iHomeSchool

So, I recently was able to combine my obsessiveness for organization with my knack for detailed lesson plans all in one place: Homeschool Planel's planner! I LOVE IT! (Did you hear me scream that from the mountain tops?) I LOVE IT! Yes, it was painstakingly difficult to get all of the different subjects, assignments, tests, chores, and the kitchen sink into this program, but now that it's in, I LOVE IT!

My homeschool teacher (really, my babysitter who checks in on us to make sure I'm not destroying Brandon and Sophia's future) told me that one of her other families uses it. I checked it out and had not seen anything else like it and jumped in with both feet. It is a program that plans each day and each subject, allows me to assign and reschedule with a click of a button (so we can go on that last minute field trip) and set-up for the whole year to tell me (and each kid) exactly what we need to do each day to get through an entire year of well-research curriculum in an enormous amount of subjects. Now, if I could only give this RAD checklist to my kids every day for them to check off their work...

ENTER SUPER NANA! She says, "I think we should think about getting the kids tablets for their homeschooling and I'd like to help with that." So, with one click of a button (and one heck of a Christmas present already bought and delivered), Santa came to the door today dressed like a FedEx man with these 2 beauties...

 No, not the kids... the new iPads! See, the kids had been testing out this program (and a few other apps and websites that we supplement with our books) on tablets using Fernando's older iPad (which he can't give up to the kids because he needs it for work) for a few weeks now and it was working like a charm. They go in every day and can do their independent work without asking. I can check and see how much progress they've made as they check off their assignments. I can stop them and teach a lesson to break up the independent work based on what new lessons we have for the day. They have access at their fingertips to research, take tests, watch videos and look up what an ahtlatl is! And they learn technology to boot!

SO, a big shout out to Brandon and Sophia's Nana and Lola (who gave them money over the summer that we saved for such an investment) for helping us take a HUGE STEP in the right direction with their education. Each day, as things fall more and more into place, I feel more and more like we've made the right decision. Now, let's get on to iHomeSchooling!

Dinosaur Poop

The best thing about homeschooling (so far) is the ability to reward ourselves with a fun and educational field trip whenever we want. Today was our third field trip and we went to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. (If you haven't been, I highly recommend it ON A MONDAY MORNING!)

 
To celebrate the end of our science unit on dinosaurs, we went primarily to see the new Dinosaur Halls that they have. The new exhibits are impressive! I was able to download a fun worksheet from their website that tied in perfectly to what we had been studying. So, off we went with clipboards in hand to look at each fossil and determine who was a carnivore vs. an herbivore based on their teeth.

But, you know what else we found? DINOSAUR POOP. Because, you know, nothing is more exciting than poop, and even though it wasn't on our worksheet to learn about, it was the highlight of the day! (Specifically, it was T-Rex poop with pieces of a Duck-Billed Dino in it, which is how scientists know that T-Rexes ate Duck-Billed Dinos.)

We also had the privilege of being quizzed by the enthusiastic museum employees about hip joints, hollow bones, mating techniques, ancestry, etc. because we were almost the ONLY ones there - and definitely the only ones with clipboards actively devouring all the information provided.

The one with the best hoods get the girls!

Traveling as a family

Interactive exhibits

Eggs and embryos

Toothless carnivore (what!?!)

Paleontologist Practice

And last, but not least, for those of you who remember that I have an ostrich lover in my family - we hunted down and found at least 4 different ostriches throughout the museum in different areas, because, in case you didn't know, the most direct descendant of a dinosaur is ... a bird!

Ostrich skeleton

Male Ostrich (black feathers)

Female Ostrich (brown feathers)

Baby Ostrich

Incorporating the World

One of the advantages of being home, is that we can fit more into our day than we could otherwise. Two things I wanted to do was encourage was the reading of news/current events and using technology. The best thing on that front that we've done is the Smithsonian Tween Tribune. The Smithsonian has put together an online newspaper for kids with age-appropriate articles and quizzes for each. The kids can go on and choose an article that they are interested in and then either take a comprehension quiz or leave a comment to the article (which I get to approved before posting to the public). Some of the articles have been on kids crossing a river in India just to get to school, a dog with 2 legs and how much sleep kids should get (this sparked much discussion and won them a later bedtime!). They get a wider view of the world and practice with technology and social media and I hope that they are getting exposed to something more than our bubble of the world.

