It's Halloween!!

Hope you all have a fun, happy, and safe holiday!

Wordy Wednesday... Midweek Update...

On Monday, I wrote about a new (to me anyway) scheduling plan. And in theory, it still looks really good.

But...

I chose possibly the worst week to try it out!

Monday

Monday actually worked out fairly well. I stayed home from work (thank you, Sunday's mild food poisoning), so we had plenty of time. We read a math story, did Life of Fred, and The Boy did a lesson from Zaccaro's Primary Challenge Math as well. We did a fun free write from Brave Writer, the one I posted about last week actually, and the kids loved it! I'll make sure to transcribe their work later in the week. The Girl read two pyramids from Reading Pathways to me as well.

Then we moved on to geography. They drew a map of the Nile for their cartography books, and we read about Strabo and Eratosthenes (Mapping the World With Art). We read about St. Peter's in Rome in The Complete Book of Marvels, and watched Anthony Bourdain eat his way through that same city before making pasta for dinner ourselves!

However, for our next geography "block", I want to offer a little more freedom. Do they want to play a geography game? Watch a documentary? Draw a map or make a salt dough one? Choose a place in the world to really learn about?

Tuesday

I totally forgot I had to take my dad to a doctor's appointment after work. And then I have a class myself at 5, so time was very short. We did math, and The Girl read to me.

Today

We have fencing at 5, and before that we need to finish getting our Halloween stuff together. We'll still have time for math, reading (The Girl), The Boy's paragraph assignment (Write With the Best), and for art, we're carving Jack O' Lanterns. Not quite what I envisioned for an art Wednesday!

Tomorrow

We're meeting friends for a few hours of afternoon fun before heading out with M for trick or treating. I've promised the kids that if they do the candy buy-back many dentists around here offer, I'll buy them a little Unreal Candy to try out instead. They actually just love the activity of trick or treating, and we always head to an amazing street in nearby Petaluma, where people go all out to decorate their houses and yards... it's not really about the (junky) candy that they get doing it. So it is a win-win situation -- they get the fun of Halloween night, a couple of dollars or so for candy, and some yummy treats!

But you'll notice, that does not leave time for anything remotely homeschool-y. Ooops.

Other Thoughts on the Blocks

The Girl asked me "when do we get to do a math block?" Since I own Family Math, and the second book, we could do some great hands-on learning. And I'd love to do a day with language arts games and activities. So now I'm thinking rotating blocks every two weeks?

Geography; language arts; math; history; art; music; science; and ??? Or maybe just listen to a chapter of Story of the World each day and then...

Monday: Geography
Tuesday: Alternating math and language arts focus
Wednesday: art and music
Thursdays: science

I don't know, but I think we'll figure it out!

Monday Musings... Trying Something A Little Different...

I've been very inspired lately by my good friend Jessica, and the way she is approaching homeschooling this year with her son. So I thought I would try a variation on her approach this week, to see if learning in modified "blocks" might work well for us.

We'll still be doing daily math, though I want to add in some stuff there too... for example, I would love to have the kids make these...

And I have a math video from the library that looks good.

So then what I am changing are the other subjects. I think that besides math, and maybe some writing, we'll focus on just one subject each day. So here's the lineup for this week!

Monday: Geography
Tuesday: History
Wednesday: The arts
Thursday: Sciences

The only other thing we will do every day is read from our main book of the moment, which currently happens to be The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

So on today's agenda:
A lesson from Mapping the World with Art (and maybe an activity!)

A chapter from Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels
A documentary of choice - something like Wild Africa, Wild China, or even an Anthony Bourdain No Reservations episode!

One thing I like about this idea is that it'll give us time to get to the stuff we're not getting to regularly. We'll see how it works!

Weekly Report... Storm Chasers & Crafts...

Overall I would say it was a pretty good week! We got some quality work done, cleaned the family room, and generally enjoyed things.

The Boy, deeply involved in National Geographic

 The Boy started his week by devouring the cover story from the latest issue of National Geographic. He has long been a fan of the Storm Chasers TV show, and was horrified by the death of one earlier this year, so when he saw the cover of NG, he grabbed it right away. By the way, the National Geographic magazine is a great teaching tool for older kids!

In writing this week, he worked on a couple of things: a descriptive paragraph (about his pinhole camera model) from Write With the Best (this also had a pre-writing assignment connected with it); and some creative dialog for animations on his computer. He also cranked out a couple of lessons in Life of Fred, in which he showed me that he finally has mastered the idea of division. I have found that both kids love checking their own answers in the Fred books, so I think from here on out I will let them check it themselves. If they come across something they did wrong, I can help them go through it then.

The Boy also built a telescope from his Milestones in Science kit this week, and it was... well, okay. It is a cardboard model, so we weren't really expecting a lot from it. Makes me wonder though if there is a kit for a real telescope that he could put together, nothing too fancy. And there was a fair amount of art, both on paper and the computer. Plus a few Top Gear and Mythbusters episodes, and several more chapters of Quozl.

The Girl, working hard on a hot glue project

The Girl has been quite busy crafting this week with her hot glue gun, craft sticks, matboard, and an old bead set. She built a little fairy house along with various other items. She also worked with clay again this week, making funny little sculptures of people and animals.

She did two lessons from Serl's Language Lessons this week (you can read more about that here), which we have decide to set aside. Life of Fred was a blast for her this week -- she worked on missing factors, identifying parts of a matrix, addition, and subtraction. We read a few more chapters of The Story of Dr. Dolittle, and she watched an episode of Wild Africa, alongside a couple of episodes of Blue Planet. We may start reading All About Dinosaurs again (we only ever read the first chapter), and she wants to do a frog dissection soon.

She read out loud to me each day, and her fluency is really improving. I'm using Reading Pathways again with her at the moment to practice this skill, and I must say it is a fantastic resource for fluency!

And she sprained her wrist, so she will not be skating in this weekend's roller derby bout. We aren't sure about the derby sleepover either. I need to email her coaches and ask if she can still attend that.

Family Learning

We started, finally, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow this week. What a great book! I was a little nervous at first that some of the (archaic) language might be a bit much, but there have been no complaints. We also started the third Harry Potter book this week. This week's poem was Poe's The Raven, and so the kids have been going around saying "Nevermore" quite a lot. We listened to three more chapters in Story of the World, all about the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians. We read some of Dr. Art's Guide to Science, then decided we'd really rather be reading The Magic of Reality right now. We read about St. Bernard dogs and the monastery they are named for in The Complete Book of Marvels, which included a little reading about Hannibal and his crossing of the Alps on elephants, as the author of the Complete Book..., Richard Halliburton, did the same thing!

Tonight's movie... The Corpse Bride!

Weekend Agenda

M will be out fishing all day tomorrow, so the kids and I will have the house to ourselves. The Boy has fencing practice; The Girl may or may not be doing a derby sleepover; I need to stop at the library for holds; I have some more cleaning I want to do; and I have papers to grade. I'd like to fit in another Halloween-related movie or two, and plan out next week's writing for the kids, a la Brave Writer (mostly).

Any plans for the weekend?

Thursday Thoughts... A Shift in Writing...

A little while back, I signed up for Julie's Daily Writing Tips, from the Brave Writer website, and wow! I think that it has been one of the best free daily emails I have ever signed up for! Still though, I keep plowing ahead with Emma Serl's Language Lessons (The Girl), and Write With the Best (The Boy).

Then yesterday, The Girl balked at her copywork, something she does not normally do. And this was after she balked at her picture study the day before, another first. The Boy seems happy enough with his program, but since I only plan on going through one ["semester-length"] book this year and the other next year, I need to fill in gaps. And while I love, love, love the concept of the Brave Writer Lifestyle, I am always a little unsure as to how to actually implement it.

