Summer Stuff...

A run-down of what we've been up to, and a few pictures...

The kids won a month's free skating, so they've been skating once or twice a week.

We fixed all the bicycles, so there's been a lot of that too.

My bicycle

I've been working out 3-4 days a week, plus doing steep hill walks with my sister, and regular walks with The Girl and her dog.

We spent a lovely afternoon out at the coast...

The "creek" that runs out into the ocean

Dunes, beach grass, cypress, and waves

A giant dune that we scrambled up a dozen times, and rolled and jumped and slid and ran back down

Sandcastle in progress

You can see how pretty and sunny it was, and then we drove 45 minutes home into a thunder-and-hail storm. Just crazy!

We've been reading The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and really, really enjoying it. We watched part one of Peter Jackson's movie version, and we all agreed... while we do love the LoTR movies, we just don't feel the same love for The Hobbit films. There was just far too much extra stuff added. ONE movie, that followed the book, would have been so much better.

Documentary watching has been half hit, half miss. We're enjoying our history selections, but haven't started science ones yet. That's okay. We will get there, and we've basically come to accept that we are year-round homeschoolers anyway.

Math is going pretty well. The Boy likes his Great Courses algebra lectures quite a lot. The Girl is making great progress through the Prodigy math game, where I set up problems several times a week to match her textbook.

The kids have taken to biking to the teen club, which saves me time... and gas. They visit it once or twice a week, and spend almost all their time in the art room. The Boy might be doing a job training program there soon, and they both want to take barista training.

I'm taking a very intensive Spanish course at the moment.... online. One semester of Spanish covered in only six weeks. So far, I've kept up. The Boy is teaching himself computer coding (I think javascript at the moment), and The Girl is working on her butterfly identification skills.

I'm also on the hunt for a job, as my position at the junior college has been frozen due to decreased revenue. I was supposed to start back next week, but that is not to be so at this time. I don't know about fall yet, though I am still hopeful. I may fall back on my grocery experience for the summer. Thankfully M is working a gazillion hours, so we're scraping by.

We're hoping to get out to the coast, and the river, soon. We have FOUR boogie boards now, so that will be fun! I plan on teaching the kids to grill -- they've been taking turns once a week to cook a dinner start to finish, and grilling in this weather would be nice.

And there's housework, decluttering, a recent return to fencing (The Boy), and gardening. I have tomatoes, squash, lemon cucumbers, peppers, and loads of herbs going now!

Hope anyone who reads this is having a lovely summer so far! Here are a couple of random pictures to wrap things up, then I'm off to make breakfast.

The local lake during my early morning trail run last week

A two hat kind of day

[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!

Hey There!

...What We've Been Up To...

The Girl started working with the wildlife rescue center. These are her foster babies:

They are, of course, opossums, four of them. We actually interact with them as little as possible, so that they remain relatively feral. They'll be released back into the wild once they're larger. The Girl learned to tube feed them (they can't suckle), but thankfully we are past that stage now, and they just eat foods (mice, sardines, fruit). They live in a very large tub in the bathroom for now!


The Boy is soon to wrap up his figure drawing class. His skills just continue to blow me away!

Some of his work has been hung in the student art center, and he's thinking of entering some in the local fair this year.

As far as homeschooling, it's been spotty, which is something we really need to address. The kids have already agree we need to work through the summer. Math, writing, literature, and more documentaries have all made the summer to-do list!

Speaking of literature, we watched the movie League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the kids loved it! So we decided to read through all the books mentioned in the movie (a list I am still working on). Here is their first pick...

We have agreed to check out this movie version when we are done with the book.

We started watching Bill Nye Saves the World, which I think is okay, and they seem to like. I'm thinking American Experience, and/or maybe actually finishing Mankind: the Story of All of Us, and America: The Story of Us. We also have a few unwatched episodes of Big History. And there are plenty of biographies, etc. I also need to find some more science documentaries! We finished up all three seasons of The 100 that are currently available, and can't wait for season 4 to come to Netflix in June. If you haven't checked it out, you should. Totally engrossing!

Besides all that, I'm wrapping up my year of teaching at the university. I am planning to continue my teaching assistant position at the junior college for another year, but beyond that, I am not sure at the moment. I've applied for a couple of very part-time things, so we'll see what works out!

