School?!?

Sometimes I wonder if our relaxed approach to homeschooling is really sufficient, and worry that perhaps I ought to be starting more formal studies with my oldest son, who is six years old.  But more often, I remind myself that Elijah has really learned quite a lot just through every day living: exploring and reading and thinking and talking to me and to other trusted adults.  Not only do I think that there is no need for formal studies at this point, I think that it would really be better to postpone them.  At this point I'm planning to start more formal schooling this fall.

The other day, my sister and her husband Mark stopped in for a few minutes.  Elijah climbed up into Uncle Mark's lap, and Uncle Mark asked him, "So, Elijah, how was your day today?  Did you do any school?"

"School?!?" Elijah asked with an astonished and alarmed expression.

I had to laugh.  No, Elijah had not "done school" that day.  Instead, he had done the following:

Read a book about Eli Whitney (inventor of the cotton gin)
Drew pictures, using the encyclopedia for inspiration
Read a book about various astronomers
Made a flag with cardboard, paper, crayons, and tape
Read a book about various explorers
Built various things out of legos
Read a counting book to his brother (who is three)
Read a book about the planets to his brother
Discussed why the book about planets was outdated in that it called Pluto a planet, and reviewed the three qualifications that make a planet a planet
Read a fiction book about a horse named Lightning
Reviewed 1 John 2:12-29, which he plans to recite in catechism class the coming Lord's Day
Observed and discussed mockingbirds courting outside the dining room window
Drew a racetrack on the driveway with sidewalk chalk, and had bicycle/tricycle races with his brother
Observed his uncle working on the brakes on his car

He may not have "done school" that day but I think he had a productive day of learning, don't you?

Things of a very vaguely scientific nature

Cross posted from my blog-apologies to anyone who has already read this.

Youngest daughter keeps asking to do "experiments".  Recently, we investigated ice and melting using an idea from a DK science book, "In the Garden".


I've been really impressed by some of the ideas in the book but this idea around freezing and melting was particularly good-home ingredients, little mess and results that were fun to observe.

We half filled a muffin tray with water. We used tap water although the book suggests rain water. I didn't know how long I would have to wait for rain. We then put in pieces of flower and leaves in the water and a loop of string in each hole.

The flowers have strange tints as they were previously used to look at transport in plants, using coloured water.

The muffin container went in the freezer for half a day, we took out the finished product and hung it outside and talked about how long it would take to melt.

This current interest, probably stemmed from our cell model using jelly for cytoplasm, a truffle for the nucleus and various other sweets for other organelles. Thank you to Apologia for this idea.

New Resolve and a New Timetable

Well, we're back to 'school' with a vengeance. As Henrietta pointed out in the previous post, we aren't under any obligation to keep to school terms. But we had Dad on a two week holiday, so there was no way we were going to 'do school'. (We actually tend to keep to other terms, more or less, because of cousins being off school, swimming classes working in with school terms etc)


Anyway, while we were on holiday over the past week or two, the girls and I spoke quite a bit about things that were working and things that weren't.


We have now devised a fairly rigid timetable, and have decided to maintain it as much as is possible. It's quite a tight schedule, but we're going to stick with it for the first three weeks of term anyway and then we'll review it. The first couple of days back after a relaxing holiday can be a bit of a struggle anyway, but at this time of year - with dark mornings that cry out to you me that bed is the logical place to be - it can be rather painful! However, so far, so good.

After three weeks, we're going to review it. If the schedule has been too tight, we will take some days at the beginning of February to catch up. If needs be, we'll tweak the timetable and give a little more breathing space within it. I have suggested slaving for three 'hard working weeks' and then having one week of catch-up (and catching our breath!) each month.

Have any of you worked to this kind of schedule? If our initial three weeks prove do-able (just!), we may have a three-week month and play catch-up for the fourth week. We'll see.

The Wee Guy is lower primary level. His timetable has Maths and Language every day. We use Abeka for each of these subjects. As well as his daily diet of these subjects, I add a weekly (sometimes twice a week) spelling test (often done on the whiteboard, because he enjoys this so much more!) and a written piece of work. The subject varies week on week. A few weeks ago, we'd read the tale of Androclus and the Lion. So, Calum's writing for that week was a story of a dog coming to the rescue of a boy who'd fallen out on the moor (his choice).


He does memory work too. We learn Scriptures (Isaiah 40: 1-5 just now) and maybe some poetry (The Land of Storybooks, by Robert Louis Stevenson right now).

