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Category Archives: Homeschool

teach them

I delight in teaching my kids. This doesn’t mean it is easy or all roses all the time. But watching them learn and grasp new concepts is just… Pure joy.

One of Lil Bit’s masterpieces.
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Field Trip

Way back on May 6th we went on our first official home-school field-trip here in Alaska,to the Anchorage zoo! The trip was organized by our home-school group IDEA and was focused on Alaska’s nocturnal animals. We got a  behind-the-scenes look at several of the zoo’s exhibits and a good show by the brown bears!

Wolves

Wolves

Brown bears. The zoo has one Kodiak, one Grizzly and one "brown bear". Although they are all officially "brown bears".

Brown bears. The zoo has one Kodiak, one Grizzly and one “brown bear”. Although they are all officially “brown bears”.

The younger male decided that just lying around was boring, so he got up, sauntered over to the female (who was laying on this log) and bit her right on her rump. To which she responded by getting up and giving him a good show of teeth and growls. The larger male Kodiak came over to see what the ruckus was and they all swayed around for a bit before the young male plopped down on the aforementioned log. It seems that all he really wanted was this wooden pillow. The kids were all rolling with laughter, as if the show was choreographed especially for us! Thing 2 was especially enthralled as the brown bears were his favorite!

Learning time!

Learning time!

The kids learned a great deal about the habitats and habits of nocturnal animals. They even got to participate in making a treat for the red fox! They made a huge tub full of straw and little goodies for the fox to dig around in and enjoy, called “enrichment”, and included things such as quail wings, fur, spices and feathers. They also made little treat balls for her to eat, these were quite messy and much to Thing 1’s dismay, smelled horribly bad, she had to wear gloves in order to participate. 😉 Besides this minor set-back, her favorite part of the zoo trip was seeing the pretty foxes and her most favorite, the snow leopards.

Mr. Pickles, he was quite a ham.

Mr. Pickles, he was quite a ham.

The biologist who gave the lecture brought in Mr. Pickles for the grand finale`. He is a young porcupine and all he wanted to do it seemed was to climb out of his enclosure and get to the kids sitting around, he wanted to play. We all had a good laugh over his antics! Mr. Pickles won the heart of Little Bit, she giggled so much over his antics! Her version of “porky-pine” is too cute!

Fun at the Alaska Zoo!

Fun at the Alaska Zoo!

The weather was a bit dreary, some scattered showers and cooler than we expected, but we still managed to have some fun. After-all, this is Alaska!

The best part for Mom was the fun of getting to know new friends and getting to go shopping at Costco after the zoo! Ha!

Learning is Fun, actually hilarious!

The older two kids are learning American Sign Language, ASL, for their foreign language in our home-school program, and have been doing quite well. While they are at it, the youngest tries her best to learn it as well. She now has her spoken ABC’s down, but is still working on the signing part…

 

  • Did you know that ASL is officially recognized as a foreign language?
  • ASL is the fourth most spoken language used in the United States.
  • The roots of ASL can be traced back to 18th century France.
  • Each nation has their own version of sign language, such as German Sign Language, and they are not the same.
  • There are other forms of sign language such as Pigeon and SEE (Signed Exact English).

For more information on American Sign Language, visit here.

 

 

 

Nothing better than the smell of….

First batch of bread.

First batch of bread.

Thing 1 wanted to make some bread. So she did… lots of it.

Fresh out of the oven, butter melted over the top, and honey drizzled over… oh yeah, it smells wonderful!

We’ll have challah bread all week…

Pan #2

Pan #2

Pan #3

Pan #3

Still more to go into the oven…

Ready to bake

Final 3 ready to bake

She’s quite the little bread baker.

The whole batch, 1 braid and 16 knots.

The whole batch, 1 braid and 16 knots.

Baking incorporates math, science, reading & comprehension and sometimes geography and/or social studies (depending on the type of baked goods and what we are studying at the time). This bread is challah and incorporates social studies (culture and religion) as well as math and science.

Challah is a loaf of yeast-risen egg bread that is traditionally eaten by Jews on Shabbat, on ceremonial occasions and during festival holidays. 

