Just cruisin' along...

We're enjoying our summery afternoons. Mornings are strangely cool and overcast, not our normal summer weather. I blame the volcano, since, historically speaking, volcanoes have adversely affected weather in the past. Anyhow, the afternoons are lovely and warm, verging on hot, and I can still sleep with a blanket at night!

I've been working more (and more varied) hours this summer, which is both good and bad. Good is being home in the evenings to read to the kids at bedtime, bad are shifts that take up the entire day. I'm used to those shifts on Sundays, when we earn time-and-a-third, but during the week is another matter. Thankfully, I return to my normal scheduling in a couple of weeks. The additional hours have taken their toll on my wrist - I am having to wear a brace again as my tendonitis has flared up once more. But, actually being able to put a little money into savings is a good thing!

We've been very lax on "summer schooling" the last couple of weeks since I've been gone more. Next week I'd really like to get back into a groove with daily reading and math. Fairy was making great progress before we let reading slip by the wayside! And Elf has been simply bouncing around from book to book... I'd really like to get him settled into one at a time for a while.

I have made progress on my school plans for fall though! I'm going to trust my instincts, and allow a much more natural flow, largely child-led, though I am insisting on the Three R's. You can see my plans here. I'm at peace now, no more what-ifs, changing constantly, and "oh, that looks good!", although I am seriously lusting after Life of Fred math for the following year! I would use it with Elf, maybe in conjunction with the Key to series. I hear the Fred author is coming out with books for younger kids too, which is exciting news!

I return to school myself in a few weeks. I'm taking two on campus classes, and an online class. That leaves me with only math as a necessity to graduate, which I will tackle in the spring. I'm trying to work with the credentialing program so that I can get started with that in the spring as well. Hopefully they'll let me enter it even though I won't have technically graduated at that point... we'll see. M is going back to school in a couple of weeks too - one on campus class, one online. He is both very nervous and very excited!

For now though, we'll enjoy the last few weeks of summer break. M is taking Elf fishing and canoeing today, and Fairy and I are off for a girls' afternoon out, complete with movie, etc. We had a good day yesterday too, meeting some friends at a favorite park for the afternoon. I am trying to talk these friends into joining the homeschool 4H club, since I think they'd really enjoy it, and my kids would love having them around more.

And that's about it for now!

A day of fun...

Yesterday we headed off to the California Academy of Sciences for their monthly free admission day. We did have to wait outside in line for about an hour, and it was a cold, grey day in SF, but totally worth it! My mom and sister came with us, as neither had been since the big renovation a year or so ago. We spent about 6-7 hours there, and had a great time!

Too cool...

My post (link) is about halfway down the page, under the prickly purple flower...



Thanks to a friend for suggesting I submit the post!

Good finds and good times...

Yesterday being a Friday was also Park Day. We hung out under the trees, and in the sand, on the swings, and on the giant dirt pile next to the new-still-under-construction playground. Before going, we quickly stopped at the Dollar Store to pick up a gift bag for the presents we had gotten for another girl. Whiel at the Dollar Store, we found these....

So you can imagine what the kids did the minute we got home! We spread out clean trah bags at the kitchen table, and off to work they went. After an hour or so, each had a tiny dinosaur fossil in 7 pieces, which they glued together (with some help from their dad) and then glued to tiny stands. Elf had a Parasaurolophus and Fairy got a Dilophosaurus. I printed out a couple of info/coloring pages too. The kids are thinking they might want to try making dinosaur lapbooks!

Then today we headed out to Point Reyes National Seashore for the annual Big Time Festival. We watched dancing...

And we checked out some crafts. We watched basket weaving, but unfortunately missed the flint knapping demonstration. While there was plenty of stuff for sale too, the kids decided to make their own souvenirs. They each made two necklaces - one with a mussel shell in which they drilled the holes themselves using a tool like this one, the other being simple beading with polished rocks, silver and turquise beads, wooden beads, shell pieces, etc.

They also tried out bullroarers and played stick games. We felt animal pelts, and admired arrowheads carefully chipped from obsidian. And in that nice way the universe sometimes works, when we got home a little while ago, we found The Real Book About Indians waiting on our doorstep!

