Crystals Stick Together

As the Easter holiday came around, I saw a lot of suggestions for egg crafts and activities. I was intrigued by one in particular, how to make your own geode in an egg shell. There were a few websites out there, and many of them pointed to Martha Stewart's Crystal Egg Geodes. I wanted to try it, mostly just for the fun of it, and besides, they are so pretty!

A few months ago, a few kids from our homeschooling community participated in a Science Fair. One of the kids did her study on crystals and we happen to be friends with her family. So, I called her mom up and asked if they'd like to make these geodes with us and would her daughter feel comfortable sharing her science fair display and knowledge with us again? She answered, "Yes!"

Her oldest daughter brought her display to our home. She then explained to us about what she learned while studying crystals. How they form. The different kinds. Where to find them.

After learning about crystals, we all got to make our own in the egg shells I had prepared the night before. A few days later, we were able to hold the beautifully colored crystals the kids had made.

Coincidences and Their Infinite Possibilities

When you live your life with an appreciation of coincidences and their meanings, you connect with the underlying field of infinite possibilities.- Deepak Chopra

I am continually surprised by the coincidences we experience as we venture along our new educational path. Serendipity, kismet, luck, coincidence. Whatever you want to call it. Certain opportunities didn't present themselves to me before, or I wasn't able to see them. Now that my eyes are open and I am looking, I see opportunity everywhere.

My daughter loves chocolate, science and hands on creating. So a perfect gift, from her grandparents, was this Make Your Own Chocolate Kit. At the end of a unit, my daughter asked if we could do a unit on chocolate next and finish the unit by making the chocolate from the kit. I had loose plans for our next unit, so was able to think about it and say, "Yes!" The next day, we went to the library and gathered tons of books. We were ready to learn all about the history of chocolate, making of chocolate, farming of the cacao tree, fair trade laws and more.

The day we began our new new unit, I received an email from the homeschooling group we joined. The author of the email stated they were putting together a tour of a local chocolate factory and asked if anyone was interested in joining them. Serendipity, kismet, luck, coincidence! We replied at once before spaces filled up.

Thanks to the homeschooling group and the parent who organized the tour, we were able to see something so cool right here in our own town. What a fantastic addition to our unit on chocolate! From the library, we learned a lot about the bean, from plant to factory and the process the bean goes through until it is chocolate. I incorrectly assumed the tour would be more on this, reinforcing what we learned. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this factory melted chocolate and formed it into shapes, bars, pretzel clusters and more. Most of this work, they do by hand! So, we got to see, in person, what happens to chocolate after it's created, a great extension to what we had already learned.

I'm still amazed that this tour popped up right after we decided to study chocolate. But, as I said, I am finding more coincidences like this one. We saw cool skeletons at a local farm museum right after we completed a unit on the skeleton. The children's museum has an exhibit on the planets, and our first unit was the solar system. The list goes on. While these coincidences may have existed before, I didn't see them before. Maybe it helps knowing the kids' curriculums first hand, maybe it's that we have more free time to explore opportunities that present themselves, or maybe it's just my willingness to go out and "do it". Serendipity, kismet, luck, and coincidence are everywhere and I feel lucky to be able to take advantage of them!

Journey North

I had read about Journey North's Mystery Class, Tracking Sunlight to Solve a Mystery but didn't think I would try it. But then my sister-in-law said she was going to do it, so I thought, with her as a support system, I would give it a go.

Turns out, this project was bigger than I anticipated. There is a lot of charting to do and I was anal about it. Therefore, I did a lot of the charting. While the kids were able to look up the information to report, and get started, I really wanted the charts to be "exact", so I ended up finishing up the shading of the charts. I guess, if you had a large class and could divide the kids into groups, and each group was in charge of one chart, then the work doesn't seem to daunting. But for two kids and one adult, it was a lot of work. There were a lot of sighs and grumbles when I'd get the charts out.

However, in the end, the charts were beautiful and really did show the kids a clear visual of what the sunlight was doing in different parts of the world, which I thought was worth all our hard work. Next year, perhaps we'll do fewer weeks, try it digitally in a spreadsheet, try glue and strips of paper, or figure out another way to do this so it's not so much precise coloring!


