A Day in Our Life

Most days we meet at the table at 9:00 and talk, work, read aloud until about 11:00 when I prepare lunch.

As we learn and read, we try to find countries on the globe.

 This day Emily began to cut up some straws which we later strung to make necklaces.

While I am making lunch, Emmy asks me to put her hair in a ballerina bun, she puts on her Elsa dress and dances.

 

After lunch, I get outside to work around the homestead for a couple of hours - right now my work is preparing the garden.  By late afternoon, I generally spend a couple of hours on the business doing computer work, wood burning, and packaging.

During my work time, Mike usually works on some building projects and most everyone else is outside with him.

He just finished a little shelter for our Nigerian Dwarf buck and will start a fenced in area for him today so we can keep him separate from the girls for most of the year. 

Certain days of the week we have some other activities, such as an art/music class on Monday afternoon for Abraham and Sarah and homeschool gym time on Friday afternoons.  We try to not have to leave the house on Tuesday and Thursdays to minimize driving and to be more productive.

Warm wishes,

Tonya

Back to Learning

Not really, these guys learn everyday.  

But we are back to my planning and keeping a journal of our days.  The state of Vermont requires either a portfolio with a parent report for each subject, a certified by the state teacher evaluation, or testing.    It really bothers me how "schoolish" I have to be when this is exactly why our family has chosen to make learning just a part of our daily life. 

We have never been radical unschoolers as I was never able to feel completely comfortable with that, or perhaps because we have seven children, I simply don't have the time to support each child's interests as fully as I would need/want to.     I can't just not make lunch, ignore a 1 year old that needs her diaper changed, leave the spilled milk on the floor... my time is limited and that is probably the only regret I have about having a large family; that I am unable to give each of them as much of myself as I would like.

So each year I consider each child's needs, strengths, weaknesses, and gifts and work to formulate some sort of plan.   Our oldest son was academic oriented from the time he was one - pointing out letters on license plates at 18 months. We were terrible parents back then and let him watch PBS (we got rid of the TV about 7 years later) and he has an amazing brain for memorization which is now a bonus as an actor.   As he progressed through his teen years, he was pretty sure he wanted to go to college so I helped him by planning his courses accordingly.  

We have two children, Isaac (age 15) and Sarah (age 9) that really dislike any kind of formal "school work".  As I have worked to incorporate a waldorf inspired home and education, any kind of traditional learning doesn't even begin until almost age 7.   Sarah learned to read fluently during her 8th year.  Isaac right around the same time.  They both resisted any kind of sit-down phonics work.  So as I work to meet each of their needs, my challenge is to identify their interests and nurture them but I also have to meet the state's needs and if I am really honest, allay some of my own fears by weaving in the main subject areas, such as math, literature, writing, science and social studies.    What I do appreciate about being beholden to the state is that I am paying attention more than I might have.

Isaac is our tech guy.  He actually works on our town library's computers and fixes them when a glitch occurs.   He is also interested in how things work - almost anything and he has a mind that doesn't stop (which can be very had for him at times).    Just on our way today to the library he asked me if a dog had on earphones and only played sound on one side, would it run around in circles?    He satisfies much of his personal learning interests by downloading youtube videos when we go to the library, generally on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.  We have purposefully kept our home wi-fi free and still only have dial-up.  This hasn't stopped Isaac from being able to rattle off nearly every feature of most tech devices and giving his opinion of their worth.  

Here are some of his favorites for any of you with techie children - 

Marques Brownlee

Austin Evans

Household Hackers

We absolutely do not stress college for any of our children and that topic would require another blog post, but if a child seems as though he or she is headed for college level courses (what is that anyway these days as it varies so..), I do make sure they know the basics.  So for Isaac we are on Algebra II using Life of Fred which is so much fun.  I am sure I am enjoying it more than he is but I do hear him laugh every now and then a I read the lesson.  Isaac likes to be read to when it is a more complicated subject as I will often interject with words to clarify or relate the subject matter to something he understands.

