Math with Katie

Could she get away with this in a regular school?

One great thing about homeschooling is that the kids have time to be creative in their schoolwork.  And by "kids" I usually mean "Katie."  And by "creative" I mean "wack-a-doo."

As I've demonstrated elsewhere, Katie enjoys decorating her math sheets.  I think she just can't help it.  She just sees things and can't NOT express them.

A Good Day

Several days ago we had just a plain Good Day.  We went to Mass for first Friday, even though I reeeeeally wanted to sleep in just another 30 minutes.  (Miriam even offered to take Daniel for me, bless her little motherly heart!)  I must have received an extra shot of grace that day.  It was most welcome.

We played with the mint green playdough I had made for St. Patrick's Day.

this looked a lot more like a merman before Jo-jo squashed his face and arms

mermaids were the order of the day

Then after I cleaned up from that, we made pretzels (fast becoming a Friday Lenten tradition).

even Jo-jo of the Irish Eyes helped

Later we went for a nature walk, and used some cute little tin buckets I found at a craft store to collect treasures.

Afterwards we enjoyed raspberry tea with our pretzels while the girls painted what they found in their Nature Journals.

It was a delightful togetherness sort of day.  Of course, by 4pm I was really getting tired of cleaning up messes and was about dead on my feet from not having had a break all day long.  But it was one of those golden days that you remember for ever, for the sheer beauty in its ordinariness.

Edible Geography

Birthday post coming soon!  Meanwhile here's what Miriam made in our homeschool coop's geography class today.  Can you tell what country it is?

note the Taj Mahal and the Ganges River

The teacher made play dough for everyone, and the students used spices to decorate it.  I wish our blog had Smell-O-Vision -- our house smells like a fascinating mixture of curry, cloves, and cumin.  Especially curry.  It reminds me of our newlywed days in our old apartment!  *sniff*

Poetry Corner

One of the things we try to do for school is memorization -- scripture verses, poetry, catechism.  I don't know why many classrooms have given this up -- kids are so good at it!  (At our homeschool group's recent talent show, one young member recited the whole book of Madeline: "In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines...")  And they love to do it.  I remember the sense of accomplishment when I memorized poems in first grade -- that sense of owning something and making it a part of you.  This goes for piano pieces too.  I don't feel like I really KNOW a piece until I have memorized it.

Anyway, we're not always faithful to this as we could be (that goes for almost all of our school work), but thankfully Katie's CCD class, Miriam's spelling book, and our homeschool co-op all require memorization, so I have the external enforcement I need for incentive.  I also try to help the girls pick a poem that they want to learn by heart.  Here is Miriam's latest:

I hope to post more like this in the future -- Katie has a couple that are fun, if she's outgrown her camera shyness.

Math Under Fire

alternative title: Homeschooling With a Toddler Boy in the House

File under "A" for "Awwwww"

Miriam has been struggling with Math lately. She gets the material, she just tends to get lazy, or doesn't pay close enough attention, or something, but she was making lots of little errors -- like forgetting to carry the one, or not reading the whole word problem. Word problems in particular seem to be her bane. I already know that her reading comprehension is like mine -- not the best.

But on her last test (subtracting multiple numbers, like 987 - 123, plus review questions) she got every single one right, all the addition, all the word problems, everything!! She was SOOO pleased with herself, and I really heaped on the praise. Katie was sitting nearby to witness all this. After a minute she asked me how to spell "juh" -- say what? "Like in 'congraJUHlations.'" I told her, and then had to leave the room momentarily, but I'm guessing she asked Miriam a couple questions too. Shortly after I came back, Katie presented Miriam with a paper on which was written:

kNGRATULAShinS MIRIAM FOR 100 PeRCeNT
(with smiley faces, numbered 1-4, and a drawing of a "PinK PRinSUS")

I love the phonetic spelling. This is definitely going in the Keepers file.

Textbook recommendation

In case anyone is looking for a good handwriting series,


...this one comes highly recommended by the resident 2nd-grader.

You know you must be doing something right...

...when your children beg and plead, "Mommy, mommy, can we PLEASE read Shakespeare today? PLEEEEEEEEEASE???"

(Of course, I can't really take too much credit for this, since it's not really me, it's their books they love so much.) (But I still claim it as a moral victory.)

