[I Really Want to be an Unschooler]

I am not an unschooler, my thoughts would be that you are just *tired* of school. I wonder if you could unschooled one subject? Or look into project based home schooling? (Lori Pickert has written a book & has a great blog: Camp Creek )

 

Best wishes to you!

[I'm having twins]

No support to offer, other that a huge *CONGRATULATIONS!*

[What are you excited about this year?]

I am excited about stepping up my daughter's narrations, after having read this inspiring post.

[What are you excited about this year?]

 

 

For artist study we are getting together once a month for painting a classic together with friends, as it is I have several books reserved from the library on our first artist and was planning on doing a once a week project on the artist, I'd planned to just keep it that simple. I wonder if the Portfolio would be worth it for me? The books have examples of his work, perhaps I just need to look for some CM artist study tips. 

 

This might be helpful: How we do picture study :)

[Learning Journals]

They are really lovely, Chelli. Thanks for sharing.

[Learning Journals]

Beautiful, authentic work. Thanks for sharing.

[Learning Journals]

Thank you for sharing. This sounds like it will be a real treasure to you all when they are older. How lovely to look back on!

 

Jenny Rallens discusses the use of learning journals in The Liturgical Classroom

[Shoot off of "special" thing to do for first day of school - filling out a questionnaire]

We do age, height, weight, favorite thing(s) to do, and desired future career. And they draw a picture of themselves.

 

Drawing a picture of themselves is the loveliest idea ever!

[Yaaaaayyyyy!!!!!]

Well done :)

[Homeschool problem - solved.]

This is amazing, And what a fun tale your children will have to recount when they are adults  :hurray:

[What's everyone worried about for this school year?]

Having enough mental energy  :huh:

[Another phrase for "circle time"?]

I do this twice a day, because that is what is working for us atm:

 

Morning time for my little girl

 

Afternoon tea (yes, with tea & biscuits  :hurray: ) for my big girl

[So...who is "mamiof5"]

Welcome!

[Keeping the spark in your homeschool without burning out....]

Rest, reading, & responsibility ohhh, alliteration!

 

Lots of rest for me; so, actual SLEEP, plus time to create (for me, that is painting, knitting, spinning, sometimes dyeing fibre to spin / knit with.) and time out of doors.

 

Reading; reading inspiring books really fires me up.

 

Responsibility; remaining myself to keep on keeping on. Yes, we have seasons to our home school, but without talking to myself sternly some mornings, I have a feeling we would have too many times of low activity  :closedeyes:

[Teaching kids to have responsibility for their own education]

I also think it is perfectly normal. From a Charlotte Mason perspective, I would say keep on modelling the behaviour you wish to see,support her in completing her lessons in a timely manner,forming good habits, untill she has the maturity to take responsibility for her own education.

It may take a while..... :)

[Anyone NOT a "relaxed" homeschooler?]

Teaching from rest is more about teaching from a place of calm and peace in you that comes from trusting in God rather than letting it all go without any sort of direction. :) I am attempting (haha) to teach from rest but we're still very much into a classical education with curriculum options that will push my kids past their comfort zones so they can work diligently without being unhappy and stressed because there's too much for them. Well, most days. Sometimes they're just going to not want to do school and it's like pulling teeth but that's normal now and then. ;)

 

^^^ This :)

 

Teaching from rest, and relaxed homeschooling are quite different ideas to my mind.

 

[First day of school tomorrow-something "special" to do?]

We have a special breakfast, photos in their new 'back to school' clothes. New pencil cases & supplies.  Lunch is always alphabet pasta & we often have a tea party in the afternoon with home made alphabet shaped ginger bread.

 

Hmmm, it's all food, isn't it!

[Memory Work]

We use a binder ala Mystie at Simply Convivial to avoid the great box dump. New system for us, it's working very well. We memorize all together as a family and mostly longer selections, work changes every 6 weeks, old work should be going into review somehow too, I'm just not 100% solid on how I will run that though :).

 

I am ok with review when it is once a week, but after that it just gets very random  :mellow: 

I tried to have 1-31 dividers & assign pieces to a day of the month, but for some reason it just isn't work.

 

[Grading Unit Studies]

Disclaimer: I don't have any experience with charter schools or transcripts.

 

Does the school have any examples of what they expect?

 

For a young child (elementary) could it be pass/fail? Either he did the work or he didn't. 

 

Can you label it as a class in [fill in the blank ] and list the number of weeks it took.

 

"Adventures in Space"   10 weeks  Pass

"Adventures in the Middle Ages"  10 weeks Pass

 

In retrospect, can you combine several unit studies from the semester into a "semester class"?

 

Frogs + Volcanoes + Snap Circuits becomes:

Science Studies, Fall 2015 semester, A

 

Civil War + Castles + state history (visiting a local history event) becomes:

History Studies, Fall 2015 semester, A

 

 

This is a great idea.

[So, When Are You Going to Let Them Go?]

I always say "If they want to go to highschool, they can choose to at that time.  You don't want to force a teen to homeschool."  This is enough to alleviate their minds.  It is just a recognition that teens have their own minds and that I will respect that.

 

Now that my ds is in highschool, I still say the same thing, and then turn to him and ask "so, do you want to go to school?" And he says, "no."  And that is it.

 

Ruth in NZ

 

I love this, Ruth!

[New Nature Study Program- Open and Go]

I just picked this up and it looks wonderful! We are planning to start it in September, but after reading through it I'm excited because it looks very doable. I love the idea of nature study, but always felt overwhelmed at what to look for each time, so I'm hoping this will help focus me.

 

Smashing. This is exactly what I hoped to achieve by writing Exploring Nature With Children.

 

Thanks so much for letting me know.

[Your Signature Can Contain:]

I admit that in re-reading it, it appears rather dense. Surprisingly, almost everyone is done individual academics before 1 (10-12 normally) although our eldest sometimes needs awhile in the afternoon. Then together time is one hour in the late afternoon.

 

 

Honestly, it was just the twins part!

 

My now-9-yo would nurse constantly, & I was exhausted. I am trying to picture that x2 & then homeschooling on top of it.

 

I am in complete awe  :hurray:

[What's everyone worried about for this school year?]

MY 12 yo studying for her IGCSE in biology...is it too soon?? I don't want to knock her down??? arrrghhhhhhhh!

 

Home schooling isn't quite as appealing as when I just had a 5 yo & 2 yo that I read to, spent hours out of doors with, & taught to do their chores ;)

[Your Signature Can Contain:]

  :001_smile:   

 

In February ds was taking 2 AoPS classes that overlapped for 3 weeks, and then he unexpectedly made the NZ squad which gave him 'squad assignments'.  He topped out one week with with 50 hours of math. Yes, I did say 50.  I didn't dare change my siggy to reflect reality or I'm sure I would have been eaten alive. :tongue_smilie:

 

Ruth in NZ

 

Wow! 

 

haha at being eaten alive  :laugh: 

 

[Your Signature Can Contain:]

with a link too :)

 

:lol: