school

Summer Vacation

2010-06-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

We finished our school year which means that we completed 180 days of school. We are supposed to homeschool for 180 days according to our homeschool waiver I had to sign. So technically Felipe is done with Kindergarten and will be starting first grade and Cassandra will be starting Kindergarten. However, since we move at our own pace Felipe finished the school year about a fourth of the way done with his second grade math book, a fourth of the way done with his Spanish first grade curriculum, and just finished his first grade phonics/reading program in English. So he will be starting the second grade program.

Cassandra will start Kindergarten in the middle of her first grade math book, starting her first grade phonics/reading program, and in the middle of her Kindergarten Spanish curriculum.

As for science we really just study what interests us. This school year we studied arthropods, reptiles, amphibians, fish, birds, mammals, the seasons and weather, health and hygiene, the planets and stars, and we are in the middle of biomes. We have learned about the desert and the ocean. Of course all of these topics are on a Kindergarten/first grade level.

We studied some history. I don't know if I like having a set history curriculum for little kids. I just like to read them little biographies for kids. For Lincoln's birthday and Washington's birthdays we read about the presidents. We learned about Christopher Columbus for Columbus Day. We read scriptures and learn some church history. They love maps so we study maps and learn the names of states and countries.

We have a few activities/classes/lessons type things we are going to be involved in this summer. I like to do school year round so we are going to try to have school maybe 2-3 days a week. We are on a 2 week break right now while I clean out the school room and organize a little. For our summer school days I want to try to do more activities and games. So we are going to relax with the workbooks and try to learn a little more with crafts and games. We have so many books that we don't always have time to read while working on the workbooks so I think we will spend more time reading too.

Heber Field Trip

2010-05-02T22:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of our field trip on the Heber Creeper in a little snowstorm.

Why I Homeschool...

2010-04-24T00:31:00.000-07:00

I read an article recently that was in favor of homeschooling and against the public school system. I did not agree with most of the things I read in this article even though I do homeschool. I did not like that the person criticized teachers to the point of saying that they majored in education in order to avoid learning math and that most teachers don't like math and can't do math. Even though I am a homeschooler I was a public school teacher and I have always loved math. I even got a perfect score on the math part of the MSAT (the 2002 version). I did know a lot of teachers that were not very good at math and I do think there could be a bit of a math deficiency among some teachers. However I think most teachers can teach math at the grade level they are required to teach. Also the article claimed that all elementary and secondary teachers majored in education. I majored in Spanish. My sister teaches elementary school and she majored in psychology. My mom majored in math and taught high school math. My husband taught junior high and high school and he majored in physics. My mother-in-law majored in electrical engineering and teaches Kindergarten. I think most elementary educators do major in education, but not all of them. However, I think the majority of secondary teachers major in the field they plan to teach, such as math, English, Spanish, science, art, etc. My husband and I did have to go to school for a year after we graduated to complete a credential. I think that most who major in education do so because they have a desire to teach, not because they are trying to work around learning math. The person also argued that teachers do not want parents to "interfere" by teaching their children to read and learn math, but that they should leave it to the "experts." I have never heard of such a ridiculous notion. There is nothing better when you are a teacher than to have a parent that is teaching a child at home. It is wonderful to have a child that already knows how to read or add or write. It has been my experience that most teachers encourage parents to be involved in their child's education.

I think that most teachers care about their students. I taught first grade, a third and fourth grade combo class completely in Spanish, and fourth grade. I loved teaching each grade. I also was a Spanish assistant at an elementary school while I was in college and had my own little classroom and taught language arts in Spanish to grades K-6. Each grade had about 2-6 kids and they would come to my room and I taught them for about 30 min. daily. I loved teaching every grade. I still think about the students I had and sincerely hope that they are doing well. I think about how old they are and hope that they are still good students. I think that the majority of teachers feel the same about their students.

I do not think that those who choose not to homeschool are bad parents.

So why do I homeschool? I don't homeschool because I hate the public school system. I am actually very grateful that we live in a country that allows all children the opportunity to go to school. I think the main reason why I homeschool is because I love to be with my children. They tell me that they love to be together as a family. They tell me that they love being homeschooled. I miss them when they or I am away. I think about them all the time. I love to watch them learn. I love to learn with them. I love to teach. I love to watch them play together. I love to spend my whole day with them. I know that public school isn't perfect and I have worked with teachers that I would not like to teach my children. I have worked in classrooms with 33 children and I know that a teacher cannot work individually with each child each day. They can't answer every question for lack of time nor can they call on each child that raises his/her hand. Even the best teacher will have the child that finishes working and is bored, the child that loves to talk and talk and talk, the child that cannot sit still, the child that still can't read and needs a lot of help, the child that pouts, the child that takes twice as much time to find a page in a workbook or get a pencil out, etc. I want my children to receive individualized attention, work at their own pace without waiting for the rest of the kids or without being the last one to finish, have their questions answered, and I want them to be in an environment where they enjoy learning. I don't want them to hear "school is boring....teachers are mean...homework is dumb...how long until recess...etc." My husband and I teach the the 4-5 year old class in primary and I was so sad to hear some of them already saying they didn't want to start school because school is boring. We are on earth to learn. How can children progress if they are instilled with the idea that learning is boring before they can even read?

Now as for homeschooling, many people think that teachers cannot possibly be good homeschoolers. I have heard many homeschool parents say that teachers who homeschool are often too "structured." I have also heard people say that school teachers that decide to homeschool have to forget everything they learned in the public schools or that these homeschool "teachers" soon realize that all they really learned was crowd control and not how to actually teach. These fallacies are actually published in many homeschool books. I disagree with anyone who says such nonsense. I do not think that one has to have been a teacher in order to homeschool or that one even needs a formal degree to homeschool. However I think that the more experience and education one has can definitely be benefit to them in teaching others.

