Working with the Place Value Apartments

Fairy doors and Winter Wonderland...

Last week the little girls and I went to a fairy tea at a local bookstore/coffee shop. We drank tea, ate biscuits (when you have them with tea, you call them biscuits not cookies), read fairy stories, and saw a very funny magic show. It was very fun, but would have been more fun with friends. We will be sure to bring friends next time.

On the way back to our car, a shopkeeper told us about these little fairy doors all over downtown. Here is one we found.

And now, after much anticipation, we have snow! Lots of it! Of course, since we are homeschoolers, I can't make the boys walk uphill both ways to school in the snow like I had to, but they did walk uphill in the snow to go sledding on Sunday afternoon.

Advent and Hannukah (and some learning room pics)

I know that I promised long ago a post on our new educational methods. Basically we've moved from and eclectic classical lite to a Steiner inspired / Waldorf approach.

Now, before you start asking questions, let me tell you that I'm not qualified to answer them. Basically I'm not an anthoposophist by any means, but Steiner's educational methods seem to work well with our family dynamics. I don't have the time or energy to explain it all right now so I'm going to assume that you, my beloved handful of readers (ok so two that I know of) either are familiar with Waldorf methods or have googled Rudolf Steiner and Waldorf education.

But next year, well, I'm going with a pre made curriculum, still going to stay on with the Waldorf method for sure as we all seem to enjoy it and the children seem to be really thriving, but I'm tired of coming up with everything on my own.

So, with that in mind, I'm going to share what we've been doing this week. For years I've been a member of an email group (via yahoo) called Waldorf Home Educators. The list owner, the lovely Mrs. M, is a Waldorf teacher who loves Waldorf philosophy so much that she shares her wildly creative lesson plans and musings for free with those of us on the list. Can't thank her enough for that! She recently posted lesson plans for a four week block called "December 2010 Stories of Light" It's lovely, really it is. We started this week learning about Hanukkah. Now, as this block is geared for grades 2 to 3 I had to kind of ramp it up a bit for the Artist. So tomorrow he will be writing a detailed report about Hanukkah. We have other bits we do every day as well as all of this, you know your regular reading, 'riting, and 'rithmitic. As well as whatever interesting thing we happen upon.Here is a picture of the menorah that the Explorer made. Tonight at dinner we said a little poem and lit the first candle. I'm not sure if the center one is supposed to stay lit or not. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.



Here is a photo of our chalkboard. Ideally I'd like a real honest to goodness blackboard but as I can't find one in my price range (ahem, as close to free as possible), these adhesive blocks of chalkboard material will have to do. Below and above are the cursive handwriting alphabet I put up just this week. We (the boys and I) are all learning a new kind of cursive. I thought it might be good to learn together and sort of help each other along and it's been great. The Artist has been able to write and read cursive for quite some time now but prefers to write print. The Explorer has been begging to learn cursive since last school year and the Artist decided he'd give it another go if we all did it together. We've not learned all the alphabet yet (I had to consult the book for the wall chart) but we are enjoying learning together. I think the boys like that I have to practice, too. Also, you'll notice that the letters are in purple just like the chalkboard. The poem on the chalkboard was written by the Explorer and I wrote it up on the board in both cursive and print so that he can decide which "font" to use tomorrow when he copies it onto the "good paper" we will make his "Stories of Light" main lesson book from.

I know I promised some advent information and I will. I found this site and decided it might be nice to do a Jesse tree. I have fond memories of having a Jesse tree at church when I was little as well as fond memories of advent (both at church and at home) and so I decided this was the year I'd actually do it. (Ok, a few days late, but still I did it!) Now, Quakers don't tend to do a lot of these kind of rituals. Our services are quite simple, and I like it that way obviously otherwise I wouldn't call myself a Quaker. But this is home and I thought a bit of holiday focus was in order and it wouldn't hurt to brush up on our Bible literacy. I don't know that we will make all the ornaments as listed in the chart on the website, in fact I know for a fact a few of them I will skip, but still it's a nice tradition and we are "having fun playing with the pencils and filling out the forms on the bench." Plus there is a lovely lovely red twigged bush in our back garden / yard that made a lovely filling for a vase.You see a dove, a symbol for peace. We did those on Monday. Yesterday, Tuesday, I was feeling bad and so we did not very much and nothing on this project. Today we were really feeling creative and we did the apple (cardstock covered with bits of tissue paper) which symbolized the Garden of Eden story. Now, mind you, I'm no new earth creationist. But I find the whole apple and snake story riveting anyway. (And yes, it's totally possible to believe in both God and evolution. Really!) Then the rainbow symbolizes the promise God made to Noah after the Big Flood never to flood the earth again. (Noah and the Ark being hands down the Explorer's favorite Bible story, though he prefers the animal parts to the part about the rainbow.)

