Thanksgiving Week Already!

Another year simply zipping by far too quickly.

On the Agenda...
Well, Thanksgiving, of course! The kids and I will be at my mom's for dinner, M will be at work. Usually I bring desserts -- pumpkin pie, an apple-cranberry tart, and a apple-quince-mince pie, plus whipping cream.

The kids and I have started making a little money on the side through sewing catnip toys for a local cat-grass/toy provider. The Boy cuts, I sew and pink, and The Girl stuffs the toys! Since they have a rush order needed for Christmas, we're planning a few blocks of sewing mania this week.

Of course there is fencing on the agenda. The Boy participated in a team tournament on Saturday, and while he had a lot of fun, his team lost badly. At least they all enjoyed themselves!

I work two days this week, and have one class to go to, as well as one tutoring session to provide. I'll be glad tomorrow afternoon when I am officially off the rest of the week!

In Our Homeschooling...
Yes, we are homeschooling for Thanksgiving week, as we did not get a lot done, book-wise, last week. There will be math, geography, writing, and reading, as well as some science. The Boy did build several virtual roller coasters yesterday as part of science, using what he had learned in Conceptual Physics as far as velocity, acceleration, etc. The Girl will work on geometry this week, while The Boy continues in algebra, learning and reviewing division with variables.

What We're Reading...
The Boy is reading The Scorch Trials, book two in the Maze Runner series, while The Girl is still working on Black Beauty. I wrote last Monday that I'm having trouble keeping her reading, so now we all have a half hour or so a day when we sip tea while reading quietly. I love it, since it gives me a chance to read my own books (currently Gentian Hill, having just re-read a bunch of Maeve Binchy books, and in the mood for something different)! I'll also read aloud from The Marvellous Land of the Snergs, and maybe some more of Edward Lear's poetry. We'll tackle another chapter or two of Poop Happened, start reading about Europe, and try to get to the other books in our Afternoon Basket.

What We're Watching...
We did watch The Golden Compass last night, and we still really wish they had made movies for the other books in the trilogy. We've also watched half of Amadeus so far, and plan to finish it this week. So far, the kids see Antonio Salieri as both a victim and villain (and yes, they are aware that much of this movie is supposition). We're also watching, as a family, The 100, though we haven't gotten very far. The Boy plans to watch another episode of Cosmos, and The Girl will be about halfway through Life in the Undergrowth this week. I am starting to think ahead to Christmas movies -- what are some of your favorites?

Crafting...
I finally started knitting regularly again! I still have a gift certificate from my birthday last year to a lovely little yarn store, so I am trying to finish up the scarves I had started for The Girl and myself before treating myself to a little "spending spree". The kids made and decorated beeswax candles at the library last week, and they smell wonderful.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving week!

A Week of Service...

This wasn't a week of math, science, and writing/reading. Instead, it ended up being a week of work and service, which I think was an ideal thing to happen the week before we give thanks for everything we are lucky enough to have.

On Tuesday, the kids helped my mom at the food bank, setting up Thanksgiving food bags for those who need them. The Boy said it was a lot of hard work, but both kids assured me it was worthwhile. They helped cart around flats of cans, boxes of dried goods, bags of fresh produce, and so on, getting everything set up so that the volunteers could all fill bags easily for Sunday's donation slot.

And yesterday, they assisted my sister's class with ice skating. You see, my sister is a teacher for a small class of severely disabled kids (medically fragile), and as part of her approach to teaching, she loves to take them out to enjoy various activities, one of them being ice skating. We are fortunate that the local ice skating rink is willing to set aside some special time for them to enjoy this activity. This time, my kids went, and helped push some of the students around on the ice, getting a free skating session in return...

As you see, many of the students are in wheelchairs, so classroom assistants (and my kids) pushed them around the rink! The students love it. The Boy and The Girl loved it too. They said they genuinely liked hanging out with all these (older) kids, and they'd love to help my sister again. Plus, a student's mom bought everyone lunch from In-n-Out Burger, and my kids almost never get fast food, so that was a bit of a treat for them!

And this morning, my kids are back at the food bank, finishing sorting/moving produce for the Thanksgiving bags. Then, this afternoon, The Girl has her orientation for puppy petting!

While we may have gotten very little book work done this week, I think what my kids have accomplished is just as good and important. And we did get a little schooling done -- we read Andrew Lang's version of the story of Sigurd and Brynhild, as well as East O' the Sun, West O' the Moon for our cultural/geography studies. We read about the Renaissance period and Revolutionary times in Poop Happened, and got through another good chunk of The Marvellous Land of the Snergs. The Boy [re]watched the first episode of Cosmos, and The Girl watched another episode of Life in the Undergrowth. We did math one day (yes, one).

