as they grow

Posted on October 19, 2017 by Kim Halloran-Fry

One thing I loved so much during the preschool years were our Montessori trays, self-contained activities presented on a wooden tray complete with all the materials needed. Truth is, I loved dreaming up Montessori trays, but my days were not chock full of empty hours with which to put them together. There was also a good deal of tray straightening and supervision required once they were created.

A mom asked me for more thoughts on this next stage of home learning and family life with no littles underfoot. This would be one of the new and different dynamics. Little people become bigger people who still love their projects. They can now print a tutorial and gather their own materials. In fact, you might stroll out from the laundry room or office and find a scene like this one.

Oct 2017 pumpkin donut web (1 of 1)

Now instead of demonstrating and directing and overseeing I am invited in to admire and give a few pointers, or better yet, to not give a few pointers. I love to hear their thoughts about what worked, what didn't work as well, and how they might do things differently next time.

PS though? There is still some straightening up to do after. ; )

the two best tools for homeschool moms

Posted on October 2, 2017 by Kim Halloran-Fry

It wasn't the most expert job ever but the girls' first go at designing and making doll clothes 'all by ourselves' was fruitful in so many ways.

When I caught wind of what they were working on my mind began rapidly populating a syllabus with lessons about seam allowances and finished edges and a dozen related points before I caught myself. An article from years ago by homeschooling pioneer Jessica Hulcy came to mind. She was a leader in hands-on, thematic studies. She would probably have lesson plans for this right? There should be plans. Thorough plans. And supplies. And lots of books. No doubt, as time goes on, we will indeed explore all the above. Right now, though, I am reminding myself of the time that wise woman said that the best tools she could equip homeschool moms with were a gag and handcuffs, for themselves, for just such moments as these. The idea is that there are few things better than personal experience to instill a need to know and to light the fire of their imaginations. Sometimes the best gift you can give a child is discovery, complete with the freedom to make many imperfect preliminary steps.

Gathering all the materials myself and preplanning a foolproof unit might have resulted in a picture-perfect project the first time around. For so many reasons we are off to a much better start now. Now, they are curious: Why do you sew on the wrong side of the fabric? How do you get the seams to go on the inside? what happens if you leave the cut edges raw? What makes the dress go on easier? Now, they are curious and motivated. Now, they can't answer those questions fast enough.

What they needed most here was not a dress but an experience, a series of connections that could explode into dozens of other possibilities. They got that.

There will be more experiments. They will come out a little better every time. Their competence and creativity is amazing and before we know it we will be coming to them for tips, just like we go to their brothers and sisters for their areas of expertise. This, after all, is the real goal for us – not just to impart to them what we know, but to watch it mingle with their other life experiences to become something new and different altogether.

Sept 2017 sew web (1 of 3)

Main Lesson Monday

Posted on September 26, 2017 by Kim Halloran-Fry

These are a smattering of the notebook pages the kids have created this month. Not perfect, but perfectly delightful to me.

Hours

So one of my favorite lessons grew out of our recent thrift store find of Classic Poems to Read Aloud. We memorized All Things Bright and Beautiful last week. It was actually memorized in a matter of hours once I bought packs of gum as a reward. I am nothing if not pragmatic, y'all. So after that I had pulled out Hillaire Belloc's Mathilda for a hilarious contrast. They thought it was a little gross and creepy so we discussed satire, parody, and cautionary tales. They recorded the definitions and we found the rest of his tales here. Each picked out one to record in their notebooks. They still they are gross and creepy and I am still amused.

Some math pages:

Hours

We print out the free puzzles of the week for each grade level from Critical Thinking Press. I truly believe that never before has critical thinking been more………critical. These puzzles sometimes hurt my brain but they get everyone talking and working together, especially this week when they DID NOT INCLUDE A SOLUTION. Don't worry. I'm not bitter or anything. We are just still hashing this one out. Go ahead. Download. Then tell us who you think stole the headphones 'k?

And some random real life practice finding nouns in a magazine article. It is often easy to figure out a pattern in a language exercise book. Then they are at a loss when faced with actual text someplace else. This practice got us discussing abstract nouns since the mid elementary student who underlined in blue found most of the concrete things quickly, but missed the abstract – which is totally age appropriate per the whole Trivium age group delineations. This was a quick game and isn't perfectly checked either btw. There are more anchor charts and grammar pages to help springboard discussion over on my pinterest board here.

This next page just makes me laugh. Every time. (yes, I know it is misspelled)

Your life lesson of the day is right there. That "slightly downhill' part? It's a concept to live by if ever there was one hahaha! Working hard on that over here. Just gonna leave that there and wrap up now lol.

Starry, starry, school days

Posted on August 25, 2017 by Kim Halloran-Fry

This has been a stargazing sort of summer. We have studied constellations before and I will tell you straight up I am NOT very good at finding them in the sky. That may change this year given some of the books we have found and the projects we have done. My first favorite is the Stikky Night Skies book (link below) which is every bit as awesome as the Stikky Trees book was. It leads you along step by step into trickier configurations. Somehow it breaks down this wild spattering of white dots into something you can begin to sort out. Or maybe most normal people can sort this out? I definitely needed extra help.

As always, Pinterest is my BFF, my bestie, my personal assistant, my teacher's aide. "Hey Pinterest, what have you got for constellations?" Pinterest shot back with marshmallow and toothpick constructions and some flash cards. I was also beside myself to find this chart by Alice Cantrell. I have loved her work forever and am so pleased she has something that works for this unit.

Upside? You can eat the leftovers.

Here are a few standouts in our stack:

Stikky Night Skies

Find the Constellations

Child's Introduction to the Night Sky This was another fave. Chock full of trivia and history to include the stories of the constellations. These work well for narrations and notebooks. A keeper.

The Stars

Zoo in the Sky

summer thoughts

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Kim Halloran-Fry

"For most American children summer break is at hand, bringing with it the promise of cloudless, blue skies overhead, sprinklers spraying, and fireflies to chase before bed. There are ball games, freshly cut grass, and leisurely mornings to sleep in.

For their parents it may be a different story…"

Stressed over summer break? Feel like you should be doing more? You can jump over here for my take over at Tan Homeschool today. (hint – if your summer is looking anything like this, I think you're probably doing just fine.)

I hope you are scooping up joy by the bucketful this summer. : )

Life and Learning lately

Posted on June 1, 2013 by Kim Halloran-Fry

Saw a lovely quote by the Lambert's of Five in a Row fame this week:

"We're not trying to do "School at Home." We're trying to do homeschool. These are two entirely different propositions. We're not trying to replicate the time, style or content of the classroom. Rather we're trying to cultivate a lifestyle of learning in which learning takes place from morning until bedtime 7 days each week. The "formal" portion of each teaching day is just the tip of the iceberg. "

~Steve and Jane Lambert

no time for more than random snaps then…

A look at learning

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Kim Halloran-Fry

Just some random glimpses of learning lately. Some favorite things this fall have been drawing from how to books like Draw Write Now, some of which we are also using for our continent studies. They have gone through a fair amount of origami paper. The littles have a much better handle on the world map.

We did a little Catholic feast day cooking. Just a little. A birthday cake for Our Lady. Some cookies for St Rose of Lima. We tried some marshmallow fudge molded into roses for St Therese. That didn't turn out so hot. You win some, you lose some.

The lagoon notebook page below is from Kieran's geography. Kieran loves the geography book I shared in this post. We actually use a workbook as well. A both/and approach this year. He is using techniques from the Drawing With Children book and I think the pages are really bold and fun.