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Month: March 2019
New nature study books! With the start of spring, we have expanded from our study of rocks into lots of growing things. We’ll see if it settles into focus or stays general. . Books: 🍃Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature 🍃It Starts With a Seed 🍃Hidden World: Forest 🍃Finding Wild . Got a few books about bees too – will post those later! . #naturestudybooks #naturestudy #homeschoolnaturestudy #homeschoolscience #backyardnature #secularhomeschool
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Art & exploring deep fears and strong feelings – My son is not enamored much of painting, drawing, or clay. So, it’s through perler beads that he’s started to express himself and process things. . This piece he made has a story behind it. The darker beads are an infection in a body that is being fought off by the lighter beads, the white blood cells. The striped beads on the left are macrophages, special immune cells that consume harmful invaders. . I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my son was on antibiotics recently and has had a lot of dr visits, and he produced this. To me it seems like a healthy way to play out the idea that his body was fighting off an infection, which is definitely anxiety provoking. . I see a lot of beautiful pictures on IG of beautiful watercolors and very artfully arranged art experiences for kids. I just want to say that there’s room for kids to take things in a different direction. . Not everything our kids produce will be cute, brightly colored, or inspired by idyllic scenes. Kids get worried, angry, and sad, and Art is for that too. . When I look at this creation, I see a big patch of black in the middle that the white blood cells and macrophages haven’t reached. Maybe he’s worried the infection isn’t really gone or will come back. I can’t say I blame him. And seeing this helps me to understand how that feels, which is what art is supposed to do, right? . What’s your kid’s favorite way to express their big feelings? . #artforkids #perlerbeads #perlerbeadart #homeschoolart #abstractart #selfexpressionthroughart
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Week in review – I have to say I’m really enjoying our new chart categories. Previous to this, we had mostly traditional school subjects like Reading, Math, Writing, Handwriting, etc. But as we’ve become more project based, it made more sense to include the projects on the chart instead of trying to tease out which subjects were wrapped up in our projects. Also, having reading on there at all was just hilarious, as it’s so much a part of our life – it’s like checking off “Breathing air”. Very important, but silly to check. . My son contributed “Robots” to the list. I’m curious to see where that interest goes! . #homeschool #homeschoolplanning #eclectichomeschool #projectbasedlearning #projectbasedhomeschooling #secularhomeschool #secularhomeschooling
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Brainstorming an update to our play area. What are your kids’ favorite loose parts or tinkering materials? . #makerspace #homeschoolstem #homeschoolmakerspace #tinkeringstudio #loosepartsplay #looseparts #handsonlearning
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Didn’t get a clear view of the super moon tonight, but if you do, try to spot some of these features… they’re listed in order of difficulty. From “The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs” by Tristan Gooley. . #supermoon #supermoon2019
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Spring nature study & gardening – picked up some fun new books at our library today with more to come! . Our main gatden is going to revolve around studying pollinators – hoping to attract plenty even living in a high rise apartment with a small terrace. . Our main challenge is that our porch is shaded – so we have to choose our plants with that in mind. But we are so excited with the oncoming of spring and getting started with our garden! . What are your spring plans? . #homeschooling #secularhomeschool #happyspring #springbooks #homeschoolbooks #naturestudy #homeschoolscience
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Updated weekly chart – experimenting with a new format. Deliberately leaving a few spaces blank in case my kid has anything else he’d like to add. . #homeschoolplanning #eclectichomeschool #secularhomeschool #secularhomeschooling #projectbasedlearning #homeschoolunitstudy #interdisciplinarylearning
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Week in review – it’s time to switch things up! . We’re almost at the end of our kindergarten year – though the actual grade levels of our materials are all over the place. It just feels different now. My son feels older, both to himself and to us. And so what we are focusing on will be changing to reflect that. . My initial goal with the chart (which you can read about on the blog – link is in my bio @inquiringmindshomeschool ) was to keep track of what we were getting to each week and trying to establish a consistent routine. As you can see, some areas are a lot more consistent than others. Which is fine! But I also think we’ll have more success getting to those areas through projects, and so I’ll be adding some projects to the chart. . What I love about homeschooling is how flexible and responsive it can be. We can change with the seasons and emphasize the methods and practices that are working. So next weeks review will reflect that! . #homeschool #homeschooling #secularhomeschooling #secularhomeschool #thisishomeschool #homeschoolplanning
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Homeschool planning – although I bought a planner, and it’s very nice, I’m finding that bullet journaling is much better for me. . Bullet journals are flexible and customizable. I can switch things up as our homeschool shifts. . It might seem like people who bullet journal are super artistic and adorn their notebooks with fancy lettering and picture perfect layouts. Not me! Mine is very much practical. . I highly recommend the actual Bullet Journal book by Ryder Carroll. I got mine at my local library. It talks about goal setting, prioritizing what matters, overcoming obstacles, etc. If you’d like to see more check out my IG stories! . #homeschoolplanning #bulletjournal #bujo #bulletjournalbook
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