A Day of Our Homeschooling Life!!

It's been a while since I've given a peek into our day and since Simple Homeschool put out an invitation I thought I'd join in! So welcome to our Wednesday!

Our mornings are slow, I am not one of those mamas who get up early and get things done. Too many years of sleep depravation is my reasoning but really Im just not a morning person if anyone is going to talk to me! ;)

This day is one where Dan is home, he travels frequently but when he is in town we often get days with him home all day. This was difficult for us the first few years of homeschooling, but thankfully we have found a rhythm that Dad fits into and can also slip out of.

Our morning starts with a warm breakfast, blankets, and heater vents. We also take care of animals, giving the cats attention and waking up the bunnies. Which is not so hard on this beautiful sunny morning!

Legos in the morning, Legos at night, LEGOS ALL DAY LONG in our house!! But I find it a gentle way for the kids to transition from morning time to schooling time so you'll often hear me suggest it! And yes there are legos all over my house!!!

Just before the call to come together my oldest comes to me with Cookie his rat who seems to have a mass, he also brings his rat book. So we take a timeout to check on her, read about rat ailments and call the vet to get an appointment. I love that his first go to was a book! 

Every morning I write out all that we would like to accomplish for the day, my kids like having all the information at once and I like that I don't get asked 20 times what else we are going to do! Its all right there! Our family schooling time is by far the largest chunk, but the kids do have some individual things that we do.

We have quite the mixture of homeschooling philosophies here in our home! A little Waldorf, a little Charlotte Mason, a little TJed, and a little crazy all mixed together!! Its great! I am a firm believer that your philosophy/curriculum should serve your family not that you should be a slave to your philosophy/curriculum. We start our day with a Waldorf-ish verse and a scripture we are memorizing. After everyone memorizes the scripture we go out for a fun family activity. Today our family study activities will be after our individual work because of their length. But usually it is done right after our scripture.

Jake learning how to read Fahrenheit and Celsius on a thermometer...

Fern writing numbers...

Leili acting out our story of the week with finger puppets (Little Red Ridding Hood)...

Brother and sister are drawn to the puppet theatre like magnets!!

Riley is reading Matilda and LOVING it! This is a picture that just makes my mama heart go pitter-pat. This guy, my first born threw me right into trusting in schooling. Reading just did not click for him when society says it should. But we took the leap of faith in just trusting that he would get it when he was ready as long as we did not squash his innate love of learning! Now I have to tell him to stop reading and go to bed!!

Our kitchen table turned into math central today and Dad was the central command! Whew! One day off for Mama in the math dept!!

Beautiful Fern LOVES writing notes and now she has found she LOVES writing numbers!!

Leili is being like Little Red Ridding Hood and baking muffins for the family, she chose Coconut Banana! 

Usually Fern prefers to wait for me to do her reading with her, but Little Bear just could not wait!

I have a couple volunteer responsibilities and since today dad is home I run out all by myself for a quick visit. Dad finishes up the school work for the morning while I am gone.

Leili's muffins came out great! Riley played the piano! And lunch was made! Wahoo!

After lunch we watch a great National Geographic video on volcanos, geology is our family study for science/nature study right now and we are enjoying learning about volcanos (and my family is realizing just what a geology nerd I am...)!

After our video some friends come by for a short visit then after that we head over to the nature center across the river. Today we not only enjoy the warmth of the sun and the beauty in our own back yard but we also had a winter nature scavenger hunt! We found everything except an icicle but we are NOT complaining!! 

Cub and Boy Scout meeting end our night and now it is good night!

Thanks for stoping by!!

Roy G. Biv

It WILL be stuck in you head so listen at your own risk!!

Recently while looking for a multiplication chart to print I happened across a great site! 

Dr. Mike's Math Games For Kids

In the multiplication area of his site he says, 

"When I was growing up, my dad hung a huge periodic table of the chemical elements on the wall. It was in the dining room, and it was so big, you couldn't miss it. It listed all the elements, and their names, and some of their chemical properties. Now,

• My dad never drilled me on it,
• I never studied chemistry beyond high school,
• I never made an effort to memorize it.

