Continued mental debate...

I think I worry too much about what I plan for us to study. One of the reasons we homeschool is to follow our own path, to blaze our own trail. I feel that, at least for now, while I continue to give my kids a solid foundation in the basics, I need to give them space to follow their own interests, and to explore at their own speed(s). Maybe this is a mistake, maybe it isn't, but I feel the need to give everything some more thought over the summer. I do know, that whatever educational choices we make, I at least have all the curriculum on hand! While I still love the very idea of a classical education, I love other ideas too. So, I will spend my summer looking at the ins and outs of all my (insane) thoughts, watching my children closely to figure out which fork to take in this road.

We've pretty much finished up for the year. C.O. has a few math lessons left that we'll get done over the next several days. We've finished through unit 12 in language arts, which is where I had hoped we'd be at this point. C.O. is finishing dictating and illustrating his version of "The 3 Little Pigs" - his is called "The 3 Little Pigs and the Big Ugly Bear" ("Little dinner, little dinner, let me in!"). C.J. is definately ready for Saxon Math K in the fall, and ready to go further with alphabet/phonics work. I meet with C.O.'s IST next week to turn in a few samples and to discuss next year a little more. Next year the charter school is planning to offer Spanish to K-2 students (as well as the older kids), which I would love for my kids to learn! I'm eager to see what the school's offerings will be for next year.

We went to the beach yesterday for C.O.'s end-of-year celebration with all the kids (and their parents & siblings) from grades K-4. We had so much fun! It was overcast, but not cold. We dug in the sand, played in the waves, had a picnic, chatted with other people, etc. Great way to end the school year!

Okay....

I know already that SOTW will work well for us, but doesn't this sound like fun too (though I'd leave out the Bible bits or find a secular version, if one exists)? C.O. has a friend that used this over the last year to study cultures around the world - integrating science, history, geography and language arts - and it just sounds like kids would really enjoy it! Other kid's mom told me they would read stories from the country they were studying, make crafts, study the art and music of that area, cook dishes from the country, study the animals and plants (the science bit)....

Why is it that everytime I feel confident I've made the right decision, something else pops up that sounds great too? I think I am just too indecisive. Bleh.

I remember reading a series of books when I was little, called the World Children's Series, and enjoying them immensely. I loved being transported to the lives of children in faraway lands, with different customs and histories from my own. I know the books were written back in the 50's, but they still have a lot to share. I think I'll have to check the library for them.

Some random pictures...

C.O. at Aikido - he'll earn his belt in a few more weeks!

At the party

C.O.'s ride with Chuck E
C.J.'s turn for a drive
Playing a driving game
Riding the crazy up-down bicycle

5/20 through 5/25... Winding down a bit...

I finished the last of my finals yesterday, so now I get a few weeks (I think about 3) off before I start summer classes!

Sunday: We went to Chuck E. Cheese's for C.O.'s birthday dinner with my inlaws and my dad (it was actually his birthday Sunday). The kids had an absolute blast! C.O. got great presents, including a gorgeous pop-up book on dinosaurs.

Monday: I took the day off from work to spend the day with the kids. We made cupcakes (on Sunday) to take to C.O.'s arts class. C.J. and I hung out while C.O. made a world map and a fingerprint painting, then we had lunch, played at the school playground, and headed off to 4H to help make dog treats, with more cupcakes in hand. C.O. was thrilled when he got a birthday present from Jenny's Cameron, and the two of them rushed off to play as soon they got tired of making dog biscuits. C.J. played "coat yourself with flour" with Cassia - nice messy game, and of course I had chosen that day to wear black... oops. We brought home a couple of treats for our dog, who really enjoyed them by the way! At home, C.O. opened presents from M and I, and then we had his special brthday dinner, all volcano-themed (mashed potato & gravy "volcanoes", chocolate lava cake). We skipped any bookwork for the day, although I did get C.O. to read a book to me.

Tuesday: I printed out some dinosaur pages from Learning Page dot com. While I read out loud from 2 books on dinosaurs (one fact, one fiction), the kids happily colored T.rex and triceratops. Then C.J. worked on a counting worksheet while C.O. reviewed his spelling words. We finished up with C.J. identifying the dinosaur that was different and C.O. doing a page of math. After dinner, C.O. spent an hour or so with M working on projects from C.O.'s new set of Snap Circuits. A very productive day overall!

Wednesday: C.O.'s last day of class, since the upcoming Monday is a holiday, and next Wednesday is the class field trip. I gave the kids the day off from homeschooling because they were going to my mom's house overnight, since I had finals Wednesday night and Thursday morning, so it was a very quiet afternoon here! I spent the time cleaning and studying.

