Learning Space Update

So, I've mentioned we are preparing our house to sell. We are down to the wire now, planning to list on Monday. As part of that I went through the school areas in our home and reorganized, move on some things, and even brought in some new equipment for the job. How about a tour?

This was the first place I gave a face lift...the closet under the stairs better known here as the Craft Closet. There was never a door...in case you are wondering and the rack in the front moves so I can access trunks behind it which stores toys. Used to be toy vacation, but now it is toy retirement waiting for grand children. Yes, I just said that.

The game shelves which go all around the perimeter of the room and see the map? Those postcards are from last summer's post card exchange!

Another corner- notice the LEGOS on the floor. The drawers have LEGOS sorted by color and the stacks of boxes are the FLL LEGOS. Dan is teaching a co-op class this semester again so these come with me on Monday afternoons. The home kits are on another shelf. Yes...that is a lot of LEGOS.

The Listening Corner- I really worked on spreading out the items on this shelf so that they are easily accessible. I hoed out a lot of toys and consigned some and gave others away and everything from the kids' younger days is safe in crate storage under our stairs. This was a total clutter win! We still have a lot. nxt kits, snap circuits, and other building toys plus our science kits. You'll find dress up on the hooks and lots of books on CD.

The computer table- this was left on the loading dock on campus one day. Sometimes departments haul out stuff that would work in our space. This was a gem. To be sure I washed it special...never know what a college student might think is fun for a table.

Our new cubbies- these have replaced our workboxes ( a TOTAL clutter bomb in our home) and notice each student has one cubby to call his own.

My bookshelves- full of teaching items and other children's books and more subject area reference material for the kids. The amazing part here is that nothing is on the floor in front of them. Behold....

I used some more shoeboxes to hold books- this is a frequently pinned idea from my blog on Pinterest...I wonder if anyone will pick this new picture up?

The cubby top...home to One Year Adventure Novel, the tool caddy, and various other math fun items.

Our school table- I recently recovered the Desk Apprentice from our microwave cart. Actually, I loved it there, but I thought it would solve a few problems here as well. It's easier to keep the working space neat with a that monster in the middle organizing everything! Each student has a side and they have the pencil cup to the right. Their regular binders go here so they can put away papers without getting up!

The reference rack- this has undergone some changes over the years, but there are some old stand by items on there. The rack was a steal at Big Lots one year.

Laptop central- I haven't quite finished dealing with my desk yet, but it's pretty usable. I just want to keep it real for you all.

That about does it! I will talk more about the cubbies in another post. I was pretty purposeful about using them in a particular way and I will talk about that in relation to our workboxes. I love them and the best part is they will transfer to a new house very easily.

In the meantime, I sure hope potential buyers will enjoy our use of space and um...maybe have some vision for that big screen TV and a sofa they probably want in a family room area instead.

Sewing Camp January!

As promised, I am posting about our Sewing Camp from January. The January edition was hosted by one of our campers. She chose a project for us and invited the girls sledding. With the serious lack of snow this winter season, the girls experienced a tiny snow miracle late that week and enough snow fell for the party!

The girls worked on pillow case dresses for the "Dress a Girl around the World Sew-a-long". The tutorial for the dress was from {lgb studio}. Information on what to do with the dresses once they are complete is found here. Pretty cool that we added a service component to our Sewing Camp!

Cutting the pattern...it was interesting to see what fabrics the girls brought. I don't think I saw any pillowcases.

I loved this little pattern.

The girls used sewing machines...

and sergers! They are getting to be pros on that little machine. This one is R's made from some scrap fabric and one of her old bed sheets that had lost elasticity!

March seems pretty busy for some of the campers, but I think we will press on with our once a month sewing. Read the post below if you missed the news on February Valentine's Camp. We are still in the throws of preparing our house to sell. My husband is working as hard as ever! Thank you Dan! And today as R11 was poking around the fabric bins while he was taking a break, she promised she would not make a mess! That is when he shook his head and marveled that we have three sewing machines in the house- well one is out for a tune up he said, but we have three! R11 corrected him. "Daddy (giggle), one is a serger!"

