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