Trampoline Board: Another Homeschooling Experience

This is what my kids do because they have too much, unstructured time.

Xander built a homemade trampoline board of sorts... he cut the wood out of the scrap pile, and screwed in the wire to hold his winter boots so her could practice jumps and tricks. He definately has extra time on his hands. He is now working on his second prototype, a board for Niko. Maybe I should give him more chores?

The Day After Halloween

 As I entered the boys room the day after halloween I was distraught with the "mess". Upon further inquiry and observation, I discovered that Niko, in all his curiosity, had catagorized his Halloween candy.... Hmmm, I thought, how can I make the best of this and help "learning time" be a fantastic experience, (knowing it was a long shot to get the candy out of hand & mind soooo soon)?

 So here is the final result...... catagorizing, counting, and graphing at its best. Our learning time was mathmatics and statistics fun this day. I truly feel that math has to be relevant for children to really understand it, and learn it! So today homeschooling was a success.

Niko catagorized the candy by type, name, shape, size... then graphed it mostly by name, including some miscellaneous candy clumped together at the end. Niko chose to make a bar chart.

During trick or treating, Niko was dtermined to ge the most candy... so he could sell it to me and make more money. He is a real entreprenuer.

 Xander chose to make a line chart.

Anna made two charts in one graph.

Maniacle Ax-swinging Zombie Woodsman

You won't believe the costume Xander designed this year, - all on his own. First he designed it on paper, drew up the ax, cut it out of plywood and painted it.

Next, he drafted what his costume would look like. Then he found some fabric in my closet, used a patern from a jedi costume Grandma Olson made for him a few Christmasses ago, and came up with what he wanted his evil robe to look like.

We cut the robe out, and Xander pinned and sewed the edges together. He even sewed a stiched around the entire robe sow it would fray just right. The fabric was a darling green (perfect for baby blankets and aprons) so it badly needed dying, which Xander also learned how to do.

His undershirt was designed down to the detail, tearing and staining just how he wanted it. His face paint, he also planned on paper first, designed and applied all by himself.

Another educational experience, all because he had the time and incentive to be creative. As a doting mother, I hope Xander is proud of his blossoming skills as a seamstress.

Charlie didn't make it!

Well sad news this week. We found Charie (the red mama hen) in her favorite bush, dead. We are not at all sure why or how, but she certainly was stiff and not breathing. I imagine, if she were a cat, that she exhausted her nine lives. We are sad to see her go. She was an extremely intelligent hen, always came when we called, very social and constantly escaped the confines of the pen by flying over. She enjoyed the larger spaces of the yard. We will certainly miss Charlie.

Haiku, anyone?

I am always amazed at the teaching opportunities that don't seem to have an impact, only to discover that they did. The reward was just delayed.

This week the girls checked out a book about Hello Kitty, to my dismay. However I was pleasently suprised to find that the book was written in haikus. We read the book, discussed haikus and I challenged the children to attempt to write a haiku. No one took me up on the challenge.

Until today.
Xander started counting syllables and revving his creative juices to write two complete haikus, all on his own.

Often the reward comes, after the wait.

The boys & their toys

Just another day at school, right?

Of course. These boys are constructing, following instructions, improvising and being creative when a piece is missing, focussing, displaying, I could go on and on. Aren't legos just a classic toy. You can create and recreate. Come up with something different every time.

Six for Six: We are Grandparents

While I know there are actually only five chicks in this picture, our hen Charlie, does infact have six chicks. The sixth is also yellow. Only one blackie. Stan discovered the faint peeps on Tuesday morning last, where 4 eggs had hatched. Within the next two hours the last two eggs hatched and all six fertilized eggs were successfully born. Now the waiting begins. How many of the chicks will be roosters and how many will be hens. We won't know for about 4-6 months. I sure hope they are all hens so we can keep them.
What better way to learn science than to live it. How lucky we are to witness where eggs come from and where chickens come from, for that matter.

A Frightening Tale by Xander Olson

As a homeshooling mom, I worry about "keeping up with the Jones" in an academic sense, even though leadership education is my long term goal and my educational philosophy with my children... nevertheless it's too easy to compare myself (and my children) to others anyway.

So here is a writting Xander put together as a first draft, for a scouting writting assignment. I thought he did pretty well. And he even enjoyed himself.

While I am sure we are not "keeping up" I am proud of his effort and accomplishment.

