"Just Playing"

"Just Playing"  I've touched on this a bit before, but it is important to talk about it again.  And again.  And again.

My kids are "just playing" outside.  Right now.  Barefoot in January.  In the rain. 

Yep.  You read that right.  We live in the Los Angeles area of California.  It's 65 degrees out there right now. 

Am I worried they are going to 'catch their death of cold'?  Nope.  Know why?  They are running.  And jumping.  And swinging.  And PLAYING.  They are enjoying the feel of the drops on their skin.  They are dancing and singing about rain.  Yes, I know.  We don't get a lot of rain.  And that's why it's so much more fun for them! 

They are seeing how much rain it takes to fill their buckets.  They are watching the clouds migrate from white to gray to dark gray and back and deciding which ones will rain on them.   This is science!  It's learning about the cycles of life!  The kids noticed that when it was actually raining, the birds didn't seem to be flying around.  When I asked them why, they observed them sitting quietly on the lines or in the trees.  They came to the conclusion that the birds didn't want their feathers to get wet.  They found a wet chicken feather on the ground and realized it was a matted mess instead of fluffy like normal.  But they are "just playing."

When they DO get cold, guess what?  If they are a muddy mess, which they most likely will be, I will have them get undressed right outside the back door.  They will then hop into a nice warm shower which I will start while they are getting undressed.  And they will shower off and get warm and clean.

(They weren't a muddy mess and came in when they were cold, and went back out a few extra times to make sure the rain had stopped.  The rain lasted long enough to show drops on the ground, but not actively get things wet.  Typical CA rain.  LOL)

And then we will have a nicer evening overall.  Know why?  Because they PLAYED.  They got energy out.

By "just playing" my 6 year old figured out the monkey bars at the park the other day and went all the way across!!!  We made chocolate chip cookies to celebrate! 

"Just playing" today led to my kids making books and to my oldest son teaching the other kids how to write each others names.  How to fold the paper so it looks like a book.  Suddenly, my 3 year old was telling me  about the spine of the book and that he was the illustrator who draws the pictures.  But it was '"Just play" according to some people. 

Play leads to learning.  Play leads to friendships.  Play leads to more play which leads to life skills! 

Let your kids play!  And let them play for long stretches of time.  Not 10 minutes.  10 minutes is not a long stretch of time.  An hour is a long stretch of time.  More is better if you can swing it! 

Homeschooling leads to long stretches of play.  And I'm seeing wonderful things come out of it with my kids. 

And, for the record.  Play does not cancel out their official homeschool time.   We still have official work that we do every day.  The play happens after our work is done, but the play is what inspires the work many days! 

I'd love to hear about your children's learning through play experiences!  Comment or email me!!

Homeschooling routines.

Homeschooling routines change.  Frequently.  Some days, as soon as breakfast is over, I get Austin and Audrey to do their workbooks and be done for the day with 'official' homeschooling.  Because we are much more along the lines of Relaxed Homeschooling, homeschooling lasts from the minute they wake up to the minute they go to sleep.

Routine is good for children.  And we have certain things that ARE routine.  But workbook stuff?  Some days, like I said, it's right after breakfast.  Some days I wait until Audrey and Cody are down for naps to tackle harder things with Austin.  Some days they don't do workbook pages at all. 

Today, I knew it was supposed to rain.  So I had them all go outside for a while.  It was nice enough to be in short sleeves and they just went out and played for a good hour and a half.  This is also homeschooling.  They are learning how to play without gadgets and being entertained by something.  They are learning how to make up stories and engage in free play and use their imaginations.  I see kids in traditional school losing that opportunity for free play with shorter and shorter recesses and lunch times.  I see kids enrolled in extra curricular activities on a daily basis and then it's a rush to get homework done and eat dinner and get to bed.  That leaves very little time for self led play! 

