Fun Week Ahead

This is one of our busiest weeks yet! We went to visit my mother in Dublin, GA and on our way back home we stopped off at the Tubman Museum and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame Museum in Macon. The Tubman Museum was informative and a great little find full of rich history and facts as well as beautiful artwork. The Hall of Fame was a lot of fun. The girls really enjoyed it and I learned that the B52s and R.E.M two of my favorite groups from the 90s are from GA and both inductees into the GA Hall of Fame.

Today we got to experience a real live Symphony from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. I was talking with a friend and we both realized that we never experienced a symphony and we're both over 30. Seems so crazy...the girls enjoyed it though and we learned about different types of instruments. Natasha said she wants to learn about Tubas but there were no books checked in the library.

We have another trip planted to see Charlotte Web in Atlanta courtesy of the Lexington Children's Traveling Theatre. Charlotte's Web is my all time favorite childrens book and thankfully my girls enjoy it as well.

I also got the girls into some activities. Nala is taking sewing and gymnastics and the other two are taking gymnastics and spanish. I'm so excited for them and can't wait for them to really see improvement.

I'm just glad to be getting out and about this week and push the books to the side for just a few days.

Time for Learning

I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning is an online educational program that can be used in many ways including as a homeschooling curriculum or afterschool tutorial. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

Sometimes I really think I'm crazy

I felt crazy yesterday. Crazy for taking 2 kids out of public school, who liked their teacher, their class, and school in general. They watch spanish videos in the morning after breakfast, run around the house fighting, yelling, playing, and whatever else they can do without hurting one another, Computer games for a bit, lunch, quiet time of reading, workbooks, drawing, nap (yeah well I try), and TV all evening. My oldest Nala, 9 years old, does more book work. She chose to stay in GCA and finish out the year but she has a lot of work to catch up on. She asked me why we don't do anything fun like the stuff they did in school. The mindless activities that I thought were not important, anything having to do with candy and contests, . I thought about what she said and tried to figure out a way to be creative at home with the limited resources. I have a few trips set up, once a week at least so far. I will implement Edible Art days and Awards for them since I see they liked that aspect of school.

Today was a good day, I thought. No book work, a play in the morning at the Aurora Theatre. Gary Grinkle's Battles with Wrinkles and Other Troubles in Mudgeville was a very cute play which 2 of my girls liked. Nina, Ms Everything is Boring, didn't like it she says...even though I saw her crack a smile a number of times.

I did get a Science Experiment book. It was recommended by a good friend of mine from NY who homeschools her 6 yr old and 3 yr old.

I hope I feel normal tomorrow.

2 Days of Traffic Hell..

Well my bad, I drove out to the city. In my defense I was running late as I always am and if I took the train all the way out there I would have missed the show. On Thursday, my friend got us tickets last minute to see The Ohmies. It says for kids 8 and under, but my 9 year old really enjoyed some parts of it. I missed most of it because since I drove out there I had to go feed the meter. When I first went out, I remembered the street I parked out but I felt totally lost all of a sudden and I forgot where I parked. If someone saw my face and saw me walking half way down the street then back the other way, then back the opposite direction again they probably would have thought something was wrong with me. I finally found it but jeez, I felt so silly. As soon as it was over I rushed out to get to the car. My step father lived up in Harlem so I called him and we made a quick stop over to see him. I didn't get to see him when we came up in August so it was a nice visit. We left around 4p, and finally after all the traffic we got home around 630p. I could not believe it took so long.

Then fast forward to today. I had a plan to get out around 11am to get to Sony Wonder Technology Lab for our scheduled reservation of 1230pm. I did the laundry as soon as I got off of work at 730a and although the kids were actually ready on time, before I knew it, the time said 1120a and there was no way we were gonna make it to the city by 1230p. So I decided to drive part way. I parked over in Long Island City which is a hop, skip, and a jump from Manhattan. We took the train 3 stops to midtown and even though we missed our reservation at 1230p, most likely due to the cold, there was no line and we were able to walk right in. It was such a fun, cool, place that the kids really enjoyed. There were a lot of goofy teeny bobbers hanging around but not too bad. We had 5 minutes of "doing the news"and reading from a tele prompter and reporting about polar bears, video games, making movies, and programming a robot. On our way to the train I realized we were walking past FAO Schwartz.

