A Hidden Habitat

I haven't written on this blog for a very long time now... almost 5 years now. In fact, I haven't written much at all in the past year. But, I miss it, so I may try keeping up with this blog again, if I can find the time.

Hannah is wrapping up her freshman year at the local high school, which Ben will also attend when he is a freshman next year. Becca is finishing 6th grade, and Kayla will actually be old enough for kindergarten next year!

I have been furthering my own education a bit as well. In the fall, I completed classes to become an Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist (OCVN), and this spring, I attended the Environmental Education Council of Ohio (EECO) annual conference. I have loved nature education since I was in college and worked at the Philadelphia Zoo. Though my certification was in Social Studies Secondary Education, I always had a longing to teach about nature and wildlife. Because of this passion, I have been volunteering a lot at our local nature center. I recently helped with a 5-week nature journaling program for 4th graders at an urban elementary school, and I will be assisting with many field trips at the nature center this spring. I love it!

I have also been incorporating even more environmental education into our homeschooling. This week, Ben had to take the state Geometry test on two separate mornings as part of his preparation for entering high school. The beautiful weather inspired me to take the rest of the school day outdoors.

We walked around our property and talked about nature - what we saw and what we wondered about. Becca kept dashing around looking under rocks and logs for red-backed salamanders, which we find all over our property. She did find a few, including this large gray one and one that measured only an inch from head to tail.

As we rounded the "hairpin," as the kids call the sharp bend in the walking path around our property, we glanced at all of the logs in various stages of decay next to the path. "Hey," I told her, "you should see if you can flip one of those really rotting logs and see what you find underneath." The log ended up being so rotten that it pulled apart instead of turning over.

 First, we noticed patches of white fungus spread across the inside of the log.

As we looked closer, we began to see even more signs of life: a tiny mushroom, a spider web and a small brown spider, myriads of tunnels with reddish brown ants scurrying through them, a salamander, a centipede, a beetle, and five or six of these beautifully colored millipedes. An entire miniature ecosystem lay hidden within an old log on the forest floor.

We decided to examine the millipedes a little more closely before returning them safely to their

rotting log. We learned that they are called Euryurus leachii, or Leach's millipede, and they primarily live in decaying hardwoods. Apparently, they even glow under a black light, though we didn't have the opportunity to test that out.

Becca, in particular, seemed to love this investigation. She and I talked about all of the things she had found, as we walked back toward the house. She wanted to find some way to demonstrate what she had learned. At first, she mentioned drawing a picture, but then we discussed other ways she could model the hidden habitat we had discovered. When we got inside, she instantly collected her craft supplies and got to work. I love her final results!

On the outside/front, she used green yarn to create a soft bed of moss with patches of bark showing through. She added a turkey tail fungus to the edge.

The front flips up to reveal the inside of the log, where she drew a millipede, ants and their tunnels, a centipede, a worm, a spider and a web, a mushroom, and streaks of white fungus.

I look forward to doing even more nature exploring with the kids in the future. I am amazed at how much we can learn when we begin to ask questions and look beneath the surface of what we see.  Just as we had to peel back the layers of the log to see the hidden world inside, we can also discover hidden realms of knowledge by just taking the time to stop and dig a little deeper into the world around us.

Back to Fun

I was going to title this post “Back to Work,” but that did not seem to fit the beginning of our school year so far. Sure, we have done quite a bit of work – math pages, grammar worksheets, history memory cards – and we have had to arrange teaching times around the baby’s naps. But, we have also had a lot of fun.

On Monday, Hannah and Ben learned about the center of gravity. They began by figuring out how to balance a potato on a ruler, using only a pair of forks. Then, they used what they learned to balance a broom on the palm of their hands by first identifying the broom’s center of gravity.

We also had our first Phys. Ed. Class on Monday. A few years ago, I got a free fitness and health package from Subway, including two pedometers, a stopwatch, and a year’s worth of lesson ideas and activities. The kids have gym once a week at co-op, but I want to add a bit to their learning at home as well. The kids loved experimenting with the pedometers, counting the steps needed to walk around the house or get the mail. Becca has even decided to eat a healthy breakfast every day, so she can feed her brain and maybe get better grades on her school work.

Today, Becca experimented with reading maps. I made a map of our property and marked several “treasures” on it. Then, she used the map to find the treasures – just a few nickles and gumballs. She needed a bit of help from Hannah to find the last few, but I may mark some more treasures next week and let her try again until she gets the hang of it.

I think everyone’s favorite lesson this week came from our new geography curriculum – Mapping the World with Art. We read a brief lesson on ancient maps and then followed several steps to draw maps of Mesopotamia. The kids’ maps are surprisingly good! The curriculum is supposed to be for ages 10 and older, but even Becca could follow the steps to draw a decent map. By the end of the year, the kids should be able to draw a map of the entire world!

After we drew the maps, we used edible chocolate clay to make Babylonian-type maps, using chopsticks and drawing cuneiform markings on them. I baked them, and everyone enjoyed delicious, warm chocolate map cookies with a glass of milk as an after school snack. I intended to take photos, but they did not last long enough. Geography should be a lot of fun this year!

I am so thankful that the kids have been working more willingly this school year. Perhaps they are just older and more mature. (They are in 2^nd, 4^th, and 5^th grade now!) Or, maybe they work better with checklists of work to accomplish instead of scheduling subjects at specific times. Regardless of the reason, they have been finishing their regular work more quickly, which leaves room for a lot more fun and experimentation. This should be a wonderful year!