I believe that parents are primarily responsible to educate their children whether their children are homeschooled or go to public or private school. I do not think that parents can entirely blame the school system if their children fall behind in school. In the April 2010 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Elder L. Tom Perry related how his mother taught him when he was a young boy. Here is an excerpt of his talk:

I used to think some days as I ran home from school that I was through learning for the day, but this illusion was quickly destroyed when I saw my mother standing at the door waiting for me. When we were young, we each had a desk in the kitchen where we could continue to be taught by her as she performed household duties and prepared supper. She was a natural teacher and far more demanding of us than our teachers at school and church.

The scope of Mother’s teaching included both secular and spiritual lessons. She made sure none of us were falling behind in our schoolwork, which she would often supplement. She also would practice her Relief Society lessons with us. We, of course, received the unabridged versions found in her notebooks, not the abridged versions that had to fit in a single class period.

My goal for my children is to instill in them a love of learning. I want them to "seek out of the best books words of wisdom, (and to) seek learning even by study and also by faith." (D&C 88:118) Whether they are in public school or homeschool I want them to love to learn. Whether they are in public school or homeschool it is my responsibility to teach them. Many public school teachers do an outstanding job at teaching their students. Many public school teachers are not capable of teaching a large group of children. Many homeschool moms excel at teaching their own children and many homeschool moms let their children learn independently all day without much help or interaction. There are good days and bad days in public school and there are good days and bad days in homeschool. So the question is not which is best: homeschool or public school? The question really is: Am I teaching my child to be successful and taking responsibility for his/her learning?

School Update

2010-02-28T15:04:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures taken at our homeschool Valentine's Day skating party. The skating rink was reserved just for our group. The kids got to ride their scooters and skate in the roller skating rink and then they had a valentine exchange.

Felipe and Cassandra on their scooters.

Cassandra

Carolina

The kids enjoying their valentines and treats after the party.

The kids have been to a few activities in our group like this one. We also are in a Spanish group with 3 other families. We have a little lesson in Spanish together and then play and encourage the kids to speak Spanish while they play. The kids also were on a soccer team in January and we are planning to get them into soccer a little more since they really enjoyed it.

As for school we are doing well at being consistent with having school everyday and completing the planned work. We have been having school around 10 am though because we have been up until 11 pm every night watching the Olympics. The kids have learned a lot about different winter sports and about Canada and a few other countries. It will be nice to get back to our regular schedule though.

We are learning about biomes in science. We made a model of a desert with some sand and little plastic snakes and lizards. The kids made a few cacti out of pipe cleaners and put them in the sand. We are going to read about various biomes and make corresponding models.

Cassandra is doing Kindergarten work now. She knows her letters and sounds and is working on word families like -at, -an, -ap, -it, etc. She can sound out most of the three letter words and likes to try to sound out big words.

Felipe is doing mostly first grade work and has just started on a second grade math book that I love. He loves reading in Spanish and has been speaking Spanish a lot more lately.

Now that Cassandra is doing lessons more than just letter practice and preschool work I need to separate the kids more to work with them individually. Before we all worked at the same time but I mostly would work with Felipe while Cassandra practiced writing letters and coloring next to me. We still do a lot of work together though. We bought a kid-size picnic table last year that fits nicely in our school room and I let the other kids sit at it to work on various activities while I work with one individually. I put a set of plastic drawers next to it with things like white boards, construction paper, art supplies, geoboards, lacing cards, magnadoodles, etc. It is kind of like working at centers. We also have been interested in stamping after we made stamped valentines at a primary activity. So I have ordered some stamps for the kids to play with and make pictures (I love them too and I love using my -I need them for our homeschool excuse- to buy them:) So they have to do a "center" for at least one of their breaks (which can include other things not at the table like the flannel board, magnetic board or just reading on a bean bag) and they have to do some sort of exercise for another break. After that they can do whatever they want on their breaks. I also have to do exercise :P so usually we just put on some music and exercise together before we start school. They always want to exercise to our Solecitos CD with Spanish kid songs that I have in my head the rest of the day.

I did a few assessments on them about a month ago. I don't like the idea of "teaching to the test" like so many schools do but at the same time I think kids need to learn how to take tests and do well on them so I do not shun tests in our homeschool. I have always liked tests and testing days were always my favorite in school and even in college. I want my kids to like tests too because I think a negative testing attitude often makes people do worse on tests than they would if they were excited about it.

My favorite thing about our school is that the kids like it. On most days they are excited to go to school. We have been sick this last week but we managed to get about an hour of school done each day. They even wanted to have school when they were sick. Carolina, Samantha and I are still pretty sick though with the flu :(

I get my scripture study done during school too and try to study a little Spanish or do a little reading while they all take a break.

We are really enjoying our homeschool!!

First Prize

2010-02-06T22:10:00.000-08:00

Little Felipe tied for first prize in the science fair for grades k-2. I am so proud of him because he did the project all by himself and thought up the idea alone. I taught him the scientific method and explained what everything means - like hypothesis, procedure, results, conclusion, data... Then I asked him what his hypothesis is about how to make a raisin. He told me and I wrote it on a paper. Then he copied it in his own writing and put it on the board. We followed those steps for the whole project, but I just wrote word for word what he said. Next year he wants to do a project on how to make a steam engine. Cassandra wants to do a science project to on different types of medicine. She is such a little doctor.

