I know, I know!

It's been forever. I know. I can't keep up! I don't know what to do, but I'm thinking I'm going to be able to blog daily again once we get into the groove with school. I'm giving myself one more week. Bear with me. In the mean time, check out this preschool curriculum: http://www.carolscurriculum.com/overview.html.

Memory Verses

One element of our curriculum that I really like is the weekly memory verse. I am really, really bad at memorizing Bible verses, so I'm looking forward to the challenge of memorizing a verse a week. Our first verse is John 3:16 - possibly the most often memorized/quoted verse in the Bible - but not one that I personally have managed to memorize. Yet. The kids are writing it in their notebooks once a day, and I also laminated it onto some index cards and posted them all over the house. One is stuck to the TV, which is perfect, because you can't help but stare at it in between episodes of "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody" and "Dora the Explorer." On Friday, we made collages of people that we cut out of magazines and pasted the verse in the middle of it, and we talked about how ANYONE, no matter what they look like, can be part of God's kingdom. It was fun. Esme glued all of her pictures on top of each other using a massive amount of glue, and Isaac decided he'd rather use animals than people, but I think they understood the point.

Here's the verse stuck to our TV. This, children, is the ancestor of the modern flat-screen television set. It's old, but I love it. Mainly because it fits nicely on the table that it sits on and because I can tell myself that we aren't THAT into watching TV, because if we were, we'd have a bigger set.

Math Manipulatives

If you aren't a teacher, you may not know about math manipulatives, but they are EVERYWHERE on math curriculum sites and homeschooling sites. What are they? Basically, they are things you can count, arrange into patterns, and use to physically demonstrate math concepts. We made some of our own this week, and I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed playing with them.
First, we laminated and cut out shapes to use to form patterns. For laminating, we used Con-Tact paper, which is my new favorite thing. We also laminated a page from Simon's math book with those same shapes on it, so they can practice matching up the cut-outs onto the page.
Next, we made colored macaroni noodles. All you do is toss a cup or so of dried pasta with 1/4 cup of vinegar and 10-20 drops of food coloring and spread it out on a tray to dry. You can glue the pasta onto paper in different patterns, use the noodles for counting, adding, subtracting, etc., or if you're really patient and use big noodles, you can make them into bracelets and necklaces.

See, manipulative can be a GOOD thing!

Our First Week of School

Whew. It was awesome; it was challenging; it was fun. We actually did two "real" school days - Thursday and Friday - and everyone survived. Grace is NOT happy about not being the center of someone's attention at all times, but we managed to get through all of our material and actually enjoy ourselves for about 90% of the time. The remaining 10% of the time, someone was screaming, crying, whining, or hitting someone else, but that's about average during any given activity. My favorite part of what we're doing are the lesson plans. I don't have to figure out what to do when or how to integrate everything; it's all done for me! We did a couple of projects that (I think) actually served to enhance the lessons (rather than just frustrate me and confuse the kids, which is what I had feared). One of them involved drawing a globe (a very, very crude globe) on an orange and then peeling it, which illustrates how putting a round earth on a flat map creates distortions.
See?

Of course, no one ate their orange slices (me included), but it was a great teaching tool.

New Rice Krispie Treats?

Once again, I am shocked that I've never heard of this awesome recipe, which is just as easy as normal Rice Krispie bars but a little bit more...sophisticated: Milky Way Rice Krispie Bars. If anyone out there loves baked goods and is looking for a place to live, please call me. I have gained two new household members in the last week (John's son and fiance), and while I adore them, they don't eat nearly enough. I still can't convince anyone but myself to pig out on any of the treats that I make. Thank goodness for the AHS Authorization Department and for church breakfasts.

New Homeschool Curriculum Page

Check out the Schoonover Homeschool page link on the right side of the blog; I've finally updated it with our 2011 curriculum choices, and I've finally gotten all of my materials in the mail from the many bargain sites I've been shopping (I may be really bad at couponing, but online deal-getting is my new thing). I'm SO excited about school - and yet, absolutely terrified too. However, I am proclaiming here and now and once and for all that THIS YEAR WILL BE A SUCCESS and homeschooling will be a blessing to each and every member of this family. I will not fail miserably as a mom or teacher, nor will my children end up hating me/school/their life. Or if they do, it will be because of their own stubbornness, not the lack of awesomeness in their homeschool experience. So there. No more freaking out. (That was directed at me, not at all of you, who have been supportive and wonderful.)
Our teaching/learning style this year is a blend of Charlotte Mason, classical education, and unit studies, which are my three favorite "types" of homeschooling. And, before you get too impressed, I did NOT make up my own lesson plans; they are from My Father's World, and all I have to do is buy the supplies and follow the instructions.
Another big change for us this year is that we will not be dual-enrolling or using the HSAP (homeschool assistance program) through the school; we're hiring an independent supervising teacher instead. While I'm not opposed to or trying to hide from the public school system, I don't think that taxpayers will be getting their money's worth by investing their money into Isaac and Simon's education, because I don't think that we're going to need or use any of the school's services or resources this year. I can't remember the numbers, but a certain amount of tax dollars go to the school for every dual-enrolled and, to a lesser extent, HSAP child, so I really think that I'm doing the best thing for all of us by going it alone this year. If/when one of them expresses an interest in music, sports, or something else that can only be done through the school, we'll reconsider.
Wednesday is our official first day of school...our main goal is to get up and get ready on time (downstairs and ready to learn at 8 am) and generate some enthusiasm. GO SCHOOL!

John Schoonover, Oil Magnate

John: "Don't mess with me. I have an oil company."
Allison: "I think you mean gas station. And it's not actually ours."