The Misfit homeschooler: Living in a secular world

So we used to homeschool in the living room. Using a set of  cube shelves to hold things and using the homemade school table my husband built for us. It worked great until we sort of out grew everything. Before So here are about the same shots of each angle as above on the "mostly" finished room. And now here are the many different options for the new school room. ( I made all the changes, took photo's and put everything back in place in under 10 minutes, so it's not time consuming at all!). First up is just using the small science center table. This is great when they just need a small table to do some writing on, or just want to pull out the microscope and look at a slide and then put it away. Also nice if they want to do some drawing/art work while I'm using the big kitchen table and we don't want to pull out the big table. Then the small table can disappear into the background again when they are done or what to start a lar...

The two girls and I were up early this morning and heading to the coast! Hatfield Marine science center had their homeschool day today and it sounded like it would be fun! We drove a while then hopped out of the car in Depot Bay, Oregon to appreciate the beautiful fall morning at the coast! We checked out the waves a bit then headed on to our destination. We got split into three different groups, and we were off to do some science! First stop was Denizens of the Deep...The kids learned all about some of the different adaptations fish had in the deep sea and then got to make their own "deep sea fish".  I need to try and get a better picture of Kaitlyn's under a black light, but Arianna's showed up pretty well! You notice the Lure it uses to attract it's food, the lights around it's eyes to help it see better and of course all the pretty bio-luminescent defense and alarm system (you know to attract a larger prey item than the one tha...

It's always nice to hear about things that other people do that you might be able to incorporate into your schooling as well. One of the things we've done and really have a lot of fun with is a group we started for local homeschoolers. We meet up every couple of weeks and do a fun "country club" where we get to learn about different countries. Each child gets to pick a country to present to the group (if the child is young or shy the parent gets to help out). Each meeting the kids talk about the country, have an activity and/or a food to try from that country. The kids have a lot of fun with it, and learn a lot. So far they have learned to write their names in Chinese, painted fish for France's "fish day", celebrated Dutch "Kings Day", learned about Israel  and then there is pinata day! So the floor got cleared and set up for the activity... The kids were a bit "ick, this is messy!" (I used to love this stuff, so I'...

With the crazy schedule we have now, it's a bit harder to get some things done. So It's become a case of "here's home ec. kids!" While Kaitlyn and Dad got stuff going in the school room... I got stuff going in the kitchen! First up I finished organizing my new bread and baking area: Everything I use for bread and baking is now in one area. Then I started the Fridge so I could organize everything instead of having a FULL fridge of "unknown" and get it all cleaned up. I took the top two shelves for bread/baking and stuff The kids don't handle on a daily basis and everything the kids can get into are in the bottom several shelves. The top shelf is my bread stuff (the starter gets going a day or two before the actual bread so I need a place to keep it going without little fingers trying to figure out "what's that". Today was Arianna's turn and we put some ciabatta bread together. 2 loaves of Italian herb and ...

When working with a kiddo who is ADHD and trying to figure out ways to help them stay focused while allowing fidgeting..I've had some GREAT idea's and some NOT so great idea's. The GREAT ones: Some kids really like the bounce balls to sit on, but my kids bounce. Not just a little wiggly bounce, but REALLY bounce so I didn't want to go thru the bounce problem. I also figured since we do so much thru discussion and wanting to encourage reading in a comfortable environment that hammock chairs would be perfect! They are! The kids can sway gently, curl up to read, or watch a movie or work on their tablet, etc. which keeps her moving but doesn't get wildly out of control and another plus is that she also gets a feeling of being "hugged" which is nice for those kids that might feel a bit anxious at times. It's a very comforting feeling. The NOT so great ones: I originally thought that she could sit there and play with the putty while doing stuff...

The kids got their own planners this year to help them keep on track. It works fairly well to just plop down in front of them and we work on the schedule together. The front of the planner has some info for the kids (Here's a small sample) Then the main planner pages look like this. It gives them space under the date to write down what is happening on each day class/club/lesson wise. i.e. Mondays = music lessons, Tuesdays =Science group,etc. Then on the next page under "parent/teacher notes" they write in which books they are working on, what pages they want to cover, any websites or online classes that they are signed up for etc. and then the list of spelling words can be either spelling words or reading words that they are working on and then keep track of how much they are reading each week. It's been working out well so far. and helps them to remember what they wanted to do and when. For me I have a 2 part system. I use my Franklin Covey planner...