Curriculums Are "just" Tools

Math is one of the Subjects that took us a while to find a match. It had to be something hands on, with not too long lessons, easy to grasp that included practice. After Houghton Mifflin and Right Start Math we happily settled with Saxon Math which we really REALLY like A LOT. Last week due to some miscommunications I still haven't received my long awaited Saxon Math 3 Worksheets instead I was willing to try the Saxon Intermediate, which was the only one available. I decided to give it a try and already got a grumble from L'Drago the same morning. I assured him that it was very similar to Saxon and (probably even more so) tried to convince myself that this is going to work, we just needed to show patience... 

Here I am today, three mornings later still getting angry just looking at the Math Curriculum and decided to kick it to the curb. It took me over a year to find the right Curriculum that works for L'Drago and yes I welcome change in our homeschool journey but I do not like change when the later worked perfectly fine and math was as easy as 1, 2 & 3. Just looking at the regular Saxon Math makes me happy (weird I agree) but I cannot wait to get back to happy L'Drago, happy Me and our regular happy Math Lessons. I love change but so I do a routine that works smoothly!!

Myriam

How to get "Outside my Box" !!

image from www.web2teachingtools.com

I am admitting that I can't seem to "be" creative !! I'd love to be more of an exciting teacher but I am somehow still stuck in this annoying "pencil in hand an sitting on the chair" method of doing school and right now it's very frustrating!! and so I'm once again brainstorming of how to make teaching more exciting and less school'ish and still be satisfied with myself at the end of the day that, yes we've learned and accomplished something!! Writing this comes over as very stupid to myself because I love Arts/ Crafts, being creative etc. and I do tons of stuff for myself but when it comes to educational creativity for my boys my brain somehow freezes.. I'm thinking maybe I should go cold turkey and ban all books for a week except maybe handwriting and learn to have fun with my boys, educational fun, well understood.. I feel as if something has to unlock in my brain for me to be able to loosen up and I'm still waiting for that event to take place. I can't possibly be the only one having had that issue.. anyone? 

Just a thought on a friday night.. 

Myriam

The Past 3 Months

It's been such a long time since I last sat down and worked on my blog. I've thought so many times that: I should write about this and that but.. never actually got to type it up. What we've been doing? Night Fury (4) is very eager to learn on a daily basis. He picks things up very quickly and gets bored easily so he's challenging but that's ok, I'll get there, I am trying to have lessons prepared that keep him challenged and hands on, so he gets to enjoy our learing time together... He is doing excellent with reading (we're on lesson 86 in how to teaching your child how to read in 100 easy lessons) and he simultaneously reads #1 library books. His handwriting is also going great, we will be finishing the Zaner Bloser Working book this week. Oh and yes handwriting is one of his favorite subjects !!

Some Thoughts about Homeschooling

ISTUDYING

Yesterday I read this blogpost from Renee over at Fimby.tougas.net and it struck me. One reason why I'm having a hard time figuring out which way I'd like to go with the boy's homeschool is because I never thought about what I want them to gain from it. Yes I want them to learn "stuff" favorably "LOTS of stuff, no EVERYTHING !! Also being Muslims we strive to do everyday things in life the islamic way, but which direction would I like to pull all of us through the process? After reflecting for quiet some time I came up with

• right now at this point I want them to love studying/ learning
• to learn how to study/ research etc. on their own and loving it !
• of course I want them to use their knowledge in life to become open minded, positive God fearing people that use their knowledge in a way that pleases Allah/ God (which is not really "simply" a 3rd point since pleasing Allah/ God is our ultimate goal in life.)
• I could probably add that I want them to be aware and care for the world we're living in and so I came up with our next science theme, which will be another post.

Weird actually that after finally finding out what might have stopped me from feeling more comfortable in my skin as a homeschooling mom and mentor all I come up with are three things.. ( my boys are only 7, 5 and 3 years old)

But somehow I feel better just having found a missing puzzle piece for myself. Maybe later the 3 pointers will become 4 or 5.. and still I think, the most important that will make them thrive the most might still just be because they love to learn !!! I'm in my early 30ties and I love the fact that I still love to study.

