Ex Patria

Nature Study

We are new converts to Anna Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study.  I stumbled upon this via my UU Homeschooling group where the owner of Intellego Unit Studies is a member and somehow I came from there to this website which is dedicated to that very book, Handbook of Nature Study.

I love nature anyway, and we do have daily outside time for the kids, and we take enough walks with them to make them really strong hikers.  They can walk for miles and miles.  We haven't had as many walks in Chisinau as we would have wanted but now we have nature right in our backyard again, a good time as any to start with a more intensive version of our nature study.

I read a few chapters of the book and I have to say, it's lovely.  Make no mistake, this is a hefty volume and cannot be touted around during walks.  The Blogspot site says very clearly that the book is not a field guide, and it isn't.  But it shows you what's important and it's a bottomless pit of interesting information.  The book is quite aged, it is celebrating its 100th birthday this year.  But nature doesn't change so quickly, and many views that Anna Comstock holds are surprisingly modern:

During many years, I have been watching teachers in our public schools in their conscientious and ceaseless work; and so far as I can foretell, the fate that awaits them finally is either nerve eshaustion or nerve atrophy.
[...]
In my belief, there are two and only two occupations for Saturday afternoon or frenoon for a teacher.   One is to be out-of-doors and the other is to lie in bed, and the first is best.

She encourages to say "I don't know" when one doesn't -- a concept that must have been very strange in the early 1900s.  She doesn't paint nature in rosy tones and doesn't glorify, a tendency of tree-huggers that I've always found a bit strange. 

Jacob is doing a new program and his unit right now is about habitats.  This tied in nicely with the nature studies, so we decided to do the outdoor challenges that the Blogspot website suggests. 

Yesterday, we set out for our first tour of discovery.  Our chosen nature study spot is right around my Dad's cabin in the woods.  It's lovely there and the kids love it so much.  There's tons to discover, like a hidden pond with lots of carp, and the remains of a settlement given up hundreds of years ago.  It makes me happy to see my kids roam through the forest, picking up stickss, climbing rocks.   Doing this with a bit of reflection afterwards can only be good for them.

We found last night's frost in the shade.

Leah found pine cones and when I showed her from where they came, she was stunned by the enormous trees towering over her.

We found different types of lichen on trees:

We found a dead tree with a curtain of bark hanging down:

We found lots and lots of beech nuts:

Trees.  There's something about them, no?

Mommy got to play around with some sun flare:

The kids very gamely posed for a memory photo on what they insisted was the old city wall of the abandonned town:

The plan is to go to this spot every week and observe the changes.  Let's see how that works out.

Homeschooling - Limerick

The boys had to write a limerick today.  That's not an easy task, you know.  But once they got going, they did a great job.  I'm immortalizing all their poems, for better or worse.

There was a young boy from Moldova
who invited his German friends over.
They asked, where is that?
And they had a spat,
and agreed to meet in Cordova.

Pretty neat, eh?  I only supplied the name of an obscure town in Argentina to rhyme with "Moldova".  Tomorrow, we talk about the cinquain.  That's an American thing, right?  Because I never heard of it before.  Homeschooling teaches everybody!

Free verse

Today, we wrote poems in the free verse style. I really didn't expect much, having always dreaded writing poems myself -- because I loved writing poems and they were always torn apart by my German teacher.  You know, I was this dreaming teenager with all those noble feelings about love and peace and such.  He wasn't very sympathetic.

Anyway.  The boys surprised me.  Alan's poem is actually a work in progress, he told me he would be thinking more about it as the kids went outside into the backyard for recess.  But here are the first results.

Frost
glittering winter wonder world
looks like snow,
tastes like ice
                                by Alan

 

fire,
it warms my hands,
my feet,
and back
hot

                   by David

Quick and dirty: Homeschooling, ctd.

We started a new program with Jacob:  Moving Beyond The Page.  It's a curriculum for "creative, hands-on, and gifted learners".   I looked at it, and the "gifted" part that first scared me off, well... I don't really see it, yet.  Maybe later.  I hear it's writing-intensive which I like.  Writing is so important.  The 5-7 program starts slow, the higher levels may not be quite that slow.  However, so far Jacob loves it - it is very hands-on which the Sonlight isn't at all.  I'm not at all sure about his learning style but he loved the activities todayy.  I can see that it will be more work than just sitting at the desk but you know, whatever works.

