Homeschooling and Moving

In a flash, our lives are changing. We are moving at the end of June about 760 miles away. Home school has turned into mostly computer curriculum and lots of reading books. We have spent a large portion of time working on math, science, reading, and phonics. I will continue this until our move. I am planning to register the kids for Connections Academy. I am doing this for the move to help prepare us all for structure, and direction.  Also, to save money on curriculum. I will supplement and look for gifted classes in the new area if need be, but I think this will be a proactive slide into adjusting to the big move.

All three children need to have structure and solid plans – this move will require great efforts for a smooth transition for all of us. So I am excited to move forward in this area. I also look forward to learning from the teachers that will be assisting us. They will either love me for all of my questions, and investigative ways, or hate me. It does not matter I will be learning and so will the kids!

For the move, I have made a time line for the kids to help ease their anxiety and anticipation. We are still waiting on a house. I have used that to help their minds prepare.

The timeline:

1. We find a house.
2. We start to pack.
3. We clean the rooms.
4. We give away what we no longer need/want.
5. We plan for the truck.
6. We have Joshua’s birthday party.
7. We are leaving at the end of June.

(Other things to help us all prepare.) We pretty much have a house set, but we have not signed the lease so nothing is finalized. However, I did start showing them pictures of the house and explaining the layout. I have explained where the rooms will be and how it is different from this house. I have explained the different colors and appliances that will be there. I have been showing them pictures of the area, pointing out landmarks, and showing them places that I plan to take them to. I have also been talking about the family members that are there, and showing them pictures.

Another factor is the drive. We have been going over the length of the drive, the states that we will be traveling through, and kind of a game plan for how we drive out there. Right now, that is still up in the air, but I am doing my best to prepare them as much as possible. They are feeling excited and sad – I know I feel the same way. I think this may be a pretty smooth transition for the most part. We are trying to keep everything as stable and familiar as possible. I plan to use the trip as a learning opportunity as well. Hopefully, we can get some pictures, and discuss geography. Who knows what our minds will run wild with on our learning adventures!

That is what we are up to at the moment. We did go to the park, and had an awesome playdate this past weekend. There has been a lot of building, and imaginative play going on around here. The floor is covered with Heroscape surroundings and Daniel and Joshua are building a huge city together. Ariel is doing reading comprehension on the computer.

Oh! I almost forgot we tried making stories at www.storybird.com . They boys were kind of into it for about two seconds. Ha ha ha They tried and are going to try again for me on another day. Ariel created a story about friendship and a bully. They all did fabulous.

Silly Santa Stuff

Woo! The Bat.

The Mouse Nose

I cannot get all of my pictures to download – I will try later. One of their grandma’s sent them cards and I got a few pictures in there of them opening them. Hopefully, I can get them all in later.

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Tickles, Ruby & Furnace

Meet Tickles, Ruby & Furnace they are the animated characters in the Creative Express art curriculum we use. We were using the online version for a while, but then decided to purchase the CD-ROM version. Unfortunately, it looks as if they are shutting down, but I cannot find clear information. Here is the store section of their website. My guys love it and have been absorbed in it for days. They go through cycles.

They have been consumed in learning about many different artists and their styles. Actually, they have been sucked into so many different things about art. It is such a wonderful program. Here is their link to the curriculum section if you would like to take a look. Not only is it a great art curriculum, but it shows and it teaches about inventors, science, math, color hues, life stories about the artists, it also has games and quizzes. (I am not getting any kickbacks for this I personally think it is a great resource.) Anything that stirs Daniel to do art is WONDERFUL!

He and Joshua spent time together drawing Pokémon. They have been playing Pokémon together while Ariel wanted alone time with the Tickles, Ruby & Furnace. At times, they watched it together, and created things together – at other times they each wanted to be alone with the program. Below, I have pictures of their creations. Daniel and Joshua created maps as well. They came up with Pokémon adventures and made maps to help lead them to their destination, or treasures. They all painted pictures of one or more of the characters from the art animation – Joshua drew them with markers also. The red Lego picture is Ariel’s iPhone she made. She is showing off her dragon shirt and Santa slippers. Joshua made tower battles yesterday morning. I am so happy with Daniel’s drawing progress. He is starting to get more detailed and devoting more time and interest in creating them.

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Hanging Out With Nature

The online schooling help that I have been using lately is Internet4Classrooms. This has been a resource that I use off and on. It is packed full of awesomeness! Joshua and Daniel spent a large portion of time in the Kindergarten Language Arts and Kindergarten Math Skill Builders.These boys LOVE math! Ariel spent a large portion in 1st Grade Language Arts Skill Builders, but she got bored so she went to 1st Grade Science Skills. This girl LOVES science! I will start her in the second grade section of the language arts and see how that goes maybe she won’t get bored.

