The Power of Recycling

I consider myself very "green" conscious. I recycle, I use the right light bulbs, I don't use plastic bags at the supermarket, etc. I try to do my small part to help our beautiful Earth. As a mom, I find that teaching my kids to not be wasteful is very important. As a human being, I think we could always do more. Even if it's a little thing. Because those little things add up and will make a difference if we all do it.

I am constantly thinking of ways to improve our efforts here in our home. It's not always easy or convenient, but we try.

As a homeschool parent, I realized I could turn the idea of recycling and protecting Mother Earth into a lesson or lessons that we could do throughout the year. This video is a great starting point, because it shows how one small change can make a big difference. It helps for kids to see for themselves how much they can help, instead of just hearing a lecture from us "the parents".
Maybe this video can lead to a conversation of what else the kids can do that they think will help. I love it when kids come up with their own thoughts and solutions, because they don't think like adults. So they wind up coming up with such creative ideas.

How do you encourage your kids to help the environment?

Stay at Home Moms - a Great Article

Good morning!! I just read a really wonderful article on MSN about the "new" stay at home moms and I just had to share it. It profiles today's moms who choose to stay home with their children. It also gives great advice and tips. Here's the link:

The New Stay-at-Home Mom

As a stay at home mom who homeschools, I am very familiar with the challenges as well as the advantages of staying home.
For me, one of the biggest challenges is the stigma. Believe it or not, there are still people out there who turn a nose at women like me. They have no idea what a hard job I have. I have heard comments like "do you sit around watching Oprah?". It's insulting and ignorant to say the least. I'm glad the article The New Stay-at-Home Mom, shows that today's stay at home mom is not a slave to the stove or laundry machine. We are a growing group of women who think it is important to be close to your children especially when they are young. We are also a group of women who work hard whether it's starting a business, blogging, or homeschooling.

The advantage of course is the privilege to be there for every important moment of my child's life. Taking charge of raising our kids instead of pawning them off to strangers. My children love the fact that I homeschool, attend every game or school event and take an active role in their lives.

What are the challenges you face as a stay at home mom? Please share your thoughts.

Valentine's Day Craft Idea part 1

Kids love to exchange Valentine's at school, so I think it would be the same way at homeschool. It's fun to give and receive these little treats from friends. Your child can give valentines to their homeschool group friends, their friends at gymnastics or dance or whatever activities they are involved in, they can even give them to their cousins or siblings.

I know that many of you think it's much easier to go the store and buy a bulk pack of valentines. You're right, it is so much easier. But it's also boring! It is worth it to take a little time and plan an activity that your homeschooled child will love to do.

Almost all of our activities serve a double purpose. For one, we have fun doing a craft, something creative and handmade. Second, I like to incorporate a little hidden learning. Since we are making little cards to attach to our gift, my daughter uses a ruler to measure a square on the card stock. She uses age appropriate scissors to cut out the square.

Here is a Valentine's Day idea that serves both those purposes with the added bonus that your child can then give these to the people she loves.

First, you need to figure out how many you want to make. That will dictate how much you need to purchase .

We are going to be making chocolate covered pretzel rods. My kids are pros at making these, since we make them for almost every occasion. They are so easy to make and are a great gift!

Chocolate covered Pretzel rods
What you'll need:
- 1 bag of pretzel rods
- 1 bag of chocolate candy (from the craft store). You will need more if you want to make them in different colors. I will make them using milk chocolate.
- Sprinkles (jimmies) in red, pink, white. The craft store has these already prepackaged together.
- 1 pack of small lollipop bags (also found in the candy making section of the craft store)
- ribbon (to tie the bags. I use Christmas type ribbons, you can choose the color) I will use red
- red card stock

Directions:

Set up your work area in the kitchen. Place foil on a cookie sheet. Melt your chocolate according to the instructions. Dip your pretzel into the melted chocolate about half way, shake off any excess. Place the pretzel on the cookie sheet and have your child put the sprinkles over the chocolate to decorate. Do this one at a time, otherwise the chocolate will dry on the pretzel and the sprinkles won't stick. When your tray is full, place it in the fridge for about 10 minutes to set. Remove from fridge, carefully take the pretzel off the foil and place in a bag. Tie the bag with ribbon, place the card through one of the ribbons, tie it again and curl the ribbon with scissors (parents do this).

To make the card:
Cut the card stock into small squares. Let your child write a short message on one side, then hole punch it to secure it to the ribbon later. Kids can also decorate the cards.

