June- Homeschool Life!

I try to contain myself on this subject. I try to not talk about it too much because I KNOW that every parent I interact with is doing what they have thoughtfully (and prayerfully!) concluded is the best solution for their family when it comes to the education of their children. Every family is different and every child is different so of course we are all going to get different answers! 

That being said, I couldn't be happier with homeschooling! I can't describe adequately the satisfaction it brings to learn TOGETHER with my children. Teaching is such a fulfilling role! The relationships I get to form with my children as we study are priceless! It is impossible to relate the absence of stress our family feels now that we are no longer following a regimented school-district-imposed schedule, because I am already starting to forget what it felt like and the younger kids have no memory of it.  

And this is only the beginning of what seems to me an endless summer now that we are done with the k12 program. I am so grateful for the doors it opened in our lives! And I am now grateful to walk past them!! Natalie has been officially promoted from 2nd grade! Both she and Caleb are enrolled in a charter school for the fall called My Tech High. Have I told you about it? Another time, if not! 

One of the things I am super excited about for this year is our field trips to Thanksgiving Point. I am planning on going twice a month, and even then we will probably not even get to everything there is to offer. This is our new Disneyland people! One of the times we went this month we got to bring our cousins along and it definitely added to the fun! All of the following pictures were taken at one of the museums on the campus called The Museum of Curiosity. 

This summer for Music Monday we are studying 10 people who changed the world through music. The first person we learned about and listened to the most famous music from was Janice Kapp Perry. And then for our project we got to MEET her and have a little morningside with our Friday Friends. It was SO COOL!!

She told some awesome stories and we sang some songs together and the kids tried to be reverent =o]

My favorite part was when she encouraged us to write a family song, and then she shared her family song with us. I think that is going to be one of the main events for Happy MacKay Day this year! 

I performed in two of her musicals growing up and so I brought my book for her to sign lol!

Now mine is signed by both her and her son, who had autographed it when I was a teenager. YES.

The next famous composer we studied was Johann Sebastian Bach. For our project we got some books about him from the library. Both told colorful tales!

We read quotes and stories about him from this little gem. Definitely uplifting. (It makes me wonder if those historical biographies were just reaching for new tidbits to tell about his life, when those instances were just the exception to the rule? No one is perfect, but surely he was an overall good man! You see what you want to see, I guess.)  

And we also watched a Little Einsteins episode, featuring Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in B Major. I'm sure you would recognize it if you heard it. 

The next person we learned about was Michael Jackson. This one was tough! I know I can't sensor everything all the time, and he really was phenomenal and changed the world for sure! But it was hard for me to choose songs and a project I was comfortable with focusing their attention on for the day and weeks to come! I ended up doing ABC's from the Jackson 5, and the song from Free Willy lol! I told them about how much he influenced dancing and music videos and we watched some awesome clips on youtube from when he was little, and of little kids and even Disney characters doing his dance moves. We also watched the Free Willy music video and now that movie is on our Netflix queue =o] We then (and several times since!) turned up the tunes and danced our pants off (literally in Seth's case ha ha! #skinny). 

This year for science instead of a theoretical approach using textbooks and the internet, the focus will be an interactive and tactile study of plants and animals. As I stated in my curriculum overview: Students will demonstrate their ability to be inquisitive and appreciate the world by participating in various science based field studies. 

Our first step was to make these rockin observation journals.

I'm not sure if you can see it, but Natalie has outlined here our specific fields of study: Marine Biology, Ornithology (birds), Zoology, Entomology (bugs), Paleontology, and Herbology (yes, the study of edible and medicinal plants).   

Caleb and Seth declined a picture. As you can see from Jenna's above they were DONE with the project! =o]

Our next step was to recruit some hiking buddies! We hope to go with at least one other family each time. We got an awesome Utah bird watching book from my friend Andrea that she had used in college and on our first hike as we walked we tried to identify the birds we saw. Easier said than done! One of the times we sat down for a break and a snack we busted out the journals and took some notes or drew a picture (or scribbled wildly on several pages). 

