the ELLA echo

how we homeschool: meeting a paleoanthropologist

yesterday ella and i had the good fortune to spend part of the day with jun ebersole, the collections manager of the mcwane science center in birmingham alabama!  he is a paleoanthropologist which is the technical term for "one of the top 10 coolest jobs ever".

mr. ebersole showed us around the dinosaur exhibit, very patiently answering all our questions no matter how far fetched or naive they must have seemed to him--and then he spent a great deal of time showing us how they recover and prepare an actual fossil for exhibit!  he showed us the machine they use to carve out replicas of bones, showed us a cool 3D PRINTER--you heard me, IT PRINTS OUT OBJECTS--and we got to see some eggs they are preparing for the upcoming new exhibit called "naturescope, which sounds like it will be exceptionally cool just like the rest of the museum is.

we didn't get to take any pictures in the lab (and truthfully we were so excited and asking so many questions that we didn't even think much about pictures--for that matter, i got so excited about looking at things and picking his brain that i forgot my purse on a table in the exhibit area!), but next time we visit he's going to take us to the back area where they store the stuff that is not on display, like their mosasaur skeletons, the fourth-largest such collection in the world!

 

this was our third visit to the mcwane science center, and every time we have hours of fun and we find something new that we missed before. the entire basement is devoted to marine life, with a shark and ray touch tank and a quiet little nook where you can meditate on the mystery of life under the sea--and there is an entire floor we haven't even visited yet, i have no idea what is up there.  :D  each area of the center is so engaging that you simply can't see and do everything on a single trip, which is great because it gives us something to look forward to for the next time.  on this trip we stumbled upon the fox 6 weather lab, where ella got to do and then watch a recording of herself doing one of her favorite things:  the weather report.  

 

my advice to homeschooling parents it is this:  take a chance, pick up the phone and ask somebody cool if you can spend some time with them.  i've never been turned down, and i've never been disappointed. even the top-10 cool job havers seem really happy to share a little of their passion with an eager audience.  and you might make a new friend.

 

ps--about an hour from birmingham we had a flat tire.  :(  rudi managed to change it in record time, on the side of the interstate highway in the rain while wearing his good clothes (he was dressed for a meeting), and then we limped on the spare to a little town called hanceville where the very nice people at college tire put on a replacement and got us back on the road.  they even had a lego play table for us to enjoy while we waited--proof positive that they care about their customers and realize that sometime parents have their children with them.  

 

we were a full hour-and-a-half late getting to the mcwane science center and mr. ebersole STILL took time out of his day to indulge our dinosaur interests.  everybody we met all day was just wonderful to us and the next time we go we're bringing them all cupcakes.

how we homeschool: game schooling

 

one of the biggest reasons i wanted to homeschool ella is so that "school" would not be awful for her.  :D she has always loved to learn, and i didn't want that love to disappear in a sea of worksheets and textbooks.   i know that most schoolteachers work really hard to make learning fun but what i think what they often miss is that FUN, in and of itself, can actually be educational on it's own.

that is why i lean more and more toward what i call "game schooling".  basically, we play games, and from those games we learn something. :D  but the point has to be the game itself--if there is even a hint of "school" involved, the fun gets sucked right out of it.

these are the games that we've been playing this week:

• shut-the-box (arithmetic, logic, strategy)--thank you lala!
• madlibs (vocabulary, parts of speech)
• scrabble (spelling)--ella got the apple package during our apple study unit
• marbulous (science)--ella calls this "the contraption maker"
• color explosion sheets (art)
• wii fit and wii sports resort (physical fitness)
• view-master cards (reading)

we also make up our own games, such as when we adopt laura but live in her time (history, social studies), or when we rewrite nursery rhymes or fairytales so they include a pie (literature, composition).

there are so many great games to choose from that i truly believe a child could do almost nothing but play games and have fun and still learn just as much, perhaps more, than by doing just "school" alone. that's worth at least 10 bonus points right there.

we're always on the look-out for more games to play so please leave a comment with your suggestions!  

how we homeschool: ella sewed her first dress

for christmas i gave ella this fantastically pink and very wonderful vintage sears kenmore sewing machine that i found on craigslist last fall.  i had to learn how to wind and thread a long bobbin, but once i got it all threaded up it ran like a dream.

ella was thrilled with it!  she immediately started planning what she would make first, and she decided she wanted to make a dress.

she drafted and printed the pattern herself, with my guidance, using the child's play patternmaking program by wild ginger software, she assembled and taped the pattern together with my help (i forgot to get pictures of that part--i was too excited!)--then i cut the pattern out for her. she laid out the patterns on fabric, weighted them, i cut.  she did all the sewing herself.  she even pressed the seams herself. the only part i sewed was the neck placket in back, which is fiddly even for an adult. 

