Zoo-schooling (notice a theme?)

Feeding nectar to the birds during an enriching day of Zoo-schooling.

Jane McEnroe

Jane loves tennis!

Ravine Schooling

Last weekend we attended the yearly Azalea Festival at Ravine Gardens State park in Palatka, FL. We couldn't believe this unique park was actually in Florida because of the vast elevation changes. We spent a fun day hiking the trails, playing in the spring fed creek and playing on the swing bridges that span the ravine.

Frog Head

Jack recently has really gotten into catching live things- frogs, lizards, bugs (ick!). And apparently, then wearing them.

Baking Bread

The kids and I decided to try our hand at serving soup in those cool bread bowls that you can find in restaurants. They enjoy helping out in the kitchen and who doesn't like to play with dough? Our bowls were a yummy success. We ate them filled with homemade chicken noodle soup.

A couple weeks later, I checked out a book from the library titled, "How to make Artisan Bread in just 5 minutes a Day." Now we can have bread bowls every day of the week!

River-schooling

We are lucky to have other homeschool friends like us, who almost always prefer a nature preserve over a metal playground. There is a delightful combination of both not far from us at Alpine Groves park. This park not only has a gorgeous playground nestled into the woods, but if you follow the boardwalk through the woods, you find a historic farmstead sitting on an embankment overlooking the St. John's river. Down a canoe trail to the river, there is a huge felled tree that the kids love to climb. It is hard tearing them away from this natural jungle gym to go to the actual playground. Often, we don't even make it there!

Valentine's Day

I was so excited about Valentine's Day because our homeschool group had decided to do a Valentine exchange. I so loved those when I was in school- decorating your shoe box, everyone going around the room putting their cards in the slots, wondering how many you would get...It was so much fun to get home and open them all up! Well, my kids could care less about my little trip down memory lane. They had zero interest in decorating the box that I lovingly handcrafted with dual slots and a divider (I didn't have any shoe boxes). Ultimately, my sentimental journey consisted of me finishing up the Valentine's and wrapping the box and then forcing them to put stickers on it an hour before we left to the park while threatening to bag the whole day. Lesson learned: I probably shouldn't guilt myself into replicating school experiences they won't enjoy for the sake of cool holiday themed blog photos! On the upside, we played a fun cupid relay game at the party, where each team member has to put on a giant diaper and shoot suction cup arrows at a target. Theme aside, the kids now have an interest in archery!

Geocaching

Over Christmas break, our friends turned us on to this fun hobby/obsession- geocaching.
From the site description: "Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment." Our first geocache was found in the base of a hollow tree off a path in the woods. We were amazed to then find out that there were at least 120 geocaches within a 5 mile radius of our house! It really changes the way you look at the world. Jack is constantly finding places that would "be great for hiding a cache." The children and I have logged in over 30 finds, including helping a travel bug find its way towards California. Some of the neatest caches we have found were in Atlanta when we were visiting Jon- it was a great way to introduce him to our new hobby.

Birdwatching

We stumbled upon the greatest bird-watching spot while eating bagels one day. It is such an unlikely nature preserve, sitting on a small inlet behind a shopping plaza but we are ever amazed at how many different species we can find there on a given day. Our most recent trip included the usual ducks, anhinga, pelican, heron, egret and great egret but also a woodpecker joined the ranks of crows and seagulls also out scavenging. It's become a weekly event for us and we even got to help save an anhinga from a discarded fishing line recently, which served as fodder for many lessons.

How to teach the days of the week

I won't post a picture of this so you will just have to take my word for it...my children have both learned the calender with a very important teaching tool...days of the week underwear. My daughter became obsessed with hers last year, requiring me to tell her not only what day it was but how to spell it so that she could find the correct pair every morning. My son, who prefers to go commando (I know, TMI) recently informed us that he would wear underpants if he could also have a days of the week pair. Thank you Gymboree, for making them in a boys sports version! I knew their lessons were well-learned the day I overheard Jack say to his sister, as they were writing letters, "Jane, could you pull your skirt up for a second so I can see what day it is?"

