Goals instead of resolutions...

So I have decided, rather than make a bunch of resolutions I very likely won't keep, since they're usually "I won't ...", I am going to set New Year's Goals, which I have been mentally tinkering with for the last few days... Some of these are personal goals, some goals for the house (that will involve assistance from other household members), some are for the kids, etc.

1. Paint the house, inside and out. Thanks to some very generous gift cards I recieved for Christmas, this goal is now immediately possible, rather than something I'd like to do someday. Of course, the weather will have to cooperate!

2. Improve the yard, front and back. This includes tearing out the front lawns and putting in more interesting stuff - grasses, flowering plants, a few big rocks, two trees, and so forth; installing and planting raised veggie beds in the back; redoing the clotheslines as they sag terribly; putting in a sandbox/play area for the kids in the back; planting, planting, planting.

3. Set up the "playroom" and family office in our garage. Mostly this involves clearing out miscellaneous boxes, putting down some of my many area rugs, and setting up good toy/book/etc storage. We also need to get a heater that is efficient.

4. Lose (at least) another 20 pounds. I lost 21 pounds this year, and hope to do better in '08. Things that would help me accomplish this would be getting more exercise, and eating more healthfully. I want to keep working on this because I need to have energy for my kids, and to set a good example for them. I want to keep them healthy as well.

5. Find a better job. Part-time, decent pay, regular hours. It'll definately help that M will be going back to work fulltime in the next few weeks, as this gives my end of the financial contributions a little more wiggle room. I am looking at both secretarial jobs and instructional assistant positions.

6. Finish at the local community college and transfer. I have this planned, and in the works, for Fall of '08. I just need to actually accomplish it!

7. Follow my plans for the kids' schooling through early June. I have figured out what we need to actually do each week to accomplish my goals for them (mostly goals for Elf), so I need to make sure we do it. I won't reach my original goal of finishing SOTW volume 1 this year, and there are a couple of other things we won't get done, but that's okay and we'll just move on with what we can do, without undue stress!

So, there they are. My 7 goals for 2008. I have tried to make them realistic, so we'll see how it goes!

A day early...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Sort of a weekly wrap-up...

Ummm... we really didn't do much of anything this week. Ooops. With work, Christmas shopping/planning, and my finals, etc., it was a busy week. We did finish lesson 8 in ETC and did 3 math lessons, plus Elf spent a bunch of time on Timez Attack (3's this week, which he is still working on mastering). That's really, unfortunately, about it.

I am still planning on being evil and doing some science (anatomy) and history (Mesopotamia) over the next couple of weeks of "vacation". It's not really evil if your kids love and ask for it though, is it? I also found this website (British) that relates to our history unit studies, so I may cull some further resources from that.

This week is our week of frenzy! It's busy at work (gotta love holiday retail), so I have more hours than normal. We have company coming this afternoon (so I had better get busy finishing cleaning soon), company on Christmas Eve (my dad, sister and brother), and then MIL will be here for Christmas Day, along with the kids' great-great uncle. Tonight, after company leaves, we're making cookies, and decorating them. I have to run to the store to get a couple of picture frames sometime today. Plus I still have to shop for Christmas dinner, though not today.

Well, in case I don't make it back before then... Happy Holidays!

Yaaay! Done with...

my classes for the semester, as I just submitted my final essay to my online child development class. I also checked the gradebook (online) to make sure all my assignments were in and found this message from my professor - "G...., thank you for sharing your first hand experiences and knowledge of home schooling. You truly educated your fellow classmates on home schooling and dispelled many misconceptions... The homeschooling discussion that took place on the message board really, I feel, changed people's preconceived notions about home schooling." Sweet! Changing people's misconceptions was the entire reason I wrote that essay.

Wow, I'm 35 now. Can't say it's much different than 34! Today's plans - a late breakfast, since it's 10 and the kids are still asleep (we stayed up really late last night watching Christmas movies). A little homeschooling - calendar work, math, phonics, human anatomy. I was going to take the kids to homeschool ice skating, but it starts in 15 minutes, so we'll save that for another time. M wants to take me out later to pick out my own gift, and then my closest friend is coming over for dinner. My mom also offered to make a special dinner for me tomorrow, so I have to figure out what to ask her to make! It's hard because she's an awesome cook, and I really love a number of her dishes. Hmmmm, maybe we'll finish decorating our tree today. I did get a lovely early present from Elf yesterday - all the art I've been helping with on Wednesdays got made into a 2008 calendar of birds, and he gave me his, after wrapping it himself, very carefully. He was practically dancing with excitement when I was unwrapping it. I have to say I think it qualifies as the best gift ever, partly because I love his artwork and partly because there was such joy in giving it.

Just noticed this link on another blog - win a $50 certificate at Homeschool eStore, so here are my answers!

1. How many children do you have / homeschool? 2. One is in first grade and the other is pre-K
2. How long have you been homeschooling? Since my oldest was born! Technically for about a year and a half.
3. Have they always been homeschooled, or did they ever go to public/private school? Always homeschooled. We planned on it before even concieving our oldest.
4. Do you plan on homeschooling until graduation? Yes. No doubt about it!
5. Do you belong to a co-op? No, but we "belong" to a charter school that functions much like a co-op.
6. Do you school all year long, or use some other schedule? We basically follow a traditional school year schedule (that of the charter school), more or less. It's fun because we have an annual "not Back to School" celebration day in the fall, and the kids get the bliss of long summers of freedom (unschooling), during which they pursue their own interests.
7. Do you use textbooks only, or do you like to supplement with other materials? We supplement. I think our only textbooky textbook is science. We do use some workbooks, a lot of hands-on learning, lots of coloring/art, lots of reading.
8. Are field trips included in your school plans, or are they just family time? Both. I do plan some field trips (none lately though, oops), but we also do fun things just for family time that I could count as field trips.
9. Do you and your kids do crafty stuff together for school time? Yes, but not enough of it recently! My kids both do really well with a hands-on approach, so crafty projects work out well for us.
10. Would you consider everyday household life stuff ‘home ec’? Definately. I count their assistance with grocery shopping, preparing food, and much more as "home ec". It's a part of living, and I think they do need the skills they develop this way.
11. Do you have any advice for new homeschoolers? Go with what feels right for you and works well for your children. Don't think you need to buy a homeschool-in-a-box, or follow someone's advice to the letter. Feel free to tweak things so that they are right for you. After all, homeschooling is all about following your own path!
12. Do you have advice for homeschoolers with little ones under foot? Have things ready for them, from coloring pages, to a box of beads/blocks/trinkets. My daughter (pre-K) will play happily for hours with math manipulatives. If they want to be part of the homeschooling process, indulge them with some simple work, but don't get stressed over whether or not they complete it.

A decent week...

We didn't get an awful lot done, but we did cover the basics: phonics, reading, some writing and math. Elf is in Lesson 8 of 11 in ETC 2, and we've decided to skip 2 1/2 and go right into 3, since 2 1/2 is, from what I can tell, review of 2. He's roughly halfway through Saxon Math 2 (maybe a little less), so we're about on target with that for the year, so far. I'm saving our new biology stuff to start after the Christmas break, so for now we're focusing on human anatomy. I have a great resource book for this, and found a site with free coloring pages. Yes, I am completely evil, and am giving the kids a few light science and history lessons during vacation. Nothing else though lesson wise, except maybe Timez Attack, which Elf is now hooked on (thank you Jenny). He's actually doing well with his two times tables so I really can't complain!

In other general news, I will be officially done with this semester on Monday, when I take my algebra final. I have already submitted my final essays for political science and child development. Then no classes until mid-January! We also spent part of last weekend tearing out the wall-to-wall carpeting in the main bathroom. Yes, wall-to-wall carpeting. I don't know why, but it was there! Now we have bare (high quality) plywood, until we can tile it. Still better than the carpet though. I have a sort of milestone coming up this week when I turn 35. We got a Christmas tree today, and I put some lights up on our little front porch. And that's about it for our exciting life!

Almost forgot - small brag here...

Elf read Green Eggs & Ham to me yesterday, of his own free will! It is the biggest book he's read yet, so I thought it was pretty cool, especially since he even read with expression.

