Time line of Ancient History

As we worked through Susan Bauer's The Story of the World (Volume 1, Ancient Times) for history, Jonah was required to put dates on a timeline.   Although certainly not his favorite activity, I believe it was a fantastic supplement to the already stellar curriculum that Bauer provides.  Here's the result, despite the student's opinion, I like it!

One child - one year - FOUR schools....

Our daughter, bless her little sweet soul - has had FOUR schools in a bit over one year.

So I'd like to publicly present her with the:

2011 MOST FLEXIBLE LEARNER AWARD

Here's what she's experienced:
September 2010 - March 2011 Normandale Elementary French Immersion (Edina, MN) a public school
March 2011 - May 2011 Larson Homeschool (London, UK) as we uprooted our family mid-year
June 2011 - July 2011 St. Christina's (London, UK) a very sweet private British school around the corner
August 2011 - present Private School in London

The middle school homeschooler might need to be renamed the middle school mom....

Whew!  We made it through a year of homeschooling.  Wowser.  Hooray.  Yipppeee! 

And now - what next?

Well if you know our situation, you're aware that we've had to move our family to London.  Right in the middle of this trying homeschooling thing.  Not what I was expecting. 

But the beauty of it was discovering that I was now prepared to homeschool ALL of the children.  So that is what we did this spring.  It wasn't like we could land in London in March and get the kids into good schools - no, no, no.  There are no spots.  These school spaces are far and few between.  So we homeschooled!  It worked for us.  My daughter did get to attend a sweet British private school for the last half of the last term...just a taste.  Then summer hit and we went back to MN for our home visit.  Now fall is knocking at the door.  And guess what.  ALL three of the children have places at a school in our London neighborhood.  ALL three of  my children will be together, I can't believe it.  Tuition coverage is part of our situation here, so we're happily accepting the fact that homeschooling may be for another time.  I'll probably continue to be a "homework" homeschooler.  I swear, I was practically homeschooling prior to jumping in officially, as most of you out there know that as parents, you are expected to be homework MANAGER.  This is no small task.  I know many families for whom it is daunting. 

Writing about schooling - whether public schools, private schools, foreign schools, or homeschool will continue to be my forum here in this space.  I do believe I'll continue to have the flavor of homeschooling in our home, and it's quite likely that I'll homeschool each of my other two children for a year sometime in the future, hopefully during this critical period we refer to as middle school.

progress reports

We're coming to a close of our "school year" in London....

We're doing well - this week JD is in a basketball camp at the American School.  He is such a happy guy when he can play sports - he is having a lot of fun with it and meeting some kids who will be in his grade next year!  I am so happy for him.  He has grown so much even since we came here, he is really maturing. He" been reading, with intense interest, a book about the year that his Grandpa spent in VietNam (written by Grandpa)!  He really is mesmerized by it!

 

Little miss AL, she also is doing well.  She is IN LOVE with her girls school.  She wants to continue there next year but we just can't make that work with the different schedules.  I think she will accept it but I can tell it makes her sad.  Also she has hurt both her legs this past week.  She over-extends them, both of her legs, she hurt them individually while jumping (one on a trampoline and the other doing long jump at track practice).  She is hobbling around and I feel bad for her.  However she is her sweet old self.  She has been reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" every day to JP (even JD listens but pretends not to) and she is teaching him to play the piano (we got a keyboard but I haven't found a teacher yet). 

 

JD, now SEVEN years old! is making some progress finally with his writing.  Since JD and AL are gone this week each day, I have been working with him on writing and reading.  He's has become pretty good with reading, he still has to sound words out but he can make it through the most simple/easy books now and that is fun.  I highly recommend "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" - what a practical, no-nonsense way to help your child learn to read.   You can't force it though, and so if you think you'll get your three-year-old to read without his desire to do so, good luck!  The child must want to read and then this is the tool to help him reach that goal.  We started it probably over 2 years ago and have just continued to pick it up as needed.  He's doing Singapore Math Level 1A.  He's actually doing quite well, and can add double digit numbers (like 12 + 5).  I have to keep working with him through the summer.  I will try to continue to do some "school" with all the kids even when we're home because we've had so many breaks and such disruptions these past few months! 

 

I do feel like we're getting into a routine though.  It is nice but I'm also lonely, I really hate being far away from family & friends.  It is hard.  Everything else is good but being apart from everyone is hard.

