Homeschool Idaho: February 2010

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Homeschool Freebie: Grammar Land

Homeschool Freebie is offering a free download of the classic story book 'Grammar Land' , published in 1878. Download and print here

Friday, February 26, 2010

A Walk With Charlotte: You ARE Qualified to Teach Your Child

My greatest fascination with Charlotte Mason's writing is her ability to ooze truths throughout her books. You always come away feeling either inspired by some new truth or having an old truth reaffirmed by her thoughts.

I have always felt that education naturally falls into the stewardship of parents. From their earliest infancy we are charged with teaching our children, how to eat, sleep, talk, interact and love. But for some reason society at large has continued to take that stewardship away from the parents earlier and earlier. Experts tell us what we DO NOT know about our children. They tell us what is really best for them, and how when and what they should be taught. How eager some of us are to get them to a school-able age and then send them off to be taught by others thinking nothing of what is being taught or why- so long as we do not have charge of it.

When in reality the responsibility of overseeing that education is solely the responsibility of the parent. There are many ways to facilitate that education...but the ultimate responsibility lies with the parent.

It is great to see mothers taking back their stewardship by joining the ranks of homeschooling and many many more realizing that schools are not ultimately responsible to educate their children and taking the necessary steps at home to supplement and support their child's education in proactive ways.

"It is a great thing to be a parent: there is no promotion, no dignity, to compare with it. … But then entrusted with such a charge, they are not free to say, “I may do as I will with mine own.” The children are, in truth, to be regarded less as personal property than as public trusts, put into the hands of parents that they may make the very most of them for the good of society. And this responsibility is not equally divided between the parents: it is upon the mothers of the present that the future of the world depends, in even a greater degree than upon the fathers, because it is the mothers who have the sole direction of the children’s early, most impressible years. That is why we hear so frequently of great men who have had good mothers - that is, mothers who brought up their children themselves, and did not make over the gravest duty to indifferent persons.“The mother is qualified,” says Pestalozzi, “and qualified by the Creator Himself, to become the principal agent in the development of her child; … and what is demanded of her is - a thinking love … God has given to thy child all the faculties of our nature, but the grand point remains undecided - how shall this heart, this head, these hands, be employed? A question the answer to which involves the futurity of happiness or misery to a life so dear to thee. Maternal love is the first agent in education.”We are waking up to our duties, and in proportion as mothers become more highly educated and efficient, they will doubtless feel the more strongly that the education of their children … is an undertaking hardly to be entrusted to any hands but their own. And they will take it up as their profession - that is, with the diligence, regularity, and punctuality which men bestow upon their professional labors.That the mother may know what she is about, may come thoroughly furnished to her work, she should have something more than a hearsay acquaintance with the theory of education, and with those conditions of the child’s nature upon which such theory rests."
Home Education by Charlotte Mason, pages 1 - 3

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Bare Bones Homeschooling

I had a new homeschool Mom call me up for a bit of advice. She wanted to know what she should do to homeschool in her current situation. They will be living up near Idaho City in a small RV for the rest of the Spring and Summer. They have no computer, no electronic devices, no money really, no space and they want to homeschool their 12 year old daughter.

My first reaction was shock. I honestly could not imagine homeschool without the internet or a whole room to store all my neat homeschool stuff in-or so I thought. In helping this mother I realized how very little we really NEED to homeschool. Sometimes we are so consumed by the newest math software or the best science kits that we can lose sight of how simple homeschooling really can be.

This mom was mostly concerned about missing something in her daughter education. I recommended the What Your ___ Grader Needs To Know book series by E.D Hirsch because it is cheap, easy to find, and offered a great overview for all the subjects so she can see what she has or hasn't covered in her daughters education.

Thinking on it, the only other recommendations I had for her were access to a library for good books and making sure her daughter was doing some sort of reading, writing, and math each day. Other than that just looking for educational opportunities around them, like all the amazing nature up there, and facilitating learning things her daughter was interested in were my only other thoughts. Throw in some minimal school supplies and you've got yourself a fully functioning homeschool.

What about you? If you had to suddenly be a homesteader and could only bring what you could fit in a back pack what would you take to homeschool your kids?

