President's Day

Since I want to be honest, I have to share my shame about President's Day.  I did nothing!  I checked out one book on Washington & one on Lincoln, then didn't even teach school today.  I meant to at least read those two books, but didn't even get to that.  If my friend told me she had skipped President's Day, I wouldn't judge her at all.  But that doesn't change the guilt I feel that my kids are in bed and I didn't even acknowledge it.  So tomorrow I get up and have a better day of teaching!

The Boxcar Children

Our first Sonlight read aloud of the year was this precious classic. As Wikipedia states, The Boxcar Children "tells the story of four orphaned children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. They had been staying at a bakery but ran away when they heard the baker's wife say she will take all of them in but Benny, leaving Benny with no option but to go back to the orphanage. They create a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar in the forest. They fear their legal guardian, their grandfather, believing him to be cruel. They enjoy their freedom, but find that their lifestyle has many problems and is not a long-term solution. They eventually meet their grandfather, James Alden, who is a kind and wealthy man. The children agree to live with him. James moves the beloved boxcar to his backyard so the children can use it as a playhouse."

What appealed to my kids the most, I think, is seeing the creativity that the main characters showed by turning a boxcar into a home.  There are hundreds of books in this series, which is great for readers of chapter books.  When kids want to know what happens to the characters, they are encouraged to read!

Football Books

Since I am an avid football fan, my children get plenty of "drive-by" knowledge because they live in my home!  I knew I didn't need to make a big deal out of teaching the Super Bowl, but just to reinforce the fact that anything can be learned through books, I picked up a couple of football books from the library.

This first book pictured is a simple picture book that has about 10-15 words on each 2-page layout, giving fundamentals of the game while showing pictures of youth playing football.

Let's Play Football!
by Jan Mader
Interest Level: PreK-2
Reading Level: K-1
Capstone Press

This second book was a perfect chapter book for my son to read independently.  This book includes rules of the game and descriptions of each position.  He loved it!


Illustrated Rules of Football
by R.L. "Buddy" Patey
Illustrated by Patrick T. McRae
Reading Level:  Ages 4-8

Two Meltdowns

I just experienced my first day of meltdowns from BOTH kids  It's day 85 of our school year, so I think I'm cool with that even though I would have loved to avoid it altogether!  To be completely honest, the 5 year old can meltdown about anything at any time.  Yesterday, she started crying because I wanted her to take off her red "Chinese New Year" apparel to put on something warmer to go out in the snow.  She not only cries, she does that whole crack in the voice thing.  It's quite the event!

My son, however, usually zips through school with no problem.  If anything gives him trouble it's writing, but today science made him break.  As tears welled up in his eyes, I said, "Timothy, you need a break."  And when I told him to go lay on his bed (no playing legos) and come back when he was ready, he just said, "Thank You."  Even kids sometimes know their breaking point.  He was gone for about 10 minutes and came back ready to restart the day!

Chinese New Year!

February 3rd begins the 15 day celebration of Chinese New Year!  I have several friends in Asia who have been enjoying the loud celebration and festive fireworks!  To introduce this holiday to my kids, we will

1. Wear red
2. Eat some oranges
3. Do a little cleaning
4. Make a paper lantern
5. Watch Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, Happy Chinese New Year
6. Read the book below...

Max Celebrates Chinese New Year
by Adria F. Klein
Illustrated by Mernie Gallagher-Cole
Interest Level:  PreK-2
Reading Level: PreK-2
Picture Window Books

Just like Max Celebrates Groundhog Day, this is a straightforward book, useful for young elementary, that showcases the highlights of this celebratory day!

Groundhog Day

Max Celebrates Groundhog Day
by Adria F. Worsham
Illustrated by Mernie Gallagher-Cole
Interest Level: PreK-2
Reading Level: PreK-2
Picture Window Books

This is part of an entire series that follows Max experiencing unique activities such as going to the grocery store or in this case, Groundhog Day.  This book explains the concept of Groundhog Day simply enough for a pre-reader to understand it and uses basic enough words that an early reader can read it on his/her own! 

Fluffy Meets the Groundhog
by Kate McMullan
Illustrated by Mavis Smith
Interest Level: K - 3
Grade Level Equivalent: 1.9
Scholastic

This is a cute book, especially if your kids have a guinea pig at home or in their classroom at school.  Since our guinea pig would continually beg for carrots every time we opened the refigerator door, my kids were particularly tickled when Fluffy thinks "who ever heard of too many carrots?" This would work well to read the day before Groundhog Day. The teacher tells a 4-line poem to teach the basis of Groundhog Day.  Getting excited, the children create "Groundpig Day" and decide various activities the guineapigs do will determine how much winter is left (running fast, jumping, etc.)  In the book, each student writes a poem to explain their new legend, and I was thinking this would be a clever idea in a real classroom!  Immediate creative writing assignment!  I may do it next year!  This is also part of a book series where the main character, Fluffy, has multiple adventures.

After reading these two books to my kids first thing this morning, we looked up this website to find out how much winter we have left.  Seeing as how a blizzard hit our home last night my son jumped for joy to discover the groundhog did not see his shadow.  My daughter started crying at the thought of no more sledding, snow angels, or snowmen.  Oops!  Momma needs to do a little more work teaching the 5 year old what fiction is!

What You'll See Here...

I never expected to homeschool my children.  I was always open and willing, but never thought it would be part of my life experience.  And yet now it is a huge part of my life, and I am loving every moment of it (well most of them)!  In the weeks and months to come I plan on sharing different parts of this journey.  The topics will range from, but not be limited to:

1. My specific story-Why did I decide to homeschool?  How did I pick curriculum?  Has it been an easy road?  What kinds of mistakes have I made? 
2. Book reviews-I love reviewing books because I love reading.   Reviewing gives me a chance to contemplate what I've read!  I'll be reviewing curriculum and any children's books that I use in class.
3. Daily schedule-This won't take up many blog posts, but it's something that interests me about other homeschool families, so I thought I would include it!
4. Retailer Spotlight-This will include actual companies that produce or sell homeschool curriculm and also companies that a homeschooling mom would find "homeschooling friendly".
5. Personal anecdotes-Mostly, these will be the precious things that my kids say.  Some will be about homeschooling itself and some will be the "light bulb" learning moments I get to observe because my kids are having them right in front of me.

If you are reading this and thinking, "Wow, I wish she would talk about __________" please let me know!  I would love any feedback as to what would make this blog interesting to anyone who takes the time to read it!