September: Homeschool's best kept secret

September. It's still summer weather. The world is at school and at work. The beaches and parks are empty. And Homeschoolers? They are not at home. Here's a little secret: Those beaches and parks aren't completely empty. Someone is still enjoying the summer. Those someones are homeschoolers.

Let me brag about my week:

Monday:

We went to the creek with three other homeschool families and built a bonfire and had hot dogs and s'mores while the kids splashed in the creek.

Tues:

Well, okay, so maybe we didn't go outside too much that day.

Wen:

We went to the lake's beach that we had all to ourselves. It was warm and sunny, and we stayed up late singing songs around the campfire and finding star constellations.

Thurs:

We went back to the beach because we didn't get enough the day before. We also went geo cashing when we got home and had a sleepover.

Fri:

We had homeschool field day. There were all sorts of tack events and every kid got tons of ribbons. There were echoes of "good job" heard all around, and my boys loved it. We also went to a county fair and ate lots of junk food.

Okay, so could a public schooler have done the above list last week?  Well, perhaps some of it, but really, with bus schedules, homework, school night bed times, and new transitions, I doubt it.

September is God's gift to homeschoolers, and I'm grateful.

We DID do school too. We got in our three "R"s.


And there's a reason we didn't get outside very much on Tuesday. My homeschool administrators came over and then we had science club where we learned about galaxies and redshift. We drew "stars" on a balloon and blew it up as one of our experiments to show the universe expanding:

We aslo learned about black holes, and tried to show how gravity suckers draw all marbles (I mean planets) to it. 

On other days we continued to learn about maps and we drew globes on oranges and peeled it so we could lay it flat and talked about how warped our world maps are.

But really, it was a glorious week full of sun and sky.

Week One! Here we go Again!!!!

Here we are at the beginning of another school year! Oh yah!

This year will be different because instead of studying history, we will be learning geography and modern cultures. We'll focus on the good in all the world, so perhaps it won't be learning current events, but it will be educational none the less.

My detailed plans will have to wait until next week. Tweaking is still needed.

Science this year is going to be fun. It will cover astronomy, geology, meteorology and good stuff like that.

This week we started our science class! Oh yah, I am on the ball!!!

We learned about the atmosphere, why the sky is blue, and all about telescopes. One fun experiment was making a pinhole camera to talk about telescopes making things upside down.

For geography, we started learning about maps. We started our continents song as well. Composed by yours truly :) We learned about different kinds of maps, longitude, latitudes etc, and made our own topographical maps. We spent one day making them out of salt dough, and another painting them.

Hyrum's had a hill, volcano, mountain, and tornado---tornado? Yah whatever. Maxwell's was the Earth, with the pacific ocean in the middle so he could show the ring of fire. See his red circle of dots? Those are volcanos. Perfect year for my kids to learn earth science eh?

And cubs started back up too. A mother son activity. We went canoeing in the middle of a thunder storm (!?!) no leaders seemed concerned. We also made branded wood and did archery. Maxwell loves scouts.

I think the whole family is happy to be in the swing of things again, but no one as much as Daniel, who I have decided is ready for kindergarten even though he is only four. He's doing great, and is super cute.

Have you noticed that my quality of photos has deteriorated? Yah, my camera was stolen. We will survive until I get another one, but I am totally bummed.

Homeschool Summer Camp--Bible style

My sister-in-law Naomi is AWESOME! This is an understatement. Every other year she puts together a scripture camp. This year was the New Testament. This went PERFECT with last school year since that is what we studied.

To be honest though, I'm not sure if my kids even realized we studied the New Testament last year. We read New Testament stories every night they went to bed on time.....which wasn't as often as I would have liked.....but other then that, nada.

I should have made it part of devotional, but I got lazy.

I've got to change for this coming year. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do, but I know I have to have it all planned out by the end of next week so that we actually DO IT!

Anyway, the camp was incredible. You have to dress up. This is mandatory.

We started out the camp with a talent show. Hyrum really loved that. He sang a song and did interpretative dance moves while I sang. No joke. His dance was the highlight of the night.

