From the archives: Drawing the wind (a pep talk on homeschooling)

First posted October 2009. Ponytails had just turned twelve and was in Grade Seven. Crayons (Lydia) was eight and in Grade Three. (Edited slightly)

It's now October. Do you know where your homeschooling plans are?

Did you lay them so thick that you can't stuff anything else in?

Are you wondering why you're only up to what you planned for Week Three and now it's Week Five or Six? Why you've skipped the last few days of French lessons? ("It's okay, kids, we'll make it up later.") Why the composer-study schedule has gotten buried under math and history?

Maybe it hasn't and everything is going along swimmingly. Everybody's still getting up early, the school room or wherever you work looks pretty good, your schooltime snacks are still nutritious, you remembered to change the calendar to October even if your "decor" is still Welcome Back To School, and nobody's begging for extra computer game time.

Maybe it's not going quite so well. You've all had nasty colds and the DVDs took over temporarily. The exercise plans lasted through the nice weather, but it's too cold out there now. All the new hymns are sounding strangely alike. The kids memorized their first poem happily, but now want to know why they have to learn another one. The one making the lapbook has only two mini-books glued in and says she doesn't want to do any more reptiles now, thank you.

And oops--you really were going to do more poetry with them this year, weren't you?

OK. This is your pep talk. You laid down all these plans, and now it's up to you to be persistent, with both yourself and the kids.

You bought that art curriculum, so make time for them to use it at least once a week.

You set them up with the history-journalling project, so encourage them to keep at it (it's going to look amazing when it's done).

You know which readaloud books you want to get through this year, so don't let them cajole you into reading only Book A when you had planned to alternate it with Books B and C. We really like this fall's Book A, and it's easier reading than Book B, but B has its own rewards.

The vocabulary chart you started is looking a bit lonely up there on the wall with only three roots filled in, so decide that tomorrow you all are going to add three more AND you're going to play one of the games from the program.

And it's NOT too cold to get out there and do some backyard nature study. The trees this morning looked like someone was blowing them with a hair dryer, but Ponytails went out and found a ladybug to draw in her nature journal. Crayons just wanted to draw the wind.

If you need to add a little pep to the same-through-the-year lessons, do it. We alternate Bible stories with Mr. Pipes, but even so the cycle of just reading, narrating can get a bit routine. Occasionally add little things in to keep the lessons interesting. This week I photocopied a kings-and-prophets timeline strip from What The Bible Is All About For Young Explorers and printed copies out on coloured cardstock; then during one of our lessons the girls cut them out, taped the two parts of them together, and made Old Testament bookmarks for their Bibles. It wasn't a major project, but it kept hands busy while we read about Elijah. Another day I gave them a colouring page about the story we were reading. We don't do that often--even colouring can get monotonous--but once in awhile it's nice to have a little extra.

Before the school year started, I put all my third-grade math ideas into a file box, and while we haven't stuck exactly to the cards as written, I'm still trying to get as much crossed off as I can before we go on to new things. This week I had noted "practice math vocabulary" (something I'd noticed on a worksheet). All I meant by that was knowing the words sum, product, and difference; not a big thing, but it's easy to overlook teaching them. I wrote each word a couple of times on slips of paper, and had Crayons pull pairs of numerals out of a bag. (We used rubber tiles from a math game, but you could use any cards.) I had her choose a slip at random, or I chose one for her. "Find the sum of your two numbers." "Find the difference between them." "Find the product." Sometimes I had her pull three numbers instead.

It's October. Switch around a little. Ponytails has been using math software during her computer time, and Crayons has been using a science CD-Rom; but it's time for a change, so now Ponytails will be using the CD-Rom and Crayons will be doing online math games. (She's also asked me if we can start using Calculadder sheets again.)

Play with time. We are doing a combination of workboxes and group activities, and sometimes the group things get dropped if the workboxes are going slow. So some days I fill only a few workboxes, and catch up on the French and nature and singing and anything else that we might get into a bad habit of missing.

And one other thing--now that everybody's back to school, are your kids getting to see their homeschooled (and other) friends? We've been slightly sidetracked on this due to colds and such that we didn't want to pass around; but I think everyone's healthy enough now that we really need to work on some of that Socialization. (Mom needs to see friends too!)

Trust in what you have laid out. Don't worry about what you think you have left out for this year--just keep on with what's already on the table. Learn new things a little at a time. Enjoy small things. Have a wonderful fall.

Dollygirl's Grade Six: Plans for Thursday

Opening time:  hymns, puzzle cards

Basic Bible Studies:  Read Galatians 3:24, Hebrews 11:1-21:2 “Thus through all the ages, before Christ and after Christ alike, there is one way of salvation.”

Math:  Fractions in real life.  Guided Example (number of boards needed to build a deck), Minds on Math 8, page 95. Page 97, questions 1-4.

Citizenship: Plutarch's Life of Pericles

Composition:  see Tuesday.

French:  we haven't done any French yet this week, so we need to make sure we include this.

Handicrafts:  continue doll-making project.

