"Learning Out"

I like how Megan uses the term "Learning Out" for the days when they learn outside the house. In this post, I'll also use the term to explain the ways that we "learn out" with friends. We are so blessed to have a wonderful home school support group in our area, with many friends who have the same approach to home schooling as we do. We get together at least once a week for some kind of activity, playdate, or family celebration. I really can't imagine home schooling without these amazing friends who share our Faith, live out our Hope for our childrens' education, and truly breathe Love into the way they parent and teach their children.

Here are some recent examples of "learning out" with these friends over the past few weeks. Many of these activities or field trips are planned at a moment's notice, some are scheduled in advance, but with small children and babies we are always flexible and willing to change plans at a moment's notice.

We have a Nature Club about 2 or 3 times a month where we meet at a local park and have a simple lesson on some type of science or nature topic. We also try to incorporate Art into our lesson, and have some sort of show-and-tell time for the children to share their own lapbooks, artwork, poetry, etc.

Here's a Nature Club at a local preserve. I like how Mary Clare is excitedly pointing out something in the 2nd picture!


A weekend afternoon at the park with home schooling friends.
If the dads are there, it usually includes fishing!


Here's a Mom's Learning Out night! We had our first Charlotte Mason book study meeting at my house. We're reading Real Learning and the Charlotte Mason Companion.


We have scheduled nursing home visits 4 times a year: Halloween/All Saints' Day, Christmas, Valentine's, and Easter. Here the kids are finishing up their handmade cards. I love how all the different age groups work together, and how we're able to serve the community with our friends!


And here they are reciting poetry and singing some Valentine songs, bringing smiles and Valentine cards to the elderly residents.


This week a friend planned a last-minute Go Texan celebration! (February starts the big Rodeo here, so Go Texan Days are popular at schools) We met at the Salt Grass Steakhouse in our western gear and learned about cowboys, trail rides, rodeos, and more! Here one of the dads is teaching them about cattle roping.


And here are all the kids by a mural of a trail ride!


Nature Club this week was by our local waterway. We had a picnic lunch,


and then went on a nature hunt for animal tracks.
Here they are making molds of the animal footprints.

Those are just a few examples of things we've done in the past few weeks. The possibilities are endless! In my public school growing up we rarely got to go on field trips, so I love that my kids are able to have a field trip almost every week!

I know that not everyone is so blessed to have like-minded home schooling families nearby, but maybe just 2 or 3 families could start something similar. I really think it helps me and my children (who are all very social) to have these opportunities to learn together. Do any of you have similar groups or activities?

Hannah's Screenplay

Translated by me, her mom.



Hannah: Hello Emme, what would [you like], a strawberry shake or a blueberry shake?

Emme: I'll take a blueberry shake.

Hannah: Ok.

I'm assuming some time has passed and some stage directions inadvertently got left off the screenplay.

Emme: I didn't order this.

Hannah: I'm so sorry.


www.kidshows.com

They want to produce their play and put it on this website. Just in case you wanted to know the motivation behind the project. I have no idea if this website even exists.



Emme: Waiter, I'm starved over here.

Hannah: I'm so sorry, my Lady.



Emme: I ordered a blueberry shake.

Hannah: We've always had...



The rest is supposed to say "people order strawberry shakes". However, the screenplay was abandoned creative midstream and has yet to be picked up again. That was about three months ago.


I think they get their short-lived enthusiasm from someone I know...

Ahem. My own faults aside, I am proud of their efforts (even if there are some crucial details missing) and am certainly looking forward to seeing Hannah's first Broadway screenplay. Of course.

Last fall, while the girls sat around the table eating breakfast, one of them spotted a spider on our grill. We all went out to see, and there she was, and can you believe it? She had just placed her eggs carefully on the cover, and had begun to lovingly weave a web of protection around them.

We got to stand there on that still-warm autumn morning and watch that Mama spider prepare her eggs for a long winter.

The girls knew exactly what she was doing, because they have seen Charlotte's Web 87 times.

They knew when she was done, she would "languish", just like Charlotte.

And just like Wilbur made his promise to look after her eggs when she was gone, the girls felt a particular call to fend for these little pre-spiders, through the long winter.

I thought that was just precious.

So we have waited, since September, for those little eggs to hatch. We talk about them often, and on the especially cold mornings, the girls are concerned for them. When we've grilled, Jim and I have been careful not to disturb them, and when it was windy today, the girls were so concerned about them blowing away that I tied up the grill cover extra-tight just so they'd have piece of mind.

They cannot wait for them to hatch, hopefully sometime this spring. Oh, Lord, PLEASE let them see some sort of action when they hatch! Oh, Lord, PLEASE don't let any of said hatchlings get in the house!

If we hadn't been learning at home, we wouldn't have been home together that morning. We would have been driving Grace to school. I remember looking at the clock, as my girls watched this amazing nature happening right on our deck, and thinking just that.

We would have missed it.

And that's why we love learning at home.

Before Five in a Row

I've heard many people rave about the Five in a Row series, but had always thought it was something I could create on my own. I mean, I did it in college...pick a "unit" and come up with all sorts of activities to go with it. Five in a Row is similar, you present a book and then do activities for all different subject areas relating to that book.

Since I'm looking at moving towards a more Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling and maybe using the St. Thomas Aquinas Academy curriculum in the future, I decided that it might be good to go ahead and try out Five in a Row. Yes, I could probably create these lessons myself. I have tried it on the spur-of-the-moment, and come up with great ideas for the girls to do. But it takes a lot of creative effort that many days I just don't have, especially early in the morning. And planning lessons days ahead is very difficult for me. So this will give me something to start with.

After a little research I decided to start with the Before Five in a Row. Even though it's geared towards preschoolers, I know Mary Clare still enjoys many of the books such as "Corduroy" and "Caps for Sale". We read "Katy No-Pocket" earlier this week, which is one of our all-time favorites, and enjoyed doing some of the activities recommended in BFIAR. The girls especially love learning about animals and really liked looking back at the book to find different things in the illustrations, count animals, etc. It also offers a short bible lesson after each story and a whole section devoted to various educational activities to do with your young children.

Since we already love to start off each day reading books, this will be a great way to extend it into some homeschooling lessons without getting out the workbooks and phonics flashcards right away! I heartily recommend this book to moms of preschoolers and young elementary students.