More than I paid for…

We wanted to get Sammy something educational for her birthday (which is today!!). She DID get toys, but we wanted to incorporate “schooling” stuff with the junk. While in Big Lots looking for a craft table for me, I stumbled upon some “Hooked On” boxes marked $5! We picked up “Hooked on Counting” (for Jo for Christmas), “Hooked on New Testament Bible Stories”, “Hooked on Spelling”, and “Hooked on Addition”. I let Sammy open the addition one this morning, hoping it would keep her interested in doing schoolwork on her birthday.

This box is awesome! It’s so simple, the audio CD gets annoying after two lessons (Sam agreed), so I started doing the flash cards with her sans cd. Without much effort she started to accept a concept I could not get across to her before– Counting On. This is where instead of saying 5 + 2, then taking out five beans and two beans and then adding them all together you simple start at five and count six, seven. She found it frustrating at first. She keeps trying to say that 5 + 2 is 52, or 1+0 is 10… Slowly though, we did make progress! They even have a clear page that you lay on top of the workbook so you can do it over and over again!

It came with two double sided sets of flash cards (with rings to hold them together), a workbook with the clear page, a dry erase marker, a progress poster, stickers, two dice, and red and blue counting discs. Oh, and that silly CD… Sam liked the music that played between lessons, but the lady doing the flash cards gets annoying after a while, and I think she moves a little fast.

For $5 I was pretty impressed! I can’t wait until tonight when she can open the others.

Schedule Schmedule!!! Letting it go!

We had such a wonderful plan! Such goals! We had calendars and planners and worksheets and spreadsheets and wall charts and a points system and chore charts and…. the list goes on!

After week one, I had lost track of the points. By week two, the planner and calendars went out the window. Our weather calendar? hmmm, well it’s been so long in Virginia with no rain that I ran out of sunshines! My daughter also made a point to tell me that I needed more than just rain, sun and clouds.

“What about a windy day mommy? or a HOT day? or a COLD day?” she asked.

I thought I had taken into consideration that my youngest might get jealous having her sister home all day again. Apparently I underestimated her! I also overestimated her desire to do Pre K work while her sister did her schoolwork… so there went another PLAN.

Hubby’s car broke down, leaving us with only one vehicle, so there went the “Park on Wednesday” plan and the “Library on Thursday” plan.

I just knew that will all the “stuff” we had, the variety, the colors, the options, that the words “I’M BORED” would NEVER come out of Sam’s mouth but ohhhh how wrong I was! I guess when you grow up and become overwhelmed with responsibilities and obligations you totally forget what it feels like to have a million things you could do but nothing you want to do.

Timing is our next problem, she woke up at 5:30 this morning wanting to do her math work! UGH, can I get a cup of coffee first? Now when 9am rolls around all she’ll want to do is play and I can almost bet that about 9 PM she’ll want to do reading or arts and crafts or MORE MATH! (If anyone can explain why she enjoys doing a subject she’s NOT good at *yet* I’d love to hear it!) She’s in Kindy, I don’t expect her to do calculus. I just find it comical that this is the subject she wants to do when she continues to find it frustrating.

I think I need a new plan, kind of a Non Plan. Maybe some sort of simple filing box with folders for each week. When she does stuff we’ll just stick it in there. Rather than filling out a planner book I’ll just date the stuff before it gets in the box. There are a couple of websites that keep track of the work done. Http://www.iknowthat.com is one of them. So I think I’ll let them do a little of the work for me. I’m not lazy, I’m overwhelmed. What started as one shelf on the bookcase has turned into two shelves, a tabletop, and two large piles in the craft room…

I’m glad I started homeschooling now. If I had to jump right into seven subjects and term papers I would have lost my mind!

Starting the Communication Process!

Roo-minder Rings American Sign Language Cards – Mommy Auctions

With a Kindergartener, that talks way too much, and a Pre-Schooler, that again talks too much, my world is filled with wild conversations. While we are considering trying for number three, I am occupying myself reading up on all the “mommy advice” for rearing three kids. One big item that seems to stand out is how the more kids you have the slower it seems the youngest is to start talking. Mainly because the older kids keep speaking for them.

