Thankful.

We are thankful this week, and I do hope it lasts. I hope we remain aware and focused on and vocal about how grateful our family is to have each other and also to have the opportunity to spend so many hours of the day at home with our kiddos. Wow, really?....kiddos?....I've always thought that was cheesy to call kids kiddos, but apparently, motherhood or possibly late twenty-hood has made me cheesy. Whatever, there are worse things I could be turning into. Like too serious, now that is something I hope to never be, though I have been accused of that many a time. But that's a whole other tangent.

So while we had a week of giving thanks and listing blessings we are happy to have, we also had a busy, busy quick little week that passed by so very, very terribly fast that we didn't get to each and every one of our fabulous celebrating Thanksgiving homeschool plans. We did many of them, oh yes we did write blessings on construction paper turkey feathers and read about the pilgrims and work harvest puzzles, but there were so many good intentions that we passed on by. And I am sad to say that it was the best of my well-thought out super mama plans that we did not get to. We were going to bake cookies for first responders and drop them off, while my little darlings wore their freshly pressed pumpkin shirts, but the week went by, and we left the baking goods in their canisters and jars on the shelf...untouched. We were going to write thank you notes to friends and family, telling them "thanks" for all of the abstract gifts we get from them, since we usually only write thank you notes for concrete materials gifts, but we did not. And the list of grand ideas goes on and on. And while I do feel pretty down about not thanking firefighters for what they do for our community throughout the year and for not helping my kindergarten daughter write a thank you note to her great-grandpa for helping her mama learn to love the piano so that now she can learn from me, well, I am going to try to turn my defeated frown upside down and teach my kids that sometimes we fail. Sometimes we make plans, and we change them. And sometimes, we are too busy doing things that don't matter as much as the things we are forgetting to do, and we can work to change that. And I am going to teach them that we can show our thanks any day of the year, not only on Thanksgiving, though that doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy that special set-aside day of feasting and thanking. But all other days can also be filled up with gratitude in some form or another. So we are going to bake and thank-you note this week. Yes we are. And we are going to pray some thanks. Because that is simple and good and peaceful, and that matters.

So when considering our week of plans both kept and skipped, I came up with the thought that what we need to strive for in our homeschooling house here is less separation between school time and non-school time. I mean, my kids are always learning, and I am always mothering, which includes teaching. I think when I try to have school time and then regular time, then things get a little off balance and a little more clutter enters our lives. Of course, we can and should have set apart time for school, BUT that doesn't mean my mothering mode is turned off during those hours, and it certainly doesn't mean my child's learning mode is turned off after her lesson plan is worked through for the day. Maybe a little more balance will help us make realistic plans and then follow through with them. Maybe if we aren't switching back and forth between our roles, but rather being ourselves a little more comfortably and completely at all times, then this great thing called homeschooling can become even greater for us. We'll just see. That is, of course, after I figure out a way to make that very abstract concept a concrete one. Hmm.

Five senses later, and I am not smarter than a kindergartener.

So we learned about the five main senses last week in our little home school. And I'm not just typing the word "we" to be cute or supportive of my daughter's learning. No, I am saying we learned about the five senses, because I learned at least half as much as my daughter did. After discussing the basics about how our bodies were created to work, focusing on our sight, hearing, sense of smell, sense of touch, and sense of taste, we then completed some fun little exercises and activities for each sense. This was a unit study, so we had the full week to incorporate and learn about senses, while also learning the basic subjects for her school level.

 

 



Of course, we enjoyed cups and cups of tea this week, because, well, that's just what we do around here when you have three little girls and a pretty china tea set, and because trying various teas turned out to be a great way to use all of our senses. 

Our schoolroom/playroom back wall. Decal from etsy. Shelf from my favorite consignment shop in my old hometown, and tea set was a Christmas gift to girls from an aunt and uncle.

 

 

 

 

It all went so well, my little girl was a good listener, and then, the questions began. My kid wanted to know things this week, lots of things.

What color is the cochlea? And what kind of fluid is in the cochlea? Why does a sea shell sound like the ocean when you hold it to your ear? Why does your eye make water? How do eyes work? How do glasses work? 

And the list goes on. Being a mother of little ones, I am pretty accustomed to oodles of questions coming from my kids' mouths, but these questions, well, they just made me feel a little less intelligent and a little ill-prepared, since I am teacher-mom now. But the questions and my lack of solid answers made me laugh, and they also made me grateful, so grateful that we had the time to stop and find answers to her questions when she wanted to learn. I had a general idea of the answers to a few of these questions, but the other few, well, I was lost on those. And general ideas are not at all sufficient when trying to explain things in a simple, clear manner. So I reached for a bag of books we had checked out from the children's section of our public library on how our bodies work, and wouldn't you know, there were answers to my daughter's questions, and they were written and illustrated for kids. Best books ever, at least best books ever on that day and in that moment. Wow, was I glad we ventured away from the fairy tale and classic storybook sections my oldest and I like to spend our time in to grab some books from the non-fiction children's section. Otherwise, we never would have learned that the "ocean" sound coming from a sea shell held over your ear, is actually the sound of ambient noise and even your own blood flowing. Well, that was a little heartbreaking to me, I gotta say. Not that I thought the sound was actually a magical piece of ocean music hidden away in the shell, BUT I at least thought it had some cool scientific explanation, you know, something sea shell specific. But I guess the sound of your own blood flowing is kind of a cool scientific explanation. Bubble bursting, but cool.

