Monday Musings...A Meeting of Minds...

Sorry for the lower quality of the picture, but here is The Boy meeting Richard Dawkins! We attended a lecture and book signing on the beautiful Dominican University campus yesterday, taking my dad, a long-time Dawkins fan, with us. We listened to about an hour of anecdotes and side notes, then lined up to get our books signed. Unfortunately, my dad, due to mobility issues, could not go up on stage to get his book signed...so Richard Dawkins came to him! (He's sitting behind The Boy in this picture) We got to chat for a couple of minutes, and then Dawkins was off to an evening engagement. Still, it isn't every day that we get to meet a great scientific mind and Nobel Peace Prize winner!

Outside My Window...
Temperatures are moving into the seventies more often, though we are expecting some higher eighties late in the week. We had tremendous wind over Saturday night, and saw dry (sheet) lightning miles away. The winds blew almost all the leaves off the cherry and maple trees, though the olive tree is still looking quite good, and the olives are almost ready for picking.

In Our Kitchen...
Both M and The Girl requested a "vegetarian experiment", so I've happily been re-exploring favorite vegetarian recipes (I was a vegetarian for 6 years, then vegan for two). My mom gave me a plenitude of zucchini, eggplants, bell peppers, and onions, so over the weekend, I made a favorite roasted eggplant and tomato soup, and a giant pot of ratatouille. I then made a ratatouille lasagna as well, which was a big hit! Also on the menu this week are a vegetarian pot-pie (with mushrooms, peas, carrots, celery, onion, red potatoes, and a homemade onion-mushroom-veg broth gravy), and my own version of Japanese noodle bowls, with miso broth.

Around the House...
Our cleaning routine needs work. Enough said.

In Our Homeschooling...
I know we're doing math and writing/language arts. The Boy will be doing at least 4 lessons from Teaching Textbooks, and 1-2 sections in the Lively Art of Writing. The Girl will be working on spelling, and will do at least 4 lessons from Math Mammoth. I know I wrote a glowing review here about the language arts book I had gotten for her, but the writing prompts actually frustrated her to tears, so I have set it aside for the moment. Not sure where we're going with writing for her from here. She wants to focus on reading more fluently -- she can read fairly well now, but still on the slower side, and it worries and frustrates her, so we're going to buzz through a review of Reading Pathways, from which I will also be pulling her spelling words.

As for history, science, etc., I'm leaving those looser this week (though please see reading and watching below). I know the kids want to complete at least another project or two from the free Tinker Crate we had gotten.

Reading and Watching...
We'll be reading more of The Shakespeare Stealer. We may start re-reading The Magic of Reality this week, and I have put the first volume of Howard Zinn's A Young People's History of the United States on hold at the library. The Boy is reading Douglas Adams and Richard Dawkins on his own, and The Girl is still working through Ballet Shoes. I'm cramming my way through Bleak House for my class, and am eager to read the Dawkins biography I got yesterday. The Girl and I are reading various Cinderella books together, and that's lots of fun!

As for watching, we viewed Sahara on Saturday (which led to a discussion on refugees and the current Syrian crisis), and I'm going to try to talk the kids into watching the first episode of Human Planet tonight. Or we'll watch an episode of Once Upon a Time! Movie night this week will be something from my growing October list...maybe Sleepy Hollow, Edward Scissorhands, or Beetlejuice.

Also on the Agenda...
Both kids are (temporarily) down to one practice session a week (fencing, derby), though The Girl says that this Sunday's practice might be the only missed one. I have on-campus hours, school, and work, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. We plan to get in some physical activity every day, and make some time for cuddled-up-on-couch read alouds.

Update on the Meltdown from Last Week...
So we had the almost meltdown last week. The Boy has agreed to come with me to campus on Thursday afternoons, for two solid and quiet hours of study time. We are making an effort to start out our Monday mornings (he has classes at the junior college, I have work) with breakfast together, which was really nice today. He's chosen one day of the week for fencing - one that generally has a high attendance rate, so lots of people to fence. We talked about setting aside some time every day to study or work on his art projects as well, and maybe heading to bed half an hour earlier for some relaxed reading time. He has not decided yet of he wants to move forward with the Big History Project. He says he's very interested in it, but wants to get in a better routine for math, and writing, and homework first.

Have a good week!

Wordy Wednesday...Review!

Quite a while back, I shared my first review of Reading Horizons, on Orton-Gillingham based intensive phonics program, especially for kids that struggle with reading. This program came highly recommended by a friend I absolutely trust with such things. So I had to check it out, as The Girl was really struggling with reading.

While I have never officially had her tested, showed nearly every sign of dyslexia in every online assessment I could find. Seriously. Of course, it took me ages to get around to figuring out that this might be the issue. Until that time, we had tried the "normal" processes of learning to read, the ones that worked with her older brother. We worked on the alphabet, half of which she forgot again nearly every day after "learning" it. We worked on letter sounds, with little progress. I tried Explode the Code, Reading Pathways, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, The Reading Lesson, Reading Eggs... you name it, it probably found its way into our home at some point.

