Homeschooling

Seven Things that Make Me Smile

June 29, 2020 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

OOH… this challenge is an EASY one. Things that make me smile.

God. His grace to me is unmeasured. Blows me away all the time. His total unmeasured grace, which I mostly receive graciously. There are times I don’t, when I fight and rail and want to go my own way. But his grace calls me back time and time and time again. It is good and it makes my heart smile.
My man! Seriously.. there are times he drives me completely insane (not in a good way) but if I took that out he wouldn’t be the man that I love and cherish would he?

3. My son. He’s become a smart-alecky teenager. He has a huge heart, and a willingness to serve. A growing weed with an innate kindness to him. By no means perfect, but a solidly good kid.

4. Bunnies! Anyone who knows me know how much bunnies make me smile. My most recent litter is pictured below. They have me a bit concerned due to some size issues with new mom problems. But so far so good! But watching babies grow…and then later seeing smiles of delight from new bunny owners.

Tonight I chatted with a gal who is new to breeding bunnies who is well-versed in genetics and a zookeeper to boot! We had a good talk about how to work the modifiers to get what she wants to get out of her buns. It’s good to talk bunnies you know?

Tea, books and weight loss

5. My cold tea diffuser. I use it all the time. Love it. Toss in dry tea leaves, or even tea bags and a couple hours later I have tea! The simplicity of making tea makes me smile. Good taste, lots of variety, and it’s pretty to look at as I drink it! 🙂 I thought I’d written a post about my cold tea diffuser, but apparently I only have one for my hot tea diffuser! (It makes me smile too!)

6. Books! What can I say, books are fun, interesting, and fill my mind with thoughts and images. Most recently I am listening to The Rose and the Thorn. I just picked up The German Heiress which intrigues as a different take on post-WW2 Germany.

7. This last one is a bit harder to share but hey! Sunday I went through my “clothes are too small to wear bin” and guess what!!!! 2/3’s of them fit me again! WOOT WOOT! I came down smiling “Guess what hun! I don’t have to go shopping! Clothes fit again!!!!” It’s been too long since they have fit so it’s good. Smiles, smiles, smiles. 🙂 It makes it so much easier to do everything when you carry less weight you know? The joints don’t hurt as much, it’s easier to bike and walk. Did you know I was able to bike up a hill tonight and NOT HAVE TO WALK UP! How wonderful is that?!?!?!! Makes me smile through and through.

How about you?

So tell me…. what makes YOU smile? Have you written anything? If so, drop a link below. If not… just share in the comments, it’s good to know the heart joys of other people.

10 Ways to Engage in Summer Nature Study

June 22, 2020 By Annette1 1 Comment

Did you know that summer is upon us? I KNOW! How did that happen so fast, seems I was just getting my garden in and now it’s almost July. Means that soon I’ll have a 15 year old living in my house! Thinking of my boy brings me back to his childhood and all the walks we did in our local bush. I thought it might be fun to recall some of our explorations (if I can find the pictures) and talk about 10 ways to engage in summer nature study.

The Fun of having a pond

What exactly is nature study? It’s viewing the world around you and taking time to make note of it. It’s seeing ants and watching them work, watching a bumblebee bumble in the backyard, or finding clover in your front lawn. Nature study is simply the art of paying attention to the living things that surround you. It can happen indoors or out, at home or in the community and often when you go on vacation. It might even be something that you make!

We have a pond in our backyard that has gone through a couple of changes. The first year we had it, we were inundated with tadpoles. It was so cool listening to the calls of the toads, and one night the lad and I went out late and discovered mating toads. This of course, resulted in lots of tadpoles. For a fun quip from my lad see my original post.

As my son’s love affair with insects continued, we learned to build an insect trapping kit. This lovely device is called a Pooter. We used it for a long time and it was actually quite easy to make. You can make different sized one depending on the size of the insects you want to catch.