Caleb found his next sport when we came upon some rock climbers! It was pretty amazing to watch them scale the cliff so I don't blame him for wanting to be a part of it!

Our final step to set the learning in motion is to get passes to the aquarium (check!), the zoo (not yet!), and find things happening in the community to attend, and this is where social media comes in handy! I am a member of a few homeschooling groups on fb, but my sister is actually the one who told me about a butterfly release that was happening near us, so we took the opportunity to go. And speaking of social media changing our lives, since we saw that our J House vlog cousins got to try out Jamba Juice, the kids wanted to too! =o]

It was SO HOT! And they had SO MANY political and environmental things to say! But it was SO WORTH IT in the end!!!

The older kids were up right in front of the box so they had a perfect view. Here is what I said on fb: It was hard to see from the shaded parent section but Natalie and Caleb had front row stances and Natalie asked a question while the news guy was filming so she was all excited that she has now been on TV lol Natalie even got the scientist's business card! Ha ha! You can see Caleb's green shirt right by the corner of the box and Natalie is next to him on the left but you can't see her.

From fb:

It was amazing when they opened the hatch and they all started to flutter out- everyone cheered and oohed and aahed. Caleb said one landed on his sleeve before hopping onto a flower. He also said that there were a few still in the box so the guy flicked them out and that was his favorite part though I'm not sure what he means lol

And one landed on Jenna's head and then crawled onto her face! This was the most memorable moment for sure! She laughed and didn't swat it off thank goodness!

A solid foundation of our educational routine is the public library. We could not live without books!

I took a picture of the Spanish side of this summer reading program flyer because a Costa Rican family moved in down the street from us and they have become our library buddies. They didn't go with us to the opening event (they had JUST moved in!) but have come with us every Tuesday morning since they finished unpacking. Their two girls had never been to a library, except for at school! But now they each have their own cards and check out like 20 books each time right along with my kids lol!

Every time we come home from the library our family room looks like this! =o]

As part of our literature curriculum this year we are study favorite author/illustrators and we are LOVING IT!!  Again, here is a fb post:

For the past two weeks and for the rest of this week we have been learning about the author/illustrator team Jane O'Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser- aka Fancy Nancy books! We will be doing a new author every three weeks to a month until next summer...we are so excited! Something we have enjoyed with this author is the way she teaches new vocabulary words in a fun way, and we love all the bright colors and details in the illustrations!

Next up was Mercer Meyer. I loved Little Critter books when I was little, but he also has many other titles outside that series that we are discovering. One of the things I have so appreciated with this unit is the forthright use of morals in his books, and his unapologetic references to God. It is so refreshing to see that in a mainstream series! 

Our before-bed read aloud books for the whole summer are chapter books that have been turned into movies! We have absolutely LOVED each book, but have also been sadly disappointed with more than one of the movies. =o/

So far we have done The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Paddington, Pippi Longstocking, and The Indian in the Cupboard. 

Of course we had to try marmalade!

Pippi Longstocking is hands down the best loved movie they have watched yet! 

We even saw a real live Villa Villekula while in Provo one day and they begged me to stop and take a picture!

And even though it doesn't have a movie (though I'm sure there have got to be some Mormon Messages about some of these stories!) we finished this book this month and couldn't have enjoyed it more! They often asked me to read "just one more??" which turned into another and another. It was beautiful and heartfelt and we couldn't recommend it more highly. 

For social studies this year we are doing one non-fiction book a week. As I said in my curriculum overview: "Students will demonstrate their ability to be respectful and appreciative to all people by studying one nonfiction storybook a week with accompanying tasks." Namely, finding and marking the location on our maps after reading it, and doing a project about each book. (We haven't started the project part of this one yet, because in the fall with the end of Water Wednesdays and Music Mondays will open up more time for stuff like this.)

So far we have done I Am Jackie Robinson, Ivan The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla, Snowflake Bentley, and Owney The Mail Pouch Pooch. Great reads all!!