Nonetheless, years later, I can still remember the names for the symbols, and the symbols for the names!"

So two things happend 1. I printed out the multiplication tables (as a rainbow), laminated them and turned our hallway into rainbow mathematics land. And 2. I started looking for a huge periodic table to put above the piano!!! Makes some serious sense to me!!!!

I also wanted to share a couple links:

Blessings from reading aloud!

&

Experiences vs. ______________

Happy January!!!!

Schooling Around Town!

I thought I had a couple pictures of school around the house but mostly I found pictures of us schooling around town! We are mostly homebody schoolers but we do get to do some fun stuff around town too!

We got the amazing and FREE opportunity to see the Reno Philharmonic preform Peter & the Wolf! It is one of our FAVORITE music pieces! They even got the mascot form UNR to come out and capture the narrator (an anchor from the local news channel) at the end.

I was so overwhelmed to have the opportunity for my kids to hear this beautiful music performed right in front of them. I still get teary!

We've also gotten over to Ox Bow Nature Preserve a couple of times, it is one of our favorite nature walks plus the critters are always fun! The beaver dams and beaver chewed trees are among our favorites to spot!

Here is one from our backyard! Here are the kids making a village as we learned about the beginnings of Rome.

And of course we have been to the river! It is one of those places we go to unwind, or windup, wear out or calm down. Plus it is a great place to school! Leili and I were reading Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe and then Leili and Dad made a little boat to float in the river!

Inside, outside, here or there!

Lantern Walk

 

 

The stars alined (& the rain paused) so we got to use the lanterns we made for the lantern walk. It was beautiful to see all the kids walking with just their lighted lanterns and then to sit around the bonfire and sip warm apple cider. What a beautiful night!

Fall Festivals

 

 

Schooling goes on even if the blog does not. I have been trying to spend less time in front of the screen and more in real life. I don't always succeed but I'm trying.
We have been enjoying the fall festivals this year. Above are pictures from our Michaelmas celebration. We made sword napkin holders, I made another dragon candle, and this year we talked Dad into baking us some dragon bread! Then at dinner we read the scripture account of the war in heaven and how Micheal drove Satan (the dragon) out of heaven with his sword of truth. Every night we will light our candle and watch how the flame vanquishes the dragon on the candle as we prepare for Christ's birth by vanquishing Satan from our lives and hearts.
We also made these cute little gnomes for our fall nature table.
Just this week we had our Martinmas dinner, I told the story of Martin with small dolls and then we cut our potato in half and shared it with our neighbor. After dinner we put together homeless packets we keep in the car to give out. We also recited the scripture, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven". The next day we made our lanterns symbolizing shining our light to others during this dark time of year that hopefully we will get to use for the local Waldorf school's lantern walk this week.
What does fall look like at your house?

Summer Science!

How is summer science looking at your house? Ours is filled with animals, insects (too many black widows!), botany, farming, chemistry (canning!), and physics (the river has been our play ground this summer)!!
I am gearing up and getting ready for our new school year but we are starting late! Stay tuned!!

And some links!

A blog post on elementary curriculum.

Mixing math and history might be just what I'm looking for for history!

TJed back to school newsletter!

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!

Did you see...

Did you see the super moon? Did you take the time to walk outside?
We did.
We planned it and talked about it. We met with friends and waited. We are high here in Reno so we had to wait until it got over the mountains to our east.
Minutes before it peaked we could see its glow! The kids were amazed the moon could make so much light. And then it crested the mountain. It was beautiful and big and bright.
I love that my family can watch this kind of celestial phenomenon and be awed. Awed at our Father's creations, awed that nature can provide such a spectacular and beautiful sight. And awed that in the dark you can find so much happiness just being together!
We're ready for Sunday's annular eclipse! And ready for more awe!
Yeah for life learning as jake would say!

Bierstadt

I am always excited when I find out something has stuck in the kids brains, to me it means they are enjoying or find our studies interesting!

