Back to School~~ Our September Read Aloud Selections

There has been a lot that has changed, but we are still homeschooling! I want to jump right back into blogging about our homeschooling adventures. Along the way I will be sure to get you caught up. In our usual fashion I like to start off with what we will be reading to start our school year off. Right now we are on track to officially start back on September 6th. 

                                                     

We still will be using Bravewriter as a language resource. The book Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Brown was actually recommended to me by a friend, so I was really excited that it was  a book on the Bravewriter Boomerang list it is recommended for 8th-10th grade. This book will be for Ken, I think she is going to love it. Outsiders by S.E. Hinton was on the list as well. Picked for DJ! This boy loves to read particularly non-fiction books, so I selected this as a challenge to him. 

This year we are aiming for accountability, accomplishing goals, and really enjoying this homeschool lifestyle that we are so blessed to live. 

A New Homeschool Blog

We have started another homeschool blog. This new directions is exciting to me for many reasons. The most important reason is because the kids are contributors on the blog. This is our first ever family writing collaboration project. We are excited and hope that we can inspire you like you guys have inspired us! There will not be any more postings at this blog. Please join us at Montessori Makers! Thank you for all of your support here at this blog and we hope to see you over there too!!

June Activities That Were Caught on Camera

I am getting back into taking pictures. Here are some snippets of some of  June's learning fun.

                                                                       

                                Learning about bridges.

                                       Hacking a RC.

                             Painting like Jackson Pollock.

                                      Reverse Engineering.

Designing a helmet after learning about the importance of wearing a bike helmet.

                                                                           

                                     Plenty of duct tape wallets being made.

                                     Experimenting with lip balm making.
                                                                           

                                    Sculpting with clay.   

Enjoying Farm School led by another homeschool mom and friend.

I really do like taking pictures. I am so glad to be able to start documenting out learning again, but please know that our learning never stopped. 

Little Free Library

                                                                       

Well I have managed to pump out one blog post since I last shared here. Pop over to Brain Builders Inc. to read  how this Little Free Library has helped our neighborhood grow readers.

A Letter

Dear Readers,

I have to be honest here my attention to this blog has shift gears. I am going to still blog here whenever I can. I really like the part of blogging where you receive feedback from your readers, I'll stay positive in thinking that everyone is just as busy as I am to leave comments.

I would like to invite you to like our non profit's Facebook Page. Although you may not live in our community the likes and the shares helps to get the word out and who knows you may be inspired to start a non profit offering educational experiences for children preschool-highschool. Also we have a blog that I have tons of postings in drafts that I am close to pushing that magic publish button. Go to  Brain Builders Inc. and check it out!!  We appreciate your support and hope that you will support Brain Builders Inc. as much as you have supported us here.

I am so excited to be able to share my dream that has been in the making for years. We love you guys and this will not be the last posting but an opportunity to become more personal.

From your friend,
             
 Tearri

A Full Circle

We are back home! We started a non profit in March! We still love homeschooling!!


                                                                         

We are still in remodeling mode and getting organized, but I won't let that get in the way of blogging. See you guys back here tomorrow! I have so much I want to share.

Memory Work

I decided to add memory work to the kid's school days. We have been learning about Shakespeare and reading the play A Midsummer's Dream. We just started on Monday and so far the kids and I have been enjoying it.                                             

                                                                               

I really like the techniques that Ken Ludwig shares in his book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, we have been learning lots of new meanings to words, imagery, and rhythm to words. Finally I have been able to appropriately challenge their reading skills too. This past Sunday we saw a group of homeschoolers perform the play A Midsummer's Night Dream and it helped them to get to know the characters. Well, really they don't like how they adapted it now that they are reading the play themselves. The play was fantastic!

                                                                                  

                                                                                  

Learning one line at a time! 

                                                                                   

We are Back!

I have missed this space tremendously! For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook you already know what has been keeping me busy from this space. During our remodel we were robbed by the remodeling guy. I'll make a long story short he took everything that was salvageable, new things, building materials and ran off with the money I paid him. It has been about a month since this has all happened and the Police did a wonderful job at getting this case to the Prosecutor's Office, and no we haven't moved back home yet.  Now we pray and Keep it moving.

I am just going to jump right in and show you what I am really excited about today!

                                                                         

                                                         Algebra you can touch!  

I'll see you guys back here tomorrow and if your reading this Thank you for hanging in there with me!

