Must haves in our classroom

The topic came up in one of the homeschool groups we are a member of, about what each person considers essential to their learning environment. 

I came up with a few.

A sense of humor.  When things don't go as you planned it really helps to be able to say "touche" and laugh about the antics your kiddos are doing in the meantime.  Maybe, like me, you are being serenaded by a wee girl who is making up songs all while shaking her tambourine, or maybe your spotless kitchen floor has become the best surface for that huge puzzle to be put together on.  You gotta really learn to let go of some things and just roll with it.  Laughter really does make things better.  :-)

Stamina.  Your day seems never ending because, well, it doesn't....  you seriously need good sturdy shoes, take those Donna Reed heels off right this minute!  LOL  Realize PB&J is ok for breakfast and lunch, heck even dinner if that works for you.  Trying to keep up with what everyone says they do is impossible.  The reality is they do maybe half of what they are posting they plan to do.  Trust me, if half the things I see some people talk about wanting to do actually got done, they wouldn't have time for facebook, or blogging, or cooking for that matter.  Do what works best for your family.  Always remember you do the best you can and it has to be enough. AND IT WILL BE.  We beat ourselves up enough the way it is.

Thick Skin.  You'll need it.  Everyone is gonna question the choices you make and there is no pleasing some people.  While we like to think we are all open to everyones choice, lets face it, deep down we all think we're better or rather that The XYZ family is just lazy and doing their children a terrible disservice in some fashion, maybe they homeschool too much or not enough or somewhere in between.  I know our choices will not be understood by many, unless they actually take the time to sit down and talk with us about the whys.  I have to learn it doesn't matter.  Very hard to do that when you were raised to never shake the can or rock the boat, but a thick skin has to be developed about some things.

So far those are the things that are a must.... oh... maybe you came here looking for a list of tangible items, you know, those items that you can put your fingers around and carry from room to room if need be.  LOL  Ok, I can show you that as well.....

My Homeschool List

These are things we consider essential to our education environment.  We will add to the list as needed.

HAVE ALREADY:

·         Pencils

·         Crayons

·         Construction paper

·         Drawing paper

·         Twine/rope

·         Sand/rice/beans

·         Clear plastic bins—storage and work boxes

·         Tool Kit with real tools (hammer, flat head and philips screw driver, level, tape measurer, vise grips, pliers, goggles, etc.)

·         Pattern blocks

·         Music Instruments

·         Laminator/and extra laminating sheets

·         Wooden blocks

·         Water colors

·         Glue

·         Salad spinner

·         Plastic containers/small jars (available at craft stores)

·         Telescope and a good child and parent friendly astronomy book (We have the following: Everything Kids' Astronomy Book and a Celestron 21024-A FirstScope Telescope with Accessory Kit)

·         Magnifying glass

·         Small spiral bound notebooks for nature walks

·         Geo Shapes

·         Puzzles

·         Board games

·         Clay/dough

·         Library Card

·         Camera

·         Easel

·         Binoculars

·         Dirt pile

·         Nature book

·         Painters tape

·         Liquid water colors

·         Paint brushes

·         Scissors

·         Rolls of paper (Think IKEA, the rolls are about 2” wide and go for ever).
·        Pocket microscope (added)
·         Lincoln logs
·         Library card
·         Pastels


THE WISH LIST/TO BUY LIST

Globe

Felt/flannel board (Yes still planning it)

Bird Watching book

 

 

I know I will add to this as time goes on.  What do you consider a "MUST?"

Its a wrap....

We have had a busy week so I have not been able to update like I wanted to do.

I have kept Sarah busy in the kitchen when not outside this week, and by doing so we are really moving along with additions.  We use our fingers and other objects but are adding items together.  For example, “Sarah can you bring me one egg, and then, let’s add two more eggs.  Now let’s count the eggs together.  How many eggs do we have?” 

Even in the car we are now adding things on our fingers and objects we find.  She is excited about this new found skill we have been working on.  Its amazing seeing how quick some things are being picked up, and this is without sitting down and doing book work!  Someone asked me recently how I can do it; school myself, home life and homeschooling…  I didn’t have a quick answer because I guess I was partially ashamed of the truth.  So far our homeschooling is easy.  We are very child led and the learning NEVER stops.  She doesn’t count learning as drudgery like many, but rather as fun.  Lots and lots of fun.   I have yet to meet a homeschool kid that is homeschooled and not schooled at home that does hate “school work.”  Rather, most view each instance of learning as pure unadulterated fun.  Granted there are some things many don’t care to learn or they struggle with, like writing or mathematics,  but as a whole learning is fun and doesn’t get turned off when the “school day” is done.  The learning is never over.

