Finally!!!

image courtesy of a refined aesthetic

We have reached the end! We finished up our 2012-2013 school year, AND I am on my annual six week break from work!

I decided to lighten up a little on summer school, and allow for a lot of relaxation and fun over the next six weeks! We'll still be reading good stories, and The Boy will be doing 1-2 sets of math exercises on Khan Academy 4 days a week. The Girl will be doing 1-2 Reading Horizons lessons each week, and some reading practice, but really, that's it, besides overhauling the house, that is.

HAVE A HAPPY SUMMER!!!

image courtesy of envisioningthedream

I'll still be checking in here on a fairly regular basis, with lots of fun summer pictures to come!

Photographic Fun...

Recently, we came across these amazing self-portraits, done by a fourteen year old boy, with a little assistance from his older sister. The Boy was immediately inspired, so here are the first couple of pieces he worked on... I have to say that I am impressed!

He's working on a few more, so be expecting to see more photography by The Boy soon!

Monday Musings....

Inspired by Kim over at Our Enchanted Place!

Outside My Window... It is raining off and on, and a cool 59 degrees! We're supposed to have rain and cooler temperatures through tomorrow, and then back up to the 80's by the end of the week.

Things I'm Thinking About.... Planning ahead a little for fall. We're going to try REAL writing programs to help streamline things... The Boy will be doing a ten-week test run of Writing With Skill level 1, and The Girl will either be using  Writing With Ease level 2, OR Writing Skills Book A. I'm also trying to decide of The Boy's desired math (a combo of Life of Fred and Jousting Armadillos) is really thorough enough, or if we should stick with Saxon.

In My Garden... Our tomatoes are starting to ripen! Whooo hooo! We all are huge fans of fresh tomatoes, and I am so tired of slightly insipid ones from the grocery store. I've been shelling out a little more money recently for the heirloom ones, but it will be wonderful to have our own. Nothing quite like a fresh tomato sandwich, preferably on good sourdough bread! I like to tuck a little fresh basil in there too, which is also growing like crazy! I bought a pot of live basil from Trader Joe's, and it turned out there were 3 plants in there, all of which are getting immense. Our corn is about 3 feet tall now, we have baby squash, and the chard is finally really taking off!

Around the House.... Next week we start Operation Overhaul! (see "Other" here) We are very much looking forward to reducing the sheer volume of what we own. For the longest time, I have been reluctant to get rid of books, and (hanging my head in shame) baby and toddler clothes. I have already packed up a box for each child with the special outfits in them, and the rest will go. As far as books, we have an excellent library system, and so I don't need to own every book under the sun! The children have been talking a lot about getting rid of all the "baby toys" and "baby books" (we'll be keeping the classics to hand down though!), so this will be good for all of us.

Food, and the Cooking Thereof..... The vegetarian experiment? Well, not such a success. Honestly, we missed grilled meat. We are eating more veggies, and more fruit though, so in that it was a success! I made a big pot of very simple, and super delicious, chicken tortilla soup last night, using my new "secret" ingredient, which gave it the depth of flavor usually missing from a quick pot of such soup. M was happy that, even with two bowls apiece last night, there was enough to fill the new thermos The Girl gave him, so he has a hot lunch for his lunch break today. Tonight, and tomorrow, will also be good nights for such comforting foods, then as the weather turns sunny and warm again, we'll be back to grilling!

Creating & Reading..... The children and I are reading a lot, as always (see my sidebar). I did find an intriguing new book at the library, The Kashmir Shawl. I am only a couple of chapters in, and am really enjoying it! As for creating, not such much at the moment.

Plans For the Week Ahead..... Finish work for now! We have a couple of books we still haven't finished, and we plan to read
more of The Rainbow Book of American Historyabout ancient China and India. Fencing is on the agenda, as is Park Day. Oh, and I have a business lunch tomorrow, to say goodbye to my boss, who is retiring at the end of the month.

Have a great week!

Wishing You All...

 A very happy Summer Solstice!

We'll be celebrating with our friends at the park today. It has been about a month since we all made it to our Friday Park Day, and we're really looking forward to seeing all our friends again!

Yesterday was M's birthday. We spent a quiet day at home, barbequeing, gardening, relaxing, laughing through Monty Python's The Search for the Holy Grail... it was really calm and nice. M said it was the best birthday he's had in a few years!

