But first, a little honesty...
This term has been a huge learning experience as we have discovered that our curriculum doesn't seem to be working for us like I had planned it would. I go back and forth between feeling like I am failing Haye because school isn't as fun as it could be, to feeling like I am failing him because he isn't flying through his workbooks at record breaking speed. The truth of the matter is, I had such lofty goals of what he could and should accomplish at the beginning of the year that I have put a ton of pressure on both him and myself and now I realize I have set us up for failure. I mean, part of the reason we took him out of school was because we felt like it is set up in such a way that a certain type of child thrives in while the rest of the kids are left struggling to conform. It's like trying to jam a triangle into a circle. Not that there is anything wrong with the circle kids that fit perfectly, but why try and change the triangle into a circle?
Over the last week, Derek and I have been talking about school and our expectations of Haye and the realizations that we are over halfway through the school year with a lot of bookwork to catch up on. We've decided that we are no longer going to try and force the curriculum to work for us, and we will instead be making sure that above all Haye enjoys learning and sneak in all the PLOs that BC education thinks he should know by the end of the year. And as it turns out, he already knows most of them. When I talked to Haye about our plan of cutting out some of the bookwork his eyes lit up. Not because he doesn't love learning, but because he was feeling more pressure than I thought. I was honest with him and told him that I just didn't feel like we were having a good time with homeschool and that I knew we could have a way funner time if we did different things and focused less on the amount of pages we did every day, and he said "That's good, Mom, because I want to feel GOOD about homeschool, and right now I don't feel very good about it!"
Next year we will continue homeschooling, but we are going to veer slightly off the path and follow the unschooling route. I don't necessarily agree with everything unschooling offers, but I love that children are given freedom to learn about whatever they want for whatever amount of time. I think there is a healthy balance that we are dedicated to finding in order to make sure Haye still meets all of the PLOs for Grade 2 without worrying about following a certain schedule or heavy curriculum.
As for now, we have started compiling a list with Haye of subjects he is interested in, such as astronomy, giraffes, and volcanoes, and we will go off his cues for learning. We are going to continue to work through some of our curriculum but at a less stressful pace. Above all, we want to feel good about homeschool. I don't feel like I'm failing Haye anymore. Instead, I feel relief. We are dusting ourselves off and are excited to try again.
MATH
Alright. Math. We got Rightstart Math Level C, which is the equivalent to Grade 2 Math because Haye already knows Grade 1 Math. Well. There are something like 200 lessons in the book. And I had super high goals of actually FINISHING this book (ha, yeah right!) at the beginning of the year. But instead of doing that, we are just going to take our time with it. We might never finish it. That's okay with me. It has a high resell value. (I'm kidding). No really, I am okay with that. We did do all of the transition lessons finally...I am unsure why I thought it would be a great idea to just jump into a program like RightStart without even knowing how to work an abacus myself. Not that it is difficult, but it is based on a completely different system than I am used to, so I was pretty confused when I was trying to teach basic addition even. *ahem* So yes, we did the transition lessons which were of great benefit to me. The transition lessons are basically all the basics for the program and for Grade 1.
I went through the BC PLOs for Grade 1 Math and Haye meets all of the requirements. The only thing I am unsure of is the 2D and 3D models but he is brilliant and I will be teaching him about that soon. Haye can count easily from 0-100 and from 100-0. He can count by two's and three's and four's and five's in his head. He is doing basic multiplication (7x5, 1000x8, 6x4, etc) and is adding numbers like 10498 + 4671 by carrying numbers with ease. He can make diagrams and graphs and tallies. He is great at making patterns and repeating patterns I make, even if they are difficult. He has always loved to make patterns and often is found sorting his cars into sizes, shapes, and colour. We are currently teaching Haye basic fractions by cooking with him and with money. He often bakes with me or reads recipes to me while I cook. He was having a lot of trouble with reading 1/4 and 1/2 or 3/4, so we started working with him and translating it. I use whatever I have on hand to visually show him, for example, that if I have 4 oranges in a circle, and take away 2, that is half, and that means 50%, or 1/2. He is now doing well with this concept. He is also really good at counting money and understanding written and verbal problems involving money. For example, if I told him I had 5$ and spent $2.50 on a coffee and $1.25 on a muffin, he would be able to tell me I had $1.25 left. Haye also understands the equality and greater than symbols.
