Unschooling Jitters!

I posted on a bog the past few days some questions and concerns. From that I realized that I have unschooling jitters. I know my kids are learning. I need a better way to track what they are doing. Especially for Austyn since he is of school age.

He is so brilliant and is learning so much on his own. Yesterday he was figuring out how many minutes in a day and how many seconds in a day etc. He made up a game where he would get Daddy to help him print letters on papers that made up a secret sentence. He hid the letters around the house. I had to find them and make the sentence. When I was finished we switched turns. Today since we've had illness here for the past few days, he decided that he'd figure out what percentage we were. We tend to say that someone is still not 100% when they still show signs of being ill. He is rating us by percentage of health. LOL!

I know he is doing fine, but I crave structure and curriculum outlines somedays. I really feel, however that this is the right style for him right now. He seems so sensitive to being told when to learn what no matter how gently it's done. I see his brilliance and feel that I'm mocking him by dictating when, how, and what to learn. So for the past few months I've eased off ALOT. I've researched a bit and I see that it's worked out for him.

Tonight before he went to bed he saw our history books and decided that we could print off the hieroglyphics and cut them out so he can make words at the table while eating his night time snack. He got a kick out of that and noticed that some of the letters were almost the same. After much needed reassurance from other homeschool moms and some of these observations I feel more at ease.

The image above (that is smaller than I thought) is a chart to help me track what they do each day for each subject (Thanks to Neely at Unschooling..Let the earth be our classroom). I plan on getting curriculum and letting them do what they like. I still suggest and feel the waters for interest, but if there isn't any, why push it. They don't learn it that way anyway. This way they are interested, learn it, and retain it much better. Isn't homeschooling great!!!

Here is Neely's page that I used as a guide for our tracking sheet. She posted this last year.
http://shomeiscool.blogspot.com/2009/05/charting.html

Here is a quote I read tonight in a book I'm reading. The book I'm finally finishing is You'll See It When You Believe It; The Way To Your Personal Transformation by Wayne W. Dyer.

"Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you.

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you."

~ Kahlil Gibtan (in the Profet)

(I really love the Eastern ways of thinking. They really have things right compared to how we raise kids in our society. It's just a reminder that we don't own our kids. They aren't a representation of us in life. They have their own path. Happy Parenting All!)

For the birds...

We've been suffering with colds and flu in our home lately but have still managed to get outside. We went into the backyard to rake leaves left over on the ground from autumn and decided to pick all of the sunflower seeds off of the dried flowers to feed the birds. 

One of our feeders we made a year ago and it's still in good shape.

I went and got the Handbook of Nature Study to read more about sunflowers. Austyn took a picture of me sitting on the step reading it. I have a cold... can you tell? LOL!

The following is a poem taken from the Handbook of Nature Study, found under one of the sunflower lessons.

Eagle of flowers! I see the stand.

And on the sun's moon-glory gaze,

With eye like his thy lids expand

And fringe their disk with golden rays;

Though fixed on earth, in darkness rooted there,

Light is thy element, thy dwelling air,

Thy prospect heaven.

~ "The Sunflower", Montgomery

Sibling Companionship

Some studies and authors suggest the homeschooling creates conditions that assist in close sibling companionship. We have our moments, especially if my husband and I get busy with work and the kids are starving for attention. We have those moments where they are at each other and sometimes are even hurtful, but for the most part I can see a closeness between them that I'm so proud of. In these pictures Zoe is still a bit ill.  In times of need they really are available for each other. It's wonderful to see.

“[There is an odd grammar in that sentence, which seems wrong, but is actually precise.] Close siblings were less common, ... It seemed.” ~ Kate Adie

Our Rockets!

So proud with his rocket! Zoe was a bit under the weather during all of this. Poor kid!

Preparing one of the rockets.

Setting up the rocket on the launch pad.

One of the launches.

The parts falling from a puff of smoke after it's flight.

The fun of running to find all of the pieces on the ground.

The part inside the rocket that blew up. You can see the bottom is burned and if you looked inside it it's hollow. Everything inside has been blown out like a fire cracker.

The launch pad complete with burn mark from launches.

“Patience is the ability to count down before you blast off.” ~ Unknown

Book Work?

We aren't usually big fans of book work, but every now and again the kids have me pull out the books to write in. You know the ones. Match this to that. What letter is missing? Word Searches. Spelling/penmanship workbooks. Here they are doing a fine job at the kitchen table while I tackle the dishes.

"Schooling, instead of encouraging the asking of questions, too often discourages it." ~ Madeleine L'Engle

Four Years Old?

I'm certain that I'm not the only mother who wonders where time goes.

“Your birthday is a special time to celebrate the gift of 'you' in the world.” ~ Unknown

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology - All About Birds

Even just in our own backyard we had some great bird watching experiences last spring through fall. The image above was taken of a baby robin who lived in our backyard and let us get closer looks. I'm looking forward to getting more into watching the birds again this year. We didn't have many over the winter without a feeder, but hope to see more now that we can add a feeder again and maybe a birdhouse. 

Did you ever want to learn more about birds? Maybe the bird guide that you purchased at your local book store just isn't filling all of your needs for your homeschool? The Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds site has some great information including birding basics, information on different species, maps, news, bird sounds, video, and much more. I know, many of you may already use this site, but for some of us (myself included) this is a great find that I wasn't aware of before now. We will be using this site information, without a doubt. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1189


I came across it after being directed to this site: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/birdsleuth. For us this site doesn't make much sense. We aren't about to spend lots of money on a curriculum that my kids seem to young for, however there are some free resources and ideas on the Bird Sleuth Website. It's worth a mention here, especially if you are looking at a way of helping out with research and using their full curriculum for bird feeder watching.

"Rock'n Robin... Tweet, tweet, tweet" ~ me singing right now... LOL!

Book Sharing Monday

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett is a story shared from a grandfather to his grandchildren. It's about a little town called Chewandswallow. The town is just like any other town except there is no need for grocery stores or stoves for that matter and the weather brings all the food they could eat and more.

"Whatever the weather served, that was what they ate. 

But it never rained rain. It never snowed snow. And it never blew just wind. It rained things like soup and juice. It snowed mashed potatoes and green peas. And sometimes the wind blew in storms of hamburgers."

We have seen the movie and can see how this book may have inspired the movie, but it's not the same story. Check it out for yourself?!