Another homeschool year kicks off in just two weeks, so we are counting down the days until 1st grade begins for Linnea and preschool begins for Laurel.
We are using My Father’s World again for American history, geography, Bible, science, some art and music. RightStart Math, First Language Lessons, A Reason for Handwriting, and Spelling Workout round out the course of study. I am feeling more organized this year because (1) we have a dedicated space for homeschooling since we finished our basement last spring and (2) I have put together a homeschool planner, as suggested by www.donnayoung.org. I am most excited about studying American history with Linnea because it was one of my favorite subjects as a high schooler.
Linnea would tell you she is most excited about art class on Fridays with Mrs. Henriksen, piano on Tuesdays with Mrs. Peterson and ballet on Mondays at the PAC. Laurel would say she is most thrilled about dance at the PAC on Thursdays and storytime at the library with Mrs. Golden one Friday a month.
Also, I stumbled across this lively homeschool version of the song “I will survive.” I encourage other homeschooling moms to check it out if you need a laugh or a pep talk as you prepare for the school year!
After reading book after book and article after article singing the praises of homeschooling and extoling the successes of homeschooled children, you start to feel like you’ve truly heard all there is to say about homeschooling.
I felt that way until yesterday, when I came across this article — a very well-thought-out and very brutally honest piece on potential pitfalls in homeschooling. I believe the author is Reb Bradley of Family Ministries. He makes some very eye-opening and convicting statements about homeschooling!
He says there are 7 blind spots in homeschooling:
1. self-centered dreams
2. family as an idol
3. emphasis on outward form
4. tendency to judge
5. over-dependence on authority and control
6. over-reliance upon sheltering
7. formulaic parenting that breaks down relationships
This is a great article to keep on hand and re-read at least once a year to keep yourself on guard against these! Here’s the link to the full article: Solving the Crisis in Homeschooling, originally published in September 2006.
On the day Linnea was born, we admired her long, slender fingers and daydreamed of her playing the piano. Someday. It seemed so far away.
When she was about 20 months old, she’d sit at the piano, randomly pecking at the keys and singing the ABC song at the top of her lungs. Someday soon.
Last Saturday morning Someday arrived in the form of Linnea’s very first piano recital. She’s been taking lessons for four months, and she is already moving those little fingers oh-so gracefully across the ivories!
Her musical debut was “Bunny Jumparoo” by Pat Heldman Johnson. Playing solo from real sheet music is a noteworthy milestone at the ripe old age of 6 and a half. Of course, Linnea had memorized the recital piece, so the music was just there for show.
Our guests at the grand event were Linnea’s Great-Grandma Martin, Great Aunt Marla and Great Cousin(t) Rachel. What a joy to share the experience with them! And I felt so sentimental about these precious guests because it was Great-Grandma Martin who nearly 60 years ago bought the piano we have now in our home for Linnea’s practice. (Read the piano history here.)
I must confess this is the only complete piano recital I’ve ever attended. Listening to the music each student played was such a treat. They all play piano incredibly well! Mrs. Peterson, Linnea’s piano instructor, is a very lovely, encouraging lady with amazing gifts for teaching music. We are so blessed to know her!
Just for fun: If you play piano well enough to find Middle C position, leave a comment saying how many years you took lessons. Do you remember your first recital piece? I’d love to hear your memories!
As part of our Kindergarten unit on butterflies, our family received five caterpillars in the mail one day, in a little cup with food on the bottom and a lid on top.
One caterpillar was notably smaller than the rest. We watched them all eat, eat, eat. We watched them all grow, grow, grow. And then we watched as four of them miraculously hung upside down and dried to form their chrysalises.
The fifth caterpillar was stubborn, sluggish. Linnea encouraged it emphatically, “You can’t be a caterpillar all your life!” Finally, she joined the others hanging upside down.
We carefully moved the chrysalises to a mesh butterfly habitat and then we watched, watched, watched for several days as nothing happened. One afternoon while we were away, not watching, our first Painted Lady butterfly was born! The next morning two more butterflies fluttered around in the habitat, and another one wiggled around still in the chrysalis. We watched so closely as that one miraculously broke free and made its way out to dry its wings. How amazing!
