Happy bits and pieces...

Taking a break from my endless curricula thoughts and ramblings...

Part of my current happiness is the idea that I am breaking away from the whole grocery store chain as a consumer. M and I are buying a "share" of a freshly butchered pig, about 20-30 pounds, from Farmer Sally, a friend that raised them outdoors: rooting, eating, dozing, doing all the pig activities that pigs are meant to do. We also hope to buy maybe half a lamb at some point from someone local, and maybe a share of beeef too, since we have a chest freezer. We're also going to be stopping at Farmer Sally's once a week to pick up fresh eggs, and soon fresh milk! I want to start going to the farmer's market again once or twice a week (so lucky to have the option to go twice weekly) for the veggies we can't or don't grow - I just need to keep it down to budget. And I am excited that my copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is on its way! In the meantime, I was able to score the "master" recipe off a website, so I plan to give it a go tomorrow. I love, love, love the smell of fresh bread baking, and the first piece, still warm and all crusty... mmmmmmmm..... Apparently though, I need to buy a bread stone - anyone know a good source for one? I'll have to learn about that as I go. I'm just glad to be supporting local agriculture, and a friend and fellow homeschooler along the way.

In other news, M got a raise today! Makes him happy and it makes me happy. I'll confess that in nearly 15 years of marriage, our finances have generally been far less than stable. The past couple of years though have been better - we actually have a (small) savings account! I read, and re-read Total Money Makeover, which helped me get a grasp on how the finances around here should work. And starting next month, we'll break our mortgage payment down into two biweekly payments rather than one monthly one. It doesn't add anything to our out-of-pocket, but it pays the mortgage off faster, and besides, M gets paid every other week, so that works well. Finances are still on the tight side, and look to remain that way for sometime, but at least we are not behind anymore!

I was looking for ways to teach my kids more about nutrition, and found two fabulous resources: Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (I love Jamie Oliver!) and Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma for Kids! While the book is more or less aimed at teens, I think I could do it as a read-aloud. I also watched an interesting show recently called Radical Parenting, and discovered that, suprise, surprise, I apparently am a radical parent! I would actually never have labeled myself quite that way, but homeschooling, extended breastfeeding, co-sleeping, not "gender labeling" toys are all tools of the "radical" parent. Fairy watched the show with me and decided she wanted to be a radical unschooler, but when asked about it, she confessed it was just because the mom said they have no rules at all in their house, and Fairy thought that sounded fun.

Okay, enough rambling. I am off to take a math placement test today. Woo hooo... if only I meant that ;)

Planned Reading Lists for 2010-11

Fourth Grade
Stuart Little
Abel's Island
The Whipping Boy
The Search for Delicious
Danny the Champion of the World
The Magician's Elephant
Treasure Island (Great Illustrated Classics)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (Great Illustrated Classics)
Maybe...
Mrs Frisby & the Rats of Nimh
The Apple & the Arrow

Second Grade
Elson Reader Primer (maybe)
Little Bear series
Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter
Little Grey Rabbit stories
Old Mother West Wind series

Possible Read Alouds (subject to change!)
The Princess & the Goblin
The Princess & the Curdie
The Five Children & It
The Phoenix & the Carpet
The Story of the Amulet
Peter & the Starcatchers
Peter Pan
The Wind in the Willows
The Water Babies

A lack of structure...

totally does not work for us. I gave the kids today off from all structure, responsibility, etc., and what a day! The fighting, bickering, whining.... On a whining sidenote, why do I now have to sign in to Blogger every time I want to post, even when I check the "Remember Me" box? Anyhow, so we are going back to some sort of structure tomorrow. We have a loose plan for the day, which involves cleaning the kids room (at least a little), roller skating, treadmill time (for me), and trying to finish Despereaux, which is now very overdue at the library. Oh, and vacuuming the living room. Lofty plans, I know!

And speaking of the library, I placed a couple of books on hold for our upcoming skeleton studies:
Dem Bones
The Skeleton Inside You
We have plans to start on our paper skeleton models from The Body Book in the next couple of weeks, after finishing reading Crust & Spray: Gross Stuff in Your Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, alongside of which we are making paper models of the eye and ear.

