Another week...

It's my favorite time of year! I love the cool, crisp weather (especially since it's sunny right now), the sense of holiday expectation, shopping for special gifts for people, and the way people are so much nicer this time of year! The kids are really enjoying it too - long walks through rustling leaves, hot apple cider, Advent calendars, etc.
 
Right now we are working on some Christmas activity books printed out from Enchanted Learning (great site). We're also doing math - usually a lesson a day, both sides because C.O. goes through it pretty quickly. He's doing a lot of word problems and writing out number sentences. For science we're studying insects - we made some really cool insect castings with clay, plastic bugs & plaster! They came out very clear and well-defined. In reading we're still working on early readers of course. I'm looking at adding Phonics Pathways to our library of resources as I understand it is a very good book. We've been doing HWOT, but I also got a book on "modern" manuscript writing to see which is actually easier for C.O.
 
We wrote and illustrated letters to Santa this week, plus worked on pen pal letters. We've now got penpals in 4 states and Canada! The kids are very excited and love to draw pictures for their new friends.
 
We also chose a couple of names off the Giving Tree at my work - both girls wanting art supplies. Since C.O. and C.J. love art so much, they can easily understand why other kids would want art stuff too. They helped me pick out a few things, and we'll add a few more over the next few days. It's not very expensive, and it's a nice thing to do for someone else.
 
Goals this weekend - finish sorting through the kids old toys - we're getting rid of a lot of stuff that they don't play with anymore. I'm working on donating books of mine, and we have a TON of clothes to donate. I am hoping by Monday, we'll be ready to drop off a bunch of stuff!

Thanksgiving to now...

Thanksgiving was a great day - I got up early so we didn't have much stress over getting everything cooked. I just drifted in and out of the kitchen for half a day, doing a bit here and a bit there. Everyone ate tons of everything, so I guess it turned out well! The kids had a lot of fun making construction paper turkeys (from hand tracings) & hearing Thanksgiving stories again.
 
Now the kids are getting very excited about Christmas. We're moving into insect studies (science) and Christmas Around the World (social studies) this week. I should be getting Microcosmos on Monday or Tuesday, plus we'll be making a library trip in the next couple of days for both subjects. I want to build on something C.O. did in his enrichment class, which was a casting of an animal track, by doing insect castings - just have to figure out the insect part (maybe fake ones to make the impressions?).
 
This week we're also starting to make Christmas gifts for family members... we're doing castings of the kids' hands to frame shadow-box style along with a picture for their Grandma (M's mom); painting pottery (Friday evening) for their Nonna (my mom); and coming up with a project for their Grandpa (my dad). We like to do a lot of homemade gifts as opposed to just buying things - one: they're meanigful, two: the kids love making things, and three: they're less expensive.

The day before yesterday, yesterday & today...

Monday: Day off from C.O.'s art class, so he spent the morning playing with Play-Doh. I've finally gotten the kids to stay at the kitchen table while playing with it. He flew through another math lesson when I got home from work, and then worked a bit on HM Phonics while C.J. colored a maze. After that, we went to C.O.'s first gymnastics class, which he loved! He had to climb a rope, do some work on bars, and some balance beam work. He said it's way more fun than soccer. Then C.J. had gymnastics, which she still adores. She did a lot of balance beam work. The other girls were goofing off and amazingly, C.J. behaved, so she got an extra couple of minutes on the trampoline! They couldn't wait to get home to show off to M. Now, as long as I can keep squeezing out the money for this!

Yesterday: We started working on housecleaning for Thanksgiving. The kids played with Play-Doh while I did dishes, scrubbed countertops and mopped the floor. There's still a few final things to be done, but at least I got a good start on it all! Then we read a Babar story, a Thanksgiving story, and talked about what we're thankful for. C.O. is thankful for HotWheels, RC airplanes, and Legos. C.J. is thankful for the color pink, cats, dirt/sand and stories. I'm glad my kids have their priorities straight! Then we did some math, and both kids practiced counting out loud to 100. We also worked on pictures for pen pals.

Today: Other than story-time, we are taking the day off educationally speaking (well, except I have class tonight). We're going to bake the pies today (apple for tomorrow, pumpkin for Friday), finish folding the huge clean laundry pile, vacuum, etc.

 

  HAPPY THANKSGIVING TOMORROW!

The past week...