 

 

 

she was so excited to put it on that she wouldn't stop to let me press out the folds in the fabric.  she was too eager to go down the runway (AKA nordictrack C2200, which seems very appropriate for a runway).

the edges are raw, the seam allowances and hems are all different sizes, but no seamstress has ever been happier with her own creation than ella is with this dress.

 

oh, about the homeschooling:  subjects covered on the day she made her dress include: mathematics (measuring her body, calculating the amount of fabric needed);  geometry (drafting the pattern, assembling the printed pattern pieces, laying out the pattern pieces on the fabric, assembling the pieces in the correct order and orientation);  reading and writing (navigating the program, reading the parts of the pattern, recording her measurements, reading the pattern pieces);  mechanics (threading and running the machine);  science (the affects of heat on the fabric and thread fibers, interaction of the thread with the fabric for stable seams);  art (determining a design for the dress, selecting a fabric that worked harmoniously with the dress design).  probably some other things too, but those are the biggies.

she's already picked out her next project, and it involves:  stretch velvet.  LOL  i'm glad my singer walking foot fits this machine.

taking it slow, so we can all enjoy the ride

 

in a bit of shameless self-promotion, i'd like to point out the new button on the left sidebar.  i'm now a member of the sprout for parents band of bloggers!

i know what you're thinking:  ella's not a preschooler.  

you're right, she is a registered first grade homeschooler.

so why did i want to become a blogger for a TV channel that is aimed at preschoolers???

it's because the sprout channel, and by extension the sprout online website, helps reinforce so many of the principles rudi and i embrace as parents.

we believe in ella's innate desire to do good, to be a help to those around her, to contribute to her community--ideals she can see modeled on the sprout channel in the likes of the ever-vigilant fireman sam and sweet, loving caillou.

we trust in her intrinsic motivation and ability to learn from all her experiences, including the dreaded "screen time"--and sprout helps us by offering shows like the whacky zoboomafoo, the entertaining mama mirabelle's home movies, and the truly delightful franny's feet.

but most importantly, we cherish our child's innocence.  i'm not talking about naivete--ella knows that all living things die, that nobody can get everything they want, that not everything will go her way.  no, what i'm talking about are the things that make childhood so special.  we love that she still stands to cheer when thomas the train does the right thing.  we are thrilled when she reminds fifi and the flowertots that "you are never too small to help a friend".  and yes, we really do love that she still believes you can visit another world just by believing you can--after all, that is the exact same message most professional educators deliver about the importance of a good book.

on top of all that, we can turn on the sprout channel at any time of day or night and know that ella will never see a child roll her eyes at someone, never hear a child whip out some snappy dialog to put down someone else, will never be exposed to the notion that being cool means making other people feel bad about themselves.

that's right:  we are sheltering her from the popular culture.  :)  and we're proud of it.  and i'm proud that even though we don't have a "preschooler", sprout for parents has allowed me to be part of the team.  i welcome all the new readers who have clicked thru from the band of bloggers website and i hope some of what i have to offer will prove useful or encouraging for you.

ps:  ok, i'll admit it--i don't love every show on sprout. :D  in ella's very early formative years we conditioned her to believe that barney is a scary, scary monster.  hey, when it comes to her own sanity, a mom has to do what a mom has to do to do.

how we homeschool: yesterday, today, tomorrow

ella knows all the days of the week in order IF she starts with "sunday".  but figuring out where we are in the week if we start with a different day sometimes confuses her.  we can look at the calendar and see exactly what part of the week we are in, but remembering the "location" of the days in relation to each other on any given day can get tricky.

so i made a little gadget to help with that and also to help her with some terminology about time.

to make this, i started with two paper plates (they are cheap at the dollar store--ella chose her favorite color, pink), and trimmed off the fancy edge of one of the plates.  then i drew lines on the plates to divide them into seven sections.  (here's the template*--just center it on any plate and extend the lines).

on the smaller plate i wrote the days of the week in order, one in each section.  on the larger plate i wrote these titles in order, one in each section:

the day before yesterday was

yesterday was

today is

tomorrow will be

the day after tomorrow will be

to make the "today is" section stand out a bit more, i colored it with--what else?--pink highlighter.  the last two sections are left blank.  to finish, i fastened the plates together in the center with a brad.

each day we spin the inner plate so that the day's name is in the "TODAY IS" section.  then we can see at a glance what tomorrow will be, what the day before yesterday was, etc.

so--what do you think should go in the empty spaces on the bigger plate?