Other than that, it has been a grey, drizzly day, and a bit of a grumpy one. I have to go get ready for work now.

Spring reading challenge...

I will try to keep my list of books to read not too long, and not too short. Some are new to me, others are visits to old friends.

The Everyday History of Somewhere

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of 4 Meals

Pride and Prejudice

The Summer of the Great Grandmother

The Irrational Season

Two Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

A Midwife's Tale

The Kite Runner

I may add to or update this list slightly as I go, but there are the basics!

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday... Felting Mania...

Fairy's work (a rocking horse, a dog, a princess and a heart)

Elf's Work (a palm tree, a house, a flower, a self portrait, and an image of me!)

My work, including a skull & crossbones by request. My favorite is my duck.

California History....

We'll be reading Our California Home and the following three books, as our main "texts",  adding in selections from the literature and vintage books below as desired
                  
Dr. History's Whizz-Bang: Favorite Stories of California's Past

Back in the Beforetime: Tales of the California Indian

The Wild Muir (will be reading this throughout the summer in place of the Halliburton books)


historical literature/fiction...

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Song of the Swallows

The World of Fort Ross: A Picture Book

Rancho San Felipe: A Story of California One Hundred Years Ago

The Balloon Boy of San Francisco

Me, California Perkins

By the Great Horn Spoon!

One-Eyed Charley

Riders of the Pony Express

If You Lived at the Time of the Great San Francisco Earthquake

The Children of Alcatraz: Growing Up on the Rock


Vintage (mostly Landmark) Books...

[Sections of] The Real Book About Indians

To California by Covered Wagon

The California Gold Rush

The Pony Express

The Story of San Francisco

Sunny mornings...

I am not a morning person. Actually, by nature I am, by current profession, not so much, since I generally work the late shift, at my own request, so I can be at home during the day to theoretically educate my kids. But, the last couple of weeks, I have had to get up in the earlier morning, whether or not I want to, as we are "babysitting" a dog that needs to go out every morning. He is a big, solid guy, whose owners lost their house and now live in an apartment unsuitable for a Bull Mastiff. Thankfully, unlike our rat terrier-chihuahua mix, he is calm. She's a wiry ball of endless energy who freaks out at the slightest disturbance (our neighbors refer to her as la diabla when she goes on one of her all too common barking and freaking out frenzies). He's more apt to be laying somewhere comfortable, content for the main part to watch the world go by, although he does love it when Fairy throws the now-deflated football for him to chase and chew. He's also pretty well trained - he knows his leash, he'll wait at the door to go out... I have found myself liking him a lot more than I assumed I would, since I am much more a cat person than a dog person.

And as for the "babysitting", I have a feeling it is not as temporary as all that. So I guess we are now a two dog household. And M is going to build him a doghouse this weekend, so he can sleep outside with la diabla. I think I might keep my early mornings though....

So I am writing a book. A children's book, about a willow tree, and all that happens in and around it. I don't intend on trying to have it published - it is my senior project in college. Which brings me to another rambling. With the number of teachers being laid off, etc., is my college education worthwhile? To me it is, maybe not so much as a career move though. So before I actually enter the pre-credentialing program this fall, I'm taking a step back to reflect and ponder. Where do I want to go, and what do I want to do? We read a little book called A Question of Happiness (highly enjoyable, by the way) for my class, in which the author says to follow our passions. My professor, who has traveled parts of the world, been nominated for several honors, taught great classes, built himself a straw bale home, and in general is a happy man, says that this is what he has done in life - he has followed his interests and passions. He tells me I need to trust that following my passions will lead me to where I should be. A lot of food for thought, because honestly, if I take the time to visualize myself teaching, it isn't in an elementary school, at least not with the way things are going in our schools!