Each week, we do some map work and, with some inspiration from OMSH's wall map ideas, we're pinning pictures of different places on our wall and linking them up to the map. Sometimes we read about a specific country, think about issues that may be concerning believers in that country, and talk about how we could pray for the peoples of that particular nation. 

The world is a fascinating place.

Here are our wall maps at the moment.

The Butt of Lewis lighthouse and Afghanistan are our photos right now.

Our lighthouse the day we 'showed OMSH the world'

Our plan is to have a UK map to the right of the World, and a proper USA map to the left. 

The Wee Guy has also begun learning to draw. By this I mean that instead of just drawing his picture and colouring it in, we are trying to learn specific skills to make drawings more life-like. We are using Usborne's Drawing Animals. I have no skill in this area. I mean none whatsoever. 

Step by step....

This is his orangutan hanging from a branch. (I say 'his': we did do it together, following the step by step instructions, but it's mostly his work.)

In my book, this is good. Really good and artistic. But I admit to having the artistic ability of a piece of wood!

We read quite a bit together, and he reads for pleasure - at the moment, mostly these books:

You get the drift??

Then we spent hours listening to innumerable facts about soldiering through the ages.

"Mum, did you know.....?"

"Yes, dear"

"Did you?"

"Er.... no. I meant no..."

"Well, wait til I tell you...."

(Mum stifles yawn and feigns interest) 

Clearly, I was cut out for this homeschooling lark. I have such enthusiasm for all my children's interests. 

So, after all that, there you have a glimpse of the Wee Guy's schooling. I'll post about the girls' soon. 

Providing we haven't been besieged by a Roman Army, decimated by the Vikings or speared by the Greeks.

Do you have to keep to school terms?

We often get asked if we have to keep to school terms/do so many days a year/follow the local schools' pattern.

In England, the answer is no, we don't. Our obligation is to provide a full time education which is appropriate to a child's age, aptitude and ability.  There are various legal cases which define some of those terms, but nowhere are the hours/subjects defined.

The current legal guidelines are as follows

"What's required of you:the facts about home education are:

•you do not need to be a qualified teacher to educate your child at home

•your child is not obliged to follow the National Curriculum or take national tests, but as a parent you are required by law to ensure your child receives full-time education suitable to their age, ability and aptitude

•any special educational needs your child may have must be recognised

•you do not need special permission from a school or local authority to educate your child at home, but you do need to notify the school in writing if you're taking your child out of school

•you will need to notify the local authority if you are removing your child from a special school

•you do not need to observe school hours, days or terms

•you do not need to have a fixed timetable, nor give formal lessons

•there are no funds directly available from central government for parents who decide to educate their children at home

•some local authorities provide guidance for parents, including free National Curriculum materials"

However, having said that, we as a family *do* tend to follow school terms. When the children were all younger, we had fewer outside activities, so were more free to set our our timetables. As they have gotten older, and are involved in so much outside of the home,  it makes sense to keep to (roughly) the same terms as their schooled friends do. For example there are activity classes that only run during the government school holidays, which our children get involved in, as well as activities that only run during term time (e.g. gymnastics).

We do take time off during school terms for days out - if we time it right we can get to some of London's  busiest attractions when they are very quiet :-)

And also, we do not take the six weeks off in the summer that the schools do. We tend to have the first week and the last week off, and do some different activities/lessons in the middle - mainly the reading scheme.

Children who have imminent exams do not take many holidays!

We've had a longer break that normal over Christmas/New Year, since we went down with a ten-day tummy bug just before the end of term; and that combined with the time Julian had off (we don't do lessons when Dad is home); and a few educational days out, means we've not got back into routine properly till today.

We did return to lessons last Tuesday, but that was more a case of finishing off what had been missed, catching up, and   - the oh so difficult! - getting used to starting work at 6.45am.

Science year 5 and 6/grades 4 and 5

I was going to call this "super science" but thought this was a bit silly. Silliness apart, Apologia Elementary is super science.

When we started home education, I wanted to find science that was more interesting than the anodyne science that the children had seemed to do at school at primary school age and was delighted to find Apologia Elementary.

Apologia Elementary is a Christian, home education curriculum from the US but available in the UK from Conquest books who deliver very promptly. There are books around various themes-botany, astronomy, the human body and three on zoology. Each book is meant to take about a year although we've found they take a little less. The science is in much more depth than that we had seen done at a primary age previously.

