Field Trips are Awesome!

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is the field trips. I love spending time with my children and experiencing the fun that our city has to offer. Finding a learning experience in our every day and making each day an exciting adventure is awesome.

And I'm so incredibly blessed because I found a local co-op that organizes other events for us as well. We don't g to all of them because they can add up over time, but we went to Cracker Country last month.

Cracker Country is a themed area of a small U.S. town staged as a reenactment of 100 years ago. It is really really fun to visit and temporarily live in a part of our history.

Each building had at least one member of staff to explain and describe how like life was back in the 1900's. We spent a lot of time in the schoolhouse where there were a lot of busy actviities for children while they learned about schoolhouse life.

 

Gaia's favorite part was learning how to churn butter and then getting to taste the fruits of her labor.

I really appreciated how they provided some post-trip activity ideas. Although Gaia didn't like the home made butter taste-wise, she did like making it and learning about the process.

Overall, the trip was a success! If you're in Tampa, Florida at any time and you have the opportunity, make sure to check out Cracker Country, We plan to go again in December for the Christmas event.

A Cave Drawing (Just Like the Nomads!)

I admit that history is our hardest thing we've come across so far. I thought for sure it'd be mathematics, but we're actually sailing right along in that aspect. I read her stories from history. I pause several tiems to engage her , but she gets facts confused and loses interest. I have got to find a way to make history fun.

As a stretch of an effort, today we decided to paint our version of cave drawings. While she painted we talked about why the nomads painted in caves, what they painted, and different things they used to paint with. It was pretty fun and I'm so thrilled with the outcome.

To make your own cave drawing, simply choose three colors of paint (we used acrylics) and separate them out in your palette (a paper plate works well, too). The best colors are black, a reddish brown, and a peachy tan. Then cut out a large square from a brown paper bag and crinkle it up into a ball, then lay ti flat. This is to simulate the different lines on the cave wall.Then just paint away!

I'm hoping that every time she looks at her painting she's reminded of the nomads. Eventually, after thinking about them often, she'll remember all about them. 

Homeschool Planning Made Easy with Lessontrek!

The time has come. I am working through curriculum trying to figure out exactly what the little miss and I are going to do since we'll have all day every day to sit around and stare into each others' eyes. I won't lie... I quite nervous going into this. I probably have way more curriculum than I need and I can't figure out how I'll know what is best without actually sitting down and reading it all cover to cover. And then there's the horrible feeling like I'm doing it all wrong...

Luckily when it comes to actually laying it all out I have found this perfectly simple planning program: Lessontrek.

Click to enlarge my daughter's first week.

If you click the photo above you can see the basic set up. On my screencap, "GL" are my daughter's initials. You can set up each child's schedule separately if you have a multiple grade household, which is super awesome!

When creating the grade profile you manually enter subjects. It's my first year and I'm not really sure what I'm doing so we have a little bit of everything going on. Each subject can then be broken down in to graded assignments. We're not doing grades here (though I will write up assessments when I feel we've reached the "end" of something worth documenting). But I like that the scedule has room to add grades if I wanted.

Everything is so simple with Lessontrek. Just add information a little at a time until you wind up with a cohesive schedule. If you decide to move things around that's easy too! Just drag and drop...

You can copy weeks or blocks at a time and paste them accordingly. Everything winds up just how you need it to stay on track this year. I'm super stoked because with little to no effort I am passable as someone who knows what they are doing. :)

I plan to edit my schedule to add in assignments I might make up to fit a lesson, activities we've done to tie lessons together, or simple progress notes to help my record keeping during our journey.

How will you use your Lessontrek?

Lessontrek would like to offer ALL of my readers 50% off a 1 year subscriptions. amilies can get a full year access to Lessontrek for just $30!  Simply visit Lessontrek, click the $60 yearly subscription, and enter the code 2IOL50 in the Payment Info section. Your credit card will be charged $30 for a full year and then renew for $60 each year thereafter.

Kitten's First Full Moon

Kitten’s First Full Moon was published in 2004. Written by Kevin Henkes, Kitten’s First Full Moon won the Caldecott award in 2005 as one of the most distinguished American picture book for children that year. It follows the same lovable style as Henke’s other famous books such as Chrysanthemum and the ever popular Penny series.

Kitten’s First Full Moon tells the tale of a small kitten perplexed by the giant circle in the night sky. The kitten is sure that this round, white object is a giant bowl of milk. She tries licking it, jumping to it, even climbing a tree. She never gets the bowl of milk in the sky, and yet the ending is satisfactory after all.