Homeschool and your local library

I guess I never realized the importance of our library until we started to homeschool.

Sure, we would go there once in a while to pick books to bring home. Sometimes, we would even spend time there reading books. But I don't think I really appreciated how much a library has to offer.

Now, my daughter and I go to our local library once a week and we take our time browsing the shelves and choosing just the right books for the coming week.

For my daughter, it is just fun. It is part of school and we try to go on the same day every week (library day). It's something we both look forward to.

In reality, it is a carefully planned outing. I do a lot of research on books I will need to support the lessons I am teaching. I like to have different resources at my disposal to make lessons as interesting as possible.

For instance, I was planning a lesson on healthy habits, so I found books about personal hygiene and health specifically for young children. I also use books to help reinforce math lessons. I always find good material at the library.

We've become quite comfortable with the library and it's massive amounts of books. My daughter is very familiar with the layout of the children's floor of the library and she is clear on what reading level she should be choosing.

During our first visit, I showed her where level appropriate books were and I helped her choose. I gave her guidelines and since then, she has become a pro at choosing her own books. It is important for her development to learn to make choices. She also likes to be in control of the books she chooses.


If you homeschool, use your local library. It is a very valuable resource and it's free.

1st Grade Art Project - Edward Hopper

As I posted last week, our lesson on Georgia O'Keeffe was a success. So now, it's on to our next project. I also mentioned that we would be doing paper snowflakes, which I think is perfect to decorate our "school" (actually my office turned homeschool). But that will have to wait.

The beauty of homeschool is the flexibility it allows me as the teacher and my daughter as the student. For instance, the two of us were at our local library last week and as we browsed the titles, my daughter recognized a book and pulled it from the shelf.

It happened to be a biography on Edward Hopper. The interesting thing about that is we had just seen his work at the Whitney Museum in New York a few days earlier. We were both intrigued by his style and when she picked his biography, I thought it was a perfect segue to our next art project.


A note about Edward Hopper: He was an American artist known for portraying everyday American life and the average American. His work is realistic and colorful, and well balanced.

I haven't fully planned out our lesson, but we will start by reading his biography. Then, we will discuss Hopper's paintings that are shown in the book. We will continue to explore his work online. And I'm sure we will do some activity, not sure what yet.

UPDATE: Our discussion of Hopper's work included talking about the shadows he uses in most of his paintings to show depth, time of day, distance, height, etc. Once we talked about it, my daughter was able to look at other Hopper works and see those things for herself. She really liked the colors he used and the realism of his work.

So on a sunny, but cold day, we took our paper and pencils and took a walk in our neighborhood. We found a place to sit and my daughter made a drawing of what she saw. The drawing portrayed life in our small town by showing the street lamp and building under construction.

Overall, it was a very good learning experience!

Art Projects and Homeschool

Art is definitely not my forte, but it is part of a well balanced curriculum in any school. So it should also be part of a homeschool curriculum. I've been doing a lot of research on the topic. How do I teach art to a 6 year old? How do I make it part of homeschool? What is the best way to integrate art with other things we are doing? These were a few of the questions I had. I came across some good ideas, but nothing really made sense to me. It seemed that some of the ideas were either too childish or too advanced. I don't want my daughter to just sit in front of a white sheet of paper and draw randomly. That's ok for afterschool but for an art class I was looking for something more structured. I wanted structure for me, as the teacher. Some guidelines that I could follow to make teaching art fun, productive, and educational.

I still haven't really found anything I can use. It's a shame because there is so much information out there for homeschool parents in general, but for this particular topic, there's not much. So, as with almost everything I do, I decided to come up with my own plan.

I am homeschooling a 1st grader who is naturally interested in art. That is a huge plus. I picked a couple of artists and/or artistic styles. I made a list. I am going down the list and trying different things.

My first artist was Georgia O'Keeffe. I picked this one on a recommendation. Looking back I would not have started with O'Keeffe in first grade. I think her style is too complex for first graders. I've also never been a big fan. But since homeschooling is not about me, I decided to give it a go.

First, I talked to my daughter about the artist in very general terms. Then we went to the library and got a biography about Georgia O'Keeffe (a children's biography). We looked through the book at first, then I began to read my daughter the story. Even this children's book was way too long and complex for a 6 year old. I read the story sometimes changing the words, making it simpler to understand. We did not read the whole book in one sitting.

