Whimsy Way, House of Learning and Play

The New Whimsy Way

2009-08-28T17:37:00.002+01:00

This blog has officially moved.

http://whimsyway.wordpress.com/

And visit my art blog here:

http://overflowingpalette.wordpress.com/

Whimsy Way Moves On

2009-08-21T15:41:00.004+01:00

I've been feeling a bit bored and limited by Blogger lately and have been hankering for a change. Following a little discussion on one of my homeschooling groups, I decided to have a little peek at Wordpress. I'd heard that Wordpress was difficult to use and not as flexible as Blogger, but I've found it to be a breeze. I love all the features and flexibility of it...and it has a much more grown-up look. I particularly like the file sharing widget and 'pages' feature which allows you to create pages within the blog which are accessible via tabs at the top.

The only thing I don't like is that you can't create a post template.

I'm thinking instead of having all of my links in the sidebar, I'll create a page with all of the homeschooling links; this blog just looks too messy. I won't delete this blog until I've got everything moved. But they do have 3-column templates if I need more space.

I've already imported this blog and all the comments to the new blog. I'm still playing around with the features, so I may not post for a little while (plus it's Ramadan now, so I should be concentrating on less worldly things...ahem).

This post will be up at the new blog, too, so if you want to comment, please comment there because I won't be doing anymore importing and I want to make sure I've got all my comments on the new blog.

http://whimsyway.wordpress.com/

An Attention-Seeking Cat, A Boy Who Wants to Do History Every Day...and a little about my health...oh, and a bit of Einaudi thrown in for good measure

2009-08-12T08:35:00.017+01:00

The cat is going through a jealous phase. You wouldn't know it by his tranquil expression, but every time I come close to Stiggy, MeMe pushes between us and demands to be petted. Ok, maybe it's more of a 'me, too!' phase because he clearly loves Stiggy as well. During our phonics lesson, he was so fed up with how Stiggy was hoarding all of my time, that he got up and perched himself on Stiggy's workbook. And he refused to budge until he'd been stroked for an appropriate amount of time. Fortunately, the page he sat on was one Stiggy had already done, so he managed to work around the cat. Even Stiggy's dancing pencil wasn't enough to tempt MeMe to abandon his statue-like pose.

____

You know you're a homeschooler when...

...you ask your child what he enjoyed most from his lessons today and he says: 'Nothing.'

'What?' You ask, surprised. 'You didn't like any of it?'

'No! We didn't do history today and I wanted to do history!'

Right. Time to pull out the history pockets.
____

My blood tests were all normal; even my haemoglobin is normal.

I saw the ENT consultant. He asked me a few questions, looked in my throat and ears, then threaded a camera through my nose and into my throat. I was really dreading this, but really, the worst part was the anaesthetic spray. For one thing, it hadn't taken effect when he inserted the camera, so there was little point. As the camera went down my throat, some of the spray came with it, and oh, the taste! Eck! And it lasted for a good half-hour, despite drinking copious amounts of water. The sensation of the camera going down was strange, and it made me want to swallow, but it wasn't gaggy or horrible.

It wasn't until I was waiting for my husband to pick me up that my nose and throat went numb; Stiggy could have driven a train of Lego down my nose and I wouldn't have felt a thing.

The consultant said my larynx is a bit red and prescribed some Gaviscon Advance and lansoprazole. I'm to see him again in about 6 weeks.

I'm not sure where things go from here. I'm to see my GP in less than 2 weeks. I'm really relieved the blood tests were normal, but I've still not got an answer to what's causing my problems. I have managed to relax and many of my symptoms have lessened or subsided altogether...maybe it is all down to stress. Time will tell. I need to get exercising now.

I've been listening to a lot of Ludovico Einaudi on YouTube whilst online, which has really helped me to relax.

I've Always Wanted to See Someone Famous...

2009-08-06T17:09:00.006+01:00

Too bad she was dead. And mummified. (Sigh). Oh well, it was still exciting to see Cleopatra and the real Rosetta Stone all in one day. (The photos of the Rosetta Stone didn't really turn out; all you can really see is a reflection of me taking a photo.)

We decided to scoot down to London for a little get-away. We stayed with my husband's cousin and his wife and baby in their little flat. We had a great few days. We hit the British Museum...AMAZING. It's enormous. If you ever get the chance to go, don't plan on seeing it all in one day; I'm not even sure if that's possible unless you literally run through it. We spent over 2 hours just seeing the ancient Egypt display, which is spread out over 2 floors.

The circular entrance hall took my breath away- all that white marble...and that ceiling...photos don't do it justice.

The next day Stiggy went off with hubby to see some of the sights while I went to some shops with cousin's wife.

Stiggy's favourite bit of the whole trip? Travelling on the Underground. :)

What We've Been Up To

2009-08-01T09:45:00.000+01:00

The cat flap has worked a treat; I don't know why we didn't put one in sooner. It took about a week for MeMe to get it, but it was worth the hard work. What really helped him was removing the magnetic strip from the flap. If you've got a Staywell cat flap, the magnetic strip along the flap can be carefully worked off and easily put back on; it's not held on by glue. We left it off for a few days while he got used to going in and out. When I knew he'd be the most motivated to get in (first thing in the morning), I replaced the magnet. It took him a few more days to feel comfortable pushing the flap open, but he's done it. The funny thing is, if one of us is in the kitchen, he expects help. He'll stand there at the flap and keep looking over his shoulder at us, hoping someone will open it for him. If no one is around (or he thinks no one is around), he goes through without hesitation. What a lazy cat. :)

****
History, the one subject I didn't think Stiggy was ready for, has been such a great addition. I was worried, since the grammar stage is the 'fact-finding' stage, that history lessons would be filled with dates and facts to memorise and would be horribly boring. It's not. It's amazing. Stiggy loves Story of the World, and has settled into narration quite well. We go through the review questions from the activity book without pressure. If he doesn't know the answer, I tell him and ask him to repeat it back to me. He loves his map work and really enjoys pulling his notebook down and putting the pages in. We paid a little visit to our local museum's Ancient Egypt display and I bought Stiggy some ancient Egypt stickers and a little scroll of papyrus. He likes using the stickers to decorate his narration pages.

Two books that we've really enjoyed:
You Wouldn't Want to Be an Egyptian Mummy!
You Wouldn't Want to Be a Pyramid Builder!

These books are full of great facts and are so much fun and well-organised; these are definite favourites for our Egyptian study.

Stiggy also enjoyed playing the Mummy Maker online game.

****
I recently took the plunge and purchased the Start Write software. I did make a mistake, though. I thought it had the New American Cursive font, but it doesn't. That one is an extra $10. I can upgrade mine for an extra $20, but I don't really plan to use it, at least not for Stiggy. He'll be learning italic handwriting, which Start Write has (regular and cursive).

This software is great. It's not perfect, but it's quite versatile, once you get used to it. I was a bit annoyed at first because I wanted to change from solid lines to dotted, but when you click the button, it changes all of the letters, not just the ones you type next. The way around this is to open a new text box; it's almost like opening a new sheet. You can customise each textbox separately. You can also set it so that the first letter of each word or line is solid.

I'm planning to use it to create handwriting supplement sheets, and have already made a copywork sheet. Being able to create copywork sheets using the italic font will help reinforce stiggy's handwriting lessons. I'm sure it will come in handy in many, many ways.

****
S, the doctor family friend I mentioned in my last post, also homeschools her two children. She's talked me out of Spelling Workout. She used two levels of it and said it was ok, but her kids didn't really retain it. I've heard that from a few people. And actually, I've decided to hold off on spelling altogether. We do so much with language arts already that I don't feel it's necessary right now; Stiggy's learning lots of spelling as we go.

****
The weather has just been awful; it's been raining every day. The slugs and snails are ruining my plants.

****
Stiggy's got a penpal; he's so excited. He'll be writing to a young man across the pond. His mum has a great blog.

****
Stiggy's latest funny inventive spelling:

FORORE =
Ferrari

Now We're Getting Somewhere: My Health Part III

2009-08-01T08:26:00.000+01:00

I haven't posted in quite a while. I wanted to blog about my doctor's visit. I wrote the post, saved it, sat on it...I thought about waiting until I found out for sure what's going on...I don't want this blog to turn into an account of my health woes. But hopefully this will all be over soon, one way or another. This is a big part of my life now and I feel the need to talk about it.

I had an appointment scheduled for Thursday, the 23rd of July, but 2 days prior, I received a letter cancelling it. I'd been waiting 3 weeks for this appointment. Well, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I'd been thinking about switching to another GP, Dr. C, in the practice anyway, and this cancellation forced me to do just that. Fortunately, I was able to get in on Monday.

I started with my ears: I told him that my ears were still hurting and I could feel and hear fluid crackling in one of them. He had a peek and said there isn't an infection, but there is fluid, which is putting pressure on the ear drums. He told me to take my corticosteroid nasal spray.

I briefly ran through the story of my pelvic pain, and told him that it's getting worse and changing. Then I started firing symptoms at him. I don't think I was thinking clearly; I was so desperate to get it all out, to get him updated on what's been happening, and I'd hung so much hope on that visit. He listened patiently with an amused and interested smile.

To make a very long story short, he feels most of this stuff is linked to one problem. He doesn't want to speculate on the separate symptoms at this point. He said it's still too early to decide whether the pelvic pain is endometriosis or not, but it doesn't sound as though it is. He's referred me to an ear, nose, and throat specialist for my hoarse throat, and he's ordered some blood tests. Different blood tests. He feels my problem is muscular/skeletal in nature. I asked him what these blood tests were for. He said they're check for specific types of inflammation, Lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren's syndrome, and a few other things (all of these are auto-immune disorders). Of all of them, my symptoms most closely match those of Sjogren's. Actually, all of my symptoms are in this list.

But I've learned a lot throughout this whole thing. And one of those gems is that you can look at the symptom list for an illness, have nearly every one of the symptoms, but not have that illness. You may be convinced you do, sure you've finally found what's ailing you...but it's not the one. I've looked at about 30 different illnesses over the past few months, and matched up perfectly with about 3 or 4 of them...but I don't have any of those illnesses.

Usually Sjogren's doesn't cause many problems for people; many people are walking around with it and don't even realise it. They have a bit of dry eyes and mouth, and nothing else. But for some, it's not a nice disease to have, and people with Sjogren's have an 18 times higher risk of developing lymphoma (what a coincidence; lymphoma was one of the diseases I was worried about...and my father has it).

I wish I had gone to Dr. C from the beginning. He was amazing. He asked me some really poignant questions such as 'what if we can't find anything?' and 'What do you think it might be?' and 'Are you fed up?' and 'Are you depressed?' These were not asked in doctor-speak with a poker face. They were asked with such sensitivity and such caring, I had to fight back my tears. He then asked me the one question which choked me up the most: 'What is it you're looking for?' I said: 'Answers. I don't want pain medication, I don't want symptom relief. I want to know what's wrong and fix it.' And he said, 'in other words, you want a cure.' Exactly.

But my outlook on all of this has changed drastically. Prior to a few days ago, I was desperate to find out what's wrong. I knew something was wrong and that it was just a matter of finding it. But after speaking to a family friend, who's a doctor, that's all changed. She's assured me that as long as these tests are normal, coupled with my normal CRP, there isn't anything sinister going on...and everything can be attributed to stress and anxiety.

So, now I don't want to find anything. I'm praying all my results will be normal. Then I just need to try to relax. But not too much. One of the things I need to do is exercise and keep busy and active; I need to stop acting like a sick person and get on with my life (which I'm trying to do, but some days are hard).

My appointment was at 5:40. It was a double appointment and the last one of the day for Dr.C. He spent an hour with me, and not once did he rush me. He let me babble on and on and then asked me more questions. He even chatted with me about things not directly related to why I was there. For the first time since this whole ordeal began, I actually felt properly looked after by a doctor in that surgery.

I get the results of my blood tests on August 10th. I may not find a cure for whatever this is; I may not even find an illness. But at least I've found a doctor that cares.

Tomatillo

2009-07-22T14:19:00.004+01:00

Before:

After:

Meme II

2009-07-19T01:47:00.000+01:00

I saw this meme a while back on a blog, and I thought I'd play. I tag anyone else who wants to play.

Accent: Strange. I'm from Ohio, but have been living in the UK for 7 years. I'm always asked about my accent here. But when I'm in Ohio, people tell me what a 'lovely British accent' I have.

Breakfast or no breakfast: Definitely breakfast. I can't function until I've had cereal, yogurt, and orange juice.

Chore I don’t care for: Cooking

Dog or Cat: Cat. I love cats.

Essential Electronics: Computer, digital camera, and mixer. I also have a little chopper I use for onions that I love.

Favorite Cologne: Tresor sheer. I like CK One on hubby, but for some reason he's been wearing Britney Speares. Don't ask.

Gold or Silver: Platinum. Love it.

Handbag I carry most often: I got a nice Fossil shoulder bag for my birthday. I always have shoulder bags, that I wear crossed over, so I can be hands-free.

Insomnia: From time to time. I had it chronically for about ten years, but have discovered a few tricks and a herbal remedy that really help.

Job Title: House slave. (chuckle)

Kids: Yes

Living Arrangements: Eentsy-weentsy 2-bedroom semi in a it-looks-nice-but-we-have-criminals-living-here neighbourhood. Three people, a cat, and a few spiders (wild, not pets).

Most Admirable Trait: Enthusiasm. This also falls into the category of most annoying trait. When I get interested in something, I Do It Big. I remember when I first decided to homeschool, my sister-in-law was telling me about homeschooling yahoo groups. I laughed and said, 'I don't think I want to go that far.' Hah. At one point, I had nearly 20 groups. I've started one of my own, took over ownership of one, I have a blog, and I spend a huge amount of my day either doing homeschooling, reading about it, talking about it, blogging about it, or researching it. Fortunately, I've calmed down a bit. I haven't lost my enthusiasm, I've just found more useful outlets. I've cut back to about 6 or 8 groups, I've left the group I started, and I've stepped down as owner on my other group. I'm like this with everything I get interested in.

Naughtiest Childhood Behaviour: I was kind of a goody-two-shoes, but when I was about 8 I went through a phase of not getting good grades, so I used to throw the damning evidence away in the trash before I got home.

Overnight hospital stays:

Giving birth
A few months ago before my miscarriage

Phobias: Heights, drowning, insects

Quote: 'It's ridiculous' and 'Oh, for Pete's sake.' I say these a lot. But a more dignified quote that I like is: "Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance, self-control, diligence, strength of will, contentment, and a hundred other virtues which the idle never know." -Charles Kingsley

Reason to smile: Many

Siblings: I have a half sister that I've only met about 2 times.

Time I wake up: Between 6:30 and 7:30. If I've stayed up late, 8:00.

Unusual Talent or Skill: It's not unusal, per se, but I'm good at baking. I'm also good at just figuring things out on my own. I'm pretty good at assembling things.

Vegetable I Refuse to Eat: Okra

Worst Habit: My temper, I can be a bit obsessive/compulsive/perfectionist, and a hypochondriac.

Yummy Stuff: Chocolate, apple pie, ice cream, marshmallows.

Zoo Animal I Like Most: Aquatic life

An Ideal Day at Whimsy Way: Kindergarten

2009-07-17T20:29:00.001+01:00

I thought I would share what a typical kindergarten day is like at our house. This is a day without any interruptions, appointments, illnesses, etc. We don't manage everything everyday, but this is how we like, in general, for our days to go (I also have a need for change, but this is the basic outline):

I'm usually up by 7:00, but I would like to be up by 6:00. I find, though, when I get up that early for several days in a row, I begin to feel really drained, so 7:00 is ideal for me. I like to go online for a little while while I eat breakfast. I check my hotmail accounts, my Yahoo mail, log in to blogger and read my internet friends' blogs, check the weather, and have a look at a book or website or whatever.

Stiggy is usually up between 7:30 and 9:00. I get him some warm milk and cereal. I read to him while he eats, which usually takes 30-45 minutes as he's a very slow eater, especially in the morning.

