Monday Musings... This Week...

image courtesy of waxlander gallery

I'm hoping that this week we will be turning over a new leaf with something pretty important... our mortgage! We have a notary coming to our house on Wednesday, so that we can sign all the refinancing papers! I still can't quite wrap my head around the idea that we got approved, so I'll be very happy when Wednesday has come and gone! This really improves the terms of or loan, both in the immediate future, and down the road.

Besides that, in my efforts to allow my kids a little more flexibility in their studies, I made some "maps" of what I want accomplished, and tracking sheets to go with.

It promises to be a good week - I sure hope it is!

In the Garden...

It has been beautiful here lately, so I've been weeding, planting, and coaxing my garden along...

 My abutilon is blooming like mad! The Girl says they look like fairy lanterns.

Speaking of The Girl, her geranium is coming back nicely from a winter's rest!

Here's the heather I planted recently. I think I need to learn more abut their care, because while the blooms are still fantastic, the greenery looks a little dried out. And yes, I water them regularly. Maybe too much?

And the volunteer poppies have made their return. Isn't my state flower a pretty one?

Lavender everywhere!

The first spring bloom from my pink columbine. Still waiting on the blue one.

We have lots of red valerian this year too, another volunteer plant!

The sage flowers are one of my favorite colors in the garden right now!

Math in the apple tree is always fun! We took homeschooling outside yesterday, as the weather is gorgeous! (In the 80's here)

 Finishing up math inside, when his allergies acted up. We're trying something new with him, so let's hope it works!

Two Post Tuesday: Hodgepodge...

image courtesy of mrwallpaper

Isn't "hodgepodge" a great word? Always makes me think of hedgehogs for some reason. And then I think of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle...

Anyhow, I have decided for the moment that hodgepodge (i.e. mixture, mishmash, heterogeneous mixture, patchwork) best describes our homeschooling. Too many people use "eclectic" now!

So yesterday, I read Wendy's post on her current interest-led experimentation. I then printed out a list of all the Landmark and World Landmark books (here's a handy-dandy pdf, with all the tiles in chronological order!), printed out a list of all Bill Nye's videos, and headed home to look for a book I've been promising The Boy we would read, someday. Someday became yesterday, as we read the first two chapters of The Early Days of Automobiles! And I ordered a book on Africa for The Girl (which I'll bet The Boy will listen to as well). I told the kids they can take turns picking books and videos, and we can go from there.

image courtesy of carolinefontenot

Yes, I am throwing all caution to the wind! Take that, chronological history and orderly science! At least for the rest of this year! We'll still hit the basics (you know, the "three R's") everyday, but art, music, science, history, are on the what-if spectrum.

I bet I'll learn just as much as my kids do from this!

On the Chopping Block...

image courtesy of 123rf

M got laid off last year, after breaking an arm. I can't say it's been the easiest time in the world for either of us. Thankfully, financially, we're holding on, but when M's home, all the time, it interrupts the routine I had worked so long to get the kids following. And he's getting very, very bored. And frustrated.

image courtesy of enviromom

Prior to his layoff, he was a shipping/receiving clerk/warehouse manager (somewhere between the two titles). The outlook for this job right now is not fantastic. He's applied to every job he's found in this category, which unfortunately is not many, and hasn't had any good luck yet.

Before that, he worked as a line cook for an upscale burger joint, a job he found both challenging and enjoyable. But, that was about 8 years ago, not exactly current. And jobs for other things he's qualified for, like janitorial positions, aren't that easy to find either.

image courtesy of menucovermen

Sounds pretty bleak, doesn't it? But then, the other night, we were watching re-runs of Top Chef, and M said "I could do that, well, at least most of it. And I miss cooking." So off to the computer I went, to look at programs that qualify for re-training under unemployment benefit criteria. And guess what? A Culinary Certificate program at our local junior/community college does qualify! And, at least in our area, there is a decent demand for trained cooks.

We've now filled out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), and a fee waiver for the college in question. He's slated to register for summer classes in another week, starting with
Sanitation & Safety, a Culinary Arts Survey, and Knife Skills. In the future, he'll be taking classes in pastry, professional cooking basics, and he'll have to work in the culinary cafe for part of his certificate.

I haven't seen him so excited about learning anything since... well, never. He realizes that while some of what they teach him will be review, he'll also be learning a lot of new skills. And for him, this would be a career, not just a job, if you know what I mean. The same reason I am going through grad school... I want a career, since I have to work. Not just a job.