Here's a worksheet that Haye did last week. He's done lots of Math worksheets lately, but I haven't scanned them all. He mostly prefers to do Math on the whiteboard by himself. He actually set up a Skype date with Grandma to teach her how to do long addition one night ;)
(please remember you can click on the pictures to make them bigger!)
This page is actually from Haye's printing book that he started at the beginning of the year. As I was flipping through his workbooks the other night I noticed how much his writing has improved!
This page is from the same book but the end of it that he finished last month. His printing is so much more confident now. :)
SCIENCE
I am really not a huge fan of this curriculum, "A Reason for Science". It is geared for classroom use in research teams. Haye really wants to do experiments like scientists which is the main reason I bought this...but the experiments in it honestly suck. It's 5x a week with a lot of reading and writing on the first 2 days, an experiment on the 3rd day, and then reading and writing the 4th and 5th day. The problem with it is the amount of writing versus actual experimentation time. The experiments either last less than a minute long or take up a vast amount of time (over a couple of days) or require things such as football fields (?!) ...I definitely should have done my research before buying this *coughtwohundredandfiftydollarscough* curriculum. So...I don't really see us finishing it, either. I think we are just going to pick the best looking lessons out of it and do those instead. We might end up making up our own science experiments and making sure he knows all the PLOs. We are done Life Science completely and are currently working on Earth Science. I've found it kind of heartbreaking to be the one to shatter parts of his innocent world by teaching him about things like oil spills and seeing his face when he looks at pictures of animals affected by them. I know these are important discussions to have, and I'm grateful I can have them with him, but it doesn't make them any less hard.
Haye loves his worm farm and we are pleasantly surprised to report that all our worms are still alive! I'm trying to figure out how to build a larger scale worm farm out of plexiglass or something. Sadly, our ants are all dead except for one. I'm not sure how long this ant can live on his own, but he seems to be pretty happy. Well. I have no idea. I don't know how to tell if an ant is happy or not, but he is alive! I think I'll have to send away for more ants. *sigh* Sorry, ants.
We bought the boardgame Wildcraft! and it has been really interesting to play together as a family. It is encouraging because it is a working together game, so either everyone wins or nobody wins, and it teaches about the different types of herbs in the wild that can be used to heal a vast array of ailments, from sunburns to headaches.
Here's a couple of examples of work that we've covered over the last few weeks.
Natural vs. Manufactured Items
Oil Spills. *sigh*
I am organizing a science Fair for Homeschooled kids in the Okanagan for May and am really excited about it. There is a lot of interest so far which is great! We still have to come up with a date and a location. I'm hoping to find a place that will waive the fee for us. I always loved going to the Science Fair at my school and still remember how awesome it was but how badly I felt when my experiments didn't win gold and the kids whose did gloated to the rest of us...that's why our Science Fair is going to be award free and all-ages! I think it is going to be a blast. The whole point is for kids to make whatever they want and display it for all the rest of the kids to see and learn, and then we can have a big potluck lunch. Sounds totally awesome.
SOCIAL STUDIES
We are actually having a lot of fun doing Socials this year! The workbooks we have are simple and easy to understand and are teaching Haye a lot of interesting concepts I probably wouldn't have thought to teach him on my own. We didn't get them until the second term started, so we spent a lot of time working on Socials and less time working on Science this term. Haye really likes Geography and we are doing a lot of map work. He has learned, among other things, the 4 directions, how to read maps, what compass roses look like and their function, what borders are, and how to read map keys and understand distance on a map. I realize a lot of this isn't covered until Grade 2 but if the kid wants to learn I'm not going to hold him back based on that! He is also learning about different landforms. We have also covered a lot of information on identity and changes that have happened in his life, and different types of family units. We have talked a lot also about his roles and responsibilities at home and what we expect of him in school and in our family, and always point out when he is helping us with chores how he is part of our family team and how it is important for him to help out. We are also learning about basic needs being met and about all the different types of jobs that help make up a community. We have planned a field trip for one of the homeschool groups we are a part of to the local fire station in April.
