Adventures in Mama-Land

(Or, how I secretly want to continue homeschooling once we arrive in Israel… but you knew that already, didn’t you?) I wasn’t sure where to post this, and actually began posting it to my aliyah blog , but decided it was more homeschooly, so now I’m switching it to here. Homeschooling is legal in Israel, but we have already decided we cannot do it – and, more importantly, that it’s in the kids’ best interests to go to school.  I posted about this before (apparently in July 2011, so we’re probably due for an update) but I will sum up the 3 main reasons: Socialization – not in general, because homeschooled kids DO socialize, but they will need to make friends fast and although there are chugim (extra-curricular activities), youth groups, shul, and homeschooler get-togethers,  school is the best way to do that. Language – I want them to learn Hebrew immediately.  School is perhaps a brutal way to do that, but it’s fast and everybody says they become fluent within months...

While it seems to be a public holiday in some parts, around here, with two MORE field trips this week (sigh), we can’t really spare any time, so we’re hard at work – for a change. These are the kids’ narrations for this painting, Mary Cassatt’s The Boating Party .  I typed them, so it went quickly. Gavriel Zev’s (his “sketch” of this painting is at right): In the painting, I saw the sea was a little bit green. Two people were on a boat – just plain people, skinny people. One was a man and one was a woman. There was a baby, too. There was a city in the background and some was trees. I liked the painting because there was a lot of particular things. I didn’t like the people very much – they looked a little bit bad (like they weren’t well drawn). And Naomi Rivka’s – I typed hers, then had her copy out the shortest sentence, in keeping with the Well-Trained Mind approach to easing them into their own creative writing, using short passsages from their own narration (in addition to ...

Well, you all know we homeschool, but what some folks (including US!) may have forgotten is that we homeSCHOOL.  With an emphasis on school:  subjects, learning… I know, what with summertime and all these holidays this month, it’s a pretty radical concept. Today we did a science activity.  New this year, I’m no longer calling our science activities “experiments,” but rather “explorations.”  Why?  Well, first of all, this isn’t exactly ground-breaking science, and second (most importantly), I’ve concluded that everything I call an experiment is doomed to failure.  In what was perhaps one of the flakiest but best-advised things I’ve done as a homeschooling parent, we’ve skipped out on the rest of Apologia Flying Creatures Our new science program is called – improbably enough – Mr. Q Earth Science and, believe it or not, it is a reading-based, classically-oriented program that MAY (it remains to be seen) offer that elusive balance between easy, fun hands-o...

Naomi LOVES her little Dollarama notebook!  As usual, when my back is turned, she’s busy learning more than I could possibly teach her. Here’s one for anybody who says that the grammar stage (ie grades 1 - 3 or 4ish) isn’t all about memorizing and mastering facts that would make a grown person’s eyes water for how dry and boring they are.  She was SOooo impressed with her own ability to get from 10 to 0 in only a single page of solid arithmetic! Okay, actually, here’s another for anyone who says they are not filling their “fact bank” at this age with things older, more sophisticated people might consider blisteringly dull, like the landforms of Baja California and Mexico:   This is a little mini geography lesson, including a detailed map – she’s copied the shape and mountain range from an atlas she carries around and reads for fun! – and a compass rose.  The other side shows women in a Mexican marketplace. There are also pages and pages of parsha stories and ...

* If you’re just here for the free supplement, scroll down to the end for more information.  I want to chat for a while with my regular readers first! Okay, okay, I know I haven’t mentioned Latin on here, even though it is one of the most exciting things to happen in our little homeschool over the last couple of months. To back up just a little:  I have no idea why I caved.  Elisheva was pushing me to teach Naomi a language – my protestations that Hebrew IS a language went unheard.  She does NOT approve of Hebrew as a second language.  She wanted me to do French, but I had seen this program and thought it was super-cute, and I figure Latin is kind of like meta-French.  Once you know Latin, French comes easily… right? Anyway, it was a flimsy reason to adopt an extra school subject, but the Song School Latin curriculum is SUPER light, and we’re really, really enjoying it so far.  I won’t say “loving it,” because my sister Abigail is back, and she kn...

Haven’t done one of these in a while… Chelle in NZ very kindly tagged me from her blog , and it looked like fun. Here are the questions! 1. One homeschooling book you have enjoyed Most influential has probably been The Well-Trained Mind , by Susan Wise Bauer, if only because there’s not a single Charlotte Mason book that I have absolutely loved cover to cover (though When Children Love to Learn is very practical and helpful).  Oh, and did I mention Biblical Home Education , by Ruth Beechick?  It’s a Christian perspective, but very helpful in terms of figuring out the basics of homeschooling. (wait a minute… did it say ONE book???) :-) 2. One resource you wouldn't be without The computer! 3. One resource you wish you had never bought None have been so bad that I have regretted owning them.  Kind of annoyed at Elemental Science, though, as I mentioned last week … and Spelling Workout was also a flop.  Chalk it up to “Living n’ Learning!” 4. One resource you ...

After a year of planning and evaluating various options for Year 1, it’s finally done – our super-schmancy, fine-and-dandy Complete Jewish Homeschool Curriculum!  Sort of.  It’s an ambitious list, and I’m scared I won’t be able to do it. Points to keep in mind: I’m flexible.  If something doesn’t work, I drop it – period.  Maybe pick up something else, or maybe drop the subject if it’s not a crucial one.  I am very open to this, though I think everything I’ve chosen for the year is do-able. It LOOKS ambitious, but most of it is just extensions of what we are already doing.  Nothing here will be a big surprise if you’ve been reading this blog all along. Most lessons are VERY short!  Depending on the lesson itself and Naomi Rivka’s co-operation, an average lesson is about 10-20 minutes.  Some subjects in some weeks will really involve ZERO additional minutes; they’re just books included in our regular family reading schedule.  A ...

This is just a preliminary review.  Full disclosure:  We haven’t used this curriculum yet; I  plan to use it next “year” (starting in the summer), but I thought I’d talk about it anyway, after a couple of months of looking at it and mulling over it, since a lot of homeschooling parents are wondering. Why did I choose Elemental Science?  I hope it will give us the freedom to explore what interests us and not spend too much time with what doesn't.  It fills in gaps I wouldn't be able to cover myself and lightly directs your reading so a non-science-based parent like myself can learn right along with the kids. Capsule overview: Pros – It follows the 4-year Well-Trained Mind cycle; it is "light" but thorough at the same time.  I have heard great things from parents using it - ie their kids love it and come to enjoy science.  As a "skeleton" curriculum, it allows parents to use their own creativity to choose additional reading...

This is the second of two unrelated “mini-essays”.  Read them or not… I know they are longer and denser than my usual fare.  Here’s the first . If you don’t know what unschooling is, it’s not QUITE what it sounds like, and it looks different in different families.  It doesn’t mean ignoring your child or letting them run wild and do whatever they want. However it looks in different homes, all unschoolers basically take their cues from the child’s interest:  if a child wants to learn a particular subject, that’s what they’ll spend time doing.  And if a child has no interest in swimming lessons, or math, it won’t happen – yet, though the child is free develop an interest later. To traditional schoolers and textbooky homeschoolers, it sounds like a nightmare, but it works:  I have SEEN it work.  Kids DO learn to read; they do learn math and history, politics, geography, and, should they need it, higher math and science at any level they would normall...