Things just happen to go differently

This is our bible verse for this week’s spelling.  I find that I really need to turn it into a self centered verse to really hear what the Lord is telling me.  By the way, yes, I am using my fridge as a white board.

So changes are taking place.  By the grace of God, we were just introduced to a brand new charter school that is project centered and unschooling in style.  So we went and checked it out and loved the entire progressive/democratic education method.  I took the evening to think about it and weigh the pros and cons and decided.  It would be better to take the opportunity to try this for our family, than to regret not doing so when we had a chance and not be able to get it.  See when you have several kids and enrollment is a lottery system, you would have to be willing to let some go, while others can’t. Couldn’t do it.

So what makes this charter worth it:

• unschooling style
• project center learning
• students progress at their pace, not the standard
• teachers are mentors
• mixed grade classes, so mine will be together in the K-2
• close attention to national academic standards and the progression of the student
• agriculture and sustainable practice focus
• 4H
• family and community involvement in the school
• family participation is a requirement, so we will be there alot.

There are a bunch more reasons, but these meant the most to me.  I decided that it was worthy the giving up of my own schedule and my direct lead on their education, in order to take advantage of all the resources that will be available to them.  I will say that I will be there, and I am protective.  If I feel as though my children’s best interest are not be taken care of, we are back home, once again.

I look forward to all of the new experiences that we will get to enjoy.  Please do not consider this the end of homeschooling chaos.  I look forward to sharing their projects and other studies that we still do at home.  The focus we have had for the last few weeks has been a series of unit studies that all have to do with self-sustaining urban homesteading.  See why we are so excited about the school.  So I will soon be posting our worms farm and our bread making.

~trish

Unit Study-Crocodilians

So we did this study on the fly, thanks to Netflix.  Here is a small glimpse on how we exhausted our library system of most of its crocodilian books.  You can see, I have true books adult and juvenile, and some little story books.

We used Netflix, the library, field trips, and our kitchen to do our study.  I wish I could tell you we did some amazing crafts, but we never got around to it.  I thought we might do a lapbook to summarize what we learned, but interest from my little guys were fading too fast. 

Now we put together a great lapbook, but never added information.  I got all the lapbook stuff here, plus a lot more great information and resources.

Coloring book about: http://myfwc.com/media/310155/Alligator_AAA_booklet.pdf

Lap book Resources http://www.homeschoolshare.com/crocodilians_lapbook.php

Links http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/managed/alligator/education/

Printables: http://www.first-school.ws/theme/animals/reptiles/alligator.htm

Alligator pie: http://www.tenderflake.com/Forms/Recipe.aspx?ID=1023

 

We field tripped to the Shell Factory and the Gatorama, alligator farm.  We also ate alligator, yum. For the most part, we read a lot of books, and some more books.  We talked about the pictures and then read some more.  The reading showed through on the field trips, my children were able to repeat to me all that they had learned from the readings. 

So not a bad first unit study!  I plan to use www.currclick.com curriculum with future studies.  We might do a whale study next and I was able to get an age appropriate lapbook for $1 download.  It was a bit sporadic to try and figure a study plan on my own with everything else I need to do and it seemed like I was doing it on the fly.

~trish

Field Trippin’ - Gatorama

So we have finished off our Unit Study with Alligators.  The best place to finish it is at a gator farm, so thankfully we have Gatorama in Palmdale, FL about an hour away.  Can we say, INCREDIBLE!  We actually bought annual passes, because we plan to go back.

www.gatorama.com

There were tons of these big boys that you could throw bread to.

So mommy also learning a thing or two, gators look like they do, to conceal themselves to look like a tree.  The good Floridian mommy, thinking tree, really, I would have never thought a tree.  Well, do you see the gator in the next picture?  

Gatorama is small and the day we went, blazingly HOT!  Twice while we were there they took a baby gator out for the kids to hold, amazing pictures of that!  Then at almost noon, they got the chicken out and got those bad boys to jump out of the water!  AMAZING!

We left with a bag of frozen gator meat too. You know, had to finish the study right with gator in the tummy.  Great Place!  Worth the drive.  So if you are anywhere South of Orlando and Tampa, take a drive.  It is smack dab in the middle of the state.  And if you pass the intersection SR70 and US27 and there are peaches for sale on the side of the road, you better get some.  We already ate half a box in less than 5 days. (think 40 or more peaches and we are going back for more).

 

Of Course, you can’t field trip with out a lunch, so this is what we packed!

It was too hot at the farm to eat there, so we went a mile north to Fisheating Creek FWC Outpost and spent a little money to eat under the shade of some old oaks at the edge of a dug lake.  It was great and since it was the areas official swimming hole, the kids got to cool off a bit, unfortunately for their mother! (No change of clothes.)

http://fisheatingcreekoutpost.com/

We did this trip with Katy-bunz, so head over to get a more personal view of our trip!

http://craftymomma2.blogspot.com/2011/07/gatorama-adventure.html

~trish