Yesterday, Austin told me he had nothing to do.  Yeah... nothing.  I handed him a piece of paper and a marker and said, "Draw."  And he did.  And then told me he was bored again.  He didn't WANT to watch TV.  He didn't WANT to play the iPad.  The moment I said, "Fine.  Go outside!"  he did!  And he played outside, by himself for almost an hour.  A good part of that was on the swing, which he finally mastered.  (Meanwhile I was inside taking care of Audrey who had a fever and sore throat... but seems fine today.)

That free play is SO important for kids.  It helps them to assess what they have learned and absorb it into their brains and systems overall.  I know on the days my kids have MORE free play, they are MORE willing to do more workbook stuff.  Or other 'school' stuff.

Today, I got out the tangrams.  They loved them!  And that includes Cody!  He was able to do almost all of them as well!  And then I watched as Cody proceeded to sort the shapes into piles of the same.  This in itself was a child led learning activity.  Did I say, "Sort the shapes."  No.  He did it on his own, and was so proud to show me when he was done.  Did he do the whole box?  Nope!  And that's okay.  He did what he felt was necessary.  Austin learned that there were 20 puzzles in the pack and he put them back in order 1-20.  Again, another child led learning activity when he figured out they were numerical! 

Back to routines.  If I did the exact same thing every single day, they would get bored.  Do you like to do the exact same thing every single day?  Do you ever have a different breakfast, or a different flavor of coffee?  Do change your drive once in a while for a new view?  Do you have new projects at work?  If you answered yes to any of these, you also don't do the exact same thing every day.  Having a routine doesn't mean boring. 

Austin's routine is that he must complete 4 pages of math every day and we read 1 chapter of a chapter book every day.  If we miss a day, such as last week when Mark was home and we went on a picnic, we have to catch up.  Yep.  That sometimes means 6 pages a day until we catch up.  Know why?  It's important to show him that days off are fun and nice but that we need to stay on top of things and not slide back. 

Routine is also getting up, having breakfast, and getting dressed.  Part of that is sometimes getting to cuddle with me in bed.  Or getting ready to go the library for storytime.  We have bedtime routines and specific prayers we say together each night.   But the school routine changes every day.  There are very few days that we do something in the exact same order as the day before.  For us, this also is great to allow my children to go with the flow and anticipate change and be able to make transitions easily. 

Do you have any daily routines you'd like to share that work for you in homeschooling?  I'd love to hear about them in the comments below!

Healthy eating.

Here's just another reason why I'm loving homeschooling.  My kids eat healthier. 

There was a LOT more prepackaged stuff.  A lot more junk type food.  It's easier and faster to throw prepackaged stuff into a lunch box as you are yelling at the kids to hurry up and get their shoes on so you can get out the door on time!  Hurry up and get in the car so we are not late!  I don't want to have to pay the late fee!!!!!!!  (Yes, our school had a late fee.  No exceptions for morning drop offs.  $5 per kid if you were even 10 seconds past the 2nd bell.) 

This was my kids lunch today.

Yes.  Those are Doritos there.  But look at everything else.  A small veggie tray, yogurt, cheese, almonds.  And notice.  Do I have it on 3 separate plates?  No.  I serve a lunch like this family style.  Why?  Because they eat more!  And if they are eating healthy, why not let them eat more?  Notice the absence of juice or milk?  That's because they have access to milk and water all day.  Well, water for sure.  They get a cup of milk in the mornings and they can sip on it until it's gone which is typically lunch-ish time. They sip, they put it back in the fridge.  It works.  We have a water fountain outside so they can drink water whenever they want.  (Remember.  We live in the Los Angeles area.  My kids can play outside 350 days of the year.  The other 14, it's raining or too cold.)  Or they can ask for a cup and have water anytime.  They also have cups they keep in their beds for just water that they sip from all day long and I fill up once or twice.  It works.  :)

This is their lunch when they were done! 

