...More Scheduling

A traditional school year is five to six hours a day, 5 days a week for 36 weeks or 180 days.

As a home-schooling family, we could have chosen to follow the same schedule of the local school, but we chose to customize a schedule to suit our family’s needs.

According to the state of Connecticut, we do not have to do every subject every day of the school year.

I have been struggling with the amount of activities in which to enroll my children and just beginning to face the realities that I do not have to enroll my children in every class or outside activity that their/my friends do.

I have decided to enroll each child in in only one pay activity per week. Of course I will schedule play dates and the like, and invite other children to sit in some of our activities and lessons, but I do not want these things to interfere with the educational purpose of home schooling.

Our Fridays will continue to be left for field trip days whereas, Monday through Thursday will hold the highest concentration of academic study. I do however, plan on teaching some things on Fridays and Saturdays.

I am such a planner that I cannot help myself about planning out everything. Of course, I do not anticipate a play-by-play daily run-down, but I will specify subject area topics for each day.

The amount of time spent on each subject depends upon the age, small motor skills, learning style, and abilities of each child (ranges as follows: 3-5 minutes for preschoolers, 10-20 minutes for 1st -3rd graders, 20-45 minutes for 4th – 6th graders, 45 minutes or more for 8th – 12th graders). Although Jonathan is at a preschool age, his attention-span, learning style and abilities enable lessons to run approximately 10-15 minutes.

The total number of hours spent each day in one-on-one instruction ranges as follows: thirty minutes in Kindergarten (broken up into several five-minute sessions), one to two hours in grades 1 – 6, two hours or more in grades 7 – 12. Again, more can be accomplished orally than handwritten for children with handwriting difficulties. In our planning, our TOTAL home-schooling daily agenda is two hours — which conveniently is the amount of nap-time for the baby.

The remainder of our school day is spent in independent book exploration, free play activities with his siblings and friends, complete own “chores”, exploring an instrument, create an art projects, and/or participate in any other activity that can be done independently. The television and computers are not available during the school day, and are limited to ninety minutes weekly, other than for educational purposes.

Some states require an excess of four to five hours of home schooling daily, thankfully Connecticut is not one of them. However there is a difference between “actual teaching time” and “school attendance” time.

Ladies Day

Harwington Rod and Rifle! Favorite Mama day off of the year!!!

Making it... Halloween style

Trina decided she wants to be Rapunzel for Halloween. Although I was not surprised by that, I was surprised that she asked me to make the dress for her. I havent had much time or energy to sew lately, so I am not really sure where the idea came from, nevertheless, I am excited. I was anyway until she told me she ALSO wanted to where the costume that I make to our Disney trip in less than a week... SUPER!

Poor nameless child...

I am still at a lose as to what we should be naming our littliest addtion to the family. Matt and I cannot seem to agree on any names and it is beyond aggravating. I loath his suggestions and he mine...

He likes : Danger, Cameron (He seems to be digging the new age)

I like : Nathaniel, William, Christopher, Donimick, Andrew, Elijah, Michael, Nicholas, Timothy, Cadence, Caleb (I'm a classic girl)

Jack suggests : Alexander, Daniel (It's all in who he knows)

Trina suggests : Maximus, Flynn (I think our little Rapunzel has an addiction)

Autumn Butter

AUTUMN BUTTER -

Ingredients:

* 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
* 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
* 1/4 cup whipping cream
* 1 cup butter, softened

Directions:
Mix all ingredients until well blended. Spread onto your favorite muffins, quick bread, sweet crackers, or drop a dollop onto morning pancakes.

CINNAMON BUTTER -

Ingredients:

* 2 sticks butter
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Combine all ingredients and mix well. Serve over sweet bread, muffins, or morning waffles. Store tightly covered in the refrigerator.


Winnie the Pooh's Honey Pot Balls
Ingredients:
1/2 c. Peanut butter
1/2 c. Dry milk
1 T. Honey
2 T. crushed nuts

Directions:
Mix in bowl the first 3 ingredients. Mix well. Divide dough into 6 pieces. Mold each piece into a ball, sprinkle with the crushed nuts.

....and He's ROLLING

Jack's was invited to his FIRST birthday party of the school year and it happened to be a throw-back to my childhood.

Although he has NEVER even seen or heard of roller skates, I still thought it would be "fun" to give it a shot with a bunch of 5 year old and their unexpierenced skating abilities. It was painstakingly obvious that the parental folks got far more of a workout than the little ones...Still yet, the kids had a ball and actually learned quite a bit on how to "stay up" on wheels. He and his little classmates, also played a mean gave of air-hockey and pinball.

