Hello Summer

Yeah summer time is here and I have my kiddos all to myself. No sharing with Mrs. So and So, no more I am so glad to see you now go do your homework and absolutely no calling me Mrs. So and So. Do your kids ever do that? I always tell them if you should be calling anyone anything it should be your teacher mom. Of course I know that I am there #1 no matter what they call me!
I finished the plans for the summer just in time. Each of their bins are complete and equipped for a summer of enrichment. They each have a Math bin and a Writing bin with leveled work. They each have chores for each day and they each have reading expeditions. Of course when the work is done there are rewards.
The first week went wonderfully and I am impressed with the boys skills at the flash cards, kudos to the teachers. We were busy but not to busy and we had lots of time to be together and isn't that what it is truly all about.

HAPPY SUMMER BREAK!

BUGGED

I am trying really hard to stay focused and ambitious. I love afterschooling and so do the kiddos so quiting is not an option. We have slowed our pace and much of it has to do with mom trying to get the enrichment bins done (more details later).
We started a bug unit last week and we have learned LOTS of great things about bugs. The kids each created their own bug complete with Head, Thorax and Abdomen. They are so creative! Yesterday we learned, King Phillip, Come Out For Goodness Sake! Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. Better known as the scientific classification for all living things. We picked some bugs and found a fun website that uses physical characteristics of bugs to search for their class. We got them all WRONG! However it was fun to find out what class they were really in.

So you see we are still ticking just a little slower then before. I just need to wind our clock!

They came!!

My Core Knowledge books have arrived! I am in love with flipping the pages and thinking, "I can do this". I am so EXCITED!
I have some thoughts processing through my mind on how I want it all to play out. However I always over plan and begin to feel defeated. So I have opted to put some serious thought and trial and error into play.
This is what I have been waiting for. Some direction to follow to get us leaping forward and reaching our potential. I know right off that I want to concentrate on Math and Writing. However the Core Knowledge books are filled with all subjects and have such great stories, ideas and projects.
With Math I would like to just work on Math facts and repetition. There are great ideas for memorization and games for repetition found in the Core Knowledge books as well as on the website. Writing, I would like to start a writers workshop to go with each of our unit studies. You can find the writing workshop online the Core Knowledge website by clicking here, Writing Workshop. We will also fit reading into our unit study with a monthly reading expedition and a treasure at the end. I would also like to do a Social Studies unit but I know that will be pushing it. Maybe this summer! For now I will just read some of the stories out of the Core Knowledge book at bedtime.
Getting the books in the mail gave me the push I needed to move forward and continue on with our afterschooling studies.

A week of Harry Potter

Spring break was a great afterschooling week. I love having all of that time to fill I can't wait until summer break.
We spent our Spring break having fun with a Harry Potter unit study. This unit study I did not purchase. I collected ideas from the Internet to go with each day of Spring break. Most of them were birthday party ideas as I wanted the week to be fun. I also picked some ideas up off of Harry Potter lesson plan ideas. Of course as always I over planned and had to omit some of the activities. I have found that this is something with afterschooling that you have to accept. You just don't always have the time to teach and play as much as you would like to.

Here is our Harry Potter week.......
Illustrated and made up our own broomstick game.
Matthew taught us how to play Chess and then we practiced our new skills.
Of course we watched as many Harry Potters that we could fit in.
We studied characters and their different character traits.
Made potions. Some for eating and some NOT for eating.
We went on a family hike to pick our wand or should I say for a wand to pick us.
Once we found our wand we practiced some spells.
We also had journals that we wrote in with writing starters... example: A new professor is coming to Hogwarts what is his name and what will he be teaching?
We also studied settings, themes, plots, conclusions, and climaxes in the Harry Potter books.

It was a great week and the conclusion to our Creative Writing unit study.
I can't leave without adding this little Harry Potter conclusion. The week after Spring break the kids school had a book fair and story book character contest. Matthew dressed up like Harry Potter and played the part. He won first place and $75.00 worth of books to add to our family library. Yeah Harry, I mean Matthew!

