Summer Reading Chains

Looking for ways to encourage more reading in your kids this summer?

In addition to joining a couple reading clubs over the summer, we started a contest with the elementary age kids at home.  We devoted one wall of the schoolroom to the Summer Reading Chains competition.  Each chain has the title of the book they read.  Each book, to count towards the program, has to be at their reading level.  They have to tell me a bit about the book, though I’m not really making it a formal presentation or quiz.  I just want to hear the basic plot and their favorite part(s).  They will continue to add to their chains all summer long.  Whoever read the most on the day school starts, will get a “mystery prize”.  It’s a “mystery” because I haven’t really thought that part out yet.  But both are determined to win that prize!

Number of the Day

The Math Notebooks have been a smashing success!  The kids love when they don't "get" something and need to make a minibook on it.  I strongly suspect they "get" a lot more than they let on, but they are having so much fun adding to their notebooks, I'm letting it go.  It's just nice to see some excitement about math for a change.

Below is the newest addition to the Math Notebooks, under its own tab entitled, "Number of the Day".  We do this once a week.  It's a great way to cement number sense and practice some standard math skills (like rounding, place value and written words). Feel free to email me for the form!

Math Notebooks

When I started homeschooling 17 years ago, I followed a pretty “traditional” approach.  We used Bob Jones or A Beka for everything.  It was a very easy approach to implement and was very helpful, with detailed teachers’ manuals telling me exactly what to do and when.

Over the years I’ve become more “eclectic” in my approach.  We don’t use many textbooks anymore and I’ve incorporated ideas and curriculum that would probably be best defined as “Classical” or “Charolotte Mason”.  The most exciting part of homeschooling, to me, is picking curriculum and lesson planning.  So I’m always on the lookout for what’s new and different.  As soon as I feel like I’m in a rut with something we’re doing, I make a change.  I think it’s that constant change that has kept me still excited, after all these years, about homeschooling!

My newest project is the creation of Math Notebooks for my two elementary aged students (grades 3^rd and 5^th).  It’s a work in progress, but they are both very excited about it, and if they are excited about something math-related, I’m running with it!

I picked up a package of numbered (1-24) tabs at Staples for the Table of Contents.  The idea is that we will create some type of foldable, or mini-book, or activity for any concepts they struggle with in math.  The notebook will be used as a resource during their actual math lesson.  They both use Teaching Textbooks, so theoretically I’m not involved in the math lesson.  If they still don’t understand a concept after the math lesson on the computer, they come to me and we create a page for it in the notebook.  It’s one thing to hear something taught.  It’s another thing to see it taught on the whiteboard.  It’s another thing altogether, though, to create some type of book or project about the concept. 

We’ve only been implementing the Math Notebook for a couple of weeks now, so its effectiveness is still to be seen.  But I am so excited to see how this new project works out!

Do You Love Homeschooling?

In sixth grade, I had a teacher who, in all my years of education, I still remember.  Mrs. Cottrell.  She was a great teacher.  And she loved teaching!  You could tell.  She always had new projects, posters, games and creative ways of presenting a lesson that communicated very clearly her love for teaching.  Her sunny disposition and enthusiasm for education came through loud and clear.  She was having fun.  Or at least, that’s what she led us to believe!  It was in her class, in sixth grade, that I first decided I wanted to be a teacher.

Until high school, that is.  In high school, I had a series of teachers who clearly hated their jobs.  They were always grumpy, always disappointed in whatever the students did, had no personality or charisma in the way they presented their subject matter, and just looked like people who would rather be anywhere else than where they were.  It was in high school, I started questioning whether teaching was such a great idea after all. 

Which teacher are you most like?  Does it matter?

I recently overheard a couple of homeschooled teens talking about how they most certainly did not plan on homeschooling their children.  That wasn’t the first time I had heard such comments from the youth in our homeschool group.  While I am certainly aware that those comments don’t necessarily mean much in terms of what they will actually do when God gives them a child to raise in this culture, it does give me pause and wonder what it is about homeschooling they think is so terrible that they wouldn’t want to repeat.  And then it makes we wonder what message we homeschool moms are sending, not only to our own kids, but the kids of those around us, about what it’s like to homeschool.

If we approached our school day the way we desire our children to approach their school day (with good attitudes, 110% effort, fully engaged, a desire to learn, and hearts that reflect doing everything with diligence to the glory of God), would our “school” look any different than it currently does?  Could our lack of effort in the planning, teaching, organizing, and presentation of the Homeschool Mom be one of the hindrances in passing the homeschooling torch to the next generation?  Do your kids see a mom that enjoys, or even remotely likes, to be homeschooling?  These are thought provoking questions, the answers to which could have generational consequences.

