Ann Adair » Homeschooling

Back in the Saddle – Ready for Extra-curricular Activities!

annadair — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:50:44 +0000

Well, it’s been nearly a year since I posted here. A lot has happened. I became adjunct faculty at USF for a semester to teach a graduate 20th-century analysis music theory course. I really enjoyed it. Sadly, I am not teaching there this semester. Maybe next, though.

I am teaching a class at our homeschool co-op this Fall entitled “Discovering Literature with Harry Potter”. I’m still working on it in preparation for our first class on Monday. It should be a lot of fun.

Each kid is on a FIRST LEGO League Team this year (the 5-yr-old is on a Junior team). We are very excited about this. I’ve been going to coaching workshops and the 9-yr-old went to 2 weeks of LEGO Robotics camp this summer. Our first official meetings were yesterday, so we’re officially into the school year now.

What else? Our daughter has gone wheat-free. In addition to her allergies to peanuts, legumes, and tree nuts, we believe she is sensitive to wheat, as well. Since eliminating wheat, her allergic “shiners” have dissipated somewhat, and her asthma cough has practically disappeared. Amazing, in my opinion. Eliminating wheat from a child’s diet is no easy task, so we’ve all been creative in the kitchen for the last 4 months or so trying to find menus that work for everyone in the family. I hope to post more on this topic.

Gulf Coast Youth Choir is back on the schedule for a 3rd year. We love this organization!

We’re gearing up for a 5th year of Girl Scouts. Our 9-yr-old bridged from Brownies to Juniors this past Spring, so we have a whole new uniform, and set of badges and awards to earn!

Chess Club is on the schedule, too, for Dad and kids each week. Unfortunately, it happens at the same time my rehearsals are each week, so I can’t participate in this one any more.

We are still struggling with sports for the kids. Right now, we are considering basketball, fencing, Irish dancing, and possibly Tae Kwon Do. We had to ditch Swim Club at the Y because it was 3 nights a week. We just can’t do that and maintain our family unity. Dinner apart all week makes us all miserable. So, swimming is going to have to happen on our own at the Y. We can swim laps and have periodic private lessons and achieve the same fitness outcome as swim club. I would love the kids to get interested in fencing. I think they’d both be great at it, judging from their constant sword fighting around the house!

We got annual passses for Disney this year. Hopefully, we will be able to build in plenty of play time to offset the hard work!

Homeschooling update

admin — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:25:07 +0000

So, we are almost into October, and how’s homeschooling going? Pretty well, I think. We are still trying to find our groove, though. Spelling and Math are getting done most every day, Sunshine State Readers are getting read, Science and History are being integrated into every other subject, along with Writing. As far as physical activity goes, the kids play kickball every other week, along with the Presidential Fitness Award Program, ice skating lessons every week, yoga and fit kids at the YMCA, and occasional bowling. As the weather cools down, we will be incorporating bike trips and long walks. We haven’t gotten going on our art program, yet, and that’s something I’ve been looking forward to! Both kids are taking piano lessons, and one sings in fantastic regional Children’s Choir, and the kids’ praise team at church. Handwriting gets practiced during spelling, and we learn about nature all the time in the backyard. We have Girl Scouts weekly, as well. We also do tons of field trips with our co-op and other homeschooling friends during the week.

That’s about it for now.

Print Your Own Manuscript Paper

annadair — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:51:08 +0000

I have a few piano students and we are always using manuscript paper for things: exercises, scales, ideas, etc. My personal preference is to write on the nice heavy printed manuscript paper you buy at your local music outlet, but for scribbling down stuff at piano lessons or completing theory assignments, it’s much cheaper to print your own. There are several sites out there for printing your own paper! Here are a few:

Happy composing!

Lapbooking

annadair — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:05:32 +0000

Viking lapbook cover

Eric the Red, Leif the Lucky, and all of their viking friends have been hanging out at our house over the last week as we’ve been discussing the first Europeans to visit North America. It seemed like a good time for Elizabeth to make her first lapbook.

We got totally sidetracked with the whole lapbook thing (watching videos on YouTube and reading websites.) She just wants to make books now. I’m trying to convince her that making the lapbook is the reward for doing the research. It’s also terribly tricky not getting bogged down in the scrapbookiness of it all. I am not a scrapbooker, so I don’t have a whole system setup that’s already perfect for lapbooking. I’m not even a crafty person, except for knitting.

We did learn a lot about Vikings, but it seems we’re more interested in making another lapbook. I’m on a mission for the lapbooks to be more research-oriented rather than scrapbook-oriented. After watching the YouTube video mentioned above, a sense of dread fell over me as I contemplated how I could help my kids make the lapbooks without my perfectionism problem interfering. Did you see the Ants lapbook in that video? On one hand, I want to jump on that bandwagon and get set for making some seriously fabulous lapbooks. On the other hand, I know that I need to take it nice and slow before going crazy with this. I’ll probably be posting more pics of lapbooks as we create together.

First Day of School means one thing… Schulanfangfeier!

annadair — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:48:51 +0000

Schultüten and grubby little feet

Yesterday was our first official school day in our family’s home school. We celebrated at our friends’ house with a traditional German first day of school party called a “Schulanfangfeier.” Our hosts presented each child with a “Schultüte,” also known as “Zuckertute.” It’s basically a cone full of school goodies! They were filled with zipper pencil cases, pencils, notepads, erasers, candies, small toys for the boys, and hair clips and lip gloss for the girls. As you can see in the picture of the boys, they were so grubby from playing outside all afternoon! Guess which two of our friends in the picture are of German descent and hosted this festive event?

Our friends made spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread for everyone. We brought the cupcakes.

William decorates the cupcakes

Handwriting Worksheet Maker

annadair — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:13:27 +0000

I came across a fantastic site for handwriting exercises! The site is crammed full of ads and stuff, but there is some great free content available there. You will find the navigation links for the site at the upper right of the page underneath the ad for math worksheets. You can produce worksheets using either Zaner-Bloser or D’Nealian, Enjoy!

http://www.writingwizard.longcountdown.com/handwriting_practice_worksheet_maker.html

Spelling, Writing, and American History

annadair — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:40:31 +0000

Elizabeth and her Schultüte

My daughter suggested that we use an official school name like Adair Academy. I’m going to think about it. It would be fun to get t-shirts with our school name and a crazy mascot to foster some school spirit around here. I’ll keep you posted on school colors and mascot selection and naming!

I’m so excited about our curriculum this year! Here are some of the items we’re using for spelling, creative writing, and history:

Spelling Power by Beverly L Adams-Gordon
Spelling Power Activity Cards
Wordsmith Apprentice by Janie B. Cheaney
All American History, Volume I, Student Reader by Celeste Rakes
All American History, Volume I, Student Activity Book
All American History, Volume I, Teacher Guide

I will be adding more titles in math, science, art, and music, as we get underway this month. I will also be reviewing and commenting on all of these titles as the year progresses. I’m hoping for more raves than rants!