And still, she wasn't reading beyond cvc words, and a few sight words, with very little fluency.

Then Jessica found Reading Horizons, and told me about it. Actually, she told me about it a few times before I gave in and tried it out, all the while thinking in the back of my mind, "Oh geez, another program that won't work." So I talked (via email) to the people at Reading Horizons, and first, I will say they were very helpful, friendly, and not pushy. I appreciate that! I was given a trial of the interactive software program (for ages 10 and up) for The Girl to work through, and as you read in my first review of Reading Horizons, I saw progress almost right away, though "At first, truthfully, The Girl was a little reluctant to use it. She thought the first few lessons were "just dumb. I know what a bag is!", but, we persevered (at my insistence), and she soon changed her tune as the lessons ramped up."

She went on to finish most of the program (I'd love to have her finish it someday). And what do I think now? I think that this program gave my daughter the confidence and skills she needed to finally decode words. Put it this way, she went from Bob Books being a pain, to currently reading The Hunger Games. I know, its not "fine" literature, but she's reading, and enjoying it!

How does it work?

Each lesson both introduces new sounds/reading skills, while at the same time reviewing and building on those previously covered. The instructions are all verbal, which was fantastic for my struggling reader -- she liked that she could do the lessons herself. This alone gave her a sense of accomplishment she had been lacking before. The program also constantly reviewed high frequency words...you know, those that we see a lot in text, such as the, you, not, that, of, if, and so forth. Each lesson also includes vocabulary practice, which further builds on the skills introduced in the lesson. Having to mark words actually made her slow down, and think about what sounds each letter makes, which definitely helped with her decoding. And, when students make enough progress, the library is unlocked, and they can work on reading a variety of passages based on their current reading level! And each passage also has an introductory page, with "challenge" words that appear in the reading. If they struggle with any of these words, they can click on them to hear them read aloud. Along the way, grammar and punctuation, as well as keyboarding skills, are all part of the lessons.

Parents can set the threshold at which the student passes, and so I set it at 85%... anything below that and she had to repeat that section of the lesson. There's also a dashboard which shows clearly how many attempts were made at various skills/lesson sections, and how much time was spent on the lesson. This helped me see exactly where she was struggling, so I could help her through it.

We did take a long break in there from using it, as she began to develop her reading skills and wanted to try them out "in the real world". Long enough really that when we went back to use the program, because we were both anxious to see more skills developed, my subscription had expired. But, that turned out to not be a problem, as the folks at Reading Horizons quickly set me up with the Elevate program, for kids (and adults!) 10 and up.

I am delighted, and amazed, at how much this program helped my daughter. She was at an age where she was starting to feel ashamed of not being able to read well, when she could see that all her friends were fine with it. Some days, she's told me, she just felt stupid, which is never how I would want my kids to feel! So, thank you!!!! By the way, she also reads all the common, day-to-day things, like movie descriptions, labels on packages at the store, street signs, and so on, and so on, plus she's writing short stories, all of which she did not do before.

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast....

Slow down, you move too fast. 

You got to make the morning last. 

Just kicking down the cobble stones. 

Looking for fun and feelin' groovy.

(Simon & Garfunkel)

I've had this song running through my head for a few days now, so I'm slowing things down. On purpose. Aiming for much more Tortoise, and much less Hare. First and foremost, The Girl and Reading Horizons. We've been doing the lessons nearly every day, and while she's making progress, I think we'd do better if we slowed down a little. My awesome friend Jessica has offered to send me some of her teaching materials for the program, which, as we're doing just the online version, I don't have. I am looking forward to seeing if we can go more in-depth with this!

Which means, yes, she'll still be working through the program in the fall. But, the further we get into it, the more okay I am with that. In addition to basic reading skills, she's learning spelling, grammar, and all that!

With both kids, I decided we're not quite ready for the Kilgallon materials I listed in this post. With further research, I realized that the Kilgallons assume a basic familiarity with the parts of speech, with clauses, and so on. I'd like to take some time to build that up a little more first, so back to my original plan of using Grammar-Land: Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-Shire. This lovely book introduces all the parts of speech and how they work together through a humorous story. Another blogger made free worksheets for it, which we may or may not use.

We're not rushing through history now, or reading, or anything else. We're taking time to enoy the journey!

We are having great success so far though with Right Brained Multiplication & Division! The kids are easily multiplying and dividing by 0, 1, 10 and 11. I think we tackle two's next. And The Boy has finally, with the help of Khan Academy, and yours truly, paper and pencil in hand, figured out how division works. He kept trying to do all the problems in his head, so I made him sit down with me, and go through the process five or six times, on paper. And now he says he "gets how it works"!

