Five Reasons To Try Notebooking

Notebooking, or (or lapbooks, as they are often called) can be a great addition to your homeschool.  Here are five reasons we tried to (and will continue to) notebook in ours.

1)  Notebooking is a great tool for retention, as well as encouragement toward further learning on a topic.  Notebooking is a way of retelling what has been learned in a way that appeals to a specific child's learning style.

2)  Notebooking has no rules.  Whatever your child likes best (coloring, writing, drawing, painting, cutting, pasting) can be included.  However creative or utilitarian they desire their work to be is just fine.

3)  Having control is inspiring.  The less direction I have given my children, the more elaborate and detailed their notebooks have become.  I have also been shocked at the amount of work they will do without being assigned.  My dyslexic/dysgraphic child is writing up a storm.

4)  There are endless ways to add to a notebook.  One of my favorite resources has been this list of suggestions from the Notebooking Fairy.  There are also reams of Pinterest boards and web sites dedicated to notebooking ideas.

5)  Notebooking is fun.  So much fun, that my children have been working on their notebooks in their free time.  Notebooking is fun because it, like homeschooling itself, can be tailored to the needs, desires and talents of the individual child.

Have you tried notebooking as a part of your homeschool?

Five Ways To Welcome Spring to Your Homeschool

Spring fever is here! Embrace the opportunity you have with the flexibility of homeschool and enjoy the changing season. These are five suggestions for simple ways to incorporate welcoming spring into your routine.

1. Get outside! Do your reading sitting on the porch. Take chalk to the park and do some math on the sidewalk. Encourage children old enough to work on their own to take their materials out of doors to complete their assignments.

2. Plant a seed! Whether you scoop some dirt into a pot or let your children trowel up some flower bed throwing off it's winter sleep, let them try their hand at growing something. It is extra special if children choose their own seeds and do all the work themselves. This past week, without my even knowing, my third grader planted three rows of peas and twelve seed potatoes while I was working with his little sister on school.

3. Take a nature walk! Gather up some small storage containers for samples, carry a small backpack with drinking water and sketch books. Find a place for an unhurried, schedule-less walk and encourage your little ones to touch, feel, and save samples (in ways that are respectful to mother nature!). Find a warm, comfortable spot to sit and help them draw something they see.

4. Eat something fresh! Most of the farmer's markets in our area haven't begun yet, but a trip to the store can help you teach your children about seasonal shopping, the benefits to your health and the earth's that comes by way of eating fresh foods, and a tasty treat! Spinach, radishes, and green onions would make a wonderful salad or dipping tray.

5. Watch for and talk about signs of new life! At our farm, the chickens are laying eggs now, the mama cows are birthing their little calves, the bulbs have shot up their first greens, the wheat is thickening. Point out these things to your children as you are going about your daily lives and enjoy the renewal that spring can give your spirit and home. Open your windows and let spring into your homeschool!

Geography Ideas

Geography was not a 'living' subject to me when I was in school. However, I've found it to be critically important as an adult. I wanted my children to have the opportunity for geography to be a regular and interesting part of their lives. Here are some of the ways that work for our family:

Display Geography Tools

We keep a map of the world (self-sticking, laminated) where it is easily accessible. I keep US maps and a state map in my lessons plans binder. We have two globes.

Incorporate Geography Into Other Subjects

When we are studying history, we find the places mentioned in the lessons on our maps or globe. During science, we find the location of the animal's habitats or natural formations we are learning about.

Utilize Other Geography Tools

My kids love the geography sing-along CD we own, as well as geography coloring books. There are a wealth of great products on the internet. I often print out free coloring sheets that have been recent topics of geography discussion for my kids to work on while we are reading out loud together. I encourage my kids to draw maps 'for fun' of the area we live in.

Look for "Geographical" Opportunities

Any time we talk about where someone else lives, someone else going on a vacation, or something happening in the world, we find it on a map. When we talk about going somewhere ourselves, we find it on a map if it is farther away, or we discuss street names and directions if it is nearby. When we are traveling, we frequently mention which direction we are going and the differences in the landscape and basic geology of the places we move along.

Like most things in homeschooling, learning and understanding geography happens slowly over time, based on your child's interest. I've never given a 'formal' lesson on maps to my children, but I occasionally mention finding the compass. I like to let the kids sing their favorite geography songs to find things on the map when we are looking for something new, and we'll use hints to help find it (I will name the continent first, then the country, then a nearby city or landmark). My kids all have different levels of interest in geography, but it will be a tool they can use with confidence any time they need to.

This post is linked up at The Hip Homeschool Hop.

When You're Ready to Give Up....

I am 3 months into "officially" homeschooling Sophie and last week I was ready to quit.

I was sick for a week, we were leaving on vacation, I had NOTHING ready for school...and Sophie refused to sit and work on her letters.

I was at a loss.

At the same time the Homeschool Blogging awards were popping up all over my twitter feed and every link that I clicked on made me feel more and more like a failure.

I went on vacation determined that in January I'd send Sophie to preschool across the street.

I was clearly not made to teach my child.  I couldn't get her sit and practice her letters and she had NO interest in doing anything that was not directly related to paint. None.