Now our advent wreath is only a wreath in the symbolic sense since there is no greenery involved and barely a hint of even a circular shape. As it happens most years round about the week after Thanksgiving, people like me who are-definitely-going-to-do-advent-this-year, find it hard to find the required pink and purple candles in the shops. So, I got a brilliant flash of insight (though to be honest, could be that I read this somewhere) to decoupage tissue paper onto clear glass votive candle holders and use them instead of a wreath. So that is what we did. The pack of tissue paper I bought at the dollar store did not come with purple so we layered red and blue. Also we are using tealights instead of votives. Now, granted, you don't get the cool uneven candles that you get with a real wreath with tapers, but it's less messy in the long run and we had fun with the glue. Also, turns out, if you give the tiny goddess some glue, a q-tip, and tissue paper, she will quietly occupy herself for hours. Seriously. This girl had some fun gluing today. She did the pink (of course) votive holder you see below as well as a giant apple of her own (not pictured).
Earlier this week we went to the dollar store (which is where I got the "silver" tray and the aforementioned tissue paper) and the Explorer found this grow your own crystal tree. Basically it's salt crystals that he grew. But it looked so festive in our window and was very fun to watch as we watched the snow come down for the first time since we arrived in Michigan. Here is a photo:


And since I know you are dying to see more, here is a blurry photo of the big alphabet display on the opposite wall of the purple chalkboard.

You may be wondering why there is no mention of Miss Mousie in this post. That would be because she has been sick all week. The tiny Goddess only today started feeling better. Miss Mousie on the other hand just kind of slept and cried and nursed. Basically lots of, "I want to hold you, Mama!" or "Please can I nurse, Mama? Please can I?" So pitiful. I finally gave her some ibuprofen this afternoon and she's been terrorizing her sister for the past hour so I reckon she is feeling better. I didn't give it earlier as she was just running such a low grade fever that I didn't want to interfere. I don't tend to medicate for fevers unless they are high or unless that person is prone to night terrors and sleepwalking when fevers hit, and in that case that kid never runs a fever on my watch!

Oh, would you look at this! We did do something educational on Tuesday!




And I'll leave you now to ponder how the mini fig got into the jello.

Happy Hanukkah, Nadolig Llawen, Feliz Navidad, and Buon Natale!

Wordless Wednesday

more letter friends

Here we have l, th, and qu.

l is the Explorer's letter. Easy.

th is tricky. See, what happened was this boy stole Terrible the sword (see him holding it) and Mr. h's hat. He's so proud of himself that he's teasing the knight and Mr. h and saying, "Thhhh!" (A battle did ensue between the knight and th interuppting our party planning.)

and the queen, qu. Obviously she has a long ponytail, but she also usually carries around an upside down umbrella. We aren't sure why.

d is a dog curled up asleep with his long tail sticking straight up

v is a vet

and n is a guy with a big nose who likes to look up

.

Word Family Town part 1b

For some reason, blogger isn't cooperating with me so I'm breaking this post up into more than one post. More letters to introduce:

m is a mountain man

r is a rat

f is the Tiny Goddess (her real name starts with F)

w is a walrus

p is a pretty princess with a ponytail

j is jumping (see it even jumps for the photo!)

b is a boy with a baseball

h is a man with a funny hat

and t is a knight with "terrible the sword"

Then we planned parties for the various homes. In order to attend a party at a house, the letter had to be able to make a word with the family. So we went through them all and I made a list. We will probably review it today and tomorrow and then make another village with some more houses next week, maybe even add a few new letter friends.