Notice.  All the mini bell peppers are GONE.  That would be more Austin and Cody.  Especially Austin.  He eats them like candy!  If you offer him a red bell pepper his eyes light up as if you were offering him huge candy bar.  I could feed him just red bell peppers, cauliflower and broccoli and white rice and he would be a happy camper.  Being the mom I am though, I offer lots of choices and encourage him to eat the BBQ chicken with the homemade BBQ sauce on it.  Or the breaded baked pork chops.  Or the, well, you get it.  I encourage all my kids to try everything on their plates.  Most days I say, eat X amount of bites of Y because it's good for you.  The number of bites tends to coordinate with their age.  But not always. Back to the lunch.  The yogurts are GONE.  The cheese is GONE.  The almonds are GONE.  They ate some celery and a tiny bit of the other veggies.  But that's okay.  I just put this away and bring it back out tomorrow or the next day.  And trust me, you don't hear my kids asking for more food.  If they are hungry, they will eat it.  Notice the 'junk food' chips are still there.  Between the 3 of them, they maybe ate 1/3 of what I offered.  They chose the healthier stuff first.  

I also find that now that I"m homeschooling, I made better breakfasts.  Gone are the days of cereal or pop tarts every day.  I'm making turkey bacon and pancakes.  I made homemade Amish Chocolate Chip Banana Bread last night.  A whole loaf is already gone.  I do make Eggos many days.  But that's partly just because my kids like them.  Before, it was more along the lines of what can I make that won't get messy on their uniform because I don't have any more clean ones?  Or, What's the fastest thing I can shove into them to get them out the door because I don't want to be late and pay the late fee!!!!!?????

Don't get me wrong.  We eat our fair share of cookies and ice cream.  We go through stages where we have ice cream every night.  Or some sort of dessert.  And then we have many days when we don't.  Many more days of no dessert than we actually have it to be honest.  And sometimes, when my kids really want a treat, but I don't HAVE any cookies or what not in the house, 5 chocolate chips will satisfy them.  Why 5?  Because they can eat that many before they start melting in their hands!  That's why!

Ask anyone in my family and they will tell you my kids are really healthy eaters.  But then there's the baby.  Long story short, he really only likes things with a crunch or crispy texture right now.  Making it very difficult to get healthy things into him.  But I keep offering.  Every meal.  EVERY MEAL!  One day it will click that the peas are good.  Or that mashed potatoes are delicious.  Or that yogurt is yummy!   But for now, I clean most of that up off the ground and he eat the few crackers or chips I happen to have on my plate.  Or the crispy cooked spam.  Or cereal.  Lots and lots of cereal.  Or 1/4 of a container of 3rd stage baby food while I hold his hands down.  Poor guy.  He'll come around.  Eventually. 

Point Fermin

 We got to go on a family picnic on Tuesday!  Of all the days recently, it ended up being the ONLY day that was cloudy and overcast and hazy.  Oh well.  We planned this a few days before, so we went anyway!  We went to this little hole in the wall sandwich shop in San Pedro.  If you live in the LA area, you need to try it out!  It's called Busy Bee.  Best sandwiches ever.  Mark loves the pastrami.  I love the BBQ chicken.  Be warned.  Do not wear nice clothes.  They are MESSY... but delicious! 

 Anyway... we packed lunches for the kids and they wanted to eat on the blanket.  Fine by me!  They enjoyed their own little boxed lunches and we sat at the table over looking the bluffs at Point Fermin park!

 Why yes!  Audrey found a tree to climb!  She said it was the perfect tree for her!  She was so proud of herself for getting all the way up to that crook in the tree!  And look how happy she was!!  Cody tried a few minutes later.  He learned that when Mama says to wear jeans, he should wear jeans.  He got all scraped up on the insides of his knees.  But that's okay.  He's still good and was still running and chasing birds!

 Now Austin.  Wow.  This kid!  He probably stared at the waves crashing on the rocks below for over 30 minutes!  He was watching the ebb and flow of the waves.  We talked about how the tide is higher at times and lower at times. We discussed how waves are strong and how some of them are bigger with more energy and how some are smaller and less energy.  I introduced new science vocabulary and concepts that I will get to build on now! 

