Homeschooling: How It’s Going and Why I Haven’t Been Posting (UPDATED)

/ Marjorie Sanpietro / Leave a comment

We’ve been homeschooling for about six weeks! The boys have been practicing ELA, Math, Science and Social Studies skills everyday. We do Art, Heath, Gym and Music on a rotating schedule. I’ve had mixed results.

One big impediment is the struggle I have been having with my mental illness. For the past 6 weeks or so, I have felt very overwhelmed, exhausted, and a little hopeless. I am having trouble identifying a trigger or cause. I have done my best to continue self care that I thought I had established. However, when I feel depressed it  seems to also affect my executive functioning.

In spite of these personal difficulties – my biggest concern is their education.  Much of my available energy has been put into that leaving little for my creative or personal projects.

I create a daily plan for each day following the scratched out system I started with. We are expanding our sources and working on going into good depth on many topics. A challenge I have been having is how to keep them engaged in the material we are covering – particularly history for my youngest. We have been doing a lot of reading and looking at pictures for history and he gets bored and frustrated.

There are some positive ideas I really want to implement like morning meetings and setting personal learning goals.  Right now I feel like I am keeping my head above water and not being as creative as I should be.

I felt very loved and validated the other night when my oldest son asked if we could talk at bedtime. I was worried because that’s not an every day occurance. He told me that he was very glad we chose homeschooling this year and that he thinks I am doing a good job. He went on to say that he appreciates the time I am putting into it and that it makes him happy when we go through material together. That was really good to hear and a boost I needed.

We officially kicked off our school year by naming our homeschool and discussing all of our expectations for the school year. I also had my kiddos do an interview type worksheet – so they could see what might change by the end of the year. I used my scratched out plan – and we did pretty well!

I am hoping to encourage deeper inquiry into the material. One way I am doing that is by encouraging questions that we can do more research on. My 6th grader filled out a “detective” worksheet based on the reading material we covered in history this week (how humans crossed over the Bering Land Bridge and early civilizations). He will be researching his answers to wrap up the chapter.

It’s very important to note their interests. We talked about food science during our planning session and we are currently learning about marshmallows. Apparently they were originally derived from the mallow plant and ancient Egyptians used to eat them! I’m excited about the opportunity they have to go off on tangents to explore things. A smart gentleman I work with reminded me that the internet provides endless opportunities for learning – we can start at marshmallows and continue into the habitual food of ancient Egyptians.

I am building on what they already seem to have learned and the work they did at the end of last year. My 2nd grader is working on phonics and becoming a more confident reader. He chooses a book to read aloud every day and we are working on digraphs/consonant blends. He is doing some worksheets and also practicing on IXL. My 6th grader struggled with keeping his math problems organized so we are starting on larger digit multiplication problems. He has been using graph paper as a strategy.

I am planning on bringing several of their subjects together – for instance, having them read an Inuit legend while learning about Native American tribes in history. We will probably do something with Art as well. This week, we looked at Mayan art and used markers to create art based on what we saw. My 6th grader worked with patterns and basic human forms creating almost a comic about a possible Mayan ritual. My 2nd grader drew a jaguar because it was an important and symbolic animal in the culture.

Another goal is that they take a more self-directed approach to their learning. Independent work is the reason I will stay sane. I have been able to find some peaceful and productive time while they are both engaged in an assignment. A few that really seem to work are daily journals, IXL, and math assignments. We seem to have some interruption because my 6th grader still has a hard time with spelling. I think we’ll be printing a list of common words so that he can look them up. Hopefully I can teach both of them this strategy.

How I’m Organizing Our Homeschool

/ Marjorie Sanpietro / Leave a comment

It’s not pretty. In all honesty, I have about 3 days mapped out so far. I want to see how we do and what is working for us.

My homeschool space doubles as our dining room. We have two bookshelves dedicated to homeschool materials. I recently put up a small whiteboard and bulletin board set. I’m using these to keep info that we need every day. I’ll probably write the date on the whiteboard to help us all keep track.

Each of the kids have their own binder where I am keeping supplemental material and where I hope they can store their work. I also have a binder – it’s pretty rudimentary right now. I have a copy of each IHIP and a calendar for keeping attendance. I also have a place for my daily plans. I have been scratching them out on looseleaf paper organized by subject for each child.

I plan on using the internet extensively for material to fuel hands on learning. I’m really excited about science experiments, demonstrations, and projects. I have a ton of recycables and basic art supplies on hand.