Thursday: We worked on more dinosaur pages, another dinosaur book, math and phonics. C.O. read out loud to me, and both he and C.J. spent a lot of time playing with their LeapPads (they both got new books for them this week). C.J. is getting very good at identifying all the letters by sight and sound, as well as identifying numbers and matching them to groups of objects. C.O. is starting to try spelling out a lot more words by sounding them out - sometimes he's a bit off but overall I am impressed with his spelling abilities! One a side note, when I picked the kids up Thursday morning after my final, my mom was on the phone with one of my great-aunts bragging about how well C.O. is doing with homeschooling! Made my day! At dinner, the kids asked for candlelight, and about halfway through dinner, some wax dripped off. It reminded me of stalactites, and the kids were fascinated by it, so I pulled out a few books and dug around until I found a good cave picture with loads of stalactites and stalagmites. We looked at the picture for a while and then melted some tiny crayon bits in the candle, which also dripped out, making various colors of "stalactites". It kept us busy for over an hour! Warning though, this is definately a parent-assisted "project"!

Today (Friday): I spent part of my day so far looking at transfer requirements for college. I also found out that the college I plan on transferring to offers the option (for working adults, parents, etc.) of attending class one full Saturday a month, and doing the rest of the work at home through reading, writing, and online seminars for degree completion - this sounds like it would work really, really well for me. C.J. has ballet this afternoon, then I hope to get some math and language arts taken care of. I also printed out a booklet titled "About Me" (I think... not quite sure of the title offhand) for C.O. to fill out as a neat way to remember his kindergarten year later on, so we might do something in that too.

5/21... Six years...

Six years ago today, I held my beautiful baby boy for the first time. Six years ago today I became a mom, something that changed my life completely, forever. Six years ago today, at a moment past 4:07 in the morning, I touched my red-faced, bawling, slippery, 8 pound-11 ounce, 20 inch long, miracle, after 42 weeks of miserable morning-sickness hell. I can tell you, in that first instant, the morning sickness, the induced labor, everything painful didn't matter anymore. I held bliss. I held pure joy. And something beyond anything I had known before.

Today, that wrinkled baby boy is a tall, strong, creative, artistic boy. He rides his bike furiously fast and laughs like a maniac. He builds amazing Lego and Tinkertoy creations. He reads, does math, and has his own unique sense of spelling. He is learning his way through the complexities of the world around him. He seems a million light years from the tiny infant, but then, sometimes, late at night, when he's had a bad dream, or just needs the extra attention, he cuddles up close, and is for a fleeting moment, my baby once more.

I'll tell you now - treasure it all. Everything good and even everything not so good, because, damn, it goes by so fast. Before I know it, another year will have passed, and he'll be turning seven. And it just keeps going from there!

5/16 through 5/19... birds and volcanoes...

We have a new friend (well, 2 actually)! A pair of red house finches have chosen to build a nest in the wreath on our front door...

The female bird has now laid a total of 5 tiny pale blue eggs, which we are eager to see her hatch! We attached a half-cocount shell of bird seed to the door frame near the nest, and put a shallow bowl of water out for them too. We're all trying to use the backdoor as often as possible to avoid disturbing the little family.

They are lovely - he looks just like the picture above, and she's all brown and soft-looking.

The science fair at C.O.'s charter school was great! There was a potluck dinner in the kids' garden first - we brought a salad which disappeared very quickly. The charter school's band played while everyone ate (think semi-grunge rock band with Celtic influences rather than school marching band). They wrote all their own songs too. We also watched a yoga demonstration, and then headed inside to show off the science projects. Before long, C.O. had a crowd gathered around the volcano, complete with the traditional 3-sided backdrop, for which C.O. painted volcano pictures. He did demonstration after demonstration until he ran out of colored vinegar! M and I are really proud of him - he's really blossoming in all that he's learned so far this year. A lot of the other projects were really cool too - we saw optical illusions, composting, animal-focused projects (including one on barn owls with a dissected owl pellet), and more. I'll post pictures when I figure out how to get them off my phone!

Schoolwork-wise, we've been working on adding "e" to words in phonics to get long vowel sounds, something I had a bit of trepidation over, but C.O. picked it up right away, and even took it further - two of his spelling words in this unit are "take" and "make", and he wrote down "cake" all on his own! In math, we are now working on congruent shapes and the beginnings of multiplication. The unit on dinosaurs has been a huge hit so far - we are blazing through the library books, and both kids pretend to be paleontologists every time they're near a sand box.