Story of Canada (Lunn & Moore), start chapter 10, "The Flying Years."  After World War II, "more prosperous times had come."  What were some changes in Canadian life at that time?  Who was Tommy Douglas?  (maybe somebody to add to your People notebook).  What happened at midnight on March 31, 1949?

Dollygirl's Grade Six: Plans for Wednesday

Dollygirl has been under the weather with a cold the last couple of days, so we didn't get everything done--some catching up tomorrow, probably.

Basic Bible Studies, page 26:  Read Romans 4:1-11, 20, 25. "No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God"  (English Standard Version)

Picture Study:  Emily Carr, "Scorned as Timber, Beloved of the Sky," 1935.  One of my own favourite Emily Carr paintings!  Why are we doing so much picture study this week?  We are hoping to make a long-delayed trip to an art gallery, where there is a special exhibit of Carr's work, including this painting.  The exhibit closes this weekend, so if we are going to get there it will have to be in the next few days.

The Story of the World Volume 4,  chapter 32,  "Africa After World War II" and "Two Republics of China."

Math puzzles

Poetry:  two poems from Emily, about Emily Carr

Shakespeare:  Cymbeline, see Tuesday.  We didn't get to this

Composition: see Tuesday.  Still haven't gotten to this one!

Handicrafts:  continue dollmaking project.  Didn't get anything done on this today.

Volunteer Afternoon for Mama Squirrel--Dollygirl stayed home.

Dollygirl's Grade Six: Plans for Tuesday

Basic Bible Studies, page 25: Yesterday we read what the prophet Isaiah said about the coming Messiah.  Today, read Luke 2:25-32, 36-38. What did Simeon and Anna say when they saw the child Jesus? Listen to “Simeon’s Lullaby,” by Wendy & Mary.



Shakespeare: Cymbeline, continue Act II, Scene IV.  Iachimo reports back to Posthumus.  Oops--we forgot about this one.  Dollygirl was fighting a cold today and we didn't get to every subject.

Dividing fractions: Work through this word problem found here: "Cassie's bird feeder holds 1/2 of a cup of birdseed. Cassie is filling the bird feeder with a scoop that holds 1/10 of a cup. How many scoops of birdseed will Cassie put into the feeder?" Minds on Math 8, page 89, word problems 16, 17, 18, 19.  Now write your own problem.

Science: see Monday.

Copywork:  Einstein quotes.

French

Poetry

The Hobbit:  Chapter 10, "A Warm Welcome"

"The lands opened wide about him, filled with the waters of the river which broke up and wandered in a hundred winding courses, or halted in marshes and pools dotted with isles on every side; but still a strong water flowed on steadily through the midst.  And far away, its dark head in a torn cloud, there loomed the Mountain!"

Skills & Crafts:  work on Dollygirl's dollmaking project.

Grammar & composition:  Write Source 2000, sections 311 and on.    As an example of recalling information, list in sentences the six levels of thinking.   No?  See the example in the book about the 1985 Live Aid concerts.  What is the difference between recalling and understanding?  Your writing assignment for today:  write a paragraph describing what Grandpa told you about V-E Day in 1945.  Use as many concrete details as you can remember.  We didn't get to this, since we read extra in science and did extra sewing as well.

Dollygirl's Grade Six: Plans for Monday

Basic Bible Studies (page 25): Review Trick #1 from Pack of Tricks. Read Exodus 20:24, and Francis Schaeffer’s comment about it. Read Isaiah 53.

Picture study:  Emily Carr, "Old Time Coast Village,"1929-30.

Minds on Math: 
Dividing fractions: what is the rule? See examples on page 87. Division problems 7, 8 on page 88. Question 13, a) and c): copy and complete the patterns.

The Story of the World Volume 4, chp 31b, "The Marshall Plan."  We have not yet done the earlier chapters about Israel, India, and Egypt, but this chapter leads directly out of what we have been reading about World War II, and also relates to Brother Andrew's Iron Curtain travels in God's Smuggler.  Some interesting (British) activities here.  Also BBC History: A Wartime Home.  Also here.

"Finally in 1945, when you are fifteen, the war ends.  Everyone in England is ecstatic.  There are even parties in the streets!  No more bone casserole, no more ration books, and no more bombs.  You can go home!  Your parents greet you at the train station with big smiles.  Now, they say, everyone can go back to normal.  But, after six years of war, what is normal?"--Susan Wise Bauer, Story of the World Vol. 4

On our large world map, find:  the United States; London, England; Berlin, Germany; France; Russia (referrred to as the Soviet Union).  (We tried to stump each other on other places as well.)
French:  continue Le voyage de Monsieur Perrichon.

Literature:  Independent Reading.   The Aeneid of Virgil, chapter 4, "Dido, Queen of Carthage."  Read pages 66-half of 71. Narrate orally.

Skills & Crafts:  work on projects.  Dollygirl cut out all the fabric pieces for a mini-doll-making project (her idea).

Science: The Great Motion Mission, chapter 5b pages 58-65
Sub-atomic particles.
Why don’t atoms just fall apart?
What do stars have to do with anything? (how stars are formed)   We skipped science and spent the afternoon working on the craft project.  Science will keep for tomorrow.

After supper:  swimming lesson.