Riding the rails...

Today we went on the Skunk Train in Mendocino County. The engine is a steam engine from 1928, which Elf loved. Both kids (and I) loved the open flat car, where we spent most of our time. We did the round trip into the redwoods, had lunch, and headed back. The train even has a train singer, who also plays guitar and harmonica!

At the train yard

Waiting to board the train

Ready to go!

The view of the engine from the flat car

How the kids spent most of the trip

A view from the train

Redwoods and engine steam

Getting silly on the return trip

All worn out

All in all, we had a great time! While we've been on a train ride or two before, this was a much longer trip (4 hours total), with gorgeous scenery. Plus, I ran into an old friend - actually my first suervisor when I worked at the conservation corps. He lives 1 town over from us (15 minutes) but instead we reconnect on a train, out in the middle of nowhere, 2.5 hours from home!

Blogging along...

Just a general, rambling update!

Elf's 9th birthday went well. He loved his gifts, especially all the new art supplies. He got his ears pierced (yes, both ears), and I'll have to post a picture of that. The weather cooperated long enough to head out to the park to share the cake in the picture below with friends. Within twenty minutes of this picture being taken, that cake was demolished!


We finished his special day with a trip to the movie theater to see the new Shrek movie in 3D, which was very exciting for everyone, and then we went out to dinner. All in all, Elf said it was the best birthday he's had yet!

We got this the next day....


and promptly dived into reading. These are hilarious! And very informative at the same time. We read quite a bit from Savage Stone Age, but today we are going to read from Rotten Romans. We are on our last couple of weeks of homeschooling before summer break - next week we have our last meeting with our IST, and a beach celebration with families from the charter school (IF the weather cooperates). Then we're on light schooling until early/mid August. Light schooling here equals lots of reading time for Elf (he's planning to read his way through the Ralph S. Mouse books in addition to other varied things), reading instruction for Fairy, and these little math books for both. With only 4 problems a day, all review, the math should be easy! Then in August, we'll start back up "fulltime" with Oak Meadow.

I have officially finished my class for the semester. I am looking at taking an online class over the summer, maybe in Comparative Mythology OR Chicano/Latino Humanities (which would satisfy the Ethnic Studies requirement), as I need a few more units. Then I'm back to fulltime college student in the fall. I did get some good news yesterday - because I took a few early childhood education classes at our local community/junior college, I can waive a pre-requisite class at the university! Which means I can finish off math sooner and get it out of the way, which in turn means I may make my goal of graduating for my next birthday (in December). PHEW! It is getting to the point that I am tired of school (for myself) and ready to move on. Of course, with credentialing and all, I still have a bit ahead of me, but now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I am also thinking of taking a few workshops in Waldorf teaching.

So, today's plans involve history, maybe some math, definately some reading, and I get to help set up for a Homeschool Information Night put on by our local homeschooling organization! Thankfully my boss gave me the day off.

So soon?

I cannot believe my little guy (okay, not so little guy) is NINE already! Honestly, where has the time gone?

Anyhow, Happiest of all Birthdays to my boy. I am proud to be his mom! He's funny, artistic, sensitive, and just a great kid all around. I love hanging out with him, I love listening to his off-the-wall stories. He still loves cars, trucks, planes, trains... he still loves to build things in the sand, and he still loves to cuddle in my lap, but I can see him growing up too. He gets more and more independent every day.

Seems like just yesterday he was a little baby, and now he's up to my shoulder!

Racing toward the finish line...

3 days... 3 days and I am done with this segment of my education. It has been a challenging, and yes, difficult, semester. The latest issue is the fact that my scanner is not working correctly, so I am illustrating each page of my children's book by hand instead of being able to add in my original borders, etc. that I did scan in. Thankfully, it does not have to be entirely finished for the due date presentation, since I also have an annotated bibliography and a written report on the entire process due that same day! While I have very much enjoyed the degree completion program, and I have made some very good friends, I am happy to reach this milestone (oh, and by the way, I haven't officially completed my degree in the "degree completion" program - I'll graduate later after a couple more classes). In the fall I enter another phase of my education: I'll be taking all the pre-requisite courses for credentialing. I'm also looking at (in another year maybe) taking a few Waldorf classes, since the process and ideas of Waldorf are very intriguing to me.

