Tuesday, 19 March 2013

Homeschool Daily Schedules

Personally I have a love hate relationship with home school daily schedules.  On one had I know how valuable they are and on the other they annoy me endlessly.  I love flexibility to the annoyance of my family, who do not cope with sudden and unexpected change. I have spent the last year without a formal written schedule and the fruit of this decision shows my time has not been as productive as when I have used a written formal schedule. At the moment I have the skeleton of a schedule brewing in my thinking. I have baulked at creating a schedule partly because of Sir N's make up.  He thrives on schedule but if anything changes even by one minute the world comes to an end and I end up spending hours trying to calm him down and get back on track.

Today at our home school mom's meeting we discussed the chapter Inconstant Kitty in A Charlotte Mason Companion it could not have come at a better time. It always amazes me how these sorts of things 'happen' across my path when I need them the most.

"Every lesson must have its own time, and no other time in this world is there for it. The sense of the preciousness of time, of the irreparable loss when a ten minutes' lesson is thrown away must be brought home." - Charlotte Mason Companion page 93

Dangers
There are many hidden dangers to having a formal schedule. I have found often times we purchase a curriculum and feel driven to check every box in order to say we have achieved X,Y of Z. Or we say I have paid good money for that I will use it. Often times this is much to the determent of our home atmosphere. I have learned that a home atmosphere determines the length of a home school journey.

However the counter balance is "What you are allowed to meander through all day, you will; what must be done, is done." - Charlotte Mason Companion page 92.

Another danger is becoming a slave to the schedule and loosing all sense of flexibility.  A Schedule can be your ruling tyrant or active servant. Over the years I have found that it is important to keep it in the appropriate place of servitude. Sally Clarkson says: "There are many varieties of personalities and possibilities of home organization, Each of us simply has to find the combination of routines that suits our lifestyle and desires." -  The Mission of Motherhood.

Home school groups / friends can be another source of danger. At times there can be a sub culture of comparison within many home school groups. Over time I have come to understand that this happens because as home school mothers we feel inadequate. So we constantly compare ourselves and what we are doing with what others are doing.

For many years I did this (and sometimes still do) and the result was constantly changing my home school to look like someone else's. The fruit of this is adding in many excellent ideas that were working for other families and in the end I had so many things I was doing I couldn't possibly do them well. There just were not enough hours in my day to do so. I constantly have to prune in order to do a few things really well rather than a myriad of things at 25% capacity.

Consider
When setting up your individual schedule keep in mind your own families needs and character.  Trying to adhere to someone else's schedule is a recipe for an unhappy home. Remember your children are being tutored therefore they do not need to have a six hour school day.  Typically a 7 year old can learn a full day of school in 2-3 hours. In the high school years an average of four hours is all that is needed. Here are a few things to consider when formulating a schedule should you choose to have one:
  • Your personality and those of your spouse and children.
  • You spouses schedule and needs
  • Learning Styles
  • Family needs
  • Break times
  • Deadlines
  • Extra curricular classes (children's, yours and your spouse)
  • Ages and stages of your children
  • Your personal style.
  • Why ? What's your motive for that choice? 
  • Know your purpose. 
  • Consider all or your priorities.
  • What are your goals ?
  • Limit and cut back on all fronts because everything takes longer than you will expect.
Remember a schedule needs to grow and change with your family.  Your children are growing, changing and maturing. What is working well today might not work so well in six months time. Take regular time to reevaluate your schedule and tweak it to suit your family.

Methods
There are many methods of structuring your day out there.  Here are some ideas for you to consider when developing your schedule

On the WWW
Last thoughts

Once you have structured your plan and have embarked upon your new adventure be aware that you will need to make regular small course corrections to stay on track.  The winds of time, health, seasons, understanding and interruptions will blow. On occasion the storms of life may blow you off track so it is imperative to take some regular time to course correct and refocus and move forward.

