Compiling a 2016-2017 List of Books...

Some read-aloud ideas for summer and beyond!

Fiction (Literature)

Our focus for the year is stories referenced in the TV series Once Upon a Time, plus a few other books just because
Journey to the Center of the Earth (currently reading this!)

Around the World in 80 Days

The Twenty-One Balloons 

The Phantom Tollbooth (we quite possibly may listen to this excellent audiobook version in the car again)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Through the Looking Glass
Grimm's Fairy Tales (selected stories)
The Red Fairy Book & The Blue Fairy book (selected stories)

The Odyssey
Pinocchio
Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales (selected stories)
One Thousand and One Arabian Nights (selected stories)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Peter Pan
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Through the Looking Glass
The Lady of Shallot 
The Story of Mulan 
Beowulf: A New Telling
King Arthur & His Knights of the Round Table  
Rip Van Winkle

And for audiobooks, we're looking at:
 The Hobbit
and The Lord of the Rings books one, two, and three
[I think I would enjoy listening to these as much as the kids would!]

Geographical books
One of the options for high school social studies in California is a year of world geography/cultures. So I'm looking at vintage books (listed first), and the more modern ones... Maybe we'll mix and match!
The Royal Road to Romance
The Glorious Adventure
The Flying Carpet
Seven League Boots

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America
Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe 
Notes from a Small Island 
A Walk in the Woods
In A Sunburned Country

I'll post more later, as I still have nature and science to cover!

Happy Friday to Me!

My last day of work before I get a two-and-a-half week vacation! And it started out with this beautiful sunrise (seen over the neighbor's house)...

Today we're supposed to be having a special park day, one to celebrate all the December birthdays in our group, and there's a fair number of those (makes you wonder what everyone does in March, doesn't it?) ;) But, the forecast is calling for rain, so we'll have to wait and see.

I am very much looking forward to the time off. I finished my first semester of grad school this week, and graded my last batch of papers for the semester, so now I can turn my hand to family, home, and homeschooling.

On the agenda:
~ Deep cleaning the main rooms of the house. By deep cleaning, I mean actually shampooing the carpets, scrubbing the kitchen floor more than the mop does, cleaning the windows, rearranging furniture, etc. The house is pretty tidy right now, but I want it clean! And I'm working on my plans for keeping it clean. That's one of the only downsides to homeschooling... the house always looks very lived in, since we're there a lot more than public-school families.
~ Moving more of the kids' stuff around in their rooms... we're almost done giving them their own spaces at last!
~ Holiday baking and treat making!
~ Finishing up my new plans for homeschooling in winter/spring of 2013!
~ Relaxation. Really. Reading books I don't normally have time to read, playing board games by the fireplace, watching movies with the kids and M... it'll be lovely!

Hope you all had a good week, and enjoy your weekend!

Spooky Tuesday... Halloween Odds & Ends...

I think Halloween/Samhain is my all-time favorite holiday. A new year for those in the pagan society, and a night of ghoulish fun for all! Although I'm rapidly approaching forty, I still dress up. I've been a witch the last few years, with a lovely costume, but the costume no longer fits (which is good!), so I'll be something new this year, kind of a fall nature goddess-y type. I bought a marvelous dress, which arrived yesterday and actually fits beautifully and am making a Renaissance-style headband along these lines (try to ignore the super-creepy mannequin head it sits upon in the pictures) -- simple! The Girl is going to be Pippi Longstocking, and The Boy will be a turn-of-the-century (19th to 20th) British jungle explorer. I think M is going to be a zombie!

We're also compiling books and films for the holiday season. Some are old favorites, some are new to us...

Books:
The Soup Bone
Bone Soup
It's The Great, Pumpkin Charlie Brown!
The Headless Horseman: A Retelling of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The Headless Horseman Rides Tonight: More Poems to Trouble Your Sleep Tonight
and a few more short stories

For our daily reading, instead of any of the three books I mentioned before (Dragon in the Cliff, The Hobbit, Swiss Family Robinson), we settled quite happily on The Graveyard Book (then The Hobbit)!

Movies:
Both the Addams Family films
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!
and a few others

We have a fall harvest festival to attend at a regional park, from which there will be pumpkins to carve. There is a skeleton to be hung, spiderwebs to wrap around the front steps, and a witch to decorate the front window.