On the Radio

I thought I share one of my best moments of 2013. I know it's a bit late for such a theme, but I needed to remind myself of all of the positive things that has happened to us over the past year. Here's the link! Now you can attach a voice to my writing. Ha!

An Update and Sewing Class

I am easing back into this space, bare with me!

We are getting a remodel done on our house, it starts on Thursday! I am soooo excited!! We won't be doing the remodeling so I am sure it will turn out fine :) I am hoping that we will be back home for the Big Girl's 16th Birthday Celebration, February 7th. Michelle wants to invite two of her friends for a sleep over and having a new room makeover is just timely. We Miss Home!!!! My parents are just amazingly supportive, in fact I may not remember how to cook. LOL.

Also we have been busy relocating to a new space for the Studio. I am still decorating, rearranging and I will be sure to share pictures as soon as I get it done. We are still doing business as usual while we pull it all together. I thought I share some pics of Sewing Class today.

We had a Vet Clinic brought in by DJ to fix his stuff animals. He loves purposeful work!!

                                                                             

The Kindergartner started sewing his Valentines today.

                                                                     

                                                                               

And the girls made some hats and scarves.

                                                                                 

Thank you for reading!

Make Your Own Small Bead Frame or Abacus

During our Creative Math class today we made an Abacus, but not until I told the Story of Numbers. It was amazing! The kids just started building numbers. One way that they were able to remember what each number represented  was by choosing the color of their choice. It worked! I love it when I am able to understand a Montessori Material  so well that I can offer a twist to it for children who may be new to Montessori Education. I highly recommend this Math Project as a work choice at home or at school.

                                                                         

To make the Abacus you will need

• An assortment of colored beads. Each Abacus will need 4 different colors(40 beads)
• Coffee Stirrers
• Pipe cleaners
• Sharpies to label the numbers 1,10,100, 1000
• Plastic Corrugated Sheet. I brought our as a Blank Yard Sale Sign at Home Depot.

I found the inspiration for this project at Classroom DIY, you can also find instructions there that will be able to guide you to make the same model as the Montessori Small Bead Frame, or you can follow the instructions for a traditional Abacus.

                                                                        

                                                                         

                                                                            

For those of you that may not know what the Montessori Small Bead Frame looks like I included the photo above.

The Story of Numbers was awesome and for a minute I thought maybe I had something on my face, because the children's attention was so focused and they were watching every word coming out of my mouth.

Here's to a many of great math lessons! I think they caught the Math Bug!!

                                                                         

I am linking this post to Montessori Monday.

Encouragement Needed

Our homeschool was at a climax just days before Christmas. We were rocking it out and it looked like we were not going to take a break. Well we are relaxed homeschoolers anyway.

                                                                         

Projects were coming along, visions were being made.

                                                                        

Aren't those skirts gorgeous? Designed and made by the girls! That shirt is speaking volumes to me.

Then last Sunday a Ice Storm hit our city and has left us without power for now 6 days. Our pipes busted  and since we were out of town staying with relatives we were unaware of the happenings. However we were blessed with an observant Board of Water and Light worker that turned the water off. 

What about the pets? Let's talk about that later. See in our community there was no place for us to find shelter for them. Live and Learn right?

The Water Damage is overwhelming, and I am planning to just get comfortable at my parents house. By the way their power wasn't restored until yesterday. I didn't make a decision to leave until day 3 because I was very optimistic that power would be turned  on any minute. Cold, Brrr!

                                                                                 

Just a couple days before the Ice Storm I taught DJ how to crochet, So Crocheting in the dark was such a blessing.

My, My, My, the kids have the best attitude ever! My blessings are in abundance. When we were visiting warming stations I received tons of compliments from people about them. They are so awesome ya'll! And I know it is bigger then me, the man upstairs does it all and I am eternally grateful.  

I am asking for some Prayers Warriors to pray for us. We have a long road ahead of us! Did I ever mention that I have OCD so I am challenged by the condition of our house and don't even care about all of those great educational materials that I purchased over the years are gone. I am also a procrastinator so I never organized my basement after relocating to the Studio, if I had did that then more than half of that stuff would of been saved.

So I have a new mantra, "If what your doing is easy, then your not doing the right thing", can I get an Amen!!

Woof! Woof!

DJ has been baking dog treats!

                                                                                   

DJ also machine sewed a snack bag to keep the treats in.