Yesterday both elflings had doctor's appointments, for their annual checkups. They had vision and hearing tests, bloodwork done for lead and iron, shots (poor C.J., but at least she's not as far behind as I thought with her vaccinations, so we're still taking them slowly). Both are in excellent health! We really liked the doctor, who was very gentle and has a great bedside manner with kids, and the fact that both kids were seen together, so he would listen to C.O.'s heart, let C.O. listen, and then repeat the process with C.J. As a treat, my sister took us all out for ice cream afterwards, at Coldstone Creamery. My favorite part is always the fresh raspberry sauce... mmmmmmmm.

Today M and I are going shopping for C.O.'s birthday - he'll be SIX on Monday! We're putting a sandbox in our small backyard as the "big" present, and we'll be getting him a couple of smaller, wrappable items as well. I'm baking a gazillion cupcakes tomorrow, and tomorrow evening we're going out with family to celebrate!

5/15... phew!

Got the work thing all figured out today - I will be working through June, which means I can afford July-mid August off with, at most, 2 weeks temp work, which leaves me with FIVE lovely, blissful weeks of vacation! Plus, I got the graphic art icons done and turned in today, so I'll be getting compensated for those, and I got a request for an art class brochure, plus the person suggested I sign up as a vendor with one of the local charter schools, so that they pay me, which I hadn't thought of, so I requested a packet from said charter school. I also may have a writing gig! Turns out the matting/framing company M works for outsources article/ad writing overseas, and they may hire me to do it instead!!! It would be, on average, 1-2 pieces a month, starting in a few months as the current guy is still under contract. I am thrilled - I can tell Safeway (and the other grocery stores) never mind! So, a biiiig sigh of relief..... phew!

I guess that's enough exclamation points for one day. ;)

In other news, my back is somewhat better. I made it to work today with one of those ThermaCare wraps (these things are fantastic!), made it through my anthro class, where we watched Who Killed the Electric Car, a documentary I found disturbing, enlightening, depressing, and hopeful, all at once. Wish I could afford a hybrid.... or a diesel that I could run on biodiesel... and a strawbale home run off of solar panels. Maybe someday, when I am a famous artist, and writer. Hee hee!

C.O.'s science fair is coming up quickly (later this week!). He suddenly decided he wanted to stick with something familiar, so he will be showing his volcano:

He spent the afternoon painting volcano pictures for the backboard, and practicing his "speech". We did a page of math and an exercise from Easy Word Families. We're also working on plans for his birthday next week! C.J. has had an afternoon of Little Bear, since she was a bit cranky for school work today.

5/12 through 5/14.... what a weekend!

Saturday: Was a great day! We (me, my mom and the elflings) went to the Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park for Living History Day. My mom made a skirt for C.J. and a serape for C.O., so they were all dressed up (C.O. wore an old sombrero from Chevy's too). The year was 1840 in Mexican-ruled California. There were crafts, a passport station, displays, and a bunch of people running around in costume. We got our passports, on which we had to write our names with a quill pen dipped in India ink. C.O. and I made a basket, which was a really fun project (think I'll have to try it again):

We debated making candles, but the lady said it was an hour-long process, and the kids didn't seem thrilled with that idea, so instead we checked out all display tables, with everything from imported opium and cologne to cowhides and rawhide whips. We wandered all over the Adobe, and then had our picnic lunch with the costumed woman who cooked period food for the volunteers/docents - she told us a lot about the difficulties and challenges of cooking in heavy cast-iron pans over open fires, and maintaining the right temperature in wood-fired ovens. Even the kids were interested in what she was saying! After lunch, we went to make adobe bricks and ran into some homeschooling friends, DadR and his two sons (about the same ages as my two, I believe) - all were thrilled to see each other! Within 5 minutes, all four kids were in the adobe mud pit, "excavating" rocks. This lasted an hour, at least. In that time, other kids came and went, making tidy adobe bricks, no mud on their clothes, except for one intrepid baby that climbed in when his mom turned her back (my mom & I got a good giggle from that)... oh well. Kids are washable, as our clothes! I ended the day by getting on the email list for other events there, since they've all been fun so far, and very inexpensive (kids 16 and under are free).

Sunday: Woke up to two lovely, cuddly kids. I made us blueberry pancakes, using a great mix I got from the health-food store and fresh blueberries. We watched cartoons - Max & Ruby, Maggie & the Ferocious Beast - and had breakfast in bed. That was the best part of the entire day. After that, the kids started fighting, endlessly. I threw out my back trying to move C.O.'s bed a couple of inches (he's got one of those heavy captain's beds with the drawers underneath). It was just a frustrating, very long day. At least my sister made a lovely, gourmet dinner for my mom and I, although the kids were arguing the entire way through, and had to be sent away from the table.