Anyhow, back to the book. I have the story mostly done, and mostly in my head. I plan to spend the next couple of weeks working on the layout, and then I can begin to work on the illustrations. I am trying to decide what approach I want to use with those - watercolor? Pen and ink? Both? Neither? It is a trying process. And I thought the docent training I am doing, for a local wetlands foundation, might help the story, but so far it is just leading my mind off on different tangents, although I am enjoying them (the tangents)! I can actually identify a few more birds now, several just by song. And I can identify more trees and bushes.

Finally, in regards to homeschooling, I would like to recommend this article for your reading pleasure, and I can tell you it has left me more up in the air about math than ever!

ETA: One of the things I am considering is a Master's Degree versus a teaching credential. I could finish in about the same time, and work at a (community) college level (or teach in high school), which frees me up for a few more options... and part-time work instead of the essentially fulltime position of elementary school. We'll see! My husband says to go with my instincts, and, what would I tell the children about following their dreams? I'd say go for it! So, why do I have such a hard time saying go for it to myself?

Weekly report....

It has been a pretty good week! Not too hurried, not too slow, and beautiful sunny, warm weather.

Elf
Worked some more on writing and ciphering secret codes. He looked up some words he was curious about from his incessant reading, and I had him write the definitions from his Children's Dictionary, and use the words in sentences. He did some copywork, in cursive. His work in Writing Tales also included using synonyms in a paragraph, something he found to be great fun.

In math, he did a few worksheets on multiplication and division that I printed out from online. He is getting better with his 4's facts, and now has 1-3, 5's and 10's down. I am hoping to get through 6's and 9's soon, and then we'll tackle 7's. I have a handy little trick up my sleeve with 9's, so I am guessing that won't take too long! He also read The Best of Times: Math Strategies that Multiply.

Fairy
She's been watching 15 minutes of phonics videos a day - she loves anything with music/singing, and she follows along with her whiteboard. She did copywork too, and worked on words with the short "O" sound. She also read to me from her Bob Books.

In math, she worked on more addition and subtraction, doing fact families up to 10. She loved using her unifix cubes for this, especially with the addition. She had some tables to fill in, and she would choose two different colors of unifix cubes, one to be the PLUS number and the other to be the number she was adding to the PLUS number. So she's had 6 yellow and add 3 blue, or 5 yellow and 3 blue, etc. Having the hands-on really seems to cement things in her mind.

Both
This was our week to focus on county history (to satisfy the charter school, and because it is interesting). We read some more in Valley of the Moon: The Diary of.... and found some great rancho printouts online. We looked back at pictures of out trips to the local rancho, and talked about what life would have been like in those times. They remembered a lot from the Living History Day a couple of years ago! They're doing the Living History Day again this year - maybe we'll go.

We also read a story about Saint Patrick from Living Books Curriculum. The kids made green paper shamrocks, and leprechaun/rainbow/pot of gold pictures complete with green and gold glitter. We had seen Celtic Legends just last week, and the lead man discussed a little of St. Patrick's history. When LBC sent me a free study on it, I thought that all tied in nicely.

In science, we studied the eye and ear, finally. We got Eyes and Ears from the library, and found some printouts that the kids could lable and color. We made paper cup telephones, using 3 different types of string - yarn, twine, and dental floss. All worked, but the kids agree that the yarn worked best. We discussed how remarkable it is that our eye sees upside down and our brain instantly translates it to right-side up. Pretty amazing things, the eyes!

We also got in some time for nature studies. We spent part of the day yesterday working on our front yard, which has sadly become overgrown with weeds on one side of the walkway. While I pulled weeds, the kids relocated all the ladybugs we found to the "safe" side of the yard. Both remarked on what a good job the fairies did in painting the ladybugs this year! We also took an evening walk, with M, at a (new to us) local wetlands preserve. We saw several types of birds, and the kids learned how to identify poison hemlock, which is easy to tell by its "bloody" stems. I also showed them a spot where three different kinds of oak trees are coming into leaf, so they could see how different the leaf structure is. I got to practice some of the techniques I am learning in docent training as well.

