Homeschool Photo Portfolio 2011-2012

Homeschool Photo Portfolio 2011-2012
I am thinking that this coming year I want to get more photos into this. We did much on geography, but it was mainly in writing. Hopefully, this year I can get a better grasp on everything we did through a photo portfolio.

Here's what's coming in First Grade

We have had a great time in our first year of schooling at home, and now that first grade is coming this fall I have been planning away. In our Homeschool Co-op, many of the moms are doing FIAR for their core curriculum while matching it with Galloping the Globe.

Two years ago, my husband and I bought the Galloping the Globe bundle, and after seeing how our co-op was doing their program I realized very quickly how I was going to set up first to fourth grade for Luk. The beautiful thing about this is that Logan can tag along with the maps, books, and worksheets we are doing. 

I had to find something that included Logan into our day because right now he was a distraction wanting to sit on his brother's lap to do the work. Since he is two, I found it hard to fit him into what Luk and I were doing this year. I never imagined that he wanted to be so involved in the formal aspect of our day, but he does. So, here we go teaching a six year old and two year old with the same work. The expectation is for him to have fun doing what his brother is doing, and who knows maybe he will become a geography wiz! ;)

I haven't see many sites showing how they link FIAR with GTG, just that they do. Here is what our month-to-month looks like following the books from FIAR to the countries of GTG.

AUGUST 13-31:

Introduction to Geography

Bible Verse Copy work

"How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World" (week 1)

Prince Henry the Navigator (week 1)

Explode the Code

Writing Prompt: "If I were an Explorer"

Right Start

Considering God's Creation Lesson 2 (week 1)

Make a Paper Mache Globe (this will be labeled and pinned throughout the year)

Label Map

Bible Verse Copy work

"Katy and the Big Snow" (week 2)

Ponce De Leon (week 2)

ETC

Writing: Making a funny story

RS

Real Science for Kids "Butterflies" and Insects (week 2)

Butterfly Garden Kit/Make a Big Snow on the Map

Maps, Charts, and Graphs Book B

Bible Verse Copy work

"Miss Rumphius" (week 2)

Christopher Columbus (week 3)

ETC

Alphabetize the Explorers List

RS

Human Body

Field Trip- MOSI Mummies

Each Month we will do "Children Like Me," Finding Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives, Country Facts, Who's Famous, Vocabulary sheets, and Book It! Daily Reading (refrigerator reminder).

Also, during the countries we will cook recipes, reading about missionaries in the area with two books, looking at historical figures, Zoo and Aquarium Guide. 

Here is the World Map we use.

One last thing, for each country we will be visiting Compassion International's website to pray for some of the children in that country that will find sponsors. If you don't know Compassion, you must! It is an amazing organization with a sponsorship program. Luk will get to meet one of our sponsor children, Smith in October. Peru with my son, husband, and church! We can't wait! 

More to come...

Luk's Extras

As homeschooler you know that you want to make sure your child is doing something outside of the home, or they are active in things other than school work. So, for Luk we picked two things that we thought he would really enjoy. The first is that we signed him up for Karate. I had made a post about this in the past, but here is our little guy and his best friend after a night of sparring.

Here is a video of Luk- Yes you hear an audible, "Oh Lord" come from me. We have Luk in Karate to practice his self-control, and I wasn't sure how that was going to go when someone hit him. Thankfully, his instructor made it to were none of the new boys got hit so that they could get used to it. He did great.

The other thing that we have Luk be apart of is 4H. He will be showing this little princess:

The breeder (Mandy) named her "Acorn," and we are going to go with that even though she reassured us we could change it, but why change a good thing. If you know Luk his animal naming skills are  quite... human. He wanted to name the bunny "Fred." I happily told him that SHE had a name, and it was "Acorn." He was okay with that. He was a bit bummed that it was a girl, but today while talking to someone on the  phone about Compassion they asked if I had a daughter. I said, "no, not unless you count Gabriela." Luk says loudly, "Yes, you do now. We have a girl bunny!" So, you are the first to be formally introduced to our new addition, our baby girl, Acorn! The breeder exampled that she is a bit fat, well I guess she is gonna fit right in with her momma, and she's a brunette! I got my brown haired gal after all. And so...

These are Luk and his extras. He does have one more "extra" that he is apart of, and that is a homeschool gorup that teaches history/geography. I wasn't going to do it originally because I didn't want to ad too much on his plate. If he gets overwhelmed I will pull him out, but for now he is enjoying it. All of his friends are in the class, and it is after his library storytime. He hated being the only one not there. So, here they are:

Co-op Field Trip to the Florida Aquarium & thoughts

I am reminded regularly why my husband and I decided four years ago to homeschool our son (now sons). At first, it was something that I brought out to question, and after time my husband began to have strong considerations for it. Now, we are strong union on this front, and God has confirmed this decision in more ways than one. Why homeschool has been a topic of decision, and will always be a topic to discuss as we go on this journey. I seek blogs of encouragement especially from those that write more eloquently than I, or I read books that bring closure to my questioning:

“I {know} deep in my heart that God designed me, as a mother, to be at home with my children. To even think of settling for something else would be to step out of His will.  No matter how difficult the homeschooling lifestyle might become, my commitment {is} to do God’s will, not my own. Even though I could selfishly choose an ‘easier’ lifestyle, I would have to disobey God to do so. I know in my heart that God has called me to homeschool…” 

Sally Clarkson

Yes, that. With that comes our trip to the Florida Aquarium. My mommy friends and I thought that we picked a good day to go being a Tuesday morning, however when we arrived we quickly realized that the decision was not that wise. We were seeing the big yellow school buses and mounds of children coming out to go explore the Aquarium. There were hundreds of kids, but we trucked along. Each of use pushing the second borns in their strollers.   It was loud, but the kids had great time.