When you click on the “Skills” section it consists of links, in those links are more links, which contain a multitude of other resource links. Online games, quizzes, and printable worksheets. It also has a section for special needs. It is just an all around wonderful site.

This morning we headed off to the grocery store, and had a wonderful experience. No meltdowns/sensory overloaded incidents/or potty issues. Yea! We went to the park after lunch and went on a nature walk. On the trail, they had plaques or signs labeling certain types of vegetation so we made a game of finding the signs and saying the name of the plant or tree. They loved it and had a fabulous time. We took a ton of pictures and talked about all of the different things we could find and see. We were hoping for more critters, but no such luck.

After our nature walk, we went back to the park for a while and then, walked to the river and enjoyed the breeze. It was a very hot day. There were not many people at the park and that was nice, but there was a little girl who was four years old and her grandma. We talked with them and later another woman came who wanted to swing. She was fishing and needed a break from her friends, plus she was bored because no fish were biting. We talked to her for a while and then, came home and had strawberry fruit popsicles. It was a lovely afternoon!

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What We’ve Been Doing

We have been working a lot online – worksheets are just not cutting it. They are all having too much trouble with sensory overload trying to focus on their task and handwriting. I am not pushing them with the handwriting and worksheets – instead I decided to use the keyboard. The computer is our friend! Joshua has dyslexia and has a very hard time with reading and other functions so I went in search to help him with phonics and reading types of things that are online.

There are great software programs, but they are too expensive for us. I decided to try ReadingEggs free trial. They all love it, but I am not sure we will be able to afford it at this time. However, it has given me ideas to use and work with on my own that I plan on coming up with. Joshua picked it up right away and can read much more than I knew. The issue is books. He has a hard time with books, the words get jumbled, and his head gets dizzy. He gets frustrated and tired. I do not pressure him to read because he is 5 years old so I think he is doing an incredible job, but he wants to be able to read like Ariel.

Ariel is able to read far beyond her years, and she was a natural. I did not have to do much except read to her for a while. I did start phonics and reading in pre-school with them, but she basically taught herself once she got past kindergarten level. Daniel seems to be at the beginning to first grade level and I am very pleased with that. He is doing an awesome job at learning to read as well especially when he has so many distractions making it more difficult for him.

This week has also been about imagination. The boys have been playing so well together and creating some great tales, while Ariel and I hung out and talked. She created a poem yesterday that you can read here. They made houses out of their toys and toy bins. They created maps and made plans for their “missions.” We have been playing mind puzzles, and other games this week. Ariel and Joshua created pictures together and stories together. Daniel participated in the story part – he did not feel like drawing. Their stories were too elaborate and I couldn’t get them down – they were in high-speed!

I did get what they were.

 

Two parts -House on Fire A & J collaborated

 

Bridge -Ariel she does not know who made the apple. It’s a mystery.

 

Waves- Ariel

 

Cheetah – Ariel

 

Design – Ariel & Joshua made together

 

Design – Joshua

 

Rainbow – Joshua

 

 

 

 

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Oops!

I have gotten behind on the home school blog. We are still doing a ton of computer lessons. There is not a lot to take pictures of or share with that.We went to the beach, and had another play date at the park that was a lot of fun. This week has been kind of quiet in the socializing area. The kids have been doing quite a bit of pretend play. They have gathered Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Ernie as their children, pretending to be traveling to different locations. They are using the big green chair as their car. So far they have traveled across country, then to a beach, and then to a lake.

They have been using all kinds of things to create water, and land. They made their home, which is actually a dump-age of animals in the living room. They are currently setting up a camp site.

Ariel took over my computer one day to type out her thoughts. They decided to draw together expressing themselves through fire (Ariel), grass and land (Daniel), and water (Joshua). It was great to see them draw together and then, explain to me what each section meant and why they decided to draw it.

Ariel grabbed one of our books The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology and started reading it. She really is reading it. I am not sure how much she understands, but knowing her if she doesn’t understand she will ask us a ton of questions or draw what she visualizes it to mean. Daniel is wearing his head gear for when I vacuum. No likey loud sounds!

That is all I can share for the moment. I have got to finish lunch!

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Computer Week!

We have been on the computer all week. Every day we spent time working through Aha! Math and EasyTech. Ariel got data bases down this week! Woot! I love www.learning.com. We also have Aha! Science. (I do not get anything for saying this — I just really like it so do the kids.) We do it in spurts though. Like everything, we tend to go in cycles and cluster a whole bunch of things in at once then, move on to another cycle. I am also crazy about TED-Ed lessons my guys are visual learners so video learning and interactive learning tools work best for them. They all have a natural draw toward computers so it all works out.

