Homeschooling=independence

So, a month or so ago a friend of mine with younger children asked me about how we actually homeschool.  She wanted to know a little bit about curricula, but more about how I actually "teach".

Well, I rarely feel like I teach.  Yes, I choose workbooks and math curricula, and choose what subjects I think Hannah should study through the year (she loves geography, reading and math, and anything that involves games--in fact she's playing the Game of Life right now with Kate and working on counting BIG money).  But I don't spend that much time teaching.  It's more like coaching.  Or cooking.  A little bit of this and a little bit of that.  I lay out a healthy menu of academic options and we choose what "tastes" the best.   Our long term goal for our children is for them to be independent learners.  We don't want to fill them up with facts, but rather make sure they have the skills to learn what they need or want to know.

We describe our homeschool as "very relaxed".  We usually "do" formal sit-down-at-the-table for a couple/three hours a few times a week.  Hannah needs a bit more supervision with her work than her siblings did.  But that doesn't mean that I don't give her enough space and time to figure things out on her own.    When Kate was in college she had to give a "response paper" after a discussion in class.   Here's a bit of her take on education:

As I mentioned in class, I think education should be towards the goal of self-reliance and self-teaching. I think it is important that young adults are able to read instructions, directions, etc., and complete tasks independently, without having to have it explained to them. I feel that the public school system in this country falls short of that goal: every little nuance of a problem is explained, sometimes several times over, which leads children to believe that they require help to do something. In my family, no one is offered help with schoolwork, because, like the old saying “God helps those who help themselves,” if we did not try, we would not be assisted. Only after we had exhausted all other possible options (reading back in the textbook, trying a new way) would our parents show us what was wrong-- and it usually never came to that.

So, while I was chatting with my friend about "how" our family home schools, I received a text from Kate.   She was home with Hannah, who offered to teach Kate how to make Jello.

Hannah:  Kate, I can teach you how to make Jello.  It's really easy.

Kate: How do you make it?

Hannah:   Here.  Read the instructions.


Ha!  A perfect example of our school philosophy!

P.S.  We'll be easing in to 8th Grade some time next week.  Don't think that we're going to be doing 8th grade work...Hannah's skills range from 2nd-6th grade.  She's making progress, and that's all that matters to us.  She'll get where she needs to be when she's finished.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An aside for those who are curious about homeschooling:


Every state has their own compulsory school attendance laws.  Here in Virginia there are two paths of homeschooling.  The usual track requires submission of curricula and an end of year assessment (testing or evaluation by a certified teacher).  Homeschooled children are able to receive speech therapy from their neighborhood school if they need it.  In our county all homeschoolers are allowed to take up to three courses at their local public school if they so choose (geometry, choir, German, etc).  This is fairly unusual for Virginia.  It's a nice option for families who want to have a foot in the public school at the same time as they teach the bulk of the academics at home.  It's a pretty relaxed situation here in our town.

The road less taken is Religious Exemption (RE), which is what we do.  The "Religious" part doesn't necessarily mean just Judeo-Christian religions--there are pagan and Native American families who believe that the parents have the authority are to teach their children.  We are a Christian family, and we fall on the far religious left.  Using the Religious Exemption law we are not required to submit any information about our children.  We are not required to test our children or have any kind of evaluation.  By choosing the RE law we cannot receive any support services through the county school system.   That's fine with us.  We love the freedom we have with schooling under the RE law.  No testing, no deadlines, no interference.

If you have questions, email me  hannahshenanigans@gmail.com

Another creative meal...

This isn't exactly a Cookin' with Nan episode.

Buttered toast with sprinkles and mini-marshmallows.

I wonder where this breakfast falls in the nutrition pyramid...  

At least she's self-sufficient.

#24/31 Quick Cookin' with Nan

More like, slipshod Cookin' with Nan....

Monster Toast!!

Get your bread.  White is best for this kind of toast.

Then make colored milk.  I picked red, blue and green.

Swirl the color around in the milk.

Then use a paint brush (we have ones specifically designated for food) and make a funny or scary face on the un-toasted bread.

You can paint both sides of the bread if you want.

Pop the bread in the toaster.  Don't make it dark toast or you won't see the monster faces!

The monsters are coming out of the toaster!!

Butter them up!

 And become a monster slayer!

#15/31 Cooking with Nan V

A couple days ago we didn't have much in the house for breakfast, so Hannah wanted to make some muffins.  She decided on cheese muffins (I was lobbying for biscuits, much faster).