It isn’t always easy to juggle it all, but even if you send your kids to a brick and mortar school, is it easy to juggle everything?  If it is, kudos to you.  You are a strong person with an amazing life, but here in the reality I see around me, we all struggle.  We all have hard days when nothing seems to go the way we need it to.  In my goal to simplify our family life I am working toward making those hard times fewer in numbers.  I want more days of fun, calm, and relaxing and for our home to be a sanctuary from the harsh realities of the modern world. 

Yes I have days where I am overwhelmed beyond measure, taking Grandma Bear to the doctor or on other errands followed by the never ending line of laundry loads, coupled with an active preschooler and homework makes for some stressful times, but I am trying to alleviate some of those times.  I know what a garden needs to not only grow, but thrive, is love, calm gentle rains, and rays of warm sunshine.  I want my garden to not only grow but thrive.  I would love to hear how you provide a calm and happy home.  I am the student in this endeavor myself. 

So back to Bear.  We spent a lot of time in the kitchen and outside.  The weather has been nice and I know that rains are coming so we decided to make hay while the sun shined.    

With play outside and at local parks we managed to even get a little sunburn on our faces, I guess its time to break out the sunscreen. 

Thursday I once again adapted a recipe from Pinterest.   Corn Bread Taco Casserole.    The recipe with my adaptations is here: Print the recipe here.....

Taco Corn Bread Casserole

Cornbread Batter

3 cups cooked taco seasoned meat
2 cups of cooked/soaked black beans –soft enough to eat.
1 cup (8 oz.) sour cream, light
1 cup Colby jack, cheddar or Mexican cheese, shredded and divided
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 cup shredded lettuce
½ cup of green onion
1 can sliced olives

Corn Bread Recipe (Moosewood Cookbook)

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 cup plain yogurt
1 egg
3 Tbsp. honey
3 Tbsp. melted butter

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.  Combine the wet ingredients including honey separately.  Stir the wet mixture into the dry, mixing just enough to thoroughly combine.  Spread into prepared pan.

Spread into an 8 x 8 pan sprayed with cooking spray or coat with butter.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.  Combine taco meat and beans, spread over corn bread.  Combine sour cream, 3/4 cup cheese and onion.  Spread over meat mixture.  Bake for 20 - 25 minutes longer or until heated through and cheese is melted.  Sprinkle with tomato, lettuce and remaining 1/4 cup of cheese. 

This is another recipe where Sarah did a lot of the work. 

Yes, another great recipe for the family!  Thumbs up from everyone!

Friday we were busy playing until we left to go to a sleepover.  Sarah spent the night at her friend Adelle’s home where they went swimming and had a bushel of fun. 

Bountiful Basket

Saturday morning also found me up and at them at before 6:00 am to get my first Bountiful Basket. It was very much worth the early wake up call. We got a basket full of yummy goodness and as a result we have been eating much healthier, as in more fruits and vegies, which was my goal and for the $15 for the basic basket, it is well worth the cost. Check your area and see if they have one there by looking at their web site. I started looking into this when I began to seek to simplify our lives and home, which also means eating better. However since eating better I have done more dishes… what’s up with that? LOL 

Saturday we played and worked outside before getting ready for Fancy Nancy.  The first half of the ballet was all done to Disney tunes and it wasn’t until the second half that Fancy Nancy made an appearance.  It was a great ballet and Sarah loved it, especially the part about the butterfly garden.  Thank you again to Evergreen City Ballet and Sounds Fun Mom for giving us the opportunity to have some unique family fun.  We even talked the hubs into going with us.

Fancy Nancy

The Red Butterfly

I also completed a party dress for Sarah to wear to Fancy Nancy.  Sarah “sewed” beside me and before long was threading her own needle for hand sewing so she could learn to thread a sewing machine needle.  I think I will move beyond her manual machine soon and look for a less ‘antique’ kid’s machine.  I will keep the German antique one for display in my dream sewing area…. J

Dress I made

Sunday again found us outside.  We rototilled our garden spot and I got a hard look around deciding what changes we are going to make to the configuration to the yard since we want to get a swing set. 

Yesterday we played and walked around a park again, spending a good two hours playing and then came home and played a bit more since the sun was shining so beautifully.  Today the morning dawned cloudy and we had errands to run and by afternoon the rain hit, tomorrow though should find us playing in the mud.  Yes, we will be taking mud play to all new levels, the imagination is the limit!

Looking at spider webs with Miss. Colleen

Imgination is a glorious thing indeed!
Here they are "fishing"

Two turtles on a log

Before retiring for the night last evening, during dinner, we did mix up a yummy batch of frozen yogurt.  I had some plain yogurt that needed to be used and found a recipe and voila!  Homemade frozen yogurt.

So that has been my wrap up of sorts.