Monday: Did not go to work today as I couldn't even get out of bed without my back spasming. My mom generously brought some pain medication over, and took the elflings off my hands so I could rest. The pain medication made me very dopey, and of course that's when work called. Turns out the one (the very annoying one) I left the message with didn't pass it on, so the senior secretary was calling to find out what was going on. She also wanted to let me know that payroll had figured my monthly pay based on a work year of 218 days, not the 180 my department calls for, so either I have work through June, or extra pay coming! There's a relief. I applied at Whole Foods and a local "chain" called Oliver's Market as well, since I think those stores "fit" me better than Safeway. My back is feeling much better - I took anti-inflammatory pills and applied an ice pack, and now I can move!

We also had Aikido, today with an obstacle course. The sensei laid out a rope in a wavy pattern to represent a river, and the students had to handle different obstacles, like a raising & lowering "bridge", a wiggling cord for rapids, and so forth. C.O. enjoyed it so much! He loved handling the rainstick too, to represent ocean sounds. We did two pages of math (lessons 114A and 115A) and a page from his language arts book when we got home.

Side note: Remember not to buy gas tomorrow (Gas Out 2007)! It seems a small thing to do, that may, hopefully, have some impact on horrendous gas prices - the cheapest I can find around here is $3.33 a gallon, while oil companies are making record profits.

Just wanted to wish all the mamas out there a....

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Hope you all have a great one!

5/7 - 5/11.... sick kiddos again...

We all got this nasty cold this week - it starts in the throat, and slllooooowwwwwlllyyy moves its way into the chest, nose, sinuses... loads of fun. C.O. has been pretty quiet all week, coloring and drawing a lot. C.J. on the other hand is insane when she's sick. She either gets mean and angry with everyone (like when Jenny's Cassia was trying to give her a hug at 4H and C.J. shoved her away saying "eeewww", and then she kept hitting me) or she gets super-cuddly and keeps saying "I looove you, I looooooove you". Thankfully, it seems that the worst of this cold has passed, I hope.

Monday: Did a little bookwork - C.O. did a page of math, and a page of language arts. C.J. colored a picture of Humpty Dumpty. C.O. skipped his morning arts class, as his cold was really bothering him, but he wouldn't miss Aikido, so off we went! I read "3 Billy Goats Gruff" and "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears" to C.J. during the class, while C.O. followed all his sensei's directions very carefully... I wish he listened that well to me sometimes!

Tuesday: 4H election day. My anthro class ran over, so we were even later than usual, which just confirms my decision to take classes later in the day in the fall. Anyhow, C.O. and I had talked a bit about positions in the club, and the responsibility that comes with them, and decided to back out of our candidacy for community service officers. Instead, C.O. ran for sergeant-at-arms and volunteered to help with meeting set-up. I think the other kid running for the community service officer position will do a great job! We just have a lot going on anyway. C.O. had to go up in front of everyone and explain why he'd be good for the sergeant-at-arms, and though we had just talked about what he would say, I know my poor little guy drew a complete blank standing up there. He got a few words out though, and I'm sure he'll do better next time. When we got home, we ended our day coloring and labeling sea animal/creature pictures, plus he finished off a printout on safari animals, and a page of math, all before going outside to ride his bike like a maniac.

Wednesday: C.O. was feeling worse again, so he stayed home from his enrichment class. I met with his IST, by myself, which was kind of nice because we got to talk about the rest of this year, and next year, without interrruption. After I got home, we went to the library to pick up the million books on hold, almost all about dinosaurs. C.J. just would not be quiet - there were people all over the library shushing her, and she just didn't get it, so we grabbed the books and headed home. C.O. read 2 Bob books aloud, and we called that homeschooling for the day.

Thursday: I felt worse while the kids felt better, so honestly, we got nothing accomplished. Ooops. I had a stressful day at work, which didn't help... turns out that I will have worked my 180 days at the end of this month, not next month, so I am semi-scrambling for summer employment. I won't need to work the entire summer, I think, but at least part of it. I even applied to my old nemesis (Safeway) because they pay quite well for checkers. Since I took a buyout from them though, it doesn't seem too likely they'll hire me back, even for a single season. I also sent out an email a few days ago, giving more details about the art classes, and informing people that I will be the one teaching it, and guess what? Not a single response.

