homeschooling log 2010: chapter eight: what will we do during advent?

So, I love December.

It's my favorite month. For a number of reasons.

It's my birthday month (December 1.)

It's also my anniversary month (December 20).

One of my children also has a birthday this month (December 26), as does my mother (December 8).

It is the culmination of my favorite season of the year, Autumn.

But most of all, it's Christmastime.

I am one of those oddball people that thinks if this time of year doesn't make you happy inside, not even in the slightest way, or if you hate Christmas music, or anything having to do with this time, then something's off with you.

There really is something in the atmosphere at this time of year. It's almost tangible.

I believe it is the anticipation of the glory that comes upon the celebration of the birth of Christ.

Advent is a celebration, if you will, of that anticipation. It is a time when people focus on Jesus and the meaning of his birth, life, and subsequent death and resurrection.

I decided to teach my little ones about advent this year. I know many people use advent calendars, or advent boxes, or Jesse trees, but I am doing something different.

Since I am a singer, and my children love it when I sing to them, I am going to teach them a Christmas carol, a Nativity-focused song, each day until December 25.

They may not remember them right away, but I have decided that this is going to be a new tradition for us and over the years these songs will become solid in their hearts and minds and they will always remember Mommy singing to them. And they will especially remember the meaning of Christmas thanks to learning these songs. That is my hope, anyway.

This isn't to say we won't be singing songs like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Jingle Bells," or "Jingle Bell Rock." We will. I love all Christmas songs. I will just be concentrating on teaching my little ones these Nativity-focused ones.

Next week, I will share a week's worth of songs in a new chapter of the homeschooling log. But for today, since we just started, I will share with you the song that I taught them today. Maybe I will record these too...

God rest you merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay;

remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas day

to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray.

O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy;

O tidings of comfort and joy.

From God our heavenly Father a blessed angel came,

and unto certain shepherds brought tidings of the same,

how that in Bethlehem was born the Son of God by name.

O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy;

O tidings of comfort and joy.

Incidentally, a good friend of mine looked up my name, Natalyn, and found out that it means "Beautiful Tender Lake/Waterfall Christmas/Birth Day." So, that's extremely happy. 

homeschooling log 2010: chapter seven.

Alas, it has been several weeks since I shared a chapter of my homeschooling log with you.

I don't know. Sometimes I just don't feel like writing about it much. We-did-this, Ian-achieved-this, Natalie-achieved-that, this-was-said, that-was-done, blah-blah-blah.  Week to week a lot of things are pretty much the same routine, and I haven't been motivated to share every little thing that is part of the same routine. I apologize. I know there are some of you who really do want to read about what we're doing, so I will get more on the ball with it!

First, I'd like to share a few photos of Ian's handiwork over the past few months.

Early September. The second or third week of Master's. Once the day was over, Ian came to my room and drew this on the board. I didn't know his circles had gotten that good (they were NOT that good before! haha)

After he drew the circles, he drew this underneath. He told me that he had drawn himself, and that the circles were about to fall on his head. I laughed. Not only was I not aware that he could draw circles, I also had no idea that he could draw stick figures with faces! haha

Early October. I was super-impressed with how well he colored in the lines.

One of his weekly art projects. Again, very good coloring. And even more important, he does indeed exhibit excellent behavior at Master's. None of his six teachers have ever had any trouble out of him. Mama's proud.

(I also love that it says "I've discovered that NAME has 1st Class Behavior." haha)

Another good-looking face. Dudes. He's only four.

And so, here we are, a few months into school, and he is reading small sentences, counting to thirty, drawing and coloring in the lines. Displaying his gargantuan imagination every day. Astounding me with just how long he can stay engrossed in one activity. He is an incredible kid.

I juuuuuust need to find a few hours to sit and comb his hair. He's looking like Bob Marley.

Yesterday, while Bobby was at the monthly high school dance, I took the little ones out to eat. They sat and colored in their little booklets, and I told Ian to write some of his letters. He wrote r, m, and s. "What does this spell, Mommy?" he asked.

"Actually, that just spells... r m s," I replied.

He paused for a moment and then said, " I know what it says! It says, absolutism!"

Absolutism?

Not sure where he got that from. It's the second time in a couple of months that I've heard him use that word. I'm sure it probably came from history class.

homeschooling log 2010: chapter six.

The week has flown by, and many times I have felt like there weren't enough hours in the day to do all that I needed to do. Like, I still need to do laundry. Still. Gaaaahhh.