A Review of an Unmanual

Little children love the world.  That is why they are so good at learning about it.  For it is love, not tricks and techniques of thought, that lies at the heart of all true learning.  Can we bring ourselves to let children learn and grow through that love?  --John Holt

While walking down our homeschool path I recently read a small book.  The Unschooling Unmanual.  Actually, it is the first book I have read regarding what is popularly called unschooling.  Rather than a dry text of words and theories, overlaid with how’s and whys, the various authors in the small book approached it more like a diary or a letter to an old and trusted friend.  It was an easy read, dry at times, but lively overall. 

Now, onto the review.  When I first heard the term unschooling we had just let it be known we were homeschooling Bear to the general public.  She was just three years old.  We were nearly certain before she was born that homeschooling was the path we wished to travel but we were not convinced until it came time to search for preschools.  The thought of my baby girl being away from me and in school being taught by a stranger just didn’t set well.  I know that sounds odd to some but the emotion was very strong.  I never tire of spending time with her, sometimes I get tired and want a break, but I still love spending time with Bear.  We have fun together learning about all sorts of things and her mind and knowledge about the world just blows me away sometimes, I can’t imagine stifling this freedom of learning.  Anyway, the term, when I first heard it, frightened me.  I was told about all the negatives, lack of parental oversight, or unparenting.  I was glad to see in this little book that the majority of parents have boundaries based upon the age of the child.  It’s more about how one approaches education,and that approach filters over into life. 

The idea that was a thread throughout all the essays was that parents were not so much teachers as facilitators.  In his essay, “What is Unschooling?” Earl Stevens wrote:

Unschooling does not mean that parents can never teach anything to their children, or that children should learn about life entirely on their own without the help and guidance of their parents.  Unschooling does not mean that parents give up active participation in the education and development of their children and simply hope that something good will happen (65). 

These words were a salve to my worried heart.  Those first negative utterances to me about “unschoolers” and the lack of hygiene and boundaries put fear in my heart.  This salve of words  helped to comfort this momma’s heart.  What welcome words they were. 

The essay by Daniel Quinn, “Schooling:  The Hidden Agenda,” is a thought-provoking piece with his correlation between culture and education and how education has progressed throughout recent history.  While he doesn’t give proof of his allegations, there is a strong ring of truth there. 

This small book gave a reader an opportunity to glimpse inside the private domains of the unschooler families; a rare chance to see what really goes on and like one essay stated, show that every family does something a bit different and that there is no ‘recipe’ for unschooling.

Check your local library for the book. 

“Unschooling isn’t a technique; it’s living and learning naturally, lovingly, and respectfully together.”—Jan Hunt

The Natural Child Project—More information on Unschooling

A 'Scavenger Hunt' for the wee ones

A NATURE HUNTING WE WILL GO! 

What a fun, all be it cold, morning.  While someone was cranky and possessive for a while, we did warm up and begin to make new friends and explore a bit of the Snake Lake Nature Center area.

Lesson Objectives: 

Quiet tones to not scare the animals

Discovery of habitats

Observation skills

Listening skills

Following directions

All in all we had fun.  I am hoping after I get a few of these going a couple other moms will help as well.  Planning once a month.  Last month we went bird watching.  Sarah made a new friend.  I was happily surprised by the turn out.  It made it even more fun to explore.  The age range was great too.  I think the oldest was roughly 10 and the youngest were 2.  Nice spread of ages.

So we started the hike around Snake Lake looking for the items listed on our scavenger hunt list.  I geared it more toward the preschool and kindergarten ages, but it was easily fun for the older ones as well as the younger crowd.  You can view our Scavenger Hunt List Here.  Feel free to print it out!

Afterwards we played in the Discovery Pond and then ventured inside for a while where we visited turtles, tadpoles and pretended to be beavers, river otters, blue jays, great horned owls and more.  This is where the moms got to chat a bit. 

It was fun and encouraging to visit with moms that have been homeschooling a while yet still new enough to it to remember what its like to be faltering in the waters of uncertainty.  It further cemented that Child Led is the direction we need to go with Sarah. 

What kind of natural adventures have you been on recently?

Education at the counter

Objective of the lesson:  To listen to to directions, count, crack eggs, pour liquids, lift and carry objects, and reading cartons.

Task at hand:  Corn dog muffins. 

The recipe:  CHILI CORN DOG MUFFINS--A variation on a popular Pinterest Recipe

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of melted butter
1/4 cup of homemade applesauce
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
8-10 all-beef hot dogs, cut into bites
2 cups of homemade beef or turkey chili
Optional--Jalapeno slices


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine butter and sugar in a bowl, and whisk to combine. Add eggs and whisk to incorporate. Add buttermilk (or milk if butter milk is not on your grocery list for the week) and whisk to incorporate.

