Last Week of Summer Break

We are starting back to school the day after Labor Day.  I am glad that recently I finished the book For The Children's Sake by Susan Schaefer MacCauley.  It really broke down the Charlotte Mason style of education in a way that gave me some new eyes for our upcoming school year.  I love the gentle approach to learning that Charlotte Mason education provides.  Some of the things that I appreciate are the way this approach help children develop their own thinking and ideas, the sense of wonder and excitement that this style provides, and the value of the child as a person instead of someone to shape and fill up with ideas.  I love the Living Books that we read and the hands on learning as well as life learning.  Mostly though I really like that the family is considered the most important place for children to develop.  It seems in society we tend to look for our children to develop so many other places than home.  I believe t his thinking hurts families.  Since family is the backbone of our society then it hurts society as a whole.

We are going to have a motto this year for our school: I Am, I Can, I Ought, I Will.  I think there are some issues my children have that this motto will help correct.  I am is their identity in the Lord.  I can are the many things they are capable of doing.  I ought are the habits, routine, and things that they ought to be doing.  The I will is developing a willing spirit in the things that need to be done.

So this week I will finish the bulk of my canning, get the house back in order, and get us geared up for a great school year where we travel around the world exploring other countries and cultures.  Now to set things up so that Charlotte Mason's three elements of education are in the best shape possible.  I am setting up our educational Atmosphere, set up are Disciplines (schedules, routines, chores, etc), and be prepared to share Life in ways we never have before.  It will be a good year.  For anyone reading who has started this year already or is still preparing for the year please share what you are doing this year.

New School Year To Start Soon

Begin checking in September as we will be following along this year-- more faithfully than in years past.  This year we will be using My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures along with doing other things.  It will be fun.  I look forward to sharing the journey with you.  See you in September.

Reading

I was going to post about some of the fun activities we have done this week, but I will have to do that another time.  We have had some fun learning opportunities.  Instead I want to share a a bit about some of our journey and the struggles we have had and the recent progress that has encouraged us. 

When Caleb was two I went to the pediatrician and told him that something seemed not right with Caleb.  The doctor and I had a discussion about it and he told me that my concerns were valid and real.  We talked about the options and in his opinion we should wait a year and if when Caleb turned 3 he was still having these issues that we would take further steps.  Caleb turned 3 with no improvement.  He was then sent for evaluation at the school system.  They tried to diagnose Caleb with autism.  I suspected speech apraxia and ADHD, but not autism.  I was a mental health/ substance abuse therapist at the time and I used the diagnostic manual (DSM-IV) regularly so I looked up the autism symptoms and Caleb did not show signs of autism.  So I told the school psychologist she was wrong and went back to the pediatrician.  The doctor agreed with me.  However, my husband was about to have brain surgery so I was not able to continue this matter further for a while. 

Four days after my husband's brain surgery we moved back to our hometown community.  We had Caleb evaluated again by the school system.  They agreed that he does not have autism.  They agreed that there were some speech issues and something more, but wanted to try some other things besides treatment.  So I worked with Caleb at home and he did show improvement, but something was still not right.  So we continued on with what we were doing at home because he was improving.  Then it came time for kindergarten.  I truly believed the Lord wanted us to homeschool, but we needed my income so I was not going to be able to.  Then 2 weeks before kindergarten was to begin I was laid off.  So we declared our intent to homeschool to the district and withdrew him from the school system.  Then we started homeschooling.  This was one of the best things we have ever done.  We were even so convinced that when I was recalled to go back to work about three and a half months later we continued to homeschool (I am now home full time for good).  I have only been back working for a few days when we discovered Caleb had been having seizures in his sleep and judging by certain symptoms that only those familiar with seizures would know it was apparent that Caleb had been having them for quite some time.  The doctor was never able to quite determine the cause of his seizures nor the reason for some bizarre patterns in those seizures.  The appeared to come in clustered time spans.  This is not normal for epilepsy.  Then one day he just stopped having seizures.  The doctor had not medicated him because he had not been able to determine in which area of the brain the seizures were happening .  We went through periods of time with other neurological issues such as tics and night terrors were the worst ones.  Then last year we repaired a floor in the house that was rotten and full of black mold.  His symptoms all disappeared within 2 weeks and have not returned.  It baffled us and the doctor as to why he only had symptoms in the late fall and winter.  Then when spring would arrive the symptoms would disappear.  Now I understand that he was having neurological issues during the times of year the house is closed up so mold was not escaping.  Hind sight is 20/20 after all. 