I have never been so I had to take the kids to look even if I couldn't buy anything. Much to my surprise there were quite a few under $20 items, and plenty of ridiculously priced items such as the huge stuffed dog for $100 and the $250,000 Big Piano from the movie "Big", a Barbie Foosball table for $25,000 (only 10 were made) and a Barbie collectible Gold Label doll for $150.

We headed back around 430p. The traffic was a little better than yesterday, we made it home by 6p but the kids were upset it was too dark to go outside and play in the snow again. Well there is talk about yet more snow this weekend. I really hope we make it out of here on Monday. I will always love NY but I can't wait to get back to my home in GA.

Finally we get out...

I wanted to make it out somewhere before the snow came on Wednesday. So we didn't get to Rockefeller Center for iceskating. I was really disappointed for that but we'll do it one of these days We went to Queens World Ice at Flushing Meadow Park for Ice Skating and we had a ball. I haven't been ice skating since I was about 7 or so. My girls were scared they wouldn't know how to skate but I reassured them that they would be really good at it. They can roller skate and are generally active kids so i had no doubts they would be skating all over by themselves. It took them a little bit to get warmed up but once they did no one wanted to hold hands or the sides anymore. I wish I got better pictures. We weren't allowed to take pictures, so the ones I got were all of them hanging out on the sides...and then later we were having so much skating forgot to try again. We went with a friend of mine and her two girls. Despite all the screaming teeny boppers hanging out, I didn't hear any foul language and the music was clean yet popular. The girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves and I was happy I could get them out for some fun. Later we went to visit a the old neighborhood...just for a little. It was late so we didn't spend too much time but I wanted to see them just in case the snow kept us in the rest of our stay here.

I borrowed my friend's

Moby wrap thinking, oh I can use this

when I take the kids ice skating but

thankfully hubby didn't have to work and

he stayed with Lil Man.

A New Year

Everyone will be officially homeschooled starting NOW. I need to file my letter of intent while I'm here so the school will stop sending letters about the kids missing more than the acceptable amount of days.



On another note: It's a new year and we're in New York, snow on the ground, just made it in after a snowstorm. I want to try to make it to the following museums that we missed in 2008 before we left: Sony Wonder Technology Lab, Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, and Children's Museum of Manhattan, All Free! I love NY, really!

Indecisive

The 2 girls who are in public school were home this week for thanksgiving vacation. We didn't do much and did not do any "school". We did read every day so at least like I felt like we did something. I did work with Nala on math. Hubby and I were trying to decide if we should officially bring the girls home now instead of waiting for january. I don't know what to do with everyone all day right now. We don't have money for any sports or classes now, I feel like the girls will be bored watching tv, which is not what I want either. I want their days to be filled with interesting and fun moments, the kinds of things that capture their attention at school. I just don't know how I can compete.

Starting Over

Here I am 2.5 years later. I came across my blog by accident, forgot I even started it but wishing I had continued with it. I don't know if I will but i wanted to try this again.

Where do I begin? Well we're in GA now, came here as a homeschooling family, loving it and starting new however things were not what we expected. The homeschooling community seemed so different and somewhat secluded than what we were used to in NY. In addition, we chose to live in a suburb community away from the city, 30 miles to be exact, away from everything it seemed. There were no free museums from what I found, a few free days but nothing like we had in NY. My girls didn't have any friends like they were used to. We tried to find our place here. The girls joined a homeschooling girls scout troop and there were park days....but it just wasn't enough. About 6 months into our life here I found out about a program called GVA, GA Virtual Academy. Basically School at Home....Books, manipulatives, and a computer is provided to students. Everything is laid out for you. No curriculum planning. It was great...or so I thought. Maybe a little too structured. Nala enjoyed it but Nina didn't like it. It was "fake school" to her. They missed the camaraderie between her NY friends. I just didn't know how to make it work, how to keep them busy, or how to give them the socialization that they craved and needed. That September 2009 I registered them at school....and it wasn't so bad. I worked a lot of overtime, had time for myself throughout the day, got some sleep, paid off some bills. The girls seemed to enjoy school, did well at their academics and enjoyed extra curricular activities such as ballet, tumbling and cooking classes.