Here's a peek:

Kitten’s First Full Moon has a black and white contrast style of illustration that makes it stand out. Because the story takes place at night, the dark colors are complimentary. The shading used forces you to use your imagination to infer colors among the shadows of the kitten’s journey. The white moon in stark contrast to the dark black sky enhances the moon’s importance throughout the tale.

I really liked this book because it used simple language that is easy for children to understand and contained a lot of repetition. I think this book would be very easy to use to engage Kindergarten students when it comes to a lesson on the moon, or kittens, or just for fun! It’s a quick and easy read to enjoy in a positive picture book experience.

There's Always a Twist!

I've decided to homeschool, dear friends. I wanted to share this with you because I am shifting the focus of this blog. I believe that all of my personal homeschool trials and triumphs can provide an excellent resource for both myself an other families striving for the same thing in their home. I also feel like I would love to be able to look back and reflect on the beginning of what I hope to be an amazing journey. (And honestly, if I fail I feel that can be helpful, too.)

Lucky for me there are very busy, very active homeschooling groups here in Tampa, Florida including a Homeschool Resource Center where my soon-to-be first grader can take specific interest classes. Because Gaia is very interested in speaking Spanish with her relatives, we've signed her up to attend a Spanish class in the fall. We're also on a waiting list for a STEM class which includes elements of  Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

I've already made some friends, too. One woman let me borrow a TON of readers for Gaia's reading lessons next year. I am so grateful for that because after pricing them online I wanted to cry!

I mostly picked up a ton of used books at local curriculum sales over the course of the past month or so. I don't really *know* what I'm looking for, so I have a few things to try out. I started by getting my hands on RightStart Mathematics (Level B) including the Math Games because I knew it was similar to what I was looking for. I had a hard time with history. I settled on buying Story of the World including the workbook, maps, and tests. I will be supplementing with living books as well.

For writing and grammar I plan to do a mixture of things, but I'm also kind of excited to try my hand at using English for the Thoughtful Child.The Amazon reviews had a lot of talk about lessons being drawn out because the context of each lesson require some research on the side of the parent. That's exactly what I want! I want my daughter to ask questions. I want her to come to me knowing that I'm curious, too. I can't wait to sit down and figure out the phases of the moon together! (I know them... shh!)

I also have some random books like sight words for grade 1, vocabulary workbooks, and activity books for specific areas I want to cover. I have math manipulatives taking over my table right now. All that's really left is sitting down and planning each day and organizing my "teaching space."

I feel like working towards a degree in education is beneficial. I am also planning on teaching in some way upon completion of my degree next year. I'll either substitute a few days a week, do private tutoring, or come up with another plan to put my hard-earned education to use. Rest assured that it was not all for nothing!

Finding My Place

My first time doing observations I was simply watching a VPK class at my daughter's old daycare. I knew before that I didn't always enjoy large groups of smaller children, but watching Mrs. L try and keep everything under control with a bunch of 4 and 5 year old kids sealed it for me. I love babies and toddlers, but there comes a point when little kids get to be too much. As a group it becomes even more frightening for me. They just don't understand basic concepts and often I imagine they will take off on some crazy, hyper adventure without alerting me first. Before you know it I will have completely lost control of my 17 small students. It's just too much pressure.

I used to say I wanted to teach middle school. Since my program covers K-8 I thought maybe going to the higher end would be what I needed since the littles were overwhelming. Let me tell you somethin': middle schoolers are sassy!

I don't want to fight for run of the class either, of course. So I've made a home and settled in the middle ground. All of December was spent observing and interacting with two 4th grade classes. There is a lot expected of a 4th grade teacher since that is when things like standardized testing starts. The teachers I've been hanging out with have mentioned how much extra work it is making sure your students meet the expected growth levels by the end of the year.

Mrs. B, who had been teaching over 25 years, told me that she would not recommend going into the 4th grade because of all the extra work involved. I completely understand what she was trying to say, but I really enjoyed working with the 4th grade students. I may have to just ignore her and give it my best!

After this winter break is over I plan to move on and explore 5th grade. I am imagining it being something just as stressful because although standardized testing scores don't matter as much (they do still matter), you're now focused on making sure your students can move onto being sassy middle schoolers. Now that, my friends, seems like a difficult burden to bear.