We are also learning (he probably knows much of this already but just making sure) paragraph formation and writing an essay using the Jensen book.  But even here I grab his favorite magazine, Muse, and show him example in the subject matter that interests him.  Science this year is Apologia Biology.   The author, Wile, is a great writer, making the material interesting while still very challenging.  Social studies this year is the boring one - he is using PACE 10th grade, only so that he can have that topic covered as it is not an area of interest to him.  Now, if I had lots of time, I could probably have dug deeper and worked on studying history in the context of scientific discovery which probably would interest Isaac more... hmm... maybe next year.

(I will write part 2 soon.)

Abby told me yesterday....

"I like home schooling."
"Why?" I asked.
Her reply, "Because I can finish my table work early and then do my chores - like take care of the chickens and goats and then sometimes fill up the inside wood if it needs it - and then have so much of the day to do what I would like - making sun catchers, drawing, and today - I am going to make a movie."

More about Home Learning

I have had several questions about what I like and don't like about various curriculum, so I thought I would share more about what we do.

First, we don't have a large budget to spend at all.  Some years I have prayed that God would provide some materials from somewhere and then I would be blessed to find a whole stack of home school books at a yard sale.

This year I don't think we have spent over $1,000 for all five of our children.  Cost is still a very large factor in our decision making.  I do think, though, that even if we had lots of money to spend, I would want to be a good steward of our money and consider each item carefully.

I do enjoy many aspects of Oak Meadow.  However, buying it new is out of our budget for sure.  This year I was able to buy some used materials.  I like their more varied, hands on approach with very little "fill-in-the-blank" kind of work.

We do follow much of the Waldorf inspired home learning in the early years by not stressing academics and instead letting the children be creative and artistic as much as possible.

This year I have been using some Rod and Staff with Sarah (age 7), because the lessons are quick and reading lessons are simple and repetitive which she needs.  I also appreciate the Christian point of view.  We have never had to actually "teach" reading with any of our other children so this has been a new process for me.    I am also using Five in a Row with her as I think reading the same story to her each day for five days will help with her reading confidence.   I also like the lessons idea that go along with each story.  For example, we will read Ping on Monday and talk about China - look it up on the big roll out map on the floor, talk about how long the Yangtze River is and how many trips to Poppa's house that would be, etc...

For high school literature, we have been using the Learning Language Arts through Literature series.  Thomas is doing British Literature this year and thoroughly enjoying it.

We were blessed to get two complete Saxon Math sets at a yard sale this year for only $20.00 which saved a lot of money.

I also really like the philosophy of Charlotte Mason.  Thus, we add nature study, short lessons and the formation of habits in the younger years.

As you can see, we are truly eclectic home learners that keep ourselves open to what comes our way curriculum wise to keep spending down, while integrating educational philosophies that I agree with into what we have to work with.

I would love to hear from other home school families.

Warm wishes, Tonya

Homeschool Planning and Knitting

Joining in this Wednesday with Ginny of Small Things.  My time has been spent planning and reading through each of the children's homeschool planning for this year.  I have a planner for each child.

I have finished knitting up another bonnet, small more little gnomes, and continue to work on my shawl.

Looking forward to checking out what others are knitting and reading.

Warm wishes,
Tonya

What the Littles Have Been Up To....

Upon their initiation, we studied flies a little.  They had decided to capture two and one was missing a wing.

(Spring is coming with the return of the flies.)

Of course they wanted to know what they ate... I told them to think about what flies like to land on...

We read from The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Comstock.  Her style of writing makes learning so interesting and fun.

The next day, they cut and pasted using seed catalogs.

 And today, we have been blessed with a glorious day...

Here are Sarah and Abraham on top of the chicken coop.  The snow is still piled high on one side so they can just step off.  I did have to run out for one emergency foot extraction.  The snow is softening quickly and Abraham went down so far he couldn't get his leg back out.

