A New Year - in March!

This month, while public school children across the country were going off to spring break, we started a new school year. Somehow in the excitement of our first year of homeschooling, we had managed to get ahead - way ahead! I thought in the beginning that we would take a big break when we finished our curriculum for the year, but as the day approached I knew that wouldn't work for us. So, I ordered our new materials in February and we all began eagerly counting down the days till school would start again. (We are so weird!) The thing is, we just finished ancient history and somehow along the way the kids had noticed that the next items on the list were vikings and medieval Europe. This was all the motivation they needed to get busy finishing their work. They began making plans to build catapults, learn archery, write secret messages in some mysterious viking language and design a whole medieval village out of their Legos. Of course, this is music to my ears! When the books arrived they couldn't wait to dig in, so they scattered them across my bed and just had to read them right away. I almost cried (but instead I grabbed my camera!)


So, here we are in the last week of March and I now have a 1st grader, a 3rd grader and a 5th grader in the house. Amazing! I can hardly believe how much fun we have had along the way and to see them eagerly digging through books and devising new projects to take their learning farther just melts me where I stand. I never really believed it would be this good - I hoped it would, but I didn't really think it could happen to us. It did. God is good. I hope we never go back.

Homeschooling with preschoolers

Hello, again! I can't believe how long it has been since I blogged. I will try to be better. Life has been such an adventure this last year! Now all of our boxes are unpacked and we are finally settled in our home. School has continued and we are nearly done with our first year's work. I am ordering our next year's materials next month so we should begin in April. We can hardly wait! I think I can definitely say that our homeschool experiment has been a total success. We are happy and healthy, our home is clean (shocking!) and our minds are full of a lot of new and wonderful things. I can't believe how much I have been learning, too! For instance, this week we read about Alexander the Great, Socrates, Aristotle and Archimedes (just to name a few.) I knew almost nothing about all of these men. It is so embarrassing to see the gaping holes in my own education. I can't explain how I feel as I see the excitement on little faces as they discuss the philosophers and ancient kings, or as they hear and recognize some great work of music or a literary phrase they remember from our studies. It's safe to say that I am jealous of my own children.

This week we have two of my sweet nieces here with us and they are joining in with school each day. I have always wondered how other mommies do it with little ones around. They had me up earlier than usual (remind me to kiss my older ones for learning to sleep in!) and their first question was, "what are we doing in school?" Actually, now that I think about it, I believe the first question was, "What's for breakfast?" but the second question was definitely about school. So, my crew pulled it together and started school at 7:45. We tried to keep up with the little ones and they had us hopping from one subject to the next. All our work was done by 10:30!

Here's how I did it:
We started our day all together reading the Bible and singing together. Then, we split up into two learning groups. The little ones (5, 4, and almost 3) all made up one study group while the older two (9 and 7) made up the other. I sent the youngers in to watch an episode of Word World on PBS and the olders sat with me to read our history together. Then, I sent the olders to work on their writing assignments for the day while the youngers came in for a phonics and writing lesson. (We reviewed the letters M and N.) After our fun lesson, they went in to watch The Letter Factory by LeapFrog with the assignment to watch for the letters M and N. The older two then worked on math lessons, LilliAnn on her own today and Grayson with me since he just graduated to a new math book. After that, I sent the older two to do their independent readings while I taught the younger group a math lesson. We used little toy barns and animals to practice counting, adding and grouping. Then, we sorted them for a while and finally I left them to play while I looked over the finished writing assignments for the editing lesson I'll teach next week to the older two.

This was all very fast paced for me, but the kids seemed to think it was business as usual. One thing I have noticed is that my kids don't make as much mess and get into as much trouble as they used to because having school at home keeps them busy and engaged with mom all day. They just don't have as much opportunity for mischief! Then, at the end of the day, we all can work together to clean up and the house stays clean. Why didn't I do this years ago? I guess God knew the timing would finally be right this time around. I'm so very glad that it is!

A lot to be thankful for...