So Fairy's fascination with Native Americans is firmly rooted, and now blossoming in Elf as well. We estimate their Native American heritage at about ten percent, which means that learning about the past directly connects to them, something both seem to get a kick out of!

A Sort of Weekly Report...

This has been a good week for child led education!

Elf
Working on cursive daily with cutomized printable worksheets from KidZone. He asked me for these! Today I made him one about insects, focusing on the Darwin's Stag Beetle, which he developed an interest in after watching Life (that great documentary series).

He is still reading from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. When a book makes him laugh aloud, I know he's enjoying it! He's also reading from a book on planes, which has led to a fascination with the Wright Brothers. And a lot of airplane drawing, since he checked out a book on airplane drawing as well.

Fairy
She's really enjoying The Reading Lesson, and is doing well with it! She is sounding out words, and insisting on trying. I am in awe, and last night almost cried with joy when she read 6 pages aloud, of her own choice (and insistance).

I'm reading Ramona and Her Father to her as well. She seems to really connect with Ramona, and is happy that there are more in the series. I have promised her that when she is ready, I will order the entire set as a gift for her.

She's also doing two to three lessons most days in MathSteps. After a lot of debate, and after getting her opinion, we're sticking with Saxon Math for the fall rather than switching her to MEP. Why fix what isn't broken? She also learned a bit more about fractions this week, when she asked to make a cake. We made a caramel cake, using a recipe from the back of a Fannie Flagg book. Fairy did almost all the measuring, and mixing. She also learned to set the temperature dial on the oven for preheating.

Both
We completed another week in the reading challenge at our library. As a bonus, when we got there this week, there was a box of rolled up posters on a table, with a sign "Free to parents and teachers". So we went through all the posters, and found a great one for each child... Elf got a lovely painting of the Wright Brothers with a bi-plane, and Fairy got an Elsa Beskow poster, highlighting several of her children's books!

Both have helped me with watering the yard this week. The kids are growing popcorn, and they measure the stalks almost daily. We also have some volunteer melons coming up from last year's garden, and are getting ready to dig them up for transplanting. Can't wait until we can tell what kinds they are! Both are growing tomatoes also, and their plants finally have little baby tomatoes on them. I've been teaching them flower identification while we're out there... lobelias, hydrangeas, abutilon, morning glories, salvias, dahlias, nasturtiums, and so forth.

We've been discussing fall physical activities. Elf really wants to go back to fencing, which he tried before for a few months. Fairy has decided to try jazz dancing, which I think may suit her more than ballet.

I think that's it for this week!

What If?

What if we only did the "three R's"? What if I let the kids choose what to study? What if we follow their interests for a year, and see where that takes us?

The Boy checked out a book at the library yesterday on flight... Book of Flight: The Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. After spending, oh probably an hour or so looking through it, he asked if I could find some books on the Wright Brothers for him. And so we put some on hold - hopefully they'll be in soon! I could see that interest leading to many possibilities. Right now, he's carefully sketching out old airplanes from a drawing how-to book. And discussing how airplanes get lift-- it's called the Bernoulli effect in case you wanted to know.

And The Girl found a book from one of my various stacks called Science Made Simple. So she's working on a dinosaur coloring/cut-out activity, which is getting The Boy's attention too. Both want to identify the dinosaurs they are coloring, so that they can call them by name.

Why am I rambling on? Because, the more I think about it, the less I want to plan out a whole year at a time. Our interests shift and change. Even mine do! Hmmmm.... so what I am thinking is this: focus on the three R's. Very simple. All else could be child led. History, science, art, music, etc.

I also think I want to do away with my planned "school calendar". Why put those limits on learning? It's not as if their brains shut down just because I say "no school this week". I'd like to be more flexible this year. Take advantage of museums, zoos and parks more. Take field trips just for fun, not because they tie into our curriculum, and because who knows what great ideas and interests will spring from random field trips? I want our homeschooling to be a reflection of my blog's name! Blend living and learning a little more, blurring the lines between homeschooling and life.