I found a new site that has some great resources that I will snooping around with. Some I already knew about, others I am excited to see. Free Technology for Teachers

I also use YouTube Education.

For some hands-on fun and taking breaks, we played with Model Magic®. They made monkeys, panda’s, Daniel and Joshua made worms, and Joshua created a pod racer, skunk, Tatooine, and a spider. Daniel only wanted to make balls. Ariel made a spider, cobra, and an owl. She painted a tiger and a panther the other day also…still drawing thousands of Pokémon.

We had another play date on Wednesday that went well and today we are going to the park. I have tried to keep school as calming as possible because socializing like this is new for everyone and it needs to be as smooth as possible. It’s all good, just new.

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“I Lost My Tooth”

I Lost My Tooth
by Ariel age 7 (4/23/2012)

My left front tooth was loose.

It was loose and I was playing with it all day before yesterday.

Last night when I was eating some cereal my tooth was about to come out.

It was bleeding then, mommy pulled it out now there is no tooth where my left mouth is.

Now I waited for a long time for one of my teeth to come out,
and one of them has.

Inside of my gum is my adult teeth.

When my mouth had blood I was scared.

I was scared because I didn’t remember when Daniel got his teeth out there was blood.

I was scared because I didn’t know what was happening.

I stopped being afraid when mommy and daddy came.

Mommy cleaned my tooth and pulled it out.

I was super surprised that mommy got my tooth out because she was talking to me,
and I didn’t even know she was getting it out.

When my tooth was out I got freaked out when my tooth wasn’t there.

I looked in the mirror and went: “Ah!”

Now all these days I am going to be waiting for my adult teeth to come out of my gum.

Rainbow Poems

Daniel's Rainbow

Rainbow Shine
by Daniel age 7

I just like rainbows.
I like the colors of them.
I think a rainbow is a circle cut off.
I think with colors in them.
All of the colors are my favorite.
It makes me happy to think of rainbows.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ariel's Rainbow

Rainbow Shine
by Ariel age 7

To make a rainbow it takes lots and lots of water
and somehow the sun will reflect something.
Reflect into your eyes a colorful rainbow.
Rainbows shine, reflect beautiful color.
The rainbow curve is pretty.

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Joshua's Rainbow

Rainbow Fine
by Joshua

I think rainbows are cool.
Whenever there is too much rain
the rainbow comes out and mommy takes pictures.
That’s it.

Some Poetry Links

This poet was suggested for their age group Jack Prelutsky from the Scholastics site.

I found these videos of his book Playthrough: The New Kid on the Block I posted the least annoying. However, here is the intro and first poem for your watching enjoyment Playthrough: The New Kid on the Block – Part 1. After digging around, I finally discovered the living book, though not available. Maybe it can be found on Ebay, the library, or something. I used some of the videos, but it turned out to be more frustrating with all of the questions. Daniel did not understand why they continued to repeat words, it threw him every time. So I gave up and went on to other poetry fun.   We got into some science videos as well.

I discovered Storybird – Artful Storytelling  and plan on using it for the kids to create their own illustrated books next week.

Writing with Writers

The Writer Who Couldn’t Read

Poetry for Kids: Video series teaching “how to” poetry.

Nonsense Poems for Children

HooplaKidz

Science:

NPR Science: Ants That Count! (The Ant Pedometer Theory)

NPR Science: The Crow Paradox

MinutePhysics: How far is a second?

Books, Books, Books

Holy Cow! These guys are going wild with the books this week. Ariel has influenced the boys to go to the front room every morning after their Pokémon fix, while I am making breakfast and reading. We pulled out a lot of first grade reading textbooks that I had found on Ebay last year. It doesn’t matter how many times I try to run through books chapter by chapter, or by sections they refuse. They all want to go through the entire thing in a day! It can be good, but it can also be bad because they can miss certain details or skills that they should be getting. I have to slow them down a bit. However, Ariel has read every single story in every one of these textbooks that I have pictured below. She is “over” them and now on to several other books of choice. I won’t complain. The boys are practicing with phonics books, and a Clifford series we have.

They are also “over” repeating math problems. They all “get it” and say they do not need to practice. Maybe it is just the week. I have moved into more fractions. I am trying to find more challenging math problems, but I get worried that they may not actually have it. I guess they have time to learn — I should relax. Really. We made collages and wrote rainbows poems. I will post them later. They have also been pulling out Lego’s again. I think we are heading into another Lego Loop! Pokémon has been going on for a long time now. I would like to adventure into something new. Our plants are still growing! We are all excited to see them bloom. We had another awesome play date on Wednesday and we are having another one tomorrow. They are so excited!

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