Week Three...A Juggling Act!

 I am a little bit of a slacker writing this blog for our third week of homeschooling.  Things are getting busier but I know... NO EXCUSES!
More so, It seems such a perfect timing to talk about being busy and trying to get things done at the same time which led to the focus of my blog this week.  Homeschooling is like a balancing act!
We were at a walk to benefit a local school for special needs children, when I heard a comment to my husband from somebody once she found out that we were homeschooling how I should not be distracted with doing house works while trying to teach my kids.  True, it is a challenge not to be concerned about keeping the house in order, making sure meals are prepared, and laundry are washed and folded while  preparing for everyday lessons. As a homeschooler mom, I understand that it is necessary to create a balance between my role as a "housewife", a mom and as my children's primary educator.  I take all these roles seriously.  I can tell you, I am busier now than when I was working full time.  The difference though is now, life is more rewarding.  Being able to stay with my two boys and taking a very active role in shaping their lives as good Catholics and hopefully responsible and conscientious individuals as they grow are such a blessing that I am always thankful for (special shout to my husband Steve).
Another balancing act that I'm sure a lot of homeshoolers encounter is, when should homeschooling stop being like a "typical" classroom to something that allows children to discover, explore and learn things that they have interest in and still maintain a "structured" curriculum and learning environment.  Personally I am still learning to juggle with respect to these idea.  Sometimes I still can't help to compare what I do to what other families do in terms of how they approach homeschooling.  Am I being too structured?  Is four hours of "classroom" learning enough each day?  How are my kids learning compared to those who go to regular schools?  Am I exposing them enough to develop their social skills?  plus more.  One advice that I am confident to share to families thinking to homeschool or into homeschooling...  You can not do it on your own.  There are tons of resources on-line, in the community and even beyond that we can access to make our homeschooling experience richer and more meaningful.  We can choose and pick activities (or even develop our own) that we can use to enhance lessons to suit our kid's needs and interests.  I am thankful to Seton for providing academic and even tech support to homeschoolers under their program, and I've been supplementing the children's learning with things I find suitable either on-line, from other parents or other resources available to us.
Some highlights of the week:
Monday: Anthony became a synonym chef and baked some "synonym" rolls to reinforce out synonym lesson this week from last week.  Thanks to Miss Carroll and her blogspot http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/.  Anthony also came out with the idea of attaching words that are synonyms as leaves of a flower after he sorted them out.  Aidan worked on his fine motor skills by cutting blue paper strips and making a collage of Jonah's whale.  It also served as a review for his color blue lesson.  The kids love to listen to bible stories and this week's story was Jonah and the whale so it was a good connection to Aidan's art project.  We also fed the Tiger puppet with picture words that begin with letter T to review his T lesson.
Tuesday:  It was a little chilly but we still joined other homeschoolers for a picnic at a park where the kids had an opportunity to play and interact with other homeschooler kids.  Aidan also had his first speech therapy after the picnic which he did great.  My little boy is growing up so fast!
Wednesday:  For our story time I read the kids these awesome books about synonyms which ended up to be so much fun (Stroll and Walk, Babble and Talk; Pitch and Throw, Grasp and Know by Brian Clearly).  Libraries and librarians are great resources that we've been utilizing on a regular basis.  Anthony also started writing alliteration poems in connection to the letter sounds we've been learning in Phonics.  It is also a good way not only to introduce naming (noun), describing (adjective) and action (verb) words, Anthony's creativity  is also develop as he comes up with his own (and oftentimes) silly sentences.
Thursday:  We took our class outside as the weather turned out to be that perfect fall day.  I've been slowly introducing geography to Anthony by using and making maps, pointing out places and routes that we encountered in his history lesson on the globe, while teaching him cardinal directions, and other parts of the map.  Aidan and Anthony also did some stamping art using apples and leaves they collected in our yard.
Friday: Aidan had his swimming lesson and we ended up going to the beach where the kids did some exploring (Anthony loves finding crabs under rocks) and building "rock" sculpture.  You can tell that our children's parents are biologist and engineer.
Going back to my previous concern, "Am I good in doing the "juggling act"? Time will tell but right now, I am just giving my kids the best that I can, and continuously asking God for help.

Week Two... Here We Go!

 