Today, our lesson was on "My Environment" and he had to remember the three key elements, namely shelter, food, and water.  We then went through the concept of his environment, what belongs to his environment, what is important, etc.  We walked through the house and talked about the different rooms, and which room is the most important in the house.  Some of his answers delighted me:  "The fireplace" and "the bed, and the books!" are the important features of living room and bedroom.  In his opinion, the kitchen is the most important room in the house, because there he can find food and water.  Makes total sense to me.

We wrote this in our activity sheet, and then he drew a picture of the kitchen.  I think I'm in love with this program already!

We also did a craft - Jacob doesn't love crafts and often runs out of steam in the middle.  He had to put masking tape on a piece of paper, trying to create the shape of a tree.  Then he colored over the tape with various colors, and then we peepled the tape of.  (If you want to do this really simple and effective craft, do wait until the masking tape is completely dry.  Wait an hour or more.  Because if you don't wait, you'll peel the paper off, too.  Patience is not a family trait.)

Other than that, it worked beautifully.  Also, isn't his handwriting nice?

This is Leah's super simple version, btw:

 I didn't ask her to create a shape, just stick the tape on and color the paper.

Then, we found a different use for the masking tape:

 Truth be told, she thought it was funny and posed for this picture.  But really, it helped with the shrieking and there was always a smile on her face.

The older boys did their usual stuff but when we run out of curriculum in January, I am leaning towards MBTP for them, as well.  Let's see how the next weeks go.  But so far, I'm liking it a lot.

 

Charles' Law

Charles' Law states that gases increase in volume when heated.  The best way to illustrate this law is to stuff some Ivory soap into the microwave.  It really only works with Ivory soap as this is the only soap that has so much air whipped into it.  Any other soap would just melt. Which is how I ended up carrying Ivory from the US to Moldova.  Seeing the delight of my boys made it totally worth it, though.

1. Start with a bar of Ivory Soap.  Read the little adage.  (True, natural beauty is in the simple things.) Ponder your life and all those wrinkles in your face. 

2. Have one of your kids unwrap the bar.  Challenge him not to rip the paper.  He will rip it. (You can make fun of him, if you want.)

3. Naked Ivory.  Use a microwave-safe dish.

4. Place in microwave.  It's better not to use an itty-bitty small European microwave.  That was your public service anouncement of the day.

5. Have the kids get a healthy dose of microwaves when they press their noses against the microwave door.  Also, put a sharp knife in a precarious position.  You cannot ever have too many dangers in your kids' lifes.

6. Watch and be amazed.

7. Take out and admire.

8. Break off a piece.  Does it feel different?  Will it still clean or will it be totally gross?

9. You can wash your hands just like with soap!  That's because it's a physial change, not a chemical one.

10.  Keep the bloated Ivory by the sink.  You are a friend of the Earth and not a trash monster.

11. Send the kids outside and relax with a cup of coffee and a chocolate chip cookie.  This step is optional but you know, I live for this step.  But that's just me.

Happy New (School) Year!

The new school year has begun for us.  There were some big changes, the biggest one that Jacob has now joined us as a first grader!

A little caveat: He would not be a first grader in a normal world.  He's past the cut-off date for both the US and the German school system but we kept him in the school prep class that we have in Germany for the simple reason that all his friends are some weeks older and thus before the cut-off and it would have broken his heart to be left behind.  He's been socially a little behind, namely having problems with temper tantrums, and all school counselors and the Kindergarten teachers recommended keeping him back.  I did not have a problem with that per se, even if it's not nice to hear that your kid is academically advanced but socially challenged.  Both Doug and I always maintained that there is still time (we got those recommendations early last school year) and that one year makes so much difference in a little child's life.  Last month, Jacob went to Kindergarten for the tail-end of the Bavarian school year (the summer break is in August) and lo, the teachers made a point to tell me how much he had grown up and how wonderfully he had turned out.  Which he has.  We had worked hard to contain those temper tantrums and to curtail all the wailing and crying and he's done such a good job.  He has grown into a very charming boy who knows it's all right to be angry and disappointed and sad, only it's not all right to fling it into everyone's face with the force of a category 5 hurricane.  He's also happier than he was in the past months and that's so nice to see.  He was ready for school.