Daily Writing Tips to the rescue! Here's an example of what I think is a fantastic activity...

Five words in a letter to someone.

We've done the "five word" freewrite. Now try the same thing, only this time put the words in a letter. The letter can be to a fictional character from a book, it can be a letter to the editor for a newspaper or online magazine, it can be a letter in the form of a comment online, it can be a text or email to someone.

For high schoolers: Use these five words.

• Fanciful
• Emphatic
• Purge
• Clarify
• Sprightly

For junior high:

• Chilled
• Spunky
• Invest
• Effortless
• Mystery

For littler kids:

• Aqua
• Dip
• Careful
• Spider
• Secret

So this looks both fun and challenging! I think I could have The Girl try to write her own, or dictate and copy. And it is a great way to get the kids to practice writing letters. I am saving the writing tips in their own folder for easy reference, and planning out a couple of days a week that we can use them.

Other than that, homeschooling is going well this week. Today I knew we'd be spending part of the afternoon--our schooling time--driving my dad to his eye doctor appointment and pharmacy, so I assembled a collection of books,  to take with us for "car schooling", and then we'll do math and writing at home. I am trying to be more organized ahead of time these days, rather than potentially losing out on 2 or so hours of school time!

Monday Musings... So Much Science...

Outside My Window...
It is cold and gray this morning, not even 50 degrees out yet, although the weather report promises lower eighties by afternoon. 

In My Home...
I am nearly caught up on laundry and dishes. The kids are helping me with some general housework here and there, trying to keep things ready for the holidays so that we are not doing mad amounts of cleaning right before Christmas!

In My Kitchen...
I made Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal this morning, and it was so, so good! I used this recipe with some changes (coconut oil instead of cooking spray, vanilla extract in place of maple, cranberries instead of raisins, and 2 eggs instead of 1-- and I didn't caramelize the bananas first, just sliced them, and put them on the bottom of the baking dish with a sprinkling of raw sugar and cinnamon. Plus, this recipe makes more like 6-8 servings, not 4!). We're going to try our spaghetti squash this week with pesto and chicken, rather than marinara with sausage or meatballs. And I promised The Girl that this Friday's soup would be her beloved potato-leek.

In Our Homeschooling...
It's funny... I've been fretting a bit about the lack of actual science going on in my house, besides all the documentaries, and then this weekend, the kids went all out with science! It started with The Girl getting out the microscope and slide set. Then she practiced making slides. Meanwhile, I thought The Boy looked bored, so I pulled out the Milestones in Science kit, and let him have at it. So far, he's made a steam engine model, an airplane, and a pinhole camera, while The Girl made a spectroscope. I am hoping this momentum continues!

Crafting...
I started M's scarf this weekend, and decided I need to get some smaller knitting needles for The Girl. I did find that I can knit moderately well left-handed, so I can teach The Girl. I am really glad I picked up knitting again, as it is such a pleasant task!

On the [Homeschooling] Agenda...
In math, I am hoping to "catch up" a little this week, with
fourthree solid lessons for each kid in Life of Fred and Zaccaro. In writing, I am planning to have The Boy work through another couple of lessons in Write With the Best, and a similar number of lessons in Emma Serl's Language Lessons for The Girl, along with a lesson for both from Hot Fudge Monday. I also want Cassia to alternate Reading Horizons lessons (2) this week with reading practice from the readers that go with the program. In history,
I'll be reading from The Rainbow Book of American History OR Builders of the Old World with The Girl, and I want The Boy to read from both A Little History of Science and The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way, to see which he preferswe're returning to simply listening to The Story of the World, Volume 1, on audio book. Maybe we'll get a lesson from Mapping the World with Art completed. And I am absolutely determined to get our reading from the Afternoon Basket done!