Warm wishes,
Tonya

Joy

- from The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad by Thornton W. Burgess

Planning for the Homeschool Week

Usually each Sunday afternoon, I sit at my secretary and prepare the upcoming week's homeschool plans.  Each of the four older children have a weekly chart.  I have found this to be the only way to keep up with five grades and one three year old.

I make the grid marks by hands and write out each child's plan with pen and ink.  I know I could do this on a computer generated grid or make a grid and make copies, but as I draw each line, I think about that particular child.  That time of quiet reflection helps to guide me to meet the individual needs of each.

Warm wishes for a beautiful Sunday evening,

Tonya

Branch Engraved Reading Manipulatives

I wood burned letters on birch branches to work with Sarah.   She is a young girl with lots of energy and my hope is that by her physically moving the letters together to form words she will begin to get a better understanding of how individual sounds come together to make the word.  I crocheted up a little wool bowl to keep them in.  It will be fun to create all kinds of word families for her.

Warm wishes, Tonya

(Stephinie from Gypsy Forest, posted much of her handmade holiday goodness at her blog last week.)

Weather Tree

A new daily ritual with Sarah, Grade K/1, is to put a new leaf on our weather tree each day.  I had a nice blank wall and quickly painted up a tree.  The idea came from the wonderful book, All Year Round.  Each day, Sarah writes the number of the month and colors the leaf in - for example, white for snowy, grey for cloudy (a lot of those these days), blue for rainy, yellow for sunny, a rainbow leaf for a family member's birthday, etc...

It will be fun to see it fill up with a variety of leaves in different colors throughout the year.

Warm wishes, Tonya

The Pieces Don't Always Fit Together

As Abraham was piecing together a puzzle this morning

after Abby (age 10) read her history selection, she said to me, "Why don't we read about the founding of America from the British point of view."

I loved this.  I loved that she was able to think outside the box; that just because something is written in an educational book that doesn't mean that it is the only point of view.  I liked that she was able to think about how the other side might have felt.  I just loved that she is able to think that sometimes things don't always fit together neatly like a puzzle.
(now I have some research to do...)

Family Learning is Fun

It was with much joy  that I observed our five oldest children sitting around the table together writing limericks.

They were inspired by Isaac's language lesson for the day which asked him to make up some of his own limericks.  They all joined him on their own and each wrote several.  Sarah just observed and listened and laughed as some of them became sillier and sillier with each recitation (you know, farts and so on).  There would be about 20 minutes of near silence as each of the four would create their next poem and then they took turns sharing.  Each created about four original limericks.

I thought I would share a few.
From Thomas - age 16
There once was an old man from York
Who went to the pond to catch a stork.
No bird did he find there
Instead a great black bear
Which ate the old man with a fork.

From Isaac - age 12
I saw a bird in a tree
I looked at it and it looked back at me.
I started to say,
"What a beautiful day!"
When it started to fly to the sea.

From Abby - age 10
I want to be in the cast
But the play was real fast.
It was pretty boring
when it was time for showing,
but overall the show was a blast.

(The language homeschool books we use for the elementary years  is the Language Lessons series by Sandi Queen which has a Charlotte Mason flavor.)

Warm wishes,
Tonya

Organizing and Planning for the Home Learning Year

This year we have the following grades - first, fifth, seventh, ninth and eleventh.

To start I first have to pull apart and go through all of the materials that we currently have and organize and purge them.

My father scooped up this wonderful wooden unit for us that was left on the side of the road for the taking in Massachusetts and brought it up with him on his last visit.

(all of these pictures were taken before I tackled this...)

This will be the main storage unit for each of the children's core materials with each child having a shelf.

While going through everything, I moved this big white shelf upstairs and this shelf from the living room to the upstairs hallway as well.

Now the upstairs hall is our "library". The large white shelf is for the nonfiction books and I have arranged them by history, poetry, arts/crafts/music, and science. One shelf is picture books and the third is fiction with one shelf for my reference books (spiritual/homeschooling/homemaking).

This is the start and now I am seeking and praying for guidance as I plan their course of studies over the next two weeks.

