Smrt Lernins

Tank is concerned about peepee* oil.

He has it on good authority that peepee oil might be covering Mexico and killing people, the fish, dolphins, and sharks. He seems to be the most concerned about the sharks.

He is worried that the peepee oil means we won’t be able to go to the beach again. He’s probably right.

He wants to know if the peepee oil will get into Lake Acworth. I assured him it wasn’t very likely to.

He would like to know how we plan to clean up the peepee oil and how long it will take. I don’t have any answers for him.

Tank is very sad about the peepee oil.

I haven’t shown my children any pictures of the beaches of my childhood, like Gulf Shores, covered with tar balls and pools of BP’s oil. I haven’t shown them the pelicans, the state bird of my birth state, foundering with oil-covered wings. I haven’t shown them dead dolphins being fished out of the Gulf. I have tried to explain that many people will lose their jobs, that many animals will die, and that the Gulf coast may not ever be the same — certainly not in my lifetime, probably not in theirs, and possibly not even in their children’s.

They’re children. To them, time means nothing. They are confident that someone smart will find a way to stop the oil and clean up the mess. With the boundless faith that well-cared-for children have in adults, they believe that they will grow up in a world that is safe, clean, and full of dolphins. That’s what grownups are here for, right?

Right?

*BP

word

A comforting hug.

Amelia asks, “If you’re going to homeschool for preschool next year, what will that look like? Will it look different from the usual parenting of a preschooler?”

We’re definitely home preschooling next year. We haven’t re-enrolled Tank in his current preschool and he’s quite excited about “doing homework” (he used to call it “table learnin’”) with Captain Science and (more importantly, to him) with Patchfire’s Fabulous Boy, whom Tank swears he is going to either grow up to marry or to crush (with requisite iron-fist-of-Stalin crushing hand gesture). Even if we didn’t have plans to homeschool Tank, we’d have to start doing something during Captain Science’s school time, because Tank wants so badly to be homeschooled, too.

Another reason I want to homeschool is to make sure Tank doesn’t have gaps in his basic knowledge. Because Captain Science was so bright in most areas (he was reading at 2), his teachers either didn’t notice that he didn’t have certain important skills or thought that, because he was so gifted in other areas, he would either catch up or the skills weren’t that important. As a result, Captain Science never really learned how to hold scissors properly or cut well, to hold a pencil correctly, or to trace a straight line. It’s been an uphill battle to instill those skills in my now-9-year-old. I don’t want Tank to end up the same way, so I’ve carefully compiled a list of skills I want to make sure he has, and will address each of them in turn.

While any of the skills we’re planning on working on next year could be taught through the informal daily routine of parenting, Tank will have a short instructional period every school day to work on these concepts more formally.

We’ll start with the cheap and simple, using Kumon workbooks for the basic skills like tracing and cutting. We might also use them for some beginning math skills. Tank is already pretty good with numbers and does simple arithmetic using fingers or objects. We’ll probably also find some “fun” math activities to do with him.

On the recommendation of several homeschooling friends, I’ll be using The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading, which is co-authored by one of the authors of The Well-Trained Mind, for teaching phonics and other reading skills. I’m also considering getting the flashcards that go with this book. We have a magnet board and a fairly good collection of magnet letters, so as much as the idea of something like this magnetic phonics teaching set appeals to me, we’ll probably stick with the letters we have.

Something I am going to put in the formal schedule, just to make sure I don’t put it by the wayside, is art. Tank loves all arts and crafts. He loves to paint, draw, glue, model, and make ridiculous projects out of various substances. Patchfire and I have talked about doing art class with our small boys, so that will satisfy both Tank’s need to have a class with FB and my need to make sure he has art regularly.

I’m also going to make sure I address some of those things that he might otherwise miss as a homeschooled student, things like knowing his parents’ names, address, phone number, and how to react in a fire or other emergency.

The most noticeable difference between days where I’m home preschooling and the days when I’m just parenting a preschooler will be that he will feel like he’s having school time. I don’t have to keep records or worry about him making tremendous academic strides, but I can give him a way to be closer with Captain Science and feel included.

That’s how the [Smrt] Homeschooler plans to do preschooling at home!