Hope all is well in everyone else's corners of the world!

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!

A Wordy Wednesday... The Bad & the Good...

The Bad...
Yesterday was terrible. I felt like I had hit absolute rock bottom, and couldn't see any way out. Finances are, well... for lack of a more polite phraseology, absolutely screwed at the moment. We've scraped by the last couple of months, but won't be doing even that much longer. M has worked two temp jobs recently, but they were just that, temp jobs. The employment market is awful right now. Yesterday, I felt fearful, and resentful.

Today, although finances are certainly not improved, I am trying to feel more hopeful. A local restaurant is holding an open house/hiring fair with on-the-spot interviews, so M is going to that. I have applied for weekend (supplemental) work at grocery stores as a clerk. With 8 years experience in that field, I am hoping I can get in two good eight hour days a week, which will help ease things a bit.

I hate this.

Some people have suggested we relocate, but looking at rental prices and the cost of living elsewhere, I am not sure that would be a worthwhile option.

And I still don't know for sure what is going on with my current job. The woman trying not to take my job has an interview tomorrow, for a position she wants, so I am crossing fingers, ankles, anything and everything! If that fails, I have a job interview next week for a part-time secretarial position. Still nerve-wracking though.


The Good...
"Summer school" is off to a great start! I eased back on documentaries, after I had a complete duh moment, and realized we have all summer to get through them! In the meantime, we're enjoying each day... the kids went swimming with their Nonna and aunt on Monday. They're devouring The Dangerous Book for Boys and The Daring Book for Girls, picking out games to learn and activities to try.... Chinese jump rope, table football, Morse Code, 50 Latin phrases everyone should know, and so on, and so forth. I read a little aloud from one or the other each day. Cassia reads to me too. And they are loving The Four Story Mistake!

They are also working on supply lists for their summer projects.

I am still loosely, and all in my head at the moment, thinking out next year. Do I want to just do the what if approach and see what happens, or do block studies? The only thing I have planned is a calendar for next year! (Well, okay, two versions. Version 1) six week block, week off; six week block, week off;two-three week block, two-three weeks off; seven week block, week off; seven week block, week off; seven week block, week off; ten weeks off. Version 2) the same to start and then five weeks on, one week off after the winter holidays, with four blocks instead of three). Hmmmm.

We'll be doing a summer crash course in Shakespeare. This was unplanned, but then I found out about this event and decided to seize the moment! We'll be reading a story version of Romeo and Juliet first, to familiarize them with the story line. Then we'll watch a movie version, or two, and maybe read through some of the actual play.

And, I wrote on Monday, but then deleted (sorry, I chickened out) about my issues with food. I am currently following the Food Addicts Anonymous food plan, and have been for three days now. I am not weighing myself at the moment, though I did the first day (and no, it was not good) -- I'm trying to keep off the scale more than once a week. Yesterday, I physically felt very tired (maybe that's part of the problem?) and out of sorts. I feel a bit better today, so I am assuming though I ate a fairly clean diet before that I am detoxing a bit from sugar and flour. I think I'll see if I can talk The Girl and M into an evening bike ride while The Boy is at fencing.

So... wish us luck on the financial front, and I hope you are all having a good week!

Summer Doth Approacheth...

We have finished math and writing for the year.

We have left to finish:

 three episodes of Mankind: The Story of All of Us 

two and a half chapters of The Magic of Reality 

three episodes of Cosmos 

10 episodes of America: The Story of Us
And we may work on finishing Poop Happened: A History of the World from the Bottom Up

We have twenty-two (albeit quite short) chapters left in A Little History of the World. I am trying to decide if we want to push to finish it, or    We'll start up in the fall with the Middle Ages in volume 1 of The Human Odyssey, and then move into volume 2!

So there will be plenty of documentary watching and reading in the next two weeks! I've been very loosely lining up episodes of the two history series -- we watched the second America one yesterday, about the Revolutionary War, and will follow it up with the 10th episode of Mankind, as it touches on the same war and then moves into the Industrial Revolution. The kids are fine with the idea of two more weeks of school, since it will just be TV and books, although The Girl is still doing some reading practice daily, which will continue over the summer.

I decided not to plan out summer school this year, as I have done in the past (2008, 2009,  2010 / 2010 changes, 2011, 2012, 2013). Instead, I have asked the kids to pick a project each, something they can lead, and design, and do on their own with my support.

