"Love Your Teacher" Day

Apparently, that's today.  Zoe woke up at 6:00 this morning and while I was snoozing away, she was setting up my desk, arranging my breakfast, writing a card and arranging roses in a vase.

I'm speechless.  She couldn't have given me a better gift than the card and the poem she wrote in it.  If there was any second guessing about homeschooling her, it's gone.  I've never seen Zoe so happy.  Thanks Zoe. You're teaching me way more.

This is how I found my desk this morning.

Zoe's Poem

A visit to Sonoco Recycling

The field trips are so much fun.  We went to a recycling center in Raleigh yesterday.   Zoe and I were once again amazed.   Who knew you could knit purses out of plastic bags?   And who throws a bowling ball in the recycle bin?

It was so interesting to see where our recycles go and how they are traded like a commodity.  We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the assemble line as the conveyor belts were running and men were sorting through the recycles, but my first thought was Lucy and Ethyl in the chocolate factory.   The conveyor belts move fast and these men have to know what to eliminate.  By mid morning they had already handled 16 tons of recycles.

There were a tons of plastic bags on the floor.  We asked why they were taken out.  Our tour guide said they jam the machines so they toss them on the floor and then they're sent to the landfill!   Apparently, the bags are not profitable for the middle man like Sonoco.  They're too light, a pain in the neck on the conveyors and the return on their investment is lousy so it's easier to send them to the landfills.  You can't recycle pizza boxes either.   Good to know.  I"ll keep taking them back to Harris Teeter.  They recycle the bags and work with a company in Wilmington.  Or I'll learn to knit a plastic bag.   :)

We're scheduling a field trip to Holly Springs to see the landfill.  That's where all of Cary's garbage goes.   They said the kids can actually get inside a little tractor and ride up to the top of the garbage.  I can only imagine how nasty that smells, but maybe it will really hit home and we'll realize how much we waste and work on it some more.    Birkenstock Barbie is in Da House!

Euuuuu....Cyclops.

You would think the really scary picture of Cyclops holding a few of Odysseus's men and getting ready to eat them would be scary enough for Zoe.   His face alone, with that big eye in the middle of the forehead, does it for me.

Nope.

Zoe says....."Could he put on some clothes.  I mean, really?"

Teaching her makes me laugh.  Every day.

Perpetual Motion

I'm in a state of perpetual motion now.  It's not a complaint.  Just stating a fact.   Every minute of the morning, afternoon and evening is planned.   I'm a little annoyed because there are too many things that I like to do that I cannot do and do well while at the same time taking care of the kids and house.

Ok so this is a griping session.  Beware.  I'm premenstrual.  

I've always had such a problem sharing.

And whoever decided to get the most hyper dog on the planet to join our ADHD family is insane.

Oh.  That would be me.

No more time to write.  In perpetual motion.  Back in the car for the fourth time today.

A Keeper

"Elements of Style" by Strunk and White has always been a favorite book of mine, but I found this great little red book at a garage sale.  You open it up to the title page and it elaborates:  "for the use of STENOGRAPHERS, STUDENTS, AUTHORS AND PROOFREADERS".  It's compiled by Louis A. Leslie.   It was originally copyrighted in 1934.

Thank you Louis A.  Leslie.  Not only because you narrowed down the English language to 20,000 words, which were carefully selected to represent the "useful part of an ordinary dictionary vocabulary of several times that number," but you have this nifty appendix of rules on spelling and grammar.   Really nifty.

I'm going to review one spelling and grammar rule each week with Zoe.  This is a fun way to learn it. Rule number one is already on the board. The book is the size of a three by five card, too.

I love garage sales.

The Mad Scientist

I think the kitchen science experiments rock.   Honestly, I don't know who loves this more.  It's so fun to teach her.  Even when I have my moments, and I do...like yesterday...and that's when I imagine I'm one of her old teachers at school.  I know they wouldn't say:  "Use your common sense, Zoe."   Okay, maybe they would, but she doesn't like to be spoken to like that and I don't like how it sounds either.

