Decisions Decisions Decisions... (4/2/2014)

     Almost since my son was born I've played with the idea of homeschooling. I have always hated public schools and every year it gets worse. Between the government, lessening of family values, violence/bullying and the lack of one on one help available to students it just gets worse.
    At 4 I decided to enroll him (Cayden) into our headstart program. I'm glad I did, I think he benefited from the social and instructional interactions. I was still playing with the idea of homeschooling but at this point was leaning toward public school simply because I did not think I could homeschool him successfully. I didn't believe I had the patience and was worried that it would harm our mother/son relationship. Cade and I are very close. I'm a single (and rather over-protective) mom. I think he was almost 4 before I finally had to leave him with a friend to be babysat so that I could meet at an appointment. Before that the only time he was away from me was a few hours with his dad here and there. I love our closeness and was afraid to jeopardize that.
    So we registered for kindergarten and he started last fall. He seemed to be doing well. Of course he's an intelligent child ;-)  but he's never liked writing and drawing/coloring. I found myself having to put in extra time working with him on writing. Not only were we working well together, but he started to excel again. I started wondering once again if I could successfully teach my own child. I mean, if I am going to need to reteach him at home, why not just do it all to begin with? 
     Flexible schedule, control over what and how he is taught, him being able to learn in whatever style he learns best instead of being a drone and expected to learn a certain way and only that way, the list just gets bigger and bigger. Once again I felt that pull to homeschool.  Now, I know a handful of people that have homeschooled, my own niece graduated homeschool, so it wasn't a totally foreign subject to me, but I had a lot of questions. I called upon one of our old family friends that successfully homeschooled her twins right through graduation. By the time I left her house I was pretty sure that this is what I wanted to do. This is what both my son and I needed.
     Let me tell you a little about my son. He is truly an awesome kid. Loving, sensitive, funny and usually just a pleasure to be around. (Like every kid, he has his moments, but they are few are far between. lol)  He doesn't ever throw a fit about going to school, has never cried to stay home, but he isn't crazy about going. Even though he usually gets between 9-10 hours of sleep a night it is a chore to get him up in the morning. (He comes by it naturally. I have NEVER been a morning person. My internal clock prefers nights to days, that's just always how it's been, even when I had to work the dreaded 6am start time.) I get to hear 'I don't want to go to school, I'll be tired.' 
     I sat him down and had a discussion about homeschooling with him, what it entailed and the fact he wouldn't be seeing his classmates. The fact that it wasn't just staying at home playing, that he still had to sit down- do book work and all that schooling entails. At the end I asked him if he still was interested and he was determined he wanted to be homeschooled.
    So I made up my mind and started my research. I have to honestly say the book I found the most helpful was 'Homeschooling for Dummies'. Trying to figure out New York State laws have been a bit frustrating, but luckily, I know I have a few people I can reach out to for help with the IHIP if I need it. 
    The next question was curriculum and teaching style. I don't want to 'school at home' I want to homeschool. I want him to learn by living. And we need to do it on a rather tight budget. One thing I learned already is if you are willing to utilize your library and have a support group, homeschooling can be done rather inexpensively. I decided I wanted to try the 'Learn at Home' all in one curriculum. For the most part the reviews I've read are pretty good and it has all the required subjects. (Of course supplemental material will be needed.) 
    Today I made the decision to order the kindergarten level of the curriculum (I bought it cheap on ebay used condition) and depending on whether I think I can make the curriculum work for the last 3 months we may start after Easter vacation.  I'm thinking this will be the best way to determine if homeschooling is going to be a good fit and whether the curriculum is going to work for us. So now, the adventure begins...

A great start!!!! (5/2/2014)

