Cieslak's Homeschool-journey
It's all about the fun, the craziness, the things we learn and our thoughts!!!
It's been a really busy and crazy year for us. Not just with school, but we've had different crazy challenges happening within a few months and that's why we are ending school a little later this year. That's the good thing about homeschooling though, we can keep going or start again whenever we need to in order to finish a school year. That we aren't stuck to a set time schedule, was a real blessing this year. Here are some of this years pictures, not so much of school, but other things that have happened during our school year. My time at the hospital in March/ April, getting surgery twice within three weeks: Our big birthday celebration for our boys, hosting 16 boys: Our basement water situation, which ruined the basement and means we have to move now: The good news is though, we found an incredible new house, finished our school year today and are off to the summer with a smile. Happy Summer Everyone!!!
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It is crazy to think that we are already 3 months into the new school year. We are so used to our schedule now, that homeschooling doesn't really feel weird anymore. In fact, we continue to love it. We've had some interesting lessons so far this year. Science, is all about astronomy. In one of our lessons we discussed some serious crazy numbers. It was cool to learn though, even though math and I will never be really good friends. ;) In History we are in the process of learning about the Romans and that is pretty interesting as well. (Literature is kind of going that route too, since we have discussed the play "Julius Ceasar" from Shakespeare.) During one lesson we tried to make a "bulla". It was some type of pouch thingy that the Romans had. Unfortunately the emphasis of this sentence lies on tried! ;) Then in one of our Literature Lessons, about Julius Ceasar, the boys created a laurel wreath. It was nothing special, just a small activity to make it more visual. They also created a little poster in another one of our astronomy science lessons. Now, the coolest school related adventure happened today, when we went on a spontaneous family-school field trip. I have said it before, and I am going to say it again, but one of the greatest things about living in Germany is the chance to travel to different countries, visit cool places and have field trips we would never be able to have if we were living in the States. Today we got to visit a museum that created something that was part of my childhood. We visited the "Augsburger Puppenkiste". It is a museum, but also theater, that creates plays as well as movies with their puppets. It was so cool to see the puppets I grew up watching on TV. It has a special meaning to many Germans because we all grew up with it. I even remember watching some of those movies on occasions in school as a special treat . So yeah, it was pretty awesome to check it out and show my kids as well. Here are a bunch of pictures of our "field trip" from today. They even created Harry Potter puppets. :D We finished our museum visit with lunch at their cafe, and hubby ordered a meal that included the biggest Schnitzel we have ever seen. You know you will have a good lesson, when you begin by listening to the following: m.youtube.com/watch?v=4rQSJDLM8ZE 😬 Science this year will be a lot of fun because we will be talking about Astronomy and everything that comes with it. The boys are already excited and I am as well because that was one of the subjects I prepared quite a bit for, when I got ready for homeschooling. I was already impressed when we discussed different pictures and the titles for different lesson-related things. I showed them the below picture and asked them what that was and how it was named. Nathan said, without thinking long at all: "That's a constellation!" I asked him how he knew that and he told me that he learned it by playing the video game "Zelda". 😱😱😱 I guess video games aren't always such a waste of time after all. 😜 The rest of our science lesson they worked hard to make (put together) a solar system model. They did a great job and I love watching them learn and being creative. 😊 Day two was definitely a success. 🤑 Here are a few pictures of them working on their model and the end result. Love my boys!!!!
