Socialization

Interestingly enough, when people find out that we are going to home school, socialization is the first concern. I am glad that everyone is sure of my abilities to teach my children, that of course is the most important part, right?

I don't mind that people ask, because I think that it brings up a great conversation. I ran across an article the other day that I find helpful for anyone that is interested. It basically says what I probably would anyway. There are also a lot of great books that talk about this subject, a good one is The Well-Adjusted Child: The Social Benefits of Homeschooling by Rachel Gathercole.


Another thing to point out, is that already in the first few weeks of summer vacation, in which we do not have school, we have spent time playing with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, played at the park with friends and kids we don't know, interacted with people on shopping trips and in church and had plenty of friends over to play. There are still plenty of opportunities in everyday life for our children to learn the "socialization" skills that are necessary for them to lead a wonderful life. Thanks to all those with concerns and PLEASE keep asking questions, we like them.

Math and More . . .

For the last couple of weeks, I have been getting our math ready. I wanted to wait to prepare this until the girls were done with school so that I could be certain what concepts they know and don't know. So we will start out with a little review of where they left off and then go on from there. I am looking forward to using different manipulatives to help them with their math journey. They both seem to enjoy math, so I think that makes it a lot more enjoyable.

I have been preparing myself for history. I love history and would love for my children to enjoy it also. I am currently reading 1776 by David McCullough. It is a great book and the way it is written makes it easy to follow and enjoy. I do feel a little like I got a raw deal with History growing up as we were not taught things in depth. My oldest came to me asking what we were doing for history because she thought it was boring. So I read her a passage out of one of our books, American History Stories by Mara L. Pratt, and explained to her how we will use narration to study and learn the material while incorporating art and reading of biographies and she got excited. Let's just hope she keeps that same excitement as we go on.

Busy Boxes . . .

Thanks to a great idea from my sister-in-law (thanks Jennie), I put together these boxes for our 3 year old. I was able to find almost all of the stuff for them around my house. I did have to get a few more of the totes from the dollar store, so I found a few more things there to put in them. We call them Busy Boxes. They are for times when she needs something to keep her attention like during the baby's naptime, during a quiet time, when I am making dinner and when school starts, they will be used for school stuff while her sisters are working on their school work. We made a box labeled for each week day, Monday thru Friday. Here is a run down of what is in the boxes right now:


Box 1: beans, measuring cups and spoons, color & shape flash cards, two books, bear puzzle
Box 2: princess stickers, notepad, crayons, princess dolls, two princess books, memory game


Box 3: color match game, two books, wooden dress up doll
Box 4: foam beads, ponies, magnet set, two books


Box 5: chalk board with chalk, wooden dress up doll, disney dominoes, two books

We started them today and she LOVED it. During the baby's nap, she was complaining that she was bored so I told her to get her busy box for the day. She played with everything inside for at least 2 hours. When school starts, I will fill them with items that correspond with what she will be learning.

Here are a few things that aren't in them, but that I can substitute later:

polly pockets, clothes pins & bowls, puppet making supplies, coloring books, dishes & playfood, pasta and string, etc.

I also put together a "Busy Bag" for the baby I got a bunch of sandwich bags and filled them with cars, animals, felt puppets, and books. When he needs a distraction or we need something for the church bag, we can just grab something. As he gets older, we will get him his own Busy Boxes.

Thanks again, Jennie, for the great idea! I think we will really love it!

Classical Method . . .

I have been reading a couple of books that focus on the classical method. The first, "The Well-Trained Mind" by Jessie Wise and Susan Baure has a lot of great references and some good ideas about how to schedule things. I did not really like a lot of the "texts" that they were giving for education. I felt like there was a lot of repetition in the book and not enough generalization. A lot could have been taken out and there would not have been any content lost. So, I think this book has some good ideas here and there, but overall a little too structured f0r me. This is saying a lot, because I like to be prepared and orderly, but theirs was too much.

Also, they mentioned that young chilrdren, ages 0-9, need to mostly have a lot of memorization. That they don't need to know what something means right now, they can learn later, just memorize it. I find this interesting, especially since all of my children, ages 0-9, when they can talk, ask what everything is and means. I mean what do you say to the 3 year old that constantly asks why? It doesn't matter now, just memorize it and in 7 years I will explain it? I don't agree with that. I think memorization is good, but why not tell them the how and why also.

History . . .

So lately, I have been trying to find some great history texts or books. I have been doing a lot of reading and looking at reviews and I feel like my brain is mush! I find one that I start to love and then they throw opinions in, not fact, and ruin it for me. I was really starting to get frustrated, then I went and heard an author speak and he shared some great quotes from important historical figures and it got me so excited for history again! Afterwards, I talked with him a bit about his sources and he emailed me some great book ideas, so the hunt is back on.

This author, Chris Stewart, is putting out a nonfiction in the late fall that sounds great. His other works are great, so check them out!

Quite a Collection . . .

I have been trying to pick up as many of the books on our reading list as I can, but only if they are a great deal. There are a lot of the classics that you can find at your local library, but since most of these will be read by all four of our children and they are great books, I have tried to keep an eye out at local thrift stores and also looked a lot on ebay and amazon. So far, I think that I have done pretty good! This should last us at least through the first few years.



I also got some of our texts in the mail over the last couple of weeks. It just gets me more and more excited! I am still having a hard time getting a couple of the history books I want at a price that I want. I have each of these on a disc to read that came with our base course (curriculum; see older post), but I think it is nice to have an actual book to read as much as possible. I have also worked a lot on getting our spelling and penmanship pages done. I do, however, find myself neglecting things around the house, to spend time on school projects, I need to find my balance.

Longer School Days

I thought this was interesting, it is an article about President Obama's plan for education. The problem with the vast majority of children and education is the lack of parental involvment and they want to take the children out of the home longer! They don't think there is something wrong with the system, just that our children are not in it long enough, huh. Here is a snippet:

Obama also wants kids to spend more time in school, with longer school days, school weeks and school years — a position he admitted will make him less popular with his school-age daughters.

Children in South Korea spend a month longer in school every year than do kids in the U.S., where the antiquated school calendar comes from the days when many people farmed and kids were needed in the fields.

"I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas, not with Malia and Sasha," Obama said as the crowd laughed. "But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

"If they can do that in South Korea, we can do it right here in the United States of America," Obama said.