As I was cutting and pasting this video to share with you, I was noticing how many fine motor skills are necessary for cooking and baking.   It's been six or seven years since Hannah had any occupational therapy, and I have no idea where she'd fall on a scale of fine motor tasks.  I'm pretty sure she'd be down in the 4-5 year old range (don't try to get her to cut a circle = fail).  But it doesn't matter.  She can function well enough.  Her movements are good enough to get the job done.  I'm not after finesse.  I just want her to be able to accomplish what she wants to accomplish.

This is a bit longer than I wanted to post, but I did want you to be able to hear and see Hannah--her successes (love that salt measuring), and her challenges (flour!).

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Cheese Muffins


1 1/2 cups flour


1 1/2 T sugar


1 T baking powder


1/2 t. salt


3 cups shredded Colby and/or Jack cheese 
(we used cheddar, but jack is much better) 


1 C. milk


1 egg


1/4 C. melted butter


Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Stir in grated cheese.


In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients; whisk well 
(I forgot that part, but it worked out fine--especially if the milk is room temperature--then the butter will stay melted)


Stir the liquid into the dry ingredients.


Measure into a WELL-GREASED muffin tin.
Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes.
(These muffins like to stick to the pan, so grease liberally.)

Cooking with Nan IV

Here's Chef Hannah, making her first ever meatballs!  

She is a "pastatarian", so good meatballs are a nice accessory for her vermicelli.   Unfortunately, when my computer died, I lost my favorite meatball recipe, so this new recipe was an experiment.    I'm not going to post the recipe because:

1.  It's downstairs and I am not.
2.  It's an okay recipe, but not the best.
3.  I'm leaving for Jordan in less than 2 hours and I probably should streamline this post!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'm doubtful that I'll be able to post anything while I'm away, so not to worry if I'm radio-silent for the next couple of weeks!  I'm sure I'll have stories to tell when I return!

Those are Tasty

*Forgive the screwy color, fonts and formatting. Sometimes Blogger is such a pain. **

Hannah loves to read cookbooks. Especially children's cookbooks (thank you, public library!).

She will read through an entire 200 page cookbook, remarking "Those are tasty" for each recipe, even when it isn't appropriate.

Like this:

H: Ooh, look at this! How to make Butter! Those are tasty!

or

H: Cinnamon Applesauce! Yum, those are tasty!

The phrase is soooo overused that we have moved past being irritated. We are forever resigned to having those tasty things. We all frequently use the phrase improperly. Dress shopping? Those are Tasty. Time to fuel up the car? Those are Tasty. A cute dog in a passing pick-up truck? Those are Tasty.

So here's today's Those Are Tasty. Perfect for a snowy day.

Usually we make letter pretzels, but it's getting close to Valentine's Day. Nan did half of these, and I did the rest (this is pan #1... pan #2 wasn't quite so crowded!).

Here's the recipe, found ages ago from some website.

Those are Tasty Pretzels

A. Dough

1.5 cups warm water

1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

2 Tbl brown sugar

1 1/4 tsp salt

4 cups white flour (if you have bread flour, use 1 cup, and 3 all purpose)

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water

2. Stir in sugar and salt. Add in flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. (Don't put in all the flour--save out 1/2 cup or so, and add in as necessary to keep it from being too sticky.)

3. Let rise 30 minutes (or more)


B. Create a soda water bath for the dough

Combine:
2 cups warm water
2 Tbl baking soda

When dough has risen, cut in half (wrap one half to keep moist). Pinch or cut off a chunk of dough and roll into a long rope (1/2 inch or less) and shape.

Dip pretzels into soda solution and place on greased baking sheet.

Allow to rise again (not too long--usually they are ready by the time I've filled the cookie sheet).

Bake at 450 for 8-10 minutes or until golden.

Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt.
(Alternately, you could dip the pretzel into melted butter on both sides and then dip into cinnamon sugar. We never do this.)

NOTE: These are best warm out of the oven. If they cool off, just zap them for 10 seconds or so. They need to be eaten quickly or they taste dead. The salt will melt away within 24 hours. So share with neighbors and friends right away. (We gave half of these to our next door neighbors that we don't like. Dang we're nice.)

Cookin' with Nan III

We've had a few technical difficulties, but the show must go on!

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These melt in your mouth.