Bits & Pieces, And the Rest of the Agenda...
The Boy had a great Saturday! He attended fencing practice in the morning, and then went to a Fencing Fun Night from 6 pm to 10 pm. This involved fencing games, a movie, pizza, popcorn, and loads of fun! There's a girl in his class with a crush on him, and she was so happy to see him at the fun night she gave him a little hug! While he was gone, The Girl and I took the time to hang out together and watch Troop Beverley Hills. She laughed a lot at the hair and clothes! She had derby practice last night, and will be skating in a halftime scrimmage on the upcoming Saturday, followed by a roller derby overnight/slumber party at the rink. She's very, very super-excited about this!

Hope you all have a good week! I'll update on my mom when I get an update!

Weekly Report... Time Keeps Slipping Away...

Where did the week go? I can't believe it is Friday again already. This has been a week of some stress, and some adjustment. M just started the second half of his semester, so his schedule has changed.. he's now learning all about baking and pastry three days a week, and he's a Teaching Assistant another afternoon, which theoretically gives me more time to focus on homeschooling with the kids... maybe next week!

Side note: My mom is much better by the way! The new medications really helped. So thanks for the kind thoughts, which I am sure helped too!

So what did we do all week?

The Boy...
Read a car encyclopedia cover to cover, then made a list of every type of car he found in the book, and then made a list of all the cars he found in the book that don't appear to be made anymore.

He worked on a few more videos.

He started reading one of my old books from way back in my high school days - Quozl. He's misplaced The Dark is Rising, so this other book is filler material until he finds it again.

He worked through some physics games on the computer; watched a bunch of Top Gear episodes; drafted a new plan for a project he and a friend are working on (they are designing the ultimate caravan for themselves); and made a duct tape pouch.

He enjoyed his fencing class, and happily signed up for the Fencing Fun Night tomorrow! The kids spend four hours eating pizza, fencing, watching a movie with fencing, and playing games. There is a girl in his class that I think has a wee crush on him. She kept asking him to "please come to the fun night so I can hang out with you... PLEASE!!!" And poor The Boy was blushing the whole time.

The Girl...
Wound two balls of yarn with which to start her first knitting project - a scarf. She worked on crocheting at my mom's house, and did a very nice job with it! I'll start her with casting on tomorrow during The Boy's morning fencing lesson.

Her shows this week have alternated between animal/nature shows, and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. She also picked up a few books on animals and such at the library, along with a fantastic book called One Million Things: A Visual Encyclopedia, which has occupied a lot of her time since.

She helped make dinner twice, and helped make a batch of apple spice muffins, which took a lot of measuring. She helped my mom with cooking as well, since they are there four mornings a week right now.

And we started reading Caddie Woodlawn (well, technically, I am reading it to her), and she really likes it! I loved that book at her age too. We continued The Story of Dr. Dolittle, and read a couple of chapters from The Rainbow Book of American History, which she has settled on as "her history book" for now.

And she's looking forward to some time without her brother tomorrow. I think we'll watch some "girlier" movies, perhaps Freaky Friday (the older one), or Troop Beverley Hills.

Together...
They walked the dog at my mom's house; played catch in the front yard; watched Once Upon a Time and Eureka; listened to the last chapter of Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets; and explored the beach on Saturday, where it was gorgeous and surprisingly warm!

Oh, and because they are at my mom's house on Thursday mornings now, they will be helping organize the food pantry at the church my mom goes to--I am glad to see them doing volunteer work! 

Me...
I got a bunch of yarn off eBay, and will be starting a scarf for M tomorrow. I made the butter chicken, which has a much longer prep time than stated (just a warning), but is oh so good! Everyone loved it, so I think the recipe is a keeper. For tonight, I've got a delicious butternut squash soup going. I went to a poetry reading in place of class on Tuesday, and really, really wish I could say I enjoyed it. M and I watched The Fountain, which is a beautiful film, though definitely strange.

I got most of the kids' costumes together this week, and we had the Santa talk, which frankly went far better than I anticipated, as they had already pretty much figured it out.

