It's not Eden, but it sure is close!

An old archaeology friend of mine commented on my latest facebook pics (album titled 'Homeschooling'), and wrote "do you live in Eden, or what?" Well, I realized in that moment that the images I present to the public, either through facebook, or here on the blog, could be seen as overly 'Pollyanna-ish'. I mean really, I'm not going to post pictures of a constipated crying child, my ugly moments of frustration and fatigue, or the piles of laundry that I can never conquer- just to name a few.  That could be it's own blog altogether! Obviously, not all days are sunshine, beaches, and gardens, and happy go lucky children. As like many families we follow the ebb and flow.

Yes, we have some rough days. I am learning, finally, that these are the days that I need to limit our schedule in order to create as much calm and stability- things my children thrive on. Me too.  This business of getting lunches ready, clothes together and on, finding shoes, no not those ones, THOSE ones!!!, getting in and out of the car a zillion times, rushing here to there, blah blah. It is a story all families know.  On days when our family, or a certain individual is feeling tender, I slow us down. WAAAAY down.  This is another benefit of homeschooling- changing the speed when need be. Picking and choosing what feels right.

My First Year Homeschooling and Lessons Learned:

We've come a long way. I'VE come a long way. Back in September I had 100% confidence in our reasons WHY we were choosing to homeschool BUT I had NO confidence in my abilities as a 'teacher' and what our 'school' would look like. I felt the weight of the responsibility of it too. Would Lauren progress at a 'normal' rate, would she fall behind, miss out on her other peers and the whole school experience, etc... ?

But I am happy to report all these fears quickly dissolved. It only took a little while to see Lauren blossoming, and learning, and exploring and questioning and as her confidence built, so did mine. I am gaining more confidence in my abilities to stay organized (not my strong point) and in my teaching. Lauren is such a keen and driven child, that she actually gets me motivated.

We start the morning lessons just after breakfast.  I have Tibetan bells that I ring three times. This signals 'school time'.  I ring the bells to end our session. The duration varies every day. And of course, many days go by where the bells just don't ring (i.e. no work at the table!). So far the kids love this routine.

The only small hiccup I faced was when my expectations got in the way. For instance, when I had an exercise or activity planned, and it fizzled, or when Lauren didn't want to do it (not often, but it did happen). Or, when I saw Lauren start to catch onto something new and big, and she withdrew from it. I am learning that there is a fine line in gently pushing her (to build confidence) and letting things go and coming back to it later when SHE is ready. Early in the year, I was anxious about letting things go, but now I know not to sweat it and concepts click when the child is READY. You seasoned homeschoolers are thinking "Duh!!!"

The other challenge to our year was keeping the 3 year old Matthew happy and occupied during our morning lessons. We struggled for many months. Some days he'd be happy with the activity I'd set up for him.  His station was always next to the table on the floor. An elaborate layout of water filled containers, soap, eye droppers with food coloring, or paint, or car washes, coin polishing, tinkering bits, etc..... Trust me, I went to great creative lengths to keep him occupied. But I slowly learned that there was not much I could do- it was a matter of him feeling isolated. Of course I'd offer him a seat at the table for drawing, writing, cutting, pasting, or whatever- he always answered with an emphatic NO!!! Until recently.  Not sure what happened but he's now sitting at the table, writing letters in workbooks, writing his name, drawing like crazy (race cars of course) but race cars in cities and towns, with drivers, and trees, and mountains, and whatever else he comes up with. Can't tell you how happy it makes me to see him discover expression!!  So already next year is looking that much easier at our homeschooling table!!!

I must thank my daughter too.  So keen and enthusiastic.  A joy to be around. Watching her grow, and now her brother's, makes me appreciate what it is we are doing here and why it is so important to their future.

Now onto the nuts and bolts of our learning adventures, for Julie's reading pleasure :) This will be a picture summary since my note taking stinks lately. (at your home visit Julie you can see the workbooks Lauren is working through- I won't list it below.)