Overall, it has been a good week. We got some light homeschooling done, and M is enjoying his new classes. Here's a quick run-down of the accomplishments this week!

The Girl
We didn't do much in Reading Horizons this week. She did do one lesson, but struggled a little with it, so I set it aside for just this week, and instead she just read to me from various readers we have on hand. She wrote my grocery list (I loved "x10shun cord"!), and we played several rounds of Hangman. We're refreshed now, ready to start up Reading Horizons again next week. I made some cards to go with the lesson she struggled on, so that we can first work with the words, then start the lesson and go back over the rough spots. Her reading this week was, by and large, the most fluent I have heard, so I feel good about what we got done. We finished Heidi, and are now reading The Garden Princess, which is quite good so far.

The Boy
He did some more multiplication and division work with Khan Academy. I find that I have to remind him often, too often really, to write out his work. Otherwise he gets really confused by division. He read a lot this week, worked on his model car and his photography skills (I'll have to post some of his work!), and watched a few episodes of StormChasers.

Both
We read about the Vikings, Columbus, early Spanish explorers of South America, and the Jamestown Colony this week in the Rainbow Book of American History. We also read the first couple of chapters in To California by Covered Wagon, and tried to imagine how hard it would have been to wait your turn for the single small ferry crossing the Missouri River, which could only take one wagon at a time. When the hero of this book went across, there were around 40 wagons waiting to cross, and all in all, it took about 3 days!

We're nearly done with The Trumpet of the Swan. We spent some time on the Cornell Ornithology website learning more about these magnificent birds, listening to them, watching them in flight... and we looked up the Red Rock Lakes, which had a lot less trees than I had pictured!

We finished the first Harry Potter book, and are now reading The Thirteen Clocks at bedtime. If you haven't read this book, and enjoy strange humor, I cannot recommend it highly enough! We are really enjoying it so far, and the word play and humor is enough to keep us giggling much of the time.

Other
I am definitely ready for the weekend! We have fencing (Wednesdays and Saturdays), and roller derby on the agenda, and then one more week of work to get through before I get six long, lovely weeks almost completely off from work!!! [I have to go in twice in July, 4 hours each time, to open the new purchase orders or the upcoming year] My general plan during my time off is an hour each of housework and homeschooling per day, 4-5 days per week. I want the whole house clean from top to bottom, and maybe we'll get the walls primed. I plan to continue offloading books, old clothes, and more. I also want to start exercising regularly, and I figure that is a good time to try, since I won't have the distractions of work. My mom will continue taking the kids one morning per week, so that I can work on reading, etc. for college in the fall.

Hope you all had a good week, and enjoy the beginning of summer!

New Friends & Scheduling Ideas...

We enlarged our family of friends/pets this week! Meet Reepicheep and Captain Jack!

Reepicheep

Captain Jack

I found them on craigslist, free, being given away since their two-year old owner apparently was not quite ready for small pets. Since we're accustomed to guinea pigs already, with The Girl's pet Emily, taking these delightful guys in was easy! We did change their names, the originals of which I can't remember now.

And scheduling thoughts...

Here's what I am thinking for the upcoming year:

Sundays
Music Appreciation (Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts on YouTube)
Art and Art Appreciation (various resources)
Geography (Halliburton, homemade "cartography" studies)
Math activity (Family Math books, living books, etc.)
Philosophy (Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery & discussion)
And, either an activity from Developing Critical Thinking Through Science Book 2 OR reading and an activity from Dr. Art's Guide to Science

Mondays
Afternoon Basket
Spelling (The Boy); Reading Horizons (The Girl)
Grammar (Grammar-Land with Main Lesson Book and worksheet activities)
Math (Saxon)
Science (reading aloud from our book[s] of choice; notebooking*)
History (reading aloud from our book of choice; notebooking*)

Tuesdays
Afternoon Basket
Spelling (The Boy); Reading Horizons (The Girl) 
Copywork, dictation exercises
Math (Saxon)
Science (reading aloud from our book[s] of choice; notebooking*)
History (reading aloud from our book of choice; notebooking*)

Wednesdays
Afternoon Basket
Spelling (The Boy); Reading Horizons (The Girl) 
Work on writing project (The Boy); Elson Reader work (The Girl)
Math (Saxon)
Science (reading aloud from our book[s] of choice; notebooking*)
History (reading aloud from our book of choice; notebooking*)

Thursdays
Afternoon Basket
Spelling (The Boy); Reading Horizons (Cassia) 
Free-writing (if The Girl wants, she can do free-writing OR continued Elson Reader work)
Math (Jousting Armadillos for The Boy, and something fun for Cassia)
Science (reading aloud from our book[s] of choice; notebooking* OR hands-on)
History (reading aloud from our book of choice; notebooking*)

Fridays
I'm asking the kids to take note of something nature-related at the park on our Park Fridays. When we get home, we'll all sit down and do some nature journaling, and read about whatever caught their eye.