Baking is an interactive lesson for both the baker and the other students who get to enjoy (eat) the lesson!

Shabbat shalom!

Alaska Facts

A photograph of Mount McKinley from the Stony ...

A photograph of Mount McKinley from the Stony Dome lookout point in Denali National Park.     (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

State Tree: Sitka Spruce

Fish: King Salmon

Gem: Jade

Mineral: Gold

Bird: Willow Ptarmigan

Flower: Forget-Me-Not

Motto: North to the Future

Alaska was admitted to the union on
January 3, 1959.

Land Area: 586,412 square miles,
equivalent to 1/5 the size of the continental United States (AKA:
lower 48 or “outside”) and is way bigger than Texas.

Highest peak in North America: Mount McKinley (AKA: Denali) 20,320
feet in elevation.
Kenai, where we live, is one of the oldest
permanent settlements in Alaska, dating back to 1792. You can find
jade on the beaches along with agate and jasper, and some say the
occasional piece of gold. We have significant Russian and Native
cultural influences here in our local area.

Routines

 

 

The experts say it takes two weeks (or is it three) to develop a new routine or habit. We’re working on our third week here and thankfully we’ve started to develop some new routines.

 

The big one would be bedtime of course.

 

Going to bed when it’s still broad daylight outside is a challenge to anyone, especially to children. Thanks to blinds and a dark curtain, we have finally gotten into the swing of going to bed by 9 pm. The little ones are headed to bed at 8:30 and Thing 1 gets to read for a while before bedtime. But lights out at 9!
Mom is doing good too in that regard. Still a night owl, but not the 2 am sort anymore. I’m rarely up past midnight, and when I am, it’s usually because I had to work or we were doing something outdoors that kept us out late. I’m up early too most days. A real change for me to say the least!

 

Another great routine is tidying up the place. Our apartment is definitely not cluttered (we don’t have too much stuff yet) and we like it that way. The kids have several toys and are learning to keep them picked up when not playing with them. Thing 1 has a tote full of craft supplies that our neighbor gave her that she also likes to get out and string all over the place. As long as she picks up after herself and puts everything away, we are good!

 

The dishes are put away and dirties loaded into the washer, rarely do we have a sink full of dirty dishes! It’s an awesome feeling! Plus my counter-tops are clear! And for any of you close enough to me to know that this is a big issue for me! 🙂

 

The next routine is that of getting used to the new job then come fall, incorporating our homeschooling into this schedule. Working odd shifts that change daily is going to be a challenge, but thankfully we have some good people helping provide us with childcare! I’m very thankful for that! It’s hard enough to find folks to care for your kids when you’ve lived somewhere for years, let alone a few weeks! I am truly blessed that YHVH has brought us several good people to help fill this need!

 

Life is Learning

 

 

Our approach to homeschooling is that every day, there is something to learn, whether you think you’re at “school” or not.

 

Life is learning.

 

Live and learn, a motto that is my reality!

 

Especially here! And believe me, you learn quickly here!

 

We have seen and done so many new things in our short time here than we’ve done in months, or years even, before moving here it seems

 

Going to the beach, the learning opportunities are boundless. From the tides and how the moon effects them, to the sea and the water content. The rooks and sand are so interesting, most of it being glacial in origin, you just never know what you’ll find. (BTW, to my homeschooling friends back in the lower 48 if you’d like to have a sample of beach sand and rock, just ask and we’ll send you some!) The strata visible on the sloughing bluff. The sandy silty composition of the soil… The mountains, complete with active volcanoes. Plate tectonics. Geology, History, Physics, Biology, our reality!

 

And that’s just the beginning! Then there’s bear, moose, wolves, and salmon and their interesting life cycles, the different varieties of salmon, all of which is hands on learning when you can see them, touch their tracks or cast them, (like the bear, moose and wolves), or in the case of moose and salmon, eat them! 😉 The kind of learning that we like, hands on, living it out. Being part of our lessons, not simply just listening to a lecture or reading about it in a book, which have their place, but really being a part of learning.