Outdoor Education

Once again we trekked to camp for the twice-yearly Homeschool Days. The girls look forward to meeting up with friends and canoeing in the creek and riding in the haywagon through the fields. Moms enjoy a peaceful day in one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in Pennsylvania. We also like the hands-on educational session. In the past there was a chemistry and physics demonstration. The kids have also learned about wetlands and conservation and plant identification. Today's program was about trees. We could sign up for special classes on creation or raptors or even the Underground Railroad. This camp was once a stop.

We had a wonderful day in the bright sunshine and fresh air. The kids had some freedom to roam and explore, race up mountains, play tetherball, and practice their skills on a wire bridge across the creek. Liana has become quite good with rowing and Arielle enjoyed wading in the cold water. But weather conditions were just right for the majestic, lovely trees to disperse their pollen. Liana and I were sick by the time we got home with itchy eyes, drippy noses, headaches and coughing. Two days later, another price to pay for our wonderful day: poison ivy. Oh, you say I should have been more careful? I am careful to the extreme when it comes to poison ivy. I touched NOTHING. I still haven't figured out how I manage to get it every year.

Bird Lapbook

Liana finished her study of birds and completed her lapbook. She said, "I'm sad it's done because I enjoyed working on it." I told her she can make many more lapbooks in the future.

Liana's book answers these questions: Why did God make birds? What helps a bird to fly? What makes a bird a bird? How does a bird know witch way to go? Why is a girl bird so plane? (I don't make corrections on her lapbook. This is her creative work.)

Liana has information on how birds are classified in the animal kingdom. She has a diagram of the inside of an egg, pictures of different nests and which birds make them. She has pictures and descriptions of different types of feathers. The most fun we had on our bird study was to actually watch the birds at our feeder. Liana began her "life list" of birds and she made drawings of them in a chamois-covered journal. (Like John James Audubon did.) But for the lapbook we photocopied pictures and identifying features into a section called "Birds in Our Backyard." She listed 14 birds! We never knew before we had such a variety.

Our main text on birds was Jeannie Fulbright's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. From the author's website we printed a page called "Migration Route of the ______." The page has a place to glue a picture and space for a short report, plus a map to chart the route. Liana chose the puffin and the arctic tern to study.

The importance of this lapbook is that Liana knows her book. She can easily explain all the information to anyone who would take the time to listen. She is proud of her work and is excited about learning. A lapbook is a great teaching tool for right-brained, hands-on learners.

In addition to our textbook, we used:

How Do Birds Find Their Way? by Roma Gans

Science and Nature Guides: Birds World Book

Eyewitness Books: Bird DK

The Boy Who Drew Birds by Jacqueline Davies

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

Night of the Pufflings by Bruce McMillan

Ducks and Ducklings by Anita Ganeri

Woodpeckers by Julie Murray

New Friends

Arielle used to attend a homeschool co-op at our church, but our church is not close to our house. The morning drive during rush hour became just too stressful. We left the co-op and the girls joined Awanas instead for their social time. A co-op should be educational as well as a social outlet, but I felt I could provide the academics at home. Up to this point I really have not needed help teaching my girls. But I realize their needs change as they grow older. My friend Connie who also homeschools lives very close, but otherwise, the girls and I are somewhat isolated from any other homeschool families. Not isolated! But we haven't mingled much with other families like ours. People always seem to be so concerned about that "s" word--socialization. My girls are quite socialized! Anyway, things have changed.

Connie called to tell me a group of moms were trying to connect with other homeschooling families and would I like to join them? Some of the families had recently moved here and were trying to find friends for their children and some support for themselves. So last week we all had lunch together. This kind, generous woman opened her home to all these moms and kids. They all live within a few miles of here. I never knew. We are not alone! And best of all, there were some girls Arielle's age. We moms discussed our state's laws and the required evaluations and portfolios that will soon be due. We talked about books our kids love and textbooks we use and like. We planned possible field trips and considered interesting co-ops in the area. It was very encouraging to find like-minded women. My girls had so much fun with their new friends and we all look forward to seeing each other again soon.

More on Books

A few days ago we visited a small local bookstore to find a First Communion gift for a friend of ours. I found a beautiful picture book on Mother Teresa written by Demi. We've enjoyed many of Demi's books of Chinese folktales, but I had never seen this book before. Then I told Arielle and Liana that they could each choose one book.

I rarely buy books except used ones from book fairs. There is no need--we have a great little library only a mile or so from our house, and what we can't find there we can order through the inter-county loan system. At home we have a collection of very special books. I always love when the girls receive books as gifts, especially if the gift-giver has written something in the front cover to one of the girls. But mostly, all the books the girls read are from the library.