I'm a good teacher.  I'm not going to beat myself up here.  I work my tush off reading and planning lessons.  So much material out there that sometimes it's hard to know when to turn it off.

I'm still learning to juggle this while keeping up with the daily grind of raising all three kids, without the help of a housecleaner.  That's about to change. I need a clean house.  I can't keep up with it.

I started laughing at my schedule yesterday.  I think I was starting to lose it.  Wednesdays are my crazy, busy days.  I was in and out of the car driving Zoe to tennis, the cooperative, picking up Hank and Lucas at school, taking Lucas home, picking up Haleigh at school, running back to pick up Zoe, and then back to middle school so Haleigh can go to the first evening football game. In between that,  a food run to Food Lion, donation drop-offs, gas, and getting dinner together.  I started planning out the dinners.  The crock pot is in use.  Tomorrow, "Shredded Chicken Tacos".  Made Shepard's pie tonight.  It was delish.  Nothing like homemade Yukon Gold potatoes mashed for the pie.

We started new classes at the Learning Cooperative yesterday.  This time I get to assist in one of Zoe's class.  It's a physics class for the 7-9 year old level.   We learned a ping pong ball and a tennis ball will always land at the same time because of gravity.  Maybe most people already know that, but if you asked me that on a quiz show, I'd stammer.  The class is led by another homeschooling mother named Sheri.  She was fantastic.   And so were the children.  Again, the same observations about these homeschooled kids.  Doesn't seem to matter which age I'm with.  I'm seeing the same thing here: bright,  thoughtful, happy and curious children.  They're so confident and comfortable with themselves.  Always a ton of interesting questions and observations.  Like this one by a 7 year old boy named Noah: "What if we went all the way to center of the Earth?  Would we still be held down by gravity?"
Three Noahs in a class of ten.  What's up with that?

So this above picture was taken Tuesday afternoon.   We learned you get a chemical reaction when you mix bicarbonate sulfate (baking soda) with ascetic acid (vinegar or lime juice).   Carbon dioxide gases are released.  We captured the gases in our balloon.   How cool is that?  

Thank you, Monty Python

Our math problem for the day.  How many ways can you say "Spam, bacon, sausage, eggs and baked beans"?  You have to always include "Spam" in the order, and you can repeat it as many times as you want, but you can only use the other foods in the list once within the order and you can't come up with the same list twice.

Oh, I didn't explain it well?

Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE

No Second Guessing

If this picture is any indication of how it's going, then it's going well.   There have been days when I've asked myself if Zoe is getting the best education possible.   All of those homeschooling doubts that linger in the minds of first year homeschool Moms: "What if I'm messing up a good thing? Can I really provide her with as good if not and hopefully much better education than public school?  Is she getting enough socialization?"  

And then I think about it.  Yes.  She's already finish her first math workbook.  She's half way to memorizing the multiplication table, she's writing and reading like a fiend, learning Latin (and liking it!), goes to a weekly learning cooperative with other children her age, has already been on three field trips and most importantly, she's so happy.   That's the closer.  

Got a note on my desk from Zoe yesterday.  It was actually a response to a note I wrote to her:  "Zoe, please copy each (spelling) word three times.  Go across the page.  Mom"

She wrote back: Ok, Mom, love you. P.S. I love homeschooling!"

Today we worked on history for a couple of hours because we didn't follow up from last week.  I have to get the timeline in there.  She loves the maps, coloring them in and talking about which king ruled where in Egypt.  Yes, we're still on Egypt.  Mostly because I decided we'd move on when I think she's got it and history comes in sessions.  

I discovered Weekly Reader.  For the first month, I just handed it to her, asked her to read it and then answer the questions, but I finally sat down and read the Teacher's Guide.  They provide an assessment so I can see how well she's progressing.  Did the same thing with history and math today...review, review, review.  Tomorrow, back to Latin, Chemistry and the coop.   I feel like I should be more nervous.  Am I missing something? Well, if I am, I'll figure it out. 

A Month Later

Just returned from the homeschooling cooperative.  Since I didn't sign up to teach a class, they signed me up for set up and assistant to the teacher in the Drama and Improv class.  I was very impressed with these homeschooled teenagers.