Water Wednesdays. I am a Utah novice and didn't understand the way swim lessons work here so everything within our price range was booked out until August when I tried to sign up. I was so sad and disappointed that it was probably going to have to just be a splash pad summer for us. The kids loved our first outing (WHO WOULDN'T??? Just look at the place!!), but I still just felt lame about them missing out on learning this life saving skill. 

And then I thought, you know what, NO! I can swim. I am a teacher. I can do this! I asked around and found a kind neighbor who was willing to let us use their pool. Then I talked to my sister who is a stellar swim instructor, watched the youtube videos she suggested, made some achievement charts and we went for it! Here is a list of the skills we started working on at first, and you know what, it is working! Getting to teach them how to swim was nerve wracking at first because I was worried the little ones would drown while my focus was on the older ones (Am I being overly dramatic here? I think not!!), but now that we have good systems in place we all have a great time and there is measurable skill development and immeasurable confidence built!

Kent got to come with us one of the sessions and even though he has a completely different teaching style than I do, the kids built on what they had learned from him in the next lesson with me so he was a huge help!

Amidst all my plans I have to remember to let our learning be learner driven! Lehi Roller Mills Muffins have become a weekly breakfast at our house since moving here. One of the first times we drove past the old mill I pointed it out to them and ever since they have begged to go tour it. So one afternoon we up and decided to go! Honestly it was a bit underwhelming, but I am glad we went because they wanted to see it! And guess what? They had Footloose playing on a big screen behind the counter. Hang on to what ya got, right??  

Can I just say that I LOVE BYU and am so grateful to have my alma mater as a resource, even if it is a bit of a drive! As the kids get older I plan to utilize it even more!

And finally, we have our Friday Friends group. I didn't get a picture of book club this month. And then no one came to Show and Tell (we are now changing that week to a park day). But our field trip to Temple Square was memorable! 

From fb: While we were waiting by the reflection pool for our friends to arrive we noticed the grounds crew weeding and asked if we could help. I love giving service, especially when my children enthusiastically join in!

Our first stop was to tour the conference center!

The kids were thrilled about getting to be in the room where the prophet speaks!

The tour guide told us that every work of art in the conference center is an original!!

From fb: As we toured the conference center we came to the hall of the prophets and all I had to do as we passed by the Joseph Smith statue was to sing "Latter-day prophets are number one-" and the kids chimed in belting out each name as we walked around the room (Jenna's little voice was especially adorable). There was an EFY group also on a tour and when we ended the song with a hopefully not too irreverent flourish "and Thomas S. Monson's our prophet TODAY!!" they all laughed and cheered and thanked us for the song. The counselor asked me if she could take our picture so I handed her my phone and mentioned that I had also been an EFY counselor for three summers and she smiled so wide her whole face lit up! It is hard to explain, but something passed between us and I wanted to shout that YES someday this would be her too, bringing her children to sacred ground and singing wholeheartedly about the prophet- I remember watching families as a college student and yearning for those years! And now it is here and I LOVE IT and I feel so much fulfillment through all the work and wonder each day!!!

After the tour we walked across to a garden by the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and had a much needed picnic lunch.

Then we went over to touch the temple and get a picture. There were so many couples getting married! I felt so bad for them because it was SO HOT!! 

All the windows on the top floor of the temple were open! I've never seen that before...

Next we headed indoors to one of the visitor centers. I didn't get many pictures here. The kids were at the end of their ropes by this point...

There were too many people to get a group shot with the statue, and Seth would have been screaming anyway strapped in the stroller because he kept running away!

We called it a day at half past naptime =o] 

From fb: On the way home we went to the iceberg drive through because it was SO HOT and it is Kent's favorite and the kids have never been. I didn't remember that a shake was literally as large as a tub of ice cream from the market so we all ate ourselves silly on the way home and made an awesome mess in the process with everyone trying all the flavors and sharing bites with gloppy gusto! 

Yes sometimes they have tantrums about going down the escalator alone or you opening their string cheese wrapper too far or not getting a long enough turn in the stroller because they are going to die of walking, but moments like these make it all worth it!

Would I be doing all this if we weren't a homeschooling family? I honestly don't know. But I am grateful we are!!