Experimenting!

We have been having some fun making Lava Lamps. It is really fun!  All you need is a water bottle and then fill with 1/3 water, add some food coloring, fill the rest of the bottle with vegetable oil. Let the water settle and toss in a Alka Seltzer tablet. Watch, and be amazed by how cool science can be.

                                                                         

                                                                             

Revisiting Piet Mondrain

On Saturday we had another Open Studio time. I was lost for what to do for an art project and was lead to Piet Mondrian by the kids. This was a quick set up and once I gave the kids the paint, canvas and the electrical tape it was on and poppin :)


                                                                             

Logic Play Book

I found a gem of a game that was lost in our homeschooling artillery. It is a fun game that is packed with logic puzzles for ages 10- adult. I am pretty sure that someone younger could play the game, maybe they may need some assistance with reading or solving the puzzle, it still would be worth it to play. What is really cool about this is that it can be played independently or as a game with others.

                                                                               

There are three different levels. All of us have been risky choosing different levels. It is exciting and definitely falls under the playful learning category. The kids describe it as a brain builder, I agree!

                                                                                    

They have even went as far as making a Logic Play Book, writing down the explanations to the puzzle. I love it whenever they make their own copy work.

                                                                                         

The brain building game goes wherever we go. The kids enjoyed sharing this game with family members on Thanksgiving. This logic game has been a great material to add to our daily resources.

Learning about the Tree of LIfe

No pics of last week's work! But we got it done...........

We also started doing some with learning about the Tree of Life while we are doing an Art Appreciation study of Gustav Klimt. I'll try my best to update here. I think this is going to be their best collaboration of project work that they have ever did.

                                                                               

I am absolutely excited in how we are able to incorporate all of this while doing our genealogy studies too.. Everything in our homeschool is starting to connect!!

Our Weekly Plan for November 18, 2013

I am going to intentionally document our work here daily to help me with accountability. The kids and I are about to begin some time consuming project work and I am going to have to stay on top of things so required work will still be done.  Our daily schedule has consistently consisted of Math work, Grammar work with First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, and Reading.

Required Work: This week the kids and I will be reading independently for 20 minutes a day, after we are all done reading our own books we will orally summarize what we just read. Ken and DJ have been doing math using workbooks, Ken will continue to do this as it is working for her and she is almost done! DJ will be reintroduced to the Montessori Math materials with The Division with Rack and Tubes, this is where he is at and I will add fraction materials back into the mix. I hope that Ken will be finished with her workbook when the time comes to reintroduce the materials so she can delve into a Fraction Unit too. Grammar lessons continue the same, we love the well roundness of First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind.

                                                     Our Daily Group Work
On Sundays we will cover History. In History we are still doing our genealogy studies, and using the Roots Movie/ Book,  as well as reading from The Story of Us: Volume 1. I will document the specifics in another post.

On Mondays we will be starting doing Japanese. DJ and Michelle are using Skype to learn Japanese with their Aunt Mai and on Mondays they will teach me.
                                                                         

On Tuesdays we do Civility and Etiquette work. This is a project that I am working on and the kids are helping me. So far they have been learning lots and we are all having a ball. Also I scheduled in our weekly philosophy discussion to be done.

                                                                       

                                                                         
On Wednesdays we have sewing class and do our geography lesson.
                                                                     

                                                                     

On Thursdays Ken teaches us what she learned while doing her project work, and we enjoy tea time.

On Fridays we do Science.

                                                                   

On Saturdays Ken and DJ report what they have been writing about while working on their monthly writing project.

                                                                Extras
Ken attends Drama classes on Tuesday mornings. DJ attends TaeKwonDo on Mondays and Wednesdays evenings, and Michelle attends ballet lessons on Thursday evenings, and piano lessons with my father on Friday evenings. That just reminded me that Michelle practices her piano at my parents house on Mondays and Wednesdays evenings, my father drops her off when he picks DJ up to go to TaeKwondo. I am so blessed to have the supportive parents that I have!
                                                                         
Here are a list of sneaky math games we will play this week to keep math interesting.

• Target Addition- To provide practice in mental arithmetic and strategic planning
• Bridges-  To practice, planning ahead and keeping a watchful eye on opponents move
• One Hundred Cards- To add a new twist for flashcards, which can help extend number sense beyond basic facts.

* All of these games are found in Family Math.