Stone Fish

Kids and I are learning about Nature's Deadly Creatures.

Today's lesson is about Stone Fish.

My Response To Another Mom

One mom posted this on facebook, in a Homeschool group I am a part of: 

"Does anyone else here struggle with depression/anxiety? And how do you make that work with homeschooling? I feel like lately I am drowning in negativity and discouragement, and I have to constantly surround myself with uplifting things and prayer to get from hour to hour. I know that is a good thing, but all that I am doing doesn't seem to buoy me up as it used to. I've noticed that the ladies I VT are struggling too...and many of my friends. I used to blame all my overwhelmed feelings on homeschooling, but now I'm thinking maybe it's just the consequence of living in this crazy world. I guess my question is: Does anyone else feel this way? Do you think living in an evil world is dragging us down? Or maybe homeschooling is just wayyy more stressful than I realize!"


My response to her was:

"I don't think it's homeschooling. This is what I do: I imagine my kids gone to school from 7am - 3 pm. and me being home all alone. The first few weeks it would be a blast! I will clean all that's accumulated to be cleaned, wash all the laundry, sort it and maybe even iron it! I will update our blog and pictures folder. Then I will probably catch up on all the shows... and that's it. The shows will suck me in and I will be home all alone.. with my kids being out there, being taught by a stranger in a large group of other kids. No hugs and kisses while reading a book, no gentle reproaching when they don't listen, no "Ok, let's do that instead!" when they come up with a grand idea. All while I am home alone. That feels like a greater depression to me. And I HAVE done that! I worked teaching other kids, while my kids were being watched by another woman. I cried every single day. What I think is depression spiker is a monotonous life that we lead. Same thing over and over again. We need to spice it up! Plan a fun activity or a small field trip often. Or small changes in schedule will also do. For example, I told my husband just yesterday that I absolutely need to find time to exercise, because I need this endorphin to make me feel happy. I told him I need to plan my days better and make sure kids and I do something fun and exciting every day (just taking them outside will do! I waited until my husband got home to actually take kids outside. Why? As soon as we were out, we were all happier. Kids just had a blast splashing in puddles and digging in dirt! No super fancy planned activity was necessary). So, all that catching up I personally will be doing while kids are in camps this summer. They will be gone one week in June for 3 hrs each day, and almost all July for same hours. I am looking forward to that! 　 You can do it! Don't give up! Make some changes and see if that works."

A Successful Day

I couldn't fall asleep last night until almost 3 a.m., worrying about the recent changes in our lds co-op... You can only imagine what I felt like in the morning! :) Well, I chose to have a good day regardless. 

We didn't pull out our workbooks all day, and yet.. it was a productive day in my opinion!

My kids snuggled up next to me and read while I was brushing my daughter's hair. I did not ask them to! My 5 year old hates to read (or I thought so), and here he was - reading book after book from his "Joshua Can Read" box of books. 

For science, kids watched 2 episodes of The Magic School bus and learned about Electrical Charges and Gravity. 

For Math we played "Make a 10 game" for the 5 year old's sake and my 7 year old updated her $$ balance book. Then we learned about Monet, watched Mike Venezia's video, draw caricatures and painted lilies. Kids wanted to play with Magic sand, poly pockets, and cars - all in the same time, so that happened. 

Then school kids flooded our apartment with giggles and play, and took the play outdoors and ran around, while I cleaned and got dinner ready. Not once was someone upset or did not listen! It was an amazing day! I saw a lot of self-motivation and happiness :) (like their beds were made, only once I had to say to change out of pj's or come home from outside, and they even showered themselves without being asked to before dinner!) 

They came up to me and hugged me, thanking me for cleaning our home! Also offered help with the dinner.

On some days, homeschool and/or parenting just ROCKS!

 Ms. A drew me :) I gave them a green light to draw my big nose as big as they want :) Mr. J. draw me very pretty, while Ms. A. had a more realistic drawing :) (just kidding!)

Monet's paintings look like blubs of paint at close up, but once you step back - they are masterpieces!

No Workbooks Thursday!

Husband managed to get a ride with a co-worker, from which I quietly shouted "Hurrah!". He had an early meeting and kids were still asleep. Waking kids up in the morning is a tough one for me: I walk into their bedroom and see them curled up with their blankets, puffy lips, and snoring sounds... How can I shake them up and say, "Time to get up!"

I went back to bed and curled up myself and thought that today had to be a different day. Kids woke up and found me in my bed, both snuggled up with me and showered my cheeks with kisses.

That's a morning to start a day with! :)

Somehow, after all that cuddling it didn't feel like pulling out the workbooks and spending two hours at the desk. Instead, we got comfortable on the couch with abacus for my son's math and flashcards with simple additions for my daughter. That was our Math class!

For English Mr.J read sight words on flash cards and Miss A. read her book.

I read this article today and I it was an eye opening for me. I can literally see that happening - homeschooling moms get trapped in their systems! This is my second year of teaching (first year of teaching both kids) and I am still overwhelmed by the choice of curriculum!

If you feel overwhelmed and trapped, please, read this article. It will help to put things into perspective.

I love having an opportunity to be with my children as much as I do right now. Nothing can replace those cuddly mornings filled with kisses.