Word Family Town part 1

First of all, I got the idea from my wonderful friend who did a similar project with her children. Here and here are their villages. So we began ours this week. We kept it small, more of a village really. The picture is self explanatory. To populate our town, we had a select group of letters. Each one had its own character and personality.

c is a cat.

g is a girl with a curl

s is a ssssnake

How I use my iPod in our homeschool

Have I blogged about this yet?

I don't know and I only have a bit of time so I am just going to blog here (no time to search and see if I'm repeating myself).

My first thing I use in our homeschool is this app. It's called Notebooks.

When I think of something to do for a certain "subject" I put it in a notebook file under that subject. By now I have a collection of little snippets of ideas for many subjects.

When it comes time to plan for the week I write out a document on my laptop with a list of what I want to do for the week. I then email it to myself, copy the email, and paste it on a notebook page.

It comes out looking sort of like this:


01-04-10 to 01-08-09
Circle Time
Opening Song: 'Tis a Gift to be Simple
Opening verse:“January brings the snow, makes the feet and fingers glow”
Father Abraham
Memory Work:
the Explorer:
Outside the Door
(by Annette Wynne)
Outside the door the bare tree stands
And catches snowflakes in its hands,
And holds them well and holds them high,
Until a puffing wind comes by.
The Artist:
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
(by Robert Frost)
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
There are Seven Days in a Week
Days of the Month Song
100 Things You Should Know about Knights and Castles
The Story of Painting
Poetry for Winter poem of the day:
Composer: Sergei Prokofiev
Listen to week one classics for kids
Listen to Peter and the Wolf
Tell the story of Peter and the Wolf
A: Read Global Highlights Europe worksheet and answer questions
L: Peter and the Wolf Sequencing Story Strips (Put these in a book leaving room to illustrate.)
Draw cover for Peter and the Wolf book
Artist: Degas
UCBA pgs 26-27
Piece: Dancer on the Stage
Science:
Weather Changes Worksheet
Weather Lab #1 Thermometer Explorations
Weather Lab #2 Make a Rain Gauge
History:
Read UILEWH pgs 202-203
Read SOTW2 chapter 4
L: Narration drawing
A: Narration writing
Complete Map
A: Use one or more of the Codes of Justinian as copywork
Foreign Languages:
Spanish introductions (Maite style)
Nature Walk
Draw / Write for Nature Journals
Look up one plant / animal we see
Physical Education
Biking
Football (soccer)
Literature
Mary Poppins
The Artist:
Language Arts:
write a journal entry about Christmas vacation
write a personal letter
grammar worksheets
Maths:
Math Mystery on Monday
Practice problems
MM Fractions
Multiplication Mazes
the Explorer:
Sensory:
WH Questions using Aesop's Fables (he chooses the fable) OOSCHF 174
Slimy Shapes OOSCHF 28
Rubbing SSIT 10
Rowboat OOSCHF 69
Wheelbarrow Walk OOSCHF 72
Language Arts:
Practice letters during Slimy Shapes activity
Wh Questions
Word Family Town (-at and -an)
starfall.com
Peter and the Wolf sequencing
write a personal letter
draw a picture of what he did over Christmas break
FLL
Maths:
Addition practice
introduce subtraction
Math story about addition and subtraction
Make addition and subtraction math gnomes
the Tiny Goddess:
Make Weather Wheel
SSGMR 190 Circle and Square
SSGMR 74 My New House
Work on Ballet moves from her book
find some Ballet to watch on youtube
Miss Mousie:
SSGMR 74 My New House
SSGMR 84 Drop Small Objects in a Bottle


Obviously I use abbreviations for the books (which I can fill in later if there is interest). I don't expect to get all this done, and often have other things that wind up happening in the day. Anything that happens in the day including page numbers or names of poems, I write on the back of the page. Then I make a document on my laptop where I cut and paste what happened that day and add what else happened and email it to myself where I cut and paste into the Notebooks app. So basically I have a list of waht we did each day on my laptop and on my ipod. At the end of the year, I can, if I want to, print it all otu. I doubt I'll do that, though.