Fast forward to May 2010, Nala, now 9 years old, said that she wanted to be homeschooled again. She was not being bullied or harassed at school. She wanted to continue the adventures we had our first year with amazing trips and easy days. I was surprised, excited, and scared. I was due with baby #4 in July and didn't know how i would homeschool her. In addition, my husband was back and forth between GA and NY for work so I didn't know what was going to happen. How could I homeschool just 1 child? What about my other 2 in school? Could I really go from no children at home to 4 at home? All of these questions however I decided to just start off with her and see where it went after that. We did GVA again which is now GCA--GA Cyber Academy. It was still very structured and was way more books this time around but it's a big help to me. After I work my 8 hr shift, I give Nala a list of things to do, maybe 2 hrs of stuff. She takes breaks in between by reading or having a snack. I take a 2 hr nap with my 4.5 month old son. When I get up we review her work and start new lessons. It may vary with me staying up for a little first and do a lesson or two and then going to sleep. Either way Nala works independently and does very well on her own.

Our experience isn't going quite how I wanted. I'm still having a problem with the socialization. We don't have money for activities right now. We did re join the group from 2 years ago but she still feels like a newbie and no one there is quite her age. I guess this is still a work in progress......we've done some trips but not like I want. I want more of the museums, art, history, and music that we were able to incorporate before. Have I once again made a mistake with this? Now my other 2 kids....I've brought up the topic of them coming home with us and they still want to be in school. They enjoy it. I've been thinking of what I can do. I have some ideas.

So with my husband finally home permanently and on my side, we have decided to bring the 2 girls in public school, Nina and Natasha home in January. We will have money for a few classes for them and are building a friendship with another homeschooling family their age.

I really think I can do this and I really want to make this work. Why blog? This is for me and my kids. To document our adventures in learning and to show them how much I love them.



Nala won 3rd place in her first Science Fair.
The Effects of Salt on the Temperature of Boiling Water.

April 16, 2008

So I finished my quarterly report and sending it off tomorrow. I had Nala tested in March using a CAT 5 test. I wanted to get an idea how she's doing. I felt like I wasn't doing enough however she tested 96% and on a grade level 3.6, her math was low, she did not finish the section....looking back I already knew this: I knew she was having a problems with math but we've been working on it daily. I knew she was well beyond first grade reading level because of the books she reads on her own. Nala has definitely improved with math. We have moved on to double digit addition and subtraction and she's doing well.

I've been working with Nina on reading and writing letters and numbers.

I just recently began working with Natasha on counting and colors.

Even though we don't do social studies, history, and geograpy in a structured way like I hear others do we read alot and that's where most of history comes from. Every now and then I may find a lesson on science and incorporate it into a history lesson or geography. I keep comparing myself to other parents and comparing my kids t0 other kids thinking we have to be similar to someone else but it's really what works for our family. My kids are great and doing really well in this homeschooling environment and I think I'm doing a good job teaching my kids.

MARCH 9, 2008

We officially pulled Nina out of preschool last week. So we're homeschooling 3 kids! wow....busy. I'm just trying to keep Nina really busy with activities and trips. She was used to doing alot in school and I know she really enjoyed it. With the activities that gets us out of the house 3 times a week I felt limited by some trips because it would end later in the day and I couldn't stay out as long because Nina needed to be picked up from school. I just wanted everyone to be together. I've been at this homeschooling thing for about 5 months now so although I don't consider myself a pro I am comfortable with attempting to school everyone. So Natasha isn't doing much, I'll read to her and pretty much let her watch some dvds while I'm working with the other two. I just haven't figured out a way to get her involved. She only sits still for a few minutes. I did pull out some of the Leap Frog learning dvds so now at least I can feel like she's really doing something. She does know how to count to 10 and 1-5 in spanish (Thanks Dora!)

I got Nina a kindergarten workbook that has reading, writing and math concepts and she really is enjoying it. We set up a space in the basement usually and I tell Nina to go through the book and pick out what she wants to do. Honestly she knows her letters, numbers and colors and shapes. The only next step right now is reading. We usually practice for about 10-15 minutes a day. I have these really simple books that present site words all thoughout the book. She even knows about 5 site words: I, go, no, like, cat...I think that's it for now. I try to assist her with writing her numbers since that's about the only other thing she can work on without me standing over her.

