A place to visit near KC

Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead... The Farmstead is a 12-acre park. It has farm animals, birds of prey, vegetable and flower gardens, a one-room country schoolhouse, old time fishing pond, horse drawn wagon rides and pony rides. Admission is free.

Mallard Fillmore on homeschooling

Mallard Fillmore's commentary on a home-schooler winning the National Geography Bee

Rambling

Today I have been thinking about all of the resources that I have available to me. I'm on dozens of email lists, few of which I actually read on a timely basis. I'm in two local homeschool groups even though my oldest is only (almost) 4, we don't legally have to start school until he is 7, and if we went with the norm of kindergarten at 5 it would still be 16 months away.

On KS Homeschool Net the editor wrote an article about learning via our "obsessions". I think I'm in an obsessive mode right now. It reminds me of how I was when I was pregnant the first time. I could not read enough about pregnancy and child birth. Then, after he was born, that phase was over. Right now I'm reading, and reading, and reading, and planning, and reading, and trying to stop planning, and reading.... I'm building a library of books for my boys and a library of books for me (and my husband). I recently bought Ruth Beechick's Three R's series (as mentioned yesterday), I have Christian Unschooling and The Unschooling Handbook, and I just ordered Rue Kream's Parenting a Free Child.

Even though there are many things I like about Sonlight's curriculum (particularly using non-textbooks), I'm still not sure if it is for me/us. I don't even really know my boys' learning styles because they are away from me at daycare more than they are with me (awake). I'm having much stronger feelings that we, particularly I need to deschool. Sometimes I think that DS1 will even need some deschool time caused by the social environment and structure of daycare. If I want to get my husband on board with unschooling, then I will need to show him first, before the pressure is on (fall 2007).

I also think that it's time to back off of so many email lists and parenting magazines. I may subscribe to Live Free Learn Free even though it is relatively expensive ($30/yr/6 issues), because I think it is a magazine that will inspire me and help me remember the things that I want to focus on for my family. Last evening I cleaned up my email. I skimmed subjects and read a few posts as I deleted 1-3 weeks worth of mail. I was really surprised at how little of the content interested me on several of the lists. There are a few people that will turn anything into an argument. I don't like to be around rudeness or arguments, either in person or in cyberspace. It's a shame, though, because the potential is there for some helpful information. It's just not worth weeding through all of the chaff to get to the wheat in some cases.

Homeschooling a 3- or 4-Year-Old

The past couple of days I've been thinking that I need to send an email to unschoolkansas and ask the ladies to talk me out of ordering homeschooling materials, specifically a curriculum. I'm very eager and excited that the boys will be coming home to me this fall! However, I'm going overboard in my head. I even had a chart of the "subjects" that Sonlight (Pre-K and K) covers and which levels I would get:

• Instructor Guide - Pre K
  
• History/World Cultures/Geography - just a couple Pre-K books we don't already have
  
• Read-Alouds - ditto
  
• Readers - new K readers
  
• Bible - use our toddler story Bible
  
• Language Arts - nothing special -or- follow Ruth Beechick's recommendations
  
• Science - just Berenstain Bears' Big Book of Science and Nature from Sonlight
  
• Readiness Skills - maybe Developing the Early Learner (book 1 only to start)
  
• Math - Math-U-See primer or Singapore Early Bird
  
• Handwriting - Handwriting Without Tears - beginning level
  
• Electives (Music/Art/etc) - just fun stuff at home
  
• Resources - Ruth Beechick's Three-R's Series.
  
  Fortunately, I got Three-R's on inter-library loan, and I'm reminding myself that although DS1 is very smart and is even beginning to read, he is only 4 (next week) and that "school" isn't even required in Kansas until age 7! We should just continue to do stuff and have fun together. I'm sure his reading will blossom without any "academic" effort on my part. And his math skills and thinking skills will improve on their own also. Maybe, just maybe, I'll use the above list for a year from now. What I really want to do next year is play -- WIHS playgroups, Parents as Teachers, and even some playdates we set up on our own if we make any friends :-) -- and go to the library, and visit Grandpa, and trade babysitting with my sister, and to go to our place in Colorado more often, and fun stuff like that. I want to have a library / reading corner in our living room for the boys and their books and have a bunch of pillows on the floor behind the couch. That's what I really want for next year.

3RsPlus_READ

3RsPlus_READ is a reading program that I want to check into further. Since DS1 is begining to read on his own now (a week before his 4th birthday), I am trying to figure out what to do (if anything) to help him along.

Inflatable / Writable Earth Globe

I don't know how soon we would use this, but an inflatable / writable globe sure seems cool to me!

LeapingFromTheBox.com - Unschooling

Unschooling (Unschoolers, Unschool) Information - LeapingFromTheBox.com is a brief article about unschooling. There are several links here that I would like to follow.

Measurement Systems

Freedom-In-Education's April Newsletter has a great article on measurement systems. It explains the origins of the Imperial system and the Metric system.

There is a sidebar with volume equivalences that has 5 fluid ounces = 1 gill, 4 gills = 1 pint. I've never heard of a gill before, but this does explain why there are 2 sets of ounce measurements on Avent brand baby bottles. US ounces are 8 to a cup which equals 16 to a pint. UK ounces are 5 to a gill which equals 20 to a pint. Thus, pints, quarts, gallons, pecks, and bushels may be the same volume, but they contain a different number of ounces, therefore the ounces are not the same.

National Wildlife Federation

National Wildlife Federation has sections of their different magazines online. Since I have unsubbed from the email list, and we'll probably let our magazine subscriptions expire, I want to keep this link.

Greathall Productions: Award Winning Storytelling for Children

Greathall Productions: Award Winning Storytelling for Children

The New Yorker: Shouts and Murmurs

The New Yorker: Shouts and Murmurs - if the page isn't the article I want, then look for My Billy from the 2006-04-03 issue, posted on 2006-03-27, by Paul Rudnick.

Family Learning Organization - Why Natural Learning?

I heard about this on TAGMAX and want to make sure I read it later.