Learning from the Inside Out...
....Is it me or them...really...you can tell me. Am I insane or are they? Raising five children, day to day...hour by hour...losing my mind and loving it.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Scratch head and smile...
Little Frog: Because we were in the bedroom passing crickets.
Nice day for a Giraffe
The Cirlce...or crap I have to needlessly do OVER and OVER again...
Senile Parenting...closer than you might think...
Friday, October 1, 2010
Learn to Read or Pick Yer Nose, Your Choice...
So, the boys were interested in the Origins of Written Language.
WOW!
I jumped on this one and we did all sorts of things…
History.
Writing.
Art!
Curiosity.
This homeschooling mama was eating it up!
Oh Joy! What brilliant children I have!!!!
This is Raccoon with his cuneiform plaque that we now hang proudly on the art wall.
It says ASS...
that's right...
my other kids wrote their names...initials...'Keep Out' stuff like that ...
but this one spells "Ass" in ancient Sumerian.
n.i.c.e.
This one by the pool he did in Kindergarten so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised...
makes a homeschooling Mom PROUD, I tell ya'.
We must be on the right track.
I feel comforted that my child has such a zest for knowledge and a wide grasp on the English Language.
sigh....
You don't even want to know what the boys discovered they could do with the Speak-N-Spell...
Summer Musing
Somehow, with home learning, "summer", as a social and emotional construct, doesn't have the same resonance for my children as it once did with me. That makes me a little…wistful, I guess. I remember the anticipation and the exciting activities surrounding the closing of the year. Summer had such bigness, so much ROOM in the idea. It felt expansive and creative and full of potential. I remember, too the boredom and loneliness that comes with August,
… but right now we are talking Last Day of School…
Summer BEGINS!
Robinson Outdoor Academy; the only real theme of ROA is that if you learned something today, you probably require a shower…if you don’t need a shower, then you better get back out there and get the job done.
Our prerequisites include, but are not limited to, mud and good shoes, ropes, tape (lots of tape, preferably duct tape), sunscreen, snacks are a must and I prefer a big sunhat. A pocket knife comes in handy and so do matches.
Let’s get outside and, I don’t know, blow something up, set something on fire, dig a hole, add some water, make a mess, study a bug or bird of new leaf. Or, start the day with helping mom make dinner, do some laundry, read a teetering stack of books, tease each other a little, watch some TV, love the kittens into submission, tie each other up (literally.), play hide and seek, bring the scooters inside the house, race around, play battleship, cheat, get caught, and complain about being bored.
We learn all the time...or ~ sometimes, NONE of the time.
We tend to play.
We play A LOT.
Bionicles ROCK.
Pokemon.
Legos.
Paint.
Zoobs.
Couch forts.
Swimming.
Spy and/or monster games are a MUST
and then we slow it down reading with Mom.
Last week we took all the matresses out of the house and had a massive sleepout with friends.
So, it is hard to conceptualize what a Summer ‘Break’ would look like. We sort of live life on our own terms (or try to…) and our “daily grind” – well, it is not much of a grind…we get up, read, we do some chores, or not, we play some games, read a little, feed the animals, figure out some intriguing math problem on the white board in the kitchen, read, read, read, cook, read, watch some movies… so take a break from what, exactly?
And yet. And yet, I find that I AM looking forwards to summer. I have been trying to figure out if this is an artifact from my years and years and more years of schooling or if it has some meat on its bones. I am leaning towards “meat.”
While we are eclectic homeschoolers and our days do not look anything like a public school day and much of the time we never even touch curriculum in the manner intended, as parents, The Man and I still have goals and hopes for our children’s education and, hey,
The public school system likes to tout that it has some sort of systematic comprehensive blueprint of what a fourth grader “should know.” Now, we can get in there and debate how well of a job the public schools do in deciding on the scope and design of a fourth grader’s educational plan, but … why reinvent the wheel? We just don’t take their wheel too seriously…
So, we do tend to follow some of what our State says we should be doing…besides, we are a part of a Charter school and if we follow their course of study…even loosely, then the cool field trips and free museum days they wrangle up are more fun.
Still, there can be a lot of pressure on the homeschooling parent; much of it self-imposed. Much of it stemming from fear...never a pretty place to come from... So, no matter how blasé I may sound about our homeschooling plan of action, no matter how cool playing with your happy kids all day sounds, I am still a bit uptight sometimes and looking forwards to summer… a break from the Break… if you will.
Go. Figure.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Top O' The Mornin' to Ya
So last night someone left a dixie cup of M&M's in my bedroom. This morning, all four kids were loitering around my bed waiting for breakfast and mommy to get it in gear.
As I stumbled out of the room, I saw the dixie cup and I thought to myself, “M&M’s…a little sugar kick to jumpstart Mommy.” Of course, I don’t feed peanut M&M’s to my babies for breakfast, so there was no room for sharing…
stealth, I had to be stealthy and
vewwy qwi-et.
Children have chocolate radar. I couldn’t even acknowledge the choco-score so I simply picked up the cup, turned my side to the rabid seagulls that normally flank me on all sides and, as I walked out the door, popped one in my mouth.
Did I mention I live out in the country? WAY out in the country…
That we are the minority out here…Planet Earth is right…insects TOTALLY out number us and have our every move anticipated and covered….once they defeat our dreaded shoe or rolled newspaper attack they will absolutely kick our butts.
The dixie cup was swarming with ants, a little black marching, mindless workforce operating together to feed the swarm that lives inside my walls.
and THAT is what I had for breakfast.
Ants and Crest toothpaste.
YUM.