Wake up Time for School!

Hello! Hello! It sure is nice to be back although I am not complaining about my time away. This past summer was jammed packed. The summer reading program was a huge success and the kids loved going to the library two and three times a week to pick out books, join their special events and turn in their reading list for a prize. We also went to the library for a couple of the other activities they held; a dance class and a bluegrass concert. The band playing the concert invited my kids to come up and sing with them and it made for a very special memory. Z2 earned all the stripes on his white belt and passed his promotion for his yellow belt and has since earned a stripe on his yellow belt. I registered Z1 and Z2 in an art class hosted by the city art council and they stayed there all day making their unique creations, some of which we entered in the county fair exhibits and won ribbons. All my Z's went to Bible school at our church and a friend's and we made every effort to create, learn and expand this summer. I think we did very well at it, too.
Now, Z1 is enrolled back in dance and it's time to settle back into a routine of supervised and recorded learning. I had Z1 and Z2 make entries in their Wonder Journals about their favorite part of their summer and surprisingly the library program got rave reviews from both of them. They each entered several items in the fair and won ribbons and money and they were so proud to see their creations on display beside their awards. Z1 picked blackberries and I helped her make jelly. She has the knack for it. Not long after that I helped her make banana bread and she really gets into the science of the kitchen.
Between all this and birthdays and holidays and whatever days we are ready to start our second chapter of homeschooling and looking forward to the mysteries that will unfold in our learning. This week we made a Wonder Journal entry about what we hope to learn, do and see this new school year. Z2 wants to go to China and learn how to read bass notes on the piano and Z1 wants to learn how to shoot small game and how to make her own pancake batter and other food. I also told them to write about what they were curious about today. In response Z2 wrote he was curious about Sumo defense techniques and Z1 wrote that she wondered how big is the biggest spider and how do flowers get their color. Pretty amazing subjects for our first week and I am so proud that I get the privilege to answer their questions and go with them on this quest to find the answers.
As far as preschooling goes I am still trying to get Z3 to memorize letter sounds and she loves to read her books which has expanded her vocabulary so much. Z4 is right behind her learning new games and asking and using phrases correctly. She will be starting her colors first then her letters and numbers. Z4 loves to draw and I am encouraging her to draw something and then tell me what she thinks it is and give her creations a name. She is also potty training and understands rewards and standing ovations as symbols of successes. Z3 won several ribbons in the county fair for her entries and this school year is so much more exciting because next year all my Z's will be old enough to enter their crafts in the fair so we will have to take advantage of our school time to be creative so they will have plenty to enter. Z3 and Z4 celebrated their birthdays together since they are only a month apart and it never ceases to amaze me how kids know when they are older. They just get it somehow and inherently know they are bigger. It's ama-Zing!
Okay, so you'll be hearing from us; our progresses and successes our to do's and our done's. And this year is going to be full of exploration and I look forward to sharing our findings with you. Until next time, I'll be learning my X, Y with my Z's!

I've been in a time machine

Oh my how the time does fly! Incredible! I have actually been in a time machine and have written this post in the future and when I finish and return to the present we will still be in April. Yeah, I know. Nice try, right? I have been so busy with my Z's I don't know where to start. I suppose I will just start with the summer. I weighed the pros and cons and I have decided not to enroll the kids in summer session for homeschool. There were several reasons for this one major factor being that I wanted us to have a VACATION together. And they are kids and I want them to get to be kids for a while. We are having a no-fuss-educational-summer-vacation. All in the world that means is I didn't want myself or the kids to get burnt out so I am taking the vacation approach to our schooling. No school "officially" but everything that I can make educational I will. And that also means doing things with the kids I didn't have time for during the last school year such as library time. Our library offers a free summer reading program complete with craft projects and professional guest speakers and demonstrations twice a week and the kids are reading, reading, reading and it isn't a chore for them. They love the attention and time I give when I read to them and the bigger Z's love to read to the little Z's and we are learning new words and definitions and cultures and histories. It is wonderful! We also go swimming twice or more per week and have been fishing a couple of times. Creativity is our theme this summer and we hope to end it with a photojournal of our last school year and enter our crafts from the past year in the agricultural fair. We have so much to do and it's gonna be a blast getting it done!

