Use Your TV for More Than Just Watching Doctor Who

As homeschoolers, we do everything we can to make sure our precious childrens' neurons reach that optimal level of development that will allow them to single-handedly cure cancer (or at least the common cold).  One of those things is usually relegating the TV to a dusty corner of the family room and only letting electricity flood through its creaky circuits in cases of emergency, such as flu infestations or, well, anything that involves a puke bucket, really.

The new smart TVs, however, do more than beam episodes of Caillou directly into your little darling's brain.  The smarter they get, the more we can use them to enhance our homeschooling, and some of the things they can do now are pretty darn cool.

Our Reading Routine

Our reading program has undergone quite a transformation since we first began teaching Syd to read back when she was three.  (Hey, she asked, I provided.  Don't judge.)  We have a system now that, I think, works pretty well, so I thought I'd share with you how we spend the first part of each day.

The spine of our program is Jolly Phonics.  From what I've seen, it's somewhat similar to AAR, but I think it's more fun for younger children.  We have the complete JP curriculum, and most days go something like this:

Encouraging Young Writers Who Can't Yet Write

Confusing?  Sorry. ;)  But if you have a preschooler who is constantly exploding with an endless stream of stories, you'll know what I mean.

Around here, we find that a good solution to the problem of having a child who wants to write stories, but can't yet write well enough to get them down on paper, is dictation.  Yes, it's going to take a good deal of your time, but the look on your child's face when he or she gets to see one of her stories written down is worth it.

A Week of Five in a Row: Day Four

Alas, today's FIAR has no pictures.  I briefly contemplated taking a picture of myself cutting a banana in half, but it seemed like it would be overkill.

A Week of Five in a Row: Day Three

Sorry for the delay in our continuing coverage of our week with Lentil and Five in a Row.  Lyme Disease strikes again.  I woke up the last couple of days feeling like I'd been hit by a truck, despite the bucketload of antibiotics in my system, and so while we finished up day three on time, I didn't get around to posting it until, well, now.

On day three we covered one of my favorite subjects- art!  I love art.  I could study art exclusively all year long and be happy as a clam.  Syd likes it too, but more the creating of it, less so the admiring of other people's pieces.  Luckily, she got to make plenty of her own for this project.

A Week of Five in a Row: Day Two

As I said yesterday, for this week we're doing Five in a Row's Lentil unit.  If you've ever read the book, you know that one thing you have to include in any unit about it is... lemons!

We started out by reading Lentil once again.  We don't always read every book each of the five days, but we usually do at least three or four.  Sydney really gets a kick out of Old Sneep's slurping noises in this one.  To cover the Literature component, we discussed setting, talking about how Lentil is set in Ohio, and if a book was written abou Syd, it would be set in Minnesota.

Then... on to the lemons!

A Week of Five in a Row: Day One

When you hang around homeschooling forums, one curriculum you tend to see a lot of questions about is Five in a Row.  A literature-based curriculum used primarily for Kindergarteners, FIAR is extremely popular among newer homeschoolers because it's flexible, easy to implement, and with four volumes to draw from, gives you a lot of options if you don't have the most well-stocked library around. 

To give a little more guidance to homeschoolers who haven't been reading up on the whole institution since their child was in utero (What can I say?  I'm a planner)  I thought I'd show you guys what a week of FIAR looks like at our house.  Yes, I know it's Wednesday, but we don't follow any kind of strict M-F schedule, and this week we happen to be starting on a Wednesday.  We're going back and starting at the beginning for Syd's K4 year, and our current selection is Lentil, by Robert McCloskey.

Our 2012-13 Curriculum

Well, I think I finally nailed down what we're going to use this year.  It's Syd's K4 year, her first official homeschooling, and we're going to have so much fun that I can't wait for September to finally roll around!  I've already posted our reading list for the year (subject to additions at any time) and now I'll share our actual curriculum choices.

Farewell, James.

After a bit more than a week of flying peaches, giant insects, and angry cloudmen, we have finished reading Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach, our first official school read-aloud.  Syd loved it, and part of the reason we finished so much more quickly than I'd planned is because she begged and whined until I'd read, on average, four or five chapters a day, at least.  If we keep up this pace, we'll be through the list I'd planned for the entire year within a few months. 

Workboxes!

My big investment for the coming K4 school year is- you guessed it- workboxes!

Our (Tentative) Plan for the Coming School Year

Now that Syd is four years old, it feels like the coming year, her K4 year, will be our first "official" year of homeschooling.  And believe me, when you've been planning to homeschool since your firstborn was in utero, that's a big, big deal.

We have pretty much everything we're going to use, though I'm still nailing down the logistics of the scheduling.  Just doing the work when Syd requests it is a bit too loose for me, but I don't want to be standing on the table cracking a whip while she frantically tries to wipe the tears from her handwriting assignment, if you know what I mean.

