school grows up again

Surprise summer is right around the corner! 

Second week in June gym workout moves back to the morning, 8-1 Mon-Friday, which means if we plan to school we have to make some big adjustments.  

On Beach’s request to keep on schooling we have picked up a few new (streamlined) books to explore the following subjects this summer starting with Algebra. 

I knew she would be ready as soon as season ended. Oh-man was that a struggle to find a workbook that was visually suitable for Beach! But I found one: Math Tutor All Ages Algebra Skills, Easy Review For The Struggling Student. The advantage to using a review book instead of a textbook is the lessons are simple one topic lessons clearly spelled out and include just the right amount of practice before moving on. 

We also picked up a 4^th grade speller. Something we found while looking for an Algebra book. Beach fell in love with it and its cute little built in timer. She’s already started working in it on her own time. At this rate I might need to go the 5th and 6th grade versions before the summer is over. She is having a blast with it.

The last of the new materials is a workbook for Ancient Rome. I was surprised when Beach asked to revisit Ancient Rome but so far what we have been studying has held her interest so I figured why not try doing a whole pre-planned unit on it. We have used Evan-Moor books before and loved them.

The last 2 topics Science Studies & Writing we pulled from our home library.  Continuing Environmental Science and then who knows? Maybe Zoology since we finally splurged and picked up a zoo pass.

AND of course reading! Lots of reading! Then there is horse back riding, friends, swimming, hiking, fishing, gardening, star gazing, camping, trips to Moab, art, family vacations, sleep away gym camp, free gym, sUmMeR tImE!

I’m not 100% sure how we are going to do all this (that would be the grown-up part, admitting I don't have a plan!) but welcome to summer school!   

school and life as one

Here is what I know today, 6 years down our homeschooling path: learning is our life and life is our school.  As I was trying to figure out how to share what Beach has been up to in the education department I realized not only have I been too busy to post about school I have been somewhat ashamed for how little "show+able+work" we were getting done. But when I look, really look, and listen, I know we are on the right path here.     

 

Part of what has been making me doubt myself is how easy it is. 

Homeschooling can't be this easy!! We must not be doing it right.

But that is just it, it is this easy. In the middle of the chaos of meet season we threw out all the stuff we felt we didn't need. All the outside expectations went away, with the intent to reinstate them as soon as we had time. I know that is laughable but true. 

Without all the other stuff weighing us down we have hit a prefect stride and a lot of things have fallen into place. With improvements in her vision via contacts Beach, for the first time since Kindergarten, is close to reading on grade level! it makes everything so much easier!!! 

   

Beach is even spreading her wings and taking a class without me. She is taking art lessons with my friend Sarah, who also happens to be Sophie, Boo's best friend's mom. Sarah picks Boo up on Tuesday mornings after dropping Sophie at school. Takes her to the adult art class Sarah teaches. Boo watches and listens and helps take care of little B. Then they go back to Sarah's house for a whole day of painting. I usually show up after freeing Sophie from school to run gym taxi for all of us. 

The quality of her art is impressive. What is even more impressive is what the Art Day does for Beach. Sarah is a gentle and patient teacher and Beach is a hyper focused little soul. Together they get lost and found in art.

   

Sarah gives my child something I cannot: art and younger siblings. 

When Beach is with me we play with science, numbers, and words. STEM is one of our new favorite ways to spend time.

 It is a good thing I took these pics because someone went and ate the bridge!

 Book work is here. We spend no more than 2 hrs a day in books. 

(not including literature) 

I might have already mentioned that skill wise Boo is ready for Algebra but now isn't the right time...so until it is time her math is all fun and games, the abstract and the practical. As far as math/game books we absolutely love Mathmania!!!    

 Boo spends a lot of time playing in the land of the tree house. Making tiny items out of clay for her small people. 

Her papa and her made the tree house together after she found a similar item at the flee market but refused to pay the $30 price tag the vendor was asking.

