What Our Homeschool Looks Like

Just pulling some old photos off the camera and thought some of you would like to know what our homeschool looks like. As Xavier gets closer and closer to five, we are slowly but surely being "outed" as homeschoolers to our friends and neighbors. But for us homeschooling isn't a solitary endeavor at home devoid of any friends.

Twice a week we participate in a preschool co-op. None of the other kids come from homeschooling families (older sibs are in conventional school) but neither are any of them in preschool or MDO. Its sort of a halfway point between homeschooling and conventional schooling. In addition to this, once a week I run a music co-op. I take the boys with me to the gym 2-3 times a week where they play with other boys and girls in the kid's gym. And of course, there always at least one or two playdates with friends.

On to academics. These photos are from February when Xavier was mad about numbers and counting. He put the numbers in order than counted out their "cargo." These days he's more into letters and reading but math is still a steady part of our week.

One last benefit of homeschooling is eliminating the need to get up and go first thing in the morning to beat the carpool line. While we have a set routine each morning of cuddle, eat, dress; if the boys have had a restless night and need a little more sleep, we just take our time transitioning. As you can see, this morning both boys got up before they were ready and promptly fell back asleep on the couch. Notice the identical body position!

Summer Images

As we near the end of the summer (which I prefer to mark at the autumnal equinox) I thought I'd share a mish mash of things that were still on my camera as we headed up to Iowa.

A photo of the okra blossom. Our okra plants really produced this year--enough to make several pots of gumbo! I hated to pull them up before we left for our trip.

These beans were pretty but didn't really produce much before it was time to leave. I think I planted them too late or expected the harvest too early. Boys playing chase in the clothesline.

Playing with paper dolls on a rainy day. Jack liked to decapitate his while Xavier preferred to just separate and rejoin his with tape.

All the kids one Sunday before Mass.

Xavier in his "house" made of laundry baskets.

Xavier at swim lessons. Bless his heart, Xavier was the smallest and youngest one in his class. He seemed to enjoy the water but didn't understand most of the instructions. Needless to say, he will repeat this class next summer!

Tot School--February Round Up

Well February was a bit crazy around here. The boys and I passed around colds for the first few weeks. Then once the weather warmed up we've been on the go a lot. I did manage to take some photos here and there to share with you!

Here's the Mardi Gras king cake we made with a recipe from Ruby Slippers. It was more breadlike than donutish but the boys loved it.

Making homemade valentines.

Making valentine pizza.

And of course a little Montessori to balance things out.

Photo Dump!

I can't believe its been a month since my last post. Tim was out of town for a week and then the boys and I have come down with a nasty cold. I've been in survival mode and even using *gasp* disposable diapers for more than just night times. I have had "post to blog" on my to-do list for ages.

Xavier practicing fine motor skills with beans, jars and spoons. If Xavier one day becomes an accountant, this "bean counter" photo will be priceless!



Jack enjoying the bounty of sticks in the back yard. This little guy is becoming positively addicted to his outdoor freetime each day. He plays and explores quietly while I hang laundry, turn the compost, or rake leaves.
Jack proud of his discovery of Xavier's green crayon--yum!
Xavier's pig craft. I whipped this one up on the fly one day when Xavier was obsessed with pigs. It stays on our fridge although Xavier does like to take it down from time to time and have a conversation with Mr. Piggy.

Tot School -- #3

This past week in Tot School we've been focusing on shapes. Here are the boys having a little fun with circle-shaped stickers from Kroger. Those baggers never listen to me when I ask them to only give Xavier and Jack one sticker each and instead usually give them about 10. Fortunately, Xavier only puts stickers on people right now. Jack doesn't seem to mind.


Xavier continues to love doing "crafts" which means using scissors, glue and paper in any permutation. I cut out simple shapes from construction paper--sets of three. I asked Xavier to pick out certain shapes and then we sorted them. We worked on the concepts of small, medium and large as well as shapes. Then we glued them to the paper. Xavier still hates to get his hands sticky and instead points and tells me, "Right there!" to indicate where a piece should go.



In the realm of practical life, Xavier is learning how to set a table. He's been "cooking" his Wonder Pets for quite some time now. This morning while I was doing housework, he put them in bowls, set out napkins, forks and knives, and told me to, "Come see, Mom." We had a nice imaginary Wonder Pet snack.



I scored some .25 cent watercolors during the Target back to school sale. Here's Xavier with his first attempt at using them.