Our second week of homeschooling flew by fast!  We are getting comfortable with our daily routines and schedules and I am thankful that I am enjoying this wonderful times with my kids more, with less worries and uncertainties.
Both Anthony and Aidan are making very good progress.  Believe it or not, we are ahead of schedule which gives us ample time to make the lessons more interesting like play memory game for Anthony's synonyms lesson in English, and card games for his Math lessons.  I also gave Anthony breaks from  just doing worksheets.  Instead he practice skills using the board or through oral reviews.  Anthony is also spending some time teaching or helping Aidan with his works.
Aidan shows more enthusiasm and willingness this week (as you can see from the video.)  Seton's (our program) well planned and well laid out curriculum has been a valuable resource for me ever since.   I actually re-read Aidan's curriculum and realized that our phasing is a little faster for him which can be a reason why he was frustrated doing his works last week.  I have to back tracked my teaching style towards scaffolding, that allows him more time to develop and master skills before moving to a new lesson or activity.  This taught me to slow down and appreciate slow but steady progress.  I also continue to practice patience with both of them whenever they become challenging to me.
Other highlights of our second week:
On Monday we did a mini-lesson about crystals and rock formation.  Aidan actually picked a book about crystals from the library and I tired to tied it up with the exploration lesson we are doing in History.  I connected the lesson as well to their past experience from our visit to Luray Cavern this past summer where we collected some rocks and quartz that we also used in the lesson .  For the fun part, we set up an experiment to make rock sugar (crystals).  It was a perfect opportunity for Aidan to reinforce what he learned about coming up with new colors by mixing up different primary colors using food coloring.  We also used this for Anthony to develop some scientific method skills like making predictions, doing daily observations (about the changes in crystal formation), and keeping a log of his observations in his science journal everyday.
On Tuesday, as an incentive by finishing our lesson early, we went to the zoo where the kids had some free play time.  They had a blast in the water garden which is perfect on that hot muggy day.  We also used this chance for Anthony to observed various animal exhibits and picked an endangered species that he will work on for the Homeschool Science Fair this October.  His top three picks were the Snow loepard, African wild dog, and the Red wolf.  And the winner is ..... the African wild dog!  What really fascinates me from this outing is that Anthony developed a better understanding about endangered vs. vulnerable or extinct species, what makes them vulnerable and why, based on what he read from the zoo exhibits.
Wednesday was interesting because the kids ended up doing a puppet show about the Story of Creation.  I can tell you, the process was not easy.  In addition to spending at least an hour making the puppets and setting up the show, it took us more than 5 takes to have the video that you can see here. At the end, it was a fun learning experience for all of us!  Anthony not only know now the proper sequence of the story (not from memorization but by doing the play),  we also learned patience and hard work from this activity.
Life lessons for this week: Kids (and even adults) learn better by doing; progress is still a progress even if it takes time;  and as a teacher, I can definitely learn a lot of things from my kids (students)!
Till next time.

Week One Of Our Journey

Week one of homeschooling, DONE!  What's the BIG DEAL? Sounds like nothing to celebrate but I considered it a milestone.  After the first week of staying home with my children, being a mom and their primary teacher 24/7, I'm beat! Would I still do it for the next 173 days or 8 years? YESSSSSSSS no question about it.  Yes, it is stressful; trying to balance home and "school"; worrying if I am being too rigid with our schedule or that I'm not doing enough; frustrating when what I've planned didn't materialize; but the rewards overshadow the challenges.  Seeing my children learn, ask questions, create things and just have fun is something that I won't trade for anything, and knowing that I am there to share those memories with them is just simply priceless.
Here are some highlights of our week:
The first couple of days were very gloomy and rainy so we spent most of the times indoors, however, the kids still managed to enjoy themselves and be creative.  Monday, I left a CD playing with songs connected to our lessons about the Holy Trinity while I went upstairs to prepare lunch, and the boys stayed in their "classroom" playing with KNEX.  The next thing I know, my oldest son was calling me and showing me what they built. A "TUB-low" and "ZIG-lophone".  Both of them were holding a "musical" instrument  from the KNEX they made and marching around the classroom pretending to be part of a  band.  It's just a testimony that children can have the most creative and imaginative minds given the right tools. On Tuesday, we met up with other homeschooler families and the boys played with other children in the group.  It's interesting to share ideas and learn form other families "How they do it?" Wednesday, finally the sun showed up and we were able sit outside, do some lessons and play some games.  You can see in the pictures how my youngest son is learning to balance on one leg, they also tried to do the wheelbarrow and inchworm race.  My eldest son came up with the idea of doing a treasure hunt for my husband in our yard since we were talking about voyages during the times of crusaders and early navigators for our history lessons.  He made a map of our yard and we applied the "rhyming" lesson from English to make the clues.  It was a successful treasure hunt. I loved it because we were able to combine together various lessons in one fun-filled activity.  Thursday, I introduced the food pyramid as part of their science lessons.  Talking about picky-eaters.  This was a perfect lesson about eating healthy and why we need to eat healthy.  The boys made a book about the five food groups and Anthony wrote a story about his favorite food, the "Corn".  We also decided to do a "Good Deed" chart where each of them can earn stars for their every good deed.  I've got the inspiration from Anthony's karate teacher and his story about the good and the bad dragons. He said, "If we wanted the good dragon to grow and become stronger, we have to feed it."  What do we give the dragons as food?  Good deeds!  Which ties in with our lessons about obedience and following rules.  I think it's really awesome that I can make connections with things that we do in school, at home and outside our home/school to reinforce values that we wanted them to have.  The week went by fast, Friday was extra special because we celebrated Mary's birthday.  Both of them made cards for Mary, and helped me maked her birthday cake which we shared later with two of Anthony's classmate from his old school during our "movie night."  Overall, I can say that I can't wait for our next class, and I am looking forward to more stressful but rewarding weeks with my boys!