Weather Boy

How can "school" possibly compete with this room?

It is actually Samuel's bedroom.  Every single paper you see he has handwritten and it is in someway related to the weather.  Specifically hurricanes.  When I walked into his room to take these pictures he was finding out the latest statistics on hurricane Sandy.

The picture above is a favorite he posted on Instagram "What to Wear Forecast"  - Now he knows exactly what to wear depending on the high and low temperature of the day!

Where and when did he learn percentages? Making graphs? Maybe I missed that day of homeschool...
These numbers represent the probability of a hurricane passing through the county where we live.

Slowly but surely I am becoming a believer in unschooling.  But make no mistake...I'm kicking and screaming all the way...

Geography Fair 2011 - Mauritania

Samuel never participates in anything. No home-school co-op, no band, no sports - nothing.  So when I received an email with information on a Geography fair and showed it to Samuel I could not believe his excitement!

Three weeks later we drove up to The Movement Church in Haslet, Texas where we met other homeschool families busily getting ready for the Fair. Samuel chose to display Mauritania  and that decision brought the inevitable question, Where is Mauritania? Answer: In West Africa, a country in the Sahara Desert. 

Samuel answering questions about his display

                                                                                                              

Elianna - South Africa

Colombia

Nigeria

serving mint tea - Samuel also cooked rice
and vegetables in a red sauce -
 his version of Mauritanian food.

waiting for his certificate

Participants and their certificates

The Continental Divide!

After studying The Continental Divide  in 3rd grade, it was great to actually set foot here and take a few pictures.  I had never really paid attention to this landmark before. I'm sure my Dad had explained it to me when I was a little girl.  But, you know, that was a looooooooooong time ago!

We arrived too late to purchase our magnet...I'll have to purchase it online!

Geography School

I have finally accepted that Samuel will not be happy (the way I am...) with a boxed curriculum.

Heart of Dakota was the curriculum of choice for K - 2, but the more Samuel is growing, he is naturally becoming his own person. A young boy who loves geography. So I thought that Paths of Exploration, a geography based curriculm would be perfect for him. We began following the lesson plans for grade 3 - but it is not enough geography for Samuel and too much fighting between us to get everything done.

Back to researching homeschool philosophies and curriculums.

Then I remembered "Delight Directed Studies". I am not sure if Gregg Harris was the first to come up with it, but here is what he says: "In a delight-directed study, a child's interest are fanned to flame and supported in ways that increase his interest in his studies. The child's delight is the spark that ignites everything. Once established, like a fire, it is self-sustaining. The student begins to study for his own personal satisfaction, and the fruits of his study begin to flow outwards to others".

So here is our Fall 2010 line-up :

Bible: God's Great Covenant and Trail Guide to Bible Geography
Math: Teaching Textbooks (he loves it because it is on the computer. Lecture and practice!)
US 50 States: The Star-Spangled State Book (he loves, loves loves this book/workbook. It includes dictionary skills which he NEVER wanted to do before, but does not complain at all now and does it on his own!!!)
Geography, Science, History: Paths of Exploration (right now we are on the unit of Lewis and Clark. He REALLY likes "Munford Meets Lewis and Clark" for his read aloud.)

Mapping: Trail Guide to U.S, Geography

Art: Draw Write Now (this series is perfect for Samuel's "artistic" skills)

Music: Music Makers: At the Keyboard Book 5

Hopefully I will blog a little more often now that we have a plan for the semester!

Official First Day of Third Grade

Samuel has been doing 3rd grade work for a few months now, but today we make it official.

Our curriculum has changed since Samuel has such a love for geography. It seemed wise to channel that energy towards school work instead of fighting against it all day long.

Paths of Exploration is a comprehensive curriculum to which we only have to add math and Bible. We are still using Singapore math and for Bible we've just started God's Great Covenant.



This has already proven to be a hectic year, yet it has also been a blessed one!

Check out these posts...
Kindergarten
First Grade
Second Grade

Rivers

Today Samuel learned about rivers. You will see him labeling the different parts of a river: bank, mouth, source and bed.

We are still working on unit 17 - since last week we spent two days on a Presidential Inauguration scrapbook and one day Samuel was feeling under the weather. And of course we took the day off for my birthday... Life is back to normal now!