Feeling Silly?

I already had today's post mapped out in my mind, but after waking up and checking my email I changed my mind. My husband sent me this article about Silly Bandz. As I was reading it, in the next room my children were organizing their bands by color and then by which ones they liked the most. Once we were ready to head out the door to meet friends at the park, my son especially was loaded down with his bands!

Now, I am going to brag about my son and daughter. The two friends they met at the park did not have bands, so my son gave them each 1. 1+1=2. 2 silly bands gone from his original collection of 45, which left him with 43 bands. My daughter also gave 2 bands away, but she wasn't keeping track like my son was - I think he has a new fascination with numbers. They excite him so much. On to the library, where my children noticed the three librarians didn't have silly bands. Grant says "Mom, I gave 3 bands to the librarians" and I (the wonderful homeschooling mom I am ) said "43-3=40". Then, on to the grocery store, where we ran into the sweetest elderly couple who had volunteered last week serving snacks at VBS. Of course my children had to stop and talk with them (since my kids are introverted homeschoolers who never get out of the house and aren't properly socialized) and give them each a silly band. Then Grant said, "MOM! 40-1=39". Wow. I was impressed.

I don't know if I was more impressed with the math lesson, or with both of my children's generous spirit? My heart really was bursting with pride and what's even better was that my children felt so great about sharing the Silly Bandz with those who didn't have any. Oh -- I almost forgot that on the way out of the store Grant ran into a friend's grandmother who (shocker) didn't have a band. The count went down to 38.

So, here are the reasons Silly Bandz blessed my family today:

1. They gave my children something to organize together this morning and trade with each other.
2. Silly Bandz provided a most valuable subtraction lesson for my almost Kindergarten son.
3. Those crazy little rubber bands helped my children make connections with people in their community, and for this I am grateful.

I know a lot of people that resist the latest fads, and sometimes I can understand why. In this case, however, I'm all for it!

How's Your Handwriting?

Yesterday I talked about science, and today I will move on to handwriting, which I consider to be the "lost art". I am sure many of you had a grandmother or mother with beautiful handwriting. I know I did - everything my grandmother, Vera, wrote looked so fancy and important. This was also in the age where everything was written - no computers to make us lazy. When I got to the third grade, my teacher really concentrated on handwriting, and I like to think that (when I want to) I have beautiful handwriting, too.

When my daughter was in the public school, I always had a sick feeling when she would bring home sloppy work, but I would justify it by thinking "she's still young" or "handwriting just isn't her thing", when in truth they were receiving little to no formal handwriting instruction. So, when we pulled her out of school Thanksgiving of her third grade year, it became my goal to give her the gift of pretty handwriting. I had heard so many people talking about Handwriting Without Tears, so I did a little research online and asked a few of my teacher friends and purchased the program. Here is what the creators of HWT say to the parent:

"Handwriting Without Tears® aims to make legible and fluent handwriting an easy and automatic skill that every student can master. Our unique and compelling curriculum design and teaching strategies facilitate this goal."

We received the materials in the mail and I could tell right away my daughter would love it. HWT suggests not to extensively remediate printing if your child is beginning cursive, so we practiced printing (regular Zaner Bloser style) for a couple of weeks and this is what happened after just a few quiet handwriting lessons:

Then, it was on to the Beginning Cursive workbook from HWT. The lessons were quick and catchy (each letter has a little phrase that helps the child remember how it is written) and Anna really enjoyed making her letters on the chalkboard as well. I wish I would have saved all of her copywork, but I am learning a valuable lesson to not throw anything away --- but I do have a picture of a card she made for her grandfather after his hip replacement surgery. The handwriting is improving, and more importantly, she put scripture in the card to comfort her Grandpa Jim.

I notice now that Anna is PROUD of her handwriting and even likes to show it off to her friends sometimes. My daughter received a letter from a 96 year old friend of my mother's - this woman, Miss Dottie, and Anna share a love of dolls. They write back and forth and we visit with her when we are at my parent's house. We were struck by how beautiful Miss Dottie's handwriting is, and she even made the comment to my mom that Anna had pretty handwriting!

This year we will be moving on to the "Cursive Success" workbook, which reviews all of the letters again, just in smaller form.

I did have a problem with ordering this time from Handwriting Without Tears. Our order arrived with my sons book "Letters and Numbers for Me" missing. All it took was an email to customer service and this problem was worked out. I'm excited for him to start the program as well -- here's a sample of his work (keep in mind he just finished preschool so it's nothing fancy!) - this was handed to me in church a few months ago and I just had to laugh!

All in all, I feel Handwriting Without Tears is a low stress, affordable program which can give your children the gift of good handwriting. I may be trying to hold onto a lost art in this age of computer, but I don't think there is anything wrong with that! In fact, I think Charlotte Mason would be proud!

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Science on The Magic School Bus

A dear friend of mine from church had been encouraging me to homeschool ever since I first asked her about it, and while I didn't initially start homeschooling, she never judged my decision, but quietly kept herself involved in my life. Looking back, I think this was just the support and encouragement that I needed. I will never forget the Sunday before Thanskgiving when I stopped her before the church service and said "I did it. I took Anna out of school!" She hugged me and promised to help me in any way she could.

This friend has three children - and she homeschooled each of them up until the sixth grade, at which point she sent them to an exceptional private school in our area. This year marked her last year of homeschooling, so a few weeks ago she invited me to her home to pour through her resources - jackpot! As we sat on her basement floor pouring through boxes of books, games, etc..., I asked a lot of questions and she offered advice to me. One of the things I had expressed some concern about was science. Yes, last year I had purchased the science curriculum that came along with the Sonlight Core 3 Newcomer package, and I really liked some parts of it, but this coming year I wanted to do science together with my Kindergarten and Fourth Grader. It sounds like a stretch in age range, but my friend had a great idea and I am going to try it this year!

On a few occasions this past year, we have read a Magic School Bus book together. We even did a complete lapbook about sharks based on "The Great Shark Escape". Check out what a great job my daughter did here. Both of my children enjoyed the book, and also enjoyed several of the Magic School Bus movies from the library during the year. My friend "willed" me her complete set of The Magic School Bus books and suggested I take a book every two weeks and go in depth with it by supplementing with other library books, experiments, and videos. She said I had better do it this year because my oldest may not be interested in The Magic School Bus after this year. I am so excited to begin! If you aren't familiar with The Magic School Bus you should really check it out. Miss Frizzle takes her students on a school bus to impossible places of learning - inside the human body, to the moon, and to the ocean floor to name a few! She is quite likable and the adventures are fun and interesting. There are also activities on the Scholastic website to support a lot of what you do, including experiments, games, video clips, and much more.

Now, if you want a science curriculum for the little ones with everything ready for you, this may not be it. But, if you are like me and enjoy having a "spine" and then being creative from there, this just might be the thing for you. Check back to see where the bus takes us this year!

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