We kept and fed the butterflies for a few days, but since we were leaving town for the Memorial Day weekend, we needed to release them. The last stubborn chrysalis remained, shaking sometimes. We entrusted it to our next door neighbors so they could share in the experience.
The morning we let the four butterflies go was a little breezy and overcast. The girls knew they wanted to release them at “Butterfly Meadow,” a grassy meadow in a park very close to us. Linnea aptly named it because we had seen many butterflies fluttering through it one day on a little hike.
I’ll let the pictures tell the next part of the story.
the path to Butterfly MeadowLinnea unzips the habitat; butterflies hesitate.Butterfly poses for the camera before sailing up into the air.Linnea follows butterfly into the meadow.
“My favorite part of the school year,” Linnea says, “was the butterflies. I got to let them go, and they were beautiful. I got to open the lid to let the pretty Painted Lady butterflies fly away. I found one after it flew away, and I gave it leaves and flowers.”
Laurel tries to lure butterflies out using a dandelion.Another butterfly poses before departure.The last butterfly lingers on a wilted flower petal, then flies away.
Before this day, I had envisioned the butterflies rushing out of the habitat quickly. One swift mass exodus. I never expected we’d have to coax them to fly away. They were a bit uncertain.
What’s more, saying farewell to these beautiful creatures we had studied so closely felt surprisingly bittersweet. We felt sorrowful, but at the same time, we knew their potenital. Although they had hesitated to fly away at first, those butterflies never looked back or longed to return to the confining habitat in which we had kept them. No, instead of looking back, some soared up past the trees, up to the sky, rising up until they were completely out of sight. Free. The others fluttered far into the meadow and disappeared. Free.
The sheer joy of setting these creatures free to fly as high or as far as they wished — it overcame me. How exhilarating! Flying high and flying far was exactly what God created them to do! Their time on earth is brief; they usually only live a few weeks. They need to fly!
While my children are still small and at home with me, I study them closely. These early years are caterpillar years. They eat, eat, eat, and they grow, grow, grow. Someday they’ll probably be more like those chrysalises, and I won’t so clearly see what’s going on inside them. They’ll feel awkward as they change.
And then, someday, they’ll unveil. They’ll be beautiful butterflies.
I will let them fly as high and as far as God created them to fly. They, too, are on earth for just a brief time. They need to fly!
Kicks, scoops and monkey cheeks. Those are some of the words frequenting our vocabulary during the past four weeks of swim camp. The girls have both been going twice a week to lessons. Thursday we finished up, and both girls graduated to the next classes for their individual levels.
Linnea became a “mermaid” almost after the first lesson. Right away she was having fun, and she is now able to swim independently on her stomach without any floaties for more than 15 feet. She also can flip and float on her back and then flip again to her stomach. She swims on her back doing “bird flaps,” too.
Laurel can move independently on the noodle and float on her back using the noodle. She was reluctant to put her face in the water all the way up until the last class. She’d barely get her goggles wet, and she didn’t want to “Humpty Dumpty” off the edge. But on the last day she kept her eyes OPEN when she put the goggles in the water. That made all the difference because she was able to see a whole new world underwater — her instructor’s legs and toes and all sorts of toys. She kept saying, “I want to do it again! I want to go under again!” This was quite an aboutface, and it left her instructor and I both shaking our heads in wonder. Something clicked that day, and what a thrill to witness it. Linnea and I both cheered from the poolside.
Around the end of September, Linnea started counting up to the 100th Day on a special chart. Every school day, she adds a mini popcicle stick to her 100 jar. At first she made bundles of five sticks, so soon she was counting by fives. Then once she got to 50, I had her switch the bundles to 10 sticks each and begin counting by tens.
And now finally, today is the 100th Day! This has been a long awaited day, as we were all supposed to go to the Minnesota Children’s Museum. Unfortunately, I found out last week that they are closed on Mondays. Urgh! We are also getting carpet in our basement today, so we have to be home all day while the carpet-layers are here. Bummer!
