HomeSchool Girls

It seems like we are always so busy.  I crave days of doing absolutely.nothing.  HOMEschooling…that’s at home right?

Saturday we went to the Dragon Boat Races at the Tennessee River.  Our church had a team and it was a great day.  We came in 4th out of almost 100 teams and while that was good our preacher has big plans to win it next year.  He is a wee bit competitive!  That is our preacher and his wife in the first picture.  Actually they co-Pastor.

Monday was the last day of Co-op.  Keilee is going to miss these girls every week.  They all live around here but in a 45 mile radius.  It is hard to coordinate get togethers with everything else going on in all of our lives.  Keilee has planned a sleepover this summer to celebrate the end of Co-op.  If we can just find a time to get everyone here, between camps and church camps and vacations!

Keilee wanted to paint her bed purple so we enlisted the help of Seth.  We could have done it but he is 17 and always looking for ways to make money.  They did a GREAT job!

Wednesday was our church’s Convergence.  We have a small building and lots of people who attend Epic.  We have 5 services every Sunday!  So once every 3 months we ‘converge’ to a large place to worship.  It is always amazing and moving and wonderful.  We are in prayer for a larger place and that just may happen soon!  I don’t see how our pastors and worship team do it week after week.

We have been outside almost every second that we are home.  The weather has been beautiful and next week looks awesome! High 80′s every day!  After painting our glider bright yellow we decided to paint our table purple!  We already had the turquoise chairs.  Our patio is old and needs some work but we spend so much time here in the spring and summer and fall!

1. Keilee is learning to do an aerial and all I do is pray every time she tries.  Being the Mother,  I envision broken necks every.single.time.
2.  I took Keilee to Wheeler Wildlife Refuge for her “Thursday with Keilee” on 7 Cool Homeschoolers.  She wasn’t feeling well and she didn’t get to film everything she wanted to but it turned out good.
3.  Keilee can stomp me on the Wii but I rule on old school Nintento games.  We have spent hours and hours playing Super Mario 3.  Seriously I used to RULE Nintendo.  The local TV station did a story on me years ago because I was a 22 year old married chick who played video games all the time!    I told you I have always been a geek gamer girl!

THURSDAYS WITH KEILEE – WILDLIFE ADVENTURE

Learning around here just flows. When I try to remember some of the things Kei has done I can’t remember that much.  She watches huge amounts of Crash Course.  She watches CNN Student News every day.  She reads ‘Jesus Calling’ every day.  She works on her video and ideas and editing.  She is working through an Ecology book.  She does Khan Academy Algebra.  She plays tons of Angry Birds.  We have a competition going and she is WAY ahead of me!  She does SAT app every day.   She spends hours outside flipping and twisting and turning.  She watches Gymnastics videos every day.  She plays with Snap Circuits.  The iPhone app “The Bible” has an audio option and we listen to it often.

Here are a  couple of resources I would love to share.  If you aren’t signed up for “Free Homeschool Deals” you should!  She has awesome resources.  Seriously go check it out right now!

Things we have used lately:
Middle School Science Resources
Free Chemistry and Physical Science Course
Master Math

We don’t do a lot of ‘schooly’ stuff anymore.  Is Keilee learning? You betcha she is.  The best kind of learning; learning she LOVES and remembers.  We have tons of conversations, we explore things together, she teaches me and I teach her.  She is forever showing me or telling me something she has learned.  The Mark Twain quote is one of my favorite quotes and one I try to live by most of the time.  “Explore, Dream, Discover”

So that is about it for our lovely week.  Today is raining and it is supposed to rain all weekend.  Lots of time to RULE Mario Brothers 3!  Muwhahahahahah!

Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”   ~ Mark Twain

“Do not try to satisfy your vanity by teaching a great many things. Awaken people’s curiosity. It is enough to open minds, do not overload them. Put there just a spark. If there is some good inflammable stuff, it will catch fire.”  ~Anatole France

Linking with Mary at “Collage Friday”

Lots of Science learning taking place around here this week.  I think Keilee would be happy doing nothing but Science!

1.  Co-op making no bake cookies
2.  Skate Day with Keilee and Maddie Grace
3.  Co-op.  These girls have SO much fun.
4.  Seth decided to do a push up with Keilee on his back.  Too funny!

