Word Family Eggs

I found this awesome idea on Pinterest. I love making reading fun! I might even put M-n-M's in the egg. After reading the words she can open the egg and have a treat :)

A peak into our day...

Today was the official first day of school for 2011-2012! It went very well! Elliana likes to grab my camera and take pictures. I scanned through the pictures she took and thought they were a good glimpse into the reality of homeschooling...

(I took the first four this morning right before we started school)

I love Asher's face...Elliana loves school :)
Joshua doesn't look too happy either..
And a silly pose..
Elliana's pictures...
(she is holding an arrowhead..)
Joshua and I reading in the family room.
Yep, there are moments like these....
But there are also moments like these!!
Lazy bum...

Updates to the school room..

For 8 years I conducted school out of a crate at the kitchen table. When we started thinking about moving a school room was on the list of what we "really, really, really want". I am thankful to have an entire room dedicated to educating our children. I no longer need to lug around big crates :) Although I must add here that location is really irrelevant when it comes to educating our children. They would learn better in an open field than in a school room. It would seem to me that instead of building all these new schools the government should hire more (and dare I say better) teachers. (alright, I am jumping down from my soapbox...)

I have been slowly setting up our school room. I recently found a great world map for the wall and Aaron put up a white board. In the past I looked into getting a white board but was put off by the high price. Aaron was talking to another homeschool dad and discovered an inexpensive solution. He purchased a piece of white paneling from Lowe's and attached it to the wall. We rubbed on some turlte wax and it was ready to go. It works great! And it cost us about 12 dollars :)

Incentives

In the past I have used rewards to help my kids learn geography (they memorized the location of 25 states and capitals or countries and would earn one candy bar every two weeks). It was a huge success and my boys were very motivated to learn. This year I will continue to reward them for their map work, but I am also adding a new area.

I have collected a large assortment of math workbooks for this coming school year. I want them to work on these problems in addition to their Saxon lesson each day. But I also want this to be done with little to no complaining. I have come up with a solution!

I made folders for each boy that contain worksheets of math problems that I want them

to complete. For each page (one side) they complete they will earn 25 cents to be added to their allowance. So for every full page, front and back, they earn 50 cents. They can only do one side each day (which will make sure that this extra work will not get in the way of our normal school work).

Every time they complete one side I will grade it (they must fix all errors) and then they will put it back in the folder. On allowance day they will get their completed pages from their folders and we will add up what they have earned. Yeah for extra math work done without whining !!! :)

What happens when you stop saying no..

Asher is always bringing me items that he wants to look at under our microscope. I am usually busy with something and tell him not now, maybe later.

Yesterday I went on a 10 mile run. As often happens on these long runs my mind was busy thinking about anything and everything. One thing in particular came to my mind, why do I tell him no. As a homeschooling mom I should be encouraging this behavior. I had already given both the boys lessons in microscopy. So I decided to set up our microscope and leave it at the ready for anything they want to investigate more closely.

This morning Asher had a blast finding things to study with the microscope. At one point he grabbed my camera and asked if he could use it to take a picture of what he saw through the eyepiece. I started to tell him no (I doubted highly that it would work), but then I stopped and said sure give it a try.

These are the pictures that he took….(he set up and focused all of these images).

I have a little scientist on my hands J Yeah!

It is officially summer!

Last week we finished our school year. The kids will have school during the summer, but it will be greatly reduced due to baseball, swimming and piano lessons, and just plain having fun in the sun :) I have been working on our summer schedule and today was our first day trying it out.

We will be working through the following books:

Ann Voskamp's- A Child's Geography Explore His Earth

Apologia Zoology 1- Flying Creatures (We won't finish this book during the summer, but will continue it during the coming school year.)

Story of Orchestra

They will also be working on Spanish, French, grammar, paragraph editing, spelling, and map work.

We have also started a new reading program for the summer. The boys are being challenged to read for 5 hours each week. Monday through Thursday are designated as "no screen" days, which means no TV, computer, wii or Nintendo ds.

But if they read for one hour than can earn thirty minutes of screen time (up to one hour per day) on those days. For example, Asher read for two hours today so he earned 1 hour of screen time. While Joshua only read for one hour and has earned thirty minutes of screen time (he has baseball tonight and would not have more than thirty minutes to play).

