Our week so far

  Running a few days behind, it's been an active week already. We started off our Sunday with a hike at a local park.  There, my oldest spotted a baby Chicken Turtle, which the staff at the nature center told us was a rare thing.  Next, as we were on the off beaten path, (seeing a lot of brush pile clean up from the tornado), we stopped to read a sign about Gopher Tortoises.  Hearing a sound we looked past a bush and saw one just walking right along.  What a handsome fellow, or gal it was.  The Gopher Tortoise is a threatened species here in Florida.  You are not allowed to bother or touch them, unless they are injured, or happen to be crossing a parking lot.

                          
                                           Had to get a photo of the boys next to him/her.

Monday, we went on another hike.  We didn't see too much, but the boys had fun.

   I also took Superman to our local library to check out the Chess club.  He had tried a few games when our family was in last month and seemed to like it.  So he sat down with a coach, who showed him how each piece moved and then I played a game with him.  I haven't played chess in at least ten years, and not paying attention, he beat me.  He liked it and so we are going to continue going.  I'm going to pick up a chess board for home.  The coach gave me a book to read on it so we can practice.  There was another six year old there that Superman wants to play a game with next time.  Though hard, I think he may pick up the game well.   When learning a new game, we always ask him what moves we can make.  Since in chess, he needs to learn to think ahead a few moves, I hope this comes in handy. 

    Today we had story time at the library.  We are at the library at least twice a week.  Some weeks more.  For example, tomorrow we'll be there for Lego club, and since I ordered some books, will check to see if they are in.  We visited with the normal story time families, and then met a friend from home school co op after, for a picnic and some playground time.  The kids had a blast.  I think they ran for two hours straight.  

For the afternoon, after some creative comic drawing and trio building, some school work was finished up, dinner was eaten, plants outside were watered in the midst of a water gun battle and then lastly, bath, story and bed.  I started The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S.Lewis.  The boys had enjoyed listening it to it a few months ago, and finally I decided to read it to them. 

   My week feels like it's over already, and it's not only half done.  

Last week home school review

  Whew, I really have no idea where the time goes.  Last week we started on week 20 of Phonics Road.  I realize now that I skipped a review of week 19, not sure what happened there.  We did it though, because the complete sheet and book is in the Apprentice binder.
     Nothing new to introduce, just spelling words and the illustrating of a book.  The same actually goes for this week as well.  So we reviewed a little of the days of the week, worked in some categorizing and then a worksheet on observation.  I know some weeks may not seem like much, but don't forget, we do a lot of reading- I read to the boys and Superman reads his share.

                            

  For math I introduced some telling time.  Hours, half hours and minutes.  We reviewed number placement on a number line.  And of course the norm of addition/subtraction drill.  I also tossed in a page of word problems.

 

 

  I don't have a photo of our complete science week, but we went over flowers and some types of flowers.  Our experiment was to see how water travels through the stem.  We placed four white Carnations in four glasses of dyed water.  After a few days, the flowers in the blue dye looked like this.  They and the red ones are now quite pretty and colorful.  There will be a follow up photo at the end of this week.

Letting Children Go

  My thought for awhile has been about letting children go.  I think we look at our children and want them to remain young for as long as possible.  But are we stunting them?  Are we sending them a message that they can't do it?
   When we get in the car, I make my six year old buckle himself in, then I help to make sure the belt is locked.   My husband buckles him in, because in his mind, he wants him to be a little boy as long as possible, so shouldn't have to do it.
  He can make himself a simple breakfast.  That's fine with me.  It's not that I don't enjoy making them their meals, but they have to learn to do it themselves at some point.  This doesn't mean I stop making breakfast.
  How old are our kids when we let them go at the playground.  You know what I'm talking about.  We moms and dads hover anxiously, afraid to let the kids play, for fear of getting hurt.  At some point, they will fall and get hurt.  It's part of life. They have to learn through experience what they can do or not do.  We have to learn to let them do for themselves.
  This doesn't take childhood away though.  At least not in my eyes.

Play and nature

  I'm a huge fan of play.  That said, we limit tv greatly-it's a weekend morning thing, and no real video game play-but good old fashioned, use your imagination, go outside and play, play.
   Being a home school family, allows us a lot of play time.  And, most of the public schools in my area do not have recess.  A lot of schools across the US do not have recess.  Play is so important to a child's development.  To expect a 6 year old to sit still in a class all day, is to me, ridiculous.  And that's the age of most first graders.  Even as adults, we take a break of our work.  Those of us who lead active lifestyles, are healthier and happier.  So why do we want to take play away from our kids?

                                             Batcave

                                                Puddles are just too much fun

                                                  The off-beaten path

  Along with play and exploring, our boys love nature.

Homeschool catch up & family

  Whew, I need to catch up.  I was pretty much off the pc for awhile.  We had some family in for a few weeks last month.  Our cousin brought her mom down with her, so that was a huge surprise.  It was very nice to see them.
   Then some of my in-laws came for a visit.  They rented a beach house near us.  In all, it was a lot less stressful than I thought it would be.  Both women are former teachers, though one was an elementary teacher.  When they visited last summer, they were very against home school.  I'm sure they still are.  But, after looking at our Phonics Road, math and some of the things we have gone over, as well as just observation, the former elem teacher, was impressed.  She mentioned that what we are doing is good for right now.  We talked briefly about what we would do with our little guy if we had to place him in school.  Would he be bored?  How far ahead would he be?  Things like that.  And, my husband is coming around a little more.  He said we would continue with home school for now, though he'd have questions later on.  I am happy, but sad because it is causing friction between him and his folks.
  Anyhow, on to my review.  Last was week 16, and if you count the weeks, you'll see we took a small break.  I think I took 2 weeks to cover one of those weeks, and then with family here...But, that's the great thing about home school.  We can go at our own pace.  And considering we are technically kindergarten....