Lego Quest - Flags

This week Austyn was involved in Lego Quest again. He made a flag. Here is his description. 

 

"This flag is for the country called 'Buy Land' in Lego World. There is a statue of the President (President Ching) standing in front and behind the flag pole."

 

Click on the Lego Quest Logo above to go to the Lego Quest Blog and see what was typed about his Flag and to see what others made for their flags. I think he is the 16th one down the page. It was a busy week at Lego Quest!

 

Busy in the Basement!

One of my excuses for not keeping up with many of the things around the house including our blog is that I've been busy going through the piled up boxes in the basement that we just never unpack. Anyone who has small children at home with them all day long knows what I mean when I say, "This isn't easy!!" I moved most of the kids toys, all of their crafts and all of their books to the basement. We couldn't sell our old beat up table so I put it to good use in a framed in school room.  I think I just had enough of the clutter of books and things all over our house and not being able to walk. Now that I think of it; my hubby hasn't complained much lately either. Most of the toys got sorted and put into bins (the bin system is working out wonderfully) and the toys they grew out of are in a corner to sell. I am still not completely done, but the main part of it is complete and we can at least use that area of the house now. Here are some pictures of activities the kids did while I was hard at work. They coloured a printer box to be their house and made designs and letters on the floor with a mop. What a great way to get them to help! Creative... wouldn't you say?! LOL!!

I always end my posts with a quote but I can't find the one I want to put here! It is a quote by Deepak Chopra, in his book about the seven spiritual laws for parents. Basically he says to find a game in every chore the kids have. One example he gave was to play a game where one child pretends to be a ghost and tries to hide in every corner of the room and the other child tries to chase the ghost with the vacuum. I just returned this book to the library. Oh well. Shrug.

Publish Post

Visiting Friends and Socialization

We schedule play dates with other homeschool friends. In these pictures we are visiting Austyn's best friend. They are also a homeschool family. It's so great to be free to visit them during the day.

Many people have this misconception that homeschoolers are socially deprived. I think you can tell from our blog that we are very involved with people every week. In fact one of the reasons we homeschool is because of the social benefits. Our schedule is full. Monday is Park day. We are there a minimum of three hours with other homeschoolers. At least once a month we have a homeschool field trip on Monday. Tuesday is Homeschool swimming for an hour in the afternoon. Wednesday is Story Time at the Library and Homeschool Skating. Thursday we are free for playdates and in the evening we have swimming lessons. Friday is free for Field Trips and in some select months we are go to a Mini-CoOp every Friday afternoon. On the weekends we usually race or visit family.

All homeschooling families I know are the same as us except many are also involved in their community and a select few who can't afford to do as much still find ways to have play dates, study with other families and have a field trip here and there. Stats in the U.S. say that homeschooling families do social activities outside of the home about 5-6 times a week on average. I can see that!

I find that the social interaction through homeschooling is a much higher quality of socialization because the kids interact with many ages and types of people. They also don't seem to have as many bad habits picked up by peers and are guided by a parent who is usually nearby. Because they are not restricted to peers of the same age for most of the day they learn how to behave more from the loving adults around them rather than the peers of the same age that they would be restricted to in a class room. They don't have to resort to sneaking letters. Their homeschool friends have the potential to be very close since they spend so much time with those families. I can say from our experience that the other homeschool kids in our groups almost feel like family because of the way they all treat each other.

Again, as in other posts, I am using the word "freedom". They are free to be. Free to interact with people they come in contact with in the world any time, any day. People can't remember this because it was a long time ago, but schools as we know it began about 200 years ago and before schools everyone was homeschooled. Schools are relatively new in human history. I have read that in those days kids looked up to adults and adults were friends to them. They helped each other and worked together to live. I don't know this from my experience since I wasn't alive then, but I'm sure we must have done just fine socially before schools came along.

The interesting thing is that our homeschool groups are growing fast. It's not too hard to imagine that there will be a homeschool family on each block in our lifetime. We could be in walking distance of other homeschool families. Socializing may get even easier with such close proximity. It's a real possibility!