Quick Sugar Cookies

350 degrees ~4 dozen cookies

1/2 C. butter

1/2 C. sugar

1 egg

1/2 C. veg. oil

1/2 C. powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 C. flour

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy; add the rest of the ingredients. Mix until well blended.

Keeping drops small, drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Butter the bottom of a glass, then dip it in sugar. Press cookies slightly with glass.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Watch carefully and remove when edges just start to turn light brown.

Cool on wire rack. These are somewhat delicate, so Hannah recommends immediately eating as many of them as possible.

Back to School....boy that was hard.

Yep. Holidays are over. My parents left on Sunday. I eked out another day of lounging on Monday. But today I had no excuses. Chris is out for the day, observing urology surgeries (what could be more fun??), and James is back at work.

So, my slacking days are over for a while...

Today we started back with homeschooling. I was REALLY resisting getting back to the books. So I made cheese biscuits. And waited for the Cable Guy. And when he didn't show up, I decided that we'd better just jump into school.

It was a really good day! It might not seem like it, since I'm about to complain a bunch, but other than those irritating small things, we got a lot accomplished!

Hannah knocked out her Numicon work right away. She's working on counting by 2's (I know, I'm way behind in teaching her stuff like that). I dumped out a bunch of small polished rocks for her to count. Of course, she immediately started making stories about a few of them. I couldn't deny that one looked just like a bike seat.

But away she went, counting up into the 30s by 2s. She is still chugging away and solidifying her addition and subtraction. We did discover (she did), that: 1+1+2+2+3+3+4+4+5+5+6+6+7+7+8+8+9+9+10=100.

Then she checked it with the calculator.

Calculators are a pain. I know that some are better than others, but I haven't gotten around to getting an appropriate one for Hannah to use. The one that we used today has large enough buttons for her, but when you enter 1+1+ (getting ready to enter "2"), the display screen gives you the running total, which is "2", which makes it confusing if you're not sure that you actually keyed in "2" or not. Another issue with most calculators is that if you're already familiar with using a phone, the numbers are in opposite positions. Phones start with the "1" at the top left. Calculators (and numerical computer keyboards) have a "7" at the top left. Who thinks about these things? Nobody unless you've got a kid who is a concrete learner.

Don't get me started on American coins. Could we possibly make them more confusing? Besides the usual complete size nonsense of dimes and nickels, now they have added a multitude of varieties of quarters and several differing nickels. Drives me crazy.

* 4 hours later--addendum: I just remembered another bit of coin minutiae that confuses Hannah is that pennies come in a variety of colors. Old ones are dark, sometimes nearly black, while new ones are sort of pink. At least the silver colored coins don't tarnish! *

Moving on...Hannah did many many pages of her Thinking Skills book. She's been doing a good job with her spatial abilities (as most kids with Ds do). She also wrote a very nice Thank You letter to her grandparents in Montana. (And reviewed the map of the USA.) Deciphering cursive writing was next on the agenda. I can see why it's hard. I don't know anyone who writes cursive like this:

Look at that example of cursive "bubble". I thought she did an excellent job of deciphering it. To me it looks like "l r i b b l e". Doesn't it look like it's an "r"?? Compare it to the "r" in "river above it. Of course they look exactly alike. Even after I wrote it out myself Hannah had trouble with it. I've never had a complaint with Handwriting Without Tears before, but I think the lower case "b" should be closer to the stem. Fortunately, Hannah won't have to read much cursive written by Jan Olsen. Unless I have to teach her using the HWOT cursive technique....

I'm not in any hurry to start her with cursive. Besides, she really has to know more spelling words to make cursive helpful. If you have to double check and sound out every word, two or three letters at a time, being able to write faster isn't going to really have any beneficial effect. Her spelling is coming along, but it's still really quite challenging for her. I don't allow her to use invented spelling (which I did with my other kids) because I don't let her practice things incorrectly. She is such a visual learner that if she sees something that is spelled incorrectly it's highly likely that she'll continue to use the incorrect spelling.

We were getting hungry for lunch. Guess what? Hannah requested Macaroni and Cheese. I know that's hard for you to believe, what with Hannah being a pastatarian and all. I, personally did not want to make another box of Annie's organic shells and cheese. Of course, after having cheese biscuits this morning, we needed more cheese for lunch too. So we decided to make REAL macaroni and cheese, a la Martha. We didn't have a full "Cooking with Nan" episode, but just a few short outtakes. (There is a real one in the works though!)