Warm wishes, Tonya

Handwork and Science

Nolan took a white carnation out of a bouquet I received over the weekend, split the stem in half and put each half in a different jar. He then added green coloring in one jar and yellow in the other. By the next morning the carnation was half green and half yellow.

I have known of this experiment for a long time, but when I saw the outcome I was awestruck. We truly are what we eat. Yes, we eat whole foods and I cook and bake 90% from scratch and buy organic or grow our own as much as possible. However, even eating one package of M&Ms, for example, I can now just imagine all of the colors and chemicals filling the insides of my body or the body of a child and being absorbed. Yeck!

I am working on an embroidery piece to add to a gift I am sewing for my Mom for her birthday and as I was embroidering at the table yesterday while some of the children where finishing up some book work, all three chimed in that they would like to embroider too. I was grateful that I had saved small hoops that I had found years ago at a yard sale. We took some white cotton fabric and they each drew a simple design or words and picked a color of cotton floss. We enjoyed an hour together (the little one was napping) sewing and talking. I kept pushing all the thoughts of unfinished chores that needed attending out of my mind to enjoy those precious moments.

Warm wishes, Tonya

Before 9:00 am

As our house was its usual flurry of activity this morning, I thought it might be fun to document all that is going on before 9:00 am.

We have pancakes many mornings for breakfast. For our family of eight it is an affordable, healthy choice. We use our chicken eggs in the batter as well as some whole wheat flour, wheat germ and milk. For toppings we have honey, cinnamon, yogurt, and jelly. We have maple syrup only occasionally as it is expensive and not in keeping with our budget for food. I make the batter most evenings before I go to bed.

It is Abby's morning job to do the morning chicken chores. Usually at 7:00 am there is just one egg and that was the case this morning. By the end of the day we should have collected about 15.

Abby and Isaac were excited to check on the sap buckets this morning. They went out bright and early and gathered about 2 1/2 gallons this morning. We only have eight taps out this year as our new homestead doesn't have too many mature maples. However, we are clearing out around the maples to give them lots of sunshine for healthy growing in the years to come.

Abraham helped himself up to the counter to do some early morning sketching.

I do my computer work, last minute home learning planning, and some handwork first thing in the morning. My goal is to be up and out of bed by 5:15 each morning. This is my work area. It is in the kitchen but overlooks the open living and dining area. This is what it looked like this morning.

Thomas, at sixteen, has come down with the chicken pox. Five of our children spent the weekend in the Boston area with their Poppa two week's ago to see the Lion King and he must have picked it up while there. He is not feeling all that well, but thankfully he does seem to have a fairly mild case. He is eating his breakfast this morning. (We are keeping in mind that the next several weeks in our household will probably involve caring for children with the chicken pox as each child comes down with it - at least we are hoping they do.)

Starting the process of my almost daily bread baking.

Nolan beginning his math upstairs on his desk.

Mike's early morning work area (the workshop will be nice....)

Now, Abraham doing some beading.

And the on the woodstove top this morning - sap to boil off and butter melting to make cookies.

What are your early morning like?

Warm wishes, Tonya

Homeschooling Days

I decided to simply share a bit more about our daily life - this time in terms of our learning times.

With my fourth and sixth graders we have been using What Your ___ Grader Needs to Know Series for Geography/History. There are good springboards to get into other topics and they also do cover the basics. For example, today I was talking with Isaac about mapmaking, and we talked about the first flat maps made by Mercator. He wanted to know if and where one could find the originals. We did a quick google search and he was immediately intrigued by how much money some of the originals ones are selling for.

Here is some craft time with the girls and myself included. We are making the paper mache bowls as described in Amanda Blake Soule's Book, Handmade Home. The glue recipe is wonderful and the bowls are coming out nicely so far.

For art study, we hang up an artist's print on a bulletin board hanging in our dining area and each day the children are each to hang up a new fact around the edges of the print and share it at mealtime.

Warm wishes.

Tonya