Got my science stuff!

Well, curriculum that is: pre-level biology and chemistry from Real Science 4 Kids. Elf's charter school ordered it for us to test out this year, as they have limited science stuff available for the lower grades. So, we're supposed to go ahead with it, and then at the end of the school year give the charter school our feedback. So far, from what I have seen perusing the pages, it looks fantastic. Very kid friendly, great layout, simple projects with stuff I actually have on hand... we'll start the biology next week and save the chemistry for next fall.

I also got my SOTW units figured out, including library lists for the first 2 units (Mesopotamia and Egypt). We'll be saving Rome for next year (oops). I just can't bring myself to hurry through history! Plus, if we take longer than 4 years, that's okay, especially if we do stick with the charter school, because they follows California education content standards to some degree, and in 6th grade, Elf would be doing Ancient History again anyway. So, 5 years, about, for SOTW 1-4 works out well in the long run, after which we may move to History Odyssey for Elf, in conjunction with SOTW for Fairy, or just continue with SOTW for both, with additional books, etc. for Elf.

We've gotten most of our Christmas shopping out of the way. Everything for the kids, except a few stocking stuffers, has been safely hidden away. I still have to shop for M, and get something for my MIL. I shop for most of my own family later on, since my mom doesn't celebrate Christmas until the Twelfth Night (ever since she lost her best friend to cancer on Christmas Day). So I also give gifts to my brother and sister then. We celebrate with my dad and my MIL on Christmas Eve. Very long holiday season for us, in other words! Every year I promise myself I'll shop early and get it all done ahead of time, but somehow it never quite seems to work out that way.

I'll have to take a picture of Elf's turkey vulture pic from yesterday. We saw several of them by the side of the road eating a dead opossum, and the kids insisted we stop and watch. So we did. It was kind of disgusting, but at the same time, it was funny watching them fight. They would cry out loudly (the kids said they were "yelling") and hit each other with their wings. So, Elf drew a picture of one, and did a narration, so I am counting that as science. Today we read Chapter 7 in SOTW and had a great discussion about laws and rules. We also had art and Elf had Spanish, plus we got some math and phonics done.

I am now off to a review for next week's algebra final. Yaaaay, ha ha.

Hmmmm....

I had a slightly lunatic thought tonight (which I will admit was inspired in part by a post written by Pixilated Mum)... what if I go through all the chapters in SOTW, and divide it into unit studies? I know, I know - it sounds a bit off considering the whole point of the book is chronological history, but then my kids seem to do really well with unit studies, and it would be easy enough to do. A unit on each ancient region: Egypt, China, India, the Americas, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome. Maybe a unit on the Hebrews? Each unit's length would depend on the subject, i.e. Egypt would be a lot longer than the Americas.

Anyhow, today was a pretty normal day. After Elf's class, we played, and had lunch, then eventually settled in for lessons. We actually seem to have a pattern to our days now! First calendar work (Saxon Math Meeting books), then memory work, then math, followed by phonics, and finally a variety of other subjects (history, geography, science, handwriting, music, etc.). So, Elf worked on measurements while Fairy worked on finding, counting and coloring "hidden" sea creatures, then we moved on to phonics, only Fairy chose to work on handwriting instead. Elf also read another of his leveled readers aloud, and actually read it fairly fluently.

That was it, and then I had to rush off to algebra myself. We started late, so we didn't get to the "extras" today, but there's always tomorrow!

Good start to the week....

Yesterday, I took Elf off to class, while Fairy slept in (poor baby is fighting a cold). Ran some errands, came home, picked Fairy up, and got back to the charter school just in time for free play outside, which Fairy loves to be a part of. Then, a stop at Trader Joe's, where the kids acted so-so, and then home, where we finally hung a wreath on our front door. They played for an hour, and then we sat down for lunch - yummy split-pea soup, perfect on a cold, almost rainy day - and finally, after another hour or so of play, we sat down to lessons.

Over the weekend, we got a new dining table, so I at last have my homeschool area in the family room, and the kids couldn't wait to sit down! I put on some music in the background (classical Christmas stuff). We started with calendar work: Fairy has her new color pattern for the month memorized, red green green, and Elf's IST gave me a bunch of weather symbols he can use in filling out his weather chart, which he thought was a lot of fun. Then, on to memorization - a review of the days of the week, and then the poem "Hey diddle diddle, the cat & the fiddle...". I think next week's poem will have to be more challenging, because they both got this one down fast! Some phonics work, where Elf made this week's words with his little letter cards, and Fairy worked on alphabet printouts from Enchanted Learning, and then a new subject. GRAMMAR! Finally, we got started with this, doing an intro to nouns from Teaching Treasures. Afterwards, the kids spent the whole evening naming things and seeing if they were nouns, so I think they got it, but I have a review planned for later in the week anyway. I also read them the Poco a poco story again, so we can restart musical studies. Smoothest day of homeschooling we've had in a while. A light day - no math, etc. - but I figure with Elf in an hour and a half class in the morning, a heavy schedule at home would be too much. He was really funny, scolding his letter cards when he misspelled one word, telling them they were out of order and had better get it straight, fast.

After all this, we drove to my MIL's house. My SUV is on her last wheels, so to speak, and is running very poorly, leaving me with an imminent sense of doom. I know I'll get stranded somewhere! But, MIL has an extra vehicle, so she's letting me borrow that until I can figure out how to afford a new (used) car. It's a truck, which is really not me, but it's fairly new, runs well, has enough room for my family with the extended cab... now if I can just figure out how to get rid of all the awful bumper stickers my step-father-in-law had put on it!

Some random, recent pictures...

The kids in their "vests of many colors" (after reading SOTW)

Elf cooking dinner for the family

Fairy helping with the side dishes

Good day today too. We did homeschooling early (for us), starting with calendar work, moving on through math, then some phonics work (from Elf's old Houghton Mifflin book we never completed last year for a change of pace). We finished up with a really fun book, called 1001 Things to Spot Long Ago from Usborne. Kind of like an I Spy crossed with Where's Waldo. Not a lot of stuff, but we covered the basic. After that, and some time I spent figuring out if we're "on track" with my plans for the year (which we mostly are), we headed off to the park. When we got there, most of the kids were off on an adventure, but mine settled right in anyway, having me push them on the swings. Eventually everyone else came back, and there were a lot of kids today! They played running-and-chasing games, climbing games, burying-cars-in-the-sand games... I think the idea of the "game" changed every 15 minutes! All the while my Fairy sat happily in the sand, digging with her buddy Cassia (I understand they are twins now). I met a mom whose daughter goes to the same charter school as Elf, which was cool, and we really got along well. She even gave Elf some car-related toys she was planning on donating. Anyhow, it turned out to be one of the best park days I've been to in a while. I do wish we had gotten there in time for the adventure, and that it hadn't gotten quite so cold, but it was still great fun.

Now I'm off to enjoy my first whole work-free weekend in months!

Our mummified apple slices...

Here's a picture of the apples about a week and a half ago... the one on the left is the "control" apple, which was, at this point, slimy but still fairly hard, and the one on the right is the musch lighter, and dried out "mummy" apple. Since then, the control apple slice completely rotted inside its ziploc bag, so we declared that we are fnished with the project and threw the control apples away!

Back in the saddle...

so to speak. We've actually sat down and done lessons this week! Tuesday, in math, Elf did a couple of pages of review, some of which included adding up the value of x # of dimes and x # of pennies. Warning - brag here! He's doing it all in his head, and getting every one right! He read aloud another book, drew some silly pictures for geography (how people alter the landscape), and colored a page on Ancient Sumeria while I read chapter 6 from SOTW out loud. Then he and Fairy made "vests of many colors" out of grocery bags. We also finally stopped our apple mummification project. The mummy apples are like very salty dried apples now, and the "control" apples molded completely inside their ziploc bags. Eeeeeeeewwwwwww. We finished up with a spelling test I meant to get to last week. Elf got one word sort of wrong because he made the "p" in "stop" backwards, so afterwards I had him go back and rewrite it. During all this, Fairy also colored, worked on a couple of pages from ETC, did a shape-matching work sheet, and played with math manipulatives.

