Busy Writer

We've all heard of writers block.  

We are not suffering from that.  It's more like a writer's too busy! 

My head is still spinning from all the changes going on around here. We've been milking our sheep and making delicious smelling soaps from the milk. Of course-drinking some too!  Katie has impressive milking skills!  

Sheep milk 

Sheep Milk, Oatmeal, and Honey soap 

We've increased our chicken flock. To top it off, we've been selling our goodies at a local feed store.  Organic living is making its way out to the country so we've been attending some local meetings to share our knowledge with one another.  It's nice to have community support without being crammed up tightly with your neighbors.  I think we all get along better that way! 

Speaking of cramming up tightly, we are in the process of doing just the opposite.  Our house officially went on the market last week!  We are in the works of purchasing a 21 acre farm just 5 miles down the road.  Or maybe it's called a ranch?  Either way expansion is in the near future. Since our ultimate goal is to raise cows, we sold the sheep a couple of weeks ago.  Bummer. 

Our homeschool group has been growing.  It seems as if more and more people are understanding the value in teaching our own kids.  Our families are meeting weekly hosted by our church building.  Though we all do our own thing, it's important to us that we don't judge one another or compare our kids to each other.  Seems we are all like minded in the sense that we are in it to to be a supportive helpful hand.  All of us seem to have our own talents.  We have a Mom that is a math major.  Mom's that can help you with home repairs.  (Our husband's scored big time on her)  Sweet ladies that can talk you off the cliff on bad days.  A former teacher.  Wonderful cooks.  Seamstress.  Musicians. Cosmetologist.  It seems we need to look no further than our group of families to accomplish goals.  Together, we make one unstoppable little team.  

Some of the girls gathered 'round to take a picture with their declaration!  

My heart beats for all the new projects we are taking on at home (which is part of homeschool) so I could go on and on for days, but my goal and blog is about sharing homeschool ideas too.  So here's the latest homeschool stuff going on.  Our Math curriculum wasn't working out.  I know mom's that tell their kids to tough it out.  I see their point.  In the real world, work and life isn't going to always be fun.  I respectfully don't agree with the toughing it out method.  And I will tell you why. It goes back to the whole reason why they hate it to begin with. They have no need for it.  No real life application.  No passion or hunger for it.  We can tell them to tough it out, and they will.  Hating school all the more.  

I was a professional student with no goals, no life skills, no vision for the future, no job at home.  Just toughing out school.  I was taught at school that if I wanted to earn money, I had to find some goal in life and do more agonizing years in a desk after high school.  I had no working skills to back up any goals in my life and it all seemed like unattainble hard work.  Being young and overwhelmed, I just gave up.   

But now in life, my job and vision for my future are compiled of many things. My daughter being the most important of them all.  To see her succeed is my driving force.  So a little bit of math or school is part of that deal?  So what.  I will conquer it because she is my passion. I am with her logic:  Why do we need this math?  Where can we use it?  Let's go explore together.  It's becoming my passion to learn with her as I find the need for it.  

Even in our soap making ventures.  Which we love.  We have to use volume, percentages, etc.  Do I remember volume from school? Heck no. Never used it.  Never cared.  Now, in order to make and sell soaps, I have to make a recipe to fit my molds or molds to fit my recipes.  Math is just a stumbling block.  It wont stop me, I'll just figure it out because the hunger is there.  

Take for example my Dad who likes math.  He grew up building with his Dad.  Measuring, adding, figuring up, using formulas and angles; but most importantly-his hands.  It's not a wonder that he went on to be one of our state's best woodworker building aircraft cabinets for high profile clients!  He also was an honor student in math.    

Our children now a days, even homeschooled kids, sit at home behind a computer or a desk but are not understanding why they need any of this.  Katie loves to read for the adventure, but math is of no use to her some days.  It is my responsibility to put this math in action in her life or its just a bunch of useless information.  We can sit down and fill out pages of multiplication but if she doesn't at some point have to use it in her life, her assessment of it being a waste of time will be the truth.     

Let me list out to you what's working for us so far in the math department: 

Life of Fred-is a reading math curriculum.  It tells a funny story and shows the need for math in the main character's life.  It's about as silly as it gets! My daughter is past elementary level in her reading of these books.  I don't make her answer the questions after every chapter because it would no longer be fun.  As I have stated before, she reads for the adventure. This is a supplemental math for us and as far as she is concerned, it's fun reading.  I do want to note that she has outwitted me several times by throwing out facts she's learned in reading these books like "oh that's a linear line" or something to that affect.  She reads ahead of me so I have to google these things sometimes! Listen, don't be ashamed that you don't remember some of this elementary math!  It's like a review for me doing school with her.  $16 a book at homeschool fairs.  You may say expensive but since they are designed not to be written in, they hold resale value.  Click Life of Fred up top for website.  Click this link to see used pricing. 


