Do You Homeschool During the Holidays?

This Christmas brought two sneaky homeschool gifts to my son: one which he himself asked for and one which was given to him as not per see as a “gift”, but just because DH was going through a box of old things. Both though have caused DS to “do work”.

My F-I-L thought my son was insane when asked what he wanted to for Christmas, the answer was two three ring binders and plastic inserts. My F-I-L asked quizzically, “Are you sure?” and DS surely was. He was thrilled when he opened his box at our Christmas dinner and this was certainly one of the first gifts that he used (aside from his Nerf Gun).

DS’s plan with these books is to create a Cast Iron Cookbook and to start putting together his Eagle Scout Book. DS loves cast iron cooking, but is frustrated when pushed to think quickly and plan a menu for scouts. His plan is to begin compiling his favorite Cast Iron recipes so that he can just grab his cookbook for both planning meetings and for campouts. This has encouraged him to read carefully to choose the recipes; use the computer to cut, paste, and alter the recipes to the proper size; and to use his organizational skills to put the book together.

The other “gift” was my DH’s old palm pilot. DS has been addicted to it; putting in emergency phone numbers, writing to lists, and filling in the calendar. DS has been checking his spelling on every word he types in. This boy that I have to force to write a sentence has to have the stylus taken away in order to eat dinner. If I had known it would be this easy, I would have bought one of these machines for him. Now, I’m thinking, perhaps I’ll set him up on Facebook too. If it is technology that intrigues him, then I’ll find a way to use it.

So needless to say DS enjoyed his Christmas and mom is feeling a little better about the “time off”.

Homeschooling Hints - Use Your Resources Wisely

Using your resources wisely is an important mantra when you homeschool (Hint #3). Although it is important for the young and old, it is most important during the teenage years.

Keep your eyes out for people that may supplement your children's interests or studies. Today for example DD and I went to the neighbors for some beading lessons. Pam recently gave me a bracelet as a thank you for sewing on her son's Cub Scout patches. DD was impressed with it. She has beaded before but was concerned that her patterning looked too childish. So I took the opportunity to call Pam and see if she would give us a lesson. She was thrilled at the idea and so we went over today.

It was like having a personal shopper. She introduced us to all the necessary parts and pieces. We have looked at beading before but I always hesitate to buy anything but a kit because I have no idea what to buy - too many options. She really helped us figure out what was necessary and even coached us through making two bracelets and a necklace. DD was thrilled.

So keep your eyes open. Who can help your children? Who may have a talent or skill that they can share? Most will be thrilled to pass on the info. Such relationships may even translate into a internship / apprenticeship.

PS. I'll try to get the digital camera working so that we can post some pictures of our creations.

Can't Go Over it, Then Why Not Under it?

Sometimes when you homeschool, you wonder if you are on track. Are your kids going to make it in the outside world? Have I deprived them of something that they can never regain?

And then sometimes, you wonder . . .and I graduated from school (and college)??? How did that happen?

We have started letting our dog have roam of the house when we go to bed and when we go out. However, he has still been know to get into the cat liter. So I figured if we put up a baby gate, the cat could get in and the dog would stay out. But I could only find the very tall gate, I wasn't sure if the cat could jump that high. I must have verbalized my fear, because I hear from DS, "Mom, why don't you just put in up higher so that the cat can just go UNDER it but the dog can't?"

Wow, that made a lot of sense. I guess he got the critical thinking portion of our homeschool curriculum beat.

Integrating Technology and Learning

Since I have been hearing about this video all weekend, I figured that I should share it with you:



Mind you it does not strictly apply to us homeschoolers and many of us will see it as confirmation as to why we homeschool, but if you can get past that you may also be inspired. Of course DD's reason for her excitement about this video is that she sees it as yet another reason why she should get a cellphone. I'm not sure that that is going to work, but I am going to allow her to create a PowerPoint in leiu of a self test in Social Studies. We'll see how that goes and go from their. I'm also thinking, she may be getting some interesting emails. Also, I noticed that our library now has mp3 books on their website for downloading. This may be just the thing for DS.

Let me know any great technology ideas that you have.

Rock Star Animation

Check out this new character that DS created. This is actually my rendition of his creation. He has a drawing but my scanner is broken so I have given up waiting and decided to try to recreate it using paint.

Now I'm thinking that it would be cool to create an animation. Does anyone know how to do that? What basic programs would you recommennd? Any information is welcome.

Artistic Undertakings #2 & #3

Ok, we / I am continuing to try to draw and redraw the same object. Here are two more gourd picture (no comments needed for my absence spelling - thus, the reason I declined an invitation to participate in the local spelling bee).