We played a game where we had to sit in a circle and pass my watch around.  Each person who had the watch turned the the person next to him/her and tried an exercise that's supposed to help you focus, connect and develop a sense of communitywithin the group.  It went something like this:
You: "I have a watch."
He/Her:  "A what?"
You: "A watch."
He/Her: "A what?"
You: "A watch."
He/Her: "Oh, a watch."
Then you pass it on until it goes around the circle.  To make the game a little more complicated, we added a phone and a library card to the mix.  It was fun and not always so easy. These kids were confident, bright, creative and not the least concerned about any judgement.   It was refreshing.

After the game, we tried improv.  I was blown away.  They were so good!  Not afraid to stand in front of their peers and act out a scene.  I had to do it, too.  The only words I was allowed to say were:  "What do you think I'm doing?"   My partner, a 13 year old (I think) could only say:  "What are you doing?"   I managed not to make a fool of myself and actually turned the thing into an emotional scene.  Amazing what you can do with two sentences repeated over and over again.

After the classes ended, Zoe wanted to play outside at the playground.  We stayed for about half an hour and again, I was amazed at the difference in the attitudes of all these homeschooled children.  Although they're clearly individuals with very different personalities, they share a common theme:  Self Assurance.   There was a boy dressed like Charlie Chaplin, a girl in a safari outfit, another one in a Adams Family theme.  No matter the age, the playground was a like a humming with happy, free thinking, friendly kids.   Not the scene I'm used to seeing at public schools.

Zoe made a friend today, too.  A girl named Grace.   Zoe left the playground beaming.  So did her homeschooling mother. :)

Balance

I'm getting there!  My good friend (and former professor) told me to stop the obsession.  She said I should really be able to plan the lessons for the next day or week as Zoe is working on something during our sessions.  Happy to report I am doing  that today.  I stayed up a little late last night reading an excellent book about writing called "The Art of Teaching Creative Writing" and that was it.   I whipped out the week's schedule which is now starting to feel more familiar.

Right now, Zoe is working in her Singapore Math workbook and I'm blogging.  THAT's a first.

Tomorrow should be fun.  Gigi is coming for a visit while we take Haleigh to NC State for an ADD evaluation.  She'll be Zoe's substitute teacher while we're testing.   And Zoe thought she'd have a break....hah!

Time for lunch and recess.  A bike ride is looking like a most excellent idea.

 

Learning Arbor Cooperative

Very excited about today.  We met the Learning Arbor Coop at White Oak park in Cary today.   Very cool mothers.  I was worried at first.   I saw a bunch of kids running barefoot (not that there's anything wrong with that, Earth people), but I just wanted to see a little diversity.  Mix it up.  And there was.  Great moms, cool kids.  This adorable ten year old version of Wednesday from "The Adams Family" looked me straight in the eye and said "math is my enemy".   Didn't even blink.  I think she was actually really into math.

Anyway, very happy to meet a few Moms and to see Zoe run around a field so easily with a bunch of kids she just met.   She'll be taking a poetry class and another class about the Rain Forest.

There was a Russian woman there offering a different kind of math class.  Seems very interesting, but I still don't get a word she said.  The accent was a little too thick for me.  I imagine Zoe would find that very distracting, but I'll have to look up her website.  She said the shape on her card is impossible.   I looked at it for awhile and couldn't figure out what she was saying.  They looked like triangles to me.  

I like opening these new doors.  

Amo, amas, amat and all that.

First Latin lesson under my belt and Zoe made the connection.   She can conjugate "amo".  I have red food coloring under my nails from the chemistry experiment today.   This is a lot of work and some part of me must be insane for taking this on.   I am up late working on lessons and there's little down time for my stuff right now.  I like it though.   I haven't thought about an atom or molecule since high school.  Not that I regret that.  

I know what my friend was saying about the work.  You don't get much of a break so don't listen to all the homeschooling Moms out there who say it's always fun.  They're lying.

