Not Back to School

The public schools in our town started back to class this week.  We have always waited until the day after Labor Day to begin our school year.  We like to have a “Not Back to School” celebration on the day public school starts back.  We do that just to give our children some excitement too.  You know the first day back to homeschool just doesn’t hold the same sort of excitement that back to school holds for other children.  So, we celebrate the fact that we get to continue on with our summer for a while longer!

This year Randy and Zach had a job to do that lasted until around lunch time.  I let John Charles sleep late and then spend time playing computer games.  When the men got home we went to the batting cages and driving range and also spent some time playing in the game room.  We ended our fun with a trip to the Dairy Queen for cool treats!

 

 

 

 

 

It was a fun afternoon and I hope we’ll be able to have many more before our first day of the new school year.

Drawing with John Charles

Every child has his own strengths and weaknesses and I try not to compare my children, but sometimes it is so hard!  Zach is good at some things and John Charles is good at others.  One of my boys was a natural born artist.  The other one – not the case at all!  I would like to see him develop some pleasure and ability in art though and have been working with him lately to try to improve his skills in this area.

I love the simple drawing instructions from Fairy Dust Teaching.  Last week we spent a little time each day drawing owls.

John Charles was disappointed in his first drawing , but we saw some improvement by the end of the week.

This week we’re drawing Indians.  I’m confident that we will see lots more  improvement as the weeks pass and I’m enjoying our time spent drawing together!

Graduation Announcement

We’re proud to announce that Zach graduated on Friday!

 

We had an intimate ceremony and party with family

Where Randy delivered a great speech and presented Zach with his high school diploma

and John Charles his kindergarten diploma

Congratulation boys!  We’re proud of you!

Home School – Week 1

A few moments captured during our first week back to home school.

Home School Planning (Year K)

This is my starting point for planning John Charles’ school year

"A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six"

A reprint of a curriculum outline from a CM school in the 1890's. from Summer 93 Parents Review pub by Karen Andreola

1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns
2. to recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm
3. to add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters
4. to read--what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child
5. to copy in print-hand from a book
6. to know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows
7. to describe the boundries of their own home
8. to describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach
9. to tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English, and 3 from early Roman history (my note here, we may want to substitute early American for early English!)
10. to be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views
11. to mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
12. to do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees
13. to know 6 birds by song, colour and shape
14. to send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed
15. to tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.
16. to name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences
17. to sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song
18. to keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.

Childcare Land

I just found a great website filled with early learning activities  for preschool and kindergarten.  It’s childcareland.com .   I can’t wait to use some of the ideas with John Charles.  Check it out!

Meet My Boys

This is week 3 of the Not Back-to-School Blog Hop, but it’s my 1st week of participating.  This week Darcy has asked everyone to share their children.  I am the proud mother of 2 boys – Zach and John Charles.

Here they are:

 

Zach- 16 year old high school junior, laid back, talented artist, computer enthusiast. likes history, dislikes math

 

John Charles – 4 year old preschooler, high energy dramatist, Star Wars fanatic, loves adventures

Project 365 – Day 103 and 104

Blackberry Bush

Zach’s blackberry bush seems to be doing good.  We had some very cold nights last week but it survived.  Now it’s time to start the vegetable seeds!

 

Circle Time

John Charles and I have finished our morning circle time.  We did the first lesson from 100 Easy lessons and it went ok.  At the end of the lesson he had remembered the “m” and “s” sounds.  He is not ready for writing yet, but we’ll keep trying.  We also did one of the complimentary lessons from Little Hands to Heaven.  It went over well and I think we’ll be purchasing the program.

Threat to Parental Rights

The following comes from the Home School Legal Defense Association.

Justice Candidate a Threat
to Parental Rights

Dear HSLDA Members and Friends:

David Ogden has been nominated by President Barrack Obama to the position of deputy attorney general of the United States, the second highest position in the Justice Department. His hearings are scheduled for today, February 5, 2009.

Contact your senators now >>

Note: It would be best to call the local offices of your senators in your state, as phone lines on Capitol Hill are tied up by voters concerned about pending economic incentive legislation.