I can't believe another month has disappeared. This month has been CRAZY! Here are the highlights:
* We moved into our new house (YAAY!) which is so beautiful and just absolutely perfect for our family. Thank you to all the wonderful friends and family who helped us move.
* I led five young writers through their first NaNoWriMo as they tried to write their first novel. It was an amazing adventure and I loved every minute of it. Sadly, my own novel didn't get touched, but there is always next year.
* I have almost finished my two online grad classes. This has been a serious challenge (ie, I was in way over my head!) Still, I think I will end up with two A's and renew my license next year.
* We have nearly finished learning about Greece and have had a lot of fun. Can't wait for the winter Olympics to start!
* Thanksgiving was amazing this year! We hosted both sets of parents and had a wonderfully relaxed holiday followed by fabulous shopping and then a visit from Aunt Shannon and Uncle Jeff with our cousins.

I still haven't found my camera! Maybe that needs to go on my Christmas list.

Busy, busy, busy

Sorry I haven't posted lately. It has been busy around here and I have misplaced my camera, so posting just didn't seem high on my priority list. Here are a few recent highlights:

We have been studying ancient Greece. A few weeks ago we discussed the architecture and learned the different column styles. The kids picked up on it pretty quickly. We even got to examine a miniature frieze that my mother has from Greece. Then, we used clay to build our own columns and friezes. Grayson and Evie both chose to make Doric columns while LilliAnn took on the more challenging Corinthian columns (which we learned are not actually Greek, but Roman architecture.) I'll post pictures if I can ever find my camera.

Our noveling club has been fabulous! The kids are all so amazing. We are ready to begin writing our novels now that we have developed characters, diagrammed our plot arcs and detailed a few of our settings. It has been such a joy for me to lead them through this adventure and last week they really gratified me with their excitement. They all agreed that they couldn't wait to get started on their novels because they have so many ideas now for other stories that they want to write. Nanowrimo starts in just one week, so we are about to start the real work. I can't wait to be bragging about their success!

I know that we have had a lot more excitement than all of that, but all my brain can think about right now is the move that is coming up in a week. Thank you for all of your prayers for our family and for your support this year in our homeschooling adventure. We love you all!

Our Junior Novelists Club

National Novel Writing Month (NanoWriMo) is coming! Each November writers across the country put their thinking caps on, find a quiet place to hide and start on a crazy adventure together: writing a novel in one month. Actually, the official goal is 50, 000 words in one month, but we are all aiming for a finished novel. This year there will be five new novelists working toward the finish line through Nanowrimos Junior Writer's Program.

Friday afternoon, five brave little souls from the Levy Homeschool Group started their own Junior Novelists Club. I had the immense joy of leading them through all the rites and rituals pertinent to starting a new club such as creating a secret handshake (shhh! Its a secret!), writing a solemn oath (I pledge to never write a boring story...) and making up a really cool, totally original name for our club (The Creative Adventure, Flying Bionicle, Gorgeous Novelists Club).

Once all the official work had been completed, we got down to the real business of writing. Each member is working to earn their badges and this week they explored the concept of Genre. Then, each member chose a genre for their novel and began writing a list of items that they felt MUST be included in their book. What creativity! I can hardly wait to award those lovely badges this week at our next meeting.

{By the way, lest you think I am inordinately gifted with creativity, please be aware that I borrowed all of these ideas from another source who freely offered it to those of us who want to lead young minds toward literary greatness. Email me if you would like to view the link.}

Quiet Moments

I know I have been posting mostly about all the big, fun projects we have been doing lately, but I've decided that as much fun as all of that is for me, it is really the quiet moments that make this experience so rewarding. Here are a few examples:

The other day we were sitting in church and Evie took out her notebook to entertain herself. After doodling for a while like she normally does, she turned to a fresh page and began writing a few of the words she has learned in school. I sat smiling proudly at her, tears in my eyes, when suddenly I noticed Graham look down at her paper. He looked up at me in astonishment and I nearly lost a tear. What a precious moment we shared over that child's golden head, there in the silence of church.

Grayson decided at the beginning of the school year to skip second grade math and go straight to multiplication. Despite a few small concerns over this, I have moved forward with the theory that student-led learning is more effective (a theory you can read about in many educational journals, but hardly practiced in our schools.) Well, we have breezed through the "times tables" and he is just amazing me with his understanding on this subject. What normally would have taken several months in 3rd grade has only taken us three weeks in 2nd grade. Yesterday I introduced the 9s to him and he panicked. I showed him two different tricks and then remembered a third, but he kept saying, "I just don't see it!" Finally, I got out a fresh sheet of paper and wrote as clearly as I could, keeping all the numbers in straight, even columns to encourage the visual pattern in the list of multiplication facts. Then, I asked him to explain to me what I had just said. He did this word for word, but still seemed convinced he didn't understand. So, I gave him a sample problem and showed how I could come up with the answer just by using my "tricks" I had shown him. He got it. He did 5 more problems, including one that was basically algebra to show me how he understood. Wow! We did a happy dance with his sisters to celebrate. Once again, what would have taken a week (at least) in public school had only taken us 10 minutes at home. Incredible.

Today I got the kids started on their lessons and then went to start laundry and return some phone calls. Suddenly, I realized that all the kids had disappeared and the house was eerily quiet. I went upstairs to shepherd them back into submission, but when I opened the bedroom door, the scene that met me nearly melted my heart. The younger two were cuddled up on either side of LilliAnn as she sat in her bed reading Heidi. How could I interrupt such a precious moment?

As I tiptoed away I said a prayer of thanks to God for our new lifestyle and all the quiet little moments of learning and love that now fill our days.

Weekend fun

The fabulous thing about homeschooling is its flexibility and ability to bring a family together. Last weekend we got to enjoy both of these benefits on a little trip out to Camp Carter. For those of you who don't know, Camp Carter is a property that Graham's family owns out near Quitman, Arkansas where we all like to go play in the woods. They are building cabins there and we generally enjoy family time and nature hikes while we are there. So, it seemed the perfect place to get messy with a big project I had been planning for our Egyptian study.

After spending the morning with grandma and grandpa, Graham took the kids into the workshop to help them build wooden frames, which was a lot of fun to watch. They all did really well, but Evie seriously impressed Daddy with her skills. She was not at all afraid to put a little force behind that power drill and she handled it like a pro (well, like a pro who is only about 3 feet tall, but still...)

Once they were finished, the kids and I hiked down to the creek to begin the real point of all this: making mud bricks. We had been studying in Bible about how the Israelites were building cities for pharaoh out of mud bricks and I'm sure you all remember how one of the ways pharoah punished them when they asked to leave was by taking away their straw supply for the brick making. I always thought this meant they had to make bricks without straw, but actually, Exodus says they had to go find the straw themselves and still make thier expected quota of bricks, which considerably added to the length of their workday.

Well, we decided to see how hard thier work must have been by testing this out for ourselves. We started mixing mud in big buckets using a mixture of clay, soil and sand from the creek bed, water and straw. This alone turned out to be an extreme task. Not only does it take an enormous amount of mud, but a seriously strong arm to stir such a nasty mixture (did I mention the mud smelled incredibly foul since it held a lot of rotten leaves. The kids kept asking why it smelled like poop.) After all this, we finally decided it was ready (or at least that WE were ready to move on) and we began pouring/scooping the muddy mixture into the brick molds.

The first one was horribly sloppy and water seeped out of the bottom, trickling into pools that we now considered to be the equivalent of stinky booby traps. Moving on to the next brick we had a bit more success, but by the time we got to the third brick frame the mud was almost gone! We only had enough to fill it half way. (Did I mention these were giant buckets?)

So, here is what we learned through this messy adventure:
1. Brick making is hard work that would have to be perfected in order to ever make any substantial structure.
2. It takes a lot of work, time and physical stamina to make mud bricks (although a few thousand slaves would certainly make the job easier.)
3. Not only does it take a while to make the bricks, but it takes a lot longer for them to dry. One could argue that in Arkansas, they might never be dry. Good thing we have so many trees.
4. Homeschooling rocks!