Books as Toys

I love that in my house, books are toys. 

Even though Tertius obviously doesn't read yet, and he doesn't usually have much patience to sit and listen to me read, he has already learned that books are pretty cool and nice to have around. 

That's evidenced by the fact that they are constantly being stacked, piled up, lined up, put in bags, carried around, and (usually) not thrown.

Homeschooling Update: Stresses and Blessings

As a general update of our life as a homeschooling family: we are having so much fun!

This year is definitely harder for me. But a lot of that has to do with what's going on in my head right now. Oh, sure, Primus is doing more subjects and more complicated ones. And yes, I am also spending more time and energy on Secundus' education (she's pre-K and is learning to read.) But I can handle all that.

Most of the reason why I say that this year is harder is because it is so easy for me to get stressed out and overwhelmed by all that I have to do. There is so much that I want my kids to learn and experience and there are only so many hours in the day and only so many years that I will have them at home. College seems like it is right around the corner sometimes! So I am constantly second-guessing myself. Are we doing enough each day? Are we doing too much? Do they have enough free fun time to explore and be kids? Are they remembering what I'm teaching? Do we need more educational games? Do we need to cut back on our weekly out-of-the-house activities? Should we do more out-of-the-house activities? Should we be doing different out-of-the-house activities?

And then I get to thinking about far into the future. What kind of curriculum will we use for middle school? What sort of literature study are we going to use in a couple years? How am I going to teach them about essay writing? When should they start learning piano (or another instrument)? Will I teach them how to diagram a sentence or not? When we have completed our current history curriculum in 4 or 5 years, then what will we do?

At the beginning of this school year, Hubby gave each of us "Father's Blessings." I wish I had written down the inspired things he said to each of us. (The sweetest thing I remember about Secundus' blessing was that Hubby felt strongly prompted to change his speech pattern. So instead of speaking like he did for Primus' and my blessings, he spoke to Secundus like you would normally speak to a 4 year old. Smaller words, different tone of voice, etc. Heavenly Father knows not only what we need to hear, but how we need to hear it. I know for a fact that Heavenly Father knows and loves Secundus.)

One thing I definitely remember about the blessing he gave me is that it was confirmed again that Heavenly Father approves of our choice to homeschool and that He is proud of me. I was told that this year will be hard and at times I may be tempted to give up. But I was told to not give up.

So now I need to keep that in mind. I need to live and enjoy one day at a time. I need to not let doubts about the current year or needless stress about the coming years get in the way of the wonderful things that we are learning together, the great fun we are having together, and the strong bonds we are building together.

I love being a mother and I love being a teacher. I am so blessed to be able to be both.

Fun with Story of the World

Learning about history is very important to us, especially to Hubby.  I used to think that I hated studying history.  But I've come to realize that one reason for that is because I never got excited about it.  And that's because history textbooks are boring, condescending, one-sided, narrow-minded, and heavily politically influenced.  And most elementary school teachers and some middle-school and high-school teachers are not experts in history (some middle and high school history teachers did not major in history, but rather in political science or something like that) or enthusiastic about it and therefore rely heavily on these horrible texts. 



The more Hubby has opened my eyes to what the study of history should be like, the more I see how important it is and the more interested I become.  I will never be an expert, but I can remember enough to get me through, and I know how to research the rest. 

But I digress...

We have chosen for our history text, "Story of the World" by Susan Wise Bauer.  It is a chronological study, which definitely makes sense to the way my brain works.  We read a section and discuss it as we go, to ensure comprehension.  Then we do the comprehension questions together orally.  Then for each chapter (one or two sections) there is a map activity (love!), often a coloring page (Secundus loves to participate with these), and several suggestions for other activities.  There is also included a good list of books to get from the library to supplement. 

We often orally review the things we learned previously and today we started doing a review by compiling a timeline.  And I am so impressed with how much the girls are remembering! 

Here are a couple pictures of some of the fun activities we have done, as suggested by Story of the World:

Archaeological dig.  We don't have a sand box, so our beans-and-rice sensory box was a good back-up.  I secretly buried several items.  Then the girls had to tape string across the box to make a grid.  Then they carefully and systematically dug for artifacts using spoons and paint brushes.  Each time they found an artifact, they bagged and labeled it, and recorded the location it was found.  Later, we examined our items and discussed what we might learn about these ancient people by looking at what we found.

Lego pyramids and Egypt double crowns.  The crowns were actually based on something I found online, rather than from the book.  I love this picture because Secundus couldn't find her crown (they had been having so much fun with them all around the house) when it was time for the picture so instead she grabbed a Santa hat so she would not look too out of place.  And Tertius doesn't have a pyramid, but rather is holding a batman logo made of Legos that he borrow from Hubby because he didn't want to be left out.

School House Rock Rocks!

Secundus: "Primus, start with 'I'm Just a Bill' because that is really fun!"
I love School House Rock and I LOVE that my kids love it too!