Blessings
Chareen

This week
  • Bernadette shares I've got Rhythm and wonders if you could ask for anything more?
  • Julie has a Highhill Education Daily Schedule and uses spreadsheets to keep organized and help her children become more independent.
  • Hwee shares about their Daily Schedule or Lack thereof and talks about their journey from being formally structured home schoolers to find their loosely structured approach.
  • Savannah shares Our Daily Schedule including daily life, meal planning, school and all the extras
 ---ooOoo---

Linking with
Hip Homeschool Hop Button The Homeschool Village

Title Image Courtesy of Stuart Miles
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TT - Katie and the Waterlily Pond

This week ...
James Mayhew


  • Format: Paperback
  • Number of Pages: 32
  • Vendor: Orchardbooks Publishers
  • Publication Date: 2011
  • ISBN: 978-1-40830-464-8
  • Author  James Mayhew
  • Illustrator: James Mayhew
I love this series of books about Katie and her grandmother who visit the people in famous paintings and go on amazing adventures. In this book Katie goes on a voyage of discovery through five Monet Masterpieces as Katie takes art lessons with the master. The books ends with details about all the paintings shared in the book. This book lives up to the reputation of the others in the series.

  1. Katie and the Sunflowers
  2. Katie's picture Show
  3. Katie Meets the Impressionists
  4. Katie and the British Artists
  5. Katie and the Mona Lisa
Blessings

 Welcome to Tuesdays Treasures.  I started these posts as a way of sharing great books in honour of my friend in New Zealand who would arrive with the treasures she had unearthed at her weekly trip to the library!

There are so many wonderful books out there hiding on shelves so I invite you to blog about a book on your shelf, one you're reading or one you found at the library and add your post to Tuesday's Treasures Resource Link Up below.
Please link to this post. 

A Button for you.
Please copy and paste the code below
Pop on over and see what others are sharing.
Add you link below

Every bed of Roses

--oOo--
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Friday, 15 March 2013

A Touch Math Adventure {TouchMath Review}

TouchMath has been designed to use as a stand alone math program or as a supplement to what you are already doing. It's system reinforces maths principles and builds a solid foundation by helping your student firmly understand the concrete concept and transition via a hands on method progressing your student towards abstract maths. Sir N recently started using the Second Grade Homeschool Program.

Touch Math is designed to help children master math skills as they "see, say, hear and touch"


"TouchMath is the only program that uses the actual numeral as a manipulative by having TouchPoints (concrete level) and uses visual cues (pictorial/representative level) throughout the program to eventually remove visual cues and TouchPoints so the student can demonstrate a symbolic/abstract comprehension of the skill" - Research
 
Second Grade Homeschool
  • Four Units.
  • A comprehensive index (topics, module contents, all activities)
  • A full overview of vocabulary and resources
  • Page by page instructions and answer key
  • Content reviews and post test instructions
  • 6 Module instructions.
  • Progress Monitoring records 
  • A full implementation guide which provides a full program overview, tips and all the resources you need. 
  • 90 Student Activity Sheets
  • 6 Assessments
  • Answer Keys
  • Download Samples for each Unit
About the Worksheets
  • They are designed to take you from concrete to the abstract
  • From simple to complex processes
  • Build mathematical language (technical jargon)
  • Some worksheets are for individual practice and others are teacher guided. Each one is coded for you to see at a glance what your student is doing.
  • The activity sheets are uncluttered and clearly laid out.
  • Each sheet contains a footer bar with a description of the skill / topic covered on the page.
  • Pre and Post test modules to help you assess a students placement and their personal level of competence.
Record Keeping
  • A record sheet is provided to help provide overview of your students progress
  • Contains the topics for each module
  • Enough space to record multiple student information.
  • Each unit contains a full list of State Common Core standards worked on. This makes it easy to record your units.
Grade 2 Optional Extra's
Our Journey
With great excitement Sir N and I looked at samples of the Grade two year and decided yes we would like to try out some hands on Math learning. Sir N is a hands on learner who loves trying new things and this year I am trying to work more on allowing delight directed learning.