Lessons learned from son and mother on how to deal with older children pushing and shoving these three out of the way, and Luk being the most vocal out of the group! (side note: the boy in the red was not the one that did the pushing. I don't want this sweet boy to get a bad rep. =D)

Lessons learned on how important it is to have an objective to these trips like a scavenger hunt.

Lessons learned that when a friend is sick and not able to join in on the fun that he is remembered and missed! Each wanting to take a photo just for him.

Lessons learned that as friends: they want to help each other explore and learn!

Lessons learned that after learning can come the fun in the sun.

That even the smallest in the groups seeks to find new challenges!

Lessons learned that after some play the learning continues.

The questions asked and the answers given are just the beginning and forever of our lives in this journey.

The trip was not seamless as Luk is vocal about when things happen to him. In two situations that day Luk was pushed, shoved, and hit by children that were in groups from the schools. They were older and bigger. We talked that day and today about how Jesus was beaten and killed by people that were mean, jealous, and scared. We talked about how we may not understand why they treat us in the manner that they do, but that's important that we reflect Christ and what he did. LOVE.

I watched to see what Luk's responses were. In first incident at the otter exhibit, he was taken aback and just watched in shock that he was pushed. He pouted and waited. Then when the left, I nudged him to go back up to look. The second situation occurred in the line for him and one of his friends to touch the star fish and other sea creature. The entire group just pushed their way through even the adult with them. I think I stood in shock as this woman just watched as they did that Luk and said nothing. I waited to see Luk. Me just staying silent so that my anger towards them wouldn't come out. He said, "HEY! You pushed me!" The three out of the four boys just ignored and snickered at him, while one of the boys said, "I didn't see you." Luk just looked and pouted. That boy kept looking back at Luk while his other friends tried to turn him around and talk with him. He had a concern for the way Luk felt, while the others ignored the "little boy." As the adult looked on, I asked Luk and his friend to come on the other side of the stroller to separate the two groups. I made eye contact with the "chaperone" (whatever that means), and gave her a look of irritation and I'm sure the angered showed.

There were a few things that I thought about at this time:
(1) I am glad that I didn't have someone chaperoning my son during that time because I created a teaching moment when it was over. While the three of the boys got away with being mean to a five year old, and one boy not sure how to feel left with no answers.
(2) It gave me a time to observe how Luk will respond to conflict. I'm not sure if his reaction was best, but I am also not sure as to what I was suppose to say. I can only hope that is a correct correction, and that it was better than sitting idly by like the other adult in this story.
(3) Luk quickly forgot about the issues, and he had fun the rest of the day.

Sigh... it broke my heart to see Luk get pushed around. He did get hit in the face. What was the hardest thing about it was seeing those boys not care and that "an older person who accompanies young people at a social gathering to ensure proper behavior" was not doing her job. It made me notice that this year Luk would be going into Kindergarten and he would walking the halls with boys that age...  and "chaperones" that will not be doing their part.

I think it is important for me to note that this in NO means is saying that I want to shelter Luk, but rather that the situation and his learning after the situation was MY responsibility.

"They emphasized character, not conformity."

No, we will not conform to that behavior because that is what your friends are doing. No, we will not conform to the world and the way that others think we should act. No, we are not of this world! For Luk and Logan to know what it means to be of the world, they have to see it! We chose to NOT conform, but to grow and be like Christ. We are called to love. As I told Luk, Jesus loved those that killed Him. It may be hard; It may be painful, but Luk, you are to love those that are mean to you. Those boys will only see a boy that showed love and pain.

At the end of the day there was more character building learning than what this momma expected, but there was a wonderful amount learned beyond that for me. I end with Luk's scavenger hunt sheet:

Library Time

This past Thursday at Library Time, our lovely Mrs. Dee had the kids make Caramel Apples as their "craft." It was fun time of reading about pumpkins (which they carved a few weeks ago) and Halloween. It is a great time of fellowship with other moms, the children have fun doing these activities together, and afterward seeing the importance of looking for fun books to read.
Here is some of what happened during that time

The Tortoise beats the Hare

Right now, we are moving at tortoise speed this year. It does make me feel better that Luk is four years old, and I have noticed that each day we do school he does better. It is true that with his phonics his maturity makes it more tolerable. He is doing really well with math. I struggle with the balance of Logan being in the picture. He is very much a momma's boy, and this leads to wanting to grab and interrupt school. He is not satisfied doing something else. I have been trying to do school while he is eating, and that has helped. We don't do school during nap because Luk still naps and it is at the same time. So, we are trucking along just in slow mode.

We need have a great Co-op lesson last week about Harold and Purple Crayon. The kids read the book, watched the movie, made crayons, learned more about primary and secondary colors, and had purple snacks.