As we were reading the city clues and seeing if we could figure out what the 10 mystery cities were, we found ourselves glued to our globe. This was great in helping me incorporate geography and cultural studies without me having to do a lot of the research or planning. It just happened as we explored the globe or ran to the internet to see what else we might be able to find that would fit the clues

Some of the cities were very tricky and took a lot of time to figure out. Others were more easily discovered. In the end, I felt a bit of disappointment as we didn't correctly guess all 10 cities. Old feelings of school and failure came back to me. Wanting to do well and be the best. Yet feeling conflict, as this is not my area of interest and I did not want to spend any more time to get an accurate answer. After a few weeks, I went back to look and we actually got more right than I originally thought. For example, on one, we named the region instead of the city name, so, as the teacher, I granted our team a few points for that!

For me, this project was a challenge. Geography is not my strongest subject, so it was a stretch for me to display energy throughout the whole process. However, I do think it was worth it. The graphing of sunlight visually showed what they learned about the earth's rotation, tilt, etc. from studying the solar system earlier in the year. I love how the two different units tied into each other. And again, I love that we were able to huddle around the globe each week.

ABC: Always Be Comparing - Part II: Parents

Comparing kids has been a part of my life from the time I've had my two children. Scratch that, since I got pregnant, comparing kids, or pregnancies, began.

"How much weight have you gained?"

"How long was your labor?"

"When did your daughter walk?"

"What percentile is your child's height?"

"Will you sign up for soccer?"

And the questions go on. They are mostly innocuous curiosities and most people are genuinely interested. But with some, it feels like a competition and I find myself feeling defensive or apologetic with my answers.

"The right amount of weight according to the doctor. Although 10 lbs more than you."

"Short, and not as eventful as yours."

"At the normal time. I hear yours was running a month earlier."

"I know he looks tall, but he's in the middle percentile."

"No, my child isn't interested."

As we entered school life, I felt more pressure. Other parents seemed to be signing their kids up for so many extra curricular activities like piano, ballet, and baseball. I never felt great answering, "Nothing." when someone asked what extra curricular activities my kids did. I felt embarrassed, or the need to explain why they didn't want to do anything.

So, I was hoping this would all go away when we started schooling at home. A lot of that did. I was right in some way. We were now part of a new community that, for various reasons, have chosen to take control of their kids' education. We share a secret, homeschooling is wonderful for so many reasons. When I talk to other parents who homeschool, I feel a camaraderie I didn't feel with parents in public school. I feel we are more peer-like as we share experiences and help one another get to where we want to be.

I don't know how to explain it, but it feels different to me when someone asks about our day and what we like to do. I feel their curiosity and wanting to get to know us more strongly than a desire to competing with us. Perhaps I'm more confident in where we are that I am more open to these inqueries. Or perhaps the competition to have a "super kid" that can do it all is truly gone? Maybe there is a general feeling of, "we are of like minds, let's stick together and support one another." Whatever the reason, I'm more at ease when talking to other homeschooling parents these days.

However, while I no longer feel as if I'm competing with the super, soccer mom, I still compare myself to other homeschooling moms. I see others teaching their kids Latin, Mandarin, grammar, history, science, and more. I wonder how they do it all. I want to do it all. I can't do it all. I find myself jealous that other moms seem to have a better grasp on their scheduling. On what curriculums they like. On goals they have set for their kids or themselves.

I try to forgive myself for any inadequacies I have. This year is my first year at homeschooling. I know most other parents took a year or two to figure it out and are perhaps still figuring it out as their children grow. I remind myself that all parents homeschool until age five, so why do we think we can no longer do it past age five? I do believe this. I also believe that the state and staff of the public school system cannot do it all. They decide what subset of "everything" the kids should learn and then they teach it.

I believe I am capable of learning what I need to do to help my kids become educated. I know that there are a lot of resources out there to help when the kids become smarter than me. Yet, at times, I feel inferior when all I can think is what I'm NOT offering my children. I am trying to focus on what I AM offering them and feeling confident that it's more than enough.