Now we just have to jump all the little hurdles of the Employment Development Department... more paperwork, maybe a phone interview, and so forth. So wish us luck!

Weekly Report: Science, Books, & Kites...

Wow! What a good, solid week we had! It just goes to show that when we set the time aside, turn of the computer, television set, etc.,  we can get a lot done without feeling stressed.

Language Arts:

We did a little more work in The Complete Writer this week, with narrations/summaries, and some copy work. Both kids are continuing to enjoy this program, so I think it is safe to say, we have found a winner! I am much more confident in my language arts/writing plans for fall now.

The Girl finished up chapter one, and started chapter two, in Reading Horizons. She actually just did the Skill Check for the first lesson in chapter two, and scored 100%! She's looking forward to trying the skill check for the next lesson as well. She is, I think and hope, beginning to believe me when I tell her she has better reading skills than she realizes!

Literature:

We've been enjoying the story of Perseus in A Wonder Book for Girls & Boys, reading a section each day. Hawthorne's language use in this book is marvelous--not too challenging for the kids, yet not at all dumbed down. The kids laugh every time we get to "Medusa with the snaky locks", because we all find it funny that he nearly always refers to her that way, only very rarely simply saying "Medusa"!

We're also enjoying Linnets & Valerians. Yesterday, I started introducing literary elements with this book, explaining foreshadowing to the kids. They immediately picked up on it, citing examples from other books, like The Titan's Curse (another chapter or two of this in the car this week as well), and The Sea of Monsters. They are looking forward to see what the foreshadowing in Linnets & Valerians is hinting at.

The Girl and I are just over halfway through Ramona the Pest, and The Boy is probably two-thirds of the way through The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. And we started reading Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone at bedtime.

Science:

Science has been a blast this week! I started off the week meaning to cover energy (BFSU), but instead we read another chapter from You Are the Earth, and then everything flowed from there! The chapter was technically on soil, but we also learned a bit about nutrition, fungi, bacteria, rocks, and more! We watched a Bill Nye video to go with it, on Rocks & Soil, and started not one but three science projects! Here's two of them, and I'll take pictures later of the third...

First, we're sprouting peas, to try this project/experiment

And these are bread samples for growing mold. One dampened piece and one dry piece per kid, sealed up nice and tight!

Our third project comes from You Are the Earth. We took a few of the peas we had soaked overnight, and the kids planted one each in topsoil and subsoil. They are keeping them damp, and will be watching for growth.

While we didn't do exactly what I had planned for the week in science, I realized we did cover/are covering threads B-4, B-10, B-11, A-10, D-10 and B-12 in BFSU! [Plant and earth sciences]. I plan to continue in this next week, since we're enjoying it so much, with my copy of Life in a Bucket of Soil, and Bill Nye: Plants, as well as a project involving epsom salts from this week's Bill Nye video, and/or the fairly similar Epsom Salts crystal garden project here (BFSU A-9). And of course, we'll be continuing the projects above!

History:

History was good this week, though not nearly as exciting as science! We read another chapter in the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, all about Cheops and the Great Pyramid, and we read You Wouldn't Want to be an Egyptian Mummy! We've decided to spend one more week on Egypt. I'd like to finish up Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, and there are a couple of documentaries we'd like to watch. Plus, I have Pyramid on hand, and we'd like to enjoy that as well!

Math:

The Girl took a break from Saxon this week, as we felt she needed some review with telling time, so I pulled out some Math Mammoth worksheets and our practice clock. The Boy started testing through Saxon Math 6/5, and was able, so far, to skip 6 lessons, as he scored 97% on the test he took.

Other Stuff:

We worked in the garden some more, transplanting broccoli this week. Our apple and cherry trees are in full bloom, and the limequat has little white buds all over. The Girl cut a sprig off the apple tree and is seeing if she can get it to root in a small pot of dirt.

The kids are building popsicle-stick houses at my mom's, in addition to all the other crafts they do with her.

And we wrapped up the week by taking advantage of the wind and gorgeous weather!

Kite-flying is always a lot of fun! (In the bottom picture, that is The Boy to the right.. I had to back up quite far to get both him and the kite in the picture!)

Hope you all had a good week too! And enjoy the weekend, before we have to start all over again.

Award Winning...