DD is working on the artistic challenge we posted on acupofteawithmomandme.blogspot.com .

DS seems to have discovered the idea of embossing. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with. He started with simple pencil over a Boy Scout Merit Badge and then something made him get the tinfoil out.

I'm always interested to see how a little inspiration can lead in so many different directions. This is also why it is so important not to be running everywhere. For some of these things, you need time for ideas to perculate. You need quantity in order to glean out any quality.

A Game to Play in the Car

As we drove to drop off our food entries at the fair. DS asked what “STC” stood for on a stop sign. I had no idea what he was talking about. I expected to look over and see some kind of graffiti on the sign, but what he was talking about was the tiny little imprint on the very bottom edge of the stop sign. Leave it to DS to notice the smallest possible thing. Something I hadn’t noticed on a stop sign ever. I’m not sure if it was the acronym of the company that made the sign or the department that might authorize the sign, but of course in a homeschooling car, it led to a game of acronyms:

Save the Camel
Sterile Turkeys Captured
Stalking Talking Computers
Sell the Car (see DD’s post about my car)
Stop the Car
Soon to Collide
See the Color
Swerve Toward Chimpanzees
Sweep to Clean
Service to Country
Stop Talking Computer
See Turbo Chameleon
Spend the Cash
Spare the Child
Shoot to Chill (we’ll it should be kill, but we all know that is not nice)
Spend Time Carefully
Savor the Candy
Sink the Canoe
Sift the cranium
Shake The Caboose
Swim to Canada
Shuck the Corn (which pathetically started as Suck the Corn, but we decided Shuck might be a better word choice)
Service Tall Candles
Supply Treasured cookbooks
Sing Traditional Carols
Silly Trained Chimpanzee


One of them was “Stop Talking C”. DD did not appreciate that very much and was bummed that no one else had an initial that she could use in an acronym.
This is a great silly game that can be played with any letters you might find and is a great way to work on synonyms, adjective, and brainstorming.

Let us know if you come up with any that are really funny.

Appreciating Art While Feeding the World

DS and I got caught up in my own post yesterday. We have been enjoying the art section of Free Rice. We started on the vocabulary, but then moved our way over. Vocab can only hold his attention for so long, but pictures, paintings, or anything visual can hold his attention forever. This section was kind of neat because it had classic paintings and you were supposed to identify the artist from the four listed. DS caught on right away. He was not familiar at all with the artists, but once he realized that you could identify the artist by looking at their style, choice of subject, and color pallet, he was hooked. This was right up his alley. He is the dear boy who while still in diapers pulled all my cans out and reorganized them by height and volume for fun. When he was younger, he would not eat his m&m’s until they were in order and matchboxes weren’t for driving, they were tools to classify and organize.

Of course, in the beginning it was easiest for him to identify Vincent Van Gogh

with his deep strokes and repetitive subject matter, but then we moved on to Monet, Michelangelo, and Rembrandt. He particularly liked Franz Marc,

a Picasso style but with wildlife. He also asked for a Van Gogh print for his room. (He is really becoming my kind of man – a Kenny G. listening Van Gogh fan who likes long walks in the woods – boy will he be able to write a personal ad one day). He also quickly caught on that we could identify Georges Seurat by his use of dots and Pieter Bruegel the Elder by his use of detail.

We also cheated a little or you may call it using your resources wisely when we found out that some of the pictures were signed in the corner. Albrecht Durer’s signature was the most interesting (look in the plaque just below the horse's lifted hoof - there is a "D" inside a rough "A")

.

I guess it is time to head back to the Wadsworth Anthenum or maybe a trip on the T into Boston.

Website Wednesday - Eric Carle

www.eric-carle.com
The Eric Carle Official Website. There are wonderful videos of how he creates his work, incredible teaching ideas of how to use his work, and other interesting tid-bits.

www.picturebookart.org
The Eric Carle Museum website. It is located in Amherst, MA if you are interested in visiting personally.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/EricCarlePhotoProducts.jsp
Create cards, invitations, and books using a combination of your photos and Eric Carle’s artwork.

http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/carle
Includes short video interviews with Eric Carle.

http://www.npr.org/programs/watc/features/2007/jul/ericcarle_slideshow/index.html
A video interview with Eric Carle.

http://www.readwritethink.org/calendar/calendar_day.asp?id=549
Some unique ideas of how to work with Eric Carle’s work. Even an online collage making website ( which can be reached directly using http://www.nga.gov/kids/zone/collagemachine2.htm )

Fieldtrip - Eric Carle Museum

DH needed help delivering a firetruck today, but he also needed to do some work. So we needed to "waste" a few hours in Mass. I took the opportunity to take the kids to the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst.