While Nina's doing her workbook Nala and I will do something....today we did some work, yes on a Saturday! We have been on trips the past 2 days and I wanted to be sure she knew the spelling words we've been doing all week (she does) as well as review time and the circulatory system. She's been interested in learning about Bill Cosby so for the past month (slowly but surely) we've been reading a book I have. After we take turns reading a couple of paragraphs (it's really a long book and we just highlight some important parts) Nala will write a few sentences about what we read. Today I pulled up some comedy, interviews from Bill Cosby on you tube as well as shorts from the Cosby show with Olivia (Raven Symone) Of course they loved this! They were laughing and making comments. I wish I thought of that sooner....you tube isn't so bad! We've been using it as a learning tool from time to time, even finding out how to play a german game we were researching.

Tuesday January 29, 2008

Monday was our Foreign Lands Club meeting. Nala decided she wanted to present games that children play in Germany. I was so proud of her, she presented it pretty much all by herself, with an introduction and description of how to play the games. They were actually really fun games, maybe we'll play them sometime.

At this class was the first time in 3 months that Nala really started talking to someone there. She asked to sit next to her and then I saw them talking after lunch. We were also able to stay to hang out and play outside which I'm sure helped. Nina was with us today and her and Nala talked and played with a couple of girls their age. I was really happy because it really seemed difficult getting to know people here but I realize it just takes time.

Today I tried an unschooling approach. Nala helped me clean the house. She enjoys cleaning the wall mirror (I never enjoyed that as a kid) and she liked cleaning the dust off of my walls as well as the windows. Both her and Natasha vaccumed as well. Nala helped out a little with cleaning the playroom and decided she wanted to write after coming across a story she wrote in school. She asked me to print out some lined paper with a box at the top so she could write a story. She sat down at the table in the playroom and wrote a story, asking me to spell words for her her once a while, I did as I finished up throwing out junk in the playroom. After lunch she watched tv while skating around the basement. She's been practicing skating backwards and doing really well. She asked me what am and pm meant and I besides just am for morning and pm for afternoon/night I really didn't know much more. So we looked it up on wikipedia and we talked about the definitions. (FYI: am, ante meridiem is latin for before noon and pm, post meridiem is latin for after noon. I didn't know that. cool. another plus for homeschooling. Even I learn things too.) After Nina came home from preschool, they skated some more, colored and drew while watching tv and we played monopoly jr before bed. (which is a really great game. It's fun and the kids get money they can count. Even Nina counts with the game. Natasha just grabs the dice and tries to throw it across the room)

I really didn't make a big deal about the tv and I will try to relax more with it and see what happens. I've been talking to others and reading blogs all weekend and everyone is saying tv will hit the back burner as the kids see that I'm not keeping it from them. In addition, I'm hoping they will find more interesting things around the house. Besides I have no problem with the actual programming. I love the Disney Channel. I even read to them, Nala asked to read and I almost let her but I realized I missed reading to them. Nala likes to read to everyone and I've been letting her but I decided we can all read books to each other.

Unschooling and some other thoughts...

I've been thinking about different styles of schooling. My style seems to be more electic, not like traditional school because I try to really allow Nala to decide the plan for the day however not like unschooling because we have a weekly spelling list with daily "tests", sentence writing and repeat writing of words. I read something recently on someone else's blog which is what made me re think styles again.



I love the whole idea of unschooling and child led learning. I have a general idea of what I would like to do with Nala but if we do other things instead I'm ok with that.....now (at one time I was not ok but I find myself getting more comfortable with it). I like taking our time on things such as the Charlottes Web lapbook and the human body lapbook we're working on.

What my problem has been some days is when Nala decides she doesnt want to do anything but watch tv all day long. I offer some reading time on some of her favorite books, perhaps playing a game she likes but the response to all are no. She wants to watch tv. How do I handle that? How would an unschooler handle that? Do they not have days like these?



I don't like to fight about doing work. I don't like to force my daughter to do work. If she doesnt want to do something I try to find out something she does want to do and go with that. I don't see any point in making her do something just because I want her to do it because she won't get anything from it if I force her. Learning is something I want to be done with enthusiasm and with love not with force and threats. However on these days that I mentioned where everything I suggest is brought down with a I don't want to do that, I want to watch tv, I feel like my only reaction would be "well you need to do something so lets see what that will be"...to allow her to watch tv all day long would not be a good decision in my opinion.