My Sister Ate My Science Project

2010-01-15T21:36:00.001-08:00

Little Felipe is working on a science project for a k-8 science fair. His project is How do you make a raisin? He is drying grapes in the window and everyday he draws what they look like. Well, yesterday he was drawing his grapes when Carolina came along and ate them. Luckily she left one. I guess he will just have to finish the project with one since it is too late to start over.

A Homeschool Christmas

2009-12-12T20:22:00.000-08:00

I love being able to homeschool during the Christmas season. When I was in school I remember always making a Christmas craft and doing a few Christmas art projects, singing in the Holiday Tea, and shopping at Santa's Secret Shop (even though the prices were ridiculous).

When I taught school we were not allowed to spend so much time on Christmas. We did sing a song every year for the parents and we did do one art project that maybe took up about 30 minutes of class time. However we had to turn in our lesson plans and we were required to spend so much amount of time each day on certain subjects. Thus "less important" things were not permitted. I always worked at those schools that were about to be taken by the government because of low test scores.

Well, I love being able to spend time on Christmas. Every day we learn about Jesus. I have the picture library box (I am not sure that is what it is called) from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and every day we look at one of the pictures of Jesus and read the summary on the back. We are going chronologically through the life of Christ. We are also memorizing a few scriptures relating to the birth of Christ.

I have a December activity book and I photocopied all of the projects so every day we spend some time either doing a Christmas coloring page, making Santa puppets, Christmas cards, etc. Also we have been making some homemade decorations. Today the kids strung beads on wire and made tree ornaments. Cassandra began sewing a gingerbread man by hand. They also painted some decorations.

We also have time to make Christmas treats. We made fudge with smashed candy canes. Little Felipe got out his hammer and he and Cassandra took turns smashing the candy canes in a ziplock bag. We are going to make sugar cookies with cookie cutters next week.

We have a lot of Christmas books so I put them all in a basket and we have been trying to read a little every night. I love Christmas movies though and so we have been watching a little more than usual. The ones we seem to watch the most are: A Jiminy Cricket Christmas and Walt Disney Christmas (if you put those two together you get the old Disney Channel Christmas from the 1980's), Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, The Thomas and Friends Christmas Wonderland, The My Friends Tigger and Pooh Christmas and Baby Einstein Baby Santa. I think those are all of the Christmas movies we have. I also like It's a Wonderful Life, but it is probably too old for my little kids.

We are still doing our regular daily work but the goal for December is just to get maybe one workbook page done each day in each subject. That way they can get through their daily work in about an hour and have plenty of time for Christmas.

2009-11-15T22:03:00.000-08:00

I made these puppets when I taught first grade many years ago. I loved them so much that I have been saving them all these years. We read the same version of "The Little Red Hen" this week and so I ran to get them out of my file. We did a puppet show for Dada and Samantha.

Poor Carolina was sick but she refuses to lie down during school. She wanted to do all of her "schoolwork." Today she identified the letters I, O and A. She likes O the most.

The Tying of the Shoe

2009-11-03T23:47:00.000-08:00

Lately I have had this nagging feeling that I need to teach the kids to tie their shoes. I haven't felt much like doing it but finally today I did it. I showed them how to tie a shoe and practiced a little with them. Then I told them that if they could tie a shoe by Saturday I would give them each a dollar. Within 30 minutes Felipe and Cassandra had both tied a shoe 3 times. So I owe them each a dollar. It takes them several tries to get it right but I am glad that they can do it now.

Cassandra knows all of the letters and almost all of their sounds now. About two months ago she could only name about 8 letters and maybe 2 sounds. I sat up one night wondering how I should teach her the letters. I didn't come up with any novel ideas. So I have just been having her spend time every day in school writing them and then every morning we go through each letter and say the name of the letter and the sound three times. In her own time she has been trying to write words and teaching letters to Carolina. Well, she has really caught on and I have learned a little about teaching. I think that just consistent practice and repetition works more than sometimes it is given credit. People are constantly trying to find new ways to teach the same old stuff. Maybe new ways aren't always necessary. Hard work and practice seem to be the most reliable method to me.

Pumpkin Stories

2009-10-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

The kids dictated pumpkin stories to me today. I wrote them on a paper and they colored pumpkins to match their stories. Our scanner is temporarily not working though so I will just type their stories.

Pumpkins That Blowed Away
By: Cassandra

On a windy day trees blew and it blew the pumpkins away. Then the stem broke and the top broke and that made all of the seeds blow out. Then the seeds broke in half. The seeds came all over the house and my big pumpkin blew away. It blew and blew and blew and blew and blew and blew and blew and went shhhhhhhhhh. It was so hard that we couldn't catch the pumpkins. Then we caught my pumpkin and carved it. Then we went trick-or-treating at night. Then a tornado came. Then it went to someone's house and it sucked up the house, but it didn't suck our house up because it couldn't find it.

The End

The Poor Little Pumpkin
By: Felipe

Once there were two pumpkins. Every time people go trick-or-treating they look at the pumpkin with so many eyes, but they didn't look at the one with the upside down mouth and upside down eyes and upside down nose. Then the pumpkin said (with the upside down eyes and upside down mouth and upside down nose) that he wished that he could have so many eyes so everyone could look at him too when they go trick-or-treating. Then more people went trick-or-treating and the mom ran out of candy. Then the pumpkin said that he had more candy and the kids were happy. SO every time they went trick-or-treating they now look at the pumpkin.

The End

Red Barn Field Trip

2009-10-11T18:46:00.000-07:00

We went to the Red Barn for a field trip with our homeschool group. We rode on a hayride to the apple orchard and learned about how the farm plants and harvests cherries and apples. We got to pick an apple off the tree and eat it. We also bought some pumpkins and ate apple cider donuts that were very good!!!

