Home School Research: Mallard Duck

In our home school we are continuing to make our lapbook for Make Way for Ducklings, and we have worked on researching Mallard Ducks this week.

We reread the book and discovered that there is a lot of true information about ducks in it, so we decided to do some research on Mallard ducks. One day we listened to songs of the mallard duck online. We looked at photos online as well, and we watched a slide show of ducklings hatching. It was really fun to see the hatching. The kids wanted to listen to the songs over and over, too!

The next time we sat down for some school work, we read a brief article about Mallard ducks and filled out a report form while I read it. We wanted to confirm information on the internet as well, so we used a “Google” search. You could try Wikipedia, too.

On another day we used many resources from Homeschool Share including the From Egg to Animal life cycle wheel and the duck parts printout. The life cycle wheel requires a third page for the back so that you can put it in the lapbook and also for ease of spinning the wheel. I cut out the piece ahead of time so that we would focus more on the life cycle rather than the act of cutting. I had the children put the four events in order and glue them in the book.

Since the children had already noticed the differences in the male and female ducks in the illustrations in Make Way for Ducklings, we colored the duck parts print out as a scientific drawing for the research and discussed the differences. I had to do a bit of directing on this lesson in order to ensure that the parts were colored correctly. Interestingly, the little one even points out the “mommy” and the “daddy” ducks when we are reading now. The children also dictated how they determine if a Mallard is a female or a male.

We also discussed what migration is and used a map to find the migration patterns of the Mallard Duck. The children dictated information about migration to include in the book. They drew a picture of a duck on the cover of the migration book. I described drawing a duck as a big circle with a smaller circle next to it and a triangle on the little circle. I think it came out nicely!

Are you going to try researching Mallard ducks this week?

Thanks for the Reminder

One of my favorite blogs, Holy Experience, has an amazing re-post called How Would Jesus Teach? It is funny that I received this particular post in my feed today because it really hits home for me. I felt like I was at home when I read it because this is truly how I want to educate my children. My goal is to become more Christ-like, right? Why not teach the same way that Jesus did when He was here on earth?

I want to glorify my God every day. I also want what is best for my kids educationally and otherwise. The funny thing is that following Jesus’ example will actually do both things for me and my kids. I need to teach my children the way that Jesus taught His disciples and the people around Him, out in the world through service and with scripture. Thank you, Holy Experience, for the reminder!

I have been working towards this goal. I have thought through how to make it happen, but I can’t seem to make it all come together. I have been missing one key piece, though - prayer. I have to pray about it and commit to making it happen.

Lord, transform me. Give me the wisdom I need in order to guide my children on this journey called life. Help me teach my children more like Jesus has taught us. Amen.

Dreamer in Need of Focus

I have been thinking about how the fall is fast approaching and I have done nothing to prepare for it. My office/school space is a disaster, and I have no idea where anything is. The kids are not cutting me a break either as they have been coming in and rifling through everything. My stuff is somewhere in all of these piles!

This summer we have had school in session on and off depending on vacation plans and what have you. It has been so great to have a really flexible schedule. (I know they are learning no matter what.) Starting this fall we are combining home school with a part-time Montessori school. (I have tons of paperwork to fill out for that!) I have not gotten my act together for our home school yet, though (At least I know part of what will be happening with school this fall.) What is keeping me from getting things in order?

I am a big picture kind of gal - a real dreamer. I love to think about all of the possibilities there are, but I find it hard to get down to the details. That is where I am right now. I am overwhelmed by the many things that we could do this school year, but I can’t seem to focus on what is important. I also can’t seem to find the time to get it all planned and organized either!

Are you in the same boat? Here are few things that have helped me in the past that you might find helpful, too:

1. Write down all of your ideas. Basically make a web of your ideas. It helps to be able to get it all out and see the possibilities. You will also have the ideas available for future reference.
2. Break the work down into little pieces. If you take one idea and make plans for it every day, you will feel more accomplished. You’ll even have something finished by the end of the day!
3. Ask the kids what they want to learn. You can use this as a starting point to get back into the groove of things. They will be more invested in what you are doing because it is based on their interests.
4. Establish some valuable school work that will run by itself. What I mean is find a few things that do not require daily or even weekly planning. For example, the children could have diaries that they write about anything they want in. They could have independent reading accompanied by book reviews they have to write. You don’t have to make any plans for this kind of work. The kids already know what is expected, and they do the work. Then you will have some time to do a little research, setting up, planning, etc instead of planning everything now.
5. Ask for help. Perhaps you have a friend who is more organized than you are. Friends who love order are great for this kind of task. They often really get into the project because it is what they love to do (and they often need to see the task to completion). Maybe your husband can help you out, too. Could he take on some extra responsibilities around the house to free you up? Could he do some preparation for the school year for you? Even if he is not around (traveling, etc.) maybe he can do a little research for you. He certainly can encourage you and help you get your head in the game!
6. Pray. It seems so simple, but God will help you in times of trouble, even if you think that the request is insignificant. I often forget to pray, but it is such an important thing to do.

I hope that this post helps you get back on track! Enjoy the last bit of summer, and I hope that the beginning of the school year goes well for you. Happy learning!

Protect Your Home School

If you are a homeschooler who uses either Bob Jones or A Beka for your curriculum, have you been keeping an eye on what is happening in California with the UC case?  SpunkyHomeschool gives a thoughtful and thorough report of this in her article, “Another California Ruling”. What does this mean for home education? The fact that there is a debate about whether or not your homeschool curriculum will be accepted by a college or university should be enough to make you stand up and take notice.

After reading the most recent ruling, without getting into whether or not your right to educate your child can be legislated by the government, it appears that there are specific issues with the courses that were not accepted. The English course did not have students read entire texts of good literature, but instead offered only excerpts. The other problems focused mainly on crtitical and analytical thinking skills. These issues are important to note because good educational practice includes both of tehse elements.

What are you doing to address these areas of your children’s education? First, it is essential that you are keeping organized records of your children’s work. Documentation is helpful for you for assessment purposes, but it is also essential to have good records for your school district in case there are ever any concerns. With thorough documentation, you can prove that your curriculum is meeting all of the requirements.

If you find that you are not really addressing critical thinking skills, which involves expecting your child to put information together in order to solve problems and form opinions, you can build it into your program on your own. When you do that, make sure that you keep good records about it. If your curriculum only includes excerpts from good literature, make sure that you document all of the reading that your children do outside of the textbook. Use the excerpts as a jumping board, but read the piece in its entirety.

Take a look at your curriculum to find any holes. Document your work. Follow the UC case closely. Protect your home school by following good teaching practices.

Homemade Books

Do you have tons of old photos hanging around the house from your days before digital photos or ones that were printed for a scrapbook but they didn’t quite make into the album? I have boxes of pictures that I am storing right now. I really want to put those photos to good use. How about you? Enhance your home school reading curriculum with this great idea.

My daughter is on the brink of reading right now, and I am trying to give her lots of learning materials that will help her along. We created books that she can “read” with old baby pictures. This project requires at least two sessions that last about 45 minutes each (depending on your children’s ages). You will need glue, mounting paper, construction paper, stapler, and a permanent marker.

I gave my daughter a few old photos to select her favorites from. Then we mounted the photos onto scrapbooking paper, and I organized them into categories that made sense for a few short books. We put each group of photos in order and glued them onto construction paper. We talked about what was happening in each of the photos and came up with a sentence for each picture that I wrote in permanent marker on each page. Then we stapled the book together and added a paper binding to cover the staples. Finally, we read the book together pointing to each word on the page. Presto! Now she has books that she “wrote” and made, and she can read them!

The key here is that making books is getting my daughter interested in actually reading the books. She is intimately involved in the process of illustrating and writing the books. Plus the books are all about her and the familiar things in her life. She is more likely to return to these books now because they are her books. Practice makes progress, so the more I can get her to reread and practice sight words, the better able she will be to apply that in other books.

When you write your own books with your children, be sure to include repetition of sight words, your child’s name, and the vocabulary that s/he uses. Your child will reread these books time and again so s/he will have plenty of practice with those critical words. The project lends itself to teaching reading strategies, too, like using the picture clues to understand the book and figure out unknown words.

Older children also enjoy making their own books. You can try having your older child write the story that goes along with the photos. You could even use the computer to type the words. There could be more than one photo on each page with much more text. You could require your older child to use particular spelling and vocabulary words in the story, too. Use your imagination and have fun making books about your family together!