Myriam

Our Weekly Wrap Up June #3, one day at a time..

My first week of summer holidays was all about "what if Leap Creature forgets what he learned" and I was hardly able to calm down and enjoy the holidays.. the second week was much better and well, I've been doing a bit more of what I want to or was looking forward to doing. I've had some orders for islamic men's shirts which I was able to finish. I got a thobe (traditional Arab clothing for men) done for Leap Creature. I made new pillow cases, Pajama Outfits, all with left over material which I'm so desperately trying to finish up and even found an old scarf to make little sleeping bags for beanie babies "little howler, lizzy and tiger". I have so much material and so many plans on what to do with all of it, all that was missing was the time to just sit and do it.

The boys started swimming classes this week and other than that we try to take them out several times of the week. There isn't much structure in our days these days but honestly I'm taking one day at a time and no structure and no planning is exactly what I need right now. 

Myriam

Slowly but surely back to School

We "unofficialy" started our slow first days around Thursday last week. Officially the Charter School that we're connected with starts at the end of the month but I didn't want to wait that long. It was less of when they would be ready but more when I would be ready. So I bravely ordered books from our local library for our first chosen science theme, the whales, and thought whenever these are ready for pick up, I will start. The books came and with a deep breath I heard myself say: Boys lets start our first lap book about whales (wondering about what the response might be), as I heard three YAAYYYY's and 6 stomping little feet storming into the study room.

Mentor vs.Teacher

I just had quiet a productive evening, sewing pajamas for my three boys while listening to a lecture on Homeschool.com about the Thomas Jefferson Education. In general I don't like following anything in life just one particular way, except Islam, for God is whom I live to obey and worship as a muslim, but other than that Im very careful in just trusting what people "think" is the "best way" to do just anything. Listening to this talk though, felt like this is what I've been trying to achieve all along, I just didn't have a name for it.. or didn't quiet know how to get there..

Our Weekly Wrap Up May #5

How was our week or more like my past two weeks? ahh lets see.. 
Thursday the week before, considering it was our last week of school we were all so lazy and not really in the studying mood, we did study some though. Most of it was repetition through the learning Odyssey. I gathered all of Leap Creatures School books, tools, games etc. to return to our Resource Center to be able to check out new ones for the upcoming 2nd Grade and my officially signed up Kindergardener Cheetah Racer *big grin* !! The day after on friday we drove up to Long Beach to the "California Great Homeschool Convention" here my blogpost. It was so fantastic that I was all fired up for the whole past week and still am. And since 
about Monday (first official Summer holiday) my boys are wining most of the day that THEY'RE BOOORED and it's only been like a weekend of no schooling and they're already getting on my nerves HAH.. who would've thought. So more or less what have "I" been doing? Figuring out what to do with them for the rest of our summer !! I will make this post very short from here on because I haven't quiet figured it out *grin again*.. I think after I've had my share of "I'm bored's" we'll start studying again summer or no summer !! 


This is "the weekly wrap up" link-up from Kris over at the weird unsocialized homeschoolers, would you like to share your week?

Myriam

our Curriculum Choices

The Summer surely is approaching fast and I'm so excited to proudly announce that my little cheetah racer is officially signed up for kindergarten for the following Semester !! He is learning how to read for quiet some time now and anyway with our home schooled Leap Creature in 1st grade it's almost silly saying that my Kindergardener  "starts" classes this fall. But anyway it's official and I'm SO excited. We picked up school material for both of the boys and then the big scrambling will start about putting lesson plans together etc. Can't wait !!


Also do I have no idea about how to teach two boys since one alone is already very time consuming but.. all I know is.. that I'm excited. We always pick our school materials before the summer holidays so the funny thing is, right when it's time to actually wind down and go into relaxing mode, I see all the new school material for the next school year and feel like: How can we just not study now having all the new exciting books etc. !! haha.. well we all do need a break but I doubt that it'll really last more than about a month.