In home ec, I had Elf write the grocery list this week, and as he went, Fairy illustrated it so she could help read the list at the store. We made a delicious Morroccan lamb stew last night, although with all the flavors going on, beef would have worked just as well as the more expensive lamb. As per a few other recipes I browsed, we added a can of chickpeas when we added the tomato, etc., and sprinkled the finished dish with finely chopped roasted pistachios and chopped cilantro. The kids each ate two servings, so I'd say it was a hit!

We have just about finished up Despereaux, and have, after much discussion, decided to read The Twenty-One Balloons next, one of my personal, all-time favorites!

And in other news, while I plan to continue with my fun math plans, we discussed various resources, and decided to keep Saxon Math on hand as well. I was very lucky and found Saxon Math 5/4, second-hand student manual and the solutions manual, for only $18! I also realized, duh, that I don't need the teacher's manual for Saxon Math 2 (I've never used one yet), so I just need the workbooks, which are very inexpensive too. The kids like Saxon becuase the work is always mixed, since it uses an incremental, spiral approach. We also decided to stick with Story of the World for history, and to go ahead with earth and space sciences, keeping nature studies as an informal and fun side topic.

And there's our week!

A few eye-catching books...

This book would fit in beautifully with nature studies, and it looks doable.
My kids don't feel it is really science unless there are some sort of projects involved, and this would give them that in regards to our nature studies.





This book would work well with the geology portion of our planned science studies for next year, giving the kids more of a hands-on understanding of how the earth functions.




And this would be a great source for hands-on astronomy projects for the astronomy portion of our studies. Hmmm... maybe just geology and astronomy next year? So many options to consider!



Now this book just looks like fun! I am really tempted to get it just because... I can totally see my kids having a blast with some of the projects in it! It kind of makes me want to have a year of fun science, like the year of fun math I am contemplating.

Approaching science in 2010-2011...

While we plan to study nature, I'd like to have some specific focus in mind, whether it is specific topics, or an approach by habitat type. So I asked the kids what they would like to learn about, and here is a list we compiled of several topics, in no particular order:

Birds
Geology
Astronomy
Insects
Weather
Wildflowers
Trees
Reptiles and Amphibians

We may approach this either as unit studies, or by exploring different habitats (ponds/wetlands, woodlands, etc.), armed with field guides, magnifying glasses, and binoculars. Oh, and spiralbound notebooks for sketching and note-taking. Probably the latter approach, since I hate to prepare a unit study only to have it derailed on some fascinating tangent! I also like the idea of integrating as much as possible - learning about the birds, the mammals, the plants and the amphibians of a wetlands, for example, versus learning about just birds, or just rocks. So maybe just an exploration of the habitats around us will work?

Maybe something along these lines, combing units and habitats...
geology & backyard creatures (late summer/early fall)
astronomy (mid/late fall)
woodlands (early/mid winter)
seashore (late winter/mid spring)
wetlands (late spring/early summer)

I also came up with my "school" calendar, with about 7 weeks off in the summer, then 7 weeks on, followed by a week off (most of the time). A week off at Thanksgiving,a mini two week "in school" session, and a 3 week Christmas/winter break, and 2 weeks at Easter, giving us a total of 37 weeks of school time, definately above the state requirements. I like this plan because it gives us a semi-long summer, and lots of little breaks as well.

Weekly report...

We experimented this week, shifting toward the CM/child led focus that I want, more so than the path the charter school has been helping me mold. And I think it worked pretty well overall! It was a lighter week - next week will be more intensive.

Language Arts
Both children did some good copywork this week. Elf is teaching himself cursive from a set of 3x5 cards that I made, as he is frustrated with the very slow pace of the handwriting book he was using. His handwriting is lovely! He also did a few pages in his grammar book, and listened in on Fairy's First Language Lessons. He is now reading the third book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and has informed me that there is a movie version of it coming out later this month. He is also researching codes and ciphers, so there are little pieces of paper about the house with mysterious scrawlings on them!