Welcome, No Workbooks Thursdays! :)

Science Class on Rainforest Ecosystem and Coco Beans

A few weeks ago we studied about different types of forest, including the Rainforest from this book.

5 yr old Mr. J

5 yr old Mr. J

 We also watched this video on Youtube about the Tropical Rainforest:

6 yr old Ms. A

I have recently signed up for Netflix trial and we've been enjoying watching The Magic School Bus videos. It's really a wonderful way to learn for little kids!

Today we watched an episode of Rainforest and after the video discussed what we learned, made drawings, and reviewed our knowledge of a rainforest.

5 yr old Mr. J

now 7 yr old Ms. A

Mom

While I am writing this post, they are watching the video the second time of their own choice :) I think daddy will hear all about coco beans tonight!

Choosing Curriculum

Choosing Curriculum is probably the hardest thing that I had to do for my homeschooling journey. Once I chose it all and it all seemed to work, our son decided to be homeschooled and it's been almost a year now that I was struggling adjusting to a double sized classroom.

With my daughter I knew what level she was on and what books worked with her; and, of course, giving attention to only one child is so much easier than to two... not mentioning the second one being a younger child and a boy, who has shorter attention span and has hard time sitting in one place for more than 10 min. We love him to pieces!!! :)

Having our son at home has been so wonderful. If my teaching is not what I want it to be, the sibling relationship is off the charts amazing! They've been playing so well every day - dress ups, pretend, dolls, cars, name anything - they've done it. Of course, there is occasional bickering here and there, but nothing we can't handle.

To continue with the curriculum topic - I think I've finally got it! It's talking to other moms at co-ops not researching endlessly online that really helped me. I had the books in my hands, different levels of the same curriculum, and the testimony of my friend - a mom who's actually done it and have seen it work.

Another advantage to discovering curriculum through friends is that your children could also see it and hear that their buddies are using the same books. Miss A. was not confident of letting go of her Go Math book, because she was scared that "the other one" that mommy decides to do is going to be too hard for her and not as fun (in black and white print, for example).

I am a little late starting new curriculum (starting with this second/winter semester into summer), but as a Russian saying goes - it's better late than never. This is an advantage of homeschooling - you keep trying different curriculum until you find the one that works for your children.

Mr. J, 5.5 years old, Kindergarten

Math - GoMath workbook. He is able to read the problems himself most of the time. They are simply worded and also repetitive in nature: so he recognizes the words from one problem to another and he expects to see the same pattern in wording as well.
Both Miss A. and Mr. J also love using Mathlinks when working out their math problems.

Phonics - Explode The Code.

Spelling - Sprectrum Grade K Sight Words, All About Spelling Level 1, Spelling You See A.

P.E. - Last semester Mr. J was in soccer, Hip-Hop Dance, and gymnastics. This semester we are upgrading our gymnastics to a better one, starting tennis, and instead of soccer we decided to join the track team.

Reading - We read as we do math, we read simple books with 3-4 letter words, we read in all the other workbooks (sight and spelling words) and we love to play Reading Rods Word For Word Phonics Game, where you put words together out of blocks. I used to stress out so much about Mr. J's reading capabilities, but I see his progress and I am reminded so often by other moms that he is only 5 :)

Combined Curriculum with Miss A. 

Science - We learn science in several ways. One of them is being part of the co-op. There kids are learning Cytology and Botany. I actually teach that class in our co-op and I have two groups of kids - older (10 and up) and younger (5 through 9 year olds). I simplify it for the younger ones.

At home we use Hartcourt Science book and just follow its simple lessons with little projects in the beginning of each chapter. It's very inexpensive, which is nice for a homeschooling family with one income.

We also use How do things grow? for simple lesson plans and hand on projects, A Reason for Science (only the workbook, I could not afford the entire set, but I hear it's really good), Creatures, Large and Small from Snoopy's Worlds to find fascinating facts about creatures. Bite-Size Science has simple experiments that you can do in just 15 min.

Anatomy - My First Human Body Encyclopedia, See Inside Your Body, and Miss A. is getting Squishy Human Body for her birthday this month.

History - Story of the World, Volume 1 and the textbook. We are also learning history in co-op.

Geography - We are learning the states and coloring our Jumbo sized U.S. States map we got at the dollar store with the help of this Geography textbook.

Art - big thanks to Erica from confessionsofahomeschooler.com for her wonderful Artists curriculum.

Music - we are learning how to play piano with Harmony Road Music course and learning about musicians from Erica's Composers Unit.



Miss A., 6 years old (about to turn 7), Second Grade

By now Miss A. has completed many workbooks and curriculum, including Math for Gifted and Talented Grade 1, GoMath 2nd grade, Spectrum Math 2nd grade, Writing with Ease level 1, First Language Lessons level 1.

Starting in January she will learn from:

Math - Singapore Math level 2A, will be using a lot the Fraction Tower set.

Writing - Spectrum Writing grade 2

Reading Comprehension - Spectrum Reading grade 2

Spelling - All About Spelling level 2, Spelling You See level C

Grammar - First Language Lessons level 2

We decided to skip on Writing With Ease this year, because there is already plenty of writing in her other books. We don't want her hand to fall off writing! :)


Good luck to you and to us this new year of 2016! We are excited to learn and happy to learn together! :)