[Bitter]Sweet Sixteen and Summer Schooling...

From newborn to sixteen

The Boy turned SIXTEEN this month! I am still amazed daily, even after sixteen years, that I get to be his mom. And it is bittersweet because it is going by so quickly. In only two years, he'll be, legally, an adult.

We've had a few homeschooling changes since I last posted, and we decided, together, on summer schooling this year, as life got in the way far too often over the spring. We don't want to fall further behind, so we'll be tackling math, literature, writing, biology, and a survey of world history over the next twelve weeks (we started yesterday). Here's a run-down of our summer plans:

Math:
The Boy is using a combo of the Great Courses Algebra 1 and Jacobs Elementary Algebra

The Girl is using a combination of Prodigy and Basic Math Skills

Literature:
We are reading this beautiful edition of The Hobbit, to be followed by the Lord of the Rings trilogy

Writing:
The Boy is using bits and pieces from Writing with Skill, and he's started a car blog.

The Girl is using Junior English and free-writing.

Biology:
We're using a combination of documentaries (Life, for example); nature observations; and biology experiments. We'll be doing this microbial ecology experiment at last, which we will be using with the lecture series Changing Planet: Past, Present, Future!

World History:
We are keeping it very simple, and are watching Mankind: The Story of All of Us (I might use at least some ideas from this study guide), alongside the Big History episodes, and a few select movies.

In addition:
The kids skate once a week (roller derby is over for the season), and The Boy fences occasionally. We'll be heading to the beach when it's a tad warmer, and we plan to ride bikes a lot. The kids continue to visit the local teen club once or twice each week. We have gardening, decluttering, pets to care for, and so on. Plus, we have a new dog! Her name is Fiona, she's about three, and she's a pitbull-mix.

Hope everyone else is off to a good start to summer!

Out And About...

Today we decided, for the second year, to OptOutside. We've always avoided Black Friday insanity, so Green Friday seems a natural substitute. This year, our free pass took us to Jack London State Historic Park. We toured a couple of the building, and the winery ruins, before hiking out toward the lake and beyond. We plan to go back, to see the Pig Palace, Wolf House, and more!

Monday Musings...Spring Has Sprung!

Well, I had great plans for today, and celebrating spring, but then the skies opened up and are dumping gallons of water on us. A little too damp for great outdoor happenings! Although I did get a pre-rain workout in at a park with my wellness coach. And I did SIX assisted pull-ups! For someone who has never managed one pull-up before, that was pretty awesome!

So, as I am (mostly*) off from work this week, I have plans for home and homeschooling...

*I do have papers to mark, of course, and tutoring

...Around the House...

My plans for the week include:

Rearranging the family room

Spring-cleaning and decluttering!

Cleaning out the fridge and freezer

...Other Plans...

Watching some StarGate Universe with The Boy (our replacement for Lost)
Two more park workouts (Wednesday, Friday)
Fencing for The Boy, as there is no parkour this week
A biology lecture
Tutoring
Finish A Wrinkle in Time
Watching some more Downton Abbey 
Derby practice for The Girl

It'll be a full, and I hope good, week! Enjoy your first week of spring!

Ahhhh....

Yet another week (week six?) has come and gone. Overall a good week—we're over our cold/flu thing, except for a lingering cough, but that's tolerable. And we're ready for the weekend!

...In Homeschooling...

The kids like our art of the month so far! Both have seen references to American Gothic in the past, and now they know more about it. And both said it's nice to see art on the fridge again.

The Boy worked through another few lessons in Teaching Textbooks. We had our first hiccup yesterday, when he learned about simplifying algebraic fractions. So I sat with him, worked through several examples, and I think he got it. I might have him watch a couple of videos on this topic on Khan Academy over the weekend.

He's been better this week about scheduling/regulating his homework load, which is good, because his first midterm ever is coming up next week in Machine Tool Technology! He won't say so, but I think he is a little nervous. Thankfully, he can use notes on the test, and he takes some pretty extensive notes!

The Girl is buzzing right through her multiplication and division review. What's really nice is that this year, because we've worked so hard on reading skills, she is finally reading the assignments herself! I'm adding in practice pages next week from Right Brained Multiplication & Division, just one each day, to really cement the multiplication/division tables. The more fluid she is with those, the better off she will be as we move up in math!

And reading aloud is going very well for her. She doesn't really want to do it, but she can see that she reads better than she thought she did. And she got 100% on her spelling test this week!

We started reading A Young People's History of the United States, and both kids really liked the voice of the writer (Howard Zinn). So we will definitely be continuing that, and I'm going to loosely match up episodes of America: The Story of Us. The Men Who Built America looks intriguing too, for a little later in our American historical journey. Right now the plan is to do American history until winter break, then switch to an overview of world history after that. I think we might use this book, and this series (and this one) for that. Asian history, at the request of the kids, using (most likely) this book, and this one, followed by this one, and then perhaps this one. As for documentaries, I am not sure yet!

