Granola Girl

First week of Homeschool

During the first week of homeschool, we enjoyed a variety of activities. We continued on with our morning exercise and neighborhood exploration. We were fortunate to have a rainy day occur where we took advantage of some morning puddle jumpimg!

 
 We enjoyed circle time as well as palying with puzzles and mazes.

 

 

 
Ian's favorite activities this week included learning how to use scissors, going on nature walks, preparing meals, and completing some alphabet work sheets. I am not to keen about using workbooks quite yet but they were requested by the little one so I obliged. This is his learning.

 

 

 

 
 Overall, I think our science project was hands down the most fun. A few weeks earlier, we went on a nature walk to pick and press wildflowers.

 

 Below is the final result. Ian`s science project titled recalling summer.

 What a great week had by all!

First Day of Homeschool

As a guide this year, we are primarily using Oak Meadow's Kindergarten Curriculum. What I love most about the Oak Meadow curriculum is that is it based on a natural daily and weekly rhythm. Each day the child knows what to expect as the day flows from awakening to bedtime in an orderly fashion. This curriculum is not based solely on formal instruction, it encompasses things like having a peaceful bedtime ritual as part of the curriculum. I love the calmness of it all.

 

Learning also happens through the day formally and informally. Formally each week the child has main lesson work where they learn a new letter and number. They explore the natural world around them through nature and the environment and may draw a picture of what they experienced. They are very intuned with the seasons and most formal activities are based on expolring there natural environment both outside and in the home. Informally, I love that the natural rhythm of the home is incorporated into the curriculum. Daily activities like food preperation, bread baking, sweeping, and doing laundry are incorporated into the curriculum. It all flows so naturally. Ordinary life and learning opportunities. The first week of school went beautifully. We used the curriculum but also followed Ian's learning interests.

We started off the first week of school with a special pancake breakfast, requested by the little one. Of course train shaped pancakes were in order for our oldest while our little one requested her pancakes in the shape of a butterfly!

 

First day of school photos were then taken followed by a neighborhood bike ride to burn off some energy before having to focus on our main lesson time. We would like to make exercising a regular part of our morning routine.

 

When we returned, we began our first circle time. We sang the Alphabet Song, One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, and of course a train song called the Wheels on the Train. Ian was ready to help act out the song with his handy train whistle.

 

We then followed up by doing an arts and craft activity. Ian enjoyed pressing his hands in his main lesson book.

.
 

 

We kept the day short and sweet. We still wanted to get outside and enjoy the last of the summer weather as well as engage in creative play of course. Overall the day was so much fun and exciting for all. We can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

The Decision To Homeschool

 I first read about the benefits of homeschooling when we were awaitng the birth of our oldest son Ian. I had beeen researching Attachment Parenting and I think it was in Mothering Magazine that I had first came across an article on homeschooling. Though it was not something that I had really thought about, I knew that I wanted to look more into what it entailed. Almost five years later, and here we are homeschooling for the first time this September.

I have put alot of thought and time into learning about Homeschooling. It is a decision that has not been made lightly. The concept is not as strait forward as some may think. There are so many "ways" to homeschool. Different philsophies. It was interesting learning about them all and seeing what would fit within our family.

Initially, I thought that we would use a Waldorf curriculum exclusively, but over the last year I have been reading about so many other ways to homeschool that make sense and that I want to incorporate. I find some of the principles of Montessori and unschooling very appealing. We have decided to not define our homeschooling practice. I think it will evolve over time to what it is meant to be and how it will work with each of our children's personalities.  Right now, the best way to describe it is eclectic.

We are starting early homeschooling our son. Ian does not turn five until December. I still wrestle with the idea of starting him too early. I initially thought we would wait until he was closer to six but my son says that he is ready and he wants to learn. My husband agrees. Why put a stop to his natural curiosity and desire to learn?

Child led learning has been taking place informally in our home. Ian has learned his numbers and most of his alphabet all by himself. He is even starting to tell time and do simple addition and subtraction. This is where the unschooling philosophy has been unveiling itself to us.

