Otter: Our wiggly 5th grader
Bear: Our big bear of an 11th grader
Emily: Our froo-froo homeschool graduate

June 4, 2009

I'm working on an American artist study to go along with the American history 2 program that's being developed. There will be a total of 36 artists studied and a variety of activities scheduled as well as notebooking activities. The study is being designed to track with my American history schedule, but can also be used independently with any other program or just a general exploration of artists and art.

Today I created a simple notebooking page that I'm sharing here on my blog. When the program is completed, you'll be able to access it from the printables section of the website as well as the section I'll develop for American history 2.

Here is a picture of a page I had Emily complete (HA! She just thought she was done with homeschooling!) so I could show you all how it works. Please excuse the wonky angle. That's what happens when you stand on your son's school desk chair to try to fit the entire paper into the frame!

I made the page in Microsoft Word so you can edit everything easily. You type in the artist's name in the banner and the date of his/her birth and death below. Then in the two boxes you place examples of the artist's work. There is a text box area below each painting so you can type in the name of each painting (or type in comments/info, etc.). Just copy pictures (that are O.K.'d for personal and educational use) from the Internet and paste them directly into the document! I centered each painting in the text boxes. I also grabbed the "handles" of each painting and sized them to fit the boxes lengthwise. Below the "art boxes" there is a lined area for writing or you can delete the lines and your student can type in his work. There is also a small section that says, "Words I think of when I view this artist's work" and in the lower right corner there is an area for your student's drawing.

Artist notebooking page (Microsoft Word 2007)

Artist notebooking page (Microsoft Word 2003 and previous versions)

Blank artist notebooking page (pdf format and non-editable)

June 3, 2009

Here are a few freebies for you:

Printable placemats: measurement (would be great for a math "office"), money, multiplication, parts of speech, place setting and USA capitols

Online dress up dolls : (preview for appropriateness) Regency hero, Regency lady, 18th century lady

Table of elements posters - I'm planning on using the one with pictures for a future science program :-)

June 3, 2009

This week's "extras" science theme is whales. I downloaded a free lapbook from Homeschool Share. I love that site. Here are some pictures of what Otter made so far:

The file folder and lapbook cover graphic

Here is a little booklet that helped him learn some whale behavior related terms. We also watched online videos that showed the different types of behavior.

A whale classification petal book

A 5 page tabbed whale vocabulary booklet

In our Sea & Sky program he's learning about a variety of other things this week like the ocean floor (continental shelf/slope, trenches, abyssal plains, etc.), some facts about early sailors in the book Sailors, Whalers, Fantastic Sea Voyages and a bit about the early sailing history of the Egyptians.

We watched a short video online about the formation of the volcanic island Surtsey and a couple others featuring the sailor's hornpipe dance(s).

Besides all of our regular studies, Otter is also participating in a math pilot for a Houghton Mifflin California math textbook. Normally I wouldn't be interested in trying out a program like this. It's totally scripted for the classroom and well...it's so....public school like. The last time I used a public school math textbook was when Emily was in 1st grade using Calvert. However, it's free for me to use in exchange for participating in the pilot program. I figure it can't hurt to try it out. It helps feed my curricula junkie habit and I'm weird anyway about math programs. For having grown up hating math, I love looking over different math programs and sampling them with my kids. I've also found that my kids have benefited from a variety of approaches.

I must admit I'm actually a bit surprised at how easy it is to use. I have access to an online teacher's guide that's really easy to use. The manual is scripted more or less and there are LOTS of worksheets and alternative practice pages and so on in PDF format you can access with a click of your mouse. You can view a page with the answers and you can also hide the answers.

The textbook includes games and makes use of math manipulatives. It also recommends various "math readers" - books with stories that connect to the concepts being taught. There are also different levels of printables available: extra support, on level, and challenge.

So far, I like it. I'll write more after we've used it for a longer period of time. You can take a look at a free preview here.

June 2, 2009

Otter is still sick so there isn't much to show in the way of schoolwork. However, I did take a picture of Bear's captain's log page for Winter Promise's Sea & Sky program. He's catching up on his work from last week since he's feeling better.