On a different day, we read some more. At that point, we just talked about O'Keeffe and her art. I asked questions and my daughter answered in her own words. I encouraged her to talk about the art and how it made her feel. This part of the lesson was great.

Then, we went on the internet and looked at some more of Georgia O'Keeffe's art. I told my daughter to pick one that she really liked. When she found a purple flower, she was set. I then gave my daughter some paper and pencils and told her to make her own O'Keeffe flower.

I am very pleased with the outcome of this set of art lessons. I believe that in 1st grade, children do not need to know art in detail or know the names of artistic styles, etc. I believe at this age, children need to be introduced to a variety of styles in a supportive, creative environment, so they can explore their own tastes and abilities.

Next we are going to make paper snowflakes!! I can't wait.

If you read this blog and would like to contribute ideas, please do so! I welcome them. That is the purpose of this blog. I want to exchange information with other parents that are out there homeschooling and having their own experiences.

Back to Homeschool!

Is it me or is it just so hard to start up again after the holidays? I mean, I remember with my older child that it was difficult to go back to school. It's so cold outside, you've been home for at least a week, you just don't feel like going back. But when the day comes, you get on that bus and that's it. You're back in the routine.

But I feel that with homeschooling it's even harder. Because you make your schedule, I guess you can decide when you go back to school. That's nice. The flip side is that you're used to waking up late, and not having a routine at all. All of a sudden, you have to get back into that routine, but you don't have a bus schedule or a school schedule to push you back into the routine. It takes a lot of discipline for you, as the parent/teacher, and for the child.

So I wanted to start on the 3rd since that is when my other child started up again in public school. We got up at a reasonable time and got started right away. I had planned a regular day but not overly ambitious since I didn't know what to expect. To my surprise, my daughter got right back into her school work too. One less battle to fight!

One of the things I think helped is that I planned a fun music/science activity to get us going.

I got the idea in a magazine and had been planning it for a while. We got 8 emplty bottles of soda or water and filled each according to the directions and when you blow into them, you make music. We started just by doing do re mi da so la ti do for practice. The instructions in the magazine also taught us to do "Row your boat".

How do you handle the back to school ho hum?? Share your tips, please!!

Gingerbread Men cookies!

My daughter and I decided to make gingerbread men cookies to celebrate the Christmas holiday. I had never made these before, so I took the easy route and bought a packaged mix. It couldn't have been easier! We had so much fun making these. And because the recipe was simple, she was able to help every step of the way.

I used Betty Crocker's gingerbread mix. All I had to add was butter, water, and an egg. Then mix, mix, mix until it becomes a soft dough. I actually had to knead the dough with my hands because with just the spoon (or even the mixer), the dough wouldn't come together. Once I worked the dough with my hands, it worked out perfectly.







I would also recommend watching these cookies closely when they're in the oven. There are two options for bake time on the package depending on the type of cookie sheet you use. I went with the shorter bake time and my first batch came out a little burned. So for the next batches I decreased the bake time by a minute or two. They bake very quickly.

Then we let them cool and decorated them. I'm no professional baker so the decoration is not the most perfect.
Do you include baking as part of homeschooling? What kinds of things have you and your homeschooled children been preparing this holiday season? Share!!

"Merry Christmas" in different languages

If you're interested in teaching your kids some culture this holiday season and making it part of homeschool, here's an idea that my daughter loved.

We were doing a lesson on Christmas around the world and how people celebrate the holidays. We found some traditions that are completely different than ours, but we also found some traditions in common. It was a very fun lesson and it teaches kids that our way is not the only way. It also teaches kids to respect other cultures and other people's traditions.

To make the lesson even more fun, we looked up how people say "Merry Christmas" in other languages. Here are our favorites:

Spanish - Feliz Navidad
Portuguese - Feliz Natal
French - Joyeux Noel
Italian - Buon Natale
German - Frohe Weihnachten

We wanted to learn some other ones, but couldn't find phonetic spellings for them. If anyone wants to add to this list, please do in the comments section and I will add them to the list.

We hope you enjoy your holidays and we look forward to a New Year full of great homeschool opportunities as well as lots of health, happiness, hope and joy!

So from our family to yours,
Merry Christmas!
Feliz Natal!
Joyeux Noel!
Feliz Navidad!
Buon Natale!
Frohe Weihnachten!

What to do the week before the holidays!!

'Since this is my first year homeschooling, I had no idea what to expect the last week before Christmas vacation. I made my lesson plans as usual, with a little more flexibility. For instance, I didn't plan any formal lessons for Friday, since it's a half day at public school and my older child would be home earlier. I figured we can have a half day as well or even a day off.