Our New School Room

I have not completely finished decorating it yet, and a few boxes still remain, but I wanted to share a few photos of our new school room. It is in the basement, so the lighting is not great, but I am so excited about having a room dedicated solely to school!

From the back of the room:

I plan to rotate what I hang on the large wall in the front. This month, I will have a map of the US, showing the electoral votes from each state, which we will use to discuss the presidential election.

From the front of the room:

On the other side of the stairs behind the desks, we have our family room, with our computer, so the kids can watch movies or use the computer as part of school.I can't decide what to put on all of those built-in display shelves yet...

From the pantry side:

Our laundry room is through that door, so I can work on chores while the kids work on school! We also have a small half-bathroom in there, which is convenient during school.

From the laundry room side:

I put a desk through that door, in the pantry, so the kids can take tests without distractions. Ben actually puts himself in that desk frequently during the day, because he discovered that he can concentrate more when he sits alone.

All-in-all, our school room works well for us. Now, if only I could get the rest of the house this unpacked...

Two Kids and a Baby

OK, she is not a baby anymore, but she is my baby, and I cannot believe she is old enough for kindergarten this year!

This is my first year formally schooling all three kids. Becca is in kindergarten, Ben is in second grade, and Hannah is in third grade. When I first began this homeschooling adventure two years ago, my oldest was in first grade. Now, somehow, my baby is old enough for school. How does the time pass so quickly? Some days seem so long and frustrating. Then, I blink, and the kids are older, and I wonder how the baby I cradled in my arms could be the lovely child standing in front of me.

I found the photo I took of the kids on our very first "not back to school" day, and I am amazed at how much they have grown in just two short years:

School has been interesting so far this year. Hannah has matured quite a bit since last year. She works independently, does beautiful work, and complains very little. She especially loves our language arts curriculum, and her work shows her love for writing. For example, she had to fill in a blank to make a fragment a complete sentence: "________ is funny." My answer key suggested "He" as a possible answer. Hannah wrote, "The clown dance at the circus." I actually have fun reading the sentences she creates!

Ben still wiggles and sings and fools around, but he is doing better than last year. He finishes all of his work, in spite of the fooling around and complaining. I am hoping that he will continue maturing, like Hannah, and eventually have a bit more focus. I think his biggest struggle is not wanting to work hard at anything, but he is learning the benefits of hard work in soccer this year, and I think that may carry over into his school work as well.

Becca has been a bit of a challenge so far. She loves the idea of school, but she does not like me choosing the activities. I know she loves cutting and gluing and reading and workbooks, but she complains about every activity. I think once she settles into a routine with the other two, she will enjoy school a bit more. And I am sure I will find what methods work for her personality, just as I discovered for Hannah and Ben. Becca's biggest challenge, however, is her desire to use the chairs and desks as her own personal jungle gym instead of simply sitting in them. I struggle teaching a little monkey who swings and leaps all around the school room. Again, I think with discipline and practice, she will adjust to this as well.

I am excited about this school year! I have a lot of fun ideas and I cannot wait to learn and explore new things with the kids. Truthfully, even though I love summer vacation and appreciate the rest, and in spite of all of the challenges, school time is my favorite part of the year.

Project Fridays

This school year has been so busy that I have not taken the time to write blog posts as often as I have wanted. We have been busily working through spelling lists, learning multiple digit addition and multiplication, memorizing parts of speech, practicing the piano, learning to swim, dancing, tumbling, and so on. Most Fridays, however, we take a break from our day-to-day assignments and work on a project together.

In January, after we finished reading My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, I gave Hannah and Ben each a box, set out the craft supplies, and told them to make a shadowbox based on the book. Both kids ended up making a model of Sam Gribley's woods and his home in the tree trunk, so I took advantage of that to teach them a little about habitats. On each side of the box, they glued a piece of card stock and labeled them with the title of the book, "Sam Gribley's Habitat," and the different aspects of his habitat: food, water, and shelter. Then, under those headings, they listed ways that Sam was able to obtain those things in the woods. For example, he drank water from a fresh spring, he hunted for animals with his falcon and ate edible plants, and he created a home in a hollow tree. The finished projects are lovely!

On the Friday before the Super Bowl, we dedicated the entire day to football-related activities. I found an amazing free resource on the website for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and combined with with another packet I got as a freebie from Currclick. I printed out a ton of pages, punched holes in them, and put them in folders for each kid. We began the day by bundling up and heading out to a nearby sports field, where we had a punt, pass, and kick contest, raced through various football drills, and performed an experiment to figure out why a football has its shape, instead of being perfectly round. Back at home, they learned about Roman Numerals (since that is how they label Super Bowls), did some football-themed math, read and wrote poems about football, learned about the first African American inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, discovered how to read nutrition labels to eat a healthy diet (like a good athlete should!), and even designed their own football team mascots, pennants, and jerseys!

Also, in February, we had the opportunity for an amazing project on the planets. Now, as a family, we enjoy listening to classical music, and one of our favorites is The Planets by Holst. Josh discovered that the Springfield Symphony would be putting on a show called "Out of This World," featuring a live performance of The Planets, lovely NASA images from space, and dramatic presentations by an astronomy professor and an acting troupe. In preparation, we listened to the music several times and talked about the names of each planet and how the origins of those names inspired the songs. I also found a free space lapbook at www.homeschoolshare.com, and I used portions of that and our Children's Atlas of the Universe to put together a wonderful project on the planets. Additionally, I used the student guide provided by the symphony and resources from our Galloping the Globe study of Italy (which includes a section on space because Galileo was from Italy). I was out of town with the youth group on the evening of the show, but despite the two-hour drive each way, Josh and his mom took the kids to the performance, and they loved it! In fact, Becca announced on the way home that it was "better than Chuck E. Cheese's!"