How Nature Study Happens

Nature Study mostly looked like taking advantage of where we were. If we went camping up north we took our time examining the wildlife around the numerous small ponds. If we went for a walk in the bush we’d examine the mosses, fungi, ferns, birds, spiders and insects that we came across. Our weekly trips to the local park let us watch the baby Canada geese mature. Regardless of where you live, nature study is possible.

It might look different to you. Where you live you might have pigeons and ospreys surrounding you, or you might have lizards and roadrunner in your backyard. For all I know, you might have manatees swimming in the local waterways. Take advantage of the world around you and take your time to learn about what you see. You never know what might inspire you… You might design your own toad area!

Bend down and touch the moss and fungi. Imagine if you will, the wonder in your child’s eyes when he discovers that some fungi puff up and release their spores if they are lightly brushed. Take your phone and grab a picture so you can remember and look up more information when you get home.

10 Ways To Engage in Summer Nature Study

Go into your backyard/park/local green space. Put a hula hoop around yourself and now take the time to examine everything inside that hoola hoop, count the spiders, types of plants, ants and other insects, see if you can find any arthropods, tiny invertebrates, feathers etc.
Weekly take walks in a bush, park, any green space, go to the beach, and just look… wildlife is everywhere. At the beach check the dunes for insects and spiders, watch the water birds, scour the shore for interesting rocks or shells. In the park, you’ll find birds, tracks of nocturnal critters, small rodents and maybe some reptiles too!
Make an art project from collected items. For inspiration, you might find Crafty Ideas from Nature handy.
Drawings while out in nature. One of the most enjoyable art pieces we’ve ever done has been going out into nature and drawing what we see. Moss on a log, a tiny spider in a web, a pine cone hanging from a tree, just sitting there and drawing while listening to the birds around us. Hugely successful and generated so much conversation.
Scavenger hunts. Looking for words about nature such as Wild Words, or objects to find, or specific plants. Have fun with it, it is great for all ages!

Five More ways

Follow Inspiration from nature books, cards, or any study you are doing. Such as if studying owls, going on an owl prowl held by your local park/nature authority.
Go out at night, to an area you are familiar with, and just sit quietly. Do you see anything different than you would during the day?
Set up a bird feeder and note the birds that come through. Are there any that are just passing by and are thankful for a quick meal, or do you have any permanent residents?
Get a pocket microscope so you can do close up examinations right on the spot, allowing you to release small critters right where you find them, or lets you examine a leaf or flower without damaging the plant. So quick and easy!
Keep a nature journal. Just a way to document what you see and watch changes occur throughout the seasons. Write in it, draw in it, and attach a bag to keep items in.

Establishing Trust

June 18, 2020 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

You know what really makes independent learning work? Trust. A trust from the student that their teaching parent will do their part to make them a success. Then trust from the teaching parent that their student will do their work to the best of their ability. Without that two-fold trust, independent learning simply won’t work. So how do you go about establishing trust?

What is Trust?

Trust: firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone.

Trusting someone means that you think they are reliable and that you have confidence in them. When you trust someone you feel safe with them.

How do you establish trust?

Trust is something that comes with time and experience. Sometimes your intuition will have you trusting someone immediately, but overall, trust takes time to develop.

Since we live in a fallen world, where people do things they aught not to, trust isn’t the easiest topic to converse on. People who are in positions of authority who should be able to be trusted, sometimes they can’t be. Families aren’t always what they should be, parents do things they aught not, kids do bonehead things, and I cannot address every situation in this post. I will work based on my experience only! 🙂

Teaching Parent

It starts when you first meet. Kids in my classroom, children of friends, and son of my own. Trust starts to build from your first meeting.

Do you do what you say you will? Can your words be trusted?
Do you act like you say you will? Do your actions show truth?