We also had plenty of workshops where we learned more about the Saviour's life and teachings:

And had good food, a camp store (with fake money you earned throughout,) simulations where we acted out scripture, campfires, and a good ol' time!

Josh Burton. A Person of Eminence.

Today I learned that Josh Burton died. It's very surreal to me. Josh Burton was my friend, and his mother is one of my greatest mentors and truest friends. He was in a car accident, but the last news I heard before today was that he was recovering; that he was doing so well. How do you cope with info like this? I'm hoping blogging will help me wrap my mind around this. And so my tribute to Josh:

I'm posting this on my homeschool blog because Josh is part of my homeschool life. In fact, I met him at a homeschooling conference in Utah. I remember it perfectly. I was in the lobby and I couldn't help staring at this young guy sitting there. "Dustin! See that guy over there? I know him. I mean, I know him from a movie or something. He's an actor, I promise, but I can't remember what movie." To which Dustin said "You're right. He's very familiar."

We started talking to him. "Where are you from?" "Cardston." and then the dots in my head lined up. "Cardston! We lived there for awhile! Did you happen to be in those summer plays?" Yes he did. He had starred in all those summer plays, and was my and Dustin's favourite actor.

He got a kick out of us thinking that he was a famous actor.

I was impressed with him that afternoon, and I continued to be impressed by him every time I talked to him after that. I remember talking with him at his house one day and thinking "This guy is awesome. He's got it together. If homeschooling contributed to getting this guy to where he's at, then I'm doing the right thing."

Then Josh got called to go to Guatemala on an LDS mission. To pay for his mission, he went door to door in our little town selling his CD of classical music he had composed and recorded.

I, of course, bought a CD proudly.

I got to know his mom, Heather Burton, a lot better in the next two years. I remember having a play date with her on the banks of the creek. Amidst blowing bubbles and folding paper airplanes she told me of how she used to work in the public school system, but wanted more for her children. She wanted to be with them and guide them. She wanted to give her all to her children, because they are her world.

Josh was her world.

Oh heavens---I'm crying again.

Anyway----One day, Heather related to me how nervous she was that Josh's mission was in Guatemala. She told me of how the last night he slept at home she couldn't sleep and quietly went to where Josh was sleeping. She held onto her baby boy one last time before he was off to where she could not stay. She had read about all the crazy stuff that could happen there, and tried to fill his suitcases and packages with everything she possibly could to help him in health or harm. This was Josh's response to this:

Josh's brother, Aaron, is a bit older then Maxwell. Anyone who knows Aaron knows who Aaron's hero is. Josh. At our Person of Eminence presentation, Maxwell did Queen Victoria, one kid did Gandhi, but Aaron did Josh. Here is Aaron's presentation:

Josh will always be the perfect hero for Aaron. He will always be young, talented, funny, and choosing the Lord first. He has been frozen in time in our hearts and minds just like his last few years upon the earth.

I remember thinking on my mission "This would be a perfect time to die. My testimony has never been stronger, I'm where I should be, doing what I should be doing." and then I thought about how that might hurt my mom, and I thought that I probably should try and not die.

Poor Heather. From what I can tell, she was up in the sky in an airplane on the way to her son whom she believed was healing when Josh passed away. That just sucks. That sucks big time, and there's just no other way to put it.

I'm grateful for the Saviour who not only atoned so that Josh will be resurrected and be with God, but who also atoned so that Heather and her family can lean on Him to find peace and comfort.

I hear that parents who loose a child never heal completely. The love and attachment runs too deep. Children leave too big of an impression on our hearts to forget or move on entirely.

I don't know how I can help Heather or her family. I'm not sure what I can say or do to help ease this terrible burden, but I hope they will know that I love them and pray for them.

Thank thee Lord for the opportunity and blessing it was to know Josh Burton. He was a blazing light of fun, hope and greatness that I will never forget.

WHOOHOO! DONE!

Not that homeschooling is EVER "done." But Science, history, handwriting without tears, and Rightstart Math is done for the school year.  And during the summer, I don't have to feel like school is mandatory.

