Tent Town (Homeschool Edition)

Today I put on a Reading Tent Town for the homeschool group we're a part of.  It was done at a great park with a nice big green lawn.  Despite the wind's best efforts, no tents blew away and we had fun.

We had 11 kids today and 5 story tents.  The oldest 4 kids acted as story-readers.  They did a great job and were pretty proud of themselves.  I love to see the older kids have opportunities to be responsible and help out the younger ones.  To me, homeschooling isn't just about learning things like history facts and algebra; it's about learning to be a responsible, compassionate, competent adult!

The story we started with all together was The Rain Came Down by David Shannon.  I thought it was pretty appropriate, considering that rain is on everyone's minds lately with the drought here in California.

For our craft, they were each given a plain white paper to draw a picture on with crayon.  Then they were given a piece of tracing paper to draw blue rain drops on with marker.  The two papers were then taped together at the top so you can flip it down to show the rain covering your scene, then flip it up when the rain stops.

The other stories that were read in the story tents:
Clifford books, Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel, The Mixed-up Alphabet by Steve Metzger, The Old Red Rocking Chair by Phyllis Root, and Eric Carle's Mister Seahorse. 

This time I did the tent signs and cards a little different.  I didn't work very hard to get everyone's story titles beforehand.  Also, to be frank, I don't know all of the families well personally so didn't know if I could count on them to show up and read what they said they would.

So instead of making the pictures on the signs and the cards coordinate with the stories, I gathered all the self-inking stamps I owned and made the sign pictures match the stamps.  Each story reader then stamped each kids' blank card with the stamp that matched their sign.  It wasn't as cute and interesting as the way we've done it in the past, but it worked out really well! 

But how will your homeschooler make any friends?

I think every homeschooling family has heard this question about a hundred times in various ways. 

So here's the four main places/ways that we meet friends:

1. Enrichment Classes

We're fortunate to be enrolled in a charter school.  That means the school pays for any enrichment classes that we take.  This is a big deal for me and frankly one reason that I decided to homeschool; in our current financial state, we cannot personally provide things like sports teams and music classes to our children, and we thought those are important opportunities. 

So far the girls have done theatre class with other homeschoolers and gymnastics and ballet with a mix of children.  Next year they will do theatre again as well as roller skate lessons, gymnastics again, and probably soccer or basketball for Primus. 

They haven't thus far made any lasting friendships through these activities (mostly because I have not personally connected with any of the parents), but it has been good for them to associate with and have fun with a wide variety of children of all ages.


2. Church

We are active in our religion.  That includes two hours of Primary (Sunday school for ages 18 months-11 years) every single Sunday.   These associations and friendships are very important.  There are also a few families that we have met through church that also homeschool.  So we get together with them at a park once a week. 


3. Random (Providential) Encounters

Last summer I met a friend of mine at a local park one day to play.  There happened to be another mom there with five kids in tow that were very similar ages to our own children.  My friend, being the super out-going and not shy type went right up to that mom and said, "You have a big family!  I love big families!  I have three children and plan to have more.  Big families are kind of rare these days.  Your children are beautiful!  What are their names?  We'll be here again next week, want to join us?"

As it turned out, that mom is a homeschooler and has become one of my closest friends.  Our kids all get along great, too.  We now get together once or twice every week.


4. Meetup.com

Meetup.com is a free site for individuals to sign up for, however some of the groups do ask a small fee from their members to cover what the site charges them. 

I found a couple local-ish homeschool communities on this site and picked one that really fit us well. They get together every Friday, usually at a park, to play and do an activity.  (It's usually about a 20 minute drive for us, so we only go about once a month.)  It could be arts and crafts, sports, science projects, show-and-tell, or service projects.  They also plan holiday parties and various extra activities and field trips. 

We've been a part of this group for just over a year and have formed some great friendships with a few families.


Homeschoolers have to be more proactive when it comes to finding a community and building friendships.  But it's so worth it!

What Does It Mean To Be Beautiful? By Primus

Today a friend posted this to fb and I loved it!  So I had my girls watch it with me.  I think most of it went over their heads, but it was still probably good for them to hear.

Afterwards I had Primus do a writing assignment to answer the question, "What does it mean to be beautiful?"  To get her thinking along the lines I was looking for, I also asked her, "Are you beautiful?  Why?  What makes you beautiful?  If you had a pig-like nose or bigger ears would you still be beautiful?" 

The following is what Primus came up with.  (I especially found the line about makeup interesting because she loves to pretend to put on makeup.  Those makeup brushes just feel so good on your skin!  Plus, we talk about how it is necessary in theatre and such.) 

Secundus was very interested in our conversation as well and very passionately told Primus and me that we're beautiful because Jesus made us that way and He made everyone different, just like he wants them to be!

 I am so proud of both of them!  Apparently all the times we've talked about it are paying off, at least for now.  I hope they don''t forget all this once they become teenagers!

"I'm beautiful because I'm me.  It doesn't matter who you look like.  It doesn't [matter] what clothes you wear. You don't need makeup or anything to make your face beautiful because your you."

Acorn Cap Math

 The new novelty math manipulative in our house is this simple jar of acorn caps. 

 I collected a bunch last fall and filled up this empty Wet-Ones wipes container. Then I mod-podged some construction paper on it to cover the old label.  I also mod-podged on that red pocket.  It was a little tricky to get the right angle for the paper to create a good pocket for the index cards.  And frankly, I'm waiting for it to get ripped off!

These are the index card activities I have so far.  I was trying to think of things that Tertius could do on his own. 

The stacking activity is particularly hard because they are not uniform shape.  The card that says to sort singles and doubles is for sorting out the ones where two acorn caps were connected together.  But then I noticed that he started pulling them all apart so that card may need to be thrown away!  The cards at the bottom with the 3 and 4 on them represent cards that have numbers 1-9 on them.  He is supposed to count that many acorn caps and place them on top of the correct card.

Banana Peanut Butter Cups

 We've been on a homemade peanut butter cup kick lately at our house.  One day this week I even wrote up the directions and instructed Primus to make them all on her own while I ran an errand.  Definitely counted that as part of her school work for the day.  (For one thing, she learned that when you microwave chocolate too much, it changes consistency and gets totally ruined.  Oops!)


Banana Peanut Butter Cups:

1. Line a muffin tin with cupcake papers.

2. Coat the bottom and sides with a small amount of melted chocolate.  (I use almond bark.)  Don't use too much because you will want the chocolate to be a very thin layer.

 3. Once that is completely hardened, add some peanut butter and a slice of banana.  I really like Jif Whips for this.

4. Top with more melted chocolate.  One package of almond bark was just barely enough to make 24 peanut butter cups.

5. Wait for it to harden and enjoy! 

Not the prettiest dessert, but delicious.  And I like to believe that it's pretty healthy, too.  I mean, bananas and peanut butter are good for you, right?  Sounds like breakfast to me!  :)  Just be sure to have a big glass of milk nearby!