the ELLA echo

santa vs. jesus: no contest

we have a very rich fantasy life here.

fairies live under some of our trees.  no, we haven't actually seen them, but we know they live there because sometimes we leave food out for them overnight and by the morning it is gone.

likewise, ella's dollies can walk.  she hasn't actually seen them do it, but she knows they do because any dolly that is still in the living room when she goes to bed each night will get up and do something fun while she's sleeping, like play with blocks or have school.

  

but there is someone special who does things even greater than that.  he loves every child, he can look into their hearts and knows their most secret wishes and needs. he sees everything a child does and he rewards each one according to the way they live and the things they do.  he can be everywhere, he can see everything, there is no place a child can hide from him.  he is eternal, and is the embodiment of love.

i'm talking, of course, about santa.  :)

you see, as catholic christians we welcome santa into our christmas season.  after all, if my child can't believe that a man who lives in a land she has never seen can fly all around the world in a single night in a sleigh drawn by magic reindeer, leaving gifts for children simply because he loves them and wants them to be happy, even though she has never actually seen him do these things...

how can she be expected to believe that a teenage palestinian virgin peasant gave birth to the son of god?  how could she possibly believe that the savior of the world willingly became a mere human and then let us, his creatures, kill him--then in secret raised himself from the dead--all simply because he loves us and wants us to have the gift of eternal life? 

so this advent as in years past, we'll visit santa and ella will whisper a christmas wish to him.  we'll also put up a nativity scene and we'll pray at the foot of the manger.  we'll believe that love abounds and that it often comes from unexpected places.  and we'll let ella practice sharing and receiving the spirit of christmas wherever it can be found.  even if there is an elf involved.

thankful

 

"because when everyone's together, everyone is happy.

we're thankful that we have so much to share."

moose a. moose and zee

(lyrics by alexis roth)

taking it slow, so we can all enjoy the ride

 

in a bit of shameless self-promotion, i'd like to point out the new button on the left sidebar.  i'm now a member of the sprout for parents band of bloggers!

i know what you're thinking:  ella's not a preschooler.  

you're right, she is a registered first grade homeschooler.

so why did i want to become a blogger for a TV channel that is aimed at preschoolers???

it's because the sprout channel, and by extension the sprout online website, helps reinforce so many of the principles rudi and i embrace as parents.

we believe in ella's innate desire to do good, to be a help to those around her, to contribute to her community--ideals she can see modeled on the sprout channel in the likes of the ever-vigilant fireman sam and sweet, loving caillou.

we trust in her intrinsic motivation and ability to learn from all her experiences, including the dreaded "screen time"--and sprout helps us by offering shows like the whacky zoboomafoo, the entertaining mama mirabelle's home movies, and the truly delightful franny's feet.

but most importantly, we cherish our child's innocence.  i'm not talking about naivete--ella knows that all living things die, that nobody can get everything they want, that not everything will go her way.  no, what i'm talking about are the things that make childhood so special.  we love that she still stands to cheer when thomas the train does the right thing.  we are thrilled when she reminds fifi and the flowertots that "you are never too small to help a friend".  and yes, we really do love that she still believes you can visit another world just by believing you can--after all, that is the exact same message most professional educators deliver about the importance of a good book.

on top of all that, we can turn on the sprout channel at any time of day or night and know that ella will never see a child roll her eyes at someone, never hear a child whip out some snappy dialog to put down someone else, will never be exposed to the notion that being cool means making other people feel bad about themselves.

that's right:  we are sheltering her from the popular culture.  :)  and we're proud of it.  and i'm proud that even though we don't have a "preschooler", sprout for parents has allowed me to be part of the team.  i welcome all the new readers who have clicked thru from the band of bloggers website and i hope some of what i have to offer will prove useful or encouraging for you.

ps:  ok, i'll admit it--i don't love every show on sprout. :D  in ella's very early formative years we conditioned her to believe that barney is a scary, scary monster.  hey, when it comes to her own sanity, a mom has to do what a mom has to do to do.

how we homeschool: yesterday, today, tomorrow

ella knows all the days of the week in order IF she starts with "sunday".  but figuring out where we are in the week if we start with a different day sometimes confuses her.  we can look at the calendar and see exactly what part of the week we are in, but remembering the "location" of the days in relation to each other on any given day can get tricky.

so i made a little gadget to help with that and also to help her with some terminology about time.

to make this, i started with two paper plates (they are cheap at the dollar store--ella chose her favorite color, pink), and trimmed off the fancy edge of one of the plates.  then i drew lines on the plates to divide them into seven sections.  (here's the template*--just center it on any plate and extend the lines).

on the smaller plate i wrote the days of the week in order, one in each section.  on the larger plate i wrote these titles in order, one in each section:

the day before yesterday was

yesterday was

today is

tomorrow will be

the day after tomorrow will be

to make the "today is" section stand out a bit more, i colored it with--what else?--pink highlighter.  the last two sections are left blank.  to finish, i fastened the plates together in the center with a brad.

each day we spin the inner plate so that the day's name is in the "TODAY IS" section.  then we can see at a glance what tomorrow will be, what the day before yesterday was, etc.

so--what do you think should go in the empty spaces on the bigger plate?

*i made the template using the pattern editor in the patternmaster boutique program from wild ginger software.  see--it's not just for clothing anymore.  :)

how we homeschool: what's in today's work folders

since first posting how i'm using folders to implement sue patrick's workbox system, i've been asked what kinds of things we're using in such small containers, so i thought i'd periodically post our day's work folders contents.  in today's folders are:

american history:  schoolhouse rock DVD (we got it on netflix)--today she is watching "i'm just a bill";  "elbow room" (U.S. territorial expansion); and "no more kings"  (american independence).  she gets to watch them over and over, as many times as she likes, for 30 minutes, and at the end of that time she tells me what she learned and i notate that for our portfolio.

math:  egg carton game--since an egg carton won't fit into a folder, i found a picture of an egg carton and used a photo editing program to put numbers in the cups and a snappy title on the lid.  ella loves snappy titles especially if there is an "extramation point".

handwriting and bible verse:  tracer page of joshua 1:9 (the part starting with "do not be terrified"--this is our verse for the month of october)--i made the tracer page in a photo editing program, using the handwriting paper that has a dashed line for lower case spacing, and the jardotty font, which is more like cursive and looks to ella like princess writing.  i made the font very light, and pink, so she could see it but it would be her handwriting that stands out on the page when she is done.

 

art:  shower curtain graffiti--can't remember where i saw this idea, so if you know please leave the link in the comments.  just put a plain white plastic shower curtain on the floor (the dollar tree or similar store is your friend here) and use washable markers or crayons to draw on it (dollar tree is not your friend here--spring for the good ones so the kids can have really saturated colors).  when the shower curtain is covered with drawings, just toss it in the washing machine and when it comes out it will be clean and ready to use again!

science:  magazine cut and paste--ella cuts out pictures of anything she finds interesting or unusual, and then sorts them according to whether they are solid, liquid, or gas--this leads to some great questions, such as whether you should consider glade air freshener a solid or a gas.

quiet time:  jewel lullaby CD

craft:  doll quilt that she is making for dalui

unit focus activities:  coloring page of pocahontas;  dictation on why pocahontas helped the settlers

if you're using workboxes or a similar set up, what are you putting in them?  

how we homeschool: wall-e

a friend of mine is concerned that her children like to play with their toys more than they like doing their homeschool assignments, and i offered to give her some suggestions.  i'm sharing here in case these ideas might prove useful to others.

my friend's children are kindergarten and younger, so these ideas will be geared for that age but i will also suggest ways they could be adapted for older children.

the specific toys these children are interested in most right now are wall-e figurines.  i have not seen the whole movie and have never seen the figurines, so if i'm off base on my suggestions on how this could work, please feel free to correct me!  the point is to help my friend, not to idolize my ideas.  LOL

what stood out for me in the little i saw of this movie was the plant, which is why i am focusing on it for these suggestions.  i think there are DOZENS of other possibilites in this movie, these are just top-of-my-head ideas.

math:  
simple addition and subtraction:  "wall-e has X number of plants--he finds X number more--how many plants does he have now?"  OR  "wall-e has X number of plants--eve takes X number of plants back to her ship--how many does wall-e have left?"  this could be made into a worksheet but my experience is that the child would rather do it as an activity with the parent.

sorting and graphing: cut out pictures of plants from magazines, sort them according to type (flowers, trees, vegetables, etc), and graph them.  (this overlaps slightly with science).

