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Traveling and Living Math with Navigation

Little Buddy and his Daddy have had some special time during this first portion of our RV trip. Little Buddy has acted as our navigator. We created another binder for this trip as I discussed in a previous post, How to Survive a Five-Hour Road Trip. He has utilized his book as we have traveled to help his Daddy about campgrounds, directions, etc.


We did have to veer just a bit of track when one of the members in our RV group has some difficulties. Then, we just switched Little Buddy to paying attention to the navigation system in our RV. He would check to tell his Daddy how many more miles to the next turn and the name of the major roads.

When our trip first started, he kept asking the dreaded question of "how much longer?" Fortunately, my husband has the patience of Job and the ability to redirect our son to make it a learning experience. So his reply, "Let's figure it out." Little Buddy was surely engaged in the game with that challenge.

Together, they have calculated:

- distance

- time

- speed

Have you tried any specific living math activities while you are traveling? If so, please do share. We always need to add more to our idea bank.

Giveaway! Shakespeare Can Be Fun!

Our Homeschool Home is hosting a giveaway. We are so excited about the current book that we are reading, Hamlet for Kids, that we are giving a copy away! When I ordered the other books in the series for Little Buddy, I ordered another copy of Hamlet for Kids from Amazon to giveaway on our blog.
All you have to do is enter a comment. We'll pick a winner next Tuesday and get you your copy to enjoy! We would also love for you to follow along with us on our many adventures. You just never know what we'll be up to next.

Lightening Bugs and Fairy Tales

Driving through Illinois on our was to OshKosh we have enjoyed the most amazing scenery. Little Buddy has been so impressed with the farms of corn and soybeans, the beautiful barns, and the windmills. Being from the south, we enjoy seeing farms, but our farms are very different from those in the corn belt.

Last night as we were pulling into our campground for the night, we could see what seemed like millions of twinkling lights across the soybean fields. Now, we have plenty of lightening bugs in the south and certainly enjoy chasing them on our farm even. But never in my life have I seen so many lightening bugs in one place. It honestly looked like a fairy tale.

Little Buddy and I imagined that it was where Tinkerbell and her fairy friends lived. We made up very imaginative stories about those fairies and all the fun things they were doing in that soybean field. Our story continued for a long while. Little Buddy even asked to sleep with the front curtain to the RV opened so he could watch them as he fell asleep.

For real information on lightening bugs (or fireflies), check out this website. For today, we'll continue our fairy tale story.

Reading Now: Hamlet for Kids

This week's read-aloud is Hamlet for Kids, by Lois Burdett of the Shakespeare Can Be Fun! Series. This is the first in the series we have read. Since Little Buddy is 7, I was a little concerned that he might not really enjoy these books. Boy, was I wrong! He absolutely adores it.
He has really gotten into the story of The Ghost of King Hamlet, Prince Hamlet, Queen Gertrude, and the evil King Claudius. The suspense and intrigue of the story have captured and held his attention.
The illustrations in the book are completed by children from about 6 - 10. There are also summaries written by children of the same age. These have also gotten Little Buddy excited to see what other children drew and wrote about the story.
The only drawback - I only wish I had ordered and had on the hand for the trip more in the series. I have already gone online to Amazon and ordered more in the series: MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Much Ado About Nothing. They should be at my house when I get there. These are exactly the books I want Little Buddy to really enjoy reading.
Have you read a similar series of books that you would recommend to us?

Excursion to Dairy Farm

Today, we took an excursion on our RV trip to OshKosh. We visited Fair Oaks Farm in Indiana. The visit was so educational and all 15 people in our group thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

The most amazing part of the entire trip was being able to watch the birthing of twin calves. I was originally a bit apprehensive about the questions that might come from Little Buddy in observing this part of life. Then, I decided that we have animals on our farm. So, surely, we could handle questions about a cow's birth. Oddly enough, his questions were very well asked and were:
- Does it hurt the mother cow?
- When will the baby start walking?
- Since they are twins, why don't they look alike?