Keilee watched several documentaries about Quantum Physics this week.  She then sat down and drew on pages and pages of paper to explain it to me.  Honestly, I didn’t understand everything she was saying.  I LOVE that she loves things like this.

The weather was lovely this week.  We had tons of outside time.  Cartwheels of course were done over and over and over.

We also decided to paint everything on our patio that wasn’t tied down.  We have tons more to do but it is looking so colorful!  I need new cushions for my glider and chairs.

This weeks’ “7 Cool Homeschoolers” was “Blind Taste Test”.  Britney came over to help Keilee on Tuesday.  We laughed so much at her ‘tasting’.  She was convinced that she wouldn’t miss any!  She was wrong.  I love the way she added information about the tongue.  I wish you could have seen the outtakes.  She was so frustrated because she kept forgetting things she wanted to say.  I was in the back of the house just laughing at her.

She also wanted to learn about “Stockholm Syndrome” and the Catacombs of Paris.  She is TOTALLY fascinated with the French Revolution.  It happened after we listened to “Revolution” audio book.  This book is for older kids and only you know what is appropriate for your kids but she loved it.  It has led to so much learning about that time period.

Here are some of the links she used for each topic:

STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1920301,00.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riwHaBHnTi0

CATACOMBS

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2184393/Paris-catacombs-The-skulls-bones-inside-Frances-Empire-Dead.html

http://www.frontrowdocumentaries.com/history/catacombs-of-death-paris.html

WATCH
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5MIzoHOyfQ
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBrkrnrkbsE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–ti8nSK5ZQ

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/30/133308592/parisunderground

The FUNNEST [ I know, not a word] thing that she did this week was a field trip to Hudson Alpha.  From their website:

In Our Life This Week:

After our hectic week last week this one was all about slowing down.  Yes we have too many things going on at times and yes some days are crazy, but I know that overall our lives are much more laid back and stress free than if Keilee was in PS with outside activities.  I have often wondered how those kids find time for anything?  For playing or day dreaming or reading on the hammock?  We are so lucky to be able to learn at home.

Most of our week was spent outside in nature.  Even though our weather hasn’t really been a normal April we were still able to play outside a good bit.  Everything is blooming here.  It is so gorgeous. Some of our flowers.  Pictures by Keilee.

Keilee found a Robin egg in the yard.  No sign of a nest.  We wondered if we could put it in another bird’s nest but the only bird nest we found had a Mourning Dove Momma who wasn’t budging.  Papa [we think] was near by.

Co-op has been such a blessing to us both this year.  We had never done it before and I am so glad we did this year.  Keilee loves these girls and they all have such a blast together!  Here are the cupcakes they made and a delicious Italian Cream Cake with  Cream Cheese frosting. It was honestly heavenly.  Once again I am made aware at how much Keilee cooks at home. Time after time she is the only one who has ever creamed butter or separated eggs or many more things.  She has been cooking since she was 7 or 8!

Various shots.  I found myself taking hardly any pictures lately!  And about zero with my digital camera.  The iPhone is just so much handier.  Like I always heard, “The best camera is the one that’s with you” And that is ALWAYS my iPhone.

1.  My birthday cake! My birthday was Tuesday and Keilee made this cake.  It was caramel with caramel icing.  She also made marshmallow fondant and cut out flowers.  The candle holders are dresses she made with clay.
2.  Epic Church.  Sunday was our Baptism day with 111 people baptized!  It was a moving, awesome day.
3.  This is a weird little app called Face Fusion.  This is Keilee and I ‘fused’ together.  It isn’t perfect because the pictures are supposed to be non smiling.  I see ‘mostly’ me with hints of Keilee.

Various things done this week:

• Khan Algebra
• Shmoop This is a really cool site.  I signed up for the newsletter and we never fail to look at it each week.  Lots of cool videos and information.
• CNN Student News.  After seeing this on various blogs it is now something Keilee does every single morning.  Great info!
• Snap Circuits
• Tons of baking for my birthday, at Co-op and goodies for neighbors and at the Animal Clinic.  Keilee has taken something she baked to work every single week.
• Crash Course / Science/History/Ecology  This is a YouTube channel that Keilee watches every single day too.
• Blimey Cow  This is a YouTube channel that Keilee loves probably most of all.  It is done by Homeschoolers and she has watched it for years.  She LOVES Jordan.  He is in college now but still makes videos every Monday.
• Reading, reading and more reading.
• The Medici’s on PBS.  I have this app called Twonky that beams YouTube to my TV [via my Roku]  We have been watching lots of documentaries on that.  It isn’t 100% all the time but very close.
• SAT Prep words App
• Another YouTube video she LOVES is “Tour the States“  She watches this over and over and goes around singing it all the time.  It is DEFINITELY worth a watch!

I know there is a lot more but without her here to ask I forget all the things she does!  Being Interest Led she is pretty much on her own unless she ask for help.

On “7 Cool Homeschoolers” the theme was “Room Tour”  She had a blast doing this one.  This is actually  a still shot from her video so it is a little blurry.  The video is below the pic.  We are painting her bed PURPLE but “No Keilee we don’t have time to do it before you shoot your video!”

In other EXCITING news I ‘attended’ a Twitter Party that IHomeschool Network had last night and won a LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP to Notebooking Pages!  I have wanted this for so long and just couldn’t find the money to get it.  I was seriously jumping up and down, both virtually and in real life.  I also won a FREE class to Curr Click Live Classes.  I can’t wait for Keilee to choose which one she wants!  Thanks to IHomeschool Network and all the great sponsors for a great party!  I don’t go to Twitter parties nearly often enough.  I am going to try to find time for them.

Keilee just now text me this and this picture.  She loves her internship so much.  For the record I really didn’t think it was a HORSE!

So that is our week here at Homeschool Girls.  As always I am in awe of people who post every couple of days!  I guess I could find the time but I have been really busy for work and all of our other activities.  Finding time for my Friday post is hard at times!

Happy weekend.  Ours is supposed to be FULL of RAIN and COLD [for May in Alabama] temperatures.  Hope yours is beautiful.

Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

“Spring would not be spring without bird songs.” ~Francis M. Chapman

“I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers:
Of April, May, or June, and July flowers.
I sing of Maypoles, Hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
Of bridegrooms, brides, and of the bridal cakes.”  ~Robert Herrick, Hesperides, 1648

Happily linking with
Mary at “Collage Friday”
IHomeschoolNetwork “Homeschool Mother’s Journal”
Savannah at “Hammock Tracks”

There was much going on this past week.  The most exciting was the premiere of “Little Josephine”.  More on that later.

There was cooking and creating and clay and so much more.  I love the way our weeks flow at times.  Not always perfect but always learning and laughing and loving.

7 Cool Homeschoolers  The theme this week was “Your Favorite Character from a book, movie or TV show.  Keilee picked Cinderella, one of her favorite Disney Princesses.  She wrote this amazing little rap song. I LOVED how this turned out!

Various parts of our week:

1.  Cinderella – Yo!
2.  Cupcakes with homemade peanut butter icing.  Yummy!!
3.  I finally bought “Color Yourself Smart – Geography” that I have seen on so many blogs.
4.  Keilee played for hours with clay.
5.  A little volcano she had gotten months ago.  Add vinegar and voila!

Clay Creations:

She played around a bit with Marshmallow Fondant she had seen on Jessica’s site.  Very cool.

Saturday she went to 2 workshops at a local college.  One was for Directing and Film Making and the other on Acting.  She loved them both.  I was ‘more than welcome’ to stay but decided to let her go without me.  It is her thing not mine.  After the final class I waited and waiting while all these people came out…most of them college kids and adults.  Finally I peeked in and she was in deep conversation with both of the teachers! With everyone else already gone!  I love that she will just ask questions when she is out of her ‘normal comfort zone’.  This picture was on their Facebook page. I did not make it.

The big thing of the week was the premiere of “Little Josephine“.  This was such an unbelievable experience for Keilee and for me.  It involved learning the script, fittings for the costume, days of filming and then days of filming her part on the green screen, recording the song, promotion and more.

We met tons of our friends before the performance for dinner.  Keilee was there surrounded by her best friends and she said, “Mom they are as excited for me as I am!”  It was just a lovely wonderful night.  It was so strange for her to be in the audience watching herself.  She is usually on stage.  We were so thankful for all the friends and family who were there to support her.

Friends… These pictures are blurry and the lighting is horrible but I love the joy in them.

Space Warriors is out but is being shown in select theaters only.  It is being shown at the Space and Rocket Center.  We haven’t had a chance to go this week but will go next weekend.

What a week!  As exciting as it was I am glad every week doesn’t look like this.  I would go crazy!

Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” ~Kurt Vonnegut
“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” ~Walt Disney Company

Better late than never: Happily linking with Mary at “Collage Friday”

I sometimes worry about Math.  At times a little, at others a lot.  Lately Keilee has been asking me to print Assessment Tests for her to take.  Keilee has never, not once, taken a test given by me.  I don’t do tests, ever.

I printed out 2 last week; a 42 page ‘Reading Comprehension’ and a 30 page ‘Grammar’.  She missed 1 on the Reading Comprehension and 2 on the Grammar.  Out of that many pages!  Now keep in mind, we do NOT do Grammar.  Not in years.  She said to me, “Now I want to try the 8^th grade test” [she would be in 7^th grade if she was in PS] and I told her, “That was the 8^th grade test!”  I was happy for her because she was proud of herself.

Sunday she wanted a Math one.  So I printed it out and knew even before she looked at it that she would have no clue on some of these questions.  I was right although she did know so much more than I thought she would, Thank you Khan Academy!

I thought long and hard about this Math dilemma.  I have changed my ‘thinking’ so many times on this Homeschool journey to actually wind up right back where I began.  Well since we have over 5 years left I guess ‘wind up’ is not the right word.

I started out loving unschooling.  Even before I removed Keilee from public school I was drawn to it. I had folder and folders [This was BP...‘Before Pinterest’ remember when you had to bookmark? ] of Homeschool resources before I ever started homeschooling Keilee.  She went to K and 1^st grade and the first week of 2^nd grade I picked her up, said, “Would you like to be homeschooled?” She said “YES” and the rest is history…well ‘our’ history. 

I am really not quite sure unschooling is even the right word for what she does.  She tells me what she wants to do and I find resources or she finds them.  She does want a schedule and I provide her with one.  Even that changes format from week to week, at times it is a ‘Daily’ chart and some weeks it is just “Weekly”.

All that being said, since this is about Math, here is what “I” believe.  She knows the basics, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, etc.  As we have gone through various Math curriculums I have ran across many concepts already that I had totally forgotten.  Do you know how long it usually takes me to look it up and figure it out?  10 minutes…tops.   So then why can’t Keilee do that?  Say she gets in College [if that is what she decides to do] and takes a Math class.  She is smart enough that if she doesn’t understand she can figure it out with all the resources online.

What she does for Math now is Khan Academy.  I  Khan Academy.  She does around 3 or 4 lessons a week.  She has finished Pre-Algebra and just started Algebra.  She understands it.  If she doesn’t, she ask me to find her some worksheets so she can practice.

I have thought about this long and hard and what I think is important is that kids have the resources to “FIND” the answers they need.  Not that it is all memorized in their heads.  I know schools teach tests to students. So you have 7^th graders all over the country being drilled week after week on the exact concepts they will be tested on.  So I didn’t feel bad when she didn’t know some of the 8^th grade Math problems.  When she found one she didn’t know I asked her if she could ‘find out’ how to solve it.  She said yes and she did that.  To me that is more important than knowing how to do it because you have been drilled on it over and over ad nauseam.  Which they promptly forget as soon as they stop drilling.

So I am mostly letting go of my Math freak outs…Breath in…breath out….

I believe with all my heart that the internet and more importantly, the amazing resources on the internet has changed learning forever.  I am so excited that Keilee is living in this time frame, that the only place all these awesome resources have to do is get better and better.   Can you imagine how learning will look in 10 years or even 5?  Makes me wish I had a 2 year old…hmmmm…nah.

Homeschooling Rocks,
Karen

*Disclaimer: I am not saying that Math isn’t important.  I am saying that ‘drilling’ Math facts or concepts into a child’s head day after day is unimportant.  There are many professions where I know higher Math is essential.

“Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice and you can look out of the window and see the blue sky – or the answer is wrong and you have to start over and try again and see how it comes out this time.”  ~Carl Sandburg

I see people posting all the time about all the amazing things they do in their homeschooling weeks.  I seem to not post so  much about that.  Our weeks seem so busy that I fill up my posts with pictures of things we have done.

This week was busy.  Keilee had a dentist appointment, we had to do our once monthly grocery shopping [well I do buy groceries other times but once a month I buy 'BIG' groceries], we had Co-op, a friend came and spent the day with Keilee and more.

We spent a few hours in the closet.  Spring in Alabama means Tornadoes.  I have lived most of my life here, tornadoes have never bothered me.  Until April 27, 2011.  The day that forever changed the way I, and so many other Alabamians look at tornadoes.  Now they make me a bit nervous.  After a couple of hours all the bad weather passed.

1.  Best friends at Co-op.  Keilee and I both love this group of girls so much.
2. Keeping up with the weather via iPad.  In the closet.
3. I ordered Keilee Snap Circuits after reading all the great reviews from all of you. She LOVES them.
4. Giving Nomad a hug after the tornadoes had passed.  We were all 3 in a small hall closet.

Our neighbor had a man mowing her yard and THIS flew out of the blower.  Keilee took it and put it in a box with grass.  He seemed fine, just scared to death.  She then called her Vet office and they told her to put it in the yard and see if it hopped off.  She had to do a photo shoot with it first.  And of course she wanted to keep it.

The trailer for Space Warriors came out this week!  This is the movie that Keilee was in as an extra all last summer.  SHE was IN THE TRAILER!  We were so excited.  She is at about .06 seconds and .13 seconds.  This is a scene at the welcoming ceremony at Space Camp.  If you pause it at .13 you can see Josh Lucas speaking and BooBoo Stewart and Thomas Horn.  Keilee is in the blue shirt on the left next to the girl with the red shirt.  The first thing is a picture I took of the video when you can see her.

Here is the trailer.

Also “Little Josephine” premieres next Thursday.  This is a short film that will be shown in film festivals worldwide.  Keilee plays Amaya, the fairy.

The funny thing about these 2 events is that the premieres are on THE SAME DAY!  April 25th.  Keilee said, “Oh my gosh I have been in 2 movies my entire life and they both premiere on the same day”.  We can see Space Warriors in the theater though.  So we will be walking the red carpet for “Little Josephine” [Just kidding, no red carpet will be there, I don't think]

Wednesday we spent the day at a local park for Keilee to film her video for “7 Cool Homeschoolers”.  She had planned it all out the night before.  She took the lyrics and wrote exactly where she wanted to film each part and different things she wanted to do.  She is VERY good at this sort of thing.  Her friend Kayla was over and went with us.  We both felt like Production Assistants dragging Keilee’s things around.  Because of course she changed clothes…and boots!

This week was “Music Video”.  She actually had a hard time finding a popular song she liked with no ‘bad’ words and no suggestive lyrics. Sad… Here is her video.

Favorite Photo of the Week:
We went on a Wildflower walk.  Keilee didn’t even want me to take her picture ["I look awful, my hair, blah blah] and I LOVED this one.

Favorite Homeschool Things:

• Snap Circuits  This is the kit I got.  There are several to choose from.
• Kno books [I had a coupon for $10 and used it to get "Ecology" for the iPad.] These are VERY interactive books that you can even write in.  You actually ‘rent’ the books for 12 months.  The one we got was $12.99 and with the coupon I only paid $2.99 for it. So far Keilee is LOVING this!
• Ecology Crash Course
• Keilee made a Paper Dragon.  This didn’t turn out exactly like it was supposed to.  She is going to try it again.  We got this from Homeschooling Ideas.  If you haven’t signed up for this newsletter DO IT NOW.  Julie has AWESOME stuff here!!!!
• She spent an hour or so on ICivics.  I had seen this on Theresa’s site! Thanks Theresa.
• Lots of Khan Academy Algebra.  She uses the iPad app for this.  We have used Khan for YEARS.  I love it.  I just adore Salman Khan. He rocks.
• SAT daily app.  Keilee really, really likes this for some reason.  She has always had a very good vocabulary but she has started using these new words in every day conversation.
• She has been asking for Standardized tests!  She has been doing page after page of these.  More on this in a later post.
• Reading “Roanoke” on iPad.  This was a free Kindle book one day and I grabbed it for her.  She has been fascinated by the story of Roanoke since she was about 8.
• Math Apprentice  This is another site I found through who?? I can’t remember! ACK.  All I know is that all these shared resources between HS Moms are the best.
• She is reading all the Animal books she can get her hands on.  I grab these for FREE on Free Homeschool Deals.  It is also a newsletter you sign up for.  I have gotten TONS AND TONS of Kindle books here.  The Animal books are a lower level but she still gets information from them.  Thanks Jamerill!!!

So there is a look inside the life of these 2 Homeschool Girls.  I am sitting here writing this and Keilee is at her intership.  I have the TV on and am listening to the search for one of the bombers of the Boston Marathon.  They break in with information about the number of deaths in the Texas explosion.  This has been a hard week for the United States.  Please pray for everyone affected by these horrific tragedies.

Have a lovely weekend,
Homeschoooling Rocks,
Karen

“Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.” ~Leo Buscaglia

Happily linking up with
Mary at “Collage Friday“

Some weeks I just feel like I have nothing much to say.† This week is one of those weeks.† It isn’t that we didn’t do anything because there is always things going on.† I find myself taking fewer pictures than I usually do.† And 99% of them are with my iPhone.

That being said here is our week.

The BIG NEWS is I got Keilee an iPad Mini.† Now we have an iPad but we were always fighting over it.† I find myself using my iPad more and more and my PC less and less.† Her laptop had completely stopped working and it was on its last leg anyway so we talked about it and she decided she would rather have a Mini than a computer.† I tried to talk her into a regular iPad but she wanted the Mini.† She LOVES it.† This is the most expensive single thing I have ever bought her.† I was so happy that I could do this for her.† I think since it is ‘hers’ she likes it more.† She can set up Instagram and Pinterest and things like that.† She has been a PINNING FOOL this week.† She started out with 7 pins from the account she had months ago to almost 300!!

Lots and lots of play practice.† Show Week is next week and we will both be a little glad for a break.† We just always have so much going on and practice 3 nights a week is a lot.† Keilee’s role is very cute.† She is playing a very annoying wedding circulation planner.† She is also very uncomfortable in the tighter of the 2 dresses.† She NEVER wears things like this!† The boy in the picture is the same age as her!† It is so obvious that girls mature earlier than boys for the most part.

Keilee did so much artsy sort of things this week.† She goes in cycles, never picks it up for weeks and then does nothing else.

After we had sliced an avocado, Keilee looked up how to grow the pit and decided to try. We don’t really live in a warm enough climate but she still wanted to try.† We can already see changes.

Here are some snapshots of some of our week:

1.† Keilee is working on a 20th Century Lapbook. She showed me how she added her own description of Hitler.
2.† Co-op.† This has been such a positive experience for us both.† Keilee has got the best friends there and they always have such a ball.† The girls are all within 1 year of each other.† Their teacher was sick last Monday so they made a video with Video Star.† I was in the next room and all I heard was laughter and singing and talking.
3. Coding† She is working through the Computer Science classes on Khan Academy.† Very cool.† Already she is doing things I have no clue about.
4. A SteamPunk dollhouse she is working on.† This mess would have driven me crazy at one time. Now I just take deep breaths….

What we are reading:
Daily Devotion: Jesus Calling

Read Aloud: Wonder [Thanks Jess!]

I am reading:† I just finished the 3rd book in the “Matched” trilogy; “Reached“† I loved these books.

Now I started the final book in the “Pandemonium” trilogy; “Requiem“.† Love, love.

Keilee is reading:† “This Book is Not Good for You“† It is Book 3 in a series that she loves.† LOVES!!

Audio Book:† We are listening to “The Hobbit”

What we are watching:
Keilee found this show called “My Fair Wedding” that she likes. It’s a’ight.† I don’t love ‘wedding’ shows. † We are also watching “Castle” our favorite show and “Once Upon a Time”.† Those are really the only 2 series shows that we watch every week.† Keilee is always watching documentaries but I am not sure which ones she watched this week.† I also just got the first 2 discs of “7th Heaven” I never watched that show but we have heard or read about 3 references to it lately so I decided to check it out.

Keilee’s week:

• Khan Academy
• Lapbook of Modern History
• Art Journaling
• Lots of reading
• Lots of Pinterest
• Reading about Animals, Animals and did I mention Animals?
• Working hard on a SteamPunk dollhouse she is making out of boxes.
• Lots of Coding and Computer Science
• Working on her ideas for a new Video channel she is a part of
• Play Practice
• Working on her script for “WonderGlass”
• Watching “Mysteries In History” on Netflix [she really loves these]
• She is working through this book I got on Amazon.† I had found the Teacher workbook at a thrift store jammed full of great resources so I ordered her the book. She reads the chapter and does the questions on her own.
• At her Internship she watched a dog that was getting an abcess drained.† [Gross huh?]. She is still walking the dogs and doing lots of jobs around the clinic.† She even MOPPED the floor! She has never mopped a floor here!† She also made what we call “Doo-Doo Cookies” to take Friday.† She said they loved them.
• She has watched several Crash Course videos.† We are HUGE fans of John and Hank Green.† I love† John Green.† If you haven’t checked out their YouTube channel I would highly recommend it.† One thing I love about John Green is he is a Christian. He actually wanted to be a Minister at one point in his life.
• Knitting
• Drawing on the iPad
• Instagram.† I love Instagram.† One thing I love about it is how Keilee and I have both gotten to know my blog friends kids better.† I love seeing all of their pictures and seeing the dialogue that goes on between all these homeschooling girls all over the country.

I will leave you with a little Spring.† I am so ready for it, aren’t you?

Well I guess I had more to say than I thought.† How was your week?

Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

“March is a month of considerable frustration – it is so near spring and yet across a great deal of the country the weather is still so violent and changeable that outdoor activity in our yards seems light years away.” ~ Thalassa Cruso

Happily Linking with
Mary at “Collage Friday”
Savannah at “Homeschool Review”

One thing that has always amazed me is how, when I get an idea from a blog or article about something I want to try in our HS, I see it everywhere.† Everyone is interested in the same thing.† I don’t know if I just read like-minded bloggers or what but the sharing of ideas, resources and things that work has always been one of my favorite parts of home education. Love it!

I have been interested in Project Based Learning for some time.† I have a folder for it and the earliest information I have is from 2010.† The idea of it appeals to me, in fact in my perfect world I would gather all my favorite bloggers and friends and let our children do nothing but projects, one after another, always learning and laughing and exploring.

Keilee mainly makes her own “Weekly Plan“.† This past week was “Do a Project”

She has 2 ideas she is working on at once but the one she spent the most time with this week is a Movie on iMovie.† She is doing her version of “Wonderland”† It is called Wonder Glass.

She has spent hours this week writing a script with Scripts Pro on the iPad, doing a complete storyboard after researching storyboards and exactly what they are supposed to do, picking out costumes, writing down locations in our town where she wants to film and talking to a friend about being in her film.† She has been so ‘busy’. Don’t you love it when you kids are so busy and involved that they just don’t stop?

The Script:

The Storyboard [This is 11 pages!]

She has picked out some costume choices, she wants it to be modern age.

I am looking forward to her doing more and more of this Project Based Learning sort of things.

Another thing that has interested her this week is “Coding”† She has been a little interested in computer programing at different points in her life.† I got Scratch years ago and she programmed on it on and off.† I also have Alice which she likes.† She and I watched a video that was on FrogCreek’s site and since then she has been raring to go.† She has found a couple of apps:† “Daisy Dinosaur” and “Move the Turtle“† Also Code.org is a great place to start.† Here is the video that inspired her: [Thanks Frog Creek!!]

What I Am Watching:
Sherlock – Ok people have been telling me forever that I should watch this.† The thing that held me back is that it is only 6 episodes.† But they are 6† lovely, 1 1/2 hours each, episodes.† This is my new favorite show.† I just got consumed watching it.† I loved it so much.† Netflix Streaming, watch it now!† It is brilliant!† I promise.† When the last episode was coming to an end I was very sad.† Keilee was in her room and I screamed “I wish Sherlock would text me”† [He texts a lot].† She came into the den to ask me what was going on and I explained how the show was wrapping up and I wasn’t too happy with it.† Well about 15 minutes later I get this on my phone:
I was cracking up.† She had snuck into the den and changed her name on my phone to Sherlock, went back to her room and sent me a text.† Love her.