 We also talked about the gulls.  They are NOT seagulls.  There are many different types of gulls.  Trust me.  Two semesters of marine biology in college will teach you that.  LOL  This one here is a Western Gull.  California gulls also common here have yellow feet and ring billed gulls have a black ring around their beak.  Those are the three most prevalent here.  We also watched pelicans glide just above the surface of the ocean in search of fish to eat! 

All in all, a wonderful day with my family!  I hope for many more of these opportunities as we continue this homeschool journey! 

Lakeshore Saturday

Lakeshore has arts and crafts every Saturday. We had not been to one before. I got an email as a teacher that they were having a science fair today. I have decided to "do" something at least twice a week with the kids. Preferably free or low cost. This was one of this weeks activities. 

I was excited about this and didn't tell the kids much until we got there. They had 5 stations set up. Each station had multiple activities and science related fun. Once they completed at least one activity at each table they got a stamp on the back of their passports they got. When they got to the end they made catapults!  How much fun is that!? 

Did I mention this was FREE? Yes. Totally free minus  my gas. :)

The kids had fun and they had favorites of things they did. We also walked around their wharehouse of clearance items. Wharehouse people. Huge area of tons of marked down items. If a box is dented. Clearance. If a book is slightly bent. Clearance. If a box of 72,000 dice is missing 1, clearance. You get the idea. 

So I got this on clearance today. The Box had a small rip in it.  For $8 less than full price, I'm good with that.  Austin has been playing it for 40 minutes already. It combines science and math skills. Gravity and physics are at work here. Engineering is at play in the construction of this. Fine motor skills. Reasoning and problem solving. All from this one toy. 

Homeschooling doesn't have to be all about workbooks and complicated activities.  It can be as simple as a free science fair and some marbles. 

Happy weekend!!  Love and blessings to you all!

Learning how to read.

Austin wants to read, but says it's too hard.  "It's TOOOOOO  HAAAARRRRDDDD!"  I've heard it about a thousand times already.  It's frustrating because he is very bright.  Math and science are his strong areas.  He is adding double digits in math up to a total of around 30, in his head.  YES.  IN.  HIS.  HEAD.  Not on paper.  Not using fingers.  Okay, he uses his fingers a little, but not consistently and not obviously either.  But yeah.  To say math is a strong suit for him at 6.5 years old, would be an understatement.  He also LOVES earth sciences.  Natural sciences which we have naturally taught him.  How do things grow?  What do things need to live?  Plants?  Animals?  People?  What is healthy and what is not.  What does a Praying Mantis do to eat?  (Ask him when you see him next time about the Praying Mantis in the front yard.  Just be prepared to hear, in detail, how the Praying Mantis bit the head off the moth.)

But reading?  Ugh.

UGH.

UGH UGH UGH!

This is his struggle.

Someone in a homeschooling group I'm part of on Facebook mentioned this that she did with her daughter.  I thought, "oh why not?"

It's simple.  Truly.  Ready?

I had Austin take a small learning to read paperback book.  It was Pete the Cat.  Pete goes to the Beach.  Step 2 I believe. 

The directions were to circle every word he could actually read.  Guess what?  He did more than 1/2 the book, and circled more than 75% of the words!  He sounded some out as he went even!  He sounded out wave and he figured out beach with the pictures and put the sounds together with the word! 

OMGosh!  He was almost totally reading the book! 

I was able to tell him this too!  I believe my exact words were, "You are reading!  Not every word, but you ARE reading!"

And I meant every word of that.  He's reading the way we all do.  Sounding out sounds and letters that are familiar.  Putting it together with the pictures around it. 

Okay.  So he's not ready to read Harry Potter by himself.  That's okay! 

