Patronus’ Classroom

The kids have been working hard and are doing great!  This post is dedicated to Mr. Whittier’s students, who are following our trip as part of their schoolwork, and to all our kid friends back in the states, like Luke, Nicholas M., Kelli, Christina, Chase, and more! We know you are all working hard as well! Those of you who didn’t like school should skip this one and go see our Gallery, which has fun pictures of Chris and I on boats as children.

As I mentioned in our last Boatschooling post, we are following the curriculum of our school at home in New Jersey.  I have a little bit of latitude to adjust the lessons as needed and, of course, add lessons that tie into our trip.  Here’s what the kids are doing:

Spelling: All three children are using the spelling curriculum used in the Ho-Ho-Kus school.  Each week, they get a list of words and we practice them all week.  When they are comfortable with their list, we take a post-test to check their learning.  I have fun trying to make up funny sentences with the words as I read them out loud.  The lists are based on the vowel operating in each word (ie. Short “u” sounds, “r” controlled vowels, etc).  Practice may include writing the words in alphabetical order (I’m trying to undo calling it “ABC Order”.  Who started that, anyway?), writing a dictated paragraph, or writing sentences.  They don’t practice dictation at their school, but I think it is a great idea.  Not only are they practicing their spelling and punctuation, they are also honing their listening skills.  Learning to write quickly and with precision will give them practice for taking notes in high school and college.  One fun way to practice spelling was when I had Porter write his words in the sand on the beach in Martha’s Vineyard.  He had a great time doing it and I loved seeing his cute little hands making the letters with a stick that he found.

It’s a little hard to concentrate on schoolwork when your classroom is sailing under a cool bridge.

Vocabulary (Bryson): I have a set of vocabulary workbooks that are a stretch for him.  They seem to be at an 8^th grade level, but the exercises are varied and interesting.  I find that Bryson does better when he is challenged, so I think this will help fight off boredom.  Since I am there to help him, he is not getting frustrated.  He is even starting to use some of his new words in his writing and speaking.

Counting and Sorting Coins for Math

Math: We shoot for two pages in their Math workbooks each day.  Bryson is gifted in conceptual and factual math but the 5^th grade curriculum gets more complicated and focuses on reading the directions, checking your work, and avoiding little mistakes.  These are all areas that he is working on.  I don’t have the answer key for the workbooks, so to check their work each day, I have to do all the problems myself.  Adding and multiplying 4 digit numbers, measuring angles, remembering what a scalene triangle is, and those “rule boxes” end up taking up a lot of my time.  Porter’s and Reese’s math is much easier to correct (I should hope so).  So far, Porter is doing well, but reading an analog clock is still confusing to him.  Reese does well in math, but it is a source of frustration for her, so I have been focusing on boosting her confidence with it.  A week hasn’t gone by when she hasn’t screamed, “I hate math!  This is so dumb.  I’m never going to get this!”  Sometimes Chris tries to jump in to give her a different approach (he WAS a math major in college, after all) but she gets just as frustrated with him.  Baby steps…

Visiting Paul Revere’s Home in Boston

Social Studies: Our general social studies curriculum for all three kids is comprised of visiting museums, seeing new places, meeting people, and learning about new cultures.  Some special topics we have explored so far are visiting the U.S. Naval Academy and the Portland Fish Exchange.

Bryson also has a textbook from school and will typically read a chapter and complete the corresponding pages in his workbook.  His textbook work will ensure that he covers the same topics that the rest of his peers will study, which is Ancient Civilizations.  I look forward to tying in to his textbook work when we visit ruins and historic sites along the way.

Reese’s curriculum covers the U.S. Constitution and Immigration.  We look forward to completing an extensive project on the latter, which will hopefully complement the project that the students at the HHK School will do.  I hope to be able to send Reese’s project in to her teacher so that it can be included in the presentation of Immigration Day at their school.  We will rely on Aunt Carolyn to teach Reese all about one of her favorite topics, the Constitution, via Skype!

