Homeschool is fun this year!

I realize these types of posts are really boring to those who do not homeschool but you could even do some of these things with your little ones as a fun project. Since Lottie is high energy and wakes up busy, I am always looking for great ideas of things to do with her. So if you have some.....please share!

Our history is really great this year and not boring like it was last year, the girls love it! The history books are filled with stories from the Pioneer days and each story has different children in them and the way the families lived and the crisis they had to endure or the battles they faced. The stories aren’t real but it is not as boring as listening to, “In the year 1492, blah blah blah” (Oh wait...maybe that's me that is bored by that kind of teaching!)  So they are on the edge of their seats each day and beg to hear the next day’s story but I always make them wait. There are real pictures at the end of each section that show how they made soap, clothes etc. and it shows them step by step and there is always review questions to compare it to today’s times and crafts after each story. Like Monday, we read how a pioneer family lived behind a great stone wall to keep them safe from the Indians. It showed how the Mother worked out of the home in the corn fields or making soap and the older sister who was 10 years old had to take care of the toddler brother who escaped one day out of the stone gate. It gave explicit details of where he went through the gate, corn fields, past a forest and into a clearing. He was found behind a large oak tree with many acorns and he was sitting in a strawberry patch eating strawberries. To test their listening skills, I read it twice and they had to draw a map beginning from the house to the strawberry patch where little Richard was found. Emma had a little trouble with it but it was super practice for following directions for her. And there is really no "right way" because we all see the scene in our heads with different pictures!  In our curriculum, Heart of Dakota, there is a different craft, science or geography lesson to go with what we are learning in history. Also, memory verses for the Bible study are a part of our day and usually go along with what the children in the history books needed to learn from the Lord as well. Such as responsibility, obedience or love. You get the picture? There are many wonderful stories such as a family who traveled from Spain on a big ship and so you learned everything about traveling on a ship in those days, where you slept, what you ate....oh the learning is never ending and I just LOVE it!   Here is the link for these history books if you are interested, but the ideas for the crafts etc. are actually in my teachers manual.I have all three of these history books shown on the link.

I also found this book in our missionary resource book room and it is a wonderful companion to our history curriculum!

Lottie is having her first year of spelling "tests". Each week she gets 10 new words and 2 bonus words to spell. Now here is the situation with Lottie....the child loathes writing. I don't care what form of writing it is, she doesn't like to write the letters. I have tried everything from using shaving cream, paint, dry erase boards...you name it...we have tried it. So I just show her the words on Monday and we say them together, on Tuesday I call the word out and she spells it back to me orally. On Friday, she types her answers on the computer. Actually, she knows them all by Wednesday and sometimes we take the test early. I was a little frantic about the fact that she doesn't want to write and didn't know if this was a large or small battle to fight (because believe me when I say this, we don't need any NEW battles!!)  but another homeschool mom assured me that this is "okay" and if she can see the word in her head and spell it aloud, that is just awesome! Whew! So I can put place that "worry" at God's feet and move forward! Hallelujah!

Actually, nothing has gone the way "I" had planned for homeschool. See the picture above, that is how I learn best, this is NOT our classroom.  I have had to learn over the past year HOW to teach my girls. They learn about everything, it seems, different from the way I learn. I am totally visual. When we were first learning Spanish, Greg would try to help me at night after the girls went to bed and he would tell me something and I would immediately begin to write it down. He would take my pen away from me and just tell me to listen...what???  Well, I never could remember or comprehend what he was telling me because I couldn't see it! It's not wrong....it's just me.

Both Lottie and Emma learn by listening, touching and experiencing. For example, we were trying to learn placement values of numbers. You know...ones, tens, hundreds etc. We were working on them in our math workbooks and also on the computer....nothing but blank faces. So, I put Emma in the middle of the floor and said, "Emma is the number 2, what place is she in?" Lottie answerd, "The ones place", next I put myself in front of Emma and said I was the number 5, what place am I and how many tens does it take to get to 50. And so on and so on. It then became a super fun game and they were begging to play more! I will remind you...I AM NOT CREATIVE! But, with the different ideas my teacher manual has been giving me, I am learning to be more creative:) So, sometimes we do things a little unconventional. I have had to learn the hard way that children who are not visual will nearly pass out if you hand them a worksheet with 20 math problems on it. So instead, I pull out our little trampoline and Lottie will bounce out the answers;

OR Emma will do ballet twirls across the room with her answers. I realize one day this (sitting and working) will need to happen but for right now, they are just starting out and if I haven't learned anything as a Mom....they eventually all catch up with each other. Also, if I give Emma some Legos or magnets to build with while I am reading aloud, she can manage to sit still and pay attention but her hands need to be busy and if I don't give her something she will just break out in a song....which is precious....but a little disrupting or she will grab a picture book to look at and I don't want that either because then I have lost her. So the blocks and things like that are quiet and give her something to do while I am reading. 

They are learning all different types of literature this year. For Biographies, we are using Hero Tales to learn about real live missionaries (ummm...besides us) who answered God's call many years ago such as Gladys Aylward and Amy Carmichael.  For Adventure, we will be reading The Boxcar Children which should be a great book for both girls. For Historical Fiction, we will read Little House in the Big Woods, we actually have the entire set and I'm glad we didn't begin them last year, they will be perfect!  For Fantasy, we will read The Trumpet of the Swan, I remember reading books like this when I was a young girl and love the adventures these animals have, remember Charlotte's Web and that precious pig, Wilbur?   For Mystery we will read The Bears on Hemlock Mountain and how a young boy discovers there really ARE bears on Hemlock Mountain.  For Non-Fiction, we will read The Courage of Sarah Noble, the true story of a young girl who travels through the wilderness and befriends Indians.  There are a few more chapter books I will be reading to them but isn't this exciting???

Thank you so much for your prayers for Emma Jane. Today, she seems a little happier:) Yesterday we had to force liquids into her because she was getting dehydrated.  Her little lips are so dry and cracking but she really doesn't want to eat or drink anything. I pray she is back to her self soon. I know it must be so strange to have all of those teeth missing. She still doesn't smile much which is something I miss the most from my Emmie....her beautiful smile and her contagious laugh!