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Because this is what is sitting on my kitchen counter:
It might not be easy to see all the creepy-crawly ants, but trust me, they're there! Anyone who knows me is well aware that I am terrified of anything with more than four legs.
One of the highlights of the preschoolers’ day is the 30 minutes of Buddy School that comes right after room time. The four oldest rotate through as “teacher” with each taking one day except for Emelie who handles both Monday and Friday. Buddy School frees me up to work one-on-one with one of the other children, and is great for growing patience in the buddy teachers.
I’ve created a schedule (shocker!) so that the teacher can look up what activity falls on their day. The activities repeat about twice per month.
This year we’ve added the Preschool Activity Cards from My Father’s World to give the teachers some ideas on how to build skills while playing with some of our Lauri products. Since I already owned most of the needed materials, this has been a fun way engage the littles.
Other popular Buddy School activities are:
- Do-A-Dot
- Dry Erase Boards & Markers (check out Miller Pads and Paper for durable, economical boards)
- Bubbles on the front porch
- Play Foam
- Fruit Loop Sorting (they sort the colors into muffin tins
- Stickers (bought in bulk from the dollar store)
It is important to keep these activities out of reach when not in use so they remain exciting. The teacher and little buddies are also responsible to clean up any mess before they go on to their next activity – 30 minutes of TV time!
This year I’m taking a different approach with science. As Meg is entering the middle school years, I thought she should be allowed to have a year or two of fun before she needs to get a little more serious.
A friend told me about Little Professor Science Kits (thanks, Kristie!). She recommended them because everything is included in the kit (except water!). When it’s time to do the experiments, just grab the labeled baggie and go.
Since I’m allergic to any curriculum that is instructs “gather the following materials,” it sounded good to me!
We will do two labs per week with the four elementary students (1st-6th grades). On the “off” days, Meg and Caleb will fill out the lab reports. More tests can be done online to earn prizes.
These kits aren’t cheap – each box is around $90 and contains 12 experiments. It does appear that much can be reused or easily replaced so not only can I reuse in years to come, I’m hoping to trade kits with another family so we can both get more science for our bucks.
Circle Time has been a fixture in our school day for several years. You can read more about what we've done in the past under the "Our Day" tab.
I love that it brings everyone together to learn some things and sets the tone for our day. It also provides a time to cover subjects that might otherwise be overlooked.
Since we're finishing up our two-year study of American History, we are also singing selections from Wee Sing America 
and History Songs
. I'm always amazed at how much the children retain from songs. They're still singing the songs from last year!
Lastly, we're spending some time with art appreciation through a few books that have we haven't used as much as we should.
This school year I was looking for something new to do with Heidi (age 4.5). She knows her letters, sounds, and numbers, and she loves to "do school." I wanted something that was more "fun" and less academic than what we generally use for Kindergarten (A Beka phonics and Math-U-See Alpha) since she's on the young side.
I'd heard some positive reviews of My Father's World and, after researching it, knew it was what I was looking for. It contains all the main subjects. The first two weeks focus on the creation story from Genesis, followed by 26 hands-on, thematic units that focus on the wonders in God's creation. The sun, moon, rocks, vegetables, elephants, butterflies, and dinosaurs are just a few of the topics.
While buying the kit can be pricey, I knew that the other children would also enjoy the science and literature components of the program. I'm getting whatever books we don't own from the library.
I've scheduled my time with Heidi from 9-10am. The next four oldest children will be working on some of their seatwork at the same table from 9:30-10am. This will give them plenty of opportunity to "listen in" to what we are covering.
I'll admit it - I actually like planning out our school year. I like touching all the books we're going to use. It helps me to picture how the year will go. The problem comes in finding the time and space to get 'er done.
This is where my awesome husband stepped in. He sent me to a hotel Friday after dinner. I was able to work into the wee hours of the morning and, after a few hours sleep, up until lunch time. Then I drove to a library nearby to wrap up a few more details.
I'm feeling really good about starting school next week. I'm excited about some of the new things we are tying. I'll be posting about those in the next few days....
A couple years ago I listened to a couple convention sessions by Woody Robertson of CollegePlus!. I came home excited with a new vision for Emelie’s high school years. Today she had the pleasure of listening to one of his sessions, and to say she’s excited about finishing her Bachelor’s Degree by age 18 would be an understatement!
Some thoughts from the session:
- In 2010, fewer than 20% of college graduates get a job right out of school and most of those that do earn under 40K
- Only 54% of freshmen entering college will graduate
- 80% of college graduates do something different than their major
- Students spend more time in drinking and sports than academics (less than 3 hours per day average are spent in academics)
- 93% of faculty describe themselves as liberals
- Our Founding Fathers graduated college at 16 and 17 years old
In contrast, those students pursuing the method promoted by CollegePlus! have an 80% employment rate. The time saved can be spent on internships and advanced degrees and the learning is individualized to the student.
Emelie’s personality and study skills make her the poster child for this method. It will be interesting to see where this takes her!
Emelie and I just arrived today at the Midwest Homeschool Convention. We both have so many great friends that are joining us. It should be quite the weekend!
As I’ve done my research on curriculum and planned what to buy (my favorite thing), I was re-affirmed about the journey we are taking. It really all boils down to freedom:
We have the freedom to find curriculum that suits the learning styles of our children.
We have the freedom to sleep through the school bus driving by at 6:30 in the morning.
We have the freedom to take our vacations and field trips whenever we want to.
Our children have the freedom to develop deep and meaningful relationships with each other (case in point – Ted and Caleb are best friends. Would that happen to a 13 yo and a 9 yo that were out of the home all day?)