A vaguely Charlotte Mason approach is used with text which can either be read aloud or the child can read and suggestions for narration and composition. The composition ideas use a variety of formats. The books are said to be suitable from ages 5-12. I don't think that my five year olds would have managed these books unless they were read to them with a fair amount of explanation. We are currently using them with our 10 year old and they are ideal for him.

One of the really great things about these books is the activities. Melting chocolate with a magnifying glass was a favourite. There are activities in each chapter and they are designed to be done at home with ingredients readily available. Conquest do supply equipment for all the activities but this is fairly pricey and it isn't difficult to find the necessaries around the house.
The picture below is our salt dough model of Olympus Mons after it had erupted.

Now, a confession, we started the first term of home education using the first zoology book. Our son found it so different from school science that we changed to a more standard curriculum for a couple of terms before he asked to do science in more detail and we went happily back to Apologia. In retrospect, I would have done some sort of fairly hands on science for a term before starting Apologia. Otherwise, Apologia Elementary is something I would throughly recommend.

Snow Day!

One of the things I love about home education is how flexible it is. We had a huge snowfall (more than I've ever seen in my life) over the last 24 hours, and when Julian couldn't get in to work because there were no trains (I know - most of the world can cope with a few inches of snow; London can't) I was able to announce a "day off" and send the children (they all went other than C who is studying too hard, and hates snow anyway) to the park with J.

I'm sure there will be lots of informal learning . . . and lots of fun. And no doubt, photos :-)

(I realise that I sometimes comment here using my other log-in ID. In case anyone is confused, "The Mom" who posts comments is me; I just set up a new ID for this blog. )

Maths choices years 5 and 6/grade 4 and 5

I've written about how we chose our curriculum but not about the actual choices.

This is about what we have chosen for maths and English, how we use those choices and our assessment of them ;that is, how they work for our family.
This has to have a health warning: what works for our son may not work in another family or even for other children in our family.

This year, and last year, we've used books from Galore Park as our main maths and English books. 

Galore Park is an English, secular publishing company which mainly supplies private schools. The course of study is wider than would be taken if we followed the National Curriculum. Many home educators use Galore Park and they have a Home Educator section on their website and home educator e-mailings.

Galore Park produce Junior maths and English books 1-3 to cover years 3-5 and then "So you want to learn maths/English" 1-3 to cover years 6-8. 

Maths

How we use these books: Unlike many subjects, as will become apparent later, we use these books thoroughly doing all the chapters and most of the exercises. Some of the early exercises in a chapter are very easy so we will either do these aloud or I will set a few to check that ds can remember how to do them, otherwise, I find the exercises about the right length. If we have some difficulty with a chapter, I tend to leave it and return to it later or occasionally supplement with examples from the older maths text book on Mother's Companion (more about this later!) or from the internet.

I lik maths so don't have an answer book but there is one available. I can't comment about this.
Ds uses Schofield and Simms for mental maths about once a week. This is cheap and cheerful, same as he used when he was in school and does the job.

How Galore Park maths works for us: really well-A*. We plan to continue using the "So you want to learn maths" series for the next couple of years. My only, minor, gripe is that it would make the book more interesting if there was some explanation of how a particular topic is used in "real" life.

English

How we use the book: We use the English book in a completely different way to the maths book. The word that best describes our use of this book is loose.
The English book contains two comprehensions around a theme, an exercise with suggestions for creative writing, two punctuation exercises, two grammar exercises, sections on vocabulary and spelling and on speaking and listening, followed by suggestions for further reading and for further research around the topic used for the comprehensions.  We actually use one comprehension, occasionally the creative writing and the punctuation exercise. The speaking and listening portion has provided some helpful ideas.
Occasional comprehensions have been avoided on the basis of their content.
We don't use the grammar as this is covered in more depth in Latin. I try to set writing around our history or geography. We also tend to use the real life opportunities of letters, e-mails and a private blog.
We use Schofield and Simms workbooks for spelling.

I am much less confident about marking English, particularly creative writing, than maths. Maths is either right or wrong and the right or wrong answer may have been achieved by a correct or incorrect method. English is a bit more complex. In view of  this, I brought the answer book thinking that it would help sadly it is just an answer book for the exercises and I have hardly used it.

How Galore Park English works for us: Not as well as the maths. B+. We may not use this curriculum next year for English. I am open to suggestions!