I reviewed their IHIPs and started looking at the resources I’ve accumulated. I have started what feels like a small library – not that we didn’t already have one – but I purchased some workbooks and went through the books we already owned looking for non-fiction I could use for different subjects. I found out that we have a crap-ton of dinosaur books.

I felt that we needed an easy start so I used their Brain Quest workbooks to jump start our first few days. I like these because they help me to see what I need to cover in each grade level. I’m using these as a guide and a starting point for topics. We are going to be covering each topic in more depth and according to my child’s individual needs. For instance, my second grader is a developing reader. We are going to use the first BQ worksheet on digraphs as a starting point and continue practicing them throughout the week. I am going to accomplish this with worksheets I found on Pinterest. We’re also doing that with math. We are going to be working towards better understanding of the hundredths place value so we’ll study that for about a week.

I am going to cover some topics with both my 6th grader and 2nd grader. We’ll be doing a coordinated study of U.S. History dating from immigration across the Bering land bridge to… however far we get. We will also be doing Art, P.E. and music together. Music isn’t even a required subject but I think it would be terrible to miss so I’m on the hunt for some materials. In lieu of having a solid plan for Music, we’re going to start with classical composers.

I am excited and nervous about that first day. I’m not planning on jumping into lessons right away. I am going to use the first day to get them excited. We’re going to name our homeschool, talk about how we learn best, make lots of slime and maybe go on a walk. I want to find out what they want to learn about and do so I can incorporate that.

A Week of Activities (Pre-K – 2)

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I’ve planned a week’s worth of activities and fun for your kids (grades pre-k – 2)! There is a theme for each day which includes a craft, some easy discussion questions/expansion activities, and some curated links to keep the fun going! Each day has a completely different theme so they don’t need to be in order. You could even do one a week.

Check out our materials list!

Day 1: Problem solving

Instructions

“The Duck Song”

Discussion Question: What would you do if a duck walked up to your lemonade stand? How would you deal with a difficult customer like him?

Day 2: Kindness

Instructions

“Kindness is a Muscle”

Discussion Question: What are some other ways you could flex your kindness muscle?

Day 3: Self-care

Instructions

Movie Clip from “Hotel Transylvania 3”

Discussion Question: Johnny uses fun and positive songs to defeat the evil music! What positive message do you need to hear right now?

Day 4: “Reach for the Stars”

Instructions

If I Were an Astronaut – Story time from space

Discussion Question: Would you like to be an astronaut? What other dreams do you have for yourself?

Day 5: “Invent it!”

Instructions

How the popsicle was invented

Discussion Question: What could you invent? Do you have a really good idea you want to share?

That’s it! I hope you enjoy these ideas and they help you wrap up your summer!

Lessons from Anne Shirley

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MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD- Stop if you’ve never read the books and go read them.

I’m re-reading (probably for the 5th time) the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery. This is probably my favorite series of books ever. I was probably 9 or 10 when I read these books the first time and I skimmed A LOT. As a grown-up, I’m discovering new points that I never saw when I was a child.