It was with great anticipation that we downloaded our PDF lessons. I felt a little overwhelmed when I opened Unit A and discovered it contained 239 pages! My curiosity got the better of me and I checked the other three: Unit B had 233 pages, Unit C had 235 pages and Unit D had 231 pages.  Wow I've never had a math program that came with the wealth of information supplied by TouchMath. No there are not  200+ pages per unit for your child to fill in.  Each unit contains 90 Student Activity Sheets the balance of each unit contains instructions for you the parent. It sounds like a lot of work but it is not.

Each unit contained a full implementation guide containing everything I needed to obtain the maximum benefit of the entire home school program. 

As we worked through the program I realized that it builds precept upon precept. I was surprised to learn that the program has been around since 1972 and as a result they have a lot of experience in teaching math. Since commencing my home school journey one of the things I have learned is that we push our children past the manipulative's learning stage too quickly much to the determent of their math learning.


Touch Math is unique in that it uses the physical number as the manipulative. This in turn means that you do not need to purchase any additional resources to teach maths. Having said this we have really enjoyed using the manipulatives supplied with the program. (Flip Cards, Student Number Cards, Second Grade Software, Touch Numerals with Base 10) It was like having Christmas when our math manipulative box arrived. I have not seen Sir N as excited about Math as when this 14 pound box arrived.

To make using the program easier I downloaded the pdf documents to my Galaxy Tab and had that close at hand to help me with each lesson.


 We spent the first part of Unit A learning the numeral touch points and becoming familiar with the program.  The software was especially helpful in this.

Each day we used the Flip Cards for math fact drill followed with a 15 minute lesson. There is no set number of lessons to do each day.  The pace of the lessons is set by the child and their individual grasp of the concept. The recommended time spent on a lesson is twice your students age. Sir N is seven which meant our lessons were 15 min a day.

Each set of flash cards correlates to the unit you are working through.  There are three boxes of flash cards per unit. The quality of the cards is excellent and they are big and easy to read. We did not use all the cards at each lesson we used up to 20 cards at a time depending on the skill level attained or the facts memorized.  We added in new facts as other facts were mastered. The back of each box has suggestions for usage. The spine of the box contains the name of the unit along with a description this makes for easy recognition if storing them standing up or in a box.

I really enjoyed using the base ten system with Sir N.  It reinforced the number 10 concept with him and helped him grasp borrowing in subtraction.

I was impressed with how math strategies are taught with each lesson. I also enjoyed the natural introduction of the technical jargon for maths. Each term is simply explained and with appropriate repetition the student becomes familiar with the math concept with ease. 

Sir N can become distracted with graphics so the clean uncluttered presentation of each page benefited his pace of learning.


**Cost {TouchMath Second Grade Homeshool}
  • Unit A $ 59.95
  • Unit B $ 59.95
  • Unit C $ 59.95
  • Unit D $ 59.95
  • Purchase all four units for $ 199.95 and save $39-85
  • The manipulatives are optional extra's. I would highly recommend you investing in these as they make for a much richer sensory program. There is a list of suggested resources at the bottom of the Unit purchase page.
** All prices quoted are correct at time of posting.  It is the responsibility of the purchaser to check the cost before purchasing. Prices are subject to change without notice. All prices are in US $.

Social Media
Touch Math uses social media to bring you their latest offers and free downloads as well as teacher support by providing a platform to ask your questions and have them answered quickly.
What others are saying Online
Overall we are enjoying this program. It does not contain busy work. Each page has a purpose and keeps the student engaged and moving forward. The manipulatives add a positive dimension to the daily math experience.

Blessings
Chareen

Photobucket

This post is part of and linking with the Schoolhouse Review so don't forget to pop on over and read what others are saying about Touch Math.