Speaking of Waldorf, I had almost given up on Oak Meadow as a choice for next year. Until today, that is. Today, a lovely woman from one of the yahoo groups I belong to offered to sell me her 4th grade syllabus, acompanying teacher's manual, and the Oak Meadow book of Indian Legends at a more than reasonable price! I am so thrilled! To have art, history/social studies, language arts, and science all in one.... not to mention the integration of art and hands-on crafts into every subject. Now I can casually keep an eye out for a 2nd grade syllabus, casually since I don't need it until August.

On another note, my boy will be NINE the day after tomorrow! Can you believe that? NINE!?! It is just mind boggling for me. I am done shopping for the joyous day, and am crossing my fingers that the rain stops so that he can share cake with his friends at the park.

Possibly changing...

The kids, after listening to all of the Chronicles of Narnia on audio cd (well, we're not quite finished with The Last Battle) have decided to change the name of our homeschool to Experiment House, after the school in The Silver Chair. The school starts out badly in the book, with bullies, and little education, but in the end it changes: "And from that day forth things changed for the better at Experiment House, and it became quite a good school."

And so, Experiment House it is! However, M thinks it sounds like some horror sci-fi movie thing, so I still have OakLeaf School in mind too.... I also have a sentimental attachment to OakLeaf as it is the name Elf chose at the age of 5 when we decided to homeschool. Hmmmmm.....
What do you all think?

Yesterday...

BFSU Preview...

Otherwise known as Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding. I got this from another homeschool mom and stayed up quite late reading through a lot of it. From what I have read, I can see that this is a good, thorough foundation for future science. I plan to start using it next week - I don't want to wait until next fall! While it is technically aimed at K-2nd, I can see that it is adaptable to 2nd and 4th (currently 1st and 3rd) without too much trouble.

The pros as I see them so far is that a lot of it is hands-on and great for kinesthetic learners, like my son. Not much, if any, writing really in there, which is both a big pro and a little con. I think I may have Elf make a few notes about various topics/projects... maybe. The activities all seem to call for general household items (yes, I almost always do have balloons in the house). The books recommended are almost all available at the local library, which saves me time and money, since I can put books on hold and pick them up once a week.

The book is divided into four threads - "A": Nature of Matter, "B": "Life Science", "C": Physical Science, and "D": Earth and Space Science. There is a recommended flow chart in the book, which allows you to move between threads. Each lesson states which lessons are "prerequisites", which is very helpful in planning ahead. There's also a yahoo support group, which I just joined yesterday and have already found to be a huge help! And, as a bonus, the files on the yahoo group contain a well-made schedule, saving me a LOT of work!

We're going to start with thread A next week. Day one is simply introducing the concepts of categories and organization. Nebel (the author) recommends sorting a variety of household objects into different categories. This will be an easy one for my kids, so we'll move on pretty quickly to lesson A-2, which is on states of matter. I plan to read What is the World Made Of? All About Solids, Liquids & Gases (part of one of my favorite science series for kids) to Fairy, and have Elf read What's the Matter in Mr. Whisker's Room? to himself. Looking ahead even farther, I can use a lot of the Let's Read and Find Out series with Fairy, and there are plenty of appropriate books for Elf on the same topics. Plus, our library has lots of Bill Nye, the Science Guy videos that will go along with this, and my kids love him!

I'm also looking forward to the release of the next two levels in this to-be-series. If this one goes as well as I think it will, I'll have science covered for the next several years! After that, I'm thinking maybe of going chronologically, using The Story of Science in conjunction with Milestones in Science.

Gearing up...