School Days

School is going very well. Much better than this time last year! Let's hear it for no-brainer pre-packaged curriculum! I also schedule lots of breaks into the year, so even if (who am I kidding? WHEN) we get behind, we'll have plenty of opportunities to play catch-up.

Miriam is reading very well now, which is great, because it means she can READ DIRECTIONS and WORK INDEPENDENTLY! Yay for workbooks! I can let her do math, spelling, grammar, handwriting, and some geography and science independently. I think she actually actually enjoys the responsibility of doing her work herself. Now I need to stock our home library with good children's literature -- she's already devoured everything I had!

Katie also loves to "do school." She's busily learning her letters -- writing and sounds. I'm hoping to have her reading by Christmas, at least simple words, but I know I have to wait for that magic click in her brain. So far, she gets it. She already knows most of her letter sounds, we're just going through the alphabet systematically to make sure everything's covered. Her drawing has also really improved -- sometimes it's hard to tell who drew which picture of a princess. :)

Joseph even has school time -- by which I mean I lay out a blanket and put out his basket of toys that are only for school time, like stacking cups and stringing beads and puzzles and things. If he gets interested in something, he's actually good for about 20 mins., which is enough to listen to Miriam read, or do phonics with Katie. Whenever the girls are doing their handwriting though he HAS to sit at the table with them and scribble too!

We go to the library about every other week -- ideally I'd like to go each week but it hasn't always been practical. We get the bulk of our science and history books there, plus lots of good literature and early reader books. Science started this year with learning about reptiles. I found a great craft book and we made models of the three types of reptiles:

Of course, Katie's turtle is a girl. With orange eyelashes.


Next is the human body. I currently have a chicken bone soaking in a jar of vinegar to leach out the calcium. For a field trip we went to see a display of illustrations from David Macaulay's new book, The Way We Work.

For history we're studying Medieval times and the Renaissance. We just finished a great children's adaptation of the Canterbury Tales (heavily, heavily edited!). We also read Beowulf, and a story of Sir Gawain. I need to find a good version of stories about King Arthur. Any suggestions?

Last week our homeschool group went on a field trip to Emmitsburg, MD, the burial place of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. What a lovely shrine.




We broke for lunch at the seminary a few miles down the road. These are our pastor's stomping grounds, so he felt right at home. :)

After lunch we went up to the Lourdes Grotto, an old, prayerful place where St. Elizabeth Ann and her sisters used to like to come and pray. (before the Lourdes apparitions, of course!)


Despite the cold and the gray and the traffic heading back, it was a lovely day spent with our homeschool group. We're so blessed to be a part of it!

"So, how was your day?"

he asked.

"Meh," I replied. "I don't feel like I really accomplished anything today," thinking about the sink full of dishes, the unwashed diapers, the boxes of kid clothes in our room that need to be sorted and stored, the religion we didn't do today. "At least I got the breakfast dishes washed up while Miriam had her morning tantrum. We didn't finish breakfast until 10:30."

"Oh," he said. "I'm sorry. Did you get to sleep in or something?"

"No, we just took showers this morning, and that always throws our schedule back.

"...But I did get the kids' summer clothes sorted, and made a color-coded list of the things they'll need to get them through the summer.

"And I read a ton of library books to them while Joseph nursed after his morning nap.

"And we made pretzels today! I guess that was fun.

"We did do some geography -- we learned about Connecticut today.

"And Miriam did spelling, too. Her list was all homophones so we thought of sentences to go with each word to help her remember to correct spelling. That was fun and creative.

"Oh, and Miriam also did a couple pages in her math workbook, and did really well. And Katie learned how to make the letter S in a pan of cornmeal. I also uploaded a bunch of pictures. And we did several loads of laundry, vacuumed the dining room, swept the kitchen, fed and watered the gerbils, and tidied the living room."

"...Sounds like you actually got a lot done!"

"Hm, I guess we did...."

I guess I didn't notice it, because we crammed school in between other homemaking things, instead of having a 3-hour block of "School." Given the option, I kind of prefer today's way. While frustrating in the moment, looking back I believe we were actually more productive -- I just grabbed the girls when I felt they needed a chance of scene (i.e. when they were running up and down the house crashing into things and each other -- it was cold and rainy today) and sat them down to do something more constructive than earn another bandaid or black eye.