Home School Legal Defense Association urges all of its members to immediately telephone both U.S. senators from your state to oppose the nomination of David Ogden.

The most important reason to oppose Ogden’s nomination is his belief that the rules found in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are already binding on the United States under the doctrines of international law.

In the Supreme Court case of Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005), Ogden argued in a brief that the rules banning the juvenile death penalty contained in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child were customary norms of international law “binding on all states.”

For background information on this doctrine, see Michael Farris’ article, “A Deeper Understanding of the Threat of International Law” in the November/December 2007 Home School Court Report.

This means that Ogden believes that the legal rules contained in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are already binding on the United States, even though this treaty has never been sent to the U.S. Senate for ratification.

Homeschoolers have long understood the dangers of this international treaty, which contains the core principle that the government may decide what it believes is best for each child without any proof of wrongdoing by the child’s parents. Ogden promoted the use of this UN treaty in the Supreme Court to reach the conclusion that America’s courts have the power to overrule state law, using international law as their guidepost for constitutional interpretation. Unfortunately, he was successful in doing so in the Roper case.

It also means that Ogden is a proven advocate for the position that international law should be used to interpret the Constitution of the United States and bind the decisions of our elected officials.

If this weren’t enough, Ogden has a history of representing Playboy and other purveyors of pornography in high-profile legal cases. He also challenged the legality of using filters on library computers to protect children from seeing pornography. It would be hard to imagine how Ogden would faithfully enforce the nation's pornography laws if he is placed in this position at the Justice Department.

The United States Senate needs to understand right now that the American public will not countenance the idea of the nation being led by people who believe that international law trumps American law.

Please call both of your U.S. Senators today to register your opposition to David Ogden.

Sincerely,

Michael P. Farris
HSLDA Chairman

Green Hour Challenge #3 - Time to Draw

We are continuing with the Green Hour Challenges from Handbook of Nature Study blog.  Here are  our notes from our recent nature readings, observations, recordings, and this weeks Green Hour Challenge questions.

1. Read pages 16-17 of the Handbook of Nature Study.

My notes: 

~Nature study should be so much a part of the child's thought and interest that it will naturally form a thought core for other subjects quite unconsciously on his part.

~Nature study lessons give much excellent subject matter for stories or essays.

~ The correlation between nature study and drawing is so natural and inevitable that it needs never be revealed to the pupil.

~ When the child is interested in studying any object, he enjoys illustrating his observations with drawings.

2. This week take your 10-15 minute nature walk.  We have been having wonderful weather in Georgia.  We can feel Autumn beginning to arrive.  The humidity has died down,  the morning and evening air is comfortably cool, and the afternoon sun is still warm and inviting. 

We have been spending a great deal of our time outdoors in our own back yard.  John Charles and I have been lying on the trampoline beneath the canopy of shade trees talking and telling stories. 

As we've looked up into the blue skies to watch the birds flying overhead or to see the puffy clouds drifting slowly by, we've also been noticing the trees above. 

We've been looking for bird and squirrel nests, watching the leaves blow way up at the tip top of the trees , and trying to catch the single leaves that gently float down towards us.

We've also noticed that all the trees above us are the same kind.  They are all Oak Trees.  That has led us to our most recent nature study topic - Oak Trees.

3. Follow up with discussion and the opportunity for a nature journal entry.

We read about Oak Trees in the handbook of nature study and found that the Oak Trees around our house are called White Oaks.  White Oaks have small leaves and acorns.  There are also Red Oaks around our town.  They have large leaves and acorns.  On our nature walks we looked for the Red Oaks and collected a few leaves and acorns.

John Charles colored an Oak Tree coloring sheet and did rubbings of leaves found on our nature walk.

 

Zach did a sketch of the leaves and of the acorns.

 

We plan to continue collecting acorns on our walks to use in our seasonal crafts.

I thought I would also share our Nature Journal with you today.  We decided to create a family Nature Journal.  We are using a 3 ring binder with plastic page protectors that allows us to easily add pages and also keeps them clean and nice looking.

