nothing new

From me today, just wanted to share this blog I stumbled upon today

Library Today...

I had made a list of books I wanted to get from the library, about 2 weeks ago. Boy, was I sorely disappointed at the books that were crossed off my list, not to be found at the library. I didn't get a lot of time to search; with 4 kids, 1 being a toddler and 1 being a newborn, I really just didn't have the ability to get lost in the stacks like I would love to do.

I found the "catalog" online, and that gave me the ability to do the search from home; so everytime I came across a book suggestion in The Well Trained Mind, or anywhere else I've been doing my research, then I could just immediately go to the library site and look it up. I think I found maybe 1 out of every 10 to 15 books I looked up. That was very disheartening, for sure. I began to feel like the only way I could do this was to order all these books off of Amazon, and as much as I would love to have an extensive library, I simply don't have that kind of money to spend on books.

I made it to the library today with my list in hand, and as I was searching for these particular books, I became excited by the choices that were there for me to browse. Unfortunately, I can't just browse the catalog online (or, if I can, I haven't figured out how) but looking for one particular book brought me to that specific subject section, and that one book would be surrounded by several other books on the same subject. I don't feel so disheartened anymore!! There were several in the reference area I wanted to get to look at, but we left after maybe 30 minutes due to baby crisis. I had enough time to gather everything on my list; I did not have time to sit and browse the references.

Here's my stash of finds from the library; I need to go through these and see which will be working for us.

Still a bit overwhelmed...

And I'm trying not to be. This shouldn't be stressful for me; because I can make it really easy by just buying a boxed curriculum. I've already decided that's not what I want, so I just need to revel and enjoy the process as I go through it. I think what stresses me is all the ideas floating in my head; I'll get to looking for something, and get sidetracked onto something else, and 30 minutes later, I totally forgot what I was looking for initially. Or, I'll bookmark the page for future reference, to try to stay on track, and then I've got 100 bookmarks, and have no idea why I bookmarked that page!!

I found this blog a few days ago; this mom posts on a homeschooling board, and she was sharing some ideas for what to do on the first day of school; and I bookmarked her blog, and I also fanned her on Facebook. She made a new post today about her new independent folder, and I got lost in the sheer genius of her organization skills. Honestly, this woman is what I aspire to be; I want to be this organized. I just don't know how to be LOL

http://livelearnandlovetogether.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-improved-independent-notebook.html

I'm hoping to take a few pages out of her book, so to speak, to help me find my center with all of this work I have placed upon my shoulders (willingly, of course!)

Starting out...

I made the decision in the middle of last year that I no longer wanted my kids to be in public school. My older kids are 10-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son. My daughter just finished the 4th grade, and my son just finished the 3rd grade. They have been in public school all their lives. My reasons for wanting to homeschool now are some things that are coming up and that are really bothering me. Last year (third grade), in my daughter's class, we were told "we really don't like the new math books, they are harder to teach from, but we don't have a choice. just to let you know, if your child doesn't understand, we can't stop and explain it beyond the first day. so if they come home not understanding it, then you need to work with them one on one to help them figure it out". Well, god forbid they have to do their job. and the way it was taught; it was stupid, I don't know. Math is math is math, right? I mean, does it matter how it gets done as long as you come up with the right answer? apparently it does; I can't tell you how many of her papers were marked wrong because she didn't "do it the way she was taught" even though she didn't understand it the way they taught her, and we had to show her the way we knew how to do it, and the answer was right.

This year, for my daughter, she was asking for help on one of her Social studies worksheets; it was like a vocabulary match up. The one she said she had a problem with had the same answer as one that she had already answered; for her to pick it right the first time, but the second time not get it, makes me think she was just memorizing a specific definition for that word, and when that definition was reworded, she suddenly didn't know what it meant, makes me think she's not comprehending, she's just memorizing.

My son gets in a lot of trouble at school. A LOT OF TROUBLE. like, every day, he has a note from the teacher. and he makes straight As. What does that tell you? it tells me he's bored out of his mind. This year, for him the biggest thing they were dealing with was the TAKS test (state standardized testing). They did a math practice test 2 months before the test; he made a 100 on it. So guess what they did for the next 2 months before the test? did they teach him something new? No. They continued to practice the test. and then, after he finally took the test (and made a 100 on it, btw), he came home from school and said something about his teacher's were freaking out because there were only 3 weeks of school to teach cursive. Um, how about they've had all year to teach cursive, and they waited till the last minute because of the stupid test?!?!

Yeah, I'm pretty angry and upset about this stuff. LOL, and this was supposed to be a good school district.

I'm hoping the "summer" will be a good deschooling period for them. I'm not planning on starting until September, for many reasons, but mostly because I still consider August to be summer, and way too early to expect kids to sit still and learn.

I want to learn the best way for my kids to learn, and then help them learn that way. I don't think that I expect them both to learn the same way; in fact, I know they wont, just with my experience in helping with homework. For my son, he seems to do better with structure; schedules. If he has a list of chores, he will do it very quickly, and then go about his day. He comes home from school and very quickly does his homework; he gets done what is expected of him, stands by and waits for more, or does his own thing after that. he likes the structure. My daughter, on the other hand, tends to dig her heels in when she's asked to do something. It has to be her idea. I can't tell you how many things I've told her; trying to help her organize her room (she is a packrat and seriously has way too much stuff in her room, every little thing she wants to save for an art project or something) but she gets a book and reads about taking care of your body and cleaning your room and keeping it organized, and all of a sudden its her idea and she's completely gungho about it. LOL, so I think unit studies for her would be good because then she can "choose" what she wants to learn about it, and its not so much that she's told what she is going to learn about. and unit studies really appeal to me; it may turn out to be something that is not quite right for us, and I"m okay with that.

We made the initial decision for the SOS program because it was recommended to us by a trusted friend who has experience homeschooling her kids; she knew I would have a new baby and the toddler underfoot, and because my husband wanted something that was going to be on the internet/electronic. I'm hoping we can do a fusion of what this SOS is and unit studies, or I can learn this year how to incorporate unit studies into the schooling. I want my kids to be knowledgeable about things that interest them; if they want to learn about dinosaurs, I want them to know more about dinosaurs than even I know. I don't really like the idea of giving them a workbook and saying "have at it" because then I don't really know if they are getting out of it the full learning experience. maybe I just need to go through a year of this to know exactly what to expect.

I'm thinking for now, for the younger years, we can have fun. we can go to the zoo, and turn that into a lesson. we can go to the aquarium. we can teach them to cook, and turn all these things into lesson plans. School doesn't have to be so strict and structured so young; all that is for high school. let them have fun now, and then do more classical training as they hit the 13-14 years. After high school, my husband is very interested in them going to college; he didn't get that chance, and so of course, he believes that is just a given that needs to be done for them.

The baby was born 2 days before school got out; so the kids went from having a routine of waking up, eating breakfast, getting ready for school, and going to school, coming home, doing homework, watching the toddler so I could work, having dinner, getting ready for school/bed, and doing it all over again, to being let out of school and having no schedule, no structure. as I've said before, my son seems to thrive on that.

I got my books today, "the Well Trained Mind" by Susan Wise Bauer, and Cathy Duffy's "100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum". I'm still stressing myself out with learning more and more about ways to learn and teach. But I am hopeful I will figure something out before it starts lol, even if its just one or 2 subjects at first until I get more organized.