Week 35, 36, and 37 - The Rest of First Grade

Busy, busy, busy.  So, so, busy.  In the past month or so Big K has finished up his first grade year!  We made it through the entire year!  I know haven't taken the time to update our blog, but that doesn't mean we have been slacking off.  Big K and Little E have been VERY busy.  We've taken classes at the museum about cultures around the world and one about insects.  We've done storytimes and trips to the library.  We've been on lots of nature hikes and explored several local creeks.  We've watched documentaries about the United States (what else?) and Big K has also started to show interest in the Presidents as well.  Won't be long before he'll be able to recite those as well.  He impresses people wherever he goes with his knowledge of geography!  We've also studied butterflies and visited a local butterfly show where the kids had the chance to experience butterflies from the Philippines up close and personal.  We finished learning about our chickens, and took them back to the farm from which they came.  We've spent HOURS in the kitchen cooking together, and started a garden in our yard to provide us with more fresh ingredients! 

Another big event that took place this last month was having our portfolio assessment completed.  We met with a wonderful local licensed teacher who looked through our notebook and gave us some great tips and ideas for things to do next year, especially to help Big K with his writing.  It was such a great meeting and really encouraging that we are doing the right thing for our kids by schooling them at home.  She signed off on all our paperwork so we are ready to send it in and prepare for next school year!  Second grade for Big K and Pre-K for Little E!  Hard to believe that only one more year before Little E will also be "school age" and would be eligible for Kindergarten! 

Looking back on this year, I've learned a lot about what works for us and what doesn't.  I also know a lot of things I want to focus on more next year (like spelling and writing), and how I want to structure our year.  About halfway through the year we settled into a really nice routine using Unit Studies and a more unschooling approach to our learning, and it worked beautifully!  The freedom for the kids to pick what they wanted to learn about has been absolutely the most fun thing to watch.  We check out 50+ books from the library every week and to see the kids sit down with a pile of books to read for the purpose of learning something is amazing.  Even Baby W loves to look through his own books (and try to eat them, but that's beside the point).  It has taken a lot on my part to let go of the way I thought school *should* look this year.  As a former public school teacher, I think I was conditioned to see learning in only one way and to only see evidence of growth on paper.  Yes, it is harder to convey in a portfolio how much the kids have grown this year by writing down conversations we've had or pictures and descriptions of hands-on projects we've done but if you know my kids personally you know they are learning.  They are some of the brightest kids I've ever met (not that I'm biased or anything.... ). 

As far as summer plans, we will continue with our normal schedule, just maybe laid back a bit.  Right now the kids are super interested in insects so we've been learning about all the different characteristics of insects and reading TONS of books about a variety of types of bugs.  Little E especially has been taking her learning to a new level by catching and studying anything creepy crawly she can find in our backyard!  That girl isn't squeamish at all!  I will try to update our blog once or twice a month as I find time, but we won't start building our next year's portfolio until the fall. 

Happy Learning,
Momma C

A trip to Carriage Hill Farm.  They had an awesome set-up for kids to explore about what life was like 200 years ago!

Earth Day nature walk!  We learned about footprints on our walk!

Butterfly show at Krohn Conservatory

Goodbye chickies!!

Week 33 & 34 - Battles, Fishing, Chickens, and More Spring Goodness

What a crazy busy two weeks!!   I don't think we have stayed home all day even once.  The weather has been nice and we've had places to go! 

The one rainy day we did have, we took a trip to our local Bass Pro Shop.  Every Wednesday at noon they feed the fish in their big tank and give a little talk about the different types of fish and what they eat.  Then the kids (or anyone that is interested) can help feed the fish in the side tanks.  They have turtles and several varieties of fish including an albino fish of some sort.  (He told us all the name of the fish, and I bet the kids remember a whole lot more than mom does!)  I was proud of Big K and Little E, they weren't even the littlest  bit squirmish about feeding live worms to the fish!

We've also been finishing up learning about the Revolutionary War.  We finished our map which included several important battles of the war and then we took a special field trip to a local cemetery where there were several soldiers from the Revolutionary War buried!  After a lot of help from the staff, we found two grave sites and did grave rubbings.  The grounds of the cemetery were gorgeous, and it was one of those perfect spring days, so we spent most of the days wandering around looking at the flowers and trees and even had a picnic with some surprise visitors!

 

Afterwards, we came home and decided to research one of the men we visited in the cemetery - Col. Oliver Spencer.  We practiced our researching skills to track down who the man was, and how he ended up in Cincinnati.  It was a great way to make history personal!  

 

 I forgot to mention in one of the past entries that we are babysitting some chickens!  A fellow homeschool family had a whole flock of little chicks and let us take two home to watch for a month as they grew.  And boy have they grown!  Big K is responsible for getting them food and water as well as cleaning on their cage and spending time handling them.  And I think this experience, as awesome as it has been, has made Big K decide being a farmer is NOT in his future!  It has been a great learning process though!

We also had the chance to spend one afternoon at the park with several other homeschool families geocaching!  We had a great time tracking down several caches (although our group wasn't exactly discrete like you are supposed to be!).  And there was plenty of time for exploring as well.  Little E found some awesome rocks and even some fossils! And Big K spotted a deer skull in the woods! 

And what week would be complete without a trip to the library?  This week was extra special since it was Tail Waggin Tutors day!  We have really gotten to know the dogs and their owners this year, and it has been fun visiting them every month to read!  Even Little E got in on the reading action this time!