And here we go...

First off, I must mention that as of April, Lauren can read.  It just clicked. Wasn't I just saying that? www.starfall.com was the catalyst for this.  All our phonic work from the years before just clicked during exploration of this site.  No stopping her now.  Very exciting for all of us. As a mother, this was way more exciting that watching her crawl or walk for the first time. For me, it's a biggie.  So proud of Lauren.  Reading is such a wondrous thing.

Lauren's first violin recital in April. A night to remember.  Lauren showed no stage fright and it was an amazing evening of young talent.  Denny Goertz is an incredible teacher.  Later I asked Lauren if she was nervous. She thought about it and said "yes, I was. Then I just looked down at my violin and felt o.k." Cool.

 

Above are pics taken from a Spring Leaves' Wednesday when Kim lead a thoughtful activity at Mortimer Spit.  We constructed a mandala in the sand, and got to explore various stones and crystals.  We discussed intuition and feelings, and had an opportunity to send intentions or hopes into the healing circle.  Lauren had a nice timing bonding with Ebony and Taeven. 

 

On Fridays, Lauren has been taking semi-private dancing lessons taught by Wendy Soares. Gracie Mae is also in the class.  The two girls are very keen, and of course this is appreciated by Wendy.  Wendy says Lauren has something special, and her intuitive movement is beautiful. Yeah, I know. :)  Wendy wants to keep teaching the girls through the summer. I think the three of them are enjoying each other's company immensely.

 

We visited Dave at work one morning.  He called us all excited about the tadpoles living in the rainwater on top of the pool cover at Currents.  Dave was in the process of pumping this water out, and thought the kids could do a rescue mission. Tadpoles? I'm in!! Always wanted to do this as a kid, but never did. This was MY turn too!! The kids got the skimmers, nets, and I brought along sanitized containers to catch the tadpoles in.  That morning we researched how to care for them, release them, etc. in preparation for keeping tadpoles.  A science lesson, right? Well the kids eagerly scooped and explored. They found every water bug imaginable but no tadpoles. The critters Dave thought were tadpoles were this:

Cool nonetheless.  Later we looked it up online.  The name of this incredibly agile and fast swimmer escapes me at the moment.  At any rate, a fun morning!

Mother's Day project at the school with Spring Leaves. Fun. Lauren's comfort zone. And I love my little purse she made me.  Of course it is storing HER tidbits and is somewhere in her stash of things.  It's the thought that counts. :)  (I would love the opportunity for more sewing classes for Lauren. )

Matthew is increasingly confident and happy at school for Spring Leaves' gatherings.  He has made a connection with Cedar, and plays alongside the other children more and more.  His confidence continues to grow at Montessori where he has some good buddies now.  Lauren continues to LOVE Montessori too.   Fantastic social time and they count down the days till Thursdays.  Anne does music, movement, art, and printing lessons too. 

Our Saturna visit. Very short, but it introduced the kids to my favorite childhood pastime. Log raft building. I've been waiting for this!! What an incredibly beautiful island, and while we didn't experience the Saturna Ecological Education Center's full glory, what little I heard and saw, it seems wonderful.

GARDENING:

We've been up at the Limberlost almost everyday for a couple of months now.  Working really hard to reclaim the very old garden that was once loved many years ago, and expanding the garden area with deer fencing.  The time spent there has been magical for me and the kids and my mom.  The first couple of weeks it took the kids some time getting comfortable, and staying amused- go figure. But now they can spend all day up there and happy as ever.  We set up a tent, a cooking area, and have everything we need for a home away from home, and a school away from home too!

Schooly lessons through gardening:

-exploring wells, and observing wells being pumped into cisterns via sub-pumps, hoses, powered by a generator. Lauren is in charge of running the hose to the blue watering barrel, and gives the thumbs up when the sub pump is pumping.  Her and Matthew have their own part of the garden they are responsible for watering. 

