Just some of the books we have ordered

Here are just some of the books we've ordered. As said in older posts, it's a Well-Trained Mind/Charlotte Mason mix. We are still very relaxed and the kids do what they like most days. We all love to read so as long as we are learning though reading it works for us. I have had a couple of small orders since this one and have more books coming. I will likely learn just as much as the kids. I love learning right along with them.

Looking Forward!

This is our wonderful boy! He is very self-motivated. When he wants to do something he does it. If he needs something from me he is persistent even if I'm busy. He wants to do it NOW! He talks ALL DAY LONG about EVERYTHING unless he is busy building with Lego. He is observant and descriptive in his speech. He's great at communicating and isn't afraid to tell us when we are doing something that he doesn't like. We do our best to treat him like a person. That is what he is! Basically... when following his "flow" harmony can be felt all around. He is a great kid, and honestly I could never see him fitting into a school setting. I hope that day never has to come for him unless he chooses it. He needs to be home and in the world learning. He needs to follow his "flow" and have others take that trip with him.

Trying to follow his interests and his learning style, I wondered if maybe I don't even need to purchase any books for grade 2. After all, some people homeschool on very little money. They use free online resources, used books, the library, things in life, and everyday experiences to homeschool. We are not religious so we aren't open to purchasing much of the used curriculum available in our area. Finding the used books that we really want is not always easy.  We purchase other things that are much less important than the education of our children. So on that last note, I researched again to help me decide what we were going to purchase.

I attended homeschool meetings. I talked to other moms. I only researched curriculum from literature based styles because we love to read. I researched Charlotte Mason again and looked at what was available from Sunlight that could be used for a secular kid. But I just did a big circle and ended up right back where we started. We have just ordered the books for The Well-Trained Mind for Grade 2. The main reason is because his interests just so happen to be exactly what we would be learning. He wants to know more about Space, Earth, Vikings, and Medieval times. Also it's a more secular education compared to the others. I did love some of the books on Ambleside Online so I did order a few of those as well. We will be incorporating some nature study since both, Zoe and Austyn love it.

My plan is to be very flexible and try and deschool myself more. I also need to follow more of my interests to be a better role model. We homeschool relaxed all year round but I think we could really follow interests even more and see where our learning takes us. The books coming are great resources to have around. Our Public Library is great but limiting and having books in our home library is even more wonderful and convenient.

We all now wait anxiously for these exciting, new books to arrive.  Grade 2 here WE come!

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!)

Planning! That is what I do.

Planning for special occasions
I thought this would be an appropriate time to talk about planning that goes into our activities sometimes. Right now I'm planning Christmas activities for us. I need to come up with books, crafts, themes, trips, etc. There are details in this as well. What do I want to focus on? This year I'd like to look at Christmas around the world and Pioneer Christmas. I want to make cards, send cards out, make gifts, make crafts, bake cookies and other treats, go to some local Christmas events and read about some history of Christmas. I want to look at other holidays around now like Hanukkah.

Planning our homeschool experience with different styles
I also went through a period where our homeschool actives were not being enjoyed as much as I'd have liked by Austyn. I researched as much as I could without having to purchase books and set up a simple schedule for following Charlotte Mason for the next month to see how it goes. I'll be borrowing some unschool books as well and will be unschooling with CM. Trial and error is what we are doing and it's not all that uncommon for the first year or so. There are so many different learning styles and as a homeschool mom I need to see what works best for my kids and also what works for our family.

Planning for our local homeschool groups
When we want our kids to be involved in extracurricular activities it's important as a homeschool mom to get involved in those activities if it's possible. I have two small children and find it easy right now to help out with some activities outside of our home, so I'm also planning activities for our homeschool groups.

Work?
It may all sound like so much work but I find it fun most of the time. It really doesn't feel like work. It feels like parenting. I'd research to decide if my kids are getting a shot or to find out when they lose their teeth or what I should do for a cough. I research and plan recipes to decide what we will be cooking for supper. I research and plan where we might want to go for our family vacation. I research what to do for good parenting practices. These are all a part of parenting and so is educating our kids. To me it is all the same. As any mom would understand... you do what you need to do for your child. This is what moms do. I don't see homeschooling as any different than any other parenting practice and believe that if we(parents) were not pushed to believe we are not able to educate our kids we'd all just do it naturally. We did for thousands of years until only about 200 years ago. It's in our nature.

“God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.”~Proverb