Slice of Pi: homeschool journal

Chicks and Bunnies

2011-04-21T09:56:00.000-07:00

For nature Wednesday a few weeks ago, we went to the Animal Shelter where our dogaphobic little girl fell in love with a friendly little handicapped puppy. It had a broken leg, and was being cared for by the staff there. Adrie begged and begged for days to take that puppy home. I still haven't heard the end of it.

This week we went to IFA to see the chicks and bunnies. The staff was so friendly. They took out the bunnies to let the kids touch them and told them some fun facts about chicks.
Like how those chicks will grow up to lay eggs in 6-8 weeks! Wow!
And the dark brown chicks will lay green eggs. The yellow ones will lay brown eggs.
They'll lay about one egg a day and those eggs will be much healthier and tastier than the hormone filled ones you buy at the store. Hmmm.
They brought out a package of marshmallow Peeps for each of my kids! What a happy fieldtrip!

If I had to have a pet, I'd choose chickens over a dog. Until then, I'm looking into buying farm fresh eggs.

As it is Easter week, we read another one of our favorite holiday stories. The Country Bunny
If you want an easter story that you and your kids will LOVE. Read this book. It has a beautiful a message that kids and adults will relate to and remember.

Easter Egg Tree

2011-04-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

We've had a few changes this semester with homeschool. First of all, Brynn left us and joined our local elementary school. She's in Mrs. Crane's 2nd grade class. Her begggging to go to "real" school started way back in September (which is weird because we've had so much fun here:) But, we gave it a few months and she persisted and I felt good about her going back too. She fit right in and made a host of instant friends because she's like that. Even though her days are much longer, she says she's glad to be in public school.

Having only Adrie the kindergartner at home has had it's plusses. We've had a good time one on one, with a lot of Cannon, in the way. It has been way more relaxed at home. Isn't kindergarten supposed to be fun? Adrie is a pretty proficient reader for her age and we still keep that up. We've been reading stories and doing activites from the Children's Book of Virtues. She has been doing k12 online math. We've been learning French together every week and I've started teaching Adrie the basics of violin. That's pretty much our curriculum with some shopping trips, playdates, rollerblading, and cleaning in the mix.

Despite all these changes, one thing that has remained is Art Day, Friday, we read The Egg Tree, and then made our own. The girls' (we invite our neighbor over for this) had a fun morning dying eggs to hang on our tree outside. Turned out our little apple tree was good for something after all. We took the eggs off and ate them for lunch.

In past weeks we've done finger painting and string art. We made houses out of styrofoam block and painted them.

Christmas Week One

2010-12-17T12:54:00.000-08:00

Away with the school schedule! The next 2 weeks we are having Christmas fun every day. We always look forward to this part of our homeschool year. We sat down on Monday with some idea books and wrote out all the things we wanted to do to lead us up to Christmas.

Made caramel apples. What do these have to do with Christmas? I don't know, but the girls really wanted to make them and EAT them. This is usually our Art Day. We looked at a few different artists' renditions of Madonna and Child from a book I have had since high school about the Prado museum.
We read "The Night Before Christmas." Wouldn't it be cool to memorize this?? I thought that last year and we attempted it--even got a few stanzas in. This year I thought the girls could use a little motivation and it worked. They earned a mini candy for each stanza memorized. Happy Hanukkah! We learned a little about what Jews believe, the Menorah and the miracle of the candle burning in the temple for 8 days. We played dreidel which is really fun, and would have sang songs, but we didn't know any!

We made up our own (sung to the tune of "Happy Holidays").

Happy Hanukkah (echo) Happy Hanukkah

repeat repeat

May your Menorah lights keep burning

Happy Hanukkah to you.

Ha Ha! I hope that's not sacriligious....

Made "Christingles."

Read "The Cat in the Manger."

Went to a local production of The Nutcracker.

Decorated Christmas tree cakes.

Read "The Elves and the Shoemaker."

7 more days to go!

Elfettes and Boggle

2010-12-09T14:18:00.000-08:00

We are wrapping up our last week of "school" before the much anticipated Christmas break.
Today was one of those perfect school days--the kind I like to post. Why was it good? Maybe it was because we had a fellow school friend over for the day while her parents were away. This made school seem extra special AND there was no complaining! Strength in numbers!

We covered phonics, spelling, and handwriting with several rounds of Boggle--2nd grade style. That means 2 letter words were acceptable and proper names like Zed.

For math we had an introduction to multiplication. This is totally silly but it worked. We pretended I was Mrs. Claus and the girls were my "elf-ettes." Everyone knows that regular elves build toys but what do elf-ettes do? They help Mrs. Claus bake cookies. Afterall that is the diet secret that has kept Santa going strong for years.
Using blocks for cookies, and uno cards for cookie sheets Mrs. Claus gave instructions by writing on the dry-erase board.
3x3=
that meant make 3 groups of 3 or put 3 cookies on 3 different cookie sheets.
how many altogether? 9
so, 3x3=9
then it was 6x4= and so on, etc, etc.
The more ridiculous the scenario the more likely the more likely they'll remember the lesson...at least that's the hope I'm clinging to.

In between lessons they had breaks, cleaned rooms, did jobs, music practicing etc.

We had lunch in Spanish, reviewing food and colors.

In the afternoon we had quiet reading time--my favorite!!

In and around all that I somehow got the kitchen cleaned, living room vacuumed, floor swept, 2 loads of laundry, 3 French lessons, and this blog post! I guess this is one of those rare "Superwoman" days and the kind I definitely like to post to buoy me up on those "Slackerwoman" days.

Parent/Teacher Conferences

2010-11-07T09:26:00.000-08:00

Kate is in 4th grade, going to public school for her first time since Kindergarten. The change was good for everyone. I never have to tell her to do her homework. In fact, I'm hardly involved at all. She is her own self-monitor; doing her homework, projects, logging her reading chart, and bringing me the occasional paper to sign or fee to pay... I dont' know why she was nervous to go to parent teacher conferences. Her teacher told me she has all A's and H's, is a wonderful student and artist, and is kind and sensitive to others. Then she gave her a candy to take home.
We went to the book fair after where she chose a cute little after school snack recipe book.

Brynn and Adrie wanted to hear all about it when we got home. "Do we get to have parent teacher conferences?" they asked. I think it was the candy they were after. Anyway we decided to go with it. Kate pretended to be their mom and she brought Brynn to the table where I, the teacher had laid out some of the things Brynn's been working on for 2nd grade.
"This is a sample of Brynn's handwriting-- She's doing very well at writing and memorizing scriptures in the morning like this one...
Kate mentioned that she wasn't allowed to read scriptures in her school so I explained that ours was a "special" school. That proved to be a fun theme to run with. We went through some math assignments and literature, looking at her pictures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and read the story she finished about what she thought happened to him.
"Another one of the subjects at our special school is violin. I'm sure Brynn would love to play something for you." I winked. At that point Kate excused herself and Brynn's parent/teacher conference was over. She looked in the candy jar and got an "airhead" for being such a smart kid.

Then it was Adrie's turn. She showed Kate some of her Halloween artwork and the poem about Fall she recently made up and wrote in her sketchbook:

Red, Orange
Purple, Brown--
Leaves look pretty,
On the ground.

We showed Kate how she was learning about adding and subtracting in math. At the end of it she chose "nerds" from the candy jar.

We ended with an introduction to our special "chef" Kate that made healthy creative snacks for the kids at our special school. Brynn shouted, "Kate's the lunch lady!!" which Kate didn't like at all. She reaffirmed that she was a "CHEF" then haughtily donned her apron and got right to work with a pretzel rod dipped in peanut butter and topped with Cheerios concoction.

More Fieldtrips...

2010-10-17T07:35:00.001-07:00

Go, Go, Go,

2010-10-09T07:10:00.000-07:00

Have I ever mentioned that we like to jump in the car and go on field trips? We've taken a few over the last month.
First, and favorite: California beach camping trip.

Tidepools, shell-collecting, seal watching -- You can read more about it here on our family blog:
http://sweetnsassy6.blogspot.com/2010/09/beach-bums-bigtime.htmlOur Washington Online school had a free day at the zoo. We just had to take advantage of that! Cannon (2) would repeat after me every animal that we saw. His vocabulary was expanded by leaps and bounds that day, or at least for the short-term. "Lemming, cavy, ostrich, boa, gibbon, sloth."
We headed to the mountains to see the spectacular fall colors and collect leaves.

We did leaf rubbings with crayon and paper back at home.

Is there any better way to spend an afternoon than visiting friends on a farm? The kids pet the horses and rode them. They gathered eggs from the coop and chased the chickens. The brave kids caught them (brynn) and the others clutched me and screamed for dear life. They climbed haystacks, ate popsicles in a treehouse, watched the sheep and goats in the meadow, and played with puppies (again the brave ones did, while the others clutched me and screamed...)

We sampled some mint leaves and took home a bundle of fresh garlic. Farm life is so fun-- if you're not afraid of animals and you don't have to do any of the work!

We climbed the red rock hills that overlook our city and had a picnic. The girls spotted a dozen cows with their calves winding their way down a mountain trail, making their way to a meadow. The kids (even the not-brave ones) were so excited, they took off running down the mountain to try and catch up with them. What were they thinking? Are cows not scarier than puppies? And have a not mentioned to them enough times about my terrifying experience of being chased by an angry cow while jogging?!!! Cows are definitely friendlier, smaller, and safer from a distance. Luckily, we slip-slided down the rocky hills and caught up with the girls before they got too close.

Those are some of our adventures in rural UT-opia.

Crazy--LOCA !

2010-08-28T20:59:00.000-07:00

This week we picked up where we left off a few months ago in memorizing chunks of The Family: A Proclamation to the World. I figure if we work on a bit here and there then by the time the girls graduate from high school they will have at least the last paragraph memorized...

We tried a couple of new things this week:

Instead of me reading their literature aloud to them, I gave each of the girls a book. They read it quietly on their own then narrated it back to me. Josephina and the Story Quilt and Clara and the Bookwagon were the two selections. The next day they traded books and did the same thing.
Our neighbor and I combined forces. On Thursday he taught my girls science. Adaptation was the big word they learned there. On Friday, his kid joined ours for Art. Worked wonderfully...and in that hour that they were gone to science lesson---I got so much done--washing windows, folding laundry, sweeping. I think if my kids were in school all day I could have a very clean and organized house!

We made hair bows and watch bands for Art, while listening to Vivaldi.

One of the best stories to teach compassion and kindness for those who are different is Crow Boy. After we read it aloud I asked each of the girls to pick one person they knew who they could be especially kind to--by inviting them over or including them, a friendly wave, etc. Each day I've been asking them to report on how they've done. Now that we've tried that for a few days, if any kid from the neighborhood comes over wanting to join the girls and their other friends all I have to do is (quietly ) mention "crow boy" and with a knowing look they will be quick to reach out and include the new person.

For nature day each girl chose from a selection of books we got from the library about various animals/insects. They were to read over it and the next day be prepared to share a few things (according to their ages) that they learned.

Brynn chose a book about SNAKES. She is 7 so she picked 7 things to tell us about snakes.

Adrie is 5. She shared 5 things that she learned from her DOLPHIN book.

I told them I had 32 things to share about my book. They gasped. Ha Ha!

They drew pictures and wrote about their project in their sketchbooks.

Adrie finished another unit of math and earned a prize from the prize jar. Brynn is almost done with her unit on telling time to the nearest quarter hour and counting dollar bills and cents.
She got a prize for spelling her weekly list of words like butterfly and sailboat correctly.

While the girls were eating lunch with a friend over I tried the Spanish immersion thing. I asked them in Spanish what kind of sandwich they wanted and if they wanted to drink agua or leche. The girls' friend looked at me like I was completely LOCA! My girls already know I'm crazy. Too fun! We reviewed colors using their cups and plates, and of course we covered different sandwich fillings like jamon and queso.

Kate was at public school while we were having all this fun this week ;) She rides her bike with her friends and stops for a free cookie at the grocery store. She gets to have recess and is learning what it means to have homework?!

2010-08-20T14:22:00.000-07:00

Untitled
by Christina Rosetti

Hurt no living thing:

Ladybug nor butterly

Nor moth with dusty wing,

Nor crickets chirping cheerily,

Nor grasshopper so light of leap,

Nor dancing gnat nor beetle fat,

Nor harmless worms that creep.

We memorized this poem this week in place of a scripture. It went along well with Nature Wednesday's theme: BUGS
After reading about them I sent the girls off with whatever bug collecting tools they could find: tweezers, jars, magnifying glass and --safety goggles? That was Brynn's idea.

The "pest control guy" came to spray that afternoon (I've seen way to many black widows lurking about). I realize writing this how much that is in stark contrast to above poem....

Anyway, turned out to be a perfect day for the girls to hunt. The bugs came out of their creeping places by the dozens to die...and be collected as specimens. Beetles, crickets, a praying mantis, and a (ackkk!!!) black widow were found--to the delight of the kids. This project may be ongoing all summer long.

For literature this week we read some of Aesop's fables and one of our favorite books, Sam, Bangs and Moonshine. Brynn and Adrie both finished a unit of math, earning them a prize from the prize-jar. We worked on spelling and handwriting and reading aloud.

Today was Art and Cleaning Day...It is 3pm and Brynn still hasn't mustered up the will-power to finish cleaning the bathrooms...

A couple of neighborhood girls joined us for today's Art project: paper houses. The Little Hands Art Book by Judy Press has tons of cute ideas like this one.

Before starting I introduced the girls to Vivaldi's Four Seasons and we listened to it while the girls worked on their projects. They chose a couple sheets of construction paper. One of them they used to cut out the shape of their house. Then they cut out windows and doors and garages and placed them on the 2nd sheet of paper as background.

We talked about different kinds of houses people live in and we practiced knowing our home address. One girl chose to make an apartment, the rest made little replicas of their own house. They scoured magazines, ads, and newspapers and cut out faces, pets, etc. to paste in the windows and make their homes look "lived in."

2010-08-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

It was back to the fairgrounds again this week. For Wild Wednesday we read a picture book about the FAIR and then went to our own county FAIR. Pigs, sheep, cows, chickens, bunnies, and roosters--what a hullabaloo! Kate is absolutely sure she would never want to live on a farm.

The girls had fun seeing the exhibits they entered with winning ribbons on them. Kate won a red ribbon for her photograph of Cannon. Brynn won a red ribbon for her painting and a blue ribbon for her modeling clay sculpture of a bird. Adrie worked really hard on her painting but was not allowed to enter it because the cut-off age was 6. Wahh. She did her best to be a good sport but I could see she was disappointed. I hung her picture up and home and let her choose a prize from the prize jar.

Week 2 of school has gone well--not perfect--but well enough. Adrie and Brynn each finished about 10 lessons of math on the computer. Yesterday we finished our Literature selection, The Bears on Hemlock Mountain. Brynn narrated the story back to me. Adrie did the same only in shorter segments throughout. They each came up with an idea for a final project and carried it out.

Adrie (5) gathered "nuts for the squirrels, crumbs for the birds, and carrots for the rabbits. She set them out on the porch and waited for them to come.

Brynn (7) took to the stage. She found our largest pot and tried to hide under it while the bears, Cannon and Adrie, sniffed and pawed around at it. Brynn enlisted Kate to be the father who comes and rescues his son. She took the liberty of "shooting the bears" but didn't want to follow the script and allow Brynn to give her a big hug for rescuing her. Brynn did get her line in "THERE ARE BEARS ON HEMLOCK MOUNTAIN."

Kate sketched a picture with the caption "There are no bears on Hemlock Mountain." The power of a good story is when kids can identify with the characters and apply the story in their own life I knew Kate had done this when she showed me the other half of her sketch. It was a picture of herself surrounded by unfamiliar faces and the caption, "There are no bullies at P-- school."

She is headed off to 4th grade at P--- school in a couple of weeks and we all hope she will have a good experience transitioning from homeschool to public.

Like I said the week wasn't perfect. I tried my best to do the language immersion thing and speak Spanish the latter half of the day. Only problem was by afternoon they were all ready to take off and play with friends. "Adios" was all we got in some days. Other days we did a little better. We used a book from the library about the different members of the family. Now they know what I mean when I call them "mis hijas" (my daughters)

Lastly, they had to finish their Friday cleaning. For Adrie this meant scrubbing the toilets. Brynn, dusting, and Kate, folding laundry.

Today was also the day for passing off this week's scripture:

And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you. (3 Nephi 18;20)

I'm going to be asking for more patience!

Tarzan and Cattails

2010-08-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

It's Day 3 of school for us. Today was the best of them. Of course!! It was Nature Day. After math, handwriting, scriptures, clean up and a violin lesson we packed a lunch, invited a couple of friends over and headed out for adventure.

One of the little treasures of our town is this park--actually it's the fairgrounds. No metal swingset, plastic slide, or monkey bars here. The fun is all in the trees, and there are 5 HUGE glorious ones! Lovely large weeping willows they are. The park also boasts a vast expanse of grass. Best of all-- no one goes there?!! For those reasons it has become our adopted backyard.

We found cattails on the drive over so we stopped and picked some. We learned from our nature guide a little about them and on the drive home we reviewed...

What can you use cattails for??

"FOOD, SHELTER, FIRE !" came the shouts from the back of the minivan.

Adrie (5) piped in, "and for putting in baby's diapers!"

(A little tidbit we learned from our American Indian unit last year. )

Let the Learning Begin!

2010-08-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

The lazy days of summer have been wonderful! Our batteries have been recharged and tomorrow we are set to begin our at-home online school. This will be our 4th year?! and as each year does there will be a few changes. First of all Adrie (kindergarten) will be joining Brynn (2nd grade) for our online schooling. After many months of weighing the options, we have all felt good about sending Kate to public school for 4th grade. I will miss her ;( and I think she will miss all of her free time but it is what it is. She will start with the rest of the district in 3 1/2 more weeks. Last of all there's Cannon-- (2 1/2yrs old). What will we do with him???

As a homeschooler with 4 years behind me I should have a "groove" but I think each year you take something and you give something and try to come up with a plan that will work for your family for that year. Over these past few years I have made many wonderful friendships with other teacher/mom's. Their influence combined with many good books, (see side bar) articles and the support of our wonderful Washington Online teachers have helped me to form what I call this year's Family CONSTITUTION:

Our family will develop a love of learning through reading, discussions, projects, and activities. We will help each other in pursuing passions and developing talents. Great literature, especially the scriptures, will be the backbone to learning and helping us to emulate Godly characteristics and virtues. In addition we will study Art, Music, Math, Science, History, and Foreign Language. We will learn life skills of cooking and homemaking. We will seek out opportunites to help and serve those around us.

Okay, so I KNOW, that everyday is not going to go chocolatey smooth but we are the nuts and bolts of it and where possible I've put in parenthesis or italicized credits where they are due.

things happening MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY:
morning scripture reading.
Each week starting Monday we will work on memorizing one scripture (L. Tom Perry May 2010 Conference Address, Majesty of Books by Sterling Sill) from our reading. Throughout the week this is what we'll use to copy and practice handwriting. Fridays we will pass it off and maybe there should be a reward after so many "stars" are earned.

Math (k12 online program) will also be done each day in the mornings.

Literature from a host of good resources (k12 selections, biographies, myths, fables, folk-tales, poetry) Honey for a Child's Heart has wonderful suggestions for different age groups.
After each selection the girls will be able to give a narration. (A Charlotte Mason Companion)
and each week will choose a project from a selection of their choice such as drawing a picture, writing a poem, making up a dance, sculpture, etc. (Thomas Jefferson Education)

The afternoons will be available for chores and music practice. Brynn has been taking violin for the last year. (Shinichi Suzuki's Nurtured by Love)

Afternoons will also be for leisure reading, finishing projects if needed, and most importantly DOWN-TIME and FREE PLAY.
Something I would like to try that I learned from reading an article this summer about Utah's Dual Immersion Schools-- They speak English the first half of the day and Spanish the 2nd half. I'm assuming that it is 100% Spanish with no cheating by the teachers?? hard. so I will try my best to do that. Even if we start out with just 10 min. of Spanish a day and work our way up??? Anyway awesome to hear about the success of those schools and I personally feel that knowing a 2nd language is helpful for so many reasons and the younger you are the easier it is.

WEDNESDAYS will be Nature Days or "Wild Days" like the book implies. (Wild Days, A Charlotte Mason Companion) Rain, shine, or snow will be OUTSIDE, either in the backyard weedlot or up in the canyons. With our field guides and sketchbooks in hand we will explore the beauties and enjoy the freeing spirit of being in nature. Beforehand we will read a science selection (k12) about habitats, animals, etc.

Also in the past we've tried to do some service like babysit, take a treat to someone or have them over for dinner. That can make for a busy Wednesday so we might have to see how it goes and switch to Thursdays. I think it would be great to focus on a virtue (Children'sBook of Virtues), read stories about it and challenge the kids to help someone that week. Each week, maybe for family night or at dinner they would come prepared to report on their experience. (Elder Bednar May 2010 General Conference Talk)

FRIDAYS, like last few years, will be Art Days using our k12 curriculum. We will incorporate music into this by introducing a different composer (Mozart, Bach, etc.) and listening to his works for a month. It works out great to let them be inspired by putting the music as background while they work on their art projects. (A Charlotte Mason Companion)

This is also our cleaning day--scrubbing the toilets and sweeping the floors are all part of a good education too right?

Every other TUESDAY afternoon we will participate in clubs with other homeschool families. Brynn and Adrie will be in the younger girls group which I will be in charge of. This will be our 2nd year and what a blessing these friends have been for all of us! We always have fun learning in groups! Each semester the girls study one of the historical American Girls. We use her story along with crafts, songs, food, and fun activities to learn about that era of American History. This year we'll be studying the Colonial Era of Felicity.

With this same group we have planned some holiday parties throughout the year for some extra fun and socializing.

Sometimes I like to break it up a little throughout the year by ditching the routine and focusing just on one subject, like History, for example. Last year we did a week in "Rome" etc. or one week we did a complete housecleaning. Not as fun but it is good to recharge the batteries once in a while. In Sept. we'll be going to the beach for a week. Yay!!!!

I would also like to teach the girls some basic cooking skills so they can be a little more self-reliant and take turns preparing lunches and snacks. We'll take of that, well--during lunch-time!

A Thomas Jefferson Education teaches that children learn best when they pursue their passions and interests and base their learning around that. I think that is a wonderful philosphy and so I asked Brynn and Adrie what they wanted to learn about. Here are their responses:

Brynn (age 7)
different kinds of:

birds
plants

Adrie (5)

nature (specifically dolphins, penguins and elephants)
mushrooms

So funny to find out what interests them?! I'm sure those subjects will work out wonderfully for our Wednesday curriculum.

That's a lot. Should I be overwhelmed? Not yet. I'm excited and the girls seem ready to dig in as well. I've heard any education system is like Swiss Cheese. There will be some holes. But, we'll do our best to fill them along the way.

I'm so glad our girls have each other and a great neighborhood of friends to play with. And I'm so grateful for the support of a good husband and family as well as like-minded friends in the local and online community! Here's my toast to a good school year!

It's worth it

2010-02-11T20:52:00.000-08:00

For all the hard work, frustration, and energy that it takes to teach at home, it's nice to be rewarded once in a while. Today was one of those days when I was reminded why I do it.

We had Art and History at 1p.m. We just started a new unit about Ancient China. The discovery of silk, the building of the Great Wall, and the teachings of Confucius were some of the things we reviewed today.

For an art project we used ideas from our k12 curriculum and made dragons. The symbol of good luck in China. Dragons have the head of a camel, body of a snake, ears of a bull, antlers of a deer, beard of a goat, feet of a tiger, talons of an eagle, and scales of a fish.

Using those guidelines we first sketched them in pencil. Then we outlined them in crayons. Lastly we painted watercolor over the top. The crayon stayed put and the paint filled in all the spaces creating a wonderful effect.

Here was some of the dialogue between 1st grader Brynn and her friend of the same age.

B: Wow, your picture is so good it looks like a teenager made it.

M: Yours doesn't even look like a first grader made that. It's way better...like maybe a 6th grader.

B: I think I'm going to enter mine in the county fair.

M: Me too. I can't wait to show it to my mom.

B: This is the best thing I've ever made. This was the best Art lesson ever.

When they finished Brynn came up to me and said with a little embarrassment, "Mom, I can't help it I'm just SO PROUD of myself!"

Year of the Tiger--Let's Party!

2010-01-22T20:34:00.000-08:00

We got together with some of our school friends in the area and celebrated "Chinese New Year." It's not technically until Feb. 14 this year but we've got to give Valentine's it's due.
First the kidlings gathered round while we learned a few facts about China:

it's the 4th largest country
population 1.3 billion (holy smokes!)
capital: Beijing
home of the largest mountain: Everest
language: Mandarin

Next we learned about some Chinese inventions. I had items in a bag that kids volunteered to come and pick out.

toothbrush
paper
silk
compass, etc....

Unfortunately some of their inventions I couldn't bring: fireworks, cannonballs, gunpowder...

Then of course we got busy learning how to celebrate New Year's:

sweep the whole house to get rid of bad luck
get some oranges (they're very lucky)
visit your ancestors (and bring them oranges) Serious bad luck if you don't...
get a haircut, new clothes, and new shoes (I personally love this one)
wear red (it's very lucky)
celebrate for 15 days with family, parades, and lots of food (like shark fin soup)

The kids were very willing to celebrate when they found out about red envelopes called "lai see." Parents, grandparents, relatives, put money in them and give them to all children. We gave each parent enough for each child to get one sometime at home.

Everyone had to find out what animal they were according to the Chinese zodiac and wear their name tag e.g. rooster, ox, snake. We learned about how long ago Buddha called all the animals together for a council and only 12 animals showed up. He thanked them by naming a year for each of them. All the kids (and adults) had to act like their animal and organize themselves into same animal groups. The Chinese believe that whatever year you are born in you will have characteristics of the animal. I happen to be a snake: restrained, tricky and subtle:)

Next we rotated into groups.

The girls started with writing Chinese calligraphy. They were to choose 2-3 different "characters" which I had printed out on cards and make poems out of them to hang in their house. e.g. they might choose house, love, dog. Then they tried their hand at writing the Chinese characters for these in black marker on their red papers.

The boys gladly went to the "tasters table" where I had some sliced oranges and fortune cookies. A few brave boys were willing to try the gingered plums and tea nuts I picked up from the Asian market. They also read a story about New Year's from the library called, Happy, Happy New Year!

Everyone went home with chopsticks and a zodiac calendar and enough "lai see" for the family!

Gung Hay Fat ChoY!!

Coming out of Hibernation

2010-01-04T20:03:00.000-08:00

After a nice long...yawn...yawn... Christmas break we were back at it today.
I felt recharged. Did the girls? Kate had a come-apart when she saw 7 assignments on her to-do list. Brynn was just glad she only had 4. Adrie--who thought she was going to "real" preschool starting in January but I just couldn't justify spending $ for something we already do at home, so I convinced her that it would be extra super-fun with Mom and Dad this year--was excited to get right to work on her 4 things.
I felt like a busy bee running around and teaching Brynn how to capitalize proper nouns and Kate how to write a book report. Cannon miraculously managed to make it through the morning without creating any disasters. Everyone was done with their math, handwriting, etc. by lunch and with only minor complaints.
At 1pm we had our read-aloud time. We are reading Rebecca Rubin, the American girl. After that they had 30 min. of quiet reading time. Even I joined in on this. Of course, I'm the one that needed the quiet time! Cannon is supposed to be napping through this but he just learned how to climb out of his crib. He toddled out, threw a book in my lap, and plopped in for his own story-time.

The only real glitch came in the afternoon when it was time for Brynn to practice violin. She didn't want to play Twinkle Twinkle again. We had listened to the CD all morning and apparently, playing that song over and over again can make one angry. Angry children and delicate instruments do not mix well so I quickly removed both the violin and bow and put them out of reach on top of the piano. What happened next? I had to leave to take Adrie to dance class. I left her with the warning, "If anything happens to that violin, it will be your birthday present."
When I returned I could hear Brynn still ranting as I came in from the garage. Kate ran to meet me as if to block me from the bad news.

"Is it really true that Brynn's not going to get a birthday present?" She showed me into my bedroom where the violin was sitting on my bed...only it wasn't the same shiny taught-stringed violin it was before I left. It was missing the little bridge and the strings were there but floppy and lazy looking. Between sobs Brynn explained that she had tried to "tune" it. But I wasn't buying it. The fact that she had climbed up to the piano to get her violin when she was angry to me was like pre-meditated murder.
Wouldn't you know, just then her neighborhood friend came skipping over to see if Brynn could play. I told the friend that Brynn was not going to be able to play until age 32.

Fortunately the bridge can be put back in and the strings re-tightened. But, I will let her violin teacher do that when she has her lesson in a few days. Until then, Brynn will not be able to practice and therefore will not be able to play with anyone --which to her will seem like 26 years!

good news and Habari Gani

2009-12-30T18:59:00.000-08:00

Got the post-Christmas blues?
There's always Kwanzaa.
From Dec. 26 to Jan. 1 you can celebrate African heritage. That's just what we needed to get us through to the New Year.
If the morning paper had not had a full spread describing Kwanzaa we may not have known anything about it. That reminds me I need to send a Christmas tip to the delivery guy... Anyway,
The girls got right to work decorating with the Kwanzaa colors of red, black, and green.
We checked out a book at the library about African folktales that we'll spread out over the week.
And, we'll try to remember to say the traditional Kwanzaa greeting to each other as much as possible "Habari Gani!"

Need a Little Christmas...NOW

2009-12-16T20:20:00.000-08:00

Today we made these snowflakes out of pipe cleaner and pony beads. No two are alike of course!
First we worked on memorizing the 3rd stanza of "Twas the Night Before Christmas." This is just so our brains don't freeze completely from having a couple of weeks off from school. We also read a short little story, "The Apple Tree Christmas." The story almost made it sound fun to live in a barn. It's about the simplicity of Christmas-es way back before there was W-mart. It also inspired the girls to eat some of our apples.

Yesterday, our neighbor taught the girls about Christmas traditions in Germany, where the tradition of decorating pine trees originated. They had rice pudding and decorated gingerbread houses with graham crackers and lots of gooey frosting.

We were lucky enough this year to have a spontaneous ice skating rink form in our yard. Kate was the first one who discovered it and since then it has become a main attraction for all the kids. Oh they've had their share of falling, wet bums, and cold hands, but they still like to go out. Kate will bring out the radio and blast the Christmas music. Today she spent a whole hour with Adrie choreographing a lovely skating dance complete with whirls and twirls.

While I was planning all the fun activities we'd do this week Kate (who's 8 and great) taught me a great lesson. She had just read the newspaper and came to me after we had read our bedtime Bible story. Apparently she had come across a picture of an ad that showed an old man with a plate. It said something like, "Can you help the hungry?" I had remembered seeing that ad running for a few weeks now and I hadn't even given it a second thought. But, Kate, who is so sensitive and compassionate was visibly moved by it and wanted to help. The next day we had a true CHRISTmas activity. The girls cut out that picture in the paper and went around the neighborhood collecting money in a jar to send to the homeless shelter. With their own contributions and that of the neighbors they collected $16.30. That is enough to give 9 people Christmas dinner. Thanks Kate for teaching us the true spirit of Christmas!

2009-12-10T11:48:00.000-08:00

Last December we took the whole month off from schooling. It was glorious. We spent the whole month celebrating Christmas: baking, making Christmas crafts and reading Christmas stories.

This year our schedule has been a little different so we will just be doing 2 1/2 weeks.

Our plan is to read a short Christmas story everyday then do an activity: decorate a tree outside with popcorn/nuts/seeds for the birds, make gingerbread houses, paper snowflakes, ...

Last week we made salt dough ornaments. How easy and fun! We actually extended it into two days. One for making and baking and the other for painting. The girls are very proud of their decorations. Kate even went beyond the cookie-cutter versions and molded her own Baby Jesus in swaddling clothes. The little girls in the neighborhood have taken to him so fondly, that Kate made another batch this week and cloned him.

Recipe from about.com

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup water

Mix the above . Roll out 1/4 inch thick. Use cookie cutters or use a knife to free-hand your own shapes. Be sure to poke a hole in the top. (We used the back end of a paint brush)

Bake 250 degrees for 2 hours. Flip every 20 minutes or so to prevent curling.

Cool and paint!

What did we learn at the end of the day?

2009-10-12T22:04:00.001-07:00

Today was one of those days that I wondered if anyone had learned anything. It seemed like everyone had a case of the not-wanting-to-do-anything disease. Does Mrs. Piggle Wiggle have a cure for that one? But, at the end of the day as I gathered their papers I realized that they must at least have one thing in their heads.
In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
They each had copied this to their varying abilities: Kate in cursive, Brynn printing, and Adrie trying to get the letters in order.
In honor of Columbus Day we talked a bit about his life and watched a clip from the History Channel. The girls also had to copy a few more lines to add to the above.
He discovered America.
The world is not flat. It is round.
Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria.

Copying seems to serve a lot of purposes: spelling, grammar, punctuation, and of course whatever info they are copying is sinking into their heads. Last week the girls each chose a poem to learn. Each day they copied a stanza and just by doing that, they have them nearly memorized. Next week we might have to get out some famous quotes and scriptures. Think of the fun we could have with a list of "Mom's rules!"

Thought for the Week

2009-10-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

If you want your kids to read, create places in the home where they will want to read.

I found Kate in my bedroom on my bed curled up and reading Roald Dahl's Matilda. When she saw that I was surprised to find her there she explained, "This was the only clean place in the house."

Dumb Dirt

2009-09-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

We have the perfect backyard for a lesson about DIRT. We live on exactly 1/3 acre of the red silty stuff and have been for 3 summers now. I have been known to shout, "I HATE DIRT!" when picking up my muddy specimen of a toddler and hauling him away to be hosed off....again. I don't care if anyone hears me. In fact I can now say that I LOATH dirt--can't wait to bed it down with some plants and grass.

I hope my attitude has improved a little today because of our science lesson on "appreciating SOIL." Soil is just a nice name for dirt. While the girls played in it, we learned it's made up of

water

minerals

humus (HYOOMUS) (things that were once living)

Here is what Kate regurgitated from the lesson and I wrote it down in her notebook.

Humus is made of dead stuff. It makes dirt black. There are 3 types of soil. We have CLAY soil in our yard. If we add humus to it, it will make our plants grow better. That kind of soil is called LOAM. Next week we will be at the beach. It will have SANDY soil.

This afternoon we went to our local Home store or what Brynn calls the "boringest store ever" and bought some LOAM, a spade, and some daylily's. We are excited to add some more dead stuff to our dirt. It's time we put our dirt to work and try to beautify the yard-- if only a lily at a time.

p.s. While at the Home store I got a consult for installing a sprinkler system. We're only a simple irrigation system away from getting rid of the dirt problem forever. Ha ha. I'm wringing my hands with delight.

A Very Bad Horrible No Good Day

2009-09-03T15:54:00.001-07:00

Sending kids to public school is so very tempting on days like yesterday. Was I in a bad mood and it rubbed off on everyone else or were they in a bad mood and it rubbed off on me? Either way we all had a bad attitude. I would give an assigment followed by complain, complain. Some days I can manage to divert a little complaining but yesterday seemed to be unmanageable. We got our work done BUT IT WASN'T PRETTY. Time for me to refresh my Love and Logic parenting skills or something. Eventually I put myself on time out. Meditation and prayer work miracles...we ended up with a good afternoon.

I LOVE this new book we got from the library, The Shape Game by Anthony Browne. It has a fresh perspective on Fine Art and an idea for a fun game at the end. Here's how it goes: someone draws a silly free form shape. The other person has to make a picture out if it. Our girls had a lot of laughs and used about 20 sheets of paper. Here is my favorite sample:

Today was much better , we invited a friend over and had a geography/history lesson about Africa. We learned about the gold of Ghana and the merchants who traded it through the Sahara desert with their trusty camels. It acually kind of turned into a science lesson when we watched a National Geographic clip about camels, talked about Dromedary and Bactrian camels and made our own out of egg cartons and pipe cleaners.

If anyone is interested in some cool spelling software there will be a free trial offer and giveaway Friday Sept. 4 on this website. www.SpellQuizzer.com/community

Self-Portraits

2009-08-28T15:07:00.001-07:00

The finished products after a lesson on creating "realistic" self-portraits. I knew the lesson had sunk in when later in the day and Adrie and I were playing a get-to-know you game. One of the questions I picked for her was, "Describe how you look."

She answered, "I have football shaped eyes that are in the middle of my face--not the top-- and I have a nose with 3 curves."

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and Dad Save the Day

2009-08-25T13:03:00.001-07:00

So we are two weeks into schooling and I feel like a chicken running around with its' head cut off. Or maybe like a busy mother hen who ends the day in happy exhaustion. We now have two kids doing school, one preschooler, and a 18 month old monster toddler. I have to say that I really ADMIRE mothers who school multiple children at home. It's a challenge and I hope I'm up for a year of it!
Week 2 is going much better than week 1 because Dad came up with an idea. Each school day the girls can earn a quarter IF THEY HAVE A GOOD ATTITUDE. We have 4 school days (Friday is for Art, baking, cleaning) That amounts to a couple dollars a week for kids with a good attitude. Priceless for me! We are on day 2 and it is working wonderfully. Attitude is everything.
Week 2 is also way more organized. We spent one school day going over the curriculum and expectations of each kids school year then made up a chart with the DAILY "have-to's for school.

Kate's (3rd grade) school chart has seven things: SPELLING, GRAMMAR, COMPOSITION, LITERATURE, MATH, CURSIVE HANDWRITING, VOCABULARY.
This doesn't actually look to fun does it? Luckily we have some great curriculum books sent to us by our k12 program that address each one in a fun way. Today for example Kate read a story about Lewis and Clark to learn about subjects and predicates. For Literature she read aloud (using her karaoke microphone--future rockstar here) a fable from India, "The Tiger, Brahman, and Jackal." She practiced her cursive. She added adjectives to make her composition about Hannah Montana even more exciting.
Dad is going to be taking over the teaching of her math--phew!

Brynn's (1st grade) school chart has 4 things: MATH, PHONICS, LANGUAGE ARTS, HANDWRITING. So far she thinks homeschool is the best thing ever. I heard her tell her friend the other day, "I Loooooove it." Dad calls this a honeymoon period and to enjoy it while we can. Today she finished all her lessons and cleanup by noon and was asking who she could play with. She was shocked to learn that all her friends were still in school for another 3 hours. "Doesn't anyone else do homeschool????" Today she learned about even and odd numbers and patterns using the colored counting rods. She worked on handwriting and we read the first chapter of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.

The inspiration in this book has already proved VERY handy. Today, for example, I was nagging 4 year old Adrie to clean her room before she could watch a show. (She always seems to end up with a sore leg when it's clean up time) After lots of whining and flailing on the floor I realized my attempts were futile. Then I remembered Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. Pretty soon Adrie was made into a "toy elf." She had to pick up all the toys in her room and put them in the "sleigh" so Santa could take them to all the children in the world. If she didn't get them in the sleigh in time, not only would little girls in India and little boys in China be heartbroken but Santa would fire her. She would have to live with polar bears and swim in icy cold water and eat raw fish for dinner. I told her to yell "ho ho ho" when the toys were ready for Santa. She sang as she worked and finally I heard the signal and went in draped in a crimson blanket from the closet." Santa was very proud of her and Kate suggested she be promoted to "Elf of the Year." Thank You Mrs. Piggle Wiggle!

Amidst all of this we have an 18 month old boy who gets into everthing. Today he climbed on the table and ripped pages out of Brynn's math workbook. He sucked on the math counting rods. He escaped outside and ran into the road wearing only a diaper--at least a diaper. Thankfully it is now naptime!

The year is looking good so far...I just need a little more energy and a lot more patience.

Did we really learn anything this year?

2009-05-07T14:12:00.001-07:00

Today is State Testing Day for Kate. I told her this would be her "last day" of the school-year which sounds very exciting to her. Really, it means that we will take off the month of May (she does have to catch up to finish 80% of math though.) I am looking forward to a month of no lesson plans. There is something wickedly delicious about getting out earlier than the other kids in the neighborhood! It's just one of the sneaky ways I like to make homeschooling "way more fun" than regular school. We will still have some chores and reading time in the afternoons but our mornings will be freed up for field trips, or shopping, or spring cleaning, or how about just doing nothing!
I plan to do some history and science through the summer and we'll still keep our Fridays for Art day. So, as this year draws to a close I wonder-- what have we all learned from this year's at-home schooling experience?

1. CONFIDENCE--I no longer am embarrassed to admit what we do. In fact, I'm proud of it. If you ask me about homeschool I just might get way too excited and talk your ear off.
And as for Kate? She is more confident with adults and is comfortable playing with kids of all ages (one of the BIG benefits of homeschooling.) She participated without local homeschool group in a spelling bee and poetry festival and I could see that even though it it was very hard to overcome her nerves, she did it. It was exciting to see her confidence grow through those experiences.

2. LIFE SKILLS--Maybe we didn't memorize all the world capitals but we sure have enjoyed dozens of home-baked cookies. Kate has been whipping up batches of good things, peanut butter, chocolate chip, shortbread cookies.--what a great way to learn the fractions from measuring. I didn't know how to cook until I was married! She knows how to take care of her younger siblings, and whip up and serve a batch of Ramen noodles for lunch. Kate is also a super shopper. She is always on the lookout for the lowest prices. The other day when I asked her which of 2 boxes of cereal we should get she said, "get the cheapest one!"

3. POWER of AGENCY--Each morning on our dry-erase board I wrote the date and the lessons that needed to completed. Kate would choose which one she wanted to do and in what order. ..Something about letting her choose made her so much easier for her to get her work done. Contrast that with our first year "It's time for spelling NOW."

4. PASSION--If you've read a Thomas Jefferson Education you'll know that kids learn through their passions. I asked Kate what her passions were earlier this year. Her answers? mermaids, fairies, magic, rocks, and rock-stars, soccer, and cooking. Okay, I was slightly worried at first but I think in the end we made it work...Kate practiced handwriting by copying down her favorite rock songs off of lyrics.com and memorizing them.
She read everything our library had to offer about mermaids and fairies. She learned perspective in ART by drawing mermaids diving, mermaids sitting brushing their hair, mermaids swimming backwards and upside down. She spent many good days collecting rocks and sorting them. We learned all about igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks along the way. And of course, we covered MATH with the cooking. I guess whatI'm saying is , "There is hope for ANY passion"... and if anyone has a question about fairies we have a world-class expert in our family. She shuns anyone at the dinnertable who eats meat now, "fairies wouldn't like that."

5. LEARNING IS FUN! We read Peter Pan together and used the blank pages on the back of our calendar to design our own Neverlands. We learned the parts of speech by playing Mad Libs. We learned directions by creating treasure hunts with clues. We ran obstacle courses between math problems. We had pretend spelling bees. We dressed up as Romans and argued over who got to wear the royal purple. We acted out the life cylce of a butterfly from egg to adult. We made chocolate lavas and watched National Geographic online videos of erupting volcanoes. We learned about the Middle Ages and designed our own castles. We celebrated any and every little holiday including, "Dr. Seuss Day." Kate's friends had been busy reading because of something at school called, "Beat the Teach." We had our own version. We started last Wednesday and had a race to see who could read more: Me or the girls. Yesterday was the deadline and they beat me by far! They each get to pick out something for their new rooms in the basement. (Kate got a fuzzy rug) We love to read! It took me until age 31 to learn that. Luckily the girls have it now.

6. WHAT'S WORTH KNOWING? Good manners, right from wrong, life skills, true heroes overcome their fears, love of reading, expressing oneself through art, speaking, writing, building, whatever.
Adjectives, pronouns, and past participles? Who cares! Don't sue me. Even if you graduate with a Doctorate in English do you really need to know those??? (We still learned them but I'm not really sure why?)

6. And most importantly, RELATIONSHIPS--except for the issue of piano practicing I would say that Kate and I have a great relationship. I love watching her learn. I am amazed by the things she says, her insights, her creativity. One parent responded when they found out I homeschooled, "I can't imagine being with my kids ALL day." Well, I can't imagine anybody I'd rather be with all day than my kids. They're wonderful. We have a great time and I could honestly say that if they or I were to die tomorrow, we would have spent enough quality time together.

No regrets. (If only I could figure out the whole piano practicing thing) We've had a great year and we're excited for Brynn our 1st grader to be joining us for next year's homeschool adventure!

2009-04-28T09:09:00.001-07:00

I just finished an inspiring read for all homeschoolers and educators, A Call to Brilliance by Resa Stiendel Brown. It explains how all children are brilliant. As educators we are to find their passions and help them develop them in whatever form they may be.
Here is how we were able to apply the principles of our book for today's lesson.
Kate's assignment was to read "Pandora's Box." Our usual routine after reading a story is to discuss it and then Kate will write a book report in her school journal. Using a book report formula she will write the title and author, then the plot, setting, characters. The 3rd part is where she gives her opinion, what she liked, how she could apply it to her life, etc.
One example Ms. Brown gives in her book is when her daughter did a book report in college. Instead of the usual writing sample, she used her passion for art to paint her own interpretation of the book on a huge lifesize canvas. Everyone was astounded!
Kate's first impulse, after reading, Pandora's box was to start drawing Pandora's box. She sketched a picture of a fancy treasure box and a tiny beautiful fairy with wings--her interpretation of Hope. On the opposite page she drew a myriad of frightening looking creatures: spiders, snakes, 3-headed monsters, as her interpretation of the troubles of the world.
It was wonderfully creative. Why should we limit ourselves to writing only??
So, I told Kate from now on she could choose 2 of the following ways to report on a book:
WRITING
TALKING
DRAWING
MAKING UP A SONG on the piano or singing
DANCING
ACTING IT OUT
BUILDING
....there is no limit to the creative ways our kids could express their brilliance.

Kate chose DANCE for her 2nd way to tell about Pandora's Box. She chose a song from our iPod, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake Allegro non Troppo. Then she played it for me and danced away. I even joined her the 2nd time. The music went perfectly with the story! We started out all happy and perfect like Pandora's life. Then the music gets slower and more curious as Pandora explores the forbidden box and makes several attempts to open it. Her curiousity gets the best of her and she finally opens the box. The music turns slow and melancholy as Pandora laments the troubles and evils of the world she has let out. Then just at the end a violin trills a hopeful tune as Pandora hears the voice of Hope whispering, "let me out! I can help you! "The violin continues to trill as Hope's wings emerge out of the box and bring comfort to the whole world.
How fun this was!
I can see that we are going to have a lot more brilliant book reports to look forward to!

Curious George W.Carver

2009-03-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

"A weed is a flower growing in the wrong spot." This is what George Washington Carver believed and it was the title of the biography we read about him today. What an amazing man. He overcame a seemingly hopeless situation.
Born a sickly baby to slave parents, he grew up to be an insatiably curious boy. He had a passion for plants and learned to nurture and care for them so that he earned the name, "Plant Doctor." At the age of TEN he set off on his own to make his way in the world. Earning his keep by doing odd jobs, he taught himself many skills. Finally at age 30 he earned enough to go to college but was turned away many times because of his skin color. How unfair! Still, he never gave up and was finally accepted.
His goal was always to use his talents and knowledge to help people. As a Dr. at Tuskegee Institute he discovered 100 uses for the sweet potato and 300 for the peanut! He was able to convince the southern farmers to grow these instead of cotton as they were much easier to grow and better for the soil. At age 80 he was still working tirelessly to improve the world.
Wow. With such a great example we were able to have a great discussion.
After our discussion we all wrote what inspired us most about his life and how we could learn from it.
Kate wrote, "I can be like George Washington Carver by not hiding my talents."
She also liked how he asked many questions and if no one could answer them he would work them out until he found the answer. Here are some of her questions:
How do they make markers? How do they make crayons? What is dirt made of? What is water made of? How are barbies made?
Looks like we'll be doing some fun internet searches.
We enjoyed some peanut butter sandwiches in honor of Dr. Carver today. He also inspired us to plant some flowers. Kate had a seed packet she bought the other day so she opened it and the seeds are soaking, and will ready to be plant tomorrow.

The kind of day I live for

2009-03-09T19:17:00.001-07:00

READ * DISCUSS * WRITE * APPLY
This is the formula for a good education according to the book I'm currently reading: A Thomas Jefferson Education (Oliver DeMille) It reminds exactly of how we are to study the scriptures: by reading them, discussing them (at church or with family), writing down impressions in a journal, and applying the scriptures to our daily lives.

We tried this model today with our schooling. We read Chapter 4 of our kids Classics version of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
First, we read it out loud together.
Next, we discussed the story of Sir Gawain and Lady Ragnell.
The girls were each given a journal to write what they thought about the story and how they could follow the example of Sir Gawain.
Kate wrote about the story and concluded with, "I could be like Sir Gawain by keeping promises, even when it is hard to do."
By being true to his word, Sir Gawain was able to break the evil spell and turn the hideous Lady Ragnell into a lovely maiden to marry.

This went right along with another story we read today called Finders Keepers (Robert Arnett). This was a beautifully illustrated picture book that took us on a journey through India, learning about it's culture and people along the way.
After we read it, we discussed it: Brynn liked how those in the Jain religion, sweep in front of them before they walk to avoid stepping on any living things. Their respect for life is so deep they wear cloths over their mouth so they won't accidentally swallow any flying bugs.
Adrie said she learned how to say hello and goodbye, Namaste with a bow. Namaste means
my soul respects your soul.
Kate said she liked learning about Dharma, the philosophy that Indians live by: "Do what you ought to do, not what you want to do." This was illustrated in a little story about a poor little Indian boy returning a tourist's wallet. He refused any reward for doing his duty. "Why should I get a reward for doing what I should do."

We followed the TJEd model today and had a great day of learning!

Oh Noble Sir of the Toilet

2009-03-06T13:59:00.000-08:00

So, one of Kate's fascinations is Castles lately. This has fit in nicely with our History curriculum as we are learning about the Middle Ages or the Age of Knights. We have been reading King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Where are such brave, noble, chivalrous, gentleman to be found these days? Right here at home. Baby Cannon was knighted by Kate in a special ceremony for his bravery in eating anything off the floor and for his fearless adventures with toilet water.
We also learned about castles. We all, even I drew our own castles complete with torrents, flags, drawbridges and moats. Mine had a garden, park, and swimming pool inside with nice little homes for the servants. Kate said it looked like, "ZION?" Well, maybe if I lived like the servants instead of the luxurious quarters I had designed for myself....oops.

Green Eggs and Ham

2009-03-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! We celebrated today by reading some of your books: Cat in the Hat, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and Huevos Verdes con Jamon. That latter one, we only have in Spanish. But if our girls learned anything today it was how to ask, "Te gustan huevos con jamon?" Of course, we like green eggs and ham. We had them for lunch today. Ewww...I mean Yum!

We have read some good books in Language Arts the past couple of weeks: Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine, Crow Boy and Tye May and the Magic Brush. Crow Boy made me cry! What excellent stories to teach kindness and compassion.

Kate has been learning about adjectives, adverbs, verbs. These are much more fun to learn with the Mad Libs gamebooks where you write in your own adjectives, etc. to create silly stories.

In History, we finished up the Roman Empire. Kate's assignment was to draw a Thank You Rome picture for all their contributions. She drew a picture of a giant swimming pool and hot tub complete with slides and fountains. I hope she is also thankful for BOOKS and the idea of a REPUBLIC. Kate thought the Romans were okay but she didn't agree with having slaves or watching gladiators fight each other for entertainment or copying all of the Greek gods and changing their names and especially she didn't like that they persecuted the Christians. The story of "Androcles and the Lion" was one good story that came out of all the gladiator fighting in the Colosseum.

"Nero was a Zero" is how we remembered the ridiculously bad Emperor who watched Rome burn. He blamed the Christians and then rejoiced that there was now room to build a gargantuan golden home for himself while thousands of citizens remained homeless.

We also learned about Constantinople and how he was converted to Christianity through a vision in the clouds. He and his soldiers fought in the name of Christ so he could become Rome's leader.

The Roman Empire was HUGE. Attila the Hun and other barbarians were constantly a threat. In the end the Empire became too big to control and Visigoths and Vandals invaded and destroyed it.

This is how Kate learned to remember it:

In 476

Rome was in a fix.

Little Romulus said farewell

and the Roman Empire fell.

I attended a very uplifting and inspiring book club night with other k12/homeschoolers. We discussed A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille. We as parents are to inspire our children to learn by reading and discussing the classics as well as letting children pursue their passions.

The next day I asked Kate what her passions were: mermaids, princesses, magic, soccer, singing, and being a rockstar. Those weren't exactly the subjects I had in mind for a curriculum...

I am a Wall

2009-02-06T07:20:00.000-08:00

Love and Logic would call the experience Kate had yesterday a "wonderful opportunity" to learn consequences from making choices.
Every morning we have a list of what she needs to do before she can play with friends. One of these is PIANO practicing (notice piano is a recurring theme of discontent at our house.) Another one to clean her zone. She did her schoolwork but couldn't seem to muster up the energy to do cleaning and piano. I know Love and Logic teaches us parents not to remind but I couldn't help letting her know that she had 1 more hour to practice before her lesson or she would not be able to play with friends for the day. Then I walked away. Piano lessons came and she had lost her chance to play with friends.
Later in the afternoon, while Kate's two younger sisters were off playing with their friends, because they finished their work, the doorbell rang. There was one of Kate's most "favoritist" friends asking if she could play. Kate ran to me and with all the pathos she could demonstrate, BEGGED me to let her play with Madison. "I'll hurry and clean my zone right this second, PLEASE!!!!"
When she saw that I was a wall--a soft but FIRM wall--that was not going to crumble--she twisted up her face in all kinds of crying, feel sorry for me, ways.
"Oh, that's SAD." I said. I really felt sorry for her and tried to show my empathy.
I had to go to the door to explain to the friend that Kate wouldn't be able to play because she had made the choice not to practice or do her chores.
Soon after, I was enjoying a little down time on the computer. Kate interrupted me to ask if there were any jobs she could do to earn money. I stopped, looked at her and played dumb, "It is hard for me to think of extra jobs when you haven't done your regular ones."
I also let her know in a loving way that this was my time to do what I needed to do and that I would talk to her later. "See ya!"
She spent the rest of the afternoon/evening entertaining herself.

Thanks to Love and Logic I was still able to have a good day even if my daughter chose not to. Today is a NEW day with NEW list of wonderful opportunities. We'll see how it goes.