Here are our plans:

In case you haven't seen this yet, here's an entire free curriculum..

If you have a child in K-5 and money is tight, you might want to check out the free lesson plans over at the Baltimore Curriculum Project.  They have free lesson plans for a variety of subjects including Art, History, Geography, Literature, Music, and more, and everything follows the topics in the Core Knowledge Sequence.  I haven't looked through every month for every grade, but I have browsed through a few months of the Kindergarten lesson plans and it seems to be quite solid, with a lot of good ideas. 

I won't be using the entire curriculum because we're planning on using a more classical framework and want to cover geography and pre-history in K, not American history, but we might just end up following the Art and Music lesson plans.

To K or Not to K: An Intellectual Meander

Now that we've made The Decision (okay, okay, so we really decided when Syd was in utero) and I've started some formal curriculum stuff with her, I definitely feel like a homeschooler, deep down in here. *touches chest*  However, actually deciding, "Okay, this is our kindergarten year" somehow seems like a really big deal. 

When September rolls around, Syd will be right around four and a half.  We'll either be finishing up Saxon K or starting Right Start A, depending on how much math we end up doing this summer.  We just started doing Explode the Code 1, which Syd hasn't had any problem working through, and we're probably going to start Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding this fall, assuming we've mostly finished up Exploring Science.

So the question is... do I tell people she's a kindergartner?

I know I have a few years yet before I have to officially let the state know she exists, but people ask.  And pry.  And prod.  Probably so they can compare their own kids to the weird homeschooled kid.  Which is fine, I do the same thing, truth be told, though I try not to.  When your child starts out with developmental delays, mentally comparing your child's progress to everyone else's kid become second nature. 

She just seems so young.  And I'm still wobbling back and forth on structured vs. unsctructured K, strictly play vs. lots of learning.  Both sides have their vehement defenders, and research to back up either claim.  Every time I pull out the Saxon math (usually at her request) the little voice in the back of my mind asks, "Is she even retaining anything?  Are you burning her out on math forever?"  It's the same with ETC.

However, the days where we just play, play, play seem so fruitless and blah, like spending the day lying on the couch eating bonbons and watching reruns of Oprah.  It's like I can feel both of our brains dying by bedtime.  Taking a nature walk and looking at the same dead leaf for the eighteenth time is all well and good, but I want to learn something.

I'm trying to find a happy medium.  Truly, I am.  It doesn't help that I'm a curriculum junkie with OCD.  (No, really.)  I'm hoping that Syd will have some sort of magical developmental leap before the end of the summer and the right thing to do will become obvious.

If it doesn't happen... I don't know.  Maybe I need therapy or something.

Review: Kaplan Anatomy Coloring Book

As I noted in my last post, one of Sydney's goals for our summer quarter is to study human anatomy.  Not because I'm a sadist and want to force high school level work on my preschooler, but because she's obsessed with it.  I blame the hubby.

One of the resources I acquired to help her is Kaplan's Anatomy Coloring Book.




I thought it was going to be very basic, but wow, was I surprised when it turned out to be extremely detailed and very accurate.  I later learned that med students sometimes use it to help them learn anatomy, so believe me when I say it definitely shows everything in plenty of detail for the average preschooler.

And it isn't just pictures- it has blanks to fill in labeling the various body parts, systems, organs, and everything else that lurks within our bodies.  There are pictures of everything from cells and synapses to full-body diagrams, and the illustrations are extremely well done.

This would be a great resource for an older student studying anatomy and physiology.  When Sydney hits that age, we'll be getting another copy of this to use.

A Field Trip to the Nursery

One of our favorite places to visit in the spring is the nursery!  There are quite a few here in town, and in the spring with flowers blooming and the trees covered in blossoms, visiting one can be a magical experience.  And don't tiny potted flowers make a great souvenir?

They're also a great place to find butterflies.  During our visit today, the greenhouses were filled with different kinds of butterflies, flitting between the colorful blossoms to drink nectar.  Syd tried to chase a few, but they're faster than they look!

We didn't bring home any plants today- we were looking for a packet of wildflower seeds, and this particular nursery didn't have any in stock- but we did take a lot of pictures.

Sydney wanted to stop and smell every flower we passed.  Which, as you can imagine, was a lot.

The best part of this particular nursery is the large koi pond they have in one of the rooms.  Sydney was amazed at the giant goldfish.  She'd jump every time one would splash her.

That random guy walking behind the pond is the hubby.  He likes plants, so dragging him along wasn't too difficult.

We still need our seed packet, so tomorrow might see yet another nursery and more pictures.

