Summer is winding down

We started our day at the pool today, it was another hot, beautiful morning here in Florida.  The kids in our school district started up last week and we plan on enjoying as many mornings as we can get in before the weather turns cools.  We should have a couple more months at least.  I suggested bringing some school books up there but no one except me liked that idea.  Caitlyn did bring her current manga though and read some up there. 

Every afternoon now we have been having some good summer storms.  I love these, it makes you feel so cozy and I usually read aloud while it rains and we are all just happy to be indoors and together with candles lit. 

Tomorrow Caitlyn and Brett are trying out an Intro to Chemistry class.  We usually don't enjoy the classes we try out so I am really hoping this one is good and at their level and they learn and have fun.  It's outdoors so that will be nice when it starts cooling down.  Tomorrow, not so much. 

We also have plans to take a tour of the Budweiser plant, I've heard its good and hope we enjoy that too.

I am looking forward to nicer days where it will be bearable to be outside and not be by water.  We have a very nice place in our neighborhood called The Outpost that we like to go to and have nature study and do other school outside and I can't wait to do that. 

We are in the middle of a curriculum and have schooled through the summer so we aren't starting or beginning a new study this fall.  I'll post about what we're using soon.

Back to School!

We started back up with school this last Monday.  It was a little rough at first, but so nice to start getting back into a routine.  We just worked on our WWII unit, no math yet. 

I'm loving the two read alouds we are doing right now, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Parallel Journeys by Eleanor H. Ayer and Alfons Heck.  They are both such wonderful books. 

Parallel Journeys is so powerful because it's two first-hand accounts of WWII by a Hitler Youth German and a German Jew who had to flee Germany with her family to survive.  The children and I are learning so much.

The Book Thief I had already read on my own and  loved.  It's a bit hard to read aloud, the language and point of view and even the set-up of the book make it a challenge but it's such a lovely, tragic book and I think the kids are enjoying it.  

We also are trying to watch more documentaries, we finished 1940's House which was excellent and also watched a PBS documentary on Winston Churchill called Churchill's Deadly Decision, which talked about a part of WWII we knew nothing about; the French surrender to Germany, which violated an agreement France and Britain had, and Britain taking over the French warships instead of letting them fall into Hitler's control.  Very interesting and makes it all the more real to us what difficult decisions are made during war.

All week I had been fighting a cold and Thursday I finally gave up and stayed in bed for the day.  Caitlyn and Brett both read their books, Cait is reading Under a War-Torn Sky and Brett is reading a biography on Albert Einstein.  Friday I just read to them from The Book Thief and took it easy.  We have our final Disney vacation coming up this week before our passes expire and I didn't want to take the chance of being sick during the trip.  Thankfully Cait and Brett are recovered from it and Jody is almost recovered.  We are so looking forward to going back to Disney, a little sad our passes are almost over but it was such a fun year and it's time to put money elsewhere.  We plan on trying to take some day trips this coming year instead, one definitely to Savannah. 

I have a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs simmering on the stove, Brett is playing online with friends and the girls took baby Maverick on a walk.  He is 11 weeks today and every day it seems he does something new.  He's so smart already and very strong. 

Here are the books and videos we are currently using:

Build Your Library WWII unit
The Book Thief
Parallel Journeys
1940's House
Churchill's Deadly Decision -Currently available on Netflix
Under a War-Torn Sky
Who Was Albert Einstein?

It's fall!

Trying once again to blog.

I'm a Mimi now!  I have a beautiful, sweet grandbaby.  Here's Maverick Finn and his beautiful parents.

The Harmon Family

We homeschooled through summer until this little guy was born in late August.  We had gotten up to WWII in our Modern History study and started doing a unit on WWII from Build Your Library Curriculum.  I think we were in week 3 when we stopped for Maverick's birth and are currently taking our fall break.  School will start back up the first Monday in November. 

During our break we are still learning.  I'm reading aloud The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder and we just finished Coraline last night by Neil Gaiman and had planned on watching the movie today, but we remembered we gave the DVD away because honestly, the movie was creepy and disturbing.  I had watched it with my oldest daughter a few years ago and we agreed we didn't care to see it again.  Of course I had forgotten all this and I don't see it on Netflix or Hulu.  I really wanted them to see the book come to life, so I'm going to see if our library has it.

Caitlyn and Brett have made a few short videos, that's their "thing" now.  They're currently working on props for a video they plan on making with their friends on Halloween.

