Getting Down to Business

Unless we are wowed by a couple of schools in the next few months, we have committed to homeschooling.

As part of our quest for organization, we purchased a filing system, so at a quick glance we can easily see what subjects Sathya (and Anand too as appropriate!) will be learning for the year.  We also have brought back the index cards, so that Sathya can choose an activity each day that he would like to do.

Every morning we begin with a short news story, which Alex writes up on a piece of paper.  Then he lists a few discussion questions that we can talk about over breakfast.  This keeps the kids abreast of what's going on in the world, and more importantly-- aware that there is a whole other world out there to be knowledgeable about it.  This morning we talked about Typhoon Haiyan, which followed with a lesson in geography.

We also worked on some geometry, understanding shapes, and how other shapes can make new shapes.  I quizzed him on "bigger than" and "less than" and "same."  He seems to understand those concepts pretty well.  We concluded with a lesson on history.  What does history mean?  Why is it important?  How do we learn history when there is no one left in that time?  We talked about artifacts, and then we created our own artifact: Sathya's own history, based on tidbits taken from his baby book:

After our lessons are over, which includes plenty of time to play, free reading, having fun with Anand, and other things!, Sathya goes to quiet time and does his homework.  I give him a few problems, pretty easy, mostly which cover what we did for the day.  It takes him maybe 10 minutes, and then he is free to do what he wants for the remaining hour and 20 minutes.

The afternoons are generally whatever he has picked for what he wants to do. Of course our schedule changes depending on whether we are doing things with other families, or we are going somewhere.  Thursdays are our volunteer day, so we generally focus on moral-based learning or value-based education.

The main pockets include: Reading, Writing, Math, Science, Language (Spanish and Tamil), News, History, Homework, and Other (which can include geography, cooking, arts, computer, etc. -- anything that doesn't fit in the above that we will be doing too).

Sathya's getting much better at writing, which means he is more interested.  He is continuing to write his letters, but he has also completed his first book!  He has titled it, Abiyoyo Hungry:

 We are also adding on to our human body, rounding out a lesson in lungs:

And Sathya is getting more exposed to music by continuing to add to his music/emotions book:

This may seem like a lot of stuff, but generally in one day, we may spend one hour to two on lessons (and not all of these lessons above were done in one day).  The rest of the time is for free thinking and free learning.  You get so much done when you are not having to deal with classroom management and discipline. :-)

I am having fun, and I am excited what Sathya will be learning.  He has come up with several topics (a whole pageful!) of things he wants to learn next year, so we will be hitting those as well.  Some of them include "how to make a quiche, sewing, electricity, and Hanukkah."






 

Getting My Child to Write

October has been a busy month.  We are still learning, but I haven't had much time to post about it.

We signed the kids up for Meals on Wheels.  We are now delivering meals to people in Albuquerque once a week.  So far we've gone a couple of times.  Anand is still too little to get much out of it, but Sathya is grasping the concept of civic duty and compassion.  Just to see the older people's eyes light up upon seeing the young ones is well worth the commitment.  And this is something we are all getting to do together--me, Alex, Sathya, and Anand.  I love spending time together doing something we feel is important.

Alex and I are also in the middle of deciding what to do with Sathya next year.  Will he go to public school?  Will he go to charter school?  Will he stay home?  I have been reading/devouring books on education, and I have come to the conclusion that homeschool seems right for our situation now.  Alex, being the pragmatist, wants to visit the schools first.  Problem is-- what do you do when you call (Maggie Cordova Elementary, for example) more than once, and leave messages, and no one calls you back?  I talked to someone there who seemed offended that I would dare ask about classroom visits or tours, even though this is the place my sons will be growing up in for the next five years of their life.

Part of what appeals to us about homeschooling is its flexibility (no insane amounts of homework, no rigid school schedule, which means more room for travel and play) as well as its insistence on forging/building relationships first before real learning begins. I want our kids to learn how to be good people, to be respectful of us and others, and to love themselves.  I don't think kids learn this at school surrounded by peers their age.  It's not about learning to beat tests.  It's about learning life skills.  I want our family to be close. 

Alex is leaning toward homeschool.  We have begun seeking out other homeschooling families, as well as seeking out opportunities where the kids will have some interaction with other children (though they do NOT at this age need to be around kids their age for eight hours a day).  I have begun putting together a curriculum (I guess you could call us unschoolers since we will not be working from anything formal at this age), and we will see what happens.