Where We Homeschool: A Tour

Many families that live in the luxurious confines of a palatial manse wonder how those of us with homes under a thousand square feet can possibly homeschool our children.  And so, to demonstrate that it is possible, I've put together a short photo tour of the spaces within our home that we use to homeschool.

Of course, it helps that we only have one child.  If we were up into the double digits, we probably would have some space issues.

First up is the living room.  We divide up our time homeschooling (indoors, anyway) pretty evenly between the living room and the kitchen.  Syd likes to work at the coffee table, because it's just the right height for her to sit up to with her little stool.

You can see my matronly blue rocking chair and Syd's perpetually overflowing toy bin in the background, along with a small bookcase hidden away in the corner.  The photography on the wall was taken by the hubby.

Our main living room bookcases are right out in the open:

This is directly across from the couch/chair area, and it holds books.  Lots and lots of books.  As well as Syd's small math center, where we keep her manipulatives.

To the left of this is my printing area.

You can see my Brother laser printer neatly tucked away on the side table, as well as our tv in its natural state (off).  This is where I kick back in my cozy recliner and do all of my homeschool planning and printing after Syd has gone to bed for the evening.

Next up is the kitchen.  I do a lot of baking and cooking from scratch, so we end up in here quite a bit.  Syd does all of her messy projects at the table.

She still needs to use a booster seat because the table is quite tall and she is, well, not.  You can see the stickable whiteboard up on the wall with our daily checklist and a piece of Syd's artwork, as well as my very unorganized pantry shelves.

It's not technically part of our homeschooling space, but the above is where I spend a lot of my time in the kitchen.  Note the messy counters and dishes in the sink.  The oven and fridge are directly across from this space.

Finally, I constructed an art line in the other corner of the kitchen to hang any of Sydney's artwork that needs to dry and/or be shown off.

Also known as "the most important place in the world" due to the presence of the coffee pot.  You can see my cookbooks stored under the microwave, and the hook where I hang my ever-growing collection of reusable grocery bags.  Sydney has a little desk you can see part of in the lower right corner, but she prefers to sit at the table\ most of the time.

And that's it.  We do have two bedrooms and a bathroom as well, but since we don't exactly do much homeschooling in them, they aren't included on the tour.  Plus, they're messy.

A Basic Defense of Homeschooling

All of us who have made the choice to homeschool have been there at least once.  (Yes, even me with my not-yet-four-year-old daughter.)  You're talking to someone who seems perfectly nice when suddenly, out of the blue, they commence a shower of venemous accusations that you are a horrible, terrible person for wanting to homeschool your child, who will of course be ruined forever by the experience.

For a parent new to the homeschooling world, the first time this happens it can be a traumatic experience that could ultimately shake your faith in the decisions you've made.  But never fear!  For every illogical and shallow argument these people throw at you, there is a very reasonable response.

Here are a few of the most common attacks, and how to respond to them.

1. "But what about socialization?  Do you want your kid to be a social misfit?"

The snarky response:  "Don't worry.  My kid will have just as much of an opportunity to be bullied, impregnated, and do drugs as your kids, I'm sure.  Oh, wait, no she won't.  Yeah, she's really missing out, isn't she?"

The socialization argument is so ancient and enfeebled at this point it should be on life support, but people will throw it in your face every chance they get.  If you choose not to utilize the snarky approach, a simple reminder that your child will be out in the community interacting more than most public schooled kids and that sitting in a homogenous group of kids all the same age was never really a good way to learn social skills should suffice.  And really, how many of us that attended public school are rockstars when it comes to interpersonal communication?  Something about years of torment and bullying makes one want to retreat from others, not the other way around.

2. Do you really think you can do as good of a job teaching your kid as a trained teacher?

The snarky response:  "My god, you're right!  How will I ever be able to focus on my son's education without the constant presence of forty other kids at all times?  How could my son possibly learn anything from me if I haven't taken classes on optimal teacher's desk placement and how to make seasonal bulletin boards?"

Alternative snarky response: "No, I'm pretty sure I'll do much better."

In case you haven't caught on yet, getting a degree in education is kind of a joke.  The majority of the classes they take revolve around classroom management, not the information they'll (theoretically) be imparting to their eager young minds.  Also, it doesn't matter how much they know because there are so many regulations about what to teach and how to teach it that, in most public schools, effective teaching is all but dead, replaced with endless standardized tests and lists of sight words to memorize.

3. Don't only uber-religious nutbags homeschool?

The snarky response:  Don't say anything right away.  Just drop to your knees, lift your arms toward the sky, and scream, "Hallelujah!  Praise the LAWD, I've seen the light!  Amen, sister!"  Wait a long moment, then climb to your feet and say, "Never mind, false alarm.  I'm still Athiest/Buddhist/Pagan/Undecided/Other.  So I guess not."