Simple enough to answer. Whew, that bullet was dodged. This time.

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 5 - Curriculum

This week for our Weekly Wrap-Up, Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers has asked for us to share our Curriculum ideas. I love this idea! I love to see what curricula other parents have chosen for their homeschools. I also love to hear experiences that parents have had, both the good, bad and down right ugly, about each.
When I was researching homeschooling and still "on the fence," I traveled the blogosphere searching high and low for any information that I could find on what was "the best." What else would do? Of course I had to find "the best" for my child. Why else would I even consider homeschooling.
The more I read, the more I studied, I discovered there is not one "best" out there. It really depends on you and your child. Now, there are some very good highs and there are some very bad lows. Here is how I narrowed my selections:
1. Visited with veteran homeschoolers in my community whom I respect and value their opinion.
2.Read everything that I could get my hands on about homeschooling approaches, curricula, and models.
3. Requested samples from curricula sources. Many vendors provide good samples online that you can download or view on their websites. However, some, you just have to contact and request for them to email or mail you a few sample pages or even a sample book in some instances.
4. Attended fairs and conferences to not only learn from the excellent speakers on what curricula they utilize, but to network within the homeschooling community.
I will say that through my long and in-depth study, I was impressed with the classical education approach (Trivium). Reading The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise-Bauer and Jessie Wise helped me to bring it all together into one nicely bound package.
The curricula that we follow at Our Homeschool Home is posted on our blog here.
We love to get your comments on what we have selected. Especially if you are or have used these materials. I will say that we are progressing pretty rapidly through our studies and I will be adding items the first of 2010 for our next studies.

RV School - Days 1 and 2

Remember I posted previously that we were having RV School this week on our big trip to OshKosh. Each day, we have about five hours of travel time with planned stops along the way. The perfect amount of time to homeschool and have some "fun" time as well.

We start right after breakfast in the mornings with our Bible study. Just like we do at home. We then dive right into our other lessons. Since I had been planning for three weeks where we would be in our studies, I had everything that we needed packed into two canvas storage crates and stored on the shelf at the end of the bed in our RV. Little Buddy and I sit on the bed and just pull from the storage bin subject by subject. His favorite while we are traveling down the road is when we snuggle up under the blanket and read. I have to admit, it's mine as well.

We are actually a little ahead in our work for the week at this point. I tried to get some extra work in as we were traveling to prevent boredom. I also just wanted to have a bit of a safety net as we get into the activities at OshKosh.

I will say, having RV School has been a wonderful adventure thus far. We have stayed busy, the time has passed quickly, and Little Buddy is enjoying it thoroughly!

Have you tried homeschooling on the road? If so, do you have any tips that I should follow?

Bedtime Routines and Summer

This summer, I have been awful about sticking with our bedtime routine. I know children, especially Little Buddy it seems, needs a dependable, consistent routine. I guess I should really qualify that statement by saying that we are following the same general routine, we just are not doing it very timely each night.

I have given myself a ton of reasons why we are not sticking with our bedtime. Here are a few. I'll warn you, some of them are just plain lame.

- vacations
- it's summer for crying out loud
- trips to the lake
- the movie is still on
- it's so nice outside, let's just play a little bit longer
- oh well, another few minutes won't hurt

Well, now I need to start thinking about how to get our schedules back together. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks tonight when Little Buddy was still up watching his snuggles drying in the dryer. He was unbathed and it was 10:00 p.m.

What kind of Mother am I?

When the pile of snuggles and his blanket were dry, he sleepily gathered them all together and headed up the stairs. I had his bath all ready, with extra bubbles added due to my guilt. Then, off to bed and the real routine began.
- Reading
- Prayers
- Singing (in this order: Jesus Loves Me, You Are My Sunshine, You Are My Blue Eyes (our song), Amazing Grace, and The Whole World)
- Snuggling

Well, I will say, after our reading, prayers, singing, snuggling routine was underway - I felt a whole lot better. So, I guess I can cut myself just a wee bit of slack. Summer nights are so fleeting, especially to this seven year old little boy's mother. I will just be a bit more mindful of the time, but I think I'll start paying attention after OshKosh. I'd hate to waste any daylight there.

