Nature Study: Nature Walk

After being sick half the week we finally made it out. We walked around a pond near our house. Total distance: about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile. Total time: about 90 minutes. But we had fun. We saw the following:

• A robin.
  
• Several schools of bullfish - under 1" long
• One adult bullfish, apparently protecting the school (that's what I've been told)
• Other schools of minnows - trout or sunfish.
• Sunfish of various sizes - one to four or five inches. A good example of the big fish [trying to] eat the smaller fish.
  
• Cat tale reeds. Clovers.
  
• Places where others had littered (we will bring a bag next time).
• A small turtle (Mom)
• Rocks
• Driftwood (David liked this)
• Andrew says he saw an alligator, which was probably driftwood. There was actually an escaped pet alligator found in the pond several years ago, so its not impossible. He was warning David that the alligator would bite him.
  
• Butterflies: black and yellow.
• Thistles (most of the taller ones had been sprayed)
• Grasshopper (Jonathan and David)

To do next time:

• Bring a bag for trash.
• Bring a small pack with a bird book and maybe a magnifying glass or binoculars.
• Bring the camera.
• Try bringing a sketchbook and some pencils or watercolors.
  

Nature Hour Challenge #3

We stayed in the back yard this time. My kids are young, so instead of drawing we did some leaf rubbings, which they seemed to enjoy. The eldest and I also found a feather for a "feather rubbing". It turned out well on the tip, but the ... stem? ... center was to thick further down. I need to make sure we do out nature hour earlier next week.

Why Do I Need a Math Curriculum

Really? I'm not bad at math - I don't fear it (I'm starting to fear phonics, but thats another post). I'm looking at MEP, and I was reading about Mammoth Math. I just don't think I need a curriculum to teach addition and subtraction. (Yes I was also reading livingmath.net - playing War by adding two cards is a great idea.) I'm not going to teach Algebra on my own, but on the other hand, my brother picked up math FAST when he started doing woodwork. He had a reason to use it.

My son likes filling out workbook pages, but I could get those fairly cheap (or free online), or even make my own. I already have some Kumon books for him - the telling time and I'll get him the counting money one later if I think he needs it.

I guess what's the point of math? Spiral vs. mastery, manipulatives vs. workbooks. If I think about the end goal I want him to take enough math to get into college (or a tradeschool / field / whatever). I also want him to be able to USE math in everyday life - to see its application. Perhaps not love math, but at least appreciate its value.

I want to have more fun I guess - he likes to learn, especially math, and I don't want to ruin that.

Decisions, decisions

Handwriting
After doing some reading, I stumbled onto an e-book available to purchase at pennygardener.com titled Italics Beautiful Handwriting for Children. It moves at a different pace than the Italics Series I mentioned last week, but you can print whatever you need for your immediate family. It has both italic print and cursive. I'm leaning towards buying the e-book instead of the Italics series.

Phonics
There is a post on the Well Trained Mind forums titled "I HATE teaching phonics." I'm starting to agree, and I only have one child actually learning phonics! He knows the sounds but needs a lot of prompting the whole lesson. I tried Alpha-Phonics and the reading lessons from Charlotte Mason, but he doesn't seem to care. This is the one who can build a perfectly symetrical plane / transformer / etc. with his Legos and Knex blocks, but can't be bothered to look to see if its an "m" or an "n" before guessing.

So I noticed "Explore the Code" mentioned, and the fact that it has an online option. We tried the sample lessons, and DS seemed to do better and enjoyed it. I will have to make sure they don't reward guessing, but I think we will sign him up. For $25 (plus a $5 fee) I can join through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op from now to March of 2010. That sounds like a good deal to me! I won't have to beat my head on the wall, DS will learn AND he will think its a game instead of a chore. He can work on his own and I can take a break or spend time with the younger kids.

Joining th Co-op
Since using the Homeschool Buyers Co-op saves me $25, I joined. It was pretty painless, put in your email, they send the standard confirmation email and you click the link to verify. They assure your privacy (actually you don't give much information to start anyway). You can even print (free) or order ($7) a nice student ID card, which might come in handy in the future! Other deals at this time are 10% off Rosetta Stone and an eBook store, which I might check out.

Nature Hour Challenge #2

We have completed our second Nature Hour Challenge today. The challenge includes both being quiet and using words to observe. With the wind blowing and the _____ goat maaaa-ing constantly, I didn't hear much else. The kids said they heard a bird. Anyway, I'm not sure how this one went, but all the kids picked daisies to show their Dad, so I guess it went okay. "Quiet" is difficult when you have a 3 year old with you. Oh well, learning is cumulative anyway.

Nature Hour Challenge #1

At long last, we have completed a nature hour challenge! We walked over to a nearby pond and then followed the shoreline for a bit. I saw a bird grab a fish out of the water and fly off. Unfortunately the kids missed it, they were watching a horse. They did find several flowers and some "sticky plants" (thistles). Jonathan found a small earthworm. David found a cool stick / log that was white from being in the water. Andrew decided to do the farmer thing and stuck a grass blade out from his teeth. Overall we had a good time, and the kids were VERY observant.

A Few Changes

I am working on our schedule for the upcoming year, and we are changing a few things.

First, I'm going to start doing school year-round. I haven't decided if we should start a new AO Term at specific points (like a new term every July, November and March) or just take a week off after one term and then start another. If we start a new term every 4 months we could do a few short unit studies, which I think would be fun with the boys choosing a topic. I do want to keep all the boys on the same term week. (So one might be in Year 1 Term 1 and the other in Year 2 term 3, but both are doing the 4th week. That will make any exams we do on the same week, then everyone gets X time of before a new term.) This term is going to be slower and will end in late October, since we have a new baby due the first of November.

Second, I am trying some new books / methods. I will be switching to MEP for math (read more here) and adding books from the Italic Handwriting Series for handwriting. I'm also going to try Charlotte Mason's reading method with my oldest.

The plan is still evolving though!