And with all of that, we still had time to just enjoy the outdoors.  The spring weather has been beautiful and completely conducive for LOTS of park time!  The park in our neighborhood is going through a renovation and the kids have really enjoyed watching the big machines work to reroute the creek and play on the rocks after hours!  And Baby W has grown REALLY fond of the swings!

Our end of the year assessments are coming up a the end of the month, and we are working hard to put together our final portfolio for the year!  Looking back it really feels like we accomplished a lot, and gives me a great idea on what we need to keep working on!  We plan on schooling year-round though, so just because we are "officially" done and signed off on for 1st grade doesn't mean we will stop learning! 

Happy Learning,
Momma C

Week 32 - War and Spring

This week most of the local schools were on spring break, but it sure didn't feel like spring to us!  Not all week at least!  We kicked off our week by attending a field trip to Granny's Garden School.  It is an organization that maintains several garden areas at a local elementary school.  We went on a nature walk, complete with binoculars to see several bird nests and even found a fossil in the little creek on the property!  We also had a chance to learn about seeds and plant some in their garden - our group planted peas, kohlrabi, and radishes and then search for bugs in the soil.  It was a chilly day to be outside, but that didn't stop us from having fun! 

The rest of the week was spent learning a little more about the Revolutionary War. We've been doing  a lot of reading about one of the most important players in our early American History - George Washington.  We spent one day learning about the Battle of Trenton and studied the painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware.  We also did a writing activity thinking of what we would do if we were going to create our own country.  Big K decided he would call his "Republic of the Cheerio".  I think he was feeling extra silly that day. 

Although the weather hasn't fully decided it is spring, we did spend a lot of time outdoors this week!  One of the most exciting things we have noticed is that our local city park is changing.  There are tons of heavy equipment being used to modify the creek bed to reroute the water.  According to one of the workers we talked to, they are making the space more accessible and safer for children and it should be able to house wildlife!  The possible science lessons are already bubbling up inside of me!  And the kids have really enjoyed walking down to the park to see the machines in action!

Happy Learning,
Momma C

Week 31 - Field Trips and More American History

Another busy, on the go kind of week!  We started off by visiting our local museum for their Homeschool Monday program.  They have different events set up all throughout the museum to expand on the things they can learn from the exhibits.  This week we did at trivia show about the Ohio State Symbols (Big K did a great job at that one!), painted with glow-in-the-dark paint, and learned how they printed newspapers and other goodies 100 years ago.  And of course, there was time for playing and learning on our own as well.  We made a point of checking out what life was like in our region during the Revolutionary War time period - and we learned that settlers were just starting to settle here during that time in American History, so a lot of the information we found was about the Native American people who lived here at that time which was super interesting too! 

 This week we also had a field trip to Greenacres art center where Big K went to a program learning about the art and culture of Japan.  He made a watercolor painting (he chose to do a map of Japan) and learned some traditional games from that part of the world.  Little E and Baby W hung out in the beautiful former house turned art gallery and enjoyed the amazing scenery!

We also continued to work on learning more about the American Revolution.  We added a few major battles to the map we started last week and started to learn about George Washington.  We are going to be writing our own biography about George Washington and talking more about his role in the founding of our country in the next couple weeks. 

 As spring arrives, we have also been spending a lot of time outdoors digging in the dirt and soaking up the sunshine!  We have been noticing lots of changes in our yard - we have daffodils blooming (Little E tells me every time we walk out the door "Look mom!  The flowers are BOOMING!"), and our trees have started to form buds for leaves.  We've also been noticing a lot of birds in our yard and made a point to fill up our bird feeder to try and lure even more to our window to watch!  The signs of spring are all around us!

Happy Learning,
Momma C

Week 30 - American History

I think this was one of our best homeschool weeks of the year!  We were so busy and the kids were super interested in our topic for the week.  In case you didn't already pick up on it, Big K is crazy into learning about the states.  We've studied maps, individual states and capitols, time zones, all sorts of map related learning.  Lately he has been asking questions about how our states were formed so we thought it would be interesting to throw in some American history and learn about the Revolutionary War.  This week we talked about the original 13 colonies and how they originated from England.  We also learned why a lot of the settlers were angry about being ruled by King George III.  We even did an activity using smarties candies to help us understand what taxes were, and why the colonists thought the taxes they were required to pay were unfair. We also started a large map display for our unit.  This week we labeled the 13 original colonies, as well as the city of Boston where the Boston Tea Party took place.

To help further expand our knowledge, we spent two days learning all about the Boston Tea Party.  We watched an episode of Liberty Kids that told about the Boston Tea Party.  Then we did a science experiment comparing what happens to tea leaves in fresh water vs. salt water.  We decided that when the patriots dumped the boxes of tea into Boston Harbor, it didn't in fact turn the water into tea. 

 Then we painted with tea bags!  We started by using a spray bottle to spray dry tea bags on the paper, but quickly decided that wasn't going to be very efficient.  So Big K thought we should just get them wet and use them as paintbrushes.  Eventually one of the bags ripped, and the kids thought it would be great to just paint with the tea leaves themselves!

Then we made some tea and chocolate chip cookies and had a tea party picnic for lunch! Big K didn't care for the tea at all!  Little E claimed she really liked it, but only took one sip and then declared she was done. 

This week, the weather has also finally started to feel like spring so we had the chance to get out and spend some time in the sunshine!  It felt so good to be back at the park!  We are looking forward to many more sunny days!

Happy Learning,
Momma C