Lately, I have been thinking about summer.

It is hard to do with the snow flurries flying and the temperatures dipping, but I know that when the snow melts and the mud dries, we will want to be outside, every waking moment.

I decided that this year, I want to be finished with all of the work that is in the curriculum outline that I sent the state.

That is the work that I am responsible for reporting on.

Of course, learning will continue, as it does every day. The portfolio work we have all come to view as a slight, yet unfortunately necessary, burden that we need to get out of the way before we are free to enjoy the real lessons life has to offer.

Kind of like housework!

I guess learning to do those things we don’t like to do, but must, is a lesson of its own, but I digress.

The other day, I pulled out my calendar and all of our materials from this year. I sketched out a workable time frame that would allow us to get all of the work done before the real summer weather begins.

I settled on 10 weeks, starting tomorrow.

Then, I wrote out the full lesson plan for the 10 weeks.

Following a schedule is not my strong suit, so I made a loosely scheduled plan that focuses more on weekly work targets. (Sort of what I talked about here.)

With this focused period of book work ahead of us, I am sure I will have more insights and opinions to share about homeschooling.

Hopefully, that will mean more posts at the academy.

I wrote a post over on my political blog today about homeschooling laws in VT.  I sort of tie it in with what is going on in CA and the implementation of laws in general.

If you are interested.

Why Homeschool is holding a contest for graphics for the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Go vote for your favorite medium image and your favorite whatever size image.

Then head over to PalmTree Pundit and check out the current Carnival of Homeschooling!

I think I mentioned this on All Things Hold Together before, but it is worth bringing up again.

Disney released all 100 episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy on DVD. The classroom editions include a PDF file with lesson plans based on the episode, along with a short quiz.

Our library has a bunch of these and the kids love them.

I love that they come with a quiz that I can print out and include in our yearly portfolios.

I also love that the kids enjoy watching them again and again, reinforcing the concepts.

There is something wonderful about my 4-year-old asking to watch Bill Nye.

As Bill Nye says, Science rules!

I can’t believe it is that time already. Book It! registration is open for the 2008-2009 school year.

Book It! is a reading incentive program offered by Pizza Hut. Students are given a coupon for a free personal pan pizza every month that they meet their reading goal.

The program runs from October through March and is open to students in grades K-6.

Homeschoolers enroll here.

I just signed my guys up. They have been doing this for the past two years. This year, Little E gets to join in. He will be old enough for K in the fall!

The boys and I have been playing a dice game to practice multiplication facts.

Simply roll two dice and multiply the numbers, write down your score, and add them up at the end.

The kids get practice with single-digit multiplication and adding a column of numbers (we rolled ten times each).

For added practice, we roll one die for a final multiplier. This gives them a problem to work out multiplying a (usually) three-digit number by a one-digit number.

One drawback is that the dice only go up to 6.

One possible solution is to buy dice with more sides. Another is to draw cards, instead of rolling dice.

The title of this comic is not kid-friendly, but wouldn’t this - or something similar - make a fun homeschool project?

I don’t know about you, but I am severely schedule-challenged. I could not keep a schedule if my life depended on it.

For many homeschoolers, this would not be a problem. (Think, unschooling.)

But since I live in a state that requires end-of-the-year reporting, based on a beginning-of-the year curriculum, I need to get certain things done.

Finding a balance between relaxed and scheduled has been a challenge for me, to say the least.

I once read a suggestion on a message board that I want to try.

A homeschooling dad said that he designs subject units and the kids have to have a certain number of units complete in each subject each week.

His kids are older, so he lets them be responsible for completing their required work. They have the flexibility to do it when they want to.

For example, one chapter of math counts as one unit and the child must complete three units of math per week.

This I can do.

At least, I think I can.

I’ll let you know next week how it’s working out.

Over at I Think Therefore I Blog, Kate has a post on classroom behavior management that got me thinking about my homeschool discipline strategies.

The way I try to approach discipline is by first examining why the child is misbehaving. Is it defiance or rebellion? Is it childish forgetfulness? Or is it a developmental inability to comply?

Obviously, with developmental inability to comply, there is no punishment. That would just be cruel.

Unfortunately, for schooled children, especially in kindergarten, there are situations when children are asked to do something they are unable to do and are subsequently punished for not doing it.

One example is sitting still.

One of the hardest things for me to adjust to when I started homeschooling was the fact that the boys will never sit still for any length of time on a regular basis.

They can, and they do, when we are out, but when we are home, I do not make them.

So, if we are doing a lesson where I am reading something out loud, and they start fidgeting or moving about, instead of reprimanding them, I simply ask them a question to see if they were paying attention. If they are, then they are okay.

Another example, sometimes Little E interrupts. No interrupting is one of our standards. Previously, when he started to interrupt, I would shush him and make him wait. When it was his turn he would get upset and cry.

I learned that when he has to wait to talk, he forgets what he wanted to say and becomes frustrated.

He has a developmental inability to wait his turn to talk.

To accommodate this, we have taught him the proper way to get our attention politely and we remind him to think about what he wants to say while we finish talking, so he doesn’t forget. We make him wait (to learn that skill), but we give him his turn very soon, so he does not have to wait longer than he can at his level of development.

If an older child interrupts, this is usually out of childish forgetfulness. They are not trying to be rude, they are just not thinking about manners.

In their case, we will make them wait their turn. They will also get a reminder about the importance of respecting others by not interrupting.

In the case of childishness, it is also unnecessary and cruel to punish. A reminder of right behavior (aka, a little lecture) and a “do over” usually will suffice.

It is only in the case of blatant disobedience, rebellion or challenge to authority that we use punishments. (Or in the case of hurting someone physically.)

This behavior will usually result in loss of privileges and sometimes, time alone in their bedroom. (That is grammatically correct - they all share one bedroom and use the other bedroom as a play room.)

Most misbehaviors of children are caused by childishness and can be corrected over time with lots of training them to do it again the right way. (Unless the child is lacking attention and acting out to get some, but that is a different matter entirely.)

One final note on how we handle misbehavior. I do a combined grade 4/5 for Big E and The D. If one of them is intentionally disrupting the lessons because he doesn’t feel like doing school work, that child is sent to the bedroom and he has to make the work up at 3:00, which is when they either go play with friends or watch TV.

This does not happen very often!

Okay, this site is now at the domain: SouthMeadowAcademy.com. (Caps not necessary.)

This post is to test if the old feed still works for this new URI.  If you are not reading this, your feed needs to be updated!