Generally, we spend Halloween watching movies, eating pizza or pasta (is there a good recipe for a gluten-free pizza crust out there?), trick-or-treating, and finally coming home to have a fire in our backyard fire-pit, where we can think about the changing of the seasons and tides.We also have a Halloween party to attend this year, a few days in advance.

Do you have a favorite holiday? Any special plans for All Hallow's Eve?

Weekly Report... Reading, Redwoods & Flat Stanley...

Another week has gone by so quickly. A few highlights from this week:

The Girl's reading practice is going amazingly well. We're keeping it simple these days, just using Reading Pathways. The pyramid structure of the stories works really well for her, since it is simple, repetitive, and quite straightforward. We review a story and read a new one every day (and I mean every day). She's turned a corner of some sort - she no longer whines when I pull the book out, and she approaches each lesson cheerfully, willing to work. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we're really getting somewhere! We finish up each lesson with me reading her a story of her choice - this week it has been a selection of classic fairy tales she chose at the library. I must say, the girl has an eye for good illustrations! Check out this version of Rapunzel to see what I mean!



The Boy is vastly enjoying The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, alongside a rereading of the 2012 Guiness Book of World Records.

We also wrapped up Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and started Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great. We're still enjoying Smoky House at bedtime as well - a few more chapters to go, and I'll have to choose something new!

We also headed out to the redwoods - Armstrong Grove State Park to be specific -  for a lovely and peaceful afternoon...

Inside the tree you see them entering above

Some crazy burls... I swear I see Popeye's face!

Taking a well earned snack break

Determined to touch a leaf on the tree overhanging the path

Nature makes numbers!

 Doesn't my husband look tiny in this picture, next to those trees?

The afternoon hike was just what we all needed. We are a family that used to hike a lot, quite regularly. Somehow, over the past couple of years, we have drifted away from that. This little trip made us determined to get back into the habit!

What Else We Did...

Water play out back in our little pool

Playing with the chickens - they like to be pet, and fed veggie scraps

I finally decided on The Girl's math for the fall!

Watched the classic version of Treasure Island. Next we'll watch the newer version. Which reminds me, we really should get back to reading the book!

Art projects galore

Lots of zucchini based foods... muffins, breads, chocolate chip cookies, and so forth.

Oh, and we're participating in a Flat Stanley exchange at last! We've had one family visit us, from North Carolina - they went with us to the Bodega Marine Lab. Our travelers have been to Virginia, and are now in Kentucky! Here are some pictures from their travels so far (Virginia pics)...

It was a good week overall... I just wish life would slow down a little! Hope you all had a good week too!

Some Sunday Speculations...

Another busy week has passed... a doctor's appointment for M, where he had post-op x-rays done, and got the news that he won't be returning to work until 2013. Yes, 2013. Wow. He is healing well - gets the stitches out next week, and the apparatus should come off in about another month. Oh, he did request that I stop using the kids' names on my blog.

Thought I'd share the awesome pics I took... WARNING - the second photo is a little gross.

Besides that, I went back to work this week. Just one day, for four hours. I'll be doing it again next week, and the week after that, then 2 days a week, gradually working my way back up to 5 days a week by mid August. I got through a lot of filing, and some computer database updating!

We read books - the whole family is enjoying Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. We honestly did not get to much else in the Afternoon Basket... I need to get this up and going! The Girl worked on reading - she chose Reading Pathways this week. She's done a lot of artwork this week, making good use of the new set of pens I picked up.

The Boy read through a couple of books on human anatomy, and sculpted some internal organs from clay. He worked on computer animation, read more of The Wyvern's Treasure, watched some How It's Made, and hung out.

We "discovered" Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations this week, and "visited" Greece and Indonesia. The kids thought a lot of the food looked pretty good, but they weren't sure about the sheep's lower intestine stuffed with it's own spleen and grilled over an open fire!

Our chickens are happily laying eggs every day now - we get at least 3 a day. We've eaten a couple of tomatoes and several zucchini from our garden, and have loads of baby squash growing. M has counted 5 ears of corn so far in our little corn patch.

I re-organized my 2012-2013 plans a little. I am trying to make more room for child-led, but at the same time, I want the kids to have a framework. I also want to make sure we have some room in there for the fun stuff - yes, The Boy will be using Teaching Textbooks as his main math program, but I'd like to get some Family Math in there, as an example!