But we are making the most of it. We celebrated with special signs, playing a follow-the-numbers game, and eating 100 chocolate chips for snack. In lieu of the museum trip, Michael is taking the girls swimming at the community indoor poor later this afternoon. The girls are eager to show off all the tricks they have been learning at swimming lessons the past few weeks.
Our focus on wild animals continues. Last Friday we finished up our unit on penguins. We closely studied Emperor penguins because these penguin families are especially loving to one another. The father sacrifices eating for several months to keep the egg warm in the extreme weather while the mother penguin goes off 70 miles away to eat. Then the mother comes back to the daddy, feeds the newly hatched chick, and keeps it warm while the daddy goes off to eat. So cool! Our words to remember were: “I show love to everyone, especially my family.”
The highlights of our week included watching the March of the Penguins, making little icebergs for our toy penguins to play with in the sensory tub, making these fun penguins from balloons, and painting penguins on blue paper. (By the way, icy water and snow in the sensory tub make for icy fingers and soggy mittens!)
This week we jump on to kangaroos, remembering “I am safe in God,” just like the little joey is safe in his mother’s pocket. We’ve already measured that Linnea can jump 3.5 feet, and Laurel can jump 2.5 feet. Tomorrow they’ll find out that some kangaroos can jump up to 44 feet! Wow!
Linnea, age 6, started piano lessons a few weeks ago, and she is quite excited about learning to play! Of course, her daddy might be slightly more excited about it; he loves the idea of having another musician in the house. And he certainly put some blood, sweat and tears into moving around that 100-year-old piano and restoring it. Our piano has quite a history; what lessons that old piano can teach!
Lesson #1: Determination and commitment can be rewarding.
My grandparents bought the used piano around 1950 for my uncle. My mother, who was two years younger and a force to be reckoned with, insisted on taking piano years before her mother or the piano teacher thought she was old enough. While my uncle gave up piano rather quickly — he plays ukulele and harmonica instead — Mama took piano until she graduated from high school. It was the centerpiece of many childhood memories, as she fondly spoke of her dear piano teacher and the fancy, frilly dresses my grandma made for her piano recitals.
Lesson #2: Fill your home with pleasant sounds; your children will remember them long after you are gone.
When I was about 5, Daddy moved the piano from my grandparents’ farm to our house. I still remember that day. I was afraid they would drive the truck right into the house!
Growing up I loved listening to Mama play piano. It was the comforting, soothing sound of home. Mama played some hymns for church, but her favorites were John Denver tunes and scores from Broadway musicals like Oklahoma and The Sound of Music. I still see her sitting at the piano whenever I hear one of those familiar tunes.
I always wanted to play piano, too. Mama taught me a few short tunes, but she really was too busy to teach me the theory and fundamentals. Since we lived too far out of town for me to conveniently take lessons from someone else, I just did without lessons. When I got my driver’s license at 16, I finally signed up and drove myself to piano lessons for two years, until I headed off to college. I loved playing piano those two years and still regret that I had to stop!
Lesson #3: Priceless heirlooms can be costly.
After Mama passed away and after I finished college, my dad decided the piano needed to go with me to Minnesota. It’s a heavy, upright piano that probably weighs more than a bus, so it became like another family member as we searched for places to rent. Not many apartments can accommodate an upright piano very easily. We ended up paying extra to rent a townhouse on ground level, just to avoid manuevering the stairs with that piano!
After we moved to our current house, Michael decided to restore the piano’s finish and fix some broken keys. As he worked on it, he realized the working parts inside the piano also needed a lot of attention. That restoration process took years!
Lesson #4: Priceless heirlooms sometimes inspire priceless moments with your children.
Michael finally got the piano into its current, restored condition about a year ago, and now we are all thrilled to hear its tunes fill up our house as Linnea practices Old MacDonald and Mary Had a Little Lamb.
What a special way for a little girl to connect with a grandma she’s never met!
