A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Homeschooling

Art tells a Story

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I originally wrote this post in April of 2015 as part of a blog hop.   I am making some adaptations as it’s now more than 4 years later.

Learning how to create art in my household took some figuring, it was harder than I thought to have my lad do art with me.  Real life art for us has always needed to involve a story.  Let me expand upon that, maybe your children are the same.  🙂  Maybe they too, need to see how art tells a story.

I don’t know about you but I have a creative child.   He draws, writes, story tells and creates.   He plays minecraft and creates these little worlds that are very specific in their purpose.  “DAD!   Don’t do that in this world.   That’s not supposed to happen!”   This is a frequent cry in the afternoon.  He still plays minecraft and when he plays with his friends it’s in worlds he has created with a story line in mind.  Wouldn’t it be fun mom to live in an ice world where you need to stay within ___ feet of heat in order to survive?  Imagine how hard it would be to find or create resources!

It’s rather fascinating at times with what he creates.  One of my desires it to  create more often with my child.  Therefore, I would come up with marvelous ideas that I think might tickle his fancy.

Any thoughts on how often I am successful?

Well…absolutely NONE!  I’ve needed to realize this truth:  If I can’t sell the art as a way to tell a story, we have no art.  No story no art.  It’s just the way it rolls. 

Art Tells a Story

Finding the Story

If I can find a story, I can create the art with my lad. Not finding the story means going through the art form without actually doing art.  It has no significance for him, and therefore is a meaningless exercise.  Finding the story… even if it’s from a poem… and Voila!   We have art.

In the found these marvellous books at the library called “imagine a day”.   I would read the poem of the day to my lad.  I read it without showing him the picture.  I’d cover up the page as much as I could so I wouldn’t be influenced.  We would then each sit down and draw a picture of what the story told us. We had SO MUCH fun with these books.   When we were done we would compare our pictures with the picture in the book.  Sometimes we were quite similar to the book and to each other and other times we had good discussions on what we did and why. It was such a fun time together learning, thinking, and drawing together, letting our imaginations soar.

Art Tells a Story

An example of finding the story

Another example would be the day we worked with doing a fresca.   Here I didn’t stop to think and merely followed the instructions given. Draw lines of colour to  get used to drawing with fresca.  I was met with a complaining child “what’s the point of this mom?”  Then I turned it into a story.  What do you think might happen if we did a boat that would capsize?   How about we have a clan cat hunting for a mouse?   Suddenly my story-telling lad was full of ideas and colours he could use.

Imagine a day when art tells a story

It’s taken us time to learn something really important.  Art is story. It’s not always a readily seen story, but it always tells a story of some sort. The colours, depth, humour, lighting, solemnity, shading etc… it all tells a story. 

Use the story to create the art, let the art tell the story.   

I was recently watching a glass-blowing competition and one of the participants always had to come up with a reason, or a story, for any piece that she did.  Did she want to tell the story of her first ever cupcake, or tell of the struggle of women in the glass-blowing world, or the lost child.  What story could she tell through her glass work? This was her focus.  She did some amazing pieces. 🙂

So tell me something, how do you do art in your homeschool?   Do your children happily engage in any art opportunities that you offer them? Or are they more like my creative one… needing a story freeing them up to explore?

blog hop

Hey!  Follow The crew through this Annual Not Going Back to School homeschool blog hop!  Links of participants below

CREW @ Homeschool Review Crew – 2019 Annual Not Back to School Homeschool Blog Hop  
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses – ABC of Homeschooling
Dawn @ Schoolin’ Swag – Adding Fun to Your Homeschool Day
Erin @ For Him and My Family – Large Family Homeschooling 
Lori @ At Home Where Life Happens – Learning Life Skills
Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling – Homeschooling the High School Years
Monique D. @ Early Learning Mom – Homeschooling With Autism
Yvie @ Homeschool On the Range – 5 Days of Upper Grades Homeschooling
Abby @ Making Room 4 One More – Time Management for Homeschool Moms 
Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool – 5 Days of Homeschool Questions
Amy @ the WRITE Balance – Year-Round Schooling 
Annette @ A Net in Time – Homeschooling. 
Betty @ Lets Get Real – Homeschooling High School 
Cassandra @ My Blessed Mess – Eclectic Homeschooling

Kimberley @ Vintage Blue Suitcase – Roadschooling with a Teenager

How to fit in Field Trips?