They've skated some and played tennis together.

Skating in St. Marys

We took some good beach walks, some of which I'll blog in a separate post.

Exploring Big Talbot Island

Beautiful driftwood on Big Talbot Island

We explored historic St. Marys, GA again and visited the Cumberland Island and War of 1812 Museum, they faintly remembered doing that about 7 years ago.

Brett seeing how he would look in the early 1800's

 

Brett is on the 7th Harry Potter book, he had taken a break from the series a while back and recently read the 6th and now is on the final book.  Caitlyn has been reading some Manga, one series I know she is reading is Bakuman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I signed up for a class on Laura Ingalls Wilder, he life and writing with Canvas Network, I'm currently reading Laura Ingalls Wilder:  A Writer's Life by Pamela Smith Hill, who is also the professor of the class.  It's been very interesting and I'm learning a lot about Laura, the Little House series, the autobiography she wrote and her daughter and her own writing career.

Caitlyn is, as always, working on her anime drawing.  She is currently working on her own anime, making mini food from clay and let me tell you, it looks so realistic.  Very cool.  Today she is moving into sewing.  She wants to make clothes for cosplay so she is making her first outfit for her Halloween costume.  Her sister has been teaching her how to use the sewing machine.

Learning to use the sewing machine

I think that's a pretty good catch-up.  I used to love blogging, but with Facebook and Instagram I've gotten lazy and it seemed so redundant to keep a blog.  However this is a better way to share and record our lives and learning so I'll see if I can remember it's here ;)

Harry Potter & Catching Up

Well, once again I forgot about this blog.  I even forgot I had come on here and did a post about our Harry Potter unit study.  I'm getting old.

Anyway, we really enjoyed the unit, the most fun was using the cookbook and making quite a few yummy recipes.  It was great reading the book aloud again to the kids.  I think I'm going to reread the next book too and we will just add in the cookbook recipes that correspond with it. 

Right now we are back to work on My Father's World, we're doing 1850-Modern and right now we're almost to the turn of the century, talking about Industrialization and the British Empire mostly.

We are also rereading the Little House on the Prairie books and watching Season 1 of the show.  I know Cait (15) and Brett (14) are a little older for that, but they can't grow up without having heard mom read Little House.  I did read them all aloud to my older kids years ago and the little two did listen in some, but it's not the same.  I still enjoy them at my age, so I'm sure they are too.  They're timeless. 

Soon it will be time to choose curriculum for fall, Cait will be in 9th grade and Brett in 8th.  I want them to be independent with their school work for the coming year and that will be a new thing for both of them. 

My oldest daughter and her husband are having a baby and I find myself thinking a lot about all the fun homeschool-y type things I will get to do again with my grandbaby.  I can't wait.  Five in a Row is the first thing we plan to do.  Actually Before Five in a Row, which I never used with my own children (we did do FIAR).  Kaleb and Alexis plan to "unschool" or gently and naturally teach their child and they both want me to help a lot with that.  School is not a word that will be used, there will be no "school time".  Just a lifestyle of learning that's woven throughout the day.

I'm excited about that too and even though we did live like that when my kids were younger, I always felt we had to do "school time" as well.  I wonder what would have happened if I had been brave enough to just follow my children's lead.  I have so many great memories of our days when they were younger.  As they got older none of my children enjoyed school.  It will be interesting to see the difference and see if their child will be able to retain their love of learning if school books are not forced upon him/her. 

I've started becoming more social (a bit) lately and we went strawberry picking with some friends last week and...here's the big one...I started a small group of moms who are using or want to learn more about the Charlotte Mason method.  We had our first gathering at a state park/beach and we had a really good time and so did the kids.  We'll be doing a book study of A Charlotte Mason Companion with just the mom's meeting to discuss the book and methods and exchange ideas and resources.  I'm hopeful that it will be something that works for all of us and keeps going. 

I'd like to start blogging more, so let's see if I remember I have this blog a bit more often and actually use it.

Enjoying a beautiful day at the beach

Nature studies by our home

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Unit Study

I had sort of forgotten about this blog.

We have been using MFW 1850-Modern Times since December. Before that we finished MFW Explorers-1850 that we had begun the year before we ahd our Year of Reading.

We have just finished studying the Civil War and are now going to start a short unit study on the first Harry Potter book.  We are using one written by Build Your Library curriculum.  I think I'm more excited than the kids are, but they are definitely looking forward to a break from the regular and we have all been Harry Potter fans ever since the first books came out. 