Once you have that baseline established, trust is furthered by your

Competence
Reliability
Integrity
Communication

Questions to ask yourself

In your home, do your children trust that you will do all you can to help them? Whether that is pointing them in the right direction to get the answers and help they need, or by providing them with the answer yourself. Have you established yourself as reliable source of aid?

Do you take the time to learn how to communicate with each other? This is something that is continuing to change in my household as my son matures. He LOVES precision in words..they matter a lot to him. Having to deal with a mom who is not so precise in her language sometimes creates barriers (both from his end and my own).

Integrity comes by saying and doing what you say you will. It shows in how you do your work. I made a promise to my lad that I will never deliberately lie to him. What I say is so. This doesn’t take into account the occasional misunderstanding, but since he knows I don’t ever intend to lie to him, it’s good. He knows me well enough there and it becomes a matter of clarification not wrong-doing. Can your children say the same of you?

Competency comes through in the accuracy of your help. Can you render the assistance needed? Can you organize their stuff, order their supplies, keep them on task, and do the myriad of supportive tasks to get them through their schooling? My son has learned that when it comes to estimating the time it takes to do something… I am horrible! 🙂 So he always doubles the time of what I think something will take (I learned this two weeks ago). 🙂 But he’s also learned that I do have my areas where I shine and takes full advantage of it.

Independent Learner

Your student has the same expectations placed upon him/her. They need to show competency in doing their work, reliability in completing it, integrity in holding to what he/she says/does, and have the ability to communicate with you clearly when there is a problem.

Some of these skills needed to be encouraged and/or strengthened, or perhaps outright taught. Youth don’t just pick up these skills, they learn them through being taught what’s a correct response.

Teaching them when they are little to have a system of organization (even if it doesn’t match yours), allowing them to make decisions about when to do what in their school day, and finding a way to finish what you started. Accept them for who they are, but encourage them to do it well.

Trust Takes Time

So for my son who has a thing for insects, he raises ants and has learned to create habitats for them, with the end goal being to sell them (the ants as a colony) at some point. I have used my love of mice (and his love for his snake) to teach him how to sell mice as a precursor to him selling his ants when they are ready.

Over this past year, we’ve discussed changing the price we charge and have worked out things like commission if I sell his mice for him, and which mice we keep back. This year he’ll be responsible for taking pictures of the mice and posting decent ads for them. Now.. mice don’t move as fast as ants do, but it takes patience to get a good picture of a mouse. All these incremental steps give him the confidence he needs for when he assumes control of this business. Running your own business means balancing a lot of skills.

Just as I’m slowly allocating more responsibility to my lad for his mice, is how you increase their abilities to be trustworthy with their school work.

Establishing trust takes time. Give them time to cement the skills you’ve taught them, add new expectations, and before you know it, they’ll be running the show. 🙂

Summer is almost here and let’s just celebrate now with the homeschool year wrapping up.

I’ve gotten together with 7 other bloggers to bring you this wonderful giveaway so that you can enjoy planning for your next homeschool year.

We are giving away 3 $100 giftcards from the place of your choice. You can choose from:

Amazon
Rainbow Resource
Hobby Lobby
Christian Books

Entry -Form

The winner will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond to claim their prize or else another winner will be chosen. By entering this giveaway you will be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers. Read the terms and conditions for more details.

Rebecca Locklear, a crew review

June 17, 2020 By Annette1 2 Comments

Men on the high seas, risk life and limb in service to others. I give you
Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities. Rebecca Locklear has put together a lovely unit study, geared for upper elementary to highschool, filled with a ton of activities so you can immerse your students into the lives and work of these brave men. You can find more of her amazing unit studies at Rebecca Locklear.

How Did We Use It?

My son was interested in this review, but found himself really busy. In talking with him I asked if it would be helpful if I read to him select portions and included him in any art projects, cooking lessons etc. A huge breath of relief flooded his face.