Green Hour -#2

Using Your Words
Assignment Number 2 - My notes are in blue!
1. Read page 15 in the Handbook of Nature Study. (The Field Excursion)
Read page 23-24 in the HNS. (How to Use This Book) Make note of any points
you want to remember. My favorite quote is "The chief aim of this volume is to
encourage investigation rather than to give information." This is where many
people misunderstand the HNS. It is not a field guide but it teaches us how to
help our children with nature study.

~ the teacher plans the work definitely before starting, and demands certain results

~ a very efficient field trip may be made during the ten or fifteen minutes at recess, if it is well planned

~ The half-hour excursion should be preceded by a talk concerning the purposes of the outing

~ the teacher should have at hand the subject of the lesson

~ Make the lesson an investigation and make the pupils feel that they are investigators.

2. "It is a mistake to think that a half day is necessary for a field lesson,
since a very efficient field trip may be made during the ten or fifteen
minutes at recess, if it is well planned." Challenge yourself to take another
10-15 minute "excursion" outdoors in your own yard again this week. Before
setting out on your walk, sit with your children and explain to them that when
you remain quiet during your nature time, you are more likely to hear interesting
things. Brainstorm some sounds they might hear and build some excitement
about remaining quiet during their nature walk this week. Take your walk and if
they get rowdy, use the universal finger over your lips sign to get them to quiet
down. Set a good example and be quiet yourself, modeling how to listen
carefully.

 We thought we might hear birds singing, squirrels moving through the leaves, acorns falling, and water flowing.
3. After your walk, challenge your children to come up with words to describe
the following things:
One word to describe something they heard. (For example: rustling, snapping,
crunching or chirping) Trickling, babbling, tweeting, buzzing, splashing
Two words for something they saw. (For example: tall trees, frozen water, red
birds) pretty flowers, big fish, brown mushrooms, little lizard, sharp rocks
Three words for something they felt. (For example: freezing cold wind, rough
sticky pinecone) long rough stick, tiny smooth acorn, dirty white rock
The point of this assignment is to get them to start thinking about what they see
as they go along. Each time they take a nature walk they will develop more and
more vocabulary and this will eventually trickle down to their nature journals. If
they have difficulty coming up with things to say, help them out with some of
your own words to get them started and they will soon catch on. Once we start
identifying objects they see on their nature walks, you will be surprised at how
easily they remember the specific names of plants, trees, and birds.

 This week our focus was on a local bog.
4. Optional nature journal entry:
Use their words from step three as the basis for a simple nature journal entry. If
the child is too young to write in the journal himself, you can write for them.
"Everything he learns should be added to his nature notebook by him
or, if he's too little to write, his mother." Charlotte Mason, volume 1, page
58.
At this point, you can pull out some colored pencils or crayons and invite them to
illustrate their nature journal page if they want to. I always leave it as an option
for my boys and I would say about half the time they draw. I feel like the nature
walk and the discussion is the meat of our nature study and that it is the most
important part of what we do. "No child should be compelled to have a
notebook." HNS page 14 (Next week we will read about drawing in our nature
journals in the HNS, page 17.)

John Charles colored a  green fern because he saw a lot of those around the bog.

Zach did his own drawing of the lovely area.

 
5. If in your discussion of your nature walk your child expresses a particular
interest in something they saw or heard or felt, make a note of it for further
research later in the week. Remember to check your Handbook of Nature Study
index for more information about your nature interests.

Zach continued the journal by recording information that he learned about bogs through research and he drew and labeled a few plants found around bogs .

 
6. Post an entry on your blog sharing your experiences and then come back to
the Green Hour Challenge post and add your blog link to Mr. Linky.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/harmonyartmom
Harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com

Homeschool Memoirs-#3

This week we are sharing what our planned homeschool routine is. For these Homeschool Memoirs I have only been sharing about Zach.  The reason for that is that John Charles is only 3 years old and I don't consider a child to be homeschooled until they are at the age that the state requires them to be enrolled in school. Since John Charles is not yet at that age I just consider him being home where he belongs and his daily activities are not school activities, but merely a part of a natural childhood in a nurturing family.

