On the spur of the moment Saturday morning, Lorena, Kelly, Christian, and I decided to put a few things in the mini-van and go to the beach at Newport. It was a great idea. The weather was great. We spent a couple of hours just hanging out on the beach, looking at stuff in tidepools, playing in the waves, and getting some fresh air. After that, we went into town to Mo’s to get some clam chowder. It was ok clam chowder, but I think Lorena’s and Dad and Mom’s are both much, much better. I have placed some pictures at the end of this post of our trip.
After we ate, we decided to take a stroll and look at some of the shops along the bayfront by Mo’s. Lorena found some cool pottery and some ideas for a water display at our house that would be very fun to try to make. I think I will start looking for some parts with the idea of deciding whether I believe I could do something like that. We found a place that gives ocean tours for homeschool groups at a discount rate. The regular rate is not that much higher. I really think that is something that would be great to do next fall as we are getting started to get the kids excited about the ocean (as if they need any more excitement). We will also visit the Hatfield Marine Sciences Research Center. We have all seen the Newport Aquarium about three times and it is good, but it will be good to give it a rest to try something new once. They are right beside each other in Newport so they are easily accessible as a day trip.
Progress
Yesterday, Christian and I started in on learning multiplication using the “Moore Formula” method that we used with Kelly. He did just great. Actually, we started with that method and then as Kelly got competent enough, we moved over to the use of flash cards. That is probably what we will do with Christian, depending on how comfortable he feels with the “Moore Formula” method.
Beach Trip Pictures
Kelly and Christian investigating a tide pool.
Kelly with the lighthouse in the background.
Lorena at the tide pool.
Lorena, Kelly, and Christian at the tide pool.
Lorena guarding the stuff and enjoying the sun.
What is the Moore formula? We are working on memorizing multiplication just now.
Audrey, this was way back when we were just getting started. The thing that really worked for us on memorizing math facts was Math-It. You can see it here. It was a “hammer through it” kind of material for us, but this really helped a lot. The Moore Formula is from one of the old homeschool pioneers–it is more about homeschooling in general than anything in particular although I liked a lot about what they had to say. Their book was especially helpful when we were just getting started. You can see that stuff here. If you have any questions, please let me know.
What do you like about the Moore fomula? It seems to me that many of my unschooling aquaintences
would be of this school of thought, and I KNOW that’s not your method! I’m avoiding the soap box
for the time being!! 😉
The big thing I liked about the Moore’s book The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook was their main theme. That was that if you are getting too stressed with homeschool, rather than quit, find another method. They focused on the fact that homeschool should be enjoyable to both the kids and the parents. My belief that no matter what I do, it is going to be better than what the government gives them has sometimes sustained me. In the end, I believe the structure we applied in our unique situation worked very well for our family, but we did not let that structure wreck our lives. We have good friends who had to cross every ‘T’ and dot every ‘i’ perfectly. They quit homeschooling after a couple of years. In our case, because of our rather unique setup, I have had to let some stuff go by the wayside that I might have liked to do if the circumstances were different. I did not want that to discourage me so much that I did not keep going. The Moores provided encouragement for that and I have been well served by remembering their advise over the years. I think our kids are the better for the fact that we have kept going.
All that being said, I think we discussed the unschooling thing when we were in Indiana. We are on exactly the same page on that.