Ergo I’ve made decisions about what he learns, focusing on aspects that will enhance his studies of WW2. He’s in the middle of understanding naval battles and how people survived harsh treatment (Japanese POW camps). Understanding the fortitude of these early service men and how they survived by sticking together has been an important aspect of his learning.

Story from Locklear review — The lad and dad laughed out loud at this one.

In a way, it was kinda funny. I was excited to see recipes as part of this unit study which comes as a PDF book. I like cooking and trying new foods. Reading one of the recipes out loud to my hubby I received the response “oh, that doesn’t sound good at all!”. I made it anyways and seeing the look of surprise on his face (and on the face of the lad) was priceless. “This is good, you’re going to make it again right?” It gave us a great opportunity to talk about how the men would take turns cooking, and how they used what they had at hand. In fact, this meal has been added into our repertoire! 🙂 So easy AND tasty!

I caught a couple of dastardly squirrels in my backyard this spring, and when we read about the strong use of wildlife as part of their diet, the lad quipped “Squirrel stew I suppose eh mom? They would have enjoyed it with some potatoes!” Not quite my thing, but perhaps….

About the Author

Rebecca Locklear is the author of Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities. She has taught multiple levels as a teacher, and uses that experience to create history unit studies for teachers of any sort to use.

Why did Rebecca Locklear put this study together? She tells us the following in the opening pages:

What do you get?

120 pages of information, crafts, recipes, activities and more so you can immerse yourself into the lives of the men of the U.S. Life Saving Service.

The book contains:

Introduction for Teachers
Introductory Workshop
Workshops (4 Units)
- life at the station house
- working together at the station
- the culture of character
- relevance today
Expanding the Life-Saving Vision through the Arts
Research Areas Relating to the U.S. Life-Saving Service
Appendix 1 & 2
Glossary
Sources
Acknowledgements

Questions pepper the pages. You’ll find them mixed into the text, or following a section. I love how they are mixed in, making them an easy part of reading through the materials.

Pictures fill the pages. Sometimes full pages, other times wrapped in amongst the text. All are placed appropriately and add to the text. Most were in black and white, some few in full colour.

Variety in Activities

Most of the activities were geared toward classroom work with groups of children, as opposed to individual work by single students. Some would be able to be adapted easily, and others are simply group activities. You’ll find pictures, discussion questions, games, recipes, skits, music, stories, art and critical thinking activities.

Some could be adapted quite easily. I think my son would have enjoyed this one if I could have convinced him to give it a whirl. 🙂 14 year olds who are sick of Covid-19 shut-in and wanting to spend time with friends…. they aren’t always so easy to convince. 🙂 “Just read mom, I like when you read to me and just ask questions. I can do that and still do this too!”

I really appreciated that a few of the activities were meant for individual work.

The sheer volume of information present in such a good variety of ways makes me want to take this into my co-op group! It meets the needs of every learner that I can think of. Hands-on, interactive, research, tactile, and discussion. AND if you are into following rabbit trails… learn to make knots, explore cooking with wild game, play tricks on each other, tell stories to pass the time, ship profiles, flags, survival skills, etc.

One of the biggest things I appreciated about this unit study was that the human element was emphasized. Character qualities, work ethic, strength of will and bravery. All these aspects were pointed out numerous times in various ways to help us understand what it really took to be part of this service.

Should You Get it?

While we struggled with the group aspect of many of the activities (kinda difficult to do a group with just one student) my son enjoyed listening to the history of the U.S. Life Saving Service. Such fascinating information.

The materials are presented in a user-friendly manner and are easy to listen to and remember details of. He could be playing Minecraft or his other game with his friends, listen and even answer questions. He mentioned he would like to read some of the lessons himself and asked I send the file to his laptop. That’s got to tell you something eh?

I freely admit, he didn’t have a lot of interest in doing any of the activities, but he did enjoy listening and learning and isn’t that what really matters? Should you get it? YES… it’s such an interesting part of history and gives a good basis for the rescue services we have today.