Worked into all this, we'll have lunchtime documentaries, travel shows, and more! The kids will also be pursuing personal projects, so I am working on an updated checklist for each of them. I might add in vocabulary work with English From the Roots Up Mondays through Thursdays... we'll see!

*We're using a mix of notebooking with lapbooking elements, and Main Lesson Books (MLB), so the kids can do a MLB type entry in their notebooks, or fill out a profile page, etc. 

On the Way to Work & Other Tidbits...

On my way to work this morning, I saw these, so naturally, I had to pull over and snap a few pictures!

This has been, so far, a rather hectic week, as M started back to school yesterday, working toward a Culinary Arts Certificate. Thankfully, he was able to get into all three classes he wanted, and as an early birthday gift, I got him a set of knives, as every student/cook should have their own. He loved his first day back -- I know he was nervous when he went in, but by the end of the day he was happy! And I have to say, he looks pretty snazzy in all his gear... the official chef coat and pants, and so on. Now we just have to get the courses approved by the Employment Development Department, so he can continue getting unemployment compensation until he is "retrained". And thankfully, I only have to drop him off at the Culinary Arts Center two mornings a week, Mondays and Tuesdays! We're also looking forward to his birthday on Thursday, a nice relaxed day at home.

The kids and I, meanwhile, are wrapping up a few books this week, getting ready to start some new ones next week. To finish: Trumpet of the Swan, You Are the Earth, Heidi, Emi & the Rhino Scientist (which we misplaced for a week or so, oops), and the first Harry Potter book. We're 

continuing with Our California Home going to read through The Rainbow Book of American History (for a fun, quick overview), and California-themed Landmark Books. We are getting ready for The Garden Princess (with The Girl at bedtime), the The Thirteen Clocks (both kids at bedtime, and after which we'll return to the Harry Potter series),  Cheaper by the Dozen (both kids, during homeschooling), and either All About the Stars OR Keepers of the Earth for some light summertime science.

Speaking of books, I have owned Homeschooling: A Patchwork of Days for several years now, and truthfully, I love the glimpses into the homeschooling lives of others. I was delighted to find out that the author had compiled a second book, Homeschool Open House. So I promptly ordered a copy. A book arrived, I tore off the packaging, and found entirely the wrong book (packing mistake). I returned the book, got a refund, and reordered the book I wanted. This time, the seller canceled, after realizing they did not have a copy available. Well, long story short, third time's the charm, and I have now have in my possession  a nearly new copy, which I can't wait to read! And, I am excitedly awaiting not one, but a few, boxes of books (so much for downsizing!), as I was able to score, at a very good price, 40 of the All About books, original hardcover! My inner bookworm/nerd is jumping up and down with joy!

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast....

Slow down, you move too fast. 

You got to make the morning last. 

Just kicking down the cobble stones. 

Looking for fun and feelin' groovy.

(Simon & Garfunkel)

I've had this song running through my head for a few days now, so I'm slowing things down. On purpose. Aiming for much more Tortoise, and much less Hare. First and foremost, The Girl and Reading Horizons. We've been doing the lessons nearly every day, and while she's making progress, I think we'd do better if we slowed down a little. My awesome friend Jessica has offered to send me some of her teaching materials for the program, which, as we're doing just the online version, I don't have. I am looking forward to seeing if we can go more in-depth with this!

Which means, yes, she'll still be working through the program in the fall. But, the further we get into it, the more okay I am with that. In addition to basic reading skills, she's learning spelling, grammar, and all that!

With both kids, I decided we're not quite ready for the Kilgallon materials I listed in this post. With further research, I realized that the Kilgallons assume a basic familiarity with the parts of speech, with clauses, and so on. I'd like to take some time to build that up a little more first, so back to my original plan of using Grammar-Land: Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire. This lovely book introduces all the parts of speech and how they work together through a humorous story. Another blogger made free worksheets for it, which we may or may not use.