I purchased a new copy in paperback and two of the recommended books for the study that looked good to me.  I can't wait to have the kids make some of the recipes from the cookbook.  We are going shopping tomorrow for Knickerbocker Glory.  That's my kind of school :)

I'm going to try to blog about this unit study, we'll see how well I keep up with it.

Just starting out

I thought I'd make a blog to chronicle our years as unschoolers.  I have been doing a Year of Reading with my 13 and 14 year olds this school year.  We have always used a literature approach with our homeschool and over the last decade I have collected tons of great children's literature.  One day I was looking over my bookshelves and sighing, thinking of all the books that I never got around to reading to the kids.  I said "I wish we could just take a year and do nothing but read."  My oldest daughter was in the living room and said "Do it Mom!"  So, that was all it took (I'm easily convinced).  We started in August 2012 and will go through August 2013.  The kids are enjoying it, although I can tell they're starting to slow down with their reading and the enthusiasm isn't quite as high anymore.  Ok, I'm having to basically make them read now.  However, I'm still excited and going strong :)

Unschooling is something I've thought about for years, wishing I could do it but then fear would take over and I'd tell myself I couldn't do such a thing.  They wouldn't DO anything if I didn't make them.  Over time and with dealing with my two youngest who avoid any kind of school work like it's the plague, I started to realize that they mostly are self-educated.  They have always escaped school with all kinds of devious ways.  Their favorites are "Mom, we're outside!  We need fresh air!"  or "Mom, we're playing with Legos (or K'nex or whatever) we're using our IMAGINATIONS!"  Now, what kind of mother could argue with that?  Well, I didn't. 

Even when I did use a curriculum with them we were pretty laid back with it.  It really was more work on me, I did a lot of reading aloud because like I said before, I love the literature approach.  So, I would read history, Bible, science, plus always have a classic or good child's lit book going with them.  I'd ask some questions after reading history or science...blank looks.  "Oh, we were supposed to listen?"  I'd be sneaky and try to get some narration in (good old Charlotte Mason you know).  "So, Brett, what happened in the last chapter we read yesterday?" 
"Some guy did that thing and then they went somewhere." 
Not exactly what I was hoping for.

My kids are smart though.  Really smart.  I'm not just saying that because I'm their mom either.  They are always amazing me at what they know or what they do or how they act.  Many days I'm saying "where did you learn that?"  or "how did you know how to do that?"  The answers vary.  From a TV show they watched with dad, from something they heard somewhere, something they read, just figured it out on their own.

Self-education.  They've been doing it.  And doing it well.  I'm confident enough to put them against any graduate from the local high school.  I've seen what comes out of there.  And it's scary.  Don't worry, I know you're not supposed to start sentences with the word "and".  But it's my blog and I'm doing it.
 Same with "but".
 Just wanted you all to know I'm not stupid either :)  They are conjunctions and even though you shouldn't, you CAN. 

Where was I?  Oh yes, well I used our Year of Reading as an excuse to buy more books.  I'll take any excuse I can get.  For example, in realizing I didn't like to clean or do it well, I bought some books about cleaning.  I read them.  I still don't clean much.  Any excuse will do.  Someone is upsetting me?  Let's get this book about Dealing with Difficult People.  Didn't make them any less difficult, I might add.
So, I bought a few books on unschooling that I didn't already own from when I would buy a book and daydream about unschooling and then never do it.  I read them.  They weren't very good.  By then I was on a quest to find out all I could about unschooling and did any normal people do it? Most I find seem "hippy-ish".  Not that that's a bad thing. 

Anyway, the more I looked the more I found out, the more books I bought and read and the more I realized that children learn no matter what.  I learn no matter what.  I can sit here and read all day to them but if they aren't listening it's pointless.  I can force them to do a curriculum but if they just daydream and argue or pout or do the bare minimum with a bad attitude and don't care about what they just read then they're not learning much. 

On the other hand, if they are interested in a topic they're excited to learn about it.  They remember it, they tell others about it.  It becomes part of them and they don't forget it.  Do they need to be excited about Algebra or WWI?  Nope.  I have full confidence that if they NEED to know something for some reason, be it college or work, they will know how to find the information and learn it. 

I have so much more I could say, but this post is way longer than I intended, so I'll stop for now.  If anyone reading this is an unschooler, please leave me a comment.  Especially if you have a blog, I'd love to check it out.