Ms Locklear does an excellent job of meeting her purpose. You will find
Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities to be a fun and useful addition to your historical studies.

Read Other Reviews

63 Members of the crew reviewed Rebecca Locklear’s materials. After you read various reviews, remember to visit her site to sign up for her emails.

Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities

The Mayflower at Cape Cod – Stories, activities, and research that connect 1620 with life today

Building Confidence

June 17, 2020 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Where to put this post in the series was a bit of a challenge for me. I think since building confidence is an on-going part in schooling. Can you do grade four… it’s so different than grade 3 and then making the jump to grade 7 and then high school. Different expectations at each grade level and the jumps in difficulty in certain years. Building confidence though, when you stop and think about it, is something that we as adults need to do throughout our working/parenting/volunteering years isn’t it? So it’s no small wonder it’s a continual work in progress for our children/students as well is it?

Building Confidence

A lot of confidence-building depends on each individual person doesn’t it? Some children seem to be born confident, others need to work their way into it. You’ll find children that once they gain confidence in one thing quickly translate that into other areas of their life. Yet there are others who seem to need to learn it for everything along the way. We need to temper our expectations to the individual at hand.

I had to learn this. I have a lad who is fairly confident and translates his confidence in one field easily to another. But as a co-op teacher, I met children who were quite timid and encouraging them to step out in confidence was harder than I anticipated. A quiet uncertainty seemed to permeate their being. With such children, I found that moving slowly with my expectations generally helped them, yet one mom told me “be bold with that one, she’ll surprise you if you are!” (Moms often know best don’t they?)

Stages in building confidence

These are not necessarily in order, and can be applied at various stages. They will ebb and flow as life and circumstances change.

Have expectations that can be met.
Join in their play and let them be in charge.
Remind them, when facing a challenge, they might not know how to do it YET, but give it time, they’ll get it figured.
As they mature, let them take the lead. Let them learn how to handle disappointment, and how it feels to succeed.
Accept your child for who they are. Encourage them along their path, push them to be better, but don’t try to make them someone they are not.
Let them problem-solve on their own.
Encourage them to be people of faith.
Let them follow where their curiousity leads them.
Let them own their own mistakes, then figure out how to “fix” it.
Offer assistance when they need it, but often not until they ask for it.

singer, yellow shirt. text building confidence

Confidence will help your student gain needed independence in their learning. A confident individual has faith in their own abilities, which is what your independent learner needs. The confidence will teach them when to ask for help, when they can figure it out on their own, and when they just need to let a problem rest a spell.

How do you go about increasing the confidence in your children?

Learning when to take a step back

June 16, 2020 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

One of the hardest things I had to learn as a homeschooling parent was learning when to take a step back. I needed to learn when I actually could not teach my son something. It was a pivotal moment in our homeschool journey. For it didn’t matter the curricula, it didn’t matter my heart or desire, or his willingness to learn. Learning to take a step back and let him figure it out… this was what was important. Every independent learner will have some subject that makes this matter pivotal in their journey. Being prepared will make it easier! 🙂

Learning when to take a step back, text on stairs

Our Story

I loved teaching my son. Learning together, making discoveries and talking about them. It’s such a great thing to watch a child learn something and make it their own. A total highlight of my day. But you know what? Children learn and grow, they develop their own way of thinking. It’s a good thing no? And it’s occasionally eye-opening as well.

I still remember saying to my hubby. “I can’t do this, I can’t teach this boy math, I am so DONE with it.” In the ensuing conversation, I brought up how the lad thinks about math differently than I do. My approach is to come at it from point a to point b. Math is a subject I like, and it’s generally very straightforward to me. The lad looks at math more like a solution.. and then how do I get there? It seems so very backwards to me but it works for him.

Since we think very differently it was a matter of here is some really different math curricula… do it. Think about math differently. See how it goes. Over the course of six months, the lad explored math-art. That six months gave the lad a break from “mom math” and the time he needed to decide what he really wanted in a math program.

