so... now i found myself in the unfamiliar world of homeschooling. i knew of no one who did this. no mentors. no resources. no girlfriends teaching at home. i vividly remember sitting down one sunday afternoon at the computer... and googled everything on homeschooling. i was swept up in a whirlwind of excitement, unrealistic ideas and also fear.

i came upon using the five in a row curriculum. starting at the preschool level and using it right through fifth grade. five in a row was what held our homeschool together. without it... i would of gave up homeschooling.... it enriched our lives beyond anything i can compare to. it gave our homeschooling and ME "depth." it gave me a different perspective of teaching-- using wonderful literature and seeing deeper into the story. it made dinner conversations interesting. it made learning fun. a mountain of information and subjects are in each unit study... which catapulted my child into a bigger world. a world that i would of never thought about going to. sri lanka. china, japan, paris and the list goes on.

my son is by far not a prodigy. however, this curriculum gave him profound information at a very young age.... launching him ahead of anything a public school could offer. i fondly remember a unit study on, "climbing kansas mountains,".... in which we went to our local grain company and had an impromptu tour of the grain distribution: corn being put on trains, which were being shipped to china and elsewhere.... and other behind the scenes stuff! this deeper learning became a very natural fit for us.

i also loved the charlotte mason method. and studied it faithfully. charlotte mason planted the love of nature study into our lives and the the importance of living books... which is all we use, even to this day.

so, after seven years of five in a row and charlotte mason... i have no choice but to look at learning a different way. it's all i know. it's all my son ever had. that's not to say, i didn't try using workbooks... or rod and staff/drill and kill or 100 ez reading lessons... we tried, with negative results on many levels.... we always found our way back to the comforts of five in a row.

i must retrack here about workbooks... we've used horizon's math from third grade on. and, i do use winston grammar, as per suggested on the five in a row boards.


i cannot salute five in a row and the lamberts enough! this is a rock solid curriculum, which covers a smorgasbord of subjects in one sitting--when you use it faithfully. some think using a unit study is not an effective choice for an only child. i am proof, that it can be done. done quite well, indeed.

(please, if you do decided to use any five in a row products... order them directly from the five in a row site and not a distributor.)

over the next several days... i'll be sharing the how's, whys, fears and successes of our eclectic-homeschool lifestyle...

question: how did it all begin?

answer: it started at preschool age... actually before that... when my tot was in the bathtub every night, i taught him his abc's and numbers using foamy bathtub toys... this was before i ever considered homeschooling. little did i know... this was the beginning of our outside the box learning. truth is... i used to line up the foamy letters randomly, on the side of the tub... i'd ask him to point to a specific letter and then, if he answered correctly... i'd ping them at him with a flick of my finger... which resulted in belly giggles! is there anything better then a tot giggling from their belly?

when preschool age arrived... i only considered homeschooling for about 20 minutes, before i surrendered to back-pack envy and the wave of excitement from all of my friends who were excited to put their kids in pre-school. i kept a secret in my heart... i was having so much fun with my preschooler already... the thought of turning him over to someone else... left a dull ache in my belly. not to mention a lump in my throat that wouldn't go away.

we visited a preschool, for the day. a parochial preschool. it was cold. i don't mean the weather... i mean the learning atmosphere. the floors were institutional, the teachers stiff and also spoke in a "baby voice," yet with an authoritarian slant. which made me shrill. the kids were told... what to do... where to sit, when to play, when to wash their hands, when to talk, when to ask questions, when, when, when.... and my all time favorite (sarcastic)... being made to SHARE. I HATE BEING FORCED TO SHARE! example: little johnny is playing with a dumptruck-quietly-- in his own world of make believe- little jacob comes up and tries to take johnny's dumptruck away from him. johnny says no.. i'm playing with it... jacob yells out, HE WON'T SHARE! cold teacher comes up, reprimands little johnny... says we must share... you're not being nice. johnny looks up like what??? jacob gets the truck. this is jacobs first good lesson on how to manipulate. instead of the teacher saying... in her best baby voice.... jacob...why don't you find your own toy to play with and get out of johnny's face????? or find your own damn truck and join him?

