A Little Inspiration

This year has been such a different year for us as it relates to home education. I truly feel free. I am inspired. I have purpose and confidence. It is not that I didn't have any of these things last year... or the years prior, but this year they have become part of me. Last year I wanted to be free, I wanted to stand confidently... this year these things have settled in me in such a way that my mind is not so easily swayed by unnecessary pressures I had placed on myself... and worse, my children. I truly see things differently. I see them with conviction. The old ways have little pull on me because they are completely undesirable. I can now clearly see the cracks, the flaws in them and see that there are so many other ways of educating with better life giving results! Some days I am so excited about this new way of home educating I just want to sing... and I do!

My new hope is to set aside the idea of feeding my children full of facts and figures. I pray that God gives me new and clever ways to cultivate curiosity. I am asking God to show me which questions to ask that will trigger a passion to discover, solve, rethink and ponder. I really don't know exactly how this will play out but, I do believe that the hunger to learn has the potential to become insatiable. When this passion is directed for God's glory, I believe any of my children can shine, excel, and lead in ways I never imagined my children being capable of.

Just this week I came across a website containing many talks supporting educational methods rooted in curiosity, discovery, and the amazing abilities of children.  At www.ted.com you will find educators who are passionate about learning, math, science etc. and are seeking to inspire fellow teachers, parents, and educators to break away from traditional ways of doing things. Below are a couple worthwhile talks to inspire you in your home school journey. (as a disclaimer, I will say that there are talks on this website that I do not agree with, please use discretion.)

Sugata Mitra has launched a revolutionary way of learning that I think is worth watching.  His testing grounds for his revolutionary teaching styles are based in the slums of India and other poor countries. His results are fascinating!

http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education?language=en

Sir Ken Robinson gives an inspiring look at seeing each child individually and helping them develop their unique giftings.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

Dan Meyer opened my eyes to see how many curriculum materials actually rob the child of discovery and intrigue. They present math problems neatly and with all the  variables available, and in doing so, deprive the children the need to think, struggle or ask questions. It really helped me rethink what I am asking my children to do in more areas than math.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover?language=en

Just Another Day In Paradise

Today was truly, "just another day in paradise."  No, we were not in Maui, the Bahamas, or Paris. We were home. Home...  Each child slept as much as they needed to be well rested and ready for the day. For our 5 year old son, his wake up time was early enough for him to get to go to work with Daddy. While he and Daddy snuck quietly out the door to operate an excavator and load branches into the dump trailer...a five year old's dream come true, the rest of us got ourselves ready for the day and started our morning chores. It wasn't long before Daddy and our son were driving in with a full trailer and hungry tummies. I served them waffles and eggs while the girls did their math and I tried to keep things moving. Daddy had to go back to work soon and this time he couldn't take any help with him.

The girls and I were moving on to grammar lessons, when my five year old asked if he could go outside. "Of course!", was my reply! The girls and I reviewed grammar, as he raced outside with a baggie in hand. He had a mission. He was determined to find the best and most precious rocks in the whole driveway!

(My sweet, sweet view from my kitchen sink window.)

 

 For over an hour he knelt, studying intently each rock, and only selecting those which he knew were extravagantly AWESOME! When he came in soaked to the bone, he was beaming with satisfaction at his sandwich baggie full of treasure. (And some would say boys can't sit still! I wonder if the people who say that have ever introduced the boys they are speaking of, to rocks, water, and a quiet rainy day. I guess to be fair I would have to admit that our little guy wasn't sitting completely still. He was creeping up and down the driveway at a snails pace actively looking for the one.)

 

Because we didn't have to go anywhere, he came in and had time to take a long hot bath to warm up and just play with his bath toys. At some point in the day, he did pick up a white board and practiced his numbers 1-20. He did paint for awhile, and he did use dinosaur stamps to create his own dinosaur land. And that was his day. A beautiful, rainy, cozy, creative, inspiring day.

It wasn't long ago that I would have felt guilty for not doing enough with him educationally.  I have seen what kindergartners are required to do during a school day, and it wasn't long ago, that I tried to meet all of the schools standards, and even go beyond it if I could, to really give him the best education possible.

Today, I see things a little differently. This morning's ride in the Ford truck was not just idle time spent traveling to the jobsite. Our son was privilidged with the opportunity to soak in what it is to be a man... just him and his dad. He observed what is involved in part of Daddy's day. Once at the jobsite, he experienced the rush of moving little levers and seeing BIG results, as they operated the excavator together. In days past, it was normal for small boys to observe their dads as they provided for their families, and in doing so, caught a glimpse of something to work towards. Sadly, we live in a day and age, where this is no longer the case. Though my son does not get to observe his daddy working on a daily basis, on days like today, he gets a small taste of what his dad does when he leaves the house everyday.

