Wow, nothing like starting a journal and homeschooling and then not updating it for a week!  It's been a busy week, a good one though!

Before I show pretty pictures, I want to reflect a bit.  Before I started this journey, if someone told me this is where we would be 5 days in (not counting coops and field trips), I think I'd be happy with it.  We are figuring out the curriculum and the balance between official and less official learning.  It's tricky though.  Rigel is a curious and inventive kid.  I want to include those traits in our learning.  That said, reading is reading and math is math and yes, we need to do them whether you want to or not.  As your mom I know that once you get more comfortable reading you can use that skill to complement and enrich everything else you do.  But I don't want to "teach" your creativity out of you in trying to give you the skill. With regards to math, it comes harder to him than I expected.  He overthinks it, gets the answer to the subtraction problem (for example) and then writes the equation wrong. He doesn't like me to correct him, but he doesn't recognize it is wrong otherwise.  That said, today he really got the picture graphs we were doing and happily did extra exercises and then proudly showed them to me.

Spelling is fine but super easy.  We are using All about Spelling level 1.  The first 5 lessons don't even involve spelling anything, just hearing sounds and using the letter tiles.  Today we had our first lesson where we actually spelled words and they were all short a 2 or 3 letter words.  Super easy, but that's OK...it gives us time to practice the handwriting.  On that front, IEW PAL writing has been great so far.  It introduces the letters via stories that help explain why they are shaped the way they are. Rigel likes the stories and can't wait for me to tell them to him each time.  Throughout the year it will introduce copywork, basic grammer, and eventually paragraph writing.  We'll get there.  For now, it is nice to feel that we are covering the writing basics in a pretty straightforward and short manner.  I'll take it!  Science is OK.  We've done a couple of lessons and they've been OK but not great.  Today we did go to get chicken eggs to explain parts of a cell.  And yes, looking at books with pictures of different kinds of cells did lead to another conversation about sperm and egg....darn sperm are so interesting looking as cells.  Rigel asked how the male got his special cell, the sperm, into the female.  So we talked about mammals and cats and private areas.  Which led to the most quotable question of the day "mom, so the male basically pees the sperm into the female?"  Yes Rigel, kind of.  More than I planned on telling him thus far, and yet it doesn't make sense to not answer the questions when they are definitely what he is asking.  

OK, now on to the pictures.  Last Wednesday I took the kids to the Massabesic Audubon center.  They have a program for homeschooled kids and another for kids ages 3-6.  I had hoped Rigel would do the older class while I did the younger one with River but the older one is doing a multi-week plot study and the teacher was discussing latin insect names.  Interesting but not where Rigel was.  So he came with River and me and that class is great!  We learned about camoflauge and played games and walked in the woods and found creatures.

The first creature I (yes, I took River's cup for this one) was some kind of water spider with an egg sack.

River LOVES looking at things through her magnifying glass.

And she very much wanted to hold the cup.  Rigel wanted no part of it.

There were so many kinds of interesting fungi!

It was also the day where it was 95 degrees here!!

On Thursday River had her first day of Emerson Preschool.  It is a lovely, play-based program right across the street from our school.  River loves it!

Rigel and I tried to use the time to get our work done and then on Friday both kids went ot the honeybee coop.  It is a really lovely program with a former Montessori teacher.  The kids do art and play outside a lot.  Rigel was reluctant but he has now hit it off with the other boy in the group and they spent hours building tree forts outside.  When I went to pick them up in my leather sandals, Rigel and River wanted to show me their creations. How could I say no (and why would I?).  The kids spent hours playing in the woods, un-damming the stream, and River sitting right in the water pouring water from one boot to the other.  It was a lovely time. Oh, I also learned that River can do simple mazes as honeybee had one out for her.  I have since purchased a Kumon book.  River enjoys it and Rigel was surprised to see the book he used to have again.

This weekend was relatively quiet.  We ended up reading Lentil by Robert McClowsky and doing several of the FIAR activities.  I fed each child lime juice so they could experience what puckering meant.  We also played the harmonica and tonight they played it in the bath.  I leave our FIAR book on the display shelf and River has asked me to read it to her every day since.  I think FIAR may become our weekend school in that it is lovely, literature based, and really interests River.  Rigel isn't as into hearing the story again and again but River is enjoying it and the books are great.