You may be reading this and wondering why we are doing school over the summer. I've just found over the years that this works out better for us. I've discovered some negatives (for my family) of having a prolonged summer vacation:

1. The kids get lazy and their behavior gets worse.

I think it's good for kids to have plenty of free time to play, dream, explore the outdoors, and just...be kids. However, I've found that when my kids get lots of unstructured free time they are more resistant to doing much of anything when break is over. When we've just done school as a matter of course, taking smaller chunks of time for family vacations, sick days or just special times, they don't get in the mode of choosing whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it. Long vacations foster the mind set that school is just a chore that impinges on play and goofing off. They get the attitude that they are "owed" summer vacation and get lazy about "work". It seems to set up an entitlement mentality and doesn't help to foster a good work ethic. They also have more time to bicker and just get on each other's nerves. My kids do better with a schedule.

2. We have to waste time on review.

My two big kids were never too bad about this but Otter is a "forgetter". He does much better with a consistent schedule where he knows what to expect and doesn't go through enough time to lose skills. Last year we took nearly about 6-7 weeks off and spent about that much time or more trying to get back into math.

3. It makes the rest of the year seem more rushed.

If you MUST get through a book by May 31st or some other deadline, you are always pushing towards that date. I like to more naturally flow through materials making allowances for ability. If Otter hits a wall with division, I know it's O. K. to back off a bit and do some other math activities to help bolster up his foundation more and wait for his brain development/maturity to catch up to the topic. We are never behind or ahead. We are just...wherever we need to be. I do, however, prepare my older kids to know how to work with due dates- an important skill for college and just life in general!

4. It makes it harder to take off time during the rest of the year and makes it easier to burn out during the concentrated time of the "school year".

We like to take our vacations when there aren't as many people crowding up campsites and other locations. We also like to take off time as needed or desired. If we were taking the summer off, it'd be a lot harder to justify taking the extra time all throughout the year. Being year round schoolers makes us more flexible. It also makes it so that we can take small breaks here and there to avoid burn out during the rest of the year.

Doing school over the summer is really much more in keeping with what real life is all about. What adult gets 3 months off to just goof around? That's just not real life (for most of us). What is all that free time teaching our kids about work? What is it saying about learning itself? For my family, learning has always been something that is just a part of life. You eat, you sleep, you learn. Why set it aside? We LIKE learning! Yes, it's sometimes hard work, but there's nothing wrong with that. In the end, you have an accomplishment that no one can take away from you.

It's also nice to be able to get ahead in some subjects or take the time to really savor others. Maybe we want to take some "rabbit trails" and delve further into something. Bear has used the summer to keep flying ahead in math (and science). He started calculus at the end of 8th grade. Because of his getting to spend more time with math and science, he was able to reach more advanced levels sooner than he would have otherwise. This has prompted him to think about specific career fields he may never have considered had he not had the chance to really dig into his schoolwork.

Now lest you think I am a slave driver mom, I do think it's important that kids have time to discover their world where things are not structured and they have the time to dream and dabble. However, I just don't think they need consecutive months (or even a great deal of weeks) for that. We make sure our kids have a very balanced life of school, work, play and just plain ol' downtime in the course of their regular lives. That's one of the reasons why I'm glad we don't have cable. Instead of wasting hours on T. V. they are writing, reading, playing, building models or kicking around a ball in the backyard with the dog. I think it's an important skill for children to learn that balance. There is the key word: balance. I don't think a summer where learning is set aside is balanced.

I'm glad that we as a family have chosen to continue homeschooling during the summers. I like, when we have taken longer breaks, hearing the words, "Mom, I miss doing school. Can you get me some work to do?"

May 28, 2009

For the first ten years (or so...) of my adult life, I could not cook. I'll spare you the gory details, but let's just say I just did. not. get. it. I could just about ruin a salad. My husband came up with a wonderfully descriptive name for one meal I put quite a bit of effort into: "glop".
Thankfully, I finally figured things out for the most part. I mean, there is always something more to learn (as I'm sure my husband would agree ), but hey, I don't burn toast and set the oven on fire anymore. *cough* Um, mumble...yes, I did.
I think because of my experience, I've always thought it important to have my kids be able to throw together some meals with some level of decency. In fact, Bear has become quite the chef. He started out on easy things like grilled cheese sandwiches when he was about 2 feet shorter and now I'm confident he would do a pretty good job with just about anything. He LIKES fussing around in the kitchen. All of my kids do, to some extent.
I think it's important for kids to get some real life experience in running a home BEFORE they try to establish their own. They should be doing laundry and cleaning up and making dinner.
This not only saves a busy, homeschooling mom time, but it also helps kids to learn some really important skills.
With that thought in mind I would like to share some recipes I'll call:

"Things that are easy enough for my kids to make".

