The Top Five Things I NEED to Successfully Homeschool

As this year is coming to a close I am looking at the decisions I have made this year and in past years pertaining to homeschool. My first year of homeschooling was done on a very limited budget. We purchased only what was necessary, used the library, got a membership to a museum when it was on sale and used the internet for everything else. Unlike my first year, my second year of homeschooling was done on a not so limited budget. We took a multitude of fieldtrips, joined a co-op, and purchased an overwhelming amount of curriculum and materials. Now I am in my third year of homeschooling and I am analyzing what I truly need to homeschool. So here is my list of the top 5 things I need to successfully homeschool:

1. Pencils, pencils and more pencils. I can’t say this enough, pencils seem to disappear at the most inconvenient times. I send the children on a pencil hunt and of course it takes hours before they can find one and begin their school work.

2. A good quality pencil sharpener, maybe two. This is a continuation of the whole pencil saga that erupts at the beginning of the school day. I say good quality because they seem to break all the time.

3. A computer, laptop or tablet with internet connection. Even if you don’t allow your children online access this will still be an invaluable tool for creating assignments, checking and researching facts or ideas.(not extremely important as there are ways to get around not having a computer...see #5)

4. Paper. This really goes unsaid but I thought I would add it anyway.

5. A library card- The library offers so many great resources to homeschoolers, not just books, but classes and workshops, computers and printers/copiers, cd’s, educational software and videos and the list goes on. Definitely this is the most cost effective tool (nothing beats FREE!) available to homeschoolers.

Now having emphasized my needs, If you do plan to homeschool what do you think you would need? If you are on a budget don’t feel that you cannot homeschool due to money issues. Be creative, there are ways to do this without breaking the bank. Check the library for books about homeschooling on a budget. Make a plan and go for it. If I did it, so can you!

Week 6

This week in homeschool:

Nature Study:

This week we started our nature study on trees. Along with this, we are participating in an autumn leaf exchange. On Wednesday we set out on our leaf hunt for the exchange. We needed to find 3-4 of each leaf to mail to 3 different families across the country. "I" was the most enthused by this project which is shocking because the last time we did something involving nature and  lots of trees (hiking in the woods) she ended up believing we were lost and crying in the middle of the forest...lol. This was a nature breakthrough. We found leaves  for each of our familys, not far from our home. We laminated each set of leaves. We will identify the tree for each leaf using this book and will mail them next week. It was a great experience and we cant wait to see what leaves we will receive next week.

Math:

I have all the Oldies using Khan Academy for math. They each worked at their own pace in math this week. I sat in the computer room with them while they used Khan, to be available in case they needed help. When I notice someone is struggling on a topic or is clicking the hint button often I take that time to discuss the problems they are having. I will have them watch the video for the topic if it is something I know they have not been introduced to or need a review. They also used Xtramath.org to memorize their facts daily.

Social Studies:

We began our study on Native Americans last week with a history pocket on the seminoles. We located Florida on a map and the Everglades. We made a Native American head dress and read the stories Night Bird and The Seminoles.

This week for Social Studies, we continued our study of  Native America. We watched a pbs series  on Youtube about Native Americans called We Shall Remain, Episode 1: Before the Mayflower. The movie told of the pilgrims and puritans that came to America and the realities behind them coming to America. I enjoyed this film because it gave a different story. One I personally never heard,  through 13 years of public schooling. This story was from the Native American perspective and was quite sad. I felt for the loss they experienced. The children felt the same.  We will watch the next episode on Tuesday. I think I will create a question/ answer sheet to go along with the movie, just to make sure they are paying attention.


Science:

This week we have been studying the coffee bean. On Thursday we visited a coffee roastery with HAT a local homeschool organization. We were given packets to complete around a coffee theme and green coffee beans to make coffee. When we got home we got our supplies together to make coffee. The supplies we needed were an air popcorn popper, mixing bowl, coffee beans and storage container. We don't own a popper but luckily grandma does. We swung over to her house, grabbed the popper and a metal mixing bowl ( along with some popcorn kernals for added fun) . We were ready to begin our coffee roasting experiment. The first go round we dumped one of our three bags of coffee into the air popper and placed on the top. We turned on the popper and beans were flying everywhere. I thought to myself these children are so excited to make coffee if all the beans go onto the floor then what. Brainstorming time. We had to figure out a way to keep the beans in the popper without them shooting out like hot coffee bean bullets. " I" found a tuna fish can and placed it on top of the open part of the popper and "S" found a handled collander to hold over the front of the popper to catch the beans as they flew out. Okay, problem solved. We roasted the beans and they came out excellent. Next "Z" wanted to roast his bag of bean and in an effort to be quicker we dumped the last bag in the popper as well. Well apparently the more beans you place in the popper the better. The beans stayed in the popper and they roasted faster.
Next we poured our roasted green coffee beans into our coffee grinder. We added water, a coffee filter and started the coffee maker. The smell of coffee brewed throughout the house. Our coffee was ready. They did it; wonderful, flavorful, fresh coffee straight from the bean. The scientific method at work :)

Literature:

"Z" is reading Elijah of Buxton for his Sankofa book club for October . I ordered the book through the library and on audiobook as another parent does in his book club. This way he can listen to the story as reads since he has to be finished with the book in such a short amount of time. He has discussion questions to complete as well as supplemental activities.