Yes, we have a serger! Stay tuned for news on that later. And in the meantime, my job around here is more the hoe out and make neat and trim portion of the operation. Therefore, I have work to do on organizing and stowing fabric while making it look amazing and accessible. All at the same time.

Sewing Camp Valentine's Style

The Sewing Camp we started last summer blazes on into the New Year! Last month we met at one of the other girl's homes and they made pillow case dresses for girls in Africa. I have some pictures on my phone from that event that I will share soon (the whole "preparing to move" thing is having unfortunate consequences for my blogging...I'll try to keep up!). In the meantime, have a look at our February camp time.

We took on two projects- most often the girls have several options on how to spend their time and they choose one to complete. Only, it seems that a lot of times they don't end up completing the longer ones. This time some girls wanted to make an Amish doll and others opted for the Valentine tshirt project.

Sometimes library books provide a nice project.

The shirt required some reverse applique. We attached some interfacing before doing any cutting.

The girls chose hearts to trace onto their shirts in various ways.

R11 went for a diagonal look.

They sewed along the traced chalk lines- a bit tricky.

This project was not as easy as some thought it would be!

Along with the interfacing, another layer of tshirt was attached and sewn on, so when you cut away the first layer, there was another one behind it.

Another camper tried piecing together the writing from one shirt onto another. She also tried another heart from the same blog- Make and Love It.

The shaggy heart project- doesn't that look like lettuce?

Sewing Camp has been a really fun time for us this year. I'm so thankful for the girls and their moms who have committed to getting together each month. March is coming right up so I'm on the lookout for a new project and of course those who chose the dolls will be working on those again.

I find that the best projects are those that can be finished on that afternoon- what a sense of accomplishment comes with completing something fun all at once!

Update: Quest for the Middle Ages

Just a little update on how things are going with WinterPromise's Quest for the Middle Ages this year with E13...

This has been a fabulous program for learning the history of the early church which he is thoroughly enjoying. I'm enjoying it along with him since we read together a lot of it and he narrates to me what is going on in the things I do not read directly with him.

Although WinterPromise provides a lot of great reading, I find that I am modifying the other assignments and expectations for the program. I'm not sure if it's because E13 is not all that jazzed about projects or because we aren't immersed in this as a family.

In addition to small daily written assignments, he's been doing projects and cultural investigations. Above is one of the projects where he mapped the missionary journeys of Paul and had some trivia questions with it. The assignment was to make an interactive map of Paul's missionary journeys.

I find E13 really prefers pencil and paper assignments over messy and involved projects. So, I try to encourage him to stretch a little sometimes, but in the end the paper pencil always wins out.

I've had E13 doing some of his own notebooking pages, so the one above was an assignment to write a newspaper telling about Nero the Roman Emperor and his poor behavior. I was pretty happy with the results of his creativity there.

Some assignments are just out of Mystery of History and ask for summaries on what he's read. Other times he has to take a quiz or answer a set of questions.

I am not at all impressed with the science portion yet- speaking from the point of view of a certified biology teacher. I keep hanging in there because the course is Human Body and Forensics and we are just about to start the Forensic portion. I think the first half of the year is all about getting the backstory on the human body so when things turn to forensics, the student will have some prior knowledge. Unfortunately, reading and coloring pages is not my idea of a great biology program. So, I've changed things up there as well in hopes of doing some more assignments with it.

The strength of this program is in the reading selections and resource books. It breaks down all these materials into daily assignments with other week long or three week long choices. There is opportunity for the whole family to work together on the Quest from 4th grade up, but since we are FIAR core users, I prefer to let those graduated from FIAR head off on their own. It has taken some shuffling on my part to do this, but I think it better meets the needs of each student.

It's a great choice for a unit study family as they transition from tidy units to a more traditional program. I'm guessing that someone like E13 would love to just read and not worry about tidy increments, but with other kids the break down might be very helpful.