    We are officially homeschoolers!!!  Well, we threw caution to the wind and made the jump!   The decision was made that after Easter break Cayden wouldn't be going back to school. We would finish off the last quarter of kindergarten at home.
    So armed with our Learn At Home all in one curriculum we started. Now first I have to say, while the Learn At Home  curriculum has a great set up, it hasn't been updated in years and is a little lacking, especially in the area of math. The ideas and reference suggestions, the supplemental material suggestions are great and if you started it at the beginning of the school year instead of at the end as we are it'd be more beneficial. Starting at the last quarter trying to find and pick out what we needed was a little more challenging. Using it for finishing this year has made me decide to go another way for next year though, just because of the age of the material.
    Thanks to our library and Google (yes, I am a Google queen) we've managed to get a good start on homeschooling. I had already purchased a variety of workbooks on addition/subtraction and the language arts as well as a couple general workbooks, most of which I paid a dollar for and they have been a Godsend. Using some of the ideas in the curriculum book, googling and having talked to his teacher to find out what new material she was going to be finishing off the year with, (she's been great, very supportive), I sat down was able to get a start on lesson plans.
     The first day's lesson plan was challenging. Figuring out what I was doing and getting into a system took a bit of time, but once I had the first day planned out, the rest of the week went swimmingly.  Because I am not using an already made curriculum, I have to plan farther in advance so I can figure out what books I need for what and reserve them at the library. (A lot of the books come from the inter library borrowing system we have and need to come from a neighboring library so I need to account for transfer time.)
     My biggest struggle so far is the extras; music and gym especially. Gym wouldn't be so bad if our weather would get warm, stay warm and rain less!  Our first music class was actually quite fun. We made Easter Egg maracas.

As you can see, Cayden enjoyed this project and finding the music beats with our new 'instraments'.

    My fears of my son getting too restless and crying to be done have thankfully fallen to the wayside. He has been awesome! I won't say he doesn't get fidgety, he's 6, of course he does. I redirect his attention and if we've been at it for a while we might take a break and regroup in 20 minutes. Flexibility!!
     I've also tried to find as many projects and games as possible to get away from the monotony of 'book work' to keep it interesting and fun.
    Our first science lesson was Water Habitats. I try to do one theme for science that I can stretch for the whole week and we ended the week with a trip to the pond, and we will be making a second trip before school is out to compare the differences between early spring and late spring.
    So far, I've been really pleased with the way it's going. We've completed 2 weeks and both Cayden and I are enjoying the experience and the best thing, he's learning! Not only is he learning, but I am part of the process!  I love that I am directly contributing to his education!
    There is no question in my mind that I made the right decision by pulling him for the last quarter vs waiting till next fall. It's giving me a head start on learning the process with the school district (LOI and IHIP)as well as a chance to figure out where I want to go next year with the curriculum and how to fill the 'school day' with things that keep him interested and wanting to learn.
    In my search of alternatives for 1st grade curricula I came across this book Home Learning Year by Year- How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from PreSchool Through High School.  The reviews on the book were mostly positive with one review saying it was a good guideline, but don't expect to get through everything for every year. The book is 14 years old itself, but I figured if they thought it was a little advanced for then, maybe it'd be more on track for now. However, I didn't want to spend the money on the book to find it wasn't what I was looking for. I was trying to find out basically what you need to cover for each year to keep them roughly on the 'right track'. (Mind you, one of the biggest philosophies behind homeschooling is recognizing that children learn at different speeds and homeschooling allows you to let your child do just that. However, my biggest fear is life circumstances making it a necessity to put him back in the school system at a future time, though I hope that is not the case, and I want an idea of what he needs to keep him at the appropriate levels.) So, I reserved the book from the library to give it a look before purchasing. I have to say, even for the age of the book, it seems to be an excellent guideline for composing your own curriculum. A few of the 'shoulds' I still feel are a little ahead of what I think a child at that age should have to learn, but I think it will be a book I will be purchasing for myself.
    I am still considering finding a math curriculum or at least workbooks and Language Arts workbooks to base those two subjects on so that I can be assured he gets the full amount of 'coursework' for the year. There is also a multitude of free printables on line to help. (I just need to get a new printer before fall.)
    As I get more assured and into a more fluid routine I will start adding more of our project ideas and themes to my blog.  I'd like to add a post weekly so I myself can look back and see what's been going on and what sort of progress we are making.

A Teacher Learns (5/7/2014)