This post contains NO affiliate links.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.
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Day 5 - Hands on Projects


When ever I consider hands on projects these days I always seem to think twice as it feels like so much work to do for one child.  I find it a challenge homeschooling an only as it was never really an issue when homeschooling my first two. One of the biggest influences in this area is my own personal learning style. I am a textbook read it kind of person.  I don't need to do in order to learn I get just as much satisfaction watching someone else do a science experiment than doing it myself. Sir N on the other hand loves to do. Monday's topic of Delight Directed education has inspired me to look at doing more Hands-on learning with Sir N in our homeschooling.

Things to consider
  • The activity needs to be appealing to your student
  • Engage the mind
  • Consider your students learning style.
  • Base the activity on an idea that will encourage the student to ask questions and grow from the experience.
  • Needs to enlarge the students understanding
Chinese Proverb
Benefits of hands on learning
  • The student is able to be an active participant in their learning.
  • Hands-on learning does not look like or feel like school so it encourages reluctant learners to participate in learning.
  • Encourages creativity
  • Produces a sense of accomplishment in your student.
  • Helps to reinforce a concept.

Ideas for Hands-on Learning
  • Explore Pinterest
  • Participate in field trips. Amy has some great ideas over at Bow of Bronze about this.
  • Use Lapbooking & Notebooking 
  • Play games, create games, puzzles
  • YouTube
  • Incorporate your kitchen in learning
  • Craft activity
  • Mapping activity
  • Re-enact (Dress Ups), Puppet shows, make a YouTube clip
  • Language Arts - Poetry, essay,
  • Explore the local Museums, Science Museums, Public Library, Farms etc
Source:

On the www
Some of our Hands on Learning projects

What are your favourite hands on learning projects ?

Blessings
Chareen

5 Days of Teaching Creatively

Day 5
  1. Delight Directed Instruction
  2. Schooling in the Kitchen
  3. Toy's, Games & Puzzles
  4. Homeschooling in a Crisis
  5. Hands on Projects
Don't forget to enter the Teaching Creatively Giveaway.  Pop on over to Ben and Me to enter in order to win one of three prize packs. (1st prize $525 value, 2nd prize $225 value and 3rd prize $190 value)

Hands on Learning graphic courtesy of David Castilo Dominici

To read about more ideas on Hands on Projects have a look at what these ladies are saying.

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Thursday, 14 March 2013

Day 4 - Homeschooling in a Crisis


A crisis can take on many forms. The hardest part is knowing what to do when you are confronted with an unexpected turn of events. The biggest question home schooler's face is whether or not to continue on their home educating journey in the midst of a crisis.

Types of Crisis
  • Depression
  • Financial 
  • Death of a loved one
  • Terminal illness
  • Major injury
  • Physical disability
  • Long term health challenges
  • Natural Disasters (floods, earth quakes, fires)
  • Terrorist attacks
  • Divorce
  • Moving
  • Immigration
  • Chronic pain
  • Premature birth of your newest baby
Our Journey
Homeschooling in a crisis for us meant that school was one less thing to worry about. I did not need to fit in taking children to school or fetching them, preparing school lunches, talk to teachers about what was happening or do homework at the end of our day.

Our family has been through several crisis situations in the last 15 years (two immigrations and two spinal surgeries). The first major crisis was when my husband fell on our roof and ruptured a disk in his lower back.  Unfortunately the extent of his injury remained unknown or correctly treated for over a month during which time we were in survival mode at home.

Homeschooling was a saving grace during this crisis as we were able to be home and help him.  It allowed our two children at the time to work through the process of Daddy is not well and walk along with us in his journey to being well again.
It allowed us the flexibility we needed once he was admitted to hospital and on an emergency surgery list and this in turn allowed us to drop what we were doing at a moments notice to go and be with him.

Once he had surgery being home with us helped us all realize he is on the road to recovery and the major benefit to him being on bed rest meant that Daddy did all the read alouds for six months.  It was the highlight of our day! Actually it was three or four hours a day that Daddy read to the family.  We built family bonds we would not have had otherwise.

