home – Koofie's Natural Living

January 12, 2014January 29, 2014

The Homeschool Review

My first homeschool review was scheduled in early January. For those of you who don’t know the homeschooling rules in Maryland, we have the choice of either being “reviewed” by someone from the county we reside in or we can join a homeschooling “umbrella group” where the group reviews the instruction of your children(there are various methods for this). Essentially it is like choosing public school over private school; you have more freedom in how you choose to school your children with the second option, but you pay for it and you need to research your umbrella group well to make sure they will be supportive of your methods.

I chose to complete my review through the county I am living in now. I believed I could demonstrate my methods were providing instruction as required by the state of Maryland, without compromising my own homeschooling goals.

The state requires parents to demonstrate instruction in English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Health Education, Physical Education, Fine Arts (Art, Music) and Other (Technology, World Language). Parents can show the instruction through:

text(s) or equivalent
reading materials/list
writing samples
worksheets/workbooks
tests/quizzes
creative materials
field trips
other

I chose to create a document for each girl where I could enter in our activities to show our reviewer what we had done. Below you can see Ari’s and Abby’s charts.

I made a list of all of our field trips, the dates and which child participated.

I had pictures of many of our activities, assignments and field trips so I organized these into subject areas and also into Unit studies, as Ari has been completing most of her work through various units.

A lot of Abby’s Language Arts work was done in a spiral 11×14 sketchbook, so I brought that along.

Finally, I had a 3-ring notebook for each girl. Abby’s was divided into subjects and assignments; she has a tab for math, letter practice, number practice, assessments and awards and one for writings and stories. Ari’s notebook is divided into math and then a tab for each unit.

All of this preparation not only made the review easy and a positive experience, but it really helped me to reflect on what we had done so far this year. I am happy with what we have accomplished and the learning and growth I have seen in both girls. We were given a paper that showed we had “Clear Evidence of instruction throughout” our portfolio and we will return again at the end of the year.

Abby's HS Portfolio Review Reflection Form — Abby’s HS Portfolio Review Reflection Form

Ari's HS Portfolio Review Reflection Form — Ari’s HS Portfolio Review Reflection Form

September 3, 2013January 29, 2014

Homeschooling: Abby’s First Day

Today was Abby’s first day of First Grade.

She brought along a friend (that’s a cool part of homeschooling).

Abby’s school day started off with an Adventure Walk. Basically, we went on a walk while I made up a story that we acted out. Eventually I will have a repertoire of songs and actions I can do on an adventure walk, but for today I made it up as I went along. In the story the fictional characters got up and dressed, explored the woods, saw birds and trees, ran down hills and walked backwards up others, all of which we did together. It might seem like an odd thing to do, but we worked up a sweat (it was about 85 degrees out) and got a great workout. Abby loved it:)

Abby then began her “classwork”; we recalled the story I had told her yesterday, we spoke a verse (Abby knows a little of it) and we drew pictures from the story. My picture even had some hidden letters which we found! Abby then went off to play:

cat dojo house

She created a “Cat Dojo House”?!?

After lunch we had Quiet Time, which is a time of inner reflection or focus. Abby worked on her “cat dojo house” as I looked through materials for Ari’s afternoon Math lesson, cleaned up a bit and made sure I was calm and centered for what would follow.

While Ari did math, Abby played with some math manipulatives. When she was done, she decided to do math “like Ari” and made herself some addition problems to complete. Once done, we all read a story about finger crocheting. Abby did a bit herself, and then begged me to do more. I held off and right at bedtime she decided to work on it herself using the nightlight we have for her. I don’t think she did many but she had completed a few more when she last told me where she was. For those of you who haven’t spent a few hours with Abby, you won’t know that she talks incessantly and loves to narrate what she is doing. I usually tune her out, which she says is fine with her!

Day one for Abby is finally done, Ari has started week two and our rhythm actually seems to be working out! I’m excited to see what tomorrow brings.

August 29, 2013

Real Life Math

Today, Ari’s math didn’t come from a book or a worksheet. Instead she budgeted for a shopping trip and made the purchases for our family! It was a busy afternoon; we planned to go to the library (free!) and then we needed to visit the farmer’s market, BJ’s, Michaels, the grocery store and a local farm store. Before we left we made a list of the items we needed and I estimated what I thought each cost. Then, we built some money into the budget because I inevitably forget a lot on the lists!

It started off well as she noticed a sign for $.05 off gas on Thursdays just as my tank was about to hit “empty”. She calculated it out and we saved $.42 due to her “eagle eyes”.

After our weekly visit to the library, we decided to go to Michael’s first. This is the place we can spend the most money AND it was the furthest, so I decided to test Ari’s budget skills! She passed with flying colors, though I did insist we buy something on “one-day-only” sale.