Annnd it looks like this week's Crock Pot Wednesday might have to be Crock Pot Tuesday, as I will be helping lead worship at church this Wednesday. I'm thinking... teriyaki beef? Dunno yet.

What does that have to do with homeschooling? Nothing.

Let's see, what were some of the highlights of our week?

On Monday, we capped off a long and fun day at Master's with singing songs in the car (Ian taught Natalie one he had learned in Music class, and of course they had me sing my regular rotation of songs a few times) and Chick Fil A night. We love Chick Fil A. Ian used to call it Chicken Flay.

On Tuesday, Bobby had Classical and got out with an aced Latin quiz (the normal) and aced memory selection. He also spent time telling me about why he was not all that impressed with Robinson Crusoe when he read it (didn't really hold his attention). Here's hoping the next literature selection is not a snorer for him. Oddly enough, he has LOVED reading through A Theological Interpretation of American History. Go figure.

On Wednesday, we had another full day at Master's. Bobby's drama club teacher took the time to tell me how much she loves him, and how much fun he is in rehearsals. They have rehearsal from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., and they are doing the musical Honk, Jr. Bobby is the lead. I had to twist his arm to audition for that thing, as the teachers were begging me to convince him to do so. They thought he would be perfect in it. He had ZERO interest at first. I finally convinced him to go out for it, and now he is so excited to be in it.

On Thursday, like every day just about (not really on Mondays), my little ones brought Ian's big binders in the kitchen letting me know it was time to do our schoolwork. Natalie is not always there when Ian and I work, but she does help to bring the binders to whatever room we are in. No, I do not have a designated "school" area. I don't see the point really. Sometimes we're in the kitchen, sometimes we're in the living room, sometimes we're in my bedroom, and it just doesn't matter.

Ian is making such great progress with reading and is starting to read short sentences. Natalie, meanwhile, is still recognizing her letter sounds and having fun. And counting. A lot.

On Friday, we went out to the mall and to church that evening. And yesterday I assisted Tasra Dawson on a photo shoot, so Bobby stayed with the kidlets and they just played and chilled out.

Today was a rainy and messy day, and I totally planned on doing schoolwork with them, but we just didn't. No biggie. I realized years ago that I was very much a RELAXED-Classical-Charlotte-Mason homeschooler.

More on my homeschooling philosophy to explain that term in a later post, I promise. Along with more resource lists and whatnot. I totally am going to get to it. Hopefully this week? Maybe? Possibly? Yes? No? Ummm?...

homeschooling log 2010: chapter five.

So, last week came and went and I didn't do a chapter of the homeschooling log. I apologize. We did do our schooling; I just didn't write about any of it.

Last week was pretty spectacular, as weeks go. We had a week with Daddy in Ohio, and it was great. We relaxed, got a lot of much-needed rest, and had a lot of fun. Our week culminated in going to our first baseball game as a family, and my little ones' first baseball game ever. Then the next day I finished my 365 photo project.

This week, the first half of it has gone in a flash. Monday was spent recovering from the drive through the night to get back home coupled with a full day at Master's.  Tuesday meant more recovering, and today was another full day at Master's. Tomorrow through Saturday I will get through everything that I wanted to finish this week with the kidlets.

They're no worse for wear, though. Somehow, they are both reading words that I haven't even taught them yet. What's more, their big brother has been taking it upon himself to do reading and games and things with them. I have some special children. Man, do they make my heart sing.

Speaking of singing, Ian walks around telling me, "Mommy! I can sing Beethoven!" And sure enough, he will sing the theme to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. He does the same thing with Mozart's first movement from "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik." Natalie, of course, follows him and repeats what he does. They fell in love with Mozart last year and to see them still remembering and continuing to enjoy this music is awesome.

Ian is continuing to practice spelling words on the refrigerator, which is something he started doing earlier this summer. He still spells 'hulk' h-u-k, though, even though I have corrected him. He just argues with me and says there's no 'l' in it. Funny.

homeschooling log 2010: chapter four.

With not feeling well for the past week, I did not do much with my little ones. We had Master's yesterday, and Ian spent time in the car ride home telling me all about Beethoven Bear and Mozart mouse. He's already familiar with a lot of Mozart's music as well as the music of a few other composers, due to all of the music that I like to play and the fact that many of the toys that I have gotten for them play classical music.

Well, with the inspiration of his commentary from the day, we spent the rest of the car ride home singing lots of songs. Ian and Natalie had me singing the same tunes over and over and over again, and I was happy to oblige. I know I probably did about ten renditions each of the continents song, the states song, the Spanish alphabet song, and the regular alphabet song. I also went over the phonetic sounds with them. A lot of singing.