I spoke with a friend who is pretty much like me, electic, and she suggested that I should have Nala write about what she watches; what happened in the show, what problems came up and how problems were solved. It seemed like a good idea because instead of just zoning out in front of the tv (and helps me to feel like she's actually doing something on days she doesn't want to do anything) she's learning writing skills and practices handwriting. I mentioned it to an unschooler who thought it was a bad idea and could lead to resentment on my daughter's part. Nala actually enjoyed it the first few times. There have been a few times when she said she didn't want to do it but for the most part there didn't seem to be any problems. She does have times she can just watch tv for enjoyment so maybe that's why there haven't been more problems then there could have been.



My goal when I started homeschooling was to make this a really amazing experiencing for Nala. To allow her the decision to play an active role in her learning and present her with choices and activities that would interest her. I would try my best to go with her learning style and do the things that best fit what she liked. For instance, she told me she doesn't like doing math sheets. That was good to hear because I didn't like forcing her to do them. So I found that she liked to play Scrabble, dice games and "store" instead, so that's how we do math and it works for her, therefore it works for me and she's learning, I know she is.



I think for the most part she is learning what she needs to learn. I'm comfortable with allowing her to choose what she wants to do for the day, the week etc. however still trying to decide how much influence I should have when giving her the freedom of her education, afterall she's only 6.

SATURDAY JANUARY 26

The Sweet Honey in the Rock concert was really good. It was my first time seeing them live. I wish we had closer seats, I wish it lasted longer than an hour but I'm just so happy I got the see them. The kids got bored a little, I think because they were so far away but you could see they were interested every now and then. They sung along and clapped. It was a great experience. Sweet Honey's new album Experience 101 is for the kids with lots of soulful rhythms and history, definitely something we can use in our daily learning.

Thursday I met up with a new friend, someone I met in a homeschooling group. I brought over my 3 girls with her 2 boys and did "school". My friend has a different style than me, much more like traditional school. It wasn't bad, just different. She speaks Spanish and did songs, days of the week, colors all in Spanish with the kids. I really enjoyed that part and realized that although I don't speak Spanish fluently I know the basics and I can do the same thing with Nala because she is very interested in learning to speak Spanish. Originally I had something set up with another Spanish speaking mom to get together a couple times of week to have informal spanish lessons with her children however she was sick this week. We'll see if I make it out to see her.

Nala shared here Charlotte's Web lapbook that we've been creating while learning about spiders and pigs. She really does know alot about spiders and I know that came from her interest as well as taking alot of time reading and learning about spider body parts, pig body parts and some other facts.

Friday we finally made the recorder lessons at the Y. Nala really enjoyed it however she really needs to practice more because what I see happening is her not reading the music. I saw her writing the notes in with a pencil and I encouraged her to learn to read the music. I told her it will get easier once she practices every day but by writing the notes in is not a good idea because she won't learn how to read it. She listened and seemed to understand. I'll have to make more of an effort to remind her about practicing.

Mad Science/Recorder lessons

I was so happy that I got in on the Mad Science/music class. I was originally on the waiting list but actually got in. We went Monday and Nala had a great time. She learned about what chemistry is and did a couple of projects. It's a monthly class for the next six months.

After that, a music teacher came in to teach the kids how to play the recorder. We've been practicing on our own here and there and I signed Nala up for a class at the Y but we have yet to make it!

The teacher was ok, a little off beat in my opinion but was really able to get the kids involved. Nala was very attentive and very interested. She wants to take piano. We have a keyboard that would work for her to practice on. I played the piano when I was in college and the professor suggested I get one with similar spacing of a piano so it wouldn't throw me off when I practiced with the two. There's someone in one of our homeschooling group that offers great prices so March is when we're thinking about starting because her classes at the Y would be over. She said she wants to continue swimming so we'll see if we can make it work schedule wise as well as financially.

Hall of Science

We met up with a group at the Hall of Science. The kids love it. It's such a great museum and so close and east to get to. The Cyberchase exhibit was still up. It's a great exhibit that allows the kids to play math games. It's fun and very interactive. We're members and go every couple of months or so.

We missed Nala's recorder lessons for the 2nd week in a row.

Nala said she was ready to start on Ancient Greece so that's what we did this morning before heading out. We're using History Pockets which I think is great for kids her age. She is basically making lapbooks on each civilization we learn about. I have a really great history book that was recommended from a website. I can't think of the name of it but it's really great to support whatever historical concept you're teaching because of the colorful pictures and details.