We have had so much fun with our "Project Fridays" so far this school year. I believe that the kids have learned more from them than anything they have learned out of a text book. Even though I have to work a little harder to fit all of their other school work into only four days each week, I am certain that we will continue with Project Fridays for a long time!

And the First Month Flies By...

As I write this blog post, I cannot believe that we have already completed more than a month and a half of school! The year has been both fun and frustrating at times, filled with lessons from life and not just lessons from books.

We have traveled quite a bit - to the zoo, the children's museum, Cedar Point, and COSI. Josh took Hannah and Ben to see a football game at Virginia Tech, and I took Becca on an autumn excursion to my parents' cabin. We even drove to Grove City College for a friend's wedding and spent some time with a wonderful family near Pittsburgh. Somehow, I still managed to squeeze in a few photo shoots as well!

During this crazy month, we lost our sweet kitty, Barky, to an illness called FIP. He was young, and his sickness and death were sudden and unexpected. We took some time off of school to love him for a couple of days and then grieve our loss. The kids made memory boxes and have learned a lot about death and loss and sadness - life lessons I never expected to teach them this year.

Through all of this, we are actually making progress with school work, too. Hannah is flying through her math again, and Ben has finally mastered his addition and subtraction facts and is moving on to more difficult problems. He spent the first few weeks making and practicing flashcards from + and - 0 through + and - 9. Now, he is doing much better with his math because he has the facts memorized and no longer needs to calculate each problem in his head. Both kids like Spelling Power, although I have to keep reassuring Ben that he is supposed to get words on the pretests wrong - otherwise, he would never learn anything new!

Social Studies and Science remain the kids' favorite subjects (I will share more of those lessons in later posts), and they love doing Spanish a couple days a week, too.

For reading and language arts, we are working our way through First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind. Ben just began Level One, and Hannah just completed that book. They love the simplicity and repetition and are learning quite a bit. They especially love memorizing the poems in the book. We have been reading longer chapter books together, too. We just finished reading The Secret Garden and then listened to the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre version and watched the movie. I ordered James and the Giant Peach yesterday and hope to begin it in a week or so. I think it will appeal a little more to my adventurous Ben, though he also appreciated the lovely story in The Secret Garden.

I love our Bible curriculum this year. We are using a book called Our 24 Family Ways. Each "family way" is a kind of rule for the family follow, though really, they are more like ways of living. Each "way" has five daily lessons, a coloring page, a brief story intro, a character quality, and a Bible verse to memorize. The lessons are short enough to hold the kids' interest, but deep enough to make them think. Even my littlest has memorized the verses, and the verses are often fairly long - 2 or 3 verses at a time. Still, with repetition, they have learned the verses and the family ways very well. I also posted the family ways on our wall where everyone can read them, and when a child needs a "break" (like a time out), he or she sits and reads through the ways and then tells me which ones were not followed. I love that they are specific and thorough and well-grounded in Scripture. We begin each day with the Bible lesson and prayer, focusing on God right from the start.

Finally, with a few exceptions, I have designated Fridays as "Project Fridays." Each Friday, we put aside our regular school work and tackle a project, either together or separately. All three kids created beautiful lapbooks on the animals of their choosing, and we have begun working on making our own movie together. Our next project will likely be a "Space" lapbook, inspired by the content of the story they wrote for our movie script. These Fridays have been the most fun and educational school days, and I hope we can continue them all year!

So, as the first months of the school year fly by, hopefully I will more faithfully update this blog and share what we are studying and experiencing. As the blog's title proclaims, "learning is life" - and we are certainly spending most of our time living and learning together!

Newspaper Column: Is Homeschooling Overprotective?

I recently wrote a column for my local newspaper about my homeschooling experience. It generated quite a bit of interest and email, so I have decided to repost it here to keep it available for further discussion, since the newspaper will archive it in the next few weeks. I'd love to hear people's responses in the comments section of the blog.

Is It Overprotective to Homeschool Children?

"Recently, I watched Disney's "Tangled" with my family. Mother Gothel, the movie's villain, keeps Rapunzel locked in a tower, supposedly to protect her from people who would steal her precious gift -- her hair. In one song, Mother Gothel assures Rapunzel that danger lurks outside the tower and that she must stay in the tower forever to avoid the hurt and drama of a world too frightening for her to handle. As I watched the movie, I jokingly said, "Isn't this why we homeschool?"

Although my husband chuckled at my comment, I did consider whether my reasons for homeschooling bore any resemblance to the self-serving motives of the movie's villain. Many people stereotype homeschooling parents as overprotective and controlling, and indeed, in some cases, this accusation may be true. However, as I discovered when I first researched homeschooling as an option for our family, people who homeschool vary as greatly as people who send their children to private or public schools. As one of the diverse group of parents who chooses to homeschool, how do my motives measure up? Am I doing what is best for my children, or am I tiptoeing closer to the Mother Gothel method of child-rearing?

On one hand, all healthy parents protect their children. To some extent, I do desire to shelter my kids from anything that might harm their developing identities and faith, such as bullies, inappropriate conversations and labels. I want to influence them at their most moldable age, cultivating a strong faith and value system that will enable them to withstand peer pressure and make right choices when they grow older.