We've developed the habit of reading together as a family each evening.  This is a favorite past time from when the children were younger.  Unfortunately the crazy schedules in high-pressure American suburbs do not allow for this sweet, simple tradition once children are older and running from one thing to another.  We've enjoyed re-integrating family reading time and I know the kids love it just as much. 

Nature Study in Central London

Our science curriculum was a flop, but I've been sharing the one success we had:  the Nature Journal.  Living in an urban setting, it's not as easy to find nature, but perhaps that makes the activity more necessary - to find the small touches of nature that might be under our noses.

I love this last one...

He chose the subject of the Nature Study from our back patio and researched to discover the name of the tree/flower         Magnolia grandiflora

just when I thought I was getting a handle on things...

For the first two months of this transition in our life, things went something like this:
1.  upheaval - move from US
2.  crankiness - adjustment to time zone and major lifestyle change (going from suburban Minnesota safe neighborhood with large yards and kids running everywhere.... to apartment living, none of our familiar belongings, new foods, new job for Dad, no yard, no friends, no toys!).
3.  stress of finding a permanent "home" in London - searching, thinking, researching, wondering where the best spot for us would be out of limited choices and a limited budget.
4.  emerging from the fog of #1-3 above to actually beginning to establish a routine, beginning to accomplish maybe a couple of hours of school per day.
5.  actually enjoying our place, our location, our life, being able to work well with school schedule each day

THEN we have to move into our "permanent" rental place
1.   Stressful couple of weeks as our lease agreement gets renegotiated because of a couple of problems
2.  upheaval - move to our little house, receipt of our surface shipment!
3.  crankiness - anyone who has moved recently knows it's HARD on a household, and there's so much to do
4.  stress of trying to get connected in the area - looking at schools again, getting the kids into sports/activities, finding a babysitter, learning where to get groceries, etc.
5.  figuring out how to get around - walking and subway had been our only options - until we all got bicycles which was a big job in itself
6.  emerging from the fog of #1-5 to actually beginning to establish a routine, beginning to accomplish a few hours of school per day
7.  learning that our daughter would be able to attend a school just around the corner - for the remainder of the British school year, and realizing that I only truly had a couple of weeks left of "homeschooling all of my children" when I feel like I hardly even got to get my feet on the ground to do a good job at it....  accepting that it was the perfect situation for our family, for this time, for this adjustment.
8.  relief to move on to the next phase of this adjustment to life here

Who ever thought that homeschooling and ex-pat family would go hand in hand?  I've heard of a few other families here in London who have had this experience and turned to homeschooling because of the same underlying problem = there are no schools available.  So I know I'm not alone.  I wonder how others who uproot their families mid-school year and move to the world's most populated cities deal with this issue?

Photos of our home school in London (APRIL)

Here are some of the best things we did for school in London the first month:

Let's start with the kids' favorites:  spending time in the wonderful parks of London!

The Princess of Wales Memorial Playground, a short walk from our temporary accommodations the first month, became the perfect spot for daily "recess".  The kids especially loved the boats here, like the massive pirate ship here, for climbing upon!

 A visit to some friends from Minnesota who live near the Kew Botanical Gardens

One of the few exhibitions we paid to visit so far has been the Tower Bridge Exhibition.  Interesting perspective on engineering and the layout of the Thames through London

What a treat, we had Belgian friends visit the 3rd week we were here.  They took us to many of the markets of London and we were immersed in that beautiful French melody

Nature Study in Kensington Gardens

NATURE STUDY:  I love this, and the kids enjoy it as well... 

My inspiration for these activities has come from Pocketful of Pinecones: Nature Study With the Gentle Art of Learning : A Story for Mother Culture by Karen Andreola

It is read as a fictional story, where the homeschool mom goes on nature walks with her children each Wednesday afternoon. Together they observe God's marvelous creation and record their findings into their Nature Notebooks.

Here, the kids are supposed to be "working" while I attend the walk-through at the small townhouse we will rent.  There were some problems with the walk-through and the kids really needed to sit there, do their work, and not interrupt me.  Easier said than done; they made a good attempt.  It was a stressful day.  At least the sun was shining!

the end of full time homeschooling all three kids in London?

This is where I commend all those of you who homeschool, all your children, full-time.  I am in awe of you - really!  

