Bryn's Report

Click link below to view Bryn's report. She brought it up to school and Miss Drew had her present it to the entire class. Bryn was quite proud of herself. I'm so proud she did this all on her own!


http://www.scribd.com/full/50820137?access_key=key-kh55smm625tw3e6mdlh

Unexpected Benefits

Right now, Morgan is my only child being homeschooled. Bryn and Coco will start with the new school year. However, over vacation and on weekends I have been doing "trial" homeschooling with them. Mainly to help  me figure out what on Earth I am doing, and what works, before we start for real. Already I have discovered some real benefits. Learning has become more apart of family life, and something that happens all the time. For instance last week Coco and Morgan made their own tofurkey (yes they love this stuff) sandwiches. Then, while eating, they discussed how many squirts of ketchup and mustard they used. Who had used more, who had used less, which one was greatest, which one was least. A little math lesson, totally spontaneous and unprompted by me.
This weekend we took the whole family to the Chattahoochee Nature Center. It's minutes from our home and I am now convinced it is the greatest place on Earth. In the Nature Exchange kids are encouraged to bring in found items from nature, nature journals and projects of all kinds. They are awarded points based on what they know about their items. The points can be exchanged for a wide array of goodies from shells to insects to amazing fossils. Kids projects are on display throughout the Exchange, it's a homeschoolers dream!
Entirely of her own accord, Bryn picked a bird out of her birders guide and got working on a report. She spent all her free time this past weekend working on it. I can't believe how great of a job she did. She even created a chart for a humorous "Bird Menu" at the end.We will be taking it to the Nature Exchange this weekend to see how many points she has earned. (I will post her report as soon as I figure out how!) I am becoming more and more convinced this is the way to learn!

Trial Homeschool Adventure Pics

Social Studies! We found a recipe for egg rolls that had been in the Ling family for over 300 years. They took hours to make, but tasted great!

Our first nature walk! We have great trails right in our own neighborhood. The kids each found one thing they wanted to investigate further at home.

Continuation of our nature study. Coco brought home a branch covered in lichen. They sketched the branch looking with their eyes, then sketched what the lichen looked like under the microscope. We also went to a few kids science sites to learn more about lichen and wrote out facts for handwriting practice.

Coco skipped school to go to the Mythical Creatures exhibit at the Fernbank. I couldn't believe how much attention he paid to everything. We followed it up at home reading multiple Greek Myths. 

Coco's teacher sent home all the work he missed when we skipped school and went to the museum. We completed an entire day's assignments in 30 minutes! We continued the lessons ourselves and practiced place value with money.

My Newest Idea

My most favorite thing in life is a new idea. Lots of them don't stick around much past "Hey, I was thinking..." but, sometimes they take hold and change my life. My current big thing is homeschooling the kids. It started out as what to do with sweet, shy Morgan. The more research I did, the more it looked like a fabulous idea for the whole family. We can set our own schedule, learn as fast (or slow) as we need, and take field trips at least once a week. Plus we avoid a lot of the negative school peer pressure and teasing. No one else out there cares about my kids as much as I do. It makes sense that I should be in charge of educating and molding their minds.
So, if you just can't get enough of my incessant Facebook updates, think I've completely gone off my rocker and want to see how much farther I will go, or are just plain curious, stick around. This is bound to be an interesting year!!