So, we keep trudging along being faithful to the structure as best we can. The content is fabulous and the resources are top notch. We've been doing a lot of historical fiction reading with this and that's been a lot of fun for us. It's easy to get behind though because it requires a stiff pace!

More updates as we get further along!

First Grade Math

Just another update on some first grade math with Fred Butterflies. J6 has graduated from Butterflies and he is working on Cats. I'd say he's doing pretty well. I finally gave in and let him use wide ruled loose leaf paper rather than his primary paper. Good decision I think.

Not a bad use of regular paper by our resident first grader.

As J6 worked on the addition practice at the back of the book, he informed me that he could not be tricked! His way of saying...these aren't hard.

Overall, J6 loves Fred as much as anyone at our house. He gets the chance to read to me and we play at other sorts of math. Right now we are preparing our house for selling which is exciting and very busy. Dan is furiously doing his best job at painting (of course his best work...in case the house doesn't sell in which case we want to live with the best he has to offer!) and the rest of us are thinning out and organizing. We are hoping to have our house officially on the market by March 1st so our school routine looks more unusual than...well...usual! But right now I'm working on organizing a set of cubbies in our learning area. Easy access to all things math fun. Stay tuned for a look at that.

Assignment Books

Last week I switched up the assignment books I've been using with my kids. I started the year with some commercial calendar type assignment books and it's been hard to use them well. As with my planner, I find it tough to work within someone else's design and I absolutely hate empty boxes in a planner! I don't want to appear too flexible, but the truth is sometimes things take longer than you think they will. Or you end up with an unexpected doctor's appointment. Or we simply change direction or have to back track and go over something again. Whatever the reason, whatever is written on the next day's square may change. It doesn't always change, but it could and sometimes does and that leaves us with marks to make and things to rearrange. It's not pretty. It seems to me it's not a reminder of where we are going, but one that points out that you've changed direction or something is amiss.

Plus, I just plain ol' need more room to write than what squares afford me. The younger the student, the more I might explain directions. Because I also use this as a daily checklist for the kids, I wanted to be able to dialogue with them about what they've finished. Or didn't finish. I can find out how the math lesson went- since Life of Fred is an independent student driven program, I like to check in on days we use Fred. If we are working on a project, I can make suggestions in the book that my kids can read when they look over the assignments.

Finally, it occurred to me that if I was going to have them check off in the book and read things from me, this would be a great place to list what else they worked on for the day. So, if they work on a project or read a book, they can tell me about it on the day's page.

Of course, only the oldest two (8th and 6th grade) were using them before, but the younger boys would not be left out! How could I refuse such a request? So far, things are going very well. Take a look below.

R11 had been using a plain planner from The Well Planned Day. These remind me of the ones we distributed in my public school classroom days. Well, without the Bible verses!

E13 had been using the Homeschooler's High School Journal- sort of a cool format with a place to record the time you spent on a subject, but visually it was not pleasing enough for me or for E13.

A chance to use my ProClick...yes!

First step- make a cover of course! The kids had a fun time designing their own on the computer.

L-a-m-i-n-a-t-e...need I say more?

Bound college ruled notebook paper from Staples. Does it get better than this?

So how does it work? I jot down the assignments for the day on one page. I list out the lesson number or tell what the work is. If we are doing an experiment, I might tell them what materials to gather up and where to meet me.

Some days the page is more full than others. Keep in mind that for E13's WinterPromise, there is a whole binder with work listed out. So, sometimes I will get specific with him and sometimes I just tell him which week and day. It depends on if he needs to catch up or I'm adding something in.

I can give extra assignments or ask questions of the kids. And they can respond to me which is nice. I look them over after school and I make decisions for the next day or the coming week.

Even J6 wanted a book and his is the easiest to do! He is an independent first grader let me tell you. He does well with having a list before him with the materials provided. Keep in mind he's a fluent reader so we read together and he reads to me from Fred and does his math. He still does copywork on primary lined paper, but he's been doing his Fred on wide ruled loose leaf. He's currently working in LOF Cats. With great anticipation.