Our planned schedule for Zach:

7:00 Zach wakes and takes care of his morning routines - dress, straighten his room, personal devotional time, care for the animals, walk the dog

8:00 Family breakfast with Bible reading and family prayers

8:30  Help with after breakfast chores

9:00-12:00 Morning lessons - Copy work, Recitation work, Math, Literature, PE and Composition

12:00 lunch break

1:00 Art

1:30 Constructive Freetime

2:30 Humanities Tea Time - During this time we listen to Classical music, do an artist/picture study, and read poetry or Shakespeare.

3:00 4:00 - History and Science if not done during Constructive Freetime

That ends our formal lessons for the day and Zach has freetime or helps the family where help is needed.

Homeschool Memoirs: Agendas

We began our homeschool journey with Zachary using the ideas of Charlotte Mason.  We loved the beauty and gentle way of learning that her teachings brought to our lives.  As Zach approached the high school years, we felt pressured to see to it that his learning was more in line with what the state thought he should be learning.  Gradually we added more text books and less living books.  The result was that our son, who began his school age years with a delight and hunger for learning, now dreaded "doing school". 

We decided that we wanted to take him back to his roots this year and educate him through the gentle art of learning that a Charlotte Mason education entails.  In the past we have used the recommendations at Ambleside Online and considered doing the same this year.  Then I got a catalog from Queen Homeschool Suplies, Inc.

As I looked through this catalog, I wanted to purchase everything in it.  I felt regret for the time wasted on textbooks and the boredom, frustration, and discord that they brought to our family.

This year Zach will begin the school year using Language Lessons for the High School Student, Preparing for Spiritual Leadership, Math Facts For Copywork, My Side of the Mountain and Guide, and Biology Level I  from Queen.  For history he will be using Beautiful Feet ancient history.  In math he will use the Ray's series of books as well as Aleks internet program. We will return to Ambleside Online to guide our choices for literature, artist study, and composer studies.  Now that we have planned the upcoming school year, I feel a sense of relief and excitement for what the future holds.

Our Lifestyle of Learning

 

Made at http://wordle.net/

Homeschool Memoirs - All About You

My name is Tammy and I am a homeschooling Mom to a 15 year old son and a 3 year old son.  I have been a homemaker since I was married and have been home with my children since they were born.

The idea of homeschooling had never entered our minds until it came time to register our oldest son for kindergarten.  I think the idea was from God because we didn't know anything about homeschooling and had never known anyone who homeschooled.  We just knew that the thought of sending our child away and entrusting his education to someone else didn't feel right. My husband Randy and I  had a conversation and one of us suggested homeschooling and we both said let's do it.  We believe it was a divine inspiration and a divine agreement and we are thankful that we have been given this lifestyle.

Homeschooling has been so natural for us that I can't imagine any other way of life.   It's even hard for me to write a post like this because in my mind this way of life is as normal as breathing. You don't ask how long have you been breathing and what made you decide to do it. The question that my mind wonders is why isn't everyone homeschooling. 

Happy Not Back to School Day!

 

Today was the big day for the public and private school children in our town.  You know the day - BACK TO SCHOOL! 

We have a tradition here at Hutcheson Heritage Academy of waiting until the day after Labor Day to begin our new school year.  But we always celebrate this day of the year with our own Not Back to School Celebration.

We began our day by sleeping in. Then we had cupcakes and cookies for the boys.  We went out to lunch at a pizzeria and then ended the day at the bowling lanes.  We enjoyed the day and all agree that we would like to go bowling more often.  We also enjoy the fact that we are able to enjoy the remainder of the summer and that we are blessed with home education and all that it brings to our lives.

Homeschoolers threaten cultural comfort?

I don't guess my children fit the stereotypical image of homeschoolers  (you know a 15 year old and a 3 year old aren't stair steps).  Still this article is interesting.