What do you think?

I have got to stop...

Finding really interesting reprints of old books and adding them to my cart over at Amazon. You might remember sometime ago when I found these books. And then I was thrilled to find this book, which combines them all at an excellent price. Yesterday, waiting in vain for an email, I browsed Amazon some more, and An Old Fashioned Education. Somehow, between the two, I found a few more tempting items for next year....

For Elf, who is very interested in the world of bugs, I found...

Then, for American History, I found this series (there are 4)...

Now, having read through part of this over at Project Gutenburg, I am aware that Native Americans aren't portrayed very fully, at least in the first chapter. I could add in something for that, because other than that, I love the tone of the writing, and so do the kids (we read through the first three chapters). Immensely more appealing than many of the books out there on American history. I had planned on doing American history for two years, then back to world history with the book below (though plans may change by then)... Anyhow, with four books in the American Stories series, I could do two a year, with extra read-alouds on points of interest, hands-on projects, etc.

I went ahead and ordered the following book, used of course, to preview as a possible resource for a narrative version of Native American history. We'll see!

Then of course there are these...








Yes, I am aware that these books are available for free online, which is part of the dilemma. Do I buy the books themselves, or do I download them and print them out when I get a laser printer sometime in August? Figuring out the comparative prices isn't easy. And I do love books, actual books, that are bound, and can be held. Hmmmm.... I think I may stick with Amazon.

Also in my browsing, I found something that I like better than Saxon Math 2 for Fairy. I found MEP: Mathematics Enhancement Programme, from the Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching (yes, it's British). It is a FREE curriculum, that looks both challenging and interesting. While An Old Fashioned Education recommends using Year 3 for second grade, many of the people on message boards who have actually used it recommend shifting the opposite direction. After looking through several hundred pages, I think I could start Fairy with workbook 1B and move forward at her pace from there. Of course, it is not entirely free in that I would have to print it out. But, since it is black and white, it would be cheap enough to do on a laser printer. I want to look at it for Elf too, though I do like the looks of Saxon 5/4.

I do need to stop finding cool old books though. For a cheap homeschool education, this could get expensive!

Summer schooling...

As our summer progresses, I've made a few changes to my original plans for light summer school. For the most part, we're sticking to the intent of the original plans, just changing the materials used.

Elf is currently working through Math Mammoth multiplication, doing 2 or so pages daily. He is also reading for about half an hour daily and is at the moment deep into Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. He's also busy with Snap Circuits, and the microscope he recently took apart, cleaned, and put back together. He works off and on writing and illustrating a comic strip he's creating.

Fairy is using MathSteps level 2 for review over the summer. She loves the simplicity of it, and yesterday did 6 pages with no prompting! We're continuing work in The Reading Lesson, which she also loves, and best of all, seems to be working! She also spends a lot of time playing with fairy dolls, making "potions" in the garden, and drawing. I'm reading Ramona and Her Father to her. She's really excited about the Ramona movie coming out this month!

Both signed up for our library's summer reading challenge. We've completed 4 weeks so far, and the kids just earned their free book bags. I finally bit the bullet and got them their own library cards - they always look so proud going up to the checkout counter with them! The librarian (our favorite one) gave me quite a compliment last week: she said it was wonderful to see a parent setting such a good example for her kids with reading, and obviously they are growing to love reading too. I got ahold of Swallows and Amazons to start reading aloud this week as we wrap up Mary Poppins. And we'll be starting The Witches on audio cd, as we've just about reached the end of Matilda.

We officially start up schooling again in 4 weeks. Now that I finally have made all my curriculum decisions, I'm really looking forward to it. There are a few things I still need to buy before then, but the list isn't too bad. I plan to start with math, language arts, history, science and music/art appreciation, then add in grammar and geography a little later.

And that's what we're up to! I had asked for more hours at work, but am not getting them due to the fact that our sales are down 7.5% compared to last year. So instead we're gardening, cleaning out the house (those baby clothes have got to go!), and relaxing. Hope your summers are going well!