Wow, here we go again. Summer break is over and we have officially started a new school year, our second homeschool year. It sure was nice not having to worry about school for 2 months, but I am also excited to be on a normal everyday schedule again. To much freedom and playtime is only a good thing for so long, until it gets boring and becomes too much. We don't want to turn into super lazy beings, ya know? 😉
Summer break was great though. We visited my parents and the boys stayed with them for over 2 weeks, we visited my sister in Switzerland and Nathan got to spend a week by himself with them. We also continued a few school things, when we weren't traveling and so the boys still had to read every day, do some math exercises, continue their workout routine and so on. I think doing that during a long break, helps them not feel so overwhelmed when a tight school schedule starts again. 😊 And here are the back-to-school pictures. (I actually remembered this time.) 😜 Hard to believe that they are now in 5th and 6th grade. 😘 Happy new school year to us!!! 🎈🎉🎈 It is unbelievable, but we finished our last day of the school year. When we started last August, I wasn't sure how things would go, and how I would manage, but I am not regretting the decision at all, especially with the way the world is changing and what children have to deal with nowadays, and I feel like not only have we learned a lot during the last 9 1/2 months, we are also closer as a family. Of course we still have our struggles and fights and arguments, but I feel like we have learned to love spending time together and even our boys seem to be getting along great (most of the time at least) and have become real good buddies. I love it. Our school room has also changed quite a bit compared to when we started out last year. Our walls have filled up with maps, art work and posters and our timeline has also changed since we have added many different famous people, or events, from the past. Classroom before (beginning of the school year): Classroom after (end of the school year): And of course here are also pictures of our boys, at the beginning of the school year and a picture of them from today. :) We are excited for our well-deserved summer break, but we are also determined to keep up certain learning habits during the summer, like reading and math exercises. We also have a few more weeks of spelling words/ tests left, since we started those a few weeks after the school year started (I had to get used to our new schedule and different teaching style's and curriculums). I have to say it will be strange not to have our set daily routine over the summer months, but I am very grateful that things worked out so well, and I am already excited for the new school year. It was so much fun to learn so many cool and interesting things and I know more fun is going to await us in the school year of 2017/2018.
Since we are almost at the end of the school year, our last Geography lesson called for more presentations/ reports. We studied Asia this year and learned a lot about many different things, different countries and how big Asia actually is. Both boys had to pick a country, (in Asia) of their choice, and put together a report/ representation. They both had a blast researching the internet, finding pictures and information and putting it all together. They presented their finished work to us during Family night, and both hubby and I were very impressed. Nathan said afterwards that he wanted to do another presentation because it was so interesting to learn the things he did. He had picked Russia and found out many things he didn't know about. Josh on the other hand picked China and also learned a great deal. They were still excited the next day and were hoping a different lesson would ask for a report as well. ;) I think complimenting your kids on a job well done, surely does the trick of motivating them some more. Today we had our second last music lesson and I have to admit, I am bit sad. I seriously loved every music lesson we had because I love music and we got to listen to a lot of great musical works. The lesson was on "Songs that unify" and we learned about the War of 1812, WWI and WWII. It is always fascinating to me when a song has a special meaning or was created for a special purpose and event. I already knew the story behind the "American Flag", since I learned a lot about American History in my college classes, and also when I prepared for my citizenship test, but the boys didn't really seem to know much about it. The lesson didn't get much into it, but it explained the purpose of our national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner". I don't know what it is, but I always choke up and get teary-eyed when I hear that song. It was my favorite anthem even before I moved to the States. Just the melody alone touches me and there is something about it that really goes right through me. I love how, in the following video, they got everyone involved in the presentation of that amazing song. :) www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4p7V0s3tXI