Being Creative

We are still trucking along on our Creative Writing unit and I am surprised at the things the boys are acting like they have never learned before. I can see how this unit was definitely needed in our home and how practice and getting the creative juices flowing will help them improve in this area.
We did a section on poems and we all wrote poems about ourselves in different forms. Since dad was away we wrote this poem for him.

Desire to provide

Always willing to love

Divine he thinks mom is

Dedicated to the Lord

Yours truly

We have missed him while he was at school but he is home now and we couldn't be more excited.

We have also done some studies on the different elements of a story. We looked up definitions, did crosswords and word searches to get familiar with the different terms. We each took turns reading a short story and discussing how the story would be different if any of the elements were changed. That was fun and we got a bit silly about it.

Yesterday we went on to this website http://goodnightstories.com/finish.htm and finished a story that we will be publishing online today.

During this unit study the children's different needs most of which are age related have really been evident.

Matthew has great ideas but needs to work on format, transition and flow. He has a big school project that will take most of the weekend but I am very excited about it. His teacher is wonderful and provides the children with many opportunities to achieve greatness. If you would like to know more about the project here is the link http://www.legacyproject.org/contests/index.html.

I am hoping to help Spencer with his confidence in writing and his ability to put his fantastic sense of humor and intelligence down on paper.
Maggie is just old enough to really be grasping the ideas and elements of the story. Who are the characters and where does the story take place.
And Kendal well I will just read to that pretty princess as much as her sweet heart desires.

WE LOVE TO READ AND WRITE

Diary of an Afterschooling mom

Wow I can't believe how the littlest and biggest things can completely throw you off. My balance has been over turned for the past few weeks but things are looking up and I am hoping that I can land upright without teetering back on my feet again. Let me explain....
My husband started school again and that created challenges. And then last week we had sickness in our home, everyone was sick. It was a lot of t.v. watching, indoors staying, napping and book reading kind of days. I am now trying to claw my way out of it and get things moving again. We have finally caught up on missed school and the kids are feeling 100% now. Time to move forward which is easier said then done.
It is extremely weird how all of the sudden I am like, how can we get homework, chores, piano practice and theme activities into one day. Even though of course I have been doing it for the past three months. Well we will ease into it and find our groove again and chalk this up as a great learning experience on how we are all truly creatures of habit.

Diary of an Afterschooling mom

It has been awhile since I have been able to post. We get so busy that I wonder where the days have gone. I am still very much loving Afterschooling, however these past few weeks have brought with it some trials and lack of confidence. My husband started back to school and is absent from Afterschooling two days a week. I did not realize how difficult it was going to be without him. There were a couple of days that I can honestly say I pushed through and I am so glad that I did. We have yet to skip a day and I know how easily good habits can be broken. I am also struggling to find the extra income to purchase my Core Knowledge books. It seems that every time we budget the money something comes up. I am hoping next week will be the week and I will have the books by the end of the month. The books are FANTASTIC, they have everything in them so I have no need to purchase separate books for history, math or science.
I have had a few people leave comments and ask questions, I THANK YOU!! One of the questions most recently asked was if I follow the schools topics. Well, the unit studies that we do are just for fun, however I will slide one in every once in awhile that I know the kids need to enhance their school experience. For example this month we are doing Creative Writing. As far as the other things go I have really tried to enhance what they learning in Math at school but I can't believe how quickly they move from one thing to the next. This is why when my sister in law told me about Core Knowledge I fell in love. It has everything your child will need to know or be learning in their given grade in one text book. I am hoping this will help to better keep them on track with enhancing and pushing a little bit harder with what they are learning in school.
THANK YOU FOR READING MY BLOG AND COMING ALONG ON OUR GREAT BIG ADVENTURE IN AFTERSCHOOLING!!