He's also very excited about the idea of using Jousting Armadillos! We sat down together and looked through the book online. And  I have to say, they have amazing customer service, and I haven't even ordered anything yet! I did email the author with a couple of questions, and he not only got back to me very quickly, and thoroughly, but then another teacher from the private school that put these books out also emailed me, to answer another part of the questions I asked! The Boy is thinking he'll be doing a Life of Fred/Armadillos combo in the fall, which I think would work well.

So, slow down! Enjoy the journey instead of rushing for the finish line! Stepping off my soapbox now!

Weekly Report: Science, Books, & Kites...

Wow! What a good, solid week we had! It just goes to show that when we set the time aside, turn of the computer, television set, etc.,  we can get a lot done without feeling stressed.

Language Arts:

We did a little more work in The Complete Writer this week, with narrations/summaries, and some copy work. Both kids are continuing to enjoy this program, so I think it is safe to say, we have found a winner! I am much more confident in my language arts/writing plans for fall now.

The Girl finished up chapter one, and started chapter two, in Reading Horizons. She actually just did the Skill Check for the first lesson in chapter two, and scored 100%! She's looking forward to trying the skill check for the next lesson as well. She is, I think and hope, beginning to believe me when I tell her she has better reading skills than she realizes!

Literature:

We've been enjoying the story of Perseus in A Wonder Book for Girls & Boys, reading a section each day. Hawthorne's language use in this book is marvelous--not too challenging for the kids, yet not at all dumbed down. The kids laugh every time we get to "Medusa with the snaky locks", because we all find it funny that he nearly always refers to her that way, only very rarely simply saying "Medusa"!

We're also enjoying Linnets & Valerians. Yesterday, I started introducing literary elements with this book, explaining foreshadowing to the kids. They immediately picked up on it, citing examples from other books, like The Titan's Curse (another chapter or two of this in the car this week as well), and The Sea of Monsters. They are looking forward to see what the foreshadowing in Linnets & Valerians is hinting at.

The Girl and I are just over halfway through Ramona the Pest, and The Boy is probably two-thirds of the way through The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. And we started reading Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone at bedtime.

Science:

Science has been a blast this week! I started off the week meaning to cover energy (BFSU), but instead we read another chapter from You Are the Earth, and then everything flowed from there! The chapter was technically on soil, but we also learned a bit about nutrition, fungi, bacteria, rocks, and more! We watched a Bill Nye video to go with it, on Rocks & Soil, and started not one but three science projects! Here's two of them, and I'll take pictures later of the third...

First, we're sprouting peas, to try this project/experiment

And these are bread samples for growing mold. One dampened piece and one dry piece per kid, sealed up nice and tight!

Our third project comes from You Are the Earth. We took a few of the peas we had soaked overnight, and the kids planted one each in topsoil and subsoil. They are keeping them damp, and will be watching for growth.

While we didn't do exactly what I had planned for the week in science, I realized we did cover/are covering threads B-4, B-10, B-11, A-10, D-10 and B-12 in BFSU! [Plant and earth sciences]. I plan to continue in this next week, since we're enjoying it so much, with my copy of Life in a Bucket of Soil, and Bill Nye: Plants, as well as a project involving epsom salts from this week's Bill Nye video, and/or the fairly similar Epsom Salts crystal garden project here (BFSU A-9). And of course, we'll be continuing the projects above!

History:

History was good this week, though not nearly as exciting as science! We read another chapter in the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, all about Cheops and the Great Pyramid, and we read You Wouldn't Want to be an Egyptian Mummy! We've decided to spend one more week on Egypt. I'd like to finish up Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, and there are a couple of documentaries we'd like to watch. Plus, I have Pyramid on hand, and we'd like to enjoy that as well!

Math:

The Girl took a break from Saxon this week, as we felt she needed some review with telling time, so I pulled out some Math Mammoth worksheets and our practice clock. The Boy started testing through Saxon Math 6/5, and was able, so far, to skip 6 lessons, as he scored 97% on the test he took.

Other Stuff:

We worked in the garden some more, transplanting broccoli this week. Our apple and cherry trees are in full bloom, and the limequat has little white buds all over. The Girl cut a sprig off the apple tree and is seeing if she can get it to root in a small pot of dirt.

The kids are building popsicle-stick houses at my mom's, in addition to all the other crafts they do with her.

And we wrapped up the week by taking advantage of the wind and gorgeous weather!

Kite-flying is always a lot of fun! (In the bottom picture, that is The Boy to the right.. I had to back up quite far to get both him and the kite in the picture!)

Hope you all had a good week too! And enjoy the weekend, before we have to start all over again.

A Little Late to the Game...

But better late than never, right? So I am joining in on

From Pam's blog, "Over the next two weeks we will be laying out some of our biggest trouble areas, attempting to make some changes, and reporting back on how things are going."

Here goes nothing!

