St. Francis Academy

B-b-boot!

Here's our 3 year old, Cate, on the third day of school, working with the Handwriting Without Tears wood pieces.  You can see how pleased that she made the letter 'B' and even went so far as to make the /b/ sound and then say "boot" which is the example on the card below the letter.  Big brother Connor (6) waits in the background for his turn to show his stuff.

He chose to make the letter 'R', for "rake."  All three of the younger kids have known their letters and letter sounds for at least a year, thanks to the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD.  Out of the three, Connor does especially well working with the Montessori Pink Level materials, yet states he "can't read."  I think this must be because he equates reading with sitting down with a book, not decoding words.

Drew, 4.5 decided on the letter 'O' because it's fun to make with the two large curved pieces.  They all made a number of letters, just for fun.  While I have an idea in my head (and on paper) of how I'd like to go about them learning letter formation, yesterday afternoon's foray was just an impromptu learning adventure, not a planned lesson.

First Day of Back to (Not) School

Well, it was our first day back to (not) school. :-)

As the snapshot here shows, there were several items that were introduced to the kids to prepare them for what we will hopefully work on this year.

We started our day out fairly early, given that we all didn't get home and in bed until after 11pm last night.  I was pleased to have taken a shower and gotten a load of laundry in the washing machine by 8am, and I cooked a special breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes.  After most of us were clean, clothed, and fed, we settled down in front of the TV to watch the free Math-U-See demo DVD.  I thought this would be a good way to get the children familiar with how the program is done.  I intend to watch the video lessons with them, instead of watching them on my own.

Following that, we discussed what we will be using for grammar, spelling, and composition for English.  No, no written work today.  I had to go out a buy a few cheap spiral notebooks so the big kids can keep a spelling notebook.  After that, there was a brief note about independent foreign language for the oldest two, using Rosetta Stone Spanish and the Memoria Press Latin materials we've had on hand for several year. (Did you see they just added a French course appropriate for grades 3-8???  Ooh la la, so tempting!)

Quickly we moved onto re-visiting Connecting With History, and I explained that we'd be focusing mainly on Ancient Greece and Rome as well as what was happening in the Old Testament during that time period up through the birth of the Church.  A short blurb about science...chemistry... was enough to get some excitement from my otherwise bored-with-this-school-stuff 11yo son.  He asked if we could blow the roof off the house, and I replied that we'd definitely make things bubble, sizzle, and ooze, though the roof would need to stay intact.  That satisfied him.

Then, for fun, or what mom thought would be fun (which almost always turns out to be a big "snore bore" as aforementioned 11yo son says), we ventured back into the living room to watch Clash of the Titans.  Yes, that cheesy 1980's-something movie about Greek gods and goddesses, strange mythical creatures, and the hero Perseus.  Sadly, it was a bit slow moving at first, and they couldn't settle down enough to get the real gist of what was going on.  I lost them about halfway through, but we did strike a deal to watch the other half either tonight or tomorrow.  Then we had lunch and got ourselves ready to go to the pool.

On our way out the door we were treated to watching this praying mantis for a while.  It was interesting to all of us, not because it was the first one we've ever seen, but because it was brown on top and green underneath.  Usually the ones we see are all green.  The 11yo suggested that maybe the mantis was shedding its 'skin' (exoskeleton).  We didn't get around to researching it, so if you have any guesses or explanations, leave them in the combox.

The mantis was right near our wonderful ornamental gourd plant.  For the longest time, we weren't sure if we were growing watermelons, pumpkins, or gourds.  Then, after much research online, I learned about the differences in male and female flowers on these sorts of plants.  Our plant seemed to be filled with only male flowers, until one day, at the end of one of the vines, I discovered what looked to be a teeny-tiny female flower (they have the small fruit at the base of the flower, whereas the male doesn't).  Then it got bigger an bigger, until one day the blossom opened and there were several little insects crawling inside.  ooooh, success!  And then this thing started to grow!  We were finally convinced then the two colors became evident that it was a gourd, apparently self sown after one of the kids discarded a gourd out front by St. Francis last fall.

The pool was fun, since it was just us and two other moms with a preschooler and baby each.  I'm sure they were wondering what in the heck such big kids were doing at the pool in the middle of the day on the first day of school, but they were polite enough to keep their thoughts to themselves and instead worked on developing social relationships between my two little boys and their preschoolers.  The kids are begging to go back tomorrow, so maybe that will be the carrot dangling in front of my more stubborn mules as we actually put pencil to paper tomorrow.

It's the Most Wonderful Time...

...of the year.