Something he could do on his own, that would challenge him, and would teach him real math. I came up with three solutions for him. One proved a total bomb (total waste of dollars), one worked extremely well(mostly free), and the other was a back up for when the extremely well one didn’t explain things properly (completely free, old textbook). He also utilized youtube and khan academy. I was a sounding board and nothing more. No more frustration! The lad learned to teach himself math, in a way that totally works for him. He loves math and does well at it.

Be Prepared

Just as you need to set your student up for success with electives, giving them choices that will help them with their future endeavours, you need to be prepared for your student to take some initiative. They will at some point, balk at something you want to teach them, or a method you use, or the style of the material.

And that’s okay.

It is.

It’s a sign of growing maturity, of burgeoning independence in someone who is discovering their own way. Light their path for them. Give them the tools they need to get there. Tools for the future, and options in the here and now. They will (hopefully) thank you for it later.

Just as you organize their day and the stuff they need to do their schooling, you can organize your stepping back, exiting from where you are not needed as their independence blooms. And enjoy the process (and yes, it can be hard), but independence is our goal after all is it not?

Summer is almost here and let’s just celebrate now with the homeschool year wrapping up.

I’ve gotten together with 7 other bloggers to bring you this wonderful giveaway so that you can enjoy planning for your next homeschool year.

We are giving away 3 $100 giftcards from the place of your choice. You can choose from:

Amazon
Rainbow Resource
Hobby Lobby
Christian Books

Entry -Form

Involvement in Electives

June 15, 2020 By Annette1 2 Comments

One of the things that I love about homeschooling is how easy it is to involve the entire family. Grandparents, Spouses, extended family and more. Including their involvement particularly when it comes to electives is amazingly easy. Making choices about who will help teach them in the electives they chose strengthens their decision-making abilities on the path to independent learning.

A Case In Point

Take for instance my son interest in electronics. My lad and I did some work together taking apart a clock radio and telephone. It’s been so good those to see the natural bent of two fellows working together to disassemble the different old electronics we have.

I was all set to take pics of their most recent tear down of a CD drive until both of them forbade photos! “NO Pics mom/hun!” My husband has a much different manner of doing these teardowns than I do, and it’s just interesting to sit back and watch. They talk more, experiment less, and take care with screws and anything remotely useful. It makes me happy to just sit back and observe.

Where to Find Electives?

We all know that in schooling you need to cover your basics. Math, English, Social studies, History, Science and Geography. But what about everything else? What do you do about electives? Electives are subjects such as computer skills, typing, shop, phys ed, electronics, music, art and such like.

First, you need to discover what electives your student needs and what their interests are. If they don’t know, you might want to use your knowledge of your child to give them options. For instance, my son has teaching in his bones, will he end up being a teacher? I don’t know. He doesn’t know. But to teach you need to know how to project your voice to a classroom, so he’ll be taking drama this year to learn how to do that.

Second, you want to find a way to support those interests. Paid or free, or even bartered options exist.

One option that I used with my lad when we first started to explore his interests was to use SchoolhouseTeachers.com. With over 350 courses there are lots of options.

I would print off the list of options for him with their descriptions and let him pick. You can go to a specific grade (shows in pictorial form) or use the all courses option (shows as a list like above picture). The advantage is, if your student was just curious and it turns out to not be a good fit, you can choose a different elective.

Free Options

There are numerous free options online.

Or you might want to utilize your local public school for a class or two. My son did this for music and tech (grade nine), and this coming year will be doing drama, manufacturing and computer tech (grade 10). They offer it, and if the principal allows it, why not use a resource you have at hand?

You could look into apprenticing with a local business if your child has an interest, in essence, making your own co-op placement.

Volunteering is also a great way to pick up new skills. Working for a business with the sole purpose of learning different aspects of the work.

Homeschooling