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!