We then get dressed, brush teeth, wash faces, and do a few chores. We make beds (I like to have the beds turned down as this allows a good airing of the sheets which cuts back on allergens since I have hayfever [I suspect Stiggy does, too] and my husband has asthma). I spray the orchid, tidy up a bit, and wash dishes. Stiggy makes his bed and puts his pajamas away. I begin a load of laundry and we hit the books. (See here for our Kindergarten year 1 curricula)

We will usually do a reading lesson with some dictation using a movable alphabet. Stiggy will do a phonics workbook page, too. We will do some handwriting, sometimes a page from Handwriting Without Tears, practice on the slate, or tracing sandpaper letter cards. On Friday I like for Stiggy to write out all his numbers and letters that we've covered so we can compare his progress each week.

We may have a break here. I will get Stiggy a fruit snack and while he eats I will read him some poetry or a story of my choice (he chooses all the other read alouds). We then move on to math. We do not have a formal curriculum just yet; we prefer to use the living math approach, so math is different every day. It may just happen incidentally, or I may have something planned such as counting practice using manipulatives such as marbles or an abacus. We may toss a bean bag back and forth while Stiggy counts to 100, or counts by 10's. We also like to tie math to literature and will read poems about math, or stories that have a math theme. We also play lots of games involving math and make up little math senarios. Or, we may do an activity from one of our books.

We're also working on skills such as safety. Stiggy has learned his address and phone number, so we will often review a previous skill before working on something new. Stiggy loves memorising.

At least one day a week, we do yoga. Stiggy is very active, so I don't have to worry about him not getting enough exercise.

Art is usually done a few days a week, if not every day. It is quite unstructured and delight-driven. We were doing some more structured lessons with colour, which has really piqued Stiggy's interest in art; he was pretty uninterested prior to that. He now loves to mix colours. We will often listen to classical music while doing art. Stiggy has access to lots of art supplies including temperas, water colours (palette and tubes), pastels, markers, coloured pencils, stamps, crayons, glitter, glue, stickers, finger paints, and others. He also attends a pottery painting session once a month.

For nature study, we may have a look at our plants, work on our gardening journals, read a nature story, take a nature walk, or some other activity. This is usually done 3 to 5 times a week (not counting weekends)

At noon, we usually stop. That's tea time for us, so I'll usually brew us a pot of mint tea in a pot and cup set I painted during our pottery painting classes. Stiggy is then free to play while I get a few things done (I used to go online, but I've managed to cut back on that).

One o'clock is lunch time. During lunch, we put on an audio story. He loves Roald Dahl stories and we have many of them on CD. I like to read during lunch.

After lunch I like to have some quiet time. I'll get Stiggy some warm milk and read him a story or 2. He can then either look at some books, listen to an audio story, or sleep (which is what he often ends up doing) upstairs. I like to sit down and read, knit, or go online (ahem). Since the weather has warmed up, we usually go outside.

After about an hour and a half, Stiggy gets up and is free to play. I will usually cook and do a bit of housework. In the evenings, we sometimes go out, if need be, or go into the garden. Some evenings we will put the tv on for a while, and Stiggy will watch a bit of Top Gear while we have dinner (I will read). My husband will often take Stiggy upstairs to work on Arabic and learning about Islam. He may read him an Islamic story. He also often takes him to the mosque to pray. Other times they play (trains, wrestling, cars, a game)

Between 7 or 8 I take Stiggy upstairs for a bath (if he needs one) and to prepare for bed. I'll read to him for a while, then we sit and chat. We talk about our day, I'll ask him questions, and we just have a nice chat and cuddle.

I then go downstairs to tidy up the kitchen, have a shower, go online again, and read until bed. I'm usually in bed by 10:30.

On Fridays, after lessons, I log what we did for the week. I check off each thing on my lesson plans sheet, so this is an easy job. I also make some comments about how the week went, improvements Stiggy has made, or things we need to work on. I then print out a blank lesson plan sheet I created on Excel, and fill it in for the week. This takes quite a while for certain subjects because I don't have a set curriculum for some. Math, for example. I need to check several books, websites, games, etc, to draw up a plan for the week (I'm not very good at just choosing something on the day). I have an general idea of a concept I want to work on with him, such as 'double' or counting to 100, and I go from there. I also like to work in a little review. I also do any printing for the week.

On the weekends, we often go out to do a bit of shopping. If the weather is nice, we'll go out into the garden, go to a park, or maybe even the Lake District. On Sundays, we clean the whole house and then usually go to my Father-in-Law's to visit with my husband's family. There are a few other women my age with children (and one spinster ;) ), and it's a nice time to catch up on things and have a good gossip while the children play. We don't do any formal lessons, but I still read to Stiggy quite a bit.

Some of this has changed since I first wrote this out a few months ago, but I've left it since this is how our year pretty much went. I'll write a new one each year.

That's Not Our Cat...

2009-07-17T08:18:00.005+01:00

We recently installed a cat flap for our cat. Actually, my hubby did. It took about 3 hours. It's supposed to take about 15 minutes, but because of the awkward door panels and the amount of my time my husband likes to contemplate such undertakings, it took quite a while. During the installation ordeal, Stiggy and I did our bit by sitting in the sitting room, watching funny cat flap videos on You Tube and shouting encouraging words now and then. It was best we stay out of the way, really.

Our cat is a bit of a softy. This cat flap has a magnetic catch so that it's not flapping about in the wind. This requires the cat to push his head against the flap with a bit more force than a free-flowing one. Now, most cats are aggressive creatures and will butt their little heads against anything just to see if it will move. Not our cat. If a door isn't open exactly enough for him to fit through, he'll sit by it and wait for someone to open it for him. So, I knew I had my work cut out for my with trying to train him to use it.

The first hurdle was just to get him to go through it for the first time. When he was ready to go outside, I held the flap open and he hesitantly went through. When our cat wants to come inside, he usually sits on the hood of our car (where we can see him through our sitting room window) and waits to be let in the front door. So, the next time I saw him, I had to call him through the cat flap (which is in the side door). He came through it with me holding the flap open, no problem. I then decided to tape the flap open so that he could come and go as he pleased. For some reason, he still goes to the front door when he wants in or out, so I have to call him to the flap.

He's come in and out of he flap several times now, but it's not yet a habit. He still tries the front door first. Well, it takes humans 21 times to make or break a habit, and I imagine it's not much different for a cat.

Well, this morning I taped the flap open again, Me-me went out, and I sat down in the sitting room to have breakfast. I got up a few minutes later to get something from the kitchen, and I arrived just in time to see the fat back side of Me-me's number one enemy, Scruffy Cat (part Scottish Fold), high-tailing it out the flap. Great.

I cut the tape. Time to get Me-me to use his head to open the flap. When he turned up, I again called him to the flap.

Come on, then!!

I dangled his pouch in front of him, encouraged him...he'd come right up to the flap, but he would not press his precious head against it. I then grabbed the bit of tape hanging from the flap and pulled it in just an inch or so...success! He pushed his head against it and opened it the rest of the way. We still have a ways to go yet, but hopefully he'll get there soon.

Time to Prune Your Wisteria!

2009-07-17T08:16:00.000+01:00

Apparently, Wisteria needs to be pruned twice a year.

Ok, then...

There, that should do it.

Yes, that's much better. Thanks, Mr. Titchmarsh.

Ancient Egypt, First Grade Plans, Time Off

2009-07-16T08:54:00.010+01:00

This past week Stiggy's been learning about ancient Egypt. We're supposed to be on a break, but he's so keen that I just didn't have the heart to tell him that he needs to wait until September. We're continuing with reading/phonics (reading real stories and doing a page here and there from his phonics workbook), but not much else.

Normally I share our resources, but for this topic I think that's pretty much a waste. There are so many resources available that even our crappy library has a ton of books for children on ancient Egypt. And anyone can do a google search and find resources, so I'll just list a few particular goodies:

Egypt: Beyond the Pyramids (Documentary on You Tube) I think most of this was beyond Stiggy, but he still really enjoyed it, and so did I.

Tombs of Ancient Egypt: National Geographic video. Nice little intro (or review) of the topic.

Ancient Egypt colouring pages.

We're using Story of the World, volume 1, along with the activity book. After buying the guide, I wasn't sure we'd use it, but it's great. It provides the geography practice (along with the blackline maps) that we need, has great supplementary book recommendations, narration prompts, review questions, and more. Stiggy wasn't keen on colouring pages before, but in the past few months he's been enjoying them more, and he's loving the ones in the SOTW activity book. He's also really enjoying the notebooking. I photocopy the student pages so that if he wants a 'do-over' or a second copy of something, I can give him more copies. I'll also be able to use it for another child, if one ever comes along, and sell it on later. We'll round off our studies with a visit to a Musuem (not sure which one yet; they all seem to have an ancient Egypt display).

For those of you using Story of the World (at any level), Barefoot Meandering has some nice weekly planner sheets (And other planning sheets).

Stiggy's also come down with the flu, so we've put things on hold for a few days. He's been watching lots of Top Gear, sipping juice, smearing himself with Vick's Vapo Rub, and allowing me to dote on him. And I do dote. Really dote. I think I do this because I didn't get that as a child. I may have when I was really little, but I have no memory of it. All of my memories of being ill include me alone in bed. Bored. And from about the age of 10 or so, I was left home alone if I was ill while my mum was at work, and had to do for myself. Now, I'm all for independence and kids learning to do for themselves, but we all need a bit of TLC when we're ill. I know when my husband is kind and dotes on me when I'm ill, I recover more quickly. So, I do spoil Stiggy when he's ill. But I know when he's better, and when he starts to recover, I expect things to return to normal. He's young yet, so he doesn't usually try to milk it, but I expect he will as he gets older.

Anyway, I'm hoping to do some 'spring cleaning' during our 'break.' Go through old clothes, descale the iron, polish my leather shoes and handbag, dust the plants, defrost the freezer (of all my appliances, this is the one that I wish would die so I can get a frost-free model. Who knew they still made frosty fridges?! I left the appliance-choosing up to hubby when we first got married...never again.), and lots more fun cleaning projects.

****

The Well-Trained Mind first grade curriculum is quite meaty. I'm not really sure how Stiggy is going to cope with all of it, but we'll take our time, adding in new subjects slowly. I'll be redoing my middle sidebar to reflect our new curriculum. I'll add resources as we add new subjects.

I was somewhat surprised with Writing with Ease. I expected something far more difficult. And I've realised that our writing lessons can be grouped with reading. I can follow the theory of WWE and use the formula they outline and use the reading selection as our sources. He's going to be doing narration and copywork anyway, and that's basically what WWE is all about (at this level, anyway). But every few weeks she tells you to add a new skill, look out for this, expect longer narrations, etc. Seems easy enough; writing won't really be a new subject, per se. WWE is basically a guide to copywork and narration (at the first grade level), what should be expected as the child progresses, and how to develop those skills.

I was quite worried about the cost of the first grade materials, but after some brutal weeding of my wish list, I've realised it's not so bad, and it really helped that I'd bought ahead (risky, really, but it's paid off). Some of the things I'll need a few months from now can wait. But I've bought most of our spines. I still need a globe, balance scale, and a few other books. I've been doing lots of planning, too, which is always fun.

Here is a timetable I've created. I have no idea if we'll stick to it, but it was fun to make, shows just how intensive first grade is, and it may come in handy. Reading refers to reading practice, and literature refers to the reading selections in the Well-Trained Mind such as Aesop's Fables, Homer, etc. And although I have science listed everyday, it won't necessarily be done every day. It's our one truly unschooled subject. I also don't think we'll do history 3 days a week, probably just 1 or 2, but we'll see.

Everyday

Math

Spelling

Literature

Reading

Handwriting

Science

Monday & Tuesday add:

Grammar

Writing

His/Geo

Wednesday add:
Grammar
Philosophy
His/Geo

Thursday & Friday add:
Islam
Writing
Art/Music

*****
Are you and/or your kids a fan of Beatrix Potter? Did you know she wrote a book for older children? Not many people have heard of The Fairy Caravan.

Our Home Education Philosophy

2009-07-15T01:45:00.002+01:00

Our Educational Goals:

We strive for our child(ren) to:

- obtain a well-rounded education that is rich is good literature, hands-on experiences, and positive social interactions so he will be able to engage with people of all ages, abilities, and walks of life.

- understand hisreligion and the religions of others, to understand why they are Muslims, and to choose Islam for himself.

- be happy.

- love learning and feel motivated to pursue life-long learning.

- love to read and write.

- understand math, not just perform functions, and to move easily between math concepts and their real-life counterparts.

- learn at least one foreign living language, and one ancient language.

- feel comfortable and function well in the outside world.

- take responsibility for his actions, and to be an honest and trustworthy member of society.

Learning Principles:

Learning should be child-centred and individualised, but not child-led. The child will be encouraged to pursue interests in addition to the curriculum. Particular interests within the curriculum will be expounded upon.
Learning should be primarily print-based, but also hands-on and oral. In the early years, most learning should be done via play.
Computers and television will play a very limited role in education.

· No learning is to be forced. Encouragement, but not coercion, will be used. Topic can be revisited at a later date when it may be better received.

· All attempts will be made to make education enjoyable. It should not and need not be dull and tedious.

· I will deviate, where need be, from the curriculum to break up the monotony to maintain a love of learning.

· I will always explain the reasons behind learning a particular topic/subject.

· Independence will be encouraged and expected.

· A good teacher excites, motivates, and teaches a child to learn. I do not want to be the fountain of knowledge from which he drinks, thus creating intellectual dependence. The responsibility of learning will gradually shift from parent to child.

Learning should involve the use of:

Print (heavily)

Classic works
Original works
Twaddle-free imaginative reading
Living books
Good-quality text books
Limited use of workbooks

Outings

To motivate and arouse enthusiasm, or to round off an area of study
Limited use as it takes time away from study, reading, play, and the family

Techniques:

Reading
Writing
Narration
Dictation
Memorisation
Copy work
Summaries
Time line
Notebooking
Projects
Discussion

Assessment:

Child should participate in self-assessment. Child will not be graded, but assessments of attitude and effort will be made in discussion format and notes.

Character, Family Life, and Social Skills:

· I want to instil humility, compassion, social skills, and humbleness in my child. I want him to be well-rounded and down to earth, nature-loving, not afraid of hard work, and willing to help others. I want family to be more important than peers.

Social interactions will be heavily limited to family, a few friends, and rare group activities in the early years. As child grows, socialisation will take place within the greater community with people of varying ages and backgrounds.

The family is to be the centre of it all. Child will participate in work and service and is expected to do chores, charity, and contribute to the home environment, from which he benefits.

· Television and computer use will be very limited.

· Child should spend as much time as possible outdoors and in nature.

I believe

Mature parents should have the responsibility of making decisions for the immature child. Children are not always equipped or ready to make certain choices.

I do not believe

In the use of computer software and games as a learning tool. Computer use will be limited mostly to research and word processing.

Why the Classical method?

It is a rigorous, thorough method of education
Child learns to think clearly and deeply
Child learns logic and rhetoric
Child learns grammar thoroughly and thus is able to write and speak well
Child will learn perseverance and working at something that may not be immediately gratifying
Other interests are discovered through the study of a broad range of subjects
It employs tried and true methods of teaching
It encourages academic excellence and the joys of learning for learning’s sake
It works with the natural development of the child’s mind
Child learns how to learn

About Me

2009-07-15T01:42:00.000+01:00

I can't remember if I ever did an 'about me' post, so instead of looking through the archives, I thought I'd do the more difficult thing and create a post.

I'm a 30-year-old homeschooling mother. I've got a past that includes a previous marriage, but I prefer not to go into it too much.

I grew up in Ohio. I went to public school and finished having no idea what I wanted to do with my life. As a teenager, I worked a few typical teen jobs, got good grades, and minded my own business. I became friends with a Muslim family and officially converted at age 15. I had strong faith then, but I wasn't very practising.