They made cupcakes and homemade cinnamon rolls in Co-op:
Other things in our week:
1.† Cartwheels in the street.
2.† Maggie, one of our dearest friends, needed to do a poster on Animals. [She is in Public School] and Keilee begged to help her.† They had a great afternoon and Keilee got out her Rainforest Lapbook and they used components of that.† Turned out awesome.
3.† On the way to Co-op, the blue is the Tennessee River.
4. Texas Hold Em app.† Seriously we have both spent hours on this.† So much fun!

Here is the poster:

In other news this week, Keilee got an iPhone!† She has had one for years but it functioned like an iPod.† She had a text app for texting.† Well this week my Daddy called and said to have her ready.† He picked her up and next thing I knew she was texting me.† He got her a 4S iPhone and she is loving Siri.†

Today was her 2nd day of her internship and she had a blast.† I got these texts from her.
She already has a name picked out see? Silly girl.

It is a small chance of snow tonight.† March 1st.† Like I told Jenn at Little Homeschool on the Prairie, “I will believe it when I see it”.

Happy Friday!
Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

“I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear; as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.” ~ Stanley Kubrick

Happily Linking with
Mary at “Collage Friday”
Savannah at “Hammock Tracks“

As I sat in my house on Friday, alone but for the dog, I began to think about the time when Keilee is no longer here 24/7.†† In a few years, this will be my life, life without her talking all the time and dancing and singing and asking questions and laughing and scattering projects and yarn and pieces of her wherever she goes.

I try to tell myself that she is barely 13 and I have many years but then I remember how quickly time passes.

She came home from the Animal Clinic full of stories, and kept remembering more and more as the days went by.† And I thought to myself how eternally grateful I am; grateful that I have had the opportunity to home educate her.† That I didn’t have to hear about things hours after they happened or not at all if she chose not to tell me.† That all those firsts were with me.† That I didn’t miss one.single.thing.

Homeschooling is not always sunshine and bonding and happy.† Some days I want to scream [and occasionally do], some days we get so frustrated with each other; this child growing into a young woman and I; some days I threaten the dreaded words “Public School” and I know she knows I would never.† Some days I worry myself sick over this Interest Led/unschooling way we have adopted.† The “What Ifs” consume me.

But…

Most days I am 100% sure that this is OUR perfect life.† These days, mostly calm and stress free, that ebb and flow.† There are few alarm clocks and deadlines and rushing.† There is learning, always learning.† We do not learn 100 new things each day, but we do learn every day.† It may not look like the school down the road but that was never my intention.† I never ever wanted to recreate school.† There are no schedules and 1 hour blocks for Science or Math.† There are no lines or lockers or mean kids or teachers who simply do not care anymore.† Our days have laughter and wonder and discovery and knowledge and amazement and moving and flitting to one thing and another.

Her interests, her passions, the things that consume her.† Animals for 4 hours? Why not?† A day of history documentaries? Well of course you can.† Playing on Webkinz or Eden or the iPad for 4 hours? Be my guest.† Read all day? Yes please.

Time is so fleeting, it passes in an instant.† I pray to cherish each one, to live in ‘this’ moment, to say “Yes” as often as I can, to walk away from the computer to play a game, or dance in the kitchen or snuggle on the couch.

This poem I wrote on April 27, 2009.† We were in our 2nd year of homeschooling.† Almost 4 years later I still feel exactly the same way.

I COULD

I could send her to school,
And from 8:00-3:00 have no clue
How many times she laughed,
How many times she learned,
How many times she questioned,
How many times she understood,
How many times she wanted more information,
How many times she bounced in her chair from excitement,
How many times she was proud of something she did.
I could send her to school and she could get her exercise and sunshine,
In 20 minute doses, if she had on the right shoes, and no one misbehaved and everyone was quiet.
I could send her to school
And let her eat the processed high fat, low nutrition fare they feed millions of children a day,
if she had enough time to eat and didn’t talk too loud and if no one grabbed her food.
Or..

I could homeschool her.

Yes indeed, Homeschooling DOES rock,
Karen

“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.” ~ Clay P. Bedford

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” ~ Buddha