It is not a large museum. We spent about 2 1/2 hours there. The museum included three galleries, an art studio, a gift shop, an auditorium, a cafe, and two video productions. They generously gave me a teacher's admission as a homeschooling mom and their youth admission extends to 18 years old. I found the fee to be very reasonable.

If you are not familiar with Eric Carle read any of his wonderful children's books The Very Hungy Catepillar, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, or Walter the Baker. He has several others as well. Eric Carle's collage style intregues kid's and adults alike. His artwork is very identifiable.

I think when the kids were young, DH and I knew every word to Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

Our trip was very inspiring, so I think next week DS and I are going to try to use his collage idea to create some pictures. Both of us were fascinated by the video segement about how he created his artwork.

Eric Carle has a style all his own and his artwork is everywhere in the museum. The gift shop had Eric Carle clothing material and even the bathroom was decorated with Eric Carle decorated ceramic tiles.

While we were there, we tried creating our own style in the art studio by creating texture creations. This is the best kind of art - created with everyday items and glue. Even reluctant DD (13 year old), got caught up in the act and was the last to finish.

PS. If you keep your eyes open over the next week or so, I will put up an Eric Carle Unit Study. It will certainly be fun for the whole family.

Fair Experiences

It came today . . .The Fair book. Our town is known for its late September fair. It is all consuming for everyone in our town. In fact as we are selling our home, I think I should add a disclosure “Home includes requirement to attend and work local fair for 3 days in late September.” We grew up here so we knew what we were getting into, but someone from out of town could be caught off guard. Truly, the only way to avoid all that the fair entails is to leave town completely. As a homeschooler, the fair is wonderful diversion from the regular day. This is not just true of the actual fair days, but beginning with the arrival of the fair book.

For a week, the kids will flip through the pages back and forth trying to decide exactly what they want to enter. Then we have to send in the registration forms and beginning planning to get the projects done. Some projects can take weeks like paper mache and others can’t be done until the day before you drop them off. We won’t even discuss the fun of trying to drop them all off. In my brilliance last year, I decided that it would be easier without bringing the kids along - - -a clear example of not thinking a plan all the way through. Who did I think was going to carry all the stuff? Lego towers can get very heavy when you stand in line for 20 minutes.

The most embarrassing and funniest year of fair preparations was many years ago when my children were young, idealistic, and did not take disappointment well. I had set up the kitchen to work with one child at a time. I was only there to supervise and make sure that they did not replace flour with sugar or tablespoons for teaspoons. Poor dd waited patiently for her turn to cook, while her brother made oatmeal raisin cookies. She was very excited to make a layer cake. She carefully measured and cooked. Everything was ready to be put together. So I stepped in to carefully lay one cake atop the other – vump! The top layer went right on the floor – perfectly flat, perfectly on floor. She just looked at me. I knew I had cut it all too close and there was no time to do it again. I looked at her. I looked at the floor. I calculated how much dirt could have been on the floor, when it was washed last, and what other options I had. At the mere mention of not entering, tear welled in dd’s eyes. I looked at the cake again, scooped it up, and put it on the cake. (I know – gross, but you would be amazed what you would do for your children.) We delivered it on time. And to our great surprise, she took first place. Maybe we should throw all our meals on the floor.

So, off we are on our new fair adventures . . .I promise not to drop and serve another cake.

printmaking

There is one great thing about being trying many things - you have the supplies to do almost anything. The other day, my husband was carving a watermelong whale (he claims not to be artistic, but you should see his pumpkins at Halloween). He needed carving instruments. Because we are in the process of moving and have many boxes of "unneeded" things set aside, the Halloween carving kits were already packed, BUT leave it to the Homeschooling, Girl Scout leader. I had a linoleum printing kit still unpacked (why that wasn't packed but the pumpkin carving kit was I don't know). I pulled it out for my husband and he finished his project. Like many homeschool projects though, my son was inspired - tools, carving, art. HMMMMM! I cut him some linoleum and off he went carving away. The next day, I pulled out my bryer, paper, and ink. He could not understand why he should print more than once. Then, we spent the next day making cards. I was so impressed with his artistic talent- His eye at putting things together. These cards weren't like the kindergarden bunched tissue paper that every mother posts on her refridgerator claiming that she has a Picasso on her hands. These were usable pieces of art. I think he was even suprised. Now we have to find more Speedball art supplies to try some more printing.