After my first marriage (to a non-Muslim), I took a course in dental assisting and worked for a few months as a dental assistant. I then decided to go to Ohio State University. I studied psychology for a year and a half, became a more practising Muslim, then I met my current husband, a Muslim from the UK. I moved to England and Stiggy was born a year and a half later. I have great in-laws.

I see on a lot of blogs where people will list 20 or so 'random' things about themselves. Come on, these things are not random. They are carefully selected because they're interesting. There's nothing wrong with that, but I would prefer it if people would be honest about it. I don't think I have 20 things about myself that would impress anyone. I'll try to think of some, or at least some things that are mildly interesting, and a few truly random things.

Twenty not-so-random things about me:

1) I don't like eating with spoons. If I can eat it with a fork, I will.

2) I had braces at age 27.

3) As a child I had a serious bout of Henoch-Schonlein Purpura (twice), which is rare, especially for girls.

4) I wrote a 400-page novel when I was 14. I threw it out because I didn't think it was any good. (It probably wasn't, but I'd still like to read what I wrote)

5) As a child I used to fantasise about being Amish. I'd ride my horse and buggy to school and all the kids would accept me in my frock and bonnet. I also used to fantasise about being a nun. Instead, I became a Muslim. I didn't see the correlation until I was much older.

6) I read while I eat. I'm antisocial at meal times, I don't like to talk, and I won't sit at the table (at home; I'm much more well-behaved in public and family gatherings). I sit on the sofa, my plate on a pillow in my lap and read. I've done this since I was 14. I also don't like to eat in public or in a group setting; I'm self-conscious about how messy I am. This was particularly true while I had braces.

7) I get car sick.

8) I can swim, but I'm afraid of drowning. More to the point, I'm worried of being trapped in a car or plane that's crashed into water and then drowning.

9) I played clarinet in the school band (NOT marching band) and I was pretty good. I'd like to learn cello.

10) I learned French, German, and Spanish in school. I can remember a little French.

11) I have a slight heart murmur and develop an irregular rhythm and palpitations when I'm particularly stressed.

12) My mum and I had a toilet paper fight in Wal-Mart, in front of Stiggy and staff who were laughing uncontrollably. My mother won when she knocked me down with a 48-pack of Charmin Triple rolls. She was undergoing chemo at the time. She strong, she is.

13) I've had insomnia since I was 16. Sometimes it's not so bad, at other times it's so bad no one wants to come near me because I'm so grumpy.

14) I love cats. Love.

15) I'm not a very good cook and I don't like to cook. I'm a cleaner, though. And I can bake.

16) I'm from a big Swiss family (my dad's side). We even have a website, a family history book, and a road in Ohio named after our family.

17) I've always wanted to be a writer.

18) I always choose comfort over style.

19) I've got a thing for cadbury eggs, Lush toiletries, Radley handbags, Fossil handbags, Miele appliances, anything minty or lemony, Kitchenaid mixers (I don't even own one), cream soda, Krispy Kreme, apple pie, The Golden Girls, and Hush Puppy shoes.

20) I paint my nails and toenails when I'm in America, but not in England. I have no idea why.

Kindergarten Curricula

2009-07-15T01:36:00.003+01:00

Here is a list of many of our resources for Kindergarten and how we did it.

Reading

Resources:

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

The Road to Reading by T.H. MacDonald

Bob Books Sets 1 & 2

Modern Curriculum Press Phonics Level A

Modern Curriculum Press readers from workbook

Miscellaneous books

How we did it:

We used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons until about lesson 75, then stopped because Stiggy was unable to make the transition from the orthography to regular print. We did one MCP workbook page each day. We then used:

The Road to Reading by T.H. MacDonald, which worked well. Each week we focused on a sound or phonics rule. We began the lesson by reviewing a few previous sounds, then Stiggy would read some words written on the wipe board (about 20-30). I would give him a dictation sentence, which he ‘wrote’ out using magnetic letters. He would then do a workbook page. Some days, instead of reading a list of words, he would read a small passage I had written out. One day a week he would choose a reader.

We also played phonics and rhyming games. We used Scrabble tiles and Boggle.

By the end of the year, we were just using story books, games, and the phonics workbook as well as the magnetic alphabet.

Handwriting

Resources;

Handwriting Without Tears: Letters and Numbers for Me.

Montessori sandpaper letter cards, which I made.

For HWT, we only used the workbook. Stiggy enjoys writing, so my aim was merely to teach him the correct way to form the letters.

Math

We used the Living Math approach. We played lots of games, like shop. We did lots of incidental math in every day life.

Resources:

Monopoly Junior

Card games

Pattern blocks

Counters (marbles, Hot Wheels, buttons, M&M’s)

Abacus

Bean bags

Dominoes

A few internet printouts

Circle Time Poetry: Math

Supplemental stories:

Double the Ducks

Alfie’s Numbers by Shirley Hughes

Anno’s Counting Book

One Hundred Hungry Ants

My Missing Mittens

How we did it:

We explored math in many different ways. When we began, my goal was for Stiggy to learn to count to 100. This came about easily though use of a bean bag. We would toss it back and forth and count to 100. He also learned to county by 10’s this way.

Later in the year, we approached math by concepts. I used Circle Time Poetry: Math for this, which is divided up by concepts such as pair, shapes, symmetry, graphing, etc. Each week we would have a poem, activities, and a story.

We also kept a math notebook (links in sidebar) to document learning. Stiggy would provide a narration for a concept, then draw a picture to go along with it.

Read Alouds

I read to Stiggy a lot. We read at breakfast, lunch, during rest times, before bed, and times in between. We read poetry 2 or 3 days a week during snack time.

Resources:

Lots of audio books

Fairy Tales:

Rapunzel and Other Magic Fairy Tales

My First Nursery Stories by Tony Ross

Jack and the Beanstalk by Edith Nesbit

Hansel and Gretel by Morpurgo, Michael

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Joan Aiken

The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen

Various books from the library

Nursery Rhymes/ Poetry:

Lavender’s Blue

Side by Side: Poems to Read Together

My Favourite Nursery Rhymes by Tony Ross

Things I like by Shirley Hughes

Where the Sidewalk Ends

The Random House Book of Poetry

Songs and Verse by Roald Dahl

A Child’s Garden of Verses

Now We Are Six

When We Were Very Young

Dragon Poems by John Foster

Story books:

We read masses of story books this year; it would be impossible to list them all (partly because I didn’t keep track of them all…). Here are just a few of our favourites:

The Frances series

The Paddington Bear series

The Babar series

Barrett, Judi

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Brown, Marcia

Stone Soup

Brown, Margaret W.

Home for a Bunny

Browne, Eileen

Handa’s Surprise

Handa’s Hen

Burton, Virginia Lee

The Little House

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

DiCamillo, Kate

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Freeman, Don

Corduroy

A Pocket for Corduroy

Grahame, Kenneth

The Wind in the Willows (abridged)

The Reluctant Dragon

Leaf, Munro

The Story of Ferdinand

Rosen, Michael

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

Slobodkina, Esphyr

Caps for Sale

Shannon, David

A Bad Case of Stripes

White, E.B.

Charlotte’s Web

Williams, Margery

The Velveteen Rabbit

Favourite Authors (in no particular order):

Shirley Hughes

Julia Donaldson

Oliver Jeffers

Roald Dahl

Lynley Dodd

Dr. Seuss

Eric Carle

Arnold Lobel

Beatrix Potter

Maurice Sendak

John Burningham

Helen Cooper (The Pumpkin Soup trilogy)

Shel Silverstein

Narration

This was done quite informally. I would ask Stiggy to ‘tell me about’ his day, or as part of his nature reading log, he would tell me what the stories were about. We also used a narration cube. I had things like ‘describe our…, tell me something you learned today…tell me a story about…,’ etc. Our narration activities usually took the form of discussions. We’d discuss outings, places, people, situations, objects, anything.

Gardening/ Nature

Resources:

Roots, Shoots, Buckets, and Boots

I Love Dirt

Green Thumbs

Small Wonders: Nature Education for Young Children

Little Hands Nature Book

Ranger Rick magazine

Stories:

The Tiny Seed

Jack’s Garden and How to Make Things Grow

Harvey The Gardener

From Seed to Plant

A Tree is Nice

Roxaboxen

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Secret Garden (retelling)

How we did it:

I didn’t really have a method for this. We read lots of books, spent lots of time outside, sowed seeds, went to gardening centres, looked at seed catalogues…it was just something we did, it was a part of life.

Stiggy also kept a gardening journal. We had a page for his gardening and nature books where he would help me record the title, author and type (fiction or non). He would then tell me what the book was about.

Science

We didn’t do a lot with science this year. We did have a leaf unit. http://whimsyway.blogspot.com/2008/10/we-begin-nature-study-leaves.html

Science was more in the way of nature study and gardening. Any other science was purely interest-based.

Art

Resources:

Young at Art

How we did it:

Stiggy wasn’t very interested in art until I began following the advice in Young at Art. The idea is simple: provide your child with simple, high-quality art supplies and let them do as they wish. Do not place value judgement on what they do (‘Beautiful…that looks lovely…very nice.’) Instead, you should observe and comment (‘I see you’ve used lots of green here…that’s a very big tree!’). Art is divided into 5 categories: paper, paint, drawing, sculpture, and printing and one medium should be focused on at each ‘lesson.’

We spent several weeks having a colour of the week. I would go through our supplies, gather up all the materials in the chosen colour and obtain a book that focuses on that colour. Each day that week I would get out the tray with the materials, turn on some classical music and let Stiggy do as he pleased. We would also try to find objects in our surroundings of that colour. We sometimes ate fruits in the colour, too.

Colour stories:

Red is Best

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Blueberries for Sal

Little Blue and Little Yellow (for green)

The Big Orange Splot

Once the colours were finished, we learned how to mix colours. Stiggy learned about primary and secondary colours.

Art was mostly about free exploration this year.

Stiggy also attended pottery painting sessions once a month.

Music

Resources:

Classics for Children

Myleene’s Music for Mothers

Return to Pooh Corner

Radio

How we did it:

This was not an area of study, per se, it was more about exposure. We don’t listen to a lot of music in our house, but when we do, it’s classical, as a matter of preference.

Resources:

Yoga Kids: Silly to Calm.

How we did it:

Stiggy attended a weekly PE session in our area for several months.

We used the yoga DVD about once a week.

Stiggy spent lots of time outdoors running, cycling, and climbing. He’s quite an active child, so this wasn’t an area I particularly focused on.

Family Life

Stiggy was expected to take part in chores. He helped with laundry, cooking, baking, vacuuming, bed making, sheet changing, lawn mowing, tidying, setting and clearing the table, and other miscellaneous jobs. This has become a habit for him, a way of life.

Other

Stiggy enjoyed baking and other little handicrafts.

Road and fire safety and learning information such as address and phone number were also part of our curriculum.

Play

Hugely important in our house. Stiggy had lots of time for free play and exploration. He had plenty of time to be bored, which often produces some of his most imaginative play. The toys in our house help facilitate this play (Lego, blocks, play kitchen, Lincoln Logs, puzzles, games, K’Nex, Mega Sketcher, outdoor toys such as chalk, kite, water gun, balls, bike, etc)

Other Resources:

The Well-Trained Mind

The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas

The Eentsy, Weentsy Spider Fingerplays and Action Rhymes

How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk

Endangered Minds

First Grade and Schooling

2009-07-10T01:20:00.000+01:00

Health Update: I was feeling a bit better for a few days, but things have gone downhill. I'm not sleeping well and I've had some very unpleasant symptoms, which are worse at night. My doctor's appointment isn't until the 23rd. I'm exhibiting a few symptoms of lymphoma. My father has lymphoma. Apparently, of all the cancers, it's one of the best to get as it has a very high cure rate. I'm hoping by writing it, it won't be true. You know how it is...if you tell someone something big, it doesn't usually happen. I'd rather be considered a hypochondriac than be sick. :)

****

Warning: slight rant ahead

As mentioned in a previous post, I decided to do another year of 'Kindergarten.' I felt Stiggy was ready for most of first grade, but not all of it. But I was really on the fence about it.

A few readers have commented saying that I don't need to pigeon-hole what we do and apply grade levels. I totally agree with this. There's no need for us to mimic schools and apply those labels. And anyone who knows me will tell you that I'm quite anti-schooling. I make no bones about it: I feel children should be raised within their families, not by schools. Education begins at home and I see no reason for schools to take over unless a parent truly cannot home educate. I feel strongly about this. I don't rant about it here because what's the point reinventing the wheel? And for most of my readers, I'm preaching to the choir (Let's see, how many euphemisms can I use in this post, lol!?) Other like-minded bloggers have penned excellent posts (see sidebar for a few) about the schooling system, so I don't feel the need to have my say about it (usually).

Yes, schools have turned out one or two brilliant people (I dare say they were brilliant before entering school; the school was just lucky to count them among their own and succeeded in not inflicting too much damage upon them) and not everyone's been harmed beyond repair by school. But homeschooled children do better than schooled children, and schooling does NOT provide healthy socialisation and in no way resembles the real world. This is a proven fact, both statistically and anecdotally. I've done plenty of research (and I don't mean via google) about this. All the pro-schoolers that I've spoken to have done NO research; it's all based on personal opinion and doing things the way they've always been done.

When I first began homeschooling I felt a need to do everything differently than schools; I didn't want what we did to in any way resemble school, purely based on principle. After a while though, this felt a bit like bra-burning: yeah, you're making a point, but you're robbing yourself of something quite useful. Why can't I take the good and forget the bad?

So that's where we are now. For the most part, our homeschooling looks nothing like school. For one thing, we use books. Sorry, I mean real books, and lots of 'em. He doesn't have to raise his hand to speak or ask to go to the toilet. He doesn't have to wait until everyone else gets it before moving on. If he needs more work on something, he's provided with that. He's not graded and labeled like meat, and he's not being brainwashed about the latest fads and must-haves. He's not bullied.

I've always found it appalling when parents say it's 'good' for children to experience bullying. Do they themselves bully their own kids? If it's so good for them, why not? Because that's considered abuse. But from their peers it's 'socialisation.' It's a bit like saying, 'I want to teach you how to love, so I'll show you hate.' Bullying in childhood prepares children to bully and be bullied in adulthood. If you want kids to be kind, communicative and diplomatic, raise them in a kind, communicative, and diplomatic atmosphere. Want them to be insecure and/or bullies? Raise them amongst bullying. It's not rocket science; you reap what you sow, and all that. I don't know anyone who was bullied and was grateful for the experience. It's humiliating and destructive. I could go on and on but I'll stop now.

Anyway, on to more pleasant pastures...there are a few fun and useful things about school. School bags and supplies, packed lunches, some of the organisational tools and trappings for teachers...

My point is (yes, I'm getting there) that I find it useful, for my own purposes, to assign him to a virtual grade level. He doesn't know he's a kindergartener; that's purely for my reference and for selecting materials. I also love the history cycling of WTM and I want to keep to it. I'm an organisational nut; I love having things 'just so' and I find a little pigeon-holing a useful thing. For now. It'll probably all change as we go. I expect to.

As I mentioned above, I was on the fence about which 'grade' Stiggy should be in next year. He was going on to first grade math regardless, reading instruction is based purely on need, and I felt he could handle most of the Well-Trained Mind first grade curriculum, but I wasn't sure about history and the literature selection, so we were just going to do another sort-of kindergarten, with a few first grade resources.

But something has since tipped the scales towards first grade: Stiggy has taken an interest in ancient Egypt. So, I've pulled out Story of the World, a few other resources, and we've hit the library. He's really enjoying this and if I know him at all, this is going to lead to more historical interests.

So, that just leaves the literature selection to deal with. Well, we'll give it a go and see how we get on. It will, after all, be cycled 2 more times, so it's not crucial that he get it all, or even that we do it all. He enjoys Aesop's fables already, and I think the interest in history is going to make the literature more accessible for him.

Because I can tailor his curriculum to meet his needs, I'm almost certain we're going to end up in a situation where he's doing second-grade this and fourth-grade that, but I'd at least like to begin grammar stage truly at the beginning. We'll worry about later...later.