Yesterday, we had a meeting with Elf's IST, so we spent the morning prepping, which mainly meant printing pictures of Elf at work (ex: picture of him working on his clay tablet) and having him copy over a sentence about each thing that I wrote in highlighter. After the meeting, he had Spanish, and then we had art class. This week's subject was the Snowy Egret, which we painted using feathers to get a nice wispy look.

I've been studying hard myself. Algebra is getting increasingly difficult, naturally. Plus I missed two essays from Political Science when I was having some computer trouble, so I've been working on making those up. Then the Child Development project, etc. I did register for spring classes this week - more algebra, World History (to 1500), and biology.

Well, off to work on another essay!

My essay on Homeschooling & Socialization...

I would just put a link, but the web site has my name on it, so I'm just cutting and pasting...


I have noticed, since posting about our site, a fair amount of interest in the socialization process for kids that attend school at home, so as a parent that does school my two at home, I thought I might address some of these issues. Please keep in mind as you read this, that this article is intended only to show some of the socialization opportunities available - I am not saying that homeschooling is a better option than public schooling, as each family needs to make their own choices for their own children.

First of all, yes, there are a lot of socialization opportunities out there for homeschooled children. I belong to a local homeschool group that has park days, field trips, and more. With them we have toured pumpkin patches, a sticker factory, an ecology center, and more, just as public school children go on field trips. Children on these ventures range from tots to near-adults, giving all the children a wide range of people with which to socialize. 4-H is another option, with a homeschool group of its own. Many regions of the U.S. have numerous groups to which a family can belong, all with unique offerings. There are also charter school programs tailored to meet the needs of the homeschooled child, offering academic assistance and a variety of elective classes, so that even a devoted at-home-scholar can enjoy a classroom environment once or twice a week, or even more if desired. In addition, there are sports teams and classes, dance classes, art classes, Scouts, music lessons, and much more. According to Time Magazine (Seceding from School, August 2001), “98% of homeschooled children are involved in activities outside their homes, with persons other than family members”. For many homeschooling families, the issue is too many outside activities!

Then there are the more mundane aspects of socialization, those that come about through daily life. Grocery shopping, going to the library, running other errands, all provide social opportunities, chances for children to meet with and mingle with people of all ages, in real-world settings. Older children, in their teens, often seek out part-time employment (just as public school teens do), or internships, that provide them with more socialization, while instilling the sense of responsibility we all hope to see our children develop.

Of course, part of the role of being a parent who homeschools is to seek out and fully utilize these opportunities, just as much as it is that parent’s responsibility to act as teacher for their children. A parent interested in homeschooling is often a parent willing to do all types of research to find the best teaching tools and experiences for their child(ren).

And yes, there are always homeschooled kids that are not well socialized, but then there are kids like that in public schools too. My brother, for example, went through second grade, in a public school, without saying a word to anyone. No socialization "system", at home or at a school, is perfect.

I would like to finish by saying that, in my personal experience, I have noticed a striking difference in homeschooled kids versus their public school counterparts, and that is the willingness of older kids to play games with younger ones. Often in schools, children are very much age-segregated, and the older child that plays with a younger one can become a target for ridicule. I have not yet witnessed this at a park day, 4-H, or any other homeschool gathering. To me, that says a lot about homeschooled socialization.

So many questions...

For my Child Development class (which is online), I had to work with a group of people to create a web site about schools and socialization. Afte developing, and posting, the site, we started getting questions about homeschooling and socialization, so I wrote an essay on that and added it to the site. Now I am getting flooded with questions, ranging from "how do I homeschool when I have kids?" to "Do you feel you are depriving your kids of a normal adolescence?" In a nutshell, yes I am depriving my kids. They don't deal with bullying (except from each other), they don't have to stand in line, be taught for the purpose of testing, wait for bathroom breaks, get excluded from cliques, have to be inside all day at a desk.... so yes, I am depriving them of that. Socially, I would have to say they are not deprived. As I type this, Elf is at "school" (his "homeschool school", as he calls it), having classroom time with probably 15-18 other kids near his age.

Anyhow, the responses have been interesting! I am doing my best to answer the questions fairly, and calmly (no, I didn't say to the deprivation question what I wrote here - that's just what I wanted to say. I was much more polite in my actual answer!). I think the teacher assigned me to this group, and this particular topic, on purpose, because if she read my class intro, etc., she knows I homeschool!

Speaking of which, no, we didn't do much last week! The kids did do Thanksgiving activity books, and we did talk alot about Thanksgiving, plus they helped clean the house, Elf made the mashed potatoes, and Fairy helped M make gravy, but that's it. We did have a lovely Thanksgiving though! Everyone that was supposed to came, we ate tons of yummy food, kicked back in front of the living room fire, chatted, until eventually everyone drifted off to their respective homes, and then E trounced me in a game of chess, as always (there has got to be a way to defeat him!!!).

Today's plan, when Elf and Fairy are home this afternoon (my mom takes them on Monday mornings): a new poem for memory work, some phonics work, an intro to grammar, and then I plan to have Elf read a new book aloud... maybe a math worksheet, but not sure yet. Not a heavy load, but then he had class this morning.

Just wanted to say....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Just a quick link...

Here's a link to our science/art project from last week. I am very pleased with them!

Woodland Animals

Oh, and on a sidenote, I was in the breakroom yesterday at work, and one of the other women, who has small kids, was asking me about homeschooling (seems she's not satisfied with the education her daughter is recieving). Anyhow, a male co-worker suddenly jumped into the conversation and it turns out that his five children were all homeschooled (the youngest, age 14, is still being homeschooled), and today he has a lawyer-in-training, a freelance writer, an actress, and an intern/doctor in his family. Not a bad turnout!

Science pages for Temperate Woodland Animals

For this semi-project, the kids painted the backgrounds (Fairy did ask for some help a number of times) and the animals/birds, which were then cut out and glued to the appropriate layer of the forest - canopy, brush, earth and subterranean. The animals are: brown bear, deer fox, hedgehog/porcupine, raccoon, squirrel, mouse and worm. Birds include: eagle, thrush, cardinal and hummingbird.

Here is Elf's. He had originally put the worm in the earth, but then decided the bird needed to eat it:

And here is Fairy's, complete with a magic purple deer:

Finally, an update...

Thought there's not much to report! It's been a slow week, and we honestly haven't gotten much done, school-wise. We have gone to a buddy gymnastics day, started cleaning the house for Thanksgiving company, gotten M's arm in a proper cast, and so on, but we really only hit the books on Tuesday. I do have lessons planned for today (phonics/spelling, math and science) to finish off a few things for the week, but that's about it! I found a website with free printable grammar lessons, so we'll start with nouns on Monday.

I have been working on choosing my classes for the spring semester at the community college, as I can register in just over a week. Biology, more advanced algebra, world history, and maybe an online typing/keyboarding class. I am trying to get my typing speed up, as this is one of the major things administrative jobs look for, and I honestly can not stay working for a grocery store forver, or even the next few years while I finish college and credentialing. Anyhow, it looks to be a busy semester, but manageable.

I am also trying to reorganize our homeschooling lessons. I have ordered (well, the charter school ordered) a couple of actual science workbooks for Elf. Each one has 10 units - one book is biology and one is chemistry. I asked around on several message boards about these, because I had heard yes they were secular, no they weren't... eventally I got enough good feedback to try Real Science 4 Kids. We ordered the pre-level ones that are supposed to be good for 1st-2nd grade. I did like the sample pages I viewed online. Anyhow, I need to really be a little more diligent about hitting all our subjects each week. We;ll go for a couple of weeks without touching certain books, and then I feel like we're behind, which we aren't really, but it feels that way. So, I am looking back over my plans, and trying to actually incoporate them into our homeschool days.

In other news, M and I are celebrating our 12th anniversary this weekend (it's technically Monday). Twelve years.... I won't say it has all been an easy ride, but definately worthwhile! We're just going to go out to dinner tonight, by ourselves.