My area to change first is consistency. We're inconsistent with homeschooling (and housework). So, my goal is to sit down and hit the books at least 4 days each week, and spend part of my afternoon time on housework, with the kids pitching in each day, starting today, and staying on target for at least the next two weeks.

Normally today would be about prepping for the week ahead. Instead, today I am focused on writing my rhetorical précis for class, and then the above. Nice to occasionally have a three day weekend!

I also have olives to brine/cure, since we picked many of the ripe ones yesterday. This batch will be done with a traditional liquid cure, while the next batch will be a more experimental dry salt cure. This picture represents maybe a third of the olives on our tree... there are a lot of still unripe ones to be picked soon!



On today's agenda:
~ Work on my paper
~ Homeschooling: Math; spelling/phonics; Primary/Intermediate Language Lessons; geography; science; a history documentary; and reading: The Wall, and The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe.
~ Get the olives curing
~ Dishes and laundry!!!
~ Cooking dinner--tonight we're having roast beef with carrots, parsnips, onion, and brussels sprouts... yum!
~ Watching Shrek the Third! We watched the first one Friday night, and the second one last night. It's fun to re-watch movies we haven't seen in a while. Next on the agenda, Shrek Forever After.

I do have a little accomplishment to sort of brag about... I had written that I wanted to reorganize my BFSU flow charts, and figure out how to implement it in our homeschooling. Instead, I looked at the flow charts I had already developed, and researched higher level supplemental reading to go with it. And I lined up some videos, mostly Bill Nye and How Things Work, along with the Disney Imagineering series. It'll be another week before we can actually use my new plans, since I have to wait on some library books, but I am really very excited about this! I adore BFSU, all three books, and if we actually use them, I think my kids will be very well prepared for higher level science.

I'll finish this up with a photo that I think is appropriate for today...

Monday Musings... Blogging Blues...

I was just reading a post by a friend, and it got me thinking. Am I a total flake? I know we jump all over the place with what we're using/studying/learning about. And looking over my own blog for the year, yes, I feel flaky.

I think I need to change things up a bit here... no more "I think we're going to try this, or use that" posts. And for a while, I don't think I'll bother with end of the week reports, which have been a drag to write lately anyhow, since they seem so mundane and somewhat repetitive. Instead I think I'll focus on what we are doing, what we are accomplishing... the things we're having fun with, and of course, the occasional struggle.

So, that said, here are some highlights from yesterday's homeschooling!

I bumped The Girl up another book in the Explode the Code series, even though we are nowhere near done with the last one. Why? Because at this point, it was all review, and she needs to keep moving forward. More than that, she is ready to move forward, so we are, at long, looooong last, tackling long vowel sounds. Phew!

Image courtesy of City Talk morning paper

We loved reading about the similarities in chimpanzees and humans in The Early Human World. The Girl says this is her "favorite history book ever!" and The Boy loves many things about it: it explains the roots of words like anthropology, paleontology, and much more; the sidebar bits about people like Jane Goodall and Charles Darwin; and he says he is "learning a lot!"


We also had fun with Life of Fred, both Apples and Fractions. The Boy only missed 4 out of 16 words in his spelling pre-test, and then he wrote some very silly sentences for nouns in Writing Skills.

And some other highlights from the day:

image courtesy of cookinggodsway.com

The Girl helped me make some delicious whole-grain blueberry-banana muffins for today's breakfast. She is getting very confident with measuring! M said they are so good that they don't even need butter, and from him, that's a huge compliment, considering he would butter everything if he could... which reminds me of a Simpsons clip...

image courtesy of google images

  "You butter that bacon, boy!" (as ordered by Homer Simpson)

We also spent a good hour or so working out in the front yard, deadheading all the plants now that fall is really here, prepping for the winter. We need to start picking our olives soon too - there are many ripe ones already! We're going to use a regular Greek brining technique for half, and do a dry salt cure with the rest. The Girl picked all the last of the French lavender for sachets, and The Boy hauled the wheelbarrow full of chopped-down plants back and forth to the compost heap.

I also made roasted eggplant for soup (and plan to finish making the soup today), and got a chicken bone broth going in the crockpot for tonight's chicken-barley-veggie soup. Definitely soup/stew/chili season here!

image courtesy of allseasoncyclists

The Boy is designing a scooter for himself, with a little input from M. They have plans afoot to head off to the recycle station at the county dump for parts. They're also working on rebuilding a bike that someone gave us, as The Boy (now 5' 3 1/2"!!!) has outgrown his old bicycle.

So all in all, it was a good and productive day. Hoping for a few more of those this week!

Week 8... Busy with Halloween...

Week 8 was, for the most part, a good one. We didn't get to everything I had hoped, but we did do a lot!

~* Sunday *~

Cooking lesson for The Girl - we made lentil soup with celery, onion, carrots, bay leaves, and mustard greens - delicious!

We read You're on Your Way, Teddy Roosevelt!... all about this president's childhood (did you know he was homeschooled for much of his childhood?)

