Almost Unschooling Grama

  Mighty Red is now pretty much an independent adder. We started out with him on my lap as his sister and I played math games. He would move the pieces while I gave the answers. Then we moved to him copying me as I did the finger math. For the past several weeks, we have been doing the problems on our fingers together, but this week he announced that he could do this and just took off without me! When I was in school, having someone help me like I have helped Mighty Red would have been shameful and "cheating". Go ahead, help your kids "cheat". It works!

Joke of the Day Perimeter and area help are here! https://jillianstarrteaching.com/area-and-perimeter-manipulatives/ Need indoor PE ideas? Keep your kids moving with these.  https://thedeliberatemom.com/indoor-physical-education-ideas/ Play Trominoes to help your kids with spatial recognition. https://www.whatdowedoallday.com/trominoes/ Popularity isn't all that it's cracked up to be. It is better to have just a few close relationships than 100 "friends". The truth is that you just don't have time to sustain more than a few. If you try, you will end up lonely in a sea of friends that are no more than fans.

 Joke of the Day I found the meaning of life. It’s on page 937 in the dictionary between the words lie and lifeboat. The new numbers are out! Homeschooling will soon be the norm. https://returntonow.net/2022/01/14/homeschooling-rate-skyrockets-500-since-april-of-2020/ Can't afford to buy a kiln? Build a sawdust kiln! https://thepotterywheel.com/sawdust-kiln/ Now, this is a project I could really get into. Pipe cleaner constellations.  https://www.steampoweredfamily.com/activities/pipe-cleaner-constellations-space-stem/

  Joke of the Day So many projects to choose from! https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/art-activities-for-kids/ What a fun project!  https://www.instructables.com/Exquisite-Rainbow-Stories/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email Watching fish is such stress relief and you can call it science too! https://thehaphazardtraveler.com/virtual-tours-aquarium-live-feeds/ Homeschooling doesn't guarantee your kids won't turn out perfect. Mine have had their fair share of issues. However, it will give your kids the best opportunity to become who God has made them to be because they don't have to be tied to a standardized curriculum and pushed to do all the things according to a predetermined time frame. It's not easy, but homeschooling is well worth it!

  Joke of the Day Good News!  Homeschooling Just Crossed the Tipping Point https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/homeschooling-just-crossed-the-tipping-point/ I remember making these when I was a kid. Fascinating fun! https://leftbraincraftbrain.com/milk-carton-crayon-ice-candles/ Trashket Ball is always a hit! https://thecozycraftyclassroom.blogspot.com/2019/04/word-problems-in-math-best-game-ever.html Thought for the day: I'm reading War Room by Chris Fabry and The Book of Mysteries by Jonathan Cahn.

  When I was in school, the only thing we ever used index cards for were speeches and research papers, but these things are actually worth their weight in gold!  For homeschooling, there are only a few things that I consider essential. You can get along without fancy curriculum, lesson plans, and even the internet if need be, but index cards are a mainstay at my house! They are cheap and versatile. Over the years I've used them for sooo many activities.  Bible: Write one word (or phrase) on each from your current memory work, mix them up and race to see who can put them in the right order or set them out on the floor for a "memory walk".  Spelling: Use them for the simplest spelling curriculum ever! F or several years I tried to teach my children how to spell. Every year I would get a new “curriculum” and follow it precisely, but nothing worked. Finally came up with my own... 1st day: Find 2 words they don't know how to spell. Have them write those words 7 times. A ...

  There are 3 things I want you to know about homeschooling.   #1 It doesn’t have to be a full-time job. #2 It doesn’t have to take a ton of money. #3 It doesn’t take a whole lot of brains or any special training.   Most of us have grown up in the traditional school system and as a result, we think that education takes 6-9 hours a day, costs huge amounts, and requires a master’s degree. I mean, after all, that’s what we’ve always experienced so it has to be so. Right? Well, the truth is that every story sounds true until you hear the other side and most of us have never heard the other side.   Here’s the other side: I homeschooled all 3 of my kids with a budget of around $50/ year while I worked full-time outside the home and the highest degree I hold is an AA. On top of all that, for the first several years I homeschooled I was very sick with an underdiagnosed illness. Many people in my community thought I was crazy and pitied my kids because of ...

Homeschooling is hard, but then, so is parenting. If you are even close to being a decent parent, you are already doing most of the things a homeschooler does. If you are brave enough to take the plunge, it’s likely you will find that homeschooling fine-tunes your parenting skills, helps you understand how your children think and strengthens your relationship with them. Most homeschoolers who stick it out for a year or two find themselves on the other side of the fence: Sending their children to a traditional school seems like the harder education option.   If you have a child in a traditional school, the likelihood is that you are already spending as much time or more than the typical homeschool parent spends on educating a child. How can that be? A child in a typical school has to be readied for school every morning, then there’s transport, homework after-school, extra-curricular activities, etc., not to mention all the stress caused by doing these things when the child is tire...

I really want to talk to you about teaching and timing. I am a farmer’s wife. In farming, timing is everything when it comes to the harvest. If you harvest too soon, the grain won’t be mature or dry enough. The crop will be short or non-existent and what you do manage to harvest will not store well without a great deal of extra effort. A farmer can do things to ensure that the harvest will be the best it can be: He can plant the seed at the right depth and at the right intervals, He can water, fertilize, and implement pest and disease management procedures, He can cultivate or spray to control weeds, but, he has to  look at the crop itself  to know when it is time to harvest. The seed packaging has information about approximately how long it will take for the seed to mature and there are books and charts that can give him a clue as to what to expect, but real-life growing depends on the variables of genetics, temperature, sunshine, and rainfall. Teac...

One of the very first things anyone who wants to homeschool ought to learn is how to speak “Educationese”. Educationese is an industry language created by education professionals to categorize, organize and describe learning. It is one of the reasons those who have been through 13 or more years of traditional school feel intimidated when entertaining the idea of teaching their own children, but it’s really just the difference between “interdigitation” and “holding hands”. It’s not hard. Educationese just takes a little creativity and practice. When you incorporate Educationese into your description of your children’s learning, you gain credibility and you will impress your friends and family. Here’s how: For two weeks, don’t “do” any school. Just keep a list of the things your kids are doing. Then at the end of each day, see if you can fit those things into educational categories. Example: Make bed, straighten room: Home-Ec At breakfast talked about vitamin C in o...

Many people want to own a second home where they can get away from it all. Me? I just want to live in one house. I want to sleep in my house, cook in my house, eat in my house, and work in my house (or in the land surrounding it). I want my husband working there too and my kids living close enough that my grandkids can come see Grama Sue anytime they want. That’s my dream. We were very close to living this dream at one time. It was challenging in every way, but if I could go back to it, I would in a heartbeat. Many years ago, when I first started teaching kids other than my own, my husband thought I needed to build a little building to house my “school” so I could “go to work”. I steadfastly resisted. I liked being able to help a child with their math,  put in a load of laundry, read a book aloud and then work on lunch while the kids helped each other with their spelling drills. I love having an integrated life. Years later, when we decided it was time for Grampa Tom to come...