Space and Sister Hinckley Quote For This Week

2009-09-28T21:41:00.000-07:00

We are learning about space right now. I found this material at Wal-Mart and bought it but wasn't sure what to do with it. I ended up making the kids space pajamas. Pajamas are always the safest thing to sew because they aren't worn in public.

Here is a little Sister Hinckley quote for this week:

"Think about your particular assignment at this time in your life. It may be to get an education, it may be to rear children, it may be to be a grandparent, it may be to care for an relieve the suffering of someone you love, it may be to do a job in the most excellent way possible, it may be to support someone who has a difficult assignment of their own. Our assignments are varied and they change from time to time. Don't take them lightly. Give them your full heart and energy. Do them with enthusiasm. Do whatever you have to do this week with your whole heart and soul. To do less than this will leave you with an empty feeling."
-Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Mexico Independence Day

2009-09-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

For Mexico's Independence Day (September 16th) we learned the Mexican National Anthem. We also colored a big flag, read about Mexico and went to our First Spanish Club Meeting. The kids had so much fun meeting new friends and playing in Spanish. We made tamales the day after since we didn't have time on the 16th. They actually turned out very good. That was my first try at making tamales.

Curriculum and the Latest

2009-09-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the books we are working on this year.

We use Scholastic Phonics Level A workbook. Felipe is over half way through it and so far I am very happy with it. I am going to have to buy one for Cassandra soon.

For English Language Arts we are using Harcourt Brace Signatures. We are on the second story and the kids seem happy with it. It is a lot like what I used when I taught first grade. We don't have the workbooks, but I never liked them anyways. We just do our own activities with the stories.

For Spanish we are using Houghton-Mifflin Kindergarten Spanish. For this one we only have the workbook, but not the anthologies. However, the workbooks is really helping them with their Spanish and most of the stories we either have in Spanish or are at the library since they are mostly just the traditional tales like the Gingerbread Man and The Little Red Hen. Felipe is over 2/3 of the way through and Cassandra is just beginning the workbook.

This is the Math book that Cassandra is working on. However she is working on a Spanish version that has the practice workbook and extra review sheets. Felipe finished this book and is working in the first grade book that follows. He will probably finish the first grade book in January. My only complaint is that there aren't enough addition and subtraction practice sheets in the first grade book. I am making a supplement book for him to work on for 2 min. every day with just the math facts.

I used this book with Felipe last year. We got about half way through but he started to lose interest and so did I. I am debating if I should try it with Cassandra. I think it helped him a little to sound out words, but I like the Scholastic Phonics workbook better.

We have a few other supplemental books that I use like leveled readers and a nice science experiment book for kids.

Here are some pictures of work and play we have done:

I mounted my white board on the wall. Now I can't think of anything to write on it.

I made this puppet show from a plastic exercise bar that Cassandra had but that was too light to hold any weight and some old drapes (they still have plenty of wear left :)

Little Felipe made this city for his trains and cars. It has a hospital, fire station, park, grocery store, lakes, grass, and our house.

I set up the doll house next to the school room. Cassandra and Carolina have been playing with it a lot now. We took it down several months ago because nobody played with it and spiders started to move in.

Little Felipe working with Knex reading the directioners (as he calls them). He is so good at following directions for building.

Carolina reading (above) and Samantha enjoying her swing during school (below).

A praying mantis outside of our house. The first one the kids have ever seen.

Moving Stuff Around

2009-08-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

I decided that I would rather have the bookshelves in the schoolroom than in the playroom. I moved these two shelves in the hallway part of the schoolroom (all by myself) and the other shelf in the back bedroom. It took about 3 days.
This shelf has our curriculum books, chapter books for kids and the bottom two shelves have children's books.
I mounted the 2 chalkboards to the wall instead of having them sit on the floor. I just used those sticky mounting things that peel off without leaving a mark.

Here are some pictures of the playroom that is right outside of our schoolroom. I am happy that the bookshelves are not in it anymore.

We made this hopscotch yesterday with masking tape.

Here is our animal wall.

Today we made birds.

New School Year

2009-08-14T18:14:00.000-07:00

Well, it is official that I am homeschooling. I went down to the district office and signed Felipe out of school. It is kind of an exciting feeling. Public school starts on in less than 4 days here. I am glad I don't have to send him off to school. I had to sign a paper stating that I would teach him the required subjects (that they listed) for the required amount of time each day.

We officially began school last Monday. The only difference about officially beginning as opposed to what we were already doing is that we are trying to follow a more exact schedule and we are making sure that we have school everyday. Little Felipe and I went through the subjects listed and made a schedule up for school together. Of course everyday is a little different and some days school happens in the afternoon, but here is the schedule that we hope to follow most days.

8:00 am - Wake up, get dressed, make beds, breakfast, clean up
8:30-9:00 am - Go to school area of house - I exercise while the kids exercise and play. (I turn on energizing music to wake us up - usually Spanish music for children).
9:00-9:20 am - Devotional/Calendar/Scriptures - (I turn on soft music to play in the background while we work - usually classical or soft jazz.) We begin with a hymn or primary song, a prayer, recitation of 2 scriptures that we are memorizing, calendar, sometimes we recite poems, then the kids color in a book I put together with my binding machine of pictures to color that go along with scripture stories and gospel principles. I let the kids choose which story they want to color and then while they color I tell them the story (of Jonah, Jesus, Joseph Smith for example) or talk about the principle (if they color a picture of children saying their prayers for example). It usually takes them 2-3 days to finish a picture.

We don't have an exact scheduled time for the rest of the subjects because I give the kids breaks when we feel that they need them. Sometimes they need a break between each subject and some days they can get through everything without any breaks. Sometimes we all work together and sometimes I will work with Cassandra while Felipe plays and then Felipe while Cassandra plays.

