One more thing...

I just have to share this.  Lauren as a small child used to play on the computer in the Word program, and last night asked to do it again. So I set her up and went to fold laundry. I came back and this is what she wrote:

I had to admit I looked around on my desk to see if she was copying something written elsewhere, but no. She explained that she has memorized the words 'is', 'and' AND 'ponies'. The other words she explained she sounded them out. She pointed out the AY sound in mermaids. She is learning about different letter combos- like the 'AY' sounds, or the 'SH' sounds. Very exciting to see it all come together for her.

Cosmic Classroom to the Salmon Forest...

I finally got two very excited children into bed. Halloween is tomorrow, and Lauren has been preoccupied with her costume all day. SHE is dressing herself. I no longer have any influence in that department. The Queen of Blue is her latest costume idea. Works for me, no sewing or fussing for me this year. Just her rummaging around in our Tickle Trunk and putting something blue, sequinny and 'queenly' together. Matthew's costume (Thomas the Tank Engine) is care of the Nu-to-You. I got off easy this year. :)

Homeschooling since my last entry has rocked! We are having more fun, I'm more relaxed and even Matthew is enjoying some of the hands on activities we are doing. I didn't anticipate how excited and thrilled I was going to be watching the kids learn and grow.  Watching their minds expand before your eyes, and getting knocked over by profound and thought-provoking questions! I keep thinking to myself, this is the wonderful thing about homeschooling your children. I can't imagine missing this growth. It is really such an honour to witness. I remember holding Lauren as a newborn wondering what kinds of things she'll like, her passions, our conversations we will have, etc... And here I am now, watching this five-year old blossom into this amazing child.

The nuts and bolts:

Lauren continues to enjoy her school books, and in between our formal sit downs we are doing a ton of hands on activities.

Garden Project:


Last spring, Dave built Lauren a raised garden bed. In April, she picked what she wanted to plant, considering the fact that our garden doesn't get the optimal amount of sun a great veggie garden needs. She planted: peas, sweet peas, carrots, bachelor buttons, and morning glory. She learned how to transplant plants such as wild Lamb's Ear, and transplanted a few of these from our yard. A few strawberry plants as well.
On October 12th, we went out to the garden to do a Fall Clean-up and assess her garden. I asked her to make observations on her garden bed. She noted that bachelor buttons and sweet peas STILL had blossoms! The carrots when pulled were not long, but thick and stubby (but sweet and crunchy!). She discussed next year's plans- beans this time, more carrots, and tulips. She realized her morning glories did not work, or her strawberries and believes it was due to crowding (she's right about that!).  She also observed that the southern tips of all of our garden beds had the best and biggest veggies (especially our kohlrabi crop- a complete failure except a few of the southern most plants). Her hypothesis was because they got more sun. When they grew bigger, they shaded the northern portion of the beds. Cool! She wants to look up shady flowers. Her final comment, was that she was pleased that her garden did well despite not watering it.  I rarely watered it for her, because this was our agreement. Before leaving the garden Lauren decided to conduct an experiment. Can you transplant a carrot? She pulled a few and redug them into the soil. She quickly came to the conclusion that it would not succeed. Leading to our discussion on roots, etc... (see picture below, of freshly planted and labeled garden- April 09).

Workbooks:


Kumon Math pg. 28

• more very simple math. Addition by 1. Kumon books do a ton of repetition exercises. Today Lauren was in no mood for it. Onto something else.

Math Ahead p. 19

• Chapter 3 'Numbers to 20'
• count and write numbers to 20; count forward from 0 to 20 and backward from 10 to 0; and identify odd and even numbers. Lauren found the descending rows more difficult but completed the last two on her own. She was VERY pleased and was able to articulate what exactly she wasn't understanding at the beginning. 
• Lauren faced new concepts in this chapter. Learning to count and write numbers to complete exercises like this "13 is 10 and 3. She seemed to understand the odd/even number concept when she could draw out the number of objects and circle pairs. 
• Chapter 4 'Time'
• Started exploring this chapter. Will pick and choose from it. We began with days of the week and months of the year.  Looked at a calendar, and how it's drawn. The exercises in the book were difficult so we did them together. We still rely on how many more sleeps until... as our units of time. But this was a good intro.
• This chapter ends with intro to the clock and telling time. For another day...