However, my children are still quite young. They still need to hold my hand when they cross the street. If they reach adulthood without me ever allowing them the freedom to test their beliefs or permitting them to move beyond my arm's reach, then the healthy shelter of our home would become no better than Rapunzel's imprisoning tower. I do want to build a strong faith in my kids, but I want them to test that faith and make it their own long before they leave home. For this reason, even though I homeschool partly out of a desire to minimize negative influences, my protection will decrease, and their freedom will increase, as my children grow up.

In fact, as I consider my motives, I realize that my main reasons for homeschooling come from freedom and not overprotection.

First, I want to free my children from labels. In order to accommodate a variety of kids, schools dispense many labels. Fidgety little boys become known as troublemakers. Intelligent students are "gifted," which seems positive, but as a former "gifted" student, I felt pressured to only pursue academics and not the art degree I desired, even though I now do more art than academics. As an "advanced" student, I believed that art should remain a hobby, while my intellect should become my identity. Moreover, peers label each other, often in harmful ways: geek, klutz, clown, different, unpopular. I want my children to cultivate their own interests and abilities, without having to fit into a predetermined mold created by the school or their classmates.

Similarly, I appreciate that homeschooling allows my children to work at an individual pace, regardless of age or grade. My daughter completed two full math books this year, because she grasped the concepts quickly and enjoyed her work. My son barely finished one. He understood addition well, but I realized, halfway through, that he was counting the numbers in his head instead of memorizing the facts. I stopped working through the book to practice the facts until he could solve them quickly, without counting. With individual instruction, the kids can work quickly or pursue in-depth projects in their strengths and spend extra time mastering their weaknesses.

Additionally, my children have the freedom to learn outside of a school building. This year, we studied at a cabin in the woods, Malabar Farm, the zoo, the theater, museums and more. The kids attended a homeschool co-op, took ballet classes, and used math to double a recipe from China, which we cooked as part of a geography unit on Asia. Homeschooling gives us the freedom to learn creatively, outside of the classroom.

After much thought, I concluded that, unlike Mother Gothel, I desire to help my children leave their protective tower. Through creative instruction and exploration, I hope to help them become wise adults, capable of taking on a sometimes scary world, of thinking critically and making their own choices. I do not homeschool in order to hoard these precious gifts for myself. Instead, I desire to nurture them and release them, so they can use their gifts to make a difference in the world."

Language Learning

Today, after Sunday School, Hannah told me that Ben's teacher said that Ben had been writing in Spanish on the chalkboard. I asked him what he had written. "'La mujer,' 'Las mujeres,' and 'Él come,'" he told me.

"Did you put the accent over the 'e'?" I asked him.

"Yes!" he replied. "If I didn't, it would have been 'the eats' instead of 'He eats,' and that wouldn't have made any sense." I smiled, pleased to hear that he understood at least a part of our recent language lessons.

At the school Hannah attended last year, a native Spanish speaker taught all of the elementary students Spanish several days a week. Kindergarten kids learned fun songs, colors, numbers, and other simple words and phrases. Hannah loved learning a new language and picked it up fairly easily. Because of this, Josh and I had been discussing buying Rosetta Stone software to continue the language learning from an early age.

In college, Josh took several Spanish classes, but he has not spoken the language in many years and has forgotten quite a bit. I have taken many Spanish classes as well, and I lived in Bolivia with a Spanish-speaking family for eight weeks in college, but I, too, am very rusty. Additionally, I do not always pronounce the words perfectly, especially because I cannot roll my r's correctly. I could teach the kids a good amount on my own, but I would prefer them to learn proper pronunciation and inflection from the very beginning, instead of needing to correct bad habits later on. So, we finally decided to look into the software.

Josh called Rosetta Stone's customer service before completing his purchase, because he wanted to ask about the differences between the homeschool version and the personal version. Ultimately, we chose the homeschool version, but calling the company gave us another benefit. Rosetta Stone happened to be having a special, where we could buy all five levels for about $100 cheaper than the best price we found online, and we could spread the payments out over five months without paying any interest. Of course, we jumped at the chance, and the software arrived only a few days later.

I set up the kids' profiles and allowed them to attempt the first lesson. At first, they struggled with the format a bit, but they quickly got the hang of it. I ended up printing off some of the worksheets after the first lesson and teaching them some of the concepts myself, in order to give them a foundation for learning the grammar and vocabulary. Then, they restarted the first lesson and did much better the second time through. Once they had completed all of the follow-up portions of that lesson, they understood very well. In fact, Ben's chalkboard exercise in Sunday School assures me that he has learned quite a bit. Happily, the kids beg for Spanish lessons each day, so I know they enjoy it, too!

In addition to this, in Hannah's language arts curriculum (First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind), she has just progressed from learning nouns to learning pronouns. This fits perfectly with our Spanish lessons! A few days ago, as I read the dialogue from the book, explaining how pronouns take the place of a noun, I took advantage of the opportunity to tie in some of the Spanish learning. Once we completed the practice sentences in English, I added, "Instead of saying, 'La mujer come,' you could say, 'Ella come.' Instead of saying, 'Los hombres comen,' you could say, 'Ellos comen.'" I continued with examples for all of the pronouns she had learned up to that point. Her recent Spanish lessons served to reinforce her English grammar, and her English lessons helped her comprehend her Spanish more completely. In many ways, a second language is improving her understanding of her first language as well!