Have a good weekend!

Weekly Report: Nov. 5-9

Language Arts:
Elf got halfway through lesson 6 in ETC, after finishing Lesson 5 on Monday. He read aloud a Level One reader called "We Are Singing" and colored the corrosponding section of his bookworm chart. For copywork (and a quick grammar lesson), he copied the poem "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, and Jack jump over the candlestick", which was also his memorization work for the week. He also wrote about snails in his journal: I fand a snale in our garden (I found a snail in our garden).

Fairy worked on "k" sounds from her Get Ready for the Code. I realized just yesterday that she is more than halfway through this ETC primer already! This means she will likely get through all 3 primers by the end of our school year and be able to start on ETC 1 next fall (yes, I plan ahead). She also worked in her HWOT book, while repetitively singing the alphabet song. She learned the same poem as Elf this week.

For bedtime read-alouds, we're reading the first Harry Potter book. We also read a couple of Amelia Bedelia books, a Frog and Toad book, and several of the Curious George stories.

Math:

We kept up with our Saxon Meeting books. Fairy's color pattern this month is brown-red-red. Elf is keeping his weather chart up-to-date as well.

Elf did 3 drill pages this week - two were adding single digit numbers, and the other was filling in ___ + a given number = 10. He also did 4 regular worksheets, with word problems, simple fractions, telling time, money, number patterns, and addition/subtraction. He used his manipulatives a fair amount for this, especially the (plastic) coins, 10-sticks and 1 cubes.

Fairy worked on 2 worksheets for counting and two for matching a number to a group of objects this week. I need to print out some more worksheets for her from LearningPage or Enchanted Learning, as soon as I get some more ink! She worked with linking cubes and pattern blocks too.

History:

We read Chapter 5 in SOTW - "The First Sumerian Dictator" - and I had Elf do a narration: Sargon wanted to be the ruler of all of the land of Mesopotamia. He fought all the cities. He sent soldiers into all the cities and they made sure the people obeyed without asking questions. Sargon ruled for a long time.

Fairy enjoyed the story too, and wanted to know if she could be a cup-bearer to a king someday.

We also worked on our apple mummification project (see Science below).

Geography:

Elf worked in his MGG (Maps, Globes, Graphs) book on a section about how people affect the land around them. He narrated labels for pictures, and then drew pictures of people building houses, building roads, and gardening.

Fairy colored, at her request, a simple outline map of the continents.

Science:

We are wrapping up our apple mummification project, and I'll post pics of the results next week. The mummified apples are quite light in weight, soft, and dry, whereas the "control" apples are nasty brown slimy things.

I had decided to drop the Animal Encyclopedia studies we were doing, but then the kids saw me shelving the book and asked me to read another section. So we read about animals of the woodlands. I am going to copy a project Elf did last year at his charter school: I will give each kid a forest picture to color, with the canopy level, brush level, earth level, and sub-earth level, and then some cut-outs of animals to color and place in the appropriate areas.

Memorization:

As mentioned before, the kids worked on the "Jack be nimble" poem this week. We also go through the days of the week each morning.

Art:

On Wednesday, Elf has an art class at his charter school. As I am now the classroom assistant for this hour-long class, Fairy gets to go too. This week we made leaf prints with leaves and tempura paint.

At home, we did Advanced Scribble art. I did one as a sample and then had the kids do them. The hardest part was getting them to understand that they did not want to make them really complex.

Gee, last night was fun...

Ha ha. Actually, it pretty well sucked. I got home from class (algebra), dinner was ready to be served... so far so good. The kids were even already in pajamas! But then, Elf decided to go outside to see his glow-in-the-dark skeleton pajamas glow, and M followed him to get him back in at the dinner table. M, walking across the dark yard, slipped in a pile of leaves he had raked up a couple of hours earlier, fell, and broke his left wrist. Instead of having dinner with my family, I left the kids at home with E, and spent 3 and a half hours in the ER with M, waiting, listening to a drunk 17 year old kid get a Tazer dart pulled out of his shoulder, waiting, waiting... you get the picture. I am just glad E lives with us and could take care of the children for me. When we lived out of county a while back, M cut his thumb in his shop, and I had to drag the kids to the hospital with us, and amuse them in an ER waiting room for a few hours.

Anyhow, long story short, he fractured (into several pieces) the rounded end of one arm bone (radius) right at the wrist. He's in a splint now, getting a cast next week. Unfortunately, my job is running late on getting my benefit paperwork to me, so we don't have insurance for the adults in this family at this point, and M will be missing some work, but we'll get through it, and I think my insurance will be retroactive to October.

In regular household news, I got Elf and Fairy started on some memorization work today from the Treasury of Children's Poetry, which I picked up on sale for $3 two years ago and have barely opened. I thought we'd start small, with "Jack be nimble, etc.", and I gave it to Elf for his copywork. I'll have to post a picture as he did a lovely job. Then on to math, where Elf filled in the blanks on ____ + a given number = 10, or vice versa: a given number + ____ = 10. He got 25 of 25 right! Of course, a lot of them are repeats (no other way to have 25), but I guess that's the point of a drill page. We also did 3 pages in ETC, then read Chapter 5 in SOTW, after which I had him give me a narration of the chapter. In the meantime, Fairy worked on her HWOT book, her Meeting book, her ETC primer, and had a lot of math manipulatives play. She also listened in on SOTW and had her own points to add to the narration.

I had really hoped to head to a park day tomorrow, but I don't think we'll make it this time. My SUV is leaking oil all over my driveway, and my brother can't look at it until Saturday. I've been driving my mom's car, but it goes in for new tires tomorrow. I also have loads of housework to catch up on, homework to finish (political Science & algebra), and some homeschooling stuff to get the kids through. Maybe I'll do a fun art project with them in the afternoon instead. Oh, and speaking of art, I again had a great time as the teacher's assistant for Elf's art class this week! I got to direct the kids (15 this time, in small groups) in making leaf prints with tempura paint.

Well, I think today helped make up for the last few, school-wise that is! We sat down to do lessons at about 11 and worked through to about 2, with a couple of breaks in there for playtime, running and the ever-popular jumping jacks.

We started with our Saxon meeting books, and then Elf did 2 pages in math - one regular work sheet, with a word problem, fractions, telling time, counting money, and double-digit adding (no carrying or borrowing though), plus a drill sheet on some basic addition. Fairy did a math worksheet where she matched groups of objects to their numbers and traced the numbers, plus she spent some time playing with various manipulatives, and I worked with her on counting.

After that (and break #1), we moved onto ETC and GRfTC. Elf got halfway through Lesson 6, by himself, before getting tired of it, and Fairy did 6 pages in her book, with minimal assistance (basically I read the directions and let her do all the work). Break # 2, and we checked in on our apple slices. The mummified ones are very light and dry now, while the "control" apple slices are getting pretty gross - slimy, dark brown... good thing they're in Ziploc bags! We finished up with a few pages in Maps, Globes, Graphs for Elf, on how people alter their environments, with Fairy looking on. Then we had lunch and watched a documentary on the ancient wonders of Egypt.

So, I call that a very good school day! We also spent 15 minutes, approximately, reading a Curious George story aloud, and Elf read We Are Singing to me. Definately a productive day, and I don't know if it's because we took a few days off, or the breaks, but for once there was no whining! With Elf's progress through ETC today, I know he can read better than he lets on. He read all the silly sentences to himself, chuckling the whole time, and got all the right answers. I guess he just needs to keep building his reading confidence?

Getting back on track...

is not easy. We've skipped altogether too many "school" days in the last week. Ooops. Somehow, time has just been getting away from me. So today, I gave Cyrus a math assessment in his book, and thankfully, we can skip ahead a bit. He did catch up on his ETC, finishing (finally) Lesson 5. Tomorrow we'll get a fresh start! Cassia worked on matching shapes in a mermaid coloring-&-activity book, and worked a little in her Code book. Cyrus did write a great entry in his journal about snails! It was inspired by time spent out front, ripping out the last azalea and putting in pansies. We found a half a dozen snails, which both kids found absolutely fascinating! Science? I think so. Speaking of science, we're abandoning the Animal Encyclopedia for now, and instead are going to just focus on nature studies. I got 2 great blank books for nature journals (plus I have an old blank book for my own nature journal). When the weather turns wet and wintery, we'll move on to human anatomy, etc. I have discovered that the children are much more interested in plants and animals they see first hand than in reading about them, and coloring pictures.

