Football!

I have been so busy and then everytime I thought of writing I just didn't!

But...
Starting back with some great pictures!! Daniel has played football for the last 2 years on a community team. He is more reserved than alot of boys his age. He is not the most aggressive boy on his team and certainly not the loudest! But (I am about to say a really "Mom" thing, but I don't care, it is true!) I think he has the most heart! He only play maybe 10-18 plays a game (seriously- he should play more!) But I LOVE watching him play! He weighs about 100 lbs, which is about 20-30 lbs less than alot of boys on the team and opposing teams. Yet, what does my child want to play each year??? yep, defense. He wants to tackle people... He wants me to have heartburn as I watch. Photos from last weeks game.
So before you ask, they lost.again. Daniel is #84 in orange and white. black cleats with pushed down orange socks.
After the pictures I will tell you our plans for next year and why.

One of the things I have disliked is the constant f-bomb (kids not coaches) and other pretty words being dropped by the boys. This isn't a high school team (not that it makes it right) but these are 11-13 year old boys. I know my son will get exposed to things and he learns to deal with them. I am glad my son is not "normal". He isn't rude to his team mates, argue with his coach, call his team mate bad names, and use the f-bomb as a regular adjective in his vocabulary. On the positive, he learns how to deal with others different than him, with different values. I love the discipline of the football and pushing him to do more than he thinks he can. We appreciate that this team is more concerned with sportsmanship than some of the teams he plays.

We have found a homeschool league, which we are excited about. It would take him all the way through highschool which is awesome. I have some research to do, but have found people I know with kids on the team, so hoping this will be a great option for next year. We are hoping for more skill building and a good environment. Can't wait until next year!

Internet Treasure- Barn Owl camera

Our obsession today and yesterday:

Barn Owl nest LIVE camera

Good thing Daniel hasn't felt well and we were not planning on doing much because we are totally obsessed the last couple days watching this Live camera that looks inside a Barn owl and her 5 eggs. Owlets are due to start hatching anytime!  We listened to a live broadcast today where the guy who has this in his backyard answered questions from an Elementary class. Next one 3/22 1:50 Pacific time.

Additional resource I found:
Has "virtual" owl pellet dissection

Owl Pellets for Sale!   I REALLY want to buy owl pellets to dissect...wonder if there is a place locally or where is best place?

What is an owl pellet?

Both kids (and me) are so excited to watch the eggs hatch.. hoping the first one doesn't start when we are asleep! They will hatch over many days.

My Curriculum for my oldest- 7th grade

Curriculum: Son, 12 years, 7th grade... Clearly we do not do everything everyday and we are constantly changing our timing to figure out what works best.

Vocabulary- We starting using this recently and really like it!

Math:Algebra Dr. Callahan. uses textbook by Jacobs, but Dr. Callahan makes the DVDs and teacher manual, etc.

We are just starting this and plan to do it for atleast 1 1/2 years since he is slightly ahead in math sequence. Better to understand it well before moving forward.

Some additional material- Logic puzzles, which I love, so I am glad he does too! And one of his favortie topics, Investing,etc. Got those genes from my husband, not me :-) Also try www.howthemarketworks.com  You buy stocks using your fake money. Great at teaching about stocks.

Always looking  to inspire my son to appreciate Art, make it interesting and relevant. Right now we are talking about Impressionist artist. These are some of the books we got from the library the other day. We  stumbled on this awesome site and it took our fancy... so we are enjoying studying it. 

http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/category/charlotte-mason/art-appreciation/

She has some new art appreciation ideas we will check out soon!

  History- Another area we use the library for, all the time. I just took a picture of some of our selection right now.  We are doing US History, but we do not have a curriculum book for History. It would probably make it easier...but we find this more interesting and makes more of an impression. We read from different books and check out TONS from the library. Emphasis on events and "why" vs. dates and memorization. That is just the way I roll, may not work for you, but it does for us. :-)

LOVE LOVE LOVE this!! This is the large part of our Science...

Botany from Apologia- I have learned so much- I understand things now that I "learned" in biology in HS and college. The top is the textbook and the bottom is the notebooking journal. I hesitate to even call it a textbook because it is so interesting, written more conversationally. Activities and questions are contained in the notebooking journal... you don't have to buy the journal, but for me, it was a must because I couldn't envision how to do some of the things on my own.

See one of the pages we did:

This was an activity to understand taxonomy by sorting shoes (classification system)...see honey, all those shoes in my closet were essential to homeschooling our son! Phew! I am so relieved I had all those shoes for my son's education! Please ignore my son's atrocious handwriting...We are a work in progress...I am not a miracle worker, just a mom.

A subject he can not get enough of:Forensic Science/Criminal Science so we use it to learn and have checked out almost every book on it in our library. I can not tell you the amount of shows he has seen on Forensic science & detective work. Not the fake ones, he likes the real thing! I will admit it is a little disturbing when your son wants to discuss murders, but it is on the right side of the law and from a science/detective position.:-)

I picked this simple Geography workbook up cheap somewhere and it has come in handy. My complaint is that maybe it was cheaper for a reason. We have found mistakes (like identify countries marked from a list and a country has an arrow next to it, but that country is not listed to choose from) But we work around it.