We have the freedom to boldly proclaim the sovereignty of God in everything we do and all we study.
Our children have the freedom to spend large amount of time exploring their passions and interests.
Our children have the freedom to learn at their own pace without regard to grade levels or labels.
Our children have the freedom to do what is right rather than what is cool without ridicule from their peers.
We have the freedom to do school in our jammies (awesome in the winter!).
The teacher has the freedom to kiss the principal at the end of the day!
This offer just showed up in my inbox - a free 7-day digital subscription to Home Educating Family Magazine. Both current and back issues! This great magazine is published by the same folks that produce that fantastic planner that I use.
Click here to sign-up. Then get a cup a tea and start reading!
Yesterday Emelie had her first horse judging of the year. Those contests equal a lot of waiting around for the parents. I always bring a bag stocked with things to keep me busy.
This year I came stocked with curriculum catalogs in preparation for the upcoming Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati at the end of the month.
Some things I'm solid on: Sonlight for history, Teaching Textbooks for high school math, SOS for language arts.
Things I'm looking for: science that the elementary ages can do together, a pre-K or K program for a precocious 5-year-old, and a character study that we love as much as the one we did this year.
Hmmmm....
We had a couple rough days at Stumpf University last week. It prompted the Stumpf Motto of 2011: "Do your duty!" Bryan coined last year's motto: "Keep it clean!" I'm hoping for more enthusiasm for this year's...
I also found myself crying out to God in how to help one of my dear students stay on task. This lovely, sweet child somehow "forgets" to do her schoolwork...everyday. Even though we do school...everyday.
She gets up to go to the bathroom. On the way back, she thinks of a project in the basement and disappears for two hours. When she's in charge of Buddy School, she prepares fun crafts and activities and the little ones have a fantastic time. Then 1:00 rolls around, and I find out she hasn't even started her work, most of which is overdue.
This is what God gave me:
After she's worked though her morning chorepack, she reports to me. I have cards in my chorepack representing each of her school subjects. She gets one card and puts it in her chorepack holder. After completing that assignment, she comes to me and we switch cards. If she needs help with a subject, she places the card on my planner as a reminder to me to go over it with her at our designated time.
We've done this for four school days so far. Every day she has completed her independent schoolwork before lunch (a far cry from when I would formerly find out at 4:00 that half her work wasn't done!). I no longer have to nag, but I'm always aware of what she's working on since I have cards around my neck. Likewise, the card around her neck reminds her of what she's supposed to be doing. And she has WAY more time for that project in the basement!
So far, this works for me!
I thought I'd give a quick shout-out to the free download program Homeschool Tracker.
We've used this program in our homeschool to keep track of attendance for several years. A couple years ago, I began entering our educational extra-curricular activities and field trips to count toward our school days. Now that Emelie is a freshman and we need to be thinking about a transcript, we track her grades as well.
I can easily update the information for all my students in about 10 minutes a week.
The program does much more than I use it for, and if you buy the deluxe program, I think it might make bread and brush your teeth for you. However, I use it as an easy-to-use organizational tool to help keep our homeschool on track!
To keep the little ones occupied while I’m working with some of the older students, the older children take turns being “Buddy School” teacher. For more on Buddy School Table Time, click on the Our Day tab above.
I start with a schedule (shocker!). Each child has a set day of the week that they are in charge for 30 minutes. I plan 15-20 activities. On the pantry door is a chart where each activity is assigned a number that corresponds to the day of the month. That way, the activities aren’t repeated more than twice a month and the teachers only repeat activities a couple times a year.
Some of the new ideas for this year are:
Jumbo Stamps 
– The love the animal stampers and the jumbo pads are a breeze to work with.
Geo-boards – The boys pounded nails into squares of wood in the shape of circles, squares and stars. With a 40¢ bag of rubber bands from Walmart, the little ones string the bands over the nails.
Do-A-Dot – These are like BINGO markers but washable! Some of the children finished their schoolwork early so they could play with these!
Dry Erase Boards – We bought a multi-pack of dry-erase markers at Walmart. I didn’t want to spend $5 each for the boards, so Bryan took a larger one we already had and cut it into fourths.
As with Room Time, part of the magic is keeping the activities whisked away when it’s not Buddy School.
During the 30 minutes each morning that I read to the school-age children, the younger ones are in "Room Time." For more on Room Time, see the Our Day page above.
We use Room Time year-round since we use that time to fold laundry while listening to history or a good story. I try to sprice things up in the fall by rotating toys that have been in hiding in the basement for several months as well as adding one or two new ones.
The big hit of the year are the Teddy Mix & Match cards
. It basically and adorable set of "Memory" cards so I'm shocked how often the older children ask for turns with these. The children have given all the bears funny nicknames, and Hunter often is caught walking around with the green gummy-bear pair.
The first night out of the box, Meg (10) challenged Ted (13) to a match. Emelie and I nearly fell off our seats laughing as Ted couldn't make a pair to save his life. Since the game is rated 2.5-5 years old, we just kindly reassured him (with tears of laughter rolling down our cheeks) that it was because he's further from the 5-year age recommendation.
Ted's since done better, but Meg's still the champ. I told Ted I'd get Heidi (3) to tutor him.
from Ted's old set. The youngest have never had the chance to play with it, and it keeps them busy for a long time.
set. Another fun building set that can really hold attention.
that we all played with as children. Add a metal cookie sheet, a mixing bowl and spoon, and they happily play for some time!
I first read For the Children's Sake 
by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay about 10 years ago. I recently picked it up again and am really enjoying going through it.
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