Who Needs Worms?

A day in the life of a homeschool family. We've got worm dissecting going on at the dining table this afternoon, folks. Hopefully, we can get this all cleaned up before dinnertime!

This is from Pearly's high school biology class she is taking at home. Orange boy was also able to dissect because we had an extra worm in the kit, so he's learning along with her as she explained how to dissect and identify all the body parts. Oops - Orange Boy accidently cut the intestines.

And the beauty of homeschooling when you have a large family is that there are always younger children around who want to get in on the action. And when they are naturally curious, they have a lot of questions. And they ask those questions to their older siblings who in turn answer them or try to find out answers to the questions. (Who needs written tests when you have younger siblings who are natural test givers? LOL)

Where's the heart?
How does it breathe?
Where is the mouth?
Where's the stomach?

Are you getting the picture here? We've got kids wanting to learn, asking questions, getting answers, absorbing the answers because they are the questions they thought up themselves. What better way is there to learn? This is the beauty of homeschooling, I tell you!

Bunny and Brown Eyes loved watching the action.

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Tall Dude

Tall Dude holding his cousin after a Christmas performance.

Warming up for a concert choir competition.

Tall Dude "officially" graduated from HS last year, but there were a couple things that we as parents thought that he still needed to work on. We decided that it was best if he stayed home one more year with the purpose of working on a few things and also to give him the opportunity to fine tune his goals for the future so that he wouldn't be wasting time in college taking classes that wouldn't be beneficial to him. This proved to be a good choice. He was able to take a class called Engineering as a Profession which is taught by a local businessman. The class is funded by the local public high school, so he is bused to the center to take the class. Tall Dude was thinking of taking business classes in college, but part of me wondered if he might like some engineering as well because he's great at math and building things. So this class was wonderful in that it confirmed to him that engineering is indeed a good fit for him now his plans are to combine engineering with business.

Another great benefit to taking one more year of HS classes was his opportunity to sing in choir. I directed a 12-voice ensemble a couple years ago and he loved it, but I was hoping he could get another chance to use his beautiful bass voice. He joined a 65-voice concert choir and also was selected to sing in the 16-voice a capella choir. This classes meets at 6:30 a.m. I wasn't sure how this would work out because the previous year homeschooling, we didn't see him up nearly that early. We have been thrilled to see him motivated to make it to choir on his own every morning. He has indeed put forth the effort and stepped up to the challenge. It's been a great year for him and I'm so proud.

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New Ventures in Homeschooling - Lapbooks!

I've been teaching my children at home for 17 years - YIKES!! We basically have a relaxed and eclectic approach. I like a little bit of Classical Education, a little bit of Charlotte Mason, some workbooks, and some days, even some unschooling (:::gasp:::). My friend, who has been homeschooling for about the same number of years told me about the lapbooks she is doing with her children. I listened thinking, "that's cool". Then I started doing google searches and youtube searches on lapbooking. I immediately began to see how lapbooking could easily compliment our schooling and would give the children something that has been missing - more hands-on, crafty-type activities.

To make a lapbook, you simply take a plain folder (legal or letter size) and decorate it with "mini-books" that are filled with information on the subject of interest. Our first lapbook was on the scientist, Archimedes. We read the book, Archimedes and the Door of Science and kept notes as we read. From these notes, we were able to categorize them into groups which formed the mini-books.

Front of lapbook

This is 2 legal-size folders glued together and refolded to create a lapbook.

Accordian book

Page with several "mini-books"

Another kind of mini-book with flip pages.

This is the back (oops, should have closed the left flap). I like the idea of taking the boys' pictures to put on the back of their project. They will be able to see exactly what they looked like when they did the project.

The boys love this. They love using their creativity. They love to use Mommie's scrapbooking supplies that have been sitting and collecting dust. They love to share what they learned as they read from their mini-books. This is a very great tool for retaining information because they had to write info, craft it into a mini-book, and every time they look at the mini-book, they will have the opportunity to reread the information again.

Oh, and I like that these are all uniform in size and will be able to store very easily. Well, now you're up to date on our latest homeschooling venture.

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Another Bike Rider in the World

I'm not sure why we didn't try this sooner, but we have a new bike rider. He went straight from tricycle to bike without training wheels on his 2nd try. This doesn't surprise me. He's been very coordinated since he learned how to walk. He is one happy camper.

Click on the picture to enlarge

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Frugal Queen

We went to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) today and had a blast. Last summer, I bought a family membership to AC Gilbert's Discovery Village which is about an hour's drive from home. OMSI is only 30 minutes from home. You may ask why we purchased the Discovery Village membership when OMSI is closer. Okay, you might not ask, but I'll tell you why.

The basic cost for family membership at OMSI is $135. The cost for a family membership at AC Gilbert is only $65. These memberships last a year and are reciprocal. Which means that I can use my AC Gilbert membership card and walk in to OMSI for FREE. And AC Gilbert membership is less than half the price! If we walked into OMSI today and paid full price, it would have been $58 . . . . just for ONE visit. This, folks, is a no-brainer!

So, if you have children's museums, zoos, etc, around your area, before plunking down the $$ for membership for the attraction closest to your house, why not check and see if there are any other places just a bit further that have a reciprocal program and might be less expensive.

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Last Day

Today was the last day of music camp. After dropping the two musicians off, the four little guys and I went to feed the ducks. Just after feeding the ducks and eating our picnic lunch, it started to rain. Lovely Oregon weather for summer - notice the long sleeve shirt!

The sun came out right after the final performance for my two campers. It was a wonderful experience for Tall Dude and Pearly to be around lots of musicians for the week. It's not so easy for homeschoolers to participate in groups like this, so music camp was a real treat. They are looking forward to improving skills throughout the year in anticipation for next year's music camp. That puts a smile on this mama's face - let me tell you.

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Marine Biology

Three of our kids are enrolled in a 6-wk marine biology class. Last week they made fish prints. They've learned quite a bit. One thing I love about homeschooling is being able to tap into parents who absolutely love their subjects. This teacher is such a science buff. It would be hard for me to fake that I enjoy science. I appreciate scientists and their knowledge, but I don't have a need-to-know the hows or whys like they do. Maybe it is because my science classes were awful. Hmm, that's a thought. Maybe I should have sat in on this class to relearn science in a more positive light. Oh well, I'm thankful that my kids are learning from highly motivated teachers who love their subjects. Next week they get to disect squid.

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Unstructured Time

I've been devoting a lot of time this week finishing up on the homeschool co-op's yearbook. It just needs to be proofed and then printed. It looks great so far - can't wait to hold a copy in my hands!

While I've been busy, busy, I haven't devoted as much time to school work and the kids have had extra time on their hands. These two boys have been doing a little "unschooling" this week. I love to see creative juices flowing. This kept them boys happily occupied for a couple hours.

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