The Boy received a silver medal this week for his participation in the National Mythology Exam. It was his first time taking the test, and with a score of 96%, we are very proud of him! Best of all, he is really proud of himself!

Is It Really Monday Again Already?

Image courtesy of whatwecreate

How time flies!

Another weekend come and gone... and a busy one at that.






On Saturday, The Boy fenced in his second in-house tournament...

While he didn't even come close to winning as he was going up against kids with a lot more experience, he really enjoyed the tournament! He got some great one-on-one advice from the coaches, and quite a compliment, when the head coach told us that he wished all his students were as mature as The Boy about enjoying themselves versus simply getting points.

The Boy has also decided that it is time to step up his training a bit! So instead of 4 sessions per month, we'll be aiming for 6, and eventually 8.

Then on Sunday, The Girl skated for a fundraiser. She raised $80 in just two days for the Center for Well Being. She skated fast and hard, and was worn out by the time we got home!

We also nearly finished weeding the front borders, and tore out some of the dusty old beige carpeting in the house (just the hallway so far), to reveal the hardwood underneath. It does need refinishing, but honestly, I'd rather live with hardwood floor that needs a little tlc than nasty old wall-to-wall carpeting!

On the agenda this week:
~ Taking my dad to a dr's appointment today
~ More gardening
~ Maybe, just maybe, tearing out more carpeting!
~ And of course, homeschooling! Which will include:
     * Finishing up Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, and another chapter in K12's Human Odyssey
     * Saxon Math 6/5 tests for The Boy
     * Some clock review for The Girl (I just realized this weekend that she is still having a little trouble with
        telling time, so we'll use Math Mammoth for this)
     * Reading Horizons for The Girl: finish chapter 1, start chapter 2
     * Work with The Complete Writer (summary narrations, copy work, dictation) for both
     * Another chapter in You Are the Earth; start sprouting experiments/projects
     * And back to BFSU this week! We'll be studying energy (threads C-1, C-3)
     * Literature: more of The Wonder Book (Greek myths); Linnets & Valerians; start Harry Potter
        & the Sorcerer's Stone at bedtime; finish Ramona the Pest; maybe another Shakespeare story;
        and definitely poetry this week with The Arrow Poetry Guide

Hope you all have a good week!

Weekly Report: Kicking Myself...

image courtesy of mobilebeat

I've written about language arts, specifically writing, here, here, and probably in a few other places. My original plan was to keep it fun and loose, but at the same time, panic was setting in... would my kids be prepared to actually write well in the future? I bought a secondhand copy of The Complete Writer a while back--on the shelf it went, and on the shelf it stayed, until this week. This week, I pulled it out and started using level 1 with The Girl and level 3 with The Boy.

And now I am kicking myself! The kids are giving me these fantastic narrations/summaries! They love the copywork, and next week I'll be starting dictation with The Boy as well, using the approach recommended in The Writer's Jungle (a little at a time, in other words). I was worried that WWE/WWS would be too repetitive and too restrictive for them, but they are really enjoying language arts right now.

We'll definitely be continuing with this program. I am not sure yet if I will buy the workbook for WWE (The Girl), or if we will use our own sources. My husband really likes the looks of WWS for The Boy in the fall as well.

As to the rest of the week...

Saxon Math is still a big hit. We did take a day off from formal math to play beanbag toss/skip counting/multiplication in the backyard, working through 3's, 4's, 5's... up to 10's. I finally got the tests for Saxon 6/5 so that we can begin jumping The Boy ahead a little, since what he's doing now is not much of a challenge.

Science was all about nature this week. We read about frogs, metal ore, and swallows. We planted our tomatoes and peppers, and some heather in the front yard. I showed the kids how to divide lamb's ear, with which we are making a border along the flower beds that border the small lawn in the front yard. We hunted through the yard to find some of the mantises we released recently, and found quite a number of them! The Girl found 8 or 9 on the lemon balm alone!

In history, we read a few of the You Wouldn't Want to be books (we're using this awesome chronological list of the titles) - always a big hit here! Next week, we'll be finishing up the Egyptians, then on to ancient China and India! Maybe we'll finally watch this whole series.

We read about Iguaza Falls in Richard Halliburton's book; started the story of Perseus in A Wonder Book for Girls & Boys (we're only reading the actual Greek mythology stories in this, not the Tanglewood bits), and decided that once we finish The Road to Oz, we'll start reading through the Harry Potter series at bedtime. We also read the story of Hamlet, which I chose since I am reading the play itself for my Shakespeare class.

photo courtesy of Adrian Limani

I am happy to report that The Girl got past her mental block with Reading Horizons. She's definitely making progress with this program, and I am over the moon excited about that!

