Week Three

786 to start the week
-21 more hours down
765 hours to go

Sunday Alani practiced her violin, which takes like 7 whole minutes. . .but 7 minutes is 7 minutes, MAN!

Monday is our family's day off. I'm generally gone during the morning and Mike gone in the afternoon, with something as a family in the evening.

Today it poured rain, I asked Alani if she wanted to start a weather journal. . .she was more interested in hiding under a blanket with her sister during the storm. . .I'm okay with that. Any time they can play happily together, is a good time for me.

During naptime we did reading today, even though Monday is a day I allow more TV watching and less thinking :)

Monday:
Math-30 minutes computer games
Alani reading to me "Dream Big Pig" -20 minutes (half of the book)
Little House in the Big Woods-I read to Alani 15 minutes

She started violin practice, but was so hungry that she was totally breaking down on her FIRST of five "show-me" bow and violin placement. That's all that's required this week. I don't know if she's discouraged because it's just awkward at this moment for the hand placement, or if she's frustrated because she wants to already know how to PLAY, but has to do this ground work first. . .she said she was JUST hungry and that's why she was upset. We'll try again before bedtime.

1.25 hours of school on our day off. . .fantastic :)

Tuesday:
ABCs & Alliteration-30 mins leapfrog show
35 mins yoga-PE/healthy living
1.75 hours Wheeler Farm-notebooking and making observations about animals (will translate to copywork and handwriting later) Science
More leapfrog-30 minutes
Discussion on respecting Authority (with GS troop)-20 mins
1 hour-Fire Dept.
45m round trip walk from fire dept
2 hours monopoly with daddy on wii-makes math and reasoning and decision making, fun
30 more minutes leap frog
Today was a big day of educational opportunities
about 7.5 hours

Last night I asked for a poll on whether I should teach Alani from BrightStarts or Singapore. . . mixed reviews and even some additional suggestions. I was slightly appalled to hear from a parent of one of her peers that math hasn't even been introduced to the kids yet and they are three weeks in to school. It's all been reading. At least if I do a different subject every day or every few days, I'm still offering more well-rounding than the public schools who are focusing almost solely on one subject at the moment.

Since Sunday I kind of put my foot down about at least watching educational cartoons for the two allowable shows in the morning. I also prefer at least just cartoons for the evening, maybe an occasional Disney teenage focused show, will be okay. Alani has taken an interest in responsibly choosing ONLY leapfrog today and is excited to help her sister learn. . .it's very sweet and wonderful, making my job a little easier.

The girls wandered all of Wheeler Farm holding hands today, pretty much the sweetest thing. Airi also wanted to hold Alani's hand throughout the fire station and on the walk all the way to Sofi's house. Preciousness. . .when they are in wide open spaces, they get along SO well. It just goes to show that being cooped up in the house IS part of the reason for their quarreling most days. Airi helped me with the dishes tonight "Mom, I need my spongeBOB toe I tan wash dishes." Washing dishes with a toddler isn't always easy or convenient, but it sure is much more pleasant :)

Wednesday
Co-op meeting 10-11:30
I worked on pruning tomatoes while girls watched leap frog 12-1
No nap!!!  GRRR!!!
Renee and girls showed up about 3
Ice skating 4:30-5:30
small group 7-8
4.5

In talking with friends lately, about which math program to go with, I've learned that math curriculum in particular, assumes that kids are taking a whole summer off from school, therefore a lot of the start of a new "year" of math ends up being review.  I don't currently have intention to have a huge break from school. . .heck, we're barely even STARTING school.  I assume that a day here and there, or even a week here and there, will be devoted to travel, to errands, to someone being sick, or whatever comes along.  I also assume, since our belief and focus is on learning in life, the learning CAN'T actually ever stop.

I'm not overly prepared or organized.  I kind of feel out Alani.  If Alani is begging to do school work, we do something, if Alani seems a little low or whiny or overly tired, we're just NOT going to get as much done.  I really don't want to fight with my kid every day about school.  Generally speaking she's pretty interested and excited each day to learn something new.  She request math and handwriting.  We got "Writing with Ease" this afternoon and she happily requested to do copywork for a pretty long section at TEN at night!  And she did it, she was even correcting and reminding me that I'd forgotten to dot an "i" here and there!

On Thursday morning she got up and said she WANTED to finish her copywork and do her violin practice! She finished the copywork, though there was also a show on, so it took a while, but she did a fantastic job.  I was doing the "test" to see if I should start her at 1st or 2nd year.  As far as copywork, she's totally capable, but I'm not sure she's ready yet for the oral reading comprehension of such a large section of reading.  I also think there might be some building blocks in the "year 1" section that are important.  So I'm going to start there.