Scissor HappySnow in Sensory TubE-I-E-I-OBiking in the Basement
I am long overdue for an update on the homeschool front. Things are going pretty smoothly these days. We settled into a nice routine after the holiday craze, doing schoolwork mostly in the mornings. This leaves the afternoon for quick errands, Laurel’s nap, chapter-book reading, board games, housework, and sometimes playing with the neighbor kids.
In general Laurel has become more cooperative and interested in participating in school — at least a few days each week — so it’s been fun to include her as we read-aloud picture books, do fingerplays, sing songs and do craft and coloring projects. When it’s time for Linnea to do seat work, Laurel plays in the sensory tub, does puzzles or watches Sesame Street.
Laurel is our school police/nag, always asking “When are we going to do school?” And on weekends or field trip days, she always laments, “Oh no! We forgot to do school!” She doesn’t usually accept the idea that seeing “Goodnight Moon” at Stages Theatre or going to Underwater Adventures is part of our course of study. Go figure.
On our 100 chart we are nearly to Day 90. Every day we skip count by fives or tens as we add popsicle sticks to the 100 jar. When we reach the 100th Day in March, we are going to visit the Minnesota Children’s Museum! The girls’ third and most memorable trip to the museum was on Laurel’s birthday last October, so they are thrilled to be approaching the 100th Day!
Linnea is reading, reading, reading. She’s reading very confidently at a 2nd grade level. She’s reading lots of beginner books, and she follows along closely when we read aloud to her. At bedtime, this really keeps Michael on his toes because he likes to skip sentences and add in his own colorful sentences when he reads aloud to the girls. Lately he constantly has to account for, “Where does it say that?” and “That’s not what it says, Daddy!”
Linnea read all the little candy hearts for Valentine’s Day, which seem to be getting a little more racy. “Oh, this one says ‘lover boy.’ What does that mean?” Of course, Laurel couldn’t be out done, so she either made up words for her candy hearts or handed back soggy hearts with slightly smeared words for her mother to read and return. A lovely reading assignment indeed.
In addition to reading, Linnea also enjoys writing books. She has made dozens of little books, which she illustrates. She did this even before she started Kindergarten and was thrilled to find out that book-making was part of our curriculum for some weeks. For official school work, she dictates the stories to me, and I write the words in a book that she then illustrates. For her unofficial, playtime book-making, she phonetically spells out all the words in her stories with no help from me unless requested. That in itself makes for interesting reading, especially since Kindergartners don’t yet do spelling lessons.
This week our topic is elephants, who, as you may remember, never forget. Our theme “I will remember what God has done for me,” comes from Psalm 77:11-12. Linnea has written and illustrated a sweet little book on this very topic.
Here are the words:
I Remember What God Has Done for Me
By Linnea Barto
God has given me a family.
God has healed me many times.
God created sea animals that live in shells. I love seashells.
God created shady trees for me to sit under in the summer.
God answered my prayer for a new friend, Lila.
God gave me a piano teacher.
“I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes I will remember Your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all Your works and consider all Your mighty deeds.” -Psalm 77:11-12
Okay, so now I am really inspired to keep a better journal of praises and answered prayers. Aren’t you?
Late last spring when we decided to home school Linnea, I was greatly encouraged by the number of family friends we already had who were schooling their kids at home — friends from church and friends we’ve had since our “before children” small group days. Then we joined a home school group and discovered an entire local network of nearly 40 home school families supporting and encouraging each other.
We are not alone deciding to school at home!
These two recent articles seemed to back up exactly what I’ve been noticing firsthand.
VOTE FOR SLUSHIES: Earlier this month we held a dinner election. Each of us nominated our favorite candidates for dinner in the positions of main entree, side dish, fruit, vegetable, drink and dessert. Pictured are the girls campaigning for slushies and hoping to secure their daddy’s vote. The winners were: BBQ chicken, salad, carrots, watermelon, apple pie, and slushies of course! I wish I could say I came up with this idea, but actually it was an assignment for Linnea’s current events class.
Starlight Writer 