Which is why he started the new school year with his older brothers.  In Germany, first graders are celebrated enthusiastically.  They get big paperboard cones which are filled with sweets and toys, and the first day of school is just a big party.  Both Alan and David started school in Germany, so Jacob was aware of this custom and he demanded it for himself as well.  So we got him a cone (I got him a cheap one with teddybears and then my Mom made me go and exchange it for a more expensive one with cars - she donated the difference and Jacob was very grateful):

We printed welcome signs, we had a little celebration, and he loved it.  He felt very special and I'm glad he did.  Every first grader should feel special on his first day of school.

Homeschool story: writing

My boys abhore writing.  I  have to arm-wrestle them into answering lab sheet questions in complete sentences, coax one more word and then another short word out of them, and my mantra is, "Answer in a complete sentence, please".   They are verbal enough but the act of writing, the physical labor of putting words on paper seems overwhelming.  They even prefer doing long sums and multiplications in their heads, in order to avoid writing down the digits on a sheet of paper.

In today's curriculum, we had a section of introductory sentences in books - "hooks".  We pulled six books out of the shelf, and read the first sentences.  I also had some prepared.

"It was a dark and stormy night."

"Five minutes before she died, Grace Cahill changed her will."

I asked the kids whether they wanted to read the respective book, or not.  "Tax day is April 15" did not get any votes.  "Dark and scary night" was great,  and they are reading the "39 Steps" right now.

Then I challenged them to write (gasp!) four first sentences that they thought would draw a reader in.

Alan wrote:

• They peered into the robot's heart.
• As they entered the maze, they heard a terrible roar.
• It all started on Sentai Mountain.
• As he activated the battle armor, the alarm was triggered.

David wrote:

• As they walked into the woods, they heard a creak.
• They walked into the village.
• They race began when she saw the sun.
• Before the bird died, it squawked.

Yes, well, you can see the inspiration.  They are still pretty nifty, for kids who don't like to write. We also didn't have to argue about word count, and they voluntarily made some sentences longer to make them better.  I was stunned.

Alan was so pleased with himself, he decided to write a story.  For that, he needed a book.  I do pretty much anything if it turns my kids into better (or more willing) writers. I went to my trusty friend, the Internet, and found how to make easy books on Angry Chicken.  I had always swooned over her three girls filling book after book with drawings and writing, thinking I should be so lucky!

So we cut some pages, folded some origami paper, sewed through paper and ended up with not one, not two, but three books. Insipiration is inspiring, or some such.

(The papers are the few left-overs I had from an origami set that my sister-in-law gave me.  I like that even books about robots and trains have flowery covers!)

Alan sat down and started writing (after I drew him some lines).  His book is titled, "X-Force".  He is, after all, a little boy.

David decided to do a nature journal, so we collected some leaves and flowers and are pressing them now for his book.   Jacob, on the other hand, has swallowed this project line, hook and sinker.  His book is almost entirely filled already.  It's titled, "All about trains (and some rockets, too)".

He has about twenty different designs of trains in there - trains that come equipped with cranes, trains that have special wheels, trains that do special jobs ("baseball delivery!"), and some rockets complete with "USA" lettering.  He must have worked for hours on it. 

(Which, incidentally, leads us to the story of how we cured our little boy from violent temper tantrums, wildy age-inappropriate behavior, and very low frustration levels.  But that's a story for another time.)

First day of school

So we had our first day of school.

It was - mixed. 

I certainly cannot just use the math program I bought as it was intended - I have to pick and choose because my boys are too math-smart.  I also have the feeling the programs (Saxon Math and Teaching Textbooks, I couldn't decide and got both) are fairly non-challenging.  But then I had that impression from Singapore Math, also.  Maybe it's my boys? 

I can safely advance David to Lesson 30 of Grade 3 (he's actually in second grade in the German system) and Alan to the beginning of Grade 4 with minimal problems.  There are some few things they will have to catch up on, mainly geometry and US money, as well as calculating with Imperial measurements (however stupid those are) but that's easily done on the side.  So, on the whole that's good once we find our path there.

The history part is a bit too slow, I think.  We do a chapter a day and I'm not sure that's enough. They were pining for more and maybe I should accommodate that?  I'll stick with it for some days and will reconsider over the weekend. 

The spelling and the writing programs are both in the air ship which has not arrived yet.  How long can it take?  We don't know.  So I did some printing work with the older boys which they hated, small wonder.  Jacob, though, loves printing and has done a good job writing captial F's and P's.   We're using Handwriting without Tears and so far, it seems quite good.  I'm doing some remedial work with the older boys - mainly David who has developed the habit of starting his letters at the bottom.  They all love the image of the "frog jump" (starting in the upper left corner, going down and "frog jumping" back up to form an F or a P or a B or so).  Such an easy image that helps them so much.  I think Jacob will have a much easier time printing than the older boys had.