This one really doesn't need much in the way of explanation.  Obviously, not all homeschoolers are nuts anxiously awaiting the end of the world while they set up plans for post-rapture pet care.


This is only a tiny appetizer of the broad buffet of criticism you're likely to hear over the years, but it'll get you started.  I'm sure I'm going to hear much more once Sydney is old enough for people to question why she's at the zoo before lunch on a Wednesday, and when that happy day comes, I'll share just how I put the morons in their place.

Someone Hit Me With a Tranquilizer Dart

It may sound conceited to say that I almost never get angry at my daughter.  That I can count the number of times I've been really and truly mad at her on one hand.  Believe it or not, but it's the honest-to-god truth.  She's an extremely sweet kid, and I'm more prone to anxiety than anger, so for the last three years and eleven months our home has been reletively peaceful.

Today, though...  Well, let's just say that I might have to start up a second hand for my counting.  Grr.

Last week we got a membership at the Y, and I loved it.  The gym was amazing, I could take all the classes I want for free, and the best part was that they have free childcare for up to two hours a day while parents work out.

Up until this week, Sydney loved going into the playroom while I worked out.  She'd cry when I came to pick her up because she was having so much fun and didn't want to leave after only a half an hour or so.

Fast forward to now.  For some reason, Sydney has done a complete one-eighty and absolutely refuses to go in there.  I'm not even sure how many times now I've gotten all ready to go, gotten Syd ready, and driven to the Y only to have her let loose a torrent of rage the second we begin walking to the playroom door.  Screaming and kicking and thrashing.  Yet somehow, the second I tell her we're leaving, she stops and says "Okay!" with a big smile.

Mergath, you're probably saying, just stick her in there anyway and she'll stop once you're out of sight!

Oh, how I wish I could.  But their policy is that if your child is crying for more than a minute or so, they come and get you to pick them up.  So if she decides she doesn't feel like going in there for half an hour, all she has to do is begin the screaming and I can't drop her off.  Whether she really doesn't feel like going or this is some sort of power struggle on her part, I don't know, but it's really, really making me mad.

I'm getting mad all over again just typing this.

So now it looks like I may as well cancel my membership, because with the hubby working a million hours a week, there's no one that can watch her while I go and work out.

I'm trying to calm down, to ground and center and breathe and go to my happy place, but it's just not happening.  All I can think about is how my me-time, the three or four times a week I get to run on the treadmill and watch House Hunters and destress, is done, and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it.

Aaaaaarrrrrgghh.

Preschool Bullying

Why should any four-year-old have to worry about bullying, you might be asking?

Well, they shouldn't.

And thus, I bring you reason #3,457 why we have chosen to homeschool: bullying has become an epidemic problem in public schools.  Even preschools.

Syd attends a biweekly playgroup at the local public school through Early Childhood Family Education, and during the Monday class, all of us moms (and the occasional dad) get together with one of the school's educators for a short parent class.  Yesterday's topic, as you may have sussed out by now, was bullying.

Some of the parents attending this class have children that are no older than two.  When you need to start preparing yourself to guide your child through the world of bullies and being bullied when they aren't even old enough to use the potty independently, there is a serious problem.

Of course, bullying in public schools is a serious problem.  I graduated from high school eleven years ago, and bullying then was horrific.  I have epilepsy, and in high school people used to pass by me in the hall and pretend they were having seizures while screaming taunts.  Hearing calls of "Slut!" or "Fatass!" (whether or not you were either) was so commonplace we eventually learned to tune them out, though I can only imagine the layers of psychological scar tissue atop my subconscious from all that.  I practically needed pepper spray to ride the bus, given that physical violence was a serious issue.

Bad as I had it, bullying has only gotten worse since then.  It has evolved into a fine art, bolstered by social media like twitter and Facebook, where one can gather the masses and devote entire groups to making a single person's life a living hell, and smartphones, with which you can torment someone twenty-four hours a day.

We now live in a world where children still young enough to enjoy a day at the playground are committing suicide to escape their public school tormenters.

So, um, thanks.  But no thanks.  I wouldn't willingly subject my child to the more run-of-the-mill bullying I went through, much less put her through the torture children have to endure today.

One thing I hear fairly often is that my daughter needs to learn to deal with people like this. 

Bullshit, I say.

As an adult in the workplace, if someone physically assaults you, they'll go to jail.  If they spend hours stalking you online, they'll lose their job (and possibly go to jail as well).  If someone snaps pictures of you in the bathroom and uploads them to Facebook, once again they're going to end up in the clink.  None of the things we see school kids reguarly doing to each other are acceptable anywhere else in society.

So until our country figures out some way to keep our children from bullying each other to death, we'll happily continue homeschooling.  My child might not be quite as socially adept as yours, but at least she won't bear the scars of her socialization decades later.

Image: David Castillo Dominici