Speaking of seeing things first hand, my mom drove the kids and I to Cyrus's class today (as my car has an oil leak - yaaay), and we were looking for hot air balloons, since there's usually 1 or 2 around on clear mornings. Well, this morning we saw 3, and boy, we got a good view! There was apparently no wind up there, and they came down right next to the highway we drive on. The kids were in absolute awe at how huge they are close up, and just beautiful too - all deep rich colors. We were late to class due to stopping for a few minutes to watch, but it was worth it! It took me back to my childhood, when hot air balloons used to fly over our house on weekends, and one day, one came down in the field across the little street we lived on.

That was our excitment for the day. The rest of it was pretty ordinary. We did the aforementioned homeschooling, gardened a bit, did a little housework, I had algebra... Oh, and on the job front, the good grocery store offered me fewer hours at lower pay, with no benefits, so it's a no go. So, if you hear of a good part-time secretarial job that pays pretty well, let me know! I'm getting really frustrated with being out of the house every evening and never having weekends to do anything with my family. The pay isn't really worth it. Enough already, though, right? Other than work, things are good, so I can't really complain too much!

I've been so bad about blogging....

So I'll try to catch up! Happy Halloween btw, a day late!

As far as school work goes, we've been keeping on track with math, phonics, spelling and our apple mummification, but all the "extras" have kind of gone by the wayside this week. We started a small unit on measurements in math for Elf, and his IST loaned us a bunch of new manipulatives to help with number placement as well. We finished Lesson 5 in ETC and Fairy has just wrapped up her section on "m" sounds. I hope to get a fresh start back up now that Halloween is over, since we took that day off.

Our Halloween was really fun. The kids got up early, had their oatmeal and jumped into costume. Elf was Optimus Prime (a Transformer just in case you don't know) and Fairy was Snow White. My sister bought their costumes early this year, and they were great costumes:

Elf's charter school (or as he called it last week, his "homeschool school") had a Fall Festival in the morning, with scarecrow building, apple peeling & slicing (with those neat spiral slicers where you just turn a handle), corn grinding, fresh hot apple cider, beading, pumpkin carving, and a snack from the garden. I can't say I particularly care for rice flour crust on a pizza, and neither did the kids, but oh well. Despite an extra layer under their costumes, the kids and I were unfortunately freezing all morning, and it made Fairy cranky, and Elf whiny, but we managed to have some fun.

After that, we headed off to pick up dinner stuff, and then home for some hot lunch... bean-cheese-&-tomato tostadas, which are the kids' new favorite lunch. The kids took their costumes off and played in the yard for a while once the sun came out. Then, back into costume and down to visit my dad!

We wound up the day by going out trick-or-treating, both around our block and around several blocks over near my mom's house, while M stayed home to hand out candy. Last year, at the apartment, we had no trick-or-treaters at all, which was a big disappointment, but this year, in our new neighborhood, we had a flood of them.

Oh, and here are our jack o' lanterns, at the kids' request. Elf carved his own, all by himself this year, and Fairy carved a fair bit of hers. I'm pretty happy with how my own turned out too!

Elf's goblin pumpkin

Fairy's princess pumpkin

My oak leaves and acorns pumpkin

I am now a classroom volunteer...

Just for an hour early Wednesday afternoons. On Wednesdays, Elf has 45 minutes of Spanish and an hour (more or less) of art. Well, today Fairy was invited by Elf's IST to join the art class, so while Elf was in Spanish we went off to feed ducks and then headed back to find out that the mom that had coordinated the project-of-the-day idea had decided to do something else, so the IST asked me if I would be willing to supervise the finger-painting station. It was soooo much fun! There are only about 12-14 kids in the class, in grades K-2, so I only had 2-3 kids at the table at a time. Such nice kids overall too! The IST asked me if I would be available on future Wednesdays, and let me know that Fairy is always welcome in her classes. I asked Elf what he thought of me being in his class each week, and he said "Mommy, I'd love it!", so classroom volunteer I am! This is great because the IST said she would sign a form for the college I'm transferring to so that I have credit towards the 120 hours of classroom service I need before entering the teacher credentialing program in another 2 years.

Speaking of his classes, he is friends with several other boys, and a couple of girls, that are in his blended class, so I was excited for Fairy today when the new kindergarten girl asked Fairy to play at break time, sat next to her at circle time, and worked with her at the coloring station. They're really close in age and have a lot in common (right down to the silver hoop earrings). Makes Fairy really feel a part of the class.

In other news, the manager of the good store is "very excited to welcome me on board". Haven't even had my second interview yet, so that's pretty good! I won't get the new store a mile away as too many of their already-hired employees transferred there, but I'll work just across town, and yes, I'll likely earn a little more, plus it's just a way cooler store. I also got my midterm grades - a solid B in algebra (yaaaay!!!) and satisfactory (no letter grade yet) in the other 2 classes. Phew!

Schoolwise, we've just been plugging along. Elf is whizzing through math, and Fairy is doing well with handwriting and phonics, except that she tends to write her name completely backwards, letters and all. Is that normal for a left-handed kid developing writing skills? Elf never did it, so it's new to me. At least she has all the right letters, in the right order if you read right to left or in a mirror. We started our apple mummification project, with slices of untreated apples as the control factor, and we're going to make mummy dolls with sarcophagi in the next couple of weeks.

Nice rainy week...

Here's our week's round-up. It was kind of a slow-feeling week due to the loads of rain we got, which we sorely needed. Our once-dead lawns are turning green again (mostly)!

Language Arts:
Elf worked through the last part of Lesson 3 and all of Lesson 4 in ETC. He also got 100% on his spelling test (trim, trap, frog, trot, rip, press, and clam). Of course much of this involved moaning and groaning. He loves the ETC workbook, except that he's not very fond of all the writing! Funny, because he's really enjoying his journal. This week he wrote a little about our house, and drew a picture of it. Fairy drew a picture too, and I'll tell you, our house looks very different from one picture to the next! Elf also finally read aloud a Level 1 book - #11: Snip Snap - that he's been avoiding because he thought it looked too hard - surprise! He read the whole thing quite well, if a little slowly, which I'd actually rather he do than rush through and make up words. In addition, he flew through a few more pages in his HWOT workbook.

Fairy is finishing up with the letter m in her Get Ready for the Code, and spends a fair amount of time going through her alphabet flash cards, singing the alphabet or naming the items on the cards with a lot of emphasis on the beginning sound. She's enjoying her HWOT book as well, and is asking for a journal.

Math:
We're up through lesson 32 in Saxon Math 2. Elf has learned this week about temperatures to the nearest 10 degrees, doubles plus one, a review of addition & subtraction word problems and some patterning, plus I tried him out on simple double digit addition involving carrying numbers, and he got it right off the bat! We'll see how well he remembers it later on though.

Fairy has been (mostly) completing worksheets that I print off Enchanted Learning or LearningPage dot com, as well as keeping her Meeting Book up to date. We go over the days of the week every morning with the Meeting Book, and she's looking forward to a new color pattern next month (this month is brown and orange).

History:
We read chapter 4 in SOTW this week, and browsed through a few books on ancient Egypt from the charter school. I've "chickened" out (sorry, couldn't resist) and decided we're going to mummify apples instead. By the way, Jenny, how are your game hens doing? We're thinking we might make it to the Egyptian Museum sometime in November - we'll see. Both kids are really enjoying the Egyptians, so I am happy we went with chronological history. We also did some map work and coloring pages this week, and I need to do a search on my tv for related shows (the History Channel usually has some good ones).

Science:
Elf has been studying owls at his charter school and is fascinated by them, so we've been talking about them a lot, drawing pictures, looking at all the cool little bones he got out of the owl pellet he dissected at the charter school... we also read, cover to cover, the Zoobook that arrived on Tuesday - all about sharks. He says he wants to continue studying animals for a while, and in another month or so we may move into anatomy (animal and human). Maybe a trip to the zoo is in order too!

