Ch-ch-cha-changes!

Change. The ever constant in each and every persons life. Sometimes, its easy. And sometimes, it is not. However way it manifests itself into your day, I think the trick is just learning to embrace it. 

One of my very favorite parts of homeschooling is having the freedom to embrace changes as they come and go in the life of my family. 

Almost as soon as I posted about the curriculum I had chosen for Kai's first official year of preschool, a change started brewing. Maybe it happened in my brain or maybe in my heart, though I'd say it was probably a combination of the two. But really where it began is irrelevant because it happened. So there I was, now sitting on the brink of change, watching as it stared blankly back at me.

I was no longer confident that the path we were heading down was as perfect of a fit as I once believed it was. And though it was a good road, My vision for what our homeschool should look like was evolving. Suddenly and drastically.

So, I canceled my orders and made new ones and then chuckled to myself over the peace brought on by my certainty. 

So what is different? What are you using instead, you ask? Well, I traded in text books and curriculum guides for a pink tower and the wisdom of an Italian physician and educator who lived over 100 years ago. Her name was Maria Montessori and she was astoundingly ahead of her time. 

She believed in following the lead of the child, fostering the life long love of learning, and respected the full grown soul present in the tiny bodies in front of her. She understood the frustration caused by living in a child size world and worked to create an environment devoted to helping children explore and discover the many aspects of the life around them.

She basically was awesome in the form of a woman.

So that is where my heart now sits. Montessori at home. In my home.

 I will continue to update and post as often as I can. I am so excited for this new season of my families' life. If Montessori is a completely new topic for you and you have small children, I urge you to do a tiny bit of research. It really will blow you away. 

2013-2014 Pre-K Curriculum

Hey Everyone! Many friends and family members have been asking me what curriculum we plan on using for Kai's first official year of preschool at home. So I made up a list and gave a little info on why I have chosen that particular material. Just remember, what works for us may not work for you and vise versa. And that is the glory of Homeschooling. You have the freedom and flexibility to change and alter the curriculum used as well as the very way you do school to best meet the needs and abilities of your own child. Families that homeschool have multiplied immensely, especially in the last decade and because of that, the curriculum options and choices are endless! 

Letter of the Week from Confessions of a Homeschooler - We have been using the free printables from Erica's blog for just about a year now and we have thoroughly enjoyed them. They are colorful and bright and easily attract the attention of my very busy boy. Each letter themed week includes a ton of activities from letter tracing and puzzles to color recognition and pre-math skills such as number tracing and picture patterns. Up until this point I have just printed out what I wanted (for free) to do for the week and then laminated them. Now that we are adding a *bit* more structure into our school days, I went ahead and purchased the entire collection and uploaded it to our hard drive. It is 15 dollars for the files or 20 dollars for the actual hard copies in disc form. In my opinion, this is a really wonderful place to start. 

Before Five in a Row- I have had my eyes on BFIAR for quite some time now. A while back when we made the determination and decision to homeschool Kai, I bought a book called 100 Top picks for Homeschool Curriculum by Cathy Duffy (A revised edition of this book has since been released, 101 Top Picks for Homechool Curticulum). In the beginning of the book you are given a brief run down of the different styles of homeschooling. Didn't know there was more than one way to homeschool? Don't feel bad, I didn't know then either. After you are given an explanation of the different schooling styles the book has a questionnaire to help you narrow down the best style suited for you and your family based on your individual needs and desires. If nothing more, the purchase of the book was worth every penny because it included that questionnaire. So my husband and I sat down together and discussed and answered each question. When we were finished we came to the conclusion that the schooling style best suited for our family was an eclectic one. Followed closely behind by the Unit study approach. A Unit Study is an in depth examination of one topic (farms, dogs, treehouses, etc) that uses various academic avenues to approach that topic (math, science, geography, etc). It is a complete immersion into the topic so that the child can view things as a whole rather than disconnected tidbits of knowledge. Which now brings me back to where I began with all of this- BFIAR is a very gentle introduction into unit studies that uses beloved classic children's books as the center. The teacher's guide lays out activities for each of the selected literature choices and you can pick and choose between lessons at your discretion. It is best suited for ages 2-4 and includes books like Corduroy, Runaway Bunny, Goodnight Moon and The Snowy Day. The literature package currently contains 19 titles and is a total of $96.75. If you are on a budget, you can always check out these books from the library and just purchase the teacher's guide which is 35 dollars. I'm really looking forward to starting this curriculum!

Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten Math Standard Edition A- My boy likes math. It comes easy to him. He has known his numbers and has been able to count way before he ever started to recognize letters or letter sounds. I have done a lot of research and believe that this curriculum will be best for where Kai's math skills are now. Each edition is made up with different units to help lay a firm mathematical foundation. It is based on California state standards (a plus in my opinion) and contains a very kid friendly text book, activity book, teacher's guide, and teacher resource pack. You can take everything for Edition A home for a little over 100 dollars. I will let you know how we like it once we get started. 

