Friday, May 11, 2012
Landform Diorama
Andy's class was studying land and geography in March. The very creative Ms. Lori got Andy to do a project with Iris's help one week: build a landform diorama during that week's noon quiet time (Andy and Iris are the only kids in school that never naps). When Andy brought it home on Friday, he was all excited telling me about how they stuffed shredded paper in the volcano, glued moss as forest and sandpaper as desert, the words he copied from Ms. Lori, etc. We were thrilled to see it and so grateful for his amazing teachers at Little Dinosaurs.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Last Day of Homeschooling While On Leave
It's the last Friday of the five-month maternity leave before I go back to work next week. It's been an amazing time that I'm already starting to miss. I spent precious time with my boys, pondered about their education and my art, and got to know some amazing people outside the high tech circle. I have also thought about what are the best ways for us as working parents to spend limited available time with our children. I think I found my answer.
On Friday morning, after spending quite a bit effort working through a fairly advanced Chinese story book, Andy was able to independently read the whole story to me fluently. We were both thrilled. I wanted to do something adventurous for a change of pace. I had a few ideas and Andy picked the Pacific Science Center. After an hour of drive, bus and walk, we arrived! It was a fun adventure despite my shoulders hurting from lifting ~17 lb all day (Daniel + backpack). We learned about everything from genetics (the first exhibit as we walked in), tide pool creatures (this really friendly staff explained what they all were so now I can tell mussel from clam), to a history and future live show (I explained concepts like future and predictions to Andy, he liked the show a lot). He didn't like the 3D IMAX Sea-Rex though, the sound effect made it too scary for him.
Today was an example response to my question. I think it is about exposing kids to things they don't readily experience in school (museums, hikes, libraries, sports, etc), and doing things either the parents or the kids are excited about. When we first started homeschooling I was amazed by how fast Andy absorbs knowledge like a sponge and was eager to teach him as much as I could. Slowly I came to realize that they have many many school years ahead to learn academics and you wouldn't want him to get bored in school. So I no longer spend much time teaching reading and math. Aside from the social behavioral teachings in the daily doing, it is my privilege to explore the world with him. Our homeschooling turned into more of doing projects and exploring places together. Andy loves doing projects. It started out as me suggesting project ideas and he soon started coming up with his own. We work together to complete each other's ideas and implement the projects. One of the first projects he came up with was making a dragonfly out of 1 branch (body), 2 rocks (eyes), and 2 leaves (wings). We are currently working on a flower press project. I look forward to weaving a learning journey out of fond childhood memories together.
On Friday morning, after spending quite a bit effort working through a fairly advanced Chinese story book, Andy was able to independently read the whole story to me fluently. We were both thrilled. I wanted to do something adventurous for a change of pace. I had a few ideas and Andy picked the Pacific Science Center. After an hour of drive, bus and walk, we arrived! It was a fun adventure despite my shoulders hurting from lifting ~17 lb all day (Daniel + backpack). We learned about everything from genetics (the first exhibit as we walked in), tide pool creatures (this really friendly staff explained what they all were so now I can tell mussel from clam), to a history and future live show (I explained concepts like future and predictions to Andy, he liked the show a lot). He didn't like the 3D IMAX Sea-Rex though, the sound effect made it too scary for him.
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| Working on DNA sequencing |
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| a Hermit crab |
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| a clam |
Today was an example response to my question. I think it is about exposing kids to things they don't readily experience in school (museums, hikes, libraries, sports, etc), and doing things either the parents or the kids are excited about. When we first started homeschooling I was amazed by how fast Andy absorbs knowledge like a sponge and was eager to teach him as much as I could. Slowly I came to realize that they have many many school years ahead to learn academics and you wouldn't want him to get bored in school. So I no longer spend much time teaching reading and math. Aside from the social behavioral teachings in the daily doing, it is my privilege to explore the world with him. Our homeschooling turned into more of doing projects and exploring places together. Andy loves doing projects. It started out as me suggesting project ideas and he soon started coming up with his own. We work together to complete each other's ideas and implement the projects. One of the first projects he came up with was making a dragonfly out of 1 branch (body), 2 rocks (eyes), and 2 leaves (wings). We are currently working on a flower press project. I look forward to weaving a learning journey out of fond childhood memories together.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Discover Our Own Special Light
"We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light."
- Mary Dunbar
I had been wanting to put this quote up for a while and told Andy we were doing a big project on this on our walk last Friday. So we started brainstorming what to put on this BIG project (and I brought out my biggest drawing paper). Andy said a tree, a person, a truck, etc. I was amused how many things he rattles out without a pause. We started the project after his nap. It took us a few days and we finally completed all the decorations tonight! We played as equals and got busy putting forth our ideas. We took turn writing the words (can you tell whose is which) and bounced off each others' ideas decorating it. For example, he asked me to cut out the letter E, and I got the idea of cutting out mountain shapes from that, and then he decided to put up houses with chimney using the rectangle and triangle shapes I cut. It was a fun creative exercise for both.
We decided to start a new ritual following the Waldorf school tradition by lighting 2 candles (one for Andy and one for Daniel) and saying the quote we put up at the start of our homeschool days to establish a rhythm. We both get excited about blowing candles :-)
Kids are so full of ideas. Give them a seed of imagination to start, nurture it, and they grow a garden-ful of ideas.
- Mary Dunbar
I had been wanting to put this quote up for a while and told Andy we were doing a big project on this on our walk last Friday. So we started brainstorming what to put on this BIG project (and I brought out my biggest drawing paper). Andy said a tree, a person, a truck, etc. I was amused how many things he rattles out without a pause. We started the project after his nap. It took us a few days and we finally completed all the decorations tonight! We played as equals and got busy putting forth our ideas. We took turn writing the words (can you tell whose is which) and bounced off each others' ideas decorating it. For example, he asked me to cut out the letter E, and I got the idea of cutting out mountain shapes from that, and then he decided to put up houses with chimney using the rectangle and triangle shapes I cut. It was a fun creative exercise for both.
We decided to start a new ritual following the Waldorf school tradition by lighting 2 candles (one for Andy and one for Daniel) and saying the quote we put up at the start of our homeschool days to establish a rhythm. We both get excited about blowing candles :-)
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| Our new school space: a card table (no more messy dining table) in front of living window across from our Special Light quote. |
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