older children could do more complicated functions such as estimating and then figuring the volume of material that could be held in various size containers--if you have a few trash or recycling containers you can empty for this purpose, it could be much more engaging.  it could be expanded by asking how many people could fit into a given space--like the number of humans on the starliners.  if your bedroom or home were starliner, how many humans could fit in it? 

science: 
from the activity above, the wall-e figurine could choose the plant he thinks is most interesting and do a little research on it--what kind of conditions does it need to grow and thrive?  what kinds of diseases or pest is it vulnerable to?  maybe even get seeds or seedlings of this plant and grow one of your own!

perhaps there is a place close by where you could go see this plant--or maybe there is a botanical garden or extension office with someone who would talk to the children about this plant and others like it.  field trip!

social studies: 
go thru your recycling and sort according to types of materials--you could discuss where each type comes from, and investigate what happens to it when it is recyled. 

when the trash or recycling collector comes by, stand outside and watch it get picked up!  if you offer the trash collector a glass of lemonade or hot cocoa (whichever is right for the weather), he will usually take a few minutes to answer questions and might even give you a mini-tour of the inside of the truck cab (yes, i've done it--more than once--the cab of the brush collection truck is AWESOME).

reading and language arts:
vocabulary words--axiom, consume/consumer/consumption, directive, mutiny--the words from each of the robots' names (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator--Waste Allocation Load-Lifter Earth-class).  a young child CAN grasp the meaning of these words, if they are explained in an age-appropriate manner.  they won't learn to spell them correctly yet, but that is not important in kindergarten.   or if the child is learning phonics, perhaps give them a chance to try spelling the words!  that will give you some insight into his progress in decoding the written word.

creative writing:  create alternate endings for the story, find a way to notate them (drawing pictures, dictation, etc), and then present a play of the story with the new ending, using the figurines to tell the story.  could overlap as an art project if you create scenery or props.

health and fitness:
good nutrition and fitness.  looking at it from the perspective of a robot, what kinds of things "deactivate" us?  what kinds of things "reanimate" us?  what happens when one of our parts doesn't function properly?  what can we do to keep ourselves in good working condition?

moral/ethical:
this is why i chose the plant as the focus of the lesson ideas: because he has developed a conscience and a curiousity--because he has developed a humanity--wall-e has come to believe that all life has value and is worth protecting.  this is an ideal opportunity for a parent to share his/her ideas about life--it's meaning, it's origin, it's purpose--from whatever perspective the family holds.  the moment when eve kisses wall-e and the spark causes him to come back to life is ripe with possibilities on this.

it seems like there are so many more ideas than i have room or time to share!  but i hope this helps you, dear friend, and i bet the other readers of this blog will have even better ideas to suggest.

how we homeschool: our version of workboxes

well by now if you are a homeschooler and haven't heard about sue patrick's workbox system, you are probably not on the interwebs.  :D  the idea sounded good to me but i just didn't want to devote that much money or space to such a set up, so i adapted the idea to the space and materials i have, which is not fancy but makes me so happy.

instead of the boxes, i'm using these cool expanding pocket folders, they are like file folders but they are closed on the sides, and they expand to 2" wide.  things don't fall out and they will hold bigger things than just papers.  each morning i fill the folders with the day's work.  i'm using only 9 folders now, instead of 12 like in the box system, but i think this is plenty for a first grader.  i'm not a big fan of creating busy work just for the sake of something to do.

i haven't labeled or numbered the folders--i didn't want to get stuck on perfectionist mode so i just started filling folders and i'll edit or refine the set up as we go.

to give you and example of things i'm putting in the folders, today in the language arts folder was this new high five magazine (it is really a few months old but she hasn't seen it yet).  the folder in front of it has her craft project, it is a quilt for her baby doll dalui. today she colored in the design sheet then she learned how to draw and cut the template, how to trace around it on the fabric, and how to cut the pieces.  as i write this she has started sewing the patches together by hand.

in the math folder i put a domino number game.  she draws a domino and then writes the number of dots on each end into the equation "___ + ___", then she adds them together.  next time it will be subtraction. 

today she got another math activity but i put it in the games folder, this is a set of tangrams i got at the dollar tree (i love that store). 