Most of all, the main reason I want to homeschool is so that Ian will LOVE learning. I don't really want it to be dictated to him what he should learn  in an environment with too many students and only one teacher in a way that may not take into concern his natural learning style. Also we want to spend more time outside learning from nature and we want to learn together as a family.

We have decided since this is our first year of homeschooling that we wanted a curriculum to follow just in case we had no idea what we were doing. Oak Meadow has spoken to us. It embodies so much of our family values. It is a very gentle curriculum which is Waldorf inspire and nature based. When we were looking at curriculumm Oak Meadow jumped out to both of us. It just makes sense. So we will be following the Kindergarten curriculum this year and supplementing Ian's interests as well. It is a win win for all I think. We will take what works for us and what Ian is interested in and go from there. The curriculum is gentle which suits this mama. Ian will have is formal learning time that he has been asking for. I think we will all be happy. I can't wait to see what this journey will bring over the next year:)

 

 

Starting Again

Well I am back! It sure has been awhile;)

I have thought about this space alot over the last few months. I have felt the desire to blog on and off again. Now that we are officially homeschooling our oldest, a new baby is due shortly, and a move to a new province is happening very very soon, it feels like the right time to start all over again.

Hopefully you will join us on as we record our new journey!

 

A Year of Good Things: January 4th

New corners of my home and a book loving baby!

A Year Of Good Things 2011

When thinking about starting a new 365 day project this year, I was not sure what direction to take. I have tried the 365 photo project many times and could never complete it. Along came this inspiration! This is exactly what makes sense to me this year. A way to express daily gratitude and take some pictures (when I feel like it!)

My plan for this little book is to compile everyday moments (good things), daily gratitude, photos, and quotes. A little bit of a simple mixed media journal I guess.

Here I compiled a memory I want to remeber with a new recipe that we tried one day for dinner. I used some old scrapbooking supplies that I had lying around to make the page a little different than just writing straight on the page.

I am super excited about this little project! Check out GypsyForest if you want to follow along.

 

Happy New Year!

"And now let us welcome the new year.

Full of things that have never been."

                                   - Rainer Maria Rilke

Happy New Year everyone!

I have noticed that many others around the blogosphere have been posting year end reviews. Since last year was a year that bought our family so much pain, loss, grief, and sorrow I have decided to forgo reflecting and instead focus on the year to come instead. I don't have many resolutions this year but I do have a word.

Home

I want to feel more comfortable in my home. I want our home to reflect us as a family; our beliefs, values.  I would like to only surround ourselves with things that are beautiful and have meaning to us. Everthing else be gone.

I want to work on my home keeping skills, spend more time at home instead of out and about, cook nourishing healthy meals for our family, become more friendly towards the earth and perfect our rhythm.

This is where I am at now.

I can see 2011 as a year of comfort. Lot's of time spent as a family reading, baking, learning, and creating together. Taking nature walks close to home. Planning and planting our first garden together. Beautifying our surroundings.

What are your goals for the new year?

Happy fourth birthday to my sweet boy

To my amazing, sweet, fun, silly, smart, and cute train loving boy.

Happy 4th Birthday!!

Home for the Holidays

The weeks leading up to Christmas were very full and busy for us. They were spent finishing up Ian's playchool, mandatory Christmas parties, making handmade gifts etc.  In all honesty, December felt stressful and flew by so fast that it seemed like Christmas Eve just fell upon my lap one day.

Do we ever feel really ready for the big day? I am starting to believe no. I always try to cram in too many activities, wanting to give my kids the best Christmas ever. I have good intentions, but all of the activities never get completed. Next December, I vow to slow down, spend more time at home, and just have a simple relaxing month celebrating being together.

By the time Christmas Eve rolled around this year, I felt exhausted. I had no choice but to slow things down and that was exactly how we spent the holidays. It was just the four of us and we spent the days relaxing placing no expectations on each other, just enjoying our time together . It was perfect actually.

 

Hope your Christmas was full of love, light, and laughter.

These are a few of my favorite things...

• Looking forward to this, this, and this starting tomorrow!
• Festive play dough recipe
• Thinking about making this for Claire. She is loving owls right now!
• I have never seen this show but this looks so fun!
• Love this idea!
• Crafting from this book

Feel free to share a few of your favorite things in the comments:)