"I" began reading The Giver for the month of October which she actually began last week. I downloaded this on my kindle from the library as well. We also have a tangible copy of this book for our home library. But because books get lost around here all the time it is wise to have another copy.

"S" began reading The BFG this month of October and she will continue until she is finished.

Spelling:
We used natural speller lists along with spelling cards (index cards with activities on them) and spelling city to take tests.

Writing/composition:
The Oldies take a writing class through the Sankofa Collective on Fridays. They are currently working on outlining articles about the human body and writing research reports using IEW. This week they wrote a three paragraph paper from a source document about the digestive system (teeth, saliva and tongue).

Music:
 We read several books about Jazz as an introduction to our jazz unit beginning next week. We will work on our jazz unit once a week. We listened to God bless the Child in the car while riding to familiarize us with that style of music. We also practiced singing the lyrics.

Google Calendar for Homeschool

Last week I decided that my previous methods of lesson planning and scheduling were not working.

Being that we are eclectic homeschoolers a problem began to emerge.  I would plan and then have to show the children how to get to a website or pull a worksheet from somewhere else in the house. This would not be a problem if  I had one or even two children, but with five (and two of them under age five), I needed a more independent system. A system especially for the oldies, to keep them focused and on task.

While trying to register my daughter for Khanacademy.org I came across Google Apps for Education and got really excited, only to be let down once again. Google does not allow homeschool to use Google Apps for Eduation. After reading through what they had to offer anyway, I wondered if I could still make the Apps useful in my homeschool for my children. After tinkering around, I figured out how to use Google Calendar.

 

(4 day view)

Here's how I did it:

First, I gave each child their own calendar on my Google Calendar, and assigned each of them a color. ( *click the little arrow next to my calendar and then click create new calendar, make a name for your calendar and click create new calendar at the top of the page)

 

Next, I went into Google and created each of them a Gmail account and a password (which only the oldest knows because I saved the passwords into the computer by checking remeber me).


I then shared the individual calendars I made on my Google Calendar with each individual Gmail address. Now it is easy for them to see personally what they need to do at any time of the day.

 

 

Step 1: click on the drop down arrow next to my calendars, then click settings.

 

Step 2: From the settings menu click share this calendar and enter your child's email. Make sure you have it set so they can't modify/edit the calendar)

 

Then, I added an entry for each subject I wanted them to complete at that time, checking the box if it was a repeat activity.I wrote in each child's main lessons and I am able to go in and change the lessons if I need to. For example if on Monday, Z has pg 13-16 for history, I can go into the calendar and change the page numbers for Tuesday without recreating the posts.  I added links for the websites and notes for the activities. I added reminders to some entries as well. I  added things we do together such as nature walks,  fieldtrips and other activities to a general calendar.

Personal calendar:

 

This is an example of what my daughter sees when she logs into her calendar. She can only see her work, which is in purple. If she clicks on one of the purple boxes shown above then she will get the screen shown below.

 

 

 

Last, I used the task list  to help me remember lesson preparations and gather materials.

One great advantage to using Google Calendar is that my plans are accessible wherever I am. If we are at the library, at basketball practice, or even out of state I have access to all my childrens work. I can add links to the websites we need and they can click the link instead of using favorites or writing down long URL's to type in. The directions for the lesson and the links are together on the calendar. I can also attach documents to the calender entry. I am able to record each child's lessons on the calendar. They are able to view the agenda for the day, week or month from the calendar. Best of all, they don't need my help and can move along through the day without me.


Is anyone else using Google Calendar for homeschool planning, if so how? Is it similar to this or something totally different? How about an easier way, let me know . I am always tweaking a system and trying to learn more!

Happy Homeschooling!!!

Preschool homeschool 2012-2013

I am sitting at my desk thinking wow its that time again. Next week we will start school again. This year instead of 3 homeschooling, I will have 5...OMG! I am excited and nervous about the whole thing. How is this going to work? I will have an 8th grader, 6th grader, 4th grader, pre-k and preschool all in one house. Well, here's the plan...
1. Involve the Littles in as much as possible
2. Do short lessons with the Littles while Oldies work on their weekly notebooks
3. Have focused lessons for Oldies while littles are napping or when daddy is home.

I also came up with this schedule/ routine  to keep us generally focused each day ( we probably won't follow this strictly but a plan is better than no plan):

Littles Schedule:

wake
personal hygiene
breakfast
morning nature walk
songs and stories
math
snack
literacy
lunch
nap/ quiet time
snack
outside
free play
dinner
more free play
bath
bed

I tried to incorporate "up and down" activities so they won't sit in one spot for long. I will also have the oldies help when they can. I didn't include times on the schedule because I want it to be more of a routine than watching the clock. I feel I can be more successful that way.

On another note, while I am stitting at my desk I is working with N and S is working with Y. The funny part is I didn't ask them to do it.  I love homeschooling and the Oldies love helping with the Littles.

Hey..any single parents out there?

If you answered yes, then Raising Him Alone is the book for you. Raising Him Alone was written by David Miller and Matthew Stevens to address the struggles of single parent mothers raising boys to men. If you don't have a copy go and get it now! My husband just brought it in the house two hours ago, and I only stopped reading to write this post while the babies are napping. Even if you are not a single parent and have no sons you should still get this book. It contains a wealth of information on parenting and education. Pass it throughout your community or give it as gifts to those who may be struggling with their sons. I will write another post when I am truly done reading the book (which won't be long). Here is the link to the author's website in the meantime: http://www.raisinghimalone.com/ .