Example and Co-learning

One of the great benefits of Home Schooling is being flexible in how to approach the learning.  I love to read others way of learning and pick up on neat projects.  One of my favorites now is the lapbook, you can buy them as kits but we save money by making our own and we get all our learning materials from the library.  I had to get my daughter's attention to them.  Just talking about it was a start but she didn't go into doing it on her own.

She was sitting watching Avatar the last airbender (series) on our computer in our bedroom.  I brought in on the bed all our cooking books from the library and one of the file folders to use as a lap book and started making pockets.  She got interested in what I was doing and watched.  I made pockets for the lap books to put our recipe cards in, they were labeled snacks, meals, cookies and cakes.  I wrote in pencil but I had her trace it in ink.  Spelling and writing is her weak point and this helps her to focus.  And I started cutting out pictures from a catalog that had to do with cooking, she started pointing out other pictures she wanted for the lap book and I'd cut them out for her.  It sounds like I am doing a lot for a nine year old but really when she watches and observes for a while what someone else is doing then she will do it on her own.  Some people can just get the picture of what do do by spoken directions,  Ariel has to watch for awhile, I was the same way but I was a lot more shy about doing stuff on my own (except for art) I had to watch a great deal how someone does it and once I see how it is done then I can do it.

She is really into cooking now so that is our focus, that cooking lap book until she switches to a new topic which is why I love the lap book idea, you save it and can add more to the subject later on, like we are going to do one on pioneers and we read Sarah Plain and Tall, watched the movie, made corn fritters, she didn't like those very well  because she thought they would be like the ones she had at a Chinese restaurant.

On some of our recipe cards I wrote out some were so simple I didn't need to write how to make it, instead I drew a picture,  I had her color it but then she started doing her own pictures on the ones I had written directions on, she found space to scratch in a doodle.  She has always been a frustrated artist, I am an artist and she keeps comparing her work to mine, I kept telling her that I did not always paint like I do now and I had to show her works I kept when I was a teen and one collection I did when I was very young that I could never throw out.  She didn't start getting the idea till I showed her my very young works and compared it to the other works, and at that point I also told her don't compare yourself to someone else, compare your own works, see your own progression.  Be INSPIRED by others like for me it's Monet, Da Vinci and the modern day gifted artist Akiana  I paint the way I paint.  Each artist has their own way of painting.

We will probably do a lap book on artists as well.  I'm waiting for her cue, when she has the interest, I bring out the supplies for the lap books.  She has trouble organizing things on her own, at least when it comes to projects and writing, she can organize objects, but the organization of information and ideas are hard, especially for someone who's spelling is not there yet.  I am planning on spelling lapbooks starting with easy ones for her to work with our five year old who is picking up on short words and already knows her letters and sounds.  Having Ariel teach what she does know will help her in cementing her own knowledge and we can build on that.  I am surprised to find out she likes crosswords now.  She didn't before a few years ago, but now she does so that's another opportunity to work on writing words without being mundane repetition.
Constantly changing and growing, my mom called me up and said Ariel road her bike to the local grocery store to get chips, she's staying over at my parents and Ariel wanted her homemade guacamole but there were no chips, she said she would go to the store for them.  She did,  she got help across the busy main street, instructed what to do she was able to do it all by herself, first time she did that.  Yeah thinking about that scared me but she is nine and she does need to be given the chance to do that once in awhile.
It's a part of her learning too, doing things on her own.

Teaching the Unfocused

I think we all know kids can be very unfocused, though some are more focused on others, often they are considered gifted because one of the hallmarks of gifted children is having intense focus.  My daughter is nine and very unfocused, she has many ideas banging around in her head and I am trying to help her to get that in line, I know how crazy it gets because I am a creative and when I am busy on ONE project I get ideas for TEN more, which is why I keep a small notebook nearby to keep things on track.

However, my daughter gets upset with me when I try to help her.  Mostly that's because she's so focused on her idea but doesn't SEE how to work it out and gets mad when I tell her she has to start with this, than that and basically go by steps.  It's like she wants thing suddenly NOW.  BELIEVE ME I know the feeling, been there done that.  My other problem is having so much to do that I can't get started and I sit around the apartment being bored, silly but it's like that and my daughter has the same problem.

