Home Education: Mystery of History

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Mystery of History

We had a unique opportunity come before us a few weeks ago to join some of our friends in a 'family-oriented' history curriculum. It's called "Mystery of History". Four families - Walthers, Skotnicks, Toppenbergs, and Riches are getting together on Tuesday nights from 6-7:15pm to learn historical information from creation to the resurrection. It's timeline format allows for a mini-lesson and activity in a progressive manner. Tonight (9/15) is our second evening together. Here are all the kiddos!

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Getting Ready

For an entire year Micah has been telling people "when I turn 6 then I'm going to start kindergarten." The time has come! After Matt & I finalized our decision to eduate Micah at home we all began planning together. Micah & I talked about what it would look like, feel like, and what kind of things we would do. We re-arranged the front room to have more of a separation between his 'desk area' and the 'play area'. We read some cute books about kindergarten and walked through our home realizing our backyard & garden are the 'science center', our kitchen is the 'cooking/measuring center', we have a 'computer center', and a 'listening center' (listen to stories or songs on CD). Micah saw our home with fresh learning eyes!

Curriculum

Mid-July, Matt & I attended the curriculum fair held in Phoenix. So many wonderful things to choose from, yet we didn't want to rush into something, spend extra dollars, and find out it might or might not be a good fit for Micah. With my personal education background (BA and MA), teaching my own classrooms, working closely with friends who were kindergarten teachers, becoming familiar with state standards and integration procedures as a k-8 administrator and working in numerous kindergarten through 8th grade classrooms ... Matt and I felt comfortable in trusting my personal knowledge, abilities, creativeness and desire to teach (and learn) to put it together myself. This will allow extra time to browse, research, ask other families, etc. about the different curriculum choices available.
Finally, all the ideas in my head can burst free!! haha! But I have to be careful... I have so many ideas that I could complicate things and want to fit too many things in. My reality check is that although I have many ideas, now I can choose the most fun, the most valuable, and the ones that fit my particular student - Micah. It's so flexible, personalized, and exciting!

Micah's Input

On July 15, Micah and I went out to do some shopping for his birthday party decorations. We went to Wendy's for dinner and I asked him "what do you want us to include when we start school?"
His responses:
"activities" - when I asked what that would entail he said "making stuff", "drawing stuff"
"You telling me what to draw. Then I draw it, without using any stencils."
"You know ... we should have recess though."

During the summer we made sure to include Micah's thoughts and ideas in preparing for this year. He helped us re-arrange the front room and create an area for him to "work".

"Our Classroom"

Schedule / Routine

This part is such a joy! We can continue so many things we were already doing and enjoying! Learning/teaching is such a natural concept for our family that we're finding that our 'teachable moments' that have brought us to this point in life are just expanding. Some are 'out of the blue' and some are 'planned'. Quite honestly some days it can be hard to differentiate them.
I have however put together an outline of our day/week, so that all of us can know what to expect on a regular basis. Things can be shifted around but we all have a concrete foundation of what's going to be happening.
For example: Tuesday will continue to be SBC Bible Study; Thursday will be our "Field Trip day" - Barton Home, Zoo, Children's Museum, library, grocery, neighbor visits, ... We can always trade for another day if a friend calls. :)

Home Education

1 Timothy 1:5

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Mystery of History

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COMING UP...

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About Me

Self-Portrait May 2010

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Self-Portrait - March 2010

Self-Portrait - February 2010

Self-Portrait - January 2010

Self-Portrait - December 2009

Self-Portrait - November 2009

Self-Portrait - October 2009

Self-Portrait - September 2009

Self-Portrait - August 2009

Getting Ready

Curriculum

Micah's Input

Micah's Desk Area

"Our Classroom"

Play Area - Lilly's Diner & Micah's Market

Display Area

Schedule / Routine

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