BJ’s went just as well (darn, we forgot bananas from the list too), and we carried on to the farmer’s market. Our budgeting was a bit trickier here because some of the needed items were not what I regularly buy and I had to estimate. Ari kept us on track and as we figured out what we could spend to have enough for other items, she made sure we weren’t going overboard. I was not allowed to buy a second dozen eggs “just in case” or any shitake mushrooms that were a surprise (she hates mushrooms) and she reasoned with me that we needed to buy some milk and chicken, which I had forgotten on the list… sigh.

We worked in a bit of math with Abby too, as she was given $1 to spend and we informed her honey sticks (her favorite) were 4/$1 at the farmer’s market or 5/$1 at the farm store. She resisted the immediate temptation and saved her money for later.

Ari reasoned we needed to go to the grocery store next so we knew just how much we had left for the farm store, where we obtain our milk and meat. We ended up with enough left to buy our milk, chicken and some fruit with a tiny bit extra! As a thank you for a great job Ari and Abby were each given $2 to spend (black cherry soda and chocolate milk respectively) and adorably, they switched drinks halfway through the ride home.

Ari was really proud of herself for not only sticking to a budget but also not losing the money(!). I can’t imagine why I didn’t do this before and I’m pretty sure this will become our weekly ritual.

But I just remembered I forgot to get something we need at BJ’s 🙁

October 29, 2012

MENF Wrap-up: A Homesteader’s Hindsight

The second session I attended at the Mother Earth News Fair on Saturday was “A Homesteader’s Hindsight: 20 great ideas and 20 not-so-great ideas” presented by Philip Ackerman-Leist, author of the book Up Tunket Road and professor of Environmental Studies at Green Mountain College. The idea of learning from someone else’s mistakes is perfect; who better to tell you what to do and what not to do then someone who has done it all already?

The session started off when he told the audience to first pick a realist for a partner – check! – and to be very clear in your wedding vows (buy me a farm in the mountains) – I missed this one. He said the burnout potential for homesteaders is very high, and many relationships don’t survive it. Some of his advice was pretty common sense, but would be easy to overlook in your desire for property:

If you have a spot that wants to be a pond, make a pond
If you have a road that wants to be a river, don’t buy the property or you will be walking in and out of your homestead
Build a house on a firm foundation with a shaped basement (square) – heat rises
If you are building in the north, don’t build a house on sono-tubes like they do in the south – what works in one place may not work in another
Build a garage or tool shed first (it gives you a place to store tools so you don’t have sharp objects hanging around your living space
Build an outhouse with a view
Build it right the first time
Search out your neighbors – the will be a great source of information
Right of way – it is best not to share a driveway because you may not always agree on what needs to be done
Always remember to check township rules and local ordinances before you buy!
Take a chain saw safety class
You may not need a sawmill (but try sawmillexchange.com if you do)
Live on the site for a year or more before you build
If you can, live in a state with good health insurance
Don’t get kicked by a cow (whether you have good health insurance or not)
Your community can save you/ homesteading is all about interdependence despite the “doing it on your own” hype
Live the questions – put your values to work
Don’t assume new always means good or old always means sustainable
Animals and gardens will become the center of your day
The homestead can become a constraint
Visit other homesteads to get ideas and if you can, ask about finances – it’s the topic no one talks about that everyone needs to! – see below
When you visit a homestead, remember you are seeing it at only one point in time. How long did it take to get there? 5 years, 20 years?
Be clear in what type of homesteader you are
Look for these books: New Pioneers: The Back-to-the-Land Movement and the Search for a Sustainable Future by Jeffrey Jacob and At Home in Nature: Modern Homesteading and Spiritual Practice in America by Rebecca Kneale Gould
Don’t set yourself up to be a superhero
Begin as a homestead and then segue into a farm if that is the direction you would like to go.
Farming might take away from the homestead; for instance the home garden may not get as much care as your focus shifts
Farming takes you from producing to marketing
Thrift stores are a great way to get what you need for cheap
BUT… you don’t want to buy someone else’s problem
Homeschooling -> comes out of teaching to the test
It might be a good idea if, for instance, your kids would have to spend 1.5 hours or more just getting to and from the bus stop
Homeschooling also:
- makes you tighter as a family unit
- kids get more exercise (school has very few outside activities)
- you get “stolen lessons” – those things kids learn just by being there

A lot of homesteaders have an off-the-homestead job to provide income that is re-invested in the farm
The trade-off is the person who works off-homestead becomes more distant from the family
If you feel good about what you are doing, share it!
“You can judge a person by the integrity of their compromises”

Answers to audience questions:

Solar panels on his farm – 800w system
Grid tie in is better than stand-alone
Solar Water pays off quicker than a solar electric system, so that is usually the best investment
His house has a 24×36 basement + 2 levels and an open attic and a separate entrance for bedrooms so they can be rented
Finances:
- $50k / year from job
- house was $140k to build
- they bought more land with an inheritance
- to prepare for college, it is better to have $ invested in land than in the bank
- pay off mortgage ASAP

The above tips were what I gleaned from the presentation, which was peppered with stories about life on his homestead. It was a wonderful, entertaining session and while the information he gave is above (to the best of my abilities), actually being there was fun! He also answered questions from the audience, and you can see the answers above.