Who knows what went through his mind in the truck, on the excavator, or out in the rain today. But I know that when a mind is free to just be, later it has a greater capacity to absorb. And when it absorbs, and has time again to just be, those precious thoughts go deep. I now sit in amazement at the freedom he has to discover, explore, create, and investigate. Who knows what will come of his hours today. But I do know his mind is bright, clear, and thrilled to be soaking in all that he can. He has a rich education. For him, I am pretty sure, it was close to a day in paradise.

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

I have found that there are certain things along the home school journey that make me want to jump for joy for months after discovering them. Here are a couple of them:

Dry Erase Boards for Spelling and Grammar Practice

Oh my goodness! I love All About Spelling! My only regret is that we didn't find it earlier so my oldest could have started out with it in kindergarten. The kids get to use colored tiles to spell words, label them, and then use colorful dry erase markers to practice. They love it!

 

 

The board also works wonderfully for grammar. Sometimes I write a sentence or paragraph with many mistakes and they have to correct it. Once it is corrected they will underline the verbs with green, the nouns with blue,  circle the subject in magenta, and so on. They would do this every day if they could!

 

 

Brightly Colored Folders and Notebooks

 

I know, I know this idea sounds like it wouldn't be blog worthy but let me explain. For years we have had piles of assignments and worksheets that I would, upon completion, sneak away and try to dispose of before anyone found out I was throwing away their precious work. If I was caught there would be tears and drama. 

 

This year I bought folders for 30 cents a piece and notebooks for almost as cheap. The folders I purchased were the ones with the three prongs that you can insert notebook paper into.  I also bought a three-hole-punch to punch copies, cardstock, and construction paper to fit into the folder. The kids had a blast decorating them using either permanent marker or construction paper and stickers. They LOVE their folders and can't wait to open them up. All their precious work is contained in them and is easily found because they chose a different color for each subject.  

 

 

I will add that My oldest daughter uses a glue stick to glue in her multiplication charts right into her notebook. I have found that every lesson she is asked to either glue something or highlight definitions with pretty colors, she flies through! Her attitude is so positive that I have been trying to make it a point to do something like that every day. She is so excited she can't wait to show her daddy at night! I realize every kid learns differently, this year I am realizing how much a difference a little color and glue can make in a child's math experience!

 

 

These are some handwriting, and grammar folders. I realize the top one doesn't look all that exciting. There is one giant sticker that my daughter was allowed to place on the folder and that was enough for her to love it. Every cursive letter she has practiced last year and this year is in there. This year we will add verses, quotes and poems she is working on memorizing. At the end of the year we can look back on her progress and see how far she has come.

 

I am especially excited about the kids' science notebooking journals! We are doing Apologia Science this year and we are loving it!  I am going through it together with my nine year old, six year old  and five year old. Because they each have their own journal I can tweak it just enough for each child to make it age appropriate for them individually. We have recorded science experiments, drawn sketches, and have made scrapbook like pages about our trip to the zoo and other fun experiences. We have also written thoughts on those moments and tucked them along side of it all. All for the cost of a 30 cent folder and the paper to go inside. I love it! 

 

Chickies in October!

What an exciting day we had last Tuesday! We ate our breakfast, gave goodbye kisses to Daddy, and started in on our chores. As the house was bustling with activity, I remembered that the kids had been telling me about a "broody" chicken and I had been putting off checking it out. Partly because life has been busy and partly because we have had so-------- many false alarms and "issues" with broody chickens, I just never got out to the coop to see if it was true or not. So as my middle two children were about to go tend to the chickens that morning I told them to listen to see if they could hear any peeping noises coming from our hen. With a gleam in their eyes and a spring in their step they took off toward the coop. A couple minutes later they trampled in, eyes big as saucers! Sure enough, we had chicks!

The morning was spent cleaning up the feed trough we use for raising the chicks and preparing all the other needed supplies. It is times like these that my heart almost explodes with joy. For one, baby chicks are just plain adorable and could put almost anyone in a cheerful mood. Secondly, there is just something amazing that happens when all of us are working on a project everyone is thrilled about. I will say, that we still had to work out issues of water accidentally being sprayed in someones face while rinsing out the trough. We still had to solve the problem of who would get to scrub and who would get to rinse. We still had to coordinate four pairs of feet around the trough as we clumsily carried it from the back of the barn to the front. BUT it was SO worth it! The smiles on their faces and the look of satisfaction in their eyes spoke to my heart and told me that all the commotion was worth it indeed!


What the kids learned about broody chickens through this experience:

• Chickens are not broody when they spend half the day OFF their eggs. (This was a big one for our children to understand! We went through many eggs that were not successfully hatched before my husband and I realized that we needed to really explain the signs of a broody chicken and how to tell if she isn't.)
• If you have a broody chicken, you cannot keep adding eggs to her nest and expect them all to hatch....There is just no physically possible way for her to keep all 24 eggs warm!
• If you have a broody chicken and leave her alone with her original eggs.... she will incubate them for you and they will hatch!!! Amazing!