In effort to stimulate the baby’s communication skills many moms have opted for teaching their children sign language. I think this is a great great idea!! Mommy Auctions is my favorite place for mommy and baby items so I went searching and found these great Roominder Rings ASL Cards!

How cute! I like that it isn’t some book I have to hold open with one hand and try to sign with the other (especially since many signs need both hands!).

Seeing how my daughters talk WAY too much now, maybe I should regress and teach them sign language…. in the hopes that the noise level in the house might go down a decibel or two.

For those homeschooling new readers, there are also lots of great children’s books at GREAT prices!!

Check out Mommy Auctions! The variety is ever increasing and the deals are steals!

A little perspective…

It’s 5:45 am, and I’m already up and worried that we won’t get through ALL that we need to, academically speaking, this week, before Samantha’s birthday party. The list is running through my head, math, reading, arts, money, calendar, weather, senses, phew! I’m worn out!

So I get up and grab the fancy schmancy math K5 book we bought her from the Book Store. Just for giggles, and maybe a little perspective, let’s see how many pages are actually there.

320…

According to BJUPress, this is what Sam is expected to cover in Kindergarten. Cool, now let’s do some mommy math…

School is supposed to be (on average, since Virginia doesn’t really count days) about 180 days. If we take 320 pages, divided by 180 days… hmmm… hold on it’s early….. ok I had to get the calculator… I’m not up to calculating 1.7777777777778 on my own!

So that’s about two pages a day, with a few “no math” days. Well, we tore out the first twenty sheets because she already knows how to write her numbers, and she has been doing those worksheets since September. So WE are down to only 300. Last week she did 28 pages over the course of two days because I couldn’t get her to stop! That is just from THIS book, she has another book from Walmart and I had downloaded several themed math units online, of which she has finished over 1/2 of them.

My point is that this book, and the one for reading, and the one for science, etc. all look very foreboding. Each of them over an inch think, sitting on the shelf, pages all clean and untouched. In reality, if you take all those pages and divide them up over the days we have left, Sam is still ahead of the game. We could probably take Friday off completely this week without falling behind.

So I am going to take a deep breath, finish my coffee, and rest assured that in the grand scheme and schedule of all that is Kindergarten, we are NOT behind…. I have not managed to destroy my child’s educational progress in two weeks… we are fine, and we will be fine… as long as we keep it in perspective and take it two pages at a time.

Free with a price…

I LOVE that I can home school my daughter through Kindergarten for FREE! There are so many great resources online! http://www.starfall.com is one of my favorites! Even my three year old has something to do on that site! No more learning the abc’s without phonics included!

I have one small problem though. None of these sites, so far, have shown me how to get a new concept across. It’s great that I can go to http://www.learningpages.com and download a money unit in eight different themes but where are the instructions on HOW to explain why it is that 5 pennies make a nickel but only 2 nickels make a dime, and you can’t put any number of dimes into a quarter without having a nickel, and it only takes 4 quarters to make a dollar! My daughter also stumped me when she asked why the penny said “One Cent” and the nickel said “Five Cents” but the dime and the quarter just said “One Dime” and “One Quarter”. Huh… I don’t know Sammy Lammy… not sure why they did that.

Unable to answer her questions, I was forced to think fast and get her involved in learning it a different way. This is how we ended up with my money jar of the floor making a money tree.

At the top of our tree was a dollar. Under the dollar we put four quarters, in a line, like we were making a flow chart. We just called it our “tree”. Under one quarter we put two dimes and a nickel, under another we put one dime and three nickels, under the next we put five nickles, and the last she lined up twenty five pennies. Under all the dimes we put two nickles, and under each nickel we put five pennies. I’ll admit, we had a BIG tree on the floor. The result was we ended with 100 pennies. And she could follow them down from a dollar through the quarters and through the different combinations until we got to all cents (pennies).

This is when my brilliant daughter proceeded to pose another unanswerable question: “How do I know this is a nickel when it doesn’t have Monticello on the back?” UGH…dern federal reserve making special nickels and quarters!!! She found at least three different pictures on her nickels and I didn’t count how different quarters.

I’ve been told that purchased curriculums have teachers guides and textbooks that will walk me through teaching her a new concept. I guess I figured this early in the schooling game the concepts would be easy to explain. Boy was I wrong…. I take for granted the stuff I just seem to “know”. If anyone wants to explain to my fiesty 5 year old why there are three words that sound like “there” and three for “by” feel free to do so…. I’m just giving her a nice “deer in the headlights look at the moment”.

Week One under our belt…

Week one is finished, and boy what a whirlwind! Even though Sammy had only been in public school for preK and 8 weeks of Kindergarten she still has alot of de-schooling to work on. When I announced that Thursday would be a “school in our pajamas” day I thought she was going to jump up and down until she passed out! She had so much fun! Her reading skills have doubled in one week, not that her teacher wasn’t helping her in that regard (because she was), it’s just Sammy didn’t have a lot of time to read or work on reading in class. Last night at Awana’s her leader came up and told me that she was shocked to see Sammy reading her Scriptures with little help. Man oh Man did that make me feel on top of the world! I can’t wait to get started again this morning!

As wonderful as this sounds, behind the scenes I know what’s really going on around here. My three year old is terribly jealous that her big sister gets so much attention in the morning, even though I try to involve Jo too. And as much as I hate the idea of people quizzing my daughter every time they see her, trying to see if she’s learning, I can’t help but join in and show off her new knowledge to those skeptics in the family that insist I am destroying my daughter.

Here’s some of my favorite remarks I’ve heard lately:

1. She needs to learn about a school bell and how to read and write from a blackboard.
2. You need to have bulletin boards to hang stuff from.
3. How is she going to learn to raise her hand to speak.
4. You need to have yourself financially organized before you do this!
5. You’ll never have time to do fun stuff for yourself anymore!
6. You’ll never get up and do P.E. exercises with her everyday (yeah, cuz my beer bellied PE teacher in high school actually did exercises WITH us everyday… right!)
7. You’re taking away her chance to have a teacher as her hero and mentor … (umm what am I?)

~~~~~

My husband and I have been discussing this for years, and seriously looking into it and downloading lessons for about a month. The final decision was made quickly and we had Sam out of school in a week. Let’s take a moment to see what’s changed around here:

1. Mom gets to shower more than three times a week!
2. We see our best friends (mine and hers) at least twice a week now instead of twice a year!
3. Less whining!
4. Better eating!
5. She’s sleeping through the night
6. Spending more time with dad!
7. Sammy has learned how to do dishes, and clean the bathroom sink!
8. At least once a week mom gets to leave the house and spend over an hour talking to grown ups! (HSing group play dates at the park are not necessarily for the kids!)

I don’t believe for one second that the wonderful positive changes in our house are simple because we homeschool. It is entirely, 110% , a blessing from God on our home for our stepping out against family and friends and doing what we felt called to do for our family. We stay busy, and yes mom stays running, however the dragged down, can’t get my fanny off the couch feeling has been lifted. There is a new purpose and drive in my life. Many opponents tell me it won’t last, that as usual I will get bored and fall behind. I disagree, I feel as though I am being fed energy, support and inspiration to move forward directly from the Holy Spirit and with that, I will only slow down when it’s time for us to take a break. I am refreshed everytime I hear Sam sing John 3:16, I am rejuvenated every time I see her “catch on ” to a new skill or hear her using her new “big” words in the playtime she has with her sister. Even daddy has renewed in interest in church, the Scriptures, and is participating in the little things without being asked. He used to come home and IF we remembered to show him what she did in school he would glance in our direction and say “wonderful!”. Now he comes home excited and wants to see her books. Even though he’s not here during the day he now feels like he’s a part of the process.

This isn’t what I had planned on posting this morning, it’s early and my brain hasn’t kicked in yet. We have a very full week planned, bowling, making four fairy costumes (which involves dyeing fabric!), mailing out invites, getting ready to go camping with Papa and Grandma this weekend, and getting the house ready for a “mommy” party on Friday.

I pray that all of you out there, whether homeschooling or public schooling, who are taking your child’s education and placing it in faith into the hands of God be blessed today. It seems any decision is against someone’s norm, and the only choice that matters is the decision to follow what God has called you to do for your family. I pray that we are all strong enough to follow, blindly, and faithfully .