Our Weekly Wrap Up April #1 "Back to School"

Our week of Spring Break was fabulous, loved it. And so was our first week of school. As I am writing Our Weekly WrapUps I realize that most of the time I'm leaving a positive feedback.. *smile* which is great because about 6 months ago I soo wanted to throw in the towel !! Our Highlight this Week was Monday, yep that's right Monday! Early morning I decided we'd start with a Field Trip to La Jolla in search of Tide Pools, our new Theme. It was a great first day and Leap Creature was asking me if we could always start our first monday after holidays with a Field Trip. I hope I can fulfill my promise but I said that: why not. I think the first monday is always a bit slow, might as well enjoy it to the fullest. Other than that we reviewed numbers up to 9000 (left) and even added some of these very big numbers. (right)

For Language Arts Leap Creature read Magic Treehouse books, took Quizzes at the Book adventure webpage. We started spelling Checks and continued his Cursive Practice which he's doing a real fantastic job with. On friday he was again looking forward for his school day for he saw his friends again, so I'll say it again, GREAT WEEK !!

Wishing all a great Weekend,

Myriam 

Tide Pool Field Trip

It is Monday morning and we started off with a Field Trip to La Jolla Beach in search of some Tide Pools for our new Science Theme. I couldn't have thought of a better way to start school after our fantastic week of Spring Break. Of course the attention span was minimal. (can you blame them?) We did get to a look at quiet a few Tide Pools though and they're magic with all their little creatures.

Science Festival & Spring Break

The science Festival last Saturday was great, we all saw a lot, held, felt and walked a lot. The weather was perfect we couldn't have asked for anything more. Of course we went to see the Art Project "Volcano a-Go-Go" Leap Creature was working on together with all of their Art Teacher's Students. The boys collected solar beads, held snakes, lizards, raced cars and took pictures with a humongous Sid the Science Kid *smile*. At the end of the day after dinner Leap Creature realized we didn't do any school today and states: Mommy we didn't even learn nothing today! I reassured him that even though it might didn't feel like it that he learned TONS today!!

Which Curriculum did NOT work for us

This Weeks' Link Up Topic on hsclassroom is "What curriculum or resource just didn't work for your family? When reading the topic I almost started laughing out hysterically. Why? Because I'm still trying to figure out what actually works for us !! Kindergarten came and went and was really neat to teach. Most of the Subjects came with unit studies where there was a booklet with worksheets, suggested activities related to the topic where it was so simple to just add whatever we felt like learning and however long we wanted to stick to that topic. We all enjoyed the time together, I loved getting to know my boys from another perspective, I started to really LOVE teaching, specially preparing fun lessons (which I had no idea I'd have within me) and it helped me big time to have more patience, tolerance with all my boys on a daily basis.

Our Weekly Wrap Up March #4

Another great week for us. Even though I wish I would've worked a bit more with Cheetah Racer and his "Hooked on Phonics" but other then that it was a good week. On Monday we finished our Rainforest Notebook.


For Social Studies this week we worked on Story of the World and learned about the Sumerians, Sumer and Sargon. We also started a timeline where Leap Creature chooses a picture that helps him remember each Section in the historic timeline and writes one sentence about it, this way I have a little proof that he did learn something.

I don't know where I was during my History class but everything I'm reading with Leap Creature in his History Lessons is new to me!

Rainforest Notebook

Leap Creature chose the Rainforest as our next theme. We read quiet a few books such as

• The Cat in the Hat: If I ran the Rainforest
• The Amazon River in a Rain Forest 
• The Rainforest Grew All Around
• The Great Kapok Tree
• One Day in the Tropical Rain Forest
• Rain Forests

We borrowed all of the books from the Library, the theme is great since there are tons of resources, books etc. I chose some for classes, some for language arts for Leap Creature to read, some for good night Stories and "the book Crafts for Kids who Are Wild About ... THE WILD" for Crafts. 

Our Weekly Wrap Up

It's already Sunday afternoon and I'm mentally getting ready for another monday. It's safe to say that last week was very successful. Leap Creature (1st grade) was enjoying our 2nd week of the Rightstart Math and we pretty much caught up to the point where we were at with the old Curriculum, which was one of my goals. We wrapped up our Science Theme "Rainforest" and did some last glueing in his Notebook (which will be a separate post).

