Why WE Home School

I started this blog as a way to document some of the awesome things our kids learn and do, and as a way to ease some fears for our family and friends who had concerns about pulling K out of public school. Recently it has come to my attention that some of our family members obviously still have concerns. So, today I will try to address those concerns by answering some of the most common questions we receive.

1.When will K go back to school? Next term/ next year/ when T and Ky start kindergarten/ ever?

K has the option to return to school at anytime. Ideally I would love to home school all of them through high school. (Yes, we can actually do that and Yes they can still go to college and/or university if they choose.) However, we have chosen to reevaluate each summer based on our wants/needs, the children's wants/needs, our financial situation, and many other personal/ family factors. (Also, T and Ky may not even go to kindergarten. *gasp*)

2. How do you teach K with T and Ky around? How do you cover everything? Do you use a specific curriculum?

To all 3: I don't. 
K LEARNS. (T and Ky learn too) People (of all ages) do not need to be taught to learn. I am not their teacher. I am more like their "educational facilitator." When our kids express an interest we help them learn all they can by visiting the library, watching videos and documentaries, setting up activities for learning, providing materials for learning, field trips, enlisting the help of someone who is more knowledgeable in the subject area, etc... If I don't know something we learn it together. For example: K LOVES sharks. We have read books about sharks, (their feeding and breeding habits of different species) watched documentaries about sharks and the practice of shark fining, researched shark attack statistics of various species, found the areas on the globe where the most shark attacks occur, measured how long a great white shark can grow and researched the prehistoric shark: the megalodon. We did the same sort of research when he was interested in knights and castles, elephants, police, etc... We're even learning to knit! We also expose our kids to things we think they might enjoy to help spark an interest.

K's LEGO Police Station

3. But what about SOCIALIZATION!?

Honestly this is the one question that absolutely drives me bonkers. Maybe because it is asked the most frequently. By almost everyone. So, for anyone who is curious about how children who are home schooled are "socialized": Dogs are socialized, people are social. K, T and Ky have the opportunity to interact with people of all ages almost every day in real life situations, rather than with a set group of same aged peers. When we go out K interacts with the cashier at the store, the person handing out the free samples, the elderly lady selling poppies, other children at the playground, the "Army Guys" in line at the Wal-Mart, the Police officer walking through town, etc... He has a group of friends whom he plays with regularly who live in our neighbourhood, and a couple of peers who are home schooled as well. He also "socializes" with the other children at (currently) gymnastics and swimming.

4. How do you know K is "keeping up" or "learning everything he needs to know"?

Being at home means he doesn't have to "keep up". He is free to develop the skills he will need for his life at his own pace. Just like infants will learn to sit, crawl, walk and talk on their own time table children are ready to add, subtract, read and write at different times. Not every child is developmentally ready to read (or write or add, etc...) at age 6 (or 7 or 8). If we were to let the child who is not quite ready have a few more years to actually be ready to learn rather than pushing them when they are not we would have less reluctant readers (or writers or math haters!) Being at home enables me to take note of what skills K is currently working on (whether it be reading, writing, math, gross motor, etc...) and adjust the materials and activities to help further his learning in that particular area. It also lets me see what skills he may need extra help with.

K following a recipe to make a cake on his own

5. But what if he goes back to school and is behind?

Statistically home schooled children are usually ahead of their public schooled age peers. However, since most people have areas of strength and areas of weakness, if K is "behind" in a certain area we can work with him or hire a tutor to help him "catch up."


Let me ask you a question now. If you are a parent (or a future one) what do you want for your children now and for the future? Really think about it. I'll wait...





For us what we want is for our children to be happy first and foremost. We also want them to be creative, independent, confident, inquisitive, determined, problem solvers. We want for them to love learning and to develop the skills necessary to learn anything they want or need to know throughout their lives. We want to help foster their innate curiosity. We want for them to have ample opportunities to experiment, make choices and solve problems, so as their problems grow with them they have the skills to solve them. We want for our kids to discover who they are supposed to be rather than trying to fit a mold of what they "should" be. We want them to learn what they love to do and for them to follow their passions. We want for them to be successful and happy on their own terms. 