-planting seeds

-picking spinach and eating it! Lauren's face lately is green with drippy juicey spinach goodness.  And this is the kid who HATED eating green things. She has made salads the last two nights. SO COOL!! I'm thrilled that my kids are learning this food/earth connection. 

 

The old part of the garden. Rich earth lay waiting to be turned over. Fence post holes seen in the mid-ground of photo. Fence and gate are now completed.

 home and school away from home

Lauren's drawing here is a Limberlost lesson on the water cycle.  There are three wells on the property.  Lauren and discussed how the water got there, and that lead to a water cycle discussion.  While i was gardening I asked her to go in the tent and draw what we just talked about. And here it is.  

 We planted seeds in cardboard egg cartons, some had shells in it. A cool way to 'hatch' little seedlings.  Went online thinking I had discovered something new. Ah, nope!

We transplanted all our seedlings, but our recent visits to the garden have shown that some have perished. Too wet? Too cold? We are all learning together on this one. 

 

The dog is smiling but Lauren is not.  What a terrible mom snapping pics in the middle of a very tragic moment for Lauren.  Here Lauren is mourning the loss, or should I say, the release of four dear friends. See picture below.

Here is Nippy, Alice, Carrie and ... can't remember the fourth.  These furry critters came home in a jar from Montessori.  Lauren fed them leaves, making sure they had air holes in the lid and watched their journey around the jar.  The next day, she dumped them out.  Carrie, the biggest one, wasn't looking so hot. Stiff actually.  I explained that she did a fantastic job at looking after them, but perhaps it was time to release them back to nature.  Bravely she found a spot outside and said a tearful goodbye to her friends.  Cried for a long long time.  What a tender heart she has.  And how I can relate. 

Cross stitch. Well, I think we should call it Free Stitch. "It's an abstract" she says.

And here he goes....

loves being doctor. Found this Melissa and Doug doctor outfit and he'll doctor you up.  Brings a very gentle side out of him, nurturing. Band-aid everywhere. 

Math.

Last night was music night.

Art 'class'. Jessie came over to paint and decorate picture frames.

Playing house- in a shower.

Lauren making dinner. Using Romaine and spinach (from our garden) to make almond butter raisin wraps. 

My beautiful, passionate, tender hearted boy. 

My intuitive, artistic, joyful daughter. 

Stay tuned for more adventures in our homeschooling adventures. I have a feeling there will be one more entry before the year end... 

Thanks Julie and for anyone else reading this. (a VERY rushed entry) 

Over and Out.

Joanne

Time Flies when you're having fun!

It's 2010. The Winter Olympics are upon us. I'm having a flashback of when they announced that Vancouver had won the bid to host the Olympics. My boss and I took a break from our office work and tuned in to the live announcement. Then we went back to work, feeling rather indifferent.  I was in the midst of a busy archaeological career, no kids, no husband with my future still unclear.  My days as a  archaeologist living out of her backpack were coming to a close as my body and mind were tired and sore from the physical and emotional nature of the work. I took a leap of faith and left my job to take a rest on Pender Island.  Enter David to the picture and a few years later we were having a baby!!  During Lauren's pre-labour days, we watched a lot of the Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece. We called her our Olympic Baby (especially after a very speedy delivery- she was almost born on the Oak Street Bridge!). 

And here we are now,  the Vancouver games are here. Putting the politics aside, I am enjoying them, and surprisingly a bit emotional about it- mainly because it has marked a passage of time from life before kids to my life now. And how my life has blossomed in so many ways: an amazing life on Pender Island (no more living out of a backpack), no more sore back, two kids, and a stellar hubbie. Time flies when you are having fun (i.e., making babies and building a house).

Speaking of fun, this is what our schooling has been about lately. Fun, fun, fun! Especially with all this glorious spring-like weather. And what better is there to do than garden with your kids? What they don't participate in, I believe they still absorb through some kind of osmosis. We have been planning a new garden on a piece of land on South Pender. It is an open, sunny lot, that was gardened at least 15 years ago, and we are breathing life into it again. We will continue to garden here at home too, in our more shady garden (spinach and chard galore!!), but Lauren and I are excited to grow the 'sunny veggies'.  Also, on this land, the kids have been exploring, building forts, running, and for the first time, and they are really starting to play together. Yay!

