Homeschool Memoirs 2008-2009

I was browsing the My Father's World Blogroll. For those of you who use MFW & would love the comaraderie and support of those using your curriculum, check out the link to the right with the MFW logo. It's a great group of women who are supportive and friendly. Anyhow, I came across Amy's blog. She's also using MFW ECC. She mentioned something about HSBA, and I thought I would check them out. I have just become more deeply acquainted with an online community of homeschoolers and it has been such a wonderful experience. I hope to "meet" more people and see how their hs'ing lives unfold. So, I thought I would join the wonderful Mama's at HSBA. Their first assignment is "All About You".

My name is Christina Quinata, although I am usually called by "Tina". :) I currently live in Westminster, Colorado. My husband is a member of the United States Army (hooo-ah!) :D, so we anticipate a move in the next year or so. I am a blessed mommy to two incredible munchkins, Cristian (7) and Isabella (4). We have homeschooled since C was in PreK-4. He's an active, curious child who has a hard time sitting still (as most boys do). He was having a hard time in his classroom, and about the same time God was definitely putting it on my heart to homeschool. At that time, I knew very little about it. I had not met anyone who homeschooled, except on the WWW. I knew, however, that this was God clearly telling Ron and I that we should take this path less taken for our son. We have been doing it ever since and I absolutely LOVE it. I think I've seen myself go from being an unsure, unsettled, frazzled mommy to one being more confident in the road God has paved for us. I'm still very much a work in progress. We will be homeschooling our daughter as well. This has met with some resistance from my family, but I think they are in a place now where they understand that this is best for US. So, we're going into C's third year and we're using the curricula to the left. It's great to find the right fit for him!!! I love seeing how far he's come and what he's learned academically. I look forward to doing the same with Isabella. :)

One of these days I'll figure it all out

We're in yet another transition period in our homeschooling journey. Although, this time I'm certain we're on the right road. In the past, I've been so caught up in labels and the romanticism of this learning style or that, I've not fully taken my son's learning patterns into consideration. I think, too, as I've written before, that I've tended to want to recreate a school environment in my home. Just as Cristian is hopefully learning, I am as well.

After "talking" with some fellow homeschoolers on GCM, I can see some changes need to be made; permanent, consistent changes. I need to be a lot more respectful of the organic flow of learning. It is not step by step process all the time, as laid out in curriculum. Also, I need to view my son's objection to learning as a clear indicator of an evaluation being necessary. For instance, one of the hs'ers had mentioned her son was further ahead in math than she had been teaching him. So, just on a whim, I thought I'd "test" Cristian to see how much he knew without having to be taught. He's clearly ready to move through single digit addition and tackle subtraction. I think he needed a challenge. Likewise with phonics. We started another chapter in our Explode the Code book, but in asking him to spell the words presented to learn, he could spell them without hesitation. As far as reading goes, I've opted to ask him to pick out books of interest from the reader area in the library. I will ask him to quietly read these books on his own during a portion of our day. In addition, I will continue to be more active in reading books like Charlotte's Web (we are doing this now, and he and his sister LOVE it). We read James and the Giant Peach last year and they really enjoyed that book as well.

As far as the learning of Early American History. I've opted to use a more hands on approach. We are using History Pockets by Evan-Moor to supplement what we are learning reading about each Native American tribe. We will have a panorama of the Plains Indians homes when we reach that section, as well as ones for the Northwest Indians. I'm hoping this tangible way of learning will tune into his kinesthetic needs. And, of course, just make it all around more fun.

We have been doing Draw Write Now with great success. Cristian loves the drawing aspect of it, not so much the copy work. I've seen him take more of an interest in wanting to draw, too. That's always fun to see.

With Isabella, we are moving into more of a Montessori approach. I subscribed to the Montessori Services catalog (link on the sidebar). It had many practical ideas that we used right off. Today, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some other great items that I hope will further this learning style, including wooden spools to thread, a small upright plate holder to display artwork, and a wooden sphere and cube (I hope to get the other shapes soon). We also had to stock up on construction and drawing paper as the children are blowing through craft supplies. I love to see that creativity!

So, I'm hoping this is a launch for a happier homeschooling home. We've had a couple rough patches in the past couple weeks, and I didn't like the direction it was going. Pray for the best.

Mommy, I can't concentrate while the phone is ringing...

This is what I heard from my six year old today while we were homeschooling. He was reading "The Surpise" from his Frog and Toad book and the phone was ringing. I often opt not to answer it while we're doing learning time (as we call it) because it tends to get things off track and that's not a good thing in this house.

I found his comment amazing in a few ways. First, he was able to define what was causing him to lose concentration, and the mere fact that he realized he had lost concentration was big for me. Cristian is a very active child, probably somewhere between being an auditory and kinesthetic learner. We have often struggled with keeping him focused while we've done learning time, as he can become distracted by a piece of lint falling through the air. This is why his conventional preschool was not a good fit for him. Even at 4 they were requesting the students sit in their seats quietly working on a project while Cristian wanted to play with the Russian nesting dolls.

I was raised in a conventional school environment. I went to great schools, but this is a disadvantage. You see, I'm a female, I went to schools in a largely female dominated and created environment. This is what I learned. This is how I tried to teach. Can you see my dilemma? Here I am trying to recreate this environment for my son, who does not benefit from this learning style.

I'm learning a lot about my dear boy, sadly 6 years into his life. He thrives on learning things with his senses. He needs rules (not that he always follows them, nor does he always agree with them, but he needs them) clearly defined. He's an intelligent, compassionate individual and he has taught me a lot about what I thought I already knew. What an honor to be his mother.

Wow, it's been awhile...