She has this great idea of doing a book on the New Moon, ok so I show her the steps to writing such a thing, I show her mind mapping,  using a big circle to write the main topic then spidering out the other points.  She gets that fine, but then when I ask her about how many pages she will need she said 500!!!  WHAT?  I explained to her with her narrow subject she will NOT need 500 pages, got into a tiff on that but got her to agree to have 10 pages to start, if she needs more then she can have more but the first ten must be done first.

Well, last week we started on this, she got the cover done, but hasn't done anything else on it.  I worked on a homeschool structure I can follow.  Something easy to keep with, getting the main academic works done in the morning.  Mostly her Sylvan Reading comprehension book, A bit of math which she is very good at, and a good workbook that's handy Words Every 3rd grader needs to know, I do a grouping of it along with a lap book theme, it goes by subjects, we are going through the math words she needs to know then I will have her do the Language arts portion.  She only has focus enough to do two pages, but even then I have to sit next to her to walk her though it.  I don't have to do that much when she is on her math.

What is it about kids when they are HIGH in math but tend to be low in reading, I have done tutoring in Americorps and saw a boy like this.  I was low in math but exceptionally HIGH in reading.

Elsewhere I have read an interesting article on how those who are high in the aptitude for engineering are often bad spellers.

My daughter comes up with great ideas but seldom follows though with it unless she has someone to 'mind map' her through and keep her going.  I was more of once I knew what needed to be done, leave me alone and let me do it, I wasn't much of a team player either, but it seems that my daughter needs a 'team' to get her work going you know?  Crazy, so how to get it to work with her?

When we got done with our workbooks today (only three) I wanted her to have her reading time but she said she wanted a nap.  She had a nightmare last night and lost some sleep so I didn't contest it.  Mental work takes a lot out of us in different ways, she needed a break.
She did lay down but she eventually straightened up the bedroom, which was good.

The girl is constantly on the move and wants stimulation.  Her favorite show is Avatar the Last Airbender, a show I actually like but she could easily end up watching hours of it.

I am having Avatar and computer game time as her fun time when she gets her work done.
She says ok to that.  But today instead of computer or Airbender she wanted to go over to my parents house.
She likes to help straighten stuff up over there.  Fall is hitting us and they have a few big trees there, peacan trees and their driveway will be buried in the mass of leaves.  Her heaven, she loves raking.
Her favorite activities has always been active things, I'm the opposite, I have little energy, I'm skinny as hell but have little energy, I have a massive amount of airborne allergies, not to mention grass and other things that can make my skin break out.  I spent most of my time reading NOT running and playing, any time that I did I was exhausted. In a way my daughter reminds me of Marley, yeah that 'bad' dog from the book and movie, can't believe they are making another one of just the puppy years.  Getting her focused in the kitchen stirring or kneading bread dough keeps her from walking up the walls.

She has more physical energy than mental energy, now how to work with that?
I go to Sizzle Bop, a homeschooling mom with sizzlers, or what we call high energy kids (or ADD ADHD)
She has got awesome ideas, but does anyone else know of helps for this high energy kid and low energy mom?

Homeschool Awaiting!

ooohh so soon my daughter who is nine will be coming home from the vacation RV trip with my parents.  We can start our homeschooling and I want to get on a creative start.  With my daughter a lot of the work has to be movement.  She gets bored and tired when sitting still too long and I have been trying to figure out how much seatwork (writing, math sheets) she can do before she's snoozing.  I have had the snoozing problem with school on occasion but it was partly the allergy medicines at the time (the 80's) I was stuck in special ed (Asperger's was not heard of then so I was thought of as a troubled or disturbed child)
I was just plain bored.  LOVED to read so much of what I learned I got from reading, not listening to teachers, hey I do respect the teachers I have had but honestly I cannot sit and pay attention long enough before daydreaming, sorry, even with more interesting speakers if it goes on longer than my limit I'm zoning!

Here is the ideas for my Homeschooling

1.  Supercharged Science  I cannot afford this great lady's curriculum but she has a newsletter and I constantly get free stuff and tips and very interesting science projects.   Ariel loves it and the free science project ideas are usually easy to do with things found around the house.