In this old garden, Lauren helped me turn over sod and weeds that had overtaken the rich soil underneath. Worms everywhere. The kids loved collecting as many as they could to save them from my shovel! Then we built a garden 'lasagna' behind it, to hopefully kill the grass layer and foster soil growth too. So Lauren and Matthew helped me with the cardboard and we will monitor how long this process will take. 

More lessons to follow in this new garden space: fence building, installing a watering system. And of course seed selection and planting. It'll be a learning experience for us all.

our walks find sign of spring everywhere. Flowers...

... to plum blossoms.

This is one of the garden plots we are working on.

This is one view of the 'Limberlost' (named after my mom and I's favorite childhood book, "Girl of the Limberlost"). This is becoming a special piece of land to our family.

These are the giant redwoods (a rarity on Pender Island) on the property. Just behind the trees at their base, is where the kids are building a fort with one of their friends.

I love this picture. The kids completely understand the grandeur of these trees. I asked them how these trees make them feel, and this is what they did to show me. Cool.

Needless to say, our outside time has been rich. Continuing this outside exploration, in comes my Stinging Nettle obsession. Yes, I'm obsessed lately with collecting nettles. The kids are bored of it now, but they did go along with me on the first couple excursions. When I spot a patch on the side of the road, I pull over to a safe parking spot, pull on my gloves and snip away. The kids roll their eyes at me and laugh. Lauren and I are experimenting with drying techniques and various ways of eating them. Potato Nettle soup, green (nettle) eggs, nettle on their pizza, Nettle hummus (yum!) etc. And they eat it! I'm now putting raw nettle in my morning smoothies and the kids are even trying this! I am pleased they are getting into it, and trying new things (especially for two kids who can be very picky, especially when it comes to green foods).  A friend of mine with acreage just told me she has acres of nettle. I almost fell over. So this Friday we are heading over there to harvest more, and teach them how to do it. Our plan is to have enough dried nettle to get us through till next spring. They are amazingly nutritious and delicious. And make a tasty tea.

I am so excited about the art of wild crafting and hope to expand my knowledge of wild foods. What an amazing way for kids to connect to the earth. What's next I wonder, dandelions? Need to get some books  pronto! I'm sure a whole new world is going to open up to us. And to think I used to get great joy in weed whacking. I will never look at a patch of weeds the same way again!

Nettle harvesting. Here Matthew is pointing out a good one.

One of our ways of drying nettles. 

Other 'schooly' stuff:

Lauren has been going to dance on Fridays taught by Wendy Soares. Going well. It is more of a social time for Lauren, rather than a serious study of dance. But this is perfectly fine (and preferred) by me at this point in the game. But since Lauren could speak, she has always wanted to be a ballerina. In fact, when she was 10 months old and not even walking, lauren started 'dancing' to a Loreena McKennit song  (eyes closed, her arms up, blissed right out), and really, she hasn't stopped dancing since (man, I'm sentimental tonight!) So with this passion of hers, we may explore doing more structured classes in Victoria. We'll see... the whole world of ballet gets me nervous (I could write an entire blog about that world and the resulting body image problems it can cause! Yes, I'm speaking from personal experience...). The subject of girls' self-esteem  is a sensitive topic for me, so obviously I want to protect Lauren from unnecessary negativity. Wow, I'm a bag of hormones tonight. (note to self: do not write blog during PMS!).

dance class.

This is just before David took Lauren to the ballet in Victoria. A very special dad and daughter day. It was a big deal for Lauren. (sorry Dave, didn't get one with your eyes open!). Matthew and I spent the day at the pool for mom and son day. 