Complete MathSmart pgs. 6-13

• Comparing heights and lengths
• Comparing sizes
• Comparing positions (under, on, left, right, inside, outside, etc.)
• Lauren found all this very easy and tired of it quickly. We moved on.

Basic Phonics Skills- Level B pgs. 21-30

• 'M' sound, and review of 'S', 'B', and 'M' sounds. 
• Exercises such as listening for letter sounds at beginning and ends of words. 100% understanding of these. Even remembered the words 'grass' and 'kiss' end with two s'!

Science Made Easy (Grades K-2) pgs. 8-11

• label body parts, sounds (loud vs. quiet things), identify animal's eyes. One animal, the snail. stumped us all. Where are the eyes? Do they have eyes? Go to the internet and we spent some time learning about snails! Yes, they have eyes, and we read about their body structure, habitat and reproduction. Introduction to hermaphrodites! Lauren was stunned at this bit of info. 

On-line Math Games

• Sheppardsoftware.com has two little games that Lauren had fun playing. An addition game and a subtraction game. Lauren is getting the hang of simple equations, memorizing some, and working out others on her fingers, and sometimes in her head.

Other notes:

• planted edible sprouts in a mason jar. Soaked for 12 hours, then we are watching them sprout. Ready to eat by tomorrow. The kids have watched with mild interest. I still figure it's learning, despite them not being overly excited by it. 
• Our candle-making friend, Laura taught Lauren and I how to make soy candles. Melted soy candle chips then Lauren had to watch the thermometer to achieve the right heat. Then we mixed in pigment chips. We used the thermometer again, to see if the wax reached the right pouring temperature. This may be a good lead in to some further science based lessons. ?

SOLAR SYSTEM! (*cue the music from 2010 Space Odyssey)

Back in September when we sat down to do Lauren's 'Mind Map' I was surprised she had an interest in the solar system. With this in mind, Dave chose a learning book "Planets- A Thematic Unit Book".

I decided to start there, not knowing where to start such a lesson as grand as the cosmos. We flipped through the book, looking for age appropriate activities. Thankfully, it covered the basics (sun, positions, names and desciptions of planets and their moons).

We decided it would be fun to act out the sun and earth's relationship. Me- the sun, Lauren- the Earth. And Matthew was some sort of asteroid running around and between us. I stood still, while Lauren walked around me, all the while rotating. I would yell 'day' when she faced me, and 'night' when not. Then once she made a complete circle around me, we declared one year had passed! Really sunk in.

The work book provoked many questions from the kids. Lauren wanted to know what kind of creatures lived on these planets, and if not why couldn't they? Naturally this lead to a great conversation about Earth, and why it is so special that it supports diverse life. Brainstormed all the conditions needed to sustain life.

We did a little exercise to recreate the surface of the moon, and mercury- both full of craters. Got a plate, and put flour on it. Then let the kids dip their fingers in water and let the droplets fall onto the plate. Craters formed. They experimented with bigger drops of water and from different heights- resulting in different sized craters.

We got a couple of children's space books given to us today. We shall read those over the next little while, and see where our cosmic classroom will take us next!

FIELD TRIPS!

Galey Farm- for a train ride/hay ride/pumpkin patch/corn maze. A fun-filled field trip. Then onto...

Goldstream Park- for a wonderful experience! The Spring Leaves group went to the Nature House and Lauren thoroughly enjoyed the Owlry display. Then we learned about the Salmon Forest and got a tour of one. Later, on our car ride to the ferry, Lauren told her Gramma and Papa all she learned (they stayed in the car with a sleeping Matthew!). I couldn't believe how much she retained and absorbed:  she told us about the salmon's life cycle, the ocean, the estuary, decomposition and bugs, wolves, nitrogen, animal poop fertilizing forests, etc... She got a beautiful lesson in the concept of species inter-connectivity.

 

Funny, but I really felt emotional listening to Lauren recap her Goldstream experience to her grandparents. She learned some big and beautiful things that day. Things that I think changes a kids' world view (in a good way). It has broadened her awareness of the natural world that much more. Our Goldstream tour guide also put an emotional lump in my throat, when she concluded her tour by telling the kids, that it is their job to protect the future of our Salmon Forests, and our planet. Such a heavy burden for such little shoulders. Isn't it?