Coming Up...
I plan to continue The Rainbow Book of American History with The Girl next week, and start The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way with The Boy. We'll also start the third Harry Potter book at bedtime, and hopefully get around to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow! We plan to watch The Corpse Bride soon, and other movies coming up will naturally include both the Addams Family films, and It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! I decided to back off on some of the [over] planning I've been doing again lately, and will stick to my what-if plans since we always seem to accomplish a lot more that way!

Hope everyone had a good week! I am sure there are many things we all did that I left out of this post, but honestly the week went by so quickly it is almost a blur!

Enjoy your weekend!

Tuesday Tidbits... A Lot of Rambling...

Well, yesterday, there was no homeschooling going on. My mom had a colonoscopy 12 days ago. Within hours, she was violently ill. My sister took her to Urgent Care, where they diagnosed her with a flu. Fast forward to yesterday, and she was (is) still sick. She's lost over 15 pounds in 11 days. I took her back to Urgent Care, when I went to pick the kids up after work, and found her unable to get off the couch for more than a few minutes at a time. They gave her some stronger medication, and are running tests, since they no longer believe it is a flu. This morning, she seemed much better - it seems the meds helped enough she was able to get a good night's sleep. Phew! I'm still worried of course, but she looked a lot better. Please keep your fingers crossed that this will pass, and that she won't need surgical intervention.

Anyhow, I'm still debating between the books below for history right now... hmmmm.

OR, the combo of

 OR we can return to simply listening to the Story of the World....

I think we are leaning more toward the first selection right now, though I am not positive in part because I have plans to start String, Straight-Edge & Shadow this week, and it would really compliment the second two books. Maybe I'll test run the American history book today, and see how that goes. Then we can add in documentaries like The Story of US (which we like... I know a lot of people don't), just abut anything by Ken Burns, and I'm sure there are many more worthwhile documentaries. I'm not positive yet whether the kids are ready for We Shall Remain, though with them having Native American heritage, this side of history should be on our agenda.

Today's plans:
I have work, then I have the kids for a few hours before I head to class. M is acting as Teacher's Assistant for the first time today. Here's what I am hoping to accomplish:

• A load or two of dishes.
• Read a couple of chapters aloud from The History of US.
• Math: Life of Fred, one lesson each, and maybe a problem set from Zaccaro for each of them too.
• Reading practice for The Girl; have The Boy work from Write With the Best.
• Read a chapter from The Complete Book of Marvels.
• Have The Boy read a section from The New Way Things Work, and read from Life in a Bucket of Soil with The Girl. If we still have time, I'd like to read from A Really Short History of Nearly Everything.
• Gathering up library books for tomorrow. today! We never made it last week!

I'm waiting for the time change. It is not fun feeding all the animals in near dark every morning! Though I guess I am glad in a sense that it will take place after Halloween this year, so that trick-or-treating won't be in absolute darkness. Speaking of trick-or-treating, The Boy was asking me yesterday how old he can be before he has to stop this particular activity, and I'm not sure. When I was a teenager, I stopped at about 13, as did many of my friends. But now, I see older teenagers out and about, gathering candy on All Hallow's Eve, so I just don't know. And on the note of kids getting older, when should I tell them about Santa Claus? I'm thinking I should do that relatively soon. I think they have their suspicions, but I'm afraid of crushing that excitement. Why do my kids have to keep getting older?

So in my efforts to plan out menus, I hope to make better use of my crockpot. On the crockpot agenda this week are two dishes, Butter Chicken for Wednesday, when The Boy has fencing, and Butternut Squash-Orange Soup (this is the closest to my recipe, which I may post later in the week) on Friday, when we're at the park all afternoon. I'm also trying to make sure we have two meatless dinners a week (cheaper and healthy!), and that I balance out the meats served during the week... no chicken every night kind of thing.

Hope the week is going well for everyone! Happy Tuesday!