Fairy on the other hand is very interested lately in both snakes (due to Blackberry) and bunnies. There are several of the regular pet-type bunnies loose in our neighborhood, so she runs to the livingroom window every morning to look for them.

Home Ec:
The kids helped me make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies this week - I had them measure and add the ingredients while I supervised. Only problem was, it was hard to keep the raw ingredients in the bowl rather than their mouths! They also helped me clean the house as we were expecting company today - first time my dad has been here to see the house. Elf is getting really good about trying to keep the room he shares with Fairy nice and tidy. Still a ways to go, but he's learning! I've given both of them a few chores to do daily, and they're doing well with them. M and I have decided that the time has come to officially start an allowance for them, provided they do their chores, and their homeschooling.

Other:
Elf has gotten through the boring intro in Maps, Globes, Graphs and is now working on chapter 1, which is all about landscape features, like mountains, rivers, plains, etc.

Art-wise, they're both drawing between 1-10 pictures a day, so I haven't been worrying about that, although there are a couple of drawing projects on KinderArt that I'd like to do with them.

Musically, we've been listening to variety of music these days. E likes jazz, so we hear a fair bit of that, and today we watched Fantasia 2000 - art and music!

Speaking of movies, Fairy wants to be Snow White for Halloween, but had never seen the movie. It turned out my dad had an old VHS copy he didn't want anymore, so he brought it over today when he came for lunch, and we finished it a couple of hours ago. Parts of it freaked both kids out, but they laughed almost hysterically through a lot of it. Elf is going to be Optimus Prime. We still need to make it to the local pumpkin patch! There was a homeschool association field trip on Friday to one, but since it rained, I don't know if it happened or not.

I called the good grocery store this week to see what was going on, and I'll be going in for a second interview within a week. Yaaay! I aslo got another perfect score on an essay for my Political Science class, which is just funny because I still don't own the textbook (don't tell my teacher that). I base everything I write for those off his recorded lectures (it's an online class), stuff I've read or seen, and what I can find on the internet or in the encyclopedia.

And that's it for now!

No surprises here!

"Sumerian" Clay Tablets

Elf's clay tablet (sorry it's a bit blurry)

And Fairy's

Plugging along...

Today was a lot better. We started out with Meeting Books, which both kids willingly brought up to date. Fairy recited the days of the week in order, which she was very proud of because Elf still has trouble with this! Then Fairy completed a Halloween counting worksheet, even writing the numbers herself instead of having me write them so she can trace them, and Elf did a drill page on addition, and a regular worksheet with fractions and word problems. In ETC, Elf finished Lesson 4, except for the spelling test I plan on giving him tomorrow, while Fairy worked diligently on "m" sounds. Elf then read a Bob book aloud, I read one of Aesop's fables, and we finished by re-reading Chapter 3 in SOTW, and then made clay tablets:

This project was lots of fun - we ended up using some clay I had on hand, but it's not the bake-able kind, so they made other things out of the tablets afterwards:

In the background, you can see my ever-so-lovely wallpaper (which I have started removing, although M thinks it now looks even worse with a bare patch on one wall). We're planning to have it stripped and repainted well before Christmas.... I hope.

Oh, I also added a new link to my curriculum in the sidebar - Book Lists.

October Book List...

Elf:
My Monster and Me
We Are Singing
Bob Books Set 2

Read-alouds:
Babar stories
The Complete Adventures of Curious George
Mouse Soup
Mouse Tales
Frog & Toad collection
Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone (our bedtime reading)

I like this result...

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

Though I'm not sure I talk all that much!

Most of a day off...

I decided this morning that we'd take today off, mostly. Elf did have Spanish (45 minutes) and Art (40 minutes) at the charter school today, and Fairy and I spent that time going to Whole Foods, the bank and the library (where we read books but did not check any out due to the astronomical amount of money I owe them), so I am counting all that as school for today. Especially since we are right on target (or ahead of) the goals the IST and I made for this month. We had a meeting (before classes and library time) with Elf's IST, where we went over his journal work, his finally finished writing sample, our history studies, math samples, and science. Plus, Elf read My Monster and Me aloud. He is so much more confident with his reading so far this year! This also means that he gets to color another segment on his bookworm reading chart.

On the homefront, I think we're getting somewhere with all the unpacking. Yes, we still have stuff to unpack, but most of that has been placed in the garage for now, and what is in the house is where we want it, for the most part. I need to make time to sew the kids curtains soon, since my mom now has the fabric on hand. I also want to sew curtains for the other rooms, but those can come later, as can painting. I am still trying to get accustomed to the fact that we own this house, we're not just tenants. I find myself thinking "well, someday we'll own a home". Duh. When does the unbelievability (is that even a word?) wear off? On a positive note, I am doing much better with my daily household chores here! Maybe it's having the space to put things away, maybe it's just the home ownership pride thing... but whatever it is, I am glad I'm keeping up with it. BTW, Jenny, what are you guys doing the week before Halloween? Maybe a Wednesday or Friday (pre-park time) lunch?

I am still waiting to hear from the other grocery store and will give them a call tomorrow to check in, since I am really hoping this will work out. The current grocery store manager is really giving me a hard time regarding my unavailable days, and so far we haven't made it to 4H at all because I am always working during meetings. We may have to just not do 4H right now. Aaaarggghhh! Well, it's always something, and overall things are good, so no more complaints for now about evil corporate grocery stores!

I don't know if we should...

do any sit-down lessons when I'm sick. I've had this cold for nine awful days now, and it just won't budge, plus I think I'm anemic again, which just doesn't help. Lessons today were an awful combination of Elf fidgeting (his true talent) and me getting angry. I probably should have just stopped for the day, but I really want to stay somewhat on track, and when I feel that stubborn about something I have a hard time backing off!

Anyhow, we did accomplish something. He made three letter & color patterns with his name for math that turned out to be pretty neat. He did another page of math practically on his own. He finished the third lesson in ETC and got 100% on his spelling test! Plus he finally did a writing exercise for his charter school, where each child was given two pictures and had to choose one to write about, in whatever words they wanted, with their own spelling, grammar, etc. His is short, but he did it! Phew. I'm just glad it's over. I do have to say though that both are working hard in gymnastics. I'm beginning to really see progress in both of them.

We did a make-up session on Sunday, since I've been sick and therefore completely unmotivated, where he did beautifully, as did Fairy. They listened, did the work without complaint, and did it well... I was hoping today would be a repeat of that! I read Chapter 3 in SOTW (we're making flour-based "clay" tablets tomorrow) while the kids colored their Egyptian scribe pictures, did a few pages of math, handwriting and ETC, and Fairy worked really hard on her Code book, plus we caught up on science by reading about "Animals of the Coniferous Forest" while Elf colored a grey wolf picture and Fairy colored a (blue) snowshoe rabbit (printouts courtesy of Enchanted Learning). It was nice!

Well, maybe tomorrow will be better. I'm off to bed in a few minutes, with yet another cup of Throat Coat tea so I won't cough so much tonight. Jenny, if you read this, is there a Friday park day this week? I'm totally confused, because I thought it was going weekly, but the newsletter doesn't mention that... and we missed the last one. Of course, I could easily be mistaken!

Tagged!

I read Jenny's blog, so I've been tagged. If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged too unless you've already played this round...

1. Your rock star name: (first pet, current car) - Felix Ford
2. Your gangster name: (favorite ice cream, favorite cookie) - Peppermint Gingersnap
3. Your fly guy/girl name: (first initial first name, first 3 letters last name) - GEst
4. Your detective name: (favorite color, favorite animal) - Green Dolphin
5. Your soap opera name: (middle name, birth city) - Ann Petaluma
6. Your Star Wars name (first three letter last name, first 2 letter of first name) - EstGi
7. Superhero Name: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink and add "the") - The Blue Merlot
8.Nascar name (first names of your grandfathers) - Edgar Arthur
9. Stripper Name: (favorite perfume, favorite candy) - Green Tea Chocolate
10. Witness Protection Name: (mother's and father's middle name) Marlena Edgar

Okay, I like my rock star name, my gangster name (though admittedly it does not sound threatening), my detective name (which is almost the name of one of my favorite books), and my superhero name, although I can't imagine the superpowers that go with that one. My stripper name is just silly.

