School Daze

Hello everyone!  Even though January I thought I would share some pictures I took of the monkeys on our first day of school waaaay back in September.

You know, we’ve been homeschooling for eight years, and this is the first year I’ve ever thought to take a first-day-of-school picture!  I’m kind of disappointed in myself for missing out on the opportunity all these years.  Oh well, no time like the present to start, right?

I was so excited about how good these pictures came out.  Given, it’s hard for the monkeys to take bad pictures, but I thought these photos were extra cute!

This year we officially welcomed a new student to our school table.  Tacy has been working on Pre-K 3 curriculum and is doing fantastic.  Some of her favorite things to do are cutting and working in her sticker books.  She would breeze through an entire workbook in one day if I would let her.  Honestly, I don’t know why I hold her back.  I guess I’m just trying to avoid having to buy new workbooks every other week.  But like the Tool Man always says, what’s money to a hog?  I think I’ll let her do as much as she wants from now on.

OK.  Time to be real.  This school year has been one of the toughest ever THE TOUGHEST EVER! Babies have a way of complicating things, especially babies who don’t sleep.  Besides beginning this school year about a month later than we normally do, we have been moving at a snail’s pace.  Honestly, we’re about 9 weeks behind where I would like to be.  Yikes!  That sounds bad.  But, in the grand scheme of things, are 9 weeks really that big of a deal?  No!!!!!!  So, I’ve determined not to stress about it. 

Part of the challenge of school this year is that I’ve had a hard time working in fun activities.  Unfortunately, when you’re running low on time and energy, it’s usually the fun stuff that gets cut first.  Nevertheless, here are a few pictures from the one poetry tea time we’ve had this year.  I made some old-fashioned tea cakes for our snack, and the kids substituted actual tea with chocolate milk and Coke.  Lucy set our table and lit some candles for us. Then we all sat around the table and enjoyed our cookies and poetry selections.

Ty read us a poem he had written in his literature class.

Tacy even “read” a few poems out of one of my old nursery rhyme books.

And these two lazy girls spent the entire tea time snoozing on the couch. 

Now that the Christmas holidays are behind us, we are back at the books again.  It looks like Tib is finally going to string together some sleep-filled nights, so I’m hoping my energy and gusto will return for the second half of our school year.  I do so want to give the monkeys the best school experience!

Lindsey

Rice Rice Baby

Boy, I really need to do a better job of taking pictures!  That’s the main reason why my blogging has been sparse lately.  I have no new pictures.  This morning I decided to look through my computer to see if I could find any pictures for y’all, and I ran across of few of Tacy.

Several weeks ago I put together this sensory bin of dyed rice for Tacy to dig around in.  I added puff balls, spoons, cups, foam numbers, plastic eggs, and a few other odds and ends for Tacy to play with. 

Tacy thoroughly enjoys digging and pillaging through the rice.  Her favorite activity is to spoon rice into her cup then pour it back into the bin…over and over and over.  Don’t tell her, but this is actually her toddler form of “school work.”  It’s good exercise for those little fingers to grip the spoon, and pouring the rice back and forth is an excellent activity for improving her hand-eye coordination.

I spread a vinyl tablecloth on the floor to keep the inevitable mess contained.  When she’s done playing, all I have to do to clean up is dump the tablecloth back into the bin.

It won’t be long before Tacy is ready to join us at the big school table.  She’s already expressed interest in coloring, writing, painting, and counting.  I may be biased, but I think she’s a pretty smart girl.

Maybe I can get my booty into gear soon and take some pictures.  Fall will be rearing its head in a few weeks, I hope, and that always gets me in the mood to take pictures of the monkeys.  Ty and Lucy are looking forward to the cooler temperatures and autumn fun.  I love chasing them around the yard with my camera as they busy themselves chasing chickens, gathering sticks for campfires, and raking leaves. 

Lindsey

Back to Nature

I’ve been doing something recently that is very out of character for me…  Reading!

It’s no secret that I don’t like to read.  (Gasp!)

I find it incredibly boring.

I’d much rather be doing something creative with my hands.  But lately, I’ve discovered the works of Miss Charlotte Mason, and I am fascinated with her philosophy of education, in particular, her thoughts on homeschooling.

