I can't seem to change the order of the pictures so we'll work backwards again!

It seems like I may have jumped the gun a little on thinking that we HAVE to become more structured or else they won't do anything. The last few weeks Anna AND Ella have been on a writing burst... they've written songs and stories and interviews and books! ALL without having to be asked or prompted! What a joy it was for me to go into their room and see them both writing on their beds!

But we HAVE started to do something a little more structured. It's still fairly easy going and Anna seems to love it so far, so we'll continue with it and see how it goes.

Ella has enjoyed making up stories about the One Eyed Monster. I have no idea where she got this idea, but supposedly it lives on her shoulder!

Here are a few of it's babies:



She took some of her cutting "work" and turned it into an One Eyed Monster! She taped this on her bed, but when it came time to go to sleep she made me move it because it scared her:)

Puzzle time! Anna is sticking to it a little more now... Ella's attention span is still pretty short.

My beautiful girls in their new matching dresses! This picture was taken today! Thanks Mei Mei!

We'll start with yesterday and work backwards.

Well, we are still getting over being sick and my decision to totally re-organize everything (again), in hopes that we will find something that works for our family.

Anna read to us from the book that GG and Mei Mei worked so hard on. GG wrote the stories, Mei Mei edited, inserted pictures and made the book. This book has made a resurgence. Anna reads it before bed each night, and Ella LOVED hearing the stories as Anna read it aloud. She read to us while I was folding laundry. She did a great job, read with such expression. She is really gifted at public speaking and drama. You would never suspect this by her personality, but it's true. I need to figure out ways to develop this in her.



From my recent trip to IKEA we had some leftover boxes... nothing more fun then that! Anna made a Bella Sara club house. I tried not to interfere too much and let her figure it out. I watched her plan, try things, figure out it wouldn't work and then re-plan. I wanted to get in there and help and each time I did we would get frustrated with each other. I decided to leave it up to her... she did a great job.

Of course, Ella wanted to make a rocket ship! She planned out the design and I did the cutting. She hoped that Romeo would be her co-pilot, but no such luck. He wanted nothing to do with the rocket ship.

Last week we took a field trip to Mosquito Lagoon. They had a chance to play on the beach for a while. It was beautiful miles of unspoiled beach... no hotels or cars in sight! There were not even any other people in sight! It was neat to be the first and only footprints in the sand. They discovered all kinds of shells and lots of Porteguese man-of-war. They noted the difference in the sand texture on this beach in comparison to the beach we usually go to... the sign said that this beach had "long grain sand." We talked about why it was so different and how people and cars effect the texture.

Our tour guide was a wonderful Christian and a real lover of history! It's amazing how people who love something can spark excitement in others. It's infectious! The kids were curious and thougthful. Homeschoolers are awesome! I really enjoyed talking to the guide and asking questions. There is so much I DIDN'T learn in school. SO MUCH! I realized that I know VERY little about FL history. Our little co-op has decided to study FL history next year together!

Tomorrow

Pictures coming tomorrow, Mom. I promise. Just too tired right now!

Math Day

Monday is Math Day. Anna focused on counting by 5's, 10's and 25's using coins and learned how to count change quickly in her head. We played this great coin game where you roll the di and take out the corresponding number of pennies. Once you get 5, you can exchange for a nickel. Once you get 2 nickels you exchange for a dime. The first one to $1.00 is the winner. She loved this!


While we were playing this game, Ella sorted change.

Next we played with the colored bears and animals. I had a di with colors on it and made different colored circles on a sheet of paper. They roll the di and pick an animal that color to place on a circle that is the same color. First one to cover their entire page wins. They both loved this game.

Trying to find a fun, hands on way to memorize the multiplication table. This week we focused on 1 and 2 x's tables. Anna had a paper plate with a mult. problem written on it. She had to find the right answer written on a clothes pin and pin into the corresponding problem.

Ella simply matched up number to number.

Ella also made patterned beads, counted bears, did a few dot-to-dot pictures, and a couple of mazes.

Anna also did 20 mazes (she loved this).

They both enjoyed math day. The plan is to make activities like this every Mon. and do them together. Then I will leave them on a shelf for them to do on their own throughout the week. Hoping to pull that together this week.

Sorry, Mom!

I tried for a long time to post pictures tonight, mom. But it wouldn't work. Will try again tomorrow!

