Math Tidbits

Trevor just came up to me very excitedly and said, "Mommy! I just figured out that two 3's is 6 and three 2's is 6 too! Isn't that crazy!"  Awesome.  I never taught him that. 

One of his favorite things to do at dinner is to quiz Sean and I or himself.  He'll give himself the easy questions and give us the "hard" ones, trying to stump us. 

For himself, "Daddy, did you know that 4 plus 3 is 7?"

For Sean or myself, "Daddy/Mommy, what's 3...plus one hundred and two?"  It's so cute to hear him say, "Wow! How did you do that so fast?" 

We recently read a library book about Fibonacci and Trevor loved it.  I had never learned about the Fibonacci sequence, so it was fun for me, too.  It was really fascinating to learn that everyone thought Fibonacci was a blockhead because of his love of numbers, and he never actually published anything or showed anyone his work.  People can be so ridiculous being afraid of other people's differences!  I hope I can teach my kids to not reject someone right away just based on the fact that they do things differently from them or like different things.  How egocentric is that? 

I don't know if I'm doing such a great job, though.  Conrad told a man in the library elevator last week, "You talk funny."  Ugh. 

Backtracking

I realized that I haven't been logging our activities like I originally wanted to do.  The first time I made a list, it felt like I was boasting or something, so I have been shy about doing it again, which is not helpful for making a truthful log.  So I'm going back to our calendars and recording lists of some of the things we did.

September:
1. playgroups
2. Trevor's vegetable stand (so great!)
3. Fishing and kayaking with homeschool group
4. Museum class: earthquakes
5. Nature center class (I can't recall what this one was...)
6. Homeschool conference
7. nature center class: life under water- scooped up bugs and other animals from pond, looked at them under microscopes and on overhead

October:
1. Aquarium visit
2. Visited an orchard
3. Museum class: phases of matter
4. Wisconsin trip
5. Homeschool group
6. Nature center class: bats (was Trevor in his element or what?)
7. At home we also made bat houses

November:
1. Went to a ballet (Trevor's famous comment: "You're the funnest mom ever!")
2. Trip to Michigan to see grandparents
3. Zoo (My first time seeing a red panda! Very awesome. Couldn't decide if I thought it was more bear or raccoon. The boys loved the otters and the tiger the most. They weren't so interested in the spider monkeys, which I wanted to watch forever. I guess they watch each other enough...)
4. Visits from Aunt Annie for Thanksgiving and Grandpa Peine for cousin Brooke's blessing
5. Church playgroups

December:
1. Most of the time was spent doing advent stuff (one Christ-centered/service/family activity per day leading up to Christmas)
2. Singing at nursing home
3. Nature center class: dissecting owl pellets
4. Church gym playgroups

January:
1. Physics Circus assembly - so cool! I wish Conrad would have been interested so I could have watched it with Trevor instead of wrangling him in the back. Oh well!
2. Ice Skating
3. Indoor inflatable gym visits
4. Unschooling discussion with homeschool group
5. History class at nature center and snowshoeing (Trevor)
6. Production meeting for spring play with homeschool group
7. Church gym playgroups

If it seems like I'm more interested in the field trips and hands-on experiences and getting out of the house right now, you'd be right.  I'm realizing more and more how much our boys thrive on those sorts of experiences.  Our bishop recently described Sean as a "man of action" and I realized what an apt description that was.  Sean is happiest when he's doing, and it should come as no surprise that our boys are, too.  Sean's methods of parenting naturally take him and the kids wood-chopping, bike-riding, even shopping or out to movies, but not usually sitting around doing quiet activities, though he can do that when the situation requires it.  I think he was the most accepting and enthusiastic about homeschooling when he realized how many rich "action" experiences the boys were getting. So I'm glad it makes Sean happy, too, because if both parents aren't happy with homeschooling, it can be difficult. 

We do a lot at home, but most of the time it's not very exciting to record, or I just forget to.  Like I said, I need to be better at this whole record-keeping thing.  I don't even write the regular things down, like library visits, storytimes, nature walks, or music time, which we do semi-daily.  I guess I try to focus more on the deeper learning processes, like when that random library book sparks lessons from all subject areas and makes all of us feel inspired, or when one question at breakfast keeps us busy searching for answers all day long.  Those are the most satisfying days for us.

Fall 2012

Here are a few things we did during the fall months of 2012:

 Trevor likes to ask Sean questions about the human body.  Here he is asking questions about bones. He also asked if he could trace his body on butcher paper and then he took my anatomy and physiology books from college and drew in all the organs.  He did this on his own.  All I did was get him the books and help him trace his body.  It's neat what happens when a child is given opportunities and a little help.  Trevor is so lucky to have a Dad who knows so much about the body. Trevor has a deep interest in everything having to do with the body.

Below are some fall scenes the boys did with dried leaves I had saved from Wisconsin years ago.

 Sean took Trevor to the nature center for the class on animal insides.  They even got to dissect an owl pellet and glue the rodent bones onto a diagram.  Trevor loved this and wanted to keep the, um, remains forever.  Luckily we convinced him a photo would last longer.

Homeschool Research

For the researcher in me...

National Home Education Research Institute

Workboxes

Workboxes are a great idea for individual organization.  We've used this idea for about a year now, and I've since heard of a few other people doing it, but I just learned that it has a name!  And a whole book written on it, too, if you're curious. 