The Everglades

What is a trip to South Florida without a visit to one of the greatest National Parks ever? Pretty boring, that's for sure! The Everglades is a one of a kind National Park experience. You really could spend days down there exploring- I think it would make a fun camping and biking trip once the kids are old enough to not look like such tasty morsels to the gators who call the glades home! We stuck to the Anhinga and Gumbo Limbo trails which are always sure to please the tourists.

While we were out seeking the big thrills- the gators of course, we also happened upon some smaller creatures. Jack almost stepped on this snake on the side of the road as I yelled at him to stay on the path.



While I was reprimanding him, I was shushed by the photographer taking the picture of the Green Heron in the next photo.


We saw 6-7 of the gators sunning really close to the path. They weren't "big" according to the Park Rangers but they were big enough for us.

We missed any up close panther sightings (thank you!) but still saw enough to earn our Junior Ranger badges!

South Florida Trip

In November, we took a road trip down to Hollywood to visit Great Grandma Mil-Mil (as the kids call my grandmother). The children were delighted to see where she lived. Jackson had been there when he was a baby but Jane had never been. Grandma's condo is full of photos, artwork and mementos commemorative of a lifetime of travel and other experiences. My grandfather was a talented artist, utilizing all sorts of mediums from oil paints, copper and wood and it was interesting to see the young eyes take it all in!

While there, Jack begged Grandma to teach him to play chess, which she gladly did. The kids also were fascinated by her library-sale-salvaged encyclopedia set and had us looking up everything from Pocohantas to the Tower of London to Ibis. The Towel of London look-up was inspired by a teapot, of which Grandma Mil-Mil has 104, according to Jane's last count.

Also of great interest were the 6 iguanas we encountered outside the condominium. These are likely former pets released into the wild and we were excited to see so many in one place. Of course, we looked them up under "I" and found out they eat fruit and swim and are from South America. Everything is a lesson when you homeschool!

This is what it is all about!

Jane is reading to Jillian. These wonderful moments when the children are together, just enjoying being siblings, are what home- schooling is all about. You just can't get that in a classroom!

Sanity Saver Tip #1

The internet has coloring sheets for every topic under the sun- I was recently surprised to find a Crayola picture of Shakespeare. Who knew? My children burn through printer ink like crazy. I collect the print-outs and place them in a 3 ring binder (one for each child). Voila! Who needs to buy coloring books when you can make your own? And where would you even find the Disney Princess-Election 2008- Mount Rushmore-Star Wars-Vikings-Scooby Doo-Planets-Holly Hobby-Backyardigans coloring book anyway?

Handicrafts

Handicrafts are a core aspect of our curriculum. I enjoy things like sewing and knitting and while I want the children to also learn them for fun, more importantly I just want them to have that knowledge. If you can sew a button and a straight line, there are countless household projects you can do, from making curtains and table clothes, to hand-crafting costumes and gifts. I used to say that you could also save yourself all kinds of money but have you seen all the fabulous fabrics there are out there? Forget it! Here Jackson and Jane are working on those plastic weave boards and yarn. Remember those? I promise not to teach them how to make Kleenex boxes that we would then give to you for Christmas.

Homeschool PE

The local Park District has a lot to offer for families schooling at home. We are currently enrolled in their free home school physical education program that meets weekly. We laughed when they started out the season with Dodgeball, because "all kids know that game." Really? How many pick-up games of Dodgeball do you think get started in our house? I mean purposeful games of Dodgeball, not a sibling beaning another over the head with a wiffle ball. *That* happens all the time but I don't consider it a game.

The parents favorite line of the day while watching the game was "if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball."

Tea Time!

