The Stages of Cabin Fever

With the colder weather I have noticed we are enjoying our days indoors. I know that as these continue we will probably feel a bit of cabin fever. Instead of dreading it, I would like to prepare ourselves for it and one way is to change things up a bit.

As you have read in previous posts, we do homeschool is nearly every room of the house. I had been using my Thirty-One portable file and filled it with each day's assignments. Every morning I let Pax pick out where we do our work and on many days, he prefers the dining room table. But then I thought about the desk we had set up in the office and how we've only used it a handful of times for school. I wondered if maybe it was because things were sort of all over the place and the space was cramped.

On Mondays I clean house. I feel like it is a really good way to start the week and I feel more productive after I have cleaned. While cleaning this morning, I kept looking at the cramped space where Pax's desk was and each time I passed it, I cringed. Halfway through my cleaning, I decided to do something about it; I moved the desk closer to mine and I cleaned out his storage bins and replaced the empty bins with his materials for school. (most of these materials had been thrown on shelves or in baskets.)

Take a look at the finished product:
The desk is moved next to the window so we can watch when it snows! I organized his file bins according to subject so Pax can grab his own supplies for each day. The wall where his desk used to be now has everything neatly organized and a reading basket Pax can choose extra books to read throughout the day.

                                 

 And it was Paxton Approved! So glad he enjoyed the new space and hopefully, it will give us one more option on days when we have a bit of cabin fever this winter!

History Lesson

Is it really December? Pax and I are embarking on week eighteen for school and learning so much. As I reflect on our homeschool experience this morning, I am reminded of why I decided to homeschool to begin with.

Take a look....

                  

This is the fort we made-the secret hide out while we read our history lesson. We started at the table and worked our way over to the love seat near the hallway. History can get a little bit redundant, with all of the reading, and when Pax suggested we build a fort to read in, I was game. And guess what? He was glued to the story and could answer every question I asked about the lesson.

I remember when I was in school and we would do some of our lessons outside or relaxed in comfy chairs or the floor. There is just something about getting out of a hard chair and into a comfortable spot that makes it so much easier to learn and listen.

I am just proud I have this opportunity to learn with him and looking forward to more experiences like this one!

Updates

We haven't posted in awhile because things have been busy! I am trying to keep Pax on a homeschool schedule and not fill our time home with too many extras. I will admit, this has been a challenge for me. I am thankful that the months ahead will force me to stay home more because I have never been one who likes to be out in the cold or the snow.

I could share all about our recent adventures with school but I will let the pictures do the talking. Have a great week everyone!

I have shared many times how much Pax has been thriving in his math assignments. Most of the time he only asks for my help if he doesn't understand what the assignment is asking him to do. Otherwise, this kid is able to maneuver any problem including writing the numbers without getting them out of order.

The first picture shows what happens when Pax doesn't feel like writing. He missed a word, placed his "S" backwards, and didn't stay on the lines. I talked to him about the importance of writing a sentence correctly and legibly and picture two shows much improvement.

Speaking of writing, the assignments in science are usually lengthy in their answers and the worksheets remind parents that they can write it for their children as long as the children are answering the questions. For the past few weeks, I have been encouraging Pax to write them instead of me doing it for him. I love giving him extra writing practice and I think it reinforces what he is learning when he has to speak it out loud and write it.

 One of our history books is "I Heard The Good News Today" which chronicles various missionary experiences throughout history. At first I loathed reading this book because the chapters are long and they never kept Pax's interest for very long. After reading over twenty stories about missionaries, it is now one of our favorite books to read!

And Pax made history yesterday by going with me to vote. This is actually his second time going with me and I loved using this experience to talk with him about the importance of exercising my voting rights as a citizen. He even made the Channel 20 news for voter selfies!

 

And finally, we are into our 14th week of homeschool! as I looked down in my notes section of my curriculum, this note was waiting for me. It reads:

The adventure continues! Look over the past 13 weeks and see how many books you have read, think over all of the discussions you have had with your children, and think about all of the opportunities you have had to influence your children's worldview. Priceless!

I loved seeing this because it reminded me that this journey is priceless and I wouldn't trade it for anything! 

When Winnie the Pooh Hits Close to Home

Paxton and I have been having some very productive days in homeschool. Pax is learning to do some basic two and three word sentence reading and he is really concentrating for much longer periods of time than he did the first few weeks of school. This week I felt especially emotional about our homeschool experience because I know it is for only a season and I keep praying that this season can last forever.

We started reading The House at Pooh Corner last week and I really hoped Pax would enjoy this book because I have always been a fan of Winnie the Pooh. (My nursery as a baby was in Pooh and I always enjoyed stories and movies about him and the Hundred Acre Wood)

Paxton has been glued to the book since page one. Each day he wants to hear more and each day I have to remind him that we will read more again tomorrow. (Neither one of us is ready for this book to be over. Pax told me he loves when I talk in "Pooh's voice" and "sing the songs in silly voices")

 

 When we got to a chapter about Pooh counting his honey jars, we decided to get our honey jar out and make a honey sandwich. Pax loved it!

And as we finish this book, I reflect on this saying from Pooh to Piglet and wish nothing more than this from me to Paxton....

To Answer Your Questions About Homeschool....

*Disclaimer: Before you read this blog post, please understand that these views are my own and are only specific to my personal homeschooling experience. I do not speak for the homeschool community or any other parent who homeschools.

The following questions have been asked to me in regards to homeschooling my son Paxton. I would like to believe that those who have asked me are just curious but I have encountered several people who are completely skeptical or think I am odd for choosing this path for my son’s education. I have chosen to use this experience as a way to enlighten those who might not understand what homeschool is truly about for my family.

1. So you don’t think traditional school is good enough?

When I found out I was pregnant with Pax, I assumed we would place him in a school. (public or private, didn’t really matter at the time) As Pax got a bit older, I started doing my own research and was struggling with what decision to make. I do not think public schools are bad and I do not think there is anything wrong with sending your child to private school- I attended both types of schools and had wonderful experiences in each. We just chose a different way for Paxton.

2. Aren’t you worried Pax will get behind?

This question seems like a loaded question to me. I wonder why people always assume the worst when a child’s education is left to a parent. If Pax gets behind in school, I will be able to work longer and harder on what he needs more practice in. If he gets ahead in school, I can challenge him or offer a slower pace so that we aren’t too far ahead that things become difficult. Every parent deals with this situation at one point in time or another no matter where they go to school. In my opinion, one on one time seems like a perfect fit for either scenario.

3. Do you follow a curriculum or make things up as you go along?

The most important thing for Pax is to be doing work that is geared for his age and ability level. I researched tons of homeschool curriculums and found one that works for us 100%. Even though we may add things are alter the curriculum some, I felt it was incredibly important to purchase a complete kindergarten curriculum so that we were on target with what other kindergarteners were learning. We use www.sonlight.com if you are interested in checking it out. 

4. Aren’t you worried that Pax won’t have any socialization?

Are you kidding me? Pax has a bigger social schedule than Donnie (my husband) and I combined. I schedule at least two play dates a week for him and we attend church on Sunday and Wednesday (he has a giant children’s church group he is a part of) and we frequent Ergadoozy (one of the places we utilize for gross motor). This kid has more friends and more social experiences than most kids I know.

5. Do you plan to put Pax in “regular” school at all?

This question is a hard one for me to answer right now. At this moment, we are saturating ourselves in the homeschool experience and enjoying every moment. Pax gets to see his dad every day when Donnie comes home for lunch, he gets to have the freedom to sleep in if he needs to, I get to choose what he eats and when he can have snacks or drinks if needed, we were able to grow our own garden and learn all about nature at any moment of the day, and we aren’t limited to what we can learn.

We incorporate the Bible, bugs, nature, the library, friends, continuous field trips (real life experiences), piano, and many other things into homeschool. We love the flexibility it offers our family, we are thankful to not have to worry about sick days or scheduling a babysitter when he is out of school, and we enjoy watching him learn new things every single day.

 We plan to take each year to evaluate what we are doing and if Pax is thriving and go from there. The ultimate goal is to be active in his life experiences, education included. If there comes a day that we change our minds, we will cross that bridge and make a decision.

I hope this has helped you understand why we do what we do. This experience has brought numerous positive changes to our family and we are so thankful and blessed to be right where we are.