Can not believe how much we use this globe to learn about the world. Ignore my weird hand--- the globe lost it's weight at some point to stand up the right way.

Additionally,  we do:

Spanish-Rosetta Stone, someone gave it to us. I am not "sold" on it's supposed awesomeness...but I am giving it another try, especially since we got a microphone to practice pronunciation. 

Bible (and sneaking in some writing) In addition to his nightly devotion, He is assigned a verse(s), which he looks up, writes in a notebook and then just journals what it means to him. He loves his Bible Reading but writing is one of his least favorite things...so it is pretty short. Right now I am more concerned with him realizing he has things worth saying, worth putting on paper. So writing is incorporated within other subjects for a more natural feel. As he gets more confident, it will evolve how we address writing.

Physical Education- Usually he is in a sport each season. This past fall he started tackle football (ack, but it turned out I really enjoyed it. But watching your child is totally different than watching it on TV, both more exciting and nerve wracking!)We are taking spring off of sports because we had a broken toe during football which took him out for a few weeks and then a broken finger with this big splint that took him out of basketball in Jan. My heart and insurance co-pays need a break.

Think I got everything... oh! Forgot an important and ESSENTIAL subject:

Yes, he does laundry, cleans bathrooms, etc. Living skills are very important, plus, his future wife will thank me!!!

PS- If you see terrible typing mistakes, just ignore them, okay? My brain is tired from realizing how many things we are keeping up with!

planting (inside) while it snows (outside)

Thinking about our garden for the spring/summer and we decided we would start from seeds this year vs small plants, as we usually do.

Ironically, it snowed today which was quite funny to be planting our seeds while it was snowing, especially in North Carolina!

The seeds we are trying to start from seed (so far) are 3 types of tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, jalapeno peppers (for salsa!), bell peppers, basil, and a couple types of flowers. The worst that can happen is that we have to buy plants when it is warmer...

Daniel planted his first and then Katie planted some when she got back from preschool (and I planted a few too) I numbered the containers and the corresponding number is on the seed packet so we can keep them straight!

This is what covered my kitchen table today:













We like using the pots that you can put straight into the ground















This is a shot of outside in the late morning as we were planting...not sure you can see the flakes coming down, but they are!









my handsome planter




and it kept snowing outside










My other planter came home from preschool and helped out

The medicine dropper to water the dirt has the added benefit of building fine motor skills

And by the evening, we had over 2 inches...we can't wait until it is warm enough to plant our plants outside!

Learning Numbers

Our daughter, Miss Sassafras or Monkey, (just can not decide which nickname I want to use for the blog) lived in Guatemala until right before her 4th birthday. Due to her beginnings in poverty and orphanage living, she just doesn't grasp concept that seem so much easier to your "typical" preschooler. When she came home at 4, she didn't even know any colors in Spanish, so it was all new to her. She picked up English amazingly quick, but things like colors, letter, numbers, etc. are very abstract to her. (though she has learned most of her colors now)

My friend who adopted from China has found a similar issue with colors not making sense to her son. It is different than when a child is learning them when they are a toddler and early preschooler. I have thought a lot about it and think that part of the issue is just the way we often naturally talk about the world around us. As we try to figure out when young toddler is saying we might ask "Do you want the blue one?" or "I love those pink shoes!" etc. With no exposure to it whatsoever, no foundation at all, it doesn't click very easily. Pink can look very different if it is a pink pig, or crayon or paint color.

Numbers and letter recognition are similar issue for Miss Sassafras. Right now, we are trying to learn some letters (She may know 2 or 3) and numbers.

For Numbers- she has counting down (majority of the time) up to 11, and we are working on understanding that numbers mean something and recognition. This is one of the ways I came up with and I had the stuff laying around, which is my favorite way of doing things- cheap!

Made with an old vinyl placement, using the back of it, and electrical tape to give the numbers and counting squares texture. Miss S. can trace the numbers with her finger to help give her brain another way of making the connection or even lay paper on top and do a crayon rubbing. She can count the counting squares with her finger or they are a perfect size for Miss S. to place beans or legos to help with counting.

New homeschool blog

Learning is just in my bones... I love finding new information out, especially new ways to help my children learn. I have spent the last 15 years in various roles, all about learning...as a family child care provider (licensed child care in home), preschool teacher, trainer/ consultant for early childhood programs, director of a part-day preschool program and homeschooling mom. The thing that has remained consistent is that I thrive on researching new ideas. Nothing more exciting than that moment when a person, at ANY age, has that "aha" moment when it clicks.

I starting homeschooling our son when he was just beginning 5th grade. Our daughter came home from Guatemala in April 2008. She presently attends preschool and we will begin full-time homeschooling her in the fall, at least that is the present plan, my husband and I are "still discussing" :-). Another post to write... sometimes he still has hard time with our children not having the "typical experience".

So, sit back, join me in a cup of coffee. I may only have my own family read this. But hey, if you are not related to me and you read this, feel free to comment and let me know! :-)