This is my first time teaching one of my children to read. I didn't have to teach Bobby. Somehow, he already knew how to read by the time he was two and a half. To this day, I still don't know how that happened. But it happened, and schooling him was pretty much a breeze because of it. Ian is my first child that I am actually having to teach "from scratch," and while he has been doing well, today was a weird day. We had to go over the same set of words four or five times until he got it. I am going to re-do the lesson tomorrow. One practice that I got into when Bobby was small and I want to continue with Ian is never to move on to the next lesson until the one we're on can be done without difficulty. I'm in no rush. I want to see him "get it."

I put the lesson away and we got through the other activities that we normally do before moving on to picture study. Ian and Natalie both ask for that just about every day, along with reading. I love this gentle approach to learning how to make observations and articulate what one is observing.

I keep a little planner so that I can write down what we do every day. That way if there is a lesson that needs to be repeated, I can make a note of it, otherwise I will probably forget. It's part of the OCD planning side of me (and yes, that really is a side of me). I can really go overboard when it comes to planning my curriculum each year. I reminded myself before I even started this year that my kids are FOUR and TWO. Like, really. It's not like they need much. I've kept my sanity as a result.

But anyway, back to the planner. I used the "Homeschooling Journal" when Bobby was small but there really is just no need to use anything fancy. A regular old planner from Office Depot suffices just fine. Knowing little things like that would have saved me some money years ago.

Maybe in a later post I will share some about my homeschooling philosophy and style. I know I also still need to share more music resources. I have been remiss in putting all of that together. We have a school break next week, so I'll be able to concentrate on it more fully then. I'll still be doing school, but we will have a break from Master's so we'll be relaxing in Ohio with Daddy. We are all looking super-forward to being with him again. We miss him so much.

I apologize for this post being somewhat all over the place and rambly. That's not even a word. I apologize for that too. It's late. My night-owl nature seems to be morphing into something else since the new school year started. I am tired earlier. Wanna go to bed earlier. Am going to bed in the next five minutes. Because when I am tired like this I cease to make much sense. Chapter Five of the Homeschooling Log will be much more fasifsticated and edumacated sounding. I promise.

homeschooling log 2010: chapter three.

My little ones had a wonderful first day at Master's Academy.

My son is in the Jasper class this year, and his teachers are all wonderful. They have a history class, an art class, a drama class, and a music class. Of course, with little four and five year-olds, the classes are definitely more activities than anything else. But Ian had a fun time and I am so glad we have a program like this to be a part of. This is my ninth year teaching there (we started when Bobby was five) and it has been a real blessing.

A real blessing, and a long day. But Master's days are always long. We know that going into it. Good days, but long days. I've decided that on those days (two each week) we'll get take out for one of the days and have crock pot meals or sandwiches the other days.

We went out for dinner tonight. Longhorn's. Yes, "Longhorn's." (See this post.) We don't usually do something that fancy. We hadn't eaten there in over a year. But it was the first day and I just wanted to do something a little special for the kids.

Now, when we normally go to a restaurant, it's all of us. Meaning, my husband is there too.

I should have remembered that, I think, and opted to get takeout pizza or something.

Mind you, my kids are not rambunctious or troublemakers or anything like that. But I did have to keep them constantly occupied with their toys and the little booklets they give you at the restaurant and things like that, so that they would stay seated and not keep trying to stand up in the booth and turn around and have conversations with the other patrons. I succeeded, but it was still a lot of work. And I was already tired after a long day.

But the food was good. And the kids ate their broccoli. (Natalie does anyway; Ian is my finicky eater but he ate well too and I was glad.)

And. Ian started writing his letters. In his little booklet. Without my prompting him to do so.

He's reading his letter sounds well (Natalie is too, and that's exciting). But he hasn't wanted to try to write them without my help. Ian is my perfectionist and does not like to attempt something if he cannot do it perfectly. Even despite my encouragement, if he feels he hasn't done something well he gets dejected very easily.

Well, this evening he totally took the initiative and wrote all of his letters himself! I was so proud of him. Bobby gave him a high-five, and Natalie did too and even told him "Good job, Ian!" That totally made my day. And it had already been a great day.

homeschooling log 2010: chapter two. music resources.

My friend Candra is starting to do research on homeschooling and asked me if I had a few recommendations for music resources. I felt I was more than qualified to answer this because I

a. love music,
b. have a rich and diverse musical heritage, courtesy of my parents,
c. am a music teacher,
d. have been homeschooling for nine years and as a result have tried/used a lot of stuff,
e. have worked tediously to cultivate an appreciation for music in my children and in others' children,
f. am just cool like that.

