The Adventures Keep A'comin'!

Our latest family adventure ends (or begins) with a super great blessing! Introducing Marcus Zebedee Thorne. Born 11.16.13 @ 12:20am, 7 lbs 8 oz, 19.5 inches. Wr are blessed!

Geocaching

We joined our homeschool on a geocaching expedition! Hiking through the forest preserve searching for “treasure" using GPS and coordinates. We had a great time and found some cool stuff! That rain couldn't stop us!!

Anatomy

This year, Mayah and I have really connected with some great families who also homeschool. It's made all the difference! We are enjoying our weekly visit to the Beverly/Morgan Park Homeschool Coop and Gym Group where Naomi and I play in the nursery and Mayah gets classroom experiences in science, literature, art, gym and a variety of specialty classes.

Here is a picture of her final project in the anatomy class. She was able to talk me through all of the parts and explain their functions very well!

Another Attempt

I think about this blog often. In fact, I put it on my To-Do List every week. But the technological issues ravaging my home make posting very time consuming.

Tonight I'm trying something new... the Blogger App. Since my phone seems to be the best computer in the house I figured I'd try posting this way. If it works we can post quickly and easily - and consequently more often!

Here's hoping!

Let's start with a pic of my sweet little engine that could. She loves books, rice and her big sissie!

Just a Little Note

This year, I'm incorporating a theme each week (or so). The themes will be based on a Bible verse and the Bible verses will go in alphabetical order. (At least that's the plan!) So just to catch you up:

Week 1:
     Theme: Faithfulness
     Verse: A faithful man will be richly blessed but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished. Prov 28:20

Week 2:
     Theme: Kindness
     Verse: Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Eph 4:32

Week 3:
     Theme: Purity
     Verse: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Ps 51:10

Week 4: (This week)
     Theme: Prayer / Peace
     Verse: Do not anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Also, some themes and verses may last for more than one week depending on how much we get done. Go easy on us. We're flexible!  :)  Love to all!

The First Few Weeks

It is my intention to blog every week. I'm excited that our homeschool routine is steadily solidifying and I'm sure I will be able to accomplish a weekly blog soon. Meanwhile, as I build up to a regularly scheduled program, I'll have to steal time whenever I can get it. So here are some pictures from our first few weeks of homeschooling to give you an idea of what we've been up to!

Our first week we had a guest! Charles Sergeant was happy to join us and we learned a lot about air pressure, flying and letters! (Charles is in Kindergarten this year.)

 

One of the projects we did in our first week was about air pressure. We learned about how birds fly. By blowing air across this straw, we were able to make the air pressure in the cup higher than the air pressure on top of the straw and guess what happened? The water came flying out and we got wet!! And that's how birds are able to fly!

 Caught my little on "reading"!  :)

Our theme for week 2 was Kindness. Mayah found all of the letters in our scavenger hunt!

Music Lessons during week 3! We're gonna play that piano somehow!!  :)

The following pictures were taken at the Brookfield Zoo.  Whenever TiTi Phia comes to Chicago, we have to do a cool outing for homeschool. Last semester it was the nature museum. This year we got to see all kinds of animals and paint our faces! We had so much fun!!

See you next time at Our Great Adventure Homeschool!! 

New Year, New Us!

Well, it looks like last year's attempt at this blog died during my first trimester. Hmm...

Let's see if we can't revive our homeschool blog with the start of a new school year. 3rd grade here we come!

 

And a little preschool, too!

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Well, we're at the end of week 4 of homeschooling and has it been an adventure! We are settling into a routine most days, but Mommy has made some interesting discoveries. Like the importance of recess! Whew!  

While we make all these adjustments and discoveries, we're doing a lot of learning, too!  Fun stuff - like "Jewelry Art with Aunt Sophia" and a cool, colorful science project - has made our school the place to be in the midst of it all! Check it out...

 Collage #1: The Nature Museum 02.06.2013

 Collage #2: "Jewelry Art w/ Aunt Sophia"

The Invisible Push & Pull Science Project

Milk, Food Coloring, Dish Detergent, Q-Tip

Did you know that chemicals that you can't see can actually push and pull things?

Even though there wasn't enough snow for a snowman, we found enough to make a snowdog!  Don't laugh at our nose!!  (OK, maybe just a little!)  :-D

Getting Settled

I can't promise that I will be writing on this blog everyday, but...

I used to be a bit intimidated by the idea of homeschooling.  I thought I'd have to have a strict schedule with outrageous details and be super disciplined.  In fact, I'm sure that's why more people don't do it.  But as Mayah and I get settled into our new routine, I've learned a few things that have helped me:

1. She gets stuff way more quickly!  Yeah, I've taught and volunteered in enough classrooms to know that half of the time is spent keeping distractions down and kids in their seats.  With one-on-one attention, I'm finding that Mayah has far fewer distractions and can therefore "get it" way quicker.  This is cool because school is so much shorter and we have lots of time to do fun stuff, chores or other ideas that we come up with (like look up the recipe for "Hasty Pudding" from The Little House in the Big Woods that we're reading together.  We're going to make it tomorrow!).  

2. Homeschool does not have to look like traditional school.  The clock is not the boss.  If Mayah doesn't get something, we can stop, take a break and go back to it.  Or we can spend a little extra time on it if we need to.  If she really likes something, we don't have to stop to keep a schedule.  We can embrace it and ride out her energy.  I just love that her learning style is the boss - no pressure. 

3. Learning is taking place all the time.  Fractions while cooking.  Temperature while dressing.  Division while sharing.  I don't have to restrict Mayah's learning to a lesson plan. I'm so intimately involved with her learning that I can expand it to almost anything we are doing.  And I love that!

Well, that's all for now.  I'm attaching a writing piece that Mayah completed on her favorite toy.  I'm a proud mama!

Nichole

Welcome to Thorne Homeschool

OK!  It's January 2013 and we are starting a whole new adventure.  Homeschooling!!  This blog has a few different purposes:
1. To help us (the homeschoolers) see and remember our journey
2. To help family and friends (many of whom have started asking Mayah "what did you learn today?") know a little more about homeschooling and what we do
3. To have some fun taking pictures and posting them
4. To get Mayah acquainted with the computer a little more and practice typing / writing
5. To add one more thing to Mommy's 'to do' list. (She's always adding something!)

For our first blog picture, I'll post Mayah in our "Pajama Day Cooking Class".  Happy blogging!