in today's P.E. folder i put the wii sports disk because we've been flooding here in middle tennessee but today there has been no rain so we were able to go out and didn't need this after all.

when i want to assign something that is too big to fit into the folder, i put in a card with a picture of it instead.  for example, when we listen to a book on CD, i put in this knitting card and we can sit together and listen to the story while we work on christmas presents.

in her bible studies folder is a tracer sheet with the bible verse of the month.  this also serves as her handwriting practice.  she traces this same verse every day, and at the end of the month she has memorized the verse AND can print it from memory too.

when ella completes an assignment she puts the finished work in this homework dog house which we found at the parent/teacher store.  this way she can say, "the dog ate my home work".  :D  the empty folder goes to the back of the basket.

 

 

things not shown are her home ec folder which had a picture card of the floor sweeper and floor steamer, the field trip folder which had her library card in it, and the science folder which had magazines for her to cut out of things to paste on her her solid/liquid/gas chart.

this set up is working great for us!  i chose not to dictate the order of the folders should be done in, and instead i let ella choose which ever one appeals to her as she goes thru the day.  in another post i'll list some of the other things i'm putting in the folders, but in the meantime i welcome your suggestions!

developing my character by eating crow

i recently became painfully aware of a huge flaw in my parenting that i want to share with you.

after the election in iran and the ensuing violence, rudi, ella, and i participated in not one but two marches in nashville in support of the persian people.  we wore green, we carried signs, we even learned a couple of phrases in farsi that we could chant with the iranians as we marched. 

we marched because we wanted to stand in solidarity with those who fight (still) so bravely for their right to assemble peacefully, for the right to speak and associate freely, to petition their government for redress of their grievances.

not long after the second march, ella got upset about something--i can't even remember what it was now.  she was complaining about it, trying to persuade me to her way of thinking, and when she wasn't getting her way she started crying and saying all the things that a child says--"it's not fair, all i want is _____", and "you're not even listening to me"--that kind of thing.

this went on for about five minutes, and finally i was so tired of it that i said, "that's enough.  we're not going to talk about this anymore.  if you want to cry about it, fine, but you can't do it here, you can go in the other room.  but i don't want to hear you, and i don't want to hear any more about this."

and bless her heart, she dutifully (as always) went into the other room to find some comfort among her brothers and sisters, and then IT HIT ME:

i had just suppressed my own child's first amendment rights.

<insert sound of record scratching to a halt>

i stopped what i was doing that very moment, went to ella, and asked for a moment of her time--i have found if i do that, she is more willing to give me her attention.  and then i said, (this is a paraphrase), "ella, i was wrong to tell you that you couldn't talk about what was bothering you, and i'm sorry i did that.  you have the right to talk about anything that is bothering you, and you have the right to discuss your concerns with me.  the only requirement is that we must speak to each other with respect.  as long as we can do that, we can always work things out."

and you know what?  we talked, and worked it out, and the whole episode was over in minutes.

i am so glad i didn't stubbornly cling to my "authority".  i feel that admitting my mistake in judgement actually improved my credibility with ella in terms of the lessons i try to teach about honesty and humility.  i know that it improved our communication.  and just as importantly, the simple act of swallowing my pride worked wonders for my self-respect.

there are have been so many other fruits of that moment.  letting ella discuss and even negotiate with me gives her the chance to practice her skills in persuasion, lets her have a chance to convince me of the rightness of her argument.  it gives her the opportunity to refine her logic, to figure out new strategies and to try new tactics.  already she is becoming a better thinker, because she is now considering in advance what might appeal to my sense of justice and/or mercy, and sometimes my sense of humor.

i have no doubt that i will have to repeat this lesson again and again--oh, the context will change, but the issue will be the same--my pride is such that any enlightenment on my part tends to happen retroactively.  but i know that in the end i will advance in character and wisdom, because i have never had a teacher like ella, i have never had a classroom like motherhood, and i've never been more motivated to learn.

how we homeschool: the stuff center

it is not-back-to-school blog hop time at life with my 3 boybarians!  the topic this week is school rooms, but as i mentioned before, we don't have a dedicated room, we have centers--scattered all over the house.  :D  today i'll show you the "stuff center"--the place where we keep the "stuff".

i had originally intended to start school next week--because ella still has one more week of preschool--but she was begging to start now, so we did!  that is why part of this center is still bare--i had all kinds of plans to decorate the bulletin board to make it special for the first day but all she wanted to do was get to work.

