favorite thing friday

I'm not sure what exactly happened, but the post that I had up yesterday about our awesome place mates was deleted. There was a lot I wrote about how during our meal times, our children are globally learning about all the continents, oceans and countries. They're learning about latitude and longitude, the prime meridian, equator and rivers.

On a national level, they're learning about the various states and capitols and where everything is relative to us. We're also talking about the climate in various states and what is produced in each region. For instance, the chief exporting state for peaches is California. Followed by South Carolina.

Contrary to popular belief, Georgia doesn't produce many peaches.

Unless, you're referring to the people.

And then, they roll 'em out by the bushel.

homeschool: my little bean, er, cheerio counters

Charlie had a dentist appointment this morning.

So while my husband went off to have half of his face numbed up, I stayed home with the kids and we worked on math. As I was having them practice various exercises from their Kumon workbooks (pronounced "Ku-Mon" and not "COME ON you can do this!") I was struck with an idea for helping them to visualize and grasp number sequences.

Although there are a lot of great websites out there and lessons I could download, for the most part, I really wing it when it comes to teaching the children. Sure, I try to draw upon some of the things that they learned in Montessori, but because I don't have all of the supplies that a Montessori classroom has, I do my best to work with what I've got.

So today, I had in mind some kind of tool that allowed enough spaces for the children to count out a specific quantity and then visualize the numerical sequence using small objects. Small objects like ...say, dried beans.

But unfortunately, we're out of dried beans because our children poured them in the dirt with the hope that in the morning, we'd have a beanstalk. Leading up to the clouds. Where a giant with a goose that laid golden eggs would reside.

The thought of using coins crossed my bind - or buttons - but Henry, seeing that it solicits a response from me, has taken to shoving little objects in his mouth just to see my alarmed reaction.

So there I am thinking and thinking.

What could I use?

And then it came to me.

Relying upon my handy mini-muffin tins, and a bowl of Cheerios, I had the children count out the number of muffin indents. Then, I had them place the appropriate number of Cheerios in each indent.

One had one.

Two had two.

Three had three.

Four had four.

Still with me?

All the way up to ... twenty four had twenty four.

I also taught them that twenty four is divisible by two, three, four, six, eight and twelve.

"Huh? Diviso what?"



Just kidding.

(They ate all the Cheerios before we made it that far.)

A fun activity that teaches and yet satisfies a hearty five-year-old ...

And two-year-old appetite?

In my book, that's a win win!

favorite thing friday

Last year for Christmas, I bought the children a set of eeBoo Good Manners flash cards.

I saw them while I was strolling the aisles of our favorite toy store, and since flash cards are something that we use quite often around these parts, I couldn't resist.

Whenever we sit down to eat, I've found that it really helps to keep children at the table when I read to them. So during meal times, I will ask the children to pick out a book or flash card set that they would like for me to go through. More often than not, they will select their Good Manners flash cards. And more often than not, they ask that I go through the deck twice.

This one's their favorite. They love that spider.

It's my opinion that good manners are so important. And although our children are still young, I think that there is no better time to start - than now - with teaching and enforcing politeness and common decency. Which is why I love these cards because they review such topics as meeting new people...

I am forever telling our children that you can tell a lot about a person by their handshake. TIGHTEN THAT GRIP. SMILE WHEN YOU LOOK IN THEIR EYES and say, "It's PLEASURE to meet you!"

They cover topics on public transportation...

And interfacing with the general population.

Of course the kids don't yet recognize the subtle difference that if someone opens the door to their own home on say, Halloween night, that's not a free license to walk in and pick up their dog and criticize the canary.

We're working on it.

The manners cards also cover meal time...

At our house, the kids will typically say, "OH NO. I just know I'm not going to like this."

Usually, they're right. But they'll still almost always put their napkin on their lap and they'll say, "Thank you for the meal. That was wonderful of you!" once they finish.

And that gives me a little hope for the future.

homeschool: grooming the green thumb

So, as I was writing my post the other day about wooden blocks, I remembered that I had once promised that once a week I would write about the various 'homeschool' activities we do around here.

And well, I got distracted and forgot.

(Like I often do.)

