Day One Blueberries for Sal

Great book, not so great day. I found this great Lapbook project pak from In The Hands Of A Child. It uses Blueberries for Sal as it's core while studying blueberries, Maine, and bears. Today, we started off reading the book on the couch. Jadon became stubborn and completely undone at the idea of reading outside the classroom. He wouldn't cooperate a lick, and then the stubborn parent child show down began! I think I won. At least, that's my story and I am sticking to it! He might tell you otherwise.
Anyhow, I sent him to his room when he said he didn't like school anymore and was done. Instead, I allowed Julia to take his place, who by the way loved the book and seemed to be more ready for school than I might have thought. Jonah and Julia, after reading the book, got to make blueberry smoothies all by themselves. Jadon was appalled that I wouldn't let him join. I explained to him that he didn't get to pick and choose what he wanted to participate in, and that it was all or nothing. He was very sad. He promises to cooperate better tomorrow. We'll see.
I did let him start back up after we were done with our smoothies, and things went much better from then on out. Of course, the rest of school was done in the classroom where he wanted to be in the first place. We made a cycle of blueberries wheel that shows the seed and then the various stages leading to a full bush of blueberries. Then we made a library card for the book and talked about what Titles, Authors, Illustrators, and Copyright Dates were. I think he gets it. I will quiz him later. At the end, he did two steps toward building a tractor using an IKEA erector set type thing Grandma and Grandpa Mair got him for his birthday. He builds the stuff using pictures to guide him. He did remarkably well.
Informal schooling, we tended to the garden, and I thinned out some corn and sunflowers and showed him the plant and roots growing out of the corn. We picked and ate a couple of strawberries, remembering how they were just flowers a few days ago. We ate a very premature carrot. We also ate some parsley, dill, and basil.
I bought the kids a pretend kitchen from Once Upon A Child. I do hope the kitchen was never once upon a child. :-o Anyhow, it has a fake shopping list painted on the fridge door. I told Jadon if he could read all the stuff on the list on his own, I would give him a really good treat of some sort. He has read one word on his own so far, milk.
Hopefully he will muster up the motivation to read the rest. I know he can, but he doesn't want to. In his own good time, that's his motto!
I will post pictures of what we've done so far in his Blueberries for Sal Lapbook at the end of this week.
What I learned today:
This too shall pass. In the heat of the moment things can be very frustrating, but we got through it, and ultimately I think I made the right decision in sending him off to his room, but at first, I was very discouraged and thought for a minute, "I can't homeschool this kid, he's impossible". That's when God stepped in and said "Yes you can and here's how, allow Me." Thank You Lord as I couldn't do this without You.

Curling Up on the Couch

After the first week of just wingin' it for homeschool, I decided I needed to regroup. It wasn't the best week. This last week we took off, due to company. I have been doing a lot of thinking about how I could make things better. This next week, I am going to try the Five-in-a-row approach, where you read a book five days in a row, and every day you do stuff based on the book. Copy work for handwriting, letter recognition in the book, cooking activities inspired by the book, outdoor activities inspired by the book, and anything else inspired by the book. Vocabulary, math, science all included.
I hoping next week we can do the book, Blueberries for Sal. Activity Guide& Literary guide & Math Guide
By the way, any family reading this, anytime you think of a classic you loved to read as a kid, it would be a great gift for the kids, one that would be cherished for sure! :-) If it's "too advanced" for them, it doesn't matter. I can read it at bed time and their vocabulary will soar because of it. They love to listen to me read, even if they aren't into the story quite yet.
Anyway, I am excited to start next week with a different attitude. I hope to start the school day curling up on the couch together to read our story, then doing all kinds of fun activities based on the book. I will be sure and let you all know how it goes.

The Search for Curriculum

Choosing Curriculum has been quite a challenge for me. I'm not one to settle for the first one I see. I haven't seen any boxed curriculum packages that suit me to a T. I doubt I ever will. The closest one for me is My Father's World which I am using for kindergarten this fall. I have entertained the thought of just creating my own unit studies as we go, but that scares me. I find a certain level of comfort in just being told what to do, but in all honesty, as my parents could attest to, I don't often do as I am told. I have my own ideas and tend to follow them as soon as I get the hang of things. That fact about myself has helped me to rule out Tapestry of Grace as it is too much of a commitment to buy something for the whole 12 years. I know I won't stick with it.
I will be educating myself further on the creation of unit studies in effort to make myself feel more comfortable with it. My guess is, that's the way I will go. I would love it if their were more unit studies already put together out there, but instead, I have found many resources to teach me how to make my own.
I know this:
I love Lapbooks.
I love Unit Studies.
I love a chronological approach to history.
I love science and hands on exploration.
I love saving money by using all the freebies available online.
I want to teach the following subjects through elementary school:
History
Social Studies
Geography
English and literature
Reading
Bible
Math
Science and health
Spanish
Music and arts
Physical Education
So now I will just have to figure out how I will fulfill each of these over the years to come. So many possibilities, so little time.
I think that daily, I will try to post one thing I learned today at least. That way I can refer back to it. And who knows, maybe some day I'll write a book. :-)
The one thing I have learned today, is focus on the goals, not the schedule. If they have already figured it out, don't bother with the rest of the worksheets or activities if they aren't learning anything new. Just because it's scheduled doesn't mean it's necessary. Otherwise, you cause burn out for no reason.

A New Blog for Homeschooling Adventures

I just wanted to get a blog started where I can share all of the adventures we have in homeschooling, and have a record of things we've covered. I thought everyone might enjoy seeing what goes on in our lives as we homeschool. I know many people are curious so have fun fulfilling those curiosities and seeing what my children are learning as they go.
I have started official school this week. I am working out many kinks, and expect I will continue working out kinks as we go, since everything will continue to change. This week, Jonah and and Julia are learning A-E, 1-3, and circles, squares, and triangles, plus the colors brown, yellow and orange. My goal for them is, simply, that they will recognize these by the end of the week.
Jadon is learning to write these numbers and letters, and draw these shapes. The colors he of course, knows, but he is just developing fine motor skills by coloring inside the lines, painting inside the lines, etc. He is also learning the Ten Commandments. We're making a Ten Commandments Train to put up on the wall.
We also have a caterpillar in a butterfly garden that we are feeding and getting ready to watch go through metamorphosis. We got him from our vegetable garden, another learning tool.
There are many non-formal things we are doing, such as making bread together to teach him measurements, and I suppose, a little science as he sees the ingredients go together and form bread. Although I haven't actually gotten into the why on that. Perhaps I should. Other non-formal things include immediate exploration whenever he asks me a question like "Do clouds feel like cotton?", or "why did that helium balloon fall, and why was it floating in the first place". Child led education definitely has it's positives. I am not on the whole band wagon as far as using child led education as a primary means of educating, but it's definitely something to use as a significant supplement. They are far more receptive of learning if they come up with the idea of topic themselves. I am skeptical of the idea that kids will bring up exploration in all the areas they need, by themselves. I tend to lean towards training my children up rather than following them around. Something seems wrong with that picture to me. Of course, I suppose that's a matter of opinion. I guess for me and my household we will use child led strategies in a sense that I will observe what they are fascinated with and then tailor my schooling to meet those fascinations. That's as far as I go. Some things however, will not be according to their fascinations, such as history. I much rather tackle that on a chronologically ordered schedule. We will make it fun, but I will lead that one. I think it would get confusing otherwise.
Stay tuned for all the happenings in our homeschool, and please, please, please, leave comments, questions, concerns, and corrections as much as you like. I believe wisdom comes from hearing the thoughts of many views and considering all directions. I love being challenged mentally, and I gladly welcome information.