Great Homeschooling Links: November 21, 2009

Around the World Day 2009 - Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Kris' homeschool group holds this very cool event each year.  Go visit and be inspired!

Family Mail - Early Bird Homeschool

What a fabulous idea for encouraging lots of writing.  What kid doesn't love getting mail?

Primary Colors: Mondrian Squares Project - The Tie That Binds Us

This looks so simple, yet so cool and effective.

File Folder Fun (website)

I haven't had a chance to look all through this site, but it looks like a really great (and free) resource for file folder games.

Author Challenge: Laura Numeroff - ABC and 123

Tons of great ideas for activities with Laura Numeroff books!  If you are not familiar with her, she is the author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and the other books in that series.

Children and Chores (and a Follow Up Post - Children and Chores - Q & A) - Raising Arrows

I really enjoyed reading these chore guidelines and ideas.  If you struggle with figuring out the logistics of chores with your kids, this is a great resource.

Comforting Lunches from a Vending Machine? - To Be Busy at Home

Great reflection on lunches during our homeschool days.  This is especially great to read if you find, like me, that you are often saying, "Geez -- why do these kids have to eat lunch every day?"  (LOL)

Angie can be found writing at Many Little Blessings about faith, family, and household management.

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photo by whiteafrican

Homeschooling while Living in an RV

Today's guest post is by Tonya from Live the Adventure
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Announce to your family that you are going to homeschool and you’ll get a few weird glances. After the initial shock is over, and they realize they indeed heard you correctly, you’ll probably get the standard questions that all homeschoolers (and potential homeschoolers) hear.

What about socialization?

Do you really think you are capable to teach them without a teaching degree? After all, teachers are taught how to educate, they’re the experts.

How will you know what they need and when they need to know it?

What about sports?

What about algebra?

What these questions and comments really amount to is this: Are my grandchildren going to turn out normal?

Your experience may be different than our experience when we began homeschooling eleven years ago. But chances are, if you’ve homeschooled for any length of time and told anyone what you’re actually up to, you’ve encountered a bit of resistance.

Now imagine telling your friends and family that not only will you continue to homeschool, but now you’re going to step outside the bounds of normalcy a bit further and you’re going to live in an RV. No longer will you be bound by textbooks and schedules. Your classroom will now be the entire world, or at least the United States, while you can afford to buy the gas anyway.

Since we’ve homeschooled for a number of years, we’ve established the fact that our children are learning. My children have friends. So what is the problem this time? That’s easy. Now everyone wonders: What would possess us to even consider such a venture? Will we ever see our grandchildren again? Will the children’s education suffer?

The truth is I don’t know how long we will continue to live this lifestyle. I guess we'll do it until we’re either tired of it, think we’ve seen everything there is to see, or we’re just flat broke. One of the three is bound to happen sooner or later.

What would possess us to leave our family, our friends and pack all five of us and our puppy into a space smaller than our living room was at home and hit the open road? I guess you could call it an act of faith. Although it had been our dream for nearly 15 years, it was a terrifying step to take. I have to admit, even if we put on a brave front, deep down inside, we were scared stiff!

Some people may ask if my children still receiving a decent education. Are they kidding me? With all of the parks, battlefields, museums of various venues, national, state and community programs available at our disposal? Not to mention the diversity of our great nation’s natural environments and people. Yes, we are all learning, much more than I’d imagined, lessons that we will never forget!

You can catch up with Tonya at her blog Live the Adventure where she writes about their homeschooling-on-the-road adventure from wherever they may be. 

photo by Bill Ward's Brickpile

Recommended Reading for Homeschool Moms

What books do you recommend to new or potential homeschoolers who want learn more about homeschooling or to encourage veteran homeschoolers when they're down?  Here are some of my favorites:

Homeschooling: The Early Years by Linda Dobson.  A great overview of homeschooling in general, this book gives an objective look at all homeschooling methods.

The Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer.  This, to me, is one of those books that you want to read and take what you can use and lose the rest because it can be overwhelming -- but you definitely want to take what you can use because the principals that I learned from TWTM have really shaped our homeschool style.

A Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levison.  A quick, easy read, this book gives a simple, easy-to-implement overview of the Charlotte Mason method.


The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith.  Whether you lean toward unschooling or the complete opposite end of the spectrum, you'll pick up some ideas you can use from this one.

The Relaxed Home School by Mary Hood.  This is where I picked up the idea for learning centers, as well as picking up some tips for finding a nice balance between unschooling and a more structured homeschool environment.

What about you?  Which books would you add to this list?