Overall, I am glad that we decided to move forward with our purchase of Rosetta Stone and add a second language to our homeschool curriculum. I already have begun contemplating ways to use the language in more practical ways. I know I have an open invitation to bring my family to Bolivia to visit my Bolivian family in Cochabamba. Also, our church leads mission trips each year to a small village I once visited in the Dominican Republic. Perhaps, we can take such a trip when the kids are old enough? Until then, I am simply happy to pass on an ability that I love, a language that I once hoped to speak every day but never had the opportunity to use regularly. And, who knows - maybe the opportunities will come for our whole family, once we all speak the language well. At the very least, the kids will have a very useful skill, as they grow up in a world where more people speak Spanish than English, and in a country where Spanish could easily be the second language. I am excited to see where their love of language may take them...

A Passion for Piano

This summer, we sadly learned that our piano teacher had gotten a job with a local school district and would not offer lessons any longer. Though the kids enjoyed piano, I had to fight with them nearly every day to get them to practice, and I decided to wait a while before pursuing it again. I worried that I might kill their love for music by forcing practice before they were ready. On the other hand, I also wanted them to learn the discipline of music, a skill they would eventually appreciate, especially if they decide to pursue music as a vocation some day.

Throughout the fall, the kids continued to practice their old songs and pick out new songs, so this winter, I decided to attempt lessons for both kids again. This time, a friend of ours agreed to provide lessons in our home for a reasonable price, which worked out much better for us with nap schedules and schoolwork and my broken leg.

Initially, the kids still resisted practicing, but I built regular practice time into our school schedule, and they enjoyed taking a break from normal school work to practice for a while. Plus, the piano teacher allowed the kids to choose prizes from her prize box whenever they practiced consistently that week, which provided some extra motivation. Ultimately, however, making lovely music on the piano became their motivation.

First, the piano teacher introduced a new curriculum, one that focuses on recognizing intervals and training the ear, rather than simply learning the notes. Ben definitely excels in this area. He can sing, "This is middle C," and actually hit the correct note from memory most of the time. Like Ben, Hannah can also pick many songs out by ear, but cannot yet find middle C without playing the note on the piano first. Of course, even I cannot do that well...

I think their greatest motivation, however, came when I began taking piano lessons, too. Both kids enjoy picking out songs from my piano book, because many of them are "real" songs and not just made-up songs for kids. Hannah especially likes my piano book, because her hands are big enough to play the full chords correctly. She practices and practices, playing each hand separately and then putting them together, and she can now play nearly all of the songs that I can play. In fact, she is probably only a lesson or two behind me. At this point, I would guess that she plays the piano for an hour or two each day, instead of the 15-20 minutes required by her teacher. My biggest challenge is getting her to stop playing and allow anyone else to have a turn!

As I have written previously, I love having a house filled with music. We often have music playing in the background while we do school work, and the kids love listening to music in the car. Some days, Josh pulls out his guitar, and we all sing praise songs, while the kids dance around the room. I have often considered Ben my musical child, but, more accurately, we are a musical family. Ben may have an amazing voice, but Hannah excels at piano, and Becca lives to dance. At the very least, all of our lives would be much less wonderful without music providing a lovely soundtrack to our days.

Pi Day

Yesterday, we celebrated "Pi Day." Since the number "pi" is rounded to 3.14, Pi Day occurs on 3/14, or March 14th. Of course, my husband explained that geeks invented Pi Day, but since most of us in this family likely fit into the "geek" category, that works for us!

Even though my kids are a bit young to fully understand the concept of pi, I decided to celebrate it anyway. Early in the day, I made a big deal out of the date, relating it to the concept of pi. Because of that, Hannah and Ben now easily associate pi with the number 3.14, although we had to work on saying "three point one four" instead of "three slash one four" like the date. They also can explain that we round to 3.14 because pi goes on forever without repeating in a pattern.

For fun, I introduced the parts of a circle: circumference, diameter, and radius. I showed them my coffee mug and used a ruler to measure the diameter. Using that number and the calculator Ben requested for Christmas, we multiplied pi times the diameter to find the circumference. "Hmmm...," I wondered aloud, looking at the ruler, "How can we check our answer?" Ben jumped up and down excitedly. "I know! I know!" he exclaimed. He ran upstairs to his room, returning in a moment with his tape measure. I grinned. "Perfect!" I told him. We measured the circumference of the mug, and the kids squealed happily when they saw that the answer was correct.

Next, I showed how to calculate the circumference of a two-inch circle on paper, including explaining to Hannah how to multiply 3.14 x 2 without using the calculator. When I saw that Hannah and Ben both seemed to grasp the concepts, I decided to attempt a slightly more difficult problem. "OK," I told them, "Tonight, I am going to make quiche for dinner. Quiche is a kind of egg pie. So we will have pie for Pi Day!" After the cheers subsided, I went on, "I make my quiche in a 9-inch pie pan. Why don't we try to calculate the circumference of the pie?" I drew a diagram of the pie on a piece of paper, and I had them tell me how to find the circumference - pi x 9. Now, Hannah understands the concept of multiplication, that 4 x 9 is the same as 9+9+9+9, but she hasn't yet memorized the facts or covered multiplication in her math curriculum. Amazingly, I wrote out 3.14 x 9 and demonstrated how to multiply 4 x 9 and carry the 3, and Hannah finished the problem herself!

