No cavities!

The kids had a dental check-up this morning, and for the first time, I heard the lovely words "No cavities". Believe me, we have always brushed, and flossed, and on occasion used a topical fluoride gel, but still, always cavities, especially in Elf, who at age 7 had 2 steel caps put on, and two teeth removed. So this was a milestone for us! I guess Tom of Maine's Whole Care toothpaste really works (in conjunction with electric toothbrushes)! However, it also looks like orthodontia will be in our lives in the future, since Elf has large teeth in a not-so-large mouth. The dentist recommended a consultation with an orthodontist to get a better idea of what lies ahead. Then, this afternoon, Elf has a regular doctor checkup, and Fairy has hers next week - I can't wait to be done with all the checkups!

Besides that, all is going normally here. M is feeling a lot better with the dietary changes - no nausea, no tremors, etc. Schoolwork hasn't met much resistance lately either, which is a nice change. Next week Elf has STAR testing, which I have told him is nothing to worry about. We don't care about the scores, especially since we'll be filing as a private school in the fall. I look at STAR testing now as simply a practice run for any testing Elf wants to do in the future... SAT's, and tests of that nature. We're down to the last several weeks of the academic year, and feeling just about ready for a break!

I did get A Little History of the World from the library, and the kids and I really like it. We started at the beginning, and are reading through a chapter a day until we get to the Romans, at which point we'll slow down a little. If I go with Plan A for next year (we're kind of leaning that way), this is definately a front-runner for a history spine. We also picked up, finally, the audio version of The Last Battle, which is very nicely narrated by Patrick Stewart (alias Captain Picard). After that, we might go on a Roald Dahl spree, since we really enjoyed listening to Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.

Today I plan to have Fairy give Progressive Phonics a test-run too. She plays a lot on Starfall, which is helping, but she wants something new, and I have heard good things about the Progressive Phonics website. Other than that, we're pretty busy with appointments. Oh, and before I forget, Elf read through all of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (#4) in two days, setting a new record! Now he's busily reading The Twits, which involves a lot of laughing out loud!

Seasonal Books for the Young...

I made this list quite some time ago, but never shared it here!

Cycle of seasons:
Mother Earth & Her Children
Around the Year
Our Seasons
The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree
Children of the Forest
All Year Round
The Children's Year: Seasonal Crafts

Fall:
The Autumn Equinox: Celebrating the Harvest Season
We Gather Together
Woody, Hazel & Little Pip
Autumn

Winter:
The Shortest Day of the Year: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
The Winter Solstice
The Return of the Light: 12 Tales from Around the World
The Story of the Snow Children
Winter

Spring:
Spring
Spring is Here!
It's Spring!
The Spring Equinox: Celebrating the Greening of the Earth
Spring's Sprung!
A New Beginning

Summer:
The Summer Solstice
Summer
Under Alaska's Midnight Sun
The Twelve Days of Summer
It's Summer!

Another week has flown by...

Seriously, where does the time go?

Anyhow, this week was a fairly quiet one, though looking back at it now, I can't say it was exactly slow or anything. Monday, as I was driving home from work, in the rain, one of my tires went out. Turns out that the tires my former step-FIL had put on the truck (which is on more-or-less permanent loan from MIL) were not at all the correct ones. New tires have been ordered, but won't be here until next week. Thankfully, my mom came to the rescue by loaning me her car, so at least we are not trapped at home!

Then, yesterday, we finally had our follow-up appointment with M's new doctor. M has officially been diagnosed as pre-diabetic, with some resulting liver abnormalities. What that means is that we really watch his (and therefore ours) diet for the next month - limited sugars, little to no white flour, no caffiene, no alcohol, lots of veggies & whole grains, etc. - and then go back in for another round of blood testing. On one hand, I view this as bad news - my husband is sick, but on the other hand, there were a whole host of other, and far more terrible, things that could have been wrong with him. I am trying to view this as a challenge we will all meet together. So I've told the kids that we are ALL going to work on being healthier with their dad.

Anyhow, school-wise...

Elf
Worked in Writing Tales this week for the first time in a while. I have given this program somewhat of a bad rap, as it is fairly repetative, but, he really enjoyed it this week! He did quite well using the dictionary on his own to look up the vocabulary words. His rough draft may leave a little to be desired, but it is a rough draft, and he didn't complain about doing it. His cursive handwriting is coming along beautifully too.

In math, I introduced him to the idea of squares and square roots. He seems to have gotten the general idea, but we'll see in upcoming weeks!

