2015-16 School Year Blogging Bust...

This school years blogging was a complete bust! School was not, thankfully! We are in our final 4 weeks of our school year which is behind when we usually finish up. But you know those "Homeschooling in Crisis" articles and posts. Well this year we have lived it. We have had plenty of hard years, some which could even fit the "crisis" label in the past, hard pregnancies and new babies, moves, unemployment, homelessness (without our own but family took us in)...we have run the gamut of life experience. Going into this year I knew we would need to be flexible, in April of 2015 my mom was diagnosed with cancer. She did treatment all summer, we went back and forth to help through those months, I expected to do that through out the school year. We pushed back starting school a couple extra weeks when she needed more care, I spent two weeks with her leaving my family behind at the end of August/beginning of September. With this in mind I was proactive and prepared everything ahead of time, including my handy dandy book I make each year. But I was not prepared for a phone call two weeks after retuning home saying I needed to come now. The three hardest phone calls I've ever had to make and an hour and a half later my kids and I were on the road for the 10 hour drive. And then she died. That was not the plan. The plan was to take care of her all school year. Not for school to be interrupted with death and estate needs and memorial travels. But it did. And we have four weeks left.

That said I have something more to share. All those crisis articles were good, it was stored up knowledge I had but there is something they did not cover. Homeschooling was an anchor. Yes I gave myself permission to be easy with myself, yes there were days I could not even muster enough to feed my family but schooling was an escape of sorts. We could compartmentalize the grief and open a book to escape and learn. I could be ok for that time I taught Leili the letter families, I could be ok while dusting off the parts of my brain that use to know how to do 5th grade math, I could be ok while learning about the beautiful art of the Renaissance. And those moments of being ok got us through. Homeschooling is an added responsibility when crisis comes but it can also be comfort and and anchor.

My handy dandy school book!

The kids on our first day of the school year.

This was an instagram photo of mine dated just 10 days after she died. I captioned it, "The tornado of a homeschooling morning and it's effects on my family room. Whew...I survived. This time." Looking back on any kind of journaling is interesting, I can see that I was not talking about homeschooling I was just surviving. But I was doing it through homeschooling.

A smattering of books from this week.

This weeks pages of schooling, Riley's are blank because he was taking online classes and finished the week before.

And the kids now...older, wiser, and more compassionate for the year we have had.

Mom School!

During the holidays when our studies where a little lighter and I wanted to share something interesting with the kids we did a couple weeks of learning about Julia Childs! I love to cook and I have a couple kids who enjoy cooking and well we all LOVE to eat good food so this turned out to be tons of fun! 

We watched a few episodes of her original black and white show, and some of the newer ones. PBS has some available and there a lots on youtube too!

This was such a treasure...so much so I *almost* was a bad library lover and did not return it. It was an original first edition! The Potato-Leek soup was VERY tasty and very yummy!

This was a fun comic style book all about her life, Bon Appetit! ~ the kids enjoyed it.

They also though she was wildly hysterical!!

This was the kids favorite book we read about her, Minette's Feast ~ its all about her cat!

And then we fell in love with her a little more when we turned to this picture at the back of the book...Minette was a tortie! It takes a special person to love and be loved by a tortie!!

Riley was so gung-ho to make crepes but being knowing their reputation I was a little nervous so I kept putting him off...so he just jumped right in not knowing that they can be tricky and made GREAT crepes! He even followed her directions and was flipping them in the air! It was awesome!

Another great resource is that her kitchen is in the Smithsonian and you can take a virtual tour.

Not to share as a family but on my own I read My Life in France and Julie and Julia, (and watched the movie) which is what started this whole interest in Julia Childs! They were both interesting reads in their own ways. 

Do you have a favorite Julia Childs recipe?

Bon Appétit! 

Snippets!

Just a couple little snippets of schooling to share today!

Our fall nature table is always one of my most favorite!

We had the most amazing science class right out our front door. A monarch butterfly came out of it's chrysalis on our front porch in one of my plants. The kids named it Dotty!

Homeschool co-op went well, Fern my artist loved her second ceramics class.

Leili and I have been going through the capital letters, we are having a lot of fun (some of it sentimental as I think this is the last time I will do this)!!

My knitting class at our homeschool co-op finished up my dyeing yarn with kool-aid! 

Some friends and I started a littles outdoor school once a week for our 5 year olds, it is so nice to have a whole morning outside with these fun kids.