this lesson of sharing that day... validated what is wrong in our learning institutions. i also vividly remember a boy quietly off by himself, building a wooden block structure.... the baby-voiced teacher, insisted he finger paint instead. why? because that's what everyone else was doing!

see where i'm going with this? more tomorrow....

one of the best homeschool tools, i've ever bought, was this hardcover, titled...."on this day." i found it at a local church book sale for a dollar. as the title suggests... each page and sidebar has a big handful of facts and stories of what happened on this day in history. it has been the springboard and spine for most of my son's sixth grade year. i choose the topic and read it aloud and then we discuss it. our conversations are intense at times... covering topics i would of never even thought about discussing. one thing leads to another with this... opinions are tossed around... biblical principals are inserted from me, as well as morals and other ethical issues. i make a conscious effort, to ask "what's your opinion... " and careful not to smash and bash his ideas and opinions... instead, if i disagree, i may gently point out a different view. isn't that just another terrific concept of homeschooling?? no secular teacher or classmates, making fun of you if you think Gorbachev was cool for being a farmer or your not totally sure about an artificial heart or golda meir's place in israel's history? or andy warhol's artwork and painful life?

try amazon used books... maybe you too, could pick up a copy for cheap. i humbly admit, i didn't know 99% of any of this. but at age 45... i'm self-educating. wouldn't glenn beck be proud?

THE CENSUS!

That's right... how about letting your child fill out your Census, this year? Truth is, my son has never filled out a form before... never filled out those little boxes! And, has never even heard of The Census! In addition to filling the form out, I explained to him about the reason behind The Census, how often it is sent and how it's suppose to be confidential. This took no time at all and sparked interesting conversations. I just love teaching outside the box!

have i ever mentioned, how much i love cross-curriculum? combining different subjects? yesterday, was one of those days. after the basics were done, we took divine pleasure in soaking up a gorgeous spring day in michigan! i spruced up the yard a bit, while my boy worked on his world war two bunker. in the fall, he had dug this entire thing... a great place for his friends and him to play airsoft wars. for me, the crazy homeschool mom... i count this as: recess, gym, history and one heck of an art project! can you imagine doing this in an institutionalized school? he'd be discouraged for thinking outside the box, kicked out because of the mud... and he probably would be teased for wearing wellingtons. i'm just saying... i love homeschooling.

is there anything more invigorating then hiking in the outdoors? saturday afternoon, our family went shed hunting in my mom's husband's woods. the entire woods was not flooded like this...and we were able to discover a lot of different fungus, signs of spring: pussy willows, ferns and wild strawberries (leaves) poking through the ground.

so, do you nature hike? if you haven't in a while... grab your wellingtons and explore what spring has to offer!

p.s. i took along my digital... tomorrow tommie will be researching and identifying different fungi that we found and making a power point slide show with it.

i sure do like when we can cross-curriculum: science-computer lab!

(shed hunting is looking for deer antlers. we didn't find a one)

the advantage homeschoolers have is impromptu fieldtrips. they are everywhere! homeschool group fieldtrips has their advantages, that's for sure. but, don't underestimate the experience of going it alone. ... just open yourself up to opportunities! i've found that many, many people are more then willing to take a moment or two and tell you and your children about their job. perhaps even take a tour. i've never been turned down. a couple of memories that stick out for us is, when my neighbor had a well drilled and i made my son go over at watch and ask questions. he even walked through the field with his lawn chair. another time, he helped a tree planting service, plant and water trees. my friend rhonda, seeked an opportunity at a military store! she and her boys were offered a ride in a ww2 impliment. you can't do that everyday!

