2,000+ Miles of Education

In preparation for our 2,000+ mile trip to Iowa, I gathered things I hope will keep the boys busy and content helping to pass the many hours. I am attempting to use every opportunity to learn something new...how about a little education about our world and our country?! I had the idea to create a U.S. geography folder for Elijah and Luke. Using my two books below and a handful of blank paper, I photocopied black and white maps starting from a broad perspective of the world down to each state we're driving through complete with state emblems - flag, tree, flower and bird. I assembled all the papers into a clasp folder.

Page 1: North, South, East, West directional arrows (what is our travel direction?)
Page 2: World Map (what are the continents and oceans?)
Page 3: Western Hemisphere Map (what continents are in W.H.?)
Page 4: United States Map (where is our state?)
Page 5: United States Road Map (what is our route number?)
Page 6: NY State Map (where is Rochester and Scottsville?)
Page 7: Pennsylvania State Map
Page 8: Ohio State Map
Page 9: Indiana State Map (where is LaGrange?)
Page 10: Illinois State Map (where is Moline?)
Page 11: Iowa State Map (where is Avoca?)

I will encourage the boys to use the blank pages to record what they see as we travel along the highway - color pictures, write numbers, write words. We've also given each of them a camera to take pictures of things they find interesting.


No car trip is complete without some good reading material. We were given these books for Christmas and have read little portions of each, so they're traveling with us so they can tell their full stories.

Elijah and Luke love to listen to audio books. Everyday during rest time and bedtime they are glued to their beds captivated by the stories they hear. I found the Jonathan Park series through Vision Forum (one of my favorite Christian companies)...visit them at http://www.visionforum.com/ . Jonathan Park adventures are based on real places and scientific discoveries. The case reads, "The Jonathan Park project provides children and adults with scientific evidence that is in harmony with the Word of God. This is our Father's world, God created it; we can explore it, so live the adventure!" I've listened to part of Volume 1 and was captivated myself. Find this series at http://www.jonathanpark.com/ . If Jonathan Park gets old, we're bringing The Chronicles of Narnia audio series produced by Focus on the Family. Mike has listened to most of these but the boys haven't heard them yet! Maybe this is overkill, but we want lots of options...Luke's birthday gift, Adventures in Odyssey, has also found it's way into a nook in the van!

Okay, so I am also totally in favor of watching DVDs (all day long even) if that is what it takes on this trip...not much by way of education although School House Rocks really does rock...more entertainment here, but that's necessary, too! We'll be sure to have a few VeggieTales and Thomas the Tank Engine stories as well!

There is a good size box in the back between Eli and Luke's seats containing all sorts of Berenstain Bears and Curious George books, coloring books, Explode the Code workbooks, Highlights Search and Find color books, stickers, colored pencils and sharpener, Brain Quest trivia cards, Usborne Living World Encyclopedia, First Word Dictionary, match box cars, binoculars and dinosaur & zoo magnetic play sets. We're bringing personal walkmans so they can listen to kiddo music on their own. But the favored item is Luke's Birthday gift...a cassette player...because the boys love to record their own voices telling stories, jokes, singing or making Ike giggle. Guaranteed hours of fun!

Isaac will enjoy coloring for a bit and listening to his own music...but other than that, eating will likely be his greatest source of enjoyment as the miles pass!

School Is "Officially" Over

At the close of this week, our family will officially be one year veterans of homeschooling. Elijah is participating in standardized testing for two more mornings. He did well today...I know because I was there peeking over his shoulder while he was testing. Testing wasn't mandatory this year, however, the opportunity arose and we thought it would be good practice for him. Besides, the excellent teacher providing the testing is practically family (my younger brother's mother-in-law).

When I think back over the past year, I laugh at how extremely nervous I was about teaching Kindergarten. I couldn't have told you the difference between the short "a" sound and the long "a" sound. I literally read my teacher's manual word for word for the first few months. I chose a curriculum that spells out in bold type the exact words to say to your student. When reading this dialogue, to get the full effect of how stiff I was, read like a robot!

"Hello ________ (fill in child's name)! Welcome to your first day of Kindergarten. You are going to learn many exciting things this year. Do you know your ABC's? (wait for child to answer - If child knows ABC's say, "GREAT!" If child does not know ABC's say, "That's what we're going to learn this year!") The first sound we are going to learn is the short "a" sound. Repeat after me, "a" says a as in apple, "a" says a, a, a. (repeat three times)."

And so it went, until I got comfortable enough with the curriculum and my own ability to not be a robotic. I am thankful for the Abeka program (http://www.abeka.com/) because it is definitely what I needed for the first year however, we are going to branch out for first grade.

A funny thing happened over the past few weeks that, once realized, has given me a measure of satisfaction and excitement. We finished all our lessons at the very beginning of May and took a few weeks off - no workbooks, no read-alouds, no math facts - no school related activities. I had so many issues in a bad way. The boys were seemingly out of control and bored and picking at each other. I felt totally useless, unmotivated, uninspired, lazy and gloomy. I finally realized that our family had been truly thriving on the routine of our school days. Guess what we've started doing again???? ROUTINE! Guess who's bickering less? MANCUBS! Guess who's got a new perspective on the summer? MANCUB MAMA! I am excited to "do school" over the summer! The boys jumped on their workbooks with no complaints this afternoon! I love it! There is no reason to halt our learning. We are going to read every day: family read-alouds, individual reading for Elijah and picture books for Luke and Isaac. We are using Explode the Code (http://www.explodethecode.com/) workbooks to keep up with handwriting and phonics as well. Luke will be working on learning his letters and their sounds through his Explode the Code workbooks. We'll take lots of trips to the library. We'll continue monitoring our garden and learning about seeds and plants. We'll take lots of field trips. We'll meet friends for outings and play. We'll take swim lessons. We'll essentially be "doing school" everyday because it's becoming our lifestyle and habit to make the most of every opportunity to learn something new. I'm excited to see what the summer holds!

Mancubs

Here's to homeschooling our mancubs!