Attracted to Learning

The amazing, magical power of magnetism. 
What wonderful discoveries will we uncover?

The month of September Unit was Magnets.
When I asked my kids this year what they wanted to study, both of them agreed that magnetism was fascinating to them. My son is constantly interested in anything having to do with science and experiments. This sounded like a good plan.

I went to the school supply store and purchased a kit. It is small but has everything needed to conduct proper experiments about magnetism. Even daily instructions for one different kind of experiment per day for about a week. Then I went to the library and found all the books I could about the way magnets work. Then I started planning,


The kids love to do art projects, so I thought that we should start by having something to work with. I recycled several tin cans (tin has some iron which is magnetic, aluminum is not magnetic.) and a few bottle-caps. Then I got some magnetic tape that has a adhesive side, and some good titanium craft scissors. (Titanium is non-magnetic as well.) The kids first project was to make a decoration for the outside of the cans to make them into pencil-holders. It will be really hard for them, when it is time for writing, to use not being able to find a pencil as an excuse, now.
We then made bottlecap magnets from cutting tiny pictures out of magazines and mod-podge-ing them into the bottle caps, and adhering small pieces of the magnetic tape to the backs. These stuck onto the pencil holders for a bit more personality. It was fun searching through the magazines for the little pictures and using the tiny bottle cap frames.

But the real artwork came when we took a new spin on a favorite medium. My kids have loved to make marble-paintings. We get a flat, rectangular bin and put paper inside then we dip marbles into the paint and roll them around the paper by tilting the bin side to side or putting the lid on and shaking the jibblies out of it. Lots of fun and a really interesting result, especially considering how many colors and combinations of colors of paint.
Also how long you roll the marbles around can change the look. But this time, we added the science of magnetism to it.
We used the magnetic marbles from the kit. And a powerful wand magnet.

I first set it up by asking the kids to hypothesize whether the magnets would still be attracted to the wand through the plastic bin, or if they would not react to the wands movements through the bin. It was a split guess. We had to test it out and find out! (I tested it myself ahead of time, to make sure this project would turn out as fun as I had hoped.)

I put each kids' name on the back of the paper, so that when the whole paper was full of paint I would still be able to tell later on whose was whose. Then we took turns. That day I had an extra preschool student, so we got to try 3 different ways of moving the marbles.
The first way was to put all the marbles in together. Now, since each marble is also magnet, as well as being attracted by the wand, they were all attracted to each other. So eventually we had a connected line of marbles that wanted to move as one. That blended the different colors of paint much more than the usual effect of regular marble painting.

I had one kid hold the bin while the other kid moved the wand underneath the bin and paper. They never had to touch the wand to the bin, and the marbles would move whichever way the wand went. I thought  it would be better to leave the lid off, since it was a solid colored opaque lid, so they could see what they were doing, and because it was open, I had them leave the wand under, so the marbles wouldn't stick to the wand. It was really fun to watch them move the marbles around like magic, having the wand so far away and still being so effective. But having all the marbles in the bin was slightly challenging, so the next kid chose to do one color at a time.

This gave her a little more control over how the color was being applied to the artwork.
It was a little longer of a process, but more enjoyable to my little artist that way. :)

The third kid was excited about moving the marbles as fast as he could, so the result if his artwork was quite a bit different than the other two. It is so cool having the kids try things and experiment and blend science and art together.

The kids really enjoyed exploring and experimenting different movements and watching how the marbles would react. For instance, they found that by flipping the wand over top and bottom with a little flick of the wrist, the marble would dance, due to the repelling one side and being attracted to the other. And by adding all the colors at once, they could make all the marbles do all kids of movements, all resulting in much different-looking pictures:

The whole project felt like a very fun, hands-on way to learn the function of attracting and repelling.
There were other fun projects we explored, of which I have no pictures, sadly. So here is a picture of a magnet:

But the book I used for some of them was a book of illusions that make things appear to be floating or moving on their own, such as making a donut-ring magnet levitate above the table on a pencil, or causing a paper "snake" to rise out of a basket like a snake charmer, using hidden magnets to propel the illusion. These were a light-hearted way of finding new uses for magnetism. I would teach them the principle of the trick, then they would preform it for daddy later. This was something to which they seemed to really look forward.
They had the "boring part of the lesson, which was us discussing the properties of magnets and their uses, and then we would do a hands on part.
We learned about the history of magnetic discovery, and about compasses, electromagnetism, and its connections to modern-day electronic devices, and many other topics. They had fun seeing a small bar magnet floating on a piece of foam in a bowl of water point the way north. And watching iron filings surround different shaped magnets through the plastic covering, then making the "Wooly Willy" facial hair designs with it.