And so, I continue to compare myself to other parents, for better or for worse.

ABC: Always Be Comparing - Part I: Kids

I'm coming (it's hard for me to say this, I still can't say it definitively) to the conclusion that I will always be comparing my children to other children, no matter what.

When I first started thinking of homeschooling, I dreamed how nice it could feel to not compare my kids to other kids so often. As I walked the halls of the school, I would see the wonderful work of all the kids. I admit, I was looking, mostly to see what my own children were doing and how their artwork, handwriting, sentence structure, use of colors (and the list goes on) compared to that of their peers. I would take note of where my kids excelled, where they needed help and where they landed somewhere in the middle. I would delight in the ares where they excelled and think how brilliant they were. I would wonder how I could help them improve when they fell in the middle. I would panic if I saw that they were lacking in any area. I thought all of these feelings would go away. But I was wrong.

When we first began, I wondered how they were doing. Are they doing more than what is expected of a child their age? Are they falling behind because I'm not doing enough? Is it too much for me to expect them to do so much on their own? Are they too young for a project I picked and I should be more "hands-on" when helping? I felt really lost, and to be honest, I still do.

Their education is in my hands now. I can no longer say,

"Let the teacher figure it out."

Or

"Let the state determine what my child should know and how capable they are."

While I wanted to tailor their education to each individual, a big part in our decision to homeschool in the first place, it is an awesome responsibility. I realize how much I've been relying on others to figure out what my child should know, when they should know it and how they should learn it. For a long time, I haven't had to think about it. I just enrolled my child when they were supposed to, packed their lunch and sent them on their way. Now that the curriculum is up to me to decide, I realize I do not feel confident to make all the decisions.

Without other children to compare to my children, how am I supposed to know if they are ahead, in line or behind? Does it matter? Why does it matter? Should it matter? If they are where they "can be", is that good enough? Do I need to push them to where they "could be"?

Now that we've joined a few homeschooling groups, academic and extra curricular, the comparisons are there. Whether imagined or real, I still feel it. I watch the other kids and see how mine stack up. In some ways it's very comforting to have this gauge. Whether I feel better because it's a familiar place I've been before or whether it gives good feed back as to how we're progressing in our own milestones, I still don't know. For the most part, I like that these comparisons keep me from panicking too much as I see other children excelling and struggling (maybe in some of the same or different areas) just as much my kids are.

The Bare Bones

I have been trying to figure out better ways to teach my two kids at the same time. They are three years apart. I'm constantly wondering if I'm teaching down to my younger child and not challenging my older one? I have read a lot about how you can teach them at the same time, but allow the older child to go into more depth. I haven't figured out how to do this without assigning more busy work for the older child. How does she learn more without having to do an additional book report, more online research, more reading, etc.?

My oldest was in public school for over 4 years. When I said we were going to learn about the skeleton, she heaved a heavy sigh, "Mom, I've studied that, like, three times already." I held my breath for a moment. What should I do? She may have learned about the body three times, but my son hasn't ever been exposed to muscles, the brain, the bones, etc. I am really trying to teach them at the same time  as much as I can. They tend to pay attention better, have more excitement for new subjects, and I don't have to spend twice as much time teaching two kids separately. It's been a win-win situation for us to learn together.

So, we foraged on, but I tried to make it more exciting and do experiments I didn't think my daughter had already done. We made a "rubber egg" in our kitchen. The kids were able to do this one with little supervision. This experiment lead to a discussion as to why it's important to have calcium in your diet!

Then we built a skeleton out of paper towel rolls, and other items. This art activity turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated. I wasn't able to give up the image I had in my mind (of the final product) and therefore, I did a lot of the work. The kids named the completed skeleton "Bob" and they have asked to keep him around for a while.

I hope, in the end, that my daughter learned something more this time around. Maybe, not just what the bones are called or where they are located, but also a little about science and nutrition. Either way, she seemed engaged the entire time which is a "win" in my book.