SONNY SCOTT:Home-schoolers threaten our cultural comfort

6/8/2008 9:39:01 AM
Daily Journal

You see them at the grocery, or in a discount store.
It's a big family by today’s standards - "just like stair steps," as the old folks say. Freshly scrubbed boys with neatly trimmed hair and girls with braids, in clean but unfashionable clothes follow mom through the store as she fills her no-frills shopping list.
There's no begging for gimcracks, no fretting, and no threats from mom. The older watch the younger, freeing mom to go peacefully about her task.
You are looking at some of the estimated 2 million children being home schooled in the U.S., and the number is growing. Their reputation for academic achievement has caused colleges to begin aggressively recruiting them. Savings to the taxpayers in instructional costs are conservatively estimated at $4 billion, and some place the figure as high as $9 billion. When you consider that these families pay taxes to support public schools, but demand nothing from them, it seems quite a deal for the public.
Home schooling parents are usually better educated than the norm, and are more likely to attend worship services. Their motives are many and varied. Some fear contagion from the anti-clericalism, coarse speech, suggestive behavior and hedonistic values that characterize secular schools. Others are concerned for their children’s safety. Some want their children to be challenged beyond the minimal competencies of the public schools. Concern for a theistic world view largely permeates the movement.
Indications are that home schooling is working well for the kids, and the parents are pleased with their choice, but the practice is coming under increasing suspicion, and even official attack, as in California.
Why do we hate (or at least distrust) these people so much?
Methinks American middle-class people are uncomfortable around the home schooled for the same reason the alcoholic is uneasy around the teetotaler.
Their very existence represents a rejection of our values, and an indictment of our lifestyles. Those families are willing to render unto Caesar the things that Caesar’s be, but they draw the line at their children. Those of us who have put our trust in the secular state (and effectively surrendered our children to it) recognize this act of defiance as a rejection of our values, and we reject them in return.
Just as the jealous Chaldeans schemed to bring the wrath of the king upon the Hebrew eunuchs, we are happy to sic the state’s bureaucrats on these “trouble makers.” Their implicit rejection of America’s most venerated idol, Materialism, (a.k.a. “Individualism”) spurs us to heat the furnace and feed the lions.
Young families must make the decision: Will junior go to day care and day school, or will mom stay home and raise him? The rationalizations begin. "A family just can't make it on one income." (Our parents did.) "It just costs so much to raise a child nowadays." (Yeah, if you buy brand-name clothing, pre-prepared food, join every club and activity, and spend half the cost of a house on the daughter’s wedding, it does.) And so, the decision is made. We give up the bulk of our waking hours with our children, as well as the formation of their minds, philosophies, and attitudes, to strangers. We compensate by getting a boat to take them to the river, a van to carry them to Little League, a 2,800-square-foot house, an ATV, a zero-turn Cub Cadet, and a fund to finance a brand-name college education. And most significantly, we claim “our right” to pursue a career for our own
"self-fulfillment."
Deep down, however, we know that our generation has eaten its seed corn. We lack the discipline and the vision to deny ourselves in the hope of something enduring and worthy for our posterity. We are tired from working extra jobs, and the looming depression threatens our 401k’s. Credit cards are nearly maxed, and it costs a $100 to fuel the Suburban. Now the kid is raising hell again, demanding the latest Play Station as his price for doing his school work … and there goes that modest young woman in the home-made dress with her four bright-eyed, well-behaved home-schooled children in tow. Wouldn’t you just love to wipe that serene look right off her smug face?
Is it any wonder we hate her so?
Sonny Scott a community columnist, lives on Sparta Road in Chickasaw County and his e-mail address is sonnyscott@yahoo.com.

Appeared originally in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 6/8/2008, section 0 , page 0

A Separate Peace

Zach has finished reading A Separate Peace by John Knowles.  This week he will be completing a few projects based on the book.  Today he completed a lengthy vocabulary list and took an online quiz to test his comprehension of the book.

In addition to those activities he will also be designing a book jacket for the story, researching the major conferences, events and politicians of the WWII era, creating a timeline of the major WWII battles, and writing a book report.