Funny how Staples no longer uses that peppy little Christmas song as their back-to-school jingle.  Nope, ever since the creation of the "Easy" button, there's no longer the commercials with elated parents dancing through the aisles, tossing all sorts of school supplies into their carts, while their children stare at them with disgust.

A new neighbor (a parent of one child) recently asked me, "Why don't you put them in school?  You'd have some more time to yourself."  It was an innocent question and I wasn't offended by it.  I answered that we had done school with one of our children, and even at first grade, we saw the diminishment of our time together as a family.  Imagine us doing school now, with children in 8th, 6th, 3rd, and 1st grades.  Three of those children are involved in sports.  Two of those children would have a significant amount of homework.  One of those children still needs a LOT of help with reading.  If we were to go to the parish school, there would also be a certain amount of mandated volunteer time, time which would not include our youngest children's presence.  If we were to go to the local public school, there would be the transportation issue (no bussing if you live within 2 miles of the school).  Let's not forget that there are two other children at home and a baby on the way.  After the homework was done it would be a very hasty dinner, then running off to this or that practice.  No, my time would not be my own.  It would be dictated by the school schedule.  Throw a baby into the mix and that's automatic chaos.  No thanks.  My days...our days...are much more free with all of us here at home.

It's back to school time around here.  The countdown has begun.  There are five days left until our local district starts back up.  You can see signs of it in the neighborhood.  There are the efforts of the kids to milk the most out of these last days of summer vacation.  Suddenly the boys who spent most of the summer indoors are out in the street playing touch football.  There are trips to the local amusement spots, like Kings Island, Coney Island, and The Beach.  Teens are getting together for one last mid-week date to see a movie.  There's even a barbecue planned for the annual closing of the neighborhood pool. 

It's an exciting time of year.  As much as I like having the kids out of the house during the summer, playing with their friends, I'm looking forward to the neighborhood kids going back to school.  It won't be much of a change, really.  It's not like there is a constant barrage of children knocking at our door during the summer, but there is always the knoweldge that other kids are available should someone get tired of playing with a sibling here.  But with the kids away at school, we know it's just us and we can do what we please, when we please, without the worry that so-and-so is busy playing at someone's house.  When it's just us, we can pick up and go on an impromptu nature walk, or a last minute field trip, or run to the store to get milk if need be.  We can work a little, rest a little, play a little, and spend time together as a family.  I like that.

Yes, I'm ready, and I think the kids are ready (to some extent), to settle into a more predictable routine as September and autumn roll around.  While we haven't had one big shipment of new school materials, the books have been dribbling in here and there, and their curiosity is piqued.  No longer do I do a big shopping trip to amass school supplies.  I've picked things up here and there--binders mostly--and we have a lot of pencils and pens left from last year.  I do think, however, that we'll go out today to get some decent art supplies at the craft store.  There's been a lot of discussion at 4Real and Elizabeth's blog lately on cultivating beauty, which has gotten me thinking about quality materials (and toys).  And while I'm not going to jump wholeheartedly on the Waldorf bandwagon, I will commit myself to getting some good art materials and take the time for the kids to use them.  So that's my mission today.  Wish me luck!

Cleaning Off the Bookshelves

There comes a time in every homeschool mom's life when she needs to step back, reassess, and be honest with herself that some materials just aren't what is needed to educate her brood.  She must come to terms with the fact that the book she thought would be so perfect for child n but wasn't, is just as likely not to be perfect for child q.  She must set aside the nagging feeling that money was wasted on brand new materials, swallow her pride, take photos, and list them just about everywhere she can think of for sale. 

This group of books here is up for sale at eBay.  The prices there are slightly higher because of the listing fees.  I also have them listed at Cathswap (subscription required) and the 4Real Trading Post.  So far I haven't had any nibbles on Cathswap (which I listed on Thursday) or 4Real (listed on Friday).  And, it's probably too soon to get any interested parties at eBay, but you never know.  So, I'm publicizing the items here.  I have listed:

• Geography Through Literature
• The Writing Road to Reading
• Starting a Spelling Notebook
• Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
• Classical Writing--Aesop
• Introduction to Classical Studies Guide
• We Sing and Harmonize (Seton)
• We Sing of Our Land (Seton)

And while having a little extra money to shell out on new purchases that will hopefully fit the bill is a nice side-effect, the real benefit from this shelf clearing is this:

The Montessori Shelf

You can click on the photo to get a better look.  The shelf has actually been set up sort of like this for a while, but silly me decided to push the chair into that corner (between this shelf and another loaded bookshelf), trying to make a cozy nook.  Instead, I made the shelves more or less inaccessible.  DOH!  So, I moved the chair and cleaned the shelves a bit.