On Monday we met up with other homeschoolers and went to Beryl Mountain Mine in South Athworth, NH.  It was a nice meet up and I am beginning to recognize other people.  The trip was about an hour away, then included a nice walk in the woods before reaching the mine area.  It looks like it was mined many many years ago but has since been abandoned.  There is Beryl, Quartz, and lots and lots of sheet mica.  Boy did all the kids enjoy the Mica.  Rigel largely enjoying hitting rocks with his hammer (wearing safety equipment) and climbing very high rocks.  River just enjoys digging and filling containers.  We didn't find many wonderful finds, but we had a nice time and enjoyed the company.

Picking up big rocks.

Peeling off layers of mica.

Rigel showing his finds.

River wearing Rigel's coat.

Rigel near the top of his cliff.  This rock was 40 to 50 feet high.  He came up here with an older child without letting me know where he was.  My monkey was fine, but we had a frank discussion about needing to let me know where he is!

Our gear for the day (some of it isn't ours, but most of it is)

A very strange dark purple mushroom.

River and the harmonica!

And that is our week in a nutshell.  Oh, today we did an All about Reading lesson on how to sound out multi-syllable words.  It is great!  There is a method to this.  Before now Rigel could read a longer word if he knew it, but they were often a struggle.  Today we learned about finding the vowels, counting the consonants between them, and then reading each syllable.  He can do it and was very pleased.  I am too!

Today was the "official" first day of our homeschool.  Of course when I told Rigel that a couple of days ago, he looked at me like I was crazy and said we had been homeschooling.  OK Rigel, point taken.  But today was the first day I had a real plan of what to do and started using the shiny new curriculum.  Here is Rigel's announcement over breakfast of what we were doing.

And a few photos of the finished classroom....

Our timeline is on the wall outside of the classroom.  We haven't started using it yet, but plan on starting history on Thursday.  We'll be making a timeline of Rigel's and River's lives on the opposite wall.

Our calendar corner...

My desk with River's right to the right of it.

Starting the day with eggs and oatmeal...why not, no bus to race too.  I also read the first chapter of The Trumpet of the Swan.  It was one of my favorite books when I was in elementary school.

Brushing teeth as part of the "I'm going to turn on the music and you have until it ends to be in the school room with clean teeth."

How Rigel greeted me when I arrived in the school room late!  The vuvuzela announced the beginning of our day.

Rigel fills in the calendar sheet (which is the exact same one they had at the CLC last year).

And colors the anteater that we fed the review words as part of the All About Reading program.

Coffee.....

We look at a picture from Earth from Above and then find it on our world map.  This morning the photo was of Sweden which led to an interesting discussion on how best to travel there.

Rigel's corner....

OK, a quick overview of the day before I fall asleep....

We lit a candle and blew the vuvuzela and then started the day with calendar basics (calendar, calendar companion, days of the week song, address, picture of the day out of geography picture).

We then discussed what we should name our school. Rigel continued to promote Everest because “well you know mom, all those things we talked about the other day like courage and working together’. So there you have it....

We started our reading and spelling curriculums, all about reading and all about spelling, and it went well. Rigel especially enjoyed feeding the anteater the paper strips of review words. At this point River came in and was a bit antsy so we moved to science (REAL Science Odyssey Life).

I read the science lesson and talked about the characteristics of living vs non living things.  Rigel had obviously discussed it before and was familiar with several of the categories.  He was very curious about the reproduction stuff…”mom, how do people have babies if they just fall in love and then have a baby?  I mentioned that boys have a special cell and meets a females special cell and then a baby can grow.  I told him the boys’ cell was called sperm and the female’s cell was called an egg.  At the end of the conversation he seemed to imply that the man gave the woman the cell somehow into her side and I didn't correct him. He also wanted to know then why people don't have babies all the time.  I explained that the egg cells get old or the boy doesn’t have as many sperm.  To which he replied that I need to start having lots of babies because ‘it would be fun and then you’ll get to change a lot of diapers...’  Yeah, about that Rigel. Then of course at lunch in the dining hall Rigel asked Darik how the man gives the woman the cell…. Darik said we could talk about it at home and the conversation is over for now.

