A Carschooling Week!

Short post this week! We celebrated Ron's 6th birthday this weekend, which included dinner out with visiting grandparents on Saturday night, a Chuck E. Cheese outing with a couple of fellow violin-playing friends on Sunday night, and then he opened presents on Monday, his actual birthday. I was totally exhausted after a long weekend and so Monday we just did our music practicing and took the rest of the day easy. Here is our birthday boy, fully enjoying his status as king for a day:

We are trying to tone down our birthday and Christmas gifts in an effort to be better stewards of our resources and battle consumerism in our family. We now only give the kids three reasonable-sized gifts each birthday and Christmas; one from each set of grandparents, and one from us. Also this year, instead of having a big party and getting tons of gifts, most of which we likely would not need or use, our kids decided that they will instead ask family and friends to donate towards their "Birthday for a Cause" campaign through One Day's Wages. You can check out their campaign here!

We did appreciate this addition to our schoolroom sent by Uncle Mike, Auntie Esther, and Owen: check out this awesome world map puzzle! The pieces are made of a thick foam and are very durable. The boys enjoy building it and lounging on it! It has fit right in our emphasis this year on world geography!

This week, Harry is focusing on the ecosystem of oceans, and concurrently in science, we are doing salt experiments. Here is the current progress of our attempt to create salt crystals:

We added salt to boiling water until there was so much salt it no longer dissolved. We then let it cool down...

...and poured the mixture into a glass bottle, letting a paper clip affixed to a pencil hang in the water. 

By Day 1, we began to see some crystals form on the sides of the bottle, and more are to come!

But then on Wednesday and Thursday, we had two subsequent days of carschooling! I had to go to Moody Bible Institute on both days to record interviews with two Moody Radio shows (Building Relationships with Gary Chapman, the show airs on May 7th; Midday Connection, the show airs on Monday, April 11th). We live about an hour or more away from Chicago with traffic, so I just packed up the books and had the kids bring them with to do along the way or while they were waiting for me! But while we were on campus, they just had fun eating and enjoying the sights:

Sitting next to the platform with Midday Connection hosts Anita Lustrea and Melinda Schmidt doing their thing!

The boys all love Moody and say they want to attend college there!

Getting to eat lunch with Dad two straight days in a row was a nice bonus!

Dining at the Moody Commons, the boys' "most favorite restaurant on the planet!"

So it wasn't one of our most productive weeks, but still a memorable one. Hope to pick things back up next week and really finish strong in the time we have left! Thanks for stopping by!

Week 25: Finishing Our Time in India!

This week we were back to school, after having a nice week off for Spring Break. We didn't go anywhere, we just kept it simple and coordinated our break with my husband's Spring Break...this is one of the things I love about homeschooling, that our schedule is totally flexible! He took them to Chicago one day during the break so that I could get ready for a speaking trip to the West Coast, and we also took the boys to an indoor playplace for a fun morning. Harry and Ron were by far the biggest kids, since all the other children their size were at school, but all three had a great time nonetheless.

This week we began focusing on China, but I don't have any photos from those activities yet. We also finished up a few activities related to our recent focus on India, so I'll share those here. First of all, in conjunction with India we studied mountains, since some of the most notable mountains and mountain regions are in or near India (think Everest!) The boys had fun building a model of a mountain and trying to show different ecosystem layers present on one mountain:

They also tried their hand at stone-inlay Indian art...

Harry created his in the shape of India, to remind him to pray for the Indian people.

By the way, all the art projects we do come from a fun book called Global Art. I do not come up with any art ideas on my own, as I am completely inept at art myself! But all three boys truly enjoy when we do the hands-on and creative activities. So I'm grateful for our curriculum that directs us in this area!

Meanwhile, as we are now in the home stretch (!) with only 11 more official weeks left in our curriculum, I am both excited by what we have accomplished and sobered by "what we have left undone." I am considering having Harry take a standardized test this summer to see how we are doing in relation to other children his age, just to give me some guideposts as to where we might need to focus more attention next year. I have contacted Kolbe Academy for more information on their testing service and we'll see how that goes.

As for Ron, this weekend is a big week for him as he turns 6! Kindergarten has been very simple and straightforward for him this year. But he has made great strides in his cursive, his reading, and has started Singapore Math 1A in the past couple of weeks. He is also a GeoPuzzle World expert and has demonstrated a love for maps and geography, which we would not have discovered without our emphasis in world cultures and countries this year. So although on one hand I haven't felt as though I've really put as much time into helping him this year, he has still managed to learn and grow in a number of areas, and I'm thankful for that! Next year will be an interesting switch for Ron to being a 1st grader with a longer school day...hopefully we will all survive!