We're not rushing through history now, or reading, or anything else. We're taking time to enoy the journey!

We are having great success so far though with Right Brained Multiplication & Division! The kids are easily multiplying and dividing by 0, 1, 10 and 11. I think we tackle two's next. And The Boy has finally, with the help of Khan Academy, and yours truly, paper and pencil in hand, figured out how division works. He kept trying to do all the problems in his head, so I made him sit down with me, and go through the process five or six times, on paper. And now he says he "gets how it works"!

He's also very excited about the idea of using Jousting Armadillos! We sat down together and looked through the book online. And  I have to say, they have amazing customer service, and I haven't even ordered anything yet! I did email the author with a couple of questions, and he not only got back to me very quickly, and thoroughly, but then another teacher from the private school that put these books out also emailed me, to answer another part of the questions I asked! The Boy is thinking he'll be doing a Life of Fred/Armadillos combo in the fall, which I think would work well.

So, slow down! Enjoy the journey instead of rushing for the finish line! Stepping off my soapbox now!

More Math Books to Tempt Me!

These books look amazing! You can see inside them on the website. And who could resist books with names like Jousting Armadillos? I think I'll have to show these to The Boy.

Monday Musings...

Inspired by Pam's post over at Everyday Snapshots...

Around the House
My bookshelf organizing is going well! Although I should admit there are now piles of books everywhere, waiting to be shelved, donated, or sold, as the case may be. Our tomato bushes are loaded with green tomatoes, but the cherry tree is done for the season, sadly enough. I also have baby squash, and the corn is about two and a half feet tall.

From the Kitchen
M has asked if we could "go vegetarian" for a month. Familiar enough territory, as I was vegetarian for about 8 years, and The Girl has flirted with it on and off. He wants to try it for health reasons, and I'm all for that! Besides, it's cheaper than eating meat. I have yummy things on the menu like a stir-fry tonight, these delicious enchiladas later in the week, a veggie lasagna, and so forth. That, combined with the unseasonal rain we're having, gave me an excuse to make a big batch of lentil soup, one of the kids' favorites! I load it up with carrots, onion, celery, mustard greens, and Italian spices... mmmmm.

Homeschooling
Homeschooling is going pretty well, since it is nice and light right now! On the agenda for the week: finally finishing The Early Days of Automobiles; working on multiplying and dividing by two's; Reading Horizons for The Girl; more advanced multiplication and division on Khan Academy for The Boy; possibly finishing up The Trumpet of the Swan; another chapter in You Are the Earth; and miscellaneous read-alouds from the kids' library stacks.

On the Blog
Just truckin' along!

Fitness
This totally did not happen for me in the last week, as my sciatica really flared up and I could barely walk for three days, much less exercise. This week will be better! I swear ;-)

Plans and Schemes
Waiting on library books to get my summer study plans (California history) going. I am planning out some fun field trips, and I think I am done planning for fall - now I just need to buy a few things! We'll be heading out to our regular park day, plus there will be fencing practice on Wednesday and Saturday. The Girl's coaches told me last night that they are very pleased with her progress in roller derby!

Reading and Crafting
Yes, I've been reading - Calico Palace and The Jubilee Trail, by Gwen Bristow; The Writer's Jungle; and various books with the kids (see homeschooling above). There has been no crafting, which makes me think, maybe there should be crafting! I'll have to think of something crafty to do!

Saying Yes
I said "yes" to a roller derby league water bottle for The Boy [a nice Camelbak one with their league logo!] - she loves it, and it is encouraging her to drink more water!

A Memory
Thumbing through old pictures, and came across these "kids being goofy during homeschooling" ones from 2008!

And then, just for fun, this is what we watched out the window last night, around one in the morning. The storm flashed and boomed for over an hour before moving away enough to let us get back to sleep!

Goals... Current & Future...

The Thinker, Rodin

Without goals, we have nothing to strive for. With that in mind, I've been doing some serious thinking about goals for each child over the next year or so.

THE GIRL:
Goal 1. Get her reading at grade level. This is the single most important goal I have for her right now. The problem is, while she's doing well with her Reading Horizons lessons, she still has no interest in being a reader. She loves having me read to her, she just doesn't want to do it herself. There are moments when she says "I'd like to read this or that book", but then she goes back to saying she doesn't care. I'm really hoping this will change as she becomes better at the actual act of reading.