Do you have a question for the [Smrt] Homeschooler? Email them to
smrtmama@smrtlernins.com

The Tank has entered the next developmental phase in his art, adding hands, feet, and ears. That does not, of course, mean that he’s no longer including guns for fighting “enemies, bad guys, and bosses.” All the big dark blobs in the picture are various weapons that fire various substances, including “lavity,” which is like lava, only more powerful.

The angry rabbit-looking guy in the middle is my favorite. I want to call him Ralph. He looks like he’s giving a thumbs up, but he isn’t. That’s a gun.

Here is the artist himself, wearing his zebra head band from Zany Zebra Day (don’t ask). He’s also wearing his “specialty shorts.” Note the strategically placed smiley face sticker on the crotch. Yeah, I couldn’t explain that, either.

Should have blogged this yesterday, but it was a full day and I just didn’t get around to it.

Yesterday, I went to spring conference at Tank’s preschool. I met with his teacher and looked over her assessments of his abilities and development. I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw!

First, Mrs. SweetTeacher (he also has Mrs. HappyTeacher, the assistant teacher) showed me the assessment from the music class instructor. The Tank showed concept mastery in all areas, including the area of “how to behave yourself in a music class.” It wasn’t worded exactly like that, but that was certainly the implication of that particular bullet point. Tank apparently knows the names of all of the instruments used in class and can categorize them (drums are percussion, for example). He always participates in class and enjoys singing. This, I knew, as I can’t put on my Glee cd without the child belting out “Don’t Stop Believing.”

In Mrs. SweetTeacher’s class, the Tank has also been making great strides. His gross motor skills are just as good as I knew they were and his fine motor skills are also excellent. He can jump, skip, draw a straight line and a circle, and draw a picture of himself with all the parts that a child should be consistently putting in drawings at this age (head, facial features, arms, and legs). He is social and gets along well with other kids, always has a playmate as is right in the middle of the action, though he shows a mature ability (“We usually see that in much older children!”) to identify the kid that won’t put up a fuss if he swipes their toy — yes, the Tank is the kind of child who could easily become a bully if that sort of behavior weren’t parented out of him, which is one reason why I think homeschooling will be much better for him than public school, where his innate bullying instinct might be fed. I’m glad he has such a high level of social intelligence, but I want him to use it for good, not evil!

He knows all of his colors and shapes. He can count to 15, though he often skips 16 and/or 17, then can continue to count up through the 20s and 30s, and often beyond, especially with a little prompting. He has sight recognition for the names of all of the boys in his class (the preschool ended up with way more boys than girls this year, resulting in an all-boy classroom for the M/W/Th group). He can write his own name, from left to write in all upper case, though he writes each letter from right to left, which is sort of interesting. They don’t expect them to have name recognition or the ability to write their name, but they assess them for that anyway, just to see if they can, and the Tank can!

The area where I wasn’t at all aware how the Tank was developing was in letter recognition. He won’t even sing the ABC song for me (“I don’t know them all.”) and I didn’t know that he could now recognize all of the letters, at least the upper case ones! He sometimes misreads G for C, but otherwise, he can correctly identify all of them. Wow, this really blew my mind. On the one hand, I was really excited that he could do so much more than I realized. With Captain Science as my barometer, it’s often hard for me to know if the Tank is behind, normal, or even ahead, because Captain Science was so far above average that the usual “above average” seems like “average” to me, if that makes any sense. It was comforting to know that the Tank is not only NOT behind, but is ahead in most areas.

On the other hand, that I didn’t know all the things he can do leaves me with a slight feeling of loss, just like missing any milestone in your child’s life. Where was I when he learned the alphabet? How could I miss that he knew all the things he knows? I don’t think it would have occurred to me to feel regret about this if I hadn’t been homeschooling Captain Science this year. I like being a part of my children’s education. I like knowing what they know, because I’m the one who helped them learn it. I’m sad that I wasn’t the one who taught the Tank the rest of his letters and it only reconfirms my plans to homeschool him starting next year.

Mrs. SweetTeacher asked if we were reenrolling him for next year and I told her we would be homeschooling. She seemed disappointed that he wouldn’t be returning to the school. I’m glad his teachers seem to genuinely like and enjoy him, because he’s an enjoyable, entertaining child. Both Mrs. SweetTeacher and Mrs. HappyTeacher have remarked on his good sense of humor, his advanced verbal skills, what a great personality he has. It’s always nice to hear that from an outside source.