This week, we have such exciting things on the agenda as automotive repairs, stitch removal, a parent's dr.'s appointment, and so forth, but we also have an afternoon of swimming with friends and park day on the agenda! And today a friend's birthday party! Speaking of which, I had better get going!

Have a good week!

Sunday Scatterings... A Fresh Month...

Thank goodness it is a new week, and a new month. I am hoping for less stress than the last week!

Today has started out well, with a delicious and healthy breakfast treat (I made mine in a regular muffin tin, not mini, because that's what I've got). The kids loved these, and I think even M will like them! The zucchini for the recipe, I am proud to say, came from our very own garden, and the eggs from our own chickens. Our garden is not doing quite as well as we had hoped... the weather has been so up and down this summer. But, we are getting a trickle of veggies, and we get at least 2 eggs a day!

Yesterday, when the car overheated on my return trip from the library, and I was forced to sit for nearly an hour waiting for a friend to show up (and tow me home), I read a fantastic book - A Picture Perfect Childhood. The author, Cay Gibson, writes:

   "We really must rethink the way we think of storybooks as learning tools. They are treasures. They are works of art. they are gateways and portals that open up a whole new world for you and your child. This world can be enjoyed at the age of five, at the age of fifteen, and at the age of fifty. The idea, as one mother wrote, that "Too many parents think that the beginning of schooling should mean the end of picture books,: needs to be abandoned."

And then there is a lovely quote from children's author Melissa Wiley:

  "I strew the path and I open the door to conversation. And we have books for breakfast, literature for lunch, Tennyson for tea, Dickens for dessert, a Midsummer Night's Dream for a midafternoon snack. We enjoy daily feasts of living books."

This all circles back to my post on the Morning/Afternoon Basket. And now I've decided I should add a daily picture book to the basket! Gibson's book has lists upon lists of good picture books.... by month, for cooking, art, music, Shakespeare, and more!

I also found another treasure to use next year. On a Yahoo! group, a friend recommended a vintage, out-of-print text, called The Rainbow Book of American History. I managed to get it through inter-library-loan, and had it out in a stack of books this week. I started to flip through it, when Cassia came in to look over my shoulder. She immediately loved the illustrations (which are on nearly every page), and asked me to read her a little. I told her the name of the book, and then read a bit from the first chapter. I had barely gotten two paragraphs in when she stopped me. "Mommy, that's the history I want next year!" She was very excited about the idea! So when she finally managed to extricate herself from the book (she decided to look at all the pictures), I flipped through the rest myself, reading a bit here and there, and I think that yes, we have found a good history book to read from once a week, or so! The rest of the time, we'll be doing child-led history, with any number of documentaries, vintage books, and just plain good books.

So what are my plans for the week, now that I am officially on summer break (5-6 weeks off!)? We're going to start up the Morning/Afternoon Basket; work on Cassia's reading with easy reader books and word family work; maybe watch some documentaries and movies; the kids will play in the pool; we've got a field trip on Thursday; and I really hope to make it back to Park Day this week! I'll also be making lists of books (a favorite activity)  I'd like to read in the next year - I expect this project to last all month.

And we're cleaning. Throwing things away, donating books and clothes, selling homeschool materials we won't use, maybe reorganizing furniture... my goal is to start August with a very clean and uncluttered house!

Here's to a good week, and a Happy July!

Weekly Report... My son, the writer...

This has been an insane week.

On Monday, I was reinstated to my job. Also on Monday, M fell and broke his arm quite badly.

Tuesday, we simply tried to recuperate from Monday.

Wednesday, follow-up doctor's appointment, and surgery consultation, followed by a meeting with the nicest Med-Cal worker ever!

Thursday, I made it back to work finally, cleaned out my desk for the summer, etc.

Friday, M had surgery. We were at the hospital from 8:30 am to almost 4 in the afternoon. Good news though - the surgery went extremely well! M has full feeling and movement in his fingers, and can now stretch out that elbow that was splinted up all week. The doctor told me the metal apparatus will be on for about 6 weeks, just like a cast. Depending on how quickly M heals, he may be able to return to light duty at work as soon as mid-August!!!

Oh, and today, the car broke down. It totally overheated and started leaking coolant everywhere. A friend came and towed me/it home, and will look at fixing it, all for the price of parts and a good dinner, if it can be fixed. Lesson here? Good friends are priceless!