This experience helped us cope when my eldest son had an accident at work and needed the same surgery that Paul had had five years before and it was not as scary a thing as it could have been had he not walked this journey with us before.

I do confess I had a major panic about two months into our situation when I realized we had done no formal schooling.  At this point Paul still was not well enough for us to do full days of school so upon evaluation we settled on the three R's as a daily minimum.

A month later Paul was on the road to recovery and took over reading out loud to the children so that I could catch up on life at home. Washing, ironing, groceries etc.

A few weeks later I took up the books and we slowly built up to full school days and I was surprised to see that the children had not fallen behind. It was easy picking up our full routine at this point because it's how we had always done things so they new what to do.

Advantages
  • Take time off official school to cope with / work through worry, fear and anxiety
  • Flexibility with time. I was able to go to the hospital as often or when ever we needed.
  • Character growth. Our children learned many character things over this period such as putting the needs of Dad ahead of their own.
  • Walking through the crisis together can strengthen family bonds.
  • When moving you don't need to look for a new school. 
Supporting a family in crisis
  • Pray for the family who are in crisis mode
  • If it's within your power to do good,do it!
  • Offer to be available to baby sit at a moments notice.
  • Buy milk and bread and some fruit and take it over.
  • Take over some baking and have a cup of tea
  • Drop them an sms to let the family know they are in your thoughts.
  • Take over a ready cooked meal
  • Offer to do a couple of errands.
  • Do NOT suggest putting the children into school . . .
On the web
The thing that I have come to realize retrospectively is that I should have claimed some short periods of time in my day during the crisis to look after me. That would have helped me stay energised and would have prevented the crash and burn that happened after wards.

As a home school mom if you are walking through a crisis right now give yourself permission to take some time off school, work through the crisis then come back to school and move forward.  During your crisis claim 15 min of time twice a day to have some time out and recharge especially if the crisis will not be a short term thing.

If you have home educated through a crisis I would love to read more about what you did.

Blessings
Chareen

This post is part of a week of blog hopping hosted by The Schoolhouse Review Crew: 5 Days of Teaching Creatively Day Four

5 Days of Teaching Creatively
Day 4
  1. Delight Directed Instruction
  2. Schooling in the Kitchen
  3. Toy's, Games & Puzzles
  4. Homeschooling in a Crisis
  5. Hands on Projects

Don't forget to enter the Teaching Creatively Giveaway.  Pop on over to Ben and Me to enter in order to win one of three prize packs. (1st prize $525 value, 2nd prize $225 value and 3rd prize $190 value)


Crisis image courtesy of Free Digital Photo's -  Stuart Miles



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Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Day 3 - Toys, Games, and Puzzles


Puzzles, toys and games are a multimillion dollar industry and it's growing by the day and with it often grows our confusion about what to buy and use in our home schools. Are their benefits to using / playing board games with our children ?

Some benefits of board games
  • Increases critical thinking skills
  • Grouping skills
  • Counting skills
  • Logic and reasoning skills
  • Visual perception
  • Fine motor skills
  • 3 D thinking
  • Quality Family Time
  • Relieves Stress and Mental Fatigue
  • Life Skills - negotiating, accepting defeat and trying again, being happy for another who is winning, etc
  • Pattern recognition
  • Plan ahead and reason cause and effect
  • Learn from mistakes
  • Improves general IQ
Elsewhere on the Web

My Favourites
Today I would like to share my favorite games for preparing your students for the high school years and formal logic study.

Lonpos
Contains one travel pack with 12 coloured game pieces and booklet containing challenges (One dimensional and three dimensional). Each challenge builds upon the skill of the last.

Blockus
Blokus consists of one board, four different colour tetras shaped pieces {red, yellow, blue and green),  This game can be played with 1-4 players. The game works on strategy and critical thinking skills.

