Why did I choose to homeschool my children?

When I first saw my son when I knew I would not share him with anyone or give him "away" to the school system. A school system that in my opinion it lacks of education, money and time. I read about school closing, cutting down subjects that to my knowledge are very important like music and art. Children go to school for 7 hrs or more just to come back home to do homework probably wondering when is this all going to end so I can enjoy my childhood. That is not enough, on top of that they have to be tested every so often so the school system can test their own work. What I mean is that the tests are not really to see how well your child understands what is being taught. If that was the case they would never get a score! If you just want to know how much they understand why would you need to grade it? If someone didn't score well it means that they need more HELP not an F, not a punishment for not understanding! On the contrary, a school child goes through the stress of being tested to see if the school system is doing a good or bad job teaching them. If there is a good teacher and the teacher/student ratio is right there would be no need for tests. I view tests not as a tool of measurement but as a punishment for either having a good/bad teacher or a way to control the crowd. I view them as the killer of the love of learning. I know it sounds a bit tragic but imagine yourself being forced to "learn" something and after you tried hard to understand a concept that wasn't taught in a way you can understand it, and you tried hard to memorize (which is not really learning) the lesson just to get a F  as and fail to learn or maybe I should say the teacher got an F as an fail to teach. This is a punishment and punishment doesn't nurture the love of learning... It kills it. This is not the kind of environment and upbringing I want for my children.

I want my children to enjoy life that is so short. I want my children to LOVE being alive. They come to this world with the curiosity and the love of learning. Is the adult that forgot what it feels like to be present and the importance of the little things that life brings you. Every day is a new day for them and we need to guide them, to provide the right environment for them to grow free and happy. We need to provide a environment that allows a child to be a child. So why do I want to homeschool my children? I want to homeschool my children because:

- I think I can do a heck of a better job that the school.
- I know them more than anybody in the world.
- As a mother I feel that it is my job to educate them.
- I want them to love learning until the end.
- I want to give them the space to grow and bloom as they were meant to and not to fit in a box.
- Nobody cares for them as much as me and my husband care. So we have even more pressure to do a good job raising and educating them.
- The school system sucks here.
-  I want them to build their lives with good and positive experiences.
- I can do it.
- They are the reason of my existence.
- The list can go on and on....

Mirror Exploration Station

Here is our new mirror exploration station. It was VERY easy to make and Umi loved it so did my little  baby girl. It costs 30 including shipping for 6 mirrors in Discount School Supply. Just be careful they seem to scratch easily... They are acrylic I think so they don't brake and are safe for little ones!

I taped the back. Make sure you leave a bit of space between the mirrors so you can

fold them.

        Umi really liked it. He got a piece of tape and taped it close like a triangle and he
said it was a capsule.

05//4/12

Even my Little Princess loved it! 

Magnet Learning Station

This is our magnet learning station. It contains a magnet wand and a 

tackle box with items that are attracted to magnets and other materials that are not. 

Materials that I put in the tackle box:

- Wooden rings

- Cardboard square

- Stainless steal hook

- Key chain ring

- The circles that came with the wand

- Magnet

- Plastic caps

- Stickers

- Glass beads

- Paper clip

- Washer and bolt (can add screws)

- Paper

- Cotton balls

- Piece of sponge

- A penny

- Cloth pin

Then Umi can place the items that are attracted to the magnet wand on one basket and the ones that are not attracted on the other basket.

I am planning on making a magnet exploration bottle. But that is a subject for another post!

Math FREE downloads!!!

LIVABLE LEARNING - Preparing the Home and the Heart

Suzanne from Livable Learning is giving away LOTS of math downloads for free! This is what she wrote on her website:

Leap into GIVING!

 

Check back the FIRST WEEK of every month for new Specials! 

To honor the 2012 LEAP YEAR theme of LEAP INTO GIVING each month I will offer FREE items - both printables and sets of handmade Montessori items!

APRIL 2012

Hope4ME Printables released as FREE downloads:

Call me LEAP YEAR Leapin' CRAZY but I just release All MATH FACTS Materials as free downloads! I have been so inspired by all the support **across the world** to my new blog and to my Hope4ME printables pages. This gift's for YOU!

--

So you'll get:


Math Facts Printables - equation slips, tables cards and booklets, and all the charts. 
http://www.jmjpublishing.com/jmjsales.html







THANK YOU SUZANNE!!!!!

Writing and Reading System

This is the reading and writing system I got together for Umi. It consists of little printable books from 

Primera Escuela. Below there is alphabet posters with poems that I bought here and I printed them in color card stock. It happened that I chose blue for the vowels and beige for the consonants. If I would do it again I would use the color of the sandpaper letters.

Sandpaper letters. I bought them in Montessori Concepts. I bought several materials from them. It is a long story but to cut it short for now, they were VERY nice to me. They even gave me free materials! I am planning to review them soon. 

Here you can see the book up close. The child has to match words since 

there wasn't any pictures on the square part of the book. To make this you need to 

print the letter sheet that has the little words with pictures that you need to cut for the books.

This books has a page for tracing!

I use this cards for his calendar. It is from Learning Resources but I can't seem to find it neither in 

amazon where I bought it and on their website.

The pages on this book have the letter in upper case  and pictures with animals and things

that start with that letter and underneath it has the word written and it is in lower case.

Outdoor Sensory Tub Activity

Materials:

- Jars and/or tupperware

- Colored cotton balls

- Shaving cream

-Ladle 

- Food coloring

- Turkey baster

- Water

Fill 3/4 of the jars with water and then add shaving cream to the top. Add water to the tub and food coloring on the shaving cream. I got this idea from Teacher Tom and I added my touches. He has a great blog.

Umi liked to squish the baster and also catch cotton balls with the ladle.

This was a fun activity. He learned:

- Color changes when they are mixed

- If you squish the cotton balls water comes out

- How to use the baster

- Pouring water from one jar to another

- Shaving cream makes the water slippery, soapy and foamy

You could add water beads! I will try that tomorrow!

Homeschool Room

This is our playroom or homeschool room. As you may see it is small and a bit crowded for my liking but it is what we have now. I am happy to have a room I can dedicate for Umi's montessori and homeschooling materials and for him to play.

This is his desk. Inside he has some activities. Next to it it is the music instruments. Inside the blue dresser are musical instruments like maracas, shakers, recorder and more. The bottom drawer has tapes and a walkman where he can listen to music and stories I recorded for him. On top of this dresser is his drum and underneath the record player.

This is our shelf unit that my husband built. 

This is the language shelf. On the left we have the Spellable game. It is great since it is in

English and Spanish, the only down side is that it is in uppercase...Inside of the blue tin box we have 

rhyming words cards that I printed and laminated. Next to it the sandpaper letters. Then Brain Quest cards. They are for a 5-6 years old but Umi (3 years old) can do them easily. 

This is what we are using for math right now. I have the spindle box but it seems that he still needs to learn the correlation between the numbers and quantity.

We left this space for seasonal activities like in this case Easter. When there isn't a especial holiday

I use it for sensory, geography or practical life.

This is where I store things like paints, papers, etc. My project with this is to

cover the glass doors with pictures.

I have all the maps, control maps, and other materials that soon will come out of hiding but as far as today this is what we have on the shelves.