Fern and I did a little research on our foraging and Fern made it into a bar graph. Rose hips for us!

And a little peek at our table, we don't always work at the table but sometimes it works well for us. I am thinking it will soon be time to spend a day a week doing our school work in the downtown library where it is full of plants, all warm and green!

Good Beginnings!

We started up our school year and what a couple weeks we've had!

We officially started school and I tried to get a picture with the kids all showing what grade they were in (I tried to get Leili to sign "K" but really it just looked like she was flashing gang signs...)!

Leili was up at the crack of dawn asking if she was a kindergartner yet, she got all of her school work done before any of the older kids were out of bed! Just she and mama.

The first week we of course started with the letter A, I can remember doing this with the other kids. It is sad that this is my last kindergartener.

We also made a morning candle for while we say our verses and do some finger plays. Leili really enjoyed this!

Leili and I also made bees for our nature table. We have so many bees this year!

And then we started homeschool co-op.This session we are taking all 3 hours, this is a big change for us and quite a commitment!!!

I am hoping this good start is a good omen for the year!!

2014-15 Ready to Roll!

Well here we go shoving off into the new school year! How is it that I have all 4 kids school age this year?!? Yes my little one is kindergarten so not major academics, but still this is crazy! Here is a look into this years mama's school book, things get wiggled a bit but for the most part this is the plan for the year. (Sorry some of the photos came out blurry I have no idea how that happened!)

As usual we are using Oak Meadow for the majority of the subjects, we do not do their social studies or history. It is just easier on this mama to do that together as a group. I am considering doing Fern and Jake's science together to also help with the amount of material I am teaching and time. As you can see there is also a little Waldorf, Charlotte Mason, Unschooling and TJed thrown in too! I have learned over the years that homeschool labels are generally just narrowing and constricting and so I don't label our philosophy. We take what works for our family from wherever we find it and call it good!

If you have any questions let me know! I'm happy to share!

Just Another Day!

We are still schooling because we took a couple good sized breaks this winter and spring. But we have slowed down as we are enjoying all the fun summer activities and learning as we go!
 

Science is always fun (and a favorite) around here. Jake is checking out insect parts on the microscope my Uncle Steve gave me a long while ago!
 

Dandelion the rabbit enjoyed watching the girls...
 

...play with cloud sand! It was fun and pretty easy to make.

And here is Riley working on a braided rug with the help of his rat, Cookies & Cream.

And on an exciting side note, Lindafay over at Higher Up & Further In is blogging again! Not only is she a great inspiration as a homeschooling mama but also as a Christian mama!

Teaching

Schooling is winding down here in our house, mostly because of the weather! The sun and beach are calling our names! But we are not quite done and we are still having fun! ;) I think a good portion of our enjoyment is a good balance between doing things like learning to print or write cursive and "life learning"!

I recently got tired of Jake telling people that we did not do any school on some days SO I explained the concept of life learning. That sometimes we learn from reading books or doing math problems but we can also learn amazing things by going for a hike, grocery shopping, or crafting! People keep asking me if we will take a summer break from school, most of the time I say, "yes we take a break from formal learning but we do continue to do less structured things." But really I want to yell, "NO! KIDS ARE ALWAYS LEARNING IF WE LET THEM!!!!"  Jake now proud;y tells people, "we had life learning today!" And I smile as big as he!

I have also found a couple fun things I thought I'd share!

One is THIS uber cool activity I found over a Journey Into Unschooling! We just have to wait until our craft store gets rounds back in.

I also found this fun site just this morning while looking for a copy work maker. They have math mazes, maps, tons of FREE printables over at Worksheet Works!

Happy Hump-Day!

Oh the good times are rolling along! We have had a good rhythm going all winter after a rocky start last fall. One of the things helping that is we (the kids and I) have not traveled or had many other distractments.

Fern has been all excited about math since I introduced her to horizontal problems! She asks to do math EVERY day!

Jake has been my reading machine! And being an awesome big brother has been reading to Leili often! She just loves that! This book was a big hit here last library run Llama llama mad at mama.

Science is always popular around here, impromptu experiments are often going on in various parts of the house!

Here is our biggest science experiment recently... Riley got a rat... for a pet! Yes I am crazy, but so far everyone is enjoying Cookie (Cookies & Cream)!

I also have a few links to share!

:: The new Oak Meadow Journal Live Oak is out!