We spend approximately 15 on each subject.

Here is what Felipe is working on everyday:

Phonics workbook and letter practice (writing letters, sounding out words, etc.)

Language Arts - (We work on a story for about 3-4 days. I read it to him, we repeat-after-me read, choral (simultaneous) read, then he reads it to me.) We talk about the stories and do various activities involving the story - comprehension, sequencing, art, etc.

Math - He is working on a first grade math book. We work on the lessons in the book and also work on math drills. I am making him a book of math drills for practice. I really believe that kids should memorize math facts and be fast and accurate in math drills. Felipe loves math the most, so he enjoys this part of the day a lot.

Spanish - He is working in a Kindergarten Spanish workbook. It goes through all of the letters and syllables. He can read most 2 syllable words in Spanish since it is such a phonetic language. I have a complete first grade Spanish Language Arts curriculum to start when we finish the Kindergarten workbook. He is speaking and understanding much more Spanish.

Science - Currently we are still working on animals. We are learning about birds and next week we will learn about mammals (which will take about 2 weeks). We have gone to some museums and we check out a lot of books from the library on our area of study. We also check out education movies for kids about the animals we learn about. We often do art projects and make lap-books based on what we are studying in science.

That sounds like a lot to do in one day but it actually goes by very fast since we only focus on each subject for 15 minutes. So everything I have listed takes about a little over an hour.

The kids also have access to various activities to play with in our school room such as white boards, chalk boards, flannel board with flannel pictures and shapes, magnetic board with magnetic letters, puppets and puppet show, paper, glue, scissors, markers, crayons, stencils, tangrams, various flashcards, magnadoodles, musical instruments (sticks, castanets, xylophones, maracas, etc.), play area next to the school room with slides, balls, play kitchen, legos, and lots of books.

Little Felipe made his weekly schedule to include the following activities as well:

Monday - Phonics Games
Tuesday - Journal and Leveled Reading Books
Wednesday - Computers - He has time to play educational games on the computer.
Thursday - Piano and Music
Friday - Art

We also go to various homeschool activities - Park Day, Math Club, Spanish Club, etc.

That sounds like a lot too, but these activities are very relaxed and more child-led.

Cassandra works alongside Felipe. If she wants to participate in his Language Arts Curriculum she can but she doesn't have to. She usually wants to though.

She is working on her letters and penmanship, a Kindergarten math curriculum (and the math facts drills as well), and she is just beginning the Kindergarten Spanish workbook. They do the rest of the subjects together.

Carolina is beginning a preschool workbook. She likes to sit at the table and color in her own workbook. I am going to work with her for about 10 min. a day on letters and numbers and try to have story time with her in which she can choose books she wants me to read to her.

We try to read books together throughout the day and at night I read to them from a chapter book. Right now we are reading "Winnie the Pooh." Before our nightly prayer we also try to share a scripture together as a family.

Some things I love about homeschooling is that the kids don't have to be in a certain grade to do certain work. Felipe is doing some first and second grade work and some Kindergarten work. He can work right where his levels and interests are. Cassandra also does a variety of work on different levels. When I taught fourth grade in public school I had a student who could not read at all. He didn't like school and was bored and lost. He was in resource for only one hour a day. For the rest of the day school was just wasting his time. He would have been happier and more excited about learning if he could have worked all day on his level. He would have progressed a lot faster as well. I also had a first grader that could read at a fourth grade level and he was often bored. School was wasting his learning time as well. I love to be able to see all of my kids working and progressing on their own levels.

I love that my kids have a little more time to pursue their own interests. They have more play time since we can get through school in about 2 hours or so and they don't have "homework."

To me homeschool is making the home a school of learning. We do try to keep on schedule but we can study anything that is of interest to any of us at any time and it doesn't have to be part of "school." We can go on field trips whenever we want. We can work as long as we want on any projects. Learning doesn't waste time (meaning that if the kids finish a workbook page in 2 minutes they don't have to just sit there for another 10 minutes waiting for everyone else to finish - That is one thing that I always hated about school).

Felipe (husband) has brought to my attention that I am a very task-oriented person. He is more of a big-picture type of person. He has suggested that I make goals for what I want the children to accomplish and learn yearly, monthly and weekly and then use the curriculum to accomplish those goals. So right now I am working on goals for them based on their abilities and interests and using the state standards as a guide.

I am also listening to the thunder and watching the lightning out of my window.

Reading on the Balcony

2009-08-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was such a nice day. We had a storm and then the weather just cooled down very nicely. Cassandra suggested that we read Winnie-the-Pooh on the balcony. We spread out two blankets and put the baby out with us in her baby carrier and read a chapter. Then we turned off the balcony light and looked at the stars. The kids asked me questions and stars and planets. Unfortunately I don't remember much. I did take Astronomy in college and it was one of my favorite classes but that was um....13 years ago. When we are done studying animals I want to study the solar system a little.

When we first read the Winnie-the-Pooh books I didn't like them much. Now that I have seen the movie I like the books quite a bit more. The only Winnie-the-Pooh I grew up with was "Welcome to Pooh Corner" on the Disney Channel and that is quite a bit different than the books.

This is the book we are reading. I got it at a library sale for fifty cents. I couldn't find a picture of it without the -Look inside- thing on the top.

Some Recent School Pictures

2009-07-08T15:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning the Goo woke me up to tell me he had made me a surprise train track. I came out and he said, "Look Mommy, I made you the cinco vocales (5 vowels) out of train tracks." That surprise made my day. I just wish I could find a train track font on the computer. He would read all day!!

Carolina and the Shapes - Cassandra has been working on shapes in math.