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One of the things I love to do is visit museums and places around my province (or anywhere actually).  🙂   If I’m out and about, I want to stop in and see what’s around me.  There is so much to see and do.  The question is though: How to fit in field trips when there is so much course work that needs to be done.  How do you justify the time away?  Do you need to look for a way to make it fit your curricula? Should you make your children do a photo journal, answer questions, or just let them explore? 

Let’s talk shall we?

How to fit in field trips

What are field trips?

Just what are field trips?   Can a trip to your local grocery store be a field trip?   For sure… as long as you aren’t going there just to buy groceries.   You could talk the store manager and see if he’d do a tour to explain why products are put out as they are, how do shelves get stocked, and how do you keep waste costs down?  Then your local grocery store becomes a field trip… and probably a really informative one at that.  

field trip - mushrooms
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Where can you go?

Any place you can think of can become a field trip if you take the time to turn it into a informational tour. I’ve been to a Toyota plant, home hardware packing facility, mushroom growers and Belgian Nursery.   Not places you might think of for a tour, but absolutely fascinating. 

We have toured tons of museums, both large and small, as a family, with friends, or with other homeschoolers.

The zoo, parks, aquariums and even the science center. Places of learning, with or without a tour guide. Hands on, experiential, and fun times to remember. Just make a plan and go.

butterfly conservancy
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But what about school?

The way I think of it is this.  School take field trips.  They just take a day and go out with their students.  Do they expect the kids to learn something?  Yup. Do they always?  Nope.   Same thing.  Go out, have fun, experience the world, ask questions, you never know what might inspire your children if you don’t give them the opportunity.  That’s what field trips are.  Opportunities to see something new or different or old… and it all helps our children see things differently.  It might inspire them to do art, make a career, decide on something they don’t want to do, and so forth.  

Take the time.  The school work will get completed.  But without the outside world being seen, and questioned, and looked at, what the point of it?

field trip : stones and bones
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How to Fit in Field trips

There are a number of different ways you can fit them.

You can ask your children what things they would like to see or learn about.  You could sit down with your hubby and say “what place are you interested in?”  Look around and see what might coincide with something you are learning about.  For instance if you have just learned about the war of 1812 take in a re-enactment.

Then

  • once a month have a field trip day
  • make a plan with your co-op group
  • have a week of field trips (maybe coincide when public school is out and maybe invite some non-homeschooling friends along).
  • plan a summer of stay-cations where you do field trips instead of your annual camping/hiking/vacationing away trip
  • take a weekend off and go away as a family to a further destination
  • Take an afternoon and stop in at the local museum

There’s all kinds of ways to make field trips work.  Don’t miss out on the benefits of field trips over school work. 

backus page House Museum
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Benefits of Field trips

Field trips are so beneficial.  I urge you to not miss out on them.

They

  • break up the school cycle.  
  • provide real world learning.  
  • provide access to areas you might not normally see.
  • help develop critical thinking skills.
  • have an academic impact not always readily measured.
  • can have an emotional impact.

How to fit in Field Trips?  You decide.  It’s your household. 🙂

blog hop

Hey!  Follow The crew through this Annual Not Going Back to School homeschool blog hop!  Links of participants below