I could probably come up with more lettered reasons, but you get the point.

So, I prepared a list on my Amazon profile highlighting some of the resources that have been hits with me and my children. Three things about this list...

1. There are many other things that I have used that I do not recommend, because they're lame. Like some of those Baby Einstein-ish CDs and stuff like that. ( I don't mean to offend you if you like that stuff. I'm sure it's not ALL lame; it just has not been of much benefit over the years at my house, for several reasons.) So those things are not on the list.
2. There is no Classical music or Opera on this list. Because I need to make a separate list just for that. I am, after all, an opera singer. I had way too much to add to the list, so I figured that genre should just have a list of its own. (And yes, children can learn to like this type of music if introduced to it early and with enthusiasm.)
3. There are lots of great "...for Kids" compilations out there. Motown for Kids, 80's for Kids, Hip-Hop for Kids, Broadway for Kids, Beatles for Kids, et cetera. And you could certainly buy those. But why? If I have Stevie Wonder's and The Jackson 5's greatest hits (which my little ones LOVE), all I need to do is go and add more favorites from similar artists off of iTunes. You don't necessarily have to find something geared specifically toward children. A lot of the stuff that you enjoyed as a youth may be what your kids end up loving too; the songs don't have to be re-sung by kids' voices or anything like that. Just play good music for them. (And PLEASE, stay away from that KidzBop crap. Yes, I said it. It's crap. Don't get me started.)

So here's the list.
My kidlets loved this. Loved it. We wore it out last year when we were on the road a lot. They still enjoy it when I play it, even though we don't play it as often.

This one was a big hit too. The entire CD is excellent, but the second half are mostly slow songs so by the time they rolled around my kids would be asleep. Still a great CD though.

Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Prima, Lionel Hampton, Carmen McRae, Blossom Dearie, Louis Armstrong. I really don't need to go on. You get the picture. It's good stuff.

Sweet, mellow music. Great lullabies.

Hip, upbeat, dance-worthy tunes.

I was hoping this CD had a particular song with Alicia Keys on it, but it didn't. No matter. It's still a great CD, and one that my kids enjoyed a lot last year.

I remember watching those Schoolhouse Rock shorts on Saturday mornings in between the cartoons. Good times. And great educational material.

My oldest loved this one when he was little, and learned a lot from it.

This was what my oldest listened to a lot when he was in first grade. He liked it. I had the Subtraction one too, but can't seem to find it on Amazon. It's not as good as the Addition one anyway.

Fun, cute songs that my oldest never forgot. And he's almost fourteen.

Several classics as well as songs that will teach your child the books of the Bible. Also something my oldest has never forgotten.

Such a great worship CD.

"Hey, hey, HEYYYYY!" You should watch it.

One of my kidlets' favorite tunes, "Mahna Mahna," is on this collection. It's also on the For the Kids CD.

Be sure to check out my Listmania list for slightly more detailed descriptions of these items. I say slightly because I had to keep editing them down; they only allow 400 characters max per description. I was getting a little too verbose.

(Aaaannnd I apologize for the small text. I notice when I preview this post that I am somehow writing in Lilliputian font. I can't seem to fix it.)

homeschooling log 2010: chapter one.

So, I've decided that this school year I will try to record some highlights of our schooling each week.

Today my son started eighth grade. He is in Year Four at The Classical School, and his class meets every Tuesday. He spends the rest of the week getting all of his assignments completed and ready to turn in at the next class. For the first day of school, he needed to have three books read and two book reports written. The three books were "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson, "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis, and Mortimer Adler's "How to Read a Book." He was not impressed at all with the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but loved the other two books and did book reports for those. I remember reading Adler's book because it was listed in Susan Bauer's "The Well-Trained Mind," and it is definitely a keeper for the bookshelf. I was really happy that Bobby liked it too.

He had all of his assignments completed and had a pleasant first day of classes. He said that they spent the bulk of the day watching Francis Schaeffer's video "How Should We Then Live?" and he took the time to tell me all about it while we were on the road to Ohio. I loved hearing him recount all of the information they had discussed in class.

My son has become quite the model student. He got straight A's last school year, and now I don't have to constantly stay on him about doing his homework. He knows that he's going to have a Latin exam every week, so he gets on the ball and does his Latin homework and studies for the quizzes right away. He read all of the summer books online, and I did not have to remind him once. He takes the initiative now and gets his work done independently. That is a huge help now that I am schooling Ian and Natalie.