I began this blog to journal my experience homeschooling ONE child, for one year (maybe more - I was hoping to do 2 - 3 years during middle school, depending on how things were going).  Mid-way through this academic year, I found our family thrown across the Atlantic Ocean unexpectedly as my husband needed to take an ex-pat position in London with his company.  Schools in London are packed, jammed, bursting....parents sign their babies up when they are newborns, for schools to attend when they're 3 years old!! 

Therefore, arriving in London at the end of March, there were literally NO school options for my children.  Which meant that home education became the best option - for all of them.

I've enjoyed having the children, and to be honest, I believe it has not only brought them closer together but also has perhaps helped ease the transition to life here.  But if I am truly honest with myself, I can say that there were many days when I lost my temper, lost my patience, and lost my head!!  Trying to launch our life here AND school them was tricky.  I regret the days that I have yelled too much.  I regret not figuring out a way to enlist help earlier on (babysitters, tutors, etc.).  I regret the times I lost my patience!

We're ending this mode now.   10 year old daughter will begin a school around the corner tomorrow (sniff, sniff).  I'll have the boys to homeschool for the rest of the academic year...while their sister experiencing the British school system!

As I age, I understand that my life is built up of stages, each very different, unique experiences at a certain point in time.  Particularly as a mother this is true, because these kids, they are always changing - and it's hard to keep up!!   I appreciate this stage I had, here in London, with all three of my children, all the time, despite my shortcomings.  Looking back, I'm sure I'll have the rosy glasses on and remember the beautiful moments....

the value of homeschooling, according to a 12 year old

Part of our ex-pat package includes private school tuition.  Hmmm.  That is hard to pass up!  Could I please take that tuition money and use it for the Larson Private Home School?  I would love to pay myself 3 times (for 3 children) the tuition rate of the schools to which we've applied.  My husband and I both ask ourselves, "how can we pass up the opportunity to have our children in private schools?"  The thought really never occurred to us before - we're born and raised public school people and state university grads.... now fans of home school as well!

Well, one of our issues is that we moved in the middle of the school year.  Works well when you're homeschooling.  And to be honest, I thank God that I was homeschooling from the start of this year.  This is where I am convinced of His Plan.  I often questioned my sense that I should homeschool this year... Now, boy if I had not begun homeschooling just one child this fall - how could I possibly imagine homeschooling all three of them at this point?   

Recently my son had a visit at a private school in London.  We've explained to the children how expensive it is to pay the tuition for these schools.  To be honest, I was a bit nervous about how he'd fare, being home this whole year.  Especially given the fact that the school admissions told me they would be assessing him.  They had previously told me that his application was "insufficient" - mostly because I was homeschooling this year.  That's an entirely separate blog entry though.  Well much to my delight, after his visit, he said the school seemed "easy" and that "they didn't do much".  He went as far as to say that he thought he aced the assessments (this particular child has never been too humble).   And furthermore, if the tuition of this private school was around $30,000 per year, well then homeschooling tuition, he said, "should be about 100,000".  I tried to hide my absolute sense of satisfaction.  It was nearing Mother's Day, and that sort of innocent, out-of-the-mouths-of-12-year-olds comment was all that I needed.  No wrapping required!

We need a home in order to *home school*

After more than 5 weeks in London, we will finally move into our home tomorrow.  We've rented a town house, which although small, is on three levels.  We've been in a flat - an apartment with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, furnished living area and kitchen.  It's been lovely, but....

We're still essentially living out of suitcases.  An air shipment was delivered 10 days ago which included some toys, books, and basic kitchen items, but truly, we do not have our stuff yet.

I think, I hope, I believe, that once we are home, then homeschooling will go better.  We've been struggling a bit, and I can admit I have not done my best at teaching the kids because there are so many phone calls, emails and details that we've been working out as part of the process of settling here.

How long will it take for us to settle into our home?  When will we feel like we have a home school routine established?  I'll keep you posted.   For now I continue to hold onto the hope that the kids are learning by this experience!!

Help please?

As we've settled in London, I'm feeling the weight of having to teach all the children.

This is our third week here.  The first week here, it was survival.  We were all so tired, and there was no way that we were going to open up the math workbooks or read history chapters.  And as so many experienced homeschoolers have told me, there is indeed learning going on, despite lack of formal "sit-down-and-do-academics" activities.  I'm trying not to feel guilty.

Part of the ex-pat package includes tuition to private schools.  We've applied to three schools in the area where we want to live.  At the moment, none of them have space for any of the children. 