Meet Blackberry....

The kids are totally not scared of him/her, but instead beg to hold it all the time. I'm getting used to it too. He/she is a ball python, and may get up to 5 feet long - yikes!

What a nice day...

I got up early this morning to go interview for the good grocery store, and they'll be calling me in 1-2 weeks with details on starting around mid-November! The new store opens officially the first week of December. Turns out they love ex-corporate-grocery-store employees because we are very well trained. As a bonus, my sister, who was also applying, brought me a lovely latte, which I rarely buy myself because they're just too expensive.

So that put me in a good mood. Then I came home, had some coffee and read for a while, cleaned the kitchen, and baked a lemon cake for my friend W's (late) birthday celebration. M cooked dinner this evening, and the kids, W and I cleaned up all the old branches from the apple tree in the backyard - they, along with about a million little apples, have been cluttering the ground out there for a couple of weeks now. Without them, the yard looks much better, although still dead. I think I am going to make apple butter with the remaining million apples on the tree. Wouldn't that taste wonderful on fresh-baked bread in the winter?

Then, my mom sent me pics of curtain material for the kids' room, that she bought and that I will sew. I'll post pics when they're up. Suffice to say, they will go nicely with the rug, but thankfully I don't think they'll be overwhelming.

I think I'm off now to brew some tea and bathe the elflings, who are at the moment possibly quite the dirtiest children in the world.

Finishing the week up...

So, here's the update for the week ending on Sept. 29!

the Elf:
He is now (as of today, the 28th), keeping a journal, as part of a collaboration between his IST and myself, in order to get him in the flow of writing more easily. It will not be corrected, so all the spelling and unique grammar will be entirely his own! Today, he wrote (and incidentally almost all even spelled perfectly) about hot rods. And then drew a picture of a hot rod, with giant exhaust pipes and flames down the side.

In math, he is, as always, trucking along. I think it took him all of 5 or 6 minutes to do a whole worksheet today! He's really enjoying keeping track of the weather with his Meeting Book, and plans to count up the hot, warm, cool, and cold days at the end of each month for comparison purposes.

Historically speaking, we read today about Osiris (how do you pronounce this? I hear different ways from different people) and his evil brother Set. Then we had an interesting discussion about gods, and why people believe in them/him. I also did some digging around and found this site (scroll down to find Color Me Egypt), and this one for more coloring pages. We also actually did all the comprehension questions from part one of this chapter, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Elf did listen!

In language arts, he has finished his review of capital letter formation in HWOT, and has gotten through the first couple of lessons in ETC. He's also still reading aloud in the evenings, usually a Bob Book, although he's working on a set of readers that we got from his school, along with a caterpillar chart to color in as he masters each book. He's been doing some copywork as well, plus now journaling, so I think we're making some good headway in this area.

For science, we've been studying Animals of the Ice and Tundra, and if you look under Science Samples in the sidebar, you'll find his caribou drawing. He's also been spending a lot of time playing with the microscope, and of course, both kids are fascinated by the snake!

Other than that, he draws something everyday, so I haven't been bothering with art lessons at the moment. Musically, we've been listening to a cd called Mozart in Egypt. He's working really hard in gymnastics, and has even asked M to show him how to do some strengthening exercises at home so that he'll perform better in class. We're looking forward to having a weekly park day, as long as my job schedule meshes well with it.

the Fairy:
Not a heavy schoolwork week for her. She has been working a lot with her alphabet flashcards, and playing a lot of self-designed counting games, as well as spending an hour at a time at the little drafting table, drawing insanely intricate pictures of... well, things. She also colors the Egyptian handouts (as I type this she's working diligently on a picture of Osiris), and participates in the SOTW discussions, as well as following the science topics, so I'm not worried about her "falling behind".
She's also been working hard in gymnastics, and practices some of it at home as well.

In general household news, there's a fabulous grocery store opening up nearby, and tomorrow they are holding open interviews for all positions. If they pay any better than where I work now, I'm jumping ship. Unlike where I work now, they are not a corporation - instead they are a small, local chain (this will be the third store). Also, Elf cooked a whole dinner by himself last Saturday! He made turkey sloppy joes and coleslaw, his absolute favorite meal in the world. I just oversaw the process of cooking to make sure there were no burns, cuts, etc. Ummm.... let's see... oh, check out the new link at the bottom of my sidebar - cool whale pictures, some of which were taken by my brother-in-law.

And that's it from here for now!

Elf's caribou

Here is Elf's drawing of a caribou, from our "Animals of the Ice & Tundra" studies:

Building a shaduf

Since we read chapter 1 of SOTW, we've been talking a lot about ancient farming techniques, so today Elf and I built a miniature shaduf in the backyard, from odds and ends we had laying around. Best of all, it worked, so both kids got a really good idea of this simple farm machine.

Here he is digging an irrigation ditch...
Tying the shaduf together with string...
Testing out the finished project...

Feels like fall...

Cooler outside, with a brief, intense rainstorm in our neighborhood. The wind is blowing, howling in the eaves. My absolutely favorite season - I love fall, when the air is crisp, and the leaves change color. I keep thinking of autumn things, like corn mazes, gourds, pumpkin muffins, mushroom-barley soup, hot tea, walks on windy days...

Anyhow, on Saturday Elf, Fairy and I curled up on the couch to watch Walking with Cavemen. Fairy fell asleep about halfway through, but Elf and I watched every moment eagerly. It's so nice to have someone else in the house that is fascinated by this stuff! By the end of it, Elf was trying to figure out which of our human ancestors contributed what to the mix we are now.

Today we got a chance to actually sit down and "do school" (okay, it's been a really busy week). Fairy wasn't really interested, so after doing her Meeting Book, she ran off to play with her "babies", leaving me with some one-on-one time with Elf. We blazed through 2 pages of math, 2 handwriting pages, and 3 pages of phonics, before Fairy came back, just in time for the first chapter in our Animal Encyclopedia - animals of the ice and tundra. Both kids loved all the pictures of the animals, especially the penguins and caribou. Elf is working on a drawing of a caribou, which I'll post when he finishes. He's also really enjoying Spanish class on early Wednesday afternoons - today they worked on the names of body parts.

Tomorrow I hope we'll get a chance to read chapter one in SOTW. I work, all day pretty much, so we'll see how it goes (yeah, they messed up on my schedule at work).

Thursday and today were much more productive...

Yesterday we worked on a plethora of school subjects - math, phonics, handwriting, geography and history. We started with the story of the wolf in sheep's clothing, then completed (and caught up on) our Meeting Books. After that, each kid did 2 pages of phonics, 2 pages of handwriting, and a page of math. Then, I read aloud from the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, about archeology and what history is. The kids both love the photos in those.

Both of them also got some practical, hands-on lessons yesterday. Fairy helped her Nonna make a batch of cookies, and Elf used a drill press (under M's guidance and very strict supervision) to make a screwdriver rack.

Today, we read about the boy who cried wolf, and then worked on our Meeting Books. We then moved on to math worksheets. Elf did a regular page and a drill page of doubles up to 5. Fairy worked on matching birthday cakes (for pictures of both, see Math Samples in my sidebar, under Sum & Substance). We worked on phonics next (again see sidebar). Today I combined the idea behind Easy Lessons for Teaching Word Families with Explode the Code. I wrote down the words from the first unit we've covered, gave Elf our letter cards, and had him sound them out when I read them out loud. He got all of them right, on the first try! I also used our alphabet flash cards for the first time, with Fairy. She can identify nearly all the letters and the sounds they make. After all that, we moved on to science, and we made a Jello cell model. It came out pretty good, although I think I could have used the bigger box of Jello. Still, we're now ready to move on to animals next week. I think the first section of the Animal Encyclopedia is on Arctic and Antarctic animals.