Miss Mason was an educator who lived around the turn of the 20th century, and wrote extensively about educating children in the home.  I must say I am loving her ideas.  Her methodology is far too broad a topic for me to discuss here, but there is plenty of information to be found online regarding the Charlotte Mason (CM) method should you desire to find out more.

It is my hope to incorporate as many CM practices into our homeschool in the coming year as possible.  In fact, I’ve been so inspired by CM’s writings that, even though the monkeys are practically finished with their work for this year, I’ve already begun implementing some of CM’s suggestions into our daily routine.

For instance, we’ve begun to learn Latin, we’ve ventured into the world of Shakespeare, and we’ve devoted a small part of each week to the study of famous artists.  I’ve also managed to squeeze in some classical music and lighthearted poetry here and there.

Today I wanted to highlight another one of Miss Mason’s ideas that we’ve started using in (or rather out of) our classroom.

Nature Study!

CM believed that children should spend a lot of time out of doors.  And by “a lot” I mean 4-6 hours a day!  Can I get an “Amen”?  Sign me up!

In Charlotte’s opinion children should be allowed multiple hours a day for ripping, romping, playing, breathing fresh air, soaking up sunshine, and making discoveries.  She believed that children should be encouraged to explore the marvels of Creation on their own.  The mother should play a very unobtrusive role in the children’s study of nature.  She should casually direct the children’s attention towards a specific area of interest, like a cluster of dandelions or a bird’s nest, maybe posing a question here or there are, but never boring the children with a lecture or lesson.  The children should be allowed to make discoveries on their own, unhindered by proper “lessons.”  Then they should come back and report to mom or record in a nature journal whatever observations they made during their explorations.

Done correctly, a thorough study of nature benefits the children on multiple levels.  It hones their observation skills, it nurtures their love for their Creator, and it helps them appreciate the value of life.  Not to mention the fact that a well rounded nature study encompasses a multitude of academic subjects including geography, geology, math, composition, poetry, and, of course, the sciences, just to name a few.  With so many benefits, it’s easy to see why I was eager to add nature study to our weekly routine.

I had only one question.

Where do we start?

There’s just so much to see.  Birds, trees, weeds, insects, water, weather, flowers…  Nature is BIG, and I needed to help my kids focus.  The answer came to me while I was driving down the interstate the other day.

You know something’s up when you can hear the loud roar of insects over the sound of 70 mph traffic.  Deep in the recesses of my mind I remembered something about a periodical cicada that made it’s appearance every few years.  Could that be the buzzing sound I was hearing?  Turns out it was.  A little internet research revealed that a brood of 13-year cicadas just emerged in Louisiana and Mississippi.  What a perfect topic for our nature study!

I knew these insects were present at our home because of the roar of the bugs in our yard.  So I sent the kids outside to see what clues they could find.   Within minutes I heard squeals of delight outside.  “Mama, come see!  Come see!”

The monkeys had discovered plenty of cicada signs.  Below is a picture of just one of the hundreds of holes that they found in our front yard.  The cicadas, which have spent the past 13 years feeding on roots, emerged last week by tunneling up to the surface and popping out of these holes like some kind of six-legged gophers. 

The monkeys also found gobs of tiny exoskeletons littering the yard. 

Ty even found a few loose cicada wings.

Of course, there were plenty of live, adult cicadas to be found.  We collected a couple of them and sketched them in our nature journals, noting the unique characteristics of insects:  the 3 body sections, 6 legs, compound eyes, antennae, jointed legs, etc.

How about those red eyes!  The monkeys were really intrigued by those ruby red peepers.

Even little Tacy got in on the exploring.  I love to see her learning with the big kids!

I think the monkeys are hooked on nature study.  I know I am.  It’s such a relaxed way to learn.  I’m looking forward to more learning fun as we explore God’s creation together.  Thanks for the tip, Charlotte!

Lindsey

Summer Schooling

Hello!  I’m stopping in quickly today to share a few pics of what we’ve been up to this summer.  I’ve been super busy the past two weeks putting together all the details for Lucy’s big mermaid birthday bash, but I didn’t want to fall behind on blogging again.

Just because it’s 100 degrees out, doesn’t mean we can’t squeeze in a little fun learning this summer.  However, this is easier done with Lucy than with Ty.  She begs every day to do “school work.”  I’m happy to oblige.  She usually does 4 to 6 worksheets a day concentrating on letter sounds, numbers, cutting, pasting, tracing, and coloring.  I also try to include some hands-on work with things like beads, play dough, puzzles, or Bend-a-Roos.

