Athena in a Minivan

Homeschool Meme

Mother Auma tagged me with this one. It took some thinking. Much of my background on education came from teaching in the classroom and graduate school.

1) ONE HOMESCHOOLING BOOK YOU HAVE ENJOYED
Charlotte Mason's series on education. Life changing...

2) TWO RESOURCEs YOU WOULDN'T BE WITHOUT
Half Price Books - Just as we started to homeschool, they built one in our town.It takes some digging but I have found most of the books I need at half or less than half the cover price. I found a Child's history of the world for $5, Science books for $2, The entire set of AA Milne poems for $1

Our Public Library - it gives me a free outing once a week. It is a beautiful place with so much for the kids to see. They even have a cappachino machine that is only $.50.

3) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT
Teach your child to Read in 100 easy lessons - big waste of money.

4) ONE RESOURCE YOU ENJOYED LAST YEAR
Explode the Code workbooks..these are will thought out and my kids love them..

5) ONE RESOURCE YOU WILL BE USING NEXT YEAR
AmblesideOnline.com

6) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY
Dover books on birds

7) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH EXISTED
A criogenic freeze chamber for my two year old. He would be safe and cared for while we school and then we could let him out to play when we are done. Instead, I just use nap time to its fullest.

8) ONE HOMESCHOOLING CATALOGUE YOU ENJOY READING
The internet - It is all available online and I don't have to clutter my house with catalogues.

9) ONE HOMESCHOOLING WEBSITE YOU USE REGULARLY
Ambleside Online. of course and also Simply Charlotte Mason. I like to compare the two and look for supplemental resources I had not discovered otherwise

10) TAG FIVE OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS
Jules at Poor White Oprah

Mommy22SS at Our Homeschooling Adventure

I know that is only two. I'll try to think of three more later.

Stars on the Plane

WARNING: This is PG maybe PG-13 but boy is it funny....I may never see Snakes on a Plane but I sure have enjoyed all the hype around it.

An Open Letter to the AO Advisory

Dearest AO Advisory,

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the work, time and love you have put into making the using of Miss Mason's ideas and techniques a possibility in the 21st century.

Last summer I attended the AO Conference in Allen, Texas. It was such a blessing to me and validated many of the ideas I had about education. When I wrote my master's thesis on learning styles, I had no idea that I would one day be using these theories with my own children. (though I had prayed I would be able to when the time came)When it came time to education my twin boys, I just knew there had to be a better way. I discovered AO through a friend who used a different curriculum but gave me a list of choices.

We spent last year playing, learning letters, exploring the great outdoors, looking at leaves, drawing, counting everything, loving each other, cooking, and reading. I would get discouraged when a friend would say of their kindergartener, "She is reading so well." or "He has read his first chapter book." My children were not reading yet and even struggled to write but I knew in my heart of hearts that this was the best education I could offer them.

Monday we began Year One and already I can see that my patience has paid off. They are now ready to learn to read, to concentrate for longer than 3 seconds, to trust that mother does know best, and to be patient with their little brother. It has been worth the wait. I can even tell a difference in their behavior and the confidence they have. I know it has been only 3 days but as an experienced teacher with 11 years in the public school classroom, I know the signs of successful students. These are successful students.

Thank you Leslie, Anne, Lynn, Wendi, Karen, Donna-Jean, Amy, Leslie. I feel as if I have come to know some of you through the love in this curriculum and the hard work that it took to make it come to fruition.(and your blogs). Our family will be forever grateful.

Sincerely and with love,

Athena, Honey, Butch, Sundance, and Toddler.

First day of First Grade

The public schools in our area started school today so we did also. We are using Ambleside Online  Year 1 as the guide for our school. We read a chapter of Paddle-to-the-Sea and illustrated the chapter for our narration. We read a poem from AA Milne, an Aesop fable and a story about Damocles. The first few pages of our math book are review but it has a practice section which they do on their own. I am reinforcing the letter sounds. It is hard to not push them too hard these first few days.

Butch and Sundance are alike only in that they have the same birthday. That is about where it ends. Sundance is very verbal and auditory and he aced narrating our selections.He struggles to write his name and his letters. Sundance breezes through writing his letters but struggles to verbalize what he is thinking. They both like math (so do I) but again Sundance struggles to write his numbers. We are practicing doing our best work each and every time. We are not rushing through it even though scribbling would be easier. It took about 3 hours to get to all the work today. I still had one more activity I wanted to get done but I they were showing signs of fatigue and I wanted to stop on a positive note.

I created a Daddy Folder. It is sorta like the homework folder in that I put their math paper and some sight words that they can show Honey when he gets home. What a joy it is to teach my own children. Just to think that all those years of sitting through education classes and dreaming about the children that would be my students makes me smile. It turns out that the children are the ones closest to my heart and what a joy it is to teach them each day.

0% Yankee

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English

25% Dixie

5% Midwestern

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Yankee

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

This test says I am 100% Dixie...I prefer Texan though.