the stuff center is beside the front door.  i found a neat write/erase schedule sheet in the $1.00 section of target, so yesterday we filled it in according to the order ella thought she'd like for her day. 

as you can see, we had barely started our day when we rearranged our schedule!  that was so cool with me--that's part of the beauty of homeschool.  more about our schedule change in my next post.

the "cubby shelves" are where we keep worksheets, paper supplies, a pair of binoculars for nature walks, and now the "cubby box" that used to be in the book club.  ella even packed her backpack to bring to school--i didn't know what was in it until later--it had dora and a blanket for dora. 

  

we keep our crocs beside the door, so we can run outside when we hear the ice cream truck!

the area on top of the shelves is for charts.  we use the 100 chart (which i found in the dollar tree teacher's section) for things like skip counting, and the pitcher is where we are collecting "pon-pons".  we will drop in one pon-pon each day of school and when we have 100 we will have a party!  this pitcher is special, it belonged to rudi's grandmother, and it seems especially appropriate to put it to such important use.

 

the job chart is for ella's personal and household responsibilities--one responsibility for each year of her age--in a few weeks she'll GET to add another!  she gets a sticker each time she completes a job.  if she fills in her whole chart, she gets a reward.  each week we write in what the reward will be, and she signs and dates the chart.  the reward she chose for this week is to ride the kiddie train at oprymills mall.

on the window is our weather report.  these are some clingies i found at the dollar tree.  we will also keep a weather chart but i haven't made that yet--that's what happens when school starts before you expect it to!

and last but not least, on the bulletin board are a calendar to keep up with things like field trips and special events, a little cartoon that i laminated--it reminds me of one of the many reasons i've chosen to homeschool--and we pinned up some of her first day's work (the rest of the paperwork is in a spiral notebook).  the dollar is for when the ice cream truck comes!

 

things i still plan to add to this center over the course of this week are:  a weather chart--a day of the week tracker ("today is--yesterday was--tomorrow will be")--and some decorations related to the theme for the week which is, of course, APPLES!

we have other centers which i'll share with you over the next few days, but in the meantime i'd love to hear your ideas about how i can make the stuff center nicer.  i have visions of decorating this area for changes of season, for holidays, and of course to reflect our unit themes, but this whole decorating thing is not my strong suit. 

and if you're looking for ideas of your own, do check out the links on the school room post at life with my 3 boybarians!  as of this writing there are already over four dozen great links and there will be more to come over the course of the week. 

 

how we homeschool: curriculum--stuff we're not doing

it is not-back-to-school blog hop time at life with my 3 boybarians!  so far this week i have shared our mission and our learning plan for the 3 R's, our learning plan for the "extra curriculars", and everything else that adds up to a full plate of education.  (notice how i managed to continue the kitchen sink motif in that last link).  hard as it might be to believe, there are a few things we will not be doing.

there are all kinds of neat things a family can buy or do these days that are designed to help make homeschooling easier or more organized.  naturally, i rejected them.  :D  mostly because i decided they would not work for us.  the two biggest of these are:

workboxes:  i just became aware of sue patrick's workbox system a few months ago.  it seems like EVERYBODY is using it!.   i decided against it because it does something that i avoid:  dictating the work to be done.  instead, we are more fluid here--if today we want to do nothing but read, that's what we do.  so setting up the workboxes would just set us up to feel like slackers, and i won't do that on purpose. 

a classroom:  this goes back to my belief that learning is not and should not be separated from daily living.  our classroom is wherever we happen to be, or wherever there is room for what we want to do.  thus, our "super fab science lab" is usually the kitchen table, but sometimes it is the front porch or yard.  we do have an art room but it is not dedicated to homeschooling--we've had that since long before ella was even born.

however--we do have "centers", i showed you one of them this past spring, and starting tomorrow i will show you more of them, when "class room week" begins at life with my 3 boybarians.

thank you for your endurance this week.  :D   please take a moment to visit the other homeschool curriculum links at the not-back-to-school blog hop, there are literally hundreds of great ideas there, something to suit every homeschooling style and personality.  and when you leave a comment for the sites you visit (please do that--those bloggers take a lot of time to offer their advice and ideas freely), please let them know i sent you!