My qualifications, you might ask?  Well the state only requires a parent to have a high school diploma.  I have a master's in writing and my husband has a master's in aerospace engineering.  Between the two of us, I feel very confident we can educate our sons properly.

In the mean time, Sathya has had some trouble identifying numbers larger than 11 so we put together a countdown to Halloween chart, which reviews numbers.  I got this idea from a parenting magazine.  Under each number is a treat for both of the kids-- either a sticker, an activity, or a hug/kiss.

Nothing fancy.  Reusable cardboard, toilet paper rolls cut in half, old tissue paper from old gifts, and rubber bands we'll reuse once we're done.

Also, to get Sathya more interested in writing (he dislikes it), he made his own mailbox, which hangs from his door.  He is free to put letters in there, which the "magic mailman" (me) takes and delivers.  He also receives letters in his mailbox as well.  When the handle is up, that means a letter is inside.  He has found so much incredible joy in mailing and receiving letters that writing hasn't seemed like a chore.  He just finished his Christmas list for Santa (1. Legos 2. books). 

I read somewhere that it's more important that children see the practical application of their lessons, as opposed to just tracing letters all day.  He sees that what he writes is a form of communication, and does have some meaning.

I may take a little longer to update these blog posts, but I'll keep posting.

Teeth, Cable Cars, and Feeling Music

We have been busy traveling, so I have not updated this blog recently.  Anyhoo, Sathya has returned from a trip to Colorado having completed his first scavenger hunt!  Yay!  His prize?  A strawberry milkshake from The Malt Shoppe in Pagosa Springs.

Sathya has been getting his hands dirty these last couple weeks with some hands-on projects.  We learned the answer to the question: why are our teeth shaped differently?  I had Sathya take a bite from an apple, and chew the piece with his front teeth first, and then his back teeth.  Then I had him try to take a bite using his back teeth.  Which worked best and why?

We learned that our back teeth are flat, which make them easier for chewing, and our front teeth are best for biting.

I picked up some neat ideas from one of the parenting magazines we get, which talks about ways in which to reuse items to create new items.  One of the ideas was taking an old milk carton and cutting out a window, decorating it, and then hanging it on a string.  Wa la!  You have a cable car.  We worked on making two, and they are now hanging in Sathya's room:

He likes to make them go up and down, and he has filled them with some of his favorite stuffed animals.

Lastly, an idea that I came up with, which revolves around the question: how do you express music in words?   I have started a new music/emotion project with Sathya, which I will eventually carry over to Anand too.  Today we listened to five very different pieces of music (Fela Kuti, Miles Davis, Christmas music, Yo Yo Ma, Mandarin nursery rhymes), which I wrote on colored pieces of paper:

and then I asked Sathya to describe in one word how he felt when he listened to them.  His responses were amazing.  Fela Kuti made him sad (he didn't like the song), and Yo Yo Ma made him "really happy."  "Oh Christmas Tree" made him feel "loved" and the Mandarin nursery rhyme made him feel like "giving flowers."

I let him write his emotions and then decorate them:

I am going to date them and keep them in a binder, so he can look back and see all of the different kinds of music he has listened to and how each one made him feel.  I am also teaching him how to express himself.  This is a valuable lesson for all of us.

Last but not least, my husband sent me a link about banned books (since we are getting into banned books week), and one of the most banned books of 2012 was?  You guessed it.  Captain Underpants.  Haha!

Montana and Safety

For our geography lesson, we learned about the state of Montana.  It is such a beautiful state.  Sathya said he wanted to go there on a roadtrip.  Soon, I hope!

I contacted the state's tourism department for more information on visiting, so Sathya should be receiving a packet (including a MT sticker!) in the mail soon.

We also learned about safety.  I started with a simple book, told in the POV of dinosaurs (which of course every little kid can relate to!).  It is called Dinosaurs, Beware!  by Mark Brown and Stephen Krensky.

We are going to work on putting a family evacuation plan together, and then we will review it once more.

Last but not least, we are taking a roadtrip for Anand's first birthday.  I have made Sathya a scavenger list.  If he can find all of the things on his list, he will earn a special prize!

A Story, A Heart, and Invisible Guests-- Oh My!