I remember going to school and the majority of time we were in class and not out mingling with other kids. The teacher use to give me trouble in class for talking to a friend and the words I often heard were, "Stop talking!!! You didn't come here to socialize!!"

Peace!! And good Socializing to all!!  :)

"If there were no other reason for wanting to keep kids out of school, the social life would be reason enough", John Holt

Re-creating the Nile!

We do school all year long at our pace. So it's very relaxed. We started Grade one in June. Here is a history project. We were learning about Anchient Egypt and this is our version of the Nile. We planted grass seed and flooded the Nile to grow the grass. I added the picture of the project with grass growing.

“No, 'tis slander. Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of the Nile, whose breath Rides on the posting winds and doth belie All corners of the world; kings, queens, and states, Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the...”, William Shakespeare

Mr. Mechanic!

Austyn loves to tinker. He loves lego and inventing new things. He loves taking things apart. He loves working on Daddy's race car. Here he is taking his bike apart while Daddy and Papa work in the background on the race car.

“I have rarely seen the face of a mechanic in the action of creation which was not fine, never one with ws not earnest and impressive.”, Thomas Nelson Page

A Little Work Book Girl!

The great thing about learning at home is that we can really pay attention to how each child loves to learn and what they are interested in. Learning styles play a big role in how a child learns and shouldn't be ignored. Zoe loves drawing, printing and loves workbooks. Austyn is more of a hands-on person and loves to see things in real life and get his hands right in there. He is just starting to like workbooks. Both kids are creative but just in different ways. I can foresee some interesting projects actually. I can see Austyn's big ideas and creative details and Zoes drawing and printing talents coming together. Hmm... I wonder what they will create together one day?!!

“Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow...”, Lawrence Clark Powell

Park Days

Every week we went to the park and the kids played with all of the other homeschool families. The weather is now getting colder and we are going less. Here are some pictures of our fun with our friends at the park over the summer.

This Caterpillar was Zoe's pet for a while.

As you will see it does something funny!

 

This summer at our Park turned out to be so much fun! I'm sure next summer will be a blast as well!

“You can't tell a kid that it's time to exercise; that's a turn-off... you have to say 'Let's go to the park and have some fun.' Then you get them to do some running, play on the swings, practice on the balance beam, basically get a full workout disguised as play.", Arnold Schwarzenegger

Just BEEcause!

We visit one of our local bee farms whenever we feel like it. We didn't go all summer because we were so busy with other outdoor activities. No matter how many times we go it never gets old and everytime we go we all learn something new. The challenge as soon as we get there is to locate the queen bee.  Why do we go see the bees so much? "Just BEEcause!"

“For so work the honey-bees, creatures tht by a rule in nature teach the act of order to the peopled kingdom”, William Shakespeare

Eat, Sleep, Play Anytime!

One of the great things about homeschooling is having freedom. In most homeschool homes the kids are free to do what they need when they need it. So, if someone is hungry they snack without getting into trouble from a teacher. When someone wants to ask a question they can ask right away. They can start a whole conversation if they want. When someone needs to go to the bathroom they go. When someone wants to play because they were inspired about a lesson or a story they can.  If someone is tired it can be nap time anytime! The best thing about that is that they are napping at home cuddled in warm, familiar blankets on our own beds with loving people/pets nearby. Homeschooling is great!!

“The secret of Happiness is Freedom, and the secret of Freedom, Courage.”, Thucydides

Life at the Race Track

Since we are at our local race track often the kids are very comfortable there. They know how it all works and love the people we know there. The socialization is great because it's a whole new kind of crowd compared to most crowds. It's a big part of their lives. The experience of it is something unknown to many kids. Some adults have never been to a race track. Because we are there so much many important milestones can happen there. As you can see in the first picture Austyn just lost his tooth about a half an hour before we went to watch the Jet Truck.

“Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the real sports... all others are games”, Ernest Hemingway