*i made the template using the pattern editor in the patternmaster boutique program from wild ginger software.  see--it's not just for clothing anymore.  :)

how we homeschool: what's in today's work folders

since first posting how i'm using folders to implement sue patrick's workbox system, i've been asked what kinds of things we're using in such small containers, so i thought i'd periodically post our day's work folders contents.  in today's folders are:

american history:  schoolhouse rock DVD (we got it on netflix)--today she is watching "i'm just a bill";  "elbow room" (U.S. territorial expansion); and "no more kings"  (american independence).  she gets to watch them over and over, as many times as she likes, for 30 minutes, and at the end of that time she tells me what she learned and i notate that for our portfolio.

math:  egg carton game--since an egg carton won't fit into a folder, i found a picture of an egg carton and used a photo editing program to put numbers in the cups and a snappy title on the lid.  ella loves snappy titles especially if there is an "extramation point".

handwriting and bible verse:  tracer page of joshua 1:9 (the part starting with "do not be terrified"--this is our verse for the month of october)--i made the tracer page in a photo editing program, using the handwriting paper that has a dashed line for lower case spacing, and the jardotty font, which is more like cursive and looks to ella like princess writing.  i made the font very light, and pink, so she could see it but it would be her handwriting that stands out on the page when she is done.

 

art:  shower curtain graffiti--can't remember where i saw this idea, so if you know please leave the link in the comments.  just put a plain white plastic shower curtain on the floor (the dollar tree or similar store is your friend here) and use washable markers or crayons to draw on it (dollar tree is not your friend here--spring for the good ones so the kids can have really saturated colors).  when the shower curtain is covered with drawings, just toss it in the washing machine and when it comes out it will be clean and ready to use again!

science:  magazine cut and paste--ella cuts out pictures of anything she finds interesting or unusual, and then sorts them according to whether they are solid, liquid, or gas--this leads to some great questions, such as whether you should consider glade air freshener a solid or a gas.

quiet time:  jewel lullaby CD

craft:  doll quilt that she is making for dalui

unit focus activities:  coloring page of pocahontas;  dictation on why pocahontas helped the settlers

if you're using workboxes or a similar set up, what are you putting in them?  

how we homeschool: wall-e

a friend of mine is concerned that her children like to play with their toys more than they like doing their homeschool assignments, and i offered to give her some suggestions.  i'm sharing here in case these ideas might prove useful to others.

my friend's children are kindergarten and younger, so these ideas will be geared for that age but i will also suggest ways they could be adapted for older children.

the specific toys these children are interested in most right now are wall-e figurines.  i have not seen the whole movie and have never seen the figurines, so if i'm off base on my suggestions on how this could work, please feel free to correct me!  the point is to help my friend, not to idolize my ideas.  LOL

what stood out for me in the little i saw of this movie was the plant, which is why i am focusing on it for these suggestions.  i think there are DOZENS of other possibilites in this movie, these are just top-of-my-head ideas.

math:  
simple addition and subtraction:  "wall-e has X number of plants--he finds X number more--how many plants does he have now?"  OR  "wall-e has X number of plants--eve takes X number of plants back to her ship--how many does wall-e have left?"  this could be made into a worksheet but my experience is that the child would rather do it as an activity with the parent.

sorting and graphing: cut out pictures of plants from magazines, sort them according to type (flowers, trees, vegetables, etc), and graph them.  (this overlaps slightly with science).

older children could do more complicated functions such as estimating and then figuring the volume of material that could be held in various size containers--if you have a few trash or recycling containers you can empty for this purpose, it could be much more engaging.  it could be expanded by asking how many people could fit into a given space--like the number of humans on the starliners.  if your bedroom or home were starliner, how many humans could fit in it? 

science: 
from the activity above, the wall-e figurine could choose the plant he thinks is most interesting and do a little research on it--what kind of conditions does it need to grow and thrive?  what kinds of diseases or pest is it vulnerable to?  maybe even get seeds or seedlings of this plant and grow one of your own!

perhaps there is a place close by where you could go see this plant--or maybe there is a botanical garden or extension office with someone who would talk to the children about this plant and others like it.  field trip!

social studies: 
go thru your recycling and sort according to types of materials--you could discuss where each type comes from, and investigate what happens to it when it is recyled. 