So last week I told you about the milk-o-lanterns we made for Halloween.  They don't look like much on their own, but check them out when lit up. Spooky!

This week, Sathya got to write a story-- all on his own.  I didn't help him with sentence structure or word choice or how he wanted it formatted.  The kid's learning!  (I like how he is subconsciously getting grammar; look at those quotation marks!)

For our human anatomy lesson, we added onto the body and drew a heart.  We watched a short video about how the heart works and discussed its importance:

Caveat: placement may not be accurate!

We also conducted an experiment.  Does the heart work faster when we are resting or when we are moving/exercising?  We each took turns taking an old paper towel roll and listening to our hearts at rest.  Lub-dub.  Lub-dub.  Then we each ran for one minute at a time and then listened again.  We compared.  Indeed our heart works faster and quicker when we are in need of more oxygen/nutrients!

Lastly, in honor of Labor Day, we talked about what it means to work, what kinds of jobs people have, and how working enables people to earn money, which enables us to do things with it (AND how important it is to save and not waste).  To celebrate, we had a party made up of invisible guests.  We all took turns running upstairs, grabbing a costume from the costume bin, and coming down in character.  Sathya was Captain Underpants, Alex was Abiyoyo (a giant from an old African folktale), and I was a variety of things (a cow, a blonde woman named Betsy, etc.)

Whenever I get the chance, I like to encourage my children to use their imaginations.  Most of the costumes we put together are made from things around the house.  I have never bought a costume for the children.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's so much fun making them (and my sewing machine gets good use at least once a year).

This year, Sathya wants to be a robot. Anand is going to be Super Diaper Baby.

Getting into the Halloween Spirit

So for our arts & crafts project this week, we took old milk cartons, cut the tops off, and painted them either black or orange.  Then we made silly faces on the fronts, which I then cut out.

We will be displaying these outside for Halloween.  I will probably put a rock inside each one to keep it down, and we may find a fire-safe light to put inside each, so that they all glow and get nice and spooky.

The Brain and Money

We've had a busy couple of weeks.  Adding onto our human body, we created an illustration of the brain.  Sathya was fascinated with it (online you can find anything, including real pictures and videos!).  He wanted to know why it was squishy and gooey because when he feels his own head, it is hard.  I explained the function of our skull in protecting our ooey gooey brain.  Sathya wanted to watch some live videos of human brains, but I had to draw the line.  He may not get squeamish, but his mother sure does!

If you look closely, you can see where we added the different lobes and their functions.  I tried to make it as simple as I could so that Sathya grasps the main point I was making: how complex our brains are, which means we must take care of them!  Taking care of them means eating healthy, exercising, and learning to nurture ourselves emotionally.

Frontal lobe: decision-making; personality
Parietal lobe: language
Occipital lobe: visual
Cerebellum: motor
Temporal lobe: memories; sensory
Brain stem: connection to spinal chord

We also have been working with money.  How to count, specifically coins, and what they look like.  This book has helped us tremendously as we work through these lessons:

I also got the idea of creating a money jar, which would teach Sathya and Anand the value of saving up for something special.  I got this idea from the book, A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams:

In the book, a mother, daughter, and grandmother save up coins in order to buy a new chair because their old one had burned in a fire.  It is a tale of hard work, endurance, and most importantly, resilience.  We love this book (a Caldecott Honor book too).


So we created our own money jar.  The money in it will be used toward future vacations.  Each time a coin is placed in the jar, Sathya must tell us what coin it is and how much it is worth.

Stingray by Sathya Martin

A trip to the aquarium spurred an interest in writing a story about Stingray, a female stingray who has an encounter with a bad guy.  He came up with the character and the problem.

The story didn't get very far (my son dislikes writing unless it's centered around something else fun, like a story with a stingray puppet), but he wrote a couple sentences and made a hand puppet that could recite the story back to us.

Wyoming and the Feel Good Box

Sathya has always been interested in where things are.  And since he has been to over 20 states, last year we started learning about the different states, their capitals, and what makes them special. Yesterday Sathya learned about Wyoming:

So we start by taking some old cardboard (usually from a cereal box), and then cutting out the shape of the state.  Sathya writes the name; I fill in the capital and other key cities if any.  Then we practice going on the internet (research!), looking up that state's flag, plant, animal, flower, anything unusual or interesting about it.  Then we finish by listening to the state song. 