We have been working on Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes and traditional poems (Baa Baa Black Sheep, Little Boy Blue, Little Miss Muffet, Jack and Jill, The Old Woman in the Shoe, Humpty Dumpty, Hickory Dickory Dock, Hey Diddle Diddle, Little Bo Peep and probably a few others that I can't remember) and songs in Spanish (Allá en la fuente, Las vocales, Las mañanitas, De colores, La Gallina Dice, El gato, Cucú cucú). They each made a little book with the rhymes and songs they learned. They know most of them by memory.

We have been learning about arthropods and animals since March. We have been studying them in English and Spanish. We make a craft or an art project for each section we learn about. For insects the kids painted the butterfly and bee and for spiders the kids put together these spiders that I think are pretty scary. They can name the parts of an insect (3 body parts: head with 2 antennae, thorax with 6 legs attached and sometimes wings, abdomen) and the parts of an arachnid (2 body parts: cephalothorax with 8 legs attached, 2 pedipalps and fangs, and the abdomen with spinnerets). They know about the life cycle of spiders and insects and the metamorphosis of the caterpillar to the butterfly. Cassandra loved learning about spiders and insects and is constantly finding them.

For fish we made these paper plate fish. They can name the basic parts of a fish (mouth, eyes, teeth, fins, gills, tail) and they know that fish breathe with their gills. They know the life cycle of fish and that most fish lay eggs. They also learned about sharks. The Goo really liked learning about sharks and can name three types of sharks - great white, hammerhead and tiger shark.

Carolina's Fish

Cassandra's Fish

Felipe's Fish

For Reptiles and Amphibians we made paper snakes. They played with their snakes alllll day. I had to tape them up every few minutes. They know that snakes, lizards, crocodiles, alligators and turtles are reptiles. We learned how snakes use their forked tongue to smell. They also know that frogs, toads, salamanders and newts are amphibians. They know the life cycle of the frog. For fun we watched a movie about amphibians from the library and learned that they are born with gills but develop lungs when they reach adulthood. They also need to be near water. We watched a Crocodile Hunter video from the library and learned a lot about crocodiles, alligators, snakes and sharks. The most important thing we learned is not to touch snakes. We have seen snakes across the street and even in our own yard.

Cassandra's Coloring Page - The Life Cycle of the Frog (I really want to go catch some tadpoles)

Felipe's Reptile Page - He drew each reptile.

For the Fourth of July we learned about the United States. They colored maps of the United States (They can identify CA, UT, NM, TX and FL) and pictures of flags. They learned that George Washington was the first President of the United States and that Pres. Obama is the current president. (It took awhile for them to remember George Washington. I would aske them who the first president was and they would say -Georgeph Smith, George's Washington, and a few other funny combinations. We had to talk about the difference between the prophet and the president of a country.) We also read a book for kids about Thomas Jefferson. It began - When Thomas Jefferson was a boy he was very shy and liked to stay home. - After I read that part the Goo said - Just like me. So we told him about how Thomas Jefferson ended up doing a great work in writing the Declaration of Independence.

Little Felipe made this flag all by himself and hung it in our school.

Now we are learning about birds and then we will study mammals in science.

Ziplock Ice Cream

2009-06-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

Today we decided to make ice cream in a Ziplock bag. Here is how we did it:

In one gallon Ziplock bag we put ice (a little less than half the bag) and salt (about 5 T.)

In another Ziplock bag we put 1 cup milk, 3 T. sugar and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. We sealed this bag and put it in the bag with the ice. Then we sealed the bag with the ice.

After that we took turns shaking the bag for a total of 10 min. The bag with the milk turned into ice cream.

The only problem was that both bags sprung leaks so some of the salt water got into the ice cream and onto the floor as well. It still tasted great (but Cassandra didn't like it because of the salt).

We got an ice cream maker for our wedding that we have never used. I am planning on finally taking it out for the 4th of July. We are also going to make red, white and blue Jell-O. The kids are more excited about that than about ice cream.

Piano Lessons

2009-05-31T18:03:00.000-07:00

I decided to start teaching the Goo and Cass the piano. We had a lesson and the kid's loved it. The Goo gets the piano book out to play the song. It is just CDE - EDC over and over a few times but they are using all of their fingers.

I think I will teach them until they know as much as I do and then get them formal lessons. We are very relaxed about the lessons. More than anything I want them to just enjoy music and not feel stressed about practicing. The Goo is interested in taking violin lessons and so we might try that for a month or so with a real teacher as a trial to see if he is really interested and ready for formal lessons.

Back to School

2009-05-31T08:37:00.000-07:00

We went back to school this week. I think we were all happy to get back into our routine. I talked to the Goo about Kindergarten and explained to him that most kids go away to school when they are 5 but that we would like to teach him at home. He seemed fine with the idea of staying home. He really likes to stay at home and sometimes we have to drag him away from his interests to go anywhere or even to go outside. He has to build and design train tracks all day and at night he thinks of new designs to try in the morning.

Cass loves to be outside and go places. Yesterday she asked all day if I could take her outside. We played in the front yard and then we looked for bugs and spiders in the backyard. She loved that. We saw a lot of spider webs in the rocks with eggs and empty snail shells. We wanted to find out what spiders eat snails but it seems that a lot of different spiders eat them. Cass saw a rollypoly (I can't find how to spell that) in a web and took it out with a stick and saved it. She was so happy to have saved it from death.

We also found a snake skin. Last week Felipe found a live snake in our backyard. We all rushed out to see it and we saw it slither into its hole close to our house.

We started our Library Summer Reading Program. The kids have decided to read for 30 min. per day this summer. We also saw the display in the library of items belonging to my 2nd great grandfather and pictures of him and his family. I really enjoyed seeing them.