I got so many offers of help, prayers, positive vibes, and more this week. I have to say I feel so blessed and honored!

Now, on to homeschooling stuff...

My Son the Writer
I realized something this week. The Boy has turned into a writer. No, he's not writing essays, or book reports. And yes, I'd like to teach him proper letter format, and so forth. But he writes, on his own, with no nudging. He keeps a journal - definitely some inspiration from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series going on there - he makes lists, writes instructions for his own contraptions, writes dialog for animations, draws his own cartoon strips, he's even started a book... somehow, behind my back, he started to just write.

Every year I have looked at writing curriculum for the "reluctant" writer. Programs that offer to break it down into "bite-sized chunks" or "simple steps". After a week or two, these writing programs would invariably get set aside for one reason or another. They never clicked with The Boy.

I have read, and as of yesterday re-read The Writer's Jungle, which is anything but a writing program. It is more of a guide to freeing up your children to enjoy writing. And it hit me that when we set all those guides aside, and I stopped pushing other than copywork and oral narrations, it did indeed free The Boy up to write.

So what am I doing with all these writing programs I have piled up? Selling them off. We won't be using them.

What Else We Did
We read a little more this week. They are enjoying Smoky House (one of my all-time favorite books!), and The Girl is enjoying the mermaid tales. The Boy has almost finished Son of Neptune.

We watched both the first and second Addams Family movies, and really enjoyed them, though we all have a slight preference for the first one. We watched Thor, and talked about Norse mythology.

There were a few episodes of Mythbusters, and How It's Made.

There were also popsicles, gardening, caring for the chickens, and all those day-to-day things. We didn't make it to any outside activities, due to M's arm, but we'll be back in full swing next week.

In Other News
I am doing very well at maintaining my 40-45 pound weight loss. The problem is, is that I am maintaining... not losing, and I still have 20-25 pounds to go! I decided to re-clean up my diet, which I have gotten a bit lax about recently. You see, I keep thinking somewhere in my head that "oh, I can eat whatever I want now that I've lost so much weight" and "I don't want to be one of those weirdos that is always worrying about what they eat."

I lost a lot of the weight following a low carb diet, with of course exercise thrown in there. But, I've been reading, and researching, and watching documentaries, and I feel a need to shift away from such an animal-product-centered diet. I was a vegetarian for about 6 years, and vegan for two of those, so I know it is something I can do. But at the same time, I enjoy a good steak, or some chicken in a salad, and I love fish. So where am I going with all of this? Here. This means I can add back in some grains and such, which is actually quite a money-saver too compared to the typical low carb diet. And I can try out breakfast treats like these.

Hopefully, if I focus on whole foods, and hop back on that treadmill, the scale will start to slowly move down again!

Anyhow
Hope you all had a good week! As always, check out Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers (in my sidebar) for more families sharing their homeschooling weeks.

Monday Musings... Morning Basket...

Edited to Add: I just got word, literally minutes ago, that my layoff notice is officially being rescinded! Financially this could not have happened at a better time, though I admit I was looking forward to being at home with the kids more... at least I have 6 weeks off to enjoy with them.

I am feeling very inspired by Wildflowers and Marbles' Morning Basket, which you can read about here and here. So much inspired in fact that I have decided to set up my own, which I plan to start using with the children next week. I think summer is a good time to try something new like this, as long as it is gentle and not very demanding since, after all, summer is a time to relax! Anyhow, I'd like to see if this routine is something that would work well for us before I launch into it full on this fall! Due to the above news, mine will be an Afternoon Basket though.




I do have a lovely basket to use already at hand. It is a strong, sturdy affair made of sea grass, so it also has a lovely smell. Right now it is full of miscellaneous homeschooling papers, perhaps a book or two, so I plan to clean it out first.




Then comes the fun part... filling said basket with books! I've been considering very carefully what all to put in the Morning Basket, and have come up with:


Tales From The Odyssey (which we've already started!)
An Everyday History of Somewhere
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
Stories of Rocks & Minerals
and
Turn Homeward, Hannalee (this last because there are some local Civil War days coming up!)


I think this will easily get us through July, then in August, I can switch it up! We'll still keep our bedtime reading intact as well, which generally includes some reading to The Girl while The Boy reads on his own, and then a whole-family story.