Goal 2. To master basic multiplication and division. This is a goal we're tackling over the summer, with a variety of living books, and the work/activity book, Right Brained Multiplication & Division.

Goal 3. To foster good, basic writing skills. This will be a focal point during the 2013-2014 "school" year. I've chosen a few resources I think will help, among them Kilgallon Story Grammar for Elementary School and Write Source 2000.

THE BOY:
Goal 1. To effectively master multiplication & division. Okay, yes, he's pretty good with this stuff, but still refers frequently to a multiplication chart he made himself, and I would like that to be a more automatic process. This is a summer goal, again with a variety of living books, and the work/activity book, Right Brained Multiplication & Division. And this will be extremely beneficial whichever way he makes his math-for-2013-2014 decision (A versus B).

Goal 2. To be able to write a solid (can be brief!) essay. This is a longer term goal, but something I'd like him to accomplish over the next year. Once more, I have a few resources at my fingertips, among them Kilgallon Grammar for Middle School and Write Source 2000.

FOR BOTH:
Goal 1. To build a sense of autonomy. One of the reasons I am trying out a more interest-led approach with the kids over the next year (in the content areas like history and science), is to help them build a sense of autonomy, of independence. As they get older, and move closer to the adult world, I think this is increasingly important. This, I am hoping, will give them a chance to really get to know themselves, to figure out where their passions lie, while at the same time being exposed to a liberal education.

Goal 2. To build good habits. This is an always continuing goal! I want them to have a sense of responsibility to themselves and others, to follow through on tasks, and to have a good sense of routine, or rhythm, to their days. This goal is definitely a parent-assisted one, something I am working on instilling in our home.

Goal 3. To become more familiar with local flora and fauna. Maybe not the most important of goals, but I do think children should have a good awareness and understanding of their local climate and region. To this end, I plan to take them out on more nature walks, with guides in hand, during different seasons, so that together we can see how the environment changes, what the animals are up to, when the plants begin to leaf out and bloom, and so forth.

That's what I have so far!

Books to Consider...

Some books I am putting on my "short-list" for 2013-2014... I will likely add to or subtract from this list, but I wanted to write it down so as not to forget titles and authors! And, for specialized lists pertaining to each child, you can look here.

Short Stories:
Gudgekin the Thistle Girl & Other Tales, by John Gardner
The King of the Hummingbirds & Other Tales, by John Gardner
Dragon, Dragon & Other Tales, by John Gardner
Nine Unlikely Tales, by E. Nesbit
The King of Ireland's Son, by Padraic Colum
Tatterhood & Other Tales, by Ethel Johnston Phelps
The Book of Dragons, by E. Nesbit
The Arabian Nights, by Sir Richard Burton, or the Andrew Lang version
Asgard Stories: Tales from Norse Mythology, by Mary H. Foster
Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving

Shakespeare Stories:
(All by Bruce Coville - illustrated children's versions)
King Lear
Macbeth
A  Midsummer Night's Dream
Hamlet
Romeo & Juliet
The Tempest
The Winter's Tale
Twelfth Night

General Read-Alouds 
(some are historical, some are not. Some will be in our Afternoon Basket, some at bedtime in addition to the Harry Potter series):
Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll
Questing Knights of the Faerie Queene, by Geraldine McCaughrean
The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart
Black Ships Before Troy, by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Wanderings of Odysseus, by Rosemary Sutcliff
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engle
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving
The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthu's Court, by Mark Twain
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg
King Arthur & His Knights of the Round Table, by Roger Lancelyn Green
The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens
The Five Children & It (and sequels as desired), by E. Nesbit
The Railway Children, by E. Nesbit
The Princess Bride,by William Goldman
In Search of a Homeland: The Story of the Aenid, by Penelope Lively
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin
Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, by L. Frank Baum
The Prince & the Pauper, by Mark Twain
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kennedy
The Story of the Treasure Seekers, by E. Nesbit
At the Back of the North Wind, by George MacDonald
A Single Shard, by Linda Sue Park
Pinocchio: The Tale of a Puppet, by Carlo Collodi
The Princess & the Goblin, by George MacDonald
Summerland, by Michael Chabon
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, by Maryrose Wood
Ronia, the Robber's Daughter, by Astrid Lindgren
Homer Price, by Robert McClosky

