I read Usborne’s biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this weekend and really enjoyed it.   The book is well written, providing a great introduction of the Dr. King’s life for young readers.  The pictures that accompany the text are especially helpful, giving children a glimpse into the Civil Rights Movement. 

While I haven’t gotten a chance to read the other books in the “Usborne Famous Lives” series, I can definitely recommend this one.  The Usborne “Quick Links” extend learning by giving readers the opportunity to view a clip of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech as well as an online photo gallery.

Wow.  If this isn’t unschooling at its best, I don’t know what is!  The Vogel Family recently completed a 12 month, 9,300 mile trek around the U.S.A. and Mexico. They’re currently planning for a new adventure that will take them from Alaska to Argentina!  Both parents are former school teachers and have turned their bike trips into opportunities to help New York kids through the Reach the World program.

The ideas and step by step directions at Kids Craft Weekly are wonderful!  The accompanying pictures are also really helpful. I have been getting her newsletter for awhile now and love it.

Usborne makes a great line of books for beginning readers on high interest topics.  Tadpoles and Frogs by Anna Milbourne is loved by both my children and serves as a great example of the series.

This book uses excellent photographs and engaging text to introduce young children to the amazing life cycle of frogs.  The Table of Contents helps readers (and parents) see what’s to come and the glossary at the end of the book aids in understanding.  The font is just the right size for young readers and the text is well-written, giving information in small bites rather than long paragraphs.  The author has even included four recommended websites on the topic of frogs for children to explore with their parents.

My five year old boy enjoys this book as a read aloud and found it especially useful when we were raising tadpoles a few weeks ago.  My little girl is only two and also likes “reading” her book about frogs!

We have two other books in the series: Sun, Moon, and Stars and Caterpillars and Butterflies.  They are wonderful as well.  

Just wanted to share..It’s a nice guide that covers the basics without being overwhelming.  I’m definitely going to share this with new clients and figured I’d post it here just in case anyone is just starting out or knows someone who might be interested in HSing:

“Welcome to Homeschooling”

I think this is really great..

What Should a Four Year Old Know?

A few months ago, I bought David (5) a math curriculum because he expressed an interest in math workbooks.  He enjoyed this new book for the first 40 pages or so and then, as we got further in the book, he stopped asking to do it.

Today I coaxed him a little since it had been 2 weeks and asked him why he wasn’t as into it anymore.  I realized that, while he totally gets (and enjoys) the content, he was getting bogged down by the fact that he had to write all those answers.  His fine motor skills aren’t anywhere near his math skills.

I decided to try one page orally (with him telling me the answers and me filling them in) and he BREEZED through several pages.  Since he’s obviously ready for the content of the curriculum and ENJOYS it, we’re going to continue with it in this manner.

This is the beauty of homeschooling.  Here we have a child who is bright and wants all the info I can give him but isn’t ready to sit and do paper/pencil type work for long periods of time.  He’s a perfectionist and keeps erasing the number if it isn’t exactly as it should be.  In school, he’d probably get turned off to math and writing at an early age because there’s so much of a focus on handwriting and more written tasks than ever before in the primary grades. 

As for the writing, I am not worried about it at this point.  He’s only 5!  He’ll still work on Handwriting without Tears (he loves that) but the rest will come with time.  (And Mommy has the worst handwriting and was always criticized for it in school regardless of excellent grades–ugh.)

I love that homeschooling gives me the freedom to accomodate my son in this manner.  In school, you have to go through testing and fill out mounds of paperwork if your child doesn’t fit inside the “box” in order to get modifications (such as answering orally on a math sheet). 

Tonight he also wrote another page in his story about Cassie from Dragon Tales in his special “Words and Pictures” book.  It’s one of those books filled with pages with lines for text under a space for illustrations. He enjoys adding onto his story and using inventive spelling.  (I write with the convention spelling underneath.)