The Boy wants to build a camera obscura, or I should say, at least one. His ultimate goal is to make at least two of different sizes, one of which can be mounted to a tripod.

The Girl wants to learn to knit, and to make a scarf in doing so, and to work on a sewing project as yet to be determined.

As far as "family studies", we're enjoying a good book right now, The Four Story Mistake, and may read the rest of that series. Maybe Gone Away Lake and Return to Gone Away as well. Enjoyable, informational, and not too heavy. The Boy wants to finish the 100 Cupboards series, and I think The Girl would either enjoy continuing with the Oz series, or perhaps Thimble Summer and Emily's Runaway Imagination.

I might, but then again might not, finish working through Right Brained Multiplication and Division with The Girl, or perhaps Times Tales. Maybe. Or we might just play games/do activities from Family Math (and Family Math: The Middle School Years). Maybe.

I think we'll work in some readings and activities from The Dangerous Book for Boys and The Daring Book for Girls too! Plenty of awesome summer-time ideas in those books!

 I have some household/homeschooling organizational plans, am reading (more carefully) back through Project-Based Homeschooling, A Charlotte Mason Education, and More Charlotte Mason Education (yes, I read fiction too), and and have plans to spend lots of time in places like this...

Throwing rocks to watch the splashes and ripples...

Taking breaks from bicycling...

Beach time, swimming, creekside time, fencing, roller derby, bowling, Frisbee tossing, shooting hoops, playing baseball, time to watch movies, paint pictures, and just hang out. Then, we don't plan to start up again until [around] Labor Day!

Weekly Report with Pictures...

It was a busy week, and we're still trying to find our footing, so to speak, what with work, and college, and all that!

We visited the feed store for chicken and guinea pig supplies, which meant, of course, that we had to check out the rabbits, chickens, ducks, etc.

And there was blackberry picking, which resulted in blackberry cobbler, blackberry-apple crisp, and blackberry-strawberry compote. Now that I finally have a working oven again (it's been about 6 months), we'll be making some Blackberry Cornmeal muffins as soon as we get back out to pick more berries!

And the kids have been busy with crafts during their mornings at my mom's house. First up are The Girl's crafts - lots of glue and old Altoids tins involved... she also made me a bracelet and necklace (bead work), which I'll get pictures of later.

And then there is The Boy's work, definitely Steampunk-inspired!

And a close-up...

With the crafts, and errands, and lots of Story Cube play, and fencing, and derby practice (at which The Girl took her first major fall, but got right back up and started skating again), and reading, and watching some favorite TV shows, it has been a jam-packed week!

Hope you all had a good week, and that you'll have a good weekend!

Another Week Floating By...

Where is time going? I'm staring down my last week of vacation... then, back to work, and the week after that, back to school as well.

It was a good week though!

Activities This Week...

We went to a newer Farmer's Market on Sunday, still a very small one, with maybe twelve or so vendors. We came home with a jar of delicious, and local, blackberry honey, and the kids enjoyed some fresh lemonade. We're going to go again this weekend to check out the veggie offerings.

On Monday, the kids acted as dogsitters for my mom, and then again on Wednesday. It is a nice, and generally easy, way for them to earn a little money! The Girl especially is very good with the dog - she makes sure he gets outside when he needs too, and they can happily play together for hours. I've heard that there is a training center for guide dogs near us, and that they're always looking for kids to volunteer time to help the dogs acclimate to children, and I am thinking that might be a very good opportunity for her, so I need to look into that.

Yesterday, we headed out for some time at the river. We swam, drifted down river in the current, baked in the sun.... it was good!

I am curious as to what flower this is....

Then, we headed to a food-and-movie night at M's culinary school. Delicious empanadas, an intriguing film, and a couple of great speakers. Our kids were the only children there, and they behaved very well!

Learning This Week...

The film last night was Genetic Roulette, all about the GMO "movement", something we feel very strongly about. It was an interesting, and fairly horrifying, film about Monsanto, and what they're doing to our food sources. It definitely renewed our interest in eating locally and organically! I personally was dismayed to find out that zucchini, one of my favorite foods, is a fairly common GM food. Anyhow, the kids learned a lot about biochemistry, industrial farming and feeding practices, and so forth. Then the speakers came up, one being the manager of The Seed Bank (incidentally, he homeschooled his kids too!), and the other a farmer who used to grow wine grapes, but is now re-diversifying his farm. He talked a bit about biodynamic practices,and invited us to come visit his new farm stand and tiny bakery.

We started reading Robin Hood, the Roger Lancelyn Green version, this week, which has ignited an interest in both kids regarding British history. I think we might read through Our Island Story, which has very short chapters and a great flow to it. We read a little more in Cheaper by the Dozen as well. The Boy finished Leviathin and has returned to The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the moment.

We've been watching birds a lot week, with geese flying over morning and evening, and then a couple of new residents in the neighborhood... here's one that The Boy photographed...

We think they are a mated pair, and they appear to be taking up residence in one of the cypress trees across the street. I love hearing them calling to each other!

Other pursuits this week included painting, lots of homemade playdough modeling, some Merlin and Eureka, and so on. Our garden is doing pretty well - the corn is taller than me now, and is starting to form ears. I'm going to be reading, on recommendation from the farmer last night, Lasagna Gardening, for soil improvement purposes, because I would really like to expand our home gardening efforts.

Coming Up...

We're prepping for some remodeling in the kids' bathroom. The old "tile" is coming away from the wall in a few spots, so we need to pull it all off, put in some new sheetrock, a new moisture barrier (of which there was none), and then? I don't know that we can afford new tile, and what' coming down is nasty, thin, old stuff that I'm not sure really is tile. Maybe laminate? Anyhow, it will be a good project for the kids to help with.

And, with the end of summer rapidly approaching, I need to decide for once and all on Option A or Option B. Grrrr. I'd say at this point, because learning is seeming to naturally unfold these days, Option A is winning, though I still love the depth of Option B!

Hope you all had a good week!

Monday Musings... It's Going Too Fast!

My summer break that is. Naturally, we haven't gotten half the stuff I wanted to done! Still, it's nice to get the chance to relax.

Outside My Window & In The Garden...
The sun is shining again! After being largely blanketed by fog for a while, at least until noon each day, we're back up to temperatures in the mid 80's every day. Our corn is about 4 feet tall now, and we have tons of tomatoes ripening on a near daily basis. The basil is humungous! Last night I picked a huge bunch of chard (Rainbow Lights, very pretty!), and sauteed it with some shallots. The kids weren't sure at first, but once they tasted it, they sure gobbled it down!

Around the House...
I still have lots to do in my Operation Overhaul. I had better get to it! I head back to work August 12th, and I want the house clean, tidy, and a lot less cluttered before then.

In the Kitchen...
M is grilling a lot these days, and we're eating a lot of salads and grilled veggies. I do need to start planning out menus more, and being more careful with grocery shopping on our ever tighter budget (they lowered M's unemployment).

This Week...
I thought I might try piggybacking on the current dinosaur craze in the house! The Girl and I have just about finished The Garden Princess, and I think we'll read The Dragon in the Cliff next. The kids are interested in a comparison between the Dinotopia book and miniseries. I did reserve Dinosaur Bone War: Cope & March's Fossil Feud, but am not sure yet if we'll actually read it, since that might make summer "school" too much!

I also want to finish Cheaper by the Dozen in the next week or two, and then try out Gone Away Lake.

We really want to go swimming this week, at the coast, or the river,while the weather is so nice! I need to deadhead the front yard too. The fog/sun combo did a number on my poor hydrangeas, and they look dreadful.

Miscellaneous Notes...
M finishes up his summer classes in another two weeks, then has (I think) two weeks off before the fall semester begins. I head back to school myself in late August. I still haven't decided if I am taking a language this fall, and if I do, whether it will be French or Spanish. I am making my midget list of things to be purchased for homeschooling, and thankfully, I can buy in increments, though I do want some Main Lesson Books! There are a few other must-haves on the list to get before September, but not much... maybe some watercolor supplies (we really want to try wet-on-wet watercolors!), and some new crayons. Oh, and we will need some woodworking/carpentry supplies, mainly some project wood. Although it might help if we decided first what it is they want to build! Hmm, maybe I should get this book, or this one, from the library!

Hope you all have a good week!