How do you make a parachute for a Toad?

One of the most exciting parts of homeschooling, for the kids, was the promise of a class pet! We had intended on getting new fish for the empty aquarium, but ended up getting a pair of fire-bellied toads! (Because, you can't just have one!)

After our first official day of school was done (organize binders, self-portrait. time zone lesson, 4th grade goals, etc.), we went to the pet store to learn about toad ecosystems and get all of the necessary items to bring these little buggers home!

We got them on a Monday. All was well. They only have to eat every 2-3 days, so we were in the clear until Wednesday. That's when all craziness happened! First, you have to get the crickets dusted with some insect vitamin (think shake and bake) and then you have to get the crickets and meal worms into a small clear container, like the ones you take fish home from the carnival in. Then, like the lady at the pet store said, you just pick them up and put them in the container with the insects for them to eat. EASIER SAID THAN DONE!

One of them like me - he pretty calmly let me pick him up and put him in the container. The other one - not so much! He writhed himself right out of my hand jumped up my arm, out of the cage, onto Sophia and onto the edge of the loft balcony. You know what happens next, right? He jumped right off the balcony down to the first floor! After freaking out and letting go of a few choice words, he was caught, but surprisingly didn't feel like eating much after his adventure. I think I'll need to get a parachute for him!
PS - the kids struggled to think of names for them until we looked up the names of the twins in the How to Train Your Dragon series. So, please welcome Ruffnut and Tuffnut to our family!

Noah's Ark Lesson Plans

While we are waiting for our official textbooks to arrive for the year, I needed a theme to help me organize all the things I wanted to hit in the first weeks of school! Noah's Ark seemed the perfect fit since I've always wanted to incorporate some religion in with our studies and it was broad enough that I could do other fun things that I thought the kids would like. These ideas took us through about 7 days. For example we did:

Language Arts: 

• Read Story out loud and choose vocabulary words for the week. At first we used the direct context clues to try to figure out what they were. Later in the week, we would look them all up in the dictionary and write them in sentences.
• Watched a Noah movie and worked on a compare and contrast writing prompt. We worked on an outline, rough draft and final draft of a 2-paragraph essay throughout the week.
• Ultimately at the end of the week, we had a big discussion on whether or not the story was real. Did a flood that covered the whole world really happen? After talking about ideas for both sides, they had to write their own opinion on the question. (They both decided it was real!)

Math:

• We learned 2x2 multiplication. Get it, two by two! Stretching, but still... We learned a new method each day: traditional, lattice, box and ended the week with a "test".

Science:

• After learning about the scientific method (question, research, hypothesis, experiment, analyze, report), we started up our own rainbow celery experiment. Each stalk of celery sat in a glass of colored water (except our control stalks in no water and clear water). It has to sit for 24+ hours. When we came back to it, the color had traveled up the capillaries of the celery to deliver the water to the leaves. It was funny to think that they thought worms traveled up the stalks before! It was a lesson in plants and roots, but also translates to the human body and how blood is transferred. 
  
• We also watched some videos on storms, although they weren't as meat-y as I would have liked.
• Finally, they each picked an animal that could have been on the Ark and we went to the library to research it's habitat, anatomy and patterns. They brainstormed research questions and then had to answer them in a powerpoint. So, we hit some language arts and technology here. I sat with each of them to teach them powerpoint, how to write for presentations, choosing appropriate slides and adding photos. They are pretty proud and we'll be presenting those to Dad this week. This has been the longest carry-over project since we work on this a little each day and they have to take turn on the computer.

Art

• We talked about did some drawings early in the week of what the interior of the ark looked like. Did all the animals sleep in their own rooms? Was is open on the inside to all the animals? Where was the food? So, they each focused on a deck and drew what thought the Ark looked like from the top down. Brandon did a reptile and bird deck. Sophia did a mammal deck. It was pretty cute and they had fun figuring out where all the animals went.