Fairy is - YAAAAY! - making progress with Phonics Pathways! She actually remembers the sounds now. Finally. I think now that she is grasping the vowels, etc., she'll make a lot more progress more quickly, as I really have this gut feeling that once she gets the sounds of the letters down, she'll really take off quickly. We'll see. In the meantime, I am trying not to push too hard, but she's eager to get going, since she is now 7, and according to her, she "should absolutely be reading already, Mommy."

Math
We've been working on times tables (and the related division) with Elf. I found a website that does timed exercises that he likes. I like it because if he can't get the answer, it will (briefly) show the answer, and then he fills it in. I noticed after a couple of rounds, he was filling in more of the answers without the assistance. He also plays Circles and Stars, writing down both the multiplication facts and the division. I had him fill out as much of a times table chart as he could - he got all the 1's, 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's... so next week we will focus on 4's and 6's.

Fairy is now working on unit 6 in MathSteps, which is fact families up to 10's. It seems pretty easy for her, but I'm glad she's building a solid base with addition and subtraction. This is a simple, mastery-based workbook. I have her use manipulatives (mainly linking cubes) with it, since she is a very visual/hands-on learner. I am still up in the air about math for her next year. Elf wants to try out Teaching Textbooks, or maybe stick with Saxon, but for Fairy? I am considering McRuffy Math as it seems to be geared toward visual/tactile learners, or maybe something else? Stick with Saxon? I'll gladly take recommendations!

History
We read two chapters from The Story of the Romans this week. The kids seem to like the flow of the writing so far. They looked at Italy on our wall map and globe, and we talked about mountain ranges in Europe.

We also read about 30 or so pages in Valley of the Moon: The Diary of Maria Rosiala de Miligros, for our local history. Having visited the site of an adobe rancho, the kids had an easy time visualizing the main character's surroundings. A couple of years ago, we visited a Living History Day at the local rancho, and so they are familiar with the foods, clothing style, etc. of that bygone era. We are really enjoying this book!

Science
We assembled the heads from The Body Book. We read about the five senses, and skin. I have an interesting book on eyes and ears on hold at the library for next week, and we hope to assemble the mouth, eye, and ear models over the next several days as well. We also read about snails this week, using a book I had on hand - Snailology - since Fairy insisted on bringing home snails from her garden class, as if we don't have enough of our own!

Other
Fairy had a delightful birthday. Everyone, from family to our favorite librarian, to the waitress at the Chinese restaurant, made a fuss over her. The librarian even hunted down a book to give her as a gift! The waitress brought her green tea ice cream and chilled lychee fruit free of charge (and brought ice cream for Elf as well, and lychee fruit for the adults). Her favorite gifts seemed to be the jewelery box and the Enchanted Fairy Garden kit we gave her, along with the Beauty & the Beast playset her brother very carefully picked out for her. She is very proud to be 7, an official "big kid"!

And that's our week. Now I am off to finish cleaning the living room because we have relatives coming over tomorrow for a birthday party.

How can it be?

I am not sure how my Fairy girl got to be SEVEN already! Today is all about her... right now she's happily eating strawberry-topped pancakes and watching Fairy Tale - A True Story (one of her alltime favorite movies, and I love it too). All dressed up in her new birthday dress!

I have to say that of my children, she is definately the more challenging one, and always has been since birth. Her brother slept through the night early on, was easy-going, and cheerful. Fairy on the other hand... well, I'm lucky if she sleeps through the night now! And she is very stubborn, can be very demanding, and is what you'd call "high maintenance". But, she can be very loving too - her hugs are fantastic! And she's playful, sings beautifully, loves fairy tales... Even when I feel challenged by her, I wouldn't trade that for the world!

Thinking about math...

Living books for math

Books
Math Games
The Sir Cumference series by Cindy Neuschwander
Family Math
I Hate Mathematics
Math for Smarty Pants
Mental Math in the Primary Grades
Life Lessons with Junior (series)

Games
Noble Knights of Knowledge
Giggle Facts
There are lots of computer games too....

Supplementary Worksheets
Math Mammoth Blue series

Of course, I'll probably end up sticking with a regular math program of some sort, but I am open to change, and one year off from a formal math curriculum wouldn't do too much harm, would it?