Teaching Textbooks- computer based math learning.  It has a sweet simple sounding guy who "lectures" and then we answer some questions.  Do some quizzes.  And bonus rounds.  This is good for the "teachers" who aren't really good at math but can use refreshers.  You listen to the lecture with them about the things you may have missed sleeping in class as a kid.  Eh hem.  
The good news for all you mommas out there with more kiddos than me is that this can be used on more than one child and is reusable.  Therefore it is resalable.  Click this link to find used. 
My only complaint with teaching textbooks is that there is not enough memorization exercises. Which can be drill and kill so it's a good thing and it brings me to my next source:  

abcya.com- Fun FREE online math games.  We use this website for FUN memorization supplementation.  Memorizing facts at a race against time is Katie's favorite.   Or in order to make the next move, they have to know the answer to the facts.  Since kids are persistent, they will do it over and over to win.  Hence they master the facts. Or they use number lines to help understand fractions. They have so many games for all different grade levels.  She would rather play these games than watch a movie! 

Also, this is for my thrifty peeps.  Free math curriculum for 1 whole year.  Click Here
I don't know much about this curriculum but free is free! 

Hands on math examples: Since Katie worked just as hard as the rest of us in caring for the sheep, my husband gave her a percentage of the money we earned selling them.  Katie decided she wanted to spend that money on the shoebox operation.  Since she had 4 boxes she wanted to fill and $100 to spend, she wanted to shop fair and wisely.  She was using multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, volume estimating, and measuring.  It's amazing how she was spitting out division and multiplication facts when she realized it was wisest to buy the bulk pack of dolls to divide among the boxes.  She was able to fill all 4 boxes to the brim with toys having money left over.  This was where she really shined as a "math student".    

I am not some smart lady who came up with all these ideas on my own.  I listen to moms around me who are experiencing similar issues. They are happy to answer questions.  I am blessed to have helpful families around that want to see us succeed.  I bought a book The Big Book Of Homeschooling by Debi Pearl.  It has many free and unconventional homeschooling ideas for us moms who are just average.  Sometimes you will try and fail.  But most importantly, you listen to your kid's needs and try again! 


 

"Well, I like all of the curriculums.  I can't really say which one is my favorite.  It's fun being homeschooled and sometimes it can be tough. But I like that! I am happy that we have a homeschool group and more and more kids are coming.  And I like having more friends." ~Katie  



"Because some children are ready to begin learning to read at the age of four to six, it has been accepted as the time to start all children. Children are put in class rooms where they are continually bombarded with information and tested as to their progress. It takes twelve long hard years to drive the information into them. The system has been arranged so that as soon as a child’s mental development will allow comprehension of even a small amount of the material, he is made responsible for it. The early maturing children have set the pace for the average. The later maturing children who are just as bright a year or two behind the others are always under a pile trying to keep up. In this competitive environment, they develop feelings of inadequacy. If he is not crushed by the sense of failure, the late maturing child may prove to be the brightest when he is grown. What they are doing is like moving into a house before it is finished. If you wait until the child’s mental faculties are amply developed, in the fertile environment, there will come a craving to learn. At such a time, teaching is easy.  For the sake of understanding, observe with me an imaginary experiment with two children of equal mental comprehension who will mature at the same time. The one in a traditional class room will be continually pushed to his limit. Before he is ready he will be made responsible for the information. Some of it he will comprehend right away much of it will just swim around his head until he matures to the point of comprehension. For the teacher it is sometimes like piling dry sand. It is a constant process of hammering it in — drill and test, drill and test. As he develops new mental rooms, the teacher waits outside to fill them with information. Most of what is thrown at him, he is not ready for, but they just keep slinging it in his direction until it sticks. The poor child is a professional student at six. He is filled with responsibilities and worries, with no mother to comfort him.

The other child in our experiment is at home at his mother’s feet feeling secure and protected. He is mentally developing at the same pace, but his information rooms are not being challenged or filled before they are complete. He will appear to be two or three years behind the other child in our experiment. At seven or eight this child will begin to learn the school material that our other child was learning at six. The difference is that where it only takes an hour a day to teach the eight-year-old, it took eight hours a day to teach the six-year-old. And, our eight-year-old homeschooler is loving every minute of it. He is not being burnt-out by pressure and competition. He is not struggling to learn. His hunger is just being fed. The homeschool parent who is willing to wait for the mental and emotional development to occur will experience far less frustration and anxiety. And, the child will have fun learning.

I have observed that by the time the homeschooled children are fourteen or fifteen they have far surpassed their traditionally schooled counterpart, and that with one-tenth the effort.

– Michael Pearl "

And as always, we have kitty births and animal fun going on!  This is Katie and Pearl Muffin! 

Homeschool group pumpkin decorating contest. Of course the kitty is Katie's! 

My husband teaching Katie to skin and butcher  

Katie doing what she loves the most!