She's even starting to make a list of books she wants to read herself. Among them: the Ramona series; the All of a Kind Family series; Diary of a Wimpy Kid; and a few others I can't think of offhand. She has never made a list of books to read before, unless it was a list of books she wanted me to read to her.

Believe me when I say this is a huge breakthrough!!!

So overall, it has been a good week! Next week, we'll continue with Saxon and the Complete Writer. We'll get back to K12's History Odyssey, and BFSU. Yes, back to Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding! What can I say, other than that with all three volumes, it is perhaps the most comprehensive science program for kids I have come across! We'll be starting volume 2 in the fall, with topics like Brownian motion, atomic motion, parallel circuits, and convection currents. This means wrapping up volume 1 at long last! I figure it'll give me a chance to work in some units/chapters from the Prentice Hall Science Explorer texts I bought too.

Hope you all had a good week! Enjoy your weekend too! Ours will be busy with an in-house fencing tournament, and a skate-a-thon.

BFSU Volume III

I made up my flow chart for BFSU Volume III today, and thought I would share! You can find all my flowchart links here.

Wordy Wednesday: What About High School?

My mom asked me the other day about high school with the kids, and with The Boy in  [GULP]  7th grade this fall, I can understand her concerns.

In a nutshell, I absolutely plan on homeschooling all the way through. The kids, and M, plan on it too. We've never doubted we could do it!

But then, how? I want the kids to have the skills and ability to attend college if they so choose down the line. So yes, I started researching graduation requirements for California, and they are remarkably simple. Here's what we need for the UC/high-end college "track" (why aim for anything lower?):

English: Four years of approved courses (will have to look into specifics of "approved courses")

Math: Three years, including: algebra, intermediate algebra, and geometry. Four years recommended.

History: Three years of history/social studies, including one year of U.S. history and geography; one year of world history, culture, and geography; one semester of American government and civics, and one semester of economics

Science: Two years with lab required, chosen from biology, chemistry, and physics. Three years recommended.

Foreign Language: Two years in the same language required. Three years recommended.

Visual and Performing Arts: One year of visual and performing arts chosen from the following: dance; drama/theater; music; visual art

Our state also requires two years of physical education, though the universities don't.

Then my mom asked me how I intend to approach these things like science with labs, upper math (though Saxon is very good for this, and there are instructional DVDs these days as well), etc. and that too is simple: we have an excellent junior/community college at our doorstep, one of the most highly rated in the country. And they take concurrent enrollment students in grades 9-12. I plan to encourage my kids to start going there in maybe tenth grade. My kids could knock out lower division general education requirements while finishing high school!

In the meantime, we're focusing on building rigor, and laying a good foundation.

How about you? Do you plan on homeschooling all the way through, or will your child(ren) go to high school outside the home?

Monday Musings... This Week & LA Thoughts

I'm still on the fence about language arts for the fall. This should be an easy decision. I am studying for my MA in English Education after all. But it isn't easy when it comes to my own kids.

I want them to have solid writing skills. I read and grade papers for English classes at the local community/junior college, so I know that kids are not getting good writing instruction these days (every child left behind?). The problem I am having is what path we should take to get there. I've managed to narrow down the options, and I just need to decide! So, more structured (think Writing With Skill level 1/Writing With Ease/ Intermediate Language Lessons Book 1) OR more unstructured (think the Brave Writer Lifestyle)???


Here's what I have planned for this week's language arts:
Daily copy work, dictation exercise on Thursday, for both
Reading Horizons work for The Girl each day
maybe work from The Complete Writer?
Monday: A lesson from The Sentence Family for both; Writing Skills work for The Boy, pretty basic but good stuff
Tuesday: Work from Igniting Your Writing for The Boy   Nature journaling for both kids!
Wednesday: Free writing for The Boy, probably using Unjournaling for a prompt
We've ended up doing exercises from The Complete Writer, with The Girl doing level 1 (mostly verbal, some copy work) and The Boy working in levels 3 and 4.

When we do poetry, we might try the Arrow Poetry Guide for fun, since it was half off and I bought it today!