What We're Up to This Week:

Another quiet week on the agenda:

~ I work every morning this week, and am taking my dad to a doctor's appointment.
~ The Girl has roller derby practice
~ The Boy has a piano lesson.
~ I think our one fun excursion for the week will be Park Day!
~ I've gone ahead and started sorting through more clutter, and "summer cleaning" has commenced! I want the house in uncluttered, spick-n-span condition before fall.
~ BIL is finally actually moving out, so soon we will be moving lots of bedroom furniture about the house. The kids are very, very much looking forward to having their own rooms! I have a plan for this too: 1. Steam-clean the BIL's bedroom once he's moved; 2. Move our stuff into the master bedroom; 3. Steam-clean and hopefully paint our old bedroom for The Girl, move her stuff in; and 4. Clean out thoroughly, and perhaps paint, what will now be just The Boy's room. See? Very organized! We'll see if it really works out as well as I have it working in my head.

And that's our exciting week! Of course there will be reading (see sidebar for what we're reading now), arts and crafts, some TV and computer time, swimming/splashing about in the pool, chickens to care for, a veggie garden to weed and water... and so before we know it, the week will flash right by.

Hope you all have a good week!

Weekly Report... A Very Quiet Week...

On Monday, I posted that we would have a far more peaceful, and less busy, week than the one before, and indeed we did! Not much going on outside the home, which has left me feeling a bit less harried. Although we did go to a beach on Sunday with my mom and sister, which was lovely. M went out fishing with a friend... probably the easiest Father's Day yet!

What We Did Do
Reading: We finished listening to Peter Pan on audio book. Tomorrow, I will pick up Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief to start listening to--this is The Boy's recommendation, and The Girl is very excited about it!

The Girl and I are down to the last few pages of The Ordinary Princess. We'll finish that up today or tomorrow, and move right into something else. Eventually, I think I may read Magic for Marigold to her, or perhaps The Light Princess.

We are also down to the last pages of The Children of Green Knowe, then we'll start Ginger Pye. I finally tracked down a copy of Smoky House--had to order it from England to get a reasonable price!!--so we'll read that a little later this summer.

I need to get back into reading Treasure Island, since we haven't made any progress with that this week.

I finished reading through Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books, and tried it yesterday with The Girl. She was so much more receptive to it than to phonics instruction books! Having a story line to follow seems to make an immense difference.

Other: What else did we do? Well, there were several episodes of Mythbusters and The Waltons. Swimming/splashing around in our little pool. Eggs to be collected from our chickens. M's birthday to celebrate, quietly at home, with homemade presents from the kids. Roller derby practice. Art projects and water balloons. Some computer animation. Lots of teddy bear and American Girl doll play. Today's still anticipated Summer Solstice celebration at park day, if it doesn't rain!

A General Note: A while ago, I bought a second hand copy of Further Up and Further In, a Narnia-based unit study program. I looked through it, and promptly resold it because it did not resonate with me. Too many plans for some weeks, not enough for others. The premise is delightful... a year of study based off some of my all-time favorite books! So I started considering other options for next fall, then circled around to the idea of putting together my own Narnia study. Maybe. I haven't decided yet, but I love the idea. I could work in mythology, particularly Greek and Norse; poetry; Shakespeare; Sherlock Holmes; E. Nesbit's books; fairy tales; and much more--all the works that helped inspire the Chronicles of Narnia. It is still very much a vague, floating-around-in-my-head idea.

On the whole, a laid-back week. Next week will be more of the same. When July hits though, I'll be a stay-at-home mom, at least for a while. I plan to finally finish cleaning and decluttering the whole house, and to start a Morning Basket of sorts. I think I may try reading An Everyday History of Somewhere to the children, to aid us in our summer study of California. I think it might be easier to read from one book on this subject, rather than many historical fiction titles! I do have it on hand too, so I'll have to give it a try.

Hope you all had a good week! Drop by Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more weekly wrap-ups (link in my sidebar).

Monday Musings...

On the agenda this week...

Reading

• Finish The Children of Green Knowe, and start Ginger Pye
• Finish The Ordinary Princess with The Girl, and start A Little Princess
• Start reading Dinosaur Bone Wars
• Read about California Missions, and re-read The Song of the Swallows
• I plan to have The Girl work through a few lessons in Easy Lessons for Teaching Word Families, with the new (and pretty) alphabet cards I printed up for her. She'll also either read from a Dr. Suess book, or practice in Phonics and Reading Pathways.
• The Boy wants to finish The Son of Neptune, and then probably the third Nathaniel Fludd book. I think he might also like The Sea of Trolls.