today, we visited my mom's friend and her husband, at one of their homes... (this picture was taken awhile back-we have zero snow in this part of michigan, today) they live in an upscale neighborhood, in a mansion, which was built in 1929. my son and i and even my mom, learned a wealth of information about this historical house! we toured the maids quarters and staircase, appreciated the bullet style door hinges, learned about birch wood doors and cherry hardwood floors. we learned windows can be built in the center of chimneys... and we even explored a japanese tea house on the premises. i won't go into all the details... but, there i was definitely educated, enlightened and inspired. as well as my homeschooler! hidden safes. hidden stair cases, tank-less toilets, secret buttons to call the maids, and the list goes on.

so... don't be shy... look around and take advantage of what's going on out there!

recently, i taught a homeschool co-op class how to use.... a telephone book/yellow pages by creating a scavenger hunt! it was an exhausting hit! thank goodness, i had a couple of assistants helping the 17 kids.... one of the very few FUN things i remember from public elementary school was all of us kids going to the media center and doing this very same thing. hence, this idea 35 years old.

here are some ideas for your gang and their scavenger hunt:

-find zip codes for: _______________ (usually there is a chart in the front of the book)... i listed a good handful of cities.

-what area code/code would you use for cairo, egypt, stockholm, sweden, etc! lots of etc's!

-find a restaurant in the yellow pages, locate a menu and decide on what you'd like to order. add up your tab, calculate sales tax, add up a friends... add it to your tab, split the bill. figure gratuity. while you're at it... define gratuity.

-find a dentist. what is the abbreviation for dentist?

-who is our state representitive. how would you contact him/her?

-pick 5 different businesses and write their addresses out.

-discuss yellow pages advertising bills. the larger the ad, the more businesses pay.

-what is the abbreviation for a veterinarian?

-provide different last names for the kids to look up!

-pick a phone number out of the book.... add or multiply it (depending on your child's level): 586-999-8888 = (do this multiple times!!)

see how much fun you can have with this? you could just go on and on and on!

just popping in here tonight, before i get comfortable on the couch with my current read, the boleyn inheritance.

i wanted to share a couple of fantastic learning resources you already have... but may not of thought about using...

the t.v. guide. a couple of years ago, my son wondered what it was for, when he saw it in the sunday paper. no, we don't use a t.v. guide. although we are t.v. junkies: history, weather channel, glenn beck, and hallmark. and, my favorite... the duggars. that said, you can do quite a bit with t.v. guide teaching. time and elapsed time math problems. making good choices. even researching the history of t.v. and broadcasting.

the telephone book. instead of language arts drill and kill... how about having your children pick out any five names from the book and address "fake" envelopes. the telephone book... i could write an entire post on how to homeschool with a telephone book... in fact, check back tomorrow, and i'll give you a bunch of stellar ideas!

encyclopedias. have your student open an encyclopedia up and where ever the page falls, that's your subject of the day! are you educating an animal lover? great! use an animal encyclopedia! you can use the encyclopedia for copywork. take a paragraph and have your child insert different adjectives. use the picture (if it has one) as a creative story prompt.
and how about you? why don't you try homeschooling yourself on this one? i really think it could be fun! be sure to show your kids your love for learning!

tuesday afternoon, finds me pulling another homeschool tip from my hat!

i can't teach everything. there are some things that i don't want to know. things i never want to know and subjects and material that i've never used or heard about in 45 years. and yes... i've lived a very well and enriched life without knowing what quantum mechanics involves or mitosis vs. meiosis. that said... there is help out there!

and i call it you-tube school.

this link has a bazillion you tube type videos -- with excellent--excellent explanations!

on some pages there are even links to quizzes and worksheets. it's all free. for K-12!

today and yesterday, we took a trip down the "atom" trail. we watched movies (3) about atoms- with very simple explanations. followed by 2 quizzes. for "us," it beats the heck out of trying to read a dry science book, with limited info... and scientific facts that yours truly doesn't understand-- so how can i possibly be an effective teacher? problem solved-with this website! we are both gaining different perspectives from different you-tube movies and being taught with different examples! and this site isn't limited to science... you can learn about the french revolution and even the history of india.

this place is a blessing!

click here!