Monday Musings... Almost Too Much Going On...

It looks like it shall be a very busy week, especially for M, who has two cooking finals today; (unpaid) work as a Teacher's Assistant for a cooking class starting tomorrow afternoon; and then the Baking & Pastry class he's taking Wednesday-Friday! On a positive note, he got an A in the class he'll be assisting with for the next eight weeks!

Outside My Window...
Clear, sunny, and a lot cooler these days! It is weather friendly to soups and stews; hot buttered toast; and big mugs of tea. I see leaves beginning to change to brilliant yellows and oranges.

In My Garden...
The olives are ripening on the olive tree we planted out front a few years back. It was barely a stick when we put it in, but now it will need some heavy pruning after we pick the olives! I think we'll stick with a wet brine for them this year, as I didn't care too much for the dry brine last year.

In My Home...
We're averaging a bag or two of donation clothes each week! I also want to order the annual free dumpster so we can get rid of the rest of the carpeting... when we have time!

In My Kitchen...
I am finally getting back to actual meal planning. I try to rotate main ideas through the week, such as Fridays being crockpot soup night. When I bother to plan, and shop accordingly, this goes very well. Flying by the seat of my pants... well, not so much! This week such yummy things as Butter Chicken, turkey taco salads, and butternut squash soup are on the menu.

In Our Homeschooling...
I am reworking a few things. While we've been having a good time lately, and I intend to keep math and language arts as they are, along with history, I'm not quite satisfied with science, so I think we'll try having a Dr. Art science day each week. This week, we'll be working in Life of Fred for math, alongside some geometry, and I promised The Girl we would try out Totally Tut at long last. In language arts, The Boy is working on building really good paragraphs and some free writing, and The Girl will keep reading aloud, doing copywork, and some free writing. For history, we'll be reading from both The Early Human World and Builders of the Old World OR we might switch gears and do some American history for a while! I do have the Concise History of US, Vol. A on hand, and there are so many awesome American history documentaries out there (Ken Burns, etc.). That's a decision I will make later today with the help of the kids. Other topics I really want to work in: Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery (philosophy); Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels (geography); and of course some sort of art project.

Books and Movies/TV...
We'll be finishing up the second Harry Potter book at bedtime tonight. I am trying to decide between the third HP book, A Wrinkle in Time, and The Hobbit for our next bedtime read aloud. The Boy finished up Over Sea, Under Stone, and will be moving on to the second book. The Girl and I are going to start reading through the Little House series... we read Little House in the Big Woods a few years back, but never got past that one, and it is something she's really interested in pursuing. Documentaries are still reigning supreme, but Destroy, Build, Destroy is quickly rising up the list. The kids loved Catch Me If You Can for movie night last week, so now what to watch this week?

Crafting And Bits & Pieces...
I ordered a bunch of yarn, and some new knitting needles. The Girl wants me to teach her to knit, and I think that would be a great project to approach during The Boy's fencing classes. I plan to start her on a scarf, while I work on a scarf for M, and then one for The Boy. I'm really looking forward to crafting a bit again! I'm also planning out some homemade Christmas gifts for everyone.

No real updates in the world of work. Supposedly, there was a reversal of position last week by the one that started all the fiasco, but I don't know how much water that report holds. M has decided that as soon as he finishes this semester, in eight weeks, he'll put completing his certificate on hold, and will seek full time employment. He says I've been carrying the burden of providing the bulk of our meager income for too long, and he's willing to finish school a little later. He's really hoping to get a cooking job, more than anything else, so in 8 weeks time, start crossing your fingers for him!

Hope you all have a good week!

Monday Musings... Lots To Do...

I am at home today and tomorrow instead of work, as my mother has a terrible flu, and so cannot watch the kids. I can't say I really mind, especially with all the work stress lately (see below).