All in all, the month of September was a fun lesson unit. What will October bring us? Stay tuned to find out. :)

Telling Tales

This is about a fun and exciting new world of imagination that we have recently unlocked:

Puppet shows!

For years I have wanted my kids to be as imaginative as I was when I was a child. My siblings and I ( mostly spearheaded by myself) would always be acting out plays. writing stories and puppet shows, coming up with the best reenactments for playtime. I remember putting on at least a dozens shows for my parents in my childhood. My kids have never really done that. Perhaps it's because they have had way more screen time than I did as a child. Whatever the reason, I keep trying to encourage them toward coming up with and acting out more stories. Don't get me wrong, my kids have great imaginations. I have really loved some of the stuff they've created. They just haven't seemed to have the need for an audience for those magical worlds that they've invented. I know it's not stage fright that's keeping them from performing... They love to perform! So perhaps it's more of a need for a director?

This all recently became more of a reality with the arrival of a gift from one of their grandmothers.
A puppet show theater. A great garage sale find.

 Just look at it. Isn't it just inspiring and just waiting to be played with? Don't you just want to get behind it and start imagining?
I knew I had to get the kids involved with it somehow.
I suddenly had the idea to introduce it along with an assignment: 'I will read a story and you must reenact it with puppets'. They were so excited about this!
It has now become a goal of mine to integrate it into our fall lessons.

Our first story was the Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter. I read it to them with the instructions to listen carefully to the details, the main characters, and the basic plot. That way they would each be able to recreate one of the main characters and retell the story using their puppets. This goes right along with the lesson on stories I had done in the spring.

Our puppet were not very elaborate. I pulled a cardboard cereal box out of recycling, grabbed some markers, scissors, tape and stir sticks (in lieu of popsicle craft sticks). I had 2 daycare boys with me this particular day, so each kid picked one of the characters, with the 3 siblings of Peter being one collective character, and we drew out the bunnies and gardener onto the cardboard, then they colored them, cut them out and taped them to the stick.

We probably should have rehearsed it a bit more before the actual performance, I realize in retrospect. However, here is the first ever puppet show via our new theater:

 

The next story they wanted to retell was The Three Pigs. My kids were really excited to make the characters for this and spent about and hour getting it ready, then by the time they were done, didn't want to do puppets any more that day. So we postponed that show for a later date. 

Here are the pictures of the puppets.

The big bad wolf and the second pig with the stick house, made by my son.

The first pig and with the house of straw/hay, made by one of my preschoolers.

The third pig with the house of bricks, made by my son, colored in by another fine preschooler.

The next day, the kids were excited by the puppet show theater, but too impatient to make cardboard puppets, so I told them to go into our laundry room and pick from the huge bag of odd socks we'd collected over the years, and make their own sock puppets. I imagined something close to this:

I wanted to see how far their imaginations would take them from the headstart I had given them with guiding through the cardboard puppet project. I also wanted to see if they would come up with their own stories to tell through puppets, if they would do a well-known story, or if they wouldn't tell a story at all, but rather just mess around.