This past weekend, during our lemonade sales, my friend Mary came to visit us. While we were talking, Mary mentioned that she was really interested in my knitting posts, because she was teaching herself how to knit again. And, what ever happened to my knitting posts?

(Mary, it was really nice to see you. Thank you so much for dropping by. Here are the knitting posts I've written so far. Now that the weather is starting to get cooler - hahaha who am I kidding it was 96 degrees today, HELLO Fall Solstice! - I'll start up on that knitting thread - note the pun - again very soon.)

So where was I?

Let's see ... Charlie's cooking blog.

No, no. That wasn't it.

(But that will be soon. I promise.)

Oh yes!

Homeschool activities.

What I have discovered is that the more "real" life activities you can get your children involved with, the more likely they will enjoy it. For instance, the kids have a lot of fun washing dishes. So I'll pull up a chair to the sink, fill it midway with warm water, load it up with nonbreakable items, hand them sponges and soap and let them have at it.

We're talking MINUTES of soapy, watery fun.

I have also solicited the children's help to care for plants both inside and outside of our home. But because I think it is important that they have tools that are sized just right for them, I purchased children-sized watering cans, gloves, trowels and spades.

Does this sound idealistic?

It totally is.

But please, stick with me.

The children have a small watering can that they use to water the indoor plants each week - and I have them spritz off the leaves and wipe up any excess water that might drip on to our hardwood floors. Whenever the leaves on the plants start to turn brown or we need to cut off wilted flowers, I'll hand the children their blunt-edge scissors and they help me prune.

I believe that having children learn about plant care is a valuable life experience. Not only are you teaching children respect for another living thing, you are teaching them that with nurture and care, something can grow and thrive.


(Or, get hacked back to it's roots.)

I like having the children work in our flower gardens because it provides them a great opportunity to be outdoors and combat 'nature deficit disorder'.

Our children absolutely love examining all of the life that is teeming within the garden, just outside of our door. Worms, caterpillars, beetles and snails.

Working in the garden gives children a wonderful excuse to get dirty and pull weeds out by the hand full. But don't feel too discouraged if the weeds that they are yanking out are actually your imported herbs.

There is definitely a learning curve for children, and a patience curve for any adult that must be obtained in order for multi-generational gardening to be a success.


I love to see our children working with plants - and they love it, too.

But don't expect that gardening will be a full day activity for children.


Because like all things, after a while, they will get distracted.

And soon, they might start telling stories like, "I once caught a fish THIS big."

And you might wonder where in the world your child gets his short attention span.

(Surely it couldn't be me.)

favorite thing friday (and 994 silicone bracelets)

**Edited to add: Because someone was fiddling around with their blog settings, they inadvertently turned off all the comments. Oops. That's definitely not the thing to do on a day when you launch a new contest and in order to participate, people need to leave a comment.

The problem has been rectified and those responsible have been sacked.

If you were unable to leave a comment previously, you can do it now. Thank you. An abundance of apologies. Also: May the sun shine on your spirit, always.

*** Edited to add (part deux): I have been awake since 3:45 this morning and have driven more than 300 miles in the past 14 hours. And now, for reasons that completely elude me, my computer is having a tantrum. Until I can fix the link in this post that would take you directly to my fundraising page, please click through by clicking on the button that is brightly present on the left side of my blog that reads, "I'm Walking 60 miles in the Breast Cancer 3-Day!"

Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.

(Name that movie!)

Thank you again. Another abundance of apologies. Also: May those that love you, love you and may those that don't - may God turn their hearts. And if he doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles so you can tell them by their limping.

******

When I was a child, my best friend's mother was a Montessori teacher.

I always loved going to Amy's house, because she and her brothers had the most wonderful wooden toys to play with. But what I remember most of all, were their wooden blocks. They were smooth, solid blocks that were fun and easy to handle. And even though I didn't know the first thing about geometry or proportions, I knew that I loved playing with these incredible toys.

It might sound crazy, but I clearly recall playing with my friend's blocks, and a feeling of peace would descend over me. The great Maria Montessori nailed it when she wrote,

"The toys and materials in the home and school for this period of development should be of the very best quality to call forth self-respect, respect and care from the child toward the environment, and the development of an appreciation of beauty."