Plays and Playing catch up

Wow! This April was gone in a blink. What we have been learning since Easter may take too long to list so I will hit the highlights. I have been pushing math concepts beyond Z2's grade level because he understands it so well. I mean if you took about 35 minutes and explained to your seven year old how to borrow in subtraction and he understood it wouldn't you be excited to put together a worksheet that let him excercise his new found comprehension? Well, I was and now he can subtract tens and hundreds and I am not surprised after all he is a genius, however, it never ceases to amaze me how incredible my Zs' minds are! We have been reading stories from Z1 and Z2's readers and answering main idea questions as well as paying attention to details. We started a very big Spelling list of homophones and I have been encouraging their use of context clues as a result of those homophones because they have to use them to figure out which "there" to use based on the clues and definitions we looked up. We played a game with our homophone list called Word Design in which the kids had to write the spelling words and then decorate the letters in the word to help describe the word. I think it has done wonders for their spelling as far as giving the words a shape to remember because they have both got the list memorized now and it was so much fun letting them be as creative as possible. Z1 is moving into division and so she needs to finish memorizing her multiplication tables which we are working on. For Earth Day we made paper flowers and planted seeds in the seed starter; Z1 did flower seeds from her birthday and Z2 did pumpkin seeds from the seeds I saved from last year's decorations. They are growing and we are so excited to see them getting bigger. The kids also learned about litter and (for the strict reason of learning) they went outside and picked up all the litter in the yard. We also did stories in art and the kids had to look at a painting and tell me their own stories about it. Next, I had them each paint their own picture and then write in their Wonder Journals the story about their paintings. Z1 learned about different kinds of poems especially haiku after reading Grass Sandals: The Travels of Basho and started counting out her syllables and wrote one. For National Storytelling Day Z1 and Z2 wrote stories and created a shape book about it. Z1 and I had the spring dance performance at the Cumberland County Playhouse called The Sun and the Four Winds and Z1 and Z2 after having seen it for themselves wrote in their Wonder Journals about it. And finally we started learning about Tall Tales and read about Paul Bunyan and Babe and then we played a game about tall tale statements called Bragging and you start by saying something outrageous and then the next person tries to outdo your statement and so on. We have been so busy and I haven't even decided if I want to keep going through the summer or not.

As far as Z3 and Z4 goes, well, that's just it all those two do is GO! I swear they can take a clean house to chaos in a matter of seconds. I have been trying to correct Z3's speech a little bit and help her with complete sentences and Z4 with simple sentences and naming objects. Next, I want to teach Z3, who has aced letter recognition, what each letter in the alphabet says so I can start the process of teaching her to read. For Z4 we have started recognition of people in her life in pictures so then we can move on to the alphabet so she can recognize her letters, too.

Now I'm off Learning My xyZ's!

Easter, Kit Kat Fractions and a Nigerian Storyteller

Wow! This week has really flown by and I need to catch you up on last week’s lessons. Since my last blog we have studied birthday traditions as well as the Easter story and how the Easter bunny and eggs became apart of the traditions. We learned about the spiritual ramifications of the Easter story and talked about how pagan traditions became intertwined with it. We found that in many cultures such as Egyptian and Roman that they would celebrate spring with festivals and rabbits and eggs were symbols of fertility and life. I also had them practice their note reading for music and read some poetry about springtime and had them write their own poems telling them that a poem is a word song with a heartbeat and can rhyme and describe something. We did our April calendar work and did a lot of math worksheets and music and moved on to the lesson the kids had been looking forward to all week- Kit Kat Fractions! I wrote the definitions to fraction, part, whole, denominator, numerator, and so on up on the board and the kids wrote their notes and then I gave Z1 and Z2 each a Kit Kat bar and told them to break them into their four equal parts. Z3 got to have one just because. I had Z1 and Z2 show me ¾ or ½ and after we used them for our fraction lessons I told Z2 pick up ¼ and eat it and told Z1 pick up ¾ and eat it until they had eaten the whole. It was the tastiest lesson we have had and they can’t wait to learn more about fractions. Later last week, we moved on to our science lesson Anatomy of Flowers. They learned about pollination and girl plants and boy plants and labeled diagrams and Z1 and Z2 learned that bees and wind are the two main contributors to pollination. This lesson we will continue on for a few weeks and my cousin to keeps bees among other things is going to teach them and demonstrate harvesting honey. We are all really excited about that. And until then we are going to do some seed starting. Monday was an exciting day as we gave our worksheets a rest and talked and took notes about the importance of storytelling and how our lives are made up of a bunch of stories all collected up into what makes us who we are. They each wrote a family story either old or new in their Wonder Journals and then Monday evening I took them to my alma mater to see a Nigerian storyteller and listen to his stories. Yesterday they wrote in their journals about it and I took a lot of great pictures for our book. Z3 and Z4 liked it a lot with the dancing and singing apart of the stories. I am pushing Z4 to learn all her body parts so if she has a “hurt” as she calls it then she can confirm where it is so I can fix it. Z3 thinks she is so big that when Z1 and Z2 are doing schoolwork she says she needs some work too and gets her favorite Numbers coloring book out and goes to work. The child can count to 20 and she colors like an artist and always picks up where she left off. Z4 says “I’na dwaw,” so we have to get her a coloring book or pages to draw on too so everyone will have some work to do. Here kids do some laundry!

