Fall Is On Its Way...

I love this time of year! Fall is, without a doubt, my favorite season. Crisp days, cool nights, the changing colors, pumpkins, holidays on the way....

The Boy has started back to school, and has just wrapped up his second week. He's taking stellar astronomy at the local junior college, with a fantastic teacher, so he's excited to go to class each week, and excited when he finishes class too, and gets to tell me everything he's learned!

His class is during my office hours on the same campus, which makes it easy to coordinate driving!

My teaching position is also going well! The first class was stressful... I won't lie. I actually finished it up (early) wondering if I had made a big mistake. Fast forward to today, and the class went very well! Discussions are happening, there's lots of writing going on, and I have my first set of essays to grade over the weekend!

Next week, we'll be starting back up with all our other school activities. The Boy says he's ready to work on more algebra and writing, and The Girl is definitely ready for some math. She's asked for something computer-based for spelling though, so maybe Spelling City, or ???

Other September plans...
-- Celebrating my brother's birthday today!
-- Finish stripping the front yard down... deadheading, removing the last of the dead weeds/grass.
-- Enjoying the first day of fall!
-- The Girl and I will be attending an orientation for the wildlife rescue center volunteer work she wants to do this year. Puppy petting is fun, but it just petting young puppies, and she's ready for something more.
-- Bake an apple pie for Johnny Appleseed Day
-- Make some applesauce and apple butter (to freeze) from our backyard apple tree.

How is your fall shaping up? Anything exciting, like special days/plans? Starting back to school?

Monday Musings... Done & To Do...

Outside My Window...
The rains have stopped for now, though they were record setting! Instead, it is now quite chilly, especially at night. The trees are mostly bare, but everywhere I look I see fresh green, thanks to the rain. Almost time to start dormant pruning (apple, cherry, olive)!

In Our Home and Kitchen...
We're working on creative leftover use a lot lately. Right now, we're slowly eating our way through the large ham that M baked up on Christmas Day. We've had ham in our scrambled eggs, a ham-and-potato hash, etc. Time to freeze the rest, I think! This week's soup is The Girl's favorite - potato leek.

I am prepping the house for the New Year. Some more decluttering, some good cleaning, all to get ready for the 52 Weeks To An Organized Home challenge!

What We've Been Up To...

Rainy day walks with some flooding

Solstice celebration with our park day friends (missing a few here)

Puppy petting volunteer work

A tour of the Christmas street... tons of lights, figures, music, and more!

And a Boxing Day hike on a nearby mountain

In Our Homeschooling...
I am slowly getting ready to start back up next week (Sunday actually). I have The Boy's math and writing stuff in place (simplifying once more!), and am putting together The Girl's materials. Her math is ready to go, but I need to order the writing book I decided to try with her (done!).

Reading...
We're ready to start The Hobbit at last! I decided, as we seem to have a harder time this year doing our read alouds, that we would drop all the extra ones and just focus on the books the kids actually requested, which specifically would be The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. If we can work in the extra books -- ones that inspired Tolkien, etc. -- then those will be a bonus. The Boy is still reading Scorch Trials, and The Girl is set to start The Hunger Games. I am reading Intuitive Eating and The Total Money Makeover. I may start His Dark Materials soon, as I have had that trilogy for some time, and have never read it!

Doing...
I am finishing up my scarf at last - yay! The Girl got 3.75 pounds of Sculpey clay for Christmas, so she has been very busy creating. The Boy is working on a new model car, and both kids are absorbed in the Wii Lego world of Harry Potter.

On the Agenda...
No fencing until next week, and no derby until late January. I'm still on vacation, so just my side jobs -- craft sewing and typing -- this week, in addition to cleaning, getting the budget done, etc. I'd still like to go see The Hobbit, and the kids and I are going to a musical over the next weekend!

Borrowing...

I am borrowing an idea from Kim's blog, "Our October Fun List". Like her, I can feel childhood slipping away, and I want to grab what's left with both hands! My kids are growing up SO fast... they decided this year that besides the downtown trick-or-treating with friends, they would rather be at home to hand out treats. Too grown up... I don't know that I am ready to let go of something we've done for 13 years now! Though a Halloween evening at home, with hot soup and a [semi] creepy movie sounds good too...

Anyhow, my October Fun List!

Read some good poetry - Edgar Allan Poe is an October favorite

Vikingfest - I just found out that there is a free Vikingfest in my area!

A catapult workshop for teens at the local library

I really want to try baking the cider donuts mentioned in the above linked post

The Girl's Cake

Make lots of good pumpkin and/or apple treats... soup, baked oatmeal, muffins, The Girl's Cake, etc.

Go hiking in the redwoods

Get our costumes prepared

Enjoy some fall and Halloween themed books

Watch some holiday-appropriate movies (Corpse Bride, Hocus Pocus, Dark Shadows, etc.)