Even before I became a mother, I've been looking for the same quality blocks. And although you can buy toy blocks just about anywhere - I had no luck finding any that had remotely the same appeal as what I remembered from my childhood. I was beginning to think that maybe I'd dreamed up the whole "proportional, beautiful, good quality" block thing.

(Just like I had dreamed up the notion that my family had promised me a pony when I was 10.)

But then. A few years ago, thanks be to the Glory of the Internet, I stumbled upon a company that makes high end wooden toys. They use solid maple and the corners are smooth. They are proportional and beautiful and although I was 36-years old at the time, I couldn't wait to have my very own wooden blocks and build something magnificent.

With the children, of course.

Because these blocks were really for them.

So, I ordered the starter set of blocks - that came in a beautiful roll away cart - and when they were presented on Christmas morning, I felt like I had provided my children (and husband and myself) the best gift of their entire lives.

Our blocks are kept in a central part of the house and it is no exaggeration to say that our children play with them every day. Sometimes, they build things like towers and bridges and roads and tunnels - and sometimes they hide stuffed animals beneath the blocks and pretend that they are in caves.

Every so often, the kids will dump all the blocks out and have fun piecing them all back together like one huge, interactive puzzle.


Seeing my children embrace order and organization, does things to my brain that I just cannot adequately explain.

The fact is, these blocks encourage creative imagination unlike any other toy that we own.

I love these blocks.

The kids love these blocks.

And if you are between the ages of 3 and 100, you will love these blocks, too.

Which is why I am giving away a set.

Because I need to catch up to my fellow teammates on their outstanding fundraising efforts, I am going to be giving away one Introductory Set with Storage Chest.

These beautiful blocks are valued at $305.00 and would make an awesome Christmas / Hanukkah / Enter the Holiday Here, gift for anyone on your list.

Here are the details on how to enter...

For the past several months, I've been trying to figure out how I can host raffles on my blog without breaking any laws. The only thing that I can come up with, is that for every $5.00 donation people make directly to our fundraising efforts, I will send them a silicone bracelet and enter their name in to a drawing to win a prize.

So, you aren't really entering a raffle - you are buying a bracelet.

(Or 20. You can give them to everyone you know!!)

And, you are being entered in to a drawing to win a prize.

Is there an attorney in the house?

If my interpretation of the law is wrong, and what I am doing is illegal, please don't tell me.

To buy a bracelet and be entered in to what I believe is a totally legal contest - please leave me a comment on THIS post telling me the amount of your donation and what size and color bracelets you would like.

• The size choices are large (8 3/8" around) medium (7 3/8" around) or small (5 7/8" around).

• The color choices are hot pink, forest green or royal blue.

Now, if you want to enter this contest and make a $50.00 donation (so that you will be entered 10 times), but you only want one bracelet (and not 10), just tell me in the comments what size and color you want.

Or, if you only want a bracelet and don't want to be entered in to the contest at all (because you already have an awesome block set or don't like blocks at all), leave me those details in your comment.

Then, and this is the most important part, go make a $5.00, tax deductible donation, by clicking through to the button on the LEFT side of my blog that reads, "I'm Walking 60 Miles in the Breast Cancer 3-Day!!"

If you need to make up a pseudo name to protect your identity, that's fine by me. Please just make sure that the name you leave in your comment on THIS post matches the name that you leave on your donation, so that I am able to figure out who is who.

Was that confusing enough?

Fantastic.

(Please send me an e-mail if you have any questions. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.)

Winner will be announced Sunday, October 4.

That's 10-4 big buddy.

Over and out.

homeschool: block puzzles

For Christmas, I bought the children a simple block puzzle from Plan Toys that they absolutely love. What I love is that this puzzle keeps the children engaged because there is more than one solution. Once they find one solution to the puzzle, they challenge themselves by mixing it up and trying different configurations. For instance, if they move the black rectangular piece in to the middle of the puzzle, versus either end, or midpoints along the way - they will get a different solution, each time.

To add another component of learning, I cut out rectangular pieces of paper and have the children color with their crayons, the various solutions that they have found. At a later time, I will give them the "solutions" that they've drawn to see if they can use the "key" to solve the puzzle the same way.