I don't want to skimp on Zoe's education.  She's getting the full package.  In school from 9:00 to 4:00.   She's taking a spelling quiz right now.  And we haven't even covered history or writing today.

I guess that's the beauty.  We're on our own schedule and we'll get there sooner or later.

She's happy and she says she's wiped.  I must be doing something right.

Bye, Bye US Weekly

I think the moment has finally arrived.  I 'm not renewing my US Weekly this year.  The current issue remains untouched after three days.  

I can always pick one up at Harris Teeter.

Why am I doing this?

Zoe and I are wrapping up our first full week of homeschool.  There's an US Weekly on the chair next to me, untouched.  And it's Friday.  That means it's been sitting there for over 24 hours.  Nothing short of a miracle.   Instead, I'm immersed in curriculum, lesson plans, and a million new books on homeschooling.   My new $14.99 three-hole puncher from Target is my new best friend. I love the swoosh sound it makes and the holes are aligned perfectly every time.  It's the small things in life. 


We finished up our history lesson on Ancient Egypt with a trip to the art museum in Raleigh. This is one reason why I'm a homeschooling fan. We're going beyond the walls. We saw a 4000 year old Egyptian coffin today. I don't know who was more excited.  I definitely had more to say this time than the usual oohhs and wows.   "See the ankh amulets each person is holding in their left hand, Zoe?"  Ankh is the Egyptian symbol for life. She made an clay ankh amulet this week.   Who was feeling like a good teacher??  Zoe's name is Greek and means "love of life".    We passed by a few Greek sculptures.  Zoe wanted to know what happened to everyone's arms.  


Yesterday, I reviewed the steps to a "scientific method" as part of our Chemistry lesson.  I asked her to tell me the steps again at bedtime and she nailed it.  Mr. McCoy, my 10th grade Chemistry teacher would spit out his drink if he knew I was teaching chemistry. Wasn't my best subject.  Zoe says our chemistry lesson was her favorite part of her day. 


I didn't think I'd ever homeschool.  And then one day, Zoe comes home from school and says she's bored.  She looks up at me and asks if I'll homeschool her.  What?!?  First of all, she's stubborn, doesn't stop talking and is beyond organized.  All of her clothes in her closet are color coordinated.  She lines up her outfits (with accessories) every night and she's been doing that since she was five.  She knows what she wants.  Her teachers loved her. Hard working, polite, but to the point.  Voted "most responsible" by her peers in 2nd grade. Getting the picture?  How was I going to challenge Zoe beyond school?  But then it was clear:  She's an excellent student.  She's responsive to direction, organized beyond her years, independent, enthusiastic and really entertaining. What eight year old comes home and asks to be homeschooled anyway?  One who thinks beyond the box. That's perfect homeschooling material.  She's the middle child, too.  We know they always get the short end of the stick.  I did.  My older sister had ADHD and my younger sister was born when I was six.  My parents were busy.  


The night before the first day of school, I was completely freaking out.  What the heck was I doing?  Zoe is smart.  She had GREAT teachers, too.  What did I know?  How could I possibly do this and keep it fresh, stimulating and challenging?  As midnight approached, and I sat at my teacher desk in our newly designed classroom/playroom, surrounded by a sea of papers, curriculum and books, I stopped. I walked over to our chalkboard wall and started writing:  "Wednesday, August 25, 2010 Welcome to Finucane Elementary, Zoe".   Then I wrote out the day's schedule.  It started pouring out of me.  All those months of preparation.   "Math Lesson 9:00-10:00.  Writing: 10:00-10:45.  Latin.  Yes, Latin.  The rest followed.  I went to bed and decided I could do it.  I would do it.  And I am.  I love it, love it, love it.  Zoe does, too.  She works hard.  This week, she often stayed with me until 5:00 finishing up her work.   It's a classical curriculum in the most classical way.  Mozart is even on Pandora.


It's Friday and I understand why teachers are so happy for that day to arrive.  All week it's lesson plans, teaching, copying, field tripping, reading and it's wonderful, but you're ready for a drink or a nap by Friday afternoon.  


Thanks to Bayonne Barbie for my nickname.  It's a keeper.