Since this portion of the lesson went so well, I also briefly touched on the area of a circle and how to calculate that as well. We used the calculator to figure out the area of the pie and learned the difference between inches and square inches. Then, I turned the kids lose with the rulers, tape measure, and calculator and let them experiment with what they had learned. Surprisingly, I think they learned a lot, even though the topic is a bit beyond their current level in math.

Finally, for dinner, I did make a delicious quiche, and the kids told Josh all about their lesson, while happily eating their Pi Day pie! Today, Ben wrote this in his journal:

"Yesterday was pi day and we ate pie for dinner"

Overall, I think Pi Day turned out to be quite a success!

Beginning a Co-op

This year, some homeschooling women from my church and MOPS group banded together to form a homeschooling co-op. The group meets at the same time as MOPS, so younger kids can attend the MOPPETS kids program, and the homeschooling moms take turns teaching the school age children. I decided to participate, partly so Becca could attend MOPPETS, and partly so my kids could experience learning in a small-scale classroom setting for more than just Sunday School.

We divide the children into two age groups: kindergarten through second grade and third through fifth grade. Each meeting lasts for two hours, and the kids have two lessons, with a brief break in the middle. Both age groups study Ohio history, which makes me happy because I know little about Ohio history. Additionally, each group has a different age-specific lesson - subjects such as creative writing, poetry, photography, seasons, etiquette, and first aid. The younger kids often have arts and crafts components, and all of the kids seem to have fun!

At first, I was scheduled to teach a few of the first lessons, but my broken leg prevented me from attending. As disappointed as I felt about missing out on teaching, I felt worse for the kids, because I knew they needed a chance to get out and be with other kids. This winter has been much different than I anticipated, and we have been cooped up in the house more than I like. However, a wonderful woman in the co-op called and volunteered to drive Hannah and Ben to co-op for me! They had such a wonderful time, returning home afterward bubbling over with excitement about the lessons and the activities. Even Ben willingly sat and did the writing assignment for the next class!

In February, the other mom also drove me to co-op, and I got to teach my first lesson, helping third through fifth graders learn about photography. I am excited that I get to teach a class again, since that was my major in college and my original career plan before I had kids. I also appreciate that my children have the opportunity to learn from other teachers, spend time with other kids, and even create messy art projects that I cannot attempt at home, especially with a broken leg...

Though many of my plans have changed this winter, co-op has been a blessing for both me and the kids, giving us a bit of extra enthusiasm at a time when cabin fever threatens to become overwhelming.

***The picture of Ben working on some co-op assignments is courtesy of Hannah, who loves the digital camera she received for Christmas and takes pictures of EVERYTHING she sees... just like her mom!***

From Blanket House to Mongolian Ger

A few weeks ago, Josh built the kids a blanket house in our living room on a Saturday morning, as he has done many times in the past. This time, however, he made a huge house, using our larger dining room chairs, a sleeping bag, and several blankets. The large, roundish house fit all three kids comfortably, and sometimes both cats as well!

In this past year's World Vision Gift Catalog, I had seen a special kind of round house, built by Mongolian nomads, called a "ger" or a "yurt." The blanket house very much reminded me of these houses, and that gave me an idea. Instead of moving to the next Asian country in Galloping the Globe, I would piece together my own unit on Mongolia. Using sites like the CIA World Factbook, we researched information about the country of Mongolia and its people and began adding pages to the kids' geography notebooks.

Later in the day, I visited National Geographic's website, looking for more information or photos, and I stumbled across the opportunity to participate in a real expedition in Mongolia, by simply labeling satellite images from home. After a period of training, I could identify roads, rivers, modern structures, ancient structures, and points of interest with a reasonable amount of accuracy. I then included Hannah, allowing her to make suggestions and guiding her to understand the images better. She absolutely loved helping out as a real researcher for an actual project, and she found the satellite images quite interesting as well.

Eventually, when we wrap up the unit, we may even have a "Mongolia party," just as we had a "China party" in the fall. I had a difficult time finding Mongolian recipes easy enough for kids to prepare, but we might try making some non-lamb version of Steamed Buuz . I decided to pass on preparing fermented mare's milk however...

I love that homeschooling allows me to turn Saturday play into school day learning, to harness the kids' experiences and games and use them to teach about a country many kids have never studied. And, I enjoy seeing the kids' faces glow with excitement when I say, "Hey, let's do some geography today! What do you think?" Typically, they respond with cheers.

An Unexpected Break

One thing I am learning to like about homeschooling is the flexibility. I do need to cover certain topics and complete a certain number of hours of school, but I am permitted to choose how to accomplish these things.

I have never before appreciated this flexibility as much as I have this week. Last weekend, I performed in a Christmas play at church. Due to my crazy schedule, we completed a lighter load of school work, and I figured that I could put in some extra hours this week instead, before beginning Christmas break on Monday. Well, my "break" came a little earlier (and a little differently) than I had planned.

On Sunday afternoon, after my final performance, we prepared to open Christmas presents with my family, since they had decided to visit for the weekend of the play. As I stepped off of the bottom step in my house, I felt my weak right ankle - the one I sprained this summer - roll under, and I knew instantly that I had sprained it pretty badly again. I stepped down with my left foot to catch myself, and I felt that ankle roll underneath me as well, with a little pop. I fell to the ground, and I reached down to grab my left ankle, realizing immediately that the bones were not all where they belonged and that I had definitely broken it. After my instant panic and yelling, I calmed down enough to make a rational decision about heading to the ER, feeling very grateful that my parents were able to stay with the kids.