Around the House...
I'll be working on catching up on some housework this week, since I have an extra two days at home! I've already done a load of dishes this morning, and a load of laundry. I really need to find my fall wreath and hang it up on the front door! My mom has hers up, and it looks so pretty!

Outside My Window...
Today has started with my favorite kind of weather -- cool, crisp, the sun is up, and the sky is that particular shade of blue that fall brings. Still, it is supposed to be relatively hot later today, which I could do without, though it will be cooling off over the week, and we might even get some more rain!

In My Garden...
We took out all the vegetables yesterday except the Swiss Chard, which is still thriving! As much as I would like to do a fall/winter veggie garden this year, we either really need raised beds, or a lot of soil amendment first, and finances are very tight at the moment. We'll see...

In Our Kitchen...
Since I've relaxed again about grains, etc., I'm back to cooking some of my old favorites. Right now, I've got a baked oatmeal dish going, full of apples, cranberries, and spices.... the whole house smells amazing! I'm curious about Kim's cider donuts. I am planning on making butternut squash soup, with some roasted garlic, and a little orange juice and orange zest in it this week. I made three-bean turkey chili yesterday, and it was delicious!

In Our Homeschool...
The Girl's Life of Fred book should be here today. We got caught up with documentaries last Thursday, so we'll have to try geometric art this week instead. I'm thinking about adding Builders of the Old World to our history reading. I think it would compliment The Early Human World quite well. Hmmm. I also want to get more science done this week! And I might add in some titles from A Picture Perfect Childhood as well... we really enjoyed the selections when we were making use of that book!

Reading & Watching...
We'll finally make it back to the library tomorrow--it's been a few weeks! Then we can get started on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and some of Edgar Allen Poe's poetry. I'm rereading Nourishing Traditions, and will try to find some good fiction at the library. The kids have been watching Cartoons That Time Forgot, alongside their documentaries/TV shows (The Girl's watching David Attenborough's Life in the Freezer, and The Boy is watching Mythbusters). I think this week's family movie will be Catch Me If You Can.

Thinking About Crafting...
I decided I need to get back to knitting, so I plan to start a scarf for M, maybe a red and black tweed yarn. I think I might pick up a couple of crafty books at the library too. Or go through my Pinterest pages and pick something fun!

And At Work...
A little back explanation first: the state gives districts money just for special education. Until now, all the districts here have been happily pooling all the funds into a central fund, which then provides centralized services and adaptive equipment/technology. The department I work for provides the equipment/technology, along with trainings in how to use it. However, this year, the four largest districts decided they don't want to do that anymore. They're taking back their funds. This won't take effect until the following (2014-2015) school year, and will result in the reduction of staff where I work, and the closure of my department. The two specialists I work with will simply go work for districts as pathologists/consultants. The fix-it guy will likely take retirement. I haven't been with the office long enough to guarantee placement anywhere... at least they are giving me plenty of notice! This has all resulted in a very tense work atmosphere, which is sad because until now, I have really enjoyed my job!

Have a good week!

Finding Our Groove...

I haven't been too good lately with the weekly reports, have I? Never fear though, we are keeping quite busy over here in our little corner of the world! And I'm posting this week's "review" a whole day early! Things are falling ever so nicely into place right now.... (we're almost unschooling... shhhh)

And here's what we're up to these days!

Math

On Monday, we played several rounds of Pizza Fraction Fun, and then I had The Girl work on writing down equivalent fractions while The Boy  worked in his Zaccaro Challenge Math book. The Girl loved figuring out all the combinations that could equal a whole, a half, a third, a quarter, and so on. She's been practicing verbally ever since! 

On Tuesday, we watched Donald in Mathmagic Land. It has been quite a while since we watched this, and we really enjoyed it. The kids asked if we could explore some of the ideas in it in more depth, so I'm getting a copy of String, Straight-edge & Shadow: The Story of Geometry, and we're going to have Geometry Thursdays. I may add in Janice VanCleave's Geometry for Every Kid for practical application.

