Friday, December 21st, 2007
My daughter, Aiyana, received one of her Christmas gifts early. I wrote about it on my main website, Vegan Momma. Later that day found her reading to Amazing Amanda. How cute is that? Amanda was chattering about “Let’s Play” and Aiyana was saying, “Shh, Amanda, you have to be quiet mommy is reading to you. Aiyana was reading to her from the McGuffey readers.
Aiyana really likes Amazing Amanda although she isn’t playing with it all the time. I expected that but when she wants something that talks back to her besides her mommy she reaches for Amanda.
We don’t get too much into the Christmas holidays at least not the buying aspect of it. It’s way to commercialized, and I never got into things, you know? That’s the last thing I want my daughter to do with Christmas think it’s all about what she can get. We do spend a lot of time with the family simply because they have more time from work. I enjoy hanging with family & friends.
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Thursday, December 20th, 2007
Yesterday I received a free trial of Home Education Magazine. I haven’t had a chance to peruse it, but I will once my work has calmed down. It looks very interesting. It took a little over a month to receive my free trial. I originally filled out the form on November 3, 2007. If you are interested in receiving this homeschooling magazine you can do so by filling out Home Education’s Sample Issue Request form.
Technorati Tags: homeschooling, homeschooling magazine, Home Education Magazine
Posted in Homeschool Resources | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
Aiyana and I just got finished playing a game that focused on counting, although she didn’t know that was what we were doing. She just thought we were having fun. It’s our fun learning aka homeschooling. How did we play this game? I rounded up a few of the cool items in our home. You know the ones that are off limits to her? I gave them each a price. To “purchase” these items she had to give me a set amount of nickels, dimes, quarters, and pennies. For example for mommy’s Jade statue she had to pay me five quarters, 3 dimes, 2 nickels, and 5 pennies. That’s not a bad deal especially since I paid a few hundred dollars for it. 
She had a blast, and we played this game for about two hours. Homeschooling can be a lot of fun. I try to make it that way. We stopped only because mommy had an article to complete with my freelance writing gig, but I promised her we would play it tomorrow.
I rarely carry cash with me. I use my check card but I did tell her at the beginning of the year she can start paying for the items I purchase. She’s really excited about that something about handing the cashier the products that we purchase excites her. I imagine it makes her feel just like mommy. She’s thrilled that she will be able to do a big job like handing out cash. Sighs, guess I’ll have to go to the ATM to actually get some cash.
Technorati Tags: counting, homeschooling
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Saturday, December 8th, 2007
It’s been silent on A Homeschooling Resource, but we are still homeschooling. We were away for the Thanksgiving holidays and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Things are starting to settle down with my work so I’ll be able to post a few pictures of the things we have seen while we were away.
Aiyana is moving onto regular books with her reading and is tackling “big words” over six letters. She’s very proud of herself. With homeschooling my daughter I’ve never pushed her to read but this is something she has always wanted to do. I imagine, in her mind, this is normal. Homeschooling, I think, starts well before the child even materializes. I was reading to her when I was pregnant. Then I was reading the complete collection of Winnie the Pooh. It’s still one of her favorite books.
Although Aiyana can now read she still insists that I read to her at night or tell her a story. She likes me to make up stories for her. At times, I make up a story, but repeatedly I’ll turn the spotlight on her and tell her to create a story for me. It’s a fun exercise that really encourages her to be creative. I really need to start capturing some of her stories on film.
I’ve always been fascinated with history and Aiyana, seems to be interested in the history books and websites that I’ve been reading. I’m most fascinated with war history and the roles that minorities have placed throughout history. Since my daughter has shown such an interest in what I enjoy I’ve decided to include it in hour homeschooling sessions.
Mike Goad of Exit 78 wrote a post titled Ashamed to be Indian. My daughter is Indian, Black, Irish, and German. Not only is it important for her to know about the cultures she is a part of I also feel it is important to educate her about others. I’ll be reading the letter included in Mike’d post sometime this weekend. her great grandmother was Indian, Black, and Irish.
Although she was two years old when she died my daughter still remembers her and will tell you about various events that happened during some of their meetings.
I’ve always liked this painting by Norman Rockwell. He is portraying Rosy the Riveter. My grandmother, Aiyana’s great grandmother, was a Rosy Riveter, and she also was one of the first women to work in real estate.
My grandmother was very light and could pass for white. She did. In doing so she was able to receive better work than those who couldn’t. In our homeschooling session I’ll be talking about this and the reasons why some of those who could pass did.
Aiyana reminds me a lot of myself at her age. I had an insatiable thirst for knowledge; I still do. I was eager to learn anything that my mother or teachers gave to me. I was hungry for information. It learned to read early, just like Aiyana, simply because I felt in reading I would be able to get more information.
Technorati Tags: homeschooling, Exit 78, Mike Goad, history, Rosy Riveter
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