Our School Schedule

When we started homeschooling last year, I had a great schedule planned.  My 3 year old (Boy Wonder #2) and 1 year old (Girl Wonder #1) would nap from noonish to early afternoon.  During that time, my 5 year old (Boy Wonder #1) would have his kindergarten time.  This way, I could give him the concentrated attention and time needed to do his work.  Ha.  Ha.  Ha.  As we all know, the best laid plans often go awry.  These were no exception.  Our first obstacle was pregnancy #4 and the ensuing first trimester all-day sickness/tiredness.  Our second obstacle was that my preschooler decided he needed to do preschool, not nap.  Whatever big brother does, little brother has to do as well.  Needless to say, the past few months have been a challenge to get school completed.  Granted, we were starting kindergarten early since my oldest didn't turn 5 until the fall.  He's an early reader so we've been encouraging that with a light homeschooling schedule. 

Fast forward from our starting date of August of 2010 to January of 2011 and we're way "off schedule".  I had the year mapped out, lessons assigned to days, etc., ready to tackle the kindergarten life.  Nothing went according to my plan.  So this week I decided to chuck the plan I had and work with Boy Wonder #1's natural schedule.  He's an early riser.  By early riser, I mean 5:00am to 5:30am.  Daddy leaves for work at 6:00am so he likes to have time with daddy before daddy leaves.  This means he's raring to go at 6:00am.  One day last week after daddy left, Boy Wonder #1 asked to do kindergarten.  Seriously.  Begged.  So with coffee in hand for mommy, we did kindergarten.  And it was amazing the transformation from his being tired and cranky when we did it after lunch/during naps to his begging for it at 6:00am and willingly sitting down to work.  Then we did it a second day in a row.  Same results.  The bonus for me was we ALL got to take naps during nap time. 

This week, we're doing kindergarten at 6:00am.  While this would not be my ideal time since I am a morning person and love to sit with a cup of coffee in the early quiet to read the Bible, the newspaper, catch up on email, and check my favorite blogs...I will adjust.  Seeing my son get excited about school and having some "just us time" is worth pushing my alarm up a little so I can still have a few minutes of quiet time before the house awakes.  I think this is one of the sweet joys of homeschooling I have discovered the hard way.  I thought our schedule had to resemble a traditional school schedule but it doesn't.  At least not at this early stage it doesn't.  I am sure we will revisit our schedule many times over the next many years as each child starts school or moves into different phases of school.  But for now, we are content to get kindergarten completed before the sun comes up and the wild chaos of little brother and sister add to the mix.

Science for Today-Vegetables and Fruit

After we left behind mass chaos and confusion at our local grocery store, we made it home in time to meet the mailman at the mailbox.  To our delightful surprise, he brought the first seed catalogs of the year.  Oh the rejoicing in our house!  After lunch and naps, we perused the catalogs.  The Boy Wonders looked at every page and every vegetable and every plant.  Girl Wonder sang to them.  Together, they made quite a list of the vegetables for our garden.  We talked about which veggies would grow in our area, the overall difference between veggies and fruits, and which veggies we would grow when.  Currently, our list has about 35 items on it.  Yes, it will have to be pared down.  My garden isn't that big.  The WonderKids are so very excited to get started.  Boy Wonder #1 made a request for sunflowers in the mailbox flower bed.  He pointed out that we couldn't grow veggies in the flower bed since it was only for flowers.  Smart boy, that #1.

"And this one, and this one, and this one, and this one."

Orange You Glad We Study Science

Monday we had a chilly rainy day.  What better way to combat cabin fever than make fresh orange juice using oranges from one of our sweet neighbors.  She has several oranges trees in her yard that were very bountiful this past year.  Despite 2 hard freezes, she still had plenty of oranges left to share.  Not good for eating, they are perfect for making juice.  So what do you get when you combine 24 locally-grown oranges+ 1 kindergartener + 1 preschooler + 1 toddler + cabin fever?  A science lesson in turning solids into liquids using fruit.  This experiment was perfect for this age range and general science concept level since they have short attention spans and it's very messy.  I even managed to get them to drink some of the juice.

Our lovely oranges, fresh from the yard down the street.

Sliced and ready for squeezing.

Boy Wonder #1 using his big muscles to squeeze the liquid out of the solid.

Not to be outdone, Boy Wonder #2 had to use his big muscles to show us how he was able to make solids become liquids.

Need a fun vocabulary booster or brain game?

I have to share this lovely site.  I've used it in the past year to keep my brain from atrophying since I am a word nerd and it's hard to indulge that nerdiness in a house of preschoolers and toddlers.  Not only do you get a benefit, but so do people in countries where rice is a desperately needed survival food.

Here you go:    www.freerice.com

Go ahead, answer the first question, watch your rice bowl fill up.  Yeah, I know, you'll sit there and play and lose track of time.  And another hungry family across the ocean will be helped.

Welcome to Our New Adventure!

Anybody who has ever thought homeschooling was easy or boring never tried it.  We are having a blast homeschooling, although some days I question my sanity.  This blog is my opportunity to share our adventures in homeschooling along with the good, bad, ugly, and hysterical days.  I can't guarantee you'll like it or be interested, but I will guarantee a slightly eccentric and off-kilter view of life from behind the desk of this homeschool teacher.  What, you didn't know homeschool teachers had desks?  Ha.  I do.  I just have to find it first.