I will spare the gory details, but my leg definitely broke, in two different places, and that ankle has enough instability that I need surgery on Monday to repair it. I will be off my feet for many weeks, especially since my "good ankle" is badly sprained as well. Needless to say, this is not the kind of "break" I had been anticipating. However, instead of feeling angry and depressed and sad, I have been overwhelmed with God's blessings.

First, I have been forced to rest and allow other people to serve me, particularly my husband. This has not been easy, but it has allowed me to see the incredible love that he has for me. Instead of whining and complaining, he has taken care of me with compassion and kindness, even though that means taking care of everything I need, including helping me bathe and getting up in the middle of the night to help me to the bathroom.

I have also seen the amazing, selfless love poured out by my church family. People bring meals to eat and meals to freeze for later. They return library books, pick up groceries, and play with my kids. One person found me a wheelchair to use for a while. Another person is bringing movies and paper plates. Someone I didn't even know by name wrote down my phone number and plans to come over and do laundry after my surgery! God is showing me how the body of Christ is supposed to function and is inspiring me to pour out the same blessings on others.

Finally, I have confidence that my accident, my "unexpected break," did not surprise God at all. He knew about it and even worked circumstances together to make it as smooth as possible - my parents were visiting for a few days, the play was over, I had already decorated the house completely... Even small details have worked out in ways I never expected. Because of this, I have quite a bit of peace about my upcoming surgery and recovery, even though I know it will not be easy. If God planned everything else so well, then surely I can trust him with those details too.

So, Christmas break in our house has begun a little early, and I don't think the kids feel too disappointed about that. I am actually looking forward to picking back up in January, too, when I am still off my feet and we all have cabin fever. I will be thankful then, as well, for the flexibility of schooling that allows me to teach from the comfort of my sofa, with my leg propped up on pillows, cuddling with my kids as we continue to learn and study. Most of all, though, I am thankful for a God who knows exactly what I need - even if that is an "unexpected break."

Explorer Camp

What a busy autumn we have had! We traveled nearly every weekend in October - to Grove City College for our homecoming and Josh's reunion, to Josh's family's house for a fall festival, and to my parents' cabin in Pennsylvania for a nice visit. In between, we squeezed in Hannah's seventh birthday party, too! Part of our travels included one of my favorite homeschooling weeks so far - "Explorer Camp" at my parents' cabin.

The kids and I packed the car and left home on a Monday morning for the long drive to Pennsylvania. After a somewhat crazy car ride, which we spent listening to our Chronicles of Narnia radio dramas, we arrived at the cabin early in the evening, and the kids helped me unload the car. I placed a cardboard sign on the cabin's door, labeling it as our "Base Camp" for the week.

Because of the light drizzle, I let the kids watch Winged Migration while I made dinner and organized our things. Fortunately, everyone went to bed early to be well rested for the morning's activities.

While they slept, I planned the next day's agenda and created a map of our "base camp." I gave the rooms different names that made the cabin seem more like a camp, and I hung the map on the refrigerator.

Then, I wrote out the schedule for the day and hung it on the fridge as well.

The next day, I began the morning with breakfast and an introduction to Explorer Week. I poured the kids juice in coffee mugs and told them it was "explorer coffee," so they could begin the day like real explorers. This turned out to be one of their favorite parts of the week! Then, in light of our theme, I took our morning devotions each day from Numbers 13-14, which tells the story of the Israelite men exploring the land God promised them. We read and discussed a portion of the story each day during breakfast, and then we moved into the "explorers' lounge" for our lessons, which we referred to as "seminars" or "briefings."

Each day involved some indoor learning. During the week, we studied explorers and Christopher Columbus, eastern forests, autumn and leaves, making and reading maps and globes, finding North using the sun and on a compass, and the geography of the world. All of our curricula seemed to reach a common place at the perfect time for our trip. Our MAPS curriculum introduced real places on the globe, and our science curriculum addressed making and reading maps and finding the points of a compass. At the same time, we began Galloping the Globe by discussing the world and labeling continents and oceans. I also drew quite a bit from a wonderful resource called Woods Walk, which teaches about forests through treks in the woods. Because of the freezing temperatures that week, our indoor work allowed time for the weather to warm a bit before we bundled up and headed outside for our exploration.

The kids loved their time exploring in the woods.

Carrying their explorer notebooks, we hiked in the woods along my parents' stream and behind their pond.

We ran down the road to their property.

And, we climbed up the hill into a Ducks Unlimited project with abatement ponds designed to clean the acidic water contaminated by the mines.

The kids drew pictures and wrote notes about the many things they discovered.

Using a variety of field guides, we identified many of the things we found.

Tree Club Moss in the woods:

Witch Hazel blooming all around:

And, after studying a fallen log...

...we identified two interesting varieties of lichen - British Soldiers and Pyxie Cups:

We also identified many of the fall leaves, tracing them on similar colored construction paper and then cutting them out to make lovely fall leaf collages.

Overall, we had a wonderful week and the kids learned so much more through hands-on experiences and exploration. I think we may make this a seasonal event, except maybe winter (brrr!), so we can see how the forest changes throughout the year. This is the kind of learning that makes homeschooling so much fun!

An Enchanting Tale

As part of our morning routine, I have given Hannah pages from a workbook that thoroughly covers grammar and writing skills at a first and second grade level. She has completed all of the grammar lessons and now must apply those concepts to her writing. Today's assignment required her to write a story or a report about a frog or toad. It suggested topics and word choices, but of course, my little author already had plenty of her own creative ideas. After several hours of writing and brainstorming and talking through her ideas, Hannah finished her enchanting tale: "Rainbow Diamond's Wonderful Treehouse."