I list things for the little girls, but I don't usually do them all. I just have a few ideas for them in case they need an activity.

Now I'm being called for. I can elaborate if there are questions.

Wordless Wednesday (from almost a year ago)

Back in Wales: Wordy Wednesday

And the jet lag is minimal. Thank goodness for that. No wordless Wednesday with this post, though I may post a photo or two (or more) later.

Today's plans:

Laugh a lot
Watch a lot of The Office season four (American not British)
Play Star Wars
Fold Laundry
Unpack
yoga
Wash Clothes and hang them outside (only because it is so beautiful today!)
Go outside (hopefully search for nettles that haven't flowered yet. I really should take a photo of the nettles drying on my kitchen table for y'all. I think I am due to post about nettles soon. I do love them and have missed them. There is nettle tea infusing in my kitchen as we speak.)
Recieve all the daisies the Tiny Goddess will inevitably pick for me (technically buttercups now)
Photograph the rose that is busting out in our garden
smell the lavender in the garden
Clean out part of the Fridge
Knit
Play guitar and sing
clean up after ourselves

Oh, and I have a short math page for the Artist and will work with the Explorer on reading. If I can convince the Tiny Goddess, we will go for a walk but she wants to "Stay Here with Mama."

Yesterday when we arrived, we had to wake her up to get her out of the taxi. She ran around the yard and picked flowers and was so happy to be home. I asked her if she wanted to get on the plane again tomorrow and she laughed and said, "NO!" and started squeezing my arm and kissing it.

It's nice to be back.

Wordless Wednesday

Our Bookbags...

I know, so many posts in one day. The three readers I have must be quivering with excitement!

So, to borrow an idea I've used before with good results (and also Dawn does something similar), we have our bookbags.

I did this back when I was pregnant and either on the go all day or resting up from being on the go all day. For a while I did a different bag for each subject, but as I'm revamping my whole process of education around here now, the subjects won't be so clearly defined.

So basically what we have here is this: Each child (and all four of them!) has his or her own bookbag. On the days we go to home ed group, they will just simply empty the contents of their bookbag into a dish tub so they can take it on the train to carry lunchboxes and bring creations back. The boys have a backpack each. On nursery school day, again the Tiny Goddess will empty (or mama will) her bag into her dish tub and carry what's needed for nursery school in the bag. The Tiny Goddess has a backpack on the way from Amazon.co.uk but for now she just has a bag.

Here are the contents of each person's bag:

The Artist:
clipboard
small art kit
colored pencils
a big A4 sized envelope for work to be done (mostly math worksheets)
another envelope for completed work
an envelope with drawing paper
his independent reading book
his spelling journal
his math journal
his copywork journal
his school journal
copywork book
his calendar (a project we've sorely neglected)
and his roll up chalkboard (these are lovely. I will post pics of them at some point.)
British bird sticker book
Maps of Britain sticker book

Wow, that's a lot. Lots to explain there. To begin with, each of us has our own clipboard that we painted together with one of the other ex-pat families from Sweet Benny's work. They also home school. There is another family, too, who are really nice and their kids go to school. I plan on taking these clipboards back to America with me and painting the back of them with chalkboard paint.

Now, you are probably wondering what all these journals are for. Let me go down the list for you. The spelling journal is where I put his spelling words and he writes them for me 3 times. He was writing sentences but after the meeting this morning, I'll be writing the sentences as he dictates them. The math journal is where he puts new math stuff he learns. Now that I'm doing a more artistic approach, I plan on having him draw pictures and paste them into the math journal, too. The copywork journal is where he writes his copywork. The copywork book is full of ideas for copywork, but he tends to prefer to get them out of books he's reading. His school journal is where he does creative writing assignments. (He also has a personal journal that I'm only allowed to read out of as he gives permission.)

