Do you have a permit for that?

So just after I got done posting about how we weren't going to do nature notebooks this year, a perfect opportunity came right in our back yard. Andrei found the beginnings of a wasp's nest under our picnic table.

So I got out my nature notebook and Andrei got his and we both settled down and drew pictures and watched the wasps build their nest. I almost don't want to destroy it, but I also don't want a huge nest by my knees every time I go outside! :shiver:

Finally started school

Or something resembling it.

I figured that the 2 month anniversary was a good time to start at least putting it in the routine.

After lunch we do one activity or at least 5 minutes per day. I know it doesn't sound like much - but he still is learning quite a bit of English every day, and I really wish we could do more of an unschooled approach, so this is all we're shooting for.

Tuesday is reading - this week we did flash card letters and sounded out 'dog', 'sit', and 'fun'
Wednesday is writing - this week we did the A and B handwriting sheet and he drew a picture of an astronaut (and wrote the word)
Thursday is arithmetic - this week we played a dice game where we both rolled two dice and whoever had the highest got a gummy bear.
Mondays and Fridays I have nothing planned. Maybe we'll do an art project tomorrow.

Maybe at the three month mark we'll start doing all three each day.

I'm going with the mindset that he is not behind, he does not have to have 12 hours of school to catch up, and that he can still be a kid most of the time and be at his intended grade level in 1-2 years.
So that's where we are.

Andrei read a word?!

I barely believed it when Brent told me!

We got cable today, and when I was away at the Ladies' Christmas Party, Brent and Andrei were trying to find something to watch on TV. Brent was flipping through the channel guide where it lists all the TV shows and Andrei pointed out that Avatar was on. No picutre, no Avatar logo - just the plain word.

The boy will never cease to amaze me.

Question 2 and 3

From Holly

- Does Andrei love to be outside and beg you to go out all the time or can he be amused indoors?

- Have you officially started school? Do you have a set amount of time your spend on school everyday or are you waiting until his language is all caught up? I'm totally curious about this. Do you have to register somewhere as being a homeschooler so nobody thinks your kid is just chronically truant? :) Do homeschooled kids have to take year end exams to make sure the parent is actually teaching them something?

Outside? Yeah he loves going to the park and taking his wagon for a walk at least every day. It has been warmer - well not for you maybe - around 35 every day the past week, so we try to get out as much as we can. We can't let him outside by himself yet, which I think frusterates Brent, but he doesn't know where he can and can not go yet. Hopefully by this summer he'll be able to have more freedom.

Homeschooling. Yes, you do have to register with the state stating your intentions as a homeschooler. No you do not have to take yearly exams. This is only for Wisconsin though. Every state is different and some are more strict than others. In Wisconsin you have to teach at least 875 hours during the school year and focus on the following subjects: Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Reading, and Health.
If by "officially started" you mean sitting down and doing book learning, then no, we have not officially started. He is obviously learning every day with English. It will be a while until his language is caught up to his peers - probably a year or more. I'm not sure what approach we're going to take yet - I'm still researching and learning myself really. There are so many curriculums and theories and types of homeschooling - we need to find what works out best with Andrei and me and our family. I'm really leaning toward a super relaxed style, which Brent is not too fond of, but we'll see. He is learning, that is for sure.
I'm actually reading a few books on the subject right now, so I'll probably be posting more about this when I'm finished with them.

Kids and TV

I started a Netflix profile for A today. It has 12 movies consisting of Sesame Street, Electric Comapany, and Mr. Rogers. I'd put School House Rock on there, but we own it. Also I like Magic School Bus, but I think that is a little to advanced for at first.

We don't have TV at all outside of movies, and we don't really have many kid friendly movies. I know some families severly limit TV and some watch none at all, but I really think that it will help him learn the language faster - especially when it comes to reading.

Also, I may be overanalyzing, but I think that getting mail with his name on will be exciting and help him feel part of the family.


Anyone else have any educational movie/TV show suggestions? I know Netflix has Baby Einstein, but I didn't know if that would be too young for him. He seems to like real people better than cartoons anyway. Let me know what you think. Uh, no Dora please....

Learning Russian (or any other language)

I saw this on Lifehacker last night and immediately downloaded it, even though I should have been getting ready for bed.

ProVoc - Free, but for OSX only.

You can download vocabulary lists for different languages - not just the common ones either. [Not only French, German, and Spanish, but also Vietnamese, Czech, Persian, Sanskrit, Filipino, etc. Also they have Chemistry terms, English common phrases, and Meteorology terms.] Then you you can take multiple choice tests to learn the words you have downloaded.

Plus, you can add your own words! So if you don't like the words they have, you can make your own list. I made a list of the numbers 0-10

The only issue I had at first was that I can't really read Russian letters very well, so I was quickly just memorizing the first letter of the words and guessing at the right answer. But then I found that I could record my own voice saying each word, so that when I got the choices, the program would say them to me before I answered. So I went over to my favorite Russian learning podcast - Spoonful of Russian - and listened to the numbers podcast and recorded myself repeating after the podcast.

I went through the little quiz a couple of times, and now I know my Russian numbers. :)

Very cool program!

I'm going back to school

Kindergarten, that is.

Brent and I have decided that we're going to homeschool A when he comes back to us. Absolutely at first, but probably all the way up until high school. After that we're undecided, but it's a long time before that anyway.

At first I was all for a very relaxed unschooling approach, but after seeing how much A thrived with structure and a routine, I thought that the freedom of unschooling might be too much for him.

So I began to look into other methods and really like Charlotte Mason's methods. It involves a lot of reading novels and stories instead of textbooks. For example, if you are learning about electricity, you could read the biography of Ben Franklin and learn so many other things about history and science - instead of just learning the key tied to a kite during a thunderstorm story. Copywork for penmanship and memorization. Narration instead of tests ("Tell me everything you know about electricity"). Learning math concepts instead of memorizing facts. Nature walks and drawn maps and leaf collections and sketchbooks.

Of course we're not going to start by reading Shakespeare. We're going to start by learning English. But I really feel like this method facilitates that because it involves so much reading and talking - especially at the early years.

I think this seems like a really well rounded method. And, it interests me also, whereas all the cirriculum I looked at seemed boring and something I wouldn't really want to teach. So I feel like I'm going back to school too. And I'm excited. :)