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We finished up the school day with piano practice, and now it's almost time to get ready to go swim at the gym. Brrr. I think I might have to hang out in the hot tub.

Cookin' with Nan II

Next up on the menu, Hannah's favorite lunch: A Wrap

She was in charge of the show today...

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Cookin' with Nan

Here's our first installment of "Cooking with Nan"!

A couple of notes:

1. You will hear me give verbal directions throughout the cooking lesson. I always try to give verbal directions first, for any task. This works on Hannah's auditory processing, which is slower than her visual processing. If I physically show her how to do something, it's much easier for her. I want her to attend to what I'm saying, interpret it, and execute it.

2. No children or dogs were harmed during the making of this video.

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Key Lime Pie Recipe:

1 baked Cookie Crumb Crust:

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

3 T. sugar

6 T. melted unsalted butter

Toss ingredients together, pat into pie plate.

Bake at 375F for 8 minutes.

Filling:

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup + 2 T. fresh lime juice (regular

2 large eggs

2 T. grated lime zest

Dash of salt

Topping:

8 oz sour cream

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk filling ingredients together, pour into baked crust. Bake until it begins to set ~10 minutes.

Remove pie. Increase oven to 325F.

Whisk topping ingredients together and spread topping over the pie.

Bake pie for 5 minutes more. Topping will be loose, but will set as it cools. Cool on rack, then chill for 6 hours before serving.

*I live in a house full of Key Lime Pie lovers, and I'm a Banana Cream Pie lover...oh well.

Fixing Breakfast

*clink clink*


I hear the sounds of dishes clinking. Someone is preparing food downstairs. I have already eaten, so I'm hoping Hannah isn't fixing breakfast for me as well.


I continue to do morning computer catch-up, but the sounds get the better of me.


Downstairs I go, "Are you fixing breakfast?"


H: Yes! I am! My favorite!


Me: What are you making?


H: Strawberry ice cream. My favorite! With sprinkles.


Me: Hmmmm.



Do I ruin the fun, or let it go? Anyone want to take a guess?

Well, technically it's fruit and milk. Oh, uh, yeah, and some sugar.

And now she's emptying the dishwasher. My favorite!

Catching up

My first cold of the season has knocked me down a bit this week. It's finally lifting, or, rather, progressing downward, so while I feel a bit better, I am losing my voice. You'll have to behave because I can't yell at you!

Hannah and I took a little trip last weekend to visit Wendy and attend the DSAVP's monthly meeting. We had fun visiting with the little girls at Wendy's house, and seeing all our old friends at the meeting.

Hannah loves to read to the little ones.
(As long as they sit still and listen! See previous post about noisy preschoolers!)

There was a visitor at the meeting who came to talk about her experience with Special Olympics. Amy is 30 years old and participated in the National Special Olympics. She was terrific! I love meeting adults with Down syndrome. (and pretty much anyone else with Down syndrome...)

I was healthy on Tuesday, so Hannah and I went to our friend Grace's house for an inauguration party. It was a fabulous time sharing the joy and excitement of the day with several families!

Hannah was finally fitted for her new glasses--they should be arriving within a week or two. We chose the specs4us frames even though the options were limited (only two of the frame styles come in her size, and only one of those can carry bifocal lenses). It's hard to find frames that complement Hannah's coloring--most the girls' styles are pink, red or purple. These new frames are burgundy. Since we're under strict instructions to have frames that absolutely fit, we have to make some fashion compromises!

This week, while I've been sick, Hannah has been studying several cookbooks we borrowed from the library. I guess she'd like to have some real food rather than hunting and gathering in the pantry. She has made a list of menu options. Friday morning she wanted to make this:

She only needed a little help (separating the egg--she doesn't like yolks).

(I tried to hide the bedhead...)

Yum!

Tonight she has plans to make "Perfect Pasta" (ziti and Italian sausage). I think that will require a little more intervention on my part! If I play my cards right, maybe over time I can abdicate my position as Queen of the Quitchen.

Hannah was scheduled for her CPAP sleep study this Sunday night. I decided to postpone it because I fear she'll be coming down with my cold. She has a cracked lip, which is usually a sign that a cold is coming soon. And even if she doesn't, my cough will wake her up during the night! She is re-scheduled for February 8th.

Now I'm being paged to help her retrieve her saved Princess Wii game so she can play again...lazy Saturday for us.