Violin continues to go well.  Denny has asked the children to practice almost everyday. Lauren has taken this on, and decided that having a sticker and reward chart would work best. And it is working! I love that she knows how to motivate herself. She comes to me and asks to practice!!  The violin kids are having a recital on April 3rd. Looking forward to this. And I'm really amazed at their progress. They learn so fast!

Spring Leaves attendance has been hit and miss. Complicated by our situation with Matthew these days. High anxiety, brought on by a sore tummy or not (maybe just his personality or young age??), and wanting all of mom's attention (when I can't always give it) has made him not enjoy the school. This will pass. Seems after talking to many of the moms, three is a tough age. And Lauren, has been quite happy not to go but busy herself with our activities. I do hope, to attend the gym portion of Spring Leaves because clearly, the children have been having fun here. And without question, from a personal standpoint, I really want to attend Spring Leaves. To participate and to observe, and to get bits of wisdom from other parents and Julie. I just have to wait for my kids to catch up with me. A matter of time...

Exploring with Ooblek!

Lauren busies herself daily with art and writing. She is a prolific book writer and creator. She tapes pages together to form a 'book' and draws pictures and dictates each and every word. Her stack of books is growing. She is on volume 3 of a book series of random drawings and abstract sketches.  She is also working on a very special book, where she is writing her own letters, and now wants to use lower case letters. She is also a prolific card maker. Valentines day provided a perfect chance to make many. Even one for the dog. Aside being a great opportunity for art, and drawing, her card making is wonderful for developing her writing skills. We still sound out together, and she knows more and more words that she doesn't need help with. She's got this one down perfectly and writes it often: "Dear Mom. I love you". Lucky me! She knows how to write other family members names, and is starting to sound out words on her own. More often than not however, she has trepidation to try. She exhibits some anxiety about getting it wrong. Of course I only gently encourage her, I tell her mistakes are o.k., and that they help us learn, blah, blah... I just know that when she does sound something out on her own, she gets such great joy. And she wants to read so badly! Future bookworm I predict.

Here is a poem from her book titled "Lauren's Book of Butterflies":

Twinkle, twinkle, butterfly,

Fly as high as you can fly.

Up above the clouds so high,

like the sunshine in the sky.

Twinkle, twinkle, butterfly,

Fly as high as you can fly.

THE END

And here is a page taken out of another book called the "Butterfly Garden":

Lauren loves the movie "Tinkerbell" and it was somewhat surprising to us that she immediately identified with the tinker fairies. But it soon became clear why. She loves to tinker!! The other day she 'tinkered' with the recycling box contents and came up with this creation from an Almond Milk tetra box. I thought it was brilliant. A mini puppet theatre complete with a moving butterfly performer! This butterfly is attached to a gold ribbon which is threaded up through the pour spout of the box so that it can go up and down when pulled.

A couple of weeks ago, Julie returned Lauren's Mind Map. It was interesting and helpful to review. We have definitely introduced many topics Lauren had expressed interest in, way back in September. One area of interest is geography. Funny enough the Olympics have proven to be an excellent learning platform. For example, during the opening ceremonies, we got our light up globe ready and when the athletes from each country paraded out, we found their country on the globe. It was great fun. I even got a refresher- it took me too long to find some of them!  China is one country that Lauren has always had a strong affinity to (and she mentioned this on her mind map). I think we shall delve into this next week, starting with a trip to the library.

Another thing I am working on is how to entertain and stimulate Matthew while Lauren does her work. We still try to practice violin at 9 am, then follow with some work book lessons. Lately I have been setting up a station on the floor, with drop cloths, bowls full of water, bubbles, scoopers, cars, etc... to keep him happily occupied. One day I got  him washing coins- he loved this!. Or I pull out the play dough. But now, I'm running out of creative ideas that will turn on the mind of a 3 year old boy. Must visit some other homeschooling mom's blogs, or web pages for ideas!!