And we read The Ghost of Nicholas Greebe.. a nice, ghostly tale for October!

I introduced The Boy to multiplying with decimals with a printout from Math Mammoth.

The Girl and I went through another chapter in Life of Fred Apples (review work), and did a Math Mammoth lesson on adding whole 10's. 

We read more of The Graveyard Book at bedtime.

~* Monday *~

We read a lot: Mozart Tonight; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow from a ghost story collection; a story from Tales of Little Grey Rabbit (mostly for The Girl, but I noticed The Boy listening in); and more of The Graveyard Book.

The Boy continued working on multiplying with decimals. He seems to be getting the hang of it quickly!

The Boy worked on a couple of pages on nouns in Writing Skills; did a picture study from Intermediate Language Lessons; and studied his spelling words.

The Girl read to me from Reading Pathways, and then did a picture study lesson from Primary Language Lessons. I had her dictate all her answers to me, and asked for complete sentences - she did very well with this!

We read about cells, and started an experiment on osmosis, using potatoes, from How Nature Works. 

We watched part two of NOVA's Becoming Human.

~* Tuesday *~

 A light day...

The Boy returned to fencing after missing two weeks due to illnesses in the house (first he was sick with a cold, then I got an ear infection). He had a blast and hopes not to miss any more classes!

We read Ghost Ship and Wicked Jack, as well as Mummy Math -- I really recommend Cindy Neuschwander's math storybooks... they are very child friendly, educational, and just plain fun!

The kids carved their Jack O' Lanterns.

We watched The Corpse Bride for the first time, and enjoyed it very much!

We put the finishing touches on Halloween costumes.

~* Wednesday *~

HALLOWEEN!

The kids spent the entire day in costume. I had to work, but turned into a witch as soon as I got home!

We read from The Graveyard Book. While this book only has, I think, 8 chapters, it is still taking us a while to get through, as each of those 8 chapters is quite long - we never make it through a whole one in a single sitting!

We went trick-or-treating in the rain. We visited Petaluma because they have an awesome downtown store trick-or-treating program, and then we went to D Street - a street lined with mansions, almost all of which were decorated insanely for the holiday! So we got soaked, but still had a blast!

We came home, had pizza, and read a couple of Samhain stories from Circle Round.

~* Thursday *~

We started the day with reading Spirit of Tio Fernando: A Day of the Dead Story.

We ran errands: dropping of ballots at the drive-through drop-off office; getting milk from a friend's farm, where the kids played walnut wars with her kid, pet the goats, chased a few chickens, and so forth; and we paid a visit to the police station to clear up a traffic ticket (expired tags... oops!); and we finished up with a visit to the pet/pet supply store for meal worms and we bought The Girl a little brown and white mouse as a personal pet. She named it Emily.

The Boy further reviewed his spelling words, and made a bubble chart for a book he wants to write.

The Girl read aloud from Reading Pathways, and then a few pages of Little Bear's Friend. She then proceeded to watch a couple of episodes of Little Bear, and spent some time comparing the book and TV show.

The Boy cleaned out his water dragon's (Athena) terrarium. The Girl set up her mouse's new home, and laughed hysterically when Emily (the mouse) ran so fast on her wheel that she flipped over and fell off!

The Boy discovered the TV show Smash Lab. It now ties with Mythbusters as his choice of entertainment!

We finished up the evening with a little more of The Graveyard Book.

~* Friday *~

On today's agenda...

National Lampoon's Vacation (Fridays are now our "official movie night"!)

Park day, after I drop M off at a local lake for some fishing.

More of The Graveyard Book, and we're going to read The Carnival of the Animals.

~* Saturday *~

On the agenda...

Fall housecleaning - it is time to start getting prepared for all the upcoming holidays!

Perhaps some local hiking, maybe among the redwoods.

Some fun reading.

~* Bits & Pieces *~

The Boy is about 3/4 of the way done with The Headless Cupid. He's also reading David Macaulay's Built to Last and is eagerly awaiting a copy of Unbuilding. He uses these books to help with his computer-based construction programs. He is rereading Dog Days as well.

We're almost done with The Lightning Thief at long last - so close in fact, that I went ahead and picked up the second book on audio cd!

I have finally caught up on my reading!

Hope everyone else had a good week! Enjoy your weekend as well!

Week 7... Back in the Saddle...

As far as homeschooling, etc., it has turned out to be a pretty good week! Week 6 was really a basic week, and last week we took a mini-vacation (btw: that's a nice big trout The Girl caught--The Boy caught the first one, The Girl caught the biggest, and then we ended up bringing home 15 trout altogether!), but now we're back in the saddle, and going strong!

Language Arts

This week, in addition to spelling work and some word roots, The Boy started Writing Skills (EPS). I am having him use this as a way to build up his writing skills a little - sentence structure, paragraph work, etc. He's done several pages already, focusing on complete sentences versus fragments, and proper capitalization and punctuation, all things that I am seeing as issues in the [remedial] college level essays I grade.

