It's that time of year...

ETA: Okay, if nothing else pure sticker shock will make me keep my original plans! No Oak Meadow for us... plus as someone reminded me on a message board, I did this last year too-- bought OM, and ended up selling it within a few weeks. I realize that a lot of people don't think of Oak Meadow as expensive, but for me it is, with two kids - the syllabi for everything alone (well, and a couple of the books they print, like Folk Tales for third grade) add up to almost $600. I didn't consider the packages because I already own so many of the books they use! Then add on Teaching Textbooks, which we really want to use, and we're looking at $900 or so, plus main lesson books, general supplies, etc., so $1000+?!? We generally homeschool for around $300 a year, total, for both kids.

Every year I promise myself I won't look, and then I do... Oak Meadow has their annual sale in May, and inevitably, I find myself browsing lesson samples on their website and drooling.

While Cyrus is only going into 5th grade, it is not the 5th grade syllabus I am drooling over... no, it's the 6th grade one (take a look at sample lessons here) I could easily see stretching OM 6th and 7th over the next 3 to 4 years. And OM3 looks fantastic for Cassia. I love the project ideas, the subject matter, the overall approach. I wouldn't use the math for either, just the social studies/history, science, and English.

I do this every year though, make all my plans and then start second guessing myself, fantasizing about what could be if I just used whatever. Reading blogs like this one don't help me stay away from OM in my mind either!

Oh well, I'll probably get over it. Probably.

Fairy Houses and Owl Pellets...

And some fairy clothes Cyrus made from paper, grasses, leaves, and tape...

Wrapping Up the Year...

I am finished with college until the fall, so since we follow my college calendar, the kids are done too! This somehow ended up being a light week anyhow. The plan is to take next week off entirely, then start back up with light summer schooling, taking off a few days here and there.

This week:

Language Arts
Cyrus worked on a few more assignments from Scott Foresmen, working on nouns and proper nouns. These have been a great stop-gap program, since we were fairly disorganized with writing after dropping Writing Tales. He also continued writing scripts for the animation program he's been playing around with. He finished The Last Olympian and has moved on to another series by the same author, starting with The Red Pyramid. Apparently this is an awesome book simply because the main character is homeschooled! (Not to mention all the cool Egyptian stuff!)

Cassia is continuing to work through lessons on ClickNKids Phonics. When she pays attention, she does very well. I also printed out all of the practice words and sentences (they have handy pdf files for this) and we continue to use her letter cards and a whiteboard to make and write the words. She also started reading from Nora Gaydos' series, Now I'm Reading. We got two entire sets of these at a fantastic price from a generous homeschool mom. And Cassia likes them.

Math
Ummm...

Science
We read more in George and the Secret Key to the Universe. This led to discussions on comets, mass and weight, and more. We also watched a couple more episodes of Meerkat Manor. And we discussed the recent destruction of a nearby empty lot, that has been leveled and stripped of all trees and bushes, and what it meant to the wildlife that had lived there for decades... birds, squirrels, foxes, and reptiles, maybe some rabbits. It only confirms our wish to someday move out to the country!

Social Studies/History
We had our Eating Around the World meeting this week, and the focus was on Greece. To get ready, we made Spanakopita (a Greek spinach & feta pie, only we made triangles), listened to Greek music, and watched Greece: Secrets of the Past. Next month we will be learning about China.

We also watched Whale Rider. This movie makes for great conversations on tradition. My kids both really enjoyed it, even more than I thought they would.

And Cassia has been watching Emily of New Moon, based on the books by L.M. Montgomery. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, it is about Emily, a young girl at the end of the 19th century, on an island off of Canada, who is orphaned and has to go live with her aunts. While the series departs from the books a good deal, it still is giving Cassia a good feeling for life at that time, in that place.

Other
We read more of Peter and the Starcatchers. We are really enjoying this book, and look forward to the next. We read a few short stories, including Mirabelle and the Ultra Violet Catastrophe; or, The Unexpected Walk with Great Uncle Magnus Pringle (one of my alltime favorite books from childhood! Today we are going to build fairy/gnome houses, our final 4H project for the year.

