Homeschooling - Month 1!

Well today marks the one  month anniversary of when we began homeschooling our second oldest son.

I think things are still going pretty good. I'm happy with it and I think he is too. He does miss his old friends, however we're working on ways to get out and meet some people. :) He has soccer starting soon. He also has scouts (which we're going to try to be more active in!). I am also looking into some local home school groups.

Academically, I love the feeling of teaching him something. I love our intellectual conversations and hearing how his mind works. I don't think he got that at school before. Now he has time to really explore what he's learning and talk about it. I know that for me, personally, I learn best when I can discuss a subject with someone else and really think about it.

Some changes - I feel that we've done enough review on math now. We're going to start a new math curriculum. Since math is his strong suit and he enjoys it, I'm going to get him a more challenging math program. From what I've read and heard, the math program Life of Fred is a good one! By the time he goes through all of the books, he'll be ready to transfer to a junior level college math class. That's more then the average high school student can do!
Also, I want to accelerate through the material a little bit more since we only have 1.5 years before high school. AAAAAAACK! I want to make sure we don't spend a ton of time on middle school work, when we should be transitioning into junior high work by the end of this year. I don't want to place any limits on what he's learning, but I also don't want to leave anything out. :) I have SO  much I want to teach him!
So we're moving on to early American history now and leaving behind ancient history. He's already covered Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc several times over in school. He's teaching ME things I didn't know!

He says he wants to be a doctor when he grows up - a surgeon to be specific. I'm not going to limit him on anything. I love that he has goals and dreams! That  means, however, that we need to step up our work here! lol

Besides homeschooling - no other real updates here. Winter time is always our down season with not a lot going on. I'm also fully immersed in my own school currently too.  I only have one more year left!
I'll post more on updates soon! :)

Exploring Egypt...

Today my 12 yr old son and I toured around Egypt. We saw the vendors on the street and the funny way the buildings and houses were packed in like sardines. We also got to visit a few pyramids while we were there. One of the pyramids even offered a tour down INSIDE of it! We got to see the old king's tomb that grave robbers had already gotten to, and unique passageways carved out thousands of years ago.  Then after exploring Egypt we visited a cave in France in which ancient paintings of animals and people were on the walls within the cave.  After we were done, we were still home in time to pick the other boys up from school and make dinner.

Isn't technology great! Google maps is such a fun tool for exploring the world. It felt like the next best thing to being in Egypt ourselves (minus the hot sun, sounds, and smells of it...). The tour of the French cave was a virtual tour provided by an educational website. I think it's amazing how technology is changing how we learn and what we can learn.

Today was day two of homeschooling Brayden. After a lot of careful research, reading, and thinking - we decided to go with the Easy Peasy curriculum. It is an all-in-one curriculum that provides adequate education in all of the areas we wanted to cover. It covers math, reading, writing, language arts, history, science, art, music, PE/Health, computer/technology, among a few other areas.   This curriculum is fully online with some worksheets/printables that are to be printed out from home.  It also comes with a wonderful support system/network.
The very best part? Its ALL FREE!
 The curriculum is given in bite sized amounts, which is perfect for a child with low attention span. This also allows more time to explore areas of interest or dive into subjects further (like we spent an hour in history just touring around Egypt and exploring pyramids).

I can't wait to see what the rest of this school year brings! Tomorrow we are making papyrus among other fun activities. :)


http://allinonehomeschool.com/

You can't force something that just doesn't fit...

Education is not one-size-fits-all.Everyone learns in different ways, and that is a scientifically proven fact. So why is our public schools - in general - rigid in how they teach children? Some children may excel and flourish in that type of setting. I have a couple children who do very well with the teaching and learning methods at public school.

Then I have those who don't...

I have a child who's learning style is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole...it just doesn't fit.