On Wednesday, Life of Fred Fractions arrived in the mail, and The Boy settled right down to work in it! We read it aloud, together, and The Girl asked if she could "do some Fred too", so I've ordered Farming for her. In the meantime, she had more fun with fractions.

And today, I plan on working through a lesson or two in Waldorf geometric drawings. I have a guide a friend passed on, so we'll try that out! I think I might have the kids work in Fred and Zaccaro a little too, just one problem set apiece, or something along those lines. I'll try to remember to post some pictures if we make anything good!

Reading & Writing

On Monday, we did some work from Hot Fudge Monday, this time working with nouns. I've basically decided that we'll rotate through the chapters in the book by doing an exercise from verbs one week, nouns the next, prepositions the week after that, and so on. In this lesson, the kids each had to take three short, boring sentences with very general nouns, and make them much more specific. The Girl read out loud to me as well.

On Tuesday, the kids chose to do some free writing. The Girl wrote a story about a frog in a pond full of lily pads, and The Boy wrote some lines of dialog for two completely silly robots. The Girl read to me again too - I am so glad to see her building more confidence in this area!

On Wednesday, we played You've Been Sentenced! Then, during The Boy's fencing lesson, The Girl played Thread Words on my Kindle, and wrote a very short story in "Notes" on my phone. She's getting quite familiar with the typical keyboard layout already!

Today I plan to have The Boy work in Write With the Best, and I think I'll have The Girl work in a lesson from Emma Serl's Language Lessons.

History

We decided to backtrack a little, so we're reading through The Early Human World - I really do love this series, so am happy to read a volume aloud! I think we'll add in a re-viewing of Walking with Cavemen, and as we work through the book, I am sure other applicable documentaries will pop up. We're lucky too that there is an active archeological dig site not too far from here, and I'd love to get the kids out there to see it!

Science

The Boy is reading his way through The New Way Things Work, keeping a notebook too in which he is sketching and labeling diagrams from the book. I need to remind him that the videos are on you tube!

The Girl has been watching animal documentaries all week, mainly David Attenborough ones.

Today's plan is to watch The Greatest Places, and to start reading through The World in a Bucket of Soil with The Girl, then work on some applicable hands-on.

Literature & Everything Else

We're almost done with Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets at bedtime. I'm not sure if we'll go on to the third book in the series right away, or pick something else from my gigantic list. The Girl and I are very much enjoying The Story of Dr. Doolittle, and will probably follow that up with The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle. The Boy is really liking the Dark is Rising Sequence, and, during The Girl's derby practice this week, he read all of The Son of Sobek (which combines two of his favorite book characters!) on my Kindle. Since it is October, I plan to start working in some good Halloween literature: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Tales of Terror & Fantasy (Poe).

Our movie of the week, so far, was the classic version of The Miracle Worker. The kids were amazed that Patty Duke was not really blind or deaf, and they were impressed by the whole story. I'm slowly working on a list of movies I would like to watch with them - some happy, some sad, some musicals, some drama, historical pieces, comedies, etc. Interesting connection the kids made with this one - the terrible place that Annie Sullivan grew up has similarities to the poor houses and such that Dickens railed against in so many of his works.

And in art, The Girl spent Tuesday applying paper mache strips to an old coffee can from Trader Joe's. On Wednesday, she painted it, and now has a new pencil holder for her desk! The Boy worked on many diagrams (see Science above), and is currently working on a pen-and-ink car drawing.

Also, on Saturday, The Boy participated in another in-house fencing tournament. This one was a team tournament, which he hadn't done before. On his first round, he managed to narrow the gap between teams down to only 2 points, scoring 6 points himself. Unfortunately, they got behind again shortly thereafter, and ended up losing, but he still had a blast!

So that's what we're up to! Of course there's baking, cooking, derby and fencing, playing at the park, watching TV shows together, and more! I'm satisfied at the moment with what we're doing, and how they are learning.