Golden Acorn Homeschool

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!

video camera!

We did “King Lear” on Wednesday. Yes, that “King Lear,” the Shakespeare tragedy. We listened to it twice on Librivox.org, and then we all dressed up in costume and acted it out.

The cast of characters:

King Lear as portrayed by Super-boy

Goneril as portrayed by Monkey

Regan as protrayed by me

Cordelia as portrayed by DIva

Also, I took the brief parts of the Earl of Kent and the King of France. There are far more characters in the real play, but obviously, we use an adapted version. :-)

The girls and I put on various dresses and outfits, and then we made a crown for Super-boy and put a red coat on him. The whole thing was a riot! Monkey had to poison me, so she mixed up a “deadly” drink for me and she actually laughed while I drank it. I died, and she kills herself and falls down next to me. Diva turned in a fabulous performance when it came time for her to be hanged, and Super-boy really did stumble in trying to drag Diva with him in the end, before dying of a broken heart. Alas, such tragedy! As we were all laying dead on the floor (very Kenneth Brannagh), all I could think was that I wish I had a video camera to record it all. Hee hee.

I cannot believe I am sitting here writing this post, as we begin our third and final term of this year. Last May I was only starting to imagine what it would be like to homeschool my kiddos. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to homeschool them. Sure, I was irritated with my son’s school and their total lack of communication (among other things) but I was only considering it.

When I decided on the Charlotte Mason method, and Ambleside Online, the three terms and 36 weeks of school seemed impossibly long.

Wow, just….wow!

We took a nice long walk this morning and then came home and got busy. Super-boy finally took his math test for lesson 18 in Beta (we took off a few weeks to really concentrate on memorizing math facts and it paid off – he got an A!), we have been reading, writing and learning up a storm. We start a new artist this week as soon as I pick up the prints, and new composers as well. We are winding down the first year, and I am already looking to planning the next year, with two full time students. I have ordered a few of our books already, and saved my shopping cart at Math-U-See with curriculum for Super-boy and Diva.

Life is chugging along full steam, and I have learned that I not only can do this, but I love doing this. Teaching my kids has changed my life, and theirs, for the better. I know them better, I get to cherish all those amazing learning moments and breakthroughs. The kids are closer to one another. They had a tight bond before, but now…unbelievable!

I am so very blessed.

One of our very favorite books this year is Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin. I have enjoyed every single story we have read from that book, and Super-boy and Diva have been known to act them out pretty regularly. Some of the stories have made a huge impact on Super-boy and the way he behaves.

Yesterday we read the story of “Grace Darling.” I will paraphrase to save on time, but if you have a chance to read it, and some of the others, please do!

Anyway, Grace Darling was the daughter of the lighthouse keeper. A ship had crashed one night during a terrible storm, cracking the ship in two pieces over some jagged rocks. Grace heard the men calling and screaming for help and begged her father to help her save them. Her father was certain they would perish too, but he finally agreed to help her. They rowed out to the rocks, and Grace held the boat in place by herself as her father helped the men onto their boat. When they returned, she acted a nurse and tended to all the men. She is long since passed away, but there is still a memorial to her in the town where she lived.

Here are Super-boy and Diva’s drawn narrations of the story:

Well, we are at the end of our first week of homeschooling. I have learned so much! For the first time in my life, I can recognize Lake Superior without reading a labeled map. How’s that for educating myself along with the kids?? “Paddle-to-the-Sea” is one amazing book and I am going to recommend it to all my mommy friends with children in the 1st-5th grade range. It’s engaging, has great illustrations, and it’s very educational. I printed up a blank map of the Great Lakes region for us to color and fill out as Paddle makes his way to the sea. Such fun!!

I promised to post physical education games, and hold tight, because that will be my next blog. I also need to scan some of Super-boy’s sketches from his nature journal. I was really impressed with a bird he drew. I can’t tell you what bird it is from his drawing, but it’s a cute one!

I did put my new excel schedule into Word so a friend can see it. Of course, the nice thing about Excel is that it’s so easy to add pages to a spreadsheet and just copy and move things around. Darn you WordPress for not letting me upload an Excel file! Anyway, I have this created for each week with all of the Ambleside readings broken down into various days, and I added in our other subjects. MUS stands for Math-U-See. The purple blocks are literature, red is history, orange is geography, and green is science. I think the rest explains itself. Or, at least I hope it does. Microsoft Word version of my Excel Schedule

I am glad the week is over and we can all relax for the weekend. My schedule is made up 6 weeks in advance, but I will only print them on Sunday evenings in case something changes. I am still excited and still motivated. I think we are making good progress and I am more firmly convinced that the Charlotte Mason method is the way to go for us. I am blessed.