when the trash or recycling collector comes by, stand outside and watch it get picked up!  if you offer the trash collector a glass of lemonade or hot cocoa (whichever is right for the weather), he will usually take a few minutes to answer questions and might even give you a mini-tour of the inside of the truck cab (yes, i've done it--more than once--the cab of the brush collection truck is AWESOME).

reading and language arts:
vocabulary words--axiom, consume/consumer/consumption, directive, mutiny--the words from each of the robots' names (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator--Waste Allocation Load-Lifter Earth-class).  a young child CAN grasp the meaning of these words, if they are explained in an age-appropriate manner.  they won't learn to spell them correctly yet, but that is not important in kindergarten.   or if the child is learning phonics, perhaps give them a chance to try spelling the words!  that will give you some insight into his progress in decoding the written word.

creative writing:  create alternate endings for the story, find a way to notate them (drawing pictures, dictation, etc), and then present a play of the story with the new ending, using the figurines to tell the story.  could overlap as an art project if you create scenery or props.

health and fitness:
good nutrition and fitness.  looking at it from the perspective of a robot, what kinds of things "deactivate" us?  what kinds of things "reanimate" us?  what happens when one of our parts doesn't function properly?  what can we do to keep ourselves in good working condition?

moral/ethical:
this is why i chose the plant as the focus of the lesson ideas: because he has developed a conscience and a curiousity--because he has developed a humanity--wall-e has come to believe that all life has value and is worth protecting.  this is an ideal opportunity for a parent to share his/her ideas about life--it's meaning, it's origin, it's purpose--from whatever perspective the family holds.  the moment when eve kisses wall-e and the spark causes him to come back to life is ripe with possibilities on this.

it seems like there are so many more ideas than i have room or time to share!  but i hope this helps you, dear friend, and i bet the other readers of this blog will have even better ideas to suggest.

how we homeschool: our version of workboxes

well by now if you are a homeschooler and haven't heard about sue patrick's workbox system, you are probably not on the interwebs.  :D  the idea sounded good to me but i just didn't want to devote that much money or space to such a set up, so i adapted the idea to the space and materials i have, which is not fancy but makes me so happy.

instead of the boxes, i'm using these cool expanding pocket folders, they are like file folders but they are closed on the sides, and they expand to 2" wide.  things don't fall out and they will hold bigger things than just papers.  each morning i fill the folders with the day's work.  i'm using only 9 folders now, instead of 12 like in the box system, but i think this is plenty for a first grader.  i'm not a big fan of creating busy work just for the sake of something to do.

i haven't labeled or numbered the folders--i didn't want to get stuck on perfectionist mode so i just started filling folders and i'll edit or refine the set up as we go.

to give you and example of things i'm putting in the folders, today in the language arts folder was this new high five magazine (it is really a few months old but she hasn't seen it yet).  the folder in front of it has her craft project, it is a quilt for her baby doll dalui. today she colored in the design sheet then she learned how to draw and cut the template, how to trace around it on the fabric, and how to cut the pieces.  as i write this she has started sewing the patches together by hand.

in the math folder i put a domino number game.  she draws a domino and then writes the number of dots on each end into the equation "___ + ___", then she adds them together.  next time it will be subtraction. 

today she got another math activity but i put it in the games folder, this is a set of tangrams i got at the dollar tree (i love that store). 

in today's P.E. folder i put the wii sports disk because we've been flooding here in middle tennessee but today there has been no rain so we were able to go out and didn't need this after all.

when i want to assign something that is too big to fit into the folder, i put in a card with a picture of it instead.  for example, when we listen to a book on CD, i put in this knitting card and we can sit together and listen to the story while we work on christmas presents.

in her bible studies folder is a tracer sheet with the bible verse of the month.  this also serves as her handwriting practice.  she traces this same verse every day, and at the end of the month she has memorized the verse AND can print it from memory too.

when ella completes an assignment she puts the finished work in this homework dog house which we found at the parent/teacher store.  this way she can say, "the dog ate my home work".  :D  the empty folder goes to the back of the basket.