In the past the kids would watch cartoons in the morning (30 minutes or so) and then play wii or watch cartoons at 3:30pm (we do not allow the TV on during the day). So they were watching more than an hour of screens per day, which I hated. Now they are watching less and reading more, which I love :)

Building an Electromagnet

Joshua made an electromagnet in school today. He then used it to pick up metal washers. The directions said to use one D-cell and see if you could pick up and move metal washers.

Joshua explaining to me what an electromagnet is and how it works- " An electromagnet is a magnet. The batteries make an electric field because the energy travels through the wires. It works because the energy passing through the wire makes the nail a magnet."

Joshua was able to pick up two washers.
We added an extra D-cell to see what would happen...
Joshua was able to pick up 3 washers!
Newton was a little nervous about our experiments :)Explaining his experiment to Asher.
Joshua started experimenting with other things his electromagnet could pick up.
Elliana doing "cool science".

College & Homeschooling

I have had several people ask me how my children are going to go to college if they have always been homeschooled. What about a high school diploma? Will they need to get a GED to apply to a university? Are we holding are children back? Are we limiting their future by keeping them at home?

I have personally contacted several prestigious ivy league universities and asked them if they accept homeschool students. I also asked them if there was anything different a homeschooled child would need to complete in order to apply. (Take heart all you amazing homeschool parents who are working hard everyday to give your children the best education available, I am about to make your day!) Here are their responses:

Brown- Homeschool students are accepted at this university. They need to fill out an application, just like everyone else.

University of Penn- Homeschool students are accepted at this university. They need to fill out an application, just like everyone else.

Yale- Homeschool students are accepted at this university. They do not need a GED. They must fill out a form detailing the curriculum that was used.

Princeton- Homeschool students are accepted at this university. They need to fill out an application, just like everyone else.

Harvard- Homeschool students are accepted at this university. They need to fill out an application, just like everyone else. The forms that will be filled out will just be completed by different people. Instead of a counselor filling out a form, a parent would complete this part of the application. The person I spoke with said they have competitive students at Harvard that have been homeschooled and they admit homeschooled students every cycle. No GED is required. I found an article on the Harvard website entitled- Homeschoolers A Small But Growing Minority.


After all this research I am even more determined to homeschool my children.

Poor Asher...

He LOVES to read. Keeping him in good books is about the same is keeping him in shoes and pants that fit. He is constantly reading through books and I am constantly searching for new ones for him.

So this is a pretty common sight around our house, Asher sprawled out on the floor with all of his books... his latest Lego creation by his side.

I would be misleading you if I did not show you what happened 30 seconds later...That is Elliana trying to build a train track behind Asher. She decided that he was in the way and is now pushing him with her head. Asher is not one to be pushed around and is pushing right back. The sweet silence of reading was nice while it lasted :) Mom/Teacher to the rescue!

school this week

The boys love to listen to their mp3 players. They even share with Elliana.

Asher showing Joshua his solar system lapbook. He is so proud :)

The kids learned about Roman sculptures this week in art. They had a lot of fun making their own. Joshua's dragon will also be used in 4H :)

Simply Amazing! Homeschoolers ROCK!!!

Just prior to a hearing on SB136, a proposal that would force Home Schoolers to register with the state and undergo criminal background checks, 4000 home schoolers converged on the IL State Capitol in Springfield to make their voices heard in protest to this attempt to take away their freedom. While waiting for the hearing, they started singing "America The Beautiful".

School!

I have not taken a picture of our classroom in quite some time, so I thought I would let you all have a glimpse into our little homeschool world. Although to be honest I should take a picture of the kitchen and living room as well. The kids find their way into the living room to find somewhere comfy to work. And there are times when a snack is needed to finish multiplication :)
I also wanted to share a great resource I discovered. I LOVE Kumon! I use their math workbooks for drill work and also for some preschool workbooks. I have recently discovered "Numbers 1-30 Write & Wipe". Elliana loves writing her numbers (and thus learning them) because she knows she can erase them when she is done.What does a homeschool do for Valentines Day?? Celebrate of course! The kids and I are making mini-heart shaped cakes for tonight's dessert and Aaron is bringing home a heart shaped pizza :)