We DID start a chapter story today.  Mystery Mountain by Florence Laughlin.  It's OLD.  Like published in 1964 old.  OLD.  But it has mystery, adventure, horse back riding, gold digging, Indians, camping out, and all sorts of fun things in it.  What's not to like about it?  If I taught with you at Kidworks, and your kids were in my Bungalow class, they would know this book.  I read it to maybe 4 classes out there.  And each of them loved it.  I still enjoy it! 

Happy Monday! 

Happy New Year!

We've been busy!  Christmas is always busy.  But somehow this season seems busier than others.  Maybe it's because my kids are getting older.  I don't know. 

But, in the midst of the busyness, we've been having fun and learning! Austin is outside on the swings right now yelling, "Woo hoo!  Look how high I can go!"  He finally truly figured out how to swing and can now swing as high as the sky.  :)

Austin got two hot wheels track sets for Christmas.  He's learning cause and effect when he puts them together in different ways.  He's learning physics when they do what he "THINKS" it will do versus what it really does.  He's learning how much force is needed for the car to make a double loopdy loop versus just one.  Or if he can do the doulbe right after a curve, etc.

Austin also decided to make a seasons calendar for our house.  You know you need one.  He make 4 pages with pictures on each page signifying the seasons.  Then he made a grid for the dates.  Then he wrote the names of each season on the right page!  I did not ask him to do this.  He just did.  Does it matter that he phonetically spelled the seasons?  Nope.  Does it matter that there aren't enough squares in each grid for each day?  Nope.  He did it all by himself.  Then he asked met to help him staple it and we found the perfect place to tape it up.  For three days now, he's writing in the numbers of the day for January.  He's getting it without me drilling it.  LOVE THIS.

It's SNOWING in my house!  I taught Austin, and Grandma, how to make coffee filter snowflakes yesterday.  I think I have over 50 of them all over my house now.  Especially after Audrey and Cody woke up from nap an then he taught them how to make them!  YES!  HE TAUGHT THEM!  He taught them how to fold them properly and how to not cut all the way across.  Seriously.  My kids woke up and asked to make more!  Please send tape.  They have gone through 1.5 rolls of scotch tape already putting them up everywhere.

And then I read this today.  http://livingunabridged.com/4-things-children-dont-need/  LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this.  I can't love it more!  THIS is what I'm doing.  It's what I'm aiming to do every day.  There are days, like yesterday, that my kids didn't watch a single TV show.  They haven't watched today either.  And yet they are still happy.  They are playing outside after making more snowflakes this morning and they are happy!  I"m actually going to skip signing them up for gymnastics this month.  I'm thinking every other month will be just fine for them.  I don't have a choice with Cody for Tiny Tots.  They changed the rules and you MUST be 4 now to be accepted.  So, he now how to wait for Fall for that again.  And that's okay.  He can learn side by side with his brother and sister.

On the 'official' learning end.  I signed up for Scholastic.  As a home school teacher there are some great and very inexpensive resources there.  I ordered some charts and other learning supplies to help us in our daily teaching routines.  If you are a homeschooling family, looking into scholastic.com and sign up.  It's free and you get deep discounts!

Lastly, we said Goodbye to Smokey on New Year's Day.  Smokey was a senior Great Dane that belonged to one of my oldest friends, Cheryl.  When she had to move to an apartment and couldn't take him, we took him in.  He was almost 11.  When we woke up on New Year's Day, we knew he didn't have long.  I called Cheryl and she came down right away.  She had an hour or so with him before he died right here at home.  We did not shield the kids from this.  They saw him.  They knew he was dying.  We explained what was happening and they could watch from the other side of the gate should they want to.  Audrey did watch.  To the very end.  She saw Cheryl and I crying our eyes out.  He had only been with us since July, but he was part of our family and we loved him!  He was protective of us and was a great guard dog who taught Blitz where his place was.  My kids have prayed for him and they understand he's in doggie heaven which is the same as chicken heaven and papa bunny heaven.   Blitz is missing him and more lovey and whiny but I know he'll be okay in the end.  RIP Smokey!  Fly high and wait for your families at the pearly gates!  Play with all the puppies up there in doggie heaven!