Next week (after all the testing this week, etc.), we'll be down to the last month of homeschooling for this academic year. We've decided to try a literature-based unit study to see if it is something we'd like to do more of in the future. This one, at my daughter's repeated insistance, will be about Native Americans, so we're using The Birchbark House as a jumping off point. So far, I have the first week figured out... we'll read a chapter each day for four days, do some research on the Ojibwa Indians, and build a (small) model of a birchbark house (though I'm not sure what we'll use yet). I also have some vocabulary words picked out, along with spelling words for Elf. I've got More Than Moccasins on hold at the library too, and Eyewitness North American Indian. I'm tentatively thinking that if this goes well, we could easily use this approach in the future with other good books. I'm picturing using Charlotte's Web as a main book, supported by James Herriot's Treasury for Children.... hmmmmmm.......

Elf had his first round of testing - Language Arts - yesterday. He said it was easy, but we'll have to see how math goes on Wednesday! While he was in testing, I took Fairy to the local library to do her homeschooling for the day. Math was an introduction to telling time (which would have been super easy if she could remember which is a 9 and which is a 6, and what 11 is...), then we read a book. After that we did some work in Explode the Code, then read a book. We finished up with word family work with letter magnets on her little dry-erase board, and then read two books. Her favorite book of the day was The Well at the End of the World, with Ladybug Girl as a close second. Then we picked Elf up and headed off to the park for a couple of hours before Fairy's check-up-- by the way, both she and Elf have been deemed "very healthy".

Speaking of doctors and health, M is feeling better every day. He's eating on a regular basis and has definately gained a few pounds, which is a good thing. We have found that brown rice pasta makes a great substitute for regular, as long as we don't overcook it! He's also taking milk thistle daily to aid in liver repair. The tremors have stopped (except once in a while while he's sleeping), and the nausea is gone as well.

Other than that, all is normal around here. We're going to read about Rome in A Little History of the World, have Elf do some writing about it, do math (both kids), have Fairy do phonics, etc. We'll read another chapter or two from Old Mother West Wind, which the kids are really enjoying. And that's our day!

I finished my book!

I did it! I wrote a (children's) book! It is my senior project, and a longtime dream. The illustrations are not finished yet, but will be within the next couple of weeks. If I have enough courage, I'll see if I can share it here as a slideshow or some such thing.

I am totally proud of myself for completing the writing and layout. I shed tears writing the last page.

And we're done with 4H fundraising for the year! Big sigh of relief. The kids had a blast, except for the last 15 minutes of picking up trash. And, they looked great in the parade! Even M had a great time grilling chicken, for two hours, in the sun (he's the one in the black hat, to the right)

And just for fun, a couple of gratuitous shots of foam weapons-making!

Pulling rank...

Well, after much thought, and many discussions, I am pulling rank as the director of our homeschool. I have chosen the path we will take next year! I am going with Plan A, now re-dubbed The Plan. Why not Oak Meadow? Because, simply put, the cost of the syllabuses puts it just out of reach, or if not entirely out of reach, it would devour much of my homeschool budget. That's one reason. Another is that I like our travels through history, and a Charlotte Mason approach. And finally, because I enjoy choosing books for the children to choose from, and I can come up with creative projects on my own. However, I also realized (yet another duh moment) that I can blend in the more Waldorf-like elements of Oak Meadow right into my own plans. I can have my children make Main Lesson Books, which will in turn make great memoirs down the road.

Anyhow, it feels lovely to be settled. To know that I can free myself from scouring second-hand curricula boards for a good deal. And, with the money I am saving not buying OM, I can buy better art supplies. I have already purchased, mostly second-hand, much of what we will need next year.

This weekend, while I don't have work per se, is going to be a busy one! We have Foam Weaponry and a mock battle this afternoon. I have baked a cake already that needs to be assembled and frosted for the 4H fundraiser tomorrow. I have a 4H scarf to sew for my Fairy. Tomorrow we have the 4H fundraising event, which is a giant, open-to-the-public BBQ. The kids are in the parade, and on trash duty. M is taking a shift grilling. I have the kids to supervise, the cake to deliver to the cake booth, etc. And then there are the everyday, mundane tasks of laundry, housework, etc.

Hoe you all have a good weekend!