2.  Discovering Great Artists  This is a book I found for cheap on Half.com, a great resource for book lovers like me.  This has got a short bio of each artist then an artist activity to do the art like the artist and it ranges from super easy to a bit challenging and it's great for a wide age range and the page lets you know by stars how easy or hard it is.

3.  Spelling games   I have Boggle Jr to start out with, it's mostly for pre schoolers but she's weak in spelling and I am looking for more spelling ideas.

4.  Journaling,  Writing is hard for her, as well as spelling so we are going to work more on that through journaling at the end of her session, she writes using some of the words we worked on in spelling games.  I have to be really focused and limited on this till she can expand her spelling range then we can have more journaling ideas.

5.  Reading Streak  this idea is based on a book I read of a daughter and her relationship with her father, he read to her since she was young even when she could read by herself.  I let Ariel pick out the book and we read every night from that book.  We were reading Under a blood red sun, a book in sixth grade reading level about a boy who is Japanese, in Hawaii in 1941.  Very interesting talks with her about WWII and prejudice and fear.

6. AWANA and CARAVAN   Two Christian clubs she goes to.  AWANA has not started yet but the CARAVAN has, Caravan is like the girl and boy scouts, you earn badges though the year learning about God and Jesus, AWANA is like that but I pay dues to this one while Caravan is though our church and is free and they have pickups so I don't have to drive my kid there, but I MIGHT join to help out there.  I incorporate the AWANA into her homeschooling, it's a lot of reading and memorization for her, I have her copy verses for recital so she practices writing.

7.  Seatwork  this I want to keep minimal but that's the writing, math pages stuff to do but I am changing that a bit.  For the math she gets overwhelmed with a page full of problems so I am going to choose four problems from that page, have it written neatly in her math journal, then she can do the work.  I will use the page from the math workbook as a final test.  THEN she will do all the problems but she should be able to recognize them as ones she has done and be able to focus.
I will start her on cursive, slowly, using words she has trouble spelling.  Maybe she will get the hang of the fluidity of the writing and be able to write faster.  At my parents house she learns typing, they have a computer typing program.

I have other ideas that are not written in detail here, but I'll say one half is Home Ec, she loves cooking and recipies and the other is learning Etsy and how to be a crafter.

Art of Homeschooling

I homeschool because I know my kids would not make it in a regular school.  I was teased because I read all the time.  Teasing today has gotten so much worse that it's more like harassment so in not wanting to deal with that I homeschool.  It's a lot of work, some ask how I do it.  There are a LOT of blogs out there I read to help me with knowing how to homeschool.  What I found out is that what works best is following the child's interests.  Focus on the strengths, and plan but not worry too much about the future.  My daughter is nine and said she does NOT want to do college.  I'm not pushing it, she may change her mind, she may not, but seeing how she learns I don't think classroom learning is her place.  She is a lot like me, learning hands on.  I am an artist on Etsy and so my daughter wants to be one.  I am planning on her learning to focus on making a kind of product someone wants to buy.  She and I will research and see what is on Etsy and then she needs to learn craft, how to craft something with care.  She will be getting a real world experience that most kids don't get while doing school.

 She has a lot of trouble with things like staying on task, being distracted and skipping around.  But she is creative and wants to try things and has a lot of energy.  She best learns with projects, we have done mini science projects like burning sugar in a spoon to see what happens, and reading about Unicorns, and she has me reading Under a Blood Red Sun a book that is a sixth grade reading level and is about a Japanese American boy living in Hawaii when it is attack during WWII.  That has open discussions about war and how innocent people are treated and how strong friends stand by your side.  When someone asks about what she is learning I have to say, it's better to ask what she is not learning.
This is what she is learning
Opportunities are everywhere, just keep your eyes open and not be afraid to jump

Being yourself is the most important thing to be

There is a time to be quick and a time to slow things down

Take pride in what you do

Books are worthwhile when you read what you want!  (I hate it when kids are forced to read something that doesn't interest them, it kills the love of reading)  I had it easy, I loved to read everything.

Art IS VERY IMPORTANT!  It is the distinguished pinnical of a cultured society.  I use art to illustrate history, cultures, math, language and reading.

There is so much more that is being learned it would be hard to write it down in this blog.
The heart of the Art of Homeschooling is to keep an open mind and follow ideas.