2009-01-22T20:02:00.000-08:00

Kate couldn't seem to focus on schoolwork yesterday because she was too busy worrying about her afternoon dentist appointment (we've got a serious dental-phobe around here and that's a kid without any cavities?!--see quote of the week below) I could see it was going to be difficult to do any learning SO....because I am a newly converted Love and Logic parent (just taking some online classes) I gave her two choices:
Kate, would you rather

Do school and get your mind off your worries
Take the day off and do double schoolwork tomorrow

She chose #2. (and then curled up in the fetal position on the couch)

It worked out great, really. I got the house all clean and Kate got to spend the morning worrying 100% just like she wanted.

In the afternoon I took all the girls into the dentist office for their check-ups. We were greeted by the whirring sound of the drill and the overpowering scent of fruityness that's just doesn't quite do it's job of covering up the smell of latex and fluoride. (Ewwww. I'm cringing as I write.) You wouldn't believe the grim look on all the girls faces as they sat and waited their turns. In the end they returned from their checkups relatively happy with their new toothbrushes, a bag of prizes, and NO CAVITIES. Oh the relief on Kate's face!

Today, we did it. We doubled up on the schoolwork-- and all without any complaints.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: I wish I was a worm so I never had to go to the dentist (Kate)

Something you might see in Wonderland

2009-01-18T16:52:00.000-08:00

For Art Day we gleaned our inspiration from Franz Marc. He liked to paint animals but not as they would appear in nature. As seen above he liked to use bold, bright colors, and shapes. The girls learned about blending primary colors to make secondary colors and mixing them with a little black or white to make different tints. After their pictures dried we cut cats out of them and glued them on construction paper. Another fun lesson with paint!

I am woman, hear me roar

2009-01-14T09:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday for school Kate read an article about Susan B. Anthony. She was a New Yorker, who, at the turn of the century, spoke out against slavery and fought for women's right to vote. Because of her and other suffragists, women in the U.S. were granted the right to vote in 1920.

Kate's assignment was to choose something she felt passionate about and write a speech to convince others to see her way. She waited for Dad to come home and then delivered this speech to us:

Back at It!

2009-01-08T20:07:00.000-08:00

Okay, I have to say that we took the whole month of December off--and I HIGHLY recommend it. What a nice break from the routine and seriously, don't we have enough to do in December with all the recitals, parties, shopping, baking, and gifting?! We didn't throw ALL routine to the wind, however; the girls still had to clean their zones, do their reading, and have quiet time each day. But, we did try to do something fun and Chrismassy each day--even if it was a recital--(not exactly Kate's idea of fun) and honestly, I can't remember ever having a better Christmas season. Here are some of the other activities we did:

decorated a gingerbread house, sang carols around the piano, baked lots of treats, went to the local festival of trees, cut out paper snowflakes, made Christmas cards, shoveled snow, threw snow and ate snow, made a Christingle (see photo), sledding, ice-skating, going to the movies

Alright, I can't think of anything else, that was weeks ago. Maybe next year we can include some service in there????

Really, I feel like our time off recharged my batteries. Now that it's January I feel ready to get back to school full-swing and I think secretly the girls are too. Christingle: orange=world, candle=Christ, red=His sacrifice, 4 toothpicks=seasons, raisins=fruit of the world

Rome in a Day

2008-12-03T14:51:00.000-08:00

We are taking a "vacation" from the usual RRR and immersing ourselves into some History and Science. It's like catching up and having a whole day of learning fun at the same time. Here's how it's going so far:

Monday --Science Day--We finished up a whole unit on ANIMAL LIFE CYCLES:

We read, "Why Frogs Get Wet" and learned all about how frogs go from egg to tadpole to adult. We also learned that if ever a giant man-eating frog comes bounding through town--PLAY DEAD. They will not eat anything unless it's moving. When the girls played Barbies later in the day they pretended that baby Cannon was a Goliath frog coming to attack them so they all played dead. He still attacked. We made our own version of the most poisonous of all frogs : the poison dart frog of Central America. Kate made the fly. Our reward for finishing a science unit has been to go on a fieldtrip. For today's field trip we went to the Pet Store. They didn't have poison frogs but they did have a tomato frog and some other creepy things: tarantula, a giant boa, lizards, fish galore, cats, rats (ewww), and our favorite: The softest thing you've ever laid finger on--chinchilla. The pet store lady was kind enough to let us pet it when she found out we were on a "family field trip."

Tuesday: HISTORY DAY.

I introduced the lesson by wearing a toga--as you can see. We reviewed first about continents, oceans, NSEW directions, etc. Then we got right into Ancient Rome. Adrie related the whole story about Romulus and Remus to Dad when he got home and how they were twin boys raised by a mother wolf. For once a wolf is the hero of a story. We also watched some k12 movies about Cincinnatus, Horatius saving the bridge. We learned what it is to have a Republic, or an elected group of rulers. Later in the day I told the girls they had to obey me because I was the "Consul." Kate said, "NO, you're not, because you're not even wearing purple." note to self: wear purple tomorrow. All roads lead to Rome--they also built aqueducts, the first sewer system, 5-story buildings, bath houses. For reading time we read this great book from the library "The Roman News" It is a history series set up as a newspaper and it turned out to be a fun resource to learn little tidbits like girls marrying at age 12. There were articles about how to get your skin, "extra white," a help wanted section for slaves, advertisements for how to spiff up your toga, and a how-to article on throwing a great dinner party with a recipe for "snail snacks."

Wednesday: SCIENCE Day again. Kate chose METRICS--because I told her it involved measuring ingredients for delicious treats! We made hot chocolate and Kate measured it out into a graduated cylinder so that everyone got 100 mL. She used a metric stick to record different heights of things like a her Barbie (29 cm. tall). We learned about Mr. Farenheit and Mr. Celsius and then Kate used a thermometer to record the temperatures of ice water and hot tap water.

Last and best of all we used a balance to find out which of all the girls could make a s'more with the greatest mass. Kate piled hers high with marshmallows and chocolate chips so she won with 38 grams. That is a whopper of a s'more! What a lot of science in one day. We broke it up with some Christmas caroling and running around outside and of course eating all those treats.

Congrats! You have a head, thorax, and abdomen!

2008-11-14T14:57:00.000-08:00

ART DAY: We learned about Juan Miro , top-left.(Spain.) The girls drew their own Miro inspired pictures using bold black lines, shapes, bright colors, and wild imagination.

At the dinner table 3 yr-old Adrie said to Dad, "You have a HEAD, THORAX, ABDOMEN." What a compliment!--to Dad AND to our science lesson about insects 2 weeks ago.

One of the BEST investments of my time this week was to attend a local Love and Logic class specifically geared toward homeschoolers. It was just the shot in the arm I needed. I came away not only encouraged and praised but with some great ideas to incorporate into our schooling.

It came at the perfect time because I had been feeling quite overwhelmed with our busy days--homeschooling is hard work! When I'm not doing Kate's lesssons, I'm trying to give a 3 yr old attention--which she never can get enough of...or I'm changing diapers and feeding a baby-- and trying to keep the house in order on top of that!!!....
It didn't help that I had recently been criticized by some person that I was depriving my children socially...etc. HELLO, I live on a street teeming with children! I won't get started on that. ANYWAY, the lessons in the class and the stories shared CONFIRMED my belief deep down that what I am doing is GOOD for our family. Here are some examples:

We are never "behind." We are where we are.
Set the timer and do 15 minute rotations so each kid gets some one on one time.
take lessons outdoors: do math with sidewalk chalk. In the past I have had Kate do a problem set and then sent her on an obstacle course--like riding her bike around the house to find a gray rock,etc. but, this was a good reminder and I could incorporate it into other lessons.
teach life skills: math with cooking, measuring, shopping, estimating. Kate has been earning money by finishing units. Today she picked out a barbie , counted out the money and gave it to the cashier all on her own.I can't do EVERYTHING: the kids have to help out around the house. Yesterday I taught Kate how to measure the water and turn on the stove to make her own Ramen noodles for her and her sisters. Jobs help the whole family.
Each day, write all the lessons that need to be done, jobs, practicing etc. on a white board. As Kate completes each one she can cross it off or erase it. When it comes time for FUN and she asks "Can I play with friends" I can simply say, "I don't know, CAN YOU?" and refer to the chart. This has been working wonderfully the last 2 days. No more nagging!
TALK LESS, ASK MORE "How do you think you did on your handwriting?" "Do you feel like you practiced that song enough and are ready for your lesson?"
My opinion of Kate's work is not as important as Her opinion of her work. Let her evaluate herself based on these guidelines: I worked hard, I kept trying, I kept practing. When she finishes her work instead of me praising ad nauseum or correcting ask, "How did you do that?" (Working hard is the right answer.) This teaches them that they can accomplish anything if they work hard, etc. and when things do get hard they won't be as likely to quit.
MOVE ON with MY day. I can explain to Kate, "I am available to help you with this assignment for such and such time but then I need to....... blog??? Hope you can join us for that fun family activity later..." That way I can still have a life and not feel like a slave to school work.

It all came together, when, after taking whole week off of piano, (old me would have said to Kate, "Time to practice, you better get going, because you are SO not ready for your lesson.") new me said to Kate, "Let's see, you have your lesson in tomorrow. Do you feel like you are ready to play your songs for your teacher?" That's all I said, then as the class recommended, I "walked away and let her figure it out." A short while later, she actually started practing--first time ever it was her own idea!!!! Hallelujah! Then I was helping her get through some of the unfamiliar notes when (as usual) she had a come apart and threw her music and threatened to quit forever, blah blah blah. But because the new me has a life to get to I responded (coolly, if I may indulge) " Well, I'm available to help you for the next 10 minutes but after that I need to read to Brynn." I had already made it clear that piano would need to be done before any friends or computer time. Kate floundered on the floor complaining while I had a very fun time reading with my kindergartener (who really appreciated the time spent too.) After 5 minutes of wallowing around, Kate --wonder of wonders--ASKED me, "Mom, can you come help me with this song?" Glory Hallelujah!

Back to School--here's what else we covered this week:

Language Arts: spelling, reading fables and discussing morals, pronouns, plot, setting, characters. vocab and reading comprehension, and handwriting.

Math with Dad: adding double digits.

It was a dark and stormy night....

2008-11-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

Actually, it was the best weather ever for trick-or-treating. I couldn't believe we could be out in shorts sleeves and sandals--that is a first!

The storm was during the day when Brynn and I were sick and throwing up!

Everyone managed to get a little trick-or-treating in by the end of the day so it wasn't a total dud. Kate and Adrie went to a neighborhood Halloween party earlier in the day.

All the anticipation of the candy-filled holiday made it just a bit harder to concentrate on school work this week. Kate did some extra lessons at the first of the week so she could have Friday off.

Kate has been doing awesome with her spelling words (ae, ai, ae, and ay words) and moving right along to more challenging words. We reviewed verbs, past, present, and irregular. Also, we reviewed what it means to proofread: check spelling, capitals, periods, and putting sentences in correct order.