And this weekend, The Girl will help me make Swedish meatballs, a cucumber salad, and an almond cake, to enjoy while we watch The Golden Compass (okay, I know it is not truly a "Scandinavian" film, but it has many aspects of Scandinavian fairy tales and folk lore). The Girl at least, if not all of us, will watch Families of Sweden too. And the kids are ready to settle down to a few days of book work in the upcoming week!

Good Geography Find!

I found this book at the library, when I was searching for a general overview of Europe...

And I have to say I am very pleased with it! (You can see a bit of the book here.) I wish we had known about this series when we were studying Africa. It is clearly written, not so long that we don't have room for anything additional, fairly well up to date, etc. Anyhow, I then discovered that there were more in the series, so I plan to use the following titles as well...

Then, I found out that in addition to Wild China, Wild Africa, and Wild South America, there are a number of other titles that will fit in with our studies! Wild India - Land of the Tiger (unfortunately not available at the moment), Wild Caribbean, and Wild Pacific/South Pacific are among the titles I'd love to add to our watchlist. Maybe through interlibrary loan?

What's Up in Our World...

As always, there are good things, and not so good.

On the good front...

Both kids are doing well with math. The Girl is going to start a Math Mammoth unit on measuring this week. I think after all the multiplication work, she needs some good hands-on math, though we will continue reviewing multiplication, and division right alongside it. I was going to have her try out some geometry, but then reviewed the recommended sequence for the Blue Series, and chose measuring. The Boy will continue working through chapter one of Jacobs Elementary Algebra over the next several weeks.

The Boy has been doing a lot of independent work in his German studies. He's been taking the end of lesson tests, and then reviewing before retaking them. I love his dedication and independence with this subject! He's also been working hard on U.S. geography, mapping out the ultimate road trip for a future day, with his best friend. This involves looking up all the capitols and points of interest, so they can be added to the trip, and calculating mileage. He's finishing up The Maze Runner in the next couple of days, so that he can start The Scorch Trials.

The Girl has, at long last, the orientation for the puppy petting program this Friday! She's been waiting for about a year or so. This is a program designed to help puppies designated to become service animals get used to people. The two hour orientation is a requirement before she can do the volunteer work, and since a litter of pups is expected at the end of the month, she's totally willing to get through the training!

We got a jump start on the holiday season and roasted up a smallish turkey last week. We've enjoyed it so far as roast turkey, and turkey sandwiches, and will enjoy it again tonight with turkey posole -- I have the stock going right now in the crock pot, which, by the way, as a heavenly aroma to wake up to this morning!

The kids signed up for a beeswax candle-making workshop at the library this week, along with several of their friends. These might make good gifts at Christmas time for relatives!


And on the not so good front...

The Girl and reading. She was very enthusiastic about it at first. And she still enjoys it when she does it. Now though, she's just not "getting around to it", AND, she doesn't want me to require it, as that makes it more like work. I think this week I am laying down the law. Half an hour a day, we will all have a quiet reading time.

Science hasn't been at the forefront of our studies lately either. The Boy did finish chapter 5 in Conceptual Physics last week, but he hasn't done the project I assigned (designing a virtual roller coaster to explore motion, velocity, etc.), and he hasn't been watching Cosmos. We will try again to accomplish these things this week. The Girl has been doing a little better -- she did watch an episode of Life in the Undergrowth last week, and we did read about worms, so I am just hoping to keep that momentum going!

And I'd really love to be reading to them daily from The Marvellous Land of the Snergs, so I need to make that a priority. After that, I hope to get through either The Princess and the Goblin, then The Hobbit, before Christmas, OR The Story of Siegfried and The Hobbit. A tall order, I know, and not too likely to happen.

More writing needs to happen too. I am at a crossroads with The Girl on this one. She does write short stories, but I am wondering if I need something a little more structured for her? Maybe something vintage? And The Boy needs to get cracking on a new essay, as that is our focus for the year.


Also in homeschooling this week...

History: another chapter or two of Poop Happened  , and a chapter from Human Odyssey (I think...).

Geography: We have finished with Africa for now, and are moving on to Europe! We'll start in the cold northern lands, and move our way down to the UK, followed by western Europe, then the Mediterranean, and finally eastern Europe. I have this book on hold, as well as this documentary series, to see if they are useful. Our library also has a fair number of Rick Steves' videos. And we'll read from The Complete Book of Marvels for fun.

Other reading: Math reading with The Man Who Counted, science reading with the Lives of Scientists. Maybe some more of Edward Lear's poetry.