Nature Reading:
The Thirteen Moons series, by Jean Craighead George

Mathematical Reading:
The Man Who Counted: A Collection of Mathematical Tales, by Malba Tahan
The Sir Cumference series, by CindyNeuschwander
Mathematicians Are People Too: Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians, volumes 1 & 2 

Books to Read To/With The Girl
The Girl Who Could Fly, by Victoria Forester
Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell
The School for Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani
A Tangle of Knots, by Lisa Graff 
The Light Princess, by George MacDonald
Emily of New Moon, by L.M. Montgomery 
Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, by Rachel Field
The Seven Wise Princesses: A Medieval Persian Epic, by Wafa Tarnowska 
Understood Betsy, by Dorothy Canfield 
Misty of Chincoteague, by Marguerite Henry
Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink
The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge
 
Books I Plan to Recommend to The Boy:
The Name of This Book is Secret, by Pseudonymous Bosch
Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms: Magic, Mystery & a Very Strange Adventure, by Lissa Evans
Black and Blue Magic, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Eragon, by Christopher Paolini
The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznik
Hotel Under the Sand, by Kage Baker
Dodger, by Terry Prachett
The House With a Clock In Its Walls, by John Bellairs
Six Great Sherlock Holmes Stories, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
Maybe: Call of the Wild, by Jack London 

Yes, No, Maybe So...

They miss Fred. I miss Fred. Fred made math fun, and interesting. I think we might shift back toward Fred.

IF we were to do this, I think I would have The Girl start with Edgewood, and go forward from there. I would have The Boy start with Fractions, followed by Decimals & Percents, and then start Pre-Algebra 1 with Biology*

(*people I know who have used these books say that Elementary Physics really should come after both Pre-Algebra books, so I'm taking their word for it)

I've read many testimonials of people who swear this gives their kids a good, solid math education. And I like that the series makes kids think... it is not just page after page of rote mathematics.

Hmmmmmmmm..... that would give us more time for Family Math and Family Math: The Middle School Years, and reading living math books... after all, I really do want to read through this book (and a few others) with the kids at some point!




In the meantime, I think we'll play around with this, yet another math book I have had sitting on the shelf, unused.

Summer-y Stuff...

I guess you could say we more or less homeschool year 'round, since I do have "light" plans for the summer. Summer is a time for field trips, good stories, time out at the coast, and with friends, as well as a little learning.

On this summer's agenda:

The Girl will continue to work on reading skills with Reading Horizons. If she does about 4 lessons a week, she'll be done by September!

The Boy will continue to work on multiplication and division skills, using Khan Academy.

I'll be reading aloud a fair amount, and I'd like to get them out on some historically-related field trips. I was just commenting on Jessica's blog how great it is that they have so many history-related areas to visit there, and then realized we have quite a few in our own backyard, so to speak! Possibilities there include:

Kule Loklo

The Mission San Francisco Solano (Sonoma Mission). Other possible, fairly close missions would be the Mission San Rafael and the Mission Dolores.

Fort Ross

The Petaluma Adobe (which we've been to a number of times) and Lachryma Montis (Vallejo's Sonoma house)

Alcatraz, and maybe Angel Island

Muir Woods

The California Museum

Gold Rush Days in Sacramento, or perhaps a trip to Placer County might be fun!

And there are a couple of non-history-related places I'd like to go... the NEW Exploratorium (we have been to the old one), and The Lawrence Hall of Science. I would take the kids to one of the Native American museums nearby, but I've been, and they are a little on the disappointing side, stuffy and not super child friendly.

The only other "study" on the agenda is a loose study of the nighttime sky. I love Jacqueline Mitton's beautiful books, and I ordered a vintage book as well. I already have A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky on hand. I just want to enjoy the night sky while the weather is gorgeous, to get the kids a little familiarized with constellations and such, nothing too heavy or serious. I do want them to each track the phases of the moon for a month or two (an idea from one of the Oak Meadow books I once had on hand), to become more aware of the moon cycles.

Other than that, I've been reorganizing my bookcases. I'm getting rid of ALL the homeschool bits and pieces we'll never use (very "schooly" workbooks and the like), and am categorizing the rest. I have a couple of shelves each for science and history materials, a shelf for math books, a shelf of encyclopedias, and so on and so forth. I think we'll use materials more, like our collection of science project books, if we have them readily at hand! I have two big bags of books ready for donation, am sending a couple to a friend, and by the end of summer, I should be ready for fall!

Here's to a good week!