Summary of workbooks:

• Basic Phonics Skills Level B- completed chapters on all consonants with exercises of beginning and ending sounds. Now working on short and long vowel sounds. This book has been very easy for Lauren, 100% understanding so far. She enjoys the book's exercises too! She is excited we are over half way through this big workbook and thus, has provided a great sense of accomplishment. And I'm learning that Lauren likes to set goals for herself and work towards them. 
• Math Ahead Grade One- one chapter completed one math equations expressed in different forms. Has memorized some answers to simple equations (i.e. 2 +2, etc.) and for the ones she hasn't memorized, she can get to the answer, either by counting on her fingers, or in her head, or by using manipulative blocks. 
• Complete Math Smart 1 (her favorite math book): Completed section 1. The chapter summary says that so far the child has practiced comparing and sorting according to size, height and weight. Also matched objects by one-to-one correspondence and practiced counting to identify  sets with more, fewer, or the same number of objects. All of this for Lauren was very fun, and she'd say "more! More!" We are about to dive into Section 2 which states it will build upon the above concepts and focus on adding and subtracting and terms like sum, difference, total and equal and the signs that represent these terms.  

O.K., I think that's it for now. Fingers are cramping and eyes are crossing. This isn't proofread very well (sorry).

Thanks for reading and apologies for the sentimentality. But what can I say, I'm head over heels for my kids and when I reflect on them and how they are learning and growing, it gets me emotional. Like I said before it is an honour to be their mom, and watch them blossom like spring flowers or leaves. Yes, like Spring Leaves!!  : )

Until next time,

Joanne

Are you there Blog? It's me, Joanne!

Yes, I've been errant in my blogging. My last entry was the end of October.  After which, Lauren received her first 'report card'.  This report card, written by our Spring Leaves' facilitator, Julie, was so beautiful.  Really, it was! It made me so grateful to be homeschooling, and for the supportive Pender Island homeschooling community.  The report card was a thoughtful and detailed synopsis of Lauren's personality, learning style, interests, activities, as well as my observations and comments. I am thankful to Julie for taking the time to get to know and understand my daughter so well, and for continuing to provide thoughtful input and enthusiasm for our kids.

Since the end of October, our homeschooling steam train came to a screeching halt. Well, not totally true, but a series of events stopped our happy schooling 'routine' that we were developing.  In November, the kids took turns getting sick, they got better, then I got sick. Really sick. I was down for 3 weeks with major sinus infection followed by a month of serious bronchitis.  Also, Matthew is having MAJOR digestion issues, and potty training.  This alone is very disruptive and emotionally draining.

By mid December we were getting back on our feet in this house- just in time for the holiday season.  Even with living on little Pender Island, it becomes a very busy time of year for our family.

Despite the bumpy ride during the past couple of months, we were doing many activities that would fall under many learning categories. It just was more random, and followed the flow of what we faced each day (another benefit of homeschooling, is that it allows for learning organically, and following the family flow).

Lauren spent 5 days with her grandparents who live on South Pender Island.  A welcomed relief to me, seeing how horrible I was feeling.  They took on the role of homeschooling Grandparents with great enthusiasm! The school week was filled with activities, and Lauren was sent home with my mom and dad's careful notes. It was very touching. So I will summarize Dave and Audrey's notes below:

• Went for walks. 
• Watched and followed ditch water, underneath road culverts, and followed it down driveway, toward the beach, and found a creek which flowed over the midden bank, and onto the beach.
• Sewed and ironed. Lauren insisted she do EVERYTHING to complete a christmas present she made for her mommy. Made an apron. She selected fabrics, cut out from a pattern, and learned to sew on sewing machine. 
• Identified a handful of pebbles from the beach using identification guide (i.e., basalt, sandstone, granite), and collected beach glass
• Lauren asked questions: why are there white bubbles in the ocean, near the shore?
• Observations: Lauren observed objects far away seem small
• made muffins
• Walk with her Papa- took the bird book for bird identification (not sure the specifics of the outing, but this is something Lauren has enjoyed in the past).
• solitaire on the computer (she doesn't need help, and really enjoys the game)
• Papa's geography lesson (Equator, continents, oceans, etc. using one of those light up spinning globes)
• Lauren picked a book out of their library. It was a book I was given as a kid. A beautiful pop-up book on Life, and how it begins. So Lauren got a lesson on the birds and bees! This book is a stunning 3-D display of the insides of a uterus, the egg, sperm, complete with pull tabs to make things swim, move and wiggle. Pictures of a fetus at different stages of growth, etc... She came home excited to tell me all about her uterus, and her eggs, and so on. We've talked about this before, it is no big deal here, but this was the first time she showed excitement about it.
• Many other books- about whales, and dinosaurs
• did some Math- adding and subtraction
• Tree identification. Knew many on the walk, but learned red alder for the first time.