I’m thrilled this conference was full of so much good information, but now I can’t wait to start preschooling at home next year!

Daisy asks, “How do you keep Babypie busy (and Tank when he is home) while you are teaching?”

Babypie is an uncommonly easy baby, so entertaining her has not been a problem thus far. She’s happy to wander around, nibble on a snack, play with her toys, and just generally observe our school lessons. The biggest problem with Babypie isn’t that she is herself distracting, but that Captain Science is often distracted by her. He loves her so much, and if he so much as looks at her, she always gives him the biggest, hammiest grins, which means he’ll keep smiling and talking to her instead of doing his work. This can be a problem.

The solution has been to set up multiple work areas for different needs. We have our school room, where my computer, the books, and homeschool materials all live. The desk has chairs on both sides so Captain Science and I can both sit at it. This is my base of operations, where I explain the lessons, go over the work (pointing out things that need correction or asking Captain Science to explain how he came to certain answers/conclusions), or do discussion/instruction portions of work. When Captain Science needs to read without Babypie milling about the same room, or if he needs room to spread out materials (science labs at home, for example), he goes into the gated kitchen to work at the table. When he needs a quiet place to work on math, grammar, writing, etc., he goes down to the roll-top desk we have set up in the craft room on the basement level. The desk is tucked around a corner so there’s not a direct line of sight to upstairs (he can’t see what the smalls are doing, they can’t see and bother him) and it muffles the sound a bit. That works really well and allows him to get work done with varying levels of family interaction as needed.

The Tank is…well, more of an issue. The main day he’s home during intense instruction is Friday, so I have to work hard to make sure he isn’t bothering Captain Science. I sometimes set him up with a movie or show on the opposite level of the house from where Cpt. Science is working. Sometimes I send him up to his room or down to the playroom for a while. When all else fails, he will happily sit at a table with markers and color on paper, himself, or the table. He’s easy to keep busy for short periods of time, but he likes something never every 15-30 minutes. Luckily, he really wants to start homeschooling with us, so I am going to begin phasing in some “table lernin” (his word for work done at a desk/table) for him to do on Fridays, which will give me another way to keep him occupied.

Our big challenge will be next year, when Tank isn’t re-enrolled in preschool and is preschooling at home. I’ll probably have to rotate their work (and play) stations around several times each day to keep Tank interested and out of Captain Science’s hair. I’ll try answering this question again next year and see what I’ve learned!

That’s how the [Smrt] Homeschooler entertains her smalls!

Do you have a question for the [Smrt] Homeschooler? Email them to
smrtmama@smrtlernins.com

Captain Science is spending the night with Nana, which elicited much weeping and wailing from the Tank, who would only be pacified by the promise of making cupcakes after dinner. Since I didn’t feel like making frosting, we made Sugar Cookie Cupcakes (a Smrt Mama original!).

He had the Very Important Job of putting on the sprinkles just before baking. He also licked the spatula, which was helpful of him.

How did they turn out?

The Tank approves

The final product

You know you want a piece of these bad boys

Want to try them at home? They’re easy to make, taste just like sugar cookies, and (if you’re on Weight Watchers) 3 points a piece, since the following recipe makes 24 cupcakes. They’re thinner and more dense than the average cupcake, but fluffier than a sugar cookie — perfect way to satisfy the craving for both!

Sugar Cookie Cupcakes

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• Decorative colored sugar or sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 convection). Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add butter, milk, and vanilla. Beat for 1 minute on medium speed. Scrape side of bowl with a spatula.

Add eggs to the mixture. Beat for 1 minute on medium speed. Scrape bowl again. Beat on high speed for 1 minute 30 seconds until well mixed.

Spoon cupcake batter into paper liners until roughly 1/2 full.

Sprinkle with colored sugar or sprinkles if you don’t plan to frost.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 5 minutes in pans then remove and place on wire racks to cool completely.

Captain Science had a great week. Thank goodness, because I was fixin’ to put him out in the yard in a box labeled “free kittens (large).”