Home schooling gives us the opportunity to provide a hands on education tailored to each child's individual needs and interests. It enables our children to learn life skills in the context of real life.We get to see the moment when one of our kids "gets it" when learning a new skill. Being with our kids and learning with them allows me to connect with them, discover what interests them, and how they learn best. I can help encourage social and communication skills, and model respect, honesty and other values that are important to our family. We can help them identify problems and generate solutions. There are so many benefits to home schooling for OUR family. Does home school work for everyone? Of course not. Public school doesn't either (otherwise we'd have 100% graduation rate!) Home school is working for us. So all I am asking from our family (and close friends) is to please support us in our decision to home school (or at least pretend to!) ;) I am always happy to answer questions about home schooling (except for socialization questions! Ugh!) and provide books, links and other resources to those who are interested in learning more.

K and Ky enjoying the nature trail

KaTaKy's Mama

Priorities

So... I've kind of been avoiding posting lately... I have this perfectionist view of how I'd like things to go, and when they don't work out that way, well... 

Anyway, I've done some thinking and am refocusing on the important things in my life. My family. Being home all day with our three children creates A LOT of mess at times. I have over the past few weeks been trying to tame that mess. It just doesn't seem that it's working very well though. I seem to spend all day puttering around the house trying to get "work" done, but while I'm cleaning up they are somewhere else making messes! It literally does not end.

 So, I am re-prioritizing. My children, my relationships with them, and helping them to facilitate their learning. Play is so important to children's learning. It is how they learn the basics of everything they will need to know: social skills, problem solving, math, science, creativity, language, literacy, and so much more. Children only have such a short time to be children, so it's time to ease up (on myself) let my kids be kids and enjoy the few short years with them. So, when you see the messy house in the background of our pictures from now on please understand we were too busy playing. Together :)

K swinging on the trapeze swing

 Ky climbing at the park

 K checking out the LEGO buildings at LEGO land

 Building a campfire (and roasting marshmallows)

 K checking out the melting ice at Grandma and Grandpa's

 Rain walk and puddle jumping

 Playdough creations

 K creating different shapes with Tangram pieces

 T and Ky exploring colours with Tangram pieces and light boxes

 Chalk paint

 K's golf course

 Feeding and observing ants in the backyard

 Making cupcakes for Auntie's birthday

 Dirt and grass "cooking"

 K making eggs for lunch

K digging his garden

KaTaKy's Mama

A Little Bit of This and That...

We've had a really busy few weeks around here with Easter and K's 6th birthday! So I thought I'd share a few pics just to get caught up...

 After reading MMM Cookies by Robert Munsch, K decided to make his own "play clay cookies"

 T and Ky worked on fine motor development by using scissors to cut the playdough

The water beads started out as a good idea, and ended up as a-better-done-outside-next-time activity

We have visited the Science Centre a few times:

 Exploring different metorites

 T and Ky observing the fish pond floor

 K making paper

 K experimenting with the wind tunnel and his rocket

T and Ky walking down the stairs, with K in the background. K spent over an hour in this spot diverting water, creating rivers and waterfalls.

(There is SO MUCH to see and do at the Science Centre we have not even covered half of the place after 3 visits!)

 K learning to use the sewing machine

 Paper Mache

 K's 6th Birthday!