The floor was repaired 11 months ago and Caleb finally started retaining reading skills.  Before this past year he would do well in math, but could not seem to retain reading skills.  We had tried so many different methods and curricula.  Nothing had helped.  Since his neurological problems have left Caleb has had to work hard, but he is learning.  A few weeks ago (3 or 4) we were in a shopping center.  Out of nowhere Caleb says Cash Store.  Right in front of us was a sign that said Cash Store.  At that moment Caleb said, "That is why you have been trying to make me read, there are words all around every where."  He finally decided there was a purpose and the skills were coming together.  Now Caleb wants to read every day.  I find him looking at just about anything around us and trying to read it.  He does too.  Today he was rewarded for his reading effort.  He was given a kids cookbook this week and was looking through it.  He came to me and said, "Mommy this says Pumpkin Smoothie and I would like to try it."  We did not have all the ingredients so he had to wait, but this afternoon we made the pumpkin smoothie and it was yummy.  I gave him even more opportunity to practice his skills by letting him read the spice labels until he found cinnamon and nutmeg.  Then this evening we were cleaning a church we are contracted to clean.  Caleb was helping me clean the bathrooms.  One bathroom door says Eve and another bathroom door says Adam.  Caleb came to me while I was helping Simeon with some dusting and said, "M-O-M, I finished cleaning Eve."  Then when I came back to help him he said, "M-O-M, I am cleaning Adam now."  I asked him where he was getting these names from and he told me, "The sign on the door."  It has been exciting for Caleb and for me.  I am proud of him for continuing to work hard and learn to read. 

Let's Start Again

I started to blog about our homeschool last year, but then it fizzled.  I actually remember what happened.  A rather large type of repair happened right at Christmas time, then our family ended up going to the Appalachian Mountains to do some volunteer work and I did not have internet while there so I lost momentum.  Now, however, I think we can get the momentum back.  I will try to post something weekly to let you see what is going on here at Vanderhoof School of Excellence.  For now let me post some pictures of this school year.

These were from our trip to the Indianapolis Children's Museum.

Of course no school year is complete without a sick day.  I told Caleb that day when he had the stomach flu that he sure knows how to get out of school.  He told me that school is much more fun than the stomach flu.

Reformation Day. 

Here are just some pictures around our schoolroom this year which ironically I feel like we school all over the house more this year than in this room.

We are studying anatomy and physiology in science this year.  So we traced ourselves and I trace different organs, bones, etc and we discuss what they are, color them, and then put them on the body tracings.

This is a sample of our year so far.  We love school and are so glad the Lord called us to homeschool.  We look forward to actually sharing our journey with you this time.

Serving others

The theme this week has been serving others as we have had opportunities to serve in the community and not because I said lets plan some service project. We did extra work on Thursday in order to free up Friday to help in the morning with the Food Drive put on by the Ministerial Association and then Friday afternoon we went Christmas Caroling at 2 nursing homes. Then Saturday morning we helped distribute food boxes at the food drive. There is a police officer in town that Caleb really looks up to. Caleb helped him, but Caleb did not recognize him without his uniform so he found out later who it was. Simeon and I helped a few others who were distributing boxes. While Simeon was not able to do some of the things that others have been able to do, he did carry loaves of bread to cars and wished them a Merry Christmas. Caleb said he wants to sing at the nursing home again so I think we will have some future projects of visiting their again.

Another thing I did with Caleb that I now wish I had done sooner is that I caught up on grading all his papers and went over his progress with him. We talked about how his math is really going well and how his hard work learning to read is paying off. Caleb beamed with pride while we did this. The we talked about what he needs to work on-- attitude or his temper might be more accurate, having neater penmanship, and not writing some of his letters and numbers backward. He decided he wanted to get better at these things too. I told him I was going to give him more penmanship work. He has cheerfully worked on this and even asks for more. I also told Caleb that one of the qualities I really appreciate about him is his determination. He does not like it when he can not do something so he works and works at it without giving up. Even when it has taken him a really long time weeks and sometimes longer. I have told Caleb from the start that he can and is supposed to do hard things in his life. I no longer have to tell him because now he tells himself out loud.

We finished reading The Jungle Book and started to read Tom Sawyer. Then Caleb read from two different readers one was Dick and Jane and the other was the Bible reader that came with My Father's World Curricula. Caleb practice a lot of addition facts and it is coming much more quickly. We read the rest of The Magic School Bus The Five Senses and explored each of the senses. Simeon practiced putting together three letter words with Bob Books, reviewed his letters so far, and had Mommy read him lots of Christmas stories. Caleb worked on Sh--, U_E, and --UE sounds in phonics as well as being introduced to a new list of spelling words. We got so busy doing school work that we did not take pictures and I regret that, but we had a busy week. We did not do Muffin Tin Monday since it was a review week, Sketch Tuesday was around things that make them each smile. Thursday we did extra school work to make up for what academic work we were not doing on Friday in order to do serve projects. That was pretty much our week last week in a nutshell. We had some Christmas celebrations over the weekend and Vic preached at an area church so this post is even being posted late. We hope you have a great Christmas week and keep Christmas about Jesus.