We also listened to the beautiful song "God bless America". I didn't know the story behind that at all, and so learning about it was a great treat. I am sharing some of the lesson here in this post so you can either be reminded of the story or learn something new. :) The lesson states: "In 1938, Irving Berlin dusted off and improved a song he had previously written in 1917 to celebrate the end of 'The Great War' or the 'War to End All Wars'. Americans throughout the country heard it on the radio for the first time on November 10, 1938, the twenty-first anniversary of the end of World War I." "God Bless America" is another song that touches me and I love the video version they added to the lesson. I am very proud of myself for recognizing Ronald Reagan, as one of the actors, right away even though you only see him for a moment in that scene. ;) Kate Smith is the singer, and is singing this so beautifully. :) www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zF7a0wB-Lg Music, like the above, makes me grateful that there were (and are) so many talented composers who, used their talents, and did not let it go to waste. It makes me realize how important each of us is, and that Heavenly Father gave us different gifts and talents on purpose. I always believed that music can tell stories and touch our hearts, but I am also thankful that it has the power of uniting us and that it can help us through challenges and tough times. It is hard to believe that we have only 2 weeks left in this school year. It is crazy to think that we home-schooled so long already and we still enjoy it, have not gone (completely at least) crazy and are still alive. ;) Haha, I am still amazed that I am a home school mom and actually love it. The other week an ad on Facebook popped up and when I saw what it was, I just had to get it. It is just so fitting for us right now. ;) Over the course of this school year I had plenty of times when the schooling of the boys came up during conversations. The reactions were interesting, but also really cool. My German friends and relatives had (still have) the hardest time with the concept, but I don't even blame them because homeschooling is a foreign concept in Germany and against the law and so of course they have a hard time with it. At the same time a lot of them were kind of jealous we have the freedom to do that. I personally find it irritating and strange that many governments in the world think we as parents are not good enough to teach our kids and that we don't even get a say in the matter (even though they are our kids), but that's just me. I guess being an American citizen now, and having lived in the States for so long, sure does change your thinking and opinions. It also makes me appreciate the freedoms I have as an American citizen. I never thought much of homeschooling until 2 years ago and even then I fought it for the longest time. Public schools are not all bad, and most of the time the teachers are great and try their best, unfortunately the government likes to butt in more and more and that ties the teachers hands together. They can only do so much and have to follow regulations and rules. I think if teachers could do and teach the way they wanted to, learning in public school would be so much more meaningful, fun and helpful to our children. There are so many teachers out there that are so wonderfully creative and loving, but as I said they can only do so much and since classes are not that small either, it is hard for them to focus on those children that have a hard time learning. I still admire teachers and had plenty of great ones myself. I loved the teachers in our boys school in San Diego and appreciated all they did. Still, I had a very strong feeling about homeschooling and think highly of the inspirations we receive from our Heavenly Father. It wasn't easy to make that decision, but I don't regret it at all.
During one of our last Science lessons the boys made a presentation about their choice of their favorite animal. Nathan put together a little presentation about the "raven" and Josh put together a presentation about the bald eagle. I only took a picture of Josh's presentation since Nathan wrote his information on a bunch of pages, but Josh put his together in a poster. I always love when I see my kids be creative and research things they like and want to know more about. :) It amazes me how much fun our music lessons are. I always liked music, but teaching it to my kids and learning so many cool and interesting facts about different composers, singers, movies and so on, sure is a special treat. In our last lesson we spoke about the movie Mary Poppins and not only were we able to listen to all of their cool songs, no, we also learned a great deal about how the movie came about. I didn't know, for example, that Walt Disney, after reading the book Mary Poppins, tried to persuade the author already in 1938 to make a movie out of the book, but because she didn't think the story could be made into a good movie and he was still inexperienced and made cartoons, she said no and she continued to say "no" until she gave her okay in 1961. So yeah, he kept asking her over and over again and she told him no for 23 years. Wow. Another amazing fact was that the song "Sister Suffragette" hadn't originally been written for Mrs. Banks, but for Mary Poppins. The lesson says: "The actress Glynis Johns (see picture below) thought by a mistake, that she was going to play Mary Poppins. Since she and Walt Disney felt pretty uncomfortable about the little misunderstanding, he told her, that they had a terrific new song just for her as Mrs. Banks. He then contacted his song writers (the Sherman brothers), told them that he would meet Glynis Johns for lunch and that she was looking forward to hearing her new song following the meal. The Sherman brothers took the hint and spent their lunch hour changing the lyrics to one of their songs that had been written for Mary Poppins, to a song for Mrs. Banks!" What a cool way of changing things around. ;) In today's lesson we learned about "harmony" (Harmony in fours) and "barbershop quartet" and were able to listen to some fun music because of it. I think I have become a new fan for some music groups I hadn't even heard of before this lesson. II Divo is one of those amazing groups I am talking about. I love this version of "Amazing Grace", even more when the bagpipe starts playing. (As a full-blown Scotland fan, it sure is wonderful sound to my ears.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYMLMj-SibU