Here is her story:

Once upon a time there lived a frog who lived in an enchanted forest. She was an enchanted frog. Her name was Rainbow Diamond. Rainbow Diamond is an enchanted name, as you can see. But this was no ordinary forest. The hills were pink, the trees were purple, the flowers were green, and she was all the colors of the rainbow! Unlike other frogs, the only problem in her life was that she couldn't find a home.

Then one day, she lay down in the mud just relaxing and wondering what she should do to have a home. Then, all of a sudden, she saw a rainbow lily pad come floating toward her. She gasped! There on the lily pad was the most wonderful seed! It was all the colors of the rainbow! "Is that seed magic?" she wondered. She did not know that the seed was very magical indeed.

It was so very magical that as soon as she planted it, up grew a house. She was so excited about her house that she didn't see Hannah the fairy come flying toward her. Finally, she noticed Hannah. "Hi, Hannah," croaked Rainbow Diamond.

"Hi, Rainbow Diamond," said Hannah.

Then, Hannah spied the high, enormous treehouse. "What a big treehouse!" said Hannah. "How did you make it?"

"I planted it," answered Rainbow Diamond.

"Let's go for a swim," said Hannah.

"Sure, we can go for a swim," said Rainbow Diamond.

"All right! Yay! Hip hip hurray!" they yelled together.

"Wow! Look at that strange glow," said Rainbow Diamond.

"And I know what it is," said Hannah.

"What?" asked Rainbow Diamond.

"A lamp," said the fairy.

"How did you know?" asked Rainbow Diamond.

"I gave you the seed, and I gave you the lamp. I wanted you to have a rainbow house and a rainbow lamp, just like you. I know that today is your seventh birthday. Happy birthday, Rainbow Diamond!" said Hannah.

"Wow! Thank you, Hannah," said Rainbow Diamond. "What a wonderful friend you are! Would you want to live here with me?"

"Sure, Rainbow Diamond!" said Hannah.

They both lived together in the treehouse for the rest of their lives.

The end.

A Budding Mathematician

Most people who know my children would assume that this post would be about Ben, and for good reason. Ben is currently moving through the same first-grade level math book as Hannah, slowly but surely. He understands the concept of addition and has memorized his +0, +1, +2, +8 and +9 facts, though he is still a bit shaky on the 8's and 9's. His fine motor skills and his need to wiggle out of his chair fairly regularly limit him to only a few minutes of math per day, but I am satisfied with his progress, especially for a kindergarten boy!

However, this post is not about Ben, but about Hannah. In the past, Hannah has struggled a little to grasp mathematical concepts such as place value, whereas Ben seemed to understand it almost instinctively. This year, though, everything suddenly clicked for Hannah, and she is just flying through her math book! She has memorized all of her addition facts and has moved on to subtraction. She enjoys it so much, that she often completes an entire unit in a day, including the test - and she rarely writes an incorrect answer! Actually, I have had to console her once or twice when she has missed a question on a test, because she becomes quite distraught when she does not get a perfect score. I am glad that she wants to excel, but I would hate for her to give up when the work becomes more challenging, simply because she cannot handle being less than perfect...

I must say, however, that I feel delighted that she cheers when I give her math worksheets to do in the morning, and I smile gladly when she announces, her face aglow, "I am good at math!" I think I am going to have to order the second grade curriculum soon, though. At the rate she is working, she will have completed the first grade book by the end of October...

Loving the Library

As part of our homeschool routine this year, we visit the library every other Monday morning. That gives us time to read the books we choose, while also allowing us to rotate the books regularly to match our lessons and interests. Usually we pick out a few books to fit with a school theme, while the kids choose other books simply because they look fun or interesting.

Last week, while browsing the non-fiction section, I noticed a nice picture book about John James Audubon. Written as a poem/letter from Audubon to his father, explaining his passion for studying birds and nature, the story interspersed various writings from his journals and his actual paintings of birds alongside the lovely illustrations in the book. As an aspiring author and illustrator, Hannah grew more and more delighted as she learned Audubon's story. As soon as I finished reading her the book, she leaped up from the couch and announced, "I'm doing that! I'm going to draw pictures of birds and bugs and sea creatures when I grow up!"

She asked if she could draw some pictures instead of doing her Sing, Spell, Read and Write that afternoon, and I agreed. First, she brought her pumpkin to the school table and studied it carefully, drawing exactly what she saw, just as Audubon did. Then, she took a second piece of paper and wrote a brief paragraph:

"This is a pumpkin that I drew all by my self! I copied a real pumpkin. We also might make pumpkin pie or bars. I really like my pumpkin."

When she had completed that page, she asked permission to get two apples out of the refrigerator, and she drew those as well. She had one large, green apple with a stem, and one small red apple with no stem, and she again focused on drawing each one as she saw it. She finished by writing another paragraph:

"These are two different kids of apples. They are two different colors. One is red and one is green. They look so yummy that I think I am going to have to eat them for a snack."

I love seeing books inspire my children to learn, and I love having the flexibility to change my schedule as needed to accommodate their excitement for what they are learning. Sometimes their creativity extends my lesson plans beyond what I even expected to teach, and, thanks to a wonderful public library, we have a fresh supply of books to broaden our knowledge and kick off new ideas for studying and exploring the world.