    We are into our third week of homeschooling and enjoying it. For the most part it has gone pretty smooth. Cayden has put a lot of effort into it because this is what he wants and he knows that if he wants to continue with it, he has to meet the expectations we have set. 
    Today though, I had to remember one of the reasons we are homeschooling and change my own attitude accordingly.  One of the things that appealed to me about homeschooling was my son being able to learn by what was easier for him, not by a set way to do something. Finding what works and goes with it...because we can. I found myself trying to set a guideline for my son today because in my mind that was the best way to do it. It wasn't the way he wanted to.
    We are trying to master counting by 5's. He gets stuck at 15. He can do; 5, 10 20, 25 ect, but can not remember what comes between the 10-20. So I decided we would try writing them in 5's order from 5-30. I set up his writing paper with the numbers across the top then made boxes under each number across the 5 writing lines for him to put the numbers in. The first couple lines went ok, then he started writing beside the boxes instead of inside the boxes. At this point I stop and tell him he needs to put the numbers inside the box. He doesn't want to. I said that's what you need to do. Now the tears start. Teacher frustration kicks in. I need a bathroom break. As I wash my hands I ask myself: Why is it necessary for him to write the numbers in the box that I made? Because I said so? Because in my mind that's the best way to keep it organized? That's how I pictured it working. I had no other reason except that. And what if we get rid of the boxes? The point of the exercise is to have him write them and say them as he does so he remembers them. (We've covered what it means, that you are adding 5 to each number.) As long as he is getting the practice and learning from it who cares about the boxes?
    I provided him with a new paper sans the boxes and with dry eyes, (after a short talk) he set back to work, 5 lines of counting by 5's to 30 and with added writing practice. He did the practice I wanted the way it was comfortable to him. (I think he felt cramped using the boxes I provided as his letters/numbers still range in the 'slightly to big sometimes' range.
    It was a good lesson for me.  A reminder of one of the reasons we are homeschooling and how important it is to keep an open mind and sometimes you have to rethink how you purpose something.

Fun lessons mean fun learning!!! (5/8/2014)

    In case you're wondering, the date in parenthesis (the date the post is being written) differs from bloggers date is because unless you change the blogger dates, all your posts run from newest at top to oldest at bottom and I felt it was better and made more sense to start at the top with where the blog starts.
   
    Ok, so I am actually posting two days in a row! WOW! Actually, I wanted to include some photos and lessons that we have done, but wanted the post separate from my learning experience yesterday.
     First let me say that being able to incorporate so many fun and hands on projects really brings so much to the lessons. Not only is it fun, but it's engaging my son in a way that he is thinking about what he learning outside of 'school time'.
    The second week of school we learned about the 5 senses. Each day that week we learned about a sense and usually had some kind of experiment/project that went with it. For sight he was blindfolded and had to find his way through the house, we also did the objects on the tray where he had to tell what they were blindfolded. For touch, we found samples all through the house of things with different textures and added them to our 'hand' paper. For hearing we used a Foley site and I played samples for him and he had to tell what the sound was. Smell was more discussion than action. Neither of us are into having to smell something unpleasant, lol. And for taste I had drawn out a diagram of the tongue with all of the areas of taste and what each area tasted. We did taste tests of different things and wrote them on the tongue where we thought they were being tasted.
    At the end of the second week of school I wanted to treat him to something special because he'd been doing so well. The Amazing Spiderman 2 was coming out that weekend and my son is a Spiderman Freak!! I made plans to take him to the neighboring town, (we live in a small rural town and don't have our own theater,) to catch the movie that Saturday afternoon. After, we stopped at the DQ, (They also have the only DQ I know of anywhere around and I was craving a peanut buster parfait. Hadn't had one in years.) to have a late lunch and ice cream. As we are eating he is trying to figure out which part of his tongue is tasting which of his foods. I felt so pleased and excited that our lessons were sticking with him and that he was using them in everyday situations!!

    This week we've been doing 'The Moon'. The moon has always caught his attention so I figured that it would be one he enjoyed. We've read a couple books, did a couple projects (and aren't done yet) and have had in depth discussions (well, in depth for a six year old anyway.)

    This was our moon craft project. I'm always getting ideas off from pintrest to do my lessons and I ran across a pin for 'puffy moon paint' when it dries it's supposed to resemble the moon's surface. I figured we'd give that a try. I used a circle cut out from black foam board (readily found at the local dollar store-yes, we actually have one of those, lol) and the 'paint'.  The paint was 1/4 cup white school glue and 3/4 cup shaving cream mixed together well. I dumped it in the middle of our circle and as you can see, he had a blast spreading it over it.

    This what it looks like dried. I really think it looks like the moon. Hills and craters, light and dark. I was rather impressed with it. Of course you could have added more I suppose and had more of a 3-d (ness) to it, but I was happy with the way ours turned out.


    We also did a visual to help understand how the earth rotates and orbits the sun (causing day/night) and how the moon orbits the earth (causing the moon phases.)

    He loved this simple project that simply used colored paper and paper fasteners. Every night he has to get up and look at the moon out the window and try to figure out what position the moon is in according to his paper model.