We don't always get to hear the song. Sometimes they are not available.  But we do our best.  And in the process Sathya gets multi-modes of learning (touch, hear, sight, etc.), which hopefully strengthens his ability to remember.  We review the states we've learned, and he forgets some, but he remembers most.

After we are done, we take it to his room where he has a large poster board of the U.S. map (hand-made), and we stick the state in its rightful place.  This teaches him location as well.

The state doesn't need to look professionally done or even neat.  The point is to get Sathya involved and interested in geography.  In other places, people, and other cultures.

Also in an interest to get my children more involved in dinner table talk, we created something called the "Feel Good Box."  Inside are cards written with the names of our family members, along with phrases like "I feel good when____" or "I admire_____ because _________."  Sathya and I spent a day working on making the box, decorating it, and decorating the cards. 

At night each of us draws a card and has to  either say something nice about that person, or something that he/she did that day that is worth noting (if a name card was drawn), or fill in the blanks if a non-name card is drawn.

Sathya looks forward to the Feel Good Box every night, and we get to end the day with positive thoughts.

Writing a Letter to Dav Pilkey

If you don't know who Captain Underpants is, then you are really missing out on life.  He is the famous superhero of the series by the same name, written by Dav Pilkey.  Pilkey's story is interesting: as a child in school, he was told that he would never make a living drawing and writing cartoons all day.  Boy were they wrong! 

The books are borderline offensive in the sense of: if you don't appreciate potty humor, these books are not for you or for your kids.  What I like about these books is 1) They have fueled an even greater interest in reading for Sathya, in addition to helping him make the transition to chapter books, 2) They are funny, even for adults, and 3) They do have coded messages in there that are quite honorable, if you can look through all the poop and fart jokes.

For our writing lesson, Sathya wrote a letter to Mr. Pilkey.  In one of the books, Sathya was forced to change his name to "Snotty Banana Chunks" by Professor Poopypants, who decided to change everyone's name since people ridiculed his name so much (gosh, I wonder why).  An address was given at the end of the book for those readers who'd suffered emotional distress from having had their name changed:

Sathya then wrote his very first "official" letter, which we mailed off on Wednesday.  I hope that there is no statute on letters and that he receives a response:

(If you can't read it, it says: "Dear Mr. Pilkey, I love Captain Underpants.  Your friend, Sathya Martin".)

Sathya's least favorite thing is writing (gasp! That's heartache for me, who is a writer), but by incorporating fun ways to do our lessons (without calling them "lessons"), he is at least getting his practice in.  Go, Sathya!

Buoyancy Equation

Sathya and I both learned about buoyancy, and with a little help from his rocket scientist dad, we did an experiment based on the following principle:

We did not discuss water displacement, which is interesting, but I thought that might be a little too advanced for Sathya (though I got to hear a mini-lecture about it from Alex, haha).  But we did construct two boats out of Play doh: one Sathya made, and one that I made.  The key was to make the boat flat on the bottom, not too heavy, and with enough surface area so that the water could hold it afloat.

Sathya made his round with a passenger; I made mine with raft-like constructs on the bottom.  We left ours overnight to dry.  Unfortunately, Sathya's did not float.  Mine floated until water seeped into it (faulty construction), and then the weight of the water pushed it down:

Next time Sathya said he would make a more "buoyant boat."  It's neat how interested Sathya is in science now, and how fun it can be when you're little and it can still be applied and tested and still make sense!  

Speaking of which, a funny anecdote: the other day Sathya was complaining about why he was not hungry, and he said it was because the cupcake he'd eaten had only made its way to the bottom of his large intestine.  The kid's learning, at least.

Oral Reporting and Yoga

This week Sathya presented his first oral report ever on Stegosaurus.  It was so darn cute.  In the morning, he had written two pages on a couple of key facts he remembered about the dinosaur from our museum visit the week prior.  Then he made a model of a Steg, painted it, and then practiced his speech.  He started with, "Hello, my name is Sathya," and then went on to read his report, making sure he made eye contact, and he concluded with a fact he remembered on his own.  Something about the dino having a brain the size of four walnuts.  The kid remembers the strangest things!