Then, on to summer schooling...
Cyrus will continue with piano lessons until mid July. We will resume in September. The reason for the break? His piano teacher is due to have a baby in late July. Cyrus will also continue with reading, mainly for pleasure, over the summer.

Cassia will continue to work through ClickNKids Phonics and the Now I'm Reading series. I want her to get to the point that she is ready to start McRuffy Phonics in the fall.

Both will play math and other games. I am selling my math textbook and calculator back to Amazon, in return for which I get store credit. I am looking at games like Pizza Fractions, Sum Swamp Addition and Subtraction, Head Full of Numbers, Totally Tut, a few related to archeology (not games so much as kits), and so forth. We also have owl pellets to dissect, field trips to take, and much, much more.

I am glad we're on break! It gives me a chance to re-approach schooling my kids in a different way. I read on message boards about families that start up with all the "basics" in the fall, and then add the fun stuff in. I am approaching it from the opposite angle... getting a firm grip on all the fun stuff over the summer, and then we'll add in math, writing, and so on in the fall.

Annual Quiz Time...

What's Your Homeschool Style Your Result: Unschool   You believe learning comes naturally and that you're learning 24/7. Many people who don't homeschool don't understand unschooling, but that doesnt mean it's bad. You have little tolerence for curriculums.
Unit Studies	 
Waldorf	 
Classical	 
Christian	 
School at home	 
What's Your Homeschool Style Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I like to take this quiz every year or so, to see if it changes, and how accurate I think it is. Last year it was reversed... unit studies got first place and unschooling got second. I think actually it is a pretty good representation of where we are and where we are heading, more relaxed, maybe some unit studies. I figure as long as we have the basics covered on a daily basis, I can let the kids choose the rest!

Weekly Wrap Up...& a Special Day...

First, a quick weekly report. We are almost, but not quite, wrapping up our year. This was a decent week as far as work done!

Language Arts
Cyrus worked on several assignments from a great free resource, Scott Foresman Reading: Teacher Resources. This week, he covered nouns, and imperative and exclamatory sentences. He also finished book 5 in the Percy Jackson series, and wrote creative dialog for an animation program he's been working with.

Cassia worked in Explode the Code, and returned to using ClickN'Kids. She also read from an old Dick and Jane book, and a couple of the Pigeon books. What I loved this week is that she would go back over the pages until she was comfortable enough to read them with expression!

Math
Cyrus continues to work on division and multiplication. Math Mammoth, along with some supplemental printouts, is working well for this. He did 4 lessons this week.

Cassia continued with addition, subtraction, and place value. She did 5 lessons, using manipulatives to reinforce the concepts.

Science
A good week for science! All of Cassia's ladybugs hatched, and we actually watched one emerging from its casing. We were in awe that as they hatch, they are pale yellow, and don't have the characteristic red with black spots for several hours. We plan on letting them free in the garden today. We're still waiting for the praying mantises to hatch.

Both kids watched several episodes of Meerkat Manor, learning quite a lot about these funny little animals. And they watched some Mythbusters, and an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy (all about invertebrates).

Cyrus also read more about water dragons, since he got one as an early birthday present. Cassia continues to care for her blue bellied lizard.

History
Umm, not so much this week.

Other
See below.

And now.. a Special Day. Tomorrow marks the first decade, yes decade, of Cyrus's life. At 4:07 tomorrow morning, he is officially TEN! I look at him with awe each day--he is an amazing person and I feel blessed to be his mom. He's funny, curious, intelligent... and stubborn like his mom. It is hard to believe ten years have flown by already, and believe me, I am so glad we homeschool and I get all this precious time with him, because damn it goes fast. Ten years ago tomorrow, I held my baby boy for the first time, and now he's up to my chin when we stand side by side. I love him with all my heart and soul.










I look forward to the next decade with my guy! It had better just slow down a little...

Summer "school" plans...

Since we're going to go ahead and finalize our "year" in three weeks, I am planning our summer schooling. Yes, we school through the summer, but it is, for the main part, games, living books, field trips, and fun! Cyrus will be continuing piano lessons, at least until his teacher has her baby, and I believe the monthly Eating Around the World potlucks will continue through the summer, plus we'll be getting started as Spiral Scouts.

