Tussie-mussies

Here's a great educational/service activity to do with kids this summer. Yesterday we read about Clara Barton and made tussie-mussies (metal nosegay holders) and thought of a neighbor we knew who was recently a patient (foot surgery) and gathered wild flowers to put in a tussie-mussies (we made ours from paper and covered them with foil and then "engraved" with pencils) and brought them to her and stayed for a nice visit. I wish I would have taken pictures of the kids with their tussie-mussies!

Clara Barton was the founder of the American Red Cross. The book we read was written mostly about her childhood and her sweet relationship with an older brother (another awesome part of the book!). Clara would treat animals in her community, and later soldiers in the Civil War, and she placed nosegays on the pillows of her patients, which she called tussie-mussies. These sorts of spontaneous learning/service experiences are the ones I pray for most!  The kids learned about love/service, the importance of sibling relationships, history/family history (best-selling author Patricia Polacco wrote this because Clara Barton was an ancestor of hers), the strength of love vs cruelty, treating animals kindly, value of nature, etc. I'm sure I'm missing something! This is FIAR worthy if you ask me!

Here's the book:

Clara and Davie

www.amazon.com

From bestselling author Patricia Polacco's family tree -- the true story of young Clara Barton.Animals and flowers were Clara's best friends. She had a special way with critters and found joy in the beauty that sprang from the soil. But whenever Clara...

Quiet Time

I just shared this with a dear, dear, dear friend and thought I should put it here too.  Many homeschool moms (including myself) have come to the necessity of a quiet time during the day when they can gather their mental faculties and recharge a little, work on lessons, book field trips, catch up on church responsibilities, etc.  Naptime works till little ones no longer need (or just desire) a midday snooze. 

In our case, we have one 2-hour napper, one midday groucher, and one becoming-more-mature-but-sometimes-grouchy-at-naptime boy.  So I laid down the law about a year or more ago and instituted Quiet Time.  It's during naptime and happens almost every day of the week.  It's about an hour long (longer and the boys start falling asleep or start straying from their spots too much). 

The boys both have their Quiet Time spots; Trevor in his bed, and Conrad on the couch.  They don't have to sleep (unless they're really grouchy), but they need to choose quiet independent activities, like reading or knitting that won't bug anyone else or require a lot of help.  I recently came upon a discovery that has revolutionized our Quiet Time.

Busy Bags!! 

I made a ton of busy bags for our Idaho trip this summer and the boys found them hidden away about a month ago and asked to use them.  It was right before Quiet Time, so I thought it would be a great quiet activity for them to use once and then I'd find a better hiding spot for the bags so I could save them for future trips. 

The bags work great!  They won't be hiding anytime soon. I'm really loving this concept and its versatility.  Lots of moms use these for restaurants while waiting for food or in the waiting room at the dentist's/doctor's office.  My favorite site that I found while scouring the many sites out there was this one: 

http://testyyettrying.blogspot.com/2011/12/car-ride-activities-set-1.html

It's a speech pathologist mom who has 7-8 posts on busy bags, each with several cheap, easy, quick ideas for busy bags.  And out boys love almost all of them.  Or you could do a google search for "busy bags".  Good luck with your quiet time!

September-October 2013

We've been moving a little slower this year than last year.  The boys have been content to be at home or our cozy library or with familiar friends rather than the aquarium or elsewhere.  Here are a few highlights from the last two months:

1. We were ending our vacation at the beginning of September, so school started late for us. I LOVE the flexibility of homeschool!  We can go places when it's not so crowded and get cheaper accomodations.  I'm still working on posting photos on our family blog, so check there.

2.  Visted a pizza farm with friends and took a wagon ride.

3. Orchard with Sean.  We are so blessed to have San home for a three-day weekend every week.  I am often able to schedule our field trips so it can be a full-family experience.  This year we showed Sean our favorite orchard and had a ton of fun even though it rained on and off.

4. Playdates with homeschool friends.  We have some pretty awesome friends!

5. Clean the church (I count this as a service learning experience, so it counts--service is high on our list for education). :)

6.  Boat tour/ride.  Some friends of ours treated us to a ride on an antique ferry.  It was sunk at the bottom of the lake years ago and was pulled out and refurbished and is now a floating museum.  It rained on us then, too, but it was still awesome.  We sat right by the engine and Sean got to explain mechanics to the boys. 

