I have my nieces and nephew and the little guy today. School is completely done for the year--I now feel like it's summer!
As part of a summer activity desire on my part, I took them all to a nearby ravine. We did the entire length of the ravine and back! It was just amazing in there. Made me think of how I can tie in some educational things in the future: nature book, collecting specimens, etc. The kids did plenty of finding all the different kinds of flowers they could, found spiders, I found a small slug, and more. It was just wonderful. They all want to go back--today. LOL. I ended up walking with the little guy (30lb little guy...) in my arms a great deal near the end and it was HARD. There's my workout for the day though. ;D
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Still not officially summer ;)
It has been very weird for me this past week or so. We're still not finished June, my niece and nephew are still in school--which means it's still "school" time--but the 17yo has been done for over a week. So, it's not officially summer. To complicate matters, my husband has been home on stress leave since May, so it's like summer--but it's not.
I have not presented any lessons to my kids in the past month, which is pretty typical for June though. They have still been busy with things. Dd has been doing logic problems, art, reading and has been asking to try out an online language learning program we have free access to through our local library. Ds has been reading, being his usual active self, that's about it. I keep trying to entice ds with his science kits, but he's never interested--or rather has an excuse, because they seem complicated and like they will take a lot of time. I think I might just have to say, "Hey, can I look at your kit?" He's had one of the kits since September and has done NOTHING from it.
I've been trying to restructure my time now that it's not being taken over by school. The little guy I babysit is 20mo now, which means he's into EVERYTHING. It's hard to tackle things, be it some spring/summer cleaning or things on the computer, when he's around. I do have some plans for bringing in some "extras" during the summer, things like nature walks and I just took out the first DVD for Canada: A People's History. I don't want learning and these different subjects to feel like they are just for school! I'd also like to bring in art study and some other things I can't think of at the moment.
Which reminds me... I've been reading this book:
It's about the Charlotte Mason method. I have always felt somewhat compelled to include some CM into our schooling, but could never figure out how to do it. Some stuff overlaps with Montessori beautifully--like respect for the child and nature and art and all that--but other things, perhaps they way some people do them or just the way they are written about--seemed too structured, very dull. I didn't understand how kids could supposedly love the approach the way so many people seemed to say their kids did. This book is helping me understand how CM can be applied effectively without necessarily sticking to some of the structure or "rules". There was one part I was going to share, but the book is not next to me--it's actually in my bedroom and hubby is still there asleep. It will have to wait until later. In any case, if you have been interested in CM at all, this is a wonderful book.
I have not presented any lessons to my kids in the past month, which is pretty typical for June though. They have still been busy with things. Dd has been doing logic problems, art, reading and has been asking to try out an online language learning program we have free access to through our local library. Ds has been reading, being his usual active self, that's about it. I keep trying to entice ds with his science kits, but he's never interested--or rather has an excuse, because they seem complicated and like they will take a lot of time. I think I might just have to say, "Hey, can I look at your kit?" He's had one of the kits since September and has done NOTHING from it.
I've been trying to restructure my time now that it's not being taken over by school. The little guy I babysit is 20mo now, which means he's into EVERYTHING. It's hard to tackle things, be it some spring/summer cleaning or things on the computer, when he's around. I do have some plans for bringing in some "extras" during the summer, things like nature walks and I just took out the first DVD for Canada: A People's History. I don't want learning and these different subjects to feel like they are just for school! I'd also like to bring in art study and some other things I can't think of at the moment.
Which reminds me... I've been reading this book:
It's about the Charlotte Mason method. I have always felt somewhat compelled to include some CM into our schooling, but could never figure out how to do it. Some stuff overlaps with Montessori beautifully--like respect for the child and nature and art and all that--but other things, perhaps they way some people do them or just the way they are written about--seemed too structured, very dull. I didn't understand how kids could supposedly love the approach the way so many people seemed to say their kids did. This book is helping me understand how CM can be applied effectively without necessarily sticking to some of the structure or "rules". There was one part I was going to share, but the book is not next to me--it's actually in my bedroom and hubby is still there asleep. It will have to wait until later. In any case, if you have been interested in CM at all, this is a wonderful book.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
"When Children Love to Learn"
I'm reading a Charlotte Mason book right now called When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason's Philosophy for Today. It's a collection of essays or articles by different authors tied with Charlotte Mason. So far, I'm really liking what I'm reading. It's funny how some CM things can come across as so regimented, so un-Montessori that I don't understand my pull toward incorporating some CM; this book is not one of them. I feel like I can bring in CM in a useful way to our homeschooling, without having the "prescribed" CM structure. Some of what is shared has felt soooo Montessori, from one woman's account of how she ran an after-school kind of program in her house for underprivileged kids (it indicates a certain structure that she started with, but then after a while, she gave them more choice--sound familiar?) to another part where they talk about the importance of the environment; you could've sworn this part came right out of a Montessori book!
I'm not very far into it, but if you have any interest in incorporating CM in a *gentle* way, this feels like a good book to start with. I've read so much from Ambleside Online for years--it's so highly structured and focuses still on texts from the past. This book really gives a feel, so far, for how CM doesn't need to be quite that structured--nor that old. ;)
I'm not very far into it, but if you have any interest in incorporating CM in a *gentle* way, this feels like a good book to start with. I've read so much from Ambleside Online for years--it's so highly structured and focuses still on texts from the past. This book really gives a feel, so far, for how CM doesn't need to be quite that structured--nor that old. ;)
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Almost done, almost done
I'm feeling a little under the weather this week, the weather is under the weather ;), which isn't helping matters, the 17yo stayed home sick yesterday, so his math exam has been bumped to today. It's almost the last thing to do for the current school year. Other than that, just have to help him prepare some stuff for work experience credits, I hope we'll train his laptop a little more with the MacSpeech software and we have to bring in his completed final exams and his resources. Then time to take a little break from everything!
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