How Does a Homeschooler Raise a Butterfly?

I love the homeschooler changing a lightbulb joke. You know the one:

"How does a homeschooler change a lightbulb? 
First, mom checks three books on electricity out of the library, then the kids make models of light bulbs, read a biography of Thomas Edison and do a skit based on his life. 
Next, everyone studies the history of lighting methods, wrapping up with dipping their own candles. Next, everyone takes a trip to the store where they compare types of light bulbs as well as prices and figure out how much change they'll get if they buy two bulbs for $1.99 and pay with a five dollar bill.
On the way home, a discussion develops over the history of money and also Abraham Lincoln, as his picture is on the five dollar bill.
Finally, after building a homemade ladder out of branches dragged from the woods, the light bulb is installed.
And there is light."

Overdue Update

In October my good friend babysat all three kids for me for several hours. When I went to pick them up from her house she asked me to stay for a minute and talk. She had been doing some random reading the night before about signs of autism in toddlers and she thought she saw some of the things mentioned in Lady Bug. She shared a link to the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised (also known as the M-CHAT) and suggested I try the checklist and see what it said.

Wordly Wise A, B, and C Review

We recently completed the Wordly Wise series A, B, and C and have moved on to Wordly Wise 3000 workbooks. We first started these workbooks sometime in Builder Boy's 2nd grade year, after they took the DORA for the first time and the results showed that they were ready for a vocabulary program and would benefit from one. I asked around my online homeschooling groups and purchased the first book from Rainbow Resource online. I purchased the answer key (sold separately) as well, but it really wasn't necessary. It was pretty obvious to me what the answers were most of the time.

Costume Making Season

So I'm in full blown costume making mode. And I have the spray painted fingers to prove it! We've usually gone simple for costumes but this year we're going a bit more elaborate with a Doctor Who family theme. Oh, and I also threw together a quick bat costume for Early Bird because he's currently obsessed with bats. I'll have pictures and guidelines to follow once I find my hot glue gun, but if you just can't wait to see what's going on I've been updating on the blog's facebook page.

Here's the link to all the easy costumes I've made over the years.

Here's the link to the facebook page.

Catching Up in Language Arts, Part 1: FLL3 and WWE2

The goals:

1. Finish First Language Lessons level 3 and 4 in one year's time and be prepared to move on to 5th grade grammar at the beginning of the next school year. 
2. Finish Writing With Ease level 2 by the middle of the school year and move on to a new curriculum, probably Brave Writer. 

The students: Builder Boy (not quite 9 years old) and Early Bird (6 1/2)

The purpose of this post: to show you how we are doing it if you ever find you want to do something similar, and a reminder that curricula is not the boss of you.

Our Homeschool System and Schedule

We finally found our homeschooling groove! I wrote here about the general things that helped us find it. Now here are the specifics of what our groove actually turned out to be. This may be nothing like your groove, or it could have one element or two that you would like to add to yours. Whatever the reason, if it helps, here's the information.

How We Found Our Homeschooling Groove

This is our 4th year homeschooling. I have seen it said that it usually takes 3-4 years to get your homeschool groove. This has been true for us. I have also seen it said that you find your groove and then things change and you have to find it all over again. Lord, I sure hope that one doesn't apply to us!

If you are still trying to find what works for you and your family, here's what it took for us to find ours:

1. Trial and Error
2. Timing
3. Realizing My Own Limitations (again, and again)
4. Letting Go of the Ideal
5. Practice and Maturity

First Day of School 2015

Here we are at our fourth first day of school. I know it's cliche to say, but it really does seem like we just had our very first day of homeschool recently.

We started with our traditional pancake breakfast and pictures with signs. This year I also added a little present; a math concept book for Builder Boy and a Beethoven action figure for Early Bird. Lady Bug was not impressed with my signs or picture attempts this year.

This was our first year not taking a break before the start of the new school year. We have been working on vocabulary, spelling, handwriting, and math consistently starting at the same time every day for the past two months. I have to say I really think this works best for us. The no-longer-summer-schedule saw us add just two new subjects (grammar and writing) in the morning and I got the next Story of the World cds for them to listen to during quiet time.

If our current schedule and system works for us, then I will blog about it. But I don't want to count my chickens just yet.

Homeschooling and Overexcitabilities

This month's Hoagies blog hop is about Overexcitiblites, something I have mentioned several times before on my blog. Both Builder Boy and Early Bird demonstrate various overexcitabilities (here after shortened to OE's) and that has both hampered and helped our homeschooling efforts.

(I have also posted about Overexcitabilities portrayed in film here.)