I'm comfortable teaching Jonah - that was the plan for this year.  He has had a huge break from his academics because of this move, and I can see the results.  I feel like we have some serious catching up to do.
 
I have just submitted a request to have some help in the form of private tutors.  This cost is a small fraction of what the company would be paying out for private tuition.  I'd like a couple of hours of math tutoring, a couple of hours of native French language instruction, and a couple hours of science.  Our relocation consultant has indicated that this seems like a reasonable request, so we'll see what they say.  My fingers are crossed!

In the meantime, we have finally established a school routine.  On our best days, we still only manage to complete a couple of hours, focusing on math and writing.  But this past week, we had visitors from Belgium in London and we spent three days in a row, sightseeing with them.  I figure that was great experiential learning outside the classroom, coupled with fabulous language training!  I'm trying to read "A Little History of the World" by Gombrich, but we only manage to cover a few chapters per week. 

Patience, patience!  And perhaps help is on the way.....

Uprooting

The middle school homeschool has a new location:  London.

We arrived last week and life has become the classroom.

I've lost track exactly, but I think that we've had a good three weeks without much formal schooling.  There was the Washington DC road trip with Grandpa and Grandma followed by the uprooting of our home to move to London.  In preparation for departure, there were about 10 days of worthlessness; and upon arrival, there has been about 10 days of worthlessness. Worthlessness of the teacher, let's be clear!  I imagine more experienced home educators might suggest that there has been a great deal of learning taking place during this unique life experience.  However as this inexperienced and nervous-about-progress home educator sees things, I'm guessing that we've got some serious make-up work to do. 

In the past couple of days we have returned to our math curriculum.  General knowledge agrees that math is the backbone of the home school education. 

So we've got a starting point.  But now, instead of being able to focus on my middle schooler, I've also got a 4th grader and a kindergartner to teach at the same time. 

Shiny new library cards were handed to the kids two days ago, and that has been fantastic - they can start reading at their leisure again.  My next goal is to return to reading aloud.  They've been fidgety, argumentative, and distracted when I've read to them these past few days (albeit for very short times - like 10 minutes per day - maybe we just need more lengthy reading times).  General adjustments perhaps.  I've got a great history text, A Little History of the World, to read, and I really want to grab their attention with it.  But it just hasn't hooked them yet.  Let's hope for that to happen soon!

vacation and transition

The middle school homeschooler was on her first vacation.
Homeschooled child was on a fabulous 7 day field trip with Grandpa and Grandma and 2 cousins his same age.  They drove to Washington DC, visited many historical sites and museums and enjoyed restaurant food and hotel swimming pools!
During that time, I packed up our household to move us all to London, where the middle school homeschooler will become the full time homeschooler of three.  Wow, how things change.
Will I have time to post to this blog?
Will I be able to teach all three of my children in a foreign country???

Our schedule?

How do we schedule our school day?

Like many who begin home schooling with lofty ideas and big plans, I overestimated what we could do each day.  Back in August, I sat down with the wonderful book "The Well-Trained Mind".  The author has specific times allotted for the subjects along with details of what the student should be doing.  Terrific!  I thought, as I simply copied the plan in different time slots for the week.

Then, when September came and we began our first couple weeks of school, I was determined to begin slowly.  I did not want to push my son, causing us both to be frustrated and fighting from the start.  So, we began slowly, by talking about our overall plans, doing small assignments, and allowing for lots of playtime and outdoor fun.   He loves to read, and I found it wonderful that he spent a great deal of time working through a stack of books he had chosen from the library.

As we continued, I realized that the "ideal" hourly schedule that I had prepared so thoughtfully was obsolete.  Of course, it provided me with a guideline of topics to cover, but the reality so far is that we have not had one week where we have followed my little schedule exactly.

Now that life has really been disrupted by plans to move to London, I've found that I need more independent work for Jonah. 

Here's our basic plan at the Larson home school:


Monday:  Journal writing - Math - History - Science - English - French
Tuesday:  TEACH CO-OP (gym/science, art, writing) 9am - noon, Math and English 
Wednesday:  Journal writing - History - French - Math - English - Gym/Health club
Thursday:  Journal writing - Math - History - French - English - Science
Friday:  Journal writing - Math - English - History - French - Science
Consumer Sciences in the form of household tasks, cooking, errands
Health through library books

Most of the above "classes" last one hour.  However I've learned that the beauty of home schooling is the flexibility!!  Sometimes Jonah wants an hourly schedule for the day; we'll write it on the wipe-off board that we have in our dining area "classroom".  Other times when he is not working well, we will take a big break and push some work into the evening hours. 