Before I go on, let me get the disclaimers out of the way. These things are easy enough for MY kids to make. Use your own discretion about your kids and of course observe kitchen safety rules and all that. I'm not recommending you turn your kids loose in your kitchen with this recipe. ;-) I'm just saying I did that with mine.

The first recipe is FRITO PIE. I love Frito Pie. I used to eat it as a kid and was delighted to rediscover it as an adult. It's easy. It's quick. It's simple enough for my kids to make. What more needs to be said?
And no, Frito Pie is not...um...health food. We're not a granola cruncher family (no offense to those who are). Hubby is a meat and potatoes kind of guy and while I like my family to eat healthy, we do allow ourselves to indulge in stuff like this every once and awhile. Don't call the cholesterol police on me or anything. Look! There are tomatoes in the picture and sour cream is in the dairy group....

Here are the ingredients:

1 bag of Fritos
2 cans of your favorite chili (or the equivalent amount of homemade chili)
A bunch of grated cheddar cheese (don't you like my precise amount?)
1 or 2 cut up tomatoes or a container of cherry tomatoes cut into halves
Sour cream

First you put a layer of Fritos on the bottom of an oven proof dish. Then you put a layer of chili on top and then a layer of cheese. Repeat the layers. Put the dish into the oven and bake at 350 degrees or until everything is hot and the cheese is bubbly (10-20 minutes). Once you've dished out your plate, "sprinkle" a bit of tomato over the top and add a dollop of sour cream.

Emily made the batch below. If I had made it I think I would have spread the chili a bit more evenly and grated even more cheese, but that's me. ;-)

You can also add all sorts of optional items when you are layering the dish: ground beef, corn, olives, etc. Some people also like to use some melted Velveeta or nacho sauce in addition to the grated cheese.

Here's a close up of all the cheesy-Frito goodness:

MMmmmmmMMmmMm!

Another thing I should also mention is that Frito Pie makes a great camping food. You can make up individual servings by using lunch size Frito bags, cutting them open down the side and pouring the chili right on top to eat it straight from the bag.

So, that' the first in a possible series of recipes I'd like to share. I hope you enjoyed it!

May 27, 2009

I don't have any new posts of Otter's schoolwork because the kids are sick. We are taking most of this week off with me just doing a little bit of reading out loud. I've been informed recently though that I have at least ONE regular reader of this blog now and so here I am to post something for Ashley lest she stops coming by for a visit (and the rest of ya too)! .

I recently read an interesting article in Scientific American about how using gestures can help you learn. There is a specific paragraph on the first page that talks about how students who were coached to make a gesture while solving a math problem actually learned how to solve it better.

Well, I was up for a scientific (sorta) challenge. I decided to use Otter as my guinea pig and see if this might possibly be true. O. K. so I didn't do a very scientific experiment, but I did try the whole concept on the fly and guess what...it really did work.

Otter was having a very difficult time remembering what the prime meridian is. So what I did was create some gestures to go with the definition:

The prime meridian divides (hand chopping motion) the earth (hands into a ball shape) into 2 (hold up two fingers) halves called hemispheres. We then recited which hemispheres it divides the earth into.

I asked him this week what the definition was and he could recall it perfectly.

Try it and see if it works for you!

In other nerdy news, I somehow stumbled onto this cool site:

http://www.tiffanyard.com/index.htm

I LOVE the nerdy baby items! Check out this set of ABC's! Gosh, it makes me want to have a baby just so I can go and buy the prime number counting chart! O. K., I'm exaggerating...but still! What a great idea. I love the whimsical art and the nerd aspect. Because HEY, it's cool to be a nerd. Oh, wait, nerds don't care about being cool. Well anyway, don't the cute little books and posters fit the homeschooling mind set nicely?

May 27, 2009

Ooohh my bad....link for previous blog entries wasn't working. I've got it fixed now! I guess it would help in the future if I upload the pages I'm working on or move!

May 21, 2009

Just because....

I like playing with my new camera!

May 21, 2009

This is our 2nd week into WinterPromise's program: Adventures in Sea & Sky. I think Otter's favorite read-aloud right now is Treasure Island. I'm not sure how much of it he really understands because of all the dialect and maritime vocabulary, but every time I finish reading for the day he begs for more. I love that!
I also love how he's really being engaged by all of the activities - not only the ones WP scheduled but all of the extras I've gathered up too. Sea & Sky is a terrific theme to expand on. There are all sorts of science extras you can add, along with plenty of crafts and movies.