Our last science club class was about genetics. We had a game where I gave each kid a worksheet that told him which traits their fake person had, and then they teamed up with someone else to make a new child. They rolled dice to see if they were passing down dominant or recessive traits and then drew their baby accordingly.--It kind of sounds racy, but it wasn't I can assure you.

And since I had the supplies and haven't used them all year long, I got out petri dishes and had the boys swab their mouth, sink, and toilet, to see which one will grow more bacteria.

For history, we learned about computers. We read books about their invention and about Steve Jobs. I feel a little silly, because until this lesson, I had no idea that the "i" in ipod and iPhone etc. stands for internet.  Anyway, we made our own computers.

We also talked about the information age, and we played a game where they had to run around the house to get information such as "What stuff animal is in the oven?" and then we did it again the information age way-by asking "Google-Mumma." I would just tell them the answers without them having to run around.

We also learned about pollution and green energy solutions. For our activity, we made a little pond and put our water animals inside. we then polluted it and talked about the impact that would have if it was real.  We also made solar-powered toys to talk about green energy.

At the end of the week, which just happened to be the literal beginning of summer, the homeschool association had a retirement party for Granny Wendy.  I sure love her. She has done so much for our community. The only reason she is retiring is so she can serve a mission, which she has already started. Her husband and she will be heading the new Pathways program that helps people bridge the gap between their education and getting accepted into a church school. I can't think of a better mission for this amazing woman!

We had a talent show as part of the party, and my boys went up to sing a song, but kept pushing each other to hog the mic. It was funny but embarrassing.  Oh well, fun start to summer!!!!

And now, bare with me as I reflect on this past year, and where we are at.



Science
I think science went really well. I made little changes to the Four Year Plan, like having the 5 senses on 4 different club days. Also, each animal class had it's own day. Because of going to Idaho, I wasn't able to do everything they suggested, but really, the only thing missed was mostly learning about the workings of plants. I find this interesting (I even took an upper-course plant biology class in college) but I'm sure my group is not suffering because I skipped it.

I LOVED the dissections and microscope explorations. Maybe next time I can get fresher specimens.


History
I loved learning about modern history. I felt I was teaching my children things they needed to know. There were some subjects I realized I should have taught. Here are some I thought of in retrospect:

American Japanese relocation
Russia's 1917 revolution.
McCarthyism
Latin American immigration
Watergate

To fit in these topics (and anymore that I might think up) I think next time around I'll fit all the french revolution stuff in with the ancient history year.


Maxwell's Reading writing and arithmetic
Math is AWESOME! I have to say, I'm so pleased with Rightstart Math. I hardly used any external worksheets either.  They gave you quite a bit to work with. I feel that Maxwell not only can spout out correct answers, he is thinking like a mathematician. According to Alberta standards, he is ahead of the game at present. Look at a test he took:

Maxwell's writing is okay, and his reading is a year behind. I try not to freak out about this because every homeschool mom I've ever talked to that has older kids tells me not to freak out, and that everything will be okay in the end, and he will out shine any public schooled kid's reading by far. Faith.  Give me faith.  I have faith in Maxwell. I know he's smart, I just don't have that much faith in myself.  Thank goodness for Explode the Code online.

Hyrum's reading writing and arithmetic
I've been taking things slow, and because of how Hyrum is, I don't know if he's bored or if I'm going too fast! I think I will just plug on with what I'm doing during the summer.

With reading, we have been doing "20 easy Lessons." I chose this over "100 Easy Lessons" because the 100 lessons was really busy on the page, and Hyrum needs clarity and simplicity. I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. I think we're about to the point of moving over to BOB books.

In writing, Hyrum is done with Handwriting without tears! This has been a great program for him. He really learns with story and visual learning, so things like "dive down, swim up, and over" make things fun for him. He loves the stories like "make it so no trash can get in-between the humps in the letter "m." Just a chocolate chip." He's ready to journal.

With math, he's about ready to start Rightstart math. In fact, I've started him on the basic concepts of recognizing groups of things as numbers without counting. He's also memorized the "Yellow is the Sun" song.