We continue doing Artist Study even though I do not put the pictures up on the side bar any longer (it was a pain to get up!). This last trimester we have been looking at paintings by Albert Bierstadt, the intrest was first piqued when they learned he was German the second because of his subject matter.

Bierstadt was an explorer and in the 1800's where was the frontier? Right here in our back yard! The Sierra Nevadas were a large portion of his paintings. Plus he is a beautiful artist, he paints in the romantic style but was also considered an luminism because of the use of light in them.

The fun came when during our trip down the 395 last month, we stayed overnight in a hotel with the usual hotel furnishings. But then Riley noticed... above the beds were prints of what appeared to be Bierstadt's paintings! Riley pointed out why he thought they were his and my proud homeschool mama heart swelled!

It is the sweet days that make it all worth it!

Mondays

 

Sometimes Mondays can be hard. Sometimes you have to just deal with it. But sometimes you have to outsmart Monday!

That is what we have done, at least for schooling. We don't start a new week on Mondays, we now start on Tuesdays. So that means that on Mondays we are just finishing off the last couple tasks from our lesson and I am not feeling overwhelmed trying to get everything ready Sunday night! Seriously this was a hard step for me mentally because I am a things in order kind of gal, Monday thru Friday, A thru B...

But in all seriousness this has really taken some pressure off of me and Mondays are not quite so dreaded!

Mono Lake

The kids and I drove down and made a stop at Mono Lake. What a strangely beautiful place it is! They have a great new (at least new since I was last there years ago) State Park Visitor Center. They have some really interesting displays not only about the lake itself but also about the Native people who lived there.

One of our favorite exhibits was three ordinary salt shakers one with about 1/2 inch of salt which represented the ocean, one with about 1 inch of salt which represented the Great Salt Lake, and the third with almost 2 inches of salt, that one represented Mono lake! It is crazy salty, believe us we tasted it!

We also learned why there are bubbles anywhere the waves lap up (it is super windy so there are small waves), and we have a recipe to make our own Mono water:

1 quart fresh water

2 1/2 Tbsp. salt

5 Tbsp. baking soda

2 tsp. epsom salts

a pinch of borax

a pinch of detergent

The baking soda or calcium carbonate is what forms the tufas that make mono lake so interesting to see! After Jake's legs dried they were white from all the dried salt on his feet!

The small islands in mono lake are breeding grounds for the California Gulls. They fly all the way from the Pacific ocean to lay eggs here. Also out in the middle you can see the atoll of a former volcano.

This was a wonderful stop on our very volcanic adventure!!

Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve

Friends of Mono Lake Reserve 

My Visit to Mono Lake

SPRING is upon us!! Time to get back OUTSIDE! HOORAY!!

We steal as many moments as possible outside during the winter but it is so nice to think of all the time we will get outdoors soon! Learning out of doors is one of our most favorite!

I recently read a GREAT ARTICLE from the Audubon Society about making family time and nature time co-exist.

And since we are on the subject I thought I'd share a few other fun resources our family has enjoyed!

:: Last Child in the Woods ~ Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. This is an awesome book, I think this should be required reading for all parents!

:: i love dirt! ~ 52 activities to help you & your kids discover the wonders of nature. This one is a fun spring board to fun outdoor ideas.

:: Nature's Playground ~ Activities, crafts, and games to encourage children to get outdoors. Arranged by season this one is wonderful in that it has wonderful ideas but also explains about being respectful of nature and leaving it for others to enjoy too. This one also has great pictures!

:: Falcon Guides ~ Best Easy Day Hikes in _____. I love these books, especially for when you are just starting to look for good places to get out too but also they are great when moving to a new area! Other publishers also print similar books Best Hikes for Children in _____ are wonderful too!

:: And one to share :: The Salamander Room. A great picture book can inspire magic that pulls you out of doors (and it's a Reading Rainbow book!)!

So as you celebrate the first day of Spring tomorrow I hope you can feel the sun on your face and some dirt in your hands!

Happy Spring!