Golden Acorn Homeschool

Although I am not yet living in Nevada, I am really excited about my homeschooling prospects there.  Nevada is very much a libertarian/freedom-oriented state.  Basically, it’s right up my alley!

As far as homeschooling goes, I submit an intent to homeschool to the local school district…and that’s it.  I can choose to have the kids participate in standardized tests, but it’s not required.  I don’t have to refile the intent every year like I do in Maryland.  I also don’t have to submit to reviews anymore.  WOO HOO!

The real bonus to living in such a homeschool friendly state is the ability for the kids to be dually enrolled in activities at the public schools.  Cole wants to play drums, and now he can join the local public school band class.  How awesome is that?  They can be enrolled in up to three classes/activities at the local school each semester.  They can take PE, play on sports teams, participate in music, art, or whatever interest they may have.  Other states do this too (and receive partial funding, I might add), but Maryland is a very unfriendly state to homeschooling.  Their loss, I guess.

It’s a wonderful blend of educational freedom – in my opinion – and it offers a whole new world of opportunities for my kids.  And the schools get extra money.  It’s win-win!

I really haven’t written a single post in over a month?  I don’t have any excuses, I just have nothing to say, and too much to do.  I have been a single mom for just over two months now, and while it is hard, it also has certain advantages.  I am not suffering terribly, I just don’t have time to blog.  No biggie.  I do seem to have time to gorge myself on HGTV.  I think I might be a tad bit excited about having my own space again. :-)

As far as the big move goes, my plan is to send the minivan and the storage cubes full of stuff out on the 11th of February, and then fly out with the kids on the 16th.  Hopefully the car and the stuff will arrive shortly after we do.  Well, that’s the plan, anyway.

That departure date means I will miss another holiday with my hubby, but we don’t do much for Valentine’s day anyway.  I am not a big fan of holidays created by retailers to celebrate a love that I choose to celebrate all year.  Besides, the 19th of February is our 11th wedding anniversary and I am excited to be reunited with him for that!

We did originally plan to drive, but I think flying will be better for everyone. I assume the kids would like to make it to Vegas alive.  Oh!  And we should have a house nailed down by this weekend and I am excited to know exactly where I will be living.  It will be a rental for the next year, but we hope to buy in early 2011 once we know what areas and neighborhoods are desirable in Las Vegas, and get our ducks all in a row.

I am still schooling the kids, but relying a lot more on time4learning to fill in gaps and free up time for me to clean and pack.  We also just passed ourt final review for the state of Maryland.  Yipee!

More updates soon, I hope!

I am SO proud of how well Cole did with this story.  It was long, so we broke it up over three days, and the language was very difficult.  I edited out the “um” sounds, but otherwise, this is all him.  I kept the errors and mixed up tenses as they are, but I used brackets [ ] to fill in names where he used too many pronouns.  Still, my spell checker in Word said this was a 4.8 grade level.  His verbal “writing” has really taken a huge leap in the last few months, and that is beginning to translate to the page.  :-)

Perseus

Acrisius found out his daughter would have a baby boy and that the baby was going to kill him.  Then Acrisius put Danae in a closet hoping that no one would go near her.  But, she had a baby anyway.  King Acrisius was still very worried and he put Danae and her baby at sea.  She started crying and singing a song to the baby.  Then they see cliffs and she cries for help.  Then Dictys pulls her out onto a rock and she said she would be his servant and live in his house.  Dictys said, “Come be my daughter, and your son will be my grandson.”

Perseus grows up and sees a woman who is taller than any man is, and her gray eyes were shining and bright.  Her name is Athena and she told him he would slay Medusa who was the mother of all monsters.  Athena wants him to chop off Medusa’s head.  He has to find the three gray sisters and they share one eye and one tooth, which is disgusting.

(more…)

This post is a little late, I know.  But better late than never, right?

A couple weeks ago I taught a two-part Van Gogh class for our co-op group.  (Have I mentioned how much I will miss them?  *sniffles*)  It was a very fun class and I ended up finishing two projects of my own.  We talked about Van Gogh and then the kids created their own Van Gogh inspired art with air-dry clay.  We used the clay to create texture, rather than gobs of paint.  In week 2, we did end up painting our creations.  The idea came from Art Projects for Kids.  Duh.

I think the kids made beautiful and interesting pieces!  I was very proud.  :-)

On Tuesday, we did one of the experiments from our book “Science Lab in a Supermarket.”  We read a section about fruits and vegetables, and then learned how water travels though capillaries in plants.

First, I demonstrated this principle for the girls using water and paper towels.

Then, we moved on to celery and food coloring.  :-)

We waited a few hours, checking on our veggie often, and finally we saw this…

EW!  Celery capillaries full of really blue water.

This lead to some interesting discussions about human veins and capillaries, and how blood flows, what it does, and why it’s so important.  The kids were excited to be making an “army against swine flu” in their bodies.  LOL!

We *heart* science.  :-)

Erg.

I was reading my news feed today when I came across this article.  Apparently, some homeschoolers in Delaware feel left out because their children cannot receive the H1N1 vaccine through the program intended for the local public schools.

Really?

I have lots of interesting thoughts about what public school districts could (and maybe should) offer to homeschooling families.  However, a vaccine is not one of those things.  I am sorry, but kids in public school are exposed to hundreds of other children, teachers, and employees.  Schools are a breeding ground for the flu.  While it’s true that many homeschoolers are quite active in the community and socialize with many groups of people, they are not in that germ-filled breeding ground every day, all day.

