What have we been up to?

Work work Work FUN! or Fun fun fun WORK!
We have been busy this semester with great opportunities for learning. Laura is now 7 years old and is still enrolled in Sky Mountain Charter school, currently doing second grade. We meet with her teacher once a month and let him know our progress. She took her state mandated language arts and math assessment pre-tests and demonstrated to be a grade above average. We are very proud of her.
This summer we started reading the Harry Potter series and she took off with it! She is now in the seventh book and has become a complete fanatic of it.

This Year's Curriculum
PE: She started western riding classes (partially funded by the school), has taken a basketball class and participated in the local AYSO league this fall.
MUSIC & Arts: She has continued with her piano lessons and is becoming more proficient at reading musical notation. She loves to compose her own music and enjoys her weekly choir practice. She just performed during the thanksgiving service and has another performance scheduled for December, as well as her first piano recital.
This semester she's had the opportunity to attend a ballet based on her Wizard of Oz reading and a musical of Mary Poppins. What fun way to bring literature to life!
Her art classes were taught by myself while attending a local homeschooling co-op school. I used the Art adventures at home curriculum. I have volunteered there for the last year and have had a great time teaching art and Spanish.
SCIENCE:Besides from regular hikes and readings we have done our science curriculum at home thus far this year. We get messy, experiment and record all our findings. We are using the Real Science curriculum and has proved to work very well for us. Flexible and fun. She has also taken advantage of Burbank's science classes for homeschoolers which use the Stough Canyon Nature center and hikes around it as a classroom.



SOCIAL STUDIES: In social studies we have concentrated in early and classical Greek culture, begun reading the Odessy, have learned about Alexander the great and are now moving into Ancient China. We are following Level I of History Odessy. I like this program a lot because it still uses Story of the world and also utilizes other resources and point of view that I find very valuable.
LANGUAGE ARTS: Besides from allowing her to read voraciously, we do the following:
Spelling: Sequential spelling. I find this to be a nice strong program. We do it 4 times p/week and occasionally do "Spelling workout"
Grammar: "First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind", year 2. After considering changing for a while, I decided to continue with it. I like the poetry memorization and its gentle and fun approach to grammar. Yes, the lessons are repetitive but I find that to be an advantage and makes sense to me. Laura does very well with it too.
Writing: "Writing with ease". We incorporate our writing work with our social studies and science.
She also attends our Homeschool group's reading club monthly and participates in the book readings, discussions and activities.
Literature: Besides from her "personal" reading selection (basically whichever Harry Potter she's working on) we try to cover one classic p/ month (excluding "The Odessy" of course). We sometimes download classics from Librivox.org and listen to them as we craft or do a more tranquil activity. This is personally, one of my favorite times.

Math: Still love "Right Start Math"! she's doing level C. We love the games, approach and everything about this program.

We supplement her "standards" education with occasional workbook sheets, computer based instruction,games and her girl scout activities.

Over all this has been a very busy and engaging semester. I am currently looking for employment and desperately trying to hold on to our homeschooling ideas.
And since a picture (or two or more) are worth a thousand words, feel free to look at our "Homeschooling in Action" albums on the side bar to see what we've been up to this semester.
Thanks for visiting today!

So we are homeschooling...Now what?

I feel compelled to create this blog so we can share this new and exciting adventure with all of you. Some of you may wonder how we are going about it, what do we do all day? how is our daughter learning?

Educational Approach
Before anything else is said I must let you know that my own educational background is a classical one (cant' get much more than catholic nuns in Colombia) . College and post graduate classwork have shown me that there are many ways to learn, which can be very exiting, effective and self empowering. James attended public school in Texas and continued on to Texas Tech University. We both come from very traditional educational backgrounds.

I have now been exposed to the developmental theories of Jean Piaget, Howard Gardner and Lev Vygotsky. I admire the educational approaches of John Holt, Charlotte Mason and Reggio Emilia. Having said that, my husband and I feel that it will be best to form our daughter with an eclectic educational approach. We will be using hands on activities, field trips, living books (secular), individualized home instruction, private tutoring, traditional classes and any other educational tool available to us in order to help her reach her potential. This blog will follow our adventures, discoveries, frustrations, challenges and victories as home scholars and parents in this path that we have chosen. We welcome you with open arms and appreciate any comment that you think may help us at one point or another.

Since then...
Laura has been officially out of the traditional public school setting (she was in kindergarten) for 3 weeks now. We play a lot, read for hours on end and allow her to explore her interest at whatever speed and intensity fulfills her at the time. She often chooses to sit for a long time to practice her hand writing or addition, or simply make up her own "googlie" language.
We spend our days playing with blocks, play dough, phonics, math, Spanish or Art games as much as she wants to. Last week we opened her piggie banks, counted the money and deposited it in the bank. It took the better part of the week and quite a bit of coin counting and rolling ($342)!.
We have also been going to the park, digging to China, playing kite relays, enjoying long hikes and continuing with her ice skating classes. She attends Daisy scouts meeting bi-weekly.

She just had her six birthday so now it is little pony central around here.

Curriculum
As first time home schoolers looking for the right amount of guidance and independence, we have enrolled in a local home school charter school. It is a state public school and observes the traditional school calendar as well as administers state mandated tests and school records. We now have a bit of a budget to play around with and to purchase curriculum and classes that will support her educational interests. We will be meeting with the Educational Specialist teacher assigned to us every 20 school days and supporting our needs with her expert advise. She will also be collecting samples of Laura's work for her official cumulative file.

We have looked at a number of curriculum choices and have decided to follow a variety of them as guidance based on approach. At this time we will be using "The right start " for math, exploring history and social studies with "the story of the world", science with activities at our local nature center, language arts with library books, phonics games and "handwriting without tears".

Laura will be participating in weekly semi-private music and art classes at home as well as group soccer practice and gymnastics. As you can tell, we are anything but bored around here!

As I proof read this post I see how much we have on our plate. Still, we are having lots of fun! Best of all, I know that we can modify things anytime.

Laura is adapting well to our new lifestyle and loves the different activities that make each of her days.
Above all she is as happy, sweet, friendly, outspoken, creative, inquisitive, daring and on task as always.
So far we love the home schooling experience! come back to check on us soon!
Smiles,
Stella