I'll admit, the last week has been busy with all kinds of non-school stuff - gymnastics, a dentist visit, my wedding anniversary weekend, etc. C.O. did do a couple of math lessons this week, and he's practiced his reading skills. He also made a casting of a chicken foot in his science enrichment class that was really cool. I signed him up for a 4 week gymnastics session to try out. C.J. is still loving her gymnastics, so she'll keep going for now. She's been singing the alphabet song for days on end.
 
One neat thing this week - the other night we were all cuddling on my bed, watching a cartoon, when C.O. suddenly asked me if I'd like to hear a story. He then told me "Goldlilocks & the 3 Bears", even giving all the bears different voices. C.J. then told me a (slightly abbreviated) version of "The 3 Little Pigs". I thoroughly enjoyed both!
 
We spent Wednesday afternoon, all of it, at the dentist. C.O. had a couple of cavities that had to be drilled and filled. C.J. got her teeth cleaned - thankfully no cavities there!

Friday, Saturday & today...

Friday: We actually did get the lesson out of the way in the morning! C.O. worked on math - the problems are increasing in complexity, but he still seems to enjoy it. More word problems, which involve drawing (always a plus), some coloring (to determine most & least), and counting to sixth place. Then he read "The Dump Truck" out loud, with very little sounding out. A couple of pages in HWOT rounded off the morning's work. In the meantime, C.J. practiced writing her name, and drew & colored in some polka dots. After all that, we headed off to the Super Playground in Sebastopol - totally cool place! It's all made of wood, some tires, etc., and looks like a castle. What's really nice is that there are built-in benches everywhere, so I could be close to the kids the majority of the time. The elflings got to play with lots of other kids too. C.J. played with Cassia, and we discovered both are left-handed (they are so similar in so many ways that it is kind of freaky). C.O. loved playing Civil War boat with C.J., B, J, and B & J's dad, R. All in all, it was a good afternoon, and we didn't leave the park until it just got too cold. I met a couple of the other homeschooling parents too. What I like is that (once the other hs'ing parents know kind of what you and your kids look like) the kids can spread out and there's always a parent keeping an eye on them.
When we got home, I cooked dinner while the kids played with their Magna-Doodles. C.O. spelled out Daddy, Mommy, his own name, and C.J.'s name just by sounding them out! He did struggle a little with C.J.'s name, but got 5 of the 6 letters! C.J. traced her hand about sixty times.
 
Saturday: Did some lessons in the morning - math and reading, then we read Green Eggs & Ham to see how much of it C.O. could sound out. He got a fair bit, but naturally words like "couldn't" and "wouldn't" threw him off. Then, we went off to the tire shop, and C.O. watched in absolute fascination as they raised the SUV up, took off the old tires (which were getting waaaay too bald for comfort) and put on new ones. We're going to fill out a field trip form for that, so it'll really count as school. Then at home, C.O. described the whole thing to M, while C.J. helped me make a big pot of turkey chili.
 
Today: If it wasn't for the fact that we are nearly out of milk, I wouldn't leave the house today. We're going to clean a lot today! C.O. has already asked if he could do school, so I think this evening we'll finally finish the Family Tree. I'm going to sort through (or at least try to) the clothes in my closet. There are these great drop-off bins in Petaluma for old clothing, shoes, etc., so I'll be donating a bunch of stuff. I like these bins because you just driop the bagged stuff off, without having to deal with snotty people sorting through it and not wanting half of it (had this experience at Goodwill a few times.. "well, we have too many x so we're not taking these right now"). The kids are going to start sorting out toys soon too, to get rid of half (I hope) before Christmas comes.
Tomorrow we're off to the symphony - they're doing a special shorter show for school-age kids, and C.O.'s charter school got free tickets! There were just enough tickets that the whole family gets to go.
 
Edited to add: I'm reading "The Well-Trained Mind" (got it at the library on Friday) and love it! This is so much the education I wish I had had - it makes sense. I'm taking copius notes so that I can use the basic ideas though I will be tweaking them a bit. If you haven't read this, I do recommend it, but as recommended to me, get the older version (apparently the newer one is more about the author's products than a variety of resources). I love the way they tie history segments to science segments, and it all seems to flow very sequentially.

Things are slowing down again...

