New Year of Homeschool:

At the Bird's Nest, we have started our third year of homeschooling. We have one Pre-teen and one teenager. I always like to evaluate how everything is going about every four months. I have learned already, expect change, and expect more change.

The first time I evaluate is the beginning of the Year. I knew we needed to add in a little more fun and less academics from books. I know my kids are more visual learners so I wanted to add more of that. I also know the love to learn on the Computer as much as from a book.

The kids were wanting to learn instruments and foreign languages. I was wanting them to learn a little more technology related things, like coding. Since they are very independent learns, by personalities, I had to find something they could do at their own pace and by themselves.

My husband, aka The Mister, was really starting to participate more. I have chronic health problems and that was very much needed. He was wanting to do my science related things, like simple mechanics.

It was getting time to pull this all together for the new school year. (We go year round but tend to take June off.) I had been for months reading about this method and that method. I decided to detour from our normal way. A way, I might add, that was pretty much working.

So I spent a week making a schedule, and it lasted part of a week. It was too ridged for us. I didn't have set hours or time limits. It was just a list of subjects to study everyday. There was no spaces of : I want to finish this, or I want to do the science experiment and not wait until whatever day. Plus to be honest, my kids and their parents, are good for about 4-5 hours. We can do six, but.....

There also wasn't anytime to allow for our numerous dr. appointments. For instance, we have 4 this week. We did some school on Sunday, the kids are doing some projects that don't require adult help, so they do whenever they feel the need during the week.

This is what work for us, we use an outline. We, meaning I, write down things to do for that day. I usually do it the night before and sometimes do two days in a row. There is one thing we are going to do religiously, math. I feel we need to kick this up a little more, and they also asked to do more. We go down the list checking off activity by activity. It roughly resembles loop schedule. I do have a list of things I want to do this week and I compile that usually on Sunday(my planning day). I keep looking for one I haven't wrote on the back of a math worksheet or envelope of a bill. It goes something like this:

Math(Khan) 60 min.
Code 45 min.
Camp google
Doc. on Netflix
Youtube Video
Report: Ocean Animal
Reading:
    Independent 60
    Classic 30
     Book in the Box  30
Craft

I go into a little more detail, and this one doesn't have music or the ten other things we have going on.  Sometimes, I do write down specific things on certain days. For example: We are just going to do Code on Tuesday and Thursday(which didn't happen, the kids have asked to do it everyday. I figured why the have interest is the best time to learn.)

I looked into other math programs for us and came back to Khan. That was working and I really don't know why I was looking to change. I'm supplementing with worksheets, games and everyday life.

Science:  We are doing life science right now. My kids are visual learners. We are using Documentaries from Netflix, YouTube, DVR, the library, etc. We also are big into STEM (which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.) We also have started into STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) We are going to bump up how many experiments we are going to do a week. My husband is starting some stuff  like small machines, carpentry, pulleys and gears, etc. We plan to start adding in some chemistry, the second part of the year.

Language Arts: I feel like we are going radical into language arts. Basically, we are focusing on creative writing and have done some worksheets here and there. We have found a few things on the web, and I look forward to seeing how the work for us. I have read articles, and I'm going to stay the course, and re-evaluate at third sections. Next year, I may be panicking.  We also have started blogging and do reports.  I hope to have the opportunity to throw in a little grammar here and there.

Coding: We have decided to have our kids start learning code and computer programming. We are using Code.org at the moment.

We are using Duolingo for foreign language. We are just started.

I'm so excited to see how this year goes for the kids. They have changed back into the kids that I sent off to Public school. My son is even wearing sandals/flip-flops. You will never know how that is such a big deal.

                                         Now some pictures of last year's learning and fun!

Here is the kids working on Engineering fun.

Mini Me is modeling the paper chain Anaconda. We learned about Anaconda's when we studied the rain forest.

Mini Her took this picture for our ongoing Photography class.

Field trip on the Missouri River.

The Mini's showing off their paintings.

The Mister and the Mini's rescuing a turtle.

Mini Her learning a new life skill on a field trip.

Mini Him doing some reading.

The mini's showing off there Viking ships.

Mini Her working in the Garden.

The Bird Nest Garden!

We feel that gardening is one life skill that we need to teach our kids. The Mister and I also really enjoy just being in the the Garden. I thought I would share some of what we did. 

This is the progress of a garden project, that we didn't plan. Everyone worked so hard to get it done!

My husband, aka The Mister, has been doing projects with the kids. This is some concrete pavers that he helped Mini Me make.

This is a before picture on a rainy day.

We are so pleased with the results, using the above method. Here is the link http://104homestead.com/winter-sow/. We have never had the results starting seeds as we had for this one. It was really no work at all. We did nothing and the plants grew so well. Sadly, the kids planted everything and didn't take any pictures.

Our raspberries patch went crazy. We are picking so much every day.

Here are some of our blooms:

This is how they started off the off.

As a newly, driving teenager, I drove to see my grandfather. He sent home some hollyhocks that I planted at my mother's house. She gave so many starts of the flowers to anyone who wanted them. When I left the home, I left with some hollyhock starts. As I moved from place to place, I brought with me some hollyhock starts. I have lived this here for sometime, giving away starts and seeds. This has been a good year for the hollyhocks and they have beautiful blooms. This is what they are doing now.

The lilly's are also producing some beautiful blooms. These were also starts from my mother, now deceased.

This is one of our patches that we plant in. Our space is very limited. We have cucumbers, different kinds of peppers, different kinds of sweet peppers, some gourds-bird house style, and two different types of tomatoes. I know some will say, "You can't do that. Nothing will grow." Though we appreciate your comments, it has for the past 6 years. We make sure that we compost this area well, and try to mix in plants that add to the soil during our early spring and early fall crops.

This is how they started off.

Our garden started off like and I hope to post a picture of some of the now pictures soon. Rain showers are moving through and I don't really want to sing in the Rain.

Even though this is a common color of lily, I still love the vibrant color and the rain drops drying on the petals.

This is a river we like to go out on. As you can see the beautiful water is a muddy brown. It is also outside of the banks.  The rain this year, has seriously impacted our garden.

Later today, the Mini's and I will be canning some strawberry pepper jam and some reduced sugar strawberry jam. I can't wait to share some of the pictures.