The result was they found glitter glue, foam stickers and markers and made a general mess in my schoolroom. Hmm. Not pretty. But after I had them clean it all up, they made faces on white socks with markers. Then they played with them much like they do with dolls, coming up with the family relationship and acting out a story-like scene between parent and child:

This was so rewarding and fulfilling to me, seeing them just have fun, not realizing how they were expressing their creativity and interacting so well with each other in this format.  I really enjoyed sitting back and letting them go on their own. Okay, so I was probably taking care of a baby or doing dishes somewhere in the house, but still. Not having to show them how to be creative but just letting them explore that world themselves, without them needing me to entertain them was so great.
This is just what I was hoping would happen. I decided that they would retell a story they had heard and liked, to me and we would write it down in a simple, easy-to-act-out way, then read it aloud while using puppets. That will be a daily or weekly (I haven't decided just yet) assignment. I also want them to get into making as many different styles of puppets as they want with all the different materials they want to get their hands on. I already googled "kid puppet crafts" and "Easy to make puppets."

Creativity shows itself in many forms, and it is my intent to unearth it in my kids and the kids in my care and often, as best, and in as many forms as I can. I know I have a hard time doing it all with all the responsibility on my plate, however, I know it is possible in some forms and on a somewhat regular occurrence, and I want to foster it well.

I hope you are able to tell some tales of your own as well.

Curriculum?

Where do you get your ideas from?

How do you plan your lessons? On what are they based?
Where do you get your inspiration?

Me? I start with my kids.

I ask them: "What do you want to learn about now?"

I get all kinds of themes from their ideas that we do about one a month.
We have studied about :

• Reptiles and Amphibians

 

• Insects and spiders

 
 

• Farm animals 

 

• Ocean animals

 

• Vehicles of Transportation

• Plants & Trees (and what we do with them)

 

• The Water Cycle

 

• The Human Body

And, one school year it was biomes of the world:

Arctic zone

  North American temperate forest,

Australian Outback,

South American Rainforest,

Deserts
etc. , and we learned about a certain part of the globe each month.

 I try to use the themes to incorporate all the subjects: Math, spelling and grammar, history, geography and science.
Mostly I tackle the basics, math, phonics and science. But the biome year I really focused on geography as well.

It's tough trying to make sure my students all learn the same thing while also getting grade-appropriate subjects learned, each, since I now have a child going into 3rd, 2nd, and Kindergarten (Daycare student) as well as keeping the Pre-school and toddler kids occupied/ interested.

I got the idea of doing monthly themes from the thing my mom did with me and my siblings when we were home-schooled. She called it "Delight Directed Study" and credited Gregg Harris for the idea that she picked up at one of the home school conferences we attended. I liked the idea that you learn about what you like or what you delighted in and it makes learning more fun. So I always asked the kids for their input.
I was curious about the "Delight Directed" approach, so I did a little research. This is what I found

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Harris#Delight-Directed_Study

http://www.homeschooloasis.com/art_delight_dir_study_gregg_h.htm

I do a lot of online research for the resources I use, as well as borrow a lot of books relating to the subject from the library. Our county library allows us to borrow about 50 books for a whole month. So we go right at the beginning of the theme month and return them just as soon as the theme is done. I usually get one book on the subject per class-day.


I also like certain workbooks that help the child learn on their own. I loved doing the themes with all the kids together doing art projects, P.E. activities and singalongs with the theme subjects, but when it comes down to seatwork/homework, I really needed my older ones to be able to stay self-focused so that I could help the preschoolers, or change a baby and put them down for a nap. Since each of my kids are at a different learning level or grade, it was hard for them to keep up with each other and me for the academics. I found some workbooks that focused on the basic math skills and reading skills
my kids needed to learn, at each of their grades that motivated them to work on their own, and the idea that they were almost competing with each other to get them finished apparently appealed to my two oldest boy and girl who love to compete with each other. Whatever works, right? I got the books from one of my favorite stores for teachers : the Learning Palace. http://www.learningpalace.com/
(Other favorite store is the Dollar Tree... ;) )

I always enjoy staying up after the kids go to bed and planning my month week by week, then day by day, trying to do something new involving each subject everyday, and doing something new and different. It really stimulates the teacher creativity in me. Once I have it planned out in my planner, each day runs so much more smoothly because I don't have to come up with things on the moment that I am not prepared for with supplies or any other teaching tools. But I do leave room for flexibility and adjust as I go. I have to. And I am fairly good at coming up with spur-of-the-moment activities should something not go as planned. Life is never as you picture it. But I definitely have my schedule and I fit things in as I can. Like I said, it is rough trying to home school and have all the kids of each age occupied, and I have learned to go with the flow. Well, almost learned. Some days I am much more flexible than other days. But that's how it has to be.

That's my home-school process in a blog-shell. I know I am always learning from other teachers and homeschooling moms and picking up new ideas everywhere. That's a big part of the fun of homeschooling: incorporating new ideas all the time, and using your own creativity. But I definitely want my kids to be a huge part of the process, because I am doing it for them and if they aren't having fun learning, chances are they won't try. If they are having so much fun, they don't even know they're learning, I have done my job well. So they are my inspiration first and foremost. We do a lot of brainstorming and some voting and collaborating. They will tell you "we got to learn about 'x-y-z'" and when asked if they like homeschooling they grin and nod. If they aren't interested, it goes in and out.

Well, there you have it, my curriculum. I am sure there are tons of great curriculum out there that lots of homeschooling families are using and learning and excelling with. (Sorry about ending with a preposition...) However, this is my way. It's cheap and effective. I like it, and I think my students do too.

What a weakend

I so hate the feeling of being helpless. Don't you? I am sitting at my computer with my sick baby on my lap, and I can't make him better. Babies always think that we can help them and they look to their parents to fix it. Sometimes we can, but on occasions when they are sick and everything we do to help get them well makes them think we are torturing them, it makes us feel so helpless.

Nothing that I know of is majorly wrong with him. Fever. Not sure why yet. He'll probably be fine. It really makes me grateful at times like these that my child isn't hospital-ridden, or chronic. Just a passing fever that's all part of growing up. I am so sympathetic of those parents who patrol the children's ward corridors night after night. And how grateful I am that my own precious babies are considerably healthy. I don't know why I was so blessed. I am only thankful. But nevertheless. I hate feeling helpless.

I feel that way whenever I have a migraine. These are times of mandatory days "off" when all I can do is sleep or rest on the couch.
ALL DAY. I can't make the intense pain really go away, just vaguely dull it. So I am basically useless and dependent on others (mainly my wonderful husband) to care for me, and I can't do my job(s). I feel so bad, then. Not just physically bad, but also like I am such a terrible burden because I can't do for others, but must let tem do for me. How humbling. I think at these times, I am being taught a valuable lesson, and what a waste of an agonizing opportunity if I didn't pay attention to learn it.

Why DO I so hate the feeling of not being able to control something? Why can't I just let go and allow myself to be free of the burden
of always being the caregiver and never receiver? What is so wrong with being cared for that I feel so bad about it? Doesn't it  bring me a sense of pleasure to make someone's day by blessing them with care? Then why wouldn't I think that someone else (especially my sweet man who loves to be my hero) would feel the same to take care of me for a short time once in a while? Why can't I seem to let go of the guilt I feel about it, as if I chose to be sick to make more work for others, or some similar sinful choice. Where does that guilt even come from?

Submission.

What a heated, controversial word that is. Oohh, don't bring that up in front of an engaged bride, if you don't want to have a cat-fight.
I am not talking about submission in context of marriage. That is for a whole different blog...
The submission I am thinking of relates to mothers, home-schooling and otherwise. To what do we submit, anyways? Are we slaves of schedule?
Do we submit to a set time-frame? How about the homemakers? Can a dirty dish be left unwashed? Can I let go and be OK with not having control of my household while pain takes over? Can I submit to the humbling I am receiving by being dependent on others? When you look at your class and they are whining about schoolwork AGAIN, and you can't seem to get things back in control, do you feel helpless then? What do you do?


2 Corinthians 12:9-10
"Each time (I begged God to take my suffering away) He said, 'My Grace is all you need. MY power works best in weakness.' So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the Power of Christ can work through me. (10) That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am Weak, then I am STRONG."

Mark 14:35-36

"He went an a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting Him might pass Him by. (36)"Abba, Father," He cried out, "everything is possible for you. Please take this CUP of suffering away from me. Yet, I want your will to be done, not mine." (NLT)

Now, this is submission like I'm talking about. I have no claim to comparison between myself and Jesus, or Paul, even. That guy had faith that I could never claim to have. But I understand the message they are passing to me. Suffering is allowed for the purpose of reminding us that we CANNOT be self-dependent. Life will yank the rug out from under us and drop us on our "tushies". And we can't help it. And we can't help ourselves. We will have to ask for help and accept it. And when we do, our delusions of supermomablity vanish. Welcome to reality. You are human, and you will fail. You are incapable of perfection. Where did you even get the idea that you could achieve that? We need weakness like that to wake us up to the reality that someone else can be strong for us, and we can lean on them. And THAT'S OK! Submit to it. Submit to the weakness and the strength of another. The only way we will ever be able to succeed in life is when we are realistic about success and what it takes. Others. No more delusions of grandeur, where I have "everything under control"... really, EVERYTHING? When we are weak, then HE is strong. And that's good, because His weakness is a KADZILLION times stronger than my strongest strengths. Let Him who made the universe spin in perfect balance be in charge. That really does make the most sense when you think about it. IS it OK to be weak? Heck, YES! I would much rather let the One that put order to every living thing be in charge than carry the burden of perfection on my own shoulders.

But I don't remember this when I am lying helpless on the couch with an anvil being dropped on my forehead. I'm not thinking of Jesus up there on that cross DYING when I feel bad. I'm pretty much just thinking of me. My self and all my burdens and suffering. And how much I must suck for not doing it all. Poor me. What do I ever have to go through that is anything as horrible as Him? He had all my suffering and all everyone else's suffering on Him in that moment.

And He let go to His Father and said, 'Not my will, but Yours be done.' Could I ever rejoice in my weaknesses? Could I ever be truly thankful for my suffering?
Why is this the hardest lesson to learn? I want to learn it. I have to surrender to the weakness and submit to the all-powerful One. He chooses to let me be weak so that I do not boast of my own strength, but I put my trust in Him and Boast of His strength.

I still don't like it, yet. But I am learning to appreciate it. I will never be superhomeschoolingmom. But Jesus Christ is super and I can do Super things through Him!

So, Father, I will let you be in charge of my little sick baby, and rest in knowing that You have his health in Your hands. He's going to be OK. Amen.

Goofing around

Hi, my name is Molly and I like Jimmy Fallon.

That's not really anything bad, but I felt like I had to confess. I actually bought an iPhone app:
LNJF (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon). It is really great. I have liked a lot of the skits that Fallon did on SNL (Saturday Night Live) before, and I think his show is hilarious. I don't get to watch it, much, but with the app, I can catch short videos from the show.

http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/2011/06/jimmy-reads-his-favorite-mypetisweird-tweets-plus-our-honorable-mentions/#item=178951


There is a part of the app called Jimmy's Phone, and on this are fake apps he made and they work within the app. Hard to explain, but one of the games is called "Bieber Yourself."
If you are not familiar with Justin Bieber, (then what planet are you on, currently?) he is a young teen who has weird hair and girly lips and sounds like a little girl when he sings lovesongs and break-up songs and get back together songs to other teen girls. His hair is goofy, did I mention? The game is that you take a photo and add his hair to it. It's pretty goofy. I did it to each member of my family, plus the baby I take care of. :)

Here is my 'Biebed' photo:

The colors got a little distorted, but I had sunburn that day - this was on July 4th. 

Here's my handsome hubby, all Biebered up, it looks like a Russian fur hat, whatever they're called, on him:

The pic of him was so little, I couldn't shrink the hair small enough as I could the others to fit his head. So its probably the most goofy-looking one, with the exception of this one of the little baby girl I watch:

 And here are my three kids with their Bieber hair:

The hilariousness of the second one, of my daughter, is that we had to go to the salon that day (July 2nd) because she had decided to cut her own hair just that morning or night before so we had to go fix it.  The lady at the salon told her that if she ever wanted a haircut again to call her, and gave her a business card my daughter treated like a valuable possession. And it looks like she can't believe the stylist gave her Bieber hair in the picture, now!

Anyway, that's what I was doing recently. I hope you enjoyed it! And don't forget to laugh at yourself sometimes...(And Justin, too. :)