:: This genius of a homeschooling mama collaborated to make these great Living Learning Lists, seriously if I could homeschool like this for everyone through every stage I would!!

:: Recently the local elementary down the road had their science fair, I am thinking we need to have a homeschooler science fair... now just to find some willing participants!

:: And last but not least, I am not a big fan of computer games for learning but I do like Starfall and these Cool Math Games for kids and Cool Math Games for Little Kids looks like we need to explore a bit!!

So we are trying something new to help us get through our day. At the beginning of the year I bought Riley a student planner because he likes to know what is expected of him before he starts his day. I thought eventually he would be able to look at our schedule and look at his weekly assignments and fill in the individual days himself. It has not happened that way and in fact I realized he rarely even looks at the daily list, he jut asks me again... But I have to say it was nice to have a daily list of what we were going to get done, so I am trying out the white board. I take the weeks assignments, look at what subjects are scheduled for the day and then write every ones assignments. Jake is enjoying this as he has become a super reader, Fern really does not need a list as she does not read yet but I knew she'd feel left out so I put her right at the top. Besides it helps my brain (it needs all the help it can get)!

So we will see how this goes, maybe it will stick maybe it won't.

And a little FYI for those who are not readers of my other blog, my hard drive is fried so I will just be posting occasionally now when my husband is not traveling and such. But also the photos will suffer as the few I do share will be off of my phone...

Sorry.

Here is an interesting article about homeschooling rising!

Wouldn't you know it, after having a nice long holiday break Mom is sick on the Monday we were diving back in!!

That's ok, we make it though our morning studies. I did not go all out but we got some good stuff in. Riley thought he might die... SO FUN! ;)

But also we are having one of those freak, "it's Jan. 2 and 70 degrees outside!! Oh it was so good for my cold to go lie in the grass and be warmed in the sun! The kids are running around outside BAREFOOT using their imaginations and fresh air!

The picture up there is of some stone soup Fern and I made recently. She and I recently read the story and she was so excited to make it! I love stone soup and the magic involved.

How are you easing into this New Year? Any changes or tweaks?

Seasons

I love seasons, I love all four for their unique beauty. I also love the different activities that come with each season, flowers and vegetable planting in the spring, swimming, and camping in the summer, apple picking and canning in the fall, and the slowness and coziness of winter's cold!

What about the seasons of a homeschool? For me that is a little harder. Letting go of a routine that is no longer working, reading the kids to see if they need more or less rigor in our studies, and just the change. I'm not a big one for handling change well it's hard on me, sometimes really hard. Sometimes I am not graceful about it.

This year I am trying to grow in the flexibility department. This is a must in our house, Dan travels often with just a moments notice. I am trying to learn to give us lighter flowing days when Dan comes and goes, and more studies to fill our weeks when he is gone. One thing I have not given into yet, but have really had a wonderful epiphany about this week is letting go of my public school history and realizing that we do not need to start our week on a Monday and end on a Friday. It could be a Thursday to Wednesday! Just because we don't get a good start on Monday because Dan left and we're all off or the baby is sick and I sit and nurse her all day does not mean that we have to throw out the whole week!

Learning all the time that is what I'm doing! And that is a good thing!

What are you enjoying this season (of the year, of life, or of your learning)?

Well you all know we have lived in a few states, and they all have fun and weird things we have enjoyed. But I have to say Nevada has one I have never even considered but is actually a really cool thing EVERY state should do in my simple opinion!

NEVADA DAY!

What is Nevada day you ask? Well it is the day that Nevada was accepted into the Union. It is a state holiday, technically is is on Oct. 31 but they choose to have Friday off this year so we went on an adventure!

A homeschool group here planned a fun Nevada Day field trip to the Capitol. So the kids and I drove down to Carson City, it's about a 45 min drive through beautiful Washoe Valley!
We had a fun picnic, getting to know new homeschoolers and then one of the parents planned a little Nevada art project (I'll share that soon). The sun was warm and the kids ran until they could run no farther! Then we went into the Capitol building.

Leili was fast expiring, but we pressed on...

The first and second floor were open to walk through, we saw the Assembly room, Senate room, everything was just beautiful!

This is what is painted all around the ceiling of the first floor, and there are paintings of all the past governors (even the "Territorial" governors!

And my cuties (and unhappy babe) on the front steps of the capitol. It was great to learn a little bit more about this state that is our current home!!

And a couple of great articles to share! HERE and HERE!!