Amusing "Socializing" Article

In the Kolbe Little Home Journal (Fall 2005), there is a brief item called "Homeschooling Family Finds Ways to Adapt to a Public School 'Socialization' Program." Here it is: "When my wife and I mention we are strongly considering homeschooling our children, we are without fail asked, 'But what about socialization?' Fortunately, we found a way our kids can receive the same socialization that government schools provide. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I will personally corner my son in the bathroom, give him a wedgie and take his lunch money. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, my wife will make sure to tease our children for not being in the 'in' crowd, taking special care to poke fun at any physical abnormalities. Fridays will be 'Fad and Peer Pressure Day.' We will all compete to see who has the coolest toys, the most expensive clothes, and the loudest, fastest, and most dangerous car. Every day, my wife and I will adhere to a routine of cursing and swearing in the hall and mentioning our weekend exploits with alcohol and immorality.... And we have asked them to report us to the authorities in the event we mention faith, religion, or try to bring up morals and values."

Solar System

We were all laying in bed and Brianna pops up with the question "what are those bracelet things around some of the planets?" So, we are putting our ABC folder on hold long enough to explore the solar system and more specifically the rings. She has asked that we make a solar system model so we will be starting on that tomorrow as well.

ABC Animal Notebook

We started our ABC Animal Notebooks this past week. The first thing we did was make a cover page and copy a sentence that said "My ABC Animal Notebook". I then had them draw whatever animal they wanted to in the frame. Keira Drew an Alligator.


Brianna drew a horse.
We also cut out pictures of apples and water color painted ants. We read a story from CLP's Nature Reader 1 about ants, and talked about how ants lived in a colony, have 6 legs and 2 antenna. I had them copy a sentence on the paper "Ants live in a colony".
So what does a genius 1 year old do during school time? Read the Bob Books of course!

2009-2010 Molder School Year

Well we started the new year. Well actually it was 2 weeks ago, but we are really just now into the swing of things. Everything seems to be going great! Karl had the first of many "conversations" with a family member about why we are homeschooling, but he did well with his responses.

I guess I will start out by talking about what curriculum we have chosen this year. Brianna is kind of all over the place with grade level, which is one thing I LOVE about hs'ing! I can put her where she needs to be. So we are doing some k-5 math(ABEKA left over curriculum from mothers day out), 1st grade phonics (mainly review right now, LifePac/Explode the Code and some CLP for random practice work), reading, and then we do co-op 2 times a week and the sweet teacher up there works on random things. I love that we started a bit early as far as her age (she asked to). It has totally taken some pressure off of me. We go at a pace that is just right for her and I don't feel behind. Keira is working out of a bridge book. By this time Brianna was already doing school, but Keira needs the extra time. That's just fine with me. She is not as academic as Brianna and is definitely going to be alot more hands on with her learning. Again, something I love about hs'ing is the ability for me to taylor my children's education to their needs and even their desires!

We have a field trip to the Dallas Zoo on the 23rd and then to the Fort Worth Zoo on Oct 1st. We are also planning a group trip down to NASA with our co-op! I am very excited about that. We are actually going to do a big triangle and hit Houston, San Antonio and Austin! My older kids in the co-op are doing a Texas state notebook next 6 weeks so this is perfect!

We also started Artistic Pursuits. So loving it! I love having a real art curriculum. My kids get crafts and such at co-op so its nice to do some real art at home. It also has a bit of art history mingled in so that is a great bonus.

Well I think that is about it for now. Date night here so I am off to primp! Will post pictures soon!

Finishing up creation

We have finished studying creation! Yay! They both did really well with it, though I did have to go purchase some visusal aids. I think the lapbook really helped though. As much fun as that was I am ready to move on.

I had Brianna say the Pledge of Allegiance all by herself today. Of course with a few mispronunciations she did great! I am suprised that she actually caught on to it so fast because ::blush:: I don't always remember to have them say it.

We have been working on speed math. I don't expect alot of speed at this age but I found these speed drill sheets that work on basic math (1+1=2 and so on) and I can really see it making a difference in how she answers small addition problems. The evolution of her math skills has amazed me. We went from counting chips, to fingers, to using a number line and now she says the problem outloud and does it with no aids. So for 2+2 she would say "one, two and three, four" and get her answer that way. I imagine the next step would be instant recall on basic facts.

She also has excelled in reading. I was afraid at first, because at MDO they use Abeka and teach a different decoding system than HOP uses, but she seems to be working it out. Sometimes I get discouraged because I think of how long we have been working on something, then I have to remind myself that she is still on the very young side of five.

The book fair is coming up soon and I am so excited! I am thinking of having a look at the Life Pacs for our math for next year. I also need to have a look at some science and history. Not sure if I will add those in the winter or wait a bit longer. Then with us doing some of it up at MDO I am not sure if maybe I will just suppliment what we are doing up there. Seems less confusing that way.

I think that is it for now!

Updates!

I have been super busy promoting our co-op so I have neglected blogging here. I will tell you about that at a time when I can type it all out.

We had a garage sale Saturday and raised about $250 towards our science gear!!! I really think this is going to be a big step in making our co-op unique. I really want to have a full lab set up eventually. Of course it will have to be all portable, but still it will rock!

On a personal front, we are heading forward with schooling. Keira decided she wanted to start K so I got her a phonics book and she has been working out of that. We are also lapbooking. We did a creation one today and I am very pleased. It's a bit out of the box for me. Must have taken me about 2 hours to figure out how to fold it and Keira's folds differently than Brianna's LOL. The fold is called a Pizza fold.

The pictures really should be from bottom to top. I will change them around later. Isn't it cute?!

Our Homeschool Schedule

Since things have changed so much since we started HSing in November (WOW, so long ago already!) I thought I would give you our current set up!


I dont start school at a particular time, mainly because Luke hasn't figured out our schedule, but we do always try to get it done in the morning.

Eat Breakfast
Get Dressed
Start school:

Pleadge of Allegiance
Girl Scout Pledge (because she is learning it for one of her petals)
Bible: Studying God's Word Book B-Right now we are learning about creation
Math-Horizon's K book 2
Reading-Spectrum and HOP K
Phonics-Spectrum K and Explode the Code B1
Writting and Penmanship-Writing with Diligence Grade 1 and she journals.

All together it takes us about 2.5 hours from start to finish with no breaks. You might be asking why we aren't doing any science or history. This is mainly because when I first started out I wanted to make sure that we were covering the three R's. Now as I have gotten more comfortable I have decided an actual curriculum is not necessary for those just yet. Next year we may add them in but I haven't decided yet. I usually try to write up our weekly lesson plan on Saturdays and even though we don't always get everything done, it at least gives us a goal to work towards.

There you have it!