Reading Breakthrough!

(graphic courtesy of  The Graphics Fairy )

This morning, my daughter discovered she can read some of her own books by herself.  She was so excited!  It's like someone flipped a switch - the little girl who hated reading and writing time is now becoming a reader.

Not to be overly negative about the public school, but I shudder to think what kind of a situation she would be in if we had let her finish the year.  When we took her out of public school just before Easter, she had a reading level of 10 (not sure what scale they were using) and they expected the "top dogs" (the teacher's words) to be at level 16 by mid-June.  It took her from September to April to struggle up to 10 and in order to not be overwhelmed going into Grade 2, she would have to try to get up 6 more levels in 8 weeks.  I don't even want to think about the stress.  The teacher also told me that they didn't hold kids back unless "the parents really insisted."

We really tried to take a more relaxed approach to schooling when we brought our daughter home.  We do have a general schedule and an approximate time frame, but no two days look the same.  And we're not perfect of course!  However, she is getting all the one-on-one attention she needs and I know what she is learning and reading all the time.  We now have time to have a good, cooked breakfast and devotions together every morning; time for activities, outings, and working together when we're not having "school time"; and time for family read-alouds in the evening.

Homeschooling is really a lifestyle.  In order to make life-long learners, you have to be able to show your kids how to use the information they are being taught.  If you took a recipe for chocolate cake, showed your kids the photo of the finished product, read out the list of ingredients, explained the steps and made sure they understood every term - even if you did all that you still wouldn't have a chocolate cake!  They might understand the process to make the cake but they haven't made one.  Another example could be geometry (by the way, I am not strong in math so I dread the day when I have to teach something I'm not good at!) .  You explain the concepts, they do the assigned problems, they comprehend the subject, but they have no idea how to use it in real life!  It's just "schoolwork" to them.  However, it's not something invented to torture people's brains with - it's useful!  Carpenters, landscapers, surveyors ... all kinds of jobs use this kind of math everyday.  You not only have to teach the concepts, you have to teach why you need to know these things.

"Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire." - William Butler Yeats


Thanks again for visiting today and I would love to read any comments you might have on this or any of my other posts!

Sheets to Swiffers

Another frugal household idea for you today.  I recently saw how a woman had used an old chenille sock and some knit (t-shirt) scraps to make a washable, reusable Swiffer cloth.  She was a sewing whiz and while I liked the idea, I can't sew (and I don't have a sewing machine).  I have in the past just attached a rag to my Swiffer to use when I didn't have the proper cloths.  While (trying) to declutter my house, I got an idea.

I don't know if "Brunswick Sheets" or "Health Sheets" are common in other areas, but they are quite popular here.  They are basically polar fleece sheets and they are so incredibly comfortable!  I have used them for about ten years and just love them.  They can be quite pricey but the quality is excellent and they should last for many years.  (By the way, these are my own opinions on these products and I have no connections with either company!)

Anyway, back to the Swiffer.  My oldest set of fleece sheets (the first ones I got 10 years ago!), finally had the elastic go on them and I couldn't keep them on the bed.  I hung on to them for a while and finally put one to use today.

First of all, I laid out the sheet on the table and cut the corner seams out so all the fabric would be flat and easier to work with.

Next, I put the Swiffer on the sheet to figure out approximately how big to cut the pieces.

You will want to have enough overhang of the fabric to tuck into the little grabby things (my very technical term!) on top of the Swiffer head.

Then you just cut your piece of fleece sheet to the needed size (notice how terribly even my piece is?).  Use fabric shears for the best result and least amount of annoyance.  ;)

With the fluffy side down, place your Swiffer on the top and attach the piece of fleece (using the little grippy things).

Tada - reusable Swiffer sweeper cloths!  I didn't use the middle of my fitted sheet and I still got 6 cloths for the Swiffer.  (By the way, I cut up the middle for "regular" rags.  The outside edges were the fluffiest and I thought they would work better with the Swiffer.)

I'm sure you could use other worn out linens or articles of clothing (like towels, socks, or t-shirts), as long as the fabric has a bit of texture and absorbency.  I'm planning on using my cloths both wet and dry and tossing them in the laundry when I'm finished with them.  A really great ("green" and frugal) cleaner to keep mixed up in a spray bottle is 2 cups of water, 1/2 cup white vinegar, and about a tablespoon of dish soap.  You can just squirt it on the floor and use your Swiffer with its reusable cloth for quick clean ups.

Excuse me, I have to go clean my floor now...Thanks for visiting today!

Floral Cards

Just a couple of cards I made recently.  They are are pretty simple, but they came out quite well.  The base is an ivory card blank (5" x 6.5" folded).  The layers are cream cardstock ($ store!) and shabby floral patterned paper (not positive where this is from, but I know it is a download - I will keep trying to find out where I got it).  The tags were cut on my Cricut using the George and Basic Shapes cartridge.  The geranium stickers are some more from my stash of old Rebecca Sower stickers.  The ribbon is just narrow Spool O' Ribbon from Michael's (I think that's where I got mine - it's seems to be available at quite a few different stores and it's inexpensive) in burgundy and sage.  I inked the edges of the tags with burgundy and pink ink (Anna Griffin Rose Collection by All Night Media).  I also used the burgundy ink with the "Happy Birthday" stamp ($ store again).  The ecru lace trim is from the sewing section of the dollar store.

By the way, I stuck these cards into my lupins to take the photos.  They are almost ready to come out in bloom (another 1-2 weeks maybe).

And, just for fun, here is Bentley relaxing in the kids' sand box.  I think he looks pretty comfortable.

Thanks for visiting!

Field Trip!

We got to go to Charlottetown for a visit to the racetrack this week.  This field trip was set up through the homeschool group.  I just have to say it is so wonderful to be in an area where there are so many homeschoolers.  After living in an area (for a year) where there were no homeschoolers, it is simply amazing to have so many people to do things with.  I also really appreciate the Charlotte Mason group.  I have only been to one meeting so far but it was a real boost for me.  I am also thankful for a good friend who lives less than 10 minutes from me and is also a homeschooler.  I could go on and on with the blessings that have been given to me - but on to the report!

We were taken to the barns by a guide and the kids got to meet a real racehorse.  He was a beautiful bay three year-old named Iceman.  All the kids who wanted to could pat his nose.  That was really exciting for my son and he was quite calm (I had given them the lecture about not screaming, shrieking, or jumping around the horses earlier).  My daughter was able to contain herself (she tends to be quite nervous around horses).  Then the guide took us into the "museum" where they have some harness racing memorabilia, photos and information on different records, drivers, trainers, owners and horses.  All very interesting!  (It helps that I love horses!)  We were also able to watch some of the horses being jogged around the track, which the kids found really neat.  Standing down near the fence, you hear the hooves pounding, the horses breathing, and the sulky wheels turning.  My kids didn't want to leave.  We actually stayed a little longer than some of the others and just watched the horses out on the track.  I had to drag them back to the car because I was freezing!

Here are some photos that I took:
                                                   

                                                               (an antique sulky)

and a short little video we took:

Thanks for visiting today!

Garden Tour

I just went out for a wander around my yard.  Not many flowers blooming, but there are a few.

Violets

Lucky Strike Tulips

Queen of the Night Tulips

Bentley, our orange tabby, inspecting the tulips.

Going to explore somewhere more exciting.

I'm off to do some weeding if the bugs don't carry me away first.  Thanks for visiting!

Warning - Craft Fail!

So I'm finally getting back to craft posts!  That makes me happy because it means I have gotten to make something (or in this case, TRIED to make something).

I saw this tutorial on how to crochet flowers and I thought they would be really great to use on my cards.  They were so pretty and the dear lady showed how easy they were to make.  One problem - no crochet hook and I had never crocheted in my life.  Then yesterday, when I was at the mall getting a new mat for my porch to replace the one the cat destroyed (long story), I noticed they had a bunch of sewing/knitting/crocheting stuff marked way down.  There was the perfect little crochet hook for only 69 cents!  So I bought it in great anticipation of making marvelous flowers...

While I was waiting for my bread to bake this afternoon, I thought I would try out my new crochet hook.  I fired up the video tutorial and began to create.  After several attempts (and much rewinding), this is what I produced:

Somehow it doesn't look much like a flower.  I don't know what I did wrong - I was trying to follow her as she skillfully stitched away.  If I ever happen to need a tieback for an orange curtain, I've made a good start on it.  ;)

Homeschooling at Last - School or Education?

Now that we are back to homeschooling (yes, I know it's almost the end of the year, but that's another story), I wanted to share a little on my philosophy of homeschooling.