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  1. It’s okay to indulge your children. Marilla was raising Anne the best she could – L.M. Montgomery doesn’t seem to describe Matthew and Marilla’s life pre-Anne very much but from their characters, I infer they didn’t have very happy childhoods. She starts out hard but her love for Anne begins to soften her and continues to do so throughout the series. She becomes devoted to Anne’s happiness which is all anyone could ask of a parent. I feel that she was trying to build resiliency in Anne but she didn’t understand that Anne was already very resilient and needed love. Matthew got that. For the whole first part of the book – Anne is lamenting that she doesn’t have puffed sleeves and Marilla is firmly against it. Matthew goes behind Marilla’s back because he realizes that Anne feels left out and has low self confidence in some ways. He feels like more fashionable clothing will help. This is a simple solution to a more complex problem but very symbolic in the story. This is when Marilla starts loosening up. Matthew goes to bat for Anne a couple of other times in the same way. I think there are at least two questions you need to ask yourself when you are answering these kinds of requests – one is are they being left out of something because they don’t have the coveted item? The second question – is it harmful to them?
  2. Be yourself – you’ll find your tribe. Anne and I were kindred spirits when I was younger. I was an odd kid. I didn’t know how to relate to my peers. I did better with adults and children who were younger than me. I lived in my head. I was very intelligent but prone to daydreaming and losing interest. Anne was adopted by Matthew and Marilla when she was 11. I sort of started losing my “inner Anne” when I was about 11. I fell behind in school and I didn’t know how to handle the new social intricacies of pre-teen kids. Anne’s lesson is that it’s ok to be yourself – people will find you and love you. I’m learning that lesson slowly as I get older. I am coming to terms with the fact that I’m not for everyone. I want to be – so I try very hard to connect with other people. Trying too hard is my biggest issue. But I have found some tribe members – my husband, a few friends, even brief interactions with strangers that I know mean something. Anne found people who could appreciate her for her uniqueness and uncommon contribution to their lives. I’m so appreciative of the people in my life. “Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.”― L.M. Montgomery
  3. Mistakes are how we learn. Anne made a ton of mistakes. One memorable one is that she dyed her hair green in an attempt to change it black. The next time she tried to “meddle with her looks” she made a lotion from a recipe in a magazine, but instead used a red dye. After that, she poured the lotion out the window and decided that she would not try to change her looks in the future. She also sold a cow that wasn’t hers, twisted her ankle because of a dare, and got her friend drunk. Marilla gives her consequences but doesn’t seem to hold her past mistakes against her and as she grows up – allows her to fix her own. We’ve all made plenty of mistakes – but we learn from them, too. “Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it… yet.” – L.M. Montgomery
  4. Find beauty in the everyday. Anne does this from the first chapter in the first book. She imagines that if Matthew does not pick her up that she will sleep up in a tree. She finds the idea very romantic. As they are driving to Avonlea, she names all of the scenery. The Avenue becomes the “White Way of Delight”. She continues this throughout the series, sometimes allowing her friends to join her (but that’s how we end up with Birch Path). She loves flowers and uses them to decorate the house often. At first, Marilla is not enthused but by the second book enjoys and admires Anne’s floral arranging. She also finds the good in her experiences and people. She accepts people for who they are and seeks to find the good in them. Aunt Josephine – not known for happiness or fun – grows to love Anne and becomes an important figure in her life. Anne sees the possibility in her and she rises to it. What needs a brand new, shiny name in your life? What could use some color and brightness? Who can you notice the good in? “Look at that sea, girls–all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn’t enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds. – L.M. Montgomery
  5. Everything can be improved upon with imagination and hard work. Anne did an equal amount of both. She was an exceptional student in school and won a prestigious scholarship. She was not afraid of any chore that Marilla gave her. However, when she was lonely before she was adopted – she had imaginary friends and thought about how her life could be better. She and her friends created an improvement society for Avonlea and tried to make real changes in their surroundings. I think the lesson is – imagine what could be and make it so. This can have varying results – like Anne’s aspiration to be a raven haired beauty or trying to change her name to Cordelia. At least she took her thoughts and tried them out. “Because when you are imagining, you might as well imagine something worth while.” – L.M. Montgomery

Because these books were published so long ago – you can read them and other books by Lucy Maud Montgomery for free at Project Gutenburg.

Homeschooling Resources

/ Marjorie Sanpietro / 2 Comments

Disclaimer: I’m writing as a newbie to homeschooling.

I’ve never done it before but we decided as a family that it was our best option this year. Our district is offering a hybrid school week – with in person learning for two days and distance learning for three. They are also offering a distance learning only program. Neither of those feel like great options for us. I’ve been exploring how to start for a few months because I wanted to be prepared.

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Homeschooling has always appealed to me and I’m kind of excited! One thing I like about it – flexibility! We are going to go at our own pace and schedule. I can also spend extra time on things that interest my children and on things that they need more help with.

In order to start homeschooling in NY, you must submit a letter of intent (LOI) to your school district. It should include your children’s names, ages and grades and state that you are homeschooling for the year. If you’d like some help writing one – you can use mine!

After that, you have a certain amount of time to submit an Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP). This follows the state’s requirements and includes the curriculum you will use to teach your children. I’ve seen examples that are both very simple AND extremely detailed. Here is a shell to get you started!

Your child is required to be in attendance for the substantial equivalent of 900 hours or 180 days. You should keep some kind of record in case it is requested and for your own purposes. My plan is to use this academic calendar and mark whether each child is “present” or “absent”.

I’m using Brain Quest workbooks to get started and to get a better idea of what needs to be covered in each grade. I don’t think these will be adequate to use for our whole curriculum but I do like them as a beginning framework. I have no idea what 2nd and 6th grade look like these days!

I’ve also been following a classmate who’s been homeschooling for 5 years and runs a successful blog and home business. Kristy has made a great list of her articles and ideas that will really help new homeschoolers! I always love the chance to give her a shout out!

That’s what I’ve got right now! Let me know if you have any questions or ideas about homeschooling in the comments below!

Update on My Fairy Garden

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Update: My fairy garden is doing well! The log got sealed and planted with impatiens and two other flowers I can’t remember. The Lithodora l I planted is alive and well after a little bit of touch and go. It is not flowering right now but seems to be growing. My Icelandic Poppy has died off – not sure if it will grow back, we’ll have to see. I’ve added a cute little ladder and a piece of fencing that I made myself. I also purchased a couple of new accessories. I’ve planted the other containers including putting a cucumber vine I grew from a seedling in one. Just have fun with it! If you’ve done some whimsical gardening this year – let me know! I’d love to see.

This photo was taken about a month later after I had most things planted but before I added few new accessories.

I love fairies and all things magical! Anything that sparks a little bit of wonder and joy speaks to me

. I started fairy gardening about 5 years ago.  I first started when we lived in Texas and much of that garden was more architectural in nature with lots of stones and shells. It is fun […]

My Experience with Fairy Gardening and Practical, Fun Tips for Building your Own

When is it Art and When is it just Mess: An Exploration.

/ Marjorie Sanpietro / Leave a comment

During these last few weeks, I have been working on quite a few projects. I had a yard sale and THOUGHT I needed something else to keep me busy. So I started working on a desk and chair set I found on the side of the road.

I started out painting the wood parts white with plans to use blue metal enamel that I had purchased for another project. The white paint didn’t really speak to my soul – so I started decoupaging the chair with ripped pieces of dictionary pages (one of my favorite materials). I broke out the enamel to do the metal and just sort of said huh…I wonder what that would look like on the paper.

My husband called on his way home from picking up auction purchases – another new hobby of ours…and I told him I was either making art or a mess. That’s how I still feel about it. So what’s the difference? And how far is too far? Comment below to let me know.

Sometimes you make a mess when you’re creating a piece. That doesn’t mean the completed work you make is a mess. I’ve been making little signs out of pieces of wood. The wood almost looks like the back of stamps, but they stand up well. I was trying to stencil a tiny pineapple on a couple of tiny pieces. I went through 8 pieces to get ONE perfect pineapple – I still need to get another one but I’m a little worried about going through 8 more!

My point in telling both of those stories is to remind myself and maybe you that creativity is a process and not everything we make is going to be perfect and may take a couple of tries. We should keep trying if we have that creative spark. I know that I have to feed mine.

Buttermilk Falls (Ithaca, NY)

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Buttermilk Falls is in Ithaca, NY near a busy shopping area. Our trip here was Eh…

We stayed Wednesday night to Friday morning due to campground availability – weekends are heavily booked at the state parks right now. I overheard a park employee describing it more like a city park and while that didn’t feel exactly true, it was funny to see store building tops from our walks. I imagined sneaking away to Starbucks a couple of times (especially on Thursday when I had the boys alone).

I could have made it a little better with more planning – like calling the park to see what was going to be available.

Swimming will be available starting July 4th and is only open on Fri, Sat, and Sun. We went on July 1st – 3rd. The bathrooms are not open in the lower park until sometime in the late morning as far as I can tell. The ones in the campground are closed from 11-12 and 4-5 for extra cleaning. I know most of this is because of COVID-19 precautions so I can’t really complain.

The campground was nice but very stony. We bent our stakes trying to get them in the ground and sort of worried about our tent caving in or a strong wind blowing it away. It did not blow away. We appreciated that the site was shady and near the bathrooms.

We definitely did some hiking – going from the campground to the lower park entrance twice and back via the Owl Creek trail. We also hiked to the scenic overlook via the same trail. It’s amazing! You can see across to farms on the other side…of something 🤣 (maybe Cayuga Lake?). Near the overlook is also a huge rock wall presumably created by glaciers which people have signed by scratching their names with a rock. That’s where we saw our first snake. We saw our second snake on the portion of the Rim trail that leads to the park entrance. I had the boys make a list of everything else they saw.

  • lots and lots of chipmunks – these guys were everywhere!
  • squirrels
  • several different varieties of butterflies
  • frogs and tadpoles (learn more about frogs here)
  • dragonflies

It was a hot few days – we kept hydrated and took lots of breaks when we needed to.

Another hiking option is the Rim Trail/Gorge Trail loop. These are two seperate but connecting trails – currently they have them operating in a loop due to COVID-19. They describe them as fairly challenging so I didn’t attempt without another grown-up but I saw other families doing it.

Other nice things to do included a playground and large playing fields. My 6 yr old gave the playground two thumbs up!

The park was beautiful and I would visit again on a day trip during the week. I’d camp on the weekends if it was available.

Amenities: fairly nice camping, swimming, bathrooms, hiking, playground, large picnic area, ball fields

Rating: ☆☆☆ 3/5

Pokemon Go fans: We didn’t have a chance to play! But I checked a map and there doesn’t seem to be any pokestops or gyms at this park.

Get Your Game On! or How I Turned Our Summer Around with Gamification

/ Marjorie Sanpietro / Leave a comment

I was worried that my kids were going to be spending too much time on electronics this summer. I had let them have free reign for a few days and they began to look like little zombies. In response,  I made a daily to-do list with time for electronics scheduled in after they completed what I thought were worthwhile activities including time for play. 

We had a few good days with it and then we were all sick of it. I felt like an enforcer and the kids felt nagged. Neither of those feelings were what I was going for. 

Then I changed my perspective…

My main goal was to keep them busy and off the electronics. It wasn’t to micromanage their day. Inspiration finally struck at 2 a.m. the other night.

Photo by Lucie Liz on Pexels.com

I turned their day into a game or “gamified” it.

Google says gamification means “the application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service.” 

An article titled Gamify Your Life from entrepreneur.com says that playing a game can trigger intense emotion and winning brings a great deal of satisfaction to a person. This is due to neuro-chemical activity in the brain including dopamine – which produces the sensation of pleasure. If you organize your to-do list to include pleasurable activity when you complete other tasks – you are starting to use this concept. You would be teaching your brain to associate completing those tasks with enjoyment. 

That accurately describes my new approach. I took the same to-do list and turned it into a menu of activities they can do to earn points. The points can be used towards time on the television and game systems. This is another important component of gamification.  Entrepreneur.com cites Tom Chatfield who did a TED talk – one of his points was that every bit of effort should be rewarded. 

The kids get a visual reminder of their point earnings because I am handing out poker chips as they complete things. I assigned higher values things that I especially want them to focus on. Everyday simple tasks that can be done in less than 5 minutes are worth less. If they go through a simple morning routine of getting ready each day – they can earn their first 40 or so points. It sets them up for success and even their minimal efforts are rewarded. 

There are some other elements that are covered in both the TED talk and the article that I haven’t incorporated yet – so I’m going to be thinking about it. One that I think will require deeper thought because I find it very important is the incorporation of both long and short term goals. 

Applying the principles I covered here was easier than you’d think. I feel that the most important element is the point system. However, I think the visual appeal will turn out to be important as well:

If you compare these two lists – which is more fun and exciting? I feel like I threw a smiley face on the first one at the last second to save my butt. I’m really proud of the second one – I tried to find more exciting fonts and came up with a cool title! 

My kids are highly competitive – so I had to lay some ground rules fast. I told them that this game is about their own personal growth and that they should not brag about or compare points.

If you want to try it – here is the list I made! Get Your Game On!

If you want to try gamification in your own life – I recommend Habitica. You have a little character and they level up when you complete your daily tasks, to dos, or complete a habit you want to adopt. There are pets to collect and you can level them up too. It’s a to-do list that’s fun for grownups!

*Amazing* Cat Tower for $38

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We bought an amazing shelf for $15 and turned it into “Catopia” for our three kitties. We bought 8 pieces of scratchboard, 3 pieces of carpet remnants, 7 dust mop heads, a brush head for a broom, and a mop head from the Dollar Tree. I used E6000 glue for this project and I went through 1 large tube at $3. In total – $38 for an amazing sturdy piece of cat furniture.

Tools:

Protractor

Jigsaw

Staple gun

Rotary tool

Serrated knife

I started by gluing the scratchboard pieces with E6000 to the long side of the shelf. I reccomend doing this a piece at a time, letting it dry several minutes between each piece (if you make a Catopia someday). After it dried, I trimmed the extra off with a serrated knife.

Then I used the protractor to draw circles on the shelves – this part was easy! I used a Sharpie to darken the lines and then my husband and I used the dremel to make holes for the jigsaw to start in. He cut out the holes for me with the jigsaw. This was challenging because of the lack of space near the walls of the shelf.

Together we figured out where to put the other features. The glue was not holding the mophead, so I undid the yarn from that. We used a staple gun to attach it to the bottom of a shelf where it hangs down.

I used the staple gun to affix the carpet pieces. I love the paw prints in the front and the cute mini Hello mat at the bottom! My kitties literally had a welcome mat put out for them.

I sprayed it with catnip spray and baited it with treats. We are also putting them in it and petting them to let them know it’s ok to be in.