Ants, Music, The Letter T, Subtraction, and so much more

It has been a while since I have posted. Caleb asked if he could take some time to try to read certain books. He pulled them out and showed me-- they were all over his level, but I was not going to stop him from trying. He was at a good stopping place in math so we spent the week before our vacation with Caleb reading bigger word books. Then we went on vacation to the North Carolina Shore with extended family. We left the day before our flight and visited the Indianapolis Children's Museum. Then Caleb and Simeon flew in an airplane for the first time, saw the ocean for the first time, saw jellyfish, went to an aquarium, made some new friends, and just had many great experiences. Then when we got back Caleb and Simeon both got sick. So our break for Thanksgiving turned into 2 weeks instead of one. This week we got back into the swing of things.

Simeon's letter of the week was T and his number was 6. He also started putting together a couple of three letter words. His favorite one was Tad from the Leapfrog videos. We did some hands on projects to reinforce the letter T sound. He made turtles one out of a coffee filter and the other out of a paper plate. Thank you Refined Metals Academy and Delightful Learning blogsites for the ideas on these turtles. He also baked turkey and T-Rex cookies. Well we cheated a little with the T-Rex cookies as I actually did not have a T-Rex cookie cutter. Instead I had a generic dinosaur cookie cutter so we pretended it was a T-Rex.

Caleb has been struggling to figure out when y sounds like long i and when it sounds like long e at the end of words. So we went back and spent a lot of time reviewing this. He seems to have grasped the concept now. Then we moved on the ch sound. I typically try to combine food and other daily life things with the phonics sounds being learned. So this week we ate grilled CHeese and ate CHili. He also began to do addition problems that can not be done on his fingers. At first he was frustrated by this. However, when he slowed down a little he discovered he was able to do it. Then there was a subtraction problem on his last math sheet. So we will be moving into subtraction soon. Caleb was also thrilled when I pulled out some music and started pointing out the Treble and Bass Clef symbols and introduced the concept of Ta and Tee-tee to develop rhythm in music. He does not have this down yet, but he enjoys practicing it so he will soon.

For science Caleb is using Apologia and we were not going to do this with Simeon yet. However, Simeon wants to be involved so we let him as he wants. This week we started studying about social insects. Specifically we have talked about ants and honeybees so far. Next week it looks like we will study bumble bees and termites. At the beginning of the year Caleb and Simeon both asked if we could study Spanish and Sign Language. I told them both was too much, but they could pick one and we would add some of that one. They chose Spanish. So far we have looked at some greetings, and numbers. This week however, we learned what certain colors are in Spanish. We are learning about art and manners together in a book put out by How Great Thou Art. In this book Miss Annie teaches us lessons on how to be polite. This week Miss Annie challenged us to make it a point to smile more often and she talked about manners when spending the night at someones house. That was timely since Caleb and Simeon are spending the night with their grandparents. We also enjoy eating popcorn and drinking tea, apple cider, hot chocolate or some other treat while Mommy reads from a classic book. We are reading The Jungle Book right now. We have not liked that book as much as some others we have read, but we should finish this coming week and are looking forward to starting The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

As you can see it has been a busy week-- maybe that's why I am tired. We hope you have had a good week and we look forward to sharing more of our homeschooling days in the future.

Veterans Day

It has been a busy couple of weeks so I have not posted in a while. The highlights are that we spent 5 days at a family farm just for a change of scenery. We enjoyed that. We did our school work there though too just like at home with the exception of our timeline which we will catch up later. We got so caught up in what we were doing that I did not take pictures. The boys did some fun things such as baking cookies with Mommy, Caleb wrote his first letter to a pen pal, playing extra learning games with Daddy, gleaning corn from a harvested field as we talked about the story of Ruth, we explored nature, saw a dead groundhog, Pop-pop even got in on the action and I believe they saw deer with him. We worked on -igh sounds like I, the-ing sound, and then three sounds for -y and Caleb did well on his Math test. We will be putting Math on hold for a week so we can do some studies on Thanksgiving. Caleb also wanted to read a book that I thought was over his level. It was, but he rose to the task and was rewarded with ice cream for his amazing feat. Simeon worked on the letters M and L as well as the numbers 2 and 3. We did our Muffin Tin Mondays and our Sketch Tuesdays, but did not do lapbooks as we were too busy with our nature exploration and then this past week preparing for Veterans Day. We ended this week by celebrating Veterans Day at a ceremony on the public square here in our town. Our community flies a flag for veterans from our community who have died. Every single flag represents one veteran and I think the total I heard this year was 460 flags. Tomorrow we will go help fold the flags. We will change gears a little for the next couple of weeks. We will continue with Simeon's letter and number of the week. Caleb will continue to do reading, phonics, and penmanship. Then we will use the rest of the time for both boys to do a unit study on Thanksgiving. After that a week off as we celebrate the week of Thanksgiving.