This week Otter continued work on his mollusks lapbook (you can see more pics in some previous posts). Next week he'll be starting one on whales. I can't speak highly enough about lapbooks. They add a hands-on component that really helps learning STICK. They are fun to "review" too. Here are a few pictures of some of the new items he added:

Slug diet booklet

Lift the flaps to see what slugs eat!

Learning about slugs vs. snails:

Shutterfold with a map inside and questions to answer on each flap

Multiplying by 8's - Lift the flaps to see the answers:

Accordion fold for octopus facts

Anyone else's kid mix printing with cursive?

We also worked from the book 1-2-3 Draw Ocean Life. This week's drawing was a sea cucumber. As before, I drew mine on the computer, while Otter followed along on paper. He is really enjoying this book. Each step is pretty simple to follow. We're also looking up the items we're drawing online for photos, videos, and more information.

Mom's sea cucumber

Otter's sea cucumber

In other news, I am continuing to work on American history 2! Wanna see a screen shot?

I couldn't fit the whole thing into the screen shot, but you can get an idea. Some of the elements that are being incorporated in are optional parts like a chronological study of presidents, american artists and american music. I'm also adding in weekly elements like lapbooks, videos, art projects, free printables, notebooking, recipes, websites, hands-on activities and more. I'm even including some optional science like a unit on prairies, another on Thomas Edison and other topics. I really want this to be a very rich program with lots of options to engage all types of learners.
There will be a daily lesson plan schedule (like what you see above) as well as a less structured topics lesson plan. I'm making sure to schedule in all sorts of great books: fiction, non-fiction, activity books and even a few graphic novels and comics for visual learners or reluctant readers.
I'm also adding in materials for older learners. You should be able to combine students from elementary age all the way through high school.
My target date for finishing everything is still late August or September.

May 20, 2009

Otter doesn't like to write. It's a challenge for me to find writing assignments that will actually engage him! Recently he's been really interested in comics, especially Garfield (which totally takes me back to 6th grade!). So... one of the recent things I've come up with to get him writing is creating comics! He thinks it's just a lot of fun. I know he's practicing important skills.

Here are a couple online activities I found to help his comic writing process along and add a bit of interactive pizzazz!

Make Your Own Captain Underpant's Comic
If you don't mind the potty humor, your boys will probably especially love this one. Your budding comic writer is provided with sayings to choose from as well as a variety of characters to populate the pages. After making a couple of comics online, maybe your kiddo will be inspired to draw out some of his/her own. You can only view your comic online.

MakeBeliefsComix.com
This is a terrific site where you can create custom comics panels with a variety of character choices, thought and talk bubbles, colors and the ability to write your own text! There is also a page of some great printables that are sure to help spark some creativity. You can email or print out your creations.

Read, Write Think Comic Creator
You can choose your background, props and different characters. After you finish your masterpiece you can print it out to share!

Garfield's Comic Creator
Build your own Garfield comic strip with characters, props, background and typeable text. You can view your comic online or print it out. You can imagine how THRILLED Otter was when I showed him this one.

Professor Garfield Comic Lab
Not only is there a comic creator with lots of Garfield goodies, there are also some how-to videos and some lesson pdf's to give you writing ideas.

Charlotte's Web Comic
You decide what happens to Wilbur and his friends with customizable panels, objects, talk bubbles and settings. The comic creator uses real photos for a nice looking comic. You can print out your comic when you're done.

There are also some sites online that have more professional layout tools, but they require registration and feature user created comics which could contain adult content. If you think one of those sites may be appropriate, you can check out sites like Pixton and Comiqs.

Previous blog posts

Homeschooling for me:
Illustrator CS3
Dreamweaver CSS
Fireworks CS3

Courses I've finished:
Dreamweaver CS3
Flash Fundamentals
Painter X

Current Projects:
American History 2
Learning to use my Nikon
This site!

Blogs I love:
One Child Homeschool Policy
Cake Wrecks
Pioneer Woman

Sites with freebies I visit:
Homeschool Share
Lapbook Lessons
Homeschool Launch

Curricula Otter is using:

WinterPromise
Sea & Sky
First Language Lessons
Sequential Spelling
Shurley English
Teaching Textbooks 5
Houghton Mifflin Math 4
Writing with Ease
Artistic Pursuits
and a bunch of other stuff!

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