Fairy
We returned to Explode the Code this week, with great results! She actually put (3 letter) words together, and sounded them out, and then moved on to actually sounding out words in a Bob Book, instead of guessing. I think my mixed approach is working for her. I put another phonics dvd on hold for her at the library, and picked up a song album that helps with phoenomic awareness. As soon as she finishes in this ETC book, I'll move her right on to the next. I plan to continue her reading work right through the summer, with the hope that she'll be reading somewhat fluently by mid-August, when we "officially" restart our school year.

In math, she's plugging right along, still working in a unit on place value. This week, we broke apart bundles of 10 popsicle sticks, to show the concept of borrowing and carrying. Good review for Elf as well.

Other
We read more in The Twenty One Balloons this week, and are almost done. We watched a documentary on hot air balloons (The Way Things Work), and we read a book about Krakatoa. Today we'll read The Amazing Air Balloon. The kids also watched another segment of Life, which is a beautiful documentary series. This week's choice (we dvr'd all the episodes) was "Birds" (now if only we had the David Attenborough version, sigh).

I am having the darndest time with curriculum choices for next year. This plan (based on classical and Charlotte Mason methods), or Oak Meadow, or literary unit studies? I have decided on a light summer program - Fairy will work on reading, Elf will have some "assigned" reading, we'll play math games from Family Math, and I plan to read aloud a lot.

Finally....

Elf learned to read really easily, at age 5, and now at almost 9 can read at a 6th-7th grade level, but Fairy has been a whole other kind of learner. I ended up backing off for a while because it was clear she wasn't ready. BUT, recently she has been asking to learn, and we've been sitting down daily to work together.

I'm using a combination approach - she watches (and works along with) some (cheesy) phonics videos from the late 70's/early 80's, she works on Starfall, and we're working with ETC and Bob Books, and I read aloud to her (and her brother) a lot. In the last week, I have watched her develop a much better sense of beginning sounds, ending sounds, etc. She has learned to write more than just her name now, having added "Mommy", "Daddy", and a few others to her repetoire. I can see her making the connections that just weren't happening before, like yesteday, working in ETC, she had to circle the beginning, middle, and ending sounds for a variety of 3 letter words, and she DID it, then sounded them out! Believe me, that is the first time that has been so effortless for her. She still can't tell you the names of letters (not all of them anyway), but I really don't care about that if she is able to read.

I am soooo relieved to see some progress, so I couldn't resist sharing!

OTOH, I'm a basket case now trying to figure out which of two curriculum approaches to take next year! Part of the problem is that I like bits and pieces of one (Oak Meadow), but want to maintain the flow of history we've been doing.... hmmmmm.... Then too, I would end up substituting books and supplementing Oak Meadow, but with the classical/Charlotte Mason method, I do have to put it together myself.... Maybe I just need to keep this post in mind! In regards to that, I am researching history "spines" other than Story of the World (which my kids just can't seem to enjoy). Among my library holds, I have A Little History of the World, and A Child's History of the World. If you have read either of these and have some feedback to share, I'd certainly appreciate it!

I'm also planning ahead for some light summer schooling. I'd like my kids to have some idea of American history, even before we get there in the flow of history, so I thought we'd read through at least some of the volumes of The American Story. We'll play some math games on a somewhat regular basis, Elf will have some reading to do, and I'll continue working with Fairy on her reading skills.

Another weekly wrap-up, etc.

This week we wrapped up our skeletal studies, and will now move on to the muscular system, and then the vascular system. We also finished our study of local rancho life during the 1840's. Since there are only a couple of months left in our academic year, we're just going to do a couple of field trips to finish up our local history studies for the year. Other than that, we are trucking along through Story of the World, which we'd love to actually finish! We're still reading The Twenty-One Balloons, and very much enjoying it. We have chosen The Borrowers as our next read aloud, one of my favorite childhood stories. We're almost done with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on audiobook, but the library should have The Last Battle (Chronicles of Narnia) ready for us soon.

Elf
Language Arts
Wrote a poem with similes this week (I'll try to remember to scan it in later). He also worked on his autobiography. He continued to read in A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning. We have at this point dropped Writing Tales almost altogether - it was just so much of a struggle to get him to do it! We're still doing the vocabulary work and some of the grammar, but not the writing. Instead, I am allowing him to do free writings, which are going much more smoothly.

Math
Back to Saxon. He's enjoying it now that he has the multiplication chart handy. This week he worked on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, story problems, measurement, and geometry.

Other
He watched a special on outlaws of the Wild West, and is busy being a cowboy. He helped cook a couple of meals, and helped with his sister's reading. In art class, he worked on a special present he is making for Fairy (I'll tell you more later).