Music and Art Appreciation: #1 Most Likely to Drop Subject

Part 5 (and last one!) of my series wrapping up what we learned this year in different subjects and what each experience taught me about homeschooling in general. (Part 1: History, Part 2: Science, Part 3: Math, Part 4: Language Arts.)

Language Arts: A Very Good Reason to Homeschool

Part 4 of my series wrapping up what we learned this year in different subjects and what each experience taught me about homeschooling in general. (Part 1: History, Part 2: Science, Part 3: Math.)

For the sake of this blog post, "language arts" is reading, writing, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and handwriting.

Math: Going Against Common Advice

Part 3 of my series wrapping up what we learned this year in different subjects and what each experience taught me about homeschooling in general. (Part 1: History, Part 2: Science.) It was a year of adapting and adjusting, that's for sure. Just like the year before...

Inside Out Emotions Tool Box

I grew up in households that did not talk about emotions and expected you to stop strong emotions before they became a problem. It was the exact opposite of what I needed due to my history, and as a result I grew up stuffing emotions until I couldn't take it any longer and exploded. To be fair, this it is how my grandparents were raised and was they only way they knew. But I am determined to do better for my own kids. The problem is, until very recently, never having been taught any tools I was unsure what to tell my own kids. I also lacked any confidence that what I might come up with is "right." That's where Disney's new movie, Inside Out, really helped me.

Science: What is "Enough?"

Last year I wrote one post comparing what I had planned at the beginning of the year with what actually happened. This year I'm writing a series of posts on it. Part One was History. This part will cover Science, and how we decided what counted as "enough."

Homeschooling History and the Power of Interest

As a kid (and even now as an adult) I loved history and learning about how people lived so long ago. I could hardly wait to explore history with my own children once we decided to homeschool. I loved the idea behind the Story of the World Series; teaching history chronologically in the four year cycle just made so much sense to me. So we began 1st grade with Story of the World: Ancients. I wanted to bring this awesome subject to life for the boys, so I went all out with the activities and crafts, trying to make it an immersive experience. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm and perfectionism took over before we were a third of the way though the book. If I couldn't do it the way I wanted to, I didn't do it at all. There was always something I needed to find or buy or print out that wasn't ready when I needed it. In the craziness of trying to figure out our first year of homeschooling and then becoming so sick with my pregnancy with Lady Bug and then moving to a different state, it got dropped.

Gifted Babies: Where are the Resources?

Looking back, Builder Boy was my "easy" baby. I had a baby milestone book that he never deviated from. He was always "right on schedule" and I never worried about delayed or advanced. Sure, he did a few things here or there that seemed a bit unusual, and he could stack blocks higher than the milestone list said, but other than that, no signs of giftedness that were obvious enough to make oblivious me think he was anything other than perfectly average.

A Friday at Sceleratus Classical Academy

I had plans for this day; plans for this blog post. I was going to do what a fellow blogger did and take a picture on the hour, every hour of one day to give a snap shot of the day. But nothing this day went according to plan....which is actually pretty representative of almost every single day here.

Congratulations to Tiffani W. for winning the DORA and ADAM giveaway!! I hope it greatly blesses you and your child. Thank you everyone who participated and helped make my first ever giveaway a success! And an extra big thank you to Let's Go Learn for sponsoring the giveaway!

While the giveaway was going on, I hit the 100,000 view mark! (All views since I first went live, not that many views in two weeks.) That milestone was very exciting to make, especially as I've been blogging so sporadically lately. Thank you to all the readers who stick with me through my dry spells. Monday I have a contribution going live for the next Gifted Homeschooler's Forum blog hop, and I've got some half started drafts that I hope to finish, polish, and post soon. Early Bird's birthday and party is also coming up this weekend; it's an American Ninja Warrior theme! And if the friends who helped us make it possible are further obliging, I may have some cool building plans to share!

And HAPPY PI DAY!!!

Housekeeping Anorexia

Does this picture make you wonder if I'm having company over or does it make you think "I would never want a picture of my couch that messy on the internet!" If your reaction is the first one and you're a parent, then you may be more normal than you think. If you're a parent and your reaction is the second one, you may just have HDD, or House Dysmorphic Disorder.

DIY Cinderella Tu-tu Dress

When I first saw the new Disney Cinderella trailer, I knew I wanted to take the kids to see it in theater; and with Lady Bug dressed up as Cinderella! My sister and I started scouring the internet for Cinderella costumes for our toddler daughters then because we knew that when the movie was coming out there would probably be a shortage. But the dresses we found were either too expensive or not very Cinderella-y. That's when I decided I was going to make a Cinderella tutu dress. And I did it for only $10!