Hm, maybe this guerilla homeschooling thing can actually work...

I've also been feeling like less of a mother after reading Elizabeth Foss's delightful blog, particularly about the feast of Eric Carle. :) I know I can never aspire to the level of creativity and beauty in her homeschooling day, but I do hope to make learning in our home a joy. So it's hard when the resident 7-year-old complains "I don't want to do school! School is BORRRRRRRING!" My instantaneous guilt-ridden thought is, what am I doing wrong?? I want to incorporate more hands-on artsy things (like painting) and less busy work (like workbooks) to get a point across. Of course, it's easier to keep a workbook and pencil out of reach of a toddler than an easel filled with paint cans. (Thank heaven for his morning nap.) I also can't wait to get the kids outside more -- now that spring has sprung we can start playing outside in the dirt -- I mean, working in the garden -- and going on walks in our itty bitty woods. I think that's Charlotte Mason's recipe for "text-tired tots," which would be an accurate description.

So, all in all, I guess our day was pretty good... in retrospect. :)

The School Post

All right, all right -- finally another post! For the record, this post has been a work in progress for the last 2 weeks.

Anyway, so this school year Miriam is in 1st grade. For the great Commonwealth of Virginia, this means that next summer she'll have to take a standardized test to prove sufficient advancement in learning or some other b.s. She's already met the SOL requirements for Math, so I'm not worried. :)

So what are we doing for first grade?

First of all, first grade is not like kindergarten. Kindergarten is all about coloring and counting and cooperation. In first grade they have to actually LEARN stuff, like reading and arithmetic and linear regression.

Fortunately Miriam's reading breakthrough occurred late last winter, so now I'm just trying to keep up with her, phonics-wise! She learned to read with the help of Bob books and Starfall. I had planned to get The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading, but now I think that by the time I finally ordered it, she would already know it all. (Why yes, my daughter IS a genius.) I'll keep that one on a back burner for Katie, though -- and backup for Miriam in case we do miss a digraph here or there.

For Religion we're using the Faith & Life books. I purchased the text and activity book, only to learn shortly afterwards that our parish CCD program (in which I enrolled Miriam this year) also provides these texts! So now we have two copies. Anyone want our extras? I really like the series -- the chapters are short, sweet, and to the point -- they pack a lot of doctrine into two pages of easy-reading text. And they're big on learning your catechism. Remembering the answers to the catechism questions is actually part of Miriam's homework grade for CCD, which is great. This IS the age to memorize stuff.

Funny thing about her CCD "grade" -- her homework after her first class was to read through the first chapter and memorize the 3 or 4 questions. To help the students learn the questions, the parents are supposed to write them down on index cards, which are to be brought to class every week. Well, I'd had a pressure-cooker week and hadn't been able to get to Staples to get the cards in time, but we drilled and reviewed until she had those questions down pat. After I picked her up, I was told by the teacher that she didn't get any credit for her homework because she didn't have her dumb index cards! At first I was incensed -- didn't they even bother to ask her the catechism questions?? Didn't they realize how hard it is for a homeschooling mom to pick up and run random errands at the beginning of school??? She was being graded for BUSY WORK!! If she doesn't pass First Grade CCD I'm going to have a talk to the pastor about this!! And then by the time I got to the parking lot and had gained a little perspective, I laughed at my knee-jerk reaction. Why do I care what her grade was? She sure didn't! I knew she knew those answers. I also gained some understanding of parents who push their kids to get good grades at school -- it's easy to feel that their performance is a measure of your parenting ability. So I laughed off my reaction, realizing that one missed homework assignment does not a CCD dropout make. Just recently she got a 94% on their first test, so I think she'll be allowed to pass into 2nd grade. :)

More importantly, Miriam loves CCD, she loves her teacher, she loves being with the other kids, and I think she might be learning a little something on the side too. The teacher and I have different educational ideas, but Miriam is thriving so this is a good lesson for me to back off. Gosh, we pushy homeschooling moms! :)

Moving along...

For History, Math, and Katie's preschool, I've been drawing heavily from Elizabeth Foss's awesome website. What a generous woman -- to share so much of her family life with the rest of us! I'm so grateful for her book lists and lesson suggestions.