One secretary came back last week, and the other returns tomorrow, so I think by the end of the week, things at work will be back to normal. Plus C.O.'s soccer season is officially over. Thus I'll have more time to do all the other stuff, like homeschooling, going places (I keep meaning to take the elflings to the zoo but haven't had time), housework (I'm a bit behind), doing homework for English lit ahead of time, not last minute... you get the picture. Right now I am supposed to be creating/forming a 10-15 minute presentation of Isabel Allende for class - I've got the bare bones done, but need to take some time to flesh it out. I hate doing oral presentations, but my job at the Marin Conservation Corps several years back did help me get past the worst of my public speaking fears.

I am trying, at home, to get rid of things. I have too much stuff - too many books (is that possible though?), too many old clothes, too many baby clothes (it is hard to part with something your baby wore), just too much. We'll be at the end of our lease in a few months, and I don't want to have to move as much junk this time. I know we'll be looking for a place with more space, but I'd like some of it to remain just that, space. Ideally we'll get a rental house with a garage for all of M's projects - he makes wooden toys, starship models, etc. in his spare time and needs a place where he can spread out his tools and projects, where they won't be in the way, or right where the kids want to play. C.O. is talking about wanting his own room too, though in all honesty the kids still both sleep in my bed most nights, and then M sleeps in C.O.'s bed. Eventually they'll outgrow cosleeping, right?

Next weekend is my 11th wedding anniversary. I personally am having a difficult time believing it's been 11 years already. We're going to go stay in a hotel for 2 nights, while the elflings stay at my mom's. Just a mini-vacation really, which I think will do us both good. I feel somewhat guilty about spending the money on it, but it is my money, so there!

Scratch yesterday... AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

So I picked up the SUV - new alternator, new battery, over $500 in work. Drove it to the store to pick up salad stuff, and then we were going to get family tree supplies, but no. We came out of the store, and got in, turned the key and... NOTHING. The starter (which I knew was on it's last legs so to speak) gave out. Triple A came out and got it started again, but the guy told me "don't turn it off until you get to the mechanic". Two hours and a bunch of money later, I again have my vehicle, and FINALLY it runs! While I am very glad to have it back in working order, the money bit completely sucks, and the whole afternoon was spent waiting (for the tow truck, for the work to be done). I got home just in time to throw together dinner for the kids, then I had to head off to class.
 
Today should be better though! I have the afternoon with the kids, then we have soccer practice (I think), but an hour earlier than usual due to the recent time change, then we'll have the whole evening. So, tomorrow's plans will be done today, I hope. Tomorrow I have the day off (yippee!!!) so I figure we'll get lessons done in the morning before heading off to a playgroup at a park.
 
Oh, I asked C.O what he'd like to study next since we're finishing up with fall stuff (by Thanksgiving), and he said "insects", so I am going to follow up on a recommendation from a friend and rent Microcosmos for him (thanks Jenny!).

Saturday through Wednesday...

Saturday: Soccer was canceled as the field was too muddy. Spent most of the day running around trying to get my SUV fixed. We got a rebuilt alternator & had it put in, but it had a malfunction, so no luck. C.O. and C.J. spent another good portion of the day outside on their bikes, piling up leaves then riding through them to hear the crunching. We did some work on our nature table, and made pumpkin bisque, which turned out really yummy, although M won't eat any (he hates pumpkin anything, even pie!). We spent the evening watching Sword in the Stone together, and then the kids wanted to wear their crowns that we got last month or so at the Fairy Folk Festival.
 
Sunday: C.O. read one of his readers again, and did some math - he's getting really good at word problems - plus a couple of pages in Maps, Graphs, Globes. C.J. worked on matching numbers to groups of animals, and then she did some coloring. She also copied some of the numbers she was working on. We read A Year at Maple Farm. I even got some work done on my homework, while both kids drew pictures!
 
Monday: I got back a couple of C.O.'s projects from his art enrichment class - he did a gorgeous painting of mountains, a waterfall, a tree and some birds - I will try taking a picture of it to post; and his pinecone turkey. We worked on spelling short words (3-4 letters), math, HWOT, and of course practiced reading. C.J. wrote her numbers 1-10! Then we headed off to gymnastics. They worked on the long trampoline, which is C.J.'s absolute favorite, plus they had a race and did somersaults (another of her favorites), among other gymnastic activities.
 