R11 was having trouble figuring out what to do for her 4H Public Presentation coming up in a few weeks. So, on this day (above) I gave her some suggestions on what she could do. She liked the ideas and ultimately chose to demonstrate how to make a french seam for her presentation. I've broken down the process for the kids and each day they have a new assignment related to preparing for their talk. I also have them tell me their progress so we can discuss things.

So, the kids check off as they go and I love the feature of listing what else they do during the day. They tell me what they've been reading and other things they've discovered or what activities they did after school time. Sometimes they run off after they've finished working and I don't see them for a while because they are engaged in something. This way we can mention it on the day's assignment page.

I've also been having them report on their math. If the younger kids are doing Fred, they can tell me how many they got correct and I require this of E13 daily so we can discuss anything he is having trouble with. If an assignment is not completed, I like seeing the X. It tells me clearly that it was not done. That way I know to list it the next day. I also know to investigate the reason it was not done in the case that it isn't obvious. It keeps my kids accountable to their work without me hovering all the time. With the older ones this is important. Middle school is a great time to make sure kids are learning how to have ownership of their own education. It'll be super important later!

I know some of you have been asking how far ahead I plan things out. Using this method, you can see not very far! I take some time after school is finished for the day to jot down the next day's assignment. I use the IHIP (Individualized Home Instruction Plan) for each child, which NY State requires, to stay on track with what I said we do, but that just keeps me focused on the big picture. When it comes to the details, we are much more relaxed and my goal is to keep things moving and consistent but to really value our experience. In other words, I leave room for being flexible while giving my kids an authentic experience and keeping an eye on the bigger goal.

We all love the new assignment books. The kids like to see things laid out for them and I like giving them the target for the day and being able to dialogue with them about it. One of the things I like best is the simple lined paper format for each day. Once again, it's very freeing and it's been very effective so far.

What sort of checklist do you use?

The Game Jar

If you've been reading a while, then you know that we are a big game playing family. Really big. We've been known to fill a hat with game names and to pull to see what we'll play next...takes me right back to a rainy Fourth of July- long games of Catan, and Chinese food.

So, when I saw "The Summer List" idea at Good + Happy Day, I knew right away how I'd adapt it to a game challenge.

We have a lot of games and to make sure we play them all, we'll pull from the jar. This may end some inevitable squabbles over what we'll play at any given time and it'll be a fun school time activity as well...I can even modify the jar to hold a specific set of games. So Clever.

Painting the sticks was a load of fun and I even pulled our fun paint additives to try- we used shimmer additive and glitter additive to the paints. I'm a huge fan of the shimmer. Huge.

How do you all make sure you use the resources you have at home? 

JrFLL Expo 2011-2012

Last weekend was our JrFLL Expo on campus. Dan runs the event and hosted 11 teams to share what they had done. Our theme this year was Snack Attack and the kids had the task of building a model and researching their favorite snack. The boys chose sausage (after ham) when they found out their snack had to have more than one ingredient (a difference in the challenge from the older kids which we were very familiar with!). After some negotiations, the boys chose to name their team the LEGO Chefs. On Expo Day you will find team members in team tshirts with logos. We thought it would be fun to outfit them in chef hats and aprons. Enter big sister R11. She was on the job!

She was pretty excited about this pattern that we borrowed from a friend. She's getting pretty good at finished edges.

Time to sew those pieces together- they will make the opening for size adjustment.

Adding Velcro- R11 is an expert at sewing on velcro.

Look Ma! Finished seams!

Velcro adjustment all set- she finished the seam on the inside as well.

A completed hat- she did run a top stitch along near the top edge of the band.

Now for the apron- a matching pocket of course!

R11 did careful work for her brothers (she made a hat for herself too with flower embellishments) and they were a hit. J6 even ended up in the local newspaper.

The boys had a great day and they did a great job building their model complete with a simple machine and one motorized moving part and sharing it with others. Way to go LEGO Chefs!