Rush Hour
This game consists of a storage bag, one traffic grid board with storage board, 40 graded challenge cards (4 levels), 15 blocking cars and trucks, 1 red escape car. This game works on logic and critical thinking skills.

Block by Block
This game consists of seven block pieces, 60 challenge cards {each card has a three dimensional picture that needs to be constructed using the block pieces, the rear of the card contains the solution), and a storage bag. The game strengthens problem solving skills and 3 dimensional thinking.

The Challenge
My biggest challenge is remembering to actually take all these wonderful games out of the cupboard and using them.  It seems we are always running out of time!

What are some of your favourite board games ?

Blessings
Chareen
Puzzle image courtesy Free Digital Photo's - Salvatore Vuono 
5 Days of Teaching Creatively

Day 3
  1. Delight Directed Instruction
  2. Schooling in the Kitchen
  3. Toy's, Games & Puzzles
  4. Homeschooling in a Crisis
  5. Hands on Projects

Don't forget to enter the Teaching Creatively Giveaway.  Pop on over to Ben and Me to enter in order to win one of three prize packs. (1st prize $525 value, 2nd prize $225 value and 3rd prize $190 value)

Here are some more posts by home school moms with ideas about Toys, Games and Puzzles in your Homeschooling

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Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Day 2 - Schooling in the Kitchen

The culinary arts are generally an over looked valuable resource in home educating. We are often focused on the academic achievements of our students, in order that they are able to access tertiary education, that we forget to arm them for real life. The future generations are losing the ability to cook wholesome food and our daughters don't know how to prepare healthy home cooked meals or stock a pantry.

Last year Sir N and I delighted in watching Junior MasterChef. The thing that struck me time and time again was the young ages of the contestants.  The 12 who made the final selection in Season One ranged in age from 9 - 12 years old.  These young people had definitely not learned to cook in the month before starting on the show.  I was impacted by their passion and the knowledge of their skill shone through.  How did these children get here ?

It starts here
Real life kitchen learning starts in the preschool years when we buy all those cute play sets and allow them to play in the sand pit and bath. Repetitive play at this stage reinforces and refines the fine motor skills needed to work safely in a kitchen.

 Once they have attained a certain level of prowess progress to the kitchen with child safe instruments and allow them to cut soft foods (banana, avocado, bread, etc) and help make lunch. Most importantly get them helping you to clean up the kitchen after they have finished.

As they grow taller and depending on the height of your benches expand your children's repertoire in the kitchen to helping cook dinner.  Remember to take them from being spectators to participators and onto creators in your kitchen. 

Life Lessons in your Kitchen
Sarah over at My Joy Filled Life gives a comprehensive breakdown of subjects your children can learn in your kitchen.  The ideas are endless and only limited to your imagination. The most important thing to remember is to keep it fun and enjoy the process.
  • Reading - Recipe's, Ingredient lists on products,
  • Language Arts - Learn about the abbreviations used in cooking and science
  • Math skills - Budgeting, Measuring, Multiplying,
  • Science - Chemical Reactions, Density, 
  • Home Economics - Meal planning, Storage, Cleaning, Storing food appropriately
  • Biology - Parts of an animal in cutting meat, 
  • Safety - Using equipment Safely, 
  • Geography - Find recipes of traditional foods of the country you are studying
  • History - Find out how food was prepared and what was eaten in the era you are studying and try it out.
  • Gardening - Grow your own herbs on the windowsill.
  • Art - decorate biscuits, make a ginger bread house, etc
  • Gift Giving - cooking a meal for a friend in need, baking biscuits for the elderly, etc

On the www
Since it's close to Easter we decided to bake an Easter Egg Rainbow Sponge Cake.  Sir N loved seeing what would happen with the colours and all the taste testing. . .