AND AN UPDATE:
I printed out samples of maybe six different writing programs I was looking at for The Boy, and a couple under consideration for The Girl. M and I had a "meeting" where we spread them all out on the bed and went through them together. And we picked a program!!!

I realized that while I love the idea of the Brave Writer approach, when we piece things together we are less likely to get anywhere. Probably a personal flaw/issue of some sort, but there it is. So we ended up picking a more all-in-one approach...

The Boy will be working in Writing With Skill level 1 in the fall, and The Girl will be working through Writing With Ease level 2. M really liked the samples I printed out, and we both agree the programs are very thorough without looking too challenging. I also know that at some point, later down the line, I may want to try Write With the Best and The Lost Tools Of Writing, and I think a year or so of Writing With Skill, etc., will nicely prepare The Boy for either.

Nice and simple!  Phew!

Upgrading the Afternoon Basket...

Our use of our Afternoon Basket seems to be waning a bit lately--it feels almost a bit stale since we've been focusing much of it outside the range I wanted to focus on this year (i.e. too many add-ons to history and science, not enough good literature).

I have plans now to refresh it, to change it up a bit to more closely align with what I am trying to impart to the kids, and to simplify. I want to rotate books through it a little better as well, so with that said, here is what I am thinking:

Sundays
Geographical explorations with Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels

Mondays
Shakespeare with Tales From Shakespeare (I have a bit more time for everything on Mondays, and these stories are a little on the longer side, and more complex)

Tuesdays
Nature reading, which for now will be My Life with the Chimpanzees

Wednesdays
Fairy tales -- we're reading through The Scottish Fairy Tale Book at the moment

Thursdays
Poetry with The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems and (because we have more time on Thusdays) Greek mythology with Hawthorne's A Wonder Book for Boys & Girls in preparation for next fall's lit studies.

So, each day we'll start with a reading from the Afternoon Basket, and then we'll move into our basics studies, then read about history, finish off basics, and wrap it all up with science:

History: Sundays - a chapter from K12's Human Odyssey; Monday through Thursday - a chapter from a good book or a short story to go with our current historical focus

Science:
Monday - reading from You Are the Earth; Tuesday - a secondary reading to go with Monday, or an appropriate documentary; Wednesday - reading from Dr. Art's Guide to Science; Thursday - supplemental reading for Wednesday's work and a hands-on project to go with one or the other of our main source books.After doing some soul searching and reading of old threads (homeschool forum), I think we're going to take a break from formal science to do some simple nature studies and gardening. I have The Handbook of Nature Study, and we can continue watching the Life series. Additionally, I really want to do the bean sprouting project! We may still do some reading from You Are the Earth since the next chapter is about soil, and has a good sprouting project as well, OR we may read a chapter each day from The Storybook of Science, since we never finished it, but I think we'll skip the rest of what I had listed above for now.

Enjoy your weekend!

What We're Up To...

I realized I haven't posted a weekly report in a little while, so here's a quick run-down of what we've been up to!

Cassia:

She's been working this week, and a little last week, with Reading Horizons, specifically the ages 10 and up version. This is an Orton-Gillingham based program, meaning that it is multi-sensory and very sequential. She spends about 45 minutes a day working on it, and in about a week has gotten through the first chapter - 13 lessons - with scores of 92% and higher. There are six chapters, and I estimate that with her working at it like she is, she'll finish it by the end of our school year, which this year will be at the end of June. My friend Jessica really recommended this program to me, and so far, I really like it!

We also switched up math for her this week, moving her to Saxon Math like her brother. I got level 5/4 for her, and so far it is mainly review work--I think it will be a really good fit. Both my kids like that there are a mix of problem types in each assignment... it isn't a whole page of one type of problem.

And we're reading through the Ramona Quimby series (again) together.

The Boy:

The Boy is really enjoying Saxon Math, although he says "it's pretty easy".
So, hopefully next week, I'm going to test-run a higher level with him (7/6 instead of 6/5). If it works, great. If it's too hard, we can always drop back down!  Instead of bumping him up at the moment, I think I am going to take Kim's advice, and give him the tests until we reach a point where 6/5 is challenging, but not too much so.

And this week he's been working in Writing Skills, which I bought a while back, put on a shelf and forgot. I've noticed that he'll happily write ten or more sentences now, whereas last year he'd balk at three!