Because of this, he can now easily do simple math addition

My plans for summer:
Devotionals
Maxwell: Explode the code, Dick and Jane, journal, and one or two math problems
Hyrum: Bob books, journal, and one or two math problems

Not too demanding. And if we don't do it everyday, WHO CARES!

HAPPY SUMMER!!!!

The eye and Middle East issues

Okay people. Yes the U.S. has been done with school for a while, but here in Canada we are going strong.  One more week of full throng in this house.  One. More. Week.

For science we learned about the eye. I was so happy I had my friend's help. I'm kind of burned out of  having to prepare lessons, so I wasn't prepared when we were supposed to start. An hour later, we were on track, but hey, all the kids were having a blast running around until then. It's all good.

One of the experiments we did, was to see how the lens turns everything upside-down. It was cool. You take a lens and tracing paper and look at a window, and the scene is projected upside-down. We did lots of other things, but I was sad I didn't have an eye to dissect. I was given cow eye, but I waited until science day to dissect it, and it went bad by then.

We learned about Dessert Storm for history. It was weird how little info I could find to share with my kids. I guess history doesn't think it was important, but as a little girl, I thought the gulf war was pretty darn important.

We burned oil to commemorate the war. It took awhile to start burning, but once it did, it BURNED. I was talking to them how oil fires should never have water put on it, when Maxwell spit on it out of curiosity. It was like a fire bomb went off! Crazy.

We also learned about 9/11. We talked about how the best way to conquer terrorism is to have hope, and we wrote hopes we had for the world on helium balloons that we let go. Maxwell hoped that they flew to the president (notice he didn't say "Prime Minister?"---yah, I'm so a U.S. mom who lives in Canada. Don't worry. I'll teach myself Canada politics/history and teach it to my kids---someday.)

Hyrum was really affected by learning about 9/11. He made his own activity. Without any coaxing from me, Hyrum made a whole New York skyline and made paper airplanes and threw them at the twin towers. I know that sounds barbaric, but I really think it was some coping mechanism for him because the whole thing was way too much for his emotional heart to handle. To make it a game made it unreal. I know that might not make sense, but that's what I think happened.

Moving on to math, Maxwell was very proud of himself this week. I introduce perimeters to him, and he found it really easy. I was quite proud of him as well.

And last but not least, it was Hyrum's BIRTHDAY!  We had a superhero party designed by my sister who sells them here.  I was hoping this would be our end of year party, but it was not meant to be I guess.

See you NEXT WEEK!

The Brain, Tiananmen Square, and the Berlin Wall----with cows on the side.

For science we learned about the brain.  No brain to dissect. Whimper. It's hard to get one because of mad cow disease. So we did without.  Some highlights we checking our reflexes by seeing how fast we could grab a falling pole, and seeing if we could reteach our brain by writing with something besides our right hands.

For history we learned about Tiananmen square---so sad. Scary that the Chinese leaders basically said "If we make our citizens happy and healthy, they will never riot for their freedom again." Scarier still that they were right. We made funeral wreaths for Hu since it was Hu's funeral that began the revolt.

And I have loved learning about the Berlin Wall.  Did you know that the fall of the Berlin wall was an accident? The administrators never intended to have things happen the way they did. It was pretty much the power of the press and how, if so many people believe something is true, then it is.

We acted out the Berlin Wall, but it actually distressed Hyrum out to be stuck on one side of the house. His frown is real.  Maxwell's is fake.

There was the CUTEST book about the Berlin wall that even helped Daniel understand what happened.  It's called "The Balloon Sailors."  I remember watching a movie about this story when I was little. Simple book but powerful.

A quick update on math, Maxwell is doing awesome, and he can now count any amount of money quite well. For about a week, I would have some change in my pocket and if he could count it correctly, he could keep it. Not shockingly, Maxwell LOVED this. I have stopped doing this on such a regular basis.  I would go broke!

And last but not least WE BOUGHT A COW!!! Well, we bought equal shares into three cows, a few chickens and a goat!  I love having sisters-in-law who live in the country who are willing to share with us city folk!