January 13, 2008

We went to a program called Start with Art at the Met on Thursday. I kept Nina home from preschool and we all took the express bus out to the city. I met up with another mom and her 2 boys, 5 yrs old and 2 yrs old. The kids have met before so they get along quite well. The program was really great. We sat in a room and talked about King Louis the XIV and looked at the different art around the room. I loved how she really broke things down and asked the kids questions about what they saw, colors and pictures and materials and how they felt. It was a great program for preschoolers up to age 6. Normally I heard they have the kids do sketches of artwork however that day was special because a woman came in to play her recorders. Nala was really impressed since she is learning the recorder. They were big and she played some really nice music with them. I never knew the recorder could be so beautiful. After the hour long class we walked around on our own. The MET is not very child friendly. It seems I heard don't touch from about every single guard there. I understood however it was quite annoying. I would love to do the program twice a month. I just don't feel like getting out into the city more often than that. I did hear Brooklyn museum has a similar program so perhaps I will check that out.

The other weekend we went to see Hansel and Gretel at the movies. The MET opera is offering a chance to see opera at the local movies. It's a recording of a live show so you see and hear the audience, there are behind the scenes which was great and something you usually can't see at the live show and it's cheaper but you don't seem to miss anything. It was in English but there were captions (I found I could not understand it much without reading) It was something different. I planned on just taking Nala but then Nina woke up right when we were leaving so I took her too. They said they didn't enjoy it that much but I think they liked it ok because later I heard them talking about it, laughing about something Hansel was doing. I really enjoyed it. I asked Nala if she wanted to see Macbeth by Shakespeare and she said she did because she recognized Shakespeare's name. I saw there is a book called Macbeth for kids so I will get it and plan to take her (and Nina if she wants).

I'm glad I'm really getting to experience the city a little. There are several more things I would love to expose Nala too. Just have to make a list and do it.

January 5, 2008

It's been sometime since I posted. I feel like we've done so little lately. Maybe due to the holidays, I don't know. We're learning spider facts so Nala will be able create a special page in her lap book just for spider facts. One learning technique I've been trying is having her jump rope and remember spider facts to a beat. So I'll say "
What do you call a baby spider" in a beat while she jumps and she answers "Spiderlings, spiderlings". Even Nina, my 4 yr old has been remembering facts so it's been great.

Spelling is going well. I will definitely stick with what has been working for us. Nala has been learning how to spell 5 words a week. She alphabetizes them, puts them in sentences and writes them 3 times. We'll have a spelling test which will include all the words she has learned (at least once a week and always before adding new words. ) We've gotten through a good portion of the 2nd grade spelling list. We're also working on grammar and handwriting. She has some bad habits that I'm trying to break her out of...for instance writing capitals (they are not nouns) in the middle of sentences . I have a grammar book where she corrects the punctuation and she really enjoys that but I find that I have to look at the answers to check because I don't always know what's correct.

We've been lacking with Science but I hope to begin some lessons on the human body this week.

Math is so so. Nala seems to be just starting to understand the whole concept of one up and one down. There's not as much hesitation as there used to be when I ask her the sum or difference. Still trouble with basic 2+3 and even more with subtraction but she knows 2+2 and 3+3 and other doubles so I'm guessing it's about consistancy and repetiveness. Nala understands measurements, fractions and we're actively working on roman numerals.

Our schedule is full: Swimming just started once a week, recorder lessons once a week, Mad science/music lessons once a month, Country and State study once a month and recently I was able to arrange with a member of a homeschooling group some free spanish lessons twice a week with her kids.

This year I hope to add a little more history and science as well as some more math. I want her to catch on with this math and feel more comfortable with it. It would be great to being integrating my 2 yr old (she'll be 3 in a couple of weeks) in on things, she may be ready because now she is more of a disturbance.

December 23, 2007

I can't believe it's the end of tthe year and only 2 months since I've been officially homeschooling.

We've been doing so much it's hard to keep up.