He finally, finally passed the Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents bridge to chapter 20 (we won’t even talk about how many tries that took) and then zoomed through chapters 20-24. Even though chapter 24’s work was as long as a bridge and over new concepts, he finished it quickly and completely correct!

Caesar’s English I is also going swimmingly. After finishing the second chapter last week, Captain Science reviewed the materials and then took the cumulative quiz over the materials . 100% — surprising, as he took it in a noisy coffee shop while I was attending a baby-wearing meeting. He’s such a little peach sometimes that it makes those bad weeks much more bearable.

He has also officially completed Grammar Town, though I have to say, bless his heart, we’re having to go back and do review over a few concepts. He missed 10 of the 25 questions of the post-test, due mainly to zooming through without paying attention. He can identify all the relevant parts of speech, phrases, etc. in a sentence, write an example sentence using the required sentences parts, but totally bombed the multiple choice?   Yeah, I’m going to call that an effort issue, not a retention issue. It was hard to keep him focused through his work on Practice Town today, as it has started snowing to beat the band, a rare treat in Georgia. We went through a little review of direct object vs. indirect object vs. subject complement, then he broke down a few example sentences for me (all correct), before I booted him out into the snow, where he is currently leaving giant footprints all over the formerly pristine snowy driveway.

Our mini-co-op is going swimmingly. We added new students to Daddyman’s game class this week and two of the new students (some of my favorites from my writing class last semester) stayed to do Patchfire’s class on the brain and my writing class. We now have an age spread from 9-12 (maybe almost 13?) and an additional girl, which is nice for balance. They came up with their board game ideas, looked at slides of the brain online, and worked on the main conflict from their stories. The dynamic is just perfect now, as the oldest student is genuinely admired and respected by the younger kids, which lets him act as a leader and keep them on track. Love these kids, seriously. Such a wonderful group, every single one of them, from our morning gamers to our afternoon writers.

Science in general is moving in a fun direction. Captain Science’s Thames and Kosmos Physics Workshop came, so he and EG spent Thursday building various machines to test force and weight. Patchfire et al. have prior commitments on Tues/Thurs of next week, so I’ll be managing the brain class and having Cpt. Science catch up on a couple of experiments from the phsyics kit next week — something to do with dropping potatoes and making a sail car? Or maybe sailing a potato car?

The Tank surprised me this week with his ability to write his name, which isn’t exactly short or easy (and we’ve had some arguments over the inclusion of the letter “v” on a few occasions). He wrote it on 10 valentines for his classmates and teachers, with no help and only one or two gentle reminders that his name doesn’t start with “O.” He missed class on Wednesday due to a mild fever the night before (24 hour fever policy? — homeschool doesn’t have that), and when I walked him in, all the little boys in his completely-male (by lack of girl enrollment, not by sex-segregating design) class were sitting at their desks with giant globs of pink play-dough (made by yours truly) and hollered, “You’re here!” His teacher also gave him a huge hug and said, “I’m so glad you made it today!” Queue moderate guilt over not re-enrolling.

Babypie’s newest skill this week is incessant chattering. She talks almost constantly in nonsensical syllables that perfectly mimic the tone and form of our speech.

I stayed busy with both a La Leche League meeting and a baby-wearing social, plus the co-op and science at Patchfire’s. I’ve been under the weather and am dragging, so I’m amazed our week has been this productive. I just want to drink coffee and snuggle under a blanket all day, but that’s not a good way to get homeschooling accomplished, sadly.

It’s currently snowing all fluffy and Yankee-like out there, so I’m going to take some pictures and document this magnificent snowfall. I’m sure I’ve forgotten stuff from the week, but such is the nature of things.

Lacking an adequate amount of naturally-occurring snow, Atlantans must make do with the manufactured snow at Snow Mountain at Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is the largest single piece of exposed granite in the world and has this carved on it:

Officer Daddyman (my Midwestern transplant) is unimpressed by the manufactured snow. Patchfire says he looks Canadian in this picture, but really, he looks Toledo-an.

Babypie thought Snow Mountain was the very worst thing ever in her entire life, and she cried all day long.

The Tank worked tirelessly, building snowman after snowman.

Where’s Captain Science?

Smrt Mama and Babypie take a snack break (but only for Babypie).

Back to building a snow fort. Captain Science is super-fierce.

I’m not sure the Tank knew what was coming.