All the parents I met (the whopping three others that attended) were super nice, and "real". I think it's going to e a good year.

Talk Like a Pirate

PIRATE’S TREASURE MAP

Tasha started kindergarten this year and has been in “craft overload” a bit so we don’t do as many projects at home as we used to. But every once in awhile, I come up with something to intrigue her and “making” the paper for the treasure map definitely did! CLICK HERE to see a full sized photo of the craft. Close the photo window when done viewing.


Pirate's Treasure Map

You’ll need cold coffee or tea (about 1/2 cup), piece of white paper, a blowdryer, a little imagination and some markers.

Take a piece of nice white paper and rip off all the edges (don’t cut them with scissors, rip them!) If you rip the paper a bit more than you meant to, it’s not the end of the world.

Crumple the paper up as tightly as you can into a ball.

Flatten the paper out again and put onto a plate or cookie sheet. (if you haven’t told the kids what you’re doing, they’ll start thinking you’re really weird right about now).

Pour coffee or tea over the paper. Swoosh around with your hands to make sure it covers everything.

If you’re doing this with a large group of smaller kids, you may want to get it to this point and set them aside for a couple minutes (get the children arranged at the table for drawing their maps). Then pull out some finished, dried sheets that you premade. It keeps the kids from having to sit through the “waiting” parts of the project.

Let it sit for about 5 minutes (if you’re doing it with a group, you don’t have to let it sit so long… 2 minutes is enough to give it some colour)

Pour the coffee off into the sink.

Blowdry with a hand held blowdryer on high for about 5 minutes (leave it sitting on the plate while blowdrying or it will tear to pieces). When it’s pretty dry (and starts to lift a bit) switch the blowdrier to low to finish off (about another 2 minutes).

Now… take some markers and draw your map. There should be a big X in the middle, a dotted line trail that winds around and maybe a title that says “Pirate Island” and a North, South, East, West arrow in the corner.

Once you’ve drawn the trail and X you can draw and label some “obstacles”. Some ideas are:

Bloody Beach

Waterfalls of Doom

Skull rock

Monster Mountain

Skeleton Jungle

Captain’s Cave (Captain’s Cavern)

Serpent Pass

You can roll the map up and slip into a 1/4 tp roll holder or tie with a ribbon, stick it into a bottle or just hang it up on your wall!

Little Lady's off to Learning Camp

Trina is off to her "first day of school", she even instisted on having a back-pack and lunch box packed JUST like big brother, despite the fact that she'd only be there for two hours.

She seemed to do "okay". I need to realize that she is a year younger (or more) than ALL the kids in the class, becuase I was having a hard time with the fact that she couldn't perform the same tasks as the other children. She caan make the "K" for her name, and that's about it (which made it difficult for me to see the other children writing their names independently). She did have fun, learn somethings and spend time with other children WITHOUT being desruptive, so... we are off to an excellent start.

Parent/Teacher Night

My stomach was in knots for days over Jonathan's Academic performance and the curriculum in Kindergarten, as well as his seemingly inability to make friends with the children his own age. His teacher alleviated a LOT of my concerns, although not all of them. She did confirm that he often is playing alone outside at recess time. Of course I worry less about that and more about his academic achievements, especially since I KNOW he has friends elsewhere and REALLY can get along with anyone. I think the play-time issue is, he doesn't like excluding anyone, and that is the nature of the recess BEAST. Over All, I had a FANTASTIC meeting with his teacher. She totally put my mind at ease... He's in for a challenging year! HOORAY!

Apples!

The picture above is a photograph of the finished craft. The diagram instructions are drawn. (drawings load faster than photos over the internet)

Stamp the side of your hand in brown paint and stamp it on the paper as the trunk

Stamp your index finger in green paint and stamp it many times on the paper for the leaves (re-dipping in the paint as necessary)

Stamp your pinkie finger in red paint and stamp it lightly on the paper for the apples (light stamps make rounder prints)

Good for Adam and Eve, Johnny Appleseed, Arbor Day and Summer themes.

Leaves

Objectives:
Students will see the natural beauty in a fall leaf as they use non-traditional methods of creating leaf patterns.
What You Need:

* Construction paper
* Red, green, yellow and orange paint
* Paint brush for each color
* Safety scissors
What You Do:

1. Cover table with news print.
2. Have supplies ready and in individual trays, with paint brushes for each color.
3. Also have a sink or soapy water bucket and paper towel close at hand for clean up.
4. Have students paint one hand using each color, until the entire hand is covered.
5. Press hand on colored or white previously cut paper.
6. This technique will make some beautiful fall leaf shapes.
7. Once dried, have the students cut out their hand prints.
8. Use them to border a chalk board, or design a large "word" tree and change it through the seasons.