Busy Little Z's

Last week was a very trying week since my house was still torn apart from a little house renovation turning half of our laundry into my office and homeschool niche. And seeing as how it was the week preceding Z1’s ninth birthday party I was fit to be tied putting everything back together. So, suffice it to say that I winged it as much as I could and still attempted to get the house party ready (thanks, Honey!). Z1 and Z2 are excellent at keeping Z3 and Z4 occupied so they played and taught them in their own version of homeschool. Basic preschool for Z3 and Z4 includes daily cleanup and following simple directions. Z3 can be super helpful and super destructive and Z4 is taking after her. For example, Z4 will be 19 months old next week and she knows how to put her dirty clothes in the laundry and can take trash to the can (sometimes good stuff gets thrown away, too). Z3 and Z4 both like to help hand me the dishes out of the dishwasher and can put the silverware away all by themselves. The biggest chunk of learning for my preschoolers is communication and early motor skills, for instance, coloring with a hint of creativity; by allowing Z4 to color without constraints or perimeters and with Z3 it’s a little different because she is 3. I give her instructions and she is able to use whatever creativity she likes but she is expected to stay in the lines. I am not talking drill sergeant instructions because I do not correct her if she doesn’t, but I tell her the bold lines outlining the picture are intended to be the walls that hold her colors in. I am a big believer that talking to your kids, especially those who are putting simple sentences together and following simple directions should be spoken to like a regular person “as if” they can understand you. When you change the way you speak to them from oversimplifications to conversations that not only expand their associations but their vocabulary. Their audible speech will take on a whole new definition. Z4 is kind of shy to strangers by nature but she understands me and asks questions and speaks loosely in complete sentences. As a result there is always a way for her to express herself since she can understand and be understood. Because she can have conversations the likelihood for tantrums that involve the frustration regarding “being heard” are far and few between. It is a lesson that I continue to expand with Z3 who is in the “between” stages of growth somewhere between a toddler and a kid so she can be easily perplexed when she feels like she should have attention as a baby girl and as a big girl. Never fear communication is here! All I have to do is remind her that she can voice those feelings to get an appropriate response from me instead of throwing a fit and me throwing one shortly after.
As for Z1 and Z2, last week they wrote in their Wonder Journals about the field trip to the historic courthouse and I allowed Z1 to go to my aunt’s to help teach the CDC class she teaches. She worked so hard to read to them and help with each child’s need. I let Z2 blow out some steam in Sunny Day Imagination Play where he got to be himself, his own hero, in his own world. Worksheets, worksheets, worksheets just to review and present some new concepts in bite size portions to Z1 and Z2 and then finished off the week with my favorite tool to teach English, Mad Libs. Z1 and Z2 love them and it’s an easy way to teach them English word types and jobs: Pronouns, nouns, verbs, adjectives, plural nouns, etcetera. Z1’s birthday was a cultural experience all its own with the Oriental theme she chose over a year ago. I made beef stir fry with rice, we ate with chopsticks, Z1 wore chopsticks in her hair and a traditional dress. We had fans and parasols and origami lace the house for decorations. We all learned a lot about Asia as a result which meshed nicely with our lesson on the differences and similarities of kungfu and karate from Z2’s Wonder Journal entry earlier this month. Yes, yes, I know, we are such busy little Z’s!