Before that we'd had a snack, went outside and threw rocks off the bridge and finished the science lab sheet. We then watched Everest...the IMAX movie. It was fascinating but somber with the death of the narrator's friend.

After lunch while River was sleeping we started our Singapore math lesson.  Rigel was quite tired and had trouble concentrating.  It is my hope in general to finish all of our school work in the morning, thus leaving the post-lunch sleepy time for independent projects and pursuits but that part of our rhythm was off today.  Hopefully it gets easier in time.  The first IEW PAL writing lesson went well though.

Overall the day went well but took a lot longer than I anticipated.  I know we got off to a late start which was part of the challenger, but I just didn’t think I’d still be doing school with him at 3.  We’ll figure it out I think once we know better how each curriculum goes but for today it was a surprise.

Rigel then had a couple of hours of downtime and then we headed off to his gymnastics from 5-7. He loves his coach and it seems to be a really good match for him.

That's about it. Overall I was pleased but really do want there to be more time in our day for interest-led exploration and art and all that stuff. Today felt like school done at home...which was fine, but I want to make sure there is time for all that important other stuff that doesn't come in a curriculum. All in all though I'd say it was a good first day.

The Last couple of days

Today is actually the end of our 'official' first day of school.  I'm tired and hope to post more photos and a fuller update soon.  For now though, here is a smattering of the last couple of days.

Rigel wants all of his stuffed animals to hear the story!

We begin to unpack the last box of "school" stuff from rainbow resource.  Rigel was especially excited about the net!

The box of goodies!

Rigel shows Darik the world map (which is now nicely laminated and on the wall)

River investigates nature on our walk around the pond on Saturday, the first real "home" day we've had since moving a month ago!

We found these beetles climbing inside and around a dead mole.  The next day we rode back but the mole was gone.

Family fun.

Darik on his first day of school (yesterday)

The kids enjoy the new kitchen stools.

and make brownies for the "not-back-to-school" picnic that we went to yesterday.

Rigel makes his own creature power disks (thank you Wild Kratts)

And River enjoys the playground at the gathering.

First Day tomorrow!

Tomorrow will be the official start of our homeschooling year!  This is a big deal to me and I feel like given more energy I could re-write the famous Christmas story but for now all I've got is "the curriculum is all stacked on the shelf with care..."  When I told Rigel we'd be starting tomorrow a few days ago he looked at me like I was crazy.  "Mom, we've been homeschooling for a while now, what do you mean we are going to 'start'?"  Point taken young padawan.

Today we went to the "Not-back-to-school" picnic that the relaxed homeschoolers group puts together.  It was a lot of fun and I met several nice other homeschooling parents.  Rigel met a few new friends too and both Rigel and River were reluctant to leave when the 3 hours were over.

So now I breathe and wait and will myself to have the patience and flexibility to find a balance between the "school" stuff that I want to and need to do with Rigel and a willingness to embrace the organic learning that is bound to be happening without any input from me at all.  For example, this morning I let Rigel and River watch an episode of Wild Kratts this morning while eating breakfast.  I had originally thought that afterwards I might do a lesson of some kind with Rigel or that I'd start reading our next read aloud (The Trumpet of the Swan by EB White...I loved that book when I was little).  Instead, when the episode finished I went downstairs to find Rigel and River making their own creature power disks and acting out the various animals superpowers.  And yes, I did let them to continue to play instead of forcing "learning".  However I know that it is going to be an ongoing struggle for me to step back when needed and let the kids learn in their own amazing, organic, messy way.

And so we begin....with a couple first steps.  I don't know that we'll make it up Everest, but we can walk.

These are a few assorted photos of our last few days of not really beginning, beginning homeschooling.

Rigel drew this picture of the world, the solar system and the galaxy completely on his own and unprompted after looking at the globe when reading Ping.