You are a walking billboard to your children advertising the homeschooling way of life.  The way you talk about it to them, to others, the enthusiasm, or lack thereof, you have for it, the time and energy you spend on it, all these things communicate a message to those watching you.  If mom hates homeschooling and is stressed out all the time, why on earth would they want to do it? 

Even if you don’t feel the excitement and love for homeschooling that you wish you did, you are on stage everyday that you sit down with your children.  The message you send at that moment matters.  It matters a lot.  Figure out what you need to do to make homeschooling more enjoyable for you, and do it.  Maybe it’s new curriculum, maybe it’s dabbling in a new “approach” for a year, maybe it’s adopting a new schedule (4 days/week, 45 weeks/year), and using that 5^th day for more field trips, or art, or projects.  Maybe it’s joining a support group and being part of some co-ops, maybe it’s implementing a new organization plan, maybe it’s designating a “school” area in the house and decorating it, maybe it’s getting a prayer/accountability partner (or two) and check in with each other regularly, praying for each other’s school year on a daily basis.  Talk to other homeschool moms and get some fresh ideas about how to jump start your love for teaching your children.

So as you sit down to do math with your kids today, realize there is more at stake than getting through that math lesson.  You are advertising something to them today.  What message is your billboard communicating?  

Homeschooling and Pinterest

For those of you who haven’t caught the Pinterest-bug yet, let me just say that Pinterest for the sake of homeschooling alone is well worth your time.  And when I say “worth”, I mean in terms of real dollars and cents.

I am absolutely amazed at what is available on the internet for FREE, or nearly free, for homeschoolers.  While you could easily spend hours on Google and find these resources on your own, Pinterest has already done most of the work for you!  The ideas, resources, support and freebies available on Pinterest makes this one of the few “time on the internet” investments actually pay off!

Once I started “pinning” and “following” other homeschoolers and teachers, I began to get new ideas for next year’s curriculum.  In fact, I am in the process of creating Jessica (going in 6^th grade) and Emily’s (going in 4^thgrade) Reading curriculum ABSOLUTELY FREE from the resources and ideas I have gleaned from various Pinterest boards.  I’m creating a Reading Notebook for each, utilizing books I already have in our library (though you could just as easily use your local library) and creating sections for reading logs, reading goals, as-you-go comprehension sheets, post-reading reporting, vocabulary sheets, graphic organizers, lapbooking ideas and other “post-reading” projects.  I have also included a fluency section based on Fry’s word lists and since I already own all the McCall Crabbs books, have included a graph tracking the G scores for those.  All of these items are available on various websites for FREE.  You just have to know where to get them and invest the time in putting it all together in some sort of meaningful way.  What better way to spend your summer than putting together FREE curriculum for your school year next year.  While the notebook is still “under construction”, here are some of the pages it includes.

The ideas off Pinterest certainly don’t stop at reading.  If you are limited on the money you have to spend on curriculum next year, you owe it to yourself to spend some time on Pinterest and start exploring what you could put together for free.  So how do you get started on a venture like that?

1.  Join Pinterest.  You need to have an invitation to join.  If you don’t know anyone on there, email me and I'll send you the invite.
2.  Create boards for homeschooling.  Learn from my mistake here:  go ahead and create a separate board for each subject, as well as a General or Multi-subject board.  They fill up fast and you’ll be glad you have one board with all the information related to whatever subject you are focused on.
3.  Start following!  Start following other homeschoolers and teachers.  Look through their pins and begin repining whatever interests you to your applicable board. Don’t start exploring the pins yet!  You’ll be on there forever if you start looking at all the actual websites.  Wait until you’re ready to focus on a specific discipline.  For now, just think of your boards as file cabinets of ideas and resources that you’ll come back to when needed.

Couple of warnings about Pinterest
1.  There are “content” issues on there.  Focus on education (or whatever else you are interested in) and realize if you go under the general “explore” tabs, you will be exposed to some inappropriate content.
2.  When you find a homeschooler/teacher you want to follow, it may make more sense to follow the individual board you are interested in versus just following all.  You end up with all kinds of pins on your home page that you couldn’t care less about, and that could even be offensive, if you just “follow all”.
3.  It is a time-sucker.  Seriously, you get on there for “just a minute” and suddenly 30 minutes have flown by.  Make sure you are disciplined enough to know when you are going on there to just pin what’s new in homeschooling resources, or when you are going on there to look into the resources you’ve pinned.  There is a big difference.  Plan your time accordingly.

Happy pinning!