Real Life Science

We have 4 hens in our backyard (well in a makeshift pen). We had been given about 6 fertilized eggs by a friend several weeks back and one of our hens named Charlie took immediately to sitting on them. They take approximately 21 days to hatch (which was roughly Friday), but one by one we'd find an egg separated from the others Charlie was sitting on. Each was the one that Charlie discarded knowing (somehow) that a chicken was not developing. Each time we'd crack open the discarded egg to see if a chicken had been developing, but there were never any signs of a chicken. Just a bad egg. We were down to one final egg and found it discarded this morning (unfortunately). We figured the eggs either weren't fertilized or something else happened to them. So we figured this would be the case with this final egg too, but to our amazement this little egg had a fully formed baby chicken inside when I cracked it open. It had obviously been discarded because it was already dead. What's amazing is that it had taken the entire space of the egg (and it's a wonder these little creatures can even maneuver to peck their way out). So, no little chicken, but we were close. We'll have to try again.

Discipline, Education or Both?

Choosing to homeschool our children is always an adventure. Stan and I especially feel the need to allow our children to be children and then expect that as young adults they will act the part; responsible, interested, and engaged (and not like most "teen-agers" we know)... because our children will have truly had a childhood and be ready for the responsibilites young adulthood.

With that brief philisophical introduction, we don't compel daily practice writing, the children write as needed and it may not be comparable to children their age at this point. Having said this...

Xander and Niko got into trouble this week by climbing into the neighbors yard. This neighbor is extremely kind...but they have 3 pitbuls in the back yard... needless to say, even though the dogs LOVE the kids... at any point they could become frightened and harm the kids... and then the dogs would need to be put down (killed). Both consequences would of course be detrimental.

Knowing that they were in BIG trouble, the boys offered many options of punishment, banishment to their room, cleaning all the bathrooms in the house, mopping the whole house (about 2000 sf of marble flooring)... you get the idea. But I thought they should have an opportunity to practice writing. A punishment they gladly accepted with no complaint. Xander wrote, "I will not go into the neighbors backyard" twenty-five times, Niko, ten times, and then the finale was writing a letter to the neighbor apologizing for the trespass and delivering it in person. After nearly 2.5 hours of writing, gigling and more writing, the task was complete... or so we thought.

Stan, in his infinite wisdom, confirmed with the boys that they personally delivered the letter, and mentioned that he would speak with our neighbor the next day.... suddenly Xander paused, "had to get something from the garage" and left the room quick as lightening. We of course knew that the letter had been detoured on the way to the neighbors.

In the end, the letter was hand delivered, the apology was given and the childrens' handwriting is much improved. (You wouldn't believe how much improved... all in one sitting. Now that's what I call home education.)

Schools Back In!

With summer winding down & all the neighborhood kids boarding the school bus, we officially started school again. Although the summer break was short (a mere three weeks off the Olson Family School) I have been pleasantly surprised that Alexander remembered his reading skills & number placement in Math (its surprising how similar seventy & seventeen sound when you are six years old), and Perpetual Motion in D Major on violin (a song we have been practicing for most of the summer... well the entire summer).

Nikls & Anna are not quite as enthusiastic, when I offered (and began) to read a story to them, they decided they would much rather play with kinects.

For now school consists mostly of scripture study, reading (a lot of reading), math, violin, history (my favorite) and soccer (Xander's favorite). While learning can be a blast, Xander seems particularily motivated by soccer. And I have been found to threaten missing soccer practice if the more important things (to me) aren't complete. This motivation works best when it comes to practicing violin.

Our timeline comes in handy no matter what we learn about. I'm not sure if Xander gets it... but as time goes by I am sure he will.

Fourth of July Fun!

Fourth of July was a blast! We enjoyed the cooler weather of Utah & the Highland Hidden Oaks neighborhood parade & breakfast. Niko, siblings & cousins were celebraties in the annual parade. This year Alexander mustered up his courage to participate in the races & tug-o-war. For the evening celebration we enjoyed a bbq at the Olson's. Fireworks were certainly a highlight for the kids.

The fish? You are wondering? This was a brook trout that Xander was determined to catch! He followed this trout for over an hour in a nearby dried up snow run-off wash (does that even make sense?). The threw rocks, boulders, sticks... and finally the fish was worn out & Xander was able to catch it. He brought it home, killed it & ate it. I think he really liked it. And it was surprisingly tastey.