Tutorial

Beverley Paine
"Children love learning until we kill that love by insisting on teaching when they are already busy learning. Be mindful of what our children are learning when we get that urge to teach - let's learn how they learn optimally and tune into that and help them learn what we want them to learn as well as what they naturally go about learning themselves" - Beverley Paine


How do you apply Delight Directed learning in your Kitchen ?

Blessings
Chareen

This post is part of a week of blog hopping hosted by The Schoolhouse Review Crew: 5 Days of Teaching Creatively Day TWO

5 Days of Teaching Creatively
Day 2
  1. Delight Directed Instruction
  2. Schooling in the Kitchen
  3. Toy's, Games & Puzzles
  4. Homeschooling in a Crisis
  5. Hands on Projects

Don't forget to enter the Teaching Creatively Giveaway.  Pop on over to Ben and Me to enter in order to win one of three prize packs. (1st prize $525 value, 2nd prize $225 value and 3rd prize $190 value)



**Images from Free Digital Photo's: Child playing with Kitchen Utensil - Stuart Miles, Senior Chef Teaches Young Chef To Cut - Marin


Here are some more posts by homeschool moms with ideas about Schooling in the kitchen


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Easter Egg Rainbow Sponge Cake

This week I am participating in a Blog Hop about Delight Directed Education. This has inspired some kitchen experimentation for Easter. This oil sponge cake is a recipe that I grew up with and my mom used all the time.  It has never flopped and always come out just right.  I love it because it does not have an oily flavour it is light and fluffy and very easy to make. We have also used gluten free flours successfully with it.

Ingredients
  • 3 Eggs Seperated
  • 3/4 cup of Sugar
  • 1/2 cup of room temperature water
  • 1/2 cup of cooking oil 
  • 1 1/2 cups of flour
  • 3 teaspoons of baking powder 
  • Food colouring of your choice

Method
  1. In bowl one beat the egg whites till stiff peaks form
  2. In bowl two add sugar to the egg yellow and beat until creamed together.
  3. Add in water and oil. Beat until well aerated.
  4. Add in the dry ingredients
  5. Mix well
  6. Add in the stiff egg whites
  7. Fold in
  8. Choose four colours (or more if you wish) and put 10 ml into each bowl
  9. Divided the cake mix evenly between each colour and Mix well.  Allow to stand for two min.

  • Pour the coloured batter into a greased baking pan. We used Wilton Cake Release.
  • Form layers of colour until all the batter is in the tin.
  • Place in 180'C oven 
  • Bake for 30 - 45 min until golden brown and a cake skewer comes out clean
  • Turn out on a cooling rack and allow to completely cool
  • Make up your favourite icing (we used butter icing) and decorate your cake.
  • Enjoy
We all enjoyed the fruit of our labour and as you can see we enjoyed taste testing as we baked.

What is your favourite sponge cake recipe ?

Blessings
Chareen

This post is linking to Try a New Recipe Tuesday.
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Monday, 11 March 2013

Day 1 - Delight Directed Instruction

I have spent a delightful few weeks exploring the wide scope and vision of delight directed education.  I do confess that in times past I have shied away from the idea as I had connected delight directed learning with doing absolutely nothing and allowing the child to explore and teach themselves.  I have since come to realize that this is a far cry from the reality of allowing your student to explore the world around them with you facilitating and enriching the experience.

I have been homeschooling for over 15 years and to be honest I have been experiencing a deep dissatisfaction with our journey over the last few months which in turn has found me in an almost paralyzed state as a home school mom wondering what on earth to do.  I have come to realize that I have fallen prey to  the slavery of checking every box on my home school instructors guide in order to have a tangible indication that Sir N has learned something.   Even Sir N has been bitterly complaining that he hates school.  Each time I say it's time to do school he pitches a tantrum. . . Enough! It's time for change and I think that we will be incorporating more Delight Directed studying around here.