Now that history is falling into place, I want to add science in over the few weeks, with a study of microbiology for both kids, physics/quantum physics or astronomy for The Boy, and more animals for The Girl.

...In Our General Day to Day Life...

I'm getting better at balancing two jobs, college, homeschooling, etc. Meal planning helps, as does keeping on top of basic chores. M is now in charge of Thursday dinners, since I am with The Girl at derby practice from 7-9 pm, and he's at home. And I'm getting the kids to help more, both around the house, and in doing more on their own.

We're getting ready to launch the first of who knows how many Home Improvement Saturdays. This week, I am totally overhauling the living room (small room, good to start with!), I've been using the Look Inside feature at Amazon to view this book, and the intro is my inspiration for the living room overhaul. The author, Marie Kondo, says "Start by discarding. Then organize your space thoroughly, completely, in one go." We'll see if it works! Right now the living room is sort of a depository... books, body boards, scooters, skateboards, kites, a stack or two of laundry... you get the picture. 

And we're moving the load of free bricks we got into the backyard, where M has been working hard at leveling the ground for a new patio! Next week, I will tackle the dining room, and we will work together on the slightly leaky family room roof...before the predicted winter rains get here!

The Boy should be back to fencing tonight, The Girl did fine with derby practice yesterday, and we're definitely getting some physical activity back in there—we walked around a local lake on Wednesday, then The Boy and I rode bikes to the junior college library, and back, yesterday, so I could work and he could study. It feels good to feel better.

I'll leave you with a sunset picture from our Wednesday walk...have a good weekend!

linked up over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Using What I Have...

A while back, I sent for a bunch of free dvds from HHMI... excellent resource, by the way! However, we never really got around to using them, and they are just gathering dust. Then today, I remembered seeing a free downloadable science project somewhere that looked really, really good ... did a lot of digging, and found it. It turns out that it is from HHMI, and goes with a dvd we already have!

The activity is focused on microbial ecology, and takes 6-8 weeks. There are student and teacher handouts, and it looks relatively easy to set up. Record keeping includes taking notes/making observations, comparing experimental columns to a control column, photographing changes, and sketching changes.

It goes with the lecture series Changing Planet: Past, Present, Future.

They've got a plethora of other videos, and lots of activities (some do look better than others).

I think we're going to give this one a try!

Art for October...

Artist of the Month: Grant Wood

I'm a little late getting art for the month set up (I print and display images, one at a time, on the fridge, mainly from Mark Harden's [fabulous] Artchives), so here are my three choices for October:

Fall Plowing, 1931

American Gothic, 1930

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, 1931

This year, I am also posting a brief biography of each artist, also on the fridge door.

A Job Shadow Day...

This week, The Boy got to tag along for a day with a family friend to the San Francisco Opera House. The friend runs the projection for the SF Opera, and was happy to have The Boy follow in his footsteps for a day, which by the way was about 13 hours including transportation time, and about 7 miles in walking during the course of the day! He got to meet people who worked with stage weaponry, lighting, pyrotechnics, robotic cameras, and more... he said it was an amazing day, and he had so much fun! I was thankful that the friend that took him also kept me updated with pictures throughout the day!

I've now decided to "officially" make job shadowing a part of high school for both my kids, and I am looking forward to setting up other opportunities!

School's Out for Summer!

Well, sort of. We still have a lot going on! Both kids have come up with some plans for their summer months...

The Boy:

Finish reading

And then read

 

[I love Edward Gorey's art....]

Take a four hour (free at the library) class on

Go to a car show or two with his best buddy

Take another workshop at the library on printing with a

And then there is The Girl

She gets a couple of library workshops with friends too...

And she has fallen in love with a book...

To be followed by ???

And of course there will be beach days

And river-swimming days

And hiking

Movies, a few good books (we're planning to read Holes next -- I understand it is very good, and we enjoyed the movie!), a few random field trips to be determined, some general laziness when we're not doing yard work, or home repairs. They're keeping up with their math over summer as well, but are off of all other "official" homeschooling until fall!

 I'm also planning to read some "unschooling" books from the library, among them HomeGrown: Adventures in Parenting Off the Beaten Path, Unschooling, & Reconnecting with the Natural World; And the Children Played; and a couple of David Albert's books.

Do you have any fun summer plans? I did read this great blog post yesterday, which got me thinking about little ways to add some fun.

What a Weekend!...

Yes, that is a very large tree branch, ON MY HOUSE! Saturday afternoon, The Boy, The Girl, and I were over by the computer, checking out footage from The Boy's birthday gift camera (an older GoPro), when we heard a terrible, and very loud, wrenching sound, followed by cracking noises and a tremendous "swish", then an equally tremendous THUD! The only other thing I remember is yelling to the kids to "get down, get down!", throwing myself over The Girl, and seeing The Boy duck and cover his head with his arms. The Girl was screaming.