The Long Way to a New Land was a chapter book Kate read about a family who immigrated to America from Sweden during the "hunger years." The girls were grateful they didn't have to eat bitter bread made from moss in the woods. The follow up to it was The Long Way Westward .

It continued the story of the same family traveling in rough conditions on the "emigrant cars" on their way to settle the Midwest.

The mathletes are working on counting money and telling time. Kate is very adept at counting money because almost every day she gets out her stash and counts it--just to make sure it is all there. Right now she has $30.00 plus we owe her $7.00 in school rewards, $1 for practicing all week, and $3 that I borrowed earlier this week. Yeah! I know, it's sad when your 7 yr old is lending you cash. She has been saving money for 3 months now waiting for that perfect thing to buy.....will it still be rockstar microphone?

Online, we have a fun activity with other k12-ers called "Who wants to be a millionaire." It is an game that the 2nd graders can log-in to and play together to review math and language arts. The goal is to help them prepare for end of year testing. Kate really was excited to participate so I'm sure we'll be logging in to join every Tues. and Thurs. and adding up more "cash."

For science we are studying Animal Life Cycles. We acted out the life cycle of a butterfly. First rolling up into an egg then hatching into a larva (caterpillar) then wrapping up in a blanket cocoon in the pupa stage and emerging out as a butterfly (with tinkerbell fairy wings.)

We also learned about the reptile life cyle using modeling clay. First the egg, then the hatchling (we made baby snakes) then they grew into adult snakes. I made a big snake to eat their snakes and we I gave them a good n gory description of how constrictors first sneak up on their prey, then strike and bite it, then squeeze it to death, and finally swallow it whole. Kate had invited her friend Emily over to join us for Thurs. science. They both made a steady diet of cute little mice for my snake to devour again and again.

Spanish has been a lot of fun with the PowerGlide program. The other day we went to Wal-Mart and Adrie was delighted to hear a Spanish speaking mom yell to her son, "MALO!" She has been telling everyone about it. That has to be the favorite foreign phrase around here, along with CUIDADO! NO! and NUNCA! I like to have a little fun with that last one. Sometimes when they ask a question, "Can I have a snack? NUNCA "Can we get a TV?" NUNCA and "When is it going to be Christmas? NUNCA. Try it! It's lots of fun because it makes anyone sound like a wicked step-mother.

Last of all, for Art we looked at some paintings of animals and studied how they are depicted in art: using tiny brushstrokes for fur, for example. The girls painted their own animal pictures. Brynn's was a turtle, Kate did a bear and a bird, Adrie is good at bugs. Their favorite things to make and color however, are MERMAIDS. We made mermaid paper dolls that the girls colored making faces, hair, and seashell bikinis.

And that's the week in a wrap: Next week we'll be having a little Fall Vacation to Sunny St. George! Travel is the best education afterall ;)

Fall FieldTrip to the Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-23T11:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, so everyone has been to the Pumpkin Patch by now. Gotta love those photo ops. But, does your pumpkin patch have these?Don't ask me what these are--this wasn't an educational fieldtrip just a fun one. Brynn and Adrie called it a swan, which I think was a very generous evaluation. I think it looks more like a serpent: a rattlesnake or cobra. Either way--it is super fun and Brynn thought this was just the right "pumpkin" for Dad. Does your pumpkin patch have one of these? All the kiddies piled in for a bumpy rumblin' train ride.

How about Indian Corn? Exploring in the fields pictured in the background, we found lots of hidden ears of beautiful variety: red, black, multi-colored, etc. We had them decorating our front porch along with the other pumpkins we found until Kate went out there and discovered to her complete HORROR a mouse picking at the corn. What a feast we had laid out for him. We decided to make the corn an indoor decoration and keep those doors shut!

We went to the local pumpkin patch as a field trip with fellow k12-schoolers in the area. It was fun to get to know other families who do what we do. The numbers are growing. I think we had at least double what we had last year---or at least enough to fill 2 huge haywagons. What a fun day for all of us!

A Book by Kate

2008-10-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

...in rough draft form...

2008-09-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

And this year's science project award goes to the Christensen Family for the VOLCANO WITH CHOCOLATE MOLTEN LAVA...
What a fun and messy science day. We learned about magma erupting from volcanoes. When it reaches the earth's crust it is called lava and then hardens to form igneous rock. After the girls had their fill of hot lava--with enough evidence on their shirts, we put their chocolate volcanoes in the fridge to let them harden. Our little nerds then spent their sugar buzz watching video clips of erupting volcanoes from nationalgeographic.com I knew the concept sunk in when after an hour of that, Adrie yelled, "Let's go eat our igneous rocks!"

Kate and Brynn went to Liberty Girls on Tuesday. It has been great to get together with other k12 families and homeschoolers and yeah!--there are some functional and cool families out there. It gives me the little boost I need to think, Okay I can do this too! The girls have been reading and learning about slavery from the American Girls Series, Addy.
Addy, a colored girl, and her family says things like, "We done real good" "You is going to learn to read" and " It ain't fair, mama." It's fun to throw all grammar lessons to the wind and really get into the part.
Kate and Brynn came home each with a bag of cookie dough to make letters out of--just like Addy when she was teaching her mom to read. The dough, although not tasty because it was made from some very "healthy" wheat flour, was very entertaining. The girls probably spent an hour rolling it out and playing with it. Then they said, "Mom can we SEW?" Sew???
Apparently , again like Addy, they learned to sew stitches on fabric. Sewing has become the new craze around here. As long as I thread the needle and tie a knot at the end, they will happily sew rags together, scraps of fabric, whatever they can find. Luckily, we had some fabric around (from our Chinese silk lesson.) They got the grand idea to sew purses out of them and use a ribbon for a handle. They have become quite the fashion trend on the street.

We also made a makeshift barbie dress for Adrie. It's more like a toga or a mumu, however you spell that. Either way, as you can see, they are very proud of their newfound sewing skills.

Sewing just happened to fit right in our Art and Language Arts lessons. Kate read aloud Josefina and the Story Quilt. It told about a girl crossing the plains to California as a pioneer. Also, about how important quilts were to pioneers. They were like the family journal or scrapbook. For Art, each girls got a square of white fabric to draw on with markers. We just happened to be babysitting a couple of neighborhood kids that day so they also got a patch to draw on. Next week the girls will stitch them together to make a mini quilt--without the backing or filler or quilting bee--none of us know that much about sewing!

Kate also had to learn about what it takes to write a book. The first lesson was a word web where she had to think of an animal and write ideas about it in the outlying word bubbles. The next day she made 5 complete sentences from her wordbubble, a rough draft, you could say. Next she learned about PROOFREADING--correcting her sentences with puncuation, spelling, etc. Finally, it was time to PUBLISH her story in a book. Kate decided to elaborate BIG TIME on her 5 sentences and write a whole dialogue and everything complete with illustrations. She spent a good hour on her book and in the back there was even a section "About the Author, complete with a picture of herself. Ha ha, I'll have to get a picture of that. So, I guess it is still a work in progress. We'll have to publish the final draft on the blog next week after a few corrections.

Friday ended with a neighborhood block party at our place. We had probably about 75 people show up--our driveway has never been so exciting. Everyone brought potluck, and their own meat to grill and there was plenty of feasting and visiting. This was the second official block party and I think we're going to make it a yearly tradition with maybe some games and prizes in the future.

Field Trip to Fish Lake

2008-09-22T14:33:00.000-07:00

What better place to enjoy school than in the mountains. Really, we did this for some Saturday recreation but to prepare us for maximum fun and education, we read Let's Go Rock Hunting" the drive up (thank goodness I didn't get carsick.)
What a beautiful sight at 10,000 feet altitude to see the strikingly blue Fish Lake. Along the lakeshore trail the girls found lots of rocks and Dad entertained us with his new knowledge, "Don't be igneous" and "Let's not take that for granite!" I love being married to a nerd.

For Art day we learned about how artists use different kinds of lines: wavy, zigzag, spiral, etc. The girls painted their own masterpieces on these leftover cardboard sheets. They really add a splash of color to the kitchen, as you can see.

For Spanish we have been reading a book and then I will insert a word or phrase in Spanish, each day adding a little more. For example, "Ay Abuela! Que grandes dientes tienes!"
"The better to eat you with," said the lobo.

Kate is loving the Science unit on rocks. She played some interactive games on the k12 site to learn about Mohr's scale of hardness. Every day she begs to go rock collecting, even if it is only in the backyard.

Kate taught Adrie her preschool today. She made flashcards from 1-20 and they practiced together . She also read her an alphabet book-- Love it when the kids help each other!
Brynn is savoring every word that she is able to sound out. It is exciting to see her discover reading. Her sight words are: the, a , I, was, said, it, is.

We are continuing to learn about the American Revolution. This week we read a book from the RedCoats point of view called, George the Drummer Boy. Kate had to compare and contrast this with last week's Sam the Minuteman. She is learning the difference between fiction, non-fiction, historical fiction, and fables. She has also been practicing her handwriting everyday. Her new favorite book series she discovered for her free-time reading is, The Jewel Fairies by Daisy Meadows.
To help learn about nouns, proper and plural, I made up some "Mad Libs" type stories where Kate had to fill in the blanks of the story. They turned out pretty silly, much to the girls' delight.

Last year when I taught, Kate really loathed Math time so you can imagine my surprise when she said this week that Math was her favorite subject--what?!! Apparently switching teachers made all the difference--Dad is doing a great job!

Kate the Great Rock Hunter

2008-09-12T20:54:00.000-07:00

Could we get any more scheduled?: M-F Math and Language Arts. T/TH Science, M/W Spanish, Friday Art Day. Heck we even added a lunch schedule to go along with our family prayer schedule : M-PB&J, T-Ramen (Kate's favorite), Wednesday Brynnsday is Tuna Fish (her favorite), TH-mac-n-cheese (Adrie's and ONLY Adrie's favorite) F-plate of snacks. (cheese, crackers, nuts, fruit, etc.)

The mathletes Dad and Kate are enjoying their early morning lessons--more review of different ways to add--like using number lines or my personal favorite, fingers. Also, inverse operations (7-2=5 so 5+2=7.) I catch them doing all sorts of cheesy things like making up songs about math rules and calling themselves mathletes.

Kate's daily L.A. lessons have included new spelling words (easy ones but they'll get harder soon,) vocab words, plural nouns, proper uses of May I and Can I, and handwriting. She chose to copy a joke from one of her library books, "Why did the skeleton go to the movies alone? Because he had noBODY to go with." Ha ha--she has been telling that one to everyBODY.

We've learned about Independence Day and the Revolutionary War by reading Sam the Minuteman. The colonists got that name for being ready to fight the RedCoats in a minute's notice. Kate said she was going to be an "hour-man" to get ready for bed tonight.
Interesting how kids make connections--We were reading about why the American Revolution started: the colonists were under the rule of King George III of England and they were angry with him because he made them pay extra taxes and feed his soldiers etc. They wanted to be FREE to make their own rules. Kate said to me, "That's kind of like how YOU are the boss and I want to be free to make MY own rules." Hmmm, am I sensing a revolution?