Our First Sick Day

Have you ever experienced a situation where you just said something and boom, the opposite happens? Last Wednesday, as I left for church, I commented to my husband that Pax had been relatively well all summer. Even with allergies and such, he seemed to be staying healthy. No sooner did we come home from children's church when I heard the dreaded sneezing and stuffy nose.

How did this happen when he was perfectly fine all day on Wednesday? Instead of getting upset or wondering where his latest illness came from, I acted fast. I use essential oils and other all natural products to assist in illness before I move forward with a doctor visit. In the past 1.5yrs, Pax has only been to the doctor for a sick visit once. (His first year of life he was at the doctor's office every 6-8wks. with ear infections)

I grabbed the humidifier, the oil diffuser, and my trusty oils and put Pax to bed. By Thursday morning, he was still not feeling well. I could tell because he slept in until 8:45am and this rarely happens. And so we decided to cash in our first homeschool sick day.

Our Thursday was spent blowing noses, watching movies, and sleeping. I didn't think once to push school assignments; I just wanted him to feel better.

By Friday, we were still in the same boat. He didn't want to eat anything and barely drank liquids. But he was happy. Thursday night he received a package of Minecraft Legos in the mail and he perked up instantly to play with them. Truthfully, they were a godsend to me because I was beginning to run out of things to do to keep him from getting antsy and start coughing.

Sunday he seemed to be doing better with the exception of the cough. I decided we should make up some of the school work he missed Thursday and Friday. He was completely fine with doing school on Sunday. I kind of think he missed his routine. (maybe just a little) lol.

Today is Monday and we are still in the same boat. His spirits are better and he is eating somewhat but we are still battling a nasty cold. Thankful for these days at home where he can rest and go at his own pace. Grateful that if we fall behind a bit, he can catch up all through out the day or night.

Getting Better and Better

I am excited to share that each week is getting better and better with school. Pax and I have fallen into a routine that works for us and for the most part, it hasn't been interrupted too much. Today we had a review day on some of the things we learned this week (because this week deemed challenging as far as how much new information was in our curriculum). Our review day didn't last as long as a normal day and Pax was rather upset our school time was over early; happy Mom moment right there!

Here are some of the things we learned about or experienced this week:

We learned a lot about plants this week and one of the science experiments we were supposed to do last week, we did on Monday. (I had to go grocery shopping for food coloring and celery) We learned that plants receive water from the root and the water travels to the leaves. The celery is an excellent way to demonstrate because the food coloring changes the colors of the leaves when they receive water.

We did an introductory lesson on rainforests and part of our art assignment was to draw plant and animal life we would see in the rainforest. We used YouTube to listen to the sounds of the rainforest while coloring with markers. Pax said this was one of his favorites of the week because I colored with him. LOL.

One of our favorite ways to read is on the floor or couch. We like to get comfortable and just take it in. Pax choose to lay on the floor while listening to his Bible story about Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt. We also had our oil diffuser running (as you see in the picture above) because we were both feeling a little but congested from the change in weather.

Paxton has really worked hard on writing his numbers. He said writing numbers is much harder than writing letters. I think he is doing a fabulous job myself.

Unfortunately, the weather was cold and rainy most of the week but we still managed to have some fun at the park and in our yard. We brought out the sidewalk chalk to practice the new letters we were mastering and we spent time at the park burning off energy!

Weekly Accomplishment: number writing (specifically 1-7 and working on 8 and 9)
Working On: The sounds letters make (M,T,R,B,F,A)
New Skill: writing words and recognizing them (This week we learned mat, rat, at, and fat)

Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Day, Interrupted

Last week was probably one of the best weeks we've had in homeschooling. Paxton really showed consistency and progress in his handwriting, both with letters and numbers. On more than one occasion, when we had finished our homeschool assignments for the day, he asked me if he could work on extra stuff. You aren't going to see any pictures of assignments this week though, because I think some of our favorite experiences were done outside of the "classroom".

We hit our first "I don't feel like it" day on Thursday. I welcomed it with opened arms because this meant we would be getting the first one out of the way and I would know how to better prepare for the next one. I noticed his attitude was off from the moment he woke up on Thursday morning. He acted grumpy, didn't want to eat breakfast, and kept slouching in his chair when we began activities. He finally fessed up and told me he just didn't feel like doing school at the moment. I had texted my best friend Misty and asked for a quick prayer to get me through the day because we were having a rough morning. She, in her infinite wisdom, suggested we take a much needed break and head outside.