And as for Dobby, he is demonstrating an interest in reading and has a number of words under his belt so far, such as: God, Bible, milk, pizza, cat, dog, cow, and pillow. Random list, but fun to see his literacy growing! He loves to play with letters, do "work" when the older boys are doing school, and paint whenever I let him!

That's all for this week! Thanks for stopping by...hoping to have more outdoor photos soon with the weather starting to hint at spring!

Weeks 23 and 24: 100 Day Party!

We did a number of things these past two weeks, but really this post is all about our 100 Day Celebration!

First, I used last year's idea and scattered the numbers 1-100, written on apple Post-Its, all over the walls of our main floor. The twist this year is that the numbers from 51-100 were written as math problems for Harry to solve, to make it a little more difficult. With the help of their (stuffed) friends Hedwig and Scabbers, Harry and Ron made it through with flying colors!

Then it was time for 100-shaped breakfast items: eggs, pancakes, and ham!

Ron and Harry counted out 100 popcorn kernels:

And the popcorn became a part of our 100 pieces of snacks, which everyone counted out on their own:

Then it was estimation time! The question the boys pondered was which one of the three containers of candy had 100 total pieces:

I gave them the technique of counting out 10 of each and using that as the basis for their estimation:

(And yes....they did get to sample some of the goodies after the counting was done!)

Next, a quick probability exercise: what happens when you flip a coin 100 times?

An art project: what can you create out of 100 dots of paint?

Harry walked 100 steps from home...

...then drew a picture of himself at age 100 while Ron built a ship out of 100 Lego pieces:

Lastly, our celebration cupcakes: 10 cupcakes each with 10 sprinkles on top!

And that was our 100 Day Celebration! Lastly, on an unrelated note, I read The Grouchy Ladybug with the Ron and Dobby, and they painted these cute rocks to commemorate the story:

Weren't they adorable? =) Hope you had a wonderful week! We start Spring Break next week, hooray!

Weeks 21-22: Ongoing Questions!

This week I'm going to post about some of my ongoing/current questions and concerns. Just to demonstrate that homeschooling is not always a flawless, trouble-free journey with smiles all around every day. Let's do this child by child...

Harry, 3rd Grade:

My biggest concerns with Harry is that we are just not getting enough done every day. We are a generally slow-moving family, and I always have the boys do their music practicing before schoolwork. This means that Harry is starting his actual school work between 9:30 and 10 a.m. He usually gets a couple of hours in before lunch, then he has an hour to read (a combination of assigned and free reading from books I give him), then he usually works another hour and a half after that until about 3:30 p.m. I suppose if you count the amount of time a typical public school student is in school, it's pretty similar. But still, I can't shake the feeling that we are not doing enough, but nor can I imagine doing any more time-wise! As he gets older and has more schoolwork, I will have to figure out ways to be more efficient to fit more in!


Academically, I think about the people who told me before we started homeschooling that he would jump way ahead in certain subjects, like math. This has not happened for us! We are in Singapore Math 2B, taking our time with the mental math in adding and subtracting multiple-digit numbers. I think he is pretty much right where most of his classmates would be in the 3rd grade. And I'm totally fine with it, so long as he is learning and retaining the concepts.

Lastly...we haven't done nearly as many science experiments as we are supposed to, it is the subject I let slide the most, but it's the subject that when we do, Harry enjoys. So I really need to be better at doing all those projects and be better prepared to make them happen!

Ron, Kindergarten:

Ron tries to keep his head still while practicing!

As for Ron, I have kept it SO simple for him this year. He starts out his day practicing his violin, then I'm happy if we do the three Rs--reading, writing, arithmetic--and if we fit anything else in, I consider it a bonus. We try to keep up with the Kindergarten curriculum with My Father's World, but there are many days we don't get to all of it. Ron also joins in with some of our geography activities, so he is learning on that front. But I will confess that Harry gets most of my attention and time, and Ron much less so. That's something I definitely struggle with, and I wonder how things will go next year when Ron is 1st grade-aged! I will have to balance things out much more.

But in terms of the "moving ahead" potential, Ron has just finished Singapore Earlybird, so we can start Singapore 1A this year! Harry had not even done 1A until after 1st grade, as we went back through the program from the beginning to solidify his basic math facts which were suspect after his start in public school. But Ron will have the benefit of being able to start the program earlier, which will be fun to see. I'm looking forward to it!

And he is successfully writing cursive, as he has been so motivated to follow Harry and learn how to write this way. I wonder, though, if I should be doing some print with him as well so that he can write that way, too. I also am thinking I need to start spelling with him soon. So much to do, so little time!