Homeschoolers make a choice to educate outside of the societal norm and that means making certain sacrifices.  We take on the entire responsibility for the education of our children, including the financial burden.  And yes, we *do* pay taxes for the school system, but so do single people, elderly people, couples with no children…wait, everyone pays taxes, don’t they?

If you are a homeschooler who wants the H1N1 vaccine for your child, make an appointment with your child’s doctor, or attend a public clinic.  Your child is not a student in the public school system, get over it.  You are not entitled to benefits of that nature, and you made that choice when you opted not to use public education.

*stepping off soap box now*

Last Friday we had a chance to explore the historic Beall-Dawson house in Rockville.  Many thanks to Tamara for arranging the trip!

There was no photography allowed inside the house, but I snapped what I could.  :-)

This is just me posting about my general excitement with homeschooling.  (Yes, I am still excited about it.)

It seems like we have really hit a stride where the kids just know what to expect from the day and I don’t deal with very much resistance anymore.  I love that we have finally sunk into a good routine for the year.  I have realized that I CAN homeschool three kids, still manage to bathe them, wash some laundry, and put a meal on the table (that I cooked myself) nearly every night.  Yes, sometimes we eat out, or I let people fend for themselves.  No shame in that!

Adding Zoey into the mix as an “official” preschooler took some juggling.  Also having Sydni working in Ambleside Year 1 and Cole in Year 3, meant a lot more work and reading (for me) overall.  At this point, I have stopped trying to work with them at the same time.  I was reading/working with one child while another did independent work, but no more!  It worked for the past two years, but this year I was finding that I was being constantly interrupted by the “independently” working child and that everyone was losing focus and getting frustrated, too distracted, or just slipping through the cracks.

Now, I am starting the day with all three kids and doing the things we do together: Bible, hymn, artist study, composer study, Spanish (not everything, every day!).  After we complete the “circle time” session (as I call it), I choose a child to work with one at a time.  Zoey takes about 15-20 minutes a day, so I usually begin with her since she has a much shorter attention span anyway.  Then Cole and Sydni take turns on a daily basis over who works with me first, and who takes a play break first.  I get through all of their work quickly and efficiently, and then move on to the next kid.  We are still finishing up our school work most days by lunchtime or shortly after.

This does mean that for those hours we are doing schoolwork that I get almost nothing else done because I am literally moving from kid to kid to kid.  I used to be able to do some dishes or start a load of laundry while they were working on their own – not so much anymore, but that’s ok.  Cole is working his way to being independent much of the time, as his reading fluency continues to increase, along with his ability to digest more complicated readings.

I am also SUPER excited about some good things happening with the kids and their development and learning.  Sydni has already finished her first Pathway Reader for this school year, and at the rate she is going, will be moving on to the 2nd grade readers by the Spring.  I am also happy about a VERY long and detailed narration that Cole gave on the “Pecos Bill” tall tale.  I think I will type it up and share it this weekend.  The chapter was quite long and I stopped five times during the story and had him narrate.  He did a great job and remembered some really interesting details.

It’s also nice to see additions to our “Staircase of Time.”

(This was taken right after I finished drawing it, I should take a new one!)

Having a huge visual tool for tracking historical events is really helping things stick in the kids’ minds.  Sydni even drew little crowns over the names of Phillip the II of Macedon and Alexander the Great to help her remember they were kings.  CUTE!  Tell me how many 1st graders you know who even have an idea of who those people are?  :-D

Yeah, I really love homeschooling.  WOOT!

I am sure by now that anyone who reads this blog (or knows me in real life), knows how much I ADORE William Shakespeare.  I attribute this love of the bard to my high school AA English AND Shakespeare teacher, Mr. Heck.  In fact, I took his Shakespeare class twice because I loved it so much.  He loved Shakespeare and he was so funny and enthusiastic in teaching the topic that I embraced Will, too.

I really want my kids to be familiar with & love Shakespeare.  We have covered a number of plays over the last couple years, and we use paper dolls, toys, and Barbies to act out the scenes.  We have also done a rendition of “King Lear” by playing the parts ourselves.  Good times!

On the Ambleside Online mailing list, someone mentioned a set of great DVD’s called “Shakespeare: The Animated Tales.”  I looked it up on Netflix and I was hooked.  Now that we know about this great tool, we typically watch the play first (if available), and then read the play and act it out afterward (it’s a children’s version we read).  Shakespeare is performance art, so I feel that people – especially children – best learn to appreciate Will’s genius when they see it acted out.

I haven’t been able to justify the $72 price for buying the set when I can just get the disc I need from Netflix at any time, but I really, really want it.  Maybe some day soon.  I can see myself watching these 30 minutes animated tales over and over again.  They are well done, they pace nicely, and my kids can make out the major plot points.  What more can I ask for?

Someone has been putting them on youtube, so if you are interested in a little peek….enjoy!

(I especially enjoy the puppetry, so I chose Twelfth Night, one of my favorite plays!)

On the 9th we had a chance to go down to DC and see the houses participating in the solar decathlon.  We got there a little late and didn’t get to see as many houses as we wanted to, but we still had a good time and learned some interesting things.

We also dipped into the American History museum and were able to participate in a great science class.  The teacher was great and the kids learned a lot about carbon dioxide, acids and bases.

Hooray for hands on learning!