I found a website with links for many different adaptions of the workbox idea.

Homeschooling: Allow Me to Remove the Wool From Your Eyes

I would like to officially apologize to anyone I've tricked into thinking we're "that" homeschool family. You know, the family that is amazing at everything, including perfect parents, immaculate home, flawless children. I must be really good at making my family sound awesome. Or, some friends are really good at making me feel good.  I'm almost sure it's the former.

I confess, I beam a bit hearing our 5-year old recite for others the (one--ahem) poem that he knows or watching him pull out his body model to teach our 3-year old about the organs, just for fun. When Trevor declares that every evening in our home should be for reading books. And when they beg to do "homework"--ahh! sweetness!

Well, so we are awesome. But I'm biased. I happen to adore my husband and kids. The neutral observer would probably find themselves saying, "What's so awesome about this family? They're nothing special, just weird."

What's this all about? Recently I've had too many people giving me compliments about our homeschooling efforts. While I graciously accept the compliments, I also wonder if I've somehow forgotten to leave out all the bad parts and give a truthful, realistic view of homeschooling in general, and what it is in our home.

Enough is enough. First of all, I am one of those people who really can't handle focusing on the negative too much, so I tend to only replay positive experiences from our home to others. So when I list a million fantastic field trips and experiences from our homeschool, you're not getting the whole picture.

I once read from a veteran homeschool mom, that in a typical homeschool, you have to count it a success if one out of ten days is one you consider a "good" day. I've tried to keep that in mind on the nine bad days. When we're not dressed until 10 AM. When Abigail has been awake all night and the next day comprises slobbing on the couch in my "comfies" reading picture books all morning until I tell the boys I'm too tired to do real lessons and they can just turn on the keyboard and dance for the next hour. Or when it just seems like we're not learning much of anything and I worry that they'll fall behind.

I have to reroute you to one of my favorite sites out there for homeschooling, The Well-Trained Mind. It was created by one of my favorite homeschool authors, Susan Wise Bauer, and the page I linked you to is all about typical homeschool days in different families. Very eye-opening! Especially the one about homeschooling with young children, a toddler, and a newborn.

Now, I must go on a tangent for any nay-sayers who choose not to homeschool because they don't think they have it in them, or who perhaps after reading the links, tilt their noses to the sky. Out of the many homeschool moms I've met, no two moms do homeschooling the same way. Look at it this way: put overly simply, public school is ONE way to educate children, and homeschooling has as many ways as there are families. As a homeschool mom, I've learned rather quickly not to judge how other families choose to educate their children, that what is truly important and underlies most homeschooling philosophies is the LOVE these parents have for their children. And I don't judge anyone for putting their kids in public school, either. Just FYI, though, for anyone curious, go to this site and read the stats on homeschooling vs. public schooling.

During the first day of public school in our area, I got together with a bunch of other moms (public school moms) for a playgroup, and of course, they ended up asking me about homeschooling. You get a lot of attention when you're doing something different than everyone else. I was feeling nervous, anticipating the questions that undoubtedly would come, and also a little defensive because I knew there were a few in the company who had privately and publicly criticized homeschooling. I ended up saying something I regret, after a few moms said something like, "How do you do it? It sounds so hard! I could never do that!" I said, "Well, I think it takes a certain type of person to homeschool." Not true! I wanted to elaborate and tell them what I meant was that any mom (or dad) can become that person through diligence and love, that it's an individual process, and that I admired all the moms who came before me who blazed a path for me to follow, but I immediately realized how arrogant my original words sounded and I choked. Sigh...Opportunity lost.

Let me just say, for the record: I am not extraordinary, my kids are average, it's not that hard to homeschool once you get used to it (the process of which is really mostly just getting over a lot of perceived barriers). You don't need a teaching degree, you just need to love your kids. And have a desire to nurture them all day long, whatever that means for your family.

So please! Enough with the compliments and making me blush! Well, okay, I really like the compliments, but I just want people to know I'm not special or any better than you. I don't love my kids more than you love yours. Our homeschool looks different from day-to-day, and I expect it to change continually, waxing and waning with the phases our family goes through.

Recently another homeschool mom was being complimented on all the amazing "extracurricular" things she was doing with her kids and was asked how she could possibly do it all. She humbly and truthfully answered that her youngest happened to be at a good age and that she happened to have the energy at the time, and that she reserved the right--as matriarch of the family--to stop any and all activities that became excessive to their family. Her words rang familiar to me, especially after reflecting on Abigail's newborn phase at the beginning of 2012. I realized then that there are times and seasons for everything, and certain activities would have to wait.

Another comfort that has helped is an essay that I like to go back to from time to time: The Baby Is the Lesson. That's for the people who wonder, as I did, how in the world to do homeschool when family life doesn't just stand still while little Johnny attentively receives his Latin lesson.

-less

In conversation at breakfast, Trevor said the word tailless.  I know, not a big deal, but I'm his mom, so it was a big deal for me.  I was impressed (as I always am when I hear a new word come from his mouth), and asked him where he got that word from. 

I loved his reply, because I was also impressed at his ability to communicate his train of thought.  He said simply, "I heard someone say 'headless' and I just thought of all the things that could be -less."  I love my little thinker.