Finally!!!

image courtesy of a refined aesthetic

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

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

HAVE A HAPPY SUMMER!!!

image courtesy of envisioningthedream

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

Wishing You All...

 A very happy Summer Solstice!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On the Way to Work & Other Tidbits...

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

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

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

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

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

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Monday Musings... Another Week...

I'm a bit apprehensive this week, since I am starting grad school tomorrow! In the meantime, I am creating a menu plan for the week, writing a grocery list, and getting some nitty-gritty details down for our official homeschool year, which starts in only two weeks! And I'll admit, I'm reading through a lot of "junk" fiction (you know, what Charlotte Mason would call "twaddle") before I have to tackle this list.

On the agenda for the week...
* Roller derby for Cassia
* Getting piano lessons set up for September
* Back to menu planning and more careful grocery shopping
* Waiting on books and science supplies to arrive
* Making sure over the next couple of weeks that I have everything in place for homeschooling this fall - books in the book basket, appropriate things placed on hold at the library, etc.
* Maybe: swimming with friends again
* Getting all the apparatus removed from M's arm!!! (tomorrow!)
* Cleaning, sorting, decluttering
* Finishing up the very last chapter of Smoky House, then starting The Marvelous Land of Oz for bedtime reading
* Keep working on establishing routine!

Should be a good week, albeit a fairly busy one! I hope everyone else has a good week too!

Monday Musings... On the Agenda...

With the upcoming election, I've decided to throw a little U.S. government into our studies, with some additional books for the Afternoon Basket over the next few weeks (see my sidebar for the rest of the Basket)...

*How The U.S. Government Works
*A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution
*See How They Run! Campaign Dreams, Election Schemes, & The  Race to the White House
*The Story of Presidential Elections




Other things we have going on...
*More of Reading Pathways and various books/readers with The Girl
*The Boy is reading Throne of Fire now, so we may
watch some documentaries on ancient Egypt
*I am really hoping that this week we'll get some fun science projects done!
*And I'd like to get some outdoor math activities underway, using Family Math
*Swimming with friends, if the weather cooperates! Right now, it is chilly and overcast here.
*Our weekly Park Day!
*Maybe an art project or two
*I have work this week again, but only once for 4 hours


And maybe a little more relaxation while summer is still here....

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!

Weekly Report... Fireworks & Sea Stars...

This week, we had all the fun of fireworks, and a field trip to the Bodega Marine Lab! The field trip, led by a docent, lasted about 2 hours. We learned about the geology and history of the area (straddling a fault line, thank goodness they never put that nuclear power plant in!); looked at fish and sea stars; took a tour of the "wet lab"; saw an eel fish; learned a bit about ecology; and more!

 We brought our visiting Flat Stanleys with us! They are visiting us from North Carolina, and ours just headed out to Virginia!

 Starfish/sea stars are always a huge hit with my kids!

A skeleton from a local porpoise - I didn't even know we had these around here!

A whale "hand" (i.e. flipper)

We might get a "field trip follow-up" too, where the docent comes to your facility with projects on hand! This field trip really got my kids thinking too about the environment and recycling. I think we may follow up on this by doing a creek clean-up day, and maybe the annual coastal clean-up day, learn more about recycling and what happens to plastics that enter the watershed, etc.

We read as usual, I worked on a possible Afternoon Basket book list for the fall, they played outside, went swimming, and relaxed! I am really enjoying having the whole family home for a little while. M is healing, but there is, quite understandably, a lot of pain--some days are better, some are worse. Today I'll happily be making zucchini bread, now that our zucchini seem to be coming in full force!

Next week, I'd like to add a little more structure back into our days. There do seem to be an awful lot of late nights lately, which lead to late morning starts, and somehow the whole day is gone before we get much done! I have three academic-related goals for next week: two of them have to do with preparing for the local Civil War Days next weekend (although being in California, I really don't think there were any "local" war happenings), and one to do with Cassia...
1. Watch the next episode of America; The Story of Us (the Civil War episode)
2. Start reading "Turn Homeward, Hannalee" (Patricia Beatty is one of my favorite historical fiction/children's authors ever!)
3. Sit down with Cassia for reading work!

It has been a good week, though it went by far too quickly! Hope yours was good too, and don't forget to head over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more weekly wrap-ups (see sidebar link!)!!