Objectives:
Children will learn about design in nature.
What You Need:

* Paper
* Different types of leaves
* Paint or crayons

What You Do:

1. Put the paper flat on the table and then put the leaf under the paper.
2. After you've done that, use the crayon to shade the print of the leaf on the paper.
3. If you are using paint, you put the leaf in the paint and then print in on the paper.

Little Ballerina

So exciting for Bean!

Her first BIG girl, away from Mommy AND Jack class. She's loving it, she's excited, she's excelling...

Karate CHOP!

He's chopping right through belts!!! He's doing so very well that during his next grading in October, he'll jump right passed the yellow gupy belt and straight to the purple!

Patriot's Day

My kids created these Q Tip Fireworks to celebrate Patriot’s Day BUT, they are good for any holiday or special occasion.

An easy craft for preschoolers on up for Independence Day or an important sporting event! Even younger hands can pull it off! The baby (15 months) made a cute one!

Here’s what you’ll need

• Q Tips
• Water
• Small container
• Food coloring
• Paper plate
• Black construction paper
• Glue

Here’s how you make them…1. Cut your Q Tips in various sizes. You can actually break them off pretty easily with your hands.

2.Now you will need to color you Q Tips. Put some water in a small container and add food coloring (6-8 drops is good). Dip your swabs in to the colored water and place on a paper plate. Repeat for as many colors of fireworks as you’d like.

3. If you are not doing this craft right away, or have time to prepare ahead of time, you can leave your swabs out to dry overnight. If you need them to be dry quickly you can put them in the microwave, on high for 5-6 minutes, or until they are dry.

4. On a piece of black paper glue your Q Tips in a circular pattern. For younger children it will be easier if you drawa black dot on the paper and instruct them to glue their swabs all pointing to the dot in the middle.

Make as many different fireworks as you can, make them all different colors, sizes and patterns!

Keep in mind that the more food coloring you add the more vibrant your swabs will be!

It looked more fun at 10...

What happened to being a grown-up? Isn't it suppossed to be fun?

I don't think I have ever felt so overwhelmed, stressed and behind the 8-ball in my life! It feels like I can never get ahead of anything. I can never get it all done or have enough money or teach the kids enough or cook and bake fresh enough or clean and organize enough. I know I HAVE to do these things and I do them to the best of my abilities, but I never feel like it is enough or that I am satisfied.

Grandparent's Day

Have kids assemble small green leaves to represent their grandparents and parents, as well as themselves and each of their siblings. Have them attach each leaf with a paperclip to a small twig with numerous branches or do a brown-paint hand print on construction paper and fingerprints in fall leaf colors to fill in the top of the tree. Starting with the grandparents’ at the top of the tree, let them glue the generations at varying levels on the tree, and then write each person’s on each of the leaves.

Picture Frame

Use foam craft sheets to make frames for family photos. Find a family photo. Draw an interesting shape, at least 1 inch wider on all sides than the photo, onto the foam sheet and cut it out, using decorative-edged scissors if desired. Cut out a circle or square, slightly smaller than the photo, from the center of the foam sheet. Glue the photo to the back of the foam sheet. Alternatively, cut different colored and shaped frames for individual pictures of family members. String all of the frames together on a ribbon for grandparents to drape over a shelf or fireplace.

Magnets

Make magnets with holiday messages that grandparents can use for reminders and lists on the refrigerator. Trace small hands and feet onto colorful, thick card stock. Let kids write personal Grandparents Day messages or poems with colorful markers or crayons on the cutouts and glue a small magnet to the back. Add the year to the message and make new ones each year to show how much kids have grown and how their writing has improved.

Silhouettes

Create portraits to frame of kids’ silhouettes. Have kids trace the outlines of their own and their siblings’ faces and necks onto black construction paper or card stock, using a white crayon. Cut out the silhouette inside the white lines and glue it to a colorful piece of card stock, solid or printed. Frame the silhouette in a wood or metal frame. Alternatively, create a small scrapbook of the silhouettes of each family member, using construction paper and lacing the pages together along one edge through punched holes with ribbon or yarn.

Spa day!

Trina filled her marble (prize) jar and decided to get her nails done!