. Be sure to check back!

Happy Homeschooling!

 

 

Montessori-inspired Catechesis

Now that my first year as a co-teacher in our parish's preschool religious ed. program has come to an end, I've been spending some time thinking about how to approach teaching in the coming year(s). Our children have attended religious ed. classes at church since we began homeschooling eleven years ago even when we moved to a parish which welcomed homeschoolers and 'permitted' them to do religious ed. as as part of their homeschooling. Most of the children have enjoyed the classes. Some saw them as a means to an end (in order to participate in CYO sports, or for sacramental prep., etc.). At the very least, the kids got some sort of social enjoyment from CCD. This year, though, our two middle boys became increasingly bored with "church school." I think it was becoming too "schoolish" with an emphasis on 'right' answers, memorization, etc. For the first time, we are seriously considering taking advantage of the option to do religious ed. at home.

Now, I'm not saying that being properly catechized (knowing the facts of our faith) isn't important and that warm and fuzzy, feel-good faith should be the primary thing, but I do think there is a way to blend the two and go very deeply into the mysteries of what it is to be a Christian and a child of God without workbooks, memorization, tests, and regurgitation. I think Montessori-inspired catechesis is the key.

What is Montessori-inspired catechesis?

What I'm looking for is a way of teaching the faith (catechesis) that is inspired by the Montessori philosophy embodied in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Godly Play, by Jerome Berryman, is another program which utilizes similar techniques to teach the faith. Both utilize storytelling, hands-on materials, and wonder to draw the child deeper into the mystery. They are able to come closer to God on their own.

Below you will find links that I have found helpful for developing a "curriculum" either for home catechesis or for inspiration in a classroom setting. The items marked with an asterisk* are specifically Catholic.

Albums/Scripts/Curricula

*Home Catechesis Manuals  by Moira Farrell [ages 3-6, 6-9, 9-12] (scroll down midway)

CGS  Level 1 Training Album Pages

Godly Play Lesson Plan Schedule (with scripts PDF) This website also has links to about 5 other scripts

Godly Play videos (CMFU)

Liturgical Year

St. Thomas Aquinas (Jan. 28)

The Story of St. Patrick (March 17)

St. Patrick Story Bag

St. Nicholas (Dec. 6): story for younger children, story for older children (I would adapt this and use a peg doll, a gold pipe cleaner for a crozier, and a bag of chocolate coins)

Saint Peg Dolls (to purchase, or for inspiration)

JV Baseball 2012 (and some other things)

I'm pretty sure I didn't post to the blog about our oldest son, John, making the JV team as a freshman (one of 2 frosh players). High school baseball is a bit different from summer ball, but that doesn't mean we're not enjoying the experience. He's a starter and pulling his own weight, and after a bit of a struggle in the hitting department, he is now back on track. It seems like we're going to games just about every day, though the average is about 3x per week.

Anyway, we are blessed with a few parents with some really nice cameras who have nicely shared photos with the team. One parent got some great shots of a diving catch John made at Turpin HS on 4/11/12. Thank you!! It's hard to believe there are only about 2 weeks left to his season.

The following weekend, which was tarnished by some rain on Saturday, Drew's 9U team won their first tournament of the season, the Bob Roades Memorial Tournament (in honor of Matt's grandfather)! They had come in second in a previous tournament, so this was a sweet victory for them.

Have I mentioned how thankful I am that there are parents on both our boys' teams who are good with the camera and share photos? It means I don't need to try to take photos, especially when I'm distracted by the little people who accompany us to games. :)

 Besides baseball, which takes up a good portion of our time, we've done a few fun things. Connor made some money by helping his dad at the tournament over the weekend, so we went to Bass Pro Shops to get some fishing tackle. I haven't been to the place since our first year of homeschooling when Connor was a baby, so it was fun to go with just the four youngest to watch the fish in their giant tank and check out all the different taxidermy.  We also went fishing at a local park two weeks ago, which was nice following nearly a week's worth of illness and not going anywhere. Gardening, movies, books, the occasional park outing with friends. It's all good. I'm going to try to squeeze a zoo visit before our membership expires at the end of the month. Not sure we'll be renewing. The kids are finding the zoo a bit dull these days. :\

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Liturgical Year Crafts

With St. Patrick's Day coming up in a couple of weeks and class of 3-4 year olds on Sundays (not to mention my own brood every day), I figured it was about time I get crafting some fun things to help learn about the liturgical year.

This little guy is, you guessed it...St. Patrick. I got the idea over at the Catholic Icing blog. I tell ya, with a little scrap felt, some craft pegs (like old fashioned  clothes pin without the hinges), a glue gun, and some glitter glue, there is a world of possibilities for cheap crafts that make learning a little more fun.

I've also been wanting to make some little mini vestments to help teach liturgical colors. Thanks to Pinterest, there are ideas floating around all over the place! :)

These were super easy to make out of felt. The cross was made out of two paint stirrers we had lying around, trimmed and glued together, then painted with some gold paint. I then cut a cardboard egg carton for the base with some clay underneath, cut a slit, the put the cross in. The base was painted with the same gold paint.

The mini vestments have a small opening near the "head" part and will hang on the cross for display. This could be used as part of a prayer table or as a hands-on "work" for little ones who are learning about the meaning of liturgical colors.  In brief:

Purple=Lent/Advent (Penitence/Preparation)

Pink/Rose=kind of marking the midpoint of both Advent and Lent...kind of (Joy)

Green= Ordinary Time

White=Christmas and Easter

There are other colors one can use (Red, Blue, Black), but I didn't have enough felt to make more mini vestments.

Check back for a more in depth post (or maybe links) that explains more about the colors used throughout the liturgical year.