CREW @ Homeschool Review Crew – 2019 Annual Not Back to School Homeschool Blog Hop  
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses – ABC of Homeschooling
Dawn @ Schoolin’ Swag – Adding Fun to Your Homeschool Day
Erin @ For Him and My Family – Large Family Homeschooling 
Lori @ At Home Where Life Happens – Learning Life Skills
Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling – Homeschooling the High School Years
Monique D. @ Early Learning Mom – Homeschooling With Autism
Yvie @ Homeschool On the Range – 5 Days of Upper Grades Homeschooling
Abby @ Making Room 4 One More – Time Management for Homeschool Moms 
Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool – 5 Days of Homeschool Questions
Amy @ the WRITE Balance – Year-Round Schooling 
Annette @ A Net in Time – Homeschooling. 
Betty @ Lets Get Real – Homeschooling High School 
Cassandra @ My Blessed Mess – Eclectic Homeschooling

Developing Independence

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The other day I was talking to a fellow homeschool mom who asked me “How did you get your son to work independently?”  It’s honestly a bit hard to answer that as it naturally happened.  Today I thought I’d think about that a bit more.  How did I go about developing independence in my son’s learning?

developing independence

The Early Years

When my son was little, we did everything together.  Walks, housecleaning, playing, and just living life.  We had so much fun together.  I wasn’t a helicopter parent, but it was just the two of us so doing things together made sense right?  This lasted until he was about 7.

Elementary Years

At 7 years old things started to change a bit, he was developing his own interests, learning to play on his own (mom wasn’t climbing our snow mountain), and discovering differences existed between us.  It was a surprise to him to learn that mom wasn’t crazy about insects though I’d happily teach about them.  Mom wasn’t a huge fan of spiders either much to my son’s horror .  “LAD! Get this spider before I stomp on him!” was a rather familiar call in this spider friendly home we live in.   

I love bunnies, guinea pigs, and dogs….  Give me something with fur to love and I am great.  Going to see my neigbours’ horses brought me pleasure. My son.. well.. he likes cats, birds and small creeping around the ground things.   Dogs, horses, cattle and what not are just not his thing.  How could mom be so different?

Building upon those differences we start exploring countries around the world.  This was a two-fold endeavor.. my striving to get my picky eater to be less picky, and to explore cultures and people not our own, showing differences in people that maybe he hadn’t considered.   We had a hoot learning.  He’d pick something he wanted to learn, I’d pick something.  They’d often diverge but together we explore. We touched on music.. and I discovered he loves classical music, and instrumental was his love.  He learned mom can’t help bopping to a rhythm though he can’t imagine why!

developing independence

Encyclopedias Rock!

We discovered the joy of reading encyclopedias.  Several history ones made up our bedtime reading.  Looking for a person’s perspective on history and seeing how it came out in the books we read. My son quickly showed his affinity for weaponry, pointing out how the world people lived in influenced weapon design.  My thoughts were on how art and language came to be, looking for the details in the workmanship.  We had great conversations about what surprised us and what we learned. I bought the lad a book on weapons which he devoured and still browses today. 

Math Happened

I need you to understand something.  In fact I LOVE math and am good at it. Had no problems teaching the lad the basics of what he needed to learn until we came to division.  There I learned an important thing.  The lad thinks about math completely differently than I do.  Forward progress ground to a halt.  We couldn’t do math together.  He was 10 and math killed it. Totally.   History, language, science, all good.  Math.. No.  The lad suddenly had to start learning math on his own.  With a program.  No mom helping because how we see math just causes head butting.  Pivotal moment.

Independence in math, led to independence in much more.

Math led to other decisions in Middle School

Seeing himself successfully find what worked and what didn’t in math led to other decisions. He’d do his math and then I’d learned that science, English and history were done as well. 

In Middle School he discovered a LOVE of writing papers (go figure!) and a penchant for expanding what he was learning about. 

“Research how dragonflies fly” this short research project lead to …. “MOM!  Did you know that dragonflies are the most successful hunters?  Mom!  Did you know… ” What was supposed to be a one day project became two weeks of utter fascination.  

He would often ask “mom, does it matter if I change the question?  Does it matter that I want to learn more?”   My stock answer is always “Are you learning?  If you are learning and getting your other work done, it’s all good”.  He’s learned to learn!  WOOHOO!!!!!   ðŸ™‚

developing independence

Questions Changed

Questions in schooling changed.  They used to be “What do I do next? What are we learning about today?  Oh, can you help me make this?   Want to see what I built? and such like.   