Here are the contents of the Explorer's bookbag:
clipboard loaded with drawing paper
art kit
A4 envelope for work to do
writing book
copywork book
Biscuit book
Roll up Chalkboard
Calendar
math workbooks
math manipulative kit

His writing book is where he is writing a story about a sticky, gooey, little monster. The Biscuit book is a selection of books about a little puppy named Biscuit. He's learning to read with this book. (Using ideas from a book called Teach a Child to Read with Children's Literature) The math workbook is called Math Mastery. We are sporadic about using it. Often I just give problems on a chalkboard or whiteboard and talk about them.

The Tiny Goddess' bookbag:
Clipboard loaded with drawing paper
hot pink A4 envelope with coloring sheets, extra paper, ect. in it
her current "In the Night Garden" magazine (she enjoys ripping them)
stickers
art kit

and let's not forget Miss Mousie:
a board book
a toy or two
and scrap paper for wadding up and chewing on

Oh, and I have a bookbag as well:
Clipboard loaded with notebook paper (and whatever needs my attention)
current and next weeks file folders (in an A4 envelope)
my art kit
my ipod (really I do use it for home ed!)
this record keeping system I use for the Explorer (which I'm thinking of dumping)
our home ed journal/planner
The Complete Phonemic Awareness Handbook
Starting Sensory Integration Therapy
current read alouds
my personal journal
my camera
current poetry book
this animal book we are using (title later)
an extra pad of notebook paper

I'm not a huge fan of the notebook paper here. It only has two holes and you can't get looseleaf. I'm seriously thinking of getting some in America.

Sorry not to have titles for you, later I will fill them in.

Also I will post more on art kits later.



Now

Revamping our home school

The boys and I had a nice chat about our home school today. Here are the notes from that chat (note that in parentheses I put the initial of the boy who came up with the idea. A= the Artist, E=the Explorer)

This was prompted by the Explorer coming up to me this morning and telling me he had a great idea for our home school. He suggested we have a time for drawing every day.

Now our list:
(E) Drawing time every day "Everybody grabs a book and draws a picture from it."
(E) More Max and Lewis stories
(A) a few different types of math problems every day instead of all one kind
(A) more copywork (this surprised me!)
(A and E) More crafts
(A and E) More science experiments
(E) The Explorer is not a big fan of Circle Time. The rest of us really enjoy it so we are brainstorming ways to make it more fun for him.
(E) The Explorer doesn't like the little homemade workbooks I used to make (haven't made one in a long time, but "Friends, he was making sure")
(A) The Artist likes spelling, but he would rather say his sentence than write it. (I pull words from his writing that he misspells and I make a list of it. He works with five of them a day writing them 3 times each and then writing, now saying, a sentence with the word. Every so often I give a quiz and any words he misses go back on the list of words to learn.)
(E) The Explorer does NOT like copywork. He is willing to try to copy one or two Star Wars related words instead.
(E) "Every day there could be a time where we go outside and do homeschool."
(A) More gardening (Frankly, I don't know how this will happen as I don't have the energy for this. I think I will provide him with pots, soil, seeds, and plants and let him have at it on his own. I do have plans for a wormery in my brain. Does that count?)
(A) "Pick out an animal and learn about it all week and at the end of the week do a report." (Something that has been in my brain for a few weeks and has been mentioned to him more than once.)
(A) The Artist wants to learn about the different types of caterpillars.
(E) "We make books with drawings in them."


I also have some ideas about organizing so that we can do work lying down, outside, or on the go if needed. Basically revamping some things I used to do. Don't worry, the file crate system plays a part in this.

Learning to count in a new language....

I am considering teaching the Explorer, who is still struggling to count to twenty (those teens are confusing) to count in Welsh. In Welsh the counting basically is 10 as 1 ten and zero, 11 as 1 ten and 1, twenty-one as two ten and one, ect.

What I wonder is if other people who have children struggling with learning differences (aka "learning disabilities" how I hate that term) have tried something like this.

I'll have to learn myself first, and I have neighbors who have volunteered to help me with pronunciation (my Welsh pronunciation is Terrible!).

Have any of y'all heard of something like this? Either changing the names of numbers or something like this?

We'll continue to work on the English counting but right now I feel like it's holding him back.

More later....