Dobby, 3 years old:

If I spend less time with Ron, then I spend even less with Dobby! Somehow, though, he has picked up all his letters and numbers. We do spend time each day on a variety of skills--cutting, pasting, printing, coloring. Nothing formal or structured, I just try to make sure he is continuing to have opportunities to practice these skills on a regular basis. I feel badly, though, that I don't read to him enough, although he does listen in whenever we are doing read-alouds at home. He is on the waiting list to go to preschool in the fall, which I think would be a good experience for him, and I'm hoping it will also give me a little more freedom to focus on the two older boys in the morning, especially Ron. Of course, having to transport Dobby on those school days will also complicate our lives as well! We'll see how it all goes. Mainly, he loves to just tag along with his brothers and do whatever they do!

30 degrees in Chicagoland? Not too cold for recess!

Me, 40-something!

For myself, I constantly struggle with feeling as though I need to be a much more encouraging, gracious teacher. I think the kids enjoy being at home sometimes too much, and I don't always think they take schoolwork as seriously as I would like them to. I'm always lecturing about doing their best work, with their best attitude. I feel like I'm being grouchy, grumpy mom way more than I am being positive, smiley mom. This is something I really want to work on, and praying for more wisdom and patience to make this happen. I'd appreciate your prayers on this front as well! There are times I wonder, "Lord, would it be better for a real teacher to teach them, given all my flaws???" Yet despite those flaws, my eldest will still tell me regularly, "Mom, you're the best teacher in the world." How forgiving and gracious our kids are with us! Sometimes I feel I don't deserve that kind of grace, and I need to offer WAY more of it in our homeschool experience.

Fun photos:

And to end the post with something random, here are some photos that Harry took of his most special toy companion, which he has had ever since birth. Actually, each of our boys has one of these, but they are all unique and special to each child. We have spent way more time than we care to admit looking for someone's "Mr. Bear" before nap times or bedtimes, but at the same time I can't imagine their childhoods without them. Anyway, here is Harry's little photo essay of a day in the life of his Mr. Bear . Enjoy!

"Boy, I need a drink!"

"Nice story, Harry!"

"Umm, Harry? Are you ever going to finish piano time???"

Thanks for stopping by! =)

Weeks 17-20: Castles, Oceans, Grasslands, and SNOW!!

I've been dying to update this blog, but life has just gotten in the way. I can't even comprehend that we are past the halfway point of the year. I feel like we just started school yesterday! Nevertheless, the weeks march on. Here is a quick summary of what we have been up to this past month...

Germany and Rivers....

We ended our time in Europe with a focus on Germany; did you know that there are tens of thousands of castles in that country? I've been trying to give Harry more experience with using the Internet to do research, so he investigated a number of websites and chose his favorite German castle, pictured here. We have added it to our "things to see one day if we ever make it to Europe" list!

Burg Eltz Castle: I think Harry chose this because it looks like Hogwarts!

Harry also did a unit on rivers and lakes, which included building a model of a river and learning about surface tension in science. See if you can get a paper clip to float in a glass of water!

It's harder than it looks to do! Hint: the little unbent paper clip on the left was a big help!

As for the river model, he used salt dough to make a nice replica of a river bank; we attempted to flow water onto it and freeze it overnight outside to create a frozen river (the boys were so excited to have their Lego minifigures "skate" on the ice!), but alas, that idea did not work. Oh well!

Meanwhile, Ron was doing his own project on a body of water, focusing on the ocean. He painted the background for a mural on ocean creatures, then all the brothers helped out with their own contributions to fill it up. Another fun addition to our wall exhibit of school projects!

I have to admit, art projects are not my forte. But the kids love it so much when the paints come out. So, I'm going to try to be better about giving them more chances for creative expression when I can. This semester in our weekly homeschool co-op, neither of the older boys are taking art, so I feel I need to make more effort on my end!

Africa!
Our continuing trip around the world has now taken us to the continent of Africa, in which we have focused on Kenya in particular, on the ecosystem of the grasslands, and on the related animal inhabitants. Speaking of wall art, the boys added to the previous ocean mural with a safari mural, again involving lots of paint and a group effort:

Harry and Ron also tried their hand at designing African face painting designs, which I tried my best to copy on their actual faces using a mixture of tempera paint and lotion as advised by the book Global Art which we have been using this year. How do you think I did?

I tried to get them to go to go to Costco with those faces but sadly, they declined. =(

Meanwhile, Ron is almost done with Singapore Earlybird math, and also nearly through the end of Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading, which has really helped him improve this skill this year. Now he volunteers to read to his younger brother, which I love to see. And he's even started teaching Dobby some basic karate moves!

As for Dobby, I mainly keep him occupied with a rotation of Kumon books in tracing and pasting, and a BrainQuest book for preschoolers. He can handle scissors finally, and is getting closer to writing his own name. Two out of five letters so far!

And of course in the midst of these weeks, we had our very fun Chicago blizzard to enjoy. And enjoy the boys (and their dad!) did!

Thanks for visiting this very belated update! Hopefully I will be able to return and post again before another month goes by! Next week we travel to Asia! Stay tuned...