FINE ARTS
First: We bought KEVA planks! They are soooo amazing and have been really fun for us to design our own contraptions and spend hours building them.
http://www.kevaplanks.com/
Haye has been learning to sew and is doing an exceptional job. I haven't taught him anything on the machine yet, he has strictly been hand-sewing but it takes a lot of concentration and he is honestly doing a lot better at it than I thought he would. He REALLY wants to learn how to knit or crochet, so I'm going to figure out how to do that and teach him. I think handwork is a good calm-down activity for him and I want him to have mad skills when he is older.
He is still working through Draw, Write, Now! but...I don't like this curriculum either. Haye doesn't really care for copying pictures out of books, he would rather create his own things. That being said, Haye will draw pictures from memory of ideas he has heard in books I have read or when prompted. He loves to draw Bible pictures on our whiteboard and continues to be fascinated with making "adventure cards".
Haye is working on a maze book currently that has taken up most of his time over the last few days. He is drawing fairly elaborate mazes with obstacles and items to collect and will design a cover and back page as well. When he is finished, we plan on photocopying it and selling it for $10 a piece. So far we have 5 pre-orders! Haye is really excited about this. I'll get some photos up soon of the book and other art pieces Haye has made lately.
He is also really into music and Derek has been teaching him how to spin records. The reason why Haye is selling his maze book is to save up for new turntables and a mixer so he can become a DJ. :)
BIBLE
Haye continues to listen to his Bible stories every night before bed. He constantly surprises me with the amount of knowledge he has about the Bible. We like to play Bible Pictionary Jr. with him, especially now that he can read, and he always draws hilarious and accurate Bible scenes (like Daniel in the lions den). He is still going to King's Kids every Wednesday afternoon at our church and also to Sunday School. When he isn't in Sunday School, he helps run the sound board or powerpoint at church and also has a workbook that he works through to earn prizes for each 5 pages he completes.
Every night before bed Haye stalls like every kid does, but instead of just talking about random things he often has questions about God. Lately he has been scared of death (and zombies and giant spiders :P) and we've been working through it with him. Sometimes it feels like we are repeating the same songs and verses and ideas endlessly but I know that it is sinking in and that it just feels reassuring to him as I remember being the same way when I was little.
Here is a short video of Haye reading a scripture passage at our Christmas concert this year.
We are teaching Haye about the importance of tithing and he has agreed that he should give 10% of his profits from his maze book to something like the food bank. He also wants to volunteer at the food bank, and our church does the food bank once a month, so I am going to talk to them about it. We have had a tough couple of years financially, but thankfully Derek got a great new job and we are finally coming out of it. We have been lucky enough to have been blessed by the food bank and our church through those hard times, and it will be so nice to be able to give back.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
We are registering Haye for Gymnastics on March 12th and he couldn't be more excited. He loves to play at the park and at the dog park and go for walks and explore with his Dad. He has also been attending a breakdancing class on Tuesdays that our friend teaches. When we went to Grandma's house a few weeks ago he spent most of his afternoons outside playing and building forts in the snow. He has gone to the indoor skate park and to the energyplex also. The most consistent form of gym that we are doing on these cold days (babies do not like being outside in the cold for long periods of time!) is Just Dance 3 on our Wii. It is super fun and is actually quite the workout. Haye will sometimes dance for an hour straight. The kid can dance circles around me! When we first got the game, he was discouraged because it was really difficult, but he has improved a lot and is getting quite a bit better at it!
