Home is where your heart is

Home is where your heart is

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Unschooling

Unschooling is the idea that kids are naturally curious and desire to learn.  If left to their own devices kids will naturally pursue their interests and learn, they don't have to be forced to learn.  I wholeheartedly believe this.  I have seen such a natural curiosity and desire to learn in my own children and in myself that when we decided to homeschool I felt like unschooling was the way to go for us.
To give you an idea of how it works I'll tell you a little bit about a few of our days.  Not every  day is like this, some days we do tons and some days we don't.  Some days we spend all day reading book and learn from the books, some days we spend all day at a filed trip, some days we spend all day cleaning because we are still earning to balance housework and learning.  Even that is a learning experience!
These are a few entries from my homeschool journal;
January 9, 2015
"Today we talked about engineering.  We drew detailed depictions of a house, then we built a replica with wooden blocks, and last we used a game called Minecraft to build the house.  We talked about area, that led to a math dicscussion about how to find area and the area of different shapes.  We talked about different types of building material and also terrain.  Where would you want a house to be built.  Glen wanted his on top of a mountain, Benjamin wanted his in a desert, and I wanted mine in a forest.  We also talked about how to build a strong house and how to defend it if necessary.
For PE we built an obstacle course and ran, jumped, ducked, and weaved in and out of the obstacles.  We did this in the morning and then again in the afternoon.
Glen is really interested in animals, especially birds so I found a man who runs a bird rescue who is going to have Glen be his apprentice.  I will have to go with him until he is older, but it will be such a great opportunity to learn how to care for birds.
For science we talked about animals and how scientists classify them using characteristics such as  size, color, and other features.  We sorts beans and lintels and talked about how to classify and identify beans and lentils and other foods."
January 16, 2015
"Today for reading Glen read to me out of his poetry binder and an almanac.  Benjamin also read to Elizabeth and Glen.  We read some poetry by Emily Dickinson and discussed the differences between Emily Dickinson and Shel Silverstien.  Language, humor, and rhyming.
For science we explored our senses and had tons of fun.  We tried different textures, sights, sounds, foods, and smells.  We also watched a documentary about an Allosourus and talked about animals that are like them.
For PE we practiced ninja skills, running, jumping, and balance.  We made puffy paint for art, and also baked cookies, let's call that home economics.  :)  We also talked about chemistry and how salt effects the chemical reaction in baking."
January 19, 2015
"Today was Martin Luther King Jr. day and we talked about slavery, segregation, MLK Jr. and civil rights.
We went to the zoo and learned more about our favorite animals.
We talked about DNA and watched  a little movie clip to learn more about DNA."
January 20, 2015
We did more work with 2 times tables. Glen has almost gotten all of them down and Benjamin is finally beginning to understand it too!
We talked more about DNA. We watched another  short clip and drew our own animals, real or imaginary.  We talked about their traits, habitat, predators, prey, if they were nocturnal or not, and what would make the ideal animal.  We talked about Darwin, who he was, what he believed about evolution and survival of the fittest.  We talked about how the Lord created the Earth and also us.
That led to a talk about what would happen if the Lord had not created any carnivorous animals.  We talked about how everything has to be balanced.  We watched that short clip about the wolves effecting the river in Yellow Stone National park and that led to a discussion about plant life, soil and erosion.
We watched a science clip about different gases and their density and that led to a discussion about water and what makes things float and the density of diverse objects.
Glen conducted a science experiment to find out what makes baking soda fizz when we set off our volcanoes.  He filled a bowl with water and then added baking soda.  Nothing.  He decided it must be the food coloring that makes the fiz so he added some of that.  Nothing.  I asked him if he wanted to try some other things.  Vinegar made it fiz.  We talked about the acidity level of different things.  He tried lemon juice for some fiz, and soy sauce and oil for no fiz.  The oil floated to the top which led to another discussion about the density of liquids and gasses."
 All of that today happened before lunch.  It happened naturally. I made suggestion and if they were taken we did it, if not I let it go.  Most of it they did on their own, like the science experiment by Glen.  This is just who we are, we are students of life.
When I first started to homeschool I kind of felt panicked and guilty.  How would my kids ever learn anything without the classroom and teacher?  Then I reminded myself that I taught my kids just fine before they entered school.  Glen was reading at a 3-4th grade level, knew addition, subtraction ,fractions, and the concept of positive and negative numbers.  He knew TONS about animals and geography.  My kids want to learn and I want to facilitate that learning.  My job isn't to force then to learn, it's just to provide the opportunity to learn in an environment where it is encouraged.  Glen told me a few days after we started homeschooling that he got in trouble in school for asking too many questions.  I told him to ask as many as he wanted and to talk as much as he wants and from then on he took off!
Some days are discouraging and I feel anxious.  I'm still inexperienced and trying to figure it all out, but I think it will be ok.  We are too full of the love of learning to stop now.  All of that learning happens without forcing it.  I think every now and then I will need to use a little more guidance then others, but I see that the Lord was right all along.  I don;t have anything to worry about when I do what he wants.  He knows just what my family needs.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Perfect day