Hopefully this will be a good week. I do have a NINETEENTH wedding anniversary coming up on Wednesday! 19 years already....

Another Friday!

I can't believe November is about half over already! I guess I should be making Thanksgiving plans, but honestly, we don't know what to expect, as M may very well be working. If he is at work, the kids and I might head over to my mom's house, and I can bring pies.

We've been lucky enough to get a little rain this week, followed by this morning's gorgeous heavy fog. I keep hoping for more rain! But then at the same time, I do need a few more good dry days so we can patch a spot in our family room roof, and re-clean the gutters... such fun!

Anyhow, this has been an okay week in the world of homeschooling, though life kept getting in the way. We did read about the Renaissance times in Poop Happened: A History of the World From the Bottom Up, and learned that Louis XIV, upon his autopsy, was discovered to have a stomach twice the size of an average man, and intestines twice as long. Very peculiar tidbit, but it explains why records show him eating constantly, and often greeting company from the comfort of his closestool.

We also started re-reading The Man Who Counted, which is just lovely to read aloud. The Boy has almost finished Maze Runner, and The Girl is making decent, if somewhat slow, progress with Black Beauty. I finished up The Paris Wife, which was very good, and am now rereading a few Maeve Binchy books.

The Boy loves Jacobs Elementary Algebra! I am searching for a reasonably priced copy, and in the meantime we are using one on inter-library loan. The Boy also finished off another chapter in Conceptual Physics. And on a sad note, we have misplaced his almost complete essay on Ford Mustangs. I am 99% sure we put it somewhere "safe", and I just hope we can find it soon! He was doing such good work on it.

I think The Girl and I are going to switch gears in math, and focus on geometry for a while, still with Math Mammoth. She's done really well with multiplication and division, so I want to keep things fresh and interesting. She learned about worms this week in science, and started watching Life in the Undergrowth as we move into a study of insect life for zoology. I added to her Prentice Hall Science Explorers: Animals a couple of chapters from Life in a Bucket of Soil, and so she's hoping to do some hands-on work with worms next week.

We've been on a bit of a movie kick recently. Last Friday, I had dinner with the kids at my mom's, and we watched Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, which was filmed quite locally. The kids got a kick out of seeing familiar landmarks in a relatively older film! And for the record, they found it more funny than scary. Then on Saturday, we watched The Matrix, which The Boy especially enjoyed. Finally, on Tuesday, The Boy and M watched Cube, while The Girl and I watched Sense and Sensibility. So now I am thinking something a little lighter for this weekend -- any suggestions? Maybe a comedy or other fun family film?

A couple of goals for next week... I think we might add back in K12's Human Odyssey, starting just after the fall of the Roman Empire (so Middle Ages). And I would like to get The Girl writing more. If we absolutely cannot find The Boy's essay, he is willing to start a new one. And more reading from The Marvellous Land of the Snergs would be great!

Hope you all had a good week!

Ahhhh....books...

I love books. I own far too many of them, and always want more... though I am getting a little better about letting go of the ones we don't need.

The Boy loves books, and The Girl is starting to love books as well. It makes me happy, gives me a quiet little thrill, to see them dive headlong into a world contained in pages.

And so we read a lot as part of homeschooling, and I thought I would share a little about what we've got going at the moment! Many of the following titles are part of our Afternoon Basket, so we only read a chapter or two per week. Others are read on a daily basis.

First up, a book I read aloud from nearly every day...

This is a charming little book! It has been heralded as inspiration for the Hobbits in J.R.R. Tolkien's books, and indeed, it is a book he himself recommended. It is about the adventures of two (rather naughty) children in a land that lies outside the borders of our own world, but still within it. They travel with a Snerg, who is a short, very Hobbit-like personage, through all kinds of adventures. I like too that the chapters are quite short, so I can do a "quick" reading of just one or two when we're short on time, though I more often read through several of the chapters at a time.


Also on a daily basis, The Boy is reading this...

He says "this is one of the most exciting books I have ever read!" Yesterday, I think he read for about three hours, unable to tear himself away. I love it when I suggest a book and it works out so well for him! It fits within the dystopian literature genre that so enthralls him. He says it reminds him of The Hunger Games, which still ranks as one of his favorite series ever. It is the story of a boy who wakes up in an enclosed world inhabited by about 60 other boys, lost endlessly in a maze, at least until until their world begins to shift.



The Girl is reading a [junior edition of a] classic book at the moment...

She is really enjoying that the story is told from the horse's point of view. So far this year, since she started really reading, she's definitely found her niche in the world of animal-related literature! This story is about Black Beauty, as he grows from foal to stallion, and everything that happens to him along the way.