What I didn't anticipate is the lack of enthusiasm for school work during this time of year. My daughter simply isn't interested in doing any work. Monday was totally stressful because I was in teaching mode and wanted to get all the work done. My daughter on the other hand was whiny; she complained she was tired, or sick, or anything that would get her out of doing school work. Throughout the month of December, we did tons of Christmas or holiday themed activities. We made Christmas tree mosaic, we made wreaths and snowmen. We did activities that taught us about Christmas in other countries, we even learned how to say "Merry Christmas" and "Santa Claus" in several different languages. I think we both feel all Christmased out!! So I re-assessed the day's plan and decided to do things differently.

We still got some work done but I chose to go a more relaxed, casual way. We did some guided reading and other activities that didn't involve deep concentration and focus. Success!

Tuesday started out the same way. So we veered from my plans again. Today is Wednesday and we are a little more focused. So we are trying to get some work done. I'm even hoping to get ahead of schedule so we can take it easy the rest of the week.

The other thing I didn't anticipate or plan for is the fact that I would be so busy this time of year. I have shopping to do, holiday meals to plan, guests to entertain, and house cleaning to do. With all of that homeschooling became a chore even for me this week.

Finally, I just allowed myself to be flexible and stray from the structure/routine, in order to preserve my sanity and not have a completely stressed out kid by the end of the week.

So far, so good. This afternoon we are baking Gingerbread Men cookies. That counts as part of school, doesn't it? Measuring=math, reading the recipe=language arts, talking about the origin of these cookies=social studies. Awesome!

I wonder how other homeschool moms deal with things this time of year.

Christmas Tree Mosaic Arts and Crafts Project

As a homeschool mom, I am always looking for project ideas to do with my 1st grader. Arts and crafts projects serve several purposes. They can be educational, just for fun, or even to break up the monotony of the day sometimes.

I like to do projects with a purpose. Since we are going to be celebrating Christmas soon, I thought it would be fun to do a Christmas related project. We started by talking about decorating our Christmas tree and what kind of things we use to decorate our tree. Then we read a Christmas book. We finished off by doing our mosaic arts and crafts project. This was just a simple project I came up with to tie in our art class with the season. I had used this idea previously for other projects and it worked wonderfully.

It was really simple to do and my daughter and I had lots of fun doing it.

Here's what you need to make this project and instructions.

Materials needed:

1 piece of black construction paper

Elmer's glue

Paint swatches in green, brown, red, and yellow colors (I got mine from a home improvement store)

I made a free-hand outline of a Christmas tree on the construction paper. Then I cut out random pieces of the paint swatches, in different sizes and different tones of green (for the tree) and brown (for the trunk). I also cut out free hand circles of red for ornaments. And finally I cut out a yellow star.

My daughter then used glue to put the pieces of "mosaic" colors on the tree. After she did the green and brown, she glued red ornaments (we did some purple ones too, since purple is her favorite color).

Tip: Using different tones of the same color (in this case green) gives the mosaic a nice texture and interesting look.

Here's a picture of the project as we started and the finished mosaic.

The internet is your friend!

Since I've started to homeschool my first grader, I've done a ton of research on the internet. I mean, when I started homeschooling I had no idea what I was doing. So, naturally, I went to the internet for information, guidance and ideas.

Wow! I have found so much information. It's really incredible. What's more astounding is that every time I search for something, I come up with new pages, websites, etc.

Since I am working with my school district on homeschooling, I have their curriculum as a guideline. I am not interested in buying an online curriculum. Of course, there are alot of paid online curriculum, even schools, and the cost is pretty high. I was really surprised by that.

What I am most interested in is ideas. I want to read what other moms or teachers have done. I also want to be able to share with others what I've done. I'm very happy to say that there are a lot of people out there sharing their teaching ideas. There are so many good, free websites that offer amazing resources for homeschooling parents. I want to help promote some of these sites, so I'm putting together a list of the sites I use most and find most helpful. I will publish my list soon!

Also, if anyone has a site they'd like to promote, please let me know. I will check out the site and if I find it helpful, I will be more than happy to add it to my list.