Signing off for now. Happy Halloween.

One Plus One equals, Phew!

Since our last blog entry, the family is finding our stride. Getting organized and out the door is easier, and moods are better.  The Grenonas are finding their groove again!  This has allowed for more time and space for Lauren and I to focus on her learning.

What is working so far, is Lauren sitting down after breakfast to do some lessons. Lately she has been drawn to picking up her math workbooks.  So we've been sitting down at the table to do math for numerous mornings.

"My Book of Simple Addition (Kumon, ages 4,5,6)" is a great workbook to warm her up. She loves the repetitious exercises. She finds the exercises quite simple,  as a result I am seeing this build confidence.

• Example exercises: Saying and Writing Numbers up to 30; saying numbers while tracing them, fill in the missing numbers, and simple adding by 1 (i.e. 1 + 1= 2, all the way to 30). 
• Lauren has completed these pages with relative ease, makes a few mistakes usually when rushing through, but enjoys crossing out and correcting her answers
• Her number writing itself is still quite awkward, but improving
• most importantly, she seems to enjoy it (Phew!). Somewhere along the way I developed a major dislike for math (which I do NOT communicate to the kids!), so watching her happily explore math makes me happy. Lauren's dad on the other hand, is a very gifted math guy. He just taught me long division, which sadly I had (sort of) forgotten. And, surprising enough, it was FUN! Hey, maybe through watching and teaching the children, I will re-evaluate my dysfunctional relationship with math? :) But enough about me...

"Math Ahead- Grade One"-

• Sorting (Geometry & Spatial Sense): 
• Circle the picture in the group that doesn't belong, sort the items that belong to each group/category (i.e. freezer foods from fridge foods, summer clothes from winter clothes, fish and birds, etc...), and looking at a group of animals and Lauren making her own two categories then sorting. She breezed through this section.
• Patterning (Patterning & Algebra):
• Identify patterns such as shape patterns and colour patterns; 
• Identify and extend patterns; 
• identify patterns described in words and 
• create their own patterns. 
• Lauren had difficulty with the last exercise in this chapter. A series of patterns were started and Lauren was asked to continue the pattern using similar colours. We worked together completing them.

Geometry Blocks/Math Manipulatives-

• Lauren has been enjoying playing with the coloured geometry/pattern blocks. Working on adding and subtracting equations. 
• I just found mathplayground.com. Will check that out for fun on-line math games.

Printing Practice-

• 20 minutes of formal printing practice (lower-case letters) in her dry erase printing book
• Lots of printing practice this week while making Thanksgiving cards and presents, and she wrote another story book. Still prefers to write with upper-case letters.

"Basic Phonics Skills- Level B"

• Completed exercises Beginning and Ending Consonant Sounds of b and s. Lauren demonstrated that she clearly understood these concepts and easily completed exercises.
• Learned about the double s (ss) sound and the sh- sound.  Will do another lesson today to reinforce this concept since this was entirely new to Lauren.

Other activities of note:

• Two great back-to-back Spring Leaves Wednesdays- Beach sculpting and Art. Of course Lauren is at ease in both these environments where she can creatively explore and create. This past class we also traced our shadows on the pavement to watch our shadows shift as the sun moved across the sky. We will likely do this again sometime where I can put more time into the exploration and explanation. This will tie in nicely with Lauren's desire to learn about space, planets, etc...
• We have been exploring the compass direction points both in relation to where Lauren's house faces and on the world map.
• Dave involved the kids in the decision making and planning of the window placement and design in their tree house
• Dave also has taken the kids to his work on numerous occasions lately to visit the Treatment Plant at Currents at Otter Bay. They watch dad operate the system and test and treat the drinking water as well as the swimming pool's water.
• Violin lessons on Monday continue. Lauren is still grooving on them, and likes to practice at home.
• Lots of baking at home. We've been gluten-free for the past two weeks, so Lauren has been helping me to bake gluten-free breads, and muffins. She is learning about various flours, rising agents, etc... And also learning that sometimes baking experiments don't work (she has witnessed me tossing a few loaves of unpalatable 'bread' in the garbage!).
• We are going for morning walks with the dog. Our usual route is through the disc park, then take the trails that branch off from there. I hope to do this rain or shine- it is a GREAT way to start our day and we all come home refreshed and beaming. AND, these walks provide numerous opportunities for learning and discussion about the natural world...
• This week we are winterizing the yard and garden. Lauren has her own garden bed so we will examine what needs to be pulled out, and examine the state of her carrot population. I will take this opportunity to discuss with Lauren her gardening experience overall. What she planted that worked, what didn't grow, how could she improve next year's growth, etc...
• The Montessori mornings are good opportunities for Lauren and Matthew to play and learn with kids of all ages. They have been learning songs, baking, crafting and experiencing good old fashioned playtime under the apple trees. 
• One evening Dave bundled up the kids and went up the hill to the ocean-view lot to look across to Sidney and the various other islands. Across this distance, they could see traffic lights change, and cars driving. They were amazed! They then turned their attention to the starry sky. Lauren and Matthew saw their first satellite. They haven't stopped talking about this evening. What are satellites? And so we are learning about satellites. 
• Finally, last night at my parents for Thanksgiving, my brother, Uncle Mikey, set up the telescope, and set it on Jupiter. The kids still haven't got the hang of looking through telescopes, or binoculars, (an acquired skill I think), but they did see Jupiter with their own eye. This of course fed right into Lauren's fascination with space. This week I shall open up our book on the planets and we will read about Jupiter! 

PHEW! That's it for this update. Thanks for reading. I welcome comments and suggestions by all who read this. Happy Thanksgiving! 

Until next time,

Joanne 

Check Mate!

This week has been hectic. I'm not sure we are adjusting so well to our new September schedule. O.K., maybe it's ME who is not adjusting so well. Our family has gone from no commitments to several scheduled classes per week. Naps are far and few between, and consequently, our fragile hold on happy sleepers has been broken. Not to mention Matthew is trying to become a master of the big boy potty, and all this time away from it is disruptive. Having said all this, it's apparent we need to strike a better balance. No one is really complaining but me, but I see it in the moods and sleepiness (and constipation) of my children. Now that I've vented (phew!) Dave and I are sitting down to pare down the family commitments. We'll work up to all this fun stuff...

As for the homeschooling week... Wednesday at Spring Leaves was fantastic! Gym time and epic parachute games then on to... classroom time with exploration of mechanical parts including a bicycle wheel, locks, phones, and other gadgets including a battery voltage tester that Lauren brought from home. Pulling these pieces apart with screwdrivers, and examining the insides was fascinating for us all. Afterwards, we went to the Pender Island Community Garden where the children harvested the wheat and various other grains (Kamut, Spelt?).  The plan is to mill the wheat to make flour for Pizza! It was a glorious afternoon with the warm sun shining down on the children eagerly cutting and gathering bundles of golden wheat. As I surveyed the scene I couldn't help but be filled with such joy to be surrounded by Earth's beauty and abundance. Then to see the children connected to all this beauty and taking an active role was equally touching.  As I drove home that afternoon (with kids zonked out in the backseat) I felt such gratitude and assurance that what we are all on the right path.

Lauren loves Chess. So on Thursday morning (while Matthew was at Montessori) we sat down to play. David taught Lauren the basics of chess last winter, and since she has greatly improved. She knows what all the pieces do, and is now getting defensive strategies down. She is starting to plan out her moves in advance. If truth be told, I don't enjoy the game- partially because I'm terrible at it. So for now my skills are good enough to teach a five year old. If Lauren continues to love the game and improve, her Dad will have to take over!

Later Lauren asked to pull out her Hooked on Phonics kit. It was a gift from Grammie, and Lauren loves using it. This is just one form of 'reading' we do, but since she's eager to use it, I'm going with it. The kit has all the things Lauren responds well to. Workbooks, follow-along audio CDs, a progress sticker chart (she REALLY loves getting the stickers with each accomplishment!), and little books. Lauren learned the AT, AN, AG, AND, and ON sounds. Then with simply adding a consonant sound in front of these, she was reading words and read her first two books. She was very excited (o.k., so was I)!