Organizing Kid Papers

2009-05-18T19:59:00.000-07:00

My kids love to draw and color. We also have mailboxes and they love to send mail to us and to each other. The problem is what do we do with all of their papers? I can't throw away anything that I know they spent time and effort on. I had piles and piles of their papers in boxes and bins and finally came up with a solution. I am making them into books. I have a binding machine that I love. So I made covers for their art work and for their letters they send in the mailboxes and I bound all that I have right now. I can bind up to 300 pages in each book. They are so organized now and the kids can look through them. The only thing I need to do better is put dates on them since none of them have dates. I made covers for them with my laminating machine (I can't find the link). That way the covers are strong. I think a binding and a laminating machine are so useful for homeschooling. I make the kids workbooks with them too. When I have my camera again I will take some pictures of them.

We have been on a vacation from school for the last 6 weeks. I am hoping to start up again in a week or so. I like school year round because we can take mini breaks and days off at other times of the year. I liked teaching year round and having a month off every 3 months. I have decided that Mondays will be reading days. We will spend time reading books. The kids love to pick out 5 or 6 books each for me to read to them, but it never seems like we have the time to read as much as we should. So Monday is the designated reading day. I will sit and read for as long as they want to. Tuesday - Thursday I want to have school as we were doing it before. Friday is the designated game day. We have a lot of great games that we never have time for. So now on Fridays we can play games for a few hours. The kids love Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Checkers, Zingo, Memory, The Hungry Caterpillar Game, The Grouchy Ladybug Game, Sorry, etc. I am thinking of having a day out every week to go to a park, museum, etc., but maybe I will just try to get us out once a week on whatever day we can.

Cassandra has been able to write her name for a few months. I scanned it to post but I can't find the scan on the computer. Her name is so long but she remembers every letter. I am very proud of her.

Ants

2009-04-05T22:04:00.000-07:00

Today we found ants in our laundry room. The kids were so excited about the ants. We have learned a lot about insects in the last few weeks and I just loved seeing them apply their knowledge to a real life situation. They kept running to me to tell me that they saw that the ant had 3 body parts, 6 legs, 2 antennae and no wings. They told me that they knew they were insects and not spiders because they had 3 body parts and not 2 and they had 6 legs and not 8. They also said they didn't have 8 eyes like spiders. Cassandra was especially observant and would run to me to tell me that two ants were fighting, dancing or that 2 ants crashed into each other. I found her lying on the floor in the laundry room just watching the ants. They all hid and so she was sad and was trying to get them to come out again. Unfortunately Felipe didn't know that they kids were so intrigued with the ants. He saw the ants and sprayed them with Raid. Later the kids saw a few dead ants and were sad.

Homeschool Thoughts

2009-03-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

The other night we went to our neighbor's house for their son's mission homecoming open house. She homeschooled her kids and now they are almost all grown up. She asked me if I was still going to homeschool and told me that she has never regretted homeschooling. She said that she misses those days when they were all together every day in their little house and that it is easier to let them go after having had all that time with them.

I am glad I can have my kids with me everyday. Some days are difficult but I know that right now my kids need me and I need them and we need to be together in our home.

A Day at the Zoo

2009-03-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

We went to the zoo on Saturday. The kids loved seeing all of the animals and riding on the train and carousel . I asked what animals they liked best and they both loved the crazy squirrel that was running all over its cage. They also liked the zebras, wolves, elephants and snakes quite a bit.

Nature Walk in the Park

2009-02-28T20:53:00.000-08:00

Today we went on a picnic in the park and on a nature walk. It was cold (high 40's maybe), but nice to get outside for awhile. Here are some of the highlights.

Tadpoles.

Felipe, Cassandra and Felipe (above and below - try to find them).

Cassandra bought those sunglasses for fifty cents.

Lapbooks

2009-02-28T20:49:00.001-08:00

Here are the lapbooks the kids made for their unit on the body and hygiene.

In March we will be studying animals. I found some neat journaling pages that we are going to use instead of lapbooks this month. I also am really hoping to be able to take the kids to the zoo this month.

School Room

2009-02-28T20:38:00.000-08:00

Felipe reading with the kids.

Here are some pictures of our school room:

This is our flannel board on one side and magnetic board on the other. I got it for free when our church cleaned out the library and put the stuff they didn't want anymore in a corner for people to take. We had to repaint and reflannel it. The easel was about three dollars at Deseret Industries (DI).

Ok, my pocket chart was from Lakeshore. It is probably the most expensive thing I have in my school. I think it was twenty dollars.

This bulletin board is where we are going to hang stuff that we find out in nature. In the bag is an abandoned bird's nest that we found in a tree. (I think the Spanish will be taken off.)

Our book rack was another DI find. It was 5 dollars!!

This Spanish pocket chart calendar was only 2 dollars at DI. It came with all of the numbers, but unfortunately it has a few rips I taped up.

Every school room needs a flag. This was just a piece of fabric from Walmart for $1.50.

Poetry Recital

2009-02-24T22:01:00.000-08:00

Today our homeschool group had a poetry recital. Felipe and Cassandra recited together. Here is the poem they chose:

Little drops of water, little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land.
Little deeds of kindness, little words of love,
Make this earth and Eden, like in heaven above.
-Isaac Watts

Sandbox

2009-02-24T21:59:00.000-08:00

The kids finally got to play in their sandbox on a "warm" day. I think it was in the 40's. It has been full of snow for awhile.

Joseph Smith

2009-02-24T21:56:00.000-08:00

Cassandra's picture of Joseph Smith's First Vision.

Felipe's picture of Joseph Smith taking the plates from the Hill Cumorah.