Then, there are the rotational (Afternoon Basket) books we picked back up this week...

For history, we are thoroughly enjoying this title...

This hilarious book gives a very different overview of history, from ancient times right on through today. So far, we have read up through the Middle Ages, and the kids now have a decent understanding of the spread of disease, plumbing ups and downs, odd bathroom habits (like the Roman bathrooms, where you could sit and chat with the person next to you while... well, you know). The books also highlights unpleasant occupations, which we have found intriguing.

Next on the list is geography. While we are continuing with our geographical studies (finishing up Africa), we also are continuing to read from this one...

Richard Halliburton was a restless explorer in the early part of the 20th century. He swam the Panama Canal, traveled to Machu Picchu, climbed the Alps, and much, much more. His writing brings the reader right along with him as he blends history and first-hand experience the world over. One reviewer on Amazon put it best: "I picked up my father's first printing of this when I was just starting to read as a little boy. It was the book which captivated him at the same age and made him determined to travel the world and see all its wonders. A tall order for a poor kid in the middle of the depression. But my father has traveled to every corner of this earth, and has been to all the locations in the Book of Marvels. I got caught in the same net, and I'm still traveling far and wide, thanks to this one book. The power of literature ... Oh, I still have that first edition, now dog-eared and timeworn from the eager fingers of little boys."



I can't review our current science reading choice quite yet, as we haven't started it, though we will be later today!

So all I can tell you at the moment is that it explores scientists as people rather than just their accomplishments. I'll provide a brief review once we check it out!




And then there is mathematical reading. We're hoping to actually finish this delightful little book on this go round...
The tone is warm and friendly, and it gets both my kids thinking about math in different ways. We always work out the math at the end of each chapter, to make sure we're getting it, and that it really works, which so far it always has! It also is a great exposure to basic logic, as many of the puzzles given can be solved through simple logic. It is the story of Beremiz Samir, a man of mathematical talents, and his travels through ancient Arabia. Each story/chapter is pretty short, so we generally read a couple each time.


We're not reading any Shakespeare at the moment, but we are  finding entertainment in Edward Lear's poetry. We started with Poetry for Young People: Edward Lear, but are moving to another book as his poetry is so much fun!
I do like that the first book gave an overview of Lear's life, but we are looking forward to seeing his own illustrations in relation to his own words!

And there you have it... the plethora of books we are relishing at the moment!

Monday Musings, Daybook Style...

I decided this week I'd play along with the Simple Woman's Daybook format.

Outside my window... Cool, crisp, fall-like days are here! It rained a bit on Halloween, but only in the morning thankfully.

I am thinking... about restarting the Afternoon Basket this week, as we miss it.

I am thankful... for the time change. That "extra" hour has been wonderful the past couple of days!

I am wearing... black slacks with really tiny and subtle white pinstripes, a black sweater, black shoes, and a deep magenta t-shirt.

I am creating... a monthly menu planner, in order to streamline shopping, and cooking, hopefully saving some more money along the way. I like my mom's approach to this -- she lists a certain number of each type of dish (example, 4 pasta meals, 4 chicken meals, etc.), and then just chooses each day which she will make that night.

I am going... to class this afternoon.

I am wondering... what Christmas will be like this year on a super-tight budget.

I am reading... The Paris Wife. I'm about a third of the way through, and am really enjoying it!

I am hoping... that they get M's work schedule straightened out soon! He's not working at all this week, since "business is slow". He's actually thinking of looking for something else, but we're really hoping that this job will work out.

I am learning... about cognitive development in adolescents.

Around the house... I am thinking about pulling out my fall decorations today, like the wreath for the front door. Of course, we need to take down the Halloween decorations first!

In the kitchen... We had this delicious tagine last night. Even M, who generally hates squash, thought it was delicious. I made apple muffins for today with this recipe.

I am pondering... what I really want to do next year if I am laid off again.

A favorite quote for today... "Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish." John Quincy Adams (I am hoping this is true!)

One of my favorite things... that it is the time of year for soup and hot tea.

A few plans for the week... more tutoring. Homeschooling. Fencing practice. Roller skating at the local playground after hours. Park day.

A peek into one of my days from last week... I reached the awesome number of 1000 posts last week! And here are a few pictures from Halloween:

The witch and the dead race car driver, ready to head out

Close-up of the dead race car driver

Out with friends

The Girl's creative jack o' lantern, eating its own guts

The Boy's jack o' lantern, with many eyes

The Girl's jack o' lantern at night, The Boy's in the background

Have a good week, and Happy November!