Imagination is more important than knowledge…
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
Category Archives: HomeSchool
Country Girl Wannabees….
We so want to be country girls.† 10 years ago, the thought of living in the country would have sent me into a panic.† Funny how a little nature girl and a homeschooling lifestyle can change your point of view.
We have had a great week and Ω.† We started American History this year, after 2 years of Ancient History.† We loved learning about the Native Americans.† Kei made a tipi [which I never knew was spelled that way!], we watched some movies and did all sorts of cool things.† Now we have moved onto Explorers.
Kei has fallen in love with the neighbor’s baby boy.† 1st time she has ever held a baby this small!
We have bird feeders and we have enjoyed watching the birds.† I think we must be the only place within miles that feed them.† We have so many birds.† We also have hummingbirds; which Kei has named Monkey, Dolphin and Tiger!† We have an adorable parakeet that showed up about a month ago and is still here!† Her name is Yum Yum and we adore her!† She stays around here day and night and looks so beautiful flying with her less colorful new friends.
We built a fire one night and roasted marshmallows.† I love the cooler weather! †It makes me ready for fall, which I know is not that close.
We are learning about animal and plant cells and made this cool Jello Cell.† It is supposed to be edible, but Kei passed on the eating part. 🙂
We had our weekly, bimonthly, monthly tea party.† Complete with sandwhiches, gummy worms, jello† and lots of laughter.
Kei went to Brit’s spend the night party and the next day we went to Zachery’s Slip and Slide party.† Fun times were had by all.
Kei got to slide under a neighbors truck on his…thingamijig.† Grrrr, what is that called?† I must google it.† She was impressed with the underneath of it!† She also Pogoed, which she is getting quite good at.
She also wrote† a† haiku:
Fly through the night sky,
Pretty wings in the moonlight,
Gorgeous butterfly.
Didimention how much I love homeschooling!???
K
Berries From the Past…
We have been studying about Native Americans the last couple of weeks.
Today Kei and I went on a bike ride to gather wood for a fire since the weather has been so awesome. She saw some berries that she had to stop and pick.
She knew that Native Americans used berries and such for dye so she decided to make a picture using her collected berries. She got a rock and started pounding the berries into pulp. The color was amazing.
Then she got paper and preceded to make a great picture.
Obviously, flies love berries too!† Then she got a great idea! “Mom, can I paint on my legs with this?”. I, being the cool mom that I am, said “Of course”, thinking she would paint a flower or something similar.
After a bit, I told her to go inside and jump in the tub. I then called my brother, nature boy extraordinaire, to ask him what this berry was. He wasn’t sure, so I looked it up online, found out it was Pokeweed and called him back to tell him. He then told me it was poisonous!
I freaked out and called Kei’s doctor. I went in the bathroom and scrubbed her off with soap, then made her get out and I put rubbing alcohol on her legs and arms and gave her Benadryl. The nurse on call finally called me back and said she wanted me to call the poison control. I got a sweet lady who told me that Kei would be fine and I did everything right.
Sheesshhh, I bet the Native Americans never had to deal with this kind of thing!
We did learn something interesting which I shared with Poison Control; the Declaration of Independence was written with Pokeweed ink and it was used often during the Civil War as ink in letters the soldiers wrote to home. She told me I had taught her something today. 🙂
Beware the berry!
Learning is FUNdamental…
I love homeschooling so much. I know I have said this before, but there is nothing I would rather do than homeschool Kei.
I love that we don’t have to live around an alarm clock. I love that she got to stay up until 1:00 AM to watch the Perseid Meteors [which were unbelievable] and the other kids in the neighborhood had to go in and go to bed.
I love that she can do what she wants, when she wants. If she wants to sing, she sings, if she wants to read, she reads, if she wants to sew, she sews. Her creativity is boundless because she isn’t bound to a desk in a room with 25 other kids.
I love that she lives in a world that allows her to follow that rabbit trail wherever it takes her, or nowhere at all. That she can be doing Math and all of a sudden, ask about the Milky Way.
I love that we can be discussing something and a subject comes up that she isn’t familiar with and I can immediately go to the computer and find something that actually shows her what we are talking about. Today it was Woodstock. Yesterday it was Anne Frank.
Kids crave knowledge; they are like sponges soaking up information. With us it is immediate. She asks, we find out. She doesn’t want to wait 2 hours for her questions to be answered. She wants to know NOW. It seems to me that schools try to tame that quest for knowledge. Every time a teacher says, “Not now Billy”, or “Why don’t you look that up later” they are squashing the thirst for more information.
I don’t ever worry that I am not teaching Kei enough, I am worried that I won’t have time to teach her all I want to. I want to show her the world. I want to tell her everything. Look at this, listen to this, learn this…
I love homeschooling….
Peace out….
K/K
Another Wonderful School Year….
We started school today.† Well, sit down and do various subjects, school.† Kei has been raring to go for 2 weeks.† She picked out her clothes and packed her bag last night.
We are doing American History after spending the last 2 years on Ancient Civilizations.† We just are going to kinda skip the middle parts for now. :)† We started with Native Americans and I have been gathering information for a month.† We did the Plains Indians first and both learned so much.† Then she started Caddie Woodhouse. She is reading and listening to the audio at the same time.
In fact, Kei roped a neighborhood public school kid into doing a ‘debate’ this afternoon.† Kei took the Native Americans part and Vicki was European.† I was so proud of Kei’s arguments about how badly the Indians were treated.
We also did Science, about the Earth and rotation and revolutions and we used an orange and various things to show both.† We are doing Saxon 6 math this year.† She is very good at Math, good enough to have me worried that I will be clueless very soon.
She also made a doll and a cat out of fabric.
All in all, a great 1st day of school.
I just love homeschooling.
Lazy Days of Summer…
It has been a good week.†† Kei and I cleaned OUT her room.† We moved everything out and then rearranged.† What a job!† But she loves it.
We had my nephew spend the night a couple of nights and he was a blast.† He helped me clean off the balcony and various other “I need a strong dude” chores.† We sat on the balcony and had a fire.† It was so great.
We went to Esther’s for a day of food, laughter and play.
We moms had to get our “silly on” too.
Then Seth taught Kei to play Poker.† Of course, she had to ‘dress’ the part.† Esther said it was a fine example of learning Math and symbols.† E can find the ‘learning’ in anything!!
Kei is so excited about going to see “Beauty and The Beast” at the Princess.† We can’t wait.
Happy Weekend!
Mud and Fairies Houses and Tea Parties, Oh My..
Today was a kick back and enjoy the day day. Kei decided that she wanted to build fairy houses. She has 2 different processes for this. One, she makes them out of twigs and leaves and two, she makes them out of mud. Today was a “Mud” day.
Here she has proven the, often suspected but never documented, fact that 9 year olds do attract mud like a magnet. Also that she can finally do the Vulcan hand sign. [????]
But the Fairy House was lovely. She named it Dragonfly City and gave me a tour of the houses and stores. It came complete with a pool for the fairies.
Then she invited me to a Tea Party. We do this every now and then, not as much as she would like but as much as I can stand attend.† She makes a grand production, hand writing my invitation and anxiously awaiting the time. She uses her Tea Set that she hand painted a couple of years ago.
We always dress up in summery dresses complete with hats and talk in accents. Last time we were British grand ladies and today we were Southern aristocrats. No matter the nationality, our names remain the same. She is Mrs. Sassafras and I am Mrs. Chamomile. We discuss our gardens and recipes and our grandchildren and how ‘wild and reckless’ today’s society is. Kei adores this pretend time.
Memories…it is all about making memories.
One thing I want Kei to say when she is 20 is, “I had the most wonderful childhood.”
Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen
Cleaning to Thriller..
We had a deal.† She cleaned the outside of the fridge.† This involved taking tons of pictures, drawings, and our HUGE daily calendar off.† She rarely has chores of this type.† I helped her get ready and went outside to read.
I walked in and this is what I saw:
She is such a cool little freak!
K
TODAY IN HISTORY:† 1863 Battle of Gettysburg Began
If I Were a Rich Girl…
We spent delightful days at our friends new house at Smith Lake.†† The house was incredible.† Over 7000 sq. feet, on the lake front and beautiful.
I could stay there forever and Kei had all the rooms assigned as if we lived there by the time we left.† Complete with a homeschooling room of course.† An amazing house.† Imagine waking up, walking into the kitchen and being surrounded on 3 sides by floor to ceiling windows with a lake view.† The pool was great and Kei worked on her diving skillz.† She stayed in the water for hours and hours.† I swear she is part mermaid.
It was just what we needed.† Of course I got horribly blistered.† Why is it I lather Kei in sunscreen and then half way put it on myself!!!!?????
Happy Thursday,
K
Schools Out…NOT
We homeschool year round.† I believe learning is an ongoing process.† We learn every day.† How can you just STOP that for 3 months?† It is crazy.† But public schools are out here.† Which means no more quite mornings laying in the hammock and reading.† There will be kids…kids knocking on the door, kids wanting to play in the water, kids wanting to swing.† Now don’t get me wrong, I love kids.† Most of ’em. 😉
Gina picked us up to go spend the day at Suzette’s.† She had a cool new toy!† A Garmin GPS!† This was his maiden voyage and we loved it!† I gots’ to get my directionally challenged self one of these!
We spent a great day at Suzette’s.† 6 Moms, 11 kids, several dogs.† We had lunch and talked.† Suz told us about the awesome trip she is taking in her camper.† 36 days!† She will never come out of it SANE! 🙂
I have the greatest homeschool friends! I adore them all and I love ALL their kids! Now seriously, how many of your friends can you say that about??? <g>
Kei and I watched the National Spelling Bee last night!† We were rooting for the homeschoolers.† Especially Serena. She was so cool!† Of the 11 finalists, 3 were homeschoolers!!† I was truly amazed.† I consider myself fairly intelligent and I had never heard of 90% of those words!† Here are a few of them:
antonomasia, bouquiniste, oriflamme, guayabera, isagoge and sophrosyne.† SAY WHAT????
Have a great weekend,
K