Tuesday: Did our "school" work on my bed for a change. We listened to Mozart while reading, working on the letter "U", doing math (another assessment, i.e. Saxon Math lesson 20), and talking about worms. Soccer practice was canceled. This is the last week of the soccer season, and I am beginning to wonder if there will be another game or not! We also had the excitement of having my SUV towed off on a flatbed to get it fixed, since the malfunctioning alternator killed the battery completely. We read a short book about Thanksgiving, and then reread Johnny Appleseed. C.O. got a picture in the mail from a new penpal, which he was thrilled by!
 
Today; Picked up the SUV, all fixed! Right now C.O. is busily drawing trucks on his Magna-Doodle, and C.J. is playing with her "babies". We'll start in the the next reader in a bit, plus some spelling/sounding out practice, math and then we'll look up some more information on worms! C.O. may or may not have soccer practice later today, then I have my evening class. Our issues of Ladybug & Click came today too, so we'll spend some time reading those. I want to head over to an art supply store if I get the time to get supplies for our Family Tree project - I need light blue (or another light color) poster/matte board; green, red and brown construction paper, and some more glue sticks.

This week...

Monday: Both kids went to C.O.'s enrichment class, as they were hosting a Halloween/fall party. They got to wear their costumes and do all kinds of fun crafts - C.O. made a flower arrangement in a hollowed out mini pumpkin that was really lovely. He has a good eye for color and shape. They also made leaves out of colored tissue paper, and paper-lunch-bag creatures. C.J. started her new gymnastics class, and she really enjoyed it! During the recreational classes she was trying out, the gym was empty and there was always cutesy music going. This time, the gym was full of girls of all ages, practicing, no saccharin music. C.J.'s teacher seemed a little more focused on the kids too than her rec teacher. C.O. still says he'd like to try it, so when soccer ends in a couple of weeks, we'll sign him up for a month to see how he likes it! For school stuff, we worked on vowel sounds, some handwriting practice, math, and read "Johnny Appleseed".
 
Tuesday: HALLOWEEN!!!
C.O. was Buzz Lightyear and C.J. was a rag doll (Almost but not quite Raggedy Ann, though that's who she said she was). Soccer practice was canceled for the day, and we just read a couple of Halloween stories for "school". We had a great day though! We visited relatives in costume (I was Medusa and M was a zombie), went trick-or-treating (well, the kids did), and just had fun.
 
Wednesday: After C.O.'s enrichment class, and my meeting with his teacher, we ran some various errands, then headed off to the Environmental Discovery Center, which turned out to be pretty cool! After C.J. threw a few fits because I wouldn't let her climb on rocks and hurt herself, we had fun. C.J. played with Cassia, jennyberm's dd (they are just adorable together), then we went inside and looked at the tide pool table, decorated paper koi, checked out all the taxidermied animals (for some reason C.J. was fascinated by the skunk), played with animal puppets, and C.O. got a big kick out of playing in the indoor "tree" fort. My kids really like the homeschool group kids, and they liked the Center. I wish we had skipped the errands and gotten there earlier though! I'm starting to feel a bit more comfortable around the other moms too, though C.J.'s tantrum was pretty embarrassing! At home C.O. read the next book in his readers series. He's getting pretty good at it! Still has to sound out a lot of things, but that is fine with me. We did some math and a couple of pages in Maps, Graphs, Globes, before I headed off to class for the evening.
 
Thursday: Soccer practice was canceled due to rain. The kids played outside for quite a while in their rain gear, and came in sopping wet and muddy from puddles, so off they went into a bath, and pajamas. We had a cosy evening at home - read a few stories from James Herriot's Animal Treasury for Children, did some math, practiced writing words from signs (like "Men", "pull", "bump", etc.) from HWOT, and practiced with the reader.
 
Today: We went to the library - this seems to be becoming a regular Friday afternoon activity. The kids played while I picked up a bunch of books I had put on hold - this is easier than searching for books while watching those two! I also came across a flyer for a live performance of the story of Johnny Appleseed on November 14th at our local library, and it's free! The kids are very excited since we just read this. After that we dropped by my mom's for a while to visit, then came home. We counted seeds from apples the kids ate yesterday for Saxon math lesson 19, checked on our celery stalk science experiment (capillary action), which we had to redo because we had it on the table, and the cat knocked it all over. Then we worked on two pages of HWOT, and the letter "U" from HM Phonics, plus C.O. read his second reader again. C.J. is learning to color inside the lines beautifully - she is very careful and deliberate when coloring. I hope to read another story or two to them before bedtime. Right now they are watching "Charlotte's Web" with utter fascination - they've really enjoyed farm/animal studies so far.