Misty suggested something I should have thought of doing at the first sign of Pax's struggle. I just wanted to stick with our routine and move along. I love looking back at this moment and realizing just how flexible homeschool is supposed to be and to take advantage of our freedom to break the routine when needed.

Here is the result of our break:

I love this picture! He is laughing, the hose created a beautiful rainbow, and his/my stress diminished as soon as we stepped outside.

We did a lot of other fun things last week too! Check them out....

 On Tuesday (which is going to be a weekly thing) we visited the library with our cousin Jude. Pax had fun playing on the computer.

 Pax and Jude exploring the Lincoln logs

One of our science experiments consisted of adding soil and water in a mason jar, shaking it up for a few minutes, and waiting for 24hrs to see how it separates into humus, water, clay, and rock.

Do you see the layers?

We had a piano lesson with Grandma and are learning how to recognize quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes, as well as paino (soft) and forte (loud).

Looking forward to a great week ahead! We are working overtime on some of our assignments to enjoy a few extra play dates this week!

Cooking Activity- Roman Bread Pudding

For the past couple of weeks, we have been learning about the Egyptians and the Romans. In today's lesson, in our book "Living Long Ago", we learned that the Romans ate lots of weird things like snails, oysters, stuffed dormice, and boar's head. We also learned about some of their desserts that sounded a little more appetizing.

Paxton suggested we try the recipe the book offered for Roman Bread Pudding. We had several disadvantages when attempting this recipe because one ingredient was bread and we only had diet low carb bread. I know from experience that this doesn't cook well. I also didn't have enough olive oil to make it more like deep fried but I agreed we could try it anyway and here is what we discovered.

 Pax helped me gather the ingredients which were milk, cubed bread, olive oil, and honey. 

The low carb bread soaked up the milk and became mushy instantly. We tried it out anyway and learned that it did not want to cook in the oil and only certain parts browned. Had we used more oil and attempted to deep fry, this might have worked better. 

We drizzled raw honey on top of the fried bread and Pax ate about half of his serving. I was done after one bite. LOL.

Maybe you are brave enough to try this recipe out for fun? We decided this is a recipe we probably won't be trying again but had fun anyway!

We're Back!!!

Good morning everyone! As Pax works on an art project, I am stealing a few minutes to share some of our adventures from the first full week of homeschool! I am beyond thrilled at how much fun we had last week. I still can't get over the fact that I have this amazing privilege to teach my son at home and be in control of what he is learning. I am living the dream! (my dream at least!)

I want to share with you some of the highlights from the week. I am sorry, but there will be a lot of pictures in this post as I cover the week. I am proud of everything we learned and how much fun we had getting back to our routine!

Enjoy!

~Kendra

Every kid deserves a first day of school picture, whether they homeschool or leave the home for school! This is my kindergartener!!!

Paxton loves to practice his handwriting and he is trying so hard to make the letters look just like the ones he traces. He is also learning to cut along the lines as well as cutting freestyle. He worked on this in Pre-K but now he really concentrates and doesn't want to be sloppy.

We got to turn water into ice and graph how long it took when placed in the freezer. (this experiment took about 6hrs from water to complete ice) and instead of making a tornado, we used out Discovery Kids tornado to observe how tornadoes are made. 

We got to celebrate our first "official" day of school with cousins Will and Jude at Chuck E Cheese and visit Will for lunch at his school later in the week.

On Wednesday, we were supposed to have some gross motor play at the park and visit with our friends Brittle, Silas, and Teddy. Unfortunately, an unexpected storm hit Springfield and we were stuck indoors for the day. We decided to make things fun by doing homeschool by candlelight, have flashlight play, and even read our book "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" in the dark. (we had electricity, but just decided not to use it and pretend instead)

Speaking of our current read aloud, "The Mouse and the Motorcycle", Pax came up with the idea to create a "safe" mouse trap using cheese, his VBS hat, and some toys under the hat for the mouse to play with. 

And last but not least, we decided to reorganize our homeschool supplies. Over the summer, I kept throwing things here and there and last week it felt a bit chaotic when I looked for our curriculum materials for each day. We now how every subject on a different shelf. I decided to recycle our diaper caddy and make it into an art caddy instead. Pax loves it and now all of his art supplies are in one place!