Lots of planning to do, a few books to buy...

We're going to add subjects gradually, thought. We're supposed to be on summer break now. We'll do ancient Egypt, then we'll go back and do the intro and chapter one from SOTW, continue with reading, then come September add one subject at a time.

My Health Part II

2009-07-06T01:54:00.000+01:00

I visited my GP. When I went into his office I greeted him with, 'I'm baaaaa-aaaaaack!' Fortunately he has a sense of humour and chuckled. I pulled out my list of health complaints, flicked it open dramatically and fired away. First, he looked into my ears and said the right one was 'gunky.' Gunky as in ear waxy, or gunky as in infection? Infection, he said. He also said my rash is probably Rosacea, which wasn't a surprise. I asked him about the blood tests I'd had and explained to him that I need to know what's been ruled out because I go home and start trying to diagnose myself, which is not a good thing. He said my CRP levels had been checked. This is a sensitive test that checks inflammation levels and a raised CRP can indicate lots of things including infection, autoimmune disorders, and cancer. Mine is fine. (Boy, wouldn't that have been nice to know weeks ago??!???!?!?!) He also had my liver and thyroid function checked, which were also fine. A full blood count was taken, and one or two other things checked. He said I may need to have this sty 'cut off.'

He then felt my neck and under my arm (I've had pain there, too), but said he couldn't feel any lumps or raised lymph nodes. However, he wants me to come back in a few weeks and have all my lymph nodes felt.

He prescribed me a spray for my ear and a cream for the rosacea and sent me on my way, telling me to book a double appointment and bring my list along. :)

The next day I had an eye test. A couple of months ago, I noticed a big increase in the number of floaters in my eyes and my vision had become blurry. Well, a few days ago I was reading about eye conditions and discovered that these are a few of the symptoms of a detached retina which can cause blindness. Oh, joy.

The Optometrist I saw was lovely. She spent aaaaages looking at my eyes, did about 10 different tests and declared that my retinas were fine, but I do have astigmatism and some glasses may help. She gave me my prescription and I'm now shopping around for cheap glasses; I don't need them all the time.

I felt quite reassured after seeing my GP, but that feeling only lasted a day. Why? Partly because he can't explain all my problems and partly because every day there's something new. In the past 6 months I've not had a single day where I've thought, 'I feel good today.' Not one. I've now got some tightness in my throat and when I take a deep breath it makes me cough. I'm becoming breathless quite easily. I've also got terrible heartburn, which I never get. In a few days, it'll be something else. It's hard to stay positive. I tell myself it's nothing, it's stress, it'll go away...but one thing goes, an old problem returns, and a new one pops up. I'm so tired and my energy levels have never been lower.

I suppose I've got to keep busy and distracted. The more I dwell on things, the worse my symptoms become.

Fortunately, we're at the end of our homeschooling year. Right now we're just concentrating on reading and practising acquired skills. Hopefully once I get my groove back I'll do some planning for September.

That's Just Not Good Enough

2009-07-06T01:37:00.000+01:00

Surely I'm nerdier than that??!?!?!

My Health

2009-06-29T01:46:00.000+01:00

A little warning: I'm going to talk about women's health (i.e. gynaecology) in this post.

As some of my regular readers know, I've had some health problems over the last few months. I've been having a lot of pain (a sharp pain in my left side, just inside the hip bone as well as dull pelvic pain which moves about), which my GP can't seem to diagnose. I've had an ultrasound, swabs, and blood work. Nothing's come back positive. So, he referred me to a gynae consultant. I was seen by the registrar, who examined me and said everything looks and feels healthy. The only gynae explanation is endometriosis. Many of my symptoms fit (pain worse during period, leg pain, back pain, nausea) but one way in which my symptoms to do not fit endo is that I get pain even after a period. (I'd love to know if this happens to others.) I also have terrible on and off leg and foot pain.

I've been prescribed Mycrogynon (the pill), which I'm to take continuously so that I don't have a period. If that doesn't help, it's unlikely to be a gynae problem and I've have to go back to my GP (and start all over again).

I have mixed feelings about this. While I want an explanation, and I want it to be something that's not dangerous, I know it can cause (and has caused) a lot of suffering. And I certainly don't want to start all over again with the GP. I'm just so sick of not knowing what's going on.

I've also been having problems from the neck up. Over the past couple of months I've suffered with: a sty in each eye (they're still there), cold sores (that won't go completely), a mouth ulcer (short-lived), headaches, ear aches, neck pain and stiffness, vision problems, on and off rash on face (not a mylar rash), on and off pain in the side of my neck, just under my jaw. What on earth causes so many symptoms? Is it just stress? Have I got some horrible neurological condition? Is it an infection? Am I losing it?

The smart thing to do would be to go to the doctor. But I feel like such a hypochondriac going in with that list of problems. I'm also hoping it'll all just go away, as many things do. But each day seems to bring with it some new problem. One thing goes away, one problem gets worse, and a new one pops up. It's all quite depressing and annoying. I have to see my doctor in 3 weeks anyway to discuss my gynae visit, so if these other complaints aren't gone by then, I'll ask him about it.

Top Ten Reasons why Public Schooling is Better than Homeschooling

2009-06-24T01:40:00.000+01:00

Ok, this is just a bit of fun; if you are pro-school, please don't be offended. We homeschoolers get a lot of grief (especially in England) for what we do, and are constantly having to defend our choices to family and the public, so we've got a have a sense of humour and let off some steam sometimes.

In an effort to increase the public drumbeat for criminalizing homeschooling, a memo has been distributed containing the top 10 reasons why public schooling is better than homeschooling. Here is an excerpt from that memo:

1. Most parents were educated in the under funded public school system,
and so are not smart enough to homeschool their own children.

2. Children who receive one-on-one homeschooling will learn more than
others, giving them an unfair advantage in the marketplace. This is
undemocratic.

3. How can children learn to defend themselves unless they have to fight
off bullies on a daily basis?

4. Ridicule from other children is important to the socialization process.

5. Children in public schools can get more practice "Just Saying No" to
drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.

6. Fluorescent lighting may have significant health benefits.

7. Publicly asking permission to go to the bathroom teaches young people
their place in society.

8. The fashion industry depends upon the peer pressure that only public
schools can generate.

9. Public schools foster cultural literacy, passing on important
traditions like the singing of "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin
laid an egg..."

10. Homeschooled children may not learn important office career skills,
like how to sit still for six hours straight

Kindergarten Year 2: The Plan

2009-06-20T01:47:00.000+01:00

I was toying with the idea of skipping the extra year of kindergarten and doing first grade. One reason is that the idea of plugging along exactly as we are did little to excite me. I like a bit of change. I'm also slightly concerned because when his age-mates are finishing school, he'll still have a year left (by Well-Trained Mind standards, anyway; academically he should hopefully be ahead) since children begin school at 4 in England. Add to that, Stiggy is ready for first grade math, could probably handle First Language Lessons, but he's not ready for history, science notebooking, or much of the literature selection for first grade. I've decided not to worry about him being a year 'behind' at this point; we have no idea where we'll be that many years from now. And instead of just trundling along, we're going to add some subjects, make a few curriculum changes, and get some new books. We'll be doing sort of an advanced kindergarten (by WTM standards; he'll be at or above national curriculum standards for his age).

I'm hoping this year to get through The Ordinary Parent's Guide. We'll finish off Modern Curriculum Press Phonics level A and move on to level B. (Level A is quite a big book and there's quite a difference in ability level between the two, so I'm in no rush to begin the next level) I'm hoping Stiggy will become an independent reader this year. It won't be a catastrophe if we don't get there; we'll keep working on it and move on to first grade.

I'm certainly not going to hold him back with math: we'll be using Singapore Math 1A and 1B, not kindergarten math. He can count beyond 100, count by 10's, knows his shapes, understands halves and quarters, is comfortable with a calendar, and understands the concept of addition and subtraction. He's even done some bar graphing. First grade math should be fun for him.

Handwriting: Getty-Dubay Italic handwriting series level A, supplemented with these printables.

Stiggy's really developing a love for science, particularly life science, so we'll be doing lots of nature study using The Handbook of Nature Study (see my sidebar to read it online for free), living books like The Bee People, the Burgess books, etc. (these and others free online, see sidebar), plus library books, Ranger Rick magazine, and little experiments and projects. Quite unstructured.

As an introduction to history, we'll be learning about people & places. We'll study a different country every 5 weeks, locate it on the globe/map, look at the atlas, learn about the culture and language(s), the way people dress, the food they eat, etc; read stories and folktales from that country, learn what the climate is like, maybe read about famous people, and use Hands Around the World as well as The Kid's Multicultural Art Book. I'm hoping this isn't going to require as much preparation work as I think it will.

I also need to work on religious instruction. My husband was suppose to do this with Stiggy, and he has done some, but it's not enough. I've got some great resources for that, so I need to formulate a plan.

We'll be studying Philosophy this year. Yup, philosophy. I'll be using this book: Little Big Minds: Sharing Philosophy with Kids. I've not read it yet, so I'm not sure how it's done, but I'm quite excited about this one.

We'll be using Drawing with Children for art, which is recommended for first graders in The Well-Trained Mind. Artistic Pursuits has a kindergarten book, but it's pricey and it sounds similar to Young at Art, which we used last year. We may also use The Anti-Coloring Book by Susan Striker. I think this will go along well with Drawing with Children. There are several of these, so if they go down well, we can get more.

We'll also begin some gentle copywork (he does some self-initiated copy work already from time-to-time, but I'm going to assign some, too), advance the narrations and dictation, and do more with memorisation. This year, memorisation consisted mainly of memorising phonics rules, the Arabic alphabet, some prayers, our address and phone number, Stiggy's birthdate, and other bits and pieces. He's memorised nursery rhymes and huge chunks of stories on his own. I'm hoping to have him memorise short Qur'an verses, a few little poems, more little prayers, and whatever else seems useful and relevant.

Not sure what we'll do for handicrafts. We may start a little hand sewing and finger knitting, and continue with cooking and baking. I'd love for him to be able to do woodworking; I need to see if there's something like that in our area.

PE: Still trying to find a martial arts class for him. The one place I found only takes students over aged 8, and the other place was really expensive (£7 per class!). He's going to try a wrestling class and we've got some other ideas we need to look into. We'll continue with yoga and just keep generally active and playful. Stiggy doesn't sit around much, so it's not really an issue.

Poetry and music will continue as before, just enjoying them without 'studying' them.

I'm really excited about our next year. I've started ordering a few books, so I've got a lot of reading and planning to do to get it all ready for September (as well as the planning I'm doing for first grade). It's going to be Ramadan then, and I'll be fasting, so we won't be doing all subjects that month (and wouldn't be even if it weren't Ramadan), but I want it all planned and ready to go. In September we'll focus mostly on religion, reading, handwriting, and math, then slowly add in more subjects.

That's the plan. I'm sure it will change quite a bit.

Update: You Can't Do It All

2009-06-17T02:17:00.000+01:00

Ok. I've been doing some research, having a look at a few things, and I've made a few decisions.

After reading this article (they've made a mistake with the title) on the Well-Trained Mind website, I've decided to definitely go with Writing Strands. It sounds fantastic. But...I will probably also buy Writing with Ease as a supplement. Writing with Ease begins in first grade, Writing Strands not really until second or even third, so we can start out with Writing with Ease and see how it goes. Maybe we'll love it and not bother with Writing Strands.

I've been looking through Primary Language Lessons and Simply Grammar. I do not like Primary Language Lessons very well (if you're thinking about using this, please do not be put off by that; I am not the best judge of curricula. I felt it jumped around too much and provides no explanation to the child; children aren't actually taught what a verb or noun is, they just have to fill in the blanks with the correct form of the word) and Simply Grammar doesn't provide enough practice. So, it'll definitely be First Language Lessons along with Grammar Land and maybe 1 or 2 of the fun books I mentioned. And Mad Libs. Stiggy loves those Mad Libs.

Although I didn't mention it, I was also in a quandary about handwriting. Should I use cheap resources from the book store? Continue with Handwriting Without Tears, which is ok, but not a very attractive font, go with New American Cursive, or italic handwriting? I've decided on italics. Stiggy said he liked the look of it, so we'll give it a whirl (beginning this autumn). The reviews on Amazon also swayed me.

Math: I think at this age, one programme is enough, beefed up with living math activities, stories, and maybe some extra drill. I think Singapore lacks drill, but this is easily remedied with their practice books, or freebies from the internet, and Math Wrap-Ups. We'll be using Singapore for Kindergarten year 2, so we'll see how it goes before making any purchases for first grade.

As for science, here's what I was thinking: we'll do 2 years of life science (kindergarten year 2 and first grade). Stiggy loves learning about animals, gardening, and the body, so why not do it for 2 years? I'm not going to worry about spending X number of weeks on this, and X number of weeks on that; we'll go with his interests using various resources, and I'll introduce him to the scientific method. Originally, I was thinking to skim over all areas of science; life, earth, physical, and chemistry during KY2 using the Singapore Earlybird Science books, Dr. Nebel's book and other resources like Mudpies to Magnets (which I already have), but that's a bit manic. We may use those resources, but we'll focus on life science. If Stiggy wants to have a look at other areas, we can. I'll be ordering The Handbook of Nature Study and...not sure what else just yet. I'll get one thing at a time and order more if we need it.

A big, warm 'thank you!' to everyone who commented and offered support on my original post. :)

Authors We Love: Oliver Jeffers

2009-06-17T01:56:00.000+01:00

Has anyone heard of Oliver Jeffers? He's an Irish artist (living in NY), who writes and illustrates beautiful picture books for children. Stiggy simply loves these books and will often ask me to read all of them in one sitting. I think he loves that the stories are about a boy (who has no name, except in one) who seems quite ordinary, but does extraordinary things. Despite the fact that the little boy in the stories is going to the moon, rowing to the south pole, and eating books, Stiggy seems to relate to him somehow. He also loves that characters from previous stories sometimes make guest appearances in newer ones.

The illustrations are gorgeous (I love the colours) and the text is heart-warming, well-written, and uncomplicated, but engaging. Reading one book leaves you hungry for more, which must be why Stiggy wants to read them all together.

I can't recommend these books enough; even little girls will like them, I think. Completely original, fun, lively, imaginative...these stories really seem to speak to children. Oliver Jeffers seems to have retained something of his childhood; he just gets young children.

And, no, I'm not being paid to endorse these books. :) We just love them. For some reason, I don't hear much talk about Mr. Jeffer's books. They deserve more hoopla.

Good Bye, Little Mango

2009-06-12T12:38:00.003+01:00

My dear friend's little kitten, Mango, died last night in hospital from cat flu. I loved this kitty almost as much as if he were my own. I helped litter train him (a small bit) when I was there. He was so sweet and playful; I couldn't get enough of him. This little guy wasn't much bigger than my hand. He brought so much joy to my friend and her family, and to their other cat. The other cat wasn't so happy when Mango first arrived, but after a short while accepted him, played with him, and even groomed him. I'll never forget you, little Mango.

Imgainative Play

2009-06-12T01:04:00.000+01:00

I often talk about the importance of play. I just thought I'd share a video I came across at this great parenting site.

You Can't Do It All

2009-06-07T01:07:00.002+01:00

The other day I was having a look through The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (borrowed from a friend) getting ideas from the optional follow-up activities, and as I was flicking through, I came to a section and thought, 'that's not in The Road to Reading.' A few pages later, 'neither is that...or that...or THAT!...hey, that looks important, and that's not in it, either!'

So, OPGTR it is. BUT, the format of our lessons will stay the same (for now), which will be easy to do because the two books are very similar. OPGTR is a more complete programme. I wish I hadn't been so quick to dismiss it when I first looked at it. I was so new to this homeschooling thing, teaching reading, and curricula in general. I've learned a lot since then, and I've learned a lot about my son in the past year.