Although they might think that they're just coloring, they are actually learning shapes, order, problem solving and spatial dimension. And, it's a lot of fun.

homeschool: calendars & noodles

We try to start out every day with a review of the calendar.

I bought a large dry erase board that allows me to recite the months of the year with the children, and all the days of the week. Each day, I write in the month that we are in, and point out any important holidays and/or birthdays and/or upcoming events.

Since I usually have to re-write this calendar once a day - since small children love to wipe off whatever I have recorded - the level of detail I include on any given day may vary.

(As may my penmanship.)

Next week we are flying back to South Carolina for my 20-year highschool reunion. But more importantly, we are flying back to South Carolina next week to see my mother and Jim, Aunt Grace and Uncle Bill, and cousins Margaret, Lisa, George, Bill and Karen.

We are so excited.

To help the children grasp the concept of time and the days remaining until our trip, once we go through the calendar, we will count how many days until we get on the plane (which will take off and land without issue and fly safely through the sky), with the use of pasta noodles.

You can do a lot more with penne than just toss it with marinara.

Since we have eight days remaining until our trip, today the children counted out eight noodles, which they then strung up. (Yes. William is in fact wearing a velvet Christmas skirt in size 2T. Just in case you were wondering, we're very casual here at home school.)

Tomorrow, we'll take one noodle off the string, leaving seven. Although we could also count out seven new noodles. Then take the eight noodles off our string and subtract seven from eight.

Either way you calculate it, we'll be one day closer to leaving.

And thus, one day closer to my next panic attack.

the homeschool

We've been homeschooling our children for the past seven months. And although I've been wanting to write about this topic since January, I've been at an absolute loss how to start this post. Or what to include in it.

I finally decided that there really is no simple way to disseminate everything that we have done over the past several months as we've embarked upon this homeschool adventure. So instead of trying to write everything in one post, I'm going to start out by simply writing how we've set up our "classroom."

As you read through this, I think it's very important to keep in mind that we live in a 1,600 square foot house. Space is at a premium. And although I would love (emphasis on the word love) to have a large room dedicated to educational materials - that are strategically placed on low shelves where children can easily access them - that wasn't an option for us. Unless, we got rid of our couch, dining room table and blocked off at least half of our kitchen cabinets.

Instead, we looked at the way our house was set up and we did a major rearrangement, while trying to use what we had, as much as possible.

We hired electricians who moved chandeliers and ceiling fans from one room to the next. What was once our family room, became our dining room. What had been our formal dining room became our computer area and what had been our living room became our family room. I moved small tables in to each of the rooms so that ultimately, every non-bedroom space in our house, became a space where learning could transpire. But our primary "learning" space is what we call our homeroom. Which was once our family room. But is now our dining room. And primary library.

And every so often, gymnasium.

Still with me?

The cabinet that once housed our television, stereo and associated equipment, was converted to a space that held many of our educational materials. Those materials that have a lot of pieces and/or could inflict significant damage on our furniture or walls if in the wrong small hands, were stored high in baskets.

On one shelf we have all of our wooden supplies including puzzles, beads and more puzzles. On another shelf we store all of our workbooks and worksheets. On another shelf there is space designated for our mats and clipboards, which we use extensively.

There are wicker baskets on several shelves that hold magnets, lacing cards, science equipment and assorted supplies that I have organized together. Roll-out drawers along the bottom of the wall unit hold play food supplies, wooden vehicles and a small portion of our children's library.

Using old CD holders, I organized other supplies such as crayons, colored pencils, flashcards, paints, brushes, Playdoh, rulers, triangles, scissors and compasses that can be safely tucked out of the way when not in use.

There is a children's sized table in our 'classroom.' As well as an easel, that I recently moved outdoors to our backyard because the kids love painting in the sun and I love having them outside.

Next to the garden hose.

Far, far away from our light-covered upholstery.

I will write about all of these things in more detail later, but for now, I just want to mention that in our classroom, there are wooden blocks. And a bookshelf filled with various books. There are comfortable spaces for the children to sit and read to their heart's content. We have a wooden doll house and a play kitchen. And Legos that I finally moved to an area that are readily accessible to the children, because thankfully, the triplets have outgrown the stage of scattering these small plastic blocks all over creation, and Henry never once has shown an interest in stuffing them inside Charlie's acoustic guitar.