2. In a separate bowl, combine baking soda, cornmeal, flour, and salt, and stir to combine. Whisk into wet ingredients.

3. Spray with a cooking oil or use shortening to coat the muffin tin pan. 

4.  Cut up the hot dogs into the correct size. 

5.  Fill about 1/4 of the way up in the muffins tins, then take a spoonful of chili and put it on top of the corn muffin batter in the muffin tins, place hot dog on top of this and then cover with more batter.  I did them up right for this time, next time I will do them side ways or layer the bites a bit since I used full and Texas sized muffin tins rather than the mini. 

4. Bake for 10-15 minutes (oven temperatures vary), or until cornbread is golden brown. Cool in mini muffin tin for 5 minutes before serving. Store leftovers in the refrigerator, and re-heat for 20-30 seconds before serving.  Makes approx 1 dozen.  Feel free to add some jalapeno slices before cooking if you like some kick.

They were great as left overs and satisfied the "lets go out to eat," desire that strikes every weekend  with an easily said,  "No lets save the money and eat home."

Adding Chili to the muffins

Bear Excited to carry her creation to the oven

To oven she goes......

 Mine with the chili are in the Texas tin and Sarah's are in the regular tin.

Sampling

Two thumbs up momma!

A hit with Hubs as well.

While not a "crunchy meal" it did use ingredients we had on hand. 
No trip to the store and the change of oil for apple sauce and honey and sugar made it a bit healthier. 

Linking up with ........

Foto Friday

Favorite Foto Friday!

Next years planing is starting

I am looking at things for next year already, actually I have been for several weeks.

I know we are child led, that just works for us right now.  Our plan is to go to the Unschooling convention in May and then the WHO convention in June.  That's the plan right now anyways.  We are still trying to justify $300 for a hotel room for the Unschooling convention.  Well, let me clarify, old practical me is trying to justify it, hubby and Bear already are planing on it. 

I need a bit more accountability, or to get a plan and stick with it.  I need it for myself.  I'm not saying I need to have the subjects planned and all ready for me, but I need to have a certain time and some idea of what we will be doing.  So far work books are not our thing, Sarah isn't even a HUGE fan of color or activity books.  That may change.  That being said though, we are looking for something that isn't based solely on workbooks and work sheets.  A little bit is fine, but not solely based on that.  I have looked at the following ideas on curriculum, seriously.

• Moving Beyond the Page
• Little Hands to Heaven
• Zoo-phonics

I have also signed up to Lesson Pathways and I am looking forward to exploring the site more.  I have so many things at home that I have been collecting, I know I could also just go it myself, but I need to have some sort of plan in action.  This year has been fun for Sarah as we have went down all sorts of rabbit trails, but momma needs a bit more planing.

I would love to hear what you have planned or what you did with your fun loving 5 year old.

I know we have reached all fine motor and sensory motor benchmarks for the 60 month to kinder aged child and Sarah is only 4 1/2.  Our gross motor needs a bit more work, particularly stairs.  I didn't realize 5-6 year old should be in a structured physical activity 60 minutes a day, or that they need to run 50-75 yards without stopping.  We will begin working on that skill for the next year.  We will also begin to focus on the food pyramid.  Surprisingly, most of the social and developmental benchmarks we passed long ago.   Other goals and needs we have we will be working on firming up as the spring nears its end.  Mid August and the start of our school year seems so far away, but it really isn't.  It's never too early to start thinking and planing.....

On another note:  We joined a blog listing thing, how about voting for us:  Just click on this little icon and we get a vote!  THANK YOU!

Fancy Nancy Ballet Performance



From Evergreen City Ballet



Sarah is over the moon excited.  March 24, 2012 we have been given the opportunity to go and see Fancy Nancy: Bonjour, Butterfly!  Thank you Evergreen City Ballet for donating the tickets!  We will write a fun review after the ballet and share our experiences at the ballet. Bear is excited and over the moon. Time to start a count down banner.

We also want to extend our thanks to Sounds Fun Mom.  Thank you Sounds Fun Mom for the opportunity to win the tickets!    Sounds Fun Mom has wonderful family friendly events each week in the South Sound area.  A great resource for local friends.  You can follow both organizations on Facebook as well, and while you're looking around Facebook, don't forget to go to our page and follow Garden Tenders--you will be able to be updated on blog posts, random ideas and more. 

Also, we have plans to attend the Life is Good unschooling convention May 24-28, 2012 in Vancouver, WA.  We want to learn more about unschooling and see how it works in families that do it successfully.  If you are going as well, look for us.  We have said we'll volunteer, and you can't miss Bear.  Watch for more updates as we prepare for this fun conference.  If you have attended one in the past, please share hints and ideas with us.