All in all it was good.  I kept my cool even though it was chaotic at times.  I let Alan run circles around the table while he answered text questions.  That's his style and that's the advantage of home schooling - he can do now what is impossible in a classroom.   He did answer all questions on the chapters we read with precision and in detail, so it works and that's all that counts.

I do have the feeling it was a bit unstructured, especially since we tried setting up the wireless printer for an hour in the middle.  Without success, I should note.  Structure shall come with time, says the husband.  We shall see, says I.

But I'm beat!  I will go to bed now, and it's not even 9 pm.

Good night.

Choosing a homeschool curriculum

Homeschooling has always been on the horizon for us.  Alan has ADHD and is bright, David has ADD and is bright.  The ADD part makes it difficult for them to excel in a standard classroom setting.  Alan would love to do chemistry but that won't happen until grade 6 or 7.  David devours books and just turned down participation in a reading comprehension program geared towards grades 3 through 5 that his older brother worked through.  In his words, "I saw Alan do it and it's too easy."  Well, okay, I can see that.   On the other hand, Alan's spelling isn't so great and while David is a lot better, he's not A-material, either.  So they would both benefit from a tailored program that encourages their strengths while working on some basics.  Not something your common garden variety school can offer.

Now we have this new job (well, Doug has this new job) in Moldova.  I will probably write a blog post about the intricacies of working for the US government as a contractor but for the sake of brevity let's just say that we probably won't get paid for our kids' schooling.  International schools are usually expensive, and QSI is no exception.  Schooling for the boys for the last three months of this school year would be around $17,000.   Is QSI Moldova good enough for us to spend this kind of money out of our own pockets?  I don't know. 

I would prefer the boys to go to school for one very important reason: social integration.  Is this worth this kind of money?  I also don't know.

The project runs out on September, 30.  That's six weeks of school in the new school year.  Doug and I had decided to homeschool that stretch - it seemed like the right thing to do.  The kids would have friends already in place, and since one has to pay entire terms, this time the school would cost $17,000 for only six weeks.  We thought we couldn't justify that to the average tax payer (who ultimately would have to pay for this).

Now that the tax payer might be completely off the hook, we may have to homeschool a bit earlier than that.

Let's put away the reasons and talk about curricula.  This is what I think will work for us:

I quite like The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer.  It makes a lot of sense to me but like so many other approaches, it is rather restricted in its assumptions.  "We are the only ones who do it right" seems, um, rather exclusive.  We are not going to do the Latin (many may disagree but I don't know Latin and Doug thinks it's silly to do).    I love the concept of memorizing poems, though, and the Writing with Ease program seems great.  So, those combined for Language Arts, I think. 

All About Spelling is a program that received rave reviews and we ordered it and will try it.  My bad spellers might just benefit from that.

Handwriting without Tears may be good for my boys who hate handwriting.

History and Literature.  Doug's a history nerd and we are both avid readers, so we agree that this is an important part of an education.  We both like Sonlight's literature-based approach.  Now, we aren't Christians, so we are going to pick and choose carefully but basically we'll do the Core 3/4 for David and Alan (American History) and the K program for Jacob (World Cultures).

Jacob is learning to read with Headsprout just like the older boys.  He's already at lesson 18 and can read simple words. 

Next, science.  Sonlight has a science program for 3/4 that is intriguing at first glance but it does have a distinct religious slant upon further investigation.  No small wonder when I discovered it is by Apologia Press.   Among other things it includes a DVD titled "Incredible creatures that defy evolution" - giraffes and platypuses, for instance. Um, no, rather not.  The science program for K is very fast-paced and challenging, though.  I am considering it.  There is a three-week instructor's guide download and it includes the worksheets.

For Alan and David, I looked around quite a bit and found the R.E.A.L. science odyssey.   I like the approach with worksheets and hands-on activities, and Pandia Press offers an e-book which would be great for us. No shipping costs!  They also offer a trial version which includes 9 lessons and 7 labs which we will try this week.

Language?  Not sure about that one.  We will continue German reading with the boys (and the girl, of course).  I'd like to add Spanish to the mix but maybe that's overly ambitious.

And piano lessons.  Only, we don't have a piano.  Should we buy an e-piano?  Depends on what happens with the move.  Which is a whole 'nother story.