Here is a simple activity I made for her using pipe cleaners.  I just taped a number onto the end of several pipe cleaners, and she strung the correct number of beads onto them.  Simple, I know, but it kept her entertained.

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Lucy’s favorite “subject” has got to be cutting.  It’s the first thing she wants to work on everyday.  I made these practice sheets using the letters of her name, then had her cut along the lines through each star.  It stickers seemed to be a good way to help her stay on the lines.

Another of Lucy’s favorite activities is using her Do A Dot paints.  I love these.  Lucy is very careful with them, so she doesn’t make a mess.  We use them to work on everything from phonics, to counting, to art.  On this day I taped a large piece of freezer paper to the floor and labeled boxes with numbers.  My intention was for her to paint the correct number of dots in each box.  Lucy’s intentions were different.  Take a look at the box labeled “1.”  When I questioned her about it, she explained that she drew one caterpillar.  For box “3” she painted three dots, and then told me that she thought it would be better to have four instead.  Oh, well.  I pretty much just left her alone after that.

Ty is not quite as eager to do school as his sister is.  I guess that’s one of the side effects of being a boy.  One activity he worked on earlier this summer was this owl lapbook.  I really am fond of lapbooks.  They are great ways to record facts about any subject, and are good tools to use for review.  I also had Lucy do an owl lapbook of her own.  At the end of the week all three of us made owls out of empty toilet paper tubes.

I’ve also had Ty working a few arithmetic papers each week.  Those darned multiplication facts just won’t stick! Guess we’ll just keep plugging away at them.  They’re bound to click one of these days.

My plan is to start our new school year the first week of August.  All of our books finally came in, and I have been busy working on schedules and plans for the the first 12 weeks or so.  Of course all this planning might be akin to spitting in the wind since baby sis is due to arrive in under 12 weeks.  I’m sure that will throw a monkey wrench in things.  Guess we’ll have to cross that bridge when it gets here, though.

Lindsey

Angry Students

I started off this school year with a bang, posting weekly updates of our academic adventures here at Arrow Academy.  But as you are well aware, I wasn’t able to keep up that pace for long.  This week, though, I decided to drag the camera back out snap a few pictures of Lucy doing her lessons.

Lately, Lucy’s really been interested in “doing her cards” as she calls it.  She loves matching and sorting all the printouts I have for her.  It’s a great way for her to work on counting, colors, letter recognition, sorting, and sequencing.  Hey, if she’s eager to learn, then I’m happy to oblige!

I ran across some new material this week that I thought would be of particular interest to my monkeys…Angry Bird themed printables.  And boy was I right!  They loved it.  Even though these printables are totally tailored for younger kids, Ty couldn’t help but be excited at the sight of his favorite feathered friends.  It wasn’t long before he made a trip up stairs to fetch all of his stuffed birds and a couple of hats we had left from his Angry Birds birthday party.

First of all Lucy had to match each bird to the right color word.  Since she is only two, I colored over the words with the appropriate color to help her out just a bit.  Still, this activity is a good way to familiarize her with written text.

Next, Lucy had to sort birds and pigs, a task she was able to accomplish in about 2 seconds.

Since the bird/pig sorting task was so easy for her, I figured she was ready to try the next activity…

Sorting money.

Once I helped her put the first of each coin in the right box, she was able to complete the page on her own.  She even learned what a penny was before we finished the activity!

I don’t know about you, but these two don’t look too “angry” to me.  I’m hoping the kids’ response to these activities will be the motivation I need to make school more fun.  Lately we’ve just been doing our basic lessons, and I haven’t been taking the time to include creative activities that I know they would enjoy. I’ll try to do better.  Everyone is happier around here when school is fun.

Lindsey

Arrow Academy–Week in Review, 5

Believe it or not, once again, we spent the better part of two school days this week in doctor’s offices.  Lucy is still battling a nasty runny nose, and this week it was accompanied by a rattling cough.  So now she’s being treated for pneumonia.  Thankfully, by the end of this week she seems to be on the up and up.  Maybe next week we can stay doctor free!