The Girl worked on phonics, of course. She's sailing right through Explode the Code at the moment, doing all the sentence reading herself, and then having me check her answers. She also read aloud from Little Bear's Friend, and did some work in Reading Pathways. I think it is finally getting through her thick little skull (and I mean that affectionately!)... she can read. She was thrilled to be reading a "real book" this week instead of readers, and seemed very proud of herself!

Math

This has been largely a Math Mammoth week, although The Girl and I went through a couple of lessons in her Life of Fred book. She worked on addition, subtraction, with whole hundreds and tens, as well as a review of commutative properties.

The Boy worked on multi-digit multiplication and division, as well as the order of operations. I am getting a copy of Zaccaro's Challenge Math for him as a fun-looking (and challenging) addition to his math studies. He'll do more in Life of Fred next week.

History

We found our history book at last! We read four chapters -- the one we started with was actually chapter 10, to support a reading from K12's Human Odyssey, but then we were enjoying it so much that we backtracked and read the first three chapters, learning about some of the earliest hominids and tools. We chose a few projects to work on from this book, and we'll be adding fairly extensively to our Books of Centuries next week.

Science

Science has been all about exploring nature the last couple of weeks while I reassessed our approach. Then I found How Nature Works, and we all love it! We read about cells and osmosis, and will be doing a project later today that shows osmosis using nothing more than potato halves, sugar, and water. I am also determined that we will read ALL of The Magic of Reality, since we've only read the first two chapters.

Literature

We very much enjoyed The Snow Queen (Amy Ehrlich's version), and the kids instantly saw the connections between the Snow Queen herself and the Witch in The Lion, the Witch & The Wardrobe, which we will start reading next week. I also got a hold of The Questing Knights of the Fairie Queen --a children's version of Spenser's Faerie Queene--and it is a truly gorgeous book... I am looking forward to reading it aloud! We read more of The Graveyard Book, and Pippi Longstocking, along with a few short books, including Will's Quill (about William Shakespeare and a goose), Edgar Allen Poe's Telltale Heart (which I read aloud quite dramatically, and the kids loved), and so forth.

Other

The Girl helped me make mini pumpkin muffins for today's park day. The Boy, with a little help from The Girl, my mom, M, and myself, built a crash test dummy out of old clothes, newspaper and duct tape, according to a kid's tutorial he found on you tube -- yes, I will be posting pictures of it as soon as we get the head done! We finished getting our Halloween costumes ready, and will be picking up jack o' lantern pumpkins this weekend. We have a Halloween party to attend tomorrow evening, and we're looking forward to trick-or-treating, pizza and movie night on the day itself! The rain has stopped for now, and we're crossing our fingers that Halloween will be clear, or at least dry. I've lost 2 of the 5 pounds I had gained back (thank you Bob Harper!), and M is finally getting unemployment money, although why they have only paid us, at least so far, for one of the past four weeks is beyond me... but some money is better than no money!

Overall a good week, and I am looking forward to the next one as well! Hope your week was good too!

Tuesday Tidbits...

We are now in our sixth week of homeschooling for the year. There have been, and continue to be, some adjustments as always. Some things are working very well, others need some work.

What IS Working...

We have definitely found a way of doing history that makes it work for us. Our two spine books - one on world history and one on American - are lovely read alouds, and the kids are really enjoying putting together their Books of Centuries. In fact, every time they add to them, they rush off to proudly show their dad what they learned about this time! After all the stress I had about history, I am so glad this is going well!

For The Girl the combination of Explode the Code and Reading Pathways (Dolores Hiskes) is marvelous. These two resources work very well together, and she is gaining confidence daily. I no longer have to lead her through each page of Explode the Code... instead she does it on her own and then shows it to me for any corrections, of which there has only been one recently, on the word "glass", which she spelled originally with only one "s", certainly an easy mistake to make.

The Boy loves a couple of his language arts resources: Soaring with Spelling & Vocabulary because it has fun activities, and Unjournaling (writing prompts) because they (the prompts) are both hilarious and challenging. I do need to work with him on drilling the spelling words, but that is a simple adjustment. I also really want to get him working on a Writing Project each month.

There are other parts of language arts that are working well - i.e. Grammar Land - and then things we need to get to, like poetry. I think what we'll start doing is alternating Mondays on grammar and poetry.

Math is both working and not working, or rather I should say parts of it work better than others. Once again, as was the case last year, while Teaching Textbooks is nice in many ways, The Boy and I miss that time together. I have next to no involvement in his math with Teaching Textbooks. So working through Life of Fred and some complimentary Math Mammoth has been refreshing this week. Of course, The Girl instantly wanted to know why she isn't doing any Life of Fred, which subsequently resulted in my ordering another copy of LOF Apples so that she and I can work through the elementary series together, alternating it with Math Mammoth! I firmly believe that after the prealgebra stage, LOF is very complete, especially with the Home Companion books, so if my kids enjoy and learn from Life of Fred now, they may be able to use it all the way through their homeschooling journey!