The Oak Ridge boys are another group, I was very impressed with. I am a big country music fan, and so listening to the following song, was kind of cool. ;) www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVLpEDwgdpM The funnest song, though, was definitely the "Peanut Butter and Jelly" love song. Haha, it isn't a normal song about romance, but the love between Peanut Butter and Jelly. So freaking cute and funny. :D www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K4TFtjaOWw We have been busy, again, with different subjects and fun craft projects. In History this week, we learned about the "Greeks and their Gods", and as a fun little craft project our boys made two toilet paper roll figures: a Cyclop and a Zeus! :) I love those cute little craft ideas which make learning more visual and exciting. In Literature we finished our lessons on Felix Salten's "Bambi" and today we started on William Shakespeare! I was a bit afraid about that, since Shakespeare isn't the easiest to understand and yet such a famous writer. It is interesting though, that there is not much information on Shakespeare himself, but a few fun facts are definitely interesting. I researched the Internet on Shakespeare before (as I was trying to find information about him for one of my books) and today I shared those facts with my boys. The craziest information about him is definitely, that he was married at the age of 18 to a woman named Anne Hathaway and she was already 26. Talk about a wow fact. ;) My boys were certainly surprised. ;) So since this first lesson was just information about him, and not really about his plays and sonnets, we had a little writing exercise in which our boys had to use some of his sayings and phrases and create a little story within a few minutes. It was interesting to see which phrases they picked... ;) Since we talked about different biomes and ecosystems in Science over the past few weeks, we finished our last lesson by creating a coral reef/ ocean biome habitat. It was a fun way to get creative, and the boys enjoyed finding resources they could use for it, while I printed out backgrounds and different kinds of fish to beautify our habitat. :) I think it looks rather nice and our boys had a blast being creative.
So far this week we kept busy with little craft projects. It is interesting what activity ideas our lessons have sometimes. In History we spoke about Nebuchadnezzar - King of Babylon. It is interesting to learn, not only about "normal" historical figures, but the many historical figures from the scriptures as well. With almost every lesson I am amazed how much I still have to learn and how little I knew about the subject before that lesson. Of course I had heard of Nebuchadnezzar before, but I didn't know many details about him and what happened to him. I didn't realize that the "Hanging Gardens of Babylon", which he had made for his Persian wife so she wouldn't be so homesick anymore, actually became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The gardens don't exist anymore, but we saw quite a few different pictures/ paintings of artists and how they imagined what the gardens looked like. We also learned, that the Babylonian temple is called a ziggurat. To make it more visual, we created a small little paper ziggurat. They also had a craft project idea in the lesson of creating a ziggurat out of cardboard and sugar cubes, and we would have totally done that if I would have had sugar cubes at home, but maybe sometime in the future. ;) The boys little paper ziggurat is pretty cool, too. For the past few weeks we have listened to the audio book "Bambi" in Literature. Not the Disney version, but the original version by Felix Salten. The boys are actually sad how short the book and the story is, and would have preferred it to be longer. After listening to "Little House in the Big Woods", which took us many weeks to finish, "Bambi" really is very short, but it is still a great learning experience because Bambi's story teaches many important things about life and how we can apply it to ourselves. Since the lessons about Bambi are coming to an end soon, the boys were able to put together a cute little lantern. I am just glad the lessons itself have all those craft suggestions because I am definitely not a "crafty" person. ;) Josh and Nathan love doing art projects while listening to the stories we are reading/ listening to. It always amazes me, that they still hear what is going on in the story, even though they are so occupied with cutting, coloring, gluing and drawing. Now, our last project (at least for today) was putting together the "Ritter Sport Museum building". It will be a great memory of our field trip from last week.
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AuthorI am a sarcastic German-born American citizen who loves life and enjoys writing. I am a mother of two boys and we are now experiencing the freakiest adventure of our lives. Archives
November 2017
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