To homeschool or not to homeschool? Part 2

So the start of a new school year was looming over my head. It was August and I was busy buying backpack, lunch boxes, and everything on the teacher's supply list. I didn't really have time to stop and think about anything. I hadn't considered the impact of what was about to happen. When you enroll your kids in school, it's almost a no brainer, that's what you do, that's what everybody does. You don't really think about how that simple non-decision impacts many years of your and your child's lives. I was blissfully unaware of the impact it would have on me, especially this being my youngest child.

Suddenly one day, it hit me. I will be all alone, all day. What will I do? How will I occupy my time? Do I go back to work? (I knew this wasn't an option because the kids get out at 2:45 and 3:15 respectively and each has their own afterschool activities). At first, I welcomed the idea of "me" time. Time to read a book (I haven't done that in years), organize the house, clean out closets, etc. I had big plans.

But something else happened. I realized that I wouldn't be spending all day with my child. I hated that thought, mainly because I knew she didn't need to spend so many hours at school to get the education she needs and deserves. So I felt cheated and it turns out so did she.

So I started to think about homeschooling. I knew based on prior experience that I could teach her more at home than she would be getting at school. Knowing my child, I also knew the flexibility of homeschooling would be very good for her. But I wasn't convinced. I didn't think those were reasons enough. After all, you're supposed to send your child to school, right?

School started and off we went for the first weeks with high expectations and positive thoughts. But I noticed a change in my daughter right away. The usually happy, outgoing child who loved school, suddenly did not want to go. She cried everyday from the moment she woke up to the moment she got to school. Actually, I heard from her teachers that she cried throughout the day. I had a hard time leaving her at school because she clung on to me. This was breaking my heart but I thought she'd get over it.

In the meantime, the homeschool idea kept nagging at me. My husband and I talked about it constantly. He was all for it. He also knew she'd get a better education at home. I still wasn't convinced. So off to school we go. And it's the same thing everyday. I wanted to be sure I was making this decision for the right reasons. "I'll be lonely" wasn't the right reason.

At the same time, I noticed that the work she was bringing home was very basic and way too easy. She wasn't being challenged. She began to complain that she was bored at school. That was the reason I needed. I told my husband I wanted to go ahead with homeschooling. My next step was to contact the school district. They were very supportive and even shared their curriculum, so I would have a guideline to follow in case I decided to re-integrate her at some point.

It's been 2 months now, and she's a totally different child. She's happier, she's eager to "do school" and she's learning at her pace, pursuing what she likes. I am so glad that I made this decision. Although I gave up "me time", I have gained so much more.

To homeschool or not to homeschool? Part 1

 

The decision to homeschool a child is very personal. Everyone has different opinions on the subject and there are equally as many reasons to do it or not. For me, it was both simple and complicated.

Here's my story. I have two daughters and they were born 10 years apart. When I had my first daughter, I was a single parent. I struggled to make ends meet and had no choice but to work to earn a salary. As a consequence, my daughter had no choice but to go to daycare full time. Then when she reached school age, she spent her entire day at school including after school care. Since I worked full time, I could only pick her up around 6:30 pm. This lifestyle was devastating for me as a parent. I hated the idea of spending so much time away from my young child. I often cried from the time I dropped her off at daycare until I arrived at work. I'm sure I wasn't a very good worker, since I had a hard time focusing on work. I was riddled with guilt. I know a lot of moms can't wait to go back to work after having children. But I was never one of those moms. The minute I decided to have children, I decided that I would devote myself to them, raising them myself, taking care of them, etc. I vowed not to leave my children in the hands of others. So being forced to do just that felt like punishment. But we got through it. Eventually I married a wonderful man and had another daughter. I finally became the stay at home mom I always dreamed of. (I know people dream of winning the lottery or having a big mansion, but not me. I just wanted to be a mom.)

 

My youngest is very bright and loves to learn. When she was 3, I put her in preschool for socialization. I had no expectations that she would do anything of value academically. She loved it and had a great time. The following year, we decided to keep her home. At that time, I hadn't made a conscious decision to homeschool, but looking back we did just that. We spent our days reading, playing, going on adventures, and all the while my daughter was becoming brighter and brighter. She was a sponge, soaking in everything around her. Her preschool teacher had noticed that quality in my daughter and advised me to really challenge her. Her teacher was so wonderful and even gave me some guidance since I had never taught preschool before. By the time my daughter was at the right age for kindergarten, we enrolled her in public school. She got a wonderful kindergarten teacher and had a great time that year as well. It was such a gift. I truly believe that teacher made all the difference in the world for my child. By the end of kindergarten my 5 year old was reading. We enrolled her in first grade and that is when trouble started.