7.  Trevor started his art class.  We decided that with funds low, we'd take advantage of the generous offer for homeschoolers in Minnesota.  Homeschoolers Trevor's age are allowed to take two classes through the public schools as long as there is room and resources for them.  It's been a good experience, and Trevor has come to look forward to his art class and what he gets to learn. 

8. India Culture Day with our homeschool group.  I could have sat there and eaten the delicious dishes all day long.  These moms can cook!  Each family brought a dish or two to share at a picnic and planned an activity or something educational to share later at the library.  It was fabulous!  One family made a video while we were there and it turned out so cute!  We're doing this every month now and we can't wait for Dia de los Muertos tomorrow! 

9.  Nature center with homeschool group.  We played in the somewhat dry creekbed and the kids found a tiny snake that they passed around. 

10.  General Conference trip- this year we again went to New Ulm for their German festival.  We ate sauerkraut, danced polka to the live band, and watched the glockenspiel. 

11. The second annual vegetable stand for Trevor.  Conrad joined him this year and we did a better job advertising, so the boys both got enough money for fun homeschools activities and kits this year.  They were SO cute together!

Other experiences: going to the beach, playdates with church friends, doctor visit, dentist visit, lots of visits to the nature center.

Gameplan 2013

We just got back from a long trip to Idaho last week, so our school week starts tomorrow!  Even with a later start than most schools, I still feel like it snuck up on me.  I am SO glad I prepared everything before we left on vacation, so all I had to do today was review my plans and get pumped up!  That's right, I am so excited to start!  I have new goals, a more experienced outlook, and well, it's past midnight, so I'm feeling the rush of what I call "stolen me time" (you know, when you stay up so late getting that golden "me" time, which just ends up being time stolen from your kids/family because you're too tired to be of any use to them later...but it's not my fault! I tried the sleeping thing already!)

Back to the main point...

I have what I believe is a great plan for our family.  Here's our VERY basic plan for this year (below).  It also includes field trips/classes (of course). Also not listed is some very cool plans for a timeline, so we can add events as we learn about them across the subjects.  We'll be doing the same with our world map.  I was inspired at our most recent homeschool conference to draw up a "learning tree" that will show all of our interests and how they're connected, so hopefully we'll have pictures of that to share someday. 

And of course chores are still huge on my list.  We just started a new laundry system that is working really well.  Trevor has been doing his own laundry all summer long now.  Can you imagine how amazed I was when he (without reminders) took his own laundry basket to the basement and started his load, finished it, and folded and put his clothes away!  It really didn't take that much work to teach him, either.  Just a really good system and a very awesome boy.

I found a karate class for Trevor that we can afford, but guess what?  After all this time trying to find one for him and the joy of finally discovering it, he is not interested!  The ingratitude.  :)  He says he wants to try art classes instead.  So we're going to see what we can do.  Other than that and the spring play, I don't think we'll be trying to do anything longer term than 2-3 months' worth of commitment.

For scripture study, we're using this site: http://www.bookofmormonstudyguide.com/  
It was recommended by a dear friend for preparing a child for baptism.  Trevor will be 8 in 1 1/2 years! 

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Scriptures	BoM study Guide/ scripture picture	same	same	same	same	same	same
Reading	Conrad's reading lesson/Trevor free reading	Conrad/Trevor FIAR	Conrad's reading lesson/Trevor free reading	Conrad/Trevor FIAR	Conrad's reading lesson/Trevor free reading OR FIAR
Music	Music time w/ instruments, learn one composer per month from books	Music time w/ instruments, Trevor guitar	Music time w/ instruments, learn one composer per month from books	Music time w/ instruments, Trevor guitar	Music time w/ instruments
Art/Science	Art: various projects	Science: Lesson from books	Art: various projects	Science: project	Interest Lessons (below)
History/ Phonics/ Handwriting	History: Read one section from Story of The World, write one sentence in journal/ draw pic	Phonics/ Handwriting: T-Explode the Code/ Handwriting w/o Tears C-Alphabet/ word games	History: Read one section from Story of The World, write one sentence in journal/ draw pic	Phonics/ Handwriting: T-Explode the Code/ Handwriting w/o Tears C-Alphabet/ word games	T's Interests: Astronomy Currents Guitar Human Body
Math		Math: Miquon worksheet and/or game		Math: Miquon worksheet and/or game	C's Interests: Hands-on

And my personal theme for this year is (drumroll please)....