Field Trip

• We went to the Skirball up in Los Angeles. They have a great Noah's Ark exhibit (see previous post). The best part to me was the discussion that they opened there about how each different culture has a flood story. Although each is different in some way, each culture survived a mass flood whether it be on the back of a turtle or in a large canoe. This was a big part of our "Did it really happen?" conversation.

So, that sums up our first week and our lessons on Noah's Ark. It was my first time trying to theme our lessons. I think they kids really liked it. Next up, Ocean Tides and Waves - with an accompanying field trip to the beach!

Why are we choosing to homeschool?

That is the first question people usually ask – after the audible gasp has escaped and the look of bewilderment stares back at me. The answer is not a simple one and not the same for any family

For us, homeschooling was a decision that we came to after much thinking and discussion over a 2-year period. First, let me say that our local public elementary school is FABULOUS! I have nothing but good things to say about the teachers/staff and community that continue to work hard to provide opportunities for our kids. My kids have benefitted from a quality education that will give us a great start to homeschooling.

If I had to sum it up, the reason we are homeschooling is EFFICIENCY. I don’t think that I can necessarily provide a BETTER traditional education for my children vs. teachers, but I think I can do it faster! There’s only 2 of them (not 30+) and they are smart! My goal is to open up our days to include the things that are AS important as math and language arts that we couldn’t do before, like foreign language, community service and religious studies and to ADD more music, art and science than a public school can provide. We are also striving to give our kids the downtime that they were telling us that they needed! Between homework, swim, football, martial arts, etc., they just wanted to play outside, build with blocks or read a book for fun!

So, what tipped the scale? After 2 years of careful internal consideration, I felt like I needed to talk to a “professional”! I ran my crazy idea by the kids’ teacher, who I respected and felt like she best knew my kids academically, and fully expected her to tell me I was crazy. Her immediate support and excitement for us was the validation I needed to move forward.

Now, I know how lucky I am. There have to be so many things that come together for homeschooling to work: a parent with the time and dedication to devote to it, kids who are willing to try, personalities that are suited to each other… everything has to align just right to even make this a consideration for most families.

I also know that this could be a short-term experiment, but I hope that it’s not. We will constantly re-evaluate our situation and adapt it, if needed, to provide the best learning environment for our kids. So, at the end of this year, we will discuss as a family how we should proceed – keep at the homeschooling or go back to public school. And as the kids get older, they will have more of a say in the decision to continue or not.

For me, the nail in the coffin to any decision always comes down to – would I regret it if I didn’t try. This was a total YES! This is something that I always would’ve looked back on and wondered if I could’ve initiated it for ALL of our benefit. The time that we get to spend with the kids and the bonds that we will share will be proof that this was the right decision for our family, regardless of what the future holds.  For now, we hope that you enjoy reading about the ups and downs of our new adventures of homeschooling and freelancing (and we hope we all survive the next year under one roof!)

First Art Project!

The first week of 4th grade is under our belt. The 2nd part of the Del Rosario Adventure is well on its way. My part of the home schooling stage is kicked off with an official School Seal.

 Their first art project was a multi-medium self portrait, which is an amalgamation of both digital and traditional (pencil, charcoal, and marker mediums) executions. First they took a “selfie” with my phone…yeah, that was fun. Then I printed each their picture. They then took the back of the print out and covered the back with black, using a charcoal stick. Then, they put a bigger piece of paper under the print out, traced their picture to transfer their image on the blank piece of paper.

 After that, Brandon & Sophia went over the transferred lines with black markers, they also added details to the illustrations based on what they see on their selfies printouts. The last step was to add designs behind their images. Dea & I wanted them to recognize who they are in the inside, their personalities, their strengths, and what they bring to the table. So they made a list and then designed it behind their self portraits.

I have to admit, as their art teacher, my love for teaching and the arts have elevated to a new level. In the 12 years of teaching, Brandon & Sophia are the most important students I will ever have. 

I am at awe in their abilities.