Dance, Music, Memories

My family loves music and dancing, so I incorporate both into our school day as much as possible. We are always singing, and I can’t stop dancing! I guess we have a rockin’ home school!

Dancing is a great way of burning some energy on days when we are stuck inside. In order to make things a little more interesting, this past week we went to the library and borrowed some great dance music. We listened just for fun a couple of times first. Then on a day when we were stuck inside, I put on some Latin music and taught the kids the basic step for salsa. We danced for about 20 minutes. It was a really great workout for me and loads of fun for the kids!

What is it about music that brings such joy? “Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp.” (Psalm 149:3) God created music for us, and He wants to sing and dance to praise Him. Why not enjoy this gift with your children? It is so uplifting to move your body, so when you and the kids are in a sour mood, try putting on your favorite tunes, and dance up a storm!

Dancing is a great way to enhance your physical education program as well. Starting a unit on dance will change things up a little bit, and maybe your children’s coordination will improve in the process. It is always great when you can take part in the activities that your children engage in, so learn some different dances together, especially ones that will come in handy at weddings and the like. You can also study the different cultures that the dances come from.

Music plays an integral part in dancing as well. You can teach your children about the rhythm, the particular instruments used in the music, and a little about music theory (if you can get your hands on a copy of the sheet music). Learning about the particular style of music opens a window into a culture, too. You can also study the lives of different musicians or composers known for a certain type of music. Maybe you have a budding musician or composer in your home!

Families all have something that makes them special and unique. In my family growing up dancing was that something special. My mother always wanted to be a dancer, so dancing was her passion. I have great memories of dancing with my mom. We laughed and had so much fun. It was just something that defined my family, and I cherish those memories today. Why not make a few memories with your kids?

My Adventure Bag

We love to go on adventures, and here is one way that we plan to get the most out of our summer fun - an adventure bag!

We went to The Garden in the Woods today to hike. When we checked in today, they presented us with a bag full of goodies. It included binoculars, a magnifying glass, a BINGO game, a bug handbook, and a small journal with crayons. I thought that it was a fabulous idea! The kids loved everything in the bag, and the supplies certainly enhanced the trip. I’ve been thinking about it a little more, and I think we’ll take an adventure bag with us  when we go out adventuring.

Take apart the bag for a moment. Think about why certain items should be included. The science journal with colored pencils is the most important component of the bag. This journal will keep a record of your child’s science work for a particular unit of study. Being required to accurately draw a picture of something in the journal will also cause your child to observe more carefully and think. Your child will also practice writing for a different purpose in this journal. This is a great way to get your reluctant writer to do a little writing. It is often easier to write about experiences and something tangible than something abstract.

The other components of the bag basically add to the quality of your child’s observations. The binoculars and magnifying glass make it possible to look closely at something and create an accurate drawing of it. This allows your child to use real tools to make observations with. It takes practice to master using these tools correctly. This is a chance to take risks with those skills since there isn’t any pressure on a family hike.

I love the idea of including a handbook or field guide. Your reluctant reader might be more willing to read up on exciting creatures and interesting plants knowing that you are heading out on an adventure. The photographs and illustrations in these books also make it much more compelling to read while the shorter bits of text make it less intimidating. You might look for particular animals or plant life from the book while on the hike, too.

If you bring a camera, your child can document the trip in photographs. What a great opportunity to try out a different medium for art! Depending on how much you know about photography, you can help your child with composing a shot and using lighting in an artistic way. Your child could use the photographs in a scrapbook if you like.

Additionally, I would include a small first aid kit in the bag. We have had many incidents that require first aid while we are hiking. Also talk about basic safety before you go adventuring and review some basic rules for the trip (stay with the group, don’t jump into the water, don’t eat anything you see growing, etc.).

Of course, it would be too much to try out all of the ideas on one adventure trip, but it us great to have all of your important adventuring tools in one place. It allows you to go out on a hike, and follow your child’s lead to see which tools from the trusty adventure bag s/he uses. Go out and have fun with your adventure bag!

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness, the ability to hear and distinguish between sounds in spoken language, is important to the process of reading. There are many fun ways to give your children opportunities to practice this skill.