Anyway, when we were in school this week, we managed to finally catch up from all of our previous sick days.  I will admit here that I finally gave up on all the seatwork pages that we were behind in.  A Beka is a wonderful curriculum, but it does have more than it’s fair share of busywork built into it.  I’ve come to the realization that Ty is not the child who is gonna be able to sit still for a lot of paper work.  Looks like I’m going to have to come up with some creative and slightly more interesting ways to get Ty some extra practice.

You can tell by the look on Ty’s face just how much he enjoys doing his seatwork.

Well, what did Ty learn about this week?

In phonics, Ty is still drilling his special sounds, you know like:  st, bl, th, dr, spr, er, ar, oy, etc.  We are also talking about rhymes, sentences, syllables, and suffixes.

In arithmetic, we’ve been working on counting by 1, 2, 5, & 10, before & after numbers, greater than & less than, telling time to the half hour, and reading a thermometer.  And this week we added nickels and $5 to our money counting.  Ty absolutely loves counting and adding money, and for good reason.  He is great at it!  Maybe he’ll follow in Uncle Jude’s banking footsteps.

“And what about Tot School?” you ask.

Well, this week we focused on the letter H, the number 3, and the color blue.  And of course, both monkeys are still talking about ponds.

Here’s Lucy working on a pond matching sheet that I downloaded from 1+1+1=1.  Every time Lucy gets to the picture of the alligator she smacks it like a bug.  As a matter of fact any time she sees any picture of an alligator or a snake she gives it a good whack.

This activity was as easy as pie for Lucy.  She’s such a genius!  Just like Mama!!

This is Lucy’s dot-painted H paper.  I think it was great that she was able to follow my instructions and dot only the hammers!

In my hunt for blue objects around the house, I ran across some blue glass beads.  What a find!  These beads entertained Lucy for quite a while.  She worked hard dropping the beads into an old mayonnaise bottle.  As soon as she’d get them all in, she’d dump the beads back out and start again.

Stamping some blue frogs…

Our Tot Trays for the week:

• wood blocks
• number puzzle (a $.79 find at Michael’s!)
• blue lacing cow and beads
• number and letter 2-piece puzzles
• “big bucket of Blue”
• pom poms for sorting

Here’s part of the reason why Ty has such a hard time focusing on his work sometimes.  We’re blessed with a lot of distractions.

I picked up these goofy goggles a couple of months ago in Hobby Lobby.  I think I got a package of 6 for $.25 cents.  The blue ones were perfect for our blue theme this week.

Miss Magoo.

Mr. Magoo (or should I say Mr. Ma-Goofy.)

Oh, if only they were always this willing and eager to do their work…

Welcome to Tot School

Well, I finally found my card reader, so as promised, here are a few pictures from our first week back in school. Actually, these pictures focus more on Lucy and her very first week of Tot School.

Our theme for the week is ponds. We started with this because Ty’s arithmetic curriculum is centered on a particular theme every six weeks, and the first one is ponds. For Lucy, I also chose to focus on the letter L and the color green.

Here’s Lucy first experience with her new Do-a-Dot paints. I must admit I put off getting out the paints because I was a bit nervous about a two-year-old and anything with the word “paint” on it.

But my worry was all for naught. Lucy loved the paint, and so did I! And so did Ty!

Lucy did so great with the paint. In the photo above, she was dotting the L’s on the leaf. I demonstrated the first one for her, and she picked right up on the concept and dotted all the rest lickety split.

Then she got a little carried away and just kept on dotting and dotting, which was totally fine. She was having a blast.

Next I got out the letter L tracing sheets, and Ty demonstrated the correct strokes to make. I love that he was playing the role of teacher.

To my surprise, Lucy actually listened to her big brother and followed his directions, “Down and across.”

An action shot. She was dotting so fast!

So proud of her paper. She had found all the leaves on the letter L’s.

I had put this t-shirt of Ty’s on Lucy to protect her clothes from would be painting mishaps. But I’m happy to report there were none.

Isn’t this the sweetest picture? A little deceiving though.

I’ll try to get pictures of some other Tot School activities. I also want to show y’all our new classroom and some of Ty’s work. He’s doing so well! We’re off to a great start. Ty even used the words “school” and “fun” in the same sentence the other day. Wow! And he’s even taken to affectionately calling me, “School Mom.” Ha.