A good book...

Cassia picked this book up at the library last week, and we started reading it yesterday. Only two stories in, I have to really recommend it! It is very funny, and the main character, Molly Whuppie, is delightful and resourceful. Reading it with a (at least somewhat) relevant accent helps too. The kids were laughing like crazy at the second story. I realized while reading it that although we have read Roman, Egyptian, Greek and Norse mythology, we've never explored the folktales of America, so I think we'll try those for a while. And we can't wait to read the next story in this book, Tater Toe. Even the title is promising!

An update, and a weekly report...

It has been an incredibly hectic, overly busy week. My dad had two more doctor's appointments this week, and each one took hours, hours that the kids spent with their Nonna rather than me. And I had my classes, etc. Too much going on. Still, the kids are making progress, and next week, with no appointments, will be so much calmer!

Language Arts
Cyrus is continuing to work in Writing Tales. This week he worked on Lesson 20, Alexander & Bucephalus. He read the story, did copywork, vocabulary and grammar work, and is writing his own version. He'll finish up his version over the next week, and I may allow him to try typing it. He also worked on spelling words from the Natural Speller, which I entered into a list over at Spelling City. He loved the word search and crossword puzzle games! I plan to have him take the spelling test today, since we didn't get to it during the week. He finished Arthur and the Minimoys, and has moved on to book three in the Percy Jackson series.

Cassia is working in Explode the Code on short "i" sounds. She also did 4 lessons over at ClickNKids Phonics. I entered short "a" words from ETC into Spelling City for her as well, and she loved Hang-mouse! She gets overly concerned with perfectionism a bit, and did one phonics lesson (on the computer) 3 times to make sure she got everything right. I plan to also pull out the flash cards this week and build her confidence with letter sounds. She is hovering right on the edge of actually reading, and I am having a hard time waiting for it all to click! Deep breaths.... I can wait. She will get it, sooner or later! We finished Ramona the Pest and will start the next one later today.

We're almost done with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The kids have asked me to go ahead and put the fourth one on hold. I will say, I love Jim Dale as the narrator! He is very consistant with the speed of his reading, and the voices he uses.

Math
It has been a Math Mammoth week, and I think we'll stick with this for a while. Cyrus is working on a unit in measurements and Cassia is working on telling time. I bought a laser printer, which I love, love, love, and printed out a bunch of fun math puzzles/games/coloring activities as well, which they've been doing after finishing their regular lessons.

Other
There has been next to no history and science this week. Whoops! I failed to get everything ready ahead of time, and then was just too busy to get to it. I did make it to the library on Friday, and got books on Columbus and various science topics. And Bill Nye videos, so I already feel much more organized. I am trying to get it to the point where we only need to go to the library every two-three weeks, instead of once or twice a week.

Oh, they did learn a bit about life during the Great Depression. Cassia got Kit Kittridge: American Girl from the library, and we watched that. It was a pretty good movie! They have watched Natty Gann before and we compared parts of it to that, like life on the rails for a girl, hobo towns, etc.

And they both played a bunch of physics games on the computer, and watched a couple of science documentaries, so it did get covered in a sense.

Next week, I plan to send Spanish Explorers with them to their Nonna's on my longer school day, and after I finish blogging, I'll print up everything needed for next week. Having them do part of their work at her house is really helpful, and generally leaves me more time for the "fun" topics at home.

I am finding that telling them what I need done each day and then allowing them to do it in bits and pieces is working well too. That way, they get plenty of time to explore their own interests, and we're not stuck at the table for longer periods of time. This week I also want to build in more exercise time for all of us. And we have my science class... Cyrus suggested we do something on the human body. I just downloaded a Scholastic book on fun human anatomy projects, so I'll prep most of it from that. So it will still be a slightly busy week, but busy in a less frantic, time-consuming way. Hope its a good week for you!

Balance...

I am looking for that magic balancing point between unschooling and schooling. My children delight so much in interest-led education, but at the same time there are things I want them to learn and to know. So how to balance the two when in so many ways they are opposite sides of the same coin?

This is something I struggle with on a regular basis. And something I wish I could just figure out and stop obsessing over. However, I am coming to realize that it is a journey, and as such is subject to change.