Felipe's picture of Joseph Smith's First Vision.

Humpty Dumpty

2009-02-24T21:55:00.001-08:00

We have been working on Nursery Rhymes. The kids love Humpty Dumpty.

Weather Lapbooks

2009-02-24T21:48:00.000-08:00

Here are the weather lapbooks that the kids made. I helped Cassandra a little more with hers.

Charlotte's Web

2009-02-10T20:53:00.000-08:00

Tonight I started reading Charlotte's Web with the kids. I want to read to them every night from a chapter book. We read the Winnie-the-Pooh books but I thought they were a little difficult to follow so since then I have been apprehensive of starting another chapter book. Well I finally decided to give it a try. I have actually never read Charlotte's Web but tonight we read the first chapter. The kids loved it and followed the story. So I am happy that we have a book to read at night. Sometimes it is hard for me to just read kid stories. I prefer chapter books, especially at night.

Our Homeschool

2009-02-06T21:23:00.000-08:00

Everyday I love homeschooling more. I wanted to write a little about our schedule. I don't have one method that I completely rely on. I have studied just about every method there is in the past two years (TJEd, Susan Wise-Bauer, unschooling, unit studies, "school can wait," lapbooks, Charlotte Mason, even carschooling). Out of all the ideas there are for homeschooling I prefer Charlotte Mason's ideas, but like to incorporate what works for my kids. Charlotte Mason suggests studying many subjects each day but with short lessons and this is what I prefer.

We are never quite on time but we try to spend about 5-10 min. on each lesson:

We start every morning with a small devotional which consists of:
-Opening song (usually a primary song, but not always)
-Opening prayer
-Recitation of a scripture we are memorizing (right now we are memorizing "Dejad que los niños vengan a mi, y no se lo impidais; porque de los tales es el reino de los cielos." Mateo 19:14 We have been working on this one for about a month and this kids can now say it on their own.
-Reading from "The Book of Mormon Reader." We study a story for about 1-2 weeks in English and Spanish and the kids illustrate the story and narrate it before we move on to the next one.
(The devotional takes about 10 min.)

-Journal dictation
The kids each have a journal and each day they dictate to me what they want me to write in it.

-Calendar
We look at the calendar and say the date and day of the week in English and Spanish. Then we have a song for the days of the week and the months of the year. We sing the ABC song in English and Spanish and sometimes work on counting together.
(About 5-10 minutes)
The kids usually get a break to run around for about 10 min. after devotional and calendar.

-Language Arts in English
Felipe has a workbook he works on with phonics and does a page a day. Cassandra works on her letters. She has a book with pages to color and trace letters that she does each day.
We then read our story. Right now we are learning Nursery Rhymes. We will read the rhyme/story together and do activities with it - coloring, crafts, sequencing, puppets, flannel board, etc.
(About 15 min.)
Another break

-Math
Felipe is working in a 1st grade math workbook. (He finished the Kindergarten workbook in December). He does a page a day.
Cassandra is working in a preschool math book and does a page about every other day.
(5-10 min.)

-Spanish Language Arts
Felipe is working in a Kindergarten Spanish LA workbook and does about a page a day.
Cassandra has a Spanish workbook with songs, vocabulary and pictures to color. We usually sing the songs in the book all together before either starts working.
We also do a story/poem in Spanish. We are working on traditional Spanish poems and songs and sing or read them together and do similar activities with them as we do in English.
(15 min.)
Break Time

-Science
I am excited about lapbooks and each month we are making one for a unit we are studying. In January we studied all about the seasons and weather. I will photograph the lapbooks they made and include them in this blog when I get a chance. For February we are learning about the body, hygiene and health. They are learning the parts of the body in English and Spanish. We are going to work on the importance of sleeping, bathing, washing hands, brushing teeth, eating healthy and exercising. To teach them I get a lot of books for kids at the library on the subject we are learning and we will sit and read one together each day. I put the books in our reading area so they can read them as much as they want. We color pictures for our lapbooks. We incorporate a lot of arts and crafts into science and songs as well. They learned the "Hokey Pokey" today to work on left and right and on Monday I traced each of them on butcher paper. Then we colored them and labeled their body parts. We do science in Spanish and English.
(10-15 min.)

-Silent Reading/Story
We end with 10 minutes of silent reading. We all sit and read books of our choice silently. I usually try to read my scriptures during this time. Then after 10 min. I will read books of their choice to them if they want me to for as long as they desire (usually I end up reading 2-3 of their books aloud). Sometimes I will have Felipe read a book to me from our leveled reading books in English and Spanish.

The "school day" usually lasts about 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

After our school day they can play, color or read for awhile before we go upstairs for lunch. Then they have the rest of the day to spend as they please. I would like to take them outside more often and have been trying to even though it is cold, snowy and rainy, but we don't get out as often as I would like. I would also like to speak more Spanish to them. They are doing well in Spanish but I know that if I spoke to them more often they would pick it up much faster. I honestly forget to though. I am thinking of selecting 3 days a week in which we have to speak Spanish the whole day.

It has taken me quite awhile to develop this system. My children are young and I have debated for months if they are ready to begin schooling in this manner. I have tried less structure - just story time, music time and art time because of their ages (5 and 3 1/2). However the way we are working now feels right for us and we all enjoy it. Carolina colors, sings and reads her baby books right along with us. She is very adamant about not being excluded and gets upset if she can't sit and work with us each day.

Our Homeschool Blog

2009-02-03T21:25:00.000-08:00

I decided to start a new blog dedicated to our homeschool. I would like to think of a name for our homeschool, but so far it is just "school." I want to post what we are working on and display some of the work the kids are doing.