Today was such a perfect day!  I found out it was free day at the zoo so we cancelled our plans for the children's museum and headed off to the zoo instead.  The weather was just perfect, it must have been 50!  The animals were all so friendly, many of them came right up to the edges of their cages so everyone could get a good look.  The boys were just thrilled and Elizabeth was in awe by all the animals.  Our favorites were the orangutans, cheetah, and the dolphins, the under water dome was AMAZING!   One orangutan was a total ham and hung out right in front of the crowd posing.  In the ocean exhibit we got to pet dog sharks and one was so friendly he kept raising his head out of the water and getting right up under our hands, even Elizabeth got to pet him. The dolphins were really active and swan around us in circles, they swam right in front of us again and again and the penguins did the same.  The cheetah paced back and forth right in front of us too.  I have to hand it to the Indianapolis zoo, they make it so you can get up close and personal with the animals!

After we got home we had a quick dinner and then family home evening. Benjamin chose the game and we ended up with a jousting tournament.  John and I were the horses and the boys climbed on our back with padded light sabers (we were fresh out of jousting sticks)  It was a lot of fun for the boys to try and knock the other off as we ran at each other from across the room.  Elizabeth got in on the fun and trounced the boys with a little help from her trusty mare.  It left us all rolling in laughter on the ground.  We all had so much fun we know it will make a return visit.

All in all today was pretty much a perfect day, even if I do still have  a mountain of laundry to fold tomorrow. :)







Sunday, January 18, 2015

Chicago temple

 Saturday we went to the Chicago temple, it's a little further then the Kentucky temple, but I wanted to make the trip to add a stamp to my passport.  I have 10 now!  It was BEAUTIFUL!  I envy my brother who served his mission there.  The ladies were so friendly and after I finished with initiatory they found me a dress so I could go sit in the celestial room.  The feeling of peace was so overwhelming.  When it came time to change and go I didn't want to leave!  I started to tear up at the thought of leaving, but John wanted his turn and I needed to go get the kids for that.
It turns out Chicago and Fishers are in different time zones and with the confusion John was an hour late, that NEVER HAPPENS!  Since I had time to kill and can't stand sitting with nothing to do I went over to the distribution center and volunteered to help out.  I had fun chatting with the sisters there while I steamed dresses for them.
After John got there we traded off and i took the boys in to see the small part of the temple they are allowed to see right now.  They loved it and when I told them about the Indiana temple being complete soon and that they can see the whole thing, even the marriage room they got so excited! Next, the kids and I headed to the library.  The Glenview library is less then 10 minutes from the temple and it is HUGE!  When we drove up and saw how big it was this is what was heard in the car, Me: "It's so big!" Benjamin "It has a parking garage!" Glen "So many books!"  It was truly amazing, the best library I have ever been to.  They have these fake trees that looked so real and there were shelves of games that you could check out and take home.  We didn't have a card, nor could we return things by the time they were due, but that was ok because they had more.  There were computers with kindergarten learning games,  tables of puzzles, Duplo Legos, games, and even a fire house/doll house.  The kids had so much fun there, we didn't want to leave!  There was also a play ground right outside the library that was awesome and we could see a train stop with a lot of trains passing through.
Again with the time difference I was an hour late picking John up because I got really confused.  We all agreed that it was the best temple trip we have had and we want to go back!


Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Homeschooling

 Every day is an adventure here.  I never know what life will bring from one day to the next.  Some days have been so hard I'd like to crawl in a hole and live there forever, or run home crying to mom, other days I have been so happy that I never want to leave.  Today fits in the latter category.
Since before Glen started school I have wanted to home school.  In Utah I met with a lot of opposition from most people.  The only ones who liked the idea were my two friends who also wanted to home school.  After having a terrible kindergarten experience in Utah I was so ready to pull Glen out and homes school him, but I didn't know how nor did I feel capable when I had a baby, was pregnant and my husband was gone.  So poor Glen suffered the school, common core, and an impatient teacher who refused to see how intelligent he was.  After moving here his old school had so soured me that his new teacher totally floored me when she immediately saw how far ahead Glen was and was more then willing to work with him and get him work and books to challenge him.  I felt unbelievably lucky that Glen had such a great teacher.  Can you imagine how happy we were when we found that his first grade teacher was the same?  What in incredible school we had found.  I still wanted to home school him though, it just felt right. Finally I decided, as part of anew years resolution, that I wanted to home school by next school year.
I won't go into the details as to why, or how I'm doing it, that's for a latter post, I want to focus on the reaction of the people around me.  As I said earlier, in Utah the reaction was consistently negative, skeptical, or even hostile.  Here, I have not had a single negative reaction.  My neighbor found out and said it was great that I could do that, the school offered not a single negative comment.  and everyone I talked to showed support and shared resources and insight with me. It was great. Today we went to pick up Glen's school things and every teacher we met was friendly and enthusiastic to Glen and even to me.  Not that I'm pretending to like you because I should be nice, but real genuine kindness.  Better yet, they offered encouragement and support.  No one asked me if I was sure it was a good idea, or anything like that. They all said, you can do this, what a great hing your doing, we hope you come to visit we'll miss you Glen.  Amazing.
Every day is an adventure and today's adventure was a sunny day full of heroes and heroins.