Then dead quiet. Until M came out of our room, where he was getting ready for work, yelling "What the %^$# was that?" He thought something had exploded... or ???

We saw branches pressed up against the window right next to us (the large window in the picture)... I am so thankful it didn't break all over us! The neighbor's elm branch hanging over our family room menacingly for the last several years had finally cracked off. We had been worried about this for a while, as we've had some smaller branches come down, and the neighbor was trying to work out a way (physically and financially) to remove the dangerous branch. At least we don't have to worry about it any more! And no real damage was done, and no one was hurt. PHEW! And the neighbor already got the mess cleaned up, and offered us the firewood.

In other news...

Outside My Window...
Cool, cloudy mornings. Today, the first day of June, was actually so damp out from the fog that I had to use the windshield wipers a bit this morning on my way in to work, and there were puddles gathering! I'm hoping that will counteract some of the drying out that is already happening around us in the 4th (or is it 5th?) year of drought.

In My Home and Kitchen...
We made a delicious roasted chicken this weekend (it was in the oven at the time of the tree crash), and last night I cooked pappardelle with alfredo sauce, broccoli, and leftover chicken. I plan to make stock this week as well, and Thursday (The Girl's late derby practice night), I think I might make Sopa Seca. Tonight we're planning on split pea soup after fencing. Yes, split pea soup in June, as the evenings are still very cool. I am doing better at planning meals ahead again, utilizing leftovers well, and a lot of homemade foods!

As far as the house, we're keeping things tidier these days, and have winnowed out a lot that we don't need.

In the Garden...
We had almost decided to not grow any veggies this year. Between the poor soil and the drought, we were a bit reluctant to plant. Then M came up with a lovely design for tiered boxes, using scrap wood we already have, and compost from our own garden. We're building the boxes/tiers this summer, and will put in a fall garden. In the meantime, we've got tomato plants, and I am planting more herbs. I've decided rather than a gravelled front yard (as I had mentioned here), to work on incorporating meadow grass and more native plants that attract bees, butterflies, birds, and moths... i.e. a meadow garden/native cottage garden. We've been enjoying the presence of butterflies and hummingbirds, and would like to see more!

And we have fruit coming on...

Fresh cherries ripening

Apple blossoms AND apples

We're talking about adding a Meyer lemon tree, a dwarf apricot, and maybe one other fruit tree to our "orchard".

In Our Homeschooling...
We've pretty much wrapped things up "officially" for this year. However, we are doing some light summer schooling, with the continuance of Life of Fred (math), reading about British history (Great Tales from English History) and bringing in movies as appropriate, and some good books over the summer. We also have plans, mostly with friends, to attend some library workshops for teens: 3D printing and Minecraft coding (The Boy), henna body art (The Girl), origami (both), duct tape crafts (both), etc. And we're hoping for beach days, river swimming, a few trips here and there... We also plan to read a children's version of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, as we will be going to see a production of it in July!

I am having fun daydreaming about/roughly planning out the first blocks of our Big History/Science and Big Fairy Tale projects for fall!

Reading and Watching...
We've started Great Tales from English History, and find it to be very enjoyable. We're still reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and have Through the Looking Glass at the ready. We might listen to The Hobbit on audiobook (since we only got a third of the way through it) after finishing The Last Olympian. What are you reading this summer?

We've finally gotten the kids interested in Star Trek! We've started with Enterprise, and then will watch the old series before moving on. We had a two movie weekend, with Total Recall and Daddy Day Care. It was a silly movie kind of weekend, and yes, I definitely consider parts of Total Recall to be silly. This upcoming Friday, I think we'll watch The Eagle to go with British history, and then on Saturday, something lighter.

On the Agenda...
I am down to the last week or two of one of my tutoring jobs, though the student's family has asked me to continue working with her for 11th and 12th grades, (she's in a public Waldorf school). The other student (homechooler) will be tutored right through the summer. I am also back to grading papers for a college English class this summer. Fencing and derby practices continue too. I have four weeks left at work, then am off for seven weeks! M is picking up more hours at his new job -- he's excelling there, and loves it. I love having him come home from work happy! Exhausted, but happy!

Have a good week, and Happy June! Do you have summer school plans?

image courtesy of hourglass-paperboats

Good Geography Find!

I found this book at the library, when I was searching for a general overview of Europe...

And I have to say I am very pleased with it! (You can see a bit of the book here.) I wish we had known about this series when we were studying Africa. It is clearly written, not so long that we don't have room for anything additional, fairly well up to date, etc. Anyhow, I then discovered that there were more in the series, so I plan to use the following titles as well...

Then, I found out that in addition to Wild China, Wild Africa, and Wild South America, there are a number of other titles that will fit in with our studies! Wild India - Land of the Tiger (unfortunately not available at the moment), Wild Caribbean, and Wild Pacific/South Pacific are among the titles I'd love to add to our watchlist. Maybe through interlibrary loan?