We set up the All About Reading tiles on his white board, being sure to leave space for future artistic creations.

Rigel drew this picture of Chinese mountains and caves after watching the first episode of Wild China (thank you netflix!)

Terraced rice patties in China.

On Tuesday we got together with dear friends and tie dyed shirts. The kids were thrilled with theirs and wore them for 2 days straight. Here River wears her while Rigel plays soccer in the rec league.

Rigel is the boy that appears to have no shorts...why they give size 14-16 rec T shirts for the 6-8 year old league I don't know.  I was so very proud of him though.  Twice he reached over and put his hand on the shoulder of another team mate when the player missed a play or fell.  My boy, who is sensitive but usually only about himself, was reaching out to check on another player.  This was huge and yes I was teary watching it.  I wanted to yell "that's my boy" because so very often in his young life that has not been his way of interacting with the world.  I don't know if it is maturity or the fact that not being in traditional school means that he has more emotional reserves to draw on when he does enter new social situations but I was incredibly proud!

Thurday (yes, still in the tie dye shirts) we went apple picking with a friend after River's preschool orientation.

My colorful apple picker.

They had peaches!  I've never picked peaches before!

I love these kids!

We raise our hands for field trips!

A contemplative donut-eating session.

Why stop at donuts when there are apples?

Today Rigel and River went to their first day of Honeybee Homeschool coop.  We had to hustle to find coats and long pants as fall dawned today in earnest (Darik's camping trip included frost in the hair of several students last night!).  Rigel was a bit uncertain and River was thrilled, just like so often is the case. Both had a lovely day there and the other families and children are also pleasant.  I think this small group, once a week coop experience will be a lovely opportunity for them to learn yoga (the teacher is a yoga instructor), do art, play music, explore nature, and interact with other children.  They were very pleased at pick up today.

Rigel works on filling in a life-size skeleton within his traced body form.

The kids enjoy an outing in the woods.

River finds (and guards) a red mushroom.

On the way home we stopped by a local ice cream farm and Rigel declared that our school should be called Mount Everest (thank you Wild China video for introducing us to the Himalayas).  I think our official start day academically will be next Tuesday and we'll see if the name sticks.  It seems pretty appropriate to me though, the journey is long and steep but you travel with a team and if you persevere you can reach a lofty and worthwhile goal.

And that brings us to now.  Rigel is supposed to be sleeping but he is singing "Any Dream will Do" after seeing the Donny Osmond version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on TV.  River is fast asleep after a busy day with no nap.  Darik is off to an inter-house kickball competition after spending 3 days camping in the White Mountains with students and I'm using the time to catch up on some writing and plan next week's classes.  One day at a time this journey into homeschooling has been great.

By surprise

It's been a good day here. I think I've been fooling myself when I tell myself or others that we aren't really homeschooling yet.  We are.  We aren't doing every subject yet, or using the full curriculum I plan on using, but we are learning and homeschooling.  This morning Rigel did 5 pages of handwriting completely unprompted in his PJs so he'd have time to do other things.  And he did a good job and he was proud of himself.  He wants me to tell him more things that he can work on on his own.  OK Rigel, can do.

Today we did a spelling lesson from the actual curriculum, another "ping" reading, read an AA Milne poem related to water, did buoyancy tests on things found in nature, drew water while looking at the pond including reflections and motion lines, did a page of writing/reading out of a reading comprehension book, read an eyewitness archeology book in prep for our archeology lesson next week as well as 2 chapters about pompeii, watched an hour long documentary on China, examined centipedes, partner read for 15 minutes or so, and went to Rigel's first soccer practice in the rec league.  

Meanwhile River had a visit from her new preschool teacher, Faith, who appears to be lovely, enjoyed drawing a "boat" by the water and exploring watercolor pencils, made things float, continued to play her rhyming game, and made all kinds of interesting things out of pipe cleaners while Rigel played soccer.  Oh, and there was much cooking and playdough playing in the newly organized playroom.