This week we are studying “p”.  We created a box of things with the sound/letter of the week. We searched through our toys and found things to fill our box up. The kids need a lot of guidance and some direction in order to think of items that start with the focus sound. Our box was filled with people, pigs, pajamas, a princess, a puzzle, a purse, a pony, peas, a pot, and a policeman. The next day we went through our box carefully saying the names of the items and focusing on the initial sound, /p/. I wrote a list with the names of the toys. We read the list together focusing again on the initial sound.

In addition to the “sound” box we made a collage for /p/. We leafed through some of those catalogs that keep piling up in my house to find pictures of things that start with /p/. Catalogs are nice because they don’t have any inappropriate ads in them, and the pictures are organized. We cut the pictures out and glued them to pink paper (another “p” word). This is some great fine motor practice.

We combined phonemic awareness with handwriting practice as well. We made the letter “p” using die cut paper shapes (scrapbooking paper). I wrote the capital and lower case “p” onto a piece of construction paper. We glued the paper shapes along the outline of the letters. Then we traced over the outline with our fingers. Since the paper has a texture to it, it provides a nice tactile component to the activity. We also made the letter “p” out of play dough. Again, this is tacticle and kinesthetic.

Sharing the Gospel with Drama

A drama of the song Everything by Lifehouse

Have you wondered how to share the Gospel better with your children in your home school? Do you struggle with how to make really big ideas more meaningful and understandable for your kids? Many Christian homeschoolers want to do a better job with this very thing. I know that I do. Then I saw this drama done to the song Everything by Lifehouse, and it struck me that I can use this kind of tool with my children.

This drama brought me to tears! It completely encapsulates the whole of the good news. It embodies the struggle that I know that I have between wanting worldly things and needing spiritual things. I forget that Jesus us my savior sometimes, and this is such an amazing way of showing what that really means. I love the part where Jesus is shielding the girl from sin and bearing the burden for her. What an amazing visual!

As a homeschooling mom, I have struggled with how to share some of the big concepts in the Bible. Ideas like salvation and sin are really difficult for young kids to grasp, and my kids ask questions that get at the heart of these concepts. My sweet child sounded just like Paul when she described her struggle with sin. She told me that God wants her to what is right, but sometimes she can’t do it even though she wants to do it. Paul tells us:

For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Romans 7:19

The idea is right there for her. Since she is already thinking about these ideas, I want to give her something concrete to make sense of it all, and a drama similar to this in a more age-appropriate format would be helpful. The lyrics to the song are simple, but truly amazing, and I would definitely use it with the drama. You can find the lyrics at MetroLyrics. Maybe a multisensory approach to sharing the Gospel will bring my daughter closer to accepting Christ! That is truly awesome to me!

Read Alouds are Motivating

Reading is such a pleasureable experience, and homeschoolers want to capitalize on the benefits of reading. But what if your child is not interested in reading or struggling to read? How do you motivate children to read?

One of the best ways to build interest in reading is to read aloud to your children. I know that you’ve heard it a million times, but there really is something special about the time that you spend reading to your child. It would be great if we could expect our kids to read the best books on their own, but sometimes they need to hear the book read in order to see the beauty of the language, the excitement in the plot, and to get connected to the characters.

• Reading aloud is a time for you and your child to engage in meaningful discussions, to snuggle, and to even learn something new together. Having that time with you means a lot to kids.
• In our home school have been trying out different genres than we usually read to change our read alouds a little. My children might not choose to read a nonfiction book about kangaroos on their own, but reading it to them helps them see a new genre in a different light. Maybe they will choose a nonfiction book to read in the future.
• The book you read aloud can be a more challenging book than your child can read independently. Knowing the story line of a more challenging book can be exciting and help your child talk to other kids about great books.
• Listening to a book gives your child a break from doing all of the work. It allows your child to focus on the meaning of the text instead of also thinking about how to decode the words.
• Your child learns about reading behaviors that s/he can use in the future. You use inflection, ask questions, use pictures, and make connections to your life when you read. You show your child how to do that when you read aloud. Seeing those skills in action help your child read independently, which builds confidence. Being confident in reading means you are more willing to read.

Why not read that great book to your child? There are some other great tips for reading aloud to your child at Mustard Seeds. Maybe you and your child can try something new! It might motivate you and your child. Happy reading!