I am a big believer in the work of John Holt and aim to keep learning as integrated and as “real” as possible, but I do like to make sure we’re covering (for lack of a better word) all the subject areas even if everything we do is child-led.  I find that David is like a sponge, so it’s just a matter of exposing him to new concepts, places, and people!  I’m see myself as a facilitator who is learning alongside my children.

For science, we’ve just raised tadpoles and are about to visit with a local beekeeper.  We’ll learn about honeybees and will also make hand-rolled beeswax candles.  (Before this, David was into sea turtles so we visited a sea turtle rehabilitation center on the coast and attended a sea turtle co-op with a local homeschool group.)

For social studies (and language arts), David is writing back and forth to his new pen pal, Matthew, who lives in CANADA!!  (They’re writing via email as well as snail mail.) He expressed some interest in Canada, so we went to the library and got a bunch of books yesterday on the topic.  I’m thinking about leading a co-op on Canada since I’m learning so much along with him. 

Reading is, of course, integrated like everything else.  He is about to take off and is reading the basics and enjoys the reading section on www.Time4Learning.com. As a visual spatial learner, he is more focused on whole words and the “bigger picture” than phonics, but I find that he still is learning a lot of phonics through the online games and through conversation.  All he can talk about is READING!!  Wherever we are, he wants to read the signs, the menu, the brochure, etc..  When I ask him a question, he answers with “Y” instead of “yes” and then goes on to explain that he said “y” because that’s what “yes” starts with.  Seriously..LOL   He is reading short, phonetic words independently and enjoys predictable books as well as books written for older children.  While he would be considered a beginning reader, he’s exposed to books for children of all ages on a daily basis.

We read aloud a lot, we have audiobooks for the car, and he gets his own magazines in the mail.  My goal has always been to provide a print-rich environment and to let him learn naturally.  He’s never been to preschool (here most are pretty structured) so that natural love for learning is alive and well. 

Some of you know that David was attending music classes at a local public school. Unfortunately, they had to change the schedule for those classes, and the new time didn’t work with our schedule. I had to pull him from the program but he’s okay with it.  He wanted to do the activities with the homeschool group when given the choice between the two..  I’m working now to find out if any other principals in the area would be willing to accomodate us.  He’s also starting a new dance class at the YMCA on Saturdays and may take violin from the violin teacher who taught his violin class at school since she does private lessons at her home. 

He’s still doing Tae Kwon Do in addition to participating in lots of classes/co-ops with our homeschool groups and clubs.  We are busy, but in a fun, natural way that works for our family and includes lots of downtime.  Loralei (2) is also thriving and truly benefits from all of these all we do. While she doesn’t pick up the details, she definitely is learning basic concepts regarding the topics we explore.  She also just started taking a class at a local dance studio and seems to enjoy the opportunity to do something on her own. 

October is especially busy for us because many of the homeschool groups have Fall Festivals and Halloween celebrations.  We’re visiting a pumpkin patch next week and recently made a scarecrow craft that we got from Oriential Trading. 

This is my first year keeping a portfolio for the state.  I’m actually enjoying the record-keeping process.  I bought a basic planbook from the local store for teachers (and homeschoolers) and am using it to record our activities each day.  The categories are as follows: books & magazines read, use of media, games & curriculum (if any), classes & co-ops, noteworthy experiences, and parent’s observations.   

That’s all for now..

Site of the Month: Life Without School

I posted on Homeschool.com a few months ago in search of a pen pal for my son.  I was lucky enough to connect with a mom who had a son the same age who lived in Canada!  We’re helping our sons write back and forth to each other since they’re so young (5).  My son was interested in learning more about Canada, so we went to the library yesterday and checked out several books on the topic.  I hope this pen pal experience will become more than just a way for him to improve his language arts skills.  

As long as he’s interested, we can get into science and social studies topics related to his pen pal’s home country.  He can write his friend with questions and vice versa.  The possibilities are endless.  If you’re homeschooling, you might want to consider helping your child find an old-fashioned pen pal!  It gives them a real reason to write, leads to exploration of related topics, and is just plain FUN!

A must read for every parent of young children, in my opinion..

Einstein Never Used Flashcards