Which brings me to my ~~slight~~ enormous problem:

I'm doing a ~~little bit~~ lot of planning for first grade (and Kindergarten Year 2, which is pretty much planned out; will post about that later). Yes, I know it's a long way off since we're doing another year of Kindergarten, but I have to buy my materials gradually over the next year (no way I can just save up and buy them all at once; I'll end up spending the money on other books. Plus, having a look at a few of the resources will help me make decisions about others, AND I can do any necessary reading and planning, gradually), and need to start making a few purchases this autumn (November-ish) so that I'll have everything in time.

I'm mostly following The Well-Trained Mind with a little Charlotte Mason thrown in, and whatever else I think will be good.

So far, I'm ok with History and music. I bought Story of the World and the activity guide last year while in America, and will use whatever library books I can get hold of to supplement. Music will be mostly composer study with resources from the library. I also found this book at a charity shop for 75p. And there's the guitar and our other little instruments.

Art: It's definitely going to be Artistic Pursuits. I've even found a place to buy it in the UK.

Grammar is sorted as well. Well...kind of. I have 3 great resources at my disposal (2 given to me, one bought inexpensively before the others were given): First Language Lessons, Primary Language Lessons, and Simply Grammar. Oh, and Grammar Land...forgot about that one (a freebie). I also plan to supplement with some fun books like this and this. But which spine do I use? I need to have a good look at all of them. Hopefully I can narrow it down to 2 and then maybe mix and match grammar lessons using both...or all 4. That won't take time and energy, noooooo....

I forgot to mention we'll also be using Mad Libs.

Now on to math.

I've been quite fortunate to be able to have a close-up look at 2 great math curricula: Saxon and Singapore. My sis-in-law has both of these for grade one, and while she was soaking up the sun in Spain, I borrowed these programmes to have a good look at them.

Saxon...yuck. I can't think of a more mind-numbing way to teach math than with this. Yes, it's thorough...but I can think of such better ways to teach calender skills and shapes...and everything else. Boring, boring, boring. I know some people love Saxon, but I don't feel it's for us. After all the enjoyment we've had with math this year, Saxon seems so dry and schoolish.

Singapore, on the other hand, looks great. It's visually appealing, hands-on, and focuses on mental math, which Stiggy is great at. And when Stiggy saw it, he was really eager to do some of the workbook pages. (I'll explain why we're using a math curricula in my post about KY2)

Now, I was all set to go with Math-U-See and continue with Living Math. And I still want to do that, but I also want Singapore. But to do all that, not only would I need a 12-day week, I'd also be forking out about £180 a year...just for math. That's not gonna happen.

I'm also in a quandry about writing curricula. I can't decide between Writing Strands, and Susan Wise Bauer's Complete Writer programme. I want to do both, as they seem to be very different and have a lot to offer. The cost isn't bad. Bauer's programme costs £20 and lasts for 4 years. Writing Strands, if I buy level 2 and 3, which will also last 4 years, will cost about the same. So, I can swing it financially, but will we have time to do them both? Will we want to do them both?

Science: Dr. Nebel's programme, which is excellent, but very teacher-intensive, or WTM, which is easy to do, but dry? Or a complete curriculum? Or unschool it? Singapore Earlybird series? Handbook of Nature Study? The Lab of Mr. Q?

Decisions, decisions. It's so hard to choose when you want the perfect curriculum and this one has this, that one has that...but none of them have it all and you don't want to miss something important. I know you can't do it all; schools certainly don't do it all...so I have to choose. But how?

And even if I was able to have a good look at everything before buying (see above about Grammar), I'd still struggle. Heck, I was able to *test run* Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and it still wasn't a fit for us. Unfortunately, we didn't find out until we were 3/4 of the way through it. How on earth do I avoid that again? How do I keep from wasting precious time and money? How do I make up my bloomin' mind????!?!?!?

Any advice? How do you go about choosing curricula?

P.S. I've discovered a UK homeschool supplier. I have not bought from them yet, so cannot personally vouch for their service, but I know someone who has and says they're good and they've got some great resources.

Another P.S. Over the past few months, I've been working on a series of 'about us' posts, so you may see a flurry of posts. I know I've talked ad nauseum about our Kindergarten curriculum, but I thought I'd do a post detailing it for those who are new to homeschooling and are looking for examples. I'm also going to put a list of links to 'about us' posts in the sidebar to make these easy to access. Whenever I see links on others' blogs like 'our first grade curricula,' I always click to see it and find it interesting and useful, which is why I thought I'd do it as well. Please bear with me. :) I've also got a few other draft posts hanging around that I want to finish off and post, then my posting will probably dwindle down a bit.

Meet Our Cat

2009-06-05T01:30:00.001+01:00

This is our cat, whom we've adopted. He belonged to one of our neighbours who moved away a while back. She left the cat. We were already feeding him quite regularly, but when his previous owner moved, he started coming inside the house. We've never really managed to properly name him. When he first started coming around, we just called him Meemee, which is what we call all cats, and the name just kind of stuck. We've tried other names, such as Gary and Furry Murray, but they never lasted. Meemee has also evolved to Mimbo, Jimbo, Bimbo (don't ask).

He spends a lot of time in our house, and sometimes he spends the night. We set up a litter tray for him, using shredded paper and newspaper. He has a lovely little bed, but for some reason, he sometimes he prefers to lie in his litter tray (the litter tray is always clean, btw; he only uses it at night, and only rarely then, and we clean it first thing. If he uses the litter tray, he moves to his bed).

He's such a sweet cat. He loves to lay on my lap, but he rarely plays. He's really friendly, but he hates other cats and frequently gets into fights. Having a pet has been a great experience for Stiggy, too. It's his responsibility to fill his dry food bowl, brush him, and choose his pouch (of wet food) each morning.

However, he is a bit of a Six Dinner Sid, because after chatting to our next door neighbour, we've realised about 3 other people on our street feed him, too, and we're sure we saw him sitting on the window ledge inside someone else's house.

Oh well, no one ever said cats were loyal. We love him anyway.

Now, if we could just think of a good name for him...

Blogging, The Lake District, and Gardening

2009-06-02T15:02:00.026+01:00

Despite the fact that I have a 'blogging without obligation' button on my sidebar, I do feel a lot of obligation. Blogging has become something I've got to do ('I need to blog about this...it's been 5 days since I've posted...must have photos to go along with this post...Tiny Talk Tuesday is tomorrow and I can't think of anything to write...'). And I'm losing my enjoyment for it, and I don't think my posts are as good as they once were. My blog has become like a living thing that I have to maintain and I feel guilty if I don't.

We're also very busy these days (well, we're always busy, but even more so) with the garden and things, and I've got to cut out some extraneous stuff. I'm not bothering with my gardening journal, other than to a store for useful information. I'm not reading as many blogs, either...I love them all, but I'm cutting back to just a few favourites. I love reading about homeschooling, but I'd rather be doing it, or making plans for next year.

So, I'm now truly going to blog without obligation. I may go several days, several weeks, or even a month without posting, but I will post. And then it may be 2 or 3 in a row. But it will be when I have time and when I'm inspired.

Anyway, we've had some amazing weather lately, and we have really taken advantage of it. We've spent the majority of our time outside, we've had 2 barbecues, lessons outside, and we went to the Lake District (home of Charlotte Mason and Beatrix Potter) last Saturday. Here are a few images:

Our luxury cruise on Lake Windermere:

'Look Mummy, a giant lollipop!'

The Georgian mansion we bought on a whim:

Oh, alright! it's a hotel. :)

The Beatrix Potter Attraction:

From the award-winning Peter Rabbit garden, my third favourite plant, foxglove:

My second favourite plant, bleeding heart:

(In case you're wondering, here's my list of favourite plants: 6.Fuchsia 5.Jasmine 4.Rose 3.Foxglove 2.Bleeding heart 1.Wisteria. This list is subject to change due to whim, fancy, mood, or something I see in an Alan Titchmarsh book.)

I do have a bleeding heart, but not the one above, which I like better. Here's mine:

My fuchsias are blooming:

And I bought a little rose plant a few weeks ago:

I've realised that if you're willing to be patient, you can save a lot of money by buying small, young plants. Very small. Morrison's has some great bargains. As mentioned before, I got Wisteria and Jasmine for £1.79 (They looked half dead when I brought them home, but the Jasmine has shot up and the Wisteria has masses of new leaves [I'm trying to grow a new one from a cutting...we'll see how that goes]). We went back the other day and picked up another Jasmine, which has red blooms, and a Clematis, also for £1.79. We also found a Snowy Mespilus for £1.99. Yes, they're small, and no, they won't flower this year (the Wisteria may not flower for about 5 years), but at those prices, I'm willing to wait. And I won't feel so guilty if I accidentally kill something.

I was moving some of my container plants around last week just after nearly a month of continuous rain, and when I lifted the peppermint, there was a slug the size of a toilet paper roll underneath. Ick. Bleugh. Gross. I nearly took a picture of it.

The Five Factor Personality Test

2009-05-28T20:08:00.000+01:00

You are Conscientious, Agreeable and Neurotic

Extroversion:

You have low extroversion.

You are quiet and reserved in most social situations.

A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you.

You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people.

Conscientiousness:

You have medium conscientiousness.

You're generally good at balancing work and play.

When you need to buckle down, you can usually get tasks done.

But you've been known to goof off when you know you can get away with it.

Agreeableness:

You have medium agreeableness.

You're generally a friendly and trusting person.

But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism.

You get along well with others, as long as they play fair.

Neuroticism:

You have medium neuroticism.

You're generally cool and collected, but sometimes you do panic.

Little worries or problems can consume you, draining your energy.

Your life is pretty smooth, but there's a few emotional bumps you'd like to get rid of.

Openness to experience:

Your openness to new experiences is low.

You're a pretty conservative person, and you favor what's socially acceptable.

You think that change for novelty's sake is a very bad idea.

While some may see this as boring, many see you as dependable and wise.

The Five Factor Personality Test

Most of this is quite true, I think, except the bit about change. I love to change things around for the fun of it. And I'm not real worried about what's 'socially acceptable,' as long as I'm not hurting anyone. I'm a white, American, Muslim convert (who also wears a headscarf) living in the north of England and I homeschool. I don't drink, scream at my child in public, litter, or give my child pasties...I've also been known to offend people with my opinions and emotional rants, so I don't really fit into 'mainstream' society, and I don't really fit into the homeschool crowd here, and I don't fit in with the Muslims much of the time because I'm not as strict as they are. And I don't care. I've got my friends and family and that's what matters to me. :)

Doubling Ducks and Chats About Bats

2009-05-25T12:30:00.000+01:00

We've had quite a full week.

On Monday, Stiggy had pottery painting. We'll only be having one more session, then we'll be taking a long break from it. Stiggy wants to try other things, and for what it costs for us both to attend pottery once a month, Stiggy can attend an activity every week.

For math, we worked on the concept of 'double' this week. We've talked about it informally before, and I've worked it into our baking adventures, but we dug into it more deeply this week. We started off by reading Double the Ducks, which is a cute story that does a good job of demonstrating how things are doubled. We discussed how to double, then I demonstrated it with manipulatives and gave Stiggy some little 'problems' to work out, hands-on. We played Monopoly Jr., which requires doubling small numbers. On our last day, we read Double the Ducks again and Stiggy did this little worksheet, which he really enjoyed. He also did a page for his math journal. I asked him to tell me how to double, and he made up a lovely baking scenario in which he had to double his flour. I wrote out his narration and he drew a picture of flour being measured out. He definitely understands doubling now.

He wanted to count to 200, so I explained to him that it's the same as counting to 100, only you have to say 'one hundred and' first. We practised this while tossing a bean bag back and forth.

Reading is going very well now. He's really responded to the new method. It's so true what they say; it's not about the resource, it's about how you adapt it to fit the child. I'm still using The Road to Reading, but we're taking it very slowly and I'm not putting the book in front of him to read from. I write the 'sound of the week' on a card, introduce it, review the old ones, then he reads a list of words on the wipe board. He does a dictation sentence using magnetic letters, and a phonics workbook page. That's day 1. On day 2, we review the phonics cards, he reads a small passage that I've written on the board, dictation, and workbook page. On day 3, we review the cards again, dictation, workbook page, and he chooses a reader (Bob book, etc) to read. All of the words, reading passages, and dictation sentences are taken from R2R, but the way I'm doing it is not how the author has designed his programme. His list of words to read is enormous, as is the reading passage. And the child is suppose to dictate as much of the reading passage, on paper, as he can. Way too much, I think...at least for Stiggy (at this point).

We also play little games, like making words with Scrabble tiles, Boggle dice, and hangman.

He's enjoying our new way of doing things, he's learning phonics, and he's taking an interest in reading and writing (which calls upon his reading skills) again. We've still got another year of Kindergarten, so he has plenty of time to cover everything in R2R (which is a complete phonics programme). I've just outlined the rest of the book, and covering one phonic rule a week, we'll be done by the end of next year, with 3 weeks free. There's also a writing and grammar portion in R2R. Not sure yet if we'll use it.

And the home education assessor (who's a teacher) is also happy with what we're doing. During the home visit 2 weeks ago, she said Stiggy was advanced for his age. This was based on their chatting together; she wasn't 'testing' him as such. Stiggy chatted to her about our garden, showed her what we were growing in the propagator, talked about cars, and showed her a book about bats and outlined all he knows about them (a new interest he's developed after watching bats fly around outside at sunset) Not that I need outside approval...but it is still nice to hear. :)

Time to Get Fit (Post #3)

2009-05-24T07:33:00.000+01:00

I'm putting this on hold for a while. I've got some health issues that need to be resolved. I'm not sure what's wrong, and neither does my doctor. I've not felt right since the miscarriage. I've had a pain in my side, which comes and goes, for quite some time. It's recently gotten worse. They've ruled out ovarian cyst. The doc thinks IBS, but I'm not so sure. I think I may have IBS, but I think the pain is something else. I tried doing some yoga a week or so ago and it made me feel so sick and horrible, so I think it best to take things easy until I find out what's wrong.

A Little Boy

2009-05-21T01:13:00.002+01:00

A Little Boy

by Helen Buckley

Once a little boy went to school.
He was quite a little boy
And it was quite a big school.
But the little boy
Found that he could go to his room
By walking in from the door outside.
He was happy
And school did not seem
Quite so big any more.

One morning,
When the little boy had been in school awhile,
The teacher said:
Today we are going to make a picture.
Good, thought the little boy.
He liked to make pictures.
He could make all things;
Lions and tigers,
Chickens and cows,
Trains and boats -
And he took out his box of crayons
And began to draw.

But the teacher said, Wait.
It is not time to begin.
And she waited until everyone looked ready.
Now, said the teacher,
We are going to make flowers.
Good, thought the little boy.
He liked to make flowers,
And he began to make beautiful flowers.
With his pink and orange and blue crayons.
But the teacher said, Wait!
And I will show you how.
And it was red, with a green stem.
There, said the teacher,
Now you may begin.
The little boy looked at the teacher's flower.
Then he looked at his own flower.
He liked his flower better than the teacher's.
But he did not say this.
He just turned his paper over
And he made a flower like the teacher's.
It was red, with a green stem.

On another day,
When the little boy had opened
The door from outside all by himself,
The teacher said:
Today we are going to make something with clay.
Good, thought the little boy.
He liked clay.
He could make all kinds of things with clay:
Snakes and snowmen,
Elephants and mice,
Cars and trucks -
And he began to pull and pinch
His ball of clay.
But the teacher said:
Wait, it is not time to begin.
And she waited until everyone looked ready.
Now, said the teacher,
We are going to make a dish,
He liked to make dishes,
And he began to make some
That were all shapes and sizes.
But the teacher said, Wait
And I will show you how.
And she showed everyone how to make
One deep dish.
There, said the teacher.
Now you may begin.

The little boy looked at the teacher's dish,
Then he looked at his own.
He liked his dishes better than the teacher's.
But he did not say this.
He just rolled his clay into a big ball again
And he made a dish just like the teacher's.
It was a deep dish.