What do you do in the summer? Do you stick with your normal bedtimes?

Planning: RV School and OshKosh

Our homeschool is hitting the road. RV style! My family is taking an RV trip to OshKosh, Wisconsin to the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual AirVenture. For all those aviation nuts out there, this is a must see. At least once in your lifetime. I should know, I am married to a definite aviation nut!

As I have been planning our trip, reserving campground spaces, coordinating meals with the other families going with us, and organizing the RV, I have also been taking a careful look at the schedule of events for the week at OshKosh. There are so many educational opportunities that I decided I better have a plan to get the most from them all.

Airbus A380 - The Airbus A380 will make its public North American debut for display and flight. In hearing the pilots that are going on this trip, this is a BIG deal. We have practically scheduled our trip around making sure that we are in OshKosh and settled in time to make it to see Airbus.

Airshows - What would OshKosh be without airshows? Well, it would still be a wonderful gathering of airplanes, pilots, and lots of aviation talk (I'm sure). But, to me, the airshows just make OshKosh, well, OshKosh. The warbirds, the sport planes, the stunts. Oh my, I can't wait!

Evening in the Woods - Each evening, a great program is planned and presented by such notables as Harrison Ford (yes, Indiana Jones will be there!) and The Tuskeegee Airmen.

I know my family will have a memorable, fun trip. Little Buddy will learn so much just from walking the fields with his Daddy among all of the airplanes and wonderful pilots. He'll be totally engrossed in aviation, engineering, and space. How fun is that going to be?

What Has Made Me the Proudest?

This week I participated in a chat session on Twitter hosted by @reflective and @principled titled, Home School Chat. There were a series of questions asked by the hostesses. One that caused a lot of thought on my part was (basically), "What has made you the proudest?"

Goodness, in 140 characters, how would I say what made me the most proud? Would it be that Little Buddy is a quick learner? That I am able to research and determine the best approach for his learning style? Was it that we can spend as much time as we need on a particular subject until Little Buddy has it firmly? That we can move on ahead of schedule when he gets it early?

Then, I realized, those are definite benefits. But, the result is what makes this Mama proud. So what was my response? "Little Buddy reading with a book light."

What would your response have been?

Getting Connected

This summer has been one of the best summers of my life. Absolutely, without a doubt, positively, the best. Hands down! Why you might ask? Have a taken a wonder drug that I can tell you about? Well, no, not really. I am just getting connected.

I am getting connected with myself, first and foremost. I have spent time really understanding what I want from my life. What I need to accomplish. What marker I want to leave with my life. From my life. I have been prayerful in making sure God is guiding me and my decisions. For His guidance and direction, I am thankful. I will quickly tell you, you can not start anywhere else. You have to begin the journey with just you and God. No two ways about it. At least that is my heartfelt belief.

Second, I am getting connected with my family. I have spent great, deep down bonding time with Little Buddy this summer. Down in the floor playing time. Outside blowing bubbles time. Under the table reading about nomads time. Laughing at the clouds time. Discovering baby birds, mallard ducks, Little House on the Prairie. And having our hearts broken over baby bunnies that did not make it. We are positively closer than I remember us being in many a moon.

Thirdly, I am getting connected with the world. For so long, I worked. Now, I was super connected with my working network. I knew everyone in the field that I worked and spent a great deal of time making sure to stay in contact with them. Now, I am connecting with people of all walks of life, from all regions in this country and others, and loving getting to know each and everyone one of them. Homeschooling parents and writers have really had a deep tug on my heart over this summer. I have sought out their kindred spirits to be able to learn from these experts. I just have to say, these are some of the kindest, smartest individuals I have ever had the fortune to encounter.