Our Salt vs. Fresh water egg floating contest

Science: Our science curriculum is based on the topics that are covered in 1^st, 4^th, and 5^th grades in New Jersey and include: buoyancy, microscopic structures, light and solar energy, animals, plants, weather, properties of matter, rocks and minerals, water, and wetlands.  But our everyday science curriculum is experiential.  Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we point out science concepts, ask science questions, talk about how things work, look up new animals we see, visit museums, do experiments, and find experts to teach us something new.  Experiments and field trips so far include: making our own bubbles; floating an egg in salt vs. fresh water; learning to use our new barometer; getting trained by a mechanic to understand, maintain, and fix our generator; visiting the Block Island Power Company; going to the Long Island and National Aquariums; making a pulley; visiting a 400 year old rum distillery; and visiting the Annapolis Maritime Museum to learn about oystering in the Chesapeake Bay.  Recently, we were treated to spotting a Bald Eagle on the Intracoastal Waterway.  It was awe-inspiring to see one outside of a zoo, and there is nothing like it.

Reading:  Bryson and Reese are reading a variety of books from all different genres and are doing book reports on them.  In the beginning of the year, the reports have been fun and engaging, including a video biography of Blackbeard, a book report in the shape of a person, and a “charm bracelet” Character Sketch book report.  Later in the year, I will work with them to write more formal book reports in order to deepen their understanding of themes and inferring meaning.  I will also have them read books together with me so that we can have “book group” meetings.

I’m not sure which one of us is having more fun!

Porter likes reading the morning message and filling in the weather.

Porter is doing very well with his reading.  He fought against it through most of Kindergarten, but he turned a corner right before we left on our trip and now he is reading beginner chapter books.  He loves reading together with me on my bunk in my cabin.  We snuggle up together and take our time.  I love how he turns the page and really inspects the illustrations before he starts to read the words.  We are practicing different decoding skills, such as sounding out the words, breaking up big words into smaller parts, and using context clues to figure out what a difficult word might be (we use that one a lot because I like saying “context clues”.).

All three children have a reading log to keep track of the books they have read.  Bryson and Reese write a short summary of each book in their log.  Porter and I make a big deal about writing in his log after he finishes a book.  We write down the title but I also use that time to remind him how to find the name of the author, how many pages each book has, and other “parts of a book”.  We talk about whether or not he enjoyed the book and I “test” him by asking him questions to see if he understood what he read.

Reading about fun Science facts

Writing:  Well, I have it “Hard. Super Crazy Easy. Hard”.  Bryson is a man of few words when it comes to writing.  He is not into details, fluff, or descriptors.  “Answer the question as briefly as possible” is his motto.  Actually, a better motto is simply, “Brevity.  Good.”  I am trying to come up with topics that really engage and excite him as well as conjuring up writing assignments that are more interesting than just “Write three paragraphs about…”  So far I haven’t found the magic words to make him love writing, but I am working on it.  Part of the problem is that he doesn’t enjoy actually handwriting words on paper.  He finds it laborious, especially when I ask him to write in script.  I might have him do some writing projects directly on the computer.

Math on the Lido Deck

Reese is a different story.  She is a storyteller, an illustrator, and a designer.  She is constantly writing new stories, adding to old ones, writing letters to her friends, writing blogs about our trip, and drawing pictures to go with her writing.  I love to read her narrative writing and will have her practice additional types of writing throughout the year, including poetry, persuasive writing, and non-fiction.

Porter is also a reluctant writer, but in the past few weeks I have found ways to engage him.  We created a “writing book” and each day we find a new topic to write about.  One day we wrote all about “Mommy”.  One day we learned the Cub Scout Promise and wrote it in his book.  Another day, we cut out a giant heart and he wrote about things he loves inside.  I got a lot of ideas for writing from the amazing first grade teacher at our school, and I plan on using ALL of them.

Translating my Morse Code messages for a whole-boat scavenger hunt

Handwriting:  Porter and Reese both have handwriting workbooks that they use to practice every day.  Porter is, of course, still practicing manuscript letters and Reese is practicing script.  Her writing is so impeccable that from a distance, you cannot tell the difference between her handwriting and the samples in the book!  She, of course, will finish a page and look at it in disgust, exclaiming, “My descenders are not slanting the way I want them to!  This is IMPOSSIBLE!”  I wonder from whom she got that trait?

I have to watch Porter as he practices, and most nights I fall asleep still chanting, “straight across on the e, start your letters from the top, a g starts out as an a….”

The Morse Code messages lead them to Swedish Fish hidden under our conch shell!

Phonics:  Porter has a phonics workbook that is painful, boring, and slightly below his level.  We are steadily plowing through it, but I might look around to see if I can find an alternative.  It is definitely helping, but sitting with him as he completes the endless, repetitive pages is like watching paint dry.  I am practically asleep after the first two pages of “fill in the ending sound of the pictures you see below” or “circle the pictures that start with the sound of n”.