For Math we've been reading about Gnomes and Gnumbers. Miriam has learned Roman Numerals up to 20, Odd and Even numbers, and Place Value up to millions, with very clever hands-on activities to teach each idea. And the gnomes were fun to make too. :)

Wooden bodies waiting to be decorated

Miriam embroidered their robes. Time for her first sampler, I think!

Here they are: green is Plus, blue is Minus, yellow is Multiply, and red is Divide. (I know, I should have used different embroidery floss for the math signs to they would stand out better.) The yellow and blue gnomes are being held by our version of Old Dismas the ent (a doll stand in a former life). There is also a King Equals which I haven't photographed yet. Katie especially LOVES playing with them.

For History we're learning about early American History. We're basically just going through the book recommendations for Colonial and Revolutionary periods -- mostly picture biographies of the founding fathers, as well as a couple books of science experiments and craft projects, and some American Girl thrown in for fun. :) After we finish a biography, I have Miriam talk about the person featured and transcribe her words into a little report, which she will finish off with an illustration. It's funny seeing the things that stand out for her -- weddings and number of children are very important facts. She also likes to know birthdates and death dates. So far we've read about Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, and now George Washington. The Felicity series has been fun, b/c it gives her a good feel for what life was like living in Colonial Days. Colonial Williamsburg isn't too far away from us, so we're going to try to make a field trip down there some time.

Katie has been quite the surprise for me this year. She's much more advanced than I gave her credit for! She already knows most of her letters by sight, and can write half of them. She is also learning their sounds on her own, even though I wasn't planning on working on that until next year for pre-K! She is a really good listener, and has picked up an amazing amount just by listening to Miriam and me. When Miriam is reciting a poem, or reading a book, if she can't remember a word or gets something wrong, Katie will correct her. It is really hilarious to see.

So anyway for Katie's school we're taking a trip down the Alphabet Path which has been oodles of fun. For each letter there is a little story, a song about a flower fairy, a flower, and a whole list of books (like Blueberries for Sal for 'B'), as well as snack and activity ideas. It's just a goldmine of suggestions! A friend and I are getting together once a month to review the letters with our preschoolers, have a letter-themed snack, and do some activities. Our kids just love each other, so it's more like a glorified play-date with some learning thrown in accidentally. :)

Miriam has also started... drumroll... brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrum bum bum.... PIANO LESSONS! How could she be a descendent of my family and NOT, I ask you? We went out and bought Alfred's first book (and the theory book! very important!) to go through together, but after we got home and I started looking through it, I had some serious misgivings. I was afraid it would go too fast for her, and she would get frustrated and be turned off from music for life, and her future career as a concert pianist would be jeopardized just because her mother was too pushy! However, she cracked open that book, and I have to say she took off like a shot. Oh, how my pianist-mother's heart swells with pride! She's SKIPPING AHEAD IN THE BOOK because we're going too slow for her tastes. At this rate she'll be teaching herself to read music, and next thing you know she'll be playing Chopin Etudes. Seriously, I'm happy she's getting so much enjoyment out of it.

The two things I've found the hardest to plan are art and science, since neither are my strong points. For the latter, I plan to focus on natural science, rather than doing lots of experiments. I don't think Miriam would find experimentation and the scientific method interesting for a couple more years yet, whereas she loves animals and pictures of the stars. Somewhere I found a link to this great science handbook on Amazon. I copied down the table of contents to bring to the non-fiction section each time we go to the library. We've found some real gems. An added bonus is that many of them are easy-readers, so Miriam can work on her reading AND learn about frogs at the same time.

For art I finally got two books to give me ideas: an art project book from Usborne and a craft book from Seton that follows the liturgical year. The Seton book I love -- it's exactly what I was hoping for; but I'm thinking the Usborne book might be a little advanced for her right now. I know that there are SO many ideas and resources on line to choose from -- my problem is lack of time. I just don't have the hours to dedicate to researching artsy craftsy things that tie in with our curriculum. Having a book on hand from which I can pick a project will insure that Miriam actually has a chance to do art, something I think is an important part of learning. She does lots of coloring for other subjects -- I encourage her to make her school papers colorful -- but I'd like her to be able to experiment with different media. Any one have another good suggestion for an art project book?