And pretty soon the little boy learned to wait,
And to watch, And to make things just like the teacher.
And pretty soon
He didn't make anything of his own any more.
Then it happened
That the little boy and his family
Moved into another house,
In another city,
And the little boy had to go to another school.
This school was even bigger than the other one,
And there was no door from the outside into his room.
He had to go up some steps,
And walk down a long hall
To get to his room.
And the very first day
He was there,
The teacher said:
Today we are going to make a picture.
Good, thought the little boy,
And he waited for the teacher
To tell him what to do.
But the teacher didn't say anything.
She just walked around the room.

When she came to the little boy she said:
Don't you want to make a picture?
Yes, said the little boy,
What are we going to make?
I don't know until you make it, said the teacher.
How shall I make it? asked the little boy.
Why, anyway you like, said the teacher.
And any colour? asked the little boy.
Any colour, said the teacher.
If everyone made the same picture,
And used the same colours,
How would I know who made what?
And which was which?
I don't know, said the little boy,
And he began to make a red flower with a green stem.

Tiny Talk Tuesday 19/5/09

2009-05-19T01:22:00.001+01:00

On birds:

'Ducks have wings, but they don't fly very well. Jemimah Puddle Duck flew very beautifully. I don't know why birds have wings when they can't even fly!'

Well, we'll have to look that one up...

Awakenings

2009-05-16T01:18:00.002+01:00

Home education has brought to me a real awareness and appreciation of the seasons. In the past, the only notice I took of the changing seasons was, 'It's finally warming up,' and 'Oh, no, it's starting to cool down...time to pull out the echinacea.' Spring has become a real season for me, rather than that windy, rainy bit between winter and summer. And autumn is no longer that windy, rainy bit between summer and winter. I notice things now, things that were all around but I never stopped long enough to observe.

I've also become addicted to sprouting seeds. You take this tiny brown thing, put it in wet dirt, keep it warm, and a living thing begins to grow. I find that so incredible. How can it be? And the fact that one seed produces a plant which begets many seeds...exponents in nature. Fascinating.

Here are our tomato and thyme shoots:

A tiny corn stalk:

Lily of the Valley: wonky, but beautiful:

Is that going to become a strawberry?

I wonder what colour this lily will be?

A vegetable patch to be:

A promise of delicate beauty:

Those flowers that Stiggy gave me?

When these pink ones began to wilt, I pulled out the petals with the intention of doing something with them (a craft, potpourri...something). I placed them in a bowl and forgot about them for several days. When I had a peek about a week later, here is what I saw (click to enlarge):

They've grown those little wispy brushes that dandelions get when they go to seed. And at the tip...it looks like a seed. I know so little about plants. I don't know if they're seeds or not, but Stiggy and I have planted some of them in the propagator. We shall see.

We went to a nursery in Manchester and got some great plants. While there, I discovered wisteria. I'd heard of it before, but had never noticed it. There was a beautiful wisteria plant, trained into a tree. I wanted it. £120. No way that was going to happen. On our way out, I saw a smaller one for £40. Still a lot, but I was sorely tempted. Once home, I had a look at the Thompson and Morgan website and saw a small wisteria for £10. Now that was doable. I was planning to order it within a few days (along with a Bleeding Heart), when I happened to be at Morrison's looking for a Jasmine plant. My husband was claiming he'd seen one for £1.79. While crouching down on the floor, rooting shamelessly through the plants clumped together, I saw a tiny wisteria. £1.79. I shouted outloud to Stiggy who also did a little happy dance. I also found a Jasmine. Here they are:

Jasmine

Wisteria

Not the healthiest specimens I've seen; the wisteria is shedding its leaves. But at £1.79 I thought they were good to experiment with. We've not re-potted them yet as we're waiting for some better weather (it's quite windy these days). If anyone has any advice for growing these plants, please, please, I beg you, leave a comment.

Since taking these photos a week or so ago, the corn has been re-potted, plus 2 more shoots came up which have been re-potted, a pumpkin seed has sprouted, there are more tomato shoots, 2 echinacea seeds have sprouted, 2 sunflowers are growing rampantly, and a sweet pea shoot is coming up (finally!).

Here is that corn now:

Oh, the Osteos that I propagated in ice cube trays and a Ziplock? They've moved up to yoghurt pots:

And Stiggy is also developing a passion for plants, seeds, gardening...the lot. His idea of a fun day out is a trip to the garden centre (seriously). Everytime he goes outside, he shrieks with excitement over the progress our plants have made...or frowns and calls me over if something is looking less than lush. I never had this as a child. My step father was an avid gardener, but I never once expressed an interest. This may be because I was never included in the gardening. I enjoyed looking at the tulips, roses, poppies, and bleeding heart; and I enjoyed eating the tomatoes, strawberries, and rhubarb, but I was never part of the process. I'm so pleased to be giving this gift to Stiggy at such a tender age.

Now...if I can just keep everything alive.

A New Look for Spring

2009-05-15T14:38:00.005+01:00

Before...

After...

He wasn't real pleased at first (I did ask him if he'd like to get it cut short beforehand; I didn't just take him in and have it cut), but he's gotten used to it, and has had so many compliments that he quite likes it now. I've reassured him that he can grow it out again if he wants. I've caught him looking in the mirror, spiking it up more.

The stylist spent an hour cutting his hair; I've never seen anything like it, and Stiggy liked him. The other place we used to take him to closed down, and the place I go to doesn't do boy cuts, so I was desperate (we did not want to take him to the barber's where they only know one cut). It was one of these grotty, hole-in-the-wall places with young, hip, male stylists that really do know how to cut hair (and it didn't break the bank). The guy used no less than 3 different types of scissors, plus that blade-thing that thins out the hair. I spent the hour mesmerised by the whir of combs, fingers, scissors, and hair.

My Little Guitar Hero

2009-05-11T01:15:00.000+01:00

I picked up this guitar at the charity shop for £15. It came with a leather case as well. I know nothing about guitars. Three of the strings are plastic, and three are metal, so I can't work out if it's a classical guitar or not. We're planning to take it to a shop to be restrung and tuned. We'll need to get a tuning fork or some such equipment because instruments need to be tuned often. (The thing's almost bigger than he is!) :)

I've bought this DVD. If Stiggy can't follow it, I'll learn from it and show him. We may look into lessons later on. I do have a bit of a musical background, so I can teach him a few things about music in the mean time. For now, Stiggy likes to get it out 3 or 4 times a day, pluck at the strings for a few minutes, then put it away. My husband's been on You Tube showing Stiggy John Williams videos. No pressure. :)

Time to Get Fit (Post #2)

2009-05-11T01:04:00.000+01:00

Weigh in for 27/4/09: 129 pounds (9 stone, 3 pounds)
Weigh in for 4/5/09: 126 pounds (9 stone)
Weigh in for 11/5/09: 126 pounds (9 stone)

I'm not exactly surprised by this. Last week I had several interruptions (hubby was home for bank holiday Monday and we were out all day, Stiggy and I went to Trafford Centre on Tuesday, and I came down with a cold on Thursday). I did manage yoga on Wednesday and Friday and as usual, I spent most of Sunday vigorously cleaning the house, which although not a great cardio workout, does burn quite a few calories when you're at it for a good 4-5 hours.

It's also not a surprise because 1. I've not really changed my diet, and 2. This always happens in the beginning when I try to lose weight. I need to get some willpower and change my diet.

Sigh. At least I didn't put any weight on.

Bath Bombs

2009-05-08T21:42:00.014+01:00

Stiggy and I made some bath bombs today. Since our lavender plants are just babies, we thought we'd make mint bombs. I picked a few mint leaves from the plants in the garden:

Then I dried them for a few minutes in the oven:

In a small bowl we mixed 1 tbs citric acid with 3 tbs baking soda:

Next, we added the dried, crumbled mint leaves:

Then 10 drops of peppermint essential oil and 1 tsp olive oil:

Now for the really fun part. We spooned the mixture into a cookie cutter:

And pressed it in firmly:

We had some mixture left over, so we used a measuring spoon to make a mini bomb:

Popped it out:

Unfortunately, the star bomb crumbled when I removed it from the cutter (maybe we needed a bit more oil or should have left it to dry first), so we reformed the mixture into more minis:

We let them sit for about an hour, then popped 2 into Stiggy's bath and they fizzed away beautifully and smelled wonderful. :)

Next time we're going to try lemon bombs made with lemon essential oil and grated lemon rind.

This recipe, and many others, are available in:

Time to Get Fit (Post #1)

2009-05-06T11:49:00.007+01:00

I've decided it's time for me to mend my ways: I'm overweight, my clothes don't fit, and I feel unhealthy. When I was in my 20's, I made a vow that when I hit 30 I'd stop eating junk, start exercising, and stay exercising. Well, the miscarriage kind of threw those plans out the window temporarily, but now it's time to take action.

I'm starting with exercise because I find this easier to do than dieting. Once I get some results, the diet bit will be easier. Last week I did yoga twice and a workout once. I'd like to exercise 5 days a week: three days of yoga (I'm using this DVD and it's excellent) and 2 days of workout with some running and swimming thrown in here and there. And lots of water.

Weigh in for 27/4/09: 129 pounds (9 stone, 3 pounds)
Weigh in for 4/5/09: 126 Pounds (9 stone)

Three pounds is a good start, but I'm thinking it's all water and normal fluctuation.

I'm only 5 foot 2 inches, so that is at the top end of an acceptable weight. When I was 18, I weighed just under 100 pounds. This is too light, obviously, but I'm hoping to get down to 105-110. I managed to do this a few years ago by running (which I HATE), but when I began nursing, I put it back on. When I quit nursing, I put on a bit more. I enjoy yoga and it's something I can do year round regardless of the weather, so I'm hoping I'll keep up with it.

I'm hoping that by blogging, this will help keep my motivation high and push me a bit more. I plan to do weekly, or biweekly updates.

Off to do my yoga.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

2009-05-06T01:19:00.002+01:00

As we're on holiday, there hasn't been much in the way of homeschooling for the past several days. We've been doing a bit of gardening, but the rains have come which has severely limited our outdoor time. We've done a bit of shopping for the garden, and discovered a great nursery in Manchester. It's called Mockridge Nursery and it's located near IKEA, tucked behind the huge Ashton Park Garden Centre (which is where you go if you want to get ripped off). There's an amazing selection of healthy plants, trees, shrubs, fruit trees, and more; they're very cheap, and the people are friendly.

I never would have thought I could sprout seeds in an ice cube tray enclosed in a Ziplock bag and left on a window ledge. When I set it up, I laughed at myself and my amateur methods, but it worked. My Osteo seeds have sprouted this way. I've transfered the shoots to yogurt pots.

I also used a little clear plastic tub with a lid as a propogator to sprout lavender. That worked a treat; once the shoots came up I just removed the lid. Not sure how I'll get them into a pot, but they seem happy where they are for now. The little leaves are beautifully scented.

My lily of the valley is shooting up nicely, but I don't think I sunk the bulbs deep enough because one or two of the shoots are going sideways. I thought I was suppose to leave the top (which looks like a pink shoot) exposed. Hopefully next time I'll get it right. I'm just pleased I planted it right way round; I really didn't have a clue when I was doing it, and the drawing on the packaging looked nothing like the actual bulb I held in my hands.

We've got 2 types of mint: peppermint and spearmint. I love mint. I plant to make some mint bath bombs and whatever else nice I can make with mint.

I've recently sowed echinacea, pumpkin, corn, tomato. I've resowed thyme, sweet peas because they didn't work in yogurt pots in the green house; too hot and dry, so I've done them in a window ledge propogator (£2 from Asda). The green house is now just being used as storage.

We're hoping to get a vegetable patch going, and hubby has some nice ideas for building a planter and another raised bed. He and Stiggy have been busy digging out a stubborn tree root which is located right where we want the veggies to go.

We've bought a cheap plastic garden bag to grow potatoes in. I've got 2 potatoes that I've left in the dryer closet; I'm hoping the warm, humid air will make them sprout soon.

We've still got lots of seeds to plant, including Lunaria (see photo left) and Evening Primrose.

****

Car accident update: we were given a payout of £850 for our car which has been written off. We're not happy with this because it's not enough money to get a car that runs as well as our old one. We're going to have to pay out of pocket for another, despite the fact that the accident was not our fault. They'll be taking the rental car tomorrow and we still haven't bought a replacement. Yikes.

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

2009-05-04T01:18:00.000+01:00

I've been having a look at OPGtTR again. I've borrowed a friend's copy, and interestingly, it's very similar to The Road to Reading. I'll probably just stick to R2R. I may use some of the game ideas, thought.

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading Peace Hill Press A plain-English guide to teaching phonics. Every parent can teach reading; no experts need apply! Take charge of your child’s literacy with this jargon-free phonics guide. Too many parents watch their children struggle with early reading skills — and don't know how to help. Phonics programs are too often complicated, overpriced, gimmicky, and filled with obscure educationalese. The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading cuts through the confusion, giving parents a simple, direct, scripted guide to teaching reading — from short vowels through supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading is user-friendly, affordable, and easy to follow — supplying you with everything you need to teach reading in one book.

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Books children reading

Schedule Change & Ideas

2009-05-01T01:21:00.000+01:00

We've finished our 3rd term for this year and we're having 2 weeks off. I've made a decision to switch to 3-day weeks. Kind of. We'll spend 3 days doing the more formal stuff (reading, math, writing), and 2 days doing the other stuff like art and music, handicrafts, and playing games. There are a few reasons for this. One is that we never seem to get to the games and puzzles because by the time we finish the other stuff I'm kind of not in the mood. But I think the games are just as important as the formal stuff. Stiggy and I talk a lot during games and puzzles, he's learning about taking turns, following rules, and gaining math skills, among many others.

Since we're doing kindergarten for 2 years, I can get away with this. Well, I can get away with it anyway because in England we don't have any requirements, but I make requirements for myself, just in case the laws change or we were to move. Once we begin first grade, we'll do 4 days a week. We'll see after that.

I've also changed the length of our terms. Instead of doing 9-week terms, we'll do 10-week terms. Every 5 weeks we'll have a break. One week in the middle of the term, and 2 weeks at the end of it.

I think all of this will help make our experience more well-rounded and prevent burn out.

We've stopped doing formal lessons from The Road to Reading. Stiggy just hates using this book. He gets really stroppy, slouches, starts sighing, and his attitude is terrible. I've noticed that in the past few months, he's not as keen on reading. He's not reading things in his environment, and when we discussed it, he told me he doesn't want to learn to read anymore.

That won't do.

So, instead of using R2R as a primer, I'll use it as a guide for myself. I've noticed that Stiggy enjoys learning and practising sounds, but he does not yet like to string them together into words very often. So, why not just continue learning sounds? Each week I'll consult R2R for the next sound Stiggy needs to learn, put it on the wall, then we'll 'play' with it on the chalk board, wipe board, or whatever. I'll use the list of words to read and create games from them, then use some of the sentences in the reading passages for his dictation (which he still wants to do). We'll also continue with the Modern Curriculum Press workbook, which he also still wants to do.

I'm also having a look at The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading to see if that may work for us.

Since telling him he doesn't have to do the reading lessons, I've already seen a change. He's begun reading on his own again, and even chose a few MCP readers to read to me. I really hope this works.

I've also changed the way I plan things. Instead of planning from week-to-week, I'm planning, roughly, the entire term. I didn't have the confidence to do this before (and frankly, I didn't know how), and I was worried this would put pressure on us. But it won't. I've done it in such a way that we're not locked in. I've created a sort of outline for each subject, divided by weeks. Like this:

Reading:

-use R2R for sound of the week:

1. ch

2. th

3. y

4. wh

5. er

6. ir

7. ur

8. ar

9. or

10. le

-and for dictation

-MCP workbook

Handwriting:

1. n, o

2. p

3. q

4. r

5. s

6. t

7. u

8. v, w

9. x, y

10. z

For handwriting, we'll go in order.