Planning

• I am working on a fairly gigantic list of all the books I would like to share with the children over the next year or so. Not a plan mind you, of what to read at a particular time, just a list of books we can pick and choose from, books I don't want to forget to read with them. 
• I'm also reading through Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books (which you can download for free here).

Activities
A much less busy week than the last one!

• M's birthday on Wednesday. I think we're going to head off to the redwoods for the day, since he and I are both taking the day off from work.
• Park day with a special focus on the Summer Solstice on Friday -- a potluck and some crafts/games.
• Roller derby and piano lessons.

Other

• Probably a movie or two, and a documentary or two (I think I have one in my Netflix queue about redwoods... hmmm)
• An art project or two, or three.
• Maybe a science experiment from this book.

What are your plans for the week? Will it be a laid back one, or hectic? Whichever it is, enjoy, and stop by this blog post - some good thoughts here!

Weekly Report... This Was a Busy Week!

It really was a busy week!

 Sunday

We started off with a trip to the San Francisco Opera, to watch The Magic Flute, which was amazing!

Monday 

We headed off to the beach to celebrate a friend's 11th birthday! The weather was perfect--warm and sunny, no clouds, a little wind...

I got to take a long walk down the beach while they played. They buried each other, splashed a little in the very mild surf, ate delicious pasta salad, and had a very good time! And just in the name of all honesty, there was an argument that involved flying sand and a plastic bucket. That almost resulted in us simply packing up and leaving, but instead we managed to calm down and talk it through.

Tuesday

A comparatively relaxed day! We hung out and watched Brady Bunch reruns, the kids played in the pool and ate popsicles. I started reading The Hunger Games to myself; more of The Children of Green Knowe, Treasure Island, and Just So Stories to the kids.

Wednesday

Wednesday started out early, with a trip to Cal Skate for our end-of-the-year homeschool party! We had a blast! M was unfortunately at work, but the kids and I skated to near exhaustion. We elected our new board for the upcoming year, donated a huge bag of books to the free curriculum table (and I only brought 3 new books home), played "Simon Says Red Light Green Light"(on skates), and all the kids raced.

After that, we stopped for lunch with friends, which was lovely, and were talked into rejoining our homeschool 4H this fall.

We wrapped up the day with swimming at home, watching the chickens, and some more reading (see Tuesday above). The kids were wiped out and went to bed with no problem!

Thursday

Another calm day. I worked an extra hour (supplemental pay), then had a lovely treat at my mom's house with blackberries, mango, and chocolate. We came home and just hung out together... there was Wii bowling, The Addams Family movie (first one), art, stories, and delicious shrimp quesadillas for dinner!

I also started my training for the upcoming Mudman challenge! Our whole family is going to participate, so we're all going to be "in training". Thankfully I've got a whole gym setup in the garage... a Bowflex, a treadmill, free weights, and one of those big rubber balls for crunches and so forth. Still recovering from that workout... We're really excited about this challenge! The kids will be doing a non-competitive 1 mile track; M and I will be doing the (also non-competitive) 3 and a half mile track. I've lost 46 pounds so far, and feel so much better that I think I can get ready for this challenge in 3 months!

Friday

Park day! We saw tons of moths everywhere, as all the California Oak Moths are hatching. We got to see friends, relax in the shade (it is hot here these days), the kids played water balloon toss, and more! A lovely, relaxing afternoon.

I am hoping next week will be a little calmer. This week was a lot of fun, but a bit tiring! I have two weeks of work left, so we'll have limited field trips for at least that amount of time. I do want to start actually focusing on Cassia's phonics work again--I printed out some new alphabet cards for work in Easy Lessons for Teaching Word Families, to use in conjunction with Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways.

On Another Note

My plans for July, since I'll be at home, are home and homeschool focused: I want to finish getting through all the clutter in the house, and reorganize a lot. In homeschooling, I want to finish deciding on what we'll be using, and come up with a sort of syllabus for each child--I'm thinking sort of along the lines of Oak Meadow's approach. You can see a sample of their approach here (pdf). If not a syllabus, then at least a general plan of what I would like them accomplish in language arts and math. Science and history are a bit more flexible!