Now I get asked questions like: How do I divide this up so I get finished on time?  What do I need to do first? Can you help me figure out what they are asking for?  The questions are different.  More sorting through, more planning, less hands on. 

I have needed to teach the lad skills I was taught.  He’s needed to learn to read questions carefully to make sure he’s doing what is needful. 

Looking forward to High School

This lad of mine faces grade nine this coming school year, so last year he made the choice to attend one class in grade 8.  We chose music since it was his first classroom learning experience and would be a no-brainer for him once he got into it.  No pressure, just learning how a teacher operates in a class environment.  He learned much and complained about time wasted. 

This coming year’s course materials required more collaboration.  I have these two English programs.. let’s sort out which is better.  Telling him “I thought you might like to read this WW2 books yourself, do you think we can read these over here together”?   I’ve needed to ask him what he wants to learn this year and how he wants to do it (term system or semester system). 

We learned from doing WW1 last year that he wants more structure to our learning so we’ve invested in some unit studies that he can work from.   He is becoming more able at learning what HE needs to learn best. Even if it’s not the same way mom learns.  This burgeoning independence and growth has fit him naturally. 

I hope that some of this helps you encourage independence in your children.  Developing Independence helps them discover talents, interests and abilities within enabling them to learn in a way that best suits. 

blog hop

Hey!  Follow The crew through this Annual Not Going Back to School homeschool blog hop!  Links of participants below

CREW @ Homeschool Review Crew – 2019 Annual Not Back to School Homeschool Blog Hop 
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses – ABC of Homeschooling
Dawn @ Schoolin’ Swag – Adding Fun to Your Homeschool Day
Erin @ For Him and My Family – Large Family Homeschooling
Lori @ At Home Where Life Happens – Learning Life Skills
Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling – Homeschooling the High School Years
Monique D. @ Early Learning Mom – Homeschooling With Autism
Yvie @ Homeschool On the Range – 5 Days of Upper Grades Homeschooling
Abby @ Making Room 4 One More – Time Management for Homeschool Moms
Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool – 5 Days of Homeschool Questions
Amy @ the WRITE Balance – Year-Round Schooling
Annette @ A Net in Time – Homeschooling.
Betty @ Lets Get Real – Homeschooling High School
Cassandra @ My Blessed Mess – Eclectic Homeschooling

Books about The Moon and Space

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Did you know that it has been 50 years since the Apollo landed on the moon!   Amazing isn’t it?  Today, I want to share with you some books about the moon and space.  

I’ve been reviewing some books about the moon and space lately and thought that today I would highlight them.

Books about Moon and Space

Save Money on Moon and Space!

Moon and Space

Before I get too far into this post I do want to tell you about two things.

One.  Amanda Bennett Unit studies are on sale.  If you have never done a Unit Study by Amanda Bennett you are missing out.  These are SO well done and you will learn so much and have fun while doing so. 

Moon: On Sale $5 normally $12.95.  Go here.

Space: Currently $18.95   Go here. 

Moon and Space: On now for $25, normally $31.90.  Go here. 

Books About the Moon.

I don’t have this review up yet, but it will post fairly soon.  The Apollo Mission for Kids.  An excellent book by Chicago Review Press.  Part of their 21 Activities series.  I”m considering it for a co-op class. 

The Apollo Missions for kids

The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon.   AN excellent book about Michael Collins. 

The man who went to the far side of the moon

Go For the moon.  A fun picture book that is surprisingly meaty. 

Go for the moon

Destination Moon.  A well done non-fiction, factual book about the people and the race for the moon. 

destination moon

Space Books

Bizarre Space is one that my son devoured.  He very much enjoyed this book.

Earth-Space Colouring Book is a lovely book that oh.. you’d have fun filling in, or having your students fill in as you give them space information. 🙂

Earth-space coloring book

Enjoy learning more about space and the Apollo Moon Landings.  Imagine.. we made it up into space!   We now have the international space centre.  We are LEARNING so much.. isn’t it fascinating?

