Gearing Up for Fall - The calendar

I'm gearing up for Fall studies.  This is always an exciting time for me.  Planning is one of the things I enjoy the most about homeschooling.  I like to organize the year, and map out our plan of attack.  I like to chart and schedule and assemble the resources to make my job as smooth sailing as possible.

The first thing I do is plan the calendar.

This year, I'm trying something new.  We're going to do our work in "blocks."  We'll work hard for 4-6 weeks and then take a week off.  This will give us 2 week -long breaks during the first semester.  We'll take our Christmas break and resume a rigorous school schedule in January, again taking a week off every 4-6 weeks for the remainder of the year.  I've got June 14th as our last official day of curriculum studies.  This will leave us with a couple of weeks at the end of June to tie up any loose ends.

The reason I've decided to make this change is that I've often found myself becoming a slave to my schedule and losing steam after a couple of months.  Although kids thrive on routine, I do not.  It bores me.

I'm expecting that the weeks we take off will be a nice shake up in the monotony of the year, giving us a chance to get out for some field trips, catch up on stray bits of assignments, and do things we don't ordinarily have time to do (or things that we feel we have to "squeeze in" so we can attend to our studies.)

Beginning on Monday, I'll be posting  a series of follow-up posts detailing the way I organize our subjects, our selves, and our time.

How do you structure your school year?

Summer....it is time to take a break? or time to delve further?

Many of us who attended public school as children have fond memories of languishing summers free of teachers, schedules and homework.  Today my homeschooling family also has fond summer memories of bike riding, camping, fun at the beach and lazy rainy days spent reading books.

Does this mean that we don't continue our studies through the summer?  It does not.

For us, summer is a time when the rest of our obligations disappear.  No more trips to the violin teacher, no more swimming lessons, no more karate class, no more hustle and bustle.  Our days are our own to carve in whatever way we choose.

Because we love to learn and are creative people this means that we enjoy continuing to pursue learning through the summer.  And without the need to drop things and drive to "lessons" it means that we can truly take things at our own pace, reading for hours or getting really messy with some kind of science or kitchen project.

I also like the kids to get a daily dose of math and writing.   We do this in a relaxed manner and not every single day through the summer.  There are weeks that we do no structured curriculum studies at all because we've chosen to go on vacation or take a little break.  And there are weeks that we get so fired up about something new that we dedicate 30 hours that week to it. But to be honest, this is no different than the regular school year when we allow our life to be flexible -- and thank homeschooling for our ability to do so.

How do you spend your homeschooling summer?  Do you like to continue studies through the summer months?  Are you happy to take a few months off?  We'd love to hear your ideas and experiences.

Charles Darwin

Three years ago, my sons were fortunate to be cast in a National Geographic / Nova production called Darwin's Darkest Hour.  They played the two youngest sons of the famed biologist Charles Darwin.  It was my youngest boy's first time on set and he has fabulous memories of working with the cast, his favorite being Joe the dog!

Today as we eat our lunch, we are watching the film for educational value and nostalgia.

The film chronicles the difficulties faced by Charles Darwin as he comes ever closer to uncovering his theory of Natural Selection, which is in sharp conflict to his wife Emma's strong Christian viewpoint.  It demonstrates the conflict that Dawin experiences and the fondness he had for his wife and children; and the affect they had on this pillar of scientific history.

Watch Darwin's Darkest Hour on PBS. See more from NOVA.

Chemistry Fun!

As we prepare to begin a chemistry program I thought it would be a good idea for my boys to get a sense of what exactly the Elements are.  We've had periodic tables around the house in various forms forever.  But really what exactly are elements?  Enter:  Periodic Table Videos!  At first glance this is website has just a periodic table on it, but each of the elements has a clickable link to a youtube video produced by the University of Nottingham in England.

These videos are presented by the most likeable and entertaining geeks on YouTube.  We kids are a big fan of Pete...and his outakes on fun with hydrogen balloons.  You really must check these out!

We've been using these in conjunction with the Basher Book of the Periodic Table.

You'll have to click this link, for some reason the image links aren't functional on the blog.

This Blog Is For Women

For a long time people have told me that I should write about parenting.  I put them off, saying that I didn't think people would be interested in reading what I had to say.

Recently, I decided to take their advice and I started a blog.  Easier than writing a book, for sure!

Well, it seems from the viewer-ship I've been getting that people do indeed want to read my ideas about family and relationships.  Here's a recent comment one of my readers has posted:

Susan Steadman, RN, BSN | February 22, 2012 at 10:46 am

I have never seen so much good, old-fashioned, common sense in one place…..well, since my parents raised me. Your insight into what to do illuminates what is wrong for so many families; they just don’t know what to do!

….I hope they’ll listen to YOU!!

 If you'd like to check it out, here's the link. http://thisblogisforwomen.com

Star Gazing

Winter is a great time for star gazing.  It might be a little chilly, but you also don't have to stay up as late.  With longer nights we have more chance to see the stars in the night sky. 

If you're forturnate enough to live a little distance from a city you'll have a view of thousands of stellar objects and even a few planets!

This week we visited our local planetarium and heard a guest lecturer speak about the constellations and asterisms in the winter sky. 

We learned how to navigate by the winter hexagon to find the 6 corner stars: Capella, Aldearan, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon and the twins Castor and Pollux.  Within this figure can be found Taurus, Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor and Gemini. 

We learned the mythology of the twins Pollux and Castor, one mortal one immortal: both together in the night sky for all eternity.  We chuckled at The Harry Potter References of Sirius (and the dog stars) and Bellatrix (LeStrange.)    

If you don't have a planetarium in your area, you can still find your way around the night sky with the help of a sky map.

Interesting thing to note: Homeschool outing are often great Date Night ideas!

For more information about the astronomy scene in your area visit the Royal Astronomical Society website. 

Sewing with Kids

Sewing with kids is lots of fun.  Sometimes they can find it frustrating when the project is too challenging. 

Stitching pals out of fleece has become somewhat of an obsession around our house.  If you stopped by to visit you'd see for yourself! 

This cute little Shamrock, Sheldon, was designed by my eldest boy. (He's named after his favorite character from The Big Bang Theory!) The project uses basic sewing technique and even my 8-year old had success with it.

Because we believe in cross-curricular studies, I enouraged my son to blog about his sewing.  And now he's even taken it a step farther and published his patterns for sale online. It's never too early to stasrt being an Entrepreneur.


Check out his blog and his online shop!

Paper Snow Balls

We always find ourselves hibernating in winter.  And with spending time indoors comes craft time!

We found this paper ball online and just HAD to make our own.  They took a little time and were a bit fiddly at first, but they turned out great!

There's a video that shows how it's done.
Check it out!