Fairy
Language Arts
We worked more on phonics this week, and I am definately seeing an improvement. Part of it is that she wants to read, and so is a little more willing to work on it. I explained to her that reading is like a mountain - you climb it one step at a time. And Elf and I are willing to come back down the mountain to help her up. Somehow the analogy really worked for her! She still loves copywork too, so she's been doing some of that.

Math
Continued with place value. The popsicle sticks and laminated place chart are great tools! We also practiced skip counting by 2's, 3's and 5's in the car.

Other
Fairy has been a great help in the kitchen this week! We made potato-chip-&-herb crusted prok chops last night (yummy!), and she did most of the work. Besides that, we have had a lot of cuddly time this week.

In other news, we finally got a call back from the doctor, who had M make a follow-up appointment. The dr says the tests showed some abnormalities, but "nothing too serious" and he'll discuss it with M next week at the appointment.

And I have traded off the field trip coordinator position with our local homeschool association. Frankly, working on a website is easier, and I will enjoy attending field trips without having to set them up first!

A weekly wrap-up, and trying something new (again!)...

This week has been a decent one...

Elf
For language arts, he is working on a recap of You Wouldn't Want to be a Roman Gladiator, and a letter to the auto industries about what he feels to be a big safety issue. In writing these, he is learning grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and how to write a business letter. He is also learning computer skills, since he is typing them up on my computer.

In math, we looked at Saxon Math 5/4, which we recently bought from a fellow homeschooler. One of my chief concerns with Saxon Math 3 is that it very suddenly has multiplication problems in it to be solved. However, in 5/4, the student is supposed to work with a completed times table chart at hand! So I printed off a chart and he has been using that with much success. He is looking foward to 5/4 next year!

Fairy
She has spent the week watching phonics videos and playing on Starfall. She loves to sing along with the video, while writing along as well, and Starfall is always a blast. She definately recognizes more letters and their sounds, so I think (fingers crossed) that it is all beginning to come together for her.

In math, we worked on place value. I made bundles of ten colored popsicle sticks so that we can group them, split them apart, etc. I have a big laminated chart for place value that we work on. Elf watched with interest, so I think he got a good review of place value. Fairy also worked on mental math, primarily addition and subtraction, and we had a great discussion about fractions while driving home from Park Day yesterday.

Other
We enjoyed reading the aforementioned Gladiator book, and discussing what it would have been like to live in those times. The kids played around on the computer with interactive volcano/earthquake/tornado games, and watched a special on Krakatoa with my mom. Since we've been reading, and very much enjoying, The Twenty-One Balloons, she found the special to be quite applicable. We visited a friend's farm, and saw a beautiful brown cow, hordes of glossy chickens, a few adorable lambs, some friendly cats, and happy ducks. The kids really enjoyed the visit, and playing with the boy that lives there. We have decided to read James Herriot's Teasury for Children next.

Which brings me to the something new category of this post - I am setting aside all grandiose plans I currently have going on for history, science, etc., and we are going to do literary unit studies for a while, as a trial thing. Since we are reading Twenty One Balloons, we can tie in history (it is set in 1883), and science (volcanoes, hot air balloons, etc.). We will mark our new timeline with sticky notes to show when the story we are reading took place, and we'll read about what significant events were going on at the time. Supplemental books and videos will be largely based on the science and time period, so mainly nonfiction and documentaries, like the one on Krakatoa. We have done unit studies before, with a lot of success (and fun), but never based on a single book. When we read the James Herriot book, we we be learning about animals, England, veterinary medicine, and more. I have started compiling a small list of books that I think we would really enjoy using as the basis to our studies, such as The Phantom Tollbooth and The Wind in the Willows, and so forth. I want to read really engaging books, so I'll likely be editing my list, adding and subtracting, as we go. If you would like to recommend a book you and your child(ren) have really enjoyed, please do so!

EDITED TO ADD: I am now wondering, after thinking a lot, if going into the books in such depth, adding so much in, and dragging out all the little details might not take away from the enjoyment of the book itself. Just something to think about! After all, it is one thing if a book read aloud sparks an interest in a child... and another thing altogether if I say, "well, here is what we're reading and here is what we're going to learn from it." Hmmmm.....

In other news, M's blood test results should be in on Monday or Tuesday. Please keep your fingers crossed for us!

Keeping my fingers crossed...