Want to learn keyboarding?

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Over the years I have looked at a number of keyboarding, or typing programs. Some free, some paid, all have their place.   I thought I’d work you through some of the options for who want to learn keyboarding, or have a student in need of these skills.

Want to Learn Keyboarding Skills?

Why Do I Care

You might be wondering why do I have this focus on keyboarding?  Why is it important that my son have excellent keyboarding skills?  

Did you know that I mark papers?  I KNOW .. funny eh?  I mark biology and physics papers for a high school. This very odd thing was learned!  I like papers that are typed out.  Typed papers mean I don’t have to fight with handwriting wondering if the penmanship is sloppy or if a word is spelled incorrectly.  It is quicker to read even writing and spacing.  It’s no small wonder to me that colleges and universities like their essays and papers typed out!

The elementary students of today will be tomorrow’s highschool and higher education students.   They will:

  • Write reports.
  • Argue papers, topics, put together presentations
  • Comment on discussion boards and blogs.
  • Journal in blogs and online tools like Penzu.
  • Research online (type addresses into a search bar).
  • Take digital notes (using Evernote, OneNote and similar).
  • Collaborate on Google Apps like docs, sheets, presentations.
  • Take online quizzes.
  • Use online tools for core classes (Wordle, Animoto, Story Creators).
  • And more

Having good keyboarding skills will make their jobs of learning easier.

Before we get too far in, let me talk about some of the products that I have actually used with my son. 

Keyboarding Reviews I have Done

We did UltraKey Online.   He pretty much liked this course, but found he didn’t really retain much of it when he was finished.   

Then came working through The Typing Coach.  This overall wasn’t a good fit for us long term.

This past year my son studiously engaged himself with Typing Instructor Platinum.  He really liked this program and found it also taught him to do the numbers, not just the letters.   It covered everything on the keyboard. 

Learn Keyboarding

Learn Keyboarding – free options

The benefits of free of course is that it is free.   Doesn’t cost you a dime beyond your internet fee.  Free programs can be really well done, or they can lacking in detail, practice time, tests or more.  Try them out, they are free, you will learn something and perhaps you can use one to build upon another.   Others it just requires using the full program and adding in drill time.

want to learn keyboarding

Learn Keyboarding – paid options

I have gone to thrift stores seeing keyboarding books there, the old flip style that I grew up with. 

Paid programs tend to be more complete than free, but not always.  Try before you buy so you can get a good feel for the program if you can.  

I found some options for you on amazon.  Note affiliate link.

Want to Learn Some Specifics?

Devotionals for Teens

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When my son was younger it was incredibly easy to find devotionals for him.  Easy worksheets on-line, whole curriculums, colouring sheets and more.  Now that he is getting older, it is more difficult to find free materials on-line for him.   This is what I have found when I looked for devotionals for teens.  

Devotionals for Teens

On-Line Free Resources

I am not going to say that every devotional on the sites below are good or have spot on teaching, but they do provide food for thought. They do provide fodder for good conversations. One needs to be careful in today’s religious clime to avoid encouraging false teaching, but we need to teach our teens to be discerning. They will need it to survive!

Josh McDowell Youth Ministries. 

Written for teenagers to use in their daily quiet time readings, this plan will make them laugh or cry. Some are fiction, some are stranger than fiction, but each will help you discover how to make right choices in the everyday ups and downs of life.

Student Devos.

A blog that posts a daily devotional geared at teens and young adults.  There is also a smaller section for youth and younger teens. 

Crosswalk

Posts a weekly devotional for teens on the theme Then and Now.

Wels.

Weekly devotionals geared at teens. 

DS2

Has a variety of topically based devotions.  

Youth4Him.

About 45 devotionals, I was unable to get the rest of the board to work. 

Devotionals for Teens

Now imagine my surprise when a link I was looking at took me to youtube.  I didn’t expect to find teen devotionals there.  I shouldn’t be surprised I gust in this digital age. 