We're actually getting in a lot more nature walks this year! Instead of scheduling them for "school time", we're approaching them as a family late afternoon/early evening treat a couple of times a week, and then sometimes as a special trip on the weekend. I'm really enjoying this family time together, and we are all benefiting from the fresh air and exercise.

What is NOT Working and/or I Would Like to Adjust...

Our Afternoon Basket: While I love and am determined to use this idea, I need to adjust it. We're just not making the most of it! I have decided to add back in some books from the 12 month guideline in A Picture Perfect Childhood, and I may add in our Narnia study books after all. I like the cohesiveness of the lit plan I came up with, and there are many books on that list I would love my children to have some exposure to. Right now we're just kind of going here, there, and everywhere with books, which can be fun, but doesn't seem enough.

Science is very definitely a work in progress. Much as I love and adore Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, I'm struggling with implementation. I think for the remainder of this month at least, I will revert to my old plan: a documentary of their choice once a week; work from a living book once or twice a week; and something nature related the other day(s). Throw in a few experiments from books like The Irresponsible Book of Science, and reading from books like The Magic of Reality, The Story of Science, etc.,  and I think we'll be good to go!

Art and music need work as well, since we just are not getting to them. I did get a copy of a fantastic book called The National Gallery of Art: Activity Book, and I think this will really help! It has pictures to investigate, with a list of questions and prompts to work from, as well as hands-on activities. I have looked through it several times since getting it a few days ago, and am very happy with it. As for music, I think we may start utilizing the Composer of the Month again, with additional music from my own collection and the library. Nice and simple! We could read about the composer at the beginning of each month, and then listen to their music while working on art.

And finally, implementation of everything! I need to actually set aside "school time" as sacred each day, and keep the TV and computers OFF.

So now that we are getting well into the new academic year, what is working and not working in your homeschool?

Monday Musings... Feels Like Fall...

HAPPY MONDAY!!!

It finally really feels like fall around here, although the afternoons are still a little hot for my liking at this time of year. Still, 70's and lower 80's are much better than the 90's up to low 100's of a week or so ago!

On the agenda this week:

~ History: again, both Builders of the Old World and The Rainbow Book of American History, plus work in the Books of Centuries. I think at the end of the year, or whenever we get through both books, I might bind their Books along these lines, having the kids make their own covers out of a heavy card stock. I think they would make lovely keepsakes!

~ Reading: More of The Graveyard Book to be read, and I think for our spooky tale of the week, we'll read Edgar Allen Poe's Telltale Heart. Then watch The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror, since there is a bit where Lisa has her own experience with a telltale heart! I need to work on reading The Merchant of Venice myself!

~ Art: We're starting some art projects that will be scanned and printed (full color) for Christmas gifts to all the relatives, from the kids--calendars! I figure these will be relatively easy to put together, everyone uses calendars, and they will enjoy the kids' artwork. I am estimating about 8-10 weeks of art projects total to get this done, then we'll choose the best 6 from each kid, and put it all together!

~ The Basics: Of course we'll be working on these. I am going to work on drilling The Boy orally on his spelling words, at least a couple of times over the week. I am ordering the next Explode the Code book for The Girl, since I think she's ready to move up a bit. We'll do some Math Mammoth, Life of Fred, and possibly Teaching Textbooks. I also have the second Sir Cumference book for a read aloud this week.

~ Other: Despite the juggling of holds, returns, etc., I find I am missing the books from A Picture Perfect Childhood in our Afternoon Basket! I think I may start adding some in again. We enjoyed reading about different people on their birthdays, events on their anniversaries, and so forth.


And some other bits and pieces:

~ I found that while The Boy does not care at all for ordinary oatmeal, he loves baked oatmeal! If you like pumpkin (which we do!), you have to try this delicious recipe for Pumpkin and Caramelized Banana Baked Oatmeal! [Note: I did add walnuts to it, and used vanilla extract in the place of maple.] Speaking of The Boy, his stomach pain is improving with the gluten-free diet! I was very thankful to come across Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour - such a lifesaver for a mom who likes to bake!

~ The moving-everything-around process is going well, but slowly. No worries--the kids will have their own rooms by the end of the month!

~ Halloween costumes for the year are more or less complete! We're just waiting on shipped items at this point, though I do need to get to the dollar and/or crafts store to make my headpiece. I had been watching a few safari coats/shirts on eBay for The Boy, but gave up yesterday when I found a marvelous vintage safari jacket on etsy for only $6!

I hope everyone had a good weekend, and will enjoy the week ahead! (Do you think I used enough exclamation points in this post?)

Weekly Report... Moths and More...

