Homeschooling 2008

I have been having a great time during our first 2 weeks of homeschooling. Ian's opinion of it changes depending on the subject we are currently working on. He loves our science, music, art, and spelling. Here are some pictures and samples of his work from this week.

Science

Before: One science assignment the whole first term. Although he did the assignment, he lost it and thus got a big goose egg on his report card for Science. Ian said that when they would run out of time, Science would get "bumped". Ian was wishing for more science experiments and experiences. He didn't enjoy just talking about science all the time.

Now: Ian gets to do a science experiment every day. He loves it and almost always comes up with more questions or other experiments we could do. "I wonder what would happen if we..." is a common phrase I'm noticing at the end of our science experiments. I love to see him excited about learning and discovering! In these pictures he is doing an experiment that illustrates solvents and solutes (Dissolving). He had 4 different solvents and tried 3 different solutes in each one to see what dissolved and what didn't.

Art

Before: Art scheduled once a week. Ian said that they would color pages or make really cool things that would find their way in his desk and then disappear. I never saw any of his artwork. :(

Now: Ian is learning Art concepts, being exposed to famous art pieces and artists, and creating on his own pieces of art. This picture was his first assignment - a self portrait. He has also drawn a "still life" and today he made an abstract drawing of a landscape. He has learned about the types of art: painting, sculpture, and architecture, and is learning now about how to identify representational, abstract and nonrepresentational artwork.

Jaeda loves to participate with Ian, of course. I try to include her as much as I can. She also drew a self-portrait as well. I know you can't see too well, but she gave herself white hair, which is very appropriate, and even included her "naked parts" in purple. I guess I should have explained to her that this wasn't a figure drawing class.

Composition

Before: Rick and I have been disappointed in Ian's journal entries at school for the last few years. He just doesn't seem to take any writing assignment very seriously. Most of his journal included one or two silly nonsense sentences each day. Many days the same silly sentences. "My cheeseball is named Bob". Now imagine this scrawled across a notebook page and a helter-skelter angle in bigger than kindergarten handwriting that is barely legible. For a kid that has so many words running through his brain at any given waking moment, we just felt this was laziness.

Now: Writing still has been like pulling teeth until today. We had a breakthrough with is Composition lesson on Prewriting: Using your Senses. He was to go outside and write his observations using all of his senses. This is what he came inside with. I about cried.

My sister, Jaeda sits by my side. It is starting to drizzle rain and it is

chilly outside. I smell the air. I smell roses - roses? In the fall? Wait, rose and pumpkin. Not just rose. It is getting colder and colder by the second, cold enough to snow. Jaeda keeps saying, "Big B little b, Buh, buh, buh." I love the outdoors.

The next part was to make observations using only one sense:

I see the mountains, I see the clouds. I see this book. I crawl off

the back steps and onto the cement. I turn around. I see Jaeda my

sister. The bright sun shines in my eyes through the thick clouds.

looking like they're going to snow any minute. Jaeda sits by me on the

cement singing.

Next he was to choose one object and write his observations about that.

I see a tree, a leafless tree indeed. I walk over, close to the small willow and stop. A cold air speeds by. It moves the leafless red and brown branches. I shiver and walk on. I slip off the weed and step in the mud. I grab a branch, hoping to feel the texture, but I slip again and brake the branch. A strong, cold wind whips by, making me shiver. I start to walk away, but first stop to look at the majestic willow. I move on.

He was so energized by this activity that he is now planning on writing a book. He took this pre-writing about the tree and expanded on it already. It's the perfect beginning for a book. I am so proud of him. I love to see him gain confidence, to learn life lessons from the fables we are reading, to see him succeed and be a part of those "a-ha!" moments

Education - A Child's Perspective

I asked my kids some questions yesterday to get a feel for their perspective on their academic education.

Me: Do you feel like you are learning anything new or interesting in school? If so, then what?

Rayna: Not very much

Ian: No much. Just art is OK.

Me: What would you like to learn about?

Rayna: How to make butter

Ian: How atoms form

Me: Name 3 things you'd like to be when you grow up and tell me why you think each job is cool.

Ian: An inventor. You get to make stuff. A lego designer. You get to create new lego sets. An obedient man so I don't get kicked out of my job.

Rayna: An artist because you get to paint. A dancer because you get to dance. A mother because you get to have babies.

This little survey sparked some really good conversation and I learned a lot from my kids. Ian sure had a lot to say about how he wished his education could be. So much that I didn't have time to get the same depth from Rayna. I'll have to ask her some more questions when she gets home from school today.

CLAU

My sister in law, Nikki, told me about the Children's Literature Association of Utah. They are and association that awards the Beehive Award each year for Children's books. Each year there are several good books nominated in several categories. There is a voting process, and one book in each category wins the coveted Beehive award.

We have been on the road a lot this month, and so I wanted to bring a bunch of books that my kids might enjoy that were outside of the normal series and genera that they might normally choose. I took a look at the website and was able to see lists of past years' nominations and winners. I figure this would be a pretty good resource to get some reading recommendations for me and my kids. I have read several books from that list that I was impressed with:

Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver.

This is the first in a series called "Chronicles of Darkness." We actually listened to this one in the car on our trip to St. George. The reading was done by Ian McKellen (Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies). It was amazing. Ian McKellen did such an incredible job reading this story. Several times I wondered if I would enjoy it as much if I just read it myself. We loved this one so much we are listening to the next one in the series called "Spirit Walker."

Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix.

I read the whole Shadow Children series written by this same author and loved those. She has such a great writing style that makes you want to keep turning the pages. I love how she comes up with a plot that I've never thought of before and so it's really hard to predict what might happen in a situation like that. The end takes a twist that I would have never guessed.

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

This is another one of those books that has a plot that is so creative. Essentially, there is a meteor that hits the moon and bumps it out of it's orbit closer to the earth. The book is written as diary entries from a 15 year old girl as she documents the events that take place in the world and to hear family after this global crisis. This one was in the Young Adult section and has a bit of language in it, so I would only recommend it for older children or adults. I'm thinking this one would be good for my book club that's been taking a break for way too long (This is a heads-up, girls!)

The Liberation of Gabriel King by K.L. Going

This one is set in the South in the early 70's (I think)

when there is still some racism. It's a story of a white boy in 5th grade whose best friend is a black girl. Gabriel is a scaredy cat and his courageous and determined friend tries to help him overcome his fears and in the process we find out about her fears as well. This is a very easy read that I found very entertaining.

I'm not done with my stack of books to read, but these are the ones I loved so far. My goal is to read all the 2009 nominations for Children's Fiction and Young Adult Fiction and VOTE! If you live in Utah, you can vote at your library and voting will probably start in January.