Today: We'll see how everyone feels when I get home from work. C.J. has ballet this afternoon if she's up to it. I'm sure she will be though - she absolutely adores that class. I hope to read at least one or two books on dinosaurs, and start our graph (we're graphing the types of dinosaurs we study), maybe some math and some reading... I'll save starting a new spelling list for next week. I have a graphic art project I need to complete, as I will be paid for that. It's just designing a little logo-thingy, so it shouldn't be too hard. I also need to study for finals which are in TWO weeks. C.O. loves it when we "homeschool" together!

5/1 through 5/6... I must be crazy...

Really. I think I'm insane. I have been racking my brain as to a way to increase our income without getting a second job, or a different job... so I thought of offering art classes to homeschoolers (yes the "someone" in the mass email I sent out was me). I thought I'd send a group email to the local homeschool association to get an idea as to whether or not anyone was interested. I did expect a couple of replies, but have gotten 15 possible students! Yes, I have actually taught art before (to at-risk youth in San Rafael as part of a high school diploma program... I also taught a course entitled "History through Art" that was fun), and it is my college major, and I think hs'd kids would make great students, but now I'm scared. I have looked at renting a classroom, which is not unreasonably priced. I have looked at supplies, project ideas, and much more, but now I need to:
1. Convince the parents that yes, I really am qualified to teach art (most of them didn't ask, but one did)
2. Come up with a plan as to times, dates, and most important/challenging, price
3. Get people to actually sign up, pay, all that fun technical stuff
4. Decide on a course outline
5. Possibly put together a portfolio of sorts so that parents can see I actually know how to do anything remotely artistic

Enough about me and my insanity though...
Tuesday - last dentist appointment for C.O. until his check-up in 6 months. We read a lot of our library books in the evening instead of doing seatwork. Not much else happened really. It was a very calm day with no evil surprises, or good surprises for that matter.

Wednesday - C.O. worked on 2 pages of math. He's telling time, doing word problems, counting by 2's, 5's and 10's, filling in missing numbers, etc. He really seems to understand it all quite well! I had the idea of letting him use my color pencils to fill in everything, and he loved it. Went much more smoothly than the week before! Then he finished a review unit in his language arts book and finished by coloring a picture of a toucan. C.J. colored in some nursery rhyme pages (love Enchanted Learning) while singing the alphabet over and over, though fairly softly.

Thursday - C.O. did a written assessment in math... 100%! He read aloud 3 Bob books, and did a lesson from Easy Lessons for Teaching Word Families. C.J. worked on a color-and-count page, and a flower coloring page, and more singing. Then I put on Fairy Tale - A True Story and the kids built strange Lego creations for about an hour and a half while I got dinner cooked, and read in my art history book.

Friday - C.J. had ballet class, and has decided that ballet is very definately her thing. She wants to be a dancer when she grows up! It's funny, C.O. has always had ideas of future professions - race car driver, train engineer, construction worker, firefighter - but C.J. has never said much until now. She is very graceful in her class, which to me is a little funny because in real life, she's always so interested in/preoccupied with other stuff that she's more on the clumsy side. Maybe it's just that in ballet class she's actually focusing on how she moves, instead of being in a hurry to get to the next thing! We took it easy the rest of the day, watched another episode of Planet Earth (Shallow Seas this time), and played Candyland and Sorry.

Saturday - I worked on cleaning out my bedroom closets for a while while the kids played Lego-Hotwheel crashing games. Then they played outside with the neighborhood kids for a couple of hours, so I caught up on some more reading (I've got finals coming up in a few weeks) while sitting under the giant willow tree in the common space out front. We had a late dinner and watched Night at the Museum, which is a great movie. The kids loved it and are now absolutely fixated on history! Both are very excited that we'll really be studying history in the fall. It was fun to see them that excited about learning!

Today: Laundry day. I am waaaay behind, so I'll have the kids help me sort the loads, put in soap, all that fun stuff. C.J. is great at folding, while C.O. always folds things into odd-shaped lumps. Other than that, I'm hoping to finish getting through the library books, as we have a bunch on hold at the library (thank you library elf for letting me know!). Not an exciting day, but hopefully a good one.

Oh, and by the way, we have decided on a science fair project - C.O. is, with the help of his dad, building an electro-magnetic crane. It's a pretty simplified design to make it easy to build and use, but I think it will turn out well.

Give me your ideas... quickly...

C.O. is planning on participating in his charter school's science fair mid-month. We 're brainstorming ideas for a 6 year old's science project. So far, we've come up with his volcano (from last fall), or possibly a Rube Goldberg experiment, or, since he's artistically inclined, a three-sided display with life cycles for butterflies, frogs and ladybugs (but then there's nothing interactive with that one). I'm trying to find my book on science experiments - C.J. was "reading" it and misplaced it - for more ideas.

Got any great ideas? I am looking for something fairly simple, but really cool!