Mathematical Formulas
I want Cyrus to continue division and multiplication, Cassia to work on addition and subtraction, and both kids to work on fractions and measuring. I plan to use a mix of online games, regular games, living books, and Khan Academy. I'll post about our favorite web sites, books, and more as we go, but I know we'll be playing dice games, Uno, Head Full of Numbers, tangrams, and loads of other ideas from Ordinary Life Magic, and I think Fraction City looks like a great idea too!

Literary Terms
Cassia and I are going to concentrate on reading over the summer, getting her ready for McRuffy Phonics & Reading in the fall. I thought we would try the I See Sam series, since Cassia is somewhere between a whole language and phonics type. I'm not sure how quickly we'll move through them, but hopefully we'll finish before the end of summer. Instead of I See Sam, after a talk with Cassia, she's returning to using ClickNKids Phonics, starting Wednesday.

Cyrus... well, Cyrus loves to read. I'm hoping he'll get through Indian in the Cupboard, and the sequel, and I know he wants to read about Native American mythology. I do want to work on his spelling a bit - he spells very phonetically, which can be interesting. Maybe Scrabble?

For shared reading, I'd like to actually read all of The Phantom Tollbooth to them, and Swallows and Amazons (at least the first book). Beside those, we'll see where our interests take us!

Scientifically Speaking
Lots of outdoor time and nature study, plain and simple.

Historical Explorations
I figure I'll take advantage of my kids' interests in Native Americans. We'll read stories, do some crafts, visit local museums, take in a Living History Day... there are also summertime Living History Days for the Russian fur trade period that flourished briefly here in California, and the Civil War, and so forth. I'd like to visit as many of these as we can! Maybe throw in a trip to a cheese factory, various nature preserves, a bakery, etc.

We might read about California history too, using some of the books from this list.

So yes, we have summer school, but at a much more relaxed pace. Even the adults will be doing some learning... I want to get my typing skills back up to the point that I can take a typing test for a better job, and M has decided he needs to finally get a driver's license, so he is studying the driver's handbook. Basically, you can't get a job in landscaping anymore without a license!

Practically Wordless Wednesday...

A docent-led trip to the Bouvarie Preserve...

Owl Pellet Giveaway...

I'm not hosting it, but Baby Steps is offering an Owl Pellet Giveaway! The deadline is May 15, and it is easy to enter... just post on your blog and link it to her blog!

If you've got...

a car enthusiast, as I do, here is a website worth checking out... LeMay Museum: America's Car Museum. What particularly interests me (and Cyrus) is the education part of the site. I found this the other day when googling car history curriculum, and boy oh boy, is Cyrus excited! By default, we are once again following their interests for social studies/history/science, so it is all about cars for Cyrus and all about Charlotte's Web for Cassia.

Pictures and a Muffin Recipe...

Getting ready for the parade at the 4H ChickenQue (annual fundraiser)

And parading through the fairgrounds

Cassia proudly holding the flag at the end of the parade

Cyrus is in love with this 1936 Ford truck

We had a good day yesterday. This is the only fundraiser 4H does, so it is pretty important to participate. My kids were in the parade (as they are Sergeants-at-Arms), and they helped with trash clean up. They also won seed packets in an egg toss, made leather tags with imprints (Cassia did a rabbit, Cyrus a cat), and checked out various animals. They are both now convinced we need a couple of rabbits for the backyard! We also ate bbq'd chicken (which M helped with... his annual volunteer contribution to the ChickenQue), hung out with my mom and sister, ate cake, and had a generally good time.

Speaking of cake, I made two this year for the ChickenQue, but never saw them after dropping them off. M says that they must have sold pretty quickly. I made a butter pecan cake with apricot filling, an apricot-vanilla buttercream, and chopped candied pecans on top, AND a strawberry cake with lemonade buttercream and filling, and candied lemon slices on top. Cassia calls it a Strawberry Lemonade Cake. Anyhow, they were long gone by the time we got around to buying a few cake slices.