Montessori- I love love love the Montessori style of teaching and have been implementing it in our tot school from day one. I recently purchased an E-book from the Montessori Print Shop called Montessori at Home. I will be using that as well as a few Early Childhood Teacher's Manuals from Montessori Reserach and Development (Practical Life and Geography and History) in our daily school time. I will go more in depth on montessori style preschool activities in another post. 

Mudpies to Magnets: A Preschool Science Curriculum- I purchased this book from amazon and plan to supplement it within our other areas of study. 

NaturExplorer Studies from Shining Dawn Books- These are inexpensive Ebooks on various subjects that I also plan to use as a supplement to our areas of study.

Links

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/letter-of-the-week

http://fiveinarow.com/before-five-in-a-row/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0929320158?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links

http://www.singaporemath.com/

http://shiningdawnbooks.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Mudpies-Magnets-Preschool-Science-Curriculum/dp/0876591128/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371250741&sr=1-1&keywords=mudpies+to+magnets

http://montessorird.com/index2.php?cPath=2_17

http://www.montessoriprintshop.com/site/mobile?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.montessoriprintshop.com%2FMontessori_At_Home_.html#2812

Ricotta Cheese

I am half Italian. And that by default makes me adore all things pasta and cheese. I mean it's in my blood, right?
Right!
Some of my fondest childhood memories take place at my grandparent's or Nonno and Nonna's house on Sunday nights. Nothing but family, love, and food. Oh, the food!
I'm fairly certain I have been eating ricotta cheese since I could walk. And all the more, loving ricotta cheese since the very first time the yummy, rich, dangerously addictive food reached my mouth. I can just hear my Nonno say, "Lorena, mangia! Mangia!" (Lauren, eat! Eat!) as he heaped a giant spoonful into a bowl. Sometimes, he would mix it with a little bit of jelly or preserves. And other times with a little bit of fresh tomato sauce. Whatever way it was served, I ate it. Happily.
Since, I have been enjoying cooking more of what my family eats from scratch, I set out on a journey to make my own ricotta cheese. When I tell you that this is by far one of the most delicious and easy things to ever grace my kitchen, believe me. I could barely pull myself away from it. I will never, ever buy it pre-made again. Try it, you too, will find it makes you weak in the knees.

Ricotta Cheese

4 cups whole milk
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup heavy cream
Sea salt
*Note: I used all organic dairy and saved a bunch making this myself. Organic ricotta cheese is very pricey and hard to find!

Line a strainer with a triple layered piece of cheese cloth and place it in the sink.

Combine milk, buttermilk, and cream into a sauce pan and heat on medium high.

It will start to slowly boil and solids will start to form. This is the whey (liquid) and the curds beginning to separate. If you have a thermometer, you want it to reach a temperature of 185 degrees. A candy thermometer is best but I don't have one so I used my turkey thermometer. I'm fancy like that.
If you don't have a thermometer, don't worry. You will be able to see this happening. It should take about 10 minutes.
After the curds have formed, remove from heat and use a slotted spoon or hand strainer to scoop out the cheese. Place it in the cheese cloth lined strainer. Every few scoopfuls sprinkle with sea salt.
Now stand over your beautiful creation with a spoon and admire/taste the goodness.

You are welcome, in advance.
Buon Appetito!

Loving Two

I walk along holding your 2-year-old hand, basking in the glow of our magical relationship. Suddenly I feel a kick from within, as if to remind me that our time alone is limited. And I wonder: how could I ever love another child as I love you?

Then he is born, and I watch you. I watch the pain you feel at having to share me as you’ve never shared me before.

I hear you telling me in your own way, “Please love only me”. And I hear myself telling you in mine, “I can’t”, knowing, in fact, that I never can again.

You cry. I cry with you. I almost see our new baby as an intruder on the precious relationship we once shared. A relationship we can never quite have again.

But then, barely noticing, I find myself attached to that new being, and feeling almost guilty. I’m afraid to let you see me enjoying him, as though I am betraying you.

But then I notice your resentment change, first to curiosity, then to protectiveness, finally to genuine affection.

More days pass, and we are settling into a new routine. The memory of days with just the two of us is fading fast.

But something else is replacing those wonderful times we shared, just we two. There are new times – only now, we are three. I watch the love between you grow, the way you look at each other, touch each other.

I watch how he adores you – as I have for so long. I see how excited you are by each of his new accomplishments. And I begin to realize that I haven’t taken something from you, I’ve given something to you. I notice that I am no longer afraid to share my love openly with both of you.

I find that my love for each of you is as different as you are, but equally strong. And my question is finally answered, to my amazement. Yes, I can love another child as much as I love you – only differently.

And although I realize that you may have to share my time, I now know you’ll never share my love. There’s enough of that for both of you – you each have your own supply.

I love you – both. And I thank you both for blessing my life.
Author Unknown

Babies Don't Keep

Holding my baby in my arms, watching his little lips move as he quietly dreams of nursing, listening to the soft sound of his breathing, inhaling the sweet aroma of his baby scent, and absolutely relishing in this moment that will never come again.
He will only be this exact way today. Tomorrow brings growth and new developments and one morning I will wake up, these days nothing but a memory. There is nothing more important or pressing to accomplish than for this mama to just sit and hold her baby.


Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

-Ruth Hulbert Hamilton