Math:

-teens

-count by 5’s

-odd/even (My Missing Mittens) (Internet, number chart, counters, Family Math p.24)

-double (Double the Ducks, Monopoly Jr, Scholastic worksheet)

-days of the week (The Very Hungry Caterpillar & ‘Seven Days Make a Week’ p.52)

-shapes (The Greedy Triangle & library books & ‘Bake me a shape’ p.42) (collage, play doh, concoctions, geoboards, tangrams, pattern blocks, buttons, shapes in real life, at the store, flat and solid, toothpicks and marshmallows, create a puzzle, blocks)

-origami (paper aeroplanes book, open out paper and find shapes, library: 745, poppers, paper cup, snowflake)

-money (coin rubbings, patterns, magnifying glass, HSBI p.70, Monopoly Jr.)

-addition (Animals on Board & ‘Flies for Supper’ p.31) (Abacus, yahtzee, dice, dominoes, car adding, lego, Monopoly Jr.)

-practice/review

But for math, I'll just choose a topic each week when we're ready to move on. If something doesn't get done, we'll do it another week. If there are things left over at the end of the term, it gets bumped to next term.

Each Friday I'll print a blank lesson plan sheet and plug in the preplanned lessons, and make any adjustments as needed.

Planning ahead will also help me with purchasing books. I tend to buy what we need as we go, but I often don't have what we need when we need it. It will also help me to budget better.

This makes so much more sense. Instead of getting out all of my resources every Friday, I can get them out once every term and look for things to cover the entire term, instead of just for the coming week. It does take a while, but it's going to save me lots of time in the long run.

Another idea that ~~I stole from~~ was inspired by my friend Lynn is math journals. Now, my dear friend Lynn is journal mad, and at first I thought this was just another journal...but it's not. Keeping a math journal has real educational benefits and is such a great living math idea that we are definitely going to be doing this. Read more about it here and here. Here are some great ideas for journaling with littlies.

Flowers From Stiggy

2009-04-29T01:19:00.000+01:00

My little man got me some flowers...just because. I love this selection; If I were choosing flowers myself, this is just the kind of bouquet I would go for... I daresay he chooses better than his Papa. (Shhhh!) :)

I may have gone a bit overboard with the photography, but I really wanted to capture, as best I could, the beauty of these flowers. This is one bouquet I never want to forget. Thank you, Stiggy.

Tiny Talk Tuesday 28/4/09

2009-04-28T01:57:00.000+01:00

Last week I made a Moroccan stew. One of the ingredients was chick peas. As Stiggy was munching away he said, 'These chicken beans are good!'

Isn't it great when kids are happy to eat their chicken beans?

The Turn Off Week Blog Challenge: How it All Went

2009-04-27T01:01:00.002+01:00

Well, it was an interesting week. I was unable to convince the family to participate, but we don't watch much tv anyway in our house, so the challenge was really about me cutting back on my computer time.

I quickly changed the rules I had set for myself. Instead of limiting so much what I did, I tried more to limit my time. On Monday, I managed to be on the computer for only 20 minutes. This was mainly because I had been online the previous evening getting totally caught up with everything. I did go no mail on most of my groups, which also helped. For the next few days, I averaged about an hour a day. Not too bad. And I did not blog. I did read some blogs, but I did not post any messages on my own blog. I also made it a point not to go online when Stiggy was up. But by Friday I'd sort of blown it. I'd made a big decision about our homeschooling which required me to be online for quite a long time (that's for another post). But I still felt quite self-conscious about how long I was spending, and I knew once I'd done what I needed to do, I'd get off and go back to only being on for short periods.

I found that there was a knock-on effect of reducing computer time. The less time I spent online, the fewer bunny trails there were to chase, which reduced my time further. I was tempted a few times to stick my oar in on a few blog posts, but I resisted the urge to inflict my opinions on people and this was my greatest achievement this week. I have a real inability to control myself when it comes to voicing my thoughts on things about which I feel strongly so being able to let it go was such an accomplishment. I hope to continue with that.

I even had a few minutes when I felt...bored (gasp). Not that I had nothing to do, but I didn't feel like doing anything. Those are times that I normally fill with the internet. It was nice instead to have a rest, sit and think, or read an extra story to Stiggy.

I do want to continue with keeping my computer time to a minimum. Spending time online isn't very fulfilling. And I found I appreciated, and made better use of my time, when it was limited. I got done what I needed to get done and did something else in the real world, not the virtual one.

I'm Unplugging Myself This Week

2009-04-19T01:24:00.001+01:00

This week I will be participating in the Turn Off Week Blog Challenge as mentioned in this post, so I won't be posting anything and I won't be reading any blogs, either (some of the blogs I read will pop up automatically on my morning coffee, but I'll just close the tabs). I feel a sense of dread because I really enjoy reading other blogs (although I'm trying to cut back a bit to just a few of my favourites), and I'm worried when I plug myself back in, I'll spend ages getting caught up. Or, I'll just say 'forget it' and take up where I left off and have that feeling that I'm missing something.

Here's a recap of my goals:
-No blogging (reading or posting)
-Check hotmail acounts once a day, instead of twice a day
-Go 'no mail' on some of my Yahoo groups
-Check Yahoo mail once a day, instead of 2 or 3
-No other internet activity, unless absolutely necessary for homeschooling or gardening. And no Amazon. Or Book Depository. Or Book People. Or Pick A Book. Or Book Butler.

We shall see how it goes.

Number Play

2009-04-18T01:40:00.000+01:00

Stiggy needs work on number recognition for numbers 11+. I thought a number recognition bingo would be a good way to practice this. DLTK has customisable printable bingo cards you can create and print. I printed out about 5 and laminated them so Stiggy could circle the numbers with a dry erase marker. We used a spring theme and instead of BINGO, we played BLOOM. This made it a bit more interesting, because when I called out a number for 'O', he had to check two columns instead of just one. After playing this game a few times, he's become quite comfortable with numbers 20+; it's really the teen numbers we now need to work on.

He also decided he wanted to do some adding on Friday, so I made up some little problems for him to work out. He caught on to this quite quickly and started making up his own. For example: 1 Star Wars stick + 1 Star Wars stick + 1 Star Wars stick = 3 Star Wars sticks. (As illustrated by Stiggy on the lower right side of the wipe board... the equation at the top is 1 car+ 1 car)

I also pulled out the adding Math Wrap Ups and although he liked watching me do it, he wasn't very interested in it. I think he'd had enough by that point...that, or he enjoyed making up and solving problems more than doing drill.

Incidentally, someone on my Living Math forum posted a link to this article about teaching math to kids. Research suggests it's better to teach math concepts to children, rather than give them the procedure (formula) to solve problems; it's the 'why' that is so important, not the 'how'. (Teach the concept; allow the child to figure out how to solve problems). This is what Living Math is all about. I see this with Stiggy all the time; he's always showing me some math problem that he's made up and solved...all on his own.

John Patrick Norman McHennessy: The Boy Who Was Always Late

2009-04-17T01:46:00.000+01:00

We got this book from the library a few days ago. We really enjoy John Burningham's books, including the popular Granpa, Edwardo the Horriblest Boy in the Whole Wide World, and Mr. Grumpy's Outing. Burningham's books are not to everyone's taste; he deals with issues many children's writers do not want to tackle, such as death and sadistic teachers, and some of his books do feature a bit of hitting, or the threat there of . I think his books are fantastic. In John Patrick Norman McHennessy, the boy who was always late, the hero, John Patrick Norman McHennesy, is punished daily for being late. But hey, it isn't his fault. Every day, as he sets 'off on the road to learn,' he is accosted by some wild animal who rips his clothes, or a tidal wave drenches him, or some other calamity. Of course, his strict teacher does not buy these stories, so John is humilated and forced to do lines, and even threatened with a beating. Then one day, it is the teacher who finds himself in a sticky situation. But little John saunters out and continues on 'the road to learn.'

Although (slightly) exaggerated, the attitude and behaviour of the teacher is startlingly true to life. (I'm not saying all teachers are cruel, but a few are) Children are often humilated, punished for crimes they have not commited, and it wasn't too many years ago when children were hit by teachers. The bit I love is that John realises that true learning takes place outside of the school, in real life; he learned more on his adventures to school than in school.

What Part of Spring Are You?

2009-04-15T01:48:00.000+01:00

You Are Blooming Flowers

You are an optimistic person by nature. In even the darkest times, you are hopeful about the future.

You feel truly blessed in life and can sometimes be overwhelmed with emotions.

You have an artist's eye. You are always looking for beauty in the mundane.

You have a good sense of aesthetics, especially when it comes to shapes and color.

What Part of Spring Are You?

Unplug Yourself

2009-04-13T01:29:00.001+01:00

I've been inspired by this blog to participate in the 'Turnoff Week Blog Challenge.' The Center for Screen time Awareness is having a Turn-Off Week from April 20-26. I'm hoping to convince Stiggy and the hubby to participate. For me, the challenge will be more to do with getting off the computer. I won't be able to avoid the computer completely, but I hope to greatly reduce how long I spend on it for that week (and maybe after). These are my goals:

-No blogging (reading or posting)
-Check hotmail acounts once a day, instead of twice a day
-Go 'no mail' on some of my Yahoo groups
-Check Yahoo mail once a day, instead of 2 or 3
-No other internet activity, unless absolutely necessary for homeschooling or gardening. And no Amazon. Or Book Depository. Or Book People. Or Pick A Book. Or Book Butler.

Anyone care to join me?

Stopping to Admire the Daffodils

2009-04-12T14:59:00.001+01:00

It was a pretty uneventful week...until Saturday rolled around.

We went out to do a little shopping and have a look at a gardening centre, just to get some ideas. It was a lovely day; I'd bought a few packets of seeds, and I was quite eager to get home and do a little research online about growing some of them. I was sitting in the back seat of our car, on the driver's side. I happened to glance in the side view mirror, and as I did, I saw a car come sideways, towards us, quite quickly. Just as I was thinking, 'they seem quite close,' the car slammed into ours. Our car swerved a fair bit, and I remember thinking, 'we're ok,' but I was worried about us hitting someone, or being hit again. I quickly turned around, and the car that hit us was spinning. We were going about 40, on a 3-lane road. Amazingly, no one else was involved.

We pulled over and my husband went to sort things out. The driver of the other car was ok; she says she lost control of her car.

Our car wasn't parked in the best of places; not only is it a busy road, but there's an on-ramp not too far behind, so Stiggy and I got out of the car. Fortunately, there was a nice side walk and some grass. There were some lovely Daffodils, so we had a good look at them and some other plants and minibeasts. Stiggy picked me a dandelion and a little weed that looks like a daisy. He insterted them into the button holes of my coat.

I was very shaken up by the accident. It could have been so much worse. There was a wall next to the road on that section, and if we had been next to it as our car swerved...well, I don't want to think about it. I'm just extremely thankful no one was injured and no one else was involved.

Our car is damaged, but drivable. We have to wait and see yet whether it will be fixed or just written off.

On a more positive note:

This week Stiggy learned to make a tuna sandwich on toast. He felt so proud of himself and ate his lunch with much gusto.

We didn't do much in the way of gardening until the weekend. We each did a sketch of the garden and took a photo.

Here's Stiggy's photo:

A real garden of Eden, innit? But, it has got potential. This garden is huge for houses in this area; most have a small concrete yard. Stiggy and Hubby have nearly finished constructing a small raised bed where we will plant some flowers.

We did some gardening this weekend. I've sowed Sweet Peas, mint, more Sunflowers, thyme, lemon balm, and Osteospermum Pink Fizz. I've planted fuchsias in a hanging basket.

Stiggy has really enjoyed spending so much time outside. He's become more aware of creepy crawlies, birds, butterflies, and flowers by working on these hunt sheets.

My lavender is sprouting and I've caught some sun on my cheeks. :)

Oh, and don't forget to get your free seeds here and here (UK residents only).

Things that Go Bump in the Night

2009-04-09T01:24:00.000+01:00

I think Stiggy has been sleepwalking. It started quite a while ago and only happened a few times, but it's happening more frequently. The other night, he came into my bedroom (hubby was downstairs still). I said, 'What's wrong?' He said, 'Tummy yummy!' in a happy voice, doing a little dance-like movement. So I asked him what he wanted. He said, again, 'Tummy yummy!' I asked him if he wanted to get into bed with me and he got in. I asked him something else (can't remember now), but he didn't answer me.

Unfortunately, he's not always so happy when this sleepwalking occurs. One time, I found him sitting at the top of the stairs in the dark (kind of creepy) crying. He would not answer my questions, and he would not move from his spot. I tried for nearly 20 minutes to get him to bed. I didn't want to forcefully move him, so I told him I was going back down stairs and he still did not move. After 15 minutes, I went back up and he allowed me to put him back in bed.

It started out with him just sitting up in bed and looking around, maybe saying a few words, then laying back down. Beginning around age 4, I noticed he would get out of bed, walk around his room a little, then get back in. This only happened maybe 4 or 5 times. But in the last 3 months or so, he's gotten up about 6 times. Normally, when he wakes up in the night, he's alert, responsive, and cooperative, but when he's sleepwalking, he cannot answer my questions and when I try to get him into bed, he often pulls away from me.

I've been reading about sleepwalking, and I can't see any reason for Stiggy to do it. He's not on any medication, and does not have any of the risk factors mentioned. It could be genetic, I suppose. For now, we're just keeping the upstairs baby gate shut so he doesn't fall down the stairs, and praying he grows out of it quickly.

Tiny Talk Tuesday 7/4/09

2009-04-07T01:38:00.001+01:00

I've decided to participate in Tiny Talk Tuesday, which I saw on this great blog.

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A few days ago, when we were baking, I asked Stiggy if he would please grease the baking tins. He said to me, 'Certainly, my dear.'
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As we were walking home from somewhere, I can't remember where, Stiggy said he wanted to 'bask in the sun.' :)

Our Bit of Earth

2009-04-04T11:00:00.000+01:00

For the first time in 7 years, Stiggy and I will not be going to America to visit family. So, we have vowed that this is the year we will do our garden. In England, you're quite lucky if you have any sort of greenery around your house; many houses here are nestled in concrete jungles. We've been blessed with quite a large patch of earth in the back, and a little one in the front. Part of our garden is covered in concrete slabs, the green bit is embedded with all sorts of rubbish and is very lumpy, bumpy, and weedy. So it needs quite a bit of work.

Here it is now:

And here's how it should look by the end of the summer:

Seems doable.

To get started, we went out and bought a wee greenhouse. Wee. Very wee. It's more like a greenunit. But that's all we need. Stiggy and I had a lot of fun assembling it.

We also sowed some seeds. Mint, lavender, and Sunflowers.

Sadly, on Saturday the winds picked up, and despite the heavy rock that my husband placed inside the greenhouse, it blew over and my mint was scattered on the ground. I've changed the position of it and will resow next week. I'll also get hubby to add more weight to it, or find a way to secure it to the fence. I'm just thankful I didn't have several plants in there.

Stiggy and I are going to keep gardening journals. These will be in loose leaf format so that we can insert pages where we want and don't have to worry if we 'mess up' a page. We can have lined paper for the written parts, and blank paper for drawings (me? draw? yikes!), rubbings, pressings, a gardening calendar, and anything else we want to include. I've gotten a few printables from here (Thanks, Lynn!). Here's another nice one. I'm going to have some 'inspiration' pages with cut-outs from seed catalogues. I plan to glue some nice envelopes to card and insert them into the notebook so I can store little bits and pieces.

I'd like to plant some fruit and veg: strawberries, carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, maybe corn; some herbs: mint, thyme, and lavender; some flowers like Sweetpeas and Sunflowers; and a few flowering trees like Magnolia and Dogwood. I want to attract birds and butterflies. We may put in a little pond.

Stiggy and I visited this gardening site for kids and got a great printable. In his journal, he'll use the printable page, have drawings, cut outs from catalogues, pressings, and rubbings. Much like mine. Here is a great website for info and printables, including great flora and fauna huntsheets (scroll down a bit).