I'm tired of trying to pound him into fitting the public school mold. It doesn't work for him. The only thing it's doing is destroying his confidence and self-esteem. How fun is learning if everyday is just more stress and pressure to sit completely quiet and still or else risk constant discipline and being labeled a difficult student/child?  What does that do to someone's self-worth?

I knew it was finally time to readdress things when my son continually called home from school at least once a week with various complaints of  headaches and stomach aches. He admitted later that he was never sick, but that he can just concentrate better at home. Not to mention that the stress of having to always focus on sitting still gives him anxiety (thus the stomachaches and headaches..)

Why keep pushing things? Who or what is it helping?

Thankfully we live in a time when there are so many other educational options. There is traditional homeschooling, unschooling, online/cyber schooling, eclectic homeschooling, classical homeschooling, and so on and so on.   My current plan is to enroll him in an online school for the remainder of this school year. His academic progress and goals will be supervised by a certified teacher as well as his curriculum and testing. We can then evaluate where we are at the end of the school year and what works best for him beyond that.

The bottom line is that I'm responsible for my child's education - every parent is.  I can't worry about what others might say or think, but only what is best for my child. And right now...he's drowning. I can't sit back and watch him struggle anymore...

Check back next week for more updates and holiday fun! I'm in my last week of school myself for this year, so I hope to pick back up with the blog again over break. :)

Cuteness Overload - and updates....

Wow! Sorry its been so long since I last updated. I could have sworn I had updated since my last "home sweet home" post...oh well, moving on...

Things are going well! Baby Abigail is a month old now. Wow! She still sleeps mostly all the time. She does at least wake up to eat, however sometimes she even tries to sleep through those feedings. She only is wide awake for about one 30 min period a day. I love the newborn phase, but I really can't wait until she feels like an actual new family member who is awake when we are and interacts with us. :)
Her last weight check-up put her at 5 lbs 6 oz. That was at 2 weeks old. Yay! She has another weight check-up the end of this week. I am hoping she'll be around 6 lbs 4oz. She should be gaining 1 oz per day or so.  I have included tons of new pictures of her - so enjoy!

The boys are doing well in school. It was a bit bumpy at first, but I think things are settling into a routine. Now *I* need to work on my routine. I would rather just sit and hold the baby all day. :) However, things fall apart fast when mom just sits around all day (sigh). So I'm trying to get one project done a day and do a bit of quick picking up in between the baby's feedings. Sometimes she will let me lay her down for an hour or so, but sometimes she cries as soon as I put her down....so each day is different in my productivity.

Gabe turned THREE! I thought I put a post up when he had his birthday. :( I guess not! I will make sure to update that soon. Alex, Brayden, and Billy Jr all have their birthdays in a couple weeks - so it will be BIRTHDAY OVERLOAD here soon...

Not much else to report, although I'm trying to think up new names for the blog and a new design. Perhaps: Bunches O' Boys and a Little Lady, or Bunches O' Boys & One Girl...hmm I'm not very creative. I'll have to keep thinking!

A size comparison with her Gloworm!

First day of homeschool AND soccer season!

What a busy couple weeks!
Our soccer season started a couple weeks ago, so that's always fun. Not! Billy is coach of Alex's team because they couldn't find a coach. That just makes it MORE fun! Not.

Then last week the boys started their first day at their homeschool-school. Its described as the "best of both worlds". Its ran by a couple teachers and classes are also taught by other adults with experience in various areas and an interest in homeschooling. It gives the boys the chance to get out of the house two days a week and take a variety of fun classes in a school-like atmosphere (and also gives mom a break too!). They go there three hours on Tuesday and five hours on Wednesday.

Today started our first day of homeschooling. That was fun!

I wrote all about it on my homeschooling blog: http://boysnbooks.blogspot.com/2010/09/first-day-of-school.html

Brayden had his first soccer game yesterday too! It was a bit chaotic with the two little ones trying to run around everywhere. uggh! But I did get some pictures, that I will post next time!

Okay that's it for now, running out of computer time!