One other little bit of information we learned this week, was something about my sweet little kindergarten girl. Well, I guess we already knew it, but we learned a good way to use it. So, my oldest is a big fan of good smells. She doesn't cuddle with a blanket or stuffed animal when she is tired, she sniffs it. And she loves to talk about how good things smell and what different things smell like. So, on our focus on sense of smell day, I brought my favorite new candle into our classroom and you know what the kid did, she smiled the whole day, only taking a break from her work to take a big whiff of the warm smelling air. I love her. And yes, we are going to make a candle part of our routine. Who knew getting her in a better learning mood was as simple as getting her some glasses (there will be a future post on this...I have so much to share on her glasses) and lighting a candle! I would have done those two things WAY back had I figured them out. Oh, the drama we could have been spared. But, live and learn, and then apply.

Real Kindergarten

We have three daughters, the oldest is a kindergarten student this year, a real one. We're homeschooling her, and so far so great. I anticipated a little questioning coming into the picture every now and then, you know, like at the end of a particularly taxing and dramatic day I might just feel the need to sit in a chair with a pile of research on homeschooling and frantically read through the findings yet again, while asking myself something along the lines of :Is this really the right choice? Did she have a hard day because of me? Would she have had a better day in a classroom full of peers? But, that just hasn't happened. And we are a couple months in. I am pretty green at the whole organized teaching- my- own- kid deal at this point, and so there are many days when I feel like I need to do extra homework and preparation, and I may change my mind about supplemental activities and enrichment additions, and at times I'll get frustrated with my daughter and, more often, with myself, but I'm feeling right now that I am not going to change my mind about one thing: this is the best choice for our family right now. My husband and I are pretty darn certain that this is a great choice for our kids and for their future.

So here we are a-homeschooling. We've got one student this year, while the other two are in preschool. Of course, I am a big believer in the idea that your kids are always your students, even when they are toddling around or getting their preschool on, but you know what I mean, probably. We have one real life school kid. You know the type: sitting down in a school room to do some reading, riting, and rithmatic. She is our oldest, our careful child, our bookwork. I am so in love with the amazing differences in my children. It is so fun to see their individuality and to help them grow into their own unique interests. That said, it is a pretty helpful plan that our oldest tends to want to be taught, thrives with organization, and could sit with a notebook and pen, or especially, with a chapter book in her hands all day. And I mean it, the kid could sit with a book all the day long. So as I work my way through the lesson plans in the curriculum we use and add in some of my own plans, I have a pretty patient and helpful pupil. Now next year when our second born reaches kindergarten....well, suffice to say, we're all in for a fun ride! But for now, we are learning in a quiet, calm environment. It is so amazing to see my child learn, to be there to help her discover the world around her, and to make sure that each moment of our schooling is put to great use. And I especially am a fan of the idea that if there is something my kid wants to learn about, well, heck, let's just look it up and learn about it right then, when she is curious and ready to learn something.

And not only is it cool to see my kindergarten student's knowledge grow, but it has also been great for me as a mother, and for her as a small human, to see her begin to blossom socially. I want her to learn to speak to and in front of people of all ages in many different settings and situations. We are working towards strong and useful social skills, as we have entered the world of homeschooling, homeschooling groups, and various sorts of traditional learning. By the by, I like to refer to certain styles of homeschooling as traditional because people have been learning from home for years, really years, as in lots of them...I especially like to reference and consider the way people learned in, say, England, a couple hundred years ago. I mean, a tutor in the home teaching students multiple languages, nature in the natural world, arithmatic, art, music, and all sorts of important, useful, and fanciful subject matter was what you'd want to have for your children. And it's pretty neat (at least to a geeky Mama like me), to think that when schooling at home was the norm in a certain society, social skills were valued more than perhaps any other time, perhaps even to a fault. Well, that was a little tangent, but sometimes I do that. What I'm saying here is that socialization is not just something that can be attained in a big classroom, and in our little classroom environment, we are doing what we do to develop ladies who know how to act, but also who know how to speak for themselves and for others who can't.

Since most of the blogs I like tend to include photos, I'm going to try to include one more often than not. So, here's our pic. I mentioned above that my kindergarten daughter appreciates organization. She gets a kick out of matching boxes with a place for everything and everything in the proper place, especially when it can be turned the proper way and placed in a way that makes the room all the more pretty. So.....one of the first things we had to do when working on a place to learn when at home was to turn our playroom into a school room, while still keeping it a playroom. With the help of a talented and super-hard working home organizer/friend, we purged the heck out of some toys, seriously we gave away or sold 90% of our toys (major plus that we know the crazy amount of toys we had are hopefully now enjoyed by kids who truly love them), and then sorted and placed our remaining favorite toys on the shelf in our playroom. That means.....what for it.....all the toys are off the floor now. No toys are on the floor in our house, or at least they aren't when they are put away in their place when not in use. It's a wonderful thing.The kids play with toys so much more now that they actually know what they have and can see it, and all of the parts to a given toy can be found when they want them. They no longer play just by pulling toys out on the floor and then leaving them. Now they play with them, really play. And we have labels on the toy containers, which I know is pretty common, but let me just say I really appreciate the labels because.....wait for it.....my kids are reading them, or at least learning to. Pretty cool. So now we have a school room, which contains a closet full of toys ready to be taken down, one set at a time when serious learning time has ended for the day and toy time resumes. Our playroom/schoolroom closet makes us happy. Note: The random green paint on the wall was a daddy/daughter experiment. It has since been replaced by blackboard paint, with only a little green left for us to touch up with blue. But they had fun with the big ol' green stripe while it lasted.