Friday, February 19, 2010

The Hagerman Fossil Beds

We enjoyed a field trip in the Magic Valley Area today (Twin Falls). We went to the Hagerman Fossil Beds Visitor Center and saw the state fossil, "The Hagerman Horse." This was a fun little field trip, but I wouldn't recommend it until spring time at least. Included at the Visitor's Center is all the information that you need to tour the area and see fossil beds, views of the Snake River and the Oregon Trail. The Visitor's Center is free.

While you are in Hagerman stop at the Malad Gorge and enjoy what I consider one of the "7 Wonders of Idaho." They have a lovely park nearby perfect for a picnic. There is a $4 car fee.

This is a great thing to do if you have a 4th grader studying Idaho History. Happy Field Triping!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Goal Setting

In our home we have kids that sometimes don't want to do anything! I have some boys that can be volatile with their emotions and have break downs when it is time to practice the piano or do a math page for example. After lots of tears (on my part) here is what I've found successful for these kids....

At the beginning of the day before breakfast I have a short interview with the child. They have a clipboard and we structure their whole day. We first put in our plans for the day. For example our day today looked like this:

8:30 breakfast
11:30 Lunch
12:00 Leave for older sister's scholar class and boy's social play while we wait
4:00 mom gone for visiting teaching (which is just me visiting a neighbor)
6:00 dinner
7:00 family reading time (this varies depending on the day, today it's after dinner)

So he had his structure. Then he put in when he wanted to do things. He had the control. He inserted when he would read his scriptures, free reading, when/what he wanted to do for exercise, practice the piano, and do his chores. Then he inserted things he wanted to learn that day. Today he had down wipe board math, wipe board spelling, chess, and blog post to name a few.

He also chooses a reward for the day if he is successful. Today he choose 30 minutes of Wii Olympics. He clearly understands the contract and the reward.

The day does necessitate me being more flexible. At the meeting I've agreed to the "terms" of day. Then is my chance to say, "I can't play a game with you at that time. You'll need to choose a different time. Here is when I could be available."

The magic of the whole thing is that it's his idea. He's responsible for the success of his day. He's planned his day when he's happy and unstressed (before the day really begins). I've seen a lot of success with this. He loves packing his clip board around and checking things off of his list. This child will always be challenged with motivation and emotions. I've tried to create a system that I can guide him though so that as he gets older he can recognize how he can be successful despite any challenges. The skill set will be ingrained.

What things have you done in your home to encourage motivation?

I'm a new contributor....

Hi Everyone! I'm a new contributor to this blog. I've enjoyed reading all your great ideas! We live in the Twin Falls/Magic Valley area of Idaho. We've been homeschooling for over six wonderful years! We have four children. Our oldest is a girl, age 11. We have three rowdy boys ages 10, 9 and 7.

Our homeschooling method involves the Thomas Jefferson Education model. Some of you may be familiar with that. My strength and love is to create systems for success within the home school home. A lot of my posts will be geared toward that end.

Thanks for letting me be a part of your home schooling experience.

Click to view our Leadership Education Blog.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Fairy Tales

We're studying the Middle Ages right now and we just finished a mini-unit on fairy tales. We read lots of fairy tales, of course, like these:

and Rapunzel; The White Witch; Jack and The Beanstalk; anything by the Grimm brothers...

The two oldest boys wrote their own fairy tales and words cannot express how proud I am of them. I bought some fairy tale-themed scrapbook paper that one of our sons used to make his into a beautiful 8x8 bound book.

We did the Evan-Moor Pocket Books for Fairy Tales:

Here's a picture of our oldest making his elf for The Elves & The Shoemakers:

Super cute project, by the way, for multiple ages (we had 2 2yr olds, a 4 yr old, a 7 yr old and a 9 yr old make the pocket books. it was a fun family activity daily for a week).

Don't forget to watch some movies, too!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Alice in Wonderland Unit Ideas

Disney has a new Alice movie coming out in March. Although it looks a bit scary for the under 10 crowd, it is still a fun theme. The imaginative characters, chaotic storyline, and random impossibilities make the Alice story universally loved by children and there vivid imaginations.There are many versions of the Alice story out there in publication and film-any of them would serve as a great jumping off point for a fun Wonderland Unit.

Unit Resources to be updated as new items are found.

E Text of book -Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

View The ORIGINAL Alice written and illustrated by Lewis Carroll-it is one of the links on the bottom

About the author Lewis Carroll

Project and Unit Ideas: