Ocean Lapbook

Alright-here it is: The Ocean Lapbook!

On the first spread is most of the minibooks for animal classification. I found these at homeschoolshare. Ms.Q learned to classify animals into vertebrate or invertebrate groups and then into the five vertebrate and four invertebrate groups.

We created an animal classification diagram on the kitchen wall.








The next page spread has minibooks for spelling and vocabulary words as well as a listing of all the books we read during the unit study. There are some more minibooks left over from animal classification too.

We read the book Swimmy by Leo Lionni and talked about personification.

Ms. Q learned how coral reefs are made. She also learned the names of five of the world's oceans and where they are located (see the map on the right page). The picture is of the food web we created on the living room wall. See below for a larger image. I wrote about this in a pervious post.
Here are minibooks for the layers of the ocean, ocean habitats, undersea explorer Sylvia Earle, and Ms. Q's animal study about dolphins. The dolphin minibooks are from homeschoolshare too.
Here is the ocean layers minibook open.

The final section is two full sized books Ms. Q made during the unit study.

Her creative writing story titled Sea Water is about a turtle and a sea dragon.



And here is her book about the items she collected during our trip to the beach.
She did a wonderful job!!!

Q's World

Here is what happens when you let a six year old run wild in the backyard with a camera. I think some of them came out rather nice. Allright, allright, I think they are fabulous!

Her assistant.

Ughhhhh......

I am so frustrated and angry today! It is one of those days that I seriously wonder why we are all torturing ourselves with homeschooling.
Ok, that's not entirely fair. Most days we have a great time, but sometimes I just get so frustrated. Especially on days like today when Q is just not interested and not trying her best, or trying at all for that matter. I just don't know what to do. She doesn't seem to be focused at all and yelling at her is not working for her or me. I tell her something and then ask her a question about what I just said and she says "hmm...I think I know that." WELL YOU SHOULD-I JUST TOLD IT TO YOU!!
Should I start rewarding "good" days? I have been thinking for a while about a reward system for getting her work done. Something like for each subject we cover during the day that she actively and positively participates in she can have some sort of reward i.e. computer, tv, outside, or phone time. I really don't want to do that though. I am hoping that our school day will be its own reward and be fun and engaging. So I think I just discovered the answer to my problem. I already know that Q is no longer interested in the ocean as a topic for study and she really didn't want to finish the animal classification stuff we were working on but we only had three more classes to finish. So she agreed to finish them up. And man have we both been suffering. Lesson learned...when Q says she is finished with something she is finished. Drop it and move on!

(Wow this was really therapeutic. Who would of guessed?)

Little M Is One!

Little M and Ms. Q enjoyed a great day reading outside. It was a great start to our birthday weekend. Max is one year old now, officially a toddler. Fred is another year older too. No pictures of Fred's birthday revelry, sorry, but here are some pictures of M's first birthday celebration.

Why Homeschooling?

When we told our families that we were going to start homeschooling Q, we had to answer the same question all homeschooling parents face - why? Some people were curious as to what lead to this decision. Some appeared more horrified than curious and some flat out said don't do it. Lucky for us no one asked us the dreaded socialization/socializing question. Although after doing internet research on homeschooling, I was prepared to answer that question as well.

The main reason is pretty simple. Q just wasn't doing well. She was doing alright, not flunking out of the first grade or anything, just kinda floating along. She was getting into a lot of trouble with her teachers for talking in class and not following directions. Not in an oppositional or defiant way just in a six year old's enthusiastic way. We kept having parent teacher conferences about her "behavior" but I really didn't know what I was supposed to do about it. I asked her why she kept talking in class and her response was "I can't help it-I have a lot to say." Which really is true. The girl can talk your ear off about anything. If she has an opinion, or a question, or a thought about something, anything, she will talk about it, and talk about, and talk about it. There have been times when I have actually begged her to please stop talking for a minute so I can hear myself think!

I kept repeating the mantra - she's six, she's six. What does this mean exactly? Well it means it's difficult for her to sit still for six hours, eight if you count her afterschool program. It's hard for her to sit next to her classmates and not talk to them. She has trouble remembering to raise her hand to answer a question or to use the bathroom. Wait a minute here. Are these really the expectations school is placing on a six year old?

Gone were the days before kindergarten when Q was really excited about school and would pretend play "real" school with her dolls and stuffed animals. By the middle of first grade she hated it there and it was a continual battle to get her there in the morning. Who could blame her really? When was the last time I sat still for six hours? How would I feel if I couldn't talk to my coworkers all day except at lunch? What if I had to ask my boss to use the bathroom or raise my hand and receive permission to speak in a meeting? What is her school training her for? Certainly not the job I have, or the one anyone else I know has. I am a children's mental health professional, why was I letting the school tell me that my child's behavior was unacceptable when I knew it was developmentally appropriate? Was it ok for Q to feel bad about herself because she couldn't follow the rules? Learning was becoming a chore she didn't want to do. Something just wasn't right with all this. We had already made the sacrifices necessary for me to stay home part time so M wouldn't have to go to daycare so we, ok I, decided Q wouldn't have to go to school anymore either. It took a really well planned out presentation and some convincing for Fred to agree to a trial period. But so far so good. I won't pretend everyday is wonderful. Some days we don't get anything done and Q and I can't stand each other. But most days we spend enjoying learning and experiencing life. Not waiting to go to the bathroom or not talking about things that excite us.

New Unit Ideas

This week has been really hectic. I have had two changes in my work schedule, both reducing my day time hours at home this week. Luckily we did get to squeeze in enough time on Tuesday afternoon to make it to the library, our usual Tuesday adventure.

While at the library, Q mentioned that she would like to start learning about electricity in school. Then she saw a movie about dinosaurs and thought that we could use it in school to learn about them. Then she added jazz would be a good topic to learn about. Perhaps we could learn about how bees make honey? Then at home she was looking through a National Geographic magazine and was really interested in the polar bears, and the article about a fungus that is killing frogs around the world. We used the time line to figure out when a Pharaoh, whose remains have just been identified, lived and she delighted in showing everyone the gruesome picture of the mummy and pointing out how long ago she lived. So I asked her if she was done with oceans. And yes, she is officially tired of them she said. We have a few things to finish up and she is ok with that, but what to do next? She has so many ideas she seems to be running in a million different directions at once, but it is so wonderful that she is exited to learn things. That's why we homeschool in the first place, right?

Recently I overheard her on the telephone talking to a friend she used to go to public school with. Q was telling her friend all about the ocean activities she was working on and pretty much bragging about her cursive handwriting skills. She said "yeah I know you don't know how to write cursive but I wanted to learn how so I am. I get to learn whatever I want in school now." She also added that we spent the whole day at the beach on a school day and it actually counted as schoolwork! I thought wow instead of bragging about her new designer sneakers (doesn't own them) or getting the hottest toy (doesn't own this either) or playing video games my daughter is bragging about cursive writing and field trips to the beach. Man I hope this lasts.