Another week of summer gone--thankfully we still have quite some time left since I don't plan on starting school back up until September (what can I say? I am a traditionalist when it comes to school schedules). Anyhow, here's what we have been up to this week.

Reading

This week we read more in The Children of Green Knowe, as well as several stories from the Just So Stories. The Boy remembered the whale story from our dip into Oak Meadow several years ago! These stories have been a lot of fun, and I would like to read The Jungle Book to them sometime in the next year. We also read about trees in The Story Book of Science, and some more of Treasure Island. I read a bit more of The Ordinary Princess to The Girl, as well as Peter's Old House and The Flowers' Festival (Elsa Beskow). The Boy and I are very much enjoying Swallows and Amazons. We are nearly done with Peter Pan on audiobook, and the kids have requested we start the Percy Jackson series next.

The Girl read from Dr. Suess books this week, in addition to continuing work in Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways.

The Boy read a couple of books about Henry Ford and cars. He is still reading The Son of Neptune, along with various editions of the Guiness Book of World Records.

Nature

 A picture from Wikipedia

We had a moth hatch this week - specifically a California Oak Moth (see my slightly blurry picture to the right) After watching it raptly for some time, the kids released it near the oak tree out back.


There are plenty of these moths hatching at our favorite park... here's the underside of a table that was caution-taped off due to pupae everywhere!

We also watched a documentary called In the Company of Wild Butterflies, and it was fascinating! So much about butterflies that even I didn't know. For example, did you know that when butterflies emerge from the chrysalis, their proboscis is in two sections, and by extending it rapidly several times, they "glue" it together into a tube shape?

And by the way, our mosquitoes all died. We are growing a nice crop of oyster mushrooms though, and ordered some Shiitake plugs to try growing as well!  I also ordered the book The World in a Drop of Water, and can't wait to try it out with the kids.

I almost forgot! The Boy and I built a pinhole projector, and we all saw a bit of the transit of Venus! We're keeping the projector for future cosmic events.

Other

Besides all the reading and nature, the kids played Scrabble Junior and Sorry. They've been all kinds of busy at my mom's house. The Boy designs a lot of cars with his car design studio from his birthday, and The Girl is piecing together a patchwork quilt for one of her dolls. They still watch a lot of nature shows there too. They've played in our little pool; watered the veggie garden (which is growing by leaps and bounds!); fed the chickens; searched delightedly for eggs; collected rocks; gotten filthy playing outside; all the things kids are supposed to do on summer vacation! The Boy is also making nice progress in his piano lessons.

I've been re-reading Pocketful of Pinecones and Lessons at Blackberry Inn. I plan to read through all of Charlotte Mason's Home Education over the summer as well - it is only one volume, but dense! I'm tossing around an idea I gleaned from a message board and Waldorf research... of rotating monthly between a history focus and science focus. Food for thought if nothing else! Any thoughts on this?

I have three weeks of work left, and then we leap into the unknown. Oh, there is a chance that another position might open up, that the secretary taking my job might apply for. Too many "might's" for me to take it very seriously at this point.

Also upcoming, we have: a trip to an opera on Sunday; an end-of-year homeschool skate party next week; M's birthday in another week and a half; and of course Father's Day, so there won't be any boredom setting in yet!

Hope everyone else out there had a good week too! Don't forget to drop by the upgraded and updated Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more weekly wrap-ups!

Monday Musings...

Ideas for the week... I am contemplating two paths of learning this week, and will let the kids choose... (or we could maybe do both!?!)

Path A
Watch episode 2 of America: The Story of US (or maybe re-watch episode 1)

Read aloud You Wouldn't Want to Sail on the Mayflower, and, if I can get ahold of it, You Wouldn't Want to be an American Colonist

Path B
Read aloud a chapter or two from The Early Human World

Watch an episode of Becoming Human

Regardless
Read aloud from The Complete Book of Marvels

Enjoy another couple of chapters in Life of Fred Apples

Have Bug make one of these spiffy synonym wheels

Use some writing prompts (again with Beetle) from Our Enchanted Place (thank you Kim!)

Do some math daily, either from Math Mammoth or one of the workbooks I have laying about

Finish reading aloud chapter 1 in The Magic of Reality

Work on projects from our Spiral Scout handbooks

Possibly start our mythological creatures lapbooks at long last!

Have Cricket continue working on phonics - Explode the Code, reading practice

Have Bug work on spelling and/or vocabulary

Continue reading aloud from Knight's Castle

Enjoy listening to more of The Phantom Tollbooth

Spend some time outdoors enjoying nature... if the rain stays away

Learn more about the house finches that have moved into the nest outside our bedroom window this year. Last year it was a pair of black phoebes that used the nest!

Some new samples...

Elf's haystack and copywork

Fairy's letter "A" haystack Elf's math page
Fairy's math page

Phonics samples Sept 14 2007

Example of Elf's work from this week

Example of Fairy's work from this week