What We have used

For the past year my son has been familiarizing himself with the books of the bible and their major passages and themes.   We’ve been using Teach Sunday School’s curriculum.  You can find my review here. He has been enjoying going through it, and though it isn’t free, it is well worth taking a look at. 

Devotionals for Teens Books of the Bible

Over this upcoming year we’ll doing working through Max Anders’ book 30 days to understanding the bible.  My review is here. 

Always Check for Error

Now remember… just like with anything.. read or watch or listen to what your teens might be listening to.  If only so you can talk with them, generating discussions to help them make their faith their own.  Thinking through issues, learning and discussing is the way to go eh?  🙂  You don’t want your teens believing things they shouldn’t about God’s word and the Christian faith.  Guide them.  Help them to seek after truth thoughtfully. 

Other Ideas?

I do love the idea of using a daily devotional to help encourage children and teens to dive into God’s word. It’s an easy way for them to interact with God’s word on a daily basis.  I sometimes struggle with the simplicity of most devotionals. Wanting to teach my son (and myself) how to just read God’s word for themselves.   This is a skill I hope to teach my son over the next year.  Different ways that he himself can explore God’s word on his own so he can more truly make it his own.

Want to Learn Some Specifics?

Four Considerations when combining work and homeschool

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As moms (and dads) we have to make choices in our daily activities.  What will we do on a given is influenced by a variety of factors in our lives. What our families are engaged in, the weather, commitments we have made, and more.  When we work as well as homeschool, sometimes making it all fit together relatively smoothly can be a challenge.  

Four Considerations when combining work and homeschool

I’ve talked in the past about how you balance work with homeschooling, giving you a snap shot of a week in my life. Today I would rather focus on how you make it work for you. Steps that you can take to cut out a life that is workable for you and your family.

Prioritize

Hubby often asks me “what are your plans for the day?”  That simple question helps me to prioritize my day.  It brings to mind the most important event of the day whether that be a dinner out, a mystery shop to do, a doctor’s appointment to keep or an afternoon at the library getting blog posts and/or reviews written. 

Not everyone has a helpful hubby though, or perhaps they’d rather not depend on their spouse that way.  🙂   That’s where planners and schedulers can be a person’s best friend.  Even with my hubby’s help, I rely on google calendar to help me track distant events.   

Once you know the main event you can then plan around it, making room for family and health concerns and allowing room for work and play. 

On SchoolhouseTeachers.com you can find a variety of planners to assist you.  Planners for highschool and mom, as well as schedule makers, calendars, record-keeping and more. 

may schoolhouseteachers.com ad

Remember that work is work

I know, it seems weird to say that.  One of things I’ve learned is, if I don’t remember that work is work I can put it off or not treat it with the importance that I should.  

Do you ever have that?  Especially if your work is home-based.  That need to remember you have a job that actually NEEDS to get done.  Yes, the freedom of working from home means you have that freedom to work around family needs.  BUT you still have a job right?  🙂

You are presumably being paid to do it, so you aught to therefore, treat it like it is important.  

Family time is important

Whether you work or out of the home spending with our families is important. Adding homeschooling to the mix, particularly if you have littles, and it can be difficult. I remember well the busyness of my lad, learning how to include him so that I could get my paid work done.

Yet it is ever so important to maintain your family time.   This time of bonding, and building bridges forms foundational skills for a lifetime of working with and living with others.  It also teaches your children that life isn’t just about work, but also about maintaining family connections as well.

Four Considerations when combining work and homeschool

Important items to remember

  • School at home doesn’t take as long as school at well… school. 🙂 Teaching smaller classes makes the teaching time shorter.
  • Work doesn’t have to happen 9-5. It can happen anytime, and get this… so can school!
  • Other people can teach your children as well. Tutors, online classes, in person classes, the sky’s the limit!
  • You can find your individual way to homeschool. There are many different ways to educate your children, so you don’t have to copy your neighbour. You can find your own effective way.
  • Creativity and good planning can make anything happen.
  • Remember, unless you are a single parent, you have a spouse who can help you educate your children as well. Use them! 🙂