M has had some health issues surfacing for some time (tremors, nausea, trouble sleeping, rapid & irregular heartrate, always cold), but we always just kind of shoved the concerns aside. Finally, we decided it was time to haul him into the doctor's office. And after the visit, the doctor doesn't know. M is now scheduled for a full metabolic workup tomorrow morning, i.e. blood tests. The doctor also wants to test his liver and kidney functions. Bottom line is that there is something wrong, and the doctor wants to figure it out and treat it now. It might be hyperthyroidism, and again, it might not. We're just hoping for a diagnosis of something that is relatively easy to treat, that does not require surgery of any sort.

I want him to be okay. I want this easily treatable so he's not feeling ill, shaky and cold. Sleeping well at night would be a bonus too! If it can be treated through diet and/or medication, then that's what we do. At least seeking a diagnosis is a step in the right direction! And, M likes his new doctor, which is important.

Other than that, I have the day off today, and the kids have no dance classes, so we have a nice long afternoon and evening ahead of us. We're off to visit Farmer Sally in an hour, and see the two new baby lambs, meet the cow, pick up some eggs... We're very much looking forward to the visit! Educational plans for today include some writing (mostly regarding Rome), finishing some math, more phonics work, reading, and home ec (the kids are at their Nonna's right now doing some sewing - I believe patchwork). Yesterday's schooling efforts went well. We did everything I had planned, in small increments with breaks between, which seemed to work well. I'll try it again today!

Has the rain really stopped?

Today it looks like spring. The sun is shining, the sky is clear, everything growing is a glowing green... and we've had a number of days like this lately, but then the rains come back. About a week and a half ago, maybe two, my BIL went ahead and tilled the veggie garden plot, even though we had heard there was more rain to come. When he gets an idea in his head, there is no turning back though, and now we have a solid mass of hardened mud instead of a soft bed for baby plants. Ooops! I had originally planned to get a load of compost to till in anyway, so M and I will do that in the next week or so. In the meantime, we are plotting and planning what to grow, and we have seedlings started in our mini greenhouse. Among our planned plants are tomatoes, beans, peas, salad greens, chard, peppers, eggplant, strawberries, maybe some corn, cucumbers, and squash. More herbs will be going in the front yard as well. The rosemary I planted out there last year, then about 4 inches tall, has now turned into two big bushes about 3 feet tall. I planted one on either side of the front gate to keep the evils away, and I tuck sprigs under the children's pillows at night to keep bad dreams at bay. The lavender, also planted last year, is bushing out beautifully. And the pineapple sage is finally coming back! Our dwarf peach tree is a mass of silky rosy blooms, the apple tree has tiny green leaves, and the cherry tree is sending out new branches left and right. All the rain has been a boon this year - our yard depends on well water, so the higher the water table, the better. Still, I am ready for the rains to cease and planting to begin!

Because we started our spring break a week earlier than the "school" calendar, we started back up this week, a week "early". Elf worked on a Saxon Math assessment yesterday, and with very little instruction, managed to do quite well. Fairy was introduced to place value, which provided a good review for Elf as well. I want to get back over to the dollar store, and pick up a big pack of colored popsicle sticks for teaching place value. Maybe today we'll walk over there. We also had back-to-back 4H projects agin yesterday, starting with my Global Arts & Crafts (our final meeting this year) and ending with a makeup lesson in foam weaponry. We "visited" Mexico with papel cortado, woven placemats, and images of the sun (dating back to Aztec times). In foam weaponry, we made shields and flails, then the kids staged a mock battle. It was a lot of fun! I am impressed with the teen leading the project - he stays very calm even with kids flailing each other left and right!

We also got our timelines this week, something I have wanted for the last couple of years, and which are now placed approximately as a chair rail in our dining room, where the bulk of our sit-down education takes place. I got Elf a new dresser recently, and his old, and too small one, is now being repurposed as an arts-and-crafts storage unit, also in the dining room. After we placed the timelines, which come in 4 sections, the kids asked me to show them where we have gotten to in history... almost to the end of the first section. And next year's plans take us only halfway through the second section... I had thought and thought about how to do our history rotations, and finally decided on the following:
Ancients
Medieval (and some light California history)
Renaissance/Reformation (beginnings of US history)
Early Modern Times (and US history)
Then we'll move back to Ancients, and forward again up through modern times. I decided that since we are taking so long to get there on the first go-round, we'll skip modern times the first cycle, plus I think a lot of it (World Wars, etc.) would be better when the kids are a bit older, especially Fairy. I have no intent, at this point, of splitting up either history or science with them - we enjoy doing it as a family.

Today I am going to go through this website with the kids, and maybe we'll do some writing on Gladiators. We'll do some more math, Elf will work on a grammar lesson, and Fairy can review some phonics. Light schooling to ease back in after a couple of weeks off!