    Another source I use a lot to supplement our lessons is YouTube. There are awesome kids learning vids and songs to go with almost any topic you can think of.  I keep the lap top on the table and when we're running short on material to cover our 'time' for the subject, (Got to keep the board of education happy and get the full amount of minutes to cover a unit.) we jump on the internet and find a video or song to supplement what we are doing. It also comes in handy for when my son asks a topic related question that Mommy has no clue about. Like when we were discussing presidents and George Washington being the first president and I get the question 'Who was the second president?'  Ummm....who was the second president? (Anything social studies was my nemesis is school.) Google...here I come. I can proudly say now that John Adams was our second president, (just don't ask me who was 3rd!)
    It's definitely proving to be a wonderful experience. Seeing the educational growth and knowing that I am part of that is an unbelievable feeling. I think I look forward to some of our projects and lessons even more than him. I know I enjoy sharing them with anyone that will listen.

Mother's Day and Moon Sand (5/14/14)

    We are now in our fourth week of homeschooling and it's going great!  I'm just amazed at how well my son is doing with listening and not whining to be done, not to mention how great he is doing learning.  I just love seeing the progress and growth that he is making. 
    Speaking of making things, last Sunday was mother's day.  Just because my boy isn't in public school anymore, I still want to get those little Mother's Day crafts and projects, they always mean so much. So I went onto Pintrest (ah, Pinterest), and searched 'mother's day crafts' and I let Cayden look through the different pins and pick out which one he'd like to do for art class.  He picked, and with a slight change, we made. I thought it came out great and I love it. It's hanging on our wall:

    He even did the whole writing for 'I love you this much!'  I did my own hand outline in black and then his in white and let him paint it. the original pin was just the child's hands, but I loved the idea of mine backing his. I just love it, and he's had to point it out to anyone that came in the house. lol

    We also finished our moon lessons last week, (which he really enjoyed and stayed engaged for most of it) and to finish it off I wanted to do something fun.  OK, so it wasn't actually directly related to the moon, but what better to end with than homemade 'moon sand.'

    We mixed 4 cups of flour and a cup of baby oil to get a consistency we liked. Originally I had planned to throw some food coloring in and have a pretty color, but we ended up playing with it in the normal sand color. Then when we were done just stuck it in a zip lock bag to play with later!  We had a lot of fun with it.

    And yes, my angel was in his pj's. One of the great things about homeschooling...you can have lazy days. Now personally, I have to get dressed in the morning. I'm not comfy hanging out, especially teaching in my pj's, but my son is another story. He loves being in his jammies. Typically if we aren't going anywhere after (or during) school, I give him the choice of getting dressed or hanging out in the jammies. He'll usually pick jammies.

    We're coming along well, I'm so happy with everything. Don't get me wrong, we have our moments and frustrations but so far they've been easily resolved and we've been able to stay on task.  Even on his least favorite subjects such as writing spelling words:

No Matter What They Tell You, Never ASSUME! (5/21/14)