Potato Chip Day and St. Patrick's, Field Trip Friday

Last week we started our learning a wee bit early starting on Sunday since it was National Potato Chip Day. We ate our favorite flavors and learned how they came to be as we munched. Turns out potato chips have a colorful history of their own. Native American George Crum (Speck) was the cook at a hoity toity lodge in New York and a finicky customer kept sending back the French fried potatoes because of this reason and that and to get back at the customer George decided to make a batch so thin and fry them up so hot that the customer wouldn't be able to eat them with a fork. Instead, though, the customer was elated and they became a staple there where he worked. And the rest is history and I love that I am teaching the kids that everything has a history. We ate green eggs and ham for our St. Patty's breakfast (Z2 was thrilled!), studied the story behind the holiday and did a heap of themed worksheets. Z2 and Z3 decided it was the perfect opportunity to get me to buy Lucky Charms to which I absolutely agreed as they colored their worksheets. Some how they taste even more magically delicious on St. Patrick's Day. I made grasshopper brownies but we had to continue our lessons on Thursday since we gotta sleep sometime. I woke up to a house that had been abused with minty chocolate grasshopper brownies and green food coloring. Thank you Z3 I know it was you because you stepped in the green dye and walked from the kitchen all the way to the bathroom both of which are permanently scarred with green droplets. So after diving head first into the green-house effect my 3 year old made for me we (Z1 and Z2) proceeded to learn about our own Irish heritage and our surname, Bohannon, which they now know means "Decendent of the Victorious One" in it's original Gaelic. Field Trip Friday led us to the Historic Roane County Courthouse. We read about how the state used Kingston and promised to make it the state capital. Z1 couldn't believe they used trickery and she also couldn't believe that Nashville hadn't been the state capital all along. We learned that they kept shifting between Nashville and Knoxville and let Kingston be capital for one whole day and moved it back to Knoxville. I took them to the river park at Southwest Point on the the Clinch river to eat peanut butter sandwiches, granola bars, and meah-meahs (i.e. bananas) as Z3 and Z4 call them and fed the ducks until it was time to go. I managed for only three of the four Z's to get soaked which I thought was pretty good considering. It was beautiful Friday and today it is snowing. So much for global warming. "What's global warming?" Z1 asked. "A whole new lesson on theories," I said, "Kind of like the theory of evolution." "What's evolution?" Z1 asked. "One idiot's idea on why he was so hairy."

Field trip Friday, Dr. Seuss and more

Okay, so today is a little over one week from my last blog but it's still technically "next week" so it'll pass for my weekly post about our School of Z's XYZ blog. Last Friday, the day after the first post I began with taking Z's 1-4 to a historical sight. On this Field Trip Friday we decided to encounter the wonders of Fort Southwest Point, a soldier fort in Kingston, Tennessee. The kids had a blast, we took pictures and read the history of the fort's purpose and the importance of it and walked through the museum and talked about the archeological digs and artifacts on top of which the museum director gave the kids pencils and wooden nickels which they are still carrying around like a treasure. At the beginning of this week they wrote in their Wonder Journals about our travels and since the sun came out for the first time in a month I allowed the kids some outside time to unleash those imaginations. Later, still relishing in the aftermath of Dr. Suess' birthday last week, Z2 insisted after he read Green Eggs and Ham for the fourth time this week that we should make some and I was going to love it. I let the kids have a substitute, my mother, for a few days since her class is on spring break. They worked on their worksheets and read a ton of books she'd just bought. It was a nice change of pace for them and me and gave me a chance to get our home office started so I would have a hub to house all of our homeschool wares. So Friday, yesterday, it was more worksheets just to make sure I am hitting all the high notes as we go along. Their workbook is a source of checks and balances for me so that I can stay on task between holidays, projects and trips. Coming up for next week, studying and celebrating St. Patrick's Day it's history and significance, we are Irish descendents, after all. Oh, I think I found an excuse to eat green eggs and ham... I will have to tell Z2!

Intros

I am going to hold myself accountable to create and post a (hopefully but not realistically) weekly blog about homeschooling my children Zaidea (Z1) and Zeke (Z2) who are in the 3rd and 1st grades and Zolah (Z3) and Zuranda (Z4) who are preschoolers. It's the school of the Z's and I am learning my xyz's just like they are. I have a bachelor's in communications and more than anything, I want my kids to flourish in their own ways and not how the government thinks they should.
First, I will tell you how I allow them hands on, front row seats in their own education. Every month, sometimes twice a month, Z1 and Z2 write in their Wonder Journals about what they want to learn. It's up to them they get to choose the subject(s). Then I do the research and tailor make lessons that suit their ages and understanding. We do activities and art projects regarding their chosen subjects and I can make up their math or science worksheets to include those subjects. It keeps them interested and engaged because it is all about them and the answers their questions. They get a broader range of lessons because not everything comes out of a book and I can incorporate as many field trips as I like (even a few Wild Hair Days). Our homeschooling adventure began when I pulled Z1 and Z2 out of school last September just a few weeks into the school year because I was tired of the school's politics. It was more about how the kids made them look (and state funding as a result) instead of the kids' educational experience. The system is poppycock.
So, I intend to blog about our educational experiences so to inspire and indulge the inner child. And my kids may even learn something in the process!