Hope you all had a good week! Check out more weekly wrap-ups over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

Weekly Report... Moths and More...

Another week of summer gone--thankfully we still have quite some time left since I don't plan on starting school back up until September (what can I say? I am a traditionalist when it comes to school schedules). Anyhow, here's what we have been up to this week.

Reading

This week we read more in The Children of Green Knowe, as well as several stories from the Just So Stories. The Boy remembered the whale story from our dip into Oak Meadow several years ago! These stories have been a lot of fun, and I would like to read The Jungle Book to them sometime in the next year. We also read about trees in The Story Book of Science, and some more of Treasure Island. I read a bit more of The Ordinary Princess to The Girl, as well as Peter's Old House and The Flowers' Festival (Elsa Beskow). The Boy and I are very much enjoying Swallows and Amazons. We are nearly done with Peter Pan on audiobook, and the kids have requested we start the Percy Jackson series next.

The Girl read from Dr. Suess books this week, in addition to continuing work in Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways.

The Boy read a couple of books about Henry Ford and cars. He is still reading The Son of Neptune, along with various editions of the Guiness Book of World Records.

Nature

 A picture from Wikipedia

We had a moth hatch this week - specifically a California Oak Moth (see my slightly blurry picture to the right) After watching it raptly for some time, the kids released it near the oak tree out back.


There are plenty of these moths hatching at our favorite park... here's the underside of a table that was caution-taped off due to pupae everywhere!

We also watched a documentary called In the Company of Wild Butterflies, and it was fascinating! So much about butterflies that even I didn't know. For example, did you know that when butterflies emerge from the chrysalis, their proboscis is in two sections, and by extending it rapidly several times, they "glue" it together into a tube shape?

And by the way, our mosquitoes all died. We are growing a nice crop of oyster mushrooms though, and ordered some Shiitake plugs to try growing as well!  I also ordered the book The World in a Drop of Water, and can't wait to try it out with the kids.

I almost forgot! The Boy and I built a pinhole projector, and we all saw a bit of the transit of Venus! We're keeping the projector for future cosmic events.

Other

Besides all the reading and nature, the kids played Scrabble Junior and Sorry. They've been all kinds of busy at my mom's house. The Boy designs a lot of cars with his car design studio from his birthday, and The Girl is piecing together a patchwork quilt for one of her dolls. They still watch a lot of nature shows there too. They've played in our little pool; watered the veggie garden (which is growing by leaps and bounds!); fed the chickens; searched delightedly for eggs; collected rocks; gotten filthy playing outside; all the things kids are supposed to do on summer vacation! The Boy is also making nice progress in his piano lessons.

I've been re-reading Pocketful of Pinecones and Lessons at Blackberry Inn. I plan to read through all of Charlotte Mason's Home Education over the summer as well - it is only one volume, but dense! I'm tossing around an idea I gleaned from a message board and Waldorf research... of rotating monthly between a history focus and science focus. Food for thought if nothing else! Any thoughts on this?

I have three weeks of work left, and then we leap into the unknown. Oh, there is a chance that another position might open up, that the secretary taking my job might apply for. Too many "might's" for me to take it very seriously at this point.

Also upcoming, we have: a trip to an opera on Sunday; an end-of-year homeschool skate party next week; M's birthday in another week and a half; and of course Father's Day, so there won't be any boredom setting in yet!

Hope everyone else out there had a good week too! Don't forget to drop by the upgraded and updated Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more weekly wrap-ups!

Weekly Report... Summer Week 2...

We're still being lazy, definitely in summer-mode! The weather has been gorgeous lately - clear, deep turquoise skies, lots of warm sunshine, evenings staying light longer... my only complaint about this is that it makes it harder to get the kids to go to bed on time, since they do still have to get up in the mornings through June.




What We've Been Up To...

Swimming/playing in our pool (a smallish above ground one, good enough for splashing around in on warmer days!)

Listening to more of Peter Pan, and watching every version of the movie we can find.

Reading Native American stories, and about their ways of living; Treasure Island (we'll watch both versions of the movie when we finish the book); Children of Green Knowe; more of An Ordinary Princess; and a bit of Swallows and Amazons. The Boy is still reading The Son of Neptune, along with various books concerning Henry Ford and cars. The Girl is slowly working her way through some Dr. Suess books. I think at this point, one of the major roadblocks in her reading ability is that she has no confidence that she can do it. I am trying to help her see otherwise.