Get out to the coast for a sunset picnic

Make some fun jar luminaries

Carve pumpkins, of course! And I swear that this year, I am roasting the pumpkin seeds. I might even do a couple of different flavors with herbs and spices.

What fun things do you want to do this October?

It's Halloween!!

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

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

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

Language Arts:

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

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

Literature:

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

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

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

Science:

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

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

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

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

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

History:

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

Math:

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

Other Stuff:

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday Ramblings... And Happy Fall!!!

image courtesy of coolchaser

It is officially my favorite season of the year! I am, technically by a few days (at the last end of the spectrum), a fall baby, and as far back as I can remember, fall has been the best season of the year.... the crisp air, cooler nights, leaves changing color, the upcoming holidays, and so forth.

We have a lot going on in the next few days, so I should have some good pictures coming up soon!

Thank you all for bearing with me through my wishy-washiness. I realized that it isn't the books we are using that are the problem, nor is it the approach to child/interest-led learning. Instead, it is that I am not developing the ideas enough - I am not folding in additional resources, tangents, ideas, etc., though this would make it a much richer learning experience. The Boy has a desire to create a lapbook, probably inspired by his much beloved Ology books with all their little foldouts, envelopes, and more, so I bookmarked some great Pinterest sites (here and here) for Wright Brothers lapbooks. What I do like about the Pinterest pages and googling ideas is that there is NOT a pre-put-together kit for a Wright Brothers lapbook... we will have to create it ourselves! More room for creativity and development than in putting together something that someone else has pre-made for you.

So today we are celebrating fall. I plan on roasting a chicken, and making this delicious cauliflower dish, except that I will cut the cauliflower into pieces, and add some broccoli. Since The Boy and I did not make it to his distance running this morning, we'll be running this afternoon. Also on the agenda: some more paper grading; a library trip; a bit of house and yard work; and writing a fake conference paper proposal for one of my classes. Exciting stuff, huh?

Hope you all have a wonderful first day of fall! Enjoy the new season!

Wordless Wednesday... Happy Harvest!

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!

Jumping on the Menu Monday bandwagon... and more...

Menu Plan Monday

Now that I don't work at a grocery store, I try to shop only once a week, so menu planning is key! This week we'll be lucky enough to have two Thanksgivings, one at my mom's house, and one at home. Here's what we'll be having this week...

Monday
Beef & 2-bean chili with salsa, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, and tortilla chips

Tuesday
Pasta with a good marinara sauce; garlic bread; salad

Wednesday
Thanksgiving #1 at my mom's

Thursday
Thanksgiving at home - turkey; cornbread stuffing; homemade cranberry sauce; mashed potatoes & gravy; green beans with brown butter and chopped hazelnuts; succotash; a big green salad; pumpkin pie; apple-quince-mince pie

Friday
Leftovers cleverly disguised as open face hot turkey sandwiches with gravy; salad of some sort

Saturday
I am thinking we'll need a break from turkey, so Cricket and I will be cooking a dinner to reflect our country of the week - Poland. We're making perogi to be served with chives, sour cream, and bacon. The side dish will be beets and cucumbers with vinegar (almost pickled!)

Sunday
I have some leftover wild rice, so I thought I would make roasted squash/veg and wild rice, and serve it with some homemade bread, probably rye since we all like that one. I had found a recipe for the soup on a blog recently, but now I can't for the life of me figure out whose blog it was!

On another note, we're looking at making some fun ornaments in early December for our Christmas tree/home. We do have store-bought ornaments, but homemade ones are special, and fun. Some options...

Glittered, Wax-dipped Pinecones
I really like these toadstool ornaments
Trying to think of an icing lid substitute for these lovely felted ornaments
Felt Shooting Stars
And I have a book with instructions for straw star ornaments like these
And cinnamon dough bird ornaments

Most of these don't look that difficult, though some might be time consuming. I don't know that we'll get a chance to make them all, but even a few homemade ornaments would be nice!

Fun Stuff...

Cyrus is building a paper world, all with free downloads from Made by Joel.

We didn't do anything remotely homeschooly yesterday, since I worked from 6 am to 1 pm, then took a nap, then tried to go to class. Thankfully the class was cancelled for the day, so I ended up with a lovely evening at home. So now we're gearing up for the week... I thought we'd just have fun with homeschooling for a while, so I put a bunch of books on hold for Cassia at the library (and Cyrus can listen in) that have to do with apples, pumpkins, etc. Kind of autumn things. This will obviously be an apple week!

Additionally, all the books I put on hold about Columbus are ready for pick-up, so I thought we would start on those.

It should be a good week, full of stories, oh and this science kit, which we are finally going to use...