    So, they say if you can handle homeschooling in New York State that you can homeschool anywhere because supposedly NYS has some of the toughest regulations for homeschooling. That may be true, but I am starting to wonder about my school district.
    As my previous posts state we decided to homeschool for the last quarter of kindergarten. This decision was made after a lot of research and reading the state regs, (no less than 100 times) to make sure I had the concept of what was expected and legally how it went.  So before his last intended day of public school I had my Letter Of Intent  written and sent in with when I planned on starting homeschooling and what his last day of public school was, (along with what school he had been attending, what grade and who his teacher was.)  According to state regs they have 10 business days to reply with your IHIP  paper work, (basically an account of what you are teaching, what you are using to teach, your goals for each subject, the grade and when you will be submitting your quarterly reports and any standardized tests/evaluations.)  I had my IHIPS  within 3-4 days.
    I sit down to fill them out and I notice that everything referes to 1st-6th grade. There is nothing that relates to kindergarten. So I place a call to the assistant superintendent (her name and title were on all the paperwork I received,) and I get through. I explain my reasoning for the call. I am told that the reason that nothing pertains to kindergarten is because kindergarten is not required in NYS and technically I do not have to fill out the paperwork if I chose not to, but if I chose to they would definitely be looked at and responded to.
    Well, my son is doing the work, we are putting the time into completing the work and the grade, I want it to show somewhere that he has completed it. So of course I am opting to fill out the paperwork. Not only does it show that he's completed it, it also gives me the opportunity to get used to the system and doing them right.
    I complete the paperwork and send them back in with a cover letter stating that as discussed via the phone I was opting to file the paperwork and would like to be notified as to it's approval/disapproval.
    Now, again, according to state regs, once you send in your IHIPS  they have 10 business days from receiving them to send a reply. A couple weeks go by, no correspondence. Last week I call the school in attempt to talk to the assistant superintendent again. This time she was unavailable, so I took my chances asking for the superintendent. I was actually put through to her. I explain my reason for my call and before concluding the call I throw out the general question of  'if these papers are not filed I'm assuming he won't get 'credit' for completing the grade (understood it is not required.')
    I have to admit I was a bit dumbfounded to hear the superintendent say she knew nothing about homeschooling. Now I understand relegating. I understand one person can not deal with and know everything in any given position, but I did not expect that answer. She did reassure me that she would discuss it with the assistant and they would give me a call back with the answers to my questions.
    About another week goes by with no answer back. I call the school today and get the assistant super once more and I explain that I have not received a response and yes I understand it is not required but I do want it in his records he has completed this course of learning. My answer: they don't send out responses quarterly. Ahhhh...but this is my initial IHIPS. I reiterate that (my understanding of) the state regs states an IHIP plan is to be approved/disapproved within 10 business days. I am told that yes, they were looked at and approved and that his 'files' (if you can call them that,) will reflect that he is being home taught for kindergarten. I am then told: If you don't hear back from us on something like this it is safe to assume that everything was ok'd.
    I don't assume. I don't have that much faith in anyone. I further the conversation by asking if when I send out my IHIPS for first grade, (seeing as how it is required) will I receive a reply either way. My answer: I don't remember- that (being the beginning of the school year) was 9 months ago. But if I feel that I don't have needed paperwork I can always call and talk to her and she will get me what I needed.
    Aughhhhhhhhhh!!!!
    Call ends. I go back to preparing the day's lessons for my son. Five/ten minutes later the phone rings with a call from the school. I answer. It's the secretary (at least I think that's who she was) stating that Mrs assistant super was discussing with her the reason for my call and that she (the secretary, apparently) did indeed send out an approval letter for my IHIPS (more than 2 weeks ago). Did I not receive them? Ma'am, I have not received anything since I returned the paperwork. Well, you still live at: ***********?  AND THERE'S THE PROBLEM! They were sent to an address with a vaguely similar road name, however, not my address. She states that they were not sent back, to which I can only say the wonderful people at that address (if that rd # exists) probably just threw them out instead of taking the time to put them back in the mailbox.
    AND HERE'S THE POINT OF MY STORY: DO NOT ASSUME!  If my son was in a required grade, and there had been problems with my paperwork to the point I needed to make changes to be in compliance with the regs, and I never received that paperwork (because it was sent to the wrong address, or lost in the mail,) and I assumed that everything was OK because I didn't receive anything stating a difference, I'd be (no other way to put it) screwed. I would be held accountable, possibly in neglect educationally because I assumed. So don't. Make sure you have all your paperwork, all replies, all checks and balances even if you have to make a nuisance of yourself doing it.

Fun Money (5/27/14)

    The last couple weeks we did an intro to money. I wanted him learn the names of the coins, their worth, that 100 cents equalled a dollar and how to buy with the correct change. I wasn't sure how long we were going to work on this lesson matter, but from the first day of introduction, Cayden wanted more.  He absolutely loved it! I had bought a package of fake money from the Dollar General and added some extra coins as they don't give you a whole lot.
    I then had him pick out some of his toys and figures that he would want buy and while he was doing that I cut up some pieces of paper and wrote my prices on it.  I become Ms Store Keeper.  I set about putting my 'stock' out on the end table.

    When we started, we used pennies until I felt he had that down, then we changed out the pennies for the nickels then the nickels for the dimes. We touched on quarters, but our focus was the smaller coins. Once he had pretty much mastered all three individually, (also a great review and practice counting by 5's and 10's,) we started doing combinations of pennies and dimes, pennies and nickels, etc until we used all three together.

    Cayden 'purchased' his items by bringing the toy and the price tag to the table, where he would tell me how much it cost and count out the change.

    He picked up the concept of using money quickly, but the best part of the whole lesson was seeing him excited about doing it.  Asking if after we were done with all of our other 'school stuff' if we could do more.  I get excited when I see him want to know more or get more active in a lesson. This doesn't happen with all subjects. I don't ever foresee him asking for more writing...lol