He finished off The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and loved it, so I went ahead and picked up The Restaurant at the End of the Universe for him. Like his mom, he really enjoys that odd British humor! It has been a joy lately to discuss books with him. And yes, he's still into all things Steampunk! I swear there are Steampunk-inspired sketches all over the house.

Both:

We're moving along in history--we'll finish up Egypt next week and then move on to ancient China and India. I'm really looking forward to this because we haven't studied either of those in any real depth.

We read another chapter in You Are the Earth this week (and will hopefully be reading another chapter in Dr. Art's Guide to Science today!), learning about the water cycle, and what role water plays in our lives. Then we watched Bill Nye's video on the water cycle, and then his talk about why creationism should not be taught in schools. It was really interesting, and both kids were very intrigued with what he was saying. That led to a video clip of a news interview with him, in which the reporter mentioned that one senator thinks the idea of evolution is "from the pits of hell." Hmmm... anyhow, I digress. One thing I like about the book You Are the Earth is the way it integrates everything, so the water cycle isn't limited to nature/the great outdoors, it is connecting us to nature. We are a part of that cycle, and that cycle is a part of us.

Also in the past week or so, we've hatched and released butterflies and mantises, which has been a fantastic experience!

In "literature", we are reading a lovely book of Scottish fairy tales, and we started Linnets & Valerians this week, an older and fantastic book - with homeschooled kids! Which, by the way, was the norm in those days, far more than kids being "in school". In fact, one of my favorite quotes ever about education comes from that book: "Education is a mosaic of beauty. The various colored fragments are interrelated." (Uncle Ambrose, Linnets & Valerians)

My Thoughts:

I started out this year with a fairly clear picture of what I wanted school to be for us. And as always, life got in the way, and I lost sight of that picture... it became muddled. I wrote the following on a private group message board I belong to, and it really shows what I am thinking right now:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This has, overall, been a good year for us, at least so far. It has been a time or trial and error in some ways, but has helped us settle on what works and what is important. We made a completely fresh start in January, going from more or less unschooling/child-led to a much more rigorous approach.

As I mentioned above, we have found that K12's Human Odyssey is a good fit for us. We're back to using the sample weekly schedule from Great Books Academy, so we're reading a chapter each week in history. I found us drifting all too easily back into way too many historical books--too much hist. fiction, too many topical books, etc. I've cut that back again!

Math was quite the journey this year as well. We started out trying to do living math only, with Life of Fred. And for us, it did not work. Neither child felt they were retaining enough, and it felt very disjointed. I know these books really work for some families, just not ours. We have now truly come full circle on this, and are back to Saxon, which is what we started with when the children were small! We're a little behind, which is sad for me because when they were little, we were a full year "ahead". I am trying to keep in mind that we can, and will, catch up. The Boy is working in 6/5 at the moment. The Girl started 5/4 just yesterday (she's been doing Math Mammoth for a while now), and like her brother, she loves the book already! I think for them, a spiral approach, with plenty of practice, works best. I am happy with it as well, as I find it to be a very solid program, and I like that it goes all the way through high school!

We did read a number of good books this year, but that too felt disjointed, so we're prepping now for my Narnia lit list, which we will happily dig into in the fall. If that goes well, I'll work out a similar study for The Hobbit and the LoTR for the following year. Other authors I would like to work with in the future include Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Dickens, Shakespeare, etc. And I love the idea of good lit forming the backbone to our homeschool!

As for science, you can read about my ideas/plans for that here. Basically, I am integrating BFSU, Prentice Hall Science Explorer texts, and living books! Add in informal nature studies, and we're good to go!

I feel that despite all the beginning of the year conversations on the ... group, we lost focus, and instead returned to our old habits. Lately, I feel re-focused, like all the pieces are coming together. If only I can decide on writing programs for the fall, I'll be set! Oh, and I need to work in more art. Maybe Waldorf style main lesson books will finally get their chance!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope you are all having a good week!

Mantises!

We are delighted that this year our mantises hatched! Last year we bought an egg case as well, but nothing ever happened. This year though...

 Hundreds of hatchlings!

 And a close-up...

 Setting them free! They hatch with voracious appetites, and if you don't set them free, they'll eat each other!

The kids helped them spread throughout the yard

And we learned that bacon, though delicious, can be very dangerous! M went to fry some in a pan, and even though I backed away, it got me--I've never seen bacon spit that much grease out that far before. I now look like I have a pox of some sort, though lavender oil calmed the pain.