Kataky's Mama

Dragon Habitats

K has started playing a game on The Daddy's iPhone called Dragonvale. The object is to breed and hatch different dragons, and build different habitats for them. This morning I suggested that we build a few different "habitats" to try out ourselves. K decided which habitats he wanted to build, then he and I (with help from T and Ky) gathered pillows and blankets, moved tables and chairs, and set to work building a "Fire Habitat," "Ice Habitat," "Earth Habitat," and "Plant Habitat." (Pretend Play, Science)

 (Fire habitat- top centre, Ice habitat- centre right, Plant habitat- bottom)

 

(Earth habitat- foreground, Plant habitat- background)

As K put the final touches on the habitats I went to search for some books about dragons. I didn't find any, but I found a book about volcanoes, one about Antarctica, one about rocks and minerals and one about plants. I added the appropriate book to each habitat. K assigned everyone to their own habitat. (T and Ky were not quiet as cooperative as he would have liked!) I was given the Ice Habitat and he took the Fire Habitat. Ky and T were assigned the Earth and Plant Habitats, however, they preferred to hang out in K's Fire Habitat. (Gross Motor, Leadership)

I pretended to be really cold in my Ice Habitat and K invited me into the Fire Habitat to warm up :) As we looked through the volcano book in the fire habitat the furnace came on and started to puff up the duvet that was covering the vent. K and his sisters had a blast jumping, crawling and stomping all over it as they tried to squish it back down. K exclaimed, "It's coming up like a VOLCANO! Just like my habitat!" I got some vinegar and baking soda out while K found a jar and plastic tray. He poured some vinegar into the jar and added baking soda to it. After a few trials of adding baking soda to the vinegar he decided to try adding vinegar to the baking soda, and dipping his hand in the baking soda and putting them into the tray of over-flowed vinegar. (Compassion, Literacy, Gross Motor, Science) 

After we ran out of baking soda and I washed up, Ky moved herself into the Ice Habitat. T joined her shortly afterwards. K joined them and began looking through the book about Antarctica. He asked questions whenever a picture triggered a thought (ex. "Is this where Santa lives?" "Do polar bears eat penguins? What are they doing? Why? What is that? etc...) (Literacy, Language, Cognitive skills)

We were so busy in the habitats that we missed lunch! We had a late lunch, and decided to head outside to enjoy the rain (and the many puddles it brought!) K's friend came over to play and the Plant Habitat and Earth Habitat have been put on hold until the interest strikes again.

Kataky's Mama

Science, Math and LEGO

Well, we've had a busy couple of weeks! Last week K was in a bit of "a mood" all week. He wasn't very interested in doing much of anything it seemed (except bugging his sisters!) We still managed to be somewhat productive though. On Monday we went to the Science Centre where we met an old friend of mine. We got to tour the Living Earth and the Science Arcade with him. K favourite part was turning on a light bulb with his body by touching the electricity ball. (I wish I had pictures but my camera battery died! ) We also got to go on a virtual trip to mars (which was his second favourite part of the day.) We spent a fair amount of time in the KidSpark area. Let me tell you it is AMAZING for kids! There is so much for children of all ages to touch and build and experiment and explore. 

 

(T in the KidSpark area fitting square shaped wooden blocks through the holes in foam blocks)

To try to help K break out of his mood later in the week we had a "Beach Party" in the bathtub. They spent almost 2 hours in and out of the tub. K practiced holding his breath, floating and his "ice cream scoop" strokes. He showed his sisters how to blow bubbles in the water and encouraged them to try it too! They collected shells from the bottom of the "ocean" and after I got to be the tickle shark trying to tickle them.

(K showing Ky how to blow bubbles in the water)

This week K practiced spelling out word families (eg. cat, hat, mat, etc... gum, hum, bum, etc..) K was having fun figuring out how to spell each word and discovering the sound pattern, until he realized we were "doing school." (My fault. I told T that we were "working" and then K was "too tired" to do anymore.) We also continued with money math. I drew 5 circles on a wipe off board and chose a number. K filled the circles with different combinations of coins to equal the number chosen.

(K's combinations for $0.25) 

 

We took turns choosing numbers and making coin combinations. I would make a mistake for K to check and correct my work. 