Our “Cracker Fat Chart”

Health:  Mrs. Buksar, their health teacher, supplied us with five units of study each.  The “Body Shop” pamphlets are self-contained and just have to be read, understood, and filled out.  The kids have each done two so far and topics include: the Digestive System; Bones and Muscles; and Feelings.  We extend the units by discussing them all together and doing experiments.  For the Digestive System, which explained “Types of Fat”, we pulled out all the cookies and crackers on the boat and checked the fat content as well as the type of fat.  Reese used her math skills to make a chart to display her findings.  We all agreed that Fig Newtons, while lowest in fat, are still the tastiest!

Porter loves playing our dice tally game on the bed, first thing in the morning

Spanish:  We have a laminated fold-out pamphlet with common Spanish terms on it, but that is the extent of our Spanish curriculum so far.  I am hoping that we will get some language immersion practice on some of the islands in the Caribbean.  If not, I will have to beef up this part of the curriculum later this year.  Apparently, my brain can only hold two languages in it.  When I learned Swedish in college, it pushed out the years of High School Spanish that was hidden in it.

Reese helps Porter with his schoolwork while visiting Grandpa and Mary in Martha’s Vineyard

Music:  We started recorder lessons this week here on Patronus.  I am SOOOO excited.  In case I haven’t already bragged about it six times to you before, I was in the All-County Recorder Ensemble on Long Island back in the 1980’s.  I am like the world’s biggest recorder geek.  Bryson has already had a year of recorder at school, so he and I will work with Porter and Reese, and before long, we will start our own band and do recorder recordings and sell CD’s to fuel our cruising kitty.  Or maybe we’ll just get the kids to read music, cover the holes completely, and not blow too hard through a wind instrument.  But I can dream, right?

The kids practice twisted high lunch on the beach…Beautiful!

Gym:  Funny.  The ocean is their swimming pool.  The kayak and stand up paddle board are their weight lifting machines.  And climbing all over the boat, inside and out, is their gymnastics routine.  Add to that miles of hiking each week, miles of walking to laundromats, museums, grocery stores, and up and down docks.  Then throw in five foot holes dug in the sand and swinging off the boom.  Then take away television, Wii, and a couch.  I think I can probably skip a formal physical education program…

Besides the fact that he is responsible for navigation, boat handling, and mechanics, here is the Top Reason why I am the teacher (and etiquette coach) and not Chris:)

One night we were talking about Kate Middleton:

Reese: “What’s a Duchess?”

Chris: “Someone from Dutchland.” (as he shovels meatballs and spaghetti in his mouth with both his fork and his knife.)

In our next post, we will each write a little bit about some of our fun field trips!  Learning while exploring the world around us is our favorite way to find out about new concepts and meet new people.

Boatschooling: Day One, Still All Smiles….

Of the many responses we got about going on this voyage, one of the most common was from parents who claimed that they could never homeschool their children. Surprisingly, of all the things I prepared for in the past year, homeschooling was probably the least of my worries. I am a certified teacher, but I only taught for a short time before having children and staying home to raise them. However, I taught sixth grade, which can be one tough age. To top it off, I taught in a school district that had a good deal of cultural and economic hardships. I figured that teaching three well-behaved children, who were my own, would be a walk in the park. You’d think after being a mom for eleven years, I would know better…

Saying goodbye to Mrs. Walsh and Dr. Eckert

Our school at home, the Ho-Ho-Kus Public School, was incredibly supportive of our trip. A short note about homeschooling: the laws about homeschooling vary greatly from state to state. Being in New Jersey, I had to inform the school district of my intent to homeschool and ensure them that I would provide a comparable education compared to the public school. In other states, the laws are much more strict and can involve testing, sending in lesson plans, and more. Since we are returning to the school next year, we chose to follow our district’s curriculum, as opposed to purchasing one of the programs available online. This way, our children will have similar experiences to those of their classmates and will know what the teachers are referring to next year when they talk about something the rest of the students learned the year before.

Reese paints a postcard to send to her class

The Superintendent , Principal and the invaluable Mrs. Walsh, worked with me and agreed that the experiences of our children could enrich the education of the students at home as well. We brainstormed ideas and planned to Skype with the kids’ homerooms, send postcards from various ports back to the school, take pictures of our children in their school spirit shirts and post them on our website and the school website. Each of the children was assigned a teacher and I met with them extensively back in January. The teachers reviewed the curriculum with me and generously provided us with all the workbooks, textbooks, and other materials we would need. I just packed it all up in bins and threw it onboard in June, figuring I would sort it out once we got under way. (I was a little busy getting our house ready, working on the boat, and, oh yeah, caring for three children!)