INSPIRE!

It refers to the type of motivation I'm going for.  I want my kids to be motivated to learn and explore on their own with my guidance, not by force or requirement.  Oh, there are things I will require of them, but I want to rein in that awful tendency to push them to complete tasks just so we can check something off a list.  I want them to see Sean and I doing good things and be inspired or just interested in doing them too. 

My Way

During the past year, I've been truly inspired by some amazing women, mostly from our homeschool group.  I want to preface that way because I'm going to confess that I need to part ways with some of their, um, ways.  See, they're just SO amazing--completely on a different level from myself--that though I would love to do what they do and allow my ideals and fanciful visions float me away into educational and family bliss, I'm just not there yet. 

There's a lot of talk about unschooling (or similar philosophies) and throwing caution to the wind and just going where your interests/your children's interests take you.  I think it actually takes a very responsible individual to be able to do that.  A person who is successful at that type of philosophy, in my opinion, is a person who has already learned good habits and doesn't need to focus on lower-level learning, like I do.  I'm more the type of mom who can't decide whether I want to wake up before my kids or not, so letting my kids follow interests based on my example sometimes is probably not a good idea.  My interests inevitably lead to a comfy couch and a book--not really the well-rounded approach.

 I realized that many of these moms who have a looser bent toward homeschooling have admitted to being quite the opposite in the beginning.  It makes me wonder if it's something necessary almost, like a step in progression.  As for myself, I have decided that I absolutely must do things my way this Fall.  It might look more scheduled and more like "school at home" than I prefer, but I need to build my foundation stronger before I will feel confident in a less stringent, more creative, more free atmosphere.  It's definitely what's best for my kids right now.  Trevor is especially a structure-loving boy, and I can almost feel the sigh of comfort coming from his soul when he feels the familiarity of "what comes next".  I think Abigail will be the same way...now what to do with our monkey in the middle...For now he's just content as long as he gets Mommy Conrad Time.  Today we made an art project together with shapes, glue, and stickers, and I couldn't be happier to see him having fun with it.

I'm drawing up some plans right now that include some goals for our 2013/2014 school year.  I'll include them when I'm finished, maybe in a few weeks.  It's going to be MY way; what's best for our family and everyone in it.

Cold Feet

Yikes! I think I'm getting cold feet.  One more month till Trevor starts "1st grade".  We never really stop homeschooling, so not much has changed this summer (besides the weather), but all my inadequacies and concerns are flooding back just as they did last year when my cold feet got so bad that I enrolled him in a charter school.  This decision is so hard! 

As I look at the reasons I'm so anxious about this fall, it's all about me!  My own fears over my personal weaknesses. 

Part of me is in "nesting" mode; getting ready for the school year by stocking supplies, researching curricula, organizing and reformatting our learning areas and storage.  The other part of me is screaming, "What are you thinking!" 

Have a little confidence, girl!  It's ridiculous that I should be so down on myself when my focus should be on my children and what's best for them.  When I get down on myself, it uninspires me (I think I made that word up...pretty sure you can't use that as a verb).  Really, though, what happens is the opposite of inspiration.  I become demotivated to keep going because I doubt my abilities and give up again and again.  I've got to stop that!  I've learned so much over the last year and I'm bound to continue learning, reshaping habits, reevaluating and overhauling. 

I often turn to homeschool blogs when I need a little encouragement.  One blog I read recently said that when you feel like I do right now, it's important to remember to take it one day at a time, and focus on just loving your child for that day.  Everything else falls into place when you're putting love of your child first.  I just need to be strong and do what I know is right, follow the promptings that come despite any self-doubt I may have. 

Not-End-of-Year Party

While schools were having their End-of-Year parties, our awesome homeschool group had a "Not-End-of-Year" Party.  Because homeschool goes on and on, and in a lot of families, there isn't a huge difference between summer and the rest of the year.