HEALTH AND CAREER
We are still working on setting personal goals with Haye. As I already mentioned, he is saving money with Derek to make a large purchase of turntables, which will cost at least $600 used. We are opening his bank account as soon as his first sales comes in. We bought this awesome book called It's Not The Stork!
http://www.amazon.ca/Its-Not-Stork-Families-Friends/dp/0763600474/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329196114&sr=8-1 and it has been really helpful in explaining to Haye where babies come from and how they are made and the physical differences between boys and girls. We felt it was really important to be honest with Haye from a young age about these things so that he didn't grow up thinking sexuality was bad or abnormal or was uninformed. It turns out it is his favourite book!
Haye is really interested in vitamins and minerals right now and likes to read the labels of packages. For example, over lunch today we learned a lot about the health benefits of the 9-Bean Quinoa soup we made. I also snuck in a math lesson about percentages while we were at it ;)
Here's a sample of worksheets we have covered lately. I think we have almost met all the PLOs in Health and Career but I am going to go over all the ideas from the BC Ed Website and make sure we have covered everything.
I just love how Haye gets creative with his writing when he is bored...this is "robot writing" :P
How cute is that police officer?
:) I love this worksheet.
I also love this worksheet. It makes me laugh every time I read it.
Pretty awesome science experiments. :)
Yep. Oven mitts and a chef's hat. hahaha.
LANGUAGE ARTS
So I really don't think our Spelling curriculum is helping us at all. It has been a struggle from day one. There are 32 Units and we have only gotten through 10 of them, however I think that we are not going to finish the book. Each unit consists of 20 words and the spelling lessons are SO, SO BORING. Like...it's almost like they are from the 1970s. Haye really hates doing it and absolutely dreads spelling to the point of moaning loudly and flopping on the table. I don't think it is worth it to push him to learn 20 words a week when he already can spell and read at an above Grade 1 level. I would rather he enjoyed learning than force him to memorize words. So that being said, I instead signed him up on www.readingeggs.com and he LOVES it. He spent the better part of 3 days totally engrossed in the website. He took a placement test and started somewhere around lesson 70, and is on lesson 97 already! I have found that since he went on this site (which, keep in mind, has been less than a week) he is attempting to spell out wrods and write on his own, and what is more adorable than getting a note from your son where he is attempting to spell? Here is his latest progress report that they have sent me:
- haye completed lesson 97, where haye learnt the 5 vowels, a, e. i, o, u and the consonants. haye read the nonfiction book, Life in Space
- haye completed lesson 96, where haye learnt the ace word family, face, race, etc. haye read the book, Space race
- haye completed lesson 95, where haye learnt about the long a sound, as in cane and plane. haye read the book, Frankie lends a hand
- haye completed lesson 94, where haye learnt the ake word family, cake, lake, etc. haye read the book, Let's Bake a Cake
- haye completed lesson 93, where haye learnt about the soft g sound, as in giraffe and cage. haye read the book, Gemma Giraffe
I'm really impressed with this website and the amount of work that they have put into it. It is super fun and entertaining. We are doing a lot of random worksheets to enforce phonics, and Haye generally does 8-12 pages in his phonics book a day during Zao's naptime. It keeps him quiet and he seems to enjoy it. Haye finished his Handwriting Without Tears printing book and wanted to move onto the handwriting book, which he has done extremely well in. He is doing really well with story comprehension as well.
I've started reading chapter books at night with Haye and it is something we both look really forward to. It's a great way to end a crazy day, especially if we haven't seen eye to eye or we've been too busy to snuggle and enjoy each others company. It's nice to have one on one time with him while Derek watches Zao. We just finished reading "The Chocolate Touch" which was a favourite of mine when I was little. I read it countless times, and Haye enjoyed it just as much as I did. It also tied in nicely with our Health unit as it is about a boy who only wants to eat chocolate and is so greedy that he finds a special coin and buys chocolate with it. He ends up eating the chocolate sneakily and subsequently, everything he touches turns to chocolate. There were a lot of words in it that Haye didn't know, so he also learned the meaning of a bunch of new words. Tonight we started reading another favourite of mine, "The Secret World of Og".
When Haye disobeys we get him to write lines, and this is a sample of that. Unfortunately I couldn't find the page that says "I will stop acting like a turkey during school" ...
So there you have it. Term 2. Upward and onward!