Tot School -- Sensorial

We're back on the Tot School wagon. Actually, we never really stopped, I just stopped posting about it. I've been taking a combined approach to Xavier's early education--Montessori meets Charlotte Mason for the most part. In layman's terms, self-directed progressive learning mixed in with lots of books and outdoor time.

I've been trying to make most of our Montessori materials. In addition to being much less expensive, most of the materials are easy and fun to make with a little bit of ingenuity. I find the suggestions in Elizabeth Hainstock's Teaching Montessori in the Home very helpful in coming up with alternatives. I love looking at the "real" materials at Kid Advance and other similar websites and figuring out how to make similar items from what we have available. Fortunately, my materials don't need to be quite as durable as those for a classroom of 10-20 kids.

I do find though that beauty in the materials themselves is very important. Xavier (and perhaps all kids his age) has a keen eye for asthetics and beautiful materials draw his attention unlike anything I've ever seen. Here's Xavier with a set of color tablets that I painted using some wooden blanks. They are meant to be homemade versions of these. I'm fairly happy with they way they turned out.

I have introduced these to Xavier before but each time he got easily distracted or frustrated. Each time I put them away for a few weeks before trying again. I suspect if I had Montessori training, I'd have a more sophisticated assessment of his response but I figure if it isn't fun or educational, we just shouldn't do it for now. To my surprise this week he was fascinated by them. He quickly caught on to the names of the colors, the concept of matching and even making patterns with them. After about 15 minutes, he progressed to turning them into imaginary doors by saying, "Open, shut. I shut doors. I open doors!" While this sort of imaginative play might be frowned upon by Montessori purists, I couldn't help but smile. My boy has an exquisite imagination.



We later moved on to cutting paper. Xavier is getting more and more adept at puting his fingers and thumbs into the scissors and cutting little strips of paper.

This week I'll try to paint more tablets to be ready for when Xavier is ready to graduate to this activity.

A is for...

...apples, alligator, art and apple pie. Last week we focused on things beginning with the letter "A." I think it is probably too early for Xavier to really recognize and understand letters but by focusing on different letters it helps give a little focus and structure to our tot school activities.

Xavier loved cutting up apples for the pie and has since used the chopper for pears too. Because it doesn't really have sharp edges, it is a great montessori-styled way to get him involved in cooking.

Xavier is often spontaneously leaving little art installations around the house. Here's his little car with styrofoam cups for beams of light. I know this because when I asked him what it was he pointed to each cup and said, "Light, light, light, light." We also did some cut and paste projects of an alligator and an apple. Xavier is just starting to get the hang of the safety scissors (or snips-nips as he calls them!) but still doesn't quite get the concept of glue.

Tot School -- #2

Xavier, 21 months

I noticed this week that Xavier was eager to use his fork more and more at mealtime but was having difficulty. As his 3-year-old cousin noticed during a visit, "Xavier eats silly!" So we tried doing Montessori-styled spooning for the first time to help build his manual dexterity.

I was curious if he would be confused about using a spoon to play with non-food items. I set two bowls in front of him: one filled with popcorn kernels and the other empty. I demonstrated spooning. Then he took the spoon and started doing it himself with great concentration. This lasted about 20 minutes!

We also made and decorated Valentine's cookies with his little buddy, Ethan. Xavier was very interested in making the dough and cutting out the shapes while Ethan was more involved with the decoration. Both did a lot of eating!

Admittedly, the moms did most of the final work but I think the boys really enjoyed the process.

Tot School

Xavier, 21 months

Each day I try to devote a little time to making sure Xavier has a rich and diverse learning environment here at home. While I know at this age he is learning all the time (and his imaginative play surely indicates that he is watching us closely) I think that a little focus now and then is in keeping with the best of Charlotte Mason and Montessori teaching philosophies that I admire. The Tot School link above is one of the websites that I find particularly helpful in generating ideas.

This week we did a lot of reading. In the book basket for the week are:

Corduroy

My Big Green Pocketbook

The Baby Sister

My Big Boy Potty

Pop Worhol's Top

Xavier learned how to plant seeds and water them. We talked about how seedlings will poke up through the dirt but I'm not sure if he will truely understand until they show themselves in a few days.

For arts and crafts, we made a lifesized drawing of Xavier. I laid out some postal wrapping paper and traced his body. He didn't want to color at first so I just asked where certain body parts should go (nose, eyes, fingers) and filled them in where he pointed. Later he added some scribbles of his own. Then we used masking tape (the boy LOVES tape) to put the drawing on his bedroom door. I'm not sure if it is related to this project or not, but this was the first week that I recall Xavier saying his own name. The power of the self-portrait to provide self awareness I suppose!