I know, hire those grandparents, right?  Yay, Audrey and Dave!

December was a flurry of crafting events.  I decided to make all my Christmas gifts this year, except for the childrens'.   So Lauren crafted and sewed along side me.   Her previous sewing lessons with her Grammie prepared her well for her deciding to sew a patchwork pillow. She picked fabrics, cut out squares, pinned, sewed and ironed everything herself.  Don't touch Mom, I CAN DO IT!! As I was hovering nervously as she pressed her foot down on the sewing pedal and the machine zipped along...

 

... And then she made a pillow for her Papa's reading chair.  This time with a message:

 

More Christmas crafting... collaged christmas cards made from old cards, paper mache lanterns for the New Year's Eve Lantern Fest... Family craft night at the school (made christmas crackers- see photo below...), baked and decorated cookies...

 (note the hats we made at school!)

Walks were sporadic, but squeezed them in. Really they do us wonders...

 a rare glimpse of sun. We stopped to soak it in.

 trudging home. Exhausted after the hike.

We recognized Hannukah this year again. We dusted off the minorah, and lit the candles every evening. David leads us in traditional songs or blessings. We did one traditional meal (I went on-line and did research for recipes!).  We made latkes, applesauce, challah bread, and baked fish.  David has a rather complicated past when it comes to how he was raised, and the impact (many negative) religion played on his childhood, and continues to impact our lives through difficult dialogue with my in-laws.  So when he shares with his wife and kids, he treads carefully in these waters, picking and choosing what he thinks is good for the children.  I welcome it wholeheartedly.   Anything that brings family together, for good food, creates harmony and love, and lasting memories I'm all for.  In our house, the lights of the minorah glow alongside the twinkle of the Christmas tree lights.  To me it is magical.  I believe there is beauty in most religions, and while I'm attracted to them all, we follow none in particular.  No offense to my parents, but I was raised with no religion but I sought it out wherever I went. Even sent myself to various churches as a kid.  Pretty amazing on their part for supporting this!!  I grew up thinking 'kosher' was just a type of dill pickle.  It surprised no one that I majored in anthropology in university.  My point being, is this: it is important to me that my children have a global perspective on the world's cultures and religions.  I suppose the holidays is a good excuse for us to explore this. I can't wait to take them to pow wows, and other such rich displays of spirituality meets art, and culture.  What fun this will be.

 A number of x-mas gifts were 'homeschooly' including a microscope, a space projector thingy, story-book making kit, books (including the Little House series we are enjoying), and art stuff.

Matthew and Lauren have taken to putting on 'shows'. This one below is a skating show (we saw Disney on Ice in November).  I anticipate we will be  heading to Victoria for some skating trips soon.  Violin continues, with Lauren's new and larger sized instrument.

 

The last couple of days Lauren has been spending hours creating her fairy tale (a story making kit).  She is insisting on using small caps. So far it is a story about Bella the Butterfly looking for a friend...

 planning stage

 the creating and writing begins!

With the New Year, comes a fresh start for the Grenonas.   Getting back on track, not that I think we really fell off... just more scattered than I like to be, too many distractions, too much illness, commitments, etc...  Looking forward to longer days, and spring blossoms.

Wishing you all a Happy 2010!

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