It's been over a month since I blogged about our hs'ing adventures and the goings on of our family. We took an impromptu trip to Albuquerque to visit my family there for Thanksgiving. It was such a blessing and God really healed a lot of hurts there. I am so grateful for His mercy.

I started a part time job in November in an effort to put us closer to being debt free. I work for an amazing family in Thornton, being a nanny to their twin boys. Of course, I could only do it if I could bring my two children, so they go with me 2 1/2 days a week. We homeschool there during their nap time. It's been a great experience.

We stayed home for the Christmas holiday. We had a beautiful white Christmas. We are so very thankful for this warm home, especially with the snow we've been getting here North of Denver. Not quite like last year, but it's been white enough. This week we're headed for a thaw for a couple days. It's bittersweet, really, watching the snow melt off, but allowing the kids a moment to run around outside for an extended period of time.

We were able to visit with a dear friend we had not seen in three years!! It's hard to think it's been that long since we've seen Kathy, Valen and Andres. They were enjoying Italy. Although, I know they were sad to leave, we're glad that they're here and look forward to our future visits with them.

We are all learning on our hs'ing journey. I'm trying very hard with some very handy advice from the Mama's at http://gentlechristianmothers.com/ to be more relaxed with our hs'ing. I tend to get caught up in making sure Cristian is getting enough exposure to things that I tend to be overbearing. :( So, we are easing off a bit. Sticking with the basics for now and trying to put the fun back into it.

The next year brings some changes for us. We are anticipating a move from this beautiful area. I am sad to leave, as are the children. Ron is ready for a new job, although he will miss Colorado, too. We are hoping to go to Washington State, but we'll see what God has in store for us.

Hooray for the Clarkson's!

I am currently reading Educating the WholeHearted Child and Heartfelt Discipline by the Clay and Sally Clarkson, who incidentally are hs'ers residing in beautiful Colorado. I cannot rave enough about the amount of very useful information I have found in both books. Wow! They have been so helpful in providing tangible ways to educate your child with a solid foundation without the use of curriculum. In addition, the discipline book speaks to parents about teaching our children the ways of life by speaking to their heart. In particular, I love how Clay Clarkson talks about not expecting adult behavior from children. It seems so obvious, yet I know I've fallen into this trap time and time again.

We are fully enjoying continuing to read a great deal of books, including If Jesus Came to my House by Joan Gale Thomas. Great read.

We're looking at curriculum for the kids for next fall already. Some definites include: Story of the World (C), MathUSee(C), and Before Five in a Row for Isabella. Still researching for Language Arts, Spelling, and Fine Arts for C. A great site for finding good literature (not twaddle) for children?

The anti-curriculum

Okay, maybe not really, but it's getting pretty close to that. We have moved on from My Father's World. It's been sold and it's quite liberating, actually. After getting only about 1/8 through Exploring American History, I felt a bit ill. It seemed far too ethnocentric for my taste. So, after much thought and discussion with others, I've given up on using one set curriculum for our homeschooling. We are still using Math U See and Story of the World. But for the most part we are reading A LOT of books. They like it, I like it, we're learning, it's all good.

One of our favorites as of late is God's Paintbrush. It's very inclusive of all Christian and Jewish faiths and asks really enlightening questions about how do we think God feels about certain situations. Of course no one can answer those questions completely, but it's good to spark conversation with children about God.

Another of our favorite books thus far are the Anansi books. We've recently read Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock. The children LOVE it. It's such a pleasure to have them ask you to read a book over and over.

We are loosely following a list of classical literature books. Cristian has always enjoyed Beatrix Potter, to name just one. Also, he is reading the Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel, and he gets a kick out of them.

For science we are just doing our own thing. Wow, that's fun! Cristian is deeply interested in science, so we just kind of let him lead us. Right now, it's rocks and minerals.

So, that's a summary of our path thus far this year. I'm sure I'll be blogging more as to our progress and changes/challenges.

Oh, yeah, homeschooling... :)

It might seem that this is not at the forefront of my life because of all the non hs'ing pictures, but it is, indeed, one of my passions. I wholeheartedly believe this is God's Will for us. Our son, Cristian, is a remarkable, unique, high energy young child, who's curiosity for God's world has often found him trouble in a conventional school system. With much prayer and what we feel is direct mandate from God, we launched into our homeschooling journey.

Last year we used Sonlight Curriculum. We have an affinity for Classical Learning, particularly Charlotte Mason style. A child is exposed to very classical literature, some Caldecott Honors, and is invited to explore nature heavily in order to enjoy it and understand it. More info on Charlotte Mason's style can be found at amblesideonline.org While I can truly appreciate Ambleside Online and Well Trained Mind, I didn't feel like it was structured enough for us. Soon, we found that much of Sonlight was not going to work for us. We stuck to some of the History and Science, but Cristian learned to read rather proficiently in a very short time. Truly, at the beginning of the year he was learning letter sounds, by May he was reading books well. It was amazing! We also used Math U See, which we love.

This year we tried to order My Father's World First Grade Curriculum ( www.mfwbooks.com ), but found that much of it was not conducive to where we were at with Cristian. We are now using the 2nd and 3rd Grade materials studying the history of the United States. We have used it the past week and it's great! Cristian is a bit disgruntled with the copywork, but we're working through it.

Socialization? We have an amazing group of Classical HS'ers as well as general HS'ers we frequently with whom we spend a lot of time. While I had always thought that Cristian was a bit eccentric, I find that many of his HS'ing friends share the same qualities and it makes for a great time. We have done hikes, art projects, free play, park days, explored local ponds, and learned about local creatures, all here in beautiful Colorado!

So, this will definitely be a mix of the struggles I enjoy with my garden, the adventures we take as a family, and the wonders of homeschooling. We welcome another year of learning!