Right now my obsession lies with science. I bought and downloaded Nebel's first and second books on science. I made a handy-dandy flowchart for the first book. I came up with a list of possible additional reading and videos to go with it. A tremendous amount of work (well, about 2-3 hours!) I put books on hold at the library. And now? Now I'm not feeling it. The kids are once again fascinated with insects, and I have loads of resources on that topic. I keep reading on a homeschooling message board that grades K-8 are really the time to allow freedom in science (although I've noticed that same attitude doesn't seem to apply toward history or any other exploration/unit-study-friendly subject... odd) I read about children who grew up with freedom in science having careers in science, or at least doing extremely well in college. And so I have a personal dichotomy. Both Nebel's books are extremely well done, very thorough and very complete. But are they the right fit for us? I suppose I'll never know unless I try, now will I? But then, there are the insects, and birds, and a veggie garden to plant, and this great book I found for Cyrus.

At least they are enjoying history. Or, let me be absolutely honest, Cyrus is really enjoying history. Cassia just sort of tags along, which at her age is fine. I would like to find something she loves with which to beef up our studies. Maybe once we get there, the addition of the American Girls books will help.

Someday I will find that magic balance point, and when I do, I'll let you know!

Spring Cleaning & a Weekly Report...

I decided once again to tidy up the blog a bit, and to get it looking more like spring!

Now on to a weekly report. This week, we tried something new, as I am back in classes one morning and one longer day per week. The kids took their basics (math and language arts) materials with them to their Nonna's house, and she did homeschooling with them on those two days. Apparently, it went very well.

Cyrus
Worked through a few more lessons in Saxon Math 5/4. He worked on addition, subtraction, multiplication, carrying and borrowing, telling time, and reading gauges/charts.

In language arts, he's continued to plow through the second Percy Jackson book, although no progress has been made with The Whipping Boy. He worked in Writing Tales again, although I do want to try Intermediate Language Lessons with him. He is finally doing his own versions of the stories in WT without trouble. I haven't made him do a final draft of any of them... I just want him writing.

Cassia
She's making good progress - STEADY progress - in reading. She loves doing Explode the Code again, and I think it is helping, since she reads and writes the words, and has pictures to refer to. She, like her brother before her, loves the pages with silly sentences to choose from.

It works well as a complement to The Reading Lesson too, so much so that we've dropped any other supplements except Bob Books, which do give her a wonderful sense of accomplishment!

In math, she's just trucking along. Her number identification is really going well, and she's doing more and more of the work independantly, once I (or my mom) read her the instructions.

Both
History went well this week. We got through lessons two and three in Time Travelers New World Explorers. We ate dried fruit and beef jerky, much like the explorers. We still want to make some hardtack. Cyrus colored a picture of a sailing ship cross section, and we carefully cut the flaps outlined on it to show the names of all the ship parts on the contrasting papaer below. They colored Ptolemaic maps and the Royal Standard of Spain. We also learned to tie stopknots, boline knots, and a sheepshank knot. I asked Cyrus what he thinks of this program, and he is really enjoying the balance between hands-on and listening types of learning. Yaaay! Cassia enjoys it too, but participates at a different level... so far. I have a feeling when she sees Cyrus's finished lapbook, she'll want to finish her own.

Science
This was a free-for-all science week, since I just finished getting my flow for BFSU down on paper, and then figured out what books and videos I want to supplement with. So they watched documentaries, and Mythbusters, and Life After People. Next week we should be back into the swing of things!

Other
No piano lesson this week, but Cyrus is continuing to practice 4 out of 5 days. Cassia had ballet and was slightly disappointed that her new teacher was out sick, so her old teacher was there as a substitute. Not that she doesn't like her old teacher - she was just excited to work with the new one! Cassia also painted her first real still life this week - I'll have to scan it and get a picture of it up on here. I was amazed by it. Cyrus has been doing fine line ink work, with a quill, which I will also have to scan.

A good week, all in all. I am so glad my mom offered to help out.. it is making a world of difference. We haven't managed to stick to any particular schedule and I doubt we will, but we're still getting things done, and having time to tie knots, listen to stories, etc. I am trying now to find a balance between giving them a good education, and allowing for the freedom of hands-on, explorative learning.

A Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding Flow Chart...

MyBFSUflowchart -