Sigh.

On the beach we were sitting playing in the sand and we found some seaweed, some shells, coral and a few pebbles.  We talked about how the waves make the pebbles smooth and the animals that used to live in the shells.  She was enthralled and sat for over an hour drawing in the sand and learning about the beach.

Hmm.....

As I reflected on our first few months, I realized that while I am a planner and like everything in order, she does not.  She had a wonderful doing school when we visited Thomas and learned about trains.  She loved watching the Bob on-site DVD and learning how to build a road.

She learns best when I let her interests lead us....not when I decide that we are going to learn about scarecrows and pumpkins.  She wants to learn about concrete and fish.

For the next few months we are going to be doing interest led schooling {or unschooling} and see how that works for us.  It should be an interesting ride.

But I'm not ready to give up.  Not yet.

The Gift of Time

One of the heaviest burdens and greatest rewards of homeschooling is the knowledge that you are independently and willingly taking 100% of the responsibility for educating your child. It can be like the first time you are alone at home with your baby - awe-inspiring at the same time as making your pits bead up with sweat.

One of the strange and lovely side-effects of this, for my family, is the desire to seize any learning opportunity that presents itself. Gone are the days when there were "too many questions" of any kind. "I don't have time" has been nearly eliminated from my vocabulary when it comes to learning, showing or explaining something. I never wonder what they learn at school - I know exactly what they are learning! And if they want to learn something before grade level they can just go right on ahead and do so, thank you very much.

The picture at the beginning of this post is my son in second grade. The project he is working on was not a part of our lesson plans. He designed and performed the experiment himself; charting the growth of the plants each day.

The first weeks (at the end of a school year) when we brought the kids home included finding the chrysalis of a silk moth, watching it 'hatch' out, releasing it and dissecting the cocoon. I took it as a good sign that homeschooling was the right choice for us!

My daughter planted, tended and harvested her own crop of sunflowers over the hottest months last summer. She saved the seeds and replanted them again this year.

When my children ask my husband "how does this work?" he takes the time to make sure they understand his answers. When they ask me "how do you make that?" I take the time to involve them in the process. My sons know how to knit and crochet.

The bottom line is: Some of the best lessons to be had are not outlined in your curriculum. Enjoy your children and watching them learn.

The School of Life

 So, over the past few weeks, we have had a steady flow of family members coming to visit. This may not seem like a big deal, however, in our world, this means our every day lives are put on hold temporarily. Schooling, in essence, stopped, as our schedules were thrown to the wind and we embraced the fun of having family at our new home - being military, we recently were restationed from the southeast, near where we are originally from, to the midwest, where we'd never been before - so this was the first time in approximately 8+ months that we'd had family come out to visit.

At first, it was a nice break from the day-to-day to just sleep in a little and get up and go exploring and sightseeing with our loved ones... but then, after a couple weeks of it, while still having fun, I began to feel concerned that my kids were getting out of the habit of doing school and the schedule that I had worked so hard to get them on... I was worried that they weren't really learning anything and wouldn't be interested in going back to our normal "routine" of just reading and practicing writing, etc... All of the fun of going to museums and historical landmarks and rock climbing/hiking our way up to waterfalls was going to make regular school seem drab! How could I get them interested in learning again?? 

Then it hit me: they had been learning all along! For example, my son learned the difference between a canon and a missile launcher when we explored the field artillery museum on the post we live on. He learned about the Apache Indians and how they fought with soldiers like his Daddy when we went to visit Geronimo's gravesite... He learned about how flowing water slowly erodes away at rocks and that's why certain waterfalls might have alcoves or caves behind them sometimes... My 4 year old can explain erosion to me! He learned that some fish eat algae, while others like bugs and worms, when we took him fishing... He can tell the difference between a bison and a water buffalo, and a buzzard vs. a vulture, and that Roadrunners are not just cartoon characters that get chased by coyotes, after visiting the wildlife refuge near our home. He learned about heights and how binoculars and telescopes work when we walked around the top of the nearby mountains and used different tools to look down at the beautiful views surrounding us... He learned about Bible stories when we visited the life-sized replica of the Holy City nearby and got to visit places that could be similar to the stable Jesus was born in, or King Herod's court, or the tomb Jesus was buried in, etc... He learned that crawfish like to burrow under rocks in creekbeds to hide, and that they pinch as a defense mechanism (guess how he learned that ~ haha) ... He might not be proficient in addition and subtraction quite yet, but he is still learning... 

So, what have I learned over the past few weeks we've taken "off" of school? I've learned that school - homeschooling, teaching, learning - is about much more than book knowledge and learning to read and write your ABC's... It's about letting life teach you and having a passion for knowledge. It's about teaching your kids to have that passion by allowing learning to be fun. It's about looking for a learning opportunity in everything you do and everywhere you go, because in the end, we are teaching our kids in order to enhance their lives, and by teaching them to love living life and to let life be their school in the most positive of ways, we are giving them the best education they could possibly have. 

What are fun, interesting, and/or unique ways you have found to teach your children, or what activities/experiences have you had with your kids that turned out to be a wonderful learning opportunity?