We spent a lot of time building with LEGO this week. We built space ships, and the moon, spy houses and cars, boats, and animals. He also built a catapult that actually works! We made a trip to the LEGO store to pick up a few new pieces and K loved the build a mini figure station and put a few combinations together before settling on bringing the spy home.

(The moon, space ships and catapult with his new mini figures)

A few more pictures from the past couple of weeks:

 (Exploring soap bubbles)

(Making moon rocks with warm rocks and crayons)

(K rearranging the furniture to build a fort)

 

 

Kataky's Mama

Money Math

Short post for today as we've been repeating the same activities all week. K has been very Math focused this week and we have spent much of our time counting and adding and beginning subtraction. We've been playing Monopoly Junior before bed, and K has easily taken on the banker role; adding together the bills and making change for The Daddy and I. 

I put together a money game to help K begin to learn how money works (5 pennies = 1 nickle, 2 nickles = 1 dime, 2 dimes + 1 nickle = 1 quarter, 4 quarters = $1) We took turns rolling a pair of dice, adding the numbers together and taking the appropriate amount in change (ex. 6 + 5 = 11 = 1 dime + 1 penny) we exchanged coins as needed (ex. 5 pennies were exchanged for 1 nickle) and kept track of the total amount of coins we had collected. The goal being to make it to $1.00. K and I played a couple times together helping each other add and exchange coins. 

(When he realized he had rolled enough to make $1.00)

K and The Daddy played together before bed while I was putting T and Ky to bed. K took on a banker role and added The Daddy's dice rolls, counted out and exchanged his coins as well as his own. (And mine! K set a spot for me so I could join in when the girls were sleeping.)

We also worked on counting past 109 (K likes to count to 1 million by counting 108, 109, 1000, then from 1008, 1009, 1 million!) I printed out a few Hundreds Charts and made them out to 500. I put them up onto the fridge and let K check them out. We counted to 200 together and he was able to pick up on the pattern.

 (5 Hundreds Charts)

 'Til Next week!

Kataky's Mama 

Money, Dice and Catapults

Hope all my Canadian friends enjoyed the Family Day long weekend this week! We spent the weekend with K, T and Ky's Bella and Poppa and Auntie C and Uncle E just relaxing and enjoying each others company. 

This week K seemed to be quite focused on developing his math skills. He took out his money that he has been saving and wanted to know how much he had. He sorted out the coins by type while I got out his 100's board. He put a penny in each spot until he had all 100 spaces filled. We emptied the board and he counted out the remaining 42 pennies on the board. Next we moved onto the nickles. I helped him place the first 3 (on the 5, 10 and 15 spaces) then he was able to easily figure out the pattern and place the remaining nickles (exactly $1.00!) We practiced counting by 5's up to 100. K was able to figure out where to put the dimes without any help from me, and easily counted to 100 by tens. Once he had counted all the coins he added them up and got a grand total of $2.72. (Math)

(Later he was able to take it to the store where he picked out something to spend it on, and count out how much he owed at the counter.)

K made up a game while playing with T, Ky and I this week using stones and dice. We took turns rolling 2 dice, adding up the numbers and counting out the same number of stones and putting them into a pile. Once the stones had been piled up K counted out the number of stones in his pile. (Math)

K watched an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy this week. It was about Simple Machines (i.e. Levers and Pulleys) This sparked an interest in creating catapults. He started out by using a spoon at the edge of the table (after dinner) and using various projectiles.  The next morning I gathered a few different levers, and projectiles and K set about experimenting. He tested to see which levers launched which projectiles the furthest. (Science)

A few more pictures from the week:

 (K's building- Math, Science, Art)

 

 (Building a wooden firetruck- Problem Solving, Fine Motor Development)

 

 (Balancing dice- Science)

 

 (Colour mixing and painting with yogurt and food colouring- Art, Science)

 (K's baking experiment- Life Skills, Science)

 

(K the Spy- Creativity, Imagination, Observation Skills, Dramatic Play/Arts, Writing)

Kataky's Mama