The Girl has fallen in love with old Brady Bunch episodes, and The Waltons this summer. Too funny! I'm better with her watching these shows than a lot of the tween garbage that is out there today. Besides, I loved the Brady Bunch growing up!

The Boy continues to work on computer animation, piano lessons, model building, drawing, and so forth.

And there have been plenty of popsicles...






We captured some mosquito larvae this week, and the kids are watching and charting their growth cycle. Next week, I hope to start reading The Story Book of Science to them again. I also came across an intriguing book called Life in a Bucket of Soil, which I may add in this fall. I have Donald Silver's Amazing Earth Model Book, which has a fantastic underground scroll art project that would match up nicely with the Bucket of Soil book!

Next week will also involve more reading on The Girl's part. Hopefully, she will soon understand, and believe, that she does have the tools to be a reader. Confidence is what we need!

Hope everyone out there had a good week too. Drop by Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more Weekly Wrap-ups later today. And she has a giveaway going on!

Weekly Report... Field Trip & Flowers...

It is always good when the week starts with a field trip! We went to the Living History Day at the Petaluma Adobe... a recreation of rancho life in the 1840's. One of my personal favorites as far as time periods go.

Here is a Now and Then kind of picture. The shot on the left is from the previous time we did this... a few years ago. My kids look so small in that picture next to the bust of General Vallejo!

Of course, even before we went up the path to the building, The Boy found something he liked! 

 

Crossing the "troll" bridge

And our first glimpse of where we were headed...

Once we got there, we ran into friends almost immediately! We filled out our "passports", and started off with candle making.











It took quite a number of trips around the giant pot to complete the candles. The Boy and I made skinnier candles than The Girl and my mom.

 We checked out all the various things you can make from cow hair, horn, and so forth...

The kids tried their hand at weaving on a loom...

And dancing! Now they'll be ready for the Fandango in October.

Spinning was fascinating! The lady doing it made it look so easy.

And finally, we tried our hand at basket making, with decent results. The kids now want me to buy more basket making supplies at the craft store, so that they can practice for next year.

And just for good measure, a small collection of other photos from the day.

You might ask what else we did this week!

 

We had a moth hatch from a pupae we dug up out in our front garden. We set it free (The Boy named it Jake by the way)!

And speaking of the front garden...

We have blueberries and poppies...

And columbine with a bee...

And my new blue columbine!

Not to mention lavender, foxglove, lobelia, sweet alyssum, and geraniums!

We also did some "schooly" stuff. We did some Math Mammoth-- The Boy worked on decimals and fractions, The Girl worked on fractions, and an addition/subtraction review.

The Boy also worked on spelling, and this week voluntarily wrote sentences that were over ten words long each, for the most part! He started reading Grimm's Grimmest Fairy Tales, and is really enjoying it!

The Girl read from both Phonics Pathways, and Reading Pathways. She unfortunately did a fairly poor job on a reading assessment (I found it at Sonlight), and while we won't be doing another one of those for some time, I am hoping that this will be the thing that gives her more reason to really focus on her phonics work.

I started reading Twig to The Girl, and Swallows & Amazons to The Boy.

We read more of String, Straightedge & Shadow, as well as The Magic of Reality, A Thousand Years of Pirates, Treasure Island (we are LOVING this book!), and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

We've decided to go ahead and start wrapping up for the year. We'll take a week (and a half) off after finishing up a few things (see below), and then start up our summer studies.

To be completed before we can call it done:
Finish our study of geometry
 Watch the remaining episodes of America: The Story of US
Finish reading The Magic of Reality and Giants of Science: Darwin
Read the remainder of A Thousand Years of Pirates, and Treasure Island

I'm going to start printing out activity pages, etc., from this fun-looking math freebie I got for summer use.

The Boy is excited that we're going to make good use of our summer with Totally Irresponsible Science! It really is a great book, and I'm betting we'll get through most, if not all, of the 64 experiments before summer is over.

I have put the first of my California history read aloud books on hold at the library. And we're planning out some great field trips. The kids are very excited about seeing history, not just hearing about it!

Hope everyone else had a good week! As always, head over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more weekly wrap-ups!