On thursday we had our monthly Teacher's Meeting which went so great that I gave all of us the rest of the day off and friday Leap Creature goes to School from 9- 2.30 which he's always looking forward to, because he gets to see his friends. During Arts classes they finished up their Project that's called Volcano-A-Go-Go which will be proudly presented at 

EXPO Day at the San Diego Science Festival on 3/24

It looks great and I'm so excited that all the kids from grade K up to 8th were able to participate and can you imagine how their faces will LIGHT UP when they'll see their project at the Science Festival? I SOO can't wait !!! 

How was your week? Come, share and link up with the Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and see what everyone else has to say. 

With that said, have a great week everyone

Myriam

Homeschool Online Resource List

This is something that is long due for I felt I'd like to give back something that I've been benefitted from for at least 1 1/2 years now. I was thankful and still am for every Worksheet, Lap Book Template, Scrap Book idea etc that I've used for our Homeschool Studies. So the credit should go to all the people who took their time to create or had anything to do with the links I'll post, just for anyone who stumbles upon the List I hope you can benefit from it. ( I will probably use it myself hehe ) My notes below every page is what I'm mostly using it for, they offer more than just that.. some links are mentioned double since I made a list of all the links and below I wrote some under a certain them that we've studied about.

A "Real Life Experience" about my favorite Curriculum Resource

I am a fairly new homeschooling Mom, this is my second year with my "official" Student in 1st grade followed by an almost kindergartener & a toddler. It doesn't feel that way at all though, I feel like I've learned SO much the last 1 1/2 years. Yesterday I stood in front of my bookshelf looking at our Study Books wanting to find my favorite one and that's when I realized.. there isn't any!! Okay we've recently changed our Math Curriculum from Houghton Mifflin to Rightstart Math which I wrote about in a previous post "re- thinking our Learning Styles". We haven't really worked with it long enough though for me to be able to say that's THE ONE .. I hope it is and so far it goes really great since Leap Creature is super excited every time I'd tell him to get out the "clever Math Box". My resources for Science and Social Studies are as mix matched as can be, we pick and choose whatever theme we like next, I'll do my research online, prepare the lessons and we're good to go. I'd have to say maybe right now my favorite Curriculum Source is online. Pages such as:

• http://www.homeschoolshare.com/
• http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/ 

(The list is way longer but I usually go to these two before going on and this will be further elaborated in another post. )
What I do know is that being a Homeschooling Parent is a way of life, it's a process and takes time to know how to do it, what to use, and how to find what works etc. I know I'll get there and I won't settle for anything less then what I think is best for my little men.


Do you have any favorite Curriculum Resources? Why not link up with "The homeschool Classroom", lets share our Ideas, our experiences and learn from one another. One good thing that is certain by now is that I'm not alone in this *grin*

Myriam

Part #2 of my initial Post "My first real Meltdown"

My first post on my blog was "My first real Meltdown" where I wrote about my first time wanting to give up homeschooling and why. I am not sure why I thought about this today but I realized that I forgot a part of what I did my research on, which was very tough on me, it took for ever to figure this one out but I'm still happy with my decision and I will try my best to explain it. If it happens to help someone else's decision it was well worth the time. 


As I said I've already filled out the boys application for two different charter schools and as I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to send them anywhere but to keep homeschooling them my next step was: Am I with the right program? I thought maybe to switch school would be the solution. Caracal Leaper is signed up for a homeschool program through a Charter School. Right away I thought ok K12 might be better and I was so close to switch until 2 sisters gave him some insight about how K12 works. There is lots of good pointers if that's what one likes. The pro's for me were:

Some daily Activities..

My little Monkey is almost 3 and his two older brothers were out the house with Daddy, so I kept him busy with sorting Counters. He did sort for about the first 7 min. and after that he filled and emptied the bowls as he pleased but hey.. it did keep him busy and I had a great break *smile*