Typically she wakes early. Plays and reads in her room.  Feeds her rabbit and plays with her bird before breakfast. We do a little book work, play a game of cards, and some house chores. Maybe run errands, prep dinner, bake, or go for a walk, some days we do all of the above. We eat lunch and read, play a few more games, watch a documentary or an old movie. By 2 we are in gym mode. Boo takes a shower, fixes her hair, and has a snack while watching kid programs on PBS. By 3:29 she is with her team running laps around the floor warming up for the 4 hr practice. Home by 8-ish pm for a small dinner and bedtime.   

 It is all so seamless.  Everything feels exactly as it should. This is what I was looking for when I was searching for answers about what home schooling REALLY was like. I wanted to know what it felt like. 

It feels like living :) 

it's that time of year again

It seems this is the time of year the benefits of homeschooling really pay off. 

I have a sick kid. A busy sick kid with lots of travel days for gym ahead in the next few months. I listen to the moms on the bench as they fight the school system and the gym for some sort of middle ground. Trapped are the kids rushing to gym, rushing to school, rushing to homework... trust me there are plenty of times I am jealous of the curbside drop offs, book fairs, and back-to-school nights but not right.

Right now I am grateful to answer the more than normal amount of inquires about homeschooling from other moms. Grateful I feel as comfortable as I do with how well Boo is learning and doing in and out of school work these days (minus the tummy trouble). 

I am grateful for the mess of art and cards piling up from a few days of taking it easy.  I am grateful to read a book based on a mood or a need/want of humor and commonality. To read it in a cozy bed- cat optional.

I am grateful for a pediatrician who laughed about her not needing a to fake an illness to get out of a boring class or a doctor's note excusing her from missing school. Glad for the slow, calm drive home- no need to hurry all things can wait.

I love that we did stamp art while watching a documentary Jonestown, Paradise Lost on Netflix. I love that the new clarity of Boo's contacts have suddenly given her the ability to write within the lines on a sheet of paper. Crazy right? It's something most of would never think about being an issue but with 2 drastically different images coming into her brain the lines didn't make sense so she ignored them, until now! I love that she hasn't spent years being hounded about the whole thing by a well meaning but misguided teacher.

Most of all I am grateful for the time we have and how perfectly 11 years old she is. That is the true freedom of being here, childhood has a chance to stretch aaaallllllllllll the way out. 
  

the art of being

Whenever we get to the end of a period of time without structured school, we find ourselves having deep conversations about who we are and how we want to be. We talk about what was and what might come next. 

We spend a few days with a notebook and a handful of pens at hand. We fill the pages with ideas, lists, and plans. We talk about the past and the future. We talk about other faiths and families,about what has worked for us and what hasn't, and why. We talk, and talk, and listen, feeling our way around.

This time I can feel her age. I offered afternoons at the pool and I got told it makes her too tired for gym. I offered a return to dressing up to go out to places like the museum, and theater, or the aquarium and it is met with huge smiles and a list of must have dress-up items to acquire.

She asked for time alone to read and clean.

She asked for math games and more art.

She asked for the late start option, 10 am instead of 8 am.

I asked for sit down hot lunches.      

I asked for more time with less to do.

I asked for school time to mix into daily life, for science and math to mingle with the making of cornmeal cakes and trips to the library... 

Together we planed our subject lists, collaborate on ideas of character, reinforce family traditions, set goals, talked shop, and look forward. 
    
As a homeschooling mom, I can argue the case for structured school as well as I can for unschooling. That is why we do both. But even more than either of those it is the transitions between them that seem to sprout the most important lessons.

I am a very lucky mom to be admitted into my child's head and heart so freely. It won't always be this way but for now I have the best seat in the house- a front row view of her in the making.

We started back to the books today with more of a mood in mind than an academic plan. And with that I would say it brings us back to where we started when first became real homeschoolers- it brings us back HOME.