When we first started homeschooling (for PreK when my daughter was 4), I had the idea in my head that homeschooling was "school-at-home" rather than "learning-at-home".  That first year, we were pretty informal, just using a workbook for letters, colours, etc and doing lots of activities, crafts and exploring.  All that year, though, I kept thinking, "We're REALLY going to do school next year!"  The house we were living in at the time had a spare bedroom that could be transformed into a classroom (just like a "real" school).  I was going to be the best Kindergarten teacher ever!  We were going to learn our national anthem by singing it every morning.  We were going to do art projects and science experiments.  We were going to have fun, fun, fun!  It was going to be a great year.

The first few weeks went remarkably well.  Everything was new and exciting.  I had spent hours making alphabet and number charts and picking out brightly coloured workbooks.  Everything was fresh and clean.  Everything was interesting.

Then the wheels fell off.  My daughter suddenly realised that she didn't want to sit and listen for an hour (or more) five days a week and that playing was a lot more fun than school.  A power struggle developed between us and I ended up having to call in the principal (my husband!).  It seems a little silly now looking back, but at that time I was ready to throw in the towel because it wasn't how I had pictured it.  After a lot of struggle and prayer and a switch in curriculum, things kind of evened out and we made it through the rest of the year.

I think the biggest lesson I learned was to not confuse school and education.  They are not necessarily the same thing.  You can go to school and NOT be educated, and you can NOT go to school and still be educated.  I think I kind of knew this before, but I failed to apply it to homeschooling because of the pressure homeschoolers are under ( like the mindset that you have to be doing exactly what the public school is teaching or your kids will be "behind" or not learning or whatever).  When I think of all the things I learned simply by reading, I am amazed.  I was (and still am) a voracious reader.  As a kid, I used to take a dictionary or volume of encyclopedia and read it like a novel (I am such a nerd, I know).  Some of that stuff has stuck with me much better than a lot of things I learned at "school".  My first year of high school, Level One (Grade 7), I had to take Geography.  I detested that class.  It made me feel stupid and I didn't understand a lot of what was being taught.  It was the first school subject I was ever in danger of failing.  I couldn't do the assignments correctly and I was really frustrated.  I gave up after a while (it was a tough year for me in many ways) and just started reading the textbook over and over.  Since I knew the book, I was able to get through the Quebec Ministry of Education exams that made the classwork worth very little and I passed the class.

To sum up this post, school does not equal education.  A "school" can provide an education, but education is not something exclusively found in institutions of learning.  I'd like to leave you with some examples of people who prove my point:


A Few Famous People Who Were Home Educated


Artists 
Claude Monet
Grandma Moses
Leonardo da Vinci


Athletes 
Michelle Kwan
Serena Williams
Venus Williams


Authors 
Agatha Christie
Alex Haley
Beatrix Potter
C.S. Lewis
Charles Dickens
Hans Christian Anderson
Louisa May Alcott
Margaret Atwood
Mark Twain
Pearl S. Buck
Robert Frost
Virginia Woolf


Businessmen 
Andrew Carnegie
Colonel Harland Sanders
Dave Thomas
Joseph Pulitzer



Composers 
Felix Mendelssohn
Irving Berlin
John Philip Sousa
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart


Entertainers 
Alan Alda
Charlie Chaplin
LeAnne Rimes
Louis Armstrong
Whoopi Goldberg


Explorers 
Davy Crockett



Inventors 
Alexander Graham Bell
Benjamin Franklin
Cyrus McCormick
Eli Whitney
Thomas Edison
Orville Wright
Wilbur Wright


Military Leaders 
Douglas MacArthur
George Patton
Robert E. Lee
Stonewall Jackson


American Presidents 
Abraham Lincoln
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
George Washington
Theodore Roosevelt
Thomas Jefferson
Woodrow Wilson


Religious Leaders
Dwight L. Moody
John & Charles Wesley
William Carey


Scientists 
Albert Einstein
Blaise Pascal
Pierre Curie


Statesmen 
Alexander Hamilton
Daniel Webster
Patrick Henry
Sir Winston Churchill


Women
Clara Barton (she started the Red Cross)
Florence Nightingale (founder of modern nursing)
Martha Washington (wife of George Washington)
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II




Thank you for reading my blog!  I would love to read any comments you might have on this post or any of my posts.