I'm not sure what you would call what we are doing right now. I think we are starting to find a bit of a groove. We've been all over the place and I've been tempted, more then once, to get back to the good ole trusty textbooks. They are safe and I know that they will learn something with them. I'm not sure that they will retain it or even like it. But, by golly, I will feel like we're doing something.

We've been kind of going with the flow. I plan a million things. We do a few of those things, but most the time we end up doing something different all together.

Every Monday we are consistently doing the Think Challenges (kidswhothink.blogspot.com). This has been so great... for all of us.

She likes Sudoku a little... so we do that some.

We play games like Pet Shop with cards that have pictures of pets and a price on them. They are given coins and have to add the change up to give me the correct amount. They learn to budget. They sometimes have to figure out what change they would get back.

We visited the Planetarium and we fell in love with the night sky. I checked out a bunch of books from the library about our solar system and we are slowly going through them. I could easily overwhelm them with it all and go too far in depth so that they get bored and want to run off. I don't want that to happen. I want to feed their fire not smother it. We are starting with the moon and will next move to the sun.

They are both in a pretty good habit of reading their Bibles every morning after breakfast. Anna has an easy to read Bible that she enjoys. Every single time after she reads she comes to me with a question about it. It's great to know she is processing the story, comprehending it and thinking about it critically enough to come up with some really great questions. They are also writing in a prayer journal every day.

Anna loves to make up clubs. This time it's the Bella Sara club. Boy is she ORGANIZED! She's got a folder that she created and it is filled with everything she needs for a successful club. Our whole family joined:) and she tried to get her friends interested in it today. They obliged her for a while, but weren't really into it. It has gotten her writing, organizing information, and creating. So, I'm pleased.

They are listening to books on tape just about every night. I like this routine.

I still feel like we aren't doing enough, but I have to let go of that. They ARE learning and loving what they learn. They are thinking and creating and that is more then I can say for most kids. I have to give us room so that we can grow into the kind of education that our family needs.

Evidently, this is gaining a lot of popularity in the traditional school setting... found this on an education site.

Chard defines project learning as an "in-depth investigation of a real-world topic worthy of children's attention and effort." She advocates a three-phased approach: Phase 1 involves an initial discussion of a project topic, including children's firsthand experiences related to the topic. Phase 2 involves fieldwork, sessions with experts, and various aspects of gathering information, reading, writing, drawing, and computing. Phase 3 is the presentation of the project to an audience.

If schoolchildren are given the gift of exploration, society will be the beneficiary, both in practical and in theoretical ways, scholars say. "This is the way that mathematics started," notes MIT's Seymour Papert. "It started not as this beautiful, pure product of the abstract mind. It started as a way of controlling the water of the Nile, building the pyramids, sailing a ship. And gradually it got richer and richer."

Kids who are excited about what they learn tend to dig more deeply and to expand their interest in learning to a wide array of subjects. They retain what they learn rather than forget it as soon as they disgorge it for a test. They make connections and apply their learning to other problems. They learn how to collaborate, and their social skills improve. They are more confident talking to groups of people, including adults. And, as a number of research reports suggest, project-based learning correlates positively with improved test scores, reduced absenteeism, and fewer disciplinary problems.

Examples of projects applicable to the here and now abound:

• At Mountlake Terrace High School, in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, teams of students in a high school geometry class design a state-of-the-art high school for 2050. The students create a site plan, make simple architectural drawings of rooms and a physical model, draw up a budget, and write a narrative report. They present their work to real architects, who judge the projects and "award" the contract.
• At Newsome Park Elementary School, in Newport News, Virginia, second graders curious about the number of medicines a classmate takes and her frequent trips to the doctor investigate -- with the classmate's permission -- the causes of cystic fibrosis. They invite experts to tell them about the disease, write up their research, use graphs and PowerPoint to tell the story, sell pledges to a cystic fibrosis walk-a-thon, and participate in the event.
• At the Mott Hall School, in New York City's Harlem district, a fifth-grade project on kites involves using creative writing skills in poems and stories with kite themes. While designing their own kites on the computer and then making them by hand, students learn about electromagnetism and the principles of ratios and proportions. A casual remark by one student leads to an in-depth study of the role of kites in various cultural celebrations.

Useful Websites:
http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning
http://www.projectapproach.org/
http://kidswhothink.blogspot.com/

Ex. of Elementary Using Project Based Learning:
http://www.edutopia.org/newsome-park
http://www.edutopia.org/hula-high-tech-video
http://www.edutopia.org/beginning-journey-five-year-olds-drive-their-own-pbl-projects