It was a nice day.  It really was.  So sure, I'm not using all of my available resources yet...we have yet to start the reading, history, or science curriculums and no, I haven't figured out circle time or a clear schedule by which to run our days, but I am educating my children.  And thus far, a day or two of denial into it, it is going well.  So there you have it.  We've had our "first day" without it being official...I'm not sure which one to count.  We'll probably have an official first day next week when we name our school and come up with goals and all that good stuff, but for now I am teaching our children and I'm really enjoying it!

Not starting yet....sort of

Well Darik is back from Afghanistan (not Afghanipants, as River is quick to remind us) and we are back home after 2 weeks with the kids at my moms. I returned on Friday, picked up Darik on Saturday, figured I'd spend this week settling back into the house and then start our more formal homeschool next week or possibly even the week later.

And then, Saturday afternoon, I stood on our front steps talking with our new neighbor and the subject of school start dates came up.  Public school in NH doesn't start after Labor Day.  It starts before.  The Tuesday before.  Suddenly I doubted myself, what was I doing?  Was I lazy?  Was I cheating my children of a whole week of school that they were entitled to?  I wrote my intent to homeschool letter and dropped it off at the district office on Monday, an entirely anticlimatic meeting.  I then went by Rigel's school from last year and gave them a copy.  A nice conversation, and I found out that Rigel can go to a whole variety of afterschool programs at the school (Chess, Lego, Language and Drama...we'll see).

Anyway, Monday we enjoyed a family day at home with Darik and Tuesday we headed off to Ikea to purchase much needed desks for the adults and toy organizers for the kids.  And then Wednesday.  Darik was off to the first day of faculty meetings and I was home with the kids.  And the doubts began.  What was I doing?  Why weren't we upstairs in our school room "doing" something? How could I have let the kids watch netflix in the morning if we were supposed to be moving towards a schooling rhythm of life?  Why didn't I know exactly what that rhythm would be like?  How could we still be inside at 11:30 in the morning on a beautiful late summer day?  Shouldn't we go for a walk?   Sure we read a story or two on the hammock, but that doesn't really "count" does it? How about I grab our new nature study book and we could do the first nature study of the year?  That would "count" right?

And then I said forget it.  I grabbed a few apples, a couple bags of carrots, and my water backpack and we headed out.  And yes it was 12:10 and no, we hadn't eaten lunch.  We walked through the woods for a while, then up the road towards the campus garden, which we've barely been to all summer as we'd been gone.  On the way we found the campus chickens.  We've been here for a year and never had seen them.  The kids fed them grass and we peeked at their eggs.  And then we went on and had an apple picnic at the side of the road.  River discovered if you took multiple bites in a row, it looked like a caterpillar.

And Rigel decided to test gravity by balancing his apple on his head.

And yes the apple fell off several time and yes he ate it anyway!

Then we continued up the road and made it to the garden.  What a bounty!  We picked beautiful red tomatoes, an plum eggplant,  admired a gorgeous pepper plant, pulled scarlet beets, picked green beans, and selected orange carrots...with Rigel more excited about feeding the carrot greens to the chickens then he was about anything else.  What an exciting collection!

And then it was onto the chickens. We gathered 4 eggs and briefly discussed division.

And fed the chickens grass and carrot tops.  Rigel declared we need to go back today to find out whether the chickens could really eat all that grass in just one day.

And then we walked home. We had a carrot picnic at the campus ampitheatre and Rigel climbed rocks. We scrambled the fresh eggs, I had my first tomato sandwich with mayo, and River ate tomato after tomato.

And then it dawned on me.  I wasn't failing the kids.  Homeschool has two parts to it.....home and school.  We just moved.  Darik has been away, and out house is largely still in boxes (although the ikea trip and Darik's assembly skills are greatly helping).

I could be pushing to start the beautiful curriculums I now have nicely placed on the bookshelf near my desk (I have a desk!)  But we'll get there.  For today, for this week, and possibly for parts of this month, I need to build a sense of home for my children and my family.  And yes, we will start the beautiful books which their readers and manipulatives.  We will listen to and read Story of the World, we will build aqueducts and mummify a chicken.  But for now, this is OK.  If it helps, I can call today our farm field trip, but really, no...we just went for a walk and discovered what we have in our own backyard.  And that's enough.