Working on spelling

Once we got under way, I thought, “Maybe it’s not such a good idea to have the kids do NOTHING over the summer.” I knew they would give me a hard time if, all of a sudden, I started expecting them to do three hours of school a day after two months of a complete free-for-all. It’s hard enough to get kids back into the swing of things when you have a school, an experienced teacher, and a whole societal institution backing you up. So I decided to start math and reading over the summer. Nothing crazy. Just a few pages in their math workbooks for Units 1 and 2, which are review. I also had them read everyday and log their progress. Chris wanted to give them the summer off, but I promised that this little bit of work would pay off in September. Guess again, Mrs. Conway.

Porter takes a nap on Bryson’s lap after the stress of his Phonics book

September 1st came and went. We were having too much fun with the Armitages in Newport to start school. Then Labor Day weekend came and went and I knew the time had come. I made a big deal about telling the kids that all their friends were starting school that day, too. We went on Facebook at 8:45am and I showed them all the “First Day of School” photos that my mom friends had already posted. They looked at me like I was crazy. Insane. School? On a boat? They acted like they had no idea they would be doing schoolwork this year, even though we’ve been talking about it incessantly and it is a big topic of conversation every time we meet new people along the way. Even though half of Reese’s cabin is filled with school supplies.

DWT: Driving While Teaching. I should have been pulled over for trying to give two spelling tests while driving the boat through the Cap Cod Canal!

So I got out all the books, which had not moved from their bins, and we started up. After about 30 minutes, they were whining, complaining about stomachs hurting, staring at the blue water outside the portholes, and asking me how much longer I planned on torturing them. I stayed positive for about two days, but they are my kids before they are my students, and I can only take so much before I lose my patience. I found myself getting irritated and annoyed with them as their teacher. I thought about the great teachers they’ve had in Ho-Ho-Kus, who handle a whole class with such patience and grace. I berated myself every time I couldn’t get them motivated or interested and found myself saying ridiculous things, like “All your friends are in school for 7 ½ hours today. You should feel LUCKY!”. This works about as well as it worked when my parents told me about the starving kids in China in an effort to get me to eat liver. I thought they were insane to think that would work and I’m sure my kids are feeling the same. Chris was noticing how worked up I was getting and the mere mention of schoolwork was enough to put us all on edge. The situation was all the more difficult because I really did not expect it. Bryson and Reese are smart and work hard and even though Porter is new to school, I thought he would be fine as long as I worked with him one-on-one. I knew I had to do something, but as with much of parenting, by the time I figured it out, time had gone by and they were starting to realize that this school thing was non-negotiable. Phew.

Porter hard at work

Once we hit mid-October, we were over the hump. We were in a routine where we spend 5 days a week on schoolwork. The kids wake up before me (who doesn’t?) and start in on the work they can do independently, such as spelling and handwriting. Then they take a break to have breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth, and make beds. Once we are back at the dinette table, I assign Bryson and Reese their work for the day and they get started. I am there if they run into a problem and need some help. Then I sit with Porter and help him with his work. We got into a nice groove and I started to understand who needs more help in which subjects. I tried to organize my time so that I could work one-on-one with each of them for a little bit each day. Of course, Porter needs more of my time, Reese needs less, and Bryson is quite independent at this point. Most days, there is some point when all three are asking me questions at the same time, which gets a little overwhelming (It’s been awhile since I had a two-year-old, which is kind of what it’s like).

Chris taught a weather lesson when we installed our new barometer

After awhile, I realized that we were definitely making good progress. This helped me to relax a little. I know now that we will definitely get to everything we need to do for their grade levels and will have plenty of time left for exploring lots of fun, extra topics and projects. In fact, as of October 25th, Porter has completed half of his math curriculum for the year! Getting ahead will leave more time for moments like these: Porter, sleepy-eyed, and naked except for his pajama bottoms, gets all excited and calls me. “Mom!!! Doesn’t this Triscuit look like Minnesota?!!!”

The Minnesota Triscuit

See my next Boatschooling posts for details on our curriculum and our many field trips for on-location learning! (and more pictures, of course…)