My family never had much money when I was growing up but books were very important to my mother. In the small desert town where I lived as a child, there were no libraries or bookmobiles. That came later when we moved to Missouri. But we did have the Arrow Book Club at school. My mother allowed me to get as many as I wanted with the condition that I read every single one of them. I always had the largest stack on my desk when the orders were delivered to the classroom. I'm amazed by that now because I don't know how my mother paid for them all. I still remember some of the titles: The Shy Stegasaurus of Cricket Creek, Emily San (about Japan), and Elizabeth Blackwell, Woman Doctor. I still remember that new book smell and the pleasure of holding a crisp new paperback in my hands.

The girls were excited to actually buy a book and what fun they had choosing. They skipped over most of the modern series and then paused for some time over the non-fiction, picking up books on presidents and ancient Egypt. They examined the American Girl mysteries. Then Arielle discovered the shelves with the Newberry Medal winners. She found several she wanted, reading the back cover and exclaiming, "This looks good!" I reminded her only one book. We wrote down some titles that she could request from the library.

At home Liana had just finished her first chapter book, read silently rather than aloud to me. I encouraged her to choose another. She found Treasure Island, a Stepping Stones adapted classic and immediately decided that was the one. Arielle settled on Johnny Tremain, a book on the Revolutionary War. My girls love adventure!

Creative Writing

Liana's teaching time is long. Not because she is slow to learn; she is not. She has a very quick mind. But the style of learning that she enjoys and that is most effective for her is time-consuming. She loves the artsy-crafty things. She loves me to read her stories. She loves making up stories.

Yesterday her assignment for language arts was to write a paragraph on this topic: what would you do if you woke up and found out you were two inches tall. Liana sat down to write a rough draft, asking me how long it had to be and did she have to write in cursive because she HATES handwriting. She finished quickly, a sloppy job, with half the words misspelled. I encouraged her with a few questions to continue her story. This time she dictated to me while I wrote her words down. She went on and on since I was the one doing the writing. Then she looked at the paper and said, "Oh no, I'm going to have to copy all that!" So she didn't want to say anymore. I suggested she continue with her story while I typed it. She was excited about that. We went upstairs and she dictated a long, long story, full of detail and imagination.

Now I know she needs to learn to write neatly by hand. (Although that is a debatable idea among educators since computers now dominate our lives. On the other hand many homeschoolers believe daily copywork and penmanship are important.) But should I squelch her creativity by torturing her to handwrite her ideas on paper? I don't think so.

The answer is obvious to me as I write this. I need to teach her to type. Then her fingers can fly at the same speed as her lively brain.

Van Gogh Lapbook

We have been working on three lapbooks this year. Liana is working on one of birds and one of the orchestra. I will post pictures when they are complete. It's hard to describe a lapbook if you've never seen one. I'd call it an informational artistic display of learned material, small enough to hold on your lap. We use file folders and cardstock to create the "book." We glue in pictures copied from books or downloaded from the internet, and we cut out pictures from a great resource we have--a very old set of World Book Encyclopedias. I got these books free at a homeschool conference, and I specifically planned to use them for this purpose.

Liana immediately took to the idea of making a lapbook. She created the one on birds as a review of all the topics we covered this year and then the orchestra book was just her own idea because musical instruments greatly interest her. Arielle was more reluctant to make one. I gave her a choice from different subjects she's studied and she finally settled on Vincent Van Gogh. It's finally complete! Here is how she did it:

On the cover is a picture of one of Van Gogh's sunflower paintings. When the lapbook is opened, she has displayed several of his self-portraits and an accordian-fold time line of his life. On the flaps on either side are questions and answers. Inside the first page is a gallery of paintings. Then the next section is a written report about Van Gogh. I had given Arielle the option of making a lapbook OR writing a report in the conventional way of reviewing a subject. Still, she chose to write a mini-report anyway and then put it in her book. That's her style of learning.

Arielle also has a pocket with index cards with "fun facts about Vincent Van Gogh." We had some trouble finding maps of the different countries where Van Gogh lived because the individual maps are not to scale with each other. But she does have small maps of England, the Netherlands, and France marked with the important cities and corresponding events of his life.

Lapbooks are not Arielle's preferred way of learning, but I think she enjoyed making her book and it stretched her in a different direction and that was good for her.

Please share your ideas on lapbooks!

Poem about India

I promised Liana I would post the poem she wrote about India. She wrote it last fall when she was eight:

A Great Place

India is so very hot,
I have a sari that I bought.

We saw elephants in the street,
I thought it was very neat.

Gita was a girl I met,
She had an elephant for a pet.

The Taj Mahal is very nice,
After that we ate some rice.

The sitar is lovely to hear,
We wanted to get very near.

We saw girls dancing along,
I thought it was a pretty song.

Now it is time we must go home,
Gita my friend gave me a comb.

So I will remember her yet,
The nicest girl I ever met.