Tomorrow I have the day off, so we'll watch Walking with Cavemen as a segueway into the actual first chapter of SOTW. Yesterday, I read a little bit about cavemen to the kids, and they spent the early afternoon pretending to be Neanderthals. They hunted animals (teddy bears), made a tent of skins (towels and our table), and ate their kill (leftover chicken drumsticks).

Our Jello Cell Model

Art Samples from Sept 14 2007

Elf's art project

Fairy's art work

Phonics samples Sept 14 2007

Example of Elf's work from this week

Example of Fairy's work from this week

Math Samples Sept 14 2007

Elf's math from today

Fairy's math from today

Not off to the greatest start this week...

Well, Monday we had C.O.'s first enrichment class, then I had to finish my algebra homework (yay), then we went to gymnastics... in other words, very little homeschooling got done, although Mondays are supposed to be our "light" days due to outside activities.

Tuesday, I spent the whole morning into early afternoon at the the heart center, while my dad got his surgery done. Good news, and a little iffy news - he didn't need any stents, which they were expecting he would, so that was good. However, it looks like he had a heart attack some time ago without knowing it, which closed off a major vessel to his heart. But, another one grew longer and attached itself to take over. They don't want to operate to correct this unless the pain becomes unmanageable. After the surgery, I had work, so again, no lessons.

Today, I had every intent of getting stuff done, before C.O.'s Spanish class. But, we all overslept instead. C.O. did read out loud for his IST with no trouble! And she loaned me a few more books on biology, and ancient history, plus a bunch of Level 1 readers. I'm really not sure what happened to the rest of the day after Spanish, except that I cooked a really good dinner and went to class.

Well, tomorrow is another day! And we don't have to be anywhere until I go to work at 3.

End of "week" one...

Well, it was a three day school week! But, everything is going well so far, and we're off to a good start.!

Math:
We're actually using the Meeting Books that come with Saxon Math this year. Both kids fill them out every morning. C.O. loves doing his weather graph (he got to mark "cool" yesterday and was very excited), and C.J. is definately learning patterning. C.O.'s worksheets are mostly review at this point, so he's flying through them. I've been printing out basic worksheets for C.J. from Enchanted Learning, and she's been exploring manipulatives.

Language Arts:
Both kids are enjoying their Code books. C.O. has done most of the first unit of Explode the Code 2, and C.J. is working on the letter "f" in Get Ready for the Code. They both did a couple of pages in HWOT as well, plus we're reading a lot. C.O. reads a Bob book out loud every day, and I am reading the classic Winnie-the-Pooh stories to them at bedtime. I've also been reading one of Aesop's Fables to them as a start to homeschooling every morning.

Science:
We're studying cell structure. I am going to give the kids another overview on cells this next week, and then we'll make a Jello cell. After that, we'll move on to our animal studies (starting in week 3). I just want the kids to have a basic understanding of what everything is built from!

History:
We read the intro to SOTW this week, and are now focused on archeology. I read to them a bit from the book Archeology for Kids, and we're exploring a really cool website - Kids Dig Reed, which is a site dedicated to an actual dig in the U.S. Yesterday at the park, C.O. and C.J. kept asking me to bury things so that they could excavate them. I have a few books on hold at the library that I'll pick up on Monday, and I may set up some sort of backyard project next week. I also ordered Walking with Cavemen from Netflix.

Other:
No gymnastics this week because of the holiday, but we'll start back up next week. We did go to a park day, and again worked on identifying poison oak. As far as art and music, we'll start that up next week. C.O. also starts his enrichment classes next week.

So there's our first week in review.

What a weird and awkward day...

About 10 this morning, I got a call from my mom, letting me know that my dad is going in for heart surgery next week. It's the same surgical procedure he had done on his carotid arteries almost exactly 7 years ago (when I was about 2 months pregnant with C.O.), due to the fact that his unhealthy lifestyle leads to a lot of plaque buildup in his arteries. Anyhow, then there was a 2% chance of negative side effects, and within 24 hours of that surgery, he had a stroke. He's never been the same since. I am terrified that this will give him another stroke, or worse, that he won't make it through this one, since he is in worse health overall now, as well as in his mid-seventies. He hasn't been the best father, but still, he's my dad. I don't want the kids to lose another grandparent. We've lost all 3 of their great-grandparents (the ones they knew), and one (step) grandfather within the last year. So please, keep my dad in your thoughts.

After this call, we headed off to park day. I chatted with a couple of the moms, but was still down about the phone call. Then Jenny got there, and I just toally didn't know what to say or do, other than leave her alone until she's ready to talk. I just didn't want to make her cry, as I am sure she's been doing enough of that without my help.

So now, I am crying instead. I'm crying for my friend, who is a wonderful mom, and who I know would have been a great mom to another baby. I am crying because I am scared for my dad, who I am not ready to lose, or even face losing right now...

First day of "school"...

We had planned to start yesterday, but then I worked all day instead, so we started this morning. First, I read "The Tortoise and the Hare" from the book of Aesop's Fables we got a while ago. Then we moved on to math. We did our Saxon Math Meeting Books (never have done these before, but they're kind of fun). C.O. filled in his weather chart, the date, and started on a family birthday graph, while C.J. filled in the date and worked on a coloring pattern (light green and orange for September), then she played with manipulatives and counted items on a worksheet for me, while C.O. did side A of his first worksheet. After that, both kids did a bunch of jumping jacks, and then we moved onto phonics. C.O. did two pages on matching words and recognizing blended starting sounds. He got all the starting sounds on the first try, which made both of us happy! C.J. worked on the first few pages of Get Ready for the Code, which is on the "F" sound. We wrapped up today with science. I read to them from the Biology4Kids web site, and then they colored and compared plant and animal cell printouts from Enchanted Learning (well, okay, C.O. did. C.J. started to, but decided to draw with sidewalk chalk instead) - I'll post pics of C.O.'s nice work later under "Science" in my other blog. Overall, I think it went well, although I can tell it will be a bit of a balancing act managing both their efforts.

Now we are getting ready to go to the laundromat, since our garage is too full of boxes and furniture to fit in the washing machine my mom's loaning us. I'll still use our clotheslines though! We also got dishes done, watered the hydrangeas, vacuumed the family room... it's been a busy morning. It's really, really nice that they can run out back whenever they want - this is one of the biggest changes so far with the move.

Side note - C.O. has been willingly reading aloud to us from his Bob Books every evening before bed, before I read a story to them... right now we're going through the classic Winnie-the-Pooh stories. Anyhow, with all this practice, he's getting a lot more confident!

What a week!

It has been an absolutely exhausting week, but, we're basically done moving. M and I are going back to the apartment tomorrow to clean, and pick up the last 3 or 4 boxes, and that's it. Of course, the new house is in more or less complete disarray, but we're gradually getting through all the boxes, bags, etc. As always, for me at least, it is much more fun unpacking than packing. The kids are now getting used to, and loving, all the extra space. They really love being able to go out in the backyard and just play without having to ask first, and have an adult watching them (as they did when they wanted to go out front at the apartment). Our dog loves the yard too!

I did meet a couple of neighbors. One is a single part-time dad living next door - part-time in that his 3 boys are here only on weekends. They seem friendly, and the oldest boy is definately excited to have another boy living next door. I also saw one of my regular grocery store customers down the street a few houses, and I know she has 2 little girls. In addition, I met the lady from across the street, who has 2 boys, ages 3 and 4. Within the first minute of talking to her, she announced that she was "very glad to see another white family moving in". Yikes! And enough said there (though when you move to an area known locally as "Little Tijuana" you should probably be expecting that a few Latino families live there).

I met with C.O.'s IST (independent Study Teacher) last week as well, and we're totally on the same page with his education. She's never had a student use SOTW, although the charter school has it, so she's looking forward to seeing how he does with it. She also helped me procure Get Ready (and Get Set) for the Code, and a HWOT book for C.J., to go along with Saxon K, since C.J. insists she has to "do homeschooling" just like her brother. I now have all the homeschool stuff where it belongs, ready to go this week!

Well, that's it from here for the moment.