Kris is the sweet-tea-drinking, classically eclectic, slightly Charlotte Mason, homeschooling mom to her three Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

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Multitasking Workboxes

Workboxes are a great tool for organizing your child’s assignments, but most moms like to have fun boxes mixed in with the lessons. After using workboxes for a while, I discovered that I can occasionally use them to teach my girls life skills and cut down on my to-do list.

This isn’t a daily, or even a weekly thing I do, but there are several little tasks around the house that the kids find fun. Sometimes, I will put a quick note in their box, with directions. Other times, I’ll put in the supplies they’ll need as a clue.

Ideas:


Simple chores. Instructions found in my 6 year old’s box: Sorting laundry, wiping down doorknobs and light switches with antibacterial wipes, sweeping, wiping down window sills. Things that are still seen as fun at her age and take a little of the load off me.

Get a head start on dinner. If I know I’m making cornbread for dinner, I’ll put the recipe in one of their boxes. My 13 year old can prepare something on her own, or my six year old will have fun cooking with me.

Phone calls. When I was the director of multiple ministries, I often had my daughter make phone calls when I needed to call a list of people with reminders or schedule changes. She loved using the phone and people often commented on how cute it was to hear her messages.

Organizing: Go through art bins, kitchen drawers, bookshelves, media cabinets. My girls will tell you they dislike cleaning very much, but ask them to put our movies in order and they’re thrilled.

Exercise: Sometimes, our day is just too full for me to squeeze in a workout on my own. On these days, I will put a dance-type workout DVD in a workbox, and we’ll all do it together. PE for them, and a much needed workout for me. I don’t work as hard as I would on my own, but we have fun together and it gets us all moving.

Grading: An older student might have fun grading a younger sibling’s school work. I must admit, I still get a kick out of grading papers and writing positive comments or adding stickers, but sometimes I fall behind. I think a red pen and a box of stickers along with some work and answer keys would be a very fun workbox.

Notes and Cards: Need to write a get-well note or get a birthday card for an upcoming party? Put some card making supplies in a workbox and ask your kids to make a card the whole family can sign. It’ll save you money and time, and your budding artist will love being the resident card-maker.


What’s on your to-do list that your kids might enjoy doing for you?

photo by andrea_r

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday and Thirsty Thursday.

Structured Poetry Writing For All Ages

Poetry can be a fun addition to your homeschool plans.  This type of writing, however, can sometimes be challenging for children.  One great way to introduce poetry writing to your children is to start with poems that have a distinct set of rules.

It's important to note that these types of poetry are suitable for children of all ages to work on -- from early elementary through high school (and beyond!).  Many of these are also great practice for working on parts of speech.

Here are some examples of poetry with distinct rules or patterns, and then I'll share some more later in the week:

Diamonte:

There is a choice of two patterns for this type of poem.

Pattern One:

Line 1 = Noun

Line 2 = Adjective, Adjective

Line 3 = Verb, Verb, Verb

Line 4 = Noun, Noun, Noun, Noun

Line 5 = Verb, Verb, Verb

Line 6 = Adjective, Adjective

Line 7 = Noun

Pattern Two:

Line 1 = Opposite of Line 7

Line 2 = Describe Line 1

Line 3 = Action about Line 1

Line 4 = 2 Nouns about Line 1, 2 Nouns about Line 7

Line 5 = Action about Line 7

Line 6 = Describe Line 7

Line 7 = Opposite of Line 1

Cinquain:

The cinquain, like the diamonte, has two different pattern types.

Pattern One (words):

Line 1 = One Word (noun - this is the subject and title of the poem)

Line 2 = Two Words (adjectives)

Line 3 =  Three Words (verbs)

Line 4 = Four Words that Relate Feelings

Line 5 = One Word that Repeats or Refers to Line 1 (subject)

Pattern Two (syllables):

Line 1 = 2 syllables

Line 2 = 4 syllables

Line 3 = 6 syllables

Line 4 = 8 syllables

Line 5 = 2 syllables

Haiku:

A favorite of teachers everywhere, it seems.  Anyone reading who went to public school and never wrote a haiku?  (I'm sure kids other than public school kids write these, of course, I'm just speaking from my own experience.)

The haiku is a very traditional poem that is based on syllables.

Line 1 = 5 syllables

Line 2 = 7 syllables

Line 3 = 5 syllables

As I said earlier, I will share some more options for poems with distinct rules or patterns again later this week.  These are such a great way to allow children who like a lot of guidance in their writing to become poets.

Do you work on poetry with your children?  Do you work mostly with poetry with rules or more free form poetry?

Angie can be found writing at Many Little Blessings about faith, family, and household management.  Angie's poetry factoid: Her favorite poem is Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe.
 

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photo by surrealmuse