What else? Lots of art. Currently Lauren is writing a book for Emma's 6th Birthday present. She dictates word for word the story then I write it out. This one we are both illustrating and coloring. It is titled "The Emma and Lauren Pony Story."

Finally, early this week we traveled to Victoria to pick up our order at the Home School Supply store. So we have LOTS of fun workbooks, paint, learning blocks, etc... to supplement the living and learning we are already doing.

Today the family is off for a forest picnic and hike. It is hard to be inside when weather outside is divine. On that note, I'm am shutting off this computer and getting outside.  Happy Autumn!

Random Lessons...

On Friday of last week, Lauren, Matthew and I met with our friends Kate and her daughter Jessie. Seeing that it was a gorgeous and sunny day, we went for a small hike.  The Mount Elizabeth Park trail is the perfect size for little legs, and has an educational sheet available to point out things along the path. The kids ran from number sign to number sign, and Kate read the laminated parks info sheet. It was a good lesson for me in that it appeared the girls were not all that interested in listening to the blurbs of info, since they were so excited skipping and hopping, picking up leaves, feathers, etc... But upon reflection about our hike a few days ago, Lauren remembered 9 of the 10 items. In fact, she is helping me list them now! So these are the nature items we learned a little about and got to observe and touch: Big Leaf Maple, Red Alder, Salmon Berry, Moss Beds, Rocky cliffside, Banana Slugs (however, we did not find any), Nurse Logs, Wind-thrown trees (where we learned about strong winter winds, and root systems), and Sword Ferns.

But what was more remarkable was the imaginative play that occurred when the kids found a 'fort' just off the path- formed by leaning and wind-blown trees. It quickly became the Fairy Forest, and we were all fairies in charge of building a home for the birds. We beefed up the roof with fallen branches, decorated with leaves, wrote 'messages' on leaves and left them for the birds, among other fairy tasks. Because I was the Animal fairy, I was in charge of whistling to the birds what the Tinker fairies (Lauren and Jessie) needed me to tell them. Matthew was the Chef Fairy, who ground up rotten fir log into a fine powder, then mixed with soil, to make wonderful birthday 'cakes'. We practiced being quiet so we could hear the birds. The children decided the birds were very pleased with their new home.  The imaginations of the children were contagious and it was a special afternoon.

Last night (Monday) Lauren and I sat down to do her Mind Map. I asked Lauren what she envisioned her upcoming year to look like, what she wanted to learn about, her interests, or anything else that came to mind. A fun exercise!  Many of Lauren's ideas were predictable, but some were surprising- things we hadn't discussed before. For this reason alone, the mind mapping exercise was very helpful.  If Lauren is going to be an active participant in the direction her education will take, this is a great tool to guide me. I kept her Mind Map in my mind, as I went shopping at the School Supply Store in Victoria today and picked up some books that otherwise I might not have (i.e. Solar System and planets for instance).

For the past month I have kept a small notebook with me, and have been writing down Lauren and Matthew's questions.  Lauren asks a lot of great questions, some I can answer and MANY I cannot. When she was younger, I used to ask HER to try and answer her own questions (Matthew still enjoys this), but now she really wants to know "the truth Mom."  It is amazing how many questions we have written down already. This year, we will pick some of these questions to research and answer. I think this will be fun.

Craft time in our house these days is spent with Lauren 'writing' stories and illustrating pictures. She either tells me word for word what to write, including punctuation, OR she 'writes' the story (we sound out many words together, or I simply tell her what letters to put together when she just wants to be creative and not "all spelly"). She has many words memorized now, 'the', 'I', 'cat', etc... Today she wrote a rhyming poem called Cat. She has learned that by putting consonants in front of 'AT', that this spells many other words. It was an exciting discovery. So then we went on to put consonants in front of 'OG' and so on...

I would like to encourage Lauren to practice her small caps, and number writing. Many of the school books we ordered today will address this. Lauren loves workbook and exercises, sitting down with her pencils, and crayons. We have been using those Kindergarten activity books (found a bunch at Cosco last year) and she loves them.  

Finally, Lauren had her first Monday morning at Montessori. She told me she enjoyed being the oldest kid there, They picked apples, made applesauce, had circle time, movement, and then outside play.