My plan going forward is to begin posting, several times each week, homeschool activities that we do with the children. Tonight, I calculated that I have photographed at least 100 separate blog posts worth of information. Of course, turning those photographs in to actual posts is a whole different story. But I can rest easy knowing that if I'm suddenly struck with writer's block, I have enough material to last me until the New Year.

Wait a minute. Writer's block?

Something tells me that so long as I have small children in the house, that will never happen.

parental self-flagellation

This morning before I started work, I stumbled upon a discussion on this blog where the topic surrounded the idiocy of parents who are trying to teach their babies to read. And well, I thought it would be fun to join in on the conversation.

So I anonymously suggested that my 21-month old son knows how to read and play the piano. And with the use of dried beans, he can do simple addition, subtraction and create images of "The Last Supper." For balance and coordination, I am teaching him to roller skate and to improve dexterity, he uses chopsticks to eat his Cheerios. I further suggested that anyone who is not doing at least as much with their toddler, is lazy and robbing their child of their full potential.

(Michele, I thought for sure you'd know it was me with the use of your tracking software!)

Of course this was all a joke. But I couldn't help but think every so often, I'll find myself engaged in a conversation with someone who has children that are similarly aged to ours. And inevitably, that conversation might turn to all the amazing things that our children are doing.

Yet whenever I find myself engaged in these discussions, I wonder if us parents are primarily proud of our child - or - if we are proud of ourselves that we were responsible for creating such an intelligent individual?

The popular consensus is that children are a direct reflection of their parents. Or at a minimum, children are a direct reflection of the experiences that their parents have exposed them to. So, if a child is able to read and write and tie their shoes by the time they are five, clearly the parents must be doing something amazing.

Right?

We recently took our children out of what we considered to be the best preschool in our area. Even though the director of the preschool told us that leaving them in her school would most certainly guarantee the strongest academic foundation possible, we made the decision to remove our children from school and keep them home with us.

I'll never forget telling the Director that our children would not be returning to school. I'll never forget the stunned disbelief that we would actually take our children out of a program that in her opinion, would undoubtedly path the way for overwhelming success in their life. I'll never forget the frown she gave me which clearly said, "You are making a terrible mistake."

Obviously, I'm not a motivated parent who is concerned about my children's future. Obviously, I have no idea what I'm doing. Obviously, I don't think that my children's education is important.

Sometimes, I believe that I am giving our children the best possible start to life. And other times, I feel like I am blowing it big time. Especially when I get around families that appear to be doing so much more with their kids.

I find myself comparing my children against these other children.

I find myself comparing myself against these other parents.

Oh, I know I shouldn't.

But I do.

Because sometimes I don't know if I'm doing everything right.

Everyone knows that the window of opportunity where children's brains are rapidly developing is small. And unless I jump on the bandwagon of academic exposure now, our children will miss this heightened period of knowledge absorption forever.

So, why aren't they in violin lessons??

Or in preschool a few days a week??

Why is it that I don't provide a more structured learning environment and instead, let the children explore to their heart's content??

I feel a little awkward saying that we 'homeschool' our children because the fact is, there isn't much "schooling" going on. In reality, we have made the decision to keep our children home.

From school.

But I don't know if this really constitutes "homeschool." Because some days, we don't do anything that remotely resembles school.

I'm not pushing them to read. Or write.

Or learn all the flags of the world's nations.

I'm allowing them to play. Because for the most part, I believe that they are learning a lot through their play. But are they learning enough?

Last week, I used a bunch of PVC connections that were laying around and let the children create various pathways for water flow.

While I was helping them with this project, I thought that this provided a great illustration for fluid mechanics and I felt proud of my ingenuity.

But in the midst of this, I happened to notice that one of our children had pooped in the middle of our patio.

So, whatever feeling of pride that I had in regards to raising the next generation of open minded and creative engineers, was quickly replaced with the feeling of dismay that I am raising a bunch of savages.

Welcome to my home school classroom!

You might want to watch where you step.