What connections are next? Well, I think I have really just started. My life is much different from this time a year ago and I just can not wait to see what is in store for my future.

Today's Adventure: Backward Day

Yep, that's right. Off the top of my head this morning, I came up with the hair brained idea of having a "Backward Day." Pretty spontaneous, right? Little Buddy thought so. He thought it sounded like a good day to him.
As I walked into Little Buddy's room this morning, I had my shirt on backward. He thought I had just "lost it," but really, it was all part of my fun day with mama plan. He asked me why my shirt was on backward and I announced, "because it is Backward Day, Buddy." Some of the fun things we have done today are:

• Wore our shirts backwards
• Ate our breakfast from the wrong side of the fork (that was a challenge, I admit!)
• Did all of our homeschool work under the dining room table. I had thrown a blanket over the table so that it was like a tent for our study of nomads. That made it all the more entertaining.

There is no telling what other crazy, hair-brained, homeschooling mama idea I may come up with for more backward day activities. If you have any that I can use, please share them. It sure does keep things interesting around here. On to art and music appreciation this afternoon. I have to admit, I can not quiet figure out how to work those in to my backward day festivities.

By the way, I think I'll leave the blanket over the dining room table for a while. We might just have lessons under there all week as we study the nomads.

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 3

This week we enjoyed school at our lake house. I posted about it in School by the Lake. We especially enjoyed our special classmates, the two mallards.
I spent a good bit of time really evaluating where Little Buddy is with his school work. I could tell that we were getting completed with our coursework extremely quickly and wanted to be sure that Little Buddy wasn't just rushing through to be done. We had thoughtful conversations about it at bedtime, bath time, and during our school time. Not too much, but just enough probing questions for Little Buddy to share what he was thinking. I was impressed with the conversation and his evaluation of where we were and where we were heading. I do not believe I had given him enough credit before this week on his ownership of his schoolwork or on how advanced he is in many of the subject areas. To be frank, he already knew everything I was trying to teach him!
I spent the nights researching and remapping some of the lesson plans to include more challenging work for him. It made all the difference. I drafted out lesson plans through the end of February 2010 for our major studies of math and language arts. Now, I need to add in for science, history, Latin, and special studies. I am also going back and revisiting the books that I had previously chosen for our weekly readings, along with the artists and musicians we were going to be studying. I think now I am getting much deeper into my planning so that all of his school work is more comprehensive and pulled together. At least it is in my mind.
We should be completed with all 2nd Grade level language arts by Thanksgiving and 3rd Grade level math by the end of February 2010. I've planned celebrations for each milestone and order dates for ordering the next level of work.
I shared my planning with Little Buddy and showed him the lesson plan book which includes EVERYTHING! He smiled at me and said, "this looks like we'll learn a lot, thank you."
Now, that makes a Mama proud.

Visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more Weekly Wrap-up fun!

School by the Lake

This week we spent another few days at our lake house. We hardly ever come here, but for some reason this summer, I have just needed this place. It has been such a great source of relaxation and enjoyment over the past couple of weeks as we have visited. I now wonder why we haven't been coming more often. Could it be all of the farm animals we have at home? The RV that begs to be taken out on another adventure? Or just the routine of daily life that I do not take the time to push aside for a change of scenery? Regardless, the lake house now is up on my list of frequent visits. I'll just have to make the time.
We enjoyed school by the lake this week. I was a bit apprehensive as to how it would go, but it went well. During our morning prayer on Thursday, we heard a bit of a rustling beside us in the back yard by the lake. When our prayer was over, I looked up to see two gorgeous mallards. A male and a female walking straight to us. I knew then to take a deep breath and enjoy the nature around us during our lessons. I adjusted the plan and we spent as long as we could watching the mallards and talking about them. It honestly prompted the best discussion that Little Buddy and I had all morning and then opened up other topics that I am sure we would not have discussed otherwise.
Our mallards visited us again for school on Friday morning. Little Buddy asked if they were visiting like the swan visited Sam in "The Trumpet and the Swan." How insightful.