What is it ?
  • Delight - a high degree of gratification, joy, extreme satisfaction, something that gives pleasure. Delight is a more permanent pleasure than joy, and not dependent on sudden excitement.
  • Directed - means Aimed; pointed; guided; regulated; governed; ordered; instructed
  • Education - Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations 

Delight Directed teaching / study is not about a home school method or formula it's about feeding the heart and mind of your student. It's about lighting a spark and flaming it in the mind and heart of your student towards what ever it is that you are learning about together.

I am inspired by what Greg Harris has written on delight directed education:  "A delight-directed study is like a wonderful fire in the mind of a student. It starts small, but as it grows, it begins to consume vast amounts of information until it bursts into a roaring blaze of insight, understanding and creativity. It takes on a life of its own." - Greg Harris

We need to remember that as parents we are the ones with life experience and still need to direct (point/guide) our students learning and this in turn means opening up new avenues for students to explore and enjoy.

How does this work ?
I have learned that it's about listening to your child's heart, it's all about connecting and expanding upon the platform that you are currently laying in what ever field you are exploring.  It's about answering the burning question upon your child's heart.

Greg Harris
 "Delight-directed study is child-responsive, but still parent-supervised. Delight-directed study strategies are more responsive to the interest of the student, without being indulgent. Rather than allow the student to study whatever he sees fit, however he sees fit, delight-directed study urges parents to guide their child’s studies and establish clear accountability for his work." Greg Harris

For me it's about finding a balance between needing to have some structure but also feeding his current interest. It means taking the time to answer his questions and following the rabbit trail and learning via the scenic route. At the same time it's about not getting so far off the beaten track that we can never return. It's about making use of our environment and creating the science of relations that help my student to connect the dots and see that the whole world moves in concert and that there is not a single thing that happens in isolation.

At times we are able to go straight away and answer the question at hand due to it's relevance at time of asking and at other times we might need to write it down in order to explore the topic at a more relevant time. For this we have created a book to jot down questions and have found that this relieves Sir N's pressing need to know now before we forget. If we do not have the book my smart phone serves as a note keeper.

Delight Directed learning. . .
  • Means structuring learning around your child's interest and delight.
  • Flourishes in a flexible routine and is happy to take the scenic route in learning.
  • Means getting to know your child and what makes them come alive.
  • Starts with knowing what your child's particular learning style is and using this to encourage learning.
  • Starts with and fosters delight.
  • Is parent supervised and supported
  • Using a web approach to cover subjects rather than seeing individual subjects its taking one topic and covering a multiple of disciplines
  • Takes into account the interests and curiosities your child holds.
  • Is compatible with all home school methods and approaches.
  • Means using all your senses when learning. It entails cooking new foods, reading living books, exploring the library looking for books to find out more, building something, writing / sharing about your discovery.
  • Uses the environment (library, zoo, museum, field trips) to enhance and encourage learning via building relationships with the subject matter at hand.
  • Is not tied to an instructor guide to the exclusion of all other learning.

Elsewhere on the web
There are many who have shared their wisdom on the www here are a few articles to enrich your understanding of Delight Directed Learning.
I have learned that as a home school mom I need to take note that "We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities." - Ralph Waldo Emerson.


How do you apply Delight Directed learning in your home school ?

Blessings
Chareen

This post is part of a week of blog hopping hosted by The Schoolhouse Review Crew: 5 Days of Teaching Creatively Day One

5 Days of Teaching Creatively

Day 2
  1. Delight Directed Instruction
  2. Schooling in the Kitchen
  3. Toy's, Games & Puzzles
  4. Homeschooling in a Crisis
  5. Hands on Projects
Don't forget to enter the Teaching Creatively Giveaway.  Pop on over to Ben and Me to enter in order to win one of three prize packs. (1st prize $525 value, 2nd prize $225 value and 3rd prize $190 value)


**Images from Free Digital Photo's:Magnifying glass Image  Courtesy of Stuart Miles Black Board Image courtesy of Nuttakit


Here are some more posts by home school moms with ideas about Delight Directed Teaching

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