Each day is challenging, either there is a toddler to deal with or someone else's schedule.  Errands that need running, etc.  I'm not prepared to spend the whole day doing school-type stuff.  I'm not even prepared to schedule it out.  I did sit down the other night and jot down some ideas for the week, before we leave town, of things I'd like to see us do each day.  It's not hard and fast.  If something comes up, it does. . . but at least when we ARE home and available, I know what things we could do with a toddler around and what things we should strive to do during naptime.  That's been helpful.

Thursday
Leap Frog and Bo On The Go
Copywork for 30 minutes (during show)
Yoga 35 minutes
We got ready and ran an errand with two stops
1:30-4 art class!!!
4-4:20 Alani read
4:20-4:45 Writing with Ease "Day 2"
Violin 45
6 hours
(19.75)

I honestly don't know how we'd get in everything I want to get in on a daily basis. . .writing practice, reading, math, spelling, vocab, history, art, craft, yoga. . .sometimes it just happens and it's easy. . .one change I've made this week is that I'd like yoga to be t/th, so I put out the mats the night before and put the DVD in the player. . .at least that way, it nags at me and I can't avoid it or forget.  I know the rhythm is coming . . . I want to be sure not to compare our experience to that of other people's. . .the lovely and beautiful thing about homeschooling is that it's about OUR family and what works for us. . .I think I'm more unschooling than I realized I would be comfortable with, I just have to be sure that I let myself be okay with that!

And Friday my girls were sick. . . little learning goes on when littles are sick and the mama just HAS to get ready for a trip.  That doesn't mean that there weren't some computer math games or some leapfrog on television, but in all honesty, I don't remember what we did. . . I just remember that Airi threw up all over me in the night, many times, and Alani complained of her belly most of the day, and that I was busy getting clothes washed, last minute items purchased and things packed up for 10 days of traveling ahead of us.

Friday will get an hour, because I'm feeling generous and forgetful.

Since I try to take these weeks through Saturday, on Saturday Alani did spent at least an hour working on the Singapore Math 1A workbook and I drew our traveling route in pencil on the back of a Southwest napkin, where they have a great little map of the US.

So Saturday gets
1.5 hours!

I also don't know how many times I read Little House this week, for bedtime stories, but I count that, because it's our "classic" book or "good literature" right now :)  And it is BELOVED!

So that puts us at 22.25

Week 2

810 hours to start
-24 hours (week 1)
Only 786 hours to go. . .I should get one of those "baby tickers" to show my progress :)

Monday: Labor Day
1.5 hours Birth Rally-Social Studies (yeah, on a holiday) & Healthy Living.  She might be a little young for a Govt Class, but this would also qualify, I guess that's the "S.S." requirement at this age
1 hour math-Unit 7 measures and geometry
20m-Unit 1: Parts of Speech- Nouns
Handwriting (for above)
Do I use the centimeters or measuring? :)  UH, yeah!
Finished Unit 7 of Math section. . .finally we can move on
Computer Math-1 hour
30 minutes: Made pizza dough with Mike-measures and "the arts"
Reminds herself to check her answers twice:
"I don't have to make up silly ways to remind Alani to check her work, she does it all on her own "OH, I should have checked twice, just like Santa checks his naughty and nice list."  bwahahahahaha. . .I did try to make it rhyme "Always check twice, like Santa checks who's naughty and nice."  But she corrected me and went back to saying it her own way :)

Tuesday: La Leche League
Spent the morning watching shows, then I went off to LLL while Mike took them to the mall. . .I'm sure they learned SOMETHING there right?  Then they were at LLL with me playing with friends.
1 hour-Phonics workbook "bl" "br" and "ch" blends, this also included reading and writing practice

Tuesday was a day a little light on the schooling, then she taught her sister how to play Go Ballerina

Wednesday: Cafe Debriefing
2 hours Park and Water Play
During naptime: 5 games of mastermind and 1 "go ballerina"
Followed by at least 1, maybe 2 hours of Phonics workbook
Both girls helped in different parts of making dinner
Airi on the porch making "snow" with a little sifter and flour, then she moved on to using the meat tenderizer to beat up the dead lavendar plant. . .discovery :)
1.5 hours small group: Singing and playing outside

I've had to reevaluate what homeschool is going to look like in this house, particularly this first year of giving it the old college try.  Homeschooling is not a set of hours in a row at the moment.  It's mostly workbooks, because they are stretching Alani's mind and giving her daily practice at reading, writing, sounds, math, etc.  It's free reading time and I really do need to be focusing more time on reading something "classic" with her too.  It's asking her to quietly do phonics blend sounds while I get her sister to sleep at whatever time of day Airi decides is naptime.  It's checking her work between washing dishes, when she completes one of the pages.  It's also a lot about getting outside and being active, as well as meeting new people or playing with common friends.