Controlling the Clutter

Drawers packed full of art projects? Storage bins in the attic or closet with projects you just have to keep, but can't enjoy from the attic? If this sounds familiar, check out my article at Chic Galleria by clicking on the link here.

These tricks sure have helped our family regain some storage while allowing us to actually enjoy those art pieces from preschool! Hope it helps your family, too.

Be sure to comment if you try this method or even have another method to recommend readers (me!).

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 2

With a wonderful first week under our belt, I just knew week 2 would go just as smoothly. Whoa! We had to jockey times around for golf camp, which lasts two + hours each day. I started getting just a wee bit stressed about not starting schoolwork until later in the day. I certainly don't want Little Buddy to think that we can be willy, nilly about our schoolwork. Well, it all came out in the wash (as my Grandmother used to say).
We accomplished all that we had planned for this week and have even mapped out a wonderful month of July for our homeschool. Looking back on this week, I am really glad that I had the stress of juggling times so early in our homeschooling experience. It taught me a great deal.

You should guard your time carefully. Make sure where you dedicate your time is where you want your time dedicated. Do not schedule every minute of every day so that you can have some time for free play and relaxation, but do not have an aimless schedule. Your time management habits will be followed by your children. You are their main role model for these skills. Teach them well.

You can learn in the afternoons, too. I had approached our homeschooling day a little backward I now realize. I had thought we should get up, eat breakfast, and then tackle our book work. Get it all done early so that we can have fun in the afternoons. Oh how wrong I was. I have now learned that our schoolwork can be done at any time of the day that works best for us. While a set schedule does work best for routines and planning, sometimes, we need some flexibility.

More than anything I learned to have a positive attitude and do not let myself get stressed out about it. Little Buddy certainly picks up on it when I am stressed and it just does not make for a good atmosphere for either of us.

Now for next week, we are return to our regularly scheduled program.

Living Math Lessons

Wondering where you can squeeze in more living math lessons? We have fit in a few this week. The more I began looking for living math opportunities, the more I seemed to find. Here are some that we had this week. I am sure there were many more that I failed to include.

1. Couponing. I've mentioned this before in another post. Or was it on Twitter? Anyway, I was excited and shocked at how much Little Buddy enjoyed clipping and then using coupons. He was on a mini-scavenger hunt all through the grocery store with me. He would compare prices for me and calculate the new price. Great math lesson. He read a good deal as well. And of course, we used some of the savings we had for an Icee on the way out. :) Fun and rewards were had by all.

2. Golf. During Little Buddy's golf camp, I heard the coach giving them scores from 1-10 on their hits. The first one to get to a certain number one the "shoot-out." He would ask the children what their score was as they went along. He made them add their scores. If they missed their adding, he would correct them nicely. They had a vested interest in making sure their adding was correct and had to do it rather quickly. Great lesson.

3. Tennis. Similar to golf, but the children were keeping score in a tennis match themselves. Amazing how sharp they are with their math skills when they are competing in a game.

4. Allowance. We handle our allowance a little differently lately. Little Buddy receives a certain amount each week and then extra for additional chores, such as helping with yard work, etc. He has to divide his allowance equally into three categories: 1) spend 2) save 3) donate. This is his responsibility to manage and know his balances each week. (With just a wee bit of help :))

5. Toys. Little Buddy has been saving his allowance for a while for a special Lego. Before we could go to the store to get this Lego, he had to be sure that he had enough allowance in his spending category to use. We remind him that tax also has to be included in purchases and ask him to estimate how much he expects to spend in tax. This is a little bit advanced since we are just beginning to work on our multiplication. At least he understands the reason why he needs to know his multiplication facts.

These are some of the living math lessons that I recognized this week. What about you? Do you have special lessons that I should look to include in our lives. Leave a comment to share.