Blue skies ahead?

We haven't seen the actual sky in about a week now, as the California wildfires continue to burn out of control. My poor children have been cooped up inside, whereas before all the smoke, they were practically living in the back yard! I go outside long enough each day to water our jungle of a vegetable garden, and that's about it. M and the Elf postphoned their "manly" camping trip a month. My kids wish each night at bedtime that the fires will be put out soon, so that "people are safe and don't all lose their houses." The most disturbing thing so far was that M had his first asthma attack in 20 years on Wednesday. I haven't witnessed an asthma attack since my brother was very little, so it was kind of scary. Thankfully his old inhaler (from about 2 years agao when he had tightness when breathing) still had some medication in it. Local hospitals and doctors are urging people to only come in for extreme emergencies as there is a minimum 2-3 hour wait most places here due to the number of people showing up with breathing problems.

Other than the frustration of having two very active kids cooped up in an overly warm house (since we're reluctant to open windows) each day, things are going well enough. The Elf has been playing math games endlessly, between showings of Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium. The Fairy draws, cuts up paper, and plays with her many babies. We've just about finished James & the Giant Peach and so are deliberating what to read next. I've had the Elf do a little reading aloud most days to build fluency. His favorite read is Green Eggs & Ham. We've played checkers, Sorry, and a lot of Go Fish.

I thought I had something else I wanted to blog about, but I can't remember what it was!

Planned Reading List for 2008-09

Lunch/Bedtime Read-Alouds (for both my 2nd grader & Kindergartener):
The Wind in the Willows
Alice in Wonderland
Five Children and It
The Railway Children
Mrs Pigglewiggle
The Velveteen Rabbit
The Saturdays
The Cricket in Times Square
Mr. Popper's Penguins

Readers for the Elf:
Henry & Mudge series
Arthur series
Mouse Tales & Mouse Soup
Animal Stories (Oak Meadow 2nd grade reader)
Ben & Meg (Oak Meadow 2nd grade reader)
Uncle Elephant

We will also have read alouds for history/world cultures and science.

Our final choices for 2008-09...

I am finally content with my choices!

For the Elf, Second Grade
Oak Meadow 2
supplemented with....
Explode the Code 3 (then maybe 3 1/2 or 4)
Houghton Mifflin Math Steps 2 (instead of OM math)
HM Reading Anthologies, 2nd grade

For the Fairy, Kindergarten
Oak Meadow Kindergarten
supplemented with....
Letter of the Week
Saxon Math 1, first half (instead of OM math)
Handwriting Without Tears, Letters & Numbers for Me

For both
Homemade World Cultures Units
Nature Studies
Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry, pre-level 1
Spanish, music & art classes at the charter school
4-H (cooking, historical crafts)
Bed/Lunchtime read-alouds from this list

Sort of a weekly wrap-up...

It's been a good, mostly relaxed, week. I actually had 4 days off this week (well, three whole days and 2 half days) so that really helped.

So far, the Elf & the Fairy are enjoying their summer break. They have been playing outside a lot, and both are turning a lovely shade of golden brown with rosy cheeks. Fairy's hair is getting lots of pretty blond streaks too. They have made a number of Lego contraptions this week; helped me weed the veggie garden; helped sort out toys in our garage-turned-play-&-school-room; decided (definately) on paint colors & a scheme for their bedroom; helped their Nonna with household packing (she's moving soon!); assisted in mopping the kitchen; spent hours digging holes in the yard (thankfully in the holes-allowed area); and generally kept themselves quite amused. I have found too that given enough cartoons, they want something different, so today is all about How It's Made.

Next week's goal - measure out and start building a nice big sandbox. I got all the wood for free (thank you W!), so I need to figure out exactly how I am building it, and get started. We also need to put in more tomato cages, as our many tomato plants are growing like crazy. Work on the garage-turned-play-&-school-room will continue as well.

Today, by the way, is a very important one - M is FORTY today! He says he's old, but I beg to differ. Old is 80, not 40. To celebrate, we are headed out to brunch, and then hiking, plus I have a special dinner planned for this evening. So, happy, happy, happy birthday to my dh!

P.S. Here is a very interesting link to a great essay/article on math... Lockhart's Lament. Much as I personally dislike math, once I started reading this article, I couldn't stop!

Random pictures...

Good summer-time dirt... and ever larger

tomatoes in the background

A planter box M made

A close-up of the cutout detailing

And the only picture I got of the cranky, belligerant Fairy

And, by the way, the green beans over at The Pioneer Woman Cooks are awesome!

Basic Muffin Recipe...

I've made this a few ways now, by varying the yogurt flavors and the added fruit. We've made vanilla raspberry, lemon blueberry, and apple. All came out yummy!

Basic Yogurt Muffins
2 1/2 cups flour (we use whole wheat pastry flour)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (we use sea salt)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (we use unbleached cane sugar, but not the chunky stuff, if you know what I mean)
1 1/4 cup yogurt (try varying flavors)
2 eggs
1 Tbsp extract (vanilla, lemon, almond, etc.)
2 Tbsp veg oil
1/2 cup milk
1 cup fresh fruit (berries work really well, as do chopped apples... you could use 1/2 or so cup dried fruit)
1/2 cup chopped nuts, optional
Cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. optional

Preheat oven to 350F, and prep 12 muffin cups. Keeping fruit set aside, mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in another bowl. Mix together and then gently fold in fruit and/or nuts. Fill muffin cups about 2/3 - 3/4 full and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and lightly springy to the touch. I have actually gotten between 14-16 muffins from this recipe each time, as I increased the fruit in the original.

Let cool, and enjoy!

Ouch!

I usually don't post about this stuff, but does ANYone who reads this know how to prevent massive PMS headaches? I've only been getting them for about 5 or 6 months now, like clockwork. About 2-3 days before that time of the month, it feels like an iron band being tightened around my head, and it gets tighter each day. And this month I have horrendous cramps to go with it. Just waiting for the motrin and coffee to kick in at this point. Could it be a vitamin deficiency or something?

In other, lighter news, the kids are enjoying their summer days. We've worked in the garden, gotten M's hammock hung up, made a lot of iced tea... the Elf has been making Lego contraption after Lego contraption, and is slooooowly reading Mouse Soup out loud to me, a few pages a day. He also asked me if we could add the Chronicles of Narnia to our summer reading list, after we finish James & the Giant Peach. I would love to read those books to the kids, but should I read them in the order of publication (The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe first), or the chronological order (The Magician's Nephew first)? Hmmmm... definately nothing to agonize over! ;) The Fairy has been very busy as kitchen assistant. We've been making a lot of muffins lately, various flavors, but mostly based on this recipe. They make a great breakfast (with some fresh fruit on the side, and most days a smoothie), and an equally great snack. She loves helping bake, mix, stir, measure, and more.

Hope your summers are going well!

Not much going on...

We're officially on summer vacation from "school", so I have nothing to report in that area! The kids are just having fun being kids. We've spent a lot of time (when I'm not at evil work) out in the yard. Our veggie garden is really taking off!

Tomatoes - many, many tomatoes

Beans

Lemon cucumbers

Rosemary and yarrow

Basil and mint

A silly Fairy

And the Elf with his new 'do

Next time I'll post pics of the front yard trees and flowers I/we have planted.