Oh, and last but not least, we rented a fiddle today. Lauren took a few classes last winter and has been itching to start up again. Since a small child she has always perked up at the sound of fiddle music. And so, she will be taking lessons with Denny on Mondays. She has already given us a concert as well as her grandparents one over the phone. We will see if her interest continues, but for now she epitomizes the word 'Keen'. I hope I can keep up to her!

Signing off! Goodnight :)

Sew Great!

Matthew had his first morning at Montessori, leaving Lauren and I the morning to pick an activity. To our great delight, we had Isabella (fellow Spring Leafer sp.?) over for the morning.  The girls worked on their drawings for a good hour- Isabella gently instructing Lauren how to draw trees, while she worked on her own drawing of a fairy, with the most intricate clothing. With the new art taped to our 'Art Wall' we opened up the fabric closet and the girls pulled out fabrics, trim, thread, etc... It was a flurry of activity. With the fabric samples spread out on the living room floor, Isabella went into planning stage- what to sew, how big, which fabric, where to put trim... The girls decided they both were going to sew skirts. Isabella cut her fabric and showed Lauren how to sew (with right sides together) so that the seam is invisible when you turned it right side out. Lauren has used a needle and thread before, but this was her first 'project'.  Skirts were completed, with sashes, tassel trim (cherry twists, they called it), and Lauren even managed to cut and sew a pocket to the front of the skirt. Lots of trial and error, as the seam went through both layers, threads broke, etc... Such patience and determination exhibited by both Lauren and Isabella.

I must say, Isabella's sewing skills, and creativity were a joy to watch. Lauren said to her "you sure have a lot of ideas!" Indeed. But it was an inspiring morning where ideas and creativity flowed.

Tea and muffin break and time to pack up and get Isabella back and to pick up Matthew (whom by the way survived, and enjoyed his first day at Montessori).

First Day of Kindergarten!

Why homeschool? I get asked this a lot (often it comes with that questioning-do-you-know-what-you're-doing look of concern).   I don't have a quick or easy response. I get tongue-tied and hum and haw.  So forget the humming and hawing- here's how it is:  My gut (and my husband David's too) tells us it's the right thing for our daughter. She is a quiet, intuitive child that studies the world around her, slowly and intently soaking it all in. She questions everything and her curiosity is insatiable. And she is VERY sensitive (to loud noises, unkind words, etc...). She is earnest and gentle. While she loves the company of other children and playtime, such events wipe her out and she needs to sleep afterwards.  Stimulation overload!  Naturally, we want to provide her with a safe and nurturing learning environment where we can cater to HER needs and interests. This speaks volumes to me.

The decision to homeschool was made much easier by the existence of Spring Leaves.  It is a group of homeschooling families that meet once a week at the Pender school, and have a wonderful facilitator, Julie, to help us out, and translate our homeschool activities into curriculum speak, provide support, guidance, etc... Or this at least, is my very early understanding of it all.  Today, I received an abundance of helpful information to put my newbie anxieties at rest.

So our first Wednesday at Spring Leaves was wonderful. Our beach picnic was rained out so we met in our school classroom.  After a brief but energetic play in the gym, we ate our picnic lunch and chatted about the various topics and activities the children and parents were interested in exploring for the upcoming year. Lauren expressed an interest in Art (the group came up with many forms of this: dance, yoga, sewing, pottery, painting, calligraphy, etc...) and other topics were discussed as well (i.e. gardening, field trips, outside learning, science, cooking, etc...).

Matthew, the near 3 year old, had a fabulous time exploring the classrooms 'fort' structure, and the many tubs of blocks, lego, and trucks.

Lauren felt at home here and enjoyed the company of the other children very much.  And me? I feel stoked about the upcoming year. This is a huge relief since I was walking into this feeling a tad nervous and a bit sad. Hard to believe my little girl is in Kindergarten. Time moves much too quickly. But after today, I realize that homeschooling will just be an extension of what we already do at home.  As one of the other mom's said today, not to worry "it'll all just FLOW." Thanks Kim.

So here's to broadening horizons and imaginations,  and to new friends. Can't wait to watch my kids eat it all up.