So on Thursday, homeschool looked like:
2 hours of playing with a brand new friend (Beach) who is older and has very different interests than her own, and a fairly new friend (Marley) who she really seems to easily click with.
1 hour of hanging around with her dad as he taught differently abled people how to make calzones (Diego & David, adult men)
1 hour of art class, where she painted in a class WITH David and Diego, which pushed her outside her comfort zone when considering it, but she completely enjoyed once she was there
20 minutes (at least)-Math drills where she asked me to give her "10s and 1s" equations to figure out
1.5 hours of phonics-blending sounds workbook (which included listening to directions, reading, handwriting and phonics)
and 2 hours of playing with good friends (Abigail, Nora and Zoey) and another completely new friend (Leona) while playing dress up and make-believe during a Girl Scout parent meeting

That's nearly 8 hours hours of learning about new people and new interests, the arts, a little "school" type work and moving around a whole lot. . .and today, that's what school looked like.  Tomorrow I'm going to clean off the table, because we're having guests. . . and then I was thinking that maybe we could get into this book about artists that I really want to embrace, use the table for some creative space, get the little one involved.  And Alani, though she complained about having to do yoga a second day in a row (which we didn't) last week, said today that she absolutely loves yoga. . .so we need to make sure that's back on our priority list.

Today I pulled out "Little House in the Big Woods."  I've owned it since I was 9, and never read it. . .I have the entire series.  I think reading "a good classic book" will really enhance our time together during naptimes. And making sure she had reading time every day too.  I know there will be times when we hurry up through something and times when we are finding our compass. . .I thought I had a great plan, I got derailed after day 1 and I've been leery of doing anything similar again. . .but if at first you don't succeed, find another way around :)

I realized yesterday that our current schedule is working for us at the moment.  And today, while talking with a friend about how things are going with this new chapter of our lives, I verbalized (and have been feeling) that some of our more focused, purposeful book learning, seems to naturally begin around January.  It just feels more natural at that time of year when we are forced inside and I don't desire to leave or run "quick" errands, etc.  For now, we'll still get together with people in the mornings before naptime, or do our own thing, or run errands.  It would seem that just running from store to store is enough stimulation for my little one to require a "normal" midday nap, as was the case today.

So this morning we shopped for a friend's birthday, and new fall clothes for my big kid, who is SIX now and has pants that aren't getting any longer, in her dresser drawers.  We bought wigs for halloween :)  Then Airi went easily down for a nap when we got home, while Alani worked on her Phonics blends again.

Sometimes there is a personal expectation.  *I* feel like a good (homeschooling) mom when we do the work we *should* do. . . but should we?  Or should we just look for the learning opportunities as the day goes?  This is our second week for the girls getting an "allowance" (or really just some spending money).  It has given Alani a real sense of responsibility and pause.  The first week it was like "I'm ready to spend this NOW."  But as the week went on and the dollars grew thin, she had to consider her purchases.  Today she got her money again.  Then she asked if we could buy something at the store.  I said "Sure, it's $4" and she said "Then I'd only have ONE dollar left for the week?"  Her sister saw the same item and it was something large enough to share, so I proposed "If you'd like this, would you like to go in on it?  That leaves you each with $3 this week."  And they were excited about that.  It helped that I said I would buy the last icee of the season with MY money instead of theirs tonight :)

This week Alani FINALLY got her free fair ticket in the mail, for reading ten books all on her own before mid-summer.  It also came with a free ride ticket and a free drink ticket.  We've decided we don't have the money to do the fair this year.  When considering the options, we came up with either Mike taking her on his own, or all of us going together, both options cost nearly the same amount, depending on which date we were to choose.  Then Mike said "Why don't we offer to buy Alani's ticket from her?"  So we decided to do that and she chose an activity that the whole family could for the same $10. . .we'll be going to Nicklemania on Monday, as a family :)

I got Alani a cool new "magic multiplication" board and she had so much fun asking me multiplication equations on all of our drives today

Math-30 minutes (oh and "10s and 1s" drills with Beta too)
Violin-30 minutes
Phonics-30 minutes

A light day-I'm trying to create a modified loose, but more structured (at least a list of things I'd like to accomplish each day) plan to begin implementing next week.  I have a feeling I'll be revising and revising almost the entire year as our rhythms change with changing toddlers, changing seasons and changing needs (and HOPEFULLY changing spaces too) this first official year of homeschool.

I'm looking forward to starting with our co-op, our history book, and getting a copy of our first Fred book from my friend "CJ" next week.
 20.5 is where we end this week. . .oh, maybe 21

I thought there would be something school-like on Saturday.  We did go to the Farmer's market, so there was the 30 minutes of walking/wandering and then Alani making some purchases with cash she had in hand.  After that it was a birthday party and our annual "Pig Pickin'" where a hundred or so people show up to devour an entire pig that's been cooking on the giant grill in our backyard since 4am. . . but there was really nothing to learn there, seriously NOTHING!

We even forgot to practice violin. . the FIRST day of practice and we forgot!!!  OOPS!  We promise to do our practice on Sunday Miss Mindy.