We visited the Museum of Natural History today. Nala won tickets from a contest with the library last month. We got free admission into the museum and admission to a special exhibit. We chose the Space show. It was great. The whole museum is just amazing. The creations are so real and life like. It's just too big to do in one day. All the kids seemed to enjoy it. In the African exhibit Nala recognized the Nile River and knew it ran through Egypt. We've been learning about Ancient Civilizations in Egypt so I was glad to know that she remembered the river.

I'm making more connections with groups and such and therefore adding more activities to our calendar. I'm trying to keep trips at 2 days a week and now with swimming and recorder weekly, some monthly geography (2 country presenations clubs and 1 state clubs), monthly science group and possible a weekly history class it's just getting really busy. I may need to pick and choose some activities so it won't be too hectic. I just want Nala to be around the same kids weekly in some group so that she will make some friends. I know this will take time and just hopefully through joining different things she'll meet people.

Our homeschooling experience is really very good. Homeschooling has really brought out the best in my daughter. She carries her notebooks around with her to write and draw. While we are reading (currently Charlotte's Web) she's noticing the language being used and most importantly the spelling words I'm giving her she notices in the book. It really helps with ehr learning the words faster and learning new words that come up often. She liked school, she has her days where she still wants to go back but when we talk about all of the wonderful experiences we've had so far homeschooling, the freedom she has in what she learns and all the creative ways she can express her learning, she has told me how much she loves homeschooling and does not want to go back to school.

Although we still do "school" how she has learned and feels comfortable with, (She still calls her spelling list word study like school) she has more control over what she does each day and how she does it. She doesn't have to do math sheets how she did in school because she doesn't like sheets. Instead we play scrabble or dice games to learn math. I found a grammar book that she loves where she corrects the sentences and does a bar graph at the end to show her progress. I read with her or to her sometimes and we discuss what we read. Her vocabulary is growing and she is doing alot of hands on learning, because I know this is how she learns best.

I'm looking forward to another year of continued success and more learning for both of us.

What I'm learning about Nala and Math....

She doesn't like Math but she seems to do better when it's in a game form, anything other than worksheets/book form. We haven't done math worksheets since our 3rd week and we're in 6th week now.

We have played Scrabble, Candyland, some games from Family math, store, where she has counted through keeping score or something like that. She did well for the most part however she has her moments where I believe she's being difficult due to boredom or maybe ready to go to bed. She will call out the wrong answer on something I deem easy and totally make me feel like I'm failing as her parent and teacher. I try not to push her but I want to make sure she either really knows the answer or really doesn't know the answer so I know what to do. I'm ready to move on to some other sort of math and I think she is too.

I just need to know that I'm doing my job and helping her with her weaknessess.

Trips and other things

Fri November 30 I met up with the group that I met with at the Native American Museum. It was so nice. Nala and I did a presentation on our culture and brought homemade cranberry sauce. There were alot of vegan, vegetarian and desserts. It was a really nice group of women and I'm looking forward to seeing them later this month. Nala enjoyed seeing other homeschoolers like herself and that's what I loved.

Saturday December 1, I took the girls to the Scandanavia House in Manhattan. I was really excited about going for some reason. It was nice but the lunch was not kid friendly and expensive although the soup did seem like real Scandanavian soup (real chicken breast, quinoa, some sea vegetables and pretty bland) The kids got to play in this beautiful room painted with caves, volcanos and mountains...like Iceland. The had a ball dressing up and in another room it was a big play room, blocks, books and a train set. We spent 2 hrs there just playing, talking with other parents and caregivers. I bought a couple of beautiful traditional Scandanavian ornaments (anywhere I go it has to be traditional and true from the place I visit). The express bus was perfect...fast and comfortable.

Tues December 4 we met up with some families from a group I belong to at the Hall of Science. I loved meeting new homeschoolers as well as show Nala that homeschoolers are all over the place and no need for her to feel different. It was extremly crowded at the Hall of Science which was new to me and I was disappointed. Before becoming members we would go on Fridays from 2-5 for free hrs and it was empty. I'm still ok with spending the money on the membership. We can get into some other free places throughout the city, long island and nj so it was a good investment.

I registered the family at the YMCA. Now Nala can take swimming classes and I can work out.

Other good news is I was on the waiting list for a class and was called to participate: Nala will be doing a really cool hands on science class monthly along with learning the recorder. Although we started and do it from time to time, its not regular when we started off.

I think we're done planning winter activities. I have a couple of trips planned for January but between swimming and science and music she'll be plenty busy.