We had our very first Tea Time this past Tuesday and it was a raving success! I had actually underestimated the amount of learning experiences that can arise out of preparing a "fancy lunch," as Jane deemed it. We got lessons in setting the table and the differences in types of flat wear, we polished silver, put on a tablecloth, and rolled napkins into napkin rings. We made traditional cucumber sandwiches and fairy cakes and real tea. The children were delighted to choose "one lump, or two" and I will have to remember to purchase sugar cubes for next time. Also on the purchase list will be candles for the candelabra! All we could find were two Halloween candles- funny! We used our good silver and china and dressed up. Well, Jane, Bean and I did. Jack opted for a tie on top of his t- shirt which he promptly removed after I took a photo! We used our finest manners while we listened to Bach's Greatest Hits and read poetry from Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses." It was a delightful morning.

First Day of School!

Everyone has a scrapbook full of those classic childhood "First Day of School" photos, unfortunately commemorating bad hair and clothing trends. Yet another reason we are glad to be homeschoolers- pajamas never go out of style!

This years curriculum choices

Of course, one of the greatest things about homeschooling is that at any time we can change our minds about what path we are heading down. But I like to have a plan and so far this is it.....!

We sit down every morning for "Blanket Time." First we light some candles (for no other reason other than that the kids really like candles and it is an easy way to get them into the room!), then we read some poetry and if the baby is awake, we learn a finger play song and then take turns "performing" for her. Then we read the books that they have picked out from the library basket (some of which are ones I have sneaked in there off of our master book list). The kids can color or work on handicrafts while I read to them. Once we have finished, we blow out candles and then take a break or if they are in the mood to keep going, we start working on our phonics and reading activities. We finished "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" last year and both kids are reading. Jane is more driven to pick out books and sit and read to herself or to me or the baby. Jack is not as eager so he and I have now moved on to "Phonics Pathways" for review and are skipping through that as he has deemed much of it as "too easy." Both kids use the "Expode the Code" workbooks for phonics activities and we work on sight word lists. We do phonics and reading almost every day.

3 days a week we will be using "Handwriting without Tears" to work on our penmanship. This is new as they have been just writing on their own with no real instruction up until now. They really want to jump ahead to cursive so I told them if we like this then once we have completed it, we will jump ahead to their cursive program.

3 days a week we will also be studying early American history using the primary Early American History book from Beautiful Feet. It uses a variety of award winning picture books and then has questions and answers. It has more religious content than I wanted but I love the books it uses.

Once we finish with that, we will move on to "Story of the World" which we will probably work on for the next few years. It is also literature based, which most of our work is.

3 days a week, we will work on Math. This is our second year using Saxon. It is very hands on and uses lots of manipulatives which both kids seem to enjoy.

The meat of our curriculum will be reading, reading and more reading. As we have been attracted to the Charlotte Mason style of learning for some time, we will be officially using a curriculum based on her works, Ambleside Online. We will be finishing up what books we haven't read for year 0 and then spend this year and (maybe next) covering year 1.

In addition to that we will continue using our also literature based, Five in a Row, volume 2. Even though it is meant to do all week, we rather like doing it out of the house all in one day when we can, save for any messy art project activities the book suggests.

Through Ambleside, we will also be covering their recommended artists and composers for the year. This year we will study the works of Botticelli, Friedrich and Van Gogh. We will be studying the music of Bach, Liszt, and Mahler and Bruckner. Ideally, we will be hosting tea parties every other week where we will not only discuss our art and music pieces but will be able to use our table manners and good habits. We are really looking forward to this!

We will also be continuing with nature study and science activities out of our science box. We work on handicrafts and art activities weekly, if not daily. Lastly, we are learning French here and there. Right now we are just using some Usborne sticker books and a dictionary and will add something more formal later.

Whew! That sounds like a lot but really we can complete all we want to in a couple hours if we sat and did it straight through. Our goal is to get our work done in the morning so that our afternoons are free for home school PE, piano lessons, dance, museums, park and just plain playing.

Why the Davenport School?

As a child, we loved to laugh at my grandmother's funny names for things. Like the way she called a our basement a "cellar" and the refrigerator an "icebox", or how she would refer to our couch as a "chesterfield" or "davenport." When we tried to come up with a clever name for our home school, the Davenport school seemed a fitting choice for a place where you can get your education while still in your pajamas!