For my part, homeschooling this year has been more of a challenge than I was quite prepared for. I love all the planning part: I revel in visiting websites, researching ideas, following rabbit trails, jotting down notes, making lesson plans -- I think I've been playing school since I was about 7. :) But when it comes to actually implementing all these well-laid plans, that's when we hit the snag, because the girls and I are human beings. Particularly, fallen human beings. Sometimes I feel like I'm wrestling with them to keep their concentration on their work. Some days Miriam and I can't stand each other after 45 mins. of school. It's been a struggle to find a daily rhythm that works. I'm finding that I need to be utterly scrupulous about the use of my time. And we ALL know that this is one of my strong points, right? (Ha!) This whole homeschooling thing is taking even more self-discipline than I expected!

Earlier this month one of the mothers in our homeschooling group hosted a tea at which the discussion revolved around the frustrations and disappointments we encounter. It was SOOOO good knowing I wasn't the only one who felt that way at times! I just never want learning to be a battle -- that would take away all the fun of doing this at home. (Mind you, I'm not doing this for the fun of it!) It's just difficult because Miriam and I are both oldest daughters, and therefore strong-willed. :) Some prayers for wisdom and peace would be appreciated.

Even with all the frustrations and occasional battles, I can't imagine doing it any other way. I like to keep my babies close to me, to nurture and train them until the time when I know they're ready to do battle with the world at large. More and more we're seeing that our society is in indeed a battle field; it's become especially apparent during this election year. I want our children to grow to understand that they have a particular calling, to be salt and light in the world, to bring others to Christ and fight the forces of death. I believe that I can give them this kind of training the best, because no one else loves them or knows them as well as their parents, and therefore no one else can equip them as well as we can.


And that's why I will continue to homeschool as long as we are able.

(art credit: "Bedtime Story" by Alan Sakhav, courtesy of art.com)

Mini-picturefest

Here are a couple windows into our life:

Hmmmm, I wonder where the girls could be?


RRR!! I am a baby of might!


Miriam entertaining Joseph with her rendition of "I am surfing with the Spirit," courtesy of Vacation Bible School. He is entranced.

In the background you can see our school table, moved upstairs from the basement. A friend advised me to do school work wherever there is the most light, because you will naturally gravitate towards there anyway. Now there's no doubt that when you walk into our home, you can see that we are a homeschooling family!


Just plain awwwwwww.


St. Catherine of Siena. When she saw herself in the mirror, she said, "I don't look like Katie any more!"

We're off to the alma mater tomorrow for a weekend of family fun, medieval-style! We'll be back with more pictures to share!

Poetry Friday!

One of the things I want to do for school this year is lots of poetry memorization. The goal is for Miriam to learn a new poem every week-ish, so I can post something on this blog and you can all see what a talented, dramatic genius my daughter is and how she's guaranteed stardom when she gets her big break.

Here's the latest recitation:

First Week Back to School!

This is my latest excuse for why I haven't update the blog in a while. :) I do have several drafts waiting to be completed... honest...

Here's a lovely piece by Elizabeth Foss about the first day of homeschooling. It was exactly what I needed to hear this week: I am not alone! We had quite the adjustment this week, accompanied by much challenging of authority (them), scolding (me), and whining (both of us). But at least the girls beg to "do school" every waking moment, so they're enjoying all the new school toys. For now. We'll see how long it takes for the bloom to fall off the rose. Meanwhile I feel like I'm running a three-ring circus, which I am, literally. Three very different children with three extremely different needs, often occurring all at the same time. I feel like I'm constantly living in a triage situation.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

(Image credit: "Books in Winter" by Jessie Wilcox Smith from art.com)

Poetry Friday!

I love the interjection of Little Miss Contrary at the end.

The Joy of Homeschooling

alternately titled: What Miriam Did for Math Today (with a little bit of help from Mom)

Updates!

I just wanted to draw your attention to the newly revised and updated "What We're Reading" section in the sidebar -- I know this list has always been so blah. So I've finally made the switch to pictures of the book covers to make it more interesting. I plan to add links too (so you can see larger versions of the covers) -- just not this time b/c we're going to bring them all back to the library on Friday anyway! (and I'm tired and want to go to bed!) So enjoy our sidebar's fancy schmancy new look! Hmm, maybe I'll revamp the whole blog's look, with more pretty colors and... wait, is this a manifestation of the nesting instinct?

Miriam reciting

(turn up your volume)



I just love her expressions.