We have also been working on our yoga poses, which we can do with Anand as well. Since Anand was a newborn, I have been working from a book called Itsy Bitsy Yoga, which is an amazing resource.  Sathya and I helped Anand do a few poses from there (Hop Along Yogi; Tada; I Love You, Dandasana).  Sathya got to do a headstand and the wheel.

Natural History Museum

My son didn't whine or complain or scream or throw fits on seven different occasions (thus earning seven stickers), so he got to choose what we did for the day.  He chose the history museum.

This week is a little unusual because my husband Alex is home during the day, working a strange shift at night.  So I have been giving my son a free pass week (which we do when we go on vacation or when people are visiting or when one of the kids is sick), where we do light lessons, nothing structured.  That way he gets to spend time with his dad, and we get to do things together as a family.

I won't have a whole lot of information to post this week about what we did since it probably won't interest you (we get a little goofy when we are all together; barrel hugs and anthropomorphic elephants and mama robots come out of the woodwork).  Next week, however, Sathya will be working on a report about Stegosaurus (which he will present in front of the living room), the dinosaur he picked from the museum this week, and I have a slew of lessons I've been thinking about having him do.  I also want next week to be a bit more active, so we will throw in some kid yoga and other activities that Anand can do too.

The museum was a lot of fun.  Sathya liked the dinos best, but we did come across something we wouldn't want showing up on our doorstep asking for milk:

This slender fella is called a lungfish, a remnant of fish that existed during dinosaur times.  We have seen it at the museum since we moved to New Mexico over four years ago.  It has moved location, but I think it's the same fish.  Is it?  How would we know?  And how long do these things live?

Last but not least, here's a display that made me think of when my husband and I fight (I of course am the dino looking at the camera going WTF?):

(Just kidding hubby, if you are reading...)

Monday - Beep and Bop

Today my children were taken by their father to the library for Beep and Bop, a music and movement program for children four and up.  The theme of the program was colors.

Once they got back, Sathya did his writing lesson.  He has a hard time focusing on his writing; it is definitely not his favorite thing, but we practice every other day.  We use a reusable writing board that was given to him at a birthday party. I try to encourage him with stickers, and I am a stickler for neatness (as I feel it encourages persistence and accomplishment and attention to detail).

Later today we have a playdate at a friend's house. 

The Beginning

I have a four-year old and a nine-month old. When I made the decision not to send my son to school last year (despite some frowns and naysayers who were convinced my husband and I were making the wrong decision), I came up with a plan to keep him both stimulated and playful.

I decided that teaching my sons is so much fun that I want to blog about it and tell others what I'm doing and how it's working.  My emphasis is on practical lessons that are cost-effective and mostly use what we already own (or recyclables).  Earth and humanely conscious.

Every day, we start with an activity board.  (See below.  The board is a little crazy because I insist on reusing and teaching my son about recycling, and because... well, we're a little crazy.;) ) Flash cards are made of different activities.  "Reading" and "Writing" are done everyday on alternate days as is the "Anand" card, which means interacting with my younger son, and "Quiet Time".  My son gets to pick some of his lessons; I pick some.  Then we carry out our day in no particular order: his lessons and activities get done as time permits throughout the day.

So far, so good.  My son Sathya began reading on his own (!) by age four.  My younger son Anand is being stimulated at a young age by the lessons that Sathya is learning. Caveat: note that most of these lessons are geared toward Sathya and done with Sathya only; when Anand is a little older, he will begin participating in the activity board.  (I do teach him things too, but I won't blog about that right now.)

I hope you will read my blog and share with me some of the things you are doing to help educate our kids.  It's not just about the learning; it's about empathy and kindness.  Knowing how to open the door for a stranger, ask an elderly person if he needs any help with his groceries.  I try to involve my children in lessons that are applicable to real life.

I've been doing this for months, but am only getting around to blogging about it now.  I'll blog about good days and not-so-good days.  Little lessons, big lessons, boring lessons, fun lessons.

Friday was a good day.  We did our reading lesson in the morning.  Sathya went over his "ch" and "sh" sounds.  For our science experiment, we drew a life-size model of Sathya  (on old packing paper) and talked about the digestive system. Esophagus (a roll of paper towel), stomach, a fifteen foot small intestine (leftover yarn from a project years ago), and the large intestine.  No longer will I have to face the question: Amma, where does my food go?

Sathya and Anand also helped with laundry chores and hung up cloth diapers to dry.