During Adrie's Music class we ventured over to the canal again hoping for another Huck Finn moment. There was no water in the ditch however, the lack of water revealed a wealth of rocks to found by "Kate the Great Rock Hunter." For our SCIENCE Kate chose to do the unit on Rocks first. One of our assignments was to go rock collecting and study their different properties and categorize them. This turned out to be WAY MORE FUN than I could have imagined and the sandwich sized bag I gave her for collecting was totally insufficient for the great haul she came home with--thanks to the jogging stroller for getting 50 rocks home. Move over baby--make way for the rocks. Kate was so excited about her finds, "Look at this one it's red, and this one is so smooth, and this one has stripes like a tiger"...and on and on until I said it was absolutely time to go pick up Adrie. She spent the next hour carefully washing and organizing her rocks. They are outside on the back porch right now, lovingly wrapped in one of my towels.

Adrie here is showing the other science activity of the week: Layers of the earth. We watched a cool video clip where we toured all the different layers: Crust, Mantle, Core, and then made our own models using dirt for the crust, pebbles for the mantle, and iron filings for the hot metal core. This was an extra fun and dirty activity to be had outside! That attracted a few little neighbors. One of our little across the street cuties observed us for awhile and then ran back to her house shouting, "I'm going to make the earth too!" She came back with almost all the supplies necessary.

For Art today we looked at some famous Portraits (the Thinker by Rodin--which we saw last week at the museum and had to take turns posing like. Kate thought he must be thinking of his girlfriend.) We also learned about Self Portraits. Durer portrayed himself with long curly hair and we had to laugh at the thought of Dad with long 1400's stylish hair. (Kate later drew a picture of that. ) The assignment for Kate was to draw her own Self Portrait. She chose to draw her famous self. The one that is SO famous, people throw flowers on the stage when she sings into her pink microphone.

Brynn's been doing great with Kindergarten. She only missed the bus once this week. Kate came in that morning to let us know that the bus had arrived. She found us completely dead asleep thanks to Cannon's 3-5 a.m. crying-fest. Our girls were never that stubborn during BabyWise sleep training. Brynn is pretty much the only kid that gets her hair done in the morning. It's my special time to visit with her as she chooses how she wants it and I try to create it. Today she chose a "braid flower" which we learned how to do from another blog, "hair-do's for girls" and we also like "babes in hairland."

TGIF! Friday is date night for me and dad: tonight it's tennis which will leave me very sore for Saturday which is "sleep in and throw all schedules to the wind" day.

Hannah Montana and Huckleberry Finn

2008-09-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

At least we can say about this week that everyone did some learning. The huge bag-o-chocolate treats that I bought at Costco has really paid off for school rewards. Adrie gets one for doing a preschool lesson: she knows almost all of her letters already. Brynn taught her today using her worksheets from Kindergarten. Brynn gets her treat for reading lessons. Kate gets one for finishing school with a "good attitude."--we've had some close calls.

This week seemed extra busy because in addition to soccer 2x/week we added Adrie's music/rhythm class and Kate's, piano lessons. Adrie was SOOO excited to go to her first class, she drew a special picture for the teacher and wore her cutest newest outfit. We walked her down the street to her morning class. Her 40 minute lesson gave Kate and I just enough time to walk down to the nearby canal and do some outdoor schooling. Sitting on the bank, letting her bare feet dangle into the cool rushing water, Kate read aloud to me from her book. That was our Huck Finn moment. She read several fables and we discussed the morals. We do a little tradition at dinnertime that our neighbor taught us called "high/low." Everyone takes a turn saying the best and worst or High/low that happened to them that day. Being in the canal was definitely Kate's high for the day.

Other reading lessons: putting things in ABC order, common and proper nouns, subjects and predicates. Today we read 3 poems about pets and Kate had to fill in the blanks to write her own. Dad is still working with her on math review. It is such a huge burden lifted off me, to not have to deal with that. He is much more patient than I.

Brynn had her best day at Kindergarten so far-- even though it had a rough start. Dad had to drag her out the door screaming because she didn't like the bows I put in her hair but it was too late to change it. She ripped them out herself and went to school with some pretty loose and kinky pony tails. Anyway, the good came because she said each teacher rotated in her classroom and they played different games. Sounds fun to me. Brynn told us that a girl named Katelyn said, after turning to look back at Brynn several times, "I just can't help it you're too cute!

I took Brynn with me to sign her up for gymnastics. She is SOO excited and she has to wait 22 more days for it to start!!

Today we finished reading "Meet Addy" the American Girl book about a girl who grows up in slavery and she and her momma runaway to freedom. It was pretty intense at times reading about whippings and beatings and when they almost drowned in the river and ended up with leeches. I don't know how much Adrie and Brynn got out of it but Kate was fascinated. The whole black/white slavery concept was pretty difficult for all of them to grasp. On a lighter side, I think they learned to be grateful that they get to go to school and play instead of working in the fields de-worming tobacco plants. This book was our reading requirement for our local chapter of Liberty Girls which they will attend twice month starting next week.

And on a final note: Kate, like all girls her age, is a big fan of Hannah Montana. For her weekly reward, she chose a poster of her at the store to put in her clubhouse in the unfinished basement. I told Kate that Hannah Montana probably does homeschool too.

Monet to Picasso

2008-09-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

Our first fieldtrip! We had to catch this exhibit before it left town. It was a pretty unique experience for us-- seeing real live art, passing through hard-core security (no pens allowed), listening to the handheld speakers that narrate the paintings as you walk along, as well as what Kate pointed out in the Picasso section, "Why are there so many naked people?"

My proud parent moment came when we saw the geometric/primary colored painting of Peit Mondrian and Kate said, "Hey, I know that one!" That is one we had used in her first grade Art curriculum to talk about shapes in art.! No print can compare to seeing the REAL thing. All in all it was a fun experience and Nana treated us to cookies at the museum cafe.

Later in the day we stopped to get shakes before heading off to VoiceMale's free outdoor concert in the park. What a perfect day to start with a museum trip and end with a concert.

After the concert viewSaturday Sprinklers with cousin QuintinSunday walk to church The weekend ended with a sleepover with cousins at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

First Week of School and We're Ready for a Vacation

2008-08-27T17:03:00.000-07:00

We finished the first week of school and we're even cutting it short to go on vacation. It's Labor Day Weekend (aka my birthday) and I want some city fun so we are off tomorrow. We will also be planning a trip to the Fine Arts Museum to see the Impressionism exhibit so now we can call it a fieldtrip and count it as school. Here's what we did this week:

Monday, we sent Brynn off to brick and mortar public school. Why is Brynn going to Kindergarten? Because she REALLLLY wanted to; Kate went, so she feels it's her "rite of passage."

I'm not sure her experience lived quite up to her expectations--they were pretty high. When I asked her about it after picking her up from the bus-stop she said, "It was easy and we only had 2 recesses." She showed us her coloring pages of letter A and number one and said that it was just like preschool except she liked preschool better. Every day Dad has walked her down to the bus-stop at 7:30 and Brynn gets dropped off at 11:30 just in time for all of us to have lunch, followed by some story time by Mom ( we had quite the library loot this week to get through).

I have been all gung-ho to start on our Spanish. Unfortunately we have had some log-in problems with accessing our account and I don't know when they'll be resolved. Instead we read a very fun book Bebe at the beach. It is a cute story that intersperses Spanish words into

it's rhyming text. We read it again today, with the girls repeating the bold print Spanish words as they came along in the story, "mira, pelota, el sol, gafas, helado, cuidado," etc.

Brynn is still doing her reading lessons after school from her favorite book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We are on lesson #30 and it's going well. She loves to do it and she also gets to pick a treat from the jar after each lesson.

Kate's week has been going well, except for the "You're not a real teacher, I want to go to real school, homeschool is stupid" tantrums that seemed to occur every morning. Dad had a talk with her and decided that Kate will get an "attitude" treat each day out of the jar if she can be "cute and fun" when she does her lessons. Today it worked!!! No come-aparts! Hallelujah!!!

Language Arts includes about 20 min. of spelling, 30 minutes of vocab. 20 minutes of grammar/writing and 20 minutes of guided reading. The spelling has been pretty easy so far (lock, ship, does, from, etc.) We reviewed the 4 different types of sentences (telling, asking, exclamation, command) and practiced writing them. We read and discussed, Clara and the Bookwagon." Today we read some fables and found their morals, "The Dog and His Shadow" and the "Goose and the Golden Eggs" Kate wrote the titles and the morals of each, "Don't be GREEDY" --definitely, a command.

Dad is taking over math, or wizard numbers, he calls it. They have been doing it first thing in the morning after breakfast: 7:30 a.m. So far it has been 1 st grade review which Kate thinks is easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.

Adrie gets to do preschool during our school breaks. I present myself as "Mrs. Winkletoes" her teacher and she loves to show me that she knows her colors and counting. We are working on shapes and identifying letters and numbers. She gets a treat out of the jar after her lesson just like Brynn.

Besides school, Kate had her first soccer game. It was very exciting and she was already asking if she could have a sleepover with her new friend Saylor. Adrie was soo excited to attend her first Rhythm/Music class for toddlers but--Darn IT!--I forgot to take her this morning. When I realized my mistake and apologized, Adrie was in tears. Now she has to wait 7 more days for the next class.. aarrgh!

I made Brynn's favorite for dinner last night, "Creamy Enchiladas" and she said, "Let's just have this all to ourselves -- don't share it with any neighbors!" There's a command. We also made brownies but DARn IT again! I accidentally put 3/4 cup water instead of 1/4 into the mix, so I had to compensate with extra flour and ewww, even frosting on top could not make them taste better.

Yesterday we got the long awaited DVD "Camp Rock" in the mail from Netflix. Adrie thought it was boring (however, she hip-hopped along every time they broke out in song) On a scale of 1-5 Kate gave it one billion stars! They watched it again with Dad before bedtime. Now Kate is working on her own "Camp Rock" book of songs. They are mostly love songs, but one included Nature and another one said, "Jesus made me this way. " Kate is consumed with how she can become famous. She said she will start charging $1/person now instead of 25 cents to watch her concerts. Brynn also started her own book of Camp Rock "drawings."

And there's our first week in a wrap!

Project Organization

2008-08-21T11:30:00.001-07:00

Who doesn't like some good BEFORE and AFTER pictures? This is what we were dealing with in summer school, finishing up our History and Art curriculum before 2nd grade. "Where's the tape? Where is a pen?? Where is that Monet print???" I'd had enough. It was time to start the new school year off right. After a little inspiration and a lot of perspiration, this is the AFTER photo.
Inspiration came in the form of those VERY handy over the door SHOE organizers. (about $7 at Wal-Mart) Our girls have been so excited to see their stuff they have been doing arts and crafts all week! I am so proud of our project I have been leaving the doors open just so I can glance over and feel the satisfaction. Ahhhh
If you zoom in that 2nd photo you'll see my other favorite purchase: AN ELECTRIC PENCIL SHARPENER. Why didn't I get one of these years ago?! Except for the horrible grinding sound that terrifies our 5 month old baby, it has been a great thing! Ready for school NEXT WEEK.