 

 

things not shown are her home ec folder which had a picture card of the floor sweeper and floor steamer, the field trip folder which had her library card in it, and the science folder which had magazines for her to cut out of things to paste on her her solid/liquid/gas chart.

this set up is working great for us!  i chose not to dictate the order of the folders should be done in, and instead i let ella choose which ever one appeals to her as she goes thru the day.  in another post i'll list some of the other things i'm putting in the folders, but in the meantime i welcome your suggestions!

how we homeschool: the stuff center

it is not-back-to-school blog hop time at life with my 3 boybarians!  the topic this week is school rooms, but as i mentioned before, we don't have a dedicated room, we have centers--scattered all over the house.  :D  today i'll show you the "stuff center"--the place where we keep the "stuff".

i had originally intended to start school next week--because ella still has one more week of preschool--but she was begging to start now, so we did!  that is why part of this center is still bare--i had all kinds of plans to decorate the bulletin board to make it special for the first day but all she wanted to do was get to work.

the stuff center is beside the front door.  i found a neat write/erase schedule sheet in the $1.00 section of target, so yesterday we filled it in according to the order ella thought she'd like for her day. 

as you can see, we had barely started our day when we rearranged our schedule!  that was so cool with me--that's part of the beauty of homeschool.  more about our schedule change in my next post.

the "cubby shelves" are where we keep worksheets, paper supplies, a pair of binoculars for nature walks, and now the "cubby box" that used to be in the book club.  ella even packed her backpack to bring to school--i didn't know what was in it until later--it had dora and a blanket for dora. 

  

we keep our crocs beside the door, so we can run outside when we hear the ice cream truck!

the area on top of the shelves is for charts.  we use the 100 chart (which i found in the dollar tree teacher's section) for things like skip counting, and the pitcher is where we are collecting "pon-pons".  we will drop in one pon-pon each day of school and when we have 100 we will have a party!  this pitcher is special, it belonged to rudi's grandmother, and it seems especially appropriate to put it to such important use.

 

the job chart is for ella's personal and household responsibilities--one responsibility for each year of her age--in a few weeks she'll GET to add another!  she gets a sticker each time she completes a job.  if she fills in her whole chart, she gets a reward.  each week we write in what the reward will be, and she signs and dates the chart.  the reward she chose for this week is to ride the kiddie train at oprymills mall.

on the window is our weather report.  these are some clingies i found at the dollar tree.  we will also keep a weather chart but i haven't made that yet--that's what happens when school starts before you expect it to!

and last but not least, on the bulletin board are a calendar to keep up with things like field trips and special events, a little cartoon that i laminated--it reminds me of one of the many reasons i've chosen to homeschool--and we pinned up some of her first day's work (the rest of the paperwork is in a spiral notebook).  the dollar is for when the ice cream truck comes!

 

things i still plan to add to this center over the course of this week are:  a weather chart--a day of the week tracker ("today is--yesterday was--tomorrow will be")--and some decorations related to the theme for the week which is, of course, APPLES!

we have other centers which i'll share with you over the next few days, but in the meantime i'd love to hear your ideas about how i can make the stuff center nicer.  i have visions of decorating this area for changes of season, for holidays, and of course to reflect our unit themes, but this whole decorating thing is not my strong suit. 

and if you're looking for ideas of your own, do check out the links on the school room post at life with my 3 boybarians!  as of this writing there are already over four dozen great links and there will be more to come over the course of the week. 

 

how we homeschool: curriculum--stuff we're not doing

it is not-back-to-school blog hop time at life with my 3 boybarians!  so far this week i have shared our mission and our learning plan for the 3 R's, our learning plan for the "extra curriculars", and everything else that adds up to a full plate of education.  (notice how i managed to continue the kitchen sink motif in that last link).  hard as it might be to believe, there are a few things we will not be doing.

there are all kinds of neat things a family can buy or do these days that are designed to help make homeschooling easier or more organized.  naturally, i rejected them.  :D  mostly because i decided they would not work for us.  the two biggest of these are:

workboxes:  i just became aware of sue patrick's workbox system a few months ago.  it seems like EVERYBODY is using it!.   i decided against it because it does something that i avoid:  dictating the work to be done.  instead, we are more fluid here--if today we want to do nothing but read, that's what we do.  so setting up the workboxes would just set us up to feel like slackers, and i won't do that on purpose. 

a classroom:  this goes back to my belief that learning is not and should not be separated from daily living.  our classroom is wherever we happen to be, or wherever there is room for what we want to do.  thus, our "super fab science lab" is usually the kitchen table, but sometimes it is the front porch or yard.  we do have an art room but it is not dedicated to homeschooling--we've had that since long before ella was even born.

however--we do have "centers", i showed you one of them this past spring, and starting tomorrow i will show you more of them, when "class room week" begins at life with my 3 boybarians.

thank you for your endurance this week.  :D   please take a moment to visit the other homeschool curriculum links at the not-back-to-school blog hop, there are literally hundreds of great ideas there, something to suit every homeschooling style and personality.  and when you leave a comment for the sites you visit (please do that--those bloggers take a lot of time to offer their advice and ideas freely), please let them know i sent you!