Anyway, right now the top shelf houses the bulk of our nature study books, as well as a box of continent cards, the model earth (which splits in half to show the earth's layers) and an as-yet-unpainted earth and moon model.  The shelf below houses most of the math items we have: textured (felt) number cards, pattern blocks, the bead box, an incomplete set of fraction circles, my new handmade Seguin board, a stacking shapes peg puzzle, and peg puzzles for the 3yo.  Missing is the mini number rods set...we can't find the "1" rod.

Below that we have some of our language items, including the textured (felt) alphabet, a basket that has bags of pink cards and objects, a basket with chalk and chalkboards (for Handwriting Without Tears), pink fishbowl words, alphabet puzzle cards, and the bead box that organizes the "moveable alphabet" of plastic letter tiles.  The bottom shelf still houses my rarely used binders (need to find them a home in the basement), as well as the Music Maestro game and our musical instruments 3-part cards.

I'm very proud of my homemade Seguin board.  It was made very inexpensively with printed numbers and balsa wood from the craft store.  The hardest part was measuring to ensure enough room was left between the dividers to place the cards.  I glued down the dividers and let that set for a while.  Then I glued down the 10 cards (9 spaces) and "decoupaged" over them to make it durable.  I cut out the 1-9 cards and will laminate them once I get a new roll of laminate.  For now they sit in a dainty little box.  I'm still trying to decide if I will make another board for numbers 20-90, or if I will multi-purpose this one and just slip the 20-90 numbers in when I present that portion of the work to the kids.  (It probably would be best to make another board.)

Homeschooling in Survival Mode

There is a term you hear time and again in homeschooling circle, namely, that of homeschooling in survival (or crisis) mode.  Essentially what this means is that you do the very basics in home education, or, perhaps, even resort to "unschooling" for a while.  Many reasons can contribute to the need to homeschool in this matter.  Here is a listing of just some of them:

• moving
• job change
• pregnancy-related (usually first trimester exhaustion, extreme morning sickness, or bedrest)
• birth of a baby
• postpartum depression
• miscarriage/pregnancy loss
• death of a loved one
• family crisis (caring for an ill family member, child illness, etc.)
• etc.

As you can see, there are a good many reasons why there is a need to slip into survival mode from time to time.

We are entering into our seventh year of homeschooling, and there are a good number of these things that we have experienced in that time period.  It's no wonder that I feel like we've been homeschooling in survival mode from the beginning.  Let me list what we've experienced:

• 2001: we started homeschooling the end of August, and 2 weeks later was the tragedy of 9/11.  This changed our philosophy drastically.
• 2002: birth of a baby! (November)
• 2003: DH got laid off; new job in August; got pregnant in November
• 2004: birth of a baby! (July)
• 2005: another job change?
• 2006: moved to new house; miscarried in September
• 2007: new pregnancy!

OK, so most of that was related to being pregnant and having a new baby. :-)  Still, that hasn't kept me from planning away for most of August each year, with the best of intentions for starting out right.  I think that planning is a good thing to do and I no longer view it as possibly being a waste of time should we need to go back into survival mode at some point.  Having a plan with an end-goal in sight gives us a sort of road map to help us find our way when the path isn't as smooth as we'd like.

I anticipate that many of my plans will be put on the back burner with the arrival of our newest family member in January.  Obviously we will all have an adjustment period.  But planning ahead, or at least having some less mom-intensive ideas available for that time period will make that adjustment period go a little more smoothly.

Hoo, doggie!

It is hot...hot, hot, HOT!!!  Thank goodness we have central air and money to pay the bill.  Otherwise, I would be one very miserable, pregnant woman.  I remember back towards the end of my first pregnancy, 8 months pregnant, living in a rental home with no air conditioning of any sort. 

Oh. My. Goodness. 

I had days where I did nothing but sit in the living room in my underwear in front of the fan while my husband was at work.  Boy, oh, boy, that was a hot, miserable summer.  I'm sure I was a lovely sight to behold...sweaty and rotund.  But ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right?  Oh, the good ol' days...I do not long for them...much.  OK, so life was a bit less complicated then, but I've gladly traded in that uncomplicated life for the blessing and comfort of air conditioning.

Anyway, with it being so hot, of course I have nothing better to do than to think and stew and think some more about what we'll be doing for the upcoming school year.  I've hit upon something with multi-level teaching, in which I try to cover as many topics as I can with as many kids as I can.  In other words, much of our learning takes place as a family, with essentially math and language arts being taught individually (for the most part).  So, after all that stewing over choices for resources, I've come up with some sort of plan.

History

History will more or less be the center of our studies, as it has been in the past.  I will be returning to RC History's Connecting With History, Volume 1.  We actually did part of this multi-level program (which not only covers history, but also religion, art, and language arts skills) a couple of years ago and did a lot of fun, hands-on projects.  What I like most about the program is that is provides reading assignments and projects according to age level: Beginner (K-3), Grammar stage (3-6), Logic stage (6-8), and Rhetoric stage (9-12).  All the core readings are age appropriate and are lined up by topic, so much of the footwork has already been done for me.  We'll be picking up with Unit VII of the first volume, and then move forward into Volume 2.  Essentially what this all means is that we'll be studying ancient history, from about the time of the Greeks through the fall of the Roman Empire.  Oh, and we'll be using the Story of the World Activity Guide for coloring pages, craft ideas, and recipes.

Science

This is what I was actually stewing over for some time.  I've had plenty of time to think over and tinker with RC History, so that didn't seem like stewing.  However, I only had a general idea that we would study chemistry this year.  For the past month or so I had been wavering between choosing a program or developing my own.  In consideration were Noeo Science and Living Learning Books.  One thing I knew for sure was we would be basing research on the Usborne Internet-Linked Science Encyclopedia  (UILSE), a tome I've not yet purchased but have since taken out of the library.  Yesterday I finally decided on Living Learning Chemistry for a couple of reasons: (1) It lays out research assignments for both the UILSE and the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia for older students, and (2) I could download it immediately and not have to wait for shipping.  I'm quite pleased, as I think this will work for the 3 oldest children (grades 3, 6, and 7) as well as providing fun experiements for all the kids to be involved in.

Grammar

I'm not a big fan of formal grammar and I've been wracking my brain as to how I could best convey grammar concepts to the kids without the subject being tedious.  I finally settled on Simply Grammar, a text edited by Karen Andreola based on lessons originally taught by Charlotte Mason (CM).  Ms. Mason is sometimes referred to as the mother of the homeschooling movement, as she was a teacher who began a home correspondence program in the late 19th century and wrote a series of books to assist parents (and governesses) in educating their children at home.  The history program we're using makes use of a lot of the principles of a Charlotte Mason education, and our chemistry study will be filled in with "living books."  Thus, our study of grammar will sensibly be a gentle, CM approach.

Math

I've finally let Saxon go!  Despite the effectiveness of the spiral approach, we hit a stumbling block when it came to learning some new concepts last year.  I think much of it stems from an improper understanding of how place value works.  Thus, we will be backtracking with the help of Math-U-See.  MUS uses a very hands-on approach to learning math concepts.  What is equally helpful is that there are videos to assist the teacher in presenting the lesson.  I think that is part of our problem...I don't teach math well.  I know how to do the math, but I can't really explain it in a way that a neophyte can understand.  So, we'll be letting Mr. Demme teach us all, from the basics on up.  I think once the kids have a firm grasp on place value, the stumbling blocks for long multiplication and division will be removed.

Montessori 3-6

As it turns out, the three youngest children actually fit into this category for a Montessori primary education.  I have been spending time creating learning materials and compiling teaching tips so that we can implement some of these ideas here at home.  Actually, we've tinkered with things here and there for a couple of years...mostly just my putting the materials on the shelf and the kids playing with them for a while.  This time around, I plan to be involved a little more. :-)  I'm certainly not a Montessori purist...I believe in Real Learning and Montessori seems to be a natural way for early education.  Included in their early learning will be the occasional use of Catholic Mosaic to help celebrate the liturgical year as well as Moria Farrell's Home Catechesis Manual, which helps to impelement Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in the home.

So, there's the plan.  Of course, who knows...it could all fall apart by the time our newest arrival comes in January.  And that's OK.  At least there is a road map to follow and find our way again should we get off track.

The Thundering Herd

(No, this is not a post about Woody Herman.  Sue me, I played clarinet in high school...sheesh!)

This is about the Thundering Herd I hear daily over my head.  See, the master bedroom is on the second floor, directly over my den which is where I lollygag on the computer.  The master bedroom is also a roomy place which apparently is conducive to all sorts of sports. 

During basketball season, the indoor basketball hoop can be placed on the bathroom door and a mini court is arranged in front of the king-sized bed.  THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD...STOMP!!!  2 points!  Oh yeah, I rock!  is heard from above.

During baseball season, the court transforms into a diamond with the help of some well-placed clothes, books, or whatever-happens-to-be-lying-around.  Finish that with a mini bat from the Louisville Slugger Museum and any lightweight smallish round object.

Now that it is football season, there is more THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD...crash.  Crash?  Oh, it's just big brother tackling little brother.  No worries, as long as they steer clear of the TV stand.  Ah yes, the joy of boys...that thundering herd over my head.