Learning About Hawai'i

If you live in Hawai'i, it would be a shame not to learn about Hawai'i in school, right? Of course, our curriculum doesn't include anything state-specific, but the islands have such an interesting history and culture! I decided we needed to find some way to add a little bit of Hawai'i to our school day.

Enter A Visit to Hawaii coloring book. Each page has a short paragraph explaining some part of Hawaiian culture, including anything from the formation of the islands (I find it very interesting that a single volcano produced all of the islands. It continued to flow as plates shifted, producing the 8 different islands) to fun facts about surfing. We read a page once a week, and then Child Thing #1 gets to color. She is sooo into coloring (and any artsy craftsy thing, really) lately.

I'm really glad I came across this coloring book. It is a great addition to our curriculum because it's fun, easy and both of us learn a lot from it!

What Should I Do?

*SIGH* Child Thing #2 now refuses to take an afternoon nap. I suspect, he's not really ready to give up his nap because if we happen to be in the car in early afternoon, he konks out for hours at a time. Or if I lay him down on the couch and turn on the TV for him, he will usually fall asleep instantly. But...if I try to put him in his bed...not gonna happen. He'll stay in there (sometimes) for a hour and not fall asleep.

So this has put a kink in my homeschooling schedule. I used to work with Child Thing #2 in the afternoon during naptime. As I see it, I have two options.
#1. This is what we have done for the past couple of weeks. We start working on school around 10 a.m., with little brother attending school with us. This makes for many distractions on the part of both student and teacher. We take a break for an hour or two for lunch and recess, then spend another couple of hours finishing our lessons. Today Child Thing #2 got VERY grouchy in the last half of school, so I laid him down on the couch and let him watch a TV show while we finished up school. Child Thing #1, of course, did not want to miss out on the TV time, so she rushed through her work to get it done.
#2. Attempt to get Child Thing #1 to take a nap in the afternoon (by either method mentioned above), and continue with our old routine of doing school during his nap. The thing is I can never guarantee that he's going to fall asleep. And if I use the TV to induce naptime, my scholar will not be interested the least bit in her schoolwork.

I don't know...what should I do?

It definitely makes me wonder about next year, when there will be 3 child things. Will I be able to keep up the homeschooling then?

If so, I'm not so sure I will use Sonlight again. There are some things I really like about that curriculum, but some things that just don't make much sense to me. Maybe this is how kindergarten is supposed to be, but, it seems like the curriculum does not go in depth to any subject. You get just a little glimpse of everything, but don't do much true exploring and learning of any topic. I also don't know that it is organized that well. The science lesson plans bother me because we'll spend a week learning about, say...sea life, and then do a science activity that is not related to that at all.

But I have to say, I have totally loved the "read alouds" included with the curriculum. Child Thing #1 and I have both enjoyed the books, and sometimes I even try to talk Scott into reading some of our school books because I found them so interesting!

Anyway, lots of questions about the future of our homeschool. I don't even know where we'll be living next fall. We'll just take it as it comes, I suppose. :)

What Have I Been Doing?

So...it's the 8th...almost the 9th of September and I haven't even really thought about my list for Seven on the Seventh yet, so I'm just gonna take a pass this month. I haven't blogged at all in a while...what have I been doing?

Well, I'm now the FRG leader for Scott's company, and I'm finding that to be pretty all-consuming. I'm having a great time doing it, mind you, but it definitely keeps me busy. It's probably really one of those things that you can put in as much time as you want, and I guess I'm putting in quite a bit of time. Hehe. And homeschool, of course.

Here is Child Thing #1 on the first day of school in our school room.
Now we are on week 4, and are starting to get into a good rhythm. For the most part, things are going well. We do have a few issues with motivation every now and then. She enjoys her science, her math, her Bible and her history a lot. The things that she finds challenging (reading and writing), she really drags her feet on. But I'm finding ways to make it work.

-It's better to do the hard stuff first, before her energy starts to drop.
-It helps a lot to take a snack break after she finishes the hard stuff (even though it really only takes us 2-3 hours (usually) to finish all our assignments). It's good motivation to know she'll get a treat when she finishes her work, and it's good to sit and recuperate after stretching your brain to the max. ;)
-She loves it if I let her take a "friend" to school. This means she gets to pick out a stuffed animal or doll to be a student. It makes me more like we're playing school, but whatever works! She and the other student will take turns reading sentences in her readers, or I will call on different students to answer questions on the worksheets. Of course, she is the voice for the stuffed animal too, so it's not like she's doing less work.

We have also joined a homeschooling group on our island and are starting to get involved in that and make some friends. So, yes...so far so good in homeschool. Things are busy, busy.

In other news, my blogger seems to have some sort of malfunction, and I can't leave comments on almost all of the blogs I read. so...don't think I'm ignoring you...just having some technical difficulties.

It's Official...Unofficially.

Look what I got in the mail! It's our curriculum for kindergarten, and I'm excited about it! Last year I wrote a lot about our trial period of homeschooling, but until recently I didn't decide for sure what we were going to do about school this year. As you can see, I have now decided. We are going to homeschool, and we are using the Sonlight curriculum. The Child Thing and I have already rummaged through the boxes a little bit, and both of us found items that looked interesting.

It's still not totally official. I haven't registered with the state, but that won't be hard. I'm feeling positive about this and about our new curriculum, too. I think we will have a great school year!