I've decided that each day, our priority should be the basics:  mathematics, writing, reading - if we work hard on those, I feel that we hit the most important skills.  Usually the reading overlaps into history and science. 

Basic Curriculum:

Math – 5-7 hours per week:  “Singapore Primary” 5B, 6A, 6B  “Key to Percents books 1-3”, “Singapore Word Problems, Grade 6”

 

History – 4 hours per week:  “The Story of the World” by Susan Wise Bauer, “Kingfisher History Encyclopedia”, “A Little History of the World”, by Gombrich, library books such as “Riddle of the Rosetta Stone”, “Seeker of Knowledge”, Greek and Roman Myths, “The Iliad and the Odyssey” by Karen Spies, “Confucius:  The Golden Rule”

 

Science – 3 hours per week:  TEACH Co-op (http://www.teachct.org/), “Handbook of Nature Study” & nature journal, “Foundations of Science” workbook, library books and Science Museum visits

 

English – 6-8 hours per week:  Journal Writing, “Spelling Power”, “Core Skills Language Arts” 5&6, “Analogies & Idioms” 5&6, Poetry of Choice, book reports, Fiction of Choice, TEACH co-op writing (Institute for Excellence in Writing http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/).

 

French – 3-4 hours per week, « Grammaire Progressive du francais », «Geographie » & « Histoire » Nathan Collection Guilliver Cycle 3, fiction of choice, conversation with native speakers

 

Health – 1 hour per week:  Kingfisher Encyclopedia, library books

 

Phy-Ed – 1 hour per week :  TEACH Co-op, health club, sports clubs

 

Art – 1 hour per week :  TEACH co-op

Travel as Education

"A man travels the world over in search of what he needs, and returns home to find it."
George Moore

"Travel, in the younger sort, is part of education; in the elder, part of experience."
Francis Bacon

I found these quotes and they are perfect for our situation.

The Middle School Homeschool has encountered a large mountain ahead, and we can't wait to begin the hike!


My husband learned his job will take him to London for a few years.


I am not sure exactly when we will go, but talk about "travel" as "education"!  We are thrilled to consider the opportunities for exploration throughout Europe and hopefully even northern Africa. 

The last weeks have been filled with many distractions as we sort out this new situation, and therefore my posts have been zero.

So, to all of my followers out there, all "two" of you, I'll try to post more often as we encounter new details in this development.

Christmas Break

Happy New Year! 

Wholeheartedly, I intended to have Jonah do school work during the Christmas break.  That's the beauty of homeschooling, right?  Doing "school" whenever we can fit it into the schedule.  Because I feel we launched slowly this fall, and because I did not want to begin my experience as a homeschooler by pushing my child to frustration, maxing him out daily with my grandiose plans of academic achievement (frankly that is not my thing), we really took our academics lightly this fall.  Truly.  My desire was to focus on the basics - math, writing, and reading.  I figured, if we worked in those areas each day, we were doing well, right?  Or are we?  I guess I don't know...  and many days I wonder, I worry, I fret.... am I teaching him enough?  Are we LEARNING?   Those thoughts made me quite certain that we would "catch up" over the break.  While all his school classmates would be completely on break, he'd be foraging ahead, working through math problems, writing essays, reading complicated literature.....yeah, right! 

Again, my thoughts meet up with reality.  Brother and sister are home from school, and they don't have any work, so why should he?

Perhaps two days out of the two week vacation, we squeezed in a few math problems.  I also asked each child to memorize a Christmas poem.  Beyond that, NOTHING.  Or, better yet, something - something meaningful, something important, something wonderful:  time to just be a kid.  Sledding in the yard with kids from the neighborhood.  Baking and decorating cookies.  Making a gingerbread house (from a box, I love that).  Lots of playtime in the basement with the 6 year old brother who adores him.  Board games - the favorites were Sequence, Set, Life, and Frog Juice.  Shopping for gifts for cousins and brother and sister.  Video games (yes, I detest them, but they adore them, so much, we limit it).  Helping with gift wrapping.  Shoveling the driveway after the massive snowfalls.  Reading, sleeping in late, staying up with Dad watching sports, spending time with cousins, aunts and uncles, and Grandpa and Grandma.  That's all much better than academics, isn't it?