Here's Stiggy creating his calendar:

Here's a photo of Stiggy working on his 'Garden Wishlist':

And here he is painting his bird feeder:

Our art curriculum will now be based around gardening and nature study. We also read some nature poems this week and a few nature stories (Beatrix Potter), which I hope to do more of. All of this is incorporating science, art, reading, writing, math, and poetry.

For our nature study and gardening booklist, see my sidebar with our curriculum. I'm also hoping to purchase a few resources and some more nature story books, including Roxaboxen, The Tiny Seed, and The Secret Garden. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment.

We are really loving this project. One of the things that's been bothering me about our homeschooling (it's taken me a while to put my finger on it) is that we're not really getting stuck in to anything. We do a little of this, a little of that, but don't have any real projects. Now we do, and we are all so excited!

Next week we're planning to do some sketches of our garden and take a few photos. These will be our 'before' pictures. I can't wait to compare them to the 'after' in a few months' time.

Chicken Soup with Rice

2009-04-01T01:00:00.001+01:00

Stiggy loves Maurice Sendak's stories, especially Chicken Soup with Rice. And one day he asked me to make chicken soup with rice. I had a look online and there were quite a few recipes. I chose a simple one, and I worried it would be bland and unsatisfying, but it was deeeeelicious and very filling! Here's the recipe, with a few changes I made:

1000 mls chicken stock
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 medium onion, chopped
2 fat garlic cloves, minced
2 medium carrots, sliced or diced
1 or 2 celery stalks, however you like
1/2 teaspoon thyme
pepper to taste
sprig of oregano (optional)

Fry onion, garlic, and chicken until done. In a pot bring stock to a boil. Bung everything into the pot and simmer, uncovered, until rice is done, stirring occasionally.

This is such a simple recipe, but really nice.

'Mix it once! Mix it twice! Mix that chicken soup with rice!'

It's Amazing What a Bookcase Can Do

2009-03-30T12:18:00.004+01:00

Here is a before and after of part of our living room.

The shelves were removed and one was placed in Stiggy's room, because his one bookshelf was totally full (that's where we keep most of his story books). The other shelf will be placed on the opposite wall, so I will have 5 shelves there.

The bottom shelf on the bookcase houses our arts and crafts books and supplies (excluding our paper, temperas, clay, and some of the high-quality stuff). The next shelf up is all science, above that is math (on the left), and 'language arts' stuff: writing, phonics, First Language Lessons, Mad Libs, etc. Then we've got the CDs and some educational toys, then History & Geography above that, then a shelf for some of my homeschooling reference books. The yoga mat is tucked neatly out of sight between the bookcase and the wall.

The new arrangement has made for some dramatic changes in our day. For starters, the horrible set of plastic drawers (not pictured..they're not horrible really, they just don't go with our living room decor) that were in our living room are now in Stiggy's room. Each drawer, which is more like a plastic tub, comes out. His ten million Hot Wheels are stored in one drawer, his Ikea train set in another, and various other toys in the other 2 drawers. Before, his cars and train set were in shoe boxes lying around the living room floor. Our living room is much tidier now.

The other, and more fantastic change, is that now Stiggy has access to all of our resources. He loves going over to the bookcase to 'find' something to do, or a book to look at. He's also initiating more art projects on his own.

A lot of unstructured learning happened last week. We did a few Mad Libs and Stiggy is pretty clear on what a noun is.

We also did some baking. I'm gradually allowing Stiggy to do more and more of the work. This time, when the pot needed stirring to heat the milk and Crisco (Trex), I allowed Stiggy to do it. I gave him very clear instructions and kept a hawk's eye on him. We have a gas cooker, so vigilance was essential. I felt proud of myself for 'letting go' and allowing him to do this. I don't want to be one of those overprotective mothers. I already am, I know that, but I don't want to be, so I have to take steps to undo some of that.

Reading is going well. We had a minor problem on Thursday because Stiggy often likes to guess at the words. He's becoming more fluent, so does not want to take the time to sound them out. I've had to encourage him to slow down and sound out words instead of guess at them. His vowels have improved since doing all that drill and he's not misreading 'e' and 'i' as often.

Methods... My Final Answer

2009-03-27T18:10:00.002Z

Over the past year or so I have investigated (with much pleasure), and seriously considered, many homeschooling methods. I began with classical via The Well-Trained Mind and loved it, but wanted to see what else was out there. I looked at the Montessori method (love some of the manipulatives), Waldorf, unit-study (too much preparation), lapbooking (love them, but they seem like busy work), LCC, unschooling, and Charlotte Mason.

After a while, I was left with classical with a few elements from Charlotte Mason and unschooling.

Several weeks ago, I started up a new Yahoo group in the hopes of exploring unschooling further. I didn't like the other groups out there because they seemed so fundamentalist and members were regularly bashed for their opinions or ways of doing things. These are radical unschoolers who go on about freedom, and yet they're telling other people what to do. How hypocritical can you get? I wanted a group that was different, so I started one. I also found Unschooling Basics. I didn't get much out of this group for a few reasons. One is that the answers given to questions are often just the pat responses of most unschoolers which you find on all the websites. The other is that I just don't agree with the parenting philosophies of the members. We do not have a child-centred home, we have a family-centred home. Each member has rights corresponding to his/her responsibilities. I'm not comfortable giving my child complete freedom. So this group was of no help to me. I've also come to realise that unschooling can be hard to 'learn' about- it's just about living life and involving your children. Unschooling, largely, has to be learned about through unschooling.

In a lot of ways I do consider us 'autonomous' educators, because even though a lot of what we do is structured, Stiggy wants to do it. I also involve Stiggy in just about everything I do. He works with me around the house, helps me make out the grocery list, goes everywhere with me, we have great discussions about things...we do all of those unschooly things. The only difference is that for about an hour every day we sit at the table and do a few lessons, which he wants to do (usually).

As you can see, I was getting too hung up on the term unschooling. I was thinking that unless we left the classical method behind, and became bonafide unschoolers, t-shirt and all, that spontaneous learning would not happen and all learning would be structured. I thought unstructured, spontaneous, natural learning was synonymous with unschooling. And that simply isn't true. Spontaneous, natural learning happens in all good homeschools (and homes), regardless of method. How else do children learn to walk, talk, feed themselves, dress themselves, etc? They certainly don't learn about it from a book.

I know a lot of homeschoolers aren't concerned about a 'label.' But I feel the need to have a niche, to have a reference point. Yes, my son is a reference point, but I need a base from which start and then I can tailor that to my son. If it's not working, we'll rethink it. No method is right for all families. All we can do is choose what we think will be best and go with it.

After reading about each one, thinking, trying some things, and ‘sitting on it’ for a while, I always come to a point where I will gaze once again at my copy of TWTM. It appeals to me and my sensibilities. It is truly a method for book lovers, which my son and I are. It is language-based, and print-based which I feel is far better than relying heavily on software and educational programmes (See Jane Healy, Ph.D's book Endangered Minds) I feel it’s no-nonsense, flexible, and uses tried and tested teaching techniques. The child learns to think logically, clearly, and at a much deeper level and in ways than would otherwise be possible. The child reads the classics, learns to write well, speak well, and learns about logic and persuasive argument. Hidden interests are uncovered because the child is exposed to such a diverse range of topics. And there is plenty of room for interest-led pursuits. He/she learns that that not all things worth doing are easy or immediately gratifying. You can use a wide range of materials. Classical Education is not so much about what you use, but how you use it. As long as the materials are good-quality and suited for your child, they’ll work in the classical method.

The classical method doesn't leave it all to chance and place all the responsibility on young shoulders; it gives it to the parent, and over time gradually shifts it to the child.

I find this article about the joys of classical education on the Well-Trained Mind website very inspirational.

Please don't mistake my words. I am not saying that any method is better than another. Just that one is better for us.

I've come to the conclusion that regardless of what method is chosen, a child will do well if the parents are commited, educationally-minded, spend lots of time with their child; if they read to their child, play games with their child, and have lots of discussions with their child. According to Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore in The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook, 'The Smithsonian Institute study of twenty world-class geniuses stressed three factors: 1) warm, loving, educationally-minded responsive parents and other adults; 2) scant association outside the family, and 3) a great deal of creative freedom under parental guidance to explore their ideas, drilling if necessary.' (italics authors' emphasis, not mine). (Article here) So the key is to pick what works best for you and your family and go for it.

I feel a bit dismayed at all the floundering I've done, all the time spent researching and experimenting, but it was necessary. And it's probably better that I've gotten it out of my system now, rather than in the later years when I've invested even more time and/or money in something and change my mind. I suppose I'm still not immune to that, but I feel better protected from it.

I've also recently discovered that I have a need for change. But that can be satisfied without scrapping everything and embarking on more research.

I'm feeling quite peaceful now. I've cut out a lot of yahoo groups and I think I'll make better use of my free time. I feel I have a better sense of direction and I don't need to worry constantly, 'Am I doing this right? Should we be doing it this way? Maybe we should wait/do more/do less/consult someone on this/that group.' I feel calm and happy with my decision. We're classical homeschoolers with a love of learning.

What Are You Reading?

2009-03-27T01:00:00.000Z

I saw this photo meme at Funschooling and thought I'd play.

I'm always reading The Well-Trained Mind.

I'm currently reading Homeschooling: A Patchwork of Days by Nancy Lande

I've finished reading The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith and The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore.

I'm currently reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

I'm planning to read The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom.

And I'm planning to read Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn. I've not bought it yet, but hope to when I save some pennies for an Amazon order.

Stiggy is being read Horton Hatches the Egg, The Steadfast Tin Solier, The Gigantic Turnip, The Cockerel and the Fox, and The Other Ark, among many others.

He is currently 'reading' a few Captain Underpants books. :)

Eric Carle

2009-03-26T08:29:00.002Z

I had no idea that Eric Carle has a blog. I just found out today while perusing The Snail Trail. Thanks, Momma Snail! :)

I Love Classical, but I Wanna Be an Unschooler, Too

2009-03-21T17:16:00.010Z

We were 'on holiday' last week, which means no structured lessons. It was a bit of an unschooling week, really. Stiggy did quite a bit...I just wish I could remember it all now. We read lots of stories (as usual), we read some non-fiction books about the brain and nervous system, we went to the library, he painted some rocks, played outside, listened to some audio stories, and lots of other good stuff.

We took the bus to Trafford Centre on Friday. I just wanted to get out and indulge in a little retail therapy. Stiggy had some allowance he was eager to spend. He bought a lego base, a mini Captain Underpants book with a key chain attached, and the audio book of George's Marvellous Medicine (his favourite Roald Dahl story). There were a lot of books in the 2 for 3 offer at Waterstone's, so we picked up Alfie and the Big Boys by Shirley Hughes, 10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle, and for myself: The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom (I know it has terrible reviews, but this book sounds great and I've long since learned not to trust the reviews for fiction). Stiggy and I had lunch at Nando's. We shared a chicken fillet burger meal, which was more than enough for us. This was a much nicer lunch than McDonald's, and actually, if we had each bought a separate meal at Mickey D's, it would have cost more than the Nando's.

It was a great week. I'd really like for our days to be more unstructured. I was having a look at our plans for next week, with the hope of eliminating something, but I just don't know what to cut out. I definitely want to keep the reading lessons because we've come so far and I want Stiggy to learn to read with phonics, not look-say, which is how unschooled kids often learn. Our art lessons have really gotten Stiggy more interested in art (and I wouldn't really call them 'lessons'- we focus on a colour, read a story, concoct something like play dough or finger paint in that week's colour, do colour mixing, then he's free to explore different media in that colour). Our writing lessons are very much enjoyed and only take 5 minutes a day. Our math activities are also much-loved and Stiggy has learned a lot and become even more number-aware.

The solution seems simple: keep the activities and encourage the unschooling. The problem is, by the time we finish, I'm off to do housework, cooking, a bit of time for myself, etc. Maybe I should keep doing the activities, but not plan them. The reading lessons are easy; we just do what's next, we have a quick review of something, and Stiggy chooses a phonics workbook page. For maths, I could ask Stiggy what he'd like to do, or throw out a few ideas from our activities books and let him choose. Art could stay the same, which requires some planning. We're nearly at the end of the 'colour-a-week' thing, so that will be changing soon and it may not require so much planning. The handwriting doesn't require any planning, we just do the next letter. Everything could be optional, except for the reading lesson.

We've recently purchased a book case, which we desperately needed. I've made our books and educational toys more accessible to Stiggy, which will encourage free exploration and more unstructured learning (I hope).

I still want to follow the classical method, but for now, I want his learning to be more unschooly in fashion. I'd always thought of what we do as unschooling, in a way, because he wants to do it, but much of the learning is structured, which isn't really unschooling. I don't want to be telling him what we're going to do next all the time; it feels so contrived, and as if it's something I'm doing, rather than something he's doing.

I dearly love our unschooling times, and I feel it's more real and meaningful. I know our structured lessons work; he's learning and enjoying it. But there's something more special and lasting about the spontaneous learning. (He learned today, from our eating some After Eights, that 3+2=5)

I also resent the time it takes to create the lesson plans, and then keep checking it to see what else we're going to do that day.

I've already got this week all mapped out. I'm going to try not to be a slave to that sheet of paper. And next week I'm not going to make any plans. This is going to necessitate logging our activities daily instead of weekly, though. There's no way I'm going to be able to remember it all. But that still won't take up as much time as creating lesson plans, on which I spend about 2-3 hours each week. I may also be more likely to use more of our resources. I tend to just stick to what I've written down and not look at anything else if it isn't on the list. The problem is, I spend so much time on the lesson plans that I don't have time to browse through our other activity books. Now, I'll be inspired to take something from the shelf each day and read out some ideas to Stiggy to see what sounds fun (hopefully).

If anyone has any advice, words of wisdom, warnings, words of encouragement, etc, please leave a comment. If you've switched from Classical to unschooling, please tell me what your experience has been like.

The Wonderful Blog Award

2009-03-20T08:28:00.002Z

“This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.”

Michelle, over at An Organised Mess, has awarded me The Wonderful Blog Award. (Thanks, Michelle!) I must now pass this on to 15 others and let them know. They, in turn, should pass it on to 15 others and notify the recipients.

Fifteen blogs, that's going to be a daunting task! I'll do my best. Right, here we go:

Raising Little Shoots

Fun Schooling

My Little Soapbox

Feet in the Water

A Sea Change into Something Rich and Strange

Kez's Blog

Ambleside Classical

I could have just gone through some of the many blogs I have bookmarked and chosen some that look nice, but I wanted to choose blogs that I truly enjoy and from which I gain inspiration. And at the moment I don't read very many blogs. There are so many great blogs out there; I just haven't gotten around to reading them yet. :)

Who Do You Want Your Child to Be?

2009-03-19T13:59:00.003Z

Another cracking BBC programme: Who Do You Want Your Child to Be? This programme investigates the effects of education on your child and how to make the most of it. Interestingly, some points presented are also discussed in Endangered Minds by Jane Healy, Ph.D.

The programme discusses the importance of play, teaching reading (evidence is presented that shows how important phonics is), the theory that we're born with mathematical awareness, the danger in certain types of praise, bribing children to do well in school, the teen years, and more.

Unfortunately, there's not even a mention of homeschooling.

Grow Your Own Drugs

2009-03-17T08:06:00.005Z

In this amazing BBC programme, learn how to easily make your own natural toiletries and remedies. Click here to view the programmes, and view the recipes. Fizzy bath bombs, face masks, hops pillows for insomnia, throat lozenges, eczema cream, varicose vein cream, acne gel, head lice shampoo, deodorant, and more. These recipes use all natural materials. James Wong will show you how to do it and where to get the ingredients. And these recipes really work, according to the volunteers who test them. I can't wait to try some of these out!

Next week: Find out out to use herbs to treat cold sores, bad breath, and insect bites. If I remember correctly, Mr. Wong said he was also going to show us how to make a face scrub.

AND, if you like the series, you might like the book! (Also available here on Amazon.com, but there are no reviews yet)